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 UNIVERSITY 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032285490 
 
COMMEMORATIVE 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 
 
 OF 
 
 NEW HAVEN COUNTY, 
 
 CONNECTICUT, 
 
 containing 
 
 Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, 
 AND OF Many of the Early Settled Families. 
 
 I LLUSTRATKD. 
 
 CHICAGO: 
 
 J. H. Beers & Co. 
 1902. 
 
 1^ 
 
PRKI^ACK. 
 
 HE importance of placing in book form biographical history of representative 
 citizens — both for its immediate worth and for its value to coming generations — • 
 is admitted by all thinking people; and within the past decade there has been a 
 growing interest ^in this commendable means of perpetuating biography and family 
 
 genealogy. 
 
 That the public is entitled to the privileges afforded by a work of this nature needs 
 no assertion at our hands; for one of our greatest Americans has said that the history of 
 any country resolves itself into the biographies of its stout, earnest and representative 
 citizens. This medium, then, serves more than a single purpose; while it perpetuates 
 biography and family genealogy, it records history, much of which would be preserved in 
 no other way. 
 
 In presenting the Commemorative Biographical Record to its patrons, the 
 publishers have to acknowledge, with gratitude, the encouragement and support their 
 enterprise has received, and the willing assistance rendered in enabling them to surmount 
 the many unforeseen obstacles to be met with in the production of a work of this 
 character. In nearly every instance the material composing the sketches was gathered 
 from those immediately interested, and then submitted in type-written form for 
 correction and revision. The volume, which is one of generous amplitude, is placed in 
 the hands of the public with the belief that it will be found a valuable addition to the 
 library, as well as an invaluable contribution to the historical literature of the State 
 
 of Connecticut. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS. 
 
■/.d^ 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL. 
 
 ERRY, MAJOR GENERAL 
 ALFRED HOWE, late of 
 the United States Army, and 
 a resident of New Haven, 
 came of a distinguished Hart- 
 ford family and an early 
 Connecticut ancestry promin- 
 ent from the Colonial period, 
 while he himself won imper- 
 ishable laurels in the Civil 
 War and \\as especially characterized as the "Hero 
 of Fort Fisher. " 
 
 Alfred Howe Terry was born Nov. lo, 1827, in 
 Hartford, son of Alfred and Clarissa (Howe) 
 Terry, and grandson of Gen. Nathaniel Terry, and 
 was a descendant in the seventh generation from 
 Samuel Terry, of Springfield, ]Ma9s., who was the 
 first of the name to come to America. Samuel 
 Terry was a mere boy at the time of his emigra- 
 tion. He first appeared at Springfield in) aibout 
 1654, and afterward removed to Enfield, Conn. 
 His first wife was Ann Lobdel, and from these an- 
 cestors Gen. Alfred H. Terry's line of descent is 
 through Samuel (2), Ephraim, Nathaniel, Gen. 
 Nathaniel and Alfred Terry. Among the Gen- 
 eral's' ancestors of other names were many promi- 
 inent men of earlv Colonial days, notably Gov. 
 William Bradford', of Plymouth Colony; Rev. 
 Thomas Hooker, W]illiam Wadsworth and John 
 Talcott, three of the founders of Hartford; Rev. 
 James Pierpont and Rev. Noahdiah Russell of Mid- 
 dletown, two of the founders of Yale College. 
 
 (V) Gen. Nathaniel Terry, son of Nathaniel 
 Terry (i), born in Enfield Jan. 20, 1768, married 
 March 14 1798, Catherine, daughter of Col. Jere- 
 miah Wadsworth, of Hartford, Conn., who durmg 
 the Revolution and for years following was the most 
 prominent man of the town, and probably the 
 wealthiest. He was comm!issary general of the 
 American forces for a time, and also of the French 
 forces. He shared largely the confidence of Gen. 
 Washington, and under his roof the General was 
 entertained when he came East with Knox and La- 
 Favette for the first interview with Count Roch- 
 ambeau and Admiral Ternav. Col. Wadsworth 
 was a member of the State convention called to 
 1 
 
 ratify the Constitution of the United States, served 
 six years in Congress, and held other important 
 and honorable offices. 
 
 Gen. Nathaniel Terry was graduated from Yale 
 in 1786, became a law student of Hon. Jesse Root, 
 and was admitted to the Bar in 1790. His pro- 
 fessional life covered a long period, from 1796 to 
 1844, and he practiced first in Enfield and then in 
 Hartford; was a representative to the State Leg- 
 islature from the latter place for twelve sessions ; 
 was judge of the county court from 1807 to 1809; 
 a member of the XVth Congress, 1817-19; and was 
 mayor of Hartford from 1824 to 183 1. From 1819 
 to 1828 he was president of the Hartford Bank. 
 During the prolonged infancy of the Hartford Fire 
 Insurance Co., from 1810 to 1835, Gen. Terry was 
 its president. 
 
 (VI) Alfred Terry, son of Gen. Nathaniel 
 Terry, and the father of Gen. Alfred Howe Terry, 
 was born July 28, 1802, in Hartford, and married, 
 in September, 1825, Clarissa Howe, who was born 
 July 23, 1803, daughter of Gen. Hezekiah and 
 Sarah (Townsend) Howe, of New Haven. Mr. 
 Terry was graduated from Yale in 1822, studied 
 law in Hartford, was admitted to the Bar, and 
 practiced law in Hartford until 1833, when he re- 
 moved to New Haven. There he passed the re- 
 mainder of his life, an esteemed and respected citi- 
 zen of the community, dying Dec. 14, i860. His 
 wife survived until June 27, 1874. 
 
 Gen. Alfred Howe Terry, son of Alfred Terry, 
 was educated mainly in New Haven, studied law 
 at Yale Law School, was admitted to the Bar, and 
 began the practice of law in 1849. From, 1854 to 
 i860 he was clerk of the Superior and Supreme 
 Courts oif Connecticut. An innate love of law and 
 order led him to connect himself with the State 
 militia. Having joined the New Haven Grays 
 when quite young, the outbreak of the War of the 
 Rebellion found him Colonel of the 2d Regiment of 
 the Connecticut Militia. In response to the Presi- 
 dent's call for three months' volunteers he offered 
 his services, and was appointed by Gov. Bucking- 
 ham Colonel of the 2d Regiment of Connecticut 
 Volunteer Infantry. He and his regiment were 
 mustered into the service of the United States in 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 April, i86i. On arrival at AA'ashington the regi- 
 ment was assigned toi the ist Brigade (Keye's), 
 1st Division (Daniel Tyler's), of McDowell's army, 
 operating against Beauregard at ^lanassas. The 
 regiment participated in the battle of Bull Run, 
 June 2 1 St, and both the brigade and division com- 
 manders make special mention of "the gallantry 
 and good conduct" of Terry in that engagement. 
 
 On the expiration of the term of service of the 
 2d Connecticut A'olunteers the governor of Con- 
 necticut appointed Terry Colonel of the 7th Con- 
 necticut Volunteer Infantry, then organizing. This 
 regiment was assigned to the 3d Brigade 
 (^Vright's), of Gen. W. T. Shermans Expedi- 
 tionary Corps, then assembling at Annapolis. The 
 regiment sailed for Hilton Head early in November, 
 and on the 8th of that month we find Terry and his 
 regiment making a reconnoissance of Hilton Head 
 Island, of which the commander writes, "I have to 
 acknowledge the cordial and efficient conduct of 
 Col. Terry in carrying out the object of the recon- 
 noissance." We next find him with his regiment 
 on Tybee Island, actively engaged in the siege of 
 Fort Pvilaski, Ga., which was breached on April 
 nth, and arrangements were being made for an 
 assault when the garrison surrendered. Gen. Gil- 
 more, in speaking of these operations, says: 
 "Throughout the siege Col. Alfred H. Terry, 7th 
 Connecticut Volunteers, and Col. J. F. Hall, N. 
 Y. Engineers, were conspicuous for the zeal and 
 perseverance with which they discharged the vari- 
 ous duties to' which they were assigned." The dis- 
 trict commander, Benham, makes special mention 
 of the regiment as follows : "The 7th Connecticut 
 Regiment, under Col. Terry, very ably manned the 
 batteries which they had most laboriousl}' con- 
 structed, so that I designated them (as I was 
 pleased to find had been, unknown to me, the pre- 
 vious selection of Gen. Gilmore) for the honor of 
 being the first garrison of the surrendered fort." 
 On April 25th, two weeks after the occupation of 
 Fort Pulaski, Terry received his appointment of 
 Brigadier General of United States \'olunteers. 
 He continued on duty in the Southern District of 
 the Department of the South until the following 
 October, when he was assigned to the comtaand of 
 the United States forces on Flilton Head Island and 
 continued to exercise that command until July 5, 
 1863. During this period there were various re- 
 connoissances, the principal one being made on the 
 22d of October, against the railroad nf Pocataligo. 
 In this operation Gen. Terry commanded one of the 
 two brigades. The command had a skirmish with 
 the enemy near Pocataligo in which it lost 340 men 
 in killed, wounded and missing. 
 
 In organizing the force for an effort against 
 the defences of Charleston, in July, 1863, Gen. 
 Terry was assigned to the command of the ist 
 Division. His division was designated to make a 
 demonstration against James Island, b)' way of 
 Stono Inlet, in order to occupy the enemy and draw 
 
 the forces from Alorris Island, agamst which the 
 main attack was to be made. The plan succeeded, 
 and on the i6th Terry's division was attacked by 
 a very superior force, which was driven back. 
 After the failure of the second assault on Fort 
 Wagner, on the night of the i8th of July, Terry 
 was transferred to Morris Island and assigned to 
 the command of all the forces on that Island, and 
 the work of gaining possession of Fort Wagner by 
 gradual approaches was begun at once. By the 6th 
 of September it seemed quite practicable to take the 
 place, and orders were issued and the troops put in 
 position for a third assault the next morning, Sept. 
 7th, but the enemy evacuated the place during the 
 night. 
 
 In April, 1864, Gen. Terry's division was trans- 
 ferred to Virginia and rendezvoused at Yorktown 
 early in May. The loth Corps was organized at 
 that place and moved against Richmond by way of 
 the James river. Terry's division contained! the 
 Connecticut troops of the Corps — the 6th, 7th and 
 loth Regimients and Rockwell's battery. The divis- 
 ion had its first opportunity to show its mettle at 
 Chester Station. On the morning of the loth of 
 May, while the division was engaged in destro3dng 
 the track of the Richmond & Petersburg railway, 
 the enemy attacked in force and compelled the pro- 
 tecting troops to give ground, but the commands at 
 work were promptly formed up and liy a gallant 
 attack forced the enemy to retire with loss. The 
 division was in contact with the enemy until the 
 1 6th, when it took an important part in the battle 
 of Drury's Blufif, and the Corps commander re- 
 ports that "there have been three assaults made on 
 Gen. Terry's front; each has been repulsed hand- 
 somely. The assaults were in force." The losses 
 in the division from the 9th to the i6th are given 
 as 1,300. In August Gen. Terry and his division 
 formed a part of the force assembled under Gen. 
 Hancock at Deep Bottom, for an effort against the 
 works around Richmond north of the James river. 
 On the 14th the division carried the first line of 
 intrenchments in front of Deep Bottom, capturing 
 71 prisoners and six guns. On the i6th Gen. Terrv 
 led the assault on the main line of Ihe enem}"''s 
 works near Fussell's Mills, carried the works, and 
 captured about 300 prisoners and six battle flags. 
 Of this assault Gen. Hancock says, in his report' of 
 Nov. I2th, that Gen. Birney having died no report 
 of the loth Corps had been received, but "Gen 
 Terry, whose division led the assault 'on the i6th, 
 was commended for his gallantry on that occasion." 
 The commendation has not been found in official 
 publications, but it is evident that it ^^-as of such a 
 character as to secure Gen. Terry a commission as 
 Major General by brevet, which was accompanied 
 by a personal letter from the Secretary of War, 
 saying that he had earned a full :Ma]or General's 
 commission and should have had it had it not been 
 that the number of that grade allowed hv law was 
 filled. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 On August 22d, Gen. Terry was ordered to pro- 
 ceed with his division to the lines in front of Peters- 
 burg and relieve the i8th Cores. He remained 
 there until th'e 24th of September, when -the loth 
 Corps was assembled on the north bank of the 
 James at Deep Bottom for an offensive movement 
 against Richmond. Gen. Terry and his division 
 were engaged in the assault on Fort Harrison and 
 the Xew Market road, on the 29th of September. 
 On the 7th of October he repulsed a vigorous as- 
 sault made by Picket's command. On Oct. loth 
 Gen. Terry was assigned to the command of the 
 loth Corps, which on the 13th attacked the enemy 
 on the Darbytown road, where they were found 
 in force and were driven from their" first line back 
 to their main line of defences. On Oct. 27th the 
 loth Corps pushed out the Darbvtown road and 
 extended the right to the Charles' City road, driv- 
 ing the enemy back. 
 
 After the failure of the first effort against Fort 
 Fisher and the other defences at the mouth of Cape 
 Fear river, North Carolina, Gen. Terry was select- 
 ed to lead a second effort. In referring to this 
 Gen. Grant states in his renort: "This time I se- 
 lected Brevet ^lajor General (now ^lajor General) 
 A. H. Terry to command this expedition. The 
 troops composing it consisted of the same that com- 
 posed the former, with the addition of a small bri- 
 gade numbering about 1,500 m^n and a small siege 
 train. The latter it was not found necessary to 
 land. * * * It will be sge^i that the instruc- 
 tions did not differ from those given for the first 
 expedition and that in neither instance was there 
 an order to assault Fort Fisher. '■'■ * * On 
 the afternoon of the 15th of January the Fort was 
 assaulted and after most desperate fighting was 
 captured, with its entire garrison and armament. 
 Thus was secured Ijy the combined efforts of the 
 Armv and Xavy one of the most important suc- 
 cesses of the war." This important success was not 
 secured, however, without much thought and labor 
 on the part of the commander. Seventy-two hours 
 without sleep — busy engaged in safely-disembark- 
 ing his command between Fisher and its garrison, 
 and the covering command, which was located at 
 Sugar Loaf, under Gen. Hoke (an officer of long 
 experience and of acknowledged resolution and 
 vigor) ; in finding a suitable line across from the 
 sea to Cape Fear river, for defending his rear 
 against Hoke with a greatly inferior force, while 
 Fort Fisher was attacked with the other troops of 
 his command; in making a close reconnoissance of 
 Fort Fisher and its surroundings, in order to deter- 
 mine what course of action he would pursue ; in 
 arranging with Admiral Porter for a joint attack, 
 and finally for the assault and capture of the fort 
 and its garrison. The success was great, but the 
 personal efforts made by the commander in order 
 to secure that success entitle him to the high esteem 
 of his countrymen. That the authorities of the time 
 
 thought highly of the resolution and vigor dis- 
 played by Gen. Terry on that occasion is clearly 
 shown in the despatches. The Secretary of War, 
 who was returning to Washington from a visit to 
 Gen. Sherman, at Savannah, Ga., called at the 
 mouth of the Cape Fear river on the day after the 
 taking of Fort Fisher. He informled Gen. Terry 
 then and there that he would secure his appoint- 
 ment as Brigadier-General in the regular army on 
 his return to Washington, and a Major-General's 
 appointment in the volunteer service if there was 
 a vacancy in that grade. Before sailing the Sec- 
 retary of War sent ashore the following letter: 
 
 Stf-.-mier S. R. Spalding, 
 Off Fort Fisher, Jan. 16, 1865. 
 Major General Terry, 
 
 Cointnauding : 
 The Secretary of War, in the name of the President, 
 congratulates you and the gallant officers and soldiers of 
 your command, and tenders you thanks for the valor and 
 skill displayed in your part of the great achievement in 
 the operations against Fort Fisher and in its assault and 
 capture. The combined operations of the sqtiadron under 
 command of Rear Admiral Porter and your forces de- 
 serve and will receive the thanks of the nation, and will 
 be held in admiration throughout the world as a proof of 
 the Naval and Military powers of the United States. 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton, 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 On receiving intelligence oi the capture of the 
 place. Gen. Grant wrote as follows : 
 
 City Point, Va., Jan. 17, 1865. 
 KoN. E. M. Stanton, 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 The following official dispatch from Brevet Major 
 Gen. A. H. Terry, commanding the land forces against 
 Fort Fisher, announcing the capture by the united valor 
 of the Army and Navy, is Just received. I have ordered 
 I salute of 100 guns to be fired by each army here in honor 
 of their great ti^iumph. 
 
 U. S. Grant, 
 Lieut. General. 
 
 The following letter is of the same date. 
 
 City Point, Va., Jan. 17, 1865, 
 Hon. E. !M. Stanton, 
 
 Secretary of War: 
 As a substantial recognition of the bravery of both 
 officers and men in the capture of Fort Fisher, and the 
 important service thereby rendered their country, I do 
 most respectfully recommend Brevet Major General Al- 
 fred H. Terry, U. S. Volunteers, their commanding officer, 
 for appointment as Brigadier General in the regular army. 
 
 U. S. Grant, 
 Lieut. General. 
 
 City Point, Va., Jan. 18, 1865.- 
 Hon. E. ^[. Stanton, 
 
 Secretary of War: 
 
 The confirmation of Thomas and Sheridan to the 
 rank of Major General in the regular army makes two 
 vacancies. I hope General Terry will get one of these. 
 
 U. S. Grant, 
 Lieut. General. 
 
 Rear Admiral Porter wrote as follows: 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 North Atlantic Squadron, 
 U. S. Flag Ship Malvern. 
 Off Smithville, N. C, January 20, 1865. 
 Sir : I have been so much pleased with General 
 Terry, and the manner in which he has conducted his part 
 of the operations here, that I deem it worthy of a special 
 despatch to express what I feel. General Terry is, no 
 doubt, well known to his associates in the field who have 
 served with him, and to the lieutenant general, who se- 
 lected him for the service, but the American people should 
 know and feel the very great service he has rendered 
 them by his most admirable assault on these tremendous 
 works. Young, brave and unassuming, he bears his suc- 
 cess with the modesty of a true soldier, and is willing to 
 give credit to those who shared with him the' perils of the 
 assault. No one could form the slightest conception of 
 these works, their magnitude, strength and extent, who 
 had not seen them, and General Whiting (the founder) 
 must have had an abiding faith in the durability of the 
 Confederacy when he expended so many years' labor on 
 them. 
 
 The result of the fall of Fort Fisher was the fall of 
 all the surrounding works in and near this place. Fort 
 Caswell, a large work at the West inlet, mounting twenty- 
 nine guns, all the works on Smith's island, the works be- 
 tween Caswell and Smithville, up to battery on Reeves's 
 Point, on the west side of the river — in all one hundred 
 and sixty-nine guns falling into our hands ; two steamers 
 were burnt or blown up, and there never was so clean a 
 scoop made anywhere. 
 
 A timid man would have hesitated to attack these 
 works by assault, no matter what assistance he may have 
 had from other quarters, but General Terry never for an 
 instant hesitated ; and though I feel somewhat flattered 
 at the confidence he reposed in my judgment, I am quite 
 ready to believe that he acted on his own ideas of what 
 was proper to be done in the matter, and was perfectly 
 qualified to judge without the advice of anyone. Through- 
 out this affair his conduct has been marked by the greatest 
 desire to be successful, not for the sake of personal con- 
 siderations, but for the cause in which we are all alike 
 engaged. 
 
 I don't know that I ever met an officer who so com- 
 pletely gained my esteem and admiration. 
 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedi- 
 ent servant, 
 
 David D. Porter, 
 Rear Admiral. 
 Hon. Gideon Wells, 
 
 Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C. 
 
 On arrival at Washington Mr. Stanton found 
 that he could grant the appointment of Brigadier 
 General in the regular army, but there was no va- 
 cancy in the grade of Major General of Volunteers. 
 Under the circumstances, and recognizing the 
 merits of the case, America's greatest President 
 added one to the list of Major Generals of \'oIun- 
 teers, by appointing General Terry a Provisional 
 Major General, so far as known the only instance 
 of the kind that occurred during the war of the 
 great Rebellion. Congress, not to be outdone in 
 acknowledging the gallant deeds of the soldiers 
 of the Republic, passed a resolution, which was ap- 
 proved by the President on Jan. 24, 1865, extending 
 the thanks of the Nation to Gen. Terry, his officers 
 and soldiers, in the following language : 
 
 Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representa- 
 tives in Congress assembled. That the thanks of Congress 
 are hereby presented to Brevet Major General Alfred H. 
 Terry and the officers and men under his command, for 
 
 the unsurpassed gallantry and skill exhibited by them in 
 the attack on Fort Fisher, and the brilliant and decisive 
 victory by which that important work has been captured 
 from the Rebel forces, and placed in the possession and 
 under the, authority of the United States; and for their 
 long and faithful services and unswerving devotion to the 
 cause of the country, in the midst of the greatest difficul- 
 ties and dangers. 
 
 And be it further resolved, That the President of the 
 United States be and hereby is requested to communicate 
 this resolution to General Terry, and through him to the 
 officers and men under his command. 
 
 Schuyler Colfax, 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
 W. Hamlin, 
 Vice-President of the United States and President of the 
 
 Senate. 
 Approved Jan. 24th, 1865. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Of the hundreds of general officers of volun- 
 teers commissioned during the war of the Rebellion, 
 who had not had previous service in the regular 
 army, Gen. Terry's was the, unique instance in 
 which a general officer's commission in the regular 
 establishment was given. 
 
 In the operations against ^^^ilmington, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1865, Gen. Terry commanded the forces 
 operating on the left bank of the Cape Fear river, 
 and was commissioned a Brevet Major General in 
 the United States Army for these operations. On 
 the 27th of jNIarch the loth Corps was reorganized 
 and Gen. Terry was assigned to the command of it. 
 The loth Corps moved on Goldsboro in co-opera- 
 tion with the army of Gen. Sherman, and this junc- 
 tion destroyed the last hope of effectual resistance 
 in the army of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and the 
 great Rebellion was ended. 
 
 Immediately after hostilities ceased. Gen. Terry 
 took a leave of absence and returned to New Haven, 
 and was making arrangements to resume the pro- 
 fession of his choice — the law — when he received 
 the following telegram : 
 
 Adjutant General's Office. 
 , , „ A TT ^ Washington, June 8, 1865. 
 
 Major General A. H. Terry, 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
 The Secretary of War desires to see you here \c- 
 knowledge receipt. 
 
 E. D. TOWNSEND, 
 
 Asst. Adjt. Gcnl. 
 
 This innocent-looking despatch of only a line 
 resulted in changing the whole course of Gen 
 Terry's after life. On reporting to the great War 
 Secretary, with his traveling bag in hand, he was 
 urged to go to Richmond and take hold of the helm 
 there, and so urgent was the Secretary that the in- 
 terests of the public demanded his services there 
 that he at once gave up all his cherished personal 
 plans and brilliant prospects in civil life, and a-ain 
 gave himself to the service of his country On'' ar- 
 riving at Richmond he assumed command of the 
 Department of Virginia, which he held until Au- 
 gust, 1866, having in the meantime straightened 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 5 
 
 out the tangle into which the civil affairs of that 
 State had fallen. The following letter from Sec- 
 retary Stanton accomipanied the order relieving 
 Gen. Terry from this command: 
 
 War Department, 
 Washington City, 
 Aug. i8, 1866. 
 General:— In relieving you from command of the 
 Department of Virginia and assigning you to another post 
 of duty of importance and high responsibility in the West- 
 ern territories, it is proper for me to express the cordial 
 approval of this Department of your conduct during the 
 vi'hole period in which you have been in the military serv- 
 ice of the country. Your gallantry and skill as a com- 
 mander in the field have already received the testimonials 
 of your official superiors and the universal approbation 
 of the country. Your ability, integrity and wisdom in the 
 administration of the Department of Virginia have been 
 equally entitled to commendation and distinguished for 
 success under the most embarrassing circumstances. To 
 this official testimonial, so highly merited, I am happy to 
 add the assurance of my personal esteem and friendship. 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton, 
 Secretary of War. 
 Brevet Major General and Brigadier General Terry. 
 
 In the Autumn of 1866, Gen. Terry assumed 
 command of the newly created Department of Da- 
 kota, in which he remained until March, 1869, 
 when he was assigned to the command of the De- 
 partment of the South, where trouble v/as found in 
 reorganizing the civil government of the State of 
 Georgia. In December of that year he was ap- 
 pointed to exercise the duties of Commanding" Gen- 
 eral of the District of Georgia, as defined by Act 
 of Congress, approved Dec. 22, 1869. In Novem- 
 ber, 1872, his work in Georgia completed, he was 
 again assigned to command the Department of Da- 
 kota, which com:miand he held until all the bands 
 of the great Sioux tribe were brought into sub- 
 jection. In 1868 he was a member of the special 
 commission appointed by the President to en^ 
 deavor to conclude a treaty of peace with the hos- 
 tile Indians. In 1875 he was one of the commis- 
 sioners appointed by the President to endeavor to 
 secure an agreement with the Sioux tribe for the 
 extinguishing of their rights to the Black Hills re- 
 gion. In 1877 he was the head of a commission, 
 appointed by the President, to visit the hostile 
 Sioux, to endeavor to arrange terms with them, in 
 order to secure their return to the United States 
 from the British possessions to which his troops 
 had driven them. 
 
 In 1872 Gen. Terry was appointed the head of 
 the Board to "determine a breech-loading system 
 of muskets and carbines for the military service." 
 In 1878 he was one of the Board appointed by the 
 President to examine and report upon the case of 
 Major General Fitz John Porter. He was pro- 
 moted to the grade of Major General ^Nlarch t,, 
 1886, and assigfned to command of the Military Di- 
 vision of the Missouri. In the spring of 1888 Gen. 
 Terry requested that, owing to failing health, he 
 
 might be transferred to the retired list of the armty, 
 and was so transferred April 5th of that year. In 
 May he returned to Connecticut, and planned to 
 spend his remaining years in New Haven, to which 
 he was much attached. After settling there, his 
 health failed rapidly, and he died Dec. 16, 1890. 
 The following order issued by the War Depart- 
 ment, marks the close of a life of unusual purity, 
 and devotion to duty. 
 
 General Orders, No. 142. 
 
 HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY, 
 Adjutant General's Office. 
 
 Washington, December 16, 1890. 
 
 I. The following order has been received from the 
 War Department: 
 
 War Department, Washington, December 16, i8go. 
 Orders : 
 
 It is with sincere sorrow that the Secretary of War 
 announces the death of Major General Alfred H. Terry, 
 U. S. Army (retired), which occurred at his home in 
 New Haven, Connecticut, this morning. 
 
 General Terry was one of the most gentle, kind, and 
 brave men that ever served his country. He was an ideal 
 soldier and gentleman, whose honest, truthful, and up- 
 right life gained him the highest esteem of all who knew 
 him. His service during the war (commencing as colonel 
 of the 2d Connecticut Volunteers, May 7, 1861) was so 
 uniformly gallant and conspicuous, whether leading his 
 regiment or in the exercise of higher command, as to earn 
 him rapid promotion to the rank of brigadier general and 
 major general of volunteers and brigadier general, U. S. 
 Army; the two latter grades conferred on him for the as- 
 sault and capture of Fort Fisher, January 15, 1865, for 
 which the thanks of Congress were tendered to him and 
 the officers and soldiers of his command "for the unsur- 
 passed gallantry and skill exhibited by them in the attack 
 upon Fort Fisher and the brilliant and decisive victory 
 by which that important work has been captured from the 
 rebel forces placed in the possession and under the author- 
 ity of the United States, and for their long and faithful 
 service and unwavering devotion to the cause of the coun- 
 try in the midst of the greatest difficulties and dangers." 
 
 After the close of the war General Terry was success- 
 ively in command of the Departments of Virginia, Da- 
 kota, the South, and again Dakota, and performed eminent 
 service as a member of important boards and commis- 
 sions. He was appointed major general, U. S. Army, 
 March 3, 1886. and assigned to the command of the Divi- 
 sion of the Missouri, which he held until April 5, 1888, 
 when he was retired from active service on account of 
 disability. 
 
 REDFIELD PROCTOR, 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 II. The major general commanding the Division of 
 the Atlantic will give the necessary order for appropriate 
 military ceremonies at the funeral. 
 
 Upon the day after the receipt of this order at each 
 military post thirteen guns will be fired at intervals of 
 one-half hour, commencing at 8 o'clock a. m. 
 
 By Command of Major General Schofield, 
 
 Adjutant General. 
 
 The New Haven council adopted the following 
 resolutions at the time of Gen. Terry's death: 
 
 Whereas, the Court of Common Council in common 
 with our community has learned v/ith profound sensibility 
 of the death of Maj. Gen. Alfred Howe Terry, at his resi- 
 dence in this city, 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Gen. Terry New Haven 
 mourns the loss of a most illustrious citizen. His splendid 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 military achievements during the Civil war, his equally irn- 
 portant and not less brilliant services in statesmanship 
 while Military Governor in the Southern States during the 
 Reconstruction Period, and his subsequent arduous and dis- 
 tinguished career in connection with Indian affairs and 
 hostilities in the far West, have made his name ^ forever 
 conspicuous in the annals of the nation. His purity, dig- 
 nity, and nobility of character, his unselfish patriotism 
 and his generous, sincere and affectionate nature, will long 
 endear his memory to his fellow citizens. He was well 
 and worthily described as "the beau ideal of a soldier and 
 a gentleman." 
 
 Resolved, That in recognition of the importance of 
 this event in our city, the Mayor be requested to cause the 
 National and City flags to fly at half-mast until after the 
 interment, also to have the bells tolled and minute guns 
 fired during the funeral services. 
 
 Resolved, That the Mayor, President, and one mem- 
 ber of the Board of Aldermen and the President and two 
 members of the Board of Councilmen be, and they are 
 hereby appointed, a committee to take such other suitable 
 measures with regard to the obsequies of General Terry 
 as may be acceptable to his family, and if such obsequies 
 are public this Court of Common Council will attend the 
 same in a body. 
 
 Resolved, That these Resolutions be entered upon the 
 records of the Court of Common Council, and that a copy 
 of them, suitably engrossed, be presented to the family 
 of the deceased. 
 
 Approved, Dec. i6, 1890. 
 
 Henry F. Peck, Mayor. 
 Attest : 
 
 Edward Downes, City Clerk. 
 
 HON ORVILLE HITCHCOCK PLATT, 
 LL. D., of Meriden, lawyer and statesman, now 
 serving his fourth term as United States senator 
 from the State of Connecticut, is one of a number 
 of distinguished and illustrious sons of Litchfield 
 county, Connecticut. 
 
 The Piatt family was established in New Hav- 
 en county in 1638, when (I) Richard Piatt, an Eng- 
 lishman, aind his wife Mary, with their four children, 
 landed at New Haven. He was one of the sixty- 
 six who formed a church society Aug. 22, 1639, and 
 proceeded at once to settle at Milford. Of nis eight 
 children, the third (and second son), (H) Isaac 
 Piatt, was enrolled in 1666 among the fifty-seven 
 land owners of Huntington, L. I., where he had 
 lived probably some years. He was recorder there 
 in 1687. In Milford be married Phcebe Smith, 
 March 12, 1640, and more than twenty years later 
 married, at Huntington, Elizabeth, daughter of Jo- 
 nas Wood. He was captain of militia, and held 
 every ofiice of consequence in the town, where he 
 died' July 31, 1691. He had six children, of whom 
 ■the eldest son and second child, (III) Jonas Piatt, 
 born Aug. 16, 1667, married Sarah Scudder, and 
 had four sons. (IV) Obadiah Piatt, the eldest of 
 these, purchased lands in Fairfield in 1724. He 
 married JNIary Smith Aug. 10, 1722, and had eight 
 children. Tlie wife and mother died Nov. 16, 
 1 77 1, at Ridgefield. (V) Jonas Piatt, second son 
 and third child of Obadiah, born Oct. 9, 1727, set- 
 tled at Redding, where he was married Oct. 17, 
 1747, to Elizabeth, daugtiter of Ephraim Sanford, 
 of that place. Both were admitted church members 
 
 at Redding July 5, 1749- They had ten children 
 of whom the eldest, (VI) John Piatt, was baptized 
 Feb. 3, 1752, at Redding. Both father and son 
 served' as soldiers in the Revolutionary army, and 
 the former was made prisoner in the Danbury raid, 
 in April, 1777, but appeared among those who 
 marched to FishlciU in the following October, to 
 reinforce Gen. Putnamu The son was taken prisoner 
 at Fort Lee Nov. 16, 1776. On July 7, 1775. he 
 married Elizabeth Parmle, and after the war set- 
 tled in the town of Washington, Conn. Their chil- 
 dren were: John, born Feb. 21, 1776; David, Aug. 
 •3 1, 1778; Ruth Ann, Alarch 30, 1782; Betsey, May 
 8, 1790: Daniel Gold (or Gould), July 25, 1797- 
 (VII) Daniel Gold (or Gould) Piatt married Al- 
 myra Hitchcock Jan. 3, 1817, and they bad children : 
 Orville, born Alarch 11, 1822, who died in 1826; 
 Orville Hitchcock, born July 19, 1827, in Washing- 
 ton; and Simeon D., born Feb. 12, 1832. The fa- 
 ther died Oct. 26, 1871. He and his wife were plain, 
 unassuming, good farming people of the sturdy New 
 England type, in whose home were fostered intelli- 
 gence and piety. 
 
 Reared amid agricultural pursuits among the 
 hills of Litchfield, the ruggedness and grandeur of 
 which no doubt gave forth inspiration, Orville H. 
 Piatt was carefully trained and started in the right 
 course in life. He was educated in the common 
 schools and in the academy in later years known 
 as 'The Gunnery," after its principal, Frederick W. 
 Gunn, an able and accomplished teacher, under 
 whose personal supervision he was instructed in the 
 higher mathematics, rhetoric and the classics. 
 Young Piatt remained at home on the farm until 
 his twentieth year. He began the study of law in 
 the office of Hon. Gideon H. Hollister, of Litchfield, 
 the Avell-known historian and able lawyer, and was 
 admitted to the Bar in 1849. He was subsequently 
 admitted to practice at Towanda, Bradford Co., 
 Pa., and spent six months there in the office of Hon. 
 Ulysses Alercur, later a supreme court judge of that 
 State. Returning to Connecticut in 1851, Mr. Piatt 
 began the practice of law in Meriden, and has since 
 made his home in that city. Soon after settling in 
 Meriden he became associate editor of The Whig, 
 a paper which had existence for about three years, 
 and the experience he gained in that capacity has 
 since been useful to him in many ways. 
 
 Islr. Piatt's splendid abilities first received recog- 
 nition in 1853, when he was elected judge of pro- 
 bate by his townsmen, and he continued to hold that 
 office three years. In 1855-56 be was chosen clerk 
 of the Connecticut Senate. One of the first to enlist 
 under the standard of the Republican party on its 
 organization, in 1856, he took a very active part in 
 politics, and displayed such marked ability that in 
 1857 he was nominated on the State ticket for the 
 office of secretary of State, was elected, and served 
 one term. In 1861-62 he was elected to the State 
 Senate. In 1864 he was elected to the Connecticut 
 House of Representatives, and was honored by be- 
 
/ ^. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ing made chairman of the Judiciary committee. This 
 'ippointment carried with it, by long established cus- 
 tom, the leadership of the party, and nobh' did he 
 fulfill the trust reposed in him. The constitutional 
 amendment providing for the extension of the elec- 
 tive franchise to the soldiers in the field was passed 
 ^y the Senate by the party vote of eighteen to three. 
 In the House, a two-thirds vote being necessary, 
 It received the votes of two-thirds of the members 
 present and voting, but not two-thirds of all the 
 members elected. The Speaker decided that the 
 amendment was not carried. Mr. Piatt appealed 
 t-"om this decision, and after a protracted debate 
 the appeal was sustained, and thus the amendment 
 was adopted. Five years later he was again chos- 
 en to represent the town of Meriden in that branch 
 of the General Assembly. At the beginning of his 
 latter term] he was elected Speaker of the House, 
 and presided over its deliberations with wisdom anid 
 impartiality. When he retired from the Speaker's 
 chair, at the close of the term, he was known and 
 respected throughout the State as one of its purest 
 and ablest officials, one whose qualifications for leg- 
 islative work were of an exceptionally high ordter, 
 and whose brilliant abilities, energy and influence 
 It was eminently desirable to retain in the public 
 service. Notwithstanding this, however, and in the 
 face of a strong party sentiment to keep him in 
 public life, ]\Ir. Piatt retired for a time from poli- 
 tics, to give his attention more fully to his law prac- 
 tice, which had grown to very extensive pro- 
 portions and demanded his close personal super- 
 vision. 
 
 During the whose period of the Civil war Sena- 
 tor Piatt was a firm^ supporter of the war measures 
 of the Federal Government, and was untiring, both 
 as an officer and as a private citizen, in aiding the 
 Union cause. In 1877 he was appointed State's at- 
 tornej' for New Haven county, which office he held 
 until 1879, \vhen be was chosen by the Legislature 
 to succeed United States Senator W. H. Barnum, 
 Democrat, who had been elected to fill the vacancy 
 caused by the death of Orris S. Ferry, Republican. 
 At this election, on the thirty-eighth ballot, out of 
 the 149 votes cast, ]\Ir. Piatt received 76; Gen. Jos- 
 eph R. Hawley, one of the most popular men of 
 the State, 72;^ and Marshall Jewell, i. This bal- 
 lot proving satisfactory, the nomination of Mr. Piatt 
 was on motion made unanimous, and as the Re- 
 publicans controlled the State Legislature he was 
 elected Senator of the United States. From his 
 earliest manhood Senator Piatt has always enjoyed 
 the most implicit confidence of the citizens of Meri- 
 den. When his election became known they gave 
 him an enthusiastic reception, members of both po- 
 litical parties being represented. To be right has 
 always been the leading aspiration of the Senator's 
 life ; and, in response to some kindly words, he 
 took advantage of the opportunity to emphasize this 
 characteristic: "That which is right is priceless to 
 me; and in all the campaigns and achievements of 
 
 the Republican party in which I have participated 
 T have never steered a middle course, but did what 
 I thought to be rig'ht." A friend of excellent dis- 
 crimination said of him at the time, and the words 
 seem almost prophetic: "Senator Piatt carries to 
 the Senate independence of judgment, intimate ac- 
 quaintance with political history, and a thorough 
 mastery of the fundamental principles of a repub- 
 lican fo'rmi of government. We greatly mistake if 
 the Senator does not prove to be one of the ablest 
 and most serviceable members Connecticut has ever 
 sent tO' the honorable body to which he is accred- 
 ited." 
 
 In 1885, at the 'expiration of his first term as a 
 United States senator, Mr. Piatt was unanimously 
 re-elected; and ini 1891 and ioi 1897 had again be- 
 stowed upon him this distinguished honor. It can 
 be said with emphasis that his every official act has 
 been prompted by the purest patriotism, and has 
 had its foundation in wisdom and honor. The only 
 question in his mind before taking sides upon a 
 public issue seems tO' be: "Do the best interests of 
 the people require that I support or oppose this 
 measure?" Senator Piatt is a terse and forceful 
 speaker. At the State and county conventions of 
 bis party he has been called tO' preside many times, 
 and his services in such relations are characterized 
 by ease and gracefulness. He was elected president 
 of the Republican State Convention held at New 
 Haven in the fall of 1890, and spoke at length on 
 the issues of the hour. His services as a speaker 
 are always in demand, and the announcement of a 
 speech or oration from him is sure to attract a large 
 assemblage. Of his speech in the Senate on the 
 Roach case the New York Record said : "The great 
 speech of the debate was made by Senator Piatt of 
 Connecticut. It was a masterpiece of concise state- 
 ments and irresistible logic, and he laid before the 
 Senate and the country coldly and relentlessly the 
 damning charges which had been made against the 
 North Dakota senator and which had not been de- 
 nied." The New York Tribune said : "Senator 
 Piatt's arguments were conclusive and impregna- 
 ble. They left the Democrats without a leg to stand 
 on." 
 
 Like most public men, Senator Piatt has per- 
 formed a vast amount of arduous labor for which 
 he receives no credit from the general public. Per- 
 haps his greatest achievement in the eyes of the 
 world at large is the amendment to the Cuban Con- 
 stitution, which received the approval of Congress 
 and the President, and is now an integral part of 
 the organic law of the new republic established on 
 our border by the m'agnanimity and prestige of the 
 greatest of the world's republics. Without resort- 
 ing to the arts of the practical politician Senator 
 Piatt has attained to the highest legislative rank in 
 the Republic, and he is one of the rare examples of 
 marked success, professionally and politically, to 
 whose record his fellow citizens, who' have known 
 him from boyhood, can^ point young men, and with- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 out hesitation invite themi to make it a study for 
 their conduct in life. 
 
 In private Hfe Mr. Piatt holds a high place, be- 
 ing greatly respected and esteemed by all whose 
 privilege it is to come in contact with him, and prob- 
 ably no man in Connecticut enjoys a wider or more 
 enduring popularity. Without show or ostentation 
 he has done much as a promoter of Christian and 
 philanthropic work. 
 
 On May 15, 1850, Senator Piatt was married to 
 Miss Annie Bull, daughter of James Perry and Ann 
 (Wallis) Bull, of Towanda, Pa., and two children 
 were born to the marriage, James Perry and Daniel 
 Gold. The latter died in 1864, aged six years. The 
 mother died in November, 1893. She was a prom- 
 inent member of the First Congregational Church 
 of Meriden, and w^as ever greatly interested and 
 active in its charities. On April 29, 1897, Mr. 
 Piatt married Jeannie P., widow of George A. 
 Hoyt, of Stamford, and daughter of Truman Smith, 
 formerly United States senator from Connecticut. 
 
 HON. LUZON B. MORRIS. In the death of 
 Gov. Morris, late of New Haven, Aug. 23, 1895, 
 there passed away a fine type of citizen — a life 
 furnishing an example of what one may accomplish 
 by pluck, energy and ambition, a type of marihood, 
 too, that the people especially delight to honor, for 
 through his ambition and sheer force o,f character, 
 unaided and alone, he rose from a lowly station 
 in life to positions of distinction and eminence 
 among men. 
 
 Gov. Morris was born April 16, 1827, at the old 
 Morris homestead in Newtown, Conn., the second 
 son of Eli Gould and Lydia (Bennett) Morris. 
 For generations his paternal ancestors had been 
 residents of Fairfield county. His grandfather, 
 great-grandfather and great-great-igrandfather all 
 bore the name of Daniel, and a striking coincidence 
 in their lives was that all lived to the same age, 
 passing three score and ten. These ancestors were, 
 respectively, Daniel of Bridgeport. Daniel (2), bom 
 1715, in Bridgeport, married (first) in 1741 Sarah 
 Mackhard, who died in 1761. He died in 1792. 
 Daniel (3), born in 1750, in Bridgeport, married 
 Mrs. Mary (Salter) Burritt (widow of Israel Bur- 
 ritt), who was born in Antigua, one of the West 
 Indies, and came thence to Bridgeport, Conn. 
 Daniel Morris (3) located in Newtown, and later 
 his father, Daniel (2), settled there, both engaging 
 in agricultural pursuits at what is known as Walk- 
 ers Farms. The son was active in local affairs, 
 and was regarded as one of the leading men- o.f 
 the town in his day. 
 
 Eli Gould Morris, father of our subject, was 
 born June 6, 1783, in Newtown, became a success- 
 ful farmer, and was held in high regard among his 
 associates for his excellent judgment. In 1819 he 
 purchased from Mrs. Curtis the farmi now occu- 
 pied by his son, Hon. Eli J. Morris. His religious 
 connections were with the Baptist Ghurch. Polit- 
 
 ically he was a stanch Democrat. He had mar- 
 ried,' in early life, Lydia Bennett, who was born 
 June 4, 1793, daughter of Thaddeus Bennett, of the 
 town of Trumbull. Mr. Morris died Jan_. 3, 1856, 
 and his wife survived many years, passing away 
 July 2, 1879. They had children as follows: Eli 
 J., born in 1821, married in 1850 Jane E. Chambers. 
 He died in 1901. Luzon B., late of New Haven, is 
 the subject of this review. Martha'J-, born in 1835, 
 died in 1877. 
 
 Luzon Burritt Morris attended for a time the 
 common schools of his neighborhood in the Berk- 
 shire District, having among others, as his early 
 teachers, Peter C. C. Warner and Charles Beers. 
 At fifteen years of age he began to shift for him- 
 self, being apprenticed to a blacksmith at Roxbury, 
 and later he worked in the edge tool factory of 
 Raymond French, in Seymour. Ambitious for an 
 education, he saved his earnings and applied them 
 to that end. He attended the Connecticut Literary 
 Institute, at Suffield, where he was prepared for 
 college, then entered Yale, and 'wias ^graduated 
 with the class of 1854. After this event he was 
 prepared for the profession of law, partly in the 
 Law School aiW partly in an office, and was ad- 
 mitted to the Bar in 1856. He began practice in 
 Se3''mour and at once engaged in political life, 
 identifying himself with the Democratic party. In 
 1855 and 1856 he was sent as a representative from 
 the town of Seymour to the Legislature, and in 1857 
 he changed his residence from Se3miour to New 
 Haven, having been appointed judge of probate 
 for the New Haven district, to which office he 
 was elected six times. His wide experience gained 
 in that incumbency was the cause of his having- 
 been made chairman of the commissioners appointed 
 by the Legislature to revise the probate laws of 
 the State. In 1870 he represented New Haven in 
 the Legislature, and in 1874 he served in the State 
 Senate. In the former body he was chairman of 
 the committee on Railroads, and in the latter he 
 was chairman of the Judiciary committee and also 
 president pro tem. He was returned to the Lower 
 House in 1876, also in 1880 and 1881, and in the 
 last two sessions was active in the discussions on 
 the question of the boundary line between the States 
 of Connecticut and New York, and again served 
 on the Judiciary committee and as chairman of the 
 committee on Incorporations. The commission to 
 which the boundary line dispute was referred 
 agreed to fix the line in the middle of the Sound, 
 a decision which preserved to Connecticut lands of 
 immense value to the oyster producers along the 
 coast. Throughout his long period of public serv- 
 ice Judge Morris gained a thorough knowledge of 
 legislation and administration, and his experience 
 probity and faithfulness to trust commended him 
 for an influential place in his profession and in the 
 public councils, and assured to him the esteem of 
 his fellow citizens, without regard to partisan dif- 
 ferences. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 For twenty-five years or more before his death 
 Judge Morris was a distinguished meniber of the 
 New Haven County Bar, his practice being largely 
 connected with the settlement of estates. He was 
 known as a clear-headed and conscientious lawyer. 
 As the agent of Daniel Hand Judge Morris handled 
 for him more than one million dollars, and was 
 instrumental in establishing the Hand Academy, at 
 Madison, Connecticut. 
 
 Judge Morris along in the 'eighties began to 
 be talked about as an available and good man for 
 governor, and in 1888 he was placed in the field as 
 candidate of the Democratic party for that high 
 office. He received at the election following a 
 plurality of the votes cast, but not a majority, which 
 the State requires to elect, and, the Legislature 
 being Republican, his competitor was chosen. 
 Judge Morris was again a candidate at the next 
 election for the same office, and although he re- 
 ceived a majority of the votes, as shown on the face 
 of the returns, he was restrained from assuming 
 the duties of the office through technicalities. Again 
 in 1892 he was for the third time a candidate, and 
 won, and gave the State one of the best admin- 
 istrations it ever had. His career, as referred to 
 in the introduction of this review, was one of his 
 own shaping and forging, and is a good exemplifi- 
 cation of what may be accomplished in this country 
 by men of genius and perseverance. For years 
 before his death and in the mature years of his 
 life he was one of the State's most trusted coun- 
 selors. For more than twenty years he was prom- 
 inently connected with the Connecticut Savings 
 Bank of New Haven. He was ever greatly inter- 
 ested in the schools of New Haven, an interest pro- 
 ductive of much good. He served on the New 
 Haven board of education and also on the aboard 
 at Westville, and in each body was president. 
 
 On June 15, 1856, Gov. Morris was married 
 to Eugenia L. Tuttle, who was born Oct. 5, 1833, 
 daughter of Lucius and Laura Tuttle, of Seymour, 
 Conn., and to the union came six children, namely : 
 Robert Tuttle, born May 14, 1857, a practicing 
 surgeon in New York; Mary S., 'born Dec. i, 1858, 
 who married Charles M. Pratt, of Brooklyn, N. 
 Y. ; Helen H., born May 12, 1863, who married 
 Prof. Arthur T. Hadley, of Yale College; Emily 
 E., born June 26, 1869; Charles Gould; and Ray. 
 The daughters are graduates of Vassar and the 
 sons of Yale. 
 
 Mrs. Eugenia Laura (Tuttle) Morris is a de- 
 scendant in the eighth generation from- William 
 Tuttle, the emigrant ancestor, who came to New 
 England in the ship "Planter" in 1635. He was 
 at Boston, then became one of the planters of the 
 Colony of New Haven, his name appearing of 
 record in 1673, and that of his wife, Elizabeth, in 
 1684. Mrs. Morris' line of descent is through 
 Simon, Timothy, Ephraim, Lucius, Lucius (2) and 
 Lucius Tuttle (3). 
 
 (H) Simon Tuttle, son of William, baptized 
 
 in 1647, in New Haven, married about 1679. He 
 removed to Wallingford about 1685, and died in 
 1719. His wife, Abigail, died in 1722. 
 
 (HI) Timothy Tuttle, son of Simon, born in 
 1682, probably in New Haven, married (first) in 
 1703 Thankful Doolittle. He explored the coun- 
 try, went to Wallingford, and cleared up a farm in 
 what alfterward became Cheshire. In 1723 the West 
 Wallingford District was made a Society. Timothy 
 Tuttle was chosen moderator, and his name is the 
 first on the records of the town. He died in 1756 
 in Cheshire. His first wife died in 1728. 
 
 (IV) Ephraim Tuttle, son of Timothy, born in 
 1710, married (second) in 1734 Hannah, daughter 
 of Stephen Pangborn. She died in 1756. He died 
 in Cheshire in 1773. 
 
 (V) Lucius Tuttle, son of Ephraim, born in 
 1749, in Cheshire, married in 1773 Hannah, daugh- 
 ter of Lieut. Andrew Hull. She died in 1800, and 
 he died in 1846 in Wolcott, at the advanced age of 
 ninety-seven years. For seventy-two years he was 
 a consistent member of the Congregational Church 
 in Cheshire. He had the entire confidence of the 
 community, and shared largely in its offices and 
 responsibilities. Early in the war of the Revolu- 
 tion he entered the service of his country as a 
 lieutenant, was at Boston; and at the battle of Long 
 Island. He was in command of his company, 
 which was in Col. Baldwin's Regiment, in 1777, at 
 Fishkill-oni-the-Hudson, also at the surrender of 
 Burgoyne. 
 
 (VI) Lucius Tuttle (2), son of Lieut. Lucius, 
 born in 1776, married in 1802 Rebecca, daughter 
 of Mark Harrison, a descendant of Thomas, one 
 of the first settlers of Branford. Mr. Tuttle settled 
 in Wolcott in 1800, and died there in 1865. His wife 
 died in 1870. Mr. Tuttle was the most enterprising 
 and energetic business man in the history of the 
 town. 
 
 (VII) Lucius Tuttle (3), son of Lucius (2), 
 born Sept. 17, 1805, married Oct. i, 1829, Laura 
 Ann Bennett. He died April 13, 1858, and she Dec. 
 21, 1899. 
 
 (VIII) Eugenia Laura Tuttle, daughter of 
 Lucius (3), became the wife of Luzon B. Morris. 
 
 JAMES HADLEY LL. D., Professor of Greek 
 at Yale and Law Lecturer at Harvard, was born in 
 Fairfield, N. Y., March 30, 1821. After complet- 
 ing the regular course at the Fairfield Academy he 
 acted as an assistant there for some time. Entering 
 the Junior class at Yale, he was graduated in 1842, 
 receiving the degree of Master of Arts in course, 
 and subsequently studied theology. From Septem- 
 ber, 1844, to April, 1845, he was tutor in mathe- 
 matics at Middlebury (Vt.) College, and in the 
 fall of the latter year returned to Yale as tutor 
 in Classical History, remaining in that capacity un- 
 til advanced to the Assistant Professorship of 
 Greek. Succeeding President Theodore D. Wool- 
 sey as full Professor in 1858, he retained that Chair 
 
lO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 until his death, which occurred in New Haven 
 Xov. 14, 1872. Prof. Hadley also lectured in tlie 
 Law Department of Yale and delivered a course 
 of lectures at the Harvard Law School in 1870- 
 71. He was president of the American Oriental 
 Society in 1870-71, was a member of the National 
 Academy of Science and of the American Philo- 
 logical Association, and served upon the American 
 Committee for the revision of the New Testament. 
 From Wesleyan he received the degree of Doctor 
 of Laws -in 1866. Aside from the distinction he ac- 
 quired as professor and lecturer he was widely 
 known as a student of philology and as a cort- 
 tributor to various reviews. 
 
 ARTHUR TWINING HADLEY, LL. D., thir- 
 teenth president of Yale, was born in New Haven, 
 Conn., April 23, 1856. He comes of an Academic 
 family. His grandfather, James Hadley, was pro- 
 fessor of Chemistry in Fairfield Medical College, 
 in Herkimer county, N. Y. His father, Jamtes Had- 
 ley, was one of the most notable of Yale's long line 
 of notable instructors. His memory is treasured 
 with feelings of woe by thousands Oif students 
 throughout this country who have struggled 
 through his Greek Grammar ; though as a teacher 
 his memory is honored tp-day by all of the large 
 number of Yale students who came under his ni- 
 struction. 
 
 Arthur Twining Hadley fitted for college at the 
 Hopkins Grammar School, of New Haven, and en- 
 tered Yale in 1872. He graduated in 1876, , A. B., 
 being the valedictorian of his class. Though one 
 of the youngest men in his class he carried off 
 abundant and varied . honors, taking the Woolsey 
 and Bristed Scholarships, one of the Winthrop 
 prizes given to students "most thoroughly acquaint- 
 ed with Greek and Latin Poets," the Clark Prize 
 for the solution of astronomical problems, "one of the 
 Townsend Prizes for English Composition, and was 
 also a junior exhibition speaker. He spent a year 
 in post-graduate study of political science in New 
 Haven, and then went abroad and spent two years 
 in the same branch of study at the University of 
 Berlin, under Wagner, Treikche and Gneist, also 
 taking up history. On his return to America he 
 was given a tutorship at Yale, and continued there 
 in that capacity until 1883, teaching various 
 branches, but mainly German. During the ensuing 
 three years he Avas University Lecturer on Rail- 
 road Administration, contributing during this peri- 
 od a series of articles on transportation to Lalor's 
 Cyclopaedia of Political Science, and part of the 
 article on Railways in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 In 1885 appeared his "Railway Transportation ; 
 Its History and Its Laws," which is one of his best 
 known works, and has gone through translations 
 into French and Russian. In 1886 Prof.. Hadley 
 was elected by the corporation to the Professorship 
 of Political Science in the Graduate Department, 
 which he held until his election to the Presidency ; 
 
 during the absence of Prof. Sumner he also sub- 
 stituted in the Academic Department, 1891-93. He 
 has also lectured at Harvard, the ^lassachusetts 
 Institute of Technology, and elsewhere. Gov. Har- 
 rison, in 1885, appointed him Commissioner oi 
 Labor Statistics of the State of Connecticut, and 
 his two reports in this capacity are marvels of re- 
 search into the details of his work. 
 
 It is impossible here to more than summarize 
 Prof. Hadley's writings. He has contributed nu- 
 merous articles to the principal magazines of the 
 country, and had an article in Harper's Magazine 
 for April, 1894, in which he he laid stress upon 
 the value of Yale Democracy, the importance of 
 a high standard of scholarship, and strict adherence 
 to it, and the utility of athletics as a factor in Uni- 
 versity life. His greatest work, "Economics : An 
 Account of the Relation between Private Property 
 and Public Welfare," appeared in 1896, and is in 
 use as a text-book in a number of colleges. He 
 was associated with Col. H. G. Prout in the editor- 
 ship of the Railroad Gazette from 1887 to 1889. 
 In 1898 Prof. Timothy Dwight resigned the presi- 
 dency of Yale, and the problem which confronted 
 the corporation — the task of finding a successor — ■ 
 was no small one. There was a general feeling 
 that it would perhaps be well to break away from 
 some of the established precedents into somewhat 
 broader methods. After months of careful consid- 
 eration the choice devolved upon Prof. Hadley, who 
 was elected thirteenth president of the LTniversity 
 in 1899. The very fact that he was chosen marks 
 a 'radical departure from \"ale"s traditions and 
 shows the albility of the man, for he is the first 
 president in all of Yale's two hundred years of 
 liistory who did not qualify himself to prefix Rev- 
 erend to his name. He assumed office at Com- 
 mencement, in 1899, and began his duties with the 
 well wishes of thousands of Yale alumni all over 
 the country. In 1899 and 1902 he was honored 
 with the degree of LL. D. from several institutions. 
 Prof. Hadley married, June 3, 1891, Helen Har- 
 rison, daughter of Gov. Luzon B. INIorris. They 
 have three children : Morris, Hamilton and Laura 
 Hadley. 
 
 HON. DAVID TORRANCE, of the town of 
 Derby. The career of this citizen, soldier, lawyer, 
 legislator. State officer, jurist, for a decade past 
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Errors 
 of Connecticut, and present Chief Justice of that 
 court, is an illustration of the possibilities afforded 
 by a Republican form of government to any of its 
 citizens though they come as he, a poor fatherless 
 1)oy from a foreign shore — an illustration, too, of 
 merit and ability winning its way from unpromising 
 beginnings to the most honorable position in so- 
 ciety. 
 
 Judge Torrance was born JMarch 3, 1840, in 
 the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, a son of Walter 
 and Ann (Sharp) Torrance. The father having 
 
CUMMEMURATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 II 
 
 died, the widowed mother, when David was nine 
 }xars of age, came with her five children to the 
 United States, locating in Norwich, Conn., where 
 David attended the public schools for five years. 
 At fourteen it fell to his lot to work in a cotton 
 mill, and when fifteen years of age ht entered the 
 Chelsea Paper Mills at Greenville, in the town of 
 Norwich, to learn the trade of paper-making. 
 There the breaking out of the Civil war found him 
 and fired his young patriotic heart. A younger 
 brother, James Torrance, had previously enlisted 
 and served through the period of the three months' 
 call in the 3d Conn. V. I., then re-enlisted for three 
 years in the 13th Conn. V. I. David remained at 
 his work, however, until the fo'Uowing year when 
 the call for volunteers became so loud he felt that 
 he must heed it, and on July 17, 1862, when the 
 i8th Conn. V. I. was making up, he enlisted as a 
 private in Company A, of that regiment, and was 
 chosen a sergeant of the company. The iSth was 
 a gallant though unfortunate regiment in the battle 
 at Winchester, Va., June 13, 14 and 15, 1863; when 
 engaged as a part of the command under Gen. Mil- 
 roy, it did desperate fighting and wOn unqualified 
 praises from that officer. Here, in a third and 
 last charge, it wholly disabled a Confederate bat- 
 tery, though it lost 500 of its men who were cap- 
 tured by the enemy under Gen. Johnston, Sergt. 
 Torrance among the number, and were sent to suf- 
 fer the horrors of Libby Prison, and afterward 
 Belle Island. Young Torrance shared the fortunes 
 of the regiment up to the time of his capture and 
 parole in July, 1863. In the meantime, on May 
 24, 1863, his brother James, a young man of twenty 
 and of distinguished bravery, was killed in a charge 
 in battle at Port Hudson. At the close of .that year 
 Sergt. Torrance was appointed captain of Company 
 A, 29th Conn. V. I., a colored organization com- 
 manded by the late Hon. WilHam B. Wooster, of 
 Derby. Capt. Torrance was advanced to the posi- 
 tion of Major in July, 1864, and to Lieutenant 
 Colonel of the regiment in November of the same 
 year, serving in this position until the regiment 
 was mustered out at Brownsville, Texas, in Oc- 
 tober, 1865. 
 
 Returning to Connecticut with an honorable 
 record after the war. Col. Torrance, in January, 
 1866, entered the office of his superior officer. Col. 
 Wooster, with whom much of his army life had 
 been passed, as a law student. Before entering the 
 army he had cherished the purpose of studying law, 
 and there he really began while yet in camp await- 
 ing the disbanding Of the regiment. He pursued 
 his studies in the office under Col. Wooster until 
 in 1868, when he was admitted to the Bar in New 
 Haven county for the practice of the law in all 
 the courts of Connecticut. Soon afterward he en- 
 tered into partnership with his preceptor under the 
 firm name of Wooster & Torrance. The senior 
 member of the firm was already known and eminent 
 as a counselor, for he had had a large practice be- 
 
 fore entering the service, which he did from a sense 
 of duty, closing his office and going to the front. 
 The new firm went before the people of Birming- 
 ham and the town of Derby with a magnificent 
 title, and both members being soldiers the two 
 colonels brought to their office the prestige of brave 
 leadership in the army ; both possessed those manly 
 graces which win favor from the public and secure 
 popularity ; and both were known to be honest men, 
 tried and true — ^men whom their clients could trust 
 to the farthest extreme. A large and lucrative 
 practice was the logical result. The junior mem- 
 iDcr of the firm won decided respect for his ability 
 wlierever he conducted cases in court, and as the 
 years passed grew into great favor. He affiliated 
 with the Republican party, and in 187 1 was elected 
 from the town of Derby to the General Assembly, 
 and was re-elected in 1872. Here he appeared to 
 advantage both in committee work and on the floor 
 of the house, his rare good sense and practical 
 mind commanding the attention of that body. In 
 the fall of 1878 he was nominated by his party, 
 the Republican, for Secretary of State, and was 
 elected, serving two years with that efficiency that 
 had previously marked his work in other lines. 
 In 1 881 he was appointed Judge of the Court of 
 Common Pleas of New Haven county, and in 1885 
 be was reappointed Judge of the same court, but 
 before entering upon his second term he was made 
 Judge of the Superior Court of the State. In 1890 
 he was advanced to the highest judicial tribunal 
 of the State, the Supreme Court of Errors. In 
 1899 he was elected a member of the Faculty of the 
 University of Yale, holding the chair on Evidence. 
 On Oct. I, 1901, he was appointed Chief Justice 
 of the Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut. 
 
 The law firm of Wooster & Torrance was 
 changed in January, 1882, to that of Wooster, Tor- 
 rance & Gager, the latter gentleman, who had been 
 a law student in the office since in July, 1881, hav- 
 ing been admitted to the firm at that time. On his 
 appointment in 1885 to the Bench of the Superior 
 Court, Judge Torrance withdrew from the firm. 
 
 Such a career as is outlined in the foregoing 
 brief article is certainly unique, almost phenom- 
 enal. One has only to read between the -lines to 
 judge of the man, of his worth to a community, to 
 a State, and to a nation. In suggestions of what 
 were the elements and traits composing his note- 
 worthy life, a writer in the New Haven County His- 
 tory said of him : 
 
 Judge Torrance is wholly a self-made man. The Col- 
 leges cannot claim him. though Yale University has con- 
 ferred upon him the honorary A. I\I. The law schools 
 cannot declare that they gave him his sustained intellectual 
 power and logical acumen. His education has been his 
 own work, and the curriculum of his studies, his own 
 planning, and the zeal with which he has pursued them 
 has been determined by his own tastes. He was by nature 
 liberally supplied with good Scotch sense, and with the 
 metaphysical tendency of the Scotch mind. The world is 
 not all one-sided to him, but every pro has a con, and 
 
12 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 without effort both of those will appear at the same time 
 m his mmd, each to be weighed and credited with its 
 value, and then, when the balance is struck, it does not 
 need revision. 
 
 The trend of his mind has an illustration in a matter 
 somewhat private, and yet not exclusively so. For many 
 years a club composed of a few of the citizens of Birming- 
 ham, drawn together by kindred tastes for philosophical 
 studies, has held weekly meeting. Its name is taken from 
 the Greek word for mind, and hence it is called the "Nous 
 Club." Judge Torrance has been the leader in its discus- 
 sions, though his modesty would forbid him from claiming 
 to be more than a peer among equals. All the members 
 are en rapport with the object of the club. The latest 
 subject of investigation in metaphysics has been "Kant's 
 Critique of Pure Reason," Such subjects as that are both 
 informing and recreative to this inquiring company, and 
 no one takes more pleasure in these analytic, acute and 
 logical excursions into the realm of pure and applied reas- 
 oning than Judge Torrance. He is an independent thinker, 
 and wherever truth may lead he will follow, whoever may 
 keep him company. It is easy to see how such a mind 
 naturally gravitates to the judge's bench. 
 
 But with his Scotch metaphysical intellectuality is 
 united an affability of manner which can state an inde- 
 pendent judgment frankly, and even vigorously, and yet 
 not give offense in any quarter. He has that quality of 
 agreeable genuineness which wins a liking from its very 
 frank sincerity, and hence few men have created fewer 
 antagonisms than he in all the walks of life — hence, too, 
 his popularity wherever he is known. 
 
 Judge Torrance is a member of the Masonic 
 fraternity, a distinguished member of the Army 
 and Navy Club of Connecticut, and closely asso- 
 ciated with the G. A. R. He never allows himself 
 to forget the old comrades in arms ; and when he 
 is not sitting on the tribunal of iustice makes him- 
 self as one of his many friends. He is always 
 in demand in a social way, and his speeches at 
 dinners and anniversaries are features of the oc- 
 casions. 
 
 On Feb. 12, 1864, while home from the war on 
 furlough at Norwich, Conn., the then Capt. Tor- 
 rance was married to ]\Iiss Annie France, of that 
 citv, and the ttnion has been blessed with three 
 children, namely: Margaret G. ; Walter S. ; and 
 James F., who was graduated from^ Yale Law 
 School in 1894, and was Judge of Probate Court, 
 and is now piTisecuting attornev of City Court. 
 The family are parishioners of the Congregational 
 iChurch at Birmingham, and prominent in social 
 life. 
 
 HON. JAAIES EDWARD ENGLISH. Mem- 
 ber of Congress, GovernoT of Connecticut, and 
 United States Senator, whose death occurred at his 
 home in New Haven, March 2, 1890, full of years 
 and honors, was pre-eminently a self-made man ; 
 more so than any other of New Haven's citizens un- 
 less it be the late Hon. Roger Sherman. 
 
 Mr. English was born March 13, 1812, in New 
 Haven, son of Jam-es and Nancy (Griswold) Eng- 
 Hsh, the father a citizen highly respected for his 
 personal worth, who intelligently discharged several 
 public trusts with fidehty. The mother was a 
 woman of singular sagacitv ; she was descended 
 
 from a family greatly distinguished in the history 
 of Connecticut, having given to it two governors. 
 Our subject's paternal grandfather was the com- 
 mander of vessels engaged in the West India trade 
 and his great-grandfather fell pierced by a bayonet 
 in the hands of a British soldier, at the time of the 
 invasion of New Haven during the war of the 
 Revolution. James E. English was a descendant 
 in the sixth generation from Clement English, of 
 Salem, Mass., his line being through three successive 
 Benjamins to James English, his father. The first 
 Benjamin English, son of Clement, born in 1676, 
 married Rebecca Brown, in 1699, and in 1700 settled 
 in New Haven, where for two hundred years his 
 descendants have been identified with the town. 
 
 The subject of this sketch in boyhood exhibited 
 singular self-reliance, a trait of character that ever 
 remained with him. At the age of sixteen he was 
 apprenticed to the trade of a carpenter, and be- 
 gan his first work June 27, 1827, on the old Lan- 
 casterian school house. His apprenticeship closed 
 on his twenty-first birthday. He never worked as 
 a journeyman at his trade but at once became a con- 
 tractor, and followed this occupation until twenty- 
 three years of age, by which time he became the 
 possessor of a moderate capital. Having natural 
 architectural tastes, he designed and erected in this 
 short experience a number of creditable buildings in 
 New Haven ; and for the next twenty years he was 
 engaged in the lumber business, covering a period 
 when commercial enterprises of every kind were 
 subject to great fluctuations — a period of general 
 financial embarrassment, when many men found it 
 difficult and often impKjssible to avoid commercial 
 disaster. Far-lseeinig and always looking beyond 
 the present, he avoided speculation, never being san- 
 guine nor despondent. He branched out in his 
 lumber business, buying and building vessels, en- 
 gaged in shipping clocks to Philadelphia, and re- 
 turning with coal and general merchandise to New 
 Haven and other ports, and in this was successful. 
 Next he 'became identified with the manufacture of 
 clocks, having successfully re-organized the former 
 Chauncey Jerome works under the name of the 
 New Haven Clock Company. In this enterprise 
 he was associated with Harmanus M. Welch, after- 
 ward president of the First National Bank, and for 
 several years a partner with himi in the lumber busi- 
 ness ; also with Hiram Camp, these three purchasing 
 the clock plant. In a few years they made this coni- 
 pany not only a success, but one of the largest clock 
 manufacturing concerns in existence. ]\Ir. Eng- 
 lish, about this time, became prominently identified 
 with the First National Bank of New Haven, and 
 also with the Connecticut Savings Bank, having been 
 at the head of the latter institution from its organiza- 
 tion in 1857. He was largely interested in various 
 manufacturing and commercial industries in this 
 and other States, being also associated with the 
 management of the Adams Express company. Emi- 
 nently successful in accumulating property, by judi- 
 
/^ 
 
 Q> .ey?^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 13 
 
 cious investments in real estate he finally became 
 the owner of probably more business buildings than 
 any other individual in New Haven. He was a man 
 of the strictest integrity, taking no advantages of the 
 great opportunities that arose during the war by 
 changes in the financial policy of the government, 
 which greatly affected commercial values, of which 
 some men of high station availed themselves. Not 
 a dollar of his large fortune came from speculation. 
 His business sagacity made it all. "If I have been 
 successful as a business man, it is because I have 
 been content with reasonable profits, for I know that 
 enormous gains soon invite ruinous competition." 
 Politically Mr. English was reared a Democrat, 
 and "ever remained faithful to the conviction of a 
 lifetime, that only by adherence to the principles and 
 policy of genuine Jeflfersonian Democracy could the 
 State reach the full proportions of a free and pros- 
 perous community." He held many public trusts, 
 covering a period of forty-one years — 1836-1877. 
 He was selectman of his town from 1836 to 1848; 
 a member of the common- council in 1848-49 ; rep- 
 resentative in the State Legislature in 1855-56 ; Stale 
 senajtor from 1856 to 1859; member of Congress 
 from 1 861 to 1865 ; governor of Connecticut from 
 1867 to 1869, and again in 1870; and United States 
 senator by appointment from 1875 to 1877. "The 
 municipal trusts of his early manhood were those 
 imposed upon him by the general conviction of his 
 fellow citizens, irrespective of party, that their in- 
 terests might be safely confided to his recognized 
 integrity, capacity and public spirit." 
 
 "His services in both branches of the Legislature 
 were generally marked by attention to the business 
 rather than to the political aspects of the legislation 
 in which he was called to act. When, subsequently, 
 he became governor of the State, the practical cast 
 of his mind was conspicuously manifested in the 
 emphasis which he gave in his messages to the cause 
 of free public school education, and in the advocacy 
 of which he was ultimately successful. 
 
 "But that which specially and honorably marks 
 Mr. English's public career is the course he pur- 
 sued while a representative in Congress. His term 
 of service, extendinig from 1861 to 1865, covered 
 that period in our history during which slavery 
 ceased to disgrace the Nation, and the constitutional 
 amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude be- 
 came the supreme law of the land. Mr. English 
 went to Washington a pronounced War Democrat, 
 believing that the great national exigency demanded 
 every sacrifice to prevent our great republic from 
 being divided into perpetually contending and con- 
 temptible fragments. 
 
 "While as a Democrat he fully recognized the 
 constitutional right of the Southern States to the 
 possession of their slaves, he also felt that slavery 
 was a monstrous injustice, and therefore^ had no 
 regret when, as a war measure, he found himself at 
 liberty to record alike his abhorrence of slavery and 
 his sense of justice toward th'e owners of slaves in 
 
 the District of Columbia, by voting for the bill which 
 united the emancipation of the slave with compensa- 
 tion to the master. 
 
 "Long before the close of the war it became evi- 
 dent to all thoughtful observers that the question of 
 general emancipation must be met sooner or later, 
 and Mr. English made up his mind to take the 
 hazard and incur the odium of voting with his po- 
 litical opponents whenever, in his view, it became a 
 political necessity. ^lore than a year before the 
 final passage of the bill providing for the necessary 
 constitutional amendment, the position of Air. Eng- 
 lish was well understood in Washington. When 
 the bill was first introduced in the House by Mr. 
 Ashley, of Ohio, he was assured of Mr. English's 
 support in case it was needed. But when it was 
 found that the Administration party were not united 
 on the measure, Mr. Ashley advised Mr. English 
 not to vote in its favor, as it was sure not to pass. 
 With a very practical conviction of the folly of 
 striking when there is a certainty that nothing will 
 be hit, Mr. English acted upon this advice, but with 
 the emphatic assurance to Mr. Ashley that whenever 
 it was necessary he might rely upon his vote. When 
 informed a year later that the bill would be put to 
 vote the next day, Mr. English was in New Haven, 
 in attendance upon his sick wife. Traveling all 
 night, he reached Washington in time to listen to a 
 part of the exciting' debate, and to hear his name 
 called among the first of the ten War Democrats 
 who, as it was hoped, would vote for the bill, and 
 whose votes were necessary for its passage. When 
 his ringing 'Yes !' was heard in the crowded gather- 
 ing there was general applause. To a New Haven 
 friend who was in Washington a day or two after- 
 ward he said, T suppose I am politically ruined, but 
 that day was the happiest day of my life.' 
 
 "Mr. English's position at this time was a very 
 exceptional one. The number of War Democrats in 
 Congress was small, and most of them were very 
 timid. But there was never any doubt from the 
 first where Mr. English stood or how he would 
 vote when the final crisis came. 
 
 "While thousands of men in our country have 
 been examples of conspicuous success in business, 
 in political life, and in generous benefactions, few 
 have had the opportunity, and fewer still the sagac- 
 ity and the courage, to appreciate a great political 
 emergency, where duty calls for a sacrifice of the 
 ties which ordinarily bind a man in public life to 
 act in harmony with the party to which he is at- 
 tached. It is sometimes a great thing to have the 
 courage of one's convictions, and the favorable 
 mention of his name at one time as a candidate for 
 the Presidency of the United States was an honor- 
 able recognition of the public appreciation of his 
 vote, as having been dictated by conscience and a 
 sense of duty." 
 
 Blessed with abundant means Mr. English gave 
 liberally to many institutions and objects. Several 
 years ago he igave $10,000 to the Law School of Yale 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 15 
 
 vein of hazy reminiscence, in which many find 
 glimpses of their own lives. Some one has said 
 that these compositions are to American literature 
 what a wood fire is on a dreary day. They are all 
 warmth and cheer and light. They somewhat re- 
 semble Irving's "Sketch Book," in their tender 
 sentiment, and in the elegance and delicacy of their 
 diction, which has placed them among the classics 
 of American literature. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell, in 1854, was appointed United 
 States consul to A'enice, where he began collecting 
 material for a history of the Venetian Republic. 
 This, however, was never completed, but some of 
 its material is set forth in his lecture, "Titian 
 and his Times," delivered before the Yale Art 
 School, and included in his volume entitled "Bound 
 Together." Returning to America in 1855, Mr. 
 Mitchell purchased a farm in the vicinity of New 
 Haven, Conn., which he named "Edgewood," upon 
 which he has since resided, and which has become 
 famous through his books on rural life, "My Farm 
 of Edgewood," and "Rural Studies with Hints for 
 Country Places." These works were preceded by 
 "Fudge Doings," which appeared originally in the 
 Knickerbockers Magazine. 
 
 iMr. Mitchell has been an occasional contrib- 
 utor to Harper's Alagazinc and the Atlantic Month- 
 ly, besides writing for other periodicals and de- 
 livering lectures and addresses on subjects con- 
 nected with literature and agriculture. In 1868 he 
 edited the Atlantic Almanac, and in 1869-70 edited 
 for a year or more the Hearth and Home. He 
 was appointed one of the judges of Industrial Art 
 at the Centennial Exposition, 1876. He has been 
 one of the council of the Yale Art School since 
 its establishment. He was United States commis- 
 sioner to the Paris Exposition of 1878. In that 
 year Yale University conferred upon him the de- 
 gree of LL. D. 
 
 ;\Ir. Mitchell's publications, besides those men- 
 tioned, include "Wet Days at Edgewood," 1865 ; 
 "Seven Stories with Basement and Attic," 1864; 
 "Dr. Johns," a novel, 1866; "About Old Story- 
 tellers," 1869; and "Pictures of Edgewood," 1877; 
 also a series of literary papers delivered before 
 various educational institutions and published un- 
 der the general title of "English Lands, Letters 
 and Kings," four volumes ; "From Celt to Tudor," 
 1889; "From Elizabeth to Anne," 1890; "Queen 
 Anne and the Georges," 1895 ; "The Later Georges 
 to Victoria," 1897 ; also "American Lands and Let- 
 ters," two volumes. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Mitchell was married to Mary, 
 daughter of William B. Pringle, of Charleston, 
 S. C, and a great-granddaughter of Rebecca Motte. 
 
 HON. HARMANUS M. WELCH, in_ whose 
 memory a dormitory was erected at Yale University 
 in 1892, was born in East Hampton, Conn., July 
 18, 1813, and died in New Haven, May 29, 1889. 
 
 At about sixteen years of age he went to Am- 
 
 herst intending to fit himself eventually to practice 
 medicine, but was induced to enter a commercial 
 life, and before he became of age he had com>- 
 menced in his own name a business career which 
 extended over half a century, and which was one 
 of unsaverving rectitude and marked success. 
 Starting in Bristol and Plainville, Conn., he later 
 became interested in some of the most prosperous 
 manufacturing enterprises of the State — made so in 
 large measure by reason of his clear judgment. 
 In many respects his might serve as the model busi- 
 ness career, especially so in its industry and thor- 
 oughness, and in his willingness to serve the pub- 
 lic in positions where the duties were arduous and 
 criticism certain. 
 
 While living in Plainville he was chosen to rep- 
 resent Hartford county in the State Senate, and 
 served in different periods in the General Assem- 
 bly. He moved to New Haven in 1848, and be- 
 came the partner of Hon. James E. English, who 
 was afterward member of Congress, Governor of 
 Connecticut and United States Senator. This part- 
 nership continued until his death. 
 
 In i860 Mr. Welch was elected mayor and con- 
 tinued in that office until 1863. While mayor his 
 .equipment and forwarding of troops were especially 
 conspicuous, but his greatest service to his country 
 was the promptness with which he and his asso- 
 ciates tendered financial aid to the Government in 
 the time of its greatest need in 1863, by the forma- 
 tion of the First National Bank of New Haven, of 
 which he was the organizer, and for over twenty 
 years the president. This bank, while numbered 
 two on the list of the Comptroller of the Currency, 
 was really the first to fully comply with all the re- 
 quired conditions, and the moral effect upon others 
 by his early action was, in view of his well-known 
 conservatism and that of others connected with him, 
 very beneficial. 
 
 For the last thirty years of his life Mr. \\'elch 
 was constantly entrusted by the people of New 
 Haven with positions of fiduciary responsibility. 
 Most of that time he acted as town and city treas- 
 urer, but, perhaps, by his services upon the board 
 of education he will be best remembered locally. 
 When he assumed office the credit of the School 
 District was at its lowest, and its notes had gone 
 to protest. He advanced the money to complete 
 the Eaton School, and was instrumental in the 
 creation of a strong public sentiment in favor of the 
 common schools, giving as he did for a generation 
 much of his time to the interest of public education 
 in New Haven. Fie watched and largely guided 
 its evolution from the chaos in which he found it — - 
 but a little in advance of the methods of the red 
 school house of his youth — to the Hillhouse High 
 School, which at his death had become the feeder 
 to the University and conspicuous for thorough- 
 ness in the preparation of its pupils. He not only 
 believed in compulsory education, buit was decidedly 
 of the opinion (and he was well fitted to intelli- 
 
i6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 gently discuss the subject) that through such means 
 the so-called problem of immigration would be 
 solved. Few men outside of those connected with 
 educational institutions have been able to serve so 
 long a period and to accomplish so much. 
 
 Nor was his work in this direction confined to 
 the school board. Until within a few years the 
 lYoung Men's Institute furnished the only avail- 
 able public library, and the general pubHc was sin- 
 gularly indifferent to its needs. -Mr. Welch was 
 a trustee of the little property of the institute, and 
 by patience, together with wise judgment in invest>- 
 ments, he lived to see it firmly established in its 
 own building and become self-supporting. His 
 last service before returning home for the day, and 
 but a few hours before his death, was the fulfill- 
 ment of an appointment in the interest of this 
 librar}\ 
 
 The quality which above all others distinguished 
 Mr. Welch was the keenness with which he felt 
 the responsibility of any private or public trust con- 
 fided to him. These trusts were many, but, whether 
 small or large, they received from him' attention to 
 the last detail, such as few men give to their own 
 affairs and still less to the interests of others. It 
 was this acute sense of his duty, rather than care 
 of his own property, that prevented his ever taking 
 needed rest, and though he htted himself by ex- 
 tensive reading for the enjoyment of travel abroad, 
 and always looked forward to such a trip, he never 
 found an opportunity w'hen he could even tem- 
 porarily put aside his cares, without seeming to 
 be neglectful of what he conceived to be his duty, 
 and without doubt his unwillingness to take needed 
 ,rest greatly shortened his life. He was possessed 
 of an active mind, gifted with a remarkable mem- 
 ory, and, spending his entire leisure in his library, 
 his intellectual attainments became, especially in 
 American history, of a high order. Indeed, he 
 was an excellent example of the fact that an active 
 business career is not inconsistent with studious 
 habits. 
 
 PARKER. Probably no name in New Eng- 
 land is more extensively and favorably known to the 
 manufacturing world) at large than that of Parker, 
 the products of the Parker factories reaching all 
 parts of the civilized world. The several large cor- 
 porations of the Charles Parker Co., of Meriden 
 and vicinity, in which in recent years the sons — - 
 Charles E. and Dexter W. — of the late Charles 
 Parker, have figured so prominently, have not only 
 given the name world-wide fame, but have also giv- 
 en prominence to the city of Meriden as a manufac- 
 turing center. 
 
 Charles Parker, whose life spanned almost a cen- 
 tury, passed away at his home in Meriden on the 
 morning of Jan. 31, 1902. Grand in achievements, 
 he passed a life surely not lived in vain. Mr. Par- 
 ker was descended from William Parker, who was 
 an original proprietor of Hartford, Conn., in 1636. 
 
 He removed to Saybrook, Conn., probably withm 
 ten years. His wife's Christian name was Margery. 
 Charles Parker was in the sixth generation from 
 them, the hne of his descent being through John, 
 Edward, Joel and Stephen. 
 
 (II) John Parker, son of William, born m 164S, 
 married in 1670, Hannah, daughter of William Bas- 
 sett. John Parker was among the early settlers of 
 Wallingford, Coon., and from him the name was 
 given to the farmi still known as the "Parker farm_. 
 
 (III) Edward Parker, son of John, born in 
 1692, was three tim'es married, and his first wife's 
 name was Jerusha. 
 
 (IV) Joel Parker, son of John and Jerusha, 
 born in 1723, married in 1746 Susannah Hotchkiss. 
 
 (V) Stephen Parker, son of Joel, born Aug. 5, 
 1759, mjarried (first) in 1787 Sally, daughter of 
 Joseph Twiss, and (second) Widow Rebecca Stone, 
 daughter of Joshua Ray. ]\Irs. Rebecca Parker died 
 July I, 1846. The children born to the first mar- 
 riage were: Clarissa, Zeri, Stephen, Stephen (2), 
 Sarah, Clarissa (2), Joel and Isabella. To the sec- 
 ond marriage were born John, Betsey, Charles and 
 Edmund. Stephen Parker was a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary army. 
 
 (VI) Charles Parker, son of Stephen, was 
 born Jan. 2, 1809, and at the age of nine ^^ears went 
 to live .with Porter Cook, a farmer of Wallingford, 
 Conn., with whom he remained five years, during 
 which period he was occupied in doing chores and 
 work on the farm. In' the winter seasons he at- 
 tended the neighboring schools. When eighteen 
 years of age he entered the employ of Anson Mat- 
 thews, a manufacturer of pewter buttons, in South- 
 ington. Conn., and received for his services six dol- 
 lars per month and his board. A year later he be- 
 gan employment with Harry & Horace Smith, who 
 were also engaged in making buttons, and received 
 for his labor his board and an advance on his for- 
 mer wages of six dollars per month. In 1828, after 
 six months' service with the Smiths, he went to 
 Meriden and became employed by Patrick Lewis, 
 a manufacturer of coffee-mills. By close attention 
 and application he mastered this business in one 
 year's time, and in December, 1829, entered into a 
 contract with Patrick Lewis and Elias Holt to make 
 for themi a specified number of coffee-mills per 
 month. Starting with a capital of only seventy dol- 
 lars, he maide under his contract in thirteen rnonths 
 a profit of $1,800. In 1831 he became associated 
 wiith Jared Lewis, and they continued in the same 
 line under contract. In January, 1832, Mr. Parker 
 sold his interest to his partner and bought an acre 
 of land, on' which he 'began the manufacture of cof- 
 fee-mills and waffle-irons. In November, 1833, his 
 brother Edmund and Hemian White became asso- 
 ciated with >him' as partners, under the firm name of 
 Parker & White. Under the depressing influences 
 of the financial panic of 1837 the firm temporarily 
 suspended, but before the expiration of the year 
 1842 liquidated their indebtedness in full, with in- 
 
'■"^^ 
 
 f 
 
 "hf fiyy/^' J Xe -'-n'-'PxJ^'y 
 
 r^ . 
 
 ^ 
 
 -'i/L 
 
 r^Mi^c^ty 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 17 
 
 terest. In 1845 the firm was dissolved, and Mr. 
 Parker continued the business alone, under the 
 name of the Union Works. He made additions 
 to the plant, and putting in a Corliss engine of eigli- 
 ty-horse power entered upon a career of prosperity 
 and success. In 1877 ^Ir. Parker organized a joint- 
 stock company under the namie of the Charles 
 Parker Co., under which style the business of the 
 Union Works has since/ been carried on. The prod- 
 ucts of the company are chiefly wood screws, pat- 
 ent bench vices, coffee-mills, lamps and pianO' stools. 
 
 The Charles Parker Co., of which Mr. Parker 
 was president, his son Dexter Wright Parker treas- 
 urer, and a son-in-law, William PI. Lyon, secretary, 
 own a large factory in ^leriden, where are manufac- 
 tured machinists tools, and breech-loading double- 
 barrelled shotguns, known to all sportsmen as the 
 "Parker Gun." In this factory, during the Civil 
 war, Mr. Parker made guns for the United States 
 Governm'ent. A factory at Yaksville, Conn., is 
 owned and operated by the Charles Parker Co., for 
 the manufacture of packing boxes, and a portion of 
 the coffee-mills and piano stools ; and they have 
 another factory at East ]\Ieriden, for making tinned 
 steel spoons and forks. In these varied industries 
 about one thousand hands are employed. The com- 
 pany also own and operate the Meriden Curtain Fix- 
 ture Co., having the most complete manufactory for 
 curtain fixtures in the world. The Parker Clock 
 Co., of Meriden, is also principally owned and con- 
 trolled by the Charles Parker Co. These combined 
 interests mentioned give employment to about fif- 
 teen hundred persons. The successful management 
 of the various industries under the control of others 
 must have required an unusual executive ability, 
 keen foresight, rare judgment, shrewd power of 
 calculation, and a knowledge of men, not often found 
 possessed by a single man. 
 
 There have been incidents in the life of the fa- 
 ther which sho'W that the necessity of economy and 
 shrewdness neither hardened his heart nor closed 
 his hand when the welfare of those about him called 
 for his aid. At one period in his career the late Will- 
 iam L. Bradley, of Boston, widely known as the 
 wealthy manufacturer of land fertilizers, was in his 
 employ, at a salary of $3,000 a year. Mr. Bradley 
 with his consent, engaged, in partnership with a 
 friend, in an enterprise which, through the misman- 
 agement of his partner, resulted in a loss and in- 
 debtedness of $20,000. He could not be induced to 
 compromise with his creditors, 'but determined 
 to use every effort to pay his indebtedness in 
 full. In' order that he might carry out his laudable 
 determination Mr. Parker doubled his salary, and 
 paid him foiir years salary in advance. This was the 
 turning point in the career of Air. Bradley, and to 
 the generosity of Mr. Parker the remarkable success 
 ot his future Jife was undoubtedly due. How rare 
 in these days are such men as Charles Parker and 
 William L. Bradley! 
 
 Mr. Parker was a member of the M. E. Church 
 2 
 
 of Meriden, and when the society was organized he 
 generously fitted up one oi his shops for its use. 
 in 1847 the society erected a church costing $6,000, 
 and three-quarters of this amount and the lot on 
 which it stood were the gifts of iMr. Parker. In 
 1866, when the present edifice was built at a cost of 
 $80,000, one-half of the cost was paid by the same 
 gentleman. The citizens of Aleriden, in recognition 
 of his public spirit, his worth as a man and the es- 
 teem in which he was held, made him mayor of the 
 city at its incorporation, in 1867. 
 
 In 183 1 Air. Parker was married to Abi Lewis- 
 Eddy, of Berlin, Conn., and ten children were born 
 of this union. Those living are : Dexter Wright 
 and Annie D., the latter the wife of William H. 
 Lyon. 
 
 LYON. For fifty years or more the name of 
 L,von has been prominently identified with the 
 growth of Meriden, and during that time one of its- 
 veteran manufacturers, George W. Lyon, has fig- 
 ured conspicuously — along with other distinguished 
 men', many of whom have long since been called to 
 their reward — ^in founding, fostering and expand- 
 ing the many corporations which have placed Meri- 
 den in the first rank among the manufacturing cities 
 of this country. 
 
 Humphrey Lyon, who for forty years was one of 
 the estimable citizens of Meriden, was born in East 
 Haddam, Conn., Dec. 19, 1797, son of Charles and 
 Lois (Grimes) Lyon. He was reared in East Flad- 
 dam, where he lived until after his marriage. AIov- 
 ing to the State of New York, he made his home- 
 there until near the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, when he located in Meriden, whither his son,. 
 George W., had preceded him. There he passed the 
 remainder of his life, and, until the infirmities of age 
 caused his retirement, he was engaged actively in 
 business. Interested in the growth of Meriden, he 
 efficiently served his fellow citizens in local posi- 
 tions, among others as selectman and tax collector. 
 In his political views Mr. Lyon was first a Demo- 
 crat, but he joined the Republican party on its or- 
 ganization, the change being brought about by his 
 love of liberty and abhorrence of the wrongs of 
 slavery. A man of strong convictions and uncom- 
 promising opinions in political and religious mat- 
 ters, he was respected for hisi kindness of heart and' 
 his absence of bitterness and anger toward those- 
 who differed from him. During the struggle for 
 National life he was outspoken and active in his- 
 support of President Lincoln and the war measures. 
 
 Mr. Lyon was a firm believer in Freemasonry, 
 and was one of the oldest Masons in the State at tlie 
 time of his death, which occurred April 13, 1887. 
 He was made a Master Mason in Columbia Lodge, 
 No. 26, East Haddami, April 8, 1818, was a charter 
 member, W. M. and treasurer of Meridian Lodge, 
 of Meriden; was a charter member of Keystone 
 Chapter, No. 27, in 1854, and H. P. in 1855-56-57 ; a 
 charter member of Hamilton Council, No. 22, Marchi 
 
iS 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 10, 1S56, and T. P. AI., 1857-58: and was treasurer 
 of the chapter and council until failing sight conv 
 pelled him tO' decline further election to office. For 
 the last ten }-ears of his life he was totally blind, but 
 he was alwaws bright and cheerful and read)' to en- 
 joy a joke. Alasuui'y with him meant something 
 more than miere fomi, and as he believed it to be 
 something to be lived for he always gave it willing 
 and loyail service. So far as was known, at the time 
 of his death there were only two older Masons in 
 Connecticut — Abijah Ressique, of Ridgefield, raised 
 in 1812, and Israel Coe, of W'aterbury, from 1816. 
 ]\Ir. Lyon was a member of the Society of Masonic 
 A'eterans from its fomiation until his death, and 
 attended every annual meeting until age and other 
 infirmities prevented. Masonry has bad many able 
 exponents in ^leriden, but to none was it more in- 
 debted for the favorable position it occupied in the 
 cit}- for nearly forty years than to Humphrey Lyon. 
 
 In 1819 Mr. Lyon was married to Harriet Can- 
 field, of East Haddam, where they lived until 1826, 
 coming to Meriden in 1849. To Mr. and Mrs. Lyon 
 \vere born three sons and one daughter : George 
 W. ; Ira C, of Baltimore; William H., who died at 
 the age of twenty- four years ; and Martha Emma, 
 ^^■ho now resides in iMeriden. At an early age ]\Ir, 
 Lyon united witli St. Stephen's Church, of which 
 his father and grandfather, Robert Lyon, had both 
 been active members, his grandfatlier giving the 
 land on which the church building stood. 
 
 George W. Lyon, son of Humphrey, was born 
 Feb. 22, 1822, in East Haddam, and when a young 
 man, late in the 'forties, came to Meriden on a visit 
 and prospecting tour. This city was but a borough 
 of three thousand inhabitants and offered no special 
 inducements, but its citizens were energetic and dis- 
 played enterprise and public spirit. A young man 
 of energy himself and full of ambition, he was in- 
 duced by this atmosphere to accept employment for 
 two months, which would enable him to prolong his 
 visit and look around. Previously he had harbored 
 and planned for going to the West, but this he aban- 
 doned, deciding tO' locate permanently in Meriden 
 and take a hand in its business affairs. In less than 
 a vear he was engaged in a contracting and building 
 business, which he entered Avith only a few hundred 
 dollars in money, but with a will and ambition worth 
 much. In the second year of his business career 
 in partnership with John D. Billard, under the firm 
 name of Lvon & Billard, he had some one hundred 
 men on his pa}' roll and was filling contracts for 
 erecting twenty-seven d-\\'elling houses at one time, 
 as well as building factories and other structures. 
 The company built the State Reform School, one of 
 the most substantial edifices of that period. About 
 this time the plant, on which there was no insurance, 
 was destroyed by fire, resulting in the loss of nearly 
 every penny Mr. Lyon bad. But undaunted and 
 with a will and determination to retrieve his loss, he 
 was s( ion on his feet again and became most pros- 
 perous and successful. Later he assumed control of 
 
 the factory, which was developed into that of the 
 Meriden Malleable Iron Co., of w'hich he is now the 
 president and has for so many years been at the head. 
 This company was incorporated in 1868 with a cap- 
 ital of $75,000, which has been since increased to 
 $125,000 and now gives employment to 150 hands. 
 The company was formed for the purpose of mak- 
 ing malleable iron but soon it was decided to manu- 
 facture a line of kerosene goods, consisting of 
 chandeliers, brackets, lamps, etc. The goods now 
 made consist of cabinet hardware, including furni- 
 ture castors, draw pulls, drop handles, towel racks, 
 shelf brackets and a number of patented specialties. 
 
 In the early 'fifties Mr. Lyon engaged in the 
 coal and lumber business, or rather added that as 
 a branch to the Lyon & Billard Co., which carried 
 on the business of contracting and building, and in 
 which he is still a large stockholder and director. 
 Mr. Lyon has probably been instrumental in start- 
 ing in as many industries and enterprises as any 
 man in Meriden, and in many of these he is a direc- 
 tor. He was most active in organizing the Meri- 
 den Fire Insurance Co. Although never seeking 
 public office he served several years as alderman and 
 was a prime mover in obtaining the city charter and, 
 along with Levi Coe, called a meeting of citizens 
 with this object in view. Mr. Lyon is a man of po- 
 sition and wealth in Meriden and is favorably known 
 throughout New England. 
 
 On Jan. 27, 1852, George W Lyon was married 
 to Harriet A. Snow, of Westbrook, Conn., daughter 
 of David and Matilda (Doane) Snow, of that town. 
 Two sons and one daughter were given to Mr. and 
 Airs. Lyon. The eldest, Emma J., died in Septem- 
 ber, 1892, seven months after the demise of her 
 husband. Dr. Charles J. Mansfield. William H. is 
 spoken of below ; Charles L. is manager of the Aler- 
 iden Malleable Iron Co. Joel Doane, Mrs. Lyon's 
 maternal grandfatber, served as a private soldier 
 during the last three years of the Revolutionary war. 
 
 William H. Lyon, secretary of the Lyon & 
 Billard Co. and tlie Charles Parker Co., is one of 
 the best-known business men in the city of Meri- 
 den. His birth occurred in that city Aug. 11, 1854, 
 and he received his education in the Meriden 
 schools. At a comparatively early age he began his 
 business career in the office of the Lyon & Billard 
 Co., of which bis father was the head, and bv his 
 faithfulness and efficient discharge of duties has 
 won his way to the responsible position he now 
 holds. Dut}' has been a watchword with him for the 
 past thirteen years, during which time he has acted 
 as the efficient secretary of this large corporation. 
 In 1886 he entered the Charles Parker Co. as as- 
 sistant to Dexter W. Parker, who at that time was 
 secretary and treasurer of the organization, and in 
 1889 Mr. Lyon was elected secretary and for the 
 past twelve years has had charge of ihe whole vol- 
 ume of business of the Charles Parker Co. He is 
 also president of the Parker Clock Co. and assistant 
 secretary of the Meriden Curtain Fixture Co. In 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 19 
 
 tusiness circles Mr. Lyon is acknowledg'ed as a 
 man of ability and integrity. He is unassuming and 
 tmostentatious in manner. His life is that of a 
 good citizen, busy with the duties of such and de- 
 voted to his family and friends. In politics he is 
 a Republican, but the manifold cares of business 
 levy soi heavily upon his time that he never consents 
 to hold public office. 
 
 In 1880 Mr. Lyon was married to Miss Annie D. 
 Parker, a daughter of the venerable Charles Parker, 
 of Meriden, and one child has blessed this union, El- 
 sie Parker, whO' graduated from Rosemary Hall, 
 Greenwich, Conn., in igoi. Mrs. Lyon is a leading 
 member of the Methodist Church in Meriden and 
 belongs to Ruth Hart Chapter, Daughters of the 
 American Revolution. The family is one of high 
 social standing in Meriden and Mr. Lyon a thor- 
 oughly representative business man. 
 
 HON. WALTER BOOTH, whose death oc- 
 ■curred at his home in Meriden, on April 30, 1870, 
 was for many years a prominent man not only of 
 the city in which he lived but in the state, and he 
 was eminently a good man. 
 
 J\Ir. Booth was born Dec. 8, 1791, in Wood- 
 bridge, Conn. When about sixteen years of age 
 he came to Meriden, where with little exception his 
 life was passed. In his earlier life he served by 
 appointment as Brigadier General and also as 
 Major General of the State militia. In 1850 he 
 was sent to Washington as a representative from 
 "his district in Congress. He had previously held 
 sundry offices in both town and State. At twenty- 
 two years of age he was chosen deacon in the 
 Centre Congregational Church, of Meriden, and 
 held such office for fifty-six years. At the time of 
 Tiis death he had been a director in the Meriden 
 National Bank, for twenty years, and at one time 
 was its President. Deacon Booth was a Christian 
 ■man, and, as stated, an eminently good man, ever 
 active in all Church work. He had served as teach- 
 er and Sabbath-school superintendent, and was sel- 
 dom absent from his place in the sanctuary. 
 
 Deacon Booth was a man of great simplicity 
 and plainness of manner, was averse to all parade, 
 and was strictly economical in his expenditures. 
 He was ever ready to aid any enterprise, either in 
 business, civil or religious affairs, which promised 
 to promote the secular or religious interests of his 
 native town. His first wife, Laura, died April 5, 
 1841, and his second, Sarah H., died Oct. 24, 1871. 
 
 LEVERETT CANDLE (deceased). The 
 name of Candee is an old and honored one in the 
 business life and annals of New Haven, where the 
 distinguished gentleman whose name introduces 
 this article made for himself an enviable standing 
 as the founder of the factory that has so long borne 
 his name, from which has gone out such a vast 
 volume of high grade rubber boots and shoes. Here 
 -.reside and are still active in business some cf his 
 
 descendants, notably a grandson and a namesake — 
 Leverett Candee, the secretary and treasurer of the 
 Fair Haven and Westville Railway Company. 
 
 The late Leverett Candee was born June 20, 
 1795, in Oxford, Conn., a son of Job and Sarah 
 (Benham) Candee, and was descended in the fifth 
 generation from Zaccheus Candee, who was born 
 about 1640, and appears of record in New Haven 
 at the time of his marriage, in 1670, to Rebecca 
 Bristow, or Bristol. She was born Feb. 4, 1650, 
 and was a daughter of Henry Bristol, of New 
 Haven. This couple resided in West Haven, where 
 they died and are buried, Mr. Candee dying in 1720, 
 and his widow nineteen years later, at the ages of 
 eighty and ninety-one years, respectively. From 
 this settler the lineage of the late Leverett Candee 
 runs through Capt. Samuel, Caleb and Capt. Job 
 Candee. 
 
 Capt. Samuel Candee, son of Zaccheus, was born 
 July 24, 1678, in West Haven, and was married 
 April 28, 1703, to Abigail Pineon, of New Hart- 
 ford. She was a daughter of Thomas Pineon, and 
 resided in West Haven, where the name frequently 
 occurs in the records of the town. He served, re- 
 spectively, as lieutenant and as captain of the local 
 military company. Capt. Candee died about 1748, 
 his wife having passed away Jan. 9, 1743, at the 
 age of sixty-three years. 
 
 Caleb Candee, the son of Capt. Samuel, was 
 born in 1722, and married Lois Mallory. They 
 settled in the town of Oxford and were farming 
 people. On his tombstone his death is recorded as 
 occurring Oct. 4, 1777. His widow passed away 
 in 1790. 
 
 Capt. Job Candee, son of Caleb, was born in 
 1759, and was married in the town of Southbury, 
 Oct. 3, 1784, to Sarah Benham, both of whom 
 united with the Church at Oxford, where they re- 
 sided in 1788. Mr. Candee was a soldier in the 
 war of the Revolution, and became a captain in the 
 militia service. For his Revolutionary experiences 
 he received a pension from the General Government. 
 A man of prominence in his town, he represented 
 it in the State Legislature. Capt. Candee died 
 Dec. 2, 1845 ; ^"'d his wife March 20, 1840, at the 
 age of seventy-five years. 
 
 Leverett Candee, whose name introduces this 
 article, was a son of Capt. Job Candee, and left his 
 rural home in Oxford at the age of fifteen years, 
 going to New Haven, where he began his busi- 
 ness career as a clerk in the store of Capt. Gad 
 Peck, a merchant engaged in the foreign trade. 
 After a time Mr. Candee was identified with the 
 dry-goods trade, as a member of the firm of Can- 
 dee, Dean & Cutler. In 1833 Mr. Candee withdrew 
 from the firm, went to New York, where he was 
 in the commission business for two years. In 1835 
 he returned to New Haven to become a partner m 
 the firm of Candee, Lester & Page, commission 
 merchants. At Westville he was engaged in the 
 manufacture of paper, the firm then consisting of 
 Candee, Pa,a:e & Lester. After a time Mr, Lester 
 
20 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 withdrew from the firm, which then became Can- 
 dee & Page. This enterprise resulted disastrously, 
 and all the fortune which ^Ir. Candee had accumu- 
 lated through years of toil was swept away. Tlie 
 mill was closed, and shortly after l\Ir. Candee be- 
 gan the manufacture of suspenders on East street 
 in New Haven. In that same year (1842) Charles 
 Goodyear gave Mr. Candee a temporary license to 
 use his vulcanized rubber in the manufacture of 
 rubber shoes. Not having any capital himself, he 
 enlisted the aid of Henry and Lucius Hotchkiss, 
 at that time lumber merchants in New Haven. 
 These gentlemen loaned Mr. Candee $3,000, and 
 he immediately began operations, being the first 
 person in the world to make rubber overshoes un- 
 der the Goodyear patents. 
 
 On Sept. 5, 1843, ^hs L. Candee & Company was 
 formed, consisting of Air. Candee and Henry and 
 Lucius Hotchkiss. The following year Abra- 
 ham Heaton was admitted to the firm. He added 
 $3,000 to the capital of the business, making it 
 $9,000 in all. Henry Hotchkiss bought out Mr. 
 Heaton in 1847. So rapidly dicl the business of 
 the Company increase that in 1852 a joint stock 
 company was formed with a capital of $200,000. 
 In 1869 this was increased to $300,000, under the 
 present corporate title of L. Candee & Company. 
 The four original subscribers tO' the capital stock 
 were Mr. Candee, Henry and Lucius Hotchkiss 
 and Timothv Lester ; they were also the original 
 directors of the Company. j\Ir. Candee was presi- 
 dent, and C. T. Candee was secretary. In 1859 
 Mr. Isaac C. Hawthorne became President, 
 and in 1863 Mr. Candee sold his interest in 
 the Company to Henry Hotchkiss, withdrawing 
 from the corporation, which has still continued to 
 grow until it is one of the most important en- 
 terprises of the kind in all the world. From the 
 first modest factory in a single small building to 
 the present plant, comprising more than a dozen 
 large brick buildings four or five stories high, oc- 
 cupying nearly four acres, giving employment to 
 more than fifteen hundred bands, with an output 
 of more than 20,000 pairs of boots a day, the change 
 is vast, and largely has been accomplished through 
 the profound business and executive ability of 'Mr. 
 Candee. 
 
 Mr. Candee passed from his labors May 23, 
 1865, and a monument to his memory more durable 
 /than marble or bronze is the great manufacturing 
 iplant which still bears his name. He was an active 
 member of St. Paul's Church, and contributed very 
 liberally to all its needs. For many years he was 
 president of the Xew ITaven' County Bank, and was 
 heavily interested in the Plard Rubber Co., at Bea- 
 con Falls, being also president of the Home Woolen 
 Co., at the same place, at the time of his death. 
 T"or some years he was an associate trustee of the 
 Alutual Life Insurance and Trust Company, and was 
 al-^o connected as a director with tlie Home Insur- 
 ance Compan}-. 
 
 Mr. Candee was married to Jane Caroline Tom- 
 linson, and this union was blessed with the birth 
 of one son, Charles Tomlinson, who was born Sept. 
 I, 1830, and was married in 1858 to Susan P. 
 Scranton, by whom he had two children : Leverett,. 
 born Nov. 28, 1859; and Susan Jane, born Dec. 
 6, 1865. 
 
 BRONSON. In the annals of the towns of 
 Waterbury and New Haven, for generations, we 
 find the family bearing the name which introduces 
 this sketch has held a high place in the social, re- 
 ligious, professional, business and public life of 
 those communities. Among the notable characters 
 of the family of whom it is the purpose of this 
 article to treat are the late Hon. Bennett Bronson, 
 of Waterbury ; his son, the late distinguished Dr. 
 Henry Bronson, of Waterbury and New Haven ; 
 and the latter's son, Hon. Samuel Lathrop Bronson,. 
 lawyer, legislator and judge. 
 
 John Bronson, Brunson or Brownson, as it is- 
 spelled in the early records of Hartford, Fanning- 
 ton and Waterbury, the emigrant ancestor of this- 
 branch of the family, is believed to have come to- 
 America from England in 1636 in the party of Rev. 
 Thomas Hooker, of whose church he was a mem- 
 ber. He was a soldier in the Pequot war, in 1637^ 
 and is of record in Hartford in 1639. It is known 
 that he removed, about 1641, to Farmington, where 
 he was one. of the seven pillars of the church at its 
 organization there, in 1652, and he became a public 
 man of that town, where he died in 1680. From 
 this emigrant ancestor Samuel L. Bronson, of New 
 Haven, is a descendant in the eighth generation, 
 his line being through Isaac, Lieut. Thomas, Thom- 
 as (2), Deacon Stephen, Judge Bennett and Dr. 
 Henry Bronson. 
 
 Isaac Bronson, son of John, of Hartford and 
 Farmington, was born in 1645, and married Mary, 
 a daughter of John Root. Lieut. Thomas Bron- 
 son, son of Isaac, born in 1685, married in 1719 
 Elizabeth, daughter of .Stephen Nepson. Thomas 
 Bronson (2), son of Lieut. Thomas, born in 171 1, 
 married in 1734 Susanna, daughter of John South- 
 ma\-d. Deacon Stephen Bronson, son of Thomas 
 (2), born in 1735, married in 1764 Sarah, daughter 
 of Caleb Humaston, and was a thrifty farmer. 
 
 Judge Bennett Bronson, son of Deacon Stephen, 
 was born Nov. 14, 1775, married Alay 11, 1801, 
 Anna, daughter of Ricliard Smith, of Roxburv. 
 Mr. Bronson was graduated from Yale in the class 
 of 1797, from which went out into the world a 
 number of men who became distinguished in their 
 various callings, among them being Lyman Beech- 
 er. Horatio Seymour and Seth Staples. In his 
 young life Mr. Bronson for a period was a lieu- 
 tenant in the United States army, then studied law, 
 and was admitted to the Bar in Litchfield county in 
 1802. Industrious and studious in his early life, 
 he rose to prominence, not only in his profession! 
 but in business and public life also. For many years- 
 
ty(Uu^i>cc^ ocT //>^^^ts^?4^-^n^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 21 
 
 he served as a magistrate and justice of the peace 
 in the town of Waterbury, and in 1824 was elected 
 judge of the courts of New Haven county, and 
 remained on the Bench for six years. In 1829 
 Judge Bronsoti was chosen to represent tlie town 
 in the Legislature. He was very efficient and thor- 
 ough in all h's undertakings, and performed the 
 duties of his various public trusts with signal abil- 
 ity and to the satisfaction of all concerned. Judge 
 Bronson was a good lawyer, of sound judgment and 
 discriminating mind, and made a thoroughly com- 
 petent judge, proving himself a man of truth, fidel- 
 ity and probity. His reading was comprehensive, 
 and his opinions were often sought and relied upon. 
 In 1814 Judge Bronson became interested in man- 
 iifacturing. His death occurred Dec. 11, 1850. 
 
 Dr. Henry Bronson, son of Judge Bronson, and 
 the father of Hon. Samuel Lathrop Bronson, was 
 horn Jan. 30, 1804, the fourth son of the family. 
 The other sons had received collegiate educations, 
 hut Henry received only a common-school and aca- 
 demic education. However, his tastes were not in 
 the line pointed out. His inclination was for a pro- 
 fessional career, and he finally won the father's con- 
 sent for preparation for the medical profession, and 
 studied under Dr. Alden Marsh, of Albany. When 
 through with the course he was immediately taken 
 into partnership with his preceptor. During the 
 epidemic of cholera, in Canada, in 1832, young 
 Bronson was sent thither by his medical brethren 
 to investigate the disease. His report was so re- 
 markable for its exactness, profundity and scientific 
 insight that it at once gave the physician an ex- 
 tended professional reputation. On returning to 
 Alhany, he was placed in charge of the tnree hos- 
 pitals of the city. 
 
 On June 3, 1831, Dr. Bronson was married to 
 Sarah M., daughter of Samuel Lathrop, of West 
 Springfield. Three years later he removed to 
 Waterbury, which continued to be his place of resi- 
 dence until Jan. i, 1845, when he removed to New 
 Haven. In 1842 he had been elected Professor of 
 Materia Medica in the Medical Department of Yale 
 College, but he retained his residence in Waterbury 
 for two years thereafter. Dr. Bronson wrote vari- 
 ous articles and sketches contributed to the New 
 Haven Colony Historical Society, and also con- 
 tributed articles to the Connecticut Medical Society. 
 Of his writings Dr. Francis Bacon said : "These 
 productions show everywhere a conscientious indus- 
 try in the collection of obscure materials, an intel- 
 lectual skill in the use of them, and an unswerving 
 justice in the estimates of character that make them 
 models for that kind of work. Dr. Bronson 
 cheapens that of any successor he is likely to have 
 in the field." 
 
 Dr. Bronson prepared a history of Waterbury, 
 which was published in 1858, and it has formed the 
 basis on which much has since heen written. His 
 mind was strong and original, and despised super- 
 ficial methods. His diagnosis of cases was ex- 
 
 haustive and accurate. Dr. Bronson is remembered 
 as having a somewhat rugged exterior, but he was 
 a great favorite with the members of his profes- 
 sion, and those who knew him intimately discovered 
 beneath a brusque manner a softness of heart, and 
 kindliness of nature, that endeared him to his 
 friends. He gave the sum of ten' thousand dollars 
 to the Waterbury Hospital among the bequests in 
 his will, and he liberally rememhered the New Lla- 
 ven Hospital and Yale College. 
 
 Dr. Bronson passed away Nov. 26, 1893, his wife 
 preceding him to the grave on April 29, 1889. Their 
 children were: Samuel L., born Jan. 12, 1834; 
 George, born in 1836, who died in 1837; Nathan 
 S., born Nov. 20, 1837; and Stephen Henry, born 
 Feb. 18, 1844, who died Aug. 19, 1880. 
 
 Judge Samuel Lathrop Bronson, son of Dr. 
 Henry, was born in the town of Waterbury, was 
 prepared for Yale College in the famous Gen. Rus- 
 sell Military School, of New Haven, and was grad- 
 uated from Yale in the class of 1855. After re- 
 ceiving his diploma from Yale College he studied 
 law at Yale Law School, and was admitted to the 
 Bar in 1857. After becoming a member of the 
 Bar he removed to Seymour, and in 1861 was mar- 
 ried to Miss Frances E. Stoddard, daughter of Dr. 
 Thomas and Esther Gilbert Stoddard, of that town. 
 Almost immediately after graduation he became a 
 leader in the community, and in 1859 was sent to 
 the General Assembly from Seymour. Early in the 
 'sixties he returned to New Haven, opened a law of- 
 fice, and very soon secured a large and lucrative 
 practice. In 1866 he was made recorder of the city 
 court of New Haven, and held that position for 
 three years, his administration being strong in ex- 
 ecutive force and popular in its service to the pub- 
 lic. In 1869 Mr. Bronson was sent from New Ha- 
 ven as a representative in the General Assembly, 
 and was re-elected in 1875-76. As a m^ember of 
 that body he was recognized as the shrewdest leader 
 of the Democratic side, and no man had a larger 
 following in his Republican associates. 
 
 Judge Bronson was judge of the court of com- 
 mon pleas of New Haven county from 1870 to 
 1871, and then declined election, and from 1873 to 
 1878 he was corporation counsel, being re-elected 
 annually, and filling both these positions with ability 
 and distinction. Everybody liked him, trusted him, 
 and had no occasion to regret the confidence. As 
 a lawyer he very soon became completely occupied 
 in attending to the clients who c^me to him in con- 
 sultation. He was not known as a court lawyer, 
 although he appeared in very many important cases, 
 and always with a marked degree of success, and 
 his practice became very large and profitable. In 
 1885 Judge Bronson retired from active practice, 
 but has continued his relations with large corpora- 
 tions and business interests in the city. Evidently 
 he inherited his father's business instinct, for even 
 in his boyhood days he became noted as a remark- 
 ably successful business man, judicious in his invest- 
 
22 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ments and far-sighted in his consideration of busi- 
 ness affairs. Today he is among the few milHon- 
 aires of the State. 
 
 L)n Sept. 21, 1900, at Hartford, Judge Bronson 
 was made the unanimous choice of the Democratic 
 State Convention as the party's candidate for gov- 
 ernor of Connecticut. Ex-Congressman Pigott, of 
 New Haven, in presenting the name of Judge Bron- 
 son to the con\'ention, among other things said : 
 "No good word can be said in behalf of any other 
 before )"ou to-day that cannot be justly said of the 
 one to be named by me. He combines m himself all 
 of the good qualities of the gentlemen whose names 
 have been considered for the head of our ticket. 
 No virtue can be ascribed to any of them that he 
 does not possess in full measure. This being so, 
 it follows that your wisdom will demand his selec- 
 tion. He has filled and graced many offices of 
 trust and honor. For years he has been a coun- 
 selor of his party. In age he is mature, not old. 
 In education he is a product of Yale. To the older 
 members of our party throughout the State he is 
 well and familiarly known. To the younger mem- 
 bers of the party I need only say he has the re- 
 spect of all who know him. He is able and willing 
 to lead in all the doctrines of the party. Possess- 
 ing as he does all the attributes of success, why 
 should he not be nominated ? He is the unanimous 
 choice of the party in his own city. No Democrat 
 can be found in New Haven who opposes him. Due 
 regard to the obligations of personal confidence 
 forbids me to say how many thousands of New 
 Haven Republicans will vote for him. Nominate 
 him, and New Haven will indicate, by 5,000 ma- 
 jority at least, the esteem in which he is held at 
 home. Nominate him, and every citizen in Con- 
 necticut can for the next two years have the pleas- 
 ure of knowing that the honor, integrity, dignity 
 and fair name of the State are in charge of one 
 beyond reproach. Gentlemen of the convention, in 
 behalf of my associates and on my own part, I pre- 
 sent for your favorable consideration the name 
 of New Haven's favored son, Samuel L. Bron- 
 son." 
 
 Judge Bronson is six feet in height, slender and 
 straight as an arrow. He has keen gray eyes and 
 hair of the same shade. He is a man of striking 
 appearance and exceedingly pleasing address. The 
 keen mind for vidiich he was noted when he prac- 
 ticed law has not dimmed in the slightest degree. 
 He impresses all who meet him as being a man of 
 large mental and moral strength, and with more 
 than an average supply of the milk of human kind- 
 ness in his character. He is of the highest char- 
 acter, strict integrity, keen in ability, the soul of 
 generosity, and always a plain, sympathetic man of 
 the people. 
 
 Judge Bronson's children are: Thomas S., a 
 physician in New Haven ; J. Harmer, of New Ifa- 
 ven ; Sarah Frances ; Ezekiel S. ; and Marion de 
 Forest. 
 
 SCOVILL (J. M. L. Scovill was the first of the 
 family to adopt the two "I's" in the spelling of the 
 name). Among the old and leading families of 
 Waterbury from its first settlement, are those bear- 
 ing the name of Scovill. The names of James 
 Mitchell Lamson and William H. Scovill, and the 
 memory of their useful, noble and grand lives will 
 long be treasured by the citizens of Waterbury. 
 They laid the foundation on which the great indus- 
 trial structure of the Waterbury of today rests. 
 These brothers descended from Sergeant John Sco- 
 vil, one of the original settlers of the town, and 
 from him were in the fifth generation, their lines 
 being through Lieut. William Scovil, Rev. James 
 Scovil and James. 
 
 (I) Sergeant John Scovil, the son of John Sco- 
 vil, of Haddam, married in 1693, Hannah, daughter 
 of Obediah Richards, and became one of the orig- 
 inal settlers of Waterbury. 
 
 (II) Lieut. William Scovil, the son of Sergeant 
 John Scovil, born in 1703, married in 1729, Hannah, 
 daughter of John Richards. 
 
 (III) Rev. James Scovil, son of Lieut. William 
 Scovil, born Jan. 27, 1732-33, married in 1762, Amy, 
 daughter of Capt. George Nichols. Dr. Scovil was 
 graduated from Yale College in 1757. In 1759 he 
 became the rector of the Episcopal church, in the 
 missioin field at Waterbury, Northbury, and what 
 is no'w Bristol, Conn. He made his residence at 
 Waterbury, and was the town's first resident rector. 
 After his labors of nearly thirty years in this field, 
 be removed in 1788 to New Brunswick, becoming 
 rector of the church at Kingston. He died at that 
 point Dec. 19, 1808, in the fiftieth year of his min- 
 istry. 
 
 (IV) James Scovil, son of Rev. James Scovil, 
 was born March 19, 1764, in Waterbury, and on 
 Nov. 16, 1788, married Alathea, daughter of Mitch- 
 ell Lamson, a merchant of Woodbury, Conn. He 
 became a prominent citizen of the town, was a large 
 land O'wner, acted as trying justice, and was always 
 known as Esquire Scovil. During the war of 1812 
 he established and carried on a woolen mill. He 
 was a man of fine presence, and much dignity of 
 manner and character. He died Nov. 26, 1825. He 
 was the only member of his father's family who 
 remained in WateAury on their removal to New 
 Brunswick. 
 
 James Mitchell Lam.son Scovill, son of James 
 Scovil, was born Sept. 4, 1789, in Waterbury, where 
 he attended the district schools. When seventeen 
 he began clerking in his father's store. In 181 1, 
 associated with David Hayden and Frederick Leav- 
 enworth, he commenced the manufacture of gilt and 
 brass buttons. In 1827 William H. Scovill pur- 
 chased the interest of Dr. Leavenworth and Mr. 
 Hayden, and the firm, became J. M. L. & W. H, 
 Scovill. The business under both firms from the 
 start had been modestly successful, and the new 
 firm continued to prosper until the burning of their 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 23 
 
 factory in 1829. They rebuilt and tlieir business in- 
 creased; some ten or more years later S. M. Buck- 
 ingham and Abraham Ives became interested in the 
 button business with the Scovills, and the firm name 
 changed to that of Scovill & Co. In the meantime 
 the rolled brass and plated metal part of the busi- 
 ness of Scovill Brothers was being rapidly devel- 
 oped, and this, which had assumed an important in- 
 terest, they continued under the name of J. M. L. 
 & W. H. Scovill. The brothers also associated 
 themselves with John Buckingham, under the name 
 of Scovill & Buckingham, in the making of patent 
 brass butts. About this time they began the manu- 
 facture of daguerreotype plates, which was soon 
 developed into an extensive business. In January, 
 1850, a joint stock company was formed under the 
 name of Scovill Manufacturing Co., into which all 
 the interests of the foregoing were merged, some 
 of their employes being admitted as stock holders. 
 Of this corporation the Scovills owned a majority 
 of the stock, the capital of which was at the start 
 $250,000, and some years later was increased to 
 $300,000. 
 
 Dr. Bronson in his history of Waterbury (1858) 
 says : 
 
 The present manufacturing interests of Waterbury are 
 perhaps more indebted to Lamson Scovill (Mr. Scovill was 
 generally called by the last of his given names) than to 
 any other man. He was bold, energetic and sagacious. 
 He had enlarged views and that degree of confidence in 
 the future which insured success. So soon as he got 
 strength of his own, he was ready to lend assistance to 
 others. Many enterprises have been carried forward to a 
 successful result by his relations, but his friends in the 
 largest sense shared in his financial prosperity. He wa,s 
 foremost in all the improvements of his native village. 
 His own generous impulses he did not hesitate to follow, 
 even when indulgence was expensive. He was a large 
 hearted man, with social, kindly feeling. Few persons have 
 been equally respected or more beloved. He was a mem- 
 ber of St. John's Church, of which he was an important 
 benefactor. His generosity and that of his brother Will- 
 iam founded a professorship in Washington College which 
 is named after the donors. 
 
 Below are given some extracts from obituary 
 notices of Mr. Scovill which appeared in one of the 
 Waterbury papers at the time of his death : 
 
 Those who remember him in those early days, will 
 bear witness to his native kindness of disposition, the 
 manly traits of his character ; an infusion of a certain mag- 
 nanimity which won for him the love of his associates 
 that made him almost their idol — hieh-toned qualities that 
 never forsook him under any circumstances, and which 
 were an index of that honorable and useful career that 
 has since associated his name with all that is good, up- 
 right, enterprising and practicable, not only in the com- 
 munity in which he lived, was born and died, but his in- 
 fluence has been as broadcast, as his views more noble, 
 unselfish and expanded. On reviewing the gradual steps 
 by which he rose to the lofty eminence which he attained 
 among his fellowmen, we have practical commentary of 
 what can be achieved by a single individual who steadily 
 pursues the well trodden path of industry, guided by per- 
 severance, integrity and prudence. With a well balanced 
 mind, without any pretensions to brilliancy, there was a 
 massiveness in his intellect which enabled him to grapple 
 with circumstances, to concentrate and apply the means of 
 
 success to a remarkable degree. He would perhaps be 
 classed by some as rather a slow thinker, but when he 
 made up his mind to do a thing, it was as good as accom- 
 plished. Though progressive, he was not speculative. He 
 required to be convinced before he adopted a course of 
 action, that done no more was to be said; and as in his 
 business character, so was it in his general intercourse in 
 the ordinary duties of society. Never obtrusive, he was 
 ever forward in every enterprise that would promote the 
 public good, lending not only his. personal influence, but 
 lavish with those means with which fortune had favored 
 him. He took a lively interest in the politics of the day, 
 yet had no aspiration for office, though elected at various 
 times to represent his native town in both branches of the 
 legislature, rather at the intercession of his constituents 
 than from his own choice. In his private relatione he was 
 the soul of honor, never forgettmg a favor or neglecting a 
 friend. As he lived so he died, the same Lamson Scovill, 
 as fresh in his feelings and sympathies as distinguished 
 him in his boyhood. 
 
 On Oct. .9, 1849, Mr. Scovill was married to 
 Mrs. Sarah A. Morton, daughter of William H. 
 Merriman, of Watertown. Their children were : 
 James M. L., born Sept. 3, 1850, died at the age 
 of eight years; Sarah A., born Feb. 15, 1852, mar- 
 ried Joseph T. Whittlesey, of New Haven, and died 
 Dec. 15, 1877; Henry W., born Nov. 11, 1853, mar- 
 ried Ellen Whittaker, daughter of T. R. H3''de, of 
 Westerly, Rhode Island. 
 
 Jamles Mitchell Lamson Scovill died May 6, 
 1857, and at the time of his funeral the factories, 
 stores, and public places of Waterbury were closed. 
 
 William Henry Scovill, son of James Scovill, 
 was born July 27, 1796, and passed his early years 
 on his father's farm and in his store. While in his 
 teens he attended for a time the Cheshire Academy, 
 then taught by the Rev. Dr. Bronson, being there 
 in the winter of 1812-13. In 1814 he became a 
 clerk in a store in New Haven, first for a Mr. Brush, 
 then for a Mr. Peck. At the age of twenty he 
 opened a store in Waterbury, Mr. Peck, his former 
 employer, furnishing the capital. For years he 
 abandoned the business, it proving an unsuccessful 
 venture. Following this period he passed two years 
 as a clerk for his uncle, William K. Lamson, in the 
 store at Berwick, Penn. He then went to North. 
 Carolina, and for several years carried on a general 
 country store, and also dealt in cotton at Turner's 
 Cross Roads. Here he accumulated several thous- 
 and dollars, and returning to Waterbury, joined 
 his brother, J. M. L. Scovill, and purchased the in- 
 terests in the metal button business, previously held 
 by Dr. Leavenworth and Mr. Hayden. Mr. Scovill 
 for many years prior to his death, which occurred 
 March 27, 1854, at Charleston, S. C, whither he 
 had gone for the recovery of his health, filled a large 
 space and exercised a wide influence in the com- 
 munity in which he lived. As has been said of him : 
 
 As has been said of him, he was a sagacious man, of 
 comprehensive views, who assisted his brother in conduct- 
 ing one of the most extensive and prosperous manufac- 
 turing establishments in Waterbury. He was a man of in- 
 telligence, of gracious sympathies and inflexible principle. 
 His wealth he distributed with a free hand in the way of 
 both public and private charity. To every good cause he 
 
24 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was ready tn give material aid. He was enipliatically a 
 public benefactor and his loss was a public calamity. He 
 was one of the most active and influential members of St. 
 John's Church, Waterbury; was senior warden for many 
 years, and was among the foremost in the work of erect- 
 ing the beautiful edifice in which the society worshipped 
 at the time of his death. Throughout the State he was 
 known as the liberal patron of the church and its insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 On the death of J. M. L. Scovill, a writer in 
 one of the AX'aterbur)- papers thus referred to the 
 two Scovill brothers : 
 
 Never were two men better calculated for each other — 
 both were actuated by tlie highest impulses of integrity, 
 and their qualifications though different wore so happily 
 blended, such was the confidence between them, that in all 
 matters of business they were only known as one. Both 
 at the time of their death were identified with nearly 
 every kindred establishment in Waterbury, and one can 
 hardly turn his eye without being reminded' of their joint 
 participation in the progress and advancement of their 
 native city — the welfare of which formed one of the lead- 
 ing objects of their ambition. 
 
 William H. Scovill was twice married. On 
 July 2, 1827, he wedded Eunice Ruth Davies, daugh- 
 ter of Hon. Thomas J. Davies, of Black Lake, N. Y. 
 "She was a woman of many virtues, of uncommon 
 intelligence and great force of character, and died 
 much lamented, of pulmonary consumlption, Nov. 
 25, 1839." Mr. Scovill married (second) March 
 22, 1841, Rebecca H., daughter of Hon. Nathan 
 Smith, of New Haven. To the first union were 
 torn four children, two of whom, Mrs. F. J. Kings- 
 tury and Mrs. William E. Curtis, survive. The 
 child born to the second marriage is William H. 
 Scovill, now a resident of Hudson, N. Y. Mrs. 
 Rebecca H. Scovill died Aug. 4, 1854. 
 
 HON. EDWARD ISAAC SANFORD, LL. B., 
 long a distinguished meinber of the New Haven Bar 
 and who was in public life for many years, twenty- 
 four of which he served as Judge of the Superior 
 Court of Connecticut, was a representative in both 
 paternal and maternal lines of old and respected 
 families of New Haven. 
 
 Born July 4, 1820, in New Haven, Judge San- 
 ford was the son of Elihu and Susan (Howell) San- 
 ford, the former a much esteemed and successful 
 merchant of that place and his personal character- 
 istics were those that might naturally have been in- 
 herited from such ancestors. Thomas Sanford, the 
 first American ancestor of the branch of the family, 
 came to Boston in 1631 ; in 1634 he was in Dorches- 
 ter and in 1639 in Milford, Conn., where he died in 
 1681. 
 
 Edward I. Sanford was fitted for college in 
 the Fairfield ,\cademy, Fairfield, and the Hopkins 
 Grammar School, New Haven. Tn 1843 h^ entered 
 Yale College, fromi which 'he was graduated in 
 1847. Immediately afterward he entered Yale Law 
 Sf-Jiool and was graduated therefrom with the de- 
 gree of LL. B. in 1849. After spending some time 
 in the office of Henry White, Escjuire, in further 
 
 study under his direction, he opened an office for 
 himself in New Haven and commenced the practice 
 of law. Although he devoted himself assiduously 
 to his profession, without aiming at distinctions out- 
 side of it, he soon attracted and steadily thereafter 
 maintained and increased the favorable regard of 
 his fellow citizens, who from time to time called 
 him to the discharge of public duties. In 1853 he 
 was elected member of the common council of New 
 Llaven. From 1858 to i860 and again from 1863 
 to 1866 lie was Judge, or Recorder, as it was then 
 styled, of the Circuit Court of that city. The dignity 
 and ability with which he administered the duties 
 of his office are yet remembered with great respect 
 by those lawyers of the present day who then prac- 
 ticed before him. In 1864 and again in 1865 Judge 
 Sanford was elected to the State Senate from the 
 New Haven District. During the latter part of 
 1868 and the early part of 1869 he was an instruc- 
 tor in Yale Law School and rendered valuable 
 service in securing that re-organization of the school 
 which led to its present great and growing prosper- 
 ity. In 1867 he was appointed Judge of the Su- 
 perior Court for the term of eight years, beginning 
 July 27 of that year. By successive re-app)oint- 
 ments in 1875 ^^^ 1883 he was continued in ofifice 
 until July 27, 1 891. 
 
 "His work uponi the Bench of the Superior 
 Court," says Hon. Henry B. Harrison, wtio pre- 
 pared an obituary sketch of Judge Sanford, from 
 which much of the personal matter of this article 
 is taken, "for that long period of twenty-four years, 
 was substantially the work of his life, and to it he 
 devoted with conscientious and laborious care all 
 his energies. He was not ambitious for the glitter 
 of public office and never sought it, but he learned 
 to hke his duties as a Judge of the Superior Court 
 and he was content to limit his career to the faith- 
 ful performance of them. His personal character 
 was blameless. Everybody who knew him liked him. 
 His friends stood fast to him and he stood fast to 
 them. His hand was open and generous. His tastes 
 were eminently domestic ; his heart was always in 
 his home." 
 
 On June 19, 1849, ^^^'- Sanford was married to 
 Miss Sarah Jane, daughter of Hanford Lyon, of 
 Bridgeport, and to the union were born two chil- 
 dren, as follows : Edward I., Jr., a lawver of New 
 York ; and Fannie S., wbo married Lewis Hotch- 
 kiss, of New Haven, and has one son, Sanford Lewis 
 Hotchkiss. 
 
 By the close of Judge San ford's career on the 
 Bench, in 1891, his health had become seriously im- 
 paired, and it continued to grow worse until his 
 death, July 13, 1893. On March 4, 1870, he form- 
 ally joined the Center Church, of New Haven, with 
 his wife and daughter, and he died in the faith. 
 
 At a meeting of the New Haven County Bar, 
 held two days after Judge Sanford's death, appropri- 
 ate resolutions were unanimously adopted, from 
 which the following is taken : 
 
<>^?i^^<a-T. <pC^ ^ ■ 'Ask.^ ^-tj-^ ct^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 25 
 
 To perpetuate our high appreciation of the character 
 and quahties of the late Judge Edward I. Sanford, and of 
 the loss to us and to the community at large involved in 
 his death, the Bar of New Haven County now resolve : 
 
 That as a man, his friendships were maiiy, broad, cath- 
 olic and appreciative. That as a judge, his courtesy was 
 unfailing, his patience unwearied, his learning and dili- 
 gence always mastering the complicated questions arising 
 in the discharge for many years of his duties as a Judge 
 of the Superior Court. 
 
 That in Judge Sanford there was the true friend and 
 the upright and capable judge, and we mourn his death as 
 the loss of a personal friend, and we deplore his illness and 
 consequent death as a public misfortune. 
 
 Ex-Gov. Harrison in closing his obituary notice 
 of Judge Sanford cliaracterized him as "A high- 
 minded gentleman, a good citizen, a faithful friend, 
 a loving husband and father and a just judge." 
 
 Mrs. Sarah Jane (Lyon) Sanford, wife of Judge 
 Edward I. Sanford, and daughter of the late Hon. 
 Hanford and Hettie A. (Thompson) Lyon, was 
 born in Bridgeport, Conn., and died Nov. 4, 1901, 
 at her home, No. 538 Chapel street, New Haven. 
 She was a descendant on both sides from early Con- 
 necticut families, the Thompsons, of Stratford, and 
 the Lyons, from Easton. Hanford Lyon was born 
 in 1795 in Easton, son of Nehemiah W. Lyon, a 
 patriot of the Revolution', who lived to the remarka- 
 ble age of nearly one hundred and one years, while 
 ■his son, Hanford, reached nearly eighty-five years, 
 dying in 1879 in Bridgeport, where he had been a 
 leading citizen and prominent business man through 
 a long life time. The town of Easton was settled 
 about 1757 by inhabitants from Fairfield, among 
 the early settlers being Stephen, Daniel, Abram, 
 Thomas, Josiah and Nehemiah Lyon, who were 
 probably the descendants of Richard' Lyon, who was 
 in Fairfield as early as 1649, or of Thomas Lyon, 
 a brother of Richard. Thomas bought property in 
 Fairfield in 1654, but sold it in 1675 and removed 
 to Greenwich. 
 
 HON. RUFUS S. PICKETT, lawyer and form- 
 er Judge of the City Court, New Haven, is one 
 of the city's esteemed and respected citizens, who 
 through the force of his own efforts has risen to 
 position and influence in his profession and citi- 
 zenship. 
 
 Judge Pickett was born in the town of Ridge- 
 field, Conn., Feb. 28, i82q, son of Rufus H. and 
 Betsey (Parsons) Pickett, and in several lines 
 comes of Revolutionary stock and a sturdy New 
 England ancestry of the Colonial period. His par- 
 ents were born, the father about 1798, and the 
 mother April 20, 1794, and died, the former in 
 1872, and the latter June 13, 1868. To them, were 
 born five children, namely : William H., Rufus S., 
 Isabella, Francis, and Edwin. The last named was 
 killed while fighting in the Union Army at the 
 battle of Gettysburg. Judge Pickett's grandfather 
 Abraham Parsons, born Feb. 19, 1764, was a farmer 
 of Redding, Conn., and served as a soldier in the 
 Continental Army in the war of the Revoluticn, and 
 
 was a United States pensioner. Mr. Parsons mar- 
 ried Urana Starr, of Danbury, Conn., whose father, 
 Benjamin Starr, was also a soldier of the Revolu- 
 tion and yielded up his life in defense of his coun- 
 try, dying en route home on sick leave of absence 
 with camp fever, Sept. 3, 1775. He had been in 
 camp near White Plains. Urana (Starr) Parsons, 
 the Judge's grandmother, was a native of Danbury, 
 Conn., born March 23, 1765, and died there Sept. 
 30, 1848, in the eighty-fourth year of her age, land 
 her husband, Abraham Parsons, passed away March 
 16, 1852, in Ridgefield, Conn. Benjamjin Starr was 
 a resident of Mill Plain in the western part of 
 Danbury, perhaps within bounds of Ridgebury 
 Parish. He had descended from Dr. Comfort Starr, 
 the emigrant settler who came from Ashford, Coun- 
 ty Kent, England, to New England as early as 
 1638, the year in which he purchased land, in Dux- 
 bury, Mass., and was of Cambridge. From this 
 ancestor Judge Pickett's lineage is through Dr. 
 Thomas (born in England), Capt. Josiah (born in 
 Charlestown, Mass., a resident of Danbury and 
 founder of that branch of the Starr family), Capt. 
 John, Lieut. Jonathan, Benjamin, Urana (Starr) 
 Parsons and Betsey (Parsons) Pickett. 
 
 Judge Pickett attended the common scfiools of 
 his native town and was there prepared for college 
 in Hugh Bank's Academy. Owing to the failing 
 health of his father, at eighteen, Rufus S. abandoned 
 his studies and devoted himself to the management 
 of his father's business, continuing so to do for 
 six years. At this period in his life, 1854, he went 
 to New Haven, where for seven and a half years he 
 was in the employ of the N. Y. & N. H. R. R. Com- 
 pany, engaged in building and repairing locomo- 
 tives when it was a single track road and doing 
 its business with twenty-four engines only. 
 
 In the Lincoln campaign of i860, as now, an 
 ardent Republican, Mr. Pickett was encouraged by 
 his friend and former schoolmate, Cyrus Northrop, 
 then a professor in Yale University and afterwards 
 President of the University of Minnesota, to take 
 an active part in the same. He answered some of 
 the numerous calls for speakers in New Haven 
 and adjoining towns, speakins; in company with 
 Professor Northrop, Hon. N. D. Sperry, now Con- 
 gressman from' the New Haven district, John Wood- 
 ruff and others. On the coming into power of the 
 Lincoln administration and the appointment of the 
 late James F. Babcock, collector of the Port of New 
 Haven, Mr. Pickett received the appointment 
 through Mr. Babcock of inspector of customs, which 
 office with that of weigher and ganger he held for 
 several years, and while in office and performing 
 his duties faithfully, he resumed his studies. He 
 entered Yale Law School, and at the end of the 
 first year took the Jewell prize as essayist. He was 
 graduated with good standing in 1873, ^iid en- 
 tered upon the general practice of law in New 
 Haven. In 1877 he was appointed City Attorney 
 and for six years faithfully and efficiently discharg- 
 
26 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ed his duties as such. He received, in 1885, by ap- 
 pointment, the office of Assistant Judge, and in 1887 
 Judge of the Cit\' Court of New Haven. He lieard 
 some of the early boycott cases, and prepared opin- 
 ions on them, which had a wide circulation in the 
 country, and which have been substantially con- 
 firmed by the higher courts of several States. 
 
 Judge Pickett's religious connections are with 
 the Congregational Church. He is a member of 
 the Society of the Sons of the American Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 Early in life Judge Pickett was married, and had 
 three sons and two daughters. His younger sonj 
 Edwin, is a member of the New Haven County 
 Bar. 
 
 ELTON. Conspicuously prominent has been 
 th name of Elton in the history of Waterbury for 
 the past three quarters of a century, as was it for 
 that length of time previously in Watertown, where 
 Drs. John and Samuel Elton, father and son, re- 
 spectively, practiced medicine for fully seventy-five 
 years. Early in the present century th^re came to 
 Waterbury the late Hon. John Prince Elton, who 
 became one of the active and successful promoters 
 of the city's industries, and for many years was one 
 of its most prominent manufacturers and leading 
 citizens. While his son, the Hon. James Samuel 
 Elton, former Senator, president of the WateAury 
 National Bank and of the Waterbury Brass Com- 
 pany, has sustained the father's reputation. 
 
 Jariies Samuel Elton, on his father's side, is in 
 the seventh generation from John Elton, who early 
 came to this country from Bristol, England, and 
 settled in Middletown, Conn. The line of James S. 
 Elton's descent is through Ebenezer Elton, Eben- 
 ezer Elton (2), Dr. John Elton, Dr. Samuel Elton 
 and John Prince Elton. 
 
 (H) Ebenezer Elton, son of John Elton, born 
 in 1686, located in Branford, Connecticut. 
 
 (HI) Ebenezer Elton (2), son of Ebenezer El- 
 ton, born in 1712, married (first) Hannah Ward, 
 of Middletown, Conn. She died in 1754, and Eben- 
 ezer married (second) in January, 1755. 
 
 (IV) Dr. John Elton, son of Ebenezer Elton 
 (2), born October 6, 175s, married Lucy Prince. 
 He succeeded his brother Dr. James Elton in prac- 
 tice, and for twenty-four vears practiced medicine 
 in Watertown. He died Oct. 9, 1800, and his wife 
 passed away May 27, 181 T. 
 
 (V) Dr. Samuel Elton, son of Dr. John Elton, 
 born Sept. 6, 1780, married Betsey, eldest daughter 
 of Charles Merriman, of Watertown. Dr. Samuel 
 Elton studied medicine for a time with his father, 
 who purposed to give the son the best possible med- 
 ical education, but death defeated his plans, and at 
 the early age of eighteen the son, with little knowl- 
 edg-e of medical works, commenced active practice 
 which was never relaxed until old af^e and disease 
 enforced it; his death occurred Dec. 8. t8.s8. "His 
 conclusions were so uniformly correct that he early 
 
 grew into an extensive practice as consulting and ad- 
 visory physician in all neighboring coinmunities. He 
 was kind and tender in teeling, but never profuse 
 in expressions of sympathy; plain, almost blunt, in 
 language ; stern in outward demeanor, but when oc- 
 casion permitted, jovial and playful as a boy. No 
 one was ever more endeared, or more perfectly se- 
 cured in the confidence of his patients, than was Dr. 
 Samuel Elton to the end. He accpired a handsome 
 estate, which might have been doubled had he chosen 
 to enforce the collection of very reasonable charges 
 for his labors. He never took legal steps to collect 
 a debt. He visited and cared for the poverty- 
 stricken patient with all the assiduity he gave the 
 wealthiest. Honesty, temperance and economy 
 were with him cordial virtues." 
 
 Hon. John Prince Elton, son of Dr. Samuel 
 Elton, was barn April 26, 1809, in Watertown, 
 Conn., where he attended the district schools, and 
 also, when about fifteen years of age, the school of 
 Simeon Hart, at Farmington. Later he worked on 
 his father's farmi until he came to Waterbury in 
 1832, and became a partner in the firm of Holmes & 
 Hotchkiss, manufacturers of sheet brass. After 
 several changes in partnership the firm finally, in 
 1838, became Brown & Elton. On coming into the 
 firm Mr. Elton at once took his place in the mill, and 
 made himself familiar by manual labor with all the 
 aspects of manufacturing, and in addition to the 
 work he did with his hands, he looked after the 
 various details of the business, including the pro- 
 viding of the necessary money to meet the obliga- 
 tions of the firm. He remained in active connec- 
 tion with the firm until 1850, with-drawing then on 
 account of impaired health. In 1854 he took an 
 important part in organizing the Waterbury Brass 
 Co., of which he was a director, and in 1855 became 
 its president, and so continued throughout life. For 
 some years prior to his death he gave much of his 
 time to various corporations, industrial and finan- 
 cial, in which he had invested capital, and in 
 which he held the position of director or president. 
 From December, 1850. to the time of his death, he 
 was president of the Waterbury Bank. In i860 he 
 established a private house styled the Elton Loan & 
 Trust Office, which was successfully carried on af- 
 ter his death by his son and son-in-law (C. N. \\"ay- 
 land) under the name of the Elton Banking Com- 
 pany. 
 
 In 1840, 1849 and 1850, Mr. Elton was elected 
 as a Whig to the General Assembly of the State. 
 On the organization of the Republican party he af- 
 filiated with it, and became one of its strong sup- 
 porters. He was again elected to the General As- 
 sembly in 1863, and was chosen a Presidential 
 elector in 1864, but died two days after his elec- 
 tion— Nov. 10, 1864. He was a membec of the 
 Episcopal Church, and throughout his life gave lib- 
 erally to the expense and charities of St. John's 
 parish. "Mr. Elton was a man of public spirit be- 
 yond most of his contemporaries, and heartilv co- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 27 
 
 operated in enterprises that interested, and were 
 likely to benefit the city." 
 
 A writer thus spoke of him in the press of 
 Waterbury at the time of his death : 
 
 No language of ours can do justice to his uprightness 
 and purity of character, his affluent virtues of mind and 
 heart, which were open as day to melting charity. All 
 these things are recorded on high, and are left as a pre- 
 cious legacy to the living. There is no invidiousness in 
 saying that no man could have been taken from among us 
 whose loss could more deeply have afflicted the welfare of 
 our community, with which he has been identified for 
 thirty-five years as a leading and prominent manufacturer 
 and latterly as a banker — and as president of the Waterbury 
 Bank, as the successor of Judge Bronson, has exhibited 
 financial talents of the highest order. 
 
 The deceased was the confidant of the ever-to-be re- 
 membered brothers Scovill, now and then co-operated with 
 them in all the noble enterprises which could confer 
 wealth, honor and improvement to the place, either in the 
 way of business or embellishment. Generous, ptiblic-spir- 
 ited, and feeling a local pride in the place, the gratitude 
 which the city owes to these three noble men cannot be 
 measured by any language of praise from us. As a citizen, 
 Mr. Elton enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all classes 
 of men, manj- of whom looked up to him for advice and 
 counsel, and who found him ever ready to aid them in all 
 laudable purposes. The writer of this owes a debt of 
 gratitude, and we are but one of hundreds who have occa- 
 sion to honor his memory. He was literally a man of the 
 people, mingled with them, and studied their happiness and 
 prosperity. His benevolence was unbounded — believing 
 that "to whom much is given, much would be required." 
 He considered his large and ample possession as under a 
 stewardship of the Lord, consequently he gave freely of 
 his substance to religious, educational, moral and benevo- 
 lent purposes. The town, the church and even the State, 
 have suffered a loss not easily supplied — to say nothing of 
 his sorrowing and deeply bereaved family. In short, as a 
 friend, a Christian, a counsellor and a citizen, it will be 
 long before we look upon his like agaia 
 
 On May 8, 1835, Mr. Elton was married to 
 Olive Margaret, daughter of Capt. Moses Hall. 
 She was born June 15, 1816, and died Nov. 2, 1892. 
 There were four children born of this union, name- 
 ly: Lucy E., born April 16, 1837, is the wife of 
 C. N. Wayland; James Samuel, born Nov. 7, 1838, 
 is mentioned further on; Charles P., born Aug. 17, 
 1840, died April 12, 1845 ! ^nd John M., born March 
 19, 1845, died at the age of eighteen years. The 
 children of this marriage are of a nolsle ancestry 
 in lines embracing Dr. Daniel Porter and John Hop- 
 kins among the founders of Waterbury. Several 
 of their forefathers, including Capt. Nathaniel Mer- 
 riman, John Punderson and William Andrews, were 
 founders of New Haven. Others in the persons of 
 Stphen Hart, John Bronson, Anthony Hawkins, 
 Deacon John Hall and Dr. John Hull, were con- 
 spicuous at Farmington and Wallingford in their 
 early settlement. 
 
 Hon. James Samuel Elton, son of John Prince 
 Elton, was born Nov. 7, 1838, in Waterbury, Conn. 
 He was educated in Rev. C. W. Everest's school, 
 Hamden, and Gen. Russell's military school, New 
 Haven. For a time he received some practical 
 knowledge of manufacturing in the employ of the 
 American Pin Co., of Waterbury, and of business 
 
 in the New York store of the Scovill Manufacturing 
 Co. In 1863 he established himself in business in 
 his native place with the Waterbury Brass Co., and 
 has ever since been responsibly connected with that 
 company. He has been the executive head of the 
 company since 1874, succeeding to the presidency 
 at the death of J. C. Welton. Mr. Elton has been 
 connected with a number of the corporations of 
 Waterbury and elsewhere, and has led an active 
 business hfe. He is a director of the American 
 Brass Co., the New England Watch Co., of Blake & 
 Johnson, and of the Waterbury National Bank, 
 which his father assisted in organizing, and of which 
 he was the second president, an office he held up to- 
 the time of his death. 
 
 In 1881 Mr. Elton was nominated by his party 
 as State Senator. He was elected, notwithstanding 
 his party was the minority one in the district. He 
 is an active member, and an official of St. John's 
 Episcopal Church. He is managing trustee of the 
 Halls' "Church fund," a director in St. Margaret's 
 Diocesan school, and in the Waterbury Hospital. 
 He gives liberallv to the charitable institutions and 
 undertakings of the city. One has only to read be- 
 tween the lines to conclude that Mr. Elton is a man 
 of culture and refinement, of large business capac- 
 ity, and a successful and esteemed citizen. 
 
 On Oct. 28, 1863, Mr. Elton was married to- 
 Charlotte, daughter of Hiram Steel, of East Bloom- 
 field, N. Y., who died May 8, 1899. One child, John 
 Prince, born June 20, 1865, blessed this union. The 
 son is a graduate of Trinity College, Hartford, and 
 is now assistant treasurer of the Waterbury Brass 
 Company. 
 
 SAMUEL W. S. HALL. In the death of Mr. 
 Hall March 5, 1877, the city of Waterbury lost one 
 of its foremost business men, and up to that time its 
 greatest benefactor. 
 
 Mr. Hall was a native of Waterbury, and a de- 
 scendant of one of the early settlers of New Haven 
 and Wallingford, Conn. The first American an- 
 cestor of this branch of the Hall familv was John 
 Hall, of England. He married Jane Woolen ; was 
 at Boston, then at New Flaven, but not as an orig- 
 inal settler of the latter point, his name not appear- 
 ing until after 1650. He moved to Wallingford 
 after the settlement had commenced, his name ap- 
 pearing there in 1672. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was a descendant in 
 the seventh generation from John Hall, the emi- 
 grant, the line of his descent being through John 
 Hall (2), Nathan Hall, Herman Hall, Curtis Hall 
 and Capt. Moses Hall. 
 
 (II) John Hall (2), son of John Hall, baptized 
 in 1646, married Mary, daughter of Edward Parker, 
 at New Haven, in 1666, and located in Wallingford 
 with the first settlers in 1670. He died in 172T. 
 
 (III) Nathan Hall, son of John Hall (2), born 
 in 1677, married (first) in 1699, Elizabeth Curtis; 
 
28 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 she died in 1735. and he married (second) in i/i<'. 
 Lydia Johnson. He died in 1757. 
 
 (IV) Herman Hall, son of Nathan Hall, born 
 in 1720, was among the early settlers in Wolcott, 
 Conn. He died in 1769, and his wife, Elizabeth, 
 in 1804. 
 
 (V) Curtis Hall, son of Herman Hall, born in 
 1746, married Rachel Beecher. He was killed in 
 1799 by '"falling- from a tree that was already down." 
 His widow subsequently became the wife of John 
 Bronson. 
 
 Capt. Moses Hall, son of Curtis Hall, and the 
 father of the late Samuel W. S. Hall, was baptized 
 Nov. 2, 1788. He married Olive Porter, daughter 
 of Dr. Timothy Porter, and removed to Waterbury. 
 Their children were: Nelson, Hopkins, Samuel W. 
 S., and Olive (who married John P. Elton). 
 
 The late Samuel W. S. Hall, son of Capt. Moses 
 and Olive (Porter) Hall, was born July 5, 1814, in 
 Waterbury, Conn. At about sixteen years of age 
 he began employment with J. M. L. & W. H. Sco- 
 vill as a clerk in their store, which he took full 
 charge of several years later, and so remained until 
 they abandoned the mercantile business in 1852. 
 Following this for a time Mr. Hall had charge of 
 the Manhan Woolen Company's business. He next 
 entered the business of an insurance agent, asso- 
 ciated with J. W. Smith, which business they con- 
 ducted successfully for several years. On the or- 
 ganization of the Scovill Manufacturing Company, 
 Mr. Hall became a stockholder, and was chosen a 
 director in the samie, and in 1861 was made presi- 
 dent and manager of the company. In 1855, on the 
 death of Abram Ives, he became president of the 
 Citizens National Bank, both of which positions he 
 resigned in 1868 on account of increasing ill-health, 
 and was not afterward engaged in active business. 
 When a young man, Mr. Hall was a model of 
 manly strength and vigor, but for many years 
 previous to his giving up business he had been a 
 severe sufferer from rheumatism, which under- 
 mined his naturally vigorous constitution, and ren- 
 dered him unable to resist acute disease. Mr. Hall 
 accumulated a large and handsome fortune which 
 he used with liberality during his life time, and he 
 gave by his will a larger amlount of money than any 
 other man had, up to that time in the town, to 
 public uses snd for charitable purposes — in round 
 numbers $68,000. Among his bequests were one 
 to promote the missioniS of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church, and for important objects in the Church of 
 that denomination of his native city ; one for a sol- 
 dier's monument in Waterbury ; one for the building 
 of a Memorial Chapel at Riverside Cemetery ; and 
 another for a memorial Church in Waterbury. The 
 Soldiers' monument was erected and dedicated Oct. 
 23, 1884: and the Plall Memorial Cha<pcl was dedi- 
 cated June II, 1885, a tablet on its wall at the ceme- 
 tery gate declares that "for the uprightness of his 
 life and for his liberal provision for manv good 
 
 works, his name is held in grateful remembrance 
 
 On Oct. 10, 1836, Mr. 'Hall was married to 
 Nancv M., daughter of Edmund and Sarah Austm. 
 She died Feb. 8, 1868. Mr. Hall, for some years 
 prior to his death had passed the pleasant portion 
 of the season in traveling, and was probabl}' more 
 widelv known than any other man in Waterbury. 
 At the time of his death the \'V'aterbury American 
 observed : 
 
 He was a thorough and successful business man; 
 gifted with a quick observation and good memory — of a 
 warm and generous disposition, quick to speak, free to ex- 
 press his ooinion. but ready to acknowledge himself in 
 the Wrong when he found that he was mistaken, and thor- 
 oughly rigidly and scrupulously honest in all his dealings 
 both by nature and from principle. He had accumulated a 
 handso'me fortune and was a helper in works of public and 
 private benevolence. He was a communicant and promi- 
 nent member of St. John's Episcopal Church, and his pres- 
 ence will be greatly missed. 
 
 HON. JA:\IES DUDLEY DEWELL, for forty- 
 four years" a resident of New Haven, has closely 
 identified himself with business and social interests 
 there and is considered one of the influential citi- 
 zens of his adopted city. He traces his lineage from 
 good ancestral stock on both sides. His paternal 
 ancestor, 
 
 (I) William Devill, the first of this line in 
 America, was in Duxbury in 1640; Braintree, 1643; 
 Rehoboth, 1645-/1651 : Newport, 1653-1680. His 
 descendants have various spellings of the name — 
 Devol, Deval, Duel, Deuel, Dewell, Duval, etc. 
 
 (II) Jonathan, son of William, was in New- 
 port, Little Compton and Dartmouth. He died be- 
 tween 1737 and 1742. He married Hannah Audley. 
 
 (III) Jonathan, Jr., son of Jonathan, was a res- 
 ident of Dartmouth and died in 1709. He married 
 Mary Clark, who survived him, and they are known 
 to have had dhildren, as follows: William, who is 
 mentioned below ; Hannah, born Jan. 29, 1699 ; Jon- 
 athan, born May i, 1702: Alfya'h ; Meribeth, bom 
 Oct. 21, 1707; and Alary, born Feb. 26, 1710. The 
 following is a copy of the will of Jonathan Devol : 
 
 To all people to wdiom these presents shall come. I, 
 Jonathan Devol, Jim. of Dartmouth, in the County of 
 Bristol in New England, do herebv manifest & declare that 
 I being at this time senseable of the weakness of my body, 
 but my memory and understanding being good and sound, 
 do hereby for the settlement of my worldly estate make 
 this mv Inst will and testament to be of force after my de- 
 cease & no other. 
 
 Imps. I give to my •^on William Devol all that my 
 homestead lott or farm wliich my father Jonathan Devol 
 gave me 1iy deed of gift, it being fifty acres more or less, 
 besides the salt marsh meadow with all the housing or- 
 chard, fences and annurces. to be and remaine unto my sd 
 son \\'i1l!am Devol his heirs and assigns forever. Allways 
 excepting my wives thirds of sd lands dureing her natural! 
 life. 
 
 Item, I give to mv son Jonathan Devol all that my 
 fifty acres of land, which I bought of my fatther Jonathan 
 Devol and have a deed for said land and lyeth at the head 
 nf the lands given to my son William, but my wilt is that 
 livs mothers thirds be excepted during her natural! life, to 
 
^ A-^c^c^^IjL 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 be and remain unto him my said son Jonathan Devol, 
 his heires and assigns forever. 
 
 Also I give and bequeath unto my two sons before 
 named, all my priviledge in lands in the Township of Dart- 
 mouth, to be equally divided between them. 
 
 Item, I give to my daughter Hannah Devol six pounds 
 to be payd to her by my son William Devol when she comes 
 to be twenty years of age. 
 
 Item, I give to my daughter Alfyah six pounds ; allso 
 to be payd by my son William when she comes to be eight- 
 een years of age. Allso I giv€ to my daughter Meribeth 
 six pounds to be allso payd by my son William Devol when 
 she comes to be eighteen years of age. 
 
 I give and bequeath to my louving wife Mariah Devol 
 all my moveables or personall estate, whom I constitute & 
 appoint to be my whole & sole executrix of this my last 
 will and testament. 
 
 In witness whereof, I, the said Jonathan Devol Jun. 
 have sett to my hand and seal the eight day of August one 
 thousand seven hundred nine 1709. 
 
 Jonathan Devol Seal. 
 
 Signed, sealed, published & declared by the above sd 
 Jonathan Devol as his last will and testament, in presents 
 of us the subscribers. 
 
 Joseph Tripp 
 
 James Tripp X his mark. 
 
 George Cadman. 
 
 (IV) William, son of Jonathan, born in Dart- 
 mouth April 16, 1698, died in 1760. He married 
 P^lizabeth Whitehead, who died before April 21, 
 1759, the date of his will, which is recorded in 
 Taunton. Their children were: Apphia, born 
 March 6, 1718; Jonathan, who is mentioned below; 
 and William, born March 4, 1728, who died June 22, 
 1814. The following is a copy of the will of (IV) 
 William Davel : 
 
 The last Will ■ and Testament of William Davel. I, 
 William of Dartmouth, in the County of Bristol, in the 
 Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, black- 
 smith, being in health of body and of sound disposing mind 
 and memory, thanks be given to God theirfor, calling to 
 mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is ap- 
 ointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this to 
 be my last will and testament, that is to say. Principally 
 and First of all I give and recommend my Soule into the 
 hand of God that gave it and my body to the earth to be 
 buried in deacent Christian buril and as touching such 
 worldly estate wherewith it hath pleased God to bless me 
 with in this life, I give, demise and dispose of the same in 
 the following manner. 
 
 Item, I give and bequeath to my loving son Jonathan 
 Davel and to his heirs and assigns forever, all that my lot 
 or track of larfd whereon he now dw'els with that my lot 
 of land oposite to it on the south side of the Country Rhode 
 and joyning to said rhode with all my salt medow in the 
 horse neck m.edows. I allso give to my sd son Jonathan 
 Davel all my wearing apparill and my gun and seven pounds 
 in lawfuU money to be paid my son William Davel, at 
 my decease. 
 
 Item, I give and bequeath to my loving son William 
 Davel and to his heirs and assignes forever, all my home- 
 steed farme, both uplands and salt medows and all my salt 
 medow down the river, which I have not already disposed 
 of and allso all my live stock and out dore moveables of 
 what nature or kind soever and all my smithing tools and 
 tools belonging to a carpenters trade. I also give to my 
 sd son William Davel one feather bed three blankits. one 
 coverlet and my high desk, and my oobbard and all my 
 money, bonds, notes and book -debts, he paying my debts 
 and a legacy to his sister and what I have ordered to his 
 brother. 
 
 Item, I give and bequeath to my loving daughter 
 
 Apphia Davel and to her heirs and assigns foreVer fifteen 
 pounds in lawfull money, to be paid to her by my son 
 William Davel att my decease. I also give to my said daugh- 
 ter all the rest of my indore movables that I have not all 
 ready disposed of and I give my said daughter the privi- 
 ledge of living in my least dwelling house as long 'as she 
 remains singel. And the priviledge to get fier wood for her 
 own fier on my farme. 
 
 And 1 do nommate and appoint my son William Davel 
 to be my soule executor of this my last will and testament, 
 and I do hereby utterly revoke and make null & void all 
 and every other will and testament and executors by me 
 in any wise heretofore made or named, ratifying this and 
 no other to be my last will and testament. 
 
 In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and 
 seal this twenty-first day of April Anno Domini i/sg. 
 
 Signed, sealed and published, pronounced and declared 
 by the said William Davel to be his last will and testa- 
 ment, in the presents of us, the subscribers. 
 
 William Davel. Seal. 
 
 Timothy Tripp 
 James Sisson 
 Thomas Tripp. 
 
 (V) Jonathan, born Jan., 16, 1721, died 1781-84. 
 In the Dartmouth town records the intention of mar- 
 riage of Jonathan and Mary Lawton was entered 
 Sept. 3, 1745, and they were married that year 
 (1745). Of their children we have record of John, 
 Patience, Robert, Peaceable, Mary, Lydia, Deborah, 
 Elizabeth, Barjona and Jonathan. (V) Jonathan 
 l)avel resided in Dartmouth, Mass., in Tiverton, R. 
 I., and in Nine Partners, New York. 
 
 (VI) Jonathan Duel, born Alarch 20, 1765, died 
 in 1831. He resided in Tiverton, R. I., Nine Part- 
 ners and Pine Plains, N. Y. He married Saiah 
 Rider, who' died in 1841, aged seventy-five years, 
 and we have mention of their eleven children, Ruth, 
 Lydia, Mary, Deborah, Eleanor, Oiarlotte, Sally, 
 Hannah, James, Jonathan, Jr., and John. Jonathan 
 and Sarah (Rider) Duel are buried in the Knicker- 
 bocker cemetery, some three miles east of the village 
 of Pine Plains. 
 
 (VII) Johni Dewell, eldest son of above named 
 Jonathan and Sarah, and the father of James D. 
 Dewdl, was born in Pine Plains Sept. 3, 1795, mar- 
 ried Jan. I, 1826, at Norfolk, Conn., Mary Humph- 
 rey, daug'hter of Dudley and Mary (Phelps) 
 Humphrey, born Oct. 7, 1803. John Dewell was a 
 merchant and manufacturer in Norfolk, where he 
 died Oct. 2, 1871, a respected and highly esteemed 
 citizen of the community. His wife survived many 
 years, dying April 24, 1891. To their union came 
 children, as follows: (i) John H., born in 1827, 
 was married (first) in 1848 to Cynthia Hitchcock; 
 for his second wife he married Harriet Austin; he 
 was a merchant in the town of Norfolk, Conn., and 
 died at Plymotith, Conn., in 1896. He served as a 
 captain in the Civil war. (2) Mary E., born in 1829, 
 was married in 1856 to Robert C. Peck, who be- 
 
 . came a merchant in New Plaven, where he died in 
 1869. (3) Sarah was born in 1832. (4) James 
 Dudley is mentioned below. (5) Mattie A., born in 
 1842, was married in 1869 to Theron S. Swain, who 
 is a merchant in Boston. (6) Charles G., born in 
 1844, died in 1846. 
 
30 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mrs. Mar)^ (Hump'hrey) Dewell, noted above as 
 the mother of James D., is a descendant in the sev- 
 enth generation from (I) Michael Humphrey, the 
 emigrant ancestor of the family, who was at Wind- 
 sor, Gonn., prior to i'i43, when he and Sergt. John 
 Griffin were engaged in making turpentine in ^\'hat 
 is now Simsbury. Priscila, daughter of Matthew 
 Grant, of Windsor, became his wife in 1647. Her 
 father was the ancestor of Gen. U. S. Grant. From 
 Michael Humphrey Mrs. Dewdl's descent is traced 
 through Sergeant John, Deacon John, Deacon 
 Adichael, Asahel and Dudley Humphrey. (H) 
 Sergt. John Humphrey, born in 1650, was married 
 to Hannah, daughter of Sergt. John and Anna 
 (Bancroft) Griffin, and settled in Simsbury, where 
 lie died in 1697. (HI) Deacon John Humphrey, 
 "born in 1671, was married in 1699 to Sarah Mills, 
 widow of John Mills, and daughter of John Petti- 
 bone, and settled in Simsbury, where he died in 
 1732; he was a deacon in the Congregational 
 Church. (IV) Deacon Michael Humphrey, born in 
 1703, was married in 1735 to Mercy, daughter of 
 Jonathan and Mercy (Ruggles) Humphrey, and 
 settled in Sim'sbury, his native town, where he in- 
 troduced the making of leather. He was one of 
 the deacons of the Congregational Church, and in 
 
 1759 was a representative in the General Court. In 
 
 1760 he removed to Norfolk, where he was chosen 
 ■deacon of the local church at its organization. A 
 justice of the peace and town clerk, he was a prom- 
 inent man, and died in 1778. (V) Asahel Humph- 
 rey, son of the foregoing, was born in 1747 in 
 Simsbury and was married in 1773 to Prudence 
 Merrill. They settled in Norfolk, where he served 
 as selectman and for several terms was a representa- 
 tive in the General Court. Finally he removed to 
 New Marlborough, where he died in 1827. He 
 bore arms in the Revolution. (VI) Dudley Humph- 
 rey, son of Asahel, born in 1775 at Norfolk, was 
 married Oct. 16, 1798, to Mary Phelps, daughter 
 of Darius and INIary (Aiken) Phelps, born in Nor- 
 folk April 4, 1780. They settled at Norfolk, where 
 their children were born : Harriet, John, Mary 
 (Mrs. John Dewell), Griswold, Merrill, James and 
 Caroline. 
 
 (VIII) James Dudley Dewell, eighth in line 
 from William Devill, was born Sept. 3, 1837, in 
 Norfolk, Conn. In 1858, after some experience as 
 a clerk in a country store, he left his home and 
 came to New Haven to take a poisition as salesman 
 for Bushnell & Co., wholesale grocers. His services 
 soon commended him to the house, and in i860 lie 
 was admitted to the firm, the name becoming Bush- 
 nell & Dewell. In 1879 it became J. D. Dewell & 
 Co., as it is at present, a firm name which has be- 
 come familiar to the mercantile world. The enter- 
 prise, public spirit and force of character of IMr. 
 Dewell ' soon became manifest, and as the years 
 passed pushed 'him to the front rank of the business 
 men and citizens of the community. I-Ie has held 
 close to his heart the liest interests of New Haven, 
 
 and all measures for the good of the community 
 have found in him a hearty supporter. Mr. Dewell 
 was one of the principle movers in organizing the 
 State Board of Trade in 1890, becoming its first 
 president, and his administration has been so ideal 
 that he has been retained as the head of the organi- 
 zation to the present time. For many years Mr. 
 Dewell was president of the Chamber of Commerce 
 of New Haven, and he was at the head of the move- 
 ment for good roads throughout the State. For 
 twenty years or more he has been a director and con- 
 tributor to the needs of the Young Men's Institute 
 in New Haven. Mr. Dewell is a director in the 
 Fvergreen Cemetery Association, vice-president of 
 the Security Insurance Co., a director of the New 
 Plaven Water Co., a director of the City Bank, of 
 New Haven, a director of the New Haven Trust 
 Co., and vice-president of the National Savings 
 Bank. He is owner and manager of the Sutton 
 fleet, a coast-wise industry, embracing six large 
 three, four and five masted vessels, plying between 
 Southern ports and New England. He is a mem- 
 ber of the New Haven Colony Historical Society 
 and belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution 
 and the Society of Founders and Patriots. Fra- 
 ternally he belongs to Hiram Lodge, No. i, F. & 
 A. M., of which he was worshipful master in 1869. 
 In religious connection he is a member of the Church 
 of the Redeemer (Congregational). 
 
 In politics Mr. Dewell is a stanch Republican. 
 Among the charter members of the Republican 
 League, now the Lhiion League, he has since main- 
 tained a lively interest in its welfare and has served 
 several terms as its president. Deeply interested 
 in public afifairs as he is, Mr. Dewell's extensive and 
 varied interests have practically excluded him from 
 the field of politics. In 1896, however, he consented 
 to become a candidate for the position of lieutenant- 
 governor, tO' which he was triumphantly elected. 
 The duties of this office were discharged by him with 
 ability, dignity and grace. Socially Mr. Dewell is 
 genial and affable and he is popular wherever he is 
 known. Mr. Dewell was first lieutenant of the New 
 Haven Grays from 1865 to 1867. 
 
 On July 2, i860, Mr. Dewell was married to 
 iMary E,, daughter of Aaron and Mary A. (Winch) 
 Keyes, of Norfolk, Conn., and to this union have 
 been born six children: Jessie K., who graduated 
 from A'assar in 1883 ; Charles K. ; James D., Jr. ; 
 Robert P. ; and Franklin W. and Edward H. (twins) 
 born in 1877, the latter of whom died in 1878. 
 
 HON. SAMUEL DODD, president of the In- 
 ternational Sih'er Company, with headquarters in 
 Meriden, a corporation representing millions of 
 money and a dozen and more extensive factories 
 and former companies, and a man who for many 
 years has been one of the leading spirits in this 
 line of manufacturing in Meriden, is one of the 
 brainy business men of New England. 
 
 Mr, Dodd was born in. 1S34, in the city of Hart- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 31 
 
 ford, a son of Samuel and Frances (Bull) Dodd, 
 and on both sides comes of early New England, 
 families. Hinman, in his "Early Euritan Settlers" 
 gives us an Edward Dodd, a son of John of North- 
 amptonshire, England, as the first of the name that 
 came to Hartford, coming thence with a sister Jo- 
 hanna about 1682, when eighteen years of age. He 
 married Lydia Flowers, of Hartford, and they had 
 ten children. Savage in his Genealogical Diction- 
 ary, gives us a Samuel Dodd at Brantord, 1644, all 
 of wliose sons excepting Stephen, removed to New 
 Jersey. Stephen, baptized in New Haven in 1656, 
 married in 1678, Aviary or Sarah, daughter of Will- 
 iam Stevens. From this couple descended Rev. 
 Stephen Dodd, who for many years was pastor of 
 the Congregational Church in East Haven, Conn., 
 and who sixty or more years ago prepared and 
 published a valuable work, or register, of East 
 Haven history and genealogy. 
 
 The old Bull family, too, was early in New 
 England and prominent in the annals of Hartford. 
 Thomas Bull is noted in the Memorial History of 
 Hartford County, edited by the late Dr. J. H. Trum- 
 bull, as one of the original proprietors of Hartford. 
 Capt. Bull was born in 1605 ; was first at Boston 
 or Cambridge and accompanied Rev. Thomas Hook- 
 er to Hartford in 1636. Winthrop refers to him as 
 a "goodly and discreet man." He served in the 
 Pequot war in 1637. iHe was appointed a lieutenant 
 in 1653. He was in com'mand of the fort at Say- 
 brook when Sir Edmund Andros attempted to gain 
 the place for his master, the Duke of York, in 1675. 
 He and his wife, Susanna, were original members 
 of South Church in 1670. Maj. Jonathan Bull, a 
 son of Capt. Thomas, was a brave officer of the 
 French and Indian wars, and was engaged in trade, 
 owning a number of vessels. Dr. Jonathan, son of 
 Alaj. Jonathan, was one of the first highly educated 
 physicians of Hartford. The Doctor's son, Judge 
 Jonathan, was a distinguished lawyer and held 
 many responsible offices. Again in the line of Jo- 
 seph Bull, a son of the original settler, came men 
 of prominence, Caleb Bull, son of Joseph, had nine 
 sons, all prominent citizens of Hartford. So much 
 for some of the early members of the family. 
 
 Samuel Dodd, of Meriden, the subject proper of 
 this sketch, was educated in the public schools and 
 High school of Flartford. He passed his youth and 
 early manhood in his native city where his business 
 care'er was begun. After his school days were 
 closed he was for five years an employe in the drug 
 house of Lee & Butler, then for a period in the City 
 Bank, as teller and discount clerk. In 1857 he went 
 to Meriden as cashier in the Home Bank, an insti- 
 tution next to the oldest bank in the city,, it being 
 organized in 1854, and was incorporated in 1855 ag 
 the Home Bank of Meriden. The original capital 
 of the bank was $100,000, which was increased to 
 $600,000, and with a large surplus. In 1865 the 
 institution was made the Home National Bank. 
 
 From the Home Bank ]\Ir. Dodd entered other 
 lines of business. Fie was one of the original Parker 
 & Casper Co. (incorporated in May, 1867), of which 
 E. Parker, Charles Casper, Philip S. Pelton and 
 Samuel Dodd, Jr., were members. This body was 
 merged with the Wilcox Silver Plate Co., which 
 had its beginning as the Wilcox Britannia Co., in- 
 corporated in December, 1865, the name of the Wil- 
 cox Silver Plate Co. being adopted in May, 1867. 
 The original capital of the latter company was $250,- 
 000, which was increased to $370,000, and the com- 
 pany by growth and absorption became one of the 
 strongest in Meriden. For many years Mr. Dodd, 
 the subject of this article, was the efficient secretary 
 and treasurer of the Wilcox Co., and recently, on 
 the formation of the International Silver Co., he 
 was made its executive officer. The Wilcox Com- 
 pany occupied a plant, which gave employment to 
 nearly 400 operatives, and manufactured an im- 
 mense variety of silver plated goods. The output 
 was about $700,000 per year. 
 
 Mr. Dodd is a director in the Home National 
 Bank, and has been secretary and treasurer of the 
 Meriden Gas Co., since its organization. In 1879 
 he served the city as member of the Connecticut 
 General Assembly. Mr. Dodd married Catherine, 
 daughter of the late James S. Brooks, one of Merid- 
 en's prominent citizens, and of their children Charles 
 T. Dodd is a leading manufacturer of Meriden, en- 
 gaged in miaking boxes, casks, barrels, etc., at No. 
 164 State Street; he married Etta S. Smith. 
 
 James S. Brooks, father of ]Mrs. Dodd, was 
 born March I, 1796, in East Haddam, Conn., son of 
 Clark and Millicent E. (Clark) Brooks. At sixteen 
 he was apprenticed to David Plant, and came to 
 ;\Ieriden to learn the carpenter's trade. After hav- 
 ing served his apprenticeship he followed the busi- 
 ness for some few years, after which he was em- 
 ployed by Major Elisha A. Cowles, a merchant of 
 Aleriden, to travel and sell goods and Yankee no- 
 tions for him. Young Brooks, with a single horse 
 and wagon, loaded with goods, started South, 
 driving to South Carolina, and in that State 
 conducted — in connection with Mr. Cowles, 
 under the firm name of J. S. Brooks & 
 Co. — 'business for nearly twenty years, his 
 family in the meantime residing in Meriden. Re- 
 turning to the latter point, Mr. Brooks engaged in 
 numerous enterprises, at one time manufacturing 
 augers ; and at another as a member of the Parker, 
 Snow, Brooks Co. Mr. Brooks was one of the 
 pioneers in building the Flartford, New Haven & 
 Springfield Railroad, and, besides being a director 
 of the company, served several years as vice-presi- 
 dent, and for a number of years as acting president 
 of the road. 
 
 Mr. Brooks was largely identified with the af- 
 fairs of the town of Meriden. FIc served as select- 
 man, judge of probate, justice of the peace, and was 
 a representative in the State Legislature in 1839, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1844, 1855 ^^''d 1857. He was active and promi- 
 nent, too, in churcn affau's, and gave the land on 
 which the West Meriden Congregational Church 
 was built, as well as $1,000 in money toward the 
 erection of the buikhng. He was a man of quick 
 perception, and could readily judge of the character 
 and intent of men. He was ardent in his tempera- 
 ment, strong in his attachments, and kind as a neigh- 
 bor and friend. He had what is termed good hard 
 sense, and possessed a goodly share of mother-wit. 
 His will was strong and he made his influence felt 
 in the community. 
 
 On Aug. 31, 1823, Mr. Brooks was married to 
 Millicent, daughter of Patrick Clark. IJe died Oct. 
 29, 1862, leaving ten children — six daughters and 
 four sons. One of the latter, John C, died in 1864, 
 after a service of nearly three years in the Union 
 army. 
 
 HON. ERASTUS CLARK SCRANTON, late 
 of Madison and New Haven, president of the New 
 York & New Haven Railroad, long prominent by 
 being connected with marine commerce and the 
 banking interests of New Haven, State senator and 
 member oif the Lower House from his native town, 
 and whose memory has been perpetuated in the 
 erection of a substantial library building at Madi- 
 son by his only surviving child, i\Iiss Mary Eliza 
 Scranton, of New Haven, was one of the eminently 
 successful men of his period. 
 
 Born Nov. 16, 1807, '™ ^ladison. New Haven 
 Co., Conn., Mr. Scranton was the son of Jonathan 
 and Roxanna (Crampton) Scranton, of Madison, 
 and a descendant in the seventh generation from 
 Capt. John Scranton, one of the about twenty-five 
 heads of families who made a settlement in Guilford, 
 Conn., in October,i639. These families came from 
 Kent and Surrey, England, and in general were 
 pious, intelligent and industrious men, most of them 
 famiers. Capt. Scranton was twice married, the 
 first time probably in England, and this wife, Joanna, 
 died in 1661. His second marriage, in 1666, was to 
 Ada (or Adaline), widow of Robert Hill; she died 
 in 1685. Capt. Scranton was a farmer and was 
 honored with a seat in the General Court in 1669 
 and 1670. His death occurred in 1671. His male 
 descendants, to a great extent, have been farmers, 
 and in general, useful, industrious and respected cit- 
 izens of the communities in which they settled. 
 From this Capt. John Scranton the late Hon. Eras- 
 tus C. Scranton's line is through Capt. John (2), 
 Capt. John (3\ Capt. Ichabod, Tlieophilus and 
 Jonathan Scranton. 
 
 (H) Capt. John Scranton (2), son of Capt. 
 John, the settler, born as early as 1641, and the first 
 of the name in East Guilford, now Madison, mar- 
 ried (first) March 12, 1674, Mary Seward, who was 
 born Feb. 28, \()S2. daughter of William Seward. 
 His second marriage, on Dec. 10, 1691, was to 
 Widow Elizabeth Clark, daughter of John Bishoo. 
 Capt. Scranton died .Sept. 2, 1703. 
 
 (HI) Capt. John Scranton (3), son of Capt. 
 John (2), bom about 1676 in Hammonassett, was a 
 farmer and resided in what is now the town of Madi- 
 son, where he died ]\Iarch 21, 1758. He married 
 (first), Dec. 12, 1699, Mary Norton; his second 
 wife was Mary or Sarah Everts, daughter of John ; 
 she died in October, 1749, and he married (third) 
 Mary, daughter of Deacon Francis Bushnell. 
 
 (IV) Capt. Idhabod Scranton, son of Capt. John 
 (3), born Feb. 19, 1717, married Chloe Fowler, who 
 was born March 3, 1723, daughter of Abraham Fow- 
 ler, of Guilford. Capt. Scranton was a soldier, and 
 held his rank in the French and Indian war; he 
 was at Louisbourg and at Ticonderoga. He is de- 
 scribed as a man of patriotism, strong and brave, 
 and enterprising. His death occurred Dec. I, 1760, 
 while he was en route home from military service. 
 His wife, Chloe, died Dec. 3, 1791. 
 
 (V) Theophilus Scranton, son oi Capt. Ichabod, 
 born Dec. i, 1751, married Abigail Lee, who was 
 born July 11, 1754, daughter of Jonathan Lee, of 
 Madison. Mr. Scranton was a farmer in Madison, 
 where he died Feb. 16, 1827, and his wife passed 
 away Dec. 23, 1840.- 
 
 (VI) Jonathan Scranton, son of Theophilus, 
 born Oct. 10, 1781, miarried (first) Jan. 27, 1805, 
 Roxanna Crampton, who waS born May 30, 1789, 
 a daughter of Ashbel Crampton, of ;\Iadison. She 
 died Dec. 2y, 1833, and in 1844 ^J^r. Scranton mar- 
 ried (second) Jemima, daughter of Daniel Piatt. 
 Mr. Scranton was a prominent member of the 
 church in Miadison. He was engaged in farming 
 and was also a contractor of iDreakwaters and 
 wharfs. His death occurred Julv 27, 1847. 
 
 Erastus Clark Scranton, son of Jonathan, and 
 of whose life it is the purpose of this article to es- 
 pecially treat, received a common school education 
 in his native town. He began his career as a cabin 
 boy on 'board a vessel, and first began mercantile 
 pursuits at Georgetown, D. C, where, however, he 
 remained but a short time. Soon he owned a vessel 
 and was a master. His advancement in commer- 
 cial channels was rapid and attended with great 
 success. In 1835 he became established as a whole- 
 sale grocer at Augusta, Ga., where until 1842 he 
 conducted an extensive business. Later, for a short 
 period, he engaged in a banking business at Apalach- 
 icola, Florida. 
 
 Returning about 1844 tO' his native State and 
 town with a handsome fortune Mr. Scranton entered 
 into a business partnership with several gentlemen 
 in New York who were interested in the trade with 
 South America. He became largely engaged in 
 commerce, doing an extensive coasting trade as far 
 south as Florida and was largely interested in a 
 line O'f packets running between New York and 
 Liverpool, England, also in ships making voyages 
 to other ports. He also became identified witih the 
 business life of New Haven and its vicinity, being 
 among the active promoters of the Shore Line Raik 
 road. In 1854 the business ties which had bound 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 33 
 
 himi to New York were severed and in 1855 he was 
 elected president of the Ehii City Bank, now the 
 second Naitional Bank of New Haven. The 
 bank was then a new institution and under his man- 
 agement its 'business grew and prospered beyond 
 all expectation. New Haven was Mr. Scranton's 
 business home for years prior to 1864, when it be- 
 came his permanent dwelling place. In 1865 he 
 was honored with the presidency of tihe New York 
 & New Haven Railroad, and was that year elected 
 mayor of the city. 
 
 Not long after his return to his native town, in 
 the early 'forties, Mr. Scranton became interested 
 and active in the town's welfare and his old friends 
 and fellow townsmen repeatedly honored him with 
 positions of public trust and responsibility. He 
 was elected to the State Legislature as a Democrat 
 in 1845, 1846 and 1850; as an American in 1856; 
 and as a Republican in 1862, to the State Senate. 
 Througlhout the Civil war he was prominent among 
 the supporters of the National Government and was 
 generously active in the organizations for sending 
 contributions to the support of the Union cause. 
 
 In both Madison and New Haveni Mr. Scranton's 
 diligence, abi' :y and generosity won for him wide 
 recognition rr i made him many warm friends, and 
 the people inti jsted to bim the laboring oar in many 
 public affairs and improvements. At the head of 
 many public trusts, Mr. Scranton remained until his 
 sudden taking away, Dec. 29, 1866, by an accident, 
 while stepping onto a moving train at South Nor- 
 walk, wJien in the midst of his honors and great 
 usefulness. In his death the commercial life of 
 New Haven was deprived of a chief support and the 
 community lost a sagacious, public-spirited and be- 
 loved citizen. The erection of a public library 
 building at Madison, the home of his youth, middle 
 and later life, as well as the bome for generations of 
 his ancestors, is a fitting tribute to his memory by 
 a loving daughter. 
 
 On Nov. 4, 1829, Mr. Scranton was married to 
 Lydia Stannard, who was born Oct. 8, 1808, daugh- 
 ter of Job Stannard, of Westbrook, and to this 
 union came children, as follows: Ezra Erastus, 
 born Sept. 3, 1831, died May 19, 1855; Mary Eliza, 
 born Sept. 27, 1837, died Dec. 16, 1839; Mary Eliza 
 (2), born Sept. 23, 1840; and Francis Rathbone, 
 born :\Iarch 14, 185 1, died Nov. 7, 1853. 
 
 HORATIO GATES REDFIELD, cashier of 
 the New Haven County National Bank, at New 
 Haven, was born Aug. 26, 1836, and is a descendant 
 in the seventh generation from William Redfin, as 
 the name was written in the early days before 1662. 
 While the family resided at New London, the name 
 seems gradually to have assumed its present form. 
 William Redfin was probably one of the early emi- 
 grants from England, and as early as 1639, occu- 
 pied a house on the south side of the Charles River, 
 some six miles from Boston. Later he removed to 
 what is now the town of Ledyard, Conn., to a point 
 3 
 
 called Brewster's Neck, some seven miles north of 
 the present city of New London. 'Mention of him 
 is made in 1653, and again in 1657 his name appears 
 in the public records. His death occurred in 1662, 
 and he was survived by his wife, Rebecca. 
 
 From this William Redfin, the descent of Hor- 
 atio G. Redfield is through James, Theophilus, 
 Theophilus (2), Nathan and Justin Redfield. 
 
 James Redfield., son of William the em'igrant, 
 was born about 1646, and contracted his first mar- 
 riage in New Haven with Elizabeth How, and lived 
 in Saybrook, and at Fairfield. His second wife 
 was Deborah, the daughter of John Sturges. 
 
 Theophilus Redfield, the son of the foregoing 
 James Redfield, was born in 1682, in Saybrook, 
 and was married in 1706, to Priscilla Grinnell, great- 
 granddaughter of John and Priscilla Alden, who 
 came over in the "Mayflower." Mr. Redfield was 
 a joiner by trade, and located in what is now 
 Clinton, Conn.; and about 1717 settled on Chestnut 
 Hill, in Killingworth, where he spent the remainder 
 of his life. He commanded the respect and esteem 
 of the community in which he lived, and was 
 frequently appointed on town committees to which 
 were referred important matters. His death oc- 
 curred in 1759, and that of hisjwidow in 1770. 
 
 Theophilus Redfield (2), son of Theophilus, was 
 born in 1718, and was first rrtarried about 1740, to 
 Mary, the daughter of Benjamin and Hannah Buell, 
 and granddaughter of Samuel Buell, who removed 
 from Windsor to Killingworth in 1662. Mrs. Red- 
 field died in 1749, and Mr. Redfield was married to 
 Mrs. Martha Gray, of Killingworth, the widow of 
 Philip Gray, who came to Killingworth from Long 
 Island. Mr. Redfield had his home on Chestnut 
 Hill, in Killingworth, and iwas a sergeant in the 
 company commanded by his brother, Peleg Red- 
 field, which formed a part of the provincial forcfes 
 engaged in the campaigns of 1759 and the follow- 
 ing year, and later became an ensign in the same 
 company. His death occurred in 1770. 
 
 Nathan Redfield, son of Theophilus (2), was 
 born in 1763, and was married in 1789, to Ruth, 
 who was born in 1767, a daughter of Noah and 
 Ruth (Dickinson) Benton, of Guilford, Conn. Mr. 
 Redfield lived in Guilford, and moved from there 
 to New Haven. He served as a musician in the 
 Continental army, and from 1812 to 1814, was cus- 
 tom house officer in New Haven. His wife died in 
 1833, and he passed away in Guilford, six years 
 later. 
 
 Justin Redfield, son of Nathan, and the father 
 of Horatio Gates, was born Aug. 3, 1795, and was 
 married March 21, 1824, to Mary, daughter of 
 (Elislha and 'Mary (Brintnall) Elderkin, of Clinton, 
 Conn. Mr. Redfield lived in New Haven, where he 
 was engaged in the fancy dry goods business. In 
 1836 he was collector of taxes. His death occurred 
 February 6, 1850, and his widow passed away in 
 1880. Their children were as follows : Henry Wiz- 
 ard, born in 1825, died in 1849 ' Justin Elderkin, born 
 
34 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Sept. 30, 1827, died in September, 1868; James 
 Sherman, born in 1829, died in 185 1 ; Andrew 
 Jackson, died in infancy; Frank, born June 2, 1834; 
 Horatio Gates; and Mary Wright, born Nov. 13, 
 1838, died in July, i860. 
 
 Horatio Gates Redfield has mainly spent his life 
 in New Haven, though from his fourth to sixth 
 years he lived in New York State. In 1844 his par- 
 ents returned to New Haven, and here he acquired 
 his education in the Lancasterian school. In Febru- 
 ary, i860, he entered the bank as an assistant book- 
 keeper, later becoming bookkeeper, and gradually 
 rising in importance until he became cashier, in 1890. 
 There is now in New Haven, only one man who 
 has been connected with the banking interests as 
 long as he has wifhout a break in his .continuous 
 service. Four presidents have presided over the 
 bank jwhile he has toiled behind the counter, and 
 today he is among the oldest and most highly re- 
 spected banking men of the city. 
 
 Air. Rediield was married in i860 to Miss 
 Sophronia Snell, a native of Massachusetts, who 
 died in 1864. To this union was born one son, 
 Henry W., now at home, and a bookkeeper by pro- 
 fession, being employed in the office of the brick 
 company of I. L. Stiles & Son. Mr. Redfield, in 
 1868, married Emma E. Goodrich, who died in 
 1876. To this union were born two children, of 
 whom one died in infancy; the other, William G., 
 who married Hattie Munson, is now an assistant 
 cashier in the New Haven County National Bank. 
 In 1881 Mr. Redfield married Laura E. Driver, and 
 Florence M., the only child of the last marriage, is 
 still at school. 
 
 Air. Redfield is a Republican in politics, and in 
 his religion belongs to St. John's Episcopal Church, 
 in which he takes an active part, having been treas- 
 urer of the Church for fifteen years, and for more 
 than twenty-five years has taken an active part in 
 the vestry. In the building of the new church he 
 was very helpful, and is regarded as one of the re- 
 liable men connected with the parish. 
 
 WILLIAM LAMBERT BRADLEY, late a 
 conspicuous figure in the business life of Boston, 
 and for vears previously identified with the interests 
 of the citv of Aleriden, the home of his earlier 
 ^•ears. and where almost through a lifetime his 
 brother, Nathaniel L. Bradley, has been at the head 
 of one of the world's largest industries in its line, 
 and also a leading and prominent character in so- 
 cial life, was one' of the forceful characters of his 
 dav and generation in New England. 
 
 Born Mav 25, 1826, in Cheshire, New Haven 
 Co., Conn., William L. Bradley was a son of Levi 
 and Abigail A. (Atwater) Bradley, and was de- 
 scended in both lines from the earliest and first fam- 
 ilies of New Haven of the Colonial period. Will- 
 iam Bradley, the progenitor of the Bradlev familv 
 of this section, was the friend of Cromwell and 
 an ofificer in his army. He came to New England 
 
 from Bingley, England, and in 1643 to New Haven, 
 and became one of the first settlers of what is now 
 the town of North Haven. David Atwater, the 
 progenitor of the Atwater family, was one of the 
 first planters of New Haven, in 1639. 
 
 William L. Bradley, subject proper of this sketch, 
 attended the district school in his native town, the 
 Southington and Cheshire (Conn.) Academies^^nd 
 then for six months the Lancasterian School, at 
 New Haven. At thirteen he became a clerk in a 
 dry-goods store in New Haven, and at seventeen 
 became a partner in one of the largest dry-goods 
 houses in that city. His surroundings, however, 
 not being in keeping with his tastes, he withdrew 
 from this partnership a year later, and entered the 
 employ — as traveling salesman — of Charles Parker, 
 a large hardware manufacturer of Aleriden. He 
 soon became master of his new position, and con- 
 tributed largely to the development of Air, Parker's 
 business. While thus associated with Air. Parker 
 and with his consent. Air. Bradley became engaged 
 with a friend in the manufacture of portemonnaies. 
 The business proved remunerative, but through the 
 mismanagement of his associate Air. Bradley at the 
 end of the first year found himself in debt to the 
 extent of $20,000. This partnership was then dis- 
 solved, and through the indomitable will and energy 
 of Mr. Bradley ways and means were devised by 
 which he in the course of a few j'cars paid his in- 
 debtedness dollar for dollar. He continued in the 
 employ of Mr. Parker and with his consent had 
 other business connections, one being a corpartner- 
 ship with his brother, Nathaniel L. Bradley, and his 
 brother-in-law, Walter Hubbard, for the manufac- 
 ture of clocks and small metal wares, \yhich after- 
 ward became the Bradley & Hubbard Alanufactur- 
 ing Co., now the largest manufacturers of gas and 
 electric fixtures and ornamental metal goods in the 
 United States. 
 
 In 1861 William L. Bradlev, attracted bv new 
 discoveries abroad in the art of agriculture, became 
 convinced that chemical fertilizers were destined to 
 play an important part in the agriculture of our 
 country, and he determined to embark in this new 
 and wholly undeveloped industry. He visited Bos- 
 ton and laid his project before Oakes Ames, 
 who was favorably impressed with his plans, and, 
 recognizing his high character and abilitv, consented 
 to endorse Mr. Bradley's notes for a limited amount 
 on the oral promise that he should receive one- 
 fourth of the profits of the business. With this 
 backing as his only capital, Air. Bradlev began the 
 manufacture of commercial fertilizers on the banks 
 of the old South Bav, Boston, and then and there 
 founded a business in the line indicated which in 
 his lifetime became the very largest and most suc- 
 cessful of its kind in this country. The small plant 
 was soon outgrown, and works were established at 
 Wevmouth, Mass., which became the most extensive 
 fertilizing plant in the world. This end, however, 
 was not achieved without great effort, and persist- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 35 
 
 ent energy and study. Much experiment, research 
 and laboratory work had to be done, many per- 
 plexities encountered and difficulties met and over- 
 come, but these Mr. Bradley bravely met and solved, 
 he having been made of that material which knew 
 no ''let up" until the desired end was accomplished. 
 By this untiring zeal and able management Mr. 
 Bradley's fertilizers came into common use among 
 progressive farmers from Maine to Florida. Dur- 
 ing the development of this business Mr. Ames 
 continued to endorse for Mr. Bradley, and when the 
 former became involved in his vast railroad projects 
 Mr. Bradley became, in turn, an endorser on the 
 paper of Mr. Ames for the latter's accommodation, 
 so that when the great financial panic of the early 
 'seventies swept over the country Mr. Ames found 
 that he had overtaxed his resources, and both he 
 and Mr. Bradley were obliged to temporarily sus- 
 pend payment. Mr. Bradley in this, as in the 
 previous crisis, was determined to pay dollar for 
 dollar, and he earnestly solicited and obtained an 
 extension from his creditors of six, twelve, eighteen 
 and twenty-four months, with interest at seven per 
 cent. All of these obligations were met at matur- 
 itjr, and at the end of two years he had paid in full 
 an indebtedness of $523,000, with interest; he had 
 saved his business, and had again maintained his 
 credit and reputation, dearer to him than all else. 
 
 Soon after this, in 1873, j\Ir. Ames died, and in 
 order to best protect his varied interests his estate 
 was declared insolvent, which rendered Mr. Brad- 
 ley's position extremely embarrassing, for jNIr. Ames 
 had negotiated about $200,000 of Mr. Bradley's 
 notes and endorsements for his own accommoda- 
 tion. $80,000 of this paper had come into the pos- 
 session of Oliver Ames & Sons. At the expiration 
 of thirty days, on the hour and mintite, Mr. Brad- 
 ley went into Mr. Ames' office and laid down a 
 cashier's check for the full amount of the notes, 
 with interest added at the legal rate. 
 
 Through the able management of 3.1r. Ames' 
 executors (his sons, Oliver and Oakes A. Ames) 
 his estate was not only rendered solvent, but paid 
 to his heirs several millions of dollars besides, so 
 that all this accommodation paper was afterward 
 paid by his executors, to whom Mr. Bradley also 
 paid $100,000 for Mr. Ames' interest in his business. 
 Thus the close business relations which existed so 
 long and pleasantly between Mr. Ames and Mr. 
 Bradley resulted in mutual benefits and justified 
 their unbounded confidence in each other. 
 
 One of Mr. Bradley's greatest characteristics and 
 most serviceable factors in his business qualifica^ 
 tions was his phenomenal resource in times of emer- 
 gency. One of his associates in business used to 
 say that he seemed almost to court emergencies in 
 in order to gain the satisfaction of extricating him- 
 self successfully from them. 
 
 In 1872 the business, which had been conducted 
 in the name of William L. Bradley, was transferred 
 to the Bradley Fertilizer Co. Later branch offices 
 
 were established at Rochester, N. Y., Cleveland], 
 Ohio, Baltimore, Md., and Augusta, Ga. Of this 
 company Mr. Bradley became president and sole 
 manager. He also became largely interested in 
 other fertilizer works at Carteret, N. J., Cleveland, 
 Ohio, Baltimore, Md., and Charleston, S. C. He 
 operated extensive phosphate mines in South Caro- 
 lina and Florida, and was an owner of real estate 
 in nearly every Atlantic coast State from Maine to 
 Florida. 
 
 During the latter years of his life Mr. Bradley 
 gave up the active management of his business to 
 his sons, and devoted much of his time to his chosen 
 occupation, farming and landscape gardening, at 
 his beautiful country seat at Hingham, Mass., 
 where he died after a short illness, Dec. 15, 1894, 
 at the age of sixty-eight. 
 
 In 1848 Mr. Bradley was married to Frances 
 Alartina Coe, daughter of Calvin and Harriet 
 (Rice) Coe, of Meriden, Conn. Two sons, Peter 
 B. and Robert S., and one daughter, Abby A., sur- 
 vived him. 
 
 GEORGE W. GOODSELL, whose death oc- 
 curred at his home No. 6 High Street, New Haven, 
 on Jan. 28, 1887, ;was one of the city's conspicuous 
 business men of fifty years ago, and he descended 
 from one among the old Colonial families of the 
 vicinity. 
 
 Mr. Goodsell was born in 1819, in Foxon, son 
 of Jacob and Sophia (Pierpont) Goodsell, she a de- 
 scendant of the old prominent Pierpont family of 
 New Haven. Mr. Goodsell began his business car- 
 eer as a clerk for the late Elias Pierpont, w'ho kept 
 a grocery on the corner of Olive and Grand streets. 
 Later on, associated with his brother, Willis J. 
 Goodsell, he engaged in business for himself, estab- 
 lishing a grocery on the corner of State and Crown 
 streets. George W. also operated stores on Custom 
 House Square and on Long Wharf, where he erect- 
 ed a fine granite building forty years ago. More 
 recently he was in business on State, near George, 
 street. Up to early in the seventies Mr. Goodsell 
 did an extensive business and greatly prospered in 
 it, becoming wealthy. In his earlier career he was 
 engaged largely in the importing business, owning 
 his own vessels. He iniDorted largely Turk Island 
 salt. He invested extensively in real estate, build- 
 ing a number of houses and developing tracts of 
 land between New Haven and Westville. He im- 
 proved what is known as the Whitney and Dr. 
 Knight places. IHe built and owned a cottage at 
 Savin Rock. He was a man of great business ca- 
 pacity and one of the prominent business men of 
 his day in New Haven. The panic of 1873 ruined 
 himi, his financial losses being heavy, and by that 
 event his floating indebtedness was upwards of 
 $300,000. This burden he carried bravely, met his 
 obligations as fast as possible, and three vears later 
 he had reduced this enormous debt to $2,500. Of 
 his New Llaven creditors, none of those unsecured 
 
36 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 by notes lost a dollar, and all the notes he was un- 
 able to pay, amounting to very little, were forgiven 
 him. A man of honor and integrity, and of great 
 fortitude, he continued in business, and during the 
 later years of his life was moderately successful. 
 Mr. Goodsell was a man of quiet taste and life, 
 diligent and honorable in business, and an upright 
 member of society. His religious connections were 
 with the College Street Church, a valuable member. 
 
 Mr. Goodsell was married to Abigail Andrew 
 Nettleton, of Milford, and of their family of five 
 children, all survived the father, namely : Frances 
 A., who married Aug. 24, 1864, James Gardner 
 Clark, now a prominent lawyer and conveyancer in 
 New Haven, their elegant home being at West Hav- 
 en; Mrs. Albert J. Milbank, of New York City; 
 Mrs. Charles G. Keys, who died in 1894; G. Willis- 
 ton and Edward L. Goodsell, the two latter of New 
 York City, where they are engaged in an importing 
 business. 
 
 Many of the Goodsells of New Haven county 
 came from the early Branford family. Thomas 
 Goodsell appears in Branford in 1667, then a youth. 
 He married June 4, 1684, Sarah, daughter of Sam- 
 uel Hemmingway, of New Haven, and their chil- 
 dren were : Samuel, born Feb. 28, 1685 ; Mary,i 
 born Dec. 28, 1686; Sarah, born Sept. 14, 1689; 
 Lydia, born May 3, 1692; Deborah, born Dec. 29, 
 1694; Abigail, born Oct. 4, 1697 (died young), 
 Abigail (2), born Feb. 28, 1699; Thomas, born in 
 January, 1702; and John, born Dec. 21, 1705. 
 
 Of the three sons of Thomas Goodsell, Samuel 
 married Mary Frisbe and to them came children 
 as follows: Samuel, born Oct. 30, 1710; Jonathan, 
 born June 22, 1712; Isaac, born Marcli 14, 1715; 
 Isabel, born Sept. 9, 1717; Mary, born Dec. 17, 
 1719; Jacob, born July 22, 1722; and Dan, born 
 June 16, 1724. 
 
 Thomas Goodsell (2), son of the first Thomas, 
 married Oct. 6, 1731, Martha Davenport, and to 
 them came Sarah, who married Jeremiah Wolcott. 
 
 HON. NEHEMIAH D. SPERRY, member of 
 Congress from the Second District of Connecticut, 
 former Secretary of that State, and for twenty- 
 eight years the efficient postmaster at New Haven, 
 is a descendant of sturdy New England ancestry. 
 He was born July 10, 1827, in the town of Wood- 
 bridge, New Haven county, a son of Enoch and 
 Mary Atlanta (Sperry) Sperry, and is in the line 
 of direct descent from that Richard Sperry who 
 takes a place in history as the courageous friend and 
 defender of the regicides. 
 
 The name of Sperry is familiar to those ac- 
 quainted with the history of New Haven and vicin- 
 ity, for from almost the very dawn of the Colonial 
 period to the present, members of the family have 
 been conspicuous characters in the locality's social 
 and business* life. It is the purpose of this article, 
 however, to treat briefly of the lineage and family 
 only of the late Enoch Sperry, of Woodbridge, sev- 
 
 eral of whose sons became prominent in the city 
 of New Haven and elsewhere. We refer to Hon. 
 Lucien Wells Sperry, Stiles Denison Sperry, Hon. 
 Nehemiah Day Sperry and Enoch Knight Sperry, 
 tv. of whom are now deceased. 
 
 In the town of Woodbridge there is a fertile tract 
 of land in the valley to the westward of West Rock, 
 near the "Judge's Cave," so-called because it was 
 for a time the hiding place for the regicides Gens. 
 Goffe and Whalley, and Col. Dixwell, who fled to 
 America after the restoration. This tract early took 
 the name of Sperry 's farms — the home of Richard 
 Sperry, a farmer who, though not one of the original 
 planters of New Haven, was an early settler, his 
 name being of record in the town as early as Jan. 
 4, 1643. This Richard Sperry was the last friend 
 and protector of the regicides, Gofife and Whalley, 
 at a time when their pursuers from England were 
 trying to ferret them out of their hiding places. 
 There is a family tradition that he came to New 
 Haven as agent for the Earl of Warwick. The 
 tenure of Sperry's Farms has continued for up- 
 ward of 250 years, in the persons of his descend- 
 ants. From Richard Sperry, of Sperry's Farms, 
 are descended the sons of the late Enoch Sperry, 
 who are in the sixth generation, their lineage being 
 through Nathaniel, Nathaniel (2), Simeon and 
 Enoch Sperry. 
 
 (II) Nathaniel Sperry, son of Richard, bom 
 Aug. 13, 1656, married Oct. 2, 1683, Sarah Dicker- 
 man, who was born July 25, 1663, daughter of Abra- 
 ham and Mary (Cooker) Dickerman, and grand- 
 daughter of Thomas Dickerman, of Dorchester, 
 1636. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Sperry (2), son of Nathaniel, 
 born March 8, 1695, married Dec. 25, 1719, Sarah 
 Wilmot, born Feb. 26, 1695-96, daughter of John 
 Wilmot. Mr. Sperry died Sept. 8, 1751. 
 
 (IV) Simeon Sperry, son of Nathaniel (2), born 
 March 16, 1738-39, married Patience Smith. Mr. 
 Sperry lived and died in Woodbridge, his birth- 
 place, though at the time of his birth the territory 
 was the town of New Haven. By occupation he 
 was a small manufacturer and farmer. He held 
 some minor town offices. He was a man of retiring 
 disposition, but he had great decision of character 
 and undoubted integrity, and he enjoyed the confi- 
 dence of all who knew him. 
 
 (V) Enoch Sperry, son of Simeon, .born in 1787, 
 married Mary Atlanta Sperry, daugihter of Asa and 
 Eunice (Johnson) Sp rry. Mr. Sperry was born in 
 Woodbridge and lived on the mill site at the upper 
 end of Sperry's Farms, where were located the grist- 
 mill and carding machine. Like his father he, too, 
 was a small manufacturer and farmer and held a few 
 town offices. He possessed a natural mathematical 
 mind and would solve the most difficult problems in 
 his own way without the rules of ordinary arithme- 
 tic. His home life was beautiful. He always had 
 family devotion and was a sincere Christian, a man 
 of the highest integrity and one who would o-q 
 

 
 
 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 37 
 
 further than most men to assist those in distress or 
 need. He was greatly interested in matters of the 
 day and would discuss political and religious ques- 
 tions with great freedom and intelligence. Outside 
 of business his chief delight was in church affairs. 
 He was a member of the Congregational Church 
 and often moderator of their meetings and he was 
 frequently chosen to settle disputes both in and out 
 of the church, his decisions being seldom questioned. 
 To the union of Enoch and Mary Atlanta Sperry 
 were born children as follows : 
 
 (i) Hon. Lucien Wells Sperry, born March 
 8, 1820, in Woodbridge, married Harriet A. Sperry, 
 daughter of Enos Sperry, of Westville. She died 
 about 1888, and Mr. Sperry in 1890. They left one 
 daughter, Mrs. Eugene S. Miller. At the age of 
 seventeen years Lucien W. Sperry went to New 
 Haven to learn the carpenter's trade. As the years 
 passed he improved his educational opportunities 
 to such an extent that he was enabled to teach 
 school. In 1845, associated with his brother, Stiles 
 D. Sperry, he began a mercantile career and for 
 twenty years or more the brothers were located in 
 business in Westville, Woodbridge, New Haven and 
 Hartford. In 1855 Lucien bought a tract of land 
 on Mill river, just east of the railroad, and with 
 Chauncey Sperry, son of the late Enos Sperry, en- 
 gaged in the coal and wood business, continuing 
 same until 1863. In his later years he was con- 
 nected with several local banks and was a director in 
 railroads in w'hich the town and city had interest. 
 In the middle 'sixties he began a political career 
 in which for many years he was most popular, prom- 
 inent and successful, holding almost every office in 
 the gift of the people. His political affiliations were 
 with the Democratic party. In 1864 he was elected 
 first selectman and held that office until 1868, when 
 he declined re-nomination. In 1866 he was elected 
 mayor of New Haven and was re-elected in 1867 
 and again in 1868, receiving the largest majority 
 ever given a candidate up to that time. In 1869 and 
 1870 he represented the Fourth District in the State 
 Senate. Erom boyhood Mr. Sperry was identified 
 with the militia of the State. When twenty he was 
 chosen captain of a company formed in his native 
 town and during the following year was appointed 
 lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment, of which 
 later he became colonel. He was captain and after- 
 ward major of the Second Company, Governor's 
 Horse Guards. 
 
 (2) Stiles Denison Sperry, born Oct. 15, 1822, 
 married Anna E. Briggs, of Providence, R. I. He 
 v/as a prominent merchant in New Haven and later 
 served as treasurer of the State Savings Bank at 
 Hartford, holding that position at the time of his 
 death. He served two terms as representative in the 
 State Legislature from Hartford. He was a promi- 
 nent and influential Mason and held high offices in 
 that fraternity. 
 
 (3) Hon. Nehemiah D. Sperry is mentioned 
 below. 
 
 (4) Joseph Hart Sperry was killed in 1846 by 
 b^ing thrown from a horse. 
 
 (5) Laura Ann Sperry, born Oct. 20, 1835, 
 married Andrew J. Randell and resided in Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y. She died Jan. 25, 1879. In early life she 
 was a school teacher. 
 
 (6) Hon. Enoch Knight Sperry, born in 
 Woodbridge, married Nov. 10, 1863, Sarah Amanda 
 Treat, who was born July 29, 1844, daughter of 
 Jonah Newton and Mary Amanda (Gould) Treat, 
 and a descendant in the ninth generation from Rich- 
 ard Treat, who came to New England as early as 
 1639 ^'^d was an early settler of Wethersfield, Conn. 
 Mrs. Sperry's line of descent from Richard is 
 through Gov. Robert, Robert (2), Robert (3). Rob- 
 ert (4), Jonathan, Joseph and Jonah Newton Treat, 
 the latter a mason and builder, of New Haven. 
 Enoch K. Sperry for a number of years was the 
 efficient accountant and bookkeeper of the City Bank 
 of New Haven, and has been engaged in mercantile 
 pursuits in that city. He was appointed United 
 States Consul to the Barbadoes, by President Lin- 
 coln, and served several years with honor and dis- 
 tinction. Later in life he had charge of the Treat 
 estate. His wife died April 8, 1877. Their only 
 daughter, Edith Amanda Sperry, was born Jan. 8, 
 
 iB73- 
 
 Nehemiah D. Sperry, whose name introduces this 
 article, attended the schools of his native town and 
 for two years was at the private school of Prof. 
 Amos Smith, of New Haven. Early becoming in- 
 dependent and self-reliant, while yet in his 'teens 
 he taught school in several places, receiving the 
 largest salary at that time ever paid a country school 
 teacher in this State. Saving his money he was 
 presently able — in 1848 — to go into business in New 
 Haven, becoming the junior member of the firm 
 of Smith & Sperry, one of the most successful busi- 
 ness concerns of the city. Being industrious and 
 energetic and possessing business judgment and 
 marked ability, he was soon rated among the best 
 business men of the city. His activities were directed 
 along the lines of public improvements. He orig- 
 inated a company for constructing and operating 
 a horse railroad between New Haven and Fair Ha- 
 ven and Westville, and as its president managed 
 its affairs for ten years with energy and discre- 
 tion. By his personal efforts during this period he 
 secured a charter for the first horse railroad in the 
 State of Connecticut. For some years Mr. Sperry 
 was a director in several corporations, such as the 
 New Haven & Derby Railroad and the New 
 England Hudson Suspension Bridge Co., and he 
 has always co-operated and assisted in all kinds of 
 public enterprises. No man has taken a greater 
 interest in the progress of the city than Mr. Sperry, 
 and it is probable that no other man in New 
 Haven has more friends than the present Con- 
 
 ;ssman. 
 
 A strong supporter of the American system of 
 public schools Mr. Sperry, in 1878, vigorously at- 
 
38 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tacked the action of the New Haven Board of Edu- 
 cation in ordering the discontinuance oi the 
 reading of the Bible in the public schools and 
 succeeded m carrying; every ward in the city 
 in 'favor of the restoration of the Bible in the 
 gchools, his logic and fervor, his appeal to the 
 traditions of New England arousing a public 
 sentiment that soon compelled the revocation 
 of the order. Mr. Sperry is a stanch Republican 
 and has been influential in the councils of the party 
 for many years. In early life he was a Whig, and 
 on the first organization of the party became a Re- 
 publican. For a time he served in the ranks of the 
 American party, but at the convention of that party 
 in Philadelphia, when it incorporated a pro-slavery 
 plank in its platform, he unceremoniousl}'' bolted. 
 Ihis decided stand for principle made him very 
 popular at home and in 1855 he was nominated for 
 governor of the State. Not having reached the 
 Constitutional age for the place he was nominated 
 and elected Secretary of State that year, and was 
 re-elected. In 1856 he attended the National Con- 
 vention of the American party at Philadelphia, 
 which placed in nomination ex-President Fillmore. 
 Here again he vigorously opposed the resolutions 
 on slavery and declined to support the nominees of 
 the party. That year he attended the first National 
 Convention of the Republican party and gave his 
 warm support to its nominees and principles. He 
 was made chairman of the Republican State Com- 
 mittee, a position he held during the trying period 
 prior to the Civil war and during its continuance. 
 In the State campaign of i860 he did much to secure 
 the election of Gov. Buckingham and the following 
 year was named as postmaster of New Haven by. 
 President Lincoln. In 1864 Mr. Sperry was a mem- 
 ber of the National Convention held at Baltimore 
 which renominated President Lincoln. At that time 
 he was chosen secretary of the National Committee 
 and was made one of the committee of seven whose 
 function was to conduct the campaign of that year. 
 Of this committee of seven he was secretary and 
 one of the most active members. In 1868 he pre- 
 sided at the State convention which nominated the 
 electors who voted for Gen. Grant and since that 
 time his continued activity in National affairs has 
 earned for him a reputation that extends over the 
 entire country. Early in 1S89, during the first ad- 
 ministration of President Cleveland, Mr. Spen-y was 
 retired from the post office at New Haven, but he 
 was re-appointed by President Harrison. The New 
 Haven post office is the most important in the State 
 and an important one in the country. The post- 
 master-general, upon retiring, mentioned in his re- 
 port four post offices in the country as leading all 
 the others in- general merit. The New Haven post 
 office was one of the four and the attorney-general 
 stated that its business management was "Washing- 
 ton Monument High." In 1895 Mr. Sperry re- 
 signed his office and his fellow citizens without re- 
 
 gard to party gave him a complimentary banquet, 
 the largest ever given in the State of Connecticut. 
 It took place at the Hyperion theater. 
 
 ]Mr. Sperry has variously served his fellow citi- 
 zens in official positions. He has been selectman 
 of the town of New Haven and alderman of the 
 city. In 1888 he was a delegate to the convention 
 that nominated Benjamin Harrison for the presi- 
 dency and served on the committee on Platform. 
 As a' public speaker and debater Mr. Sperr}- pos- 
 sesses great power to move and influence his audi- 
 tors. He is a strong Protectionist and in the cele- 
 brated debate before the State Grange in 1887 he 
 was one of two orators selected by the National Pro- 
 tection League to answer for that school. The ad- 
 vocates for free trade selected Daniel A. \\'ells, Prof. 
 Sumner and J. B. Sargent, but only the latter ap- 
 peared. In the absence of his colleague. Prof. Dens- 
 low, of New York, j\Ir. Sperry was likewise left un- 
 supported. The result was a pronounced and ad- 
 mitted victory for ^Nlr. Sperry. Before the General 
 Assembly he presented the subject of protection 
 in what was termed the most masterly and scholarly 
 address ever heard on the subject. In 1888 he de- 
 bated the ?\lills Bill before a large assembly in con- 
 troversy with one of the ablest representatives of 
 that school in the State, and the result was still more 
 creditable. An article which he wrote on the "Ad- 
 vantage of Protection" and which appeared in the 
 Christian Secretary, of Hartford, aroused such wide- 
 spread attention that more than 400,000 copies were 
 published. It was afterward put in pamphlet form 
 and still more widely circulated. At the National 
 Postal Convention held at Alexandria Bay, Thou- 
 sand Islands, N. Y., Mr. Sperry was the orator of 
 the occasion and his address was listened to with 
 admiration and delight. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Sperry was the nominee of his party 
 for Congress from the New Haven District, an 
 honor which, for private reasons, he felt impelled to 
 decline. In 1894 he was again the nominee of his 
 party for Congress, was elected by a good majority, 
 and is to-day one of the active, experienced and in- 
 fluential members of that body, no member of which 
 perhaps has a more satisfied and contented constit- 
 uency behind him than has Mr. Sperry. He is now 
 serving his fourth term. 
 
 As a business man Mr. Sperry has been re- 
 markably successful and is still a member of the 
 well-known house of Sperry & Treat, contractors 
 and builders, of New Haven. Popular in social 
 life he has been president of the Quinnipiac Club 
 for many years, is a member of the"!. O. O. F., and 
 has been a ^lason for nearly fifty years ; he has at- 
 tained the thirty-third degree. 
 
 Mr. Sperry was married in 1847 to ]\Iiss Eliza 
 H., a daughter of AA'illis and Catherine Sperrv, of 
 Woodbridge. She died in 1873 and in 1875 he mar- 
 ried Miss ]\Iinnie B. Newton, a native of Lockport, 
 N. Y., and a daughter of Erastus and Caroline New- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 39 
 
 ton, of that place. They have one daughter, Caesara 
 A., who is the widow of Ephraim I. Frothingham, 
 and has one child, Newton Sperry Frothinghani. 
 
 HON. CHARLES BUCKINGHAM MERRI- 
 MAN, for many years a prominent citizen and one 
 of the leading merchants of Waterbury, was born 
 in Watertown, Conn., Oct. 9, 1809, and died March 
 15, 1889. 
 
 jNIr. ^lerriman descended from one of the old 
 Ne:w England families and from Revolutionary 
 stock. He was in the seventh generation from Capt. 
 Nathaniel Alerriman, who was one of the first set- 
 tlers of Wallingford, Conn., in 1670, the line of 
 descent being through Caleb, Eliasaph, Amasa, 
 Charles and William H. 
 
 (II) Caleb Merriman, son of Capt. Nathaniel 
 Merriman, bom in 1665, married Mary Preston. 
 
 (III) Eliasaph Merriman, son of Caleb Merri- 
 man, born in 1695, married in 1719, Abigail Hall. 
 
 (I\') Amasa Merriman, son of Eliasaph Merri- 
 man, born about 1730, married Sarah (surname not 
 known ) . 
 
 (V) Charles ^Merriman, son of Amasa ]\Ierri- 
 man, born Aug. 20, 1762, married May 16, 1784, 
 Anna, daughter of David Punderson of New Haven. 
 Charles Merriman enlisted in the Continental army 
 as a drummer in 1776, became drum-major, and 
 served throughout the war. He settled in Water- 
 town, where he commenced the business of a tailor, 
 which, owing to' ill health, he relinquisbed. After 
 having "ridden post" from New Haven tO' Suffield, 
 Conn., four years, and made a voyage to the West 
 Indies, he began mercantile pursuits in WatertQwn, 
 in which he continued until 1829. He died Aug. 
 26, 1829, leaving ten children. 
 
 (VI) William H. Merriman, son of Charles 
 Merriman, born Sept. 26, 1788, married Jan. 8, 1809, 
 Sarah, a daughter of David and Chloe (Merrill) 
 Buckingham, born Feb. 16, 1790. William JH. 
 Merriman settled in Watertown; was an enterpris- 
 ing merchant; removed to Waterbury and there 
 died. 'His wife died July 20, 1870. Their children 
 were : Charles B., Sarah A., Joseph P., David and 
 Henry. 
 
 Charles Buckingham Merriman was educated in 
 the village school, and at Leonard Daggett's school 
 in New Haven. In his early life he was engaged 
 in the mercantile business with his father in the 
 north part of the town of Woodbury, Conn. Fifty 
 years prior to his death he came to Waterbury, and 
 went into business ,with Ezra Stiles on fhe corner 
 of Centre Square and Leavenworth streets. In 1843 
 and after several business changes, he became asso- 
 ciated with Julius Hotchkiss in a similar business 
 and in the manufacture of suspenders. Their busi- 
 ness in 1857 was consolidated with that of Warren & 
 Newtown (Alanson Warren and Isaac E. New- 
 town) who had a suspender factory in Oakville, 
 and became the American Suspender Co., the fac- 
 tory being located in Oakville. Later the mercan- 
 
 tile business was dropped, ,which assumed the firm 
 name of Merriman & Co., and still later Benedict & 
 Merriman. 
 
 Mr. Merriman's public services covered a long 
 and interesting period in Waterbury's history. He 
 was a member of the first court of common council 
 in 1853, ^i^d was called to the same position again 
 in 1858-59. In 1866 he was elected alderman from 
 his ward, and in 1869 was the successful candidate 
 on the Republican ticket for the position of mayor. 
 On May 23, 1870, he was one of the committee that 
 drafted the city charter. He was president of the 
 Waterbury Gas Light Co., and for many years was 
 a director of the Citizens National Bank. Fle Avas 
 a prominent member of the St. John's Episcopal 
 Church. "Mr. Merriman was noted for equanimity 
 of temper and kindness of heart, and was an en- 
 thusiastic supporter of every enterprise that con- 
 tributed to the well being and upbuilding of Water- 
 bury." 
 
 On June 30, 1841, Mr. Merriman was married 
 to Margaret, daughter of Edward Field, of Water- 
 bury, and to them were born children, as follows : 
 Charlotte B., Sarah M., Helen, Margaret F. (wife 
 of Dr. Frank E. Castle, of Waterbury), William B. 
 and Edmund F. 
 
 William B. Merriman is teller in the Waterbury 
 National Bank. On Nov. 17, 1886, he was married 
 to Miss Sarah Kingsbury Parsons. 
 
 JOHN C. BOOTH, late a prominent manu- 
 facturer, capitalist, and leading citizen of Water- 
 bury, formerly of the Holmes, Booth & Haydens 
 Co., was a native of Newtown, Conn., and a de- 
 scendant of one of the earliest and most prominent 
 families of Connecticut. 
 
 Richard Booth, the progenitor of the Booth 
 family in Fairfield county, Conn., emigrated from 
 Cheshire, England, some time between 1630 and 
 1640. He married Elizabeth Hawley, a sister of 
 Capt. Joseph Hawley, of Stratford, and settled in 
 Stratford in 1640. 
 
 Jonathan Booth, son of Sergeant John Booth 
 and grandson of Richard Booth, the emigrant, was 
 one of the founders of Newtown, Conn. He, in 
 company with his cousin Ebenezer Booth, located 
 there in 1707-8. Journeying thither from Stratford 
 they purchased from the tribe of Pootatuck In- 
 dians, an extensive tract of land along the Housa- 
 tonic river on a part of which the village of New- 
 town was afterwards built. From this Jonathan 
 and Ebeniezer Booth all the Booth of Newtown 
 have descended. 
 
 John C. Booth was born June 13, 1808, in New- 
 town, Conn., the son of Philo and Aurelia Booth. 
 He .was educated in his native town, and in Dan- 
 bury, Conn., and for some years was himself a 
 teacher in the latter town. He began his business 
 career as a clerk in a store in Newtown. In 1832 
 he went to Meriden, Conn., as agent for the manu- 
 factured goods of that place, and in 1835 he be- 
 
40 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 came a traveling salesman for Benedict and Burn- 
 ham, and was also employed to open local trade for 
 Baldwin, Burnham & Co., on the establishmient of 
 their agency in New York. He remained there un- 
 til 1836. After four years in the West, he returned 
 and took an interest in Benedict & Burnham's, as- 
 suming charge of their store in Waterbury. Upon 
 the organization of this manufacturing concern in 
 1843, ^Ir. Booth was chosen one of its directors, 
 a position he held until 1852. On Feb. 21, 1853, 
 he united with Israel Holmes and others in organ- 
 izing Holmes, Booth & Haydens, with which con- 
 cern he remained until 1869. That year Israel 
 Holmes, L. J. Atwood, D. S. Plumb and Mr. Booth 
 formed a new company of Plumb & Atwood with a 
 capital of $400,000, for the manufacture of brass 
 articles. On May 6th the Thomas Manufacturing 
 Co., of Thomaston, was consolidated with it, a 
 factory built there and one in Waterbury. At the 
 beginning Mr. Holmes was president, Mr. Booth 
 secretary, and Mr. Plumb, treasurer. Mr. Booth 
 became president after the death of Mr. Holmes. 
 In 1873 ^r. Booth retired from active business 
 though retaining his official relations as president 
 and director. The Holmes, Booth & Haydens Co. 
 have more than one and a half million dollars in- 
 vested in their business, and the company now rank 
 among the largest producers of brass, German sil- 
 ver, and copper in sheets, wire, rods, rivets, jack 
 chains, tubing, library and table lamps, etc. 
 
 I\[r. Booth was pre-eminently a thrifty business 
 man, careful and watchful in all his affairs to such 
 an extent that he acquired a competency said to be 
 greater than that of any other man in Waterbury. 
 He gave large sum's to St. Margaret's school, St. 
 John's and Trinity school (Episcopal), including 
 his share of the present site of St. John's rectory, 
 and to other objects. He was once a vestryman and 
 alwavs a consistent attendant of St. John's. He 
 was a trustee of the Riverside Cemetery Associa- 
 tion. In his relations with several corporations 
 with which he was connected, he showed himself a 
 wise counselor and shrewd financier, and their 
 success has been owing in no small way to his far 
 sightedness and sound judgment. His personal 
 wants were few and simple. He had no taste for 
 display, and though wealthy never departed from 
 the quiet and retiring manner of life he most en- 
 joyed. At the time of the death of Mr. Booth, 
 ' which occurred July 29, 1886, the Waterbury 
 American said editorially: 
 
 The life of John C. Booth, the news of whose death 
 startled the community this morning, was in many re- 
 spects typical of the spirit which has made Waterbury the 
 thrifty and prosperous city that it is. He began almost 
 with its own modest beginning, and pushed along with it 
 to the present healthy stage of its industrial growth. He 
 drops out now full of years, and the rewards of business 
 tact and industry, while it goes on to a future which he 
 has foreseen, and may be continued in a considerable 
 measure responsible for. Death has been making its way 
 with stern activity among the pioneers of Waterbury dur- 
 
 ing the past few years, and perhaps John C. Booth. is as 
 conspicuous a figure among the older landmarks as could 
 have been chosen for its fatal aim. He was a rnan of 
 quaint manner, simple and unostentatious modes of life, pa- 
 tient, persevering and tenacious of purpose, sound of judg- 
 ment and not given to mistakes in business. In his home 
 and among his close acquaintances he was wont to ex- 
 hibit a quaint dry humor, the greater side of a nature of 
 which the world of business did not often obtain a 
 glimpse. 
 
 There follows an extract taken from the funeral 
 discourse of the Rev. Dr. Rowland : 
 
 Mr. Booth will be long remembered in the community 
 for his ability as a man of business, for his perseverance 
 and enterprise, as well as for his gentle and kmdly nature. 
 But those who knew him best remember him for his do- 
 mestic virtues, for his fidelity and affectionate nature m 
 the home circle, for his devotion to wife and children. 
 It is such characters that fill the homes of earth with the 
 spirit of Him who came not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister. In his relations to the church and his intercourse 
 with the world he has shown himself obedient to the pre- 
 cept which bids us "bear one another's burdens." 
 
 On Feb. 19, 1840, Mr. Booth was married to 
 Miss Eunice Tucker, of Oxford, Conn. She died 
 Aug. 20, 1894. Their children were: Sarah H., 
 boTu in 1846, and died in 1873; and Mary E., the 
 wife of Edward M. Burrell, a prominent manu- 
 facturer and citizen of Waterbury. 
 
 HON. DEXTER RUSSELL WRIGHT, whose 
 death occurred in New Haven July 23, 1886, was a 
 member of the New Haven County Bar for nearly 
 forty years and was widely known as an able and 
 reliable corporation and business lawyer. As a cit- 
 izen and public man he attained distinction. 
 
 Mr. Wright was born June 27, 1821, at Wind- 
 sor, Vt., a son of Alpheus and Anna (Loveland) 
 Wright. The father was engaged in the milling and 
 lumber business and subsequently removed to the 
 State of New York. When Dexter R. Wright was 
 prepared he entered Wesleyan at Middletown, from 
 which he was graduated in 1845. For a brief period 
 he was principal of the Meriden Academy and then 
 entered the Law Department of Yale, from which 
 he was graduated in 1848. While pursuing his 
 studies he was for a time .clerk in the office of E. 
 K. Foster, of New Haven. In 1848 he was ad- 
 mitted to the Bar and began the practice of his pro- 
 fession in Meriden. With the exception of a brief 
 period of business and legal experience with the 
 pioneers of California, in 1850 and i8.=;i, he con- 
 tinued in practice in Meriden until 1862. In No- 
 venAer, 1863, Mr. Wright opened an office in New 
 Haven, where he followed his professional career 
 the remaining years of his life. Here his abilities 
 as a commercial and business lawyer and counselor 
 became noted and a large and lucrative practice was 
 ready to his hand. He was always a hard-working 
 student of his profession and no opportunity to pro- 
 tect his clients was neglected. He had a logical 
 mind and a tenacious memory, which held the great 
 principles of the law fairly at his command, as well 
 
.^^^e^ 
 
 ? 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 41 
 
 as the more important and significant decisions of 
 the courts. Rarely advising litigation if an honora- 
 ble settlement could be made he not infrequently 
 avoided extended and disastrous litigation, even at 
 his own expense. The briefs which Mr. Wright 
 submitted to the Supreme Court were prepared with 
 great skill and showed remarkable familiarity with 
 the Eng'lish language. Courteous and affable to all 
 \\^ith whomi he came in contact, his commanding 
 form and fine carriage, added to his learning and 
 eloquence, gave him much influence with both court 
 and jury. 
 
 Mr. Wright began life as a Democrat and was 
 a warm adherent of the principles of that party as 
 they were declared prior to 1861. In 1849 he was 
 elected to the State Senate from the Sixth District, 
 being supported by both Democrats and the Free 
 Soilers. In the election of i860 Mr. Wright agreed 
 with those Democrats who, under the leadership of 
 the Hartford Times, supported Senator Brecken- 
 ridge for President. When the Secession movement 
 took definite shape and could not be allayed Mr. 
 Wright and his intimate personal and business 
 friend, Charles Parker, of Meriden, without hesita- 
 tion ranged themselves on the side of the Union and, 
 in company with James T. Pratt, Roger Averill and 
 other Democrats, worked with surpassing devotion 
 for its preservation. ]\Ir. Wright was made lieu- 
 tenant-colonel of the 14th Connecticut Volunteer 
 Infantry, and in August, 1862, was made colonel of 
 a regiment composed of recruits from New Haven 
 county. This was the 15th Conn. Vols, which, under 
 Col. Wright's careful and thorough training, 
 quickly became one of the most promising regiments 
 camped around Washington in the fall of 1862. The 
 15th Connecticut was brigaded with four other regi- 
 ments and Colonel Wright became the commander. 
 The Colonel made his brigade, as he had before 
 made his regiment, noticeable for its drill and man- 
 agement. His tent was a place for the study of tac- 
 tics and, had not political obstructions hindered, he 
 would have been made a brigadier general long 
 before the forward movement began. Early in 
 1863 he was directed to take his brigade to Freder- 
 icksburg, and though he had been seriously injured 
 by the overturning of an ambulance he promptly 
 led his troops to Falmouth and there reported for 
 duty. To the surprise of his men the brigade was 
 broken up and Col. Wright found himself attached 
 to one of the older, but numerically weaker bri- 
 gades, with but little prospect of receiving a com- 
 mission as brigadier general. He was under com- 
 mand of officers not so able and thorough as him- 
 self, whose chief merit was political power behind 
 them. 
 
 In March, 1863, Col. Wright, still suffering 
 from the effects of his injury at Alexandria and ill 
 from the effects of exposure during Burnside's futile 
 movements around Fredericksburg, resigned his 
 command and returned home to throw himself into 
 the cause of the Union Republican party in the 
 
 heated campaign then in progress between the Dem- 
 ocrats with Thomas H. Seymour, on a peace plat- 
 form, and William A. Buckingham as the candidate 
 of the Union party. Col. Wright was elected to the 
 State Legislature as the representative from Meri- 
 den and during the sessions of May and November, 
 1863, acted as chairman of the committee on Mili- 
 tary Affairs, at that time perhaps the most import- 
 ant in the House. He was an acknowledged leader 
 in a House that contained some of the brainiest men 
 of the State. He took a brilliant part in the pro- 
 tracted debate over the Vallandigham question and 
 reported the bill for the organization of colored 
 troops from the State. Col. Wright took an active 
 part in the organization of the 29th and 30th Con- 
 necticut Colored Volunteer Infantry, and materially 
 assisted in securing their equipment. In the sum- 
 mer of 1863 he was made a member of the enroll- 
 ment board for the Second Congressional District 
 and filled this position with credit to the end of the 
 war. Following the advent of peace Col. Wright 
 allied himself with the Republican party and became 
 one of its recognized leaders in the State. He was 
 president of the convention which nominated Joseph 
 R. Hawley for governor in 1866 and manifested un- 
 usual gifts as a presiding officer. For several years 
 he was a member of the city council and the board 
 of alderman of New Haven, and in 1873 was made 
 corporation council of New Haven. For four 
 years he was United States district attorney for Con- 
 necticut, and in 1878 was elected a representative to 
 the General Assembly and was chosen Speaker of 
 the House in January, 1879. He was a stanch sup- 
 porter of James A. Garfield and James G. Blaine. 
 During all these years of public activity no client of 
 his ever suffered from a neglect of his interests, nor 
 would be permit his earnest work in his profession 
 to lag. As a citizen Col. Wright was always deeply 
 devoted to the growth, prosperity and general im- 
 provement of Meriden and New Haven. He had 
 charge of the erection of many of the public build- 
 ings in both these places and his abilities were ever 
 at the command of the community which he called 
 home. 
 
 Col. Wright was married Feb. 3, 1848, to Miss 
 Maria H. Phelps, a daughter of Col. Epaphras L. 
 Phelps, of East Windsor, Conn., and this union was 
 blessed with the following children: (i) Dexter 
 R., born in 1852, died young. (2) Maria A., born 
 April 8, 18.S4, in 1872 married Henry L. Hinton, of 
 New York city, and she became the mother of three 
 children, Russell Wright, Athelbert (who died at 
 the age of sixteen years), and Chalmers (who died 
 in infancy). (3) Charles P., born in 1857, died 
 young. (4) Harriet P., born Jan. 31, i860, was 
 married in 1886 to Elisha Hewitt, of New Haven, 
 who is engaged in the drug business in that city 
 and is a lineal descendant of Gen. Israel Putnam, of 
 Revolutionary fame. They have one child, Dexter 
 Wright, born March 25, 1890. (5) Paul, born Feb. 
 23, 1862, was married to Minnie L. Crawford and 
 
42 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 lives in Chicago, where he is engaged in tlie coal 
 business. They have two children, Mary and Ruth. 
 (6) Arthur B. is a lawyer in South Dakota. He 
 married Harriet B. Sprague, a native of New York 
 City, and they have had one child, Roswell Sprague. 
 
 I\Irs. Maria H. (Phelps) AVright was born July 
 6, 1823, and is a descendant in the seventh genera- 
 tion from William Phelps, a native of Tewkesbury, 
 England, who removed to Dorsetshire, M"here he 
 was married; his wife's name was Elizabeth. In 
 1630 he came to Dorchester, Mass., in company with 
 Rev. William Warham, of whose church in Ply- 
 mouth, England, he was an original member. In 
 1636 he removed to Windsor, Connecticut. 
 
 Lieut. Timothy Phelps, a son of the emigrant 
 William Phelps, was born in 1639 and was married 
 in 1661 to Alary, daughter of Edward Griswold, of 
 Kenilworth, Conn. He made his home in Windsor. 
 
 Timothy Phelps, son of Lieut. Timothy, was 
 born in 1663, was married in 1686 to Martha Crow 
 and about 1690 removed to Hebron, Conn., where 
 he was one of the first selectman of the town, chosen 
 in 1708, on the organization of Hebron. 
 
 Charles Phelps, son of Timothy, was born in 
 1702 and was married in 1726 to Hepzibah, daugh- 
 ter of Robert Stiles. 
 
 Bethuel Phelps, son of the foregoing, was born 
 in 1748 and was married when thirty years old to 
 Caroline Lord. In 1780 he removed to Tolland and 
 from there to West Point, Conn., where he died in 
 1832. 
 
 Col. Epaphras L. Phelps, son of Bethuel, and 
 the father of Mrs. Wright, was born May 16, 1783, 
 in Tolland, and was married (first) in 1810 tO' Eliz- 
 abeth, daughter of Major Joel and Huildah (Allen) 
 Hopkins. She was born Feb. 12, 1791, and died 
 in 1827. He died June 28, 1868, at West Point, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 HON. JOSEPH SHELDON, of New Haven, 
 is an able lawyer and one of the oldest members of 
 the New Haven County Bar, a public speaker and 
 lecturer of distinction, and an all-around public- 
 spirited man. He has been one of the city's con- 
 spicuous characters for fifty years and more, and 
 his reputation has long ago gone out beyond city, 
 county and State limits. 
 
 Mr. Sheldon was born Jan. 7, 1828, at Water- 
 town, Jefferson Co., N. Y., fourth son of Col. Jo- 
 seph and Hepzibah (Richardson) Sheldon. His 
 early boyhood was passed on his father's farm, in 
 work and attendance at the district school. When 
 fourteen years of age he began teaching school 
 himself, teaching through the winters of 1842-43, 
 1843-44 and 1844-45, with flattering success. He 
 decided upon a college course, and in the spring of 
 1845 began preparing to enter Hamilton College, at 
 Clinton, N. Y. He studied in Union Academy, at 
 Rodman, N. Y., and later at the Black River Liter- 
 ary and Religious Institute, at Watertown, then 
 under the principalship of Rev. J. R. Boyd, a Pres- 
 
 byterian clergyman. Owing to failing health he 
 abandoned his plan of a college course, but con- 
 tinued to study at Union Academy, at Belleville, 
 N. Y. Through the years of 1846 and 1847 he al- 
 ternated in study and teaching at various places in 
 the State of New York. In May, 1848, -very much 
 against the will of his patrons, he relinquished 
 charge of tlie large school at Watertown, and 
 started out on a tour of investigation, desiring to 
 go to New York, New Haven and Cambridge_ to 
 learn what help the newly established Scientific 
 and Agricultural Schools could bring to practical 
 farming. He found the expense of a course of 
 study at these institutions too great for him to un- 
 dertake. Accidentally he met upon the street of 
 New Haven the late Dr. Taylor, who in the course 
 conversation persuaded him to enter the under- 
 graduate department of Yale College ; in the fall of 
 1848 he joined the Sophomore class. He was 
 graduated in 1851, having distinguished himself in 
 debate and English composition. Upon his gradua- 
 tion he at once began preparation for the law, 
 studying first at .Watertown, N. Y., and later in 
 Yale Law School, from which latter he was grad- 
 uated in 1853, and received from that institution the 
 degree of M. A. When Kossuth, the Hungarian 
 patriot, visited the United States in the winter of 
 1852, young Sheldon was selected by the students 
 from all departments of Yale to prepare the address 
 that was sent from that institution to the patriot. 
 
 Both before and after graduation Air. Sheldon 
 was a student in the law office of Hon. E. K. Foster, 
 of New Haven, and soon found considerable legal 
 business on his hands. In 1854 he also taught in 
 the famous Military and Scientific School of Gen. 
 Russell and Major Skinner, at New Haven. At 
 this time he instituted and for two 3rears conducted 
 very successfully "The Peoples Lectures," chiefly 
 with the view of aiding the slavery agitation, then 
 an important question before the people, and partly 
 to excite a more stirring intellectual life; but the 
 invitations for his services to lecture at various 
 points became so great and trespassed so much upon 
 his time that in two or three years he saw that he 
 must give up his profession or the lecture field so 
 be abandoned the latter. Air. Sheldon speedily, 
 won reputation in his profession and a lucrative 
 practice. He early formed a law partnership with 
 Lyman E. Munson, which was continued until the 
 latter was appointed by President Lincoln a dis- 
 trict judge of Montana. As a lawyer Mr. Sheldon 
 achieved success and made a good reputation. 
 
 Judge Sheldon in his political affiliations has 
 generally acted with the Republican party. In the 
 campaign of 1856 he took an active part for Fre- 
 mont. As a young man he was bitterly opposed to 
 slavery and took a leading part in the debates of 
 that period. Among the active Abolitionists of 
 New Haven he was one of the few who never 
 shrank from assisting the fugitive slaves and dur- 
 ing all of his professional work the ordinary chiv- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 43 
 
 airy of the profession in regard to meritorious cases 
 for tlie friendless, the hopelessly poor, was rather 
 especially emphasized, particularly among the peo- 
 ple of color. Soon after the election of President 
 Lincoln, for which Mr. Sheldon labored zealously, 
 the latter was employed by several of the leading 
 carriage-makers of New Haven upon the perilous 
 undertaking of settling their claims in the South- 
 ern States. He went South by way of Baltimore, 
 Norfolk and Weldon. At the little town of Wil- 
 son, forty miles below Weldon, he was finally com- 
 pelled by a drunken mob, to turn back, a guard 
 being placed over him to make sure that he act- 
 ually did leave the State. On his return to New 
 Haven, by invitation, he addressed a large audience 
 in Music Hall on "His Southern Experiences." 
 During the Civil war that followed he assisted in 
 sustaining an advanced public sentiment and in pro- 
 curing enlistments. He believed that the negro 
 must eventually be employed as a soldier, and at 
 one time, when negro orphan asylums were being 
 sacked in New York, Mr. Sheldon quietly got to- 
 gether a company of thirty or forty colored men, 
 and at midnight, in the basement of Music Hall, 
 instructed them in military drill, all hands being 
 pledged to secrecy. When the negroes were called 
 for almost every man of them becarne a non-com- 
 missioned officer in the 29th or 30th Regiment, and 
 inspired confidence by his military knowledge and 
 aptness. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Sheldon heartily supported Horace 
 Greeley for the Presidency. On a number of oc- 
 casions he has frankly differed from the Republican 
 party on questions of public policy. Early in the 
 'seventies he vigorously opposed the financial policy 
 of our government, which was leading toward the 
 "resumption" that finally prevailed. In the fall of 
 1875 he began a series of public meetings in New 
 Haven to resist the destruction of the greenbacks, 
 and to favor the rem'onetization of silver. In May, 
 1876, he delivered by invitation of the New Haven 
 Chamber of Commerce an address before that body 
 on the "Currency," which was widely published. 
 He has long been known as an enthusiastic and 
 efficient advocate of temperance and woman's suf- 
 frage. From 1879 to 18S2 Mr. Sheldon served the 
 Municipality of New Haven as an alderman. He 
 was chairman of the committees to which were re- 
 ferred the project of the Western Boulevard sewer 
 and the retention and repair of the State House. 
 The reports of the committees upon those subjects 
 were drawn by him. In 1881-83 he held the judge- 
 ship of the city court. In 1881 he was appointed 
 by Gov. Bigelow to represent the State in the Tariff 
 Convention in New York, where he delivered an 
 address. In 1884 Judge Sheldon was delegated by 
 the Government of the United States, and also by 
 the National Association of the Red Cross, to a 
 conference of the treaty nations of the Societies of 
 the Red Cross held at Geneva. He drew up and 
 delivered the address of the American delegation 
 
 on one of the most important controverted ques- 
 tions before the conference, and the question was 
 carried unanimously, in accordance with the views 
 urged in that address. 
 
 Judge Sheldon has been connected with a num- 
 ber of business enterprises, and as a manager of 
 business corporations he has been remarkably suc- 
 cessful. He has also given a great deal of atten- 
 tion to the development of real estate. He became 
 the owner of the foreign patents for a singularly 
 ingenious machine for the manufacture of brushes, 
 the perfecting of which, and the other necessary 
 machinery, and the establishment in London, Eng- 
 land, of the business of manufacturing and selling 
 machine-made brushes, occupied much of his time 
 for six years. In 1874 he sold out his holdings to a' 
 joint-stock corporation, which continued and en- 
 larged the business on the lines originally laid out 
 by him, until the establishment has become the 
 largest, most perfect, and profitable brush-making 
 concern in the world. 
 
 Judge Sheldon became a Freemason in 1883 
 and in the ensuing year became a member of the 
 Connecticut Society of Arts and Sciences. Aside 
 from his political efforts in public speaking he is 
 well known for his Fourth of July Memorial ad- 
 dresses and his oration upon the death of President 
 Garfield. Religiously he is a Unitarian, but as there 
 was no church of that denomination in New Haven 
 he has long been identified with the Universalist 
 Society, and for years took an active part in the 
 Sabbath-school and the conference meetings of the 
 Church. He also has been a generous contributor 
 to the Society's support. 
 
 In September, 1861, Judge Sheldon was married 
 to Abby, daughter of Samuel Elbridge Barker, of 
 Onondaga county, N. Y., who was a grandnephew 
 of Hon. Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts. jNIrs. 
 Sheldon, like her father before her, was on terms of 
 special friendship with the early Abolitionists of 
 Central New York — Gerrit Smith, Samuel J. May 
 and Fred Douglass. Two children — daughters — 
 were born to Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon. 
 
 For thirty years Mr. Sheldon has been an in- 
 defatigable student of political economy and finance. 
 It has been the dominant feature of the best years of 
 his life, and he has worked tirelessly and sacrificed 
 his own interests consciously and constantly in 
 order to arouse the people to an appreciation of the 
 overwhelming importance of an intelligent under- 
 standing of questions of national financial policy. 
 He is an ardent bimetallist, and has delivered a 
 great many addresses on this subject, the most im- 
 portant one possibly being before the American 
 Social Science Association at Saratoga. He 
 was for twenty years a leading member of the 
 National Bimetallic League and was one of the few 
 Eastern Republicans who left their party in 1896 
 because of their attitude on the money question 
 and campaigned vigorously for William J. Brvan 
 in that year and again in 1900. Every department 
 
44 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of thought or action to which Judge Sheldon has 
 turned his attention has felt the power of his search- 
 ing criticism and his vigorous personality. As a 
 thinker he_ is farsighted and consistent, an un- 
 daunted opponent of evil, and a fearless exponent 
 of the truth as he sees it. Every great reform of the 
 last half of the century just closed has found in 
 him a zealous and able champion. In all stages 
 of the unceasing contest against oppression, hypoc- 
 risy and sham, against the stubborn inertia of 
 stolid conservatism, he has openly pleaded for in- 
 dependence of thought and action, and at times 
 when men's hearts were failing them for fear he has 
 stood firm. 
 
 STEPHEN WRIGHT KELLOGG, son of 
 Jacob Poole and Lucy (^^'right) Kellogg, was born 
 in Shelburne, ;\Iass., April 5, 1822. At -the end of his 
 first year in college his father died, leaving the 
 widow and three younger children in his care. Elis 
 early life was spent upon the paternal farm, where 
 he worked in the summer until twentj^ years of age. 
 He taught school in the winter months, after he was 
 sixteen, and attended an academy at Shelburne Falls 
 for a short time. At the age of twenty he entered 
 Amherst College, where he remained two terms, and 
 then entered Yale, the third term of the Freshman 
 year and was graduated in 1846, taking one of the 
 three highest honors of his class. He became prin- 
 cipal of an academy at Winchendon, Mass., in the 
 autumn of that year, but returned to New Haven 
 and entered Yale Law School the following winter. 
 He was admitted to the New Haven Bar in June, 
 1848. and immediately opened a law office at Naug- 
 atuck, remaining there until 1854, when he removed 
 to ^\"aterbury, having been elected Judge of Pro- 
 bate for the Waterbury District, which then in- 
 cluded Xaugatuck. Since 1854 he has had his law 
 office in ^^'aterbury, having a large practice in the 
 higher courts of the State and in the United States 
 courts. 
 
 Mr. Kellogg was clerk of the Connecticut Sen- 
 ate, in 185 1, a member of the Senate from the Wat- 
 erbury District in 1853, and a member of the House 
 in 1856. In 1854 he was appointed, by the Legisla- 
 ture, Judge of the New Haven County Court, and 
 he held the office of Judge of Probate for the Dis- 
 trict of AA'aterbur}- for seven years. He was City 
 Attorney from 1866 to 1869, during which time he 
 procured the first legislation for supplying the city 
 with water. He was again City Attorney from 
 1S77 to 1883, and during this period drew up a bill 
 for the establishment of a sewerage system for the 
 city, and procured its passage by the legislature. 
 He was a delegate to the Republican National Con- 
 vention in i860, and was a member of the commit- 
 tee in that convention that drew up the "platform" 
 upon which Abraham Lincoln was first elected Pres- 
 ident. He was also appointed delegate to the Na- 
 tional Conventions of 1868 and 1876, and in the 
 latter was chairman of the Connecticut delegation. 
 
 He was colonel of the Second Regiment, Connecti- 
 cut National Guard, from 1863 to 1866, and brig- 
 adier general from 1866 to 1870. He was elected 
 to the XLIst Congress in 1869, and re-elected in 
 1 87 1 and 1873. During his six years of service in 
 Congress he was a member of the committees on 
 Judiciary, Patents, War Claims and Pacific Rail- 
 roads ; was chairman of the committee on Naval 
 Expenditures in the XLIId Congress ; and of the 
 committee on Civil Service Reform in the XLIIId. 
 He has been one of the agents of the Bronson Li- 
 brary since its organization in 1868, and while in 
 Congress succeeded in making it one of the six 
 depositories in the State for the valuable publica- 
 tions of the United States Government. During his 
 three terms in Washington Mr. Kellogg was con- 
 ceded to be one of the best representatives the dis- 
 trict ever had, with a peculiar aptitude for the prac- 
 tical side of legislation. On April i, 1873, shortly 
 before his third election to Congress, the W^ater- 
 bury American spoke of him as follows : 
 
 "It is not often that a Congressman at the end of 
 four years of service receives so many testimonials 
 — frank and business-like in their tone — from his 
 constituents, without reference to locality or party. 
 The truth is that Mr. Kellogg perceives, more clear- 
 ly than most Congressmen, what are the real duties 
 of a representative, and honestly endeavors to ful- 
 fill them. He has kept himself free from Congress- 
 ional corruption, and at the same time has done a 
 large amount of honest and valuable work for the 
 district and the State which he has represented." 
 
 Since his retirement from Congress, Mr. Kel- 
 logg has devoted himself to the practice of his pro- 
 fession. He has never lost his interest in public 
 affairs, however, and has frequently written articles 
 for the press upon political and other subjects of 
 interest. In 1900 he was a Presidential elector at 
 large for Connecticut. His second son, John P. 
 Kellogg, has been associated with him in his office 
 during the past ten years. 
 
 On Sept. 10, 185 1, Mr. Kellogg married Lucia 
 Plosmer Andrews, a granddaughter of Chief Justice 
 Hosmer, of Middletown. Their children, in the 
 order of their age, are as folloiws : Sarah Andrews, 
 who married F. C. Plume in 1880; Lucy Wright, 
 who married E. H. English, of New Haven, in 
 1882; Frank Woodruff; John Prescott; Elizabeth 
 Hosmer, who married Irving H. Chase, Feb. 28, 
 1S89; Stephen Wright, Jr., who died in 1868; and 
 Charles Poole, secretary of the State Board of Char- 
 ities. 
 
 John Prescott Kellogg was born in Water- 
 bury March 31, i860. He graduated from Yale Col- 
 lege in 1882, and from Yale Law School in 1884. 
 He commienced the practice of law as a member of 
 the firm of Kellogg, Burpee & Kellogg, in 1884, and 
 subsequently, on the retirement of Col. L. F. Burpee, 
 became the junior member of the firm of Kellogg & 
 Kellogg. In 1891 he was appointed Assistant City 
 Attorney, an office which he held until March, 1893, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 45 
 
 when he was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of the 
 District Court of WateAury. He was Town Attor- 
 ney 1891-1895, City Attorney from 1896, and' As- 
 sistant State's Attorney in 1897. In 1890 he was 
 appointed an aid on the stafiE of Gen. T. L. Watson 
 (with the rank of captain), and resigned in May, 
 1892. On June i, 1892, he married Clara, daughter 
 of Frederick A. Mason. They have two children, 
 Fredrika Mason and Elizabeth Hosmer. 
 
 Frank W. Kellogg^ eldest son of Stephen W. 
 Kellogg, is a lieutenant in the navy. He fitted for 
 entrance to Yale in 1875, but having an opportunity 
 to enter the Naval Academy, at Annapolis, he chose 
 the latter. Since his graduation at Annapolis, in 
 1879, he has been in the sea service about two-thirds 
 of the time, mostly on the various Atlantic and 
 Pacific stations. He was in the battle of Manila 
 Bay, under Admiral Dewey, and' had command of 
 the powder division on the "Baltimore." During 
 the action he was wounded by the explosion of some 
 ammunition, caused by the passage of a Spanish 
 shell through the "Baltimore." On his return to 
 Waterbury from the Pacific station a beautiful sword 
 was presented to him by the city, and he received an 
 ovation in which the whole population of the city 
 seemed to participate. A very fine model of the 
 "Baltimore" was built on the public square for his 
 reception, and the sword was presented to him on its 
 deck. He is now in charge of a division at the Navy 
 Department in Washington. On June i, 1901, he 
 was inarried to Minnie McConike, of Troy, New 
 York. 
 
 Charles P. Kellogg; youngest son of S. W. 
 Kellogg, graduated at Yale in 1890, and at the Yale 
 Law School in 1893. He was appointed secretary 
 of the State Board of Charities in 1895, and has 
 held that position since. He was a delegate in 1900 
 to the International Conferences of Charities at 
 London and Paris, and to the Prison Congress in 
 Brussels. He is unmarried. 
 
 THE MORSE FAMILY. For the past eighty 
 years the Morses, the late Gardner Morse, sons and 
 grandsons, in turn, have been closely identified with 
 the history of New Haven, figuring somewhat con- ' 
 spicuously in its business growth and development, 
 and making improvements that stand as monu- 
 ments to their enterprise and public spirit. Among 
 the members of the family yet active in business life 
 are Gardner Morse (secretary of the New Haven 
 Gas Light Company), Elliott H. Morse (secretary 
 and treasurer of the Connecticut Savings Bank) 
 and Joseph B. Morse (a lawyer who is extensively 
 engaged in the insurance and real-estate business). 
 
 The Morse family is one of the oldest in New 
 England. Joseph Morse, the emigrant ancestor 
 of the New Haven family, was born in England 
 about 1587, and came to New England in 1635, 
 settling in Ipswich, Mass., prior to 1641. He mar- 
 ried Dorathy, served as town clerk, and died in 
 1646. From this emigrant ancestor the sons and 
 
 daughters of the late Gardner Morse are descend- 
 ants in the ninth generation. The ancestral line 
 is as follows: Joseph (2), Joseph (3), Joseph 
 (4), Joseph (5), Abner, Stephen and Gardner. 
 
 (II) Joseph Morse (2), son of Joseph the emi- 
 grant, married Hester Bullard, and resided in 
 Watertown, Mass., where he was one of the pro- 
 prietors. He died in 1690. 
 
 (III) Joseph Morse (3), son of Joseph (2), 
 was born in 1637, married Susannah Shattuck in 
 1661, and resided in Groton, being one of the pro- 
 prietors of the town, where he died in 1677. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Morse (4), son of Joseph (3), 
 was born in 1667, at Groton, married Grace War- 
 ren, of Watertown in 1690, and lived on a farm in 
 Marlboro, Mass. 
 
 (V) Joseph Morse (5), son of Joseph (4), born 
 in 1691, married (first) Abigail Hubbard in 1716, 
 and resided in Marlboro. He died in 1756. 
 
 (VI) Abner Morse, son of Joseph (5), was 
 born in 1727, married Keziah Stow, and resided in 
 what is now Paxton, Mass. Mrs. Morse lived to 
 be over ninety years old, and died in Marlboro. 
 
 (VII) Stephen Morse, son of Abner, was born 
 Dec. 14, 1759, and on Nov. i, 1786, married Re- 
 becca Howe, of Sudbury, JNIass. He spent his life 
 on the family homestead in Marlboro. Mrs. Morse 
 was a lineal descendant of John How, of Hodin- 
 hule, England, who was one of the wealthiest pro- 
 prietors and settlers of Sudbury, Mass., where he 
 took the freeman's oath in 1640. He was one of 
 the petitioners for the town of Marlboro sixteen 
 years later, and according to tradition was the first 
 English person to reside there. Stephen Morse 
 was a man of character, and throug-h his long life 
 maintained a high reputation for integrity and moral 
 virtue. 
 
 The late Gardner Morse, of New Haven, son 
 of Stephen, and father of Elliott H. (2), and Joseph 
 Gardner Morse (i), of that city, was born April 
 II, 1809, at the old Morse homestead, in Marl- 
 boro, Mass. When thirteen years old he came to 
 New Haven to enter the employ of Timiothy and 
 Stephen Biishop, prominent merchants of this city. 
 His elder brother, Stephen, was collecting agent 
 for the Suffolk Bank of Boston, and while on busi- 
 ness in New Haven heard of the position offered 
 by Messrs. Bishop and informed his brother. After 
 six years' service with these gentlemen Gardner 
 Morse became engaged in a mercantile business 
 with Charles Peterson, under the firm name of 
 Morse & Peterson. This connection continued 
 only a short time, being terminated by the election 
 of Mr. Morse in 1837 'o 'he office of city, town 
 and school tax collector. This position he filled 
 for some twenty years, having some peculiar qual- 
 ifications for the work it entailed. Mr. Morse came 
 into prominence as a safe and careful business 
 man, of strict integrity, good judgment and the 
 utmost reliability, and was called upon to execute 
 many important trusts both by individuals and 
 
46 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 corporations. ;\Ian_y estates were put into his hands 
 for settlement, and much of the pubhc business of 
 the town and city wslS entrusted to himi for ad- 
 justment; he also had the agencies of many insur- 
 ance companies. During- the long period of fifty 
 3^ears he was one of the most active and public- 
 • spirited men of the city. In 1852 he was one of 
 the three trustees entrusted by the town with the 
 responsibility of disposing of the old alms-house 
 farm, and he was the controlling spirit connected 
 with that institution for more than forty years. Mr. 
 Morse was alwa_\'s active in any movement looking 
 to the expansion of the city, laying out new dis- 
 tricts, and extending streets into new territory, and 
 in company with the late John W. Mansfield did 
 much to improve unoccupied territory. He did 
 much in developing that part of the city lying west 
 of Park street from Oak street to Davenport ave- 
 nue. His knowledge of real estate values was so 
 sound that for many years he was acting trustee 
 and member of the loaning committee of the New 
 Haven Savings Bank, of which institution he was 
 vice-president at the time of his death. For years 
 he was trustee of the town deposit fund. From 
 1862 to 1874 he was fire commissioner, and in early 
 life took an active part in the State militia, rising 
 from the position of corporal to that of colonel of 
 the Second Regiment. He was a rigid disciplina- 
 rian, and insisted on the letter of the law, com- 
 pelling attendance on training days, and bringing 
 his command to a high pitch of excellence. His 
 religious convictions were all with the Episcopal 
 Church, and for more than forty years he served 
 as vestryman, trustee and treasurer o( Trinity 
 Church. 
 
 ;\Ir. Alorse was accurate in his judgment, quick 
 in his perception, and prompt in his acts of sym- 
 pathy. All his life was under the control of a 
 resolute will, tempered by good cheer and kindly 
 sympathy. 
 
 In 1833 Gardner 3iIorse was married to Julia 
 A. Austin, who died in 1841. On Dec. 20, 1843, 
 Islv. ]\Iorse wedded Mary L. Brigham, who died 
 in 
 
 185O, 
 
 i, 1S34; 
 am \\'., 
 
 His children ^vere : Sarah A., born Feb. 
 Algernon H., born Xov. 23, 1835; Will- 
 born Xov. 24, 1837; Gardner, born May 
 8, 1X30: Jula A., born March 28, 1841 ; Elliott H., 
 born July 31, 184O: ilary A., born June 5, 1848; 
 Joseph B., born Oct. 3, 1850 ; and Charles T., born 
 in 1852. For his third wife Mr. Morse married 
 Martha Belcher, daughter of Jonathan Belcher, of 
 Xorthfield, Mass., and a descendant of Gov. Bel- 
 cher. She died about 1863. Col. Morse was prom- 
 inentl}- identified with the Whig party, and in his 
 later years became a Republican. 
 
 Gardner Morse, son of Gardner and Julia 
 Alorse, was born Alay 8, 1839, and was reared in 
 New Haven, acquiring his education there, and in 
 the "Gunnery," and later in the Lovell school. For 
 some time he was employed by a large oyster dealer 
 in Baltimore, but in 1868 he entered the New 
 Haven Gas Light Company, as a bookkeeper, and 
 
 rose to the position of secretary in 1875 — a posi- 
 tion he still retains. In 1871 he was married in 
 Northampton to Mary Hamilton, who was born in 
 that town Jan. 4, 1853, a daughter of Luther W. 
 and a granddaughter of Loomis, who was a son 
 of William, a grandson of James, and a great- 
 grandson of Duke Hamilton, of Scotland. Loomis 
 Hamilton, her grandfather, was a linen merchant, 
 and spent his life mainly in Northampton, but 
 crossing the ocean to make a visit to Scotland he 
 was lost on the voyage; Ruth Waldo, his wife, was 
 the daughter of S'chulen Waldo, a prominent man 
 of Northampton, and a colonel in the Revolutionary- 
 war, serving also in the war of 1812, and dying in 
 his eighty-fourth year. Luther W. Hamilton was 
 a decorator, and a much respected man ; Lydia 
 Porter Beals, his wife, was born in Plainfield, 
 Mass., in 1817 and came of an exceedingly re- 
 spected family. 
 
 Elliott H. Morse has spent his entire life in 
 New Haven, completing his education at the New 
 Haven High School, which he left to enter the em- 
 ploy of the Connecticut Savings Bank, where he 
 has since served in the line of clerk, te'.ler, sec- 
 retary, assistant treasurer and treasurer. He be- 
 came assistant treasurer in 1876, and secretary and 
 treasurer in 1879, which position he holds to-day. 
 In 1879 he married Grace A. Bowns, daughter of 
 Henry E. Bo-wns, of Brooklyn, X. Y., and his 
 wife, Grace L. Beach, daughter of the late Clark 
 Beach, of New Haven. Three children have been 
 born to Mr. and ]\Irs. ]\Iorse : John ^lansfield, 
 Gardner Warren and Dorothea How., ^Ir. Morse 
 is an old-line Democrat, and has been for many 
 years a member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Joseph B. Morse, who was bom in 1850, was 
 associated with his father at a very earlv age, be- 
 ginning work under him as a boy, and was prac- 
 tically in charge of the business from 1878. He was 
 graduated from Yale in the class of 1871, and from 
 the Yale Law School in 1876, being admitted to the 
 Bar in X'ew Haven the same year, and there he is 
 extensively engaged in the real estate business. 
 In 1890 he formed a partnership with his father, 
 and succeeded to the business on the death of that 
 eminent citizen. For some twenty-five years he 
 was activel)- engaged in examining titles, "and has 
 done much work as a conveyancer. His business 
 in_ insurance and real estate is very extensive. His 
 wife, Annie I'.assett, whom he married Sept. 14, 
 1875, died April 19, 1881, leaving two children, a 
 son Stephen, who died in 1886, at the age of 
 seven years, and a daughter, Julia, who graduated 
 from the high school in 1901. Mr. Morse was 
 married in 1898 to Bessie E. Jones, born in South 
 Norwalk Jul\- 12, 1878, a daughter of Edwin F. 
 Jones, a railroad man, now living in New York 
 City. They have one child, Joseph Bulkley, Jr. 
 Mr. Morse is a Republican in his politics, and be- 
 longs to the Knig'hts of Honor, where he has 
 filled all the chairs. He is a memiber of the Naval 
 Battalion, where he has served six years, and be- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 47 
 
 longs to the Union League. ■ He is associated with 
 the Young Men's Club, and has been identified with 
 the Episcopal Society of Christ all his life. 
 
 COL. WILLLA-M BURR WOOSTER, promi- 
 nent alike in civic, legal and military circles in 
 Derby and Ansonia, died at his ht>me Sept. 20, 
 1900, and his death was the cause of much genuine 
 sorrow throughout the entire State of Connecticut. 
 Each seemed to feel it a personal loss, and it was 
 not until after the last sad rites had been paid 
 that was awakened the sense of the irreparable 
 loss to the communit)^. He had so long given the 
 best efforts to others, had been so ready to give 
 wise counsel and assistance that bis memory will 
 be cherished for 3'-ears to come. As the Hartford 
 Courant remarked at his demise: "His name has 
 stood for many years on Connecticut's roll of hon^ 
 or. He was a patriot and a gentleman. He was 
 Derby's first citizen." 
 
 William Burr Wooster was born Aug. 22, 1821, 
 in tlie tO'wn of Oxford, Conn., son of Russel and 
 Avis (Burr) Wooster, farming people of that town. 
 The early life of the son was passed after the usual 
 custom of Xew England farmer lads. His educa- 
 tion was pursued in the district school and the 
 academy, and at nineteen years of age he began to 
 teach in the village school, teaching through the 
 winters, but continued to devote his summers to 
 farm work. He now seemed to himself, as he did 
 to others, to be born for a larger sphere of opera- 
 tion, and after a few years entered the law school 
 at New Haven, and was graduated fromi Yale 
 University in 1846, bearing a diploma signed by 
 President Day. Judge William L. Storrs had been 
 his instructor, and took such pride in his pupil 
 as to give him counsel which determined the grad- 
 uate's future. It had been the dream of the stu- 
 dent to cast his fortunes with the great West, 
 whither so man}- were tending, but Judge Storrs 
 said, ''I want to give you unsolicited advice. I 
 know you and I know this locality. Don't you 
 leave Connecticut. Don't leave New Haven coun^ 
 ty, and come here as soon as you can." Bir- 
 mingham v\as quite near New Haven. In Mr. 
 Wooster's horoscope of the future there appeared 
 what has since come to pass in fact; a growing 
 city with suburbs which might become populous, 
 and he carried out the advice of his eminent legal 
 instructor by establishing himself for the practice 
 of law in Birmingham, Conn., Oct. i, 1846. Other 
 of his legal instructors in Yale were Samuel Hitch- 
 cock and Isaac Townsend. Another item in the 
 advice of Judge Storrs was that the young lawyer 
 should let politics alone. This he did for some 
 twelve vears, during which period he gave close 
 attention to professional pursuits. After his ad- 
 mission to the Bar Mr. Wooster rapidly rose to 
 the front rank in his profession. In 1858, and 
 again in 1861, he represented his town in the Leg- 
 islature, in 1859 served in the Senate, and in 1867 
 as paymaster general. 
 
 The most conspicuous service of Mr. Wooster 
 in the State government was performed on the 
 Military committee, and the splendid manner in 
 which Connecticut bore her part in the volunteer 
 service of the army, in the Civil war, and took 
 care of the soldiers' families, is to be credited large- 
 ly to his efforts. He drew many of the acts and 
 resolves which make up Connecticut's legislative 
 war record, and supported them in their passage 
 through that busy session of the General Assem- 
 bly. At the same time, and later, he was actively 
 engaged in enlisting volunteers, making patriotic 
 war speeches, even to the neglect of his own pro- 
 fessional _ business. And when President Lincoln 
 issued his famous "call" for 300,000 volunteers, 
 Mr. Wooster felt it to be a call to him personally, 
 and his sense of duty led him to act. He was 
 commissioned Aug. 22, 1862, lieutenant-colonel of 
 the 20th Conn. V. I., and went to the front. The 
 battle of Chancellorsville followed the next May, 
 and for distinguished gallantry on the field he was 
 made colonel by brevet. His command held the 
 ground against bold and fierce assaults, and only 
 when the Federal line on both sides of him had 
 given way did he order a retreat. His forces filed 
 out along the base of the hill, and to escape he 
 mounted two stray horses in succession, but both 
 of them were shot under him. He soon found 
 that the enemy had closed behind him. He was 
 captured, his sword taken from him, and he was 
 marched in the direction of Libby Prison to undergo 
 its terrible ordeal. The sword taken from him is 
 now in the possession of the family,, and the old 
 hat put in place of his own, taken from him a 
 few hours after while he was sleeping on the 
 ground, under Rebel guard, in front of General 
 Maur)'s quarters. The sword, Which Col. ^^'ooster 
 prized for association sake, was the gift to him 
 of some of his townsmen, Wallace & Sons, and 
 was properly inscribed. He received it as he left 
 home to take his command in 1862. In a battle at 
 Weldon Railroad, Va., in August, 1864, the Union 
 forces, Lieut.-Col. Finnicum of the 7th Wis. "V. I., 
 captured an officer of a Mississippi regiment carry- 
 ing this sword ; Lieut.-Col. Finnicum returned it 
 to its owner. 
 
 No detail of the eventful army experience of 
 Col. Wooster is here attempted. We only allude 
 to two or three items of it to suggest the personal 
 quality and career of the man so widely and highly 
 esteemed in Connecticut. On his release from 
 Libby prison and exchange. Col. Wooster hastened 
 to join his regiment, and led his command at Get- 
 tysburg. His regiment was in the thickest of the 
 figifit, and his own particular command was at the 
 very front, led in person, in the terrible conflict on 
 Gulp's Hill, on the morning of the third day of 
 battle, when his command with other forces made 
 the attack. 
 
 In March, 1864, Col. Wooster was assigned to 
 the command of a colored regiment, the 29th Conn. 
 V. I., and made colonel of it, and henceforth his 
 
48 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 fortunes in the war were identical with the for- 
 tunes of that brave regiment. Col. Wooster's com- 
 mand was the first to enter Richmond upon its 
 evacuation by the Rebel troops ; and he was- de- 
 tailed judge under martial law in the city, a posi- 
 tion for which his past legal life eminently qual- 
 ified him. Col. Wooster was an ideal soldier, brave 
 and calm in the peril of battle, watchful and con- 
 siderate, painstaking and self-sacrificing in the wel- 
 fare of those under him. He could take no rest 
 himself unless his soldiers were properly cared 
 for — a quality that made them confide in him and 
 love him to the fullest extent, and it inspired an 
 ambition to acquit themselves in the best manner 
 and to follow wherever he led. Though ibrave and 
 a man of nerve, he was yet tenderhearted and 
 kind. So full of loving tenderness was his heart 
 that after the battle oi Chancellorsville, and he 
 was a prisoner, he induced the Rebel commander 
 to allow him to go under guard back over the 
 field that he mig'ht see who of his men were killed, 
 and to gather up messages and mementoes from 
 the wounded and dying to send back home to their 
 friends and families. 
 
 At the close of the war Col. Wooster returned 
 to Birmingham and opened his law office. The 
 tide of business set toward him again, and his 
 clients multiplied. They gave the verdid of hav- 
 ing found a perfect honest lawyer, considerate, able, 
 a very safe counsellor and a successful advocate. 
 It is here worthy of passing note that Col. David 
 Torrance (Judge of the Supreme Court) began 
 his law studies while he was in camp, and this 
 came about by the presentation to him of two vol- 
 umes of Blackstone by Col. Wooster, and at the 
 close of the war he completed his studies in Col. 
 Wooster's office in Birmingham, and after his ad- 
 mission to the Bar in 1868 was admitted as a 
 partner, the firm being Wooster & Torrance. The 
 firm bore a grand title, the senior member already 
 known and eminent as a counsellor; both were 
 army men, and brought to their office the prestige 
 of brave leadership in the field; both possessed 
 those manly graces which win favor from the pub- 
 lic and secure popularity; and both were known to 
 be honest men. A large and lucrative practice 
 was the result. On Jan. i, 1882, Edwin Baker 
 Gager was admitted to the firm, Which became 
 A\'ooster, Torrance & Gager, and so remained un- 
 til April I, 1885, when Judge Torrance, who had 
 been appointed Judge of the Superior Court, re- 
 tired, and was succeeded by William H. Williams, 
 and since the death of Col. Wooster the firm has 
 been Williams & Gager. 
 
 Col. Wooster was naturally a man of affairs — 
 eminently a man of action rather than of theory. 
 He was a born leader of men as well in civil mat- 
 ters as on the field of battle. Besides his legal 
 work he was president of the Derby Gas Co., and 
 of the Birmingham Water Co., and had been con- 
 nected with several other successful enterprises, 
 enjoying the highest esteem of his fellow citizens. 
 
 On Oct. II, 1870, Col. Wooster was married 
 to Miss J. A. Wallace, daughter of Thomas Wal- 
 lace, of Ansonia, who survives him. He was a 
 member of Kellogg Post, G. A. R., and of the Army 
 and Navy Club of Connecticut. The Wooster resi- 
 dence, situated on Clifton avenue, is a model of 
 elegance throughout. 
 
 GEx\'. WILLIAM HUXTIXGTON RUS- 
 SELL, M. A. (Yale, 1833), was a descendant of 
 Lion Gardiner, formerly an officer in the English 
 army, who arrived in New England in 1635, and 
 constructed a fort at Saybrook, Conn., which he 
 commanded during the early Indian wars [Apple- 
 ton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. II, 
 pp. 595-596; Winsor's History of America, Vol. Ill, 
 pp. 331, 349; Doyle's English Colonies in America, 
 Vol. I, p. 157; Sanford's History of Connecticut, 
 pp. 17-18-20-22-23-28] ; of Rev. Samuel Hooker, 
 who graduated at Harvard in 1653, and was a fel-. 
 low of Harvard College; of Rev. Thomas Hooker, 
 who graduated at Cambridge, England, in 161 1, 
 and was the founder of Hartford [see Hollister's 
 History of Connecticut, Vol. I, pp. 23-31, 456-458, 
 510-511; Sanford's History of Connecticut, pp. 19- 
 20, 57-58; also McMillan's Dictionary of National 
 Biography] ; of John Brown, one of the assistant 
 governors of Plymouth Colony for seventeen years 
 from 1636, and commissioner of the United Colonies 
 for twelve years, from 1644; of Capt. Thomas Wil- 
 let, who came from England in 1629, and was an- 
 nually elected one of the assistant governors of Ph'- 
 mouth Colony, 1651-1665, commander of the mili- 
 tary forces and magistrate in Pl>Tnouth Colony, 
 first mayor of New York, 1665-1667, and founder 
 of the town of Swansey [see Life of Thomas \\i\- 
 let; Magazine of American History, Vol. X\"II, pp. 
 233-242 ; McMillan's Dictionary of National Biog- 
 raphy ; Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biog- 
 raphy] ; of Rev. Andrew Willet ( Cambridge, 
 England, 1580), chaplain and tutor of Prince 
 Henry, preacher at the court of King James 
 and a noted and very prolific author [Dic- 
 tionary of National Biography] ; of Rev. Thomas 
 Willet, 1511-1598, rector of Barley and Canon 
 of Ely; of Capts. John Gorham, George Den- 
 nison and James Avery, who figured prominently 
 in the early Indian wars ; of Capt. Nathaniel Wales, 
 an officer of the Continentai army during the war 
 for Independence. 
 
 William Russell, the American ancestor, came 
 from England in 1638. He left only one son, one 
 year old, and (his wife having previously died) 
 directed in his will that his "son be devoted to God 
 in the way of learning, being likely to prove a use- 
 ful instrument in the good work of the ministry," 
 and designated the person to be his guardian. 
 
 This son, Rev. Noahdiah Russell, graduated at 
 Harvard in 1681, was tutor in Harvard College 
 [History of English Colonies in America, by Lodge, 
 P- 436], and was one of the ten founders of Yale' 
 College and one of the original trustees of Yale 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 49 
 
 from 1701 to 1713. He was one of the framers of 
 the famous Saybrook Platform, and was pastor of 
 the First Church in Middletown twenty-five years, 
 until his death, and it was written of him that he 
 "was accounted a man of weight and wisdom 
 throughout the Colony." Such was his faithful- 
 ness and ability that the church immediately after 
 his death summoned his son William to succeed 
 him as their pastor. Noahdiah married JNIary, 
 daughter of Hon. Giles Hamlin, who came from 
 England and was one of the first settlers and prin- 
 cipal proprietors of Middletown. The prominent 
 and honorable record of Giles Hamlin and family 
 for more than one hundred years is found in Hol- 
 lister's History of Connecticut, Vol. I, p. 510; also 
 in the historical address by Rev. David Field, D. 
 D., at the second centennial of Middletown, Nov. 
 13, 1850. 
 
 William Russell, son of Noahdiah, also a clergy- 
 man, was graduated from Yale in 1709, was some- 
 time tutor at Yale and a trustee of Yale College 
 from 1745 to 1761. He was offered the position 
 of rector or president of Yale College, "and was the 
 first of the alumni to receive that honor from his 
 alma mater," but could not accept because "nego- 
 tiations with the people of Middletown for the re- 
 moval of their pastor were ineffectual" [Kingsley's 
 History of Yale College]. Until his death, in 1761, 
 for a period of forty-six years, he was pastor of the 
 First Church in Middletown, to which he was 
 called immediately upon the death of his father. 
 The pastorates of father and son over that one 
 prominent church covered a continuous period of 
 nearly three-quarters of a century, ending in 1761. 
 Rev. William Russell married Mary, daughter of 
 Rev. James Pierpont (Harvard, 1681), also one of 
 the ten founders of Yale College and one of the 
 original trustees of Yale from 1701 to 1714, and 
 during thirty years (1648-1714) pastor of the First 
 Church in New Haven. Another daughter, Sarah 
 Pierpont, married Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. D. 
 (Yale, 1720), the distinguished theologian and 
 president of Princeton College, and ancestor of 
 three presidents of Yale (Timothy Dwight, presi- 
 dent 1795-1817, Theodore D. Woolsey, president 
 1846-1871, Timothy Dwight, president 1886-1899), 
 and whose granddaughter married Eli Whitney, 
 inventor of the cotton-gin. These Pierponts were 
 descended from Sir Hugh de Pierrepont, of Picar- 
 dv, in France, A. D. 980, whose grandson. Sir Rob- 
 ert de Pierrepont, went from France to England as 
 commander in the army of William the Conqueror 
 in 1066, and was ennobled for his distinguished 
 conduct at the battle of Hastings (1066), arid from 
 him descended the earls and dukes of Kingston. 
 [Genealogical Abstract of the family of Pierre- 
 pont, Yale College Library, also Hollister's His- 
 tory of Connecticut, Vol. I, pp, 458-459. 5^°-] 
 
 Rev. Noahdiah Russell, M. A. (Yale, 1750), 
 son of William and Mary (Pierpont) Russell, 
 was pastor of one church thirty-seven years. He 
 4 
 
 married Esther Talcott, daughter of Joseph Talcott,. 
 treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut thirteen 
 years, 1756-11769, and granddaughter of Joseph 
 Talcott, governor of Connecticut seventeen years- 
 (1724-1741), who was the first governor of Con- 
 necticut born within its limits, and held the office 
 longer than any predecessor except Gov. Winthrop, 
 She was a great-granddaughter of Major (Lieut. 
 Col.) John Talcott, a magistrate in the Colony, and 
 who was treasurer of the Colony twenty-six years, 
 from 1652 to 1678. He commanded the "stand- 
 ing army" of Connecticut and their Indian allies in 
 King Philip's Indian war, and was one of the pat- 
 entees named in the charter which King Charles II 
 granted to Connecticut, and one of the three to 
 whom it was intrusted for safe keeping. [Hol- 
 lister's History of Connecticut, Vol. I, pp. 209-211, 
 284-287, 476-483. Trumbull's History of Connecti- 
 cut, Vol. I, pp. 46, 55, 179, 184, 194, 205-207, 211, 
 213, 214, 226, 230, 292, 293. Palfrey's History of 
 New England, Vol. Ill, p. 197.] His father, John 
 Talcott, came from England with Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker in 1632, and was one of the chief magis- 
 trates of the Colony until his death, and one of the 
 wealthiest of the original settlers and proprietors 
 of Hartford, and his name is inscribed upon the 
 monument erected to perpetuate the memory of the 
 founders of the Colony of Connecticut. [Talcott 
 Pedigree, pp. 22-24, 32-35, 39-51, 66-80. Apple- 
 ton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. VI, 
 
 P- 23-] 
 
 Matthew Talcott Russell, son of Noahdiah and' 
 Esther, graduated from Yale in 1779, and was tutor 
 in Yale College four years. He entered the legal' 
 profession and was State's attorney, and during 
 thirty years was deacon in the First Congregational 
 Church in Middletown. He married Mary, daugh- 
 ter of Rev. Enoch Huntington (Yale, 1759), and a 
 niece of Samuel Huntington, M. A., LL. D. (Yale), 
 signer of the Declaration of Independence, presi- 
 dent of the Continental Congress, 1779, 1780 and 
 1781, Chief Justice of the Superior Court, and 
 during ten years governor of Connecticut, 1786- 
 1796. Mary's father and two brothers all won the 
 Berkeley premiums for scholarship at Yale Col- 
 lege. Rev. Enoch Huntington was a fellow of 
 the Yale Corporation from 1780 to 1808, and secre- 
 tary of the Yale Corporation from 1788 to 1793.- 
 He was pastor of the First Church in Middletown 
 forty-seven years, commencing 1762, and three of 
 his brothers were prominent clergymen. He was- 
 described as a mlan of remarkable scholarship, and' 
 it was recorded that "on the death of President 
 Stiles of Yale College, in 1795, Mr. Huntington 
 was prominent as a candidate to succeed him, but 
 his failing voice obliged him to decline that honor." 
 [See interesting account of the Clergy in Connect- 
 icut previous to 1818 in Sanford's History of Con- 
 necticut, p. 124, Hollister's History of Connecticut, 
 p. 427, Lodge's History of English Colonies in 
 America, pp. 423-425.] Simon Huntington (an- 
 
50 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 cestor) caniie from England, and was one of the 
 original proprietors, first settlers and deacons of 
 Korwicli, Conn. [See "Old Houses of the Ancient 
 Town of Norwich," College Library.] 
 
 The only son of Aiatthew i". Russell who mar- 
 ried was Gen. William Huntington Russell, j\I. A. 
 (Yale, 1833), who was valedictorian of the class 
 of 1833, sometime tutor, and founder of the Skull 
 and Bones Society at Yale, and that Society per- 
 petuated his name by being incorporated as the 
 "Russell Trust Association." He married Alary 
 Elizabeth Hubbard, daughter of Thomas Hubbard, 
 professor at Yale from 1829 until his death, in 1838, 
 whose other daughter, Frances Harriet Hubbard, 
 married Rev. Simeon North, D. D., LL. D. (Yale), 
 1825J, professor of Greek and Latin, 1829-1839, 
 and president of Hamilton College, 1839-1857. 
 
 Gen. Russell was born Aug. 12, 1809, in Mid- 
 dletown. Conn., where three of his ancestors had 
 been pastors of the First Congregational Church a 
 continuous period of one hundred and eighteen 
 years, and his father deacon for thirty years. 
 From infancy he was surrounded by the most re- 
 fined and thoroughly religious influences. Before 
 entering Yale he was for several years a cadet in 
 the famous military academy founded and conduct- 
 ed by Capt. Alden Partridge (U. S. A.), a grad- 
 uate of West Point, and for twelve years previous- 
 ly professor and rriilitary superintendent at the Na- 
 tional Academy at West Point. This academy was 
 similar to West Point, having as an object the prep- 
 aration of young men "to command in time of 
 need the hastily raised troops of a great and grow- 
 ing nation," and Gen. Sherman has stated that it at 
 one time almost rivalled the National Academy at 
 West Point. It was this strict military discipline 
 for several years that gave Gen. Russell such a 
 knowledge of military affairs and influenced his 
 life work, which was directly and indirectly so im- 
 portant in the service of his country. From an 
 early age he undertook all the duties and respon- 
 sibilities of life very seriously and thoroughly. 
 
 The death of his father (age sixty-eight, from 
 acute erysipelas) and changes in the fortune of the 
 fam-ilv threw the care of his mother (who had vigor- 
 ous health to the age of eighty-seven) and her fam- 
 ily largely upon him, and he subsequently entered 
 Yale under circumstances of much financial ad- 
 versity, and hindered by trouble with his eyes. He 
 was self-supporting in college, and in all his fre- 
 quent journeys between New Haven and his home 
 in Middletown (twenty-six miles) was obliged to 
 go on foot, owing to financial necessity. Such was 
 his ability and industry that, in spite of these im- 
 pediments, he graduated as valedictorian in 1833, 
 at the head of a class which in the Sophomore year 
 had one hundred and twenty-two students, among 
 whom were many who attained much distinction 
 later in life. An old graduate of Yale, referring 
 to William H. Russell, wrote, "I thought him to 
 be the be-:t speaker and scholar I had seen." 
 
 He was a devout Christian from boyhood through- 
 out life, and letters written by him before and after 
 graduation from college emphasize his purpose not 
 to seek wealth nor honor, but to devote his life to 
 doing good to others, and he hoped to enter the 
 ministry. Urgent financial necessity, and the need 
 of assuming responsibilities left by the death of his 
 father, forced himi to give up his earnest desire to 
 study theology, and he then began teaching, to ob- 
 tain immediate income. 
 
 In September, 1836, he opened a new private 
 school for boys, preparatory for college. With no 
 assistance from anyone, and owing only to his per- 
 sonality and scholarship, his school rapidly became 
 large and famous, and when it closed at his death, 
 May 19, 1885, there had been four thousand young 
 men from all parts of this and some foreign coun- 
 tries under his care as pupils. During about half 
 a century there were at Yale young men who pre- 
 pared for college under his care. He was ever 
 ready to assist young mien who without means 
 sought an education. About 1840 he introduced 
 very thorough military drill and discipline into his 
 school, to fit every pupil to serve his country in war 
 as well as to furnish him a sound education for 
 times of peace. At the outbreak of the Rebellion 
 boys from his school were employed to drill the vol- 
 unteer troops for army service, and more than 
 three hundred men who had been his pupils became 
 officers in the arm}^ At the commencement of the 
 war Gov. Buckingham of Connecticut relied upon 
 William FI. Russell as the man best qualified by 
 his knowledge of military affairs to organize the 
 militia of the State of Connecticut, and first I\v ap- 
 pointment of the governor, and later of the Legis- 
 lature, he held the office of major general of the 
 militia of the State until 1870. The present system 
 is largely the result of his long and earnest efforts. 
 His work was of the greatest importance, for the 
 military preparation of the volunteer troops was 
 included in it. 
 
 It was written of Gen. Russell that "he was a 
 striking example of the New England life and 
 character ;" that "his personality was a remarkable 
 one, and fitted him to train youth for an upright, 
 independent and conscientious manhood ;" that "he 
 ranked with Dr. Thomas Arnold, master of Rugby 
 School;" that "by his transparent integrity and na- 
 tive vigor of intellect he impressed himself on all 
 his pupils and on every order of mind with which 
 he came in contact ;" that "Hon. William H. Rus- 
 sell was a Whig representative in 1846-1847, upon 
 the repeal of the jNlissouri Compromise in 1854 he 
 became active as one of the leaders of the movement 
 which resulted in the organization of the Republi- 
 can party." Fie took the strongest and most active 
 and conscientious interest in all the religious, polit- 
 ical and social cjuestions of the day, and considered 
 the duties of a citizen most sacred and binding, and 
 he fearlessly exerted his utmost influence in behalf 
 of whatever was right, rather than that which was 
 
tH^<r>v..u^'^, /iL...£^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 SI 
 
 expedient. He was as liberal as possible in sup- 
 porting many worthy objects. He was a strong 
 Abolitionist and a personal friend of John Brown, 
 the anti-slavery martyr, and in a will which Brown 
 made William H. Russell was named one of the 
 trustees. 
 
 Gen. Russell's greatest service was the impres- 
 sion which he made 'by his character and scholarship 
 and influence upon the four thousand young men 
 who, during nearly half a century, came from all 
 parts of the country to be his pupils. Gen. Russell 
 was the Connecticut representative on the National 
 Kansas (anti-slavery) committee before the war, 
 and John Brown was many times a guest at his 
 house. 
 
 Throughout life ever ready to assist and protect 
 the weak and unfortunate, the last act of his life 
 (and cause of death) was characteristic of him. In 
 May, 1885, he saw from his window many street 
 boys throwing stones at the hirds in the park in 
 front of his house. He ran out to protect the birds 
 fromj being injured by the boys, but the boys were 
 numerous and active, the park was large, and he 
 vi^as too old for such prolonged active effort. Re- 
 turning to his room, he immediately fell to the floor 
 imconscious from a fatal rupture of a blood vessel 
 (apoplexy), and died. May 19, 1885, aged seventy- 
 six years. He had never had a day of illness pre- 
 vious to his death. Careful investigation of old rec- 
 ords proves that his ancestry was especially con- 
 ducive to vigorous physical and mental health and 
 longevity and freedom from any tendency tO' dis- 
 ease. His wife died Dec. 11, 1890, aged seventy- 
 four years, having had good health until her last 
 illness. 
 
 Immediately after the General's death the vet- 
 eran soldiers of Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R., 
 passed the following resolution : 
 
 "Resolved, That on Saturday next, May 30th, 
 and on all future Decoration Days in which we may 
 participate, we will decorate the grave of Major 
 General William Huntington Russell in the same 
 spirit of affectionate respect with which we lay our 
 garlands upon the graves of our comrades." 
 
 All of his male ancestors had been college grad- 
 uates since a date previous to the founding of Yale 
 College, and all of his five sons graduated at Yale 
 except one who died of acute dysentery in the 
 Sophomore year. 
 
 Thomas Hubbard Russell, Ph. B., M. D. 
 (Yale, 1872), son of Gen. William H. Russell, 
 pursued his studies first under his father and sub- 
 sequently at Clinton, N. Y., under the direction of 
 bis uncle, Rev. Simeon North (Yale, 1825), ex- 
 president of Hamilton College; was graduated 
 from the Scientific Department of Yale with the 
 degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, in 1872; and 
 from Yale Medical Department, with the degree of 
 Doctor of Medicine, three years later. In 1872 he 
 accompanied Prof. O. C. Marsh upon the latter's 
 palseontological expedition to the Rocky mountains, 
 and was assistant to Prof. Francis Bacon some 
 
 years ; resident physician and surgeon to the New 
 Haven Hospital, 1875-1876; and physician to the 
 New Haven Dispensary some years ; and has been 
 attending surgeon to the New Haven Hospital con- 
 tinuously from January, 1878, until the present 
 time. Joining the force of instructors at the Yale 
 Medical Department in 1877, he was three years 
 later appointed Clinical Lecturer on Surgery, and 
 subsequently on other branches of surgery; was 
 Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics 
 from 1883 to 1891, and in 1891 was appointed Pro- 
 fessor of Clinical Surgery, and has occupied that 
 position ever since. In 1886 he visited Europe. 
 
 On Dec. 21, 1882, Dr. Russell married Mary 
 K., daughter of Lyman E. Munson (Yale), United 
 States Judge of Montana by appointment from 
 President Lincoln. They have five children, Mary 
 Talcott, Thomas Hubbard, Jr., William Hunting- 
 ton, Eleanor and Edward Stanton Russell. His 
 brothers are Talcott Huntington, B. A., Yale, 1869, 
 LL. B., Columbia, 1871 ; Philip Gray, B. A., Yale, 
 1876, LL. B., Yale, 1878, late of Washington, D. 
 C, died without issue July 21, 1900, age forty-six, 
 from acute inflammation of the kidney, following 
 appendicitis ; and Edward Hubbard, Ph. B., Yale, 
 1878, inventor of the Russell Processes for Silver 
 Ores, who lives abroad. 
 
 LEWIS FITCH (deceased), once known to all 
 New Haven as the leading clothing merchant of the 
 city, entered into rest in 1891, at the age of eighty- 
 nine years. His name in the business world was a 
 tower of strength, his honor was uncorrupted and 
 his fame untarnished. Of kindly disposition and 
 genial manners, he was courteous to all, and won 
 friends wherever he went. 
 
 Mr. Fitch was born in Norwalk, Conn., a son 
 of Hanford Fitch. He was educated in the schools 
 of his native town, and upon reaching man's estate 
 he came to New Haven, where he soon engaged in 
 the clothing business. After a time he removed to 
 Macon, Ga., but upon his return to New Haven, re- 
 sumed the clothing business, and so continued until 
 advancing years compelled him to retire. He was 
 very successful in his affairs, and accumulated a 
 large amount of real estate. He builded the block 
 at the corner of Orange and Grove streets, and at 
 No-s. 335, 337 and 339 Orange street. He also 
 erected the block on the corner of Grove and Trow- 
 bridge street, which contains two stores with three 
 floors above fitted for dwelling purposes. He owed 
 his success entirely to his own unaided efforts, his 
 energy and his business judgment being the potent 
 factors in his accumulation of this world's goods. 
 In his political views he was a Republican, but cared 
 nothing for the honors of public office. He was a 
 communicant of the Church of the Redeemer, and 
 took an active part in its work. For thirty years 
 he served it as an officer. 
 
 Mr. Fitch was united in marriage with Louisa 
 Hill, who bore him nine children, of whom' but two 
 are yet living : Rev. William F-, of Brooklyn ; and 
 
52 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Miss Georgia A. The mother died at the age of 
 forty-two. For his second wife, Air. Fitch married 
 Emily Smith, of West Haven, who passed away in 
 March, 1901, at the advanced age of ninety years. 
 Miss Georgia A. Fitch makes her home in New 
 Haven, surrounded by friends, and she lias greatly 
 endeared herself to all who know her by her gener- 
 ous disposition that sees only the good, and that 
 aims to help the weak and to cheer the disheartened. 
 
 GEN. EDWIN SENECA GREELEY, for 
 many years a leader in the industrial development 
 of New Haven, where he has achieved great suc- 
 cess, becoming the vice-president of the Yale Na- 
 tional Bank, stands in the front rank of New Ha- 
 ven's citizen soldiers. Born j\Iay 20, 1832, in 
 Nashua, N. H., Gen. Greeley is a son of Seneca and 
 Priscilla (Fields) Greeley, grandson of Col. Joseph 
 Greeley, a patriot soldier of the Revolution and 
 grandson of Isaac Fields, one of the early settlers 
 of Merrimack, N. H. Col. Joseph Greeley was own 
 cousin to Zaccheus Greeley, father of Horace 
 Greeley, the founder of the New York Tribune. 
 
 The Greeleys originally came from Argyllshire, 
 Scotland, and settled in the North of Ireland sorne 
 two hundred years prior to^ their coming to America. 
 They were people of high character and profound 
 religious convictions, and from them came some of 
 our subject's ancestors, in whom were reproduced 
 their sturdy traits, hardy physique and religious 
 character. Some of them reached advanced age. 
 
 (I) The first of the Greeley family in America 
 of whom there is authentic record is Andrew Gree- 
 Iv, who was iborn in 1620 and who died at Salis- 
 bury, Mass., Nov. 16, 1693. He was married about 
 1643 to iMary Goldmyre, who died Dec. 24, 1703. 
 Their children were as follows : Philip, born Sept. 
 21, 1644, married Hannah Osley ; Andrew, Jr., born 
 Dec. ID, 1646, married June 12, 1673, Sarah Browne 
 (born Dec. 6, 1654), and died June 30, 1697; Mary, 
 born July 16, 1649, married March 26, 1668, Bph- 
 raim Wensley, of Salisbury ; Joseph, born Feb. 5, 
 1652, married Martha Wilford, who was born Jan. 
 8, 1669-70; Benjamin was born Dec. 9, 1654; and 
 Westford (or Wilford) was born Jan. 29, 1659. 
 
 (II) Joseph Greely, a son of Andrew, born, as 
 stated above, Feb. 5, 1652, was married Feb. 7, 
 1694-95, tO' Martha Wilford, who was born Jan. 8, 
 1669-70, second daughter of Gilbert Wilford, and 
 died Feb. 21, 1757. They became the parents of 
 the following named children : Samuel, mentioned 
 below, was born Dec. 22. 1695 ; Joseph, born Feb. 
 17, 1697-98, was married probably June 14, 1738, 
 at RoxlDurv, Mass., to Sarah Browne, of L\me, 
 Mass.; Benjamin married Ruth AMiittier; Aloses 
 died young, about 1702; William, born April 11, 
 1704, married probably Dec. 6, 1733, Judith Per- 
 kins; Closes (2) was born Alarch 31, 1711; and 
 Alar^- was born Nov. 17, 1714. 
 
 (TTI) Samuel Greelv. son of Joseph, born Dec. 
 2J, i6';5, died ?\[a\- 25, 177T. He married Rachel 
 
 Greely, who died Sept. 17, 1758. They became the 
 parents of nine children, viz. : Samuel, Jr., born 
 May 10, 1721 ; William, Oct. 8, 1722; Mehitable, 
 Oct'. I, 1724; Martha, Sept. 26, 1726; Rachel, Oct. 
 15, 1729; Jonathan, Feb. 26, 1732; Mary, March i, 
 1734; Hannah, Nov. 22, 1736; and Nathaniel, 
 Alarch 14, 1739. 
 
 ( I\") Samuel Greeley, Jr., son of Samuel, Sr., 
 born J\Iay 10, 1721, died Alay 8, 1800. He married 
 Abigail Blodgett, who died March 27, 1818. The 
 children of Samuel (Jr.) and Abigail (Blodgett) 
 Greeley were : Nathaniel, born Oct. 28, 1744; Han- 
 nah, Aug. 27, 1747; Abigail, Sept. 10, 1750; Sam- 
 uel, Sept. 29, 1752; Joseph, Sept. 9, 1756; Mary, 
 Oct. 15, 1760. 
 
 (V) Joseph Greeley, son of Samuel, Jr., born 
 Sept. 9, 1756, died Alay 13, 1840. On March 7, 
 1780, he married Sarah Greely, daughter of Ezek- 
 iel Greely, born in April, 175 1, died Sept. 9, 1834. 
 Children were born to this union as follows : ( i ) 
 Sally, born at Hudson, N. H., July 30, 1782, mar- 
 ried Daniel Hayden. (2) Joseph, born May 3, 1784, 
 married Hannah Thornton and became the father 
 of nine children — Alary, who died when about 
 twenty-seven years of age ; Joseph, who married 
 Hannah Morrison ; Sarah, who died when about 
 twenty years old; Charles A., who married Helen 
 Reed ; Edward P., who married Mary Roby ; Cath- 
 erine and Walter, both of whom- died young ; James 
 B., M. D., born about 1830, now living in Nashua; 
 and Ellen, who died at the age of eighteen. (3) 
 Ezekiel, iborn June 20, 1786, married Sarah Pollard 
 and had four children — Augustus C, who married 
 Charlotte Fuller ; William F., who married Fran- 
 ces G. Peters ; Dr. George P., who married Mary 
 Dewey ; and Henry C, who married Mary E. Page. 
 (4) Alfred, born April 17, 1788, married Mary 
 Webster and had two children^ — Mary W., who 
 married W. W. Bailey; and Webster. (5) Fanny, 
 bom Feb. 14, 1790, died May 29, 1793. (6) Seneca 
 IS mentioned below. (7) Samuel bom June 4, 1799,. 
 married Mary Buxton, and died April 13, 1879. 
 They had children — Mary Ann, born Feb. 12, 
 1836, married Horace Woods Jan. 8, 1853, and 
 died July 14, 1882; Sarah Frances, born Sept. 21, 
 1838, married William Chase; Samuel Augustus, 
 born Jan. 31, 1840, married Susan Richardson an.l 
 had three sons and two daughters : Edward Dana, 
 born Sept. 16, 1841, married Selina Richmond and 
 had four children; James Clinton, born March 18. 
 1B43, married Ella Sampson and died A'larch 7, 
 1892 ; Helen Augusta, born Aug. 8, 1845, rnarried 
 David Brush and has two children; Louisa Martin, 
 born March 27, 1847, married M. J. Atherton and 
 has two children ; Charles Albert, born May 7, 1849, 
 died Oct. 6, 1870; Grenville Hayden, born Feb' 
 14. 1851, died young; and Onslow Smith, born 
 Aug. 27, 1852, married Gertrude Parker and has 
 two children. 
 
 (VI) Seneca Greelev, son of Joseph, was born 
 Alay 29, 1794, and died Nov. 26," 1886, at the 
 
 Te age 
 
n td 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 53 
 
 of ninety-two years and six months. He married 
 Priscilla Fields, who was born Jan. 25, 1793, and 
 passed away Oct. 7, 1885. Five of their ten chil- 
 dren outlived their parents, as follows : Elizabeth 
 P., iborn Aug. 29, 1819, died Oct. 8, 1884; she mar- 
 ried William Davis, and later Charles F"iske, and 
 had two children. Alfred Henry, born May 15, 
 1821, married Charlotte Whitteker and (second) 
 Laura Woods and has one adopted son. Sarah 
 Pollard, bom Jan. 12, 1824, died Aug. 3, 1851 ; she 
 married Dr. O. M. Carleton and had three sons. 
 Samuel F., born Nov. 16, 1825, died Aug. 5, 1897. 
 Emily H., born Jan. 7, 1828, died young. Adeline 
 Amanda, born April 20, 1830, died young. Edwin 
 Seneca is mentioned in full farther on. Franklin 
 Maston, born Jan. 7, 1835, married Inez Byington 
 and has two children. Emily Frances, born Feb. 7, 
 1837, married Hiram Preston and has two children. 
 Eldridge Osgood, born April 26, 1841, died in 1851. 
 The mother of these was a woman of fine character, 
 strong in her convictions and tender in her sympa- 
 thies. She was a member of the Presbyterian 
 Church and by her many womanly graces won the 
 esteem of a large circle of friends. 
 
 (VII) Edwin Seneca Greeley was thrown on 
 his own resources in early boyhood by financial mis- 
 fortunes that came to his parents and when he was 
 twelve years old he began to work for his living. 
 At the age of fifteen years he was employed in a 
 cottoni mill, where he remained several years. Being 
 of a mechanical turn of mind he became a machinist 
 and through the aid of his father secured a position 
 in Manchester, N. H., but the place was unsatisfac- 
 tory, as it did not afford the opportunity he desired 
 of learning the uses of steam as applied to machin- 
 ery. To learn this he went to Schenectady, N. Y., 
 where he completed his trade of machinist. From 
 the very beginning of his work young Greeley was 
 ambitious to build a locomotive and secured employ- 
 ment in the Schenectady Locomotive Works. After 
 becoming a journeyman he was employed at the 
 Rogers Locomotive Works, Paterson, N. J. In 
 1855, from the employ of this world-famous es- 
 tablishment, he came to New Haven, which has 
 been his home ever since. He came to New Haven 
 on a visit and on sight of the New Haven Green and 
 its surroundings was so pleased with the city that 
 he at once determined to make it his home. He 
 secured employment with the railroad company and 
 immediately located here, where his early ambition 
 was gratified, for before the war he assisted in the 
 construction of a locomotive, the first constructed 
 in New Haven. 
 
 Gen. Greeley was in New Haven in the exciting 
 years preceding the Civil war and all his sympathies 
 were with the Union. When the clash of arms 
 came he was among the first to respond to the call 
 for troops, carrying out to its logical results his 
 long and earnest championing of the cause of lib- 
 erty and progress. In company with E. D. S. 
 Goodyear, of North Haven, he raised a full com- 
 
 pany of men, with Mr. Goodyear as captain and 
 himself as first lieutenant and they were assigned 
 to the nth Conn. V. I., but were soon transferred 
 to the loth Regiment. The regiment was mus- 
 tered into service Oct. 2, 1861, and was almost im- 
 mediately sent South to join in what is known in 
 history as Burnside's expedition. In February, 
 1862, it participated in its first battle, at Roanoke 
 Island, where it charged the Rebel works and cap- 
 tured most of the garrison. After this battle Capt. 
 Goodyear was taken sick and Lieut. Greeley com- 
 manded the company at the battle of Newbern, N. 
 C. Shortly after this battle he became a captain 
 in the place O'f Capt. Pardee, who had achieved pro- 
 m.otion. In December, 1862, Capt. Greeley marched 
 with his company on to the famous Goldsboroi expe- 
 dition, participating in the battle of Kinston, where 
 the regiment lost 106 officers and men in less than 
 thirty minutes. The loth fought also at Whitehall 
 and Goldsboro. On Jan. i, 1863, they were trans- 
 ferred to the Department of the South, stationed 
 at Hilton Head, S. C. Capt. Greeley was promoted 
 to the rank of major and commanded the regiment 
 in the 'siege of Charleston, before which city the 
 fighting was of the most severe and dangerous sort, 
 and the loth had a hand in nearly all the desperate 
 conflicts that marked the progress of the investment, 
 particularly Seabrook Island, James Island and the 
 assaults on Forts Wagner and Gregg, on Morris 
 Island. During the course of the siege of Charles- 
 ton Gen. Gilmore made a desperate plan for the 
 capture of Fort Sumter. The waters of the harbor 
 surrounded the fort and it was proposed to sent 
 soldiers in boats who should assault it on all sides at 
 once, and, scaling all its walls, capture its garrison by 
 storm. To this rash and desperate enterprise the loth 
 Connecticut contributed 285 men, under command 
 of Major Greeley, and about the same number came 
 from the 24th Massachusetts, commanded by Col. 
 Osborne. This expedition, sheltered by the dark- 
 ness of the night, reached the vicinity of the fort 
 and were forming for the assault when bright cal- 
 cium lights flashed and shot and shell burst from 
 Fort Sumter. At this point there had been con- 
 siderable jealousy between the army and the navy. 
 The latter had tried unsuccessfully to silence the 
 fort, and Gen. Gilmore, feeling that they must antic- 
 ipate the attack by his land forces, had arranged 
 to signal a retreat hy a blue rocket, which was to 
 order the return by the same route over which they 
 had come. As the navy did attack first Gen. Gil- 
 more gave the signal and nothing then remained 
 but to withdraw the troops which, strange to say, 
 was accomplished with little damage. This enter- 
 prise, having already been tried by the officers of 
 the fleet, found the Rebels prepared for such an at- 
 tempt. During the campaign the loth Connecticut 
 had lost heavily ; entering the service with over 
 1,000 rnen, it had been reduced to 175 effective sol- 
 diers and was ordered to St. Augustine, Fla., to re- 
 cruit. Major Greeley was very ill with a chronic 
 
54 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 disease and his wan countenance and pallid features 
 moved even the sympathies of the Rebel ladies of 
 that hotbed of secession, and one of them, a relative 
 of a prominent Rebel general, sent him a remedy 
 that eventually restored him to health. 
 
 In the spring of 1864 ^lajor Greeley w^s or- 
 dered Xorth with his veterans, whose term of serv- 
 ice had expired. Aibout 300 men re-enlisted, and 
 after a short furlough they joined the regiment 
 which, coming from the South, was attached to Gen. 
 Butler's Armj^ of the James and was assigned to 
 the loth Army Corps, under Gen. Gilmore. During 
 the encampment at Bermiuda Htmdred it was Major 
 Greeley's duty to establish the picket line and he 
 had just stationed the reserves when he heard the 
 noise of galloping horses. With difficulty he 
 stopped Gen. Butler and his staff, who were fast 
 galloping into captivity with a vague notion of go- 
 ing to the front. Here the gallant loth was engaged 
 in continuous and arduous service during May, 
 1864, particularly against the railroad and Rich- 
 mond, from the South. After four days of continu- 
 ous fighting the loth acted as rear guard from the 
 battlefield of Duryea's Bluff and received the warm- 
 est encomiums from the commanding general for 
 its behavior under all circumstances and in all situa- 
 tions. Major Greeley won warm praise for his gal- 
 lant behavior on the night of June 15, 1864. He 
 had charge of the picket line on the right when it 
 appeared that large masses of troops were in motion 
 in front of him. At first an attack was feared but 
 he soon discovered that the enemy was withdrawing. 
 All night he pleaded for liberty to attack but his 
 commanding officer could not believe his report was 
 correct. At daybreak he was given permission to 
 advance if he would assume responsibility for the 
 entire movement. At once he put his skirmish line 
 in motion and quickly captured the entire main line 
 of the enemy's earthworks, with three officers and 
 twenty-six privates and a battery of fifteen guns. 
 Here was gained an important position and the rep- 
 utation of Major Greeley greatly increased. 
 
 The loth was sent to assist in the operations be- 
 fore Petersburg, where its picket lines held the ad- 
 vanced trenches at the left of the entrance to the 
 famous mine under Cemetery Hill. For a month 
 oj- more it was constantly under fire and a rifle ball 
 struck the cot on which Major Greeley was sleeping, 
 v/hile a fragment of an exploding shell was left in 
 his tent-pole. On Aug. 29, 1864, he was com- 
 missioned lieutenant-colonel of the regiment. The 
 month of September was occupied with frequent as- 
 saults and in October the regiment participated 
 in a most desperate assault on an almost impregna- 
 ble position where, in a few minutes, it lost nearly 
 one-half its effective force. On Oct. i8th Lieut.- 
 Col. Greeley was promoted to the command of the 
 regiment, which at that time consisted of two line 
 officers and 250 men. In November the regiment 
 was sent to New York to guard against an antici- 
 pated riot, and on his return to the front Col. Gree- 
 
 ley reorganized his regiment, receiving an assign- 
 ment of 500 men, some few of whom were volun- 
 teers, but the greater part substitutes and bounty- 
 jumpers, who planned to desert at the first oppor- 
 ttmity. Out- of this unpromising material Col. 
 Greeley made good soldiers. From the veterans of 
 the regiment he appointed twenty-tfour commis- 
 sioned officers and one hundred non-commissioned 
 officers. Officers' schools were established and their 
 work was done under his personal supervision. A 
 severe discipline was maintained, stringent meas- 
 ures taken to guard against desertion and before 
 the winter was over the lotb rivaled its pristine 
 bearing and the best form of its earlier days. 
 
 In March, 1865, anticipating some quiet weeks 
 before the opening of the spring campaign and wear- 
 ried by his incessant activities, Col. Greeley obtained 
 a short furlough and while he was North was cha- 
 grined tO' learn that the forward movement had be- 
 gun and that Fort Gregg, the key to the Rebel front, 
 was taken by a desperate charge of his regiment, the 
 famous loth. Hastening back to rejoin his com- 
 mand, which thus showed the effect of the patient 
 work he had given it for months, he found the 
 transportation service iij utter confusion. At Wash- 
 ington he was given command of a large number of 
 men to be led to the front. Before he could join 
 in the fray, being but one day's march away, he was 
 delighted with the news of the surrender of Gen. 
 Lee. Coming bacl<: to Richmond with his own reg- 
 iment he was assigned to the command of a brigade 
 and was breveted 'brigadier general for gallant and 
 meritorious conduct, his commission bearing date 
 March 3, 1865. He was mustered out Aug. 25, 
 1865, and reached Hartford with his command Sept. 
 2, 1865, at which time they were discharged from 
 service. 
 
 In Gen. Greeley's fine residence he has a "den" 
 containing many valuable and historical relics. He 
 has his uniforms of captain, colonel and general 
 used in the service ; also all his swords, including- 
 the one presented to him by Thomas R. Trowbridge, 
 which was sunk on board ship off Charleston Har- 
 bor, but finally recovered and returned) to Mr. 
 Trowbridge, who .again presented it to Gen. Gree- 
 ley a:t a reception given iby Mr. Trowbridge in his 
 honor upon the General's return from the war. He 
 has also two swords and a carbine captured from the 
 Confederates. 
 
 Upon comiinfr home Gen. Greeley marked his 
 return to civil life by entering into a partnership- 
 with L. G. Tillotson, of New York, to manufacture 
 and import railway and telegraph supplies, under 
 the firm name of L. G. Tillotson & Co. This busi- 
 ness was very successful and when Mr. Tillotson 
 died, in 1885, his interests were transferred to Gen. 
 Greele^•. the firm becoming E. S. Greeley & Co. 
 This firm carried at one time a larger assortment of 
 supplies in their line than any other house in the 
 United States and their trade extended all over the 
 world. Gen. Grseley's "Electrical Baggage Supply 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 55 
 
 Wagon" has been adopted by the United States 
 government. This invention is equipped for hastily 
 laying telegraph wire from the front, and in a short 
 space of time puts the commanding general in touch 
 \\ ith all parts of the battlefield. Gen. Greeley's com- 
 pany strung the wires for opening the World's Fair 
 at Chicago and he has in his den the gold telegraph 
 key touched by President Cleveland in opening that 
 Fair. This key was subsequently used by Presi- 
 dent Cleveland in opening the National Electrical. 
 Exposition in New York in May, 1896, and by Pres- 
 ident IMcKinley in opening the exposition of 1898; 
 in both instances the act was performed at the Ex- 
 ecutive Mansion in Washington. This key was also 
 used in transmitting Hon. Chauncey Depew's mes- 
 sage, containing sixty-eight words, around the 
 world, 24,516 miles, in twenty-one and one-half 
 minutes. 
 
 Gen. Greeley, a forceful and energetic man, has 
 pushed steadily to the front. He took an active in- 
 terest at a very early day in electric lighting and as- 
 sisted in the organization of the New Haven Elec- 
 tric Light Co., and others, and has 'been a director 
 of and interested in many of the corporations of 
 New Haven. The New Haven Car Trimmings Co. 
 was organized by him and for many years he was its 
 president. He has been interestecl in several bank- 
 ing institutions, and at this time is vice-president 
 of the Yale National Bank. Avoiding, rather than 
 seeking, political preferment, it was a sacrifice to 
 a sense of duty that compelled him to accept elec- 
 tion as alderman from the Eighth ward. New Ha- 
 ven, and he has served the city most efficiently in 
 various capacities and relations. Prominently con- 
 nected with the Church of the Redeemer, when an 
 indebtedness of $33,000 fell due Gen. Greeley took 
 hold oi the matter with his characteristic energy 
 and in fifteen days the entire amount was liquidated. 
 He is closely connected with that church and has 
 been active in church and Sunday-school, and for 
 two years was chairman of the New Haven County 
 School Association. Gen. Greeley is connected with 
 various societies. He is an active member of Ad- 
 miral Foote Post, G. A. R., New Haven, and the 
 Military Order of the Loyal Legion, New York 
 State Commandery; is prominently associated with 
 the Sons of the American Revolution, in which he 
 has held high 'position and is now vice-president of 
 the National Association and chairman of the Na- 
 tional Committee on Revolutionary Monuments ; 
 and is also- a member of the Army and Navy Club, 
 of Connecticut, having served as president of the 
 latter. He is a Freemason, with which fraternity he 
 became affiliated in 1858. At one time he was presi- 
 dent of the Congregational Club, and for three years 
 held the same office in the Union League. He has 
 long been an active jnember of the New Haven 
 Colony Historical Society. At present he is chair- 
 man of the "Memorial Committee" from the 6th, 
 9th and lotb Conn. V. I. and the ist Conn. Light 
 Battery, whose purpose it is to erect a monument; 
 
 the design in view at this writing is a pedestal, with 
 tablets commemorating the records of the three 
 regiments and surmounted by an equestrian statue 
 in bronze of Major-Gen. Alfred H. Terry. Gen. 
 Greeley is also vice-president of the Bushnell Mem- 
 orial Association, whose object is to erect a monu- 
 ment to the memory of Cornelius S. Bushnell, of 
 "Alonitor" fame. 
 
 Gen. Greeley is a man of high character, both 
 enterprising and public-spirited, and his fine resi- 
 dence stands as a noble monument to his enterprise. 
 His wealth, of which he accumulated a goodly for- 
 tune, is used by him with a generous hand and he 
 is a liberal benefactor of public and needy institu- 
 tions, among them being the Orphans' Asylum ; the 
 Y. M. C. A. ; Grace Flospital, of which he has been 
 vice-president since its organization ; and the Tillot- 
 son College, at Austin, Texas. 
 
 On Feb. 20, 1856, Gen. Greeley was married to 
 Miss Elizabeth Corey, of Taunton, Mass. They 
 have an adopted daug'hter, Jennie E. Greeley. Their 
 only child died in i860. Gen. Greeley is bearing 
 the years of a long and notable career remarkably 
 well, time dealing kindly with him, as evidenced by 
 his fine personal appearance and military bearing. 
 There is as yet little evidence of age and the pros- 
 pect is fair that he will repeat in his generation the 
 characteristic of his ancestry— ^longevity. 
 
 HON. LUCIUS par:\ienl-\s DEMING, of 
 New Haven, formerly judge of the Court of Com- 
 mon Pleas, of New Haven county, is descended 
 from sterling New England stock, whose names are 
 linked with the stirring scenes of early American 
 history. 
 
 Judge Deming was born March 10, 1836, in 
 West Stockbridge, Mass., a son of John Carlton and 
 Polly (Slauter) Deming, the former of whom was 
 a son of John Carlton Deming, a lineal descendant 
 of John Deming, who was one of the nineteen per- 
 sons to whom, in 1662, King Charles H granted 
 the Charter of Connecticut. On his mother's side. 
 Judge Deming is no less prominently connected, 
 being fifth in line fromi Gilbert Slauter, a patriot of 
 the Revolution, who gave up his life in his country's 
 cause, at the famous battle of Saratoga. Ephraim 
 Slauter, the great-grandfather of our subject, served 
 through the war of the Revolution and was a pen- 
 sioner. 
 
 Judge Deming received the rudiments of an ed- 
 ucation in the country schools of Russell and 
 Springfield, Mass., but his school days closed at the 
 early age of fourteen, and then his business career 
 opened, his first engagement being as a clerk in a 
 grocery store in Springfield, but at the age of 
 seventeen, deciding to adopt some special line, he 
 was apprenticed to* a Springfield firm, which was 
 engaged in the work of frescoing and ornamental 
 painting. This connection was terminated by ill 
 health, and in 1857, he followed his parents to 
 New Haven. Soon after this, by advice of the phy- 
 
55 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sician, he adopted a sea-faring life in order to re- 
 cuperate his health. For the following- seven years, 
 covering the period of the Civil war, he was master 
 of a vessel, during this time traveling to many for- 
 eign ports. With health restored, Mr. Deming re- 
 turned to business avocations on land, but by na- 
 ture he was marked for the legal profession, all his 
 leanings being in that direction. After preliminary 
 study with this end in view, he entered the Yale 
 Law school in 1875, from which he was graduated 
 with high honor in 1877, taking the Townsend 
 prize ior the best oration, and in that same year 
 was admitted to the Bar in New Haven county, be- 
 ginning his career as an associate with Hon. Will- 
 iam C. Case. 
 
 It was during the year 1877 that Judge Deming 
 was appointed by Gov. Andrews as chairman of a 
 committee to investigate complaints which had been 
 made in regard to convict labor and its interference 
 with free labor, and as chairman of that committee 
 he acted in concert with like committees appointed 
 from Alassachusetts, New Jersey and several other 
 States. During' this most thorough investigation, 
 be visited the prisons, penitentiaries, and reform- 
 atories of nearly all the States of the Union, giving 
 the most careful, personal attention to all that could 
 bear upon the subject, and in his report recom- 
 mended a law limiting contract lajbor in prisons, 
 which law was adopted and is still continued on the 
 Statute books of Connecticut. 
 
 \'ery soon after his admission to the Bar, Judge 
 Deming was appointed to the position of assistant 
 prosecuting attorney in the city of New Haven, this 
 being followed at a later date by appointment to 
 the position of assistant Judge of the City Court, 
 which in a short time became an appointment as 
 Judge. In the natural course of events, came his 
 appointment as Judge of the Court of Common 
 Pleas, of New Haven county, in all of which import- 
 ant and honorable positions he administered the 
 duties in a most efficient manner, and these are an 
 index of his standing in the communit}' and in the 
 profession which he adorns. His association with 
 Hon. William C. Case in the practice of law cov- 
 ered a period of fifteen years — years of honest and 
 faithful work — and to-day, Judge Deming is rec- 
 ognized as one of New Haven's ablest and most 
 highly respected sons, a man of place, parts and 
 power. For the past two years he has been en- 
 gaged in developing large mining interests in New 
 Mexico. As an orator, our subject ranks high ; his 
 reputation as a platform speaker is not confined to 
 'Connecticut, but extends beyond State lines, and 
 from all over New England come frequent invita- 
 tions to deliver addresses. Socially Judge Deming 
 stands in equal prominence, and has held many po- 
 sitions in fraternal and beneficial associations, and 
 he is regarded as an authority on secret society 
 matters, in his own State. After filling every sub- 
 ordinate post in the Independent Order of Odd 
 Fellows, he was elected and served as Grand Mas- 
 ter of that Order, serving a term, also, as a repre- 
 
 sentative to the Sovereign Grand Lodge, and has 
 been equally promiinent in patriotic societies. Judge 
 Deming assisted in organizing the Society of the 
 Sons of the American Revolution, and was the first 
 president of the Connecticut society and the first 
 president-general of the National society. For six 
 years he was Grand Warden of the State of Con- 
 necticut, of the New England Order of Protection, 
 and was Supreme Warden for two years. He is 
 . also a prominent Alason and Shriner. 
 
 In 1858, Judge Deming was married to Laura 
 E. Russell, who died in 1872, leaving three chil- 
 dren : Lucius Parmenias, Jr. ; Hattie Lovilla, de- 
 ceased; and Laura Maude, who married Dr. Walter 
 Strong, of Philadelphia. In 1874, Judge Deming 
 married Eleanor M. Parmelee, and to this union 
 one daughter has been born, Almira Parmelee. 
 Few men have had and used such opportunities for 
 travel as Judge Deming, and he is familiar with his 
 own country to a degree exceptional with Ameri- 
 cans, and has also traveled extensively in Central 
 and South America and in other lands. Thus, al- 
 though his formal schooling ceased when he was 
 but a mere boy, his education did not cease, and 
 was not limited to the knowledge to be obtained 
 within the covers of books. Flis duties have made 
 him a pupil in the great School of Life, and with 
 results of which he may justly be proud. During his 
 sailor life, Latin and mathematics took the place of 
 dice, cards and story-telling, during leisure hours, 
 and since those days not a moment has been wasted. 
 
 HON. CHARLES LEVERET ENGLISH 
 (deceased), late of New Haven, began business 
 there as a young man and continued through a long 
 and active lifetime of business success and usefulness 
 iu the community in which his ancestors and poster- 
 ity have figured in turn more or less conspicuously 
 for two hundred years. 
 
 iMr. English came on both sides from sturdy 
 New England stock who have left their impression 
 for good on the several communities in which they 
 have resided. Clement English, his remote Amer- 
 ican ancestor, was early at Salem, Mass., marrying, 
 in 1667, Mary, daughter of Richard Waters, and 
 dying in 1682. From Clement English our sub- 
 ject's line of descent is through Benjamin, Ben- 
 jamin (2), Benjamin (3), and James English. 
 Benjamin English, son of Clement, married in"i699 
 Sarah Hard, and in the following year settled in 
 New Haven, Conn., since which time'the familv has 
 been numerous in New Haven, and its members 
 have been numbered among the town's and city's 
 most substantial men and women. Benjamin Eng- 
 lish (3) married Abigail Doolittle, and among their 
 eleven children was James English, who married 
 Nancy Griswold. Of their six sons and three 
 daughters all married, and all except one resided in 
 New Haven, amtong the nmnber being our subject 
 and the late Hon. James E. English, Governor, 
 Member of Congress and United States Senator. 
 
 On his mother's side our subject descended from 
 
^Jr.^i^ ^. C£^J^ -i^c^vi^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 57 
 
 one of two brothers — Edward and Matthew Gris- 
 wold — who came from Kenilworth, Warwickshire, 
 England, and were at Windsor, Conn., in 1639. 
 The Griswold family was one of unusual promi- 
 nence in the history of Connecticut, many of the 
 name rising to distinction, among them two govern- 
 ors of the State. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was 'born Aug. 5, 
 1814, in New Haven, and until seventeen years of 
 age attended the public and private schools of the 
 place ; among his teachers in the latter were a Mr. 
 Merwin and a Mr. Jarman. He also received in- 
 struction under Gen. James N. Palmer. For three 
 years, beginning in 1831, he was a clerk in the gro- 
 cery house of Harry Ives & Co. He then began in 
 the same line on his own account, Elam Hull, of the 
 former concern, setting him up in the business, 
 which was carried on in the same store room under 
 the firm style of Charles L. English & Co., his 
 brother, George D. English, being associated with 
 him. In 1842 our subject, associated with another 
 brother, James E. Englisb, engaged in the lumber 
 business on Water street and continued some two 
 years, when Charles L. English established at an- 
 other point on the samie street a similar enterprise, 
 which subsequently became the business of English 
 & Tuttle, John P. Tuttle joining him in the enter- 
 prise. Later the style of the firm became English 
 & Holt, Albert S. Holt becoming interested in the 
 business. Along about this time a new lumber busi- 
 ness was established under the firm name of Calvin 
 Gallup & Co., in which Mr. English was largely in- 
 terested, looking after the finances of the concern 
 and attending to the sales department. He practi- 
 cally retired from the business in 1876, and since that 
 period the business has been carried on under the 
 the name of English & Holt, Mr. English's son, 
 Edwin H. English, succeeding him ; the other mem- 
 bers of the firm at this time were Albert S. Holt and 
 Charles E. P. Sanford, men of strict integrity and 
 extensive business ability, and standing high in the 
 community. This concern, established by the elder 
 English, has developed a large business and has 
 operated largely in Canada, Indiana and Ohio, where 
 the lumber was produced, and shipped extensively to 
 the Pacific coast. The present firm is doing a large 
 business, handling all kinds of lumber and timber. 
 They purchase direct, and in such large quantities 
 that they are able to sell at the lowest market prices, 
 and their facilities for business are not surpassed 
 by any. 
 
 From early manhood and all through life our 
 subject took an active part in the affairs of the 
 city and was greatly interested in its welfare. In 
 1840 he joined the Young Men's Institute, and after- 
 ward served on its committee. At the first meet- 
 ing of the Colony Historical Society he was elected 
 a life member and made a director thereof. In 
 1835 he became a member of the Xew Haven Cham- 
 ber of Commence, one of the oldest institutions of 
 the kind in New England, its existence dating back 
 
 to 1800. In July, 1837, he was appointed one of the 
 first fire wardens of the city, the fire department 
 having been organized in that year under a board 
 of wardens and engineers, of which he was made 
 secretary. He also Served as a member of the 
 common council. He was chosen a director of the 
 New Haven & Derby Railroad at its organization, 
 and in 1875 became vice-president of the road, for 
 years continuing to sustain such relations in the 
 company. In 1877 he was made president of the 
 Yale National Bank, of Now Haven, but after one 
 year's service resigned on account of his health. 
 
 Politically Mr. English in early life was a Demo- 
 crat, but left that party in 1850. He served as 
 chairman of the first Republican Convention in Con- 
 necticut, was soon afterward a delegate from that 
 convention to the National Republican Convention 
 which nomiinated Gen. Fremont 'for the Presidency, 
 and there served on the committee on Platforms and 
 Resolutions. He was also a member of the Repub- 
 lican State Central Committee in 1856, and the 
 same year was sent as a representative from New 
 Haven to the State Legislature. In that body Mr. 
 English took an active and prominent part, and was 
 chairman of the Republican Legislature Census and 
 also chairman of the House coramiittee on State 
 Prisons. During the great Slavery agitation of the 
 time Mr. English was radically opposed to carrying 
 slavery into the Territories and was one of the 
 signers of the famous remonstrance sent at that 
 time by Dr. Nathaniel Taylor and others to Presi- 
 dent Buchanan, calling his attention to the diffi- 
 culty in Kansas. Through all these exciting times 
 Mr. English was in the front of the fight in develop- 
 ing the new party, and was one of the founders of 
 the Republican party in Connecticut. He ever 
 afterward remained identified with that party, was 
 several times its candidate 'for State senator, and in 
 1874 was its candidate for lieutenant governor, re- 
 ceiving the full party vote. During the last twenty 
 years of his life Mr. English was an active mem- 
 ber of St. Paul's Church, a member of the vestry, 
 and a generous supporter of the church and its 
 interests. 
 
 On April 19, 1848, Mr. English was married to 
 Harriet D., daughter of Philemon Holt, and had 
 four children, Henrv, Charles, Julia Adela and 
 Edwin Holt, all of whom' are deceased with the ex- 
 ception of his daughter Julia Adela. Mrs. English 
 was born Aug. 16, 1817, in East Haven, and was a 
 descendant in the seventh generation from William 
 Holt, who was born in 1610 and came from Eng- 
 land, settling in New Haven as early as 1644, in 
 which year bis name appears of record there. He 
 removed to Wallimgford about 1675. He married, 
 probably in England, and his. wife's namei was 
 Sarah. His death occurred in 1683. Mrs. Eng- 
 lish's line of descent from this first American an- 
 cestor is through John, Joseph, Daniel, Dan and 
 Philemon Holt. 
 
 (II) John Holt, son of William' the emigrant. 
 
58 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born in 1645 i^ ^'ew Haven, married, in 1673, 
 Elizabeth, daughter of John and Tabitha Thomas. 
 He located after 1721 in East Haven, and died there 
 in 1733. 
 
 (HI) Joseph Holt, son of John, born in 1680, 
 in New Haven, miarried (first) in 1705 Abigail 
 daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Cooper) Heming- 
 way. 
 
 (IV) Daniel Holt, son of Joseph, born in 1711, 
 in East Haven, married in 1735 Anna, daughter of 
 Samuel and Hannah (Morris) Smith. Mr. Holt 
 was one' of the prominent men in the town and took 
 much interest in public affairs. He died in 1756. 
 
 (V) Dan Holt, son of Daniel, born in 1744, in 
 East Haven, married in 1765 Anna, daughter of 
 Daniel and Abigail (Chedrey) Hitchcock. Mr. Holt 
 was lieutenant of a company that went to the assist- 
 ance of New York during its occupancy by the Brit- 
 ish, in 1776. He died in 1829. 
 
 (VI) Philemon Holt, son of Dan, born in 1775, 
 married in 1802 Desire Smith, and moved to Fair 
 Haven, Conn. He was a prominent man in East 
 Haven, and held many offices of trust, serving four 
 terms in the Legislature. 
 
 Edwin Holt English, son of Charles L. and 
 Harriet D. (Holt) English, was born in New Haven 
 Sept. 28, 1854, and there died Oct. 6, 1899. Mr. 
 English was a man of much character and ability, 
 and would have attained a high place had not all his 
 life been weighted by the burden of ill-health. Edu- 
 cated at French's Private School and the Hopkins 
 Grammar School, he entered Yale College with the 
 class of 1875, but bis health failed and he had to 
 leave school. He then entered the offices of Calvin 
 Gallup & Co., in which firm his father was a part- 
 ner. In 1876 he took his father's place in the firm 
 of English & Holt, the 'name being retained until 
 the retirement of Mr. Holt, in July, 1897, when it 
 became E. H. English & Co. 
 
 On- Oct. 5, 1882, Edwin H. English was married 
 to Aliss Lucy W. Kellogg, daughter of Hon. Ste- 
 phen W. Kellogg, of Waterbury, and spent several 
 months following his marriage traveling in Europe 
 and the far East. During the last years of his life 
 his health was very poor, lung trouble having de- 
 veloped. AVhile facing and fighting with pluck and 
 determination a fatal disease, he was constantly at 
 the head of his extensive business, retaining even in 
 his last days its management in his own hands. Mr. 
 English was a man of much worth, and well liked by 
 all who knew him. He left a wife and seven chil- 
 dren, Lucia, his eldest child, having died May 22, 
 1892, at the age of eight years. The seven sur- 
 viving children are Marguerite Griswold, Stephanie 
 Kellogg, Charles Leveret, Harriet Holt, Edwin 
 Holt. Katherine Atherton and Frank Kellogg. Mr. 
 English belonged to Center Church and the Quin- 
 nipiac Club, and was a director in the iMerchants 
 National Piank, C. Cowles & Co., and the New Ha- 
 ven Co!on\- Historical SocictA'. 
 
 COLLINS. The Collins family, of Meriden, 
 are old settlers of New England. Lewis Collins, 
 the founder of the family, a native of England, 
 came to America in the early settlement of the 
 country, locating at Charlestown, Mass., in 1630, 
 with his four sons, Nathan, John, Albert and Dex- 
 ter. Nathan had two sons, John and Edward. 
 
 John Collins was born in England in 1616, 
 came with his parents to New England prior to 
 1640, and lived in Boston and Braintree, ]\Iass. 
 His wife's name was Susannah. In 1640 he was 
 admitted to the church in Boston, and the same 
 year was made a freeman, and he appears to have 
 been an active and prominent man in the Alassa- 
 chusetts Colony, belonging to the Honorable Ar- 
 tillery Company of Boston. His children were 
 John, Susan, Thomas and Elizabeth. 
 
 John Collins, son of John, born about 1640 in 
 Boston, was twice married, first, in 1662, to Mary 
 Trowbridge, who died in 1667, and second, in i66g, 
 to the widow Kingsworth. He died at Guilford in 
 1704. This John Collins was one of the patentees 
 of the town of Guilford, was townsman and school 
 teacher as late as 1702, and as early as 1682 taught 
 a grammar school there. By his first marriage he 
 had children : iNlary, John and Robert. 
 
 Robert Collins, son of John (2), married Lois 
 Burnett, and their son, also named Robert, married 
 Eunice Foster. 
 
 Edward Collins, son of Robert (2), married 
 Susannah Peck, of East Hampton, Aug. 29, 1738. 
 
 Daniel Collins, son of Edward, was born Eeb. 
 16, 1741, and married Susannah Lyman, May 17, 
 1774. They became the parents of six children: 
 Molly, Susannah, Lucy, Aaron, Lyman and Betsey. 
 Daniel ColMns, known as Capt. Dan Collins, was a 
 member of the 2d Company, Capt. Havens, in which 
 he was sergeant from May 6 to June 10, 1775, dur- 
 ing the Revolutionary war, and he re-enlisted in 
 1777, resigning the next year. In 1779, at the time 
 of the New Haven alann over Gen. Clinton's move- 
 ments, he took part, under Col. Thaddeus Cook, 
 and also, under Capt. Nathaniel Chapman and Capt. 
 Jabez V^right, assisted in repelling Ledyard's in- 
 vasion. In 1780 he was made captain, under Col. 
 William Worthington, and his company, with that 
 of Capt. Aail, was stationed in Guilford to assist 
 in the defense of the coast. In 1818 an Act of Con- 
 gress gave Capt. Collins a pension. 
 
 Lyman Collins, son of Capt. Daniel, was a farm- 
 er in Connecticut, and took part in the war of 1812. 
 He married Elizabeth, daughter of Salmon Carter, 
 a cabinetmaker of Wallingford, and three children 
 were born to this union: Aaron Lyman, Charles 
 H. and Lucy A. (wlio married N. P. Ives). 
 
 Charles Hinsdale Collins was born in Meri- 
 den Jan. 14, 1823, and was reared in that citv, 
 which has been his home ever since, with the ex- 
 ception of two }ears which he spent in Hartford, 
 gaining experience as a clerk in a vankee notion 
 store. Later he became a clerk in a grocery store. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 59 
 
 in Meriden, where he thoroug-hly learned the busi- 
 ness and prepared for his successful career in the 
 same line. For fifteen years he conducted a very 
 prosperous business of the kind in Meriden, prior 
 to 1863, and for the ten succeeding years engaged 
 in the manufacture of woolen goods, returning then 
 to the grocery trade. Mr. Collins is now senior 
 member of the well-known grocery firm of Collins 
 & Miller. 
 
 In April, 1852, Mr. Collins was married to 
 Sarah C, daughter of James S. and JMillicent A. 
 (Clark) Brooks, of Meriden, and one daugditer, 
 Sarah Elizabeth, has been born to this union. Miss 
 Collins is a highly cultured lady, and a mepiber of 
 Susan Carrington Clark Chapter, D. A. R., of Mer- 
 iden. The religious connection of the family is 
 with the Congregational Church. 
 
 In his political sympathies Mr. Collins is a Re- 
 pu/blican. In his early manhood days he. was a 
 member of the local militia. Through a long and 
 honorable business life Mr. Collins has been identi- 
 fied with much of the prosperity of the city, and has 
 ever been a public-spirited and progressive man. 
 
 Aarox Lyman Collins, brother of Charles H. 
 Collins, was born in December, 1820, on the old 
 homestead, where he grew to manhood and has al- 
 ways resided. For many years he has been associ- 
 ated with the Meriden Cutleiy Co., and for forty 
 years was its president, and also, for a number of 
 years, until its consolidation with the International 
 Silver Co., was president of the Wilcox Silver Plate 
 Co. He married Sylvia, daughter of Rev. iMr. 
 White, of Middlefield, Conn., and his three surviv- 
 ing children are Charles Lyman, Edward John and 
 Benjamin White. 
 
 Aaron L. Collins is what may be called a self- 
 made man. His father, Lyman Collins, was a 
 farmer, and lived on the site of the T. F. Breese 
 residence, on East Main street. He owned a large 
 tract of land, though, of course, land values were 
 insignificant at that time. Aaron Collins had only 
 a common-school education. When in his twen- 
 ties, with his brother Charles, he started in the 
 grocery business at the "Center." In 1856 he dis- 
 solved partnership with his brother, who is now 
 senior partner of the grocery firm of Collins & 
 Miller, to enter the employ of the cutler}' firm of 
 Pratt, Roper & Webb, whose mill was on the site 
 of the Meriden Cutlery Co.'s plant in South Meri- 
 den. In 1846 the business was brought from Maine, 
 where it was established by David Roper in 1832. 
 Julius Pratt and Walter Webb were the other gen- 
 tlemen interested. Nine years later, in 1856, Mr. 
 Collins entered the employ of the company, which 
 in the same year was incorporated under the name 
 of the Meriden Cutlery Co. From then on he made 
 rapid progress, until, in 1878, he was elected to fill 
 the most responsible position, that of president. He 
 has been the executive head of the company since. 
 Mr. Collins is also' interested in various other Meri- 
 den industries, and for a number of years was pres- 
 ident of the Wilcox Silver Plate Co., until the ab- 
 
 sorption of that company by the International Sil- 
 ver Plate Co. He is also a director of the Home 
 National Bank and a trustee of the City Savings 
 Bank. Pie is president of the Meriden Grain & 
 Feed Co., of whidh his son, B. W. Collins, is the 
 manager. 
 
 Brooks Family, (i) Thomas Brooks was one 
 of the first settlers of Haddam, coming to America 
 at the age of eighteen, in the "Susan & Ellen," in 
 1635. He was a son of Richard Brooks, of Lynn, 
 and married AKce, daughter of Jared Spencer. 
 Their children were: Sarah, Thomas, Mary and 
 Alice. 
 
 (II) Thomas Brooks (2), son of Thomas, was 
 married Nov. 16, 1696, and he and his wife Su- 
 sanna had children : Thomas, Abraham, Jabez and 
 Joseph. 
 
 (III) Abraham Brooks, son of Thomas (2), 
 born March 12, 1712, married Nov. 5, 1729, and 
 he and his wife Martha had children : Susanna, 
 Martha, Lydia, Jerusha, Jonathan, Abraham and 
 Peter. He was ensign of the nth Company, in the 
 7th Regiment; was lieutenant in 1746; captain in 
 1747; captain again in 1755-1766-1767; and deputy 
 to the Assembly in 1757-58. 
 
 (IV) Abraham Brooks (2), son oi Abraham, 
 born Sept. 16, 1750, married May 4, 1780, Abigail 
 Clark. He served in the Revolutionary war, enlist- 
 ing May 8, I775i and was discharged Dec. 18, 1775, 
 as a member of Company G. At the call for service 
 he left the plow in the field, his wife and daughters 
 attending to the harvesting. During his service he 
 was taken prisoner and placed on the prison ship 
 "Jersey," from which he escaped by swimming six 
 miles to shore. His children were : Laura, Jerusha, 
 Lydia, Rebecca, Martha, Samuel, James S. and 
 Willard. 
 
 (V) James S. Brooks, son of Abraham (2), 
 was born March i, 1796, and married Aug. 3I, 
 1823, Millicent A. Clark, and their children were: 
 James, Lauira, Sarah C, Samuel, Eliza, Colin, 
 Catherine, William, Mary and one whose name is 
 
 CHARLES EMMETT GRAVES, a prominent 
 lawyer of New Haven, comes of one of the historic 
 families of the Colonial period of New England. 
 Born Dec. 10, 1830, at Ira, Vt., Mr. Graves is a 
 son of George and Lucretia Adeline (Collins) 
 Graves, and a lineal descendant in the eighth gen- 
 eration from Thomas Graves, who with his wife and 
 five children came to New England and Hartford 
 as early as 1645, '^^ which year he is of record in 
 Hartford, Conn., which was then his place of resi- 
 dence. The family were intelligent members of 
 society and were prominent in religious and public 
 affairs. Thomas Graves died in 1662, in Hatfield, 
 Mass., whither he had removed in 1661. 
 
 From this Thomas Graves our subject's line is 
 through John, John (2), John (3), Nathan, Daniel 
 and Georo-e Graves. 
 
 John Graves, son of Thomas, the settler, born in 
 
'6o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 England, took up his residence in Wethersfield, 
 Conn., where he was made a freeman in 1664. His 
 .first marriage was to Mary, daughter of Lieut. Sam- 
 uel Smith, of that town, and in 1661 he removed to 
 Hadley, Mass. John Graves was a man of probity 
 and education, and was employed to run the bound- 
 ary line between Wethersfield and what is now 
 Middletown, in 1655, and again in 1659. In the at- 
 tack upon Hatfield, Mass., by the Indian^, Sept. 19, 
 1677, he was killed at the same time with his 
 brother. Sergeant Isaac Graves. 
 
 John Graves (2), son of John, born in Wethers- 
 field about 1653, married Feb. 12, 1677, Sarah 
 White, who was born in 1661, a daughter of Johrt 
 White, Jr., and his wife Sarah (Bunce). Mr. 
 Graves resided in Hatfield, Mass., and died Dec. 
 2, 1730, and his wife passed away in 1741. 
 
 John Graves (3), son of John (2), born March 
 28, 1681, married May 5, 1715, Jemima Graves, 
 born about 1693. Mr. Graves died in August, 1716. 
 
 Nathan Graves, son of John (3), born March 
 20, 1716, married Leonard Scott, born in 1726, 
 daughter of Joseph and Lydia (Leonard) Scott, 
 and lived on Chestnut Mountain, in what is now 
 Whately, Mass., where all of his children were 
 biorn. Himself and sons were famous marksmen 
 and hunters. Nathan died April 2, 1786, and his 
 wife passed away June 7, 1784. Nathan Graves 
 was a soldier in Lieut. Billing's company in the 
 French and Indian war. 
 
 Daniel Graves, son of Nathan, born Sept. 26, 
 1769, married Sept. 20, 1792, Lois Rice, born July 
 12, 1768, daughter of Adam and Lois Rice, of Ira, 
 Vt. They removed to Ira, Vt. where Mr. Graves 
 was a prominent man, was captain in the militia, 
 postmaster, member, of the Legislature, etc. He 
 ■died Oct. 11 , 1833, and his wife passed away Jan. 
 12, 1849, at Louisville, New York. 
 
 Georg^e Graves, son of Daniel, born Sept. 26, 
 1803, at Ira, Vt., married, Dec. 17, 1826, Lucretia 
 Adaline Collins, born Sept. 7, 1806, daughter of 
 Deacon Joseph and Arabella (Bromley) Collins, of 
 Ira, Vt. George removed to Rutland, Vt., where 
 he was prominent in business, a man of great en- 
 ergy and one who held pronounced anti-slavery 
 views. His business connections were large, and he 
 was well known. 
 
 Charles Emmett Graves, son of George and the 
 subject of this sketch, was prepared for college by 
 Rev. Dr. Hicks, in Rutland, Vt., and was graduated 
 from Trinity College, at Hartford, Conn., in 1850. 
 Following his graduation he took up the practice 
 of law in Rutland, and during the Civil war was 
 made chief clerk of the Ordnance Department of 
 the Navy, in Washington. Then he returned to 
 Rutland and resumed practice, remaining there un- 
 til 1867, at which time he removed to New Haven 
 where he was made secretary and treasurer of the 
 American Chemical Co., and in 1880 was made 
 treasurer of Trinity College, a very responsible po- 
 sition. At times Mr. Graves has been very active 
 
 in municipal affairs, for nine years was president of 
 the board of education, being re-elected three times 
 for a period of three years each time ; served on the 
 board of aldermen; for two terms he served as 
 councilman, and he was a recognized leader. It 
 was through his efforts that the Normal school was 
 brought to New Haven. For many years he was 
 president of the Young ]\Ien's Institute, and his 
 enthusiastic work as its chief executive infused new 
 life, and he materially aided in estajblishing it in 
 its present location on Chapel street. As a leading 
 member of Trinity Church and its senior warden, 
 he has been a promoter of all benevolent and 
 charitable enterprises. For years he has been 
 a delegate from that church to the conventions of 
 the diocese, and has been sent by the diocese as 
 delegate to the Triennial General Conventions. 
 
 In 1858 Mr. Graves was married, in Cambridge, 
 Mass., to Sarah L. Buttrick, a daughter of Eph- 
 raim and Mary Buttrick, the former of ^ whom was 
 a leading member of the Massachusetts Bar. The 
 children born to Mr. and Mrs. Graves were : Ed- 
 ward Buttrick, born Jan. 22, 1859, '^^''•^ gr?.'iuai.ed 
 from Yale College in 1881, Yale Law School in 
 1884, and is now a resident of St. Paul, Minn. ; 
 George Heber, born March 25, 1861, was graduated 
 from Yale in 1882, took a course in Sheffield Scien- 
 tific School, married Mary C. Goodsell, and is now 
 a resident of Bridgeport, Conn., where he is super- 
 intendent and chemist for the General Chemical 
 Co. ; Walter Greenwood, born May 19, 1865, was 
 graduated from Yale in 1886 and is a resident of 
 Cleveland, Ohio; Charles Herbert, born June 21, 
 1867, died May 25, 1868; Arthur Collins, born 
 Aug. 2, 1869, at New Haven, Conn., was graduated 
 from Trinity College in Hartford, in 1891, studied 
 law at the Yale Law School in the office of Ailing, 
 Webb & Morehouse, of New Haven, and was ad- 
 mitted to the Bar in that city in June, 1893 ; and 
 Richard Stayner, born March '18, 1872, in New Ha- 
 ven, Conn., was graduated from Trinity College in 
 1894, was graduated from Yale Medical school in 
 New Haven, in 1896, and now practices his pro- 
 fession in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
 JAAIES GRAHA:\I. The name of Graham is 
 so indissolubly associated with the tales of Scottish 
 struggles and triumphs, so intimately with some of 
 the grandest and most dramatic pages in the history 
 of that noble race, that merely to mention the pat- 
 ronymic is to suggest either Scottish birth or Scot- 
 tish ancestry. Hon. James Graham, of West Ha- 
 ven, came of this distinguished family. His grand- 
 father, John Graham, and also his paternal grand- 
 mother, were natives of the "land o'cakes." John 
 Graham was a planter, and also a soldier in. the 
 British army, carrying Her Majesty's commission. 
 His son, also named John, and the father of Hon. 
 James Graham, was likewise a Scotchman by birth, 
 although a loyal American by adoption. He was 
 educated in his native country, and after spendino- 
 
^J'^T^^-T'nyt::) 
 
 o 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 6i 
 
 some years in Dublin emigrated to the United 
 States, settling in Albany, N. Y., where he died be- 
 fore the birth of our subject. For many years he 
 was a prosperous and successful merchant. His 
 wife, Mary Ann Fair, was a daughter of Sir John 
 P'air. She entered into rest in her sixty-third year. 
 To John and Mary Ann (Fair) Graham were born 
 five children, the last survivor of whom was the dis- 
 tinguished gentleman whose name appears at the 
 opening of this memoir. Both parents were mem- 
 bers of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 James Graham was born in Albany Jan. 23, 1831. 
 He attended the common schools in boyhood, receiv- 
 ing a good English education and at the age erf sev- 
 enteen entered upon his apprenticeship as a brass 
 founder, rapidly mastering the trade in all its 
 branches and becoming so expert in his chosen pur- 
 suit that on attaining his majority (1852), he was 
 offered the position of foreman in the Branford 
 I/Ock Works (Squires & Parsons, proprietors), at 
 Branford, Conn. The firm employed a large num- 
 ber of workmen and, while the position was one of 
 great responsibility for so young a man, so credita- 
 bly did he discharge its duties that he filled the post 
 for nearly ten years. At the end of that period, in 
 1 861, through industry and thrift, he found him- 
 self in a position to open a foundry of his own in 
 New Haven. For thirty-nine years he was engaged 
 in the same line of business in that city and enjoyed 
 the distinction o-f being the oldest as well as one of 
 the most successful manufacturers in New Haven. 
 The foundry of Messrs. James Graham & Co., lo- 
 cated at No. 293 Wooster street, was a large, sub- 
 stantial structure of brick, three stories in height, 
 and was erected in 1874. The offices of the firm 
 were formerly at No. 292, directly across the street, 
 but later were removed to the foundry building. A 
 large number of hands were employed, and the out- 
 put of the works embraced brass castings of all de- 
 scriptions. In 1868 Mr. Graham built the beautiful 
 home now occupied by his son. 
 
 'Mr. Graham's keen sense and sound judgment, 
 no less than his unassailable probity and genial, 
 generous temperament, made him one of West Ha- 
 ven's most esteemed and popular citizens. In all 
 public affairs, religious, commercial and political, 
 he took a conspicuous and influential part. He and 
 his family were earnest, consistent members of the 
 Congregational Church, to which he was a liberal 
 contributor. Among the various important mer- 
 cantile enterprises with which he was prominently 
 identified as director, or officer, or both, may be 
 named the following: The Boston Buck Board & 
 Carriage Co., of which he was a director and vice- 
 pi esident; the Evening Leader Publishing Co., in 
 which he filled the president's chair ; the West Ha- 
 ven Water Co. ; and the Winchester Avenue Elec- 
 tric Street Railway Co. He was also a director in 
 an extensive mining company which is developing 
 property in the Alaska gold fields. Socially he was 
 a director of the Samosett Club, and belonged to the 
 
 Union League Club and the Young Men's Republi- 
 can Club of New Haven. In politics he was a Re- 
 publican, active and influential in the councils of his 
 party, was one of the incorporators of the Republi- 
 can League, and at one time was its president. His 
 first vote was cast for John C. Fremont for Pres- 
 ident, in 1856. Mr. Graham was a delegate to State 
 conventions from -1891 until his death, and in 1896 
 was the delegate to the National Convention at St. 
 Louis which nominated the late President McKin- 
 ley. That year he was also on the Connecticut Pres- 
 idential Electoral ticket and was selected to carry 
 the vote of the State to the Electoral College at 
 Washington. His fellow citizens of his town and 
 district (which comprises nine towns in New Ha- 
 ven county) honored both him. and themselves by 
 electing him to various offices of weighty trust and 
 grave responsibility, in all of which he displayed 
 rare acumen and scrupulous fidelity. For two terms 
 — during the 'seventies — he held the office of se- 
 lectman for the town of Orange, and for nine years 
 was assessor, warden and burgess of West Haven. 
 In 1878 he was chosen a member of the Lower 
 House of the Legislature and was re-elected in 
 1885 ^nd again in 1886. In 1887 he was made 
 State Senator and aigain in 1889. To the discharge 
 of his public duties he brought the same sound, dis- 
 passionate judgment and the same unwavering in- 
 tegrity with which he had met every other obligation 
 of life. While serving in the House he was thrice 
 made chairman of the committee on Railroads and 
 during two sessions filled the same important posi- 
 tion in the Senate. It was at this time that the 
 memorable "parallel fight" absorbed the committee's 
 attention. He also held the chairmanship of the 
 committees on Military Affairs, on Fisheries and 
 on License. His death, which occurred March 19, 
 1900, removed one of the invaluable public men of 
 the State. 
 
 iMr. Graham was twice married. His first wife. 
 Miss Maria Foote, of Branford, to whom he was 
 united in 1856, died in 1893. Two sons were born 
 to them, of whom one died in infancy. The other,. 
 Charles E., is mentioned below. In 1899 Mr. Gra- 
 ham married Miss Estella M. Wagner, of Litchfield. 
 Charles E. Graham became associated with 
 his father in the brass works in 1877 and for the 
 last ten years has had charge of the business. He 
 was connected with his father in the latter's various 
 enterprises. He has become one of the prominent ' 
 men of the town, and in 1897 was sent to the State 
 Legislature by the Republicans of his district. He 
 i*; a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of 
 the Union League Club, of New Haven. Mr. Gra- 
 ham married Miss Hattie A. Marsh, and they have 
 one daughter. Marguerite. 
 
 HON. ABIRAM CHAMBERLAIN, State 
 comptroller and banker of Meriden, where for up- 
 wards of a third of a century he has been identified 
 with the Home National Bank, and for twenty 
 
■62 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 3'ears its executive head, is one of ]\Ieriden's lead- 
 ing financiers and substantial citizens. 
 
 Air. Chamberlain was born Dec. 7, 1837, at 
 Colebrook River, Conn., a son of Abiram and 
 Sophronia (Burt) Chamberlain, and comes from 
 sturd}' Xew England stock on both sides. On his 
 father's side he is descended from Jacob Chamber- 
 lain, born in Newton (now Cambridge), Mass., in 
 1673, previous to whicli nothing definite of the 
 family is known. From this ancestor j\Ir. Cham- 
 berlain's lineage is through Col. Jason, Samuel, 
 Samuel Clark and Aibiram Chamberlain. 
 
 (II) Col. Jason Chamberlain, son of Jacob, 
 born in 1701, in Newton, Alass.. married Hannah 
 'Clark, and settled in HoUiston, i\Iass. He was a 
 man of ability and took an active part in public 
 affairs. He represented Holliston in tlie conven- 
 tion that adopted the Federal Constitution ; was 
 often sent to the General Court. His interest in 
 politics was always keen, and he acted with parties 
 opposed to the constitution and administration of 
 John Adams. 
 
 (III) Samuel Chamberlain, son of Col. Jason, 
 was born in Holliston, July 18, 1732. In the dark- 
 est period of the Revolution ~\Lr. Chamberlain en- 
 listed from Sandisfield, Alass., in Col. Ashley's 
 regiment, the muster returns being dated Jan. 25, 
 1778, at Valley Forge. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Clark Chamberlain, son of Sam- 
 uel, born May 25, 1765, in Holliston, married (sec- 
 ond) Hannah Conklin, born Oct. 30, 1772. J\Ir. 
 Chamberlain died Nov. 30, 1835, in Colebrook, 
 Conn., and Mrs. Chamberlain passed away May 2, 
 1846. 
 
 (V) Abiram Chamberlain, son of Samuel Clark, 
 born Oct. 2, 1779, married. May 6, 1829, at Sandis- 
 field, ]\Iass., Soiphronia Burt, born Jan. 9, 1805, in 
 Tolland, Mass., a daughter of Caleb and Anne 
 (Murray) Burt. Mr. Chamberlain some years 
 after his marriage removed to Connecticut, and 
 from Colebrook River, Litchfield county, that State, 
 in 1856 to New Britain, where he passed the rest 
 of his life. He was a civil engineer of repute, and 
 for a number of years surveyor for the borough 
 of New Britain. The preliminary surveys and 
 work for supplying the town with water from 
 Shuttle Meadow were made by him, and the work 
 was under his efificient supervision for a number 
 of years. Mr. Chaniberlain died Oct. 14, 1876, 
 at which time the New Britain Record said of him : 
 "As a civil engineer he was accurate and careful. 
 This city has occasion to remember the great serv- 
 ices which he so unostentatiously and faithfully 
 rendered, for years to come. As a public officer 
 be was courteous and unremitting in his conscien- 
 tious efforts to faithfully discharge the duties en- 
 trusted to him. Ill health compelled him to resign 
 his duties as surveyor and water commissioner 
 some vears since, and since that time continued ill 
 health has kept him from engaging in active duties. 
 Deacon Chamberlain is mourned by his neighbors, 
 townsmen and church brethren, who knew him 
 
 as a kindly man, an upright citizen, and an earnest 
 and sincere Christian." Mrs. Chamberlain died 
 Oct. 4, 18S9, aged eighty-four years. She was a 
 member of Center Church, New Britain. She was 
 strong and healthy and possessed of a vigorous 
 constitution, up to four or five months before her 
 death. She was one of ten children, all of w^hom 
 lived to advanced years, she being the last to pass 
 away. 
 
 The children of Abiram and Sophronia Cham- 
 berlain were: (i) Eliza R., born June 22, 1831, 
 died ilarch 13, 1835. (2) Valentine B., born April 
 13, 1833, in Colebrook River, Conn., mar- 
 ried Nov. 17, 1877, Anna Smith. He was pre- 
 pared for college at the Connecticut Literary In- 
 stitute, Suffield, and was graduated from Williams 
 College in 1857. He studied law with S. E.. Case, 
 of New Britain, and was admitted to the Bar in 
 1859. He served as clerk of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives in 1861, and throughout the Civil war 
 was a gallant soldier and officer in the 7th Conn. 
 V. I., as lieutenant and captain. He was selected 
 to command the picked battalion of the 7th regi- 
 ment which made the assault at Fort Wagner, in 
 1863, and was one of the handful of men that 
 scaled the Rebel parapet and was captured within 
 the fort, and from then until March, 1865, was 
 confined in Southern prisons. For several vears 
 after the -\var Capt. Chamberlain was engaged in 
 business in the South. He then again took up his 
 residence in New Britain, Conn., and was soon 
 elected judge of the City Courts, and continually 
 re-elected until his death. He was elected, in iSSo, 
 judge of probate for the New Britain district : he 
 was elected State Treasurer in 1884, and for a 
 period served as assistant pension agent. Capt. 
 Chamberlain was long one of New Britain's pub- 
 lic spirited and leading citizens, and at the time 
 of his death was a director in several of the citv's 
 leading corporations, and also president of the Ale- 
 chanical National Bank. As a IMemorial dav 
 speaker he was unrivaled in the State. Capt. 
 Chamberlain died June 25, 1893. (3) John A., 
 bom Feb. 21, 1837. (4) Abiram, born Dec. 7. 
 1837, is referred to farther on. (5) Eliza A., born 
 Jan. 15, 1840, died Nov. 17, 1841. (6) Cornelia 
 A., born Sept. 20, 1842, married Dec. 13, 1866, 
 Charles Elliott Mitchell, a lawyer of New Britain, 
 who has since forged his way to the front and 
 occupied high and bpnorable positions in his town. 
 State and nation. He was appointed, in 1889, by 
 President Harrison, Lmited States Commissioner of 
 Patents. 
 
 Abiram Chamberlain, whose name introduces 
 this sketch, and the son of Abiram and Sophronia 
 fBurt) Chamberlain, was born Dec. 7, 1837, at 
 Colebrook River, Conn. After his 'school days were 
 over and bis father's family became settled in New 
 Britain, he found employment in that city, and for 
 years was connected with the New Britain Na- 
 tional Bank as teller, a position be resigned to ac- 
 cept that of cashier of the Home National Bank, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 63 
 
 at ]\Ieriden, Conn., succeeding- Samuel Dodd. Upon 
 the death of Eh Butler, m 1881-, Mr. Chamber- 
 lain was elected to the presidency of the bank, a 
 position he has since filled with signal ability and 
 efficiency. Since his identity with the bank Mr. 
 Chamberlain has seen the capital increased to 
 $600,000, its present amount, and a surplus of 
 $150,000. Mr. Chamberlain has also been for 
 years identified with other financial institutions of 
 Meriden, notably the Meriden Savings Bank, of 
 which in the early 'nineties he was vice-president, 
 and he is a man of large financial experience. 
 
 Afr. Chamberlain, too, has been identified with 
 various enterprisss that have been the means of de- 
 veloping the city and town of Meriden. He was 
 one of the promoters and a director in the Meriden 
 and Waterbury Railroad Co., was treasurer of the 
 Butler & Lyman Land Co., a promoter of the 
 }vleriden Land & Livestment Co., was treasurer of 
 the j\f eriden Fire Lisurance Co., which began busi- 
 ness in 1872, also a director and late president of 
 the company. He was one of the promoters and a 
 director in the Winthrop Hotel Co. Back in his 
 earlier life in Meriden he served from 1871 tO' 1874 
 as city auditor. His political affiliations have been 
 with the Republican party. He has represented his 
 town twice in the General Assembly, and he was 
 made . the nominee of his party for State Comp- 
 troller at the Republican Convention held at New 
 Haven Sept. 5 and 6, 1900, and was elected to that 
 office in November, following. Mr. Chamherlain 
 is a genial and courteous gentleman and officer. 
 
 On Nov. 21, 1872, Mr. Chamberlain was mar- 
 ried to Miss Charlotte E. Roberts, and tO' them 
 have come children as follows : Albert Roberts 
 and Harold Burt. Of these, Albert Roberts was 
 born in Meriden in 1876, and acquired his prelim- 
 inary education in the grammar and high schools 
 of Af eriden, after which (1897) he was graduated 
 from Sheffield Scientific School at Yale. After 
 reading law in the office of Hon. George A. Fay, he 
 took a two-years' course at Yale Law School, and 
 was admitted to the Bar in 1901. He has been 
 active in public affairs and represented the Third 
 ward in the city council for two terms. In March, 
 1902, he was appointed by Judge Frank S. Fay to 
 be clerk of the city court, and is now efficiently 
 serving in that position. 
 
 On his mother's side. Comptroller Chamberlain 
 is a descendant in the eig'hth generation from 
 Henry and Eulalia Burt, of Roxbury, Mass., and 
 in 1638 of Springfield, his line 'being through Jon- 
 athan (and Elizabeth Lobdel), Henry (2) (and 
 Elizabeth Warriner), James (and Mercy Sexton), 
 Asa (and Ruth Hubbard), Caleb (and Anne Mur- 
 ray) and Sophronia (and Abiram Chamberlain). 
 His maternal ancestors were residents of Spring- 
 field, Sandisfield and Tolland, Mass. 
 
 BUCKINGHAM. The Buckinghams of Wa- 
 terbury and Watertown have been leading citizens 
 and business men of their respective communities 
 
 from the early settlement of those towns. The 
 late Hon. John Buckingham and son Scovill M. 
 Buckingham, of Waterbury, were prominently iden- 
 tified with the development of the industries of that 
 great manufacturing point. 
 
 The ancestors of these men were pioneers of 
 Connecticut. Capt. John Buckingham, of Water- 
 bury, was in the seventh generation from Thomas 
 Buckingham, the Puritan settler, and ancestor of 
 all American Buckinghams. Thomas Buckingham 
 was one of the company to which Eaton and Hop- 
 kins, two London merchants, and the two ministers 
 — Davenport and Prudden — belonged. They 
 reached Boston in June, 1637, and New Haven in 
 1638. Thomas Buckingham removed to New Mil- 
 ford in the autumn of 1639. He was of the com- 
 pany, of which Rev. Peter Prudden was the pas- 
 tor, who first settled the town. 
 
 The line of Capt. John Buckingham's descent 
 was through Samuel, Samuel (2), Thomas (2), 
 Thomas (3), and David. 
 
 (II) Samuel Buckingham, son of Thomas 
 Buckingham, baptized in 1640 or 1641 at Milford, 
 Conn., married in 1663 Sarah Baldwin, daughter 
 of Timothy Baldwin, one of the first settlers of 
 Milford. 
 
 (III) Samuel Buckingham (2), son of Samuel 
 Buckingham,, born Nov. i, 1668, married Sarah 
 (surname not given). 'He was a proprietor in the 
 town of New Milford, Conn., although he never 
 moved there. 
 
 (IV) Thomas Buckingham (2), son of Sam- 
 uel Buckingham! (2), born in 1699, married in 
 1724, Mary B. Woodruff. 
 
 (V) Thomas Buckingham (3), son of Thomas 
 Buckingham (2), born in 1727, married about 1750, 
 Sarah Treat, of jMilford. He removed to Water- 
 town, Conn., in 1772. 
 
 (VI) David Buckingham, son of Thomas 
 Buckingham (3), born in 1760, married in 1785, 
 Chloe Merrill. He died in 1832, and she passed 
 away in 1841. Their children were: John, Sarah, 
 Chloe, David and George. 
 
 (VII) Capt. John Buckingham, son of Da- 
 vid Buckingham, married Sept. 10, 1809, Betsey 
 Scovill, daughter of James Scovill, a lady of most 
 amiable disposition and manners, and well qualified 
 to adorn the large homestead over which she was 
 destined to become the mistress, her husband hav- 
 ing inherited the ancestral farm of his grandfather 
 Merrill in Watertown. John Buckingham' soon ^be- 
 came a leading farmer, and for the best part of his 
 life devoted himself to the tillage and imiprovement 
 of his thrifty domain, making it one of the most 
 attractive in the place. In early life he had quite a 
 fondness for military distinction, became a captain 
 of State troops, and during the war of 18121-1814, 
 he commanded a company of volunteers to assist in 
 the defense of New London and its harbor, then 
 menaced by the British fleet, under Holcomb of the 
 74-gunship "Ramillies." After the close of the 
 
 war he received a commission as colonel in the 
 
64 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 State militia which, however, he soon resigned. 
 He removed to Waterbury in 1851, and became 
 more immediately identified with the interests of 
 the place, although his business interests for several 
 years had been located in Waterbury. Longer ago 
 than twenty-five years prior to his death he was en- 
 gaged in manufacturing in Waterbury in connec- 
 tion with his brother-in-law, J. M. L. and William 
 H. Scovill, under the firm of Scovill & Bucking- 
 ham, and when, in 1850, it was merged into the 
 Scovill Manufacturing Co., Capt. Buckingham! still 
 retained his interest as a stockholder in the new 
 concern, but a few years prior to his death, in con- 
 sequence of growing infirmities of age he withdrew 
 from active business pursuits. 
 
 Capt. Buckingham possessed only a common 
 school education, but he cultivated and improved 
 his mind by extensive reading and intercourse with 
 m|en which amply qualified him: to take part in 
 town, legislative and educational affairs. He had a 
 taste for general literature and knew how to appre- 
 ciate the genius of Shakespeare, and other literary 
 authors of eminence. A man of sound practical 
 views and of strict integrity, he was often called 
 upon by his fellow citizens to fill responsible posi- 
 tions in the administration of public affairs, the du- 
 ties of which he discharged with fidelity, and with 
 an eye single to the public weal. He had repre- 
 sented both Watertown and Waterbury in the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, and in 1838 was a member of the 
 State Senate from the Sixteenth district. 
 
 Capt. Buckingham died May 3, 1867. He was 
 buried with Masonic honors, having been in his 
 life time very much attached to that fraternity. He 
 was identified with the Episcopal church. 
 
 Hon. Scovill Merrill Buckingham, son of 
 Capt. John and Betsey (Scovill) Buckingham, was 
 born Aug. 11, 181 1, in Watertown, Conn. Young 
 Buckingham received only a common school educa- 
 tion. He was prepared for a mercantile business 
 in a public school in Farmington, Conn., along with 
 his boyhood friend afterward the Hon. John P. 
 Elton. Returning from school be entered the store 
 of his uncles, J. M. L. and William H. Scovill, in 
 the spring of 1827. He remained in the store for 
 a number of years, then was transferred to Scovill's 
 button factory to superintend the same. In 1839 o^ 
 1840 a co-partnership was formed and called Sco- 
 vill & Co., with a capital of $20,000, and Mr. Buck- 
 ingham was associated with his uncles, and his 
 brother-in-law, Abraham Ives. He continued pros- 
 perously in that concern until the formation of the 
 Scovill Manufacturing Co., in 1850, with a capital 
 of $250,000, when the original company and a but- 
 ton company in which his father was largely inter- 
 ested were merged into the new concern. After the 
 death of his uncles, J. M. L. and William H. Sco- 
 vill, ;\lr. Buckingham was made president of the 
 company. This position he held until succeeded Ijy 
 Samuel W. Hall. ^Mr. Buckingham was always in- 
 terested in the prosperity of Waterbury, and was 
 largely engaged in the formation of several manu- 
 
 facturing companies from 1848 to i860, and was 
 president of many of them. He was one of the 
 early directors of the Waterbury National Bank. 
 He was president of the Plymouth Granite Com- 
 pany. Mr. Buckingham took great pride in build- 
 ing houses. The block Oif residences on Willow 
 street known as the Buckingham block, the first 
 of the kind in W'aterbury, was his idea. The con- 
 stant improvement in real estate throughout the 
 city gave evidence of his interest in public matters. 
 He was a liberal contributor to the Naugatuck 
 railroad and to the Hartford and Fishkill (now 
 the New England) railroad, whereby Waterbury 
 was given increased facilities to New York and 
 Boston. ^Ir. Buckingham was instrumental in 
 forming the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine 
 Co., in which he alwa3's held an interest. He was 
 connected with many other enterprises. The poor 
 and oppressed always found in himi a kind friend. 
 In his early manhood he developed an interest in 
 religious matters, and for over fifty years he was an 
 active officer in the Church. He succeeded in 1854 
 his uncle, William' H. Scovill, as senior warden in 
 St. John's Episcopal Church. He gave liberally 
 toward the 'building of the present church edifice, 
 and also of Trinity College and other church 
 institutions about the country. At one time he 
 represented the Whig party in the State Legislature. 
 
 "^Ir. Buckingham was an active young man, 
 full of animal spirits, very fond of a good horse 
 and a good gun, as was his father before him. 
 Years and cares sobered his spirits, and he be- 
 came the grave, sedate, scrupulously neat and re- 
 fined person familiar to the elder ones of the present 
 generation." 
 
 On May 18, 1835, Mr. Buckingham was married 
 to Charlotte A., daughter of Aaron Benedict; she 
 died Jan. 9, 1887. One child, John A., was born 
 to the marriage. Scovill Merrill Buckingham died 
 April 7, 1889. 
 
 John A. Buckingham, only child of Scovill 
 M. and Charlotte A. (Benedict) Buckingham., born 
 April I, 1839, married, in 1870, Anna McClean, 
 daughter of Samuel McClean, of New York, and 
 granddaughter of the late Hon. Charles Chapman, 
 of Hartford. 
 
 INGERSOLL. The ancestors of the New Ha- 
 ven family bearing this name, and their posterity 
 in turn, have dwelt in New England for two hun- 
 dred and fifty or more years, and for one hundred 
 and fifty years in New Haven, where they have fig- 
 ured conspicuously in public affairs. Colonial, State 
 and National. There they have been a family of 
 lawyers, men of great eminence in the profession. 
 Such characters as Hon. Jared, Judge Jonathan, 
 Hon. Ralph I., Judge Charles A., Gov. Charles R. 
 and Hon. Colin M. and his son, George P. Inger- 
 soll, have reflected great honor upon the profession, 
 the State, the Nation and the name, and constitute 
 within themselves a family galaxy of distinguished 
 lawyers and public men. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 65 
 
 Hon. Colin M. and Hon. Charles R. Ingersoll, 
 brothers, still members of the Bar of New Haven, 
 though advanced in life, are in the sixth generation 
 from John Ingersoll, who was at Hartford in 1653 
 or earlier, then at Northampton and Westfield, 
 Mass., respectively, dying in 1684. His third wife 
 was Mary Hunt, a granddaughter of Gov. Web- 
 ster. From this John Ingersoll Colin M. and 
 ChS-rles R. Ingersoll trace their line of descent 
 through Jonathan, Rev. Jonathan, Judge Jonathan 
 and Ralph I. Ingersoll. 
 
 (II) Jonathan Ingersoll, son of John, of Hart- 
 ford, "born in 1681, in 1712 married Widow Sarah 
 Miles, who died in 1748, aged sixty-two years. In 
 1698 Mr. Ingersoll was a resident of Milford; Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 (III) Rev. Jonathan Imgersoll, son of Jonathan, 
 born about 171 3 in Stratford, Conn., married in 
 1740 Dorcas, daughter of Rev, Joseph Moss, of 
 Derby. Mr. Ingersoll was graduated from Yale 
 College in 1736 and entered the ministry, being li- 
 censed Feb. 15, 1738, by the Presbytery at Eliza- 
 bethtown, N. J. He lived for a time in Newark, N. 
 J. On Aug. 8, 1739, he was installed pastor of the 
 Ridgefield (Conn.) Congregational Church, suc- 
 ceeding Rev. Thomas Hawley, who died in 1738, 
 and becoming the society's second pastor. He was 
 a man of fine mind and good heart and served the 
 church with great faithfulness until his death, 
 which occurred Oct. 2, 1778, when he was in the 
 sixty-fifth year of his aige and the fortieth of his 
 ministry. In 1758 he joined the Colonial troops as 
 chaplain, on Lake Champlain, and is said' to have 
 exerted an excellent influence on the army and to 
 have been highly respected by the soldiers. 
 
 (Ill) Hon. Jared Ing-ersoll, son of Jonathan 
 and brother of Rev. Jonathan, born in 1722, in Mil- 
 ford, Conn., married (first) in 1743 Hannah Whit- 
 ing, who died in 1779; and (second) in 1780 he 
 married Hannah Ailing. In 1742 he was graduated 
 from Yale College, and soon afterward settled in the 
 practice of law in New Haven. In 1757 he went to 
 Great Britain as agent of the Colony, receiving a 
 special apjxiintment from the General Assembly ; 
 he went again in 1764, and during this last visit 
 was appointed to the office of stamp master, and as 
 such was famous. In 1770 he was appointed by the 
 Crown judge of the vice-admiralty court in the 
 middle district of the Colony and went to Phila- 
 delphia to reside. The office was abolished at the 
 beginning of the Revolutionary war, when he re- 
 turned to New Haven to live and there his death 
 occurred in 1781. Judge Ingersoll was one of the 
 ablest lawyers of his time, was remarkably eloquent, 
 and as a lawyer made the cause of his client clear 
 to the jury by his power of explicit statement and 
 his logical method of reasoning. His manner was 
 open, frank and engaging and he was very success- 
 ful. 
 
 (IV) Judge Jonathan Ingersoll, son of Rev. 
 Jonathan, born in 1747, in Ridgefield, Conn., mar- 
 
 ried Grace, daughter of Ralph Isaacs, of Branford. 
 He was graduated from Yale College in 1766, 'be- 
 coming a lawyer and locating for practice at New 
 Haven, where for many years he pursued his pro- 
 fession with great industry, fidelity and success. 
 Before he had reached middle life, by the unso- 
 licited suffrages of his fellow citizens, he entered 
 public life and became one of the purest states- 
 men Connecticut has ever had. For years he was 
 a member of the General Assembly and was once 
 elected to the Congress of the United States, but de- 
 clined to accept the honor. From 1798 to 1801 he 
 was on the Bench of the Superior Court and in 181 1 
 he succeeded Gov. Smith as Judge of the Supreme 
 Court of Errors, serving as such until 181 6. Soon 
 afterward he re-entered the field of political life and 
 he was one of those who did most to secure the 
 final overthrow of the Federalists. The Toleration 
 party, led by Judge Ingersoll and Oliver Wolcott,. 
 carried the State in 18 18 and they were elected lieu- 
 tenant-governor and governor, respectively. It had', 
 been a long struggle of the people against the Legis- 
 lature and the people had triumphed. Judge Inger- 
 soll held the office until after the adoption of the 
 present Constitution. He died in New Haven Jan. 
 
 12, 1823. ' ; 
 
 (V) Hon. Charles Anthony Ingersoll, son of 
 Judge Jonathan, was born Oct. 19, 1798, in New 
 Haven, studied law under the direction of his elder 
 brother, Hon. Ralph I., and attained eminence at: 
 the Bar, serving as State's attorney from 1849 ^'^' 
 1853. In the latter year he was appointed by Pres- 
 ident Pierce Judge of the United States District 
 Court of Connecticut, and continued in such posi- 
 tion until his death, Jan. 12, i860. 
 
 (V) Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll, son of Judge 
 Jonathan, and the father of Hon. Colin M. and 
 Hon. Charles Roberts Ingersoll, of New Haven, 
 was borni Feb. 8, 1789, in New Haven. After his 
 graduation from Yale College, in 1808, he read law 
 for two years under Hon. Seth P. Staples and then 
 opened an office in New Haven. The period was 
 an interesting one. Pierpont Edwards, able and 
 eloquent, had recently been transferred to the Bench 
 of the District Court of the United States, leav- 
 ing at the Bar, as its most prominent members, Da- 
 vid Daggett, Nathan Smith and S. P. Staples, each 
 pre-eminent in his way. It is the best evidence of 
 Mr. Ingersoll's energy and talent that he was able, 
 in the presence and by the side of these strong men, 
 first to stand erect, then to attain eminence. While 
 still young Mr. Ingersoll became interested in poli- 
 tics. Though by birth a Federalist, when the ques- 
 tion was presented whether Connecticut should 
 longer have a State religion and Congregationalists 
 be a privileged sect he, with his father and other 
 influential churchmen, took the side of equal rights, 
 and in 1817 became a Tolerationist. As a member 
 of the new party he was chosen, two years later, 
 to represent New Haven, previously a strong Fed- 
 eral town, in the Legislature. The session which 
 
66 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 followed, on account of the new Constitution, was 
 an important one, and he immediately took a high 
 position among the leaders in debate. Mr. Ingersoll 
 was a working member, faithful to his trust and 
 probably the ablest man on his side. Until wanted 
 for a higher place he was retained there, in 1820 
 and 182 1 being made chairman of the Finance com- 
 mittee, and in 1824 he was Speaker of the House. 
 
 In 1825 Mr. Ingersoll was elected representative 
 to Congress, which election vacated his seat in the 
 Legislature, to which he had been again chosen. 
 For eight years he was continued in Congress, sup- 
 porting during the first four the administration of 
 President Adams, and afterward acting with the 
 Isiational Republicans, led by Henry Clay. For four 
 years he served on the Ways and Means commit- 
 tee, which was the most important committee in the 
 House, and during the last two years he held thp 
 second place on that committee. Able, industrious 
 and vigilant, he rose rapidly and steadily from the 
 start in the estimation of the public. While a mem- 
 ber of Congress Mr. Ingersoll served one term as 
 mayor of New Haven. After the expiration of his 
 Congressional career, in 1833, he returned to New 
 Haven and resumed the practice of law. In 1834 
 he supported the administration of Pr-esident Jack- 
 son and in 1835 he was selected to fill a vacancy 
 in the United States Senate, but he declined the 
 great honor and several times declined nomination 
 for governor when his party was in power, and it 
 is stated that he could have had any office in the gift 
 of the people. While in Congress he became an in- 
 timate friend of Mr. Polk, and when that gentle- 
 man was elected President of the United States, in 
 1846, he appointed Mr. Ingersoll minister to Russia 
 without his knowledge or consent, which honor was 
 accepted. After an absence of two years at St. 
 Petersburg he gladly returned to his profession and 
 for twenty years practiced law with unabated vigor 
 and never with greater success. He loved the law 
 and with great energy devoted himself to it, through 
 a long life, desiring to attain excellence and emi- 
 nence in the profession, and on that objective point 
 were brought to bear the converged forces of his 
 whole nature. Mr. Ingersoll had a noble endow- 
 ment of intellect, vigorous and well-balanced and 
 obedient to his will, equipped with all needful adorn- 
 ment, and was a hard student of both books and 
 human nature. 
 
 Mr. Ingersoll was noted for the proportionate 
 and harmonious development of all his powers. That 
 he was an able lawyer, a close thinker, adequately 
 learned and familiar with the whole field of practice, 
 all admit. His voice, pleasant, almost musical and 
 of unusual compass, could be heard distinctly in its 
 lowest tones. The ready, fluent speech, graceful 
 delivery and active but natural gesticulation, the 
 energetic, earnest manner and countenance which 
 mirrored every thought — all contributed to his 
 power as an advocate.- While his language was 
 select, his argument was clear, logical, compact and 
 
 complete. Eminently persuasive, forgetting noth- 
 ing and digressing rarely, he touched lightly on the 
 weaker points and knew where to place the strain. 
 If the chain broke the fault was not his. Though 
 speaking well, with little premeditation, Mr. Inger- 
 soll was accustomed to prepare his cases thoroughly, 
 looked at both sides and weighed opposing consider- 
 ations. Well fortified himself he was quick to see 
 and expose an unguarded point in the enemy, dex- 
 terously driving home his advantage. Though when 
 speaking to the court, or a deliberative body, he 
 addressed himself wholly to the intellect, using little 
 ornament; when standing before a jury or popular 
 assembly he gave himself more liberty ; was some- 
 times impetuous, often eloquent. On these occa- 
 sions he would sho'W his power over the common 
 mind, putting himself in contact with those primi- 
 tive sentiments, convictions and instincts which lie 
 at the foundation of human nature and which are 
 older than reason. With his hand on the hidden 
 springs of action, he shaped and directed the cere- 
 bral movements, awakened emotion or quickened 
 the sense of right, carrying his auditors whither he 
 would. Says one of large experience : "He was 
 the best public speaker I ever saw. In a notable 
 degree he possessed the personal magnetism by the 
 aid of which the orator sways and sets on fire the 
 symipathetic multitude. At one time he was witty 
 and humorous, at another serious and pathetic, and 
 could be sarcastic. Oppression of the weak by the 
 strong he would vehemently denounce ; a prevari- 
 cating -witness flay, if he could." 
 
 Being an accomplished and experienced writer 
 Mr. Ingersoll was conscientiously scrupulous con- 
 cerning his facts and would state nothing that was 
 not wholly and exactly true. No man ever lived a 
 purer or more exemplary life than he. His charac- 
 ter was adorned by all the public and private virtues. 
 Honorable, manly and just, it is believed he was 
 never guilty of a deed of meanness or conscious 
 wrong. 
 
 Mr. Ingersoll was delicately organized, of mod- 
 erate stature, slender, straight, and of healthy con- 
 stitution. For his size, his head was large, full in 
 the frontal region and prominent at the angles, with 
 finely-cut features, thing lips and dark eyes well pro- 
 tected by jutting brows. Till nearly eighty, with 
 unclouded intellect, he continued his practice, and 
 till the last went daily to his office when health per- 
 mitted. There he would sit, reading and writing, 
 giving a cordial welcome to any friend who might 
 call. His intimate acquaintance with political life 
 and character, taken in connection with his urbanity, 
 kindness, candor and simple dignity, made his con- 
 versation extremely interesting. On Aug. 26, 1872, 
 he died without an enemy. In his last years he 
 was a communicant of Trinity Church. 
 
 On Feb. 10, 1814, Mr. Ingersoll was married to 
 Margaret Van den Heuvel, of Dutch parentage, of 
 New York, a lady of great energy and discretion! 
 
 Hon. Colin McCrae Ingersoll, a son of Hon. 
 
<^^^^^^^^ ^ yb^. .^ 
 
 ■-i^f 
 
 f 
 
CUMMEWUKnTIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ■.67 
 
 Ralp'h Isaacs and brother of Hon. Charles Robert 
 Ingersoll, of New Haven, was born in that city 
 March 11, 1819, and was prepared for college at 
 New Haven, pursuing a course of study at Trinity 
 College, and graduating, in 1839, from Yale Law 
 School. In 1843 he was chosen clerk of the Connec- 
 ticut Senate and served as such. During the years 
 1847 ^i^d 1848 he was secretary of legation at the 
 Court of St. Petersburg, Russia. From 185 1 to 
 1855 he was a representative in the United States 
 Congress, at Washington, from the New Haven 
 District, and from 1867 to 1871 he was adjutant- 
 general of Connecticut. Gen. Ingersoll has inher- 
 ited many of the traits of his distinguished father 
 and forefathers. He is an affable and courteous 
 gentleman, companionable and an interesting con- 
 versationalist. 
 
 On Oct. 26, 1853, in Grace Church, at Pratts- 
 ville, N. Y., Mr. Ingersoll was married to Miss 
 Julia Harriet, daughter of Hon. Zadock and Abigail 
 P. (Watsom) Pratt, and to them have come children 
 as follows: Mary E., born Aug. 19, 1854; Colin 
 McCrae, Jr., born Dec. i, 1858, now chief engineer 
 of the Consolidated Road ; George P., born April 24, 
 1861, who was married Nov. 3, 1891, to Miss Alice, 
 daughter of Rev. Orlando Wetherspoon, of New 
 Haven ; 'and Maud Margaret Seymour, who married 
 George W. J. Angell. 
 
 George P. Ingersoll obtained his education in 
 the Hopkins Grammar School, of New Haven, and 
 in Trinity College, at Hartford, graduating from 
 the former in 1879 and frgm the latter in 1883. After 
 being prepared for the law at Yale Law School he 
 was graduated from that institution in 1883, was ad- 
 mitted to the Bar that same year, and has since prac- 
 ticed his. profession in New Haven and in New 
 York. In 1889 he was appointed United States com- 
 missioner, and in 1893 a member of the Connecticut 
 board of health. 
 
 Mrs. Julia, H. (Pratt) Ingersoll is a descendant 
 in the seventh generation from Lieut. William 
 Pratt, the emigrant ancestor of the family, sup- 
 posed to have come with Rev. Thomas Hooker to 
 what is now Cambridge, Mass., in 1632, thence to 
 Hartford, Conn., and to Saybrook. In 1636 he mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Clark, daughter of John, first of 
 Saybrook, and afterward of Milford. Mr. Pra't 
 attended the General Court as a deputy the twenty- 
 third and last time in 1678, in which year he died. 
 From this Lieut. William Pratt Mrs. Ingersoll's line 
 of descent is through Capt. William, Benjamin, 
 Zephaniah, Zadock and Hon. Zadock Pratt. 
 
 (II) Capt. William Pratt, son of Lieut. Will- 
 iam, was born in 1653 and married Hannah Kirt- 
 Jand. He was a man of note in the civil, military 
 
 and religious afifairs of the town and died in 
 
 1718. 
 
 (III) Benjamin Pratt, son of Capt. William, 
 born about 1681, married in 1702 Anna, daughter of 
 Samuel iBates. 
 
 (IV) Zephaniah Pratt, son of Benjamin, born 
 about 1712, died in 1758. His wife's name w.as 
 Abigail. 
 
 (V) Zadock Pratt, son of Zephaniah, born, in 
 1755, married in 1781 Hannab, daughter of Ben- 
 jamin Pickett, of New Milford, Conn. Mr. Pickett 
 entered the service early in the war. of the Revolu- 
 tion and continued therein until 1783; was at Dor- 
 chester Heights, near Boston, served in the main 
 body of the army on Long Island, was taken pris- 
 oner in the battle of Aug. 27, 1776, and for a time 
 was- confined in the Middle Dutch Church, New 
 York, and also in the old sugar house and was later 
 transferred to the "Whitby" prison ship. After his 
 release he returned to the army and was engaged in 
 the storming of Stony Point, by Gen. Wayne, in 
 1779. After his discharge be removed to Stephenn- 
 town, N. Y., and he died at what is now Jewett 
 City, N. Y., in 1828. 
 
 (VI) Hon. Zadock Pratt, son of Zadock, and 
 the father of Mrs. Julia H. (Pratt) Ingersoll, born 
 Oct. 3, 1790, married (third) March 16, 1835, Abi- 
 gail P., daughter of Wheeler Watson, of Rensselaer- 
 ville, N. Y. When a young man he resided, in Lex- 
 ington, N. Y., and from there, in 1814, joined the 
 forces raised by Gov. Tompkins for the defense oi 
 New York. In 1824 he moved to Schohariekill, since 
 known, in compliment to him, as Prattsville. After 
 erecting the largest tannery in the country, foi 
 nearly a quarter of a century he carried on the 
 leather business in this, and two other extensive 
 works of the same kind, elsewhere. From 1822 to 
 1826 he was colonel of the ii6th Regiment of In- 
 fantry of the State of New York. He represented 
 his district in Congress two terms, being elected in 
 1836 and again in 1842, and his career in that body 
 was pre-eminently successful and commanded the 
 respect and esteem of his fellow members. As a 
 legislator he proved, as he had before shown him- 
 self, a business man as well as a public official, and 
 was identified with important measures. In the 
 five sessions of Congress of which he was a mem- 
 ber he was never absent a day. For several years 
 he was president of the Prattsville Bank, a private 
 institution. In 1836 he was one of the electors for 
 President and Vice-President, and as such cast his 
 vote for Martin Van Buren and Richard M. John- 
 son. Again in 1852 Col. Pratt was a member of the 
 Electoral College in New York, was chosen its 
 president, and with his colleagues, cast the vote of 
 the State for the candidates of the Democratic 
 party for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency of the 
 United States, Franklin Pierce and William R. 
 King. In the later years of his life Col. Pratt was 
 a great traveler, visiting repeatedly the West India 
 Islands, England and the continent of Europe, as 
 well as traveling extensively in this country. Dur- 
 ing his declining years he became a dairy farmer 
 and was as successful in that hne as he had been as 
 a tanner, legislator and banker. ' 
 
68 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 KINGSBURY. For more than one hundred 
 years representatives of the Kingsbury family have 
 been conspicuous in the history of Waterbury. 
 Judge John King-sbury, Charles Denisom Kingsbury 
 and Hon. Frederick John Kingsbury — father, son 
 and grandson — have played well their parts in the 
 religious, social and business life of that city. Tlie 
 branch of the family to which Judge John Kingsbury 
 belonged was established in what is now the town 
 of Franklin, then a part of Norwich, New London 
 Co., Conn., in the. person of Joseph Kingsbury, the 
 Judge's great-grandfather, who was at Haverhill, 
 Mass., in 1637. Joseph was a son of Henry Kings- 
 bury, who was at Ipswich a few years earlier, in 
 1633. The latter was probably a nephew of Henry 
 Kingsbury, an emigrant from England with Win- 
 throp in 1630. [Savage's Gen. Diet, and Blake's 
 History of Franklin, Conn.] 
 
 Judge John Kingsbury, of Franklin and Water- 
 bury, son of Nathaniel Kingsbury, was born Dec. 
 30, 1762, at Norwich Farms (now Franklin), Conn. 
 He remained on the farm until seventeen, when he 
 was prepared for Yale College under the direction 
 of his uncle. Dr. Charles Backus, an eminent min- 
 ister, of Somers. In the following year young 
 Kingsbury entered Yale College, but remained only 
 a short time, the college exercises being temporarily 
 suspended by the Revolution. He then became en- 
 gaged as a marine on board a privateer, made two 
 cruises and assisted in taking two prizes. Subse- 
 quently he returned to Yale, Avas graduated in 1786, 
 and coming to Waterbury was assistant to Joseph 
 Badger, the principal of the academy there, which 
 was opened the year previous. In the spring of 
 1788 he entered the law school of Judge Reeve, at 
 Litchfield, and in 1790 was admitted to the Bar in 
 Litchfield. The following year he settled in practice 
 at Waterbury. In 1793 he was chosen town clerk 
 and held the office much of the time until 1818. He 
 was appointed justice of the peace in 1796 and con- 
 tinued in office until 1830. He represented Water- 
 bury seventeen times in the Legislature. In 1801, 
 on the death of Judge Hopkins, 'Squire Kingsbury 
 was appointed to fill the vacancies in the probate 
 and county courts. He held the latter office until 
 May, 1820, the last year as presiding judge. He 
 was continued as judge of probate until disquali- 
 fied by age, in the year 1832. He died Aug. 26, 
 1844. Dr. Henry Bronson, in his History of Water- 
 bury, published in 1858, says of Judge Kingsbury: 
 "He acquired in an eminent degree the confidence 
 and respect of the community in which he lived. He 
 lield many public offices and always discharged his 
 duties faithfullv a-id acceptably. From the death 
 of Judge Hopkins tn the time of his decease no 
 man in the town was more honored, respected and 
 loved. Judp-e King-sbury was a popular man, but 
 he became so in consequence of the benevolence of 
 his character, his kindl)' sympathies, his agreeable 
 manners and many excellent qualities. He never 
 sacrificed principle or consistcncv. He was a good 
 
 neighbor and trusty friend. Lively in his manner, 
 easy in conversation, often' facetious in his remarks, 
 his company was sought by persons of all ages and 
 classes. His long aquiline nose, the benevolent 
 smile which usually played on his countenance, and 
 his winning way, can never be forgotten by those 
 who knew him." 
 
 On Nov. 6, 1794, Judge Kingsbury was married 
 tci Marcia, daughter of Stephen Bronson. She died 
 March 21, 1813. Their children were : Charles D., 
 Julius J. B., John S. and Sarah S. 
 
 Charles Denisox Kingsbury. In the death 
 of this venerable citizen of Waterbury, whose life 
 in the town spanned almost one hundred years, the 
 city lost one of the very few people who connected 
 the Waterbury of 1890 with a previous centur)', 
 and one who had lived under the administrations 
 of all the Presidents of our country up to the time 
 of his death, Jan. 16, 1890. 
 
 Mr. Kingsbury was born Nov. 7, 1795, in W^at- 
 erbury, son of Judge John Kingsbury. He was 
 educated in the schools of the town and at the school 
 of Rev. Daniel Parker, of Ellsworth, a village of 
 the town of Sharon, Conn. From about 1812 he 
 was for several years clerk in a store in Waterbury 
 and traveled in the South selling clocks and books. 
 In the winter of 1820-21 he was Philadelphia agent 
 for the firm of Lewis, Griley & Lewis, button mak- 
 ers, of Naugatuck. The following spring he leased 
 and subsequently purchased the store in which he 
 had formerly been a clerk and carried on mercantile 
 business for nearly twenty years and was also en- 
 gaged in the manufacturing business. In the 
 meantime he had becomie, by inheritance and by pur- 
 chase, a considerable owner of real estate, and be- 
 ing in somewhat delicate health and preferring an 
 outdoor life, he gave up business as a merchant and 
 devoted himself to the care and cultivation of his 
 land and to transactions in real estate and in such 
 ways was occupied for half a century. In his youth 
 Mr. Kingsbury was very delicate and never became 
 robust. Recognizing in himself a tendency to con- 
 sumption he considered it necessary to take es- 
 pecial care of his health. He accordingly lived in 
 a very quiet way and his habits were exceedingly- 
 simple. Thus he prolonged his life until he entered 
 upon his ninety-fifth year and was permitted to 
 remain in the full possession of his faculties to the 
 very last. The following is an extract from an 
 obituary notice of Mr. Kingsburv, published in the 
 Waterbury Amcncan at the time of his death : 
 
 A life so quiet and inconspicuous as Mr. Kingsbui-v's 
 calls for but little comment. It was full of activity but 
 altogetber unobtrusive. He fulfiUed with great fidelity 
 the various duties of a citizen, a church member, . house- 
 holder, and a neip-hbor. but did it in a way so unostenta- 
 tious and so simple that the impression he made upon the 
 community did not serve as a measure of his ability and 
 bread h. Not alone in his Puritan simplicity, but Vht 
 clear-headedness and intellectual strength, he was a fine 
 representative of the older generations of New England 
 men, \Mi,le inchfiferent to many of the modern novelties 
 and notions, he had a clear apprehension of what was 
 
y 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 69 
 
 really valuable in our modern life, and was prompt to 
 place himself in sympathy with it. He did not produce 
 upon those who talked with him the impression that he 
 was being left behind in the movements oi events ; he 
 was a man of the times. At the same time be delighted 
 in the memories of the past. His memory was good and 
 his conversational gifts were of a high order ; so that it 
 was a real pleasure to sit beside him and look upon his 
 vivid word pictures of the days that are no more. The 
 lessons of such a life cannot be measured off or num- 
 bered, and they are of a kind which would gain but little 
 heed from this busy world of ours. But we cannot but 
 regret that there are so few to-day who covet that life of 
 simplicity and quiet peace which Mr. Kingsbury through 
 all these years has so beautifully illustrated. 
 
 ]\Ir. Kingsbury became a member of the First 
 Congregatioriial Church when in his twenty-second 
 year and remained in full communion therewith 
 throughout his life and he was at the time of his 
 death the oldest member of the church. On March 
 5, 182 1, Mr. Kingsbury was married to Eliza, 
 daughter of Dr. Frederick Leavenworth. She died 
 Nov. 16, 1852, leaving two children: Frederick J.; 
 and Sarah L., now the wife of Franklin Carter, 
 president of Williams College. On Nov. 24, 1859, 
 Mr. Kingsbury married Rebecca, daughter of 
 Deacon Elijah Hotchkiss, and she died Dec. 7, 1873. 
 
 Frederick John Kingsbury, the only son of 
 Charles Denison and Eliza (Leavenworth) Kings- 
 bury, was born in Waterbury Jan. i, 1823. He 
 was educated in the schools of the town and also 
 spent a year and a half partly in study with his ma- 
 ternal uncle. Rev. Abner J. Leavenworth, in Vir- 
 ginia. He completed his preparation for college 
 with Rev. Seth Fuller, at that time principal of the 
 Waterbury Academy and graduated from Yale Col- 
 lege in the class of 1846. He studied law in Yale 
 Law School under Judge Storrs and Isaac H. 
 Townsend and with Hon. Charles G. Loring, of 
 Boston, and Hon. Thomas C. Perkiris, of Hartford. 
 He was adtnitted to the Boston Bar in 1848. Mr. 
 Kingsbury opened an office in Waterbury in 1849, 
 but in 1853 he aibandoned the law for the banking 
 business, in which and in manufactures and other 
 business enterprises he has since been engaged. In 
 1850 he represented his town in the Legislature. 
 He was a member also of the Legislatures of 1858 
 and 1865, in both of which he was chairman of the 
 committee on Banks. In 1865 he was a member 
 of the committee on a Revision of the Statutes 
 of Connecticut. Having his attention directed to 
 savings banks and believing that a savings bank 
 would be a benefit to the people of Waterbury he 
 obtained a charter for one. He was appointed its 
 treasurer and has successfully administered its af- 
 fairs since that time. In 1853, in connection with 
 Abram Ives, he established the Citizens' Bank, of 
 which he has been president for many years. In 
 January, 1858, Mr. Kingsiburv was made a direc- 
 tor of the Scovill Manufacturing Co. He was sec- 
 retary of that company from March, 1862, to Jan- 
 uary, 1864, and treasurer from March, 1862, to 
 January, 1866. In 1868 he succeeded S. W. Hall 
 
 as president and has held that office ever since. He 
 IS secretary of the Detroit & Lake Superior Copper 
 Co., organized in 1867; was for a number of years 
 a director of the New York & New England Rail- 
 road ; and is a director of the Naugatuck Railroad. 
 Mr. Kingsbury has been treasurer of the Bronson 
 Library Fund since its reception by the city in 1868; 
 is a member of the board of agents of the library, 
 and chairman of the Book committee. He has been 
 treasurer of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of 
 Connecticut since 1879. In 1881 he was elected a 
 member of the Corporation of Yale College and 
 was re-elected in 1887 and again in 1893. At the 
 time of his second re-election the Waterbury Amer- 
 ican (June 29, 1893) spoke of him. is follows: 
 
 Of 1600 rotes he received all but about 2C0. His re- 
 election was so generally regarded as desirable that the 
 other nominee, a distinguished editor of Worcester, 
 Mass., made no contest and practically conceded Mr. 
 Kingsbury'^ election from the start. The qualities of 
 fitness whose recognition explains this gratifying unan- 
 imity comprise locality, zeal for the college interests, in- 
 telligent appreciation of college needs and practical busi- 
 ness judgment in the administration of 'college affairs. 
 Mr. Kingsbury's election is advantageous to the Univer- 
 sity and gratifying to this community, which has so large 
 a representation and so deep an interest in it. 
 
 At the centennial celebration of Williams Col- 
 lege, Oct. 10, 1893, Mr. Kingsbury received the 
 degree of LL. D. and he was honored with the 
 same degree from Yale in 1899. He was elected 
 president of the American Social Science Associa- 
 tion in 1893 and re-elected in 1894 and i?>g^. He 
 is a member of the American Antiquarian Society, 
 the American Historical Association, the Connecti- 
 cut Academy of Arts and iSciences, the New Ha- 
 ven County Historical Society, the Society of the 
 Colonial Wars, and the University Graduates and 
 Century Clubs. As all this would indicate, he is 
 fond of historical and literary pursuits, and of late 
 years has given much attention to sociological ques- 
 tions. He has a strong taste for genealogical in- 
 quiries and a remarkable memory for minute events 
 and family relationships ; so that he is a recognized 
 authority in matters of local history. What the 
 present writer said of him in 1881 may with propri- 
 ety be repeated here: 
 
 "Amidst engrossing cares he has found oppor- 
 tunities for no little research in the various fields 
 which attract scholarly men. He has always been 
 interested in the growth and prosperity of his na- 
 tive town and has taken an active part in plans for 
 its improvement. In a city devoted to manufactures 
 and trades he has long 'been a conspicuous repre- 
 sentative of the best American culture, illustrating 
 the practicability of combining an intelligent inter- 
 est in literature, art and science with fidelity to 
 important business trusts and to constantly accu- 
 mulating duties." 
 
 On April 29, i8c;i, Mr. Kingsbury married 
 Alathea, daughter of W. H. Scovill. She died Dec. 
 7, 1899. They had children as follows : William 
 
70 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Charles, who died in 1864 ; Mary Eunice, who mar- 
 ried' Dr. Charles Stedman Bull, of New York City, 
 and died Oct. 15, 1898, leaving three children; 
 Alice Eliza ; Edith Davies ; and Frederick John, Jr., 
 who married Adele Townsend, and has one child. 
 These children are the lineal descendants of all the 
 clergyman, of any denomination, who were settled 
 in Waterbury during its first hundred years. 
 
 HON. MINOTT AUGUR OSBORN, whose 
 death occurred at his home in New Haven, Oct. 
 24, 1877, after a prominent career of upward of 
 fifty years as the editor and publisher of the New 
 Haven Register, during which period he held a 
 number of public trusts of honor and responsibility, 
 was one of the strong journalists of the State. 
 
 Mr. Osborn was born in New Haven April 21, 
 181 1, a son of Eli and Elizabeth (Augur) Osborn, 
 respected and esteemed people of the community, 
 the former of whom was engaged in the merchant 
 tailoring business. Jeremiah Osborn, the progeni- 
 tor of this branch of the Osborn family, was one 
 of the patentees of the town. 
 
 Minott A. Osborn's privileges for obtaining an 
 education were limited, as he only attended school 
 until fourteen years of age, leaving at that time the 
 Lancasterian school of John E. Lovell to learn the 
 printer's trade. He entered the printing office of 
 his uncle, Joseph Barber, of New Haven, from 
 which was issued the Columbian Weekly Register. 
 Being a bright, intelligent boy he progressed rapid- 
 ly, and as the time passed was advanced by his 
 uncle, and in 1834 was made a partner in the con- 
 duct of the paper and business. Young, with vim 
 and vigor, he enthused new interest and life into 
 the paper, which was evidenced in the bright, 
 sharp paragraphs appearing in the paper, which 
 attracted wide attention and gave rise to 
 manv political tilts. His lance -^vas keen and 
 its thrusts severe, yet he always endeavored to heal 
 these by a generous touch of kindly humor. The 
 senior member of the firmi differed from the junior 
 member in the fact that the former was an advo- 
 cate of the old Jeffersonian Democracy, while the 
 latter patterned after Andrew Jackson. Their dif- 
 ferences culminated in 1837-38 on the question of 
 the sub-treasury scheme, which the young man sup- 
 ported, the elder opposed, and, as the majority of the 
 supporters of the paper favored Mr. Osiorn, Mr. 
 Barber withdrew from the paper. At this time Mr, 
 Osboni associated with him in conducting the 
 Register W. B. Baldwin, and the business of the 
 office was carried on by these gentlemen, under the 
 finn style of Osborn & Baldwin, until 1866, a period 
 of twenty-eight years, Mr. Baldwin retiring from 
 the paper at the end of this time. Mr. Osborn 
 associated with him in the business his eldest son, 
 Minott E. Osborn, the firm style becoming M. A. 
 Osborn & Co. Nine years later, in 1875, another 
 change occurred, a transfer of the business being 
 made to the Register Publishing Co. Since the 
 
 death of the elder Osborn, except for an interreg- 
 num, the latter's son. Col. Norris G. Osborn, has 
 been the editor of the paper. The Register grew with 
 the development of the city. The weekly edition 
 was supplemented with a tri-weekly, and finally, in 
 1842, with a daily evening issue. Its circulation to- 
 day is probably larger than that of any other paper 
 in the State. Its controlling spirit from the start 
 was a Democrat of the ardent type, and from the 
 foregoing it can be imagined that he nailed his 
 colors to the masthead of the Register, and if the 
 paper was strongly partisan it was always frankly 
 and honestly so. 
 
 The elder Osborn, through his long service with 
 one of the leading papers in the State, wielded much 
 influence both in the city of New Haven and in the 
 State at large. He held a prominent place in the 
 councils of the Democratic party in the State and 
 Nation. Under the Pierce and Buchanan adminis- 
 trations he served as collector of the port of New 
 Haven. He was appointed by and served as rail- 
 road commissioner of Connecticut under Gov. In- 
 gersoll. At one time he was a member of the 
 common council of New Haven, and also served as 
 road commissioner under Mayor Henry G. Lewis. 
 His influence in New Haven was great, and he ad- 
 vocated through his paper many of the measures 
 that led to the city's growth and advancement. He 
 was one of the promoters of the New Haven Water 
 Co., and was its treasurer 'at the time of his death. 
 He was also at that time a director in the New Ha- 
 ven Gas Light Co., and in the Connecticut Savings 
 Bank. When a young man Mr. Osborn was a mem- 
 ber and officer of the somewhat famous local mili- 
 tary company known as the New Haven Grays, 
 and also served as major of the 2d Regiment of 
 State Militia. 
 
 Mr. Osborn was twice married, first to Caro- 
 ,line IMcNeil, of New Haven, who died in 1838, and 
 second in 1841 he wedded Catherine Gilbert, daugh- 
 ter of the late Ezekiel Gilbert, of what is now the 
 town of Sevmour, Conn. Two children were born 
 to the first union, and nine to the second. 
 
 COL. NORRIS GALPIN OSBORN, editor of 
 the New Haven Register, is well and favorably 
 known throughout the State in which for years he 
 has been an important factor in the councils of the 
 Democratic partv, and figured more or less con- 
 spicnouslv in public affairs. 
 
 Born April 17, 1858, Col. Osborn is a son of the 
 late Hon. Minott Augur and Catherine S. (Gilbert) 
 Osborn, the former of whom for fifty and more 
 years was prominently identified with the history 
 of New Haven and the State, as editor and pub- 
 lisher of the Register, and whose mantle has farien 
 upon the son who is provinsj himself worthv of its 
 wearing. Col. Osborn descends on both sides from 
 old New Haven families; in paternal lines from 
 Jeremiah Osborn, one of the patentees of the town 
 of New Haven, and in maternal lines from Eno-- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 71. 
 
 lish ancestors who came to New England not long 
 after the Pilgrim fathers. 
 
 Mr. Osborn in boyhood attended both the pub- 
 lic and private schools of New Haven, then entered 
 Yale College fromi which he was graduated in 1880. 
 In 1886 that institution conferred upon him the 
 degree of M. A. After his graduation he became 
 connected with the editorial staff of the Register, 
 and was made editor-in-chief in 1884. In this im- 
 portant position he has exerted a wide influence, 
 and has made the Register recoraized as the lead- . 
 ing Democratic organ in the southern part of the 
 State. 
 
 Col. Osborn has repeatedly been a delegate to 
 the conventions of his party — local, State and Na- 
 tional — and taken a leading part therein. In 1883 
 and 1884 he was an aid on the staff of Gov. Waller, 
 and in 1896 was appointed a State prison director 
 by Gov. Coffin. He has also served as a director 
 in the New Haven University Extension Centre. 
 In the fall of 1901, he was made the unanimous 
 choice of both parties to represent New Haven in 
 the Constitutional Convention, and was chosen a 
 member of that body in the election that followed 
 in November. In the deliberations of this conven- 
 tion which convened Jan. i, 1902, and which at 
 this writing (March) is still in session, Col. Osborn 
 has taken an active interest and borne an honorable 
 part. 
 
 In his college life Col. Osborn was a member 
 of the Greek Letter Society, Delta Kappa EpsTlon, 
 and of the Scroll and Key Society. He is a member 
 of Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M., and the Ancient O'-der 
 of United Workmen. He is a member of the New 
 Haven Chamber of Commerce, a member of the 
 Sons of the American Revolution, and was formerly 
 governor of the Society of Founders and Patriots, 
 Colony of Connecticut. As a journalist Col. Os- 
 born is a success. He is a forceful writer, his 
 editorials are trenchant, lively, and much quoted. 
 As a man he is widely popular through his winning 
 personal qualities, and he is a happy after-dinner 
 speaker, and greatlv in demand for such occasions. 
 
 On Dec. 27, 1881, Col. Osborn was married to 
 Kate Louise Gardner, of New York City, and their 
 five children are : Innis, Minott Arthur, Dorothy, 
 Gardner and Katherine. 
 
 AMOS MUNSON. The late Amos. Munson, 
 the Yankee pie maker of New Haven and New 
 York, and the founder of that branch of industry 
 in this country, was generallv known throughout 
 New England from his connection with the business, 
 buikline" "''sei" than he knew. A fortune wrs ac- 
 cumulated by him, and he was able to establish his 
 sons in a business in which they, too, have grown 
 wealthy. 
 
 Mr. Munson was born in New Haven in March, 
 1797, and was a true New Ensflander, beinp- the 
 representative of families which have been identified 
 wifh the annals of New Haven for two hundred and 
 
 sixty years. Joseph and Hannah (Higgins) Mun- 
 son were his parents, and he was a descendant in 
 the seventh generation from Thomas Munson, who 
 was first known in Hartford in 1637, as a partici- 
 pant in the Pequot war. At a later period be became 
 a resident of New Haven, where he died in 1685. 
 This Thomas Munson was born in 1612, and was a 
 carpenter by trade. He belonged to the Congrega- 
 tional Church. His wife's Christian name was 
 Joanna, and she died in 1678. From this Thomas 
 the late Amos Munson's line of descent was through 
 Samuel, Theophilus, Israel, Joseph and Joseph Mun- 
 son. 
 
 Samuel Munson, son of the foregoing Thomas, 
 was baptized in 1643, ^"d was married in 1665, to 
 Martha, daughter of William and Alice (Pritchard) 
 Bradley. Mr. Munson was a shoemaker and farmer 
 and made his home in New Haven and Wallingford. 
 His death occurred in 1693. 
 
 Theophilus Munson, son of Samuel, was born 
 in 1675. He married Esther, the daughter of John 
 Mix. This Munson was a locksmith, and lived in 
 New Haven, where he had his home for forty-five 
 years at the corner of College and Wall streets, af- 
 terwards the site of the home of President Dwight, 
 of Yale. He was frequently before the public as 
 an official, and belonged to the Congregational 
 Church. He died in 1747, a prosperous and prom- 
 inent citizen. His wife died in 1746. 
 
 Israel Munson was born in 1701, and was mar- 
 ried first in 1727, to Elizabeth, a daughter of Sam- 
 uel Bishop, and resided in New Haven, where she 
 was born in 1704. Mr. Munson was a blacksmith 
 and an inn-keeper. Several public offices were held 
 by him, and he was regarded as a man of probity 
 and intelligence. He died in 1754, and his wife in 
 1734, both in the faith of the Congregational Church. 
 He was married a second time. 
 
 Joseph 'Munson was born in 1727, and was mar- 
 ried thirty years later to Sarah, the daughter of Sam- 
 uel Bishop, born in 1733. They had their home in 
 New Haven, where he made his standing as a 
 provident business man, and was long engaged in 
 mercantile pursuits. His wife died in 1790, and he 
 three years later. 
 
 Joseph Munson, born in 1770, was married in 
 1796 to Hannah Higgins, and had his home in New 
 Haven, where he was a farmer all his life. On sev- 
 eral occasions he held public office, being fence 
 viewer in 1801, i8i^ and 1816, tithing man in 1816. 
 Plis death occurred in 1842, and his widow died in 
 Cincinnati in i860. 
 
 Amos Munson, whose name appears above, was 
 the son of Joseph Munson of the preceding para- 
 graph, in his youth learned the blacksmith trade, 
 which he followed for years, and became a thor- 
 ough and efficient mechanic. The late James 
 Brewster was his emplover in New Haven, where 
 he worked at his trade in the carriage shops, and 
 where he broke down, being compelled to change 
 his vocation. After this he was occupied for a 
 
72 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 time on a farm, hoping to regain his health. Upon 
 one occasion he happened in New York to enter the 
 estabUshment of Sidney E. Morse, a geographer 
 and journahst, where his brother, Henry, and his 
 own son, Lucius, were employed. The latter, a 
 keen-witted little fellow, hungered for the old-fash- 
 ioned pie on his mothers pantry shelves. The 
 making and selling of old fashioned pie was sug- 
 gested by him, and was received with favor by 
 both his uncle and father. At that time there was 
 no pie bakery in New England. The pie industry 
 of Amos Munson was established June lo, 1844, 
 in Wall street, New Haven, very modestly at first, 
 at first putting out only four or five dozen a day, 
 which were sold for the first few weeks by one of 
 his boys, who conveyed them in a little wagon to 
 the steamboat dock for the New York market. The 
 increase and prosperity of the project soon called 
 for a horse and wagon. At that time there were 
 no restaurants in New Haven, and accordingly all 
 the bakery goods were sent to New York. In the 
 meantime there had been opened on the corner of 
 Nassau and Beekman streets, a small lunch count- 
 er called the Connecticut Pie Depot. The delicacy 
 met with instant favor, and vindicated the foresight 
 of the son and father. For a time at the first, 
 Mr. Munson's brother, Henry, was associated with 
 him, and the firm was known as A. Munson & 
 Brother. The brother, however, soon disposed of 
 his interest, and Amos Munson became sole pro- 
 prietor. The bakery remained on Wall street until 
 1874, when it was removed to more commodious 
 quarters, and was occupied by S. M. Munson & 
 Co. The business was sold out in 1899. The rapid 
 increase in the number of restaurants, made a cor- 
 responding increase in demand for pie, so that the 
 fourth year of the business of Mr. Munson, he 
 paid $1,300, for freight from New Haven to New 
 York, on an output of about a thousand pies a day. 
 In 1849 ^r. Munson erected a building on Twenty- 
 first street, near Third avenue, in which the busi- 
 ness was also conducted. In 1874 Mr. Munson 
 gave up his New Haven business to his son, Sam- 
 uel M., but retained control of the New York end 
 of the trade until his death, which occurred Sept. 
 
 3. 1877- 
 
 The latter years of the life of Mr. Munson were 
 passed 'in the enjoyment of a well-earned com- 
 petence, and though his health failed, he saw the 
 business which he had established, and which had 
 passed in 1877 into the hands of Charles E. Mun- 
 son, widely extended and universally recognized. 
 Many of the most successful men in this line, both 
 in New York and New Haven, learned their trade 
 with him, and traced their success to him. Among 
 them were the Olds, of New Haven, Case, of Chi- 
 cago, and Perry, of Providence. 
 
 Mr. Munson was a man of remarkably cheer- 
 ful temper, dearlv loving a good joke and a good 
 friend. He was open-handed, and was known as a 
 generous contributor to the wants of the needy. 
 
 His disposition was quiet, preferrmg retirement, 
 and shunning display. His patience was unbound- 
 ed and his endurance of the pain and suffermg of 
 his last sickness was marked. For two weeks |he 
 was helpless on the bed, dying of starvation and 
 inanition. Many friends were left behmd, and his 
 memory is a fragrant one. _ 
 
 On'june 11, 1820, Mr. Munson was married to 
 Martha James, who died in 1823, at the age of 
 twenty-nine years. His second marriage occurred 
 Nov. 20, 1825, Rebecca, the daughter of Isaac Dick- 
 erman, becoming his wife at that time. She was 
 a descendant of Thomas Dickerman, the emigrant, 
 who came to Dorchester, Mass., in 1635, her line 
 running through Abraham, who settled in New 
 Haven; Isaac; Stephen: and Isaac Dickerman (2). 
 They lived to celebrate their golden wedding. Both 
 were members of the North Congregational Church 
 in New Haven throughout their married life. To 
 the first marriage of Mr. Munson were born: 
 Sarah Rebecca, born Jan. 2, 1821, is now de- 
 ceased: and William died in infancy. To the sec- 
 ond union were born: Lucius, born Dec. 11, 1826, 
 married Nancv Baldwin, a daughter of William 
 Baldwin in 1849, and died in Des Aloines, Iowa, 
 in 1886: John Adams, born July 8, 1829, is re- 
 ferred to at some length on another page; Cha^-les 
 E., born Alay 11, 1831, was married Aug. 25, 1852, 
 to Maro-aret Atwell. and is a resident of New York, 
 where he is the manager of the business established 
 by his father; Samuel :\Ierwin, born May 31, 1833, 
 is' referred to mora fully elsewhere; and Mar)!! 
 Louise (deceased), born Aug. 28, 1837, married 
 June 16, 1857, Dennis Frisbie, who is a member of 
 D. Frisbie & Co., of New York, and they had two 
 children, William and Minnie. 
 
 KELSEY. For the past sixty years in the in- 
 dustrial field in Middlesex and New Haven coun- 
 ties few families have played a more conspicuous 
 part than that of the late George R. Kelsey. He 
 and his sons, the late Israel A. and Horatio G., 
 were manufacturers and actively identified with the 
 development of the borough of ^^'est Haven and 
 the town of Orange. 
 
 Born yiny 15, 1820, in what is now the town 
 of Cromwell, Conn., George R. Kelsey was one of 
 the six children' — five sons and one daughter — of 
 Zebulon and Sally (Edwards) Kelsey who grew to 
 adult age. His mother was a daughter of Daniel 
 Edwards, of Cromiwell. George R. Kelsey was a 
 giandson, great-grandson and great-great-grandson 
 of three successive Israel Kelseys, all born in the 
 Kelsey Quarter, ]Middletown, now Cromwell, and a 
 descendant in direct line from William Kelsey, who 
 was born about 1600, was at Cambridge, Mass., in 
 i'')32, an original proprietor of Hartford in 1639 
 and removed to Killingworth, ^Middlesex county 
 about 1663. He was deputy to the General Court 
 from that place in 1671. 
 
 George R. Kelsey at the age of ten vears re- 
 
c^:> 7Ul^l 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 73 
 
 moved with the family to Ohio, where the father 
 and sons cleared off many acres of heavy timber. 
 ■Our subject remained with his parents until of age, 
 during "which period he learned the carpenter's 
 and joiner's trade. In 1842 he returned to Middle- 
 town, Conn., and soon thereafter his attention was 
 ■called to the demand for clothing and suspender 
 buckles, which were all imported, and he at once 
 T>egan in a small way the manufacture of these ar- 
 ticles in Middletown. Po'ssessing but little capital 
 and doing the work by hand he struggled with per- 
 sistent energy for ten years to establish the busi- 
 ness and met with reverses that would have crushed 
 less resolute men, being burned out twice in that 
 time. His persistency each time enabled him to 
 re-establish the business, and by the introduction of 
 new machinery and patent improvements he pro- 
 duced a stock of such excellent quality that he en- 
 tirely broke up the importation of buckles. After 
 the fire of 1847 he began his business anew at 
 'Cromwell, where he was successfully engaged until 
 1852. As a matter of protection his business was 
 in 1855 combined with the Waterbury Buckle Co., 
 and he accepted the presidency of the latter concern. 
 'Soon afterward he took the management of the 
 West Haven Buckle Co. and remained identified 
 Tvith both corporations until the time of his death, 
 in 1889. He built uo a large business for the West 
 Haven Co. Under his management within twenty- 
 seven years was paid $750,000 in dividends to the 
 stockholders on a capital of $17,000. In 1883 Mr. 
 Kelsey established in West Haven the American 
 Buckle & Cartridge Co., under the management of 
 "his sons, the late Israel A. Kelsey being secretary 
 «of the corporation for years. Horatio G. Kelsey 
 now continues the business. 
 
 George R. Kelsey dtiring his connection with 
 the manufacturing business took out some ten pat- 
 ents for improvements in buckles. Throughout his 
 long and laborious business career he proved him- 
 self in a marked degree sagacious, energetic, up- 
 right and faithful in all the relations of life. Lo- 
 cating in West Haven he became interested in the 
 welfare of the place and was largely identified with 
 its enterprise, and spirit. For several years he was 
 ■first selectman of the town and town agent, and in 
 1858 he represented the town in the State Legisla- 
 ture. He was instrumental in building the horse 
 railway between New Haven and Savin Rock and 
 furnished largely the means to accomplish the en- 
 terpTise. To him is due the existence of the well- 
 known watering place of Savin Rock. He built the 
 "Sea View House" and surrounding dwellings and 
 bought largely of property in that vicinity. Mr. 
 Kelsey was an active church worker and for twenty- 
 four years was on the standing committee and had 
 charge of the salary fund of the Congregational 
 Church in West Haven. 
 
 In 1845 George R. Kelsey married Virginia W., 
 ■daughter of Capt. Dota Lord Wright, of Clinton, 
 Conn., a member of one of the earliest settled fam- 
 
 ilies in New Haven and Middlesex counties, and 
 to them were born children as follows : Harriet 
 v., who married Frank W. Kimberly, formerly of 
 Sioux City, Iowa, now living in West Haven ; 
 Georgea W., of Chicago ; Israel A. ; and Horatio 
 G., treasurer and manager of the American Buckle 
 Co., West Haven. The residence which Mrs. Kel- 
 sey now occupies was built by her husband in i860 
 and is still one of the handsomest in West Haven. 
 
 LEVI BACON YALE, who has been for many 
 years prominent among the well-to-do farmers and 
 fruit growers of Meriden, was born March 25, 
 1838, on the old homestead on Yale avenue, where 
 he still resides, and which is now in his possession. 
 
 Mr. Yale is a descendant of Capt. Thomas Yale, 
 who was a son of David and Ann Yale, of England, 
 and born there or in Wales about 1616. In 1645 he 
 married Mary, daughter of Thomas Turner, of 
 New Haven. Capt. Yale came to America in 1637, 
 in company with Thomas Turner, Gov. Eaton, and 
 others, and in 1638 settled in New Haven, as a 
 merchant. He purchased lands in what is now 
 North Haven, and settled thereon as early as 1660. 
 He was a signer of the Plantation Covenant, and 
 was one of the principal men in the colony, filling 
 many offices of trust. Capt. Yale died March 27, 
 1683, and his wife died Oct. 15, 1704. 
 
 (II) Thomas Yale (2), son of Capt. Thomas, 
 the settler, born about 1647, in New Haven, married 
 (first) Dec. 11, 1667, Rebecca, daughter of Will- 
 iam Gibbards, of New Haven. Mr. Yale became 
 one of the first settlers of Wallingford, in 1670, and 
 one of the most active and energetic men of that 
 town, where he died Jan. 26, 1736. 
 
 (III) Thomas Yale (3), son of Thomas (2), 
 born March 20, 1678-70. married Mav 16, 1705, 
 Mary, daughter of Joseph Benham, of Wallingford. 
 He settled as a farmer in what is now the town of 
 Meriden. He was one of the constituent members 
 of the First Congregational Church of Meriden in 
 1729. Mr. Yale died Sept. 26, 1750. 
 
 (IV) Noah Yale, son of Thomas (3), born 
 June 2, 1723, married Aug. 2, 1744, Anna Ives, and 
 settled as a farmer in Meriden. He died in 1803, 
 and his wife in 1807. 
 
 (V) Joel Yale, son of Noah, born June 8, 1759, 
 married May 20, 1784, Esther Clark, of Meriden, 
 born Nov. 15, 1766. Mr. Yale was a farmier of 
 Meriden. He died Dec. 14, 1805, and his wife died 
 Nov. 12, 1848. 
 
 (VI) Levi Yale, son of Joel, born April 11, 
 1792, in Meriden, received his early education in the 
 district schools there, and, like most men of his day 
 who were ambitious for learning, educated himself 
 in the intervals of hard work on the farm. While 
 living at home he taught school in Meriden during 
 the winter, and in summer engaged in farming, con- 
 tinuing thus for a number of vears. He owned a 
 tract of 150 acres, upon which he finally settled, 
 and upon which he made many improvements. 
 
74 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 building a fine dwelling. He carried on general 
 farming and stock raising. Mr. Yale was a prom- 
 inent man in his locality, taking an active part in 
 public affairs, for which he was well fitted. In early 
 life he was a Democrat, but being an anti-slavery 
 man changed his allegiance in time, and lived to 
 witness the triumph of the principles he upheld. 
 He was nominated for the State Legislature and for 
 lieutenant-governor on the Abolitionist ticket. For 
 seven years Mr. Yale served as first selectman of 
 his town, and three times he was the nominee of all 
 parties for that office, a fact which testifies more 
 strongly than mere words to the universal esteem 
 in which he was held, and the satisfaction his ser- 
 vices gave. He was a good citizen in every sense of 
 the term, temperate in his habits, domestic in his 
 tastes, and as thoughtful in his home as he was 
 alert and watchful in matters relating to the gen- 
 eral welfare. 
 
 On Feb. 20, 1833, Mr. Yale married Abigail 
 Ellen Bacon, of Middletown, who was born in 
 Westfield, Middlesex Co., Conn., daughter of Na- 
 thaniel and Abigail Bacon, and sister of AVilliam P. 
 Bacon, of New Britain, Conn. Three children 
 blessed this union : Harriet Ellen, born Aug. 3, 
 1835, who married Stephen Bowers, of East Berlin, 
 Conn., and is now deceased ; Levi Bacon, who is 
 mentioned below; and Emma L., born Feb. 10, 
 1845, who married Rutledge Whitehead, of Rox- 
 bury. Conn., and is now deceased. The mother of 
 these died May I, 1845, and Mr. Yale subsequently 
 married, Jan. I, 1859, Jennette Royce, daughter of 
 Deodatus and Emily (Bement) Royce, both of 
 whom are deceased. Levi Yale passed awav in Feb- 
 ruary, 1878, on his farm, at the ripe old age of 
 eighty years, and was laid to rest in AValnut Grove 
 cemetery, where his wife was interred. He was a 
 member of the Congregational Church. ,Mrs. Jen- 
 nette Royce Yale survived until 1896, and her re- 
 mains also rest in Walnut Grove cemetery. Like 
 her husband, she was a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church. 
 
 (VII) Levi Bacon Yale attended the schools of 
 the home district in his early boyhood, later was a 
 student at Meriden Academv, and also in a select 
 school at Brookside, Berkshire, N. Y. His home 
 has alwavs been on the old homestead, where he 
 engages in farming in all its branches, being a suc- 
 cessful stock raiser, dairv farmer and fruit grower. 
 He is considered one of the most prosperous agri- 
 culturists in Meriden, and has made numerous im- 
 provements on his place, which bears many evi- 
 dences of careful and judicious management. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Yale married, at the Yale home- 
 stead. Miss Frances Ellen Royce (daughter of Deo- 
 datus Royce), who has proved a capable and de- 
 voted helpmeet, and four children have blessed this 
 union, namely: Jennie Charlotte, Fannie Ellen, 
 Walter Levi and Laura Anna. Mr. and Mrs. Yale 
 and all their children lare members of Meriden 
 Grange, P. of PI. Though quiet in his tastes and 
 
 domestic in his habits, Mr. Yale takes a deep inter- 
 est in the welfare of his community, being especial- 
 ly interested in edlicational matters. He was orig- 
 inally a Republican in political sentiment, but is 
 now a stanch Prohibitionist, by which party he was 
 nominated for Senator in the 6th District in 1900. 
 Mr. Yale is an active member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, in which he has officiated as dea- 
 con the last thirty years. In religious faith he is a 
 Second Adventist, and is also a believer in Divine 
 Healing. As a citizen he is above reproach, and 
 his high standing in the community has been gained 
 solely on his own merits. 
 
 Deodatus Royce, father of Mrs. Levi B. Yale,, 
 was one of the many descendants of an old New 
 England family in this section. Robert Royce 
 (identical with Rice), says Miss Caulkins, in the 
 "History of New London," is presumed to be the 
 Robert Rice who was at Boston in 1631, miade a 
 freeman there in 1634, and one of those disarmed in 
 1637 for adherence to the opinions and party of 
 Wheelright and Hutchinson. According to Josiah A. 
 Royce, of Brooklyn, formerly of Lanesboro, Mass.,. 
 Robert Royce was born in England in the year 1613, 
 so that he was only eighteen years of age when he 
 came to America. He is known to have been in 
 Stratford, Conn., in 1644, and was there in 1656, 
 when chosen leather sealer. He went to New Lon- 
 don in 1657, and the town granted him the original 
 Post lot, on Post Hill. He was a shoemaker by 
 occupation. In 1660 he was chosen constable ; in 
 1662 represe-ntative to the General Court ; in 1663 
 a townsman ; and in 1667 he was appointed to keep 
 an ordinary and "freed from training." He died in 
 1676, and his widow, Elizabeth, in 1688. They 
 had six sons and three daughters, the sons being": 
 (i) Nehemiah had five daughters and one son, 
 Nathaniel, born March 8, 1682. (2) Samuel (see 
 Oliver Rice). (3) Isaac married Dec. 15, 1669, at 
 New London, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel Lath- 
 rop, and had two sons — Isaac, born in 1673, who died 
 the same year; and Robert, born in 1674. (Miss 
 Caulkins says this family also removed to Walling- 
 ford.) (4) Jonathan is further mientioned below. 
 (5) Joshua and his wife, Bathsheba, had one son, 
 Joshua, who was born in May, 1664, and died the 
 same month. (6) Nathaniel, born April i, 1639, 
 lived to be nearlv ninety-eight years of age, dying 
 Feb. 8, 1736. He was married five times, in 1673, 
 1681, 1707, 1708 and 1720. His sons were: John, 
 born in 1675; Benjamin, 1677; Daniel, 1726; Rob- 
 ert, Nov. t6, 1729; Elisha, Oct. 27, 1731 ; and Na- 
 thaniel, July i, 1733. He also had seven daughters. 
 (This family says Miss Caulkins, also removed to 
 Wallingford). 
 
 (II) Jonathan Royce, son of Robert, the erai- 
 .grant, married at New London, in June, 1660 De- 
 borah, daughter of Hugh Caulkins, and removed to 
 Norwich, Conn,, as one of the thirtv-six proprie- 
 tors of that town. He had seven daughters and 
 three sons, the sons being: John, born Nov. 9, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 7S 
 
 1663; Jonathan, in August, 1678; and Daniel, Aug. 
 19, 1682. 
 
 (III) Jonathan Royce (2J, son of Jonathan (i), 
 married and probably settled in Woodbury, Conn., 
 and is the Jonathan Royce referred to in the town 
 records as having a son, Jonathan, born July 29, 
 
 1739- 
 
 (IV) Adonijah Royce, presumably a son of 
 Jonathan (2), was bom Jan. 10, 1744, in Wood- 
 bury, and soon after attaining his majority went 
 to Lanesboro, Mass., to reside. In March, 1761, 
 Jonathan Royce bought one hundred acres of land 
 in Lanesboro, for forty sovereigns and in April, 
 1765, sold the same to Adonijah Royce, of Wood- 
 bury, Conn., for the same sum.. About 1765 Adoni- 
 jah Royce married Amy Brush, of New Fairfield, 
 Conn. In 1769 he purchased from Simeon Chitten- 
 den, of Guilford, Conn., another one hundred acres, 
 for thirty pounds. He continued to reside at Lanes- 
 boro until his death, June 23, 1807. His first wife 
 died Oct. 21, 1794. Their children were: Asahel, 
 born May 6, 1771 ; Ann, Oct. 2, 1772; Lucy Ann, 
 Sept. 24, 1775; Phoebe, Jan. 14, 1778; Nijah, Sept. 
 28, 1779 ; Sarah, July 29, 1781 ; Pamelia, April 17, 
 1783; Polly, Aug. 2, 1786; Laura, Oct. 15, 1788. 
 On June i, 1796, Adonijah Royce married (second) 
 Deborah, daughter of Peckham Barker, of Newport, 
 R. I., and to this union were born children as 
 follows: Dorcas, April 11, 1797; Alma, Feb. 27, 
 1800; and Amos, May 17, 1803. The last-named 
 married Laura, daughter of Josiah Rockwell, and 
 was the father of Josiah A. Royce. 
 
 (V) Asahel Royce, son of Adonijah, born May 
 6, 1771, in Lanesboro, Mass., married Sally Betsey 
 Clark, of that town. He settled in Berkshire, Tioga 
 Co., N. Y., where he died in March, 1847. His wife 
 died April, 1848, aged seventy-six years. 
 
 (VI) Deodat'us Royce, son of Asahel, was born 
 Jan. 20, 1793, in Lanesboro, Mass., and went to 
 New York with his father. His literary training 
 was finished at the Lanesboro Academy, and he 
 became a successful teacher, in later life, however, 
 taking up farming. He was a generous mian and 
 public-spirited citizen and active in the religious life 
 of his community, being a deacon in the Presby- 
 terian church. Among the early opponents of slav- 
 ery he became a Republican on the organization of 
 that party, and was ever active in any work calcu- 
 lated to further the general welfare. On Dec. 25, 
 1817, Mr. Royce married Emily Bement, a native 
 of Berkshire, N. Y. After her death, Sept. 5, 1875, 
 he came to Meriden' to reside, but his death oc- 
 curred while on a visit at Berkshire July 8, 1877. 
 His children were : Charlotte, wife of Levi B. Dan- 
 forth (both now deceased) ; Emily, Mrs. James 
 Williams (both deceased) ; Jane Elizabeth, widow 
 of Robert Williams; Edwin Yale, a resident of 
 Shelton, Iowa; Celia, who died at the age of two 
 years; Jennette, wife of Levi Yale (both deceased) ; 
 Mary Louisa, wife of Ezekiel Hall (both deceased) ; 
 
 Celia (2) deceased; Frederick, residing on the 
 homestead in Berkshire, N. Y. ; and Frances Ellen, 
 Mrs. Levi B. Yale. 
 
 PETER B. MACKEY, a well-known resident 
 of Ansonia, who has long been prominent in this 
 section as a manufacturer of and dealer in car- 
 riages, was born July 13, 1834, at Esopus, Ulster 
 county, N. Y., a son of George and Sarah (Burger) 
 Mackey, and is a representative of a most excellent 
 family. 
 
 Alexander Hackey, his grandfather, was a na- 
 tive of Edinburgh, Scotland, and came to this coun- 
 try about 1800. For some years he was a resident 
 of New York City. During the war of 1812 he 
 was a mermber of a Npw Jersey regiment, and was 
 stationed at Sandy Hook. His wife, whose maiden 
 name was Catherine Roberts, was a descendant of 
 one of the early Danish settlers of West Jersey. 
 She died in New York City at the age of ninety- 
 four years, and her remains are interred in Green- 
 wood cemetery. 
 
 George Mackey, son of Alexander, was born 
 about 1810 in New York City, and was there en- 
 gaged during most of his life in shipbuilding, as 
 a member of the firm of Westervelt & Mackey, at 
 Fourth and Seventh streets, East River. This was 
 a well-known firm. They built the ocean steamers 
 "Washington" and "Herman," of the Bremen Mail 
 Line, which up to that time (1851-52) were the 
 handsomest vessels on the ocean ; they were pio- 
 neers in the steamship building line, and were 
 among the first to construct ocean-going steamers. 
 They also built the United States steam frigate 
 "Brooklyn," which did notable service in Farra- 
 gut's fleet during the Civil war. Mr. Mackey was 
 a man of great ability and understood his work 
 thoroughly, being especially skilled as a draughts- 
 man. The strict integrity which marked his busi- 
 ness career was but a natural result of his high 
 moral character, and in all lines his advice was 
 sought bv young and old. In 1841 he purchased a 
 farm at Keyport, N. J., whither he moved his fam- 
 ily, although he retained his interest in the ship- 
 building business. He died in 1857, aged forty-^ 
 seven years. His wife, Sarah Burger, was born 
 in Rondout, N. Y., and died at Keyport, N. J., in 
 1874, aged sixty-nine years. She was for many 
 years a faithful member of the Reformed Church 
 pt Kevport. Mrs. Mickey's ancestors came from 
 Holland in 1640, and located in the vicinity of 
 Kingston, N. Y. (they were connected with the 
 Ostranders and Houghtalings), where the family 
 has since been prominent. Mrs. Mackey's father, 
 William Burger, was a leading citizen of the local- 
 ity in his day, and was extensively engaged in 
 farming and dealing in cattle, holding a govern- 
 ment contract at one time to supply cattle for var- 
 ious nurDoses. He also conducted a hotel where 
 the United States mail coaches secured relays. 
 The circumstances of his death are unknown, as' 
 
76 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 he went to New York City with a drove of cattle 
 and did not return. Of the six children born to 
 George and Sarah JMackey three are living: Peter 
 B., our subject; George, a resident of Atlantic 
 Highlands, N. J. ; and Melissa, of Keyport, N. J., 
 widow of Joseph Collins. Of the others, Frederick 
 enlisted in Company H, 48th N. Y. V. I., and served 
 four years in the Civil war; he was wounded at 
 Fort Wagner, died some months later, and was 
 buried in Florida. 
 
 Peter B. Mackey passed his boyhood .chiefly 
 in New Jersey, his parents removing there when 
 he was six years old. He learned the trade of car- 
 riagemaker with an uncle, Peter S. Burger, in 
 Hudson, N. Y., serving an apprenticeship of five 
 years. While serving his time with his uncle the 
 latter obtained an order for a coach from ex-Presi- 
 dent Van B'uren. Wishing to consult him in re- 
 gard to some matter in connection with this order, 
 Mr. Burger took his nephew with himi to Kinder- 
 hook, and while there they dined with Mr. \'an 
 Buren. After leaving his uncle Mr. Alackey work- 
 ed as a journeyman in New Haven, for Hooker & 
 Osborn, and later in Williamstoiwn, Mass. (where 
 lie married his first wife), and for James Gould 
 in Albany, N. Y. About the time of the Civil war 
 he took a position as foreman for Tuttle, Paine & 
 Co., of Naugatuck, and in 1869 he settled in An- 
 sonia, where he was associated in business for the 
 first three years with C. H. Styles. Later he as- 
 sociated himself with Nechols French and W. E. 
 Curtis in the shop known as the J. B. Downs fac- 
 tory, for manufacturing and repairing carriages 
 and wagons, the partnership continuing some years. 
 After one year alone Mr. Mackey sold out and in- 
 vested in the kindling-wood business, which he con- 
 ducted some time, and his next enterprise was at 
 Bridgeport, where he conducted a large carriage 
 factory for fifteen years. In 1895 he returned to 
 Ansonia, and in a small way engaged in painting 
 and repairing at No. 226 Wakelee avenue. He is 
 less active in business than formerly. He owns 
 his residence, which is an attractive home, built 
 ■fay himself. As one of the oldest business men in 
 the city he has watched its growth with interest 
 from a town of 4,000 to its present population of 
 13,000, and during his stay there all of the finest 
 "buildings on Main street have been erected. In 
 politics he is a Republican, and is at present serving 
 as member of the city board of relief, to which he 
 was appointed in the fall of 1900 by Mayor Lock- 
 wood Hotchkiss, for two years. That gentleman's 
 successor recently nominated him for member of 
 the board of assessors, and the appointment was 
 ■confirmed by the board of aldermen, hut as it con- 
 flicted with a law prohibiting the holding of both 
 offices the mayor was obliged to withdraw Mr. 
 Mackev's name. In religious matters he takes a 
 liberal view, and is a member of the First Unitarian 
 Society of Derby ; he is a firm believer in the theorA- 
 of evolution. Fraternally he belongs to George 
 
 Washington Lodge, F. & A. M. ; is active in Mount 
 \'ernon Chapter, No. 35, R. A. M., at present hold- 
 ing the office of scribe ; is also a member of Nauga- 
 tuck Lodge, I. O. O. F. ; and of the Order of Amer- 
 ican Mechanics of Bridgeport, in which he has held 
 all the offices. 
 
 In i8.s6 Mr. Mackey married Miss Sarah Stack- 
 pole, of Williamstown, Mass., who died in Bridge- 
 port, in 1892, at the age of fifty-five; her remains 
 were interred in Mountain Grove, Bridgeport. In 
 1895 Mr. Mackey wedded Miss Rissa A. Downs, 
 who was born in Newtown, a daughter of Amaziah 
 and Catherine fPowel) Downs, the former of 
 whom was a lumberman and farmer by occupation. 
 Mr. Downs enlisted during the Civil war in Com- 
 pany K, 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and died 
 a prisoner at Salisbury, N. C, at the age of forty- 
 two. Mrs. Catherine (Powel) Downs died aged 
 fiftv-six, and of her seven children only three are 
 now living : Mrs. Mackey ; Josiah ; and Almond. 
 While both of her parents were devout members 
 of the Episcopal Church, ]\Irs. Alackey is a Unitar- 
 ian in faith. Mr. Mackey has one son by his first 
 marriage, George W. Mackey, who married' Miss 
 Nellie Johnson, and is employed as foreman in the 
 machine department of the Deoxidized Bronze & 
 Aletal Co., of Bridgeport. 
 
 EDWARD ]\IILLER, manufacturer of :\Ieriden, 
 founder and long president of the well-known house 
 of Edward Miller & Co., is a representative of fam- 
 ilies who for generations have lived and occupied 
 honorable positions in society and business in the 
 towns of Wallingford and ]Meriden. Mr. ^Miller 
 was born Aug. 10, 1827. in Wallingford, son of Joel 
 and Clarissa (Plum) Miller, and grandson of Rev. 
 Samuel Miller and Seth D. Plum, the latter one of 
 the first to engage in the tinware .business in this 
 section and a prominent business man of his day. 
 
 The genealo'gA' of Mr. Miller is traced through 
 eight generations to John Miller, who emigrated 
 from Maidstone, County of Kent, England, to Lynn, 
 Mass., and moved to East Hampton, Long Island, 
 about 1649. He and his wife Alary had five sons : 
 Andrew, who settled at Miller Place, L. I., in 1671, 
 and died Dec. 22, 1718; George, who died Oct. 12, 
 1712; John, born in 1653, who died Dec. 15, 1738; 
 William, whose wife was named Hannah ; and Jere- 
 miah, born in 1656, who died June 2, 1734. 
 
 (II) George Miller, son of John and Mary, had 
 four sons, namely : George, who was killed by a 
 horse ; John ; Hezekiah ; and Nathan. 
 
 (III) Hezekiah Miller, of East Hampton, L. I., 
 son of George Miller, married Elizabeth Sherry, 
 Dec. II, 1706. They had children as follows: A 
 child born in 1714, died the same year; one born in 
 July, 1718, died the same year; a son, born in 1721, 
 died in 1733 ; a son, born in 1724, died the same year ; 
 Jane, who was baptized as an adult in 1729, married 
 Thomas Filer in 1733-34; Thomas, baptized (as an 
 adult) in 1730, married Sarah Hopkins in 1740; 
 
^^y/'^7-':;7ri-/^i^>i,A^- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 77 
 
 Henfy, baptized in 1730 (as an adult), married Anna 
 Earle; Keturah was baptized in 1736; Joanna in 
 1737 married Ezekiel Hand; Jacob was baptized 
 July 13, 1740, as an adult (record reads: "Jacob, 
 son of Hezekiah Miller owned covenant in 1740"). 
 
 (IV) Jacob Miller, son of Hezekiah and Eliza- 
 beth (Sherry) Miller, married Susanna Wickes, or 
 Weeks, of Oyster Bay, L. I., May 24, 1738, and re- 
 moved from South Hampton to Huntington. For 
 his second wife he married Mary Renland, of Hunt- 
 ington, in 1756. He was the father of the follow- 
 ing named children: Elizabeth, baptized June 10, 
 1739; Elizabeth, baptized April 4, 1742; Matthew, 
 baptized Dec. 16, 1744; Freelove, baptized July 26, 
 1747; Jacob, baptized April 24, 1754. 
 
 (V) Jacob Miller, son of Jacob and Susanna 
 (Wickes) Miller, married Elizabeth Filer. During 
 the Revolutionary war he came home in his whale- 
 boat to the shores of Connecticut, and he died at 
 Wallingford, as did also his wife. His children in- 
 cluded Rev. Samuel, born on Long Island, April 15, 
 1773; Rev. Thomas, who preached on Long Island, 
 and is buried in Sotithington, Conn, (by his two 
 wives he had twenty-two - chddren) ; Orrin D. ; 
 Henry ; and others. 
 
 (VI) Rev. Samuel Miller, son of Jacob and 
 Elizabeth Miller, was married April 7, 1796, to 
 Vincy Blakeslee, and died Nov. 14, 1829. He joined 
 the Baptist Church May 12, 1821, and is said to have 
 preached at Meriden for twenty-six years, and he 
 died at Wallingford. His wife, Vincy (Blakeslee), 
 daughter of Joseph and Lois (Ives) Blakeslee, was 
 born July 29, 1775, and died Nov. 18, 1829. Their 
 children were as follows : ( i ) Lyman, born Sept. 
 27, 1797, died July 21, 1865. He married April 19, 
 1821, Thankful, daughter of David and Thankful 
 (Moss) Hall, and died July 21, 1865. Their daugh- 
 ter, Vincy Ann, was the mother of Mrs. Grove W. 
 Curtis, of Hartford, Conn. (2) John Milton, born 
 Sept. 22, 1799, died Dec. 4, 1837. He married Mer- 
 cia Bryant, of Sheffield, Mass., in 1823. (3) Joel, 
 father of our subject, born Oct. 24, 1801, died Aug. 
 25, 1864. He married March 13, 1823, Clarissa, 
 daughter of Seth and Elizabeth (Hall) Plum. She 
 was born Jan. 23, 1805, and died March 4, 1879. 
 (4) Samuel, born Dec. i, 1803, died Jan. 11, 
 1878. He married Jan. 21, 1829, Janet, daughter of 
 Ira and Julia (Hull) Andrews. (5) Alonzo, born 
 April 12, 1806, died Oct. 10, 1873 ; he and his brother 
 Samuel were buried at Wallingford. He married, 
 Aug. 13 1829, Eliza Ann Hobson. (6) Almond, 
 born Feb. 7, 1809, died Nov. 29, 1864. He married 
 Dec. 25, 1845, Catherine Rogers. (7) Oliver, born 
 May 31, 181 1, died when a young man. (8) Rev. 
 Harvey, born April 3, 1814, died Aug. 27, 1856. 
 He married May 21, 1839, Sarah Rosetta Ives, 
 daughter of Othaniel and Rosetta (Yale) .Ives. (9) 
 George, born July 12, 1818, died June 2, 1869. He 
 was married Aug. 5, 1845, to Lucy Marcia, daugh- 
 ter of Elisha B. and Hepsibah (Conwall) Wilcox. 
 
 Edward Miller was reared on his father's farm,, 
 and had such school privileges as were afforded the 
 sons of the general farmer of that day. Besides at- 
 tending the public schools of his neighborhood he 
 spent a few terms in the Post Academy, in Meriden. 
 When fifteen years of age he worked for a time in 
 the small factory of Horatio N. Howard, in Meri- 
 den, and learned how to make lamp screws, hoops 
 and candlestick-springs. Following this experience 
 he was employed for two years with Stedman & 
 Clark, manufacturers of similar goods. This 
 brought him to the period when, though yet in his- 
 'teens, he began a business career on his own ac- 
 count. Purchasing a set of tools, he associated him- 
 self with his father, under the name of Joel Miller 
 & Son, and began in a small way the manufacture 
 of a similar line of goods in which he had been en- 
 gaged for others. This partnership lasted less than 
 two years when the son, then only twenty, pur- 
 chased his father's interest in the business and his 
 own legal time up to his majority, paying for both 
 $800, giving his notes in payment. Suffice it to 
 say that the young man's operations were so suc- 
 cessful that before the end of the following year his 
 notes were paid out of the profits of the business. 
 Through great industry, honorable dealing and hon- 
 est effort Mr. Miller soon developed a great and 
 growing business, and found larger quarters nec- 
 essary. He erected a wooden structure on the site 
 of the present works, which, together with practi- 
 cally its contents, was destroyed by fire in the early 
 part of 1856. Though the blow was a severe one, 
 which swept away the accumulations of years, Mr. 
 Miller met the situation with the fortitude and per- 
 severance characteristics of the man, and before the 
 close of the year the factory was rebuilt and was 
 again in running order. This misfortune and its 
 follower, the panic of 1857, were keenly felt, and for 
 a time somewhat dampened his ardor, yet he pulled 
 through and was soon again on the way to success. 
 In January, 1858, he went to New York in search 
 of some novelty for manufacture and there saw the 
 kerosene burner, which had just been brought from 
 Vienna, Austria. Returning to Meriden, he deter- 
 mined to make the 'burner, though in an improved 
 form. Mr. Miller deserves the distinction of being 
 the first in America to make and put upon the mar- 
 ket the kerosene (burner, for burning kerosene oil 
 made from distilled coal. This led also to the manu- 
 facture of lamps, bronzes, sheet ibrass, and various 
 forms of utensils made from that metal. The fac- 
 tory was soon taxed beyond its capacity, necessitat- 
 ing successive enlargements. In 1866 it was deemed 
 wise by Mr. Miller to associate with himself other 
 capitalists in the business, so in July of that year a 
 joint-stock company was formed, and the business 
 was continued under the name of Edward Miller & 
 Co., the capital stock of the concern being $200,- 
 000. Under- the wise direction of its president, Mr. 
 Miller, the business of the company was so enlarged 
 that the factory now covers several acres of ground 
 
78 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE.- BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 .and gives work to nearly eight hundred employes. 
 In speaking of this establishment some years ago 
 -the Meriden Journal said: 
 
 The company's prosperity is such that it knows no 
 ■dull periods or its workmen no want of employment. The 
 departments are fully equipped with all the most modern 
 rnachinery that can aid in the rapid and perfect produc- 
 tion of goods. It is the rule in the manufacture of their 
 goods that excellence is the grand thing to be attained, 
 and the high esteem in which their products are held by 
 dealers and consumers warrants the assertion that they 
 realize the end sought. Their products are largely export- 
 ed to foreign lands, and, immense as this business is, it is 
 daily increasing. It would be an impossibility to enumer- 
 ate the great assortment of articles made by this com- 
 pany. Prominent among them are lamp trimmings of 
 every variety, tinners' hardware, together with brass and 
 bronze goods. Their designs are thoroughly their own, 
 and are selected by those appreciative of the superiority 
 of American goods and American styles over those of for- 
 eign lands. Yet the company keeps a sharp eye on the cen- 
 ters of artistic productions, with a view that none shall 
 ■excel them. The result is that not only are the designs of 
 •■art centers equalled, but in most cases excelled by the ad- 
 dition of the American artist. 
 
 In 1884 the company began to manufacture the "Roch- 
 ester" lamps. No adequate conception of their value as 
 illuminators could be gained, however, except to see them 
 when lighted. They give a clear, steady, beautiful, yet 
 strong, light, that is proof at first sight of their superiority. 
 Over one thousand different designs of the "Rochester" 
 are made, varying from the "Rochester, Jr. " to the "Mam- 
 moth," capable of flooding the largest hall with a light 
 almost equal to that of an electric arc light. 
 
 When the Rochester lamp reached its present 
 standard Mr. Miller, as imitations began to be 
 p;aced on the market, determined to reach out fur- 
 ther than ever into the realms of light production. 
 Every principle of the new lamp must have a sci- 
 ■entific basis, and no detail be omitted which would 
 affect its working in the slightest degree. The re- 
 sult of his experiments finds expression in the 
 "Miller" lamp. It is simplicity itself. It has no dirt 
 pocket, and cannot get out of order; the central 
 draft, through a solid, seamless brass tube, cannot 
 leak; it has the screw adjustment and plunge move- 
 ment, to be used at pleasure, both perfect; oil can- 
 not drip down the tube, and, to crown all, it has 
 the best and simplest device for re-wicking ever 
 invented. Naturally Mr. Miller takes great pride 
 in this latest achievement. Every point of import- 
 ance is different from all other lamps, and each new 
 principle is fully covered by patents. 
 
 President Miller, in his political views, is a Re- 
 publican, though he never sought public office. His 
 religious connections are with th'C Broad Street 
 Baptist Church, of which he is a liberal supporter. 
 In 1869 'he gave the church an elegant organ. For 
 years he was treasurer O'f the Connecticut Baptist 
 Educational Society. He gives liberally of his 
 means to all worthy benevolences, contributed large- 
 ly toward the erection of the German Baptist 
 Church edifice, has rem^embered substantially the 
 Connecticut Literary Institute, at Suffield, and the 
 Y. M. C. A. at Meriden. 
 
 On Aug. 30, 1848, Mr. Miller was married to 
 Caroline M. Neal, who was born April 14, 1830, 
 
 daughter of Joseph and Matilda (Barnes) Neal, 
 of Southington, Conn., and; to her wise counsel 
 and advice Air. Miller generously ascribes much of 
 his prosperity and success. The following three of 
 their five children survive: Edward Miller, Jr., a 
 graduate of Brown University, is the secretary and 
 treasurer of the Ediward Miller Co. ; Arthur E. 
 Miller is superintendent of the same company; and 
 Layette A. is the wife of Charles A. Kendrick, of 
 Meriden. 
 
 HON. GEORGE AUSTIN FAY, who for 
 many years has been one of the leading lawyers of 
 the New Haven County Bar, and located in the city 
 of Meriden, has been a resident of his adopted city 
 and State for forty and more years, and been en- 
 gaged in the practice of law there, largely in litiga- 
 tions for corporations, for nearly that length of 
 time. Born Aug. 29, 1838, in the town of Marl- 
 boro, Mass., Mr. Fay is a son of the late George W. 
 and Amanda Almina (Ward) Fay, of Marlboro, 
 and a descendant in the seventh' generation Jrom 
 John Fay, his first American ancestor on the pa- 
 ternal side, who was born about 1648, in England. 
 
 (I) John Fay was born about 1648, in England, 
 and sailed from Gravesend in the ship "Speedwell," 
 in 1656, arriving in Boston in June of that year. 
 Among the passengers were some who were bound 
 for Sudbury, where they had either parents or rela- 
 tives, young Fay among the number. As early as 
 1669 he is found at -Marlboro, where are recorded 
 the births of his children. Mr. Fay soon left Marl- 
 boro for Watertown, where he buried his wife and 
 one of his sons. He married (first) Mary Brig- 
 ham, and (second) in 1678 Mrs. Susanna Morse, 
 born in 1643, widow of Joseph Morse, and daugh- 
 ter of William Shattuck, of Watertown. Mr. Fay 
 seems to have left Marlboro and gone to Water- 
 town as a means of safety, as on the return of peace, 
 after the close of King Philip's war, he returned to 
 Marlboro, and there died in 1690. 
 
 (II) John Fay (2), son of John the emigrant, 
 was born in Marlboro, Mass., Nov. 30, 1669. On 
 Dec. I, 1690, he married Elizabeth Wellington, 
 who was born Dec. 29, 1673, a daughter of Ben- 
 jamin and Elizabeth (Sweetman) Wellington, and 
 died in March, 1729. He married (second) Dec. 
 
 16, 1729, Levinah Brigham, who survived him un- 
 til March 8, 1749. Mr. Fay settled in that part of 
 Marlboro which later became Westboro, and after 
 the incorporation of the latter he became one of its 
 most prominent citizens, and filled the principal 
 town offices. He died in 1747. Of his ten chil- 
 dren the births of the four eldest are recorded in 
 Marlboro. 
 
 (III) John Fay (3), son of John (2), was born 
 Dec. 5, 1700, and died Nov. 10, 1732. On April 
 
 17, 1721, he married Hannah Child. He became a 
 large land owner, and lived in Marlboro and North- 
 boro. FTis widow wedded Samuel Lvscomb, of 
 Southboro. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 79 
 
 (IV) Josiah Fay, son of John (3), fwas born 
 Feb. 4, 1 73 1, and died Aug. 8, 1776. He was mar- 
 ried March 22, 1757, to Mary Bent, who was born 
 April 18, 1737, a daughter of Peter Bent, of Marl- 
 ;boro, and died in 1831, the mother of nine children. 
 Josiah Fay settled in Southboro, Mass., about 1750, 
 and was sergeant in the expedition to Crown Point 
 in 1756, was warden in 1769, and selectman 1770- 
 71-75. He commanded a company of minute men 
 who marched in the early morn of April 19, 1775, 
 to Concord. The battle was fought before he ar- 
 rived, but he followed on to Cambridge. 'He was 
 ordered to Dorchester Heights, and there stayed 
 during the occupation by the British of tne town 
 of Boston. He enlisted in the army during the 
 war, was promoted to the rank of major, was 
 wounded in the battle of White Plains, and was 
 ordered to New York City, where he died in the 
 service of his country, Au^. 8, 1776. His sword 
 was m the possession of his grandson, Peter Fay, 
 of Southboro,. in 1883. 
 
 (V) Josiah Fay, son of Major Josiah, was 
 born June 10, 1758, and was a twin of Mary. He 
 settled first on the old nomestead in Southboro, and 
 there remained until 1799, when he removed to 
 Marlboro. By occupation he was a farmer, and he 
 also manufactured nails by hand, being a very 
 skillful mechanic. He was selectman in 1775, 
 £eld drummer in 1787, and constable in 1791. He 
 had the title of captain, and was a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary war. His death occurred at Marl- 
 boro Feb. 18, 1845. In 1788 he wedded Hepzibah 
 Collins, of Southboro, Mass., a descendant of Miles 
 Standish, the well-known Puritan. She was born 
 in 1751, and died Aug. 19, 1843. They were the 
 parents of ten children : Josiah, born Aug. 26, 
 1788; Abigail, Sept. 19, 1790 (married Feb. 6, 
 181 1, William Howe, Jr.); Mark, Jan. 29, 1793; 
 Mary, Feb. 27, 1796; Peter B., May 24, 1798 (died 
 July 24, 1831); Sally, July 30, 1801; Hepzebeth, 
 March 13, 1803; George W., May 12, 1805; Jerub 
 Amber, Dec. 14, 1808; Julius Augustus, Oct. 15, 
 1812. 
 
 (VI) George William Fay, father of our sub- 
 ject, was born May 12, 1805, and died Feb. 5, 1867. 
 He was married at Willimantic, Conn., Oct. 5, 1835, 
 to Amanda Almlina Ward, who was born April 20, 
 1814, a daughter of Jeremiah and Eunice (Storrs) 
 Ward. They resided in Marlboro, Mass., where 
 Mrs. Fay died. Their children were: (i) Lucian 
 Dana, born Sept. 14, 1836, died at St. Louis, Mo., 
 Jan. ID, 1871. He was married April 12, 1865, to 
 Martia King Batchelor. (2) George Austin, born 
 Aug. 29, 1838, married in Meriden, Sept. 11, 1865, 
 Jane Maria Curtis, who was born Jan. 4, 1842. 
 (3) Mary Ann, born Oct. 28, 1840, died June 10, 
 1880. 'She married Oct. 12, 1863, Henry Otis Rus- 
 •sell, and had two children — Theresa Marilla, born 
 June 27, 1866; and Henry Carlton, born June 27, 
 1869. (4) Franklin Sullivan, born Sept. 26, 1848, 
 -was married at Stuyvesant, N. Y., Sept. 28, 1881, 
 
 to Elizabeth Ham, born June 2, 1858. (5) He- 
 man Storrs, born Feb. 6, 1852, married Sept. 23, 
 1891, Ella C. Fontaine, and has one child, Heman 
 Storrs, Jr., born June 10, 1896. 
 
 (Vli) George Austin Fay, son of George W., 
 passed his early youth upon the home farm. He 
 attended the common school of his native town, 
 and was subsequently graduated from the Marlboro 
 high school. In 1859 he left home, going to Meri- 
 den, Conn., where he has since resided. During his 
 early residence there he was employed as a clerk 
 in the office of the Adams Express Co., and was at 
 the same time the Western Union telegraph opera- 
 tor a^that place. Two years later, in May, 1861, 
 he entered the Law Department of Yale University, 
 where in 1862 he was graduated LL. B. After 
 his graduation he entered the office of Hon. O. H. 
 Piatt, now United States senator, where he re- 
 mained a year. In May, 1863, he. was admitted to 
 the Connecticut Bar as an attorney at law, and 
 has since practiced that profession. In 1871 Mr. 
 Fay was elected by the Republicans to the State 
 Senate from the Sixth Senatorial District, and in 
 that body served as chairman of the committee on 
 Incorporations, and also as chairman of the com- 
 mittee on Elections, to determine who was elected 
 governor of the State. The canvass for State of- 
 fices during the preceding campaign had been an 
 exceedingly exciting one, and resulted, as willi be 
 remembered, in a declaration of the election of 
 Hon. James E. English, of New Haven, on the face 
 of the returns, by a majority of thirty-nine votes. 
 On account of the Fourth ward of New Haven the 
 election of Mr. English was contested and an in- 
 vestigation instituted, with the result of unseating 
 him, and awarding the gubernatorial office to Hon. 
 Marshall Jewell, who was duly inaugurated Gov- 
 lernor of Connecticut. Since that legislative, term 
 Mr. Fay has not taken any active part in politics 
 beyond casting his vote for the candidate of the Re- 
 publican party^ feeling obliged to devote his time 
 wholly to his profession, in which he has been 
 much more than ordinarily successful. Mr. Fay is 
 one of the esteemed citizens of Meriden. He is a 
 member of the Masonic fraternity. He is a lover 
 of good books, and, probably, has one of the largest 
 private libraries in the State. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Fay was married to Jennie M. 
 Curtis, only daughter of Alfred P. Curtis, of Mer- 
 iden. 
 
 ' Frank S. Fay, a brother of Hon. George A. 
 Fay, and also a leading lawyer of the New Haven 
 County Bar, and a substantial citizen of Meriden, 
 is a native of Marlboro, Mass., where he was born 
 Sept. 26, 1848. He was graduated from the Marl- 
 boro high school in 1869, and after this event at 
 once came to Meriden to pursue his law studies in 
 the office of his brother, George A. Fay. He was 
 admitted to the New Haven County Bar in Sep- 
 tember, 1871, since which time he has practiced his 
 profession in Meriden, and with desired success. 
 
8o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 From 1882 to 1893 he served as prosecuting agent 
 for New Haven county, and at various times has 
 held the position of city attorney, or corporation 
 counsel, for the city of Meriden. In 1891 he was 
 town site commissioner in the Territory of Okla- 
 homa, and secretary and treasurer of the board of 
 three, deciding land_ titles for the city of Okla- 
 homa. In March, 1902, he was appointed, by Gov. 
 McLean, judge of the city and police courts of 
 Meriden, succeeding Judge James P. PlatT, which 
 appointment meets with the approval of all the 
 leading lawyers of the city. 
 
 On Sept. 28, 1881, Mr. Fay was married, at 
 Stuyvesant, N. Y., to Elizabeth B., daughter of 
 Allen J. and Martha (Cutter) Ham. 
 
 JOHN E. DUEY (deceased). For a number 
 of years John E. Duey was a prominent citizen of 
 New Haven, and was widely known in business life 
 as an engraver, his work in this line commanding 
 the attention of the most critical trade of the city. 
 
 Although the greater part of his business life 
 was passed in Connecticut, and his scene of success 
 was New Haven, Mr. Duey was not of New Eng- 
 land parentage. He was born in Camden, N. J., 
 Oct. 19, 1838, son of John G. and Emily (Ed- 
 munds) Duey, the former of whom was a descend- 
 ant of a French surveyor who came to America in 
 the suite of Gen. Lafayette. The mother of Mr. 
 Duey was born in England, and was a daughter of 
 Nathaniel Edmunds, who located in the vicinity of 
 Canandaigua, N. Y., where he became possessed 
 of large tracts of valuable land. Later he remov- 
 ed to Philadelphia, where he embarked in a broker- 
 age business, his death occurring in that city, at the 
 age of seventy-nine years. ( 
 
 John G. Duey, the father of our subject, was the 
 youngest son of his parents, and inherited a fortune. 
 After his marriage to Emily Edmunds, he settled 
 in Philadelphia, the place of his birth, but died in 
 Detroit, Mich. A family of three children came 
 to John G. Duey and wife, namely: Matilda, who 
 married Charles Stevens, settled in Philadelphia', 
 and died there] Nathaniel, who died in infancy; 
 and John E. 
 
 John E. Duey was reared in Philadelphia until 
 he was fourteen years of age, and acquired an ex- 
 cellent education in the Catherine St. Grammlar 
 school. His early tastes led him into the study of 
 engraving, and that continued to be his occupation 
 through life. A natural talent, combined with re- 
 fined taste and mechanical skill, enabled Mr. Duey 
 to hold a very prominent place in his profession. 
 
 At the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. Duey be- 
 came a soldier, enlisting in New York City. as a 
 member of Co. G, 83d N. Y. V. I., and remained 
 in the service for three years, participating in many 
 of the most decisive battles of the war. After the 
 war he located in New York, where he was en- 
 gaged in engravine for Tiffany. He became a 
 resident of New Haven, in 1869, during the re- 
 
 mainder of his active life following his profession 
 in this city, designing to a considerable extent for 
 the Meriden Britannia Co,., and also pins and em- 
 blems for various fraternities. 
 
 On Aug. 15, 1865, Mr. Duey was married to 
 Eliza Eraeline Atwood, born in New Hartford,, 
 Conn., daughter of Buel Atwood, of the same place. 
 Her death occurred Sept. 26, 1898, when she was 
 aged sixty-two years. A family of five children 
 were born to Air. and Mrs. Duey, as follows : 
 George Buel, who died aged eight years ; Tillie Ed- 
 munds, who married, Feb. 9, 1892, Dwight P. Wil- 
 cox, of Meriden, and died July i, 1893, leaving a 
 son, Reginald Parker; Eddie, who passed away at 
 the age of six months ; May Florence ; and Bessie 
 Maud, who married Oct. 24, 1901, Charles I. Bou- 
 ton, of the New Haven board of education. His 
 religious rearing was in the Episcopal Church, and 
 through life, he was one of its consistent members 
 and liberal supporters. In political life, Mr. Duey 
 was an Independent, hinding himself by no party 
 tie, but ever taking a most intelligent interest in 
 public affairs, and actively promoting enterprises 
 which he deemed to be of advantage to his country 
 and city. He was much interested and actively 
 identified with several fraternal, organizations, be- 
 ing a member of Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. F. & A. 
 M., in which he was senior deacon, and was Past 
 Grand in Center Lodge No. 68, I. O. O. F., of Mer- 
 iden. He also belonged to Admiral Foote Post, 
 G. A. R. In the death of Mr. Duey, which oc- 
 curred Jan. 30, 1902, the city of New Haven lost 
 one of its niost prominent, substantial and repre- 
 sentative citizens. 
 
 ALONZO FELTON WOOD (deceased) was 
 one of the representative citizens of New Haven 
 county, and his influence was a factor in the devel- 
 opment of the town of Orange, especially along re- 
 hgious and educational lines. He wias born June 
 27, 1824, in Huntington, Conn., son of Luther and 
 Lydia (Felton) Wood. His father, born Feb. 3, 
 1778, in Westboro,, Mass., was engaged in business 
 as a tanner in different places in Connecticut dur- 
 ing his life. He finally removed to New York 
 City, but returned to Connecticut, and died at 
 Huntington, aged seventy-eight. His grandfather, 
 William Wood, was a soldier in the war of the 
 Revolution, taking part in the battles of Lexington 
 and Bunker Hill. His mother, Lydia Felton, born 
 Oct. 4, 1783, in Alarlboro, Mass., lived to the age 
 of eighty-seven years. She was a member of one 
 of the oldest families of Massachusetts. One of her 
 ancestors. Rev. Samuel Skelton, was the first min- 
 ister at Salem, Mass. His daugthter married Na- 
 thaniel Felton, who was the first of his family to 
 come to America, settling at Salem in 1633. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was the youngest of 
 a family of three children, all now deceased. His 
 early boyhood was spent in Huntington and at the 
 age of thirteen he went to New Haven, where he 
 
^^^ ^^^S^^.^^^'O 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 learned the drug business of L. K. Dow, a prominent 
 druggist. He was always a person of strong fam- 
 ily affections, and in those early days, after clos- 
 ing store, late Saturday night, would frequently 
 walk sixteen miles to his home in Huntington, that 
 he might spend Sunday with his parents, return- 
 ing in time to open the store again on Monday 
 morning. In 1845 he opened the drug store at the 
 corner of Church and George streets, which he car- 
 ried on until his death, Aug. 28, 1885, purchas- 
 ing the old building there a few years after start- 
 ing in business. In 1879 he built the brick build- 
 ing on the same site, where the business is still 
 being carried on by his two youngest sons. At the 
 time of his death Mr. Wood was one of the oldest 
 and best-known business men of New Haven. He 
 resided there during the earlier part of his life, 
 first on George street, then on Hill street, remov- 
 ing from this latter place into a new house he built 
 on Broad street. At that time there was a stream 
 of water by the side of the place where Commerce 
 street now is. 
 
 Mr. Wood married April i, 1846, Rachel 
 Hodges, who was bom Sept. 29, 1825, in New 
 Haven, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Prior) 
 Hodges, both natives of Somersetshire, England. 
 They came to America in 1818, on a sailing vessel, 
 the voyage, which was a very stormy one, lasting 
 six weeks. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wood were leaders in the work 
 of organizing St. Thomas Church, New Haven, 
 some of the early meetings for that purpose being 
 held in their George street home. Their daughter, 
 Ida M., wasi the first child baptized in the new 
 stone church on Elm street. Mr. Wooid was all 
 his life an earnest worker in the church, was the 
 first treasurer, and held the office of vestryman as 
 long as he lived. H5e was also at one time vestry- 
 man of Christ Church, West Haven, as well as 
 superintendent of the Sunday-sdhool. At the pres- 
 ent time Mrs. Wood is the only original member of 
 St. Thomas Church now living. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Wood were original members of Trinity Chhrch, 
 the Latter having been baptized, confirmed and mar- 
 ried there. 
 
 In March, 1858, they settled in West Haven, 
 in the home which Mr. Wood built, on First avenue, 
 and which became his home for the remainder of 
 his life, and is still that of his widow. West Haven 
 was then but a small country place of old-time 
 houses, few streets, and but one small public school 
 house, but Mr. Wood lived to see many changes, 
 both there and in New Haven. Wood street was 
 opened by and) named after Mr. Wood. As a resi- 
 dent of West Haven he took an active and keen 
 interest in local politics, served two terms in the 
 State Legislature, and introduced the bill for the 
 horse railroad through West Haven to Savin Rock. 
 He was also' clerk of the school board for many 
 years, and at times served as grand juror. His 
 sound judgment and high moral c'haracter were 
 
 6 
 
 recognized by his associates, and throughout the 
 community he was held in the highest esteem. 
 
 Of the eight children boni to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Wood, only four lived to maturity : ( i ) Luther 
 H., the eldest son, a graduate of the Sheffield Sci- 
 entific School, of Yale College, and the Yale* Med- 
 ical School, was for a number of years a practic- 
 ing physician, first in Torrington, Conn., and then 
 in Denver, Colo., where he died Sept. 5, 1899. He 
 left one son, Harry C, a journalist of Castle Rock, 
 Colo. (2) Ida M. is the wife of Edwin A. Hill, 
 of Washington, D. C. (3) A. Felton is residing 
 in West Haven. (4) Jiames P- is a resident of 
 New Haven. 
 
 As a Freemason Alonzo F. Wood was well 
 known to the older members of Hiram Lodge, New 
 Haven. He belonged to Franklin Chapter, No. 
 2, and Harmony Council, No. 8. As a man of af- 
 fairs in the borough of West Haven and town of 
 Orange, and its representative in the General As- 
 sembly, his inl^uence was felt for many years in 
 the local councils of the Republican party, of which 
 he was a stanch adherent ; and as a business man 
 he became well known to the older generations of 
 citizens, during the forty years of his business life 
 at the corner of Church and George streets, New 
 Haven. He was a member of the American Pharma- 
 ceutical Association, also one of the founders of 
 the Connecticut Pharmaceutical Association. He 
 died greatly lamented and universally. respected, 
 
 LEWIS MIX, for a number of j'cars a success- 
 ful merchant tailor of New Haven, where fie is- 
 now living retired, was born Oct. 2, 1821, in that- 
 city, where the family has long been established.- 
 
 Tradition says that the Mix farrjily came to this 
 country from London, England. Thomas Mix. 
 (Meekes), New Haven, 1643, was one of the early 
 settlers and first grantees of the town. In 1649 h^ 
 married Rebecca, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel 
 Turner. Thomas Mix died in 1691, leaving a good 
 estate. The prominence in New Haven, about one 
 hundred years after the settlement^ of the descend- 
 ants of Thomas Mix is shown by the Wadsworth 
 map, 1748. Three of the principal corners on the 
 public square, the present "Green," were occupied 
 by families of the name. Samuel Mix, schoolmas- 
 ter, lived and kept the school on the southwest 
 corner of College and Elm streets, where the Battell 
 Chapel now stands. Directly opposite, on the north- 
 west corner, where the East Divinity School is 
 built, Jonathan Mix kept the inn, and Timothy 
 Mix, the physician, lived on or near the northeast 
 corner of the "Green," now the corner of Church 
 and Elm streets. Nathaniel Mix, farmer, lived on 
 the same square with President Clap, of the college. 
 Caleb and T. Mix, both farmers, lived in the rear of 
 the college. An earlier map, by Joseph Brown, in 
 1724, shows the residence also of John Mix, on 
 the northeast corner of College and Elm streets. 
 Before the year 1800 three of the name of Mix had 
 
82 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 graduated from Yale College: Samuel, in 1720; 
 iilisha, in 1724; and Timotny. In 1736 a Joseph 
 Mix was a member of the General Assembly, or 
 deputy, from New Haven, with Jonathan Ailing. 
 In 17^4, and later, Samuel Mix was prominent as 
 a mem'ber of various committees appointed by the 
 Assembly. 
 
 Capt. Nathaniel Turner, referred to in the fore- 
 going as the father of Mrs. Rebecca Mix, came in 
 the Meet with Winthrop, 1630; was constable in 
 Boston, 1632; representative at the first court, 
 1634-36. On the formation of the civil government 
 in New Haven he was elected one of the first four 
 magistrates, 1639; in 1640 he was chosen chief mili- 
 tary agent for New Haven in the purchase of Dela- 
 ware lands ; in 1643 was chosen deputy to the Court 
 of Combination, or Congress of the New England 
 Colonies ; in 1646 sailed for London in the "Phan- 
 tom Ship," and was never afterward heard of. 
 
 Joseph Mix, the grandfather of the gentle- 
 man whose name introduces this sketch, was born 
 in New Haven, son of Lieut. Joseph, who served 
 in the Indian war, and died in 1757, at the age of 
 seventy-two. Joseph Mix passed all his life in New 
 Haven, and carried on the baker business in Chapel 
 street, near Orange. He died July 9, 181 1, at the 
 age of seventy-one. To him and his wife. Patience 
 Sperry, of Woodbridge, were born nine children, 
 all of whom are now deceased. 
 
 Eli i\Iix, father of Lewis, was born April 11, 
 1784, in New Haven, where throughout his active 
 life he engaged in the wholesale grocery business, 
 conducting one of the largest establishments of the 
 kind in the city. He was prominent in various 
 connections. He died Nov. 29, 1848, at the age of 
 sixty-four, a member of the North Church. He 
 married Grace Peck, who was born Dec. 2, 1786, 
 in New Haven, daughter of Henry Peck, and died 
 Jan. 16, 1865. Ten children were born to this 
 union, two of whom survive : Lewis, whose name 
 opens these lines ; and Virginia, who married Will- 
 iam Pettit and resides in Redlands, California. 
 
 (I) Henry Peck, from whom Mrs. Eli Mix 
 traced her descent, was among the first settlers of 
 New Haven in the spring of 1638. He is sup- 
 posed to have come to this country in the company 
 of Gov. Eaton, with Rev. John Davenport and 
 others, in the ship "Hector," in 1637. Mr. Peck 
 signed the compact of the settlers, made June 4, 
 1639, and took an active interest in the manage- 
 ment of the affairs of the settlement. 
 
 (II) Joseph Peck, son of Henry the settler, 
 baptized Sept. 5, 1647, married Nov. 28, 1672, 
 Sarah, daughter of Roger Ailing, and lived and 
 died in New Haven, residing upon the homestead. 
 
 (III) James Peck, son of Joseph, born Feb. 17, 
 1679-80, married (second) July 10, 1729, Hannah 
 Leek, and settled in New Haven, where he died 
 in 1760. 
 
 (R') Stephen Peck, son of James, born June 
 
 5, 1730, married (first) Esther Munson and (sec- 
 ond) Lydia Mills. J\Ir. Peck settled upon the 
 George Street estate (homestead). 
 
 (V) Henry Peck, son of Stephen, born Aug. 
 20, 1755, was a block maker in New Haven. He 
 married Hannah Lewis, and they had a large fam- 
 ily. They lived on the old George Street estate, 
 iVIr. Peck building the house subsequently occupied 
 by Lewis Mix. 
 
 Lewis Mix, the subject proper of this article, 
 has passed all his life in the city of his birth. He 
 received his education in the common schools and 
 the Lancasterian School, and then learned mer- 
 chant tailoring, in which line he started in business 
 for himself in 1842. By thrift and industry he 
 won a large patronage, and he continued the busi- 
 ness profitably until 1880, in which year he sold 
 out. Subsequently he was health inspector until 
 1897, being one of the first appointees to that of- 
 fice in the city. Since the close of that service ;\Ir. 
 Mix has lived retired, occupying a comfortable 
 home at No. 83 Mansfield street. 
 
 In 1848 Mr. Mix married Miss Mary E. Lee, 
 of New Haven, a daughter of Edwin Lee, and a 
 granddaughter of John Lee, who was born in 
 Lyme, Conn., where he spent his life, engaged in 
 farming. Edwin Lee was born July 25, 1802, in 
 Lyme, Conn., and in 1824 settled in New Plaven, 
 where he engaged in carriage building the remain- 
 der of his active life, dying in 1885. He was the 
 first to engage in the manufacture of carriage 
 "bodies" as a separate business. Mr. Lee married 
 Abigail Ames, one of the six children of Uri and 
 Mehitabel (Mix) Ames, the former of whom was 
 a shoemaker in New Haven. Mrs. Ames died at 
 the age of sixty-four years. Two children were 
 born to Edwin and Abigail (Ames) Lee: Mary 
 E., Mrs. Mix; and Charles E., who is in Mexico. 
 Mrs. Lee passed away at the age of eighty-seven 
 years. She was a consistent member of the Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 Seven children have been born to Mr. and Airs. 
 Alix, six now living, viz. : ( i ) Edward Eli is book- 
 keeper in the National New Haven Bank, with 
 which he has been connected for many years. He 
 married Ida Andrews, who died in 1898, leaving 
 two children, Edna and Harold. His present wife 
 was Laura Baldwin. (2) Willis Lee, who is en- 
 .gaged in the drug business in New Haven, married 
 Harriet Bradley, and has one daughter, Claribel, 
 who married Albert L. Whitcomb. (3) Nellie is 
 a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y. (4) Lewis B. is a 
 telephone manager in Stamford, Conn. He mar- 
 ried Agnes Brown, and they have four children, 
 Dorothy, Bradford, Ames and Carl. (5) Jessie 
 Ames lives at home. (6) Virginia P. also lives 
 at home. Mr. Mix's religious affiliation is with the 
 North Church. In political sentiment he is a Re- 
 publican. He was formerly a memlber of the jNIu- 
 tual Aid Association. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 B5 
 
 CHARLES DICKINSON (deceased). For 
 fifty years the Dickinsons, the late Charles and 
 his son, Major Arthur M. Dickinson, of Water- 
 bury, have been prominenjtly identified with the 
 manufacturing interests of that city and town. The 
 Dickinson family was prominent during and after 
 the Revolutionary war at Saybrook Point, Conn., 
 and at Saybrook the late Charles Dickinson was 
 born Sept. 7, 1826, and there passed his boyhood. 
 
 Charles Dickinson first engaged in business in 
 Williamsburg, Mass., and for a period was also in 
 New York City. He came to Waterbury in 185 1, 
 where he was made secretary of the Waterbury 
 Jewelry Company. Not long' thereafter, in 1856, 
 he was given a responsible position in the office of 
 Benedict & Burnham, and had charge of the busi- 
 ness of the large brass concern on the road. In 
 January, 1866, he became the secretary of the com- 
 pany, and on the death of the president, Charles 
 Benedict, Oct. 30, 1881, he was chosen treasurer. 
 The Waterbury Watch Company was established 
 in March, 1880, and Mr. Dickinson was rrJade its 
 secretary with Mr. Benedict as president. On Mr. 
 Benedict's death Mr. Dickinson was advanced to 
 the presidency of that concern, whose phenomenal 
 prosperity is in no small measure due to his execu- 
 tive ability. Gordon W. Burnham had succeeded 
 Mr. Benedict as president of Benedict & Burnham, 
 and he died March 18, 1885. Mr. Dickinson was 
 at once chosen as the best man to succeed him in 
 the position of such great responsibility — to keep 
 up the business which had been advanced to such 
 a high standard by men whose names are immortal 
 in the brass industry of the world. Nothing can 
 better attest the business capacity of Mr. Dickin- 
 son. The continued prosperity of both concerns 
 amply demonstrated the wisdom of the choice made 
 by them, and their prosperity has in a large meas- 
 ure meant that of the whole town, hence the deep 
 interest of Waterbury in Mr. Dickinson's career. 
 In further evidence of his great capacity for busi- 
 ness, he was foremost the year prior to his death in 
 advancing the project of the Meriden- Waterbury 
 railroad, and was made president of the company 
 on its incorporation. Those who saw him in those 
 committee meetings, while the stock was being 
 raised for what was considered one of the greatest 
 public blessings ever vouchsafed Waterbury, will 
 never forget' how strong was his public spirited- 
 ness. In a social way, Mr. Dickinson was also a 
 man of mark, and occupied the position of second 
 vice president of the Waterbury Club.' He was a 
 member of the board of aldermen several years, 
 and at one time served as police commissioner. 
 He entered but little into politics. 
 
 Mr. Dickinson was married to Sarah J. Lynde, 
 and to them were born Nettie L. (Mrs. E. L. Fris- 
 bie, Jr.), Arthur M., Edith M. (who died Aug. -^o, 
 1863), and Amelia B. Charles Dickinson died 
 suddenly at Fortress Monroe, Va., April 15, i 
 
 and on the following day the Waterbury American 
 editorially thus referred to his death and life : 
 
 It is difficult in the first suddenness of such a shock 
 to soberly estimate how great is the loss of so forceful a 
 personality. For a generation Charles Dickinson has been 
 identified with the great success of the largest manufactur- 
 ing enterprise in 'Waterbury. Found and proved by Mr. 
 Benedict while he controlled the policy of the Benedict & 
 Burnham Company, to be a capable and faithful lieutenant 
 in wise direction and in executive management, it was but 
 natural that he should succeed Mr. Benedict in its control, 
 and upon Mr. Burnham' s death, should become the nom- 
 inal as well as the real president. Indefatigable as a work- 
 er, loyal through and through, alert and watchful, he 
 brought to the managem.;nt of its large interests qualities 
 ■which justified in the success he achieved the great trust 
 imposed on him. The same qualities made him a conspicu- 
 ous leader in the struggle to secure for 'Waterbury the 
 Meriden railroad. And it was universally recognized as 
 only fitting that he should be chosen president when the 
 last dollar of the stock had been pledged, and the enter- 
 prise had become an established fact. 
 
 In social life Mr. Dickinson, by his very positiveness, 
 drew to himself many warm and strong friends. His 
 genial qualities, and his love of life and of all that life has 
 to offer, made him one whose comradeship was welcome, 
 and whose loss will be felt in no conventional sense. The 
 extent of that loss in depriving the family circle of a de- 
 voted father so closely following that of the wife and 
 mother, appeals to the sincere sympathy of the community. 
 
 Major Arthur M. Dickinson, son of the late 
 Charles Dickinson, was born Dec. 23, 1859, in Wat- 
 erbury, and received his education in the public 
 schools of the city, at the Cheshire Academy, and 
 at Yale College. After his school days were over, 
 he, in 1879, became employed in the office of the 
 Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Co. In July, 
 1890, he was elected secretary of the corporation. 
 He entered with zeal into the business of that con- 
 cern, and has served it with great fidelity and ef- 
 ficiency. He had a taste for military affairs, and 
 in July, 1889, he was appointed adjutant, with rank 
 of captain, on the staff of Col. J. B. Doherty, of 
 the Second Regiment Connecticut National Guard, 
 and in 1893 was promoted to be major of the regi- 
 ment. ) , :; lI' / : ! 
 
 ALFRED ARLINGTON HOWARTH, a re- 
 spected and prosperous citizen of North Haven, is 
 one of the veterans of the Civil war, and has good 
 cause to remember that conflict, having gone 
 through the horrors of Andersonville and Libby 
 prisons, and he still bears the marks of war on his 
 , person. 
 
 Mr. Howarth traces his ancestry to England, 
 his first American ancestor, Thomas Howarth, com- 
 ing hither from that country, bringing with him 
 his two-year old son, the latter of whom became the 
 father of our subject. Thomas Howarth located 
 in New Haven, which beautiful city was then in 
 its youth, and there engaged in his trade of shoe- 
 making; later he opened a store dealing in boots 
 and shoes. His death occurred in New Haven 
 when he was about seventy years old. His chil- 
 
84 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 dren were: Aifred; John, who estabhshed the 
 shoe business in New Haven now carried on by 
 his sons, under the name of Howarth Bros., on 
 Chapel street. Thomas, who became the father of 
 James A. Howarth, the popular and efficient post- 
 master of New Haven; William; and James. 
 
 Alfred Howarth was born in England, came to 
 America with his parents, and spent his boyhood 
 days in New Haven, where he received his school- 
 ing. He early entered the shop of his father, suc- 
 ceeding him later in business. In 1852 he came to 
 the town of North Haven, where he purchased the 
 farm, a part of which his son now occupies, living 
 on that place, but still conducting the business in 
 New Haven. On account of poor health he finally 
 disposed of the latter, and gave his entire time to 
 farming interests, also becoming interested in fruit 
 growing, in which he was quite successful. 3.1r. 
 Howarth married Elizabeth Bartlett, who was born 
 in 1810 in New Haven, daughter of Nathan 'and 
 Sarah (Judd) Bartlett, and died in 1891. Mr. Ho- 
 warth died six years previously. They had the 
 following children : Jeremiah, who married Mary 
 Peabody, and lives in Long Meadow, Mass. ; 
 Thomas, who resides with his brother ; William, 
 who married Louise Bigelow ; Susannah, wife of 
 John Middlebrooks, of New Haven ; Alfred A. ; 
 Mary, who (first) married George Scranton, and 
 subsequently wedded William King, and lives in 
 New York ; and Frank, who married Anna Leeds. 
 
 Alfred A. Howarth was born in New Haven 
 Sept. 6, 1839, and attended the district schools 
 and the North Haven academy, leaving school to 
 learn the trade of carriage body making, in New 
 Haven. Mr. Howarth continued at this excellent 
 trade for four and a half years, but when the Civil 
 war broke out he was among the first to respond to 
 the call of his country. In August, 1861, he en- 
 listed for service in Co. F, 6th Conn. V. I., under 
 Capt. Louis C. Allen and Col. Chatfield, and saw 
 hard and exhausting service, taking part in the 
 battles of Hilton Head, Pocotaligo, James Island, 
 Secessionville, Jacksonville, Morris Island, Fort 
 Wagner, Bermuda Hundred, Chester Station and 
 Drury's Bluff. At the latter place he was taken 
 prisoner, and was also badly wounded ip the right 
 hand. This injury has been a source of trouble ever 
 since. The bayonet was aimed at his heart, and 
 was intercepted by his hand. The double mis- 
 fortune happened May 16, 1864, and Mr. Howarth 
 was taken to Libby prison, where he was kept ten 
 days before being sent to the terrible pen at Ander- 
 sonville. During his four months of incarceration 
 at the latter place he could scarcely have been more 
 wretched, his experiences being so frightful that 
 his weight was reduced from 162 pounds when 
 captured, to 97 pounds when paroled, Dec. 16, 1864. 
 Many times while at Andersonville he was required 
 to assist in carrying out dead comrades, and when 
 he and others were discovered in an attempt to 
 tunnel a way to freedom, starving was imposed to 
 
 dampen the spirits of the poor victims. From An- 
 dersonville Mr. Howarth was sent, in September, 
 to the prison at Florence, N. C.^ from which place 
 he was paroled. He reached his home in North 
 Haven soon afterward, sadly wrecked in health, 
 and suffering from his dangerous wound. A long 
 time elapsed befbre he could use his hand at all, 
 but he finally returned to his trade, and worked for 
 several years in New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Howarth spent some time in work in 
 Orange and also at Millburn, N. J., but rheumatism 
 settling in his crippled hand prevented a secure 
 grasp of the necessary tools of his trade, and he at 
 last found it necessary to give it up. Returning to 
 North Haven, he assisted his father on the farm 
 until the latter's death, at which time he bought out 
 the other heirs and is now successfully operating 
 the farm, growing fine fruit and early vegetables. 
 
 Mr. Howarth was married Jan. 17, 1869, to 
 Ellen Bradley, who was born Jan. 8, 1841, a native 
 of New Haven, daughter of Asa and Louisa Wales 
 (Stetson) Bradley; the former was foi many years 
 clerk of Yale College. Children as follows have 
 come to this union : Irene, bom in 1870, is now 
 the wife of Albert S. Leek, of Hamden ; Gertrude, 
 born in 1872, is a trained nurse in Providence, R. 
 I. ; Frederick, born in 1874, married Ellen Fitz- 
 morris, and resides in New Haven ; Mabel and 
 Raymond, twins, were born in 1878. The family 
 connection is with the Congregational Church, 
 where they are highly esteerned. In politics Mr. 
 Howarth is a Republican, and he is always inter- 
 ested in anything promising success to the party 
 he believes possesses the right principles. 
 
 HORACE P. SHARES (deceased) and his 
 father, the late Daniel W. Shares, were both na- 
 tives of the town of Hamden and both prominent in 
 that community, the former also in the business cir- 
 cles of New Haven. He was for forty years iden- 
 tified with that city as a prominent brick manufac- 
 turer and there his son, Fred I., is now actively 
 engaged in 'business. The Shares family, with its 
 allied families through m-arriage, is of sturdy an- 
 cestry of the Colonial period of New England. 
 
 Born May 8, 1836, in Hamden, Conn., near 
 Whitneyville, Horace P. Shares was the son of 
 Daniel W. and Janette (Bassett) Shares. The 
 father was an inventor of considerable note, and 
 his inventions, as labor-saving devices, took well 
 and have given him fame. He invented and had 
 patented horse hoeing and planting machines, which 
 he manufactured, and which now are used with sat- 
 isfactory results ; also manufactured other farm- 
 ing implements, among them a colter harrow, which 
 took the highest premium in successive State fairs. 
 
 Horace P. Shares received such educational ben- 
 efits as the neighborhood schools of his youth af- 
 forded — no great advantages, for his attendance 
 was limited to a few months in the winter season, 
 and was not then by any means regular. After a 
 
^:/-f3e.jrs £ Ca. 
 
 25^-^^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 85 
 
 little traveling experience he married and settled in 
 the Quinnipiac Valley, and there engaged in a bus- 
 iness vvhich had long been carried on in that region 
 and with which he was destined to become promi- 
 nently and successfully identified. In fact, there 
 was not another man living whose progressiveness 
 had .done as much for an industry as Horace P. 
 Shares accomplished for brick manufacturing in 
 New Haven .and the vicinity. 
 
 In the middle 'fifties Mr. Shares for a year or 
 more tried farming in North Haven and then be- 
 came interested in the manufacture of brick along 
 with his father-in-law, Alfred Ives. In about 1859 
 he assumed charge of the yards of the Warner, 
 Mansfield & Stiles Brick Co., of North Haven Cen- 
 ter, and he held that position until 1863. In the 
 meantime he had been prospecting in the Quinnipiac" 
 Valley for a suitable quality of brick clay, which 
 he found, and whidh had not been previously known. 
 In 1863 he became established there in a business 
 in this line of his own, and later on he purchased 
 of his former employers one of their yards, operat- 
 ing both until 1887, with marked success and in- 
 telligence. In the ownership of the newly purchased 
 yard he had a partner. Loyal Ives. The manufac- 
 ture of brick in the valley referred to has been an 
 important industry for generations and has brought 
 much money into the locality, especially through 
 the century just closed. The clay in this locality is 
 of a superior quality and is found in almost inex- 
 haustible quantities. In the develo]>ment of this 
 industry no name has been more con.sipicuous than 
 that of Shares. When Horace P. Shares began the 
 business, nearly fifty years ago, one million brick 
 per year was considered a good output. Some two 
 years ago at his two yards were made some nine or 
 more million brick, of better quality and superior 
 in every way. Recently the yearly product, by the 
 ■employment of modern brickmaking machinery, and 
 the use of bituminous coal instead of wood, has 
 reached enormous figures, until now there are made 
 upward of 30,000,000 brick annually. At one time 
 •Col. Warner, who was the principal brick manufac- 
 turer of his day in that vicinity, said to Horace P. 
 Shares when the latter asked how many brick he 
 thought would be made that season in that lo- 
 cality, "I wouldn't be surprised if 1,000,000 were 
 made." 
 
 Mr. Shares was the first of the numerous brick 
 -manufacturers of the valley to introduce improve- 
 ments. In traveling through the country and by 
 reading and constant observation he became ac- 
 quainted with modern improvements and adopted 
 them. In 1875 ^"^ 1876 he was the first to use 
 the Philadelphia repress system, by which the best 
 of the pressed' brick of that period were made, and 
 he was the first manufacturer, in' 1880, to make 
 use of the pallet system for drying brick, establish- 
 ing this system at his yards at considerable expense. 
 This was so great a success that all the other man- 
 ufacturers int the locality followed his example. In 
 
 1885 he introduced the pug-mill and sander, using 
 them in his yards ; until that time they were un- 
 known in this locality, but they proved to be great 
 labor-saving machines and have since been in al- 
 most universal use. 
 
 Mr. Shares succeeded W. A. Ives as president 
 of the W. A. Ives Manufacturing Co., of Hamden, 
 and later was one of the organizers of the Hamden 
 Manufacturing Co., becoming its first president and 
 remaining as such 'Until his health necessitated his 
 absence from New England during the greater part 
 of the year, when he resigned, at the same time sev- 
 ering his connection with other concerns with which 
 he was identified. His enlterprise and public spirit 
 were in evidence Wherever he was located. He 
 traveled quite extensively in this country and in 
 Mexico and he showed great interest in the devel- 
 opment of Rock Ledge, Fla., where he spent his win- 
 ters from 1884. It was he who built up the new 
 "Rock Ledge Hotel" at that place, which under his 
 management has been successfully conducted ever 
 since, and many Connecticut people have been 
 guests there from time tO' time. His progressiveness 
 was shown in many other directions at Rock Ledge. 
 During the warmi weather he returned to New 
 England, spending his summers at Short Beach, 
 where he had a very comfortable cottage. His 
 death oi_curred at Pasadena, Cal., Jan. 23, 1902. 
 
 Reading between the lines one can judge the 
 worth of such a man as Mr. Shares to a community. 
 Successful beyond the ordinary he was entirely self- 
 made and deserved the prominent place he occu- 
 pied among the citizens of New Haven county. As 
 a citizen he took part in local affairs and was deeply 
 concerned and interested in the welfare of the com- 
 munity in which he so long lived. For many years 
 he was an efficient church and Sabbath-school 
 worker, was superintendent of the North Haven 
 Sabbath-school and also of the Humphrey street 
 school, in New Haven, and gave cheerfully and lib- 
 erally to deserving charities, having been an all- 
 round useful man, always modest and devoid of 
 show. 
 
 On Oct. 9, 1S54, Mr. Shares was united in mar- 
 riage with Charlotte Ives, daughter of Alfred Ives, 
 a resident of North Haven. The Ives family, too, 
 is one of New Haven's oldest and most substantial, 
 and the name is still honorably perp>etuated in the 
 county. This union of Mr. and Mrs. Shares was 
 blessed with children as follows : Ella J., Mrs. Rob- 
 ert Barnes, of North Haven, has four children, two 
 sons and two daughters. Fred I. is a brick manu- 
 facturer of Hamden, conducting the business estab- 
 lished by his father. John O. resides at Highwood, 
 in the town of Hamden, from^ which town he has 
 been representative ; he is a manufacturer, having 
 interests in New Haven and Cheshire, .Conn. ; he 
 married the only daughter of Henry W. Munson, 
 of Highwood, and has one son. Horace R. gradu- 
 ated from Sheffield Scientific School, Yale Univer- 
 sity, class of 1897. Paul is with Horace R. at Rock 
 
86 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Ledge, Fla., in the hotel 'business. Sylvia, Mrs. 
 Allen Treadway, of Stockbridge, Mass., has two 
 sons. 
 
 HARVEY S. MUNSON, president of The 
 Munsoni & Co., of New Haven, is one of that city's 
 self-made men — one whose success in life can be 
 directly attributed to his energy, and ability to suc- 
 cessfully grapple with business situations where 
 judgment and foresight are essential. His connec- 
 tion with the folding paper box industry in all its 
 branches dates back to a time when it was in its 
 infancy — in fact he and his older brother, Edward 
 B., were the pioneer manufacturers in that line in 
 New Haven, and have been so closely identified 
 with that branch of industry that they are prob- 
 ably the best known manufacturers of that product 
 in America. The city of New Haven is indebted 
 to themi and their untiring efforts for one of its 
 largest employers of labor, as well as the reputa- 
 tion of being one of the very foremost cities in 
 America in that particular line of manufacturing. 
 No longer ago than 1875 their industry was strug- 
 gling along. The Munson brothers, then but little 
 more than boys, not only handicapped by youth, 
 but by lack of capital as well, were laying the foun- 
 dation of a structure, the building of which marked 
 their lives and brought deserved success.. These 
 brothers are descendants of the old Munson fann- 
 ily, which is one whose history reaches back to the 
 early colonial period of Connecticut. 
 
 The progenitor of the family in America was 
 Thomas Munson, who was born about 1612, and 
 was first known as a resident of Hartford, where 
 he performed military service in the Pequot war 
 in 1637. He came early to the New Haven colony, 
 where he is spoken o-f in history as being a good 
 and useful citizen, and where he died in 1685. From 
 this Thomas Munson, Harvey S. Munson's line of 
 descent is through Samuel, Theophilus, Daniel, 
 Kirk, Joseph, Kirk, Charles and Edward Beach 
 Munson, and includes a line of ancestors, all of 
 whom at some time or another lived in New Ha- 
 ven, and were prominent in their lines of business, 
 whether as manufacturers of that period, farmers 
 or professional men. 
 
 The paternal grandfather of our subject was 
 Charles Munson, who was born Feb. 14, 1792, in 
 New Haven. He was married April 11, 1815, to 
 ]Mabel, born Aug. 2. 1792, a daughter of Benajah 
 Beach. She died Feb. 16, 1878, and he died June 
 9, 1879. Mr. Munson resided in New Haven, and 
 was for a period engaged in the shoe business in 
 Newbern, N. C. He also resided in the town of 
 Woodbridge, Conn., where he was chosen highway 
 surveyor in 1832, 1843 and 1856, and grand juror 
 in- 1835 and 1836. During the war of 1812 ]\Ir. 
 Munson served in the militia under Capt. Joseph A. 
 Bishop. Both he and his wife are members of the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 Edward Beach Munson, son of Charles, and 
 the father of the ^lunson brothers, Edward B. and 
 
 Harvey S., of New Haven, was bom Oct. 30, 181 7. 
 He became an elector of Woodbridge in 1840. He 
 early became associated in -business as a builder, in 
 partnership with his brothers-in-law, Willis Smith 
 and N. D. Sperry, a business connection that was 
 continued some three years. For years he was 
 largely connected with the building of railroads. 
 He superintended the masonry work and the pur- 
 chase of materials for the Providence & Stonington 
 railroad, and for the New Haven, New London & 
 Stonington railroad, 1857-59. President Giles in a 
 letter on this work said of him: "He not only 
 equalled our expectations, :but far exceeded them 
 in ability, energy and mechanical skill." Later Mr. 
 Munson built the Derby railroad. This contract he 
 completed for the bondsmen, after the original con- 
 tractor had defaulted in his contract. Under the 
 same conditions Mr. Munson constructed one of 
 the main sewers of New Haven in an entirely sat- 
 isfactory and profitable manner. Mr. Munson be- 
 came superintendent of the Fair Haven & West- 
 ville Horse railway. His place of residence was at 
 New Haven, and in i860 Jhe served in the common 
 council. On the breaking out of the Civil war he 
 raised Company K, loth Conn. V. L, and was 
 chosen its captain, his commission dating from 
 Sept. 25, 1861. He was mustered into the United 
 States service Oct. 3, 1861, remaining therein until 
 the 14th of the following December, when, owing 
 to physical disability, he tendered his resignation. 
 Capt. Munson was a man of imposing appearance. 
 He commanded the respect and esteem of his fel- 
 low citizens, and all with whom he came in con- 
 tact, and in his death, which occurred Aug. 15,. 
 1879, the city and county lost one of its valued 
 citizens. 
 
 On June 3, 1841, j\Ir. Munson was married 
 to Amelia C. Sperry, of Woodbridge, born June 
 13, 1822, daughter of Wyllis and Catherine (Rams- 
 dell) Sperry. The children born of this marriage 
 were as follows: (i) Albert Leroy, born in 1842, 
 resides in New York. He was an officer in the 
 5th N. Y. Heavy Artillery during the Civil war, 
 and arose to the rank of lieutenant colonel of L'. 
 S. Vol. (2) Henry Theodore, born in 1844, was 
 for a number of years a prominent patent attornev 
 of Washington, D. C, where he married Nellie S. 
 Porter, of that city. He was for some years con- 
 nected as an examiner with the U. S. Patent Office, 
 and later practiced his profession of law in New 
 York, where his death occurred April, 1897, on 
 the day following his wife's death. (3) Mary 
 Gertrude, born in 1846, married, in June, 1867, 
 Richard I-Ienry Greene, a lawyer of New York. 
 
 (4) Kate Amelia, born in 1849, married, in i86g, 
 Louis Hartman Todd, who was connected with 
 the jewelry firm of Tiffany & Co., New York. 
 
 (5) Sarah Augusta, born in 1852, married, in 1882, 
 Albert Candee, a clerk in the New Haven post- 
 office. (6) Edward Benjamin, born June 12, 1854. 
 (7) Harvev Sperry, born starch 3, 1857. (8) 
 Miss Harriet Eliza, born 'in 1859, lives at New 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 87 
 
 Haven. (9) Emma M., born in 1864, died un^ 
 married in 1888. 
 
 Harvey S. Mnnson was born on West street, 
 New Haven, March 3, 1857. He was reared in 
 that city, attended the old Webster school, and 
 later the Hopkins Grammar School. Opportunities 
 for further pursuing his education were offered, 
 but he declined, and left at the age. of fourteen to 
 enter upon his business life. While as a clerk 
 for the dry goods firm of J. N. Adam & Co. an 
 incident arose in the form of an affront, or in- 
 dignity, which resulted in his severing his connec- 
 tion with that firm, and taking up another line of 
 business. About this same time his brother, Ed- 
 ward B., retired from employment as a clerk, and 
 he became a partner of his brother, Harvey S., in 
 the sale of office stationery. This business was 
 carried on about a year, during which time they 
 were on the lookout for something better. Their 
 older brother, Henry T., was then an examiner in 
 the U. S. Patent Office at Washington, and com>- 
 ing beneath his notice was a patent folding paste- 
 board box. The value of this invention and its 
 future possibilitie, as it seemed to him, were made 
 known to his younger brothers, who almost at 
 once began to look into that line, and if possible to 
 get control of the invention. In this way they 
 learned of a manufacturer, J. W. Osborn, of New 
 ark, N. J., who was then producing a folding box, 
 the New England agency for which they secured. 
 This was in the early part of 1874. At once they 
 began to push their new line, and the first order 
 taken was from C. Cowles & Co., of New Haven, 
 for 50,000 boxes. When this order was sent in 
 the manufacturer could not fill it ! The fact that 
 one customer in New Haven could not be supplied 
 showed how very far were these young men from 
 having an adequate supply, when the whole of 
 New England was to be considered. They readily 
 saw the great future for the business, and con- 
 cluded to enter into the industry of manufacturing 
 this article, young as they were — one not yet twen- 
 ty-one, and the other less than eighteeni — and they 
 had implicit confidence in the future of the under- 
 taking. Their means were quite limited, which 
 difficulty was but one of several necessary to over- 
 come before the enterprise was started. It was in 
 1875 when Munson & Co. was first established. 
 The handicap of limited mears had been tempor- 
 arily overcome by financial assistance from the 
 mother, and not only at the beginning, but later 
 on, as it was several years before the business be- 
 came self-supporting. Their final location vvfas in 
 the top floor of a building off of Artisan street. 
 The room (40x50) served as office, factory and all. 
 The first three years was but a struggle, and many 
 times, had those back of the business been less 
 courageous and persistent, it would certainly have 
 been abandoned. It had grown, however, so that 
 in less than two years from its inception larger 
 quarters were necessary, and they occupied the 
 whole top floor of the building, while still later 
 
 they occupied the floor directly underneath. It was 
 practically not until 1878 that the business had 
 begun to show encouraging returns. The time 
 prior had been largely spent in introducing their 
 goods, buying up patents that would perfect 
 or protect their business, all of which had not only 
 exhausted their means, but much more as well. In 
 1879 this firm perfected a die for use in their busi- 
 ness ; the efficiency of this article is attested by its 
 almost universal use throughout the world, without 
 improvements, to the present time. In 1881 it had 
 become necessary again to seek larger quarters, and 
 they purchased the property at the corner of Brad- 
 ley and Williams streets, it being the old plant of 
 the New Haven Organ Co., and the early build- 
 ing thereon was the structure on the corner, being 
 35x90, and five stories high. In 1888 another 
 building was erected, 40x50, and five stories high, 
 as well as a building of the same height which con- 
 nected the two. Long before this their product had 
 taken a front rank, and was being constantly, im- 
 proved by the aid of most careful study of the de- 
 tails of production, as well as the inventive genius 
 of the proprietors, so that it was probably the best 
 known in the country. In 1891 the business was 
 consolidated with others in the formation of The 
 National Folding Box & Paper Co. The property, 
 however, was retained by E. B. and H. S. Munson, 
 and is yet owned by them. In February, 1896, 
 owing to internal dissension, the Munson broth- 
 ers severed their connection with The National 
 Folding Box & Paper Co., and at once made prep^ 
 arations to start up in business. The Munson & 
 Co. was incorporated in 1897, with Harvey S. as 
 president and Edward B. as secretary and treas- 
 urer. An unusual coincidence in their career ap- 
 peared at this time. The only available quarters 
 for their business was in_ the same building on 
 Artisan street, where nearly a quarter of a cen- 
 tury before had been the scene of their modest be- 
 ginning. Conditions had been greatly changed. 
 Instead of inexperienced youths with but little more 
 than their energy as their capital, they were men 
 of experience, familiar with every detail of the 
 business, and favorably known to the trade every- 
 where. Competition was plenty and formidable, 
 but to offset this the field of consumption had been 
 greatly enlarged, the product had come to be used 
 in thousands of different ways, so that the degree 
 of their success was only to be measured by their 
 ability to produce the goods — the character of 
 which was thoroughly suggested by the name of 
 Munson. In March, 1898, they bought their pres- 
 ent quarters on Clinton avenue, which, they have 
 transformed into one of the most modern and best 
 equipped plants of its kind in New England, and 
 certainly the best arranged and most accessible of 
 its kind in New Haven. The success of this firm 
 began with its inception. The peculiar fitness of 
 its proprietors is such as to form a combination of 
 mechanical skill and business acumen from which 
 but little else than success could come; each pos- 
 
88 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sesses to an unusual extent one or the other of those 
 faculties, and at the same time a valuable comibina- 
 tion of both faculties is to be found in either of 
 them. 
 
 Harvey S. Munson's inventive genius has teen 
 a most valuable asset to the concern. He has ob- 
 tained patents on almost a score of his own in- 
 ventions. Edward B. Munson has taken out patents 
 on seven different inventions and he has probably 
 given more of his time and energy to the business 
 end of the concern. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Munson is a member of Woos- 
 ter Lodge, F. & A. M. ; Franklin Chapter; Har- 
 mony Council ; New Haven Commandery, Knights 
 Templar; and of Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine. 
 He was for a number of years a member ot the 
 New Haven Grays, in which organization he arose 
 from the rank of private to that of acting captain, 
 having declined the election to that capacity. At 
 one time he was a mem'ber of the Foot Guards, and 
 served two and one-half years as inspector of rifle 
 practice. Politically he is a supporter of Republican 
 principles, and while taking the interest of a public 
 spirited and enterprising citizen in political matters 
 he is far from being a politician. The ancestral 
 history of Mr. Munson is such as to render him 
 eligible to membership in several of the most ex- 
 clusive colonial societies, among them being the 
 Mayflower Society, but he has never sought to en- 
 ter any of these. His tastes are quite too demo- 
 cratic to wish a social standing based upon any- 
 thing but his own intrinsic worth, and' like a truly 
 progressive, cultured and useful citizen he lives a 
 life woTthy of emulation by future generations inn 
 stead of resting on the laurels of his honored an- 
 cestors. 
 
 On Feb. 1 1, 1886, Harvey S. Munson was mar- 
 ried to Miss Grace Loijise Catlin, of New Haven. 
 One child, :\Iarion Catlin, born Aug. 5, 1887, has 
 blessed this union. In 1894 Mr. Munson completed 
 his elegant home at No. 612 Whitney avenue. Both 
 he and his wife are members of the Church of 
 the Redeemer. 
 
 SYLVESTER SMITH. The ancestor of the 
 branch of the Smith family in Connecticut to which 
 this gentleman belongs was Nicholas Seversmith or 
 Sieversmith, maker of sieves or sifters, who came 
 from Holland and settled in Milford, Conn., where 
 on July 12, 1666, he married Mary Tibbals, daugh- 
 ter of Thomas I'ibbals, a noted man of that town. 
 Horace Day, the antiquarian, of New Haven, has 
 found evidence that when Mary Tibbals married 
 Nicholas Seversmith she made him drop the first 
 part of his name. Seven children were born of 
 this union, of whom Andrew was the direct ancestor 
 of our subject. 
 
 Andrew Smith was born in 1670, settled in 
 Derbv, Conn., was married to Sarah Tomlinson, 
 and died in 1727. He was the father of seven chil- 
 dren, and his third son, Josiah, the great-great- 
 grandfather of our subject, was born June 15, 1703. 
 
 The latter married, Aug. 24, 1727, Esther, daugh- 
 ter of Thomas Oviatt, and had one son, Elijah, 
 bom June 28, 1729. Elijah Smith married, May 
 3, 1748, Ann, daug'hter of Capt. Moses Hawkins, 
 and they had seven children, the eldest of whom, 
 Josiah, born Dec. 12, 1748, was the grandfather of 
 our subject. 
 
 Josiah Smith married Sept. 8, 1773, Esther, 
 daughter of Capt. Isaac Smith, of Derby. Josiah 
 Smith was a large land owner and it was on a part 
 of his farm that the village of Birmingham (now 
 Derby city) was built. His house — a large, finely 
 constructed dwelling — and more than one hundred 
 acres of land, after the death of Josiah became the 
 property of his son, Davis, who was the father of 
 Sylvester Smith, who has often been heard to sav 
 that he was born in the only house there was then 
 in Birmingham, now Derby city. Josiah Smith and 
 his wife, Esther, had a numerous family, of whom 
 Davis was born April 24, 1785. 
 
 On Sept, 2, 1810, Davis Smith married Hannah, 
 daughter of John Coe, of Derby, Conn., who was 
 of English descent. She was born July 18, 1790, 
 and died June i, 1870. Six children were born to 
 Davis Smith and his wife: Matthew, born in 181 1, 
 was successfully engaged in the bakery business in 
 New Haven for many years, Cynthia, born in 1813, 
 died in 1864. Julius, born in 1816, died in 1876. 
 Franklin C, born in 1822, died in 1889. Harriet, 
 born in 1826, died in 1865, thus leaving our subject 
 the sole survivor of the family. 
 
 Sylvester Smith was born July 29, 1820, in 
 Derby. When he was twelve years old his father 
 sold the farm, the family moved away from Derby, 
 and Sylvester went to school in Farmington, mak- 
 ing his home with Rev. Laban C. Cheney, who had 
 married his sister, Cynthia. In 1834 Mr. Smith 
 went to Middletown, where his parents were then 
 living, and attended the school of Daniel H. Chase. 
 Not caring for books, in 1836, when between fif- 
 teen and sixteen, he located in New Haven and en- 
 tered the employ of Isaac Gilbert & Sons, leather 
 manufacturers and dealers, continuing with them 
 until 1857. At this time, in association with How- 
 ard B. Ensign, Mr. Smith engaged in the leather 
 business under the firm name of Smith & Ensign, 
 this connection lasting until 1865, when he entered 
 into partnership with his brother, who was the prin- 
 cipal owner of the New Haven Baking Co., the most 
 prominent concern in its line in the city, Mr, 
 Smith was actively concerned in the New Haven 
 Baking Co., of which he was for many years pres- 
 ident, until 1890, since which time he has been re- 
 tired from the cares of an active career. For fifty- 
 four years he was in active business life and earned 
 the rest he is now enjoying. 
 
 On March 29, 1846, Mr. Smith was married to 
 Charlotte Butler, of New York, who was born in 
 1824 and died Sept. 3, 1852. Two children came to 
 this union: Joline B., born May 19, 1848, who is 
 a well-known artist in New Haven ; and Charlotte 
 born July 7, 1850, who died in April, 1862, On 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 89 
 
 ^ay 8, 1855, Mr. Smith married Mrs. Harriet L. 
 Butler, widow of the brother of his first wife, and 
 two children came to this union: Edward S., 
 born in 1857, who is a physician of Bridgeport ; and 
 Robert S., born in 1863, until recently connected 
 with the baking business in New Haven, in the 
 ■office of the New Haven Baking Co. 
 
 Politically Mr. Smith is a Democrat and many 
 years ago served in the city council, but of late 
 years has refused any office. He is an active mem- 
 ber of the Methodist Church, having been for many 
 years class-leader and trustee. During his business 
 life he was noted) for his strict integrity, and among 
 'business associates his name was ever a synonym for 
 honesty. The family is one of the most respected 
 in New Haven and the family home at No. 9 Col- 
 lege street is known to a very large circle of friends 
 aiid acquaintances as the centpr of so much gra- 
 •ciousness, cheerfulness and generous hospitality that 
 its beautiful influence is felt from the oldest to the 
 youngest, from- the most privileged to the most un- 
 fortunate, of the many who enter its doors. 
 
 JOHN CYRUS KNIGHT, who was for many 
 years a well-known designer and engraver of Meri- 
 den, was born Dec. 2, 1833, i" Andover, Vt. 
 
 Daniel Knight, his grandfather, was a native of 
 Ashburnham, Worcester Co., Mass., where he fol- 
 lowed the trade of shoemaker, and where he mar- 
 ried Esther Fairbanks. Ten children were born 
 •of this union, namely: Daniel, who died in child- 
 hood; Mary, wife of a Mr. Norton; William; 
 Phineas ; Cyrus ; Stedman ; Elbridge ; Daniel ; 
 Esther, who married David Kirk ; and Jane. The 
 father of these served as a soldier of the Revolu- 
 tion in a Massachusetts regiment. After the close 
 of his 'service he removed, with his family, to And- 
 •over, Vt., and there passed the remainder of his 
 life, being occupied during his active years in the 
 -prosecution of his trade. Both he and his wife 
 were members of the Congregational Church, and 
 they died and were buried in Andover. 
 
 Cyrus Knight was born in Ashburnham, Mass., 
 and there grem to manhood. He removed with his 
 'father's family to Andover, Vt., where he gained 
 a knowledge of brick-making, and also engaged in 
 farming. For some years he followed brick-mak- 
 ing in the Hudson river region, famous for the pro- 
 duction of this valuable building material. In 1856 
 "he became a resident of Meriden, and secured em- 
 ployment with Parker & Perkins, in the spoon 
 shop. His busy and useful life came to an end 
 in April, 1863, and his remains were interred in the 
 West cemetery. Previous to the Civil war he had 
 been a Democrat, but later he affiliated with the 
 Republican party. He attended divine worship at 
 the Universalist Church. In Andover, Vt., he mar- 
 ried Anna Tyrrell, daug'hter of John Tyrrell, a sol- 
 dier of the war of 1812. She died July i, 1868, 
 and was buried beside her husband. Six children 
 mourned her as a kind and loving mother. They 
 
 were: Daniel T., now a resident of Great Bar- 
 rington, Mass. ; Anna P., wife of Asa G. Foster, of 
 Meriden ; John C, whose name begins this article ; 
 Hiram E., who married Sarah Fenn, and resides 
 in Meriden ; Thomas A., residing at Santa Clara, 
 Cal. ; and Victoria A., who married Levi Allen, and 
 left a daughter, Anna Victoria. The last named 
 became the wife of Edward Spink, and is the mother 
 of June E. and Estella Spink. 
 
 John C. Knight spent his boyhood days in his 
 native place, where he attended school. When a 
 young man he came to Connecticut, and for some 
 time was employed at Clinton in the manufacture 
 of tin toys. Coming thence to Meriden, he was 
 employed here in the manufacture of tinware. Be- 
 ing of ingenious mind, he drifted naturally into 
 designing and engraving, and was employed in this 
 line of effort by the Meriden Malleable Iron Co. 
 for a long period. Failing health at length com- 
 pelled him to abandon active labor, and he retired 
 to his handsome home on Hubbard avenue, where 
 he was cheered and comforted by a devoted wife 
 until his demise, which occurred Oct. 11, 1898, and 
 his remains were tenderly laid awav in the West 
 cemetery. Mr. Knight was widely known and re- 
 spected for his manly, upright character, and his 
 departure was mourned by many outside of his 
 circle of relatives and intimate friends. Broad- 
 minded and liberal of view, he worshipped at the 
 Universalist Church, and sustained the principles 
 of the Republican party in public affairs. He was 
 not a self-seeker, and never asked any public of- 
 fice in the gift of his contemporaries, preferring 
 the auiet contentment of his own fireside. 
 
 On Dec. 31, 1867, Mr. Knight was married to 
 Miss Julia, daughter of Aaron Higbv, who was 
 born July 15, 1840, in Meriden. Mrs. Knight 
 cared for her aged father in his closing vears, and 
 is known as a highly sympathetic and kind neigh- 
 bor, and widely respected for her manv graces of 
 character. Like her late husband, she is of liberal 
 mind, with charitv for the foibles of her kind, and 
 ever ready to aid those seeking sympathy, or ad- 
 vancement toward a higher life. 
 
 HON. JOHN MANNING HALL, of New 
 Haven, president of the New York, New Haven 
 & Hartford Railroad Co., and former judge of the 
 Superior Court of Connecticut, until recent years 
 has been a resident of Willimantic, the place of 
 his birth, and one that he has long honored. 
 
 President Hall is the great-grandson of Judge 
 George Hall, who came from England when a lad 
 and made his home in Rhode Island, where he 
 became a man of prominence, serving for many 
 years on the Bench. Dixon Hall, the grandfather 
 of President Hall, was a resident of Sterling, 
 Conn., holding there a number of public offices of 
 trust and honor, and otherwise being a useful and 
 substantial citizen of Windham county. 
 
 The late Horace Hall, father of our subject. 
 
90 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was born in the town of Sterling, and in the early 
 history of the village of Willimantic, Conn., came 
 to it as a school teacher. Later he became identi- 
 fied with the manufacturing interests of this sec- 
 tion, for years serving as local manager of the 
 Windham Manufacturing Co., and for a time was 
 an enterprising merchant of Willimantic. He was 
 a man of education, good ability and judgment, and 
 soon these qualities were recognized, and his serv- 
 ices to public positions were sought. He held vari- 
 ous offices of honor and trust, among them for 
 twenty and more years that of trial justice, was se- 
 lectman for a dozen or more years, and a repre- 
 sentative in the State Legislature. He held the 
 esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens, and 
 when he passed from their midst his death was 
 keenly felt. He married Elizabeth, daughter of 
 John Manning, of Albany, N. Y., and a descendant 
 in direct line from John Alden, and to this mar- 
 riage were born three children, of whom the sub- 
 ject of this sketch is the youngest. 
 
 John Manning Hall was born Oct. i6, 1841, 
 in Willimantic, Conn. He laid the foundation of 
 his education in the schools of his native village 
 and in the somewhat famous school of j\Ir. Fitch, 
 in South Windham, Conn., and then for several 
 years he was a clerk in his father's store. Subse- 
 quently, having accjuired a taste for the law, and 
 deciding upon the adoption of that profession, he 
 furthered his studies in Williston Seminary, East 
 Hampton, Mass., where by hard study he com- 
 pleted a three-years course in two, and was grad- 
 uated in 1862, standing among the first in his class. 
 In the fall following he entered Yale College, from 
 which he was graduated in the class of 1866. While 
 at Yale he won distinction as a writer and speaker, 
 and took a number of honors in composition and 
 debate. He won the Townsend prize, and com- 
 peted for the De Forest medal ; he was also presi- 
 dent of the Linonia Society. In 1868 he was grad- 
 uated from Columbia Law School, New York City, 
 after which he continued his law studies in the 
 office of Robert Bonner, and was admitted to the 
 New York City Bar soon after. He began the 
 practice of law in Willimantic, and rapidly rose to 
 prominence in the profession, and grew into a large 
 practice not only in Windham, but in the adjacent 
 counties. He was generally represented in all of 
 the important cases in this section, one of which 
 was that of the Will's Trust Company, which in- 
 volved some $40,000 and in which he was success- 
 ful, the case passing to both the Superior and Su- 
 preme courts. He became the acknowledged leader 
 of the Bar of Windham County, and his ability 
 gained him great honors and successes. From 1870 
 to 1872, and again from 188 [ to 1882, he was the 
 representative from the town to- the Lower House 
 of the State. He held the chairmanship in almost 
 all of the important committees while a member, 
 and in T882 he was unanimously chosen Speaker 
 of the House. In 1889 he was elected to the State 
 Senate, and was made chairman of the Judiciary 
 
 Committee. He served as president pro tempore 
 of the Senate. Following the close of the session 
 of the Senate he was made a judge of the Su- 
 perior Court of Connecticut. The appointment was 
 well received and was regarded by all as a meri- 
 torious one. He served in this high office for five 
 years, giving eminent satisfaction, making an ex- 
 ceptionally good record alike for a thorough knowl- 
 edge of the law, courtesy, and unwavering firm- 
 ness. This was the expressed opinion of the press 
 in general of both political parties. In October, 
 1893, he was appointed vice-president of the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Company, 
 the appointment being hailed bv the press through- 
 out the State with most flattering comments. The 
 New Haven Leader observed : 
 
 Judge Hall was very succes.sful in all the great cases 
 in which he appeared before the higher courts. As a judge 
 he has been universally liked, and his conduct of cases has 
 won very sincere approbation from his associates on the- 
 bench and from members of the Bar. There is great re- 
 gret among all the lawyers of the State that as good a 
 judge is to retire. Judge Hall will fill his new position to 
 the entire satisfaction of the directors and stockholders of 
 the Consolidated road, and also to the public. He has 
 ornamented every position he has ever held, and he has 
 gained steadily in public estimation from the time, he first 
 aopeared before the people until the present day. His 
 character is without a blemish ; his reputation is untar- 
 nished; his ability is great; his popularity is extensive. 
 
 In his political affiliations President Hall has 
 been a stanch Republican, and has been active, as 
 he has passed along through life, in the local public 
 affairs of Willimantic, where he has held about 
 all the offices within the gift of the people. Him- 
 self liberally educated, he ever took a great interest 
 in the schools of Windham county, and worked for 
 their advancement. He was acting school visitor 
 for a niunber of years, and earlv advocated the es- 
 tablishment of the high school, and he was chair- 
 man of the first high school committee appointed. 
 In 1872 he advocated a more modern charter for the 
 borough of Willimantic, and was made the com- 
 mittee to draft the same, and that charter remained 
 until the adoption of the Citv Charter several years 
 ago. He early advocated a liberal system of public 
 improvements, which resulted in better streets, side 
 walks, curbing and street lines, and finally the ex- 
 cellent system of sewers, being chairman of the 
 committee putting the measures through. 
 
 On Nov. II. 1899, vice-president Hall was 
 tmanimously chosen president of the New York, 
 New Haven (S: Hartford Railroad Co., succeeding 
 Charles P. Clark. On his promotion the Hartford 
 Coiiranf of Nov. 13 observed: 
 
 Vice-President John M. Hall was promoted on Satur- 
 day to the presidency of the New York, New Haven & 
 Hartford Railroad (I^ompany. This was generally ex- 
 pected, and expected because it was obviously the fit 
 course, in view of the great interests of the company. Mr. 
 Hall has been for years the vice-president, and in the vari- 
 ous absences of President Clark, he has taken full charge 
 of afifairs, and borne the responsibilities, and done the 
 work to the satisfaction of all. It was natural that, if he 
 would take the place, he should have it. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 91 
 
 The formal action of the directors, which practically 
 ratifies the choice of the public, will be received with very 
 general satisfaction, and the pleasant relations that exist 
 between the company and the State will not suffer any 
 disturbance by this change of officers. Judge Hall is en- 
 tirely familiar with the duties of his new position, indeed 
 all he has to do is to change title and go on with the man- 
 agement of that great propertv. as he has been managing 
 it. He knows the road and its interests, and those of the 
 communities that it lives on, and that depend upon it. A 
 crisis in the affairs of the company, and we may say, too, 
 in the business affairs of the State, has been successfully 
 met. 
 
 President Hall is too well known to Connecticut peo- 
 ple to need any introduction ; whatever position he has held 
 he has filled admirably. He has breadth, industry, intelli- 
 gence, and a high personal character, and his election will 
 be welcomed by stockholders and the public as a sign that 
 the road is to be managed as it has been, and to maintain 
 its unique position among railroads in this country. If he 
 is to be congratulated, so are the company and the State. 
 
 On Sept. 27, 1870, President Hall was mar- 
 ried to Julia White, daughter of Silas F. Loomer, 
 former president of the Windham Savings Insti- 
 tute of Willimantic, and to them have been born 
 three children, namely: John L., Florence M. and 
 Helen B. Of these John L. Hall, w'ho was grad- 
 uated from Yale in 1894, was, like his father, dis- 
 tinguished in college; he took the Ten Eyck prize 
 in 1893, and in his senior year was chosen class 
 orator ; he was a Townsend orator and took the De 
 Forest gold medal — the highest Yale honor. He 
 is now a practicing lawyer in the city of Boston. 
 
 REV. JAMES HENRY CHAPIN, PH. D., 
 late of Meriden, Universalist clergyman and for 
 some years professor of Geology and Mineralogy in 
 St. Lawrence Universit}', New York, was born Dec. 
 31, 1832, at Leavenworth, Ind., but passed his 
 youth in Illinois, whither his father removed in 
 1839. The son was graduated from Lombard Uni- 
 versity, Galesburg, 111., in 1857, and was for sev- 
 eral years an instructor in mathematics and natural 
 science in that institution. In 1859 he was or- 
 dained a minister of the Universalist Church, and 
 was settled at Pekin, 111., and afterward at Spring- 
 field, that State. During the Civil war he was in 
 the service of the United States Sanitary Commis- 
 sion, and, crossing the Rocky Mountains in the 
 spring of 1864, canvassed the greater part of the 
 Pacific coast, from Mexico to British Columbia, 
 for funds for the Commission, supplementing the 
 work that had been so well begun by Rev. T. Starr 
 King, just before his death. 
 
 In the autumn of 1865 Dr. Chapin went to 
 Boston as secretary of the New England Freed- 
 men's Aid Society, of which Gov. John A. Andrew 
 was president, and while holding that position made 
 several tours of inspection of the schools of the 
 Southern States. In 1868 he became financial sec- 
 retary of the Universalist Convention, with head- 
 quarters in Boston, and during the centennial peri-- 
 od. of that, church was instrumental in raising the 
 larger part, of the Murray centenary fund, now 
 held for missionary purposes. In 1871 he became 
 
 professor of Geology and Mineralogy in St. Law- 
 rence University, New York, which position he 
 held until his death, March 14, 1892. In 1875 he 
 was elected president of his Alma Mater, at Gales- 
 burg, 111., but after due consideration declined ta 
 accept the position. In 1873 he resumed regular 
 pulpit ministrations, and became pastor of the Uni- 
 versalist Church at Meriden, Conn., continuing in 
 that relation until 1885, when, finding himself over- 
 loaded with professional duties, he resigned. Dr. 
 Chapin served as a member of the school board of 
 Meriden, and from 1880 to 1887 was acting school 
 visitor ; and it was during this period that the Meri- 
 den high school was established, and the present 
 capacious building erected. He was an active fel- 
 low of the Alumni Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science, and one of the founders of the As- 
 sociation of American Geologists. He served as 
 president of the Connecticut Convention of Uni- 
 versalists for a dozen and more years, and was for 
 ?. long period chairman of the committee on Mis- 
 sions in the National Convention of that church. 
 Fraternally he was connected with the Freemasons 
 and the Odd Fellows, and in the former held the 
 rank of Knight Templar. 
 
 Dr. Chapin was twice married, first, in 1857, ta 
 Helen W. Weaver, of Alstead, N. H., and in 1878 
 to Kate A., daughter of the late Isaac C. Lewis, of 
 Meriden, Conn. He left a daughter, Mary A., now 
 the wife of W. M. Jackson, of London, England. 
 
 Dr. Chapin made several tours in foreign lands, 
 and not long before his death returned from a 
 trip around the world. He was the author of sev- 
 eral volumes, among them "The Creation, and the 
 Early Development of Society;" and shortly before 
 his death issued from the press a work entitled 
 "From Japan to Granada," which was well re- 
 ceived by both the press and the public. He was 
 identified with the Republicans from the organiza- 
 tion of the party, but never held a political office 
 till elected to the House of Representatives in 1888. 
 
 RICHARD W. LAW is one of the prominent 
 and successful oyster farmers of New Haven, and 
 has prospered in this business for many years, on 
 Oyster Point. 
 
 Mr. Law was born in Middletown, Conn., Nov. 
 6, 1820, a son of Richard W. and Hannah (Eng- 
 lish) Law. Grandfather Jonathan Law was a son 
 of Richard Law, who was a distinguished member 
 of the Continental Congress. Richard W. Law 
 married Hannah English, a daughter of Capt. Ben- 
 jamin English, who lost his life in the West Indies. 
 
 Richard W. Law, of New Haven, had the mis- 
 fortune to lose his father while in infancy, and as- 
 soon as he could earn his own living, was put 
 to work on a farm, acquiring a limited schooling, 
 and working in Madison, East Haven, Branford 
 and other places, his cheerful industry making him 
 welcome all through this agricultural district. 
 AVhile engaged in farming in East Haven Mr. Law 
 was married, on July i, 1849, to Harriet Barnes, 
 
92 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of New Haven. She was a daughter of Sherman 
 and Huldah (Smith) Barnes, of East H'aven, the 
 Barnes family having originated in North Haven, 
 where they were noted as excellent farmers. 
 
 Aifter his marriage Mr. Law and wife remained 
 for one year on the farm in East Haven, coming 
 then in 1850 to New Haven. Desiring to engage 
 in the business of oyster farming, then almost a 
 new industry in these waters, Mr. Law located at 
 Oyster or City Point. Purchasing his seed oysters 
 from the great oyster beds along the Virginia coast, 
 Mr. Law followed the best then known methods of 
 propagation and was rewarded with unqualified 
 success in this enterprise. Although he has spent 
 so many years in this line, Mr. Law is still inter- 
 ested in it, and has associated with him his three 
 sons. 
 
 The family of j\Ir. and Mrs Law consists of 
 four children: Richard W., Jr., Sherman B., Jona- 
 than H. and Harriet English. The young men are 
 all capable and reliable business men, and manage 
 a business of large proportions. Miss Law is a 
 lady of education and culture, and belongs to the 
 social organization the Daughters of the American 
 Revolution. She is also a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, O'f which her father is one of the 
 supporters. In politics Mr. Law has always re- 
 tained the right to vote independently as his judg- 
 ment prompts. Fraternally he is connected with 
 the Order of Red Men. 
 
 DEXTER ALDEN (deceased), in his lifetime 
 3. prominent merchant and manufacturer of New 
 Haven, was of the seventh generation in direct de- 
 scent from John and Priscilla (Mullens) Alden. 
 
 The history of the family in America begins 
 with the coming of John Alden to Massachusetts. 
 He was born in England in 1599, was married in 
 1621 and died at Duxbury Sept. 12, 1687. His 
 wife's parents came over with himi in the "May- 
 flower," to die in the February succeeding their land- 
 ing. John Alden and his wife had eleven children, 
 of whom (H) Joseph, the second child, was born 
 in 1624 and died in 1697. There are curious stud- 
 ies about his family history and the names of his 
 children. He was admitted a freeman in 1659 and 
 inherited his father's proprietary interests in 
 Bridgewater, where he settled in what is now West 
 Bridgewater. Of his five children, (HI) Joseph, 
 born in 1667, is in the ancestral line. 
 
 (HI) Joseph Alden became a deacon in the 
 Congregational Church. He lived in what is now 
 South Bridgewater, was a noted character in the 
 history of his times and died in 1747, leaving a 
 will, dated four years before, to which he had af- 
 fixed his mark". In 1690 he was married to Hannah 
 Denham, of Plymouth, a daughter of Daniel Den- 
 ham, and they became the parents of ten children. 
 The mother died in 1748, at the age of seventy- 
 eight. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Alden, eighth child of Joseph, 
 
 was born in 1705 and died in 1785. In 1728 he 
 married Abiah Edson, a daughter of Capt. Joseph 
 Edson, and they were the parents of nine children, 
 of whom 
 
 (V) Josiah Alden, the fifth in order of birth, 
 born in 1738, was the ancestor of Dexter Alden. 
 Josiah Alden, born in Ludlow, Mass., settled in 
 Bridgewater. In 1761 he married Bathsheba Jones 
 and he became the father of nine children, of whom 
 Benjamin, the youngest son, was the father of 
 Dexter Alden. 
 
 (VI) Benjamin Alden was born in 1781 and 
 died in 1841. Mary Hodges, called "Polly," who 
 became his wife, was born in 1783 and died in 
 1865. They had seven children : Mary, Jefferson, 
 Caroline, David, Dexter, Lucinda and Eliza. 
 
 Dexter Alden was born in Ludlow, Mass., Oct. 
 13, 1812. He was married twice, first time to Eliza, 
 daughter of Leverite and Esther Griswold, of New 
 Haven. Their daughter, Anna Griswold Alden, 
 is the wife of William L. Fields, president of the 
 National Tradesmen's Bank, in New Haven. On 
 Dec. 30, 1857, '^r. Alden married Margaret E. 
 Feeter, daughter of John and Nancy (Failing) 
 Feeter, of Little Falls, N. Y. The Feeters consti- 
 tute an old and honored family in the Mohawk 
 Valley section of New York, and Mrs. Alden's 
 grandfather, Col. William Feeter, was one of the 
 bravest patriots in his section during the Revolu- 
 tionary war and in the stirring scenes that led up 
 to it. He belonged to the corps of forty picked 
 men known as the "Tryon County Bulldogs." 
 There were other Feeters in the region who es- 
 poused the cause of royalty and followed Johnson, 
 the Indian Sachem, to whom they were related by 
 marriage. They fled to Canada, in which country 
 they abound, and slightly changing the name are 
 now known as McFeeters. "Uncle John," the 
 father of Mrs. Alden, had an old flint-lock musket 
 which he prized very highly, as it was carried by 
 Col. Feeter during the Revolution. It is still in an 
 excellent state of preservation. For more than 
 twenty-five years it was Mr. Feeter's custom to 
 load and fire it on the first day of the year and on 
 July 4th precisely at seven o'clock in the morning. 
 On the stock of the gun there is a brass plate bear- 
 ing this inscription: "Presented to Colonel Feeter 
 by Henry Young during the — year of the Revo- 
 lutionary war and carried by him' during the seven 
 years' war." Col. Williami Feeter died at the age 
 of eighty-eight years, in 1844. He reared fourteen 
 chddren of his own to maturity and took into his 
 own home, and cared for as he did his own, six chil- 
 dren belonging to poor families in his neighborhood. 
 
 John Feeter, the father of Mrs. Alden, was 
 reared at the old Feeter homestead on Top Notch, 
 which is now known as the Goodell and Pickett 
 farms, in the town of Little Falls, where he was 
 born Nov. 30, 1804. On Sept. 17, 1829, he was 
 married, at St. Johnsville, to Nancy Failing. For 
 many years they followed a farming life, and in 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 93 
 
 1847 removed to Little Falls, where Mr. Feeter did 
 considerable contracting and constructed the high- 
 way leading to "Timmerman's Hotel." He also set 
 out the trees surrounding Eastern Park, and materi- 
 ally assisted in building- the old "yellow tavern 
 church." His brother, Adam Feeter, was the first 
 post rider between Newport and Albany, and for 
 three years his father. Col. Feeter, who was a close 
 friend of Gen. Herkimer, maintained the expenses 
 of this ancient mail service. The Federal Govern- 
 ment, recognizing his valuable services, subse- 
 quently offered him the contract for the mail service, 
 which he did not see fit to take. John and Nancy 
 Feeter had children as follows : ( i ) Jacob, a promi- 
 nent lawyer of New York City, whose home is at 
 Yonkers; (2) Margaret E., Mrs. Alden; (3) Par- 
 melia, Mrs. French, of Buffalo; (4) Gertrude, Mrs. 
 Cruttenden; (5) Cynthia, Mrs. Walker, of Utica; 
 and (6) Mary C, Mrs. Easterbrook. The descend^ 
 ants comprise seventeen grandchildren, and nine 
 great-grandchildren. 
 
 Dexter Alden came to New Haven when a 
 young lad, and became associated with Mr. Allis, 
 proprietor of the leading hotel in New Haven, as 
 his steward. In early manhood Mr. Alden went to 
 Painesville, Ohio, with a party of settlers, who were 
 confident that in the near future that place would 
 become an important railroad center. While there 
 he contracted the fever and ague, and was obliged 
 to return East. He stopped at Little Falls, where 
 he went into a joint stock company, composed of 
 Gordon Trumbull, Washington Van Dreesen, James 
 Aldrich and himself, organized for the manufacture 
 of carpets and rugs. He was also interested with 
 Mr. Aldrich in a dry goods store at Little Falls, 
 which they sold out after several years' successful 
 management. Mr. Alden also disposed of his in- 
 terest in the factory about the same time and re- 
 turned to New Haven, where he established a dry 
 good's store in company with a Mr. Hunting- 
 ton, continuing with him until 1862. He then en- 
 gaged in manufacturing, forming the Elm City 
 Ruffle Co. He was also one of the originators in the 
 formation of the American Fish Hook and Needle 
 Co., the first industry of the kind whose work was 
 done by machinery, and the former line is still suc- 
 cessfully carried on, but the needle was abandoned, 
 being too expensive to manufacture by machinery. 
 Mr. Alden also had an' interest in a hide and tallow- 
 rendering establishment, which was very successful, 
 and became a member of the United States Dairy 
 Co., of New York City, individually purchasing the 
 patent rights for Connecticut for the new process 
 cf making oleomargarine. In this business he was 
 eminently successful, his profits from this interest 
 in the month of March, 1883, being over $50,000, 
 and during that year over $225,000. The ruffler 
 business proved quite as satisfactory in its way, and 
 his profits from it ran from $60,000 to $100,000 
 , yearly. Mr. Alden later invested money to develop 
 an automatic fire extinguisher, but this venture did 
 
 not prove successful, and caused him considerable 
 loss. He also erected manjr fine residences that 
 were an improvement and ornament to the city. 
 
 Mr. Alden was an upright and conscientious 
 man, and during his residence in Little Falls was a 
 deacon in the Presbyterian Church. In New Haven 
 he associated himself with the old Center Congrega- 
 tional Church, and his daily living was in accord 
 with his religious professions. 
 
 To' Dexter and Margaret (Feeter) Alden were 
 born the following named children : ( i ) Mary Eliza- 
 beth is the wife of Charles Kingsbury Billings, of 
 New York City, a son of the late James N. and 
 Julia (Holmes) Billings, the father a large im- 
 porter in New York. Mr. and Mrs. Billings have 
 six children, Charles Kingsbury, Margaret Louise, 
 Mabel Frances, Julia Holmes, Mary Elizabeth and 
 John Alden. (2) Louise Gertrude is the wife of 
 Lieut. William L. Howard, U. S. Navy, who was 
 present at the battle of Manila in 1898, when the 
 Spanish fleet was destroyed, being on the "Boston" 
 during that engagement. The following February 
 he was sent home, and for some time was a staff offi- 
 cer in the Intelligence Bureau. In October, 1900, 
 he was put in charge of the gtmboat "Bancroft," as 
 executive officer and navigator, was later at Colon, 
 and is now on the "Illinois," which had the honor 
 of being the flagship which met Prince Henry of 
 Prussia. She will now proceed to England, to rep- 
 resent the United States at the coronation of King 
 Edward VII. Lieut, and Mrs. Howard have one 
 child, Helen. 
 
 JULIUS H. MORRIS. The first members of 
 the Morris family in this country came from Eng- 
 land to America, arriving June 3, 1637, and located 
 in Massachusetts. They sailed for what is now 
 New Haven March 30, 1638, and arrived there two 
 weeks later. Thomas Morris, the ancestor of 
 Julius H. Morris, a shipbuilder by trade, signed the 
 Plantation Covenant in 1638, receiving a deed to 
 property known as "Morris Point" in 1671. The 
 old house is still standing, and upon the chimney 
 is painted the date, "1671." This property passed 
 from him to his descendants, and has never been 
 out of the family name in all this long period. 
 
 John Morris was the first proprietor who re- 
 sided on the farm, and it has ever since been in the 
 hands of his descendants, the line being from Julius 
 H. back through Am|os, Amos, Amos, James, Elea- 
 zer to Thomas, the founder. James Morris was a 
 merchant in New Haven, and a deacon in the Con- 
 gregational Church. Amos Morris, the grandfa- 
 ther, was born on the old place and lived and died 
 there, engaged as a farmer. He, too, was a dea- 
 con in the church. He was a member of the Gov- 
 ernor's Horse Guards, and his son Amos was a 
 captain in the State Militia. Amos Morris, the fa- 
 ther, was born on the old tract, the Morris farm, 
 in 1750, and married Lois Hotchkiss, who was born 
 in East Haven, Conn., a daughter of a neighbor- 
 
94 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ing farmer. Their children were: Lucius, who 
 died in November, 1900; Robert and Lydia, who 
 died young; JuHus H. ; and Thomas, deceased. 
 
 JuHus H. Alorris was born Feb. 26, 1823, on the 
 original farm, or what is now known as "Morris 
 Point," and has always lived there, engaged as 
 farmer, fisherman and hotel keeper. He is one of 
 the best-known citizens of the locality. His first 
 marriage, which took place April 8, 1844, was to 
 Julia Rowe, who was born in Fair Haven, Conn., 
 in May, 1821, and died Jan. 16, 1873. She was a 
 daughter of Deacon Rowe, of Fair Haven, who was 
 a tailor, merchant and oyster grower. The second 
 marriage of Mr. Morris, on Sept. 10, 1874, was to 
 Mrs. Ann Eliza Hitchcock, who was born in Fair- 
 field, Conn., and died Sept. 20, 1900. 
 
 Mr. Morris has oeen a Whig and later a Re- 
 publican, having been active in politics nearly all 
 his life, and has filled many positions of confidence, 
 prominence and trust, has been selectman for three , 
 terms, and for twenty-three years was clerk of the 
 South School district and has been connected with 
 the board for forty years. The children of the 
 first marriage numbered eleven, eight of whom 
 grew to maturity: Robert R., a farmer at Morris 
 Cove, married Mar)' Clark, and has had six chil- 
 dren, Lela, Wallace, Robert, Herbert, Grace and 
 Julius. Julia married Lyman C. Thompson, of 
 Morris Cove, and has one son, Morris. Emma 
 married George M. Thompson, who lives in Mor- 
 ris Cove, but she has passed away ; she had five 
 children, three of whom survive, Edward, Lewis 
 and Emma. Julius is an oysterman at the Cove; 
 he has never married. Lettie married George Cad- 
 well, and resides in New Haven; they have had 
 three children, Clifford, George and Clarence. Hat- 
 tie married J. W. Everett, of New Haven, and has 
 had five children, Raymond, Burton, Ethel, Ed- 
 ward and Sidney. Carrie married John W. Lewis, 
 the well-known builder. Edwin A. is mentioned 
 below. 
 
 Edwin A. Morris was born in Fair Haven, 
 Conn., Feb. 8, i860, and was reared at Morris 
 Cove, the old family property. His school days 
 were passed there, where he remained until he was 
 nineteen, when he entered the grocery store of R. 
 H. Wright, of New Haven, in the capacity of clerk, 
 continuing there for one year. He then opened up 
 a grocery business of his own, which he success- 
 fully conducted until 1893, when he returned to the 
 Cove and established there a large grocery and 
 meat store. 
 
 On Jan. 29, 1884, Mr. Morris was married to 
 Ella Everett, who was born in Olive, Ulster Co., 
 N. Y., a daughter of Henry Everett, a farmer in 
 that locality, and four children have been born of 
 this union : Gertrude, Jessie, Hazel and Dorothy. 
 Mr. Morris is in sympathy with the Republican 
 party, and is a member of the Woodmen of Amer- 
 ica, while the whole family belongs to the Con- 
 gregational Church. Few families in this vicinity 
 
 can point to a longer line of honorable ancestry, 
 unbroken, and perhaps none possess such historic 
 remains as the old homestead of 1671. 
 
 COE. The Coe family, who for some genera- 
 tions have lived at Middletown, Conn., are a branch 
 of an old New England family, and Hon. Levi El- 
 more Coe, of Meriden, for eighteen years judge 
 of the city and police courts, former mayor of the 
 city, and president of the Meriden Savings Bank 
 and the Meriden National Bank, is a notable de- 
 scendant and a conspicuous representative of same. 
 He is in the eighth generation from Robert Coe, 
 his first American ancestor, through Ro^bert Coe 
 (2), Capt. John, Capt. Joseph, Capt. David, Squire 
 Eli and Col. Levi, a line of illustrious and nOble 
 men, all of whom were prominent and useful citi- 
 zens. 
 
 (I) Robert Coe, who came from the County 
 of Suffolk, England, with his wife and three sons, 
 arriving in Boston in June, 1634, was the first set- 
 tler at Watertown, Mass. The following year he 
 removed to Wethersfield, Conn., and he was one 
 of the first purchasers of Stamford. He was among 
 the original settlers at Hempstead, L. I., and with 
 others began a settlement at Jaimaica, L. I., in 1656. 
 
 (H ) Robert Coe (2) was born in England in 
 1627, accompanied his father to Watertown, Weth- 
 ersfield and Stamford, and located at Stratford, 
 Conn., where he married Hannah, daughter of Mat- 
 thew and Susan (Butterfield) ■Mitchell. 
 
 (in) Capt. John Coe, son of Rdbert (2), born 
 in 1658, in 1682 married ;\Iary, daughter of Joseph 
 Hawley. In his mature life he was a prominent 
 character in Stratford, serving in the French and 
 Indian war, and becoming a captain. He was also 
 deputy to the General Court, and held other po- 
 sitions. 
 
 ( IV) Capt. Joseph Coe, the son of Capt. John, 
 born in 1686, was married in 1708 to Abigail, 
 daughter of David Robinson. He was one of the 
 early settlers of Durham, becoming one of the 
 prominent men of his time. He was commissioned 
 ensign and lieutenant, rising to the rank of cap- 
 tain in the militia service. He attended the Gen- 
 eral Court as a deputy, and held several important 
 local positions. 
 
 (V) Capt. David Coe, son of Capt. Joseph, born 
 in 1 71 7, was married to Hannah, daughter of 
 Nathan Camp. One of the early settlers of Middle- 
 field, he took an active interest in military affairs, 
 in 1759 was appointed by the General Court lieu- 
 tenant in the militia, and in 1764 captain. Dur- 
 ing the Revolutionary war his services were im- 
 portant and valuable. 
 
 (VI) Squire Eli Coe, son of Capt. David, born 
 in 1758, was married to Rachel, daughter of Deacon 
 Ichabod INIiller, and made his home in Middlefield. 
 Their children were: Bela, Lucy, Rachel, Eli and 
 Levi. For many years Eli Coe was a justice of the 
 peace, and was a selectman many years. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 95 
 
 (VII) Col. Levi Coe, son of Eli and the far 
 ther of the Hon. Levi E. Coe, was born July ii, 
 1788, and was married Feb. 14, 181 1, to Sarah 
 Ward, born April 2, 1788, a daughter of William 
 and Mary (Miller) Ward. After a signally happy 
 married life of fifty-three years Col. Coe died Jan. 
 16, 1864, and his widow passed away Dec. 10, 
 1871. They had the following family: (i) Ben- 
 jamin Ward, born April 28, 18 12, married Betsy 
 M. Birdsey. (2) Amelia M., born Oct. 15, 1815, 
 married Ichabod Miller. (3) Alvin Bennett, born 
 Feb. 15, 1821, was married to Harriet T. Coe. (4) 
 Levi Elmore, bom June 6, 1828, is mentioned 
 below. 
 
 Col. Levi Coe was educated in the public schools. 
 He followed farming all his life, and was a thor- 
 oughly practical and common sense man, doing 
 what he attempted, and attempting no more than 
 what he could do well. He would break no more 
 ground than could be well cultivated, and kept no 
 more stock than could be properly fed. His farm- 
 ing was practical rather than theoretical, and he 
 took pride in his fences, his crops and his stocks. 
 He acquired an enviable reputation in the breeding 
 and raising of good horses and cattle, being espe- 
 cially fond of Devons. The ambition which moved 
 him was always for the best. His disposition was 
 hopeful, his demeanor modest and courteous, and 
 his relations with his family tender and indulgent. 
 In his transactions he was cautious, and he was 
 firm in his convictions of the right. Many sought 
 his advice, and his judgment had great weight. He 
 creditably filled several positions of responsibility 
 and trust, and he had the respect and confidence 
 of the community to a marked degree. For many 
 \'ears he was an active member of the State Militia, 
 and was advanced tO' a colonelcy when military 
 honors were worthy the ambition of any man, and 
 when merit alone was the test of success. That he 
 merited the title was attested by its universal use 
 in addressing or speaking of "Col. Coe." He took 
 a deep interest in the affairs of his town, and of 
 the Congregational Church, of which he was a de- 
 vout member, punctual in his attendance at all meet- 
 ings. In 1842 he was active in the construction of 
 the new church building, and was instrumental in 
 raising the funds for that purpose. Col. Coe had a 
 social nature, loved his friends, and greatly enjoyed 
 entertaining his friends and relatives. His was a 
 hospitable home, and the best the home afforded 
 was none too good. He was fond of amusements, 
 innocent stories and harmless jokes. 
 
 Judge Levi E. Coe, who is the author and com- 
 piler of the "Coe- Ward Memorial," traces his art- 
 cestry to other emigrant ancestors as follows : En- 
 sign William Ward, one of the patentees of Mid- 
 flletown, Conn. ; Thomas Miller, freeman of Row- 
 ley, Mass., in 1639, one of the original proprietors 
 of Middletown ; Nicholas Camp, Milford, Conn., in 
 1639; Thomas Robinson, an early settler in Guil- 
 ford, Conn. ; William Cornwell, Rowley, Mass., in 
 1634, at Hartford in 1637, in the Pecjuot war, at 
 
 Middletown in 1651; Alexander Bow, at Charles- 
 town, and at Hartford in 1639, who was one of the 
 original proprietors of Middletown, Conn. ; Cornet 
 Joseph Parsons, in Massachusetts m 1630, at 
 Springfield in 1636, at Northampton in 1655, a 
 member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
 Company of Boston ; John Johnson, Roxbury, 
 Mass., in 1630, made a freeman in 1631, deputy to 
 the first General Court, surveyor general of arms 
 and ammunition, the first clerk of the Ancient and 
 Honorable Artillery Company ; Capt. Isaac John- 
 son, freeman at Rowley, in 1635, made a captain in 
 1653, killed at the Great Swamp fight in the Nar- 
 ragansett war, Dec. 19, 1675 ; Capt. Daniel Harris, 
 at Rowley, at Middletown in 1652, deputy to the 
 General Court; Humphrey Prior, one of the early 
 settlers of Windsor ; David Atwater, at New Ha- 
 ven, Conn., a signer of the Plantation Covenant, 
 June 4, 1639; Joseph Hawley, Boston, 1639, at 
 Stratford the same year, a deputy to the General 
 Court twenty-nine times ; John Kirby, first settled 
 in Boston, at Plymouth in 1643, at Hartford, 1645, 
 at Wethersfield, 1649, ^t Middletown, 1655; John 
 Taylor, at Windsor in 1639, sailed from New Ha- 
 ven in the "phantom ship;" Samuel Nettleton, at 
 Totoket (Branford) in 1644; Deacon Paul Peck, 
 at Boston, 1635, at Hartford the following year; 
 Thomas Barnes, at New Haven in 1643, oi^c of the 
 original proprietors of Middletown ; Thomas Tap- 
 pin, a captain and a free planter in Milford in 1639, 
 removed to Southampton, L. I., deputy and assist- 
 ant to the General Court ; Elder Edward Turner, 
 at Milford, 1651, an original proprietor of Middle- 
 town ; Bigot Eggleston, at Dorchester, 1630, at 
 Windsor, 1635 ; Samuel Eggleston, one of the orig- 
 inal proprietors of Middletown : John Osborn, an 
 early settler at Windsor, Conn. ; Richard Oldage, 
 at Windsor before 1640; Thomas Sayre, at Lynn, 
 Mass., in 1638, at Southampton, L. I.,, in 1640; 
 John Rogers, called the "settler," a free planter 
 of Milford, Conn., in 1639; Alexander Knowles, 
 freeman of Massachusetts in 1636, at Fairfield, 
 Conn., in 1653, assistant to the General Court; 
 Thomas Bliss, at Boston, 1635, at Hartford, 1636; 
 Dr. Henry Woodward, at Dorchester, 1635, at 
 Northamipton, 1658; Capt. Joseph Weld, a freeman 
 of Rowley, Mass., in 1636, a soldier in the Pequot 
 war, a memher of the Ancient and Honorable Ar- 
 tillery Company ; Nicholas Disbrow, at Hartford 
 in 1630, a soldier in the Pequot war; Edward 
 Birdsey, at Wethersfield, Conn., in 1636; Matthew 
 Mitchell, at Charlestown in 1636, at Saybrook, at 
 Wethersfield, Conn., in 1639, at Stamford the fol- 
 lowing year, at Hempstead in 1643, a deputy to 
 the General Court, and a soldier in the Pequot war. 
 Hon. Levi Elmore Coe, of Meriden, son of 
 Col. Levi and Sarah (Ward) Coe, is a native of 
 what is now the town of Middlefield (then Middle- 
 town),' Conn., born June 6, 1828. He received his 
 education in the common schools of his neighbor- 
 hood and Post's and Chase's Academies, the latter 
 a somewhat noted school at JMiddletown, from 
 
96 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 which went out into the world men who achieved 
 fame and success in their various walks O'f life. 
 Young Coe began teaching school at the age of 
 eighteen j^ears, and followed that profession until 
 twenty-five. At that age, in 1853, he located at 
 Meriden, of which city he has been a resident, and 
 through the intervening forty odd years has been 
 most closely identified with the growth and devel- 
 opment of the city, which has been remarkable, and 
 so marked as a manufacturing center as to become 
 known throughout the civilized world from the va- 
 riety and high grade of its manufactured products. 
 During this long period Mr. Coe has been one of 
 the foremost among those whose efiiorts have 
 brought about the proud position the "Silver City" 
 sustains in the manufacturing world, and during 
 this period he has made and sustained a reputation 
 as a business man and useful citizen of a high order 
 in keeping with his honorable line of ancestors. In 
 1854 young Coe was elected treasurer of the Meri- 
 den Savings Bank, when the assets of that institu- 
 tion were only $25,000, and the salary of the treas- 
 urer only $200; the assets are now four and one- 
 half millions. He has been connected with that 
 institution either as treasurer, director or president 
 ever since. When he took the position of treas- 
 urer he was keeping books, making out bills, and 
 doing other writing for outside parties. For fifty 
 years he was engaged in the real estate business, 
 though never on commission. He has taken great 
 interest in agricultural matters and pet stock, and 
 has been identified with various societies in this 
 line, having- been secretary of the Farmers Club, 
 president of the Meriden Poultry Association, sec- 
 retary, treasurer and president of the Meriden Ag- 
 ricultural .Society, secretary and treasurer of the 
 Connecticut State Agricultural Society, and a mem- 
 ber of the State Board of Agriculture. He has 
 served in ■ various public capacities : Was grand 
 juror in 1837; registrar of vital statistics in 1858- 
 63; justice of the peace from 1858 to 1881 ; trial 
 justice for many years before the establishment of 
 the city court ; first clerk of the city court ; and 
 judge of the court for eighteen years. He has 
 also been agent of the town to convey real estate, 
 was registrar of voters, town clerk, and judge of 
 probate. At the time of the building of the water 
 works, and for several years thereafter, he was 
 water commissioner. For a long period he was a 
 member of the board of compensation. In 1894 
 Mr. Coe was elected mayor of Meriden, and re- 
 elected in 1896 and 1897. He brought tO' that of- 
 fice the ripe experience of long years of public serv- 
 ice and of a successful business career, and gave 
 the city a practical and dignified administration. 
 In his political faith Judge Coe is a Republican, 
 and has served as a member of the town commit- 
 tee and State central committee. He was appointed 
 by the Secretary of the Interior a town site trustee 
 for Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Among other nu- 
 merous official positions in corporations, etc., held ■ 
 
 by Judge Coe, are those of director of what is now 
 the Meriden National Bank (since 1862) ; treasurer 
 of the Meriden Park Co. ; director of the Meriden 
 Hospital ; trustee of the Curtis Home ; president of 
 the Meriden Historical Society ; and a member of 
 the Connecticut Historical Society; the Sons of the 
 American Revolution ; and of the Home Club. Fra- 
 ternally Judge Coe is a prominent Mason ; he has 
 been secretary, treasurer and worshipful master of 
 Meridian Lodge, No. '/y ; eminent commander of 
 St. Elmo Commandery, Knights Templar; and rep- 
 resentative of the Grand Commandery of South 
 Dakota near the Grand Commandery of Connecti- 
 cut. In his religious views Judge Coe is an Epis- 
 copalian, a member of St. Andrew's Church, Meri- 
 den, in which he has been' a vestryman since 1858. 
 Judge Coe has been an enterprising, liberal and 
 public-spirited citizen. He erected a beautiful me- 
 morial library building, which, with its furnish- 
 ings and the library, he presented to his native town, 
 Middlefidd, June 6, 1893, as a free public library, 
 placing it in control of a self-perpetuating incor- 
 porated board of trustees, known as the Levi E. 
 Coe Library Association. Such a life needs no 
 eulog)'. 
 
 On Nov. 27, 185 1, Judge Coe was married to 
 Miss Sophia Fidelia, daughter of Harley and 
 Martha Cone Hall, and they had two children : A 
 son that died in infancy imnamed; and Charles 
 Levi, born Dec. 4, i860, who died Feb. 19, 1862. 
 
 ELBRIDGE LEWIS HOWE, the senior mem- 
 ber of the firm of Howe & Stetson, proprietors of 
 an extensive dry-goods and department store, at 
 Nos. 767-773 Chapel street. New Haven, was born 
 in Marlborough, Mass., Oct. 11, 1871. Stephen 
 Austin Howe, his father, was born April 10, 1841, 
 in Marlborough, where his father, Elbridge Howe, 
 was also born, Nov. 15, 1816. 
 
 The Howes were among the first settlers of 
 Marlborough, and in every period of the history of 
 that place have been numbered among the most 
 numerously represented families. Abraham Howe 
 emigrated fromi England about 1640, and about 
 1660 his name appears among the proprietors of 
 Marlborough, whither he came probably from Wat- 
 ertown, Mass. He had a numerous family, and 
 many of his descendants remain in the town' at the 
 present time. On May 6, 1657, he married Hannah 
 Ward, and soon after 1660 they came to Marlbor- 
 ough, where he died June 30, 1695, his widow on 
 Nov. 3, 1717. They had ten children. 
 
 Joseph Howe, third child of Abraham, was born 
 in 1661 in Watertown, and in 1688 married Dorothy 
 Martin. They had six children. 
 
 Joseph Howe (2), fourth child of Joseph, was 
 born in Marlborough in Fdbruary, 1697. On Feb. 
 20, 1722, he married Zerviah Howe, his cousin, who 
 died Dec. 10, 1723. On July 12, 1727, he married 
 Ruth Bngham. His family consisted of ten chil- 
 dren. 
 
w 'R^ 
 
 UJ^t 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 97 
 
 Artemas Howe, son of Joseph (2), born Jan. 15, 
 1743. married May 28, 1767, Mary Bigelow, and 
 they had twelve children. 
 
 Stephen Howe, son of Artemas, born March 21, 
 1780, married June 29, 1809, Susanna Brighani, and 
 they had six children. 
 
 Elbridge Howe, son of Stephen, and grandfather 
 of J. Wilder and Elbridge L., was a building con- 
 tractor by trade, and put up the first frame house in 
 the city of Austin, Texas. His stay in the Lone Star 
 State, however, was not prolonged, and he returned 
 to ^Marlborough. In his later years he became 
 prominent in local affairs, and was elected chairman 
 of the board of selectmen, and was also chairman 
 of the board of water works. For many years he 
 was president of both the Savings and National 
 Banks. He died at the age of sixty-nine. On June 
 25, 1840, he married Sabra Holman, a native of 
 Bolton, who bore him four children : Stephen A. 
 (deceased), the father of J. Wilder and Elbridge 
 L. Howe ; Emily B. ; Georg'e A. ; and Sabra, who 
 married William C. Hazeltine. The three survivors 
 reside in Marlborough, Massachusetts. 
 
 George' A. Howe, the brother of Stephen A. 
 Howe, and an uncle of Elbridge L. and J. Wilder, 
 was one of the youngest soldiers in the Civil war, 
 having entered the Union army at the age of fifteen. 
 In after years he became engaged in the lumber 
 business. He is a prominent resident of Marlbor- 
 ough, of which city he was second mayor. 
 
 Stephen Austin Howe was reared on 
 the farm, and received his early education in the 
 schools of Marlborough, finishing in the seminary 
 at Fulton, N. Y. At the beginning of the war of 
 the Rebellion he enlisted as a member of the band 
 in the 13th Mass. Regiment. After he. had served 
 fourteen months all regimental bands were dis- 
 charged. In 1864 he re-enlisted, becoming a private 
 in the 57th Mass. Regiment. After going through 
 the Wilderness campaign he was taken sick, in the 
 vicinity of Richmond, was transferred to hospital 
 ship, and taken to Mount Pleasant Hospital, Wash- 
 ington. Upon his recovery he was retained as a 
 member of the hospital band until the close of the 
 war. Mr. Howe's business career was begun in 
 1866, in Marlborough, as a member of the firm of 
 Wilson & Howe, and after a time he became sole 
 proprietor of the business by reason of the retire- 
 ment of Mr. Wilson, whose interest in the firm he 
 bought. In 1885 he sold his interest in the business 
 to Mr. Stetson, whom he had taken in as a junior 
 partner some time previous. In May, 1886, Mr. 
 Howe and Mr. Stetson removed to New Haven, and 
 bought out J. N. Adam, continuing the business 
 until 1893, when Mr. Stetson withdrew, Mr. Howe 
 continuing the business until his death, Nov. 29, 
 1898, at the age of fifty-seven years. The business 
 was started in the J. N. Adam store, and later re- 
 moved to the present store, known as the Wilcox 
 store, and the Moses and Greenwood stores were 
 
 afterward added. The business has assumed very 
 large proportions. 
 
 While in Marlborough Mr. Howe was promi- 
 nent in business circles and an active member of 
 the Unitarian Church. In New Haven he was pres- 
 ident of the Retail Merchants Association. He was 
 truly a grand man in pvery respect, towering above 
 the level of his day. In business he had all the qual- 
 ifications of success — integrity, industry, a clear 
 comprehension of the needs of his custom ; kindness 
 and courtesy that never failed, making him beloved 
 and respected by all who knew him. The day of his 
 funeral, Dec. 2, 1898, was marked by the closing of 
 all the dry goods stores in the city. Mr. Howe be- 
 longed to the Masons, the Union League, the Cham- 
 ber of Commerce, and Ad'miral Foote Post, No. 17, 
 G. A. R., of New Haven. 
 
 On Oct. II, 1866, Mr. Howe married Anna 
 Elizabeth Wilder, who was born in Rindge, N. H., 
 a daughter of Josiah and Elizabeth (Fosdick) 
 Wilder. The father was prominent in Rindge,, 
 where he was born. The mother was born in 
 Charlestown, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. Howe had two 
 children, Josiah Wilder and Elbridge L. The wid- 
 owed mother is still living in New Haven. 
 
 Elbridge L. Howe spent the earlier years of his 
 life in Marlborough, where he attended the public 
 schools, and was later a student in the Giles private 
 school, of New Haven. While he was still a boy 
 he worked three years in his father's store, and then 
 went to New York for a year, with B. Altman & 
 Co. On his return home, in 1893, he entered hiS' 
 father's store at New Haven, of which he became 
 manager, holding the position until his father's' 
 death, when he formed a partnership with his- 
 brother J. Wilder. 
 
 Elbridge L. Howe was married May 11, i892', 
 to JMary A. Hannan, who was born in Deep River, 
 Conn., and they have two children: Stephen Rollin, 
 born Dec. 18, 1893; and Anna Wilder, born Nov. 
 12, 1895. In politics Mr. Howe is a Republican, as 
 was his father before him-. He is a member of the 
 Young Men's Republican Club, the Union League, 
 the Pequot Club, the New Haven Golf Club, the 
 Chamber of Commerce and the Business Men's 
 Association. He is a director of the Dry Goods 
 Alliance of New York, is president of the Allesan- 
 dro Mining & Land Co. (which owns 5,000 acres of 
 land in New Mexico), is on the HomeBoard of Or- 
 ganized Charities, and belongs to the Plymouth 
 Society. 
 
 J. Wilder Howe, partner in the New Haven 
 store with his brother, Elbridge L. Howe, was born 
 July 31, 1869, in Marlborough, Mass., and received 
 his early education in the public schools of that city. 
 Later he was at Allen's School, West Newton, and 
 still later, after a lapse of several years, took a 
 course of civil engineering in the Massachusetts In- 
 stitute of Technology, which profession he prac- 
 ticed for six years after receiving his education, 
 
9S 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 first going with the Board of Survey, Boston, and 
 later to the City Engineer's office, at Cambridge. 
 He was first identified with the general work of the 
 office and later with the designing and construction 
 of the new reservoir pipe lines, of which work he 
 v>'as resident engineer. In June, 1898, he was ap- 
 pointed, by the President, second lieutenant in the 
 2d U. S. Volunteer Engineers, but resigned in De- 
 cember, 1898, on account of the death of his father, 
 to go into partnership with his brother. Mr. Howe 
 belongs to the Union League and Pequot Clubs, the 
 National Army Spanish War Veterans, the New 
 Haven Grays, Y. M. C. A., Military Order of For- 
 eign Wars of the United States, and is an honorary 
 member of the Union Veterans Union. 
 
 EDWARD LEONARD BRONSON (de- 
 ceased). For forty or more years Mr. Bronson 
 was prominent in business circles in Waterbury, 
 and he was pre-eminently an exemplary man and 
 useful citizen. His ancestors in both paternal and 
 maternal lines were among the first to settle in 
 Waterbury. 
 
 John Brownston's, or Bronston's, name ap- 
 peared in the list of original proprietors of Hart- 
 ford — those coming there prior to February, 1640 — 
 given in the Memorial History of Hartford coun- 
 ty. He is believed to have been one of the com- 
 pany who came with Rev. Thomas Hooker in 1636. 
 He was a soldier in the Pequot war in 1637. After 
 the purchase of Tunxis (Farmington) by the Hart- 
 ford people John Bronston removed thither about 
 1641. 
 
 Edward Leonard Bronson was a descendant 
 in the seventh generation from John Bronson, of 
 Hartford and Farmington, the line of his descent 
 being through Sergeant Isaac Bronson, Isaac Bron- 
 son (2), Isaac Bronson (3), Titus Bronson and 
 Leonard Bronson. 
 
 (II) Sergeant Isaac Bronson, son of John Bron- 
 son, married Mary, daughter of John Root. 
 
 (III) Isaac Bronson (2), son of Sergeant Isaac 
 Bronson, born in 1670, in Farmington, married 
 (first) in 1 701 ]\Iary, daughter of Richard Mor- 
 gan, of New London, Conn.; she died and he mar- 
 ried (second) in 1750 Widow Sarah Lewis. He 
 died in 1 751. 
 
 (I\') Isaac Bronson (3), son of Isaac Bron- 
 son (2), born in 1707, married, in 1734, Eunice, 
 daughter of Thomas Richards. 
 
 (\') Titus Bronson, son of Isaac Bronson (3), 
 born Oct. 5, 1751, married, Feb. 11, 1779, Hannah, 
 daughter of Moses Cook. He died in 1820, and she 
 in 184 1. 
 
 (VI) Leonard Bronson, son of Titus Bronson, 
 and the father of the subject of this sketch, was 
 born June 24, 1797. He married Nancy (Richard- 
 son) Piatt, widow of M. Piatt, and daughter of 
 Nathaniel Richardson, a descendant of one of the 
 old families of the town. To this union were born 
 children as follows: Julia M., born in 1820, died 
 
 in 1841 ; George F., born in 1821 ; Catherine died 
 when young; Isaac R., born in 1826; and Edward 
 L., our subject, is referred to farther on. Leonard 
 Bronson was successively a school teacher, sur- 
 veyor and farmer, a man of much ability and was 
 most thoroughly respected. From 1853 to 1857 
 he was president of the Waterbury Savings Bank. 
 The late Edward Leonard Bronson, sons of 
 Leonard and Nancy (Richardson Piatt) Bronson, 
 was born Jan. 18, i'828, in the town of Middlebury. 
 Conn. His mother was a devout and strong-minded 
 woman, and with her husband a stanch member of 
 Church. The son found about his early life influ- 
 ences that developed his manhood along severe and 
 exacting lines. A most intense sense of responsii- 
 bility was the result of his home training, and 
 Mr. Bronson's life was an exemplification of it in 
 every detail and requirement. After passing a 
 period of six months in the dry goods store of 
 Benedict & Merriman in 1848 he concluded to lo- 
 cate permanently in Waterbury, but soon left the 
 store to teach in the Centre school district in Middle- 
 bury. After a short experience there he returned 
 to his former employers, Messrs. Benedict & Merri- 
 man. Later on he became bookkeeper and ac- 
 countant at the factory, afterward Benedict & Burn- 
 ham's. From that time on he was identified with 
 that factory, and was a potent hand in its steady 
 growth, giving to the business the most undivided 
 and faithful services. He was chosen secretary of 
 the company in 1881, and in 1885 he was elected 
 treasurer, a position he held at the time of his 
 death. Mr. Bronson was one of the incorporators 
 of the Waterbury Watch Company in 1880, and 
 from that time on served as one of its directors and 
 secretary. In 1888 he was chosen treasurer of the 
 company to succeed Charles Dickinson. Earlv in 
 the 'fifties, in company with his brother, Isaac R. 
 Bronson, he established a book store and general 
 stationery business, including a bindery, in \\'ater- 
 bury. Edward L. Bronson was thoroughly imbued 
 with that public spirit which very many men, who 
 devote their lives to business pursuits, sadlv lack. 
 Everything that interested his native city interested 
 him, and he practiced as well as theorized on this 
 point. He was made a member of the board of 
 Regents of the Bronson Library in 1886. He had 
 several times been an alderman ; was a strong ad- 
 herent to the principles of the Republican partv, 
 and was that party's candidate for mavor in 1887, 
 but was not elected. At the age of thirteen he 
 became a member of the Congregational Church in 
 Aliddlebury. In 1852 Ur. Bronson united with 
 the First Congregational Church, of Waterbury, 
 and was a consistent exponent of his Christian be- 
 lief in every branch of his life's work. He was 
 chosen a deacon in that Church in 1857, and also 
 as superintendent of its Sunday-school, serving in 
 the latter position until 1869. ^ He was also clerk 
 of the Church for some vears, and treasurer of 
 its funds from 1873 until his death. He was an 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 99 
 
 enthusiastic worker for all the interests of the 
 Church. The Young Men's Christian Association 
 of Waterbury, of which he was vice-president, owes 
 to his efforts more than to those of any other in- 
 dividual its existence and prosperity. He had 
 great confidence in young men, and to advise with 
 them and do something for their welfare was one 
 of his great pleasures. Mr. Bronson died July 
 20, 1890. 
 
 The Waterbury American of July 21, 1890, said 
 editorially : 
 
 In the death of Edward L. Bronson Waterbury loses 
 a citizen conspicuous for strict integrity and for scrupu- 
 lous fidelity to every trust. This can 'be truthfully said of 
 Mr. Bronson, equally as a man of business, as a man in 
 public office, as a worker in the church and as a friend and 
 neighbor. He did not measure conduct by different stand- 
 ards according to the nature of his employment. To all 
 life's various affairs he brought the same conscientious pur- 
 pose to do his duty upright as he saw it. In Mr. Bron- 
 son is well illustrated the value of what we call character. 
 Its influence on the many with whom he was brought in 
 contact will long be felt, an influence none the less lasting 
 because it will gradually grow silently impersonal as the 
 years go by. 
 
 On Oct. 22, 1851, Mr. Bronson was married to 
 Miss Cornelia To-wnsend, daughter of Charles 
 Townsend, of Middlebury, who with a daughter, 
 Julia M., and an adopted son, Charles P., survived 
 husband and father. One son died in infancy. 
 
 ABRx\HAM BENNETT HOTCHKISS was 
 born in Prospect, New Haven Co., Conn., in 1810, 
 son of Joel and Esther (Beecher) Hotchkiss (the 
 latter a daughter of Benjamin Beecher, of Che- 
 shire), and one of the 155 great-grandchildren of 
 Capt. Gideon Hotchkiss, a soldier of the French 
 and Indian and Revolutionary wars. When Ben- 
 nett was about twelve years of age his family mi- 
 grated to northern Pennsylvania, settling on a large 
 tract of farm lands and primeval forests, in Har- 
 ford, Susquehanna county. On this wide field Joel 
 Hotchkiss, by his advanced inteUigence and skill 
 in scientific and horticultural farming, developed, 
 with the co-operation of his sons, an almost ideal 
 estate. 
 
 With his father and brothers Bennett Hotchkiss 
 spent the summers at work on the farm, and in 
 winters pursued his education in the village acad- 
 emy. His intellectual tastes and bias were very 
 strong, and he had intended to fit himself for a 
 profession. But, while he had developed a stature 
 and physique of remarkable proportions and vigor, 
 he had also an inherited bronchial infirmity, which 
 ultimately determined his pursuits. For several 
 years he maintained an outdoor life, pursuing his 
 mechanical tastes, and it is probable that northern 
 Pennsylvania is still using the turbine and other 
 waterwheels his skill and ingenuity put in operation 
 along its waterways. Mr. Hotchkiss married, m 
 1834, Lucy Ann Daggett Fuller, whose family had 
 migrated from Attleboro, Mass., into the town of 
 Hal-ford - several years previously. A few years 
 
 later, in 1838 or 1839, he came back to Connecticut, 
 with his young family, and in New Haven estab- 
 lished the business of pattern making, and was 
 thereafter an influence to be reckoned with in the 
 mechanical and scientific interests o'f New Haven. 
 For fifty years he lived and labored in sincerest 
 brotherhood with the industrial classes in New Ha- 
 ven, ambitious for their interests, especially in the 
 establishment of the course of lectures for Me- 
 chanics, in the Scientific School of Yale University. 
 Mr. Hotchkiss had inherited his mechanical tastes 
 from his Beecher ancestry. His brain was teem- 
 ing with inventions, several of which he patented 
 in this and foreign countries, notably his air-spring 
 hammer, now in universal use, and under the high- 
 est testimonials, originally patented in 1859, and 
 renewed in 1863; also his rock drill and match 
 patent. He continued abreast of the remarkable 
 scientific advancement of the period, and predicted 
 with singular accuracy many of the great electrical 
 discoveries. Mr. Hotchkiss believed implicitly in 
 the ultimate navigation of the air, and was much 
 occupied with the problem of the storage of solar 
 heat for utilitarian purposes. He was interested 
 in real estate, and at one time built hundreds of 
 houses in different localities, contributing to their 
 development. His was a character of singular sim- 
 plicity, probity and dignity. He died in 1883, 
 aged seventy-three years. 
 
 DENNIS TUTTLE, son of Capt. Leverett and 
 Electa (Kimberly) Tuttle, of Hamden, New Ha- 
 ven Co., Conn., and grandson of Ezra Kimberly, 
 a Revolutionary soldier, was born in Hamden in 
 1826. He prepared for college in the military acad- 
 emy in Cheshire, Conn., and was graduated from 
 Yale Law School in 1850. For several )'ears Mr. 
 Tuttle practiced his profession in New Haven. He 
 was married in 1855 to Anna U. Hotchkiss, daugh- 
 ter of Bennett Hotchkiss, and removed to Iowa 
 City, Iowa, where he engaged in the entry of pub- 
 lic lands in connection with his law practice. Three 
 years later he went to Hudson, Wis., and remained, 
 as prosecuting attorney for St. Croix county, until 
 the beginning of the Civil war. 
 
 In December, 1861, Mr. Tuttle enlisted in the 
 20th Ind. V. I., and was present in the memorable 
 engagement between the Rebels and the Union 
 forces during the "Monitor" and "Merrimac" fight. 
 He was commissioned by Gov. Morton, of Indi- 
 ana, first lieutenant and quartermaster of the 20th 
 Ind. V. I., and served with them four years in the 
 Army of the Potomac, re-enlisting with them for 
 veteran service in 1864, at Indianapolis. He was 
 discharged with them from service in 1865, at 
 Louisville, Ky., having served as acting brigade 
 quartermaster of the Provisional Division of the 
 Army of the Tennessee. Mr. Tuttle returned to 
 Connecticut and soon after engaged in cranberry 
 culture in Madison, New Haven county. For sev- 
 eral years he served the town as chairman of its 
 
^^ X ^v"^ 
 
 i^<-i^VTy*s/yL—^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 lOI 
 
 management the firm met with unusual success. In 
 1879, in company with S. W. Banning and C. JM. 
 Chadwick, he opened a notion and commission 
 house in the city of New York. In 1883 he organized 
 a company for the preparation of corset cloth for 
 manufacturing purposes, and presently this house 
 came to control three-fifths of all the corset mate- 
 rial offered throughout the country. The General is 
 still actively engaged in the corset material business 
 in Boston, where he has built up one of the largest 
 concerns of its kind in the world. However, he has 
 always retained his residence in New Haven. 
 
 Gen. Harmon is a strong Republican in his 
 political relations, and his genial and warm-hearted 
 nature has won him a host of friends. From July, 
 1873, to October, 1874, he served as police commis- 
 sioner, and was alderman in 1879 and 1880. For 
 several vears he was chairman of the Republican 
 State Central Committee, and his discharge of the 
 duties of the position was a brilliant success. Under 
 his leadership the party never lost a battle. During 
 the administration of Gov. Bigelow Gen. Harmon 
 was adjutant general of the State, and it was largely 
 due to his representations that the General Assem- 
 bly voted $200,000 to provide suitable armories for 
 the National Guard. Gen. Harmon did much to se- 
 cure the construction of the breakwater in the har- 
 bor, offering and advocating in the city council a 
 resolution for a committee to go to Washington to 
 secure a breakwater from the National Government. 
 He is a member of the New York Commandery of 
 the LoyalLegion. 
 
 Gen. Harmon was married ]\Iay 10, 1861, to 
 Mary A. Baldwin, who was born Jan. 12, 1834, 
 daughter of Darius and Theresa (Dorman) Bald- 
 win. To this union have come children as follows : 
 ( I ) George H. died at the age of twenty years and 
 five months. (2) Mary L. is the wife of Charles 
 E. HeUier, of Boston, and has four children, Louise, 
 Walter, Edwin and John. (3) William is the secre- 
 tary, treasurer and main stockholder of the Pond 
 Lilly Laundry Co. He married ^lary, daughter of 
 Dr. Cargill, and is the father of two children, Mar- 
 garet and William. (4) Frank, -who is associated 
 with his father in the men's furnishings store on 
 Chapel street, is one of the prominent young men of 
 the city, and the store ranks among the up-to-date 
 ones in New Haven. (5) Edwin is associated with 
 his brother William in the Pond Lilly Co. 
 
 Mrs. Mary A. Harmon is a descendant of one of 
 the New England families. Richard Baldwin, a na- 
 tive of Buckinghamshire, England, came early to 
 New England. He was a son of Sylvester and 
 Sarah (Byron) Baldwin, the father dying in 1638, 
 on the passage across the ocean in the ship "Martin." 
 Richard Baldwin's name appears on the records at 
 Milford, Conn., in 1639. He is recorded as a man of 
 character and standing, and took part in public af- 
 fairs. In 1643 he married Elizabeth Alsop, and he 
 died in 1665. From this emigrant ancestor Mrs. 
 
 Harmon is in the seventh generation, her line of de- 
 scent being through Barnabas, Timothy, Enoch, 
 Alexis, and Darius. 
 
 HON. EDWARD NELSON SHELTON, 
 whose death occurred at his home in Derby Sept. 
 16, 1894, was through a long lifetime one of tne 
 town's most prominent busmess men and sub- 
 stantial and useful citizens. 
 
 Born Sept. 4, 1812, at the old Shelton home- 
 stead — the home for generations of his ancestors — 
 in the town of Huntington, Fairfield Co., Conn., 
 Air. Shelton . was the son of Joseph and Charity 
 (Lewis) 3helton, and a representative of sturdy 
 Xew England stock of the Colonial period, among 
 whom were men of rare quality and distinction. 
 
 (I) Daniel Shelton, the paternal emigrant an- 
 cestor of the family and the founder in this coun- 
 try of the Connecticut Sheltons, was a merchant in 
 England. He came to New England in 1686, prob- 
 ablly in the spring of that year, and located in 
 Stratford, Conn. In 1692 he married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Samuel Welles, and granddaughter of 
 Hon. Thomas Welles, of Wethersfield, Conn., one 
 of the early governors of the Commonwealth. Mr. 
 Shelton resided in the village of Stratford until 
 about 1707, when he settled at Long Hill, now the 
 town of Huntington, in Fairfield county. Here he 
 died in 1728, his widow surviving until 1747. when 
 she died aged seventy-seven years. Mr. Shelton 
 was a large landholder owning land in Stratford, 
 Stamford, Farmington, Oxford, Woodbury and 
 Derby,, and was an original, though non-resident, 
 proprietor of Waterbury. 
 
 From this settler, Daniel Shelton_, our subject 
 was a descendant in the fifth generation, his line be- 
 ing through Joseph, William and Joseph .Shel- 
 ton (2). ' 
 
 (II) Joseph Shelton, son of Daniel the settler, 
 born in 1698, married in 1726, Mary, born in 1704, 
 daughter of Joseph and Ann Hollister, of Glaston- 
 .bury. Conn. Mr. Shelton and family lived at Long 
 Hill, where he and his wife died in 1782. 
 
 (III) William Shelton, son of Joseph, born in 
 1739, married in 1764, Susan, daughter of Thomas 
 Strong, of Brook Haven, L. I., and a descendant of 
 Elder John Strong, of the Dorchester (Mass.) 
 Colony ; of Elder Brewster of the Mayflower ; and 
 of Roger Ludlow, Deputy Governor of Massachu- 
 setts. Mr. Shelton lived at Long Hill, and died 
 in 1812. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Shelton (2), son of William, born 
 Aug. 27, 1765, married Nov. 24, 1791, Charity, 
 daughter of Stephen Lewis, of Stratford, Conn., 
 and to them were born eight children, three daugh- 
 ters and five sons. The family lived at the home- 
 stead. Long Hill, later the town of Huntington. 
 His death occurred Sept. i, 1848, when aged eighty- 
 three years. 
 
 Edward Nelson Shelton, son of Joseph and the 
 
102 
 
 :OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 subject proper of this sketch, was reared on his 
 father's farm and had g-ood educational advantages. 
 He attended the schools of his native town, the 
 Derby Academy, and the then celebrated Scientific 
 School of Capt. Partridge at Middletown, the last 
 year of its existence, and also attended a course of 
 lectures during one winter at Yale College. In the 
 spring of 1836, Mr. Shelton associated with the 
 late Nathan C. Sanford, both then men of some 
 means, became identified with the new village of 
 Birmingham, which was founded two years prev- 
 iously. They began the manufacture of tacks, 
 nails, etc., and built a factory on the north side 
 of Main street. The business prospered, but in 
 June, 1841, Mr. Sanford died, universally lamented, 
 and the business was continued under the name of 
 E. N. Shelton until in 1854, when the Shelton 
 Company was formed with a capital of $80,000, 
 which later was increased to $100,000. The plant 
 at Birmingham being too small, a branch factory 
 was operated in Shelton, to, which place the entire 
 business was tr-n?fer'ed in later years. :\Ir. Shel- 
 don continued to be identified with the business of 
 this_company throughout his long active business 
 life, and the great success of the concern was due 
 largely to his careful and judicious management. 
 The plant now consists of a half dozen buildings, 
 or more, in which are manufactured small bolts, 
 tacks and small nails, and in which are employed 
 between one and two hundred hands. This is one 
 of the leading industries of the locality. 
 
 During the more than fifty years of an active 
 business life J\Ir. Shelton was identified with vari- 
 ous business interests, corporations and enter- 
 prises outside of the Shelton ^lanufacturing Co., 
 and his career was one of marked success. Prob- 
 ably nothing, however, with which he was con- 
 nected showed to the public his energy, persever- 
 ance and ability as the project of building a dam 
 across the Housatonic river at Birmingham. The 
 river is, next to the Connecticut and Merrimac, 
 the most powerful river in New England, drain- 
 ing about 2,000 square miles of land, in which are 
 many mountain lakes and springs, having a con- 
 stant flow. It is estimated that, In consequence of 
 these conditions, the average flow at Birmingham, 
 at lowest water, yields 2,500 horse power for twelve 
 hours per day. The curbing of such a vast volume 
 of water was an effort of no small magnitude. The 
 question of damming the river was agitated in 1838, 
 and in 1839 the Legislature authorized an improve- 
 ment of the power at Birmingham and Shelton, but 
 would not allow a dami to be built. Hence the mat- 
 ter was allowed to rest until a more liberal charter 
 could be secured. This was granted in 1864, and 
 two years later the Ousatonic Water Co. was organ- 
 ized under its provisions. By this company, which 
 embraced among its members the leading manu- 
 facturers of Birmingham, the dam at Shelton was 
 built, though not until some had become disheart- 
 
 ened, because so many obstacles beset the under- 
 taking. Others persevered and were richly re- 
 warded in the ownership of one of the finest water 
 powers in the State. The work was begun in 1867 
 and completed in 1870. The dam is a solid mass of 
 masonry 22 feet high and has an entire length of 
 800 feet, 637 feet being in the river proper. This 
 project was a long cherished one with ]\Ir. Shelton 
 who early foresaw the great result that would fol- 
 low. At the organization of the Ousatonic Water 
 Co., in 1866, ]\Ir. Shelton was chosen its president, 
 a position he held until his death in 1894. The 
 burden of the building of the dam fell upon the 
 president, and to Mr. Shelton's efforts the accom- 
 plishment cf the project was mainly due. The la- 
 bor in connection with it was varied and arduous; 
 first was the securing of the land, then the obtain- 
 ing the charter from the Legislature; next came 
 the securing of the capital and the supervision 
 of the work in all its details. The following ex- 
 tracts from the speech of Dr. A. Beardsley, de- 
 livered on the occasion of the celebration of the 
 completion of the dam in 1870 is not out of place 
 in this connection : 
 
 For the success of this work, thus far, we are under 
 greater and more lasting obhgations to the president of 
 the Company, i\Ir. Edward N. Shelton, I was about to 
 say, than all others combined. He has not only largely 
 invested his fortune here, but for more than three years 
 day and night, this " dam of dams " has hung like an incu- 
 bus on his mind, but with an iron will and devotedness of 
 purpose, with an eye single to success, he has braved every 
 obstacle in his way, and without his exertions this water 
 power might have remained idle for ages and we not have 
 been here to-day rejoicing. The building of this da:m will 
 form a new era in the history of old Derby and Hunting- 
 ton. 1 do not e.xpect to live to see the results expected, 
 but there are those within the sound of my voice who 
 may yet see in reality what I see in imagination, the 'rising 
 
 fu""^ t°n ■"/ '^"^' ''''^''='' '5 '° ''"« these shores and cover 
 these hillsides as the "waters cover the sea." 
 
 Mr. Shelton lived to see in a measure the pre- 
 dictions of Dr. Beardsley verified, and was an act- 
 ive participant in all that followed. Identifying 
 himself with the village of Birmingham in its in*^ 
 fancy, he saw it. rise to a city of ten thousand or 
 more. He was the chief founder of the city now 
 bearing his name, and which he aided materialh' 
 m developing into a great manufacturing point with 
 Its more than a score of industries, and having a 
 business rated at upwards of $2,000,000, and em- 
 ploying more than 2,000 hands. Mr. Shelton's 
 heart and interests were largely in Birmingham and 
 :5helton, and to their growth and development he 
 gave greatly of his energies and means. He pos- 
 sessed keen business foresight, prudence and great 
 public spirit, and it was his desire that whatev.'^r 
 was best for the benefit of the many should be ac- 
 complished. He was generous and gave liberally 
 to the Church and its benevolences, and to worthy 
 objects. He was an earnest member of the Episco- 
 pal Lhurch, the church of his ancestors. -V man of 
 honor and strict integritv he was a true friend and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 103 
 
 a wise counsellor. Mr. Shelton was chosen presi- 
 dent at its organization of the old Manufacturer's 
 Bank in 1848, which later became the Birmingham 
 National, and remained its executive head until 
 his death. Although elected to the State Senate and 
 serving with ability in that body in 1869, he had 
 no taste nor liking for politics or public office. 
 
 Mr. Shelton was married to Mary Jane, born 
 Sept. 28, 1819, daughter of Linson and Jane De 
 Forest, and the union was blessed with children as 
 follows : ( I ) Edward De Forest, who for years 
 has been identified with the Shelton Company, and 
 since his father's death, been its executive head and 
 treasurer, is one of the leading business men of 
 the Naugatuck Valley, and is here claimed, though 
 now a resident of Brooklyn, N. Y. (2) Elizabeth 
 Eugene, born July 31, 1841, married Thomas L. 
 Cornell, and died Oct. 13, 1881. 
 
 THE YALE FAMILY, of whom the late Hor- 
 ace Yale, a worthy citizen of Meriden, was a de- 
 scendant, is an old family of Connecticut. 
 
 (I) Thomas Yale, son of David and Ann, was 
 born about 1616, in England, or Wales. David 
 Yale was the descendant of an ancient and wealthy 
 family of that name in Wales. He married, in 1613, 
 Ann, daughter of Bishop Morton, and died prob- 
 ably before middle age, leaving three children, 
 David, Ann and Thomas. In 1618 the mother be- 
 came the wife of Theophilus Eaton, then an opu- 
 lent merchant in London, and with him and a large 
 company of other emigrants, including her three 
 children bv David Yale, embarked on board the 
 "Hector" for America, arriving at Boston, Mass., 
 June 26, 1637, and at New Haven (then Quin- 
 nipiac) April 14, 1638. Thomas Yale married, in 
 1645, Mary, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Turner, 
 of Lynn, Mass., in 1630, and of New Haven in 
 1638. Thomas Yale came to America in 1637, with 
 Gov. Eaton and others, and settled in New Ha- 
 ven as a merchant in 1638, with an estate of £300. 
 Later he purchased lands in that part of New Ha- 
 ven afterward North Haven, and settled on them 
 as early as 1660. He Was one of the principal men 
 of the Colony, a signer of the Plantation Covenant 
 of New Haven, and filled with honor many offices 
 of trust. He died March 27, 1683, aged sixty- 
 seven years. Mrs. Yale died Oct. 15, 1704. 
 
 (II) Capt. Thomas Yale (2), son of Thomas 
 (also called "Captain"), born about 1647, in New 
 Haven, married (first) Dec. 11, 1667, Rebecca, 
 daughter of William Gibbards, of New Haven, and 
 she was the mother of his children. About two 
 years after his first marriage he, with others, be- 
 gan to agitate the settlement of Wallingford, to 
 which place he removed in 1670, with a small band 
 of other adventurers, under the guidance and di- 
 rection of the New Haven committee. By the rec- 
 ords of Wallingford it appears that he was one 
 of the most active and energetic men among them. 
 He assisted in the formation of the Church, and in 
 
 the call of the first and second ministers. He was 
 a justice of the peace, captain of the trainiband, etc. 
 He died at Wallingford Jan. 26, 1736, aged eighty- 
 nine years. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Yale, son of Capt. Thomas 
 (2), born July 12, 1681, married Anna Peck, born 
 in 1685, daughter of John Peck, of Wallingford. 
 He was a farmer and settled in that part of the 
 town now known as Meriden. He died Dec. 11, 
 171 1, and his widow became the wife of Joseph 
 Cole, of Wallingford, and died in 1716. 
 
 (IV) Abel Yale, son of Nathaniel, born March 
 9, 1707, married (first) July 22, 1730, Esther Cook, 
 and (second) June 3, 1742, Sarah Atkins, of Mid- 
 dletown. Mr. Yale purchased a homestead on East 
 Main street, about three-fourths of a mile east of 
 Broad street, Meriden, which was occupied for five 
 generations by this family. When the people of the 
 Meriden parish decided to settle the first minister. 
 Rev. Theophilus Llall, they offered him choice 
 among their farms. He selected that of Abel Yale, 
 in what is now Curtis street, the 'present Willard 
 Hall place, and Mr. Yale purchased the homestead 
 above referred to, in East Main street. By oc- 
 cupation Abel Yale was a farmer. He died April 
 8, 1784, and Mrs. Yale died Dec. 20, 1800. 
 
 (V) Daniel Yale, son of Abel, born July 24, 
 1750, occupied the paternal estate, which remained 
 in the possession of descendants till the year 1867. 
 He married, Feb. i, 1781, Phebe Mariams, of 
 Meriden, who died Nov. 17, 1835. The original 
 house where all his children were born was a short 
 distance east of the present one now owned by John 
 Aubrey, and is noticeable because of its unusual 
 distance from the street. At the time of its build- 
 ing, by Daniel Yale, near the year 1800, he was 
 told that he should place his house with reference 
 to the change in the road that was likely to be 
 made when the Middletown turnpike should be laid 
 out, but he declared that no turnpike would ever 
 go through his meadow, and placed his residence 
 facing the old road which formerly passed a short 
 distance south of the house. But the turnpike — 
 har^binger of the canal, railroad, electric car tracks 
 and bicycle path — was inevitable, and thus it came 
 to pass than Daniel Yale's new house soon stood 
 with its back door facing the street. In 1776 Daniel 
 Yale, then twent)'-six years of age, enlisted in Cap' 
 tain John Couches' Company in the parish of Meri- 
 den. This company was assigned as part of Brad- 
 ley's Battalion, Wadsworth's Brigade. Bradley's 
 Battalion was stationed during the greater part of 
 the summer and early fall of 1776 at Bergen 
 Heights and Paulus Hook (now Jersey City). In 
 October it moved up the river to the vicinity of 
 Fort Lee, then under Gen. Green's command. In 
 November most of the regiment were sent across 
 to assist m defending Fort Washington, which 
 on the fall of the fort, November 16, was captured 
 with the entire garrison. After his discharge from 
 service, when on the journey home, which was 
 
I04 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 made on foot, Daniel Yale and his companion were 
 taken with smallpox and endured great suffering 
 before reaching a place of shelter. After traveling 
 till their feet were blistered, an aged woman took 
 them in and cared for them. Daniel Yale was a 
 man of sterling integrity and decided opinions. He 
 had a forcible manner of expressing his views, es- 
 pecially on the subject of religion. It is thought 
 in theology his ideas were those of a Universalist. 
 He was a cooper and supported his family of eight 
 children by carrying on this trade in connection 
 with farming. Daniel Yale died March 28, 1834. 
 Although he had four sons, there is only one of 
 the fifth generation who bears the name. Walker 
 Asa Yale, son of Samuel P Yale, of New Haven. 
 
 (^'I) Abel Yale, son of Daniel, was born June 
 15, 1788, and was blessed with an unusually happy, 
 jovial nature. He engaged in farming in Meriden 
 on the old homestead. On Oct. 3, 1816, he married 
 Polly Austin, who died Aug. 15, 1840, aged forty- 
 eight years. On Aug. 15, 1841, he married Lucy 
 Booth. Abel Yale died Sept. 23, 1859. His chil- 
 dren were: Henry, born July 8, 1817, was married 
 April 29, 1862, to Sarah Elizabeth Waring, who 
 was born in Greenwich, Conn., Dec. 17, 1826; he 
 was a britannia manufacturer in Xew York, died 
 in Meriden Oct. 14, 1868, and his remains rest in 
 Greenwich. Austin, born April 14, 1819, died 
 April 30, 1822. Horace is mentioned below. 
 
 (Vn) Horace Yale was born June 17, 182$, 
 in Meriden, grew up on the paternal farm, and 
 received his education in the local schools. Later 
 he learned the trade of stone-mason, and was en- 
 gaged several years as foreman in that line. His 
 next employment was in the Meriden Britannia 
 factory, under L C. Lewis, and he was subsecjuent- 
 ly with the Meriden Britannia Co., where he con- 
 tinued many years. He died Dec. 25, 1895, at his 
 home on West Main street, Meriden, and was laid 
 to rest in Walnut Grove cemetery. Mr. Yale en- 
 joyed the highest reputation as a man of indus- 
 trious habits, honest and upright in his dealings 
 with his fello'wmen, and a Christian in all the re- 
 lations of life. A loving husband and father, do- 
 mestic in his habits, and devoted to his family, he 
 was deeply mourned in his immediate home circle, 
 and was also greatly missed in various fields of 
 usefulness. In religious connection he was a de- 
 vout member of the Alain street Baptist Church, 
 in which he served for a time as deacon. He was 
 strictly temperate, belonged to the Independent Or- 
 der of Good Templars, and voted the Prohibition 
 ticket. 
 
 On AIa\- 29, 1853, All. Yale married Aliss Caro- 
 line AI. Andrews, who was born in Cheshire, New 
 Haven county, daughter of Hiram and Martha 
 Maria (llotchkiss) Andrews, and this union was 
 blessed with one child, Charlotte Lilla, born March 
 1.1. 1855. She received her early education in 
 Meriden and later graduated from the State Nor- 
 mal school at Xew Britain, subsec|uently teaching 
 
 two years in Aleriden and Southington. Having 
 a great desire to study art she gave up the teach- 
 er's profession, studied at the Art Students League 
 in New York, and is now absorbed in her work 
 at her studio, 208 West Main street, Meriden. She 
 united with the Main street Baptist Church, of 
 which Mrs. Yale is a member, and belongs to the 
 society of the Daughters of the American Revo- 
 lution, holding membership in Ruth Hart Chapter. 
 ■Mrs. Yale is a woman of a retiring nature and 
 firm Christian character, wielding a quiet influ- 
 ence for good over all who know her. 
 
 ROBERT TREAT MERWIN has, in his iden- 
 tification of nearly fifty years with the real-estate 
 business in New Haven, placed himself among that 
 cit\-'s very oldest business men in point of service. 
 Certainly there is no citizen of New Haven whose 
 long business career has been any more character- 
 ized by strictly upright and honorable methods. 
 
 Mr. Merwin was born Jan. 26, 1838, and was 
 named after Gov. Treat. He comes from one of the 
 oldest families of New Haven county, one that has 
 been identified with Milford from the earliest his- 
 tory of that town. The Merwin family were among 
 the earliest settlers of Milford, and our subject is 
 descended from Thomas Alerwin, one of three 
 brothers who came from Wales. Amy (Treat) 
 Alerwin, the grandmother of our subject, was a 
 granddaughter of Gov. Robert Treat, of Connect- 
 icut. 
 
 Ira Merwin, father of Robert T., was reared in 
 Milford, and when a young man came to New 
 Haven to learn the trade of a joiner, which was his 
 occupation for many years. In 1849 he went into 
 the real-estate business in New Haven, and followed 
 the same until his death, at the age of sixty-five. 
 He was a man of much strength of character, and 
 at one time served as alderman in New Haven. As 
 president of the Building Association he constructed 
 many houses, several of the best in the city. A 
 prominent member of the Masonic fraternity, he 
 served as grand master, and was also a member of 
 the Odd Fellows and the State militia. Mr. Merwin 
 belonged to Fire Department No. 4. He was a ves- 
 tryman in the Episcopal Church, and took a very 
 active part in its affairs. He married Elizabeth C. 
 Taylor, who was born in Suffield, and of their 
 twelve children, Robert T. is the only one now liv- 
 ing. Mrs. Merwin is remembered as a woman of 
 grand character, alert in all the domestic duties of 
 life, kind and thoughtful and self-sacrificing in her 
 devotion to her numerous family. She was a mem- 
 ber of the Episcopal Church, and died in the faith 
 of that communion at the age of sixty-one vears. 
 
 Robert Treat Merwin spent his early years in 
 New Haven, and obtained his education at the com- 
 mon schools. He entered the real-estate business at 
 the age of fifteen years, in the office of his father, 
 with whom he remained as long as that gentleman 
 continued in active life. Since the death of his 
 
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 ■ 
 
 
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 I^H 9 
 
 
 
 ^^^^gi^ 
 
 J'Satrx^' "O^ AA 
 
 (1>V>'»«A'W 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 los 
 
 father Mr. Mervvin has been alone in his office, and 
 has hved to be the oldest man in the business in 
 New .Haven. When he began there were onh' three 
 real-estate men in the city, and now there are over 
 two hundred. I\Ir. Merwin has done much building 
 ' for others and considerable for himself. At the 
 present time he is handling a large amount of prop- 
 erty, not only for others, but in his own interest as 
 well. He has been called upon a number of times 
 to testify as an expert in real-estate litigation, both 
 m and out of the city, his opinion on real-estate val- 
 ues probably carrying as much weight as that of any 
 man in Connecticut. After his many years of busi- 
 ness activity, Mr. l\Ierwin's intellect is as keen and 
 comprehensive as at any time in his life. He has 
 ahvays been a man of the most regular habits, 
 strictly temperate, never a drinker or user of to- 
 bacco. In his dealings with many thousand tenants 
 his kindness and generosity have been frequently 
 evidenced, for, though systematic and. precise, he 
 has a genuine sympathy for the poor, which he has 
 many times shown in a substantial though quiet 
 way. Always courteous and gentlemanly, he is the 
 type of a citizen which reflects credit on even such 
 an honored and distinguished family as the one 
 from which he descends. He is one of the well- 
 known and successful business men of his city. Mr. 
 IVl'erwin has never sought or held public office, al- 
 ways finding his time taken up with business, after 
 which his interest in his home comes first. 
 
 J\Ir. Merwin was married, in iS^^g, to Harriet P. 
 Northrop, who was born in New Haven, in a house 
 which stood on the present site of St. Thomas' 
 Church. Her father, Rudolphus E. Northrop, was 
 a carver, and died at the age of sixty. Her mother, 
 Martha J. (Brown) Northrop, was born in New 
 Haven. Mr. and Mrs. Northrop had three children 
 who lived to adult age, and all are living at the 
 present writing: Mrs. Wellman, a widow; Harriet 
 P.; and Edward A. B., who is in. Kansas. Mrs. 
 Northrop died in her seventieth year. The Nor- 
 throps were members of St. Thomas Church, where 
 they had pew rent free. To Mr. and Mrs. Mer- 
 win have been born three children: (i) Alice N. 
 married Albert W. Mattoon, a cigar manufacturer 
 in New Haven, and is the mother of three children, 
 Merwin, Robert T. and Lucien. (2) Edith L. is at 
 home with her parents. (3) One child is deceased. 
 Mr. Merwin is a Democrat, and takes a fair de- 
 gree of interest in politics. He is an appraiser of 
 real estate for the New Haven Savings Bank, and is 
 a director of Grace Hospital. He and all his family 
 are members of St. John's Episcopal Church, of 
 which he is senior warden. 
 
 LYMAN HARRISON HALL, deceased. Dur- 
 ing a long and useful life, Lyman Harrison Hall 
 was one of Meriden's most highly respected citi- 
 zens, one whose memory is still cherished by those 
 who were permitted to come close to his personal 
 life. He was born Dec. 28, 1823. in Yalesville. 
 
 Conn., a descendant of one of the oldest families 
 in New Haven county. 
 
 John Hall, the founder of this family, was a 
 native of England, and his first location in Amer- 
 ica was at Boston, Mass., removal later being made 
 to New Haven. A comprehensive history of this 
 family will be found in another part of this vol- 
 ume. 
 
 Samuel Hall, son of John, married Hannah 
 Walker, in 1668, and was one of the first settlers 
 in Wallingford, where his death occurred March 
 5, 1725. at the age of seventy-seven years, his 
 widow surviving until Dec. 20, 1728. 
 
 John Hall, son of Samuel, was born Dec. 23, 
 1670, in Wallingford, Conn., and married Mary 
 Lyman, who died Oct. 16, 1740. He died April 29, 
 1730. 
 
 Caleb Hall, the fourth child of John Hall, was 
 born in the town of Wallingford Sept. 14, 1697, 
 was graduated from Yale, and he became a prom- 
 inent man in his day. His whole life was spent 
 in Wallingford, where he died July 27, 1749, and 
 his remains, are in the possession of this old town. 
 He married Demaris Atwater, May 15, 1721, her 
 death taking place on July 29, 1762, at the age of 
 sixty-four years. To this union seven children 
 were born. 
 
 Caleb Hall (2), one of the three sons of Caleb 
 Hali, was bom Aug. 29, 1731, graduated from Yale 
 College in 1752, and became a physician of prom- 
 inence in Wallingford, where he died Sept. 21, 
 1783. Caleb Hall was married to Prudence 
 Holt, who died Nov. 30, 1807, at the age 
 of sixty-seven years. Their children were : Caleb 
 Johnson, born Sept. 22, 1763; Augustus, born Aug. 
 16, 1765; Abigail, born Jan. 29, 1767, married first 
 Samuel Carrington, and second, Nehemiah Rice ; 
 Eunice, born Aug. 24, 1770; Benjamin, born July 
 26, 1772; Horatio Gates, born Jan. 17, 1778; and 
 George and Demaris, twins, born Feb. 10, 1782. 
 
 Horatio Gates Hall, the grandfather of Lyman 
 Harrison Hall, was born Jan. 17, 1778, and mar- 
 ried Polly Byington, a daughter of Benjamin 
 Byington, born Aug. 25, 1777. Their children 
 were : Augustus, who was born July 14, 1799, mar- 
 ried Rhoda Doolittle ; Lyman, who was born May 7, 
 1801 ; Horace, who was born May 25, 1804, mar- 
 ried a Miss Bull ; Mary, who was born March 16, 
 1807, married Leverett Allen ; Josiah H. and Abi- 
 gail. 
 
 Lyman Hall, son of Horatio Gates Hall, and 
 the father o-f Lyman Harrison Hall, was born in 
 Wallingford, Conn., May 7, 1801. His trade was 
 that of blacksmith, which he followed in Yales- 
 ville, Conn., his death occurring at the age of 
 forty-two years. He married S'na Button, who 
 also passed out of life at a comparatively early 
 age. They were consistent members of the Con- 
 gregational Church in Wallinsrford, and their burial 
 took place in that town. Their 'family consisted 
 of seven children : Lyman Harrison, who was born 
 
io6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Dec. 28, 1823; Newbury Button, who was born July 
 6, 1826 ; Laura Amanda, who was bo.rn Aug. 25, 
 1828, married Charles D. Hall, of Bristol, Conn.; 
 George Starr, who was born Aug. 22, 1832; Sina 
 Aseneth, who was born Sept. 9, 1834; Adelaide 
 Amanda, who was born Sept. 10, 1837; ^^d Mary 
 A., who was born June 8, 1843. 
 
 The early life of Lyman Harrison Hall was 
 that of the village lad of his age, his instruction 
 at school being under the Hon. Dexter R. W'right, 
 in preparation for a business career. He had his 
 opportunity in the Aleriden Britannia works, and 
 was entering upon an industrial life, when the stir- 
 ring events of 1861 changed the current of his 
 thoughts, and with loyal heart he became a soldier 
 in the defense of his country. Enlisting in Co. F, 
 15th Conn. \' L, he faithfully served through three 
 long and eventful years, suffering during this time 
 imprisonment in Libby's dungeons, where his health 
 was seriously impaired. As corporal of his com- 
 pany, he performed every duty set before him, but 
 was glad to return to his old home after the close 
 of the war. 
 
 Resuming his position with the Britannia com- 
 pany, he remained attached to that house until, after 
 a verv short illness, he was called from earth March 
 I, 1888, and was buried in Walnut Grove cem- 
 etery. In political sentiment, Mr. Hall was a Re- 
 publican, but he had no ambition for ofifice. Other 
 things interested him much more, one of these be- 
 ing his church, his Sunday-school and his religious 
 duties. The Bible was to him indeed "the Book of 
 Books" and it was his habit to prepare himself for 
 the trials and temptations of the day by reading its 
 pages in the early morning, also closing the day 
 in the same manner. But a few moments beifore 
 his spirit took its flight this wise counselor and 
 comforter was in his hand. Devoted to the inter- 
 ests of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, he acted 
 as usher for many years and was so beloved as 
 a Sunday-school teacher that the beautiful and ap- 
 propriate memorial window which adorns St. An- 
 drew's was placed there in loving memory of him, 
 by the Sunday-school. 
 
 In fraternal circles, Air. Hall was valued for 
 the active interest he took in these organizations 
 and for his personal qualities, as comrade and man. 
 With Meridian Lodge, No. 77,^ A. F. & A. M., he 
 was long connected. While he was Past Grand in 
 Meriden Center Lodge, No. 68, I. O. O. F. Reso- 
 lutions of confidence, condolence and affection were 
 prepared bv both fraternities, that of the former be- 
 ing as follows : 
 
 Meriden. Conn., March 5, 1888. 
 To Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M. . 
 
 Your committee that was appointed to prepare a 
 suitable tribute in memory of our late Brother and P. M., 
 L. H. Hall, offer the following report : 
 
 We feel that we but express the feelings of every 
 active member of this Lodge when we say that his death 
 is a loss to us of no ordinary magnitude. He united with 
 us while serving in the honored capacity of the citizen 
 soldier, and when "The war drum beat no longer" he 
 
 gave to our fraternity the same loyal and willing service 
 that he rendered to the Nation. 
 
 It is a long and honorable record, whether in the 
 humblest position, or presiding as W. M. in the Ea:st, no- 
 call to duty was unheeded, no service neglected that he 
 could render to our Great Brotherhood. His genial, 
 kindly nature won our love, his integrity our unbounded 
 confidence. 
 
 In his death our city and town have lost one of the 
 best citizens ; the Church with which he was so long con- 
 nected, a zealous and faithful member. To us he was that 
 embodiment of the Ideal Man, the just and upright Mason. 
 
 To her who was tor many years the partner of his joys 
 and sorrows, we tender our heartfelt sympathy, while we 
 say, "Look beyond the clouds." 
 
 We place upon our records this tribute to his memory 
 and add his name to the long roll of our honored dead; 
 but in our hearts will be written, in indelible lines, the 
 name of our Friend and Brother, Lyman Harrison Hall. 
 
 Committee: William Wallace Lee, ^.lathew Beatty, 
 W. H. Wertwood. 
 
 John P. Wein, W M. 
 
 George A. Davis, Sec. 
 
 The m&morial adopted by Aleriden Center 
 Lodge, No. 68, I. O. O. F., of Meriden was no 
 less expressive and beautiful : 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Again the grim Monster has invaded our sacred bor- 
 ders, and has taken from among us one of our oldest and' 
 most respected members. 
 
 We looked to Past Grand Hall as a wise Counsellor, 
 a friend to the distressed and needy, a true and tried Odd 
 Fellow, and one on whom we could rely. 
 
 Brothers of Meriden Center Lodge, we mourn his de- 
 parture, but we have the assurance that that which is our 
 loss is his eternal gain. 
 
 Resolved, That we extend to the widow of our de- 
 parted Brother, our sincere sympathy in the hours of her 
 affliction, believing that he is not dead, but gone before. 
 
 Resolved; That as a token of respect, we wear the 
 badge of mourning for the space of thirty days. 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the 
 records of the Lodge, and a copy sent to the widow of our 
 late Brother. 
 
 Adopted by vote of ^Meriden Center Lodge, No. 68, 
 L O. O. F.. April 20. 1888. 
 
 H. S. Hitchcock, Sec. Attest : 
 
 On Dec. 22, 1847, L^mian Harrison Hall was 
 married to Jane E. Bradley, who was born Feb. 
 
 11, 1824, in Southington, Conn., a daughter of 
 Willis Bradley. She still resides in Meriden, in 
 her home on Crown street, with her sister, INIrs. 
 Frances L. Linsley. 
 
 BR,\ni,F.Y. The Bradley family, of which Mrs. 
 Hall and Mrs. Linsley are descendants, is an old 
 one in New England, the first citizen of that name 
 hi New Flaven county. Conn., being Isaac Bradley, 
 who is recorded a resident of Branford, in 1674. 
 Later he moved to East Haven, where he died Jan. 
 
 12, 1713. His wife, Enza)beth, died Jan. 3, 1713, 
 at the age of fifty-six years. 
 
 Samuel Bradley, son of Isaac, was born in 1686, 
 and on Jan. 17, 1715, married Sarah, the daugh- 
 ter of Jacob Robinson, of East Haven. 
 
 Daniel Bradley, son of Samuel, was married 
 Nov. 28, 1757, to Sarah Judd, a daughter of Ben- 
 jamin and Sarah (Hollister) Judd, of Glastonbury, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 10 J 
 
 her death occurring Nov. 19, 1764, after giving 
 birth to her sixth child, who, on this account w^as 
 named by his pious 'father, Ichabod. On Feb. 12, 
 1767, Daniel Bradley married for his second wife 
 Mehitabel Hemingway, a native of East Haven. 
 Until 1779, he resided in East Haven, removing 
 then to Southington, where he bought a large faiTn, 
 upon which he continued until 1798, when he re- 
 moved to Litchfield, where he died. 
 
 Ichabod Bradley, son of Daniel, was born Nov. 
 10, 1764, and on Nov. 27, 1788, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Abigail Aloore, who was a 
 daughter of Roswell Moore. The children of this 
 union were: Polly, who married Benjamin An- 
 drews ; Willis, who married Fanny Stedman ; 
 William, who married Sarah Gilbert ; Roswell who 
 married Julia Newell ; Diadamia, whO' married 
 Julius Hart; Hial, who married Eliza Gilbert; 
 Charles, who married Delia Stedman ; and Amon, 
 who married Sylvia Barnes, these last being one 
 of the oldest married couples now living in South- 
 ington. Ichabod Bradley came with his parents 
 to Southington when they removed thither, became 
 interested here in farming operations, and so con- 
 tinued through life, dying Oct. 13, 1832, his wife 
 having died on the 13th of the previous April. 
 Both rest in the cemetery in Southington. 
 
 Willis Bradley, son of Ichabod, was 'born in 
 1791 in Southington, on the homestead, where he 
 grew to manhood, becoming an extensive farmer 
 and stock raiser, and a man of respectability and 
 influence. His death occurred at the old home, 
 Feb. 15, 1851, when he was aged sixty years. His 
 widow survived him, in a wonderful preservation 
 of physical and mental health, until the age of 
 ninety-two j'ears, dying at the home of her daugh- 
 ter, Mrs. Hall, and both parents now rest in Wal- 
 nut Grove cemetery, in Meriden. Both had been 
 worthy members of society, devoted to the belief 
 of the Methodist and Congregational Churches, 
 Mr. Bradley was married in 1820 to Fanny Sted- 
 man, a native of New Britain, Conn., daughter of 
 Samuel and Mary Stedman. She was born Jan. 
 17, 1793. The two children of this marriage were 
 the daughters who still survive them : Jane Eliza, 
 born Feb. 11, 1824, married Lyman Harrison Hall; 
 and Frances Louisa, born May 21, 1834, married 
 Marcus M. Linsley. Both are active communi- 
 cants of St. Andrew's Church. 
 
 Moore. Through their grandmother, Abigail 
 Moore, Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Linsley are connected 
 with another of the old and respected families of 
 New England. 
 
 Deacon John Moore, the progenitor of the fam- 
 ily in America, came from England, in 1630, on 
 the "Mary and John," the same vessel on which the 
 Edwards family and the ancestors of Gen. Grant 
 also emigrated to the United States. Deacon John 
 Moore first landed at Dorchester, Mass., and in 
 company with Rev. Mr. Warham came to Wind- 
 sor, Conn., in 1635, the same year that John Hooker 
 and his company settled in Hartford. The Moores 
 
 have nearly all been of a light and florid complex- 
 ion, and rather tall. 
 
 John Moore, son of Deacon Moore, and a 
 farmer by occupation, was born in Windsor, Conn., 
 and married Hannah Goff. John Moore, son of 
 John and Hannah, was born also in Windsor, and 
 in 1693 married Abigail Strong, a representative 
 of one of the largest and most distinguished fam- 
 ilies in America. Their son, known in the records 
 as John (4), was also born in Windsor, became a 
 farmer, and was married Dec. 2, 1724, to Miss 
 Abigail Stoughton. 
 
 Roswell ^loore, son of John (4), was also a 
 native of Windsor, but at an early day moved to 
 Southington, where he married Desire Dunham, 
 and there followed an agricultural life. Roswell 
 JXIoore, son of Roswell and Desire, was a farmer 
 and manufacturer in Southington, married Lovina 
 Philips and for fourteen consecutive years repre- 
 sented Southington in the State Legislature. His 
 son. Gen. Grannis Moore, represented the town 
 for the same length of time. This Roswell Moore 
 was the grandfather of Nelson Augustus Moore, 
 of Kensington, Conn., and the great-grandfather 
 of Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Linsley. 
 
 Marcus AIunson Linsley, the well-known 
 traveling salesman of Hartford, was born in North 
 Haven, in August, 1832, and is a son of Marcus 
 and Clarissa (Fowler) Linsley. A sketch of this 
 prominent family and its tranches, will be found 
 in another part of this volume. 
 
 Marcus Munson Linsley attended the district 
 schools of East Haven, but at the age of fourteen 
 years he gratified his ambition to become a sailor 
 by running away from home and shipping on board 
 of a whaling vessel. Three )'ears of this life satis- 
 fied him, and then he came to Meriden. Here he 
 learned the carpenter and joiner trade with John 
 D. Billard, with whom he worked for a number of 
 years, through Meriden, Middletown, New Haven 
 and New Britain, being associated with his brother, 
 Solomon Fowler Linsley. Mr. Linsley climbed the 
 lightning rod to the belfry of the church, which 
 is the present Meriden Opera House, and rang 
 the bell in honor of the nomination of John C. Fre- 
 mont for President. 
 
 During the Civil war, Mr. Linsley was no quiet 
 onlooker, but an active participant, as a member 
 Co. A, 15th Conn. V. I., being transferred in 1864 
 to the Navy, where he most gallantly held the of^ 
 fice and performed the duties of Master's Mate. 
 
 In 1858, ilr. Linsley was united in marriage to 
 Miss Frances Louisa Bradley, and one daughter 
 was born to this union, Colie, who married Samuel 
 J. Hussey, a well-known decorative artist of Hart- 
 ford. The two children of the latter marriage 
 were: Clara, who died at the age of four years; 
 and Earl Frank, who is his father's capable book- 
 keeper. For twenty-five years Mr. Linsley has ably 
 represented on the road one of the old business 
 firms of Hartford. Fraternally he is connected 
 with the G. A. R., and the Freemasons, and he is 
 
io8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a pleasant, genial gentleman, highly esteemed in 
 both business and social circles in his home com- 
 munity. 
 
 HORACE HUBBARD STRONG, one of the 
 founders of the produce house of Strong, Barnes, 
 Hart & Co., of New Haven, and for many years 
 after the middle of the century one of New Haven's 
 active and enterprising merchants and substantial 
 citizens, was a representative of one of the old and 
 prominent families of New England, generations of 
 ■which were born, and lived and died in the town of 
 Durham, Connecticut. 
 
 Born in that town May 24. 1830, our subject 
 was a son of Alvah B. and Huldah (Tooley) 
 Strong, and a descendant in the eighth generation 
 from John Strong, who was born in Taunton, Eng- 
 land, in 1605, and later was of London and Ply- 
 mouth. A strong Puritan sympathizer, he sailed 
 from Plymouth for New England in 1630, in the 
 ship "Mary and John," arriving May 30th of that 
 year at a point "twelve miles south of Boston, 
 known as Nantasket. After a short stay there he 
 became one of the founders of Dorchester; thence 
 in 1635 went to Hingham ; and later became one of 
 the founders of Dorchester; and still later became 
 -one of the proprietors of Taunton, from which town 
 Tie was a deputy to the General Court in 1641, 1643 
 and 1644. From Taunton he went to Windsor, 
 Conn., thence to Northampton, Mass., becoming 
 ■one of the most active founders of that place, where 
 for forty years he was a leading man in the affairs 
 ■of town and church. For his second wife he mar- 
 ried Abigail Ford, of Dorchester, who died in 1688. 
 He died in 1679. From this emigrant ancestor Hor- 
 ace Hubbard' Strong's line of descent is through 
 Thomas, Thomas (2), Lieut. Eliakim, Lieut. EH- 
 akim (2), Eliakim (3), and Alvah Buell Strong. 
 
 (II) Thomas Strong, son of John the emigrant, 
 born in 163—, married (first) in 1660 Marv, daugh- 
 ter of Rev. Ephraim Hewett, of Windsor, Conn., 
 and later with his family moved to Northampton, 
 where he died in 1689. 
 
 (III) Thomas Strong (2), son of Thomas, born 
 in 1661, married in 1683 Mary, daughter of John, of 
 Northampton. Mr. Strong moved to Durham, 
 Conn., in about 1708, and died there. He was a 
 farmer. 
 
 (I\') Lieut. Eliakim Strong, son of Thomas 
 (2), born in 1688, married in 1712 Mehitabel, 
 daughter of John King, of Northampton, and re- 
 moved to Durham, Conn., between 1725 and 1730. 
 By occupation Mr. Strong was a farmer. He died 
 i" 174,^-4''^. 
 
 ( \ ') Lieut. Eliakim Strong (2), son of Lieut. 
 Eliakim, born in 1720, married in 175 1 Hannah, 
 daughter of Lieut. Joseph Seward, and became a 
 large farmer of Durham, Conn. His death oc- 
 curred in 1800 in Durham, N. Y., Avhither he had 
 gone to a son in 1793. 
 
 (VI) Eliakim Strong (3), son of Lieut. Eliakim 
 
 (2), born in 1751, married (second) in 179° R^th 
 daughter of Flab Camp. Mr. Strong was a farmer 
 in Durham, and served in the war of the Revolu- 
 tion. He died in 1804, and his wife in i8i4- 
 
 (VII) Alvah Buell Strong, son of Eliakim (3), 
 and the father of our subject, born Dec. 29, 1799- 
 married in 1828 Huldah Tooley, who was born Feb. 
 25, 1809, daughter of Abram Toolev, of Madison, 
 Conn. Mr. Strong was a farmer of Durham, Conn., 
 where he died April 21, 1846. He and his wife had 
 children as follows : Horace H., our subject, who 
 is mentioned at greater length below; Ezra B., born 
 May 14, 1832; Daniel, born June 24, 1834; and 
 Laura M., born June 23, 1843, who is unmarried. 
 
 Horace Hubbard Strong, the subject proper of 
 this sketch, was reared on the farm of his father in 
 the town of Durham. In early boyhood he received 
 the advantages of the neighborhood schools in sea- 
 son. At sixteen he became a farm hand in the neigh- 
 borhood, and until eighteen worked for small wages, 
 after which, for three vears, until nearly of age, he 
 was employed in Webb's Comb Factorv in Meriden. 
 Following this he went to the city of New Haven, 
 and for a period was employed in the Alonson Pie 
 Bakery. A few years later, in 1854., young Strong 
 established a meat market on a sm^Il scale, associat- 
 ing with him in the enterprise F. H. Hart, the style 
 of the firm being Hart & Strong, and their place of 
 business was the corner of Olive and Grand streets. 
 Two vears later Mr. Hart withdrew from the busi- 
 ness for the purpose of moving to the West. He 
 was succeeded in the firm by M. G. Hall, the name 
 changing to Strong & Hall, succeeding A. A. Todd. 
 In i860 Mr. Strong purchased his partner's interest 
 in the business and until 1862 was sole proprietor. 
 In that year Mr. Hart, having returned from the 
 West, again became interested in the business, the 
 firm becoming Strong: & Hart. About a decade 
 later, in February, 1872, the produce hause of 
 Strong, Barnes, Hart & Co. was organized from the 
 business, the gentlemen comprisins: the firm being 
 H. H. Strong, Henbert Barnes, F. H. Hart and 
 Orrin Doolittle. At this change the business of the 
 concern was moved to Nos. 65-67 Long Wharf, 
 where it has since been carried on, and it has become 
 one of the large and extensively known produce 
 houses of the State, as well as one of the most suc- 
 cessfully conducted. Not a little that has entered 
 into the development of the business and given it 
 character and confidence was due to the energy and 
 ability of him who stood at its head so long and 
 whose name is so continued. 
 
 Mr. Strong through a long period of vears was 
 prominent and useful in town and city affairs. As 
 a busines man his judgment was sound, his ability 
 of high order and his integrity unquestioned. Out- 
 side of his regular business he was variously inter- 
 ested in other entei-prises and active in public'affairs. 
 He was interested in and president of the Stroncr 
 Fire Arms Co., and was secretarv and treasurer of 
 the Mallett Cattle Co., of Texas. He held various 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 log 
 
 positions under tlie city government, always prov- 
 ing a valuable and safe official. He gave great sat- 
 isfaction as a member of the board of education, and 
 the Strong School w^as so named in his honor. In 
 1877 Mr. Strong: represented the town of East 
 Haven in the State Legislature. He was for a num- 
 ber of years captain of the Second Company, Gov- 
 ernor's Horse Guard, and in the early 'eighties was 
 commissioned major. He was a Knight Templar 
 Mason, and prominent in Masonic circles. For 
 many years he was identified with the Second Con- 
 gregational Church of Fair Haven. 
 
 On Oct. 10, 1855, Mr. Strong was married to 
 Miss Sarah Rebecca Johnson, of Litchfield County, 
 Conn., and the union was blessed with two children, 
 who grew to adult age, Ella Frances and Addie H. 
 The former is the wife of George M. Baldwin, of 
 Fair Haven, and has two children, Sarah Strong 
 and George Horace. The latter is single. Mr. 
 Strong passed awa}' July 2'/, 1893, and his wife sur- 
 vived until Aug. 3, ir 
 
 ABRAHAM THO^IPSON, whose widow is 
 now residing at No. 719 Orange street, New Ha- 
 ven, will be remembered by the older residents 
 of that city and East Haven in both of which he 
 was well known in his day. He was a native of East 
 Haven, born in 181 5, son of James Thompson. 
 
 The Thompson family in Connecticut was 
 founded by three brothers, John, Anthony and Will- 
 iam, who came from Lenham, in the County of Kent, 
 England, where the old mansion house still stands, 
 and were signers of the Colony Constitution in 
 1639. John Thompson (2), son of John, married 
 Priscilla Powell ; both were natives of East Haven. 
 Their son, John Thompson (3), was born in East 
 Haven in 1667, and married ]\Iercy Mansfield, 
 daughter of Major Moses Alansfield. Their son, 
 John Thompson (4), was born in East Haven in 
 1692, and his son Stephen Thompson was born in 
 1723. The present Thompson residence, and also 
 the old stone church, which is a landmark, were 
 partly built by Stephen Thompson, in 1774. 
 
 James Thompson, son of Stephen, and grand- 
 father of Abraham, whose name introduces this 
 sketch, was born in 1788, in East Haven, and fol- 
 lowed farming in that town. He was one of the 
 prominent men of his time and place, and repre- 
 sented his district in the Legislature eleven terms. 
 He married Lydia Chidsey, also a native of East 
 Haven, and they had eleven children, ten sons and 
 one daughter, all now deceased: Stephen, Mary, 
 Leonard, Nathaniel (for many years president of 
 the Mechanics Bank), Henry, Elizur, James, Abra- 
 ham, Abraham (2), Edward E. and Haynes. Mr. 
 Thompson died March 7, 185 1, and Mrs. Thomp- 
 son passed away at the age of eighty-four. They 
 attended the East 'Haven Congregational Church. 
 
 Abraham Thompson made his homie in East 
 Haven until he was fifteen years of age, and re- 
 
 ceived his early education there and in Branford, 
 finishing his literary training in his native place. 
 At the age of fifteen he went to sea, and during his 
 life as a mariner visited many places of interest, 
 sailing to California and South America, the West 
 Indies, and he was well informed in all that per- 
 tained to his calling. Later he was in the mercan- 
 tile business in Sacramento, Cal., a number of years, 
 and still later was in the carriage making business 
 in New Haven until i860, when he retired. On re- 
 tiring he settled in New Haven, where he passed the 
 remainder of his days, dying at the age of fifty- 
 five. 
 
 On Sept. S, 1844, Mr. Thompson married Miss 
 L3-dia Ives, who was born April 12, 1824, in New 
 Haven, where the greater part of her life has been 
 spent. Four children were born of this union: (i) 
 James E. is in the mercantile business in New York,, 
 and resides in Roseville, N. J. He married Julia 
 Pennoyer, and they have had five children, Louis 
 (who married Ella Lubers), Arthur (a physician 
 of Orange, N. J.), Charles, Carrie and Albert. (2) 
 Frank Ives was born Sept. 18, 185 1, in New Ha- 
 ven, where he spent his boyhood days, attending the 
 common schools and finishing at Russell's Military 
 Academy. After this, in 1868, he was employed by 
 D. S. Glenney, who dealt in paints and glass, re- 
 maining with him as clerk for sixteen years. In 
 February, 1884, Mr. Thomipson and F. H. Belden 
 engaged in the same line, under the firm name of 
 Thompson & Belden. They are now located at 
 Nos. 396-398-402-404 Sate street, and do a whole- 
 sale and retail business, selling goods all over Con- 
 necticut, and doing the larger part of their business 
 outside of the city. Mr. Thompson is Independent 
 m politics, and has served as councilman from the 
 Fifth ward. Fraternally he is a member of Hiram 
 Lodge, No. I, F. & A. M., the Red Men and the 
 Sterhng Lodge, A. O. U. W. On Oct. 11, 1882, he 
 married Mary H. Hubbell, who was born in Bridge- 
 port, daughter of Albert Hubbell, of that city, and 
 they have two children, Frederick and Harold. 
 Mr. Thompson and his family attend St. Paul's 
 Episcopal Church. Mrs. Thompson is a member 
 of Mary Clapp Chapter, D. A. R. (3) Frederick 
 A. is now in Arizona, where he is engaged as a 
 clerk; he married Mary Ainer, of Scranton, Pa. 
 (4) Charles P. is proprietor of the "Thompson 
 Shop." He married Lucy Lake and the-y have two 
 sons, Charles P., Jr., and Paul. The Thompsons 
 are identified with the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Elihu Ives, the father of Mrs. Thomipson, was 
 born in New Haven, where his father. Dr. Eli Ives, 
 practiced medicine throughout his active life, be- 
 ing one of the best-known practitioners of his day. 
 He attended to his professional duties until his 
 death, at the age of seventy. He served as surgeon 
 during the American Revolution. When New Ha- 
 ven was invaded he sent two of his children, Elihu 
 being one of these, to his father in North Haven, 
 
I lO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 while he was away assisting in the defense of the 
 town. They had a silver tankard, which was 
 thrown down the well to save it from falling into 
 the hands of the British, and which they afterward 
 recovered and made into table spoons, etc. Elihu 
 Ives was reared in New Haven, and commenced 
 business life there as a merchant, but he was after- 
 ward engaged in dealing in Merino sheep, in Ohio, 
 under the patronage of David Humphreys, and in 
 his later life he kept the light at Lighthouse Point, 
 being thus occupied for twenty years. He was a 
 great traveler, especially for his time, had crossed 
 the Rocky Mountains eighteen times, and was 
 widely and favorably known in this section. He 
 died in New Haven at the age of seventy. Elihu 
 Ives married Lucy Whittemore, a native of Derby, 
 and they had ten children, of whom Lydia, Mrs. 
 Thompson, is the only survivor. Mrs. Lucy Ives 
 died at the age of seventy. 
 
 CATLIN. The family of this name at Meriden, 
 of which the late Benjamin H. Catlin, M. D., a dis- 
 tinguished physician and prominent citizen of the 
 city, was the head, and where still resides his son, 
 William H. Catlin (secretary and treasurer of the 
 Meriden Savings Bank), and family, is a branch 
 of one of the oldest and most prominent families 
 of Connecticut. 
 
 Going back to the mother country, we find the 
 family name is frequent at Newington, Rochilan, 
 County of Kent, England. They have held prop- 
 erty in that county since the Norman Conquest. 
 "R. de Catlin was one of the followers of William 
 the Conqueror, and is mentioned in 'Domesday 
 Book' as possessing two Knight's fees of land at the 
 time of his succession in the County of Kent, and 
 several individuals of the same name appear in Eng- 
 land as honorably employed in the King's service. 
 Sir Robert Catlin was knighted for honorable ser- 
 vice at the battle of Agincourt under Edward, the 
 Black Prince, and the Catlin coat of arms is that 
 granted to him" (Hinm'an's "Puritan Settlers," p. 
 869). The Arms are: Per chevron Or and Azure. 
 Three lions passant guardant in pal. counter 
 charged in chief, Argent. Crest: A leopard's head 
 couped at the neck. Argent, ducally collared and 
 lined, Or, reguardant. j\Iotto: Semper fides. 
 [English Annals.] 
 
 The first. Catlin who appears to have come to 
 this country was a boy. Thomas Catlin came to 
 Plartford, Conn., in 1632. Later he left his master 
 and went to Saybrook, Conn., returning to Hart- 
 ford about 1^45-46, where he settled. He ac- 
 quired a good deal of property, and took great pains 
 with the education of his only son, John. It is 
 stated in the "Memorial History of Hartford Coun- 
 ty," edited by the late J. Hammiond Trumbull, LL., 
 D., that Thomas Catlin was born about 1612, was 
 first mentioned in the Colonial Records in 1644; 
 was chimney viewer 1647, 1648 and 1653; surveyor 
 
 of highways in 1655; townsman in 1659; constable 
 in 1662-74, "an office at that time one of the most 
 honorable and trustworthy in the Colony;" that he 
 married (first) Mary, and (second) Mary, widow 
 of Edward Elmer, and died in 1690. [Elsewhere 
 it is stated that Thomas Catlin was living in 1687, 
 when testified in court that he was eighty-seven 
 years old. Savage says that "he died in 1690, aged 
 about seventy-eig'ht."] 
 
 The late Dr. Benjamin H. Catlin, of Meriden, 
 was in the sixth generation from Thomas Catlin, 
 the line of his descent being through John, Ben- 
 jamin, Sergeant Jacob and Benjamin (2). 
 
 (II) John Catlin, son of Thomas Catlin, mar- 
 ried in 1665, Mary, daughter of Capt. Samuel 
 Marshall, of Windsor, Connecticut. 
 
 (III) Benjamin Catlin, born in 1680, in Hart- 
 ford married Margaret Kellogg, and died in Har- 
 winton. Conn., in 1767. 
 
 (IV) Sergeant Jacob Catlin, born in 1723, in 
 Hartford, married Hannah Phelps, born in 1731, 
 in Windsor, Conn. He was a farmer in Harwin- 
 ton, and died in 1802. She died in 1812. 
 
 (V) Benjamin Catlin (2), son of Sergeant 
 Jacob Catlin and the father of Dr. Benjamin H. 
 Catlin, was born Oct. 6, 1772, in Harwinton, Conn., 
 where he was occupied as a farmer. He married 
 Nov. 27, 1797, Rhoda, daughter of Isaac Catlin 
 (2) (he in the fifth generation from Thomas, 
 through John, Samuel and Isaac). Rhoda Catlin 
 was born Nov. 8, 1774, in Litchfield, Conn., and 
 died in Harwinton, Sept. 3, 1863. Benjamin Cat- 
 lin died July 10, 1835. He was for twenty years 
 deacon in the Congregational Church. Their chil- 
 dren were: Anna, Rhoda, Lucy, Benjamin H., 
 George, Sheldon, Clorinda, Henry and Julius. 
 
 Benjamin Hopkins Catlin, 'M. D., deceased, 
 formerly of JMeriden, eldest son of Benjamin and 
 Rhoda (Catlin) Catlin, was born Aug.. 10, 1801, in 
 the town of Harwinton, Litchfield Co.,' Conn. His 
 advantages for obtaining an education were limited 
 to the district school near his fathers residence, till 
 his sixteenth year, when an academy was built in 
 his native town, in which he had the opportunity 
 of pursuing the higher branches of study not then 
 taught in the common schools. At this academy, 
 and under the tuition of the Rev. Luther Hart, of 
 Plymouth, he pursued his preparatory studies. He 
 studied mcdjcine and surgery nearly four years un- 
 der the instruction of different physicians, and at 
 the Medical Institutions of Yale College from 
 which he was graduated March 4, 1825. On July 
 12, of that year, he opened an office at Haddam, 
 Conn., filling a vacancy made by the death of Dr. 
 Andrew Warner. The first week he had patients 
 to attend, and in two or three months was in full 
 practice. He remained at Haddam over sixteen years, 
 his practice extending into all the adjoining towns. 
 On March 31, 1842, Dr. Wyllis Woodruff, of JMeri- 
 den, died, and the same evening a messenger was 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 sent to Dr. Catlin by some of the leading citizens of 
 Meriden requesting him to come to Meriden to fill 
 the vacancy. The following day, April i, Dr. Cat- 
 lin went to Meriden, made arrangements for his re- 
 moval, and commenced practice there on April 5. 
 He was elected a Fellow of the Connecticut Medi- 
 cal Society, and in 1840 received the honorary de- 
 gree of M. D., from Yale College. In 1854 he was 
 elected vice-president of the Connecticut Medical 
 Society, re-elected in 1855, appointed president in 
 1856, and elected in 1857. 
 
 The following is taken from an obituary of Dr. 
 Catlin which appeared in one of the Meriden papers 
 at the time of his death, Feb. 18, 1880: 
 
 Dr. Catlin was one of our oldest inhabitants and most 
 prominent pihysicians, and he has taken a very high rank 
 in the medical profession of the State and of the country. 
 For forty-eight years previous to his death he had prac- 
 ticed in Meriden, and enjoyed the fullest confidence and 
 esteem of the whole community. In his private life he 
 was unassuming, and he wore the honors conferred upon 
 him by 'his professional associates modestly, and no act 
 of his long life ever caused his friends to blush for him. 
 He was by nature upright and honest, and his life was a 
 consistent following of the principles he professed. He 
 had been a prominent member of the American Medical 
 Association from 1853 until the time of his death, and at- 
 tended the annual meetings as delegate from the New Ha- 
 ven County Medical Society, and from the State Society. 
 In i860 he was elected an honorary member of the New 
 York State Medical Society, and in 1869 a corresponding 
 member of the Gynaecological Society of Boston. He had 
 also held the office of vice-president of the American Med- 
 ical Society, and was one of the most active members. He 
 was president of the annual meeting held in 1871 at San 
 Francisco, and was the first president of the Rocky Moun- 
 tain ]Medical Society, composed of members who attended 
 the annual meeting at San Francisco. He was a very 
 active member of the medical profession in Connecticut, 
 and it was largely due to his efforts that a State Board of 
 Health was appointed, which was one of the wisest pro- 
 visions ever passed in the State. Dr. Catlin was also 
 very much interested in the influences of sanitary condi- 
 tions upon health, and his writings upon this important 
 matter represented the most advanced position of medical 
 science. Apart from the offices connected with the med- 
 ical profession which Dr. Catlm filled, he was a director 
 of the Home National Bank from its organization, and 
 was either president or vice-president of the Meriden 
 Savings Bank from its organization. He held the latter 
 office at the time of his death. At the time the Congre- 
 gational Church removed to West Meriden, Dr. Catlin was 
 elected deacon for life, and for many years he was senior 
 deacon. He held the office of treasurer of the church until 
 the 1st of January before his death, when his son, Will- 
 iam H. Catlin, was appointed to the office. 
 
 On Sept. 9, 1835, Dr. Catlin was married to 
 Amelia Deborah Spencer, born Nov. 4, 181 1, 
 •daughter of William and Deborah (Selden) Spen- 
 cer. To this marriage came: (i) Be;ijamin Spen- 
 cer, born Sept. 14, 1837, died Feb. 15, 1871 ; he was 
 in the Civil war from 1862 to 1865, serving as sur- 
 geon of the 2d N. Y. V. I., and 21st N. Y. V. C. 
 (2) William H. is mentioned below. The mother 
 died Aug. 7, 1883. 
 
 William Hopkins Catlin^ second son of Ben- 
 jamin H. and Amelia Deborah (Spencer) Catlin, 
 born Aug. 24, 1842, was married Sept. 13, 1871, 
 
 in Barton county. Mo., to Helen Mar Bailey, who 
 died June 23, 1880. P'or his second wife, he mar- 
 ried, on Oct. id, 1883, Jane Winslow, of North 
 Brookfleld, Mass., daughter of David Lilly and 
 Dolly Powers (Harwood) Winslow. She was 
 born Aug. 28, 1854. Her father was a son of John 
 Winslow (7) [Capt. Joshua (6), Thomas (5), Col. 
 Thomas (4), Kenelm(3), Kenelm(2), Kenielm(i)]. 
 Kenelm Winslow ( i ) was brother of Gov. Edward 
 Winslow, and is supposed to have come over when 
 the "Mayflower" made her second voyage. Mrs. 
 Catlin's great-grandfather. Major Peter Harwood, 
 was in the Revolutionary war, and was officer of 
 the day when Andre was hung. She is a direct 
 descendant of Gov. Prence and Elder William Brew- 
 ster, through Edmund Freeman and Major John 
 Freeman, who married Mercy Prence. Her great- 
 great-grandfather, Ebenezer Harwood, was killed at 
 Louisbourg, Cape Breton, June 17, 1745. 
 
 William Hopkins Catlin attended the district 
 school at Meriden and the Hopkins Grammar school 
 at Hartford. He taught school at Northeast, Erie 
 Co., Pa., during the winter of 1861-62. Returning 
 to Meriden in the spring of 1862, on June nth of 
 that year he enlisted as a volunteer in the Union 
 army, being amiong the first half dozen to form Com- 
 pany A, of the 15th Conn. V. L They went into 
 camp at Oyster Point, New Haven, Conn., July 23d, 
 were mustered into the army Aug. 25th, and in a 
 few days left for Washington. The cannonading of 
 the second battle of Bull Run sounded in their ears 
 as they crossed Long Bridge to their camp at Ar- 
 lington Heights. Our subject was with his regiment 
 until the close of the war, and was mustered out in 
 June, 1865, drawing pay for three years and one day. 
 He was at Erie, Pa., from 1865 to 1867 as book- 
 keeper in the hardware store of John C. Selden. The 
 winter of 1867-68 he spent at home and in the spring 
 of 1868 left for Barton county. Mo., and bought a 
 ranch. There he married and lived until 1873, when 
 he returned to Meriden with his wife. 
 
 In 1877 Mr. Catlin entered the jMeriden Savings 
 Bank as clerk, and in 1890 was chosen secretary and 
 treasurer, which position he still occupies. 
 
 In 1880 Mr. Catlin was chosen deacon of the 
 First Congregational Church of Meriden, and served 
 fifteen years. For two years he was president of the 
 Young Mens Christian Association. He is a mem- 
 ber of the Board of Park Commissioners of that city. 
 
 Twenty-five or more of our subject's ancestors 
 took part in the early Indian wars and were memi- 
 bers of the General Court. Five served as soldiers 
 in the Revolutionary war, one. Col. Samuel Selden, 
 being captured at the taking of New York City in 
 1776. He died in prison soon after his capture. Mr. 
 Catlin's great-grandfather enlisted in 1777, when he 
 was fifteen, and received a pension for his services. 
 He is a direct descendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker, 
 founder of Hartford; of Rev. John Wilson, who 
 came to America in 1630, and was pastor of the 
 
I 12 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 First Church of Boston ; of Rev. Roger Newton, 
 first pastor of the Farmmgton Church ; of Rev. John 
 Warham, who came from Plymouth, England, in 
 1630, and was first pastor of the Church at Windsor, 
 Connecticut ; and of Chad Brown, who, in 1642, was 
 ordained as the first settled pastor of the Baptist 
 Church at Providence, Rhode Island. 
 
 HON. W'lLLIA^I JUDSON CLARK was born 
 in the town of Southington, Hartford Co., Conn., 
 Aug. 19, 1825, of a parentage descended from three 
 separate lines of Clarks, who were among the 
 "Founders'' of the Connecticut and New Haven 
 Colonies, 1635-1639, as will appear later on in this 
 sketch. He was Ihe third child of Theodosius and 
 Chloe Clark, and was reared on his father's farm. 
 
 j\Ir. Clark's primary education was received at 
 the district school of his native town — the tradi- 
 tional "little red school house," with long, heavy, 
 slab benches for seats ; and a row of six or eight pu- 
 pils occupying each bench. As soon as, old enough, 
 he was employed on his father's farm, in the sum- 
 mer, studying only in the winter and spring terms, 
 but he kept up with his classes, few of those who 
 enjoyed the full year's course surpassing him in 
 recitations. At the age of fifteen he began attend- 
 ance at the Southington Academy, three miles from 
 his home, walking daily six miles ; and by studying 
 evenings, easily kept up with the students who" had 
 the advantage of the full year's tuition. In this way 
 he iwas nearly prepared for college when, in the 
 spring of 1845, a severe attack of ophthalmia cut 
 short his educational career, changing, no doubt, 
 the whole tenor of bis life. 
 
 The autumn of 1846, however, found him suffi- 
 ciently recovered to take charge of the high school 
 at West Avon, Conn. His success as an instructor 
 did not prevent him, however, from seizing an op- 
 portunity which presented itself in the spring of 
 1847, fc>r engaging in commercial pursuits, by en- 
 tering into a partnership with his brother-in-law, 
 Hezekiah C. Cummings. The new firm — Cum- 
 mings & Clark — leased a country store at Hitch- 
 cock's Basin, located on the Farmington Canal, in 
 the southern part of the town of Southington, where 
 the Waterbury & ^leriden turnpike crosses the 
 canal. At that time all the heavy freight for this 
 and the other Southington stores was brought by 
 boats from New Haven, and a large part of the 
 Waterbury freight was also brought to the "Ba- 
 sin ;" the firm running a boat, for general trans- 
 portation, between New Haven and the home port. 
 They also discharged much Waterbury freight, at 
 Beach Port (now West Cheshire). 
 
 The enterprise of the firm led them to branch out 
 from the ordinary country store goods and add a 
 coal and lumber yard, the first in the town. The 
 following year, 1848, the railroad succeeded the 
 canal, and the name of the place was changed to 
 Hitchcock's Station, but the business was continued 
 successfully until the end of the three years' lease, 
 
 and then, as it could not be renewed, the copartner- 
 ship was dissolved. 
 
 The California gold fever broke out in the win- 
 ter of 1848-49, and young Mr. Clark thought it a 
 favorable opportunity to see the world and prove 
 the truth — or the untruth — of the marvelous stories 
 that floated eastward from the far-away country on 
 the Pacific coast. He was one of the company of 
 fifty-six members who bought the schooner "G. H. 
 Montague," of 200 tons capacity, and stocked it, at 
 New Haven, in January, 1849, with provisions for 
 the long voyage around Cape Horn, and the ma- 
 terials deemed best by an old and experienced 
 North Carolina miner, W. S. Porter, to carry to an 
 almost unknown land. On the 23d of that month 
 the vessel's lines were cast off, and the white sails 
 spread for the twent}'-thousand-mile trip, and amid 
 much enthusiasm the "forty-niners" started off, like 
 their forefathers of 1638, to found a new common- 
 wealth. Five months from that time the voyage — 
 successful, except that a sailor was washed away in 
 a gale off Cape Horn — was ended ; and on June 26th 
 the little schooner, with all sails 'bellying to the 
 breeze, entered the gateway to the beautiful bay, 
 proudly ploughing her way up to the anchorage in 
 front of the new El Dorado — the canvas-built city 
 of San Francisco. No ship leaving the eastern 
 States that year had beaten her into port, though 
 she had battled with adverse gales and rough seas 
 for twenty-one days off Cape Horn. She had led 
 the procession to her destination without loss of 
 a spar, or a damaged sail, and the old mariners at 
 'Frisco looked upon the history of the successful 
 voyage as a fairy tale until their own eyes verified 
 it from the log-book of the brave little ship. 
 
 A three days' tarry at San Francisco sufficed, 
 and the "Montague" was headed up the river to 
 Sacramento, another city of white cotton, nailed to 
 scantling framework. This place being nearer the 
 seat of the gold discoveries, the rush of people 
 they had witnessed at San Francisco was intensi- 
 fied, and almost immediately the excitement of the 
 older gold-seekers was communicated to the newly 
 arrived. After spending the 4th of July at this 
 place they ran the vessel twenty miles farther up 
 the Sacramento, moored it to the bank, and, as soon 
 as teams could be bought, made up and equipped a 
 party for mining on the Yuba river. Mr. Clark was 
 a member of the party that sallied forth upon the 
 pathless prairie in search of the golden nuggets, fol- 
 lowing the general course of the Feather river until 
 they approached the Yuba, a branch or' feeder of 
 the former, and in three days found themselves at 
 the diggings. Sufficient space on the river bottom, 
 above "Corduay's Bar," was pre-empted for the 
 company, a camp established, and gold-digging suc- 
 cessfully begun. An ounce of gold to the man per 
 day was not unusual, and sometimes two or three 
 ounces would be the yield from a lucky pay streak. 
 The confinement and diet on shipboard and the 
 radical change occasioned by roughing it in the 
 
-isfc .''** 
 
 \ 
 
 C- CiXJyui^' ^CA^oL:S^'T^n^'JX)Z'a^Sly-j(___ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 113 
 
 mountains, however, brought on illness that baffled 
 the sthip's doctor, and thirteen of the party were 
 buried in three months, while many more became 
 chronic invalids. It was thought best to give the 
 invalids a chance to return to the States if they 
 wished to do so. As Mr. Clark had been ill for 
 three months, and was so emaciated that he weighed 
 only ninety pounds, he decided, in October, to start 
 for the coast. He was conveyed the fifty miles to 
 the schooner on a mattress laid on the wagon bot- 
 tom, as he was too weak to sit up; the two days' 
 trip was successful beyond ejipectation, and he 
 reached the vessel in a slightly improved condition. 
 After remaining there two weeks he had gained 
 sufficient strength to attempt the trip down the 
 river, and the twenty miles to Sacramento, as pas- 
 senger on a row boat, were safely accomplished. Re- 
 maining there a few days to recuperate, he took the 
 steamer "Senator" (an old Hudson river side-wheel 
 steamer that had been brought around through the 
 Straits of Magellan) for San Francisco, the fare 
 for the 150 miles being twenty-five dollars. 
 
 Mr. Clark had contemplated returning home, 
 but at San Francisco he met a physician who gave 
 him hopes of recovery, and as business opportunities 
 were at hand for those qualified to take them he 
 decided to spend- the winter there and test results. 
 He found that good coffee was hard to obtain in 
 the ground condition, ah that had been thus brought 
 from the States being tasteless. There was but one 
 primitive hand-mill working in California and that 
 turned out low-grade goods by using damaged 
 coffee-berries. Finding another hand-mill for sale 
 in the city, and three young men anxious to do the 
 work, but with no means to start the business, Mr. 
 Clark made a contract with them for the winter, 
 bought the coffee-mill outfit, with tents adequate, 
 hired a vacant lot in Pacific street and launched into 
 business. His factory had a capacity of three hun- 
 dred pounds per day, finished by hand power, and 
 as he bought only the best quality of raw coffee 
 and turned out a delicious product, he easily got 
 two or three cents more on a pound than the only 
 competitor there, and his trade soon grew to the 
 capacity of his mill. No steam engine suitable 
 could be found, so he worked the three hand power 
 by changes of one hour each until spring. The 
 coffee venture was successful, but the contract made 
 with the doctor at seventy-five dollars per month, 
 sick or well, was not quite so good in results, for, 
 while Mr. Clark's health had improved, it had not 
 reached its normal condition, and in March it was 
 apparent to both parties that it would be a danger- 
 ous experiment for him to spend another summer 
 in California. Consequently a purchaser for the 
 plant was found, and, with regret at leaving a 
 profitable business and his newly-made friends, Mr. 
 Clark took steamer for Panama and New York, 
 reaching home in April. 1850, having been fifteen 
 months absent. During the homeward voyage, with 
 the many stops and unusual experiences, there were 
 numerous opportunities for a wide-awake young 
 
 man to see, as in a panoramic view, a great deal 
 of men and things in tropical and semi-tropical 
 countries. 
 
 The homeward voyage proved so beneficial to 
 Mr. Clark's health that within a month after his re- 
 turn he felt all the energy of his manhood restored, 
 and realizing the broadening of his business per- 
 spective, due to his observations of people and 
 countries during his fifteen months' journeyings, he 
 began to look about for some business in which he 
 could utilize this new capital. As a starter he un- 
 dertook a contract with a local manufacturer of cai'- 
 riage-bolts, to make a trip "out West" (which 
 then meant as far as Buffalo, the western limit of 
 wholesale trade), to sell their goods. Lest Mr. 
 Clark should make improper credits, owing to his 
 inexperience, he was required to guarantee his sales, 
 for which a special commission was agreed upon. 
 Early in June he started off on the new enterprise, 
 with samples of goods and high hopes of success. 
 Three weeks were spent in "drumming trade," two 
 weeks more in visiting western relatives. The 
 orders obtained were sent in to be filled, and when 
 the young "drummer" returned the settlement 
 showed that the guarantee had brought him over 
 two hundred and fifty dollars to the profit side. 
 The firm, seeing their mistake, were willing then 
 to accept the risk and save the $250, but Mr. Clark 
 had no idea of going back on a bargain, and in due 
 time the business was settled without the loss of one 
 dollar by bad credits. In the early fall another trip 
 of three weeks was made over the same route with 
 a fair but not so large a result, owing to the short 
 interval between the trips. This seemed to be the 
 opening for him, and as he had guaranteed the 
 sales and the customers were his own by agreement 
 he decided to "set up business for himself." 
 
 On the Quinnipiac river, near Mr. Clark's home, 
 was a dilapidated building with a small water-power 
 known as Morse's Mill. In the early days of the 
 century it had been a satinet mill, weaving into 
 cloth the yarn which was the product of the farm- 
 ers' sheep and the housewives' spinning-wheels. 
 This work was given up in 1834-35, and one of the 
 primitive "bolt-shops" soon thereafter started in its 
 place. This had a short life there, and then for a 
 short time a horse-nail machine was operated in the 
 old mill. This was followed by a clock manu- 
 facturer, who filled the old shop with business for 
 two or three years, when he, too, failed, and the 
 premises were rented to a party making cold pressed 
 nuts for the boltmakers, who had become estab- 
 lished with improved machinery in other parts of 
 the town. It required much courage for a young 
 man just starting business to take a mill with so 
 unlucky a history, but Mr. Clark's ibrave spirit was 
 equal to facing the "hoodoo," and in November, 
 1850, he bought the premises, subject to the least 
 that expired that year, so that he made prepara- 
 tions to occupy, with a small amount of machinery, 
 early in '51, tearing away the old building and 
 erecting a new one more suitable for his require- 
 
114 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ments. He got a favorable start in the first year, 
 making the cold pressed nuts for other iboltmakers, 
 selling bolts for them to his own trade in exchange, 
 and was able to add two more power presses to the 
 one with which he began the work. The ill for- 
 tune which had followed the old mill for so many 
 years now swooped down upon him, and the fac- 
 tory was burned down in May, insured for only 
 about half its value. 
 
 The indomitable courage of the man came again 
 to the fore, and as soon as the ruins were cool 
 enough to work in the debris was cleared away, and 
 the machines were shipped to the manufacturer, 
 with orders to repair those, available, and replace 
 the others with new ones, and have them ready 
 in one month. The insurance adjusters gave no 
 trouble, saying that it was a clean loss for a much 
 larger amount than they carried, and promising a 
 prompt settlement. Mr. Clark then went to New 
 Haven, bought the timber for a new building and 
 hired a force of carpenters there to frame all the 
 timbers in the lumber yard, and while that was 
 being done the foundations of the factory were re- 
 built. When the timber and lumber were shipped 
 to Hitchcock's station a force of carpenters fol- 
 lowed the next day, and the carting, raising and 
 covering of the new building were hustled in a 
 manner never before witnessed in that vicinity. At 
 the end of thirty days from the fire Mr. Clark was 
 ready to receive the new and repaired machinery, 
 and in sixty days was producing newly made goods 
 from the rebuilt factory. Though Mr. Clark had 
 nearly or quite lost his original slender capital by 
 the fire, his credit, though perhaps slender also, had 
 not faded under the ordeal, and at the opening of the 
 new factory his principal creditor, the ironmaster, 
 told him to "take all the time he wanted" as to 
 invoices soon to be due from importations, on or- 
 ders out at the time of the fire, that could not be 
 cancelled. The business prospered, naturally, under 
 such a persistent manager, who coupled courage 
 with sound judgment. 
 
 Increased facilities and more operatives were 
 required as time went on, and the business in- 
 creased, and in 1854 Mr. Clark associated with him- 
 self his two younger brothers, Henry H. and 
 Charles H. Clark, the style of the new firm being 
 William J. Clark & Co. The early business of 
 making nuts and washers by heavy machinery and 
 pressing them from cold iron was supplemented 
 with machinery for making carriage, tire and stove 
 bolts, machine bolts, coach screws, and later other 
 articles of hardware. A steam engine, as auxiliary 
 power, was installed, and more buildings con- 
 structed, as more productive machinery was re- 
 quired. Some of this had to be invented, in order 
 to improve or to increase the output of the works, 
 and in this connection Mr. Clark made and patented 
 several inventions in the line of bolt machinery 
 which revolutionized the methods previously em- 
 ployed. 
 
 About this time the Civil war broke out, and a 
 
 large demand arose for implements beyond the ca- 
 pacities of the armories, so Mr. Clark added to his 
 works machinery for making gun screws of the 
 government patterns, and of its gauge and stand- 
 ard quality. With his ready adaptability and hy the 
 aid of skilled help he soon mastered this most deli- 
 cate mechanical task, and his gun screws passed in- 
 spection at the Springfield armory, with a loss of 
 not over one per cent., while other competitors lost 
 from five to ten per cent. This is referred to chiefly 
 to show that his aim as a manufacturer v^^as to make 
 his goods the best of their kind, and it was to this 
 that he owed the success of the business. 
 
 In 1871 the senior member of the firm retired 
 from the active part of the work, though he retained 
 business relations with his brothers until 1880, when 
 his patents, under which a majority of the carriage 
 boltmakers of the country were manufacturing on 
 a royalty, expired. Upon his retirement William 
 H. Cummings, a nephew, and Robert W. Bemis, a 
 long-time confidential bookkeeper, were received 
 into the firm, which took the name of Clark Broth- 
 ers & Co. About this time, as the quondam agri- 
 cultural hamlet had much increased in population, 
 owing to the growth of this establishment, and the 
 home building near it increased also, and as the 
 nearest post offices were one or more miles distant, 
 in either direction, Mr. Clark prepared a petition 
 asking the Post Master General to estalblish a post 
 office at Hitchcock's Station, to be called Milldale. 
 Some objection being sent to the Department (pre- 
 sumably by an office that desired to keep the mail- 
 ing business of the firm) , Mr. Clark went to Wash- 
 ington and so explained the situation that the peti- 
 tion was granted, and the office of Milldale, which 
 has sustained itself handsomely from the beginning, 
 established. 
 
 Mr. Clark was not at that time, moreover, a 
 novice in Washington. He was a stanch Repub- 
 lican in politics, had been chairman of the South- 
 ington town committee for ten or twelve years (be- 
 ginning in the 'fifties, and continuing until he de- 
 clined re-election) and was an active force as a 
 Union man during the' Civil war, aiding his State 
 and the government in meeting the unfortunate 
 conditions of the time. He was a trusted friend of 
 the war governor, Buckingham, having been a mem- 
 ber of the State convention that nominated him the 
 first time, 1858, the wisdom of that act being proven 
 by Buckingham being kept in the office for eight 
 successive terms by annual re-elections by the peo- 
 ple, his service covering the entire period of the 
 war. Mr. Clark was instrumental in organizing 
 the Union League in his town, was its first presi- 
 dent, and was annually re-elected during the war. 
 He also took the first steps in the movement which 
 resulted in the "Furlough Act," 1863, whereby in- 
 valided soldiers obtained a thirty-d?ys furlough, to 
 visit their homes. 
 
 Mr. Clark's youngest brother and partner in the 
 business enlisted in the 20th Connnecticut Regi- 
 ment in 1862. He served until 1865, having risen 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 "5 
 
 to the rank of lieutenant, and then returned to his 
 home and resumed his place in the business. This 
 seemed an opportune time for the senior partner 
 to take a vacation, so he planned a trip to Montana, 
 where he had a friend in the government employ 
 who had urged him to come out and examine the 
 gold diggings there and the gold quartz lodes re- 
 cently . discovered and reported to be rich. Mr. 
 Clark's business friends in Hartford, hearing that 
 he was planning this trip, and having also heard of 
 the rich gold and silver quartz lodes of Montana, 
 prevailed upon him to head a company which would 
 furnish funds and machinery to be used in working 
 there, he to decide upon location and superintend 
 operations for one year. The fund was made up 
 in one afternoon, the company formed and me- 
 chanical skill supplied to assist in selecting the ma- 
 chinery, which with the necessary supplies, making 
 a fifty-ton cargo, was shipped to St. Louis to be 
 sent from (here by steamer to sail May i, 1865, to 
 Fort Benton, on the Upper Missouri river. The 
 "spring rise" in the river, caused by the melting 
 snow in the Rocky mountains, was not as great as 
 usual, and when well up in the Indian country the 
 boat grounded several times and finally at Dophans 
 Rapids it was found impossible to pull over, so the 
 steamer was backed a few miles in order to find a 
 place favorable for landing passengers and cargo. 
 This was found 150 miles below Fort Benton, and 
 about four hundred miles from the place where the 
 cargo was wanted. In the Indian country, and three 
 hundred miles below Hel'ena, Mont., Mr. Clark and 
 the other passengers had to leave the boat and 
 make their way to Helena as well as they could, 
 leaving the freight to be brought up from the river 
 by ox-teams. It was November before it arrived, 
 but in the meantime Mr. Clark had not been idle, 
 having managed to construct a mill. Mines were 
 opened and work pushed for a winter and summer. 
 Then, in common with all others in that section, he 
 found that beyond a few feet below the surface the 
 mines were practically worthless, and so the project 
 was abandoned. As the second winter came on, and 
 he found his labors unsuccessful, Mr. Clark fell ill 
 from over work and exposure, and in the early 
 spring of 1867 he returned home, leaving the work 
 in the mountains to be managed by others. The 
 homeward journey included one thousand miles of 
 stage riding, day and night, and with his disease — 
 ulceration of the intestines — from which he was 
 scarcely convalescent, it is wonderful that he sur- 
 vived it. At North Platte he met the Union Pacific 
 railroad, building westward at the rate of three 
 miles a day, and the rest of the journey was easily 
 performed. 
 
 Returning to his business in Southington, Mr. 
 Clark at once set to work to improve and enlarge 
 it. He enlarged the- factory buildings and con- 
 structed one-fourth of a mile, of race-way of suf- 
 ficient size to carry the average volume of the Quin- 
 nipiac river at that place, thus doubling the water 
 power of the company. This done, he attempted to 
 
 restrain infringements upon his patents on dies and 
 the process of forging carriage Dolts by other man- 
 ufacturers. Three years of expensive litigation fol- 
 lowed, but resulted in establishing incontestably his 
 rights to the inventions, and ten or twelve infring- 
 ing firms were compelled to pay royalty for the use 
 thereof. 
 
 In 1882 Mr. Clark was' nominated by the Re- 
 publicans as a candidate for the State Senate, and 
 elected by a handsome majority over a strong 
 Democratic candidate. In the session of 1883 the 
 Senate appointed him chairman of the committee 
 on Military Affairs, which office he filled with 
 patriotic and intelligent ability. In the session of 
 1884 he was chairman of the committees on Claims 
 and Temperance and Constitutional Amendments, 
 the latter reporting favorably the bill to establish 
 biennial sessions of the General Assembly, which 
 was adopted. In the hearings of the committee 
 on Claims he had occasion to manifest his hatred 
 of shams. Eminently kind to just claimants, he was 
 untiring in opposing the fictitious or padded claims 
 that lobbyists would seek to draw from the public 
 treasury, and was esteemed, or disliked, accord- 
 ingly. His most notable official action was, prob- 
 ably, his taking the opposition to the bill in the 
 General Assembly of 1883 whereby the Aetna Life 
 Insurance Co., "Stock Department," sought to cap- 
 italize a large sum of money claimed to belong to 
 it, but thought by some to have been improperly 
 drawn from the "Mutual Department" in the manip- 
 ulation of policies. The bill was pushed through, 
 regardless of a demand for investigation, but Mr. 
 Clark had marked it as deserving one, and he quietly 
 employed an expert at his own expense before the 
 next yearly session and discovered the source of 
 the wonderful wealth of the Stock Department. ' In 
 the session of 1884 he addressed the Senate on the 
 subject, with an overflow of listeners on the floor 
 and in the galleries, and with documentary, proof in 
 abundance begged for an investigation, but the in- 
 fluence against him was too powerful and his meas- 
 ure was rejected. He kept the matter alive, how- 
 ever, and had a bill presented to the Legislature of 
 1887 for the same purpose. It was by this time so 
 well understood that seventy-five representatives 
 were willing to stand up and be counted as in favor 
 of an investigation. So the leaven worked, and to 
 head it off an amended bill was reported, empower- 
 ing the insurance commissioner, under a general 
 law, to investigate the methods of any insurance 
 company, etc. That passed, and then it required 
 eight or nine years more to discover an insurance 
 commissioner with the stamina requisite to call this 
 great company, with forty millions of dollars , of 
 assets, to the bar of the court for the mismanage- 
 ment of its policies and funds. Truly, as Mr. Clark 
 then quoted, "Though the mills of God grind slow- 
 ly, yet they grind exceeding small." In 1896 pro- 
 ceedings were commenced in the courts which veri- 
 fied all of the misdoings claimed by Mr. Clark, and 
 the specified charges may be seen in the public rec- 
 
ii6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ords of the insurance department of that year, as 
 pubhshed in part 2, "Life Insurance Report, 1897." 
 The court ordered a restoration of part of the di- 
 verted funds and enjoined any continuance of the 
 irregular transactions complained of. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. Clark was one of the charter mem- 
 bers of Eureka Lodge, I. O. O. F., in his native 
 town ; was chosen its first vice grand on iVIay 16, 
 of that year, and is in good standing in the order, 
 having repeatedly been through the chairs. He has 
 also been a delegate several times to the grand 
 lodge of the State. 
 
 Since his retirement from active -business life Air. 
 Clark has spent most of his time at his beautiful 
 country seat, at Stony Creek, which overlooks Long. 
 Island Sound and the picturesque Thimble Islands. 
 He is one of the trustees of the Stony Creek Con- 
 gregational Church, which he and his family attend. 
 
 On Nov. 15, 1855, Mr. Clark married Sarah 
 Jane Bradley, who, through her grandmother, Lydia 
 Carey Alontague, wife of Capt. Anson Matthews, 
 traces descent from Drogo de Montague, who came 
 over to England with William the Conqueror, and, 
 as we learn from the Roll of Battle Abbey, was one 
 of the Norman knights who bore shields, or coats 
 of armor, at the battle of Hastings, Oct. 14, 1066. 
 A picture of Mrs. Clark, taken about the time 
 of her marriage, shows her to have been, a strik- 
 ingly beautiful woman, with a distinguished car- 
 riage. To this union came three children : Rosa- 
 lind, born Dec. 16, 1857; Eugenie, born March 21, 
 1859, a specially bright, attractive child, who died 
 March 26, 1861 ; and Marian, born July 26, i860, 
 who died Oct. 7, i860. The only surviving child, 
 Rosalind, married. May 20, 1882, the late Emerson 
 Pratt. Mrs. Pratt has inherited from both sides of 
 the house a strong personality, and is not altogether 
 unknown in the world of art and public interests. 
 Her daughter, Olive L. Pratt, bom June 21, 1883, 
 has inherited the genius of both father and mother, 
 and shows decided musical and artistic ability. 
 
 DEACON THEODOSIUS CLARK, the father 
 of William J. Clark, was born in Cheshire, Conn., 
 Oct. 22, 1788, and reared on his father's farm, ob- 
 taining his education by adding private study to 
 the winter's work in the district school. On reach- 
 ing maturity he showed a remarkably well dis- 
 ciplined mind, and was ready to impart to others the 
 knowledge that he had gained. At the age of 
 eighteen he 'began teaching a district school in his 
 native town, and, being successful, went across the 
 town line in 1810 and took the "Southington Cor- 
 ners" or Fourth District school, now known as 
 Plantsville. Later he taught the schools in Plain- 
 ville and Farmington, and also for many years those 
 in the southern part of Southington. 
 
 It was while thus employed that he met the 
 youthful Miss Chloe Clark, of Southington, daugh- 
 ter of Seth and Chloe (Bailey) Clark. A younger 
 sister has related how, after Miss Clark's intro- 
 duction to the young school teacher, and he had de- 
 
 parted, she shook her finger at her sister, exclaim- 
 ing, as her dark eyes sparkled, "Isn't he handsome? 
 I'm going to set my cap for him." That she did so 
 with success the sequel proves, and on Oct. 28, 1816, 
 the young couple were joined together in matri- 
 mony. The combination of the two Clark lines was 
 felicitous, and the children of the union were en- 
 dowed, beyond the average, with marked intellectual 
 and business ability and with long lives. About the 
 time of his marriage Mr. Clark purchased a farm 
 in the southern part of Southington, having decided 
 to make his home there, paying for it in part from 
 his earnings as a teacher. His reputation for trust- 
 worthiness was such that he was trusted for the re- 
 mainder of the amount without bond or mortgage 
 security, although having the title to the estate in 
 his possession. 
 
 On Aug. I, 1819, Mr. Clark transferred his 
 membership from the Congregational Church at 
 Cheshire to that in Southington, the home of his 
 adoption. He was appointed deacon Feb. 16, 1834, 
 and honored the office. His pastor, writing of him, 
 says : "He at once put himself forward as a worker 
 in the vineyard. No man in his part of the town 
 more intelligently or acceptably conducted local re- 
 ligious meetings. In that capacity he was one of 
 the chief leaders of the evening school house serv- 
 ices that were held weekly in the various districts 
 of the town, until he was incapacitated by age and 
 disease. Often after a hard day's work on the 
 farm he would ride three or four miles in the 
 evening to attend those services. So regular was 
 he in his attendance that his pastor, when too much 
 wearied, or otherwise incapacitated to attend him- 
 self, relied upon Deacon Clark, whom he felt sure 
 would be there, to lead the people. 
 
 "He was reluctant to accept the office of dea- 
 con, and only took it as a matter of duty ; having 
 assumed it, however, he at once planted himself at 
 his pastor's side ready with words of cheer and 
 by zealous work to uphold his hands. He was 
 among the first to advocate the establishment of the 
 Sunday-school in his church, which was the first 
 one in the town. For many years he was super- 
 intendent, and while holding this office, as ever 
 after, he was a teacher.'' 
 
 Any want or woe of humanity enlisted his at- 
 tention and help, and time and again would he turn 
 out in stormy or inclement weather to render as- 
 sistance to poor families, of whose needs he had 
 heard. One of Mr. Clark's lifelong friends (who 
 was also a cousin) was Andrew Hull Foote, of 
 Cheshire, afterward rear admiral of the United 
 States Navy and a frequent visitor at the Clark 
 home, when on shore leave. Subsequent to organiz- 
 ing the Sunday-school Mr. Clark became interested 
 in other efforts for promoting the welfare of the 
 community. Among them^ ■ was the temperance 
 movement. The first step was an effort to induce 
 every one to abandon the use of distilled liquors 
 (there were several distilleries in the town produc- 
 ing cider-brandy), but this did not accomplish the 
 

 S? fj: 
 
 '-M^ ^■-".. / 
 
 <S'' 
 
 ?-(?^*^/ 
 
 ■O'f^^'i'-C'L'L.J 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 117 
 
 degree of sobriety desired, while the cellars were 
 annually filled with barrels of cider to be used as 
 a beverage through graduating degrees of hardness 
 until consumed, and the American Temperance So- 
 ciety at a meeting held at Saratoga in 1836 adopted 
 the pledge of "total abstinence from all intoxicating 
 liquors." This measure met Mr. Clark's approval, 
 and he at , once co-operated with it, by banishing 
 the cider-barrels from his own cellar, and shocked 
 the employes on his farm by drawing their daily 
 beverage from "the old oaken bucket." The shock 
 was great, but the reaction was beneficial to all 
 concerned, and later, when the Martha Washington 
 Temperance Society was started in Connecticut, 
 about 1841, Mr. Clark was ready to welcome it, and 
 work with it, to the extent of his ability. He was 
 the chosen leader and first president of the first 
 local branch in his town, and did much to further 
 the cause by inviting reformed men of ability to 
 come to the meetings and relate their experiences 
 while under the "drink habit." Their vivid pictures 
 of the suffering, degradation and poverty of those 
 days, in contrast with the restored respect and com- 
 fort of the present, led many other broken-down 
 men back to the right path, and were' the means 
 of binding together again many broken-up homes. 
 One of these lecturers was John B. Gough, who 
 has left a name and history which the world will 
 not soon forget. Mr. Clark was as ready to serve 
 his country as his friends, and as a member of the 
 Cavalry Company commanded by Col. Hoadly 
 served in the war of 1812, receiving for this service 
 bounty land in Kansas and a pension, which is yet 
 enjoyed by his widow. 
 
 Mr. Clark had five children: (i) Harriet razr- 
 ried Hezekiah C. Cummings, of Watertown. (2) 
 Fraiicis Judson was killed when two years of age 
 by being run over by a cart. (3) William Judson, 
 whose biographical sketch is given above. (4) 
 Henry H. and (5) Charles H. are both referred to 
 in the Commemorative Biographical Record of 
 Hartford County. 
 
 On April 5, 1848, Mrs. Chloe Clark died sud- 
 denly of "putrid sore throat," undoubtedly the diph- 
 theria of the present day. She had been to her 
 husband a true helpmate, standing toy his side in 
 every good work, and to her children a mother 
 whose memory will be precious as long as life lasts. 
 On March 20, 1850, Mr. Clark married a second 
 wife. Miss Sarah Morse, of Cheshire, who proved 
 a pleasant companion during his declining years, 
 and who now, ninety-two years of age, survives 
 him. 
 
 Deacon Clark died July 27, 1865, and was buried 
 in Ouinnipiac cemetery, Southington. In closing, 
 we may quote the words spoken by his pastor at his 
 funeral: "He has left us an example which we 
 may follow with safety and advantage. * =■= * 
 Whosoever liveth as he lived, may hope to die as he 
 
 died in favor with God and man. *^ * * 
 
 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." 
 
 CLARK. Hon. William Judson ClarK is a de- 
 scendant of James Clark, who, with Gov. Eaton, 
 Davenport and others, founded the Colony of New 
 Haven, 1638-39, his name appearing as a signer of 
 the Civil Compact, June 4, 1639. I'he name of his 
 first wife, the mother of his children, is unknown; 
 but he married, second, Oct. 17, 1661, Ann, widow 
 of John Wakefield. James Clark died in January 
 or February, 1688-89, ^'^^ his body probably lies 
 with those of the other fathers of the Colony, under 
 the green sward of the beautiful "Green," of which 
 the Elm City is so justly proud; for that was the 
 "God's Acre" of the early colonists. Of the five 
 children whom he left, 
 
 (H) Ebenezer Clark, baptized at New Haven 
 Nov. 29, 165 1, removed early to Wallingford, and 
 died there April 30, 1721. His wife was Mary 
 Peck, whom he married May 6, 1678. Among his 
 children was 
 
 (HI) Stephen Clark, born Dec. 18, 1686, who 
 lived in that part of Wallingford now called Che- 
 shire, and died there Nov. 25, 1750. He married 
 (first) Lydia Hotchkiss, who was the mother of 
 his son, 
 
 (IV) Stephen Clark, born in 1721, who died 
 at Cheshire Nov. 4, 1800. His wife was Ruth Burr, 
 who, through her mother, Mabel Clark, was a de- 
 scendant, in the fifth generation, of Nicholas Clark, 
 of Hartford, 1635, its first white settler. He was 
 numbered among the "original proprietors," and for 
 his service in the Pequot war, 1636-37, received 
 an allotment in the "Soldiers' Field." Through her 
 father, Lieut. Baze Burr, she descended from Ben- 
 jamin Burr, vyho probably came over in Winthrop's 
 fleet in 1630, and was an "original proprietor" and 
 large land owner of Hartford ; and from John 
 Baisey, another "original proprietor" of Connecti- 
 cut's capital city. The names of these three early 
 settlers, with that of Elder John White, another 
 ancestor, are inscribed on the "Founders' Alonu- 
 ment," the tall, brownstone shaft which stands in 
 the historic graveyard just back of Center Church, 
 on Main street. 
 
 (V) Amasa Clark, son of Stephen and Ruth 
 Clark, born at Cheshire Nov. 25, 1753, died there 
 Dec. 30, 1833. He married Lydia (Hull) Judson, 
 widow of Joseph Judson, of Bethlehem, Conn., and 
 among their children was 
 
 (VI) Theodosius Clark, born in 1788, of Che- 
 shire and Southington, where he died July 27, 1865. 
 Through his wife, Chloe Clark, comes in another 
 line of Clark ancestry, beginning with 
 
 (I) William Clark, of Hartford, 1639; and in 
 1662 one of the twenty-eight young men who went 
 from that place to make homes in the unopened 
 lands of the Connecticut Valley. In 1668 the name 
 of the "Plantation at Thirty Mile Island" was 
 changed to Haddam, doubtless from a tender recol- 
 lection of Haddam, Hertfordshire, England, the 
 English home of most of its early settlers. William 
 Clark died there in 1681. His son, 
 
ii8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 (II) Sergt. John Clark, of Middletown, mar- 
 ried Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel White, 
 of Middletown, whose name is held in high honor, 
 not only in the town whose interests he served so 
 well, but all over the country, wherever his de- 
 scendants have carried the name. For over fifty 
 years he represented Middletown in the Legisla- 
 ture, the last time when he was an old, white- 
 haired man of eighty-one. He filled, also, the of- 
 fices of magistrate and commissioner for Middle- 
 town, Haddam and Meriden. Nor, though serving 
 his country well in her peaceful legislative halls, 
 did he shrink when sterner duties called, as witness 
 his title of "captain." 
 
 (III) Daniel Clark, son of Sergt. John and 
 Elizabeth, of Middletown, 1680-1725, married Eliz- 
 abeth Whittemore, daughter of Lieut. Francis 
 Whittemore, 1650-1700, another of Middletown's 
 early settlers whose name she delights to honor. 
 Their son, 
 
 (IV) Deacon Joseph Clark, 1720- 1778, town 
 clerk of Middletown from 1765 to 1777, also deacon 
 of the church there, married Joanna Fairchild, of 
 Stratford, who brought into the Clark family the 
 goodly heritage of a long line of distinguished Strat- 
 ford ancestors, of whom, later, their son, 
 
 (V) Seth Clark, of Middletown and Southing- 
 ton, 1768-1851, married in 1793 Chloe Bailey, and 
 their daughter, 
 
 (VI) Chloe Clark, of Southington, by marry- 
 ing Theodosius Clark, of Cheshire, merged her 
 Clark line into that of another. 
 
 Joanna Fairchild, 1727-1793, wife of (IV) Dea- 
 con Joseph Clark, of Middletown, was descended 
 from Thomas Fairchild, an early settler of Strat- 
 ford, who died there in 1670, and his second wife, 
 Katherine Craig; also from William Wilcoxen and 
 Deacon John Birdseye. Through her mother, Kath- 
 erine Coe, she descended from Robert Coe, born in 
 Suffolkshire, England, in 1596, who, with wife and 
 children, emigrated to New England in 1634; and 
 from Matthew Mitchell, of Southouram Parish of 
 Halifax, England, and his wife, Susan Butterfield, 
 whom he married at Ovenden, in the same parish, 
 in 1616. Emigrating to this country in 1635, and 
 suffering severely from sickness, fire and savage 
 warfare, in the various places where he settled, he 
 bore it all with Christian patience. He died in 
 1645, at Stamford, Conn., of which place he was 
 one of the founders, and had served it as magistrate, 
 representative and associate judge of the Plantation 
 Court. Mrs. Joanna (Fairchild) Clark also de- 
 scended from Joseph Hawley, born in Derbyshire, 
 England, in 1603, who died at Stratford, Conn., 
 May 20, i6go. He was town clerk at Stratford six- 
 teen years, town treasurer several years, and also 
 surveyor. In 1687 he was chosen one of the com- 
 mittee for considering and drafting a patent for 
 the town. He was deputy to the General Court 
 nineteen years, and commissioner eight years. 
 
 Lydia Hull, wife of (V) Amasa Clark, born 
 in Cheshire July 23, 1753, belonged to the noted 
 
 Hull family, being a descendant of the sixth gen- 
 eration from (I) Richard Hull, of Derbyshire, Eng- 
 land, who settled at New Haven in 1639. His son, 
 
 (II) Dr. John Hull, of Stratford, Derby and 
 Wallingford, was a prominent man in each of these 
 places, serving as selectman and representative. In 
 1687 the General Assembly granted him 700 acres 
 of land for services in King Philip's war. His son, 
 
 (III) Dr. Benjamin Hull, 1672-1741, married 
 Elizabeth Andrews, daughter of William Andrews, 
 an early settler of New Haven. Dr. Hull was a 
 prominent physician in Wallingford. His son, 
 
 (IV) Dr. John Hull, 1702-1762, married Sarah 
 Ives, a great-granddaughter of William Ives, a set- 
 tler of New Haven in 1639; also of Capt. Nathaniel 
 Merriman, an early and prominent settler of New 
 Haven and Wallingford, and a soldier in both the 
 Pequot and King Philip's wars. His son, 
 
 (V) Dr. Zephaniah Hull, 1728^1760, of Che- 
 shire and Bethlehem, Conn., married Hannah Doo- 
 little, daughter of Lieut. Moses Doolittle, a promi- 
 nent man in Cheshire, and a grandson of Abraham 
 Doolittle, an early settler of New Haven and Wal- 
 lingford, and chief officer or sheriff of New Ha- 
 ven Colony' in 1644. He was sergeant of the train- 
 band, and a member of the vigilance committee in 
 King Philip's war; also deputy from Wallingford 
 eight times. Through his mother, (HI) Hannah 
 Hall, wife of Ebenezer Doolittle, Lieut. Moses was 
 a grandson of (II) Capt. Samuel Hall, 1648-1725, 
 who took an active part in the French and Indian 
 wars, and served as deputy from Wallingford to 
 the General Court four years. He was a son of 
 (I) John Hall, an early settler of New Haven, and 
 a soldier in the Pequot war, 1637. He married, at 
 New Haven, in 1641, Jeanne Wolen, of Huguenot 
 ancestry. Both the Hall and Wolen families bear 
 coats of arms, as do also the Coe, Mitchell and 
 Hawley families, mentioned above. 
 
 REV. ALEXANDER HOLMES MEAD, a re- 
 tired clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 and unquestionably, in the estimation of the citizens 
 of Meriden, one of the "grand old men" of that 
 city, was born in the city of New York Jan. 7, 1821, 
 a son of Staats Morris Mead, who was a well- 
 known resident of the Metropolis. The Mead fam- 
 ily was established in this country by 
 
 (I) William Mead, who came from Greenwich, 
 Kent, England, in 1642, and located in Massa- 
 chusetts. His brother Joseph, who caane at the 
 same time, went to A'irginia. For a time William 
 Mead lived at Hempstead, Long Island, whence in 
 1660 he went to Greenwich, Conn., accompanied 
 by his sons John and Joseph. 
 
 (II) John Mead in 1672 became one of the 
 twenty-seven proprietors who purchased a large 
 tract from the Indians in that vear. This land, ever 
 smce called "Horseneck," included the present 
 homestead of one of his descendants, Solomon 
 Stoddard I\Iead. John :\[ead married a Aliss Pot- 
 ter, whose father afterward owned Shippan Point, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 119 
 
 and through .this marriage gained considerable 
 property. He died in 1696, leaving the following 
 children: John, Joseph, Jonathan, Ebenezer, Da- 
 vid, Benjamin, Nathaniel, Samuel, Susannah, Abi- 
 gail andi Mary. 
 
 (III) Ebenezer Mead married Sarah Knapp, of 
 Stamford, and they had children: Ebenezer, Abi- 
 gail, Susannah, Jemimia, Caleb, Sarah, Hannah, Ja- 
 bez and David. His second marriage was to Han- 
 nah' Brown, of Rye, N. Y., who bore him twelve 
 children, as follows: Ebenezer, Silas, Abram, Jo- 
 nas, Solomon, Deliverance, Amos, Edmund, Han- 
 nah, Jabez, Jared and Abram' (2). 
 
 (IV) Jonas Mead, bom Dec. 25, 1725, at Indian 
 Field, in the town of Greenwich, died there Sept. 
 14, 1785. For many years he was a deacon in the 
 Congregational Church at Greenwich. His first 
 wife, Sarah (Ferris), bore him two sons, Solomon 
 and Edmund. His second wife, Sarah (Howe), 
 was the mother of Noah, Mark arid Jonas. 
 
 (V) Edmund Mead was a merchant in New 
 York City. While he was on a voyage to the West 
 Indies, about the close of the eighteenth century, 
 his vessel, the "Sally," was lost, and no trace of 
 crew or passengers was ever found. On Feb. 15, 
 1776, Edmund Mead married Theodosia Mead, 
 who survived him. Their children were : Ed- 
 mund, Jr., born in May, 1777, died April 28, 1778; 
 Solomon, born April 28, 1778, died of yellow fever 
 Sept. 20, 1798; Benjamin, bom April 24, 1780, died 
 Dec. ID, i860, in Newark, N. J. ; Sarah, born Aug. 
 27, 1782, married Benjamin Mead, of Golden 
 Bridge, N. Y. ; Obadiah, born March 10, 1785, died 
 Feb. 28, 1878; Mary, bom June i, 1787, married 
 Judge Aaron Reed, of Bedford, N. Y. ; Ralph, born 
 April 24, 1789, was killed by a carriage in New 
 York City, July 23, 1866; Staats Morris, bom 
 April 23, 1791, died in Naples, Italy, Jan. 17, 1863; 
 Maria, born March 15, 1793, was drowned at the 
 age of fourteen months ; Brockholst L., born Aug. 
 8, 1795, died the next year; Brockholst (2), born 
 Aug. 3, 1797, died June 21, 1874. After the death 
 of the father of this famSly the mother returned to 
 the home of her father, Benjamin Mead, Jr. The 
 latter adopted her son Obadiah, who inherited the 
 farm. The other sons became wealthy business 
 men of New York City. 
 
 Benjamin Mlead, Sr., was the first of the family 
 to settle on the homestead in Greenwich now occu- 
 pied by Solomon S. Mead. This he deeded to Ben- 
 jamin Mead, Jr., July 6, 1770, with some other 
 lands. Benjamin Mead, Jr., was born in 1735, and 
 died March 5, 1815, and his entire life was passed 
 on the homestead farm. He was a prominent cit- 
 izen, and acted as justice of the peace many years. 
 He married Martha Ferris, and they had five chil- 
 dren : Annie, the eldest, married David Mead, and 
 afterward James Bailey ; Theodosia, above men- 
 tioned, was the wife of Edmund Mead; Obediah 
 was a Revolutionary soldier, and was killed on the 
 homestead by British soldiers ; Mary married Sam- 
 
 uel Peck, of Clapboard Ridge, Conn. ; Phcebe be- 
 came the wife of Jehial Mead. 
 
 (VI) Staats Morris Mead was born in Green- 
 wich April 23, 1791, and as he lost his father while 
 still young his educational opportunities were un- 
 usually limited. In every sense of the word he was 
 a se'lf-educated man. After a very short attendance 
 at public school he was bound out as an apprentice 
 to a cabinetmaker in New York City, working prin- 
 cipally for his board and clothes for seven years. 
 He had been enabled to save a little money, by 
 working overtime, and thus, without working one 
 day as a journeyman, he bought out his emiployer, 
 setting up a small furniture business for himself 
 on Broad street, near Stone and Mill streets, New 
 York. There he built up a trade and became pros- 
 perous, being known far and wide for his sterling 
 character and honest dealings. For ten years he 
 was a member of the New York Volunteer Fire 
 Department. When he retired from active busi- 
 ness he made his home in New Jersey. Travel be- 
 came a source of great pleasure to him, and his 
 wanderings 'led him into many lands. His deaith 
 occurred suddenly, of heart failure, while he was 
 making a tour through the European Continent, at 
 Naples, Italy, on Jan. 17, 1863. On account of his 
 clerical duties his son had been obliged to leave 
 him, but his body was brought to New York, and 
 now rests in Greenwood cemetery. Mr. Mead was 
 a stanch Whig, later a Republican, but never a seek- 
 er for office. In habits he was domestic and temper- 
 ate. He was a consistent member of the Methodist 
 Church. 
 
 Mr. Mead rharried Lydia Holmes, a native of 
 Belleville, N. J., whose sisters, Betsey and Sarah, 
 married the two brothers of Mr. Mead, Benjamin 
 and Ralph Mead. Mrs. Lydia Mead died in New 
 York City in 182 1, and was buried in her native 
 home cemetery, at Belleville, N. J. She was a 
 good Christian woman, a devoted wife and mother, 
 and a consistent member of the M. E. Church. Her 
 three children were: Sarah Elizabeth, who mar- 
 ried Amos M. Sackett. of Greenwich, Conn. ; Caro- 
 line E., who married W. K. Belcher, a son of the 
 renowned Dr. Belcher, of New York ; and Alex- 
 ander Holmes, the subject proper of this sketch. 
 The second marriage of Staats M. Mead was to 
 Hannah A. Glass, who also died in New York City, 
 and was laid to rest in beautiful Greenwood. She 
 was also' a consistent member of the M. E. Church. 
 There were nO' children by this union. 
 
 Alexander Holmes Mead was but six months 
 old when his mother died, a deprivation he has 
 lajmented through life. He attended a private 
 school in New York City, and in 1842 graduated 
 from the Wesleyan University, at Middletown, 
 Conn. Having a strong inclination toward the pro- 
 fession of the law, he entered the office of Lyman 
 Tremaine, then a well-known lawyer of New York, 
 and later the distinguished attorney-general of that 
 State. With legal practice ift view Mr. Mead con- 
 
120 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tinued his studies, but before he was fully prepared 
 for admission to the Bar the whole course of his 
 life was changed bv a religious experience, and he 
 turned to the ministry instead of the law. 
 
 In 1844 Mr. Mead received his license to preach 
 the Gospel from the New York Conference, and 
 was ordained by the same Conference in 1846. His 
 first pastorate was at Glen Cove, where be remained 
 fromi 1846 to 1847, and he was at IVIoriches until 
 1850, when he was appointed to Greenport. There 
 he made extensive repairs on the church, and dur- 
 ing a useful year faithfully ministered to the spir- 
 itual needs of this congregation. Then he was re- 
 ceived into the New Jersey Conference and ap- 
 pointed to the church at Passaic, remaining in that 
 charge until 1853, when he went to Eliza'bethtown. 
 There be built a parsonage and remained until 1854, 
 at which time ne was appointed to the church at 
 Middletown Point, N. J., continuing there until 
 1859, when, according to the discipline oi his de- 
 nomination, he was changed. He was sent to Hud- 
 son Cit}-, where he built up a church, and he was 
 subsequently stationed v.t the Quarry Street Church, 
 Newark, until i860. 
 
 At this date Mr. Mead was transferred to the 
 East New York Conference and took the pastorate 
 of the De Kalb Avenue Church, in Brooklyn. In 
 
 1862 he was transferred to New Canaan, Conn. In 
 
 1863 he took charge of the Ninth Street Church, in 
 New York, remaining there until 1865, and going 
 thence to the Second Avenue Church, in New York, 
 where he remained until 1866. For the two follow- 
 ing years he was a supernumerary, and from 1869 
 to 1870 he was pastor of the Greene Avenue 
 Church, of Brooklyn. From there he came to the 
 Davenport Avenue Church, of New Haven, Conn., 
 in 1873 changing to Hartford, where he became 
 pastor of the North Church. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. Mead was made secretary of the 
 Prisoners' Friend Corporation of Connecticut. In 
 1877 he was transferred to West Haven, and re- 
 mained there two years, at the end of that time tak- 
 ing a charge in South Meriden and Yalesville, 
 where he remained until 1880. He spent 1881-82 
 at the Watcrtown Church, and 1882-83 at the How- 
 ard A^•enue Church, in New Haven, going from 
 there to \\'estville and thence to the Dixwell Ave- 
 nue Church, in New Haven, where He remained 
 until 1887. After that date, on account of the crit- 
 ical illness of his wife, Mr. Mead gave up active 
 labor in his profession, and has been since on the 
 supernumerary list, residing in the city of Meriden, 
 among those who honor and love him. His travels 
 have extended over many lands, while his knowl- 
 edge of his own country is that of a scholar. Al- 
 though he has passed fifty years in active minis- 
 terial work, Mr. Mead still occasionally fills a pulpit 
 and expounds the Scriptures with the convincing 
 power which has made him so useful in the vine- 
 yard of the Lord through the past half century. 
 
 In 1847 J^'^r. Mead" was married to Elizabeth A. 
 
 Stephenson, a lady of culture and refinement, who 
 was much devoted to her family, her 'husband and 
 his work. Her death occurred in 1894, in Meriden, 
 and she was laid to rest in the East cemetery. For 
 forty-seven years she was her husband's congenial 
 companion, and in his declining years her loss is 
 one of his greatest sorrows. A family of seven 
 children blessed this happy marriage. Hannah, the 
 first-born, died in infancy. States Maurice and Min- 
 nie Elizabeth were twins ; the former died when 
 fourteen months old. Minnie E. married Richmond 
 W. Armstrong, son of Lorenzo Armstrong, of 
 New Haven. Ella Josephine died when three years 
 old. Kittle H. married Alfred P. Sloan, then of 
 New Haven, now of New York City, and member 
 of the well-known firm of Bennett, Sloan & Co., 
 wholesale grocers, corner of Franklin and Hudson 
 streets. Maurice is a successful jewelry merchant 
 in Chicago. Sarah E. married Edwin R. Ives, of 
 Meriden, who died in 1892, and she is now the wife 
 of Harry H. Johnson, of Fall River, Mass. 
 
 Although the snows of eighty years have 
 touched the head of ;\Ir. Mead, they have not 
 touched his heart, nor have they afifected his physi- 
 cal faculties in any marked degree. A temperate 
 life and regular habits have done much to preserve 
 a naturally robust constitution, and that his years 
 may extend as those of the patriarchs of old is the 
 sincere wish of those who know him best. Blessed 
 with good health, in a pastoral service of fifty 
 years he never missed but one period of service on 
 account of illness. Mr. Mead has long been a mem- 
 ben of the A. F. & A. [M., holding membership in 
 Meridian Lodge, No. yj, of which he is chaplain; 
 Sylvan Chapter, R. A. INI. ; and Palestine Com- 
 mandery, K. T., of New York Citv. 
 
 As a clergyman Mr. Alead has not only admin- 
 istered the duties pertaining to his own charges 
 with extraordinary success and increasing useful- 
 ness, but by his example and advice he has en- 
 couraged many to pursue the path of rectitude. Al- 
 ways charitable and philanthropic, he has never 
 hesitated to go outside of his own denomination in 
 his benevolences, but he has been singularly unos- 
 tentatious. To the extent of his powers he has 
 spent a half century in upbuilding Christianity and 
 in fighting evil and immorality. 
 
 THOMAS EEXJA^IIN DOOLITTLE, of 
 Eranford, New Haven Co., Conn., is a native of 
 this state, born June 30, 1839, in Woodbury, Litch- 
 field county. 
 
 Abraham' Doolittle, the progenitor of the fam- 
 ily in America, was born in 1620, probably in Eng- 
 land; was in Salem, Mass., at an early date, and 
 was in New Haven prior to 1642, 'being the owner 
 of a house there. In 1644 he took the freeman's 
 oath. He was made the chief executive officer (or 
 sheriff) of the county, and was chosen by the peo- 
 ple of New Haven as one of a committee to super- 
 intend the affairs of the new settlement then (1669) 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 121 
 
 just begun at the village, the name of which was 
 changed to Wallingford, and which village was in- 
 corporated May 12, 1670, by an act of the General 
 Court then sitting at Hiartford. Abraham Doolittle 
 was one of the first to settle in the place, being a 
 resident thereof two or three years before its in- 
 corporation. He was a member of the vigilance 
 committee in the time of King Philip's war, and 
 his dwelling during that momentous period was 
 fortified with a picket fort against an attack that 
 might be made on it by the Indians. He was sev- 
 eral times chosen a deputy from New Haven, and 
 afterward from Wallingford, to the General Court ; 
 frequently was elected selectman, and altogether 
 appears to have been a very valuable and respected 
 citizen. He died Aug. 11, i6go, aged seventy years, 
 his wife, Abigail (Moss), on Nov. 5, 1710, aged 
 sixty-nine. Their son, Samuel Doolittle (great- 
 great-grandfather of our subject), born July 7, 
 i6()5, married Mary Hitchcock. Their son, Ben- 
 jamin Doolittle (great-grandfather of our subject), 
 was born Jan. 17, 1730. His wife's name was 
 Elizabeth. Their son, Benjamin (grandfather of 
 our subject), born July 15, 1753, mlarried Sarah 
 French. He was a Revolutionary soldier. 
 
 Benjamin Doolittle (father of our subject), son 
 of Benjamin and Sarah (French) Doolittle, was 
 born in Wallingford, Conn., March 9, 1798, and 
 died in Xew Haven Feb. 19, 1868, aged seventy 
 years. In early life he was a manufacturer of 
 chairs in Litchfield, later for many y6ars conduct- 
 ing express routes (of which he was proprietor) 
 between New Haven and various other points in 
 Connecticut. He married Betsey Collier Moore, 
 and they had children as follows: Miranda (Mrs. 
 Clark Lindsley), William H., Frances E., Marj' J. 
 (Mrs. Otis Warner), John H., George, Harriet P 
 (IVIrs. Harvey Loveland), Thomas C, Thomas 
 Benjamin, Merritt E. and Mortimer. 
 
 David ;\Ioore, of Litchfield, Conn., father of 
 Betsey Collier Moore, married Mary Collier, daugh- 
 ter of Richard Collier, who had another daughter 
 Margaret, the wife of John Draper, editor of the 
 Boston Nczvs Letter at the breaking out of the war 
 of the Revolution. Shortly after the breaking out 
 of that struggle Mr. Draper died, but his widow 
 continued the publication of the paper, and edited 
 it successfully until the close of the war. Richard 
 Collier was a descendant of Richard Collier, who 
 landed in Plymouth in 1630, and at one time was 
 .governor of the Colonv. 
 
 Thomas Benjamin Doolittle, the subject proper 
 of these lines, was reared in Litchfield county, and 
 educated at the Woodbury Academy. At the age 
 of seventeen years he was apprenticed to the trade 
 of machinist, serving over two years, later working 
 as a journeyman for a year or more at various 
 points. In 1 861 he entered the employ of the 
 Colts Arms Mfg. Co., at Hartford, where he had 
 charge of a portion of the revolver department for 
 nearly two years, at the end of which time be be- 
 came a contractor for the manufacture of Spring- 
 
 field rifles with the same company, in which pur- 
 suit he continued until the close of the Civil war. 
 Mr. Doolittle' then spent a short time in Ansonia, 
 from there removing to Bridgeport, where for sev- 
 eral years be was connected with the Bridgeport 
 Brass Co., having charge of one of their depart- 
 ments. In 1870 he embarked in the manufacturing 
 business in Bridgeport, as president of a corpora- 
 tion w'hich was engaged in the mlanufacture of 
 metallic goods, carriage trimmings being among 
 the chief articles. Later this corporation became 
 the pioneer in the manufacture of bai^bed wire for 
 fencing. In 1877 Mr. Doolittle became interested 
 in the telephone, and engaged in the telephone busi- 
 ness, having been granted a license for western 
 Connecticut and western Massachusetts, under the 
 Bell patents. It was at this time that he took out 
 the first letter patent that was ever issued, show- 
 ing a complete telephone exchange. This patent 
 was dated Oct. 22, 1878. The first comiplete tele- 
 phone switchboard ever made in any manufactur- 
 ing establishment was designed by Mr. Doolittle, 
 and was built by Charles Williams, Jr., of Boston, 
 Mass. Several patents were taken out by Mr. Doo- 
 little covering the essential features of telephone 
 exchange apparatus. He soon became directly con- 
 nected with the American Bell Telephone Co., of 
 Boston, and engaged in the general development of 
 the telephone business throughout the United States 
 and Canada. 
 
 Mr. Doolittle is the adapter of hard drawn cop- 
 per wire (a most important contribution to all 
 electrical industries), for which the Franklin In- 
 stitute of Philadelphia awarded him the "Long- 
 streth Medal of Merit." This wire, while retain- 
 ing those properties of conductivity inherent in 
 copper, has the additional quality of great tensile 
 strength, and it is stated, by those qualified to judge, 
 that without this discovery long distance telephony 
 and the electrical transmission of energy over long 
 distances would be impossible. In a word, the im- 
 portance of this process, and its extensive applica- 
 tion, is sufficiently evident from the fact that the 
 annual consumption of hard drawn copper wire in 
 the United States alone, from an experimental 
 quantity of 500 pounds, manufactured in 1877, now 
 exceeds 80,000,000 pounds a year. Mr. Doolittle 
 conducted the experiments with hard drawn copper 
 wire lines, which led up to the organization of the 
 American Telephone & Telegraph Co., of which be 
 became the first president. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1866, Thomas B. Doolittle mar- 
 ried Mary Louise, daughter of Willett and Harriet 
 CHotchkiss) Bradley, of Ansonia, Conn., and five 
 children came to this union : Charles Benjamin, 
 Harry \\., Ruth E., Edith Y. and Mary Alice (de- 
 ceased). Charles B. Doolittle is an officer of the 
 Southern New England Telephone Co. He mar- 
 ried Laura Leggett Seymour, of Washington, D. 
 C, daughter of Henry A. and Mary L. Seymour, 
 and they have one son, jMortimer Leggett. 
 
 Plarry W. Doolittle was born Aug. 13, 1870. 
 
122 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 He was educated for the Bar at Yale, and after- 
 ward at tlie Boston University Law School. He 
 then cnti-red the newspaper field, and was a special 
 correspondent in Boston, Mass., until 1897, when 
 he became associated with Attorney TaIcG;t H- 
 Russell, of New Haven, having been admitted to 
 the New Haven Bar. He enlisted in the navy dur- 
 ing the Spanish-American war, and served until its 
 close. He is now Judge of the Branford Town 
 Court, and is the youngest judge in the State. 
 
 Thomas Benjamin Doolittle has been a resident 
 of Pine Orchard, in the town of Branford, since 
 1893, owning there a handsome property known as 
 "Thimble Farm," which commands a delightful view 
 of Long Island Sound. He and his wife are mem- 
 bers of Trinity Episcopal Church, Branford, and 
 fraternally he is affiliated with the F. & A. M., St. 
 John's Lodge, No. 4, of Hartford. He is a member 
 of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, and the 
 American Society of Electrical Engineers, New 
 York City, and of several clubs, including the Play- 
 ers, of New York City, founded by Booth, the St. 
 Botolph and the Papyrus Clubs, both of Boston. In 
 his political preferences he is a Democrat. 
 
 MORTON. For a generation following 1839 
 there existed in New Haven a business partnership 
 in which were associated two very successful busi- 
 ness men, who became men of means and of in- 
 fluence in that city. These gentlemen were broth- 
 ers-in-law, and were the representatives of the best 
 families that came from England to the New Eng- 
 land Colonies. One of these gentlemen was Hor- 
 ace J. Morton, the other Charles Prindle Hubbell, 
 of the firm of Hubbell & Morton, carriage builders. 
 They began the manufacture of carriages in New 
 Haven in 1839 or 1840, in a building on Brewery 
 street, which had been previously occupied by Ste- 
 vens & Francis. The business from the very start 
 was successful, and, by the energy, careful man- 
 agement and progressive direction of its projectors, 
 became large and prosperous. Through the long 
 period from 1839 to the early 'seventies the names 
 of Hubbell & Morton were synonymous in business 
 circles for integrity, honesty and high credit. In 
 the antibellum days in the South, when that section 
 was most prosperous, the New Haven firm in ques- 
 tion had a number of carriage repositories, notably 
 at Savannah, Ga., and Mobile, Ala., where large 
 stocks were carried. During the Civil war the stock 
 at Savannah was confiscated by the government of 
 the Confederate States, a receipt being given the 
 firm and a promise of payment in three years after 
 the recognition of the Confederacy as an independ- 
 ent government. Through, and just after, the peri- 
 od of the Civil war, the depressed condition of 
 business affairs in general had made the carriage 
 business like many other lines unprofitable, and es- 
 pecially so with the firms whose business extended 
 widely over the South. The Hubbell & Morton 
 firm, however, had, prior to this time, been so suc- 
 
 cessful that its members were already in possession 
 of a competency, and the surviving member, Mr. 
 Morton, closed out their business soon after the 
 death of Mr. Hubbell in 1871. 
 
 Horace J. Morton, of the above named firm, 
 was born in 1815, in Hatfield, Mass., son of Joseph 
 and Martha (Day) Morton, of that town, and he 
 is a lineal descendant of Richard Morton, who 
 was early at Hartford, Conn., where he was made 
 a freeman in 1669. "He removed to Hatfield, Mass., 
 in 1670, where his death occurred in 1710, and the 
 death of his wife, Ruth, in 1714. 
 
 Hatfield and Hadley, Mass., were settled at the 
 same time — 1659 to 1661 — and the two towns be- 
 came the property of a colony from Wethersfield 
 and Hartford, Conn., rrien of wealth and high so- 
 cial position. 
 
 On his mother's side Mr. Morton is in the eighth 
 generation from Robert Day, who with his wife, 
 Mary, sailed from Ipswich, England, in the bark 
 "Elizabeth" for Boston in 1634. Mr. Day was born 
 about 1604. He located in Newtown, now Cam- 
 bridge, Mass., where his wife likely died soon 
 thereafter. Mr. Day married (second) Editha 
 Stebbins. He was one of the original proprietors 
 of Hartford in 1639, and died there in 1648. His 
 widow, who was twice married thereafter, died in 
 1688. From this Robert Day Mr. Morton's line of 
 descent is through John, Thomas, Nathaniel, Joel 
 and Martha (Day) Morton. 
 
 (II) John Day, son of Robert the emigrant set- 
 tler, married Sarah Maynard, of Hartford, and 
 died in about 1730. 
 
 (III) Thomas Day, son of John, married Sept. 
 21, 1696, Hannah Wilson, and lived in Hartford. 
 He died in 1724 or 1725. 
 
 (IV) Nathaniel Day, son of Thomas, baptized 
 July 3, 1715, married Jan. 20, 1737, Thankful Cles- 
 son, and lived in Northampton, Mass,. She died 
 in 1754- 
 
 (V) Joel Day, son of Nathaniel, born Aug. 
 16, 1749. married March 10, 1783, Martha Murray, 
 of Hatfield, Mass., and lived in that town. 
 
 (VI) Martha Day, daughter of Joel, born Sept. 
 6, 1786, married P^eb. 10, iSio, Joseph Morton. 
 
 Horace J. Morton passed his boyhood on his 
 father's farm, alternating between working on the 
 farm in the summer season and attendance at the 
 neighborhood school during the winters. In 1830 
 he came to New Haven and began employment in 
 the shop of his uncle, Lelotes Day, a 'carriage 
 builder. After reaching his majority he passed one 
 season in Charleston, S. C, and on his return to 
 New Haven at the close of the season began the 
 manufacture of carriages for himself. He applied 
 himself closely to his business, was a young man 
 of honor and integrity, kept all of his financial en- 
 gagements, and soon became successfully estab- 
 lished in business and in the confidence of the peo- 
 ple.^ As stated in the foregoing Mr. Morton as- 
 sociated with him in the business in 1839 or 1840 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 123 
 
 his brother-in-law, Charles P. Hubibell, a partner- 
 ship that existed until the death of Mr. Huhbell 
 in 1871, and at that time the firm was the oldest 
 in its line in New Haven. Like his partner, Mr. 
 Morton has not been a man who sought notoriety, 
 or cared for display, and he has had little taste for 
 public honors, yet he occasionally has been pre- 
 vailed upon to serve his fellow townsmen in a pub- 
 lic capacity, notably in the common council and 
 fire department. He has often been solicited to ac- 
 cept important trusts, but has as often declined. 
 For many years he has been one of the trustees of 
 the City Savings Bank and a director in the Mer- 
 chants Bank. Since Mr. Hubbell's death Mr. Mor- 
 ton has not been actively engaged in business. His 
 time has since been given to the settlement of the 
 old firm's business, and in caring for some private 
 trusts left to his keeping. He has been through 
 a long lifetime an esteemed member of society. 
 
 In 1840 Mr. Morton was married to Elizabeth 
 Barnett, and to them two children were born, of 
 whom the son is now deceased; and Gertrude E. 
 is the wife of Mr. H. A. Warner, of New Haven. 
 Mr. Morton is a member of the First M. E. Church 
 at New Haven. 
 
 JOHN C. BRADLEY, whose death occurred 
 at his home. No. 86 Grand avenue. New Haven, 
 Dec. 24, 1897, was for many years one of the most 
 prominent citizens of Fair Haven. 
 
 Mr. Bradley was born Oct. 11, 1836, in New 
 Haven, son of Harvey Bradley. When a young 
 man he became a clerk in the Merchants' Bank, 
 gradually rising through the various grades until 
 he became cashier of the bank, a position he satis- 
 factorily filled for over a quarter of a century. In 
 1889 he retired from the bank, and took up real- 
 estate interests, and from that time as long as he 
 lived he had an office in the Exchange building. 
 Mr. Bradley's political affiliations were with the 
 Democratic party, and for several terms he repre- 
 sented the Eleventh ward in the board of alder- 
 men. His judgment was regarded as sound, and 
 commanded respect in the commercial circles of the 
 city, and his genial disposition won him many 
 friends. Socially he was a member of Woolsey 
 Lodge, Knights "of Honor, and religiously be was 
 associated with the Grand Avenue Congregational 
 Church, where he took much interest in its song 
 worship. 
 
 On Oct. 19, 1858, Mr. Bradley was married to 
 Mary Josephine, a daughter of Henry and Azubah 
 (Mix) Tryon. To this marriage came the follow- 
 ing: John Cdlton, of New Haven; Wallace H., 
 of Brooklyn; Edward M., a banker; Lucius, of 
 New Haven; Elihu A.; and M. Josephine. 
 
 John Colton Bradley, whose name appears in 
 the above list of children, was born Dec. 2, 1859, 
 spent his early days in the Grand Avenue School, 
 and later in the Woolsey School. For six years 
 he worked with his grandfather Mix in the soap 
 business, when Bradley & Ball bought out Mr. Mix, 
 
 and ran the business for six years. Mr. Bradley 
 followed the fortunes of the house, and was with 
 Mr. M'alooney, and then with Mr. Hemingway. 
 For the last seven years he has been holding the 
 position of cashier with the Edward Malley Com- 
 pany. 
 
 Mr. Bradley was married, in 1883, at his pres- 
 ent residence, No. 264 Exchange street, to Alice 
 Isabella, a daughter of Andrew J. Hull, of New 
 Haven, by whom he has one child, Margaret Hull. 
 Mr. Bradley belongs to the Royal Arcanum, and 
 has served the local lodge as secretary for several 
 years. He served as councilman from the Eleventh 
 ward for a year. In his politics he is a Repub- 
 lican. 
 
 Edward Mix Bradley, member of the banking 
 house of H. C. Warren & Co., of New Haven, was 
 born at the home on Ferry street, Aug. 25, 1864, 
 and spent his early school days in New Haven, 
 where he attended the Hillhouse high school. In 
 1884 he connected himself with McAllister & War- 
 ren, a firm that later became H. C. Warren & Co., 
 and in 1896 he became a member of the firm. His 
 entire life from boyhood has been devoted to this 
 line of business. Mr. Bradley was married in 
 New Haven, April 23, 1896, to Miss Florence 
 Strong, a daughter of John S. Fowler, an assistant 
 clerk of the Superior Court. To this union have 
 come two children: Edward Holbrook, born May 
 3, 1897; and Margaret, born Nov. 25, 1901. Mr. 
 Bradley belongs to the Quinnipiac and the New 
 Haven Country Clubs. 
 
 Wallace H' Bradley was born March 10, 1861, 
 and spent his boyhood days in New Haven. He 
 became bookkeeper for the Whitney Arms Com- 
 pany, a position he held for many years, out of late 
 he has been engaged in the life insurance business, 
 and resides in Brooklyn, N. Y. In that city he 
 married Bertha E. Lyon, by whom he has the fol- 
 lowing family: Leon Wallace, born July 9, 1891 ; 
 Whitney Lyon, born' Nov. 20, 1892 ; Sheldon, born 
 June 17, 1896; and Bertha Josephine, born July 
 15, 1899. 
 
 Henry Mix. the father of Mrs. John C. Brad- 
 ley, was born in New Haven, son of Eli Mix, of 
 the same place. In Saybrook, Conn., Henry Mix 
 married Azubah Tryon, and at that place was con- 
 nected with a stage line, of which he was presi- 
 dent, that operated from New York to Hartford. 
 He was later engaged in a grocery, and still later 
 was connected with what has since become the 
 New Haven Baking Company. 
 
 HON. GEORGE PRITCHARD (deceased). 
 Through nearly two centuries the Pritchards have 
 lived in Waterbury, where the late George Pritch- 
 ard was born May 25, 1816, and through a long, 
 period of years was actively identified with the 
 city's affairs, and especially with its industries. 
 
 Roger Prichard (as the name was originally 
 spelled), the ancestor of this branch of the fam- 
 ily, was of Wethersfield, in 1640, and came from 
 
124 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Springfield, Mass., to Alilford, Conn., previous to 
 Dec. i8, 1653, at wliich date he was married to 
 Elizabeth Slough, of Milford. He died in New 
 Haven in 1670-71. 
 
 The late George Pritchard, of Waterbury, was 
 a descendant in the sixth generation from this 
 Roger Prichard, the line of his descent being 
 through Benjamin Prichard, James Prichard, Isaac 
 Prichard and Isaac Pritchard (2). 
 
 (II) Benjamin Prichard, son of Roger Prich- 
 ard, born in 1657, married in 1683 Rdbecca Jones. 
 He removed to Waterbury about 1733. 
 
 (III) Jataes Prichard, son of Benjamin Prich- 
 ard, baptized in 1698, in Milford, Conn., married 
 in 1721, Elizabeth Johnson, of Stratford, Conn., 
 and died in 1749. 
 
 (IV) Isaac Prichard, son of James Prichard, 
 born in 1729, married at Milford, in 1758, Lois, 
 daughter of Isaac Bronson. He died in 1798, and 
 she in 1824. 
 
 (V) Isaac Pritchard (2), son of Isaac Prich- 
 ard, and the father of George Pritchard, was bom 
 in 1772 or 1773, and married in 1795 Lucina, 
 daughter of Major Noah Baldwin. 
 
 The late George Pritchard, of Waterbury, was 
 married in that town. For many years he was 
 connected with the Warren & Newton Co., man- 
 vifacturers of webbing and suspenders, a business 
 which was successfully carried on under Joint man- 
 agement of Messrs. Warren, Nev/ton, Woodruff 
 and Pritchard. This company was consolidated 
 with the Hotchkiss & Merriman Manufacturing 
 Co., forming in 1857 the American Suspender Co., 
 and of the new company Mr. Pritchard was one 
 of the leading managers, having charge of its New 
 York department. He retired from active busi- 
 ness i-n 1873, and passed a period in travel in 
 Europe. He represented WaterlDury in the Gen- 
 eral Assembly in 1871 and 1872. He was a promi- 
 nent and active member of St. John's Church. 
 
 In 1838 Mr. Pritchard was married to Frances 
 J., daughter of Daniel Scott. She died Feb. 10, 
 1885. He died July 31, 1877. Their children 
 were: ]Margaret S., who married, April 9, i860, 
 Theodore J. Driggs ; and Cora Le Roy, who mar- 
 ried Oct. 2, 1872, Charles AVilliam Burrell, of 
 Waterbur}-. 
 
 WTLLTAiM WARD. The earliest ancestor of 
 Mr. \A'ard in America was Andrew AA'ard, an Eng- 
 lish gentleman, who was the fifth son of Rich- 
 ard A\'ard, of Gorleston, County of Suffolk, Eng- 
 land, and who, tradition says, emigrated to the Col- 
 onies in the ship "Araibella." It is known that he 
 landed in Boston, where he took the oath of a free- 
 man in 1634. Two years later he removed to 
 Wethersfield, Conn., thence to Stamford, Conn., 
 and from that place to Hempstead, L. I. Returning 
 to Connecticut, he settled at Fairfield, where he 
 died before Oct. 20, 1659, as that is the daite upon 
 which his will was admitted to probate. He mar- 
 ried Hester (or Esther) Sherman, who was a mem- 
 
 ber of the family from which sprang Roger Sher- 
 man, one of the signers of the Declaration of In- 
 dependence. The nine children born to them were : 
 Edmund, Anna (Nichols), William (married De- 
 borah Locbwood), Mary (Burr), Jdhn, Sarah 
 (Burr), Abigail, Andrew and Samuel. Mary mar- 
 ried John Burr, of Fairfield, and was the mother 
 of two sons, Daniel and Peter. The elder, who 
 graduated from Yale College in 1738, was the father 
 of Rev. Aaron Burr, and grandfather of Aaron, 
 Jr., whose ambitious projects and meteorically 
 iDrilliant career furnished an interesting page in our 
 national history. The younger son, Peter, was an 
 alumnus of Harvard. 
 
 The following extracts from the wills of An- 
 drew and Hester Ward will be found interesting. 
 The will of Andrew Ward, dated June 3, 1659, ad- 
 mitted to probate in Fairfield Probate Court, Oct. 
 20, 1659, recorded in the records of said court. Vol. 
 1648-56, Pages 58-59, gives to his wife "Ester" 
 forty pounds in money, and one-third of all his 
 lands. To his son John fifty pounds, to be paid 
 him at twenty-one years of age. To his daughter, 
 Sarah, to be paid her one year after her marriage, 
 forty pounds. To his daughter Abigail, to be paid 
 her at eighteen years of age, forty pounds. To his 
 "sones" Andrew and Samuel, all the rest of his 
 property on their attaining twenty-one j^ears. In 
 the seventh item of his will, after having disposed 
 of the bulk of his property as above, he says : "7 — 
 And for the rest of my children, they have received 
 their full portion all ready except my son Edmond, 
 who if he come to this place my will is that out of 
 my two youngest sons Andrew and Samuel's por- 
 tions there may he paid twenty pounds," etc. 
 
 Will of Hester Ward (widow of Andrew- 
 Ward), probated Feb. 28, 1665, Fairfield Probate 
 Record, Vol. 1656-75, Page 11, gives to her daugh- 
 ter :Mary Burr forty shillings. To her son William 
 Ward five pounds. To sons Andrew and Samuel 
 eight pounds apiece. To her daughter Abigail 
 seven pounds. To the children of her daughter 
 Anna Nichols nine pounds. To her granddhild, 
 Hester Ward, nine pounds. To her son John's 
 child nine pounds. To Sarah Burr and Nathaniel 
 Burr, children of her daughter Sarah, nine pounds. 
 To her daughter Anna "her best red petticoat. To 
 her daughter Sarah her mohair coat. To her 
 daughters Ann and Mary, Sarah and Abigail, her 
 wareing linn-en." 
 
 Andrew AVard, ihe eighth child and fourth son 
 of Andrew, was the ancestor of the gentleman 
 whose name opens this sketch. He was born in 
 Fairfield in 1645, and died about 1690. He estab- 
 lished himself in Killingworth, New Haven county, 
 married Tryal, a daug'nter of John Meigs, of* Guil- 
 ford, and \\'as the father of ten children : Andrew 
 born in 1669, became a captain in the militia and 
 died) in 1756. John, born March 16, 1671/ died 
 without issue. Abigail, born Sept. 15, 1672, mar- 
 ried Samuel Norton, of Guilford, Conn., Jan. 2- 
 1693, and died in 1733. Sarah, born Nov. 15, ifi- ,' 
 
J5r,.^h-yF- 'yK'^^-noj-J'^^ 
 
 V^Jlc<^.^^ Jfa^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 125 
 
 became the wife of Stephen Bradley. Peter, born 
 Oct. 14, 1676, married Mary, a daughter of Jacob 
 Joy, of Killingworth, and died Dec. 18, 1763. Sam- 
 uel, born Sept. 24, 1680, died in 1681. Esther, 
 born May 2, 1684, died the same year. Of Mary, 
 the ninth child, nothing can be told. Anna, the 
 youngest, was married tO' Samuel Rossiter. 
 
 William Ward, the lineal ancestor of William 
 Ward, of the present generation, was the sixth of 
 this large family. He was born Oct. 18, 1678, and 
 died Dec. 18, 1768. He married Lettis,' a daughter 
 of John Beach, of Wallingford, and to them came 
 eleven children, the seventh of whom, John, was 
 Mr. Ward's great-great-grandfather. The others, 
 with the years of their respective bintihs, were as 
 follows: Mecock, 1702; William, 1705;. Amy, 
 1707; Mary, 1708; Ambrose, 1709; Lettis, 171 1; 
 Pryal, 1716; Arab, 1718; Zenas, 1720; and Titus, 
 1723. A record of the marriage of each has been 
 preserved, with the exception of Titus, of whom 
 nothing is known. Mecock mlarried Hannah Tyler, 
 and after her death, which occurred Nov. 2, 1759, 
 he was married to Widow Mary Hulls ; he died May 
 6, 1783. William married Abigail Crampton 
 (whose father, John, was a resident of East Guil- 
 ford), and died Dec. 19, 1761. Amy was united 
 to Samuel Fowler, and Mary to Phineas Atwater, 
 of Cheshire, Conn. Ambrose married Rachel Dor- 
 man. Lettis was the wife of Daniel Curtis. Pryal 
 married Daniel Pickett, of Straitford. Arab was 
 joined to Phoebe Towner. Zenas was twice mar- 
 ried, first to Mary Bates, and after her death to 
 Patience Square. 
 
 John Ward, born in 1714, was a druggist in 
 Wallingford, where be died Dec. 2, 1754. On May 
 II, 1736, he married Elizabeth Abernethy, and to 
 them were born five sons and two daughters : Phe- 
 lus, born April 24, 1737, married Lydia Meigs, and 
 died April 24, 1804; his first wife having passed 
 away June 14, 1775, he married Sarah Shelly, who 
 died in 1823. Abel, born July i, 1740, died in 
 childhood. Titus was the great-grandfather of 
 William Ward. Martha, born July 16, 1744, mlar- 
 ried William Carter, June 8, 1762. Eunice, born 
 July 17, 1746, on Dec. 5, 1773, becam^e Mrs. David 
 Cook. John (i), born May 24, 1748, died in in- 
 fancv. John (2) was born Nov. 19, 1751, but 
 nothing else is known concerning him. 
 
 Titus Ward was born March 10, 1742, and on 
 June 7, 1763, married Amy Smith. He had an ad- 
 venturous spirit, and from' his boyhood a sea-faring 
 life appeared to him the most delightful on earth. 
 In time he owned and commanded a vessel sailing 
 between the port of New York and the West In- 
 dies. The family tradition is that during the war 
 for independence his vessel sailed from the port 
 of New Haven, and was captured by the British, 
 and he was put aboard a British prison ship, where 
 he starved to death. His home, when on shore, 
 was in Wallingford. Ten children! were born to 
 him, whose names and dates of birth are as follows : 
 
 Sylvia, Aug. 8, 1764; Abel, May 24, 1766; Titus, 
 March 30, 1768; Betsey, March 22, 1770; Nancy, 
 June ID, 1772; John, May 12, 1774; Sarah, May 
 25. 1776; William, Jan. 5, 1780; Statice, Feb. 16, 
 1782; Pauline, about 1783. Sylvia married Isaac 
 Plumb, of Milford, and removed to Ogdensburg, 
 N. Y., where she died Jan. 18, 1841. Titus mar- 
 ried Sarah Smith, and died in the West Indies in 
 1805. Betsey became the wife of Sam^uel Beach, 
 and died in Orange, New Haven county. Nancy 
 was married to Joseph Nichols, proprietor of the 
 "Eagle Hotel" in New Haven ; she died in that city 
 Sept. 16, 1855, and he in New York June 16, 1819. 
 John and William died in boyhood. Sarah, who 
 became Mrs. Elijah Prindle, of Milford, died Aug. 
 17, 1827. Statice was Mrs. Burough Wright, of 
 New Haven. Pauline was twice married, first to 
 James H. Blinn, and afterward to Isaac Frost ; she 
 died in 1842 or 1843. 
 
 Abel Ward, the second child and eldest son of 
 Titus, and the grandfather of William Ward, was 
 a blacksmith by trade. He died in the town of 
 Woodbridge, now Bethany, Oct. 9, 1792. He was 
 twice married, first to Rachel Hotchkiss, who died 
 in 1787, and afterward to Anna Wheeler. To the 
 first union came one son, Richard, born Sept. 21, 
 1787; and to the second marriage one daughter, 
 Rachel, iborn Jan. 23, 1792, who married Jervis 
 Sommers, a farmer of Southbury. 
 
 Richard Ward, the father of William, passed his 
 boyhood and youth in his native town, Woodbridge, 
 learning the trade of a millwright. Desirous of 
 visiting new scenes and hoping to improve his con- 
 dition he traveled to the South and the West, mak- 
 ing part of the journey on foot. Finding no busi- 
 ness which suited him. he returned to his native 
 State to make his home in Naugatuck. There he 
 perceived an opening for the erection of a linseed 
 oil mill, and having secured financial support he 
 entered into a co-partnership for the establishment 
 of a plant. In 1810 he became part owner in one 
 mill and not many years afterward he built a new 
 mill and occupied it with others for a number of 
 years. While this business enterprise was in prog- 
 ress he met and married Roxanna Hoadley, their 
 wedding being solemnized Dec. 15, 181 1, by Rev. 
 Mr. Dodd. Mrs. Richard Ward was born in 
 Naugatuck July 15, 1787, daughter of Culpepper 
 Floadley, who was a drummer boy in the war of the 
 Revolution and a descendant of the old English 
 family of that name, a member of which was among- 
 the early settlers of Saybrook. Richard Ward died 
 March 2, 1851, and his wife Feb. 6, 1865. They 
 had five children, of whom William was the young- 
 est; Lewis was born Sept. 27, 1812; Lauren, Dec. 
 27, 1814; Maria, Fdb. 11, 1819; and Mary, Feb. 
 17, 1823. Lewis was a man of many vocations, 
 being first a shoemaker, next a contractor and later 
 a maker of spokes. He was married April 19, 1835, 
 to Mary Ann Curtis, of Huntington, Conn., and 
 died Aug. 3, 1878. Lauren passed the greater part 
 
126 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of his life in Naugatuck, where for many years he 
 was famous as a clockmaker. Later he constructed 
 machinery of especial pattern to fill private orders, 
 and after remaining for several years with the Wat- 
 erbury Hook & Eye Co. (first in Waterbury and 
 later in Torrington) formed a co-partnership with 
 his brother, William, in the manufacture of curtain 
 rings and other small wares of brass. Their busi- 
 ness associations lasted thirty-two years. In 1840 
 he married Emily Hotchkiss, who died Jan. 19, 
 1887, and he passed away Jan. 4, 1898. Maria, the 
 eldest daughter of Richard, is the widow of Ralph 
 Smith, a carriage maker, of Litchfield county, whom 
 she married Nov. 23, 1842. Mary married Feb. 17, 
 1841, Ganoe Potter, a tailor, who yet lives in Plain- 
 ville; she died Aug. 2, 1842. 
 
 William- Ward was born March 7, 1825, in 
 Naugatuck. When a boy he attended the local 
 schools and at a suitable age began work in the 
 satinette mill of William DeForest & Co. From 
 there he went to Litchfield county, where for eigh- 
 teen months he was in the employ of a wagon- 
 maker, learning the trade, which he thereafter fol- 
 lowed for several years at Naugatuck and New 
 Haven, remaining in the last named city from the 
 autumn of 1849 to 1864. During this time he man- 
 aged, through industry, assiduity and economy, to 
 accumulate sufficient capital to enable him to em- 
 bark in business on his own account, and went on 
 a prospecting tour to Colorado, where he remained 
 tvv'enty-two months. In 1866 he once more re- 
 turned to Naugatuck, where he and his brother 
 formed a partnership, as already mentioned. The 
 business proved profitable, but he has not confined 
 his attention wholly to the affairs of L. & W. Ward. 
 He is a trustee of the Naugatuck Savings Bank, of 
 which for several years he has been president and 
 holds the same position in the Naugatuck Water 
 Co., bringing to the discharge of his official duties 
 ripe business experience, keen sagacity and tried 
 fidelity. He is a man of enlightened public spirit, 
 always ready to aid, by counsel and purse, every 
 well-conceived project for the public good. He 
 has been prominently identified with the restoration 
 of the ancient cemetery, which was rapidly going to 
 decay, and was one of the incorporators of the 
 Grove Cemetery Association. In early life he was 
 a Whig, but since 1856 he has acted with the Re- 
 publican party, although never actively interested 
 in politics outside of his native town. In matters of 
 local history Mr. Ward is an acknowledged author- 
 ity. In his archives he holds scores of ancient 
 deeds, and the genealogy of the old families of New 
 Haven county is to him an open book. Lawyers 
 constantly consult him- as an antiquarian. Desp.-te 
 his seventy-seven years he is light of step and alert 
 of body, with unclouded memory and an active 
 brain. 
 
 On May 2, 1852, Mr. Ward was married to Miss 
 Elizabeth A. Hine, of Milford. Three daughters 
 have come to them: Emmie E., born May 6, 1853, 
 
 in New Haven, Conn., is the wife of Walter P. 
 Hatch, of Stamford, Conn. ; Alice M., born Feb. 4, 
 1856, in New Haven, married Charles A. Briggs, 
 and is at present a resident of Brooklyn, Windham 
 Co., Conn. ; and Josephine B., born in New Haven 
 Oct. 22, 1864, is now Mrs. Clarence Isbell, of Stam- 
 ford, Connecticut. 
 
 CHARLES E. LONGDEN. The prosperity 
 of any community depends upon its business, activ- 
 ity, and the enterprise manifested in commercial 
 circles is the foundation upon which is built the 
 material welfare of town. State and Nation. The 
 most important factors at the present day are there- 
 fore the men who are in control of successful busi- 
 ness interests, and such a one is Charles E. Long- 
 den, of Hamden, who was the founder, and for 
 a numlber of years ending in April, 1901, the su- 
 perintendent and secretary, of the Seamless Rubber 
 Co., of New Haven. The history of Mr. Longden's 
 life is closely identified with a line of manufacturing 
 for which Connecticut is noted, the rubber busi- 
 ness, and in the manufacture of seamless rubber 
 goods he was the pioneer in America. The busi- 
 ness, in common with so many that have assumed 
 large proportions, had a very modest beginning, 
 and a hard struggle at first for a mere existence. 
 
 Mr. Longden comes of a family, several mem- 
 bers of whom seem to have been endowed with 
 much more than the ordinary mechanical ingenuity 
 and skill. The Longdens are of English origin, 
 coming from Lincolnshire, and while not as long 
 established in Connecticut as many of those herein 
 mentioned, its members have certainly become 
 prominent in the lines with which they have been 
 identified. Charles E. Longden was born in Bos- 
 ton, Lincolnshire, England, March 21, 1840, one of 
 the younger children of the large family of Will- 
 iam H. and Mary A. Longden. James' Longden, 
 father of William H., fought under Nelson. Of 
 the fourteen children of William H. and Mary A. 
 Longden, twelve lived to adult ages. There were 
 four sons, three of whom are yet living, viz. : Will- 
 iam H., a machinist of Bridgeport, Conn., who has 
 two children, Teresa and William H., Jr. ; Charles 
 E., our subject; and Elmer A., of Bridgeport. 
 William H. Longden, father of our subject, was a 
 skilled mechanic. He came to the United States 
 alone, his wife and family joining him not 
 long afterward. His first location was at Nauga- 
 tuck, Conn., where he worked for Lyman Brad- 
 ley for a few years, and later he was with Ben- 
 jamin H. Moss, a knife manufacturer, of Water- 
 ville. Conn. Mr. Longden was the first knife blade 
 forger in America, and made the first blades for the 
 manufacturers here when they were experimenting 
 with same, carrying on this work at what was 
 then called Salem Bridge, Conn. He was an ex- 
 pert in his line, and his skill and ideas brought 
 much money into the hands of his employers. He 
 died at Waterville, in 1878, aged eighty-two years. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 127 
 
 his wife passing away in 1889 at aibout the same 
 age. They are buried in Riverside cemetery at 
 Waterbury. 
 
 Charles E. Longden was but an. infant when 
 brought to the United States, and to Waterville, 
 Conn. The voyage was a long one, lasting over 
 thirty days. In Waterville he grew to manhood, 
 receiving his education in the. district schools of 
 the neighborhood. After the age of fourteen he 
 did not attend regularly, so that all in all his ad- 
 vantages were somewhat limited. From early boy- 
 hood he was somewhat "handy" with tools, and 
 showed adaptness for work around machinery, and 
 before he was far advanced in his teens he began 
 work as a forger in a knife manufactory, being 
 thus employed the greater part of the time until 
 after the breaking out of the Civil war. 
 
 On Aug. 5, 1862, our subject enlisted, becom- 
 ing a private in the first detachment of the 2d Con- 
 necticut Light Battery, and the first important en- 
 gagement in which he took part was the battle of 
 Gettysburg. Later he went with his command to 
 New York to quell the riot in that city, and re- 
 mained there on duty for six weeks, after which 
 he went to New Orleans, and with the Army of 
 the Gulf operated around that city. As a part of 
 the land battery they assisted Farragut in taking 
 Fort Morgan, at the entrance of Mobile Bay, and 
 then went to Pensacola, Fla. Later they crossed 
 the Bay to Mobile, and helped take what was 
 known as Spanish Fort, a few days before the sur- 
 render of Gen. Lee. Mr. Longden was with his 
 detachment all through the war, and took an active 
 part in all the engagements in which they partici- 
 pated. He was honorably discharged at New Ha- 
 ven Sept. ID, 1865, and returned to Waterville. 
 
 A few months after his return from the serv- 
 ice Mr. Longden went to Naugatuck, where he was 
 in the employ of the Union Knife & Cutlery Co. 
 until 1873. In that year he embarked in business 
 for himself at Prospect, near Naugatuck, as a man- 
 ufacturer of harness trimmings, and was thus en- 
 gaged until 1875, when, in company with George 
 Hine, he erected a plant at Union City and began 
 the manufacture of seamless rubber goods, he be- 
 ing the inventor of the seamless method and the 
 pioneer manufacturer in America. Two years later 
 a stock company was organized under the name of 
 the Seamless Rubber Co., of which Mr. Longden 
 became secretary and superintendent, and in Oc- 
 tober, 1877, the establishment was moved to New 
 Haven, where business has since been carried on, 
 and where are manufactured all kinds of seamless 
 rubber goods. Employment is furnished to from 
 300 to 400 men and women. In April, 1901, Mr. 
 Longden severed his relations with this company. 
 During his connection therewith it was a recognized 
 fact that his services were of far greater value to 
 the concern than might be expected even of one 
 filling successfully so important an incumbency.' 
 Not only his managerial skill, but also his inventive 
 genius, contributed toward the success of the busi- 
 
 ness, in which as its founder he felt a keen pride. 
 Laboring for its advancement, he taxed his powers 
 of invention, year after year improving the ma- 
 chinery and adding to the assets and earning ca- 
 pacity of the plant by p-iving to it a number of val- 
 uable patents that facilitated the manufacture of its 
 product, which bore a distinctive mark of super- 
 iority in the judgment of the consumer. Several of 
 these patents gave the concern a practical monopoly 
 of certain goods, and likewise enaibled them to take 
 a foremost rank among manufacturers in that line. 
 Mr. Longden's recompense for all this, however, 
 was no more than his share as an ordinary stock- 
 holder entitled him to, every other holder of stock 
 being equally benefited. Mr. Longden has taken 
 out at least a dozen patents on different articles 
 and devices. Two years before he severed his con- 
 nection with the company he took out a patent for 
 the automatic manufacture of seamless rubber 
 goods. On May 30, 1899, he patented a stopper for 
 a hot-water bottle, which at the time was the best 
 thing of its kind in existence. These and many 
 others were practically given over to the company, 
 so interested was he in its prosperity. Had he been 
 less unselfish he could doubtless have realized thou- 
 sands of dollars on his own account. On Sept. 
 17, 1901, he patented an improved rubber bottle 
 stopper, which patent he retains. This is undoubt- 
 edly the best article of its kind now known, and 
 should prove extremely valuable to its owner. Our 
 subject's skill as a mechanic and his great inventive 
 genius were quite effectively shown when he first 
 embarked in the rubber business, at which time he 
 designed all, and made most of, the tools and ma- 
 chinery necessary in the first manufacture of seam- 
 less rubber goods. He made the first rubber bi- 
 cycle tire turned out in America, tires having pre- 
 viously been imported, and was the sole manufact- 
 urer for the first three years that this article was 
 made in the United States. 
 
 Mr. Longden was married, in Waterbury, Conn., 
 Jan. I, 1867, by Rev. Dr. Clark, to Miss Sarah 
 Taylor, of Naugatuck, who was born Feb. 27, 1847, 
 in Sheffield, England, daughter of Thomas and 
 Mary Taylor. Mrs. Longden was a child of five 
 years when brought to the United States ; the voy- 
 age lasted over sixty days. Mr. Longden has 
 been fortunate in his selection of a wife, as Mrs. 
 Longden has, by her able assistance and counsel, 
 proven a most valuable helpmate. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Longden have had two children, of whom the 
 younger died in infancy. Emma L. is now the 
 wife of Edward R. Street, manager of the Evening 
 Leader, in New Haven, and has two children, Allen 
 Taylor and Phyllis. 
 
 Whatever the capacity in which Mr. Longden 
 has acted he has shown an unusual ability for both 
 mental and physical labor. He possesses a robust 
 constitution, and for one of his years is most re- 
 markably well preserved, heing to all appearances 
 a decade younger than he really is. This circum- 
 stance may be attributed, to no small extent, to his 
 
128 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 fondness for and indulgence in athletics, especially 
 outdoor sports. From his youth he has been more 
 than an ordinary athlete. For several years when 
 a young man he was a member of one of the 
 strongest base-ball teamis in western Connecticut, 
 their success entitling them to a position in the 
 front ranks of the amateur teams of the State. Mr. 
 Longden's fondness for outdoor sport has never 
 decreased, and has been gratified along such lines 
 as his advancing years and the demands of his 
 business life permitted. He has heen for a number 
 of years a member of the New Haven Gun Club, 
 of which for eight years he was president, and has 
 shown wonderful skill with the shotgun, his reputa- 
 tion extending outside of the city and State; he has 
 met in competition many of the noted shots in the 
 United States, with more than a fair degree of 
 success. Fraternally he is an honored memJber of 
 Wooster Lodge, No. 79, F. & A. M. Though a 
 stanch supporter of the Repulblican party, (Mr. 
 Longden is by no means a politician, taking simply 
 the interest of a public-spirited citizen in party 
 affairs. 
 
 Mr. Longden made his home in New Haven 
 continuously from 1877 to 1895, when he bought 
 the farm of forty acres where he now lives, resid- 
 ing there during the summer months until 1899, 
 when he bailt the excellent home there which he 
 has since occupied. The farm is situated on the 
 Hartford turnpike, a short distance north of New 
 Haven, and Mr. Longden has made many improve- 
 ments upon the place, converting it into a fruit 
 farm. It is now one of the most attractive su- 
 burban homes in the vicinity of New Haven. Mr. 
 Longden's life is a practical illustration of what 
 may be accomplished through industry, persever- 
 ance, good management and a determination to 
 succeed. He is an excellent example of the self- 
 made man, and the qualities which have won him 
 success are not made less agreeable by the air of 
 self-assertion which so often marks a career like 
 his. Indeed his relations with others have been 
 invariably marked by modesty, and he has shown 
 a decided distaste for prominence. 
 
 CHARLES H. NETTLETON. Among the 
 names of those who have contributed largely to the 
 development of all that is good in the community, 
 the honest historian of this vicinity must write that 
 of Charles H. Nettleton who, born in New Haven, 
 Conn., in the year 1850, soon moved with his par- 
 ents, Charles and Ellen (Hine) Nettleton, to the 
 city of New York, where he attended the public 
 schools and fitted for the College of the City of 
 New York, from which he graduated in the class of 
 1870. 
 
 In 1871 Mr. Nettleton came to reside in Derby, 
 Conn., and immediately entered upon a business 
 career which has been marked by signal success. 
 Being interested in the Derby Gas Company he at 
 once took charge of the construction of its plant, 
 
 and has continuously since that time held the office 
 of treasurer and general manager of the corpora- 
 tion. The importance of this position is manifest 
 when we remember that the company supplies the 
 gas and electric light, both private and public, for 
 the cities of Ansonia and Derby and the borough of 
 Shelton, besides furnishing electricity for manufac- 
 turing purposes in these municipalities. In 1874 
 Mr. Nettleton was chosen manager of the Birming- 
 ham Water Company (of which he is the treas- 
 urer), and still serves the concern in that capacity. 
 In 1894 he was elected president of the Birmingham 
 National Bank, located at Derby, through which 
 the banking business of Derby and Shelton is trans- 
 acted, and still occupies that position. For many 
 years Mr. Nettleton has been an acknowledged au- 
 thority in the manufacture and distribution of il- 
 luminating gas and allied industries, having intro- 
 duced into the community all the most approved 
 methods for utilizing the commodities placed upon 
 the market by the Derby Gas Company. He has 
 been prominently identified with the New England 
 Gas Association, of which he was secretary from 
 1885 to 1891 and president from 1893 to 1894. In 
 1897 he was the president of the American Gaslight 
 Association. Upon the removal of Hon. H. Holton 
 Wood to Boston, Mass., and his consequent resig- 
 nation as president of the Derby and Shelton Board 
 of Trade, Mr. Nettleton was chosen to fill the im- 
 portant office thus made vacant. 
 
 The business and social interests of Derby and 
 Shelton are so interminably interwoven that the 
 more prominent citizens of the one municipality are 
 often equally identified with the other. This is 
 true of Mr. Nettleton ; but while his vast business 
 enterprises seem to center largely in Derby, his 
 beautiful home and extensive grounds are situated 
 on the Shelton banks of the Housatonic river, and 
 he is always loyal in his devotion to the town and 
 borough in which he resides. All measures con- 
 ducive to their true advancement have always re- 
 ceived his hearty support. When Shelton was in- 
 corporated as a borough Mr. Nettleton was elected 
 Its first warden and served in that capacitv for two 
 official terms with credit to himself and honor to the 
 municipality, in which many improvements were 
 carried forward under his administration. In pol- 
 itics Mr. Nettleton is an unswerving Republican — 
 one whose devotion to his party has never been 
 doubted. With him Republicanism Is a conviction 
 and its success in Huntington is in part attributed to 
 his suggestions and support. Yet, however strong 
 his party affiliations may be, in him the upright pa- 
 triot is never lost in an office-seeking politician r 
 and It may be truly said of him that he represents 
 the type of citizen in whom, as voter and statesman, 
 rests the hope of the State and Nation, and all that 
 IS best in American civilization. 
 
 Mr. Nettleton is a vestryman of St. James 
 Church, Derby, and has served as treasurer of that 
 society since 1885. In these days of intense com- 
 
^c 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 129 
 
 petition which try the moral fibre of men he has 
 reached an enviable eminence in the business world, 
 while yet a comparatively young man, living mean- 
 while a life so true that those who know him best 
 love him most. With him 
 
 "To do the will is more than creeds 
 As words are less than deeds." 
 
 With marked executive aibility, undoubted moral 
 integrity, and a dignity which, to a stranger, might 
 seem severe, Mr. Nettleton has a kind, genial na- 
 ture. No man abhors more deeply than he any- 
 thing like a Pharisaical display of virtue or benev- 
 olence, yet it is but justice to add that he never 
 turns a deaf ear to the voice of the worthy poor, 
 many of whom have found in him a friend in their 
 necessity, while many a young man owes his success 
 in life to his wise counsel and substantial encour- 
 agement. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Nettleton was married to Miss 
 Katherine Arnold, daughter of the late Joseph Ar- 
 nold, a prominent citizen of Derby, and two daugh- 
 ters — christened Katherine Arnold and Ellen Ar- 
 nold' — were born to them, the former on June 29, 
 1880, and the latter on July 21, 1883. 
 
 DWIGHT. Few families in the annals of Mas^ 
 sachusetts and Connecticut, from the early Colonial 
 period to the present, have been more conspicuous 
 than the one whose name is here given. We have in 
 mind the ancestral line of the venerable Rev. Tim- 
 othy Dwight, D. D., of New Haven, late President 
 of Yale University, and the immediate family of the 
 first Rev. Timothy Dwight, S. T. D., LL. D., also 
 President of Yale, and of these it is the purpose of 
 this article to briefly treat. 
 
 Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D., of New Haven, 
 is a son of James and Susan (Breed) Dwight, and 
 a descendant in the eighth generation from John 
 Dwight, the common ancestor, it is believed, of all 
 the Dwights in this country, who with his wife, 
 Hannah, and two sons came from Dedham, Eng- 
 land, to New England in 1634 or 1635, settling 
 first in Watertown, Mass, of which town he was 
 a proprietor. He early removed to Dedham, where 
 he was a farmer of means and an eminently use- 
 ful citizen and a Christian. He was selectman for 
 sixteen years. He died Jan. 24, 1660, and his wife, 
 Hannah, passed away Sept. 5, 1656. 
 
 From this emigrant settler Dr. Dwight's line 
 is through Capt. Timothy, Justice Nathaniel, Col. 
 Timothy, Maj. Timothy, President Timothy and 
 James Dwight. 
 
 fll) Capt. Timothy Dwight, son of John, bom 
 in England, in 1629, came to this country with 
 his father in 1634-5. He was for ten years town 
 clerk, selectman for twenty-five years and a rep- 
 resentative of the town in the General Court in 
 1691-2. He was cornet of a troop in his younger 
 years, and afterwards a captain, of foot. He went 
 9 
 
 out ten times against the Indians. He married 
 (third) Jan. 9, 1665, Anna Flint, daughter of Rev. 
 Henry, of Braintree, Mass. Capt. Dwight died 
 Jan. 31, 1717, and his wife Anna died Jan. 29,. 
 
 (III) Justice Nathaniel Dwight, son of Capt. 
 Timothy, born Nov. 20, 1666, removed from Ded- 
 
 ■ham to Hatfield, Mass., at first, and afterwards 
 (about 1695) to Northampton, where he passed the 
 remaining sixteen years of his life. He was a 
 trader and farmer, and a justice oi the peace and 
 surveyor of land on a large scale. He married 
 Dec. 9, 1693, Mehitable Partridge, born Aug. 26, 
 1675, daughter of Col.- Samuel Partridge, of Hat- 
 field, Mass., and Mehitable Crow. Justice Dwight 
 died Nov. 7, 1711. His wife lived in widowhood 
 
 -for forty-five years, and died at Northampton Oct. 
 19, 1756. 
 
 (IV) Col. Timothy Dwight, son of Justice Na- 
 thaniel, born Oct. 19, 1694, at Hatfield, Mass., mar- 
 ried Aug. 16, 1716, Experience King, bo-rn April 
 17, 1693, daughter of Lieut. John King (2), of 
 Northampton, and Mehitable Pomeroy, and lived 
 and died in Northampton. He was a lawyer by 
 profession, and was held in high esteem for his 
 talents and his worth. He possessed ample means, 
 and was much engaged in matters of business, pri- 
 vate and public. He was especially remarkable for 
 his great energy and decision of character — a man 
 of great influence. He was selectman, judge of pro- 
 bate and of the county court of Hampshire county^ 
 then including in it also what is now Berkshire, be- 
 ing some of the time its Chief Justice. He was for 
 many years a representative from the town in the 
 Legislature. He was colonel of a regiment, and ire 
 the old French war was captain of a company. He' 
 figured conspicuously on the frontier. He died 
 April 30, 1771, and his wife passed away Dec. 15, 
 1763. 
 
 (V) Major Timothy Dwight, son of Col. Tim- 
 othy, born at Fort Dummer, Vt., May 17, 1726 
 (his birth and death both occurring away from 
 home), was graduated at Yale in 1744, married 
 Nov. 8, 1750, Mary Edwards, born April 4, 1734, 
 daughter of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, of North- 
 ampton, Mass., and Sarah Pierpont. Major Dwight 
 was graduated from Yale in 1744, and became a 
 merchant of Northampton. He was selectman, 
 1760-74; town recorder, 1760-75; register of pro^ 
 bate and judge of the Court of Common Pleas, 
 1758-74, succeeding the father in the same posi- 
 tion, who resigned it in 1757. He was a man of 
 large physique, six feet four inches in height, of 
 fine proportions and great physical strength. He 
 purchased a large body of land at Natchez, Miss., 
 in 1776, went thither and there died June 10, 1777. 
 His wife died at Northampton Feb. 28, 1807. 
 
 (VI) President Timothy Dwight, son of Ma- 
 jor Timothy, born May 14, 1752,' at Northampton, 
 Mass., married March 3, 1777, Mary, born April 
 II, 1754, daughter of Benjamin Woolsey, of Do- 
 
130 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 soris, L. I., and Esther Isaacs, of Norwalk, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Young Dwight spent one year at j\Iiddletown, 
 Conn., under Rev. Enoch Huntington, in preparation 
 for college. He was graduated from Yale College 
 at seventeen, and ever afterward supported himself. 
 He taught in the Hopkins Grammar School at New 
 Haven for two years, and was tutor in Yale, 1771- 
 yy, and during this time he went thoroughly 
 through, for his own pleasure and profit, the Prin- 
 ciptia of Newton; and he also pursued the study 
 of law, with the expectation of making it his chosen 
 profession for life. In 1774 he made an open pro- 
 fession of religion, and turned away his thoughts 
 from the many brilliant inducements offered him 
 to enter upon legal practice and political life. 
 
 Mr. Dwight was among the earliest advocates ■ 
 of the independence of the American colonies, be- 
 ing in his whole mental makeup a man of progress 
 and of patriotism, and was swayed by his ideas of 
 what was right and best, instead of by his fears 
 of what might come out of the effort to put them 
 into effect. In June, 1777, he was licensed to 
 preach, and in September following he was ap- 
 pointed a chaplain in the army in Gen. Parsons' 
 brigade, but owing to his father's death he resigned 
 the position in March, 1779, going to Northampton 
 to comfort and aid his mother in her great bereave- 
 ment, and to provide for the maintenance of the 
 large family cast upon his care, which he did by 
 carrying on the farm, teaching and preaching. He 
 was a member of the Legislature of Massachusetts 
 in 1782, and was there urged to accept a nomina- 
 tion for Congress, but he refused to be drawn away 
 from the Church. In November, 1783, at the age 
 of thirty-one, he entered upon a rural pastorate, 
 accepting a call to Greenfield Hill, Fairfield coun- 
 ty, and for twelve succeeding years performed his 
 duties laboriously and happily. He conducted at 
 the same time a large and prosperous co-educa- 
 tional school during the whole period. 
 
 From Greenfield Hill Rev. Dwight was called, 
 in 1795, at the age of forty-three, to the presidency 
 of Yale College, as successor to Dr. Ezra Stiles, 
 and for twenty-two years of high intellectual and 
 spiritual activity he filled out the full measure of 
 his capabilities of usefulness. 
 
 The published works of President Dwight 
 would fill many, many volumes, and his unpub- 
 lished manuscript would fill as many more. He 
 wrote his "Conquest of Canaan" at nineteen. His 
 pastoral poem, "Greenfield Hill" (1794), in which 
 was introduced a vivid description of the burning 
 of Fairfield by the British in 1779, was popular. 
 His "Theology Explained and Deifended" hn a 
 course of 173 sermons (5 vol., Middletown, Conn., 
 1818: London, 1819; new edition with memoirs by 
 his son. Rev. Sereno E. Dwight, New York, 1846), 
 has gone through a score of editions in this coun- 
 try and at least 100 abroad, and on it rests his 
 reputation as a theologian. While chaplain in the 
 
 amiy he wrote several stirring, patriotic songs, one 
 of which "Columbia," became a general favorite. 
 He won great merit as a writer of sacred lyrics. 
 He versified thirty-three of David's Psalms. No 
 other American poet has yet written so many 
 hymns that the church has gladly accepted as its 
 own, and none have been written by any one in the 
 land which have been greater favorites than some 
 that have come from his pen. His "Travels in 
 New England and New York" (4 vols.. New Ha- 
 ven, 1S21; London, 1823) was pronounced by Rob- 
 ert Southey the most important of his works. He 
 wrote many works and numerous discourses. 
 
 Probably President Dwight's chief services to 
 mankind were not so much those of a preacher as 
 of a teacher. For forty-six years continuously, ex- 
 cept the one and a little more of his chaplaincy in 
 the army, he spent the united force of his great in- 
 tellect and heart girding up such of the youth of 
 his generation, as he could reach with his influence, 
 to the .best possible use of their times and talents 
 for their own good and the glory of God. For 
 twenty-one years of this period, until his death, 
 he abounded, in every way, in the most magnani- 
 mous and untiring interest in the duties and priv- 
 ileges of the presidency of Yale. On this long and 
 successful administration of the affairs of Yale 
 College Dr. Dwight's claims to distinction largely 
 rest. When he assumed control there were but no 
 students ; the curriculum was still narrow and 
 pedantic ; the freshmen were in bondage to the up- 
 per-class-men, and they in turn to the faculty. 
 President Dwight abolished the primary school sys- 
 tem and established among the class-men, and be- 
 tween them and the faculty, such rules as are usu- 
 ally observed by gentlemen in social intercourse. 
 He introduced the study of oratory into the cur- 
 riculum, and himself gave lectures on ■ style and 
 composition. At his death the number of students 
 had increased to 313. 
 
 In his political views President Dwight was a 
 Federalist of the Hamilton school, and he earnestly 
 deprecated the introduction of French ideas of ed- 
 ucation. He received the degree of M. A. in 1772, 
 and on taking it delivered a dissertation on the 
 history and poetry of the Bible, which attracted 
 much attention. He received the degree of S. T. 
 D. from the College of New Jersey in 1787, and 
 that of LL. D. in 1810 from Harvard. He died 
 while president of Yale, Jan. 11, 1817. 
 
 Several of the brothers of President Dwight 
 were men of prominence and distinction, notably 
 Theodore Dwight, of Hartford, Conn., and New 
 York, and Dr. Nathaniel, for a time assistant sur- 
 geon in the United States army; both bom in 
 Northampton, Mass., in 1764 and 1770, respective- 
 ly. Theodore studied law in New Haven under his 
 cousin, Judge Pierrepont Edwards, and 'became 
 eminent in his profession. He was a cousin of 
 Aaron Burr and at one time removed to New York 
 to become his law partner, but disagreed with 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 131 
 
 Burr's political opinion and returned to Hartford, 
 where he edited the Courant. He was a brilliant 
 writer and journalist. He published for a time the 
 New York Daily Advertiser. He died in New 
 York in 1846. While Dr. Nathaniel Dwight, who 
 studied medicine at Hartford, after leaving- the 
 service, practiced medicine in various points in Con- 
 necticut and at Providence, Rhode Island. 
 
 (Vn) James Dwight, son of President Tim- 
 othy, torn Sept. i, 1784, pursued the first two years 
 of the college course at Yale (class of 1804), and 
 went into the hardware business with his brother 
 Timothy, at New Haven, which he afterward car- 
 ried on at Petersburg, Va., for ten years or more 
 with success, when he removed to New York and 
 there established the hardware firm of James & 
 George A. Dwight. In later life he returned to 
 the South and spent several years as a merchant in 
 Columbus, Ga. In 1854 he retired from all further 
 active ibusiness to New Haven, Conn., where he 
 spent the rest of his life. 
 
 Mr. Dwight was thoroughly upright and guile- 
 less, while also clear and ardent in his convictions, 
 and fearless in uttering them. The sense of duty 
 was the law of his life. He was very fond of read- 
 ing, at all limes as he had opportunity, and seemed 
 almost more at home among his books than any 
 where else. While his favorite reading was of the 
 most varied kind, as especially history, poetry and 
 fiction, he loved to read continually, over and over 
 again, beyond all other books, the Holy Scriptures, 
 which at the time of his death he had read from 
 beginning to end one hundred and twelve times. 
 He joined the Presbyterian Church in Petersburg, 
 Va., in 1824. His faith in God was simple and child- 
 like. He possessed superior business qualities and 
 unfailing energy of character at all times. He was 
 of sanguine temperament, but quite self-distrustful 
 in his religious experiences. The mingled , earnest- 
 ness and gentleness of his character often drew 
 those of his younger kindred who knew him with 
 tender interest to his side, when venerable with 
 years. 
 
 On March 13, 181 1, Mr. Dwight was married 
 to Aurelia Darling, born Jan. 11, 1788, daughter 
 of Joseph Darling, M. D., of New Haven, and 
 Aurelia Mills. She died Sept. 17, 181 3, and he 
 married (second) Aug. 8, 181 5, Susan Breed, born 
 in Norwich, Dec. 17, 1785, daughter of John Mc- 
 Laren Breed and Rebecca Walker. 
 
 The second Mrs. Dwight had a nature full 6f 
 energy and enthusiasm, and of a greatly inspiring 
 and educating influence upon her children. She 
 felt herself, and made them feel, that a liberal ed- 
 Tication was, next to personal religion, the greatest 
 Talessing of life, and she was ready at all times 
 to go any where, or to do any thing that was need- 
 iul to secure that most precious result. No dif- 
 ficulties daunted her spirit, and as obstacles rose 
 into view before her, her resolution rose at once 
 also to meet and conquer them. With a remarkable 
 
 power of persuading others that her plans were 
 ever wisest and best, she never allowed any who 
 trusted in her leadership to see her foot falter or 
 her eye quail in the presence of disappointment or 
 defeat. While rejoicing as an earnest religious 
 home educator in all signs of true intellectual and 
 moral growth in her children, she was at the same 
 time the delightful companion of their every-day 
 experiences of pleasure. She died at her ancestral 
 home in Norwich Aug. 29, 1851, and Mr. Dwight 
 died at New Haven March 24, 1863. One child 
 was born to the first marriage — Elizabeth Smith, 
 born July 20, 1812, married Aug. 29, 1833, Ren- 
 sselaer Havens, of New York, and died May 30, 
 1848, without issue. To the second marriage 
 were born children as follows: (2) Aurelia, born 
 July 31, 1816, married July 15, 1846, Rev. Richard 
 Hooker and died in New Haven Jan. 25, 1874, 
 leaving one son, Thomas, born Sept. 3, 1849, ^^ 
 Macon, Ga., was graduated at Yale in 1869, and 
 resides in New Haven. On June 29, 1874, he mar- 
 ried Sarah A. Bowles, daughter of the late Samuel 
 Bowles, editor of the Springfield (Mass.) Repub- 
 lican, and they have had three children : Aurelia 
 Dwight, who died Jan. 27, 1899, in her twenty- 
 fourth year ; Richard, who was graduated from 
 Yale in 1899; and Thomas, of the class of 1903, 
 Yale University. (3) Timothy, born June 20, 
 1820, at Norwich, died Aug. 11, 1822. (4) John 
 Breed, born Dec. 8, 1821, in Norwich, was grad- 
 uated from Yale in 1840, was a tutor there in 
 1843, ^nd died Oct. 20, of that year. (5) and 
 (6), James McLaren Breed and Timothy, respect- 
 ively, sketches of whom follow. 
 
 (VIII) James McLaren Breed Dwight, son of 
 James, born at Norwich, Conn., Aug. 11, 1825, 
 was graduated from Yale in the class of 1846. He 
 was a tutor in that institution from 1849 ^"^ 1853, 
 and from 1854 to 1856 was a student of theology 
 at Andover, Mass., and at New Haven, Conn. He 
 was graduated from Columbia College Law School 
 in 1 861, and was identified with that institution as 
 an instructor in law from 1861 to 1866, and also 
 was engaged in the practice of the law in New 
 York City. For a nunfber of years following 1869 
 Mr. Dwight and wife were traveling abroad. Their 
 place of residence had been changed to New Ha- 
 ven, where the widow continues to reside. A 
 writer speaking of Mr. Dwight said : "He has 
 enjoyed to a remarkable degree the advantages of 
 an uncommonly wide and versatile range of per- 
 sonal culture, in various classical, educational, 
 clerical, legal and artistic forms with the super- 
 added benefits of travel." 
 
 On June 6, 1866, Mr. Dwight was married at 
 Philadelphia to Cora Charlesina Tallmadge, daugh- 
 ter of Major Charles B. Tallmadge, U. S. A., and 
 Margaret Kennedy, and one child, James McLaren, 
 was horn to them May 4, 1872, in London, Eng- 
 land, and died on the same date. 
 
 Rev. Timothy Dwight, D. D., LL. D., of New 
 
132 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Haven, son of James, and who but recently has 
 retired from the presidency of Yale University, was 
 born Xov. i6, 1828, in Xorwich, Conn. He was 
 graduated from Yale College in 1849, and from 
 1851 to 1855 was a tutor in that institution. He 
 studied theology at the New Haven Theological 
 Seminary from 1850 to 1853, then' spent two years 
 (1856-58) in Germany at the Universities of Bonn 
 and Berlin. He has since until his recent retire- 
 ment been connected with, and taken an active in- 
 terest in, the affairs of Yale University, and its 
 financial growth has been largely due to his per- 
 sonal efforts. Since 1858 he has been professor of 
 Sacred Literature and N. T. Greek in Yale Theo- 
 logical Seminary. He was for some years one of 
 the editors of the New Englandcr, and in 1870-71 
 he published a series of articles in it on "The True 
 Ideal of an American University," which was 
 afterward issued separately, and attracted much at- 
 tention. He has published a translation of Godet's 
 "Commentary on John's Gospel," with additional 
 notes, and has edited with additional notes several 
 volumes of Meyer's "Comments on the New Testa- 
 ment ;" he has also published a volume of ser- 
 mons entitled "Thoughts of and for the Inner Life," 
 also various articles on educational and other sub- 
 jects. He was a member of the Committee for the 
 Revision of the Bible from 1872 till its comple- 
 tion in 1885. During the foregoing years, while 
 earnestly devoted to his chosen and greatly loved 
 work as an exegetical Biblical student, and greatly 
 fond, as if by hereditary instinct, of guiding young- 
 er minds into high courses O'f scholarly investiga- 
 tion and discovery, he also preached frequently and 
 with great acceptance in the college pulpit, as well 
 as elsewhere in the city. In 1886 Prof. Dwight 
 was chosen the successor of Xoah Porter as presi- 
 dent of Yale, and was formerly installed in the 
 office July 1st, delivering an inaugural address 
 which was published with an account of the cere- 
 monies at his induction in pamphlet form (New 
 Haven, 1886). 
 
 On Dec. 31, 1866, President Dwight was mar- 
 ried to Jane Wakeman Skinner, daughter of Roger 
 Sherman Skinner, of New Haven, and Alary Lock- 
 wood De Forest, and their children are : Helen 
 Rood and Winthrop Edwards, of whom the latter 
 graduated at Yale LIniversity in 1893, and is now 
 a lawyer in New York City. 
 
 A number of the sons of the first President 
 Timothy Dwight were men of prominence in the 
 communities in which they lived : Timothy, born 
 in Stratford in 1778, was for forty years and more 
 a merchant of New Haven, dying in 1844; Benja- 
 min Woolsey, born in Northampton in 1780, was 
 graduated from Yale in 1799, practiced medicine 
 some yeirs at Catskill, N. Y., then was a mer- 
 chant in New York City, and later at Catskill, and 
 died at Clinton, N. Y., in 1850, a farmer; Sereno 
 Edwards, born in 1786, in Greenfield Hill, was 
 graduated from Yale in 1803, was a tutor there 
 from 1806 to 1810, then a lawyer there, 1810 to 
 
 1816, entered the ministry and was chaplain of the 
 U. S. Senate, 1816-17, engaged in literary work, 
 was president of Hamilton College, Clinton, X. 
 Y., 1833-35 ; William Theodore, bom in 1795, in 
 Greenfield Hill, was graduated from Yale in 1813, 
 tutor there, 1817-19, studied law in Philadelphia, 
 and practiced from 1821 to 1831, then entered the 
 ministry and in 1832 was ordained pasto-r of the 
 Third Congregational Church at Portland, Me., re- 
 maining there until the year before his death in 
 1865, which occurred at Andover, Alass. ; Henry, 
 born in 1797, in New Haven, was graduated from 
 Yale in 1815, studied theology at Andover, Mass., 
 1824-28, and became an author and lecturer, dying 
 in New Haven in 1832. 
 
 AIAJOR FREDERICK A. SPENCER, late a 
 prominent citizen of 'Waterbury, was born in that 
 city Nov. 7, 1833, and descended from an English 
 family that settled in America long prior to the Rev- 
 olutionary war. His ancestry may be briefly traced 
 as follows : 
 
 Gerard Spencer, a native of Bedfordshire, Eng- 
 land, emigrated to America about 1633 and settled 
 in Cambridge, Mass. He removed to Lynn, Mass., 
 and in 1666 was one of the original settlers of the 
 town of Haddam, Conn. His son, Samuel, who was 
 born in Lvnn, Alass., came with his father to Had- 
 dam, where he married Hannah Willey Blachford. 
 Isaac Spencer, son of Samuel, and grandson of the 
 emigrant, married Mary Selden and had a family of 
 children, among whom were two sons, Isaac and 
 Joseph, the latter a general in the Continental army 
 during the Revolution. 
 
 Isaac Spencer, son of Isaac and ]\Iary (Selden) 
 Spencer, and great-grandfather of Major Freder- 
 ick A. Spencer, was a lay preacher of the Separat- 
 ists, and a very devout man. His death occurred in 
 Prospect, Conn., in 1787. To his marriage with 
 Temperance Goodspeed, of Barnstable, Mass., were 
 born eight children, of whom Selden, Elihu and 
 Ansel served in the war of the Revolution. 
 
 Ansel Spencer, son of Isaac, and grandfather of 
 the Major, was born in the town of Prospect, then 
 a part of Waterbury, in 1763, lived in Naugatuck, 
 and died in 1850. He enlisted in the Patriot army 
 at the age of seventeen. In early life he had been in 
 mercantile business with his brother, Elihu, but later 
 became a farmer. He was religiously inclined. He 
 n^arriedXoly Benham, of Waterbury, and they had 
 the following children: Mary C, who married 
 Deacon James Street; Willard, father of the Major; 
 Ansel, who resided in Naugatuck, and died at the 
 age of sixty-four years ; Henry W., who was deputy 
 sheriff of New Haven county and removed from 
 Naugatuck to Fulton county, N. Y., where he died 
 when seventy-eight years old ; James, who died un- 
 married in Xaugatuck, when he was about seventy- 
 eight years of age; Shandy, who died single "at 
 twenty-seven ; and Catherine, deceased wife of Will- 
 iam B. Lewis, of Naugatuck. 
 
.c^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 133 
 
 Hon Willard Spencer was born in Prospect, 
 l-onn May 14, 1801. He was a gentleman who 
 held the respect of the community in anv and every 
 position he held. For seventeen' years he was first 
 selectman. A lifelong friend says of him: "If I 
 could pass out of the world as he did, respected by 
 all and against whom naught could be said, I would 
 feel that I had successfully lived and died." He 
 came to Waterbury in 1826 and engaged in mercan- 
 tile business. About i8ti he formed a partnership 
 with Mark Leavenworth, B. F. Leavenworth and 
 Greene Kendrick in the same line. About 1836 he 
 became connected with Mark Leavenworth and C. 
 S. Sperry in the manufacture of gilt buttons, and 
 in 1839, with Dr. Ambrose Ives, in the same line 
 of manufacture. In 1834 Willard Snencer repre- 
 sented the town of Waterbury in the State Legisla- 
 ture; from 1837 to 1839 he was town clerk, and 
 for twenty years following 1851, with few excep- 
 tions, was selectman and agent for the town ; in 
 1846 he was judge of probate, in 1857 State sen- 
 ator. He frequently declined the nomination of 
 mayor, but was often elected alderman and council- 
 man. He was a director of the Citizens' Bank, presi- 
 dent of the Waterbury Savings Bank and president 
 of the Bronson Library Board. As an executor, ap- 
 praiser, administrator, guardian, referee, commis- 
 sioner and auditor, and as an incumbent of such 
 other appointive offices as require strict integrity 
 and good ibusiness habits, no name from 1840 to 
 1880 is so frequently found in the records as his. 
 Willard Spencer died May 2, 1890, at the age of 
 eighty-nine years, less twelve days. 
 
 On June 27, 1830, Willard Spencer married Miss 
 Marcia Burton, daughter of Joseph Burton, of Wat- 
 erbury. She was born March 31, 1808, and died 
 F"eb. 28, 1887, the mother of the following children : 
 (i) Susan is unmarried. (2) Frederick A. is the 
 subject of this sketch. (3) Joseph B., for years a 
 successful traveling salesman, was born March 27, 
 1836, educated in the schools of Waterbury, and 
 was graduated as a civil engineer at West Point ; 
 he went thence to Kansas to practice his profession, 
 but returned on account of ill health in 1858, when 
 he entered the office of N. J. Welton, remaining 
 there for several years, later serving for some time 
 as city clerk, mayor and in various other responsi- 
 ble positions. He died May 6, 1889. (4) William 
 A. (5) Mary E. 
 
 Frederick A. Spencer was reared in Waterbury, 
 attended the local schools and also Williston Semin- 
 ary, at Eastharapton, Mass. At the age of seven- 
 teen years he entered one of the brass mills of Wat- 
 erbury, in which he was employed seven years. He 
 then went to Kansas and to Colorado, and on re- 
 turning to the East again entered the mills and was 
 superintendent for six years. At the breaking out of 
 the Rebellion Mr. Spencer was commissioned lieu- 
 tenant in the 2d Colorado Vol. Cav. and served 
 throughout the entire struggle. He was wounded 
 at the battle of Little Blue, Mo., Oct. 21, 1864, and 
 
 at the close of the war was honorably discharged 
 and returned to his native city. His record shows 
 him to have been a brave and efficient officer, and 
 his interest in military affairs did not cease with 
 his service in the army, for he played an influential 
 part in the history of Connecticut militia. In 1876 
 he was appointed on the staff of Col. S. R. Smith, as 
 paymaster of the 2d Regiment, Conn. N. G., and in 
 March, 1877, he took command of Company A, 2d 
 Regiment, Conn. N. G. and remained in command 
 for five years, at which time he was promoted to the 
 rank of major; he was brigade inspector of Rifle 
 Practice of the Conn. N. G., which office he resigned 
 in 1885, and at the time of his death was on the re- 
 tired list, ranking as major. 
 
 After his return at the close of the Rebellion 
 Major Spencer held many important positions. He 
 was a director and vice-president of the Dime Sav- 
 ings Bank, and was a member of the common coun- 
 cil, and twice assessor of Waterbury ; was a mem- 
 ber of the first board of police commissioners ; one 
 of the engineers of the fire department; member of 
 the board of health ; member of the Finance commit- 
 tee of the Center school district, and clerk of the 
 probate court. By appointment of Gov. Morris 
 he served as a member of the iboard of State Prison 
 Directors, in which he was chairman of the commit- 
 tee on Building and Repairs. He was also ap- 
 pointed a director of the Connecticut Reformatory 
 by Gov. Coffin and filled a number of minor offices 
 not here enumerated. 
 
 As a Freemason Major Spencer stood very high. 
 He was "made" in 1855. In 1870 he became a char- 
 ter member of Continental Lodge, No. 76. In 
 1866 he became a Knight Templar, was elected 
 Commander of the commandery in 1870 and again 
 in 1892, 1893 and 1895, ^-nd was Grand Commander 
 of the Grand Commandery of the State in 1889. 
 In 1894 he was elected Grand Inspector of the 
 Grand Commandery for five years, and in 1899 was 
 re-elected for another five years term. The Major 
 v/as also a member of the Consistory, A. A. Scottish 
 Rite, of Bridgeport, the Royal Order of Scotland, 
 and was a thirty-third degree Mason — the highest 
 attainable. Major Spencer was past commander of 
 Wadhams Post, No. 49, G. A. R., of Waterbury, 
 and held his membership ut> to the time of his 
 death which occurred Dec. 8, 1901. He was also a 
 member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion 
 of the United States, the Waterbury Club, the Con- 
 necticut Society of the Sons of the American Revo- 
 lution, the Reform Club, of New York City, the 
 Army and Navy Club, of New York City, and sev- 
 eral other social and fraternal associations. In poli- 
 tics he was a Democrat, but at the same time not a 
 follower of William Jennings Br3'an. He was un- 
 married. 
 
 The Major's personal qualities made him friends 
 in whatever position he was placed and his life was 
 always synonymous with integrity and uprightness. 
 
 Some attention should now be given the Bur- 
 
^3^ 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ton family, from whom Major Spencer descended 
 maternally, and which came from England in the 
 Colonial days and settled at Stratford, Conn. Of 
 this family, Capt. Joseph Burton served in the early 
 wars of the Colonies with the Indians and the 
 French, and his son, Benjamin Burton, great-grand- 
 father of Major Spencer, served as a private soldier 
 in the war of the Revolution, and was a prisoner 
 for some time in the hands of the "insolent foe," 
 being confined on board one of the prison ships in 
 Kew York harbor. After his release he served un- 
 der Gen. LaFayette in the capture of Yorktown. 
 His death took place in 1811. Joseph Burton, son 
 of Benjamin, came to W'aterbury in his early years 
 and married Susan Bronson, daughter of Deacon 
 Stephen Bronson. Of their children, the mother 
 of the Major, Marcia Burton, was the only one to 
 grow to maturity. She was born in Waterbury. 
 Joseph Burton was a prominent business man and 
 extensively engaged in mercantile pursuits and ag- 
 riculture. 
 
 AUSTIN BOWK (deceased). Among the 
 highly respected citizens and prominent business 
 men of Meriden, who have passed out of life but 
 are still remembered, was Austin Bowe, the founder 
 of the firm of A. Bowe & Son, manufacturers of 
 fine light carriages and dealers in harness, blankets 
 and robes, located on West Main street, in Meriden. 
 
 The Bowe ancestry extends far back among the 
 oldest settlers in Middlesex county, Alexander 
 Bowe, with his wife. Sarah, having come from 
 Engiland, and settled in Middletown, Conn., with 
 the first settlers. There he died Nov. 6, 1678, his 
 wife having passed av/ay April 16, 1673. 
 
 Samuel Bowe, son of Alexander, was born Jan. 
 28, 1659, and married Mary Turner May 9, 1683. 
 
 Alexander Bowe, son of Samuel, was born Jan. 
 
 20, 1 701, and married Lydia Keney, of Glaston- 
 bury, Conn., Sept. 21, 1720. 
 
 Peleg Bowe, son of Alexander, was born Sept. 
 
 21, 1727, and on Jan. 29, 1748, married Mary 
 Woodward. 
 
 Isaac Bowe, son of Peleg, was born Feb. 6, 
 1753, and he died April 25, 1791. His wife was 
 Elizabeth Lee, and from this worthy couple de- 
 scended the Bowe family of Meriden. 
 
 Austin Bowe was a son of Albert Bowe and 
 was but six years old when his father died. His 
 early life was spent in Middletown, but his educa- 
 tional opportunities were very limited, and as a 
 farmer boy he worked for Amos Miller, in the 
 meantime attending school during the winter sea- 
 sons, remaining thus employed until he was eighteen 
 years old. Then he began to learn the blacksmith 
 trade with Mr. Crandell, in Middletown, working 
 as a journeyman several years, and later came to 
 Meriden. Here he soon found employment as a 
 journeyman blacksmith and horse-shoer with Mr. 
 Atkins, and remained in his employ for several 
 years, but later returned to Middlefield and started 
 in business for himself as a horse-shoer and general 
 
 blacksmith, finding so much encouragement that in 
 he decided to go into the business more ex- 
 
 tensively. Meriden offered the best field, and here 
 he formed a partnership with Walter J. Chalker, 
 erected a shop on Stone street and entered upon 
 carriage making, in connection with his other busi- 
 ness, continuing this association for the following 
 eio-ht years, the firm name being Bowe & Chalker. 
 * At this period Mr. Bowe decided to take his 
 son, Wallace F., into business with him, and the 
 new partnership was formed, and conducted under 
 the firm name of A. Bowe & Son, which as years 
 passed grew into one of the leading business in- 
 terests of this citv. The lines upon which this 
 business have ever been conducted have ensured 
 for it its continuance, although the honored founder 
 passed out of life May 27, 1899, and was laid to 
 rest in West cemetery. 
 
 Austin Bowe was a man well known and highly 
 respected, industrious, honorable in the highest de- 
 gree, and one who fulfilled every demand made 
 upon him bv life as a devoted husband and father, 
 progressive and honest business man and thoroughly 
 reliable citizen. In his early life he was a Dem- 
 ocrat, and later embraced the principles of the Re- 
 publican party, but never sought political favor, liv- 
 ing a quiet, industrious life, and as closely as pos- 
 sible following the Golden Rule. 
 
 Austin Bowe was married in Middletown, Conn., 
 to Miss Hannah W. Charriberlain, born in Middle- 
 town, a daughter of Collins R. Chamberlain, and 
 to this union five children were born : Wallace F. 
 is mentioned below. Charles, who is engaged in the 
 soda water business, married Hulda V. Brown. Ed- 
 ward A. is mentioned below. Albert died at the 
 age of twenty-five years. One died at the age 
 of four months. Airs. Bowe still survives, resid- 
 ing in her handsome hoiTie near the factory, and is 
 we'll and most favorably known in Meriden for her 
 many fine traits of character. 
 
 Wall.'VCe F. Bowe, eldest son of the late Austin 
 Bowe, a partner and the manager in the business 
 of A. Bowe & Son, was born in Meriden Nov. 25, 
 1857, and attended school in the Corner district. 
 For three years he was emploved in the factory of 
 Asaph Merriam in the painting department, but 
 at the age of eighteen years went into his father's 
 factory. On attaining his majority he became a 
 partner, managing the business for many years prior 
 to the death of his father, assuming responsibilities 
 which had become heavy for the latter. His dis- 
 cretion and good judgment have caused his con- 
 tinuance in this brarch of the business, in which 
 he has been so eminently successful. Air. Bowe is 
 a man of original ideas, and is the inventor of the 
 Bowe SDoke extractor, which is in general use in 
 some of the largest carriage manufactories in the 
 United States. 
 
 On Dec. 5, 1893, Wallace F. Bowe married 
 Lucy I. Andrews, who was born in Wallingford, 
 daughter of John B. Andrews, a well-known real- 
 estate dealer in Aleriden. ]\lr. Bowe has taken 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 135 
 
 a prominent part in public affairs, is a Republican, 
 and during 1899 served in the city council, on the 
 Street and Police committees. Fraternally he is a 
 member of Columtoia Council, No. 543, Royal Ar- 
 canum, of Meriden. 
 
 Edward Austin Bovve, son of the late Austin 
 Bowe, was born in Meriden Nov. 14, 1862, at the 
 Carpenter homestead in East Main street. His par- 
 ents moved to Middlefield when he was three years 
 old, and returned to Meriden three years later, 
 moving into the home which is still occupied by 
 the mother. Until the age of fifteen years he at- 
 tended the Corner school, and then as cash boy 
 went into Arnold & Wightman's Boston dry-goods 
 store, in the Y. M. C. A. building. Through his 
 ability he was soon promoted to a clerkship, which 
 he held three years until a .better inducement was 
 offered by A. S. Thomas. Later he took a year's 
 trip through the South, and then entered the em- 
 ploy of Ives, Upham & Rand, as salesman, leaving 
 later to accept the position of agent to work up new 
 routes for the Vienna Compressed Yeast Co., on 
 the Naugatuck railroad, and then going to Phila- 
 delphia to work up the business which had col- 
 lapsed on account of the inability of his predeces- 
 sors. In this lin€ he was quite successful. Later 
 he took a trip through Pennsylvania and New 
 York, finally returning to Meriden, where he ac- 
 cepted a position as bookkeeper with the firm of 
 A. Bowe & Son, where he now has charge, and is 
 building up an increasing business. Mr. Bowe be- 
 longs to Silver City Lodge, A. O. U. W., and Court 
 George R. Curtis, F. of A. 
 
 FRANK P PFLEGHAR, a noted mechanic 
 and manufacturer of hardware specialties at No. 
 74 Crown street. New Haven, was born in Wur- 
 temberg, Germany, April 12, 1835, a son of Franz 
 Pfleghar, a native of the same community. 
 
 Franz Pfleghar was a wheelwright, and came 
 to the United States, locating at New Haven about 
 i860, where he died. His father was also a wheel- 
 wright, but he never left his native Germany. The 
 mother of our subject died in the old country, the 
 mother of four children : Frank P., a successful 
 business man in New Haven ; Ferdinand and Bern- 
 hard, also residents of New Haven ; and Franzisca, 
 who died young. 
 
 Frank P. Pfleghar spent his school days in his 
 native town, and began work when twelve years 
 old. He came to New York when about nineteen 
 years of age, and spent a year there working at 
 cabinet making. In the old country he had worked 
 with his father as a wheelwright and had a good 
 knowledge of the use of tools. In 1855 he came 
 to New Haven and secured employment in the 
 Whitney Armory at Whitneyville, and for twelve 
 years remained in the employ of that firm. At the 
 expiration of that time, in company with William 
 Shollhorn, he engaged in the machinist business un- 
 der the name of Pfleghar & ShoWhorn. After four 
 years Mr. Pfleghar withdrew from the firm, and in 
 
 company with McLagon & Stevens went into lock 
 making under the name of the Union Lock Com- 
 pany. At the end of two and a half years this com- 
 pany was dissolved, and Mr. Pfleghar engaged in 
 business for himself, devoting himself especially 
 to the making of hardware specialties and tools, 
 and in that line has developed a very flattering busi- 
 ness, at No. 74 Crown street. 
 
 On Feb. 11, 1858, Mr. Pfleghar was married 
 to Theckla Rutz, a native of Bavaria, and now de- 
 ceased. She was the mother of six children, five 
 of whom lived to maturity : Frank, who is en- 
 gaged with his father in business ; Henry, who mar- 
 ried Anna Cronan ; Theckla; Mary, who married 
 George Vorschmidt, and has five children, Anna, 
 Paulina, Louisa, Josephine and Eulalia ; and Liz- 
 zie. Mr. Pfleghar is a Democrat, and belongs to 
 St. Boniface Benevolent Society, and also to two 
 German Singing Societies. He is a member of the 
 German Catholic Church, and is held m marked es- 
 teem by those familiar with his industrious life and 
 upright character. 
 
 ALLEN F. ANDREW (deceased), who dur- 
 in hisi lifetime was one o'f the best-known and 
 most highly respected residents of the town of 
 Orange, was a native of same, born April 28, 1836, 
 a son of William and Esther (Allen) Andrew, 
 industrious farming people of that locality. 
 
 Mr. Andrew, our subject, received a liberal 
 education at the district schools of the town of 
 Orange, and remained under the parental roof, aid- 
 mig in the work of the home farm until his mar- 
 riage. He then removed to the Clark farm, not 
 far from the Andrew homestead, where he fol- 
 lowed general farming, including dairying, etc., 
 making many improvements, and passed here the 
 remainder of his days, dying May 17, 1886; his 
 remains were interred in the Orange cemetery. 
 Mr. Andrew was originally a Whig in politics, 
 later a Republican, but at no time was he what 
 might be termed an office seeker, though always 
 loyal to his party. In religious faith he was a 
 member of the Congregational Church, active in 
 all its workings, and for a long time a teacher in, 
 and superintendent of, the Sabbath-school. Thor- 
 oughly domestic in his habits, he was a lover of 
 home, temperate in all things, a good citizen, lov- 
 ing husband and indulgent father. 
 
 On Nov. 17, 1857, at New Milford, Conn., the 
 birthplace of the bride, Allen F. Andrew was 
 united in marriage with Betsey B. Giddings, a 
 daughter of James and Susan H. (Barlow) Gid^- 
 dings, and granddaughter of James A. Giddings, 
 a soldier of the Revolutionary war ; on her moth- 
 er's side she is a granddaughter of Gersham Bar- 
 low. Children as follows have been horn to this 
 union : Burton G., a resident of the town of Or- 
 ange, married to Mary Piatt, of West Haven ; and 
 Leonard F., conducting the home farm, married to 
 Grace Jordan, of Torrington, Conn., a daughter of 
 F. F. and Lucy (Baldwin) Jordan (they had two 
 
136 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 children, Fields Jordan; and Charlotte, who died 
 when about a year old). ;Mrs. Allen F. Andrew 
 and her daughter-in-law are ladies of culture and 
 refinement, highly useful in their respective spheres, 
 esteemed and respected by all. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM WALLACE LEE, long a 
 leading citizen of Meriden and prominent in the 
 public affairs of both city and State, comes of a 
 sturdy New England ancestry and of Revolutionary 
 stock in several lines. He is a representative self- 
 made man. 
 
 Born July 20, 1828, in the town of Barkhamsted, 
 Conn., j\Ir. Lee is a son of the late Henry Bradley 
 and Julia (Summers) Lee, and a descendant in the 
 fifth generation from John Lee, born about 1620 
 who, when a lad of from thirteen to fifteen years 
 came tO' New England from 'Colchester, in the 
 County of Essex, England, sailing from Ipswich. 
 After a year at Cambridge, under the guardianship 
 of William Westwood, he went with him to Hart- 
 ford in 1635. Young Lee became one of the orig- 
 inal proprietors of Farmington, Conn., in 1641. In 
 1659 he married Mary, daughter of Deacon Stephen 
 Hart. He died Aug. 8, 1690, and his widow mar- 
 ried, Jan. 5, 1692, Tedediah Strong, son of Elder 
 John Strong, of Northampton, Mass., ±0 which 
 place she removed. From this emigrant settler 
 William Wallace Lee's lineage is through Thomas, 
 Thomas (2), David and Henry Bradley Lee. 
 
 (II) Thomas Lee, son of John, the settler, born 
 in August, 1671, in Farmington, married Lydia 
 Benton, of Hartford. She died about 1700, and on 
 Feb. II, 1707, he married Mary Camp, of Hart- 
 ford. She died March 22, 1722, and he married 
 (third) Elizabeth Hubbard, after whose death, 
 which occurred March 23, 1733, he married 
 (fourth) Widow Martha Howard, of Windsor, 
 Conn. Mr. Lee was a mason by trade and was an 
 extensive land holder in Farmington, Bristol and 
 Avon. He served as constable and was sergeant of 
 the trainband. He died Sept. 26, 1740. 
 
 (III) Thomas Lee (2), son of Thomas, born 
 Dec. 17, 1717, married Ezabal, daughter of Jona- 
 than and Ezabal Sedgwick, of Hartford. He lived 
 on the east side of and near the Farmington river, 
 was a shoemaker by occupation and also taught 
 music. There is now in the possession of William 
 Wallace Lee a singing book, hand made, the notes 
 as clear as print, with "rules for tuning the voice 
 and finding the pitch ;" all written in rhvme. On 
 the cover in a fair round hand is the following: 
 Thomas Lee: his singing book. "Anno Domini 
 1752. Thomas Lee (2) participated in the old 
 French war, enlisting April h, 1758, and serving 
 eight weeks and five days ; and was an ardent patriot 
 in the days of the Revolution, to which, too old him- 
 self for service, he sent his two sons and melted 
 the leaden weights of his clock into bullets. He 
 diefl Jan. 11, 1806, and his wife passed away several 
 jears previously. 
 
 (I\') David Lee, son of Thomas (2), born Dec. 
 16, 1763, married in 1789 Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Andrew (soldier of the Revolution) and Majbel 
 (Fox) Hayes, of Turkey Hill (Granby), Conn., 
 where he then resided. She died May 27, 1815, 
 aged forty-five years. For his second wife he 
 wedded Fanny (Chidsey) Kilbourn, widow of Tim- 
 othy Kilbourn. She died March 13, 1861, and was 
 buried in the old cemetery at Barkhamsted. David 
 Lee was the father of seven children. He was a 
 Continental soldier in the Revolution, serving in the 
 Second Regiment, Connecticut Line, was on duty 
 in the Northern Department, in New York, and 
 also served in New Jersey; he stood guard over 
 Major Andre when that officer was a prisoner. In 
 his later years he was a United States pensioner. 
 In 1801 Mr. Lee removed to the Pleasant Valley 
 District, in Barkhamsted, Conn., where for forty 
 years he kept the toll gate on the Farmington river 
 pike. He was a blacksmith by trade. 
 
 (V) Henry Bradley Lee, son of David, born 
 July 22, 1800, was married Jan. 10, 1826, to Julia, 
 daughter of Joseph and Clarinda (Crane) Sum- 
 mers (he a soldier of the Revolution), and grand- 
 daughter oi Elihu Crane, of Durham, Conn, (also 
 a soldier of the Revolution). i\Irs. Lee died Feb. 
 13, 1835, and on Sept. 13, 1835, Mr. Lee married 
 Mary Goodwin Austin, daughter of Benjamin and 
 Susannah (Goodwin) Austin (he a soldier of the 
 Revolution). She died Dec. 4, 1863. On April 6, 
 1864, Mr. Lee married (third) Annis, widow of 
 Orsemus Ransom, and daughter of Truman Case 
 .(both her grandfathers — Humphrey Case and 
 Thomas Wilder — iwere soldiers in the Revolution. 
 Flenry Bradley Lee was a lumberman — operating 
 a sawmill — and building contractor, and also car- 
 ried on a farm. He served as postmaster at Pleas- 
 ant Valle-y by appointment of President Taylor. He 
 was a "prominent citizen, a man of influence and 
 much respected by his townsmen, having held 
 nearly every office within their gift, except repre- 
 sentative to the Legislature, which latter position 
 he would never accept." Mr. Lee and five sons 
 voted for Abraham Lincoln in i860. He died at his 
 home in Pleasant \^alley, Litchfield Co., Conn., 
 Sept. 17, 1865. He was the father of the following 
 named children : Henry Bryan, born Oct. 10, 1826, 
 was killed at Deep Run, \'a.', in August, 1864, while 
 serving as lieutenant of Company F. 7th Conn. X. 
 I. \\'illiam Wallace, born Julv 20, 1828, is men- 
 tioned below. Edwin Ruthven^ born Feb. 7, 1830, 
 died Xov. 4, 183 1. Catherine Brown, born Nov! 
 26, 1831, died Feb. 8, 1835. Edwin Ruthven (2), 
 born A]iril 28, 1833, commanded Company D, nth 
 Conn. \'. I. and was killed at the battle of 
 Newbern, N. C., March 14, 1862. James Austin, 
 born Jan. 11, 1837, was a sutler in the 19th Conn. 
 \ I.; he died of diphtheria in 1883. David Brad- 
 Icy, born Alarch 24, 1838, was quartermaster of the 
 19th Conn. V. I., and was promoted to brigade 
 quartermaster, with the rank of major; he was a 
 
iriif^ju^ Sex, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 137 
 
 prominent attorney in St. Louis, and died in 1897. 
 Julia Elizabeth, born Jan. 13, 1840, married June 
 13, 1867, James ,L. Flint, who was born Sfept. 9, 
 1840, at ]\Ieriden, and is a mechanical expert and 
 contractor ini New Britain. 
 
 William Wallace Lee did not attend school 
 regularly after he was nine years old and worked 
 faithfully for his father until he was seventeen years 
 old. He then took up the trade of machinist, serv- 
 ing an apprenticeship of, four years at Winsted and 
 becoming an expert workman. After working as 
 journeyman in Hartford, Guilford, Ansonia, 
 Bridgeport and Birminigham, he settled at Meri- 
 den, in 1862, since when he has served the interests 
 •of the Edward Miller Co. as machinist, and the con- 
 tiruied connection with one establishment testifies 
 to his integrity, ability and industry. He enjoys the 
 respect of his employers and fellow workmen, as 
 well as of all others who have been privileged to 
 Jcnow him. On the occasion of Mr. Lee's golden 
 wedding anniversary, the Meriden Record said : 
 
 He was never known to do an injustice to any one, 
 and has been generally beloved by all who have known 
 him for the sterling traits of courage and integrity that 
 have dominated his long career. He has never been an 
 ■ applicant for public office. There have been times when 
 he would have been given high honors at the hands of 
 his party if he bad been a seeker after office. In 1885 
 and 1886 he represented Meriden in the State Legisla- 
 ture, and was popularly regarded as one of the leaders of 
 the session of that year. Mr. Lee has always been an en- 
 thusiastic Republican, but he has never allowed party 
 loyalty to sacrifice the right of private judgment. He 
 was a delegate to the first Republican State convention 
 held in Connecticut, in 1856. The votes which he recalls 
 with the greatest satisfaction were those he cast for Lin- 
 coln, Greeley and Harrison. 
 
 For years Mr. Lee has taken a very active part in the 
 work of the various fraternal organizations, notably the 
 Masons, Odd Fellows, and the ions of Temperance. With 
 the latter organization he was affiliated for over forty 
 years, and held all the highest offices in the gift of the 
 order in the State. About fifteen years ago, however, this 
 order pas.sed resolutions requiring all members in good 
 standing to vote the straight Prohibition ticket in the 
 future. This Mr. Lee refused to do, and he immediately 
 withdrew from the organization. It should be added 
 that Mr. Lee has never drank intoxicating liquor of any 
 kind, and he is a thorough believer in total abstinence, 
 but he does not believe that the cause of temperance is 
 best promoted by voting the Prohibition ticket. 
 
 In 1852 he joined the Masons, and in 1874 and -'75 he 
 was Grand Master of Connecticut, and he has been at the 
 head of nearly every branch of Masonry in Connectictit 
 except the Knights Templar. He is now in his twenty- 
 second year as the chief officer of the Masonic Veteran 
 Association of Connecticut. 
 
 In Odd Fellow circles Mr. Lee is one of the best 
 known men in Connecticut. He was Grand Master of the 
 State in 1877 and 1878, and was elected the first Noble 
 Grand of the Pacific Lodge in this city. Mr. Lee has 
 .always taken a great interest in the welfare of his native 
 town of Barkbam.sted, and in various ways has shown his 
 love of the old hill town. He was the moving spirit in 
 the dedication of a soldiers' monument in that place a 
 few years ago. and at the centennial celebration of the 
 town,' in 1879. he delivered an able and eloquent historical 
 address The fifty years of wedded life have passed very 
 Iiappily for Mr. and Mrs. Lee, and the latchstring of their 
 lome has always been open to a large circle of friends, who 
 
 have enjoyed the unostentatious but generous hospitality 
 and good cheer of this most worthy couple. 
 
 From another source the following account of 
 his public service is obtained : 
 
 He represented Meriden in the General Assembly of 
 1885 and 1886, and was assigned to important committees 
 each year. He introduced a resolution, which was car- 
 ried without a dissenting voice, to publish such military 
 records as were in the State Archives, from the early 
 wars down to the close of the Mexican war (records of 
 the Confederate war having been previously published). 
 The result was the publication of a large quarto volume 
 which was ordered to be supplied to every town clerk's 
 office and all public libraries in the State. He served four 
 years on the board of aldermen of Meriden, and held 
 other positions of note. He was a delegate to the first 
 Republican Convention held in the State, in 1856, was a 
 Free-soiler in 1848, voted for Lincoln in i860 and 1864, 
 and has never missed an opportunity to cast a vote for 
 equal rights, temperance and good morals. He is one of 
 the most widely known secret society representatives in 
 the State; was a member of the Sons of Temperance at 
 eighteen years of age, and eventually held every office in 
 the order, and for thirty-five years was connected with 
 the National Organization; was Grand Master of the 
 Grand Lodge of Odd Fellows in 1877-78. His Masonic 
 career was commenced in 1852; he was knighted in St. 
 Elmo Commandery, in Meriden, in 1874; Grand Master 
 of the State in i874-75- Prior to that he held the office 
 of Grand High Priest of the Grand Chapter of the State 
 (1872-73). During the Civil war he was a lieutenant in 
 the State militia and enlisted for service in the army, 
 but was rejected for physical disability. 
 
 Mr. Lee was one of the organizers of the Sons 
 of the American Revolution in Connecticut. He is 
 secretary of the Lee Association, which was organ- 
 ized in 1884, and compiler of the published proceed- 
 ing of the first general family meeting of the de- 
 scendants of John Lee. He has been deeply inter- 
 ested in collecting statistics of the descendants, 
 freely expending both time and money in hisefforts, 
 and has succeeded in searching out families of 
 which all trace had been lost for more than a cen- 
 tury. Mr. Lee's tastes are essentially domestic, and 
 he fiinds his chief enjoyment in the companionship 
 of his books and such friends as may visit his hos- 
 pitable home. A lover of good literature, he has 
 a large and well selected library, and has done much 
 in preserving worthy records, including the Lee 
 family history, and the history of lodges and towns. 
 Mr. Lee has been a subscriber to the New York 
 Daily Tribune for fifty-two years. 
 
 At the election of 1884, when he was chosen to 
 represent the town in the Legislature, Mr. Lee was 
 the only Republican candidate to escape defeat. 
 During the two sessions which he attended he was 
 a member of the committee on Judiciary, and in 
 1886 was phairman of the committee on Labor. 
 Fie attends rehgious worship at the Universalist 
 Church. 
 
 At Ansonia, Conn., July 24, 185 1, Mr. Lee was 
 married to Miss Mary Jane Carrington, daughter, 
 of Samuel and Asenath (Lines) Carrington. Her 
 maternal grandfather, Ashbel Lines, was a Revo- 
 lutionary soldier, and served at the defense of 
 
138 
 
 :OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 New Haven in, 1779. Mrs. Lee is a representative 
 of the oldest and best families of Woodbridge and 
 Alilford, tracing her ancestry to Henry and Ralph 
 Lines, who were residents of New Haven in 1646, 
 and to Edward Carrington, of Milford. Only one 
 of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Lee is living. 
 Charles Carrington, the first, born in 1854, died in 
 mfancy. William Wallace, born Oct. 12, 1856, died 
 Sept. 18, 1858. George Henry, born Sept. 8, 1861, 
 died in December, following. Jennie Jay, born May 
 14, 1864, is the wife of Edwin E. Smith, busines's 
 manager of the Meriden Morning Record, and has 
 had three children— Isabella Lee, a graduate of the 
 Meriden high school ; Florence W., who died at the 
 age of five years; and Wayne Carrington, a high 
 school student. Mrs. Smith is a prominent member 
 of Ruth Hart Chapter, Daughters of the American 
 Revolution. 
 
 HON. ALBERT BOOTH DUNHAM, of the 
 town of Seymour, long prominent in public affairs 
 andat this time High Sheriff of New Haven coun- 
 ty, is one of the widely known and influential Re- 
 publicans of the county and State— a man whose 
 good common sense, excellent judgment and prac- 
 tical business methods shown in a long and suc- 
 cessful public service in the affairs of his town and 
 county, have deservedly given him rank among the 
 leading citizens of New Haven county. 
 
 Born Sept. 28, 1838, in the town of Oxford, 
 Conn., Mr. Dunham is a son of Henry and Henri- 
 etta (Tucker) Dunham, and is descended on both 
 sides from among the earliest families to come to 
 New England, and is of Revolutionary stock. The 
 Dunhams for generations have resided in New Ha- 
 ven county; the earliest ancestor of the Southing- 
 ton family, from which our subject is descended, 
 appears in the history of the town as Gideon Dun- 
 ham, who, it is believed, came from. Martha's Vine- 
 yard to that point. The Church records of South- 
 ington show that "old man Dunham" died April 
 27, 1762, and Widow Dunham died Aug. 26, 1762, 
 leaving nine children. From this Gideon Dun- 
 ham, Sheriff Dunham, of Seymour, is in the fifth 
 generation, his line being through Cornelius, Sam- 
 uel and Henry Dunham. 
 
 (H) Cornelius Dunham, son of Gideon, born in 
 1740, married Feb. 2, 1764, Jemima, daughter of 
 Jonathan and Susanna (Richards) Andrews. Cor- 
 nelius Dunham lived at the upper end of Queen 
 street in Southington, where he kept a tavern for 
 many year,?, which had quite a reputation for the 
 generous hospitality there dispensed. Mr. Dun- 
 ham.'s standing in the town was excellent. He died 
 Feb. 23, 1819, and his wife passed away May 24, 
 1818, aged seventy-three years. 
 
 (Hi) Samuel Dunham, son of Cornelius, born 
 May 15, 1767, married Feb. 4, 1798, Lucy, daugh- 
 ter of John and Hannah (Rich) Ariail, and lived 
 in the vicinity of his father. His death occurred 
 Sept. 20, 1811. 
 
 (IV) Henry Dunham, son of Samuel and the 
 father of Sheriff Dunham, was born in May, 1806,. 
 and married Henrietta Tucker, of the town of Ox- 
 ford, and became a resident of that town. He was 
 a merchant, and a respected and esteemed citizen. 
 His wife, who survived him, died March 7, 1876, 
 aged sixty-four. She was the daughter of David 
 and Laura C. Tucker, of Oxford, the Tuckers be- 
 ing an old family in that town. 
 
 Sheriff Dunham is also a lineal descendant of 
 the old Booth and Hawley families of Stratford,, 
 in Fairfield county, so many of whose posterity are- 
 still living in that and adjoining counties. Richard 
 Booth, the ancestor of the old Seymour family of 
 the name, was one of three brothers who came 
 from Cheshire, England, between 1630 and 1640, 
 and landed at New Haven, Richard being the- 
 only one to remain in this locality. He settled in 
 Stratford, where he appears as early as 1640. 
 There is a family tradition that he was a descend- 
 ant of Richard Booth, of Cheshire, England, wha 
 was the fifth son of Sir William Booth, Knight, 
 who died and was buried at Bowden, Cheshire, in 
 1578, Richard dying in 1628. The latter's son,. 
 Richard, who came to Stratford, New England, 
 married a sister of Capt. Joseph Hawley, who also- 
 came from England and settled in Stratford in 
 1640. 
 
 Albert Booth Dunham, the subject proper of 
 this sketch, received his education in the public- 
 schools of his native town and in the State Normal 
 School at New Britain, Conn. He passed his- 
 youth and early manhood as a clerk in the mer- 
 cantile house of his father, and as an associate 
 with him in business, there laying a good founda- 
 tion upon which he built an honorable and useful' 
 career. For many years Mr. Dunham has been 
 the genial host of the old "Wooster House," at Sey- 
 mour, in connection with which he has kept a livery 
 and feed stable, and is widely and favorably known- 
 to the traveling public to whom he dispenses a 
 generous hospitality. But it is as a public servant, 
 that Sheriff Dunham is best known. His public 
 career dates back to the President Lincoln admin- 
 istration, through which he served as postmaster 
 at Oxford. Later on he was deputy sheriff of New 
 Haven county, and for the long period of fifteen 
 years was county commissioner. In 1878 he was a 
 representative from Seymour in the General As- 
 sembly, and in 1898 he was elected high sheriff of 
 New Haven county for a term of four years. To 
 judge of his efficiency as a public official, and pop- 
 ularity as a man and citizen, one has only to read 
 between the lines of this article. 
 
 In 1872 ;Mr. Dunham was married to Anna 
 Tucker, and to the union have come children as fol- 
 lows : Henrietta, Anna and Sadie. 
 
 JOHN PIERSON TUTTLE, whose death oc- 
 curred at his home in New Haven, Conn., May 27, 
 1893, was long one of the city's substantial men and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 139' 
 
 first citizens, and a representative of one of the 
 Colony which settled in New Haven. 
 
 William Tuttle, the emigrant ancestor of our 
 subject, with his wife, Elizabeth, and three children, 
 sailed in the ship "Planter" from London, England, 
 in 1635. When listed for New England, he was 
 designated as a husbandman, but in Boston was a 
 merchant. He becamie one of the colony that settled 
 New Haven, in 1639. Mr. Tuttle was represented 
 as a man of intelligence and probity, who died in 
 1673, his wife surviving until 1684. 
 
 From this emigrant ancestor, the late John P. 
 Tuttle, of this review, was a descendant in the eighth 
 generation, his line being through Thomas, Thomas 
 (2), Captain Andrew, Hezekiah, Abner and Isaac 
 Tuttle. 
 
 Thomas Tuttle, son of the emigrant, born in Eng- 
 land in 1634, married in 1661, Hannah, daughter of 
 Thomas Powell, and lived on College Square, where 
 Phelps Arch is now, in New Haven. 
 
 Thomas Tuttle (2), son of Thomas, born in 1667, 
 married in 1692, Mary, daughter of Andrew San- 
 ford, of Milford, Conn. Mr. Tuttle was a cooper 
 by trade, and his death occurred in 1703. 
 
 Capt. Andrew Tuttle, son of Thomas (2), born 
 in 1702, married in 1725, Eunice, daughter of Daniel 
 Sherman and resided in New Haven, where he was 
 prominent and influential in local affairs. In 1737, 
 he served as lieutenant in the 2d Company of militia, 
 and in 1747, as captain of the Fifth Company. 
 
 Hezekiah Tuttle, son of Capt. Andrew, born in 
 1736, married in 1758, Martha, daughter of Abner 
 Bradley. Mr. Tuttle died in 1796, and his widow in 
 1823. 
 
 Abner Tuttle, son of Hezekiah, born m 1760, 
 married, in 1783, Elizabeth Mix. His death oc- 
 curred in 1813, but his wife survived him many 
 years, dying in 1854, at the age of eighty-nine. 
 Their son, Lieut. John Pierson Tuttle, of the United 
 States Navy, died at sea, near Valparaiso, South 
 America, in 1825. 
 
 Isaac Tuttle, son of Abner and father of the late 
 John Pierson Tuttle, of New Haven, was born Nov. 
 22, 1790. He married Oct. 8, 1815, Polly Cooper, 
 of Cedar Hill, who died Nov. 19, 1840, aged 45 
 years ; but Mr. Tuttle survived until March 8, 1864. 
 
 John Pierson Tuttle, the son of Isaac and the 
 subject proper of this sketch, was born July 30, 1817, 
 in New Haven, where he was reared and educated, 
 and where he passed his life. Along in the forties. 
 Mr. Tuttle was associated with the late Hon. Charles 
 L. English in the lumber business, up to 1862 under 
 the firm name of English & Tuttle, when he with- 
 drew, and became associated with Benjamin R. Eng- 
 lish in the same line of business under the firm name 
 of Tuttle & English, and continued with him until 
 1878, when he retired from mercantile business. For 
 years he was treasurer of the New Haven Savings 
 Bank, and was also president of the Mechanics Bank, 
 and served for several years as street commissiojier. 
 
 On April 28, 1842, Mr. Tuttle was married to- 
 Elizabeth C. Augur, who survived him. Mr. Tuttle 
 passed a long and useful life in the city of his birth 
 and the kome of his ancestors, and was beloved, re- 
 spected and esteemed for his many noble traits of 
 character. For years he had been Senior Warden 
 of Trinity Episcopal Church, in New Haven. 
 
 To John Pierson Tuttle and his wife were born 
 the following children : Emma Susan, born Dec. 
 26, 1850, married Dr. Lewis, formerly of Nauga- 
 tuck, Conn., now of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; and William 
 Pierson, born July 18, 1853, married in June, 1877, 
 Carrie M., daughter of Deacon George Baldwin, of 
 Branford, Conn. For years Mr. William P. Tuttle 
 was a wholesale grocer, in New Haven, later a dealer 
 in investment securities in New York city, and is- 
 now the assistant postmaster of the city of New 
 Haven. 
 
 HENRY EDWIN LOUNSBURY (deceased). 
 In an agricultural region, where class distinctions 
 do not 'prevail, there are, nevertheless, men whose 
 abilities give them public eminence. Leadership 
 is won not by fortuitous circumstancs, but by in- 
 trinsic worth. In his career of more than three- 
 score years the subject of this sketch lived con- 
 tinuously in the town of Bethany, where he be- 
 came widely and favorably known for his many 
 estimable qualities, and where his success and farm- 
 ing affairs gave him high standing as an exemplar 
 and a counselor. He was born in the town of 
 Bethany, New Haven county, Feb. 9, 1829, one of 
 the four children of Major and Hannah (Beecher) 
 Lounsbury. 
 
 Henry E. Lounsbury was reared upon a farm, 
 receiving a good common-school education and re- 
 maining at home until he attained the age of twen- 
 ty-two years. He then engaged in the butcher busi- 
 ness, which he conducted successfully for a period 
 of ten years. His liking for the farm induced him 
 to return to the avocation to which he was reared, 
 in connection with which he also, until his death 
 many years later, bought and sold cattle extensive- 
 ly, becoming one of the most prominent and suc- 
 cessful citizens of the town. In politics he was a 
 Democrat. He held various local offices, including 
 those of selectman and assessor, and in 1878 he was 
 elected a member of the State Legislature, filling 
 his important duties as a law maker with satisfac- 
 tion to his constituents and credit to himself. His 
 death occurred Oct. 2, 1891, and his remains were 
 interred at the Center cemetery in Bethany. 
 
 iMr. Lounsbury was twice married. His first 
 wife, whom he married in i8c;6, was Cornelia Doo- 
 little, of Wallingford. She died in May, 1864, and 
 for his second wife he married, April 4, 1866, 
 Marv F. Dickerman, a native of Cheshire, and a 
 daughter of William B. and Louisa (Bradley) 
 Dickerman, the former a lumber merchant who re- 
 moved to Winsted when Mrs. Lounsbury was a 
 girl of twelve years. There she received her edu- 
 
I40 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 cation in the select shools, and for two years prior 
 to lier marriage she had engaged in teaching school. 
 Mrs. Lounsbur>- survives her husband, and since 
 his decease she has most sucessfully carried on the 
 work of the farm. She is a ladv of culture and 
 refinement, and most highly esteemed by all her 
 many friends and acquaintances. In her religious 
 belief she is an Episcopalian. 
 
 JULIUS HALL, whose death, on Oct. 4, 1898, 
 removed from Meriden one of her most successful 
 agriculturists and most estimable citizens, was born 
 on the old Hall homestead, June 7, 1813, and traced 
 his descent to early families of Xew Haven county. 
 
 John Hall, the founder of the family in Con- 
 necticut, was born in England in 1605, and upon 
 -coming to Aimerica, about 1625, located in Boston, 
 Mass., but later removed to New Haven. After 
 the settlement of Wallingford he removed to that 
 town, in 1672, and was chosen a selectman there in 
 1675. He died in that place ten years later, a large 
 land owner and prominent citizen. To his mar- 
 riage with Jane Woolen came eight children, John, 
 Sarah, Richard, Samuel, Daniel, Thomas, Jonathan 
 and David, and few families have been more re- 
 spected than their descendants. The Hall family 
 and Jane (Woolen) Hall's connections in England 
 each had a coat of armis. 
 
 Thomas Hall, son of John, was born March 25, 
 1649, ^nd when twenty-one years of age removed 
 to Wallingford in 1670. He was one of the orig- 
 inal settlers of the town, a signer of the Plantation 
 Covenant, and became a farmer and land owner. 
 He died Sept. 17, 1731. He was town clerk four- 
 teen years, from Dec. 28, 1697, to 171 1. On June 
 II, 1673, he was married to Grace Watson, who 
 died May i, 1731. This union was blessed with 
 eleven children. 
 
 Daniel Hall, son of Thomas, born Jan. 27, 
 1689, engaged in farming in East Meriden (then 
 a part of Wallingford), where he built the first 
 house, and where his life ended. On April 20, 
 1 72 1, he married Martha Doolittle, and the fol- 
 lowing children came to them : Abraham, born Jan. 
 27, 1722, married Mary Prindle ; John, born Jan. 
 2g, 1724, died in Meriden May 13, 1795 ; Hannah, 
 born Sept. 11, 1725, married Benajah Tyler, of 
 Branford; Daniel was born June i, 1727; Martha, 
 June 14, 1729; Samuel, May 5, 1731 ; Mary, Sept. 
 
 7, 1733; and Abigail, April 27, 1739. 
 
 John Hall, son of Daniel, was born Jan. 29, 
 1724, and was engaged in farming in what is now 
 known as East Meriden, where he became a large 
 land owner, living on and succeeding to the home- 
 stead of his father, where he died May 13, 1795. 
 He was a soldier in the war of the Revolution. 
 On May 4, 1749, John Hall married Elizabeth 
 Prindle, who died Oct. 21, 1802, and their children 
 were: Prindle, born June 30, 1750; John, May 
 
 8, 1752; Mary, Sept. 10, 1754 (died on March 31, 
 1825) ; Sarah, Alay 11, 1756 (died in 1760) ; Eliza- 
 
 beth, April 20, 1757 (died March 30, 1847) J David, 
 Sept. 16, 1761; Sarah, Feb. 13, 1764 (died in 
 1777) ; Abigail, Feb. 24, 1766 (died on Oct. 28, 
 1828) ; John-, Jan. 9, 1768 (married Ruth Hall, and 
 died April 21, 1851) ; Joseph, Oct. 28, 1770; Jedu- 
 than, April 25, 1773 (died July 9, 1851) ; and Isaac, 
 May 28, 1776 (died Jan. i, 1838). 
 
 Joseph Hall, son of John, was born on the old 
 homestead in East ^leriden Oct. 28, 1770, and lived 
 a quiet, busy life, engaged in farming, and making 
 improvements on the old place, until his death, 
 March 13, 1831. His remains rest in the Meriden 
 cemetery. Fie married Hannah Francis, of Wal- 
 lingford, and children as follows were born to them : 
 Sherman, born April 26, 1806, died Dec. 6, 1869; 
 John, born Jan. 5, 1808, died July 9, 1836; Emery, 
 born Sept. 29, 1809, died Jan. i, 1892; Lucy, born 
 May 27, 181 1, died Feb. 18, 1818; Julius was born 
 June 7, 1813; Maria, born Aug. 30, 1815, died 
 May 5, 1846. 
 
 Julius Hall, the subject proper of this biography, 
 grew up on the old homestead, and received such 
 educational advantages as the times aiiforded. Ag- 
 ricultural pursuits offered the most natural em- 
 ployinient for the yoving men of that period, and, as 
 the estates were large and n^uch of the labor-sav- 
 ing machinery still unthought of, there was never 
 a dearth of work for willing hands on the farms 
 of the wealthy old families. Julius Hall erected a 
 fine dwelling and made many other improvements 
 on his place, operating 130 acres of the old home- 
 stead, besides other tracts in Middlesex county. 
 His death occurred there, and his remains were 
 reverently laid in the East cemetery. On JNIay I, 
 1852, Julius Hall married Laura ll. Parker, who 
 was born in Berlin, Conn., a daughter of James 
 and Maria (Ives) Parker, the latter of whom was 
 a daughter of Ichabod Ives, a soldier of the Rev- 
 olutionary war. Six children were born to Mr. 
 and Mrs, Hall : Grace ^Maria, born Nov. 26, 1854, 
 resides on the homestead. Ida Jane, born April 4, 
 1856, died March 9, 1895 : she was one of Meriden's 
 most successful teachers, having been engaged in 
 the public schools twelve years ; was a member of 
 the Meriden Scientific Assoc 'atinn, and a director 
 of one of its departments; belonged to Ruth Hart 
 Chapter, D. A. R. ; was a member of the First Bap- 
 tist Church; and was greatlv beloved bv all who 
 knew her. John Parker, born Aug. 31,' 1857, re- 
 sides on the old homestead, where he carries on 
 fruit growing and dairying in connection with gen- 
 eral farming. Mary Francis, born Aug, 17, 1861, 
 resides at home. Ermina Cedelia, born Jan, 29, 
 1864, an artist of much talent, resides at home. 
 Dexter Emery, born Jan. 20, 1870, is extensivelv en- 
 gaged in the furniture and house furnishing busi- 
 ness in Meriden and A\'allingford, and in this con- 
 nection also conducts a liverv and undertaking 
 busmess at Meriden. The death oi the mother of 
 this family took p'ace Mav 28, 1893, when she 
 was aged sixty-eight years. 'She had endeared her- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 141 
 
 self to all with wKom she had come in contact, and 
 was sincerely mourned by the community ; she is 
 greatly missed by the members of the Baptist 
 Church, with which she had long been connected. 
 
 Julius Hall was a man well known and most 
 highly esteemed, beloved and respected by his im- 
 mediate family, and regarded by the public as a 
 type of the best citizen. His life bridged a vast 
 gulf of history ; and he viewed with intelligent in- 
 terest the great strides' made in every department 
 of the world's work, assisting, with influence and 
 means, the progress of his native towm He aided 
 several who were afterward most successful busi- 
 ness men, and although some of his ventures did 
 not prove remunerative he was rewarded for his 
 enterprise and public spirit, and at the same time 
 enjoyed the consciousness of assisting worthy 
 young men in building up home institutions. His 
 private charities, while unknown and unheralded 
 by the general public, were many and wisely be- 
 stowed. 
 
 Mr. Hall's family now reside on the old Hall 
 homestead, part of which was owned by Thomas 
 Hall (i) in 1679. They have had old deeds, rec- 
 ords, etc., and they now- have the large, old-fash- 
 ioned trunk which John Hall brought with him 
 when he came to America about 1625, as well as 
 other articles of furniture he must have had soon 
 after coming here, 
 
 THE BALDWIN FAMILY. There are yet re- 
 siding in New Haven several of the sons of the late 
 Darius and Thirza (Dorman) Baldwin, born in the 
 town of Orange and in New Haven, respectively. 
 Among them are Charles A. and Allen D. Baldwin, 
 both veterans of the Civil war, and long substantial 
 citizens of New- Haven. 
 
 These brothers, both natives of Orange, Conn., 
 are descended from one of the old and prominent 
 families of New England. Richardi Baldwin, the 
 emigrant ancestor of this branch of the family, was 
 born in Buckinghamshire, England, and was the son 
 of Sylvester and Mary (Bryan) Baldwin, the form- 
 er of whom died on the ship "Martin," on the pas- 
 sage to New England. The son, Richard Baldwin, 
 is on record in Milford, Conn., as early as 1639, the 
 year after the death of his father. His marriage oc- 
 curred in 1643, when he became the husband of 
 Elizabeth Alsop, of New Haven. Mr. Baldwin was 
 a man of character and ability, and served in the 
 General Court several terms as deputy from his 
 town. He died in 1665. From him Charles A. and 
 Allen D. Baldwin, of New Haven, are descendants 
 in the seventh generation, their line being through 
 Barnabas, Timothy, Enoch, Alexis and Darius Bald- 
 win. 
 
 Barnabas Baldwin, son of Richard the Emigrant, 
 was born in 1665, in Milford, and married) for 
 his first wife, Sarah, daughter of Samuel Bucking- 
 ham, of Milford, who died while still young._ After 
 her death he was married again, to Abigail . 
 
 j\Ir. Baldwin was one of the grantees to the charter 
 of Derby, and in T738, was one of the lifteen inhab- 
 itants of Derby, who with others from New Haven,, 
 were incorporated into the parish ot Amity. He 
 served as selectman of Milford, and died in 1741. 
 
 Timothy Baldwin, son of the foregoing, was born 
 in Milford in 1695, where he was married in 1719,. 
 to Zurinah Johnson, of Derby, for his first wife, and 
 later to Mabel (surnamie not given). 0\lr. Baldwin 
 occupied lands lying in both Woodbridge and Derby, 
 probably having his home in the latter town. He 
 joined in the formation of the church at Amity in the 
 town of Woodbridge, and died in 1766. 
 
 Enoch Baldwin, son of Timothy, was born in 
 1736, in the town of Derby, and was probably a child 
 of the second marriage of his father. His life was 
 spent in Derby, where he died in 1815. 
 
 Alexis Baldwin, born in 1778, in the town of 
 Derby, married Comfort Baldwin, daughter of Hen- 
 ry Baldwin, and lived in Woodbridge. His death 
 occurred in 1821, and his widow passed away in 
 
 1857. 
 
 Darius Baldwin, son of Alexis, was born May 
 6, 1804, in Woodbridge. He married Thirza, daugh- 
 ter of Amos Dorman, of Oxford, Conn., and to this 
 union were born : ( i ) George A., born Jan. 28, 1830, 
 in Oxford; (2) Charles A., born Jan. 28, 1832; (3) 
 Mary A., born Jan. 12, 1834, became the wife of 
 George M. Harmon, a sketch of whom appears on 
 another page; (4) Allen D., born Aug. 20, 1836; 
 and (s) William H., born Nov. 4, 1841, now de- 
 ceased. The family home was first in Orange, and 
 later in New Haven. Darius Baldwin was occupied 
 in the former place as blacksmith, and he died in 
 New Haven, at the age of seventy-six years, and 
 his widow passed away aged eighty-four. 
 
 Charles A. Baldwin, whose birth is noted 
 above, received his literary education in the common 
 schools of his native town, and at the age of seven- 
 teen went to New Haven, where he learned the 
 trade of carriage-body making with Edwin Lee. 
 During the panic of 1857, for about nine months, 
 he was in Urbana, Ohio, where he worked at his 
 trade, which he resumed on his return to New Hav- 
 en. For a little more than a year previous to the 
 outbreak of the Civil war he was associated with 
 the late James P. Barker. About this time they be- 
 gan business on their own account, establishing a 
 factory for carriage-body making, but this enter- 
 prise was in existence only about two years, owing 
 to the outbreak of the Civil war. 
 
 Fired by the stirring events of those momentous 
 times, Mr. Baldwin enlisted in the service of his 
 country, Aug. 25, 1862, and was made quartermaster 
 sergeant of the 27th Conn. Vol. Infantry, bearing an 
 honorable part in the fortunes of that organization. 
 He was mustered out July 27, 1863, serving there- 
 after until the closing of the war in the office of 
 the provost marshal at New Haven. The term' of 
 service of the 27th, though not extended, was active 
 and thrilling. For a short period it was in the di- 
 
1142 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 vision of Gen. Abercrombie, and was stationed at 
 Wasliington, but later it became a part of the Third 
 Brigade, First Division, Second Army Corps, un- 
 der Gen. Hancock, and formed a part of the right 
 grand division of the Army of the Potomac, under 
 ■General Sumner. At the battle of Fredericksburg 
 in 1862 that portion of the regiment not employed on 
 picket duty along the Rappahannock, was in the line 
 of battle on the open plain between the city and 
 Mary's Heights, where they were exposed to a ter- 
 rible fire from the enemy's batteries. When night 
 fell one-third of the regiment was dead or wounded 
 on the field or in the hospital. In the change that 
 followed the advent of Hooker to the command, the 
 27th became a part of the Fourth Brigade, under the 
 command of Col. John K. Brook, now one of the 
 oldest officers in the regular service. After coming 
 ■out of winter quarters in April, 1863, they were ac- 
 tive in the preliminaries that brought in the battle 
 -of Chancellorsville, where they were engaged for 
 several days with little chance for eating or sleeping. 
 The regiment, which occupied on Sunday morning 
 the intrenchments it had thrown up the previous 
 Friday evening when it formed a part of the picket 
 line, held an important position, and were exposed 
 to a terrible fire. It was soon surrounded and cap- 
 tured. Companies D and F of the regiment es- 
 caped the fate of the balance of the command, hav- 
 ing been previously detailed for other duties. The 
 :27th continued to form a part of the Army of the 
 Potorriac until the battle of Gettysburg. It reached 
 that bloody field July 2, moved forward to take the 
 line of battle, and was stationed a mile and a half 
 south of Cemetery Hill, in the line occupied by the 
 Second Corps. It was hurried forward to the sup- 
 port of the Third Corps, which in the afternoon was 
 heavily engaged on the Emmitsburg road. The 27th 
 with others of the Fourth Brigade entered the wheat 
 field as the disordered and broken columns of the 
 Third Corps were slowly retiring, closely followed 
 by the exultant enemy, and moved towards the ad- 
 vancing foe, which was now in close range, meeting 
 a sweeping fire, under which Lieut. Col. Merwin fell 
 mortally wounded while leading his men with his 
 •accustomed bravery. Here Capt. Jedediah Chap- 
 man was also killed. The Union line drove the en- 
 emy out of the wheat fields into the woods beyond. 
 In this battle the 27th went into action with seventy- 
 five men, all it could muster at the time after an 
 active service of not quite nine months, eight com- 
 panies having been taken prisoners at the battle of 
 Chancellorsville. At dark eleven had been killed, 
 and twenty-seven wounded. The position of the 
 27th on July 3d was in the main line a few yards to 
 the left of the point attacked by the rebels in the last 
 charge made by them in that great battle. From 
 Gettysburg the 27th moved to Falling Waters, a 
 short distance from Williamisport, arriving there in 
 time to participate in the closing scenes of that en- 
 gagement. Then it was ordered to Harper's Ferry, 
 
 and enroute from home, being mustered out July 27, 
 1863. 
 
 After the close of the war Charles A. Baldwin 
 was in the employ of the firm of Osborn & Ad- 
 riance, of New Haven, for a time, and then became 
 engaged in the manufacture of corsets, successively 
 belonging to the firms of Harmon & Baldwin, Foy, 
 Harmon & Baldwin, and the Baldwin Corset Com- 
 pany. At a later period he traveled in the interest 
 of Foy, Harmon & Chadwick, which firm succeeded 
 to the business he himself helped to establish. Along 
 in the middle eighties, having been elected to the 
 board of Assessors, he severed his connections with 
 Foy, Harmon & Chadwick, to assume the duties of 
 his office, which occupied his time for a little over 
 fifteen years. For two years he was a member of 
 the city council from the First ward, and for two 
 and a half years he was alderman from the Tenth 
 ward. As fire commissioner he completed two 
 terms. In these various positions he has shown sig- 
 nal ability and integrity of a marked degree. 
 
 Socially Mr. Baldwin has taken a prominent place 
 in the city. He is a member of the Wooster Lodge, 
 of the Masonic fraternity, at New Haven, and for 
 nearly fifty years he has been identified with the 
 Sons of Temperance, in which order he was twice 
 elected Grand Worthy Patriarch of Connecticut. 
 His religious connections are with the First Meth- 
 odist Church at New Haven, where he has held 
 membership for quite half a century, having been 
 steward, trustee and class leader. 
 
 In the Sunda)'-school he has also taken an act- 
 ive part, and was superintendent for six years. 
 
 On Dec. 3, 1863, Mr. Baldwin was married to 
 Miss Hannah Pitt Smith of Lima, Delaware county, 
 Penn. To this union were born: (i) Charlena H. ; 
 (2) William P., now a prominent physician in New 
 Haven, who was graduated with high honors, hav- 
 ing studied and made thorough preparations for his 
 profession; (3) Mary E., who died in 1870; (4) 
 Sherman H., who died Feb. 15, 1877; (5) Alfred 
 Wesley, who died aged three months. 
 
 Upon the seventieth anniversary of his birth, 
 Jan. 28, 1902, Mr. Baldwin received three hun- 
 dred and seventy letters of congratulation from 
 loving friends, and 
 
 If the letters that were sent him were out hi print it 
 would make a book of 250 pages, and we must conclude by 
 saying that there were letters from Maine to California 
 and from Michigan to Texas and Florida. Mr. Baldwin 
 has friends in every State over which the American eagle 
 spreads his wings. Among the many letters of congratu- 
 lation were those from Bishop D. A. Goodsell, formerly 
 a pastor of the First M. E. Church of Chattanooga, Tenn. ; 
 Major Frank D. Sloat, of Washington, D. C. ; W. A. R. 
 Hawley, G. W. Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance of 
 Connecticut, who resides in New Canaan ; resolutions from 
 T^iving Spring Division, No. 22. Sons of Temperance, of 
 Bridgeport, Conn. ; and from four Chinamen who are 
 members of his class in the First M. E. Church. Choung 
 Foo^ of No. loi Crown streets says : "Dear Mr. Baldwin, 
 I wish you many happy birthdays and prosperity through 
 the years to come. 'He loseth nothing that keeps God.' 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 143 
 
 Your friend, Choung Foo." There was a beautiful plate 
 sent by Lee Soon, Choung Foo, Luke B. Ton, Chin Lan. 
 
 The following characteristic letter was written to Mr. 
 Baldwin by Judge of Probate Livingston W. Cleaveland, 
 of this city, accompanying the gift of the volumes of the 
 National Encyclopedia : 
 
 New Haven, Conn., Jan. 28, 1902. 
 Chas. A. Baldwin, Esq. : 
 
 Dear Brother — You have my best wishes. If I shall 
 live to three score and ten and can be half as vigorous as 
 you are to-day, with as clear a conscience, I shall have 
 good reasons to be congratulated. 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 Livingston W. Cleaveland. 
 
 P. S. — Although you are yourself a walking encyclo- 
 pedia, I trust that the new National Encyclopedia which I 
 send with this may prove of service to you, especially when 
 you dedicate churches in the wilds of Florida. 
 
 The following lines were sent to him by Mrs. E. S. 
 Northrop, of Bloomfield, N. J., and it was read at the sur- 
 prise party last evening. They were loudly and earnestly 
 applauded. Here they are: 
 
 So Charley is going to be seventy on 
 
 Wednesday next — you say; 
 'Twas a happy thoug'ht to make him 
 
 a grand surprise that day. 
 And so we've been asked to load him 
 
 ■with love letters plain and clear 
 Congratulating him warmly on reaching 
 
 his seventieth year. 
 So bring out the largest bread-tray, 
 
 and basket or two besides, 
 And smile while the postman fills them as 
 
 he empties his bag outside, 
 For his friends are all over New Eng- 
 land, clear down to the Florida coast, 
 And mighty few are the men who claim 
 
 the number Charley can boast. 
 There's the Keystone state, and New 
 
 Jersey, which stands for itself you know. 
 Why, half the people are friends of his, 
 
 the sequel will surely show ; 
 Then look right here in New Haven 
 
 his life-long home and abode, 
 And the dear old church, where many 
 
 a time his songs and tears have flowed. 
 He has marked the steps of the infant, 
 
 from childhood to manhood grow; 
 Has helped them into the kingdom 
 
 and into the church below; 
 Of his class work, 'twere wise to be silent, 
 
 they are present to speak each for self. 
 But feel free to make the assertion, 
 
 they would not change their leader for wealth. 
 He has stood for the right when 'twas 
 
 questioned 
 Against wrong, 'mongst the poor and 
 
 oppressed, 
 The 'Celestials can tell their story, 
 
 A rehearsal of which might be blest. 
 When the tocsin of war was sounded. 
 
 He quailed not to beckon the foe, 
 Which makes him a double veteran, 
 
 With his seventy years, you know. 
 We've not exhausted his virtues, but 
 
 friends are here to 'be heard. 
 But we know when he reaches Heaven 
 
 (which we hope may long be deferred) 
 There will shine bright stars in his 
 
 crown above. 
 And songs of rejoicing be heard. 
 
 Allen D. Baldwin, son 'of Darius, and brother 
 of Charles A., spent his earlier years in the fam- 
 ily home in Orange, where he reniained until :bis 
 sixteenth 3'ear, and be was an associate in t'he 
 schools with Congressman Sperry, of whom a 
 sketch appears on another page. When he was 
 older he learned the builder's trade, which he fol- 
 lowed for four years in company with L. V. Treat, 
 after having been engaged on his own account for 
 two }ears. 
 
 Mr. Baldwin enlisted in the Union service Sept. 
 9, 1862, and was mustered in Oct. 22, of the same 
 year, as a sergeant of Company G, 27th Conn. V. I., 
 it being the sam'e command in which his brother had 
 joined, and whose history appears above. In the 
 fortunes of the regiment Allen D. Baldwin bore an 
 honorable part, and was mustered out of service with 
 the organization July 27, 1863. After the close of 
 the war Mr. Baldwin settled at New Haven, where 
 he followed the building and contracting business 
 until 1890, having a large patronage, and making a 
 great success. Since that year he has been exten- 
 sively interested in the orange industry, at Indian 
 River, Fla., where he spends the winter months, re- 
 turning to New Haven for the heated term. 
 
 Allen D. Baldwin was married Oct. 7, 1862, to 
 Miss Juliette Treat, of Orange, Conn., a daughter 
 of William Treat. She was born Aug. 5,1841, and 
 to their union were born: (i) Frank W., bom 
 April 17, 1864, died in December, 1897; (2) Elbert 
 H., born Aug. 3, 1867; and (3) Fred D., born Feb. 
 7, 1870. Mr. Baldwin is a Republican in his politics, 
 and a member of high standing in the Masonic fra- 
 ternity, where he has risen to the thirty-second de- 
 gree. For two years he held chairs in the New Hav- 
 en Commandery, and was Commander one term. He 
 also belongs to the Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R. At, 
 one time he was a member of the Mercantile Club. 
 In religion he is a member of the Dwight Place 
 Church. 
 
 Elbert Baldwin, the son of Allen D., who is en- 
 gaged in the mason's trade, miarried Annie M. Mal- 
 lory, and is the father of four children, Sophia, Har- 
 old, Allen E. and Robert Treat. Fred D. Baldwin 
 is a resident of New Britain, where he is working 
 as foreman in mason and other building work. 
 
 ELI IVES (deceased). In the death of Eli 
 Ives on May 13, 1886, the city of Meriden lost one 
 of its sterling citizens and active business men, ever 
 deeply interested in whatever seemed for the good of 
 Meriden and its people. 
 
 Mr. Ives was born in Meriden Jan. 7, 1809, of 
 an old New England family. The first of the name 
 in this vicinity was John Ives, who was at Walling- 
 ford. Conn., early in its settlement, and Avho was 
 the ancestor of our subject, the latter 'being in the 
 sixth generation from him. The line of descent of 
 Eli Ives was through John Ives (2), John Ives (3), 
 John Ives (4) and Othniel Ives. 
 
144 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 (II) John Ives (2), son of John Ives, born hi 
 1669, married in 1693, in ^leriden, Mary Gillette, 
 and died in 1738. 
 
 (III) John Ives (3), son of John Ives (2), 
 born in 1694, married in 1719, Hannah Royce, 
 and died in 1795. She died in 1770, in Meriden. 
 
 (IV) John Ives (4), son of John Ives (3), born 
 in 1729, married (first), j\Iary Hall, who died in 
 1788. His second wife, Sarah, died in 1804. He 
 died in 1816. 
 
 (V) Othniel Ives, son of Jolin and Hannah 
 (Royce) Ives, born Aug. 17, 1779, married (first) 
 Oct. 28, 1800, Sarah, daughter of Nathaniel Yale, 
 and (second) Oct. 26, 1815, Rosetta Yale. Othniel 
 Ives resided in the eastern part of Meriden. His 
 dhildren were Eliza, who married Edwin R. Yale; 
 Elias, who married Cornelius Pomeroy ; Eli, who 
 married Gelina Ann Pomeroy ; Othniel, who mar- 
 ried (first) Julia Cook, and (second), Mary How- 
 ard; Isaac I., who married Eloise White; Juliette, 
 who married Eli Butler; John, who married (first) 
 Alina Birdsey, and (second) Wealthy Merwin ; 
 Frederick, who married Frances Jones ; Russell J., 
 who married (first) Flora Ann White, and (second) 
 Eliza Yale. 
 
 The late Eli Ives, son of Othniel and Sarah 
 (Yale) Ives, and the subject proper of this review, 
 was reared on the farm and left home. when in his 
 twenty-second year, and, with the late Noah Pom- 
 eroy, began the manufacture of tin ware. In 1837 
 young Ives went to Wetumpka, Ala., and began busi- 
 ness in which he retained an interest, although living 
 most of the time in Meriden. In 1843 he bought the 
 Tyler Mills in Yalesville, and carried on the milling 
 business and the manufacture of britannia spoons. 
 In 1849, i'^ company with Bennett Jeralds, he com- 
 menced manufacturing britannia spoons and other 
 articles in Prospect, Conn., which business was car- 
 ried on until 1854. In 1852 Mr. Ives was admitted 
 as a partner in the firm of Goodrich & Rutty, and 
 the firm was changed to Goodrich, Ives & Rutty. 
 Mr. Goodrich retired in 1864, and Edwin R. Crocker 
 and Nelson Payne were admitted, making the firm 
 Ives, Rutty & Company. 
 
 Mr. Ives was a good business man, and a man 
 of excellent judgment. His services were often 
 called for in the settlement of estates. In his po- 
 litical views he was a stanch Democrat. At the time, 
 of his death he was a member of the board of Com- 
 pensation of the city. He was always greatly inter- 
 ested in the improvements of Meriden, had served 
 both as councilman .and alderman, and he presided 
 at the last Democratic town convention held before 
 his death. He was a man of strict integrity and 
 ever held the confidence of his fellow citizens, and 
 was held in the highest esteem by them ; he never 
 was sued nor sued any one else. Though past man's 
 allotted years, he had an iron constitution and was 
 active to the last, up to within ten days of his death, 
 having been driving about town attending to business 
 matters. Several times within twenty years prior to 
 
 bis death, he had been at death's door, but his re- 
 markable recuperative power and wonderful vitality- 
 brought him safely through the ordeal. 
 
 Mr. Ives married Gelina Anna Pomeroy, and this 
 union was blessed with children as follows : Isaac 
 O., Charles P., Mrs. Charles R. Flower, Mrs. Sarah 
 Parshley and' Mrs. Isadore Ives. 
 
 WILLIAM B. BRISTOL. "History," says a 
 well-known writer, "is best studied by means of 
 biograph}' — indeed, history is biography showing- 
 collective humanity as influenced and governed by 
 individuals." The future historians of this section 
 will find much valuable information, in this volume 
 in connection with the work of development of local 
 industries and activities, and the following account 
 of one who was a leading business man of Ansonia. 
 will be O'f special interest. 
 
 Mr. Bristol was born Nov. 21, 181 1, in Oxford,. 
 New Haven county, where his family has been 
 prominent from pioneer times. His great-grandfa- 
 ther, Eliphalet Bristol, who was a farm|er there, at- 
 tained the adivanced age of ninety years. Gad 
 Bristol, our subject's grandfather, was born in Ox- 
 ford, and followed agricultural pursuits in the town,, 
 his death occurring at the age of seventy. He and 
 his wife, Nancy (Riggs), who died at the age of 
 sixty-five, had several children, among whom was 
 a son Sheldon. 
 
 Sheldon Bristol, our subject's father, was bom 
 Feb. 8, 1780, in Oxford, and his life was spent in 
 farming in that locality. While he received a com- 
 mon^school education qnly, be was a man oi ability,, 
 and held a prominent place in local public affairs 
 and in social life, being a member of the F. & A. 
 AI. and R. A. of Oxford. In religious faith he 
 was a Methodist, and he and his wife were both 
 active workers in the church. He died July 29,, 
 1859, in his eightieth year. His wife, Agnes 
 (Wheeler), who died aged seventy-seven years, was 
 a daughter of Deacon Aden Wheeler, a leading 
 citizen of Southford in his day and the owner of a 
 farm and gristmill. Our subject was the eldest of 
 a family of five children, and the last survivor. 
 
 The common schools of Oxford furnished Will- 
 iam B. Bristol his early educational opportunities, 
 of which he availed himself so well that at sixteen 
 he was qualified to teac'h. He taught in Roxbury 
 in 1827, in Woodbridge in 1828, and in the "Bowers 
 Hill" district of Oxford in 1829, and one of his 
 "boys," Fred Hull, now of Birmingham, is eighty- 
 six years of age. Mr. Bristol then attaided school 
 for a time with the intention of studying medicine, 
 but financial considerations caused him to change his 
 ni'ind, and he decided to learn the mason's trade. 
 He worked for Burr Hall at $2 per month for the- 
 first year, and $3 the second, continuing to teach 
 school in the winter. In the fall of 1831 he taught 
 at Southbury Center, and spent the following sum- 
 mer at the mason's trade at $4 per month. During 
 the next winter (when he was twentv-one vears 
 old), he taught at Bennett's Bridge, and in the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 145 
 
 spring he hired out to George Perry, of Monti- 
 cellO', N. Y., at $24 per month. In the fall he 
 taught at Monticello, and in the summer of 1833 
 he returned to his father's home. In the summer 
 of 1834 he followed the mason's trade in New Ha- 
 ven, and in the fall went to Charleston, S. C, to 
 spend the winter in the same line of work. On his 
 return, in the fall of 1835, he located at Birming- 
 ham, and entered the employ of Harvey Johnson, 
 then building the first factory (copper mill) in 
 the town. He taught school for some years in the 
 winter while following the mason's trade in sum- 
 mer, mainly in this State. In 1837 he took charge 
 of a school in Derby, Conn., where a previous teach- 
 er could not govern and had been obliged to close, 
 but Mr. Bristol had good success. In 1838 he 
 taught in Binningham, and one of his "boys" there 
 has since become very prominent, and recently had 
 to give up the office of judge of probate, having 
 reached the age limit of seventy. In 1838 Mr. 
 Bristol spent a short time in Bridgeport, and later 
 went to St. Louis and other Wesern points, travel- 
 ing quite extensively in that section. In 1840 he 
 was in Springfield, 111., and organized a school there 
 in a log house. The Legislature held the first ses- 
 sion in a church, the State House not having been 
 built. Stephen A. Douglas and Abe Lincoln were 
 not then known. Returning East in the spring of 
 1840, Mr. Bristol followed masonry near Ansonia 
 for a time, and later did masonry work on the 
 Housatonic road. He also taught school in 1840- 
 41-42 in Orange, and in 1843 he taught in the Sec- 
 ond District of Orange. He followed the mason's 
 trade in New Haven in 1844, a year made memor- 
 able by the excitement of Polk's campaign, and 
 spent the winter in teaching at Derby. In the sum- 
 mer of 1845 he settled at the site of the present city 
 of Ansonia; at that time there were no dweUing 
 houses on what is now the main street, and he had 
 to board half a mile out of the village. He was 
 identified with the town ever after, and taught 
 school there previous to 1850. Soon after his ar- 
 rival he formed a partnership with Lyman Treat 
 and began taking contracts in masonry, but in 1848 
 he engaged in business independently as a dealer in 
 wood and coal. There were no other yards there 
 at the time, and he was the last survivor of the 
 earliest business men of the place. Mr. Bristol had 
 an automatic railroad at Derby, where he had his 
 largest yard, and unloaded all his coal, bringing it 
 by water to the dock and placing it directly upon 
 the automatic railway. In 1862 he was elected 
 president of the Savings Bank, upon its organiza- 
 tion, and he continued to hold the position until 
 his death, June 10, 1900, being the last representa- 
 tive of the first hoard of directors. He was a di- 
 rector in the Ansonia National Bank, which he 
 helped to organize, and at the time of his decease 
 was serving as vice-president. He was formerly a 
 director in the Birmingham National Bank, begin- 
 ning with its organization, and was president of 
 that hank in 1870. In politics he was a Republican, 
 10 
 
 and he served on the board of selectmen, being 
 town agent during his term of over seven years. 
 
 In 1854 Mr. Bristol married Miss Harriet A. 
 Pickett, who was born in New Milford, daughter 
 of Sheldon Pickett, a carpenter of that town. She 
 was one of a large family of children. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bristol had seven children : Agnes, who mar- 
 ried John F. Osborne; William P., a machinist; 
 Arthur M., a letter carrier in Ansonia; Herbert 
 L., who was with his father as bookkeeper and gen- 
 eral assistant ; Charles H. ; David W. ; and Fred- 
 erick L. The family is identified with the Episcopal 
 Church, Mrs. Bristol being a member thereof. With 
 three exceptions Mr. Bristol was at the time of 
 his death the oldest Odd Fellow, having been a 
 member of the order fifty-seven years, and he was 
 the chief veteran in the Veteran Organization of 
 the State. In 1841 he united with Quinnipiac 
 Lodge, of New Haven, and in 1849 he became a 
 charter member of Naugatuck Lodge, No. 63, of 
 Ansonia, in which he passed all the chairs. For 
 thirty-five years he was a member of the F. & A. 
 M., belonging to George Washington Lodge, No. 
 82, and Chapter No. 35. Mr. Bristol was widely 
 and sincerely mOurned in the town where so many 
 years of his long and useful life were passed. 
 
 THE ROGERS FAMILY. For more than fifty 
 years the name of Rogers has been prominently 
 identified with the industrial interests of Meriden. 
 The firm of C. Rogers & Bros., composed of Cephas 
 B., Gilbert and Wilbur F. Rogers, has been a con- 
 spicuous factor in the development of the city. They 
 have all been thoroughly trained and experienced in 
 the silver and silver-plating business, and have con- 
 tributed to their city not only business skill and acu- 
 men to a high degree, but personal character and 
 reliability in their transactions far above the usual 
 code of commercial morality. 
 
 The Rogers Brothers, sons of the late Hervey 
 Rogers, of Saybrook and Meriden, Conn., are de- 
 scended from James Rogers, a lineal descendant of 
 John Rogers, who suffered martyrdom, under 
 the reign of Mary in England, in 1555. On 
 the maternal side they are of the ninth gen- 
 eration from John Alden and Priscilla Mullen, 
 of the "Mayflower." Jamfes Rogers came to 
 New England in the ship "Increase" in 1635, 
 when twenty years of age. Stopping for a time at 
 Stratford, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel 
 Rowland. At a later time he was found in Milford, 
 where his wife united with the church under the 
 pastoral care of Rev. Prudden in 1645, ^^d he in 
 1652. In 1660 James Rogers removed to New Lon- 
 don, where he became prosperous and influential. 
 Six times he was sent as a representative to the Gen- 
 eral Court. His sons and daughters were men and 
 women of character and energy. They were : Sam- 
 uel, Joseph, John, Bethsheba, James and Jonathan, 
 fromi whom have come many of the name in Con- 
 necticut. 
 
146 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 The late Hervey Rogers was born Jan. 19, 1805, 
 in the town of Middietown, Conn., and married 
 Elizabeth A. Tryon, who was born in 1807. The 
 nine children born to them were: (i) George W., 
 who died in 1880, was postmaster in JMeriden under 
 the administration of President Lincoln, and prev- 
 ious to that doorkeeper of the House of Representa- 
 tives, at ^^'ashington, D. C; (2) Hervev is a resi- 
 dent of ^leriden; (3) Watson Brewer was lost at 
 sea in 1857; (4) Cephas B. ; (5) Gilbert and (6) 
 Wilbur F. compose the firm of C. Rogers & Broth- 
 ers; (7) Isabella A'irginia died in childhood; (8) 
 Isabella Virginia (2) is the wife of Egbert Young; 
 (9) N. Burton, who served in the Civil war as a 
 drummer boy in Company C, 7th Conn. V. I., under 
 Capt. Joe Hawley (who later became a major gen- 
 eral, then governor of Connecticut, and is now a 
 'United States Senator), has been for years a prom- 
 inent and influential citizen of Danbury, Conn., 
 where he is engaged in business as the president of 
 the Rogers Silver Plate Co. of that city, and the 
 largest stockholder in the Russell-Tomlinson Electric 
 Company. In 1849 the family removed from Say- 
 brook to Aleriden, where the father took the man- 
 agement of the "Rogers Hotel," and there remained, 
 rearing his children to useful manhood and woman- 
 hood. The parents were deeply religious people, 
 plain and unostentatious, and commanded the esteem 
 and respect of their many acquaintances. Mr. Rog- 
 ers died in 1882, and Airs. Rogers in 1889. 
 
 Cephas B. Rogers, the senior member of the firm 
 of C. Rogers & Bros., is a native of the town of 
 Sa3-brook, Conn., where he was born Dec. 30, 1836. 
 His early schooling was obtained in the commjon 
 schools of Aleriden, whither the family had moved 
 when he was thirteen years of age. Part of his 
 boyhood was passed in a neighboring factory where 
 tinware and japanned goods were made, and it was 
 there that he early developed that energy and ability 
 which so largely determined his future success. He 
 was accustomedi to rise at four o'clock in the morn'- 
 ing to do the chores, and the preparatory work of 
 the day, and his habits and systematic methods of 
 work were noteworthy. A better opening soon came, 
 when he was ofi^ered a position as clerk in the office 
 of a lumber and coal company. When he was some- 
 what older, he resumed his studies and completed 
 his schooling in the Meriden Acadenijy. While as- 
 sisting his father in the hotel he displayed an apti- 
 tude for that line of work, and was engaged as 
 ■clerk in the "New Haven House," where he re- 
 mained until 1863. Those were stirring times, and 
 his position aft'ord'ed him the opportunity of a wide 
 •acquaintance with men, especially with the political 
 and military leaders of the State, as that hostelry 
 was their principal rendezvous in the city. To this 
 then young man was given the privilege of accom- 
 panying Mr. Lincoln, when that distinguished visitor 
 made addresses in the State, introducing representa- 
 tive citizens to him. The enthusiasm of Mr. Rogers 
 for the Republican party carried him upon the ros- 
 
 trum for the discussion of the great questions of the 
 day. His ready speech and wide knowledge of the 
 political situation made him an agreeable and suc- 
 cessful public speaker, and when Mr. Lincoln was 
 inaugurated president, Mr. Rogers visited Washing- 
 ton to share in the eclat of the great occasion. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Rogers left the "New Haven House" 
 to take charge of the "Wadawanock House," at 
 Stonington, Conn., and' later was host of the "St. 
 Denis Hotel," a famous New York establishmient. 
 In both of these engagements Mr. Rogers was very 
 successful, and accumulated a goodly sum of money, 
 but his health was broken by the close confinement, 
 and he was obliged to return to Meriden for recup- 
 eration. It was during this period that the partner- 
 ship of C. Rogers & Bros, was planned, and it was 
 entered into in February, 1866. Our subject's two 
 brothers, Gilbert and Wilbur F., were skilled manu- 
 facturers of silver-plated ware, and there appeared 
 to be room in the business world for a new com- 
 pany and a new factory in that line. Beginning in 
 a small way, the silver-plating industry of C. Rogers 
 & Bros, has advanced until it hasi now become one of 
 the principal establishments in Meriden, and chal- 
 lenges the admiration of all who are familiar with 
 its inception and growth. About three hundred 
 hands are steadily employed, and so successfully is 
 the institution managed that the doors are never 
 closed save for holidays or inventory. The products 
 of the factory are ranged in three departments : sil- 
 ver plated spoons, forks, knives and table ware, the 
 manufacture beginning with the metals from which 
 the goods are finally made ; casket trimmings and 
 undertakers' supplies ; furniture hardware. In one 
 or more of these departments business is always 
 brisk. The manufactured products of C. Rogers & 
 Bros, have a world-wide reputation. The foreign 
 shipments are large, going to Europe, Australia and 
 South America. So fully does the company enjoy 
 the confidence of its numerous and widely-scattered 
 patrons, and so exactly do all its goods correspond 
 to the statements concerning them, that the entire 
 business is conducted from the office in Meriden. 
 The Rogers give their personal supervision to the 
 workings and products of all their great factory. 
 By strict integrity, by honorable and prompt methods 
 of business, and by close attention to every depart- 
 ment, C. Rogers & Bros, commend themselves to all 
 the markets of the world, and have won a reputation 
 that is best measured by the constant growth of 
 their business from year to year. The aim of the 
 three brothers in their manufacturing enterprise is 
 not money mlaking for the sake of money alone, 
 but chiefly for the good which may be done through 
 it, so that the marked prosperity they have won 
 serves a high moral end. They are not only prom- 
 inent in business, but also in social and religious 
 circles. They are Methodists, and have been great- 
 ly interested in the fortune of the First Methodist 
 Church, to which they all belong. Cephas B. Rog- 
 ers has served on the official board of that church 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 147 
 
 since 1866, and is now president of the board of 
 trustees. In the denomination at large he is well and 
 favorably known, and his ability has given dignity 
 and standing to the governing bodies of the church. 
 In 1888 he was president of the Lay Conference, in 
 1900 was lay delegate to the General Conference at 
 Chicago. For twenty years he has been trustee of 
 the Wesleyan University in Middletown. In Meri- 
 den he has taken much interest in local matters, and 
 the schools of the city have engaged his special at- 
 tention. For six years he was a valued member of 
 the city council. In 1880 Mr. Rogers visited Eng- 
 land and France. 
 
 The younger brothers, who are older in the sil- 
 ver-plating business, in which they have been en- 
 gaged for almost half a century, are most substantial 
 and useful citizens, enterprising and public-spirited, 
 and have contributed very largely of their time and 
 money, as well as personal efifort, toward the building 
 of Meriden and the uplifting of their fellow men. 
 
 Cephas B. Rogers was married in 1870 to 
 Margaret, daughter of Dr. Peter F. and Anna M. 
 Clark, of New York City. Mrs. Rogers is a Chris- 
 tian lady, beloved in her church and highly esteemed 
 in the society of Meriden. Their home is the Rog- 
 ers homestead in Meriden, beautifully located in 
 North Colony street, from which is dispensed a gen- 
 erous hospitality. Mrs. Rogers is the granddaugh- 
 ter of Dr. J. Clark, a Presbyterian minister. Her 
 great-grandfather, grandfather and father were all 
 graduates of Yale College. She is an aunt of John 
 Foster Carr, another Yale graduate, .and also a grad- 
 uate of Oxford University, the famous English in- 
 ' stitution, who sustains quite a reputation in the 
 literary circles of London, England. Mrs. Rogers is 
 a member of Susan Carrington Clark Chapter D. A. 
 R., of Meriden, and is much esteemed in all circles. 
 
 WILLIAM TIDGEWELL, one of the older and 
 more venerable employes of the Winchester Arms 
 Co., at New Haven, where he holds the creditable 
 position of superintendent of the Water Shops at 
 Whitneyville, was born in Sheffield, England, Jan. 
 7, 1826, a son of James Tidgewell, a native of the 
 same city. 
 
 James Tidgewell came to the United States very 
 early in the century, and spent a few years in New 
 York. About 1830, he came to Middletown, Conn., 
 where he engaged in business as a maker of car- 
 penters squares, bevels, printers articles and similar 
 goods. In England he had been aij engineer. His 
 death occurred in Middletown about 1863. Ann 
 Eaton, who became his wife, was born in Sheffield, 
 England, and died many years ago. She was the 
 mother of five children : James, .William, Eliza, 
 Elizabeth and Fannie. Of these James became a 
 mechanic, and lived in Middletown most of his life, 
 although he died in Brooklyn ; Eliza is the widow of 
 William J. Bowen, formerly chief of police of New 
 Haven city, and for a period of years assistant super- 
 intendent of the State Reform School at Meriden, 
 
 Conn. ; Elizabeth, now deceased, married George AI. 
 Pratt,^ formerly superintendent of the Victor Sewing 
 Machine Co., at Middletown, and now a prominent 
 merchant and coal dealer; Fannie is the widow of 
 Dwight E. Bailey, of Middletown, who was for 
 thirty years connected with the Pope Manufacturing 
 Co., of Hartford, Conn., as contractor. 
 
 William Tidgewell came to New York when sev- 
 en years of age, and attended the city schools of that 
 place and of Middletown. Early in life he was ap- 
 prenticed to the machinist's trade, and when he was 
 twenty-one associated himself in business with his 
 father to manufacture the line of specialties already 
 noted. In i860 Mr. Tidgewell entered into business 
 relations as contractor with the Savage Arms Co., 
 of Middletown, and was connected with that insti- 
 tution until 1865, when the company went out of 
 business. For about a year and a half Mr. Tidge- 
 well was with the Hubbard Hardware Co., of Mid- 
 dletown. In 1867 he was engaged by the Remington 
 Arms Co., of Ilion, N. Y., and worked out a contract 
 for twenty thousand guns for the Danish govern- 
 ment. Mr. Tidgewell is distinguished for being the 
 first mechanic to make guns by machinery for the 
 Remington people. Following this he was employed 
 as contractor by the Victor Sewing Machine Co., 
 of Middletown, for fifteen years; and in Meriden 
 he worked three years for the Malleable Iron Co., 
 after which he was employed for a time in a factory 
 at Milford. In April, 1888, Mr. Tidgewell came 
 to New Haven to take a position as tool maker for 
 the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., and after a 
 year and a half at this work was made superintend- 
 ent of the Water Shops of the company, and for 
 twelve years the work in this department has been 
 under his direction. Mr. Tidgewell is noted for 
 his ability, and for his strict and unwavering atten- 
 tion to business. On May 6, 1846, Mr. Tidgewell 
 was married to Sarah A. Kelsey, of Cromwell, Conn., 
 a daughter of Calvin Kelsey, and a descendant of an 
 old New England family. Mrs. Tidgewell died leav- 
 ing a family of three children : Sarah, now deceased ; 
 Frederick, a mechanic who for fifteen years has been 
 with the Winchester Arms Co.; and Florence, un- 
 married. In politics Mr. Tidgewell takes very 'little 
 interest. In religion he and his family are Uni- 
 versalists. 
 
 NORRIS M. JOHNSON (deceased) was for 
 many years one of the successful and prominent 
 farmers of Hamden, New Haven county, his entire 
 life being passed on the old homestead, where he 
 was born Jan. 23, 1835, a son of Hezekiah and 
 Betsey (Little) Johnson. The father was born on 
 the same farm' in 1808, and died there in 1845. In 
 his family were the following children: Hezekiah; 
 Charles ; Lorenzo ; Alonzo ; Sylvanus, a resident of 
 Iowa and the only son now living; Norris M. ; and 
 Frances, the wife of Ezra Stiles, of North Haven. 
 
 The early life of Norris M. Johnson was spent 
 under the parental roof, and his literary education 
 
148 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was received in the common schools of the locality. 
 He soon became familiar with every d'epartment of 
 farm work, and also with brick making, his father 
 being engaged in the latter occupation in connection 
 with farming. j\Ir. Johnson continued to reside on 
 the old homestead throughout life, and for a great 
 man}- years he also devoted a part of his time to 
 the manufacture of bricks. 
 
 On ^larch 29, 1858, he was united in marriage 
 with 3.1iss Josephine M. Benham, w'ho was born at 
 Church Corners in the town of Hamden, ]\Iarch 24, 
 1839, a daughter of Luther L. and Elizabeth (Hea- 
 ton) Benham, and granddaughter of Amos Ben- 
 ham, all natives of Hamden. She is the oldest in 
 a family of five children, the others being Willis, 
 a prominent farmer of Hamden ; Dallas, who died 
 in 1891 ; and Lydia, who died in Hamden; and Liz- 
 zie, who died in December, 1898. Our subject and 
 his wife had two children : Charley, who was born 
 Dec. 27, 1858, and died Feb. 5, 1878; and Adelaide, 
 who was born March 22, 1862, and died in Febru- 
 ary, 1896, leaving two children — Willard Douglass 
 Warren (who died when six )-ears old) and New- 
 ton H. Warren (born August 7, 1895). 
 
 ]\Ir. Johnson died March 4, 1898, honored and 
 respected by all who knew him. He affiliated with 
 the Democratic party, and' was a consistent and 
 faithful member of the Baptist Church, where he 
 sang in the choir for many years. Those who knew 
 him fcest were numbered among his warmest 
 friends, and no citizen in the community was more 
 honored or highly respected. His estimable wife 
 still resides on the old homestead. She was a mem- 
 ber of the church choir for many years, and has 
 always taken an active part in church matters. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY SAHTH. The name of 
 Smith in the city of New Haven is associated with 
 the extensive business done there by that family in 
 the planting, growing and shipping of oystera 
 George Henry Smith was not only one of the pio- 
 neers in that business in New Haven, but he has 
 also been one of the most successful, the firm of 
 G. H. Smith & Son being well known all over the 
 country. His operations are carried on at City 
 Point, New Haven and Providence, Rhode Island. 
 
 George Henry Smith was bom in West Haven, 
 Conn., Aug. 20, 1834, and was fourteen years of age 
 when his parents moved to New Haven. His school- 
 ing had not been neglected prior to this time, and 
 after locating in New Haven he was a student in 
 a private school taught by a Mrs. Nichols. Then he 
 gratified a boyish love of adventure by shipping for 
 the West Indies, and his years between fifteen and 
 twenty-three were spent on the sea. In 1867, in 
 association with his brother, Jeremiah Smith, he 
 built a house on a vessel at Long Wharf, having 
 previously, in 1864, erected an oyster house on 
 Oyster Point. In 1883 he built a large oyster house 
 in \\'ashington street, and in 1884 purchased his 
 brother's interest in the business, which had grown 
 to such an extent that in 1888 he found it necessary 
 
 to erect his present oyster plant, on .Oyster or City 
 Point, where he cultivates 700 acres of oyster 
 ground, having for his wholesale trade one gasoline 
 and one steam boat of his own, and hiring a num- 
 ber of others. The business is known all over 
 the United States, and there is no more successful 
 firm in this locality than that of G. H. Smith & 
 Son, growers, planters, shippers and wholesale 
 dealers in native oysters. The product of their 
 grounds has been found satisfactory all over the 
 country. 
 
 On July 5, 1858, George Henry Smith was 
 married to Aliss Pauline M. Butler, of New Ha- 
 ven, who passed away Oct. 8, 1864. Two children 
 were born to this union: Grace E., who married 
 Lewis W. Hulse, of Port Jefferson, L. I., and 
 Sarah P., who married Lewis W. Gates, of New 
 Haven. The second marriage of Mr. Smith, cele- 
 brated Nov. 6, 1865, was to Mary A. Babcock, of 
 West Haven, who died Aug. 9, 1887, leaving five 
 children : Harriet M., Jeremiah C, Mabel A., Olive 
 L. and Mildred L. Of this family, Harriet ^L mar- 
 ried S. Hamilton Nussbaum, of La Porte, Ind. 
 Jeremiah C. (who is in business with his father) 
 married Helen Lattin, of Slielton, Conn. Mabel 
 A. married Albert E. Wilson, of New Castle, Del. 
 On Aug. 20, 1888, Mr. Smith was united in mar- 
 riage with Mabel Thomas, of Rushville, III, a 
 daughter of Cbauncy T. Thomas, of New Haven. 
 Mr. Smith has four grandchildren: Dorothy and 
 Hamilton, daughter and son of S. Hamilton Nuss- 
 baum ; Marion, daughter of Jeremiah C. Smith ; and 
 Paul, son of Lewis W. Gates. 
 
 In politics Mr. Smith is a Republican, but he • 
 takes no active interest in public affairs. His en- 
 grossing business enterprises, his beautiful home, 
 and his family ties and associations, sufficiently fill 
 his days without the excitements of public life to 
 add to his cares, while such honors would not in- 
 crease the enjoyment of a quiet and home-loving 
 citizen such as is George Henry Smith. 
 
 DEACON NELSON WARREN MITCH- 
 ELL. That deep religious conviction which in- 
 duced the settlement of New England and gave to 
 the Colonies their distinctive meaning still dwells in 
 the hearts of many of the Puritan descendants. 
 Deacon Mitchell, the subject of this sketch, is one 
 of the best-known citizens of the town of South- 
 bury, where for many years he has been one of its 
 most influential and representative farmers, but he 
 is, perhaps, most widely known for his active and 
 earnest church work. For nearly forty-two years 
 he has been a deacon of the Congregational Church 
 of South Britain. He became a member of the 
 church in 1841, at the age of sixteen years, and 
 has ever since been one of its most earnest wor- 
 shipers. 
 
 Deacon Mitchell is a descendant of one of the 
 earliest New England settlers. He is of the seventh 
 generation from Matthew Mitchell, the founder of 
 the family in America, w>ho in 1635 migrated to 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 149 
 
 America from England. The first winter this pio- 
 neer spent in Charlestown, Mass., then in 1636 set- 
 tled at Saybrook. He successively lived at Wethers- 
 field and Stamford, then joined the New Haven 
 Colony, and died in 1645. The line of descent to 
 our subject was through (2) David Mitdiell, (3) 
 Mathew [Mitchell and (4) Deacon Eleazer Mitchell, 
 v.'ho was the first of the family to locate in South- 
 bur}-. Deacon Eleazer Mitchell was the great- 
 grandfather of our subject, and was born in the 
 town of Woodbury, Nov. 24, 1732. When only 
 three days old his mother died, and he was adopted 
 and raised by Capt. Richard Bronson. He partici- 
 pated in the French wars, became a large land 
 owner, and a very prominent citizen of New Haven 
 county. He died Feb. 3, 1819, aged eighty-seven 
 years. His son, Warren Mitchell, was the grand- 
 father of our subject. 
 
 Cyrus Mitchell, son of Warren and father of 
 our subject, married Avis Charlotte Pierce, who 
 diedi in Southbury. 
 
 Deacon Nelson Warren Mitchell was born on 
 the farm in Southbury which he now occupies. May 
 29, 1825. His education was commenced in the 
 common schools of Southbury, and completed in the 
 academy at South Britain, to a farm near which 
 town his parents moved when be was eleven years 
 old. In 1849 he returned to the old homestead, 
 where he 'has ever since resided. 
 
 On Feb. 28, 1849, Deacon Mitchell married Miss 
 Edna Piatt, of South Britain, daughter of David 
 Piatt, and to them were born three children: Ed- 
 ward', proprietor of the New Haven Game and Nov- 
 elty Co., who married Carrie E. Bradley and has 
 three children : Gertrude Elizabeth, Warren Elliott 
 and Leroy Bradley; Annie C, who married H. C. 
 Stahl, of^Bellevue, Ohio, and has four children: 
 Edna Rachel, Alice Emeline, Marion Bell and Har- 
 low Mitchell; and Charles W., who died at the age 
 of twentv-one years. Mr. Mitchell owns a well- 
 improved farm of 170 acres, and conducts a gen- 
 eral farming and dairy business. In politics be has 
 teen a Republican since the organization of that 
 partv, and he has held various local offices, in 1882 
 being elected representative to the State Legisla- 
 ture!' He is one of the most influential citizens of 
 the town. His commodious home was erected in 
 1812, and is one of the historical landmarks of the 
 vicinity. 
 
 LYON. For generations the Lyons of New 
 Haven have been among the city's intelligent and 
 substantial citizens, prominent among them Col. 
 William Lyon, of the period of the Revolution, a 
 number of whose children allied themselves by mar- 
 riage with the first families of the city and locality— 
 the^Lewises, Linslevs, Bennetts and others. Richard 
 Fitch Lvon, still of New Haven, though retired 
 from active 'business life, has been one of the city's 
 leading residents. 
 
 Several persons bearing the name of Lyon were 
 
 found in the settling of New England at Dorchester, 
 Roxbury, Salem and other points in the Massachu- 
 setts colony, as early as 1635. A Richard Lyon 
 was at Fairfield, Conn., as early as 1649. Thomas 
 Lyon, probably a brother (says one authority) of 
 Richard, the Fairfield settler, bought land in Fair- 
 field, in 1654, at which time he is first of record 
 there. This property be sold in 1675, and removed 
 to Greenwich, Conn. 'He was a large land owner 
 in both places. There is a family tradition, says 
 the "History of Rye, N. Y.," that Thomas Lyon, in 
 company with John Banks, came from Yorkshire, 
 England, and settled on the east bank of the Byram 
 river. John Lyon, son of Thomas, was living in 
 Greenwich, Conn., in 1 710. A John Lyon removed 
 from the town of Greenwich to Rye, in Westchester 
 county, N. Y., and James Lyon, one of his descend- 
 ants, was proprietor at one time of Byram Point. 
 It is claimed by some that John Lyon, of Greenwich, 
 Conn., was of Scottish origin. Again, there was a 
 Henry Lyon at Milford, Conn., in 1645, who, says 
 Savage, was a son of Richard, of Fairfield, and niar- 
 ried a daughter of William Bateman. This Henry 
 Lyon was of Fairfield in 1652. So much for some 
 of the forerunners of the Lyons of Fairfield county, 
 Conn., and contiguous territory. 
 
 Col. William Lyon, of New Haven, referred to 
 in the foregoing, born March 6, 1748, a son of 
 William and Elizabeth (Maltby) Lyon, married 
 Lois Mansfield, born April 24, -1747, daughter of 
 Lieutenant Nathan Mansfield, of New Haven, and 
 a descendant of Richard Mansfield, one of the first 
 settlers of New Haven, in 1639, through Major 
 Moses and Deacon Jonathan Mansfield. Col. Will- 
 iam Lyon was one of New Haven's literary charac- 
 ters and foremost men of culture. He early ex- 
 hibited remarkable mental power, having been pre- 
 pared for Yale College at nine years of age. He 
 was the first cashier and at the head of the old New 
 Haven Bank, incorporated in 1792. The last twen- 
 ty-five years of his life, approximately speaking, he 
 devoted to intense reading. He possessed an extra- 
 ordinary memory, and was- considered one of the 
 greatest antiquarians, and thoroughly versed his- 
 torians in the United States. Although his pen 
 enriched so many periodicals of his time, he could 
 never be persuaded to publish any volume of ancient 
 or modern history. This has been deeply regretted, 
 as for fifty years he was the oracle of so many his- 
 tories published by others. Col. Lyon died Oct. 
 12, 1830, and his wife died Aug. 26, 1821. 
 
 The following extract taken from a chapter on 
 "New Haven in'^the Revolution," in the "Atwater 
 History of New Haven," we judge refers to the 
 home of Col. Lyon: 
 
 Capt. William Lyon resided in a house which stood 
 where the Lyon Building now is (1886), in Chapel street. 
 While the British held possession of the town, as some 
 of them were passing down Chapel street on the opposite 
 side from this house, a musketshot was fired at them from 
 its windows, which wounded one of them. It would ap- 
 
I50 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 pear that the family, having vacated the house, some per- 
 son had entered, gone upstairs and from one of the win- 
 dows had fired on this part of the enemy, and then fled 
 by some back way. The soldiers came across the street in 
 great rage, and searched the rooms to find the person who 
 fired upon them. Not finding him they committed con- 
 siderable damage in the way of breaking doors and win- 
 dows, and by ransacking desks, drawers, and other re- 
 positories, and by tearing up and scattering papers. Two 
 of the doors, one having a panel replaced where it had been 
 dashed out by the soldiers, and the other pierced by a 
 musket ball, continued in use as long as the house re- 
 mained. It was in this house that the "New Haven Bank," 
 the " Bee-hive," was first established. 
 
 Willard Lyon, son of Levi and Ruth (Fitch), was 
 a lineal descendant of the ancient family of Lyon in 
 Scotland, where in 1371, Sir John Lyon was Thane 
 ('Earl) of Glamis, and in 1376 married the Princess 
 Jane, daughter of King Robert II, and was Lord 
 Chancellor of Scotland in 1380. William Lyon, the 
 first ancestor in this country, at the age of fourteen 
 years, came Sept. 11, 1635, in the ship "Hopewell" 
 and settled in Roxbury, Mass. Willard Lyon was 
 born July 12, 1789, in Ashford, Conn. He came to 
 New Haven when a young man and engaged in run- 
 ning stage lines, in the employ of John Babcock 
 (then one of the largest stage proprietors in this 
 section), and on his own account; after a long sick- 
 ness, he gave up this occupation and was appointed 
 the "Penny Post" (letter carrier) at the New Haven 
 postoffice (there being at that time but one such 
 official), but declining to conform his political prin- 
 ciples to those of the administration- in power, the 
 office was given to a Democrat, and Mr. 'L.yon was 
 soon after appointed "City Sexton" and "Hearse 
 Leader," having charge of all city burials, which 
 offices he held for fifteen years, and at the time of 
 his death. Mr. Lyon was an old line Whig, and 
 took an active interest in politics and public affairs 
 generally. Fraternally he affiliated v/ith Hiram 
 Lcydge, A. F & A. M. and took all the Masonic de- 
 grees up to and including that of 'the Knight Temp- 
 lar ; he was grand tyler of the Grand Lodge of Con- 
 necticut. In religious connection he was a member 
 of Trinity Church, to which his wife belonged. Will- 
 ard Lyon married, June I, 1823, Amanda Scarritt, 
 who was born in Wallingford, Conn., April 16, 1793, 
 daughter of John Scarritt, and three children were 
 born to them, namely: (i) James Willard, born 
 June 16, 1824, married Eliza Kirbv, of Stonington, 
 Sept. II, 1852. He carried on business as a tailor 
 in New Haven and Waterbury, and in 1853 'he re- 
 moved to Chicago, 111., and was one of the most 
 prominent merchant tailors in that city at the time 
 of the great fire, in which his store and contents 
 were swept away. His wife died Aug. 25, 1885, 
 leaving no children, and he soon afterward returned 
 to New Haven in greatly impaired health. He is 
 a member of the Episcopal Church, and of Cleve- 
 land Lodge, A. F & A. M., one of the largest in 
 Chicago. (2) Richard Fitch is mentioned more 
 fully below. (3) Ruth Amanda, born June 2~ . 1832, 
 married George F Selleck, of Xorwalk, Conn., Feb. 
 
 8, 1864, and they are now residing on a farm in 
 Bethany. :\Ir. Selleck was a volunteer in the 5th 
 Conn. \'. I., participating in most of the important 
 battles of the Civil war, and was promoted to the 
 rank of first lieutenant. In September, 1863, the 5th 
 Regiment was transferred from the Army of the 
 Potomac to Tennessee, and served with Sherman's 
 army in the battles about Chattanooga and the fam- 
 ous march to the Sea; he was wounded and cap- 
 tured at Cedar Mountain, where the Fifth was so 
 badly cut up, and was confined a short time in Libby 
 prison. After the war he served twenty_ years on 
 the New Haven police force, and is retired on a 
 pension. Willard Lyon died Sept. 22, 1849, and 
 his wife Jan. 14, 1869; he was buried with the 
 church service and the Masonic ritual, his funeral 
 being attended by about two hundred Knights 
 Templars and Masons, and a large assemblage of 
 citizens. Says a local paper : "In the death of 
 Willard Lyon, City Sexton, the public has lost a 
 good citizen and an honest m'an." 
 
 John Scarritt, the father of Mrs. Lyon, was a 
 son of James Scarritt, who was born in Bran ford, 
 Conn. He married Love Hall, of Wallingford, and 
 settled in that town. Entering the army at the age 
 of sixteen years, he served with the Colonial troops 
 in the French and Indian War. He was by trade a 
 weaver, and being a man of good education, was 
 for many years a schoolmaster, and as "Master" 
 Scarritt was well known and respected by his fel- 
 low townsmen. He was among the first churchmen 
 in the town, and was a Freemason. John Scarritt, 
 his son, was also well educated, and he learned and 
 carried on the trade of his fatlier, and also became 
 a schoolmaster, in time becoming one of the prom- 
 inent men of Wallingford. An earnest member of 
 the Episcopal Church, he conducted the services, 
 when the Chttrch was without a rector, and on com- 
 ing to New Haven united with Trinity Church, of 
 which he was the oldest member at the time of his 
 death. In middle life he came to New Haven, and 
 was elected town clerk, the duties of which office 
 he performed faithfully, until unfitted by the in- 
 firmities of age : he was also a justice of peace, and 
 it is worthy of note that in cases of appeal, his 
 judicial decisions were sustained by the higher 
 courts. His death occurred Oct. 18, 1854, and he 
 was buried from Trinity Church. John Scarritt 
 married Eunice, daughter of Merriman Cook, of 
 Wallingford, May 24, 1792, and they had a family 
 of two sons and four daug'hters : (i) Amanda 
 (Mrs. Lyon); (2) Lydia, born Jttly 2, 1797; (3) 
 Alarcus Cook, born Feb. 21, 1800; (4)_ Eunice Lou- 
 isa, born Feb. 26, 1803; (5) James, born April 17, 
 1806; and (61 Nancy Love, born May 11. 1810, 
 died ]\lay 16, 181 1. Of these Lydia married Judge 
 John Davenport Reynolds, of Wallingford, ^'larch 
 
 18, 1824; and Eunice Louisa married Clement Beers, 
 son of Deacon Nathan Beers, of New Haven, Aug. 
 
 19, 1830. 
 
 Deacon Nathan Beers, the father of Clement 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 151 
 
 Beers, was born in Stratford, Feb. 24, 1753- I" 
 1754, his parents removed to New Haven. He was 
 a charter member of the Second company, Govern- 
 ors Foot Guards, and went with forty members of 
 the company to Cambridge in April, 1775. On Jan. 
 ^3, ^777> he received a commission as ensign from 
 Gov. Trumbull, of Connecticut, and on March 23, 
 1778, was commissioned a lieutenant in the army 
 of the United States; in May, 1778, was made pay- 
 master; and in July, 1788, the rank of captain by 
 brevet was conferred upon him. He was one of the 
 officers to whose care Major' Andre was committed 
 during the period from his capture to his execu- 
 tion, and he received from that unfortunate officer 
 a sketch of himself drawn by his own pen after his 
 sentence ; this sketch is now in the possession of Yale 
 College. On May 26, 1781, he married, at New 
 Haven, Mary Phelps, daughter of John Phelps, 
 Esq., of Stafford, Conn. After the war Mr. Beers 
 engaged in mercantile business, and was for twenty 
 years steward of Yale Colles-e. A man of strong 
 religious principles, he was for many years deacon 
 in the North (Congregational) Church. He died 
 F^b. 10, 1849, lacking only fourteen days of ninety- 
 five years of age. 
 
 Richard Fitch Lyon, son of Willard and 
 Amanda (Scarritt) Lyon, born Oct. 3, 1826, in New 
 Haven, married, Oct. 9, 1853, Josephine, youngest 
 daughter of Henry Becker, of Chatham Center, N. 
 Y. Richard F. Lyon received his elementary edu- 
 cation through the instruction of his_ grandfather; 
 John Scarritt, in a private school kept by Rev. Smith 
 Dayton, a retired Methodist preacher, and also in 
 classes of the Young Men's Institute, of which he 
 was a director and treasurer. In 1841 he began 
 clerking in a dry goods store, and later served as a 
 clerk in the post office for a period in the forties, 
 receiving his appointrtient as such through Henry 
 Huggins, under the administration of William Hen- 
 ry Harrison. In 1849, soon after the organization 
 of the American Mutual Life Insurance Co., in New 
 Haven, Mr. Lyon entered the company as a clerk 
 and became its secretary, and for a number of years 
 most efficiently performed the responsible duties of 
 that office ; he was also secretary and treasurer of the 
 Fair Haven Water Co., until its consolidation with 
 the New Haven Water Co. During the last two 
 terms of office of Hon. N. D. Sperry, as postmaster 
 of New Haven, Mr. Lyon was cashier in the post- 
 office. . He was elected city clerk in 1894, re-elected 
 in 1896, and served until June i, 1899, since when 
 he has lived retired. 
 
 Mr. Lyon's earliest religious connections were 
 with the Trinity Church, in which he held the of- 
 fices of clerk and vestryman, and he is now a mem- 
 ber of that Church. Having taken an active inter- 
 est in the mission of Christ Church, established by 
 Trinity Parish on Broadwav, he became one of the 
 founders of the present Christ Churdi Parish, in 
 which he held the offices of clerk, vestryman, ward- 
 en, and was a member of the choir, and was for 
 
 several years director of music. 'He has been active 
 and prominent in musical circles in the city, having 
 been a member of the New Haven Musical Associa- 
 tion and its secretary, a member and one of the 
 board of directors of the Mendelssohn Society, and 
 active in other choral organizations. 
 
 At the age of eighteen years Mr. Lyon enlisted 
 in Company A (National Blues), Light Artillery, 
 Second Regiment Connecticut Militia, rising to the 
 rank of first lieutenant, resigning his commission in 
 October, 1857, on account of business engagements. 
 Politically Mr. Lyon has been a stanch Republican 
 from the formation of the party, and is a member 
 of the Young Men's Republican Club. Fraternally 
 Mr. Lyon is affiliated with Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. 
 F. & A. M., of New Haven, and socially belongs to 
 the New Haven Colony Historical Society. It is 
 needless to add that he commands the respect and 
 esteem of his fellow citizens, for one has but to read 
 between the lines, to judge of his useful and prom- 
 inent career. 
 
 The children of Richard F. and Josephine 
 (Becker) Lyon are: (i) Richard Becker, born 
 Aug. 8, 1856, married May 19, 1884, Nellie Jo- 
 sephine, daughter of Jeremiah Barnett. He is a 
 graduate of the New Haven high school and the 
 Sheffield Scientific School, and is a professor of mu- 
 sic. He is a member of Trinity Church and of the 
 Young Men's Republican Club. (2) Josephine 
 Amanda, born Nov. 15, 1862, graduated. 1898, from 
 the New York Training School for Deaconesses, 
 and in the autumn of the same year was "set 
 apart" to the work of a deaconess by Bishop Pot- 
 ter of New York. (3) James Robinson is men- 
 tioned below. 
 
 James Robinson Lyon was born Jan. 28, 1867, 
 in New Haven, where he received a thorough edu- 
 cation in the public schools. At the age of fifteen 
 years he commenced work for F. S. Bradley & Co., 
 wholesale hardware merchants, remaining with them 
 until Jan. i, 1891, when he associated himself in 
 business with D. T. Mallet (in the same line), and 
 in September, 1892, with Newton H. Cox, purchased 
 the entire business, and the firm is now Cox & 
 Lyon. They have an up-to-date store, 25x133 feet 
 in dimensions. Mr. Lyon has been very active in 
 various circles in this city. He is a stanch Repub- 
 lican, and a prominent member of the Young Men's 
 Republican Club, in which he has served as a mem- 
 ber of the executive committee, reception committee 
 and house committee, of which latter he was chair- 
 man for two years. On Nov. 5, 1885, he joined the 
 New Haven Grays, in which he served five years, 
 during which period he became corporal and secre- 
 tai'y. In 1886 he joined the Governor's Foot 
 Guard. Fraternally he is a member of Hiram Lodge, 
 A. F. & A. M. ; the Woodmen of the \\' orld ; the 
 United Workmen; and the I. O. R. M./ 
 
 On Jan. 23, 1899, ^I^'- Lyon was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Marion Stiles, a native of Roches- 
 ter, N. Y., the only child of Albert C. Stiles, who 
 
152 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 now resides in New Haven. Two children have 
 been born to this union: Ida Becker and Henry 
 Stiles. The family attend Christ Church. 
 
 HOX. WILLIAM SKIXXER BEECHER, ex- 
 director of public works of the city of New Ha- 
 ven, former State senator from the Eighth Dis- 
 trict, and for nearly a third of a century superin- 
 tendent of what is now known as the Diamond 
 Match Co., at Westville, is a man of prominence 
 in the public affairs of his town and county. 
 
 Mr. Beecher was born Oct. 8, 1839, in the 
 town of Plymouth (now changed to Thomaston), 
 Conn., son of the late Anson and Nancy (Benton) 
 Beecher, and grandson of Wheeler Beecher, who 
 was born in 1754, in Woodbridge, Conn. His ma- 
 ternal grandfather, Ebenezer Benton, was a native 
 of Litchfield (now called Morris), Conn. Both 
 were of English ancestry. 
 
 Anson Beecher was born in Watertown, Conn., 
 Oct. 19, 1805, and died April 7, 1876. He mar- 
 ried Nancy- Benton, who was born Aug. 17, 1803, 
 and died Jan. 13, 1884. They were plain and un- 
 assuming people, whose lives commanded the re- 
 spect and esteem of the community in which they 
 lived. After marriage Mr. Beecher located in Mor- 
 ris, Litchfield Co., Conn., and about 1853 moved 
 to New Haven, establishing the firm of A. Beecher 
 & Sons, manufacturers of matches. 
 
 Our subject received such privileges for obtain- 
 ing an education as the neighborhood district schools 
 afforded, but like thousands of young men of his 
 period his business career was broken in upon by 
 the outbreak of the Civil war, he being among the 
 number who hastened to uphold the flag of his 
 country. Enlisting July 16, 1862, in Company E, 
 15th Conn. V. I., he performed efficient duty as 
 first sergeant, and saw three years of active serv- 
 ice, retiring with a creditable war record. The 15th 
 was mustered into the United States service at 
 Camp Lyon, Oyster Point, New Haven, Aug. 25, 
 1862, under the command of Col. Dexter R. Wright, 
 of New Haven, and later was under Col. Charles L. 
 Upham, of Meriden, Conn., and became a part of 
 the 3d Brigade, ist Division, 9th Army Corps, un- 
 der Gen. Burnside. This regiment participated in 
 the battles of Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862; 
 Edenton Road, Va., April 24, 1863 ; Providence 
 Church Road, Va., May 3, 1863; siege of Suffolk, 
 April 12, 1863; and Kinston, N. C, March 8, 1865. 
 Young Beecher shared the fate of the command, 
 bearing an honorable and gallant part througliout 
 tlie campaign. On March 8, 1865, he was cap- 
 tured by the enemi}', confined for a short time in 
 Libby prison, was paroled March 26, 1865, and 
 was discharged from the United States service with 
 his company and regiment June 27, 1865. 
 
 Returning from the war to his home, our sub- 
 ject soon entered the match factory of A. Beecher 
 & Sons, at Westville. and was there made super- 
 intendent, which position he most efficiently and 
 
 creditably filled for nearly a third of a century, 
 severing his connection in 1897. This business later 
 was transferred to the Swift, Courtney & Beecher 
 Co., and in 1881 to the Diamond Match Co., and 
 has become an industr)' of considerable magnitude 
 and importance, the latter company now having a 
 capital of $15,000,000, and controlling the match 
 industry of the United States. 
 
 In his political affiliations 'Mr. Beecher is a Re- 
 publican, and has done good service for the party, 
 in whose councils he has long been an influential 
 and prominent factor. His tastes and natural equip- 
 ment have fitted him for public life, and he has 
 honorably and efficiently discharged every official^ 
 duty. For a period of ten years he has served as 
 selectman for the town of New Haven, thus pre- 
 paring for his service in the General Assembly, 
 where he well represented the Eighth District dur- 
 ing 1897-98; he was chairman of the committee on 
 Claims. His term of service was marked by many 
 wise acts of legislation, and his influence was felt 
 in many ways. Mr. Beecher possesses executive 
 ability of a high order, and his appointment as 
 trustee of the Connecticut School for Boys gave 
 most general satisfaction. Socially he is connected 
 with the Republican League and the Young Men's 
 Repubilican Club of New Haven, and also belongs 
 to Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R., taking a promi- 
 nent part in the work of all these organizations. 
 
 The marriage of our subject to Fannie Char- 
 lotte Hopkins, a native of Westville, was celebrated 
 July 31, 1862. She passed away June 28, 1898. 
 Mrs. Beecher's father, Isaac Hopkins, yet lives in 
 A\'estville, now (1902) over ninety years of age. 
 
 HENRY J. BRISTOL, one of Milford's enter- 
 prising business men, was born May 4, 1830, and has 
 always resided in that town. His ancestors were 
 early settlers in Milford. His grandfather, Jehial 
 Bristol, was born there Aug. 30, 1765, and followed 
 farming and shoemaking in the locality many years, 
 his death occurring Nov. 28, 1858, at the age of 
 ninety-three. Jehial Bristol married Martha Beech- 
 er, who was born in Orange, Conn., Nov. i, 1778, 
 and they had seven children, viz : Miranda, bom 
 Dec. 29, 1798, and Clarence, born Dec. 23, 1800, died 
 in childhood; Willis, born July 15, 1804, was a shoe 
 manufacturer in New Haven ; Johnson, our subject's 
 father, is mentioned below ; Martha C. married Will- 
 iam Thomas, of West Haven, a seafaring man ;. Hi- 
 ram, born Oct. 6, 181 7, was a shoemaker by trade 
 and died in New Haven; and Lucia, born Oct. 21, 
 1820, who married Samuel Sanford. 
 
 Johnson Bristol was born in IMilford Nov. 19, 
 1807, and learned the shoemaker's trade with his 
 father. Later he opened a grocery store, which he 
 conducted for many years, retiring some time before 
 his death in 1891. He was prominent in local af- 
 fairs, first as 'a Whig and then as a Republican, and 
 at one time he represented 'the town in the Legisla- 
 ture. His wife, Elizabeth Davidson, was born in 
 
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 LU-T^T^-ay, yO 76j2^e^'^:^-^i<-^ — 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 153 
 
 Milford; she was a daughter of Richard David- 
 son, a carpenter of that town, and her death oc- 
 curred July 10, 1893. Nine children were born to 
 them, as follows : Henry J., who is mentioned more 
 fully below; Jane, born Aug. 14, 1831 ; Johnson, 
 born Nov. 6, 1833; Ann M., born Aug. 6, 1835; 
 Theodore, born Feb. 18, 1839 ; Harriet, born June 11, 
 18 — ; Elizabeth, born Sept. 12, 1842; Charles, born 
 June 22, 1849 ; land Edson, born June 9, 1852. 
 
 Henry J. Bristol was educated in the common 
 schools of 'Milford, and during his youth learned 
 the shoemaker's trade, which he followed only one 
 year. For three years he worked in the straw fac- 
 tory in jMilford, but he then took a position as clerk 
 in a grocery, and in 1872 he opened his present 
 grocery, which he has conducted independently, 
 never having had a partner. His family are mem- 
 bers of the Congregational Church. He belongs to 
 the Masonic fraternity. For many years he has 
 teen an active worker in the local Democratic organ- 
 ization, and at one time served as assessor. 
 
 On June i, 1856, Mr. Bristol married Miss Em- 
 ma A. Thomas, of New Haven, and they have one 
 son, Frank, now a bookkeeper in New York. Mrs. 
 Bristol belongs to a well-known family of West Ha- 
 ven, and her father, Asahel Thomas, and grand- 
 father, Augustus Thomas, were both seanfaring 
 men. Asahel Thomas, who died in West Haven 
 Sept. 6, 1849, married Mary Kimberly, daughter 
 of Eliakim Kimberly, a farmer of West Haven, 
 and they had seven children, namely : Charlotte 
 M., deceased, who married James Everetts, of 
 Westville; Hawley C, deceased, formerly a car- 
 penter in New Haven ; Louisa A., who married 
 Richard G. Stokes, a marble dealer; Jane E., who 
 married Cornelius Benedict, a merchant in New 
 York, now deceased ; Emma A., wife of our subject.; 
 William L., a railway conductor; and Henry E., a 
 mechanic in New Haven. 
 
 EDWIN MYERS PRATT, a well-known and 
 highly esteemed citizen of Meriden, Conn., has de- 
 scended from one of the old and honorable families 
 of New England. 
 
 Lieut. William Pratt came from the parish of 
 Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, England, to New Eng- 
 land, supposedly with Rev. Thomas Hooker, in 
 1633, settling at Newtown, now Cambridge, Mass. 
 Lieut. Pratt was a son of Rev. William and a grand- 
 son of Andrew Pratt, and the great-grandson 
 of Thomas Pratt, of Baldock. From Cambridge, 
 Mass.. he went to Hartford, Conn., in 1636, and 
 later to Saybrook. His marriage was to Eliza- 
 beth, the daughter of John Clark, who first lived in 
 Saybrook and later in Milford. Lieut. Pratt was a 
 large land owner in Saybrook, and from 1666 to 
 1678, the year of 'his death, he was deputy to the 
 General Court, serving at twentv-three sessions. 
 
 Deacon Nathaniel Pratt, son of Lieut. William, 
 the settler, born about 1660, married first, May 2, 
 1688 Sarah Beaumont, who died Oct. 11, 1716, 
 
 aged fifty-five years. Deacon Pratt lived on Essex 
 Point, was a large land holder and was also en- 
 gaged in mercantile pursuits. For many years he 
 was a deacon in the Second Congregational Church 
 at Saybrook, and held other important offices in 
 the church and town, probably dying in 1744, this 
 being the year in which his will was probated. 
 
 Hezekiah Pratt, son of Deacon Nathaniel, was 
 born on Jan. 9, 1701, and married Ann (name not 
 given). He succeeded his father in the mercantile 
 business, and died Oct. 4, 1786. 
 
 Tahor Pratt,' son of Hezekiah, was born in 1751, 
 and married Mary Brockway, a daughter of Rich- 
 ard Brockway, and they resided in Westbrook, 
 Conn., where he died Nov. 22, 1829. 
 
 Tabor Pratt (2), son of Tabor, was born in 
 1780, and married in 1814 Sarah Cofford, of South 
 Carolina, and they had a family of eight children: 
 Susan, who married Capt. James Post; Albert; 
 Oliver ; John ; Mary, who first married Wilson Ste- 
 vens and second Daniel Hubbard, of Killingworth ; 
 Edwin Myers ; John ;, and Frank. 
 
 Tabor Pratt was a ship carpenter by occupation, 
 and moved from Saybrook, Conn., to South Madi- 
 son, Conn., and there followed his trade, which at 
 that time was a flourishing one all along the river. 
 His death occurred in Madison, and there his re- 
 mains lie. The mother died in North Killingworth, 
 where she was known for her exemplary life and 
 kind, neighborly actions. In politics Tabor Pratt 
 was a stanch Democrat. 
 
 Edwin Myers Pratt was born in the town of 
 Madison, Conn., Nov. 4, 1831, and was but an in- 
 fant when, lias father died. This was very unfortu- 
 nate for him, as it was necessary for him to find 
 a home among strangers. When only seven years 
 old he was bound out as a farm boy to Charles Lane, 
 of Clinton, the arrangement being for him to remain 
 until he was sixteen years of age, and receive his 
 board and clothes for his services. The matter of 
 education did not interest his employer, and the lad 
 had scarcely any chance, a couple of terms in the 
 winter covering every educational opportunity. 
 The discipline on the farm was strict and the work 
 laborious, and when the boy saw a dhance to better 
 his condition, he ran away, and in July, 1846, started 
 for Madison, earning on the way the first twenty- 
 five cent piece that he ever owned. Young Pratt 
 .felt pretty sure that he could obtain some kind of 
 a berth on one of the coasting vessels after he 
 reached Madison, and was not mistaken, being ac- 
 cepted as cook on a vessel engaged in trade along 
 the coast. This occupation he followed on various 
 vessels for seven years. Giving up life on the 
 water at this time, he returned to North Madison, 
 and for four years engaged in charcoal burning, and 
 then came to Meriden, Conn., to accept a position 
 as a farmer with John Plumb. Here also Mr. Pratt 
 remained a long period, and after his six years of 
 experience on this farm, was employed as a team- 
 ster in 1862 by the venerable Charles Parker. For 
 
154 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 three years he faithfully carried out I\Ir. Parker's 
 wishes, and so gained his confidence that he was then 
 asked to take charge of the Charles Parker farm, 
 consisting of 300 acres, and better stocked, perhaps, 
 than any farm in this vicinity. This business con- 
 nection has lasted for thirty-seven years, to the satis- 
 faction of both Mr. Parker and Mr. Pratt. The 
 latter is a temperate, industrious man, devoted to 
 the interests of his employer, and that he was highly 
 appreciated by Mr. Parker has been shown by many 
 testimonials to that effect. 
 
 Mr. Pratt was married in Guilford, Conn., to 
 Miss Jane Davis, who was born in Madison, a 
 daughter of Zina and Amanda (Stevens) Davis, all 
 of whom are among the highly respected people of 
 Madison. The three children jjorn to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Pratt were : Elbert E., born in January, 1859 ; 
 Luther, who died young ; and' Jennie, at home. 
 
 Mr. Pratt is socially connected with Meriden 
 Center Lodlge, No. 68, I. O. O. F. In politics he 
 has always adhered to the principles of the Demo- 
 cratic party. For forty wars he has been a worthy 
 and consistent member of the Methodist Church and 
 is esteemed highly in the community. 
 
 Elbert E. Pratt, son of Edwin Myers Pratt, 
 attended the public schools, and when of sufficient 
 age enteredl the screw shop of the Charles Parker 
 Co., and later the coffee mill department, where he 
 remained three years, accepting then a position in 
 the grocery store of H. L. Spencer. From there he 
 went West and engaged in the shoe business in 
 Milwaukee, Wis. Upon his return to Meriden he 
 was employed for a period of six years by the 
 Adams Express Co., and subsequently became a 
 driver for the Fire Department, continuing four and 
 one-half years. He was a "call man" as volunteer 
 in the Fire Department before taking a regular 
 position, his connection with the service covering a 
 period of eleven years. For three years he was con- 
 nected with a fire apparatus house as salesman. In 
 1898 he embarked in the spring water business, and 
 now supplies the Meriden market. Elbert E. Pratt 
 was married to Mary Mathews, a daughter of Amos 
 Mathews, of Danbury, Conn., who died in Mil- 
 waukee, an infant dying at the same time. His 
 second marriage was in October, 1901, to Grace 
 Risley, of East Hartford. Air. Pratt, like his father, 
 belongs to both the Democratic party and the Odd 
 Fellows, and is very popular in this city. 
 
 NORMAN CONE HALL, whose death, on 
 Feb. 24, 1892, removed 'from Meridlen a well- 
 known business man and prominent citizen, was 
 bom in the town of JMiddlefield, Middlesex Co., 
 Conn., Dec. 31, 1832, son of the late Harley and 
 Martha (Cone) Hall. He was a brother of Mrs. 
 Levi Coe and the late Rufus Hall, of ^Meriden. 
 
 The life of Norman Cone Hall began on a farm, 
 and until he was fourteen years old he was more 
 or less engaged in assisting in farm work, mean- 
 time pursuing his education in the common schools 
 of the locality. In those da}S it was quite usual 
 
 for young men to carry goods by wagon through 
 the farming districts for the accommodation of the 
 housewives, who often found it impossible to go 
 to the centers to supply small wants. In the ped- 
 dling of trunks and tinware through the New Eng- 
 land States Mr. Hall laid the foundations of his 
 future commercial success, becoming thus self-re- 
 liant and accustomed to the details of business. 
 After he opened a grocery house in jNIeriden Air. 
 Hall was for a time associated with his brother 
 Rufus, but later again conducted the enterprise 
 alone, directing every effort to its success, and con- 
 tinuing for many years a leader in the grocery line 
 in his city. At length, warned by failing health,, 
 he retired from activity, and spent the remainder 
 of his days at his comfortable home in Butler street, 
 in Meriden, his life peacefully ending on Feb. 24, 
 1892; he was burned in beautiful Walnut Grove 
 cemetery, Meriden. Mr. Hall was especially noted 
 for the way in which he lived up to the old- 
 fas'hioned code of morals, which demanded a life 
 of integrity in business and virtue in the domestic 
 circle. Temperate in his habits, devoted to the wel- 
 fare of his family, he was a valued citizen. He was 
 a useful member of the Republican party. 
 
 The marriage of Norman Cone Hall took place 
 in Meriden, in 1854, to Miss Harriet Elizabeth 
 Redfield, who was born in Guilford, Conn., daugh- 
 ter of Roswell Redfield. To Mr. and Airs. Hall 
 were born three children : Wilbur Eugene, who 
 died at the age of five years ; Edward Norman, who 
 resides at home ; and Emma Louise, who married 
 Frederick Miller, and has one daughter, Martha 
 Redfield. Mrs. Hall, who makes her residence in 
 the old home in Butler street, in Aleriden, is a lady 
 of great intelligence, and enjoys life surrounded 
 by her books and in the companionship of friends, 
 who with her sustain and uphold the courtesies and 
 refinements which pertain to tne best social circles 
 of the city. 
 
 The Redfield Family is one of the oldest fam- 
 ilies in New England, and the ancestral records, 
 which reach far back in the past, are based on 
 authentic annals. \\'illiam Redfield, the founder 
 of the family in New England, had an only son, 
 James, of whonT it is proved that he was bound out 
 in an apprenticeship of five years to Hugh Roberts, 
 of New London, Conn. There James settled, and 
 his son, Theophilus Redfield, by his first marriage, 
 was born in 1682, in the time of the reign of King 
 Charles II of England. Theophilus Red'field settled 
 in Killingworth, Middlesex county, where he fol- 
 lowed the trade of carpenter and joiner. He mar- 
 ried Priscilla, the comely d'aughter of Daniel Greene, 
 and became the father of thirteen children. He 
 passed away Feb. 14, 1759, his widow surviving 
 until Jan. 12, 1770, and both were buried in Killing- 
 worth. 
 
 Daniel Redfield was born Sept. 22, 1707, eldest 
 son of Theophilus. His residence was in the lo- 
 cality now included in the town of Clinton. He 
 was an ensign in the 3d Companv of Colonial 
 
Cyp^^- '^c.^^O-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 155 
 
 troops, was with Col. Elisha Williams, of Wethers- 
 field, and took part in the expedition against the 
 French, in Canada. By occupation he was a sea 
 captain. Capt. Daniel Redfield died July 11, 1758, 
 and his wife Elizabeth passed away Nov. 2, 1775. 
 They were the parents of seven children. 
 
 Roswell Redfield, a son of Capt. Daniel, born 
 Sept. 4, 1 73 1, in Guilford, Conn., also followed 
 the sea, and he became the owner of vessels and a 
 man of importance. His home was in Clinton, 
 Conn. His marriage, on June 6, 1755, was to 
 Lucy Murry, who died Oct. 16, 1756. The second 
 marriage of. Roswell Redfield, on Nov. 21, 1758, 
 was to Mehitable Post. In 1764 he suflfered the 
 fate of many a brave mariner, his ship going down 
 with all on board. Mrs. Redfield married Capt. 
 Samuel Cran^e Feb. 21, 1770, and died June 12, 
 1814. 
 
 'Martin Redfield, the grandfather of Mrs. Hall, 
 was the only child of Capt. Roswell and Lucy 
 (Murry) Redfield, and was born in Clinton June 
 10, 1756. By trade he was a ship carpenter, and 
 he worked both in Middlesex county and in the 
 town of Guilford, spending- his last days in the 
 latter place. Martin Redfield was a Revolutionary 
 patriot, and took part at the time of the Lexing- 
 ton Alarm ; he entered the service from KilHng- 
 worth under Capt. Samuel Gale, did his full duty 
 through those vears of trial and deprivation, and 
 was a pensioner under the law enacted in 1832. 
 On Aug. 26, 1778, Martin Redfield took as wife 
 Lydia Griffing, a daughter of Capt. Daniel and 
 Martha (Case) Griffing, the former of whom was 
 the commander of the privateer "Humbird," with 
 seven men and four swivels, in 1775- Grandtnother 
 Lydia Redfield was born on Long Island in 1760, 
 and died Aug. 24, 1823 ; her husband, who sur- 
 vived her until April 30, 1833, died in Guilford. 
 Thfc three children born' to Martin and Lydia 
 Redfield were: Roswell, born Feb. 3, 1780; Na- 
 thaniel, born Jan. 18, 1782; and Daniel Griffing, 
 born June 20, 1789. 
 
 Roswell Redfield, the father of Mrs. Hall, was 
 born Feb. 3, 1780, in Guilford, Conn., and there 
 his quiet, unostentatious life was passed, an in- 
 dustrious career as carpenter and joiner bringing 
 him a competency. His death occurred in Guil- 
 ford April 20, 1833. On April 15, 1804, he was 
 united in miarriage to Harriet Stone, who was born 
 in Guilford Feb. 20, 1786, a daughter of Benja- 
 min and Alarv Ann (Watrous) Stone. Her death 
 took place in' Meridfen, Conn., but she was buried 
 in the old cemetery in Guilford. Both parents had 
 been consistent members of the Baptist Churchy 
 The family born to Roswell and Harriet Redfield 
 numbered nine children: Frederick William born 
 Nov 19. 180S, died in April, 1845, at sea; Darnel 
 Stone born in 1807, lived and died m Guilford; 
 Frances Clarissa, born March 29, 1809, was mar- 
 ried Alav 25, 1828, to Horace Bartlett, of East 
 Haven- Alartin Griffing was born April 28, 1811 ; 
 
 John Watrous was born Dec. 11, 1814; Susan 
 Jennette, born Feb. 14, 181 7, married Charles W. 
 Richards; Benjamin Roswell was born May 11, 
 1821 ; Lydia Griffing, born Aug. 25, 1823, mar- 
 ried George Beach, of Meriden ; and Harriet Eliza- 
 beth, born June i, 1829, married Norman Cone- 
 Hall. 
 
 CAPT. MATTHEW BEATTY, one of the 
 best-known Irish-Americans of Meriden, Conn., and 
 the pleasant and capable foreman of the glass cutting 
 department of the Wilcox Silver Plate Co., was 
 born in the town' of Roscommon, county Roscom- 
 mon, Ireland, Aug. 25, 1838, and there his father, 
 Luke Beatty, was also born. 
 
 Luke Beatty grew to manhood in his native 
 county, and there married Miss Bridget Kedian. 
 In 1846 he brought his family to America, and their 
 first home was in New York, where they remained 
 until 1869, when they came to Meriden, and here 
 the last vears of Mr.' and Mrs. Beatty were spent. 
 After coming to this city Mr. Beatty was engaged 
 in the packing department of the Wilcox Silver 
 Plate Co. A family of nine children was bom to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Beatty, but four sons died in in- 
 fancy. The others being: Matthew; Ellen, who 
 married P. J. O'Rourke, of New York ; Lucy, who 
 resides in Meriden ; Kate, who also resides in Meri- 
 den ; and Elizabeth, who married W. J. McCaullifife, 
 of New York. 
 
 Matthew Beatty was but eight years of age 
 when he reached the shores of this continent. His 
 parents attended carefully to the matter of his edu- 
 cation, and when of sufficient age he was taught the 
 trade of glass cutter, in the establishment of Tur- 
 ner & Lane, of New York city, w>here he remained, 
 learning every detail of the business, until 1866. 
 At this time he accepted the offer made him by 
 the Wilcox Plating Co., of Meriden, and became 
 their efficient foreman in the glass cutting depart- 
 ment, in the factory on Pratt street. For a period 
 of thirty-six years Mr. Beatty has been the foreman 
 of this very important branch of the business, hav- 
 ing under his charge a force of fifty special work- 
 men, and obtaining their service without friction, 
 and to the satisfaction and advantage of his em- 
 ployers. 
 
 Captain Beatty obtained his official title as cap- 
 tain of Company B, 77th National Guards, serving 
 in that capacity from 1864 to 1867. In his political 
 sympathies he is a Democrat, and has served the 
 city in the council as a member from the Third 
 ward. In the Masonic fraternity he is well and 
 favorably known, as a member of Meridian Lodge, 
 No. yy, A. F. & A. M., of which he is past 
 master; Keystone Chapter, No, 27, R. A. M., of 
 which he is past high priest ; Hamilton Council, No. 
 22, R. & S. M., being past T. I. :\I. ; St. Elmo Com- 
 mandery, No. 9, K. T., past commander and present 
 captain general ; is past patron of the Eastern Star. 
 He belongs to Myrtle Lodge, No. 4, K. of P., being 
 
156 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 past chancellor ; and he is also a member of N. E. 
 O. P., and of Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R. As 
 a faithful comrade and active worker Captain Beatty 
 is highly valued in fraternal life. 
 
 In 1862 Captain Beatty was married in New 
 York, to Delia Nortin, who is a native of that 
 city, a woman of exalted character, devoted to her 
 home and family and prominent in her dhurch. To 
 them were born six children : Emily, who married 
 William Y. Russell, who is the buyer for A. G. 
 Thomas, the well-known merchant of IMeriden; 
 Anna, who resides at home ; Molly, who is a grad- 
 uate of the IMeriden High School, later became a 
 teacher, and was the valued principal of the Pratt 
 street school, and who married Prof. Charles E. 
 Finch, principal of the High school at Quincy, 
 Mass. ; Nellie, who died young ; John, who is a 
 conductor on the Meriden Electric road ; and Lettie, 
 at home. 
 
 In 1861 Captain Beatty showed his loyal spirit 
 by enlisting in the army in April of that year, en- 
 tering Company I, I2tli New York National Guards, 
 under Col. Daniel Butterfield and Captain Raynor, 
 and served through three months, and three months 
 of re-enlistment, and then he was elected as men- 
 tioned above, to the captaincy of Company B of the 
 77th Regiment. Captain Beatty is a pleasant, genial 
 man, devoted to his business, his city and his home, 
 and is justly regarded as a valued representative 
 resident of that little city. 
 
 STILES DENISON WOODRUFF. For 
 many years the name of Woodruff has been promi- 
 nently identified with the agricultural interests of 
 the town of Orange, where our sufeject holds a 
 deservedly high place in the regard of his fellow 
 citizens. The Woodruffs were among the early 
 settlers of New Haven county, and their names 
 and achievements form part of its history. Stiles 
 D. Woodruff can trace his lineage back in a direct 
 line to the early settlers of New England on both 
 his father's and mother's side, his ancestors includ- 
 ing such men as Gov. Robert Treat, Gov. Pond and 
 Rev. Peter Prudden. 
 
 Matthew and Hannah Woodruff, who moved 
 from Hartford to Farmington in 1640, are the 
 earliest ancestors of Stiles D. of whom we have 
 record. (II) Matthew Woodruff (2), their son, 
 was born in 1646, and died in 1691. He married 
 ]\Iary Plumb. (Ill) John Woodruff, son of Mat- 
 thew (2), born Feb. I, 1673, married Mary Piatt, 
 who was born in 1681. (IV) Joseph Woodruff, 
 son of John, born Feb. 18, 1705, was married Jan. 
 22, 1729, to Phebe Newton. (V) Joseph Wood- 
 ruff (2), son of Joseph, was born in April, 1732, 
 in Milford, and died in August, 1777. His wife's 
 name was Abigail. He was known as Capt. Joseph, 
 of the First Military Company in Milford, Second 
 Regiment, and on Oct. 23, 1756, was ordered to 
 make a draft for the French and Indian war, for 
 a Cjuota of men properl}- equipped, to report at Lake 
 
 George. The order was signed by Col. Roger 
 Newton. 
 
 (\^I) Nehemiah Woodruff, son of Joseph (2), 
 and grandfather of our subject, was' born May 24, 
 1774, in Milford", and settled in Orange while 
 young. There he was married, March 5, 1797, to 
 Hannah Jones, and there he died Dec. 23, 1843, 
 after a long and honorable life of sixty-nine years. 
 T-.lrs. Woodruff was horn in Milford Aug. 6, 1777, 
 and lived to her eighty-seventh year, dying Feb. 
 24, 1865. She owned a large farm. Air. and Mrs. 
 Woodruff had ten children. 
 
 (VII) Jeremiah Woodruff, father of Stiles D., 
 was born June 26, 181 1, in the town of Orange, 
 and grew to manhood on the home farm, which 
 he helped to till. With the exception of five years 
 he passed all his life there, dying Dec. 19, 1890. By 
 keen judgment, careful management, and judicious 
 investment he became, quite wealthy for his day. 
 He married Charlotte E. Nettleton, who was born 
 Dec. 6, 1809, daughter of David and Mabel Nettle- 
 ton, of Orange, and died April 7, 1888. They be- 
 came the parents of five children. Stiles D. being 
 the eldest. The others were named George E., 
 Charlotte, Mary F. (deceased) and Frank H. 
 George E. is a resident of Bayonne, N. J. Char- 
 lotte married Everett B. Clark, of Orange, Conn. 
 Frank H. lives in Milford, and represented that 
 town in the Legislature in 1899 ; he is a deacon in 
 the Plymouth Congregational Church. Mrs. Wood- 
 ruff was an earnest, sincere Christian, a devout 
 member of the Congregational Church, and an 
 active worker in the cause of religion. 
 
 Stiles Denison Woodruff was born in the north- 
 ern part of the town of Orange Nov. 27, 1837. For 
 several generations the Woodruffs have followed 
 agriculture as a vocation, and never has there been 
 lacking in the representatives of the name that 
 hard common sense, disregard of discouragement 
 and patient industry which constitute the salient 
 characteristics of a successful New England farmer. 
 Work upon the farm developed our subject's phys- 
 ical strength, while his intellectual training was 
 received at the common schools. In September, 
 1862, he enlisted in the 27th Connecticut Volun- 
 teers, was made a corporal of Company G, and 
 served .nine months. He was taken prisoner at 
 Chancellorsville, with eight companies of his regi- 
 ment, while guarding breastworks, and after be- 
 ing detained a night at Guiney's Station, within a 
 few rods of the house in which "Stonewall" Jack- 
 son breathed his last, was forced to march to Rich- 
 mond, a distance of some fifty miles. For two 
 weeks he was an inmate of Libby prison, and at 
 the expiration of that time was paroled and sent 
 to Georgetown, D. C, taking transport at City 
 Point, on the James river. There he remained 
 until mustered out of the service, July 22, 1863. 
 For a year after his discharge he lived at home, 
 and in 1864 he bought one hundred acres of land 
 — the nucleus of his present farm of 300 acres — 
 
Jxuu ^k^^^M^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 157 
 
 and the following year took up his residence there- 
 on. He at once began seed growing in a small 
 way, having only a few acres under cultivation, 
 while at present he devotes many acres to this de- 
 partment of agriculture. Mr. Woodruff is one of 
 the most prominenlt and successful growers of 
 seeds in the State. Starting in this business in 
 1865, he soon made a specialty of the growing of 
 garden seeds, which for twenty-seven years were 
 sold at wholesale to the seed dealers of the coun- 
 try. In 1892 Mr. Woodtuft" added a retail depart- 
 ment to his business, and the same year associated 
 his two eldest sons with him, under the firm name 
 of S. D. Woodrufif & Sons, Orange, Conn., of 
 which he is senior partner. It has been their aim 
 from the first to furnish good, reliable seeds, and 
 their business has deservedly increased year after 
 year, the demand for their annual catalogue being 
 greater with each issue. They have originated and 
 introduced several new varieties of vegetables, in- 
 cluding Country Gentleman Sweet Corn, Early 
 Fordhook Tomato, Ensign Bagley and Admiral 
 Foote Potato, and in connection with their seed 
 business carry on market gardening. 
 
 On Oct. 16, 1862, Mr. Woodruff married Miss 
 Elizabeth M. Clark, who like himself was born 
 in Orange. Her father, Bryan Clark, a farmer 
 by occupation, was a man of means as well as of 
 large influence, and served as selectman and a 
 member of the Legislature ; he was a deacon in the 
 Plymouth Congregational Church of Milford. Mrs. 
 Woodruff was one of a family of four children. 
 To her union with our subject have been born four 
 children, Frank C, Watson S., Robert J. and Mary 
 R. (i) Frank C. graduated from the Hillhouse 
 high school, and from Yale College, Ph. B., in 1888, 
 and is now in business with his father in Orange. 
 He married Julia Ailing, daughter of J. S. Ailing, 
 and they have had five children, of whom three 
 survive. Ailing, Ruth H. and Harriet B. (2) 
 Watson S., the second son, is a graduate of the 
 Hillhouse high school and is also associated with 
 his father in business. He married Harriet Hotch- 
 kiss, daughter of Merritt Hotchkiss, of Derby, and 
 they have had five children, Catherine, Stiles, Julia 
 and Jane (twins) and Watson S., Jr. (3) Robert 
 J. graduated from the Hillhouse high school in 
 1892; from Yale, A. B., in 1896; and from Yale 
 Law School in 1899. He is now practicing law in 
 New Haven, and in April, 1901, was appointed 
 prosecuting attorney of the common pleas, court 
 for a, term of four years. In 1899 he was tax col- 
 lector in Orange, and in 1900 he represented that 
 town in the Legislature, during his term- serving 
 as member and clerk of the Judiciary committee. 
 He is a member of the Royal Arcanum, in West 
 Haven, and of the Masonic fraternity, affiliating 
 with Annawon Lodge, Joseph Andrews Chapter, 
 Harmony Council and New Haven Comlmandery. 
 He also belongs to the C. N. G., being second lieu- 
 tenant of Troop A, Cavalry Regiment. (4) Miss 
 Mary R. is a graduate of Wesleyan College. 
 
 i\Ir. Woodruff is a man of earnest convictions, 
 both political and religious, and wields a weighty 
 influence in both church and town affairs. In 1879 
 he was elected representative to the first Legis- 
 lature which met in the new Capitol, and was re- 
 elected m 1880. As a member of these bodies his 
 record is an enviable one, he having manifested an 
 acumen and painstaking desire to serve the public 
 interests which can scarcely be too highly praised. 
 For many years he has served on the town com- 
 mittee, and for more than a quarter of a century 
 as acting grand juror, his term in the latter office 
 having been rarely paralleled in New Haven coun- 
 ty. For twenty years he has been clerk and treas- 
 urer of the Orange Congregational Church, in the 
 work of which body his family is also actively 
 interested, his son Watson having long been, the 
 church organist. In January, 1900, Mr. \\''oodruff 
 accepted the office of deacon in this church, to 
 which he 'had been chosen, he having declined to 
 accept the same appointment on two former oc- 
 casions. 
 
 ALBERT TILTON has for more than a third 
 of a century been connected with the Winchester 
 Repeating Arms Co., and since 1892 has been its 
 general superintend'ent. He is a native of New 
 Hampshire, born at Meredith, Aug. 19, 1839, son 
 of Newell and Alice (Clougth) Tilton, both natives 
 of Loudon, N. H. Newell Tilton, the father, was 
 a farmer and drover. In politics he was a Whig 
 and Republican, and in religious belief a Congre- 
 gationalist. Of the children born to himself and his 
 wife, eight grew to adult age, as follows: John 
 C, for many years a manufacturer at Manchester, 
 N. H., where he died ; Julia ; Lavinia ; Alice J. ; 
 Lucia; David, proprietor of the Atlantic Screw Co., 
 of Hartford, Conn. ; Newell, Jr., who was manager 
 of the Whitney Iron Mills, and died in New Orleans 
 in 1899; and Albert. The mother died in 1861. 
 
 When eigtht years old Albert Tilton removed 
 from Meredith to Manchester, N. H., where he at- 
 tended the public schools, and he was later a student 
 in the preparatory school at New Londbn, N. H. 
 His education completed, Mr. Tilton engaged for 
 a time in the manufacture of cotton bags at Man- 
 chester, N. H., and then began an apprenticeship 
 at the edge tool making trade with the Manchester 
 Edige Tool Works, remaining six months, after 
 which he took up the machinist's trade at Man- 
 chester. He was next employed in the Lowell Fire 
 Arms Works for six months, and in 1861 enlisted 
 for the three-months service in -Company K, 1st 
 N. H. V. I. When mustered out he was engaged 
 for a year with the Colts Fire Arms Co., of Hart- 
 ford, Conn., and another year or more at the Star 
 Armory, located in Yonkers, N. Y. He next be- 
 came connected with the Winchester Repeating 
 Arms Co., at Bridgeport, Conn., and in 1865 went 
 to New Orleans, where foT fourteen months he was 
 employed in a machine shop belonging then to the 
 New Orleans & Opelousas Railway. Returning to 
 
15-^ 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Connecticut, he, in 1867, resumed his connection 
 with the Winchester Repeating; Arms Co., and four 
 3'ears later, when the company removed to New Ha- 
 ven, he continued work with them there, and has 
 ever since been in their service. Starting in as a 
 machinist, he became foreman when the New Ha- 
 ven shops were opened,, and later a contractor. 
 Since 1892 he has filled the position of superintend- 
 ent. 
 
 j\Ir. Tilton married, May 30, i860, Zilpha J. 
 Carter, a native of Goffstown, N. H., daughter of 
 Moody Carter. To Mr. and Mrs. Tilton has 'been 
 born one son, Walter H., who attended Yale Col- 
 lege, taking the Scientific Course, and is now em- 
 ployed by the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. In 
 politics Mr. Tilton is a Republican. He attends the 
 Congregational Church. Socially he is a member of 
 WoOster Lodge, No. 79, A. F. & A. M., and of the 
 Ouinnipiac Club, Fishing Club and other clubs of 
 New Haven. He erected a beautiful residence at 
 No. 362 Whitney avenue. New Haven, which was 
 completed in March, 1901. 
 
 JOHN A. RICHARDSON (deceased), whose 
 services with the Yale National Bank covered a 
 period of thirty-eight years, thirty of w^hich he was 
 the efficient cashier, was one of the widely known 
 and highly esteemed citizens of New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Richardson was born June 22, 1832, in 
 North Canaan, Conn., and laid the foundation of 
 his education in the common schools of his native 
 town. His father, Gilbert H. Richardson, was born 
 in New York, but spent his life in North Canaan, 
 where 'he was extensively engaged in contracting 
 and building; in this State he built five large 
 ■churches, and followed the business for many years. 
 He died at the age of seventy. His wife, Caroline 
 Dibble, who died at the age of forty-six, was the 
 mother of four children, of whom John A. was the 
 last survivor. Both Mr. and Mrs. Richardson were 
 members of the Congregational Church. 
 
 While yet in his 'teens young Richardson en- 
 tered the employ of Hawley & Merwin, as an assist- 
 ant bookkeeper, in a general store at Lakeville. 
 They were also engaged in the manufacture of 
 pocket cutlery, and were the second firm in the 
 country to enter this business. Mr. Richardson re- 
 mained with them three years, and after four years 
 at New ^lilford, as a bookkeeper, he came to New 
 Haven, and in 1863 entered the Yale National Bank 
 as a member of the bookkeeping staff. Two years 
 later he was made teller, and in 1871 became cashier, 
 in which position he remained continuously at work 
 for over thirty years. Nearly forty years with the 
 bank is a record seldom equalled, and it speaks vol- 
 umes for him who makes it. 
 
 In politics Mr. Richardson was always a Re- 
 publican, and took a prominent part in party affairs. 
 In 1888, and again in- 1889, he was elected town and 
 city treasurer of New Haven. From its organiza- 
 tion he served as the treasurer of the Republican 
 League of Connecticut, and was the treasurer of 
 
 the Firemen's Benevolent Society and also of the 
 Congregational Club. He was one of the incor- 
 porators and was treasurer and a member of the 
 board of directors from its incorporation, in 1881, 
 of the New Haven Co-operative Savings and Loan 
 Association. Mr. Richardson was also one of the 
 organizers of Grace Hospital, and was treasurer 
 from its organization until his death. For ten years 
 he was treasurer of the Young Men's Institute, 
 was treasurer of the State Bankers' Association, and 
 was also treasurer of the Union League Club. In 
 these various positions of trust and responsibility 
 he ever sustained the high esteem and confidence of 
 his fellow citizens. In the banking circles of New 
 Haven Mr. Richardson commanded regard not only 
 for his extended service but for his high character 
 and accurate judgment. From the time he entered 
 the bank he saw fhe passing of five presidents, and 
 in point of service was the oldest cashier in the city. 
 On the afternoon of April 12, 1902, Mr. Richardson 
 was stricken with apoplexy in the Hyperion Theater, 
 and passed away at five o'clock. 
 
 Mr. Richardson was married, in 1858, to Mary 
 E., daughter of Robert, Irwin, of New Milford, 
 Conn., where he was formerly a merchant. The 
 home of Mr. and Mrs. Ric*hardson was blessed by 
 the birth of one child*, Caroline E., who, with fais 
 wife, survives him. 
 
 BENJAMIN T. CLARK, in his life time an old 
 and highly respected citizen of the town of Orange, 
 was a native of that localit)', born Feb. 11, 1814. 
 
 The Clark family, of which our subject was a 
 worthy member, are old settlers of the town of 
 Guilford and are classed among its best citizens. 
 Benjamin Clark, grandfather of Benjamin T., was 
 a native of that town and passed his entire life 
 there as a land owner and farmer. By his wife, 
 Sarah (Rogers), he had children as follows: Ben- 
 jamin; Mathew, who moved to the central part of 
 Illinois; and Rebecca, who married Josiah Fowler. 
 
 Benjamin Clark, the father of our subject, was 
 born in the town of ]Milford (which at that time 
 included the town of Orange) , and received a com- 
 mon school education. He was reared on his 
 father's fann, and while yet a young man removed 
 to what is now Orange Center, where he bought a 
 tract of land and engaged in stock raising and gen- 
 eral farming the rest of his days. In the town of 
 Orange he married Susan Treat, daughter of Jon- 
 athan Treat, and five children were born to them, 
 viz. : Susan, wife of Dr. Josiah Colburne, of New 
 Haven; Sarah C, deceased wife of Treat Clark; 
 Benjamin T., our subject; Charlotte, who died 
 young; and Mary S., widow of Ephraim Baldwin, 
 of Woodbridge, Conn. The father of this family 
 died at the age of ninety-four years, the mother 
 when eighty-seven years old, both devout members 
 of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Benjamin T. Clark, of whom this sketch more 
 particularly relates, was liberally educated in the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 159 
 
 local schools of his native place, later attending an 
 academy for a time. For several years or until his 
 marriage he taught school, during the summer 
 months operating the home farm along writh his 
 father, and then settled on land owned by Dr. Col- 
 burne, a tract of 25 acres, and he later became the 
 owner of 280 acres of land in the town of Orange, 
 being the largest land owner in that town, and 140 
 in the town of Woodbridge. All his life he was a 
 hard working, industrious man, honest and honor- 
 able in his dealings, and moreover, was always most 
 temperate, never having tasted a drop of strong 
 drink all his life, nor used' tobacco in any form. 
 
 On Sept. 6, 1839, Benjamin T. Clark was mar- 
 ried in Woodbridge, Conn., to Elizabeth Rogers, 
 who was born in 1816 in Woodbridge, a daughter 
 of Joseph and Rhoda (Russell) Newton. She died 
 in February, 1895, in Orange Center, after a mar- 
 ried life of fifty-six years. One child came of this 
 union, Joseph Newton, born March 27, 1840, who 
 was educated in the public and select schools, the 
 latter being in New Haven. He has always been 
 engaged in stock raising and dairying on the home 
 farm and resides at the homestead. Socially he is 
 a member of the A. F. & A. M. Lodge at Ansonia. 
 He married Sarah A. Miles, who was born in the 
 town of Orange, New Haven county. Conn., daugh- 
 ter of Albert F. Miles. Five children have been born- 
 to them: Benjamin T., Jr., farming on the home- 
 stead, married Bertha M. Russell ; Joseph Newton, 
 Jr., a dairy farmer, who married Vetzora Turner: 
 Albert Miles and Henry F., at home; and George, 
 deceased at the age. of seven years. 
 
 Benjamin T. Clark, our subject, in his political 
 predilections was originally a Whig, but after the 
 organization of the party became an equally stanch 
 Republican. For forty years he was a justice of 
 the peace of the town of Orange ; for twenty-eight 
 years was selectman; and assessor four terms. In 
 matters of religion he was liberal and always lived 
 up to the "Golden Rule" — in fact his integrity was 
 above question. His life was an honorable and up- 
 right one, and he justly enjoyed the confidence and 
 esteem of the communit)- at large. 
 
 HENRY S. PECK, secretary and treasurer of 
 the Brass City Lumber Co., is one of Waterbury's 
 most prominent residents, and has been identified 
 with her business interests from early manhood. 
 He is a descendant of one of the old and prominent 
 families of New England. 
 
 The Connecticut Pecks are descendants of Jo- 
 seph Peck, of Milford, Deacon WilHam Peck and 
 Henry Peck, of New Haven, and Deacon. Paul 
 Peck, of Hartford, each of whom became the pro- 
 genitor of a numerous race. Of these, Joseph Peck, 
 wno was the ancestor of the Newtown branch of the 
 family, the one to which the subject of this sketch 
 belongs, resided first at New Haven, Conn. His 
 name does not appear on the records until about 
 1643, although he is generally supposed to have 
 
 resided there earlier, and to have been the brother 
 of Henry, who settled there in 1638, with whom he 
 seems to have resided or been associated, and with 
 whom he probably came over to this country. He 
 left New, Haven in or about 1649, ^^d settled in 
 Milford, Conn., where he became a member of the 
 church in 1652. He married (first) Mrs. Alice 
 Burwell and (second) Miss Marie Richards. He 
 died in 1700-01. 
 
 From this Joseph Peck, of Milford, Henry S. 
 Peck, our subject, is a descendant in the eighth gen- 
 eration, his line of descent being through Joseph 
 (2), Ephraim, Henry, Capt. Zalmon, Ezekiel and 
 Zalmon S. Peck. 
 
 (H) Joseph Peck (2), son of Joseph, of Mil- 
 ford, baptized in 1653, married in 1678-79 Mary 
 Camp. He settled in Milford, and there died. 
 
 (HI) Ephraim Peck, son of Joseph (2), bap- 
 tized in 1692, married in 1716 Sarah Ford, of Mil- 
 ford. He removed from Milford to Newtown, 
 Conn., where he died in 1760. 
 
 (IV) Henry Peck, son of Ephraim, born in 
 1719, married (first) in 1755 Ann Smith, and (sec- 
 ond) in 1765 wedded Hannah Leavenworth. He 
 resided in Newtown. 
 
 (V) Capt. Zalmon Peck, son of Henry, born in 
 1758, married (first) Zilpha Hard, and (second) 
 Mrs. Sarah Booth. He resided in Newtown, where 
 he died in 181 2. He was a soldier in the Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 (VI) Ezekiel Peck, son of Capt. Zalmon, born 
 in 1786, married (first) Sarah A. Johnson, and 
 (second) in 1818 wedded Mrs. Betsey Briscoe. He 
 was a soldier in the war of 1812. The tombstones 
 of the four generations of Zalmon S. Peck (still 
 living) are in perfect condition in the family burial 
 lot in the cemetery at Newtown, Connecticut. 
 
 (VII) Zalmon S. Peck, son of Ezekiel, and 
 father of Henry S. Peck, of Waterbury, was born 
 May 22, 1812, in Newtown, Conn. During the Civil 
 war he served as the enrolling and drafting officer 
 of the town. He was made postmaster of the town 
 under Lincoln's first term, and held the position for 
 twenty-six years, being out for two years (from 
 1867 to 1869) under the Johnson administration. 
 During his active years Mr. Peck was one of the 
 prominent public men of the town. He is now re- 
 siding in South Center District, Newtown. Time 
 seems to have dealt kindly with him, as he is still 
 quite active and remarkably well preserved. He is 
 an interesting conversationalist. In 1833 he was 
 married to Polly J. Lum, and they had children as 
 follows: Sarah A., born in 1834, is deceased; 
 Henry S., born Sept. i, 1838, is mentioned below; 
 Austin L., born June 3, 1844, is a member of the 
 firm of Andrews & Peck, Hartford ; and Mary 
 F. was born June 10, 1854, married Roswell S. 
 Cheves, of Georgia, and now resides in Tennessee. 
 
 Henry S. Peck was reared and educated in New- 
 town. He served in the Civil war, and soon after- 
 ward entered the employ of the Waterbury Clock 
 
i6o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Co., at AVaterbur)^ He remained with that con- 
 cern over twenty years, a large portion of which 
 period he spent in Chicago, looking after the west- 
 ern trade of the concern. He is now secretary and 
 treasurer of the Brass City Lumber Co., and vice- 
 president of the Equitable Finance Co., of Balti- 
 more, ]\Id. Throughout his career Mr. Peck has 
 held the reputation of a thorough business man, and 
 his genial and sociable disposition, no less than the 
 substantial qualities, 'has gone far toward winning 
 him the popularity he enjoys. 
 
 On Sept. 25, 1865, Mr. Peck married Miss Isa- 
 bell Boughton, of Waterbury, and they have had 
 two children, Burton and Florence. The latter was 
 married in April, 1894, to Charles C. Reed, and 
 they have one daughter, Katherine, born in Febru- 
 ary, i^ 
 
 REV. SYLVANUS P. :\IAR\TN. The first 
 of the Marvin family of whom we have any record 
 is Roger Marvin, born in 1430. From him de- 
 scended, in the sixth generation following him, 
 Reinold Marvin, whose baptism is recorded in the 
 church books as taking place the 7th of June, 
 1593. The above ceremony took place and the rec- 
 ords are preserved in St. Mary's Church, which 
 stood on the great Bentley Green, in England. He 
 resided in his native parish until shortly before he 
 sailed for New England, as in 1637 his estate is 
 charged with the "ship money tax" which may 
 have been the occasion of his following his younger 
 brother Mathewr to America, where we find him 
 in 1638. The imposition of this illegal and tyrannous 
 tax led many of the more prosperous classes, men 
 of "blood and fortune," to emigrate to this country. 
 This Reinold Marvin, the sixth generation from 
 Roger of 1430, was the great-great-great-great- 
 great-grandfather of our subject, and was one of 
 the founders of the Marvin family im America, his 
 brother Mathew being the other. They both first 
 located at Hartford, Conn., but Reinold soon after- 
 ward removed to Farmington and later to Lyme, 
 where he spent the greater part of his life. His 
 son Reinold was a large land holder, and repre- 
 sented the town in the General Court from' 1672 to 
 1676. He was called Lieut. Reinold Marvin. His 
 son was famous as Lyme's Capt. Reinold Marvin, 
 who represented the town in the General Court 
 from 1 701 to 1728, twenty-seven years, and must 
 have been an important man in the town. His son 
 Reinold was deacon of the church. The latter was 
 quite an eccentric man, as proof of which his man- 
 ner of courtship may be cited. Going to a neigh- 
 bor's house on horseback, and without alighting, 
 "he rapped on the door, when a young lady opened 
 it, and he said to her: "Sally Lee, its the Lord's 
 will that you marry me." After a brief pause she 
 replied : "The Lord's will be done." At one timie 
 he had a vision that he must give away all his 
 cows ; one poor man was afraid he would not get 
 one, and said to the good old deacon, "The Lord 
 
 has sent me to you for a cow." "What cow was 
 it to be," said the deacon, "a new milch cow or a 
 farrow one?" The man replied, "a new milch 
 cow." The deacon answered, "it could not have 
 been from the Lord, as I have just given away the 
 last one." 
 
 Dan Marvin (2), one of his grandsons, mar- 
 ried the second daughter of John Mather, a relative 
 of Cotton and Increase Mather, Colonial celebrities,, 
 whose second son was Deacon John Marvin, the 
 father of our subject. Deacon John Marvin, the 
 father of our subject, married Lydia Hull Pratt, 
 daughter of Capt. Samuel Pratt, a prominent man 
 of Essex, Conn. He was for twenty-five years a 
 teacher in the public schools, and was clerk of the 
 town of Saybrpok for nearly twenty years, judge 
 of probate, and at one time member of the State 
 Legislature, a man honored and beloved for his 
 Christian integrity, urbanity and high ideals of life. 
 
 Our subject, second son of Deacom John, was 
 born in Lymie March 17, 1822, and at the age of 
 fourteen years removed with the family to Deep 
 River, Conn. He early attended Essex Academy,, 
 and was graduated from Yale in 1847, ^.nd from 
 Yale Theological Seminary in 1850. In recounting 
 some of his school day associates we note the fol- 
 lowing: Henry Hadley, uncle of the president of 
 •Yale, valedictorian of his class ; Rev. N. A. Hyde, 
 D. D., the nestor of Congregationalism in Lidiana 
 and founder of the First Congregational Church in 
 Indianapolis, Ind. ; Rev. William T. Reynolds, the 
 beloved pastor of the Congregational Church, North 
 Haven, for some twenty-five years ; Rev. James 
 Willard, D. D., for some forty years pastor of the 
 Westville Church, of New Haven; and H. G. Jes- 
 sup, professor of botany in Dartmouth College; 
 Rev. James B. Cleaveland, who married Miss Eliz- 
 abeth Jocelyn, the poetess, author of "No Sects 
 in Heaven," and E. I. Sanford, Superior Court 
 Judge of Connecticut. While connected with the 
 Theological Seminary he taught three years in the 
 celebrated Gen. William H. Russell's ^lilitary 
 School of New Haven. 
 
 In 1851 Mr. Marvin received a call and was 
 ordained and installed pastor of the Congregational 
 Church at Jamestown, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., 
 where he remained six years, doing much to 
 strengthen the Congregational Churches in that sec- 
 tion of the State, and resigned his pastorate much 
 to the regret of the church. After he left James- 
 town he received a unanimous call to the First 
 Congregational Church of Franklin, Delaware Co., 
 N. Y. He declined the call, but continued to labor 
 with them without installation for some three vears, 
 during which time there was an extensive revival 
 in the church and sixty united with the church at 
 one time. He was also instrumental in the forma- 
 tion of the Delaware Association of Congregational 
 Churches imthat and the adjoining counties. After 
 leaving Franklin he spent between two and three 
 years with the First Congregational Church of Tor- 
 
i^'^^ 
 
 ^^^S^^^^^^z-^*--*-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 i6i 
 
 rington, Conn., which he served during the later 
 3'ears of the Civil war as an emergencv charge, the 
 congregation thinking that without a leader (there 
 being no little dissension among them) they could 
 not hold together. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Marvin received a unanimlous call 
 and was installed over the Woodbridge Congrega- 
 tional Church, of which he is still pastor, being in 
 the thirty-sixth year of his pastorate, and one of 
 the oldest pastors in the State. Many improvements 
 have been made in the church property during Mr. 
 Marvin's pastorate. The house of worship is sur- 
 rounded by beautiful ground's, which were orig- 
 inally some five acres in extent, and on the Sunday 
 preceding the first election that took place after 
 he entered upon the duties. of his charge our subject 
 requested that each man plant a tree on the church 
 green before casting his ballot. As a result some 
 ninety trees were brought, and handsome trees now 
 adorn the grounds which he had already caused to 
 be enclosed with a neat fence. To the church itself 
 a lecture room and ladies' parlor have been added, 
 at a cost of some two thousand dollars, and a pipe 
 organ, the gift of Mrs. Mary Clark Treat, has been 
 put in. Mr. Marvin was a member of the school 
 board and superintendent of schools for some ten 
 or fifteen years, securing a library and a John- 
 son's Cyclopedia for each district. 
 
 On May 27, 185 1, Mr. Marvin married Miss 
 Svlvina Buell, daughter of Miles and Lucinda 
 (Plum) Buell, of Clinton, Conn. Two sons were 
 born of this union: (i) John Miles is senior part- 
 ner and general manager of the Globe Silk Works, 
 New Haven. He married Adella M. Smith, daugh- 
 ter of Isaac T. and Lucretia (Sperry) Smith, of 
 New Haven, and_ they have one daughter, Grace 
 Edna. He is deacon of the Dwight Place Con^ 
 gregational Church of New Haven. (2) Edward 
 Reynold, the younger son, died when ten years 
 of age. 
 
 On May 27, 1901, Mr. and Mrs. Marvin cele- 
 brated the golden anniversary of their wedding at 
 the parsonage. There were many guests from the 
 surrounding towns, from New Haven, New York 
 City and Springfield, as well as the parishioners; 
 and many handsome gifts, besides between three 
 and four hundred dollars in gold, testified to the 
 love andi esteem in which the pastor and his wife 
 are held by his parishioners and other friends. A 
 poetical tribute from one of their old Franklin 
 parishioners, Mrs. Whitney, and also one from Mrs. 
 E. Jocelyn Qeaveland, added to the interest of the 
 occasion, which was also enlivened with excellent 
 music by a string band from New Haven. Mr. 
 Marvin has a fine gold-headed cane, presented by 
 the young men of the church on the twenty-fifth 
 anniversary of the beginning of his pastorate. 
 There was also a great gathering on his seventy- 
 sixth birthday, when a beautiful crayon' portrait 
 of him. presented by the young ladies society, was 
 hung in the lecture room of the church, and on 
 11 
 
 numerous other occasions the m'embers of the parish 
 have shown high appreciation of his services and a 
 personal esteem warm and genuine for their pastor 
 and his wife. 
 
 The family have always adhered to Republican 
 ideas'. On attaining his majority Mr. Marvin be- 
 came a Whig, and at the birth of the Republican 
 party he joined its ranks. He takes great interest 
 in gathering historical data, and from time to time 
 has delivered interesting papers and publis'hed 
 articles on the progress of events in church and 
 State. He has publis'hed, by request, a memorial 
 sermO'U delivered before the Redshaw Post of the 
 Grand Army, Ansonia, Conn., twenty-fifth anni- 
 versary of his settlement in Woodbridge, 150th an- 
 niversary of the church, funeral sermon of Rev. J. 
 L. Willard, D. D., of New Haven, and of Rev. W. 
 T. Reynolds, of North Haven, lecture before the 
 New Haven) Historical Society, published in Vol. 
 VI, of their papers. He is widely known and 
 highly respected, not only by the people of his own 
 congregation, but by those of New Haven and the 
 surrounding towns. 
 
 WILLIAM BROWN COMSTOCK, superin- 
 tendent of the machinery department of the Brad- 
 ley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., and a well- 
 known citizen of Meriden, was born July 20, i'837,. 
 in the city of Springfield, Mass. He is a descend- 
 ant of one of the old! and substantial families of 
 Connecticut. His paternal great-grandfather, Jacob 
 Comstock, married a Mis's Bennett, of Ludlow, 
 Mass., and to them were born two children, Jacob' 
 and William. The latter had three children, namely : 
 William, Sheppard and Matilda. 
 
 Jacob Comstock was twice married, first to Me- 
 hetabel Olds, of Belchertown, Mass., and second ta 
 Abbie Smith, of Brimfield, Mass. Two children 
 were born of the first marriage, Cromwell B. and 
 Catherine. The only child of the second marriage 
 was named Mehetabel. 
 
 Cromwell B. Comstock was bom in Ludlow, 
 Mass., vAiere he grew to manhood, and learned the 
 trade of stone and brick mason. He removed to 
 Springfield, and, later, to Chicopee, where 'he died' 
 at the age of thirty-two years, and was buried in 
 Chicopee Falls Cemetery. He was a member of the 
 M. E. Church. He married! (first) Caroline San- 
 derson, of Smithfield, R. I., who bore him two chil- 
 dren, Abbie and Henry, of whom the former mar- 
 ried Harvey Woodburn, of Springfield. After the 
 death of the mother of these children, Mr. Com- 
 stock married Lucinda Wyman (a widow), a 
 daughter of John S. Edwards. Two children were 
 born of this union, William B. and Daniel E., a 
 resident of Kensington, Conn. Mrs. Lucinda Com- 
 stock died at the home of her son William, in Meri- 
 den in 1876, and her remains repose in a cemetery 
 at Springfield, Mass. She was a member of the- 
 Univers'aHst Church, and an exemplary wife and- 
 m'Other. 
 
i62 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 William B. Comstock was only five years old 
 when his father died, and he was early obliged to 
 earn his liveHhood. He remained on a farm in 
 Belchertown until fifteen years of age, receiving his 
 clothing and board as compensation for such labors 
 as he was able to perform. He then began to learn 
 the trade of painter, but after a year of effort in 
 that line he entered the novelty factory of William 
 Bailey, in which Mr. Charles Parker bad an inter- 
 est, and remained until 1854. After one year in fhe 
 Curtis-Morgan Lock shop at Meridlen and one year 
 in Springfield, he returned to Meriden in 1856, and 
 spent one )ear in the Frary-Benham- Company's 
 shop, after which he passed one year in Waterbury, 
 and subsequently was in Aleriden and New York. 
 He became a permanent resident of Meriden in 
 i860, and spent the five years succeeding this date 
 in the hardware factory of Wood & Breckenridge. 
 He then secured a position with the Bradley & Hub- 
 bard Manufacturing Co., andl through the faithful 
 performance of his duties, won his way to the po- 
 sition of superintendent of machinery, which he has 
 filled several years. He has witnessed the growth 
 of this institution from comparatively small begin- 
 nings to a mammoth establishment, and has borne 
 bis share in developing its possibilities. 
 
 Mr. Comstock is a member of Meridian Lodge, 
 No. yj, A. F. & A. M., of Meriden ; Keystone Chap- 
 ter, No. 27, R. A. M.; and Hamilton Council, No. 
 22, R. & S. M. He is also identified with Meriden 
 Center Lodge, No. 68, I. O. O. F., and Columbia 
 Council, No. 5, O. U. A. M. In politics he is a 
 stanch defender of the principles of t'he Republican 
 party. He represented the Fourth ward in the city 
 council during the incumbency of Mayors H. C. 
 Wilcox, Benjamin Page, Amos Ives and E. E. West. 
 He acted on Police, Water, Sewer and Printing 
 committees, and acquitted himself with credit to 
 his ward and constituency. Of broad mind, he takes 
 a liberal view of men and things, and is active in 
 promoting all measures calculated to benefit the 
 community. He sees in the general welfare the 
 hope of prosperity for himself and family, to which 
 he is warmly devoted. 
 
 On Nov. 27, i860, in New York, Mr. Comstock 
 was married to Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Whittaker, 
 who was born in New York City, daughter of 
 Charles Stewart and widow of James Edward Whit- 
 taker. To Mr. and Mrs. Comstock were born five 
 children, namely: Caroline Matilda, Henry Ed- 
 ward, William Cromwell, Cornelia Augusta and 
 Mary Alice, of whom Caroline Matilda, Henry Ed- 
 ward and Mary Alice died in infancy. William 
 Cromwell is a foreman in the same shops where his 
 father is emplo)'ed; he married Mary Card, and has 
 two children, Robert Card and William Stewart. 
 Cornelia Augusta was educated in the Meriden 
 schools, graduating from the hig^i sdhool in 1888, 
 and attended the Normal School at New Britain, 
 and she has spent several years in teaching; she was 
 employed at Lyme, New London count\-, and is now 
 principal of the Lewis Avenue School, in this city. 
 
 Her long service shows her to be a practical teacher, 
 and she is valued as a useful member of society. 
 Dora Whittaker, the first c'hild of Mrs. Comstock, 
 resides with her mother. 
 
 Charles Stewart, father of Mrs. Comstock, was 
 a native of London, England, and was a soldier un- 
 der Wellington at the battle ol Waterloo, being then 
 only eighteen years old. After attaining his ma- 
 jority he followed the sea and was a captain in the 
 merchant marine. Coming to America, he located 
 in New York. While on a voyage in the West 
 Indies be contracted yellow fever, w'hich caused his 
 death, and he was buried from quarantine on Staten 
 Island. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church. His wife, Catherine Williams, was a daugh- 
 ter of Robert and Elizabeth (Hughes) Williams, of- 
 Welsh descent. Mrs. Comstock is a lady of many 
 domestic virtues, devoted to her home and family. 
 Mr. Comstock attends the Universalist Church, and 
 is a highly respected' citizen, esteemed for his manly 
 worth. 
 
 John S. Edwards, father of Mrs. Cromwell B. 
 Comstock, was a native of Dedham, Mass., born 
 July II, 1764. He settled at Norwich, Mass., in 
 1775, and in that town, in April, 1781, was drafted 
 for six months' service in the War of the Revolu- 
 tion, and was in Capt. William Forbes' company, 
 Col. Tupper's regiment. During the times when 
 hostile Indians were harassing the settlers, Mr. Ed- 
 wards, with his command, marched into (he interior 
 of New York, and for three months was stationed 
 at Fort Schuyler; then was ordered to Fort Stan- 
 wyx (now Rome, N. Y.), and was there stationed 
 for another three months, and from this place was 
 discharged from the service. After the close of the 
 war he returned tO' Norwich and continued to re- 
 side there, and at Russell's, Mass., until about 1798, 
 when he removed to Springfield, where he died 
 April 5, 1857, in the ninety-third year of his age. 
 He married Phoebe Williams and had ten children 
 who reached maturity, namely : John S., Lucinda, 
 Henry, Daniel, Gideon, William, Clara, Mary, 
 Phoebe and Leonard. 
 
 HENRY BALDWIN FIELD was born in 
 Waterbury Jan. 11, 181 1, son of Dr. Edward Field, 
 who was born in Enfield, Conn. When sixteen 
 )'ears of age he entered a dry-goods store in New 
 Haven, as clerk, and three years later he went to 
 New York City, where he was engaged in the whole- 
 sale dry-goods business for a number of years. In 
 middle life be spent a few years in the mercantile 
 business at Baltimore, Md. 'Going to California in 
 1849, he returned to Waterbury and in 1854 took 
 the position of secretary and treasurer of the Water- 
 bury Gas Light Co., a position which be held for 
 over twenty-eight years. 
 
 On Jan. 14, 1836, Mr. Field married Miss Sarah 
 A. Bulkier, who was born in New Haven, daughter 
 of Francis and Content (Mix) Bulkley, who lived 
 and died in New Haven. Capt. Bulklev was born 
 in Wethersfield, and was a son of Francis Bulklev, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 163 
 
 also a sea captain, and a native of Wethersfield. 
 Elisha Mix, the father of Content Mix, was born in 
 New Haven, Conn. Bot'h families were of English 
 extraction. To Mr. and Mrs. Field was born a 
 family of two children : Francis B. ; and Charles 
 H., United States stamped envelope agent at Hart- 
 ford. Mr. Field was a Republican. While his; an>- 
 cestors' were all Congregationalists, 'he and his wife 
 united with the Episcopal Church many years ago. 
 A good man and a public-spirited citizen, he was 
 highly respected in the community. His death oc- 
 curred in Waterbury, Jan. i, 1892. 
 
 MERRIAM. F"or upward of two hundred and 
 twenty-five years members of the Merriam family 
 have lived in Wallingford and Meriden, and 
 throughout the past century a number of the name 
 have been prominently identified with the manu- 
 facturing interests of Meriden, notably the posterity 
 of Lauren Merriam, whose grandson, George C. 
 Merriam, is secretary and treasurer of the large 
 corporation of Foster, Merriam & Co., of that city. 
 The family was located in Lynn, Mass., whence 
 William Merriam came to Meriden, Conn. He died 
 in 1689. His wife's name was Sarah. Among his 
 children is a son John, who, bv his wife Mary, be- 
 came the father of William (2). William Merriam 
 (2) was married March 24, 1726, to Ruth Hart, and 
 their son William (3) was married Sept. 24, 1755, 
 to Mary Austin. 
 
 Asaph Merriam, son of William (3) and Mary 
 Austin, was one of the patriots of the Revolution, 
 serving three years in the Continental army. In 
 1782 he married Damianis Todd. 
 
 Lauren Merriam, whose death occurred in April, 
 1867, was the son of Asaph and Damaris Merriam, 
 and wias born in 1787. He was one of the first to 
 engage in the manufacturing business in Meriden. 
 He began making block tin buttons in his own house, 
 and later in a small shop near what in after years 
 was the factory of Foster, Merriam & Co. Still later 
 he was engaged in comb making in Crow Hollow, 
 and continued in that Hne until 1830, when he sold 
 out to Julius Pratt & Co. He was very active and 
 enterprising, devoted entirely to business, and ac- 
 cumulated a large property. On Oct. 25, 1810, Mr. 
 Merriam married Temperance Todd, of Bristol, 
 Conn., and his three sons — Asaph, Nelson and 
 Lauren T. — became active and prominent business 
 men of Meriden. 
 
 Nelson Merriam, son of Lauren, was born_ in 
 Meriden, in which place he resided throughout life, 
 dying Feb. 11, 1880. About 1835, associated with 
 Albert and Hiram Foster, Mr. Merriam began the 
 business of manufacturing furniture castings. 
 Some 31 years later the firm was changed to a joint 
 stock company with a capital of $80,000. By de- 
 grees the business was developed, by the tact, abil- 
 ity and good management of these men, into the 
 grat establishment of to-day wlnich bears the name 
 of Foster, Merriam & Co., and which gives em- 
 ployment to hundreds of operatives ; the goods go 
 
 all over the world. The product of the factory is 
 in the line of cas'ters, drop handles, furniture trim- 
 mings and cabinet hardware. Mr. Merriam for 
 years did much of the outside business of the con- 
 cern, which took him often to New York and Bos- 
 ton. At the time of his death he was president of 
 the company. 
 
 Nelson Merriam' was one of the strong and 
 forcible characters of Meriden, toward the develop- 
 ment of which city he did much, land in whidh 'he 
 lived a useful life. As a citizen he was universally 
 esteemed and respected. He was a prominent mem- 
 ber of the M. E. Church. In early life a Whig, he 
 was an uncompromising foe of slavery. When 
 a young man he espoused the cause of tem- 
 perance, and advocated and strongly favored 
 a prohibitory law, which he thougtht would do away 
 with the evils of the liquor traffic. He was several 
 time nominated by the Prohibition party for import- 
 ant offices, and served in the common council of 
 Meriden. He was a man of sterling character and 
 fixed opinions, always immovable after they were 
 formed, regardless of the effects upon himself. 
 Wrong and wrong-doing of every kind found in 
 him an aggressive foe. He was an unswerving de- 
 votee of the cause of temperance, and religion and 
 morality in his death lost one of their best and m'ost 
 uncompromising supporters. He 'had the courage 
 to live up to his convictions, at times amounting al- 
 most to heroism, and yet he never gave him'self un- 
 due prominence, while he evaded no duty which he 
 ought to perform, or failed to identify 'himself 
 openly or otherwise (according to the requirements 
 of the case) with any cause w'hich benefited his fel- 
 low men. That the cause was not popular had no 
 place in his mind. A rigid standard of right was the 
 level that guided his every act In his dispensation 
 of private charities, in giving liberally to worthy 
 enterprises that were calculated to help religion, 
 morality and the elevation of the people of Meri- 
 den, Mr. Merriam was generous^ — often more than 
 generous. He was always readv to back up his 
 views with his means, but he was averse to having 
 any public mention made of his liberality. One of 
 the oldest business men in his town, and one of the 
 oldest natives, he lived to see his native place grow 
 from a mere hamlet to a busy, well-peopled city, and 
 it can be truly said that he did his share toward 
 making Meriden what it is. "May we all be as well 
 prepared to 'go when called' as Mr. Merriam's life 
 has indicated that he was, for he lived the life that 
 marks the true Christian and good citizen." 
 
 On March 27, 1833, Mr. Merriam was married 
 to Rosetta Couch, who died Dec. 18, 1890, aged 
 seventy-three years. The children who survived 
 him were: George C, Nelson C. and Eva R., Mrs. 
 A. J. Converse. The second is now deceased, and 
 the others reside in Meriden. 
 
 Capt. George Couch Merriam, of Meriden, a 
 veteran of the Civil war. and for many years a prom- 
 inent manufacturer and' business man of that famed 
 m,anufacturing center, ,has long been secretary and 
 
1 64 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 treasurer of Foster, jMerriam & Co. Born Sept. 17, 
 1834, in Meriden, Mr. jMerriam passed his boyhood 
 in the town of his nativity, and there in its public 
 scliools received a common-school education. In 
 185 1 he went to New York City, and from that year 
 until 1859 he received a thorough business training 
 in the employ of Hopkins, Allen & Co., wholesale 
 dry-good's dealers. In 1859 he went to Wilming- 
 ton, N. C, where he became a member of the busi- 
 ness firm' of J. M. AlcCarter & Co. On April 12, 
 
 1861, when Fort Sumter was fired upon, young 
 Merriam, filled with patriotism and zeal, at once re- 
 turned to his Connecticut home. He there bided 
 his timte until the following year, when, on July 10, 
 
 1862, he enlisted, becoming la private soldier in 
 Company A, istb Conn. V. I., and serving through- 
 out the war with both credit andl honor to himself 
 and country. He was appointed second lieutenant 
 of the company mentioned, and was mustered into 
 the United States service with the command Aug. 
 25 of that year. The i5th,Reginient went out un- 
 der command of Col. Dexter R. Wright, of Meri- 
 den, was attached to the Eastern army, and num- 
 bered among its principal engagements Fredericks- 
 burg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862; Edenton Road, Va., April 
 24, 1863 ; Providence Church Road, Va., ]\Iay 3, 
 1863; the siege of Suffolk, \'a., April 12 to May 4, 
 
 1863, Lieut. Merriam shared the fortunes of his 
 command in its movements and actions during his 
 stay with the regiment. On May i, 1863, he was 
 promoted to first lieutenant of Company E, 15th 
 Conn. V I., and on Nov. 4, 1864, became captain 
 of Company K, 8th Conn. V. I., with which com- 
 mand he served until he was mustered out of the 
 service, Dec. 12, 1865. The engagements of the 
 Eighth from May, 1864, were: Walthall Junction, 
 Ya., INIay 7, 1864; Petersburg, Va., Aug. 25, 1864; 
 and Fort Harrison, Va., Sept. 29, 1864. 
 
 On the close of the war and at the expiration of 
 his term of service Capt. Merriam returned to Con- 
 necticut, and in about a year went into the State of 
 Vermont, where for two years he was engaged in 
 the lumber business. Then returning to Meridien, 
 he spent a year in the office of Foster, Merriam & 
 Co. Following this experience he passed two years 
 in Nevada. He then again returned to Meriden, 
 and for eight years was identified with the Charles 
 Parker Co., of that city. On the death of Albert 
 Foster, Capt. Merriam became secretary and treas- 
 urer of Foster, Merriami .'& Co., a position he filled 
 with ability and efficiency until his election as presi- 
 dent and treasurer to succeed the late James Sutliff. 
 
 Capt. Merriam' for some years filled important 
 and responsible trusts in the municipality of Mer- 
 iden, and has won the confidence and esteem of his 
 fellow men. He was a mem'ber of .the common 
 council for six or more years, and for two years 
 a member of the board of aldermen,. Politically he 
 has always been a Republican, and in religious con- 
 nection is a member of the First M. E. Church of 
 Meriden. 
 
 On May 29, 1867, Capt. Alerriam' iwas married 
 
 to Helen R., daughter of Charles and Sarah (Par- 
 ker) Bradley, of Meriden. From the Bradley fam- 
 ily have come many noted physicians, and the name 
 has been prominent in the history of Lowell, Mass. 
 Mrs. Charles Bradley was a sister of Charles 
 Parker, mention of whom appears elsewhere in this 
 work. 
 
 JAMES TIBBALS POMEROY (deceased), 
 for many years a prominent stock raiser and dairy 
 farmer of East IMeriden, was well and widely 
 known throughout that locality. He was born 
 July 19, 1827, and descended from one of the oldest 
 families' in the State of Connecticut. 
 
 Eltwood Pomeroy was the first of that name 
 in Connecticut, and the Pomeroy family of New 
 England are his worthy descendants. Noah Pom- 
 eroy, a native of Colchester, married Lurana 
 Northam, April 24, 1748, and had four children. 
 Among them was Charles Pomeroy, father of Noah 
 Pomeroy, of ^Meriden. Charles Pomeroy m&rried, 
 March 17, 1774, Temperance Waterhouse, and be- 
 came the father of five children, the fifth, Noah, 
 being a posthumous child. The mother married 
 for her second husband a Mr. Hall, of Colchester. 
 
 Noah Pomeroy, in his day one of the best 
 known men in ]\Ieriden, was born March i, 1786, 
 in the town of Saybrook. He lived' at home with 
 his Mother and stepfather until he was ten years 
 of age, and then started out in life for him'self. 
 He found work on the neighboring farms which 
 he was able to do during the summers, and he had 
 the opportunity of going to school in the winters 
 until he was fifteen years old, when he started out 
 to peddle tinware. Three years later he essayed to 
 learn the trade of carpenter and joiner, but re- 
 mained in this line only a short time, and then re- 
 sumed the life of a peddler, which he continued 
 to follow for several years. The tin business of- 
 fered many opportunities, and Mr. Pomeroy saw 
 that it would benefit him to learn the trade of 
 tinsmith, which he mastered in six months, and he 
 then entered into the manufacture of tinware, which 
 he carried on in several sections of the State for a 
 number of years. In 1807 he removed to Plymouth, 
 Conn., where he continued in business eight years, 
 also spending six months in Baltimore. S/fr. Pom- 
 eroy was tendered a lieutenant's commission in the 
 regular army during the war of 1812, but did not 
 accept, although he materially assisted the Govern- 
 ment. In 181 5 he removed to Wallingford, where 
 he spent three years, and then came to Meriden 
 and esitablished his business, there passing the re- 
 mainder of his days. He also bought a farm in 
 East Meriden, where he made his home, and con- 
 tinued in the manufacture oi tin and other ware, 
 being the first in this country to engage very ex- 
 tensively in the manufacture of japanned and or- 
 namental tiniware. In 1835 Mr. Pomeroy retired 
 from business, and spent his declining years on his 
 fine farm, on which he had made extensive improve- 
 ments. There he died Nov. 23, 1868, aged eighty- 
 

 
 / / / c 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 165 
 
 two years, leaving warm friends and many acquaint- 
 ances all over Connecticut. In public life, as well 
 S.S in business, he was quite active, and held all of 
 the offices in the gift of the people of Meriden ; 
 was selectman and justice of the peace, being ap- 
 pointed to the latter office by the Legislature, and 
 was an ardent advocate of progressive reforms and 
 of religious as well as political liberty. Mr. Pom- 
 eroy earnestly urged the necessity of calling the 
 convention which framed the Constitution of the 
 State in 1818 and expunged many of those statutes 
 which have been known as Blue Laws. In 1832 
 he wais eledted a member of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives, and in 1837 was chosen senator from 
 the Sixth District, during which he strongly sup- 
 ported the bill for the abolition of the law which 
 imprisoned for debts. The Meriden Universalist 
 Church was organized in Mr. Pomeroy's house, 
 and he was among its most active supporters. 
 
 In 1833, when the Meriden Bank was estab- 
 lished, Mr. Pomeroy was appointed one of the di- 
 rectors, and in 1849 was chosen its president, which 
 position he filled with efficiency for some time. 
 His judgment was good, his foresight was un- 
 usual, and his integrity unimpeachable, .while his 
 business sense was highly developed, making of 
 . him one of the popular and successful men of his 
 day. 
 
 Mr. Pomeroy was married (first) in Walling- 
 ford to Miss Nancy Merriman, and their children, 
 all of whom are now deceased, were : Cornelia, 
 who died unmarried; Eliphalet T., who left home 
 at the age of twenty years and was never after- 
 Tvard heard of ; Angelina, who married Eli Ives ; 
 Eliza, who married John S. Blake ; Harriet, who 
 wedded Isaac C. Lewis ; Norman W. ; Eugenia, 
 Mrs. James P. Stdwe ; Nancy, who died unmar- 
 ried ; Charles, and James Tibbals. For his second 
 wife Noah Pomeroy took Miss Hattie Hasen, who 
 died in 1880, leavinef a daughter, now the wife of 
 George B. Foote. Another daughter, Cornelia, died 
 when one year old. 
 
 James Tibbals Pomeroy was born in Meriden 
 and followed an agricultural lite, owning and op- 
 erating the large estate of his father in East Meri- 
 den, raising, much stock, and farming extensively. 
 His death took place on the farm.Dec. 21, 1891, and 
 he was buried in the East cemetery. He was one 
 of the best of citizens, and his interest in the prog- 
 ress of his section led him to be one of the or- 
 ganizers of Meriden Grange, to which he gave 
 much attention ; he was also connected with Meri- 
 den Center Lodge, No. 69, I. O. O. F., of Meri- 
 den. In religion he was a devout believer m the 
 principles of the Universalist Church. 
 
 On Sept. 17, 1849, James Tibbals Pomeroy was 
 united in marriage with Delila F. Guild, a daugh- 
 ter of William H. Guild, of Middletown, Conn., 
 -and five children were born to this union : Leonora 
 "E who married Joseph Beckett, of Meriden ; Nellie 
 J ' wife of Richard J. Molloy, of Meriden ; Carrie 
 
 F., deceased wife of David Flansberg; Charles L. ; 
 and William Harrison, who married Lura Booth. 
 The beloved mother of these is one of the honored 
 and esteemed residents of Meriden, a devout mem- 
 ber of the Universalist Church, and a member of 
 Meriden Grange. 
 
 Charles Lewis PoiiEROY attended the district 
 schools of Meriden and later the Connecticut Ag- 
 ricultural College, and then settled down to farm- 
 ing on the home farm, remaining with his parents 
 until he was nineteen years old. He then entered 
 the Meriden Britannia Co. 's shops, where he spent 
 three years learning the machinist's trade. The 
 next six years he spent at the butcher business, 
 but on the death of his father he took charge of 
 the farm, and for the past six years has been en- 
 gaged in general farming and stock raising, in con- 
 nection conducting a dairy. His cows for the dairy 
 number twenty-five and are of the best breed, and 
 his dairy products rank high on the market. His 
 business abihty is excellent, and he conducts all 
 his enterprises with success. 
 
 .Mr. Pomeroy was married, in 1892, to Lena 
 Olive Beardsley, of Meriden, and three children 
 have been born to this union: Erwin James (who 
 died in infancy). Hazel Olive and Doris Irene. 
 Mr. Pomeroy is a memjber of the Universalist 
 Church, and both he and wife are consistent mem- 
 bers of Meriden Grange and among the most es- 
 teemed residents of this community. Mr. Pom- 
 eroy is a member of Meriden Center Lodge, No. 
 69, I. O. O. F., and both he and i\Irs. Pomeroy are 
 identified with Rachel Lodge, No. 2, Daughters of 
 Rebekah. 
 
 Erwin Beardsley, father of Mrs. Charles L. 
 Pomeroy, was born on Broad street, Meriden, son 
 of John Beardsley, who was a native of Hunting- 
 ton, Conn., came to Meriden when a young man, 
 and died in Wallingford. John Beardsley was a 
 soldier in the war of 1812. For many years he 
 followed the trade of shoemaker, but later became 
 a farmer. He married Olive Anthony, a native of 
 Meriden, and their children were : Samantha, who 
 married Levi Allen ; Melinda, who married John- 
 son Royce ; Harriet, who married Albert Ward, of 
 Durham; Hiram and Julius, deceased; Maria, who 
 married Maurice Hitchcock; and Erwin. 
 
 Erwin Beardsley received his education in the 
 public schools, and engaged at farm work both in 
 Meriden and Wallingford, and after his marriage 
 settled down to farming in East Meriden, where he 
 bought a tract of land. He is now, after a busy 
 and useful life, spending his advancing years in 
 retirement. He married Mary Potter, who died in 
 Wallingford without issue. In 1864, in Killing- 
 worth, he married Jane Ornelia Burr, a daughter 
 of Joseph and Irene (Hubbard) Burr, of Killing- 
 worth, and the following named children were born 
 to them: Eckford Leroy; Eldon Purr, deceased; 
 Annie Irene ; Lillian Augusta, deceased ; Lena 
 Olive ; and Ervie, who died when three months 
 
1 66 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 old. Mr. Beardsley has always been an independ^ 
 ent thinker and voter on political questions, and has 
 always possessed the esteem of his fellow citizens. 
 
 THE BEAOH FAMILY has been conspicu- 
 ous in the annals of Connecticut for many gen- 
 erations. It is the purpose of this article to treat 
 briefly of the fortunes of several of the descendants 
 of Rev. John Beach, formerly of Newtown, Conn., 
 among the more distinguished of whom were the 
 late Hon. John Beach, of Xewtown ; the late Judge 
 John Beach, of New Haven ; John Sheldon Beach, 
 the eminent lawyer of New Haven ; and his sons, 
 John Kimberly and' Capt. Francis Gibbons Beach, 
 both eminent members of the New Haven Bar, and 
 the late Adjt. Rodmond Vernon Beach, whose life 
 was given to his country in the Spanish-American 
 war. The sons of the late John Sheldon Beach are 
 in the eighth generation from John Beach, whose 
 name first appears in the records of the New Haven 
 Colony in 1643. This pioneer was married in 1650, 
 and his wife, Mary, bore him ten children. In 1660 
 he purchased land in Stratford, and his name ap- 
 pears as an inhabitant there in; the list of 1668. 
 The line of descent of t'hese sons of John Sheldon 
 Beach is through Isaac, Rev. John, John (3), John 
 (4), John (s). 
 
 (II) Isaac Beach, son of John, of New Haven 
 and Stratford, was born in 1669, and in 1693 mar- 
 ried Hannah Birdsey, who^ was born in 1671. 
 
 (III) Rev. John Beach, son of Isaac, noted 
 above, was born in 1700, and was married (the first 
 time) in Stratford, when he was twenty-six years 
 old, to Sarah, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah 
 (Porter) Beach. She was his cousin, and was born 
 in 1699 in Stratford. She died in 1756, and Rev. 
 Mr. Beach was married to Abigail (Gunn) Hol- 
 brook, widow of John Holbrook, and daughter of 
 Sergeant Abel Gunn, of Derby, where she was born 
 in 1707, and died in 1783. John Beach was grad- 
 uated from Yale in 1 72 1, and three years later was 
 ordained pastor of the Congregational Church in 
 Newtown. In 1732 he declared for Episcopacy, and 
 crossed the ocean to be invested with sacred or- 
 ders. Returning from England, he labored as an 
 Episcopal missionary in and about Newtown dur- 
 ing the years of his active life. In Trinity Church, 
 at Newtown, are four tablets, elaborate in design 
 and detail, nilore so perhaps than any others in the 
 country, and exceedingly rich in their ornamenta- 
 tion, which commemorate the virtues of some of the 
 earlier pastors of this church. On one of them, in 
 curious Colonial letters, is engraved this inscription : 
 "To the blessed memor}' of Rev. John Beach, A. M., 
 Founder of this Parish. Born at Stratford, Conn., 
 A. D. MDCC, Graduated! at Yale College, 
 MDCCXX. At great sacrifice, upon thorough in- 
 vestigation and deep conviction, conforming to the 
 Church of England, he was adtaitted to Holy Or- 
 ders in England, A. D., :\IDCCXXXII ; he was ap- 
 pointed Alissionary at Newtown and Reading, of 
 
 the \'enerable Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel. He was a scholar thorough, a reasoner 
 cogent, a controversalist able, a preacher persuasive,. 
 a pastor untiring, a Christian hero undaunted. He 
 was of all the most effective in laying deep and 
 broad the foundations of the Church in the Colony 
 of Connecticut. From' the beginning of his min- 
 istry assailed by bitter intolerance and pursued by 
 malicious plottings, be patiently endured. In the 
 added! perils of a cruel war, remaining with the 
 flock, he continued bis ministrations at the constant 
 risk of threatened violence and death. Full of years 
 and labors, he entered into rest March xix, A. D., 
 MDCCLXXXII, uttering, shortly before his last 
 breath, T have fought a good fieht.' " 
 
 (IV) John Beach (3), son of the minister noted, 
 in the preceding paragraph, was born in 1734, and 
 was married in 1756 to Phoebe (Judson) Curtis,, 
 born in 1737. Unlike his father, the younger Beach 
 had strong sympathy with the cause of liberty. 
 Owning extensive real-estate interests in Newtown, 
 he was prominent in the community, and served as 
 a delegate to the Convention at the time of the 
 adoption of the State constitution. Mr. Beach died! 
 in Newtown, in 1791, and his widow in 181 5. 
 
 (V) John Beach (4), son of John Beach, noted 
 above, was born in 1757, and was married when • 
 twenty-two years old to Mabel, a daughter of Dan- 
 iel and Mabel (Booth) Beers. She was born in 
 1756, and died in 1844. Mr. Beach was a resident 
 of Newtown, and of central Vermont, and died in 
 1830. 
 
 (VI) John Beach (5), son of the above, was- 
 bom in 1789, in Newtown, where he was married 
 in 18 18,' to Marcia, a daughter of Abijah Birdsey 
 and Anna (Glover) Curtis. She was born in 1796 
 in Newtown. The senior Mr. Beach having gone- 
 into Vermont, the son remained in Newtown, and 
 was reared as an adopted son of his uncle and aunt, 
 Daniel and Naomi (Glover) Beers, who had no 
 children of their own. They gave young Beach a 
 liberal education, his studies being completed in- 
 New Haven, where he was admitted to the Bar in 
 1814. In this city he practiced his profession until 
 infirmities and age prevented. He was elected cit)r 
 attorney of New Haven in 1821, and filled that 
 office until 1824. From 1824 for twenty years he 
 was clerk of the Supreme Court of Connecticut, and 
 then served as judge of the city court of New Ha- 
 ven for a number of years. "A man of great firmness- 
 of character, instinctive integrity and high ideals, 
 his career as a lawyer, clerk and judge in New Ha- 
 ven for half a century was m|arked by continued ex- 
 pression of regard andi deference, both during and 
 after his years of public service." Judge Beach died 
 April 12, 1869, and his wife passed away Aug. 16, 
 1861. At a meeting of the New Haven county Bar 
 held the day after his death, generous and highly 
 appreciative resolutions were adopted by a unani- 
 mous vote. These resolutions recited his long and 
 faithful service in public position, and noted tliat 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 167 
 
 though "retired from active business, yet he was 
 universally and deservedly honored and respected 
 as one of the most upright .and exemplary of our 
 professional brethren, and for his Christian virtues 
 and private worth as a citizen." 
 
 (VII) John Sheldon Beach, LL. D., son of 
 Judge John Beach, was bom Aug. 28, 1819, in New 
 Haven. He was a graduate of Yale, and became a 
 teadher very soon after his graduation at Wilming- 
 ton, Del. After a time he' oame back to New Haven, 
 and graduating from the Law School at Yale, was 
 admitted to the Bar in 1843, land began his pro- 
 fessional career in the city of his birth. Becoming 
 a partner the following year with General Dennis 
 Kimberly, he quickly came to the front, and won 
 an enviable standing in his profession. In 1852 
 General Kimberly retired, Mr. Beach continuing 
 alone in his business until he was joined by his son. 
 At Vernon Place, Sept. 15, 1847, in Wilmington, 
 Del., Mr. Beach was married to Rebecca, a daugh- 
 ter of William and Rebecca (Donaldson) Gibbons, 
 of that city. Mr. Beach died Sept. 12, 1887, his 
 widow surviving until Sept. 5, 1893. 
 
 At the death of Mr. Beach expressions of sym- 
 pathy and of personal loss came from many quar- 
 ters. Formal resolutions were presented, from the 
 United States Court, the Circuit Court, and the Su- 
 perior Court of New Haven, as well as from 
 the Vestry of Trinity Episcopal Church, of which 
 Mt. Beach had been a useful member for more 
 than twenty years, andi other official bodies. Let- 
 ters from private individuals came thick and fast 
 Out none more nearly touched the hearts of the 
 family, says a daughter, than the words of Gov. 
 Charles R. Ingersoll, spoken before the Bar of New 
 Haven county, and following resolutions submitted 
 by Tilton E. Doolittle : 
 
 It is not easy to express adequately by formal resolution 
 the sentiments by which we are moved to-day. For more 
 than forty years we have bten by his side in the formal 
 practice of our profession, and during that long period in 
 the friendly companionship involved in such relations. It 
 is very hard to rupture such a tie. But my personal associa- 
 tion with him goes back to an earlier date. Born in the same 
 neighborhood in this town, we were companions in school 
 and college life; and following him to the Bar, we have ever 
 since been associated in ways not professional. I look back 
 on this long life with which mine has been connected, and 
 it is luminous with the qualities that go into the making of 
 good men and honored citizens. I .cannot venture at this 
 time to dwell upon these personal relations. A single allu- 
 sion in this connection I will make, for the mcident has 
 given me too much satisfaction to be ignored. But a few 
 weeks ago at a so:ial gathering, the last he ever attended, I 
 heard him, in a conversation with a brother lawyer, speak- 
 ing on some of the agreeable characteristics of our pro- 
 fession, say that he had been in practice with me for over 
 forty years, and that this had brought us together on the 
 trial of many cases, and not often ufion the same side; but 
 that during this long experience, with it varied occasions 
 for antagonisms of opinion, no serious misunderstanding had 
 ever arisen between us. And that was the literal truth. 
 
 As to his relation to the Bar he was notably a lawyer. 
 His element was the atmosphere of courts. His ambition 
 and his delight was to be active where justice is sought. 
 And outside of his home, with its associations most cher- 
 ished by him, his life duty was centered here. There was 
 
 never found occasion to reproach him for neglect here. N*-" 
 phantom of popular fame ever led him away in its pur- 
 suit. Quietly and unostentatiously, industriously and con- 
 scientiously, for forty-four years he has steadily followed 
 the common routine of Connecticut law, followed it, how- 
 ever, we all know, not as a plodder. He had a broad na- 
 ture, and his way of life was a generous one. There 
 was noticeably in him a freedom from anything warped 
 or cynical in his dealings with men, or his judgment of 
 their conduct or motives. He devoted himself to his career 
 because he loved it. He was a man of purposes, and was 
 firm to them — Justum et tenacem — and I have no doubt 
 hedeterminded upon this plan of life because he determined 
 that in no other worldly vocation could his intellectual and 
 moral nature procure higher and; fuller satisfaction. In 
 the open field of legal controversy, where principles could 
 be expounded and applied, and in the region of pure fact, 
 as in the mechanics of a patent suit, he was always ready 
 and firm. His style of presenting a case reminded one 
 of the old saying, " There is no rubbish in his mind," Sim- 
 ple, clear, without rhetorical or any other display, and 
 apparently to an on-looker without any special effort, his 
 prepared arguments were nevertheless the result of pains- 
 taking care. They rommanded the attention, but required 
 the vigilance of him who had to hear and decide. I 
 do not think any lawyer of this Bar ever had a stronger 
 clientage.' There were few if any of the representative 
 men of this community during the last thirty years, who 
 were not at some time familiar with his office. Most of 
 the monied institutions and commercial establishments 
 have availed themselves of his services. What roused 
 their confidence? Not alone the intellectual skill and pro- 
 fessional experience, which I have pointed out. But the 
 primitive bed rock of private virtue and moral strength, 
 without which it is the glory of our profession that the 
 accomplishments of the lawyer avail but little. Let this 
 Bar cherish the memory of him among its jewels I know 
 no richer legacy to leave to that just pressing on than 
 the example of John S. Beach. 
 
 In the preamble of the resolutions referred to 
 above, Mr. Beach was referred to as the "honored 
 leader and for many years an eminent practitioner 
 in the courts of Connecticut." 
 
 Ex-Gov. Henry B. Harrison, in an obituary of 
 Mr. Beach, said: 
 
 John Sheldon Beach was one of the ablest lawyers 
 who ever practiced at the Bar of Connecticut. Dififering 
 in noticeable particulars from each of his professional 
 brethren, he was in the total force of his peculiar powers 
 at least the equal of the strongest of them, and easily the 
 superior of all the rest. 
 
 Of Mr. Beach his daughter wrote in 1898: 
 
 It may be truly said that his grasp of the high-water 
 mark of his calling never relaxed ; and we, his children, 
 might almost be pardoned for thinking him devoted to his 
 profession alone, were it not for the occasional swift revela- 
 tion of his deep afl^ection and solicitude for us. Late in 
 life — later than should have been — the Faculty of Yale 
 College conferred on him the degree of LL, D. Innate 
 modesty struggled always with his forensic powers ; and 
 rich in values, and complete as were all his arguments, 
 he never rose to address the Court without the moment 
 of stage fright and trembling of the knees which in a less 
 controlled nature would have prevented speech. 
 
 The children born to John Sheldon and Reibecca 
 (Gibbons) Beach were: (i) John Hamilton, born 
 in New Haven, July 5, 1848, died there April 14, 
 1849. (2) Rebecca Donaldson, born Aug. 9, 1850, 
 in New Haven, is at this writing (1901) a resident 
 
i68 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of that city, and is tlie daughter referred to in a 
 preceding paragraph. She is the author of an ex- 
 cellent work, which appeared in 1898, bearing the 
 title, "Rev. John Beach and John Sanford, and 
 their Descendants." (3) William Gibbons, born 
 April 24, 1854, died the day of his birth. (4) John 
 Kimberly, born in New Haven, Oct. 18, 1855, was 
 married April 19, 1890, in New York, to Mary Row- 
 land Sanford, daughter of Judge Charles Frederick 
 and Elizabeth (Loony) Sanford. Mr. Beach was 
 graduated from Yale College in 1877, and two years 
 later from the Law School of the same institution. 
 The same year he was admitted a member of the 
 Bar, and had already entered upon his studies in 
 his father's office. His abilities very shortly ob- 
 tained for him a partnership. Patent law, the spe- 
 cialty of both, became almost their exclusive prac- 
 tice ; and although not by any means relaxing the 
 pressure on himself the older lawyer often invited 
 the precedence of his junior, where nothing gave 
 him so much pleasure as to attend court a silent 
 partner. Of late and since the death of his 
 father, he has taken a wider practice in general 
 law ; and he is to-day recognized as a fit repre- 
 sentative of the third of his name in the profession. 
 (5) Donaldson, born April 6, 1858, died Dec. 
 15, 1864. (6) Francis Gibbons, born Feb. 28, 
 1861, was graduated from Yale in 1S83, and from 
 its Law Department two years later, being at once 
 admitted to the Bar. Since that time he has been 
 engaged in the practice of 'his profession in his na- 
 tive city. He has only recently retired from a term 
 of service as postmaster of New Haven. In that 
 position he acquitted himself creditably in every 
 way, and commanded the confidence and respect of 
 the community to a marked degree. A member of 
 the National Guard of Connecticut, on the break- 
 ing out of the Spanish-American war he promptly 
 entered the United States service and was made 
 Captain of Battery C, Conn. Heavy Artillery, U. S. 
 v., and later captain of Company H, 3rd Conn. 
 Volunteers. He served with his command until it 
 was mustered out in October, 1898. Capt. Beach 
 was married June i, 1886, in St. Mark's Episcopal 
 Church, at Alinneapolis, to Miss Elizabeth Charn- 
 ley Wells, born Nov. 21, i860, at Quincy, 111. Her 
 father. Rev. Thomas Wells, was a graduate of Yale 
 College in 1859, and comes of a long Connecticut 
 ancestry, Capt. Beach and his wife became the par- 
 ents of the following: John Francis, born April 
 12, 1887; Charles Wells, born Dec. 26, 1889, died 
 July 7, 1890; and Rebecca Donaldson, born Feb. 
 22, 1892, died Sept. 26, 1893. (7) Rodmond Yer- 
 non Beach, born May 18, 1865, graduated from 
 Yale in 1887. A member of the Connecticut Na- 
 tional_ Guard, at the breaking out of the Spanish- 
 American war he entered the National service, be- 
 came an adjutant in the U. S. Engineers, and died 
 in Ponce, Sept. 28, 1898. He was a \-oung man full 
 of enthusiasm for the military service, and as early 
 as 1 89 1 entered Company F, 2nd Conn. N. G., 
 which was better known as "The New Haven 
 
 Grays." In January, 1892, he was made first lieu- 
 tenant; and paymaster of the regimerit, July 22, 
 1893. In 1897 he became adjutant of the battalion. 
 In the autumn of 1895 he became a Mason and in 
 the spring of 1898 took the 32nd degree. He en- 
 tered Yale College when he was eighteen years old, 
 and was graduated at his majority. He added the 
 studies of the first year of the law course to those 
 of his senior year, so that he could take his degree 
 of LL. B. in 1889. He entered his fathers law 
 office, and his death on the island of Porto Rico cut 
 short a promising career. ' , 
 
 WILLIAM MASON, master miechanic of the 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Co., at New Haven, 
 whose pleasant and hospitable home is at No. 569 
 Elm street, in that city, was born in Oswego, N. 
 Y., Jam 30, 1837. His great-grandfather, Capt. 
 Ebenezer Mason, of Revolutionary fame, was born 
 Alarch I, 1723, in Watertown, Mass., and spent 
 his last years in Spencer, Mass., where he died 
 March 26, 1798. 
 
 William Mason, grandfather of William Mason, 
 born Nov._ 30, 1762, in Spencer, Mass., was a tan- 
 ner, and followed that calling a number of years 
 at Palmer, Mass., where he spent his last years in 
 farming, and died there March 15, 1843. J^ir. 
 Mason was a member of the Presbyterian Church. 
 By his first wife, Nancy (White), the grandmother 
 of our subject, he had ten children. She was born 
 May 25, 1769, and died Feb. 15, 1820. 
 
 Ebenezer Mason, father of William, was born 
 Jan. I, 1797, in Palmer,, was reared in his native 
 place, and there mastered the trade of tanner, which 
 he followed for some years in Palmer. A gifted 
 musician, and a master of artistic writing, he was a 
 pqpullar Iteacher df both m.usiic and writing in 
 Springfield, Hartford and New Haven. Later in 
 life he moved to Oswego, N. Y., to take the posi- 
 tion of bookkeeper in a flourmill. Still later he 
 established a tannery at Oswego. He was taken 
 sick with consumption, and, returning to Palmer 
 died Dec. 11, 1838. Mr. R/[ason married Electa P. 
 Robinson, who was born in Onondaga, N Y 
 March 21, 1802, and died Oct. 9, 1875. They had 
 SIX children, only one of whom is living. Both 
 parents were members of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 \\ illiam Mason, whose name introduces this 
 article, spent his earlier years with his uncle, Will- 
 iam Mason, Jr., in Palmer, Mass., where he at- 
 tended public school until he was ten years old. 
 At that time he went to Thorndike, where he spent 
 two years with his mother, who had become the 
 wife of Shuball Chapman. Cntil he was fourteen 
 he worked on a farm, which place has in recent 
 years been converted into a summer resort and is 
 known as Forest Lake. In 1851 he went to Mon- 
 son, where he began the trade of a cabinetmaker. 
 He spent three years acquiring proficiency in that 
 line, and then went to Jenksville, town of Lud- 
 low, Mass., to malve patterns and designs for ma- 
 chinery for \\-. G. Fay & Co. In 1854 he re- 
 
^ ii!-r^.r^s S 3r^ S'^-' 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 169 
 
 moved with W. G. Fay & Co. to West Warren, 
 Mass., where he was engaged on designs and pat- 
 terns for machinery for the Warren Cotton Mill, 
 long since closed down. He also assisted in the 
 designing and construction of the celebrated 
 Knowles steam pump and Knowles fancy looms, 
 and was engaged in a similar capacity for L. E. 
 Truesdell, on his iron bridge. In 1861 he left West 
 Warren to take a position in Colt's factory, at 
 Hartford, which he held for a year, working on 
 steel gauges, fixtures and tools (and designing 
 same) for making Springfield rifles. At the end 
 -of that time he entered the einiploy of the Reming- 
 ton Arms Co., at Ilion, N. Y., and was engaged m 
 designing and superintending the building of gun- 
 stock machinery and other gunmaking machinery. 
 After a time he took a contract to make thirteen 
 parts of the gun, and worked thus four years, 
 •during the last year of the service holding the 
 position of master mechanic. At the end of that 
 time he was called to Colt's factory, to take charge 
 •of the armory. This position he held for sixteen 
 years, giving it up to take the place of master 
 mechanic with the Winchester Repeating Arms 
 Co., of New Haven, May i, 1882. The most deli- 
 cate and difficult operations corne under his direc- 
 tion, and he has taken out miany valualble patents, 
 both with the Colts and the Winchester Co. on 
 firearms and machinery. During the fifty years 
 and over in which he has been engaged in the me- 
 chanical business he has seen it radically trans- 
 formed, and with all the changes he has kept 
 abreast of the times. His high standing has been 
 attained solely by merit, for he has had no special 
 ■aids of fortune or influence to smooth his path- 
 way to success, and he began life at an early age 
 with only his own resources to rely upon. How- 
 ever, these were not so inconsiderable, consisting 
 as they did of unusual mechanical skill and inge- 
 nuity, but it is the energy and ambition, the per- 
 severance and patience, by which these gifts have 
 "been brought to their highest use, which have 
 iDrought Mr. Mason to his eminent position in the 
 mechanical world. In addition to accumulating a 
 comfortable competence he has gained what is of 
 far greater value, the highest respect of all who 
 know him. Throughout his life he has worked 
 "hard, but nevertheless he is well preserved. 
 
 Mr. Mason was married, April 18, 1863, to 
 Mary E. Ward, who was born in Middletown, and 
 died' Sept. 12, 1896, in New Haven. Mr. Mason 
 miarried, for his second wife, Jan. 11, 1898, Mary 
 E. Hastings, who was born in Pelham, Mass., 
 April 2, 1848, daughter of Chester S. and Mary 
 A. (Whipple) Hastings. 
 
 Mr. Mason is a Republican, and cast his first 
 vote for Gen. Fremont. He has refused all po- 
 litical honors, and turned a deaf ear to the solicita- 
 tion of friends who would have him run for of- 
 fice. However, he has done efficient work in the 
 Young Men's Republican Club and the Union 
 
 League. In Masonry he has taken much interest. 
 He first joined Quaboag Lodge, F. & A. M., at 
 Warren, Mass., in 1862, and thence transferred to 
 Ilion Lodge, F. & A. M., at Ilion, N. Y., of which 
 he was a charter member. He has during his resi- 
 dence in different cities been affiliated with various 
 Masonic bodies. While in Ilion he joined Oneida 
 Chapter, No. 57, and Utica Commandery, No. 3, 
 K. T?., both of Utica, N. Y. He now holds mem- 
 bership in Lafayette Lodge, No. 100, F. & A. M., 
 of Hartford. Mr. Mason also belongs to Pioneer 
 Council, No. i, O. U. A. M. In religious con- 
 nection he is a member of Calvary Baptist Church. 
 Mrs. Mason is a member of the United Congre- 
 gational Church. 
 
 HON. HENRY BALDWIN HARRISON, a 
 prominent lawyer of New Haven, is truly a product 
 of the "City of Elms," which is proud to claim him, 
 for here he passed" his boyhood, and here, too, have 
 come the triumphs of long and active life. 
 
 Gov. Harrison was born Sept. 11, 1821, in New 
 Haven, a son of Ammi Harrison, Jr., a member of 
 the New Haven Bar. Henry Baldwin Harrison at- 
 tended the famous Lancasterian school, taught by 
 John E. Lovell, an Englishman, whom he assisted 
 in teaching at a later period. He entered Yale Col- 
 lege in 1842 and was graduated in 1846, taking the 
 honor of valedictorian of the class. Immediately 
 beginning the study of law he was admitted to the 
 Bar in 1848, and began its practice in company with 
 Lucius G. Peck. Quickly gaining a large clientage, 
 in a short time he was ranked high in the profession. 
 He continued actively engaged in his professional 
 labors until about 1880, when he practically retired, 
 especially from court cases, though he continued 
 to give advice and counsel. "His legal reputation 
 is second to none in the State. He is conscientious 
 in his methods, clear in his statement of facts and 
 tireless in clearing away the rubbish which rhetoric 
 and cunning may have piled up to conceal fact." 
 
 One of the miost noted cases with which the 
 name of Mr. Harrison has been connected was that 
 of Willard Clark, at New Haven, under indictment 
 for murder. Associated with Mr. Harrison for the 
 defense in this case was Charles H. Chapman, of 
 Hartford. Says a critical writer : "No one had sus- 
 pected before that Clark was insane within the or- 
 dinary meaning of the word. As junior counsel in 
 the case he went into the preparation of the defense 
 with marked thoroughness and abilitv. The young 
 woman was about seventeen years old and Clark in 
 the neighborhood of thirty years. He had courted 
 her with assiduity, and she had repulsed his atten- 
 tions with disdain. Clark, however, insisted that 
 she was deeply in love with him, and that in her 
 marriage with Wight she was dumbly pleading 
 with him for release from a hateful alliance. At that 
 time the defense of insanity upon a monomania ha'l 
 not received the favor with the jury it has since 
 
IJO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 acquired. The eloquence of his counsel and the 
 careful preparation of his defense, convinced the 
 jury that Clark was not legally responsible for the 
 crime he had conumitted. So that he was acquitted 
 on the ground of insanity." 
 
 When a young man Mr. Harrison was actively 
 engaged in politics in connection with the Whig 
 party. In 1854 he was elected to the State Senate 
 for the Fourth District. In that body he was asso- 
 ciated with some men who afterward rose to na- 
 tional prominence. James Dixon was afterward 
 United States Senator ; William T. Minor became 
 Governor of Connecticut; David C. Sanford be- 
 came of a Judge of the Supreme Court of Errors. 
 ^Ir. Harrison was made chairman of the Joint Com- 
 mittees on Incorporations and Temperance. The pro- 
 hibitory law, sometimes known as the "Maine Law," 
 was reported and adopted through his active and in- 
 cessant labor. It was so carefully drawn that it 
 stood all tests before the court of last resort in the 
 State. Mr. Harrison was also the author of the 
 Personal Liberty Bill, which was designed to pro- 
 tect colored men from illegal attempts to deprive 
 them of their liberty under the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 Thus fairly embarked upon the political seas, Mr. 
 Harrison shaped his course fearlessly. Uniting with 
 the Free-Soil party, he remained with it until it 
 was merged in the Republican party, which he was 
 instrumental in organizing in Connecticut. Attend- 
 ing the first mass convention held for the purpose 
 of organizing in this State, at Hartford, in Feb- 
 ruary, 1856, the following spring he was the nomi- 
 nee of the Republicans for Lieutenant Governor of 
 the State, the Hon. Gideon Wells being nominated 
 for Governor. The voice of Mr. Harrison, aided by 
 his pen, was potent for the cause of freedom, and 
 during the Civil war he was an ardent supporter 
 of the administration at Washington. In 1865, to- 
 gether with Eleazur K. Foster, he was elected from 
 New Haven to the General Assembly. He declined 
 to be a candidate for Speaker and requested the 
 nomination ■ of Mr. Foster. He became the leader 
 of the party on the floor, where he displayed such 
 admirable qualities that the party all over the State 
 sought to make him its next candidate for Governor, 
 and only his own act prevented it. A great friend 
 of the soldier, he would not consent to the presen- 
 tation of his name, and insisted on the nomination 
 of General Ha\vle-\', whose war record deserved 
 recognition on the part of his own State. In 1873 
 I\Ir. Harrison was again a member of the Lower 
 House from New Haven, and was appointed on the 
 Judiciary committee, and also on the committee on 
 the Constitutional Convention, reporting the bill 
 which called that body together. This bill was de- 
 feated, but was supported by Mr. Harrison with an 
 elaborate and eloquent argument. Mr. Harrison 
 advocated measures in the Legislature to regulate 
 the railway rates, and the giving of the ballot to 
 colored men. In 1874 he was nominated by accla- 
 mation for Governor but was overwhelmed by the 
 
 tidal wave of reaction that submerged the country 
 and gave many old and reliable Republican States 
 to the Democrats. In 1883 Mr. Harrison was again 
 and for the third time elected to the General As- 
 sembly. He was elected Speaker of the House in 
 obedience to the very general sentiment of the party. 
 In 1884 JNIr. Harrison was again nominated for 
 Governor, agaiinst Hon. Thomas M. Waller, then 
 the incumbent of the chair, and who was elected in 
 1882 by a large majority. Mr. Harrison threw him- 
 self into the campaign for Blaine with characteristic 
 zeal and indomitable persistence, making many elo- 
 quent and impressive addresses. The Burchard in- 
 cident undoubtedly prevented the Republicans from 
 carrying the State by a positive majority, and the 
 election of Governor was thrown into the General 
 Assembly, which body elected Mr. Harrison as Gov- 
 ernor in January, 1885. 
 
 "In all political contests ]\Ir. Harrison has been 
 found in the front ranks of his party. One of its 
 founders, he has never failed to be a champion and 
 a leader. His political foes have always been ready 
 to acknowledge his justice and fairness, his sin- 
 cerity and unimpeachable honesty, and they have 
 rejoiced as neighbors and fellow citizens in his many 
 honors. The evidences of his public spirit, of his in- 
 terest in private and public enterprises, of his char- 
 ity and courtesy, of his activity in behalf of all the 
 institutions of New Haven, and of Yale College, in 
 whose corporation he has been enrolled since 1872, 
 all this should be rehearsed. It must all be im- 
 plied in the description of him as a citizen worthy 
 in every way of the community which esteems and' 
 respects him, and of the State which honors him."' 
 
 In early life Governor Harrison was married to 
 Miss Mary E., daughter of Hon. Thomas B. Os- 
 borne, of Fail-field county, at one time a member 
 of Congress, and a judge of the County Court. 
 
 ERUS BLAKESLEE BISHOP. The name of 
 Bishop is not unknown over a wide range of coun- 
 try, but in North Haven, Conn., for generations it 
 has been familiarly recogniized, intermarriage hav- 
 ing connected it with very many of the prominent 
 families of New Haven county, and its numerous 
 representatives filling many positions of life with 
 honor, and all with credit. The subiect of this 
 sketch is the oldest living member of this family in 
 North Haven, and is one of the self-made, substan- 
 tial citizens. 
 
 James Bishop came to America from^ England 
 and located in New Haven, being secretary ancl dep- 
 uty governor of the colony, and became lieutenant 
 governor, serving from 1681 to i6qi. He lived at 
 the northeast corner of State and Elm streets. His 
 first wife was Mary Lamberton, a daughter of Cap- 
 tain George Lamberton, of the ship "Phantom." 
 The children of this marriage were: Hannah, 
 Grace, Sarah, Elizabeth, Abigail, John and Ruth. 
 His second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Micaii 
 Tompkins, of Milford, bore him: Samuel (who^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 7 It 
 
 became town clerk of New Haven, being succeeded 
 by his son and then by his grandson, a nephew fol- 
 lowing, the office being in the family for ii6 years), 
 Mary, James and Rebekah. 
 
 (II) James Bishop followed farming in North 
 Haven and married Abigail Bennett. Their chil- 
 dren were : Elizabeth ; Mary ; James ; Rebecca, 
 who married Stephen Hill (remarkable because he 
 neveri weighed over loo pounds, while his wife 
 weighed over 200), who was styled "Uncle Silver" 
 on account of his hair ; Abigail ; Ruth ; and Joy. 
 
 (III) Joy Bishop, youngest son of James, was 
 born in 171 1 and married Marian Perkins, who 
 died in 1794. He died in 1796. Their children were ; 
 Elisha, Benjamin, Jesse, Ruth, Meriam, Joy, Eunice, 
 Asa and Ruth. 
 
 (IV) Joy Bishop, the sixth of his father's fam- 
 ily, was born in 1745, enlisted in the company of 
 Capt. Caleb Mix, in the Revoliitionary army, was 
 at the battle of White Plains, and did garrison ser- 
 vice in the forts along the Hudson river. He married 
 Abigail Tuttle in 1767 and died in 1837. Their chil- 
 dren were: Elisha, Mabel, Joy, Abigail, Penina, 
 Stephen, Riah, Rachel and Chauncey. A second 
 marriage, with Mehitable Culver, resulted in two 
 children, Mary and Mariam. Mehitable Culver was 
 a native of Vermont, and her death occurred at the 
 home of Dennis Thorpe in North Haven. Elisha, 
 Penina, Joy and Stephen Bishop moved to Reads- 
 boro, Vt., and their posterity is scattered over New- 
 England and some of the western States. 
 
 (V) Joy Bishop, son of Joy, was a farmer in 
 North Haven and lived near the location of Smith's 
 old carriage shop, a little less than one-fourth mile 
 north from Mansfield's bridge, and was also ex- 
 tensively engaged in shad fishing in the river, his 
 catch amiounting to several thousand in a season. 
 His son also engaged in the same business and Mr. 
 Erus Bishop has tools that were then in use. Joy 
 Bishop later moved to the farm now owned by 
 Isaac Mansfield, and on this place he died, having 
 been a successful farmer and the owner of a large 
 extent of land. 
 
 (VI) Riah Bishop, son of Joy Bishop, was born 
 April 20, 1783, on the farm where his father died. 
 When we recall these dates and remember the pro- 
 gress the world has made since, the wonderful de- 
 velopment in every line, it is with added respect 
 that we view the successful efforts of those who, 
 with none of our advantages, so well accomplished 
 their life work. The old house was torn down when 
 Erus Bishop was but a youth of twenty years, and 
 upon the site Riah Bishop erected a new one, the 
 son doing the work from plans of his own. This 
 house still stands and is occupied by his daughter, 
 Mrs. Edwin Mansfield. Riah Bishop married Con- 
 tent Blakeslee, a daughter of Seth and Jemima (Tut- 
 tle) Bilakeslee, born Sept. 24, 1793, and died Dec. 
 26, 1848. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Bishop 
 were: Andrew B. ; Merab, born in 181 1, married 
 Merlin Bradley; Bela, born in 1813, married Sally 
 
 Abby; Orrin Orson, born in 1815, married Maria- 
 PhiUips; Erus Blakeslee; Aurelia, born in 1819,. 
 married Horace Johnson and lived in Cheshire; 
 Amelia, a twin sister, married Amos Stone, who 
 after the death of his wife removed to Salt Lake 
 City, Utah, where he became an elder in the Mor- 
 mon Church; Betsey A., born in 1821, married Or- 
 rin Mansfield and moved to Harrison, Calumet Co., 
 Wis.; an infant daughter, unnamed; Polly Content,, 
 born in 1824, married Edwin Mansfield; James E., 
 born in 1826, married Elizabeth Turner, of Fair 
 Haven ; George, born in 1828, married Clarissa 
 Buckingham; Jason, and an infant daughter, born 
 in 1830, the former living three years, the latter 
 but one day; Laura, born in 1833, died in 1836; and 
 Ellen, born' in 1837, married George M. Beach, in 
 Sherwood, Wis., and is now deceased. This large- 
 family claims kindred with many of the prominent 
 ones of this part of the State. 
 
 Erus Blakeslee Bishop was born March 13, 1817,. 
 in the old home and enjoyed but limited oppor- 
 tunities for acquiring an education. Quite early he 
 sought work outside the home farm, as the old place 
 became crowded with the coming of the numerous 
 family, and being of a mechanical turn of mind, he 
 successfully pursued some lines without any in- 
 struction. The house which still stands is a sample 
 of his boyish labor, a testimonial to the energy and 
 natural ability which afterward made of him so 
 skilled a workman. About 1834 he began work in 
 a brick yard, working two summers, afterward en- 
 gaging in carpenter work, and five years later went 
 to Meriden where he followed this trade, being con- 
 sidered am expert in frame making, and his wages 
 of $25 per month were considered excellent. After 
 several years in Meriden M:r. Bishop returned to 
 North Haven, bought a farm and erected his pres- 
 ent house in the year 1847, performing all the work 
 of this more pretentious structure also. The mason 
 work, plastering and everything pertaining to its 
 erection, except the chimney, is the work of his 
 own hands. 
 
 The fertile brain of Mr. Bishop was constantly 
 at work, and the result has been a number of valu- 
 able inventions in the making of brick, including 
 moulds and a machine which was in general use 
 throughout New England for many years, and in 
 the western States. Mr. Bishop re-commenced the 
 making of brick, locating his yard on the east side 
 of Quinnipiac river, south of the Stiles Brick Co.'s 
 plant. Here he and his brother, James Bishop, en- 
 gaged in the business under the firm name of 
 Bishop Bros., and continued for four years, when 
 Erus bought his brother's interest and remained in 
 the business until 1887. He was succeeded by F. 
 H. Brockett, a son-in-law, who continued several 
 years, later leased another yard and the old yard is 
 discontinued. Mr. Bishop then retired to his farm, 
 where he employs himself for recreation. 
 
 On April 17, 1844, Erus B. Bishop married 
 Charlotte Thorpe, who was born May 11, 1825, a 
 
172 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 daughter of Amasa and Chloe (Bassett) Thorpe, 
 'both of whoni hved to an advanced age in this com- 
 munity, the former attaining eighty-two years and 
 the latter eighty-eight, and were weU Imown to the 
 older citizens. The children born of this union 
 were: (i) Charles Elbert, bor.n in 1845, died in 
 1872; he was an educated man and superior in 
 many lines, a fine mathematician, an expert short- 
 hand writer and bookkeeper and the compiler of the 
 family history, and was connected in business with 
 his father. (2) JuHa Amelia, born in 1850, married 
 Elizur Z. Clinton in 1869 and lived in Clintonville 
 until her death in 1873. (3) Susan Aureha, born m 
 1852, married Stephen A. Smith in 1869 and lives 
 in Clintonville. (4) Hattie, born in 1856, married 
 James Munson, of North Haven, in 1876. (_s) 
 Charlotte T., born in 1859, married Frederick 
 Brockett In 1882. (6) Lucie, born in 1861, mar- 
 ried Andrew D. Clinton in 1885 and lives m Clin- 
 tonville. (7) Edgar S., born in 1865, died in 1877. 
 (8) John F., born in 1869, died in 1870. Democ- 
 racy seems to Mr. Bishop the best form of politics, 
 and he always does bis public duty by casting his 
 vote, but does no active party work, nor has he 
 taken any interest in office holding. His social con- 
 nection with the North Haven Grange is a pleasant 
 and congenial one. He attends the Congregational 
 Church, to which he liberally contributes. It is 
 not given to all to celebrate a golden wedding, but 
 Mr. Bishop and his estimable wife had that happi- 
 ness on April 17, 1894, when their four daughters 
 gave a reception in their honor at the home of Mrs. 
 Brockett. There were eight of the original guests 
 present, besides relatives and friends, who contrib- 
 uted much to the joy of the occasion by poems and 
 congratulatory speeches. An original poem, written 
 for the occasion by Whiting S. Sanford, was also 
 read. Mr. and Mrs. Bishop are rounding out lives 
 of charity and benevolence, and the wish of the 
 whole community is that they may be spared many 
 more years. 
 
 EMERSON M. HOTCH-KISS, the founder of 
 Hotchkiss Paper Co., of Waterbury (since Novem- 
 ber, 1901, Hotchkiss Paper Co., Incorpora'ted), deal- 
 ers in nearly all kinds of paper and paper goods, 
 twines, manufacturers' supplies, woodenware, 
 baskets, broomjs, brushes, oil cans, lamp chimneys, 
 lanterns, grocers' and butchers' scales, coffee mills, 
 meat grinders, and a great line of similar goods, 
 is one of the solid and successful business men of 
 that citv. In the business world his standing is 
 above reproach, in private life his character is un- 
 blemished. 
 
 Ezekiel Hotchkiss, his great-grandfather, was a 
 sergeant in the Continental army, and served with 
 marked bravery throughout the Revolutionary war, 
 with honor to himself and to his country. With 
 the surrender of the British he returned to Con- 
 necticut, and bought a farm in Woodbridge, upon 
 which he settled and passed the remainder of his 
 
 days. In after years, to his children and grand- 
 children, his stories of hardships endured, and of 
 battles fought in which he and his comrades par- 
 ticipated, were of the most interesting and thrill- 
 ing nature. -r- , • , 
 
 Miles Hotchkiss, Sr., son of Sergt. Ezekiel, was 
 born in Woodbridge, New Haven Co., Conn., and 
 became a farmer and blacksmith. After his mar- 
 riage he located in Southington, this State, where 
 he reared the following children : Miles and Mar- 
 tin, twins; Benoni ; Selden; Susan; and Emeline. 
 Miiesi is mentioned below. Martin was a farmer 
 and mechanic in Southington, where Benoni was 
 a farmer and stonemason; Selden was an iron and 
 brass molder in the same town; Susan married 
 Charles Thompson, a farmer of Southington, and 
 Emeline married Burton Hine, also a farmer of 
 that town. 
 
 Miles Hotchkiss, Jr., son of Miles, Sr., was 
 born near Compounce Lake April 16, 1822, and died 
 in Plantsville May 17, 1898. He was a man of 
 modest, retiring, cheerful disposition, a most highly 
 esteemed and respected citizen, one whose honesty 
 was never questioned and whose sterling merits 
 were acknowledged by all. In early life he was for 
 several years a boatman on the Farmington canal, 
 running from New Haven, Conn., to Northampton, 
 Mass., but later he became a mechanic, and finally 
 a gardener and produce dealer. He was noted for 
 giving full measure, weight or count, and his gen- 
 erous nature impelled him to give even more than 
 he expected in return. In 1846 he married Miss 
 Celia Andrews, a native of Cheshire, New Haven 
 Co., Conn., and a daughter of Hiram and Martha 
 M. (Hotchkiss) Andrews. The Andrews family 
 is an old historic one in Connecticut, and was rep- 
 resented among the soldiers of the Revolution, as 
 were also the Royce and Hotchkiss families, with 
 whom the Andrews had intermarried. Hiram An- 
 drews was a son of Thomas and Sarah (Brooks) 
 Andrews, and his wife, Martha ^I. (Hotchkiss) 
 Andrews, was a daughter of Israel and Martha 
 (Royce) Hotchkiss, all of Cheshire. To Miles 
 Hotchkiss and his wife were born two children: 
 Celia M., who married William M. Bigelow, of 
 Springfield, Mass., a mechanic and man of fine 
 ability and high standing; and Emerson M. One 
 of the best mothers, grandmothers anci great-grand- 
 mothers that ever lived, ]\Irs. Hotchkiss could never 
 do enough, in her own estimation, for those whom 
 she lovedi and respected. She was essentially do- 
 mestic in her tastes, firmly believing that a woman's 
 first duty is caring and working for her family and 
 immediate friends, and in her unselfish, noble life 
 beautifully exemplifying this belief. Loyal to all, 
 she was a loving, faithful helpmeet, an ideal mother, 
 companion and friend. Hospitable to the core, her 
 first thoughts were always for the comfort and en- 
 joyment of others, and to that end she was ever 
 willing and happy to sacrifice her own time, health 
 and even life itself. Tenderly and cheerfully she 
 would nurse and care for any of her famih- when 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 173 
 
 sick, and when they were in health she was no less 
 solicitous, seeking to lighten their burdens by every 
 means in her power. Thus she lived, happiest in 
 making others happy, until, at the age of seventy- 
 six, she was stricken with the dread disease pneu- 
 monia, and she calmly passed away after one short 
 week's illness, Jan. 27, 1902. 
 
 Emerson M. Hotchkiss was born in Southing- 
 ton, Conn., May 13, 1849, and passed the earlier 
 years of his life in Plantsville, Conn., attending the 
 public schools of that place, as well as those of 
 Milldale and Cheshire. In the Lewis Academy at 
 Southington he completed his school education in 
 1865, and immediately thereafter entered upon his 
 business career as clerk in a general store in Plants- 
 ville, where he spent several months. The post 
 office was in this store, and the young man gained 
 a good insight into general business matters. In 
 his ambition to make himself valuable to his em- 
 ployer, Mr. Hotchkiss overworked, was taken seri- 
 ously ill, and finally passed through a severe attack 
 of typhoid fever. During his illness the term of 
 the postmaster (his employer) had nearly expired, 
 and another man, of political views in harmony 
 v/ith those of the new administration, secured the 
 appointment. He, too, conducted a general store, 
 and, being favorably impressed with the manner in 
 which young Hotchkiss had attended to his duties 
 and conducted himself generally while in the em- 
 ploy of his competitor, and previously, called upon 
 him during his convalescence, and urged him to 
 enter his employ at as early a date as he was able, 
 to take charge of the post office as soon as it should 
 he moved into the new quarters. After several 
 interviews the young man consented, although 
 strongly importuned by his former employer to re- 
 turn to his store as head clerk and bookkeeper. 
 After a few months in his new place Mr. Hotchkiss 
 was offered and accepted the position of book- 
 keeper in the office of the S. Stow Manufacturing 
 Co., of Plantsville (later the Peck, Stow & Wilcox 
 Co.), where he remained until 1871, spending part 
 of the time during his last two years there on the 
 road as salesman. His' experience and schooling 
 while with this firm gave him a most thorough 
 practical knowledge of office work and the conduct 
 of business in general, which has proven to be of 
 inestimable value to him in his life work. 
 
 Previous to entering the office of the Stow Man- 
 ufacturing Co. Mr. Hotchkiss had managed to save 
 a portion of his wages, and with his increased sal- 
 ary he was enabled to save still more, which accu- 
 mulation, when it amounted to a few hundred dol- 
 lars, he invested in stock in the Stow Co., adding to 
 same until, with cash and stock dividends which 
 had been declared, his holdings in 1871 amounted 
 to about eight thousand dollars. He then deter- 
 mined to sell out and to engage in business for 
 hi'm-self, and accordingly, ahhough strongly urged 
 by the officers of the company to remam with them 
 at a largely increased salary, he sold his stock, 
 launched out, purchased the Mad River Paper Mill 
 
 at Wolcott, New Haven Co., Conn., and at once 
 began extensive alterations and improvements with 
 the intention of making it a first-class wrapping- 
 paper and straw board mill. With the high prices 
 then ruling for these goods the outlook was bright, 
 but prices soon declined, and within two years had 
 reached so low a point through competition with 
 western mills — that had the advantages of cheap 
 stock, fuel and labor — that the eastern mills running 
 on these common grades of paper could dispose of 
 their product only at a loss, the actual cost to them 
 of stock and fuel (reckoning nothing for labor and 
 other expenses) being more than their western 
 competitors were asking for the finished goods laid 
 down in the eastern market. Then followed the 
 panics of 1874-75, and Mr. Hotchkiss, with his 
 small capital and twice as much more tied up in 
 real estate, buildings and fine new machinery, no 
 sales for his product except at mtuch less than cost, 
 his customers on every hand failing and others 
 winding up their business, met with heavy financial 
 losses and found himself unable to pay the running 
 expenses of the mill and to carry on the enterprise 
 longer without getting more deeply involved and 
 also further involving his friends, many of whom 
 had advanced and were ready to advance still more 
 money if he so desired. Taking into consideration 
 all the existing conditions, he decided to discon- 
 tinue operationsi. The mill property he transferred 
 to the mortgagee, sold the stock on hand, collected 
 outstanding accounts, and with the proceeds paid 
 his indebtedness as far as possible. However, there 
 was still a balance of many thousands of dollars 
 standing against him, which he proposed to pay 
 from his future earnings, and this self-imposed 
 task was faithfully performed. For over fifteen 
 years succeeding he paid all that could possibly be 
 spared from salary or profits, and eventually all 
 these claims were satisfied, in nearly every case 
 with interest added. During his stay with the Stow 
 Manufacturing Co. Mr. Hotchkiss had proven him- 
 self an expert accountant, and now, as soon as he 
 was again in position to take up that class of work, 
 his services were promptly secured to unravel some 
 intricate and complicated accounts for firms with 
 whom his old emTployers and business associates 
 were connected. After several months in emplo'y- 
 ment of this character, he accepted a position in the 
 office of a manufacturing firm in Indianapolis, Ind., 
 whither he removed. The climate of Indiana 
 proved disagreeable to his family, especially so to 
 his two small boys, and, his official connection also 
 proving unsatisfactory and generally disappointing, 
 he resigned his position in 1876 and returned to 
 Connecticut, where in a short time he secured a po- 
 sition as superintendent in the burner department 
 of the Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Co., of 
 Waterbury. But the longing to be out again in the 
 business world made him feel dissatisfied; and in 
 1877 he severed his connection with this company, 
 and, with a capital of six or seven hundred dollars, 
 bought a small stock of paper and paper bags. 
 
.174 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 With this ver_v limited capital, against the advice 
 of his friends, he worked, soliciting orders, deliver- 
 ing, hauling and caring for his stock in the day- 
 time, and doing his office work at night, often con- 
 tinuing until one or two o'clock in the morning, 
 utterly regardless of pleasure, comfort and health. 
 There were old-established arid wealthy concerns 
 already in the field, and some of them 'boasted 
 openly that they would completely annihilate the 
 young man within six months, tut Mr. Hotchkiss 
 proved himself to be a good fighter, able to keep up 
 the pace as long as they desired, and in no sense a 
 "quitter." For a year or more he was obliged to 
 ■do practically all the work himself in order to keep 
 down running expenses. Rent was an item to be 
 •considered, and he first stored his stock in a small 
 basement on Cherry street, later moving it to a 
 more central and convenient basement on Bank 
 street, where he employed one man as a helper. As 
 his trade increased he occupied a store on Phcenix 
 avenue, in addition to the Bank street basement, 
 and then employed two men. In 1880 his business 
 had grown to such proportions that additional store 
 room and help were needed, so he purchased the 
 property at the corner of Grand and Cedar streets, 
 where in 1883 he erected the five-story brick block 
 which he occupied until Nov. 15, 1901, at which 
 time he leased it to the newly incorporated com- 
 pany. Since 1883 he has bought adjoining prop- 
 erty, and added new storehouses, until now there is 
 over 26,000 square feet of floor space, so thoroughly 
 crowded with goods that more space must be found 
 in the near future. Five men are out as salesmen 
 and collectors, eight men and two ladies are em- 
 ployed in the warehouses and office, and the busi- 
 ness is still on the increase. 
 
 Within the past year or two, the demands for 
 the devotion of all his time and attention to his New 
 Haven business (niiention of which follows) and 
 other interests outside having become almost im- 
 perative, Mr. Hotchkiss finally decided to retire 
 permanentlv from the paper and woodenware trade, 
 and therefore, in Xoven-^ber, 1901, he sold his entire 
 stock of merchandise, equipment and good will in 
 the Waterbury business to a newly organized cor- 
 poration, which continues in the same line under 
 the style of Hotchkiss Paper Co., Incorporated. 
 
 Through his successful management of the 
 paper business, and some profitable outside ven- 
 tures, Mr. Hotchkiss was in 1886 enabled to buy the 
 old Blackstone farm and homestead in the town of 
 Branford, New Haven county — a most beautiful and 
 picturesque country and seaside home on the shore 
 of Long Island Sound. He still owns nearly all of 
 this property, and has at great expense and labor 
 improved the same, built several tasty cottages there- 
 on for summer guests, and made of it an ideal fam- 
 ilv summer resort, which is known as Hotchkiss' 
 Grove. The old red farmhouse which was built by 
 the Blackstones nearly two hundred years ago still 
 stands there, well-preserved, a famous landmark 
 for miles around, and especially so for sailors on 
 
 the Sound. Mr. Hotchkiss is the owner of prop- 
 erty in other sections of the country, and has en- 
 gaged in other business as well. He owns the plant 
 and is sole proprietor of the business which he is 
 conducting under the style of E. M. Hotchkiss Co., 
 of New Haven. In 1898 he bought this large fac- 
 tory property, formerly the Manvill Carriage 
 Works, corner of Wooster and Wallace streets, 
 New Haven, and equipped a portion of the five- 
 story brick building with the latest improved 
 machinery for metal working and an experimental 
 machine shop. For about two years he employed 
 expert micchanical engineers to build and perfect a 
 superior and thoroughly reliable motor for auto- 
 rndbiles, but the results not being entirely satisfac- 
 tory be took up other lines, and now, in addition to 
 general machine work, he is manufacturing for 
 home and export trade the New Era Lawn Mowers, 
 Crescent Wave Lawn Sprinklers, World Hose 
 Couplings, and other patented specialties. The 
 outlook for his having a large, constantly increas- 
 ing, and profitable business in this line is most en- 
 couraging. Air. Hotchkiss is also largely inter- 
 ested in several other manufacturing and financial 
 enterprises, both in and out of the State. 
 
 About twelve years ago, through too close ap- 
 plication to business, Mr. Hotchkiss' health became 
 impaired, and for several years he was unable to fol- 
 low his occupation as closely as formerly. During 
 this period his younger son, Irving Al., for whom 
 a brilliant career was anticipated, was taken ill and 
 passed away, very suddenly and unexpectedly. This 
 was a great blow to the father, and such was his 
 weakened condition at the time that his family and 
 friends greatly feared the outcome. Soon after the 
 physicians recommended the entire abandonment 
 of care and work, a foreign trip, or a prolonged so- 
 journ in some remote section of this country, where 
 complete rest and change of scene could be had, 
 but Mr. Hotchkiss declined to drop the business 
 which he had worked so long and so hard' to build 
 up, and with his characteristic grit remained at his 
 post, letting his elder son, Winford E., who was 
 then with him, attend as far as possible to details. 
 As a result of this more careful husbanding of his 
 strength, coupled with skillful medical treatment, he 
 practically regained his health in a few years, and 
 took hold of his various enterprises with increased 
 vigor ; but the added strain proved to be more than 
 he could yet stand, and early in the spring of 1897 
 he was again stricken, this time with such sudden- 
 ness and severity that he fell unconscious in his 
 room, where he was found later bv his family, 
 rigid, set and apparently lifeless. By heroic treat- 
 ment, however, he was brought back to conscious- 
 ness. A raging- fever then developed, running so 
 high and proving so obstinate that, with extreme 
 prostration, weakness and complete collapse of 
 stomach, the complications were so exceedingly 
 dangerous that on several occasions throughout this 
 sickness it seemed impossible for him to live more 
 than a very short time, a few hours at the most, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 175 
 
 much less to ever rally sufficiently to conquer the 
 disease, leave the sick room and again become 
 active in his vocation. But to the surprise of all 
 who were intimately conversant with the case he 
 after several weeks gained rapidly, recovered be- 
 fore fall, and once more took up his work, and now, 
 at the age of fifty-three, after thirty-seven years of 
 continuous business life, he is still "in the harness," 
 enjoying fairly good health, a very active man, 
 light-hearted, and ever ready to extend a cheery 
 greeting to his friends. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss has not found all his pathway in 
 life strewn with roses, minu£ the thorns. His 
 career has indeed been a strenuous one — a long, 
 hard battle to fight against losses, disappointments, 
 treatchery of so-called friends, hostility of enemies, 
 lack of working capital, hot and ruinous competi- 
 tion, ill health and bereavement. But through it all 
 the blood that he inherited from Revolutionary an- 
 cestors on both maternal and paternal sides came 
 in evidence, and he recognized no such word as de- 
 feat. Although his investments have in a few in- 
 stances proven to be poor ones, and the money 
 might much better have been placed elsewhere or 
 given away, he has always taken a philosophical 
 view of the situation, persevered in his undertakings,, 
 and in the end has become a wealthy man, in the 
 honorable position of deserving all he possesses. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss marriedi Miss Mary L. Dudley in 
 1872. Airs. Hotchkiss was born in Waterbury, a 
 daughter of Whiting B. Dudley, an old and hon- 
 ored resident of that place, who held the office of 
 superintendent of the city Water Works from its 
 organization until his. death in 1882. For eight 
 years he was a deacon in the Prospect Congrega- 
 tional Church. Mr. and Mrs. Hotchkiss are the 
 parents of three children : Winford E., born Feb. 
 5, 1873, has been associated with his father in the 
 paper business in Waterbury from his youth, and is 
 now at the head of the Incorporated company ; he 
 is married. Irving M., born April 3, 1874, died at 
 the age of seventeen, whde preparing for college. 
 Celia E., born March 10, 1888, is a student in the 
 Waterbury high school. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss belongs to Townsend Lodge, No. 
 89, I. O. O. F., and is well satisfied with the work 
 of this order. During the time he was connected 
 with the Stow Manufacturing Co. he united with 
 the Congregational Church, and for several years 
 was a member of the choir of the Plantsville 
 Church, and he is now identified with the Second 
 Congregational Church in Waterbury. He also be- 
 longed to Quinnipiac Lodge, Good Templars, in 
 Plantsville, and was advanced from one office to 
 another until finally, for succeeding terms, he was 
 elected chief of the lodge, being released only when 
 business required his removal from the town. He 
 has continued to follow in the path of temperance 
 in all things, never having used even tobacco in 
 any form, and in choosing his associates he has al- 
 ways sought companions whose reputations would 
 bear close inspection. In politics he is a stanch Re- 
 
 publican, but in no sense can he be called an office 
 seeker nor a scheming politician, and in all elec- 
 tions reserves the right to cast his ballot for the 
 men and measures he thinks best for the public 
 welfare. In either personal or business relations 
 with his fellow men Mr. Hotchkiss is strictly hon- 
 est, appearing for exactly what he is ; his "word is 
 as good as his bond," he has an intense hatred for 
 all forms of hypocrisy, snobbishness and deceit, and 
 is quick to discover a man's true worth in spite of 
 any false exterior. In business and all other mat- 
 ters he is straightforward and progressive; as a 
 friend he is faithfully loyal, ever mindful of a favor, 
 and notably hospitable. He is magnanimous to his 
 enemies, not over-ready to pick a quarrel, but has 
 always been found perfectly capable of taking his 
 own part when forced to do so, and seldom forgets 
 an insult, sHght, or injury. He is firm in his con- 
 victions and tenacious in maintaining them, al- 
 though ever willing to listen to the "other side." 
 Conservative, unassuming, level-headed, of quick 
 perception and good judgment, Mr. Hotchkiss 
 through energy, perseverance and talent has gained 
 his present enviable position, and with the broad 
 charity that comes from hard experience he is ever 
 ready to place a man on his own merits rather than 
 on any inherited social standing, and to assist by 
 word or deed any worthy struggler in life's race. 
 
 By studying the genealogy of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hotchkiss it will be seen that their children can 
 number among their ancestors three different 
 branches of Hotchkiss' in a most extraordinary 
 way: 
 
 First — Emerson M. Hotchkiss had great-grand- 
 fathers, great-grandmothers, great-uncles, great- 
 aunts, and cousins by the name of Hotchkiss on 
 both the paternal and maternal side, between which 
 two lines there existed no blood relationship so far 
 as can yet be traced : On his father's side, Sergt. 
 Ezekiel and his descendants down, and on his 
 mother's side Israel Hotchkiss and his descendants, 
 Israel's daughter, Martha M. marrying Hiram An- 
 drews. Their daughter, Celia Andrews, showed par- 
 tiality toward her grandfather's name, and brought 
 it into the family again by marrying Miles Hotch- 
 kiss, Jr., of a different branch entirely, and not 
 known to be connected, thus bringing two lines of 
 Hotchkiss together, the result of this union being, 
 as hereinbefore stated, Celia M. and Emerson M. 
 
 Second — Emerson M. Hotchkiss, in marrying, 
 added the third line, as the mother of Mary L. 
 Dudley (his wife) was, before her marriage to 
 Whiting B. Dudley, Rosanna Hotchkiss. Her father 
 Vv^as Benjamin Hotchkiss, of Prospect, son of 
 Abraham Hotchkiss, of Watertown, whose father, 
 Deacon Gideon Hotchkiss, of Waterbury and Pros- 
 pect, was a captain of militia in the French and In- 
 dian war and also in the Revolutionary war. So 
 far as is now known this line is in no way related to 
 either of the lines of ancestry of Emerson M. 
 
 The children of Emerson i\I. and Mary L. (Dud- 
 ley) Hotchkiss, namely, Winford E. and Celia E., 
 
176 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 now therefore have relatives by the name of Hotch- 
 kiss extendino; in three different Hnes which for 
 several g-enerations appear to be entirely separate 
 and distinct. 
 
 LEWIS. The family of this name, from which 
 descended the Lewises of Walline-ford and Meri- 
 den, Conn., where, from generation to generation, 
 they have lived for upward of two hundred years, 
 and of which the late Hon. Isaac C. Lewis, of 
 IMeriden, was a distinguished member, were in 
 direct line of descent from William Lewis, their first 
 American ancestor. 
 
 William Lewis came from London in the ship 
 "Lion," arriving in Boston, Mass., Sept. 16, 1632. 
 He settled in what is now Cambridge, Mass., and in 
 the summer of 1636 was one of the Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker company who settled in Hartford, Conn. 
 Air. Lewis removed to Farmington, Conn., before 
 
 1644. Later he removed to Hadley, Mass., and was 
 one of the founders of that town in 1661. He was 
 a leading spirit and prominent man in these several 
 places. His wife was Felix Lewis. 
 
 The late Isaac C. Lewis was in the eighth gen- 
 eration from William Lewis, the line of his descent 
 being through William (2), Ebenezer, Caleb, Icha- 
 bod, Jared and Isaac. 
 
 (II) William Lewis (2), son of William Lewis, 
 was born in England, and came to Boston with his 
 father. In 1644 he was a resident of Farmington, 
 and was chosen the first recorder of the town in 
 
 1645. In 1657 he and Samuel Steele bought of the 
 Indians, on behalf of a Farmington company, a tract 
 of land sixteen miles square. He, too, was a man 
 of prominence in his community. He married 
 (first) ini 1644, Mary, daughter of William Hopkins, 
 of Stratford, Conn., and (second) Mary, daughter 
 of Ezekiel Cheever, a famous instructor, of New 
 Haven, Conn., and Boston, Mass. William Lewis 
 died in i6qo. 
 
 (III) Ebenezer Lewis, son of William (2), was 
 born in Farmington', Conn. He married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Merriman, of Walling- 
 ford. Conn., and settled in that town, where he died 
 in 1709. 
 
 (IV) Caleb Lewis, son of Ebenezer Lewis, born 
 in W'allimgford, Conn., married Sarah (Curtis) 
 Cook, daughter of Isaac Curtis, and widow of 
 Isaac Cook. 
 
 (V) Ichabodi Lewis, son of Caleb Lewis, born 
 in Wallingford, married, after the death of his first 
 wife, Sarah Esther (Umberfield) Hall, daughter of 
 Caleb and Esther Umberfield. 
 
 (VI) Jared Lewis, son of Ichabod Lewis by his 
 second marriage, born May 10, 1761, married Rhoda 
 Munson. Jared Lewis was a patriot in the Revo- 
 lutionary war, in which he served in a regiment 
 commanded by Col. Canfield. In later vears he kept 
 a hotel in Wallingford, and was no exception to the 
 rule in those days when the landlord was generally 
 the most influential man in the community. He 
 
 was active in politics, and his advice was sought in 
 all matters pertaining to public affairs. 
 
 (VII) Isaac Lewis, son of Jared Lewis and the 
 father of the late Isaac C. Lewis, of Aleriden, was 
 born in Wallingford. He married Esther, daughter 
 of Deodate and Mary (Parsons) Beaumont, re- 
 moved to Meriden and there died in 1823. His 
 widow diedi five years later. In 1806, at the time 
 Meriden was taken from Wallingford and incor- 
 porated in a separate town, Isaac Lewis was chosen 
 town clerk, and as such served until his death. He 
 was a man greatly esteemed and hig'hly respected. 
 Hon. Isaac Chauncey Lewis, son of Isaac 
 Lewis was bom Oct. 19, 1812, in Meriden, Conn. 
 After his father's death, when the son was but eleven 
 vears of age, he had but one term of schooling save 
 an occasional attendance at an evening school. On 
 the death of his. father young Lewis lived one sum- 
 mer with Levi Yale on the Carpenter place on East 
 Main street, in Meriden, andi the next summer with 
 Moses Andrew.s, a farmer in the west part of the 
 same town. In the next year be went to live with 
 his grandfather. Tared Lewis, in Wallingford, and 
 assisted him in his store and hotel. On the death 
 of his grandfather, a year later, young Lewis re- 
 turned to Meriden, and there remained two years, 
 living a part of the time with his mother, and after 
 her death, in 1828, with his brother Patrick, who 
 kept a tavern. "When in his fifteenth year he re- 
 turned to Wallineford, and entered the establish- 
 ment of Charles & Hiram Yale, manufacturers of 
 britannia ware, to learn the trade. He remained 
 with Hiram Yale until the death of that gentleman, 
 in 1831 (Charles having withdrawn in the mean- 
 time). He then entered the employ of Lewis & 
 Holt (of which firm his brother Patrick was a mem- 
 ber), who kept a store in a part of his brother's ho- 
 tel building, and had a small factory. Young Lewis 
 worked at a foot lathe, and his first business was that 
 of making molasses-gates. Later his employers en- 
 larged their business, and began making Britannia 
 ware. In 1833 the firm failed, and young Lewis lost 
 about half of the little capital of $800 which he had 
 accumulated. The business of the firm fell into the 
 hands of Almeron Miles, with whom Mr. Lewis re- 
 mained two years and added $200 to his capital. 
 Being then twenty-two years of age, he formed a- 
 partnership with George Cowles, under the firm 
 name of Lewis & Cowles. They closed up their 
 business in the spring of 1836, by which time Mr. 
 Lewis had a capital of $1,500. Later and for a time- 
 until in 1840 he was in business in partnership with 
 Lemuel J. Curtis. 
 
 In 1841 Mr. Lewis bought the Fordred farm, 
 which was located about one mile east of Meriden 
 Center, where he resided for many years. Here he 
 built a shop and carried on the Britannia business on 
 his own account. His business increased, and in 
 1850 he bought the Crocker shop in which he had' 
 carried on business with Mr. Cowles. Soon after,, 
 associated with Daniel B. Wells, the firm of I. C- 
 

 c^' 
 
 6' 
 
 c^^^.^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 177 
 
 Lewis &Co. was formed, but the death of Mr. Wells 
 soon afterward terminated the partnership. He 
 purchased the interest of Mr. Wells and continued 
 in business alone, rapidly enlarging his product and 
 the means of manufacturing it. About this time 
 Horace C. and Dennis Wilcox, two enterprising 
 men who made themselves known in the business 
 world, conceived the plan of forming a joint-stock 
 company, and bought up the several Britannia-ware 
 establishments in Meriden, so in 1852 the Meriden 
 Britannia Q>. was formed and incorporated with a 
 capital of $50,000, the incorporators being Horace 
 C. and Dennis Wilcox, W. W. Lyman, Lemuel J. 
 Curtis, John Munson. James Frary and Isaac C. 
 Lewis. Mr. Lewis was. made president. For nearly 
 fourteen years he stood at the head of the new cor- 
 poration, giving bis constant personal attention to 
 the business in its many details. Not only did he 
 perform all the onerous duties of the presidency, but 
 he exercised a careful supervision over the manu- 
 facture of the company's goods, that went far toward 
 establishing the enviable reputation that the product 
 of the factory soon gained. At the end of this period 
 the affairs of the Britannia Company were riinning 
 so smoothly, and its successes had been so pro- 
 nounced that Mr. Lewis felt that he should be par- 
 tially relieved from his arduous duties. He accord- 
 ingly, in January, 1866, resigned from the presi- 
 dency of the company. The office of suj>erintendent 
 (which office he had practically held all these years) 
 was created, and Mr. Lewis was elected. This 
 office he held until 1874, when he resigned that 
 position. On the death of Horace C. Wilcox, in 
 1890, at the earnest solicitation of the directors of 
 the Britannia Company, Mr. Lewis again assumed 
 the presidency and remained in that office until his 
 death. Though relieved of the presidency from 
 1866 to 1890, Mr. Lewis was during all these years 
 a potent factor in the managerial and executive af- 
 fairs of the company, and his views always played a 
 large part in shaping the course of the Meriden 
 Britannia Co., which had grown from an infant in- 
 dustry to become one of the largest manufacturing 
 concerns in the country, with a capital of one mil- 
 lion dollars, and having five million dollars invested. 
 
 As years passed Mr. Lewis' business interests 
 embraced wider and wider fields. Every new busi- 
 ness interest that needed encouragement and capital 
 enlisted his support until he had become a stock- 
 holder in a score of thriving concerns, and a director 
 in a dozen of them. He was president of the Meri- 
 den Trust and Safe Deposit Co., the Miller Brothers' 
 Cutlery Co., and one of the directors of the Meriden 
 National Bank, the Meriden' Savings Bank, the Wil- 
 cox Silver Plate Co., the Meriden Silver Plate Co., 
 the Manning & Bowman Co., Edward Miller & Co., 
 the Wilcox & White Organ Co., and others. 
 
 During the busiest year of his life Mr. Lewis 
 
 found time to devote to town and municipal affairs, 
 
 and his fellow citizens were always eager to avail 
 
 themselves of his services in the local government 
 
 12 
 
 and m the State Legislature. He was elected repre- 
 sentative in 1848, in 1853, in 1862, and in 1866. 
 Previous to 1862 he was elected as a Democrat, but 
 in the year of the Union Republican ticket, when 
 Sumter was fired upon, he joined the Republican 
 cause for putting down the Rebellion. He took a 
 deep interest in the prosecution of the Civil war, and 
 subscribed liberally whenever funds were needed by 
 the North. He believed in sustaining the Union 
 forces at any cost. And all through those dark 
 years Mr. Lewis gave freely of his time and wealth 
 to assist the families of the men who were fighting 
 at the front. In 1856, 1858 and i860 Mr. Lewis 
 served as justice of the peace, and was on the board 
 of relief in 1861 and 1867. He was a member of 
 the city council in 1867, and in 1868 was alderman. 
 He served his town as mayor, elected first in 1870, 
 and his administration was particularly successful. 
 He was placed at the head of the commission ap- 
 pointed in 1875 to build the water works, and in 
 the following year he was appointed one of the 
 sewer commission, and in both did splendid work, 
 giving the city one of the best supplies of water of 
 any city in New England. 
 
 Mr. Lewis was always known as one of Meri- 
 den's most liberal philanthropists, and the extent of 
 his private charities was never known, so quietly 
 and in such an unostentatious manner were they 
 made. Among those that the public knew most 
 about were his gift of a handsome block on the cor- 
 ner of Main and Veteran streets to the Meriden 
 City Mission. His contributions in aid to tliis so- 
 ciety's charity have also been most liberal. There 
 is scarcely an organization to which he belonged to 
 which he did not make most generous contributions, 
 among them being the Political Equality Club, tem- 
 perance societies and other kindred institutions. To 
 the support of the St. Paul's Universalist Church, 
 of which he was so long a devoted and consistent 
 member, he was liberal, almost to lavishness. In 
 the building of the new church, the dedication of 
 which he in the last years of his life witnessed with 
 so much gratification, Mr. Lewis contributed the 
 major portion of the $100,000 that it cost. The new 
 organ was also his gift, and several other features 
 were secured there as the result of his generosity. 
 Mr. Lewis was reared an Episcopalian, and after 
 marriage in 1836 he attended the Baptist Church 
 until in 1854, when largely through his instrumental- 
 ity the First Universalist Society of Meriden was 
 formed, and there his religious zeal received its real 
 inspiration, and there the most generous impulses 
 of his life found their rich fruition. After the so- 
 ciety was organized Mr. Lewis founded the Sun- 
 day-school, and was chosen its superintendent, an 
 office he held for eighteen years. Always an ear- 
 nest supporter of the temperance cause, Mr. Lewis 
 joined the Sons of Temperance upon its organiza- 
 tion, and was one of its loyal leaders, and the larg- 
 est society in Meriden bore his name. In 1883 he 
 joined the Prohibition party, in support of whose 
 
178 
 
 :OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 principles he was ever after active and efficient. He 
 contributed liberally to the Woman's Christian Tem- 
 perance Union. He was a firm believer in Woman's 
 emancipation, advocating her right to suffrage. 
 
 Among the mosit noted personal characteristics 
 of I\Ir. Lewis were generosity, public spirit and 
 modesty. He was never hasty in reaching con- 
 clusions, but when taken would maintain them until 
 the wisdom of his position was established and ac- 
 knowledged, yet he was at all times, no majtt€r what 
 the discussion or controversy, amiable in manner, 
 modest in stating his own position, and generous 
 in admitting the honesty of those who differed from 
 him. In all his varied affairs of life Mr. Lewis avoid- 
 ed litigation ; never on a single occasion did he re- 
 sort to a court of law for justice, and never was he 
 sued. He always found some quiet way of settling 
 disputes, and thus made lifelong friends. To young 
 men Mr. Lewis was always a source of wisdom and 
 inspiration. To him they went for counsel, and they 
 always found in him a guide and friend. He was 
 a life long member of Meriden Center Lodge, No. 
 68, L O. O. F., and was a member of the Sons of the 
 American Revolution. 
 
 In his home life those personal characteristics 
 which made Mr. Lewis beloved in business and so- 
 cial circles, shone forth in even a greater degree. 
 There he was the embodiment of goodness, there 
 his noble Christian manhood found its truest mani- 
 festation. His death occurred Dec. 7, 1893, and 
 never was a man more deeply mourned, never was 
 grief more keen ; every one in Meriden felt that lie 
 or she had lost a personal friend. The day of the 
 funeral was one of general mourning throughout 
 Meriden, — flags were displayed at half mast on all 
 the factories and public buildings, while shops and 
 places of business' were closed during the hours of 
 the funeral ceremony. 
 
 On J\lay 11, 1836, Mr. Lewis was married to 
 Harriet, daughter of Noah and Nancy (Alerriman) 
 Pomeroy, of Meriden, and their children were : 
 Nancy M., born Feb. 26, 1837, died Jan. 27, 1856; 
 Martha E., born Oct. 3, 1839, married Oct. 2, 1861, 
 Charles H. Fales; Henry J., born Oct. 21, 1841, 
 married Aug. 7, 1884, Mary E. Stringer, and died 
 Jan. II, 1902, at Stratford, Conn.; Isaac, born July 
 15, 1843, died April 30, 1847; Kate A., born May 8, 
 1851, married July 29, 1878, Rev. James H. Chapin, 
 Ph. D. ; and Frank, born Dec. 30, 1852, died Oct. 
 9> 1855. 
 
 WILLIAM JACKSON IVES, who, during his 
 life, was one of the best known, representative citi- 
 zens of Meriden, was born in that town July 28, 
 181 5. A complete history of the early members of 
 the Ives family is given in this volume in connection 
 with the biography of Frederick W. Ives. 
 
 Lazarus Ives, son of John Ives (2), was born 
 Feb. 5, 1703, in the town of Wallingford and was 
 married first, Jan. 5, 1731, to Mabel Jerome. His 
 second wife's name was Isabella. His children 
 
 were: Timothy, born Oct. 16, 1731 ; Lazurus, Nov. 
 2, 1734; Ambrose, May 22, 1736; Isabella, April 
 19, 1738; Joshua, March 16, 1740; Amasa, March 
 14, 1743 ; and John and Phebe, the former of whom 
 was baptized May 17, 1747, and the latter Nov. 
 26, 1752. 
 
 Amasa Ives, son of Lazarus and Isabella Ives, 
 was born in that part of Wallingford now the town 
 of Meriden, and was baptized March 14, 1743. Here 
 he lived all his days. His wife was Rebecca Ward. 
 
 Watrous Ives, son of Amasa and Rebecca Ives, 
 was married Sept. 15, 1809, to Polly Yale. Of their 
 children we have the following record: (i) Woos- 
 ter Yale, born July 8, 1810, first married Elizabeth 
 Lake, of Meriden, and second, Elizabeth Parish. 
 No children were born of either marriage. In 1849 
 he went to California, and later became a farmer 
 at Fulton, Illinois, where he died. (2) Phoebe, 
 born July 29, 1813, died May 2, 1889. She became 
 the wife of William Hale, of whom extended men- 
 tion appears elsewhere in this volume. (3) Will- 
 iam Jackson is mentioned farther on. (4) Aaron 
 Watrous, born May 25, 1817, died March 18, 1888. 
 On Nov. 10, 1843, he married Sarah E. Atkins, who 
 died Aug. 11, 1844, and on April 5, 1846, he mar- 
 ried Sarah Leantine Upson, who died Feb. 16, 1898. 
 His family included five children, as follows : Sarah 
 Hubbard, born Aug. 8, 1844, married William Mar- 
 shall Jan. 3, 1872, and had four children, Marion 
 Ives (born April 9, 1873), Ruth Ives (born Aug. 28, 
 1878, rrtarried Edgar G. Clark in July, 1898, and 
 resides in New Haven), Myra Ives (born Sept. 12, 
 1880, resides with Waldo C. Twiss, in Meriden), 
 and Luther Ives (born Nov. 7, 1882, was adopted 
 by Dr. Means, of Michigan) ; Cornelia Leantine, 
 born July 16, 1850, died Dec. 3, 1873 ; Henry M. 
 and Harvey MiUer, twins, born March 3, 1859, the 
 former of whom died April i, 1863, while the latter 
 became a Baptist minister and married Anna Bishop, 
 of Meriden, by whom he had one child, Margaret; 
 and Ernest Manning, born Dec. 17, 1865. (5) 
 Amasa, born March 28, 1819, was long engaged in 
 the dry goods business at Benton, Ala., and died 
 unmarried in Aleriden. (6) Stephen, born Aug. 
 S, 1821, died in New York March 19, 1898 He 
 married, first, Mariette Hall, of Meriden, and theii 
 only child, Stepjien Dallas, is now a resident of San 
 Francisco, Cal. His second wife, Celia Fish, was a 
 native of New York State and bore him five chil- 
 dren, namely: John, Clara, Frank F., Mae and a 
 daughter who died unnamed. Mrs. Ives died in 
 Meriden. (7) George W., born Jan. 15, 1825, died 
 unmarried. (8) Samuel Miller, born Jan. 29, 1829, 
 married Julia Ann Crocker, jMarch 25, 1852. They 
 had three children, born as follows: Leland 
 Crocker, Nov. 12, 1856, died Feb. 22, 1885; Luella, 
 Feb. I, 1861, died Aug. 26, following; Birdie, Dec. 
 19, 1872, died Sept. 14, fohowing. (9) and (10) 
 Cornelia and Delia, twins, born Feb. 28, 1833, of 
 whom- the latter died April 3, following; Cornelia 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 179 
 
 married Waldo Clinton Twiss, of Meriden, Oct. 15, 
 1862, and her only child, Frank Bolivar, born May 
 12, 1863, died Sept. 10, following. 
 
 WilHam Jackson Ives was reared on the home 
 farm and educated in the district schools. In early 
 manhood he was a peddler with a team in the South, 
 disposing of wares made by Parker & White, of 
 Isleriden, receiving a compensation of one hundred 
 dollars per month and expenses. For some years 
 he made suspender webbing in Meriden- but lost 
 his factory by fire. Subsequently he established 
 himself in business on his own account at Benton, 
 Ala., keeping a general store. After achieving 
 marked success he admitted to partnership his 
 brother, Stephen Ives, and his bookkeeper, William 
 Sayre. Most of his time was spent in the North 
 buying goods to supply the demands of a large num- 
 ber of customers, and looking after bis farm. The 
 large planters bought much on credit and the de- 
 vastation caused by the Civil war impoverished their 
 debtors and the firm was forced to sustain a loss of 
 about one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Ives' per- 
 sonal loss included a large store and warehouse, 
 amounting to eighty thousand dollars, of which 
 he never recovered anything. Much of this loss was 
 caused by the burning of the town by the Union 
 army. Retiring to Meriden he abandoned his 
 southern interests and took a more active part in 
 home affairs than bad previously been possible. He 
 was quite extensively engaged in rearing fine stock, 
 and as he was a lover of fine horses this occupa- 
 tion was congenial to him and many animals were 
 disposed of by him at handsome figures. His bus- 
 iness ability and integrity were well known and ap- 
 preciated, and he was often called upon to settle 
 estates. A most charitable and hospitable man, he 
 was universally respected. He was an active mem- 
 ber of the Baptist Church and gave largely to be- 
 nevolent and charitable undertakings. In politics, 
 like most of the early residents of Meriden, he was 
 a Democrat. Refusing to be a candidate for mayor, 
 he served in the city council and board of aldermen, 
 and as street commissioner 'and took an active in- 
 terest in public affairs, both local and general. His 
 influence was wide-spread and contributed much to 
 the general welfare. A devoted husband and father, 
 and a kind and upright neighbor, his demise caused 
 a great loss to his native town. He passed away at 
 his home in this city May 16, 1887, and was buried 
 in East Cemetery. 
 
 On Sept. I, 1841, Mr. Ives was married to 
 I.ucy Julia Birdsey, who was born in Meriden, a 
 daughter of Gershom and Lucy Coe Birdsey, of 
 whom further mention is made in the genealogy 
 of Eli C. Birdsey in this volume. Mrs. Ives is a 
 lady of much character and business ability. Dur- 
 i!ig' the long absences from home of her husband, 
 she cared for his local interests in a thoroughly 
 business-like way. She is also well-read and refined, 
 and is a favorite with the young people of her ac- 
 
 quaintance, with whom she loves to mingle. The 
 embodiment of Christian virtues, she is a valued 
 member of the First Baptist Church and pursues 
 the samte line of Christian labors which were so 
 well undertaken by her lamented husband:- Though 
 well advanced in years she is still in the enjoyment 
 of vigorous health, and is active and useful in the 
 various affairs of life. The children of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Ives were five in number. ( i ) William Bird- 
 sey, born Oct. 27, 1843, '™ Meriden, married S. 
 Clarissa Rutty, daughter of Ezra Rutty, of Meri- 
 den. (2) EUena Lucy, born March 24, 1847, mar- 
 ried Conrad G. Bacon, of Middletown, Conn., and 
 died July 30, 1870, leaving one child, EUena Ives, 
 born July 27, 1870, who married Arthur A. Allen, 
 of Middletown, Oct. 6, 1890; she has had three chil- 
 dren, Margaret (born Nov. 30, 1891), John Will- 
 iam (Oct. 19, 1898, died the 26th of the same 
 month), and Ellena (born October, 1900). (3) 
 Elizabeth, born May 29, 1849, died two days later. 
 
 (4) Carrie, born Dec. i, 1856, died six days later. 
 
 (5) George W., born Aug. 8, 1861, was a success- 
 ful business man in Meriden and Mussell Shell, 
 Montana, and died in Meriden, unmarried, April 
 17, 1889. 
 
 HENRY DENNISON HALL, now retired 
 from the butcher business, in which he was so long 
 and successfully engaged in Wallingford, was born 
 on a farm in that town Sept. 7, 1836, and is a de- 
 scendant of John Hall, the founder of the family in 
 New Haven Colony, through liis son John and 
 grandson of the same name. 
 
 John Hall, son of John and Mary (Parker) Hall, 
 and grandson of the first John Hall, was born March 
 14, 1681, in the town of Wallingford, where he was 
 an extensive land owner, spending his life in the 
 cultivation of the broad acres that constituted the 
 Hall homestead. He was a man of character and 
 standing in the town and church affairs, being 
 deacon of the church and an occupant of several 
 public positions. At the ripe age of eighty-six 
 years this worthy and honorable progenitor of 
 Henry D. Hall passed away, April 27, 1766. 
 
 Elis'ha Hall, born in Wallingford, was a ser- 
 geant in the State militia, and participated in the 
 war of the Revolution. All his life was spent in 
 Wallingford, where he died January 19, 1800, 
 at the age of seventy years. Thankful At- 
 water, his wife, was united in marriage with him, 
 June 14, 1755. Born in 1732, she became the 
 mother of a numerous family, and died June 28, 
 1792. The following children were born to this 
 marriage: Phebe, born Feb. 10, 1756, married Mr. 
 Parmalee, of Durham; Sarah, born April 5, 1758, 
 married John Fields, of Cheshire ; Joseph, born July 
 25, 1759, married Mercy Cornwall, 'May 31, 1799; 
 Lydia, bom July 17, 1761, married Mr. Curtis, and 
 settled in Durham; Sally, born Dec. 8, 1763; Eliza- 
 beth,, born Oct. 3, 1765, married Benjamin Hall; 
 
I So 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Hannah, born Jan. 26, 1769; John, born July 13, 
 1770; and Eunice, born Aug. i, 1772, married Miles 
 Peck. 
 
 John Hall, whose name is noted in the preceding 
 paragraph, was the grandfather of Henry Dennison 
 Hall, and was born on the Hall homestead, and his 
 early youth and boyhood were passed amid the 
 troublous yearsi of the American Revolution. He 
 became a substantial farmer, a well and highly re- 
 spected citizen, and followed the tillage of the soil 
 all his life. He married Grace Dennison Hall, April 
 3, 1800, and she died Jan. 3, 1840. Both husband 
 and wife are buried in Center Street Cemetery. 
 These were their children: Lowly, born April 21, 
 1804, married a Mr. Johnson ; Jeremiah Atwater, 
 born in 1806; John, born in 1807; Thankfull, born 
 Sept. 6, 1808, married a Mr. Hopson ; Phebe, born 
 Dec. 18, 1810; Dennison D., born Dec. 9, 1815; 
 Grace D., born July 18, 1813, married George Simp- 
 son; Elisha, born March 15, 1818; Jennette, born 
 May 31, 1820; and Patty. 
 
 Jeremiah A. Hall, father of Henry Dennison 
 Hall, was born and reared on the old family home- 
 stead, and had a fair education in the district school. 
 He was a life-long farmer, and was also engaged 
 in teaming between Waterbury and Wallingford, 
 carrying in German silver to the local manufac- 
 turers. A well known and much respected man, he 
 had many friends in the community, and was long 
 regarded as one of the representative men of the 
 town. In politics he was in early life a Whig, and 
 then became a Republican. Temperate and do- 
 mestic in his habits, his life was singularly free 
 from flaws and stains, and those who knew him best 
 entertained for him the most profound respect. In 
 religion he was a Presbyterian, and his long and 
 upright life of more than eighty-four years cast no 
 stain upon his profession of faith. Jemima Field, 
 born in the town of Madison, became his wife, and 
 was the mother of four children, of whom the oldest, 
 Henry Dennison, is the subject of this writing. Her 
 second son, Joseph Atwater, was born Oct. 11, 1838, 
 and had his education in the Wallingford district 
 school and in a private school at Southfield. He 
 remained at home and worked with his parents until 
 he reached the age of twenty-five, when he went to 
 New York City, and for a year was a clerk in a 
 hotel on Cortland street. For two years he was clerk 
 for A. L. Chamberlain, a general merchant at Fair 
 Haven. In 1863 he became a partner with his 
 brother, Henry D., under the firm name of H. D. & 
 J. A. Hall, and engaged in the butcher business in 
 Wallingford, where he continued until the time of 
 his death, April 27, 1900. He was buried in the 
 Center Street Cemetery at Wallingford. He was a 
 Mason, and was known as a good man who lived 
 very close to the Golden Rule. During the Civil war 
 he served as a soldier of the Union army, being a 
 member of the Regimental Band connected with the 
 5th Conn. V. I. He was a musician of marked 
 ability, and for many years he was a member of the 
 
 Wallingford' Band. He was married at Broad 
 Brook, Hartford Co., Conn., to Miss Cora Beamen, 
 a native of South Windsor, and a daughter of Shel- 
 don Beamen. They had one child, Eva Lillias, who 
 graduated from the Wallingford high school in 
 1899, and married Edwin Francis Ives, a son of 
 Dobson Ives, of East Wallingford. Mrs. Joseph 
 Hall died in 1892, and is buried in the Center Street 
 cemetery. The third son of Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah 
 Hall was Julius C. Hall, who is now engaged in the 
 butcher business at Wallingford. Their only daugh- 
 ter, Hannah Elizabeth, married Andrew Anderson. 
 Mrs. Jeremiah Hall died at the age of fifty-two 
 years, and is buried in the Center Street Cemetery ; 
 she was a member of the Presbyterian church, and 
 a lady of fine character. 
 
 Henry Dennison Hall attended the district 
 school, and was a student in a private school for 
 four years. He remained at home working for his 
 parents until he was eighteen years of age, when he 
 started out for himself in life, finding his first work 
 in a coal office at New Hiaven. For three years 
 he worked in the New Haven office, when, desiring 
 to start in business for himself, he returned to Wall- 
 ingford and engaged in business with Willard & 
 Hopkins, old butchers and meat men. At a later 
 period he formed a partnership with his brother, 
 after a four years' partnership with Mr. Willard, of 
 the firm already mentioned, and the firm of H. D. 
 & J. A. Hall built up a large and enduring business. 
 The third brother, Julius, became a member of the 
 firm, and is now carrying on the business. Henry 
 Dennison has bought stock very largely. In 1872 
 they built a fine brick market on Center street. Mr. 
 Hall is an active and energetic man, and has never 
 married. He has a farm of sixty acres, and is one 
 of the solid men of the community. 
 
 FRANKLIN TITUS IVES, an old and much 
 respected citizen of Meriden, who for many years 
 was one of its leading business men, is now spend- 
 ing the evening of his days in retirement at his 
 very comfortahle home on Broad street, Meriden. 
 He was born on the Ives homestead, in the town of 
 Meriden, near the Wallingford line, Aug. i, 1828,. 
 and is a descendant of one of the oldest and most 
 respected families of New England. 
 
 John Ives, the first of the name to settle in New 
 Flaven county, was a land owner and farmer in 
 that part oi Wallingford which is now Meriden. 
 There he spent his life, and had a family of eight 
 children. John Ives, his oldest son, was born Nov. 
 16, 1669, a^d was engaged in farming in what was 
 then the North Farms of Wallingford, where he 
 died in 1738, at the age of sixty-nine years. In 
 1693 he was married to Mary Gillette, bv whom he 
 became the father of eleven children, the eldest of 
 whom, John, was iborn Sept. 28, 1694. This John 
 Ives was a farmer, and owned considerable land 
 near the Wallingford line, in the southeast part of 
 Meriden. His life was spent on the farm, where he 
 
s^. ^ 
 
 O^v^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 18[ 
 
 died Aug. 4, 1745. His remains were laid to rest 
 in Meriden. On Dec. 18, 1719, he married Hannah 
 Royce, daughter of Samuel and Hannah Royce, of 
 Wallingford. She died Nov. 5, 1770 at the age of 
 seventy years. Their children were twelve in num- 
 ber. 
 
 John Ives, eldest son of John and Hannah 
 (Royce) Ives, was born July 4, 1729, and was a 
 lifelong farmer. He was twice married, his first 
 wife being Mary Hall, a daughter of Dr. Isaac Hall. 
 She died in February, 1788, and Mr. Ives married 
 for his second wife Sarah Hall, who passed away 
 Nov. 24, 1814. He entered into rest in February, 
 1816. He was the father of eight sons and four 
 daughters: (i) Lucretia married Capt. Samuel 
 Ives. (2) John married Martha Merriman, and 
 settled in Lewis county, N. Y. (3) Isaac married 
 a Miss Benedict, and after her death wedded a Mrs. 
 White, of Danbury. He was a member of the firm 
 of Ives & White, the first wholesale hatters in New 
 York. (4) Levi married Fannie Silliman, June 
 18, 1789, and settled in Lewis county, N. Y. He 
 was the father of Bishop Ives, of North Carolina, 
 who later became a Catholic, and died at Fordham, 
 N. Y., Oct. 13, 1867. (5) Joseph married Lucy 
 Hall, a daughter of Benjamin Hall, and located in 
 Canada. (6) Joel M. married a Miss Hart, and also 
 found a home in Canada. (7) Othniel, born Aug. 
 17, 1779, married Sarah Yale, and after her death, 
 Rosetta Yale; he was engaged in farming in Meri- 
 den, on part of his father's estate, and died about 
 1829. (8) Titus was the father of Franklin T. 
 Ives. (9) Eli was engaged in the hat business in 
 New York, and died of yellow fever. He was a 
 penman of very artistic tastes, and Mr. Ives has in 
 his possession samples of drawing and writing from 
 this exquisite artist, which are almost without equal. 
 (10) Anna married Noah Foster. (11) Polly mar- 
 ried John Hooker. (12) Meriel married a Mr. 
 Clark, and moved with him to Canada. 
 
 Titus Ives, noted albove, was born July 15, 1782, 
 on the old homestead, where he was reared, and he 
 secured his education in the neighborhood district 
 school, though he always regarded himself very 
 largely as a man self-educated, by close observation 
 and wide reading. For twenty-five years he taught 
 school in Wallingford and Meriden, and he was 
 also engaged in farming, building a dwelling house, 
 barns and other appurtenances on that portion of 
 the large estate which fell to hirn, and which is now 
 owned by Robert Owen. The house was destroyed 
 by fire in 1901. Titus Ives spent his life on the 
 farm, and becamie one of the most prominent and 
 highly respected men of the town. Long servmg 
 as trial justice in Meriden, he was familiarly known 
 as "Squire" Ives, and he also acted in other local 
 positions. In politics he was a stanch Democrat. 
 In religion he was a member of the Baptist Church, 
 helping to organize the church of that denomination 
 in Meriden, and was always deeply interested in its 
 welfare. In 1806 Titus Ives married, in Meriden, 
 
 Lodema Yale, a daughter of Nathaniel Yale, who 
 was a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. She is 
 remembered as a womian of great Christian worth 
 and high moral character. To this union were born 
 SIX children: (i) Silas Yale, who was a school 
 teacher for forty years, and died in North Madison, 
 Conn.; (2) Nathaniel Yale, who died of small pox 
 in New York; (3) Maria, who married Luther 
 Hall; (4) A daughter that died in infancy un- 
 named; (s) Susan L., who died young; and (6) 
 Franklin T., whose name introduces this article. 
 Titus Ives died March 11, 1834. 
 
 Franklin Titus Ives was reared under the par- 
 ental roof, and secured his education in the local 
 schools. All his life he has been a close student, 
 and at an early age became a teacher, for a number 
 of years being a very successful worker in the 
 school room. Very early in life he became inter- 
 ested in the stock business, and as early as his eigh- 
 teenth year began buying cattle in the Vermont and 
 western centers of that trade, and selling them in 
 the home market. In 1862 he began the tobacco 
 business, and followed that line for more than 
 twenty-five years, having long been one of the 
 largest buyers and packers of tobacco in the State. 
 Plis knowledge of the art of curing and packing the 
 article is profound. By the feeling of the weed he 
 could tell the kind of land on which it grew and 
 what kind of fertilizer was employed in its growth. 
 He was ready to pay the highest market prices, and 
 his packing always sold at the top of the market. 
 During- the other seasons of the year he also bought 
 wool and skins, a line in which he was eminently 
 successful, buying wool in nearly every State of 
 the Union, and building up a very extensive busi- 
 ness. Mr. Ives was also interested with I. C. 
 Lewis, in the manufacture of boots and suspender 
 web, under the firm name of Ives, Lewis & Co., and 
 was a member of the firm of Hall, Ives & Co., coni- 
 mission merchants, in New York, dealers in Cali- 
 fornia wines and brandies, and for years among the 
 largest dealers at New York in wines of the Pacific 
 
 In 1887 Mr. Ives, in company with Lemuel J. 
 Curtis, Robert Bowman and O. B. Arnold, became 
 interested in furnishing $100,000 to a mining^ com- 
 pany known as the Aurora Mining Co., of Wiscon- 
 sin, which went under with a debt of $120,000. 
 Mr. Ives was sent out by the creditors in Meriden 
 to look after their interests, and when he reached 
 the mines met a number of strangers all bent on a 
 similar errand. After a consultation a new com- 
 pany was formed, with Mr. Ives as secretary, treas- 
 urer and general manager, and Judge Stevenson 
 Burke, of Cleveland, as president. Mr. Ives was so 
 successful in his management that be paid the debts, 
 put $512,000 to the company's credit, and then sold 
 the mines to the Wisconsin Central Railway Co. for 
 $1,000,000, and this inside three years. 
 
 Mr. Ives became connected in 1887 with' Judge 
 Burke and James Corrigan, also of Cleveland, in 
 
IS2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the Corrigan-Ives Co., dealers in ore. This firm 
 built up a business of nearly three million dollars a 
 year, but suspended operations in 1893, owing to 
 the tightness of the money market, paying, however, 
 in full all claims against them. The business was 
 finally closed in 1901, with a substantial profit to 
 the investors, and Mr. Ives settled down to a private 
 life after a very eventful business career. In Sep- 
 tember, 1901, he made a voyage on the private 
 yacht of Mr. Corrigan, just before that vessel went 
 down with Mr. Corrigan 's family on board. 
 
 ]Mr. Ives built his present fine home on Broad 
 street in 1861, and it is reputed to be one of the 
 most substantial in Meriden. He is a practical man, 
 a deep thinker, with decided opinions, as well as 
 respect for others' thoughts, and he is a strong ad- - 
 mirer of the late Robert Ingersoll. He is known 
 as a man of letters of no mean ability. His poetic 
 ability is marked, and a poem of his which follows 
 sets forth his views on theology : 
 
 ORTHODOXY. 
 
 Life is the time to serve the Lord, 
 The time to insure the great reward ; 
 And while the lamp holds out to burn 
 The biggest rascal can return. 
 
 From youth to age in sin can revel 
 Cheat, lie and steal and serve the Devil ; 
 And when life's clock is past eleven, 
 Profess religion, and go to heaven. 
 
 If man's last breath speaks faith, hope and belief. 
 Who all his life has been a knave, and thief, 
 And makes success to gain the great reward, 
 Gives doubts as to the judgment of the Lord. 
 
 Absurd such faith ; professions are a cheat ; 
 The acts men do make character complete ; 
 With unbelief, an honest life should have 
 An honored memory, and a peaceful grave. 
 
 This creed seems safe: Be always true and just; 
 Nor fear God's wrath when we return to dust, 
 Or that our souls the vaults of hell may fill ; 
 Do right ; and when death calls, let come what will. 
 
 While in the West Mr. Ives wrote quite occa- 
 sionally for the Meriden and other papers, and his 
 communications were regarded as peculiarly valu- 
 able and interesting. He also possesses musical 
 gifts of a high order, and is an expert checker 
 player. He has presented some valuable scientific 
 papers before the Meriden Scientific Association, 
 and has in contemplation the preparation of a work 
 describing his theories ; a volume of reminiscences 
 of early New England life is now in progress. Mr. 
 Ives' theory of the earth formation, and origin of 
 the water supply, is somewhat unique. He holds 
 that the source of all water supply is the interior of 
 the globe, and that centrifugal force brings it to the 
 surface, and he shows many evidences to confirm 
 his theory. He believes the earth to be hollow, with 
 openings at the polar ends nearly 1,500 miles across ; 
 that the ice belt is the dividing line between salt 
 and fresh water, the outside ocean being: salt and 
 
 the inside fresh ; that no point of actual polar cen- 
 ter will ever be found, nor can be, any more than 
 the moon can be explored ; that the earth to be cen- 
 trally hot is impossible, but that the internal ocean 
 is intensely cold, as evidenced by its exhaustless 
 supply to our lakes and springs of uniformly cool 
 water, with few exceptions ; that rainfall has its 
 main purpose to temporarily refresh the surface 
 and vegetation, and nothing to do with lakes, etc. 
 These claims, with various others, contradicting 
 many accepted theories on this subject, he purposes 
 to publish and explain at an early day, if life is 
 spared. 
 
 Im politics Mr. Ives is a Democrat, but has no 
 desire for political honors. In 1897 he was ap- 
 pointed to a membership on the State Board of 
 Mediation and Arbitration, by Gov. Cooke, was 
 successively reappointed by the State administra- 
 tions, and is now chairman of the Board. In fra- 
 ternity matters he belongs to Center Lodge, No. 97, 
 A. F.'& A. M., at Meriden. 
 
 Mr. Ives was married, in 1871, to Lucy Ann 
 Miller, widow of the late Charles Rogers, of Bran- 
 ford. I\Ir. and Mrs. Ives are much respected in the 
 circles in which they move. He is marked by the 
 possession of good artistic tastes, and by the devel- 
 opment of high moral character, and an enviable 
 record of business success. 
 
 WHEELER. The name of Wheeler has been 
 prominent in the annals of Connecticut from the 
 very dawn of the Colonial period. For quite 260 
 years, generations of the family have occupied lands 
 in the territory now comprising the counties of 
 Fairfield, New Haven and Litchfield. From the 
 Southbury branch descended the family of the late 
 Hon. Elisha Wheeler, and of him and his sons, who 
 have occupied or are now occupying honorable 
 p-ositions in society, it is the especial purpose of this 
 article to treat. Among these are the late Hon. 
 Henry Samuel Wheeler, of Southbury, and Alfred 
 Newton Wheeler, a member of the New Haven Bar, 
 and who for some years has been assistant State's 
 attorney. 
 
 Moses Wheeler, the emigrant ancestor of this 
 branch of the Connecticut Wheelers, probably came 
 with the compan\' from London, England, who set- 
 tled New Haven, in 1638, as he is of record there 
 as early as 1641. He married in New Haven ^liri- 
 am, a sister of Joseph Hawley. Subsequent to the 
 period of his residence in New Haven he removed to 
 Stratford, where his family became prominent and 
 for generations ranked among the most influential 
 citizens of the town. 
 
 Lieut. Samuel Wheeler, a descendant of Moses, 
 the emigrant, was the great-grandfather of Elisha 
 Wheeler, who left Stratford about 1740, and set- 
 tied in what is now the northern part of the town 
 of Oxford, and there reared a large family, one of 
 whose sons, and the next in line, was Robert, whose 
 son, Moses, the pioneer of the Southbiu"y family, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 183 
 
 was the father of the late Elisha Wheeler, of that 
 town. 
 
 Moses Wheeler, born March 4, 1773, was mar- 
 ried in 1795 to Betsey A. Loveland and soon after 
 built and moved into the house in which he died, 
 July 24, 1827, and which is yet standing and is oc- 
 cupied by the family of one of his sons, the late 
 Elisha Wheeler. Betsey A., widow of Moses 
 Wheeler, died May 28, 1835. Like his ancestors, 
 Mosesi Wheeler was a man of unusual prominence 
 and possessed many excellent qualities ; was a Free 
 Mason of high degree and was well known in the 
 county and State. 
 
 Of the ten children of Moses and Betsey A. 
 Wheeler, Elisha was born June 16, 1816, and died 
 in the paternal home in Southburv Jan. i, 1877. 
 His education was acquired in the common schools 
 of his native town where he was reared a farmer 
 and continued as such through life, and in that vo- 
 cation was successful, accumulating a comfortable 
 estate. Industrious and thrifty, he managed his 
 business affairs so as to become one of the largest 
 land owners in the town. Judicious in the man- 
 agement of his own business matters and possess- 
 ing a broad knowledge of general affairs, he was 
 frequently consulted by his neighbors in business 
 matters and had the care and settlement of many es- 
 tates. All these trusts he discharged with care and 
 fidelity and won by his conscientious life the esteem 
 of the entire community. Although exact and just 
 he was a warm^ friend and a good neighbor, ever 
 taking an interest in the affairs of his town and 
 through his interest along these lines, and owing to 
 his especial fitness, he was brought into prominence 
 in official capacities. For many years he was first 
 selectman of the town, and while a Democrat in his 
 political affiliations, he discharged the duties of 
 selectman all through the period of the Civil war 
 in a manner to win the approbation of all parties. 
 During the trying period of the war he was a stanch 
 Union man and believed in the active prosecution of 
 the war and the liberal care of the families of the 
 enlisted men. 'Mr. Wheeler was an enterprising 
 and public-spirited citizen, foremost in the town's 
 progress and was sent by his ' fellow townsmen to 
 represent them in the General Assembly in 1855 
 and 1861, and was sent to the Senate from his dis- 
 trict in 1863, serving with credit in both bodies. 
 On the questions at public issue he had strong con- 
 victions, but was not radical or intemperate in his 
 speech or actions. 
 
 In 1836 Elisha Wheeler was married to Anna M. 
 Johnson, by whom he had one child, James L., bom 
 m 1837, who lived in the town of Beacon Falls, and 
 Nov. 18, 1863, married Mary A. Curtis, of New- 
 town; he died Jan. i, 1875. For a second wife, 
 Elisha Wheeler married, on xA.pril 10, 1838, Eliza 
 A., daughter of Calvin Eeavenworth, of Oxford, 
 who survives him. Mrs. Wheeler was born Feb. 
 29, 1816, in Oxford, and is a descendant in the 
 sixth generation from Thomas Leavenworth, who 
 
 came from England with his wife, Grace, and set- 
 tled sometime after 1664 on Good Hill, in what is 
 now the town of W"oodbury, Conn., where he died 
 in 1683. The line of descent of Mrs. \Mieeler is 
 through Thomas (2), Thomas (3), Thomas (4), 
 and Calvin Leavenworth. In her early life Mrs. 
 Wheeler was a school teacher, and she has retained 
 an active interest in the intellectual life of the com- 
 munity in which she has so long resided. She is 
 a devoted member of the Episcopal Church and has 
 been much engaged in charitable and benevolent 
 v/ork. 
 
 To the second marriage of Elisha Wheeler were 
 born children as follows : ( i ) Frances Eliza, born 
 Oct. 17, 1840, married Truman E. Hurd Oct. 17, 
 1865, and died April 12, 1875, leaving three chil- 
 dren: Mary Frances married, Aug. 14, 1890, Louis 
 A. Mansfield, of New Haven; Katie Eliza; and 
 Henry Baldwin Harrison. (2) Martha Elizabeth, 
 born Aug. 12, 1842, married, June 13, 1883, Rev. 
 Ehhu T. Sanford, of New Haven, who died Jan. 12, 
 1895, and she later resided in New Milford, Conn., 
 and now, a widow, resides in New Haven. (3) 
 Ralph Elisha, bom May 17, 1844, died June 7, 1858. 
 (4) Mary S., born April 26, 1846, married, June 9, 
 1870, Charles Edward Webster, of Mauch Chunk, 
 Pa., and now resides at South Bethlehem, that 
 State ; their children are as follows : Margaret Vir- 
 ginia, born Jan. 24, 1872 ; Mary Seabrook, born Aug. 
 31, 1874, died Aug. 29, 1876; and Charles E., Jr., 
 born Nov. 11, 1877. (5) Henry Samuel. (6) Al- 
 fred Newton. 
 
 Hon. Henry S. Wheeler was born Aug. 5, 
 1848, and died in Southbury July 19, 1889. Mr. 
 Wheeler received a good education in the common 
 schools and was prepared for business in the Bridge- 
 port Business College, after which he was engaged 
 in business at Rockford, 111., and in the city of New 
 Haven, Conn. Later he returned to Southbury and 
 there, amid the scenes of his childhood and the 
 friends of his parents, and also many of the grown- 
 up youths of his boyhood, he lived a useful and suc- 
 cessful life, filling a number of public trusts of 
 honor and responsibility, and otherwise commend- 
 ing himself to his fellow townsmen. Mr. Wheeler 
 served on the board of education, was a justice of 
 the peace and first selectman and took an active in- 
 terest in the politics of his party, and as a member 
 of the Democratic State committee he rendered 
 good service. For two terms he represented the 
 town of Southbury in the General Assembly and 
 was the party's nominee for State Senator. His ac- 
 quaintance in the State was large and he was fav- 
 orably known. Of a genial disposition and gener- 
 ous heart, he was universally beloved, and died 
 deeply lamented. 
 
 In December, 1877, ^^^- Wheeler married Han- 
 nah A., daughter of Frederick and Louisa (Tom- 
 linson) Candee, of Oxford, and their only child 
 was a son, Ralph Elisha, born July 27, 1883, now 
 a resident of Waterbury, Connecticut. 
 
I»4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Alfred N. Wheeler, the youngest son of the 
 late Elisha Wheeler, was born Jan. 2, 1855, in 
 Southbury and was prepared for college at Gen. 
 Russell's school in New Haven. He entered Yale 
 College, from which he was graduated in 1875, ^"^^ 
 two years later was graduated from the Yale Law 
 School. Mr. Wheeler still furthered his prepara- 
 tion for the legal profession in the office of Judge 
 Samuel L. Bronson, of New Haven, and was ad- 
 mitted to the Bar in that city in June, 1877. Since 
 that time he has been actively engaged in the prac- 
 tice of his profession. Having inherited many of 
 the rare qualities which contributed to the useful- 
 ness, success and popularity of his distinguished 
 father, Mr. Wheeler is winning deserved success 
 and has taken high rank among the younger mem- 
 bers of the New Haven county Bar. For some years 
 he has been one of the officials of the Superior 
 Court, serving ably as assistant State's attorney, 
 and has also served the city in the common coun- 
 cil and as a member of the Board of Health. 
 
 On Sept. 30, 1891, Mr. Wheeler was married to 
 Lilian Edith, a daughter of Elisha and Julia (Ben- 
 jamin) Wilson, of Elizabeth, N. J., and they have 
 three children: Richard Elisha, born Aug. 15, 
 1893 ; Elizabeth Cruttenden, born Jan. 12, 1896; and 
 Alfred Newton, Jr., born July 30, 1899. 
 
 MOSS. The Moss family, as the Morse family, 
 of New Haven, was originally known, had its begin- 
 ning in this country in the arrival of John Moss, who 
 came from England to make his home in New Ha- 
 ven, where he settled as early as 1638, being one of 
 the original settlers of the ioxm. He was a promi- 
 nent citizen of his day, representing the town in the 
 General Court, and otherwise taking an active part 
 in local affairs. In 1667 he removed to Walling- 
 ford, where he became one of the first settlers, and 
 in 1670 he attended the General Court from Wal- 
 lingford, securing the incorporation of that town. 
 He died in Wallingford at the advanced age of one 
 hundred and three years, and there his wife also 
 died at a venerable age. They had six children, 
 John, Mercy, Joseph, Elizabeth, Hester and Isaac. 
 All were members of the church. 
 
 John ?iIoss, son of John, the emigrant, was born 
 in New Haven, and moved with his parents to the 
 town of Wallingford, where he followed farming, 
 and died in 1713. In 1677 he married Martha 
 Lathrop, who died in 1719, the mother of the fol- 
 lowing children: Esther; Deacon Samuel, who 
 married Susannah Hall; John; Martha; Solomon, 
 who married Ruth Peck; Isaac, who married 
 Hannah Royce ; Mary, who married Solomon Mun- 
 son ; Israel ; and Benjamin. 
 
 John AIoss, son of John and Martha (Lathrop) 
 Moss, was born in 1682 in Wallingford, there grew 
 to manhood, and was engaged in farming until his 
 death, in 1755. He was buried in Wallingford 
 cemetery, as a member of the church. Mr. Moss 
 was married in 1708 to Elizabeth Hall, and fcy her 
 
 became the father of the following family: Eliza- 
 beth, Joseph, Mary, John, Levi, Eunice, Martha, 
 Ann, Hannah, Samuel and Thankful. 
 
 Joseph Moss, son of John, was horn in Walling- 
 ford in 1 714. He was a lifelong farmer, and a 
 prominent citizen. In his later years he removed 
 to Cheshire, where he became a prominent land 
 owner, and died in 1775. His wife, Lydia (Jones), 
 was born in Wallingford in 1714, daughter of The- 
 ophilus and Hannah (Mix) Jones. She died and 
 was buried in Cheshire. Their children were: 
 Phebe, Moses, Eliadiah, Eunice, Hannah, Joseph, 
 Elizabeth, Isaac, Sarah and Amos. 
 
 Isaac Moss, born in Cheshire in 1754, grew to 
 manhood in his native community, and there en- 
 gaged in farming. A young man at the outbreak 
 of the Revolution, he was quick to take up arms 
 for the cause of independence. He died on his 
 farm in 1839, and was buried in Cheshire. He 
 married Sarah Tuttle, who was born in Cheshire, 
 daughter of Moses Tuttle, and granddaughter of 
 Timothy Tuttle. Their children were: Mason, 
 Isaac, Joseph, Lent, Freelove, Sarah, Aaron and 
 Jedediah. 
 
 Lent Moss was born in 1780 in Cheshire. In 
 early manhood he removed to Prospect, where he 
 was a land owner and farmer. He died Oct. 12, 
 1845, and was buried in the cemetery at Prospect 
 Centre. After his death the family name was 
 changed from Moss to Morse. In his political 
 views he was a Whig, and filled many prominent 
 places. In Cheshire Lent Moss wedded, for his 
 first wife, Lydia Doolittle, a daughter of Benjamin 
 and Lydia (Ives) Doolittle, and a granddaughter 
 of Caleb and Tamar (Thompson) Doolittle. They 
 had the following family. Lydia, who married 
 Samuel Bronson ; Lent, who married Lucy Merri- 
 man; Luther; Levi, who died in Elyria, Ohio, in 
 July, 1900; Harr}-, the father of Byron L. Morse, 
 of Prospect : and Achsah, who married George 
 Payne. Lent Moss married for his second wife 
 Chloe Munson, widow of Riley Tuttle, and by her 
 had the following children : Sarah, Lydia, August, 
 Ernahan and William (twins) and Jane. 
 
 Luther AIorse was bom Oct. 5, 1809, in Pros- 
 pect, was reared on the farm, and in mature life 
 became a manufacturer of pocket-books, but later 
 returned to farming. He died in Prospect Feb. 21, 
 1888, and his remains were interred in Prospect 
 cemetery. He was a man of note, served in the 
 General Assembly, and filled several local offices 
 from time to time, being selectman for many years. 
 He married Adelia Piatt, of Prospect (a daughter 
 of Benjamin Piatt), who passed her declining years 
 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Foote, in New 
 Haven, and died Nov. 17, 1900. They had children 
 as follows: (i) Nancy A. is the widow of Benja- 
 min Palmer Foote, son of Merritt Foote, of Bran- 
 ford. Mr. Foote was a well-known druggist of 
 Meriden. (2) Agnes A. is the wife of Watson 
 Hitchcock, connected with the firm of Price, Lee & 
 Adkins, and they have one daughter, A. Louise, 
 
LUTHER HORSE. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 185 
 
 who IS now Mrs. John D. Davis, of New York 
 City. (3) Edward L., born Dec. i8, 1842, 'became 
 a member of the 20th P. V. I., and died in Fairfax, 
 Va., while serving in the Civil war. 
 
 SOLOMON FOWLER LINSLEY (deceased) 
 was one of the highly esteemed citizens of North 
 'Haven, Conn., a worthy representative of an old 
 and important family of New England. The first 
 member of the family of whom we have reliable 
 information was John Linsley, who, with his 
 brother, Francis, came from England to America, 
 and in 1643 was one of the original purchasers of 
 land in Totoket (now Branford), Connecticut. 
 
 John Linsley was twice married. It is supposed 
 his first marriage occurred in England, and his wife, 
 Ellen, died April 6, 1654. He married July 6, 1665, 
 Sarah Pond, and died in 1698, leaving five chil- 
 dren, all probably born of his first marriage : Jon- 
 athan, John, Mary (born Feb. 22, 1652), Ellen and 
 Hannah (born April i, 1654). 
 
 (II) John Linsley, of the the above named fam- 
 ily, married Hannah , and died in 1684. Of 
 
 his children, two, John and Jonathan, were baptized 
 in 1688. 
 
 (III) John Linsley, grandson of the emigrant, 
 John, was known as Ensign John Linsley. He was 
 married in 1699 to Mary, daughter of Thomas Har- 
 rison, an early settler of Totoket, and by this mar- 
 riage became the father of four children, as follows : 
 Mary, born June i, 1701 ; John, born Feb. 20, 1703; 
 EHzabeth, born Jan. 20, 1705 ; and Joseph, born 
 Nov. 28, 1707. 
 
 (IV) John Linsley, son of Ensign John, married 
 Mary Frisbie, and died in 1787. His children were: 
 John, Isaac and Edward. 
 
 (V) Isaac Linsley, son of John, became a far- 
 mer in North Branford, Conn. The house in which 
 he was born was still standing in 1899. He married 
 three times. His first wife was a Miss Beach, his 
 second a Miss Munson, and his third a Mrs. Rus- 
 sell. His children were Munson, Isaac and Lydia. 
 
 (VI) Munson Linsley was born in 1769 and fol- 
 lowed farming in Northford. He was a deacon in 
 the Congregational Church there, and also in Wall- 
 ingford and North Branford. On Jan. i, 1794, he 
 married Anna Foote, who was born in 1770 and 
 died Feb. 11, 1842. His death occurred June 13, 
 1845. Eight children were born to them, as fol- 
 lows : Samuel, baptized May 20, 1799, died unmar- 
 ried in early manhood; Esther Louise, baptized 
 May 20, 1799, married Benjamin Hall, a butcher and 
 farmer of Wallingford ; Angelina, baptized May 20, 
 1799, married Benajah Smith, a farmer of North- 
 ford; Cleora, baptized Dec. i, 1799, married Bayard 
 Barnes and became the mother of Henry E. Barnes, 
 of the firm of Sperry & Barnes, of New Haven; 
 Marcus, mentioned) below; Alfred, born July 3, 
 1803, married Polly Frisbie and engaged in busi- 
 ness as a fanner and lumber dealer; Mary, born 
 
 March 30, 1805, married Gilbert Page, of Chapman 
 
 and Plymouth, Conn., one of the most prominent 
 paper manufacturers in the State ; and Lucy Anne, 
 born Feb. 28, 1813. 
 
 (VII) Marcus Linsley was born in Northford, 
 Conn., June 20, 1801, and spent his boyhood days 
 and attended school in his native place, and there 
 also engaged in farming. From there he removed 
 to a farm near Meriden, thence to Goshen, Mass., 
 still later to Southwick, Mass., and on April i, 1845, 
 to Poquonnock, Conn., in the town of Windsor, lo- 
 cating in North Haven April i, 1851. These many 
 changes gave Mr. Linsley a great deal of valuable 
 experience, and April 23, 1855, when he was ap- 
 pointed to the position of head farmer at the State 
 School farm he was well prepared for the position. 
 However, in July, 1856, he removed to Middletown, 
 Conn., and later to Bristol, Wis., his last removal 
 being in 1869 to Belvidere, III, where he died Oct. 
 23, 1887, and there his remains were interred. A 
 man of excellent understanding, he made his pres- 
 ence felt wherever he was and he was elected to be 
 a deacon in the Congregational Church in Goshen 
 and Southwick, Mass., in North Haven and Wind- 
 sor, Conn., and in Bristol, Wis., and an elder in the 
 Presbyterian Church in Belvidere. While residing 
 in Bristol, in 1861, he represented his district in the 
 Legislature of Wisconsin. When the Legislature 
 had adjourned, and the members were on their way 
 home the news came that Fort Sumter had been 
 fired upon. A special session was immediately called, 
 and during a discussion of the call of President 
 Lincoln for 75,000 men, Mr. Linsley, in the course 
 of his remarks, declared that he had three sons to 
 send to the war and "if they are not enough, I will 
 go myself." Without his knowledge the three sons 
 had already enlisted and one of them gave up his 
 life on the field of battle, while the others distin- 
 guished themselves as brave and loyal soldiers. 
 
 On Nov. 13, 1825, Marcus Linsley married Cla- 
 rissa Fowler, who was born Oct. 2, 1802, a daugh- 
 ter of Deacon Solomon Fowler and granddaughter 
 of Col. William Douglas, of Revolutionary fame, 
 and she died at Rockford, 111., Dec. 19, i8(57, and 
 sleeps her last sleep in the cemetery at Bristol, Wis. 
 Their children were: (i) Olivia Douglas, born 
 Oct. 24, 1826, died May 20, 1846. (2) Charlotte 
 Fowler, born Aug. 19, 1828, married William D. 
 Gregory, a farmer and school teacher in Canan- 
 daigua, N. Y., and died in Rockford, 111., Aug. 23, 
 1858. (3) Solomon F., born May 26, 1830. (4} 
 Marcus Munson, born Aug. 15, 1832, married Fan- 
 nie Bradley. (5) Catherine Cleora, born Oct. 30, 
 1834, married March 31, 1858, Charles D. Love- 
 land, a carpenter and builder of Middletown. (6) 
 Joseph Foote, born June 22, 1837, married Betsey 
 Sperry Nov. 17, 1861. He was a joiner by trade; 
 v/as a captain of a company in the 33d Wis. V. I., 
 and was killed April 19, 1863, at Cold Water, Miss., 
 a ball passing through his head, mercifully causing 
 instant death. His hat, pierced by the bullet, is in 
 the possession of his widow. (7) Abby Lemira, 
 
1 86 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born Jan. lo, 1840, married William D. Greg- 
 ory. (8) Edward Serene, born Sept. 20, 1842, died 
 young. 
 
 Solomon F. Linsley was born ■May 26, 1830, in 
 Nortbford, Conn., where he was sent to the common 
 school and later to Williston Seminary, after which 
 he returned and took up farming. For six years 
 he drove a team, and also served an apprenticeship 
 as a joiner with Lyon & Billard, builders of Meri- 
 den, and did much work in Middletown, New Ha- 
 ven, New Britain and other places in Connecticut 
 and Wisconsin. On Aug. 26, 1861, he enlisted as 
 a private in Company G, 6th Conn. V. I., and on 
 Oct. 4, 1861, was promoted to the office of corporal, 
 but on account of poor health was discharged March 
 14, 1862, at Port Royal, S. C, and returned home 
 until his health was restored. He chafed under 
 forced detention at home and as soon as he could 
 be accepted he re-enlisted, on Aug. 9, 1862, joining 
 Company K, 15th Conn. V. I., when he was com- 
 missioned second lieutenant and, for gallantry, was 
 promoted to be first lieutenant Nov. 16, 1863. On 
 March 8, 1865, be was captured at Kinston, N. C, 
 and was imprisoned in Libby Prison, but was pa- 
 loled eighteen days later on account of the close of 
 the war. He served at the battles of Fredericks- 
 burg, Dec. 13, 1862, Edenton Road, Providence 
 Church Road, siege of Suffolk and Kinston, and 
 was also through the scourge of yellow fever at 
 Newbem, N. C. On June 27, 1865, he was finally 
 discharged and returned to his home in North Ha- 
 ven. As soon as he could again take up peaceful 
 pursuits, he found plenty of congenial work await- 
 ing his hand, and in many of the best buildings in 
 North Haven may be seen both his designs and 
 v/orkmanship, among which msy be mentioned the 
 new school building and the Memorial Building, 
 which was completed in 1886. He was conceded to 
 be a leader in his line in the county. 
 
 Mr. Linsley was married Feb. 28, 1855, at 
 Windsor, Conn., lo Lucy A. Tracy, who was born 
 May 19, 1834, a daughter of Solomon F. and Al- 
 mira (Nichols) Tracy. ]\Irs. Linsley is in the ninth 
 generation of descent from Capt. Miles Standish, 
 and can trace her ancestry back to the third cen- 
 tury. The children of this union were : Edward 
 Tracy, born in New Britain April 15, 1856, died 
 April 6, i860; Louise Nichols, born June 11, 1859, 
 married June 27, 1888, Roswell J. Shepherd, a car- 
 peniter, and has four children, Marguerite (born 
 Aug. 28, 1889), Esther Louise (born Jan. 12, 1893), 
 Lucy Almira (born Nov. 23, 1895) and Roswell 
 Linsley (born Oct. 26, 1897). 
 
 In early life Mr. Linsley was a Whig, and in 
 turn a stanch Republican. He was connected with 
 Quinnipiac Lodge, No. yy, O. U. A. M. and held 
 many offices in the order ; and was also a member of 
 Adm'iral Foote Post, No. 17, G. A. R., of New 
 Haven, in which he had held several offices. Tak- 
 ing a deep and conscientious interest in his religious 
 duties, few Sundays came roimd when his place 
 
 was vacant either in the Congregational Church 
 or in the Sunday-school, in which he was a beloved 
 teacher for thirty-five years. One of the most in- 
 telligent and hospitable of her citizens, North Ha- 
 ven had reason to take pride in him as a represent- 
 ative man. He passed away Mardh 13, 1901, at his 
 home in North Haven, and his remains were in- 
 terred in Fairview Cemetery, New Britain. 
 
 JOEL HALL BLATCHLEY, a representative 
 citizen of New Haven county, residing in the Nut 
 Plains District, Guilford, is a descendant of old set- 
 tlers of Guilfor'd and Branford. 
 
 (I) Thomas Blatchley, the first of the name in 
 New Haven county, is supposed to have come from 
 Wales. He sailed for America and landed in Bos- 
 ton in 1635 ; he moved to Hartford in 1640, to New 
 Haven in 1643, to Branford in 1645, then to Guil- 
 ford in 1666, and was admitted a planter. Subse- 
 quently he removed to Boston where he engaged in 
 mercantile pursuits and died there in 1674. He 
 married Susanna Ball, by whom he had four chil- 
 dren: Aaron, born in 1644, who married Mary 
 Dodd and died Aug. 31, 1699; Moses, a sketch of 
 whom follows ; Miriam, bom May i, 1663, who mar- 
 ried Samuel Pond; and Abigail. For her second 
 husband Mrs. Blatchley married Richard Bristol. 
 She died in 1 677. 
 
 (H) Mosesi Blatchley, born March 29, 1650, in 
 Branford, removed to East Guilford (now the town 
 of Madison), where he died Oct. 15, 1693. He was 
 a farmer by occupation. His wife, Susannah (Bish- 
 op), born in 1657, died in October, 1729. Their fam- 
 ily consisted of eight children : Closes, born June 10, 
 1678, married Sarah Benton and died Oct. 17, 1703; 
 David, June 23, 1679, died young; Mehitabel, March 
 13, 1682, died March 6, 1751 ; Abraham, Sept. 24, 
 1684, married Elizabeth Stone; Abigail, Dec. 10, 
 1686, died April 15, 1785; David, June 23, 1689, 
 m.arried Abigail Hand and died Oct. 22, 1756; 
 Joshua, sketch of whom follows ; and Beal, Feb. 7, 
 1694, died June 15, 1763. 
 
 (HI) Joshua Blatchley, born April 14, 1692, in 
 East Guilford, \vas engaged in farming in that town, 
 and died there March 31, 1742. On Nov. 22, 1721, 
 he married Mary Field, born Nov. 15, 1699, died 
 Feb. 9, 1793. She married for her second husband, 
 Ebenezer Bartlett. Joshua and Mary Blatchley had 
 two children: Moses, born Aug. 28, 1722, died 
 Nov. 16, 1791 ; and Joshua, mentioned below. 
 
 (IV) Joshua Blatchley, born Feb. 15, 1724, in 
 East Guilford (now North Madison), spent his 
 entire life there engaged in farming and died Sept. 
 2, 1816. On Oct. II, 1752, he married Abigail 
 Dudley, born Dec. 22, 1735, died April 18, 1820. 
 Their seven children were as follows : Anna, born 
 May 23, 1757 (married Ebenezer Walkly), died 
 April 4, 1827; Nabby, Sept. i, 1763, died June 23, 
 1764; William, Nov. 19, 1765, died Nov. 24, 1767; 
 Nabby, May 12, 1768 (married David Chittenden), 
 Nov. 24, 1792 ; Joel, sketch of whom follows ; Selina, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 187 
 
 Nov. II, 1772 (married Elisha Butler) ; May, Nov. 
 29, 1775 (married Joel Hunger), June 17, 1838. 
 
 (V) Joel Blatchley, bom July 12, 1770, in the 
 town of East Guilford (now North Madison), be- 
 came one of the leading citizens of that locality, 
 wihere he carried on farming and also kept hotel 
 for many years. He spent his closing years in the 
 town of Durham, Middlesex county, where he died 
 July II, 1853; his remains, however, rest in the 
 North Madison Cemetery. Mr. Blatchley was a 
 Democrat in political faith, but did not seek office. 
 He was married four times, first on March 9, 1794, 
 to Ruth Loper, born Sept. 20, 1774, in North Guil- 
 ford, died April 7, 1823, by w'homi he had ten chil- 
 dren : William, sketch of whom follows; Dency, 
 born Oct. 16, 1797 (married Frederick S. Field), 
 died November, 1881 ; Selina, Dec. 24, 1799 (mar- 
 ried Russell Evarts), Dec. 11, 1831 ; Betsey, Feb. 
 16, 1802 (married Lyman Hull) ; Samuel Loper, 
 Feb. 13, 1804, July 26, 1883 (married Mary Ann 
 Robinson) ; Joel, March 12, 1806, Oct. 8, 1834; Ruth 
 April 10, 1810, Jan. 5, 1859; Abigail, Feb. 4, 1812 
 (married Adnah Hall) ; Clarissa, Sept. 8, 1814, Feb. 
 18, 1818; Joshua Selden, Oct. 4, 1816, April 19, 
 1817. Joel Blatchley's second wife was Mehitable 
 Bartholomew; his third. Margery Robinson, whom 
 he married Oct. 10, 1825 ; his fourth, Harriet Hull, 
 w'hom he married Aug. 8, 1839. 
 
 (VI) William' Blatchley was born April 21, 
 1795, in North Madison, where he attended school, 
 receiving a practical training. He was to a great 
 extent, however, self-educated, and he mad'e such 
 progress that he became proficient to teach, follow- 
 ing that profession in the winter season for thirteen 
 years. During the summers he engaged in farming, 
 rt^hich was his life work, and in which he met with 
 abundant success, accumulating a snug competence. 
 In addition to agriculture Mr. Blatchley carried on 
 the lumber business to some extent. He was quite 
 prominent in the public life of his locality, and in 
 politics was a stanch Jeffersonian Democrat, and 
 was chosen twice to represent his town in the State 
 Legislature ; the first time he was elected to that 
 incumbency sickness prevented him from serving; 
 consequently he served only one term. Mr. Blatch- 
 ley joined the Episcopal Church, but during the 
 latter part of his life attended the M. E. Church. 
 In 1817 he married Minerva Hall, who was born 
 in 1800 in Wallingford, this county, and died Oct. 
 16, 1863. He died July 10, 1868, 'in North Madi- 
 son, and the remains of both lie in the North Madi- 
 son Cemetery. Nine children were born to them, 
 as follows : William Selden, born in 1820, died 
 March 12, 1871 (married Zerviah E. Lane, of 
 Killingworth) ; Jane A., June 25, 1822, Dec. 6, 1871 
 (married Frederick Chittenden) ; Alden Austin, 
 March, 1826, Oct. 25, 1848; Hiram Silliman, 1827 
 (married Sarah J. Harrison in Indiana) ; Esther 
 Minerva, Oct. 11, 1830; Abbie Minerva, May 
 9, 1835 (married Dr. R. C. Bowdish and (second) 
 Andrew K. Crawford, and is now a widow) ; Joel 
 
 Hall, sketch of whom follows; Salmon Noble, 
 April r, 1841 (married Mary E. Crane; he resides 
 m New Haven and is engaged in the real estate 
 business) ; Francis Emerson, Oct. 11, 1844 (mar- 
 ried Ardeless Parmelee and lives on the homestead 
 in North Madison). 
 
 (VII) Joel Hall Blatchley, whose name intro- 
 duces this sketch, was born May 7, 1837, on the 
 old homestead, commenced his education in the dis- 
 trict schools of North Madison, and subsequently at- 
 tended select school. He was at home with his 
 parents until he attained his majority, at which time 
 he went West and located in Illinois, buying a tract 
 of land on which he remained, however, but a short 
 time. Returning to North Madison, he commenced 
 farming and sawmilling, getting out railroad tim- 
 ber and continued thus for thirteen years, at the 
 end of which time he sold out and went west again. 
 This time he located in McPherson county, Kas., 
 where he homesteaded 160 acres and lived thereon 
 for six months after receiving his title, which bears 
 the signature of President Grant. On his return 
 to Connecticut he took up his residence in Guilford, 
 v/here he has since engaged in general farming, 
 stock raising and lumbering, owning a large farm in 
 Guilford, and also one in the West where he makes 
 farming a success. Mr. Blatchley is a hard worker, 
 temperate in his habits, and a man of quiet, unas- 
 suming disposition, whose upright life has won him 
 the respect and confidence of all his associates, and 
 he has many friends. Though business interests 
 have naturally absorbed the greater part of his time 
 and attention, he is always ready and willing to help 
 those whom he considers needy, and he takes the 
 Golden Rule for his guide. He takes an intelligent 
 interest in local affairs, although he is in no sense 
 an office see^ker. Our subject's political support was 
 originally given to the Democratic party, but he is 
 now a Republican. 
 
 On Dec. 27, 1866, in Guilford, Mr. Blatchley 
 married Mary Hall Davis, born March 13, 1839, 
 and three children blessed this union, viz. : Will- 
 iam' Hall, born Feb. 3, 1868, is a contractor in Guil- 
 ford ; he married Elizabeth Brewer. Samuel Davis, 
 born June 12, 1869, is engaged in farming, owning 
 a farm in Guilford, where he now resides. Fred- 
 erick Noble, born Feb. 7, 1873, is also a contractor; 
 he married Grace Morse. Mrs. Blatchley passed 
 away in February, 1898, after two years of great 
 suffering from spinal disease. She was a good 
 Christian woman, a devoted wife and mother, and 
 was universally admired and beloved for her many 
 virtues. Her remains rest in Alderbrook Cemetery. 
 
 The Davis Family, to which Mrs. Mary Hall 
 (Davis) Blatchley belonged, is descended from Ben- 
 jamin Davis, who is supposed to have been a native 
 of Scotland, and who settled at Southold, L. I. His 
 son, Benjamin, born in 1700, married a Miss Conk- 
 ling, and they had a son James, born May 28, 1726, 
 in Southold, who married Mary Bailey, born Dec. 
 25) 1733- They were driven from their home on 
 
i88 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Long Island on account of the Revolutionary war, 
 and came to Guilford, Conn., where he died July 
 14, 1814. Eight children were born to them : James, 
 born July 27, 1761, died Aug. 23, 1762; Mary, June 
 
 16, 1763, Sept. II, 1769; James, March 25, 1765, 
 mentioned below; Phebe, April 15, 1767, April 25, 
 1855 (married Noah Benton) ; Mary, Sept. 21, 
 1769, Sept. 7, 1863 (married Joel Leej ; Benjamin, 
 April 3, 1771, 1778; Gilbert, March 26, 1774, 1804 
 (married Betsev Goldsmith) ; Lucretia, March i, 
 1780, 1836. 
 
 James Davis, son of James, born March 25, 1765, 
 came to Guilford, where he died March 12, 1852. 
 On Dec. 11, 1788, he married Ruth Griswold, born 
 Feb. 27, 1770, died April 25, i860. Children: 
 Sarah, born June 8, 1789, died July 31, 1830 (mar- 
 ried Anson Kennedy) ; Christopher Bradley, April 
 23, 1791, Dec. 25, 1875 (married Betsey Hall) ; Joel, 
 May 13, 1793, Oct. 17, 1870 (married Polly Loper) ; 
 Ruth [Marietta, Jan 11, 1796, Oct. 4, 1830 (mar- 
 ried Cornelius Hull) ; Mary, Feb. 23, 1798, Sept. 
 23, 1888 (married Justin Bishop) ; Betsey, Aug. 
 22, 1800, Dec. 9, 1887 (married John Hall) ; Con- 
 tent, April 17, 1805, (married James S. Loper) ; 
 Samuel, mentioned below ; George Bartlett, March 
 5. 1810, July 14, 1857 (married Hannah E. Hub- 
 bard). 
 
 Samuel Davis, father of Mrs. Blatchley, born 
 April 21, 1807, died Dec. 29, 1879. He resided in 
 Guilford. On Feb. 6, 1833, he married Mary Hall, 
 born Jan. ir, 1808, di^d Aug. 14, 1836. On March 
 26, 1838, he married Harriet Benton, born May 20, 
 1813, died Feb. 18, 1863. In 1865 he wedded Julia 
 Fowler, born Jan. 5, 181 1, died May 20, 1883. 
 Children : Mary Hall, born March 13, 1839, married 
 Joel H. Blatchley; Samuel R., born Aug. 11, 1841, 
 died July 6, 1863 ; Abigail Lindsley, born March 19, 
 1844, married William C. Bishop; Frederick R., 
 born July 6, 1847, married Isabella C. Bishop, and 
 died Oct. 24, 1877; Harriet Benton, born April 14, 
 1855, married Daniel R. Spencer. 
 
 The Hall Family, of Wallingford, of which 
 Mrs. Minerva (Hall) Blatchley, mother of our sub- 
 ject was a member, was early settled in Wallingford. 
 Thomas Hall, son of John Hall (the first of the 
 name in the New Haven Colony), was born March 
 25, 1649, i"^ New Haven, and when he grew to man- 
 hood removed to Wallingford, of which town he 
 was one of the first settlers. He died there Sept. 
 
 17. 1731- On June 5, 1673, he married Grace Wat- 
 son, who died May i, 1731. Their marriage cere- 
 mony was the first performed in Wallingford. 
 Children : Abigail, born Jan. 7, 1675 (married John 
 Tyler); Thomas, June 17, 1676; Mary, Nov. 22, 
 1677; Jonathan, July 25, 1679; Joseph, July 8, 
 1681 ; Esther, Feb. 23, 1683 (married Benoni At- 
 kins) ; Benjamin, April 17, 1684; Peter, Dec. 28, 
 1686; Daniel, Jan. 27, 1689; Rebecca, Jan. 6, 1691 
 (married Daniel Holt) ; Israel, Oct. 8, 1696. 
 
 Jonathan Hall, son of Thomas, born July 25, 
 1679, in Wallingford, died Jan. 15, 1760. On May 
 
 12, 1703, he married Diana Andrews, who was born 
 in 1684. Children: David, born Oct. 16, 1705, died 
 Sept. 23, 1731; Jonathan, June 13, 1708, married 
 Dec. IS, 1739, Sarah Cook; Joseph, May 31, 1710, 
 married April 17, 1736, Hannah Scoville; Anna, 
 Jan. 18, 1713; Isaac, July 11, 1714, married Nov. 
 5, 1739, Mary Morse, and died March 7, 1781 ; 
 Phcbe, Feb. 12, 1717, died May 14, 1735; Ezekiel, 
 May 13, 1719, married Anna Andrews, and died 
 Oct. 29, 1763; Thankful, Sept. 20, 1722; Benjamin, 
 Oct. 20, 1725 ; Temperance, April 16, 1727. 
 
 Benjamin Hall, son of Jonathan, born Oct. 20, 
 1725, married Dec. 27, 1752, Mary Ives. Children: 
 Benjamin, born Sept. 25, 1753, died 3'oung; Eliab, 
 born in 1755, died in camp in New York, while 
 serving as a soldier in the Revolutionary war ; Ben- 
 jamin, bom Nov. 3, 1756. On April 28, 1757, the 
 father married (second) Phebe (surname not 
 given). He viras a farmer in Wallingford and Plym- 
 outh, Conn. Children by second marriage: Ben- 
 jamin, born May 27, 1758; Andrew, Aug. 15, 1759; 
 Mary, August, 1761 ; Phebe, Aug. 20, 1763 ; Linus, 
 Sept. 25, 1765; David Jonathan, Nov. 17, 1767; 
 Erastus, Feb. 12, 1770; Adnah, May 8, 1772; Sal- 
 mon, 1774; Eliab, December, 1776 (settled in North 
 Killingworth) ; Grace Denison, May 5, 1779; 
 Asaph, Oct. I, 1781. 
 
 Salmon Hall, born in 1774, married Lorena 
 Austin, a daughter of Joel Austin, of Wallingford, 
 and a niece of Moses Austin, who founded the city 
 of Austin, Texas, after whom the city was named. 
 Their nine children were Minerva, wife of William 
 Blatchley, and mother of Joel H. Blatchley ; Hiram ; 
 Joel; Salmon; Lorena; Frances; Adnah; Louisa; 
 and Amanda. 
 
 NATHANIEL LYMAN BRADLEY, treas- 
 urer of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., 
 of Meriden, Conn., is one of the best and most 
 favorably known manufacturers of New England. 
 His business career in the "Silver City" covers the 
 manufacturing epoch in the history of Meriden, a 
 period in which that city rapidly sprang from a 
 quiet little New England village into a great manu- 
 facturing center, whose name is known the world 
 over, owing to itS' great variety of manufactured 
 articles and their high grade. Such a condition of 
 affairs has 'been brought about by a class of mien of 
 high character, whose energies, enterprise, tact and 
 albility have been given to its accomplishment with- 
 out reserve or stint. To this class belongs the sub- 
 ject of this sketch, who was born Dec. 27, 1829, in 
 Cheshire, New Haven county, Connecticut. 
 
 Levi and Abigail Ann (Atwater) Bradley, his 
 parents, were pious and unassuming farming peo- 
 ple, who reared their children to habits of industry 
 and in the observance of correct moral principle 
 and religious duty. Daniel Bradley, father of Levi, 
 was a farmer in Vermont, and was driven from 
 his home by the military operations of the British 
 during the Revolutionary war. Removing to Ham- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 189 
 
 den, Xew Haven Co., Conn., he soon afterward set- 
 tled in Cheshire, where his last years were passed. 
 Levi Bradley was born Nov. 11, 1792, in Cheshire, 
 and died in Meriden March 18, 1877. All of his 
 active life was passed in Cheshire, where he wielded 
 a wide influence and was recognized as a man 
 whose moral worth was a wholesome and strong 
 virtue in his community. His sympathies were de- 
 cidedly Christian, and he gave a liberal support to 
 the work of religion. He was a thrifty and intelli- 
 gent farmer, kept abreast of the times, was well- 
 read, and practical in his operations. To the influ- 
 ence of such an atmosphere about the home were 
 undoubtedly due much of the success and useful- 
 ness of the lives — in their several spheres — of the 
 children there reared. Like many men who have 
 achieved fame or great success, the subject of this 
 sketch gives credit for it to his parents. Levi 
 Bradley was one of the most thrifty farmers in 
 Cheshire. His energy, good taste and judgment 
 were such that he was bound to succeed, and he 
 took great pride in having the best crops and best 
 fences, in short, the best of everything, pertaining 
 to farm improvements. Whenever he entered his 
 farm products for State premiumis he never failed 
 to take the first prize. He was the first in his time 
 to undertake the production of wheat in Cheshire, 
 procuring the seed from New York State, and his 
 growing crops of this cereal were quite a curiosity, 
 visited by many sightseers. Mr. Bradley, besides 
 being a good farmer, was possessed of natural abil- 
 ity for general business. He was the discoverer of 
 the first bar3ftes mine in Cheshire. While driving 
 along the highway one day, he noticed that people 
 who were working on the highway plowed up a pe- 
 culiar looking white stone. Getting out of his 
 wagon to examine the stone, he found it had great 
 weight in proportion to its size. He put it in his 
 wagon, and next day took it to New Haven and 
 submitted it to Prof. Silliman, of Yale College, for 
 analysis. The latter pronounced it to be first-class 
 barytes and very valuable. Mr. Bradley immedi- 
 ately secured an option on the farm where the min- 
 eral was found, and subsequently completed the 
 purchase, and he afterward sold the place to a 
 New Haven firm, at a handsomie profit. The new 
 purchasers opened a vein and worked the mine 
 for years, and sold millions of dollars worth of its 
 product. Because of the acumen displayed in the 
 matter by Mr. Bradley the owner hastened to se- 
 cure his services as superintendent of the mine, 
 which position he filled two years, resigning to look 
 after his private interests. 
 
 Mr. Bradley began at a very early age to evince 
 his unusual energy and business capacity. Up to 
 the time he was seventeen years old he was con- 
 tented to remain with his' father on the farm and 
 assist in its labors. His literary training was lim- 
 ited to that afforded by the district schools of the 
 day. In the great university of reading, travel and 
 observation, he supplemented the rudimentary edu- 
 cation thus obtained, to the great advantage of 
 
 himself, his family and the community blessed by 
 his influence. Before the completion of his eight- 
 eenth year he made a proposition to his father to 
 pay the latter a stipulated sum each year for his 
 time until he attained his majority, which was ac- 
 cepted. His enterprise must have been previously 
 observed by others, for he found no trouble in pro- 
 curing, on credit, a stock of tinware and a horse and 
 wagon, with which he started South. There were 
 no railroads in those^ days, and the roads were diffi- 
 cult to travel in many places, but with characteristic 
 pluck the young man drove to Atlanta, Ga., before 
 offering his stock for sale. In that neighborhood, 
 however, he sold out to such advantage that he was 
 enabled, on his return, to pay for the goods and 
 also to discharge his indebtedness to his father. 
 The trip required six weeks of travel in each direc- 
 tion, and Mr. Bradley was gone from home from 
 September to May. After spending the sumjmer at 
 home he again went South, taking a stock of dry 
 goods on the second trip, on which he was also 
 successful, and he continued to spend his winters in 
 this way during eight or nine years, until he mar- 
 ried and settled down on the farm. For several 
 years thereafter he was employed by several of his 
 New England friends who peddled in the South 
 to buy dry goods for them in New York, as they 
 considered his judgment and taste in these matters 
 very valuable. These qualities were also recognized 
 by his townsmen, who chose him to represent them 
 in the State Legislature. 
 
 On Sept. 30, 1819, Levi Bradley married Miss 
 Abigail Ann, daughter of Samuel and Patience 
 (Peck) Atwater, of Cheshire. Mrs. Bradley was 
 born Oct. 17, 1800, and died May 25, 1897. Her 
 first paternal ancestor in America, David Atwater, 
 came from, London in 1638, and was one of the 
 signers of the New Haven Plantation Covenant in 
 1639. His son, Jonathan Atwater, a prominent 
 merchant in New Haven, married Ruth Peck, 
 daughter of Rev. Jeremiah and Joanna (Kitchel) 
 Peck. Their son, Jonathan Atwater, Jr., married 
 Abigail Bradley, and had a son, Abraham Atwater, 
 who married Mary Ball and reared a large family. 
 Two of his sons, Isaac and Samuel, served with 
 their father in the Revolutionary army, the latter 
 entering as a drummer when only fifteen years old. 
 After the war Samuel Atwater settled in Cheshire. 
 Mrs. Levi Bradley was the eighth of his children. 
 Few women were as well informed upon general 
 topics as she, and she continued to be an omnivor- 
 ous reader (without glasses) until her death. After 
 her surviving children were settled in Meriden she 
 came with her husband to reside in that city, and she 
 was among the most highly respected members of 
 Susan Carrington Clarke Chapter, Daughters of 
 the American Revolution, there. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Bradley had five children : Emeline Amelia, born 
 Dec. 19, 1820; Samuel Atwater, Jan. 18, 1823'; 
 William Lambert, May 25, 1826; Nathaniel Ly- 
 man, Dec. 27, 1829; and Abby Ann, Feb. 26, 1833 
 (married Walter Hubbard). 
 
190 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Nathaniel Lyman Bradley received his early 
 education in the district schools, and subsequently 
 was graduated from the old Meriden Academy. At 
 the close of his academical studies, when he was 
 fifteen years old, he became a clerk in the store of 
 E. B. M. Hughes, a hardware merchant in New 
 Haven,- Conn., for one year. Then, 'because of the 
 strong desire of his parents, he returned home, very 
 much to the regret of Mr. Hughes, and devoted 
 himself to the work on the farm. At twenty-one 
 years of age Mr. Bradley had as yet conceived no 
 other purpose than that of being a farmer. Farm- 
 ing was not remunerative, however, and its toils 
 not satisfying to his ambition. The little fortune 
 he had accumulated he placed in a clock factory in 
 Southington, a town about four miles away. His 
 compensation was $1.25 per diem. It was here 
 that his genius for business showed itself. Conse- 
 quently he was offered the contract for making 
 clocks in the factory — three hundred per day — • 
 which he readily accepted. On account of a great 
 accumulation of goods, which necessitated the 
 stopping of the works, it v/as proposed to M'r. 
 Bradley that he visit New York, Philadelphia, Bal- 
 timore and Washington, for the purpose of selling 
 the goods of the company. The success of his 
 venture was so gratifying to the president that Mr. 
 Bradley was elected a director, and also the repre- 
 sentative salesman of the company. 
 
 The year 1852 marked the inception of the great 
 industry in Meriden with which Mr. Bradley's name 
 has since been associated'. A joint-stock company — 
 Bradley, Hatch & Co. — was formed with a capital 
 of $5,000. William L. Bradley and Walter Hub- 
 bard were members of the firm. So rapidly grew 
 the business that after two years, in 1854, mjore 
 capital became an imp>erative need. The Hatch 
 Brothers, not having any money for investment, 
 chose to sell out their interests to the compariy. 
 Walter Hubbard sold out his dry-goods business, 
 and with William L. (brother of N. L. Bradley) 
 and Nathaniel L. Bradley organized the company 
 under the title of Bradlev & Hubbard. The prop- 
 erty of Bradley, Hatch & Co. was purchased, and 
 a large business v/as permanently located where the 
 immense factory plant now stands. In 1862, how- 
 ever, Nathaniel L. Bradley and Walter Hubbard 
 bought out the interest of William L. Bradley. The 
 business was continued under a copartnership until 
 1875, when a joint-stock company was again 
 formed, under the name of the Bradley & Hubbard 
 Mfg. Co., taking in C. F. Linsley, who was then in 
 the employ of the company, and it has since been so 
 conducted, no stock having changed hands since 
 the organization of the company except on the ad- 
 mission of C. P. Bradley, son of Nathaniel L. Brad- 
 ley, as a stockholder and director ; he is also his 
 father's private secretary and treasurer. Since the 
 "forming of the present company the following 
 officers have continuously served : Walter Hub- 
 tard, president; Nathaniel L. Bradley, treasurer; 
 
 and C. F. Linsley, secretary. In referring to this 
 company one of the Meriden papers thus wrote: 
 "The history of the company has been one of rapid 
 development, due to the great energy and business 
 ability of Messrs. Bradley and Hubbard, the found- 
 ers of the original firm. The firm started in busi- 
 ness in an old two-story wooden building now 
 used as a repair shop, and a small brick foundry. 
 A glimpse at the immense building of to-day tells 
 the story of the growth since then better than words 
 can do. In 1870 the first large brick structure was 
 erected, and since then the constant demand for 
 additional room has necessitated the erection of 
 other factories, in which there are employed over 
 1,000 hands. Without doubt the company is the best 
 known in manufacture of chandeliers, gas fixtures, 
 lamps, electric fixtures, fancy hardware, bronzes, 
 stationery goods, and large lines of other goods too 
 numerous to mention. There are many of the larg- 
 est buildings all over the country that have been 
 fitted out by this company, and their goods are al- 
 ways eagerly sought for, since tliey possess the 
 merit of artistic beauty far ahead of all competitors, 
 as well as stability and honest quality. The com- 
 pany's factories are equipped with the finest machin- 
 ery and mechanical appliances in the world. Every 
 part of the immense establishment having been built 
 by them for the express purpose for which it is 
 used, their facilities for producing work in every 
 branch are unequalled. Among the army of work- 
 men which they employ are artists, designers, mod- 
 elers and skilled artisans. With a rapid but sure 
 progress the company has grown from a modest 
 beginning to occupy a prominent position in the 
 manufacturing industries of the world. The com- 
 pany's great plant now occupies eleven acres of 
 floor space. This company added a new line of 
 goods in 1895, and has been very successful with 
 same. It comes under the name of Architectural 
 Metal Work, composed of bronze, brass and iron, 
 and the reputation of the company for producing 
 these goods also stands first in the market, although 
 young in this line, which goes to prove that in what- 
 ever line of goods they make they come to the front 
 every time. The present prospects indicate that 
 the company will be obliged to add more buildings 
 to their immense plant in order to keep up with the 
 growing demand for the goods." 
 
 Mr. Bradley is a business man, not a politician, 
 and has generally been so absorbed in his business 
 that he has given no time to looking after official 
 positions, although frequently importuned to serve 
 in this or that capacity. However, he at one time 
 served Meriden as alderm|an and acting mayor. He 
 is a director of the First National Bank; the City 
 Savings Bank; the Meriden Fire Insurance Co. 
 (of which company he is also vice-president) ; the 
 J. D. Bergen Co., Meriden (who manufacture the 
 finest cut glass in this country) ; the Meriden Trust 
 & Safe Deposit Co.; the Meriden Horse Railroad 
 Co. (now the Meriden Electric Railroad Co.) ; the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 191 
 
 Meriden Republican Publishing Co. ; and is also in- 
 terested in other financial enterprises in Meriden. 
 He is a trustee of the State School for Boys, and is 
 president of the Meriden Hospital. In politics he 
 is a Republican, and he cast his first vote in the 
 basement of the Congregational Church in Cheshire 
 at the Presidential election of 1852. Mr. Bradley 
 is not too busy to give attention to the improvement 
 of his town in its physical features. The streets, 
 parks and cemeteries are objects of his special care, 
 and he is president of the Meriden Park Co. 
 
 Mr. Bradley has been a liberal supporter of 
 every public enterprise, and in benevolent and re- 
 ligious circles his influence is strong. He gives 
 freely and constantly to proper objects of charity, 
 every good work receiving his sympathy and aid. 
 He was among the first to liberallv provide for the 
 work of the Y. M. C. A. in Meriden, and subscribed 
 generously for the Association building. He has 
 been very closely related to the work of the First 
 Congregational Church, of which he is a member, 
 and gave a princely sum- toward the erection of the 
 handsome edifice of that congregation. For nearly 
 twenty-seven years he has been chairman of the 
 committee of the Society, and through all that time 
 has earnestly studied and labored to build up a har- 
 monious and prosperous fellowship. 
 
 On Oct. 25, 1859, Mr. Bradley was married to 
 Harriet E., daughter of Selden and Lucy Hooker 
 (Hart) Peck, of Kensington, Conn., a lady who 
 encourages the good spirit of her husband and co- 
 operates in his 'benevolent and religious design. One 
 son has been born to them, Clarence Peck Bradley. 
 The family estate and residence is one of the finest 
 and most beautiful in the city of Meriden, located 
 on one of the principal streets in the city. 
 
 ]\Ir. Bradley has been quite an extensive trav- 
 eler in foreign lands as well as in his own country, 
 having crossed the Atlantic ocean a number of 
 times. 
 
 GILBERT ROGERS, one of the prominent citi- 
 zens of Meriden, entitled to honorable mention 
 as the architect of his own fortune, was born in the 
 town of Saybrook, Middlesex county, July 4, 1838, 
 fifth son of the late Hervey Rogers. He is a mem- 
 ber of the firm of C. Rogers & Bros., silver-plate 
 manufacturers, of Meriden. 
 
 Gilbert Rogers attended the little brick school in 
 his native town, which structure has sheltered the 
 youth of many now noted men, and is still standing. 
 Among the teachers of Mr. Rogers were Miss Sallie 
 Whittlesey and Henry Pratt, well-known educators 
 of that day. In Meriden, to Which place he was 
 brought by his parents when young, he attended a 
 school taught bv Henrv D. Smith. However, his 
 education was very largely wrought out in the 
 school of experience, as but little opportunity was 
 given him to advance beyond the elementary grades. 
 Gilbert Rogers began work for himself at the age of 
 fourteen years, being in the employ of Luther Webb, 
 
 who was at that time making pocket-books on a 
 somewhat extensive scale. Here he spent two years, 
 and then learned the trade of buffer in the factory of 
 the Charles Parker Co. For five years he was work- 
 ing in this factory, receiving but seventy-five cents 
 a day for two years, then $1.25 for the third year, 
 and after that $1.50 per day. In 1858 Mr. Rogers 
 removed to Hartford to work for the Hartford Sil- 
 ver Plating Co., and was later employed by Rog- 
 ers, Smith & Co. At Waterbury he was made su- 
 perintendent of the buffing department of the Rog- 
 ers Bros. Silver Plating factory of that city, which 
 place he filled with satisfaction to all for two years, 
 at the end of that time forming a partnership with 
 Asa H. Rogers and starting a plating business for 
 the making of silver-plated spoons and hollow ware, 
 on Nassau street, in New York, where they con- 
 tinued in business until the breaking out of the Civil 
 war compelled them to close. Mr. Rogers returned 
 to Meriden, where he was appointed enrolling offi- 
 cer by th-e United States government, a position he 
 filled for a year. At the end of this time he formed 
 a connection -with the Meriden Britannia Co., where 
 his name was used on the silver-plated spoons, and 
 where he was engaged for about a year. In 1866 
 he united with his brothers in the formation of the 
 C. Rogers & Bros, firm, with which he has been as- 
 sociated for thirty-five years. The personnel of this 
 noted firm consists of Cephas B., Gilbert and Wil- 
 bur F. Rogers. The company was incorporated in 
 New Jersey in 1899, and in 1901 was incorporated 
 under the laws of Connecticut. Gilbert Rogers is 
 treasurer of this company, and is a director of the 
 City Savings Bank of Meriden and the Walnut 
 Grove Cemetery Association, which he helped to 
 organize. He is also a director of the Independent 
 Thread Co. In politics he is a Republican, and has 
 "served two years as second selectman of the town 
 of Meriden. He has represented the First ward in 
 the city council, where he was a member of the 
 finance committee. 
 
 Mr. Rogers belongs to Meriden Lodge, No. JJ, 
 A. F. & A. M., and is also a member of the Chapter ' 
 and Council, and a member of the Sons of the 
 American Revolution. In religion he is a Metho- 
 dist, and belongs to the First Church, which he 
 serves as Sunday school superintendent, and secre- 
 tary of the official board. 
 
 On Feb. 6, 1867, Mr. Rogers was married to 
 Miss Estelle V. Rogers, who was born Nov. 23, 
 1845, 3. daughter of Julius W. and E&ther Eliza- 
 beth (Culver) Rogers, the latter a daughter of 
 Moses and Esther (Hall) Culver, and granddaugh- 
 ter of Lieut. Titus Hall, who was a soldier of the 
 war of the Revolution. Mrs. Rogers is a m'Cmber 
 of Susan Carrington Clark Chapter, D. A. R., at 
 Meridten. She is a lady of much culture and re- 
 finement. To Mr. and Mrs. Rogers have come the 
 following children : ( i ) Mabel Estelle, born March 
 23, 1871, married Frederick Arthur Wright, Feb. 
 12, 1889, and is the mother of two children — Har- 
 
192 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 old Gilbert bora March 31, 1890, and Mildred 
 Estelle, born March 21, 1892. (2) Eugene Culver, 
 born Jan. 8, 1876, graduated from the district and 
 Meriden high schools, and is now paymaster of C. 
 Rogers & Bros. He is a young man of much ability, 
 his energetic character and business acumen com- 
 manding the respect of those with whom he is as- 
 sociated. (3) Ralph Gilbert, born April 8, 1878, is 
 a graduate of the citv high school, and is now a 
 bookkeeper with C. Rogers & Bros., and, like his 
 brother, is a young man of prominence, quite popu- 
 lar in the city of his nativity. (4) William and 
 (5) Emmerson, twins, born Feb. 3, 1893, died in 
 infancy. 
 
 WILLIAM O. RUSSELL (deceased) was for 
 many years a leading farmer and popular citizen of 
 East Haven, New Haven Co., Conn., and spent 
 his entire life upon the old homestead where he was 
 born Feb. 18, 1814. His paternal grandfather was 
 Joseph Russell, who was born July 4, 1740, and died 
 Feb. 21, 1826. He was married, Nov. 7, 1769, to 
 Abigail Granniss, who lived to the advanced age of 
 ninety-one years. 
 
 Major Russell, father of our subject, was also 
 born on the old homestead in East Haven, July 20, 
 1778, and remained there throughout life, dying 
 Dec. 17, 1844. He married Miss Polly Otty, who 
 died Jan. 12, 1842. In their family were nine chil- 
 dren, whose names and dates of birth were as fol- 
 lows: Harriet, Nov. 15, 1807; Mary A. Jan. 7, 
 1810; Nancy, Dec. i, 1811; William O., Feb. 18, 
 1814; Benjamin, April 10, 1816; Isaac S., April 9, 
 1818; Lydia, Nov. i, 1820 (died in 1822) ; Erastus, 
 Aug. 16, 1824 (died July 23, 1866) ; and Lydia, 
 March 29, 1827. 
 
 William O. Russell passed his boyhood and 
 youth in much the usual manner of farmer boys of 
 his day, and when quite young took charge of the 
 farm, which was given him by his father at the 
 latter's death. Throughout his active business life 
 _ he continued to engage in general farming, owning 
 and operating a valuable tract of 100 acres, upon 
 which he made many improvements that added to 
 the attractive appearance of the place. Upon the 
 farm' is still standing the old family residence which 
 was erected about one hundred and twenty-five 
 years ago. 
 
 On Nov. 7, 1855, Mr. Russell was united in 
 marriage to Miss Mary A. Curtis, who was born in 
 Hamden, Conn., May 28, 1823, a daughter of Philo 
 and Rachel (Potter) Curtis. She was the oldest in 
 a family of six children, the others being Caroline, 
 who died at the age of two years ; Emeline, wife of 
 Charles A. Warren; Levi W., a resident of Fair 
 Haven ; Ellen, wife of James Sanderson ; and David, 
 a resident of New Haven. The father of this family 
 died in 1865, at the age of seventy-seven years, the 
 mother in 1891, at the age of ninety-three years. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Russell were born three chil- 
 dren, namely: (i) Mary A., born Oct. 26, 1856, 
 
 married James P. Ricketts, of New Haven, and 
 died Jan. 23, 1893. She had three children, Jessie 
 Curtis, born Feb. 25, 1888; Margery Cooper, Nov. 
 14, 1890; and Harold Russell, Dec. 5, 1891 (died 
 Jan. 10, 1895). (2) Georgiana, born [March 6, 
 1858, is the wife of Edward B. Rowe, who is en- 
 gaged in the ice and dairy business in New Haven, 
 and they have two children, William Russell and 
 Mary Curtis. (3) Caroline M., born March 16, 
 i860, died Jan. 20, 1882, unmarried. ]Mr. Russell 
 died upon the old homestead July 25, 1872. He was 
 a sincere and consistent Christian, a member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, and took quite an act- 
 ive interest in church work. For many years he la- 
 bored with all the strength of a great nature and 
 all the earnestness of a true heart for the bettering 
 of the world about him, and when he was called to 
 rest and reward of the higher world his best monu- 
 ment was found in the love and respect of the com- 
 munity ini which he lived. He was never active in 
 politics or public maters. For three years after his 
 death Mrs. Russell superintended the operation of 
 the farm, and continued to reside thereon until 1892, 
 since which time she has made her home with her 
 daughter, Mrs. Rowe. She is a most estimable lady, 
 beloved by all who know her. 
 
 JAMES FAIRMAN was in his day a promi- 
 nent resident of New Haven, where for many years 
 he was one of the leading men in the dry-goods busi- 
 ness and active also in public life. He was a native 
 of Newtown, Conn., bom July 16, 1817, son of James 
 B. Fairman also a native of Newtown, who held 
 various public offices there and was well and favor- 
 ably known in that locality. JameS' B. Fairman had a 
 family of seven children, four sons and three daugh- 
 ters. 
 
 James Fairman remained in his native place until 
 he was fourteen years of age, receiving his early edu- 
 cation in the district schools. On leaving home Mr. 
 Fairman came to New Haven, where he commenced 
 work as a clerk in the dry-goods store of Washing- 
 ton Yale, a prominent dry-goods man, with whom 
 he continued a number of years. He then started 
 that business on his own account, his location being 
 in Chapel street, between Church and Orange. 
 After many years in this line he entered the paper- 
 hanging and carpet business, in which he was en- 
 gaged for himself some time, subsequently acting as 
 manager of the paper-hanging department of H. B. 
 Armstrong's establishment, with which he was- con- 
 nected) the greater part of the time until his death, 
 in February, 1892, at the age of nearly seventy-five 
 years. Mr. Fairman was a well-known member of 
 the Chamber of Commerce. At the time of his re- 
 tirement from active business he was one of the old- 
 est dry-goods men in the city. Public-spirited' and 
 deeply interested in the growth and progress of his 
 adopted city, he was an efficient worker in municipal 
 affairs, and was honored with election to the board 
 of aldermen and common council, in which he served 
 
WILLIAH 0. RUSSELL, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 193 
 
 many years. In political affiliation he was a Repub- 
 lican. He was an active church member, -attending 
 the Calvary Baptist Church, in which he served as 
 memlber of the society's committee, and he was al- 
 ways deeply interested in church work. 
 
 WII.COX. Conspicuously prominent in the 
 growth and development of Meriden was the late 
 Hon. Horace C. Wilcox, the founder of the Meri- 
 den Britannia Co., and whose name has been prom- 
 inently identified with almost every other of the 
 many large industries that have given fame to the 
 name of Wilcox as well as to that of the "Silver 
 City." 
 
 Horace C. Wilcox vras a descendant in the 
 seventh generation from John Wilcock (Wilcox), 
 who 'was an original proprietor of Hartford in 1639. 
 He had a son, John, who accompanied him from 
 England. The family, however, is of Saxon origin, 
 and was seated at Burj^ St. Edmonds, in the county 
 of Suffolk, England, before the Norman Conquest. 
 
 The line of the descent of Horace C. Wilcox is 
 through John (2), Ephraim, John (3), Joseph and 
 Elisha B. 
 
 (H) John Wilcox (2), son of John Wilcox, was 
 four times married, his son, Ephraim Wilcox, be- 
 ing a child of his third wife, Mary. John Wilcox 
 moved to Middletown-, Conn., in 1654. 
 
 (HI) Ephraim Wilcox, son of John Wilcox, 
 born in 1672, married at Middletown, in i6g8. 
 
 (IV) John Wilcox (3) was a son of Ephraim 
 Wilcox. His wife's Christian name was Hannah, 
 and they resided in Middletown. 
 
 (V) Joseph Wilcox, son of John Wilcox (3), 
 born in 1746, married in 1785, Miriam, daughter of 
 Josiah and Sybil Bacon. 
 
 (VI) Elisha B. Wilcox, son of Joseph Wilcox, 
 was bom June 20, 1795, in Westfield Parish, Mid- 
 dletown. On Jan. 26, 1818, he married Hepsi- 
 bah Cornwell, and the union was blessed with chil- 
 dren as follows : Frances S., Lucy M., Hannah J., 
 Horace C, Julia, Jedediah, Dennis Cornwell, Ed- 
 son, Hezekiah, Edmund N., Mary E., and Watson 
 Elisha. 
 
 Horace C. Wilcox was bom Jan. 24, 1824, in 
 Westfield parish, town of Middletown, Conn., where 
 in the neighboring schools, he received the usual 
 education given to the sons' of general farmers of 
 that day. He remained at home, assisting his fa- 
 ther on the farm, until of age. He began his busi- 
 ness career as a peddler of tinware through the 
 country, at which he continued a couple of years. 
 Following this, in 1850, he went on the road as a 
 traveling salesman for James Frary, a manufacturer 
 of Britannia ware. Later he traveled in the same 
 capacity for William Lyman and John Munson, of 
 Wallingford,-Conn., and Isaac C. Lewis, of Meri- 
 den, manufacturers of the same line of goods. In 
 1852 Mr. Wilcox, along with his brother, Dennis 
 C. Wilcox, Isaac C. Lewis, James A. Frary, Lemuel 
 J. Curtis, W. W. Lyman and John Munson, or- 
 is 
 
 ganized the Meriden Brittannia Co., Horace C. Wil- 
 cox becoming secretary and treasurer of the com- 
 pany. In 1866 he succeeded Isaac C. Lewis as 
 president of the company, and continued to hold the 
 office until his death, Aug. 22, 1890. Mr. Wilcox 
 was a man of marvelous energy and perseverance,, 
 and devoted his life to the interests of the company. 
 Having in the start, from his experience as a sales- 
 man, become thoroughly identified with the Britan- 
 nia manufacture and its selling markets, he became 
 a power in the new concern from the very begin- 
 ning, and with such associates as those named the 
 company early established itself on a solid and per- 
 manent foundation, though it very soon ceased the 
 manufacture of Britannia, and took up that of silver 
 plated ware and other kindred products, and it be- 
 came the leading establishment of the kind in the 
 world, ever since maintaining such place. Toj.show 
 something oi the business in which Mr. Wilcox 
 was so important a factor, and to whose great ability 
 arid untiring energy its marvelous success is in a 
 great measure due, only a brief history is necessary : 
 
 In 1856 a large plating factory was built on State- 
 street, the first of the .large collection of shops irt 
 that vicinity. The business had grown so large by 
 1863 that the company erected the large factory 
 (over 500 feet long) on the west side of State street. 
 The wares of the company by this time were not- 
 orily sold all over the United States, but exported, 
 to many foreign countries, notably to South Amer- 
 ica, where a large and profitable trade was built up,, 
 so that a few years later it was necessary to send a 
 representative to that continent, which connection 
 has since been maintained. Gradually warerooms- 
 were established in New York, on the Pacific coast^ 
 and an agency in London. In 1881 another large- 
 factory was built on the corner of Aliller and State- 
 streets, in Meriden, and in the same year a branch 
 factory was established in Hamilton, Ontario. Later 
 other additions and extensions were made. In 1876 
 the company made brilliant displays of its produc- 
 tions at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, 
 repeating them on a still more elaborate scale at the 
 Columbian Fair at Chicago in 1893. They exhibited 
 at Paris in 1889. The capital stock of the company 
 at its organization in 1852 was $25,000, soon in- 
 creased to $60,000; in 1857 to $100,000; in i860 it 
 was made $200,000; in 1863, $250,000; in 1866, 
 $550,000; and in 1879 it was increased to $1,100,- 
 000. 
 
 But the demands of the great business did not 
 exhaust Mr. Wilcox's ability and sagacity, for he 
 was instrumental in- founding many other large in- 
 dustries in Meriden. He was the founder and presi- 
 dent of the Wilcox & White Organ Co., a director 
 in the Meriden Silver Plate Co., the Manning & 
 Bowman Co., the Meriden Saddlery and Leather 
 Co., the AeoHan Organ and Music Co., the Meridenr 
 Street Railroad Co., the Rogers Bros. Co., of Water- 
 bury, Conn., the R. Wallace & Sons Co., of Walling- 
 ford, the William Rogers & Sons Co., of Hartford^ 
 
194 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the J\Ieriden Fire Insurance Co., the Home National 
 Bank of ]\Ieriden, the Republican Publishing Co., 
 of Aleriden, the Walnut Grove Cemetery Associa- 
 tion, and trustee of the City Savings Bank. One of 
 the very important enterprises in which Air. Wilcox 
 was engaged was the Meriden, Waterbury and Con- 
 necticut River Railroad Co., which he organized for 
 the construction of a road from iVIeriden to the line 
 of the Naugatuck railroad, as well as Connecticut 
 river, having become satisfied that another outlet 
 for both passengers and freight was essential to the 
 proper development of the interests of Meriden. In 
 this enterprise, with a public spirit universally ap- 
 preciated by his fdlow citizens, he invested, with 
 little expectation of adequate returns, more than a 
 million dollars. 
 
 While Mr. Wilcox was a hard working business 
 man, he never shirked public duties, and made his 
 influence felt in the various offices he held. In all 
 of them he was an uncompromising Republican. 
 He was an alderman at the time of the organization 
 of the city government, and the fifth ma)'or of the 
 city of Meriden, holding that office in 1875 and 1876. 
 In 1877 he was elected State" senator from Meriden 
 district, and was frequently solicited to accept other 
 offices, but increasing business cares and failing 
 health prevented him from accepting the same. 
 With all his business affairs Mr. Wilcox never neg- 
 lected church matters. His connection with the 
 First Congregational Society began many years ago. 
 He was always one of the heaviest contributors, and 
 served on the building committee which had in 
 charge the building of the present beautiful edifice. 
 Up to 1884 he was on the Society's committees con- 
 nected with that organization. 
 
 On Aug. 3, 1849, Mr. Wilcox was married to 
 Charlotte, daughter of Jabez Smith, of Middletown. 
 She died in 1864, and on May 31, 1865, he married 
 Ellen ]\I,, daughter of Edmund Parker. To the 
 first marriage were born children as follows : Ella 
 Augusta (now Mrs. William P. Morgan of San 
 F'rancisco), Georgine, ^^'alter and Allyn. To the 
 second marriage were born George Horace, since 
 his father's death, president of the Britannia Com- 
 pany ; Dwight P., deceased; Horace, deceased; and 
 Florence Cornwell. 
 
 On the death of Mr. Wilcox one of the Meriden 
 papers thus referred to his life: 
 
 Mr. Wilcox will be mourned in Meriden not as an emi- 
 nently successful business man, not as a founder and pro- 
 moter of great enterprises tliat have made Meriden known 
 throughout the civilized world, not as an able and faithful 
 servant of the people in positions of public trust that he 
 had occupied, through he was all of these and more. He 
 will be mourned as a friend would be by every member of 
 the c.immunity. The vast business enterprises in which he 
 engaged set the pace for the progress of Meriden from an 
 insignificant country village to the proud position she now 
 holds among the manufacturing centers of the country, and 
 how rapid and successful that pace has been, there are 
 plenty of our citizens who know from memory and expeir- 
 ence. The Meriden Britannia Company, whose goods ar.e 
 known throughout the civilized world; the Wilcox and White 
 
 Organ Co., almost as well known, although an infant in 
 years by comparison; the Meriden Silver Plate Co., the 
 Waterbury & Connecticut River Railroad — all these are 
 lasting tributes to the business sagacity, the indomitable 
 pluck and tireless enterprise of Horace C. Wilcox. He 
 was no pampered child of fortune, neither was he a self- 
 made man of the stamp that builds upon the misfortunes of 
 others. His great wealth was the reward of his own hard, 
 persistent endeavor, aided by the native sagacity and rug- 
 ged honesty that characterized the best and noblest of New 
 England's sons. 
 
 Mr. Wilcox was a loyal and influential Republican and 
 his sound judgment and faithful service will be missed in 
 the councils of his party. He always took a deep interest 
 in local affairs, and his advice and influence was always for 
 the best interests of Meriden. 
 
 Although Mr. Wilcox had reached that period in his 
 career when he might have taken things easy, so to speak, 
 he still insisted upon close attention to business, even 
 against the advice of his physician, who. feared for the con- 
 sequences to one in such delicate health as Mr. Wilcox dur- 
 ing the past six years. The breaking down of the physical 
 man could not conquer the wonderful will power and energy 
 that enabled him to make such progress in the battle of life. 
 He fought manfully to the last, although he must have been 
 conscious of the fact that the unequal struggle could have 
 but one ending. 
 
 To his business associates who have for so many years 
 shared with him the responsibilities and success of his 
 career, the death of Mr. Wilcox must come in the nature of 
 personal affliction. The ties that death rudely sundered 
 were those that twine about the heart and thrive upon the 
 noblest sentiment thai man can entertain for man. They 
 have been the growth of years of business and social rela- 
 tions — years that have brought honor and prosperity to all 
 concerned. 
 
 To the hundreds of working people who are now and 
 have been in the past employes of the great business con- 
 cerns of which Mr. Wilcox was the head, the loss will 
 come with a force hardly less impressive. Mr. Wilcox, as 
 is well known, was a man of the people and knew how to 
 create and preserve the relations that should exist between 
 employer and employe. 
 
 Of the loss to his family nothing need be said. They 
 have lost a kind and indulgent husband and father, and to 
 them the sympathies ot the community go out in tnishour 
 of their great affliction. 
 
 NATHANIEL JOCELYN, artist, was born m 
 New Haven, January 31, 1796. His father, Simeon 
 Jocelyn, was noted especially for his skill 111 m.ithe- 
 matics. The son learned the art of watchmaking, 
 but when only fifteen began a thorough course of 
 study in drawing, with himself as instructor, and 
 three years later he apprenticed himself to an 
 engraver. At the age of twenty-one he entered 
 into partnership with Tisdale, Danforth & Willard 
 ill the Hartford Graphic & Bank Note Engraving 
 Co. and later, with Mr. Danforth, he virtuallv 
 ftjunded the National Bank Note Engraving Co. 
 
 In 1820 Air. Jocelyn gave up engraving, chang- 
 ing the graver for the pencil, and soon after estab- 
 lished himself as a portrait painter in New Ha- 
 ven, demonstrating his capacity to transfer, to can- 
 vas, faithful likenesses. His skillwas the theme 
 of cowersation and there was a common desire to 
 secure portraits painted l>y him, many of which con- 
 tinue to whisper of his fame. Several of his por- 
 traits appeared in the first exhibition of the National 
 Academy, and in 1849 he was elected acadeinician. 
 He was also elected honorary member of the Phil- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 195 
 
 adelphia Art Union. In 1830 he traveled and stud- 
 ied in Europe with his friend, Prof. S. F. B. Morse, 
 inventor of the telegraph system. In 1844 he re- 
 ceived the gold palette for the best portrait ex- 
 hibited in the State of Connecticut. The Yale Por- 
 trait Catalogue shows that more of the portraits 
 owned by the University were painted by Jocelyn 
 than by any other artist except Col. Trumibull. 
 
 When Webster's Unabridged Dictionary was re- 
 vised in 1847 all the words pertaining to portraiture 
 were intrusted to Mr. Jocelyn and found their way 
 into that work as they left his pen. His name ap- 
 pears in connection with his definitions. As a 
 teacher he had among his pupils Thomas Rossiter, 
 William Oliver Stone and other artists of note. 
 Later he served for many years, with great suc- 
 cess, at the head of the art department of the Amer- 
 ican Bank Note Co., of which he was one of the 
 founders, and still later he retired from active busi- 
 ness and returned to New Haven to exercise his 
 art. His studio was amid the pleasantest of sur- 
 roundings in the Yale Art Building, a structure 
 in the erection of which by his friend, Mr. Street, 
 he had manifested so much interest. H. W. French, 
 in giving a history of Yale Art School, in his in- 
 troductory chapter to "Art and Artists in Connecti- 
 cut" says : "xvlr. Jocelyn's influence has been pow- 
 erful for art throughout his long residence in the 
 city; and Mr. Street many times confessed that it 
 was chiefly through suggestions and appeals of Mr. 
 Jocelyn that the fact of this important lack was 
 impressed upon his mind. Hence, in a sense, the 
 art school owes its existence no less to Mr. Jocelyn 
 than to its founder, Mr. Street." An enthusiastic 
 spirit tempted him early in life beyond the con- 
 fines of art into large real-estate transactions, the 
 laying out of streets and the inauguration of many 
 improvements that are the pride of New Haven to- 
 day. 
 
 Mr. Jocelyn's common ancestry with the Trum- 
 bull family, which gave Connecticut three govern- 
 ors and the renowned "soldier-artist," Col. John 
 Trumbull, is traceable from Capt. John Higley, who 
 came from England to Windsor in 1666, later re- 
 moving to Simsbury. John Higley was a repre- 
 sentative to the Assembly for thirty-seven terms in 
 twenty-two years, and was proniiner.i-ly identified 
 with the discovery and development of the rich cop- 
 per mines in Granby, which afterward became the 
 "Newgate" of Connecticut. In view of the artistic 
 talent which displayed itself in both Col. Trumbull 
 and Nathaniel Jocelyn, it is a significant fact^ that 
 an historian has referred especially to the skill as 
 an artist of Capt. Higley's son. Dr. Samuel Higley, 
 from whom Mr. Jocelyn is descended. The cur- 
 rency known as "Higley coppers," specimens of 
 which are on exhibition at the Connecticut Histori- 
 cal Society in Hartford and the United States Mint 
 at Philadelphia, were designed and manufactured 
 Ly this Dr. Higley, who also owned the mines. 
 
 Mr. Jocelyn was a quiet yet cordial sympathizer 
 
 with the slave. The story of the Amistad Africans 
 v/ho were captured by the Spaniards for slaves and 
 brought into the port of New Haven is a matter of 
 history and familiar to all. Mr. Jocelyn was much 
 interested in their behalf and painted the picture 
 of the African leader, Cinquez, which now hangs 
 in the rooms of the Historical Society in New Ha- 
 ven, where is also a fine painting of the artist him- 
 self, by Harry Thompson. 
 
 Until his death, which occurred January 13, 1881, 
 at the age of eighty-four, at his home on York 
 street, in New Haven, he was for forty-six years 
 deacon of the North Congregational Church, of 
 New Haven. He was widely known as a man of 
 scholarly tastes, an extensive reader and one of the 
 best authorities on events of the past, both local 
 and general. In announcing his death the New 
 York Journal of Commerce said : "Fifty years ago 
 the name of Jocelyn was better known on the face 
 of a bank note than the name of the bank itself. 
 His portraits were among the cleverest works of the 
 kind produced in this country. He was the founder 
 of the most celebrated of the bank note companies 
 and was a leader in the highest style of art for 
 more than two generations." 
 
 The following letter appropriately serves to pre- 
 serve his memory : 
 
 National Academy of Design, 
 Cor. 23d Street and 4th Avenue, 
 New York, Jan'y. 25, 1881. 
 To Mr. Jocelyn P. Clcavcland, 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 The Academy desires to express its 'high regard for 
 the memory of its venerable and esteemed honorary mem- 
 ber, the late Nathaniel Jocelyn, and its sympathy with 
 his bereaved family and friends. 
 
 As a member of the Academy in its earliest years, 
 and as an active and efficient fellow worker with its 
 founders, more than half a century ago, Mr. Jocelyn is 
 remembered and lamented by his contemporaries who sur- 
 vive him, and by the later generation of antists, by w'hom 
 his good life and works are not less known and appreci- 
 ated. 
 
 In his long and honorable career, he had the happi- 
 ness to witness the growth of the Academy, in whose 
 progress he was so greatly interested, and to share alike 
 its early trials and its late triumphs ; contributing always, 
 botli in its darker and in its brighter days, his full quota 
 of successful work. 
 
 His prolonged life embraced, indeed, nearly the whole 
 period of the history of American art ; and to have filled 
 a worthy and useful place in such a history is a lasting 
 monument to his memory and a noble record for his pos- 
 terity. 
 
 With great respect, I am, dear sir, 
 Truly yours, 
 
 [Signed] T. Addison Richards, 
 
 Cor. Sec. N. A. 
 
 Mr. Jocelyn married July 5, 1818, Sarah At- 
 water, daughter of Capt. S.imuel Plant, of New 
 Haven. They had seven children, one son and six 
 daughters, the son dying in childhood. 
 
 JOCELYN PLANT CLEAVELAND, LL. B., 
 lawyer, son of Rev. James Bradford and Elizabeth 
 H. (Jocelyn) Cleaveland, was born in New Ha- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 vai August 22, 1853, in York street, where he hved 
 and died, at what had been for many generations 
 the ancestral home. His father was a Connecticut 
 Congregational minister of ability and his mother 
 is a well-known writer of verse. His maternal 
 giandfather was the late Nathaniel Jocelyn, of 
 whose noteworthy career as a portrait painter this 
 book makes honorable mention. The ancestral line 
 of the subject of this sketch dates iback not only to 
 five of the "Mayflower" pilgrims, among them 
 Gov. William Bradford and John Howland, but to 
 those of an earlier age, the Alsopps, of King John's 
 time, the Drakes, of Exmouth fame, and the Honey- 
 woods, of the time of Henry H. 
 
 In addition to the other ancestral lines, men- 
 tioned elsewhere in this work in the sketch of his 
 brother, Judge Livingston W. Cleaveland, the gene- 
 alogical record is directly traceable to several early 
 settlers O'f distinctly local interest, among them 
 William Peck, Richard Miles and Richard Bald- 
 
 win. 
 
 William Peck, who came to this country in 1637 
 with Govs. Eaton and Hopkins and Rev. John Dav- 
 enport, signed the first compact for the New Ha- 
 ven Colony in June, 1639, and was an original pro- 
 prietor and freeman, and deacon of the original 
 church, the First Church of New Haven. 
 
 Richard Miles, also deacon of the First Church, 
 was prominent in the alTairs of both New Haven 
 and Milford, where he was one of the judges in 
 civil affairs. Stone No. 4, in the Alilford Memorial 
 Bridge, being specifically set apart to his memory. 
 
 Richard Baldwin was one of the settlers of ^lil- 
 ford, a member of the General Court and one of 
 the committee "for ye consummating of matters be- 
 twixt Connecticutt and us," when the two colonies 
 were joined in 1664. His name is perpetuated by 
 Slone No. 7 in the Milford Memorial Bridge. 
 
 The subject of this sketch, after preliminary 
 work in the New Haven preparatory schools, and a 
 course of study in the Scientific Department of Yale 
 College, entered Yale Law School, from which he 
 was graduated in 1876, being admitted to the New 
 Haven County Bar the same year. Here in his 
 native city he practiced his profession for five years, 
 being for four years connected with the firm of 
 Wright & Harrison in the National New Haven 
 Bank Building, and for one year preceding his death 
 in business for himself in the Cutler building. His 
 career, bright with hope, came to a sudden end at 
 the age of twenty-seven, his death, which occurred 
 June 15, 1 88 1, being the result of over-exertion in 
 the sun. He was a.memher of the North Congre- 
 gational Church and of its choir and musical direc- 
 tor in its mission Sunday-school. He was con- 
 nected with the State Militia, serving in Company 
 F, Second Regiment, C. N. G. ( New Haven Grays), 
 and was a member of Hiram Lodge, No. i, F. & 
 A. M. 
 
 At the time of his death Mr. Cleaveland was 
 contemplating publishing a book relative to the 
 
 rio-hts and duties of police officers and the board of 
 police commissioners. Especially interested in the 
 dangers encountered by brakemen, he was gather- 
 ing facts that he might secure legislation in their 
 behalf. Hopeful, considerate of the interests of 
 others more than of his own, persevering, an earnest 
 and ingenious pleader at the Bar, he was the life 
 of the social circle and gave early promise of success- 
 in the vocation he had chosen. ' 
 
 The esteem in which he was held by his brother 
 lawyers is indicated -by the following resolutions 
 adopted at the meeting of the New Haven County 
 Bar held in his honor: 
 
 Resolved. That we regard with profound sorrow the- 
 death of Jocelyn P. Cleaveland, one of the junior mem- 
 bers of the Bar, who, by God's all wise providence, has- 
 suddenly been called from our midst in the full vigor and 
 energy of his early manhood , while yet at the threshold 
 of his professional life. 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of our late brother, this 
 Bar has lost a diligent student, a genial and social mem- 
 ber, and a conscientious gentleman, who by his earnest 
 application and strict attention to his professional duties, 
 bid fair to become an able lawyer. 
 
 ]\Ir. Cleaveland was never married. In addition 
 to his mother and brother, above referred to, he is 
 survived by his sister, Mrs. Robert L. Rice, of 
 (iranby, Conn. A younger brother, Foster Wild 
 Cleaveland, died in infancy in 1856. His father 
 died in li 
 
 JUDGE LIVINGSTON WARNER CLEAVE- 
 LAND, LL. B., !M. L., has been a member of the 
 New Haven County Bar for aibout twenty-one years 
 and Judge of Probate for the District of New Ha- 
 ven for the past seven years. 
 
 Born January 31, i860, in South Egremont, 
 Berkshire Co., ]\Iass., Judge Cleaveland is a son of 
 the late Rev. James Bradford and Elizabeth H. 
 (Jocelyn) Cleaveland, and is descended on both 
 sides from prominent and historic New England an- 
 cestry. The direct line of descent on the father's 
 side is from Gov. William Bradford, the historian of 
 the Plymouth Colony, and on his mother's from 
 John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley and the parents 
 of the latter, all passengers on the "Mayflower" in" 
 1620. 
 
 Closes Cleveland, from whom Judge Cleaveland 
 is descended, was the first American ancestor of the 
 Cleaveland family. He came from Ipswich, in the 
 county of Suffolk, England, in 1635, locating in 
 \\'oburn, Mass.; married Ann, daughter of Ed- 
 ward ^^'inn, and died about 1701. Several of his 
 sons settled in what is now Canterbury, Conn.,, 
 about the close of the seventeenth century, and tO' 
 them many of the name in Connecticut trace their 
 ancestry. jMoses Cleveland's son, Samuel, from 
 whom Judge Cleaveland is descended, was one of 
 the seven who founded the first church at Canter- 
 bury June 13, 171 1. 
 
 bur subject's father, Rev. James B. Cleaveland,. 
 who died in 1889, was a Congregational clergyman; 
 
/^ 
 
 rr^- ^--u 
 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 '197 
 
 of talent and courage. He was pastor over 
 churches in Connecticut for many years, having 
 been previously pastor of the Congregational 
 Church in South Egremont, Mass. James B. 
 Cleaveland graduated from Yale in 1847, and from 
 Yale Seminary several years later. By common 
 ancestry Judge Cleaveland is related, paternally, 
 to three Presidents of the United States, John Ad- 
 ams, John Quincy Adams and Grover Cleveland, 
 and to one Connecticut governor, Gov. Chauncey 
 F. Cleveland, the latter being also descended from 
 Moses Cleveland. 
 
 Judge Cleaveland's mother is a woman of cul- 
 ture and a poetess of recognized ability, her poem 
 "No Sects in Heaven" having been widely read in 
 both this country and England. Her father, Na- 
 thaniel Jocelyn, was a noted portrait painter and 
 engraver and founder of the National Bank Note 
 Engraving Co. In 1844 he won the gold palette 
 given as a prize for the best portrait by a Connecti- 
 cut artist. A sketch of Mr. Jocelyn's life appears 
 elsewhere in this work. 
 
 Judge Cleaveland is related, maternally, by com- 
 mon ancestry, to the illustrious Trumbull family, 
 which furnished Connecticut with three chief mag- 
 istrates, including Washington's "Brother Jona- 
 than," the first Gov. Trumbull. 
 
 Judge Cleaveland was admitted to the Connecti- 
 cut Bar at New Haven in 1881, at the time of his 
 graduation from the Law Department of Yale with 
 the degree of LL. B. In the year 1887-88, while 
 practicing his profession, he took graduate work at 
 Yale, receiving the degree of M. L. from the Uni- 
 versity in 1888. He was engaged in the general 
 practice of law until his election to the Probate 
 Bench, in 1894. He has always been a Republican 
 in politics and is the only Republican who has ever 
 been honored with an election to the Probate Judge- 
 ship for the District of New Haven, with the excep- 
 tion of Hon. Francis Wayland, now Dean of the 
 Law Department of Yale University, who was 
 elected just after the close of the Civil war. The 
 Probate District over which Judge Cleaveland pre- 
 sides comprises the citv of New Haven and all ad- 
 joining towns, and is the most important district in 
 the' State. The term is two years. In this Dem- 
 ocratic stronghold our subject has been elected four 
 times, the first time by over one thousand plurality, 
 although his popular competitor had held the office 
 for eight years and had carried the previous election 
 by about five -thousand majority. In 1896 Judge 
 Cleaveland was re-elected by a majority of over 
 three thousand and he was again re-elected in 1898, 
 in which year he was the only candidate on the 
 Republican ticket to carry the city of New Haven. 
 In 1900, at the Presidential election, he was again 
 elected to the Judgeship. At this election Bryan 
 carried the city. The normal Democratic plurality 
 in the city was over fifteen hundred, but the Judge, 
 running far ahead of any other candidate on the 
 Republican ticket, National, State or local, carried 
 
 the city by eleven hundred and the district by over 
 twenty-two hundred. His first election of signifi- 
 cance to public office was in 1890, when he was 
 elected to represent the Tenth ward in the Board 
 of Councilmen of the city of New Haven for the 
 year 1891. In i89r he was re-elected for the year 
 1892. During both ^■ears he served on the ccanmit-- 
 tee on Ordinances. In the year 1891 he was chosen 
 by the Board of Councilmen as its Republican rep- 
 restative on the Board of Finance for the city of 
 New Haven. For a number of years Judge Cleave- 
 land has been the only commis'siioner of deeds in 
 New England, outside of Boston, for all the States 
 and territories and the principal Canadian prov- 
 inces. 
 
 Socially Judge Cleaveland is a member of the 
 Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants; 
 has been the presiding officer of Yale Conclave, Im- 
 proved Order Heptasophs, in the supreme body of 
 which fraternal order he served as a member of the 
 Supreme Committee on Laws in 1894-96; for years 
 has been a member of the Young Men's Republican 
 Club, of New Haven; for fifteen years one of the 
 directors of the local Young Men's Christian As- 
 sociation, of which for several years he has been 
 chairman of the Educational Department ; and is also 
 a member of the executive committee of the State 
 Association. For thirteen years he has been su- 
 perintendent of the English Hall Sunday-school, of 
 which he had previously been assistant superin- 
 tendent for four years. In 1900 he was elected 
 president of the New Haven Congregational Club 
 and has twice filled the position of president of the 
 Men's Club of the United Church. 
 
 The Judge is unmarried and lives with his 
 mother in New Haven. His sister, Mrs. Robert 
 L. Rice, resides in Granby, Conn. His brother, 
 Jocelyn P. Cleaveland, who was also a New Haven 
 attorney, died in 1881, and reference is made to 
 the sketch of his life, found elsewhere in this bi- 
 ographical record, for ancestral lines not repeated 
 here. 
 
 WHITNEY. The name of Whitney has been 
 a familiar one in England since the Norman Con- 
 quest. The first Whitney was a son or grandson 
 of Sir Turstin, one of the Conqueror's Knights, and 
 standard bearer at the battle of Hastings. The 
 early Lords: of Whitney made themselves famous 
 by their invasion of Wales. In 1284 King Edward 
 I'granted a "free warren" to Sir Eustace de Why- 
 teneye, and in 1368 Robert de Whitney journeyed 
 to Milan in company with the Duke of Clarence. 
 Twenty years later Sir Robert Whitney negotiated 
 a treaty in Flanders, was a member of Parliament 
 in 1391, was Royal Commissioner to France in 1303, 
 Knight Marshal to Ireland in 1394, and was killed 
 at the capture of Edmund Mortimer" in 1402. 
 In 1404 Robert Whitney, doubtless a son of the fore- 
 going Robert, was granted Clift'ord Castle and the 
 Lordships of Clifford and Glasbury. Several 
 
198 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Knights, ancestors of the Whitneys of to-day, gave 
 up their Hves on the field of Agincourt in 1415. In 
 1455. James I. sent Sir Eustace Whitney to Wales, 
 as Royal Commissioner charged with the arrest of 
 Griffith Ap Nicholas. 
 
 The bard, Glyn Cothi, about 1470, dedicated a 
 poem to Robert Whitney, on the occasion of the 
 latter's marriage to Alice Vaughn. This Robert 
 was twice married, his second wife being Constance 
 Touchett, granddaughter of the Earl of Kent, and 
 a descendant from the Xorman and Plantagenct 
 Kings. By this second marriage were born Robert's 
 children. In 1540 a second royal line of descent was 
 acquired for future generations by a marriage with 
 the Baskervilles. 
 
 The Whitneys continued to be prominent at 
 court, and upon the occasion of the coronation of 
 Anne Boleyn, Henry YWl nominated one of them 
 Knight of the Bath. Once again before the emigra- 
 tion to America was the representative of this noble 
 family, lauded in immortal verse; John A\'bitney 
 was an attendant upon Queen Elizabeth, and upon 
 the occasion of his lamentable death Roger Ascham 
 produced one of his best poems as a memorial. 
 
 For two hundred and sixty-five years the Whit- 
 ney family, of which those now residing in New 
 Haven constitute a part, has been identified with 
 New England, and for more than one hundred years 
 Eli Whitney, the inventor and manufacturer, of cot- 
 ton-gin fame, his son and grandson, in turn, each 
 bearing the Christian name of the honored father 
 and grandfather, together with the families with 
 which they have been allied by marriage, have been 
 conspicuous in the annals of New Haven. 
 
 John Whitney, the emigrant ancestor of the New 
 Haven family under consideration was born in 1589, 
 in England, and dwelt in the parish of Isleworth- 
 on-the-Thames from May, 1619, to January, 1623-4, 
 and came from London to Watertown, Mass., in 
 1635. His first wife, Elinor, died in 1659 and he 
 died in 1673, both in Watertown. 
 
 From this John Whitney, Eli Whitney, of New 
 Haven, president of the New Haven Water Co., 
 and a leading business man and citizen of that city, 
 is a descendant in the ninth generation, his line of 
 descent being through John (2), Nathaniel, Nathan- 
 iel (2), Nathaniel (3), EH, Eli (2), and Eli (3). 
 
 (II) John Whitney (2), son of John, the emi- 
 grant ancestor, born in 1620, in England, married in 
 1642, Ruth, daughter of Robert Reynolds, of Water- 
 town, Wethersfield and Boston, and resided in 
 Watertown. He died in 1692. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Whitney, son of John (2), 
 born in February, 1646, in Waterbury, married in 
 1673, Sarah Hager, who died in 1746. He resided 
 in Weston, Mass., and died in 1732. 
 
 (IV) Nathaniel Whitney (2), son of Nathaniel, 
 born in 1675, in Watertown, married in 1695, Mercy 
 Robinson and lived in Watertown. She died in 
 1740, and he died in 1730. 
 
 (\^) Nathaniel Whitney (3), son of Nathaniel 
 
 (2), born in 1696, married in 1721, }*Iary Child, 
 and settled in Westboro. Both died in 1776. 
 
 (M) Eli AA'hitney, son of Nathaniel (3), bap- 
 tized in 1740, married (first) in 1765, Elizabeth 
 Fay, who died in 1777. He was born and always 
 resided in Westboro, where he was a prominent man. 
 He saw active service in the war of the Revolution 
 as a member of Capt. Baker's company. He died in 
 1807. 
 
 (VII) Eli Whitney (2), son of Eli, and the 
 grandfather of Eli Whitney, president of the New 
 Haven Water Company was born Dec. 8, 1765, in 
 Westboro, Mass. During the Revolutionary war, 
 as a boy, he was engaged in making nails by hand. 
 Subsecjuently, by his industry as an artisan and by 
 teaching, he was able to defray his expenses at 
 Yale, where he was graduated in 1792. In the 
 same year he went to Georgia under an engagement 
 as a private tutor, but on arriving there found that 
 the place had been filled. He then accepted the in- 
 vitation of the widow of Gen. Nathaniel Greene to 
 make her place at Mulberry Grove, on the Savannah 
 river, his home while he studied law. Several 
 articles that he had devised for Mrs. Greene's con- 
 venience gave her great faith in his inventive power, 
 and when some of her visitors regretted that there 
 could be no profit in the cultivation of the green 
 seed-cotton, 'which was considered the best variety, 
 owing to the great difficulty or separating it from 
 the seed, she adfvised them to apply to Whitney, 
 "who," she said, "could make anything." A pound 
 of green seed-cotton was all that a negro woman 
 could, at that period, clean in a day. Islr. Whitney 
 up to that time had seen neither the raw cotton nor 
 the cotton seed, but he at once procured some cotton, 
 from which the seeds had been removed, although 
 with trouble, as it was not the season of the year for 
 the cultivation of the plant, and began to work out 
 his idea of the cotton-gin. He was occupied for 
 some months in constructing his machine, during 
 which he met with great difficulty, being compelled 
 to draw the necessary ironwire himself, as he could 
 obtain none in Savannah, and to manufacture his 
 own iron tools. Near the end of 1792, he succeeded 
 in making a gin, of which the principle and mechan- 
 ism are exceedingly simple. Its main features are a 
 cylinder four feet long and five inches in diameter, 
 upon which is set a series of circular saws half an 
 inch- apart and projecting two inches above the sur- 
 face of the revolving cylinder. A mass of cotton in 
 the seed, separated from the cylinder bv a steel grat- 
 uig, is brought in contact with the numerous teeth 
 in the cylinder. These teeth catch the cotton while 
 playing between the bars, which allow the lint, but 
 not_ the seed, to pass. Beneath the saws is a set of 
 stiff brushes on another cylinder, revolving in an 
 opposite direction, which brush off from the s.uv 
 teeth the lint that these have just pulled from the 
 seed. There is also a revolving fan for producing a 
 current of air to throw the light and downy lint that 
 IS thus liberated to a convenient distance from the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 199 
 
 revolving saws and brushes. Such are the essential 
 principles of the cotton-gin as invented by Whitney, 
 and as it is still used, but in various details and 
 vvorkmanship it has been the subject of many im- 
 provements, the object of which has been to pick the 
 cotton more perfectly from the seed, to prevent the 
 teeth from cutting the staple, and to give greater 
 regularity to the operation of the machine. By its 
 use the planter was able to clean for market, by the 
 labor of one man, one thousand pounds of cotton in 
 place of five or six by hand. Mrs. Greene and 
 Phineas Miller were the only ones permitted to see 
 the machine, but rumors of it had gone through the 
 State, and before it was quite finished, the building 
 in which it was placed was broken into at night and 
 the machine was carried ofif. Before he could com- 
 plete his model and obtain patent, a number of ma- 
 chines, based on his invention, had been surrepti- 
 tiously made, and were in operation. In May, 1793, 
 he formed a partnership with Mr. Miller, who had 
 some property, and went to Connecticut to manu- 
 facture the machines, but he became involved in 
 continual trouble by infringement of his patent. In 
 Georgia it was boldly asserted that he was not the 
 inventor, but that something like it had been pro- 
 duced in Switzerland, and it was claimed that the 
 substitution of teeth cut in an iron plate for wire 
 prevented an infringement on his invention. He 
 had sixty law suits pending before he secured a 
 verdict in his favor. In South Carolina the Legisla- 
 ture granted him $50,000, which was finally paid 
 after vexatious delays and lawsuits. North, Caro- 
 lina allowed him a percentage for the use of each 
 saw for five years, and collected and paid it over to 
 the patentees in good faith, and Tennessee promised 
 to do the same thing, but afterwards rescinded her 
 contract. For years amid accumulated misfortunes, 
 law suits wrongfully decided against him, the de- 
 struction of his manufactory by fire, the industrious 
 circulation of the report that his machine injured 
 the fiber of the cotton, the refusal of Congress, on 
 account of the Southern opposition, to allow the 
 patent to be renewed, and the death of his partner, 
 Mr. Whitney struggled on until he was convinced 
 that he should never receive a just compensation 
 for his invention. At the time of his invention, 
 cotton was exported to the amount of only 189,500 
 pounds, while in 1803, owing to the use of his gin, 
 it had risen to more than 41,000,000 pounds. 
 
 Despairing of ever gaining a competence, Mr. 
 Whitney turned his attention in 1798 to the manu- 
 facture of fire arms near New Haven, from which 
 he eventually gained a fortune. He was the first 
 manufacturer of fire arms to effect the division of 
 labor to the extent of making it the duty of each 
 workman to make interchangeable the parts of the 
 thousands of arms in process of manufacture at the 
 same time. This interchangeable system has now 
 extended to the manufacture of watches, sewing 
 machines, etc. His first contract was with the 
 United States Government for 10,000 stand of 
 
 muskets, to be furnished in or about two years. For 
 the execution of this order he took two years for 
 preparation and eight more for completion. Tie 
 gave bonds for $30,000, and was to receive $13.40 
 for each musket, or $134,000 in all. Immediately 
 he began to build an armory at the foot of East Rock 
 two miles from New Haven, in the village of AAHiit- 
 neyville, where, through the successive administra- 
 tions, from that of John Adams, repeated contracts 
 for the supply of arms were made and fulfilled to 
 the entire approbation of the government. The 
 construction of his armory, and even of the com- 
 monest tools which were devised by him for the 
 prosecution of the business in a manner peculiar to 
 himself, evinced the fertility of his genius and the 
 precision of his mind. The buildings became the 
 model by which the national armories were after- 
 wards arranged, and many of his improvements 
 were taken to other establishments and have become 
 common property. Owing to his unpleasant experi- 
 ences with patent laws, he never applied 'for patents 
 on any of these inventions. His improvements in 
 the manufacture of arms laid this country under per- 
 m.anent o'bligations by augmenting the means of na- 
 tional defense. Several of his inventions have been 
 applied to other manufactures of iron and steel, and 
 added to his reputation. He established a fund of 
 $500 at Yale, the interest of which is expended in 
 the purchase of books on mechanical and physical 
 science. Robert Fulton said that "Arkwright, Watt 
 and Whitney were the three men that did the most 
 for mankind of any of their contemporaries," and 
 Macaulay said : "What Peter the Great did to make 
 Russia dominant, Eli Whitney's invention of the 
 cotton-gin has more than equaled in its relation to 
 the power and progress of the 'United States." 
 
 "In person Mr. Whitney was considerably above 
 the ordinary size, of a di.gnified carriage, and of an 
 open, manly, and agreeable countenance. In New 
 Haven he was universally esteemed. Many of 
 the prominent citizens of the place supported him 
 in his undertakings, and he inspired all whom he 
 met with a similar confidence. Throughout the 
 community and in foreign lands, he was known and 
 honored as a benefactor of the race. With all the 
 Presidents of the United States, from the beginning 
 of the government, he enjoyed a personal acquaint- 
 ance, and his relations with the leading men of the 
 country were unimpaired by political revolutions." 
 His most remarkable trait of character was a great 
 power of mechanical invention. He was reasonably 
 patient. His mind wrought with precision rather 
 than with rapidity. His aim was steady. He never 
 abandoned a half-accomplished effort in order to 
 make trial of a new and foreign idea. 
 
 In January, 1817, Mr. Whitney was married to 
 Henrietta Frances Edwards, born in June, 1790, 
 who lived until April, 1870. She was the daughter 
 of Hon. Pierpont Edwards, who graduated at 
 Princeton College in 1768, Avas a lawyer in New 
 Haven, Conn., soldier in the Revolution, member of 
 
200 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the Continental Congress, and judge of the United 
 States Court for Connecticut at the time of his 
 death. ;\Ir. Edwards was frequently a member of 
 the Connecticut Legislature, was the first grand- 
 master of the Masonic fraternit}- in Connecticut. 
 His father, Rev. Jonathan Edwards, was president 
 of Princeton College, New Jersey. Mr. Whitney's 
 children were: Frances E., born Nov. 23, 1817, 
 married in 1842, Charles L. Chaplain. She died 
 May 7, 1849. {-) Elizabeth F. (3) Eli is referred 
 to farther on. (4) Susan E. born in January, 1821, 
 died in 1823. The father of these died Jan. 8, 1825. 
 
 Eli Whitney (3), son of Eli (2), and the father 
 •of Eli Whitney (4), president of the New Haven 
 Water Co., was born Nov. 24, 1820, in New Haven, 
 where he attended a private school, and was pre- 
 pared for College. He attended Yale one year, and 
 was graduated from Princeton College in the class 
 of 1841, and the following year he took up his fa- 
 ther's business, that of the manufacture of fire arms 
 for the United States government. In 1856 he 
 ceased this branch of his manufacturing business, 
 but resumed it again at the breaking out of the 
 Civil war in 1861, and continued it until 1866. The 
 Whitney Arms Co., of which until recent years he 
 was president, has manufactured thousands of 
 muskets, rifles and revolvers of the most improved 
 models. The company has also made many thou- 
 sands of military arms for foreign governments, in- 
 cluding muzzle-loading, breech-loading, magazine 
 and repeating rifles. He was appointed one of the 
 commissioners of the English Exposition of 1862. 
 From 1859 to 1861 he constructed the New Haven 
 Water Works, and much of the work was done on 
 Tiis own credit, though built on contract for the New 
 Haven Water Co., which organization he created. 
 Mr. Whitney made many improvements in fire- 
 -arms of all sorts and patented them, and made 
 improvements in machinerv for making arms. He 
 "was on the Republican electoral ticket in Connect- 
 icut as Presidential elector at large in the November 
 election of 1892. In 1869 he received an honorary 
 ■degree of M. A. from Yale. 
 
 On June 17, 1845, ^^^i'- ^^'hitney was married at 
 Utica, N. Y., to Sarah Perkins Dalliba, and to the 
 union were born children as follows : Eli is referred 
 tc at greater length farther on ; Susan Huntington, 
 torn Aug.' i, 1849, married in 1873, Rev. Chauncey 
 Bunce Brewster, late rector of Grace Church, Brook- 
 lyn Heights, now Bishop of Connecticut, her death 
 occurring ^lay 25, 1885 : and Henrietta Edwards. 
 The father, Eli (3), died Aug. 19, 1895. 
 
 Eli A\'iiitxey (4), son of Eli (3), the fourth 
 of the name in succession, was born Jan. 22, 1847, 
 in the city of New Haven, which has since been his 
 Tiome and the field of his business operations. He 
 attended the private schools and later entered Yale 
 ColleP'e from which he was graduated in the class 
 of 1869. He has held various public offices and 
 most creditably and efficiently discharged the duties 
 ■of each. FIc has been largely identified with various 
 
 enterprises and is one of the city's prominent citizens 
 and leading business men. For years he has been 
 president of the New Haven Water Co., which, as 
 stated in the foregoing, his father created and built, 
 and is also president of the West Haven Water Co. 
 He is president of the board of education ; president 
 of the General Hospital Society of Connecticut ; ex- 
 president of the New Haven Horticultural Society; 
 president of the Tontine Company; vice-president 
 of New Haven Colony Historical Society; director 
 in the City Bank of New Haven ; trustee Connecti- 
 cut Savings Bank, New Haven ; trustee of the New 
 Haven Trust Company, and also in a number of 
 charitable organizations. He is a member of the 
 Quinnipiack, Union League and Graduates Clubs of 
 New Haven ; Century, University, Yale and Engin- 
 eers Clubs of New York ; Society of Colonial AVars ; 
 Sons of the American Revolution; The Society of 
 the War of 1812, and is also a member of the Yale 
 Corporation. 
 
 On Oct. 22, 1873, Mr. Whitney was married to 
 Sarah Sheffield Farnam, born Sept. 27, 1850, and 
 the union has 'been blessed with children as follows : 
 Anne Farnam, born Sept. 29, 1874, married in 1898, 
 Thomas M. Debevoise, a lawyer of New York, and 
 has two children, Eli Whitney (born in Decem- 
 ber, 1899) and! Catherine (born in June, 1901) ; 
 Henrietta Edwards, born Feb. 27, 1876; Sarah 
 Tracy, bom Sept. 18, 1877, married April 26, 1900, 
 Dr. Leonard C. Sanford, and died Feb. 19, 1901, 
 leaving an infant daughter, Sally Whitney; Eliza- 
 beth Fay, born April 3, 1879; Louise Huntington, 
 born Feb. 20, 1881 ; Susan Brewster, born March 
 16, 1885 ; and Frances Pierpont, born Aug. 19, 
 1891. 
 
 CHARLES C. SMITH, one of the most prom- 
 inent business citizens of New Haven, has by his 
 own energy and industry gained a position of re- 
 spect and prominence. 
 
 Mathew Smith, the father of our subject, was 
 born May 16, 181 1, in Derby, and there learned the 
 tanner's trade; he was also a farmer. For a few 
 years he conducted a tannery at Bethany, Conn., 
 where he married Julia Sperry, daughter of Chileon 
 Sperry, who was a native of that town, well and 
 favorably known ; he served as a captain during the 
 war of 1812. After his marriage Mr. Smith de- 
 cided to change his location, and about 1835 came 
 to New Haven, engaging for some years as clerk in 
 a grocery and meat store. He then entered the em- 
 ploy of Gorham & Peck, the bakery firm, in York 
 street, with whom he continued one'year. He next 
 engaged in the bakery business with William A. 
 Ives under the firm name of Ives & Smith, and later 
 a stock company known as the New Haven Baking 
 Co. was formed. This business was continued un- 
 til Mr. Smith sold out, his son, our subject, conduct- 
 mg the same business on State street. The family 
 born to Mathew Smith consisted of three children, 
 of whom Charles is the only survivor. Davis C 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 201 
 
 was a resident of New Haven. Emily F. married 
 Frank Wilson and' is now deceased ; he is postmas- 
 ter at Brooklyn, N. Y., a public man, prominent in 
 legal circles. 
 
 Charles C. Smith, our subject, was born July 17, 
 1842, in New Haven, and there spent his first thir- 
 teen years. In the winters he attended school in 
 New Haven, and during the summers worked on 
 the farm in Bethany, thus continuing until he went 
 into the bakery and thoroughly learned the business. 
 Working hard he was very successful and is now 
 the manager of the New Haven branch of the great 
 National Biscuit Co. Eleven years ago he sold 
 out to the trust and since then has had charge of 
 this branch, having about fifty-two men on his 
 payroll and doing an immense amount of business. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Smith married Alice B. Hayes, of 
 New Haven, and two children have been born to 
 this union, Emily and Charles C, Jr. Until the 
 last two national elections our subject was a Dem- 
 ocrat, but he now votes with the Republican party. 
 Mr. Smith has taken a prominent part in the mili- 
 tary organizations of New Haven ; for twelve years 
 was a member of the militia, and was first lieutenant 
 and captain of the New Haven Light Guards while 
 Gov. Buckingham was in the chair. A handsome 
 sword, which Mr. Smith highly prizes, was given 
 him by his company Sept. 27, 1867, as a token of 
 the high esteem in which he was held. 
 
 Mr. Smith has for many years been prorninently 
 connected with fraternal orders, being a thirty-sec- 
 ond degree Mason, member of Wooster Lodge, F. 
 & A. M., of New Haven, New Haven Commandery, 
 and the Shrine ; he is also a member (of thirty years 
 standing) of the I. O. O. F., and took a uniformed 
 company to Philadelphia in 1876; of the Knights 
 Templar Club; the Red Men; and the Heptasophs. 
 Religiously he and his family are connected with 
 the Baptist Church. Mr. Smith is a fine represent- 
 ative of the successful and popular busmess man 
 of New Haven, energetic, progressive and enter- 
 prising. 
 
 HON. GROVE HERRICK WILSON, M. D., 
 who for more than forty years was a resident of 
 Meriden, and continuously and actively engaged in 
 the practice of his profession, was one of the sub- 
 stantial men of the city, and professionally took a 
 high rank both in Meriden, and throughout the 
 State. 
 
 Dr. Wilson was born in the town of Stockbridge, 
 Mass., March 25, 1824, a son of Joseph H. and 
 Sally (Herrick) Wilson, and the grandson of Dr. 
 Daniel Herrick, of Preston, Conn. On both sides 
 he was descended from an historic ancestry, the 
 Rev. William Wilson, D. D., being a paternal pro- 
 genitor. This distinguished ancestor was a canon 
 of his majesty's royal chapel, and was married to a 
 daughter of the Puritan Archbishop Grindal. Their 
 son. Rev. John Wilson, married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Sir John Mansfield, and as one of the company 
 
 with Gov. Winthrop came to New England in 1630, 
 becoming the first pastor of the church at Boston, 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 Dr. Wilson numbered Henry Herrick among 
 his maternal ancestors. That noted character was 
 born in 1604, at Bean Manor, Leicestershire, 
 England, and was a son of Sir William Herrick, 
 who was the grandson of Rev. William Herrick, 
 Chaplain of Edward VI, and minister to the Sub- 
 lime Porte under Elizabeth. This ancestral line 
 runs back to Eric the Forester, of the royal house 
 of Denmark, whose long war with the Angles re- 
 sulted in the cession to him of the counties of War- 
 wick and Leicester, England. Henry Herrick prob- 
 ably first landed in Virginia, where his father had 
 mercantile ventures, but soon miade his way to 
 Massachusetts, where he settled on the Cape Ann 
 ' side of the Bass river, the site of what is now Bever- 
 ly, Mass. He and his wife, Edith, the daughter of 
 Hugh Lackin, were among the thirty who founded 
 the first church in Salem' in 1629. His death oc- 
 curred in 1 67 1. 
 
 Dr. Wilson had the benefit of the public schools 
 at Tyringham, and of Lee Academy, in Massachu- 
 setts, where he was fitted for the profession of teach- 
 ing, which he followed for a period in Massachu- 
 setts and in Delaware. Deciding upon medicine as 
 his life work, he studied with this object in view, 
 and was graduated in 1849 from the Berkshire 
 Medical Institute, an old and famous Massachusetts 
 school, locating in the practice of his profession at 
 North Adams, Mass., where about two years later 
 he adopted the system of homeopathy, beginning its 
 use in North Adams and Conway. In 1857 he re- 
 moved to Meriden, where he followed his profes- 
 sional activities to the time of his death, Jan. 10, 
 1902. In coming to Meriden he came to a pleasant 
 country village of some 3,000 people, and lived to 
 see it develop into a great manufacturing center of 
 many thousand people, being an active participant 
 in all that contributed to make it the Meriden of 
 to-day. The Doctor and his professional skill were 
 widely known, his practice extending beyond the 
 city and state limits. None were more successful in 
 the practice of medicine in Meriden than Dr. Wil- 
 son, his practice at one time embracing more than 
 two-thirds of the town's grand list. A frequent 
 contributor of papers to medical journals, which 
 have been widely published and thoroughly 
 discussed, he was known as a man of rare attain- 
 ments and! genuine skill. Dr. Wilson published a 
 monogram in 1882, in which he established the epi- 
 demic nature of intermittent fevers in New Eng- 
 land. Through these papers he gained fame and 
 distinction as a scientist. In addition to frequent 
 lectures on natural science, he expounded the prin- 
 ciples of the telephone and phonograph two years 
 prior to the production of these instruments by Edi- 
 son. The "Aural Masseur" was invented by him, 
 an instrument for treating deafness by actual vibra- 
 tion of the internal ear. 
 
202 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Notwithstanding- the constant demands upon his 
 time, Dr. ^^'ilson gave much thought to the improve- 
 ment of the educational system of the town. His 
 persistent advocacy of free schools resulted in the 
 abolition in 1863 of the rate bill, making the city 
 schools absolutely free to every child in the town. 
 The success of this beneficent plan induced the State 
 Legislature to extend the same privilege two years 
 later to all children of the Commonwealth. As sug- 
 gested in the above. Dr. Wilson extended a gener- 
 ous support to all enterprises that looked to the pub- 
 lic welfare. -He was a member of the State board 
 of health for many years, and also served as coroner, 
 or, as it is technically called, the medical examiner, 
 of the town of Meriden. In 1880 and 1882 he was 
 elected to represent his town in the General As- 
 sembly, and served both terms with honor to his 
 constituency and credit to himself. Dr. Wilson was 
 a member of the local board of education almost 
 continuously since the founding of the high school, 
 an institution largely due to his efforts. In 1892 he 
 was elected mayor of Meriden on the Republican 
 ticket, and wrote a good record of himself in the 
 administration of the business of the city. 
 
 Dr. Wilson was a life-long jNIason and enjoyed 
 the distinction of having been the first Eminent 
 Commander of St. Elmo Commandery, Knights 
 Templar. His elevation to the rank of Grand Com- 
 mander of the Grandl Commandery quickly fol- 
 lowed. He took the thirty-second degree, in La- 
 fayette Consistory, and was a member of Pyramid 
 Temple. 
 
 Although somewhat independent in regard to 
 theological systems, he never failed to support the 
 preaching of the gospel, and held to a rigid moral- 
 ity in all the ways of life. His religious sentiments 
 were exalted, and his thoughts upon such subjects 
 profound and liberal. They often found expression 
 in his social and professional life. Dr. Wilson 
 served on the Building Committee of the Eirst Con- 
 gregational Church of Meriden, which is one of 
 the finest in the State, and the building was greatly 
 embellished by his artistic taste and his effort to 
 elevate its architecture. The finely ornamented cap- 
 itals, designed by him, are examples of his love for 
 this work, and show his knowledgre of sacred sym- 
 bolism, expressing in carved and enduring stone 
 the course of natural and revealed religion in the 
 human heart. Dr. Wilson had a genial and benevo- 
 lent nature, was a ready conversationalist, loving 
 controversial discussions, but was withal conserva- 
 tive in his speech and action, and was justly held an 
 influential and popular citizen. 
 
 Dr. Grove H. Wilson and Miss Margaret A., 
 the daughter of John Adams, of Pencader Hundred, 
 Del., were married Nov. 30, 1848. They had one 
 son, Edgar A., who graduated at the University of 
 Pennsylvania in 1881, with the degree of M. D., 
 and after practicing his profession several years at 
 Rockville, became associated with his father in 
 Meriden. 
 
 Dr. Edgar A. Wilson is specially known as an 
 oculist and aurist, and for so young a man has won 
 a most enviable and creditable standing. His 
 schooling began in the city schools of ^^leriden, was 
 continued at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H., from 
 which school he was graduated in 1872. Entering 
 Yale, he was making rapid progress, but this was 
 interfered with by a severe illness, which compelled 
 him to abandon study for a long period. On his 
 restoration to health he entered the University of 
 Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated, as al- 
 ready mentioned. At Rockville he was engaged in 
 the practice of his profession until 1888. In that 
 year he removed to Meriden, and practiced with his- 
 father until 1893. The 3fOung Doctor took a special 
 course, in the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital,, 
 where he was four years special physician, becom- 
 ing so interested in the work that he has devoted 
 himself since that time to the Eye and Ear. 
 
 Dr. Edgar A. \Mlson was married in 1883 to 
 Ida M. Beach, a native of Meriden, and a daughter 
 of George and Lydia (Redfield) Beach. To this 
 union were born : ( I ) George Herrick, who died 
 in 1891 ; (2) Leslie Adams, born in 1886 ; (3) Grove 
 Herbert, died in 1892. 'Dr. Wilson is a member of 
 the Blue Lodge, A. F. & A. ]\I., at Z^Ieriden, and 
 belongs to the R. A., and the I. O. H. For ten 
 years past he has been the town health officer, and 
 the city health officer for five 3'ears. He belongs 
 to the hospital staff of physicians, and is a member 
 of the New Haven County Public Health Associa- 
 tion, having been one of its founders, and secretary 
 since its organization. 
 
 CHARLES F. SMITH was born in Orange, 
 June 6, 1836, a son of Jesse Gould and Susan (Fow- 
 ler) Smith. The line of descent on his father's 
 side is as follows : 
 
 George Smith, one of the original settlers of 
 New Haven, moved to West Haven (then called 
 West Farms) about 1655. He built a house near 
 where now stand's the brick house built by Isaac 
 Hine, on Water street. He was married in 1642, 
 and was the father of ten children as follow? : Sam- 
 uel, Ebenezer, Joseph, Nathan, Thomas, John, 
 Sarah, Hannah, Mercv, Elizabeth. From the six 
 sons nearly all of the Smiths in West Haven have 
 descended. 
 
 Nathan Smith, son of George, was born in 1656, 
 lived in the house built by his father, and died there 
 in 1726. His children were: Amy, born in 1683; 
 Mahitable, i6gS; and Andrew, 1701. 
 
 Andrew Smith, son of Nathan, married Mercy 
 Painter. Their children were : Eunice, Nathan, 
 Hannah, }\label, Andrew and Rebecca. He lived in 
 the same house that his grandfather built, and died 
 there in 1789. 
 
 Nathan Smith, son of Andrew, born in 1733. died 
 in 1807. He married Sarah, eldest daughter of 
 Samuel Sherman, who lived on the south side of 
 the Meloy road, on the hill. Nathan Smith built his 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 203: 
 
 house, which is still standing in the hollow, on the 
 same road ; it is of the lean-to style of architecture. 
 He was a deacon in the Congregational Church in 
 West Haven for several years. In 1770 he planted 
 a row of Elm trees on the West side of the Green, 
 only three of which are now standing. He had six 
 children : Thomas, Gould, Nathan, Sarah, Persis 
 and Lucy. 
 
 Gould Smith, son of Deacon Smith, married 
 Susanna, daughter of Oliver Smith. This Oliver 
 Smith descended from Ebenezer, son of the first 
 settler, George. Gould Smith's father gave him a 
 farm and built himi a house on the hill. North side 
 of Meloy's road. After his death the house was 
 moved across the road, and is now occupied by Han- 
 nah Meloy. In 1799, Gould Smith was commis- 
 sioned Captain of the State militia. His children 
 were ; Oliver, Lyman, Jesse Gould, Katrina, Susan 
 and Louisa. He died in 1800. 
 
 Jesse Gould Smith, son of Capt. Gould, was 
 born in 1795, and was five years old when his fa- 
 ther died. He lived with Capt. Candee, a farmer 
 (whose house stood near the southwest corner of 
 the West Haven' Green), for eleven years, after 
 which he spent six years in New Haven learning 
 the saddler's trade. He then worked in a book- 
 binders shop three years, was superintendent of a 
 farm in Woodbridge six years, and manager of his 
 sister Susan's farm in Orange until his marriage. 
 On April 20, 1834, he married Susan Fowler, daugh- 
 ter of William H. Fowler, of Milford. At that time 
 he bought of Peter Prudden, the farm on the Wepa- 
 waug river, four miles north of the churches in Mil- 
 ford, where he spent the remainder of his days, en- 
 tering into rest Aug. 5, 1870. He was active in 
 both Church and town affairs, holding positions of 
 responsibility and trust in each. His children were : 
 William Gould, bom March 4, 1835 ; and Charles 
 Fowler, the subject of this sketch. 
 
 ■ William Gould Smith left the farm in early life 
 to engage in mercantile business in New Haven, 
 keeping a fruit and confectionery store on the south- 
 east corner of Chapel and Church streets, for four 
 years. At the outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted 
 in the 7th Conn. V. I. and rose from the rank of 
 sergeant to that of lieutenant. He served through- 
 out the struggle and was honorably discharged. 
 After the close of the war he went West, and was 
 engaged for several years in transporting goods by 
 wagon from the then terminus of the Pacific rail- 
 road to Denver, a distance of some six hundred 
 miles. Later he ran a cattle ranch on the Marias 
 river, near Fort Benton, Mont., where he died in 
 1892. 
 
 Charles F. Smith's ancestors on his mother's 
 side were as follows : William Fowler, the magis- 
 trate, one of the first settlers of Milford, came from 
 England with Eaton, Davenport, Prudden and other 
 Puritans for the sake of religious liberty. He died 
 in 1660, advanced in years. 
 
 William Fowler, Jr., son of the magistrate, mar- 
 
 ried Mary, daughter of Edward Tapp, and sister of 
 Gov. Robert Treat's wife. He was appointed Cap- 
 tain of militia in 1673, and was a member of the- 
 House of Deputies from 1673 to 1680. His chil- 
 dren were : Sarah, Hannah, John, Jonathan, Mark-, 
 Deborah, Abagail, William and Mercy. William 
 Fowler, Jr., died in 1684. 
 
 John Fowler, third child of William, Jr., born in 
 1649, rnarried Sarah Welch. They had only one 
 child, John called Capt. John or Esquire Fowler. 
 
 Capt. John Fowler, son of John, born in 1690, 
 married Susanna Burwell, by whom he had four 
 children, one son and three daughters, viz. : Susan- 
 na, Margaret, John and Sarah. He began public 
 hfe at an early age, and was active in it up to his 
 death. He was town clerk of Milford from 1718 
 to 1756, a member of the General Assembly for 
 twenty-three years, and clerk of the House with but 
 two exceptions during that period; in 1739 he was 
 appointed, by the Assembly, captain of the First 
 Company, Milford Train Band. He lived on the 
 old homestead of the first William, dying there in 
 1756. 
 
 John Fowler, son of Capt. John, was born in 
 1717, and died in 1781. In 1742 he married Mary 
 Newton, and they had two children, Susanna and 
 John. He succeeded his father as town clerk in 
 1756, and filled that office until 1774. He was a 
 deputy to the General Assembly from 1759 to 1775 ; 
 commissioned captain of the Second Company, Mil- 
 ford Train Band, in the Second Regiment, and 
 served his country by raising troops for the Con- 
 tinential army. 
 
 John Fowler, Jr., son of John and Mary (New- 
 ton) Fowler, born in 1748, married Mary Ann Har- 
 pin, granddaughter of Dr. John Harpin, in 1768. 
 Their children were : John, William H. and Mark. 
 He was a captain in the Continental Army in 177S 
 and 1780. 
 
 William H. Fowler, son of the above, born in 
 1775, was married in 1796 to Sally, daughter of 
 Capt. Charles Pond and sister of Gov. Charles H. 
 Pond. Their children were : Mary, Martha, Susan, 
 Sally, John W., Charlotte and Ann. He was ex- 
 tensively engaged in commerce and ship-building,, 
 and was an enterprising self-made man. At about 
 fifty years of age he retired from commercial life to 
 the more quiet pursuit of agriculture, and until late 
 in life filled positions of trust, such as member of 
 the Legislature, and selectman of the town, also set- 
 tling estates, etc. He died in 1863. 
 
 Susan Fowler, third daughter of William H. 
 Fowler, and mother of Charles F. Smith, was a 
 school teacher for several vears, teaching in Wheel- 
 er's Farms, Allingtown, and in the fourth school dis- 
 trict in Orange until she married Jesse Gould Smith, 
 in 1834. She was born in 1802, and died in 1894. 
 
 Charles F. Smith passed his early years upon 
 his father's farm, and his education was received in 
 the common schools. He is a veteran of the Civil 
 war, having served in the 27th Conn. V. I., which 
 
204 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 reg^iment was attached to the 2d Corps, Army of 
 the Potomac, and participated in many Battles which 
 have become historic, among them those of Fred- 
 ericksburg and ChancelIors\ilIe. He was taken 
 prisoner at Chancellorsville, and incarcerated in the 
 famous Libby Prison, in Richmond, for a short time, 
 was paroled and sent to parole camp near Alex- 
 andria until his term of enlistment expired, when he 
 was honorably discharged. After he returned from 
 the war Mr. Smith conducted the old home farm for 
 his father until the latter's death, when he came 
 into its ownership. There he remained, carrying on 
 general farming, but making a specialty of seed- 
 growing, until 1894, when he sold the place and 
 Sought a fine residence on Center street, \\'est Ha- 
 ven, where he has since lived in retirement and ease. 
 
 ]\Ir. Smith has repeatedlv been placed in posi- 
 trons of trust and responsibility. While living in 
 Orange parish he was for nine years general finan- 
 cier of the Ecclesiastical Society, making all of the 
 collections and paying all of the bills, handling some 
 $13,000, gratuitously. He has served as constable, 
 justice of the peace, member of the board of edu- 
 cation, registrar of voters, and for eleven years as 
 selectman. In 1875 and 1876 he represented his 
 town in the Legislature. 
 
 In 1866, Air. Smith married ]\Iary, daughter of 
 Nathan and Catherine Tomlinson, of Milford. They 
 have two daughters : ( i ) Susie, born in 1867, married 
 Clifford E. Treat, of Orange, in 1891, and has had 
 three children : Charles F., born in 1895 ; Harold, 
 born in 1896, died in 1897 ; and Elbee J., born in 
 1899. (2) Minnieha'ha, born in 1873, is a graduate 
 of the State Normal School at New Britain, class of 
 1890, and has been a teacher for ten years, six in 
 West Haven and four in New Haven. 
 
 FRANCIS AT WATER (a descendant of 
 David, the pioi-|,eer, and son of Henry Atwater), 
 author, publisher, printer, organizer of street rail- 
 roads, member of the American Publishers' Asso- 
 ciation and the National Tj-pothetse, president of 
 the Meriden Board of Trade, publisher of the first 
 all-American daily newspaper in Cuba, author of 
 the History of Plymouth, Conn., and Kent, Conn., 
 and of the Atwater History and Genealogy, is the 
 subject of this biography. His lifelong friend and 
 companion, Lew Allen, says of him : 
 
 "The greater part of his life has been passed 
 as a resident of the city of Meriden, Conn., and as 
 a newspaper worker. There is no branch of news- 
 paper work with which he is not thoroughly fa- 
 miliar, from printer's devil to editor and publisher. 
 In his youth lie learned the trade of a printer, and 
 so proficient did he become that while still a boy 
 of only sixteen years he had charge of the me- 
 chanical department of the Recorder, then the lead- 
 ing paper of Aleriden, and at the age of twent)- he 
 estalblished the JVindcrmcrc JVcckly Forum, in 
 AA'allingford, Conn., which he publishedi for one 
 3'ear, until it was sold. Subsequently, for a timie, 
 
 he was assistant foreman of the composing-room of 
 the Hartford Courant, one of the oldest and best- 
 known journals of New England. 
 
 "Later Mr. Atwater went ^^'est for his health, 
 to Red Bluff, Cal., and there gained additional 
 experience, as manager of the Red Bluff (Tehama 
 Co., Cal.) Sentinel. Upon his return to IMeriden 
 he established a large job printing office. Then he 
 embarked in journalism on his own account, pu'b- 
 lisihing the Meriden Sunday Nezvs. But a once-a- 
 week newspaper did not afford him an active enough 
 field, and upon the demise of the Meriden Evening 
 Press Air. Atwater hastened to occupy the field, 
 launching the Meriden Daily Journal in connection 
 with several friends, they forming The Journal 
 Publishing Co. about 1886. 
 
 "Mr. Atwater brought to bear upon the journal 
 all the ability and experience he possessed, and the 
 result was that the enterprise proved one of the 
 most successful in the history of New England 
 daily journalism. From the start the paper was 
 prosperous, and year by year it grew until to-day 
 it is one of the best paying properties in its line 
 in the State. It occupies its own fire-proof build- 
 ing in the business center of Aleriden, and is com- 
 pletely equipped, not only as a newspaper, with fast 
 presses, typesetting machines and stereotyping out- 
 fit, bu! also as regards a 'book and job printing 
 plant, a book bindery and an electrotyping de- 
 partment, second to none in Connecticut. Mr. At- 
 water is the first and only president of The Journal 
 Publishing Co., and from its inception he has been 
 the controlling manager. His special department 
 has been the mechanical, but in every branch his in- 
 fluence has been felt, and every detail has come un- 
 der his watchful, experienced eye. 
 
 "All his life Mr. Atwater has devoted himself 
 strictly to business. Except as a newspaper man, 
 he has taken no part in politics, and he has sought 
 no political office. By means of the Journal he 
 helped organize the Aleriden Board of Trade, and 
 in due time he was elected its president, a posi- 
 tion he still holds. Shortly after his election, in 
 casting- about for some enterprise that would benefit 
 Meriden, the project of building an electric rail- 
 y/ay in a westerly direction over the West moun- 
 tain to the town of Southington, a distance of 
 eight miles, occurred to him. Upon investigation 
 he found that a charter for such a road had been 
 secured only a few months before, but nothing more 
 had been done, owing to the difficulty in securing 
 the necessar}' capital to build the road — a sum in 
 the neighborhood of $220,000. A[r. Atwater im- 
 mediately proceeded to organize the Aleriden, 
 Southington & Compounce Tramway Company, be- 
 stirred himself to interest capitalists in the enter- 
 prise, and in an incredibly short time had the 
 necessary money raised, and the construction of the 
 road was begun. Mr. Atwater gave personal su- 
 pervision to the work, and in sixty workino- days 
 trolley cars were making regular trips between 
 

 ~^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 205 
 
 Southington and Meriden, greatly to the satisfac- 
 tion of the residents of both places, and especially 
 the merchants of Meriden. Later the road was ex- 
 tended to Lake Compounce, one of the most beauti- 
 ful sumtoer resorts in the State, and now the thou- 
 sands who go ihere daily for recreation during the 
 season have cause to bless the foresight and skill 
 of the one who made possible such a pleasant trip. 
 Financially the road has been equally successful, 
 having paid dividends to its stockholders for years. 
 "Upon the end of the Spanish-American war 
 Mr. Atwater was requested by Miss "Clara Barton, 
 of Red Cross fame and' honor, an old family friend 
 who knew him from childhood, to accompany her to 
 Cuba, where she went to establish asylums for the 
 unfortunate reconcentrados, and act as her financial 
 agent. Desiring to get away for a vacation, Mr. 
 Atwater went with her. While in Havana he saw 
 an opportunity to establish a newspaper there. He 
 embraced it and the Havana Journal was started, 
 the first all-American daily journal in Cuba. He 
 retained control of the Journal until he received 
 a handsome offer for it, when he sold it to a syndi- 
 cate which still publishes it under the name of the 
 Havana Post. Another newspaper venture of Mr. 
 Atwater was located near home ait New Britain, 
 Conn. He bought the Daily Ncivs of that city, 
 until the time came to dispose of it to advantage, 
 which he did. He next bought the Waterbury 
 Republican, the only morning paper in the Nauga- 
 tuck Valley, and is still its owner. 
 
 "From the foregoing it will be seen that Mr. 
 Atwater's life has been a very busy one. He stands 
 an admirable type of the hustling Connecticut Yan- 
 kee. In his undertakings he has always been very 
 conservative. He works slowly in lajdng his plans, 
 but once started his push and energy are irresist- 
 ible. All his important undertakings! have been 
 marked by much success in conception, execution 
 and results. He is a man of the world, having 
 traveled extensively, }'et home never loses its attrac- 
 tion for him. His residence is one of the finest in 
 location and construction in Meriden, and is fur- 
 nished with artistic elegance throughout. Here his 
 many friends are always sure of a hospitable wel- 
 come and lavish entertainment. 
 
 "In 1879 h^ married Helena J. Sellew, to whom 
 was born May 10, 1880, a son, Dorence Keith At- 
 water, who died Aug. 23, 1900." 
 
 SETH JACOB HALL, one of the leading busi- 
 ness men of Meriden, is a worthy representative of 
 one of the old and' honored New England families, 
 of which John Hall is the emigrant ancestor. 
 
 John Hiall was born in England in 1605, and 
 died in Wallingford, Conn., in 1676. He came to 
 Hartford, Conn., either just before or in company 
 with Rev. Thomas Hooker, and was granted six 
 acres by courtesy of the town. He married Jane 
 Wollen in 1641, and she died Nov. 14, 1690. Nine 
 children blessed the home of this pioneer couple: 
 
 (i) Richard, born July 11, 1645, married in 1699, 
 Hannah, daughter of John and Alary (Alsop) 
 Miles, and died in New Haven in 1726, aged eighty- 
 one years. (2) John, baptized Aug. 9, 1646, mar- 
 ried Dec. 6, 1666, Mary, daug'hter of Edward and 
 Mrs. Elizabeth (Potter) Parker (who was baptized 
 Aug. 27, 1648, and died Sept. 22, 1725), and died 
 Sept. 2, 1721. (3) Sarah, twin to John, baptized 
 Aug. 9, 1646, married in December, 1664, William, 
 son of Thomas Johnson, of New Haven. (4) Dan- 
 iel, born in 1647, married, in 1670, Mary, daugh- 
 ter of Henry Rutherford, and died' in Barbadoes, 
 West Indies, in 1675. (5) Samuel, bom May 21, 
 
 1648, married, in May, 1666, Hannah, daughter of 
 John Walker, and died March 5, 1726, survived by 
 his wife until Dec. 20, 1728. (6) Thomas, born 
 Mlarch 25, 1649, married Grace Watson, June 5, 
 1673, and died Sept. 17, 17^1, and she died May i, 
 1731- (7) Jonathan, born April 5, 1651, "ex- 
 changed accommodations in New Haven in 1667 
 for those of John Stevens in New London," where 
 he was probably a vessel owner and captain. (8) 
 David, born March 18, 1652, married, Dec. 24, 1676, 
 Sarah Rockwell (who died Nov. 3, 1732), and died 
 July 7, 1727. (9) Mary, born in 1653, is probably 
 the Mary Hall who testified as to John Hall's nun- 
 cupative will in 1676. She married, in 1677, Henry 
 Cook, son of Henry and Judith (Birdsall) Cook, of 
 Salem, Mass., and died Oct. 31, 1718. Henry Cook 
 was born Dec. 30, 1652, and died in 1703. 
 
 Thomas liall, fifth son of John and Jane 
 (Wollen) Hall, was born in New Haven, March 25, 
 
 1649, ^"'i 0'^' June 5, 1673, married Grace Watson, 
 who was horn in 1653, a daughter of Edward and 
 Grace (Walker) Watson. This is the first marriage 
 in Wallingford records. Their children were : Abi- 
 gail, born Jan. 7, 1675, rnarried John Tyler ; Thomas, 
 born July 17, 1676, married Abigail Atwater; Mary, 
 bom Nov. 22, 1677 ; Jonathan, born July 25, 1679, 
 married Dinah Andrews on May 12, 1703 ; Joseph,, 
 born July 8, 1681, married Bethiab Terrell; Esther, 
 born Feb. 23, 1683. married Benoni Atkins; Ben- 
 jamin, born April 19, 1684, married Mary Ives ; 
 Peter, born Dec. 28, 1686, married Rebecca Bar- 
 tholomew; Daniel, born Jan. 20, 1689, married Mar- 
 tha Doolittle; Rebecca, born Jan. 6, 1691, married 
 Daniel Holt; Israel, bom Oct. 8, 1696, married Abi- 
 gail Powel. 
 
 ■ Joseph Hall, son of Thomas and Grace (Wat- 
 son) Hall, was born July 8, 1681, and on Nov. 13, 
 1706, married Bethiah Terrell, who died Dec. 28, 
 1753. He died Nov. 3, 1748. Their children were: 
 Temperance, born Feb. 15, 1714, died Dec. 7, 1716; 
 Joseph, born Sept. 23, 1718, died Sept. 6, 1737; and 
 Ephraim, mentioned below. 
 
 Ephraim Hall, son of Joseph, was born April 
 25, 1723. He made his home at North Farms, Wall- 
 ingford, his house being on the east side of the road 
 in the present meadow, now opposite the houses 
 built by Richard Andrews and David Moss Hall. 
 The old well is there yet. Ephraim Hall was twice 
 
2o6 
 
 COMMEMORATIJ^E BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married. His first wife, Eunice, died May 9, 1763, 
 the mother of two children : Temperance, born Oct. 
 II, 1748, died Oct. 28, 1750; and Thanl<ful, who 
 married John Darrow, Sept. 29, 1774. On Oct. 13, 
 1763, Ephraim Hall married Chloe Moss, daughter 
 of David and Mindwell (Doolittle) Moss, who was 
 born Dec. 6, 1739, and became the mother of nine 
 ■children-. Temperance, born Aug. 10, 1764, mar- 
 ried Jesse Wetmore, of Middletown, on June 24, 
 1784, and moved to Ashtabula, Ohio; Joseph, born 
 March 17, 1766, married Dorcas Wilson, and had 
 eight children ; Ephraim, born Oct. 5, 1768, died 
 March 2, 1772; Chloe, born Xov. 13, 1770, married 
 Sylvanus Wilson, of Camden, N. Y. ; Comfort, born 
 Feb. 25, 1773, mentioned below ; Reuben, born May 
 19, 1775, married (first) Sally Miller, and (second) 
 Keziah Beach; David Moss, born Oct. 24, i777; 
 married Mindwell Beach; Content, born March 15, 
 1780, married Samuel Beach, Jr., February, 1802, 
 and died in Dover, N. H., in February, 1871, the 
 mother of ten cbildren ; and Bertha, born March 29, 
 1782, married a Mr. Wetmore and lived in Camden, 
 New York. 
 
 Comfort Hall, son of Ephraim, was born Feb. 
 ^5' '^772)' lived in Wallingford until about 1797, 
 when he removed to Middletown, Westfield Society, 
 and later bought the farm where he lived the re- 
 mainder of his life. "He owned a large tract of 
 land with meadows and orchards. He was one of 
 the early Methodists and one of the original trus- 
 tees of the M. E. Church at Middlefield. He was 
 of the old type of ^Methodism, earnest, zealous, a de- 
 voted attendant at church, and his home always 
 open to entertain Methodist preachers." [Atkins' 
 History of Middlefield.] In politics he was a Dem- 
 ocrat. Flis death occurred Nov. 20, 1855. On Feb. 
 I, 1796, he mariied Jemima Bacon, who was born 
 Feb. 2, 1775, a daughter of Phineas and Sarah (At- 
 kins) Bacon, and died Feb. 24, 1847. The children; 
 of this union were: Sylvester, born Nov. 22, 1796; 
 Harley, born ]\Iarch 21, 1799; iMiles, born March 5, 
 1 801, married (first) Ann Pelton, (second) Mrs. 
 Louisa Miller, and (third) Mrs. Irene Miller Abell ; 
 Abiah, born Oct. 28, 1802, died Nov. 24, 1802 ; 
 Aaron, born April 5, 1804, died Nov. 24, 1804; 
 Amos, born Aug. 17, 1807, died April i, 1825; Cor- 
 nelius, born Aug. 26, 1809, married, April 27, 1857, 
 Julia Ann Hale, and diedi Feb. 19, 1882 (she was 
 born Aug. 13, 181 1, and died Jan. 23, 1881) ; Seth, 
 born Aug. 4, 1812, died Feb. 15, 1826; Comfort 
 Johnson, born June 2, 1818, died unmarried June 18, 
 1888; and Winsel Bacon, born Dec. 21, 1819, died 
 Dec. 5, 1822. 
 
 Sylvester Hall was born Nov. 22, 1796, and 
 was twice married. His first wife, Ann Wilcox, 
 whom he wedded Nov. 5, 1820, died July 20, 1825. 
 On Nov. 30, 1825, he married Rosetta, daughter of 
 Comfort and Sarah (Bacon) Johnson. She was 
 born Oct. 15, 1806, and died Oct. 30, 1869; Syl- 
 vester Hall died Oct. 3, 1875. By his first wife he 
 became the father of Lois Wilcox, born Dec. 5, 1821, 
 
 married, Sept. 8, 1846, William M. Booth, son of 
 Abner and Lucy (Martin) Booth (he was born Jan. 
 10, 1823, and died March 18, 1901) : Ann Wilcox, 
 born July 18, 1823, married (first) Parsons Miller, 
 son of Elisha and Rhoda (Parsons) Miller, and 
 (second) Jesse Miller, born Aug. 5, 1825, a son of 
 Almon -and Sarah Miller (he died April 22, 1885). 
 By his second marriage Sylvester Hall became the 
 father of Seth Jacob, born Sept. 4, 1829, mentioned 
 below; Enos L., born Sept. i, 1839, married (first) 
 Victorine A. Ives, (second) Emma Clark, and 
 (third) Lottie Smith. Mr. Hall was educated in the 
 common schools and academy at Wallingford, and 
 filled various offices in the town of Middletown, 
 and on April 25, 1834, was appointed by Gov. 
 Samuel A. Foot captain of ist Co., 4th Regiment 
 of Cavalry, in the militia of the State. In politics 
 he was a Democrat, and in religion a Methodist. 
 
 Seth Jacob Hall, eldest son of Sylvester and Ro- 
 setta (Johnson) Hall, was born Sept. 4, 1829. His 
 education was acquired in the common schools and 
 in McGonegal's select school. He followed farm- 
 ing until twenty-one years of age, and for nine 
 successive winters taught district schools in the 
 vicinity of Middletown, and in the summers he "bur- 
 nished" for Jesse G. Baldwin, and later for the 
 Charles Parker Co., of Meriden. In April, 1857, he 
 entered the employ of Harrison \N Curtis, at that 
 time engaged in the crockery and hardware busi- 
 ness, and remained until the following winter, 
 when, as business was very dull, he taught school, 
 and in the spring returned to Mr. Curtis' employ, 
 remaining until the fall of 1861, whai he started 
 in the flour and feed business, w'hich he has followed 
 until the present time, single handed, with the ex- 
 ception of twenty-seven months, when he was in 
 partnership with I. C. Lewis & Co. He then retired 
 from the firm, and has long conducted a successful 
 grain, feed and coal business. 
 
 Mr. Hall has been a life-long Democrat, and 
 has held a number of offices with great credit to 
 himself and to the entire satisfaction of the public. 
 He has served the city as alderman andi councilman, 
 and the town as treasurer, selectman and as member 
 of the board of relief. In 1890-94 he was State Sen- 
 ator from the 6th District. From the beginning he 
 has been treasurer and trustee, as well as having 
 been one of the incorporators, of Meriden Hospital; 
 he was director in the Middletown Bank until he 
 resigned ; director of the jNIeriden National Bank ; 
 vice-president and member of the board of appraisal 
 of the City Savings Bank since its organization in 
 1874; and for several years was trustee and treas- 
 urer of the State School for Boys. For sixteen 
 years he was deacon in the First Baptist Church, 
 and has been trustee for some vears, and has also 
 served as trustee and treasurer of the Y. M. C. A. 
 
 On Oct. 14, i860, Mr. Hall was united in mar- 
 riage with Lois Blakeslee, who 'was born Jan. 24, 
 1833, a daughter of Silas and Esther (Buel) Blakes- 
 lee, and this union has been blessed with the fol- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 207 
 
 lowing children: Jdlin Blakeslee, born Sept. 6, 
 1861, married, Dec. 16, 1895, Jennie Holcomb, 
 ■daughter of Bertrand L. and Chloe (Holcomb) Yale 
 (they have two children, Leaiie Holcomb, born 
 Feb. 15, 1897, and Elisabeth Yale, born July 6, 
 1899); Judson Sylvester, born March 30, 1866; 
 Silas Blakeslee, born March 28, 1869; and Esther 
 Rosetta, born July 24, 1880. When Air. and Mrs. 
 Hall were first married they went to housekeeping in 
 the Aleriden Bank Building, on Broad street, and in 
 September, 1864, moved to No. 481 East Main 
 street. This home was removed, and in its stead 
 was erected a new and more pretentious dwelling, 
 where, since August, 1891, the family have extended 
 ^■enerous hospitality to friend and stranger. 
 
 JOEL FORD GILBERT has been prominent in 
 public affairs of the city of New Haven from early 
 manhood, and the numerous positions of trust to 
 which he has been elected are the best evidence of 
 the esteem in which he is held. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert was born Nov. 7, 1839, in Hamden, 
 New Haven county, son of Griswold Ives Gilbert, 
 also a native of that place. The father of our sub- 
 ject was originally a farmer by occupation, engaging 
 in agriculture and the milk business until his re- 
 moval to New Haven in 1857. He bought a farm 
 now comprised in Elm City Park, selling it after one 
 year's ownership, for park purposes, and remaining 
 with the association three years, during which time 
 he laid out the track and park. The next year he 
 acted as town agent, and he held various offices, 
 serving as selectman, and for eight years as member 
 of the .board of assessors, after which he retired. 
 He lived a long life of usefulness, reaching the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty-five years, and became well 
 known in the city upon taking up his residence 
 there. He 'had been equally active in Hamden while 
 a member of that community, and though a Repub- 
 lican in a Dem'Ocratic town, held a number of local 
 offices, serving eleven years as first selectman. Mr. 
 Gilbert married Mary Ford, also a native of Ham- 
 den, and a daughter of Joel Ford, a farmer of that 
 place, and the seven children born to them were as 
 follows: Cleora, Mrs. M. W. Filley, of New Ha- 
 ven; Joel Ford, our subiect; John, of the firm of 
 Gilbert & Thompson, of New Haven; Sereno I., a 
 painter of New Haven ; Fred A., formerly of New 
 Haven, who was president of the Boston Electric 
 Light Co. (he died in New York) ; Myron W., de- 
 ceased; and Mary, deceased. The mother passed 
 away at the age of fiftv-eight years. Both parents 
 attended the Congregational Church. 
 
 Joel Ford Gilbert received his education .in the 
 public schools of Hamden, where he passed his early 
 \-ears. His life has been an exceedingly busy one, 
 devoted to various lines of trade. After coming to 
 New Haven he was engaged in the photograph busi- 
 ness from 1861 to 1866. Then for twelve years he 
 was in the butcher business, two years of the time 
 -with Todd & Gilbert and ten years with S. E. Mer- 
 
 win & Son. He has since been in the steam-heating 
 and plumbing business, first for about five years 
 on State street, and for the past fifteen years with 
 what is now the Foskett & Bishop Co. Mr. Gilbert's 
 long connection with one firm testifies amply to his 
 business ability. His judgment and success as a 
 manager were early recognized by his fellow citi- 
 zens, who have repeatedly honored him with elec- 
 tion to public office. For seven years, beginning in 
 1880, he was a member of the board of public works, 
 and president of that board from February, 1885, to 
 February, 1888. He served on the board of select- 
 men for four years. In i8qi he was appointed on 
 the board of supervisors of steam boilers, and has 
 served as a member of that board ever since, hav- 
 ing been its president since 1892. He served as a 
 member of the city council in iQoo. Like his father, 
 Mr. Gilbert is a Republican in political sentiments, 
 and he has long been a member of the Young Men's 
 Republican Club. He was formerly a member of 
 the Union League Club and the Knights of Honor, 
 being one of the earlv members of both organiza- 
 tions. Mr. Gilbert was for fourteen years a mem- 
 ber of the Horse Guard, in which for seven years 
 he served as sergeant and orderly-sergeant ; during 
 the next two years he was captain, and then major, 
 which rank he held for five years. He is one of 
 the best-known men in the city and has many friends 
 in both political parties, being of a jovial disposition 
 and very democratic in his manners and ideas. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert was united in marriage, in 1862, to 
 Miss Lydia A. Todd, a native of Northford, Conn., 
 daughter of Alfred Todd, a butcher of that place. 
 Mr. Todd and his wife are both deceased. They 
 had a large family, namely: Amelia E., Alson B., 
 Theron A., Lydia A., Augusta, Edward A., and 
 Francis H., five of whom survive. Air. and Mrs. 
 Gilbert attend divine worship at St. Thomas' 
 Church. Their home, at No. 413 Whalley avenue, 
 was bought by Mr. Gilbert in 1863, and he also owns 
 considerable other real estate in that locality. 
 
 EDWARD ELD, a worthy representative of the 
 agricultural interests of East Haven, is a native 
 of this county, born on Meadow street. New Haven, 
 Jan. 28, 1824, and he continued to live there and in 
 the vicinity of Cedar Hill until eighteen years of 
 age, when he went to New York City and accepted 
 a clerkship in a counting house, where he remained 
 five years. On Jan. 10, 1849, he started for Cali- 
 fornia on the barque "Eugenie" and landed at Vera 
 Cruz, Mexico, where he purchased a horse and in 
 company with others proceeded on his way to the 
 gold fields, but his horse broke down and he sold 
 it in Jalapa, Mexico, and went thence via San Bias 
 to San Francisco, traveling 600 miles on foot, and 
 arriving in San Francisco Alay 14, 1849. After 
 spending a short time in the mines at Mormon Island 
 he went to the north fork of the American river 
 prospecting. The winter was passed in Lahanaina, 
 Island of Maui (Sandwich Islands), and on his 
 
20S 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 return to San Francisco in the spring he again went 
 to the mines, remaining two and a lialf years. He 
 then returned to San Francisco and started for 
 home, making his return trip around Cape Horn. 
 Soon afterward, however, he went to Omaha, Neb., 
 thence to Niobrara, tlie same State, and after 
 some time there went to Fort Laramie, and traveled 
 with ox teams from there to Omaha, returning to 
 Fort Laramie by way of Niobrara, and then to 
 Pike's Peak, Colo., passing through Denver, to 
 Omaha, all in one year. He remained in Nebraska 
 and Colorado four years, and in 1861 again returned 
 to New Haven. Purchasing the farm in East Ha- 
 ven where he now resides, he has since successfully 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits, and is now the 
 owner of two places aggregating seventy-five acres. 
 In 187s ivir. Eld married Mrs. Frances Sperry, 
 widow of Chauncey E. Sperry, and daughter of 
 Garrett Bradley. By her first marriage she had 
 seven children. She is a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church and a most estimable lady. Mr. Eld 
 gives his political support to the men and measures 
 of the Republican party, and as a citizen he is ever 
 ready to discharge any duty that devolves upon him. 
 A man of unbounded enterprise, his success in life is 
 due entirely to his own efforts, and he deserves 
 prominent mention among the leading and repre- 
 sentative citizens of East Haven. 
 
 COL. WILLLAM E. :M0RGAN, local agent 
 of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- 
 way Co., and secretary of Fitch's "Home for the 
 Soldiers" and the Soldiers' Hospital Board of Con- 
 necticut, is also local agent for the New Haven 
 Steamiboat Co., and one of the most prominent char- 
 acters of the city of New Haven. 
 
 The name of Morgan has inspired confidence in 
 business circles and in the finances of the world 
 for upward of half a century ; and members of 
 the family who were given that confidence and 
 achieved so great standing, in both this and the 
 Old World, sprang from New England stock, were 
 born and had their boyhood and business homes in 
 the Commonwealth of Connecticut, where now re- 
 pose the dust of many of them. Gov. Morgan, 
 famous as the war governor of New York, is a 
 member of this family. Col. William E. Morgan, 
 of New Haven, traces his line of ancestry through 
 seven generations of sturdy men to James Alor- 
 gan, who, in March, 1636, with two younger 
 brothers, John and Miles, sailed from Bristol,. Eng- 
 land, and arrived in Boston, Mass., in April fol- 
 lowing. James Morgan first settled in Roxbury, 
 ]Mass. He was born in Wales in 1607. His father, 
 so says tradition, was William Morgan, of Llan- 
 daff, Glamorganshire, Wales. The family appear 
 to have removed from LlandafT to Bristol, Eng- 
 land, a few years prior to 1636. John Morgan 
 settled in \'irginia, so says tradition, and Miles, 
 born in 161 5, on his arrival at Boston, or soon 
 after, joined a party of emigrants, mostly from 
 
 Roxbury, of whom Col. William Pyncheon was 
 at the head, and founded the settlement of Spring- 
 field, }ilassachusetts. 
 
 James Morgan, the emigrtx.it ancestor of Col. 
 William' E. ^lorgan, was born in Wales in 1607, 
 and died in J 685. He was distinguished in public 
 enterprises, and was nine times chosen a member 
 of the Colonial Assembly. In 1640 he married 
 Margaret Hill, of Roxbury, Alass. His children, 
 all except the youngest, born prohably in Roxbury, 
 were: Hannah, James, John, Joseph, Abraham, 
 and a daughter who died unnamed. 
 
 (II) Capt. John Morgan, son of James, born 
 in 1645, married (first), in 1665, Rachel Dymond, 
 daughter of John, and (second) Widow Elizabeth 
 Williams, daughter of Lieut. Gov. William Jones, 
 of New Haven, and a granddaughter of Theo- 
 philus Eaton. Capt. John Morgan died in Preston 
 in 1712. He was a prominent public man, was In- 
 dian commissioner and adviser, deputy to the Gen- 
 eral Court in 1690 from New London, and in 1693- 
 94 from Preston. His children by Rachel were: 
 John, Samuel, Isaac, Hannah, Mercy, Sarah and 
 Jamles. His children by Elizabeth were: Eliza- 
 beth, William, Rachel, Audrea (who was married 
 Nov. 10, 1719, to Benjamin Fowler, of Guilford), 
 INIargery, Joseph, Theophilus and ]\Iary. 
 
 (III) William Morgan, son of Capt. John, born 
 in 1693, married in 1716 Mary, daughter of Capt. 
 James Avery, Jr., of Grotoo. ^^'illiam died in 
 1729, and his wife Mary died in 1780. Their chil- 
 dren were : Mary, Elizabeth, Margaret, William, 
 Deborah and Prudence. 
 
 (R') Capt. William Morgan, son of William, 
 born in 1723, married in 1744 Temperance, daugh- 
 ter of Col. Christopher Avery, and great-grand- 
 daughter of Capt. James Averj^ ( i ) , of Groton, 
 and died there in 1777. Temperance, his wife, died 
 in 1801. Their children were: William, Chris- 
 topher, Temperance, William Avery, Israel, Mary, 
 Simeon, Prudence, Rebecca and Jacob. 
 
 [Y) Capt. AA'illiam Avery Morgan, son of Will- 
 iam, was born in 1754, and married (first) in 1776 
 Lydia Smith, daughter of Samuel Smith, of Gro- 
 ton. She died in 1804, and he married (second) 
 Sarah Harris, daughter oif Capt. Nathaniel Harris, 
 of Colchester. Capt. Morgan was a sergeant in the 
 Colonial army in the war of the Revolution, and 
 was present at the battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 
 1775- He settled in Groton, where eleven of his 
 children were born, ini 1796 moved to Colchester 
 (now Salem), and in 1814 to Lebanon, where he 
 died March 22. 1842. Sarah, his widow, a woman 
 of rare mental endowments, died in Hartford in 
 1855. There were born to Capt. Morgan seventeen 
 children, thirteen to the first and four to the second 
 marriage, of whom all except two lived to mature 
 age and became heads of families. Eleven were 
 born in Groton, five in Colchester, and one, Harriet 
 N., in Lebanon. The children by Lydia were: 
 William, Griswold, Avery, Jasper, Lydia, N'athan, 
 
^^^^^^^< 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 2og 
 
 Betsey, Denison, Nancy, Phoebe, Lucy, Rebecca and 
 Charlotte. Those by Sarah were: Nathaniel • Har- 
 ris, Sarah M., Griswold E. and Harriet N. 
 
 (YI) Capt. Griswold E. Morgan was born in 
 Colchester (now Salem), Jan. 30, 181 1, and died 
 Jan. 18, 1902, aged ninety years, eleven months and 
 eighteen days. He was reared in Lebanon, where 
 he followed farming, and for years was justice of 
 the peace. The positions of sheriff and of county 
 commissioner were very successfully filled by 
 him, though it is said he never put a pair of 
 handcuffs on a man. At the time of his death he 
 was living with a daughter in Norwich. In politics 
 he was a stanch Republican. He married Eliza 
 Saxton, who was born in Lebanon, a daughter of 
 Nathaniel and Fanny (Chamberlain) Saxton. Of 
 the children born to this marriage George K. was a 
 private in Company D, 8th Conn. V. L, and saw 
 much hard service ; he die^d Jan. 9, 1862, a few 
 weeks after his nineteenth birthday. Harriet K. 
 married Capt. Sheldbn J. Grant, bf Wapping. 
 Sarah E. died July 16, 1866. Nathaniel H. was a 
 farmer ini Lebanon, later a railroad agent. . Fannie 
 M. married Joseph Holmes, of Norwich. Griswold 
 H. was a farmier in Ldbanon. Mary E. is the 
 widow of Dwight Foster, of Wapping. Col. Will- 
 iam E. is mentioned below. The mother died in 
 Jan. 1892, at the age of eighty years. Both parents 
 were prominent members of the Congregational 
 Church, the father being the leader of the choir for 
 forty years. Of the thirty grandchildren of Gris- 
 wold E. Morgan twenty-three are now living, and 
 there are also twenty-three great-grandchildren liv- 
 ing. 
 
 (VII) Col. William: E. Morgan was born in 
 Lebanon Oct. 23, 1835, and spent his early years on 
 his father's farm, where he remained until he was 
 'nineteen. He received his education in the common 
 schools and at Bacon Academy, in Colchester, hav- 
 ing special instruction from a resident clergyman. 
 \A^hen he was nineteen he went to Dorchester, 
 Mass., to work on a truc-k farm, thence going to 
 Newark, N. J., to take a position in the prison 
 there, becoming a deputy warden before he was 
 twenty-one. At the outbreak of the Civil war he 
 was engaged in trucking at Hartford, Conn. On 
 Aug. 25, 1862, he enlisted in Company K, 25th 
 Conn. V. I., and served in the Department of the 
 Gulf. In the battle of Irish Bend, April 14, 1863, 
 he received a wound from a minie ball which per- 
 manently disabled him for service. An honorable 
 discharge was given him, and he returned to Con- 
 necticut to spend some time with an uncle, N. H. 
 Morgan, then town agent. In October, 1865, hav- 
 ing somewhat recovered his health, Col. Morgan 
 entered the employ of the Hartford & New Haven 
 Railway Co. in 1869, becoming their agent in 
 Hartford, a position he has held continuously and 
 under all the consolidations to the present time. 
 At that time the road had only sixty-two miles of 
 road. Col. Morgan remained at Hartford until 
 
 14 
 
 1885, completing twenty years of active semce, 
 when he was transferred to New Haven, and he is 
 still agent for the railroad, and in addition repre- 
 sents the steamboat company doing business from 
 the city. The railroad and steamboat companies 
 employ 250 men, doing a large business, and two 
 magnificent boats are operated. . Col. Morgan 
 started in Hartford with twenty-five men, and 
 there are few who have been on the road as long 
 as he. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1866, Col. Morgan was married to- 
 Miss Charlotte E. Hutchinson, a native of Lebanon, 
 and a daughter of Austin Hutchinson, who had a 
 family of five children, only three now living. Her 
 mother belonged to a family by the name of Fish. 
 The two survivors of the family besides Mrs. Mor- 
 gan are : Leroy T., in San Francisco ; and Nellie, 
 the wife of George T. Cook, who lives in Wiscon- 
 sin. Col. and Mrs. Morgan have had three chil- 
 dren: (i) Edwin Hutchinson, born Nov. 19, 1871, 
 who was educated in the city schools of Hartford 
 and in the New Haven high school, now holds a 
 position in the Claims Department of the Consoli- 
 dated Railroad. (2) George Austin, born Nov. 22^ 
 i873> who received his education in the schools of 
 Hartford and the New Haven high school, is a 
 stenographer in the civil engineering department 
 of the Consolidated Railroad; he married Agnes- 
 Rose, by whom he has two children, Doris and 
 Donald. (3) William Edmund, born Oct. 2, 1876, 
 received an education similar to that of his two- 
 brothers, and in addition a fine musical education 
 on account of his very superior voice, and is now a 
 successful vocal instructor in New Haven. 
 
 Col. ,'Morgan is a Republican, and was first- 
 elected councilman in 1886, serving in that capacity 
 for the two years following, and for four years he 
 was alderman. His member'-hip on the board of 
 education lasted for four years ; on the board of fire 
 commissioners three and one-half years. Col. Mor- 
 gan displayed striking executive and business abil- 
 ity, and he was president of the board two terms. 
 Since 1899 he has refused all official stations, 
 thoug'h offered those of much higher rank. 
 
 In the Masonic fraternity Col. Morgan has been 
 very active, and is one of the leading members in 
 the State. His affiliations are with St. John's. 
 Lodge, No. 4, A. F. & A. M., of Hartford ; Trum- 
 bull Council ; New Haven Commandery, No. 2, K. 
 T. ; and Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine, at Bridge- 
 port. His associations with the G. A. R. are very 
 tenderly cherished, and he was at first a member of 
 Robert O. Tyler Post, at Hartford, but is now in 
 Admiral Foote Post, at New Haven. In this organ- 
 ization he has filled many important and responsible 
 positions, and has been assistant quartermaster gen- 
 eral of the Department of Connecticut since 1887. 
 As secretary of the State Soldiers' Hospital Board 
 he fills a most responsible position to the general 
 satisfaction of all concerned. Col. Morgan belongs- 
 to the Union Veterans Union, an association com- 
 
2 10 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 posed of battle-field soldiers, and in this organiza- 
 tion has been commander of the Department of 
 Connecticut and Rhode Island. Col. Morgan has 
 served as State president of the Patriotic Order 
 Sons of .Ajnerica, and belongs to Washington 
 Camp, No. 8. He is also a member of the I. O. 
 R. M. 
 
 WALTER HUBBARD, president of the Brad- 
 ley & Hubbard Mfg. Co., Meriden, whose recent 
 gift to the city of Meriden of the park bearing his 
 name, has awakened a desire in many people of the 
 State and country who have visited Meriden and 
 Hubbard Park, to know something more of the city's 
 benefactor beyond Che fact that he is a gentleman of 
 culture and means, for nearly a half century has 
 been one of its leading business men and manAi- 
 facturers. A modest gentleman, Mr. Hubbard has 
 shunned notoriety, and not having heretofore ap- 
 peared in any of the local publications and never 
 held nor sought political office, the public have had 
 little or no opportunity to learn of his career. It 
 is with a knowledge of these facts and through the 
 desire of bis many acquaintances, that the follow- 
 ing brief record of him and of Hubbard Park is 
 presented : 
 
 Born April 23, 1828, in Middletown, Conn., Mr. 
 Hubbard is a descendant of George Hubbard who 
 came from England in 1633 ^'""i was one of the 
 original settlers of Aliddletown in 1650. His pro- 
 geny have lived in this region for some 250 years 
 and the Hubbards furnished a remarkable record in 
 the war of the Revolution. Upward of 500 Hub- 
 bards served in that struggle from Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut. Capt. Jeremiah Hubbard, grand- 
 father of Walter Hubbard, was one of the number. 
 
 Like the majority of the youth of his day, Wal- 
 ter Hubbard was reared on a farm and was educated 
 1:1 the schools of his vicinity. He also attended the 
 Chase Preparatory School at Middletown. At the 
 age of eighteen years he secured a position as 
 clerk in a store in Meriden, where by his thrift, en- 
 ergy and his strict attention to the interests of his 
 employer, he was enabled to accumulate enough 
 capital to en^bark in business for himself. This he 
 did in 1852, opening a store in Meriden and con- 
 tinuing therein until i860. In the same year (1852) 
 he was married to Abby Ann, daughter of Levi 
 Piradley, of Cheshire, Conn. ; she died a few months 
 after their marriage, and Mr. Hubbard never mar- 
 ried again. 
 
 In 1854, in company with his brother-in-law, 
 N. L. Bradley, Mr. Hubbard founded the Bradley 
 & Hubbard Mfg. Co., of Meriden (see Bradley), 
 and devoted himself entirely to its interests. For 
 some twcnt)r-five years he has been president of this 
 company, which has become the largest manufactur- 
 ing institution of its line of goods in the world. 
 Mr. Hubbard is actively connected with many im- 
 portant concerns in Meriden, being president of 
 the Meriden Gas Light Co., also of the Meriden 
 
 Electric Light Co., and the Meriden Trust & Safe 
 Deposit Co. Besides these he is also interested in 
 banks and other local companies. 
 
 Mr. Hubbard built the Winthrop Hotel, of Mer- 
 iden, which is one of the finest in New England. 
 In this he was actuated to confer a benefit upon the 
 city and not as an investment for himself personally. 
 His gifts to the various charities of the city have 
 been frequent. In 1883-4 Mr. Hubbard went 
 around the world and he has frequently visited 
 Europe and the principal portions of this country. 
 
 In person j\Ir. Hubbard is of medium height and 
 of good proportion and weight. His personality is 
 frank and straightforward, and he gives the ob- 
 server tne impression of a man who must be well 
 liked by his associates. His pleasant and cordial 
 manners win him friends wherever he goes. Time 
 has dealt gently with him. His robust health, his 
 alert and active mind, and his quick and almost 
 youthful movements occasion much surprise to 
 those whio learn that he has reached more than 
 three score and ten. He is a member of the Union 
 League Club, of New York City, the New Eng- 
 land Society, of New York, and the American 
 Geographical Society and a number of State and 
 citv organizations. 
 
 The following beautiful description of Hub- 
 bard Park is taken from a souvenir published in 
 1901 by the Horton Printing Co. : 
 
 A thousand acres of forest and stream, cliff and cas- 
 cade, hill and dale, lake and island, meadow and mere— 
 where the air is sweet and pure, and the birds sing, and the 
 sun smiles on the softly-tinted, warm, gray trap, and the 
 foliage of trees deciduous and evergreen; a thousand acres 
 where the wine of life is freely poured — where the brain is 
 rested, the body strengthened, the soul brought into near 
 communion with Nature; made into a perfect pleasure- 
 ground by the hand of man. This is Hubbard Park. It 
 will continue to b*- the pride of Meriden after the city has 
 far outgrown its present bounds. 
 
 The park is distant from Meriden only a mile and a 
 half to the westward. It can be quickly reached by electric 
 cars of both the Meriden and Meriden & Southington lines, 
 which make frequent trips, passing the main entrance. 
 
 Within bounds are the famous Hanging Hills, with 
 their majestic peaks over a thousand feet m height. These 
 have the wild primeval beauty Thoreau loved. From Maine 
 to Florida, within fifty miles of the coast, there is no other 
 land so high. 
 
 The park is not only the largest, but is pronounced by 
 celebrated landscape architects the most diversified, inter- 
 esting and striking of any in New England. 
 
 Mere words would never convey an idea of * * * * 
 the manifold beauties of this wonder-realm of Nature. The 
 park must be visited. You must gaze upon the placid 
 waters of the hill-protected Mirror Lake. You must drive 
 or walk along the old Notch road (reminiscent of the days 
 of the toll-gate), and the other beautiful drive-ways. You 
 must feel the spell of Lake Merimere, with its wooded island, 
 also of Lake Hallmere You must witness that impressive 
 panorama from Castle Craig Tower, and the peaceful valley 
 that stretches below Fair View. Y'ou must marvel at the 
 "crags, knolls and peaks confusedly hurled." You must 
 view the wild scenery, and have your souls uplifted by the 
 prospect from West Peak. You must rest in the pavilion, 
 listen to the plash of the fountains, and see the grounds, 
 where every arrangement has been made for the delight of 
 happy childhood; you must become children yourselves for 
 a few blissful hours in Hubbard Park: You will then real- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 211 
 
 ize the full force of the line which Wordsworth applied to 
 the perfect blending of Nature's moods, and know that 
 amid the woods and waters, the ferns and flowers, and the 
 eternal hills of Hubbard Park are to be found, 
 
 "The consecration, and the poet's dream." 
 
 Mr. Hubbard's gifts to Meriden do not stop 
 •with Hubbard Park. He contributes liberally to 
 the churches and all local benevolent undertakings 
 and public utilities, such as the Meriden Hospital 
 and public school library, and the town abounds in 
 •evidences of his generous public spirit. 
 
 EDWIN BROWNSON EVERITT, one of the 
 leading business men of Meriden, a man popular 
 ■with all classes, was born in Watertown, Litchfield 
 ■Co., Conn., Oct. 6, 1835, son of Abraham and Sarah 
 C. (Stone) Everitt. The family is of English origin, 
 but has been represented in New England for more 
 than two centuries. The grandfather of our subject, 
 Abner Everitt, was a soldier in the Revolution, and 
 a, pensioner under the Act of Congress of 1817. 
 
 Abraham Everitt was born on a farm in War- 
 ren, Litchfield Co., Conn., Though he attended the 
 district schools for several terms, he was essentially 
 a self-made and self-educated man. When a boy 
 he learned the trade of cabinet-maker in Litchfield, 
 but later reniioved to Watertown and formed a part- 
 nership with a Mr. Davis, under the firm name of 
 Everitt & Davis, manufacturing several articles 
 which met with ready sale. Later a stock company 
 was formed, known as the Watertown Manufactur- 
 ing Co., of which Mr. Everitt was president, and 
 -which continued business for several years, but 
 finally the company met with financial reverses, and 
 the stock was purchased by Mr. Everitt and Mr. 
 Davis, who carried on the concern. Increasing 
 years and ill health compelled Mr. Everitt to retire 
 in 1862, and he passed his last days with his son 
 Edwin, in Meriden. He is buried in the beautiful 
 West Cemetery in Meriden. For many years he was 
 a Mason in high standing, originally a member of 
 Federal Lodge, Watertown, and for manv years its 
 master. Upon coming to Meriden he connected 
 himself with Meridian Lodge, No. yy. A man of 
 genial manner, broad views and keen foresight, he 
 made many friends, and his death was deeply 
 mourned. In politics he was a Republican, and he 
 represented the town of Watertown in the House of 
 Representatives at Hartford. During slavery times 
 he was a very prominent Abolitionist, ardently sup- 
 ported Abraham Lincoln, and throughout his life 
 was a strong temperance man. His life from the 
 time he was a child bore testimony to his ideas, and 
 lie was a man of deeds as well as words. Mr. Ever- 
 itt was married in Litchfield to Sarah C. Stone, a 
 -native of Litchfield county and a daughter of Josiah 
 Stone. Mts'. Everitt was a most estimable lady. 
 She and- her husband were members of the Congre- 
 gational Church. To them were born eight children, 
 four of whom died when' young, the others being: 
 'Edwin B.; Frances, who married Nathan Taylor, 
 
 and with her husband died in Meriden ; Sarah, Mrs. 
 Augustus Lane, of New Britain, Conn. ; and Cath- 
 arine, wife of Edson A. Judd, a retired dry-goods 
 merchant of Waterbury, Connecticut. 
 
 Edwin Brownson Everitt attended the public 
 schools of Watertown and completed his education 
 at the Watertown Academy. At the age of twenty 
 he went to Hartford and became a clerk in the 
 jewelry house of Church & Batterson, remaining 
 however, but a short time. Returning home, he 
 taught school in his native town and also in North- 
 field for a few years, and then removed to Water- 
 bury, Conn., where he formed a partnership with a 
 Mr. Burgess, under the firm name of Everitt & 
 Burgess, to conduct a photography business. After 
 a few years Mr. Everitt removed to Meriden, in the 
 early 'sixties, and) opened a studio, which he con- 
 ducted very successfully. On account of ill health 
 he was obliged to abandon that calling, and accept 
 a position as agent with the Continental Life Insur- 
 ance Co., of Hartford. So successful was he in this 
 line that he was soon made the company's general 
 agent for Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island. 
 Some years later he accepted a clerical position with 
 the Meriden Britannia Co., which he has since re- 
 tained. During the lifetime of Horace Wilcox he 
 served that gentleman in a private capacity, and 
 after his death assisted in the management of the 
 large estate. For more than twenty years he was 
 stockholder in, and president of, the North Ameri- 
 can Mercantile Agency Co., with offices in The 
 Evening Post building, New York, the company be- 
 ing the first to occupy quarters in that structure. 
 Later the offices were removed to the St. Paul build- 
 ing. After a number of years Mr. Everitt sold his 
 interest, and at the time of the formation of the C. 
 F. Monroe Co., of Meriden, he became its secretary, 
 and still retains that office. 
 
 Mr. Everitt was married in Otis, Mass., to Miss 
 Mary A. Thompson, of that place, who is descended 
 on her mother's side from' Peregrine White, the 
 first white child born among the Puritan settlers of 
 Massachusetts. No children have been born to Mr. 
 and Mrs. Everitt. She is a lady of culture and re- 
 finement. Mr. Everitt is a man of genial disposi- 
 tion, a good citizen, very popular, and keeps himself 
 well posted in current events. Politically he is a 
 Republican, and has been chairman of the Republi- 
 can town committee of Meriden. He and his wife 
 are consistent members of the First Congregational 
 Church, in the work of which they take an active 
 part, and he is deacon in that organization. For 
 a period of about twenty-five years he was organist 
 or choir master in various churches, having officia-' 
 ted for seventeen years in the Main Street Baptist 
 Church of Meriden. He plaved the organ and di- 
 rected the music at the laying of the corner stones of 
 the following structures: St. Andrews' P. E. 
 Church, First M. E. Church, First Congregational 
 Church and Y. M. C. A. building. Mr. Everitt is a 
 man of strict integrity and high business principles. 
 
212 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a favorite among his associates and beloved at his 
 own fireside. He was a charter member of the 
 Home Club, one of the leading social organizations 
 of the city. His social affiliations are numerous. 
 Prior to coming to Meriden he was a member of 
 Federal Lodge, A. F & A. ^l., of Waterbury. He is 
 a thirty-second-degree Mason, affiliating with JMerid- 
 ian Lodge, No. yy, A. F. & A. Af., and is past com- 
 mander of St. Elmo Commandery, No. 9, K. T., in 
 which organization he has held the office of Prelate 
 since the resignation of Rev. J. F. Pettee. For sev- 
 eral years he has been the committee on necrology 
 of the Grand Com'mandery. At the celebration of 
 the fiftieth anniversary of Aleridian Lodge he was 
 the poet of the occasion, and the lengthy production 
 which he read was very happily received. Short 
 extracts from this valuable souvenir are herewith 
 appended : 
 
 Meridian No. 77. 
 
 Master divine! Our fathers' God! We come with glad 
 
 acclaim, 
 To render homage unto Thee, and bless thy Holy name. 
 We thank Thee for " Meridian," named for the noontide 
 
 sun; 
 For all her glorious wealth of work; her service nobly done. 
 
 We thank Thee for our fathers' faith, shining with steady 
 
 ray, 
 And, guided by Thine open word which on their altar lay. 
 How many joys, how much of grief, what varied hopes and 
 
 fears 
 Cluster around " Meridian," and crown her fifty years! 
 
 The number of Meridian, how worthy of her fame! 
 
 Of all the rest the one the best adapted to her name. 
 
 The sacred seven, the perfect seven, these two to her are 
 
 given 
 The number worthy of herself, — Meridian, "Seventy-seven.'' 
 
 Masonic Homes. 
 
 When disappointment ends the work of unsuccessful years, 
 The agony of hope deferred finds no relief in tears; 
 When pitiless adversity obscures and clouds the life, 
 And hope surrenders to despair, tired of the fruitless strife, 
 
 When all the world is unconcerned , averted every face, 
 When even friends have vanished, as if to shun disgrace, 
 'Tis sweet to know of one retreat, shining with glory bright. 
 Where clouds and darkness disappear in heaven's own radi- 
 ant light. 
 
 Such are the blest Masonic Homes, in this and other lands! 
 The mmistry to needy ones of willing hearts and hands, 
 The night of need turned into day, thick darkness tuined to 
 
 light. 
 The clouds that God's fair Temple hid, now with His glory 
 
 bright. 
 
 How blest the hand that brings relief, that binds up broken 
 
 hearts, 
 Kindles anew the light of hope, and life and joy imparts! 
 Just such a blessed heavenly work as the bright angels love, — 
 A work that lifts ihe sad earth up nearer to heaven above. 
 
 At Last. 
 
 At last, when work is ended and every duty done, 
 With faith m coming glory we meet life's setting sun; 
 Awaiting resurrection, we bid the world adieu. 
 And fall asleep rejoicing, the better life in view. 
 
 The heavens that bend above the earth, by night and day 
 
 proclaim 
 The glorious Architect Supreme, and praise His holy name, 
 With them, and all created things, we gladly sing His 
 I praise, 
 
 Who hath preserved and blest our craft, and guarded all 
 
 our days. 
 
 We bow before the heavenly throne, to worship Him witL 
 
 awe, 
 The Sovereign Master of us all. Whose slightest wish is 
 
 Law. 
 We ask His blessing on the Craft: " Give us to know Thy 
 
 Love, 
 And grant that each at last may reach The Supreme Lodge 
 
 above." 
 
 LEAVENWORTH. For more than two cen- 
 turies the family bearing this name has played an 
 honorable part in the history of the State. The- 
 ancient town of Woodbury, in Litchfield county, was- 
 the home of its various generations until three chil- 
 dren of the late Russell Leavenworth moved, be- 
 fore 1850, from Woodbury, where they were reared,, 
 to New Haven, rising to honorable positions in the 
 City of Elms. Oscar B. Leavenworth was engaged 
 in the drug business for many years, and Dr. 
 Daniel C. Leavenworth was a physician of more 
 than local repute. Their. widows are still living: 
 in New Haven. Boardman H. was in the drug busi- 
 ness with his brother Oscar, on Church street, for 
 several years. These gentlemen were descendants 
 in the seventh generation from Thomas Leaven- 
 worth, who was born in England, and came to 
 New Haven about 1664, soon after locating at 
 Woodbury. There he rose to prominence, became 
 an extensive land owner, and died in 1683, his 
 widow surviving until 171 5. From this emigrant 
 ancestor Oscar B., Boardman H. and Dr. Daniel 
 C. Leavenworth traced their line of descent through 
 Thomas (2), John, David, Gideon and Russell 
 Leavenworth. 
 
 (H) Thomas Leavenworth (2) was born in 
 1673, and was married at Stratford about 1698 tO' 
 Mary Jenkins. He was a physician, and lived in 
 what is now the town of Huntington, where he 
 died in 1754, his widow surviving until 1768. Dr. 
 Leavenworth was a graduate of Yale College, and 
 was a man of influence in the community. He met 
 with large success in all his business ventures, and 
 left a fine estate. Both he and his wife were orig- 
 mal members of the Congregational Church at 
 Huntington. 
 
 (HI) John Leavenworth, son of Dr. Thomas, 
 was born in 1708, and was twice married, first to- 
 Deborah Hurd, who became his wife about 1737; 
 and subsequently to ]\Iarv Bronson, who became his 
 wife Jan. 29, 1747. Mr. Leavenworth died in 1784. 
 
 (TV) Capt. David Leavenworth, son of John, 
 was born in Woodbury about 1738, and was married 
 in 1759 to Olive Hunt. In 1776 he married, for 
 his second wife, Mary Downs. Capt. Leavenworth 
 commanded the Fourth Company of the Thirteenth 
 Regiment of the Colony of Connecticut during the- 
 
0r (^ 
 
 -^^'-'trCtf /i^^. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 213 
 
 Revolution, and proved himself a brave and skill- 
 ful officer. 
 
 (\ ) Gideon Leavenworth, son of Capt. David, 
 was born Oct. 26, 1759, in Roxbury, Conn., and was 
 married in 1775 to Louisa Hunt. He was a lifelong 
 farmer, and died in Roxbury Oct. 15, 1827, of 
 paralysis. In the Revolutionary war he served as 
 a commissary under Gen. LaFayette, and he was a 
 member of the General Assembly from Roxbury in 
 1806. His widow died the year following his death. 
 (VI) Russell Leavenworth, son of Gideon, and 
 father of the late Oscar B. and Dr. Daniel C. Leav- 
 enworth, was born at Roxbury Oct. 16, 1781, and 
 was married March 27, 1816, to Eveline Stone, who 
 was born in 1796. Their home was at Woodbury, and 
 in their later years at Northampton, Conn., where 
 Mr. Leavenworth died March 12, 1866. The widow 
 survived four years, and died in New Haven May 
 14, 1870. Their remains rest in the Grove Street 
 cemetery, where their son Frederick also lies. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Leavenworth had children, all born in 
 Woodbury, as follows: (i) Oscar B. is mentioned 
 below. (2) Rebecca, born Dec. 9, 1820, was mar- 
 ried Feb. I, 1843, to Jerome B. Jackson, who died in 
 Woodbury about i860, leaving a daughter, Ella 
 Elizabeth, born in 185 1. The latter married Ben- 
 jamin Day, a farmer of Springfield, Mass., and 
 had one child. Amy Leavenworth. They moved 
 to Kansas City, Mo., where Mr. Day died in Octo- 
 ber, 1899. His widow and daughter (who is un- 
 married) still remain there, having property. They 
 spent the summer in New Haven with Mrs. Day's 
 mother, Mrs. Jackson, who for years has resided 
 with Dr. Leavenworth's widow at their fine resi- 
 dence on Howe street. (3) Frederick, who came 
 to New Haven as a clerk with his brother Oscar, 
 was drowned in Mill river July 6, 1836, at the age 
 of thirteen, while bathing. (4) Boardman H., born 
 Jan. 26, 1826, learned and carried on the tailor's 
 trade for years in Bristol and Plainville, Conn. In 
 1854 he made a change, going into the drug busi- 
 ness, he and his brother Oscar having a drug 
 store on Church street. New Haven. He was mar- 
 ried three times, first to Antoinette Merriman, of 
 \\'aterburv, by whom he had one child, Nellie, who 
 became the wife of Charles Rattery, of Chicago, and 
 moved thence to St. Louis, Victoria, B. C, and Cal- 
 ifornia; Mr. and Mrs. Rattery have two children. 
 For his second wife Boardman H. married a lady of 
 Plainville, Conn. ; they had no children. His third 
 wife was Miss Caroline J. Todd, a member of a fine 
 old familv, who was formerly a school teacher, and 
 to this union came two children, Frank and Etta. 
 About 1865 the family moved from New Haven to 
 Chicago, and they were burned out in the great fire, 
 losing everything. Boardman H. Leavenworth died 
 in 1877, and is buried in Chicago, where his family 
 still prefer to reside, near Mrs. Leavenworth's 
 brother. (5) Daniel C. is mentioned below. (6) 
 Clinton N., born Nov. 6, 1830, was with his brothers 
 for a time. He enlisted in the navy at Brooklyn, N". 
 Y., was there for a period, and received an honor- 
 
 able discharge. After visiting his aunt, Mrs. Lucy 
 Plumb (a sister of his mother), in New York, he 
 returned to the navy yard and bid his comrades 
 good-bye, taking his traveling bag and saying he 
 was going to purchase a new suit to go home. But 
 so far as his family could learn, he was never again 
 seen b}' any one who knew him. 
 
 Oscar Beebe Le.wexworth, son of Russell 
 Leavenworth, was born Nov. 27, 1S18, in Wood- 
 bury, Conn. He was twice married, first to Sarah 
 Maria Osborn, of Oxford, who died in 1848, and 
 the only child of this marriage, Sarah Eliza, died in 
 infancy the same year. For his second wife he 
 wedded Elizabeth A. Dowd, of Northford, Conn., 
 and to this union came: Ida Elizabeth, born April 
 18, 1852; Josephine, born July 5, 1857; Jessie I., 
 born July 6, i860; Minnie, born May 30, 1863; and 
 Frederick Osca., born Dec. 14, 1865. Of these, 
 Josephine married Edward B. Munson, a box man- 
 ufacturer of New Haven, and is the mother of five 
 children — Grace, Alaude, Harvey, Ethel May and 
 Thornton Sperry. Jessie I., a graduate of Mrs. 
 Cady's school married Albert H. Moulton, of Kit- 
 tery, Maine, a graduate of Yale, 1881, who practiced 
 law for several years in New Haven ; they are the 
 parents of three children, Josephine E., Nelson 
 Leavenworth and Albert. Ida E. died Jan. 19, 
 1897; ^Minnie died Aug. 12, 1864; Frederick O. 
 married Mrs. Jennie Hayden in October, 1893, and 
 has one son, Benjamin Frederick, born July 30, 
 1894. The family are Congregational in church 
 association. Mr. Leavenworth studied medicine 
 under Dr. Phelps, of Woodbury, three years, and 
 then came to New Haven, in 1839, to take a place 
 as a clerk with Allen Smith, the druggist, remain- 
 ing until 1849, when he opened a drug store on his 
 own account. For a number of years he continued 
 in that business, until the store was destroyed by 
 fire and he bought a drug store in Brooklyn, which 
 he conducted about two years. Then he returned to 
 New Haven and resumed the drug business. About 
 three years later he sold out, and after a time 
 opened :^. very extensive store on Broadway, which 
 he was conducting at the time of his death, having 
 become one of the 'best-known men of the city. 
 Buying and selling houses and lots quite exten- 
 sively, he also built several residences, and was very 
 successful in all his real-estate ventures. He died 
 from a stroke of apoplexy June 28, 1871, and was 
 laid to rest in the Grove street cemetery, where his 
 wife Sarah Maria and their infant daughter are alsa 
 buried. Mr. Leavenworth was a well-known mem- 
 ber of the ]\Iasonic fraternity, and was also for a 
 time an Odd Fellow. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth A. (Dowd) Leavenworth was a 
 daughter of Russell B. Dowd, a son of Russell 
 Dowd, a farmer of Clinton, known as Capt. Dowd, 
 who sailed from New Haven to New York, and sold 
 fowls and country products ; he lived to be seventy 
 years old. Russell B. Dowd, who was also a farmer 
 in Clinton, lived to be eighty-three. In 1S35 he 
 moved from Clinton to Northford, locating on a 
 
214 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 farm which 'he bought from Henry Taintor. He 
 was a fine gardener, having one of the best gardens 
 in the locality in his day, and fruit in abundance. 
 He also raised cattle, sheep, etc. His family are 
 buried in Northford. His son Benjamin Russell 
 Dowd enlisted during the Civil war in the 15th 
 Conn. V. I., and died in Washington in December, 
 1863, of typhoid fever ; he was 'brought home and 
 laid to rest in the family burial plat. Russell B. 
 Dowd married Eliza H. Wright, who was born at 
 Wright River, in Westbrook, June 9, 1800, and died 
 in New Haven in 1879. She was but seventeen at 
 the time of her marriage. Benjamin Wright, her 
 father, was very friendly with the Indians, who were 
 around the home all during Airs. Dowd's child- 
 hood, and who had their last burial spot in this re- 
 gion near the home of the Wrights, who never had 
 any cause to feel afraid of the Red men. There 
 were twelve children in the family. Representa- 
 tives of the Wright family oame from England and 
 were early settlers in the town of Aladison, which 
 belonged at one time to two brothers of the Wright 
 family. 
 
 Mrs. Leavenworth is a well-known lady in New 
 Haven, and is much esteemed by a wide circle of 
 friends and acquaintances. She came to New Ha- 
 ven when about sixteen years old, and conducted a 
 millinery business in company with Mrs. Graves, 
 and then with a Mrs. Langdon, and then engaged 
 in business for herself, building up a fine trade, and 
 becoming very prosperous. This business she dis- 
 posed of at her marriage. In 1869 she again opened 
 her millinery parlors, and in 1871 built a fine store 
 for the purpose, in which she carried on the busi- 
 ness until, in 1885, she closed it out and rented the 
 store, which she still owns. Mrs. Leavenworth is a 
 lady of much ability, and belongs to the Women's 
 Board of Alission and the Eastern Star Lodge. She 
 is also associated with the W. R. C. In 1849 she 
 went to New York on a New Year's trip, the jour- 
 ney from New Haven to that city requiring twelve 
 hours. 
 
 D\NrEL Carroll Leavenworth, M. D,, son of 
 Russell Leavenworth, was born April 29, 1828, in 
 the town of Woodbury. He studied medicine in 
 Yale College, from which he graduated in 1865, 
 and, making his home in New Haven, followed the 
 practice of his profession, in that city all his life. 
 In 1874 he came to the home in which his widow is 
 now living, and resided there for a number of years 
 retired from the active work of his profession. For 
 a number of years he had an extensive interest in 
 the drug business, and during his last years had 
 charge of the real estate in Connecticut which be- 
 longed to his father-in-law. His death occurred 
 Dec. 19, 1896. Dr. Leavenworth and Aliss Julia 
 Hill were married May 13, 1869. She was born in 
 Farmington, and came to New Haven when about 
 six years of age. Her father, A. S. Hill, a Meth- 
 odist clergyman, was born in Redding, Conn., and 
 had extensive real-estate investments in New Ha- 
 ven, to the management of which the last }ears of 
 
 his life were largely given. He died July 15, 1893, 
 at the age of ninety-three years. Her mother, Abiah 
 A. Judson, was the daughter of Samuel A. Judson, 
 of Cornwall, Conn., where he spent his active years 
 in farming; he died in Brooklyn, N. Y., at the age 
 of eighty-nine years. Dr. Leavenworth and his 
 wife had one child, Charles S., born July 17, 1874, 
 now a professor of history at Nanyang College, at 
 Shanghai, China ; he graduated from Wesleyan in 
 1895, and from Yale in 1897, from which he re- 
 ceived the degree of Master of Arts in 1899. 
 
 BRADLEY. Among the distinguished families 
 of the State of Connecticut is that of Bradley, the 
 name having been an honored one for many gen- 
 erations and represented at the present date by men 
 of means and influence. 
 
 William Bradley, the founder of the family in 
 New England, came from England with Gov. 
 Eaton, in company with others who established 
 families and also did much toward, the early set- 
 tlement of the Colonies. William Bradley was mar- 
 ried Feb. 18, 1645, to Alice Pritchard. He died 
 in 1691. 
 
 Joseph Bradley, son of William the settler, was 
 born in 1646, and died in 1704. On Oct. 25, 1667, 
 he married Silence Brockett. 
 
 Samuel Bradley, son of Joseph, was born in 
 1681, and died in 1757. He married Abigail At- 
 water, who was born Jan. 16, 1684, and died Jan. 
 23. 1742. 
 
 Samuel Bradley (2), son of Samuel, was born 
 March 21, 1707, and was married Dec. 16, 1732, 
 to Eunice Munson. They lived in New Haven and 
 Wallingford. 
 
 Titus Bradley, son of Samuel (2), was born in 
 1746, and died Feb. 9, 181 1. In 1765 he married 
 Lydia Yale Todd, and thev lived in North Haven. 
 Titus Bradley, Jr., son of Titus, was born in 
 1776, and died in 1822. In 1805 he was united in 
 marriage with Marv Alunson, who died in 1861. 
 She was a daughter of Stephen and Mary (Good- 
 year) Munson, and traced her ancestry back 
 through Jabez and Eunice (Atwater) Munson, an4 
 Stephen and Lydia (Bassett) Munson, to Samuel 
 and Martha (Bradley) Munson. 
 
 Seymour Bradlev"! son of Titus, Jr., was born 
 Aug. 14, 1806, and died April 25, 1890. On Sept. 
 30, 1829, he married Delia Barnes, who was born 
 June 6, 1809, and died Jan. 4, 1880. She was a 
 daughter of Frederick and Eunetia (Blakeslee) 
 barnes, her Ime reaching back through Joshua and 
 Mercy (Tuttle) Barnes, Capt. Joshua and De- 
 borah (Woodmg) Barnes, and Thomas and Mary 
 (Leek) Barnes, to Thomas and Abigail (Frost) 
 Barnes. Se}-mour Bradley conducted" a store on 
 Chapel street. New Haven, for many years, estab- 
 lishing It when he was a young man. 
 
 Robert Barnes Bradley, son of Seymour, was 
 born March 10, 1832, in North Haven, Conn., and 
 died Jan. 22, 1890, in New Haven. His earlv school 
 days were spent in New Haven, and he was a pupil 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 215 
 
 in two well-known schools, the Lovell Lancasterian 
 School and later the select school conducted by Mr. 
 Thomas. Until 1858 he remained assisting his fa- 
 ther in the store, and at that date he opened up a 
 business of his own, embarking in the agricultural 
 implement line on State street, at the corner of 
 Court street. There he was known by the older 
 residents for many years, continuing his business 
 until his death, in 1890, when he was succeeded by 
 the firm of Bradley & Dann. On Dec. 30, 1858, 
 Mr. Bradley was united in marriage with Cornelia 
 Minor, who was born July 13, 1835, daughter of 
 Truman and Eunice (Peet) Minor, and a descend- 
 ant — through Seth and Susannah (Frisbie) Minor, 
 Israel and Anna (Lake) Minor, Josiah and Mary 
 (Barnum-Shove) Minor, and Ephraim and Re- 
 becca (Curtiss) Minor — of Capt. John and Eliza- 
 beth (Booth) Minor. Capt. John Minor was born 
 in 1634, and his wife on Sept. 12, 1647; his death 
 took place Sept. 17, 17 19, and hers on Oct. 24, 1732 ; 
 their marriage was solemnized Oct. 19, 1658. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Robert Barnes Bradley had two daugh- 
 ters, Delia Barnes and Cornelia Minor. The tor- 
 mer married Charles W. Whittlesey, and they have 
 two children, Ethel and Robert B. For many years 
 Robert Barnes Bradley was prominent in Center 
 Church, and served as treasurer of the society, and 
 on committees for a long period. 
 
 Truman Minor, the father of Mrs. Robert 
 Barnes Bradley, was a member of the firm of Minor, 
 Horton & Co., manufacturers of plows, in Peeks- 
 kill, N. Y., and there Mrs. Bradley was reared. 
 Mrs. Eunice (Peet) Minor, the mother of Mrs. 
 Bradley, traced an unbroken line to her first Amer- 
 ican ancestor, John Peet, through her parents, Jehiel 
 and Lois (Manville) Peet, Jehiel and Joanna 
 (Walker) Peet, Richard and Sarah (Curtiss) Peet, 
 Benjamin and Priscilla (Fairchild) Peet, and Ben- 
 jamin and Phebe (Butler) Peet, Benjamin being a 
 son of John. John Peet came from England in 
 1635, a passenger in the "Hopewell," from England, 
 and settled in Stratford, Connecticut. 
 
 Frederick T. Bradley, son of Robert Barnes 
 Bradley, was born Nov. 28, i860. On June 15, 
 1887, he married Miss Sarah Emily Mersick, daugh- 
 ter of Edwin F. Mersick, and two children came to 
 this union : Seymour Mersick, born April 25, 1888 ; 
 and Mildred, born May i, 1890. Mr. Bradley's fa- 
 ther early determined to send him to Yale, and he 
 was graduated with honor from Hopkin's Grammar 
 School, and, in June, 1883, from the Yale Scientific 
 School, immediately afterward going into business 
 with his father, with whom he was associated until 
 1890. In that year, in association with George E. 
 Dann, he succeeded to the business, but three years 
 later he retired, and on Jan. i, 1894, became a mem- 
 ber of the firm of English & Mersick, which on 
 June 28, 1895, was incorporated as the English & 
 Mersick Co., with Edwin F. Mersick as president 
 and treasurer, F. T. Bradley as secretary, and John 
 B. Kennedy as vice-oresident. Upon the death of 
 Mr. Mersick Mr. Kennedy became president, Fred- 
 
 erick T. Bradley, treasurer, and John MacKay, sec- 
 retary, of the company. Mr. Bradley is a member 
 of the Chamber of Commerce, and is treasurer of 
 the Stevens & Sackett Co., manufacturers of coach 
 lamps. Socially he is connected with the New 
 Colony Historical Society and the Sons of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution, and is also a member of the Grad- 
 uates Club, and the Yale Club, New York city. 
 
 JOSEPH E. COE is a valued and noted citi- 
 zen of Meriden, whose fame extends throughout 
 many States in the Union as an unceasing worker 
 hi the cause of Christianity and educational en- 
 'lightenment. His birth occurred on a farm in the 
 town of Middlefield, Conn., June 16, 1827, and he 
 is the youngest son of Eli Coe. The genealogy of 
 the family will be found in the biography of Levi 
 E. Coe elsewhere. 
 
 Joseph E. Coe grew to young manhood in his 
 native place, attending only the district schools, 
 and for a number of years followed farming. Al- 
 though he had little capital to begin with a provi- 
 dent husbanding of his resources and judicious in- 
 vestments in Chicago real estate placed means at 
 his disposal, his business acumen assisting him in 
 so managing the same as to bring him substantial 
 returns. While still a young man his thoughts were 
 turned into religious channels, and for many years 
 past he has devoted himself largely to promoting 
 the religious thoughts of his fellow men. His ef- 
 forts in this direction have been so successful and 
 he has traveled so widely in pursuing this work, 
 that he has become extensively known, although his 
 work may never be fully appreciated. Mr. Coe was 
 one of the promoters of the Meriden Hospital. A 
 large part of the competency amassed has been 
 benevolently donated to tne cause in which he is 
 profoundly interested. Many of the methods of 
 Mr. Coe in his religious work are original with him, 
 one of these being the distribution of leaves of the 
 Bible, one leaf at a time, in every State in the Union, 
 this entailing a large outlay. Mr. Coe also bought 
 and disbursed about two thousand copies of the re- 
 vised version of the New Testament, besides 4,000 
 copies of the old version. The public schools have 
 also benefited by his liberality as he has given a 
 large number of dictionaries to them, and he has 
 always taken a great interest in educational matters. 
 The native town of Mr. Coe has been remem'bered 
 very generously by ihim, .he having donated an ample 
 sum to provide quarters in the Middlefield town hall 
 for the W. C. T. U., Mr. Coe being a stanch ad- 
 vocate of temperance and a strong ally to the forces 
 contending against the use of tobacco. In pur^ 
 suance of his commendable work in temperance and 
 religion he has paid out many thousands of dollars 
 of his own money, employing men to assist him, giv- 
 ing his own time gratuitously. Few men in this lo- 
 cality have been as prominent in the Y. M. C. A., 
 and he is also an active member of the American 
 Bible Society of New York city. 
 
 The first marriage of Joseph E. Coe was to Miss 
 
2l6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Laura L. i\Iiller, his second marriage being to j\Iiss 
 Orpha R. Root. For twenty-five years ^Ir. Coe has 
 stanchly upheld the principles he believed to be 
 right, and his declining years are cheered by the 
 assurance that he has put his best energies into 
 this work, and that he deserves the commendation 
 of ''well done, good and faithful servant." Al- 
 though bodily ills afflict him, he bears all with the 
 fortitude of a Christian, being an example in this 
 as in other ways, and meriting the esteem and af- 
 fection with which he is universally regarded. 
 
 OLR'ER RICE was during his lifetime one of 
 Meriden's leading agriculturists and a well-known 
 citizen. His birth occurred Nov. 17, 1819, on the 
 •old Rice homestead, in the Hanover District, Meri- 
 den, and he was a scion of one of the oldest famil- 
 ies of New Haven county. 
 
 Samuel Royce (as the name was then written) 
 .the progenitor of the family in New Haven county, 
 was a son of Robert Royce, who died in New Lon- 
 don in 1676. Robert Royce was made a Freeman in 
 1634 in Boston. Before 1650 and until 1657 he is 
 known to have 'been in Stratford, Conn. He re- 
 moved to New London, where in 1660 he was con- 
 stable, a very important position at that time. None 
 of his sons remained in New London. His son 
 Samuel settled with his sons in Wallingford, and 
 they were among the first families of what is known 
 as the New Colony. On Jan. 9, 1667, Samuel Royce 
 married Hannah Churchwood, and among their 
 children was Samuel (2), born in 1673. Samuel 
 Royce (i), died in 171 1. The first marriage of 
 Samuel Royce (2) was to Sarah Baldwin, and to 
 this union were born: Abigail, Prudence, Delilah, 
 Isaac, Ebenezer, Nat"haniel, John, Mary and Jacob; 
 the last named married Thankful IBeach. The 
 •second marriage of Samuel Royce (2) was cele- 
 brated Dec. 12, 1695, Hannah Benedict becoming 
 his bride. She was born Jan. 8, 1676, and died 
 Jan. 12, 1761. To this marriage were born: Han- 
 nah, Ezekiel (direct ancestor of Oliver Rice), Sam- 
 uel, Abel, Benjamin, Mehitable and Ebenezer. 
 
 Ezekiel Royce, son of Samuel (2), was born 
 Feb. ID, 1699, was a farmer and large land owner, 
 and became active in the public affairs of the com- 
 munity, serving as justice of the peace for many 
 years. Fie was a gallant soldier in the French and 
 Indian war, and the commission wdiich he re- 
 ceived from King George II as lieutenant in His 
 Majesty's service "in the train-band in the parrish 
 of Mcrridan in the Town of Wallingford" is among 
 the oldest documents in the State. He died Sept. 
 4, 1765, and lies at rest in the old Buckwheat Hill 
 cemetery. The first marriage of Ezekiel Royce, on 
 April 25, 1723, was to Anna Merwin, who died Dec. 
 20, 1725. The second marriage, on Nov. 30, 
 1726, was to Abigail Ailing, who was born June 28, 
 1701, and the children of both unions were: Sam- 
 ^^el, Iwrn in 1724; Barnabas, 1725; Anna, 1727; 
 Kr.cb.el, 172S; Ezra, 1730; Luc\-, 1732; Deborah, 
 
 1734; Ezekiel, 1736 (died in infancy); Ezekiel, 
 Oct. 15, 1739; and Abigad, 1751. 
 
 Ezekiel Royce (2), son of Ezekiel, was born 
 on the old homestead Oct. 15, 1739. When the 
 Revolutionary war broke out he joined a company 
 commanded by Capt. John Couch, in Col. Wads- 
 worth's regiment, was at the battles of Lexington, 
 Bunker Hill and Long Island, and all through the 
 struggle took an active part. He was well known 
 to the people of his State. His landed possessions 
 were large, and the present homestead, where the 
 family of his name still resides, was built by him 
 in 1779. After a long and active life he died Sept. 
 3, 1808. Ezekiel Royce (2) married, June 19, 1759, 
 Lydia Hough, who died Oct. 28, 1813. Their son, 
 Ezekiel (3), was born Oct. 18, 1777, on the home- 
 stead, where he spent his life following the peaceful 
 pursuits of agriculture, and died Sept. 14, 1849. 
 His political sympathies were with the Whig party, 
 and in religion he was a consistent member of the 
 Congregational Church. On Dec. 10, 1798, he mar- 
 ried Mary Merriam, who died Feb. 17, 1816, and 
 on Nov. 13, 1816, he married Bethiah, widow of 
 Dr. Theophilus Hall, who was born July 4, 1784, 
 and died Sept. 16, 1858. Seven children came to 
 the first marriage : Lydia, born Feb. 5, 1800, mar- 
 ried Jesse Garrison Baldwin, of i\Iiddletown, April 
 14, 1830, and died May 13, 1876; Erastus, born 
 July 7, 1802, died Aug. 2, 1866; Minerva, born 
 Aug. 2, 1804, married Salmon Merriam, of Meri- 
 den, Feb. 15, 1826, and died Nov. 19, 1866; Mary, 
 born Sept. 24, 1806, married Albert Boardman, of 
 Cromwell, Oct. 3, 1827, and died Nov. 29, 1865; 
 Ezekiel Allen, born Aug. 25, 1808, married Re- 
 becca Bull, Nov. 29, 1836, and died Nov. 7, 1882; 
 Hezekiah, born June 10, 181 1, married Alaria Brad- 
 ley, and for his second wife married, in May, 1866, 
 Fanny A. Thompson (he died in October, 1882) ; 
 Irene, born Nov. 22, 1813, married Orrin Judd 
 Dutton Oct. 30, 1833, and died July 5, 1885. The 
 children of the second union were: Betsey, born 
 in 1817, married William M. Judd, of Kent, Conn., 
 Dec. 3, 1840; Oliver was 'born Nov. 17, 1819; Will- 
 iam T., born Sept. 2, 1821, married Susan Collins 
 Nov. 7, 1841, and died Sept. 25, 1852; Sophia, 
 born Aug. 23, 1823, married John S. Caldwell, of 
 Belfast, Maine, Oct. 18, 1858, and died Jan. 26, 
 1896; Julia B., born June 29, 1826, married Thomas 
 B. Clark Jan. 11, 1848, and resides in San Fran- 
 cisco; Sarah, born Aug. 22, 1829, married Charles 
 H. Parsons, of Washington, D. C., Jan. 5, 1852. 
 
 Oliver Rice, the subject proper of this biog- 
 raphy, was born on the old family farm, and in 
 his early years attended the local' district school, 
 later the Alcriden Academy. \\'hen his school days 
 were over he started out in life for himself, goin'g 
 to Ohio and entering a store in Elyria, as clerk. 
 iThere he spent the succeeding six yeans, but the 
 old home drew him back, and he spent the remainder 
 of his life there, busily and successfully engaged 
 in farming and stock raising. His death occurred 
 
(^S'^--'^tiy<---c^'*--'(^^%^^ /^ C^ cz 
 
 c^-^e- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 217 
 
 Feb. 26, 1886, and his remains lie in the West 
 -cemetery. 
 
 On Aug. 27, 1846, Mr. Rice married Mary Abby 
 Caldwell, daughter of Capt. John Caldwell, of Ips- 
 wich, Mass. The family is of Welsh ancestry. The 
 mother of Mrs. Rice was Eunice, daughter of Isaac 
 and Eunice (Hodgkins) Stanwood, both members- 
 ■of old and prominent families of Massacliusetts. 
 Mrs. Rice still resides on the old homestead. She 
 is a lady of rare culture and refinement; in her 
 earlier years was a teacher, and all her life has en- 
 joyed intellectual pursuits. Five children were born 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Rice: Arthur Woods graduated 
 as a civil engineer at the Sheffield Scientific School, 
 and is now a prominent manufacturer of New Brit- 
 ain ; Anna Caldwell attended school at Meriden, and 
 later the Young Ladies Seminary at Ipswich, Mass., 
 :and taught several years in the public schools of 
 Meriden ; William Theophilus, educated in the dis- 
 trict schools and at the Gunnery, in Washington, 
 Conn., has been on the homestead all his business 
 -life, operating it successful since the death of his 
 father, and is a well-known and respected citizen ; 
 Helen B., educated in Meriden and Ipswich, mar- 
 ried Dr. E. W. Smith, of Meriden ; Oliver diedi in 
 infancy. 
 
 In politics Oliver Rice was a Republican, and 
 Tie was always known to be as consistent with his 
 political principles as he was in his religion, for 
 many years being a valued member of the Congre- 
 gational Church. With a keen perception of right 
 and wrong, he was noted for his fairness toward 
 ■opponents. As a citizen Mr. Rice took a prominent 
 part in every movement that promised good to his 
 locality, served as selectman and held other local 
 offices, and was especially zealous in the cause of 
 temperance and education. The family is one of 
 the most highly esteemed in Meriden. 
 
 THEODORE FRELINGHISEN BAILEY, 
 the well-known laundryman of Meriden, was born 
 in the town of Haddam. Middlesex Co., Conn., Aug. 
 25, 1828, and is a descendant of an old New Eng- 
 land family. John Bailey was' one of the twenty- 
 €ight persons who moved to Haddam in 1662 and 
 took up the body of land deeded by the Indians to 
 Matthew Allyn and Samuel Wyllys. These vvere 
 generally young men, who married about the time 
 of settlement, and several are known to have come 
 immediately from Hartford. John Bailey lived in 
 Haddam with his two sons, Benjamin and John, and 
 was constable there in 1656. 
 
 Benjamin Bailey, son of John of Hartford, had 
 these sons: John, Benjamin and Nathaniel, of 
 whom John and Benjamin were deaf and dumb. 
 They were well able to support themselves, however, 
 and both reared families. Nathaniel, the other son, 
 liad two sons, Daniel and Ezekiel. 
 
 John Bailey (2). son of John of Hartford, had 
 four sons: John, Ephraim, Jonathan and David. 
 John Baile- (3), son of John (2), had five sons: 
 Nathan, Jeremiah, Amos, James and William. 
 
 Ephraim Bailey, son of John (2), had nine chil- 
 dren: Ephraim, Jacob, Stephen, Jabez, Caleb, Abi- 
 jah, William, Olive and Ephraim (2). 
 
 William Bailey, son of Ephraim, married Betsy 
 Horton. He was a farmer and landowner in the 
 town of Haddam and was a man well known and 
 highly respected. He participated in the war of the 
 Revolution, and was a pensioner in 18^2. 
 
 Eliakim Bailey, son of William and Betsy (Hor- 
 ton) Bailey, was a soldier in the Revolution and a 
 pensioner in 1832. He married Thankful Brainerd, 
 who was born Aug. 15, 1758, a daughter of Samuel 
 Brainerd. Four children were born to him : Enos, 
 who died at the age of ninety years ; Jeremiah, who 
 died in Durham at the age of ninety ; Levi, the fa- 
 ther of our subject; and Esther. 
 
 Daniel Brainerd (occurring in records also 
 Brainard and Braynard, although the first spelling 
 is generally adopted by the Haddam family) was 
 born in Braintree, County of Essex, England, and 
 v/as brought when eight years of age to Hartford, 
 where he lived in the Wyllys family until of age. 
 He was one of the twenty-eight persons who moved 
 to Haddam in 1662 and took Up the body of land 
 deeded by the Indians to Matthew Allyn and Sam- 
 uel Wyllys. Daniel became a deacon in the church, 
 a justice of the peace and a prosperous, respectable 
 and influential citizen. He became the greatest land- 
 owner in Haddam, owning, besides rights in other 
 places about town, about a mile in the northeast part 
 of what lies west of the Connecticut river, including 
 what is covered by the present village of Higganum. 
 After his settlement in Haddam young Brainerd re- 
 ceived a letter from his mother in which she spelled 
 her name Brainwood, which renders it probable that 
 such was the original name. In a few instances the 
 name thus written has been found in old records in 
 this country. Daniel, however, had called his name 
 Brainerd, and this spelling prevailed. His first 
 marriage was to Hannah Spencer, a daughter of 
 Gerrard Spencer, of Lynn, Mass., but afterward of 
 Haddam, Connecticut. 
 
 William Brainerd, son of Daniel the emigrant, 
 was bom in 1673. He married, in 1698, Sarah Bid- 
 well, and had seven children. The family lived on 
 Haddam Neck. 
 
 Samuel Brainerd, son of William, was born 
 July 4, 1706, and married on Oct. 31, 1734, to 
 Esther, daughter of Elijah and and Mary (Bush- 
 neU) Brainerd. They settled in the northwestern 
 district of Haddam, called "Brainerd District," 
 where he owned a large tract of land. His death 
 occurred there, and his wife passed away Jan. 12, 
 1813, aged ninety-five years. 
 
 Levi Bailey was born on the home farm in Had- 
 dam, and received a good common school educa- 
 tion' A wheelwright bv trade, he manufactured 
 spinning-wheels, living in Long Hill, Middletown 
 for three years and then removing to Durham, 
 where he became engaged in farming, and where he 
 pased away at the age of sixty-seven years ; he was 
 
2l8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 buried in Higgamum cemetery. Levi Bailey was a 
 life-long Democrat, liberal in his religious views, 
 an excellent citizen, and a good neighbor. In Had- 
 dam he married Cynithia Harvey, a native of that 
 town and a daug'hter of Elisha Harvey, who was a 
 soldier in the Revolutionary war. The eight chil- 
 dren of this union were : Cornelia, who married 
 Loren Stevens and (second) Enos Stevens; Harvey, 
 deceased ; Dwight, who died in Haddam ; Theodore 
 F. ; Oscar, w'ho died while serving in the Civil war ; 
 Edwin, who died in Haddam ; Jane, married to 
 Frank Francis, of Durham; and Nelson, a resident 
 of San Diego, Cal., who married Mary Bailey, wid- 
 ow of his brother Oscar. The beloved mother came 
 to live with her son in Meriden, and he tenderly 
 cared for her in her old age. She lived to be eighty- 
 nine, and is buried in the old graveyard at Hig- 
 ganum, beside her husband. She was a good, Chris- 
 tian woman, a devoted mother and wife, and a con- 
 sistent member of the AI. E. Church. 
 
 Theodore F. Bailey, the immediate subject of 
 this sketch, was reared in Haddam, where he first 
 went to school, being twelve years old when the 
 family removed to Durham. During the summers 
 following he hired out on a farm by the month, and 
 he attended school in the winters until the age of 
 seventeen, at which time he came to Meriden and 
 learned the tinner's trade with Lorin Todd Mer- 
 riam, working there for several years, at $25 for 
 the first year, $30 for the next and $40 for the third. 
 For a period of three years he was baggage master 
 at the Meriden railroad station. On Aug. i, 1862, 
 he became a member of Company F, isth Conn. 
 V. I., under Col. Dexter Wright, and participated 
 in several engagements, serving until he was 
 wounded in the left eye by a percussion cap, when 
 he was honorably discharged and returned home. 
 For some time after that he worked for the Meriden 
 Britannia Co., in the turning department, and con- 
 tinued there until he started in the butter trade. He 
 bought out the Vermont Butter Store, and success- 
 fully conducted this business' for two years, when it 
 was destroyed by fire. His next venture was the 
 laundry business in which he has been so successful. 
 Mr. Bailey was the pioneer in this line in Meriden, 
 in which he has been eneaged for over twenty-five 
 years. In 1897 he retired from the active manage- 
 ment of the business, which since then has been con- 
 ducted by his daughter, Mrs. Aubrey, who has 
 branched out and now conducts a large laundry 
 business. 
 
 In 1853 Mr. Bailey married, in [Meriden, Emily 
 J. Roberts, who was born in \\'allingfprd, a daugh- 
 ter of Ephraim and Susan (Ellis) Roberts, and a 
 granddaughter of David Roberts, who served with 
 distinction in the Revolutionary war, having en- 
 listed at the first call, on July 8, and served to Dec. 
 18, 1775. He re-enlisted under Capt. Walker until 
 July 9, 1778, his third re-enlistment being under 
 Capt. Wells, of Wethersfield ; his last enlistment was 
 from Jan. 18, 1781, to Dec. 31, 1781, in the 5th Bat- 
 
 talion, Wadsworth's Brigade, under Col. William 
 Douglas, of Northford, Conn. Mrs. Bailey died in 
 June, 1895, and was buried in Walnut Grove ceme- 
 tery. She was long a member of the Congregational 
 Church. Three children were given to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bailey: (i) Lucerne, who died at the age of 
 fourteen months. (2) Hattie L., who married Will- 
 iam H. Aubrey and has had three children, Alfred 
 B., William R. (at home) and Clara L., of whom the 
 last named died at the age of six years. Alfred B. 
 graduated from the Meriden high school in the class 
 of 1897, and from the Yale Law School in 1901,. 
 with the degree of LL. B. ; he was admitted to the 
 bar the same year, and is a justice of the peace in 
 [Meriden. (3J Lucretia S. married Jesse E. Still- 
 man, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere. 
 
 Mr. Bailey is a member of Merriam Post, G. A. 
 R., of Meriden, and a charter member of Pacific 
 Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F. Formerly he supported 
 the Republican party, but is now a stanch Democrat. 
 With his family he belongs to the Congregational 
 Church. He is a good man, well known and popu- 
 lar, honest and upright, and is considered one of the 
 substantial citizens of Meriden. 
 
 HOTCHKISS (.Derby and Ansonia branch). 
 This branch of the family from which came that 
 of the old time hardware dealer Lockwood Hotch- 
 kiss — who is one of the oldest merchants of An- 
 sonia and whose son, Hon. Lockwood Hotchkiss, 
 Jr., has but recently retired from the mayoralty of 
 that city — is, with its allied families, a conspicuous 
 one in and about the old town of Derby, where its 
 members have been prominent from the first settle- 
 ment of that locality in the early Colonial period. 
 
 In treating of the first of the name of Hotch- 
 kiss in his "History of Derby," Rev. Orcutt men- 
 tions Elijah and Deacon Eliphalet coming to Derby 
 about the time, adding that it had not been ascer- 
 tained whose sons they were. Recent investiga- 
 tion shows that Elijah Hotchkiss was in the fourth 
 generation from Samuel Hotchkiss, through Joshua, 
 Jacob and Elijah. Samuel Hotchkiss, the American 
 ancestor of the family of which we write, came sup- 
 posedly from Essex, England. He was in New 
 Haven in 1641, where in 1642 he married Eliza- 
 beth Cleverly. [Mr. Hotchkiss died Dec. 28, 1653, 
 leaving a widow and six children, the widow dying 
 in 16S1. The children were: John, Samuel, James, 
 Joshua, Thomas and Daniel Hotchkiss. Of these 
 Joshua Hotchkiss was one of the most prominent 
 of the New Haven men of that day. He was high 
 sheriff of the county, and a very active and useful 
 citizen of Westville, then Hotchkiss town. 
 
 Deacon Eliphalet Hotchkiss, who came early to 
 Derby and from whom the Ansonia family under 
 consideration (that of Lockwood Hotchkiss) is de- 
 scended, was about of the same age as Elijah, who 
 was there with him, and he also descended from 
 Samuel Hotchkiss, the emigrant settler, but the 
 links between them we have been unable to get. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. ' 
 
 219 
 
 Deacon Eliphalet Hotchkiss was born in 1727, and 
 married, probably in Derby, Dec. 21, 1751, Comfort, 
 daughter of Jabez Harger, Jr., and settled in North 
 End, and became one of the most active and most 
 prominent men of Derby. He was a deacon in the 
 First Church of Christ, a justice of the peace and 
 by occupation a carpenter and builder. Deacon 
 Hotchkiss died July 5, 1803, and his wife passed 
 away March 11, 1802. Their children, all born be- 
 tween 1753 and 1787, inclusive were: Susannah, 
 Levi, Eliphalet, Moses, David and Philo. 
 
 From Deacon Eliphalet Hotchkiss Lockwood 
 Hotchkiss, Sr., of Ansonia, is in the fifth generation, 
 his lineage being through Levi, Elipha and Albert 
 Hotchkiss. 
 
 (H) Levi Hotchkiss, son of Deacon Eliphalet, 
 born May 2, 1754, was four times married. His 
 first wife, Phebe, died April 3, 1789; his second, 
 Betsey, died April 8, 1691 ; his third wife died Dec. 
 I, 1 80 1, and his fourth bore for her Christian name 
 Susannah. His children were : Elipha, Lucy, Bet- 
 sey, Phebe, David, Levi and Abbe. 
 
 (HI) Elipha Hotchkiss, son of Levi and Phebe, 
 born about 1777, married Nancy Folsom. Mr. 
 Hotchkiss died September 21, 1851, advanced in 
 years, and Nancy, his wife, passed away Nov. 15, 
 1865, aged eighty-six. Their children were: Will- 
 iam, Albert^ Mary Ann, Burr, Harriet, Eli, John, 
 Phebe, Jane, Hannah, Amelia, Harvey and Samuel. 
 
 (IV) Albert Hotchkiss, son of Elipha, born 
 in September, 1803, married Sally Minerva Curtiss, 
 born Jan. 9, 1800, daughter of Morgan Curtiss. Mr. 
 Hotchkiss was engaged in coopering and farming, 
 and was a resident of Derby and Ansonia. He corn- 
 manded the esteem and held the confidence of his 
 fellow townsmen, and died Nov. 29, 1864. His 
 children were: Lockwood, Sarah, Sidney, John, 
 Hattie and Emory. 
 
 (V) Lockwood Hotchkiss, son of Albert, born 
 Aug. 4, 1826, married Augusta, daughter of Har- 
 vey and Nancy (Riggs) Johnson. Mr. Hotchkiss 
 received his primary education in the common 
 schools of his neighborhood and early became self- 
 reliant and independent. He learned the trade of a 
 mason, and followed it as an occupation in connec- 
 tion with contracting and building through his early 
 and middle manhood, and connected himself with 
 the erection of many of the buildings of his town 
 and county through that period. In 1867 he, asso- 
 ciated with Nathan S. Johnson, established the hard- 
 ware business in Ansonia, with which he has since 
 been continuouslv identified, and in which he has 
 reared three of his sons. The style of the firm for 
 years was Johnson & Hotchkiss, then Mr. Hotch- 
 kiss succeeded the firm as sole proprietor. Mr. 
 Hotchkiss is now one of Ansonia's oldest merchants, 
 and most estimable and highly respected citizens. 
 He is doing business amid the scenes of his early 
 boyhood — a period of sixty and more years ago, 
 and where he has done business with several gen- 
 erations of his boyhood friends and acquaintances. 
 
 He is of a retiring disposition and has never as- 
 pired to political or public notoriety — never an of- 
 fice holder or seeker. His political affiliations have- 
 always been with the Democratic party, and the re- 
 ligious faith of the family with the denomination of 
 the M. E. Church. Mr. Hotchkiss, though passed- 
 the allotted three-score and ten, is still active and 
 useful in business and social life. He has the en- 
 tire confidence of the community. The children 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Hotchkiss are : 
 
 (i) Lottie A. married Fred A. Lines, of New 
 Milford, Connecticut. 
 
 (2) Albert E. married Nina E. Jewerson, of 
 Brooklyn, New York. 
 
 (3) Nettie L. married William Pope, of An- 
 sonia. 
 
 (4) Lockwood Hotchkiss, Jr., born in An- 
 sonia, March 18, 1866, married, Jan. 12, 1892, Sus- 
 anna Jackson, daughter of Joseph Jackson, of An- 
 sonia, and their only child is Mildred Elizabeth,, 
 born Sept. 6, 1894. Mr. Hotchkiss received his ele- 
 mentary education in the public and high schools of 
 Ansonia, then began a business career with his fa- 
 ther in the hardware store, and has since been identi- 
 fied with it. He developed qualities in business and 
 social life that were considered by his fellow citi- 
 zens such as to make him an available and efficient 
 man to aid in the direction, of municipal affairs, and 
 in 1895 he was elected to the common council and 
 served with credit in that and the following year, 
 a term of two years, during the Webster admin- 
 istration. In ,1899 he was elected mayor of the- 
 city, and served for a term of two years efficiently 
 and ably. Mr. Hotchkiss, like his father, is a Dem- 
 ocrat in his political views, and otherwise sustains 
 the father's reputation. He is a genial and pop^ 
 ular gentleman, enterprising and public spirited. 
 Socially he is prominent in both Masonry and Odd 
 Fellowship, is a member of Naugatuck Lodge, No. 
 63, I. O. O. F. ; George Washington Lodge, No.. 
 82, F. & A. M., Ansonia ; Mt. Vernon Chapter, No: 
 35, R. A. M. ; Union Council, No. 27, R. S.; and 
 New Haven Commandery, No. 2, K. T. 
 
 (5) Fred D. is yet single and a clerk in the store 
 with his father. 
 
 The Riggs family, allied by marriage with the 
 Hotchkiss, is an early Colonial family, descendants, 
 of Edward, the American ancestor, who came from 
 England in 1633, locating in Roxbury, Mass. A 
 son, Edward (2), married (first) in 1635 Elizabeth 
 Roosa, and settled in Milford, Conn., in 1646. In 
 1654 he, with Edward Wooster, and perhaps others, 
 settled in the town of Derby. 
 
 The Johnsons, too, were early and prominent in 
 the Colonial period in Derby, New Haven, Wood- 
 bury, Seymour and this section of Connecticut. 
 There were several dififerent families of this name in 
 the territory referred to. Harvey Johnson, the fa- 
 ther of Mrs. Lockwood Hotchkiss, Sr., was a man 
 of unusual enterprise in the line of his business, 
 that of a mason and builder. He was born Feb. 14, 
 
.220 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1798, in the town of A/[onroe, Conn., but later lived 
 in Derby and Ansonia. He married Nancy Riggs, 
 of Oxford, and they became the parents of twelve 
 ■children. This couple celebrated their golden wed- 
 ding Feb. 14, 1869, and lived to a ripe old age. Few 
 men, if any, in the State had in his day erected so 
 many public and business buildings and dwellings 
 as had Mr. Johnson. Among- these were the Insane 
 Retreat at Hartford; the State prison at Wethers- 
 field; old Washington College, now Trinity, at 
 Hartford; St. John's Church at Bridgeport; St. 
 James' church at Birmingham; St. John's church at 
 Waterbury; and a stone church in Washington, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 PHILAXDO ARMSTRONG. For many 
 years the firm of H. B. Armstrong & Co. repre- 
 sented one of the most solid business concerns of 
 the State of Connecticut. This firm was estab- 
 lished in 1876 'by Philando Armstrong, consisting 
 of himself and H. B. Armstrong. 
 
 John Armstrong, the father of Philando, was 
 torn in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and was 
 descended from the great and widespread Border 
 family of Armstrongs, which derives its name from 
 the following circumstances : "An ancient King of 
 Scotland had his horse killed under him in battle, 
 and was immediately remounted by Fairbeorn, his 
 armor-bearer. For this timely assistance the King 
 amply rewarded him with lands on the Border, and 
 to perpetuate the memory of so important a service 
 as well as the manner in which it was performed — 
 -for Fairbeorn took the King by the thigh, and set 
 him on his saddle' — his royal master gave him the 
 appellation of Armstrong, and assigned to him for 
 a crest an armed hand and arm ; in the left hand a 
 leg and foot in armor couped at the thigh, all 
 proper." 
 
 Our subject's father early chose the life of a 
 sailor. At the age of sixteen he left home and 
 shipped to the West Indies, and it was in one of 
 the ports there that he fortunatelv fell in with Capt. 
 Ichabod Smith, and returned with him to West Ha- 
 ven, remaining on his farm for the succeeding two 
 years. Being successful in this line, Mr. Armstrong 
 remained on a farm all his life. His marriage took 
 place in West Haven to Polly, daughter of Jere- 
 raiah Smith, and the following children were born 
 to tihem : Lorenzo died at the age of two years ; 
 Sereno died in 1898 ; Cynthia married Robert Mills ; 
 Harriet married Henrv Thompson; Lorenzo (2) 
 lived to the age of eighty ; William O. lived to be 
 sixty-six ; Eliza married a Mr. Richards ; Philando 
 is mentioned below. The father died in 1840, but 
 the mother survived until 1865. 
 
 Philando Armstrong was born June 21, 1825, 
 and spent his early school days in West Haven. 
 Until he was sixteen years old he worked on the 
 home farm. In 1837 Lorenzo and William, his 
 •older brothers, opened up a grocery business on 
 Long Wharf, and Philando worked for them and 
 was so efficient that they gave him a place in the 
 
 firm before he was of age. The firm enlarged and 
 became shipping merchants in the New Haven, 
 West Indian and South American trade, continuing 
 in business until 1875. The heirs of Lorenzo and 
 William Armstrong continue the business in New 
 York City under the original name of L., W. & P. 
 Armstrong, of Wall street, New York city. 
 
 For thirty-five years Philando Armstrong was 
 in business with his brothers on Long Wharf, but 
 in 1876 he established H. B. Armstrong & Co., 
 which for twenty-five years has been engaged in 
 the furniture business, and is now being closed up, 
 the property in Orange street feeing designed for a 
 box factory. Since 1842 Mr. Armstrong has re- 
 sided in New Haven, and here his first marriage, 
 to Charlotte Malloy, was celebrated. The second 
 union was to Catherine Bradley. Mr. Armstrong's 
 children were : Wallace Townsend Burden, who 
 died Feb. 9, 1886; Henry Bolden; Delora, de- 
 ceased ; Lillian, deceased ; Lillian Idlewild, who mar- 
 ried F. H. Benton, and has two children, Roger 
 and Louis; Philando Sitiendio, born Oct. i, 1865; 
 Ricardo Fuertoes, born Dec. 6, 1867 ; and Maud S., 
 born Aug. 29, 1871. All were educated in New 
 Haven. H. Bolden Armstrong was born in 
 New Haven Oct. I, 1855, and married Lillian 
 I. Clark, a daughter' of Henry W. Clark, of New 
 Haven. Children as follows have been born to 
 them: Delora Etta, Aug. 13, 1882; H. B., Jr., 
 June 26, 1893; and Lillian Clark, May i, 1895. 
 
 ROBERT CATLIN PECK (deceased) was, 
 during his lifetime, one of the most successful and 
 prominent business men of New Haven, a leader in 
 the wholesale grocery trade and an estimable and 
 highl^r respected citizen. 
 
 The Peck family is one of the old ones of Litch- 
 field county. Conn., where many of them still reside, 
 and in the town of Bethany, Sidney Peck, the fa- 
 ther of our subject was born, and there married 
 Catherine Catlin, a daughter of Dr. Catlin, a promi- 
 nent physician of Litchfield county. To them were 
 born six children : Joseph C, Robert C, Jay, Maria 
 R., Sidney and Catherine. Joseph C. and our sub- 
 ject became merchants in Morris, Conn., for a few 
 years, and later they came to New Haven; Jay died 
 in young manhood ; Maria R. and Sidney have both 
 passed awav; and Catherine married Darwin, B. 
 Randall, a merchant of Morris. 
 
 Robert C. Peck was born in the town of Bethle- 
 hem, Conn., Oct. 19, 1832, and ched Aug. 20, 1869. 
 His boyhood was spent on the farm until he was 
 twenty-one, and then he went into the mercantile 
 business with his brother, Joseph C, in Morris, 
 where he married Miss Mary Elizabeth Dewell, who 
 was born in Norfolk, sister of Hon. James D. Dewell, 
 of New Haven. A short time after marriage Mr. 
 Robert C. Peck and wife moved to New Haven, and 
 he there embarked in the business which he so suc- 
 cessfully conducted for such a long period. His 
 first entrance into the business was as salesman for 
 Bushnell & Dewell ; later he went into the tobacco 
 
'7^'^^^lJ 
 
 /rTJ> 
 
 >i- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 221 
 
 business, and then became one of the firm of Benja- 
 min, P'^ck & Kellam, wholesale grocers, so contin- 
 uing Until his death, when he left behind him the 
 record of an honest and industrious life, in which 
 be had gained and retained the respect and confi- 
 dence of a large patronage. 
 
 A family of four children were born to our sub- 
 ject and wife: James D., who died at the age of 
 twenty ; Robert C. and Frederick H., who died in in- 
 fancy; and Minnie R., who married Sherlon D. 
 Smith, a native of New Haven and a resident of this 
 city. In his political opinions Mr. Peck favored the 
 Republican party, and the family have long been con- 
 nected with the Congregational Church, where Mr. 
 Peck was known for his Christian character. 
 
 CHAMPION. Few families coming to New 
 England in its early settlement were of a higher 
 order and character than the one bearing this name, 
 and few were so conspicuous in the war of the 
 Revolution and in public affairs before and after 
 that period. Such names as those of Col. Henry 
 Champion and his son. Gen. Henry Champion, two 
 of Connecticut's distinguished sons, are written 
 upon its scroll of fame, while their posterity have 
 played well their parts in keeping intact the country 
 they assisted in saving. The late Henry Champion, 
 of New Haven, whose promising career as a use- 
 ful citizen and successful lawyer was brought to a 
 close at the very threshold of manhood, on Jan. 30, 
 1867, was a lineal descendant of Gen. Champion, 
 and gave every promise of a life that would have 
 been an honor and credit to the name he bore. He 
 was the last of his line. 
 
 Henry Champion was born Nov. 8, 1838, a*- 
 Port Elizabeth, South Africa-, son of Rev. George 
 and Susanna (Larned) Champion, and a descendant 
 in the eighth generation from Henry Champion, 
 who emigrated from England to the American Col- 
 onies and settled at Saybrook, Conn., where he is 
 found as early as 1647. After having assisted in 
 developing Saybrook Mr. Champion removed with 
 his family to the east side of the Connecticut river, 
 and became one of the first and most active founders 
 of the historic town of Lyme. Concerning his first 
 wife little is known. His second wife, to whom he 
 was married in March, 1698, was Deborah Jones. 
 Mr. Champion died in February, 1709. 
 
 From this emigrant ancestor the late Henry 
 Champion's line is through Thomas, Henry (2), 
 Col. Henry (3), Gen. Henry (4), Maj. Henry (5), 
 and Rev. George Champion. 
 
 Thomas Champion, son of Henry the emigrant 
 settler, was born in Saybrook, Conn., in April, 1656, 
 married in Lyme, Aug. 23, 1682, Hannah, born 
 Sept. 14, 1664, in Lyme, daughter of Woolston and 
 Hannah (Briggs) Brockway. After Mr. Cham- 
 pion's death, which occurred April 5, 1705, his 
 widow remarried, and died March 2, 1750. 
 
 Henry Champion (2), son of Thomas, was born 
 May 2, 1695, in Lyme, and married in East Had- 
 
 dam. Conn., Jan. 16, 1717, Alehitable, baptized in 
 December, 1704, in East Haddam, a daughter of 
 Closes and Alary Rowley. The family home was in 
 East Haddam, and there Henry died Nov. 26, 1779,, 
 his wife dying Oct. 5, 1775. 
 
 Col. Henry Champion (3), son of Henry (2), 
 was born Jan. 19, 1723, in East Haddam, Conn., 
 married first, Dec. 25, 1746, Deborah, born June 
 20, 1724, a daughter of Capt. Joshua £. and Mehit- 
 able (Dudley) Erainard. She died March 17, 1789, 
 in Westchester, and he married, second, in West- 
 chester, Nov. 24, 1 791, Mrs. Sarah (Brainerd) 
 Lewis, born April 30, 1744, a daughter of Stephen 
 and Susannah (Gates) Brainerd, and died Jan. 17, 
 1818. Col. Champion passed away July 23, 1797, 
 in what is now Colchester, Conn. At the age of 
 eighteen years he was appointed ensign of the East 
 Haddam South Company, and was made lieutenant 
 of the same in 1750, and became captain of a com- 
 pany for service in the French and Indian war, 
 joining the main army at Lake George. 'Later he 
 was chosen captain of the Fifth Company, 2d Regi- 
 ment, from which he was transferred to the com- 
 mand of the I2th or Winchester Company, in 1760. 
 In 1772 he was appointed major of the 12th Regi- 
 ment Colonial Militia, and in April, 1775, Major 
 Champion, with Oliver Wolcott, Jeremiah Wads- 
 worth and others, was appointed by the General As- 
 sembly, a commission to supply all necessary stores 
 and provisions for the troops to be raised for the 
 defense of the colonies. When Gen. Washington 
 took command he recommended that Major Cham- 
 pion, Joseph Trumbull and Jeremiah Wadsworth be 
 made commissioners ; Congress accordingly ap- 
 pointed them. In October, 1775, Henry Champion 
 was promoted from the rank of lieutenant-colonel 
 of the I2th Regiment of State Troops, to that of 
 colonel of the 2Sth Regiment, which was com- 
 posed of companies from Colchester and East Had- 
 dam. When the army began to assemble at New 
 York, in April, 1776, Col. Champion was appointed 
 commissar)' of the troops, and the main army was 
 supplied almost wdiolly by him from that time, and 
 he also provided for the troops ordered to Rhode 
 Island. In 1778 Col. Champion was appointed sole 
 commissary-general of the Eastern department of 
 the Continental army, by Col. Peter Colt, and was 
 reappointed by the State in April, 1780. In the 
 spring of 1780, in consequence of the distressed con- 
 dition of the army, which had wintered at Morris- 
 town, Gen. Washington appealed to Gov. Trumbull 
 for assistance. Col. Champion was placed in com- 
 mand of a train which was largely supplied from 
 his own resources. It reached the Hudson in an 
 astonishingly short time, was ferried over at New- 
 burgh and delivered into Washington's hands. 
 When the great general received these stores he 
 remarked that "no other State than Connecticut 
 could have furnished them." 
 
 In May, 1780, Col. Champion resigned his com- 
 mission in the army and returned to his home in 
 
.222 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Westchester. In politics he had been prominent 
 prior to his enhstment in the army, and during the 
 progress of the Revolution he had been regularly 
 elected to office; was deputy to the General As- 
 sembly from Colchester, in 1761, from 1765 to 1779, 
 in 1781, 1783, and from 1790 to 1792 Col. Cham- 
 pion was also deacon in the Westchester Church 
 from 1775 until his death. 
 
 Gen. Henry Champion (4), son of Col. Henry, 
 was born March 16, 1751, in Westchester, Conn., 
 and in East Haddam, Oct. 10, 1781, married Abigail 
 Tinker, who was born March 24, 1758, in East 
 Haddam, daughter of Sylvanus and Abigail (Olm- 
 ;stead) Tinker. She died April 19, 1818, in West- 
 chester, and Gen. Champion also died in that town, 
 July 13, 1836. 
 
 Mr. Champion entered the service of the Con- 
 tinental army at the time of the Lexington Alarm, 
 ■served first as an ensign, then as second lieutenant 
 •of the Eighth Company, 2d Regiment, and on May 
 I' I77S> '^v3.s made first lieutenant, and was one of 
 "the detachment of officers and men who were en- 
 .gaged at the battle of Bunker Hill. On June i, 
 1776, he was promoted and made adjutant on the 
 staff of Col. Samuel Wyllys, of the 22d Continent- 
 als, and after the evacuation of Boston marched 
 with the regiment by way of the shore towns to 
 ISIew York. His regiment assisted in fortifying 
 the city, and on Aug. 24 it was ordered to the 
 Brooklyn front, where it took part in the retreat of 
 Sept. I. He was also a member of the army at 
 White Plains, where the regiment remained until 
 its term of service expired in the following De- 
 'cember. On Jan. i, 1777, Lieut. Champion was pro- 
 moted to be captain of the ist Connecticut Line, 
 with which he remained after the regiment was re- 
 organized as the 3d. As an illustration of Gen. 
 Champion's originality, as well as the genuine pa- 
 triotism that characterized the Champion family, he 
 ■enlisted the services of his sister Deborah, then only 
 seventeen years old, to carry dispatches from New 
 London to Gen. Washington at Boston. She also 
 at one time carried the monc)' which was to pay 
 the troops. The journeys were made on horseback 
 with but a trusted old slave named Aristarchus to 
 accompany her, her sex enabling her to pass the 
 British lines undetected. 
 
 On July 15, 1779, Capt. Champion was detached 
 from his old regiment and appointed acting major 
 of the First Batallion, Light Brigade, his commis- 
 sion dating from Jan. i, 1779. This brigade had 
 been organized by Gen. Washington to do duty at 
 the front and especially to attempt the capture of 
 Stony Point, on the Hudson, which the enemy had 
 occupied since May. The corps was composed of 
 picked men from all the regiments under Wash- 
 ington's immediate command, and was organized 
 into four regiments of two batallions each. Con- 
 necticut furnished one of these regiments, num- 
 bering 400 ofiicers and men, which in the assault 
 formed part of Wyllys' right column. At mid- 
 
 night on July 15 Gen. Wayne assaulted and carried 
 Stony Point with such skill, dash and completeness 
 as to elicit the praise of the enemy tnemselves. Re- 
 maining with the arm)', Mr. Champion continued his 
 brilliant career until the close of the Revolution. 
 He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati. 
 
 On his return to Westchester Gen. Champion 
 entered into politics, and was deputy from Colches- 
 ter to the General Assembly in 1789, 1793 to 1798, 
 and 1800 to 1805, and from 1806 to 1817 held the 
 office of assistant. From 1813 to 1828 he was a 
 deacon in the Church in Westchester. It was 
 through the efiforts of Gen. Champion that the 
 charter for the Phoenix Bank of Hartford was se- 
 cured. The State Bank had refused him the ac- 
 commodation of $2,000, and the former bank came 
 into existence ; he remarked at that time, "Well, if 
 this bank cannot accommodate me, I'll have one 
 that can." He was also largely interested in the 
 Connecticut Land Company, to Wbich he subscribed 
 over $85,000, and the towns of Champion, N. Y., 
 and Champion, Ohio, were named in his honor. 
 Gen. Champion was instrumental in securing the 
 school fund for Connecticut, and was chairman of 
 the committee of the State Legislature appointed 
 to arrange for the holding of the famous Hartford 
 convention of 1814. 
 
 Major Henry Champion (5), son of Gen. Henry, 
 was born on Aug. 6, 1782, in Westchester, Conn., 
 married there on Alay 5, 1803, Ruth (Kimberly) 
 Roibbins, born Oct. 5, 1782, a daughter of Rev. 
 Robert and Jerusha (Eastabrook) Robbins. She 
 died Sept. 12, 1863, in Troy, N. Y., while Major 
 Champion died Dec. 28, 1823, in Westchester. Mr. 
 Champion enlisted in the 26th Regiment Infantry, 
 Regular army, Julv 2, 1814, and served until Feb. 
 25, 181 5. Later he was appointed major of the 
 Connecticut Militia, resided in Westchester and 
 represented Colchester in the State Assembly in 
 1820. 
 
 Rev. George Champion, son of Major Champion, 
 was born June 3, 1810, in Westchester, Conn., mar- 
 ried at Webster, ]\Iass., Nov. 14, 1834, Susanna, 
 born March 30, 1808, in Oxford, :Mass., a daughter 
 of John and Susanna (jMoore) Earned. She died 
 July 8, 1846, in Boston, Mass., and Mr. Champion 
 died Dec. 17, 1841, in St. Croix, West Indies. He 
 was of a very religious turn of mind from his youth 
 and early resolved to fit himself for the ministry 
 and missionary service. At the age of fourteen 
 years he united with the Church in Westchester 
 and was graduated from Yale in 183 1, taking then 
 a three-year course at the Andover Theological Sem- 
 inary, and was ordained at Colchester, Conn., Nov. 
 19, 1834, as missionary to the Zulus, near Port 
 Natal, in South Africa. Of this grandson Gen. 
 Champion was very proud and fond, and being un- 
 willing that he should go out to Africa offered to 
 pay the expenses of five missionaries to go as sub- 
 stitutes, if he would consent to remain at home. 
 George's reply was : "If I stay at home it will be 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 223 
 
 said that only the poor go. You may send the five, 
 and I will go myself and that will make six mis- 
 sionaries." When Gen. Champion found that he 
 could not prevail against him he generously gave 
 him $60,000 for the expenses of himself and party. 
 He was one of the first missionaries to South 
 Africa, going in 1834, and labored there four years. 
 He was one of the three men who reduced the Zulu 
 language to writing and prepared a manuscript copy 
 of the Bible before the mission was broken up and 
 the missionaries driven away on account of the war 
 between the Boers and the Zulus. Upon his return 
 to America he was settled over a small church in 
 Dover, Mass., entering upon his pastoral duties in 
 1839. Two years later, owing to ill health, he sailed 
 for the West Indies, and died shortly after. 
 
 Henry Champion^ late of New Haven, was a 
 son of this devoted missionary. His preparation 
 for college was obtained at Phillips Academy, at 
 Andover, Mass., and he was graduated at Yale 
 College in i860, passing the following year in the 
 study of modern languages at New Haven. In 
 September, 1861, he entered Yale Law School, and 
 was admitted to the Bar of Connecticut May 15, 
 1863, and immediately established himself in the 
 practice of law in New Haven. In January, 1866, 
 his health, which had been for several months fail- 
 ing, compelled him to seek a change of climate, and 
 in company with his wife he removed to Mankato, 
 Minn., where, after a year's residence, he died. 
 
 In July, 1863, Mr. Champion compiled and pub- 
 lished a "catalogue of the Greek and Roman Coins 
 belonging to Yale College," of which he had charge, 
 and in the arrangement of which he had spent a 
 great deal of time. He subsequently gave to the 
 college his' large and valuable collection of between 
 2,000 and 3,000 coins and valuable coin books. Mr. 
 Champion also prepared a history of Gov. Robert 
 Treat, which he read before the New Haven Colony 
 Historical Society, and he also wrote and published 
 several articles on Numismatics. During his resi- 
 dence in Mankato he contributed a weekly article 
 of local and general interest to the paper published 
 there. At the time of his death he was secretary of 
 his college class. During his whole life he was a 
 man of strong moral character, was a member of 
 the City Tract Society, took an active part in re- 
 ligious work, and was assistant superintendent of 
 Old North Church Sunday-school. 
 
 On Aug. 4, 1863, Mr. Champion was married 
 at New Haven, to Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Wilson and Sarah (Treat) Booth, who survived 
 him and is yet a resident of New Haven. Their 
 only child, Henry, died in infancy. Mrs. Champion 
 was a daughter of Wilson Booth, a son of Daniel 
 Booth, Jr., and Betsey Booth, who was a daughter 
 of James Booth, Jr. The family was of an old 
 French Huguenot line, the name being originally 
 written DeBooth. Wilson Booth was born in Trum- 
 bull, where he spent his youth, going to New Haven 
 at the age of nineteen. There he learned the car- 
 
 penter trade, with Ira Atwater, and became one 
 of the leading contractors in New Haven. During 
 a long and useful life he held many city and town 
 offices, was highly esteemed and a member of the 
 Old North Church. 
 
 Mrs. Champion (Sarah E. Booth) in her mater- 
 nal line is a direct descendant of Governor Robert 
 Treat, deputy governor and governor of Connecti- 
 cut, i676-'i7o8. She is much interested in historic 
 research and prepared a paper on the "History of 
 Our Flag" which was published with illustrations, 
 and of which editorials have been printed. As 
 regent of the Mary Clap Wooster Chapter, D. A. 
 R., for five years, she gave much time to the his- 
 toric work of the organization. 
 
 NORTH. The family bearing this name in New 
 Haven,of which the late Oliver Burnham North, who 
 was one of the city's leading business men and sub- 
 stantial citizens, and several of whose sons, his suc- 
 cessors in business — notably William B., George P. 
 and John H. North, of the firm of O. B. North & 
 Co., manufacturers of saddlery, hardware and mal- 
 leable iron, at No. 67 Franklin street, is one of the 
 oldest of the Farmington families, and one whose 
 coming to New England dates back to within a 
 decade and a half of the landing of the Pilgrim 
 Fathers. 
 
 (I) John North, one of the proprietors and set- 
 tlers of the town of Farmington, Conn., a colony 
 which was the first offshoot from the church of Rev. 
 Thomas Hooker, of Hartford, came to New Eng- 
 land in the ship "Susan and Ellen" in 1635, landing 
 at Boston. Mr. North was then twenty years of 
 age. He married Hannah, daughter of Thomas 
 Bird. Land was granted him in Farmington in 1635, 
 and he and his sons, John and Samuel, were in- 
 cluded in the eighty-four original laiid owners of 
 Farmington, among whom were divided, in 1676, 
 the unoccupied lands of Farmington. The senior 
 Mr. North and his wife were members of the Farm- 
 ington Church, uniting therewith in 1656. Mr. 
 North died in 1691, aged seventy-six years. 
 
 From this John North, the settler, the late Oliver 
 Burnham North, of New Haven, who was born in 
 New Britain, Conn., March 13, 1817, a son of z^lvin 
 and Clarissa (Burnham) North, was descended in 
 the seventh generation, his line being through 
 Thomas, Thomas (2), James, James (2), and Alvin 
 North. 
 
 (II) Thomas North, son of John North, was 
 born in 1649. He was a soldier in the Indian wars, 
 and had a soldier's grant of land. In 1669 he mar- 
 ried Hannah Newell, born in 1656, and they settled 
 in the north part of Farmington, now the town of 
 Avon. He died in 1712, and she died in 1757. 
 
 (III) Thomas North (2), third child of Thom- 
 as, born in 1673, married, in 1698, Martha, born in 
 1679, daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth (Lathrop) 
 Roys, or Royce, of Wallingford, Conn., and a 
 granddaughter of Rev. John Lathrop, who came 
 
224 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 from England to Scituate, ilass., in 1634. Thomas 
 North (2) settled in what is now the town of 
 Berlin, Conn., then the eastern part of Farmington, 
 and was one of the seven founders of the Congre- 
 gational Church there, uniting with it in 1707. He 
 was a man of wealth and influence, and died in 1725. 
 Of his eight children, James North was the ancestor 
 of the New Britain Norths. [Mr. John Hollister 
 North's record says that Thomas (2) married first 
 Mary Rice or Roys, 1698, second (no date) her 
 cousin Martha Roys or Royce. (No parents names 
 given) . Mrs. E. Blakeslee's record says that Martha 
 Royce, wife of Thomas, was daughter of Isaac and 
 Elizabeth Lothrop, and granddaughter of Samuel 
 Lothrop, of New London, Conn., and Elizabeth 
 Pendder, who were married Nov. 28, 1614.] 
 
 (IV) James North, son of Thomas North (2), 
 born 1709, died 1758, married Sarah Seymour (no 
 date of marriage), who was born Dec. 2, 1712, and 
 died Aug. 20, 1781, and lived in the Great Swamps 
 of Kensington, Connecticut. 
 
 (V) Hon. James North (2), son of James, born 
 Jan. 18, 1748, married first Sept. 29, 1774, Rhoda 
 Judd, who died March 15, 1824, and (second) Feb. 
 26, 1828, widow of Abi Francis. Mr. North's father 
 died when the son was but ten years of age, and 
 the latter came to New Britain soon after the or- 
 ganization of the first church there, and lived with 
 John Richards in Stanley Quarter. While with Mr. 
 Richards he learned of him the blacksmith's trade. 
 Mr. North was an industrious and energetic man, 
 and prospered, was successful in business. He was 
 a magistrate, clerk and treasurer of the Ecclesiast- 
 ical and School Society, and school visitor, and for 
 a time was captain of the military company of the 
 town. He was a representative from the town of 
 New Britain to the State Legislature, and was a 
 man greatly respected for his intelligence and good 
 judgment. He commanded an influence in the town. 
 He was appointed a memlber of the standing com- 
 mittee of the church, in 1795, and was active in 
 securing the new meeting house in 1822. Mrs. 
 North died May 14, 1833. 
 
 (VI) Alvin North, son of Hon. James, born 
 Sept. 4, 1 781, married (first) July 15, 1804, Anna, 
 born Jan. 15, 1783, daughter of Col. Gad and Mary 
 (Judd) Stanley, and granddaughter of Rev. Will- 
 iam Burnham, the first pastor of the Great Swamp 
 Church Society. Col. Stanley was a representative 
 in the General Assembly from the town of Berlin 
 from 1785 to 1804, and was one of the wealthiest 
 and most influential men of the town. Mrs. Anna 
 North died June 26, 181 5, and Mr. North married 
 (second) May i,- 1816, Clarrissa Burnham, a daugh- 
 ter of Judge Oliver Burnham, of Cornwall. In 
 1812 Mr. North, associated with Seth J. North and 
 Hezekiah Whipple, began the manufacture of sil- 
 ver-plated buckles, cloak clasps and other similar 
 articles. For a period of a half a century he was 
 an active and energetic business man of New Brit- 
 ain, engaged in manufacturing and associated at dif- 
 
 ferent times with his brother, Seth J. North, Heze- 
 kiah Whipple, Henry Stanley, Horace Butler, sev- 
 eral of his sons and perhaps others. He was in- 
 teresited in several corporations and was success- 
 ful in his business afl^airs. He was a man of sterl- 
 ing worth and integrity, was one of the original 
 members of the South Congregational Church and 
 continued to be interested in its prosperity. He 
 was one of the members appointed on the standing: 
 committee of the church in 1843, and was in office 
 at the time of his death, which occurred Sept. i, 
 1865. 
 
 Oliver Burnham North, son of the late Alvin 
 North, was born and reared in New Britain and 
 early became identified with its industries. He was 
 for a period of years associated in business with his 
 father, who for many years had made silver-plated 
 buckles, cloak clasps, rings and hooks for men's 
 clothing, and hooks and eyes for women's clothing. 
 Later on Mr. North purchased Judds' mills at New 
 Britain and manufactured knobs, bits and other 
 articles in that line. In 1852 he built a larger plant,, 
 but later this was burned down and he removed 
 to New Haven, where he continued in the manufac- 
 turing business throughout the remainder of his life, 
 which closed Oct. 23, 1893. Mr. North was one of 
 the leading men and citizens of New Haven and was 
 a man of influence and wealth. He commanded the 
 respect and esteem of the community. 
 
 On .May 10, 1843, ^^r. North was married to 
 Martha E. Post, daughter of Jedidiah and Eliza 
 (Hollister) Post, the former of whom was born in 
 the town of Hebron, Tolland Co., Conn., July, 1788, 
 and passed away in July, 1866, while the latter was 
 born in South Glastonbury, Conn., Dec. 8, 1797, and 
 died July 8, 1838, a daughter of Roswell Hollister, 
 also of South Glastonbury. To Mr. and Mrs. Oliver 
 B. North were born children as follows : William 
 Burnham, George Post, Edward Mills (who died 
 at the age of nineteen), Lizzie (who died in in- 
 fancy), Ellen Augusta, John Hollister and Mary 
 Russell. 
 
 JOHN TAIT, M. D., the period of whose 
 identity with the great manufacturing center of 
 Meriden, as a practicing physician, lackS' only a 
 little of fifty years, is one of the leading residents of 
 the city and among the prominent men of the med- 
 ical profession in the State. 
 
 Dr. Tait was born Feb. 16, 1828, in the town 
 of Trumbull, Conn., son of the late Andrew and 
 Bella (Ronaldson) Tait, and is of Scottish origin. 
 Andrew Tait, the father of the Doctor and the 
 founder of the Tait & Sons Paper Co., of Bridge- 
 port, Conn., was born Jan. 27, 1799, near Edin- 
 burgh, Scotland, and was descended from a long 
 line of paper makers. He served his full time 
 (seven years) as an apprentice at that employment, 
 and in 1820 came to this country, first locating in 
 Morris county, N. J. Here he worked about one- 
 year at his trade, and then came to Hartford, Conn.,. 
 
K^§ 
 
 x_ 
 
 /. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 225 
 
 after which we find him in various places until his 
 marriage, in 1822. He then settled in Trumbull, 
 Conn., where, as superintendent for D. & P. N. Fair- 
 child, paper manufacturers, he built their mill and 
 set it in operation. With this firm he remained but 
 a short time, however, and on leaving their employ 
 he commenced business in a small way at Trum- 
 bull Center, marbling paper for bookbinders' use. 
 In 1856 he erected in Trumbull what is known as 
 Tait's Mills, and embarked in the box-board or 
 straw-board manufacturing industry. Mr. Tait was 
 married, June 14, 1822, to Miss Bella Ronaldson 
 who crossed the ocean alone from Scotland to wed 
 her old sweetheart, the voyage occupying six weeks 
 and four days. To this union came children as fol- 
 lows : Nancy, wife of Plum Hoyt, of New York ; 
 William, president of the Tait & Sons Paper Co., 
 of Bridgeport, Conn. ; Mary E., wife of J. M. 
 Prindle, of Bridgeport; Dr. John, of Meriden, a 
 sketch of whom follows; Bella, who died in 1851; 
 and Fannie. Andrew Tait, the father of these chil- 
 dren, died Jan. 27, 1891, the mother on May 22, 
 1875. For many years they were members of the 
 Congregational Church at Trumbull. In politics he 
 was originally a Whig, later a Republican, and for 
 several terms he served as town clerk. On the oc- 
 casion of the celebration of the golden wedding of 
 this honored pioneer couple a large concourse of 
 relatives and friends assembled at the Tait mansion 
 in Trumbull, bringmg with them congratulations 
 and kind wishes, as well as valuable and useful 
 gifts. Mr. Tait's business career was marked by 
 industry, frugality and the integrity of an upright 
 Christian man. 
 
 John Tait received a common-school education, 
 obtained in the schools of the home neighborhood, 
 and until eighteen years of age aided his father in 
 his paper industry. When eighteen the son formed 
 a partnership with an older brother to carry on the 
 same business, but after a time they found that 
 they were unable to compete successfully and satis- 
 factorily with foreign manufacturers, owing to the 
 cheap labor and the non-sufficient protecting care of 
 the United States government, and therefore ter- 
 minated the partnership. The younger of the two 
 brothers, our subject, then decided to gratify his 
 thirst for a more thorough education, and applied 
 his share oi tlie earnings to further this end. He 
 went to Thompson's Academy, at Woodbury, Conn., 
 where he fitted himself for entrance to Yale Col- 
 lege. Two years later he entered the arts course in 
 Yale, in the class of 1854, but indoor life and hard 
 study wore upon his physical strength, and he was 
 obliged, after two years' residence at the college, 
 to give up his purpose of graduating with the class. 
 He felt that he must either hasten to his profes- 
 sional course or give it up, so in the fall of 1852 
 he entered the Eclectic Medical School, of New 
 York, and was graduated in 1854. At this time 
 just such an opening as the young Doctor was look- 
 ing for — one that would give him considerable out- 
 door work — presented itself in Meriden, where Dr. 
 
 15 
 
 Henry A. Archer needed an associate to attend to 
 the outdoor part of the business. This associate 
 business arrangement continued for nearly four 
 years, or until the spring of 1859. I" that year 
 Dr. Tait purchased the entire medical interest and 
 real estate. No. 244 East Main street, and suc- 
 ceeded to the patronage to which both had attended. 
 This proved a fortunate venture for Dr. Tait, espe- 
 cially the buying of the real estate, for it has in- 
 creased in value several fold in the passing of the 
 years, with the growth of the city, and the estate 
 is now one of the most desirable and valuable in 
 Meriden. Dr. Tait has remained in this location 
 ever since the original purchase, having his office 
 in one division of his house, especially fitted up for 
 professional uses. He has remodeled the dwelling 
 part somewhat, has raised the entire walls, con- 
 structed a new roof and decorated the house 
 throughout. Other new and fine residences- have 
 been built near by, on what was vacant land in 
 1854, and he finds himself now in the very heart 
 of the desirable residence portion of the city of 
 Meriden. 
 
 Dr. Tait is one of the valued citizens of ]\Ieri- 
 den, one whose good citizenship, sterling integrity 
 and religious principles are in keeping with his; 
 Scottish ancestry. For nearly fifty years he has- 
 been one of the leading physicians of the place, and 
 as an Enterprising and public-spirited citizen he has- 
 watched and shared in the great growth and devel- 
 opment that has taken place around him since he en- 
 tered Meriden — then but a village — and is permitted 
 now to see it a bustling, busy manufacturing city 
 of many thousands of people, sending the products- 
 of its mills and factories to all parts of the civilized- 
 world. He has practiced in nearly all of the old. 
 families of the town, and in his practice has not been 
 confined to one generation. His acquaintance is ex- 
 tended, and his knowledge of the history of the town 
 and city for the last half century is complete. None 
 are more beloved by the older citizens who have 
 been intimately acquainted with him than Dr. Tait. 
 
 Dr. Tait's religious connections are with Center 
 Congregational Church in Meriden, his family shar- 
 ing this membership. His political affiliations are 
 with the Republican party, of which he has been 
 a supporter from the days of John C. Fremont, 
 for whom he cast a vote ; but though often urged to 
 allow himself to be brought out prominently by his 
 party for distinguished party honors and service, he 
 has steadily refused, preferring the quiet life of his 
 profession to the noisy strife of politics. Dr. Tait 
 has been for many years a director of the First 
 National Bank of Meriden, also of the Meriden Fire 
 Insurance Co. and the City Savings Bank. He is 
 also a Free and Accepted Mason, affiliated with 
 Meridian Lodge, No. 77; is a member of Meriden 
 Centre Lodge, No. 68, I. O. O. F. ; and also of the 
 local flourishing lodge of the Royal Arcanum. He 
 belongs to the Connecticut Eclectic Medical Society. 
 
 On Nov. 24, 1859, Dr. Tait was married to Mrs. 
 Catherine E. (Chapman) Tibballs, daughter of 
 
226 
 
 :OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Julius Chapman, of East Haddam, Conn. To this 
 union came one daughter, Flora Chapman Tait, born 
 April 14, 1863. Mrs. Tait died May 25, 1872. She 
 was a pleasant woman, much esteemed for her many 
 virtues and amia;ble qualities, quiet, unassuming, of 
 high dharacter, and greatly beloved. On Christmas 
 Day, 1874, Dr. Tait was again married, this time 
 xo Laura A. Chapman, a sister of his first wife, 
 who is still spared to share with him the high re- 
 gard and esteem in which he is held. To this mar- 
 riage came two daughters : Nellie Chapman Tait, 
 born June 26, 1876; and Fannie Robins Tait, bom 
 Oct. 6, 1878, who died Dec. 17, of the same year. 
 
 MAJOR LYMAN BISSELL was throughout 
 his long life more or less intimately identified with 
 the public interests of the city of New Haven. The 
 most striking and characteristic incidents in his ca- 
 reer were df a martial nature, and it was as a mil- 
 itary man What he was best known, for he was a 
 .soldier to the core, and he is described as, "in his 
 prime, an ideal martial hero of romance. His tow- 
 ering height was offset by his broad shoulders and 
 great girth of chest. He weighed over two hun- 
 dred pounds, all bone and muscle. The lower part 
 •of his handsome, fresh-colored face was covered 
 by a curling brown beara. He was a magnificent 
 specimen of health and manly vigor." "With .nerves 
 of iron, he was as calm in moments of deadly peril 
 as in a time of perfect safety." He had a Webster- 
 like head, and keen black eyes. It is said that his 
 nose was the most aquiline in shape of any officer 
 ■ever connected with the United States Army, and 
 this feature often attracted notice during his serv- 
 ice, especially the fact that it was a "fighting nose." 
 Such is a brief description of one who for years 
 vi'as among the best known and most beloved resi- 
 dents of the City of Elms, New Haven, Conn., 
 where his unexceptional life as a private citizen 
 proved him worthy of the honored name he bore. 
 
 For a period of two hundred and sixty years the 
 name of Bissell has been a familiar one in Con- 
 necticut, where the various representatives of the 
 family have led honorable and useful lives. For 
 many years it has been an honored name in the City 
 of Elms. Major Bissell was a descendant in the 
 seventh generation from John Bissell, of Windsor^ 
 'Conn. That worthy is supposed to have come from 
 Somersetshire, England, to Plymouth, Mass., in 
 1638, and he is recorded as living in Windsor, 
 Conn., as early as 1639. The line of descent to Ma- 
 jor Bissell is through Thomas, Lieut. Isaac, Benja- 
 min, Benjamin (2) and Lieut. Hiram. 
 
 (II) Thomas Bissell, son of John, was born in 
 England, and was married in 1655 to Abigail, 
 daughter of Deacon John Moore. He settled on the 
 east side of the Connecticut river, where he died 
 in i68g. 
 
 (III) Lieut. Isaac Bissell, son of Thomas, born 
 in 1682, was married in 1706 to Elizabeth Osborn, 
 removed to Litchfield, Conn., about 1723, and be- 
 came the founder of the Litchfield branch of the 
 
 Bissell family. He died in 1744, and his widow 
 in 1761. 
 
 (IV) Benjamin Bissell, son of Lieut. Isaac, was 
 bom in 1717, and died in 1747. He married Leah 
 Peck. 
 
 (V) Benjamin Bissell (2), born in 1743, was 
 married to Mabel Griswoid, and died in 1821. 
 
 (VI) Lieut. Hiram Bissell, son of Benjamin 
 (2), was born in 1785, and was an iron monger. 
 He married Beata Wetmore, and died in 1876, at 
 the age of ninety-one years. Of their children we 
 have mention of Lyman, Rufus and Capt. William, 
 of whom William was the last survivor. 
 
 (VII) Major Lyman Bissell, son of Hiram, and 
 the father of Gen. Evelyn L. Bissell, M. D., was 
 born Oct. 20, 1813, in the village of Milton, Conn., 
 a few miles west of Litchfield. He was called Ly- 
 man after Rev. Dr. Lyman Beecher, who called at 
 the house the morning after he was born. In his 
 native place he attended the neighborhood schools 
 during the winter, and worked on the farm during 
 the summer, until he was fourteen years of age, 
 when with an older brother he went to Pough- 
 keepsie to learn the trade of house-painting, but 
 the}- returned home at the end of six months. For 
 some years he followed this trade in Waterbury, 
 and then in New Haven, where he had made his 
 home in the spring of 1836. When the Mexican 
 war broke out Lyman Bissell was captain of the 
 National Blues, an artillery company of New Ha- 
 ven. On April 9, 1847, he was commissioned lieu- 
 tenant in the 9th United States Infantry, a new 
 regiment made up entirely of New England men, 
 and commanded by Col. Truman G. Ransom. Soon 
 after his arrival in Mexico Lieut. Bissell was as- 
 signed to duty as quartermaster of the brigade of 
 Gen. (afterward President) Pierce. At La Puebla 
 de Los Angeles he was one of a company of some 
 3,000 men, sick with various disorders, left by Gen. 
 Scott on his march through 2\Iexico. This place 
 was besieged by Mexicans for twenty-eight days, 
 during which time Lieut. Bissell, himself an in- 
 valid, had command of a company of convales- 
 cents, stationed on the flat roof of an old church, 
 the walls of which, projecting a few feet above 
 the roof, served as a parapet. Lieut. Bissell also 
 participated in the bombardment of Vera Cruz, and 
 the battles of Plan del Rio and National Bridge. 
 On Sept. 8, 1847, he was promoted to a captaincy. 
 At the close of the war his regiment disbanded and 
 he returned to New Haven, where he was appointed 
 chief of the newly organized police force. In his 
 discharge of the duties of this incumbency, which 
 he held from, 1849 to 1853, he amply sustained 
 the record for courage and bravery which he had 
 won ]))■ valiant service in the army. The following 
 is taken from the "History of the State House," 
 published by Henry Peck, a former reporter and 
 newspaper man of New Haven : 
 
 "An incident in connection with holding the 
 courts in the State House shows what good men 
 will sometimes do under the presence of tempta- 
 

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 227 
 
 tion. Henry G. Lewis was clerk of the county 
 court. His court records were kept in a vault in 
 the basement. Every morning the books needed for 
 the day were taken by the clerk to the court-room 
 and at the close of business were returned to the 
 vault. Mr. Lewis, on opening a book of record 
 one day, discovered to his surprise that there had 
 been an erasure of some part of the record without 
 his knowledge. As- it appeared to have been the 
 intention of whoever made the erasure to fill the 
 vacant space with something, the clerk thought of 
 a plan to detect the forger. He consulted with 
 Lyman Bissell, then captain of the watch, and it 
 was decided that the latter should enter the vault 
 before its being locked for the day and remain there 
 until something should be discovered or the vault 
 should be regularly opened the forenoon following. 
 It was a dark and lonely vigil kept that night by 
 Capt. Bissell. Toward midnight, however, he heard 
 footsteps. A key was put into the lock, the door 
 of the vault swung open, and Capt. Bissell and 
 the unknown confronted each other. The man was 
 one of New Haven's respected citizens. He con- 
 fessed his intention of falsifying the record. By 
 advice and after a full consideration of the matter 
 the man was allowed to go free of punishment in 
 State prison. To the day of his death Major Bis- 
 sell would not tell the name of the man; nor will 
 ex-Mayor Lewis, as they and a judge of the court 
 were the only persons cognizant of the facts. There 
 is no foundation for a 'scandal,' as is sometimes 
 denominated an exposure of crime." 
 
 But the one brave deed which, above all others, 
 made the Major famous then and has caused his 
 name to be remembered since, was his prompt and 
 efficient action at the time of the famous St. Pat- 
 rick's night "town and gown" riot of 1854. To 
 the Major, and probably to him alone, was it due 
 that the old South College in New Haven was not 
 that night razed to the ground, and many lives lost 
 instead of one. There had been considerable feel- 
 ing between the town boys and the college boys 
 for years, and on Thursday, March i6th, during a 
 performance at Homan's Athenseum, words were 
 exchanged which led to a scrimmage after the close 
 of the theater. The following night about fifty stu- 
 dents attended the theater in a body, and, trouble 
 being anticipated, a letter was circulated among them 
 requesting them not to leave until the rest of the 
 audience had retired. They agreed, but the town 
 boys waited for them. On asking Major Bissell, w'ho 
 was then chief of police, for advice, they were told 
 to cross the street and march quickly and quietly to 
 the campus in a solid line. The crowd followed, 
 jeering and hooting, and when the line of students 
 reached Fitch's book store (where the great dry- 
 goods establishment of William Neely & Co. is now 
 located) they were assailed with a storm of bricks 
 and stones, and a number were hurt. Several of 
 the students fired pistols, and a man fell. At the 
 moment it was thought he was shot. Capt. Bissel 
 carried him to the watch-house, where he expired 
 
 almost immediately, and on examination it was 
 found he had been stabbed by a large dirk. After 
 this incident the students hurried back to their quar- 
 ters, but. the mob had by this time been greatly aug- 
 mented, and excitement was running high. A false 
 alarm of fire had been given earlier in the evening, 
 in order to draw people into the streets, and now 
 several attempted to force their way into the 
 churches to ring the bells. They succeeded in ring- 
 ing the bells in two churches, which had the de- 
 sired effect of adding to their numbers. Deter- 
 mined on. revenge for the death of their leader, as 
 the unfortunate man was recognized, they proceeded 
 to the gun house and took out two pieces belonging 
 to the Artillery Company, the National Blues. 
 Loading these almost to the muzzle with powder, 
 stones and brickbats, they dragged them into Chapel 
 street, where they halted and organized by choosing 
 a captain. The Major, hearing the rattling of a 
 caisson of a piece of artillery passing in the street, 
 divined what the sound meant, and went along with 
 the rioters. He leaped upon one of the guns and 
 ordered the crowd to desist, but although they as- 
 sured him they had every respect for him they re- 
 fused to be advised, and proceeded along toward the 
 college grounds, where the gun was leveled at the 
 front of old South College. Meantime the Major 
 had not been inactive. Seeing that the mob was 
 too frenzied to be quieted, he had with a couple of 
 rat-tail files succeeded in spiking the guns, and the 
 rioters were entirely ignorant of the fact until they 
 were ready to fire. A howl of disappointment arose 
 when the strategy was discovered, but in this in- 
 stance they were impotent. An attempt was made 
 to storm the building, but the students had barri- 
 caded the entrances well, and this plan also failed. 
 In their rage they broke windows and did what 
 damage they could, but the riot was over, and be- 
 fore morning peace was effectually restored. No 
 such outbreak ever again disturbed the quiet of the 
 city. 
 
 On March 3, 1855, the regular army of the 
 United States having been largely increased, Capt. 
 Lyman Bissell was made first lieutenant in the new 
 gth Regiment, which in the following December was 
 sent to Oregon on account of an Indian outbreak. 
 There he was commissioned captain March 15, 1861, 
 and during the Civil war was stationed with his 
 company on the Island of San Juan, in Puget 
 Sound, living, a lonely life for nearly four years, all 
 the rest of the officers being in the east on recruit- 
 ing service. On March 4, 1864, Capt. Bissell was 
 commissioned Major, and ordered to join his regi- 
 ment in New York, but the order did not reach him 
 for over a year, until the summer of 1865. Owing 
 to disabilities incurred in the line of his duty, Major 
 Bissell was placed on the retired list Dec. 31, 
 1870, while in Texas, and he returned to his home 
 in New Haven, where he passed the remainder of 
 his days. His death occurred Nov. 22, 1888, at his 
 home. No. 308 Crown street. The disability men- 
 tioned originated with his experiences in Mexico, 
 
22S 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and was ver_v much aggravated by the hardships of 
 a midwinter march, in 1 860-61, with the thermom- 
 eter below zero, from Fort Colville, on the Colum- 
 bia river, to Fort Vancouver, 480 miles awa_\-. Ala- 
 jor Bissell broke through the ice of a stream, and 
 took a cold from which he never entirely recovered. 
 The sword which he carried on this march was 
 placed on his coffin, \\hich was draped with the 
 American flag, and on which were also placed his 
 hat, sword belt, gauntlets and sash. He was in- 
 terred in the familv lot in Evergreen cemetery. 
 
 Shortlv after Alajor Bissell's death the following 
 article, under the heading, "A Strange Coincidence," 
 appeared in the Xew Haven Evening Register: 
 
 The recent death of Major Lyman Bissell, New Ha- 
 ven's chief officer in the Mexican war, who also served in 
 the Civil war, recalls the very unique position he occupied 
 in a great historical event, connected with the Rebellion, 
 in which Dr. E. L. Bissell, his son, was also connected. 
 Not until his last few house did Major Bissell tell Dr. 
 Bissell, his son, all the facts in the story. 
 
 Those people whose memory reaches back to the lat- 
 ter days of the war remember the excitement attending the 
 trial of Capt. Turner, who was the keeper of Libby prison, 
 and, as alleged, inflicted wrongs and tortures upon Union 
 soldiers. Dr. Bissell was surgeon of the 5th Connecticut 
 Volunteers, and participated in Gen. Banks' Shenandoah 
 campaign. He was captured at the battle of Winchester, 
 in 1862, and on account of his youth the Confederates 
 doubted that he was a surgeon, but he was sent to operate 
 on their wounded as a test, and soon convinced them that 
 he was a surgeon. He was released on parole and reported 
 to Gen. Banks, who, much to his surprise, ordered him 
 back to his regiment for duty. Dr. Bissell protested on 
 account of his parole, but Banks was inexorable and back 
 the surgeon went. At the battle of Cedar Mountain, while 
 attending wounded on the field, a few months later. Dr. 
 Bissell was captured again. The Rebels proposed to shoot 
 hnn at once for violating the parole, but finally they sent 
 him to Castle Thunder and afterward they sent him to 
 Libby prison, where he was tortured by Capt. Turner. 
 Once or twice they took him out to be shot, but for some 
 reason or other the Rebels thought better of it and his 
 Iife^ was spared. Once when Turner sneered in Dr. Bis- 
 sell's face and told him his time was short, the Doctor 
 replied: "Do what you want with me, but remember that 
 there is a God in Israel." These remarks probably flashed 
 through Turner's mmd when he, in after years received 
 a sentence of death from the lips of the father of the man 
 he had persecuted. 
 
 Here is the strange coincidence: ?ilaj or Lvman Bis- 
 sell was appointed president of the court martial which 
 tried Capt. Turner for his inhumanities. Dr. Bissell was 
 very anxious to appear before the court martial and testify 
 but his father would not allow him to do so He could 
 not understand why his father refused, and did not know 
 until recently. 
 
 The court martial found Turner guilty, and Major 
 Bissell sentenced him to death. President Johnson after- 
 ward pardoned him. Several days before his death Major 
 Bissell told his son that he would not allow him to testify 
 before the court martial, because it might be said that the 
 verdict of the court was affected by the evidence of the 
 son, and the old war horse was satisfied that Turner would 
 be convicted without his son's evidence. 
 
 ^lajor I'.issell was married, Sept. i^ 18^^ to 
 Theresa Maria Skcele, of Xew Durham Greene 
 Lo., A, V, and to them was born one child, Evelvn 
 U, of whom mention is made on another page. ' 
 
 GEN. EVELYN L. BISSELL, M. D., was 
 born Sept. 10, 1836, in Litchfield, Conn. He de- 
 veloped an early taste for military studies, and at- 
 tended the militar}- school at New Haven taught 
 bv Gen. W. H. Russell, a school of celebrity in the 
 old da}'s. Later he gave up a cherished plan of 
 going to West Point, and, taking up the study of 
 medicine, was graduated from Yale Medical School 
 in i860. That year he served as. surgeon on a Liver- 
 pool packet-ship, but the breaking out of the Civil 
 war rekindled the military spirit in the young Doc- 
 tor's heart, and on ^lay 8, 1862, he was mustered 
 into the United States service as assistant surgeon 
 of the 5th Conn. V. I. He participated in the 
 active service of the campaign in the valley of the 
 Shenandoah, and was taken prisoner at Winchester 
 j\Iay 25, 1862. While confined in that city he was 
 entrusted with the duty of caring for the Rebel 
 wounded. Gen. Bissell was one of seven surgeons 
 to sign the first cartel by which medical, officers were 
 recognized as non-combatants. In Julv, 1862, he 
 was released on parole, and, reportmg to Gen. 
 Banks, was ordered back to his regiment. He went 
 under protest, believing that if he should again, by 
 any of the fortunes of war, fall into Rebel hands', he 
 would be shot. At Cedar JMountain, while attend- 
 ing the wounded soldiers on the field of battle. Dr. 
 Bissell was again captured, was recognized by the 
 Rebels, and sent to Richmond, where he was placed 
 in solitary confinement in a tobacco warehouse op- 
 posite Castle Thunder, under the risk of being shot 
 for apparent violation of his parole. There, after 
 his transfer to Libby, he saw seven prisoners shot 
 by the Rebel government. He was finally released, 
 his case and others similar having been made the 
 matter of a special agreement between W'ashington 
 and Richmond. Rejoining his regiment at Fred- 
 erick City, he participated in several of the great 
 battles of the war, amomg them Chancellorsville and 
 Gettj-gburg. On his last field of slaughter he dis- 
 tmguished himself by his bravery in caring for the 
 wounded, which became the subject of a distinct 
 recognition in the report of the adjutant general. 
 Dr Bissell was in the Army of the Cumberland, and 
 had charge of the field hospital, in which there were 
 about one thousand cots. He was in the various en- 
 gagements at \^'auhatchie, Resaca, Pumpkin Vine 
 Creek, Dallas, Cassville and Kenesaw Mountain. 
 At the point last named he attracted the attention 
 of Gen. Hooker by his brave conduct in removing 
 two hundred wounded soldiers in the face of a 
 deadly fire from a masked Rebel battery. From 
 that time he was speciallv detailed to remain on the 
 medical staff of Gen. Hooker, and he was also on 
 the surgeon s stafif of Gen. Thomas, with whom he 
 continued for eight months. Remaining at Nash- 
 ville from the onward movement of Gen. Shennan 
 sotith until the close of the war, he was mustered 
 out July 10 1865, after a most honorable, useful and 
 highlv creditable career. 
 
 Since the close of the war the Doctor has prac- 
 ticed medicine m New Haven, where he has made 
 
Eng-r i.-A'-'T' B atb b r B klvrt 
 
 oU./i<^..c^i^ /?viL^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 229 
 
 t8^9 1'^"^ success of his professional work. From 
 ODO to 1872 he served as surgeon of the 2d Con- 
 necticut Regiment, and again held that position 
 irom 1875 to 1883. In January, 1883, 'he was made 
 surgeon general on the staff of Gov. Thomas M. 
 \vailer, serving in this capacity during 1883 and 
 1884, after which he was again and for the third 
 time made surgeon of the 2d Connecticut, and is 
 still retained m that incumbency. From 1871 to 
 i«75 Dr. Bissell was absent from the country, hav- 
 ing been called by the Peruvian government to care 
 for the men engaged in the public works in the 
 city of Lima. He wrote a history of Peru, illus- 
 trated with maps and drawings. The Doctor was 
 in that country during two revolutions, and was an 
 eye witness to the killing of the Guitezras brothers, 
 who were the brothers of the Dictator Thomas 
 Guitezras. Their bodies were stripped of all cloth- 
 ing, dragged through the dusty streets of Lima, and 
 then hung from the steeple of the church on the 
 main plaza, for two days, after which they were 
 cut down and burned upon a pile of railroad ties. 
 The bones were thrown into the river. Gen. Bissell 
 has presented to the Art Gallery two large paint- 
 ings, on^ showing them suspended from the steeple 
 of the church, the other a picture of the burning. 
 At this time all the foreigners in Peru were being 
 put to death, but Gen. Bissell managed to escape 
 through the friendship of an English Jew, who had 
 been located there for several years, and who was 
 on intimate terms with the governing officials. 
 
 Dr. Bissell served as acting brigade surgeon in 
 the Centennial Encampment of 1876, and since that 
 time has held the same position at several State En- 
 campments. For many years he was examining 
 surgeon for the United States Pension Department. 
 He has been registrar of vital statistics of the town 
 of New Haven, has also served as police commis- 
 sioner of the city of New Haven, and is still a 
 mernber of the board of health. Socially he is a 
 prominent member of the Military Order of the 
 Loyal Legion, New York State Commandery; the 
 Grand Army of the Republic; the Society of the 
 Army of the Potomac and the Army of the Cum- 
 berland ; and the Masonic fraternity. He has all his 
 life been an extremely busy and industrious man, 
 and the qualities of patriotism, manliness and fidel- 
 ity to_ friends and duty, which have made his life 
 conspicuous, have won him a multitude of friends. 
 Dr. Bissell was married Nov. 23, 1865, to Sarah 
 M., daughter of Hezekiah Noyes, of Woodbury, 
 Conn. She died July 19, 1883, leaving one daugh- 
 ter, Beata Wetmore, who is still residing with her 
 Ifather. 
 
 E._ KNIGHT SPERRY. There are many per- 
 sons in every community who will show interest 
 and express admiration for a favorite horse or an 
 intelligent dog, and will entirely agree in the pro- 
 prietary rights of a State as to its game birds, but 
 
 not all of these worthy people are willing to de- 
 vote time and means to the study of these, our 
 daily companions of the brute creation, although an 
 occasional enthusiast can tell why educated study 
 in this line will yield the greatest of pleasure and 
 unexpected tangible results. 
 
 The subject of this short biography, E. Knight 
 Sperry, of New Haven, Conn., has been interested 
 in nature, particularly animate nature, all his life, 
 and has become well known on account of his very 
 remarkable control over the equine race, his most 
 valuable studies of the dog, and also his efforts for 
 the preservation of game in his native State. Mr. 
 Sperry was born in Woodbridge, Conn., Dec. 11, 
 1837, a son of Enoch Sperry, and his early days 
 were spent on a farm in his native town, where, no 
 doubt, was fostered the instinct which he developed' 
 later in life. During the summer time his days were 
 spent in the usual employments of lads of his age, 
 and he very well remembers the seasons of "weed 
 pulling," and he attended the winter sessions of' 
 school in the old district school, later walking three 
 miles to pursue his studies in the village academy. 
 In October, 1852, he removed to New Haven, and 
 entered a grocery store as a clerk, remaining for 
 the following four years, but in July, 1856, he em- 
 braced the opportunity of entering the Hjartford 
 Savings Bank and Building Association, at Hart- 
 ford, this concern later being merged into the State 
 Savings Bank, when Mr. Sperry became clerk and 
 bookkeeper. He remained with this institution un- 
 til the spring of i860, when he accepted a position 
 as bookkeeper in the city Bank, of New Haven, 
 where he remained until ill health forced him to 
 resign. 
 
 Under President Lincoln Mr. Sperry entered 
 then the New Haven post office, where for one year 
 he held the important position of manager of the 
 general delivery and the carriers. In the follow- 
 ing fall was appointed as United States consul 
 to the port of Barbadoes, West Indies, remaining 
 in the office a year or two, but resigned the jposi- 
 tion while 'home on a furlough. The climate bene- 
 fited him very much and he returned to New Ha-, 
 ven much improved in health. 
 
 Mr. Sperry was of too active mind to remain 
 idle, and for a time after 'his return engaged in the 
 retail meat business, but later again entered in 
 Hartford the State Savings Bank, remaining until 
 he commenced the manufacture of brushes, in con- 
 nection with a combination holder, of which he was 
 the inventor. For eighteen years he successfully 
 operated and developed this manufacturing busi- 
 ness, but for the past ten years has been retired from 
 active life, engaged principally in looking after 
 large real-estate holdings. 
 
 Aside from all these business cares and public 
 duties, our subject found time to pursue his fa- 
 vorite hobby, taking his recreation in the way of 
 patient investigation of the brute creation, as rep- 
 
2.30 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 resented by the horse and dog. His management 
 of the former animals has been phenomenal, and 
 his reputation has gone beyond the State, never, 
 however, being connected in any way with low 
 sporting contests. His studies of diogs, particularly 
 of the hunting breeds, are acknowledged to be of 
 the greatest scientific value, and are consulted con- 
 tinually by those who are similarly interested. As 
 an ornithologist, his knowledge is comprehensive 
 and of the greatest value, his discoveries and in- 
 vestigations being thorough and reliable. His ef- 
 forts to stock Connecticut with game birds, such as 
 quail and partridge, have met with commendation, 
 and his discoveries as to the habits and life of these 
 s'hy dwellers in field and covert are of the most in- 
 teresting description. Mr. Sperry has now a bill 
 before the State Legislature, which, if passed, will 
 place in each town in the State a reserve for the 
 propagation of these birds. Mr. Sperry has prob- 
 ably done more for the preservation of game in 
 his State than any other citizen. As a lover of and 
 encourager of field sports and athletics he has con- 
 sented to serve as president of the Connecticut 
 Field Trial Club of New England, the object of 
 which is to test the merits of different breeds and 
 ages of dogs, its membership consisting of many 
 of the prominent lovers of sport from all over the 
 country. Fraternally he is connected with the Ma- 
 sonic fraternity, while in politics be has always been 
 a Republican, although he reserves the right to vot€_ 
 independently, when his judgment urges him to 
 do so. 
 
 Mr. Sperry was married first Nov. lo, 1863, to 
 Miss Sarah A'. Treat, a daughter of J. N. Treat, of 
 New Haven, and she died April 8, 1877, leaving 
 one daughter, Edith A., who married Walter H. 
 Mitchell, of Boston, Mass., now connected with the 
 National Security Bank. Mr. Sperry afterward 
 . married Miss Mary M. Webster, a daughter of 
 Edward Webster, a patentee and contractor of hot 
 air furnaces, who became a substantial citizen of 
 Hartford. The religious connection of our subject 
 is with the Church of the Redeemer, of New Ha- 
 yen, which place he 'has always considered his 
 home. 
 
 Mr. Sperry has an individual and characteristic 
 way of writing of his discoveries and investiga- 
 tions, and his articles are sure of a warm welcome 
 from the sporting papers, in which they are widely 
 read. His commendable efforts for the preserva- 
 tion of game in his native State will long be re- 
 membered not only by game lovers, but by others 
 who are anxious that no desirable species of nature's 
 handiwork should be permitted to disappear. He 
 has recently invented an arrangement w'hereby he 
 can keep feed (grain) before the birds in the wilds ; 
 however deep the snow may be the feed is always 
 upon a level with the top of the snow and not dis- 
 turbed or contaminated in any way by it. The birds 
 can walk on the crust, or surface of the snow, and 
 find their feed on a level with it, and always in 
 good condition. 
 
 LEWIS BEARDSLEY, one of the most re- 
 spected of the retired business men of Waterbury, 
 Conn., is a native of Roxbury, Litchfield county, 
 born April 25, 1823, son of Ira Beardsley, a native 
 of Roxbury. 
 
 Ira Beardsley was a farmer by vocation. He 
 wedded Aner Lewis, a native of Huntington, Fair- 
 field Co., Conn., and became the father of six chil- 
 dren, as follows: Lewis (whose iiame opens this 
 biography), Henry, Alonzo, Mary, Miles and Sarah, 
 Of this fam^ily, Henry, now deceased, was a con- 
 tractor, being largely engaged in dredging, and was 
 the originator of the new water company in Bridge- 
 port ; he also built the street railroad to Stratford. 
 Alonzo, who formerly assisted Henry in business, 
 now resides in Bridgeport. Mary is the wife of 
 Orlando Bartram, of the same city. Miles is a • 
 contractor in Bridgeport. Sarah is the wife of 
 Phineas Austin. All of the family are in good 
 circumstances, and all are highly esteemed in the 
 communities in which they live. Both Ira Beardsley 
 and his good wife have long since passed away. 
 
 Lewis Beardsley was but a young boy when he 
 first located in Huntington, Fairfield Co., Conn., and 
 there he grew to manhood on a farm. His edu- 
 cation was acquired in the district school and in 
 Huntington Center, and after its completion he 
 worked for a while in a factory, and also had some 
 experience as clerk in a store in Birmingham. In 
 1 861 he located in Waterbury, which has since been 
 his home. The first business to engage the attention 
 of Mr. Beardsley in Waterbury was the running 
 of a stage between that village and the city of New 
 Haven, but shortly afterward he purchased the 
 trucking business that had been conducted previous- 
 ly by Chancey B. Webster. At the time of his pur- 
 chase but nine horses were required to meet the de- 
 mands of the business, but under Mr. Beardsley's 
 able management the enterprise was so successful 
 that when he sold out, in 1882, forty horses were 
 kept constantly busy. That Mr. Beardsley indus- 
 triously, skillfully and intelligently managed this 
 immense concern is evidenced by the fact that, in 
 the year last named, he was able to retire perma- 
 nently from the activities of life, and to pass his 
 remaining days in ease and comfort. 
 
 On Feb. 14, 1846, in the Methodist Church in 
 Birmingham, Conn., Mr. Beardsley was united in 
 marriage with Miss Mary Lacey, a daughter of 
 Joseph and Martha (Scribner) Lacey, of Wilton, 
 Conn. The only child of this union, Willie, died at 
 the age of four years. Mrs. Beardsley died March 
 5, 1901, dearly loved and sincerely mourned by all 
 who knew her. 
 
 The Lacey family came to America from Eng- 
 land several generations ago. James Lacey, grand- 
 Jfather of Mrs. Beardsley, died Nov. 28, 1828. His 
 wife, Luraney, died Sept. 22, 1829. Their son Jo- 
 seph was born April 15, 1800, on Jan. 16, 182 1, mar- 
 ried Martha Scribner, and died Feb. 27, 1887. The 
 children born to this union were four in number: 
 (i) Sylvester married a Miss Wells, of Stratford, 
 
A^^ 
 
 'S-^-'^-t^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 231 
 
 and moved to ^^larshalltown, Iowa, where he be- 
 came president of a bank ; he is now deceased. (2) 
 Sara A. married Henry Benedict (now deceased), 
 who was a merchant in Marshalltown, Iowa. (3) 
 ]Mary, who became Airs. Beardslev, was born j\Iay 
 28, 1827, in Wilton, Conn. (4) David A. went to 
 ]\Iarshalltown, Iowa, and was proprietor of a hotel 
 there until his death. 
 
 In his fraternal relations Lewis Beardsley is a 
 Knight Templar Alason. Politically he is a stanch 
 Republican, and has served in the common council, 
 and also as road commissioner, to the satisfaction 
 of all concerned. He is a consistent member of the 
 First Congregational Church, as was also his wife, 
 and socially is a man highly respected. 
 
 HON. FEXXER BUSH, deceased. The late 
 Fenner Bush, whose death occurred at his home in 
 Aleriden Feb. 19, 1882, where his long, active busi- 
 ness life and useful citizenship were mainly spent, 
 had a most remarkable career, especially remarkable 
 in the number of disadvantages surrounding his 
 childhood, and in an almost continuous chain of 
 obstacles and difficulties which characterized his 
 later business career, and still more remarkable in 
 a force of character that arose equal to each and 
 every emergency, and, like Banquo's ghost, would 
 not be downed ; again remarkable for its final 
 triumph. 
 
 JMr. Bush came of good New England stock, 
 although his parents were not blessed with means. 
 His birth occurred June 26, 1791, in the historic 
 old town of East Lyme, Conn., a son of John and 
 Bathsheba (Dodge) Bush. Deprived of his father 
 when very young, the child at six years of age was 
 in a manner thrown out in the world to do for him- 
 self, being put out to live with a family, where he 
 was to assist in the chores and later in the fann 
 work. At eleven years he was transferred to the 
 family of a ship-builder, and w'hen old enough was 
 . to be taught the trade, but conditions and circum- 
 stances threw him back to the previous family. 
 Then he went to live with the family of a joiner, 
 with the view of learning the trade, and when 
 eighteen years of age his master furnished him 
 with a suit of clothes and, for the first time, he at- 
 tended church. His apprenticeship lasted nine 
 years, during the last four of which he was treated 
 bv his master with less rigor, but his situation was 
 far from being comfortable. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one years our subject was 
 without a home, and had no property, save an in- 
 terest in a small piece of land that his father left, 
 worth, perhaps. $200. After serving out his time 
 he worked for his master three months at $14 per 
 month, and at the close of this period he took his 
 $42 and started on foot to a neighboring town to 
 purchase some tools. On his way he lost his money 
 — all he had in the world — ^but by good luck he 
 found it again, and returned and engaged in busi- 
 ness in opposition to his former master, who en- 
 
 deavored to encourage him by telling him he was a 
 fool, and would not make enough money with which 
 to pay his board. But the young man was am- 
 bitious and pushed on, and soon had so much to do 
 that his former master saw the drift of matters and 
 later offered to sell out to hirn. Mr. Bush accepted 
 the offer and hired help to meet his engagements. 
 
 Mr. Bush now found the necessity of some- 
 thing which had been entirely neglected ; for he 
 could neither read nor keep accounts. Therefore 
 he gave up his business for a time, hired a room and 
 for two winters devoted himself to study, three 
 months of whieh time were given to learning to 
 read. Then he recommenced business, and pursued 
 his trade with considerable success. In 1816 he 
 married Eunice Kirtland, of Saybrook, and com- 
 menced keeping house, taking two apprentices to 
 board, but about this time he was taken with typhus 
 fever, and for a long time was very ill and for two 
 years was unable to work. During this illness all 
 of his accumulated means were spent, and he was 
 obliged to go several hundred dollars into debt. As 
 soon as able, however, he applied himself so closely 
 to business that he not onl}' paid off his indeibted- 
 ness but bought the house he lived in. 
 
 In April, 1824, Mr. Bush removed from Say- 
 brook to Meriden, and became interested in the 
 comb business, in connection with Julius Pratt. 
 Here he worked with untiring diligence, twelve 
 hours a day, for $1.25 per day; after a few years 
 the time was reduced 10 eleven hours and the wages 
 were increased to $1.75 per day. For twenty years 
 he labored here, and at the end of this period his 
 shop was destroyed by fire, and twenty years' earn- 
 ings were swept away. Undismayed, he started to 
 rebuild, and through his energy new and improved 
 machinery was soon housed in a new factory, and 
 he bravely forged on, being rewarded at last by the 
 prosperity he so well earned. Mr. Bush continued 
 interested in the manufacture of combs through the 
 active years of his life, and achieved great success, 
 became one of the largest stockholders of an ex- 
 tensive and prosperous business, and made a name 
 for himself in the business world and an honorable 
 position in society. His energy and enterprise con- 
 tributed in a large degree to the development of that 
 branch of manufacturing which in a few years de- 
 stroyed foreign competition and built up a business 
 the products of which were exported to almost all 
 parts of the world. He was one of the first directors 
 of the Home X^ational Bank of Alcriden. 
 
 The storv of Mr. Bush's life serves as an il- 
 lustration of what courage, perseverance and in- 
 dustr_\' can accomplish, and should be to voung men 
 a guide and an inspiration. Mr. Bush was what is 
 termed a whole-souled, big-hearted man, liberal and 
 generous, beloved and esteemed by all who knew 
 him. He gave largely to worthy benevolent ob- 
 jects, assisted liberally in the building of three 
 churches and five school houses, and was a gen- 
 erous contributor to the anti-slavery cause, and also 
 
232 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 to the cause of Christianity. Mr. Bush was also a 
 patriot, and served as a soldier in the war of 1812, 
 and in 1848 served with efficienc)' and ability in 
 the State Senate from the Sixth district. 
 
 Two daughters were born to Air. and Airs. 
 Bush : Temperance Janet, who became the wife of 
 Randolph Linsle}' : and Eunice Kirtland, who mar-^ 
 ried Partrick J. Clark. 
 
 The Kirtland family of Old Saybrook was one 
 of the earliest families to come to that point, and 
 contributed many of the distinguished citizens of 
 that historic old town. Nathaniel Kirtland, the sup- 
 posed progenitor of many of the name in this coun- 
 try, came early to Lynn, Mass., and is reputed to 
 have resided previous to his emigration in Silver 
 street, London, England. John Kirtland, son of 
 Nathaniel, was one among the first thirty-six set- 
 tlers of Saybrook, Conn., in 1635. His marriage 
 there was to Lydia, the daughter of Lieut. William 
 Pratt, and of their ten children. Rev. Daniel Kirt- 
 land, a graduate of Yale, in the class of 1720, was 
 for nearly thirty years pastor of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, at Newent, Conn., and was the father 
 of Rev. Samuel Kirtland, the noted missionary. 
 
 During the war of the Revolution a number of 
 the name from Saybrook served in the Continental 
 army. From the diary of S. Tully it appears that 
 early in the summer of 1775 a company was en- 
 listed from Saybrook, probably commanded by Mar- 
 tin Kirtland, which marched to camp near Boston. 
 Martin Kirtland was appointed in 1776 first lieu- 
 tenant of the artillery company stationed at New 
 London, and it appears that in July of the same 
 year he was appointed captain of a company at 
 New London, and Daniel Kirtland was made an 
 ensign. 
 
 The Clark family, of which the late Patrick J. 
 Clark, one of Aleriden's well known citizens, was 
 a descendant, was an old one of New England. 
 David Clark, the grandfather of Partrick J., was 
 horn in Middlesex county in 1750, and died in 
 1812. His father was Joseph Clark, a gallant sol- 
 dier during the Revolutionary struggle. He mar- 
 ried Abigail, daughter of Charles Hazelton. Pat- 
 rick Clark, the son of David, was born in Mid- 
 dlesex county, became a soldier in the war of the 
 Revolution, married Lydia Taylor, of Aliddletown, 
 and became a well known and successful manufac- 
 turer of Aleriden. 
 
 Partrick Jeremiah, son of Patrick Clark, was 
 'born Jan. 18, 1816, in Meriden, and was educated 
 in the district schools, and later graduated from 
 the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire. Subsequently 
 he engaged with his father in the manufacture of 
 tinware, and then became connected with the Meri- 
 den Alalleable Iron Co., where he invented and 
 patented several valuable articles. His later years 
 were spent in retirement, and his death occurred in 
 1P9G, his burial being in West cemetery. Although 
 interested in public affairs, and a lifelong Repub- 
 
 lican, he was no office-seeker, but was one of Meri- 
 den's most respected citizens. 
 
 Partrick J. Clark married Eunice Kirtland, a 
 daughter of Fenner Bush, who has always been one 
 of the ornaments of jMeriden society, and a con- 
 sistent member of the Congregational Church. The 
 two children of this marriage were Emma Bush, 
 who married Wolcott A. Hull, of New York; and 
 John, who died in infancy. 
 
 Perhaps no one in Meriden so thoroughly loved 
 good books as did Mr. Bush, and the 3routh who at 
 twenty could not read a page at his death owned 
 one of the finest libraries in this city, the volumes 
 numbering 1,500. He set a high value on educa- 
 tion, and proved in his own life that such a pos- 
 session was possible to any one with sufficient de- 
 termination to secure it. His whole life was an 
 example and a benediction — the highest type of a 
 Christian gentleman. 
 
 ROBERT OUGHTON (deceased) was for 
 nearly a half-century a well-known builder and con- 
 tractor in Meriden, and one of that city's most 
 highly esteemed residents. 
 
 Mr. Oughton was born on Harlem lane, now 
 St. Nicholas avenue. New York City, Jan. i, 1822. 
 His father, Robert Oughton, was born near Lon- 
 don, England, where he learned the trade of car- 
 penter and builder. He married Sarah Walton, who 
 was born in Garstang, Lancashire, England, and 
 about 181 7 they emigrated from England, making 
 the voyage on a sailing vessel. For many years 
 the city of New York was their home, and there 
 Mr. Oughton became well known in his line of 
 work, such contracts being given to and executed 
 b}? him as St. Mary's Episcopal Church, at Man- 
 hattan, and many similar handsome edifices. He 
 died at the age of forty-eight years, and was buried 
 in the M. E. cemetery at Harlem, but later his re- 
 mains were transferred to White Plains, N. Y. His 
 widow, who died in Meriden in 1866, was tenderly • 
 cared for by her devoted son, the late Robert Ough- 
 ton, of Aleriden. One of the family of six chil- 
 dren born to Air. and Airs. Oughton died in in- 
 fancy, the others being : Faith, who married Will- 
 iam FI. Gantz ; Robert; Sarah Ann, who married 
 Peter B. Sawyer, and since the death of her hus- 
 band makes her home with Airs. Yale; Walton, who 
 died in New York, where he was prominent in Ala- 
 sonic circles ; and William Edward, who died at 
 Sacramento, Col., where he was connected with the 
 State printing department ( he, also, was well 
 known in Alasonry). 
 
 Robert Oughton, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, went to school in New York City, but as 
 soon as of sufficient age learned the trade of ma- 
 son, becoming proficient in every detail of same. 
 After following this trade for a short time in New 
 York he moved to Saybrook, Aliddlesex Co., Conn., 
 where he remained until 1850, working at his trade. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 233 
 
 At this time, when Alerideii was but a village, he 
 cast his lot with the other citizens, and there built 
 up a business of large proportions. For over forty 
 years he was identified prominently w-ith the build'- 
 ing and contracting which went on" so rapidly in the 
 city, many of the most tasteful and attractive dwell- 
 ings erected in those years being the result of his 
 skill and knowledge, 'while the stately First Na- 
 tional Bank building, on West Alain street, stands 
 as a testimonial to his ability. He was so ab- 
 sorbed in his work, and so carefully carried out his 
 contracts, that his health finally gave way, and for 
 several years he was obliged to give up his contract 
 work and limit his activity. For several years he 
 was connected with the H. Wales Lines Co., in the 
 capacity of superintendent of mason work, his last 
 work being the superintending of the laying of the 
 first sewer system in Meriden. This important en- 
 terprise absorbed nine months. JMr. Oughton took 
 to his bed in February, 1893, and his death oc- 
 curred July 22 following. He was buried in the 
 East cemetery, Meriden, where there are so many 
 memorials of his useful life. JNIr. Oughton was a 
 member of the Baptist Church, and was a Christian 
 in profession and conduct. His devotion to his fam- 
 ily was one of his beautiful characteristics, and his 
 interest in his. city made him generally respected in 
 the community. He took an active part in public 
 aflfairs, as a member of the city council he- en- 
 couraged all enterprises looking toward Aleriden's 
 development, and was liberal and public-spirited. 
 In politics he was a stanch Republican. 
 
 Mr. Oughton was one of the first organizers of 
 the volunteer fire department in jNIeriden, and was 
 the first chief engineer, holding that office for sev- 
 eral years. In fraternal circles he was known far 
 beyond the limits of his own city, being a mem- 
 ber and past master of Meridian Lodge, No. yy, A: 
 F. & A. AL, of Meriden ; a member of Keystone 
 Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; Hamilton Council, No. 
 22, R. & S. M. ; St. Elmo Commandery, No. 9, K. 
 T. — in all of which Masonic bodies he took -a deep 
 and continued interest. He was also a member of 
 Meriden Center Lodge, No. 68, I. O O. F., and 
 Atlantic Encampment, No. 28, and at one time was 
 a member of the K. of P., the A. O. U. W., and 
 the Sons of Temperance. 
 
 On Jan. 9, 1843, Mr. Oughton married Miss 
 Sarah Emeline Lathem, who was born Al'arch 6, 
 1822, in Hebron, Conn., daughter of William and 
 Lvdia (Knight) Lathem. Five children were born 
 to this union, namely: (i) John Walton, who is 
 a mason and builder, resides in Guilford, Conn. 
 He married Alary Eliza Skinner, of Saybrook, and 
 they had five children: — Bertha, who married Al- 
 bert Dudley; Minnie, who married Heiibert Mills, 
 of Aleriden ; Robert A. ; Mattie, who died in Say- 
 brook ; and William Edward. (2) Mary G. (de- 
 ceased) married David Crosley, of Bridgeport, and 
 they had one son, Robert J., who resides in Cam- 
 bridge, Alass. (3) Martha J. married Charles W. 
 Yale, who for four years was a member of Com- 
 
 pany C, 7th Connecticut Regiment, during the Civil 
 war, with the rank of corporal. Their three chil- 
 dren — Lottie M., Elmer E. and Etta C. — are de- 
 ceased. Mrs. Oughton lives with them. (4) 
 Emma G. married Willis J. Fuller, of Hartford. 
 (5) Robert W. resides in Bridgeport. He married 
 Jennie Alorrison, who is now deceased, and their 
 children were Etta (wife of Waldron E. Shaw), 
 Harry W., Earl Charles and Ruth. 
 
 WiLLi.\M Lathem, father of Mrs. Oughton, 
 was a native of Gosberton, Lincolnshire, England, 
 where he learned the trade of shoemaker, and was 
 engaged in that occupation when the war of 1812 
 broke out between the United States and England. 
 He and several other young men were pressed on 
 board the English ' ship "Macedonian," although 
 they protested against becoming soldiers. They all 
 made up their minds that they would desert as soon 
 as they reached the shores of the Unitd States. 
 They were taken prisoners by Commodore Decatur 
 and were placed in confinement at New London, 
 Conn., where they remained until they convinced the 
 American authorities that they were soldiers against 
 their wishes. After his release Mr. Lathem went 
 to Hebron, Conn., and there engaged in the shoe 
 business, remaining in that place until his death, 
 in October, 1822 ; his remains rest in the Hebron 
 cemetery. He married Lydia Knight, who was born 
 at Wate'rford, New London Co., Conn., daughter of 
 John and Lydia Knight, and their children, only 
 one of whom is now living, were as follows : John, 
 Mary Ann, William, and Sarah E. (who married 
 Robert Oughton). After the death of Mr. Lathem 
 Airs. Lathem married Elias Barrelle, who died at 
 Sa>'ibrook. Three sons were born to this union, 
 James E., Charles and John H., all of whom are de- 
 ceased. Mrs. Barrelle died in Saybrook also, and 
 was buried there. She was a member of the Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 Airs. Oughton is also a member of the Baptist 
 Church, and is a lady honored and beloved both in 
 her family circle and in the community. She pos- 
 sesses a remarkable memory, and her reminiscences 
 of early days in Aleriden are most interesting and 
 instructive. 
 
 BALDWIN. Connecticut has long been a State 
 of lofty traditions, and has long been also one which 
 has bred families who can trace ancestry back to the 
 first settlements made in New England. Promi- 
 nent among these family names is that of Baldwin, 
 worthy representatives of which are found in Aleri- 
 den in the persons of Nathan Smith Baldwin and 
 his sons, Edgar N. and William H. 
 
 Joseph Baldwin, the first of the name in Con- 
 necticut, was born in England and came to Amer- 
 ica with his two brothers, Nathaniel and Timothy, 
 all of whom in 1639 settled in Milford, Conn. Of 
 the first wife of Joseph we only know that her 
 name was Hannah, but his second marriage was to 
 Isabel Northam, a daughter of James Northam. 
 She came from New Jersey to Hadley, Mass., and 
 
2y. 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 she died there Dec. 8, 1676. His third wife was 
 Elizabeth (Hitchcock), the widow of WilUam War- 
 rener, of Springfield, Mass., and she died April 25, 
 1696. He died in Hadley. Mass., Nov. 2, 1684. 
 His children were: Joseph, born in 1640; Ben- 
 jamin, born in 1642 ; Hannah, baptized June 23, 
 1644, married May 6, 1658, Jeremiah, son of Rich- 
 ard Hull, of New Haven; Mary, baptized June 23, 
 
 1644, married John Catlin; Elizabeth, baptized in 
 
 1645, married March 31, 1664, James Warrener, 
 a steip-ibrother ; A'lartha, baptized in 1645, married 
 Dec. 26, 1667, John Hawkins, and she died Jan. 
 7, 1676; Jonathan, born Feb. 15, 1649; David, bom 
 Oct. 19, ,1651; Sarah, born Nov. 6, 1654, married 
 Samuel BartleLt, of Northampton, Mass., and died 
 in 1717. 
 
 Joseph Baldwin, son of Joseph and Hannah, 
 was born in Milford about 1640, and baptized March 
 23, 1644. With his parents he removed to Hadley, 
 Mass., where he became a prominait citizen, but 
 died before his father, Nov. i, 1681. He married 
 Sarah Celey, of Milford, a daughter of Benjamin 
 Celey, and she was baptized in 1648, and died in 
 1689. Their children were: Joseph, born Oct. I, 
 1663 ; James ; Mehitable. born in June, 1670, died 
 July II, 1670; Hannah, born April 13, 1673; Alary, 
 born Nov. 10, 1674, died Dec. 17, 1674; Hannah, 
 born March 9, 1676, died Oct. 31, 1676; Mary mar- 
 ried Samuel Allen of Northampton, Mass. ; Samuel, 
 born April 7, 1679; and Hannah (3), born April 
 27, 1681. 
 
 James Baldwin, son of Joseph and Sarah, was 
 born at Maiden, Mass., about 1664, and was a weav- 
 er by occupation. He removed to Milford, Conn., 
 where he united with the Church, in 1696, as did 
 his wife Elizabeth, on July 18, 1703. On Jan. 2, 
 1692, with Eleazer Rogers, he settled up his grand- 
 father's estate, in Milford. His children were: 
 Elizabeth, born ]March 2, 1697; David, born Oct. 2, 
 1699; Phebe, baptized June 17, 1701, died Jan. i, 
 1702; Elizabeth (2), born July 18, 1703; Moses 
 and Aaron, twins, born April 15, 1705 ; and Hannah, 
 baptized in 1710. 
 
 3.Ioses Baldwin, son of James and Elizabeth, 
 was born in Milford, Conn., but later removed to 
 Saybrook, where he ended his days. He married 
 Abigail Royce, a daughter of Deacon Robert Royce, 
 born in ]\Jeriden, later removed to Wallingford. 
 Their children were: Aaron, born Oct. 26, 1729, 
 died Feb. 26, 1730; Closes, born July 6, 1731 ; Han- 
 nah, born Sept. 23, 1733, married Air. Cramer; 
 James, born Nov. 26, 1735, died young; Royce, 
 Nov. 23, 1737; David, born March 8, 1740: James, 
 born Alav 20, 1742 ; Xoah, born April 13, 1745 ; and 
 Jose.])h, born Aug. 20, 1747. 
 
 Aloses Baldwin, son nf Moses, was born July 6, 
 1731, at Saybrook, Conn., and, under Capt. Red- 
 field, was a participant in the French and Indian 
 war. After marriage he and his wife, Elizabeth, 
 settled in the parish of what was then Cheshire, 
 but now is Wallingford, and there he died, leaving 
 
 four children: James, born Jan. 29, 1760; Sarab 
 A. ; Alfred, who died in Meriden ; and Lucretia, 
 who also died in Aleriden. 
 
 James Baldwin, son of Moses (2), was born in 
 Cheshire, but later settled in Meriden, where he 
 bought a farm, and also engaged in the mill busi- 
 ness, in the eastern part of the town, and died 
 there March 3, 1839. James Baldwin was a soldier 
 in the Revolutionary war, and served his country 
 well. His first marriage was to Bethia Goodsel, in 
 October, 1785, who died in 1798, at the age of thir- 
 ty-four years. His second marriage occurred Dec. 
 20, 1798, his bride being Mary Rice, who died June- 
 19, 1839, and all were buried in the Broad street 
 cemetery. The children of James were: Alma, 
 born July 18, 1786, died Feb. 19, 1803; Moses, born- 
 June 10, 1788 ; Asahel, born July 13, 1791 ; Ransom, 
 born Alarch I, 1793; James, born Dec. 4, 1795; and 
 Benona, born Mav 9, 1798. 
 
 Moses Baldwin, father of Nathan Smith Bald- 
 win, was born in Aleriden, June 10, 1788, and grew 
 to manhood on the homestead, but as his inclinations 
 did not lead him to farming, he began peddling 
 Yankee notions, dry-goods etc., and made of this 
 business quite a success, covering a large extent of 
 country, and establishing a reputation for strict in- 
 tegrity. Later, he settled on the Timothy Ives^ 
 farm, in Meriden, where he made much improve- 
 ment, and also owned and operated a mill which is 
 known now as the Baldwin mill. Mr. Baldwin was 
 an honest, industrious man, well-known and highly 
 respected and took a part in the civic affairs, being 
 a selectman for some time. His political affiliation 
 was with the Democratic party. During the war of 
 1812, he saw service and was stationed at New 
 London. All his life, he was a consistent member 
 of the Baptist Church. 
 
 Moses Baldwin was married in Meriden, to Eda 
 Lyman, who was born in Meriden, in 1793, a 
 daughter of Phineas Lyman. Her death occurred 
 JMay 29, 1864, at the age of seventv-one, and she 
 was laid to rest in East cemetery. She had been a 
 devoted member of the Baptist Church. Her hus- 
 band had preceded her a few years, his death having 
 occurred May 5, i860. Their children were: Alma,, 
 born June 21, 1816, married first a Mr. Knowles,. 
 and second, Jared Cotton; Frederick, born Aug. 13, 
 1818, died July 11, 1863, at jMiddletown, Conn.; 
 Sophronia, Ijorn Oct. 22, 1819, died Aug. 4, 1840,. 
 married Erastus Wilcox; Henry L., born Jan. 10, 
 182T, died Oct. 24, 1862, at Branford, Conn. ; Linus, 
 born May 19, 1822. died April 27, 1880; Ira, bom 
 July 5, 1823, died Dec. 17, 1823 ; James and Jane, 
 twins, born Dec. 5, 1825 ; of these, James was a 
 soldier in the Civil war, in an Iowa regiment, and 
 died June 8, 1864, in the army ; Jane married John 
 R. Andrus and died May 11, 1858; Ellen, born- 
 Dec. II, 1830, died iMarch 25, 1831 ; Lyman, born 
 Dec. 29, 1831, died Jan. 22, 1832; jMerritt, born 
 Feb. 8, 1833, died AJDril 5, 1885; and Nathan S., 
 born Nov. 3, 1835. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 235 
 
 Xathak Smith Baldwin, a leading citizen of 
 Tvleriden, was born on the old Baldwin homestead, 
 and after attendance at the district schools received 
 academic training in the Meriden Academy. Being 
 the youngest of the family, he remained on the 
 homestead with his parents, and after his father's 
 death assumed the homestead farm and has been 
 ever since engaged in general farming, stockraising, 
 dairying and fruit culture. Adding to the original 
 farm, he now operates over 150 acres of land, which 
 he has much improved. The Baldwin mill, for 
 flour and feed, is also operated by him very suc- 
 cessfully, and Mr. Baldwin is justly considered one 
 of the substantial agriculturists of his section of the 
 county. 
 
 In i860, in Meriden, Mr. Baldwin was married 
 to Maria Hayden, of Westbrook, a daughter of Elias 
 and Maria (Smith) Hayden, and an adopted 
 daughter of the late William H. and j\laria (Hub- 
 bard) Yale. Mrs. Baldwin, is one of the superior 
 ladies of this community, having been thoroughly 
 educated, and for two years was engaged in teach- 
 ing. For many years she has taken great interest 
 in taxidermy, and owns some beautiful bird speci- 
 mens which she has prepared herself. Of great 
 artistic ability, her finished work displays exception- 
 al talent. For several years J\Ir. Baldwin taught 
 school, also, and an air of . refinement and educa- 
 tion pervades the beautiful home where the family 
 resides. Socially he is connected with the Meriden 
 Grange, and for three years was Master, and he has 
 filled nearly all the offices in Pomona Grange. Both 
 he and his wife are members of the State and Na- 
 tional Granges. Since he was seventeen years old 
 Mr. Baldwin has been connected with the Baptist 
 Church, in which his pious parents reared him, but 
 in politics he prefers to be independent, tied to no 
 party. He takes great interest in the Agricultural 
 Society of Aleriden, and is a highly valued mem- 
 ber. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin 
 are : Edgar N. and William H. The former, born 
 Oct. 4, 1861, was educated in the public schools, 
 and also ]\Ieriden Academy, and is engaged with 
 the Adams Express Company, at Wallingford; he 
 married Miss Alina Hull, a daughter of Charles 
 Hull. 
 
 William H. Baldwin was born Oct. 9, 1870, 
 received his early education in the district school in 
 Meriden, and then entered Yale Business College, 
 in Xew Haven, from which he graduated in 1891. 
 His youth was spent on the homestead, where he re- 
 mained until his majority. He then became a book- 
 keeper for the Meriden Gravure Co., but after a 
 short time he took charge of his father's mill, and 
 also became engaged in the fertilizer business. Since 
 then he has operated the Baldwin mill, and is ex- 
 tensively engaged in farming. His farm consists 
 of 155 acres adjoining the homestead. In public 
 life Mr. Baldwin has been active in the Republican 
 party, and in 1898 was elected a member of the 
 board of relief, serving one year, and in 1899 he 
 
 was made a member of the board of assessors, being 
 elected chairman, which office he fills with ef- 
 ficiency, entirely to the satisfaction of the public. 
 His personality is pleasant, and he has the reputa- 
 tion of ability in almost every line in which he is 
 engaged. His interest in Sunday-school work has 
 made him widely known among religious teachers, 
 and he is superintendent of the Park Avenue Bap- 
 tist Sunday-school, second assistant superintendent 
 of the Broad Street Baptist Sundlay-school, and 
 quite active in other church affairs. Frater- 
 nally, he is connected with Centre Lodge, No. 
 97, A. F. & A. M., and Keystone Chapter, No. 
 27, R. A. M.; Meriden Center Lodge, No. 68, 
 I. O. O. F. ; and is a member and secretary of the 
 Meriden Grange. William H. Baldwin was united 
 in marriage with Mary Esther Yale, who was born 
 in Meriden, a daughter of Julius Wilcox and Mary 
 (Hobart) Yale. One son, Nathan Yale, born Dec. 
 22, 1900, has blessed this union. INIrs. Baldwin, 
 a representative of one of the old and established 
 families of Meriden, is a lady of charming disposi- 
 tion and manner. She belongs to the Meriden 
 Grange, and is a valued and consistent member of 
 the Congregational Church. 
 
 HIRAM H; TAIXTOR was one of the highly- 
 respected citizens of New Haven and probably the 
 best known representative of that family in New 
 Haven county during his life-time. He was born in 
 East Haven, Conn., March 2, 18 18, only child of 
 Nathaniel and Mary (Hemingway) Taintor, both 
 natives of East Haven, of whom the former died 
 Aug. 25, 1848, and the latter Feb. 22, 1878, at the 
 age of seventy-nine years. 
 
 Hiram H. Taintor was reared and educated in 
 his native town, receiving such advantages as the 
 common schools of his time aft'ordfed. He learned 
 the carpenter's trade and for many years was con- 
 nected with the firm of G. and T. Ailing & Co., the 
 well-known mill men of New Haven, his first iden- 
 tification with the concern dating back to 1845, at 
 which time the business was carried on by Leonard 
 Pardee. The firm subsequently became Pardee & 
 Morgan, and still later G. and T. Ailing & Co. Mr. 
 Taintor's connection with this establishment lasted 
 through a period of thirty-eight years, or until 1883, 
 at which time he retired from business. For a num- 
 ber of years preceding his retirement he was one 
 of the proprietors. His death occurred March 25, 
 1894, when he was aged seventy-six. In 1845 he 
 married Ruth M. Hotchkiss, who passed) away Aug. 
 31, 1849, aged twenty-seven. She was the mother 
 of two children, of whom only one is now living, 
 Hiram C, a sketch of whom follows. In 1853 he 
 married Harriet I. Hazzard, who still survives at 
 the age of eighty-four (1902). Hiram H. Taintor 
 was a self-made man, owing his success in life en- 
 tirely to his own efforts. He was of a retiring 
 nature and never held or sought public office. He 
 and his wife attended the Chapel Street Congre- 
 
!36 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 gational Church, and both were highly esteemed 
 members of the community. 
 
 Hiram C. Taintor was born in New Haven 
 March 25, 1849, and was educated in the common 
 schools of that cit}-. Early in life he became con- 
 nected with the Mallory Wheeler Co. and was re- 
 tained in their service some thirty years prior to 
 1900. The company manufactured general house 
 trimmings and their establishment was very ex- 
 tensive, employment being given to some four hun- 
 dred men. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. Taintor married Miss Fanny A. 
 Hjemingway, daughter of Leverett G. and Rachel 
 (Bailey) Hemingway, a sketch of whom appears 
 elsewhere. Mr. and Mrs. Taintor became the par- 
 ents of two children, one of whom survives : Ruth 
 Hotchkiss, born June 25, 1888; Hattie, born Sept. 
 25, 1877, died March 23, 1892. Fraternally Mr. 
 Taintor is a member of Wooster Lodge, No. 79, 
 F. & A. M., of which he 'has been secretary two 
 terms. 
 
 JOHN EDWARD DURAND, deceased. 
 Among the former citizens of Meriden who are most 
 reverently remembered, none have more justly re- 
 ceived regretful testimonials from both public and 
 private friends than the late John Edward Durand. 
 
 Mr. Durand was born April 9, 1833, in this 
 State, which he so dearly loved and ably defended, 
 being a native of the town of Cheshire, New Haven 
 county. He was one of a family of fourteen chil- 
 dren born to George A. and Eunice (Clark) Du- 
 rand, the former of whom was of French descent. 
 George A. Durand was a stone mason by trade, and 
 made his home principally in Cheshire, where he 
 died, a respected citizen and a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 John Edward Durand attended school only up 
 to the age of eleven years, at which time he went to 
 Meriden from his Cheshire home, entering the em- 
 ploy of his brother, with whom he remained for six 
 years, engaged at the carpenter's and joiner's trade. 
 During this period he was constantly making plans 
 by which he could become more thoroughly educat- 
 ed, saving enough from his small wages to enable 
 him to attend a select school in the Hanover Dis- 
 trict for one year. At the age of seventeen he went 
 to Waterbury, and there secured employment in a 
 sash and blind factory, where he continued for sev- 
 enteen years. It was while so occupied that the 
 urgent call was made for troops to quell what was 
 at first hoped would be only a small rebellion, and, 
 with other brave and loyal men, Mr. Durand laid 
 aside his tools to take up the musket. On July 16, 
 1862, he enlisted as a soldier in Company C, 14th 
 Conn. V. I., and went to the front under Capt. Sam- 
 uel W. Carpenter, participating with his regiment 
 in the battles of South INIountain, Sept. 14, 1862 ; 
 Antietam, Sept. 19, 1862; Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 
 18/12 ; and Belle Plain Landing, where he was seri- 
 ously injured. While he was on the deck of a 
 transport taking out Government stores a heavy 
 
 sack fell from the top deck, crushmg hira Al- 
 though seriously crippled, Mr. Durand bravely 
 struggled along, marching sixteen miles m his in- 
 jured condition, and when exhaustion compelled 
 him to give up he was carried three miles by his 
 comrades. His injuries made it necessary for him 
 to go to the hospital, and he was sent to the Camp- 
 bell hospital, in Washington, later being transferred 
 to the Lincoln hospital ; he was finally discharged 
 on account of disability, April 12, 1863. 
 
 Mr. Durand never fully recovered from his in- 
 juries, although soon after his return home he went 
 back to his former business, remaining with his old 
 firm until 1867. He spent one year in the clock fac- 
 tory in Waterbury, and in 1868 came to Meriden. 
 When the Steam Mill Lumber Co. was organized 
 he was not only a stockholder, but also secretary 
 and treasurer, with Alden Clark as president, and 
 for three years he acted as superintendent of the 
 mill. Later Mr. Durand started on the road as rep- 
 resentative of C. P. Colt, selling drugs and medi- 
 cines, and spent three years in that line, traveling 
 all over the State. In 1874 he embarked in the real- 
 estate business, and for twenty years was the capa- 
 ble and reliable agent of William Ratcliff Hicks, 
 the well-known lawyer and real estate dealer of 
 Meriden. Mr. Durand was the first pension agent 
 in Meriden, and was long a notary public. Though 
 naturally an active man, declining health, caused by 
 his army life, made retirement a necessity, and he 
 spent his last days without business responsibility. 
 His death occurred July 29, 1899 ,and he was buried 
 in the Brockett cemetery, at A¥aterbury, Connecti- 
 cut. 
 
 Mr. Durand was a member of the Baptist 
 Church, having been converted and baptized by 
 Rev. Harvey Miller, at the age of fifteen years. At 
 that time he joined the Center Baptist Church. On 
 his return from Waterbury he united with the Main 
 Street Church. Perhaps no man was ever more op- 
 posed to the use of tobacco and strong liquors, and 
 he never made use of either by precept and ex- 
 ample constantly preaching temperance. His fra- 
 ternal connections were with Meridian Lodge, No. 
 77, A. F. & A. M. ; Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R., 
 of Meriden; and the Knights of the Golden Eagle; 
 and he was also a member of Hawley's Division of 
 the Sons of Temperance, in Hartford. Although 
 identified with the Republican party he never sought 
 political honors, and was a man of quiet, domestic 
 habits, who loved the privacy of his own home. 
 
 On June 4, 1854, John Edward Durand was' 
 united in marriage, by Rev. Harvey Miller, a well- 
 known Baptist minister, to Miss Roxana Sophia 
 Root, who was born in Waterbury, Conn., daughter 
 of the late Mathew D. and Roxana (Potter) Root, 
 the former of whom was born in New Marlboro, 
 Mass., coming to Connecticut when still a young 
 man. Locating in Waterbury, Mr. Root became a 
 large land owner and farmer, and there passed the 
 balance of his days, d5dng Sept. 11, 1884; he was 
 buried in the Brockett cemetery, Waterbury. Mrs. 
 
^/U^ti^^i^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 '■37 
 
 Roxana (Potter) Root was a daughter of Rev. 
 Samuel Potter and his good wife Chloe (Brockett), 
 both of whom came from old and honored families 
 in the Naugatuck A^alley, extended mention of 
 whom may be found elsewhere. Seven children 
 were born to J\Ir. and j\Irs. Root : Eliza E., who 
 married James Pierpont Langdon, of New Bruns- 
 wick, N. J., both now deceased; Jane C, who died 
 unmarried Jan. 30, 1901 ; Joseph S., who died at the 
 age of forty-two years ; Roxana S., widow of our 
 subject; Miss jMarietta E., who resides with Mrs. 
 Durand; Edmund Silvanus, who died Dec. 30, 1862, 
 while in the service of his country; and Edwin IM., 
 who married Bessie Parsons, and resides in iMeri- 
 den. The beloved mother of this family passed 
 away Dec. 27, 1893, and she rests in the Brockett 
 cemetery in Waterbury. 
 
 Mrs. Durand is well known in Aleriden and en- 
 joys the esteem of' all. Her devotion to her invalid 
 husband for years is known to all, and while it dis- 
 played natural affection it also exemplified the high- 
 est traits of Christian character. As a member of 
 the ]\Iain Street Baptist Church, she is a helper in all 
 its charitable and benevolent work, and is one of the 
 charter members of the \^'oman"s Relief Corps of 
 this city. 
 
 EMILY JOSEPHINE LEONARD, a ripe 
 scholar and eminent botanist, whose death occurred 
 at her home in Meriden on July 16, 1884, at the 
 early age of forty-seven years, was one of the dis- 
 timguished characters of that city, and in her ac- 
 complishments its citizens took a just pride. 
 
 Miss Leonard was born Aug. 21, 1837, in 
 Stoughton, I\Iass., daughter of Jonathan J. Leon- 
 ard, a strong-minded Quaker who in the early fif- 
 ties came to Meriden and engaged in business. As 
 a school girl Miss Leonard was pre-eminent, not 
 only in her studies, but in the ease with which she 
 mastered them. In 1878 she took the higher of the 
 Harvard examinations for women. For several years 
 she was engaged in teaching the higher branches 
 in high schools and academies, and as a teacher she 
 attained marked success, but in 1877 abandoned 
 teaching for the wider fields of literature and, with- 
 out in the least neglecting her severe studies, de- 
 voted the rest of her life to writing, lecturing and 
 translating. 
 
 Finding the "History of Political Economy in 
 Europe," by Blanqui, professor in the College of 
 France, of great benefit to her in her researches, it 
 occurred to her that an English translation of it 
 might be of benefit to American and English stu- 
 dents, and she subsequently translated the great 
 work, which was issued from the press of the Put- 
 nams in 1889. The same thought had occurred to 
 that eminent political economist, David A. Wells, 
 who in a letter to Dr. Davis, written soon after Miss 
 Leonard's death, thus compliments the gifted trans- 
 lator: "The work, as it stands to-day, is a monu- 
 ment to her memory, and a most gratifying evi- 
 
 dence of the ability of American women to grapple 
 with a department of knowledge which most men 
 confess is beyond their capability." The commen- 
 dation of Prof. Dunbar, of Harvard University, 
 was no less complimentary : 'T feel that you are 
 to be congratulated upon the opportunity to do a 
 good piece of work, and upon the success with 
 which you have accomplished it. I only wish that 
 you had gone further and worked up a chapter iir 
 two of your own to fill the gap between Blanqui's 
 time and your own, and to complete his meagre 
 reference to several writers." Prof. Foxwell, of 
 Cambridge, does not hesitate to say that, in one 
 'respect the translation is better than the original, 
 viz., "it is more terse." Miss Leonard excelled as 
 a translator. At the time of her death she was en- 
 gaged in translating for Lalor's Cyclopaedia of Po- 
 litical Economy ; and Prof. Lalor paid her the fol- 
 lowing high compliment: "You are the only person 
 i can trust with a translation without the least hes- 
 itation," and in saying to another, "The papers were 
 the only ones that went to the printers untouched 
 by me." But ^liss Leonard did not satisfy herself 
 with translating. She was a talented, original 
 writer, and could all the papers which she wrote on 
 economic questions be collected they would form a 
 volume. She was also one of the ablest and stanch- 
 est advocates of women's rights, and could all the 
 articles she wrote and addresses delivered by her 
 upon the political enfranchisement of women be 
 collected they would form another large volume. 
 
 jMiss Leonard was eminent as a botanist, and 
 was a correspondent with Professors Gray, Eaton 
 and Babb, all of whom acknowledged her great 
 ability. She was an original and independent ex- 
 plorer in the botanical field. As her biographer 
 justly savs of her: "With rare perseverance whole 
 davs were sometimes spent in searching for a single 
 specimen." When the Meriden Scientific Associa- 
 tion was organized in 1880 she was selected as di- 
 rector of the botanical section. Before the organiza- 
 tion of this association she had begun a "Catalogue 
 of the Phaenogamous and Vascular Cryptogamous 
 Plants Found Growing in Meriden." In 1885, 
 though incomplete, .t was published by the associa- 
 tion in the first volume of its transactions. In it 
 749 distinct species were enumerated, many of which 
 are not found in the work of the Berzelius Society, 
 all classified in the most systematic and scientific 
 manner, reflecting great honor upon its learned 
 author. 
 
 The estimation in which Miss Leonard was held 
 by the association is attested by the resolutions 'pre- 
 sented by Mr. Pettee July 21, i88s, and by the ex- 
 ercises of the memorial meeting Sept. 8, at which 
 addresses were made on the character, scholarship 
 and literary labors of Miss Leonard. The life of 
 Miss Emily J. Leonard has since been published, 
 ably and tenderly written by her niece, Aliss Georgia 
 Louise Leonard, of Washington, D. C. — a biogra- 
 phy which should not only be read by all members 
 
238 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of the Meriden Scientific Association, but by all 
 Meriden people who had a just pride in acquaint- 
 ance with this remarkable woman. Many of her 
 own townsmen were not aware how great a scholar 
 they had among them. 
 
 In the language of Mrs. J. D. Pettee, at the 
 memorial meeting: "The habit of thought, and 
 some of the views she entertained, led her inito 
 channels remote from ordinary individuals ; and 
 yet, it was not her fault, it was our own, if we lost 
 sight of her as she strode on before us in the paths 
 of investigation. And if she sometimes found her- 
 self without companionship, what wonder ! It has 
 always been the case with those who search beyond 
 the bounds of commonly received ideas. If while 
 with us, she failed to perceive as much divinity in 
 the commonly received theories as some, who shall 
 say that God did not reveal himself in the laws 
 which Hie ordained for the government of all things, 
 material and immaterial?" 
 
 JEREMIAH SMITH. Early in the year 1850 
 an industrious and far-sighted man started in a 
 small way, in the business of oyster culture, em- 
 ploying for this purpose the waters surrounding a 
 point of land belonging to an estate which had long 
 been the property of his fore-fathers. In Jeremiah 
 Smith, the city of New Haven had a pioneer in this 
 business of much more than the average experi- 
 ence, intelligence and ability. Although he pos- 
 sessed neither the machinery nor the modern meth- 
 ods of this business, it was not long before the 
 waves of Long Island sound in his vicinity covered 
 vast beds of oyster seed, which here found congenial 
 surroundings, and in time well repaid the efforts 
 of the patient and skilled farmer. From that be- 
 ginning has been developed one of the largest oyster 
 farming enterprises in the United States, its vener- 
 able founder still remaining at the head of the well- 
 known firm of Jeremiah Smith & Sons, oyster 
 farmers. Oyster Point, New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 The Smith family from which Jeremiah Smith 
 of New Haven descended, came to New England 
 from England about 1638, at the time of the found- 
 ing of this city and was one of the original plant- 
 ers — one of the Eaton colony. George Smith, the 
 settler, received a grant of land from that colony, 
 of all that tract which is known as City, or Oyster 
 Point, this being located in the extreme southern 
 part, washed by the waters of Long Island Sound. 
 The line of descent of Jeremiah is through George 
 (the settler), Nathan, Andrew, Andrew (2), Eli 
 and Harry, all of these having been residents of 
 West Haven, where they died and are buried. 
 
 Grandfather Eli Smith was a farmer in West 
 Haven, who bravely bore his musket during the 
 Revolutionary war, of which he was a pensioner, 
 owned large tracts of land of Connecticut, and lived 
 until a good old age, a man of prominence and sub- 
 stance. 
 
 Harrv Smith, son of Eli, and the father of 
 
 Jeremiah Smith of the Oyster Point industry, was 
 born also in West Haven, and became a sea-faring 
 man, returning in his age to pass his last days in 
 his West Haven home. His marriage was to Grace, 
 a daughter of Jeremiah Smith, of another branch 
 of the family, in West Haven, and they had a fam- 
 ily of nine childiren: aiarlotte, Willis, Lydia, 
 Elizabeth, Jeremiah, Harriet, Maria, Louisa and 
 George H., and of this family the three sons, Jere- 
 miah, Willis and George all became interested in the 
 oyster business, as growers. 
 
 Jeremiah Smith was born May 11, 1824, in the 
 home of his ancestors in West Haven. Early in life 
 he followed the example of his father, and became 
 a sea-faring man, engaging in the coasting trade and 
 also going with the trading vessels which carried 
 freight to the West Indies. As early as the age of 
 sixteen, the sails and spars of the vessels were 
 familiar to him, and he continued in this adventur- 
 ous life, sailing to the West Indian ports and touch- 
 ing at those in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as along 
 the Atlantic coast until he was twenty-five years old. 
 In 1850, as mentioned above, Mr. Smith embarked 
 in the oyster business, as a grower, purchasing 
 southern seed oysters, and planting them along the 
 beach, in shallow water, near New Haven. Few 
 others had been venturesome enough to attempt this 
 new business, and many of those who later engaged 
 in it in this locality, totallv failed, on account of a 
 lack of those qualities which made the enterprise of 
 Mr. Smith succeed and prosper. For a half century 
 i\Ir. Smith engaged in the business actively, but it 
 now has been resigned in favor of his two energetic 
 and most capable sons, Elwood H. and William H. 
 Smith, the firm style of Jeremiah Smith & Sons, still 
 being retained. The business has grown to im- 
 mense proportions, the demand for the delicious bi- 
 valves raised at Oyster Point being far beyond the 
 supply, although IMessrs. Smith employ from 150 to 
 200 hands, have five steamers of their own and hire 
 as many more, and occupy 5,000 acres of land. The 
 business is conducted on the basis of excellence, and 
 the firm name is a guaranty all over LTnited States. 
 The venerable founder has reached his seventy- 
 eighth year, and although this pioneer in the oyster 
 planting business no longer assumes responsibility 
 in it, his intelligent interest remains, and he is justly 
 proud of the progress made in what at one time re- 
 quired his close and fostering care. 
 
 On Jan. 18, 1848, Jeremiah Smith was united 
 in marriage with Miss Hannah Sampson, who was 
 a daughter of Clark and Mercy (Hamilton) Samp- 
 son, both of whom were natives of New Salem, 
 Mass., the former being a son of Jacob Sampson, 
 of English extraction, a member of one of the very 
 early families in New Englar.d. A family of five 
 children was born to Mr. and Mrs. Smith : El- 
 wood H. ; William H. ; Louisa, who died at the age 
 of nineteen years-, 3,Iary, who married Rev. George 
 E. Nichols ; and Nellie, who married Edward Man- 
 ville, of New Haven. In his earlier years Mr. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 239 
 
 Smith was a stanch Whig, and later became just 
 as strong a supporter of the RepubHcan party. 
 
 Elwood H. Smith was born April 6, 1849, ""^ 
 West Haven, and he was two years of age when 
 his parents moved to New Haven, where he grew 
 to maturity, being educated in the public schools of 
 this city, notably the Webster school, and later tak- 
 ing a practical course in the United States Business 
 College. In 1872, he engaged with his father in the 
 oyster business, and has continued in that line ever 
 since. He was married Oct. 18, 1875, to Miss Ella 
 Bouton, a daughter of Seth S. Bouton, of New Hav- 
 en, and to them have been born four children : 
 Daisy, who married W. K. Newport, of New 
 Haven; Lula; Elmer E., who is a bookkeeper for 
 the firm ; and M. Leon. Mr. Smith built the home 
 on Howard avenue where he lives. Like his father 
 he is an earnest Republican, as well as a capable 
 man of business. 
 
 William H. Smith was born April 21, 1855, in 
 New Haven, where he received his schooling. He 
 attended the public schools and Stiles French's pri- 
 vate school. When but a young man he went to 
 St. Louis, where he was bookkeeper for the Nono- 
 tuck Silk Co. Subsequently returning East, he be- 
 came the European representative of the firm, of 
 which he later became a member. He was retained 
 for four seasons in that capacity, and in 1883 became 
 a member of the firm, and has since continued as 
 such. On Nov. 10, 1881, he married, in New Haven, 
 Miss Lizzie M. Hanson, daughter of C. B. Hanson. 
 Mr. Smith has two daughters, Jennie L. and Edna 
 E. In political matters his sympathy is with the 
 Republican party. He resides in Howard avenue, 
 where he built an excellent home. 
 
 NATHAN PRATT, a son of. Deacon Phineas 
 Pratt, and a brother of the late Julius Pratt, of 
 Meriden, Conn., was born Feb. 4, 1772, in Saybrook, 
 Conn., and was a goldsmith by occupation. His 
 quiet, sober and virtuous life was spent in Essex, 
 Conn., where he died in old age. His wife, whom 
 he married Jan. 3, 1796, was Elizabeth Spencer, of 
 Deep River, Connecticut. 
 
 Aaron Pratt, son of Nathan, was born in Essex, 
 Feb. 23, 1806, and there grew to manhood and at- 
 tended the district schools. In early manhood he 
 came to Meriden, and became engaged in business 
 with his uncle Julius, in comb-making, finally be- 
 coming a member of the firm of Julius Pratt & Co., 
 this being a leading concern for a number of years. 
 The balance of his life was spent in Meriden, where 
 he died, in 1869, in the month of May, at the age 
 of sixty-three, and his remains lie in East cemetery. 
 Although Mr. Pratt was always interested in civic 
 and public affairs and was an ardent Whig, he 
 was no office seeker, his political ambition only 
 reaching as far as good citizenship. Temperate in 
 all his habits, full of domestic virtues, he was also 
 a valued member of the First Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 The first marriage of Mr. Pratt occurred Nov. 
 ,27, 1832, Elizabeth A. (Betsey) Johnson becoming 
 his wife. She died in Meriden, and was buried also 
 in East cemetery. The three children of this union 
 were: Elizabeth A. (deceased) who was the wife 
 of James Hinsdale; Rebecca Maria, who died 
 young ; and Aaron Johnson, who died in the service 
 of his country. 
 
 On May 8, 1866, Mr. Pratt was married to Miss 
 Lura Ward, of Middletown, a daughter of Ezra 
 and Ann (Shaw) Ward. No children were born 
 to this union. 
 
 Mrs. Pratt resides in Meriden, where she is well 
 known and highly respected, a valued member of 
 the First Congregational Church, prominent in char- 
 itable and benevolent work, and a refining factor in 
 the city's social life. 
 
 LUCIUS PERKINS SPERRY is one of the 
 much esteemed and widely known citizens of the 
 beautiful city of New Haven, where he has spent 
 many years of 'his life, and built up a reputation for 
 efficiency in his line of work second to none in the 
 community. He comes from an old Connecticut 
 family who for several generations have flourished 
 in the town of Woodbridge. 
 
 Roger Sperry, his grandfather, was born in 
 Woodhridge, and followed his trade of cooper. He 
 married the estimable daughter of a neighboring 
 farmer and reared two children, Burton and Mar- 
 vin, the former of whom was the father of our 
 subject, the latter was, until his decease, a well- 
 known shoemaker of Bethany. 
 
 Burton Sperry, the father of subject, was born 
 in the family homestead in Woodbridge, March 26, 
 1804, and after reaching the age of thirteen years, 
 went to Bethany, where he began to learn the trade 
 of shoemaker and also the tanning business, the 
 two lines being often associated in those days. In 
 Bethany he married Elizabeth Perkins, daughter of 
 tanner Archibald Abner Perkins, who was a son of 
 Archibald Perkins, a hotel keeper of the village, his 
 death occurring in 1890, and' that of his wife on 
 May 30, 1881. Mr. Sperry became a very promin- 
 ent man in his locality, and represented his district 
 in the Legislature in 1843, being sent there by the 
 Democratic party, of which he was an active mem- 
 ber. In his religious faith, he was of Universalist 
 belief, and was one of the most worthy of men. ' 
 To the parents of our subject were born four chil- 
 dren : Lucius Perkins ; Elizabeth ; Sarah, who 
 married Burr Jay Davis, of Owego, N. Y. ; and 
 Charles, who was drowned at the age of two years. 
 
 Lucius Perkins Sperry was born in Woodbridge, 
 Conn., Dec. 18, 1827, and grew up in Bethany, 
 where he attended school, coming to New Haven 
 in the sjnhtg of 1845. As soon as located in this 
 city, Mr. Sperry learned the mason building trade 
 and has always found plenty to do in his line", grad- 
 ually receiving larger and more im.portant contracts 
 as he became better known, and the public found 
 
240 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that his work was stich as stood the test of time. 
 In November, 1854, ]\Ir, Sperry went to Daven- 
 port, Iowa, and engaged in business for a year. In 
 the winter of 1855-56 he returned to Connecticut, 
 and in the spring located in Florence, Neb., where 
 he built his first home, his wife joining him there 
 in the fall. After some four years residence there, 
 he moved to Denver, later to Central City, where 
 for six years he was interested in mining. On Jan. 
 I, 1867, he returned to New Haven, where he has 
 since remiained. He engaged in mason building 
 with Lvman B. Bunnell for about twenty-five years, 
 then for a short time was alone, and later his son, 
 Lucius B., was associated with him. Mr. Sperry is 
 now gradually retiring from the cares of business. 
 
 The marriage of our subject was on Jan. 29, 
 1856, to Emily Chatfield, who was born in Oxford, 
 a daughter of Enos and Roxy Sperry Chatfield, also 
 of Oxford, and four children were born to this un- 
 ion ; (i) Delia F. is deceased. (2) Frederick A., 
 engaged in the agricultural advertising business, 
 resides in Oak Park, 111. ; he married first Fanny 
 Draper, who died leaving two children — Donald and 
 Frederick. He married, second, Grace Draper, and 
 they have one child, Jennett Chatfield. (3) Julia. 
 (4) Lucius B., associated in business with his father, 
 married j\'Iaude Davis, of New Haven, and has two 
 children, Ruth and Everett. 
 
 In his political belief our subject favors the 
 Democratic party in national affairs, but in local 
 matters reserves the right to be independent. So- 
 cially he is connected with Trumbull Lodge, No. 
 22, F. & A. ^I. In religious matters Mr. Sperry 
 and his children are Universalists, while Mrs. 
 Sperry is a member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 HARLEY HALL, grandfather of Eugene A. 
 Hall, of Meriden, and son of Comfort and Jemima 
 (Bacon) Hall, was born in the town of Middletown, 
 Conn., March 21, 1799, and died in Middlefield, 
 Conn., April 24, 1874, at the age of seventy-five 
 years. On June 8, 1828, he married Martha Cone 
 Hall, who was born in East Haddam, April 3, 1805, 
 and died in Meriden April 20, 1880. She was a 
 daughter of William H^U (direct descendant of 
 John Hall, of Boston, 1633, and Hartford, 1635, 
 and original proprietor of Middletown, 1650) and 
 Martha Cone, a daughter of Sylvanus Cone, of East 
 Haddam, a Revolutionary soldier, and a direct de- 
 scendant of Daniel Cone, original proprietor of 
 Haddam, 1662. To .Harley and Martha Cone 
 (Hall) Hall were born : (i) Sophia Fidelia, April 6, 
 1829, is the wife of Judge Levi E. Coe, president 
 of the Meriden Savings Bank and Meriden National 
 Bank. (2) Norman Cone, Dec. 31, 1832, married 
 Nov. 13, 1853, Harriet Elizabeth Redfield, a daugh- 
 ter of Roswell and Harriot (Stone) Redfield, and 
 died Feb. 24, 1892, at Meriden. (3) Betsey New- 
 ton, Oct. 18, 1836, married Nov. 17, 1853, Leman 
 W. Cook and died April 9, 1895, at New Haven. 
 
 (4) Rufus, born at ;Middlefield Oct. 3, 1839, was 
 the youngest of the familv. 
 
 Rufus Hall was educated in the district schools 
 and assisted his father on the farm. Leaving home 
 when nineteen years of age he engaged in the meat 
 business in Portland, Aliddlefield and Wallingford. 
 In i860 he moved to jMeriden, and the next year 
 v/ent into the grocery business with his brother,. 
 Norman C. Hall, under the firm name of Norman 
 C. Hall & Co. In 1870 he sold out his interest to 
 his brother and formed a partnership with Charles 
 Grether in the market business under the name of 
 Grether & Hall ; later buving out Mr. Grether he 
 continued the business for several years, but finally 
 sold out to his former partner and returned to the 
 grocery trade with his brother. In 1884 he again 
 engaged in the meat business, continuing his market 
 until his death from pneumonia at Meriden, Feb. 3, 
 1901. His remains rest in Indian Hill Cemetery, 
 Middletown. 
 
 On April 25, 1859, Rufus Hall wedded Esther 
 Asenath Grover, of Middletown, and their union 
 was blessed with two children : Effie Maria, born 
 March 13, i860, died March i, 1862; and Eugene 
 Ashley, born Aug. 7, 1865. Esther Asenath (Gro- 
 ver) Hall was born at Middletown, Conn., Jan. 2, 
 1837, and died in Aleridien Dec. 18, 1891, and is 
 buried in Indian Hill Cemetery, at Middletown. She 
 was a daughter of Arden and Sarah Maria (Clark) 
 Grover, the former a son of Oliver and Asenath 
 (Eaton) Grover, and a grandson of John and Abi- 
 gail (Flint) Grover, and the latter a daughter of 
 Daniel Clark, a Revolutionary soldier. Asenath 
 (Eaton) Grover was a descendant of William 
 Eaton, of Watertown, ^lass., 1642; and Abigail 
 (Flint) Grover traced her line to Thomas Flin.', 
 Salem, Mass., 1650. 
 
 Eugene Ashley Hall, son of Rufus and Esther 
 Asenath (Grover) Hall, was born Aug. 7, 1865, in 
 Meriden, Conn., where he has ever since resided; 
 He entered the employ of the Meriden Savings 
 Bank in 1883 and remained until after the death 
 of his father, when he resigned the position of tel- 
 ler to devote his whole attention to the business es- 
 tablished by his father. He is a trustee and direc- 
 tor of the Meriden Savings Bank : a member of the 
 board of trustees of the Connecticut School for 
 Boys, and secretary and treasurer of said board 
 since 1897 ; treasurer of the Connecticut State Ag- 
 ricultural Society ; treasurer of the Meriden Agri- 
 cultural Society ; treasurer of the town of Meriden ;. 
 past master and present treasurer of Meridian 
 Lodge, No. yj, A. F. & A. M. ; past high priest of 
 Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; past T. I. mas- 
 ter Hamilton Council, No. 22, R. & S. M. ; eminent 
 commander of St. Elmo Commandery, No. 9, 
 Knights Templar ; a thirty-second degree Mason 
 and a member of Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine,, 
 of Bridgeport. 
 
 On Dec. 15, 1897, Eugene Ashley HaU wedded 
 
RUFUS HALL. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 241 
 
 Edna Adele Mix, daughter of ex-Senator John Wal- 
 ter Mix, of Yalesville, and his wife, Kate Urana 
 Wallace. To Mr. and Mrs. Hall have come 
 two children : Fanny, born Nov. 15, 1898; and Edna, 
 born Feb. 3, 1900. Ex-Senator John Walter Mix, 
 present collector of the port of New Haven, is a 
 direct descendant of Thomas Mix, of New Haven, 
 1643, and a son of John and Eliza (Merriman) 
 Mix, of whom the latter is a daughter of Albert 
 Merriman, a Revolutionary soldier. Kate Urana 
 (Wallace) M,ix is a daughter of Franklin and 
 Fanny (Hall) Wallace, of Cheshire, the latter a 
 daughter of Lyman and Milla Hall, both direct de- 
 scendants of John Hall, of Wallingford. Benjamin 
 Hall, father of Lyman, was a soldier in the Rev- 
 olution. 
 
 SAXTON BAILEY LITTLE, of Meriden, is of 
 the seventh generation in descent from Thomas 
 Little, who came to Plymouth, Mass., from Devon- 
 shire, England, in 1630. In 1633 he married Ann 
 Warren, a daughter of Richard Warren, who came 
 over in the "Mayflower," followed, in 1623, by .his 
 wife and five children, who crossed in the "Fort- 
 tune." In 1650 Thomas Little purchased 1,000 acres 
 of land in East Marshfield, and built a house still 
 occupied by his descendants. By profession he was 
 a lawyer, and his death occurred in 1671. His chil- 
 dren were: Thom.as, Samuel, Ephraim, Isaac, 
 Ruth, Mercy and Patience. Thomas Little, the emi- 
 grant, possessed a coat of arms. 
 
 (II) Ephraim Little, third son of Thomas, was 
 born in 1650, and died in 1717, aged sixty-seven 
 years. He married Mary Sturtevant in 1671, and 
 they had children as follows: Ephraim, Ruth, 
 David, John, Ann and Mary. 
 
 (III) John Little, Esq., son of Ephraim, was 
 born in 1681, and died in 1767, aged eighty-six 
 years. ' He was a magistrate, and extensive land 
 holder and owned several negro slaves. His wife 
 was Constant FoAes, of Little Compton, R. I. His 
 will distributes his property among his children as 
 follows: To John, a farm in the north part of 
 Lebanon, Conn., now called Columbia ; to William, 
 a farm in the south part of Lebanon ; to Ephraim, 
 Thomas and Lemuell, each a farm in East 
 Marshfield; to Forbes, a farm in Little Compton, 
 R. I., to each of his daughters, Ann White and 
 Ruth Oakman, he gave with other personal proper- 
 ty, a negro woman. 
 
 (IV) John Little, son of John, Esq., was born 
 in 1714, and died in 1798, aged eighty-four years. 
 In 1740 he married Mary Simpson, who died F&b. 
 22, 1810. Their tombstones are near the entrance 
 of the old cemetery in Columbia. It was in 1740 
 or 1 741 that John Little moved to Columbia, and 
 there his children were born between 1741 and 1763. 
 They were as follows: Gamalial, Otis, Consider, 
 Mary, John, Elizabeth, Priscilla, Faith, Charles and 
 Elvira. 
 
 (V) Consider Little, son of John and grand'father 
 
 16 
 
 of Saxton B. Little, was born in 1746, and died Aug. 
 3, 183 1, aged eighty-five years. He married Re- 
 becca Buckingham, who was born May, 1751, and 
 died Oct.' 25, 1825. Their children were as fol- 
 lows: Samuel, born Aug. 18, 1774, died Sept. 22, 
 
 1853, aged seventy-nine; Mary, born Feb. 7, 1776, 
 died Aug. 12, 1853, aged seventy-seven; Sarah, born 
 Dec. 29, 1777, died July 23, 1853, aged seventy-six; 
 Re!becca, born June 17, 1779, married Eleazer 
 Dewey; Fanny, bom March 2, 17S1, died Sept. 12, 
 1794, aged thirteen; Levi, born Dec. i, 1783, died 
 
 1854, aged seventy-one; George, born March 26, 
 1788, died April 5, 1864, aged seventy-six; Lydia, 
 born March 26, 1797, died June 20, 1797, aged three 
 months. 
 
 VI) Samuel Little, son of Consider, born Aug. 
 18, 1774, learned the hatter's trade. When he at- 
 tained his majority, his whole property consisted of 
 a colt, which he sold for $30. By industry and 
 economy, he sent two of his five sons to Yale, and 
 divided among them a farm of 350 acres. He mar- 
 ried first in 1801, Levina Richardson, and their 
 three children were: Levina, born May 11, 1802, 
 died May 24, 1807, aged five years; Samuel, born 
 March 6, 1804, died Feb. 8, 1876, aged seventy-two ; 
 and Anson, born June 20, 1806, died Sept. 15, 1895, 
 aged eighty-nine. On June 23, 1808, Samuel Little 
 married for his second wife, Jerusha Bailey, daugh- 
 ter of Saxton and Lois (Hunt) Bailey. By this 
 marriage there were four children : Emily, born 
 April 27, 1809, died June 14, 1830, aged twenty-one; 
 Saxton Bailey, born April 19, 1813; William Buck- 
 ingham, born June 6, 1815, died Dec. 16, 1897, aged 
 eighty-two; and Charles, born Sept. 26, 1818, died 
 in Lincoln, Neb., Aug. 19, 1892, aged seventy-four. 
 
 (VII) Samuel Little, Jr., son of Samuel Little, 
 and Levina Richardson, born March 6, 1804, mar- 
 ried, first. Amy Pinneo, Dec. 29, 1829; she died Dec. 
 20, 1831. He married second Clarissa Pinneo, May, 
 1840, who died Jan. 7, 1863. He died Feb. 8, 1876, 
 aged seventy-two. His children were : James Pin- 
 neo, born March 2, 1831, died Oct. 12, 1833; Emily 
 Jerusha, born Aug. 28, 1842, died March 4, 1893. 
 
 (VII) Anson Little, son of Samuel Little and 
 Levina Richardson, born in Columbia, June 20, 1806, 
 graduated from Yale in 1827. He studied law, and 
 was clerk of the District Court in New York. In 
 1833 he married Lucy Ann Wells, and he died in 
 Hebron, Conn., Sept. 15, 1895, aged eighty-nine; 
 she died in Hebron June 5, 1882, aged seventy-five. 
 Of their children John was born May 12, 1839 ; and 
 George Anson, born April 2, 1845, died Feb. 2, 
 1862, aged seventeen years. 
 
 (VII) William Buckingham Little, son of Sam- 
 uel, born June 6, 1815, married May 19, 1841, Har- 
 riet Palmer, who was born Feb. i, 18 19. Their 
 children were: fi) Myron Winslow, iborn Oct. 
 II, 1842, married Emily A. Wright, daughter of 
 George Wright, Nov. 15, 1869, and their children 
 were: Louis, born April 29, 1873; Grace, born 
 i\Iav 28, 1874, married Tressilian Tucker ; Cora 
 
242 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Palmer, bom Oct. i, 1876, married Henry Hutch- 
 ins, May 14, 1901 ; and William E., born Oct. 22, 
 1879. (2) Elliott Palmer, born July 3, 1844, died 
 June 3, 1855. (3) Hubert, born Nov. 14, 1848, 
 married first Alice Brown, of Columbia, Nov. 14, 
 1871; she died May 20, 1877; and Sept. 19, 1878, 
 he married Martha E. Williams, of Meriden, who 
 was born Jan. 24, 1856. His children were: Flora 
 Edith, born Nov. 18, 1872, in Meriden, died Jan. 14, 
 1875 ; Clayton Everett, born Dec. 19, 1874, died 
 March 27, 1875 '> Clinton Egbert, born May 8, 1877 ; 
 Edna May, born June 28, 1879, died April 9, 1883 ; 
 Thomas Saxton, jjorn Nov. 27, 1882, died May 12, 
 1883; Harold Saxton, born July 7, 1884; and Bur- 
 ton Elbert, born May 4, 1890, died Oct. 30, 1891. 
 (4) Alonzo, born April 17, 1851, married Harriet 
 Isham; they have no children. (5) Elbert Cornel- 
 ius, born Oct. 24, 1853, married first Annie Dewey, 
 who died in Norwich, Conn., Dec. 6, 1881, of con- 
 sumption ; and second Luella Hale ; their child, Lyn- 
 den, was born March 9, 1894. (6) Prescott Palmer, 
 born in Columbia, Sept. 15, 1856, married Eliza 
 Ford Clark July 12, 1882. She was born in 1861, 
 and died Jan. 4, 1895. Their children: Herman 
 Clark, born July 15, 1884; Joseph Prescott, born 
 F^b. 13, 1886; and Edith Lucy, Jjorn May 5, 1891. 
 (7) Payson Elliott, born Aug. 31, 1859, married 
 Emma Bascom, of Columbia, Sept. 24, 1882, and 
 their one son, Homer, was born Aug. 3, 1884. (8) 
 Anna Maria, born June 23, 1846, died Oct. 25, 1855, 
 aged nine years. 
 
 (VH) Charles Little, son of Samuel and Jerusha 
 Bailey Little, born Sept. 26, 1818, was graduated 
 from Yale in 1844. He studied theology at Au- 
 burn, N. Y., and at New Haven, and was ordained 
 in Columbia in 1847. He married first in 1847, 
 Amelia Newton, and sailed for India the same year. 
 Landing at Madras, they rode in a palanquin, 180 
 miles to Madura, where his wife died in 1848, aged 
 twenty-five years. He returned to America in 1852 
 and married Susan Robins in 1853. They started 
 for Madura in the fall of that year, but her health 
 failed and they returned, reaching New York, Feb. 
 4, i860. In 1868 he became Pastor of the First 
 Congregational Church in Lincoln, Neb. No rail- 
 road had reached Lii^coln at that time, and the lum- 
 ber to build his house was carted fifty miles. The 
 failure of his health caused him to give up preach- 
 ing, September, 1888. He died at his son's home 
 an Lincoln, Aug. 19, 1892. He was a bright, pure- 
 •minded boy, and a noble, Christian man. His chil- 
 dren were : Samuel Robbins, born in Madura, In- 
 dia, Sept. 21, 1855, now deceased; Amelia Newton, 
 born in India, March 21, 1857, died Dec. 10, 1857; 
 Charles Newton, born in India May 14, 1858, is a 
 fine scholar and has been professor in the State Uni- 
 versity in Minneapolis, and in Leland Stanford Uni- 
 versity, California; Elizabeth, born in Cheshire, 
 Conn., Jan. 12, 1863, married Mr. Adamson, has 
 two children, and lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. 
 
 (VII) Saxton Bailey Little, son of Samuel 
 
 Little and Jersuha Bailey, was born in Columbia, 
 Conn., April 19, 1813, and on Aug. 21, 1S36, m'ar- 
 ried Sarah Maria Tracy, who was born Oct. 13, 
 1813, daughter of Calvin and Sarah (Loomis) 
 Tracy. She died Dec. 31, 1844, aged thirty-one 
 years, having been a good wife, a faithful mother 
 and a devoted member of the Congregational 
 Church. Her remains rest in the cemetery at Col- 
 umbia. The children born of this union are as fol- 
 lows : ( I ) Charles L., born July 16, 1S39, in Col- 
 umbia, Conn., was married April 23, 1862, to Gene- 
 vieve M. Stiles, of Suffield, Conn., and they have 
 had six children: Sarah Maria, born March 3, 
 1863, married Robert Hubbard, June 24, 1896, and 
 has one child, Genevievej Frank Allen, born Aug. 
 
 30, 1864, was a graduate of Yale Scientific school 
 and died Dec. 26, 1895 ; Arthur Edgerton, who re- 
 sides in Los Angeles, Cal., is the father of two chil- 
 dren, Saxton Bailey and Mildred ; Edward Baxter, 
 born Oct. 26, 1867; Isabelle Annette, born March 
 13, 1869, was married Jan. 17, 1893, to Fred Brown, 
 of Springfield, Mass., and has two children, Dorcas 
 and Kathleen; and Clara Elvira, born March 19, 
 1878. (2) Frank Eugene Little, born April 28, 
 1844, was married Jan. 28, 1868, to Jennie Coan, 
 and they have become the parents of five children: 
 Myra, who died in infancy; Mabel Jennie, born 
 Oct. 2, 1870, married George Baldwin, of Laurel, 
 Md., and is the mother of one child, Elsie; Lena 
 Coan, born Oct. 9, 1876; Charles Eugene, born July 
 
 31, 1878, was in the Spanish-American war; and 
 Ernest Butler, born Jan. 30, 1880. Frank Eugene 
 Little served four years in the Union army during 
 the Civil war, first in the iSth Conn. V. I., and later 
 in the 107th regiment of Colored Troops, in which 
 he held the rank of Major. 
 
 Saxton Bailey Little received his preliminary in- 
 struction in the public schools and completed his 
 studies in Tolland, East Hartford, and Bacon Acad- 
 emies. When sixteen years of age he began teach- 
 ing school. The first fifteen winters he "boarded 
 round," as was the custom in those days. One year 
 he taught in Bacon Academy, two years and a half 
 in Willimantic, three years in Greenville, Norwich, 
 Conn. In 1850 he went to Rockville, Conn., where 
 he taught four years, and where be ended his ser- 
 vices in the public schools. In March, 1854, he was 
 appointed assistant superintendent and teacher in 
 the Connecticut Reform School, and upon the death 
 of the lamented Dr. E. W. Hatch, Feb. 7, 1874, was 
 made acting superintendent. After a continuous 
 service of twenty-one years with the institution, he 
 severed his connection with it July 31, 1895. The 
 trustees in their report to the General Assembly in 
 1874 thus fittingly referred to Mr. Little: "We 
 should fail in our duty if we did not signify to you 
 our high appreciation of the well-applied and faith- 
 ful services of this officer; and to testify that his 
 labors in the position of superintendent and teacher 
 have contributed largely to the success of the 
 school." 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 243 
 
 As might be inferred of one so long associated 
 with the educational interests of Connecticut, Mr. 
 Little is a lover of books and has taken great interest 
 in placing them within the reach of others. He has 
 been an efficient helper in establishing a free public 
 library in Columbia, his old home, and to it he has 
 given $1,500 as a permanent fund, the interest of 
 which only is to be used in purchasing books and 
 in keeping the building in repairs. Mr. Little has 
 also given to the library a thousand volumes. He 
 is an esteemed and highly-valued and much re- 
 spected citizen of Meriden, having in many ways 
 outside of the school room been useful to the city. 
 His religious connections have been with the Con- 
 gregational Church, and in Meriden he is a member 
 of the First Church. 
 
 Mr. Little has filled most efficiently a number 
 of puiblic offices in the town, having been a member 
 of the Common Council of Meriden, served on the 
 high school committee, a trustee of the Y. M. C. A. 
 and has been for many years on the school district 
 committee, and a member of the Board of Educa- 
 tion since school districts have been abolished. 
 Since retiring from the school, he has made a tour 
 of Europe, going as far as Naples and Pompeii. 
 In this country he has travelled extensively, and 
 bas also made himself familiar with various parts of 
 ■Canada by personal observation. The large cities 
 in forty states have been visited by him, including 
 Florida, southern California, the Yosemite, New 
 Orleans Exposition, the Yellowstone Park, Luray 
 and Mammoth Caves, and other points and places of 
 interest. The political affiliations of Mr. Little are 
 with the Republican party. In his personal habits 
 he has been extremely regular, and has never used 
 alcoholic drinks or tobacco. 
 
 JULIUS ELISHA MERRIMAN, who now 
 lives retired from business activity, in his comfort- 
 aible home on Crown street, Meriden, Conn., was 
 born in this town Oct. 10, 1820, and is a descendant 
 of one of the oldest settlers of Wallingford, New 
 Haven county. 
 
 Capt. Nathaniel Merriman was the first of the 
 name found in America. He was born in England 
 in 1614, was in New Haven county as early as 
 1639, and a signer of the Plantation Covenant in 
 that year, and later he became one of the original 
 ■settlers of Wallingford, in 1670. Capt. Merriman 
 was sergeant of the train band, in New Hayen, and 
 lieutenant of it in Wallingford, becoming captain 
 of the troop of dragoons raised in New Haven 
 county. Several times he was a deputy to the Gen- 
 eral Court, and his death occurred Fe'b. 13, 1694, in 
 Wallingford. 
 
 Elisha Merriman, the grandfather of Julius E., 
 of Meriden, was a native of the town of Walling- 
 ford, was twice married, and made his home in Mer- 
 iden, where he died. 
 
 Orrin Merriman, son of Elisha, was born in 
 Meriden, and in his youth learned the trade of shoe- 
 
 maker. While still a young man, he moved to 
 Southington and there engaged in the making of 
 shoe and boot lasts, and there he died, while still 
 in the prime of life, in 1824. Mr. Merriman per- 
 formed a soldier's duty during the war of 1812, 
 and was one of the leading members of the Congre-^ 
 gational Church, a man esteemed by all. He was 
 married in Southington, to Susannah Johnson, who 
 was a native of Southington, but who died in the 
 home of her son, Julius E., in Meriden, where her 
 declining years were made comfortable. Her re- 
 mains rest in West cemetery. Her children were: 
 Julius E. ; and Caroline, who is the widow of R. S. 
 Dowd, and now makes her home in Meriden. 
 
 Julius Elisha Merriman was but four years of 
 age when death rdbbed him of a father's protection. 
 His education was obtained in the district schools, 
 but his schooling was shortened in order that he 
 might become a wage earner, his mother having but 
 small means. When but fourteen years of age, he 
 started to work with Iss^abell, Curtis & Co., later 
 going to New Britain, where for a considerable 
 period, he was employed in the brass works. Then 
 he went to Hamden, Conn., and engaged in work 
 for James Ives, at harness and carriage trimmings, 
 remaining in this position about four years. Mr. 
 Merriman then came to Meriden and found employ- 
 ment with Julius Pratt & Co., in the manufacture 
 of combs, remaining with this firm for fifteen years, 
 during seven of these serving as superintendent of 
 the factory, which was latterly devoted to the pro- 
 duction of ivory piano keys. After leaving the em- 
 ploy of Julius Pratt & Co., Mr. Merriman then ac- 
 cepted a position with Foster, Merriam & Co., and 
 spent the succeeding fifteen years with this company, 
 in the furniture casting department, where he was a 
 contractor and later superintendent. 
 
 In 1881, after such an active life for so many 
 years, Mr. Merriman decided to retire from such 
 exacting work, and for the past twenty years has 
 been principally engaged in loolcing after his prop- 
 erty interests. Like other men of substance he had 
 invested in real estate with advantage, and is the 
 owner of valuable property. One of his possessions 
 is a brick block, on Perkins street, which he erected 
 at a cost of $10,000. Mr. Merriman looks well af- 
 ter his property himself, is still vigorous and hearty 
 and quite capable of physical exertion. When in 
 his eighty-second year, he noticed that one of the 
 three-story buildings needed repainting, and with 
 surprising agility and capacity he remedied this 
 matter himself. This, however, is nothing un- 
 usual, as he is in the habit of painting his roof 
 once in two years, as well as the interior of hii 
 home. 
 
 On Feb. 24, 1845, Mr. Merriman was married 
 in Southington, Conn., to Miss Minerva Clark, who 
 was born in that town, a daughter of Allen and 
 Sylvia (Barnes) Clark. To this union four chil- 
 dren were born: Alice C, who died young; Har- 
 riet (Hattie) Lee, who married Edward F. Pierce, 
 
244 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and has four children, namely: Charles (deceased), 
 Lloyd (deceased), Allen Clark and Emeline Daisy; 
 George Edward, who died at the age of two years ; 
 and Rufus C, who married Alice Castelow, and is a 
 butter and egg dealer on Colony street, in Meriden. 
 Mrs. JVterriman is a descendant of one of the old 
 and most highly respected families of Southington, 
 more extended mention of whom is found in an- 
 other part of this history. She is a lady of retiring 
 and gentle disposition, whose peaceful contentment 
 is written upon her face, and whose Christian char- 
 acter exerts its uplifting influence in the community. 
 Her beautiful life of devotion to husband and chil- 
 dren is known to them, and she is most tenderly 
 beloved by every one. 
 
 In his early political life, Mr. Merriman was a 
 Whig, but for many years has been an active sup- 
 porter of the Republican party, although never will- 
 ing to accept any office in its gift. For a long per- 
 iod he has been connected with the Masonic fratern- 
 ity, and is a member of Meridian Lodge, No. J'j, 
 of Meriden. From early boyhood he has been con- 
 nected with the Congregational Church and is one 
 of its most liberal supporters. Mr. Merriman be- 
 gan his career as a poor boy, but with determination 
 and perseverance he overcame all obstacles. For 
 many years his capacity for work was enormous, 
 and as time went on he accumulated means, through 
 legitimate channels. One feature which Mr. Merri- 
 man considers of consequence in his career, was his 
 stand on the subject of temperance, never in his life 
 having taken a drop of liquor over a bar, the result 
 being a surprisingly robust condition of physical 
 health and a clear brain. 
 
 Clark. Lemuel Clark was born at Middle- 
 town, Conn., in 1748, and was married in Southing- 
 ton, Conn., on Oct. 14, 1772, to Asenath Carter, 
 who was a daughter of Abel and Mary (Coach) 
 Carter and lived in that part of Southington, now 
 called Plantsville, where he died on Jan. 14, 1786. 
 His widow, Asenath, married, March 20, 1808, Dr. 
 Theodore Wadsworth, and died April 8, 1841, at 
 the age of eighty-six years. Lemuel Clark's chil- 
 dren were: Phebe, born Dec. 11, 1773; Allen, Nov. 
 26, 1774; Solomon, Sept. 6, 1781 ; Polly, Oct. 16, 
 1783, and Lemuel, Feb. 10, 1786. 
 
 Allen Clark, son of Lemuel, was married on Jan. 
 19, 1803, to Sylvia Barnes, a daughter of Thomas 
 and Phebe (Langdon) Barnes, who was born June 
 25, 1782, in Southington. Allen Clark was a 
 clothier by trade and occupation, and a resident of 
 Plantsville. His death occurred' on June 30, 1861, 
 at the ag-e of eighty-six years, and his wife died 
 Jan. 12, 1857. Their children were: Sophia, born 
 Dec. I, 1803, died Sept. 9, 1805; Salmon F., born 
 Jan. 14, 1805 ; Henry A., born Aug. 26, 1806, mar- 
 ried Sarah Curtis, Nov. 14, 1832; Sophia (2), born 
 Oct. 6, 1808, died April 10, 1840; George R., born 
 Dec. 30, 1810, died June 19, 1834; Polly, born Feb. 
 II, 1813, died Nov. 2, 1816; Phebe, born Jan. 12, 
 i8ig, died Nov. 18, 1816; Polly A., born Feb. 9, 
 1817; Phebe A., born April 12, 1819, married Levi 
 
 P. Norton, and died April 30, 1868; Lemuel, born 
 March i, 1821, married Mrs. Eunice R. Adams, 
 May 16, i860; and Minerva, born Feb. 16, 1823, 
 married Julius E. Merriman Nov. 24, 1845. 
 
 (Stephen Barnes, says tradition, was of the 
 Branford family who came thither from Long Isl- 
 and, settled in Southington, with his wife, Mary, 
 was the progenitor of many of the name there.) 
 
 MICHAEL SEIP, superintendent for Manning, 
 Bowman & Co., manufacturers of Meriden, is a 
 well-known and highly respected resident of that 
 city, and has held his present responsible position 
 for the past twenty-two years. His birth occurred 
 Jan. II, 183s, in Easton, Pa., and he belongs to one 
 of the old families of that State, of German descent. 
 The family name was originally spelled Seib, and 
 the family history is traced back to the beginning of 
 the eighteenth century, to Jacob Seib, a native of 
 Bucks county. Pa., who was born and reared on a 
 farm. During early manhood he removed to Easton, 
 Pa., located on a farm, and there spent the re- 
 mainder of his life. His remains were interred in 
 the cemetery at Easton. For many years he was a 
 consistent member of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 (II) Michael Seip, son of Jacob, was born on 
 the farm in Easton and there grew to manhood. He 
 learned the trade of blacksmith, which he followed 
 all his life, becoming one of the 'Dest blacksmiths and 
 horseshoers in that section. His death occurred in 
 Easton when he was eighty-two years of age, and 
 he was buried in the cemetery there. In pohtics he 
 was a Jefiersonian Democrat ; in religious matters 
 he was a member of the Lutheran Church. During 
 the war of 1812 he was in the campaign at New 
 Orleans under Gen. Jackson, and in both civil and 
 military affairs was well known and highly re- 
 spected. Michael Seip was married in Easton to 
 Catharine Kreidler, who was a native of that city, 
 although of German descent. Her parents were 
 large land owners and farmers of that locality, and 
 very prominent people. Mrs. Seip died in Easton, 
 and was there buried by the side of her husband. 
 Like him she was an earnest member of the Luth- 
 eran Church. Their children were as follows : Ed- 
 ward, the father of Michael and Henry W. ; Aaron, 
 a blacksmith, who died in Easton ; Henry S., who 
 was a coach maker and blacksmith in Easton; 
 Tilghman, a blacksmith at Allentown, Pa., who died 
 in Easton; Reuben, a blacksmith at Bath, Pa., where 
 he died; Amos, who was first a coach maker, but 
 later studied medicine, and is now a physician in 
 Easton ; and Catharine, who married George Heck- 
 man, of Easton. 
 
 (III) Edward Seip was born in Easton, Pa., in 
 1805, and grew to manhood in his native place, 
 learning the trade of blacksmith under his father. 
 For several years he followed that trade, but being 
 a man of enterprise and progressive ideas he em- 
 barked in several ventures, for a time conducting a 
 livery stable, and later a dairy business. The active 
 years of his life were spent in Easton and neighbor- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 245 
 
 ing towns, and when he retired from business he 
 ■ removed to Philadelphia, and there died Nov. 21, 
 1885,^ at the age of eighty years. He was buried in 
 the Knights of Pvthias cemetery, he having been a 
 member of that order, as well as of the I. O. O. F., 
 at Easton, and the O. U. A. M., also at Easton. In 
 religious matters he affiliated with the Lutheran 
 Cht:rch, and held the office of deacon in that body. 
 Politically he was a Jackson Democrat, but never 
 aspired for office. Edward Seip married in Easton 
 Margaret Hemsing, daughter of William and Mar- 
 garet (Spinner) Hemsing, the former of whom was 
 a composer and writer of music and a very fine 
 musician. His wife was a relative of United States 
 Treasurer Spinner, who was in office during the 
 Civil war. Mrs. Seip died in Philadelphia Dec. 23, 
 1879, aged seventy-two years, and was buried in the 
 Knights of Pythias cemetery. She was a devoted 
 wife and mother, a kind neighbor and good Chris- 
 tian, greatly beloved by all who knew her. Children 
 were born to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Seip as follows : 
 Henry William, born May 12, 1829. Henrietta, born 
 Aug. 8, 1833, is now the widow of JacOb Houk, of 
 Easton. Michael was born Jan. 11, 1835. Edward, 
 born May 11, 1836, resides in Easton, Pa. Wilhel- 
 mina, born. May ir, 1838, married Charles Doch- 
 aradt, of Easton. Sarah Ann, born Nov. 19, 1839, 
 married George Davenport, a barber, of Easton. 
 Richard ^Madison J., born April 17, 1841, is a manu- 
 facturer of paper supplies in Germantown, Pa. 
 Charles Lewis, born Oct. 11, 1842, graduated from 
 the medical department of the University of Penn- 
 sylvania, and is a physician of New Bedford, Mass. 
 Emma M., born Jan. 24, 1845, is now the widow of 
 Edwin D. Ulmer, of Philadelphia. Alice S. was 
 born Sept. 30, 1846. There were three other daugh- 
 ters, but they died young. 
 
 Michael Seip attended the public school of his 
 native town, and there remained until fifteen years 
 of age. At that time he started out to make his own 
 wav in life, and located in Philadelphia, where he 
 obtained a position with Hall & Boardman, on Arch 
 street, who were engaged in the britannia business. 
 For about six years he remained in that position, re- 
 ceiving his board and twenty-five dollars for the 
 first year, and board with an advance of five dollars 
 each year for the remaining years of that period. 
 Having attained his majority and learned his busi- 
 ness thoroughly, Michael Seip accepted a position 
 as superintendent with John Oliver Meade & Sons, 
 silver platers, which he filled with general satisfac- 
 tion for fourteen years. On Feb. i, 1868, he came 
 to Connecticut to accept a position with Manning, 
 Bowman & Co., at Middletown, as foreman. When 
 that company removed the plant to Meriden, in July, 
 1872, Mr. Seip came with them, and retained the 
 position mentioned until 1880, when he was pro- 
 moted to the superintendency of the entire factory, 
 and since that time has most efficiently discharged 
 its duties. Being a man of genial disposition, and 
 taking a deep interest in the business and the men 
 under him, he has won the respect and confidence 
 
 of all with whom he is brought into contact, while 
 his ability in his work is unquestioned. 
 
 Michael Seip was married, Jan. 2, 1856, in Phil- 
 adelphia, to Eliza Jane Huston, a native of Quaker- 
 town, Pa., daughter of Jesse Huston. One child 
 came to this union, Ida Virginia, born in October, 
 1856, in Philadelphia, who was educated in Meri- 
 den, Conn., and given many advantages. She mar- 
 ried Frank W. Fris'bie, son of Thaddeus Frisbie, of 
 New Haven, and they make their home with Mr. 
 and Mrs. Seip, in Meriden. Three children have 
 been born to Mr. and Mrs. Frisbie: Walter S., 
 born May 11, 1881, graduated from Yale in the 
 class of 1901, and is now a student in the medical 
 department of Cornell University, N. Y. Ethel 
 May was born Aug. 8, 1887. Marguerite Huston 
 was born Feb. 4, 1889. Mr. Frisbie is a druggist. 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Frisbie are members of All 
 Saints' Episcopal Church, in which he is a vestry- 
 man and secretary of the Sunday school. Mrs. 
 Frisbie has devoted much time to music, having 
 studied under Mr. Parsons, of Meriden, and is a 
 very accomplished musician. 
 
 Mr. Seip is a member of Meridian Lodge, No. 
 77, A. F. & A. M. ; Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. 
 M. ; Fraternal Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Philadelphia, 
 of which he is past grand ; and Ashland Encamp- 
 ment. In political affiliations he is a Republican, 
 but has never sought for or desired office. Both he 
 and his wife are devout members of the First 
 Methodist Church, and Mr. Seip has been one of 
 the trustees of that body for ten years. In their 
 pleasant home a genial hospitality is dispensed, and 
 the family enjoys in the highest degree the con- 
 fidence and respect of neighbors and friends. 
 
 DEACON HENRY WILLIAM SEIP, fore- 
 man of the stock department of Manning, Bowman 
 & Co., Meriden, was born in Easton, Pa., May 12, 
 1829, son of Edward Seip, and brother of Michael 
 Seip. His education was obtained in the public 
 schools, and he was taught the tradte of blacksmith 
 by his father. He worked at his trade in his native 
 town until 1856, at which time he went to Philadel- 
 phia and engaged in the britannia business in the 
 factory of John O. Meade & Sons. From 1856 
 until 1875 ^'■- Seip continued with this one house, 
 with the exception of six years spent in doing con- 
 tract work at the Baldwin LScomotive Works, and 
 gave universal satisfaction. After having been a 
 resident of Philadelphia for nineteen years he re- 
 moved to Meriden and entered the employ of Man- 
 ning, Bowman & Co., working at the drop press. 
 While thus engaged he met with an accident which 
 resulted in the whole or partial loss of the fingers on 
 his left hand. As soon as he had recovered from 
 this accident he was placed in the stock department 
 as assistant to the foreman, and within a short time 
 his ability demonstrated his fitness for the position 
 of foreman, to which he was accordingly promoted 
 and which he has since retained, discharging his 
 numerous and responsible duties faithfully and with 
 
246 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 efficiency. Thousands of dollars worth of goods 
 pass through his hands every year and much re- 
 sponsibility rests upon him, but he has always been 
 found capable of meeting every emergency. Like 
 his brother, Michael Seip, he is genial and has many 
 friends, not only among his business associates, but 
 in social circles. 
 
 Deacon Seip was twice married, his first wife 
 having been Miss Eliza Houk, a native of North- 
 ampton county. Pa. They were married in Easton, 
 Pa. Two children came to them, of whom Mary, 
 the eldest, died young. Emma Miller resides in 
 Philadelphia. Mrs. Seip died in Philadelphia. On 
 May 10, 1868, Mr. Seip married Maria Adams, who 
 was born in Burlington, N. J., one of the eight chil- 
 dren of Abraham and Susan (Hawkins) Adams, of 
 Burlington, N. J. No children were born of this 
 marriage. Mrs. Seip is a charming lady, highly ed- 
 ucated, cultured and devoted to her home. She is a 
 most excellent Christian and a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, in whose work she takes an 
 active part, being a member of the Christian En- 
 deavor Society; president of the Guardian Society; 
 and a member of the Benevolent and Missionary 
 Societies of Meriden. Mr. Seip is deacon of the 
 First Congregational Church, having been elected 
 to that office in 1884, and retained it with honor 
 and dignity ever since. For many years he has been 
 an earnest member of and worker in the church, be- 
 longing to the Christian Endeavor and other church 
 societies ; and is a teacher in the Sunday-school. He 
 is one of the leading men of his denomination. Both 
 he and his wife occupy a very high place in the es- 
 teem and affection of their fellow workers in the 
 church, where their many excellent qualities, Chris- 
 tian characters and benevolence are recognized and 
 thoroughly appreciated. Mr. Seip always gives his 
 support to the candidates of the Republican party, 
 but does not take an active part in political matters, 
 his business and church duties claiming much of his 
 time. 
 
 Both Michael and Deacon Seip are men of whom 
 Meriden may well be proud, for they are excellent 
 examples of God-fearing, industrious, prosperous 
 men. Through their own industry and thrift they 
 have risen to their present responsible positions, and 
 by their efficiency and faithfulness they have main- 
 tained themselves in the confidence of their employ- 
 ers as well as gained the good-will and aft'ection of 
 those under them. PJeasant in manner, they win 
 friends ; generous to a fault, they relieve distress ; 
 kind-hearted, their sympathy is always extended to 
 those less fortunate; while in their homes they are 
 loved and honored. 
 
 HORART BEXEDICT IVES, a representative 
 American business man, was born in Cheshire, New 
 Haven county, June 23, 1843. Both his parents were 
 of sturdy New England stock. His mother, Betsey 
 Rice, a native of Readsboro, Vt., was a woman of 
 solid character and vigorous mind ; his father. Bar- 
 ton Ives, came of a long line of New England farm- 
 
 ers, and, if he did not endow his son with worldly 
 wealth and great social and educational advantages, 
 at least gave him the high heritage of a respected 
 name. 
 
 The boyhood life of Mr. Ives was not bristling 
 with opportunities for advancement in any direc- 
 tion. His formal education was confined to a few 
 winter terms in the district school, his practical ex- 
 perience to the humdrum work upon the farm, 
 varied by an occasional day's work in his father's 
 oyster keg shop, an industry carried on during the 
 winter months to a considerable extent in Connecti- 
 cut in those days, by the aid of which Barton Ives 
 eked out a not too Liberal income. Mr. Ives' father 
 was an honored citizen, and, in his way, an am- 
 bitious parent ; but his aspirations both for himself 
 and his children were limited to the boundaries of 
 his own farm. That any better destiny awaited his 
 son Hobart than the cultivation of the ancestral 
 acres, and that any higher position among his fel- 
 low citizens was desirable for him than a chief place 
 among the head men of the town or a possible dea- 
 conship in the village church, never for a moment 
 entered his mind. Those New England farmers 
 of the last generation served a useful purpose as an- 
 cestors, for they transmitted splendid physical 
 frames and safely balanced brains to their descend- 
 ants, but they were not men of imagination. 
 
 Thus when young Hobart Ives, in his formative 
 years, began to exhibit an unpardonable indifference 
 to farm life and to murmur against taking it up as 
 a permanent vocation, he appealed strongly to his 
 father and his sympathizing neighbors as a sad 
 young chap who had gone wrong. It is true that 
 on several occasions he had shown promising qual- 
 ities. Thus, even when a youngster, he had dem- 
 onstrated marked progressiveness as a salesman of 
 farm products, his father himself admitting that 
 the boy could take a load to New Haven and dis- 
 pose of it to much better advantage than himself. 
 This fact in itself should have furnished the key 
 to the young man's- future. The only part of farm- 
 ing that young Ives was fond of was the selling of 
 the finished product. That his aptitude for selling 
 was general, and not special, was shown by the fact 
 that he never brought the farm wagon back to Che- 
 shire empty, but filled it with an assortment of sea 
 food, which, on his arrival home, he at once pro- 
 ceeded to convert into cash. This faculty for find- 
 ing a ready market for his goods, whether farm 
 products, hardware, or stocks and bonds, has been 
 Mr. Ives' most available business asset through life; 
 and, if one were asked to name the one pre-eminent 
 reason for his business success, he would put his 
 finger on that feature of his make-up. The pos- 
 session of this quality means much ; it implies a 
 personality that commands attention and inspires re- 
 spect, as well as a ready wit for placing the best 
 side of the case foremost. Air. Ives has other pre- 
 eminent qualities than this, such as tireless enero-y, 
 unyielding determination, courage and inventive 
 skill; but his ability to interest men in himself and 
 
.-^^^ 
 
 y 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 247 
 
 s enterprises, and to inspire their confidence in his 
 ^^ i! word, is his gift par excellence. Mr. Ives 
 nad shown this quality early. He had also sh^cwn 
 a desire to get on in the world; to win the re- 
 spect of his compatriots ; to make his mark. The 
 one thing that was apparent to him above all was 
 that this could not be done on his father's farm ; so 
 one day he called his father aside and told him he 
 was ^ going to start out for himself. 
 
 "Where are you going?" asked the astonished 
 parent. 
 
 "Up in Massachusetts." 
 
 "What are you going to do when you get there?" 
 
 "Start a store and make money." 
 
 "How are you going to get there?" 
 
 "You are going to buy my horse, wagon and 
 wood lot, and give me a hundred dollars for them." 
 _ The old gentleman was somewhat amazed at 
 this proposition, though, from his point of view, 
 it was not a bad one, as the young man's property 
 was worth two or three times the figures named. 
 It was the first and last bad bargain Mr. Ives ever 
 made ; but then the circumstances were exceptional. 
 
 "Well, go on," his father said in despair, "but 
 you'll return penniless within a month and mighty 
 glad to get back." 
 
 Mr. Ives was twenty-three years of age when 
 he left home with this left-handed parental bless- 
 ing on his head. He did not return in a month ; in 
 fact, in the condition his father described, he has 
 not returned yet ; and it begins to look as though 
 his valiant father would prove a false prophet. 
 However, by the time he had paid his carfare to 
 North Adams — the town he had selected as the 
 first scene of his struggles — and made arrangements 
 to start in business, he was not far from being in 
 the unpleasant financial condition his father alluded 
 to. He hired a small basement store, but his land- 
 lord was so little impressed with his ability to ful- 
 fill his modest engagements that he made him "put 
 up" his watch as security for the rent's payment in 
 advance. Mr. Ives' beginning was thus a modest 
 one, but in two years his business had so mcreased 
 that he had two larger stores and an established rep- 
 utation as a promising young business man. He 
 constantly added to this reputation for the ten years 
 that he remained in North Adams, in the course of 
 which period he married Caroline Bennett, daugh- 
 ter of Ira P. and Jane Landon Bennett, leading peo- 
 ple of that place. 
 
 Mr. Ives' natural inclinations, however, were 
 toward manufacturing rather than toward the 
 trade, and moving to New Haven, in 1876, he 
 soon established the well-known firm of H. B. 
 Ives & Co., manufacturers of hardware. Like 
 all important undertakings, the early history of 
 this firm was one of struggles against adverse 
 fortune, unfair competition, constant discourage- 
 ments and apparent failure — all resulting final- 
 ly in a splendid victory. The firm was Mr. 
 Ives, and Mr. Ives was the firm. He him- 
 self invented tihe hardware specialties which 
 
 brought success; he secured the capital that made 
 possible their development ; he superintended all the 
 details of manufacturing; and, when the finished 
 product was forthcoming from his modest factory, 
 he himself took it on the road and found a market 
 for it. When, therefore, in 1901, he bought his 
 present extensive factory on Artizan street and in- 
 corporated the business under the name of The 
 H. B. Ives Company, himself becoming president 
 and treasurer, it was in every sense a personal 
 triumph. It was a splendid evidence of what native 
 energy and talent, unaided by favoring circum- 
 stances, could accomplish, and, as such, Mr. Ives is 
 pardonably proud of it. This, however, was not 
 all that he had done. His business obligations, in- 
 deed, had by this time become numerous and mani- 
 fold. He had been instrumental in the organiza- 
 tion and management of several companies, notably 
 the New Haven Car Register Co., of which he was 
 president for several years ; had owned, in the 
 course of twenty-five years, seven different stores, 
 one of which, The City Hall Pharmacy, is to-day 
 one of the most successful establishments of its 
 kind in New Haven; had become largely interested 
 in Western mines ; bad sent out a party of young 
 men to Alaska, the result of whose trip was the 
 organization of the Kasaan Bay Company, of which 
 Mr. Ives is the president and moving spirit, which 
 founded the town of Kasaan, built school houses for 
 the Indians and developed large mercantile, lumber 
 and mining business, and is, at the present time, 
 building one of the largest canneries on the Pacific 
 coast. 
 
 Mr. Ives is also the originator and treasurer of 
 The Apollo Consolidated Gold Mining Co., owners 
 of the famous California mine, in Republic, Wash. ; 
 and, in addition to all these, he established The Ives 
 Investment Co., which, besides conducting an ex- 
 tensive loan business, acts as fiscal agent for 
 these several enterprises. The names of the di- 
 rectors and stockholders of all these companies, 
 which include many Of the best-known narrKs 
 in New Haven and Connecticut, are sufficient 
 indication of the confidence which Mr. Ives en- 
 joys. But he is more than a successful man- 
 ufacturer and business man. He knows not only 
 how to make money, but, what many more money- 
 makers never learn, he knows how to live. He has 
 a beautiful home upon Whitney avenue, and this, 
 with his children and his grandchildren, of whom 
 he has two, is his greatest delight. He is an ex- 
 tensive traveler, and passionately fond of the rod 
 and gun and the sportsman's life in wood and field. 
 Both his nature and his physical frame are remark- 
 ably well preserved, and his activities were never 
 more marked than now. 
 
 Mr. Ives' family is as follows : ( i ) Bertha Jane 
 Ives, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke College, class of 
 1890, Anderson Normal School of Gymnastics of 
 New Haven, 1894, married Dec. 29, 1896, Burton J. 
 Hendrick, Yale '95, M. A. '97. They have two 
 children — Ives, born March 10, 1898; and Hobart, 
 
248 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born Feb. 27, 1902. (2) Sue Bennett Ives has been 
 a student for three years at Mt. Holyoke College. 
 (3) Leila Mae Ives was graduated from Boxwood 
 Seminary, Old Lyme, Conn., in 1898. 
 
 BURR S. PECK is one of the best known and 
 oldest builders in the city of New Haven, and he 
 belongs to an old Connecticut family. 
 
 Benjamin Peck, the grandfather of our subject, 
 was born in Hamden, Conn., March 31, 1776, and 
 married Lucy Dickerman, who was born June 6, 
 1776. He engaged in an agricultural life all his 
 days, dying in the locality of his birth. A large 
 family were born to him and his wife: Sophia, 
 Lewis, Rebecca, Henry, Francis, Frederick, Lois, 
 Edson, Chloe, and Sylvia, all of whomi grew to be 
 respected citizens, many of them marrying and scat- 
 tering the name over the whole of New England. 
 
 Frederick Peck, the father of our subject, was 
 born in Hamden, Conn., May 8, 1809, and died Dec. 
 19, 1870, at the age of sixty-one. His occupation 
 had been that of a carpenter, which he learned in 
 Bethany, Conn. He married Miss Sarah Sperry, in 
 Derby, who was born in Bethany, a daughter of 
 Alvin and Sally (Nettleton) Sperry, the former of 
 whom was a carpenter in that village. When yet 
 a young man, Frederick Peck came to New Haven, 
 and after marriage located in this city permanently, 
 and here he built up a flourishing business, con- 
 tinuing until his decease. In politics, he was an ar- 
 dent Republican, and both he and wife were con- 
 sistent members of the Methodist Church. 
 
 Burr S. Peck was the only child of his parents, 
 and was born in Bethany, Conn., May 18, 183 1. 
 He attended the schools of his native place until 
 he was eight years old, and after removal to New 
 Haven finished his education in the city schools, 
 and 'has made this his home ever since. His father 
 taught him the trade of carpenter and 'builder, and 
 so well and faithfully did he master all details, that 
 for many years he has held a leading position among 
 the builders of the city. His work can be seen in 
 many of the finest and best buildings in New Hav- 
 en, among these being almost all of the Yale College 
 buildings. 
 
 On Sept. 2, 1855, Mr. Peck was united in mar- 
 riage with Mary Jane Emery, a native of Hanover, 
 N. H., a daughter of Jonathan and Sally (Buntin) 
 Emery, the latter of whom was born in Pembroke, 
 New Hampshire, and was a cousin of Ex-Gov. 
 Nathaniel Head, of that State. Benjamin Buntin, 
 the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Peck, married 
 Abigail Noyes. Her father, Jonathan Emery, was 
 a carpenter, who lived and died in Hanover, at the 
 age of sixty-nine; and his wife died May 3, 1868; 
 they were the parents of eight children : Ira, Abig- 
 ail, John, Mary J., Henry and Charles, and twins 
 that died in infancy. To our subject and wife was 
 born one daughter, Minnie Estelle, Jan. 10, i860, 
 who died Nov. 2, 1890, the wife of Charles Hunt, of 
 Springfield, Mass., who died in 1888, aged thirty 
 
 years. In his political belief, Mr. Peck is a Repub- 
 lican, and since 1853 has been fraternally connected 
 with the I. O. O. F., City Lodge, No. 36. In re- 
 ligious life, the family are consistent members of the 
 M. E. Church, where they are esteemed for their 
 Christian character, and to which Mr. Peck has been 
 liberal and generous. As one of the city's oldest 
 builders, it has been the privilege of our subject to 
 assist very materially in the adornment of it, and 
 among its residents no one is more highly respected. 
 
 The Noyes Familv originally came from Wilt- 
 shire, England, where' the Rev. William Noyes mar- 
 ried Ann Parker, in 1620-22. He was rector of 
 Choulderton, in Wiltshire. His son. Rev. James 
 Noyes, born March 11, 1640, was the first minister 
 at Stonington, Conn., having crossed in the "Mary 
 and John," and 'he was one of the founders and first 
 trustees of Yale College ; be was modterator of the 
 Assembly that drew up the Saybrook Platform — 
 or the first move for Yale. He was a graduate of 
 Brasenose College, Oxford. His wife was Sarah, 
 daughter of Joseph Brown, of Southampton. 
 
 Deacon Nicholas Noyes was born in Wiltshire, 
 in 1 6 16, and there married Mary Cutting. They 
 came to America on the ship "Mary and John," set- 
 tling in Newbury, Massac^husetts. 
 
 John Noyes, son of Deacon Nicholas, was born 
 Jan. 20, 1646, and was married to Mary Poor, Nov. 
 13, 1668. He died in 1691. 
 
 Samuel Noyes, son of John, was born Feb. 5, 
 1692, and was married on Dec. i, 1716, to Hannah 
 Poor. They settled in Abington, Massachusetts. 
 
 John Noyes, son of Samuel, was born April 20, 
 1720, and came from England to Newbury, Mass., 
 later locating at Pembroke, N. H., the records show- 
 ing him to be there before 1765. On June i, 1741, 
 he married Abigail Poor, and diied May 30, 1770. 
 
 Benjamiin No\-es, son of John and father of 
 Mrs. Abigail (Noyes) Buntin, was born April 29, 
 1742. About 1763 he married Hannah Thompson, 
 who was born Dec. 2, 1744. and died Nov. 8, 1828. 
 
 It is shown by the records that one Benjamin 
 Noyes served as a private in Capt. Sias' Company, 
 Col. Moses Nichola's Regiment of New Hampshire 
 Militia, in the Revolutionary war. His name ap- 
 pears on a pay roll of that organization dated Nov. 
 7, 1776. which shows that he served twenty-six 
 days from Aug. 5, 1778, in the Expedition to Rhode 
 Island. 
 
 GEORGE MONTAIN CLARK, cashier of the 
 Meriden National Bank, was born Oct. 5, 1844, in 
 the city of Willimiantic, Conn., and is descendied 
 from one of the oldest Colonial famiilies. 
 
 (I) Lieut. William Clark settled at Dorchester, 
 Mass., about 1636, and removed thence to North- 
 ampton, same Colony, in 1659. He was a man of 
 standing and influence, and was honored and trusted 
 in military and civil affairs. He was selectman in 
 Dorchester in 1646 and 1647, and was representative 
 to the General Court from Northampton in 1663, 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 249 
 
 ?"^,J°'" thirteen years besides. He was a soldier 
 in King Philip's war. His first wife, Sarah, died 
 ^ept. 6, 1675, and he subsequently married Sarah, 
 widovv ot Thomas Carpenter, of Springfield. She 
 died May 8, 1688, and her husband passed away 
 11 V ' -9°' ^^^'^ eighty-one years. His children, 
 I o 7 "^ Dorchester, were : Sarah, born June 21, 
 1638 (died young); Jonathan, Oct. i, 1639; Na- 
 thaniel, Jan. 27, 1642; Experience, March 30, 1643; 
 Increase, March i, 1646 (died aged sixteen); Re- 
 becca, about 1648; John, 1651; Samuel, baptized 
 Oct. 26, 1653 ; William, born July ^. 1656 (men- 
 tioned below) ; Sarah, March, 1659. 
 
 (H) Capt. William Clark married, July 15, 
 1680, Hannah, daughter of Elder John Strong, of 
 Windsor, ancestor of a numerous family. Capt. 
 William Clark was. associated with Jacob Dewey in 
 the purchase from the Indians (May 2, 1700) of a 
 large tract of land near Lebanon, which included 
 much of the territory of the town of Columbia, 
 which was set off from Lebanon in 1800. He lo- 
 cated in Lebanon about 1700. His first wife, whom 
 he married in Northampton, died Jan. 31, 1694, and 
 exactly one year later he married Mary Smith. The 
 children of the first marriage were : Hannah, born 
 May 5, 1682; William, Feb. 15, 1685; Abigail, Jan- 
 uary, 1683-84; Jonathan, May 13, 1688; Thomas, 
 April, 1690; Joseph, Dec. 31, 1691 ; Bennie, Jan. 
 31, 1694. The children of the second union were: 
 Timothy, born Oct. 12, 1695 ; Gershom, Nov. 18, 
 1697; Mary, Nov. 22, 1699; David, Nov. 19, 1701 
 (died June' 19, 1703) ; David, June 22, 1703. Capt. 
 Clark died May 9, 1725, and his widow passed 
 away April 23,' 1748, in her eighty-seventh year. 
 
 (III) Jonathan Clark, born May 13, 1688, mar- 
 ried Hannah Smalle Jan. 6, 1714. He died Jan. 
 
 12, 1743-44- 
 
 (IV) Jonathan Clark, born Nov. i, 1714, mar- 
 ried Mercy Dewey Jan. 16, 1735. Their children 
 were born as follows: Hannah, Sept. 25, 1735; 
 Jonathan, April 29, 1737; Lemuel, April 3, 1739 
 (died March 6, 1749) ; Dan., May 25, 1741 ; Mary, 
 Sept. 3, 1743 (died Aug. 15, 1744) ; David, Aug. 
 23, 1748; Jeremiah, April 28, 1751 : Lemuel, Aug. 
 8, 1753; Gershom, Sept. 6, 1755. The father died 
 in 1802, aged eighty-eight years. 
 
 (V) David Clark, born Aug. 23, 1748, was next 
 in the line of descent. 
 
 (VI) Jonathan Clark, son of David, was born 
 June 15, 1784, in the town of Tolland, where he 
 grew to manhood, and there engaged in farming, 
 becoming a land owner. He married Polly Hale, 
 daughter of Jonathan and Molley Hale. Later he 
 removed with his family to Columbia, Conn., there 
 spent the remainder of his life, and was buried in 
 the Columbia cemetery. He was a member of the 
 Congregational Church. The second wife of Jona- 
 than Clark was Saxie (Wright) Clark, who died 
 and was buried in Columbia. 
 
 (VII) Silas Fuller Clark, son of Jonathan, was 
 born in the town of Tolland, and removed with his 
 
 parents to Columbia, where he attended the district 
 schools. At the age of ten years he went to live with 
 an uncle in Willington, and still later in Coventry. 
 At the latter place he learned the trade of ma- 
 chinist, and worked at it first in Worcester, Mass., 
 and later in Willimantic, Conn., remaining at the 
 latter city until within five years of his demise, when 
 he removed to Meriden and was taiderly cared for 
 by his son. His death occurred in August, 1900, 
 and he was buried in the Willimantic cemetery. He 
 was a member of the Methodist Church, in the work 
 of which congregation he took an active part. In 
 politics he was a Republican, and lived honorably 
 as a good citizen. Domestic in his habits, temper- 
 ate in every respect, he set an excellent example. 
 Fraternally he was a member of the I. O. O. F. 
 
 Silas Fuller Clark was married in Willimantic 
 to Elizabeth L. Woodworth, who was born in 
 Hebron, Conn., daughter of Asa Woodworth. Twin 
 boys were born of this union, George M. being one ; 
 the other died in childhood. Mrs. Clark died, and 
 Mr. Clark married her sister, Maria Woodworth, 
 who left no issue. Upon the death of the second 
 Mrs. Clark Mr. Clark married Amelia Fitch. This 
 lady is also deceased, and all three are buried in the 
 Willimantic cemetery. 
 
 (VIII) George M. Clark was educated in the 
 public and private schools of Willimantic, and was 
 prepared for college, but close application to his 
 studies broke down his health, and he was obliged 
 to abandon his ambitions in that direction. When 
 sixteen and one-half years old he was made one of 
 the postoffice clerks at Willimantic, and a year later 
 was made teller of the Windnam Bank, of Wind- 
 ham, and there remained until 1865, when the presi- 
 dent of tihe Meriden National Bank of Meriden of- 
 fered him a similar position with that institution. 
 This was accepted, and so faithfully was every duty 
 discharged that in 1891 Mr. Clark was made cashier 
 of the bank, and still holds that office of trust and 
 responsibility. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Clark was married, in Mansfield, 
 to Lovisa Maria Holly, daughter of Perry and Lois 
 (Fenton) Holly. Two children were born of this 
 union: (i) George S. is bookkeeper of the Meri- 
 den National Bank. He married Carrie Capen, of 
 Norwich, Conn., and they have one child, Rollin 
 B. (2) Elizabeth Louise is assistant librarian of 
 the Meriden Public Library. 
 
 Mr. Clark is a man of highest principles, do- 
 mestic in his tastes, and a most excellent father and 
 devoted husband. He is a member and trustee of 
 the First Methodist Church of Meriden. 
 
 The history of the Holly family is very inter- 
 esting, and dates back so . far as known to Perry 
 Holly, who was a native of Rhode Island and a 
 blacksmith by trade. Late in life he removed to 
 Mansfield, purchased a farm near that of his son- 
 in-law, William E. Fenner, and returned to Rhode 
 Island for his family, but died there. His widow, 
 Celia (Rawson) Holly, removed to Mansfield with 
 
250 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 her family, and there died in October, 1859, at the 
 age of eighty-three. The family of children were 
 as follows: Lurinda died in Willimantic. Perry 
 is the father of Mrs. Clark. Betsey resided in 
 Mansfield, Conn., upon a farm, where she died. 
 Nancy died in Chaplin, Conn. Gilbert went South 
 and died in New Orleans. 
 
 Perry Holly, the father of Mrs. Clark, was born 
 July 2, 1809, in Rhode Island, and came to Mans- 
 field when a boy. During his boyhood he worked 
 upon a farm, and when still a young man learned the 
 trade of forger, working in the manufacture of bits 
 and augers in various localities where the goods 
 were made. He was also one of the first operators 
 of the trip-hammer, being very expert in the hand- 
 ling of the clumsy machine, and consequently com- 
 manded good wages. In company with Hiram Par- 
 ker he operated a forge shop near his home for a 
 few years. After working at his trade for many 
 years he spent his declining years in Mansfield, 
 engaged in farming, and died there in March, 
 1885. He was a member of the Methodist Church 
 at Gurleyville, and when a young man took a very 
 active part in its affairs. 
 
 The wife of Mr. Holly was Miss Lois Fenton, 
 daughter of Elisha and Phileta (Storrs) Fenton, a 
 native of Mansfield, where her father was a black- 
 smith. Mrs. Holly died April 18, 1892, aged 
 eighty-four years, four months. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Holly were born the following children: (i) Celia 
 Ann died aged eight and one-half years (2) 
 Anstice, wife of William E. Fenner, of Gurleyville 
 has one child, Frank E. (3) George G. resides 
 m Sturbridge, Mass., and is an expert in mechanics. 
 He married Mary Ann Scott, and had two children 
 —George Henry (living in Springfield, who has 
 three children) and Lida (who died when young) 
 (4) Lurmda died in infancy. (5) Harriet Lurinda 
 Phileta, widow of David Clapp, resides in Willi- 
 mantic; she had one daughter, Harriet M., who 
 was the first wife of W. D. Grant, of Willimantic, 
 and had two children, Florence A. and Jay Edwin. 
 (6) Mary Ellen first married Edmund Simons, by 
 whom she had one child, Jennie R., wife of W. D. 
 Grant, of Willimantic, who has three children, Ethel' 
 Y., Winnifred C. and May Ellen ; Mary Ellen mar- 
 ried for her second husband Norman Dunham, a 
 blacksmith, now deceased, and she resides in Willi- 
 mantic. (7) Lovisa Maria is the wife of Mr. Clark. 
 
 (8) Perry Earl, a professor of penmanship, mar- 
 ried Carrie Allen, and resides in Waterbury, Conn. 
 
 (9) Sarah Jane died at the age of fourteen. (10) 
 Dwight Storrs resides in Forestville, Conn. He 
 married Harriet Smith, and has two children, 
 Everett (residing at Forestville, who has two chil- 
 dren, Elma and Winnifred) and Edna. (11) Julian 
 R. resides in Bristol, Conn., and is secretary and 
 treasurer of the Bristol Brass and Clock Co. He 
 married Calista Brockett, and their family consists 
 of two children, Julian Lawrence and Margaret 
 Storrs. 
 
 BLAKE. In the death of Eli Whitney Blake, 
 at his home in New Haven, Conn., Aug. 18, 1886, 
 there passed away, as it were, a connecting link be- 
 tween the two centuries — a man full of years, good 
 works and honor. 
 
 Eli Whitney Blake was born Jan. 27, 1795, in 
 Westborough, Worcester Co., Mass., a son of Elihu 
 and Elizabeth Fay Whitney Blake, and was a lineal 
 descendant of William Blake, of England and Dor- 
 chester, Mass., who was married in England, in 
 1617, to Widow Agnes Bland, and with wife and 
 several children, came to New England amono- the 
 emigrants who sailed thither along in the neigh- 
 borhood of 1630 or 1635. The early home of the 
 family was in Dorchester, Mass., but a branch later 
 settled in Worcester county, Mass., and from that 
 line our subject traces his descent. 
 
 Eli Whitney Blake was graduated from Yale 
 College, in 1816, and made preparation to enter the 
 legal profession, studying law in the famous school 
 of Judge Gould, in Litchfield, Conn., but gave up 
 that purpose at the request of his uncle, Eli Whit- 
 ney, who desired the assistance of himself and his 
 brother, Philos, in erecting and organizing the gun 
 factory works at Whitneyville, Conn. After the 
 death of Mr. Whitney, in 1825, Mr. Blake and his 
 brother, the late Col. Philos Blake, carried on the 
 business until 1836, when they joined their brother, 
 John A. Blake, in forming the partnership firm of 
 Blake Brothers, and established at Westville, a 
 manufactory of door locks and latches, of their own 
 invention. This business was afterward extended 
 to include other articles of hardware, such as cast- 
 ers, hinges, etc., the greater number being covered 
 by patent. In this branch of manufacture, Blake 
 Brothers were among the pioneers in this country 
 and long held the front rank. It is not too much to 
 say, that the ideas which they originated still char- 
 acterize the forms of American locks, latches, cast- 
 ers, hinges and other articles of house furnishing 
 hardware wherever manufactured, and are the foun- 
 dation of their acknowledged superiority. 
 
 In the year 1852 Eli W. Blake was appointed 
 on a committee to superintend the macadamizing 
 of Whalley avenue, and his attention was thus di- 
 rected to the great want of a machine for breaking 
 stone into fragments of a nearly uniform size suit- 
 able for road making. The problem was a very 
 old one, but no successful solution had ever been 
 effected. Mr. Blake devoted himself to its study 
 for nearly five years and in 1857 produced and pat- 
 ented the Blake Stone Breaker, which for original- 
 ity, simplicity and effectiveness, has justly been re- 
 garded by experts as almost unique. It has come 
 into general use in all parts of the world for road 
 making and for mining purposes ; and has intro- 
 duced a new era into both departments of industry. 
 Its value, directly and indirectly, as a labor-saving 
 and wealth-creating agency, can hardly be over es- 
 timated. The occurrence of the Civil war, how- 
 ever, which retarded its introduction, and subse- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 251 
 
 quent competition by infringers of the patent, 
 greatly interfered with the profits that the inventor 
 should have realized, and the pecuniary reward 
 which Mr. Blake reaped from this and his other in- 
 ventions amounted in the end to only a moderate 
 competence. 
 
 Mr. Blake's abilities and acquirements in the 
 field of mathematical and physical science were of 
 a high order, and he contributed many valuable 
 papers to scientific journals^ on various subjects. 
 Several of the most important of these, which had 
 been recently published in the American Journal of 
 Science, together with some additions of a later 
 date, were collected by him in 1882 and printed to- 
 gether in a small volume entitled "Original Solu- 
 tions of Several Problems in Aerodynamics." These 
 papers which were the' result of original research 
 and experiment, treat of the laws which govern the 
 flow of elastic fluids through an orifice; the propa- 
 gation of pulses in elastic media; the mode of ex- 
 pansion of elastic fluids ; and the velocity and trans- 
 mission of sound. The final paper and perhaps 
 the most elaborate of all, covering many printed 
 pages of close scientific and mathematical discussion, 
 was written by him when far advanced in his eighty- 
 seventh year. The originality and value of Mr. 
 Blake's investigations in this and other subjects, and 
 also his ability and general merit as a physicist, were 
 recognized by scientific authorities at home and 
 abroad, and drew from his alma mater, Yale, in 
 1879, the honorary degree of LL. D. Mr. Blake 
 was one of the founders and for several years the 
 president, of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and 
 Sciences. 
 
 Mr. Blake's name is synonymous with integrity. 
 . In 1 82 1, he united with the Center Church, in New 
 Haven, and for over sixty-five years was identified 
 with its growth and prosperity. His benevolence 
 was like a fountain, active, spontaneous, and over- 
 flowing, and the poor were always in his thoughts. 
 Considerate and liberal, he was always just in all 
 his business transactions and took a deep interest 
 in business affairs, and was ever the outspoken sup- 
 porter of civil and social progress and virtue. The 
 later years of 'his life were spent in peaceful retire- 
 ment in the midst of his family circle attended "by 
 all that should accompany old age, as honor, love, 
 obedience and troops of friends." In that quiet 
 retreat, his mind in its strength and serenity diffused 
 perpetual sunshine. Men of intellect and culture 
 sought to enjoy the wit and wisdom of his conver- 
 sation. Little children, whom he dearly loved, de- 
 lighted to throng about him; and none could enter 
 that benignant presence without feeling how truly 
 "the hoary head is a crown of glory, when it is 
 found in the way of righteousness." 
 
 In 1822, Mr. Blake was married to Miss Eliza 
 O'Brien, of New Haven, whose self-sacrificing fidel-. 
 ity and devotion in all the relations of wife and 
 mother brought unbroken happiness to him and his 
 household until her death, in 1876. Seven of their 
 
 children survived the father. Few men have more 
 worthily enjoyed the reverence and aflfection of 
 their families and friends, and to few have these 
 been rendered in larger measure. The surviving chil- 
 dren are, in order : Mrs. George Bushnell, of New 
 Haven; Mrs. Alex McWhorter; Henry Taylor; 
 and Mrs. Eliza B. Rice. 
 
 Henry Taylor Blake was born in New Haven, 
 April 17, 1828, of old New England descent, on 
 his mother's side from' Rev. James Pierpont, of 
 New Haven. He was graduated from Yale in 1848, 
 after which he studied law, at the Yale Law School, 
 and in the office of Thomas C. Perkins, and was ad- 
 mitted to the Bar of Hartford county, in 1851. 
 From 1855 to 1884 he served as assistant clerk, 
 and as clerk of the Superior Court of Fairfield 
 county, during all of which time he was also en- 
 gaged in the active practice of his profession in 
 nisi prius courts and before the Supreme Court and 
 in the United States tribunals, where much of his 
 attention was given to patent cases. His retire- 
 ment from active participation in trials in court was 
 in 1888. 
 
 Mr. Blake has been a frequent contributor to 
 periodical literature, and has delivered some lectures 
 on political and historical subjects, and is secre- 
 tary of the New Haven Colony Historical Society. 
 Mr. Blake is the author of "Chronicles of N. H. 
 Green." Since 1888 almost his entire time has been 
 occupied in the furtherance of public improvements 
 in New Haven, especially in connection with the 
 park system of that citv, and he is president of the 
 park commissioners. In i860, Henry T. Blake was 
 married to Elizabeth Kingsley, a daughter of Prof. 
 James L. Kingsley, of Yale College, and their sons 
 are : Henry W. Blake, a resident of New York 
 and associate editor of the Street Railway Jour- 
 nal; and James Kingsley Blake, who was graduated 
 from Yale in 1891, and from the Yale Law School, 
 in 1893, being admitted to the New Haven Bar, in 
 the same year. 
 
 The Blake brothers, Eli, Philos and John A., 
 sons of Elihu and Elizabeth Fay (Whitney) Blake, 
 and nephews of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the 
 Cotton Gin, came to New Haven about 1817, from 
 Westborough, Mass., at the solicitation of their 
 uncle to assist him in the armory works which he 
 had established in Whitneyville, in Hamden. 
 
 Elihu Blake built the house now standing on the 
 old site in 1836, and named the place Cherry Hill. 
 In 1825 he married Adeline N. Mix, a daughter of 
 Capt. Jonathan and Mary E. Mix, who was born 
 April 18, 1805. Capt. Solomon Phipps, the mater- 
 nal grandfather of Mrs. Blake was born in Casco 
 Bay, Maine, a descendant of a brother of Sir Will- 
 iam Phipps, Governor of Massachusetts. In 1772, 
 he married Elizabeth, born April 13, 1749, a daugh- 
 ter of Asa Todd, who was descended from Chris- 
 topher Todd, a native of Pontefract, England, bap- 
 tized in 1 61 7, and was in New Haven in 1639, occu- 
 pied as a farmer and miller at the end of Mill rock, 
 
252 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 on Mill river. Christopher Todd married Grace 
 Middlebrook, and died in April, 1686. 
 
 Asa Todd was born JMarch 24, 1723, and April 
 19, 1748, was married to Mary (Tuttle) Ailing. 
 At the time of the British invasion on July 5, 1779, 
 he went to the defense of New Haven, and was 
 killed in action in the upper part of the town in 
 the street now known as Broadway. 
 
 Capt. Jonathan Mix, a descendant of Thomas 
 Mix, of the Colony of New Haven, was born in 
 New Haven in 1753. In 1771 he married, first, 
 Miss Anna Sears, a sister of Captain John 
 Sears, of Revolutionary fame. Capt. Jonathan 
 Mix was married Aug. 5, 1800, to Elizabeth Mary 
 Phipps, who was long a resident of the old home- 
 stead at Cherry Hill, a substantial, old fashioned 
 Connecticut home, and took an active interest in the 
 religious affairs of the town and was instrumental 
 in the establishment of the Sabbath school of the 
 East Plain Society. Capt. Mix had several sons 
 and daughters ; three of the former were in the 
 United States Navy, while his only daughter by his 
 second marriage married Elihu Blake. 
 
 Capt. Mix was a member of the military com- 
 pany known as the New Haven Cadets, and was one 
 of the men who marched from New Haven to Lex- 
 ington in 1775, continuing to foe active through the 
 war, and he was one of the ten heroes who rode 
 from New Haven to New York and destroyed Riv- 
 ington's press. He was also with the first naval ex- 
 pedition to the Bahamas, and assisted in the capture 
 of New Providence, sailing as captain of marines, 
 and was captured and imprisoned in the Jersey 
 prison ship. At the close of the war, he invented 
 the thorough-brace and elliptic carriage springs 
 now in universal use, and may thus be regarded as 
 the father of the carriage-spring industry. Also 
 this talented man' invented an irnproved cartridge 
 box for troops, and a method for conveying away 
 the smoke from the fuse of guns on sihipboard. In 
 this effort he had the co-operation of Robert Ful- 
 ton, and the fixture was added to some of the guns 
 of Fulton's steam frigate. 
 
 ANDREW H. SMITH, a prominent manufac- 
 turer of New Haven, is of the sixth generation from 
 Jonathan Smith, and his ancestors have lived in 
 New Haven county for many generations. 
 
 (II) Jonathan Smith, of West Haven, son of 
 (i) Jonathan, it is stated in the History of Water- 
 bur}' bought of Thomas Brooks, of Boston, in 1740, 
 sixty acres belonging originally to Philip Judd, in 
 the Hop Brook section. He married Rebecca, 
 daughter of Thomas Painter, who was born in 
 1676. Jonathan Smith died in 1760. 
 
 (HI) Ephraim Smith, son of Jonathan and Re- 
 becca, was born July 11, 1733. He was a farmer 
 by occupation. His wife, Thankful (Tyler), was 
 born April 18, 1733, daughter of Nathan Tyler 
 (born April 17, 1701, died in 1767), and grand- 
 daughter of John and Abigail (Hall) Tyler, the lat- 
 
 ter a daughter of Thomas and Grace Hall. Eph- 
 raim Smith died Oct. 15, 1806, aged seventy-three 
 vears, and his widow died Sept. i, 1808, in her sev- 
 entv-sixth year. Ephraim and Ira Smith were two 
 of the original members organizing the Congrega- 
 tional Church of Prospect on the 14th day of May, 
 1798. 
 
 (IV) Ira Smith, son of Ephraim and Thankful, 
 was born in Wallingford Sept. 11, 1757, and died 
 in Prospect April 22, 1835. He was a farmer in 
 Prospect (formerly a part of Waterbury and Chesh- 
 ire, which was incorporated in May, 1827), in that 
 part of the town originally included in Cheshire. 
 He married July 9, 1779, Elizabeth, daughter of 
 Isaac Judson, and reared a family of several chil- 
 dren : Andrew, Nehemiah, Ira, Sally, Betsy and 
 Sylvia. Ira enlisted May 26, 1777, in the Revolu- 
 tionary army, as a private in Capt. Jesse Kimball's 
 Company, commanded by Col. John Chandler, 
 served about eight months, and was discharged 
 Jan. I, 1778. 
 
 (V) Andrew Smith, father of Andrew H., was 
 born in Prospect April 25, 1796, and remained a 
 lifelong resident of that town, where he engaged in 
 farming. He was a man of strong political and 
 social convictions. A Whig in politics, he was the 
 companion of Lloyd Garrison, and with him made 
 tours of the school houses and advocated the cause 
 of anti-slavery at a time when that policy was un- 
 popular in New England. He was also a strong ad- 
 vocate of temperance, and was a member of the 
 Congregational Church. On April 30, 1818, he 
 married Rachel Tuttle, of Prospect, daughter of 
 Obed Tuttle, a farmer of Prospect, and also a man- 
 ufacturer of scythes, which were then made by 
 hand. To Andrew and Rachel Smith were born . 
 seven children, namely: Harris, Lucretia, Jane, 
 Ira, Julius, Andrew H. (our subject), and Jennie. 
 Mr. Smith died June 7, 1878. 
 
 The Tuttle family is one of the oldest and best 
 known in Connecticut history. Andrew H. Smith, 
 in his maternal line of ancestry, is of the eighth 
 generation from the founder of the family in Amer- 
 ica, his lineage being as follows : 
 
 (I) William Tuttle, born in 1609, his wife Eliz- 
 abeth, born in 1612, and family, among others sailed 
 in the ship "Planter" from England in 1635, finally 
 and as early as 1639 locating in New Haven, where 
 both lived and died. They were equal socially to 
 any of the colonists. Mr. Tuttle was a man of cour- 
 age, enterprise, intelligence, probity and piety. 
 
 (II) Jonathan Tuttle, son of William, the emi- 
 grant settler, baptized in Charlestown, Mass., in 
 1637, married in 1667 Rebecca, bom in 1643, daugh- 
 ter of Lieut. Francis Bell, of Stamford, Conn. 
 At)out_i67o Mr. Tuttle began a settlement near the 
 Quinnipiac river, in what is now the southern part 
 of the town of North Haven. He built a bridge 
 over the river in that town, which was long known 
 as "Tuttle's bridge." His death occurred in 1705. 
 
 (III) William Tuttle, son of Jonathan, born in 
 
.^J^^^sj-s ^ z7^ 
 
 JTn^.Atjr ^~. rf-':/.x„,s 3jg_--j\'^' 
 
 ,^.^^^1^^^^^ ??^^^^^^^5^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 253 
 
 1673, married Mary Abernath, who was born in 
 1680, daughter of WilHam Abernath. Mr. Tuttle 
 died in 1727. 
 
 (IV) Ezekiel Tuttle, son of William, married 
 (first) in 1729 Susanna Merriman, who was born in 
 1709, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Peck) Mer- 
 riman, he being a son of Capt. Nathaniel Merriman, 
 an early settler in Wallingford and prominent in 
 New Haven. 
 
 (V) Reuben Tuttle, son of Ezekiel, born in 
 1739, married in 1766 Hannah (or Joanna) Tyler, 
 of Branford, Conn., and resided in North Haven. 
 Mrs. Tuttle died in 1783. 
 
 (VI) O'bed Tuttle, son of Reuben, bora June 
 26, 1776, married Lucretia Clark, of West Haven. 
 Mr.. Tuttle removed from North Haven to Pros- 
 pect, Conn., where he was engaged in farming and 
 as a blacksmith, making scythes and axes. His 
 children were born in Prospect. Mr. Tuttle died in 
 Prospect Aug. 20, 1862, Mrs. Tuttle on Jan. 12, 
 1863. 
 
 (VII) Rachel Tuttle, daughter of Obed, born 
 April 3, 1800, married Andrew Smith, and died 
 Nov. 3, 1878. 
 
 Andrew H. Smith, subject of this sketch, son of 
 Andrew and Rachel (Tuttle) Smith, was born in- 
 Prospect, Conn., Feb. 23, 1840. He spent his boy- 
 hood days on the farm, and attended the district 
 schools until he was seventeen, when he went to the 
 high school at Watertown, Conn., later attending a 
 boarding school at Charlotteville, N. Y. He then 
 taught school in Prospect, Cheshire and Bethany, 
 Conn. At the age of twenty-one he entered the em- 
 ployment of his brother, in the manufacture of 
 needles, in Prospect, and in 1864, with his brothers 
 Ira and Julius, formed a company for this branch 
 of manufacture under the name of Smith Bros., at 
 Hamden, Conn. Later the firm became Smith Bros. 
 & Co., and still later Andrew H. sold out to his 
 brother Ira and his son, early in the year 1881. 
 From Hamden he removed to New Haven, where 
 under the name of A. H. Smith & Co. he has ever 
 since continued successfully the manufacture of 
 machine needles. He is a member of the New Ha- 
 ven Chamber of Commerce, and one of the promi- 
 nent and influential business men of the city. 
 
 Mr. Smith for his first wife married, Oct. 24, 
 1867, Emma Payne, of Hamden, daughter of James 
 M. Payne, who was born in North Haven. She 
 died Oct. 13, 1888, leaving no children. For his 
 second wife Mr. Smith married, Feb. 18, 1892, Nel- 
 lie Brainard Phelps, daughter of John J. Phelps, of 
 New Haven, and to them has been born, Feb. 18, 
 1893, one son, Jay Phelps. 
 
 In politics Mr. Smith is a Republican. He has 
 been prominent in church work and is a member of 
 the United Congregational Church of New Haven, 
 of which he has been for many years a deacon. He 
 was formerly a deacon of the church at Mt. Carmel, 
 Conn. He is a member of the New Haven Colony 
 Historical Society and the Sons of the American 
 Revolution. 
 
 FREDERICK W. IVES. The Ives family is 
 one of the old and honored ones of New England. 
 The first of the name in the vicinity of Meriden, 
 Conn., was John Ives, of Wallingford, a son of 
 William Ives, who came hither from England. 
 
 John Ives (2), son of John, was bom in 1660, 
 and in 1693 married Mary Gillette, in Meriden, and 
 died in 1738. 
 
 John Ives (3), son of John Ives (2), was born 
 in 1694, and in 1719 married Hannah Ro3'ce, and 
 died in 1795; her death occurred in Meriden, in 
 1770. 
 
 John Ives (4), son of John Ives (3), was born 
 in 1729, and married first Mary Hall, who died in 
 1788, and his second Vvfife, Sarah, died in 1804; he 
 died in 181 6. 
 
 Othniel Ives, son of John (4) and Mary Ives, 
 was born Aug. 17, 1779, and married first Oct. 28, 
 1800, Sarah, a daughter of Nathaniel Yale, and 
 second, Oct. 26, 1815, Rosetta Yale. Othniel Ives 
 resided in the eastern part of Meriden, Conn., where 
 he was a farmer and large landowner, and where he 
 died Nov. 22, 1829, his burial taking place in Broad 
 street cemetery. He was a consistent member of 
 the Baptist Church. The children of his first mar- 
 riage were: Eliza, born Jan. 17, 1804, married 
 Edwin R. Yale, who vras born Aug. 8, 1804; Elias 
 Yale, born Jan. 7, 1806, married Cornelia Pomeroy ; 
 Eli, born Jan. 7, 1809, married Gelina Ann Pom- 
 eroy; Othniel, born Nov. 26, 1812, married first, 
 Julia Cook and second, Mary Howard. The chil- 
 dren of his second marriage were: Isaac, born 
 Jan. 27, 1817, married Eloise White; Sarah Rosetta, 
 born Nov. 23, 1818, married Rev. Harvey Miller, 
 a prominent Baptist clergyman of Meriden ; Juliette, 
 born May 13, 1822, married Eli Butler; John, born 
 Dec. 25, 1825, of the firm of Ives, Upham & Rand, 
 of Meriden, Conn., first married' Alina Birdsey, and 
 second. Wealthy S. Merwin; Frederick Wightman, 
 born Jan. 27, 1828; and Russell Jennings (a posthu- 
 mous child, born July 30, 1830, eight months after 
 the death of his father), who first married Flora 
 Ann White, and second, Eliza Ann Yale. 
 
 Frederick W. Ives, now one of Meriden's most 
 respected citizens, has for more than fifty-four 
 years been connected with The Edward Miller Man- 
 ufacturing Company. He was born Jan. 27, 1828, 
 a son of Othniel and Rosetta (Yale) Ives, and he 
 was but one and one-half years of age when death 
 claimed his estimable father. His mother died 
 March 3, 1833, and he was reared by his uncle, Levi 
 Yale. His educational opportunities were very 
 limited, being confined to irregular attendance at the 
 district school, supplemented with the reading of all 
 books which came within his reach. At the age of 
 sixteen years, Mr. Ives started out to make his 
 own way in the world. His first work was with 
 Ashbel Griswold, at $6 per month, during the sum- 
 mer seasons, and here he remained two years, work- 
 ing in the spoon shop during one winter. Then 
 he went to the farm of Joel Miller, working in the 
 
254 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 fields in summer and in the brass shop in winter. 
 This was the start of the great company which has 
 profited by his faithful service ever since. 
 
 In 1847 the business now known as the Edward 
 Miller Manufacturing Co., was conducted by its 
 founder, Edwardj Miller, and during its rise, Mr. 
 Ives has continued with it, in various departments, 
 for fifty years being connected with the brass de- 
 partment, performing for thirty-five years the du- 
 ties of foreman. No more skilled, faithful or es- 
 teemed employe is connected with this establish- 
 ment. Although the vigor of youth is no longer 
 his, he is still active and quite capable of discharg- 
 ing his duties. 
 
 Not only in the field of his physical activity is 
 Mr. Ives known and highly regarded, but his acts of 
 charity and deeds of benevolence have given him a 
 warm place in the hearts of those in the community 
 who have known him these many years. He is a 
 man of great intelligence, well read, and not only 
 has strong convictions, but has the courage to live 
 lip to them. Although not connected with any 
 special religious body, his life testifies to his Chris- 
 tian principles. His modest home on Broad street 
 is made one of tender affection, by his two devoted 
 daughters. 
 
 On June 17, 1862, Mr. Ives was married in 
 Branford, Conn., to Frances M. Jones, who was 
 born in Wallingford, a daughter of Erastus and 
 Lucy (Elliott) Jones. The three daughters born 
 to this union were: Rosa Juliet, who died young; 
 Nettie Aline, who was educated in the Meriden 
 ihigh school, is a lady of culture and refinement ; and 
 Frances Rose, who is also a graduate of the Meri- 
 den High school, and a most successful teacher in 
 the Parker avenue sdhool. Both are most estimable 
 ladies, prominent in educational and church circles. 
 The mother died Sept. 14, 1886. She and her 
 daughters were connected with the Baptist Church, 
 from youth. In politics, Mr. Ives was formerly a 
 Democrat, but was one of the first Republican voters, 
 in 1856, to cast a ballot for John C. Fremont. 
 
 Eli Ives, deceased. In the death of Eli Ives, on 
 May 13, 1886, the city of Meriden, Conn., lost one 
 of her sterling citizens and active business men, 
 who was through life deeply interested in whatever 
 seemed to promise good to Meriden or her citizens. 
 
 Eli Ives was born Jan. 7, 1809, in Meriden, a 
 son of Othniel and Sarah (Yale) Ives. His early 
 rearing was on a farm where he remained until his 
 twenty-fourth year, when, in association with the 
 late Noah Pomeroy, he began the manufacture of 
 tinware. In 1837 young Ives went to Wetumpka, 
 Ala., and began a business in w^hich he retained an 
 interest several years, although residing the greater 
 part of the time in Meriden. In 1843, 'he bought 
 the Tyler mills in Yalesville, and here he carried on 
 the milling business and also engaged in the manu- 
 facture of Britannia spoons. In 1849, ii^ company 
 with Bennett Jeralds, he commenced the manufac- 
 ture of these spoons and other articles, in Prospect, 
 
 Conn., this business prospering until 1854. In 1852 
 Mr. Ives became interested in the business of Good- 
 rich & Rutty, and upon being admitted to partner- 
 ship, the firm became Goodrich, Ives & Rutty. Mr. 
 Goodrich retired from the business in 1864, and Ed- 
 win R. Crocker and Nelson Payne were admitted, 
 the firm becoming Ives, Rutty & Co. 
 
 Mr. Ives was considered a man of excellent busi- 
 ness judgment and financial reliability, and he was 
 frequently called upon to settle estates and assume 
 responsibilities of a like nature. In his political 
 views he was a stanah Democrat. At the time of 
 his death, he was a member of the board of Com- 
 pensation of the city, and had served both as council- 
 man and alderman, and he presided at the last 
 Democratic town convention held before his death. 
 
 Mr. Ives was a man of strict integrity and ever 
 held the confidence of his fellow citizens, and was 
 highly esteemed in every walk of life. . It was a 
 source of pleasure to him tjhat the exigencies of 
 business had never made him enter a suit in the 
 courts against anv one, nor to sufifer in such a wav 
 from others. Although he passed man's allotted 
 years, he was active to the last, his vitality being 
 wonderful. Up to within ten days of his death, he 
 had been driving about town, attending to business 
 matters. Several times within twenty years prior 
 to his death, he had been almost at its portals, but 
 his iron constitution and unusual recuperative power 
 had brought him safely through each ordeal. 
 
 On Sept. 30, 1830, Mr. Ives was married to 
 Gelina Ann Pomeroy, and these children were born 
 +0 their union : Noah P. ; Sarah E., wife of Anthony 
 R. Parshley ; Isaac O. ; Charles P. ; Isadore, Mrs. 
 Alfred Ives; and Eloise W., Mrs. Charles R. 
 Fowler. 
 
 SAMUEL MILROY was for almost forty 
 years one of the respected citizens of Meriden, where 
 as head of the shipping department of the Meri- 
 den Britannia Co. he was well known to the busi- 
 ness world. 
 
 Mr. Milroy was a native of Dumfriesshire, Scot- 
 land, born in 1818 in Kirkcudbright, son of James 
 Milrqy, who was born in the same place. The fa- 
 ther was manager of a farm for a country gentle- 
 man. Both he and the mother died when their son 
 Samuel was quite young, and he was thus early 
 thrown upon his own resources. The parents were 
 devout members of the Presbyterian Church. Our 
 subject was reared at his birthplace and trained to 
 farming, remaining with the gentleman who had 
 ernployed his father until he reached his majority. 
 His education was such as the common schools of 
 the day aftorded. On leaving Kirkcudbright he 
 went to Liverpool, England, where he joined the 
 police force and served seven years as an 
 officer. Having heard of the great opportuni- 
 ties oflfered in the western worid and desir- 
 ing to better his condition, he decided to 
 come to America, and took passage for New York 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 25s 
 
 on a sailing vessel in 1S49. His stay in New York 
 City was brief, and he came thence to Middletown, 
 Conn., where he also remained but a short time. 
 His next move was to Meriden, where he accepted 
 a position with the Consolidated Railroad Co. as 
 freight agent and baggagemaster, continuing thus 
 four years. On the formation of the Meriden 
 Britannia Co., by Horace Wilcox, I. C. Lewis and 
 others, Mr. Milroy accepted a position in the ship- 
 ping department, of which he was the head for the 
 long period of twenty-seven years. It is scarcely 
 necessary to comment upon the quality of his work 
 or his worth to the establishment, such a record 
 of continuous service being the best evidence of 
 efficiency and reliability. Suffice it to say that 
 he was faithful to every trust, and retired from 
 his duties with the respect of those who had worked 
 under him and the fullest confidence of his em- 
 ployers. During the last five years of his life he 
 devoted himself to looking after his property. He 
 died suddenly, of heart failure, June 28, 1886, at 
 the home now 'occupied by his widow and daugh- 
 ter, at No. 52 South First street, Meriden, and 
 was buried in the West cemetery. Mr. Milroy at- 
 tended the Congregational Church. He was a man 
 of quiet habits and domestic tastes, devoted to 
 his wife, home and family, and stood high in the 
 regard of all who knew him, in any of the rela- 
 tions of life. His political support was given to 
 the Republican party, but he was no active partisan 
 or office seeker, having no desire for public prefer- 
 ment. However, he was chosen to represent the 
 Third ward in the city council, and discharged his 
 duties faithfully and well, his services being char- 
 acterized by the same carefulness and rigid hon- 
 esty which marked all his work. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Milroy was married, in Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., to Margaret Scott, also a native of Kirk- 
 cudbright, Scotland, daughter of Thomas and Jes- 
 sie (Thompson) Scott, who were born in that 
 place and died there. Two children blessed this 
 union, John C. and Agnes Jessie, the latter resid- 
 ing with her mother. Mrs. Margaret Milroy is a 
 woman of fine character, possessed of a social, lov- 
 ing disposition, and has been a devoted wife and 
 mother, careful in the rearing of her children, and 
 thrifty in the management of her household af- 
 fairs. She and her daughter are members of and 
 workers in the First Congregational Church. 
 
 ALBERT Z. DOWNS was born in Woodbury, 
 Conn., Dec. 31, 1838, a son of Albert Z. Downs, 
 Sr., who was born in Bethany, Conn., in 1806, and 
 died June 19, 1884, in Westville. 
 
 Zeri Downs, father of Albert Z., Sr., was born 
 in Bethany, in 1769, one of a large family of chil- 
 dren born to Samuel Downs, of Woodbridge, and 
 died May 3, 1840, in Bethlehem, where he was 
 engaged in business as a tailor and farmer. He 
 married Rachel Sanford, who was born in 1769, 
 a daughter of Elezhu and Sybil (Dickerman) San- 
 ford, of Woodbridge; she died May 22, 1861. To 
 
 this union was born the following family : Wealthy, 
 who married a Mr. Cowles, and lived in Bethlehem; 
 Anna, who married, first, a Mr. Kimberly, and on 
 his death, Shehon Brown, and lived in Bethle- 
 hem; Willis, who was born in Woodbridge in 1788, 
 married Milicent Gurnsey, and engaged in the 
 grist and sawmill business in Woodbury until his 
 death, June 2, i860; Lucretia, who married Fred- 
 erick Ludington, and lived in Bethlehem, where she 
 died in 1843 ; Betsy, who was born in 1804, died 
 unmarried Jan. 11, 1849; Louis, a mechanic, who 
 married Louisa Buell, and lived in Derby; Albert 
 Z.; Frederick, who married Phoebe Hawley, and 
 engaged in farming in Bethlehem ; Brintha, who 
 married William Cash, a sea captain, and had her 
 home in Groton, Conn. ; Henry, who was born in 
 1 81 7, married P'annie Gabriel, in. New Haven, and 
 died in 1872. 
 
 Albert Z. Downs was married, Oct. 12, 1830, 
 to Sarah Pritchard, who was born May 22, 181 1, 
 a daughter of James and Sarah (Cook) Pritchard, 
 of Waterbury, and died Dec. 21, 1895. For some 
 time after their marriage they lived in Waterbury, 
 where he was a cabinetmaker, and then moved to 
 Woodbury, and there Mr. Downs engaged in mill- 
 ing. From that point they moved to Bethlehem, 
 and he engaged in a store in New Haven. Their 
 home was brightened by eleven children: Francis 
 H., born May 12, 1832, is now living in Oklahoma; 
 James I., born Dec. 16, 1833, became an engineer, 
 and died Sept. 3, 1889; Frederick A., born Nov. 
 22, 1835, married Amanda Bales, engaged in farm- 
 ing in Kansas, and died July 18, 1901 ; Albert Z. ; 
 Edward S., born Feb. 15, 1841, married Hattie 
 Umberfield, engaged in paper making, and died 
 Sept. 10, 1880; Sarah L., born April 21, 1843, mar- 
 ried Smith Abbott, and lives in Derby; William 
 P., born Sept. 16, 1845, married Emma Boardman, 
 and lives in Westville; Maria E., born Oct. 31, 
 1847, married Thomas B. Robertson, and lives in 
 Westville; Ella C, born Oct. 18, 1850, is unmar- 
 ried; Helen A., born April 21, 1853, married S. 
 Hart Culver, and lives in Seymour; and Clara J., 
 born May 12, 1855, died Fdb. 5, i860. Five of 
 these served their country faithfully and well dur- 
 ing the Civil war: Francis H. served in an Indi- 
 ana battery ; Frederick A. in the loth Iowa V. I. ; 
 Edward S. in the 6th Conn. V. I. with his brother 
 Albert Z. ; and William P. in the 27th Conn. V. I., 
 and later spent two years in the navy. It is a re- 
 markable fact that on the expiration of their first 
 enlistment each one of these brothers re-enlisted. 
 Albert Z. Downs lived in Woodbury until he 
 was eleven years old, and attended the Miner Town 
 district school. When he removed to Bethlehem 
 he attended winter school for five years, being en- 
 gaged on the farm in the summer season. In 1855 
 he came to Westville, and has been here to the 
 present time. He learned the blacksmith trade, 
 spending four years in his apprenticeship. 
 
 Mr. Downs enlisted in Company F, 6th Conn. 
 V. I., and was mustered into the United States 
 
256 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 service Sept. 7, 1861. In 1863 he was detailed to 
 service as armorer, and on Dec. 4, 1863, he re- 
 enlisted. He was mustered out Aug. 21, 1865, after 
 having seen much active service. Returning to 
 Westville, he began work for A. Beecher & Sons, 
 match manufacturers, being employed by them as 
 a machinist and blacksmith, and is still with that 
 firm. 
 
 On May i, 1867, Mr. Downs was married to 
 Miss Emily A. Evarts, a daughter of James M. and 
 Emily (Clark) Evarts, and to this union have been 
 born four children: Linna E., born Oct. 26, 1868, 
 married Walter Pond, and lives in New Haven; 
 James E., born Dec. 6, 1871, is a machinist; Edith 
 A., born Oct. i, 1873, lives at ho'me; Alberta M., 
 bom Oct. 2, 1875, lives at home. Mr. Downs is 
 a Republican in politics. Since 1864 he has be- 
 longed to Olive Branch Lodge, F. & A. M., and he 
 also belongs to the American Mechanics, being a 
 charter member of Garfield Council ; and Admiral 
 Foote Post, G. A. R. In his religious belief he is 
 a Congregationalist, and is the clerk and a deacon 
 of the Westville Congregational Church, having 
 been clerk for sixteen years. 
 
 GEORGE ALBERT LEWIS. On the paternal 
 side Mr. Lewis' family is of French extraction. The 
 patronymic was originally Louis, and the first pro- 
 genitor on American soil was Jean Louis, a French 
 Huguenot, who was knighted on the field of battle 
 by Henry of Navarre. He emigrated from his na- 
 tive land to Sandwich, England, and thence in 1635 
 to America, making the voyage in the ship "Her- 
 cules." He adopted the English orthography of 
 both Christian and surnames, and was known as 
 John Lewis. He and his wife, Sarah, were the 
 parents of Joseph Lewis, of Simsbury, who is the 
 next ancestor in the line of George A. Lewis. 
 
 (II) Joseph Lewis, of Simsbury, on April 30, 
 1674, married Elizabeth Case, and was the father 
 of Joseph (2). 
 
 (HI) Joseph Lewis (2) became a deacon in 
 the church. He married Sarah Andrus, a daughter 
 of Abraham! Andrus, their marriage taking place 
 April 7, 1703. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Lewis, son of Joseph (2), and 
 the great-grandfather of George A. Lewis, was 
 united in marriage May 19, 1743, to Hannah Pew, 
 who died July 2, 1754. 
 
 (VJ Milo Lewis, son of Samuel, married Susan, 
 daughter of Daniel Beecher, and became the father 
 of four sons and' three daughters : Thomas, Sam- 
 uel J., George, William, Mary, Jane and Caroline. 
 Thomas was a woolen manufacturer of Nauga- 
 tuck, in which town he passed his life. George was 
 a practicing physician in New York until failing 
 health necessitated his retirement; he died in St. 
 Paul, Minn. William was a farmer, and in addi- 
 tion to agrictiltural pursuits conducted both a 
 wheelwright's shop and a cotton mill, at Cotton 
 Hollow, in the township of Naugatuck. Mary mar- 
 ried Abram Beecher, who lived in the South, and 
 
 is long since dead. Jane married James Aldridge, 
 who died many years ago ; she now lives in Den- 
 ver. Caroline became the wife of Deacon John 
 :\Ierriman, who was for many years connected with 
 one of the banks of New Haven, in which city he 
 was born and where he died. 
 
 (VI) Samuel J. Lewis, son of Milo, and fa- 
 ther of George A., was bom in Naugatuck in June, 
 1817. He married Mary E. Lewis, who was born 
 in New Haven June 3, 1818, daughter of Edwin E. 
 Lewis. A brief genealogical history of her family 
 may be found in the succeeding paragraph. About 
 1843, shortly after their marriage, Samuel J. Lewis 
 and his wife came to live in Naugatuck, and in 
 1845 ^^^- Lewis organized the Goodyear's Metallic 
 Rubber Shoe Co., of which he was made president, 
 retaining that post until his death, which occurred 
 in 1858, He was a Whig in politics, and a Con- 
 gregationalist in religious faith, and was instru- 
 mental in building the church of that creed in 
 Naugatuck ; he was a liberal supporter of its vari- 
 ous enterprises, and always took a prominent part 
 in directing its aflfairs. Mrs. Mary E. (Lewis) 
 Lewis died June 12, 1850. 
 
 Rev. John Lewis, maternal great-grandfather of 
 George A. Lewis, died April 9, 1792. He was a 
 minister of the Presbyterian Church. He was twice 
 married, and had issue by both unions, Edwin E., 
 the maternal grandfather of our subject, being the 
 only son by the second wife, Eunice (Williams). 
 Edwin E. Lewis was born Nov. 9, 1790, in Rocky 
 Hill township, Hartford Co., Conn. During the 
 greater part of his life he was engaged as a mer- 
 chant in North Carolina, and in his later years he 
 made his home in Oxford, Conn., where he died 
 May 27, 1880. He married Maria Tomlinson, who 
 was born Aug. i, 1789, in what is now Oxford, 
 Conn., and died Jan. 10, 1868. She was the third 
 child and eldest daughter of David Tomlinson, an 
 extensive farmer and merchant of Oxford, Conn., 
 who died March 24,- 1822, at the age of sixty-one; 
 he married Lorena Bacon, daughter of Jabez Bacon, 
 a merchant of Woodbury, and their family num- 
 bered fourteen children, viz.: Charles, David (i), 
 Maria, David (2), Lorena, Lydia A., Jane C, Ben- 
 net B., George and Jeanette (twins), Mary Ann, 
 Henrietta, Eliza and William. To Mr. and Mrs, 
 Edwin E. Lewis were born five children : Maria 
 A., ]\'[ary E., Elizabeth S., Jane C. and Edwin A. 
 MisBi Maria A. is the only -survivor. Mary E. mar- 
 ried Samuel J. Lewis, the father of George A. 
 Lewis. 
 
 ■ George A. Lewis was born at Sharon, Conn., 
 Feb. II, 1843, ^nd at the early age of seven years 
 sustained the well-nigh irreparable loss of a moth- 
 er's tender care. He grew up in Naugatuck, re- 
 ceiving his early education in the schools of New 
 Haven and Middletown, and after leaving school 
 spent three or four years in the employ of Messrs. 
 M. & C. J. Camp & Co., of Winsted., The hours 
 were long, from five in the morning to eleven at 
 night ; the pittance paid him was small ; and much 
 

 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 257 
 
 of the work was distasteful, his^ first tasks being 
 tliose of a boy in the barn. He was not, however, 
 of the sort that falters or grows weary. To phys- 
 ical stamina he joins mental and moral powers of a 
 high order, firm resolve and an almost unlimited ca- 
 pacity for hard work. During the Civil war he 
 obtained employment for a few mionths as a clerk 
 in the commissary department of the army, and in 
 1864 he returned to Naugatuck to become book- 
 keper for the Goodyear's jMetallic Rubber Shoe Co. 
 There he displayed such natural aptitude for the 
 management of important affairs, such untiring en- 
 ergy and such absolute fidelity to every trust, that 
 he rose to be secretary, and finally treasurer and 
 general manager. He continued to discharge the 
 arduous and responsible duties of this position with 
 characteristic faithfulness and zeal from 1877 to 
 1898. In the year last mentioned he accepted the 
 presidency of the Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Co., 
 a concern whose growth and development he has 
 materially aided in stimulating. Meanwhile, in 
 1883, he had been made president of the Naugatuck 
 National Bank, which incumbency he still retains, 
 and he is also conspicuously identified with other 
 local ■ corporations, of a semi-public nature. 'Mr. 
 Lewis is recognized as one of Naugatuck's sub- 
 stantial, public-spirited and influential citizens. He 
 is a Knight Templar ]\'Iason, although not partic- 
 ulariy active in the councils of the fraternity. He 
 has for many years been a consistent member of 
 the Congregational Church, to the support of which 
 he contributes generously. His handsome resi- 
 dence stands on an eminence overlooking the bor- 
 ough, and his home is one of the most beautiful in 
 that center of charming homes. 
 
 On May 16, 1867, Mr. Lewis married Emma F. 
 Lewis, his first cousin, who was a daughter of 
 Thomas Lewis, Esq. She died March 2, 1899, in 
 Florida, whither she had gone in the vain hope 
 of restoring her health. To this union was born 
 one son, Tracy S., who is secretary and treasurer 
 of the Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Co., a position 
 for which he had qualified himself by the perform- 
 ance of similar duties in the employ of the Good- 
 3-ear's Metallic Rubber Shoe Co. On March 20, 
 1900, George A. Lewis married Harriet F. Rossiter, 
 daughter of S. F. Rossiter, of Claremont, New 
 Hampshire. One son, George Albert, Jr., has been 
 born of this marriage. 
 
 BENJAMIN LOTT LAMBERT was born Dec. 
 28, 1825, in Orange, New Haven Co., Conn., one of 
 the family of six children of Benjamin Lott and 
 Eunice (Hemingway) Lambert, and only brother of 
 Denison D. Larflbert, who is mentioned elsewhere in 
 this volume. ]\Ir. Lambert's father died before he 
 was bom. At the age of seventeen he went to New 
 Haven to learn the joiners trade at the same place 
 as his brother, and after completing his apprentice- 
 ship went South, assisting his brother in building 
 houses and selling mills. He went to Georgia to 
 
 17 
 
 help his brother at two other times. The year of his 
 brother's death — 1871 — he commenced the real- 
 estate business, in which he has continued up to the 
 present time. By his upright life and sterling in- 
 tegrity he has gained the respect of his business as- 
 sociates and the whole community. His residence 
 has been for many years at No. 12 Eld street, New 
 Haven. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. Lambert married Susan A. Treat, 
 of Orange, who is still living. They have one 
 daughter, Nettie Louise, now the wife of Rev. The- 
 odore B. Willson, and two grand-daughters, Ger- 
 trude and Marguerite. 
 
 WYLLYS PECK was during a long and busy 
 life a prominent factor in commercial circles in New 
 Haven, Conn. He was born Aug. 15, 1797, in Mil- 
 ford, Conn., and he died April 9, 1869. 
 
 The Peck family is an old and honored one in 
 Connecticut, and Nathan Peck, father of Wyllys, 
 was until his death a very large land owner in thi& 
 county. A native of Alilford, he moved to New 
 Haven in 1799, and owned much of the property 
 which has been devoted to cemetery purposes in 
 this vicinity, notably the land now comprised in 
 Evergreen cemetery, in this city, as well as twenty- 
 five acres just back of the New Haven Hospital. 
 Nathan Peck married ;\Iehitable Tibbels, of Mil- 
 ford, and their four children were: (i) Wyllys, 
 the .subject of this sketch; (2) Nathan, who was 
 in business for a time with his two brothers, and 
 later became a financier and the president of the 
 Merchants' National Bank; (3) Henry E., whose 
 promising career was cut short by an early death;, 
 (4) Caroline, who married Rev. John Churchill, 
 of Woodbury. All of the family with the excep- 
 tion of Wyllys, who was the eldest, were born in 
 New Haven. 
 
 Wyllys Peck obtained his education in the New- 
 Haven schools and then became a clerk in one of 
 the city stores, still later engaging in the tailoring- 
 business. His success, however, was obtained in 
 the shipping trade. Associated with his two broth- 
 ers, he bought great numbers of mules, which were 
 shipped to the West Indies' and exchanged for 
 molasses, sugar and other products of those isl- 
 ands. 
 
 On Oct. 27, 1859, Mr. Peck was married to Miss 
 Sarah Gillette, a daughter of the distinguished 
 Rev. Moses Gillette, of Rome, N. Y. The latter 
 was born in New Hartford, Conn., April 19, 1776,. 
 and married Harriet Mills, of West Hartford, 
 Conn., who was a daughter of Jedediah ilills, a 
 Revolutionary soldier and a son of Gideon Mills. 
 The Mills family came from Canton, Conn. Rev. 
 Moses Gillette's father, Mathew Gillette, was also 
 a memiber of the patriot army. His father was alsO' 
 named Miathew Gillette, and the Gillerttes are one 
 of the old, honorable and loyal famlllies o'f New 
 England. All were born in New Hartford. Eiglit. 
 children were born to Rev. Moses Gillette : Lucy i 
 
258 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Catherine, wife of Rev. E. E. IngersoU ; John j\I.; 
 Jedediah Mills; Annie; Harriet M., who died Jan. 
 2, 1901, in New Haven, Conn.; Henry; and Sarah, 
 Mrs. Peck, who was the youngest, and is. the only 
 survivor. As a testimonial of affection Mrs. Peck 
 has had place in the First Presbyterian Church in 
 Rome, N. Y., a beautiful brass tablet, 24x42 inches, 
 inscribed as follows: 
 
 1776— In Memory of^l848 
 
 Rev. Moses Gillette 
 
 First Pastor of this Church 
 
 1807—1887. 
 
 Born in New Hartford, Conn., Apr. 19, 1776. 
 
 Graduated from Yale College Class of 1804. 
 
 Died in this city June 4, 1848. 
 
 They that turn many to Righteousness 
 
 shall shine as the stars forever and ever. 
 
 (Daniel xii, 3.) 
 This tablet is placed here by his daughter, 
 Sarah Gillette Peck. 
 
 This beautiful tablet has been justly admired 
 --and considered a fitting memorial to one who for so 
 many years labored as the faithful pastor of this 
 charge. 
 
 No children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Peck. 
 Both were always connected with the United Con- 
 ^gregational Church, and prominent in social life. 
 In his political sympathies Mr. Peck was an ardent 
 Republican, and for many years an influential mem- 
 ber of that party. 
 
 ELI W. BLAKE, M. D., was for many years a 
 leading physician in New Haven, widely known 
 through the State for his skill and ability, and wias 
 much interested in educational matters. 
 
 Dr. Blake was born in New Haven in 1820, son 
 •of Philas and Esther (Hotcbkiss) Blake, the former 
 'of whom was born in Westboro, Mass., and for a 
 number of years was engaged, with his two broth- 
 ers, in business with Eli Whitney. Later he estab- 
 lished a shop in which work was done on inventions 
 in hardware specialties, and later a large factory 
 was built for their manufacture in Westville, to 
 which his attention was given until the close of his 
 -life. His most worthy wife, Esther Hotchkiss, was 
 .born in Wtstville. They became the parents of 
 .seven children, all now deceased, she surviving Mr. 
 JBlake and some of her children. 
 
 The early life of Dr. Eli W. Blakei was passed 
 in New Haven, where he received his preparatory 
 education. Later he entered Yale College, gradu- 
 ating in the class of 1839, "^'""^ later in medicine 
 from, Harvard College, m the class of 1842; he was 
 a classmate of some of the most brilliant men of the 
 time. Dr. Blake immediately engaged in the prac- 
 tice of his noble profession, coming to New Haven 
 in 1864, retiring from active work but a short time 
 prior to his death, in 1873, a-t the age of fifty-three 
 years. 
 
 In October, 1842, Dr. Blake was united in mar- 
 riage to Miss Fannie T. Babcock, who was born in 
 New Haven, a daughter of Sidney and Susan 
 (Thompson) Babcock, the former of whom was a 
 
 bookseller and publisher in this city, a well-known 
 and responsible man, and one who at that time was 
 the leading exponent of the publishing business in 
 New Haven. Mt. Babcock lived to- the age of 
 eighty years. He marrred Susan Thompson, who 
 was a native of Stratford, and they reared a family 
 of seven children, the twO' survivors being: Mrs. 
 Blake, the widow of the late Dr. Eli W. Blake; 
 and Cornelia, Mrs. Clark, of Pittsburg, Pa. ; Henry 
 H., a resident of this city, and for many years col- 
 lector of the port, died Dec. 2, 1901. The mother 
 of this family died at the age of sixty-three years. 
 The family were members of Trinity Church, of 
 which for a long period Mr. Babcock was a vestry- 
 man. 
 
 To Dr. and Mrs. Blake were born four children, 
 the only one growing to manhood being Frank 
 Whitney, who was born in Boston, Mass. After a 
 thorough preparatory education he entered Yale 
 College, from which be graduated in 1872. Later 
 he entered a Theological Seminary at Fairbault, 
 Minn., graduating there, and being ordained dea- 
 con in 1875. His health had becom^e very precari- 
 ous, and, although the invigorating climate of Colo- 
 rado was sought, this brigfht and brilliant life went 
 out in the same year. His ambition had ever been 
 to be in the very front rank of intellectual life, and 
 he had attained bis wish, although a failure of eye- 
 sight compelled him to acquire knowledge through 
 the lips of others. Few young men have ever had 
 seemingly brighter prospects, as he' was gifted in 
 both mmd and heart. Although fhe family relig- 
 ious home was in Trinity Church, Dr. Blake alter- 
 nated, sometim);s attending that place of worship, 
 with his wife, and at other times joining in the 
 services of the Congregational Church, but in 
 either place he was the devout listener to Divine 
 truth, its influence dominating his life. 
 
 HON. CHARLES F. BROOKER. The pres- 
 idency of a large manufacturing corporation like 
 that of the Coe Brass Works, at Ansonia, a position 
 held by the gentleman whose name introduces this 
 sketch, is one that can only be attained after years 
 of application and experience in business affairs. 
 A man of tact and ability, earnest, energetic and 
 faithful through a period of a third of a century's 
 service with the Coe Company, Mr. Brooker con- 
 tributed largely to its success, and the position he is 
 so creditably tilling is a recognition of his fitness 
 for the high trust and of the confidence reposed in 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Brooker is decended from an old and hon- 
 orable New England ancestry. He is in the sixth 
 generation from John Brooker, the line of his de- 
 scent being through Abraham, Abraham (2), Sam- 
 uel and Martin. 
 
 (I) John Brooker was at Guilford, Conn., in 
 1695. Evidences point to his having been previ- 
 ously at Boston, Mass., and he bought land in Kil- 
 lingworth (now Clinton) in 1708. By occupation 
 he was a shipwright. He united with the old 
 
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 ELI W, BLAKE, M. D. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 259 
 
 church in KilHngworth in 171 1, and his wife, Mary, 
 in 1714. 
 
 (II) Aibraiham Brooker, son of John Brooker, 
 born in 1705, married prior to 1735, in which year 
 he settled in Clinton near his father. He was a 
 merchant and accumulated considerable of an es- 
 tate for so young a man. His will was made in 
 
 1739. 
 
 (III) Abraham Brooker (2), son of Abraham 
 Brooker, born Aug. 17, 1736, married in 1758, 
 Tamar Murry, of Guilford, Conn. His father died 
 when he was three years of age, and his mother and 
 five children, probably remained in what is now 
 Clinton some years. Some of the land left by his 
 grandfather on Chestnut Hill fell to him, which he 
 sold in 1759, when he was living in Branford. His 
 marriage is recorded in Branford, where he was 
 probably living at the time, and there his wife died 
 in Branford. He died in Wolcottville. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Brooker, son of Abraham Brook- 
 er (2), was born in 1774. He went to Torrington 
 when a young man, and married Mary Cook, of 
 Harwinton. He purchased a farm then located m 
 Litchfield, a little south of Wolcottville, where he 
 lived and' died. He was a successful farmer. He 
 died in 1856, and his wife died in 1852. Their chil- 
 dren were: Warren; Russell, born in 1802, located 
 in Medina county, Ohio ; Ursula, born in 1804, mar- 
 ried Salah Root; Mary, born in 1807, died m 1812 ; 
 Chester, born in 1810; Samuel, born m 1&13; and 
 Martin, born in 1816. , r> 1 
 
 (V) Martin Brooker, son of Samuel Brooker 
 and the father of Hon. Charles F. Brooker, was 
 born April 5, 1816. He was reared on a farm and 
 followed agricultural pursuits. On May 3- i^3». 
 he married, Sarah Maria, daughter of Samuel Sey- 
 mour. He died Feb. 24, 1874, and his widow 
 passed away April 3, 1876. They were esteemed 
 and respected by the community m which they lived, 
 and were useful citizens. Their children were: Eliza 
 Seymour, born May 10, 1840, married Joseph 
 Travis; Emma Maria, born Aug. 17, 1842, married 
 Stephen Oviatt; Charles F., born March 4, i847; 
 Edward Martin, born Nov. 20, 1850, died m 1853; 
 Mary Lura, born Oct. 22, 1853 ; and Sarah Maria, 
 born Aug. 9, 1856, died in 1872. ^ . ^ , , 
 
 Charles F. Brooker, son of Martin Brooker and 
 -the subject proper of this sketch, was educated m the 
 common schools 'of Litchfield county He early be- 
 came identified with the Coe Brass Manufacturing 
 Co., in the interests of which he has given the best 
 efforts of his life. He has risen solely through 
 merit, from the bottom round of the ladder to the 
 top one. Mr. Brooker has made a dozen or more 
 trips abroad in the interests of the company, travel- 
 ing in Europe and the West Indies. In 1875 he 
 represented the town of Torrington m the Genera 
 Assembly, among his colleagues rom Litchfiel 
 x:ounty being Henry Gay, ^e Winsted banke and 
 States Attorney James Huntington, of Woocjxiry^ 
 Mr Brooker is a prominent Republican, and has 
 
 served on the State Central Committee from his sec- 
 tion of the State. In 1890 he was selected, owing 
 to his fitness for the place gained from extensive 
 travel and business experience, and appointed by 
 Gov. Bulkeiey, one of the alternate commissioners 
 from Connecticut- to the World's Fair. Mr. Brook- 
 er is one of the most active and brightest business 
 men in western Connecticut, and he is a director in 
 various banks and manufacturing corporations. 
 Socially he is a member of the Union League Club 
 of New York, and of the Engineers' Club of that 
 city. He is identified with the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 The Coe Brass Company, which has a world 
 wide reputation and with which Mr. Brooker has 
 been so long identified, was organized in 1863, 
 when L. VV. Coe bought all the stock of the Wol- 
 cottville Brass Co., which in 1841 was the successor 
 of a business established in 1834, at which time 
 Israel Coe, Anson G. Phelps and John Hungerford 
 began to make brass kettles. The company has 
 gradually, but surely, gained a high position as one 
 of the leading establishments of its kind in the 
 United States, and its products find a ready market 
 on both sides of the ocean. At the present time 
 the manufacturing of the company is carried on by 
 half a dozen steam-engines with water-power in 
 addition, and it gives employment to hundreds of 
 persons. The capital of the main company has 
 been increased from $100,000 to $325,000, and few 
 establishments in the State have advanced more 
 rapidly and successfully. The mills at Ansonia 
 were formerly conducted by Wallace & Sons. The 
 main office and mills of the Coe Brass Company are 
 located at Torrington, and they have an office at 
 their branch plant at Ansonia, employing fifteen 
 hundred people. At the Ansonia mills are manufac- 
 tured braziers, sheeting and bolt copper, mirror- 
 finished cold rolled copper, patent leveled cornice 
 copper, and copper wire for all purposes. 
 
 REV. JOHN PARKER, whose name is inti- 
 mately associated with the early history of Meri- 
 den, was born Aug. 30, 1805, in Cheshire, New Ha- 
 ven Co., Conn., son of Stephen and Rebecca (Ray) 
 Parker. His descent from William Parker, one of 
 the proprietors of Hartford in 1636, through John, 
 Edward, Joel and Stephen, is shown, with a brief 
 sketch of each, in the biography of Charles Parker, 
 elsewhere. 
 
 John Parker received the rudiments of an edu- 
 cation in the public schools of his native town. His 
 was a religious nature, and he very early decided 
 to fit himself for the Christian ministry. In accord- 
 ance with this resolution he engaged in the study 
 of theology at the Wesleyan University, in Middle- 
 town, Conn., from which he was graduated at the 
 age of twenty-six years, in 1831. Entering imme- 
 diately upon his cherished task of preaching the 
 Gospel, he was stationed two years at Webster, 
 :\Iass. ' In 1833-34 he preached at Newton ; in 1833 
 
26o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 at Holliston; in 1836-37 at Lowell; in 1838-39 at 
 Lynn; in 1840 he was again at Holliston, and be- 
 fore the close of that year came to ]\Ieriden, to join 
 his brother, Charles Parker, in a business under- 
 taking. This move was made on account of the 
 failure of his voice, which prevented further work 
 in the pulpit, a great disappointment to both him- 
 self and wife. However, he did not abandon relig- 
 ious work, and preached occasionally, as he was 
 able. Li 1843 he was active in forming a society 
 of Primitive Alethodists, who held services in a 
 building subsec^uently used by the Parker Brothers 
 for a spectacle shop. Through the exertions of 
 these brothers 'the Alethodist Church in ]\Ieriden 
 was greatly prospered, as they were far from nig- 
 gardlv in financial contributions. Their joint con- 
 tributions toward the erection of the building at 
 first occupied by the First Methodist Church of 
 Meriden exceeded thirty thousand dollars. This 
 structure is now occupied by the curtain fixture 
 shop. 
 
 Throughout the years of his long and useful 
 life John Parker continued to contribute, with voice, 
 labor and money, to the promotion of every work 
 or cause devoted to the uplifting and welfare of 
 humanity. He was universally beloved and re- 
 spected, and, was called upon to fill many positions 
 of responsibility and trust. It was most natural 
 that he should abhor the evils of slavery, and he 
 was among the first partisans of the Republican 
 party. As in every other duty which confronted 
 him, he ably served the community as selectman, 
 justice of the peace, judge of probate and repre- 
 sentative in the State Legislature, being elected to 
 the latter body in 1870. Full of years and honors, 
 he laid down his labors June 21. 1892, and loVing 
 friends gave his body sepulture in the East ceme- 
 tery, ^leriden. Among the most sincere mourners 
 at his death were his brethren of the Alasonic fra- 
 ternity, in which he had long been active and useful. 
 He was made a ^Master Mason Dec. 11, 1848, in 
 Harmony Lodge, No. 20, of New Britain. He was 
 a charter member and the first \\'orshipful Master 
 of Meridian Lodge, No. "jy, of Aleriden, of which 
 he also served as treasurer and chaplain ; was made 
 a Royal Arch Mason in Keystone Chapter, No. 27 ; 
 and belonged to Hamilton Council, No. 22, Royal 
 and Select Masters, and St. Elmo Commandery, 
 No. 9, Knights Templar, all of ^ileriden. He was 
 among the first Odd Fellows of Meriden. 
 
 Air. Parker was married, in }ilarch, 1832, to 
 Miss Emily Ward, of Ashfield, i\Iass, who died 
 June I, 1867. Her children were: Emilv, George 
 White, Mary and Frank ]\Iilton, all of whom died 
 without issue. ( )n Jan. 22. 1868, .Air. Parker mar- 
 ried Miss Grace A. Belden, of ]\Ieriden, who sur- 
 vives him. 
 
 Mr. Parker was one fitted to lead, and was al- 
 ways ready to participate in every good work. He 
 ever sought to find good in peo])le, rather than evil, 
 and to aid those in need of instruction or material 
 
 assistance. A\'ith advancing age he was obliged to 
 abandon most of his activities, but his faith and 
 kind heart reached out to the world to the last. In 
 his demise Aleriden lost one of her most valuable 
 citizens and the cause of humanity one of its most 
 useful laborers. 
 
 HEZEKIAH BALD\\TN BEARDSLEY, who 
 passed away April 21, 1901, was a leading con- 
 tractor and builder of }iIilford. J\Ir. Beardsley was 
 born April 30, 1S36, in Stratford, Conn., son of 
 Charles and Sarah (Baldwin) Beardsley. His 
 family is of the best pioneer stock, and his great- 
 grandfather, Capt. \Villiam Beardsley, won dis- 
 tinction during the Revolutionary war by his cour- 
 age and leadership. 
 
 \Mlliam Beardsley, our subject's grandfather, 
 was born in Stratford, and' followed farming there. 
 He married Sarah Beach, and their children were : 
 Henry (deceased) was a tinsmith in Bridgeport;. 
 Charles is mentioned more fully below ; Stephen 
 and A\'ilson (both deceased) resided in Stratford; 
 Lucretia married' a Mr. Grofut; Sarah married 
 Benjamin Califif, a farmer in Fairfield county; and 
 Alirah died Oct. 11, 1839, at the age of twenty- 
 four. 
 
 Charles Beardsley, the father of our subject, 
 was born in 1806 in Stratford, and died in 1853. 
 He was a shoemaker by trade. He took an active 
 interest in local affairs as a member of the Whig 
 party, and in religious faith was a Congrega- 
 tionalist. His wife, Sarah (Baldwin), who died 
 in 1889, was a daughter of Hezekiah Baldwin, and 
 a granddaughter of Joshua Baldwin, prominent 
 farmers of Alilford in their day. Eight children 
 were born of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Beardsley: 
 Charles W., a farmer in Alilford ; Abigail, widow 
 of Charles R. Baldwin, formerly a farmer of the 
 same town; Alvira, who resides in Milford; Heze- 
 kiah B., our subject; George, a carpenter in New 
 Haven; Theodore, a builder in Springfield, Mass.; 
 Sarah J., wife of Edward Clark, a farmer in Mil- 
 ford; and Frederick S., agent at Naugatuck Junc- 
 tion for the New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 Railway Co. 
 
 Hezekiah B. Beardsley was a boy of eight 
 years when the family removed from' Stratford to 
 Alilford, where he grew to manhood.. He attended 
 the local schools until he reached the age of six- 
 teen, when he began to learn the carpenter's trade 
 with Jirah Stow, of Milford. He completed his 
 apprenticeship with Elijah Baldwin, of the same 
 town, continuing until he attained his majority, 
 and then went to Ne^v Haven as foreman for Jonah 
 F Clark. While there he studied advanced math- 
 ematics, in order to gain more perfect Icnowledge 
 and skill in the builder's art. On entering upon 
 independent business life he formed a copartner- 
 ship with George G. Baldwin, undfer the firm name 
 of Baldwin & Beardsley, and thev carried on the 
 building trade successfully at New' Haven aiaid Mil- 
 
t^i^LyL.^lydZ^<^Y 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 261 
 
 ford for six years, after which ^^Ir. Beardsley was 
 alone in the work. He built manv of the 'large 
 factories of Xew Haven and some of the finest 
 residences in the State, including those of Richard 
 JM. Evarts, of New Haven, AMnslow A\'illiams, of 
 Yantic, and C. H. Pond and O. S. Hubbell, of Mil- 
 ford. Mr. Beardsley was a director and vice-presi- 
 dent of the Alilford Savings Bank, and was often 
 called upon to settle estates and' iappraise prop- 
 erty, his judgment being much esteemed in busi- 
 ness circles. He was also interested in real estate 
 at Brunswick, Georgia. 
 
 In November, 1861, Mr. Beardsliy married 
 Miss i\Iary Stow, daughter of Capt. Marcus Stow, 
 of ]\Iilford, Conn. She passed from earth March 
 22, 1899. Their only child, Helen Stow, married 
 Frederick S. Beardsley, of Stratford. ]\Ir. Beards- 
 ley was a member of the I. O. O. F. and the Ma- 
 sonic fraternity of ]\Iilford, and politically was a 
 strong Republican. For five years he held the of- 
 fice of assessor. 
 
 DOWNS. For several generations the family 
 bearing this name have been prominently identified 
 ^vith the social and business life of the towns of 
 Huntington and Derby, notably through the mid- 
 dle and latter part of the century just closed in the 
 persons of the late Sidney A. and' Nelson H. Downs, 
 succeeded by their sons. Judge ^^'illiam Sidney 
 Downs and Charles Nelson Downs, sons of Sidney 
 A., the former at this timje a leading lawyer of 
 Derby, land the latter secretary and treasurer of 
 the Home Trust Co., are sustaining themselves in 
 the reputation, made in the community by the older 
 generations of the family. 
 
 The elder representatives of the Downs family 
 were agriculturists in the town of Huntington, 
 Fairfield) Co., Conn., and were of sturdy New Eng- 
 land stock who played well their part in the de- 
 velopment of that section. Joseph Downs, the 
 great-grandfather of Judge and Charles N. Downs, 
 of Derby, was born Jan. 14, 1768, and was married 
 to Hannah Patterson, born July 28, 1767. Mr. 
 Downs died March 17, 1823, and his widow sur- 
 vived until June 9, 1857. Their children were 
 James, born July 13, 1786, died Aug. 27, 1868 
 Philo, born Aug. i, 1788, died June 15, 1862 
 Lewis is referred to farther on ; Ezekiel, born 
 March 2, 1793, died March- 28, 1866; Hepsey, born 
 Sept. 2, 1795, died Aug. 11, 1874; Beach, born 
 Dec. 18, 1797, died July 28, 1865 ; Hannah, born 
 Jan. 8, 1800, died Feb. 13, 1853; Webb, born July 
 25, 1802, died March 9, 1874; EHza, born July 
 2, 1804, died Oct. 24, 1846. 
 
 Lewis Downs, son of Joseph and the grandfa- 
 ther of Judige and Charles N, Downs, was bom 
 Dec. 19, 1790, in the town of Huntington; Conn. 
 When a young man he was married to Mary, 
 daughter of Eli Gilbert, and became a thrifty farm- 
 er and influential citizen of his native town, where 
 be commanded the respect and esteemi of his fel- 
 
 low townsmen. He was honored Ijy the citizens of 
 Huntington with a seat in the General Assembly 
 of the State in 1834, and served them judiciously. 
 In 1848, he was one of the founders of the old 
 Manufacturers' Bank at Birmingham, which in 
 1865 became the Birmingham National Bank, and 
 he was chosen one of its first board of directors. 
 Mr. Downs lived to be eighty-five years of age, 
 dying Ivlarch 19, 1876, and his wife died at the age 
 of eighty years. The latter's parents, too, were 
 long-lived people, her father dying Oct. 18, 1847, 
 aged eighty-four years, and her mother Sept. 2, 
 1840, aged eighty-two. The children of Lewis 
 Downs and his wife were : Sidney A., Henry L., 
 and Nelson H. Henry L., born February 7, 1820, 
 died February 10, 1872. An account of the other 
 two follows. 
 
 Sidney A. Downs was born Aug. 13, 1817, 
 on the home farm in the town of Huntington, 
 where in boy'hood he was occupied as was then 
 the custom of the sons of the general New Eng- 
 land farmer, alternating between work on the farm 
 in season, and at school in the winters. In 1838 
 he located in the village of Birmingham, then in 
 its infancy, engaging first in mercantile business, 
 but later in the hard^vare trade in the old store 
 which twenty years ago was occupied by F. Hal- 
 lock & Co. He was a merchant for nearly forty 
 years. Air. Downs became interested in the manu- 
 facture of hoop skirts, which, for a decade follow- 
 ing 1854, was a popular industry in Birmingham, 
 and up to January, 1880, he was manager of the 
 house of Downs & Bassett, manufacturers of cor- 
 sets. Mr. Downs' early business career was con- 
 temporaneous with such men as John I. Howe, 
 Donald Judson, Thomas Burlock, David W. Plumb, 
 George W. Sbelton, Fitch Smith, David Bassett, 
 George Kellogg, Thomas Wallace and many others, 
 all prominent and active business men of 1846, and 
 with those named and others, he was a corporator 
 of the Derby Savings Bank, under the Charter of 
 May, that year. He was also one of the first board 
 of directors in the old Manufacturers Bank at 
 Birmingham, chartered in 1848, and which in 1865 
 became the Birmingham National Bank. Mr. 
 Downs held mjany offices of honor and trust, and 
 was the administrator of many estates. He was 
 selectman of the town in 1844, 1846, 1850, 1851, 
 1875, and 1876. He also served as town clerk and 
 assessor, and in i860 was judge of probate. He 
 was held- in the highest esteem by the citizens of 
 Derby, and in his business relations establis'hed a 
 reputation for honesty and fidelity which few pub- 
 lic men attain. His death occurred June 4, 1890. 
 
 Mr. Downs was married to Eliza A. Bassett, 
 born Alarch 12, 181 8, and to them were born chil- 
 dren as follows: Mary Elizabeth (now deceased), 
 Frances M., William Sidney and Charles Nelson. 
 Airs. Downs died June 5, 1867. 
 
 Nelson .H. Downs, son of Lewis and brother 
 of Sidney A., was born Nov. 18, 1821, in the town 
 
262 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of Huntington, Conn. At eighteen years of age he 
 left the farm and went to the neighboring village of 
 Birmingham to engage in mercantile business with 
 his older brother, Sidney A., who had preceded him 
 thither a year or two. Some seven years later Nel- 
 son H. engaged in the manufacturing business on 
 his own account, at lirst making carriage joints, 
 then matches and later tacks. He was among the 
 first to engage in the manufacture of hoop skirts, 
 and the very first in the village of Birmingham to 
 make corsets. He possessed great business fore- 
 sight, and early saw the advantages, and with char- 
 acteristic promptness he anticipated all others in 
 the erection of the first factory on the west side of 
 the Housatonic river. He was also attracted by the 
 beautiful eminence beyond, and quickly made pur- 
 chases to the right and to the left, and early erected 
 on a point commanding a charming view one of the 
 grandest and most complete residences in that 
 whole section of country. He was a most system- 
 atic and methodical business man. He believed in 
 and practiced a pay-as-you-go system, never execut- 
 ing a mortgage, it is said, and not giving more than 
 two or three notes in his- business career. He was 
 in the habit of paying his employes every fort- 
 night, and with his own hands, and in this failed 
 but once during the period of eighteen years of an 
 active, busy life, and then owing to sickness. As 
 may be inferred from the foregoing he was a care- 
 ful and judicious business man and made a for- 
 tune. He built four factories along the Housa- 
 tonic and to his energy, enterprise and public spirit 
 much of the growth and progress of Shelton and 
 Birmingham were due. He was at the front in all 
 measures which tended to the advancement of that 
 locality, always aiding work of public utility. He 
 was a noble man, warm-hearted, kind and gener- 
 ous ; no poor man was ever turned away from his 
 door. 
 
 In the anti-bellum days Mr. Downs was a Whig 
 of the Bell and Evert stamp, and later identified 
 himself with the Republican party. He held vari- 
 ous offices of public trust. 
 
 Mr. Downs was married to Elizabeth B., born 
 Nov. 6, 1 82 1, daughter of Abijah and Pauline 
 (Wakeman) Wallace, and to the union came chil- 
 dren as follows: (i) Sarah E., born July 30, 1845, 
 died in infancy. (2) Hattie W., born Feb. 28, 
 1849, married June 14, 1869, H. F. Wanning, and 
 among their children are, Grace E., Frank N. and 
 Hattie D. Mr. Wanning for years has been identi- 
 fied with the Birmingham Iron Foundry, as its sec- 
 retary and later as president and agent of the con- 
 cern, a position he now occupies. (3) Edward W., 
 born Oct. 20, 1852, married May 4, 1874, Alar- 
 garet Barker, born in 1852. She died in 1876, 
 leaving one son, Frank W. Mr. Downs married 
 (second) April 30, 1879, Alice Benedict, and died 
 in 1886. Nelson H. Downs died April 26, 1881, 
 and his widow passed away Dec. 2, 1896. 
 
 Judge William Sidney Downs, son of Sidney 
 
 A., was born March 16, 1857, in the town of Derby, 
 Conn., and was educated in its public schools and 
 also in private schools. Having decided upon the 
 legal profession for a life work, he entered the 
 Albany Law School at Albany, N. Y., from which 
 he was graduated in 1879. He also furthered his 
 legal studies under the direction of the late Samuel 
 M. Gardner at Derby, Conn., and was admitted to 
 the Bar in New Haven County in June, 1879, since 
 which time he has maintained an office in Derby and 
 practiced in the courts of the County and State, and 
 by his straightforward course has gained the con- 
 fidence of the people and become established in a 
 good practice. In his earlier career, in 1884 and 
 1885, he served with efficiency as the assistant clerk 
 of the House of Representatives, and of the State 
 Senate in 1886. From 1883 to 1885 Mr., Downs 
 was warden of the borough of Birmingham. He 
 has served, too, as prosecuting attorney of the town 
 court, and has just retired from several years' serv- 
 ice as judge of the city court. The judge is one of 
 the substantial men and citizens of Derby, and is 
 among the leading lawyers of the New Haven 
 County Bar. 
 
 On July 7, 1892, Judge Downs was married to 
 Ella M. Hinman, of Oxford, Connecticut. 
 
 Charles Nelson Downs, son of Sidney A., 
 was born June 24, 1859, in the town of Derby. He 
 was graduated from the public schools of his na- 
 tive town in 1877. Several years later he became 
 engaged in the m.anufacturing business, making 
 corsets, and in this continued until 1890. Retiring 
 from the manufacturing field in that year he opened 
 an office in Derby for the transaction of a business 
 the same in character as that of the Home Trust 
 Co., which was incorporated in 1893, and of which 
 Mr. Downs is now secretary and treasurer. This 
 institution acts as agent for a large number of fire 
 insurance companies, buys and sells real estate, 
 takes charge of rents and properties in the locality, 
 acts as trustee, executor, administrator, receiver 
 and guardian for trusts, etc. The company has a 
 capital of $25,000, and a surplus of $5,000, and is 
 a most commendable adjunct to the business inter- 
 ests of Derby. 
 
 On Feb. 8, 1892, Mr. Downs was appointed 
 postmaster of Derby by President Cleveland, and 
 most efficiently filled that important office during 
 that administration. He .was instrumental in bring- 
 ing about important improvements to the local mail 
 service. Mr. Downs was a member of the board of 
 borough burgesses in 1887 and 1888, before the in- 
 corporation of Derby as a city. He is popular as a 
 man and citizen, and stands high in business circles. 
 
 EDWIN CADY (deceased) was well known 
 to the citizens of Meriden as superintendent of the 
 Meriden Cutlery Co., at South Meriden, and 
 throughout liis long business career maintained t'he 
 high standard' of business methods that first won 
 for him recognition in the commercial and manu- 
 
>^^ */\s -^ 
 
 u 
 
 Vl---T><) 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 265, 
 
 facturing world. He was born in Woodstock, this 
 State, Oct. 21, 1833, a son of Charles Edwin and 
 Clementine (Cheney) Cady. 
 
 Charles Edwin Cadly was born June 3, 1804, in 
 Killingly, Conn., son of Jonathan Cady, who was 
 killed in an accident at Norwich, Conn., when the 
 son was only seven years old. Charles E. Cady 
 grew to manhood in his native place, 'and learned 
 the trade of blacksmith. In 1837 he removed with 
 bis family to Southbridge, Mass., there establish- 
 ing a machine shop in what is now called Saunders- 
 dak, where he commenced business, making mill 
 and machine work a specialty. In 1857 he sold 
 his property in Southbridge, intending to go West, 
 and re-engage in business in a new field. On ac- 
 count of the hard times, however, he did not carry 
 out this plan, but bought a new home and re- 
 mained in Southbridge until his death, Aug. 7, 1893. 
 In religious faith he was a Baptist, and consistent 
 in the practice of the doctrine he professed. He 
 married Clementine Cheney, who was born in 
 Southbridge, a daughter of Capt. Joel Cheney, 
 and five children blessed this union, as follows : 
 Edwin, who is mentioned below ; Franklin, of 
 Southbridge, who died Feb. 10, 1901 ; Henry C, 
 <5f Southbridge; Newton, who died in 1870; and 
 George W.. of Southbridge. The mother died in 
 1871, in the faith of the Baptist Church, and was 
 laid to rest in the beautiful cemetery at South- 
 bridge. 
 
 Edwin Cady was educated in the public schools 
 at Southbridge', and finished his education in Wil- 
 bra'ham Academy. When he left the school room, 
 after some training in his father's shop, he went to 
 Worcester, where he remained six months, in one 
 of the' machine shops there, learning the trade. 
 In June, 1856, he went to Buffalo, where he met 
 GeoTge Parr and entered his factory as superin- 
 tendent, remaining there two years. Mr. Parr hav- 
 ing failed in business, he went into the factory of 
 the Pitts brothers, manufacturers of threshing ma- 
 chines, where he remained two years, and thence 
 returned to Southbridge. In 1861 he went to 
 Springfield, Mass., entering the government 
 armory to engage in gunmaking. At the end of 
 seven years he removed to South Meriden to take 
 the position of assistant superintendent of the 
 cutlery works there. A year later, on the death of 
 the superintendent, he was promoted to that office 
 in these works, and held it to the day of his death — 
 a period of over twenty-six years, during which 
 time he faithfully performed the duties connected 
 therewith, winning by his faithfulness the respect 
 and confidence of his employers, and the esteem of 
 those under him. Mt. Cady was an expert me- 
 chanic, and always ready in any emergency. His 
 genial manners won him many friends, and his 
 death, which occurred at his home on Cook avenue 
 June 6, 1895, was most sincerely regretted. His 
 remains were taken to Southbridge, Mass., for 
 burial. In his political affiliations he was a Re- 
 
 publican. He represented his ward in the common 
 council, but was in no sense an office seeker. Fra- 
 ternally Mr. Cady belonged to Meridian Lodge, No, 
 77, A. F. & A. M. ; Ke3'Stone Chapter, No. 27, R. 
 A. M. ; the Knights Templar, St. Elmo Command- 
 ery, No. 9; Hancock Lodge, I. O. O. F. ; Monto- 
 wese Tribe, No. 6., I. O. R. M. ; and Columbus 
 Council, No. 5, O. U. A. M. In his religious views 
 he was a Congregationalist, was broad minded 
 and liberal, and regarded the Golden Rule as the 
 only motto of right living. A kind and considerate 
 man, his memory will ever be cherished by all who 
 were privileged to know him. He commanded the 
 respect of all with whom he came in contact, for 
 he harbored no ill-will and believed no ill of any 
 one. His kind heart ever reached out toward the 
 whole world, and everybody was his friend. 
 
 On Dec. 25, 1856, in Albany, N. Y., Mr. Cady 
 wedded Roselia Marble Lathe, who was born in 
 Grafton, Mass., May i, 1835, a daughter of Levi 
 Lincoln and Frances (Marble) Lathe, of South- 
 bridge. The only child of this union was born 
 July 22, 1862, and died Aug. 14, 1865. Mrs. Cady 
 is one of those women "nobly planned" who find 
 in their homes their truest happiness. In her de- 
 votion to her husband she left nothing undone, and 
 when the final parting came she met it with the sub- 
 lime faith of the' true Christian who knows that 
 those so truly joined in life cannot be separated in 
 death. 
 
 In February, 1902, Mrs. Cady was sorely be- 
 reaved in the deaths of her brother-in-law and sis^ 
 ter, T. Elmer and Fanny Gould, of West Brook- 
 field. In an explosion on Feb. 14th, of acetylene 
 gas, with which their house was lighted, the home 
 was wrecked and Mrs. Gould was killed, and Mr. 
 Gould suffered such injuries that he died a few 
 d'ays afterward, and was buried on the 2Sth of 
 February, just one week after the funeral of his 
 wife. They left an only daughter, AI^ss Rose 
 Gould. 
 
 WILBUR FISK GILLETTE, the president of 
 the G. M. Grant Company, of New Haven, and one 
 of the most prominent mason builders of that city, 
 whose business is conducted from the office at No. 
 133 Union street, was born in Randolph, Portage 
 Co., Ohio, Feb. 9, 1837, a son of Eli Gillette, a na- 
 tive of Derby, Connecticut. 
 
 Anson Gillette, the father of Eli, was-also horn 
 in Derby, where he combined farming with tan- 
 ning leather and making shoes. He married Betsy 
 Mansfield, who was born in Derby, and this union 
 was blessed with fourteen children, all of whom 
 are now dead. The mother died in 1864, at the age 
 of eighty-four, strong in the faith of the Methodist 
 Church. 
 
 Eli Gillette was reared in Derby, where he was 
 engaged in farming. Some ten years were spent 
 by him in Ohio, but the remaining years of his life 
 were spent in Derby, where he died Sept. 13, 1900^ 
 
264 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 at the age of eight_\--nine. In early life he was a 
 Whig, but became a Republican on the formation 
 of the party. Eliza Bassett, his wife, was born in 
 Oxford, a daughter of Ezra Bassett, who was a 
 farmer, and one of the pioneer settlers in Ohio in 
 1830, where he died at the age of ninety years, 
 while his wife, who was one of a family of nine 
 children, lived to be one hundred years old. To 
 Eli Gillette and wife were born four daughters and 
 one son, of whom three of the daughters are living: 
 Mrs. F. AI, Clemens, of Shelton, is a widow; Mrs. 
 Sarah E. W Clark, of Derb\- ; Airs. Edward S. 
 Davis, a widow, in Fair Haven. The mother, who 
 died at the age of seventy-nine, was a devout mem- 
 ber of the Methodist Church, and one of her daugh- 
 ters also belongs to this church. The father be- 
 longed to the church, in what was then Derby, but 
 is now Seymour. 
 
 Wilbur Fisk Gillette spent his early years in 
 Derby, and when he v.-as sixteen years of age went 
 to Waterbury to learn the mason trade with a friend 
 in that city, at which he spent five years ; for two 
 years while learning his trade 'he worked for one 
 man, and spent nine years in all there. In 1859 he 
 came to New Haven, and 1861 enlisted in Com- 
 pany D, 1st Conn. A'. I., going out in response to 
 the call for three months' men. At the expiration 
 of this term of enlistment he entered Company E, 
 5th United States Cavalry, where he rendered faith- 
 ful services for three years, two years of that time 
 being orderly sergeant. His command was under 
 Gen. Alerritt, and later under Gen. Sheridan, and 
 Mr. Gillette served in many fierce and memorable 
 engagements. He participated in thirty-two re- 
 corded battles, among them being the first battle at 
 Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, 
 the Wilderness, the Shenandoah battles, Winches- 
 ter, Cedar Creek, Five Forks, before Petersburg, 
 and in the engagements leading up to Appomattox. 
 With the coming of white-winged peace, his military 
 career was ended. 
 
 Mr. Gillette came to his present concern in No- 
 vember, 1867, and was employed for a year as a 
 journeyman, when he was made foreman, which 
 position he held until 1894. At the end of that long 
 and creditable period of service, he was admitted 
 to the firm, and held the position of vice-president 
 of the company up to the death of Mr. Grant, in 
 February, 1901, when he succeeded him as presi- 
 dent. Thi? concern is the second largest in the city ; 
 and among other important constructions they have 
 built the Peabody Aluseum, the Railroad Building, 
 the Winchester Building, the Sheffield Scientific 
 School, York Square School, many private resi- 
 dences, and other large and costly structures. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Gillette was married to Miss Amelia 
 Rice, a native of New Haven, and a daughter of 
 Joel Rice, a well-known politician of New Haven, 
 where he died when he was sixty-five. To this 
 union were born two children : Katherine, who 
 married Randolph A. Osborn, a traveling sales- 
 
 man; and George A\'. Fisk, who married Bertha 
 Curtis, and has one son, George Curtis. George W. 
 F. is a civil engineer, a graduate of the New Haven 
 high school, and of the Shefifield Scientific School, 
 and has already taken high position in the world. 
 Mrs. Wilbur Fisk Gillette died Nov. 11, 1900. Mr. 
 Gillette is a Republican, and is a Mason of high 
 degree, having passed through the several subor- 
 dinate organizations to receive the Thirty-second 
 degree. In the Union League and Young Men's 
 Republican Club his character and personality have 
 been felt. He attends the First Baptist Church. 
 
 DA\TD B. WHEELER, late a prominent and 
 popular citizen of West Haven, was at the time 
 of his death, April 4, 1900, approaching his sev- 
 enty-ninth birthday, his memory green, his mind 
 unclouded, and his hope unruffled. His life drew 
 toward its close in the same town with whose in- 
 terests he had been long identified, and from whose 
 citizens he had long commanded universal respect. 
 He was born Nov. 9, 182 1, in Monroe, this State, 
 as were his father and grandfather. Alonroe .sent 
 a full company of patriot soldiers to the ianny of 
 the Revolution, and Air. Wheeler's grandfather did 
 not hesitate to offer his fortune and his life to the" 
 Colonial cause. He was a farmer by occupation. 
 He died at the home of his son Samuel (Mr. 
 Wheeler's father). 
 
 Samuel Wheeler was reared upon the paternal 
 farm, but learned the trade of a carpenter and 
 joiner, which he followed through life, passing 
 away at the age of eighty-six. He married Betsey 
 Smith, who was born in Oxford, and died in her 
 twenty-fourth year. Both Samuel Wheeler and 
 his wife were communicants of the Episcopal 
 Church. Of the three children born to them David 
 B. was the last survivor. 
 
 David B. Wheeler assisted his father upon the 
 farm and attended school during boyhood and early 
 youth. At the age of seventeen he learned the 
 trade of making spectacles, which he followed sev- 
 eral years, and when he bad reached his twenty- 
 second year found employment in New Haven, re- 
 maining with one firm for seventeen years. Early 
 in life he began to display those habits of thrift 
 and self-denial which have done much toward build- 
 ing up his present handsome fortune. Every day 
 he walked to and from work, la distance of two 
 and one-half miles, and by practicing other econ- 
 omies gradually accumulated the nucleus of a com- 
 petence. From New Haven he went bo \\'hitney- 
 ville, where he secured a position with the Whitney 
 Arms Co. The story of his success there well ex- 
 emplifies those qualities which characterized him 
 through life. He entered the factory at first for a 
 probationary period of two weeks, and showed such 
 skill, good judgment and industry that his pro- 
 motion was rapid, and he was soon employed to 
 make the finest grade of tools used in the works, 
 gaining the well-deserved reputation of being one 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 265 
 
 of the finest mechanics in the State. One striking 
 illustration of the nicety and perfection of his skill 
 is worthy of being especially noted. He was re- 
 quested to make four safe keys, of a most complex 
 pattern, the work- upon which was so delicate as 
 to call for precise accuracy to the one-thousandth of 
 an inch, in order to cause four tumblers to drop 
 into crescent-shaped receptacles. The task was one 
 of no small difficulty, and no such work had ever 
 before been undertaken in the shops, but Mr. 
 Wheeler performed it so successfully that each key 
 fitted with absolute pei-fection. Several important 
 changes were suggested by him in the process of 
 turning out the company's product — which at that 
 time consisted of rifles of the highest grade — and 
 were adopted with excellent results. He was finally 
 made an inspector in the finishing department, and 
 his compensation doubled, the salary paidi him be- 
 ing exceptionally high. From Whitneyville he was 
 sent to the new works of the company at Yonkers, 
 N. Y., and made inspector of rifle barrels. 
 
 On leaving the Whitney Co. Mr. Wheeler went 
 to Bridgeport to enter the employ of the Winchester 
 Arms Co., and it may be said, without fear of suc- 
 cessful contradiction, that the foundations of Win- 
 chester's success were laid in no small part through 
 the conscientious, painstaking, indefatigable efforts 
 of Mr. Wheeler. He was virtually given complrte 
 ■control — having charge of the work done, oversee- 
 ing the men and keeping the books. The best com- 
 ment upon his fidelity and success is afforded' by the 
 fact that after quitting the company's service he 
 was repeatedly and earnestly urged to rrturn, the 
 request being 'accompaniedi by financial inducements 
 «of the most tempting sort. To all these proposi- 
 tions, however, he turned a deaf ear, and in 1868 
 lie retired tO' devote his time and attention to the 
 managemlent of his own private business. Eight 
 years before he had bought four acres of land in 
 West Haven for $1,250, and had erected 'the hand- 
 some house which stands at the intersection of 
 Elm street and Washington avenue. In the pur- 
 chase of this property he showed rare judgment, 
 and in its management and disposition he displayed 
 a sound business sense equally conspicuous. He 
 diivided it into building lots, which he sold at an 
 average price of fifteen dollars per foot, and on 
 those lots which he himself improved he inaugu- 
 rated the custom of erecting dwellings as well as 
 .stores on foundations of stone. For several years 
 he also owned property in Roxbury, where he was 
 accustomed to go, with friends, to hunt and fish. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler was a Repubhcan in politics. He 
 was a citizen of broad and generous public spirit. 
 For eight years consecutively he served the town 
 as assessor and collector, and never were West 
 Haven's taxes more honestly assessed or more 
 faithfully collected. At the expiration of his last 
 term, however, he positively declined to accept any 
 further nomination for public office. His religious 
 faith was that in whidh he was born and reared, 
 
 and he was an active and influential member of 
 Christ Episcopal Church, toward whose mainten- 
 ance and work he was a liberal contributor. While 
 living in New Haven he was also actively inter- 
 ested in church work in the parish of St. Paul and 
 later of Trinity, leading the choir in both churches. 
 In his earlier years he was said to have had a fine 
 tenor voice, and was considered! one of the best 
 leaders within the borders of Connecticut. He also 
 took a prominent part in organizing and training 
 the choir of the West Haven parish and was for 
 many years its leader. 
 
 On Sept. 9, 1851, Mr. Wheeler was married to 
 Sibyl Elizabeth Stannard, who was eight years his 
 junior. She was born in Westbrook, and died April 
 
 23, 1900. Edtvvard Stannard, father of Mrs. Wheel- 
 er, was born Feb. 10, 1800. He was captain of a 
 vessel which he owned, sailing between Boston and 
 ports on the Mediterranean sea, and also, engaged 
 in farming at Westbrook. He died May 20, 1854, 
 in Sacramento, Cal. On Oct. 24, 1824, he married 
 Beu'lah Jones, and they had six children : ( i _) 
 Frances M., born Feb. 25, 1827, married John Hop- 
 kins. (2) Sibyl Elizabeth, born Aug. 10, 1828, 
 died April 23, 1900. (3) Edward Job, born May 
 
 24, 1830, is mentioned bdow. (4) Abel H. was 
 born in April, 1834. (5) Ely J. was born Sept. 9, 
 1837. (6) Lydia Scranton, born Feb. 16, 1842, 
 married Lyman Squires, of Branford. 
 
 Edward Job Stannard was educated in West- 
 brook. He spent most of his life, at sea, on mer- 
 chant vessels. He died May 13, 1858, in South 
 American waters. In May, 1855, he married Mary 
 Haynes, a native of Bristol, England, and they 
 had one daughter, Mary Frances, born in Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y., who was married in Flushing, L. I., to 
 Dennis J. Carroll, and has two 'sons, Edward and 
 William Carroll. Mr. and Mrs. Carroll reside at 
 the old Wheeler home in West Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 GEORGE HEWLETT CLOWES, member of 
 the firm of Randolph & Clowes, manufacturers of 
 sheet brass and copper, seamless brass and copper 
 tubing, brazed tubing, etc., Waterbury. To explain 
 and to appreciate the marked business success of 
 the subject of this sketch, one only needs to under- 
 stand the man himself. Although quiet, unobtru- 
 sive, affable and ever courteous, he is of a type of 
 business men who possess at bottom sterling hon- 
 esty, absolute independence and limitless persever- 
 ance. In every enterprise, with him "To think is to 
 perform." Inheriting through a long line of an- 
 cestors what may be called the severely Saxon qual- 
 ities — integrity, determination and clear-headedness 
 — he yet adds to them the peculiarly American traits 
 of push, pluck and self-reliance. This rare combin- 
 ation in itself is enough to guarantee success in any 
 man. To the possession of this compound of quali- 
 ties both of mind and heart, the present high posi- 
 tion of Mr. Clowes in the manufacturing world is 
 largely due. 
 
266 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 In the latter part of the seventeenth century, the 
 name of Clowes first appears in America. Here, its 
 starting point was in that old, historic and thriving 
 town of Hempstead, L. I. Indeed the burying 
 ground of St. George's Church, in Hempstead, is, 
 in its epitaphs, a sufficient history of the family, 
 since its first advent to this country. It is a surpris- 
 ing fact, in looking over its records from the begin- 
 ning, to find so many of the name in succeeding 
 generations who have pursued professional and 
 scholarly lives — doctors, lawyers, clergymen, almost 
 exclusively — many of them quite distinguished in 
 their life work. Perhaps, however, no one of the 
 name acquired so high a position in the world of 
 letters and scholarship as the Rev. Timothy Clowes, 
 LL. D., the father of our present subject. This 
 man, most eminent in his profession, was born 
 March i8, 1787, was graduated as Master of Arts 
 at Columbia College in 1808, was a clergyman, in 
 1809, of the Established Church, with a parish at 
 Jamaica, L. I., and later one in Jersey City, was 
 rector of St. Peter's Church, in Albany, from 181Q 
 to 1817; at the end of which time he returned to 
 Hempstead, and for three years taught with marked 
 success one of the leading classical institutes of the 
 country. Recognizing his vast and varied erudi- 
 tion, he was honored in 1821 with the degree of 
 doctor of laws by Allegheny College, and the same 
 year was appointed the principal of Erasmus Hall, 
 Flatbush, L. I. In 1823 Dr. Clowes received a call 
 to the presidency of Washington College, Mary- 
 land, which he accepted. Over this institution of 
 learning he presided for six years. During a part 
 of this period he was also Rector of the Episcopal 
 Church in Chestertown, Md., and of St. Paul's, 
 Kent County, Md. In 1829 Washington College 
 was destroyed by fire, and Dr. Clowes again opened 
 his classical school in Hempstead, L. I. This sem- 
 inary in the succeeding nine years became widely 
 celebrated as an institution of learning. The Clin- 
 ton Liberal Institute, Oneida County, N. Y., called 
 him in 1838 as principal — a position which he cred- 
 itablv occupied for four years. Dr. Clowes died at 
 Hempstead, Long Island, June 19, 1847. 
 
 As a thinker, the mind of Rev. Dr. Clowes was 
 of no ordinary cast. Whether viewed as a fellow- 
 citizen, a neighbor, a theologian, an acute scholar, 
 or as a man, his contemporaries found in him every- 
 thing to respect and admire. Full of life and en- 
 ergy himself, with uncommon facility, he infused 
 the same spirit into others. Wherever he was 
 found, there, too, was found a master spirit. He 
 possessed mental qualities of uncommon activity, 
 never wearying with the multiplicity of his labors. 
 His mind was stored with such an unusual variety 
 of knowledge as to extend far beyond the boun- 
 daries of his professional pursuits. "When the ear 
 heard him, it blessed him ; and when the eye saw 
 him, it gave witness unto him." His fund of solid 
 and general information upon every variety of topic, 
 his forcible and happy manner of communication, 
 
 joined with a social and cheerful disposition, ren- 
 dered him upon all occasions a safe counselor and 
 friend,' an agreeable and interesting gentleman, the 
 delight of every circle in which he moved. He 
 lived, to borrow the words of a quaint writer, "by 
 old ethics and classical rules of honor." His hfe 
 was of so exact and even a type that it might 
 almost be styled mathematical. The simple epitaph 
 upon his tombstone at Hempstead tersely describes 
 him : "Dr. Clowes was the most of his life devoted 
 to the cause of education ; his reading was immense ; 
 his learning extensive and various ; and, as a mathe- 
 matician, he had few equals and no superiors." 
 
 If the subject of this notice derives some of his 
 best qualities to ensure success in life from his dis- 
 tinguished father, he is no less indebted for many 
 of his most manly characteristics to his mother. 
 Her maiden name was Miss Alary Hewlett, and her 
 mother's name was iNIary Sands. She came from 
 a long and noted ancestry. Her lineage is distinct- 
 Iv traced, step by step, to the middle of the nth 
 century in England, and her family was exclusively 
 of Saxon origin. The name was originally Sandys 
 in the olden times, but has since been spelled 
 Sandes, Sandis and Sands. Dr. Benjamin Sandys- 
 was Archbishop of York in the time of Cromwell, 
 who confiscated his vast estates just as he treated 
 everything of value with which he came in con- 
 tact. There is at present an association of the 
 Sands family heirs, of which Mr. Clowes is a mem- 
 ber, seeking for a restoration to them through the 
 British Parliament of these estates, aggregating 
 $100,000,000. In America, the Sands family first 
 appears in the person of Sir Edwin Sandys, who, 
 in 1617, became governor and treasurer of the Vir- 
 ginia Colony. Subsequently, in 1640, representa- 
 tives of the parent stock in England settled in Bos- 
 ton, Mass. A few years later. Block Island came 
 inito the possession of the Sands ; portions of the 
 family twenty years later removed to Long Island 
 and became extensive owners of property in the vi- 
 cinity of Sands Point, which from them takes its. 
 name. The genealogy of the Sands family from 
 this point to the present, covering nearly three cen- 
 turies, is both interesting and instructive, but our 
 narrow limits forbid its introduction here. Suffice 
 it to say, that it comprised members of all of the 
 three recognized professions, men prominent in 
 business circles in New York and elsewhere, of- 
 ficers, soldiers and patriots of our wars of the Revo- 
 lution and of 1812, bankers, members of Congress, 
 judges, naval officers and scholars. It would be 
 difficult to point out a family in this country with 
 a more honorable record through each of its suc- 
 cessive generations, or one which has been held in 
 higher esteem by its contemporaries. Although it 
 is true that 
 
 "The glories of our birth and state 
 Are shadows, — not substantial things," 
 
 yet is it equally true that one may take a just pride 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 267 
 
 in having descended from such worthy stock, and 
 may fairly ascribe to its blood flowing in his veins, 
 many of those ennobling qualities which go so far 
 to ensure success in life. "Men do not gather grapes 
 of thorns, nor figs from thistles." 
 
 George Hewlett Clowes, the subject of this 
 sketch, was bom at Clinton, Oneida Co., N. Y., 
 June 17, 1842, during the period of his father's 
 presidency of the Clinton Liberal Institute. His 
 father died when he was but five years of age. 
 Upon his widowed mother devolved the care, edu- 
 cation and training of two children, both of tender 
 years. Until he was eleven years of age, Mr. 
 Clowes attended the Hempstead Seminary and 
 Jamaica Academy, and for the four following years, 
 he was a student of the Thetford Academy, Thet- 
 ford, Vermont. At the age of fifteen, his brother, 
 then a banker in De Pere, Wis., gave him a position 
 in his banking-house, which he retained until he 
 entered St. Lawrence University, at Appleton, Wis. 
 From his college days, until 1875, he made his 
 home with his mother, in Brooklyn, N. Y. Mr, 
 Clowes has also an honorable record, as a young 
 and patriotic citizen, in our late Civil War. Un- 
 der the competent instruction of Col. Tompkins, 
 who had been commissioned to educate officers for 
 military positions, he passed a successful examina- 
 tion before the board of U. S. Examining Officers, 
 and was at once appointed adjutant of the Mc- 
 Clelland infantry. Having aided in recruiting 600 
 men for a new regiment, an order of consolidation 
 with another and smaller body of recruits was is- 
 sued by the War Department, and the entire regi- 
 mental staff of the latter body was placed in com- 
 mand of the full regiment. This did not in the least 
 diminish the patriotic ardor of Mr. Clowes, but on 
 a second call for troops, he at once re-enlisted, a 
 musket on his shoulder, with the 47th N. Y. N. G. 
 Soon he was appointed sergeant major of the regi- 
 ment, which position he held when mustered out. 
 He had, likewise, during the War of the Rebellion, 
 an extensive experience in the navy oi the United 
 States. For a year and a half he served on the 
 U. S. gunboat "Flambeau," doing duty off the coast 
 of North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. 
 Later he was transferred to the U. S. storeship 
 "Home," and was faithful to duty aboard this ship, 
 until she was ordered home in the summer of 1864. 
 His elder brother, Joseph Clowes, now retired, was 
 also in the service of the Navy of the Union as Ad- 
 miral's Secretary, and the loss of a leg at the fall of 
 Fort Fisher sufficiently attests his love of country 
 and his sacrifice for her in her hour of sore distress. 
 This is all the more marked as he volunteered his 
 services for shore duty against the Admiral's ad- 
 vice not to go ashore with the marines. 
 
 In 1882 Mr. Clowes was united in marriage 
 to Miss Mamie T. Blacknall, daughter of Dr. Geo. 
 W. Blacknall, of Raleigh, N. C, and their home 
 is a model of refinement, happiness and domestic 
 felicity. 
 
 The first experience of Air. Clowes in a mer- 
 cantile life began as book-keeper, and afterwards 
 as salesman, for the flourishing house of Garden 
 & Co., New York. This was late in 1864. At the 
 end of two years he received a flattering offer from 
 the Middlefield Fire & Building Stone Co., 1269 
 Broadway, New York. While thus engaged he 
 was appointed paymaster's clerk on the U. S. gun- 
 boat "Juniata," ordered to a European station, and 
 sailed in July, 1869, and he was abroad till 1872. 
 Returning to the United 'States, he at once was en- 
 gaged as loan and discount clerk for the New York 
 Loan Indemnity Company. In this position he won 
 the , respect and admiration of all who dealt with 
 him, and, through their confidence in him person- 
 ally, he influenced to this company, during the two^ 
 years of his connection with it, deposits of his 
 friends of upwards of a quarter of a million of 
 dollars. It was with this banking house that the 
 old firm of Brown & Brothers, of Waterbury, Conn., 
 with a reputation world wide for upwards of forty 
 years, then kept their New York account. Late 
 in 1874, when the New York Loan Indemnity Co. 
 were arranging to discontinue business, Mr. Philo- 
 Brown (the then president of Brown & Bros.) asked 
 its president, in the course of a business conversa- 
 tion, if he could recommend one of the employes of 
 the bank to him — a man who would have the re- 
 quisite character, stamina and ability, if engaged, 
 to grow up and become identified with his large 
 business establishment in Waterbury. Calling up 
 Mr. Clowes, the president at once remarked to Mr. 
 Brown : "Of all those employed in this bank, I 
 speak in every respect most highly of this one." 
 That recommendation was sufficient, an engagement 
 of Mr. Clowes at once followed and as a result, 
 on January i, 1875, Mr. Clowes came to Waterbury 
 and entered upon his duties as head book-keeper of 
 Brown & Bros. During the entire period of his 
 connection with Brown & Bros., covering about 
 eleven years, it should, however, be stated that Mr. 
 Clowes had no part in the direction, policy or man- 
 agement of the concern. Owing to financial diffi- 
 culties and embarrassments and other causes, entire- 
 ly foreign to a discussion here, in January. 1886, 
 it was deemed advisable for the once powerful and 
 solid company of Brown & Bros, to make an as- 
 signment. This event occurred under the presi- 
 dency of Franklin Farrel, Esq., the elder Brown 
 having died some years before. The trustees of 
 the company, however, recognizing the ability and 
 integrity of Mr. Clowes, retained him for his aid 
 to them in winding up its involved and intricate af- 
 fairs. His keen mercantile sagacity told him at 
 once that the purchase of the Seamless Tube. Brazed 
 Tube and Boiler business from the trustees might 
 be made the nucleus of a great industry. This, 
 however, was at that time but a small portion of 
 the original plant of Brown & Bros. To secure its 
 control required an outlay of $37,500. The pur- 
 chase price of the kettle business of the late com- 
 
26s 
 
 COiMiME.MORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 pany was fixed at $5,000 additional. At once and 
 without delay Mr. Clowes applied to a friend of 
 years standing— :Mr. Edward F. Randolph, a man 
 of wealth and with large business interests in New 
 York — for the capital necessary to make this pur- 
 chase. After a conference, Mr. Randolph at once 
 agreed to furnish conditionally the requisite sum. 
 The imposed condition was in substance that the 
 entire responsibility of the direction and manage- 
 ment of the plant, when bought, should devolve 
 upon Mr. Clowes. It was an immense undertaking 
 for one man to assume, especially when a new com- 
 pan}', under new conditions and surroundings, must 
 be built up on the wreck of the old. The entire 
 purchase price of $42,500, was, however, at once 
 furnished. Mr. Clowes assumed all personal re- 
 sponsibility of management, and in April, 1886, the 
 sale was effected by a transfer of the portion indi- 
 cated of the former Brown & Bros, plant from the 
 trustees to Randolph & Clowes. The partnership 
 capital of the new firm was at that time fixed at 
 $75,000 (though subsequently many tiines in- 
 creased), and the partnership of Randolph & 
 Clowes was launched upon its business career. At 
 that time (April, i886j they employed fifty men 
 and one clerk. Their office q,uarters consisted of a 
 small room, about fourteen feet square. By com- 
 parison, they now employ eight under superintend- 
 ents, and over five hundred hands. The main of- 
 fice—a fine brick structure, beautiful in its archi- 
 tectural design and its convenience, where all books, 
 records and accounts are kept, gives employment to 
 fifteen clerks. The firm also at present has its own 
 offices m New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Cin- 
 cinnati, together with a large distributing depot in 
 Chicago. After their first purchase, as before de- 
 scribed, in 1886, for three years Mr. Clowes put 
 forth all his energies toward building up the little 
 business so acquired. From small beginnings, the 
 volume of business transacted rapidly increased. 
 In three years only $105,000 in cash had been paid 
 m, yet at the end of that time this thriving part- 
 nership in its seamless tube, brazed tube, boiler 
 business, and kettle departments, was transacting a 
 business exceeding $600,000 per annum, a surpris- 
 ing showing upon the original investment. At this 
 juncture the energy, executive ability and business 
 skill of Mr. Clowes stood him well in hand. Con- 
 suming, as they did, large quantities of sheet brass 
 and sheet copper, his business sagacity suggested 
 the propriety of his firm engaging likewise in its 
 manufacture. Their increased business also had out- 
 grown the quarters which it then occupied. Con- 
 sequently, in March, 1889, the present partners pur- 
 chased of the trustees, at a cost of $75,000, the old 
 rolling mill of Brown & Bros. — the largest single 
 rolling mill in the country- — together with the re- 
 mainder of the property. It was a business venture 
 at which many old and experienced manufacturers 
 shook their heads, predicting only impending ruin 
 and disaster to the young and thriving firm, but, as 
 
 we have seen, among his qualities Mr. Clowes does 
 not number the cowardice of a faint heart. He 
 was not to be satisfied until he could reach a point 
 where he could see his firm second to none, either 
 in its capacity for volume of business, credit in its 
 finances, or ability in its management. Whether 
 or not he has succeeded the figures alone will show. 
 Starting with about 200 customers on their books, 
 this concern now has nearly 3,000. Up to the pres- 
 ent time over $500,000 has been spent in improving 
 the property, as originally purchased. The cost, 
 therefore, of this plant, starting in such modest pro- 
 portions but eight years ago, is to the partners over 
 $650,000. The betterments to the property, taking 
 into consideration the constantly increasing success 
 of the enterprise, give it a value more than double 
 their entire cost. In the management and develop- 
 ment of this enormous industry Mr. Clowes has 
 had no aid from any source, except the generous 
 financial assistance of his partner, who, however, 
 has given no time whatever to its conduct, policy 
 or supervision. It must also be remembered that 
 during these few years of the growth and maturity 
 of this firm it has been compelled in the open mar- 
 ket to face and combat the competition of old and 
 established corporations, with limitless credit and 
 recognized experience- born of many years. Its suc- 
 cess is, therefore, an added cause for congratula- 
 tion to Mr. Clowes, as its manager. Perhaps one 
 of the main causes for this rapid and enormous 
 growth may, under the circumstances, be found in 
 the rigid system of economy upon which Mr. Clowes 
 has insisted in every detail. Expenses of selling and 
 marketing goods, as well as the general expenses of 
 the management, all outside of the actual cost of 
 production, have been reduced by him to a mini- 
 mum. The cost to the company of this item has 
 never exceeded three per cent, of their sales. The 
 dift'erence between this figure and the selling ex- 
 penses of other Waterbury companies in the same 
 line running from seven per cent, to twelve per cent, 
 on their output, goes far toward explaining why 
 Randolph & Clowes can make so good a financial 
 exhibit, and how carefully, judiciously and system- 
 atically their business is managed. 
 
 Mr. Clowes is still the active, energetic, perse- 
 vering manager and partner of this great and pros- 
 perous firm. Their extensive and magnificent 
 works, occupying a central portion of the city of 
 Waterbury, covering an area of nearly seven acres, 
 fronting on the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 forn Railroad on the one side and the New York 
 & New England on the other; their unhmited and 
 never-failing water supply from the Naugatuck 
 river, which is in close proximity ; the size, con- 
 venience and neat condition of their buildings ; the 
 immense, powerful, modern and varied character of 
 their machinery ; all these go to make of Randolph 
 & Clowes a grand and unsurpassed manufacturing 
 establishment. This alone is an enduring monument 
 to George H. Clowes. Few business men in the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 269 
 
 country can point to such stupendous results, ac- 
 complished in so few years, by their own personal, 
 individual, unaided efforts. Xo wonder that the 
 city of Waterbury, with its immense manufacturing 
 interests, has been glad to honor Mr. Clowes with 
 the presidency of its Board of Trade, to which po- 
 sition he was elected Jan. 8, 1894. Who, in view 
 of all these facts, will not agree with us, when we 
 say, as in the opening paragraphs of this sketch, that 
 jMr. Clowes is the happy possessor of all the in- 
 herited and inherent qualities of head, Drain and 
 heart for which we there give him credit? 
 
 ALFRED NORTH, M. D., late of Waterbury, 
 where for a third of a century he had been a suc- 
 cessful physician and surgeon of high order, was 
 descended from one of the oldest and most ener- 
 getic families in Torrington, Conn, in both paternal 
 and maternal lines. His ancestors were among the 
 early settlers of Connecticut. 
 
 John North, the emigrant, came from England 
 between 1640 and 1650, and is given in the Memor- 
 ial History of Hartford county among those who 
 purchased land of the original proprietors of Farm- 
 ington. He died there in 1692. 
 
 Dr. North was in the seventh generation from 
 John North, the emigrant, the line of his descent 
 being through Thomas North, Ebeneztr North, Ash- 
 bel North, Phineas North and Phineas North (2). 
 
 (U) Thomas North, son of John North, mar- 
 ried Hannah Newell, and became one of the original 
 settlers of Nod, in the northeast part of Avon. He 
 died in 1712. 
 
 (HI) Bbenezer North, son of Thomas North, 
 married in 1730, Sybil Curtiss. In connection with 
 Zebulon Curtiss, he bought two farms in Torring- 
 ton, and moved to them in the spring of 1741. M,r. 
 North died in 1789,' in the eighty-fifth year of his 
 age, and his wife died in 1794, in her ninety-first 
 year. 
 
 (IV) Ashbel North, son of Ebenezer North, 
 born in 1731, married in 1757, Ruth, daughter of 
 Ebenezer Lyman, Jr. He was a farmer and enter- 
 prising man, and died in 1800, in his sixty-ninth 
 year; his wife died in 1812, in her seventy-eighth 
 year. 
 
 (V) Phineas North, son of Ashbel North, born 
 in 1762, married in 1787, Chloe Skinner. He was 
 a farmer, and was a genius in mechanical lines. He 
 made by hand several brass clocks of the high case 
 style, which would run nine or ten days, and keep 
 the day of the month. 
 
 Phineas North (2), son of Phineas North, and 
 the father of the late Dr. Alfred North, was born 
 Feb. 9, 1803. He lived on the old homestead, where 
 his death occurred. He had, however, built a new 
 house in Wolcottville, which was about completed 
 at the time of his death, and which was afterward 
 the home of his widow. He was a very energetic 
 farmer and business man, and his name occurs 
 frequently in connection with industrial and business 
 
 enterprises of that locality. On Oct. 10, 1832, he 
 married Louisa Wetmore, and to them were born 
 children, as follows : Helen, born in 1833, married 
 in 1856, James W. Holmes, of Waterbury, and died 
 in 1866; and Alfred, is our subject. Phineas North 
 died May 7, 1867. 
 
 The late Dr. Alfred North, son of Phineas 
 North, was born Oct. 5, 1836, in Torrington, Conn. 
 He attended school at Goshen and at East Windsor, 
 Conn., and after graduating from the academy in 
 Norfolk, and while yet in his teens, he made up his 
 mind to become a physician. His father sent him 
 to Brown University, from which he was graduated 
 in 1859, after which for a few months he studied 
 medicine under Dr. Buell, of Litchfield, Conn., and' 
 then entered the New York College of Physicians 
 and Surgeons, studying at the same time under Dr. 
 Gurdon Buck, Surgeon to the New York Hospital. 
 Dr. North was graduated from the New York Col- 
 lege of Physicians and Surgeons, in March, 1861, 
 and on May 7, 1861, was appointed a member of 
 the home staff of the New York Hospital. Here 
 he continued until May, 1862, when he went to the 
 front to do army surgery with Dr. Robert F. Weir, 
 of New York city, and Dr. George L. Porter, of 
 Bridgeport. All three were commissioned surgeons 
 at Washington, D. C, and sent to Frederick City, 
 Md., where a hospital was established at the time of 
 the battles of South Mountain and Antietam. Af- 
 ter some months of service Dr. North returned to 
 the New York Hospital and finished his term there. 
 In 1863 he located in Waterbury, Conn., and speed- 
 ily secured for himself a large and lucrative practice. 
 He became widely known as a skillful and thorough- 
 going physician and an expert surgeon. In surgery 
 he exhibited not only knowledge, but exceptional 
 promptness and courage. A writer in the New 
 York World spoke of him after his death as "a bold 
 and versatile surgeon, enthusiastic in his profession, 
 ceaseless in his toil, and possessed of business acu- 
 men as well," and added, "Probably not a Doctor 
 who has lived in Connecticut has condensed into 
 thirty years so vast an amount of varied profession- 
 al work." 
 
 In 1881 Dr. North associated with him in the 
 practice Dr. Thomas L. Axtelle, and the partnership 
 continued until July, 1893, when owing to Dr. 
 North's failing health it was dissolved. For more 
 than a decade prior to his death the Doctor had been 
 the medical examiner for the town of Waterbury. 
 He was also for vears the chief of staff of the 
 board of consulting physicians of the Waterbury 
 Hospital. He was surgeon for the New York & 
 New England Railroad, and the Naugatuck rail- 
 road, and also for the Meriden road during its ex- 
 istence as a separate corporation. He was medical 
 examiner of a dozen different life insurance com- 
 panies, and one of the medical directors of the Con- 
 necticut Indemnity Association. He was vice presi- 
 dent of the Waterbury Medical Society for a num- 
 ber of years, and at the death of Dr. Piatt became 
 
270 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 its president. Dr. North was an honorary member 
 of the New Haven County ^Medical Society and the 
 State Society. He was a stockholder in and a di- 
 rector of the Apothecaries Hall Co., and a member 
 of the Waterbury Club. In religious connections he 
 belonged to the First Congregational Church, of 
 Waterbury. For years Dr. North stood at the head 
 •of the medical profession in Waterbury, and had the 
 respect, regard and esteem of the other physicians 
 and surgeons of the city. His reputation extended 
 beyond the limits of his imiroediate practice. As a 
 surgeon he possessed the natural ability possessed 
 by few, and in this field he made the greater success 
 of his life, making a name for himself, and acquiring 
 • a considerable property. He traveled extensively, 
 baving crossed the Atlantic three times, and was 
 familiar with the country east of the Mississippi. 
 When he and his family removed from their Grand 
 .street home to the elegant new residence on North 
 Main street they filled it with valuable souvenirs 
 and relics of their travels, and made it one of the 
 most attractive homes in Waterbury. 
 
 On Sept. 24, 1863, Dr. North married Amelia 
 Henrietta, daughter of Dr. Gurdon Buck, an emin- 
 ent surgeon in New York, and sister of Dr. Alfred 
 Buck, a noted Otologist of New York. To this 
 union were born Susie S., who, in 1894, married 
 Herbert Rowland, of Waterbury; and Annie W. 
 Three children died in childhood, and two in in- 
 fancy. Mrs. North died at her home in Waterbury, 
 Dec. 18, 1899. Dr. North died Nov. 17, 1893. 
 
 JOHN T. TROTT, one of Waterburv's well 
 and favorably known citizens for a period of nearly 
 fifty years, was born in 1831, in Saxony, Ger- 
 many, son of Frederick and Elizabeth Trott. He 
 came to America when eighteen years of age, land- 
 mg in New York. Later he went to Cleveland, 
 Ohio, thence. -to Danbury, Conn., and in 1857 lo- 
 cated in Waterbury, where he afterward resided. 
 Upon his arrival in Waterbury he entered' the em- 
 ploy of C. A. & D. T. :\Ieigs,'and after some time 
 became a partner, the firm' engaging in the baking 
 business, and so continuing until 1890, when the 
 personnel of the firm was changed and the firm 
 name became. Trott, Lauton & Co. In 1891 Mr. 
 Trott became the sole head of the concern, which 
 has since been doing a large and successful busi- 
 ness under the bead of the Trott Baking Co. Mr. 
 Trott was one of the city's prominent business men, 
 ever deeply interested in its welfare, and in various 
 ways aided and supported measures which tended 
 to the city's substantial growth. Hie was identified 
 with the First Baptist Church of Waterbury 
 through a long period of years, and was church 
 treasurer for thirty-seven years. In politics he 
 was a Republican. His influence for good was 
 felt in many ways, and as a man and citizen he 
 commanded the esteem and respect of the commu- 
 nity. His death occurred at his home May -^i 
 1897. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Trott was united in marriage with 
 Aliartha Roberts, daughter of Simon and Esther 
 (Nason) Roberts, and to them were born five chil- 
 dren, three of whom (survive the father, namely: 
 C. Frederick, Albert N. and Warren S. Mrs. 
 Trott was born in Wakefield, N. H., as was her fa- 
 ther, Simon Roberts. There he married Esther 
 Nason, and became the father of eight children, 
 three of whom died young. The others were: 
 Sarah, now deceased ; Alary, who married Charles 
 Bronson, of Waterbury; JNIartha, twin of Mary; 
 John, who resides in Seymour, Conn. ; and George, 
 who makes his home in W^aterbury. A few years 
 after his marriage Air. Roberts moved to Hunting- 
 ton, Fairfield Co., Conn., and was engaged in farm- 
 ing there, but later he moved to Waterbury, where 
 he and his wife died. Both were of English ex- 
 traction. 
 
 C. Frederick Trott, son of Jolm T. Trott, was 
 born in Waterbury July 19, 1859, and passed his 
 boylioodi days in his native town. He attended 
 the public schools until he was sixteen, and then 
 went to work in his father's bakery, learning the 
 trade from the beginning to the end, and continuing 
 this up to the present time. When his father died 
 in 1897 he assumed control of the business, which 
 he has greatly enlarged. He built a large brick 
 building and is doing a mammoth business. They 
 ship their goods near \\'aterbury for a radius of 
 twelve miles. Mr, Trott is president of the Trott 
 Baking Co., which is located on East Main street, 
 and where he runs seven teams, employing twenty- 
 four men. He is also resident manager of the Na- 
 tional Biscuit Co., to whom on April 6, 1899, Ae 
 Trott Baking Co. sold their cracker business. 
 
 On March 6, 1881, Mr, Trott married Hattie 
 M, Barton, of Waterbury, who died July 14, 1886. 
 On Alarch 7, 1888, Air. trott was married to Anna 
 M. Parker, who was born in High Gate Springs, 
 Vermont, of English descent; Mr. Trott is a Re- 
 publican in politics, and socially is a member of 
 Nosahogan Lodg-e, I. O. O. F. ; Continental Lodge, 
 F, & A. M. ; Sphinx Temple, Order of the Mystic 
 Shrine; and Tunxis Tribe of Red Men. In re- 
 ligious connection both he and his wife are attend- 
 ants at the First Baptist Church. Public spirited 
 and enterprising, Air. Trott is highly respected 
 by all. 
 
 ELISHA C. BISHOP. This prominent citizen 
 of Guilford is the representative of one of the old- 
 est New England families. He is the descendant of 
 the eighth generation from John Bishop, who 
 founded the family in America, becoming one of the 
 earliest settlers of Guilford, Connecticut. 
 
 (I) John Bishop was born in England, and after 
 his emigration to America became a lifelong resi- 
 dent of Guilford, where he died in February, 1661, 
 and where he was buried. His wife Ann died in 
 Guilford in 1676. To John and Ann Bishop were 
 born three children: John, who died in Oc- 
 
^ 7- y 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 271 
 
 tober, 1683; Stephen, who died in June, 1690; and 
 Betsey, who married James Steel, Esq. 
 
 (II) John Bishop, son of John (1), married 
 Dec. 13, 1650, Susanna Goldham, vvho died Nov. 
 I, 1703. Their children were as follows: Mary, 
 born Sept. 28, 1652, married John Hodgkin; John, 
 born in 1655, died Nov. 25, 1731 ; Susanna, born 
 in 1657, married, and dded October, 1729; Eliza- 
 beth, born in 1660, married John Scranton, and 
 died in August, 1727; Daniel, bom in 1665, mar- 
 ried Hannah Bradley, and died April 17, 1751 ; 
 Nathaniel, born in 1666, married Mary Hughes, and 
 died May i, 1714; Samuel, born Oct. 28, 1670, mar- 
 ried, and died Feb. 17, 1753; Sarah, born Jan. 22, 
 1674, died May 12, 1712 ; Abigail, born Jan. 26, 
 1681, married Samuel Lee, and died June 5, 1751. 
 
 (III) John Bishop, born in 1655, died Nov. 25^ 
 1731. He married July 3, 1689, Elizabeth Hitch- 
 cock, who died March 14, 1712, and for his sec- 
 ond wife married May Johnson March 8, 1713. 
 His children were as follows : Elizabeth, born Oct. 
 14, 1690, married Samuel Scranton; John, born Aug. 
 12, 1692, married Abigail Spinning, and died Jan. 
 28, 1752; Ann, born Feb. 15, 1695, married David 
 Field, and died in 1731 ; David, born Jan. 6, 1697, 
 died Aug. 20, 1773 ; Jonathan, born Nov. 8, 1699, 
 married Harriet Chittenden; May, born in Decem- 
 ber, 1700, married Caleb Jones, and died June 23, 
 1724; Deborah, bom Feb. 19, 1702; Nathaniel, born 
 May 6, 1704, married Margaret Blinn, and died 
 April II, 1778; Timothy, bom 1708, married Han- 
 nah Bliss, and died in 1794; William,- born Oct. 18, 
 1 714; Enos, born May 27, i;;'i7, married Abigail 
 Burgis, and died April, 1802 ; Esther, born Feb. 
 24, 1719; Mercy, born May 7, 1722, married Abra- 
 ham Donald, and died Dec. 3, 1793. 
 
 (IV) David Bishop, born Jan. 6, 1697, died Aug. 
 20, 1773. On May 17, 1724, he married Deborah 
 Stanley. Their children were: Deborah, born Jan. 
 17, 1725; Hulda, born Aug. 5, 1726; David, born 
 Sept. 20, 1728, married Andrea Fowler, and died 
 Jan. 25, 1792; Chloe, born July 15, 1733, married 
 Handy Bushnell; Sarah, born Aug. 18, 1736, mar- 
 ried Miles Hall, and died April 8, 1792. 
 
 (V) David Bishop, bom Sept. 20, 1728, died 
 Jan. 25, 1792. He married April 17, 1755, Andrea 
 Fowler, who was born Sept. 12, 1724, and who died 
 Jan. 24, 1815. Their children were: Andrea, born 
 Feb. 28, 1756, died March 28, 1757; David, born 
 July 29, 1757, married Deborah Fowler, and died 
 April 19, 1833; Huldah, born March 4, 1759, died 
 Oct. 19, 1838; Margaret, born Nov. 10, 1760, died 
 Sept. 21, 1764; Jonathan, born Oct. 19, 1762, mar- 
 ried Huldah Chapman, and died Sept. 23, 1826; 
 Jared, born Oct. 22, 1764, married Mary Mason, 
 and died Nov. 26, 1839. 
 
 (\T) Jonathan Bishop, born Oct. 19, 1762, died 
 Sept. 23, 1826. He married Feb. 21, 1787, Huldah 
 Chapman, who was born Dec. i, 1762, and who 
 died Sept. 17, 1828. Their two children were: 
 Jonathan, born Dec. 19, 1787, died Dec. 22, 1787; 
 
 Jonathan (2), born JMarch 30, 1797, died March 
 16, 1887. 
 
 (VII) Jonathan Bishop married June 18, 1821, 
 Polly Bishop, who was born Jan. 30, 1796, and who 
 died in July, 1839. For his second wife he married 
 March 16, 1840, Fanny Maria Dennison, who was 
 born March i, 1803, and died March 15, 1865. For 
 his third wife he married jNlarch 15, 1866, Electa 
 M. Stone, who was born Oct. 30, 1810. The chil- 
 dren of Jonathan Bishop were: Ann Maria, born 
 Jan. 22, 1822, died May 27, 1841 ; Elisha Chapman, 
 born April 10, 1824; Richard S., born Dec. 29, 1825, 
 married ]Mary G. Hand, and died Sept. 7, 1889; 
 Hulda J., born April 7, 1828, married George Hull, 
 and died April 29, 1889; Sophia Fowler, born May 
 13, 1835, married Thomas Griswold ; Allen died 
 Jan. 13, 1861 ; an infant, born in July, 1839, died 
 July 26, 1839; Alfred Griswold, born Oct. 19, 1842; 
 William Edward, born Nov. 3, 1855, married Ellen 
 A. Stone. 
 
 (VIII) Elisha C. Bishop, our subject, was born 
 April 10, 1824. On July 5, 1846, he married Char- 
 lotte G. Fowler, who was born Dec. 15, 1820, and 
 who died Oct. 6, 1885. Their children were as fol- 
 lows : Frederick Chapman, born May 15, 1847, died 
 July 27, 1847 ; Frederick C. (2), born Dec. 23, 1848 ; 
 Rachel D., born June 14, 1850, died Aug. 15, 1850; 
 Robert Allen, born March 16, 185 1 ; Edward Fow- 
 ler, bom March 11, 1852, married Anna G. Spen- 
 cer; Marv Comelia, born Aug. 27, 1853, married 
 Miles G. White; Frank H., born March 22, 1851, 
 married Sophia C. Spencer; Ida and Eva S. (twins), 
 born April 19, 1859, of whom Ida married N. G. 
 Canfield, and Eva, Edward j\l. Sute; Richard 
 Mathew, born May 5, 1861, died Sept. 22, 1861 ; 
 Maretto Canfield, born Jan. 28, 1864, married Fred- 
 erick Spencer; and Ernest Shutt, born Oct. 28, 
 1866, married in 1889 Maggie Herlen. 
 
 ANDREW H. EMBLER, than whom, it is 
 safe to say, no man can show a more honorable 
 record of service in the army of his country, is a 
 native of Montgomery, Orange Co., N. Y., born 
 June 29, 1834, a son of Adam Embler and his wife 
 Hannah Weller. 
 
 Mr. Embler passed his boyhood days in his na- 
 tive town, and received his education in the schools 
 there, and in New York City. He had ever a keen 
 interest in military affairs, and in 1855 became a 
 member of Co. H, 71st Regiment, New York State 
 Militia. Already the country was preparing for the 
 coming struggle, and when the flag was lowered 
 at Fort Sumter the fury of both sides broke forth. 
 Co. H, of the 71st N. Y., of which Mr. Embler was 
 then sergeant, was enlisted into the United States 
 Army on April 19, 1861. At the navy yard in 
 Washington the young sergeant was elected first 
 lieutenant, and as such was mustered in for three 
 months' service. On July 21, 1861, he commanded 
 his company at the first battle of Bull Run, and 
 was there wounded. This occurred the day after 
 
272 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 his term of enlistment had expired. He was mus- 
 tered out, and was elected captain of Co. H, upon 
 the resignation of its former captain. In the fail 
 "of 1861 he joined the 2d X. Y. State Alilitia, later 
 known as the 82d \'ol. Inf., at Poolesville, ^Id., as 
 first lieutenant of Co. K, participating in the Penin- 
 sular campaign. At Harrison's Landing, after 
 the Seven Days Retreat, in 1862, he was made cap- 
 tain of Co. E, same regiment. His company, un- 
 der his command, participated in the battle of An- 
 tietam, where the Captain was wounded. In the 
 spring of 1863 Capt. Embler was detailed by order 
 of the War Department as mustering officer of the 
 Second Division, Second Army Corps, and was act- 
 ing assistant adjutant of the Second Division, Sec- 
 ond Corps, for many months. He received his third 
 wound in the battle of the \Mlderness, at which 
 time he was on the Division staff. After the sec- 
 ond assault on Cold Harbor he received his mail, 
 and there sitting around a pine tree with other of- 
 ficers read the news of his appointment as senior 
 aide to Gen. John Gibbon on the field of battle. 
 This appointment took him out of the Commissary 
 Cluster Department. During the year 1864 he was 
 aide on Gen. Gibbon's staff, as per that appoint- 
 ment, but as the 82d was to be mustered out of 
 service he was made captain of a company in the 
 59th N. Y. V. I., to hold him in service. In Oc- 
 tober, 1864, he was brevetted, at Boydton Plank 
 Road, major of volunteers, and received the Wash- 
 ington Medal of Honor. When General Gibbon 
 was assigned to the 24th Army Corps, Army of 
 the James, Brevet IMajor Embler became at once 
 Major and A. D. C. of United States Volunteers, 
 and was recommended by Gen. Gibbon as Inspector 
 of the Corps, which office he held for a time. When 
 Gen. Grant made his final move IMajor Embler was 
 sent with the Second Division to the Army of the 
 Potomac at Petersburg, and from there followed 
 Gen. Lee to Appomattox. The Army of the James 
 made a forced march and placed themselves in front 
 of Lee's armv. ^^'hen the surrender was consum- 
 mated Gen. Grant left Generals Gibbon, Merritt and 
 Griffin to settle the terms of surrender. Major 
 Embler went to Richmond with Gen. Gibbon, and 
 he was one of those detailed to take the captured 
 battle flags to the War Department, and Major 
 Embler was brevetted lietitenant colonel of United 
 States \'olunteers by Secretary Stanton. On Dec. 
 5, 1865, he was honorably discharged from service 
 at Petersburg, Virginia. 
 
 When the war was over and the change from 
 army life to pursuits of peace became a pleasing 
 necessity, Col. Embler returned to New York and 
 was there for a time engaged in business. In 1870 
 he located in Hartford, Conn., and while there un- 
 der the firm names of H. P. Blair & Embler, and 
 later Embler & Bosworth, carried on the business 
 of steam heating, plumbing, gasfitting, etc. His in- 
 terest in things military did not abate, and there 
 was ever the secret longing to be again connected 
 
 with a militar}- organization. In 1877 he joined 
 the First Company, Governor's Foot Guards, and in 
 
 1879 was elected first lieutenant and captain, and in 
 
 1880 became major commanding. In 1882 he lo- 
 cated in N'ew Haven as secretary and treasurer of 
 the Southern New England Telephone Co., and 
 that same year he was made captain of Co. D, 2d 
 Conn. N. G., and in 1890 was appointed by Gov- 
 ernor Bulkeley adjutant general of the State. In 
 i8q3 he joined as private the Second Company of 
 the Governor's Foot Guards, and was made cor- 
 poral, sergeant and ensign, but resigned, and in 
 1894 was commissioned captain of Co. D, 2d Conn. 
 N. G. That was his last official position in an 
 active military company. Since 1894 he has de- 
 voted his time exclusively to his business affairs. 
 
 In 1865, while still in the army, Col. Embler 
 was united in marriage, at Windsor, Conn., to Miss 
 Elnora Dickerson, of Orange county, N. Y. Chil- 
 dren to the number of ten, four sons and six daugh- 
 ters, blessed their union : Simms, of Hartford, 
 Conn., is connected with the Southern Xew Eng- 
 land Telephone Co. ; Howard, of the Warner Miller 
 Co.; Ralph H., connected with Upson & Grannis, 
 coal dealers ; jNIarshall, employed in the First Na- 
 tional Bank, Xew Haven; Mildred A., wife of 
 William Loomis ; Harriet, wife of Horace Sanford, 
 of Ottawa, Canada ; Alice V. ; Grace, wife of 
 Ernest Thompson, of the Yale National Bank; 
 Esther and Tennie. Col. Embler has been an active 
 member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and 
 during the time he resided in Hartford, served a 
 term as commander of Tyler Post, and when he 
 located in Xew Haven he was transferred to Ad- 
 miral Foote Post, of this city. 
 
 AMON BROWN. In studying the lives and 
 characters of prominent and prosperous men we 
 are naturally led to inquire intoi the secret of their 
 success, and the motives tihat have prompted their 
 actions. Success is not a question of genius o-r of 
 luck, as held by manyr, but rather a matter of ex- 
 perience and sound judgmient, properly applied. 
 When we trace the careers of those who stand high- 
 est in public esteem we find in nearly levery case 
 that they are those who have risen gradually, fight- 
 ing their own way in the face of all opposition. 
 Self-reliance, conscientiousness, energy, honesty — 
 these are the traits of character that insure the 
 highest emoluments and greatest success, and to 
 such characteristics may be attributed the success 
 that has crowned the efforts of Amon Brown, a 
 well-known business man of West Haven. 
 
 Mr. Brown was born March 18, 1841, in the 
 historic old town of Simsbury, Hjartford Co., Conn., 
 son oi Asaph and Sarah (Bacon) Brown, the for- 
 mer a lifelong resident andl farmer of that place. 
 Amon Brown passed his bo3'hoodi days upon the 
 home farm, attending the schools of Simsbury and 
 Granby, most jof the time walking to a school three 
 miles from his home. At the age of seventeen 
 

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 273 
 
 years, having been given his time by his father, he 
 left the old homestead, and the next five years en- 
 gaged in farming at Southwick, Mass. At the 
 age of twenty-two years we find him conducting a 
 wholesale fish market on Ferry street, in Hartford, 
 Conn. Subsequently he removed to New Haven, 
 and for three years engaged in the yeast business.; 
 that comirnodity was then sold in liquiid form, being 
 a by-product of the distilleries. Following this 
 venture J\Ir. Brown engaged in the grocery and 
 meat business in New Haven, being located, re- 
 spectively, on the corner of York and George 
 streets, on George street between York and Park 
 streets, and on the corner of Park and South streets. 
 jNIr. Brown began the baking business in a store 
 at the corner of Easton street andi Dixwell avenue. 
 New Haven, later removing his establishmient to 
 West Haven, where he continued the business until 
 Jan. I, 1898, on that date selling the horses, wagons, 
 etc., and leasing the plant and business for five 
 years. He was untiring in his energy and devotion 
 to the building up of his business, and fully merited 
 his haj-d-eamed success, no employe of his ever giv- 
 ing more time and attention to its details than did 
 Mr. Brown. The value of West Haven real estate 
 appealing to him' as the best in which to invest his 
 capital, Mr. Brown has become known as one of 
 the leading dealers in realty in that section. He 
 has led a hnsy life, and though many times offered 
 nomination to town and borough offices has in- 
 variably declined, never feeling that he would be 
 justified in sacrificing his business interests as he 
 would have to d'o tO' accept the honors. 
 
 Mr. Brown was married, Dec. 3, 1861, in Suf- 
 field, Conn., to Aliss jNIary C. Stevens, a descend- 
 ant of an old settled Massachusetts family, and 
 to them have been bom four childfren : ( i ) Willie 
 A. died Aug. 14, 1864. (2) Burt D. married Net- 
 tie ^I. Baldwin, and both are now deceased; they 
 had one child, Elwood D. (3) Ollie J. is the wife 
 of William H. Brown, of New York City, and 
 has two children, Willie A. and Charlotte. (4) 
 Mary E. is now residing with her parents. 
 
 MAIER KAISER, prominent in insurance and 
 in the steamship ticket business in Waterbury, and 
 one of the most popular residents of that city, is 
 a native of Germany, born Dec. 25, 1835, in Ba- 
 varia. 
 
 Bernard Kaiser, his father, was of the same na- 
 tivity. He was a dealer in real estate, merchandise, 
 etc., in Bavaria, as was his father before him. He 
 passed all his life in his native land, dying there at 
 the age of eighty-seven years. He married Hannah 
 Neuman, also a Bavarian by birth, and four chil- 
 dren were born to them: Clara died in Germany; 
 Caroline was married to Jacob Johnson, and they 
 make their home in New Haven ; Maier is the sub- 
 ject of this sketch; Solomon is a speculator in Ger- 
 many. The mother died a year later than her hus- 
 band at the age of seventy-six years. 
 
 18 
 
 iMaier Kaiser received a liberal education in 
 Bavaria, and for three years clerked in a bank there. 
 In 1853 he came to America, and shortly after land- 
 ing went to California, where he was engaged in the 
 clothing business for twelve years ; he also visited 
 various other places. In December, 1865, he came 
 to Waterbury, and from 1866 to 1871 conducted a 
 men's furnishing goods store, in 1871 forming a 
 partnership with J. Johnson, under the firm name of 
 Johnson & Kaiser, the well-known pioneer clothiers 
 of the city. In 1896, he took up his present in- 
 surance and steamship ticket business, in which he 
 is meeting with excellent success. 
 
 In 1868 Air. Kaiser married Babetta Silverman, 
 who was born in Bavaria, and four children have 
 come to bless this union : Carrie married Henry 
 Gottgetreu, a prominent lawyer of New York city; 
 Jacob is manager of the well-known firm of Driggs 
 & Smith, dealers in pianos, etc. ; Selma and Helen, 
 are single. In politics our subject is a Democrat, and 
 he has served the city in the common council, was- 
 fire commissioner twelve years, town treasurer ten, 
 years, and at the present time is a member of the- 
 bureau of assessments. Socially he is affiliated with 
 the F. & A. M., I. O. O. F., I. O. B. B. and Order 
 of Red Men, the Concordia Singing Society and 
 the Turnverein. ^ 
 
 HENRY A. RIDER was for many years one of 
 the oldest residents, as well as one of the most suc- 
 cessful business men and influential citizens of the- 
 town of Seymour, in New Haven county. He was 
 born Feb. 28, 1832, in Danbury, Conn., son of 
 Ralph Rider, a native of the same town, who was 
 by trade a carpenter, and followed that calling 
 throughout life. He did considerable business as 
 a contractor. Ralph Rider died in 1842, esteemed! 
 and mourned by the community at large. He mar- 
 ried Harriet Chapman, the only child of Daniel and 
 Priscilla Chapman, of Redding, Fairfield county, 
 where her father owned a farm, and where he died 
 at the age of seventy-nine. Airs. Ralph Rider died 
 at the age of forty-five. Henry A. was one of a 
 family of nine children, four of whom are yet liv- 
 ing. Mary, the eldest, is the widow of Joseph Sher- 
 wood. Sheperd R. is a retired farmer of Seymour. 
 Cornelius resides at Quaker Farms, Oxford. 
 
 Henry A. Rider was but nine years old when 
 he was left an orphan, and his steadfastness of 
 purpose and indomitable pluck have won the pro- 
 nounced success which has been his portion. At 
 the age of eleven he went from Danbury to Red- 
 ding, where he remained until he was eighteen, at- 
 tending the common schools and Watertown Acad- 
 emy. When nineteen years old he started out in 
 life for himself, his first employment being as a 
 clerk and bookkeeper for a real-estate dealer and 
 livery proprietor at Seymour, which town was his 
 home until recently. He was industrious, tem- 
 perate and thrifty, and within four years he found 
 himself able to become proprietor where he had 
 
V4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 
 
 commenced as an employe. In 1855 he bought out 
 Jiis employer, and continued the business alone; 
 under his skillful management it grew steadily. Mr. 
 Rider removed to Ansonia, where he is now suc- 
 cessfully carrying on a real-estate business. 
 
 On July 29, 1855, ;\Ir. Rider married Aliss Ina 
 J. Carter, who was born at Watertown, N. Y. 
 Three children have been born to this marriage: 
 ■Annie, deceased ; George A. ; and Mattie. George 
 A. married Lottie Header, of Hartford, and has 
 two sons, Arthur F. and Perley B. ; he is engaged 
 in the insurance business in New York City. Mat- 
 tie was married July 2, 1896, to Carlos H. Storrs, 
 ■■a member of the Ansonia Bar. 
 
 Mr. Rider has greatly prospered in business, 
 ^nd has amassed a nandsome fortune through the 
 exercise of sound judgment, correct methods and 
 upright dealing. He is both respected for his abil- 
 ity and beloved for his many admirable qualities 
 of heart. He is a Congregationalist in faith, as were 
 his ancestors, and for ten years has been a mem- 
 iber of the society's committee. He is a Repub- 
 lican in politics, and has held many local offices 
 through the suffrages of his fellow citizens of all 
 parties. For several years he was constable, and 
 for one year collector of taxes. He served two 
 years on the board of relief, and from 1889 until 
 his removal to Ansonia held the office of town 
 treasurer, being annually re-elected to fill this re- 
 sponsible position. For nine years he was chair- 
 man of the town committee of hisiparty, and has 
 been sent as a delegate to many conventions. He 
 has done much toward the improvement of Sey- 
 mour, dealing extensively in real estate, and hav- 
 ing built and sold many houses. He was a mem- 
 ber of the town Board of Trade, and a potent fac- 
 tor in every public undertaking, being regarded as 
 a safe counsellor, at once conservative and public 
 ■spirited. Mr. Rider is a Mason of high degree, be- 
 ing a member of Morning Star Lodge, A. F. & A. 
 M. ; Mt. Vernon Chapter, R. A. M. ; and having 
 held all the offices in the Blue Lodge,- of which he 
 is now past master. He is also, by initiation, a mem- 
 ber of the L O. O. F., but takes no active part in 
 the order, and also belongs to the L O. R. M., being 
 a charter member of the local lodge. 
 
 HART FAMILY. Stephen Hart, born about 
 1605, in Braintree, County of Essex, England, came 
 to Massachusetts Bay about 1632, locating in Farm- 
 ington among the first settlers. 
 
 Thomas Hart, son of Deacon Stephen, was born 
 in April, 1644, and married Ruth Hawkins, daugh- 
 ter of Anthony Hawkins, of Farmington. 
 
 Hawkins Hart, son of Thomas, born at Farm- 
 ington, in 1677, married (first) Sept. 7, 1701, Sarah 
 Roycc, daughter of Nathaniel and Sarah (Lathrop) 
 Royce), of Wallingford. She died Jan. 31, 1733, 
 aged forty-nine years. Fie married (second) Jan. 
 30, 1734, Mary Street. For nine sessions between 
 1714 and 1732 Air. Hart represented Wallingford 
 
 in the General Court. Flis death occurred at Wall- 
 ingford Alay 24, 1735, when he was aged fifty-eight 
 years. 
 
 The children of Hawkins ana Sarah (Royce) 
 Hart were as follows: Nathaniel Hart, born June 
 13, 1702, married Martha Lee; Ruth, born Aug. 13, 
 1704, married William Merriam ; one, born Sept. 
 16, 1706, died unnamed Sept. 22, 1706; Hawkins, 
 born March I, 1708, married Susanna Merriam; 
 Sarah, born May 21, 1710, married Stephen Ives; 
 Esther, born Aug. 12, 1712, married John Webb; 
 Thomas, born Sept. 29, 1714, married Hannah Coe; 
 Elizabeth, born 1716, married William Jeroms ; 
 Mary, born June 21, 1719, married Ebenezer Haw- 
 ley; and Benjamin, born Tan. 28, 1722, married 
 Phebe Rich. By his second marriage Hawkins 
 Hart became the father of one child, Samuel, born 
 July 18, 173s, who married Abridge Fowler. 
 
 Hawkins Hart, born March i, 1708, son of 
 Hawkins and Sarah (Royce) Hart, married Nov. 
 
 30, 1730, Susanna Merriam. Soon after their mar- 
 riage they removed to Southington, and located on 
 East Street, at what has been known as -Ezekiel 
 Sloper place, on the west side of the highway. His 
 wife died Feb. 23, 1736-37. He married (second) 
 Esther Gridley, born March 17, 1706. He died at 
 Southington, April 17, 1756, in his forty-ninth year. 
 The children of Hawkins and Susanna (Merriam) 
 Hart were: Hawkins Hart, born March 8, 1732, 
 died April 4, 1732; Sarah, born May i, 1733, died 
 Dec. I, 1742, aged nine years; Susanna, born Dec. 
 
 31, 1734, died Dec. 3, 1742, aged eight years; and 
 Hawkins, born Jan. 3, 1736-7, married Huldah 
 Woodruff. By the second marriage were born: 
 Luke, born Jan. 8, 1738, married Deborah Barnes; 
 Josiah, born June 30, 1740, married Elizabeth Moss; 
 Sarah, born Nov. 27, 1742, died Oct. 26, 1757, aged 
 fifteen; David, born July 22, 1745, married Lucy 
 Codner; Susanna, born Jan. 12, 1747, died Oct. 
 26, 1757, in her tenth year ; and Benjamin, born Jan. 
 4, 1750-51, married Jerusha Rich. 
 
 Benjamin Hart, born Jan. 4, 1750-51, at South- 
 ington, son of Hawkins- and Esther (Gridley) Hart, 
 married Feb. 25, 1776, Jerusha Rich, at Walling- 
 ford (now called Meriden, near the junction of 
 Broad and Curtiss Streets), where he located, and 
 died, Oct. 7, 1836, agedi eighty-five years ; she died 
 Aug. 26, 1832. During the Revolution he served, 
 in 1776, in Captain John Couch's Company. The 
 children of Benjamin and Jerusha (Rich) Hart 
 were: Esther Hart, born Nov. 8, 1776, married 
 (first) Israel Hall, (second) Marvel Andrews; 
 Lucy, born Dec. 20, 1779, married Joel Ives ; Susan- 
 nah, born Jan. 15, 1782, married (first) Cornelius 
 Hull, (second) John Butler; Webb, born Feb. 21, 
 1786, married Clarissa Peck; Jerusha, born Sept. 11, 
 1788, married Abel Clark; and Samuel Ives, born 
 Nov. 22, T792. 
 
 Samuel Ives, born Nov. 22, 1792, son of Ben- 
 jamin and Jerusha (Rich) Hart, married Abigail 
 Doolittle Hall, daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 275 
 
 (Hall) Hall. Their children were: Daniel Hall, 
 born June 19, 1815; Edmund, born Aug. 12, 1817, 
 died Feb. 16, 1818; Jerusha and Elizabeth, twins, 
 born Aug. 22, 1822, the former of whom married 
 Horace Pratt, and the latter Edward B. Miller. 
 
 Daniel Hall Hart, born June 19, 1815, married 
 May 14, 1840, Harriet Gilbert Miller, daughter of 
 Samuel and Mary (Gilbert) Miller, of Middle- 
 town, born March 3, 1812, died Jan. 14, 1891, in 
 Meriden. He died in Meriden, Oct. 2, 1891. His 
 life was spent in agricultural pursuits. Children of 
 Daniel H. and Harriet Gilbert (Miller) Hart: (i) 
 Ives William, born Oct. 4, 1841, married Nov. 4, 
 1870, Elsie Tooley Lane, a widow and daughter of 
 Russell Tooley. Of their children, Arthur Mill- 
 er, born May 20, 1872, married Nov. 18, 1896, 
 Catherine Jane Owen, daughter of Robert Owen, 
 and the one child born to this last named marriage 
 is Owen Stephen Hart, born Sept. 23, 1898. (2) 
 Ellen Delia, born Nov. 23, 1842, resides on the 
 Middletown road opposite Robert street, Meriden. 
 (3) Edmund Benjamin, born Dec. 31, 1845, married 
 Sept. 23, 1878, Harriet Beecher Denison, daughter 
 of Ebenezer and Lydia S. (Noyes) Denison, born 
 Dec. 24, 1853, and died Jan. 26, i88q; their children 
 were : Edmund Denison (born Oct. 26, 1879, died 
 July 28, 1882), Harriet Edith (born July 16, 1883), 
 Anna Eliza (born Jan. 20, 1889, died April 9, 1889), 
 and Albert Denison (born Jan. 20, 1889). 
 
 Hall Family. John Hall, the first settler, was 
 known in Connecticut prior to 1669, and his sons, 
 John, Thomas and Samuel, were signers to the 
 Plantation Covenant, m Wallingford, in 1669-70. 
 
 Thomas Hall, son of John the settler, married 
 Grace Watson, June 5, 1673, and she died May i, 
 1731 ; his death occurred Sept. 17, 1731. They had 
 eleven children. 
 
 Jonathan, second son of Thomas and Grace 
 Hall, was born July 25, 1679, and married May 12, 
 1703, Dinah Andrews, who died Jan. 15, 1760. 
 
 Dr. Isaac Hall, son of Jonathan and Dinah (An- 
 drews) Hall, born July 11, 1714, married Nov. 5, 
 1739, Mary Morse; he died March 7, 1781, and she 
 died Oct. 9, 1791. He was the first physician of 
 Meriden. His surgical needle is still in the posses- 
 :sion of his great-grandson, Abijah Hall, of Boston, 
 Mass., and his ledger is owned by the Hart family 
 in East Meriden. The children of Dr. Isaac and 
 ]\Iary (Morse) Hall were as follows: Alary, born 
 Oct. 6, 1742, married John Ives. Isaac, born May 
 7, 1745. Joel, born April 3, 1747, died Oct. 22, 
 1748. Esther, bom March 18, 1751, married Dr. 
 Aaron Hosiford. Elizabeth, born June 11, 1752, 
 married Dr. Jehiel Hoadley. Jonathan born Dec. 
 II, 1757, married May 14, 1777, Martha Collins, 
 who died in May, 1841, aged eighty-three years; he 
 died June 6, 1832, aged seventy-four years. 
 
 Isaac Hall, son of Dr. Isaac and Mary (Morse) 
 Hall, resided in the eastern part of Meriden, in the 
 house now owned by Rollin Ives on Paddock ave- 
 nue. He was a lieutenant in the Third Company, 
 
 First Regiment, of Light Horse, in this State. The 
 troops were ordered by an Act of 1776 to the west- 
 ern part of the State, to join the forces under Gen. 
 Wooster. The captain of the company being at the 
 time sick, Lieut. Hall took command of the com- 
 pany from Oct. 25, 1776, to Dec. 31, 1776, for which 
 service neither he nor his company received any pay. 
 The Assembly in October, 1783, ordered the pay- 
 table to adjust the pay roll of said troop of light 
 horse, by the rule before allowed by Congress to the 
 troops of light horse in this State while in service 
 of the country ; and "draw on the Treasurer, and 
 charge the same to the Continent." [Davis His- 
 tory, Page 369.] Isaac Hall was three times mar- 
 ried. His first wife whom he married Sept. 6, 1764, 
 was Phebe Ives, daughter of Abijah and Mary Ives ; 
 his second marriage was to Martha (Mix) Francis, 
 widow of Jacob Francis ; and for his third wife he 
 wedded Lois Buckley, widow of Prescott Buckley. 
 He died in Leyden, N. Y., Feb. 17, 1810, aged sixty- 
 four years. The children of Isaac and Phebe (Ives) 
 Hall were: Mary, born July 21, 1766, married 
 William Topping, died September, 1813 ; John, born 
 
 July 3, 1768, married Mary ; Phebe, born 
 
 Jan. 31, 1770, married Elihu Ives; Elizabeth, born 
 Sept. 3, 1771, married Daniel Hall (3) ; Sarah, born 
 Oct. 23, 1773; Isaac, born May 19, 1775, married 
 Ruth Wetmore, and died Sept. 13, 1857, aged 
 eighty-two years ; Jonathan, born Aug. 23, 1776, 
 married (first) Eliza Hoadley, and died Feb. 22, 
 1841 ; Clarissa, born Aug. 12, 1779, married Will- 
 iam Cutler; Abijah, born Sept. 25, 1781, married 
 Betsey Mix, died Aug. 9, 1857; Sally, born Jan. 19, 
 1784, married William Cutler. One child was born 
 to the third marriage of Isaac Hall, Joseph, born 
 1803, married Dec. 31, 1826, Mary Ann Crofoot. 
 
 Daniel Hall (2), born June i, 1727, son of Dan- 
 iel and Martha (Doolittle) Hall, and grandson of 
 Thomas Hall, married July 27, 1750, Patience Bald- 
 win, daughter of Daniel Baldwin. She died July 
 24, 1756, aged thirty years. He married (second) 
 in November, 1758, Zerviah Whitmore, daug'hter of 
 Francis Whitmore, of Aliddletown, Conn. She was 
 born Feb. 27, 1735, and died Oct. 6, 1777, aged 
 forty-two years. He married (third) Abigail Doo- 
 little, daughter of Stephen. He died Oct. 26, 1805, 
 aged seventy-eight years. They lived on the old Mid- 
 dleton road, now closed, a few rods north of his son 
 Daniel Hall's house which he built in 1828, this place 
 being now (1902) owned by Ives W. Hart, one of his 
 descendants. The children of Daniel and Patience 
 (Baldwin) Hall were: Esther Hall, born Sept. 15, 
 
 1751, married Jonathan Yale; Lois, born Nov. 21, 
 
 1752, died Dec. 9, 1774; Eunice, born April 4, 1754, 
 died Sept. 20, 1777, aged twenty-three years; Joel, 
 born June i, 1756, died a soldier of the Revolution- 
 ary war, in January, 1777, of starvation on a prison 
 ship in New York' harbor, at the age of twenty 
 years. By his second marriage, Daniel Hall became 
 the father of: Zerviah, born March 2, 1760, mar- 
 ried Abner Mitchel ; Sarah, born March 5, 1762, 
 
276 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married Rev. Caleb Douglass ; Patience, born Aug. 
 20, 1764, married Amos Higby; Aaron, born Oct. 
 2, 1766, married L3'dia Hall; Daniel, born 1770, 
 married Elizabeth Hall ; and Lois Hall, born Sept. 
 26, 1777, married Orchard Guy. 
 
 Daniel Hall, born 1770, son of Daniel and Zer- 
 viah (Whitmorej Hall, married June 14, 179^. 
 Elizabeth Hall, born Sept. 3, 1771, daughter of 
 Isaac and Phebe (Ives) Hall. He died Jan. i, 1829. 
 She died ^May 5, 1859, at East Meriden. They had 
 one child, Abigail Doolittle Hall, born Aug. 25, 
 1793, married Sept. 20, 1814, Samuel Ives Hart, 
 who died Sept. 10, 1870; she died Dec. 12, 1874. 
 
 ANDREW BUECHLER (deceased), who for 
 over twenty years was one of the best known Ger- 
 man citizens of Meriden, and a thoroughly suc- 
 cessful business man, was born in the city of Hes- 
 sen, Germany, in 1840, where he received a good 
 education in the local schools, and learned the trade 
 of fire-brick making, an occupation which he fol- 
 lowed for ten years. Wishing to improve his con- 
 dition, he came to this country in 1868, landing 
 in New York, where he spent the following year. 
 He was then employed as a casemaker in a piano 
 factory at New Haven,' where he remained until 
 1870. In April of that year he came to Meriden, 
 to begin a business of soap making, being the first 
 to make that article on an extensive scale in Meri- 
 den. In this line he was engaged for two )rears. 
 In 1874 he opened a German delicatessen store, 
 which he continued for eighteen years, making a 
 successful business record by his close attention 
 and strict honesty. He was known as one of the 
 most successful Germans in the city. In 1889 he 
 built a fine brick block on West Main street, and 
 made extensive improvements amounting to over 
 $30,000. A part of this building was destroyed by 
 fire in 1895, and was rebuilt by his son John at a 
 cost of $15,000, and is now regarded as one of the 
 finest blocks on West ^Nlain street. He also owned 
 other property in the city. 
 
 Andrew Buechler died in August, 1892, and his 
 remains were interred in Walnut Grove cemetery. 
 He belonged to the Lutheran Church, and was a 
 good Christian man, highly respected by all who 
 knew him. In politics he was a Democrat, and 
 was agent of the town deposit funds for five years. 
 He belonged to Teutonia Lodge, No. 95, I. O. O. 
 F., the Deutschen Ordenis Harugari, and took a lead- 
 ing part in the Meriden Rifle Club. Domestic in his 
 tastes, he was a kind father and a devoted husband. 
 
 Andrew Buechler was married in his native 
 country to Katharine Kippe, who died at her home 
 in Meriden Oct. 4, 1898. Her ashes rest in Wal- 
 nut Grove cemetery, and she, like her husband, be- 
 longed to the Lutheran Church. She was a woman 
 of high character and kind heai-t, and was beloved 
 in her home, and among her friends, of whom she 
 had many. Two children were born to this union, 
 one died in infancv ; and John was born in New 
 York May 8, 1866." 
 
 John Buechler came to Meriden with his par- 
 ents, and was educated in the public schools. From 
 boyhood he \\3.s engaged with his father in busi- 
 ness, and since the death of the latter has man- 
 ao-eci the estate left him with unusual ability and 
 business sagacit)-. On March 2, 1892, John Buech- 
 ler was married, in ^ileriden, to Rose Yetter, who 
 was born at Shelburne Falls, i\Iass., a daughter of 
 Casper and [Margaret (Karl) Yetter, both of whom 
 were German born and bred, but who died in New 
 Britain, Conn. jMrs. Buechler is a woman of good 
 business ability, genial manners, and a devoted wife 
 and mother. She and her husband belong to the 
 Lutheran Church. To them have come three chil- 
 dren : ^largaret and Catherine (twins); the first 
 named dying young; and Edna. Politically Mr. 
 Buechler is a Democrat, but has no aspiration for 
 ofificial position. He belongs to the Turnverein and 
 the Saengerbund of Meriden, and he is a highly 
 respected and much esteemed citizen of the com- 
 munity in which his long and useful life is passing. 
 
 WILLIAAI :M. :\IERWIN, of ]\Iilford, t'he real 
 pion:er in the business of oyster growing in his 
 locality, was born April 24, 1827, near the site of 
 his present residence. He has been one of the 
 most successful men of his time in his town, a man 
 whose life has had> its ups andi downs, finding suc- 
 cess only after tr_\-ing periods and conditions that 
 would have defeated one less persistent. In his- 
 tenacity of purpose lies the secret of his prosperity. 
 That salient characteristic has stood against the 
 advice of all, and achieved success against the pre- 
 dictions of almost the entire community. Mr. IVler- 
 win has surrounded himself and family with com^ 
 forts and luxuries such as in his early life would 
 have seemed impossible, but all this has not served 
 to change the man ; he is the same approachable,, 
 plain-going individual, whose manner is in no way 
 suggestive of pride, or self-consciousness. Friends- 
 of former days who ma^• have been less success- 
 ful are the friends of to-day. 
 
 The [Nlerwin family is one of the oldest in the- 
 town and is descended from Jtliles Merwin, who- 
 came from England in 1646, and settled in Mil- 
 ford, where he died April 2t,, 1697, aged seventy- 
 four. 
 
 John ;Merwin, son of Miles, came from Eng- 
 land in 1640 and died in Milford in 1728. 
 
 John Alerwin (2) was born in Milford April 
 16, 1683, and died in 1762. 
 
 John Merwin (3) was born in Milford in April, 
 1707. 
 
 David Merwin, our subject's grandfather, a 
 native of Milford, M'as baptized in 1743. He 
 owned and opitrated, a tannery where the hat fac- 
 tory is now located, and later he purchased a farm- 
 on the Sound, in the southern part of the town, and 
 engaged in farming. He married Eunice Perry, ^ 
 mative of the town of Huntington, Fairfield Co.,. 
 Conn., who was born in 1747, and died in 1836. 
 They had eleven children: David, who succeeded" 
 
S^Tiych^Uj 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 277 
 
 his father in the tannery business ; Isaac, who went 
 to Pennsylvania; John, who died in Bridgeport, 
 and the twins, Mark and Merritt, all four of whom 
 were farmers : :Mary, who married a Mr. Baldwin, 
 a farmer; Susan, who married a Mr. Piatt, a 
 farmer; Eunice, who died unmarried; Martha, who 
 married a Mr. Davis, a miller of Hamden, Conn.; 
 M'dhitabk, who married a Mr. Potter, a carpenter 
 in Orange ; and Nancy, who married a Mr. Stone. 
 Of these children, one attained the age of ninety- 
 five, and two others more than ninety ; four lived 
 to be over eighty, and four over seventy. David 
 Merwin, the father, died in 1816. 
 
 Merritt ]\Ierwin, our subject's father, was born 
 in 1792, at the present site of the village of Mil- 
 ford, on "Factory Lan€," and died Jan. 20, 1863. 
 Throughout his life he followed farming, and he 
 was the first man in the town to raise vegetable 
 seeds for the mjarket. Politically he was first a 
 Whig, and later a Republican, and for many years 
 he and his wife were leading members of the Con- 
 gregational Church at Milford. He married Cath- 
 erine Peck, who- was born in Milford, in April, 
 1796, and who died Nov. 5, 1876. She was a 
 daughter of Ephrairo Peck, a merchant in Milford, 
 and his wife, Rachel Bennett, and traced her de- 
 scent from Joseph Peck, an Englishman, who set- 
 tled in Milford at an early period. The line of 
 descent is as follows : Joseph, the pioneer ; Joseph 
 and his wife, Alice; Samuel, born in 1653; Samuel 
 (2), born July 13, 1690; Samuel (3), born in 1716, 
 died in 1801 ; Samuel (4), born in 1736, died in 
 1822, and Ephraim Peck, Mrs. Merwin's' father. 
 Two children were barn to Merritt and Catherine 
 (Peck) Merwin: William M. our subject; and 
 Charles D., born in 1841, now a resident of 
 Brooklyn. 
 
 William M. ^Merwin was reared upon the old 
 homestead in Milford, and after his twelfth year 
 attended s.chool only in winter, his help being 
 needed on the farm. At fifteen he left school al- 
 together, and in early manhood he engaged in farm- 
 ing on his own account, and later conducted a retail 
 coal business for about ten years. He became in- 
 terested in the oyster business in 1878, and al- 
 though the product for three years was destroyed 
 by winds he continued, losing thousands of dollars. 
 Much to the astonishment of the community, he 
 finally made a complete success of the enterprise, 
 thus opening a new field of labor in the looality, 
 and at present he also has oyster beds in Providence. 
 He was the first grower to employ a steamer of his 
 own in the business, and his large trade now re- 
 quires three. The interests of his town have al- 
 wa\-s called forth loyal effort, and hie has been in- 
 strumental in having factories built there, and in 
 the organization of tne Milford Savings Bank. In 
 politics he was once a Whig, and now a Repub- 
 lican, and his influence as a man of brains, energy 
 and honesty is felt in public affairs, his advice being 
 heeded by every one, from Congressman down to 
 
 the humblest voter. He was the first resident com- 
 missioner appointed by the State to lay out oyster 
 beds. He owns a beautiful home in Milford and 
 one in Florida, where he has spent bis winters for 
 a number of years. His present residence, while 
 origir.ally built in 1850, has been greatly remodeled 
 and improved, and is one of the comfortable homes 
 of the town, and stands in the same yard with the 
 old homestead, in which our subject was born, and 
 in which j-ard our subject played as a boy. It is 
 doubtful if there is another instance of the kind 
 in the town, where one man has resided for sev- 
 enty-four years in the same }-ard, and now sees 
 bis great-grandchild, Charlotte M. Andrew (and 
 grandchild of his son Merritt W.), play where 
 he, too, played as a child. In adjoining houses live 
 his two sons, forming a most pleasant neighbor- 
 hood. Mr. Merwin has never sought public honor 
 or notoriety. During his active life he was a busi- 
 ness man in the fullest sense, and whatever position 
 he attained in public affairs was unsought, and 
 simply the result of his public-spirited interest in 
 the welfare of the town. 
 
 On Jan. 10, 1850, he was married to ;\Iiss Sarah 
 C. Peck, in New York, by Rev. Dr. Adams, of Hous- 
 ton Street Congregational Church, and they have 
 two sons, Dumond P. and Merritt W., both of 
 whom are members of the firm. Mrs. Merwin was 
 born in Orange, Conn., Jan. 10, 1828, the daughter 
 of Harvey Peck, and a descendant of Joseph Peck, 
 the pioneer. The line of descent is as follows : 
 Joseph (i) ; Joseph (2) and Alice, his wife; Sam- 
 uel, born in 1653; Samuel (2), born in i6go; 
 Samuel (3),, born in 1716, died in 1801, married 
 Hannah Jennings, of Fairfield; Samuel (4), born 
 in August, 1736, died in 1822, married ;\lehitable 
 Smith, of Milford, born in 1740; Hezekiah, born 
 in Milford in December, 1768, died in January, 
 1S46, married Sarah Bull, of Milford, born in 1768, 
 died in June, 1837; and Harvey (Mrs. IMerwin's 
 father), who was born Feb. 18, 1799, and died 
 May 8, i860. Harvey Peck was a prominent agri- 
 culturist of Orange in his day; he married Susan 
 Fenn, of the same town (who was born in 1810, 
 and died in Warren, Ohio, in 1889), and had seven 
 children : Susan, Mary, Benjamin, Sarah, George, 
 Hezekiah and Caroline, of whom but three are liv- 
 ing, Mary, Airs. Merwin and Hezekiah. 
 
 Mrs. Merwin has proven a helpmeet, indeed, 
 and during over half a century of married life has 
 given her husband her constant help, and has loyal- 
 ly encouraged his efforts. Mr. Merwin's accumu- 
 lation of property is not to him nor his good wife 
 their greatest source of satisfaction — that rests in 
 the fact that their efljorts to rear their sons have 
 been successful, and that to-day the sons are a 
 credit to any parentage, and are numbered among 
 the best business men of the town, successfully 
 conducting a business the foundation of which was 
 the most trying part in their father's life, and the 
 corner-stone of his success. 
 
278 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 FREDERICK ROBERT SEIDENSTICKER. 
 Among the prominent citizens of Meriden is Fred- 
 erick .Robert Seidensticker, who for a period of 
 some thirty-five years has reflected credit upon that 
 city, through his artistic skill as a designer. He 
 was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 30, 1838, of 
 German ancestry. 
 
 Jerome Napoleon Seidensticker, his father, was 
 born in Goettingen, in the Kingdom of Hanover, 
 Germany, and was named in honor of King Jerome 
 Napoleon, who was a brother of the great Emperor 
 of France. Jerome was King of Westphalia at the 
 time of his birth, and Anton Johann Julius Seiden- 
 sticker, father of Jerome Napoleon Seidensticker, 
 was clerk of the chancery at his court. Jerome Na- 
 poleon Seidensticker was educated in his native 
 country, and after learning the trade of bookbinder 
 came to America to pursue it. Taking passage on 
 a sailing vessel, he reached Baltimore, Aid., and 
 there engaged in business on his own account, con- 
 tinuing in the bookbinding business for several 
 jrears. Later he went to Philadelphia, and there 
 also engaged in business, still later removing to 
 Boston, Mass., where for a number of years he 
 conducted a similar business, spending his last 
 years in that city. There his death occurred in 
 1883, and his remains lie in Forest Hill cemetery. 
 The business career of Air. Seidensticker was a 
 fairly successful one, and his private life was be- 
 yond reproach. For many years he was a leading 
 member of the Lutheran Church, living up to his 
 religious professions. Fraternally he was a mem- 
 ber of the Odd Fellows, belonging to a lodge of 
 that order in Baltimore. In politics he supported 
 the Republican party. 
 
 The mother of Frederick R. Seidensticker, of 
 Meriden, was also a native of Germany, and her 
 maiden name was Maria Busch. She survived her 
 husband until 1895, passing awa}^ in Boston, Mass., 
 and rests beside him in Forest Hill cemetery. She 
 was a most devout and consistent member of the 
 Lutheran Church, and reared her children to lives 
 of morality, setting them an example of Christian 
 virtue. A family of eight children was born to 
 her, some of whom have passed awav, others re- 
 maining to be useful and honorable members of 
 society : James died in Chicago ; Richard is also 
 deceased ; Emma is deceased ; Clara is the widow 
 of James Galvin ; George is a steel engraver, in 
 Boston, Alass. ; Bertha resides in Boston; William 
 is a well-known artist and resides at South Fram- 
 ingham, Alass. As will be seen, the family is one 
 of unusual attainments. 
 
 Frederick R. Seidensticker was liberally edu- 
 cated, being afforded every advantage possible both 
 in the Quaker City and in Boston. From his earliest 
 youth he had shown artistic talent, and this leaning 
 was recognized by his parents, who, willing and 
 anxious to foster and develop it, sent the talented 
 youth to Germany, placing him under teachers who 
 thoroughly instructed him in the art of designing. 
 
 in sculpture and in silversmithing, his studies being 
 followed with all the advantages offered in the 
 beautiful and artistic cities of Berlin (with David 
 Vollgaldt & Son) and Vienna (with the Imperial 
 silversmiths, Meyerhoffer & Klinkosch), For 
 three years he was under instruction there, and then 
 returned to Boston, prepared to teach designing, 
 following this profession in that city until 1870, and 
 becoming well and favorably known in artistic 
 circles. In the year last named Mr. Seidensticker 
 accepted a position as designer with the well- 
 known firm of Bradley & Hubbard, in Meriden, 
 and remained with this house for seventeen years, 
 becoming known all over the State for the beauty 
 and utility of his designs. Following this con- 
 nection, Air. Seidensticker became connected with 
 the Breckenridge Alanufacturing Co., which con- 
 ducted business successfully for several yt2,ri but 
 later failed. 
 
 In 1880, Air. Seidensticker built a fine residence 
 on Lincoln street, this city, which is a repository 
 of many valuable works of art, executed by himself 
 and by his son, Robert, who inherits a high order 
 of talent. From his earliest boyhood the latter has 
 displayed wonderful ability, some work that he ex- 
 ecuted when but five years of age showing remark- 
 able artistic conception. His talent has been fos- 
 tered, and there is every reason to believe that the 
 world will yet hear of this young man in the field 
 of sculpture and design. 
 
 In 1876 Frederick R. Seidensticker was mar- 
 ried in Aleriden, to Aliss Harriet E. Beach, who 
 was born in Aleriden, a daughter of George Beach. 
 Children as follows have been born to this union: 
 Georgia, who was educated in the Meriden schools, 
 graduated from the high school, and is now one of 
 the valued teachers in this city ; Alay, also a grad- 
 uate of the high school ; Robert, also well edu- 
 cated and connected with H. K. Bush Brown, the 
 well-known sculptor of Newburgh, on the Hudson 
 river ; and Richard and Harold, who are yet stu- 
 dents. 
 
 Fraternallv Air. Seidensticker is connected with 
 Aleridian Lodge, No. yy. A. F. & A. M. ; Kevstone 
 Chapter, No. 27, R. A. AI. ; Hamilton Council, No. 
 22, R. & S. AI. ; St. Elmo Commandery, No. 9, K. 
 T. ; LaFayette Consistory, of New Haven ; and the 
 Alystic Shrine, of Bridgeport. In politics he votes 
 with the Republican party, but has little taste for 
 political life. The religious connection of the fam- 
 ily is with the First Congregational Church. 
 
 Beach. The Beach family, of which Airs. 
 Seidensticker is a memiber, was established in Amer- 
 ica by Samuel Beach, who came to New Haven 
 from England. His first wife was a Aliss Sanford, 
 and his second a Aliss Potter. 
 
 (II) Benjamin Beach, only son of Samuel, above 
 mentioned, was a farmer in North Haven. He 
 married a Aliss Blackley, and had three sons. One 
 of these. 
 
 (III) Benjamin Beach went from North Haven 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 279 
 
 to Chusetown (now Seymour), being the first set- 
 tled pastor of the Congregational Church there. 
 He moved into the parish house, then just com- 
 pleted, in March, 1790. 
 
 (IV) Elias Beach, son of Benjamin (2), died 
 in North 'Haven Aug. 17, 1822, aged eighty-one 
 years. His wife, Elizabeth, passed away Dec. 3, 
 1821, at the age of seventy-six years. 
 
 (V) Major Jo'hn Beach, son of Elias, acquired 
 his title because of his militia service. He was 
 born July 4, 1786, in North Haven, and died Jan. 
 29, 1865. He taught many winter terms of school, 
 while pursuing agriculture in summer. Prominent 
 in town affairs he served several years as select- 
 man, and was representative in the General As- 
 sembly. In politics he was a Whig, and joined the 
 Republican party upon its organization. Ln early 
 life he accepted the doctrines of the Methodist 
 Church, but during his last years affiliated with the 
 Congregational organization. His wife, Betsey 
 (Blakeslee) was born in North Haven May 12, 
 1787, and died July 12, 1856. Their children were : 
 Nelson John, born Nov. 12, 1814; Julius Vespasian, 
 March 14, 1817; George, Nov. 21, 1820; Roxana, 
 Aug. 2, 1829. 
 
 (VI) George Beach attended the district schools 
 of North Haven, where he grew to manhood on 
 the home farm. He came to IMeriden when a 
 young man, and was employed by the Charles 
 Parker Co. as foreman in one of the factories, a 
 position he held at the time of his death, which oc- 
 curred ]\Iay 6, 1856. Like his father, he was a Whig- 
 and Republican, and made thp Golden Rule his 
 standing through life. He was a member of 
 ^Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. 'SL., of Meriden, 
 and was held in high esteem by all who enjoyed the 
 pleasure of his acquaintance. 
 
 On Aug. 7, 1845, ^J^r- Beach was married to 
 Lydia Redfield, a native of Guilford, and sister of 
 ]\Irs. Norman C. Hall, of Meriden, whose genea- 
 logical line will be found in the biography of the 
 late Mr. Hall. Mrs. Beach died Feb. 18, 1897, and 
 was buried in the East cemetery. She was the 
 mother of four children, namely: Hattie Estelle, 
 Mrs. Frederick R. Seidensticker ; George Arthur, a 
 resident of Wallingford ; Frank Alajor, residing at 
 Grand Rapids, Mich. ; and Ida ;\Iay, wife of Dr. 
 Edgar A. Wilson, of Meriden. 
 
 CAPT. WILLIAM HENRY LARDER, of 
 New Haven, is a retired sea captain, and has a va- 
 ried and eventful history. ]\Iany exciting experi- 
 ences have come to him, and he has passed through 
 some thrilling and dangerous moments. He has 
 kept himself in safety, and throughout his active 
 years was known as a capable, brave and trusty sea- 
 man. 
 
 Capt. Larder was born in Lincolnshire, England, 
 May 20, 1837, and his father, William Larder, lived 
 and died in England. The father was a farmer, 
 and his name is preserved as that of an industrious 
 
 and hard-working man. Mary Ann Vickers, his 
 wife, was a native of England, where her life was 
 spent, and where she died at an advanced age. Capt. 
 Larder attended school but little, and early began 
 working on his father's farm. When he was twelve 
 years of age he came to this country and made his 
 home in Harwinton, Conn., for a time, then moving 
 to Hartford, to learn the file-cutter's trade with 
 James Arthur, with whom the lad spent one year. 
 He went to sea on the whaler "Catherine," sailing 
 from New London, to the Cape Verde Islands, the 
 River Plata, and from there spending a long time 
 in the Indian Ocean. He was absent from Con- 
 necticut some two years, and left the "Catherine" at 
 St. Helena, where Napoleon was exiled, and where 
 he waited six weeks for another vessel, upon which 
 to sail. Finally he sailed to London on the "Kanga- 
 roo," which he left in that city, and sailed on the 
 "Catherine" for the East Indies. With this ship he 
 spent a year, and at Bomibay shipped on the 
 "Granger" for Cape Good Hope, but on the way the 
 vessel sprang a leak, and was compelled to seek the 
 harbor at Isle of France, where she was condemned,, 
 and Mr. Larder, after a stay of about three months 
 in that port, signed as a sailor on board the bark 
 "Alvira," bound for Amsterdam, where he spent 
 some two months, and then went to London. His 
 next voyage was made on the "Lord Raglan," a 
 merchant ship, bound for the East Indies, but at 
 Bombay Mr. Larder went on board the "Dashing 
 Wave," of Boston, with which he went again to the 
 Isle of France, and later to Bos'ton. The young 
 sailor lad engaged on "R. C. Dyer,'' a coasting ves- 
 sel, sailing from Belfast, Maine, to Wilmington, N. 
 C, and to Marques, Porto Rico. Returning to this 
 country, he became a sailor on the brig "Benjamin 
 L. Swan," engaged in carrying mules to Santa Cruz,, 
 and rums on the return voyages, in which he was 
 engaged for three years. AVith the "Newitus," he 
 was engaged for about a year by the same firm, and 
 was then employed on the "Rainbow," engaged in 
 the Porto Rico trade for eighteen months, carrying- 
 general cargo, and returning with sugar and mo- 
 lasses. On the "Gen. Armstrong" he was a sailor 
 for a time, and was still in the Porto Rico trade. On 
 the "L. W. Armstrong," a full rigged brig, in the 
 same line, he was mate for several months, and for 
 two years held the same position on the "Ellen 
 Perkins," a coasting vessel, running to Virginia,, 
 then became first mate on the "Nathan Barrett,"' 
 and spent a year on the "Emeline," in the coasting 
 trade. After this he was employed on a government 
 cutter for one season of eight months, and was then 
 made "buoy setter." After this period of govern- 
 ment service he next engaged on the "T. C. Ly- 
 man," a coasting schooner, serving both as mate 
 and captain at diflferent times for some two years, 
 when he became master of the coasting schooner 
 "Signal" for one season. He then secured a part in- 
 terest in the "Gloucester," becoming its master for 
 a year. He also had an interest in the "Daniel Mor- 
 
28o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ris," and sailed as its master for three years. Capt. 
 Larder was three years master of the coaster "Julia 
 A. Berkle," and of the "Baltimore," a schooner, for 
 one year. For another year he was master and sole 
 owner of the coaster "B". F. ^\'oolsev," and also sole 
 owner and master of the coaster "Sarah L. Thomp- 
 son," another year. For one season he was master 
 and largest share owner of the schooner "Sparkling 
 Sea, ' and for three years master and fourth owner 
 of the "Ella H. Barnes." For seven years he was 
 master of the "Henry H. Grant" (of which he was 
 largest owner for some years), engaged in a coast- 
 ing and West Indies trade, and on the "Royal 
 Arch" for a year and a half. Of this last vessel he 
 was a half owner, and later, in 1895, this vessel sunk 
 in the Nantucket Shoals under Capt. \A'entworth, 
 of Boston. 
 
 Capt. Larder has lived a retired life since that 
 year, feeling that the vicissitudes and dangers 
 through which he has passed well entitle him to such 
 rest and comfort as he can command in the closing 
 years of a career so richly varied, and so fraught 
 with interesting memories. In 1900 he bought his 
 present home at No. 144 Dwight street, New Ha- 
 ven, which he has greatlv remodeled and improved. 
 In Wooster Lodge, No.' 79, F. & A. AL, of New 
 Haven, he has long been a familiar and welcome 
 presence. In politics he is a Republican, but is not 
 very actively interested in partisan affairs, and pre- 
 fers to keep away from political discussions and 
 issues, taking a keen and philosophical interest 
 rather than a partisan interest in the government of 
 the country, and the welfare of the people. 
 
 For his first wife Capt. Larder married Amelia 
 Jane Bowboy, of Albany, by whom he had the fol- 
 lowing children : William, who died at the age of 
 one year ; and 2\Iarietta Amelia, who married Charles 
 A. Lamb, and has four children, Violet, Harry, Elsie 
 (who died in infancy), and Evangeline Vivian. 
 (They reside on Spring street).. Airs. Amelia Jane 
 Larder died in 1889. For his second wife Capt. 
 Larder wedded Ida H. Vickers, of Farmington, 
 Conn., and to this marriage came Raymond (who 
 died at the age of four years) and Leslie. 
 
 DWIGHT WOODWARD EALD\\TN, of 
 New Haven, where at the corner of Park and Crown 
 streets he is engaged as a carriage manufacturer 
 and a dealer in harness, whips, blankets, robes, etc., 
 is one of the leading business men of the city. 
 
 Born March 21, 1850, in the town of Washing- 
 ton, Litchfield Co., Conn., Mr. Baldwin is a son 
 of the late George R. T. and Sarah A. (Smith) 
 Baldwin, of A\'ashington and ^\'aterbury, and is de- 
 scended on both sides from old and prominent fam- 
 ilies of Connecticut. Nathaniel Baldwin, the emi- 
 grant ancestor of that branch of the American Bald- 
 wins to which our subject belongs, and one of the 
 first planters of Milford, where he was a free planter 
 in 1639, was a son of John Baldwin, of Parish- 
 Cholesbury, Buckinghamshire, England, who died 
 
 in 1633, and a grandson of Richard Baldwin, who 
 died in 1553. Nathaniel Baldwin was a cooper by 
 trade. He moved to Fairfield, where in 1641 he 
 married Abigail Camp, vv'ho united with the church 
 in Alilford in 1644, and died in 1648. He subse- 
 quently married Joanna Westcoat. Nathaniel Bald- 
 win died in 1658. From this emigrant ancestor 
 Dwight W. Baldwin, of New Haven, is a descend- 
 ant in the ninth generation, his line being through 
 Daniel, Sergt. Daniel (2), John, Enos, Samuel, Her- 
 man and George R. T. Baldwin. 
 
 (II) Daniel Baldwin, son of Nathaniel the emi- 
 grant, born and baptized in IMilford in 1644, mar- 
 ried in 1665 Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Bots- 
 ford, one of the original settlers of ;\Iilford. This 
 couple after their marriage continued to reside in 
 Milford. He died in 171 1. 
 
 (III) Sergt. Daniel Baldwin (2), son of Daniel, 
 born in 1668, died in 1725. He made his home in 
 Milford, where his wife, Sarah, died in 1710. 
 
 (IV) John Baldwin, son of Daniel (2), baptized 
 in :\Iilford in 1693, married Alary (whose surname 
 was very likely Camp), and they made Alilford 
 their home. 
 
 {Y) Enos Baldwin, son of John, born in 1730, 
 married Elizabeth Northrop, born in 1733. They 
 resided on Church Hill, in Washington, Conn. Enos 
 finally went to Genesee, N. Y., and died some time 
 prior to 1818. 
 
 (VI) Samuel Baldwin, son of Enos, born in 
 1768, married in 1792 Sarah Logan, born in 1775, 
 and lived in the town of Washington, Connecticut. 
 
 (VII) Herman Baldwin, son of Samuel, born 
 m Washington in 1800, married Anna Carohne, 
 daughter of John Trowbridge, of Roxtury. Mr. 
 Baldwin was a manufacturer, and until sixty years 
 of age resided in Washington, thence removing to 
 Waterbury and later to New Haven, where he 
 passed the last sixteen years of his life with the 
 firm of C. Pierpont & Co. He was upright in busi- 
 ness and pure in private life. A man of genius, 
 he devised and invented a number of useful articles, 
 among which were Baldwin's American Feed Cut- 
 ter and Baldwin's Safety Fly \\'heel. Mr. Bald- 
 win died Sept. 11, 1881, aged eighty-one years. 
 
 (VIII) George R. T. Baldwin, son of Herman, 
 and the father of the subject of this sketch, was 
 born in 1823, in the town of Washington, and mar- 
 ried in 1848 Sarah A., daiighter of Dennis and 
 Sarah (A\'oodward) Smith, of AA'atertown, Conn. 
 To this union came two sons : Dwight Woodward 
 and Herman T. ; the latter, born May 6, 1853, died 
 aged about nine years. The father was a manu- 
 facturer by trade and occupation, and a man of high 
 honor and integrity, and commanded the esteem and 
 respect of the communities in- which his life was 
 passed. He lived in Washington and Waterbury, 
 dying in the latter city in i860. 
 
 Dwight Woodward Baldwin, son of George R. 
 T., was reared in his native town and Waterbury, 
 and m an atmosphere of mechanics and manufact- 
 
^^'2-^X1. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, 
 
 281 
 
 uring, and iniibibed no doubt from his father and 
 grandfather his tastes in these Unes. He received 
 quite a hberal education in the Waterbury high 
 school, from which institution he was graduated, 
 and in the National Business College, at New Ha- 
 ven. He commenced his business career in 1868, 
 in New Haven, as bookkeeper for H. N. Whittlesey 
 ■& Co., dealers in crockery ware, located in Chapel 
 street. His next business experience was with the 
 manufacturing concern of C. Pierpont & Co., whose 
 place of business was at the corner of Park and 
 Crown streets, and with this establishment he was 
 identified for a period of more than twenty-five 
 years, which speaks loudly of the estimation in 
 which he was held by his employers. He was su- 
 perintendent and manager of their works, of which, 
 in Januar}-, 1896, he became proprietor. ]\Ir. Bald- 
 win is a clean-cut, energetic, far-sighted business 
 man, and one of New Haven's substantial citizens. 
 He has served his ward (the second) in the com- 
 mon council. 
 
 On Sept. 30, 1872, j\Ir. Baldwin was married to 
 Mary Ada, daughter of Elisha Dickerman, of New 
 Haven. They have had four children: Carrie 
 Trowbridge, born in 1873 ; Hattie A., born in 1877, 
 who died in 1880; George H., born in 1879, who 
 died in 1886; and Howard D., born in 1886. 
 
 HON. T. ATWATER BARNES. The late 
 Amos Foot Barnes and son, Hon. T. Atwater 
 Barnes, now prominently identified with several 
 financial institutions of New Haven, together and 
 in turn have for nearly sixty years been among the 
 leading business men of that city. 
 
 T. Atwater Barnes, son of Amos Foot and 
 Nancy Richards (Atwater) Barnes, and grandson 
 of Capt. Merritt Barnes, who through a long life- 
 time was an honored citizen of Watertown, Conn., 
 is on his mother's side a representative of one of the 
 first families of the Colony of New^aven. 
 
 David Atwater was one of the first planters of 
 New Haven, and in the first division of lands of the 
 town a farm was assigned him in the "Neck" be- 
 tween [Mill and Quinnipiac rivers, on which he lived, 
 it is believed, until his death, in 1692. From this 
 £rst American ancestor, T. Atwater Barnes is a 
 descendant in the eighth generation, his line being 
 through Jonathan, David (2), Jonathan (2), 
 Thomas, Thomas (2) and Nancy R. (Atwater) 
 Barnes. 
 
 (H) Jonathan Atwater, son of David, the 
 planter, born in 1656, married in 1681 Ruth Peck. 
 He was a merchant, and died in 1726. 
 
 (HI) David Atwater (2), son of Jonathan, born 
 in 1683, married (second) in 1718 Tabitha Whit- 
 head. 
 
 (IV) Jonathan Atwater (2), son of David (2), 
 born in 1722, married'in 1745 Sarah Beach, of Wal- 
 lingford. 
 
 (V) Thomas Atwater, son of Jonathan (2), 
 bom in 1747, married in 1772 Margaret Macomber. 
 
 (\I) Thomas Atwater (2), son of Thomas, 
 born April 15, 1785, married Jan. 15, 1806, Sarah 
 Beecher. 
 
 (VH) Nancy Richards Atwater, daughter of 
 Thomas, born Nov. 9, 1816, married Amos F. 
 Barnes. 
 
 Amos Foot Barnes, his father, was born April i, 
 1818, in Watertown, Litchfield Co., Conn., and in 
 order to receive better school advantages was sent 
 when eleven years of age to Hartford, where for 
 seven winters he attended the old Stone School 
 House. Through the summers he was occupied at 
 work on his father's farm in Watertown. At the 
 age of eighteen, in 1836, he began his business ca- 
 reer as a clerk in the grocery of Harry Ives, in New 
 Haven. In 1842 young Barnes, then married only 
 about a year, started in the grocery business on his 
 own account, and at the location on State street 
 where he did business as a member of the firm of 
 Finch & Barnes, wholesale grocers, the rest of his 
 life. The firm soon established a good trade, and 
 were successful. In 1855 the partnership was dis- 
 solved, Mr. Barnes assuming sole charge and re- 
 taining the old stand. He continued the business 
 under his own name until 1869, at which time he 
 associated with him his son, T. Atwater Barnes, 
 the firm style becoming Amos F. Barnes & Son, 
 which continued until the death of the senior mem- 
 ber, in 1890. This was one of the well and favor- 
 ably known business houses of New Haven, both its 
 members having established a good reputation for 
 integrity and fair dealing. The father was a sub- 
 stantial man of the community and a useful citizen, 
 but had no aspirations politically, having no taste for 
 political honors. For two terms he was a member 
 of the common council and for six years was on the 
 board of education. He was one of the organizers 
 of the First National Bank, and a director in the 
 same from its beginning until his death ; and was 
 also for years a trustee of the Connecticut Savings 
 Bank. His religious connections were with the 
 Center Congregational Church, and he was often 
 chosen by that society to offices of honor and trust. 
 
 On May 6, 1841, Mr. Barnes was married to 
 Nancy Richards Atwater, of New Haven, and seven 
 children blessed the union, all now deceased ex- 
 cepting T. Atwater Barnes. 
 
 T. Atwater Barnes was born Jan. 13, 1848, in 
 New Haven, attended the public schools of the city^ 
 and was one year at the famous military school of 
 Gen. Russell, in New Haven, from' which institution 
 he was graduated when sixteen years of age. He 
 then entered his father's store, as clerk, in which 
 capacity he remained until of age, in 1869, when he 
 was admitted as a partner, and the two sustained 
 such relations until separated by the father's death, 
 in 1890. Through his application to business, tact 
 and ability young Barnes rose rapidly into prom- 
 inence in both business and social life in New Ha- 
 ven, where his ability and worth as a citizen have 
 been recognized, and he stands to-day one of the 
 
282 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 city's most substantial and prominent mien. Formany 
 years he has been closely identified with a num- 
 be-r of the city's large business interests and actively 
 interested in its public affairs. He has been for a 
 period of years a member of the New Haven Cham- 
 ber of Commerce, and served two years as its- presi- 
 dent. He has also served as secretary of the State 
 Board of Trade ; is at this time president of the New 
 Haven Trust Co. ; a director and vice-president of 
 the First National Bank ; a trustee and member of 
 the finance committee of the Connecticut Savings 
 Bank; and is also director in a number of other 
 corporations in New Haven and elsewhere. 
 
 Mr. Barnes has been prominently connected with 
 the military affairs of both city and State, having 
 served over seven years as a member of the New 
 Haven Grays, a famous organization in the city's 
 history, known as Company F, 2d Regiment, Na- 
 tional Guard of Connecticut. He first jouied this 
 organization as a private, and was advanced through 
 the various grades to first lieutenant, from which 
 grade he was appointed brigade inspector, with the 
 rank of major, and served on the staff of Gen. R. 
 B. Cranford, performing the duties of such office 
 with efficiency for some five years. He afterward 
 served on the military examining board for a period 
 of three years. ^lajor Barnes is a member of the 
 Sons of the American Revolution. His political 
 affiliations are with the Republican party, by which 
 he has been honored as candidate for representa- 
 tive in the General Assembly, to which body he was 
 elected, and served in 1897 with ability and credit, 
 and to the satisfaction of his constituents. 
 
 On Oct. 15, 1873, Mr. Barnes was married to 
 Phoebe B. Phipps, of New Haven, and their chil- 
 dren are : Amos F. and Frank G. P. Barnes. 
 
 FRANCIS HOLDEN, one of :\Ieriden's re- 
 spected citizens, now living retired in this citv, was 
 born in Rocky Hill, Hartford Co., Conn., Nov. 12, 
 1831. Ebenezer Alitchell Holden, grandfather of 
 Francis, was a native of Hartford county, a de- 
 scendant of an old and honorable New England 
 family of Scotch descent, and a soldier seven years 
 in the Revolutionary war. Ebenezer Holden mar- 
 ried a Miss Goodrich, who was a direct descendant 
 of a Goodrich who came in the Ma\'flower and after- 
 wards returned to England but subsequently settled 
 in Connecticut. Had three sons and one daughter. 
 Eber Holden, the father of Francis Holden, was 
 born in New Berlin, N. Y., where, for some }'ears, 
 his occupation was farming. He ser\-ed in the War 
 of 1812, after wliich he settled in Rockv Hill and 
 purchased a small farm near by, upon which he 
 spent the remainder of his life, his burial place being 
 in Rocky Hill cemetery. Eber Holden married 
 Durinda Morle}*, of Glastonburv, Conn., and she 
 also was buried at Rocky Hill. Eight children were 
 born to them, two of whom, Alarilla and Marv Ann, 
 died in early life. The survivors were Nancv, born 
 March 22, 1822, married Henry Pelton, and died 
 
 Jan. 5, 1901 ; Albert, born Feb. 25, 1826, who resided 
 in New Haven; Henry, born Nov. 7, 1827, who 
 v/ent West; Humphrey, born Dec. 28, 1829, de- 
 ceased; Francis, born Nov. 12, 1831, our subject; 
 and William, born :May 2, 1835, who resides at 
 Rocky Hill in the old homestead on the banks of 
 the Connecticut river. 
 
 Francis Holden spent his boyhood days on the 
 farm at Rocky Hill, and he attended the village 
 school. In 1845 he came to Meriden, and for the 
 past fifty-seven years has made this his home. At 
 first an employe in a lock-shop, he has since worked 
 in various manufacturing concerns, and has tried 
 and mastered several trades. The last eleven years 
 of his active life were spent with the Charles Parker 
 Co., from which association be retired in the 
 year 1897. Since then he has been enjoying the 
 comforts and pleasures incident to a well merited 
 relaxation from responsibility. 
 
 ^Ir. Holden is a man of quiet tastes, and finds 
 enjovment in mingling with his many friends, and 
 in recalling, at his pleasant home on North Colony 
 street, the many events of his years of active life. 
 He is a member of ^lain Street Baptist Church. In 
 politics he has long been identified with the Republi- 
 can party, but has never sought office. By a life of 
 industry and upright living he has won the esteem of 
 all who know him. The remembrance of his love 
 for his invalid wife and fondness of their children 
 will be long cherished by those who knew them in 
 their happy home. 
 
 In 1859 ^Ir. Holden was united in marriage 
 with Lucv Jane Parker, born in Augusta, Oneida 
 Co., N. Y., Alarch 17, 1838, daughter of James I. 
 and Maria (Ives) Parker. Mrs. Holden died' in 
 Meriden Oct. 19, 1899, after twenty years of sick- 
 ness, during which she was kindly and tenderly 
 cared for by her loving and devoted husband and 
 son. She is buried beside her children in the West 
 cemetery, in ^leriden, and is tenderly remembered 
 as a good, Christian woman, devoted wife and 
 mother, and faithful member of the Baptist Church. 
 As her family loved her in life, so they mourn her 
 in death. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Holden, namelv : George Parker, born Dec. 5, 1861, 
 died Oct. 21, 1868; Nettie Jane, born FA. 22, 1866, 
 died Oct. 17, 1868; Frederick Arthur, born June 7, 
 1876, died July 25, 1878; and Parker Willis, born 
 in Meriden Julv 10, 1870, a citizen of Brooklyn, N. 
 Y., and whose business talent prompted his parents 
 to give him a thorough training in a preparatory 
 school. The latter passed with credit through the 
 common and high school, later graduating from the 
 Yale Business College, in New Haven. His prelim- 
 inary business experience was acquired while a 
 clerk for two years in the furniture store of George 
 Morse, after which he filled a similar position for 
 his uncle, George T. Parker, a wholesale fruit dealer 
 of New York city. His ability may be recognized 
 from the fact that before he had attained his major- 
 ity he had purchased the business from his uncle, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 28j 
 
 and is now successfully engaged, with a partner, in 
 a wholesale commission house on Washington 
 street. New York City, under the firm name of 
 Smith & Holden. He is possessed of unusual finan- 
 cial ability and great sagacity, and these traits, com- 
 bined with unquestioned integrity, have won him a 
 high place in the confidtence of the public. 
 
 On Oct. 15, 1901, Mr. Parker Willis Holden 
 married Juliette Louise Jacobs, daughter of Mr. and 
 ]Mrs. Jacob Young Jacobs, of Brooklyn, N. Y. After 
 a few short months of happiness in their home, 991 
 Sterling Place, Brooklyn, N. Y., Mrs. Holden died, 
 March 24, 1902, and was laid to rest in Greenwood 
 cemetery. 
 
 JARED LEWIS (deceased), who during his 
 lifetime was one of Meriden's well-known citizens, 
 was born in that city, Jan. 28, 181 1, son of Isaac 
 and Esther (Beaumont) Lewis, and iDrother of the 
 late Hon. Isaac C. Lewis, of Meriden. 
 
 Mr. Lewis was educated in the district schools 
 of Aleriden, and at Cheshire Military Academy. 
 After the death of his father, he lived with an uncle, 
 Patrick Lewis, who was engaged in the hotel busi- 
 ness in Wallingford, and with whom he remained 
 for a few years, prior to engaging with the late 
 Charles Parker in the making of coffee mihs. Later 
 Air. Lewis became associated with others in the 
 mining of iron ore at Colchester, Conn., and a few 
 years aftervi^ard started South as a peddler of Yan- 
 kee notions, but soon disposed of his stock and went 
 to Texas, where he lived for several years. 
 
 From Texas Mr. Lewis removed to Buffalo, N. 
 Y., and embarked in the grocery business, continu- 
 ing the same until his return to Meriden, in i860. 
 In partnership with his brother, under the firm name 
 of I. C. Lewis & Co., he was for some years in- 
 terested in a grocery business near Black Pond. 
 Later, Mr. S. J. Hall bought the interest of I. C. 
 Lewis, and the firm of Lewis & Hall continued for 
 three years on the corner of Colony and Main 
 streets. Subsequently Mr. Lewis opened up a dry- 
 goods business on Colony street, which he success- 
 fully conducted for five years, and during that time 
 became widely known in trade, and was' well patron- 
 ized by a discriminating public. Mr. Lewis then 
 retired from business, and died in Meriden, in Aug. 
 1890, and was buried in the beautiful Walnut Grove 
 cemetery, connected with this city. 
 
 In Meriden Air. Lewis married Mehetable Pad- 
 dock, born in Meriden, a daughter of the late Sam- 
 uel Paddock, and sister of Deacon Samuel Pad- 
 dock, of Meriden. Though having reached the age 
 of eighty-nine years, Mrs. Lewis still retains her 
 mental alertness, and is still a worthy and be- 
 loved representative of one of the old and honored 
 families of this locality. The children born to the 
 late Jared Lewis and wife were as follows : Char- 
 lotte Elizabeth, who married William Dudley, a 
 soldier during the Civil war, in Co. K, 8th Reg., 
 Conn., V. I. and now residing in Washington, D. 
 
 C. ; Charles Henry, who was a soldier in Co. K, 8th 
 Reg., was wounded in the arm at Petersburg, and 
 died in the hospital ; Jared, who is a resident of 
 Meriden ; and William, who belonged to the same 
 regiment and company as his brother, and after 
 faithful service, lost his life on the battle field of 
 Antietam. 
 
 Jared Lewis, Sr., was a stanch Democrat, and 
 although he never sought political office, served his. 
 city as one of the first members of the council. He 
 was an active member of Aleridian Lodge, No. yy, 
 A. F. & A. AI., of Meriden. His religious connec- 
 tion was with the Congregational Church. As a 
 citizen. Air. Lewis was held in great regard, was 
 known to be thoroughly honest, liberal and public- 
 spirited, and he was a man whose life and influ- 
 ence were in the direction of temperance and moral- 
 ity. His industry was notable, and his studious 
 habits made him intellectually superior to many of 
 his associates. 
 
 Jared Lewis, son of the late Jared and Mehit- 
 able (Paddock) Lewis, was born in Colchester, 
 Middlesex Co., Conn., Alarch 18, 1836. At the age 
 of five years he went to live on the farm of his 
 grandfather, Samuel Paddock, and later was em- 
 ployed on the farm of Richard Andrews, in Wal- 
 lingford. Here Mr. Lewis remained five years, 
 going then to assist his grandfather, with whomi 
 he remained until he was sixteen years old. 
 
 Although his early training was all in an agri- 
 cultural line, and his education but incompletely ac- 
 quired in the public schools, Mr. Lewis had tastes 
 in another direction, and the years between sixteen 
 and twenty-one were spent in the web, lock and rule 
 shops of Middletown. At the expiration of this 
 experience he had become skilled in the details of 
 shop machinery, and accepted an offer from> the 
 Wheeler & Wilson Co., of Bridgeport, and worked 
 in their sewing machine shops for five years. By 
 this time the country had need of able-bodied men 
 to suppress the Rebellion, and in August, of 1862, 
 Mr. Lewis became a member of the 2nd Conn. Light 
 Battery, under Capt. John Sterling, with whom he 
 faithfully served for three years, or until his hon- 
 orable discharge in July of 1865. During his ser- 
 vice Air. Lewis participated in a number of import- 
 ant engagements including the battle of Gettysburg 
 — where his battery was notably effective — the Red 
 River expedition, New Orleans, Fort Gaines, the 
 Sieges of Alobile and Fort Alorgan, the latter ter- 
 minating with the capture of all concerned. Re- 
 turning to New Orleans, the battery was sent into 
 Arkansas, where Mr. Lewis contracted a fever 
 necessitating hospital attendance. When sufficient- 
 ly convalescent he was sent home on a furlough, 
 and saw no more of the grim and terrible side of 
 warfare. 
 
 More fortunate than many of his brave soldier 
 brothers, Mr. Lewis returned to his home un- 
 harmed, and upon resuming work, became an em- 
 ploye of the lock shop of the Mallory & Wheeler 
 
284 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Co., at New Haven, where he remained about three 
 years. The succeeding period of three and one- 
 half years was spent in the lock shop of the Parker 
 & \Vhipple Co., in Crow Hollow, Aleriden, and in 
 June, 1874, he became connected with the Bradley 
 & Hubbard Manufacturing Co. One year later he 
 had advanced to the superintendency of the pack- 
 ing department, a responsibility maintained with 
 efficiency by Mr. Lewis for the past twenty-seven 
 years. 
 
 In 1859, Mr. Lewis was married (first), at Dur- 
 ham, Conn., with JNIatilda M. Bailey, who died, with 
 her son, Frank Burr, in 1864, both being interred 
 in East cemetery, ^Meriden. \lr. Lewis was mar- 
 ried (second) Dec. 31, 1870, in New Haven, to 
 Barbara Coggins, born in llubec, Maine, daughter 
 of John and Lucinda Coggins, mentioned further 
 in the biography of Emory Coggins, of I\Ieriden. 
 Two children were born of this union, namely : 
 Charles Edward, who is employed by the Bradley 
 & Hubbard Manufacturing Co. ; and Emory S., 
 who is employed as traveling salesman by the same 
 concern. The sons have already evinced pro- 
 nounced business capacity, and have won the con- 
 fidence of the company with which they are asso- 
 ciated. 
 
 Although Mr. Lewis is an interested member of 
 the Republican party, he has never sought political 
 preferment. His tastes are of a domestic character, 
 and he finds his greatest pleasure in the comforts 
 of his home, and association with his family. Re- 
 ligious controversies do not disturb him, his life 
 being patterned as nearly as possible after the Gold- 
 en Rule. Thus he has gained the esteem of his em- 
 ployers, and the respect of those with whom he is 
 brought into contact in whatsoever relations of life. 
 
 EDWARD B. AIUNSOX, secretary and treas- 
 urer of The Alunson & Co., of Xew Haven, is one 
 of that city's self-made men, one whose success in 
 life can be directly attributed to his energy and abil- 
 ity to successfully grapple with business situations 
 where judgment and foresight are esisential. 
 His connection with the folding paper box industry, 
 in all its branches, dates back to a time when it 
 was in its infancy. In fact he and his brother, 
 Harvey S., were the pioneer manufacturers in that 
 line in New Haven, and have been so closely identi- 
 fied with that branch of industry that they are 
 probably the best-known manufacturers of such 
 products in America. The city of New Haven is 
 indebted to them and their untiring efl^orts for 
 one of its largest employers of labor, as well as for 
 the reputation of being one of the very foremost 
 cities in America in that particular line of manu- 
 facture. No longer ago than 1875 their industry 
 was struggling along. The JMunson brothers, then 
 little more than boys, not only handicapped by youth 
 but by lack of capital as well, were laying the 
 foundation of a structure the building of which 
 marked their lives and brought deserved success. 
 
 These brothers are descendants of the old Mun- 
 son family, whose history reaches back to the early 
 Colonial period of Connecticut. The progenitor of 
 the family in America was Thomas Munson, who 
 was born about 1612, and was first known as a 
 resident of Hartford, where he performed military 
 service in the Pequot war in 1637. He came early 
 to the New Haven Colony, where he is spoken of 
 in history as being a good and useful citizen, and 
 where he died in 1685. From this Thomas Mun- 
 son, Edward B. Munson is in the ninth generation, 
 his line being through Samuel, Theopbilus, Daniel, 
 Kirk, Joseph, Kirk, Charles and Edward Beach 
 Munson, and including a line of ancestors all of 
 whom at some time or other lived in New Haven, 
 and were prominent in their various callings, 
 whether as manufacturers of that period, farmers 
 or professional men. 
 
 Charles Alunson, the paternal grandfather of 
 our subject, was born Feb. 14, 1792, in New Ha- 
 ven, and on April 11, 1815, was married to Mabel 
 Beach, who was born Aug. 2, 1792, daughter of 
 Benajah Beach. She died Feb. 16, 1878, and he 
 died June 9, 1879. Mr. ^Munson resided in New 
 Haven, and was for a period engaged in the shoe 
 business in Newbern, N. C. He also resided in the 
 town of Woodbridge, Conn., where he was chosen 
 highway surveyor in 1832, 1843 ^'^'^ 1856, and 
 grand juror in 1835 and 1836. During the war of 
 1812 he served in the militia under Capt. Joseph A. 
 Bishop. Both he and his wife were members of 
 the Congregational Church. 
 
 Edward Beach ^lunson, son of Charles, and the 
 father of the ]\Iunson brothers, Edward B. and 
 Harvey S., of New Haven, was born Oct. 30, 1817. 
 He became an elector in Woodbridge in 1840. He 
 early became associated in business, as a builder, 
 in partnership with his brother-in-law, Willis 
 Smith, and Hon. N. D. Sperry, a connection that 
 lasted some three years. For years he was largely 
 identified with the building of railroads. He super- 
 intended the masonry work and the purchase of 
 material's for the New Haven, New London & 
 Stonington railroad, in 1857-59. President Giles, 
 in a letter on this work, said of him, "He not only 
 equalled our expectations, but far exceeded them 
 in ability, energy and mechanical skill." Later Mr. 
 Alunson built the Derby railroad. He became su- 
 perintendent of the Fair Haven & \\'estville horse 
 railway. His place of residence was New Haven, 
 and in i860 he served in the common council. On 
 the breaking out of the Civil war he raised Com- 
 pany K, loth Conn. \'. I., and was chosen its cap- 
 tain, his commission dating from Sept. 25, 1861. 
 He was mustered into the United States service 
 Oct. 3, 1861, remaining therein until the 14th of 
 the following December, when he tendered his res- 
 ignation. Capt. Munson was a man of imposing 
 appearance. He commanded the respect and esteem 
 of his fellow citizens, and all with whom he came 
 in contact, and in his death, which occurred Aug. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 285 
 
 15, 1879, the city and county lost a valued citi- 
 zen. 
 
 On June 3, 1841, Mr. Alunson was married to 
 Amelia C. Sperry, of Woodbridge, born June 13, 
 1822, daughter of Wyllis and Catherine (Rams- 
 dell) Sperry. Children came to this marriage as 
 follows: (i) Albert Leroy, born in 1842, resides 
 in New York. He was an officer in the 5th N. Y. 
 Heavy Artillery during the Civil war, and rose to 
 the rank of lieutenant colonel of United States Vol- 
 unteers. (2) Henry Theodore, born in 1844, was 
 for a number of years a prominent attorney of New 
 York; he was for some years connected as an ex- 
 aminer with the United States Patent Office ; he took 
 out a number of patents on his own inventions of 
 useful and labor saving devices, and later practiced 
 his profession of law in New York, where his 
 death occurred in April, 1897, on the day following 
 his^ wife's death. He was married, in Washington, 
 D. C, to Nellie S. Porter, of that city. (3) Mary 
 Gertrude, born in 1846, married, in June, 1867, 
 Richard Henry Greene, a lawyer of New York. 
 (4) Kate Amelia, born in 1849, married, in 1869, 
 Louis Hartman Todd, who was connected with the 
 jewelry firm of Tififlany & Co., New York. (5) 
 Sarah Augusta, born in 1852, married in 1882 Al- 
 bert Candee, a clerk in the New Haven post of- 
 fice. (6) Edward Benjamin was born June 12, 
 1854. (7) Harvey Sperry was born March 3, 
 1857. (8) Miss Harriet Eliza, born in 1859, lives 
 in New Haven. (9) Emma M., born in 1864, died 
 in 1888 unmarried. 
 
 Edward Benjamin Munsom was born June 12, 
 1854, in New Haven, on what is now the northeast 
 corner of George and West streets. In those days 
 that was all a farming section, and the only road 
 leading toward the city was Chapel street. He at- 
 tended the old Webster school, and from there went 
 to the old Hillhouse high school, the old building 
 of which during the period of his attendance was 
 demolished and the construction of the present one 
 begun. School was held in the old State House 
 during the progress of this improvement, and there 
 young Munson last attended school, as he left in 
 his Sophomore year to enter upon a business career, 
 which appealed to him hot entirely as a matter of 
 choice, but to no small extent because of circum- 
 stances. As a boy he was industrious, eager to earn 
 his own spending money, which he did. His asso- 
 ciates were boys of well-to-do families, and in order 
 to have at his disposal pin money to the extent that 
 his comrades had he early developed those hustling 
 proclivities that have been characteristic of the man. 
 Mr. Munson acted as carrier boy for the CourieTj 
 then a morning paper, and also for the Palladium, 
 then an evening paper. As carrier for the Courier 
 he delivered a paper at the factory on the corner 
 of Williams and Bradley streets, which property 
 later was bought by himself and brother, Harvey 
 S., a.nd was the scene of no little of their success 
 in later years. It is doubtful if there can be found 
 
 in New Haven a parallel coincidence of this kind- 
 Among j\Ir. Alunson's boyhood associates was the 
 late John Addison Porter, as well as a number of 
 others who became noted and prominent men. A 
 souvenir of that period of his life, and something 
 that j\Ir. 2\Iunson prizes very highly, is a photograph 
 of a base-ball team of which he was a member, and 
 xVhich included several boys who rose to positions 
 of prominence in professional and financial circles. 
 Soon after leaving school, at about the age of 
 fifteen, Mr. Alunson accepted the position of errand 
 boy in a hat store then conducted by Bradley & 
 Pratt, on the southwest corner of State and Chapel 
 streets. He remained there for some time, and later 
 accepted the position of clerk with Kimberly & 
 Candee, in the same line of business. The failure 
 of this firm, some time afterward, threw young 
 Munson out of a position, and though in a short 
 time he had an offer from another concern he did 
 not accept it, being dissatisfied with the wages of- 
 fered. This dissatisfaction, arising from a matter 
 of $3 per week, was instrumental in causing him to 
 take up other lines of business, and incidentally the 
 one which he has carried on .so successfully. It 
 was about this time that his brother, Harvey S., 
 severed his connection as clerk for the dry goods 
 firm of J. N. Adams & Co., so that both were un- 
 employed. Their industry and energy would not 
 permit them to remain idle. They conceived the 
 idea of selling a line of office stationery and sup- 
 plies, which proved so m.uch of a success that their 
 first week's profit was all of $20 each. This busi- 
 ness they carried on a few months, during which 
 time they were on the lookout for something bet- 
 ter. The elder brother, Henry T., was then an 
 examiner in the United States Patent Office at 
 Washington, and coming beneath his notice was a 
 patent folding pasteboard box. The value of this 
 invention and its future possibilities, as they ap- 
 peared to him, were made known to his younger 
 brothers, who almost at once began to look into that 
 line, intending, if possible, to get control of the in- 
 vention. In this way they learned of a manu- 
 facturer of Newark, N. J., J. B. Osborn, who was- 
 then producing a folding box, the New England 
 agency for which they secured. This was in the 
 early part of 1874. At once they began to push 
 their new line, and the first order taken was from 
 C. Cowles & Co., of New Haven, for 50,000 boxes. 
 When this order was sent in the manufacturer could 
 not fill it ! The fact that one customer in New 
 Haven could not be supplied showed how very far 
 were these young men from having an adequate 
 supply, when the whole of New England was to 
 be considered. They readily saw the great future 
 for the business, and concluded to enter into the 
 industry of manufacturing this article. Young as 
 they were — one not yet twenty-one, and the other 
 less than eighteen — they had implicit confidence in 
 the future of the undertaking. Their means were 
 quite limited, v/hich difficulty was but one of several 
 
286 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 necessary to be overcome before the enterprise was 
 started. It was in 1875 that ;Munson & Co. was 
 first established. The handicap of limited means 
 had been temporarily overcome by financial assist- 
 ance from their mother, not only at the beginning, 
 but later on, as it was several years before the 
 business became self-supporting. Their first loca- 
 tion was in the top floor of a building off Artizan 
 street, the room of 40x50. serving for office, factory 
 and all. The first three years was a constant strug- 
 gle, and many times, had those back of the business 
 been less courageous and persistent, it would cer- 
 tainly have been abandoned. It had grown, how- 
 ever, so that in less than two years from its incep- 
 tion larger quarters were necessary, and they occu- 
 pied the whole top floor of the building. Still later 
 they occupied, in addition, the floor directly under- 
 neath. It was practically not until 1878 that the 
 business began to show encouraging returns. The 
 time previous had been largely spent in introducing 
 their goods and buying up patents that would per- 
 fect or protect their business — all of which had not 
 only exhausted their means but much more as well. 
 In 1879 this firm perfected a die for use in their 
 business, the efificiency of which is attested by its al- 
 most universal use, without improvements, to the 
 present time. In 1881 it had become necessary to 
 again seek larger, quarters, and they purchased the 
 property at the corner of Bradley and Williams 
 streets, the old plant of the New Haven Organ 
 Co. The early building thereon was the structure 
 on the corner, 35x90 feet in dimensions, and five 
 stories high. In 1888 another building was erected, 
 40x50, and five stories high, as well as a building 
 of the same height which connected the two. 
 
 Long before this their product had taken a front 
 rank, and was being constantly improved by the 
 most careful study of the details of production as 
 well as the inventive genius of the proprietors, so 
 that it was probably the best known in the coun- 
 try. In 1891 the business was consolidated with 
 others in the formation of the National Folding 
 Box & Paper Co. The property, however, was re- 
 .tained by the Munson & Co., and is yet owned by 
 them. In February, 1896, owing to internal dis- 
 sension, the JNIunson brothers severed their con- 
 nection with The National Folding Box & Paper 
 Co., and at once made preparations to start up in 
 business. The Alunson & Co. was incorporated in 
 1897, with Harvey S. as president and Edward B. 
 as secretary and treasurer. Another coincidence in 
 their career may be here mentioned. The only 
 available quarters for their business were in the 
 same building, on Artizan street, where nearly a 
 quarter of a century before had been the scene of 
 their rnodest beginning. Conditions had been great- 
 ly changed. Instead of inexperienced youths with but 
 little more than energy as their capital, they were 
 men of experience, familiar with every detail of the 
 business, and favorably known to the trade every- 
 where. Competition was plenty and formidable, 
 
 but to offset this the field of consumption had been 
 greatly enlarged, and the product had come to be 
 used in thousands of dififerent ways, so that the 
 degree of their success was only to be measured by 
 their ability to produce the goods — the character of 
 which was thoroughly suggested by the name of 
 Munson. In March, 1898, they bought their pres- 
 ent quarters, on Clinton avenue, which they have 
 transformed into one of the most modern and best 
 equipped plants of the kind in New England, and 
 certainly the best arranged and most accessible of 
 its kind in New Haven. The success of this firm 
 began with its inception. The peculiar fitness of 
 its proprietors is such as to form a combination of 
 mechanical skill and business acumen from which 
 but little else than success could come; each pos- 
 sesses to an unusual extent one or the other of 
 those faculties, and at the same time a valuable com- 
 bination of both faculties is to be found in either. 
 
 Harvey S. Munson's inventive genius has been 
 a most valuable asset to the concern. He has obtained 
 patents on almost a score of his own inventions. 
 Edward B. Munson has taken out patents on sev- 
 eral dififerent inventions, and he has probably given 
 more of his time and energy to the business end of 
 the concern, and has borne heavy responsibilities. 
 His identification with business life has always been 
 with the paper box industry, and his success has 
 certainly been well merited. 
 
 Fraternally Edward Benjamin Munson is prom- 
 inent in Masonic circles, being a thirty-second-de- 
 gree Mason, and affiliated with Wooster Lodge, F. 
 & A. M. ; Franklin Chapter; Harmony Council; 
 New Haven Commandery, Knights Templar; and 
 Lafayette Consistory. Politically he is a stanch 
 supporter of Republican principles, but, while tak- 
 ing the interest of a public-spirited and enterprising 
 citizen in political matters, he is far from being a 
 politician. He served two terms in the New Ha- 
 ven city council, from the Eighth ward, his service 
 in the city government being from a sincere desire 
 to promote the public welfare, and not from any 
 enjoyment of the position. One very impressive 
 characteristic of his service was his unswerving de- 
 votion to what he believed to be right. The same 
 can be said of him in his business dealings, w^here 
 he has always maintained a reputation for the 
 strictest integrity. 
 
 On Feb. 24, 1879, i''^ New Haven, Edward B. 
 ;\Iunson was married to Josephine Etta Leaven- 
 worth, daughter of Oscar B. Leavenworth, a sketch 
 of whom appears elsewhere. They have had chil- 
 dren as follows : Grace Amelia, born April 24, 
 1880, is a graduate of ^Mrs. Cady's private school, 
 in New Haven; Maude Josephine, born Nov. 22, 
 18S1, is also a graduate oi Mrs. Cady's school; 
 Harvey Benjamin, born Dec. 20, 1884 is a student 
 at the Boardman school ; Ethel May was born Aug. 
 13, 1892; and Thornton Sperry was born Jan. i, 
 1897. Mr. and Mrs. Munson are members of the 
 Church of the Redeemer. The records of both the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 287 
 
 Munson and Leavenworth families entitle their de- 
 scendants to membership in several of the Colonial 
 societies, among these the Mayflower, to which Mr. 
 JNIunson is eligible. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Munson 
 has, however, sought to enter any of these. Their 
 taF-les are quite too democratic to wish a social 
 standing based upon anything but their own intrin- 
 sic worth, and, like truly progressive, cultured and 
 useful people, they are living lives worthy of emula- 
 tion by future generations instead of resting on the 
 laurels of their honored ancestors. In 1894 Mr. 
 }iIunson completed his elegant home at No. 389 
 Whitney avenue, where the family reside. 
 
 RICE. Through the greater part of the pres- 
 ent century the name of Rice has been one of prom- 
 inence in the various lines of social, religious and 
 business life of Waterbury, one of whose most use- 
 ful and prominent citizens was the late Archibald 
 E. Rice, who did much toward the development of 
 the city in the line of contracting and building, a 
 business in which his son Frederick B. Rice has 
 been conspicuously prominent for many years. 
 
 Archibald Elijah Rice -was born Aug. 13, 1809, 
 in Hamden, Conn., a son of Isaac and Mary (Rob- 
 erts) Rice, and grandson of Isaac Rice, of Ham- 
 den, a patriot of the war of the Revolution. Arch- 
 ibald's boyhood was passed in Hamden, Wood- 
 bridge and Prospect. At the age of seventeen he 
 came to Waterbury and entered the employ of Mark 
 Leavenworth & Co., manufacturers of wooden 
 clocks. Later he learned the carpenter's trade, and 
 entered into business as a carpenter and builder for 
 himself. Between 1830 and 1842, he built a num- 
 ber of more important edifices in Waterbury. In 
 1843 he moved to Hudson, Ohio, and while there 
 built the Western Reserve College. After a resi- 
 dence of several years there he returned to Water- 
 bury, and was one of the founders of the City Lum- 
 ber & Coal Co., which was later merged into the 
 Waterbury Lumber & Coal Co., of which he later 
 owned a controlling interest and became president. 
 Some ten years later he and his son sold out their 
 interests in the company, and at that time the father 
 practically withdrew from business. For many years 
 prior to this he had been president of the Apothe- 
 caries' Hall Co., which position he retained until 
 the time of his death. At one time he was also 
 president of the American Ring Company. 
 
 Mr. Rice although always greatly absorbed in 
 business was ever interested in public affairs. He 
 was a number of times honored by his fellow-citi- 
 zens by election to offices of trust and responsi- 
 bility. In 1856 he was a member of the common 
 council, and in 1857 he served as chairman of the 
 Finance committee of the Centre School district; 
 and again as such from 1867 to 1875. In 1876 and 
 1877 he was mayor of Waterbury, and for a period 
 of seventeen years was one of the county commis- 
 sioners for New Haven county. During this period 
 he superintended the erection of the jail and the 
 
 county court house in New Haven. He also super- 
 intended, in 1874-75, the building of the present 
 edifice of the First Congregational Church of 
 Waterbury. Mr. Rice was reared an Episcopalian, 
 but in 183 1 united with the First Congregational 
 Church, and for more than sixty years, with the 
 exception of his residence in Ohio, he was a comh 
 municant and a regular attendant of that Church. 
 "His early advantages were limited, yet by the force 
 of his character and industry he forged his way to 
 a prominent place among the intelligent and pros- 
 perous men of Waterbury. He was a diligent read- 
 er of newspapers and books, and possessed a very 
 accurate and vigorous gift of expression. He pos- 
 sessed intellectual power and was an independent 
 thinker on the great questions of the times. In 
 theological and ecclesiastical matters he exhibited 
 the somewhat unusual combination of radical think- 
 ing and conservatism of method, and the same was 
 true of his political life. His attitude toward pub- 
 lic men and parties was severely critical, and he 
 held some advanced theories, yet in practice he was 
 uniformly cautious and reluctant to make great 
 changes. He was unsparing in his condemnation of 
 whatever seemed untrue or unmanly. The frauds 
 of business, the tricks of politics, and the shams of 
 social life alike called forth his keen satire, and his 
 hot condemnation. He did not mfeasure his words, 
 and therefore did not fail to arouse opposition and 
 sometimes ill-will. But his conservation, was never- 
 theless very pronounced, especially in local affairs, 
 and his reputation was that of a careful manager 
 and a strict economist.'' 
 
 During the Civil war and for years thereafter 
 Mr. Rice was a Republican. In 1884 he voted for 
 Mr. Cleveland and from that time on affiliated with 
 the Democratic party. In the Waterbury American 
 of March 15, 1893, appeared a biography of Mr. 
 Rice over the initials of "J. A.", from which much 
 of the foregoing is taken, and which is closed with 
 the following: "In the large group of strong char- 
 acters and useful citizens whose names adorn the 
 annals of Waterbury, Mr. Rice must be assigned a 
 prominent place." 
 
 In 1832 Mr. Rice was married, at Prospect, to 
 Susan Bronson, a descendant of John Bronson, 
 who is given in the Memorial History of Hartford 
 County in the list of original proprietors of Hart- 
 ford — those settling prior to 1640. Mr. Bronson re- 
 moved to Tunxis (Farmington) about 1641, of 
 which place he was one of the first settlers, and 
 later in 1652, became one of the seven pillars of the 
 original church there. His son Johfi was one of the 
 first settlers of Waterbury.' Mr. Rice was married, 
 second, to Mrs. Sarah H. Baker, who still survives, 
 and is residing in Waterbury. To the first miarriage 
 were born seven children, two of whom died in 
 childhood; Edward J., died in 1890; and Mrs. L. 
 M. Camp, died in 1877. Those living are: Mrs. 
 L. J. Monson, Frederick B., and Mrs. S. P. Will- 
 iams. Archibald E. Rice died March 14, 1893. 
 
288 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Frederick B. Rice, son of Archibald E. Rice, 
 and the present secretary of the Waterbury Lum- 
 ber & Coal Co., and of the Apothecaries' Hall Co., 
 was born Sept. 30, 1843, at Hudson, Ohio, where 
 his parents resided for a time. He received his early 
 education in the public schools of W aterbury, and 
 later attended Eastman's Business College, at 
 Poughkeepsie, N. Y. After this he became a clerk 
 in the tlour and feed business of L.. D. Smith & Co., 
 in which his father was interested, and still later he 
 occupied a position in the Apothecaries' Hall 
 Co. Early in the Civil war, in 1862, he entered the 
 service of the United States, enlisting for nine 
 months, and performed honorable service through 
 a period of thirteen, sharing the fortunes of his 
 command, which, the greater part of the time, was 
 under Gen. Banks, in Louisiana. Returning to 
 Waterbury after his military experience, young 
 Rice again entered the Apothecaries' Hall Co., be- 
 coming its secretary. Subsequently he entered the 
 yard of the Waterbury Lumber & Coal Co., as a 
 clerk, and as such was occupied for several years. 
 For a brief period following this he was at Bangor, 
 Me.,- returning to Waterbury he again entered the 
 employ of the Lumber & Coal Co., and of which he 
 became secretary. While yet with that company 
 company Mr. Rice began his present business — that 
 of building houses and selling them on the install- 
 ment plan. He has erected upwards of four hun- 
 dred houses, stores and business blocks, ranging in 
 value from $800 to $1,200. Like his father, Mr. 
 Rice has been placed in various public trusts, the 
 duties of which he has efficiently discharged. He 
 has served three terms in the city council and five 
 terms as assessor. He has also held other positions, 
 serving on numerous committees of importance in 
 city affairs, among them on the Water Supply com- 
 mittee, New Charter and Finance committee and the 
 committee of Center District. In some of these his 
 expert knowledge of real estate has lent his judg- 
 ment great weight and value. 
 
 On May 25, 1866, Mr. Rice was married to 
 Helen McCollough Mintre, daughter of Alexander 
 and Helen (Kenyon) Mintre, and to them have been 
 born two children, as follows : Helen S., who died 
 in childhood ; and Archibald E. 
 
 CHARLES STORRS HAMILTON, one of 
 the leading members of the New Haven Bar, whose 
 professional career covers a period of twenty-five 
 years in that city, is one of its substantial men and 
 reliaible citizens. He was born Jan. 3, 1S48, at 
 Grand Pre, in Nova Scotia, second son of James 
 E. and Anna M. (Gesner) Hamilton. His ances- 
 tors on his father's side were of Scotch-Irish de- 
 scent, and the original ancestor in America came 
 to Rhode Island in 1640, and thence to Norwich, 
 Conn. Plis maternal ancestors were of Knicker- 
 bocker and French Flugiienot descent, being among 
 the earliett settlers of New York, and his maternal 
 grandfather was a lineal descendant of Konrad Ges- 
 
 ner, the Zurich scholar and philosopher. The 
 Storrs family of New England was allied to his 
 father's line by marriage, hence his middle name. 
 Air. Hamilton's ancestor in the Storrs line was a 
 man of distinction in Connecticut. Samuel Storrs,. 
 the progenitor of the Connecticut family, came 
 f;om Nottinghamshire, England, to Barnstable, 
 j\lass., in 1663, and thirty-five years later to Mans- 
 field, Conn. James E. Fiamilton, father of Charles 
 S., was a merchant in the West India trade and to 
 New York, and died at the age of eighty-four 
 years. Mrs. Anna M. (Gesner) Hamilton was born 
 in New York, daughter of Henry Gesner, a farmer 
 and trader in New York, who died at the age of 
 ninety-four. She died at the age of seventy-four 
 years, a consistent memher of the Episcopal Church. 
 Of their six children, four are yet living: Charles. 
 Storrs; James, living on the old homestead; Nicho- 
 las L., a trader in the AVest Indies and the South 
 American ports ; and' J. Henry, late professor in the 
 Polytechnical School, Brooklyn, New York. 
 
 Charles Storrs Hamilton passed the early part 
 of his life in study, and received a liberal collegiate 
 education, graduating with honor from King's Col- 
 lege in 1871. He is a lover of the classics, and, 
 since leaving college, has not lost his grasp upon 
 them, but still reads Greek and Latin as a pastime; 
 he speaks both French and German fluently. After 
 his graduation Air. Hamilton went to Boston to 
 take up the study of law with Congressman Clark, 
 and in 1874 entered the Yale Law School, from 
 which he was graduated in one 3'ear by reason of 
 advanced standing. He took a special course in 
 Yale Medical School in order to fit himself for 
 technical cases, in which he has since excelled. The 
 winter following the completion of his work at 
 Yale, he traveled in the Southern States, and in 
 May, 1875, opened an office for the practice of his 
 profession in the Yale National Bank building,, 
 where he is still located. Since that time Air. Ham- 
 ilton has greatly developed in the knowledge of the 
 law and its practice, until he has reached a very 
 high place in the active ranks of the profession, not 
 only in the city, but throughout the country. As a 
 lawyer before the jury great success has crowned 
 his work, and an inspection of the court docket 
 shows that he appears in a very large percentage of 
 the jury cases, generally in a majority of them. His 
 preparation and management of his cases is re- 
 markably fine, and he is never surprised by an ad- 
 versary, and never fails to detect the weak point in 
 the presentation of his opponent, at once taking 
 advantage of any possible opening for successful 
 assault. It is said that he frequently wins a trial 
 before it goes to the jury, by his skill in prelimin- 
 ary maneuvering. Mr. Hamilton is a master of 
 English, and his jury addresses are fine specimens 
 of wit, pathos and sarcasm. The announcement 
 that he is to speak on an important case never fails 
 to crowd the courtroom with students and fellow 
 members of the Bar. Mr. Hamilton has from one 
 
yifJ^juA^ V, MiujuuU^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 289 
 
 to four cases in every volume, from Vol. 41 to Vol. 
 73, Connecticut Reports. For the last four or five 
 years he has had an extensive business in damage 
 cases in Rhode Island, New York and Massachu- 
 setts, which owing to the rule in Connecticut cannot 
 be tried before a jury in that State. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton was a Republican until 1890, 
 when he felt the party had gone too far in its ad- 
 vocacy of the tariff and other issues, and since that 
 year he has been a Democrat. In 1888 he was 
 elected a member of the council from the Second 
 ward, and the following year was elected alderman. 
 Iv 1890 he ran for State senator, and, though not 
 elected, was many votes ahead of his ticket. In the 
 same year he was chairman of the conunission to 
 compile the charter and to revise the city ordinances 
 of New Haven, and did his work thoroughly and 
 vi^ell. Mr. Hamilton takes a deep interest in mat- 
 ters of legislation, and has drafted many of the im- 
 portant statutes which have been passed m recent 
 years. In local matters he has been prominent, and 
 has filled a number of town offices. Mr. Hamilton 
 is a memlber of Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. F. & A. M., 
 and has risen to the thirty-second degree, Scottish 
 Rite, in the fraternity. In religion he is connected 
 with St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where he has 
 served as vestryman for many years. 
 
 On Aug. 13, 1878, Mr. Hamilton was married 
 to Mary E. Chipman, and to this union were born 
 two children: Mary Grace, a graduate of Misses 
 Orton and Nichols School, in New Haven, and 
 Woodside Seminary, in Hartford ; and William 
 Storrs Hoyt, who is now at a private school. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton has taken out three patents for 
 marine inventions — a new adjustable center board, 
 a rudder hinge, and a mooring line attachment. He 
 is a member of the New Haven Yacht Club, of 
 which he is a trustee and manager, and sails several 
 boats. He is an enthusiastic sailor, and is capable 
 of handling his boat well even under the most trying 
 circumstances. In the summer of 1901 Mr. Ham- 
 ilton carried the flag of the New Haven Yacht Club 
 for the first time into the British provinces, flying 
 it on the scihooner yacht "Fearless." In addition to 
 being a yachtsman he is also a faithful disciple of 
 Izaak Walton, and also handles a shotgun with 
 skill. He has made quite a large collection of birds, 
 some of which are rare specimens, and he has them 
 finely mounted. 
 
 THOMAS P. GIBBONS, M. D., whose widow 
 resides at No. 64 Trumbull street, in the city of 
 New Haven, was in active practice there for some 
 ten years prior to his death, and ranked high among 
 the able physicians of this part of Connecticut. 
 
 Dr. Gibbons was a native of Lancaster, Lan- 
 caster Co., Pa., born in 1823, and was the third 
 child of Abraham and Mary (Penn) Gibbons, who 
 are now deceased, the Doctor being quite young 
 when his father passed away. Richard Gibbons, 
 elder brother of Thomas P., is still living. Thomas 
 
 19 
 
 P. Gibbons received his general education in the 
 Jefferson School, and his professional training at the 
 Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. During 
 the Civil war he served on the staff of General 
 Schenck, and subsequently followed his profession 
 in Philadelphia, remaining in his native State until 
 his removal to New Haven, in 1876. Dr. Gibbons 
 was a representative of his profession in the broad- 
 est and noblest sense of the word, and he enjoyed a 
 large practice, the responsibilities of which were 
 voluntarily increased by his interest in all charitable 
 and benevolent enterprises. He was widely be- 
 loved, and his death, April 3, 1886, when he was 
 sixty-three years of age, removed a fine, interesting, 
 and humanitarian personality. He was a member of 
 the City, County and State Medical Societies. Po- 
 litically he was a Republican. 
 
 Dr. Gibbons married, in 1867, Harriet Prime, of 
 New York City, daughter of Frederick and Mary 
 (Fay) Prime, also of New York. The family is 
 one of the oldest and most prominent in the great 
 metropolis. 
 
 GEORGE PHILLIPS LINES (deceased), a 
 son of Augustus Lines and a brother of Augustus 
 E. Lines, both of New Haven, Conn., was for many 
 years a well-known and highly esteemed citizen of 
 this community. He was born in New Haven 
 Nov. 23, 1824, and died at his home on Lyon street, 
 that city, June 10, 1874. 
 
 Mr. Lines was educated in the common schools 
 of this city, receiving instruction also in the Lan- 
 casterian school, under the noted John E. Lovell, 
 continuing there until the age of fifteen years when 
 he entered the larger school — the printing office. 
 His latter opportunity was in the office of the Hart- 
 ford Coiirant, and there he continued for a three- 
 years apprenticeship. Upon his return to New 
 Haven, he was employed in the office of the Courier, 
 where he remained for several years, going then 
 to New York city, and working at his trade on 
 various journals. Some fifteen years of his life 
 were spent in the printing business, but at length 
 he gave it up to accept a position in the shipping 
 department of Davenport & Wheeler, of New 
 Haven. His last change was made after ten years 
 with tkis firm, when he became bookkeeper for R. 
 & J. M. Blair, undertakers, and here he continued 
 until the time of his death. 
 
 Mr. Lines was a man of great intelligence and 
 wide reading. In manner he was quiet and unas- 
 suming, and no attractions of clubs or secret organi- 
 zations could tempt him from the ease and com- 
 fort of his home. Unusually devoted to the welfare 
 of his family, he was much beloved by every mem- 
 ber. It has been said of him that "his word was as 
 good as his bond," and although the declaration is 
 not new, it carries with it no uncertain meaning. 
 As a citizen he took an interested part in every 
 movement that made for the city's good, and he was 
 especially zealous in promoting temperance and edu- 
 
290 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 cation. While still in early manhood, he became a 
 member of the Congregational Church, in Hartford, 
 and his life tore testimony to his religious con- 
 victions. Although he believed in and voted for the 
 support of the Republican party, he was no politi- 
 cian, being always, however, a strong anti-slavery 
 man. 
 
 George P. Lines was first married on Nov. 22, 
 1848, his bride being Almira Augur, of New Ha- 
 ven, a daughter of James Augur, and she died May 
 24, i860, at the age of thirty-three years. The chil- 
 dren of this union were: Ella Almira, who died 
 on Feb. 27, 1852, at the age of fifteen months ; and 
 Frederick George, who died on May 20, i860. On 
 May 7, 1862, Mr. Lines was married to Mrs. Ann 
 Eliza (Holt) Hibbard, who was a daughter of Ryal 
 and Lovina (Lamb) Holt, of Coventry, Conn. Mrs. 
 Lines is a descendant of Nicholas Holt, who was 
 one of the first settlers in New England, and the 
 founder of the old and honorable family which is 
 known all over the United States, many of its mem- 
 bers having become prominent in many walks of 
 life. 
 
 GEORGE H. S'^HTH, the senior member of 
 the well-known firm of Smith & Twiss, and one of 
 the substantial representatives of the commercial 
 life of New Haven, was born in Watertown, N. Y., 
 Feb. 23, 1840, a son of George and Jane (White) 
 Smith. 
 
 William Smith, the paternal grandfather, was 
 born in Litchfield county. Conn. During a long 
 and useful life he was a merchant and machinist, 
 and was the first to establish a mercantile establish- 
 ment in Watertown, N. Y. He was buried in that 
 city. 
 
 George Smith, son of William and father of 
 George H. Smith, was born in Watertown, N. Y., 
 and died in 1897 at the advanced age of eighty-four. 
 During this long life, Mr. Smith resided in the city 
 of his birth, and for a number of years was conduc- 
 tor on the Rome & Watertown Railroad. During 
 the war, he was honored with the position of treas- 
 urer of that organization, and at the time of his 
 death was treasurer of the Jefferson Co. Savings 
 Bank. Mr. Smith married Jane White, who was 
 born in Schoharie, N. Y., and died in Watertown, 
 N. Y., about thirty-eight years ago. To these two 
 good people were born : William. George, Henry, 
 Eugenia and Allen. Of these, William died in the 
 Civil war; Henry is a printer in the West; Eugenia 
 ■died at the age of fifteen ; and Allen is a merchant 
 of Chicago. 
 
 George H. Smith grew to manhood in Water- 
 town, attending the district school. While still a 
 boy he evinced a taste for machinery, and in order 
 to learn the trade of a machinist he entered the em- 
 ploy of Golden, Bagley & Sewell, with which firm 
 he mastered the details of the calling he adopted. 
 So rapid was his progress that at the age of twenty 
 he left Watertown and worked at his trade in vari- 
 
 ous cities, finally, in 1881, locating in New Haven. 
 Soon after his arrival he was engaged to superin- 
 tend the construction of a horseshoe factory Mr. C. 
 S. Mersick was erecting; later for eight years he 
 was superintendent of the McLagon Foundry of 
 New Haven, and in the fall of 1897, he, with Gus- 
 tavus Twiss, formed the partnership of Smith & 
 Twiss, and they now conduct one of the best 
 equipped and most successful enterprises in their 
 line, in this portion of the State. Special attention 
 is given to engines and pumps, to reboring cylinders 
 and to planing valve seats without removing cylin- 
 ders. The building of special machinery and gen- 
 eral jobbing comes within the scope of their opera- 
 tions. Steamboat work is also an important feature 
 of the business, as well as the repairing of machin- 
 esy in various establishments in New Haven and the 
 vicinity. An adequate force of skilled mechanics 
 is regularly employed, and unnecessary delay in ex- 
 ecuting contracts is always avoided. This progres- 
 sive concern has invented and built special machin- 
 ery for planing valve seats without removing the 
 cylinder, one of the most efficient and reliable ever 
 used, the market for this invention being widespread. 
 The extensive plant is fully equipped with the latest 
 improved appliances and machinery, including a gas 
 power engine, and the success which has attended 
 the efforts of the partners is the result of good work, 
 prompt service and strictly honorable business 
 methods. 
 
 On May 24, 1862, Mr. Smith was married to 
 Anna Gill, who was born in England, but camie to 
 America when five years old. Mrs. Smith is a 
 daughter of William Gill, a very successful rnla- 
 chinist. To Mr. and/ Mrs. Smith one child has 
 been born, Eugenia. 
 
 Coming of a line of Whigs and Republicans, 
 Mr. Smith earnestly supports the platform and can- 
 didates of that party, while he and his family are 
 consistent members of the Baptist Church. A man 
 of energy, successful in his business enterprises, 
 public-spirited, Mr. Smith is an influential and es- 
 teemed citizen. 
 
 RUFUS WARREN BLAKE, manufacturer at 
 Birmingham in the town of Derby, where for nearly 
 thirty years as manager and president, respectively, 
 of the Sterling Company, he has been a most potent 
 force in the development of that concern, and also 
 in the growth and advancement of Birmingham and 
 vicinity as a busy manufacturing centre, is one of 
 the town's leading business men and foremost citi- 
 zens. 
 
 President Blake was born May 3, 1841, in the 
 town of Norfolk, Norfolk Co., Mass., a son of farm- 
 ing people of that community, whose ancestors were 
 among the sturdy New Englanders of the Colonial 
 period. As a boy our subject did not take kindly 
 to farming, his tastes 'being in another direction, and 
 he sought other lines of employment, beginning his 
 career as a "bobbin" boy in a woolen mill, working 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 291 
 
 through the summer season and attending the neigh- 
 boring district schools during the winters. At the 
 age of fifteen he began learning the painter's 
 trade, and at twenty, in 1861, he took up' the trade 
 of a cabinet-maker. This was really the beginning 
 of his identity with the business of which he has 
 made a life work, and in which his energies and cap- 
 abilities have been so successfully rewarded. In 
 1863 he became engaged with the firm of Taylor 
 & Farley, of Worcester, Mass., manufacturers of 
 melodeons. Their business was small and the few 
 men engaged in the work were afforded opportuni- 
 ties of learning the building of reed instruments in 
 all of its points. This opportunity was taken ad- 
 vantage of by Mr. Blake, during his term of sev- 
 eral years in such employment, and he thoroughly 
 learned the art. Following this experience, along 
 about 1867, he formed a partnership with Mr. J. W. 
 Loring, under the firm name of Loring & Blake, 
 which later became the Loring & Blake Organ Co., 
 for the manufacture of organs. This n^w concern 
 did a prosperous business, but in 1873 there was 
 an opportunity open to Mr. Blake to identify him- 
 self with the Sterling Organ Co., of Derby, Conn., 
 which he embraced, accepting in that year the posi- 
 tion of manager of The Sterling Co. The corpora- 
 tion at that time was not on a very strong founda- 
 tion, and the times which followed — the days of the 
 panic of 1873 including the ever to be remembered 
 "Black Friday" — were of the most trying to this 
 concern, as iji the case of hundreds of industries 
 throughout the country, yet by the ability of the new 
 manager and his indefatigable energy, the affairs of 
 the corporation were kept intact, not only weather- 
 ing the storm, but gaining in the volume of its busi- 
 ness and catching an impetus that soon brought 
 great prosperity. This, however, was checked by 
 the burning of the entire plant in 1875. Thus 
 again was the recuperative energy of the concern 
 sorely tried, but the mental and physical resources 
 of the management seemed equal to the occasion, 
 and the plant was rebuilt and for the next decade 
 and more the business was large and successful, 
 and brought prosperity to all interested. A second 
 great disaster followed in 1887, in which year the 
 failure of a large musical house in New York threat- 
 ened a loss to The Sterling Co. of $75,000. Here 
 again the manager's tact and ability were put to 
 test, and again he proved himself equal to the occa- 
 sion, devising and working methods by which the 
 house's indebtedness to his company was paid. 
 From that time on to the present The Sterling Co. 
 has enjoyed great prosperity and with the passing 
 years its business has grown to great proportions, 
 until now it is the largest manufacturing plant of 
 the many at Birmingham. In 1885 piano making 
 was added to the industry, and of necessity an en- 
 largement of the factory occurred, giving it a floor 
 space of more than 150,000 feet, and making it one 
 of the largest establishments of its kind in this 
 country. As an indication of the company's growth. 
 
 statistics show an output in the new factory, fol- 
 lowing the fire of 1875, of 100 organs per month, 
 but in 1878, 1,200 per month. And from the piano 
 department were sold upwards of 12,000 pianos 
 from 1885 to 1892. In 1890 the capital stock of 
 the company was increased to $210,000. Its of- 
 ficers are: R. W. Blake, president; James R. Ma- 
 son, secretary and treasurer; and Charles H. Ilub- 
 beU, superintendent. Mr. Blake held the office of 
 secretary and treasurer from 1874 until 1887, when 
 he was advanced to the presidency. 
 
 A new company, known as the Huntington 
 Piano Co., was organized some years ago by The 
 Sterling Co., in order to make a piano that could 
 be sold for a lower price than the Sterling instru- 
 ment. This company's capital stock is $30,000, and 
 of the company Mr. R. W. Blake is treasurer. The 
 business of the new company is carried on in a new 
 building recently erected in Shelton by Mr. Blake. 
 
 A recent writer referring to the president of 
 The Sterling Company says : 
 
 That an analysis of Mr. Blake's habits as a business 
 man, places his success in life in three particulars : 
 
 First, a thrifty management, of the factory he con- 
 trols. He is the personal supervisor of the factory. Know- 
 ing by wide and long experience in organ building how 
 every part can be most economically and rapidly made, he 
 also knows at a glance when the workmen are best serv- 
 ing the factory's output. And trained himself, he can 
 select trained men, and but them, only in every depart- 
 ment. There is no concealment under his eye, and the 
 employes strive for the best results. Skilled in designing 
 as well as construction, Mr. Blake exhibits an elegance 
 in his organs and pianos which attracts public notice, and 
 makes his instruments popular. 
 
 Second, thrift in the outside management of the com- 
 pany's purchases and sales. The materials to be worked 
 up into organs and pianos are purchased with keen fore- 
 sight of the best interests of the company's treasury; 
 while the completed goods are laid, by wide, judicious ad- 
 vertising, in sight, if possible, of the people of all lands. 
 
 Third, conscientiousness, or high quality in manu- 
 facture and the scrupulous keeping of all business engage- 
 ments and contracts. The instruments offered to the pub- 
 lic are found to have character in them, and to be void 
 of disappointment, while the money centres where the 
 company's financial transactions are done are inspired 
 with perfect confidence in the pledges of the factory. The 
 inner history of saving to the company the impending 
 loss occasioned by the New York failure already referred 
 to, is a striking proof how fully the word and character 
 of the company's president can be relied upon in business 
 circles. 
 
 On Christmas Day, 1865, Mr. Blake was mar- 
 ried to Miss Hannah Marsh, of Wooster, Mass. 
 Their elegant home on Elizabeth street is open to 
 their many friends, 'to whom is dispensed a gener- 
 ous hospitality. 
 
 SAMUEL ELMER DIBBLE, President of the 
 State Association of Master Plumbers, of New Hav- 
 en, Conn., was born in Newtown, Conn., Jan. 16, 
 1842, son of Frederick B. and Sarah Ann (Bots- 
 ford) Dibble. 
 
 John Dibble, the paternal grandfather of Samuel 
 E. Dibble, was a life-long resident of Bethel, Conn., 
 
292 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and lived to the age of ninety years. He was a son 
 of Samuel E. Dibble, who descended from Capt. 
 John Dibble, who came to America from England, in 
 1630. On the maternal side, our subject is de- 
 scended from one of the early families which settled 
 in Newtown, Conn. 
 
 Samuel E. Dibble, of New Haven, received his 
 education in the public schools of Newton, and 
 through private tuition. Until he was sixteen years 
 of age he lived upon the farm in Newtown, and 
 then went to Woodbury, Conn., where he learned 
 the tinning and plumbing business with George B. 
 Lewis. After a five-year service, he went to New 
 Haven with his uncle, Everett B. Dibble, and there 
 completed his trade. Owing to the death of his 
 uncle, Samuel E. concluded to enter into business 
 for himself which he did, at No. loi, now No. 639, 
 Grand avenue, April 14, 1865, the day upon which 
 occurred the assassination of President Lincoln. 
 This business has been at the same location under 
 the name of Dibble, since 1852. For a period of 
 thirty-six years, Mr. Dibble has successfully carried 
 on his business, which includes tinning, steam, hot 
 air and hot water heating, and every branch of 
 plumbing. Mr. Dibble is a strong believer in sani- 
 tary science, and makes use of every modern ap- 
 pliance and invention in his line of work. 
 
 Mr. Dibble has been identified with all of the 
 prominent organizations in his branch of industry, 
 is ex-president of the State Association of Master 
 Plumbers, has been president of the Builders Ex- 
 change, of New Haven, and is now its treasurer, 
 has been four times the president of the New Haven 
 Masters Plumbers Association, and an officer several 
 times in the National Association of Plumbers, and 
 has also served as Commissioner of the board of 
 Health for seven years. Fraternally he is a prom- 
 inent member of the Masonic order, being a mem- 
 ber of Hiram Lodge, No. i, and for a third of a cen- 
 tury has been a member of Harmony Lodge, Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and has been made 
 treasurer of the Business Men's Association of New 
 Haven. In addition to this, Mr. Dibble was one of 
 the pioneers in the summer colony at Pine Orchard, 
 and was largely instrumental in the success of the 
 Pine Orchard Union Chapel Association, of which 
 he is treasurer, and he is secretary of the Pine 
 Orchard Association. Politically he is a Republi- 
 can, but no politician. Mr. Dibble was for seven- 
 teen years prominently connected with St. Thomas' 
 Episcopal Church on Elm street, and in 1876, when 
 he took up his residence on Orange street, corner 
 of Edward, he became associated with St. John's 
 parish, with which he has since been identified, being 
 one of the vestrymen and chairman of committee 
 on church building and grounds. He was a mem- 
 ber of building committee, and took out the first 
 shovel of earth when the present edifice was erected 
 in 1895. 
 
 On Sept. 16, 1874, Mr. Dibble was married to 
 Miss Elizabeth Davis, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and a 
 
 family of twelve children has been born to this 
 union : Clarence Elmer, Ethel- . Gould, Eleanor 
 Elizabeth, Samuel Edward, Lewis Acker, Albert 
 Baldwin, Marguerite, Ruthe, Donald Alvin, John 
 Mansfield, Benjamin Frederick and Elizabeth, all 
 of whom are living. The family of Mr. Dibble is 
 held in high esteem in New Haven, and he is one of 
 the most prominent factors in the business life of 
 this city, a strong, thorough, progressive man, pub- 
 lic-spirited and of the highest type of citizenship. 
 
 The BoTSFORD Family with which Mr. Dibble 
 is connected on the maternal side, is also one of 
 the old and leading families of New England. Henry 
 Botsford, of Milford, Conn., in 1639, was one of the 
 early settlers of that town. His name is among the 
 first list of freemen as a pioneer planter, which in- 
 cluded forty-four others, the greater number of 
 whom came from Essex, Hereford and York coun- 
 ties, in England, and rendezvoused in New Haven, 
 preparatory to taking up their abode in the Wepa- 
 waug country, in the wilderness, in 1638 and 1639. 
 After the purchase of these lands in the spring of 
 1639, active preparations were made to occupy and 
 improve them, and thither their household goods 
 were taken, in the following fall. The names of 
 Henry Botsford and his wife, Elizabeth, are among 
 those perpetuated in one of the stones in the Memor- 
 ial Bridge at Milford, Conn., which was erected to 
 the first settlers of this town, and was dedicated, in 
 1889, on the 250th anniversary of that event. Henry 
 Botsford had one son and five daughters, and 
 through the son, Elnathan, who was born in 1641, 
 by his second wife, Hannah, who was a daughter of 
 Timothy Baldwin, the honorable name is perpetu- 
 ated. Some of Elnathan Botsford's grandchildren 
 settled in Newtown Conn., and the names of John, 
 Moses, Joseph and Henry Botsford appear on the 
 Newtown records soon after the first settlement of 
 the town. 
 
 FREDERICK MARTIN HOTCHKISS is one 
 of the older settlers of Meriden, and his name has 
 been familiar to every one acquainted with the busi- 
 ness personnel of that city for many years. He was 
 born in Prospect, New Haven county, Dec. 31, 1846, 
 a son of Hervey Dwight and Eliza (Smith) Hotch- 
 kiss, both of whom were natives of Prospect. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss traces his lineage from Samuel 
 Hotchkiss (who was in New Haven about 1641) 
 through Joshua, Stephen, Gideon, David, Freder- 
 ick, David M. and Hervey D. A full account of the 
 first six of these generations is given in the gene- 
 alogy of Gilbert B. Hotchkiss, of Waterbury, else- 
 where. 
 
 David Miles Hotchkiss, son of Frederick, was 
 born Nov. 27, 1797, in Waterbury. In 1797 this 
 section, with a portion of Cheshire, was set off as 
 an ecclesiastical society with the name of Columbia. 
 In 1827 it was incorporated as a town. As a mem- 
 ber of the committee he secured the adoption of the 
 name of Prospect. It being nine hundred feet above 
 
c^^ — 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 293 
 
 the level of the sea, and the highest point for miles 
 around, it well merits the name. Mr. Hotchkiss 
 was early appointed captain of the militia of Water- 
 bury and Salem (now Naugatuck), and was ever 
 afterwards called by his title. Prominent also in 
 civil affairs, he often served his town as selectman, 
 representative and in other positions of trust. He 
 was the first man to advocate the formation of the 
 Free-Soil party in this State, at a convention in 
 Hartford. William Lloyd Garrison, who was pres- 
 ent, opfKised the motion, Mr. Hotchkiss alone voting 
 in the affirmative. The next year it was carried by 
 a large majority. An advocate 'of both total ab- 
 stinence and abolition, Mr. Hotchkiss voted the 
 Free-Soil ticket alone in his town for several years, 
 when it cost much to go against public opinion. 
 Those who were opposed to his views went so far as 
 to cut down his fruit trees, girdle shade trees, de- 
 stroy his fences, tools and farming implements. The 
 well on Mr. Hotchkiss' farm was dug in the autumn 
 of 1819, and has never been dry. In the following 
 spring his house was erected, with timbers and lum- 
 ber prepared in the preceding winter. 
 
 On Nov. 30, 1819, David M. Hotchkiss was 
 married to Zeruah, daughter of Martin Stevens, of 
 Prospect. She died Aug. 28, 1849, and on May i, 
 1850, he married Hannah, widow of Henry Bristol, 
 of Cheshire. She was born Dec. 25, 1812, and died 
 Dec. 25, 1893. Mrs. Hannah Hotchkiss was a 
 daughter of Joseph Ives and Abigail Treat (Bryan) 
 Doolittle, the latter a daughter of John Bryan, of 
 Hartford, later of Watertown, Conn. David M. 
 Hotchkiss died April 15, 1878. Children as follows 
 were horn to his first marriage: Emily B., born 
 Jan. 21, 1821, married B. B. Brown, of Windsor, N. 
 Y., and died April i, 1887. Laura, born Feb. 15, 
 1822, married Algernon S. Plumb, of Wolcott, and 
 died Oct. 26, i860. Hervey Dwight and Henry 
 Kirke, twins, were born May 7, 1823 ; the latter died 
 March 28, 1894. Frederick, born June 2, 1824, died 
 at Preble's Mills, near Parkersburg, Va., Jan. 26, 
 1849. Berkley was born Sept. i, 1826. Edward, 
 born Aug. 24, 1829, is now living in Binghampton, 
 N. Y. Richard Noyes, born June 15, 1833, died in 
 Atlantic City, N. J., 1896. To the second marriage 
 came: Julia Elizaheth, born Dec. 26, 1851, wife of 
 Fred A. Sanford, of Westfield, Mass. ; -and David 
 Bryant, born June 28, 1853, now residing on the 
 parental homestead in Prospect. 
 
 Lyman Smith, the maternal grandfather of 
 Frederick M. Hotchkiss, was born in Orange, 
 Conn., April 28, 1800. At the age of eighteen he 
 went to Columbia (now Prospect), living with Mer- 
 rit Clark, who married his sister. While in the em- 
 ploy of his brother-in-law he met Rebecca Wooster, 
 of Salem (now Naugatuck), daughter of Walter 
 Wooster, whom he married Dec. 17, 1821. They 
 immediately settled on a farm adjoining that of his 
 employer, where he lived an honorable and useful 
 life. Rebecca, his wife, was born Jan. 21, 1799, and 
 died in 1862. "Uncle Lyman," as he was called by 
 
 everybody, died in 1862 at Middletown, Conn. He 
 was afflicted more or less during the latter part of 
 his life with a malady called then "Lo Po," or bor- 
 rowing troulble. Hallucinations of various kinds 
 increased, and seemed to haunt him to such an ex- 
 tent as to cause uneasiness on the part of his chil- 
 dren as to the safety of himself and those around 
 him, and after a long consultation it was decided to 
 commit him to the asylum, where he died. He and 
 his wife had children as follows : Eliza, born March 
 II, 1823 ; Eli, Feb. 20, 1825 ; Sidney, Aug. 22, 1828. 
 Of these, the eldest, (i) Eliza, married H. Dwight 
 Hotchkiss, son of David, and was the mother of the 
 subject of this sketch. (2) Eli, the second, lived at 
 home on the farm until sixteen years of age, when 
 he went' to work for Hopkins & Wheeler, button 
 manufacturers at Naugatuck, Conn. He spent two 
 years with them, then going with Warner & Isbell, 
 later known as the Naugatuck Machine Co., to 
 learn the machinist's trade. Here he advanced step 
 by step until he was admitted to a partnership in 
 the company and was elected secretary and general 
 superintendent of the factory, which position he 
 held for thirty years. During this time he held po- 
 sitions and offices of trust under the town govern- 
 ment, represeting the town in the State Legislature. 
 On Feb. 25, 1849, he married Mary J. Mallory, of 
 New Preston, Conn. They had two children — Ed- 
 son H., born Feb. 5, 185^, and Leila E., born Feb. 
 3, 1859. Edson H. married Callie A. Wilcox, daugh- 
 ter o'f Gen. John Wilcox, of Middletown, Conn., 
 June 3, 1885, and settled in New Haven, Conn. He 
 is now living in Grand Rapids, Mich., having one 
 son, and his father and mother with him. Leila E. 
 died Sept. 25, 1894, unmarried. (3) Sidney, the 
 second son of Uncle Lyman, lived at home on the 
 farm until 1864. In 1850 he married Polly Mor- 
 gan, of Warren, Conn. An incident of Sidney's 
 early married life will remind many of the older 
 residents of Prospect of the time of his return home 
 with his bride. The "Boys on the HiM," many of 
 whom were singers in the same church choir with 
 Sidney, thought they would serenade him. So old 
 flint-lock muskets, cannon, shotguns, bells, and 
 everything and anything that would make a noise 
 were enlisted into service by scores of his former 
 mates. Sidney was importuned, implored and 
 teased to show his bride, but from the second-story 
 window he flatly refused. Such a noise caused by 
 the bombardment of old cans, stones, kettles, etc., 
 at that south spare guests' chamber was seldom 
 heard in that usually peaceful home. The old cider 
 barrel was tapped, and the cider with cake, etc., 
 passed. The over-enthusiastic party withdrew, but 
 not till the house had been more or less defaced 
 and some shots fired at the risk of lives. Such ac- 
 tions in the earlier days were common as the rice 
 and slipper act at the present writing. Sidney (and 
 his little wife, Polly) settled down with his father 
 at the paternal home for a number of years, but in 
 1864, as stated before, he purchased what was 
 
294 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 known as the Hoppin farm, about one mile south of 
 the Uncle Lyman residence. He afterwards pur- 
 chased a farm in Watertown, Conn., where he now 
 lives, about midway between Morris and Bethle- 
 hem, a quiet, well to do farmer, who has a reputa- 
 tion second to none for raising and marketing the 
 best of everything in his line. He has also served 
 faithfully, in an unassuming way, in different trusts 
 imposed on him by the town. He and his wife had 
 two children: Nellie M., born in 1855, and Lin- 
 coln, born in 186 1. The daughter married Edward 
 Hungerford, son of a near neighbor in Watertown, 
 and one child was born to this union, Leila. Lin- 
 coin has never married. He enjoys the reputation 
 of being the best steer trainer in the State, and has 
 exhibited many pairs of matched and fancy inatched 
 at fairs for years without a peer, always taking first 
 prize in the steer world. He assists his father in 
 his farm work, and will probably continue his labors 
 in this direction unless a volcano should swallow 
 up the farm, as both think there is no other farm 
 like it and the compiler of this would not for a 
 moment think of disputing it. 
 
 Hervey D. Hotchkiss, the father of Frederick 
 Martin, was born May 7, 1823, and was reared to 
 manhood in Prospect, engaged in the manufacture 
 of spoons near his home, as a member of the firm of 
 Hotchkiss & Wallace. After a time they sold out 
 their patent, which was a device for strengthening 
 britannia spoons with a wire in the center,, and the 
 plant was removed to Yalesville, where for a time 
 Mr. Hotchkiss was superintendent of the factory. 
 He subsequently moved to Meriden, and traveled 
 on the road for Charles Parker during a number of 
 years. He died Dec. 5, 1886. He was the father of 
 three children. Frederick Martin is mentioned be- 
 low. Effie, born Jan. 21, 1850, died at the age of 
 seventeen years. Bertha, born Jan. 20, 1855, mar- 
 ried Charles J. Wallace, of Ansonia, and is now de- 
 ceased. 
 
 Frederick Martin Hotchkiss was reared in Mer- 
 iden from the age of four years, and there obtained 
 his education in the common schools and Meriden 
 Academy. His business career was begun as clerk 
 in a grocery store, and he continued at this occupa- 
 tion up to 1863, when he went to New Haven, where 
 he was engaged as bookkeeper for Yale & Bryan, 
 wholesale grocers, some three years. At the end of 
 that time he went on the road as salesman for the 
 firm, being in their employ a number of years. After 
 leaving them Mr. Hotchkiss was in a commission 
 and brokerage house in New Haven for six months, 
 and for two years was bookkeeper for E. Henry 
 Barnes (now Sperry & Barnes), acting as traveling 
 salesman a portion of the time. Air. Hotchkiss' next 
 move was to buy a grocery store at Waterbury 
 which he carried on five years. During the ensuing 
 two years he was engaged in settling the estate oi 
 his grandfather, David M. Hotchkiss, and when that 
 was accomplished went on the road for J. D. Dewell 
 & Co., wholesale grocers of New Ha^-en, remaining 
 
 with them twelve years. During the last three years 
 of that period he carried on a carriage repository in 
 Meriden, at his present location, being still engaged 
 in that line of business. In 1889 Mr. Hotchkiss em- 
 barked in the wholesale grocery business, for which 
 his long and thorough training on the road and in 
 the office had given him a peculiar fitness. This 
 business under his hands became almost immedi- 
 ately a pronounced success, and in it he has become 
 noted as a thoroughly reliable and enterprising 
 dealer in the best and most standard goods of the 
 day. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss was married, Oct. 24, 1871, to 
 Nellie A., daughter of Henry L. and Olive (Brown) 
 Spencer, of Meriden. They have one daughter, 
 Effie Spencer, who is now Mrs. L Burton Miller. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss is a menaber of Meridian Lodge, 
 No. 77, A. F. & A. M.; Keystone Chapter,' 
 No. 27, R. A. M. ; Hamilton Council, No. 22, R. & 
 S. M.; Meriden Lodge, No. 35, B. P. O. E.; the 
 veteran organization. New Haven Grays; and the 
 Thirteen Club of New York. He is a member of 
 the Meriden -board of fire commissioners, and is 
 president of the Connecticut Division of the Travel- 
 ers' Protective Association, in which position he is 
 now serving his twelfth term. Mr. Hotchkiss is a 
 Democrat in political views, and is a thoroughly en- 
 terprising and reliable citizen, modern and pro- 
 gressive in his ideas, and up-to-date in every respect. 
 
 CHARLES CARROLL FOSKETT (deceas- 
 ed). During life no citizen of Meriden, Conn., was 
 more highly esteemed than was the late Charles C. 
 Foskett, for a number of years the valued book- 
 keeper of the Meriden Britannia Company. 
 
 The Foskett family is an old and honored one 
 of Massachusetts where William A. Foskett, the 
 father, was born in the town of New Marlborough, 
 and where he lived until young manhood. Upon his 
 removal to Connecticut, he located at New Hart- 
 ford, where he lived until 1844, coming then to 
 Meriden. Here he entered the employ of the Charles 
 Parker Company in the capacity of foreman, spend- 
 ing a number of years with this great concern. Later 
 he removed to New Haven, and there became the 
 head of the firm of Foskett & Bishop, plumbers and 
 steam fitters. His death occurred in that city, Nov. 
 28, 1901, his remains being brought to Meriden for 
 interment in the East cemetery. In politics he had 
 always voted the Democratic ticket, while in re- 
 ligion, he was a consistent member of the Methodist 
 Church. 
 
 William A. Foskett was married in Colchester. 
 Conn., to Lucina Foote Kellogg, a lady of beautiful 
 Christian life and character, a devoted member of 
 the Methodist Church, who died in Meriden, in 
 umI' ^"^ ^^^ buried in East cemetery. The only 
 child of this marriage was Charles C, who was 
 born in New Hartford, Litchfield Co., Conn., Sept. 
 
 t' 1i' ,1^°'' ^^^ ^^'^""'^ ^'^^ ^■■- Foskett married 
 jane Hall, a native of Great Barrington, who died 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 295 
 
 Dec. 15, 1901, at her home in New Haven. The 
 children of the second union were : Clara, who mar- 
 ried Charles Brown, a professor in Vanderbilt Col- 
 lege in Nashville, Tenn. ; William A., a resident of 
 New Haven; and Violet A., wife of Frederick 
 Nettleton, who resides in New Haven. 
 
 Charles C. Foskett attended the public schools 
 of Meriden and also a private school which was 
 taught by William Charles Kellogg. At the age of 
 fifteen he became a clerk in the Meriden postofifice, 
 under Mr. B. L. Yale, leaving this position to be- 
 come bookkeeper for Edward Miller & Co., with 
 whom he remained for three years. Then Mr. Fos- 
 kett accepted a position with the Meriden Britannia 
 Co., which at that time had at its head some of 
 Meriden's best-known citizens, notably Horace C. 
 Wilcox and George R. Curtis. Mr. Foskett en- 
 tered their service as bookkeeper, and by his talents 
 and reliability, became the assistant treasurer of this 
 company. While still in the prime of a useful life, 
 he was called from earth, Oct. 4, 1876, the immediate 
 cause of his decease having been diphtheria. 
 
 Seldom has any citizen been more truly lamented 
 than was Mr. Foskett, his amiable qualities having 
 made him beloved in the family and social circles, 
 while his ability and reliability had made him equally 
 esteemed in his business relations. He was a Re- 
 publican in political faith, and a Methodist in re- 
 ligious belief; and was a man of broad mind, able 
 to see good in everything. Through life his in- 
 fluence had always been directed to further the cause 
 of temperance, and he cordially supported every edu- 
 cational enterprise. 
 
 The bereft widow of Charles Foskett, had form- 
 erly been Mary Elizabeth Phelps, to whom he was 
 united in marriage Nov. 11, 1862. She was born in 
 Hebron, Tolland county, a daughter of George G. 
 and Mary (Page) Phelps, the latter of whom was 
 a daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth '(Root) Page, 
 a sister of the distinguished Judge Jonathan G. 
 Page, of Hebron, Conn. 'Mrs. Phelps resides with 
 her devoted daughter, Mrs. Foskett. Left a widow 
 with three small children, Mrs. Foskett devoted her 
 life to their advancement, giving them every educa- 
 tional opportunity within her power and surround- 
 ing them with an atmosphere of culture and refine- 
 ment. These children grew into educated, charm- 
 ing women and are widely known in educational and 
 exclusive social circles. Mary Page, the eldest, re- 
 ceived her primary education in the Meriden schools, 
 graduated from the Hartford High school, and later 
 from Smith College, at Northampton, Mass., and 
 prior to her marriage, was a teacher in the State 
 Normal School, at New Britain, Conn. On May 3, 
 1892, she was united in marriage to Rev. George 
 Copeland Boswell, a clergyman of the Methodist 
 Church, and she has one daughter, Elizabeth Phelps. 
 Emma Kellogg, the second daughter of Mrs. Fos- 
 kett, was also educated in Meriden and Hartford, 
 later studying at Smith College, and is now one of 
 the valued educators in the Meriden High school. 
 
 a leading member of the Methodist Church and one 
 of the intellectual ladies who compose the Thursday 
 Morning Club, of this city. The third daughter is 
 Annie Phelps, who is a graduate of the Meriden 
 High school and attended the Woman's College, at 
 Baltimore, Md., and now ably fills the position of 
 assistant principal of the Parker Avenue school ; like 
 her sisters, she is a lady not onl^, of intellectual 
 attainments, but also of social graces, and the home 
 life of this family is typical of the very best and 
 most refined circles of Meriden. The Phelps fam- 
 ily traces clearly an honorable ancestry far back 
 into the past, reaching even beyond the date of 
 
 1599- . 
 
 William Phelps, a son of William and Dorothy 
 Phelps, of England, was baptized in Tewkesbury 
 Abbey Church, on Aug. 19, 1599. With his wife 
 and six children and with his brother George, un- 
 married, he came to America in the ship "Mary and 
 John," in 1630. As history records, the company 
 of this ship founded Dorchester, Mass., and in the 
 organization of its government and public affairs, 
 William Phelps took a leading part, and was made 
 a freeman six months after his arrival. His wife 
 died in 1635, and in October of that year, or in the 
 spring following, Mr. Phelps joined the company 
 which settled Windsor, Conn., and figured promin- 
 ently in the foundation of its early government. 
 For a long period of years he was a magistrate and 
 he was also deputy to the General Court, in 1651. 
 In 1638, he married (second) Mary Dover, who 
 was a passenger on the "Mary & John." His death 
 occurred July 14, 1672, his wife surviving until 
 Nov. 27, 1675. 
 
 Lieut. Timothy Phelps, son of William the settler, 
 was born Sept. i, 1639, in Windsor, Conn., and was 
 married March 19, 1661, to Mary Griswold, of Kill- 
 ingworth. Conn., who was baptized Oct. 13, 1644, 
 in Windsor. Lieut. Phelps performed service in 
 Queen Anne's war as a member of Capt. Mathew 
 Allyn's company and was later, in 1709, commis- 
 sioned a lieutenant by the General Court and died in 
 1719. 
 
 Joseph Phelps, son of Lieut. Timothy, was 
 born Sept. 27, 1666, and was married Nov. 18, 1686, 
 to Sarah, born Sept. 27, 1666 (her husband's birth- 
 day also), in Windsor, and there Mr. and Mrs. 
 Phelps settled, the former owning much land in 
 Hebron, and it is probable that late in life he re- 
 moved there, where some of his children were liv- 
 ing. His death occurred Aug. 30, 1716. 
 
 John Phelps, son of Joseph, was born in Sep- 
 tember, 1703, in Windsor, and was first niarried in 
 February, 1725 to Ann, born Feb. 2^, 1705, in 
 Windsor, a daughter of Obediah and Mindwell 
 (Phelps) Hosford, and settled in Hebron, Conn., 
 where Mrs. Phelps died in 1740; he died in the 
 same town Feb. 10, 1769. 
 
 Amos Phelps, son of John, was born May 30, 
 1736, and was married May 5, 1757, to Anna, born 
 Dec. 28, 1736, in Hebron, a daughter of Samuel and 
 
296 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Anna (Burnham) Filer. Mr. Phelps was a farmer 
 and a resident of Hebron, and was a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary war, enlisting in August, 1778, and 
 was discharged in September, 1780. He died in 
 Hebron in 1800, his wife surviving until 1818. 
 
 Erastus Phelps, son of Amos, was born Jan. 15, 
 1763, in Hebron, and was married in April 1801, to 
 Polly Yeomans, who was born in Stonington, Conn., 
 in 1776. She died in Hebron Aug. 25, 1850. Mr. 
 Phelps served in the war of the Revolution, for 
 which service he was rewarded with a pension, be- 
 ing on the rolls in 1832 as a resident of Tolland. 
 His children, who were all born in Hebron, were: 
 Charles C, born in 1802 ; Mary Ann, born in 1804, 
 died in 1805 ; Erastus R., born Jan. 31, 1806; Henry 
 A., born in 1808, married Harriet Dodge; George 
 G., born Dec. 15, 1809, married Mary Page; Sarah 
 Ann, born April 19, 181 5, married Samuel H. Har- 
 ris ; and Alfred W., born July 12, 1818, married 
 Mary A. Bunnell. 
 
 George Gurden Phelps, son of Erastus, was born 
 Dec. 15, 1809, and was married Nov. 13, 1836, to 
 Mary Page, and settled in Hebron, Conn., where he 
 resided until 1854, when he removed to Meriden, 
 and died there Sept. 23, 1862. Their children were: 
 Mary Elizabeth, who was born -May 10, 1840, and 
 married Charles C. Foskett; and Harriet C, born 
 Nov. 8, 1842, who married Rev. William H. 
 Warden. 
 
 Mrs. Foskett is most highly esteemed in Meriden, 
 is an active and interested member of the Methodist 
 Church. Socially she belongs to Ruth Hart Chapter 
 of the Daughters of the Revolution. 
 
 HON. FREDERICK A. BETTS, of New Ha- 
 ven, who has been actively in public life in this State 
 during the past ten years, is one of Connecticut's 
 most widely known representatives. He was ap- 
 pointed! insurance commissioner by Gov. O. Vin- 
 cent Coffin and confirmed by the Senate during 
 the session of the General Assembly in 1895, and 
 entered upon the duties of the office July ist of that 
 year. The insurance commissionership is the most 
 important one in the gift of the governor. The of- 
 fice is for four years. The occupant must of neces- 
 sity be a man of great administrative ability. From 
 the outset Commissioner Betts showed' himself to 
 be the possessor of the requisite qualifications for 
 the position. He mastered the details of insurance 
 management and was the originator of important 
 changes in the general statutes relating to different 
 fields of underwriting. During the sessions of the 
 General Assembly, while he was in office, he made 
 himself thoroughly familiar with every bill that 
 was presented for the consideration of the commit- 
 tee on Insurance, and, without exception, his views 
 were received by the committee with the utmost 
 deference. The annual reports of Commissioner 
 Betts, relating to fire and life underwriting, were 
 models of actuarial and literary work. He showed 
 in them sound judgment and intellectual capacity 
 
 of a high order. Commissioner Betts was a rec- 
 ognized authority in the National Convention of 
 Insurance Commissioners, which is composed of the 
 Supervisors of Insurance in the different States of 
 the Union. It was through his instrumentality that 
 this important body of insurance officials held its 
 annual meeting in Hartford in 1900. Mr. Betts 
 concluded his term of office as Insurance Commis- 
 sioner July I, 1899. His administration during the 
 four years was one which reflected credit on the 
 State of Connecticut, not less than on hdmself. 
 After the expiration of his term he was appointed 
 receiver of the National Life Association of Hart- 
 ford; the adjudication of the affairs of that com- 
 pany is still in progress. Mr. Betts received a high 
 recognition from President McKinley, at the begin- 
 ning of his' second administration as President of 
 the United States. Under an Act of Congress, ap- 
 propriating $5,000,000 for the Louisiana Purchase 
 Exposition to be held at St. Louis in 1903, nine 
 commissioners were to be appointed throughout the 
 country by the President. On April i, 1901, Mr. 
 Betts was appointed by President McKinley as one 
 of these commissioners. The distinction waS' the 
 more important as only one of the nine commis- 
 sioners was selected from New England. The ap- 
 pointment expressed 'the President's confidence in 
 the ability and attainments of Mr. Betts. The com- 
 missioners are supervisors for the government in 
 carrying out the plans for the exposition and in 
 expending the sum appropriated by Congress. 
 Commissioner Betts has engaged in the duties of 
 the position with his customary intelligence and 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 Mr. Betts has been identified with the Repub- 
 lican party in Connecticut from the beginning of 
 his public career. He was one of the organizers 
 of the Young Men's Republican Clubs in the State 
 and was highly honored by these organizations. He 
 is a member of the Republican State Central Com- 
 mittee from the New Haven District. Mr. Betts 
 is also a prominent member of the Baptist Social 
 Union of Connecticut, the membership of which 
 comprises the foremost business men of the Baptist 
 denomination in the State. 
 
 Frederick A. Betts is a native of New Haven, 
 born Aug. 8, 1858, son of Samuel Betts, an influ- 
 ential business manager and carriage manufacturer. 
 He was educated in the public schools of New Ha- 
 ven, and spent the early years of his life in a New 
 Haven newspaper counting room, laying there the 
 foundation for the extended acquaintance which he 
 now has with the public men of the State. After 
 his newspaper life he engaged in the wholesale trade 
 in New Haven, conducting an extensive business. 
 This lasted for ten years, during which period he 
 took a deep interest in the educational life of the 
 city. In 1893 he waS' elected a member of the New 
 Haven board of education, receiving one of the 
 largest majorities ever given in that city to a candi- 
 date at a school election. In 1896 he was re-elected 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 297 
 
 for a term of three years. When the new charter 
 of the city went into effect, in 1897, Mr. Betts was 
 appointed a member of the board for four years. 
 His services on the board were invaluable. He has 
 been governed through life by a high sense of honor 
 and is a man of the strictest personal integrity. 
 
 Air. Betts was married in 1882 to Miss Fannie 
 E. Blakesley, of New Haven, andl has one daugh- 
 ter. His home life has been of the most delight- 
 ful character. He is a gentleman of superior so- 
 cial instincts and is the soul of courtesy and per- 
 sonal refiDement. 
 
 DRIGGS. Since early in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury the Driggs family have been residents of Con- 
 necticut, and through the greater part of eighteenth 
 century of Cheshire and Waterbury, in the former 
 of which towns figured the late Dr. Asa Johnson 
 Driggs, a physician of State reputation, and at 
 Waterbury, for forty-five years, there were few men 
 more prominent than the late Theodore Ives Driggs, 
 son of Dr. Driggs, and there are yet in Waterbury a 
 number of the Doctor's posterity, among them 
 George Asa Driggs, secretary and treasurer of the 
 American Pin Co., and a leading citizen of the city. 
 The ancestors of the Driggs family came from 
 England to Saybrook, Conn., in 1721. The father 
 of Dr. Asa J. Driggs was a sailor in command of a 
 ship at Lisbon, Portugal, and married_the daughter 
 of the British consul at that point. Dr. Driggs was 
 born at Middletown, Conn., in albout 1803, and when 
 about sixteen years of age became a pupil of the 
 Episcopal academy of Connecticut, and of which he 
 was afterward a trustee. He was graduated from 
 the Medical Department of Yale College, in 1826, 
 and commenced the practice of medicine at Cheshire, 
 Conn. In 1828 he married a daughter of Rev. 
 Reuben Ives, then rector of St. Peter's Church. She 
 died in 1829, leaving one son, Theodore Ives Driggs. 
 On the death of his wife. Dr. Driggs went to Cuba, 
 where he practiced his profession and had charge 
 of several plantations. After a few years residence 
 in Cuba, he returned to Cheshire, and there lived 
 with little exception until his death on March 16, 
 1878. He was an able and successful practitioner, 
 a man of marked characteristics, affable in manner, 
 of a humorous disposition, and he was possessed 
 of a large fund of amusing anecdotes. 
 
 Theodore Ives Driggs, son of Dr. Asa J. Driggs, 
 was born Oct. 25, 1829, in Cheshire, Conn., and in 
 1848, at the age of nineteen, was graduated from 
 Trinity College. That same year he came to Water- 
 bury as assistant to Charles Fabrique,_ principal of 
 the academy and afterward an associate of Gen. 
 Russell in his famous New Haven school. Young 
 Driggs devoted himself to teaching with character- 
 tic enthusiasm, and maintained to the last an active 
 and intelligent interest in all educational matters. 
 He was prominent in the organization of the Centre 
 School district, which led to the establishment of 
 the high school in 185 1, of which he was for a year 
 
 or more the assistant principal, when throat trouble 
 compelled him to give up the profession of teaching. 
 He served for many years as a member of the board 
 of education, and for several terms as chairman and 
 treasurer. To his energy and thorough work, es- 
 pecially as school visitor, are to be credited many 
 of the reforms which have given the district so ef- 
 ficient a system of public schools. From the organ- 
 ization of St. Margaret's school up to the time of 
 his death, he was one of the trustees, serving as 
 secretary. He was greatly interested in the Cheshire 
 Academy while it was in charge of Dr. Horton, 
 which he attended as a boy. Mr. Driggs was one of 
 the citizens appointed by the common council to re- 
 ceive the donation of the Bronson Library fund in 
 1868. From that time on he was secretary of the 
 board of agents of that institution. In 1853, when 
 obliged to give up teaching, Mr. Driggs became 
 bookkeeper for Abbott & Wardell, manufacturers of 
 Waterbury. In September, 1855, he took charge of 
 the books of the American Pin Company, in whose 
 management he ever afterward held an important 
 olace. He was elected secretary in 1865, to suc- 
 ceed Deacon Hall, and subsequently was chosen 
 president. His interest in music led him to estab- 
 lish the Driggs & Smith Company, which since 1850 
 has been the leading house in WateAury, dealing in 
 pianos and musical goods. On first coming to 
 Waterbury in October, 1848, Mr. Driggs became 
 the organist of St. John's Church, serving contin- 
 uously until Easter Sunday, 1873, when rheuma- 
 tism compelled him to give up this work of love 
 for years. He resumed his place again in 1876, and 
 served until his illness before his death compelled 
 him to retire permanently. His inestimable services- 
 to the church as organist and choir master were fit- 
 tingly remembered in the presentation of a silver 
 fruit dish, a beautiful piece of work which he greatly 
 cherished. This gift was, in fact, supplementary to 
 a service of testimonial resolutions, suitably engraved 
 and framed, presented to him at the time of his 
 former disability. As a church organist Mr. Driggs 
 was in a most congenial place, one that he filled 
 with exceptional ability. He always insisted on 
 ecclesiastical music, and his accompaniments, keep- 
 ing the organ in its proper place, and never allow- 
 ing it to dominate the choir. Its members he in- 
 spired with his own enthusiasm, and his training 
 was most thorough and effective. He kept up his 
 active interest in all its affairs to the last. Mr. 
 Driggs was one of the founders and for eight years 
 director of the Mendelssohn society, which, until 
 1871, was the principal musical association of this 
 vicinity. He was elected president of the Harmonie 
 Society at its organization in 1889, an office which 
 he continued to hold until his death. Mr. Driggs 
 was an active and influential man in both church 
 and public affairs, and a liberal contributor to good 
 causes. He was a vestryman of St. John's Episcopal 
 Church of Waterbury for many years, and agent of 
 the parish until April 18, 1892. In politics he was a 
 
298 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 strong Republican, but despite unwavering loyalty 
 to his party was ready to see and approve worthy 
 politics or acts in his opponents. He represented 
 the Second ward in both branches of the common 
 council. He was a member of Nosahogran Lodg-e, 
 I. O. O. F. 
 
 Mr. Driggs was married (first) in TS54 to Sarah 
 E. Shepard, who died in 1857. On April 9, i860, 
 he married (second) Margaret S., daughter of the 
 late George Pritchard, of Waterbury. His children 
 are: George Asa, Martha R., Henry P. and 
 Helen P. 
 
 MAJOR JOhJN ADAMS MUNSON (de- 
 ceased) was a veteran of the Civil war, long an of- 
 ficer of the Governor's Foot Guard, of New Haven, 
 a business man of many years' experience in New 
 Haven, and a citizen of high standing in the com- 
 munity; he was also a representative in both pa- 
 ternal and maternal lines, of old Colonial families 
 that have been identified with the affairs of New 
 Haven for more than 260 years. 
 
 In the sketch of Amos Munson, which may be 
 found on another page, the ancestral history of the 
 Munson family is very fully traced. Its founder 
 in America was Thomas Munson, who is on record 
 in Hartford as early as 1637, performed military 
 service in the Pequot War, and lived and died in 
 New Haven. Back to him the ancestry of John 
 Adams Munson was traced through Amos, Joseph 
 (2), Joseph (i), Israel, Theophilus and Samuel 
 Munson,_ all men of more or less prominence in tEe 
 community, and well sustaining an unblemished 
 family name. 
 
 Amos Munson, father of John Adams, was a 
 man of far more than the usual business ability and 
 push, and became the founder of the pie-making in- 
 dustry that has now grown to such vast proportions. 
 His career is exceedingly interesting, and will well 
 repav thoughtful perusal. 
 
 The maternal ancestry of Major Munson has a 
 history which begins with the arrival of Thomas 
 Dickerman, in Dorchester, Mass., in 1635, the line 
 of descent to the subject of this writing being 
 through, Abraham, who made his home in New 
 Jersey, Isaac, Stephen, Isaac (2) and Rebecca 
 (Dickerman) Munson. 
 
 Major Munson was born July 8, 1829, a son 
 of the late Amos and Rebecca (Dickerman) Mun- 
 son, both noted for their kindly hearts and genuine 
 interest in humane endeavors of every kind. The 
 boyhood and youth of Major Munson were passed 
 in New Haven, as were also, in the main, the years 
 of his long life, during which he has served the 
 city most efficiently in the various public trusts re- 
 posed in him by his fellow citizens. He was iden- 
 tified with the great pie industry established by his 
 father, successfully conducted by father and son 
 for more than sixty years. He was also engaged 
 in other lines of business, and served the city on 
 its police force for a time. Having a pronounced 
 
 taste for military life, in his young manhood he 
 became a member of the Governor's Foot Guard, 
 and on April 24, 1861, became Major of the organ- 
 ization. 
 
 Major Munson enlisted Sept. 9, 1862, in Com- 
 pany D, 27th Conn. V. I., and shared the fortunes 
 of that organization from start to finish, returning 
 home with an honorable military record. The regi- 
 ment was mustered into active service Oct. 22, 1862, 
 with Gen. Abercrombie as its first commander, but 
 later it passed into the Third Brigade, under the 
 command of Gen. Hancock, who included it in the 
 Twentieth Army Corps, where it was under Gen. 
 Sumner, who had command of the Right Grand 
 Division of the Army of the Potomac. One-third 
 of the regiment engaged at Fredericksburg lay dead- 
 or wounded in the field, or in the hospital at night- 
 fall. After this bloody struggle the 27th came un- 
 der the command of Col. John N. Brooke, after- 
 wards a most distinguished officer. The regiment 
 was engaged at Chancellorsville. where the most 
 of its men were captured by the Rebels. Com- 
 panies D and F, however, escaped the fate of the 
 balance of the regiment, having been detached for 
 other duty. The 27th participated in the battle of 
 Gettysburg, reaching the battle-line July 2, and be- 
 ing stationed a mile and a half from Cemetery Hill, 
 sharing the line of the Second Army Corps. It 
 was presently hurried forward to the support of 
 the Third Corps, disastrously engaged on the Em- 
 mitsburg Road. The broken and disordered col- 
 umns of the Third Corps were slowly retiring, 
 when their supports, part of which was the 27th 
 Regiment, came to their assistance. The enemy 
 were crowding forward, and as the supporting 
 forces of the Union army forced their way into the 
 wheatiield, met them with a galling fire, and here 
 fell Lieut. Col. Merwin mortally wounded, while 
 leading his men with his accustomed bravery. The 
 Union forces pressed forward and forced the en- 
 emy out of the wheat field into the woods beyond. 
 The 27th went into action with seventy-five men, 
 all that could be mustered for duty after an active 
 service of not quite nine months, and at dark eleven 
 were dead and twenty-seven wounded. The day 
 following the 27th was stationed in the main line of 
 battle, and a few yards to the left of the point at- 
 tacked by the Rebels in their last charge in that 
 great battle. 
 
 From Gettysburg the regiment moved to Falling 
 Waters, a short distance from Williamsport, arriv- 
 ing in time to participate in the closing scenes of 
 that engagement. From there it moved to Harper's 
 Ferry, from which point it was sent home July 23, 
 1864, being mustered out of active service. In the 
 battle of Fredericksburg Major Munson was wound- 
 ed in the left thigh. 
 
 On Sept. 13, 1850, Major Munson was married 
 to Miss Martha J. Wooding, of Bethany, Conn., 
 who died June 19, 1873. On April 28, 1874, he was 
 married to Margaret A. Olmstead. To the first 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 299 
 
 marriage were born: John H., born Aug. 9, 185 1, is 
 now deceased ; Charles H., born Nov. 10, 1853, died 
 Aug. 9, 1870; Elizabeth A., born Nov. 20, 1855, 
 died Dec. 10, 1858; James B., born Sept. 22, 1857, 
 married, first, June i, 1876, Anna C. Blake, and 
 second, June 2, 1892, Fannie Wilbur; and Hattie 
 H., born in New Haven, March 6, 1865, is married 
 and lives in Kansas. Major Munson died May 17, 
 1898. He was engaged in the pie business in Balti- 
 more for a few months. He was a veteran fireman, 
 and held all positions in that organization from pri- 
 vate to board of engineers. In the Masonic fratern- 
 ity he was very conspicuous, and held many im- 
 portant positions. When he died New Haven lost 
 a good citizen, a loyal and straightforward friend 
 and business man, a knightly character, and a lead- 
 ing spirit in all forward and humane movements. 
 
 HENRY GREAVES DAVIS, late a venerable 
 citizen of Meriden, where he lived retired, and one 
 of its leading mechanics of English birth, was born 
 Oct. 6, 1818, in the city of Birmingham, England. 
 
 John Davis, his father, was a gunsmith by oc- 
 cupation. He was reared in Birmingham, and there 
 spent his entire life, dying at the age of eighty-four 
 years ; his remains repose in St. Aston's churchyard, 
 Birmingham. He was a faithful adherent of the 
 Church of England. Mr. Davis was widely 
 mourned as an honest and worthy man. He was 
 married in his native city to Miss Catherine Greaves, 
 who was also bom there, and who died in Birming- 
 ham at the age of seventy-four years ; she was buried 
 in St. Philip's churchyard. She was a consistent 
 Episcopalian, a devoted wife and mother, and a true 
 Christian. Mr. and Mrs. Davis were the parents 
 of threes children. John, the eldest, came to America 
 in 1853, locating at Hartford, Conn., where he died 
 the following year and is buried there. Thomas, the 
 second, diied at the age of seventy years in his na- 
 tive place. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was educated at 
 St. Philips' Church School, known as the "Bluecoat 
 School." At the age of fourteen years he entered 
 upon an apprenticeship to the Britannia business, 
 and continued as a journeyman until the year 1845, 
 receiving a sovereign per week as wages. From 
 Birmingham he went to London, where he continued 
 at his trade, working seven hours per day at two 
 guineas per week, and was thus employed until 1852. 
 Hoping to better his condition in the Western world, 
 he embarked at London, and arrived in Albany, N. 
 Y., in April, 1852. There he found employment at 
 his trade and remained one year, when he came to 
 Connecticut. He at once found a situation in the 
 service of I. C. Lewis, at Meriden. After a short 
 time he went to Taunton, Mass., and worked two 
 years at two dollars per day. After working a 
 short period at Providence, R. I., not finding his 
 hopes realized in America, he revisited his native 
 land, but remained only a brief time abroad, visiting 
 Birmingham and London. He tecame convinced 
 
 that America ofifered a broader field for the ad- 
 vancement of himself and family, and he rejoined 
 his family in this country, again taking up Britannia 
 work in Taunton, Mass. He was subsequently em- 
 ployed, for varying periods, at Dorchester, Mass., 
 and Hartford, Conn., spending three years at the 
 latter point in the worjcs of Rogers, Smith & Co. 
 In 1862 he removed to Newark, N. J., where he re- 
 mained four years, still pursuing the same vocation. 
 After a year in the employ of Manning, Bowman & 
 Co., at Middletown, he settled at Meriden, and was 
 for a quarter of a century connected with the buffing 
 department of the Meriden Britannia Co. In 1893 
 he retired from active labor, and passed the remain- 
 der of his peaceful life in well-earned repose, dying 
 Feb. 28, 1902. 
 
 In 1892 Mr. Davis built a handsome home in 
 Britannia street, which is the abode of contentment 
 and cheerful hospitality. He was married in Birm- 
 ingham, England, Oct. 4, 1836, to Mdss Mary 
 Thompson, a native of the same place, and daughter 
 of William and Mary Thompson. For nearly sixty- 
 three years she was his helpful companion and 
 friend, and reared a family which was a credit to 
 them. Her Christian viirtues made the home a 
 haven of delight, and her departure for the better 
 home left a void which cannot be filled. Her death 
 occurred Jan. 13, 1899, and her remains were loving- 
 ly interred in Walnut Grove Cemetery. She was a 
 faithful member of St. Andrew's P. E. Church, with 
 which the father also affiliated, as well as the chil- 
 dren. The family included five children, four of 
 whom are now living: Mary Ann, the eldest, is 
 the widow of Edward Furniss, and resides in Brit- 
 annia street; Emily is the widow of Alpheus S. 
 Graham, who died at his home in Linsley avenue ; 
 Sarah is unmarried, and cared for her father's house- 
 hold; John Henry is a solderer in the shops of 
 Manning, Bowman & Co., Meriden ; Stephen, the 
 fifth, died in childhood. 
 
 Mr. Davis was a stanch supporter of the Demo- 
 cratic party, but not a politician, and never desired 
 official honors. The Golden Rule was his motto 
 through life, and he enjoyed the deserved esteem of 
 all who were privileged to know him. 
 
 LYNDE HUNTINGTON FOOTE, a prosper- 
 ous farmer and influential citizen of North Bran- 
 ford, New Haven county, was born Oct. 15, 1834, in 
 the house where he still resides, and is a descendant 
 of Nathaniel Foote, one of the first settlers of Weth- 
 ersfield. Conn. His grandfather, Elihu Foote, was 
 born in North Branford and married Lucy Williams, 
 a daughter of Rev. Warham Williams, the first min- 
 ister in the parish where our subject now lives. 
 One of Elihu Foote's ancestors, probably his father, 
 was captured by the Indians. Elihu died in North 
 Branford at the advanced age of ninety-two years, 
 his wife at the age of seventy-five. In their family 
 were five children, namely: Edwin, who married 
 Salina Maltby, and lived in North Branford ; Delia, 
 
300 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 wife of Eleazer Linsley, of Branford ; Warham W., 
 who married Lucinda Harrison ; Annie, wife of Al- 
 bert Harrison, of North Branford; and Williams. 
 
 Williams Foote was a native of North Branford, 
 where he grew to manhood and married Lucinda, 
 daughter of Amos Harrison, and his wife, whose 
 maiden name was Huff. He was a Republican 
 in politics, held several town offices, and also repre- 
 sented North Branford in the State Legislature in 
 1861. His children were Alexander, who married 
 Sarah Kelsey and is now deceased ; Henrietta, widow 
 of Leander Harrison; Elihu Davis, who married 
 Janette Ransom, and is now deceased ; Jerome, who 
 married Ann Foote, and is also deceased; Janette, 
 deceased wife of Douglass Williams; Lynde H.; 
 Lozelle, who first married Isadore Russell; Henry 
 Franklin, who died in childhood; Delia, who died 
 in infancy; Philo, who was a member of Company 
 K, 1 5th Conn. V. I., during the Civil war, and died 
 from disease while in the service; Eugenie, de- 
 ceased, the second wife of Douglass Williams; and 
 Walter, who wedded Mary Hull and lives in New 
 Haven. 
 
 Lynde H. Foote was reared on the home farm 
 and in early life assisted his father in its operation, 
 his opportunities for obtaining an education being 
 confined to the district schools. In connection with 
 farming he engaged in the meat business in New 
 Haven for some years, having a regular route, and 
 selling meats both at wholesale and retail, but he now 
 devotes his entire time and attention to agricultural 
 pursuits. He owns the old homestead, comprising 
 ioo_ acres of valuable land, which he has placed under 
 a high state of cultivation, and in its operation has 
 met with a fair degree of success. 
 
 On April 12, 1871, Mr. Foote married Juliette 
 Smith Gidney, and they have one child, Florence 
 Gertrude, who was born Dec. 9, 1874, and married 
 Arthur Blakeslee, of Clintonville,' Conn. The Gid- 
 ney family is of English origin, and included pioneer 
 settlers on the banks of the Hudson river, in New 
 York. Mrs. Foote's grandfather, Daniel Gidney, 
 married a member of the Ward family, and many 
 of their descendants still reside at Newburgh, N. Y., 
 and in that vicinity. Her parents were George W. 
 and Caroline (Tyler) Gidney, who were married 
 Jan. 23, 1838. The father was born Sept. 10, 1808, 
 and died Aug. 23, 1879, and the mother was born 
 Oct. 15, 1819, and died Nov. 20, 1897. In their 
 family were the following children : Mary, born 
 Oct. 30, 1838, died Nov. i, 1838; Mary Ann, born 
 Feb. 28, 1840, died Dec. 7, 1840; Lucy Ann, born 
 Oct. 23, 1841, died April 28, 18 — ; Juliette S., born 
 June 24, 1844, is the wife of our subject; Tyler, 
 born Oct. 5, 1846, married Emma Foote, of Fair 
 Haven, and is now engaged in business in Walling- 
 ford, Conn. ; George Henry, born April 23, 1849, 
 married Sibyl La Beasler, and is a dentist of New 
 Haven ; Nancy, commonly called Minnie, born April 
 22, 1851, first married Alphonso E. Strong, and sec- 
 ond Craig A. Tuthill, of New Britain, Conn.; 
 
 Charles, born Feb. 5, 1853, married Hannah Cooper 
 and resides in Northford ^. and Peter, born Jan. 9, 
 1856, is a physician of M'onticello, Orange Co., N. 
 Y. Mrs. Foote has been three times married, her 
 first husband being Benjamin Dowd, and her second 
 Charles Ferguson, by whom she had one son, 
 Charles, who was born Jan. 13, 1868, and is now a 
 resident of Northford. She is a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church and a most estimable lady. 
 
 Politically Mr. Foote is a stanch Republican, and 
 has served as tax collector several terms, and also 
 as a grand juror. As a citizen he ever stands 
 ready to discharge every duty devolving upon him, 
 and gives a liberal support to all enterprises calcu- 
 lated to prove of public benefit. Wherever known 
 he is held in high regard. ^ 
 
 THE TRACY BROS. CO. George and Cor- 
 nelius Tracy constitute this widely-known extensive 
 firm of contractors, builders and lumber dealers, 
 whose place of business is at No. 52 Benedict street, 
 Waterbury. They are descendants in the seventh 
 generation from Lieut. Thomas Tracy, the line of 
 their descent being through Jonathan, David, David 
 (2), Capt. Silas, Francis and Abel C. ["Tracy 
 Genealogy" (1898), by Evert E. Tracy, M. D., Chi- 
 cago.] 
 
 (I) Lieut. Thomas Tracy was born in 1610 in 
 Tewkesbury, GloucestersJiire, England, a grandson 
 of Richard Tracy, of Stanway [authority — the work 
 (1895) of Lieut. Charles S. Ripley, U. S. A.] 
 Thomas Tracy, in his early manhood, crossed the 
 sea to the Colony of Massachusetts Bay. He stayed 
 at Salem until February, 1637, then removed to 
 Wethersfield, Conn. In 1652 and 1653 he was at 
 Saybrook, and 1666 he and his family removed to 
 Norwich, of which town he was one of the pro- 
 prietors. In 1666 he was appointed ensign at Nor- 
 wich. He was in the Legislature from Norwich 
 most of the time from 1667 to 1678, and in 1682-83- 
 85 from Preston. He sat as a memlber of the Co- 
 lonial Assembly for more than twenty sessions. He 
 was well educated, and a man of consequence in 
 the community, a thorough business man, and of 
 the best personal character. He was married three 
 times, and had seven children. He died at Nor- 
 wich, Conn., in 1685. 
 
 (II) Jonathan Tracy, son of Thomas (the emi- 
 grant) and Mary (Mason) Tracy, born in 1646 
 at Saybrook, married, in 1672, Mary Griswold; 
 she died in 171 1, and he married Mary Richards. 
 Jonathan Tracy died in about 1711, and his re- 
 mains are buried in a graveyard at Preston, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 (III) David Tracy, son of Jonathan and Mary 
 (Griswold) Tracy, born in 1687, married in 1709 
 Sarah Parish, who died in 1729. 
 
 (IV) David Tracy (2), son of David and Sarah 
 (Parish) Tracy, born in 1721, at Preston, Conn., 
 married, in 1744, Eunice Elliott. 
 
 (V) Capt. Silas Tracy, son of David and Eunice 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 301 
 
 (Elliott) Tracy, and great-grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, born March 27, 1745, married and settled in 
 New Preston, Conn., where he kept a hotel. He 
 died about 1825. He was three times married, and 
 by his first wife had three children, Susan, Luther 
 and Francis. By the second union there were two 
 children, William and Lusina. There were no chil- 
 dren by the last wife. 
 
 (VI) Francis Tracy, grandfather of the Tracy 
 brothers, was born about 1793 in New Preston, 
 Conn., and died there in 1823. He married Clarissa 
 Clemmons, who was born about 1793, in Litch- 
 field, a daughter of Abel C. Clemmons, a large 
 dairy farmer of Litchfield. They had five children : 
 Mary, wife of David Meeker, a farmfer of New 
 Preston (both now deceased) ; Elmira, wife of Will- 
 iam Calhoun, a farmer of Morris, Conn. ; Silas, who 
 settled in Montrose, Pa., and died there in 1875 ; 
 Francis, who went to Wisconsin, where he carried 
 on farming, and was a local minister; and Abel C, 
 mentioned below. 
 
 (VH) Abel C. Tracy, father of our subject, was 
 bom Jan. 14, 1820, in Washington, Conn., where 
 he was reared and educated. He chose farming for 
 his life vocation, and located in Morris, Conn. He 
 married Caroline Bowns, who was born in Torring- 
 ton. Conn., daughter of Jeremiah Bowns, a farmer, 
 and six children were born of this union : Morton, 
 a roller in the Benedict & Burnham Mills, at 
 Waterbury ; George, sketch of whom follows ; Cor- 
 nelia, wife of Andrew Palmer, a farmer of Goshen, 
 Conn. ; Cornelius, sketch of whom follows ; Edward, 
 who died at the age of twelve years ; and Frances, 
 who married William Johnson, a farmer of the town 
 of Waterbury. The mother of this family died 
 June 2, 1858; the father is yet living, and attends 
 the Methodist Church, as did also his wife. He is 
 a Republican in politics, was first selectman of his 
 town (the first Republican ever elected to that of- 
 fice there), served as assessor of his town (Morris), 
 although it is strongly Democratic, and has other- 
 wise taken a lively interest in its affairs — in fact 
 he was instrumental in having it set off from the 
 town of Litchfield. He has settled many estates in 
 Morris. 
 
 George Tracy, one of the wealthiest and most 
 prominent citizens of Waterbury, and senior mem- 
 ber of The Tracy Bros. Co., was born in Goshen, 
 Conn., Jan. 6, 1847, and passed his boyhood days 
 on the home farm in the towns of Washington and 
 Morris, attending during the winter months the old 
 district school of the neighborhood until he was 
 twelve years of age. He then took a course at the 
 "Gunnery," in Washington, Conn., a school that 
 has turned out many men of prominence, among 
 whom may be mentioned United States Senator 
 Piatt, and Henry Ward Beecher's two sons were 
 schoolmates of Mr. Tracy. On laying aside his 
 books our subject commenced an apprenticeship 
 with Deacon Hotchkiss, carpenter and builder at 
 Torrington, Conn., which concluded, he in 1869 
 
 came to Waterbury, and here for two years worked 
 for John Dutton, also a carpenter and builder. He 
 then entered into a partnership with B. H. Eld- 
 redge, under the firm name of Tracy & Eldredge, 
 contractors and builders, which copartnership was 
 dissolved at the end of four years, Mr. Tracy con- 
 tinuing the business alone during the subsequent 
 ten years. In 1886 he associated with him his 
 brother Cornelius, the style of the firm since its 
 incorporation in 1895 being "The Tracy Bros. Co., 
 contractors, builders, lumber dealers, etc." ' They 
 do a large amount of contracting all over the coun- 
 try, their business amounting to from $300,000 to 
 $500,000 per annum, and in this connection it may 
 be mentioned that they erected the State building 
 at the World's Fair held in Chicago, 1893. They 
 are now building in Hartford, Norwalk and Dan- 
 bury, Conn., in the latter city putting up the county 
 court house. They own extensive steam mills, and 
 can store a million feet of lumber, and they have 
 that amount on hand all the time. On Dec. 2, 1891, 
 their lumber yards were destroyed by fire — loss, 
 $20,000. 
 
 In April, 1869, Mr. Tracy married Miss Sarah 
 Dady, who was born in Ashford, Conn., and twelve 
 children have graced this union: Edith, Minnie, 
 George, Jr., Frank, Viola, Mabel, Harry, Morton, 
 Robert, Benjamin, Milton and Edna. Of these, 
 Edith married George Upson, of Waterbury, and 
 is now deceased ; Minnie is the wife of Frank Chat- 
 field; George, Jr., married Grace Crossley; Frank 
 married Bertha Seabrick — all being of Waterbury ; 
 and Edna died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Tracv 
 live in a beautiful residence at No. 126 Watervill'e 
 street, Waterbury, and enjoy the regard and esteem 
 of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. In 
 politics he is a Republican, and has served as se- 
 lectman one year; on the board of councilmen two 
 years; and was president of same one year. So- 
 cially he is a member of the I. O. O. F. at Water- 
 bury. In religious relations the family attend the 
 First Baptist Church. 
 
 Cornelius Tracy, junior member of The Tracy 
 Bros. Co., was born April 21, 1853, and passed his 
 boyhood on the farm in Litchfield, attending during 
 winters the local schools. At the age of fifteen he 
 went to Milford, Conn., where for two years he 
 worked in the straw factory, and so diligent, useful 
 and progressive did he prove himself that at the 
 time of his leaving he was receiving two dollars 
 per day, although he entered the place a mere boy. 
 In 1870 he came to Waterbury, where he com- 
 menced to learn the carpenter's trade with his 
 brother George, who had preceded him to that city. 
 On Aug. 20, 187s, Cornelius Tracy married 
 Lucy B. Doolittle, of Bethlehem, Conn., daughter 
 of David E. Doolittle, also a native of that lo- 
 cality, where he carried on farming. This wife died 
 in 1884, and two children survive her: Clara L., 
 wife of Elgia Bronson, of Waterbury; and Nellie 
 M. In January, 1887, Mr. Tracy wedded Edith 
 
302 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 M. Bronson, of Wolcott, Conn., daughter Oif Still- 
 man Bronson, a farmer by occupation, and four chil- 
 dren were born of this union, two of whom are 
 now living: Howard F. and Edward B. 
 
 In 1875, after his first marriage, Mr. Tracy lo- 
 cated in Thomaston, Litchfield Co., Conn., and for 
 eight years conducted a contracting and building 
 business on his own account; then returned to 
 Waterbury, where fromi 1884 to 1886 he was en- 
 gaged in the lumber trade. In the latter year he 
 became associated in business with his brother 
 George, as set forth in the sketch of George Tracy 
 immediately preceding. In his political preferences 
 Mr. Tracy is a Republican, but has never aspired 
 to political preferment. Socially he is a member 
 of the F. & A. M., Union Lodge, No. 96, at Thomas- 
 ton, and in matters of religion he attends the serv- 
 ices of the Second Congregational Church. From 
 a History of Waterbury we glean the following, 
 which speaks for itself : 
 
 "Cornelius Tracy. — It was through his efforts 
 that the city, at the close of the World's Fair, in 
 1894, came into the possession of the carefully se- 
 lected and valuable collection of minerals and fos- 
 sils now at the rooms of the Bronson Library. He 
 was also active, in co-oj>eration with his brother and 
 a few New Haven gentlemen, in transporting the 
 Connecticut building from the Fair grounds at Chi- 
 cago to Connecticut, and re-erecting it for public 
 uses, on the shore of the Sound, at a point between 
 Savin Rock and Woodmont." 
 
 JOEL ANDREW SPERRY, senior member of 
 the firm of Sperry & Barnes, wholesale provision 
 dealers and pork packers. New Haven, is in every 
 sense one of the city's representative business men 
 and substantial and useful citizens. 
 
 Aner Sperry, his grandfather, was born about 
 1767, and died June 30, 1807. He married Sally, 
 daug*hter of Asa and Esther (Tuttle) Sperry, born 
 April 5, 1770, and died April, 1847. 
 
 Noyes Sperry, son of Aner, died in early man- 
 hood. He married Emeline Beecher, a daughter of 
 Jesse Beecher, a grandson of the pioneer of that 
 family, who settled' in Woodbridge. She attained 
 an advanced age, surviving until upwards of ninety- 
 three. 
 
 Joel A. Sperry, son of Noyes and Emeline, was 
 born July 8, 1827, in Watertown. The father's early 
 death made it necessary for the son as a lad to be 
 self-supporting, and to aid in the support of his wid- 
 owed mother. After the father's death, Joel resided 
 in the town of Bethany, and until sixteen was em- 
 ployed on a farm, having only limited school ad- 
 vantages. As a boy of sixteen years of age, 'he 
 came to New Haven to seek his fortune, and time 
 has proven that he made no mistake, not only find- 
 ing the object of his mission, 'but that usefulness as 
 a citizen that has made his life an example worthy 
 of imitation by the young men of today, who are be- 
 ginning a career under as unfortunate circumstances 
 
 as surrounded him in the morning of life. The 
 early 'hardships in boyhood and young manhood 
 only served to discipline and develop body^^ mind and 
 character. 
 
 Young Sperry 's business career in New Haven 
 was begun in 1843 ^s a clerk in a retail provision 
 store. Some ten years later, in 185:^, associated 
 with William Hull, he began business for himself as 
 a wholesale provision dealer. This partnership con- 
 tinued for a decade, and so attentive were these 
 young men to business, and so careful in the man- 
 agement that they developed a large trade, which 
 proved renumerative and brought them success, 
 Mr. Sperry's great energy and force of character 
 being conspicuous in that success. In 1863, Mr. 
 Sperry withdrew from the firm and went to New 
 York City, where he engaged in the same line of 
 business, and there also were his efforts attended 
 with success, but in 1868, he made up his mind he 
 would retire from active business. Carrying out his 
 intention, he sold his business and returned to New 
 Haven. After an interval of a couple of years, he 
 found that it was difficult, after a life of such great 
 activity as his had been, to remain inactive, and in 
 1870, in connection with Mr. E. Henry Barnes and 
 Mr. Joseph Porter, under the firm name of Sperry 
 & Barnes, he established the business which from 
 that day to this, has 'been conducted by the same con- 
 cern. Much credit is due the senior member of 
 the firm for the development and successful conduct 
 of the aflFairs of the house, he being from the start, 
 the principal worker, his long experience giving him 
 an insight into this line of business and enabling him 
 to place the concern upon a firm basis, and to main- 
 tain its standing- in the commercial world. 
 
 In 1870 it was thought a wild and imp.racticable 
 idea to think of exporting meat to Europe, 'but owing 
 to the experience he had gained during his business 
 career in New York, Mr. Sperry from the first was 
 a firm advocate of the enterprise, and as a result, 
 the firm of Sperry & Barnes was among the first 
 to branch out in this direction in New England and 
 the first in Connecticut, thereby reaping the abun- 
 dant harvest that resulted from the exercise of fore- 
 sight and energy. Ever since these .three gentle- 
 men have been sending to England and the Con- 
 tinent, the products of their establishments. The 
 firm is the oldest and most extensive pork packing 
 house in western Connecticut, the plant being a very 
 large one, fitted with every modern appliance and 
 convenience and labor-saving machinery. The busi- 
 ness gives employment to 300 people and at the 
 plant 'are slaughtered annually upward of 200,000 
 hogs. The products not only go abroad, but 'are 
 marketed all over New England and the Middle 
 States. In later years, was added to the old firm 
 the person of Frank H. Sperry, son of the senior 
 member. The uniform success which has attended 
 the efforts of Mr. Joel Andrew Sperry, is to be 
 credited not only to his remarkable executive ability 
 and business sagacity, but also to his endeavor to 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 303 
 
 always put into practice the strictest principles of 
 integrity and honor. The business men, the patrons 
 of his house, have ever had confidence in him as 
 a man. 
 
 Mr. Sperry has been in no sense an office seeker 
 or politician, but has always been interested in public 
 affairs, and as a citizen has exercised his prerogative 
 as an American citizen, in the advancement of what 
 appeared in his judgment would conduce to the best 
 interests of the city, county and State. His integrity 
 and singlemindedness being so generally recognized, 
 Mr. Sperry was called upon t'o serve for two terms, 
 from i860 to 1861, as a member of the board of 
 Aldermen of New Haven, and was especially instru- 
 mental in the reorganization of the Police and Fire 
 Departments, his ideas with regard to improvements 
 in these particular branches of public service being 
 very effective, and resulting in greatly enhancing 
 the efRciency of the members of both departments. 
 Later, Mr. Sperry served most efficiently as Fire 
 Commissioner. He is a member of Hiram Lodge, 
 A. F. & A. M. 
 
 On June 24, 1856, Mr. Sperry was married to 
 Miss Anna Jane Fowler, a daughter of David S. 
 Fowler, of New Haven. To' this union were born : 
 Frank H., who married Mary Beecher Wells, and 
 has had two children, Elenor (born in 1889, died in 
 1897), and Joel A. (born 1886) ; and Effie H. and 
 Annie, both unmarried. 
 
 PROUTY. It is learned from Draper's History 
 of Spencer, Mass., that the Prouty family, years 
 ago, was the most numerous, of any in that town. 
 The records speak of them as men and women of a 
 sturdy New England type, and many of them left 
 their impress for good upon Church and society. 
 A number of them took part in the wars of the early 
 day, always worthily performing public and private 
 duties. (I) Richard Prouty was a resident of 
 Scituate, Mass.. as early as 1667. 
 
 (II) Isaac Prouty, son of Richard, wa.s born in 
 Scituate, Mass. In 1710 he married Elizabeth 
 Merritt, and they reared a numerous family, of 
 whom six were sons, namely: Jacob, David, John, 
 Adam, James and Isaac; there was one daughter, 
 Elizabeth. The family later removed to Spencer, 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 (III) Jacob Prouty^ son of Isaac, was born 
 March 14, 1715, and was married to Ann Capen, 
 Dec. 8, 1741. In 1740 he purchased the northeastern 
 part of Lot 23, and built on it a family home. His 
 children were: Deborah, born Oct. 19, 1742; 
 Phoebe, born July 23, 1744; Lydia, born June 4, 
 1747; Anna, born Nov. 11, 1752; Hannah, born 
 Aug. 15, 1754; Caleb, born Sept. 7, 1756; Joshua, 
 born May 18, 1759 (married Mollie Muzzy, Nov. 
 18, 1781); Nathan, born Oct. 22, 1761, mairried 
 Sept. 30, 1784, Patience Converse; and Mercy, born 
 Sept. 14, 1763. 
 
 (Ill) David Prouty, born in 1716, married in 
 1739 Elizabeth Smith, and in the same year pur- 
 chased a part of Lot 23. His children were : David, 
 
 born Nov. 27, 1739; Elizabeth, born Aug. 27, 174IJ 
 Ruth, born Sept. 12, 1743; Mary, born May 21, 
 1745; Sarah, born March 10, 1747; Jesse, born 
 March 14, 1749; Asa, born in February, 1751, who 
 married Lydia Livermore, and (second) on Sept. 
 29, 1785, married Tabitha Ormeo; Lucy^ born Feb. 
 
 26, 1753; Beulah, born March 17, 1755; Olive, or 
 Uiiver, Dorn Aiay 27, 1757; Rhoda, born May 17, 
 1759; and Lucretia, born in 1761. 
 
 (IV) David Prouty, son of David, married Nov. 
 
 27, 1 761, Hannah, daughter of Deacon Eleazer Ball, 
 and settled on the east end of Lot 30, where his son 
 David afterward lived. He was a soldier in the war 
 with France, was a captain in the Revolutionary 
 war, and was a major of militia. In civil life he 
 served as one of the selectmen, and as assessor of 
 the town. 
 
 (Ill) John Prouty, son of Isaac, born in 1718, 
 married in October, 1745, Abigail Johnson, daughter 
 of Capt. Benjamin Johnson, and settled on Lot 21, 
 where he built a saw and grist mill, on Seven Mile 
 river, which was later owned by Muzzy & Nichols. 
 His children were: Benjamin, born Oct. i, 1746, 
 married Jan. 10, 1774, Sarah Green; John, born Jan. 
 4, 1749, married Oct. 13, 1771, Lucy Gleason; Isaac, 
 born Dec. 22, 1750, married Jan. 20 1772, Anna 
 Dunnel; Johnson, born Jan. 8, 1754, married April 
 7, 1774, Anna Livermore; Abigail was born Nov. 
 27, 1756; EH, born Sept. 8, 1757, married May 28, 
 1782, Rebecca Bemis; Daniel, born July 15, 1759, 
 married June 7, 1781, Catherine Palmer; Rebecca 
 and Esther, twins, were born April 19, 1768. 
 
 (Ill) Adam Prouty, son of Isaac, born in 1721, 
 married early, and lived in Scituate and Hanover 
 several years, his wife dying after he removed to 
 Spencer, Mass. There he contracted a second mar- 
 riage, on Jan. 15, 175 1, to Dorothy Howe, of Rut- 
 land. In 1763 he purchased part of Lot 64, where 
 he died. His children were numerous, but there 
 can be found no record of any except Seth' who was 
 born Nov. 12, 1761. By his first wife he had Grace, 
 Sarah, Luther, Isaac and others; and by his second 
 wife Seth, Rhoda, Eunice, Patty, Desire, Dolly, 
 Adam, Lucy and others. 
 
 . (Ill) James Prouty son of Isaac, born 1730, 
 married June 25, 1765, Mary Dinsmore, and finally 
 settled on a part of Lot 40, where his son Reuben 
 afterward lived. Here he died. His children were : 
 Amos, born March 8, 1766; Reuben, born Dec. 18, 
 1771, married Sallie Bartlett, of Vermont; Sarah 
 was born Dec. 10, 1777; Susannah, March 8, 1782; 
 Lydia, Oct. 17, 1783; James, Jan. 30, 1786; and 
 Polly, Dec. 9, 1788. 
 
 (Ill) Isaac Prouty (2), son of Isaac, born in 
 1732, married Priscilla Ramsdell, and moved to 
 Spencer, Mass., in 1757, settling in the west end of 
 Lot 16, where his grandson, John N. Prouty, after- 
 ward lived. His children were : Priscilla was born 
 Oct. I, 1756. Elijah and Elisha, twins, were born 
 Jan. 27, 1759; Elijah married, June 19, 1788, Anna 
 Munroe ; Elisha married Elizabeth Demond, of Rut- 
 land. Sage, born Nov. 2, 1762, married March 18, 
 
30^ 
 
 :OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1784, Alexander Dean, of Oakland. Joseph, born 
 March 26, 1767, married jViay 19, 1791, Betsy 
 Draper. Thomas, born June 13, 1769, married Sept. 
 ^9' 1793. Lois Wood. Jesse, born Aug. 6, 1771, 
 married April 22 1798, Abigail Burden. Avis was 
 born April 27, 1775. Betsey was born Jan. 24, 
 1780. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Prouty, son of Isaac (2), born 
 March 26, 1767, when a young man married May 
 19, 1791, Betsy Draper. His children were: Phelin- 
 da, born Sept. 29, 1792; Calvin, Nov. 5, 1793; Eme- 
 lia, Jan. 7, 1796; Horace, April, 1798; Charles, May 
 7, 1800; Cyrus, Sept. 14, 1802-; Elmira, Aug. 2, 
 1804; Luther, July 11, 1806; Calvin Luther, March 
 16, 1808; Alden, Nov. 10, 1810; Mary Draper, 
 Feb. 2, 1813; Betsy, Aug. 9, 1816; Joseph Horace, 
 Aug. 13, 1818. 
 
 (V) Charles Prouty, son of Joseph, born May 
 7, 1800, married Eunice Watson. Their children 
 were (dates of birth unknown) : Elizabeth, Charles, 
 Elmira, Henry J., Mary Ann and Calvin Luther. 
 
 (VI) Henry J. Prouty, son of Charles, born Oct. 
 16, 1838, is also a native of Spencer, where he was 
 educated and has spent his life. For many years 
 he was connected with the shoe trade in one of the 
 factories in that line, in Spencer, and he is a man 
 of high morality and excellent business qualifica- 
 tions. He was married in June, 1864, to Miss 
 Parmelia Roberts, of Waltham, Mass., who still sur- 
 vives, the family home in Spencer being one of do- 
 mestic comfort and Christian living. Both Mr. and 
 Mrs. Prouty are consistent members of the Uni- 
 versalist Church. 
 
 (VII) Willis James Peouty, A. M., son of 
 Hbnry J., was born in Spencer May 22, 1865, and 
 was reared in his native town, receiving excellent 
 educational advantages. After finishing an ele- 
 mentary course in the public schools he graduated 
 from the Spencer high school, in 1883. Shortly after 
 he entered Tufts College, at Medford, Mass., where 
 he pursued a regular academic course, graduating 
 in 1887 with high honors, a specialty having been 
 made in Latin. In 1896 his Alma Mater conferred 
 on him the degree of A. M. In the fall of 1887 
 Prof. Prouty located in Meriden, Conn., accepting 
 at that time a position as teacher in the high school, 
 as instructor in mathematics and bookkeeping. Dur- 
 ing 1887-8 he also had charge of the evening school. 
 
 In 1889 Prof. Prouty's ability as an educator was 
 so universally acknowledged that it was a matter of 
 congratulation with the school board when he ac- 
 cepted the position of assistant principal. Through 
 a number of years he constantly grew in the confi- 
 dence and esteem of the community, until, in 1899, 
 he succeeded Prof. S. T. Frost as principal of the 
 Meriden high school. This position carries with it 
 responsibilities of no mean order, requiring scholar- 
 ship, business ability and social attributes, not often 
 combined in one person so fully as they are found in 
 Prof. Prouty. It is generally conceded that there 
 has never been a better quahfied, more conscientious 
 or tactful teacher connected with the Meriden high 
 
 school. His standard is high, and his constant aim' 
 is to bring his pupils up to it. 
 
 Fraternally Prof. Prouty is connected with Zeta 
 Psi, of Tufts College; is treasurer of the Home 
 Club ; has served on the executive committee of the 
 Meriden Tennis Club ; is a past regent and collector 
 of Alfred H. Hall Council, Royal Arcanum ; and 
 past councilor and collector of Invincible Council, 
 Loyal Additional Benefit Association. He is also 
 librarian of Meriden Scientific Association. 
 
 In 1890 Prof. Prouty was married, in Meriden, 
 Conn., to Miss Jennie W. Smith, a lady of educa- 
 tion, culture and refinement. She is a daughter of 
 Henry G. Smith, of this city. One child, Marilla, 
 was JDorn to this union. Both Prof, and Mrs. 
 Prouty are prominent in social circles, and in all 
 educational and progressive movements are among 
 the leading spirits. Prof. Prouty has been especially 
 interested in the Y. M. C. A., and has been a 
 teacher and lecturer in this association. In politics 
 he is a Republican, but his busy life leaves him no 
 time to accept office, althoug-h he is so well qualified 
 to fill many positions where there is a need' of 
 trained minds and honest service. 
 
 Smith. The Smith family of which Mrs. 
 Prouty is a representative, is one of the old and 
 prominent ones in Massachusetts. Alanson Smith, 
 the grandfather of Mrs. Prouty, was born in Worth- 
 ington, Mass., and was a carpenter and joiner by 
 occupation. He spent the greater part of his life 
 in his native town, coming only in advanced years 
 to Meriden, where he died, his remains being taken 
 back to his old home. He married Judith Graves, 
 and their family of nine children were : James ; 
 Justus ; Henry G. ; Asa, of New Haven ; Augustine, 
 deceased; Abbie, who married E. D. Castelow, of 
 Meriden; Eldridge; Albert, deceased; and Myron, 
 deceased. 
 
 Henry G. Smith, the father of ]\Irs. Prouty, was 
 also born in Worthington, Mass., where be was ed- 
 ucated. In young manhood he located in New Hart- 
 ford, working at the machinist's trade, and later 
 came to Meriden and entered the employ of the 
 Meriden Britannia Company. Mr. Smith now lives 
 retired from activity, and makes his home with 
 Prof, and Mrs. Prouty, on Hanover street. Mr. 
 Smith was married, in 1862, to Miss Anne Whit- 
 ney, who was a daughter of Theodore Whitney, 
 of Agawam, and their only child was Jennie W., 
 the wife of Prof. Willis Prouty. Both Mr. and 
 Mrs. Smith are consistent members of the Congre- 
 gational Church. In political sentiment Mr. Smith 
 is a Republican, and, he is one of the most highly 
 esteemed older residents of Meriden. 
 
 NICHOLAS W. HUBINGER. While the 
 disposition to do honor to those who have served 
 well their race or their nation is prevalent among 
 all enlightened people, and is of great value every- 
 where and under all forms of government, it is 
 particularly appropriate and to be fostered in Amer- 
 ica, where no man is born to public honor or comes 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 30s 
 
 to it by inheritance, but where all men are equal 
 before the law; where the race for distinction in 
 either public or industrial life is over the road of 
 definite usefulness and is open to everyone who 
 chooses to enter, however humble and obscure he 
 may chance to be; and where the adventitious cir- 
 cumstances of family and wealth count, in the vast 
 majority of cases, for but little or nothing. Ac- 
 cording to true democratic doctrine they should 
 never be taken into account. Under our system, 
 whose very existence depends upon the virtue of 
 the people themselves, who are not only the source 
 of all political power, but upon whom also depends 
 the very existence of our free institutions, those 
 who have distinguished themselves in any sphere of 
 usefulness should not fail of recognition. In hon- 
 oring those who have deserved well their prestige 
 or success the people do credit to themselves and 
 thus also supply a powerful stimulus to honorable 
 ambition. 
 
 As in America is to be found the true and noble 
 type of the self-made man toi a greater extent than 
 in any other nation, so here is to be found a 
 greater popular appreciation of the intrinsic ele- 
 ments of individual character which have made 
 great accomplishment possible. In any work 
 touching those who have won precedence and honor 
 in connection with the industrial activities of the 
 city of New Haven, it is imperative that a tribute of 
 respect and appreciation be accorded to the Hub- 
 inger brothers who, with that city as their head- 
 qiiarters, have attained a high reputation in the in- 
 dustrial world, winning exalted success through 
 their own efiforts and abilities and standing for the 
 most inflexible integrity in all the relations of life. 
 The wise system of industrial economics which they 
 have brought to bear has challenged unequivocal 
 admiration, and none can regard with aught save 
 satisfaction the magnificent results which they have 
 attained through the exercise of determinate pur- 
 pose, indefatigable industry, consecutive applica- 
 tion and honorable methods. In fact, it may be 
 said that in the field of legitimate and straightfor- 
 ward business enterprise their degree of success has 
 seldom been equaled in so brief an interval of time, 
 while the products of their great factories are found 
 in every quarter of the Union and command a large 
 export trade. 
 
 In the year 1880 the three Hubinger brothers, 
 John C, Nicholas W. and Joseph E., founded the 
 Elastic Starch Co. in New Haven, under the firm 
 name of J. C. Hubinger & Brothers, under which 
 title the enterprise was conducted for some years, 
 then becoming the J. C. Hubinger Brothers Co., 
 with Nicholas W. as president of the concern and 
 Joseph E. as secretary and treaisurer. In this reor- 
 ganization was included the business at Keokuk, 
 Iowa, lall becoming the sole prOij)erty of the J. C. 
 Hubinger Brothers Co. The original firm were the 
 pioneers in the manufacture of elastic starch and 
 the product bearing the name of Hubinger has con- 
 20 
 
 tinned to have a field of its own, in contradistinc- 
 tion to all similar and imitative preparations, its 
 superiority over all others being unmistakable. The 
 business, while now the foremost of the sort in the 
 Union, had its inception in a modest way and in 
 pushing it forward to the goal of so great success 
 many cybstacles were to be overcome and the strug- 
 gle for supremacy was long and arduous, so that 
 the victory is but the just recompense for the rare 
 business acumen, determination and excellent exec- 
 utive ability which have been from the start shown 
 by the interested principals. To win such a success 
 to-day implies the interposition of men of strong 
 mental and moral fibre, and those whose tenacity of 
 purpose is sufficient to endure the maximum tension, 
 for modern business life can not but be strenuous 
 in the extreme. Men of average ability and spirit 
 would have turned aside or been deflected from 
 their course by the exigencies vvhich seemed sim- 
 ply to augment and intensify the powers through 
 v/hich the Hubinger brothers have pressed forward 
 to the success implied not only in large wealth, ab- 
 solute financial stability and a national reputation, 
 but also in their foremost rank among New England . 
 manufacturers, and this is no equivocal or uncer- 
 tain distinction. 
 
 The Hubinger brothers are sons of John F. and 
 Catharine (Girard) Hubinger, natives, respectively, 
 of the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, and the town 
 of Metz, France. This venerable couple now re- 
 side in Keokuk, Iowa, where, in December, 1900, 
 they celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their mar- 
 riage. That city is likewise the residence of their 
 son, John C, who is one of its leading capitalists 
 and most prominent and influential business men. 
 John F. Hubinger is one of that type of sturdy, up- 
 right, wholesome, honest and self-respecting Ger- 
 n\ans who have contributed so valuable an element 
 to the composite make-up of our national fabric of 
 social life. For many years after coming to Amer- 
 ica he followed mercantile pursuits, and at one time 
 successfully conducted a brewery at Ripley, Ohio. 
 Business reverses came to him, however, through 
 circumstances be3rond his control, and this depriva- 
 tion may not be held as altogether an ungrateful 
 contingency as affecting the lives of his sons, who 
 were thus impelled to depend upon their own re- 
 sources and to develop those inherent and intrinsic 
 attributes of character which have made for strong 
 manhood and definite accomplishment — attributes 
 that under circumstances superficially more favor- 
 able might have lain perpetually dormant. The 
 reader can well imagine with how great pride and 
 satisfaction the aged parents must view the posi- 
 tions attained by their worthy sons, by whom is 
 rendered to them the deepest veneration and fiHal 
 solicitude. As the shadows of their earnest and 
 devoted lives lengthen with the declining sun their 
 sons delight to surround them with all the con- 
 veniences and tangible evidences of affection and 
 tender care that grateful and loving hearts can sug- 
 
3o6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 gest and, true to the conditions under which they 
 were reared and f rugahty born of necessity, the old 
 folk are sometimes constrained to chide their sons 
 for the lavish expenditures made in their behalf. 
 They have been sober, God-fearing people, without 
 pretension and without undue humility, never look- 
 ing down on any of their fellow beings, and never 
 feeling it possible that they could be looked down 
 upon. Their home has ever been the home of prob- 
 ity, piety and patriotism, and in the evening of their 
 days their sons honor in their lives and characters 
 the noble parents who bore them and taught them 
 b)' both precept and example. 
 
 Nicholas W. Hubinger, the immediate subject 
 of this sketch, was born in the town of Madison, 
 Ind., May 20, 1856, and was a mere lad when his 
 parents removed thence to Falmouth, Ky., in whose 
 public schools he received a good English education, 
 passing the major portion of his youth in that fine 
 old Southern commonwealth. When he was six- 
 teen years of age his parents removed to Ripley, 
 Ohio, where his father ,was successfully engaged 
 in business for some time. The family removed 
 from that place to Quincy, 111., where our subject 
 was associated with his father in the bakery and 
 confectionery business, and later he engaged in 
 the same line of enterprise in Keokuk, Iowa. The 
 year 1880 witnessed the advent of Nicholas William 
 Hubinger in the beautiful city of New Haven, 
 Conn., where his elder brother, John C, had preced- 
 ed him. In view of the position which he to-day 
 occupies in the financial world, it is interesting to 
 note the fact that at that time his available resources 
 were summed up in an exchequer of less than fifty 
 dollars capital. That, however, was not his only 
 asset, for he was equipped with the endowment of 
 •energy, determination, alert mentality and mature 
 judgment as to the springs of human thought and 
 action, knowing men as they are, and having the 
 powers of initiative and executive ability already 
 waiting for a proper sphere of action. 
 
 The full and complete history of the founding 
 :and subsequent expansion of the now immense bus- 
 iness of the J. C. Hubinger & Brothers Co. would 
 fill a volume in itself, and lies outside the province 
 of a work of this nature. Still it is incumbent that 
 an epitomized review be here entered. No cbn- 
 cern in New Haven has had, perhaps, such a modest 
 beginning or such a struggle for existence and 
 finally attained so pronounced a success. No other 
 such demonstration of pluck and determination, no 
 other such rise from a scarcely appreciable begin- 
 ning to such a height of commercial precedence 
 has been seen by the present generation in New 
 Haven. The idea of an elastic starch was suggested 
 to them while acting as salesmen of the old style 
 of product. They were often assailed in those days 
 with the housewife's complaint that the starch 
 would "stick to the irons," and in seeking a remedy 
 for this difficulty came to them the idea of an elas- 
 tic starch. Lack of capital and the superadded diffi- 
 
 culty to be experienced in the introduction of an 
 entirely new article, a distinct innovation, were 
 the elements which brought about serious obstacles 
 and such trials as seldom faill to the lot of those who 
 have gained an equal measure of success in later 
 years and through the mediumi to which they clung 
 with tenacious confidence. The brothers were prac- 
 tically strangers in New Haven, without recourse 
 to fortuitous aid from: any source. Their credit 
 had not been established and among the incidents 
 of their early difficulties and herculean struggles 
 was that involved in their being refused credit for 
 a barrel of starch valued at less than four dollars, 
 which amount was later made up only by extraord- 
 inary effort, and they alsO' had to pay for the paste- 
 board containers in which their manufactured prod- 
 uct was placed at the time the same were delivered 
 them. Dealers refused to handle what was consid- 
 ered an experimental product and the Hubinger 
 brothers secured their first customers by a house 
 to house canvass, in which they personally took part, 
 and often stopped to demonstrate in a practical way 
 the method of using and the superior value of the 
 elastic starch of which they were the originators. 
 One secret of their success lies in the fact that they 
 have never been afflicted with false pride, and that 
 they have never been afraid of work, having an 
 abiding respect for the dignity of honest toil, in 
 whatever line. No detail pf their manufacture has 
 ever been too unpleasant or too difficult for them 
 to personally attend to when occasion has required. 
 Of the many who witnessed their early struggles 
 few probably felt that success might eventually 
 crown their efforts, while it is doubtful if anyone, 
 not excepting themselves, ever conceived that the 
 future had in store a success of so magnificent 
 scope and importance. The business began to ex- 
 pand consecutively almost from the time ,of its in- 
 choation, for their product fell into the hands of the 
 best judges of the value of a household commodity, 
 the housewives themsielves, and they pronounced un- 
 equivocally upon its superiority over all other man- 
 ufactured articles in its class. Notwithstanding this 
 fact, tO' attain more than a circumscribed field and 
 more than ,a modest business, executive and admin- 
 istrative ability were demanded. This the brothers 
 were able to supply in a high and potent degree, 
 and in the supervision and direction of their present 
 business, ,with its manifold details and great magni- 
 tude, they still find no time when they are not equal 
 to the handling of the work and the solving of all 
 problems that present themselves. 
 
 Nicholas W. Hubinger has made this business 
 the vocation of his life, giving his energies and 
 abilities to its development. Several years after 
 the founding of the business in New Haven the 
 firm established another factory, at Keokuk, Iowa, 
 which now forms a part of the business, as previ- 
 ously stated. From, what may be most consistently 
 designated as an "infant industry" the business of 
 the Hubinger brothers has grown to immense pro- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 307 
 
 portions, in both the East and West, the firm dis- 
 posing of an average of more than .twenty-five 
 milUon packages of their product annually, and 
 their operationis in this and other lines of enterprise 
 involve transactions aggregating several millions of 
 dollars' each year. The men to whom this great 
 success has come have a high sense of their stew- 
 ardship and their characteristics have suffered no 
 change as prosperity has crowned their efforts. 
 Their unostentatious manners and democratic spirit 
 are yet in constant evidence, and they have no pride 
 of wealth, jio sycophantic regard for the pomp and 
 majesty of superficial show. They are mindful of 
 the simple and worthy lives of their parents and of 
 the struggles which they themselves have made, and 
 thus has been deepened their appreciation of true 
 character, and they value the man, not his rank, 
 wealth or position. Iru sTiort, it may be said that if 
 our Republic has as yet developed a distinct type, 
 then are they typically American, for they represent 
 the truest element which enters into our national 
 life. The subject of this sketch is ever fair and 
 honorable in his business relations of every order, 
 and this fact has never failed of objective realiza- 
 tion ; in his social life he js generous, outspoken and 
 without dissimulation. Of strong convictions and 
 distinct individuality he hates trickery and decep- 
 tion of every sort, and his friendship is given with- 
 out reservation to those whose characters are 
 worthy, while he is an equally stanch enemy to 
 those who merit this attitude on his part. 
 
 As an owner and admirer of fine horses Mr. 
 Hubinger is well known on the trotting turf, where 
 to him is applied the familiar title of "Nick," an 
 abbreviation of 'his name, which bespeaks good fel- 
 lowship and admiration. He has owned a numiber 
 of the celebrated turf campaigners of recent years, 
 and in his stables are always to be found some of 
 the speediest of standard-bred stock, the number 
 varying according to sales and purchases, for he 
 takes a deep interest in his horses and in maintain- 
 ing the noble sport of track racing at its highest 
 standard. His connection with the turf has been 
 purely from the standpoint of a gentleman and an 
 enthusiastic admirer of the horse, and the pecuniary 
 interest has been of subordinate character, though 
 his judgment in regard to racing matters has con- 
 sistently been backed by his money, and his win- 
 nings are taken) modestly, his losses met with the 
 spirit of the true sportsman. Horses and the breed- 
 ing of fine stock in that line constitute his recrea- 
 tion and a source of much pleasure, and his means 
 enable him to indulge his taste to 'whatever extent 
 he desires. As a backer of horses Mr. Hubinger 
 is one of the heaviest betters on the American turf 
 to-day, and his judgment in this line is such that it 
 has won him a fortune in a single day. While he 
 is unassuming in his personality, Mr. Hubinger 
 shows his ^ood taste by living in harmony with his 
 ample fortune. In the days when he was less pros- 
 perous his judgment led him to then follow the 
 
 same plan, and he is generous of his own, even as 
 he was provident when necessity or business exi- 
 gencies demanded. His beautiful mansion, in 
 Whalley avenue, was erected by him in "1895, is 
 surrounded by spacious grounds, and is one of the 
 finest homes in the city. Mr. Hubinger has spent 
 no little time in travel, having visited nearly every 
 section of the Union and nearly every place of def- 
 inite interest, his idea being that a man should be- 
 come familiar with the beauties ,and attractions of 
 his own country before seeking those of foreign 
 shores. He is an enthusiastic devotee of rod and 
 gun and vvhen his manifold business interests per- 
 mit his temporary absence he enjoys nothing better 
 than an excursion into the wilds in search of fish 
 or 'game. That the .refined elegancies of life appeal 
 to him' is shown in the support which he gives as a 
 patron of art, the interior of his elegant home bear- 
 ing evidence of his discriminating taste in selection 
 and appreciation. Though for a considerable 
 period in 'Cach year our subject follows the princi- 
 pal turf events in the Union and has a personal ac- 
 quaintance .with a large numiber of sporting men, 
 he has never fallen into habits of intemperance, so 
 common among many of that class, and ever main- 
 tains the dignity becoming a gentleman and a true 
 sportsm'an. 
 
 It is true in the case of the average man who 
 accumulates a competence that he is ever anxious to 
 increase his fortune and to seek new methods of 
 compassing the end. It is not thus with Mr. Hubin- 
 ger, for he is satisfied with what he has and ,with 
 the business ini which he is now concerned, and 
 though he is still a young man, with jnany years 
 of business life before him, he realizes that all is 
 not summied up in the accumulation of mere wealth, 
 and that it is a duty to himself and to the world 
 to make use of his means in the expenditure of a 
 due portion of his income and in the enjoyment 'Of 
 the many legitimate pleasures which his position 
 renders possible. Thus his life is well balanced, 
 and through his personal use of his fortune for the 
 gratification of him'self and his family and his 
 friends he does a genuine good by placing his 
 money in circulation and permitting others to profit 
 through his expenditures. It is now with him a 
 matter of comfort and enjoyment rather than the 
 accumulation: of more. True to the duties and re- 
 sponsibilities of citizenship, he .exercises his fran- 
 chise in support of the Republican' party, but has 
 never had taste nor inclination for active participa- 
 tion in political affairs. 
 
 On 'Nov. 20, 1884, Mr. Hubinger was united 
 in marriage with Miss Jennie Eldert, of Madison, 
 Conn., where she was born, daughter of James El- 
 dert. Mr. and Mrs. Hubinger are the parents of 
 six children, all of whom are living, except one, 
 their names in order of birth, being as follows: 
 Lillian R., Nicholas W., Jr., Paul (who died in 
 childhood), Frederick, Mary P. ariff^ennie. The 
 beautiful family home is a center of gracious and 
 
308 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 refined hospitality, and here is extended a generous 
 welcome tO' the best social element in the city, while 
 all the graces and advantages of wealth are enjoyed 
 by our subject, his wife and their children, whose 
 home life is of ideal character. 
 
 JOHN HENRY GAMIER (deceased) was for 
 almost a quarter century an active factor in the busi- 
 ness life of Meriden and a very successful business 
 man. He was born Oct. 20, 1840, of English par- 
 entage and French descent, near London, England, 
 where he received a good education in his native 
 language, and where he grew to manhood. Being 
 possessed of energy and pluck he resolved, while 
 a young man, to try his fortune in the new world, 
 and set sail for America. He landed at Boston and 
 very soon found a position as shipping clerk with 
 a wholesale gentleman's furnishings house, acquir- 
 ing a thorough acquaintance with the goods and 
 the demands of the trade. In 1878 he became a 
 resident of Meriden and established himself as a 
 retail dealer in clothing and furnishings. He made 
 a success of this venture from the start, and in 1879 
 admitted Almon J. Fletcher to partnership. The 
 business was subsequently conducted under the title 
 of the Boston & Meriden Clothing Co., and con- 
 tinued to flourish, through the industry and atten- 
 tion to the wants of customers practiced by the pro- 
 prietors. In 1883 they established a branch house 
 in Middletown, which was quite as prosperous as 
 the original establishment, and was conducted, in 
 charge of R. W. Camp, under the title of the Bos- 
 ton One-Price Clothing Co. 
 
 Mr. Camier was a sufferer for several years from 
 a complication of disorders, which ultimately caused 
 his death, and he passed away at his home on West 
 Main street, Nov. 2, 1901. In speaking of him, one 
 of the local papers said : "Personally, he was a man 
 of sunny and genial disposition, ever ready to lend 
 a helping hand to those in need. He was patient in 
 suffering, steadfast in faith, and died in the sure 
 hope of the life eternal which is promised to all 
 those who love Him." Mr. Camier's remains re- 
 pose in Walnut Grove cemetery. In his native home 
 he was attached to the Established Church. In 
 Meriden he became a member and trustee of the 
 Main Street Baptist Church. He was a member of 
 Center Lodge, No. 97, A. F. & A. M. ; Keystone 
 Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; Hamilton Council, No. 
 22, R. & S. M. ; and St. Elmo Commandery, No. 
 9, K. T. ; and was also identified with Myrtle Lodge, 
 No. 4, Knights of Pythias. While supporting the 
 principles of Republicanism, he asked no political 
 favors, and spent the little leisure he had in the en- 
 joyment of domestic retirement. He left a name 
 which is a synonym for honesty, sobriety and true 
 worth. 
 
 On Oct. 14, 1878, in Boston, Mr. Camier was 
 married to Miss Nellie J. Warner, who was born in 
 Winchendon, Worcester Co., Mass., elder daughter 
 of the late Edwin T. and Tamma (Davis) Warner. 
 
 Mrs. Warner was a great-granddaughter, in the 
 paternal line, of a Revolutionary soldier. She was 
 descended, in the maternal line, from the Blue fam- 
 ily, which located soon after 1620 at Rehoboth, 
 Mass. The Davis family was also located at that 
 place. Edwin T. Warner was a soldier of the Civil 
 war, serving in the Sixty-first Massachusetts Regi- 
 ment. Mrs. Camier is a member of the Second 
 Baptist Church, a lady of many domestic virtues, 
 who cared for her husband with great devotion 
 through his years of infirm health. 
 
 ALMON JOHN FLETCHER, of the Boston 
 & Meriden Clothing Co., Meriden, was born Aug. 
 15, 1842, in Acworth, Sullivan Co., N. H. His 
 father, John Fletcher, was also a native of that 
 State, where he learned the trade of carpenter and 
 joiner, and this pursuit occupied his most active 
 years. With advancing age he removed to' Litch- 
 field, Meeker Co., Minn., where he passed the bal- 
 ance of his days, giving some attention to farming, 
 and died April 29, 1896. He was a member of the 
 M. E. Church, and a Republican in politics. John 
 Fletcher married Almina Tandy, a native of New 
 Hampshire, where she died before the removal of 
 her husband to the West. She was also a member 
 of the Methodist Church. 
 
 Almon J. Fletcher grew up on a farm in East 
 Lempster, Sullivan Co., N. H., and attended the 
 district schools of the locality. Being somewhat 
 ambitious, he has supplemented the ordinary train- 
 ing afforded the youth of the neighborhood by ob- 
 servation and business experience. Before he at- 
 tained his majority the Civil war began, and he en- 
 listed as a soldier in Company G, 9th N. H. V I., 
 under Col. Fellows and Capt. S. A. Whitfield, for 
 three years. He went to the front with his regi- 
 ment and stood the shock of battle at South Moun- 
 tain and Antietam, two of the most sanguinary en- 
 gagements of the Civil war. At the latter place he 
 received a shell wound in the right shoulder, which 
 caused his discharge for disability. He returned 
 home to recuperate, and when strong enough to 
 labor went to Winchendon, Mass., and was em- 
 ployed there three years in a machine shop. He 
 was subsequently employed in Boston as a ma- 
 chinist, and later as clerk in a store. In 1879 he 
 came to Meriden and purchased an interest m the 
 store then recently established by John H. Camier, 
 which was thereafter known as the Boston & Meri- 
 den Clothing Co. This establishment has enjoyed 
 a flourishing trade for twenty-three years, as has 
 also a branch establishment at Middletown in 1883, 
 under the title of the Boston. One-Price Clothing- 
 Co. These stores are conducted by Mr. Fletcher 
 and the widow of Mr. Camier, under the supervision 
 of the former. He is well known in Meriden and 
 vicinity as a reliable and capable business man, re- 
 spected for his probity and industry. He is active 
 in church work, being steward and teacher in the 
 Sunday-school of Trinity M. E. Church. Frater- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 309 
 
 nally he is a member of Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. 
 O. O. F., and Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R. In 
 political affairs he acts with the Republican party, 
 but is in no sense a politician. 
 
 6n June 7, 1883, Mr. Fletcher was married in 
 Meriden to. Mrs. Tamma (Davis) Warner, widow 
 of Edwin T. Warner and mother of Mrs. Gamier. 
 She was a very capable business woman, and care- 
 fully conserved the estate inherited from her father. 
 She died Jan.i, 1892, and was buried in Walnut 
 Grove cemetery. Mrs. Fletcher was a member of 
 Trinity M. E. Church, a kind and devoted wife and 
 mother, a true Christian. 
 
 HENRY H. RICHARDS. The earhest Amer- 
 ican ancestor of that branch of the Richards family, 
 to which this prominent and influential citizen of 
 West Haven belongs, was Paul Richards, who 
 landed at New York Dec. 3, 1667, and took his 
 holdings by virtue of a patent granted by Governor- 
 General Richard Nicolls. Tracing down the de- 
 scent from that early settler we find in direct and 
 succeeding line the baptismal names of Stephen ; 
 John (i), died m March, 1765; John (2), born 
 1737; John (3), 1768; and Wilham, the last named 
 being the father of Henry H. For the purpose of 
 the present narrative, however; it is unnecessary to 
 enter into detail as to the family history prior to the 
 time of John, the third of that name, who was the 
 grandfather of the gentleman whose career is un- 
 der consideration. This John Richards was a sea 
 captain, and lost his life upon the element which 
 he so dearly loved, at the early age of thirty-one 
 years. His vessel laden with lumber and bound for 
 Bermuda was lost. A lad of seventeen years was 
 taken from the floating wreck to tell the sad tale 
 of long and terrific storm, and final loss of all but 
 himself clinging to the bowsprit. Capt. Richards 
 was swept from the helm by a huge wave, having 
 refused to leave until swept from it. That wave 
 took all but the boy and one man, who was later 
 washed off the bowsprit. John Richards (3) mar- 
 ried Amarilla Smith, by whom he had four children. 
 His eldest son, William, born June 19, 1794, was 
 the father of Henry H. His widow survived him 
 until she reached the age of seventy-four years. 
 
 For William Richards the sea possessed the same 
 fascination as for his father, and he, too, com- 
 manded a vessel sailing to ports in the West Indies. 
 At length, however, he began to grow weary of 
 adventure with its attendant perils, and bought a 
 farm in West Haven, where he made his home, 
 and where he died in 1861, in his sixty-seventh 
 year. His wife, Mehitable Reynolds, was the 
 daughter of another weather-beaten mariner, Capt. 
 Frederick Reynolds, of West Haven. Of their 
 children five reached maturity : ( i ) Frederick R., 
 of Sidnev, Ohio, was captain of two or three West 
 Indies vessels from New Haven, afterward circum- 
 navigating the globe, and is now retired. (2) 
 Henry H. (3) John M. lives in West Haven; 
 
 (4) Elizabeth E., widow of W. Edson Doolittle. 
 of Cheshire, Conn., has two children, Adella May 
 and Jennie E. Her eldest child, Gertrude, died 
 young. (5) Laura A., deceased, married Charles 
 Woodward, of East Haven, and had two children, 
 Edmund B. and Lulu, the latter now deceased. The 
 other four children were named John W., Edward 
 A., Emily E. and Martha A. The mother of J\Ir. 
 Richards passed away at the age of eighty. Both 
 she and her husband were communicants of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 Henry H. Richards was born in West Haven 
 May 22, 1826. His education was acquired at the 
 best public schools and academy of the town, and 
 by his perseverance and application he acquired an 
 education much above the average of that day. He 
 was later employed as a teacher in East Haven, 
 Southington and West Haven, and afterward with 
 his two brothers embarked in the coal business at 
 New Haven, under the firm name of Richards 
 Brothers. This firm by their own vessel, the "Sam- 
 uel Griscum," received the first cargo of coal shipped 
 from New York ports to New Haven, that came 
 to New York from the coal fields by rail. The 
 eldest brother was the first to withdraw from the 
 firm, and subsequently Henry H. disposed of his 
 interest to the youngest, himself removing his busi- 
 ness interests to West Haven. There in 1861 he 
 opened a coal and wood yard, and later he engaged 
 in the sale of lumber, his place of business being 
 on Water street. After some years of active, suc- 
 cessful, commercial life he disposed of his business 
 to his sons, although still aiding them by wise coun- 
 sel, the fruit of sound judgment and ripe experi- 
 ence. After some time a joint stock company was 
 formed, the name of the concern being The H. H. 
 Richards Lumber Co. Personallv, however, Mr. 
 Richards does not take an especially active part 
 in the control of the company's affairs, his attention 
 being chiefly devoted to the management of his own 
 private business, and particularly of his extensive 
 real estate interests. Despite his seventy-five years 
 he is of sturdy physique and undimmed intellect. 
 He has hewn out his own path to success, his na- 
 tive sagacity suggesting means, and hisi indomit- 
 able resolution overcoming every obstacle. 
 
 Mr. Richards was one of the founders of the 
 Republican party in the town of his residence, but 
 since 1884 has acted with the Prohibitionists. While 
 averse to holding office, he has consented to serve 
 his fellow townsmen as assessor. He is an active 
 worker in the church, having acted as both trustee 
 and steward, and was for many years a teacher in 
 the Sunday-school. 
 
 On Oct. 24, 1849, Mr. Richards was married to 
 Miss Esther C. Ward, of East Haven, a grand- 
 daughter of Samuel, and a daughter of Josiah J. 
 Ward both farmers of Middletown, Conn., although 
 JoSiah J. Ward spent some years in the South. He 
 died at the age of eighty-four. Mrs. Richards' 
 mother's maiden name was Abiah L. Roberts, and 
 
310 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 she was one of six children born to Collins Roberts, 
 of Middletown, who donated the site for the asylum 
 in that city. JMrs. Richards herself is one of a 
 family of eight children, six of whom lived to ma- 
 turity, while three are yet living : Ruth, the widow 
 of Edward Thompson, of East Haven; Maria H., 
 widow of James McLeve, of Portland, Conn., and 
 a resident of New Haven; and Mrs. Richards, 
 Among those deceased were Samuel, Josiah, Will- 
 iam and George. j\Irs. Ward entered into rest in 
 her seventy-fifth year. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Richards have been blessed with 
 ten children, of whom five died young. The living 
 are (i) Fannie M. married John J. Carman, a 
 merchant of Bay Shore, Long Island. (2) Edward 
 A. married Harriet E. Haswell, of Hardinsburg, 
 Ky., and has two children, Florence O. and Hobart 
 H. ; and he is engaged at the old wharf and lumber 
 yard in the lumber business. (3) George O. en- 
 gaged in the lumber trade; he married Mary S. 
 Hyde, of West Haven, and they have four chil- 
 dren, Eleanor B., Esther A., Durell S. and Char- 
 lotte M. (4) Benjamin F., president and director 
 of the H. H. Richards Lumber Co., retired, and 
 is now engaged in the real estate and insurance 
 business; he married Dora B. Seiter, of Monroe, N. 
 Y., and has one son Earl F. (5) Etta Belle is an 
 artist, a graduate of the Yale Art School of Yale 
 University, and lives with her parents. Of the 
 five children who are deceased, Henry Ward died 
 at eleven, Sidney P. at nine and the other three, 
 William, Ruebin and Bertha, in early infancy. 
 
 MINOTTE ESTES CHATFIELD, president 
 and treasurer and principal owner of the Chatfield 
 Paper Co., of New Haven, and prominent in busi- 
 ness circles not only in that city, but throughout the 
 State, is a representative of one of the old Colonial 
 families of Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Chatfield was born March 13, 1859, in Cen- 
 terville, near New Haven, a son of George W. and 
 Cornelia (Ford) Chatfield, and a descendant in the 
 eighth generation from George Chatfield, who came 
 from England in 1639, accompanied by his two 
 brothers, Francis and Thomas, in the party led by 
 Rev. Mr. Whitfield, to Guilford, Conn. George 
 Chatfield married (first) Sarah, daughter of John 
 Bishop. She died in 1657, and on March 19, 1659, 
 he married (second) Isabel, daughter of Samjuel 
 Nettleton. In 1663 he removed to Killingworth, 
 Conn., where his death occurred June 9, 1671. 
 From this first American paternal ancestor our 
 subject's line is through John, Ebenezer, Elnathan, 
 Joel, Oliver Stoddard and George W. Chatfield, all 
 of whom, as well as the eighth and ninth genera- 
 tions, have resided within a radius of twenty-five 
 miles. 
 
 (II) John Chatfield, son of George (the emi- 
 grant) and Isabel, born April 8, 1661, in Guilford, 
 Conn., located in Derby (a single man), receiving 
 his first grant of land and preparing to occupy it in 
 
 1684. In that year he married Anna, daughter of 
 Jabez Harger. He died in 1737. 
 
 (III) Ebenezer Chatfield, son of John, born in 
 Derby July 4, 1703, married in 1728 Abigail, daugh- 
 ter of John Prindle. 
 
 (IV) Elnathan Chatfield, son of Ebenezer, born 
 in 1733, married Hannah Northrup, and resided on 
 the north side of Bladen's brook, in that part of 
 the town of Milford which subsequently became 
 Woodbridge, and still later Bethany. 
 
 (V) Joel Chatfield, son of Elnathan, born in 
 1756, married Nov. 13, 1785, Ruth Stoddard, of 
 Woodbury. He built and lived in a house on the 
 south bank of the stream, near his father's resi- 
 dence. Joel was one of the first Society Committee 
 of the Episcopal Church (now Trinity) of Sey- 
 mour, Conn., in 1797. He died June 14, 1836, at 
 the age of seventy-nine years, being killed by a 
 spring lever while loading lumber. His wife passed 
 away Nov. 21, 1831. 
 
 (VI) Oliver Stoddard Chatfield, son of Joel, 
 was born Nov. 19, 1793, and in 1822 married Abi- 
 gail Tuttle, who was iborn March 28, 1804, daugh- 
 ter of Amasa and Sybil (Wooster) Tuttle, of 
 Middlebury. They lived in a house on the south 
 side of the road .from Seymour to New Haven, 
 which house is still standing, on the boundary line 
 between Woodbridge and Seymour ; across the road 
 a corner of the town of Bethany joins the other 
 towns. Mr. Chatfield was one of the wealthiest 
 men of his day, and was a genial and hospitable 
 host. He owned five farms, and worked them for 
 years, and operated the old family mill, furnish- 
 ing heavy timber for the construction of the old 
 State House, some of the older Yale College build- 
 ings, the First Methodist Church (which used to 
 stand on the corner of the New Haven Green), 
 and other buildings of a public nature. His death 
 occurred I\Iarch 16, 1877, and that of his widow 
 April 14, 1887; she was then the oldest mtember 
 of the Methodist Church in Seymour, with which 
 she had been connected for sixty-seven years. Fra- 
 ternally Mr. Chatfield was a Free Mason, joining 
 King Hiram Lodge, Derby, in 1814. He was cap- 
 tain of a military companv in Bethany. 
 
 (VII) George W. Chatfield, son of Oliver S., 
 and the father of the subject of this biography, was 
 born Oct. 14, 1829, at the old homestead, on fhe 
 line between Woodbridge and Seymour. At the age 
 of twenty-four years he went to Centerville, where 
 he conducted a general store, and in 1865 moved 
 to New Haven and opened up a grocery business in 
 Dixwell avenue, continuing same until 1875, when 
 he engaged in the wholesale notion business, travel- 
 mg about the State. He still resides in New Haven. 
 On Nov. 23, 1853, he married Mrs. Cornelia 
 (Ford) Andrews, who was born Aug. 6, 1830, 
 daughter of Elias Ford, of Hamden. (Elias Ford 
 died March 14, 1899, aged ninety-six years, one 
 month, twelve days. He was a direct descendant of 
 Timothy Ford, one of the original settlers of New 
 

 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 311 
 
 Haven.) ]\Ir. Chatfield is a Free Mason and Odd 
 Fellow. 
 
 The eighth generation of the Chatfield family 
 has these representatives (children of George W.) : 
 Andrew Oliver, of New Haven ; Frank H., of Chi- 
 cago; and Minotte E. The ninth generation is 
 represented by Alfred Burton and Gertrude Yates, 
 children of Andrew Oliver Chatfield; Lena, daugh- 
 ter of Frank H. ; and the children of our subject : 
 Russell Estes, born June 11, 1884; Sterling Rus- 
 sell, bom Sept. 14, 1891 ; and Helen Russell, born 
 Aug. 27, 1893. 
 
 Minotte Estes Chatfield received his preliminary 
 education in the Hopkins Grammar School and the 
 public schools of his native city, and at sixteen 
 years of age entered the New Haven post office, 
 as clerk under the veteran postmaster, Hon. N. D. 
 Sperry, now a member of Congress from the New 
 Haven District. He was thus engaged until 1882, 
 when he entered a large paper and hardware es- 
 tablishment of the same city, continuing his serv- 
 ices with same for seven years. On July i, 1889, 
 he purchased the paper and twine departments of 
 that business house, the branches to which he had 
 given his time and efi'orts, and for the following 
 six years, as proprietor of the Chatfield Paper Co., 
 carried on an extensive and successful paper and 
 twine business. In 1895 was incorporated the Chat- 
 field Paper Co., of which he was made and has 
 since been president and treasurer, and of which 
 'he is the principal stockholder. He is also con- 
 nected with the New Haven Pulp Board Co., of 
 which he is president and a leading stockholder; 
 this company has built and is now operating a large 
 plant at the foot of Green street, on Mill river. 
 Mr. Chatfield is also a stockholder and director in 
 the Evening Leader Co., publishers of the Evening 
 Leader, a daily Republican newspaper of New Ha- 
 ven, and one of the leading papers of the State ; 
 he is also a director in other enterprises. He is a 
 man of recognized business ability, energetic and 
 industrious, and has been noted wherever placed as 
 a faithful and conscientious worker. He has been 
 especially active as a member of the New Haven 
 Young Men's Republican Club, in which since its 
 organization he has held several offices, and he is 
 regarded as one of its faithful members and friends. 
 He has most effectively served his fellow citizens 
 as an alderman and also in the common council; 
 is a trustee of the Old Town Farm, and a director 
 and treasurer of the New Haven Free Public Li- 
 brary. Fraternally he is a member of Hiram Lodge, 
 No.' I, A. F. & A. M. 
 
 On Sept. 29, 1880, Mr. Chatfield was married 
 to Miss Stella Stowe Russell, a daughter of Edwin 
 Russell, of New Haven, formerly of Prospect, 
 Conn., and three children have been born of this 
 union.' Mrs. Chatfield is a direct descendant of 
 Capt. Stephen and Freelove (Baldwin) Stowe, of 
 Milford, Conn., the former of whom lost his life m 
 caring for released Revolutionary soldiers from 
 
 New York prisons. These soldiers were abandoned 
 on Milford Point on account of having the plague, 
 then epidemic in the prisons. Capt. Stowe took 
 pity on them, and was the only one to house and 
 care for them, his reward being his death from 
 the disease. 
 
 MARCUS P. SMITH, a well-known citizen of 
 New Haven and a member of the enterprising firm 
 of Smith Bros., of Oyster Point, was born in West 
 Haven, Conn., Dec. 31, 1846, a son of Wilhs and 
 Sarah L. (Hmman) Smith, and a grandson of 
 Harry Smith. 
 
 Willis Smith was born in West Haven, where 
 the family was one of the oldest and best known 
 and died in New Haven at the age of seventy years. 
 With his brother, Jeremiah Smith, he was among 
 the earliest men to see the advantages to be gained 
 by embarking in the business of oyster farming 
 along this coast, the required conditions here being 
 excellent. Later in life, with his sons, he became in- 
 terested in the firm known to the trade as Smith 
 Bros. From his marriage into the Hinman family, 
 one of the old and esteemed ones of Middlebury, 
 was born' a family of nine children, seven of these 
 still surviving, as well as the most estimable and 
 beloved mother. 
 
 Marcus P. Smith was four years of age when 
 his parents moved to City or Oyster Point, receiv- 
 ing his education in the schools of that locality and 
 in the Washington school, in New Haven. For 
 some time prior to his own active entrance into the 
 oyster farming business he managed for his father, 
 but later formed a partnership with his brother, 
 Riley T., and for twenty-five years this firm has 
 stood for reliability and excellence of product. The 
 business has increased to immense prof>ortions, the 
 sales being entirely wholesale, 20,000 bushels to one 
 party not being an unusual transaction. 
 
 On June 15, 1869, Mr. Smith was united in 
 marriage to Fannie A. Thomas, who was bom in 
 New Haven, although her parents were natives of 
 West Haven. The two sons of this union are : 
 George T. and Leslie P. Smith. The beautiful fam- 
 ily home, which Mr. Smith built in 1890, is located 
 at No. 194 Howard avenue, where a generous hos- 
 pitality is dispensed by its courteous and genial 
 owner, his intimate friends being numbered among 
 the most prominent social figures of the city. 
 Mrs. Smith is a member of the Howard Avenue 
 M. E. Church. 
 
 In political life Mr. Smith has been particularly 
 noted, a leading member of the Republican party, 
 at one time pMDlice commissioner, declining all other 
 honors, even the mayoralty. Fraternally he is con- 
 nected with the order of A. O. U. W., was a charter 
 member of Sterling Lodge, No. 43, and for a period 
 served as one of the trustees. For eight years he 
 has been connected with the Union League Club, 
 and has been a member of the board of govemors 
 and chairman of the supply committee, also serving 
 
312 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 this club one year as a director. For seven years 
 he has been a member of the Chamber of Com- 
 merce. In social circles Mr. Smith is popular and 
 active, possessing a pleasing personality, a gift of 
 oratory and the ease and poise of manner that 
 wealth and culture gives. At a late elaborate dinner 
 given by his club to Congressman Sperry, Mr. Smith 
 Was the orator of the occasion, acquitting himself 
 in his usual happy manner. 
 
 GEORGE HOXIE BEEBE, M. D., the oldest 
 medical practitioner in the town of Guilford, is a 
 natiiive of Rhode Island, born Feb. i, 1855, ™ 
 Westerly. 
 
 Dr. Beebe is the only son of Rev. D. F. and 
 Sarah E. (Witter) Beebe, the former of whom was 
 a native of Litchfield county. Conn., andl was an 
 ordained minister of the Baptist Church, spending 
 his life in that service. His latter years were passed 
 at Rocky Hill, Hartford Co., Conn., and he dfed 
 May 16, 1897, at Colebrook, Conn., while on a 
 visit, his remains being interred there temporarily. 
 He was well known in connection with his life 
 work. Mrs. Beebe, who was born at Westerly, still 
 makes her home at Rocky Hill; she is a lady of 
 culture and refinement. 
 
 George H. Beebe attended the common and high 
 schools of his birthplace, and later Hopkinton (R. 
 I.) Acaidemy, from which he was graduated. After 
 teaching school for a year he entered the Medical 
 School of Yale, where he studied a short time, com- 
 pleting his professional preparation at the Univer- 
 sity of New York, where he graduated, receiving 
 his diploma in the spring of 1878. His first loca- 
 tion for practice was at Pontiac, III, as he con- 
 sidered the West the best field for a young practi- 
 tioner, and he remained there three years. The 
 next four years he practiced at Charlestown, in hjiis 
 native State, and in 1885 came to his present loca- 
 tion, where he has been continuously engaged in 
 active practice to the present time. He succeeded 
 to the practice of the late Dr. Hamilton, and has, 
 by skill and devotion to the wantS' of httis patients, 
 built up a large and lucrative clientele, his dWies 
 taking him from Guilford to Madison, North Guil- 
 ford, North Branford, and other places in the neigh- 
 borhood. Personally the Doctor is genlial and so- 
 ciable, and though his professional success is quite 
 sufficient evidence in itself of his popularity he is 
 no less esteemed in other lines. A stanch Repub- 
 lican in politics, he is an eannest supporter of the 
 principles of bis party, but be is not a politician in 
 the sense oif office seeking. However, the people of 
 the town have chosen him to serve as health officer 
 and- on the school board, of which he is secretary, 
 and on which he has done efficient work. Socially 
 he is a member of the New England Order of Pro- 
 tection, the Royal Arcanum (in both of which he is 
 medical examiner), St. Alban Lodge, F. & A. M., 
 of Guilford, and the Chapter. His religious con- 
 nection is with the Congregational Church, to which 
 Ms wife also' belongs. 
 
 Dr. Beebe was married in Westerly, April 29, 
 1879, to Miss May E. Lewis, a native of North 
 Stonington, Conn., and daughter of Henry Lewis. 
 Three children have blessed this union : Grace, 
 born Sept. 15, 1884; Florence, born Dec. 7, 1886; 
 and Albert Lewis, born May 6, 1889; the daughters 
 are now attending high school. Mrs. Beebe is an 
 intelligent, cultured woman, and a leader in social 
 circles in Guilford, where she shares fully the es- 
 teem and popularity enjoyed by her husband. 
 
 KENDRICK. For three quarters of a century, 
 through three generations, the family bearing this 
 name have been prominent in the annals of Water- 
 bury, among those conspicuously prominent and 
 useful being Hon. Greene Kendrick, Hon. John 
 Kendrick and Hon. Greene Kendrick (2), father, 
 son and grandson. 
 
 John Kendrick, the grandfather of Hon. Greene 
 Kendrick, and a descendant of an ancestor who came 
 to Massachusetts, was a Virginian, born about 1735, 
 and in his native . State was occupied in growing 
 tobacco. Of his four sons, John, William, James 
 and Benjamin, and several daughters, John Kend- 
 rick, the eldest son, was born in 1764, removed to 
 North Carolina about 1786, and was occupied as a 
 cotton planter. His wife Martha, born in 1763, was 
 a daughter of a wealthy planter, believed to be of 
 Welsh descent. John Kendrick wasi a man of 
 marked ability, religious character, and of eminent 
 usefulness in the affairs of the Church, State and 
 society. He was a deacon in the Baptist Church. 
 His wife was a woman of great force of char- 
 acter, and at their home was dispensed a generous 
 hospitality. He died in 1823, and his wife passed 
 away in 1825. They were the parents of eleven 
 children, eight sons and three daughters, nine of 
 whom became heads of families. 
 
 Greene Kendrick, son of John Kendrick, was 
 born April i, 1798, the seventh in a family of eleven 
 children, at the homestead near Charlotte, N. C, 
 and in that locality attended school, later assisting 
 in the management of the plantation. At about 
 twenty he engaged in the mercantile business at 
 Charlotte, and in 1829 he located in Waterbury, and 
 from that time on until his death figured pre-emi- 
 nently in its industrial life and in all of its affairs, 
 public and social. He had married, June 12, 1823, 
 at Augusta, Ga., Anna M., daughter of Mark Leav- 
 enworth, and a native of Waterbury, with whom 
 he lived happily for forty-seven years. It was 
 through the influence of Mr. Leavenworth that he 
 came North and located in Waterbury, where he 
 became a member of the firm of Mark Leavenworth 
 & Co., manufacturers of clocks, the firm later be- 
 ing styled Leavenworth & Kendrick. They were 
 among the first to engage in the manufacture of gilt 
 buttons, out of which industry grew the manufacture 
 of brass. Mr. Kendrick subsequently engaged in the 
 manufacture of pocket cutlery, and organized the 
 Waterbury Manufacturing Co., which under his 
 direction procured skilled labor from abroad and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 313 
 
 proved the practicability of competing successfully 
 with Europe in this useful art. He aiso later or- 
 ganized and successfully established under peculiar 
 difficulties the Oakville Pin Co. He was linterested 
 in the American Suspender Co., and many other 
 manufacturing corporations. In the latter years of 
 his life he obtained the controlling interest in the 
 minufacture o*^ filver-p^ated ware, then recently es- 
 t; blished in V.'aterbuiy by Rogers & Brother. While 
 rxtive in the ''ndustries of Waterbury at home, he 
 served the town abroad yet more efficiently in the 
 combining of capital in co-operative work. The 
 passage of the measure gave a stimulus to all man- 
 ufacturing in Connecticut, especially in Waterbury. 
 
 In the days of the old Whig party Mr. Kendrick 
 was an able exponent of its doctrines in town, State 
 and national affairs — loyal to it as long as it ex- 
 isted, and then stood aside, acting with the Demo- 
 cratic party so far as he acted at all. He was ever 
 loyal to his convictions of right, following them 
 without regard to party lines. By native manliness 
 and justice, he outgrew party bondage, and in his 
 later years sought to conciliate and harmonize the 
 differing elements of strife, always preferring prin- 
 ciple to party. Born in the South, he deeply re- 
 gretted the necessity of war, 'but when it came he 
 was loyal to his adopted section. 
 
 !Mr. Kendrick was many times honored by his 
 fellow citizens by election to public trusts. He was 
 a representative from the town eight times in the 
 Legislature, and three times from the district in the 
 State Senate. He was honored with the office of 
 lieutenant-governor of the State in 1851, and sub- 
 sequently in an election by the Legislature he came 
 within one vote of being chosen governor. He was 
 Speaker of the House in 1854 and 1856, and in the 
 latter year was the candidate of his party in the 
 Legislature for United States Senator, and by only 
 two votes was defeated bv L. S. Foster. 
 
 Mr. Kendrick took an active interest in every- 
 thing that looked to the prosperity of Waterbury. 
 For many years he was chairman of the board of 
 education and also president of the board of agents 
 of the Bronson Library. "His convictions of re- 
 ligious truth were profound, but he was not a 
 Church member, for he could not adopt a creed as 
 a whole unless he was willing to accept it in detail. 
 Here, if anywhere, he believed, was the place for 
 frankness and honesty; if he could not enter the 
 Church without mental reservations, he would not 
 enter at all. Yet his interest in the Church was 
 deep and permanent, and in all that concerned its 
 material prosperity he served it faithfully." He was 
 active in the support of the First Congregational 
 Church, and was chairman of the Society building 
 committee in 1840. In the midst of a busy life he 
 was ever ready to lead in all movements to improve 
 and beautify the town, and was a leading spirit in 
 making Center Square Park, and was one of the 
 pioneers in the movement to open Riverside Cem- 
 etery, devoting him&elf to complete the organiza- 
 tion of the plan ; he was also chairman of the Board 
 
 of Trustees, and delivered the address at its dedica- 
 tion. He was a promoter of the Naugatuck rail- 
 road. Mr. Kendrick was an orator of exceptional 
 power, and had he devoted himself to public life 
 he would have been a leader in legislative bodies. 
 Mr. Kendrick died Aug. 26, 1873. his wife having 
 preceded him three years, dying Alay 6, 1870. Their 
 children were: John, Katherine (Mrs. Frederick 
 G. Wheeler) and Martha. 
 
 Hon. John Kendrick, son of Greene and Anna 
 M. (Leavenworth) Kendrick, was born May 27, 
 1825, near Charlotte, N. C, but was brought by his 
 parents when four years of age to Waterbury, 
 Conn. Prepared for college at the school of Stiles 
 French, in New Haven, he entered Yale College, 
 from which he was graduated in 1843. Returning 
 to Waterbury, he was for a time assistant teacher 
 in the academy there, later for a time being en- 
 gaged in mercantile business in New York. He be- 
 gan the study of law at Waterbury in 1845, in the 
 office of N. J. Bull, and later attended the Yale 
 Law School. He was admitted to the Bar in 1847 
 at the age of twenty-two, and opened an office in 
 Waterbury. Like many another gifted son of 
 genius, he found the law a dry study, and the neces- 
 sary confinement to his office was peculiarly irksome 
 to one of his active temperament ; moreover, the 
 road to income and fortune was much easier and 
 shorter in those early days of manufacturing in 
 Waterbury outside of a law office than in it, and 
 so after a year or so he became a manufacturer. 
 Here he made a mistake of which he was con- 
 scious in later years, and so some two years be- 
 fore his death lie returned to the Bar in company 
 with his son Greene, in whom chiefly he had gar- 
 nered up his heart. Had he been faithful to the 
 law from the outset, endowed with that genial 
 sunny disposition, that lively wit and playful fancy, 
 that brilliant intentive and comprehensive intellect, 
 and that remarkable faculty of influencing and 
 gaining over his fellow men, none that knew him 
 well ever doubted that greatness, as the world es- 
 teems greatness, would have been easily achieved 
 by him. 
 
 Mr. Kendrick was repeatedly honored with the 
 votes of his fellow citizens. In 1848 he was elected 
 town clerk. He was first chief judge of the citv 
 court upon its organization of the city government. 
 He was three times mavor of Waterbury — 1864, 
 1865 and 1868. He was in the Legislature in i86g, 
 and in 1871 was the candidate of his party for Con- 
 gress, but was unsuccessful in the election that fol- 
 lowed, and at the time of his death lie was serving 
 as city attorney. From 1857 to 1859 he was as- 
 sistant editor of the New Haven Register, and was 
 once a defeated candidate for probate judge. Both 
 of his defeats referred to were owing to strife in 
 the ranks of his own party. Mr. Kendrick at the 
 time of his death was one of the agents of the 
 Bronson- Library Fund, and a member of the Dem- 
 ocratic State Commdttee, a position he had filled 
 for several years, For upwards of thirty years Mr. 
 
3H 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Kendrick had exercised a powerful influence in the 
 poHtics of Connecticut. He was first a Whig and 
 afterward a Democrat. Mr. Kendrick was a mem- 
 ber of the famous Peace Convention at Philadel- 
 phia in 1866. In 1869 he received an appointment 
 from Gen. Grant as special bearer of the treaties 
 which had been made with the Belgian government, 
 and spent some time in European iravel. He was 
 a classical scholar with a natural capacity for lan- 
 guages. 
 
 Mr. Kendrick married Marion Marr, and their 
 children vftre: (i) John Kendrick, born May 31, 
 1850, became a lawyer by profession but pursued 
 a business career; he became a successful inventor 
 and died at Dayton, Ohio, April 27, 1895. (2) 
 Greene Kendrick is mentioned farther on. 
 
 With a thorough and intimate knowledge from 
 his youth of the greater doctrines of our religion, 
 and an intellectual behef in their truth, it was not 
 until the beginning of his last illness that he ad- 
 dressed himself in earnest to the work of prepara- 
 tion for the great change which he thought could 
 not be far distant. Few men ever more readily de- 
 tected hypocrisy, few more utterly scorned pharisa- 
 ism, and so, honest with himself and with humanity, 
 he approached his God. He left with his friend's a 
 most gratifying and consoling evidence that he died 
 with the faith and hope of a Christian. His death 
 occurred May 27, 1877. 
 
 "In a city as large as Waterbury when a man 
 dies the wave soon passes over him and he is 
 seldom in men's thoughts, less frequently upon 
 their tongues ; but for many years to come John 
 Kendrick will be spoken of with many a kindly 
 reminiscence. The poor will long remember that 
 large heart, that open hand. Few men ever lived 
 in this community whose virtues men so kindly ap- 
 preciated, and to whose failings men were so will- 
 ingly a little blind." 
 
 Hon. Greene Kendrick, son of John and 
 Marion (Marr) Kendrick, was born. May 31, 1851, 
 in Waterbury, Conn. He attended school at Water- 
 bury, and was prepared for college at Round Hill 
 school in Northampton, Mass. He was graduated 
 from Yale College in the class of 1872, having been 
 the Berkley scholar for three years. After his grad- 
 uation he took one year of post-graduate work, then 
 entered the Yale Law School, from which he was 
 graduated in 1875, having taken the Jewell, Ed- 
 wards and Roman Law prizes, which were all that 
 were oflFered that year. He was admitted to the 
 Bar June 8, 1875, and began practice with his fa- 
 ther, and on the death of the father in 1877 he was 
 appointed city attorney to fill out the father's un- 
 expired term'. From 1874 to 1879 Mr. Kendrick 
 was city clerk, and auditor of State from 1875 to 
 1881. He was a member of the board of educa- 
 tion from 1875 to 1883 ; represented Waterbury in 
 the State Legislature in 1876, 1877 and 1878; and 
 was mayor of the city in 1882 and 1883. In 1888 
 ]\Ir. Kendrick moved to New York, where he was 
 
 admitted to the Bar of that city and became a 
 member of the law firm of Finley & Kendrick. He 
 was associate counsel wdth the late Col. Robert G. 
 Ingersoll in the celebrated contest over the Hart 
 will. He returned to Waterbury in 1892. 
 
 SAMUEL HENRY WOODRUFF YALE, late 
 secretary and treasurer of the Meriden Savings 
 Bank, was a member of the well-known family 
 which gave its name to New Haven's famous col- 
 lege. The first of the name in this country was 
 Capt. Thomas Yale, whose history is fully given in 
 the genealogy of Horace Yale elsewhere. (II) 
 Capt. Thomas Yale, of the second generation, is 
 also described in the same article. Hist brother, 
 Elihu Yale, made a contribution to the funds of the 
 Connecticut Institute, which thereupon adopted his 
 name and became Yale College. 
 
 (III) Capt. Theophilus Yale, son of Capt. 
 Thomas (II), was born Nov. 13, 1675, in Walling- 
 ford, and married Sarah, daughter of Rev. Samuel 
 and Anna Street, of the same town. He was a 
 magistrate from 1724 until his death, Sept. 13, 1760, 
 and held many offices, civil and military. His 
 widow died at the home of their son-in-law, Joseph 
 Hough, Nov. 28, 1784, aged ninety-four years. 
 Their children were: Elihu, Ann, Samuel, Theo- 
 philus', Sarah, Catherine and Mary. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Yale, son of Capt. Theophilus, 
 was born Jan. 28, 171 1, in Wallingford, and was a 
 farmer in the northern part of the town, the present 
 site of Yalesviile. He died Oct. 6, 1754, leaving a 
 large estate. On March 11, 1736, he married Sus- 
 annah Abernethy, of Wallingford, who died May 
 30, 1770, at the age of fifty-nine years. Their 
 children were: Samuel, Street, Susannah (who mar- 
 ried first a Parker, second a Hamilton, and lived 
 at Egremont, Mass.), Charles, Waitstill and Amasa. 
 
 (V) Of the life of Street Yale, son of Samuel, 
 of Wallingford, little is known. The dates of his 
 birth and death cannot be found. The maiden name 
 of his wife, Mary, is also unknown. She sur- 
 vived him, and passed away at Ballston. N. Y. 
 Their children, all Dorn in Wallingford, were: 
 Samuel, Reuben, Ruth, Charles (died in infancy), 
 Charles and Mary. 
 
 (VI) Samuel Yale, eldest child of Street, was 
 born Aug. 18, 1763, in Wallingford. He married 
 (first) Eunice Paine, of Meriden, and (second) 
 Mebetable Rice, of Wallingford. He was the first 
 rnanufacturer in Meriden, commlencing the produc- 
 tion of cut nails in 1791. His shop was a small 
 building on the hill, near the present site of the 
 Center Congregational Church, and there he and 
 his son operated a nail machine by hand, heading 
 each nail separately. In 1794 he commenced the 
 manufacture of pewter buttons, and employed sev- 
 eral hands. He accumulated a handsome estate. 
 To his first marriage came children as follows: 
 William was born ]\Iarch 17, 1784; Roxana, born in 
 1786, married Jonathan Y. Clark, and died Sept. 
 
-!§, ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 315 
 
 26, 1828; Samuel was born April 4, 1787; Charles, 
 April 20, 1790; Iva, March 31, 1792; Selden, Feb. 
 29, 1795; Hiram, born March 27, 1799, married 
 Rosetta Robinson April 6, 1821, and died July 21, 
 1831. His widow married William Carter, of 
 Wallingford. The children of the second wife 
 were : Maria, born Nov. 30, 1804, married E. N. 
 Howard; and Mehetable, born in October, 1808; 
 married Thomas Tyler — all of Meriden. 
 
 (VII) Samuel Yale, second son and third child 
 of Samuel, was born April 4, 1787, in Wallingford, 
 and married Laminta, daughter of Jehiel Clark, of 
 Meriden. At an early age he began to assist his 
 father in the manufacture of cut nails and, later, 
 pewter buttons. After the death of the father 
 the sons Samuel and Hiram continued the business 
 which he had founded. They spent several years 
 at Richmond, Va., in the tin business. Returning 
 to Meriden, they were joined by their brothers Will- 
 iam and Charles in the production of tin and 
 Britannia ware. Their goods were distributed 
 chiefly by peddlers. Being progressive and enter- 
 prising, the brothers brought skilled artisans from 
 England and were soon foremost in the Britannia 
 trade, furnishing the finest tea and church services 
 and similar goods. Charles and Hiram Yale re- 
 moved to Wallingford, and Samuel remained in 
 Meriden and continued the tin and Britannia busi- 
 ness, having a shop for some time on Liberty 
 street, later at the corner of Broad and East Main 
 streets. He retired in 1858. In early life Mr. 
 Yale was a deputy sheriff several years. He was 
 made a director of the Meriden Bank on its or- 
 ganization, and held that position until his death. 
 During the existence of the Meriden Academical 
 Association he was its president and a trustee. It 
 was through his influence that the first Abolition 
 meeting in Merid€n was permitted to be held in 
 the school house near his horrte on Broad street. In 
 1850 he built what was known as the Odd Fellows' 
 building, on the site of the present Broad Street 
 Hall, owned by Meriden Center Lodge, I. O. O. F., 
 and in 1856 he erected the brick block at the north- 
 east corner of East Main and Broad streets. Mr. 
 Yale died March 12, 1864, aged seventy-seven 
 years, and his widow passed away one year later, 
 in her seventy-ninth year. Their children were : 
 Caroline, born July 3, 1813, died June 25, 1814; 
 Henry Clark, born Oct. 29, 1815, died April 15, 
 1817; Jane Ann, born Dec. 20, 1820, died Nov. 20, 
 1842; Samuel H. was born July 30, 1822; and 
 Hiram A. was born Nov. 5, 1824. 
 
 (VIII) Samuel H. Yale, son of Samuel, was 
 born July 30, 1822, and reared in Meriden, and 
 was early associated with his father and brother in 
 manufacturing tin and Britannia ware. He died 
 April 18, 1846, eighteen years previous to the death 
 of his father. In 1843 he married Miss Susan 
 Woodruff, daughter of Daniel and Eliza (Bristol) 
 Woodruff, of Southington, Conn. His widow sur- 
 vived him only one year, passing away in 1847. 
 
 The subject of these lines was the only child of 
 this union. 
 
 Samuel Henry Woodruff Yale was born April 
 18, 1844, in Meriden. By the untimely death of his 
 parents he was left an orphan at the age of two 
 years, and was reared by his grandparents. He 
 acquired his education in the public schools and 
 acaclemy of Meriden, studied Greek, French and 
 German, and was prepared for college. Determin- 
 ing upon a business career, while still a youth he 
 entered the Meriden Savings Bank as clerk, grad- 
 ually winning promotion until he became secretary 
 and treasurer, which position he filled thirteen years 
 or until his death, which occurred Nov. 2, 1890. 
 His remains repose in the beautiful East cemetery. 
 
 From early youth Samuel H. W. Yale was a 
 reader and close student of men and affairs. He 
 rarely played like other boys, but made companions 
 of books. Being well read, he was an excellent 
 conversationalist, and his large library afforded au- 
 thorities upon every subject of human interest. His 
 gentle and modest character endeared him to all 
 with whom he came in contact. In political prin- 
 ciple he was a Democrat, but he was not in any 
 sense a politician. Of domestic tastes, he lived a 
 strictly temperate life, and his death was a source 
 of regret to many citizens of Meriden beside his 
 imjmediate relatives. 
 
 On July 26, 1876, in Meriden, Mr. Yale married 
 Cecelia Ida Saleski, a lady of great business ability. 
 Three children came to this union, viz. : Samuel 
 S., a very intellectual and promising youth, who 
 died in 1895, and was interred in East cemetery; 
 Cecelia Maria ; and Ethel Laminta. The daughters 
 are graduates of Kenwood Sacred: Heart Convent, 
 Albany, N. Y., and are popular in Meriden social 
 circles. Mrs. Yale has carefully conserved and 
 improved the estate left by her husband, and has 
 built several houses in the city. Her beautiful 
 home, at the corner of Broad and Wall streets, has 
 been remodeled after plans of her own and is one of 
 the most desirable residences in Meriden. 
 
 BENJAMIN PAGE, one of Meriden's leading 
 citizens and successful men of affairs, is the senior 
 member of the old established insurance and real- 
 estate firm of Page & Pardee. He was born in the 
 town of North Branford, Conn., Sept. 4, 1840, a 
 son of Benjamin and Sarah E. (Merriam) Page, 
 and a brother of Rev. Charles Page, of North Bran- 
 ford, and of John M. Page, a well-known merchant 
 of Naugatuck, in whose biographies will be found 
 the family genealogy. 
 
 From early life Benjamin Page showed an in- 
 tellectual leaning, his anxiety to obtain an educa- 
 tion making that the chief business of his life until 
 the age of seventeen, when he was first engaged as 
 a teacher. Full preparation had been made for this 
 profession, Mr. Page having been educated in the 
 public schools, supplemented by a short course at 
 the New Britain State Normal School. A general 
 
3i6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 course of reading further stimulated a naturally 
 quick understanding. 
 
 Finishing his first school term in Wallingford 
 with success, he followed the profession in East 
 Haven and North Branford, and for a term of four 
 years was the efficient principal of the South Meri- 
 den school. While still engaged in his professional 
 duties he established an insurance business, this be- 
 ing the same which has been so well known through 
 the county and State for the past thirty-six years. 
 From a small beginning, in 1865, it has grown in 
 importance until now it covers a large field and 
 ranks with the best in this part of Connecticut. 
 Since 1892 the firm has had added strength through 
 the admission of Mr. L. C. Pardee as a partner, 
 a young man of push and energy, who is fully in 
 accord with Mr. Page in business methods. Mr. 
 Page has done an extensive business in the settling 
 up of estates in and around Meriden, his unques- 
 tionable honesty, experience and excellent judgment 
 making him a very reliable and prominent man in 
 this line of business. 
 
 ^[r. Page is a man of excellent business ability, 
 possessing a strong grasp of affairs, while at the 
 same time employing only those methods which 
 gain the confidence of the public. No small amount 
 of his success has resulted from his known personal 
 integrity. He came to Aferiden without capital or 
 influential friends to aid him, and attained success 
 through energy, industry and good business meth- 
 ods. 
 
 At about the age of twenty-five Mr. Page be- 
 came identified with the Republican party, and has 
 since been a stanch supporter of its principles. His 
 services were recognized in 1883 bv an election to a 
 seat in the city council as alderman from the Third 
 ward, which office he held by re-election for a period 
 of four years, the last two of which he was presi- 
 dent pro tern. The strict performance of official 
 duty, without fear or favor, made him a most desir- 
 able candidate for the honorable position of mayor, 
 and to that office he was elected, in 1889. His ad- 
 ministration was characterized with so much wis- 
 dom and such a general improvement along munici- 
 pal lines, that his fellow-citizens again so honored 
 him, in 1890, and after serving with dignity, useful- 
 ness and ability for two years, he was tendered a 
 third nomination, but this be declined. His party, 
 however, did not permit his etirement to priva^te 
 life, but elected him to represent his town in the State 
 Legislature, in 1894, this duty being performed with 
 the same scrupulous honesty which has character- 
 ized all his official life. During his legislative term 
 he was made clerk of the committee on Insurance, 
 his knowledge of the subject making this a pe- 
 culiarly wise selection. For a period of ten years, 
 Mr. Page filled the offices of city and town collector, 
 during which time millions of the public funds 
 passed through his hands. In January, 1902, he 
 was appointed fire commissioner by Mayor Seeley. 
 In all public affairs and at city functions, Mr. Paee 
 
 is in great demand as a presiding officer, the 
 ease and dignity with which he performs the duty 
 reflecting credit both on bim and his city. How- 
 ever, although forced by circumstances into public 
 life, Mr. Page is domestic in his tastes, and finds 
 his greatest pleasure in his own home, which is pre- 
 sided over by his most estimable wife. 
 
 In 1864 Benjamin Page was married in North 
 Branford, to Miss Margaret A. Cook, who was 
 born in Wallingford, a daughter of Leverett and 
 Thankful (Stevens) Cook. Mrs. Page is a worthy 
 descendant of an old Wallingford family of prom- 
 inence. The only child born to this marriage is Jen- 
 nie A., who is the wife of Frederick W. Kilbourne, 
 of Springfield, Massachusetts. Fraternally Mr. 
 Page has long been an active member of Meridian 
 Lodge, No. yy, A. F. & A. M., and Pacific Lodg-e, 
 No. 87, I. O. O. F. Both he and his wife are de- 
 voted members of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 
 where for a number of years he has been warden and 
 vestryman, devoting time and means to the support 
 and extension of the influences of this church. Very 
 charitable, he has always taken a deep interest in 
 the benevolent enterprises of the city, materially as- 
 sisting when it has been within his power. Mr. 
 Page is a director in the Meriden Savings Bank, 
 president of the Curtis Home, and a director in the 
 Aliddlesex Mutual Assurance Company of Middle- 
 town. It is not too much to say of Benjamin Page 
 that, as he has been shown wise in counsel, few men 
 have been proved more scrupulously faithful in at- 
 tending to the duties o'f public office. 
 
 JAMES TOLLES, teller of the ,New Haven 
 County National Bank, New Haven, is a repre- 
 sentative of one of the oldest families of West 
 Haven, and was bom there July 8, 1848, in a house 
 near his present residence. The house was built 
 before 1800 by his grandfather, Capt. Dann Tolles, 
 a sea captain, who was a native of West Haven, 
 and passed his time there when on shore. This 
 v/orthy citizen died in 1833, aged fifty-eight years. 
 His (second) wife, Lucy (Smith), was a daughter 
 of Jeremiah Smith, also a native of West Haven. 
 She was the mother of ten children, and lived to 
 the 'age of sixty-seven years, dying in 1844. 
 
 James Tolles, our subject's father, was born in 
 1810, in the house -mentioned above, and was reared 
 upon a farm, the property belonging to his father. 
 He learned the shoemaker's trade, in all its details, 
 of Newton Stevens, and, the order trade being a 
 profitable one, followed same for some years in West 
 flaven, and for one winter in the South. Later he 
 retired to the old homestead, where he died in 1868, 
 aged fifty-eight. In politics he was a Republican, 
 and he and his estimable wife were devout members 
 of the Congregational Church. James Tolles mar- 
 ried Miss Julia A. Stevens, a member of an old fam- 
 ily O'f this section, daughter of Newton and Polly 
 Stevens ; the latter belonged to the well-known Rey- 
 nolds family di this county. Our subject's mother 
 
/i^^f^'C^-^fV 
 
 tA^^. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 317 
 
 died aged ei'ghty-two. Of three children, our sub- 
 ject James, who was the youngest, is now the only 
 one living; Arabella married Joseph Ridley; Jessie 
 died in infancy. 
 
 James Tolles spent much of his early life at the 
 homestead, and after completing a district-school 
 course attended the Smith School, at New Haven, 
 Brown's Boarding School, in West Haven, and the 
 Stevens & Wells Business College, in New Haven. 
 In 1866, on leaving the last named institution, he 
 entered the New Haven County National Bank as 
 clerk, and was soon promoted to the post of book- 
 keeper, which he held twenty years. In 1888 he be- 
 came teller. At present he is the second oldest offi- 
 cial in the bank. In 1871 Mr. Tolles huilt his present 
 residence, at No. 227 Elm street. West Haven, and 
 he and his family are prominent in the best social 
 circles of the place. He is a deacon in the Congre- 
 gational Church, and has been very active in reli- 
 gious affairs, while his children are equally zealous 
 in the work of the Sunday-school and the Christian 
 Endeavor Society. Politically he is a Republican, 
 and his interest in the cause of education has been 
 shown by many years of service on the board of ed- 
 ucation, part of the time as clerk and treasurer; 
 he is now treasurer of the West Haven school. 
 Having passed his entire life at West Haven, he 
 has seen much of the development of the place, the 
 bridge and the horse railroad being among the 
 notable improvements. 
 
 On Sept. 27, 1871, Mr. Tolles married Miss Ida 
 Louise Pardee, and of their seven children six are 
 living, as follows : Katherine, wife of George Leete 
 Peck; Harry C, a graduate of the West Haven 
 schools, now in the employ of Stoddard, Gilbert & 
 Co. ; Jessie L., wife of Edward G. W. Gilbert, owner 
 of the Imperial Laundry, New Haven; James M., 
 with Stoddard, Gilbert & Co. ; Isabelle S. ; and Ray- 
 mond Pardee. Mrs. ToUes was born in Allingtown, 
 daughter of Silas Pardee, a joiner and farmer by 
 occupation, and for many years a prominent citizen 
 of that locality. He died in March, 1901, and his 
 wife, Catherine (Beardsley), died aged fifty-nine 
 years. Mrs. Tolles is the younger of two children ; 
 her sister Isabelle is now the wife of John E. War- 
 ner, of Hamden. 
 
 WILLIAM M. KING. Among the business 
 lines which have continued to prosper through a 
 long period in the city of New Haven is the mak- 
 ing of sails, and one of the well-known manufact- 
 urers in this business is William M. King, located 
 at No. 205 Long Wliarf, New Haven. For old 
 residents of this city, a removal of this business 
 house would be regretted — so long has it been a 
 feature of the wharf — and no one could fill the 
 place of its founder, William M. King. 
 
 Mr. King was born in the city of New York, 
 Jan. 27, 1836, a son of James Madison and Mary 
 King, of that citv. Father King was a sailmaker, 
 and he established himself in business at a con- 
 
 venient point at Greenport, L. I., moving later to 
 Fair Haven and then to New Haven, where he 
 died. His two children were both boys, William 
 M. and John, the latter dying at the age of nine 
 years. 
 
 William M. King was reared at Greenport, L. 
 I., and there learned the sailmaking trade of his 
 father, and he accompanied him when he came to 
 Connecticut. In 1859 Mr. King associated with him 
 Cornelius J. Van Name, and they embarked in the 
 business of manufacturing sails, awnings, tents and 
 flags, keeping a supply of tents and canopies' to rent, 
 paying liberal prices for old sails which had out- 
 lived their usefulness in battles with wind and water 
 and for thirty-one years these friends carried on a 
 successful and lucrative business. In 189 1 this' part- 
 nership was dissolved by the death of Mr. Van 
 Name, and since that date it has been continued 
 by Mr. King, at the old stand on Long Wharf. Em- 
 ployment is given to about eight men, and it con- 
 tinues one of the leaders in its line lin this city. 
 On March 11, 1856, Mr. King was married 
 to Miss Lydia A. Benedict, of New Haven, Conn., 
 a daughter of William J. and Abigail R. Benedict, of 
 New Haven, and the two children of this marriage 
 were : Nellie and George. The family religious 
 connection is with the East Pearl street M. E. 
 Church, in which they are highly esteemed. In 
 politics Mr. King calls himself an Independent Re- 
 publican, using his own judgment in some cam- 
 paigns, irrespective of party ties. Fraternally he is 
 a Master Mason, belonging to Adelphi Lodge, No. 
 63, A. F. & A. M., and New Haven Commandery, 
 No. 2, Knights Templar, and he also is connected 
 with the New Haven Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 SAMUEL BLAKESLEE, the founder of one 
 branch of the family, came with his brother John 
 from England to Boston about 1636. He removed 
 to Guilford, Conn., and later to New Haven. His 
 name first appears in New Haven in 1646, and there 
 he married Hannah Potter, Dec. 3, 1650. He died 
 in 1672. The following "notes of Col. Samuel 
 Blakeslee" appear: "In the early settlement of 
 America there was two men and brothers by the 
 name of Samuel and John Blakeslee, both black- 
 smiths by occupation, left England with their anvil, 
 vise, hammiers, tongs and other necessary tools 
 fitted to their occupation, and landed at Boston in 
 Massachusetts, and purchased what was and is since 
 called Boston Neck — a poor barren strip of land 
 which joins the peninsula of the town of Boston to 
 the main land; here they lived a few years with 
 their families and labored at blacksmithing for their 
 support. But the then village of Boston was poor 
 and the narrow neck which they had purchased was 
 incapable of affording much for the subsistence of 
 their families. These two brothers, being stout, 
 robust, enterprising men, agreed to seek an inher- 
 itance. They rose with their families, left Boston 
 and proceeded by the sea shore to New Haven in 
 
3i8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Connecticut. They did not dispose of their land; 
 time passed and they died, and it was never dis- 
 posed of. Samuel bought land in New Haven and 
 settled with his family, but his brother John went 
 to the western part of the State to what is now 
 Woodbury or Roxbury." This account he had from 
 his father and other older men; one was Tillerson 
 Blakeslee, a descendant of John, who settled at 
 Woodbury or Roxbury. He removed to New Ha- 
 ven, and was for several years the sheriff of the 
 county. He had been a lieutenant in the army. He 
 lived to be a very old man, but retained a firm 
 constitution and a strong mind. The children of 
 Samuel and Hannah (Potter) Blakeslee were as 
 follows: John, born at Guilford in 1651 ; Mary, at 
 New Haven, Nov. 2, 1659 ; Ebenezer, at New Ha- 
 ven, July 17, 1664; Hannah, May 22, 1666; Jona- 
 than, March 3, 1668, died young; Jonathan, April 
 1672, died in infancy. The line of descent from 
 this ancestor is through Ebenezer, as follows : 
 
 (H) Ebenezer Blakeslee, son of Samuel and 
 Hannah (Potter) Blakeslee, was bom at New Ha- 
 ven July 17, 1664, and was one of the earlier set- 
 tlers of North Haven. In his house the Presby- 
 terians held their religious services until a church 
 was established, and later on the Episcopalians held 
 their services at his house. Tradition says that 
 "the early Blakeslees were Episcopalians." His 
 children were Ebenezer and Hannah, bom Feb. 4, 
 1685; Susannah, born May 21, 1689; Grace, born 
 Jan. I, 1693-94, who married Ebenezer Humaston, 
 Oct. 13, 1718; Abraham, born Dec. 15, 1695, who 
 married Elizabeth Cooper, March 15, 1721-22; Sam- 
 uel, born about 1697; Thomas, born in 1700, who 
 removed to Plymouth in 1721, and married Mary 
 Scott, of Sunderland, Mass. ; and Isaac, born July 
 21, 1703, who married Mary Frost May 31, 1733. 
 
 (III) Samuel Blakeslee, son of Ebenezer, born 
 about 1697, m.arried Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel 
 and Hannah (Cornwall) Doolittle, bom Oct. 15, 
 1700. He was buried Sept. 5, 1761, aged sixty-four. 
 His wife died April i, 1772. In 1720 he bought 
 land in Wallingford, at North Farmsi, which has 
 since been held in the Blakeslee name. Walling- 
 ford land records show a deed from Ebenezer 
 Blakeslee to his son Samuel "for loving affection 
 and good will." 
 
 (IV) Joseph Blakeslee, son of Samuel and Eliz- 
 abeth (Doolittle) Blakeslee, bom in Wallingford 
 April I, 1732, married April i, 1756, Lois Ives, 
 daughter of Stephen and Sarah (Hart) Ives, born 
 Jan. 9, 1737. He lived and died in Wallingford, on 
 his father's homestead, passing away aged seventy- 
 two years ; Mrs. Blakeslee died May 16, 1795. He 
 was a farmer and mason, a Congregationalist in re- 
 ligion, and a Federalist in politics. He was a non- 
 commissioned officer in the French and Indian war, 
 and he and Charles Ives hired Benajah Hall to 
 serve in the Revolutionary war three years, undfer 
 an act passed by the Legislature that any two men 
 hiring one man for the service were exempt during 
 
 the time of service. Joseph Blakeslee was at this 
 time about forty-five years old. He had a large 
 family and one son in the service. Children: (i) 
 Samuel, born Nov. 23, 1759, married Dec. 20, 1780, 
 Ph^be Curtis, daughter of Joseph and Martha Hart 
 Curtis. He served in the Revolutionary war, enlist- 
 ing in his seventeenth year, in July, 1776, and served 
 until his time expired, in 1780; he also served in 
 the war of 1812, aS' colonel of a volunteer regi- 
 ment. (2) Lois, born Jan. 9, 1762, married May 
 
 7, 1780, Nathaniel Andrews. (3) Joseph, born 
 March 11, 1767 married Mary Andrews, sister of 
 Nathaniel, and lived and died in Wallingford. (4) 
 John Webb, born March 11, 1769, married Nov. 12, 
 1792, Ruth Ives, daughter of Charles and Sarah 
 (Butler) Ives. (5) Thankful, born May 16, 1771, 
 married (first) Nov. 4, 1790, Jonathan Moss, and 
 (second) Nathaniel Andrews. She lived and died 
 in Wallingford. (6) Vincy, born July 29, 1775, 
 married April 7, 1796, Rev. Samuel Miller. He 
 died Nov. 14, 1829. She lived and died in Walling- 
 ford. (7) Asahel, born July 8, 1778, married July 
 
 8, 1800, Hannah Maltoon, daughter of Caleb; they 
 removed to Atwater, Ohio. (8) Asenath, born 
 Aug. 17, 1 78 1, died in her eighteenth year. 
 
 (V) John W. Blakeslee, born March 11, 1769, 
 married Nov. 12, 1792, Ruth Ives, bom Jan. 26, 
 1772, daughter of Charles and Sarah (Butler) Ives. 
 He died Nov. 5, 1825, his wife Nov. 25, 1838. They 
 lived and died in Wallingford, near the Blakeslee 
 homestead. Both were Baptists, lived worthy Chris- 
 tian lives, and their children call them blessed. They 
 were a family of singers, the father a leader of the 
 church choir, and had a good choir in their nine 
 children who grew to maturity, namely : ( i ) Idu- 
 mea, bom in June, 1793, died on the eighth day. 
 (2) Lovicy, born June 27, 1794, married March 8, 
 1813 Aaron Chatterton, and lived in Hamden, Conn., 
 until bis death, in June, 1842. She died in Wall- 
 ingford, Feb. 8, 1849. (3) Rachel, born June 24, 
 1796, married Elihu Ives, son of Charles and Mary 
 (Francis) Ives, born Oct. 8, 1787, died Sept. 15, 
 1864. She died Dec. 24, 1885. Their children were 
 all born in Wallingford. They removed to Illi- 
 nois in 1838, and in 1840 to Marion, Iowa, where 
 they lived and died. (4) Laura, bom June 27, 
 1798, married William Hill. She died March 23, 
 1838, in Wallingford. (5) Obed, born March 10, 
 1800, married Sarah Moss, daughter of Lyman and 
 Sarah (Francis) Moss, and removed to Marion, 
 Iowa, about 1840. He died Oct. 8, 1845, she in 
 1899, in Iowa. (6) Lois, born Feb. i7j_i8o2, mar- 
 ried Harley Francis, son of Jacob and Content 
 (Hall) Francis, and removed to York, Livingston 
 Co., N. Y., where they lived and she died April 
 24, 1862. He died while on a visit in Walling-- 
 ford, Aug. 8, 1880. (7) Emily, bom Jan. 21, 1806, 
 married March 30, 1831, William, son of Jacob and 
 Content (Hall) Francis. She died in Wallingford 
 Aug. 28, 1839, and he died there April 14, 1879. 
 (8) Silas, born Sept. 13, 1808, married Jan. 17, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 319 
 
 1832, Esther, daughter of Robert and Betsey (Peck) 
 Buel. (9) Ann, born Sept. 24, 1810, married Nor- 
 ris Cone, born Dec. 22, 1808, died Aug. 18, 1885. 
 She died Nov. 18, 1883. In 1840 they removed to 
 Marion, Towa, where they lived and died. (10) 
 Oliver, bom July 22, 1815, married Harriet, daugh- 
 ter of John and Betsey (Hall) Warner, born March 
 15, 1822. He died Dec. 15, 1895, she in March, 
 1900. They lived most of their lives in Meriden 
 and New Haven, but died in Durham, Conn. They 
 had one son, Oliver, who died a young lad. 
 
 (VI) Silas Blakeslee, son of John Webb and 
 Ruth (Ives) Blakeslee, born in Wallingford Sept. 
 13, 1808, m.arried Jan. 17, 1832, Esther, daughter 
 of Robert and Betsey (Peck) Buel, born Nov. 20, 
 1808. They lived and died in Wallingford, on the 
 Blakeslee homestead. He passed away June 6, 1893, 
 she on April 17, 1889, and they are buried in In 
 Memoriam cemetery. Children : ( i ) Lois, born Jan. 
 24, 1833,, niarried Oct. 14, i860, Seth J. Hall, son 
 of Sylvester and Rosetta (Johnson) Hall, born Sept. 
 4, 1829, in Middletown, Westfield Society. Lois 
 was baptized by Rev. Chas. Keyser Dec. 21, 1851, 
 and united with the Baptist Church in Wallingford. 
 They removed to Meriden, Conn., in January, 1861. 
 (2) Ruth Ann, bom Oct. 31, 1836, mjarried Oct. 
 4, 1856, Elijah James Hough, son of James and 
 Mary Tyler (Rice) Hough, bom July 28, 1829, in 
 Wallingford. (3) John Webb, born Oct. 22, 1840, 
 married Oct. 22, 1861, Emerett Atwater, of Chesh- 
 ire, born Dec. 5, 1840. They resided on the 
 Blakeslee homestead until the fall of 1900, when 
 they removed to the borough of Wallingford. (4) 
 James Ellis, born Feb. 13, 1843, died July 17, 1847. 
 
 WILLIAM E. WELD, Jr., a leading citizen of 
 New Haven, Conn., and the secretary and treasurer 
 of The Boston Buckboard & Carriage Co., of this 
 city, is a native son of the State, born in Guilford, 
 Aug. 23, 1843. The early records of the family tell 
 of two brothers who came in early days to New 
 England from the old England, and settled in Bos- 
 ton, Mass., but as far back as Grandfather George 
 Weld, all the family life has centered in historic 
 Guilford, a little town which has been the mother 
 of many noted and successful men. 
 
 William E. Weld, the father of William E., of 
 New Haven, was born in Guilford in 1814, and still 
 resides there. He was a prominent carpenter and 
 builder in Guilford, helping to build the hamlet 
 into a large village through his business efiforts. All 
 his life a Democrat, he has upheld those principles, 
 and for a long period was a selectman. He is a 
 consistent member of the Episcopal Church. His 
 wife was in her maidenhood, Myrtie Holcomb, of 
 Guilford, Conn., a daughter of Medad Holcomb, who 
 was a native of Guilford also of French extraction. 
 Mrs. Weld still survives ; she has had a family of 
 three children : Jennie C, who is now a widow, re- 
 siding in Guilford; Julia, who died in childhood; 
 and William E., Jr. 
 
 William E. Weld, Jr., passed hisi youth in 
 Guilford and in preparation for Yale College, at- 
 tended Guilford Institute. In 1863, he came to New 
 Haven, becoming bookkeeper for the firm of Wilcox 
 & Hall, dry goods merchants, and remained with 
 this house for four years, going then into the Trades- 
 man's National Bank, where his health broke down. 
 The succeeding year was spent in St. Paul, Minn., 
 in rest, and upon his return to this city, he entered 
 the firm of E. G. Stoddard & Co., wholesale gro- 
 cers, as bookkeeper, remaining with them in this 
 capacity through the following four years. 
 
 On Feb. 15 1871, Mr. Weld was married to Imo- 
 gene A. Dorman, of New Haven, a daughter of 
 Royal O. Dorman, of this city who for a number of 
 years was a large and successful carriage manufac- 
 turer. After his marriage Mr. Weld became asso- 
 ciated with Mr. Dorman in the carriage business, 
 remaining thus connected for five years. In 1879 
 he became office man of The Boston Buckboard Co., 
 and settled in a most satisfactory manner the affairs 
 of that company, when it went out of business in 
 1885. When a new company was formed the pres- 
 ent style was adopted. The Boston Buckboard & 
 Carriage Co., and Mr. Weld was made secretary and 
 treasurer and also general manager of the commo- 
 dious offices located at Nos. 155 to 163 East street. 
 New Haven. 
 
 In ^politics, Mr. Weld is a Republican, while so- 
 cially he is connected with the Royal Arcanum, the 
 Chamber of Commerce, and he was formerly a mem- 
 ber of the New Haven Grays. He is an attendant 
 and consistent member of Dwight Place Church, and 
 has always been a contributor toward its charities 
 and missions. 
 
 Since taking such a prominent part in the busi- 
 ness world, Mr. Weld has demonstrated his ability, 
 and has surprised even his friends by the intelligent 
 grasp of affairs, his excellent judgment and far- 
 sighted plans. Mr. Weld has always taken a deep 
 interest_ in fostering and developing trade conditions 
 in his city and the personal attention which he gives 
 to his own line shows that he means to keep it a 
 leading one. 
 
 JOHN N. HAWKINS (deceased) was a prom- 
 inent representative of the agricultural interests of 
 Oxford, New Haven county, in which town he was 
 born May 4, 1836. He acquired his education in its 
 common schools. On leaving home, at the age of 
 nineteen years, he engaged in railroading for one 
 summer, and then went to Newtown, Conn., where 
 he was employed in the rubber works a few months 
 prior to opening of the Civil war. 
 
 Mr. Hawkins enlisted Sept. 7, 1861, for three 
 years, becoming a private in Company G, 7th Conn. 
 V. I., and was mustered into the United States ser- 
 vice at New Haven. After drilling for some time 
 at Washington, D. C, the regiment was sent to 
 Annapolis, Md., and later joined Sherman's army, 
 their first engagement being at Hilton Head, 
 
320 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 which was followed by the battles of James Island 
 and Drury's Bluff. They were all through the siege 
 of Petersburg, and wnile there our subject's term of 
 enlistment expired, and he was honorably dis- 
 charged, Sept. 17, 1864. Returning to Oxford he 
 continued to engage in farming there with marked 
 success until his death, which occurred June i, 1901, 
 when he was sixty-five years of age. In 1869 he 
 removed to the farm which he ever after occupied, 
 consisting of 120 acres of well improved and valu- 
 able land, under a nigh state of cultivation. He 
 also owned forty acres elsewhere, and carried on 
 general farming and the dairy business. 
 
 Mr. Hawkins was married, Aug. 28, 1866, to 
 Miss Harriet Worster, of Oxford. Our subject was 
 an honored member of Upson Post, No. 40, G. A. 
 R., of Seymour. In his political affiliations he was 
 an ardent Republican. He was well known and 
 highly respected, and his widow is equally esteemed 
 among their neighbors and many friends. Mr. 
 Hawkins left no children of his own, but an adopted 
 daughter, Bessie L., bears his name. 
 
 BURTON G. BRYAN was born in Watertown, 
 Conn., Sept. 27, 1846, a son of Edward Bryan, and 
 traces his ancestry for generations through an hon- 
 orable line on both eastern and western shores of 
 the Atlantic. As far back as 1277 lands were held 
 in the parish of Bukhamough by William and Rob- 
 ert Brian. Roger Bryan was a Knight of the 
 Shire, in Hertfordshire, at the 23d and 25th Parlia- 
 ment in the time of Edward I. The line in which 
 we are more directly interested is traced unbroken 
 to Thomas Bryan, of the parish of Aylesbury, Buck- 
 inghamshire, England. He was born about 1575 
 and had a son, Alexander, born in 1602. Alexander 
 had a son, Richard, born in England, whom he 
 brought with him to America in 1639. They settled 
 in Milford, Conn., and in the patent of Milford 
 from the General Court, dated May 25, 1685, Rich- 
 ard Bryan was named second of seven persons, Gov. 
 Robert Treat being the first named. They were 
 both prominently identified with the early settle- 
 ment of the town and both were wealthy men. 
 Alexander Bryan, the father of Richard, left Mil- 
 ford and moved to Meriden, finally locating in Wat- 
 ertown. 
 
 Roderick Bryan, grandfather of Burton G., was 
 born in Watertown in the same house in which his 
 son and grandson have lived. He married Orril 
 Blakeslee, of Thomaston, Conn., and settled on the 
 farm in Watertown, where they reared two chil- 
 dren, Edward, the father of Burton G. ; and Erne- 
 line, who married Henry Smith, of Watertown, 
 and is now deceased. 
 
 Edward Bryan was born in Watertown Feb. 24, 
 1S19, and still resides there on a farm. He married 
 Mary Turney, who was born in Newtown, a daugh- 
 ter of David Turney, of an old Connecticut family 
 of English extraction. Mrs. .Mary Bryan is still liv- 
 ing in Watertown at the age of seventy-nine years. 
 
 Mr. Bryan is a -Republican, but in early life was 
 a Whig, as was his father before him. In religion 
 they are Methodists. 
 
 Burton G. Bryan spent the earlier part of his 
 life on the farm in Watertown and grew to man- 
 hood under his parents' roof. When he was eight- 
 een years of age he went to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 
 to attend Bryant & Stratton's Business College, and 
 when he was nineteen he began teaching school, 
 having charge of the American Missionary Associa- 
 tion School at Norfolk, Va. He taught the writing 
 classes and had the general management of the 
 institution. On Fe:b. 19, 1867, Mr. Bryan came 
 to Waterbury and began bookkeeping for A. F. Ab- 
 bott, the real-estate, insurance and investment 
 dealer of this city. With the exception of five years 
 he was with that house until 1880, when he assisted 
 in the organization of the Manufacturers' National 
 Bank, of which he served as teller for seven years. 
 In June, 1887, ^If- Bryan organized the Fourth 
 National Bank, which began business in August, 
 1887. As cashier of that bank he has rendered a 
 valuable service to the commercial classes of this 
 city in building up a first class institution for their 
 accommodation. In November, 1899, he was made 
 president of the bank. In addition to his position 
 in the National Bank he is also secretary and treas- 
 urer of the West Side Savings Bank. 
 
 On April 14, 1868, Mr. Bryan married Fannie 
 K. Peck, at Watertown, Conn. Mrs. Bryan is the 
 daughter of Leman O. Peck, who was born in the 
 neighborhood of Watertown. One child, Wilbur 
 P., has been born of this union ; he is cashier of 
 the Fourth National Bank and lives at home. Mr. 
 Bryan has always been a Republican and was town 
 treasurer for two terms, and, although this is re- 
 garded as a Democratic town, clerk of the council 
 two years. Mr. Bryan belongs to Continental 
 Lodge, No. 75, F. & A. M., and in Masonry has 
 reached the thirty-second degree, and is also a 
 member of Townsend Lodge, I. O. O. F., and the 
 Royal Arcanum, and has been the Grand Treasurer 
 of the Grand Council of this State since its organi- 
 zation. He and his family belong to the Second 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 MORSE. For two hundred and fiftv and more 
 years the posterity of John Morse, or Moss, have 
 dwelt in Connecticut. Of those of whom w'e par- 
 ticularly write are the family of the late Joseph 
 Morse, a former prominent and wealthy citizen of 
 Meriden. 
 
 The late Joseph Morse, whose death occurred 
 at his home in Meriden, Oct. 16, 1897, was in the 
 seventh generation from John Moss, or Morse, one 
 of the founders of New Haven and Walling'ford, 
 Conn., the line of his descent being through John 
 (2), John (3) and Levi, Benajah and Harley. 
 
 (I) John Moss, bom in England about '1619, 
 came early to New England, was at New Haven, 
 Conn., in 1639, and was one of its founders. He was 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 321 
 
 one of the foremost to undertake the settlement of 
 Wallingford, Conn., in March, 1669, but resided at 
 New Haven until 1670, when he joined the new 
 colony. His name was associated with nearly all 
 the leading measures of that village and settlement 
 for a series of years. He was a godly Puritan. 
 
 (H) John Moss (2), son of John Moss, born in 
 1650, married in 1677, Martha Lathrop, and re- 
 sided at New Haven and WaUing'ford. He died 
 March 31, 1717. 
 
 (HI) John Moss (3), son of John Moss (2), 
 born Nov. 10, 1682, married in 1708 Elizabeth Hall. 
 He resided in Wallingford, and died May 14, 1755. 
 
 (IV) Levi Moss, son of John Moss (3), born 
 in 1722, married Jan. 19, 1743, Martha Fenn. He 
 resided in Wallingford. 
 
 (V) Capt. Benajah Moss, son of Levi Moss, 
 born Jan. 11, 1763, married Lois Hall, daughter of 
 David Hall, and his children were : Olive, Elkanah, 
 Harley, Hermon, Benajah, Delila, James, Benajah 
 (2), Ira, Emery, William, Eldridge and Franklin. 
 When he was sixteen years old he was drafted into 
 the army of the Revolution, but his father hired 
 as a substitute for $300 a man by the name of 
 Fenn. When the war of 1812 opened, however, 
 Benajah Morse offered his services, and held the 
 rank of captain. He served along the Connecticut 
 ooast. His home was at Wallingford, where his 
 death occurred July 12, 1841. 
 
 (VI) Harley Moss, son of Benajah Moss, bom 
 March 29, 1792, married May 9, 1821, Harriet 
 Moss, and died Oct. 5, 1848. He resided in Wall- 
 ingford. His children were : David H., Lois H., 
 Louisa A., Joseph, Harley, Emery and Andrew. 
 Harriet (Moss) Moss was a daughter of Philo and 
 Rachel (Webster) Moss, and was born July i, 1803. 
 
 Philo Moss was born April 8, 1770, a son of 
 Amos Moss and his second wife, Esther Andrews, 
 of Litchfield. He left an estate valued at $40,000, 
 and was the first man to sell a yoke of oxen for 
 $100 in that county. His marriage to Rachel Web- 
 ster occurred April 24, 1794- 
 
 Amos Moss, father of Philo, was a son of Levi 
 Moss (IV) and his wife, Martha Fenn. He was 
 born Nov. 17, 1744, and died in December, 1819. 
 
 (VII) Joseph Morse, son of Harley and Har- 
 riet (]\Ioss) Moss, was born Nov. 12, 1827, in 
 Yalesville, town of Wallingford, Conn. Early in 
 the forties he located in Meriden and engaged in 
 the butchering business. Later he began dealing 
 in real estate, and soon gave his entire attention to 
 this business. He bought largely and made many 
 improvements, and, as the years passed, his busi- 
 ness became large and his holdings of property 
 great, all of which he managed well and wisely 
 alone. He opened up many streets in the city, among 
 them Willow, Veteran, Columbia, Merriam and 
 Walnut. As stated, he was a good manager, and 
 possessed an excellent judgment, was energetic and 
 industrious, and made money rapidly, becoming one 
 of the largest holders of property in Meriden. He 
 
 21 
 
 owned a portion of the State school property and 
 the section of the town known as Morsetown, also 
 owning large tracts on Reservoir avenue. Broad 
 street and Curtis street. In 1896 he owned thirty- 
 two dwellings, seven acres of land and five busi- 
 ness blocks, being either sole or part owner in the 
 latter. It was then estimated that he had about 
 two hundred tenement houses. Mr. Morse was 
 also a large owner of Western lands, holding con- 
 siderable property in Wichita, Kans. For some 
 years he was in the insurance business, associated 
 with his son, George N. 
 
 Mr. Morse was a self-made man, beginning life 
 without a dollar, yet possessed of good health and 
 started out in life with a determination to succeed. 
 He was willing, possessing natural tact and ability, 
 which, together with his energy and close applica- 
 tion to business, brought remarkable success, he be- 
 ing worth at one time, probably, a half-million 
 dollars. In all of his business transactions he was 
 regarded as thoroughly honest and most reliable. 
 His integrity and honesty were of the highest or- 
 der. He possessed ability, was shrewd, and in mat- 
 ters pertaining to real-estate transactions his judg- 
 ment was considered very superior. Mr. Morse held 
 the office of town assessor and was also a member 
 of the common council at one time. He was a ves- 
 tryman of St. Andrew's Church, and was the last 
 surviving member of the vestry that directed the 
 parish when the church was on Broad street. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. Morse was married to Lucy Hall, a 
 daughter of Casper Hall, and died Oct. 16, 1899. 
 The union was blessed with children as follows : 
 (i) George N., born Oct. 16, 1833, was educated 
 in the common schools and Sufifield Institute. He 
 was formerly in the emoloy of the Whiting Man- 
 ufacturing Co., but is now in the insurance busi- 
 ness. A prominent Democrat, he represented the 
 Meriden District in the State Senate in 1888-1889. 
 On Jan. 31, 1877, he wedded Mary A., daughter 
 of John C. and Anna M. (Ellis) Byxbee, of Meri- 
 den, and has two children : John B., born in Jan- 
 uary, 1880; and Ida L., in March, 1882. (2) Lilla 
 Eva, born Aug. i, 1857, married (first) Clarence 
 Curtis, and became the mother of two children, 
 Arthur M. and Carlos M. She then married John 
 F. Townley. (3) Josephine M. married H. T. King, 
 of jMeriden. (4) Lucy M. is now Mrs. Dr. F. L. 
 Lawton, of Hartford. Joseph Morse, the father, 
 entered into rest in 1897. 
 
 Mrs. Lucy (Hall) Morse is a descendant of 
 John Hall, who was born in England in 1605, be- 
 came an original proprietor of Wallingford in 1669, 
 and died in 1676, aged seventy-one. He probably 
 came from Coventry, Warwickshire, England, in 
 the ship "Griffin" in company with Rev. Cotton, in 
 1633. He married Jeanne Wollen, born in England 
 about 1620, and died in Wallingford in 1678. 
 
 (II) Samuel Hall, son of John, was born in 
 New Haven, Conn., in 1648, and died at Walling- 
 ford in 1725. He was captain of the train band in 
 
322 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1704. In May, 1668, he married Hannah Walker, 
 who was born Sept. 27, 1646, daughter of John and 
 •Grace Walker. 
 
 (III) John Hall, son of Samuel, was bora Dec. 
 ■23, 1670, was assistant in the Upper House, 1722- 
 1730, and died April 29, 1730. He was married in 
 1 69 1 to Mary Lyman, who was born in 1667, and 
 died in 1740, a daughter of John and Dorcas 
 (Plumb) Lyman. 
 
 (IV) Rev. Samuel Hall, son of John and Mary 
 (Lyman) Hall, was born at Wallingford in 1695; 
 ■was graduated from Yale in 1716, and was the first 
 minister at Cheshire, Conn. He attained the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty-one. In 1727 he married Anna 
 Law, who was born at Milford, Conn., in 1702, a 
 daughter of Gov. Jonathan Law and his wife, Anna 
 Eliot, the latter a daughter of Rev. Joseph and 
 Sarah (Brentoii) Eliot, and granddaughter of Rev. 
 John Eliot and Gov. William Brenton^ of Rhode 
 Island. 
 
 (V) Brenton Hall, son of Rev. Samuel, was born 
 at Cheshire in 1738, and died in 1820 at Meriden, 
 of which town he was one of the founders in 1803, 
 previousi to which time he had been a planter in 
 Wallingford. He was a representative from the 
 latter town from 1787 to 1802, and from Meriden in 
 1806. His first wife was Lament Collins, his sec- 
 ond Abigail Baldwin, daughter of Noah and Re- 
 becca (Frisbie) Baldwin, of Branford, Connecticut. 
 
 (VI) Casper Hall, son of Brenton, was born in 
 1790, and died in 1869. In 1813 he married La- 
 vinia Booth, daughter of John Booth, a Revolu- 
 lionary soldier and descendant of Sergt. Richard 
 Booth, who was an ancestor of U. S. Grant. Lucy 
 Ann Hall, daughter of Casper, wedded Joseph 
 Morse. 
 
 Gov. Jonathan Law, was born in Milford, Aug. 
 6, 1674, was graduated from Harvard in 1695 ; 
 studied law and practiced at Milford. Was a mag- 
 istrate for more than thirty years, and chief justice 
 of the State from 1725-1741, and governor at the 
 lime of his death in May, 1751- 
 
 Gov. William Brenton emigrated to Boston from 
 Hammersmith, England. He held important offices 
 :in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, where he was 
 several times lieutenant-governor. He was presi- 
 'dent of Rhode Island, 1660-61, and governor, 1666- 
 11669. -H? died at Newport in 1674. 
 
 Abigail Baldwin, second wife of Brenton Hall 
 [Y), was descended from John Baldwin, who came 
 over in the ship "Martin" in 1638, and later settled 
 in Milford. He died June 21, 1681. His son, 
 George, was born in iMilford in 1662, married De- 
 borah Rose, and died Oct. 26, 1728. Noah Bald- 
 win, son of George and Deborah (Rose), was born 
 in Branford, March 20, 1710, married Rebecca Fris- 
 bie on March 21, 1734, and died Nov. 24, 1799. 
 
 BROWN. Francis Brown, of the New Haven 
 Colony in the year 1638, with his descendants and 
 collateral relatives : 
 
 Francis Brown was born in the town of Rad- 
 cliffe, Yorkshire, England, about the year 1610. 
 When religious fervor forced the settlement of col- 
 onists in the new world, he and his wife, Mary 
 Edwards, \yhom he had married in 1636, sailed the 
 succeeding year for Boston in the ship "Hector." 
 Among their fellow voyagers were Theophilus 
 Eaton, an opulent merchant of London, and his 
 wife, with her adult children by a former husband, 
 David Yale, Chancellor to her father. Bishop George 
 Lloyd, of Chester, England, whose Episcopal palace 
 still stands on the main street of that ancient town. 
 David Yale, the eldest of these children, and the 
 father of Elihu Yale, from whom the University is 
 named, returned in a few years to England. Ann 
 Yale, the wife of Edward Hopkins, an early gov- 
 ernor of the Colony of Connecticut, who also 
 founded the Hopkins Grammar Schools, of New 
 Haven, Hartford and Hadley, soon followed in 
 company with her husband, who became a commis- 
 sioner of the English Admiralty, and a member of 
 one of Cromwell's Parliaments. Thomas Yale, the 
 younger son, thus became the only representative of 
 the Yale family in New Haven, and from him are 
 descended, so far as is known, all who bear the 
 name of Yale in America. 
 
 The New Haven colonists were at first much 
 in doubt whether to remove from or to remain in 
 Massachusetts, but as the company was the wealth- 
 iest that had come to America, many of them being 
 merchants and traders in the old country, they 
 sought some place for a commercial settlement not 
 included within any charter or patent granted by 
 the English Crown. The war with the Pequots 
 soon brought their hesitancy to an end. In the pur- 
 suit of this flying tribe of warlike Indians the Eng- 
 lish forces passed through Quinnipiac, afterward 
 named New Haven. Though the soil of the place 
 was poor, its position between Boston and New 
 York seemed to the New England soldiers — among 
 whom was Captain .Nathaniel Turner, afterward 
 the military leader of. New, Haven^ — as eminently 
 fitted for their "Trans Atlantic" home. The favor- 
 able opinion of Gov. Baton and of Rev. John Daven- 
 port, the two leaders of the company, proved de- 
 cisive. Nine of the first settlers, among whom was 
 Francis Brown, passed the winter of 1637-1638 at 
 Quinnipiac, in making the necessary provision for 
 shelter and for other urgent needs of the coming 
 Colonists, who arrived April 16, 1638. Entering 
 the harbor on Friday, Saturday was devoted to 
 landing their household goods, and conveying them 
 to the temporary huts provided for them by the few 
 Colonists who had preceded them. Their first official 
 act was by uniting the next day in divine worship, 
 held under a huge oak standing near the corner 
 of what is now George and College streets, and 
 listening to a sermon by Rev. John Davenport on 
 "The Temptations of the Wilderness." 
 
 Francis Brown was one o'f the earliest free- 
 holders of New Haven. At a time when there were 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 323 
 
 no bridges in New Haven, and all access to Massa- 
 chusetts, Eastern Connecticut and Rhode Island was 
 dependent upon a ferry kept at Red Rock, Mr. 
 Brown was appointed Ferry Master. That he was 
 held in hig'h repute is evident from the various im- 
 portant positions with which he was intrusted. His 
 children were Eleazer, Samuel and Lydia. 
 
 (H) Eleazer Brown was baptized Oct. 16, 1642, 
 and died Oct. 23, 1714. He married Sarah Bulk'ley, 
 daughter of Thomas Bulkley. Their children were : 
 Eleazer, Gershome, Daniel, Thomas and Elizabeth. 
 
 (HI) Gershome Brown, son of Eleazer and 
 Sarah (Bulkley) Brown, was born Oct. 9, 1665, and 
 married Hannah Mansfield in 1695. He was a mer- 
 chant, and owned several vessels wlhich traded with 
 foreign ports. He was prominent as a Christian, 
 as well as in business. When one of his ships was 
 lost at sea, and the loss was considerable, his neigh- 
 bors and friends, including the minister met at his 
 house to hold prayers and to sympathize with him. 
 When he died he left about five hundred acres of 
 land in different parts of the city. Several slaves 
 belonged to the estate, some of whose names were 
 Mingo, Jack, Phillip, Harry, Robin and Job. The 
 children of Gershome and Hannah (Mansfield.) 
 Brown were: Eleazer, born 1696; Hannah, born 
 Jan. II, 1702; and Olive, born Feb. 22, 1706. 
 
 (IV) Eleazer Brown, son of Gershome and 
 Hannah (Mansfield) Brown, bom in 1696, died 
 Sept. 21, 1768. On Jan. 25, 1725, he married Sarah 
 Rowe, daughter of Matthew Rowe, who bore him 
 three sons and six daughters. 
 
 (V) Daniel Brown, son of Eleazer and Sarah 
 (Rowe) Brown, was born Nov. 3, 1743, and aled 
 Oct. 9, 1788. On April 24, 1770, he married Hannah 
 English, who was born Nov. 29, 1749, daughter of 
 Benjamin and Sarah (Dayton) English. Benja- 
 min English was killed by the British July. 5, 1779, 
 in his own house in New Haven. Daniel Brown 
 was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. On May 
 8, 1770, he and his wife moved to East Haven from 
 New Haven. They had ten children: Isaac, born 
 Feb. 27, 1771, died April 13, 1850. Hannah, born 
 Nov. 18, 1772, died May 15, 1797. Daniel, born 
 Sept. II, 1774, died April 19, 1782. Sarah, born' 
 April 23, 1776, died Oct. 27, 1852. Roswell, born 
 Oct. 6, 1778. Phila, born Aug. 30, 1780, died Jan. 
 4, 1849. Clarissa born June 14, 1783, died Feb. 14, 
 1839. Daniel (2), born Dec. 20, 1784. Aner, born 
 Oct. 13, 1786, died Oct. 3. 1838. Mary, bom Dec. 
 21, 1788, married Nov. 16, 1809, Wyllis Heming- 
 way. 
 
 (VI) Isaac Brown, eldest son of Daniel and 
 Hannah (English) Brown, married Sarah Hemiing- 
 way, born Sept. 17, 1780 (sister of Wyllis Heming- 
 way, who had married Mary Brown.), daughter of 
 Enos and Sarah (Hemingway) Hemingway. Enos 
 was a soldier in the Revolutionary army and a rep- 
 resentative in the Legislature from the town of 
 East Haveni for over twenty terms in succession. 
 Mrs. Sarah (Hemingway) Brown died July 5. i8i3' 
 
 the mother of four children, all now deceased : 
 Merritt, who married Maranda Bradley, and had 
 four children, Sarah, Jane, Adeline and George ; 
 Anson, mentioned below ; Samuel, who died in m- 
 fancy; and Daniel Hemingway Brown, born July 
 4, 1813, died Oct. 8, 1892. After the death of 
 his first wife, Isaac Brown married a widow whose 
 maiden name was Zervinah Tuttle. The children 
 of this union were : Aimira, who married Ezekial 
 Bradley; and Samuel Miles, who is mentioned 
 farther on. Isaac Brown served in the war of 1812. 
 He was a captain in the local militia, and was a 
 man of much prominence. He was the eldest son 
 of his parents, and according to the custom in those 
 days inherited the largest share of the family prop- 
 erty, thus becoming a very large land owner. He 
 donated the ground for St. James Episcopal Church, 
 as well as the stone used in building the edifice, 
 also the roadway, known as Church Hill, an ex- 
 tension of Grand avenue. There were only nine 
 members of the church at that time, and the family 
 were all very efficient workers for its success. 
 
 (VII) Anson Brown, son of Isaac and Sarah 
 (Hemingway) Brown, was a sea captain, sailing 
 from New York and Perth Amboy. He resided in 
 New Jersey in 1832, but later came to New Ha- 
 ven and engaged in the oyster business, which he 
 continued until the time of his death. He was 
 drowned from his boat July. 5, 1869. Anson Brown 
 married April 27, 1832, Rosetta Sheppard, daughter 
 of Stephen Sheppard, and became the father of: 
 Honora Melissa, born Oct. 16, 1833, married George 
 Brown, of Chicago; Sarah Annette, born Nov. 2, 
 1835, now deceased; Maria Salina, born April 24, 
 1837, .deceased; Isaac Enos, born March 10,- 1840, 
 deceased; Steplien Freeman, , born Sept. 6, 1842, 
 died Sept. 17, 1842 ; Anson Kearney, bom Nov. 
 23. 1843, deceased; William Sheppard, born Sept. 
 29, 1846, lives in Hartford ; Merritt R., born June 
 ID, 1849, deceased; Rosetta Althea, born June 6, 
 1851, deceased; Frederick Freeman, born March 
 26, 1853. 
 
 (A^III) William Sheppard Brown, son of An- 
 son, married Lilla Wrisley, and has two children, 
 Charles Alonzo and Hazel Wrisley. 
 
 (VIII) Frederick Freeman Brown, son of 
 Anson, was born in Fair Haven, Conn., March 26, 
 1853, and Nov. 27, 1879, married Dora A. Jones, of 
 Branford. They have had the following children: 
 Herbert Isaac, born March 21, 1880 ; Florence Jones, 
 who died aged five and a half years ; and Frederick 
 Freeman, Jr., bom Dec. 30, 1885. Mr. Brown has 
 been engaged in the oyster business, and has been 
 inspector of the State dumping ground, to see. that 
 oyster shells were dumped in proper places. For 
 sixteen years he served in the Horse Guards, on the 
 staff of Major Horace H. Strong. 
 
 (VIII) Isaac Enos Brown, son of Anson, was 
 born at Perth Amboy, N. J., March 10, 1840, and 
 in 1848 came with his parents to Fair Haven, where 
 his early school days were spent,. He early engaged 
 
324 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in^ the oyster business, and eventually became cap- 
 tain of oyster boats. By his first marriage, to Nancy 
 Ennis, he had one daughter, Myrtie, now deceased. 
 He married for his second wife Emogene Hotch- 
 kiss, daughter of John Hotchkiss, and the children 
 of this marriage were: Allie Edward, of New 
 Haven, who married Mamie Lieberman; Frank 
 Enos, born June 12, 1875 ; Mabel Lois, born in 1877, 
 who married Homer Cluett, of New Haven; and 
 Henry Lewis, born in New Haven in July, 1881. 
 The mother died Jan. 18, 1882. Mr. Brown was a 
 member of Adelphi Lodge, No. 65; Pulaski Chap- 
 ter ; Crawford Council, F. & A. M. ; and the R. A. 
 AI. Capt. Brown was on the board of selectmen for 
 four years, and was always interested in public af- 
 fairs. He was a Democrat in national politics. 
 Professionally he was a member of the American 
 Pilots Association. He died June 24, 1901, while 
 on a business trip to Stratford, Conn. In religious 
 connection he belonged to the Second Congrega- 
 tional Church, of New Haven. 
 
 (IX) Frank E. Brown, son of Isaac Enos, spent 
 his early school days in New Haven. For the past 
 seven years he has taken an active part in the oyster 
 business, and is a member of the American Pilots 
 Association. Fraternally he belongs to Adelphi 
 Lodge, No. 65; Pulaski Chapter; Crawford Coun- 
 cil ; New Haven Commandery, No. 2 ; and Pyramid 
 Temple, Mystic Shrine. 
 
 (VII) Samuel Miles Brown, son of Isaac and 
 Zervinah (Tuttle) Brown, was born in Fair Ha- 
 ven, Conn., March 7, 1820, and died April 2, 1901. 
 He was married at Bath, N. Y., Dec. 22, 1861, to 
 Mary J. Warner, daughter of Horatio Warner, and 
 became the father of three children : Grace, wife 
 of Thurber Salisbury, of Salisbury Bros., druggists 
 in Fair Haven ; Samuel Miles, who died in in- 
 fancy; and Frederick Miles. Samuel Miles Brown 
 was prepared for college in East Haven, and was 
 graduated from Yale in 1844, with the degree of 
 B. A. The degree of M. A. was conferred upon 
 him by Trinity College. He taught school near 
 Fort Edward, N. Y., and in Fair Haven, Conn. 
 For forty years he was engaged in mercantile busi- 
 ness, for years being located in a building at the 
 corner of Grand and Quinnipiac avenues. In pol- 
 itics he was a Democrat, and served as postmaster 
 of Fair Haven under President Taylor; was notary 
 public under Gov. Waller; and was assessor in the 
 town of East Haven. He was active in church work, 
 and was a lifelong member of St. James Episcopal 
 Church, but during his latter years united with 
 Grace Church. He retired from active work in 
 1891. j\Irs. Brown died Nov. 15, 1900, and his 
 death soon followed. 
 
 (VIII) Frederick Miles Brown, son of Samuel 
 Miles, was born at his present home Sept. 26, 1868. 
 His early school days were passed in New Haven. 
 For six years he was connected with Cowles & Co., 
 and for a like period he has been connected with 
 a New York house. For a time he was employed 
 
 in the office of the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 ford Railway Co. He married Annie Spittler, of 
 New Haven. 
 
 (VII) Daniel Hemingway Brown, fourth son of 
 Isaac and Sarah (Hemingway) Brown, whose 
 death occurred in New Haven Oct. 8. 1892, was 
 long a substantial resident and citizen of that com- 
 munity. He was born July 4, 1813, and on April 
 16, 1837, married Grace Amoret Thompson, who 
 was born Dec. 28, 18 17, a daughter of James and' 
 Sarah (Dayton) Thompson, and a lineal descend- 
 ant of Thomas Yale, brother of David Yale (who 
 was the father of Elihu Yale), both original set- 
 tlers of New Haven Colony, also of Ann Yale, 
 who was the wife of Gov. Eaton and daug'hter of 
 George Lloyd, Bishop of Chester, England. Daniel 
 Brown and his wife lived together over fifty years, 
 and his widow is now (1902) living in New Haven. 
 She is a woman of many virtues and much beloved. 
 They were both members of St. James Episcopal 
 Church of Fair Haven. Mr. Brown, was engaged 
 for years in quarrying stone. From the stone-quar- 
 rying business he engaged in the oyster trade and 
 from 1865 until the time of his death he was a 
 member of the committee whose business it was to 
 stake out oyster grounds. Mr. Brown was a man 
 of good judgment. He was much beloved for his 
 generosity and kindly nature. He held the con- 
 fidence and esteem of his fellow citizens, and served 
 them in many public official capacities. He served 
 as constable in both New Haven and East Haven. 
 In 1869 and 1890 he served as assessor in the town 
 of New Haven, and in 1885 was councilman from 
 thfe Twelfth ward of New Haven. Mr. Brown was 
 active in a number of fraternal organizations. He 
 was a member of Adelphi Lodge, F. & A. M. ; 
 Pulaski Chapter, R. A. M. ; and New Haven Com- 
 mandery. At the time of his death he was the 
 oldest Knight Templar in the State. He was also 
 a member of the Grand Lodge, Knights of Pythias, 
 and became a member of the I. O. O. F. in 1869. 
 
 On April 16, 1837, in the old original M. E. 
 Church in Fair Haven, Mr. Brown waS' married, by 
 the Rev. John Pease, to Grace Amoret Thompson, 
 and on April 16, 1887, this couple celebrated their 
 golden wedding. Rev. William E. Vibbert of- 
 ficiating, the event taking place in the same house 
 in which the bride lived with her parents when 
 she was married. Many were the congratulations 
 and "God Speeds" given to them on that day. The 
 children born to this union were : Harriet Newell, 
 born Nov. 3, 1840, and died June i, 1841 ; Grace 
 Imogene, born March 10, 1842; Charles Phelps, 
 born Feb. 16, 1844; Ann Elizabeth, born Nov. 16, 
 1848, died Jan. 12, 1852 ; and Frank Daniel Brown, 
 born Oct. 13, 1859. 
 
 (VIII) Charles Phelps Brown, son of Daniel 
 Hemingway and Grace Amoret (Thompson) 
 Brown, married, Dec. 29, 1870, Frances Barton, 
 daughter of Robert and Jane (Spink) Barton, of 
 Taberg, N. Y. They have had; three children : 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 325 
 
 Clarence, who died in infancy ; Roscoe Phelps, bom 
 Oct. 28, 1878; and Imogene Elizabeth Brown, bom 
 April I, 1884. 
 
 (VIII) Frank Daniel Brown, son of Daniel 
 Hemingway and Grace Amoret (Thompson) 
 Brown, married, Oct. 13, 1885, Florence M. Smith, 
 of New Haven, Conn. They had one child, Ruth 
 May, born May 2, 1891, died the same day. 
 
 (VIII) Grace Imogene Brown, daughter of 
 Daniel Hemingway and Grace Amoret (Thompson; 
 Brown, married, Oct. 3, 1861, Philo Sherman Bet- 
 nett, of Newtown, Conn. One child blessed this 
 union, Blanche Imogene, born May 15, 1867, died 
 June 6, 1887, beloved by all her acquaintances. She 
 was educated at St. Margarets School, Waterbury, 
 Conn., and became an accomplished musician and 
 an artist of great promise. To her memory is 
 erected in the Chapel of the Union cemetery. Fair 
 Haven, a beautiful memorial window, representing 
 St. Cecelia seated at an organ, while two angels 
 with glistening robes, and wings which have 
 caught the hues of a brilliant rainbow, stand ap- 
 parently entranced with the music to which they 
 are listening. St. Cecilia's face is a likeness of the 
 features of her in whose memory this memorial is 
 given. 
 
 Philo Sherman Bennett, born in Newtown, 
 Conn., Jan. 15, 1842, descended from Caleb Ben- 
 nett, who was among the most conspicuous settlers 
 in that section. When it became a town he was 
 one of the most influential of its citizens. He was 
 one of the committee who petitioned the General 
 Assembly for an incorporation as a town. He be- 
 came a magistrate and held several municipal of- 
 fices, and was very prominent both in Church and 
 State. He married Esther Beers (born May i, 
 1761, died 1796), daughter of Daniel and Mabel 
 (Booth) Beers, and a descendant of Anthony Beers, 
 who founded that family in America. Their chil- 
 dren were Abel, James and Sarah. 
 
 (II) James Bennett, son of Caleb, married 
 Lucretia Gage, of Vermont, and made their home 
 in Newtown, Conn. Their children were Delia, who 
 died Feb. 18, 1840, aged twenty-five years ; Austin, 
 father of Philo S. Bennett ; Sarah Ann, who mar- 
 ried Philo Sherman, and lived in Bristol, Conn. ; 
 and A^ail Bennett. 
 
 (III) Austin Bennett, son of James, was born 
 Jan. I, 1814, and died Aug. 10, 1844. He married 
 Nancy Maria Jones, who was born in New Haven 
 June 5, 1816, and died in Waterville, N. Y., Nov. 
 9, 1897. They were the parents of the following 
 children: (i) Julia Elizabeth, born April 4, 1837, 
 died Jan. i, 1862; she married John Bussing, and 
 had one child, Carlton, who died in infancy. (2) 
 Delia Ann, born Jan. 15, 1839, married' for her 
 first husband, Franklin Porter Cook, of New Ha- 
 ven; they had one child, Blanche Clayton Cook, who 
 wedded De Witt Conger, of Waterville, N. Y. They 
 have one child, Daniel Bennett Conger, bom June 
 15, 1896. Deha Ann (Bennett) Cook married for 
 
 her second husband Melancthon Worthington Big- 
 elow, of Waterville, N. Y. (3) Philo Sherman 
 Bennett is mentioned below. (4) ;\lary Augusta, 
 bom Oct. 17, 1844, died May 27, 1882; she mar- 
 ried Charles B. Mason, of Danbury, Conn. Their 
 children are : Charles Edward ; John Holmes, born 
 October, 1867, died Feb. 26, 1892 ; Bennett Hawley, 
 who died at the age of eighteen years, and was 
 buried in Danbury, Connecticut. 
 
 From the settler, Caleb Bennett, Philo Sherman 
 Bennett was descended in the fourth generation. 
 Losing his father at the age of two years, he eight 
 years later went to Sharon, Conn., and lived for 
 six years on the farm of Lemuel Peck. At the age 
 of sixteen he came to New Haven and was em- 
 ployed by Porter Cook, a merchant of Fair Haven'; 
 subsequently he returned to New Haven, where he 
 represented the firm of A. H. Kellam' & Co. In a 
 short time he and his partner, Alfred P. Sloan, 
 bought out that firm and carried on a wholesale 
 grocery business for a number of years under the 
 name of Bennett & Sloan. Seeing a broader open- 
 ing for business in the city of New York, they re- 
 moved there and now have business representatives 
 in every State of the Union. The firm is now one 
 of the largest and most successful in the country 
 in their line of business. Mr. Bennett was a mem- 
 ber of the New Haven board of education for sev- 
 eral years, and was also a leading member of the 
 committee appointed by the Legislature to investi- 
 gate State expenses in Connecticut. For the presi- 
 dential elections in 1896 and in 1900 he ran as an 
 elector-at-large on the Democratic ticket. 
 
 The Hemingway Family, in the line that has 
 intermarried with the Brown family, is descended 
 from Ralph Hemingway, of Roxbury, Mass., 1634, 
 who married Elizabeth Hewes, July 5, 1634. Ralph 
 was active in town affairs, and was a member of 
 Roxbury Church. He brought a large property 
 with him, and in 1638 he was one of the largest 
 tax payers and land owners in the town. His wife 
 was also wealthy. A daughter of Joshua Hewes, 
 she was born in 1603, and died in 1684 or 1685. 
 Ralph died in 1678. His eldest son, Samuel Hem- 
 ingway, born in June, 1636, settled in New Haven, 
 and later moved to East Haven. He was a man of 
 education and refinement. The records at the town 
 clerk's office which he kept for a long time show 
 this, the writing being almost as legible as printing. 
 In 1662 he married Sarah Cooper, a daughter of 
 John Cooper, a magistrate and early Colonist. Their 
 children were : John, born May 29, 1675, married 
 Mary Morris in 1703 ; Abraham, born Dec. 3, 1677, 
 married Sarah Talmadge, Nov. 11, 1713. Of the 
 children of John and, Mary (Morris) Hemingway, 
 Samuel, born March 12, 1713, married Mehitable 
 Dennison, and died Oct. 25, 1779, and their daugh- 
 ter, Sarah Hemingway, born May 18, 1758, mar- 
 ried Enos Hemingway April 24, 1777. 
 
 Abraham Hemingway, bom Dec. 3, 1677, mar- 
 ried Sarah Talmadge, Nov. 11, 1713. Of their chil- 
 
326 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 dren, Abraham, Jr., born April i, 1727, married 
 Mercy Tuttle April 14, 1746. She was born April 
 17, 1730, and died Jan. 20, 1812. Abraham, Jr., 
 died at Plymouth, Conn., Aug. 25, 1779. He was 
 a deacon of long standing in the church. They had 
 a son, Enos Hemingway, born Sept. 17, 1755, who 
 served betv/een 1797 and 1809 inclusive, twenty-one 
 sessions, as representative from East Haven, the 
 longesit record in its history. He was a Revolution- 
 ary soldier. Enos Hemingway married Sarah Hem- 
 mgway, daughter of Samuel and Mehitable (Den- 
 nison) Hemingway, April 23, 1777. Their daugh- 
 ter Sarah, born Sept. 17, 1780, married Isaac Brown, 
 born Feb. 27, 1771. Their son, Wyllis Hemingway, 
 married Mary Brown Nov. 16, 1809; she was born 
 Dec. 21, 1788, and Wyllis (a twin) was born Jan. 
 29, 1 791. Isaac Brown and Mary Brown were chil- 
 dren of Daniel and Hannah (English) Brown. 
 
 ^lAXSFIELD. The families bearing the name 
 of Mansfield in this section are among the oldest 
 of New Haven and vicinity, and among the posterity 
 of Richard Mansfield, the progenitor of many 
 bearing the name in New England and throughout 
 the country, have been men of achievement and dis- 
 tinction. It is the purpose of this article to treat 
 particularly of the line of Benjamin Franklin Alans- 
 field, who has long been prominent as a citizen and 
 business man of New Haven, more recently in the 
 real-estate line. 
 
 Born March 14, 182a, in New Haven, son of 
 William and Lucy Peck (Culver) Mansfield, Mr. 
 Mansfield is a descendant in the sixth generation 
 from Richard Mansfield, who came from Exeter, 
 Devonshire, England, to the American colonies, 
 and settled in Ouinnipiac (now New Haven) in 
 1639. He owned land in what is now the city. A 
 schedule of the list of the first planters, 1641, in- 
 cludes his name, and ascribes to him £400, thirty 
 acres of land in the First Division, six in the "neck," 
 and eighty-eight in the Second Division. At about 
 this time, it is supposed, he built his dwelling 
 house in the Second Division, East Farms, now 
 about the corner of Church and Elm streets, and 
 there lived the remainder of his days, his death oc- 
 curring Jan. 10, 1655. His wife's Christian name 
 was Gillian, and after his death she married, in 
 1657, Alexander Field, and removed into town. 
 Losing her second husband in 1666, she thereafter 
 made her home with her son, Moses Mansfield. 
 She died in 1669. From this emigrant settler Ben- 
 jamin F. Mansfield's lineage is through Major 
 Moses, Deacon Jonathan, Lieut. Nathan and Will- 
 iam. 
 
 (II) Alajor Aloses Alansfield, son of Richard the 
 settler, born in 1639, took the freeman's oath in 
 New Haven in 1660. He married, l\Iay 5, 1664, 
 Mercy, daughter of Henry Glover, an early settler 
 and prominent man, and bv her had all his chil- 
 dren. His second' wi^e, Abigail, was born May 5, 
 1660, daughter of Thomas and Alary Yale. Alajor 
 
 Alansfield received his title, the highest in the 
 town at the time, for defeating a body of Indians 
 in King Philip's war, about where the town of 
 Mansfield now is, the town having been named in 
 his honor and granted him for his services. Major 
 Mansfield lived in New Haven, and was for forty- 
 eight sessions a member of the General Court. He 
 also served as judge of probate and county court. 
 He resided on the corner of Church and Elm 
 streets, which was the home of his father, Richard, 
 before him. 
 
 (III) Deacon Jonathan Mansfield, son of Major 
 Moses, born Feb. 16, 1686, married (first) June 
 I, 1708, Susan (Coe) Ailing. She died May 4, 
 1765, and in 1766 he married (second) Abigail 
 Dorman, daughter of James Bishop. She lived to 
 be ninety, dying Jan. 25, 1798. Deacon Mansfield 
 united with the church Aug. 28, 1709, under Rev. 
 James Pierpont, and his first wife was likewise a 
 prominent church worker and devout Christian. 
 The Deacon was a prominent public man, was se- 
 lectman, an ensign, lister, grand, juror, moderator 
 of meetings, etc. He was a farmer by occupation. 
 
 (IV) Lieut. Nathan Mansfield, son of Deacon 
 Jonathan, born Nov. 15, 1718, mlarried in 1745 De- 
 borah Dayton, who was born Aug. 8, 1724, in New 
 Haven. He was a farmer, and resided in New 
 Haven. Lieut. Alansfield died March 13, 1783, and 
 Deborah, his wife, died Alay 27, 1817, aged ninety- 
 three years. She was quite a remarkable and lively 
 woman, of strong force of character, and especially 
 distinguished for her piety. She lived to see her 
 great-great-grandchild. She could remember the 
 time when there was but one house of worship in 
 New Haven, and the settlement did not contain a 
 painted house, one pane of sash glass, or one riding 
 chair ; and when all the foreign trade of the city 
 was handled by two vessels. When she was born 
 Connecticut contained 17,000 people, and Litchfield 
 county was still that remote West to which the 
 more adventurous looked for a future home. 
 
 (V) William Mansfield, son of Lieut. Nathan, 
 was born April i, 1750, in a house which stood on 
 the present site of Sheffield North College, the old 
 homestead in New Haven. He married Dec. 25, 
 1776, Elizabeth Lyon, daughter of William and 
 Elizabeth (Alaltby) Lyon. She died Oct. 17, 1817, 
 and he married (second) Dec. i, 1818, Lucy (Peck) 
 Culver, daughter of Abner E. and Sarah Peck, of 
 Wallingford. She died April 29, 1842. Mr. Alans- 
 field resided in New Haven. In boyhood he was 
 employed on the farm of his brother, the greater 
 part of which was in the town of Hamden. On 
 reaching manhood he became a mariner, and was 
 mate and part owner of a vessel trading in the 
 West Indies, his store and residence being on 
 Chapel street, in New Haven. Mr. Alansfield was 
 an ardent patriot, and entered heartily into the 
 cause of the American Colonies during the Revo- 
 lution. He served in that war as a lieutenant, go- 
 ing with Gen. Wooster in 1777 to the vicinity of 
 
y^^^t^^^^J^t^-iSj/'^Ce^c 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 327 
 
 Norwalk, on receipt of intelligence that the British 
 were landing there in force. He acted as aid, and 
 in charge of a small scouting party followed the 
 enemy to near Danbury, and it was upon his report 
 to Gen. Wooster that such disposition was made 
 of the militia under Gens. Sullivan and Arnold as 
 to endeavor to cut off the retreat of the enemy 
 on their return to the coast, and which brought 
 on the engagement in which Gen. Wooster met his 
 death. At the invasion of New flaven by the 
 British, in 1779, Mr. Mansfield was early on the 
 scene of action, and he like others suffered for his 
 patriotism. His house and store were sacked, and 
 he also lost a vessel which was loaded and ready 
 for sea.' After the war Mr. Alansfield was in busi- 
 ness and engaged in farming in New Haven, resid- 
 ing in the northern part of the town until about 
 1800, at which time he moved to the "neck," and 
 established a fruit and vegetable farm. This farm 
 he sold in 1824, to his son-in-law, Capt. Richard 
 Everit, and removed to Fair Haven, where he died 
 May 28, 1842, in the ninety-third year of his age. 
 A man of many vicissitudes, through an unusually 
 long and busy life, he sustained, through it all the 
 strictest integrity. 
 
 (VI) Benjamin Franklin Alansfield, son of 
 William, is still a resident of New Haven, in which 
 city he has passed a long and busy life. On April 
 16, 1843, he married Harriet Janet Clark, a daugh- 
 ter of Elisha and Jane (Baldwin) Clark, of Shef- 
 field, Mass., formerly of Milford, Conn. i\Ir. Mans- 
 field in the latter years of his active business life 
 was engaged in the real-estate line. He had been 
 promjinent in the commercial circles of New Ha- 
 ven in various ways, being engaged for some years 
 in the oyster business. He is a practical carriage 
 manufacturer, and for a number of years dealt in 
 carriages, also manufacturing to some extent; he 
 shipped extensively to the Southern States. Mr. 
 JNIansfield has also been interested in the improve- 
 ment of the city as a builder, having put up a 
 number of houses, for which he drew all the plans, 
 and he drew the plan for the home he himself oc- 
 cupies. He remembers almost every house built in 
 Nw Haven since 1828. He was the town agent 
 for years, and has filled a number of public offices 
 of trust and responsibility. In 1864 he was ap- 
 pointed a commissioner of the Republican party 
 from Connecticut, to record the votes of the United 
 States soldiers then doing service in the Civil war. 
 For many years he was the leading and active mem- 
 ber of the New Haven City Board of Compensa- 
 tion. 
 
 Before the war Mr. Mansfield was interestedin 
 the militia, was brigade inspector of the 2d Brig- 
 ade, holding that office for a number of years, and 
 was also instructor; he ranked as major of Con- 
 necticut militia, and was generally known by that 
 title. Active in preparing men for the war of the 
 Rebellion, he fitted out a number of regiments in 
 his connection with the commissary department. 
 
 He was a personal friend of Gov. Buckingham, the 
 war governor of Connecticut. 
 
 The following is a brief record of Mr. Mans- 
 field's children : ( i ) Harriet Elizabeth, born Jan. 
 13, 1844, married Jan. i, 1867, Thomas J. Beers,, 
 and to them have come children as follows': Kate 
 M., born Nov. 28, 1867, married Frank A. Bun- 
 nell, teller of the First National Bank of New Ha- 
 ven, and they have had three children — Mariam B., 
 born July 17, 1892; L)man B., Feb. 16, 1896; and 
 Katherine, May 24, 1897. Hallie M., born July 31,. 
 1871, married Abel W. Walker, who is connected 
 with C. S. Mersick & Co., and they have one 
 child, Wilmarth Bradford, born Nov. 30, 1895. 
 Burton j\I. was born Feb. 24, 1874. Mr. Beers is 
 a carriage manufacturer by trade. 
 
 (2) Emma Augusta, born July 22, 1846, mar- 
 ried Sept. 15, 1869, Charles E. Doty, of New 
 York City and to them have come children as fol- 
 lows: May M. born Oct. 13, 1870, married Frank 
 B. Long, D. D. S., of New York, and they have 
 one child, Frank B., Jr., born April 27, 1901. Cas- 
 sie M. was born Feb. 22, 1872. Mansfield M. was 
 born Aug. 18, 1879. 
 
 (3) Edward Franklin is mentioned below. 
 
 (4) Mary Louise, born Oct. 6, 1855, married 
 Feb. 23, 1876, Frank B. Walker, a business man 
 of New Haven. To their union came children as 
 follows: Elizabeth M., born Sept. 23, 1877; Ed- 
 ward M., born Feb. 26, 1879, "ow an engineer in 
 the bridge department of the Michigan Central 
 Railway Co. ; Minnie Mansfield, born March 29, 
 1883 ; and Marguerite, born Aug. 8, 1885. 
 
 Edward Franklin Mansfield was born Oct. 
 15, 1848, on Wooster street. New Haven, and re- 
 ceived a good education there, attending Thomas' 
 private school, Russell's Military Academy, and 
 Stiles French's private school. When a young man 
 he entered the employ of the New Haven & North- 
 ampton Steamboat Co., as purser, and remained 
 with them two years. For the next three years 
 he was in the produce commission business in New 
 York City, with his brother-in-law, Mr. Doty, and 
 in 1874 he came back to New Haven, taking a 
 position in the mercantile establishment of Strong, 
 Barnes, Hart & Co., with which he has been since 
 connected. Since May i, 18S3, he has been a 
 member of the firm. He is a member of the New 
 Haven Chamber of Commerce, and a man of high 
 standing and character in the city, being in the 
 strictest sense a worthy representative of a time- 
 honored family. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Mansfield is a Mason of high 
 standing, belonging to Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. F. 
 & A. M., in which he has held all the offices; 
 Franklin Chapter; Harmony Council; and New 
 Haven Commandery. He also holds membership in 
 the Quinnipiac Club and the Union League Club, 
 was formerly a member of the Pequot and Yacht 
 Clubs, and was one of the first members of the 
 Ansantawae Club. The family attend Trinity 
 
328 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Church. Mr. Mansfield's political allegiance is 
 given to the Republican party. 
 
 On Sept. 14, 1871, Mr. Mansfield married Kate 
 Coale Goodnow, whose father, Jotham Goodnow, 
 was for many years connected with the Aetna Fire 
 Insurance Co., of Hartford, and for some years was 
 its president. Two children have blessed this union : 
 Benjamin F., born June 21, 1872, is an oil broker 
 in California. Henrietta Goodnow, born May 30, 
 1874, married Charles Elliott Picket, assistant clerk 
 in the United States Court at New Haven, and has 
 pne child, Dorothy Mansfield, born in December, 
 1901. 
 
 Jotham Goodnow died Nov. i, 1892. In 1856, 
 when he was twenty-one, he came from Fall River, 
 Mass., to Hartford, and was bookkeeper in a Hart- 
 ford bank until 1864, when he went to Rockville 
 to take a position as cashier of the First National 
 Bank. Soon after this he accepted a position as 
 cashier in the City Bank of New Haven. In 1866 
 he was elected secretary of the Aetna Fire Insur- 
 ance Co., at Hartford. On Sept. 26, 1888, he was 
 elected president of the Aetna Fire Insurance Co., 
 and was serving as such at the time of his dea,th. 
 Mr. Goodnow's most impressive characteristic was 
 his unswerving devotion to what he believed to be 
 right. In the city council of Hartford he served 
 conscientiously from a desire to promote the public 
 welfare, and not from any enjoyment of the po- 
 sition. 
 
 GEORGE B. CLARK, a prominent and success- 
 ful business man of Derby and Ansonia, and a citi- 
 zen of New Haven county held in high and univer- 
 sal esteem, comes of English stock, the first of his 
 family to emigrate from Great Britain to New Eng- 
 land having settled in Milford in 1640. Nehemiah 
 Clark, his grandfather, was born in Orange and 
 died there. His wife was also named Clark, and to 
 their marriage were born four children, Nehemiah, 
 Elias, Merritt and Sarah. Nehemiah passed his 
 life in his native town and died unmarried. Elias 
 studied theology, was ordained a Congregational 
 minister and preached at various places in Con- 
 necticut and the West; he died in Wisconsin. Sarah 
 married Ezra Candee, a farmer of Orange. 
 
 Merritt Clark, the father of George B., was 
 born in Orange Dec. 10, 1816, and removed to 
 Derby in 1839. ^ carpenter and ibuilder, he con- 
 tinued to follow that occupation until 1861, at which 
 time he bought the business of David Bassett, the 
 pioneer coal dealer in the Valley and conducted the 
 coal yard successfully until 1880, when he retired. 
 In religious faith he was an Episcopalian, in poli- 
 tics originally a Whig and later a Republican. He 
 held the office of town assessor. Mr. Clark died 
 Dec. 24, 1896. He married Mary Ann Hodge, who 
 preceded him to the grave in November, 1891. Her 
 father, Benjamin Hodge, was a resident of Derby, 
 and by trade a cooper. His love for adventure, 
 however^ prompted him to become a sailor on a 
 
 whaling vessel. He died in Derby. Six children 
 were born to Merritt Clark and his wife, of whom 
 George B. was the third in order of birth, and the 
 eldest son. The others were Emily, Mary, Charles 
 E., Julia V. and William J. The last named (who 
 married Mary Terry, of Ansonia) is general mana- 
 ger of the motor department of the General Elec- 
 tric Co., of New York. Charles E. married Lillie 
 Hawkins, of New Haven ; he is now cashier of the 
 Birmingham National Bank, of Derby. Of the 
 daughters, Emily has remained single. Mary mar- 
 ried Edson L. Bryant, of Ansonia. Julia V. be- 
 came Mrs. William R. Steele, of the same place. 
 
 George B. Clark was born Oct. 25, 1846, was 
 educated in the public schools of Derby' and at 
 Eastman's Business College, graduating from the 
 latter institution in 1863. He then began his busi- 
 ness career as assistant to his father in the coal 
 business, and has continued in that line of trade 
 ever since, at present owning yards in both An- 
 sonia and Derby. His career has been marked by 
 great success, both as a merchant and as a citizen. 
 For nearly twenty years he has been a director in 
 the Derby Savings Bank, is a stockholder in sev- 
 eral manufactories in Derby and Shelton, and is 
 a member of the Derby and Shelton Board of Trade, 
 and his commercial standing is high. He has al- 
 ways taken an active interest in the municipal wel- 
 fare as well as in trade progress and, while he has 
 never sought office, his fellow citizens, knowing 
 his keen business sagacity and unimpeachable hon- 
 esty, have honored iboth him and themselves by re- 
 peatedly electing him to positions of high respon- 
 sibility and trust. For five consecutive terms he 
 has been selectman of the town ; for two years 
 street commissioner of Derby ; and has also served 
 as judge of the city court, a post which he has filled 
 with rare ability and unswerving integrity for four 
 years, and to which he was elected for a third term 
 in February, 1901. In social and domestic life his 
 relations are pleasant, his genial, generous dispo- 
 sition winning him many friends. For twenty years 
 he has been a member of Housatonic Lodge, No. 
 6, I. O. O. F., and he is also a member of Conclave 
 No. 317, of the Independent Order of Heptasophs 
 of America. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. 
 Clark is a keen sportsman and although, when about 
 twenty-two years of age, he lost his right arm by an 
 accident while out hunting, he is still able to find 
 much enjoyment with his rod and gun. 
 
 On Oct. 17, 1882, Mr. Clark married Miss Car- 
 oline J. Birdseye, a daughter of Joseph Birdseye, of 
 Huntington, Fairfield county. Mr. and Mrs. Clark 
 have two daughters, Ethel B. and Mildred R. 
 
 DAVID L. FRISBIE, an honored veteran of the 
 Civil war and a leading citizen of Wolcott, has 
 through his own exertions attained an honorable 
 position and marked prestige among the representa- 
 tive agriculturists of the town, and! with signal con- 
 sistency it may be said that he is the architect of his 
 
V ^^ ^\^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 329 
 
 own fortunes, and one whose success amply justifies 
 the apphcation of the somewhat hackneyed but most 
 expressive title, "a self-made man." 
 
 The Frisbie family was founded in America by 
 John and Abigail (Culpepper) Frisbie, natives of 
 Wales, who located in Branford, Conn. Their son, 
 Elijah Frisbie, was a land owner and farmer in 
 Wolcott, living on the road from Waterbury to 
 Bristol, where he died Feb. 15, 1800. He first mar- 
 ried Abigail Culver, who died April 19, 1771, and 
 for his second wife married Elizabeth Ives, who 
 died Oct. 11, 1776. His third wife was Lydia Red- 
 field. It was in 1759 that he removed from Bran- 
 ford to Wolcott. In his family were eight children, 
 namely : Esther, who was born in 1743 and died in 
 179s ; Jtidah, who is mentioned below ; Reuben, born 
 in 1746; Abigail, wife of Daniel Tuttle; Charles, 
 born in 1752; Hannah, wife of Elnathan Thrasher, 
 of Woodtick, Wolcott ; Sarah, wife of Ichabod Mer- 
 rill ; and John, born in 1762. 
 
 Judah Frisbie was born Sept. 13, 1744, and spent 
 his entire life as a farmer in Wolcott, where he 
 owned property. On Aug. 12, 1779, he married 
 Hannah Baldwin, who was born on Buck's Hill, 
 Waterbury, a daughter of Israel Baldwin. They 
 had four children: Mary, who was born in 1780, 
 and married Abner Hotchkiss ; David, grandfather 
 of our subject; Hannah, who was born Nov. 10, 
 1783, and married Orrin Jackson ; and Judah, who 
 died in 1829. 
 
 David Frisbie, the grandfather of our subject, 
 was born Jan. 12, 1782, in Wolcott, where he grew 
 to manhood and continued to make his home 
 throughout life, his time and attention being devot- 
 ed to agricultural pursuits. His remains were in- 
 terred in the Woodtick cemetery. In February, 
 1805, he married Leva Hall, and to them were born 
 the following children : Samira, born Aug. 10, 1806, 
 was married, Aug. 11, 1825, to Joel Johnson, and 
 later moved to California ; Hannah V., born Nov. 
 15, 1810, was married, Oct. 10; 1829, to Carlos R. 
 Byington, of Southington, Conn., and died Nov. 10, 
 1870; Almira, born Nov. 17, 1812, was married, 
 Oct. 16, 1830, to David Somers ; David Berkley, 
 father of our subject, completes the family. 
 
 David B. Frisbie was bom July 19, 1814, and 
 after receiving a good district school education, he 
 engaged in teaching when a young man, but later 
 in life followed farming. In politics he was a Re- 
 publican, and he held several local offices, including 
 that of justice of the peace. He continued to- make 
 his home in Woodtick throughout life, dying upon 
 his farm Aug. 12, 1850, and his remains were in- 
 terred in Woodtick cemetery. He married Char- 
 lotte Hall, of Cheshire, who after his death wedded 
 Augustus Rose, b}^ whom she had one son, Edwin 
 Rose, of Waterbury.' She died Jan. 17, 1855, and 
 was also buried in Woodtick cemetery. 
 
 David Lyman Frisbie, our subject, was the only 
 child of the first marriage. He was born on the 
 Frisbie homestead in Wolcott, March 15, 1841, and 
 
 was only nine years old at the time of his father's 
 death. He attended the district schools of Cheshire 
 and Waterbury, and at the age of fourteen years 
 began earning his own livelihood by working as a 
 farm hand, being thus employed until after the 
 Civil war broke out. In August, 1861, he responded 
 to his country's call for aid by enlisting at Water- 
 bury in Company C, 14th Conn. v^. I., under Capt. 
 Carpenter and Col. Ellis, and participated in the 
 siege of Fredericksburg from Sept. 17 to Dec. 13, 
 1862; the battles of Chancellorsville, May 2 to 12, 
 1863 ; Gettysburg, July 2 and 3, 1863 ; Falling 
 Water, July 13, 1863 ; Auburn, Va., Oct. 14, 1863 ; 
 Boston Station, Va., Oct. 15, 1863; Centreville, Oct. 
 15, 1863; Mine Run, Dec. i, 1863; Morton Ford, 
 Feb. 6, 1864; and several other engagements. He 
 also took part in the Grand Review at Washington, 
 D. C, and was mustered out at Hartford, Conn., 
 with the rank of acting corporal. 
 
 After the war Mr. Frisbie lived both in Cheshire 
 and Waterbury for a time. In 1868 he married Miss 
 Anna C. Downs, of Northfield, Litchfield county, 
 Conn., where she was born, a daughter of John and 
 Martha (Bristol) Downs, representatives oi two of 
 the best families of the State. She had two broth- 
 ers who were soldiers of the Civil war. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Frisbie have two children: Frank David, 
 who was born Dec. 30, 1870, and is now in Water- 
 bury; and Berkley Levi, who was born March 8, 
 1874, and assists in the operation of the home farm. 
 They are young men of exemplary habits, and are 
 quite popular with their associates and many friends. 
 
 After his marriage, Mr. Frisbie located on the 
 old homestead in Woodtick, upon which he has 
 since engaged in general farming with good success, 
 and at the same time has followed teaming. He has 
 made many improvements upon his place, and has 
 one of the most desirable farm's of its size in the 
 town. Politically he has always been a stanch sup- 
 porter of the Republican party, and he has filled 
 various local offices. He is numberedi among the 
 valued citizens of Wolcott who have been devoted 
 to the public welfare, has manifested the same loy- 
 alty in days of peace as in time of war, and all who 
 know him have for him the highest regard. His 
 wife is an active and consistent member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and shares with her husband 
 the friendship of a large circle of acquaintances. 
 
 CAPT. WILLIAM O'KEEFE has been a mem- 
 ber of the poHce force of New Haven for almost 
 twenty years and commencing at the foot, has earned 
 promotion by meritorious conduct. He 'has ranked 
 as captain since 1892 and since 1897 has been in 
 charge of Station No. 4. The Captain has lived in 
 the city from boyhood, and his record, botJh as a citi- 
 zen and as an official, is without reproach. 
 
 Our subject is a native of County Cork, Ire- 
 land, born May 22, 1839, son of James and Mary 
 (Ambrose) O'Keefe, who reared a family of nine 
 children: Ann, Ellen, William, Julia, Catherine, 
 
330 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Nora, Martin, John and Bridget. Four survive, El- 
 len, Catherine, Nora and William. The father 
 passed all his life in Ireland. He was a man of 
 good education, and was engaged as steward or 
 overseer of a large estate. All his ancestors were 
 farmers. Our subject's mother was born in London, 
 of Irish extraction, and died in New Haven. 
 
 William O'Keefe spent the earlier part of his life 
 in his native land, receiving his education in the 
 National schools. When fourteen years of age, in 
 1853, he was brought to the United States by an 
 aunt, and his home has -since been in New Haven. 
 For a time he attended the Dudley school, in Wallace 
 street, but he early commenced work with the New 
 Haven Clock Company, with which he remained two 
 years. He then went to sea on a coaster, continuing 
 that life for one year, and he was also in the employ 
 of the Mallory Wheeler Company for a time before 
 serving his apprenticeship to the carriagemaker's 
 trade. While thus engaged the Civil war broke out, 
 and in September, 1861, he enlisted, becoming a 
 member of Company B, 9th Conn. V. I. They were 
 sent to the Gulf and New Orleans, and thence up to 
 Vicksburg, our subject meantime receiving promo- 
 tion to a second lieutenancy for meritorious con- 
 duct. He came home on furlough and re-enlisted, 
 during his second term seeing service in the Shenan- 
 doah Valley with Gen. Sheriden with whom he re- 
 mained throughout that campaign. He received an 
 honorable discharge in October, 1864, and, return- 
 ing to New Haven, resumed work at carriagemaking. 
 In September, 1865, during the Fenian excitement, 
 he went to Ireland with Capt. Lawrence O'Brien. 
 After his return he continued to engage at his trade 
 until 1872, in Which year he was elected city registrar, 
 and in December, 1872, he was appointed a patrol- 
 man, serving as such nine years. The next year Mr. 
 O'Keefe was a roundsman, was then promoted to 
 lieutenant in charge of the Grand Avenue Precinct, 
 and in 1892 became captain. He had charge of Sta- 
 tion No. 3 until 1897, when he was transferred 
 to Station No. 4. His efficiency and fidelity to duty 
 have won him the confidence of his superiors and the 
 respect of his fellow officers, and he is held in uni- 
 versal esteem by all who know him, whether in an 
 official or private capacity. 
 
 On May 20, 1869, Capt. O'Keefe was married to 
 Miss Alary O'Brien, a sister of Capt. Lawrence 
 O'Brien, Father Hart performing the ceremony. Of 
 the children born to this union six are living, Mary, 
 William, Ellen, Thomas, Catherine and John. The 
 family attend St. Joseph's Catholic Church. The 
 Captain is a Democrat in political faith. Socially he 
 holds membership in the Ancient Order of United 
 Workmen, Royal Arcanum, Union Veteran Union 
 and Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R. 
 
 GAILEY. The Galley Family is of Scot- 
 tish origin. They belonged to the Highland 
 clan, of whom the chieftain was Buchannan. 
 The Buchannans were at feud with a neigh- 
 
 boring clan and their decisive battles were 
 fcug'ht on a lea field between two hills. A 
 cry was raised by each clan for the decision of 
 the long-existing strife by mortal combat between 
 the chieftains. Buchannan faced his opponent and 
 won the day. In commemoration of the event he 
 ordered the lea to be decorated with gold, silver and 
 flowers and named the spot Gay-Lea, because of the 
 victory. From that day the chieftain of the clan 
 called himself Buchannan of Gay-Lea, which in the 
 course of time was changed to Gaylea and remained 
 so until about eighty years ago, when it was changed 
 to Galley. The coat of arms of the family, which 
 was discovered in the Island of Bute (their original 
 home), consists of a highlander in full costume; 
 plumes in his hat, wearing kilt and tartan; under 
 his foot a serpent whose head writhes from under 
 right foot ; in his right hand a sword, partly behind 
 his back, on which he is resting; his left hand in 
 attitude of repose, resting on left thigh ; underneath 
 is the motto, "Vere Fortis." 
 
 When the house of Hanover ascended the throne 
 of England the adherents of the house of Stuart 
 were still numerous and influential in Scotland. 
 When the rebellion of 1715, which had for its ob- 
 ject the placing of Prince James, son of James II, 
 on the Scottish throne, broke out, the ancestors of 
 the Galleys were living in the Island of Bute. Be- 
 ing stanch Presbyterians, and in politics Whigs, they 
 supported the house of Hanover and the protestant 
 succession and opposed the claims of the Stuarts 
 and the schemes of the Jacobites. About the be- 
 ginning of the reign of George II, three brothers 
 — perhaps owing to the disturbed state of Scotland 
 at the time — removed from the Island of Bute to 
 Ireland. One settled near Letterkenny and the 
 two others in Tyrone — one at Killenure, near 
 Omagh, the other in the parish of Ardstraw. The 
 last named married the daughter of Mr. Brown, of 
 Creevy, and with her received the lands of Cavna- 
 bun. The house in which he lived still stands, 
 slightly modifled, and with part of the lands is still 
 in the possession of the family. The estates of 
 the family were confiscated after the rebellion of 
 1745 and bestowed upon the Duke of Arg^dl, the 
 Gayleas having supported Prince Charles Edward. 
 At this time Scotland was in such a disturbed state 
 they abandoned their homes and possessions and 
 sought refuge in the North of Ireland, in the Prov- 
 ince of Ulster, where members of the family have 
 since lived and prospered. Many of them emigrated 
 back to Scotland, some to England and many to 
 America, and some of them are Presbyterian mis- 
 sionaries in China. 
 
 James Smiley Galley descends from one of the 
 three brothers who went from the Island of Bute, 
 Scotland, and settled in the North of Ireland the 
 early part of the eighteenth century. His grand- 
 father was born in the Province of Ulster, County 
 Donegal or Tyrone, Ireland, in 1766, came to this 
 country about 1775, and with his brothers, Joseph, 
 
Ck,^-tyi--^^'-<'-'<^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 331 
 
 Andrew and John, settled in Orange county, N. 
 Y. In 1801 the names of Joseph and William, and 
 in 1812 those of Andrew and Margaret (Hadden) 
 Gailey, appeared on the church roll of the old Cov- 
 enanter Church, of Coldenham. Williarm Gailey 
 married' Margaret Hadden, of Oreane county, N. 
 Y., in 1805. They had five children born in Orange 
 county — Mary A., Andrew, Robert, Isabel and 
 Eliza — and three bom in Sterling, N. Y. — John, 
 William and Margaret — all of whom are dead. 
 William Gailey was a farmer all his life, living on 
 a farm in Orange county with his family until 1814 
 when he moved with his wife and children to Sterl- 
 ing, N. Y., then styled the backwoods, and there 
 set about making for himself a home m the wilder- 
 ness. The last ten or twelve years of his life he 
 spent with his son, Andrew, dying Oct. 18, 1848. 
 
 Mrs. Margaret (Hadden) Gailey was born in 
 the Province of Ulster, County Monaghan, Ireland, 
 in 1777, and came to this country in lyqi with her 
 parents, John and Mary (Johnston) Hadden, and 
 four brothers and sisters, William, Robert, Eliza- 
 beth and Mary. John Hadden was born May 8, 
 1744, and died Oct. 24, 1842. Mrs. Mary (John- 
 ston) Hadden was born in 1743 and died Jan. 20, 
 1830; the remains of both are buried in the Colden- 
 ham churchyard. Orange county. They were linen 
 workers and brought several spinning wheels to 
 this country. Their ancestors were of the Presby- 
 terian faith, English, and of Puritan stock, and 
 went into Ireland with Oliver Cromwell, who landed 
 in Dublin Aug. 18, 1640. The earliest record found 
 of the Haddens was of one De Hadden, who came 
 tn England with William the Conqueror as one of 
 his staff. 
 
 Andrew Gailey, father of James S., was born 
 in Orange county, N. Y., in April, 1809, and died 
 in Southfield, Oakland Co., Mich., March 12, 1871. 
 He lived with his parents, William and Margaret 
 (Hadden) Gailey, on a farm in Orange county, 
 N. Y., until 1814, when he accompanied them to 
 Sterling, where he remained, except for a few 
 years spent in Coldenham, N. Y., until his marriage. 
 May 28, 1839, to Margaret Jane Smiley. They 
 had four children,, all born in Sterling, N. Y. : 
 Mary A., born Aug. 12, 1840; Elizabeth, born Dec. 
 6, 1842, who died in 1847; James S., born Jan. 15, 
 1845; and Margaret Jane, born Nov. 11, 1846, who 
 died in 1848. After his first wife's death Andrew 
 Gailey was married, Jan. 10. 1850, to Margaret 
 Burns, by whom he had two children : John Knox, 
 born in Sterling, N. Y., Oct. 28, 1850; and AgneS' 
 Annette, born in same place Feb. 12, 1854, who died 
 Jan. 15, 1898. Andrew Gailey lived on bis farm 
 until 1865, when he removed to Southfield, Mich., 
 there settling on a farm near the church he so loved 
 and in which for many years be had been deacon. 
 There he lived until his death. All of the family 
 were members of the Covenanter Church. Mr. 
 Gailey never entered politics but was a strong advo- 
 cate of temperance, even in his youth, when it was 
 
 not popular. When a boy he visited his mother's 
 old home in Orange county where, after attending 
 the old Coldenham Covenanter Church, his uncle 
 asked him to walk out to the tavern to get a drink, 
 as all the other men were doing. This he refused to 
 do, telling his uncle that when he left home his 
 mother told him that as he was going tO' Coldenham, 
 she hoped he would profit by the good example set 
 before him, but if this was the kind of example he 
 was tO' have set he was going back to the woods. 
 The old church still stands, and is open for wor- 
 ship, but the tavern, while still there, is closed. He 
 had a kind heart for all who were in want or suffer- 
 ing and his word was as good as his note. 
 
 Mrs. Margaret Jane (Smiley) Gailey was born* 
 in Ireland March 4, 1818, and died in Sterling, N. 
 Y., March 7, 1847. Her father, James Smiley, was 
 born Jan. 3, 1786, and died Jan. 3, 1878. 
 Her mother, Mary (Brown) Smiley, was born 
 Jan. 5, 1785, and died in 1877. Mrs. Gailey was 
 bi-ought to this country by her parents when six 
 months old, from Strabane, parish of Cams, County 
 Tyrone, Ireland. They first settled near Goshen, 
 in Orange county, but soon moved to Sterling, 
 where they lived and died. They had four daugh- 
 ters and one son: Margaret, born March 4, 1818, 
 died March 7, 1847; Lattishia, born Oct. 29, 1820, 
 is still living; Mary A., born Oct. 29, 1822, died 
 some time ago ; Robert, born April 3, 1825, is still 
 living; and Elizabeth, bom- Nov. 20, 1828, is de- 
 ceased. Two years after Mr. and Mrs. Smiley came 
 to America her parents, William and Lattishia (Al- 
 len) Brown followed their daughter to this coun- 
 try and died the same year. They were buried in 
 Orange county, near Goshew, but their remains have 
 since been removed to Tarrytown, New York. 
 
 ■Mrs. 'Margaret (Burns) Gailey was born in 
 Hamilton, Scotland, Jan. 8, 1812, died in Michigan 
 in 1895. 
 
 Mary A. Gailey, daughter of Andrew, was born 
 in Sterling, N. Y., Aug. 12, 1840, and moved to 
 Michigan with her father. On March 10, 1868, 
 she married Samuel Greer and has become the 
 mother of four children : Clement Arthur, torn 
 Jan. 30, i86g;'Joseph Andrew, Jan. 12, 1871 ; May 
 Margaret, Oct. 7, 1872 ; and Isabel Torrens, May 
 2, 1875. Mrs. Greer and all the children now live 
 in Connecticut. 
 
 John Knox Gailey, son of Andrew, went to 
 Michigan with his father. He spent a few years 
 on a farm, but not wishing to be a farmer entered 
 the Agricultural College at Lansing, Mich., where 
 he graduated. He taught school during the win- 
 ters and studied during the summers. Then he 
 studied medicine and entered the University of 
 Michigan, at Ann Arbor, where he spent one year, 
 thence going to the New York University, where 
 he graduated. After practicing two years among 
 the copper mines in Isle Royal, Mich., he went to 
 Germany and spent one year at Vienna. On his 
 return he went to Detroit, Mich., and entered Har- 
 
332 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 per's Hospital, where he remained five years, since 
 which time he has practiced medicine in Detroit 
 and stands high in his profession. He is surgeon at 
 Harper's Hospital and the Children's Free Hospital, 
 and is also physician to the Home of the Friendless 
 and the Old Ladies Home, all of Detroit. On June 
 6, 1893, Dr. Gailey married Florence Louese Bul- 
 lock, daughter of Silas W. and Henrietta S. 
 (Sprague) Bullock, natives of Michigan and Ver- 
 mont, respectively. They have one son, John Knox 
 Gailey, Jr., born March 3, 1895. 
 
 James Smiley Gailey lived with his parents on 
 a farm in Sterling, N. Y., until he was nineteen 
 years old, worked on same, and attended the com- 
 • mon school until he was sixteen. He then spent 
 two years at Red Creek Academy, in Wayne county, 
 N. Y.,- and taught school two winters, after which 
 he left home, going to Poughkeepsie, to H. G. 
 Eastman's Business College. After taking a busi- 
 ness course he started out to do what he could in 
 businels's 'life in New York. He secured a place as 
 bookkeeper and clerked in Brooklyn, where he re- 
 mained nearly two years, when the sickness of his 
 father called him home. After moving with his 
 father to Southfield, Mich., he settled once more on 
 a farm. There, on May 2, 1866, he married Sarah 
 E. Barrett. He and his wife tired of the farm after 
 a year and started for the city, going to Detroit, 
 Mich., where Mr. Gailey was soon established as 
 leceiving clerk of Farrend, Sheeley & Co., whole- 
 sale druggists. While living in Detroit there was 
 born, Aug. 24, 1869, their only child, a daughter, 
 who died Sept. 7, 1869. After spending five years 
 in Detroit Mr. Gailey and his wife moved to the 
 pine woods north of Bay City, Mich., to a place af- 
 terward called Standish, where he took charge of 
 the lumbering operations of J. D. Standish, of De- 
 troit. After spending about four years there Mr. 
 Standish disposed of his interest, and with Mr. 
 Gailey, under the name of Standish & Co., opened 
 a wholesale and retail lumber yard in Michigan, but 
 after two years they sold out and Mr. Gailey then 
 started out to sell lumber on the road for Henry 
 Stephens, a large lumberman in central Michigan. 
 After being on the road twO' years he again longed 
 for home and bought a farm at Grass Lake, Mich., 
 where he and his wife set up farming. After a 
 six months' trial of farm life his health gave out 
 and .he was induced to return to the road as lum- 
 ber salesman for Mr. Stephens. After spending in 
 all about five years traveling in the Eastern and 
 Western States he finally, July i, 1881, settled down 
 in Waterbury as secretary of the Waterbury Lum- 
 ber & Coal Co., which office he held until January, 
 1898, when he was elected president of the same 
 company, and he is still serving as such. He was 
 never active in politics, and to some extent inde- 
 pendent, yet he calls himself a Republican and usu- 
 ally votes with that party. 
 
 Brought up and nurtured in the faith of his 
 forefathers, Mr. Gailey joined the Covenanter, or 
 
 Reformed Presbyterian, Church, of Sterling, N. 
 Y,, when seventeen years old, transferring his mem- 
 bership to the same church when he went to Brook- 
 lyn and again on his removal to Southfield, Mich. 
 After their removal to Detroit, however, he and 
 his wife joined the First Presbyterian Church of 
 that city, from there transferring to the Congre- 
 gational Church, of Grass Lake, and again to the 
 Second Congregational Church, of Waterbury, 
 where thev are still members. Until the last four 
 or five years Mr. Gailey has been active in church 
 and Sunday-school work, and also a great supporter 
 of the work of the Y. M. C. A. 
 
 Mr. Gailey is a member of the Waterbury Club. 
 He joined Mattatuck Council, No. 713, Royal Ar- 
 canum, of Waterbury, March 9, 1885 ; the Improved 
 Order of Heptasophs, Dec. i, 1894; Nosahogan 
 Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. F., of Waterbury, Nov. 3, 
 1885 ; Ansantawae Encampment, No. 20, I. O. O. 
 F., of Waterbury, in 1886; Winona Rebekah Lodge, 
 L O. O. F., of Waterbury, Sept. 25, 1895 ; was 
 made a Mason Jan. 11, 1888; initiated into Conti- 
 nental Lodge, No. 76, A. F. &. A. M., May 14, 
 1888: exalted ruler in Eureka Chapter, No. 22, 
 Waterbury, Nov. 25, 1891 ; Clark Commandery, 
 No. 7, Knights Templar, Jan. i, i89'2; Naomi Chap- 
 ter, No. 23, Eastern Star, Waterbury, April 13, 
 1900. He was made a thirty-second degree Mason 
 April, 1901. 
 
 Mrs. Sarah E. (Barrettl Gailey, wife of J. S. 
 Gailey, was born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., June i, 
 1840, daughter of Abraham Barrett, who was born 
 in Ulster, N. Y., and died in same place in .1862. 
 Her mother, Catherine Rose, daughter of William 
 Rose, also born in Ulster county. N. Y., died Jan. 
 21, 1855. Her ancestors are of Holland-Dutch de- 
 scent, and at one time were large land owners on 
 the Hudson. Mrs. Gailey has inherited their sterl- 
 ing character. Those who know her well know her 
 to be the truest of friends. She has made it a 
 life rule, when unable to speak well of anyone, to 
 hold her peace. 
 
 JOSEPH E. HUBINGER. The record of a 
 busy life, a successful life, must ever prove fecund 
 in interest and profit as scanned by the student who 
 would learn- of the intrinsic essence of individu- 
 ality; who would attempt an analysis of character, 
 and trace back to the fountain head the widely 
 diverging channels which mark the onward flow of 
 such individuality. All human achievement, all hu- 
 man weal or woe, in short, all things within the 
 mental ken, are but mirrored back from the com- 
 posite individuality of those who have lived. "The 
 proper study of mankind is man," says Pope, and 
 aside from this, in its broader sense, what basis 
 of study or information have we? The rapid de- 
 velopment of all material resources during the 
 years leading up to the advent of the glorious 
 twentieth century has brought business enterprises 
 up from the days of small things to gigantic pro- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 333 
 
 portions, where millions of dollars take the place 
 of hundreds, and where men are required to handle 
 such millions as coolly and carefully and as success- 
 fully as their grandfathers handled the hundreds. 
 The entire history of the world shows that to grap- 
 ple with all new conditions, to fill breaches in all 
 great crises, men have been developed and have 
 stood ready to assume new and great responsibil- 
 ities, and have discharged the duties involved with 
 ability and profit. It is ever the enterprise and 
 character of the citizen that enrich and ennoble the 
 commonwealth. From individual enterprise has 
 been evolved all the splendor and importance of 
 our great industrial communities. America is a 
 self-made country, and here is found the highest 
 type of the self-made man. No influence of birth 
 or fortune has favored the architects of her glory. 
 Amlong those who have achieved prominence as 
 men of marked ability and substantial worth are 
 the Hubinger brothers, of New Haven, who now 
 control an industry of magnificent scope and im- 
 portance, which they have developed from the most 
 modest inception, gaining standing among the in- 
 fluential men of the industrial world. For all they 
 have accomplished in the face of seemingly in- 
 superable obstacles and against odds that would 
 have baffled the courage and determination of the 
 average man, they merit the mlaximimi of credit 
 and praise, while their course in all the relations of 
 life has been such as to retain for them the utmost 
 confidence and esteem. They have wrought along 
 the lines of the greatest good, have observed the 
 most strenuous ethics of business life, and have 
 gained an unassailable reputationi in the great field 
 of manufacturing enterprise, their products and 
 name being familiarly known in all sections of the 
 Union. The history of mankind is replete with il- 
 lustrations of the fact that it is only under the 
 pressure of adversity and the stimulus of opposi- 
 tion that the best and strongest potentials of the 
 individual are brought out, making the life prolific 
 in fullest measure. It is a far cry from peddling 
 the product of a modest little factory about the 
 streets of a city from a handcart to the manipulation 
 of an enterprise involving the transaction of mil- 
 lions of dollars' worth of business annually, and 
 yet this is what the course of a few years, com- 
 paratively, has brought about in the careers of the 
 Hubinger brothers. If anything can inspire the 
 youth of our country to persistent, honest and laud- 
 able effort it should be such life records as the one 
 which we are now permitted to touch. 
 
 For a generation the name of Hubinger has 
 been one of distinct prominence ini New Haven, 
 where the brothers have achieved an almost phe- 
 nomenal success in the industrial world, the time 
 element being considered. Theirs has been a 
 straightforward and legitimate business undertak- 
 ing and the name which they bear has ever stood 
 for'the highest honor and integrity, while the prod- 
 uct of their great factories has become probably 
 
 as well known as any other household commodity 
 which has ever been placed on the market in the 
 United States. Elsewhere in this work individual 
 mention is made of the senior member of the firm., 
 Nicholas W. Hubinger, and to the same it will 
 be proper to refer in this connection, as the two 
 narratives will be found to be closely interwoven, 
 the one complementing the other. 
 
 In the year 1880 the three Hubinger brothers, 
 John C, Nicholas W. and Joseph E., founded the 
 Elastic Starch Co. in New Haven, under the firm 
 name of J. C. Hubinger & Brothers, and this as- 
 sociation remained thus until June, 1899, when. J. 
 C. Hubinger's interests were accumulated by his 
 two brothers and the business was reorganized and 
 incorporated., under the title of the J. C. Hubinger 
 Brothers Co., of which Nicholas W. is president 
 and Joseph E. secretary and treasurer. It may be 
 said without fear of contradiction that the Hubin- 
 ger brothers were the originators and first manu- 
 facturers of elastic starch, and the product bear- 
 ing their name has always maintained its precedence 
 over others of imitative order, and has always main- 
 tained its priority in a class by itself, its superiority 
 being unmistakable, and the demand for the same 
 being steady and cumulative in character. This 
 firm, while now the foremost of its kind in Amer- 
 ica, had its inception under circumstances that of- 
 fered very slight earnest of the magnificent future 
 of the industry involved. The enterprise was born 
 in all modesty and the early difficulties and strug- 
 gles encountered seem almost like a romance when 
 we take cognizance of the financial position of the 
 brothers to-day and the magnificent scope of their 
 business. While the promoters had implicit con- 
 fidence in the value of their product, they wrought 
 out their success through energy, consecutive ap- 
 plication and direction of every available means 
 to the securing of the desired ends. That they have 
 reaped nothing more than a just reward for their 
 earnest and indefatigable efforts is the verdict pro- 
 nounced by all who have been familiar with the 
 history of their enterprise. Had the brothers been 
 men of but the average persistency and determina- 
 tion, or of but average business acumlen, they would 
 have abandoned the business which has brought 
 them not only great wealth but also a national rep- 
 utation., placing them in the very foremost ranks 
 of the successful manufacturers of New England. 
 The Hubinger brothers are sons of John F. and 
 Catharine (Girard) Hubinger, the former of whom 
 was born in the Kingdom of Bavaria, Germany, 
 and the latter in Metz, France. They were reared 
 to lives of frugality, and that in their characters 
 abide those deep attributes of integrity and inflex- 
 ible honesty of purpose that make for strong man- 
 hood and noble womanhood cannot be doubted by 
 anyone who has known them at any period in their 
 lives. They are of the stern stuff which stands 
 for true values in life, and it is fitting that their 
 sons, deeply appreciative of their sterling worth 
 
334 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and of all the fostering influences which emanated 
 from them during their childhood days, should 
 yield to them so deep a solicitude and veneration 
 as they begin to pass onward to where the sunset 
 gates of life open wide in the crimson west. The 
 venerable and devoted couple now maintain their 
 home at Keokuk, Iowa, where, in December, 1900, 
 they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, 
 surrounded by their children and by a goodly com- 
 pany of warm and cherished friends. That city is 
 likewise the home of their son, John C. Hubinger, 
 formerly a member of the firm in New Haven, who 
 is known as one of Keokuk's most prominent citi- 
 zens and influential business men. John F. Hubin- 
 ger is a worthy type of the thrifty, intelligent, in- 
 dustrious German element which has ever repre- 
 sented a most valuable constituent in the civic life 
 of our great American republic, for it cannot be 
 doubted that the nation has gained much and lost 
 nothing through the incorporation of this virile 
 and strength-giving element, standing for profound 
 judgment, inflexible integrity and the truest man- 
 hood and womanhood. Mr. Hubinger was for a 
 number of years identified with mercantile pursuits, 
 and at one time successfully conducted a brewing 
 business in Ripley, Ohio. Through exigencies 
 which were beyond his guidance or control he met 
 with financial reverses, the result being that his 
 sons were constrained to assume personal respon- 
 sibilities early in life, and to become reliant upon 
 their own resources. Theirs was the legacy of thai: 
 liberal endowmenit of pluck and persistency without 
 which no definite and worthy success in life is pos- 
 sible of attainment, and in view of the develop- 
 ments of the years past it can scarcely be doubted 
 that the reverses of the father proved the making 
 of the sons, since necessity prompted them to 
 the fullest exercise of their powers and abilities 
 and lifted them high above the plane of mediocrity, 
 revealing the resplendent virtues of self-respecting, 
 potent and exalted manhood, and resulting in lives 
 of most prolific and beneficent order, the public 
 good being enhanced through their private enter- 
 prise. The venerable parents share the comforts 
 and luxuries which wealth grants, and their sons 
 find particular satisfaction in providing them with 
 every possible accessory which will brighten their 
 declining days with the evidences of love and ap- 
 preciation, though, mindful of the frugality of their 
 early days, they sometimes are led to gently pro- 
 test against what seems to them a prodigality shown 
 by their sons in thus providing for their welfare. 
 The attitude is one which is most grateful to note 
 in this connection, and offers assurance that the 
 sons have never been unmindful of the teachings 
 and worthy example of their venerable parents, 
 and that they appreciate the true values in life and 
 the responsibilities which wealth involves, while 
 they have an intrinsic loyalty to self that holds them 
 aside from ostentatious personal exhibitions and to 
 show a detestatiG"- of the pretentious show affected 
 
 by many who have acquired great wealth in so 
 brief an interval of time. 
 
 To render in detail the history of the inchoation 
 and rise of the now immense industrial enterprise 
 conducted by the J. C. Hubinger Brothers Co. 
 would far transcend the prescribed limitations of 
 a publication of this nature, and still consistency 
 demands that an epitome of this history be in- 
 corporated, for it bears both lesson and incentive 
 as involving strenuous insistency of purpose and 
 consecutive application of great energies and abil- 
 ities until the mark of so high a success has been at- 
 tained. Starting in so modest and unpretentious a 
 way, no concern in New Haven has had a more 
 herculean struggle in the securing of a definite foot- 
 hold ; no such demonstration of pluck and deter- 
 minate effort ; and no such rapid rise from the point 
 of the most meagre facilities and accessories to a 
 position at the forefront of the ranks of commercial 
 enterprise. The present generation has witnessed 
 the wonderful transition, and who can doubt that 
 there has been a lesson in the great prosperity which 
 it represents? To one thinking of the concern to- 
 day and realizing that the transactions now involve 
 millions of dollars annually, the thought must come 
 that here has been brought to bear a wonderful 
 energy, a transcendent executive and administrative 
 ability, and a singleness of purpose which had no 
 cognizance of the word failure. 
 
 The idea of an elastic starch was suggested to 
 the Hubinger brothers while they were acting as 
 salesmen for the old-fashioned kiiid of starch. The 
 housewives, ever the best judges of domestic econ- 
 omies, entered frequent complaints to the effect 
 that the starch would stick to the irons, and with a 
 view of remedying this difficulty the idea of an 
 elastic starch was conceived. After careful and 
 well directed experimentation an article was pro- 
 duced which effectually obviated the trouble thus 
 made the subject of complaint. Lack of capital, 
 and the difficulties to be encountered in the intro- 
 duction of a distinctive innovation, constituted a 
 problem and a handicap which would have dis- 
 couraged men of less determination and persistency, 
 and the early difficulties experienced by the broth- 
 ers in the establishing of their business upon a 
 profitable basis can scarcely be imagined by those 
 not familiar with the inception of the business. 
 They were practically strangers in New Haven, 
 therefore their credit had not yet been estaJblished, 
 and among the incidents of their early struggle, 
 amusing in a retrospective way, was that involved 
 in their being refused credit for a barrel of starch, 
 worth less than four dollars, this small sunn being 
 later raised only by strenuous effort, whik they 
 were also obliged to pay on delivery for the paste- 
 board containers in which was placed their manu- 
 factured product. Their difficulties but served to 
 increase their determination and augment their en- 
 ergies, and the eventual reward was not denied 
 them in the controlling ©f a business which is of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 335 
 
 great importance as bearing upon the industrial 
 life of the city of New Haven, where they are 
 known and honored for their sterling worth of 
 character and their high standing in the commercial 
 world. In the early days dealers refused to handle 
 their goods while they were still in the experimental 
 stage, and their first customers were secured by a 
 house to house canvass, in which they personally 
 took part, and in which connection they were fre- 
 quently called upon to demonstrate the efficacy and 
 superiority of their starch. One secret of their suc- 
 cess has been that they have never been afraid to 
 work, and that they have always maintained the 
 same deep appreciation of the dignity of honest 
 labor in whatever form, lacking in their composi- 
 tion any element of snobbishness or false pride. No 
 part of the details of their business was too un- 
 pleasant or too difficult for them to personally un- 
 dertake, and through all the years of magnificent 
 growth they have thus retained the confidence and 
 resipect of their large corps of employes, who. re- 
 alize that the mark of appreciation is placed on 
 character and faithful service, which command the 
 respect, in turn, of the generous employers. 
 
 Many who watched the early struggles of the 
 Hubinger brothers predicted failure, but few prob- 
 ably felt that any distinctive success would crown 
 their efforts, and it is doubtful whether anyone, 
 not even excepting the brothers themselves, ever 
 thought the future had in store the magnificent 
 prosperity which it records. The reward, however, 
 is on every hand considered not the less in justice 
 due. The business soon began to expand in scope 
 and importance, the products of the little factory 
 falling into the hands of the best judges of a 
 household utility, the housewives themselves, as has 
 been previously noted, and the merits oi the elastic 
 starch did not long fail of recognition. Notwith- 
 standing the unmistakable superiority of the prod- 
 uct, its introduction and the expansion of the en- 
 terprise to the point of defirtite success called for 
 the exercise of rare business acumen, and in the 
 administration of a business of so great magnitude 
 there have been demanded individual powers of 
 transcendent quality, as is evident from even a 
 cursory glance. That the brothers have been equal 
 to every problem presented in a technical or ex- 
 ecutive way bespeaks the possession of the powers 
 demanded, and places them in the ranks of those 
 great spirits who have made the nation famous 
 for its magnificent industrial accomplishments. 
 The Hubinger brothers have made the starch busi- 
 ness their vocation in life, devoting their energies 
 to the developmlent of a great enterprise, and some 
 years after the establishment of the original factory 
 in New Haven they also erected a large factory at 
 Keokuk, for the better accommodation of their ever 
 increasing business through the West, and this por- 
 tion of the property was likewise retained by the 
 J. C. Hubinger Brothers Co. upon the reorganiza- 
 tion of the business, in Jun.e, 1899. The business 
 
 assuredly, at its inception, came under the categor- 
 ical list of "infant industries," but it soon leaped 
 forward from its swaddling clothes to the vigor and 
 pretentiousness of sturdy manhood and has grown 
 to immense proportions, both in the East and the 
 West, involving the disposition of more than twen- 
 ty-five million packages of the elastic starch an- 
 nually, while their transactions in this and other 
 lines reach an annual aggregate of several millions 
 of dollars. Success of this magnitude has not 
 seemed to change those to whom it has fallen. The 
 sarnie democratic attitude is in evidence in their in- 
 tercourse with all sorts and conditions of men, and 
 they never seem to wish to give any personal man- 
 ifestation of the possession of great wealth save 
 through normal lines of unostentatious expenditure 
 and the providing of their families with those ele- 
 gant and refined surroundings which affluence ever 
 justifies. 
 
 We shall now enter somewhat into detail con- 
 cerning the personal career of Joseph E. Hubin- 
 ger, whose name initiates this review. He is a 
 native of Madison, Ind., born Feb. 1, 1858. When 
 he was still a boy his parents removed thence to 
 Ohio, and his educational advantag'es, while not 
 of collegiate order, were of excellent character, and 
 through them he laid a proper foundation for the 
 superstructure of wide information which has come 
 to him through association with men and affairs, 
 through reading, and through the refined condi- 
 tions and accessories which are comlpassed by 
 wealth. His inheritance of a sturdy physical con- 
 stitution, definite energy and power of application 
 has likewise been an element conserving his success 
 in connection with the active duties of life, and he 
 early displayed that marked pragmatic and execu- 
 tive ability which has been characteristic of those 
 bearing the name of Hubinger. He entered upon 
 an active business career in his youth, and in the 
 year 1880 came to New Haven, where his two elder 
 brothers, John C. and Nicholas W., had preceded 
 him. He was associated with them in the founding 
 of the elastic starch business, and his identification 
 with the enterprise has thus been consecutive from 
 the time of its inception. He has contributed a 
 due quota to the magnificent success of the great en- 
 terprise, while in his general make-up and char- 
 acteristics he is not unlike his brothers, the hon- 
 ored name being honored the more by their lives 
 and services. He is wide-awake, progressive, and 
 quick to grasp and pass judgment on a business 
 proposition, and in every line of thought and action 
 he has shown himself to be animated by a spirit of 
 fairness and unequivocal integrity, being strong in 
 his convictions, but not intolerant; always firm in 
 defense of right, but having no room in his heart 
 for revenge; while flattery is impotent, to cajole 
 him into compromise, or power to awe him into 
 silence, his motto being practically "to live and let 
 live." Much to his credit as a public-spirited citi- 
 zen, it may be said that he erected and owns the 
 
336 
 
 :OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 fine Hu'binger block in Chapel street, New Haven, 
 one of the most attractive modern business and 
 office structures in the city, its erection having- done 
 much to stimulate modern practices in the method 
 of constructing local blocks for suc'h purposes, thus 
 adding greatly to the attractions of the city and 
 to safety and the use of the best facilities. Though 
 always true to the duties of citizenship, Mr. Hubin- 
 ger is not in any sense a seeker for official pre- 
 ferment, but rather avows a distinct aversion to all 
 that smacks of public notoriety. He has been re- 
 peatedly urged to accent ofifice of trust and re- 
 sponsibility, but has uniformly declined. For one 
 term he made an exception to his rule in this re- 
 gard and served on the police board, with much 
 credit to himself and to the uniform satisfaction 
 of the city. His political allegiance is given to the 
 Republican party, and fraternally he is identified 
 with the ancient craft, capitular, cryptic and chivalric 
 bodies of Freemasonry, being a member of Wor- 
 cester Lodge, F. & A. M. ; Franklin Chapter, R. 
 A. M. ; Harmony Council, R. & S. M. ; and New 
 Haven Comraandery, K. T. ; while he is also a mem- 
 ber of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks in 
 his home city. Mr. Hubinger is one of the stock- 
 holders in the New Haven County Bank and a 
 member of its directorate. 
 
 Like his brother, Nicholas W., Mr. Hubinger 
 is a great fancier of high-bred horses and is one 
 of the prominent gentlemen horse-owners on the 
 trotting turf to-day. His stables are extensive, and 
 m them have been found at various times some 
 of the fleetest and best-bred individuals on the 
 trotting turf. Fromi this noble sport he derives 
 a great am.ount of pleasure and satisfaction, his 
 means enabling him to indulge the propensity to 
 the fullest limit. He is also fond of the sports 
 afield, and makes many interesting excursions with 
 rod and gun, his home containing a large number 
 of fine trophies brought down with his rifle and 
 properly given over to the taxidermist. His steam 
 yacht, the "Sea Bird," is one of the finest of the 
 palatial wafer crafts of this type owned in New 
 Haven. His purely democratic ways, his liberaHty 
 to any worthy cause, his genial disposition, and 
 his sterling manhood, have gained Mr. Hubinger 
 a host of friends, and he would be called to serve 
 in positions of official nature were not his tastes 
 averse to' acceptance, though his interposition could 
 not fail to be of definite value. 
 
 Mr. Hubinger's beautiful home is maintained 
 in harmony with his financial position an.d is one 
 of the most spacious and attractive in New Haven, 
 widely known as a city of beautiful homes. The 
 residence contains features which place it in ,a class 
 by itself, so far as being unique and original is 
 concerned. Here miay be found specimens of the 
 best lines of art production, both of the old mas- 
 ters and the modern schools, while the graceful 
 attractions of music and beautiful surroundings 
 make the home one of ideal character ; the house 
 
 has for the most part been arranged with marked 
 taste and skill, under the direction of Mrs. Hubin- 
 ger. Included in the scheme is a most attractive 
 'den" provided for Mr. Hubinger's individual use, 
 which with its wealth of mteresting objets d'art, 
 paintings, bric-a^brac, trophies of the chase, etc., is 
 well worth a visit and careful and appreciative 
 inspection, the equipment of this one room involv- 
 ing the expenditure of many thousands of dollars. 
 In his every-day life our subject is easily approach- 
 able and ever courteous, and, notwithstanding the 
 insistent demands made on his time and attention 
 by his great business interests and his various meth- 
 ods of proper recreation, he never fails to have a 
 cheerful word for his many friends, and is willing 
 to grasp the hand of any honest man in whatever 
 position he is placed. The Hubinger brothers are 
 of the true American type, and more than this need 
 scarcely be said. 
 
 On June 8, 1887, Mr. Hubinger was united in 
 marriage with Miss Mamie F. Morrell, a daughter 
 of Edwin and Amanda Morrell, of Portland, 
 Maine, and they have two children, Rene G. and 
 Joseph E., Jr. Mrs. Hubinger presides with 
 gracious manner over the beautiful home, where the 
 refined amenities of true social life are ever in 
 distinct evidence. 
 
 DUMOND P. MERWIN, a member of the well- 
 known firm of William M. Merwin & Sons, of Mil- 
 ford, was born in that town Aug. 9, 1853, and has 
 always resided there, his business interests being 
 among the most important in the place. 
 
 The family has been identified with this section 
 for several generations, and William M. Merwin, 
 father of our subject, was born and reared in Mil- 
 ford, and has been actively engaged in business 
 there as a grower and wholesale dealer in oysters. 
 The firm owns several steamboats and makes a 
 specialty of Long Island Sound and Narragansett 
 Bay oysters. William M. Merwin married Miss 
 Sarah C. Peck, of Orange, Conn., and has two sons, 
 Dumond P. and Merritt W., both members of the 
 firm. 
 
 Dumond P. Merwin was educated in the schools 
 of Milford and at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. 
 On Oct. I, 1874, he married Miss A. Bathena Bris- 
 tol, of Milford, daughter of David and Elizabeth 
 Bristol, and they have had two children: Albert 
 Dumond and William Harvey. Mr. Merwin owns 
 a beautiful home on the Sound, with extensive and 
 artistically arranged grounds, and commanding a 
 charming view. He has always taken keen interest 
 in the various enterprises begun in Milford, and 
 is now a director in the Savings Bank, and a mem- 
 ber of the library committee. Politically he is a 
 Republican, and he was president of the Republican 
 Club of Milford in 1888, and served as representa- 
 tive in the Legislature in 1897. He belongs to num- 
 erous fraternal orders, including the Union League 
 Club of New Haven ; Ansautawae Lodge, No. 89, F. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 337 
 
 & A. jM. ; Franklin Chapter, R. A. ^l., Xo. 2 ; Union 
 Council, No. 27, R. S. M.; New Haven Command- 
 ery, No. I ; Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. ; 
 Wopowage Lodge, No. 14, I. O. O. F. ; Isabelle 
 Lodge, No. 23, D. R. ; Sassacus Encampment, No. 
 I ; Grand Canton Sassacus, No. i, P. M. He has 
 been through all the chairs in both local branches 
 of the L O. O. F., and has 'been grand patriarch of 
 the Grand Encampment, and was representatiye in 
 the Sovereign Grand Lodge in 1897-98. 
 
 ALO'NZO B. HALL, who with two exceptions 
 is the oldest druggist in the city of New Haven, was 
 born Sept. 9, 1843, i" New Haven, son of Denison 
 and Jane (Clark) Hall. 
 
 The first settler of the Hall family in America, 
 John Hall, was born in 1605, came to Boston, Mass., 
 and died in 1676. His family was No. 84 of those 
 who first landed in Boston. He married Jane 
 Woolen, who probably came to America with Will- 
 iam Wilks, and located in Boston. Three or four of 
 John Hall's sons joined a colony and settled in Wal- 
 lingford in 1670. Few residents of Connecticut 
 have been more respected than the (!escendants of 
 John and Jane (Woolen) Hall, and there are still 
 some representatives in Wallingford. The great- 
 grandfather of our subject, John, was born there, 
 and his son, also named John, was born in Walling- 
 ford July 13, 1770. The latter was married April 
 3, 1800, to Grace Denison Hall, daughter of Benja- 
 min Hall. Mrs. Grace D. (Hall) Hall died Jan. 4, 
 1840, at the age of sixty-nine years, the mother of 
 ten children, namely: Thankful, born in 1801 ; 
 Lowly, April 4, 1804; Jeremiah A., 1806; John, 
 Oct. 8, 1808; Phoebe, Dec. 18, 1810; Grace D., July 
 18, 1813; Denison, Dec. 9, 1815; EHsha, March 15, 
 1818; Jeanette, May 31, 1820; and Polly, who died 
 young. All but Polly lived to be over seventy, and 
 all are now deceased. The father died at the age of 
 sixty-five years, having spent his life on the original 
 Hall homestead in Wallingford, now owned by 
 Henry D. Hall. He was a farmer by occupation. 
 
 Denison Hall, father of Alonzo B., was born in 
 Wallingford and was there reared, but after the age 
 of fifteen years his home was in New Haven, where 
 he died at the age of seventy-nine. He followed 
 the trade of carpenter and joiner, with the Lewis & 
 Beecher Co., and put up the first house on City 
 Point. Denison Hall first married Jane Clark, of 
 West Haven, who was a daughter of Bryan and 
 Betsy (Prindle) Clark, both of West Haven, the 
 former of whom died at a comparatively early age, 
 the latter at the age of eighty-six. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Clark's children were Joseph, Linus, Alpheus, Char- 
 lotte, Mary, Jane (Mrs. Hall), Louis, Lucinia and 
 Lucretia, all now deceased but Louis, who lives in 
 Brooklyn. This entire family was identified with 
 the Episcopal Church. Mrs. Jane (Clark) Hall 
 died at the age of thirty, the mother of three chil- 
 dren, two of whom survive: Alonzo B., whose 
 name introduces this sketch; and Jane, in Brooklyn. 
 22 
 
 For his second wife ^Ir. Hall wedded Lucretia 
 Clark, by whom he had two children : Charlotte, 
 who is married and resides in Brooklyn ; and Ed- 
 ward P., also a resident of that city. Mrs. Lucretia 
 Hall died at the age of thirty-eight, in the faith of 
 the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Alonzo B. Hall has spent the greater part of his 
 life in New Haven. He received hisi education in 
 the public schools, attending the Webster school 
 until fifteen years of age, when he commenced the 
 drug business as clerk with James Olmstead, with 
 whom he remained two years. He then went to 
 New York City, where he was in the employ of 
 Cass well & Mack until 1870, in which year he re- 
 turned to New Haven and started in business on his 
 own account, his first location being in State street 
 where he continued for five years. Since 1875 he 
 has conducted the business at his present stand. No. 
 1225 Chapel street, which is one of the best known 
 in the city. Mr. Hall has met with gratifying suc- 
 cess in his chosen calling, and he has established 
 himself among the solid business men of New Ha- 
 ven by honorable methods and uprightness in all his 
 dealings. 
 
 On Nov. 19, 1866, Mr. Hall married Miss Mary 
 S. Lambert, a native of Danbury, this State, and 
 they had one child. May G., who is now the wife of 
 C. F. Haviland, and h^as one child, Donald A. ; Mr. 
 Haviland is a tailor in Boston, Mass. Mrs. Mary 
 S. Hall died at the age of thirtj^-eight, and Mr. Hall 
 subsequently married Miss Amelia Emerich, a na- 
 tive of New Haven, by whom he had one son, Alon- 
 zo B., Jr., who is now with a photographer in this 
 city. Mrs. Amelia Hall passed away in 1884, at the 
 early age of twenty-eight. For his third wife our 
 subject married Miss Julia M. Stevens, who was 
 born in New Haven, daughter of Robert M. Stev- 
 ens, formerly a prominent merchi^nt of the city, and 
 died in December, 1900, at the age of fifty-four. 
 Mrs. Julia M. Hall was, on her mother's side, lineal- 
 ly descended from ex-Gov. Treat, Colonial Governor 
 of Connecticut, and from Miles Merwin, one of the 
 early proprietors of Milford. Mr. Hall is a com- 
 municant of the Episcopal Church, belonging to 
 Christ Church parish. Fraternally he is a Free- 
 mason, holding membership in Hiram Lodge, No. 
 I, A. F. & A. M. ; Franklyn Chapter; and Harmony 
 Council. His political support is given to the Dem- 
 ocratic party, though he reserves the right to vote 
 independently in local elections. 
 
 HOYT. The Hoyt family of Connecticut, a 
 branch of which settled in Danbury and to which 
 belonged the late Edwin S. Hoyt, who for twenty- 
 five years or more was one of Waterbury's leading 
 furriers and hatters, is an old one, prominent in both 
 the Colonial and State periods. 
 
 Simon Hoyt, the first American ancestor of the 
 Hoyts of whom we write, was born in 1595, prob- 
 ably at Curry Rival, Somersetshire, England, and 
 was one of a company under the leadership of Gov. 
 
338 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 John Endicott, in the ship "Abigail," which arrived 
 at Salem, Mass., Sept. 6, 1628. He was one of the 
 first settlers of Dorchester in 1630, was made a free- 
 man in 1631, one of the first in Massachusetts. He 
 went to Scituate, from which place he came to 
 Windsor, Conn., about 1639, ^"^ finally went to 
 Stamford, where he died in 1657. 
 
 Walter Hoyt, son of Simon Hoyt, born about 
 1618, was living with wife and three children in 
 Windsor in 1640. He became one of the proprietors 
 of Norwalk, and later was removed to Fairfield, 
 Conn. He died in i6g8. 
 
 John Hoyt, son of Walter Hoyt, born in Wind- 
 sor, married (first) in 1666, Mary Lindell, daughter 
 of Henry Lindell, a deacon in the Church at New 
 Haven. He died in 1722. His children were: John, 
 born in 1669, married ;\Iary Drake, of Simsbury, 
 and lived in Danbury, where he died in 1746; Sam- 
 uel, born in 1670, lived in Danbury and there died 
 in 1749-50; Thomas, born in 1674, lived in Dan- 
 bury, and there died in 1749; Mary; Deborah; and 
 Joshua and Nathaniel, both of whom lived in Dan- 
 bury. The births of five of the children were re- 
 corded at Norwalk. 
 
 From a sermon preached in Danbury in 1801, by 
 Rev. Thomas Robbins, it is learned that the first 
 permanent settlement of that town was made in the 
 spring of 1695 by eight families, among them was 
 John Hoyt, and seven of the eight came from Nor- 
 walk, Conn. They purchased their lands from the 
 Indians. From the sons of this John Hoyt descends 
 ed many of the numerous families of the name who 
 have since lived in Danbury. A number of the 
 Danbury Hoyts were prominent in the hat and fur 
 trade, among those so occupied was the old firm of 
 R. & E. F Hoyt (Russell and Eli F.), which was 
 doing business in 1816. John R., a son of Russell 
 Hoyt and brother of Linus P., and T. Granville, 
 succeeded the old firm, which was eventually con- 
 solidated with the Tweedy family and became Hoyt, 
 Tweedy & Company. 
 
 The late Edwin S. Hoyt of Waterbury, referred 
 to above, was born July 12, 1824, in Danbury, Conn., 
 a son of Zar and Esther (Smith) Hoyt, of Brook- 
 field, and early in the fifties removed from there to 
 Winsted, where for three years until, coming to Wa- 
 terbury in 1854, he was engaged in the hat and fur- 
 rier trade, a business he was engaged in in Water- 
 bury for more than a quarter of a century. After 
 retiring from the hat business, he was for several 
 years associated with the real estate business. Sev- 
 eral years prior to his death, owing to failing health, 
 he was not active in business. Mr. Hoyt, as a busi- 
 ness man, was shrewd and enterprising, but always, 
 upright, and a man whose word could ever be de- 
 pended upon. He was a man of good judgment 
 and held a number of positions of trust and honor. 
 He had been a member of the district committee, 
 and served as town treasurer, giving the best of sat- 
 isfaction in both relations. He was a prominent 
 mem-ber of St. John's Episcopal Church, of Water- 
 
 bury, and for some time was a member of the vestry. 
 On May 14, 1851, Mr. Hoyt was married to 
 Miss Sophia, daughter of Alonzo and Flora (Glov- 
 er) Beers, of Brookfield, Conn. Aionzo Beers, 
 father of Mrs. Hoyt, was born in Newtown, Conn., 
 Aug. 19, 1793, and died July 15, 1873. Flora 
 (Glover) Beers was born in Newtown, Conn., Oct. 
 18, 1795, and died Aug. 2, 1875. They had a family 
 of seven children, namely : Daniel, born April 6, 
 1815, was a merchant in Brookfield, Conn., and died 
 Oct. 30, 1870; Rebecca, born May 11, 181 7, married 
 Benjamin Jones, of Brookfield, Conn., and died 
 March 27, 1884; Sarah M., born May 21, 1820, 
 married Philo Clarke, of Newtown, Conn. ; Eli S., 
 born June 6, 1822, was a merchant and died in In- 
 diana Sept. II, 1846; Joseph T., born March 15, 
 1825, is a farmer in Brookfield, Conn.; Sophia H., 
 born June 15, 1827; George A., born May 22, 1830, 
 died in Danbury, Conn., Dec. i, 1868. James Glover, 
 father of Mrs. Flora ( Glover )_ Beers, was born in 
 Newtown, and married Mary Ann Glover, who was 
 also born in Newtown, and who lived to be 102 
 years of age. They were the parents of twelve chil- 
 dren, all of whom grew to maturity. James Glover 
 was a son of Capt. Samuel Glover, a Universalist 
 minister. 
 
 WILBUR- TREAT SMITH, founder and treas- 
 urer of The W. T. Smith Co., manufacturers of 
 door and window screens, tool chests, cabinets, etc.. 
 New Haven, is a successful business man, who 
 from a small beginning has builded up a fine trade. 
 He is a native of Woodbridge, Conn., born Dec. 15, 
 1850, a son of Isaac Treat Smith, and a grandson 
 of Daniel Treat Smith. 
 
 Woodbridge was named in honor of Rev. Ben- 
 jamin Woodbridge, and in his home in after years 
 dwelt Daniel Treat Smith, a farmer and blacksmith 
 by occupation. Mr. Smith was a very prominent 
 man in the town, and most active in church work, 
 holding the office of deacon. He married Rebecca 
 Sperry, and became the father of a numerous fam- 
 ily: Eliza, Benjamin, Amos, Nancy, Sally, Isaac 
 Treat, Mary, Willis, Lewis and Emily. Of these 
 Benjamin, Amos and Lewis became blacksmiths; 
 while Lewis also engaged in manufacturing, as did 
 Isaac. 
 
 Isaac Treat Smith was born in Woodbridge, and 
 entered into his last rest March 8, 1900. He be- 
 came a manufacturer of carriage bolts, springs, etc., 
 and engaged to some extent in the sawmill business. 
 In 1872 he moved to New Haven, where he lived 
 practically retired, until his death. He married Lu- 
 cretia Ann Sperry, who was born in Hamden, 
 Conn., Nov. 19, 1821, and died Dec. 30, 1897, a 
 daughter of Elihu and Anna (Lines) Sperry, of 
 Woodbridge, natives of Woodbridge, who later 
 moved to New Haven, and there died. Two chil- 
 dren were born of this unioa: Wilbur T., and 
 Adella May, the latter the wife of John M. Marvin, 
 a son of Rev. S. B. Marvin, and a silk manufacturer 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 339 
 
 of New Haven. Mr. Smith was first a Whig, and 
 later a Republican. The entire family were con- 
 nected with t!he Congregiationalists. 
 
 Wilbur T. Smith remained in his native town 
 until he had attained his sixteenth year. He at- 
 tended the district school of that place, and passed 
 one year in the "Gunnery" in Washington. He 
 then served an apprenticeship at the carpenter trade, 
 under Peck & Skilton, and remained with them for 
 five years, becoming a master workman. At the age 
 of twenty-one he came to New Haven, and found 
 employment with A. N. Clark, contractor and build- 
 er. He remained in this place about five years, and 
 then, after a short time in the carriage building busi- 
 ness, he and his brother-in-law bought and conduc- 
 ted a silk factory. Ill health compelled his retire- 
 ment from active work for about five years, but in 
 1887, in company with Joseph G. Newcomb, he en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of window and door 
 screens, under the firm name of Newcomb & Smith. 
 This continued for about one and one-half years, 
 when Mr. Newcomb retired, and Mr. Smith as- 
 sumed charge of the entire business. This was be- 
 gun in a very small way in a' shed in the rear of his 
 home at No. 321 Winthrop avenue, and he himself 
 was the only workman. Now, however, he does an 
 extensive business, and employs about thirty skilled 
 workmen. In the beginning, too, hand power per- 
 formed the work, where now steam power is util- 
 ized. In connection with the manufacture of 
 screens, he had added tool chests, cabinets of vari- 
 ous descriptions, pool tables, chamberlain metal 
 weather strips, and articles of fancy wood work. 
 He was so very successful in his enterprise that on 
 April I, 1898, he formed a stock company, under 
 the name of The W. T. Smith Co., of which Mr. J. 
 L. Jennings is the president. They have enlarged 
 the plant, and are finding that even in larger quar- 
 ters, they are still unable to fill all orders, but must 
 increase their force still more. They have new plans 
 just completed for largely extending their present 
 plant. 
 
 On May 4, 1873, Mr. Smith was united in mar- 
 riage with Emily Maria Perkins, who was born in 
 Woodbridge May 3, 1848, a daughter of Samuel F. 
 and Mehitable (Stowe) Perkins. They have bwt 
 one child, Edna Louise, born Jan. 31, 1886. In his 
 political affiliations Mr. Smith is a Republican, and 
 socially he belongs to City Lodge, No. 36, I. O. O. 
 F. He and his family attend Dwight Place Church. 
 
 Samuel F. Perkins, father of Mrs. Smith, was 
 born in Woodbridge May 10, 181 1, and died Oct. 
 23, 1886. He was a blacksmith by trade. The 
 Perkins family have 'been represented in Connecticut 
 for many years, the first of whom there is record 
 being Peter, who was of English extraction, and 
 lived in 1690. He had a son, David, whose son, Dan- 
 iel, was the father of Amos, the grandfather of 
 Samuel F., son of Amos (2), and father of Mrs. 
 Smith. Mrs. Mehitable (Stowe) Perkins was born 
 in Milford, Conn., July 4, 181 1, and died March 26, 
 
 1880. She was a daughter of Isaac and Mehitable 
 (Smith) Stowe, the former a sea-faring man. To 
 Samuel F. Perkins and his wife, Mehitable (Stowe) 
 Perkins, were born two children : N. Jane, who 
 married James F. Nichols, and died June 20, 1897; 
 and Emily M., who became Mrs. Wilbur T. Smith. 
 
 RICHARD ALLEN, who has had charge of the 
 rolling mills of the Edward Miller Co., of Meriden, 
 for a period of more than thirty years, is one of the 
 "Silver City's" most respected citizens, and the sec- 
 ond oldest Free Mason in the State. He was born 
 Dec. 27, 1827, in Northfield, in the town of Thom- 
 aston, Litchfield Co., Conn. His father, Megs Mun- 
 son Allen, was a native of Litchfield Co., and was a 
 weaver by occupation. He learned this business 
 with Gen. Humphrey, the first- importer of Merino 
 sheep in this country. Mr. Allen became an expert 
 weaver, and was the first weaver of woolen blankets 
 and cloth on a power loom in his section. He en- 
 gaged in business with a man named Mark Hotch- 
 kiss, through whose dishonesty Mr. Allen lost 
 ever3-thing he had, even his household goods going 
 with the rest. In the effort to restore his lost estate, 
 Mr. Allen became a peddler of clocks for Mr. Seth 
 Thomas, of Thomaston, and traveled through Mas- 
 sachusetts, being a pioneer in his line in that section. 
 In the year 1829, having traded a load of clocks for 
 a stock of boots and shoes, he wrote 'his wife that he 
 was about to start out to dispose of his goods, and 
 this was the last his family ever heard of him. It is 
 supposed that he was murdered for his team and 
 wares, as no trace could be discovered of either. He 
 was noted for his quiet disposition and upright deal- 
 ings, .and was universally respected where known. 
 His wife, Maria Harrison, was a native of New Ha- 
 ven, and daughter of Michael Harrison. The sub- 
 ject of this sketch was the youngest, and is the only 
 survivor, of their four children : Ediward, the eldr 
 est, died in Prospect, Conn. ; Alonzo died in Water- 
 bury ; and Melissa, wife of E. W. Webster, died 
 Aug. 13, 1901, in Meriden, and was buried in Wa- 
 terbury. The mother of these continued to cherish 
 the memory of her husband to the last, refusing to 
 take another mate, and reached the age of seventy- 
 five years, dying with her' family at Waterbury, 
 where she was buried. She was a member of the 
 Episcopal Church, and a good Christian, who, fill- 
 ing the place of both father and mother, reared her 
 children to be good citizens. Devoting her life to 
 them, she found comfort in their happiness and 
 prosperity. 
 
 Richard Allen has no recollection of his father, 
 as he was but two years old when left an orphan. 
 Reared under the fostering care of a good mother, 
 he was early forced by circumstances to earn his 
 own living and Sad only limited opportunities for 
 schooling. He was only seven years old when he 
 began work in the button factory of Benedict & 
 Burnham, in Waterbury, where he received fifty 
 cents per week as salary, and remained one year. 
 
340 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 He then found a home on the farm of Joseph Wel- 
 ton, near Waterville, where he received his board 
 and clothing, with an opportunity to attend school 
 for short periods, and continued seven years. At 
 the age of sixteen years he began working in the 
 wire factory of Benedict & Burnham, in Water- 
 bury, and there spent two years. Wishing to see 
 something of his native country, he drifted South 
 and West, becoming a deck hand on a Mississippi 
 river steamboat. By his energy, industry and good 
 behavior, he worked his way to the position of sec- 
 ond engineer, and spent two years on the river. Re- 
 turning to Waterbury, he again took employment 
 in the wire mill, but soon entered the rolling mill of 
 Brown & Elton and, in time, became an expert roller. 
 When the firm changed to Brown Brothers, he was 
 placed in charge of the rolling mills, and continued 
 in this capacity for a period of ten years. From 
 there he removed to Ansonia and installed a small 
 rolling mill for Osborn & Cheeseman, manufactur- 
 ers of hoop skirts, continuing two years in charge 
 cf it. Having been tendered a position as super- 
 intendent of the United States Clock & Brass Co., 
 cf Chicago, he resigned and went to the western city, 
 but the business did not prove to be what he expec- 
 ted, and he returned to the East, accepting the po- 
 sition of assistant superintendent of the rolling mill 
 of Holmes, Booth & Haydens, at Waterbury, where 
 he remained until 1869. In that year he became a 
 resident of jVIeriden, and took charge of the rolling 
 mill of the Edward Miller Co., which he installed, 
 and for thirty-three years has held the same posi- 
 tion. This long period of service in the same 
 capacity, under one employer, testifies amply to the 
 ability and integrity of Mr. Allen. He built a fine 
 home on Cottage street, where he and his wife may 
 mtertain their many friends and enjoy the evening 
 cf life in serene contentment. He is still active, and 
 gees as regularly to his labors as in days of yore. 
 
 Mr. Allen was married, in 1851, to Lucinda 
 Dayton, v/ho was born in Torrington, Conn., and for 
 over fifty years they have continued happily to- 
 gether along tlie pathway of life. Both are members 
 of the M. E. Church, and since 1848 Mr. Allen has 
 teen affiliated with Harmony Lodge, No. 42, A. F. 
 (S: A. M., of Waterbury. The State holds only one 
 M?son with a longer period of membership. For 
 twelve years he was chairman of the school commit- 
 tee of the Center District, and superintended the 
 construction of two school buildings during that 
 time. He has adopted two children. The first, 
 Harry D. Allen, is now a resident of Rochester, N. 
 Y. The other, Maria Lovinia, married Arthur Ty- 
 ler, of Meriden. 
 
 From the most humble beginning, Mr. Allen has 
 made his way to a position of trust and responsibil- 
 ity, and enjoys the good will and respect of the com- 
 munity in which he has spent a third of a century of 
 active, industrious life. He can look back on those 
 years with few regrets, and the rising generation 
 may take inspiration from his success and profit by 
 his example. 
 
 FREDERIC PECK NEWTON (deceased) 
 was born in Woodbridge, New Haven county, Feb. 
 13, 1845, a son of John P. Newton, who was a 
 farmer, and lived and died in Woodbridge. 
 
 John P. Newton was born June 28, 1816, and 
 died Sept. 10, 1850. Jonah Newton, the grandfather 
 of Frederic P., was also a resident of Woodbridge, 
 as were also his great-grandfather and great-great- 
 grandfather, although at that time it was in the 
 town of Milford. They, like Jonah, had good old 
 Bible names, Enoch and Samuel respectively. 
 John p. Newton married Betsy R. Peck, who was 
 born Oct. 17, 1814, and died March 16, 1871, the 
 mother of two children, both of whom are now de- 
 ceased : Ann E., born in 1841, who married Harr^ 
 W. Blanchard, and lived in New Haven ; and Fred- 
 eric P., whose name appears at the imbroduction of 
 this article. 
 
 Frederic P. Newton was reared in Wood- 
 bridge, where he attended school. He also studied 
 in the New Haven schools, completing his educa- 
 tion at Gen. W. H. Russell's Collegiate & Commer- 
 cial Institute, which was also^ a military school. In 
 his early life he devoted himself to farming, but 
 became a manufacturer of matches in the latter part 
 of his active career, having bought out Frank E. 
 Clark in 1872. He lived retired for a period pre- 
 ceding his death, whic'h occurred in New Haven 
 Dec. 27, 1805. After his marriage he settled in 
 Woodbridge, but he disposed of his factory to the 
 Diamond Match Co. about 1882 — continuing in the 
 business, as manager, however, for two or three 
 years, and thereafter made his home in New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Newton was married May 20, 1873, to Jes- 
 sie A. Clark, w'ho was born in Bethany, now a part 
 of the town of Woodbridge, daughter of William 
 A. and Emily (Dibble) Clark. One child was born 
 to them, Annie Emilie, who is unmarried. Mr. 
 Newton was a Republican, and belonged to Sey- 
 mour Lodge, F. & A. M. With his family he at- 
 tended the Congregational Church, of New Haven. 
 
 William A. Clark was born in Seymbur Dec. 25, 
 1810, and died Jan. 15, 1879. He was endowed 
 with inventive genius of a high order, which was 
 most noticeable in the valuable and complicated 
 match-making machinery which he invented ; and 
 his justly celebrated expansive bit, which he in- 
 vented and manufactured, is one of the most valu- 
 able inventions in the tool line that has ever been 
 perfected in this country. His large factory in 
 Westville, which was built in 1870, was a model of 
 its kind. He conducted this establishment until his 
 death, turning out small hardware, bits, hollow 
 augers, etc. Air. Clark also turned out friction 
 matches in 1840, and previous to his location in 
 Westville manufactured them in Woodbridge, 
 finally turning that business over to his son, Frank 
 E. He employed about seventy-five hands in the 
 factory, and turned out twenty thousand gross per 
 year, using sixty thousand feet of the very best se- 
 lected lumber. The work was done mostly by hand. 
 
7^':^yK<^w^l^z^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 341 
 
 However, Mr. Clark's skill was not confined wholly 
 to invention and manufacturing. He was an up- 
 to-date farmer, his skill in husbandry being unsur- 
 passed in his locality, and he received a premium 
 for constructing a "model barn" which was indeed 
 worthy the name. 
 
 On June 10, 1841, Mr. Clark married Emily 
 Dibble, a native of Woodbridge, and daughter of 
 John Dibble, who was born in Woodbridge, where 
 he followed farming all his life. He married Betsy 
 Hine, who was born in Woodbridge, a daughter of 
 Moses Hine and granddaughter of Stephen Hine. 
 Philo E. Dibble, the father of John, was born in 
 Woodbridge, and his father, John Dibble, who 
 graduated from Yale, came from Danbury, Conn. 
 After their marriage William A. and Emily (Dib- 
 ble) Clark settled in Woodbridge, where Mrs. 
 Newton was born. They were the parents of four 
 children: William Eugene, Theodore Dibble, 
 Frank Emerson and Jessie A. (;\Irs. Newton). 
 William E. died when he was twenty-six years old, 
 in New Orleans ; Theodore Dibble died at sea when 
 about thirty years old ; Frank E. lives in California. 
 Mrs. Clark, the mother, is still living. Jonathan 
 Clark, the father of William A., was a farmer in 
 Woodbridge. He married Amelia Osborn, and had 
 two sons, Elizur and William A. George Clark, 
 the father of Jonathan", was the fifth in descent from 
 George Clark, the settler, who located in Milford 
 in 1639. 
 
 CHARLES E. HEWITT, M. D., one of the 
 leading professional and highly respected citizens of 
 Meriden, was born in the town of Stonington, New 
 London Co., Conn., Aug. 17, 1855 and is a descend- 
 ant on both paternal and maternal sides from one of 
 the oldest and best families in New England. 
 
 Thomas Hewitt, a sea-faring man, was in com- 
 mand of a vessel, in the Mystic river as early as 
 1656, where he was receiving the surplus products 
 of the early planters here in exchange for Boston 
 goods. In his business transactions, he made the 
 acquaintance of Walter Palmer, whose daughter, 
 Hannah Palmer, he married, on April 26, 1659. 
 Purchasing a tract of land on the east side of the 
 Mystic river, he built upon it, and continued extend- 
 ing his coasting trade, going to the West Indies, 
 but like so many other sailors, he lost his life at sea 
 in 1662. 
 
 Benjamin Hewitt, son of Thomas of Stoning- 
 ton, was born in 1662, and in 1683, married Marie, 
 daughter of Edmund and Ellen Fanning. 
 
 Israel Hewitt, son of Benjamin, baptized in 1692, 
 married in 1714, Anna Breed, born in 1693, a daugh- 
 ter of John Breed. 
 
 Charles Hewitt, son of Israel, born in 1730, mar- 
 ried in 1756, Hannah Stanton, born in 1736, daugh- 
 ter of Lieut. Joseph Stanton. 
 
 Eli Hewitt, son of Charles, born in 1764, mar- 
 ried in 1796, Betsey, born in 1772, daughter of 
 Benadam Williams, of Stonington. 
 
 Charles Grandison Hewitt, son of Eli, born Dec. 
 20, 1801, married first, Dec. 25, 1823, Lucy, daugh- 
 ter of Dudley Randall, who died April 19, 1839. 
 His second marriage occurred Jan. 18, 1843! when 
 Mary Wheeler, born March 27, 1814, daug-hter of 
 Richard Wheeler, became his bride. The children 
 born to the first marriage were: Dudley R., born 
 April 28, 1825; and Lucy Ann, born on Jan. 3, 
 1831. 
 
 Dudley R. Hewitt, the father of Dr. Hewitt, 
 was born in Stonington, Conn., April 28, 1825, a 
 son of Charles G. and Lucy (Randall) Hewitt. 
 Reared on the farm, he attended the district schools 
 of his locality, and then entered into the business of 
 farming and stock raising, which was his occupation 
 through life. Mr. Hewitt is still one of the honored 
 and respected citizens of Stonington, prominent in 
 the Congregational Church, and consistent in his ad- 
 herence to the principles of the Republican party. 
 His upright character and exemplary life, have won 
 for him the esteem of the community. He was 
 married Oct. 11, 1854, to Martha Gallup, born Feb. 
 16, 1830, a 'daughter of Jabez Gallup, of Ston- 
 ington, the latter a representative of one of the old 
 and distinguished families of New England. 
 
 John Gallup, the ancestor of most of the families 
 of that name, in this country, came to America from 
 the Parish of Mosterne, County Dorset, England, in 
 1630, in the ship, "Mary and John," landing at what 
 was then called Nantasket, later c'hanged to Hull. 
 Mr. Gallup went first to Dorchester, but soon there- 
 after became a resident of Boston, where the family 
 were members of the Old South Church. He owned 
 Monumental Island, was a skillful mariner, and 
 won distinction in piloting in the ship "Griffin," 
 a ship of 300 tons, in Sept., 1663, through a newly 
 found channel, when she had on board the Rev. John 
 Cotton, Rev. Thomas Hooker, Rev. Mr. Stone and 
 other fathers of New England, among her pas- 
 sengers. On one occasion, he had a successful en- 
 counter with a boat load of Indians, whom he cap- 
 tured and destroyed off Block Island. They had 
 murdered John Oldham, a man of ability, and were 
 having a hilarious time in bis boat, when they were 
 overtaken by Capt. Gallup, and after a brief en- 
 counter were captured, and this battle made him 
 famous, as the incident, revealing the purpose of th.'- 
 Indians, was the real beginning of the Pequot wai. 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Gallup died in Boston, he in 
 1649, ^"d she in 1655. 
 
 John Gallup (2), son of John of Boston, was 
 born in England, in 1615, and came with his mother 
 and the other children, to New England, in the> 
 ship "Griffin," in 1633. He married, in 1634, Han- 
 nah, daughter of John Lake. In 1640, he "left Bos- 
 ton and went to Taunton, remaining until 165 1, 
 when he went to New London, and in 1654 to Ston- 
 ington, Conn. ' He represented the town several 
 times in the General Assembly, and participated in 
 both the Pequot and King Philip's wars, and also 
 was engaged in the fearful Swamp fight at Narra- 
 
342 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 gansett, Dec. 19, 1676, where in storming the fort, 
 he led his men bravely forward and was one of the 
 six captains who fell, and was buried with his fallen 
 comrades in one grave, near the battle ground. 
 
 John Gallup (3), son of John (2), was born in 
 1646, in Boston, married in 1675, Elizabeth Harris, 
 daughter of Thomas and Martha (Lake) Harris, 
 and lived in Stonington. Mr. Gallup represented his 
 town a number of times, in the General Court, and 
 served with his father in King Philip's war, and 
 was probably with him at Narragansett. His death 
 was in 1735. 
 
 Nathaniel Gallup, son of John (3), was born in 
 1692, married in 1717, Margaret, born in 1698, 
 daughter of Benadam Gallup, and lived in Stoning- 
 ton, dying in 1739, his widow in 1761. 
 
 Nathaniel Gallup (2), son of Nathaniel, was 
 born in 1718, married in 1742, Mrs. Hannah (Gore) 
 Burrows, born in 1720, daughter of Samuel Gore. 
 Mr. Gallup died in 1786, his widow in 1810. 
 
 Amos Gallup, son of Nathaniel (2), born in 
 1755, married in 1787, Welthy Ann, born in 1757, 
 daughter of John Dean, of Stonington. 
 
 Jabez Gallup, son of Amos, born in 1791, mar- 
 ried in 1829, Eunice, born in 1797, daughter of 
 Isaac Williams, of Stonington. 
 
 Martha, daughter of Jabez, married Dudley R. 
 Hewitt. 
 
 Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Dudley Hewitt: Charles E., of this biography; 
 Amos G., a resident of Stonington ; and Fannie D., 
 who married Charles E. Williams, of Stonington. 
 The lamented death of Mrs. Hewitt occurred Oct. 
 24, 1888, and she will long be remembered for her 
 beautiful Christian character, both in the confines of 
 home, and in the Congregational Church, of which 
 she was a devoted member. 
 
 Dr. Hewitt received his early education in Ston- 
 ington, and being a close student, prepared himself 
 for college, and engaged in the profession of teach- 
 ing. Although for fourteen years he was, one of the 
 leading educators in New London county, this was 
 not the end and aim of his ambition. From early 
 youth he had cherished thoughts of being a physi- 
 cian, andduring the long years of teaching, he kept 
 thisend in view, and, while he supported his fam- 
 ily in comfort, he also gained sufficient to pay his 
 way through college. 
 
 Mr. Hewitt entered upon his medical studies in 
 Hahnemann College in Philadelphia, in September, 
 1889, and after a three-years course graduated with 
 honors, receiving the degree of M. D., and H. M. 
 in the spring class of 1892. He subsequently took 
 a hospital course. His first practice was in Meri- 
 den, \yhere he located in the spring of 1893, and al- 
 most immediately winning friends, he entered upon 
 a lucrative practice. During the past six years he 
 has ^ attended closely to the demands of his pro- 
 fession and now his practice is second to none in 
 this city. Of pleasing personality, his unassuming 
 
 manner displays little of the arrogance which marks 
 many of the leading disciples of the healing art of 
 to-day, but he is ever ready to respond to the call 
 of duty, and his kindness and charity are known 
 only to those who constantly profit by his skill. 
 
 On Sept. 4, 1878, Dr. Hewitt was married in 
 Milwaukee, Wis., to Grace, daughter of Chester 
 and Elizabeth (Chesebrough) Dean. The Chese- 
 brough family is one of the old families, whose rec- 
 ord in America reaches back to 1630. 
 
 William Chesebrough, born in 1594, in Boston, 
 Lincolnshire, England, there married Ann Steven- 
 son, in 1620, and they came with John Winthrop 
 and party to America, in 1630. Mr. Chesebrough 
 located first in Boston, Mass., and there took an act- 
 ive part in the public affairs of the Colony, but re- 
 moved to Braintree, previous to 1640, and in that 
 year was elected deputy to the General Court. He 
 finally located in what is now Stonington, Conn., 
 being the first white man who made that locality his 
 permanent abode, and was active, prominent and 
 influential in public affairs, 'holding many offices, and 
 being repeatedly sent to the General Court. He 
 died in 1667. 
 
 Elisha Chesebrough, sor of William, was bap- 
 tized in Boston, Mass., in 1637, married in 1665, 
 Rebecca, daughter of Walter Palmer, of Stoning- 
 ton, who came from England to New England, as 
 early as 1628. Elisha died in 1670. 
 
 Elihu Chesebrough, son of Elisha, was born in 
 1668, married in i6g8, Hannah, born in 1676, daugh- 
 ter of Manassah Miner, of Stonington. 
 
 Elihu Chesebrough (2), son of Elihu, born in 
 1704, married in 1740, Esther, daughter of Ebenezer 
 and Sarah Dennis, both of Stonington. Mr. Chese- 
 brough died in 1769, and his wife in 1768. 
 
 William Chesebrough, son of Elihu (2), born 
 in 1745, married Esther, born in 1743, daughter of 
 William and Martha (Wheeler) Williams, both of 
 Stonington. William died in 1840 and his wife in 
 1814. 
 
 Henry Chesebrough, son of William, born May 
 13, 1784, married first, Martha Potter, born Aug. 18, 
 1787, daughter of Isaac Williams, of Stonington, 
 and married second, Sarah Williams, also a daup-hter 
 of Isaac Williams. 
 
 The children born to Dr. and Mrs. Hewitt, were : 
 Eveljm E., Aug. 31, 1879, a student at Wellesley 
 College; Fredrick, Dec. 24, 1880; Martha Gallup^ 
 July 19, 1883, deceased; Chester D., July 5, 1887; 
 Edward M., in Philadelphia, June 4, 1892 ; Theodore, 
 in Meriden, Dec. 15, 1894; Amos, May 6, 1897; and 
 Grace Frances, Sept. 30, 1898. All of these chil- 
 dren are unusually intelligent and attractive, are 
 lovers of their beautiful 'home and are examples of 
 filial obedience and aft'ection. Mrs. Hewitt is a lady 
 of many graces of mind and character, a fit helpmate 
 for her husband. Dr. Hewitt is a member of the 
 State Homeopathic Society, and is socially connected 
 with Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F., of Meriden. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 343 
 
 SAMUEL W. HURLBURT is a descendant in 
 the seventh generation from Thomas Hurlburt, who, 
 it is thought, was one of the eleven passengers who, 
 on Aug. II, 1635, sailed from England with Lion 
 Gardiner, in the "Bachelor." 
 
 Thomas Hurlburt was probably born in Scotland 
 as early as 1610. After coming to America Lion 
 Gardiner built and commanded the fort at Say- 
 brook, Conn., and under him Thomas Hurlburt 
 served in the Pequot war in 1637, and was wounded 
 by an arrow. By trade he was a blacksmith, and 
 after the war settled in Wethersfield, Conn., being 
 one of the early settlers of that town. He served in 
 different public capacities, was clerk of the train 
 band in 1640, constable in 1644, deputy to the Gen- 
 eral Court and grand juror. It appears on record 
 (1647) that he received various tracts of land in the 
 several divisions of the town. For his services in 
 the Indian war the Assembly voted him 120 acres 
 of land Oct. 12, 1671, and it is supposed that he 
 died soon after that date. His wife's Christian name 
 was Sarah. 
 
 Samuel W. Hurlburt's lineage from Thomas 
 Hurlburt the settler, is through Joseph, Cornelius, 
 David, Major and George Hurlburt. 
 
 (II) Joseph Hurlburt, son of Thomas Hurl- 
 burt the settler, born probably in Wethersfield about 
 1646, removed to the town of Woodbury as early as 
 1681. His wife, Rebecca, died in Woodbury, Feb. 
 2, 1712, and he died probably July 13, 1732. 
 
 (III) Cornelius Hurlburt, son of Joseph Hurl- 
 burt, born probably about 1682, married Sarah (sur- 
 name not known). He was a farmer, and settled in 
 Woodbury, but died in Roxbury, probably Aug. 9, 
 
 1751- 
 
 (IV) David Hurlburt, son of Cornelius Hurl- 
 burt, born May 10, 1721, in Woodbury, married in 
 Roxbury, June 27, 1749, Hannah Sanford. She 
 died Dec. 23, 1760, in Roxbury, and he married 
 (second) Sarah Petit, daughter of Jonathan, of New 
 Milford, Conn. In his old age David resided with 
 his son Cornelius at Hinesburg, Vt., and there died. 
 His wife died in Roxbury at the home of her son. 
 Major Hurlburt. 
 
 (V) Major Hurlburt, son of David Hurlburt, 
 born in 1768, probably in Roxbury, married Phoebe 
 Jackson, of that town. He died there Dec. 16, 181 3, 
 and his widow passed away on Aue. 30, 1856. 
 
 (VI) George Hurlburt, son of Major Hurlburt- 
 and the father of Samuel W. Hurlburt, of New Ha- 
 ven, born Oct. 9, i8og, in Roxbury, in youth learned 
 the hatter's trade under Col. William Odell, of 
 Washington, Conn. He settled in Roxbury, and was 
 actively engaged in hatting until i860, when he en- 
 tered the mercantile world, and was prominently 
 identified with that line until he retired and engaged 
 in farming. He was appointed postmaster by Presi- 
 dent Lincoln, and was honored by his fellow towns- 
 men to a seat in the State Legislature. Although 
 ninety-two years old, his health is excellent. 
 
 On Jan. 7, 1833, Mr. Hurlburt was married to 
 Miss Thalia A. Merwin, of Brookfield, a descend- 
 ant of the family of that name who settled early in 
 Milford, Conn. The children born to this mar- 
 riage were : Caroline S., born Oct. 22, 1833 ; Thalia 
 M., born Feb. 9, 1836; Emily E., born May 7, 1839, 
 married John C. Hawley; George W., born March 
 10, 1841 ; Samuel W., born Dec. 29, 1843 ; William 
 Henry, born March 11, 1846; Charles W., born June 
 8, 1849; Adelaide, born June 12, 1851; Frank W., 
 born Sept. 20, 1853. 
 
 Samuel W. Hurlburt was born Dec. 29, 1843, ^^ 
 Roxbury, Conn. During the war time at the age 
 of eighteen he worked in Newark, N. J., Matteawan, 
 N. Y., and Danbury, Conn., following the trade of 
 hat finishing until he was twenty-one years old, 
 when on account of ill health he gave up the trade. 
 In the fall of 1866, he engaged in mercantile busi- 
 ness in Bridgewater, Conn. On March 2, 1869, he 
 came to New Haven and bought out David W. 
 Buckingham, corner of Chapel and High streets, 
 and with William T. Northrop, for six years carried 
 of the old store ; this building is occupied by stores 
 as a partner his brother, Frank Hurlburt. In the 
 spring of 1889 he built the "Roxbury" on the site 
 of the old store ; this building is occupied by stores 
 on the ground floor, the other three stories being 
 used as students' apartments. Mr. Hurlburt con- 
 ducts the finest retail provision store in the city of 
 New Haven, and, it is safe to say, that there is none 
 finer in Connecticut. On March 2, 1902, he finished 
 his thirty-third year in the same location. 
 
 Samuel W. Hurlburt was united in marriage with 
 MisiSi Frances I., daughter of Daniel and Minerva 
 (Peck) Keeler, whose death occurred Sept. 22, 1901, 
 at Portland, Maine. Their union was blessed with 
 one child, Frederick S., born May 15, 1876, mar- 
 ried June 22, 1898, Belle Nolten Manviller. 
 
 Mrs. Frances I. (Keeler) Hurlburt, on her moth- 
 er's side was the seventh generation from Joseph 
 Peck, of Milford, Conn., although first of New Ha- 
 ven, Conn., of record there in 1643. Joseph Peck is 
 supposed to have been a brother of Henry Peck, who 
 was in New Haven in 1638, and probably came with 
 him to New England. Joseph Peck probably re- 
 moved to Milford, about 1649. He married (first) 
 Mrs. Alice Burwell and (second) Miss Richards. 
 Mrs. Hurlburt's lineage from Joseph Peck is through 
 Joseph (2), Ephraim, Henry, Andrew and Minerva 
 (Peck) Keeler. 
 
 (II) Joseph Peck (2), son of Joseph Peck (i), 
 the settler, baptized in 1653, settled in Milford, 
 Conn., and there died. He married Jan. 27, 1678-9, 
 Mary Camp. 
 
 (III) Ephraim Peck, son of Joseph Peck (2), 
 baptized in 1692, settled in Milford, and from there 
 he removed to Newtown. He married Nov. 7, 1716, 
 Sarah Ford, of Milford, Conn. His death occurred 
 in Newtown, July 23, 1760. 
 
 (IV) Henry Peck, son of Ephraim Peck, born 
 
344 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 April 14, 1 719, resided in Newtown. He married 
 (first) Dec. 23, 1755, Ann Smith, and second Aug. 
 6, 1765, Hannah Leavenworth. 
 
 (V) Andrew Peck, son of Henry Peck, born 
 May 21, 1773, settled first in Newtown, and later, 
 in 1813, removed to. New Milford. He married Lu- 
 cinda Terrell, and died Aug. 25, 1826, and his wid- 
 ow died Sept. 5, 1848. 
 
 (VI) Minerva Peck, daughter of Andrew Peck, 
 born June 16, 1810, married Daniel Keeler. 
 
 ROBERT WILLIAM HALLAAI, superin- 
 tendent of 'the Meriden Cuitlery iGo.'s plant at 
 South Meriden, is one of Connecticut's self-made 
 sons. He was born Aug. 12, 1840, in the city of 
 Waterbury, New Haven county, son of John C. 
 Hallam, a native of Sheffield, England', and grand- 
 son of Robert Hallam, a manufacturer of pocket 
 cutlery in bis native place. 
 
 John C. Hallam received a good' education in 
 Sheffield, and obtained a thorough knowled'ge of 
 cutlery manufacturing under his father's instruc- 
 tion. At the age of eigihteen years he came to 
 America, as salesman for his father, -and was lo- 
 cated several years in New York City. Being 
 pleased with the country and its people^ and per- 
 ceiving its advantages for young men, he decided 
 to remain here. For about two years he engaged 
 in the study of theology, as propounded by the 
 Unitarian Church, with a view to entering its min- 
 istry. Having, at length, decided upon a business 
 career, be went to Waterbury, Conn., and began 
 the production of pocket cutlery, being the first 
 to engage in that line in the United States. He 
 continued this undertaking at Hopewell for some 
 time, and soW out to Hoadley & Co., of Salisbury. 
 He was subsequently active in organizing the 
 Northfield Cutlery Co., and for several years was 
 one of its stockholders and directors. 'Going to 
 Waterville, Conn., he was employed in the cutlery 
 shops there until his death, in 1880, and was buried 
 in the cemetery at that place. John C. Hallam was 
 a man of sterling character and much literary abil- 
 ity, and contributed to many of the Boston and 
 New England periodicals. His family has been 
 known in the world of letters for generations, and 
 one of its members, Henry Hallam, was the author 
 of the "History of the Middle Ages." The latter's 
 son, Arthur H. Hallam, essayist and poet, has 
 been made speciall}- famous through his intimacy 
 with the poet Tennyson, whose celebrated poem, 
 "In JMemoriam," was written upon the death of 
 his friend Arthur. John C. Hallam was firm in the 
 faith of Unitarianism, and compiled a work on 
 Unitarian theology, but did not live to see it pub- 
 lished. In politics he was a Republican. His mar- 
 riage to Elizabeth Bowles, at Boston, brought him 
 into close relations with a noted literary family, 
 his wife being a sister of Samuel Bowles, editor 
 of the Springfield Republican. Mrs. Hjallam was a 
 woman of bright mind and high attainments, a fit 
 companion for such a man as ner husband, and 
 
 was a devoted wife and mother. She was a con- 
 sistent member of the Episcopal Church. Her 
 death occurred in 1862, at Waterbury, and her re- 
 mains repose beside those of her husband, in 
 Waterville. They were the parents of five chil- 
 dren, namely : Gertrude Bowles, Victoria, Robert 
 W., Mary J. and Albert C. The last named was a 
 successful physician in Brooklyn, N. Y., where he 
 d'ied, and where his sister Victoria resides with 
 her husband, Franklin Summers. Mary J. is the 
 wife of Albert Beman, of Derby, Connecticut. 
 
 Gertrude Bowles Hallam, who became the wife 
 of Charles G. Downs, of Bridgeport, Conn., in- 
 herited a talent for letters from both her parents, 
 and is not unknown to literary fame. She died at 
 Los Angeles, CaL, March 18, 1891, and was in- 
 terred in Mountain Grove cemetery, Bridgeport. 
 Like her father she was a frequent contr'ibutor to 
 current literature, beginning at the age of four- 
 teen years to write verse. Many gems from her 
 pen appeared in the Winsted Herald, Meriden Lit- 
 erary Recorder and Bridgeport Standard. "Mrs. 
 Downs was a suflferer for several years from ill • 
 health, but her cheerful spirit made her a cherished 
 friend to the last, and she penned a number of her 
 compositions in her sick chamber." With her pen 
 she canned the beautiful home, "Maple Terrace," 
 which she caused to be erected at Seaside Park, 
 near Bridgeport. The following lines serve to show 
 the kind and afi^ectionate, pure nature of her who 
 has gone to "show the way:" 
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN. 
 
 Oh! children fair, 
 
 With beauty rare, 
 How drear this earth without them; 
 
 Their tender eyes, 
 
 So bright and wise, 
 Bear much of heaven about them. 
 
 Their voices sweet, 
 
 And ways petite. 
 Their little sayings witty; 
 
 Their faces bright. 
 
 With love's own light, 
 Naught, so sweet in all the city! 
 
 Their dainty feet, 
 
 Like zephyrs fleet, 
 Skipping lightly o'er the ground; 
 
 With dimpled face, 
 
 And form of grace. 
 What sweeter sight in nature found? 
 
 Oh, treasurers rare. 
 Beyond compare. 
 Little ones, the Saviour blest. 
 We pray no harm 
 Shall ever come. 
 To these — His arms caressed. 
 
 — Gertrude B. Do\vns. 
 April 20, 1887. 
 
 Robert W. Hallam was four years old when 
 he went with his parents to Bridgeport, wihere 
 his boyhood days were passed, receiving such edu- 
 cational training as the district school afforded. 
 Before he had attained his majority he accompanied 
 

 ^^-r t't,^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 345 
 
 the family to Waterville, and was there engaged 
 under his father's instruction in learning the art of 
 making cutlery. At the age of twenty years he 
 started out to make his own way, armed with a 
 sound mind 'in a sound body and the determination 
 to attain something for himself. Such sturdy am- 
 bition made him alert and industrious, and his 
 progress was certain. Coming to Meriden, young 
 Hallam found an engagement as ordinary hand in 
 the shops of the Meriden Cutlery Co., where he 
 receiived one dollar per day. For the past forty- 
 two years he has continued in the service of this 
 establishment, and the length of his service is ample 
 guaranty of his industry, ability and integrity. He 
 advanced gradually, through several departments, 
 mastering all the details of the bus'iness, and upon 
 the death of the superintendent — Edwin Cady — in 
 1895, took his place. In this appointment the man- 
 agers made no mistake, and he has continued the 
 same course of patient and persistent endeavor 
 which has characterized his whole life. 
 
 Mr. Hallam's genial nature and universal fair- 
 ness have made him justly popular with the di- 
 rectors of the company, as well as with those who 
 are subject to his orders, and he is welcome in 
 every circle of business or social life. The Amer- 
 ican youth, who seeks too often for some short 
 road to wealth, may well profit by Mr. Hallam's 
 example. It was by patient endeavor, and satis- 
 faction with steady, though slow, rewards, that he 
 worked his way up from a humble laborer to his 
 present station, in charge of over two hundred 
 workmen, whose respect and esteem he enjoys and 
 deserves. In the course of his arduous labors Mr. 
 Hallam did not overlook the value of mental train- 
 ing, and continued to study, so that he largely made 
 up for his lack of early education, and he is fitted 
 to mingle with the great current of social and lit- 
 erary life in the world. Being of a studious mind, 
 he finds recreation in his own library and home, 
 and has never sought political honors or emolu- 
 ments, though he seeks to perform his duty as a 
 citizen and acts with the Republican party. He and 
 his wife are members of the Congregational Church, 
 and he is also identified with the Order of United 
 American Mechanics. 
 
 Mr. Hallam was married, June 14, 1863, in 
 South ;\Ieriden, to Miss Betsey Marilla Ives, a 
 native of Meriden, daughter of Jotham and Mary 
 R. (Way) Ives. She is a fit helpmeet for her 
 husband, a lady of graceful character and person, 
 an active worker in her church, and a useful factor 
 in the social life of the community. 
 
 Mrs. Hallam traces her ancestry to John Ives, 
 the first of the fam'ily of this name to locate in 
 Wallingford and found the family in New Eng- 
 land, who was a farmer there, and the old' records 
 tell that his son Gideon was a resident of Walling- 
 ford prior to 1700. Gideon Ives, son of John, mar- 
 ried Mary Royce, and their son, Jotham Ives, mar- 
 ried Abigail Burroughs, and died Sept. 2, 1753, at 
 the age of forty-three years. Zachariah Ives, son 
 
 of Jotham, was born Jan. 31, 1737, and settled 
 near Honey Pot brook, in Cheshire, where he died 
 March 9, 1815; he and his wife, Lois, are buried 
 in the Episcopal churchyard in Cheshire. Jesse 
 Ives, the paternal grandfather of Mrs. Hallam, of 
 Meriden, a son of Zachariah and Lois Ives, was 
 bonn in Cheshire and settled on a farm in Meriden, 
 where he died ; he married Marilla Johnson. 
 
 Jotham Ives, son of Jesse, was a native of Meri- 
 den, and spent his life as an agriculturist there. 
 He married Mary R., daughter of John and Betsey 
 (Preston) Way, and children as follows were born 
 to this union : Edward, deceased ; Amos ; Betsey 
 Marilla, wiho married Robert W. Hallam ; Julius 
 I. ; and Almoin J. 
 
 WILLIAM HALL McKENZIE, a store keep- 
 er of Tracy, and a selectman of the town of Walling- 
 ford, was born in Yalesville, Dec. 2, 1839; a son of 
 the late William McKenzie, and his wife, Mary 
 Hall. Interesting data concerning this family may 
 be found in connection with the sketch of John Mc- 
 Kenzie, an engineer of Yalesville. 
 
 William H. McKenzie acquired his education in 
 the district school at Yalesville, and at Westfield, 
 Mass., finishing in the Meriden high school. He 
 also attended a private school at Southford, taught 
 by Deacon R. B. Curtis. Young McKenzie worked 
 on the farm at an early age, and remained at home 
 until he was seventeen years old, when he began to 
 learn the trade of carpenter and joiner with Lauren 
 Tuttle, a very successful contractor and builder. 
 He remained with that gentleman three years, and 
 then started in life for himself with a most honora- 
 ble trade very completely mastered. 
 
 Mr. McKenzie worked as a carpenter and build- 
 er until 1889, when ill-health compelled a change 
 of occupation. During that time he took contracts 
 and built many of the more pretentious structures of 
 Yalesville, among them being the Methodist church, 
 and a school house. In Wallingford he built the resi- 
 dence in which Mr. Hough lives, and the Old Rec- 
 tory that was attached to Catholic church. After 
 giving up his trade he was clerk for one year at 
 Tracy with Almon J. Ives, merchant and postmaster. 
 Since 1891 he has been a merchant and postmaster 
 at Tracy. He opened a store in that village, and 
 during the past ten years has succeeded in building 
 up a very fine business. 
 
 Mr. McKenzie was married in 1863 to Miss Sa- 
 rah C. Tuttle, of Meriden, a daughter of Lauren 
 and Harriet D. (Todd) Tuttle. To this union were 
 born three children, of whom one died in infancy; 
 William L. is at home; and Hattie Elizabeth died 
 young. Mr. McKenzie is a Democrat, but in a'', 
 local matters seeks the best men for the office, re- 
 gardless of party questions, and he has been con- 
 stable, grand and special juror, and was elected se- 
 lectman in 1900. He commands the respect of the 
 community, and is much esteemed for his business- 
 like propensities. 
 
 Andrews Hall, grandfather of William H. Mc- 
 
346 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Kenzie, is supposed to have been born in Walling- 
 ford, Aug. 15, 1753, a son of Benjamin and Phebe 
 Hall, and a brother of Adnah Hall, who was the fa- 
 ther of Mrs. Temperance McKenzie, step-mother of 
 William Hall McKenzie. Andrews Hall married, 
 Dec. 3, 1800, Miss Sjdvia Blakeslee, and became the 
 father of the following children: William, born 
 June 8, 1803; Sylvia, born April 18, 1805; Abigail, 
 born June 14, 1807; and Mary, born April 24, 1810, 
 married William McKenzie, and became the mother 
 of William Hall McKenzie. 
 
 WILLARD H. DiBBLE, a representative citi- 
 zen, farmer and dairyman, of the town of Middle- 
 bury, is a native of Connecticut, born June 2, 1845, 
 in fhe town of Danbury, Fairfield county, and is a 
 worthy member of an 'old family of the State. 
 
 Thomas Dibble, the first of the name in New 
 England, was a native of England, whence he came 
 to America, first located in Dorchester, Mass., from 
 there moving to Windsor, Conn., where he passed 
 the remainder of his days, dying Oct. 17, 1700. In 
 1676 he contributed one shilling and three pence to 
 the Connecticut fund for the relief of the poor in 
 the other colonies. For his second wife he married 
 Elizabeth Hayden, of Hadley, Mass., who died Sept. 
 25, 1685. The names and dates of birth, etc., of his 
 children are as follows : Israel, Aug. 27, 1637 ; 
 Ebenezer, baptized Sept. 26, 1641 ; Hepzibah, bap- 
 tized Dec. 25, 1642; Samuel, baptized March 24, 
 1643; Miriam, baptized Feb. 19, 1645; Thomas, 
 Sept. 3, 1647; and Joanna, Feb. i, 1650, died 1651. 
 (The family, of whom the subject of this sketch is a 
 member, removed from Hartford to Fairfield coun- 
 ty, where they are still located.) 
 
 Nathan Dibble, commonly known as Col. Na- 
 than, and the father of Willard Dibble, was born 
 June 14, 1803, in the town of Danbury, Fairfield 
 Co., Conn., a son of Nathan Dibble, an old settler 
 of Fairfield county. Col. Nathan was by occupa- 
 tion a carpenter and farmer, and spent his entire 
 life in his native town, where he was a well-known 
 and highly respected citizen. Politically he was an 
 old time Democrat. He represented his town in the 
 Legislature, and served in the old State house ; was 
 also a selectman, and filled other local offices with 
 credit to himself and satisfaction to his constituents. 
 
 Col. Nathan Dibble married Hannah Wood, 
 who was born in Danbury May 31, 1807, a daughter 
 of Moses and Hannah (Gunn) Wood, and children 
 as follows were born to them : Sarah died single ; 
 Nathan M. lives in Shelton, Conn. ; Samantha was 
 the wife of W. C. Benedict, of Bridgeport, Conn. ; 
 Leonard W. lives in Wilton ; Willard is next in 
 order of birth ; and Hannah Elizabeth is the wife of 
 William McArthur, of Danbury. The father died 
 Sept. 30, 1891, a Universalist in religion, well liked 
 and respected; the mother passed away Feb. 22, 
 1874. 
 
 Willard Dibble, the subject proper of these lines, 
 attended the Beaver Brook District schools, also 
 
 Danbury high school, and remained on the home- 
 stead with his parents until he was twenty-four years 
 old, at which time he rented a farm in Brookfield. 
 There he remained a couple of years, then for two 
 years farmed on the homestead at Danbury, after 
 which he made his home in New Fairfield, for thir- 
 teen years engaging in general farming, including 
 stock raising, dairying, etc. In 1887 he came to New 
 Haven county, locating at Middlebury, where he 
 bought the Munson farm of 140 acres, on which he 
 has made many improvements, building a commo- 
 dious barn, silo, etc., and has now one of the finest 
 stock and dairy farms in Middlebury. 
 
 On Nov. I, 1866, Willard Dibble was married in 
 New Fairfield, to Lucy Ann Kellogg, of that locality, 
 a cultured, accomplished and refined lady, who 
 taught school for nine terms in Bethel, New Fair- 
 field and New York State. She is a daughter of 
 Medad R. Kellogg, and is descended from Daniel 
 Kellogg, an original settler of Norwalk, Conn., who, 
 in 1655, married Bridget Bouton, daughter of John 
 Bouton. Samuel, their son, born Feb. 17, 1673, mar- 
 ried Sept. 6, 1704, Sarah Piatt, daughter of John 
 Piatt. Martin Kellogg, great-grandfather of Mrs. 
 Dibble, came from Norwalk, and bought of the In- 
 dians in New Fairfield, a square mile of land, for 
 which he gave a barrel of pork and a blanket. Ira 
 Kellogg, son of Martin, married and became the fa- 
 ther of Medad R. Kellogg, mentioned above. One 
 child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Dibble, Anna 
 Belle, who, in 1899, graduated from the Waterbury 
 high school, with high honors, and is a very popular 
 young lady. 
 
 In politics Mr. Dibble is a stanch Democrat, 
 standing among the foremost ranks of his party, and 
 in 1887 he represented the town of New Fairfield 
 in the State Legislature; also in 1891, the town of 
 Middlebury, serving on the Agricultural committee. 
 For two terms he was selectman, and was a member 
 of the board of Relief, assessor of the town, etc. In 
 religious faith he is identified with the Second Con- 
 gregational Church, of Waterbury. He is domestic 
 in his tastes and habits, temperate and genial, and 
 is popular with all classes. 
 
 ALBERT FITZROY HALL, of Meriden, a 
 veteran of the Civil war and for more than twenty 
 years a member of the ofifice force of Manning, 
 Bowman & Co.,' of that city, is a representative of 
 one of Connecticut's substantial families of the Co- 
 lonial period. 
 
 Born Sept. 25, 1841, in the town of Chatham, 
 Conn., Mr. Hall is a son of Lewis Lawrence and 
 Lucy Ann (Bush) Hall, and is descended in the 
 ninth generation from John Hall, the progenitor of 
 the Middletown Halls, the branch to which the 
 Chatham family in question belongs. John Hall 
 was born in 1584, in County Kent, England, and 
 :ln 1633 came to New England, being of record in 
 Roxbury, Mass., in 1634, and his family then con- 
 sisting of four members. He with others visited 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 347 
 
 the Connecticut River country in 1633, and on their 
 return to the Massachusetts Colony made the re- 
 port, which, it is said, led to the migration soon 
 made there from Dorchester to Wethersfield and 
 Windsor, and from Cambridge to Hjartford in 
 1635-6. Mr. Hall probably joined the Hooker and 
 Stone party and went to Hartford soon thereafter, 
 but it seems that he did not move 'his family tliere 
 until in 1639. He was by trade a carpenter; and 
 served as surveyor of highways in 1640. Hie home 
 lot was what afterward became the Sigourney and 
 Cather home site. In 1650 he removed to Middle- 
 town, BJnd there died May 26, 1673. The Christian 
 name of his wife was Esther. Mr. Hall held a 
 number of public trusts. 
 
 From this John Hall Albert F. Hall's line is 
 through Richard, John (2), Giles, John Hamlin, 
 Calvin, Giles Cowdrey, and Lewis Lawrence Hall. 
 
 (II) Richard Hall, son of the emigrant settler, 
 was born in England in 1620. He settled in Middle- 
 town in the fall of 1650. He was a weaver by 
 trade and was a large landholder. His death oc- 
 curred March 27, 1691, and that of his wife, Mary, 
 March 30, of the same year. 
 
 (III) John Hall (2), son of Richard, born Sept. 
 20, 1648, in Hartford, married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of William Cornwell, of Roxbury, Mass. Mr. Hall 
 died Nov. 25, 171 1. 
 
 (IV) Giles Hall, son of John (2), born Oct. 
 3, 1680, married Feb. 26, 1714, Esther, born Jan. 
 7, 1695, daughter of Hon. John Hamlin. She died 
 Oct. 8, 1751, and Mr. Hall passed away Feb. 16, 
 1750. 
 
 (V) John Hamlm Hall, son of Giles, born 
 Sept. ID, 1720, was a resident of that part of the 
 town that became the town of Chatham, and died 
 there. 
 
 (VI) Calvin Hall, son of John Hamlin, born 
 in 1766, married Huldah Cowdrey. 
 
 (VII) Giles Cowdrey Hall, son of Calvin, born 
 in 1793, married Dolly Stephens Parmelee. He re- 
 sided in Chatham, Conn., where he was engaged in 
 farming and manufacturing. He was a man of 
 very large stature. 
 
 (VIII) Lewis Lawrence Hall, son of Giles C, 
 born Aug. 30, 1818, in Easthampton, Conn., was 
 engaged in manufacturing. He married, Nov. 27, 
 1840, Lucy Ann Bush, who was born Feb. 24, 1819, 
 daughter of Henry and Lydia (Strong) Bush, Lydia 
 Strong being a lineal descendant of Elder John 
 Strong, of Connecticut history. Henry Bush was 
 an active participant in the war of 1812, and was 
 stationed at New London, Conn. Their children 
 were : Albert F., born Sept. 25, 1841 ; Robert 
 Hfenry, born Sept. 30, 1845; Marion Lydia, born 
 Feb. 18, 1848, married May 30, 1870, E. Dwight 
 Barton, a manufacturer of Easthampton ; and John 
 Smith, born May 6, 1858. 
 
 Albert F. Hall in youth attended both the public 
 and private schools of the town of his birth, and 
 completed his school education at Fall River, Mass. 
 
 Subsequently he was interested in the manufacture 
 of horseshoe nails in New London, Conn., and from 
 that town on Aug. 14, 1862, enlisted in Co. H, 14th 
 Conn. V. I., and was mustered into the United 
 States service on the 23d of the same month and 
 year. The 14th was recruited from the State at 
 large, and was rendezvoused at "Camp Foote," 
 Hartford. Its colonel was then Dwight Morris. 
 The regiment was assigned to the Third Division, 
 Second Army Corps, Army of the Potomac, and 
 later to the Third Brigade of Second Division and 
 Corps. Its services were exceptional among Con- 
 necticut regiments, and of them it was in the great- 
 est number of battles, and, in proportion to its num- 
 bers and length of service, lost much the largest 
 percentage of men in killed, and by death through 
 disease. The regiment participated 'in thirty-four 
 battles and skirmishes, among them Antietam, Md., 
 Sept. 17, 1862; Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862; 
 Chancellorsville, Va., May i to 3, 1863 ; Gettys- 
 burg, Penn., July 2 and 3, 1863 ; the Wilderness, 
 Va., May 5 and 6, 1864; Spottsvlvania, Va., May 
 12, 13, 14, 18, 22, 1864; Cold Harbor, Va., June 
 3 and 6, 1864; Petersburg, Va., June 11 to July 
 6, 1864. Mr. Hall, on July 20, 1863, was trans- 
 ferred to Co. F, 3d Regiment, V. R. C, and to the 
 ranks Sept. 22, of that year, and was finally dis- 
 charged from the service July 6, 1865. His army 
 record was an honorable one and while in the service 
 he shared the fortunes of his regiment. 
 
 Since the war Mr. Hall. has been variously oc- 
 cupied, mainly identified with manufacturing. In 
 1869 he went to Canton, Ohio, and there organized 
 a stock company for the manufacture of steam en- 
 gines and machinery. He had earlier been for a 
 period engaged in manufacturing in New Haven. 
 At Canton he was identified with the business, was 
 a director in the company, and in charge of the 
 office. Later he went to Montreal amd there as- 
 sumed charge of the agency for the Mutual Life 
 Insurance Company of Boston, sustaining such re- 
 lations with that company for six or seven years. 
 Since 1880 Mr. Hall has been located in Mer'iden, 
 and in the employ of Manning, Bowman & Co., as 
 cashier, accountant and paymaster. In 1888 he was 
 elected as a member of the common, council of the 
 city and served with distinction for two years. Sub- 
 sequently he was elected and served as town auditor 
 six years. He was then elected as city auditor and 
 served 'in that capacity, and as city paymaster for 
 five years. Mr. Hall has also been a popular and 
 active member of Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R., 
 of Meriden, since March i, 1881, and has ably 
 filled all the offices within the gift of the Post, 
 being its commander in 1887, and was last elected 
 a trustee for three years. He was also chief mus- 
 tering officer of the Department of Connecticut in 
 1890, member of the Council of Adtninistration in 
 1895, and aide-de-camp in the staff of the com- 
 mander in chief in 1891. He also holds a commis- 
 sion as notary public for the county. He is an 
 
348 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 authorized pension attorney for the town of j\Ieri- 
 den, and has been instrumental in obtaiining manj- 
 pensions for soldiers or soldiers' widows. He is a 
 man of unusual intelligence, and is well-informed 
 on the leading current events. In his domestic re- 
 lations he is a devoted husband and father. Mr. 
 Hall attends the Methodist Episcopal Church, of 
 which Mrs. Hall is a member. 
 
 ]\Ir. Hall was married Aug. 6, 1866, to Martha 
 Helen, daughter of Byron W. and Mary Josephine 
 (Olds) Nichols, of New Haven, and to them were 
 born three children, as follows : Willie, who died 
 in infancy; Robert, born Aug. 24, 1869; and Edwin 
 W., born Aug. 9, 1871. Mrs. Hall is a lady of 
 talent and many accomplishments. She acquired a 
 good literary and musical education in New Ha- 
 ven, and was a singer of prominence. She was a 
 member of the Center Church choir for several 
 years, and sang also in the North and other churches 
 in New Haven, also in Montreal, Canada ; St. 
 John's, New Brunswick ; Canton, Ohio ; and in 
 Meriden, Conn. She was one of the organizers, 
 and has served as president of the Woman's Re- 
 lief Corps. She 'is prominent in church work and 
 is an earnest worker of the Ladies Aid Society in 
 the First Methodist Church, being now its secre- 
 tary. Zealous in the cause of religion and charity, 
 her character has that sweetness and modesty which 
 find expression in her devotion to home and hus- 
 band. 
 
 Robert Hall, the eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hall, was born in Easthampton, Conn., and edu- 
 cated in the district and high schools of Meriden. 
 He acquired the trade of engraver in the works of 
 the Meriden Silver Plate Co., Meriden, but inherit- 
 ing vocal talent he developed his vo'ice under the 
 instruction of Prof. Barington, and later with Prof. 
 Albin R. Reed, of Boston-. He is now tenor in 
 "The Meeting House Hill" Presbyterian Church at 
 Boston, and also in a Hebrew church in that city. 
 His musical work includes leading parts in con- 
 certs, entertainments and opera. He married Ella 
 Thompson, of Minneapolis, Minn., daughter of one 
 of the oldest and first families. He is widely 
 known and has hosts of friends and well-wishers, 
 who hold him in highest esteem. 
 
 Edwin ^^^ Hall, the younger son of Albert F. 
 and Martha H. Hall, was educated in IMeriden, and 
 there learned the trade of die sinker. He is now 
 employed by the R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing 
 Co., of Wallingford, is skillful in his business, and 
 highly respected. He owns his home in that city. 
 He married Emma Dryhurst, sister of H. Dryhurst, 
 postmaster, and has one child, Eleanor M., born 
 March 8, 1897. 
 
 These two sons are not only a credit to their 
 family, but to the town of Meriden as well. They 
 are prospering in their respective vocations and 
 possess that inherent strength of character which 
 alone is a splendid equipment in life. 
 
 Byron W. Nichols, father of Mrs. Hall, was a 
 son of Rev. James and Elsie (Hayden) Nichols, of 
 Haydenville, Mass. The Hayden family included 
 several prominent citizens of Massachusetts, among 
 them a govennor of that commonwealth. 
 
 HON. LUZERNE ITHIEL MUNSON, whose 
 memory will ever be honored in Waterbury, was a 
 native of Wallingford, New Haven county, born 
 March i, 1838, soft of Titus Munson, and grandson 
 of Ithiel Munson, both also natives of Wallingford. 
 
 Titus Munson was born in the year 1799, and 
 passed away May 2, 1842. He married Anna Har- 
 rison, who was born June 22, 1801, and they settled 
 on a farm near Wallingford, where they reared a 
 family of five children : Sarah M. married Enoch 
 Camp, and lives at Durham. Mary L. married Levi 
 Fowler, and lives in Waterbury. Caroline A., who 
 married Henry Foote, lives in Warren, Conn. 
 Eliza H. died when twenty years old. Luzerne 
 Ithiel is the subject proper of these lines. 
 
 Luzerne I. Munson spent his boyhood days at 
 Wallingford, where he received a district-school 
 education. This was supplemented by a course at 
 Durham Academy. In 1854, when he was sixteen 
 years old, he came to Waterbury, entering the em- 
 ploy of the Apothecaries Hall Co., which had been 
 organized five years previously. In 1861 he left 
 the Apothecaries Hall Co., and became shipping 
 clerk and bookkeeper for the City Manufacturing 
 Co. After spending a year with them he moved to 
 Meriden, becoming secretary for Julius Pratt & Co., 
 for whom he was also treasurer, and he filled the 
 same positions for Pratt, Read & Co. In 1863 
 Mr. Munson returned to the Apothecaries Hall Co., 
 and on the removal of Dr. Fish to New York became 
 his successor as general manager of that concern, 
 at once assuming the duties of secretary and treas- 
 urer. In later years he was president and treasurer, 
 and at the time of his death was president, with John 
 Blair as secretary and Frederick Wilcox as treasurer. 
 By close application he succeeded in increasing the 
 business of the concern to large proportions, and a 
 large share of credit for the success of the enterprise 
 was due to him. 
 
 Mr. Munson was one of the original members 
 of the Pharmaceutical Association of Connecticut, 
 which he served one year as president, and for sev- 
 eral years as chairman of its executive committee. 
 He was also a member of the American Pharma- 
 ceutical Association. 
 
 Air. Munson was a Republican politically, and 
 had much to do with the management of that party, 
 in whose councils his influence was great. It was 
 not that of a dictator or a schemer, but that of a 
 level-headed and honorable man, one able to dis- 
 cern the effect of things and measure with remark- 
 able accuracy the strength of popular feeling. Mr. 
 Munson was comptroller of the State in 1885 and 
 1886, and was twice candidate for mayor of Water- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 349 
 
 bury, suffering the fate of his party. He served 
 several terms as alderman, and at dififerent times 
 was fire commissioner, assessor and sewer commis- 
 sioner. Mr. Munson never sought to have anything 
 done which he did not feel was a necessity to the 
 health and prosperity of the city, and his, fellow citi- 
 zens, recognizing the fact, valued his services ac- 
 cordingly. 
 
 In religion our subject and his family were con- 
 nected with the First Congregational Church, and 
 for many years he was usher in that church. Fra- 
 ternally he was an Odd Fellow, much devoted to that 
 order, belonging to Nosahogan Lodge, Canton T. R. 
 Martin and Ansantawae Encampment. He was 
 grand master in 1882, was grand representative for 
 two years, and was a past grand patriarch of the 
 grand encampment. Mr. Munson was also a Mason, 
 holding membership in Continental Lodge and Eu- 
 reka Chapter. He was also a member of the Water- 
 bury Club, the Republican League and the Society 
 of the American Revolution. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Munson was united in marriage with 
 Mary Bronson, daughter of the late Archibald E. 
 Rice, and besides his widow is survived by two 
 daughters, Mary Edna and Sara Rice. Susie R. 
 died in 1864, in infancy. 
 
 Archibald Elijah Rice, father of Mrs. Luzerne 
 I. Munson, was born in Hamden Aug. 13, 1809, and 
 died March 14, 1893. He was a son of Isaac and 
 -viary (Roberts) Rice, of Hamden, and grandson 
 of Isaac Rice, who was a pensioner of the Revolu- 
 tionary war. His early life was spent in Hamden, 
 Woodbridge and Prospect, and coming to Water- 
 bury at the age of seventeen, he entered the em- 
 ploy of Mark Leavenworth & Co., manufacturers of 
 clocks. Learning the carpenter's trade, he became 
 a carpenter and builder, following that occupation 
 between 1830 and 1842, and having charge of the 
 erection of many of the important buildings of that 
 time. In 1843 Mr. Rice moved to Hudson, Ohio, 
 and while there had charge of the erection of the 
 Western Reserve College buildings, coming back to 
 Waterbury after four years. Here he engaged in 
 the lumber business until 1883, when he gave up 
 active pursuits, although he remained president of 
 the Apothecaries Hall Co. He was at one time 
 president of the American Ring Co. Mr. Rice held 
 many public offices; he was a member of the com- 
 mon council in 1856; in 1876 and 1877 he was mayor 
 of Waterbury; and for seventeen years he served 
 as county commissioner of New Haven county, 
 during this time superintending the erection of the 
 courthouse and jail at New Haven. 
 
 In 1832 Mr. Rice married Miss Susan Bronson, 
 a descendant of John Bronson, one of the original 
 .settlers of Farmington, and to them were born 
 seven children : Edward J., who died in 1890 ; one 
 that died in infancy; Mary Bronson, widow of 
 Luzerne I. Munson; Frederick B.; Mrs. L. M. 
 Camp, who died in 1877; another that died in in- 
 fancy; and Mrs. S. P. Williams. 
 
 LEMUEL HENRY BOARDMAN, contractor 
 at the Parker Brothers' gun shop, and an ex-soldier 
 of the Civil war, is one of Meriden's well known 
 and representative citizens. He was born Sept. i8, 
 1837, in the town of New Hartford, Litchfield Co., 
 this State, and is a descendant of one of the oldest 
 and best families of the commonwealth. His father, 
 Jason Boardman, was born in the town of Rocky 
 Hill, Hartford Co., a son of Jason Boardman, Sr., 
 a sea captain who was engaged many years in the 
 East India trade. 
 
 Jason Boardman grew to manhood on a farm 
 in Rocky Hill, where he attended school. When a 
 young man he removed to Litchfield county and 
 located at New Hartford, remaining there some 
 time. He married Miss Maria Bradley, whose par- 
 ents were natives of the town of Burlington, Hart- 
 ford county. After a time, he returned to his 
 birth-place, with his family, and subsequently 
 worked in various places at clock-making, and was 
 also employed by John Porter in the manufacture 
 of pianos at Middletown, Conn. Mr. Boardman 
 was possessed of much mechanical genius, and was 
 one of the first in the country to make all parts of 
 a piano by hand, including even the keys. An ex- 
 pert mechanic, an industrious workman, he, died 
 regretted as a good citizen, and was buried near 
 his former home in Rocky Hill. Of quiet tastes 
 and domestic habits, he mingled little in the strife 
 of public affairs. He attended the Episcopal 
 Church and sought to regulate his life by the Golden 
 Rule. Like most of his contemporaries, he was a 
 Democrat in early life, but joined the Republican 
 party on the outbreak of the Civil war and ever after 
 sustained its principles. His wife was a member 
 of the M. E. Church, an exemplary, Christian wo- 
 man. She died at her home in Rocky Hill, and was 
 buried there. They were the parents of ten chil- 
 dren, namely : Eliza, who married Truman Gris- 
 wold, of Palmer, Mass. ; Andrew J., who was a sol- 
 dier of the Civil war, and is now deceased; Lemuel 
 H. ; James, an ex-soldier of the Civil war, now re- 
 siding in Hartford; Julia, wife of Frederick Was- 
 sum, of Palmer, Mass. ; Frederick, who served in 
 the Union army, resides in East Haddam, Conn. ; 
 Lydia, unmarried ; John, a citizen of Providence, 
 R. I.; Anna, married Walter Gamwell, of Spring- 
 field, Mass. ; and Susan, wife of Hubbard Church, 
 of East Haddam. Mrs. Boardman's father, Selah 
 Bradley, was a farmer in Burlington. 
 
 Lemuel H. Boardman went with his parents 
 when a small boy, to Rocky Hill, where he attended 
 school and grew up on a farm, remaining there until 
 seventeen years old. He then went to Hartford, 
 where he learned the blacksmith's trade with the 
 firm of Hayden & Keeney, later working as journey- 
 man with C. S. Blair. He was thus engaged when 
 the Civil war began, and was among the first to re- 
 spond to the call for troops. He became a mem- 
 ber of Co. H, 2nd Conn. V . I., under Col. Terry and 
 Capt. Gore, and was in the battle of Bull Run. 
 
350 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 At the completion of his term of service, he returned 
 to Hartford and again enlisted for nine months, 
 being assigned to Co. I, 22nd Conn. V. I., under Col. 
 Burnham and Capt. Whittlesey. He went out as 
 second lieutenant, and was promoted in Virginia 
 to first lieutenant. At the end of his term of ser- 
 vice, he was mustered out at Hartford. 
 
 After spending one year as blacksmith in Colt's 
 armory, he went to Springfield and spent a like 
 period in the employ of the American Machine Co. 
 In 1865 he became a resident of Meriden, and for 
 a period of one and one-half years was employed 
 by Snow, Brooks & Co., at South Meriden. The 
 next year was spent in New York and Pennsylvania, 
 and he again took up his residence in Meriden, en- 
 tering the employ of the Meriden Cutlery Co., with 
 which concern he continued until 1874. During 
 the last twenty-eight years, he has been connected 
 with the Parker gun shops, where he began in the 
 forging department. He is now one of the leading 
 contractors of the establishment, where his skill as 
 a workman, and his industry and upright character 
 have won for him the respect and esteem of pro- 
 prietors and employes. 
 
 On Jan. 9, 1882, Mr. Boardman was married 
 at Clinton, Conn., to Miss Nettie Stevens, a native 
 of Killingworth, Conn., and daughter of Carlos and 
 Janet (Hull) Stevens, residents of Killingworth 
 and members of old and respected Connecticut fam- 
 ilies. One child, Clyde, born Oct. 8, 1887, has 
 blessed this union ; he is now a student at the public 
 schools of Meriden. Mr. Boardman is a member 
 of Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R. He is fond of 
 home and its quiet pleasures, and does not seek to 
 mingle in the direction of pubHc affairs, though he 
 performs the duty of a good citizen in expressing 
 his choice at the polls, acting with the Republican 
 party because he believes in its principles. A 
 straightforward and reliable citizen, he is esteemed 
 by those who know him for his manly worth. 
 
 GEORGE B. FOOTE, in his long and respon- 
 sible connection with the Meriden Britannia Co., 
 of Meriden, has placed himself on a substantial 
 footing among the useful and respected residents 
 of that city. In his career he has sustained the 
 reputa>tion long borne by members of his family 
 for honor, industry and other characteristic traits 
 of the sturdy New Englander. 
 
 (I) Nathaniel Foote, the first of this family in 
 America, is of record in the Colony of Massachu- 
 setts Bay as early as 1633, in which year he took 
 oath as freeman. He was first of Watertown, and 
 was among the first settlers of Wethersfield, Conn., 
 receiving a distribution of land in the latter town 
 in 1640. In 1644 he was deputy to the General 
 Court. He was an intelligent, pious and industrious 
 man. He was married in England in 1615, to Eliza- 
 beth Deming, and died in Wethersfield in 1644. 
 His widow married Thomas Welles, later governor 
 of the Colony; she died July 28, 1683. 
 
 (II) Robert Foote, son of Nathaniel, the settler, 
 born about 1627, married in 1659. He was of 
 Wethersfield and later of what is now Wallingford, 
 Conn., and in 1668 and thereafter until his death, 
 in 1681, of Branford, Conn. In 1686 his widow, 
 Sarah, married Aaron Blachley, of Branford, and 
 subsequently of Guilford, Connecticut. 
 
 (III) Joseph Foote, son of Robert, born March 
 6, 1665, married (first) in 1690 Abigail, daughter 
 of John Johnson, of New Haven, and lived in 
 Northford Society, Branford. He died March 6, 
 
 1751- ' 
 
 (IV) Daniel Foote, son of Joseph, born Aug. 
 16, 1701, married in 1726 Sarah Thompson, of East 
 Haven, Conn., and lived in Northford Society, 
 Branford. Mr. Foote died in November, 1742, and 
 his widow married May 9, 1745, John Taintor, of 
 Branford. She died Sept. 6, 1774. 
 
 (V) Daniel Foote (2), son of Daniel, born June 
 5, 1734, married Feb. 13, 1755, Mary, daughter of 
 Isaac and Hannah Ingraham, of Saybrook, Conn., 
 and lived in Northford Society, Branford. Mr. 
 Foote died March 6, 1797, and his widow June 23, 
 1822. 
 
 (VI) Benjamin Foote, son of Daniel (2), born 
 Aug. I, 1778, married April 24, 1803, Sally Parmele 
 Hall, daughter of Joel Hall, of Wallingford. She 
 died July 24, 1804, and on June 2, 1805, he married 
 Betsey Hall, daughter of Andrew Hall, of Walling- 
 ford. Mrs. Betsey Foote passed away Sept. 30, 
 1831, and on May 3, 1832, for his third wife, he 
 wedded Mrs. Harriet Homiston, widow of Willis 
 Homiston, of Wallingford, and daughter of New- 
 berry Button, of North Haven, Conn. Mr. Foote 
 was a resident of Wallingford. 
 
 (VII) Benjamin Foote (2), son of Benjamin, 
 was born Oct. 8, 1817, in Wallingford, and there 
 learned the trade of tinner, which he always fol- 
 lowed, engaging in manufacturing. However, he 
 departed this life at the comparatively early age of 
 thirty-three years, and he was laid to rest in the 
 Wallingford cemetery. On Nov. 19, 1840, he mar- 
 ried Sarah A. Hall, who was born in Wallingford, 
 daughter of Hiel Hall, of that place, and a descend- 
 ant of John Hall, one of the first settlers of Walling- 
 ford. Mrs. Foote died at the age of thirty-seven 
 years and was buried beside her husband. Both 
 were members of the Episcopal Church. Three 
 children were born to them, viz. : Charles C, who 
 is with the International Silver Co., at Hamilton, 
 Ontario, Canada ; George B. ; and Sarah, who died 
 in infancy. 
 
 George B. Foote was reared in Wallingford, 
 where he was born April 23, 1844, and where his 
 parents resided. His education was received in the 
 district schools. He was but fourteen years old 
 when his mother died, and he was thus left to 
 battle with the world alone at an early age, a fact 
 which puts his subsequent success in a still more 
 favorable light. In 1858 he came to Meriden to live 
 with his uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Marshall 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 351 
 
 L. Forbes, and immediately commenced work in the 
 plating room of the Meriden Britannia Co., under 
 his uncle. His trade learned, he continued to work 
 there, as a journeyman, in 1876 was promoted to 
 the position of foreman, and later to that of super- 
 intendent of the flat ware department, which in- 
 cumbency he continues to fill at the present day. 
 A quarter of a century in so responsible a position 
 argues well for his efficiency, trustworthiness and 
 skill, and he has never failed to meet the require- 
 ments of his incumbency, giving eminent satisfac- 
 tion. Mr. Foote has the unqualified respect of the 
 men who are employed in his department, both for 
 his personal worth as well as for his ability and 
 knowledge of his work. He is familiar with every 
 detail pertaining to the conduct of his department. 
 On Jan. 8, 1868, Mr. Foote was united in mar- 
 riage, in South Hadley, Mass., with Cornelia Ingra- 
 ham, daughter of Warren Ingraham, and they had 
 one child, Lillian, who married Lewis Leismann, 
 an employe of the Meriden Britannia Co., and has 
 one child, Warren. Mrs. Foote died in 1883, and 
 was buried in Walnut Grove cemetery. She at- 
 tended the Episcopal Church. On Jan. 5, 1885, 
 Mr. Foote married, for his second wife. Miss Hattie 
 Pomeroy, the ceremony taking place in Meriden. 
 Mrs. Hattie (Pomeroy) Foote is the youngestt 
 daughter of Noah Pomeroy, one of Meriden's 
 "grand old men." She is a woman of character 
 and marked intelligence, unusually well read, and 
 especially devoted to her home, from which a cordial 
 hospitality is extended to the many friends of the 
 family. The residence is one of the finest on 
 Chestnut street. Mr. Foote is also domestic in his 
 tastes and fond of his home. He is genial and 
 sympathetic in disposition, and is much esteemed 
 by all who come in contact with him, whether in 
 business or social life. Fraternally he unites with 
 Center Lodge, No. 68, I. O. O. F., of Meriden, and 
 Mrs. Foote is a member of Ruth Hart Chapter, D. 
 
 A. R., of that place. They attend the Universalist 
 Church, but Mr. Foote considers the Golden Rule 
 the simplest and best guide of action. He is a Re- 
 publican in political sentiment, but beyond voting 
 takes little interest in party affairs. 
 
 Hall. The Hall family, of whom Mr. George 
 
 B. Foote is a descendant on the maternal side, is 
 an old and highly respected one in New England, 
 complete record of which may be found elsewhere 
 in this volume. 
 
 Thomas Hall, son of John Hall, the emigrant, 
 was one of three brothers who settled in Walling- 
 ford, and was one of the signers of the Plantation 
 Covenant, 1669-70. He made his home in Walling- 
 ford, where he followed agricultural pursuits and 
 where he died Sept. 17, 1731, at the age of sixty- 
 two years. He married Grace Watson, and she died 
 in May, 173 1. They were the parents of ten chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Peter Hall, fifth son of Thomas, was b®rn in 
 Wallingford, Dec. 28, 1686, and married Rebecca 
 
 Bartholomew, Oct. 19, 1732. She died Oct. 31, 
 1776, at the age of eighty-seven years, and he died 
 Sept. 25, 1776, one month before his wife, at the 
 ripe age of ninety years. They were the parents 
 of eleven children. 
 
 Hiel Hall, the elder son of Peter, was born 
 May 6, 1735, and married, it is supposed, Catherine 
 Whittlesey, who died June 4, 1788. He died Sept. 
 7, 1807, aged seventy-two years, the father of eight 
 children. 
 
 Hiel Hall, son of Hiel, and grandfather of Mr. 
 Foote, was born in Wallingford, Feb. 7, 1782, and 
 was engaged' in farming in Wallingford, where he 
 spent his life, and where he died. He was buried 
 in Wallingford cemetery. His wife, Sarah Kirt- 
 land, was a daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Ives) 
 Kirtland, and granddaughter of Constant and 
 Martha (Brockett) Kirtland. The children born 
 to Hiel and Sarah Hall were as follows: Sarah 
 A., who married Benjamin Foote, and became the 
 rnother of George B. Foote; Susan C, who mar- 
 ried Marshall L. Forbes, who was born in East 
 Hartford, Conn., a son of Orrin Forbes; Harriet, 
 who married a Mr. Thomas; Catharine, who mar- 
 ried Henry C. Foote; and Constant Kirtland, who 
 died in Texas. 
 
 Marshall L. Forbes was born in East Hart- 
 ford and attended the schools of his native home, 
 growing up on a farm where he remained until sev- 
 enteen years old, when he came to Meriden and 
 began work in the Meriden Britannia Co.'s factory. 
 He remained with the company the remainder of 
 his days, having charge of the silver plating de- 
 partment for a number of years. He died in April, 
 1 891, and was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery. 
 An Episcopalian in religion, he was affiliated with 
 St. Andrews parish, Meriden. In politics he was 
 a Republican, and served in the city council. Fra- 
 ternally he belonged to the A. F. & A. M., also the 
 Council and the Chapter, and St. Elmo Commandery 
 K. T. In 1849, he married Susan C. Hall, who is 
 still living, and makes her home in Meriden. One 
 child was born to them, Henry, who died in 1881 ; 
 he married Mary Ward, of Wallingford, Conn., 
 and had one child, Susan M., who died at the age 
 of twenty years. 
 
 HENRY W. MORSE, who for fifty years has 
 been connected with the Candee Rubber Co., of 
 New Haven, is a well-known and highly esteemed 
 citizen of this city. He was born in Wallingford, 
 Conn., March 14, 1838, a son of Truman L. and 
 Electa (Moulthrop) Morse. 
 
 Truman L. Morse was born in Meriden in 1812, 
 a son of Jonathan Morse, who died prior to the 
 birth of Henry W. Morse, of this sketch. Truman 
 Morse married Electa Moulthrop, who was born in 
 North Haven, a daughter of Martin Moulthrop, a 
 farmer of that town ; she died in 1867. A family 
 of four children were born to Truman L. Morse 
 and wife, namely : Harriet L., deceased, was the 
 
352 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 wife of Charles Thompson; Charles L. resides in 
 New Haven ; Frederick E., a needle maker, also 
 resides in New Haven ; and Henry W., of this 
 sketch. Truman L. Morse and family resided at 
 various times, in Quinnipiac village in North Haven, 
 and Centerville village in Hamden. In his political 
 views he was a Republican ; and in religious con- 
 nection, he was a devout member of the Episcopal 
 Church. He died in 1878. 
 
 Henry W. Morse was five years old when his 
 parents moved from Wallingford to Quinnipiac, 
 Conn., where they resided six years, and he accom- 
 panied them when they removed to Cfenterville. His 
 education was acquired in both of the latter towns 
 and after completing his school course, at the age 
 of fourteen years, he entered into the employ of the 
 Candee Rubber Co., beginning then upon a business 
 connection which has continued for fifty years. Mr. 
 Morse performed the duties of engineer in this fac- 
 tory for two years, and was then promoted to the 
 hand cloth cutting department. During his earlier 
 years with this concern, Mr. Morse worked only 
 during the summers, his winters ' being spent in 
 school. Through his energy and ability he soon 
 gained the confidence of his employers, and was 
 continually promoted and trusted with more im- 
 portant work, until now he is a contractor in the de- 
 partment of cloth cutting by hand, a most re- 
 sponsible position. 
 
 On Feb. 20, 1871, Mr. Morse was married to 
 Mary I. Beck, born in Trumbull, Conn., daughter 
 of Peter Beck, of German extraction. She died 
 July 16, 1899, leaving no children. Mr. Morse re- 
 sides in his beautiful home at No. 751 Orange St., 
 New Haven. Politically he is identified with the 
 Republican party. He is an active member of Har- 
 mony Lodge, No. 5, I. O. O. F. In the First 
 Methodist Church he is highly esteemed, where he 
 has been a faithful attendant. Mr. Morse has been 
 successful in his business life, and the reason of it 
 may be understood by those who have watched his 
 career from his first entrance into the Candee fac- 
 tory. His industry, fidelity and reliability have con- 
 tributed to it, and his personal characteristics have 
 won him the esteem of employers, employes and his 
 social associates. 
 
 ALBERT ABRAHAM MAY, general manager 
 of the Pequod Business College, and president of the 
 Sturgis & May undertaking establishment, Meriden, 
 is one of the highly esteemed residents of that city 
 He was born in Northfield, Vt., March 17, 1844, son 
 of Hustin and Nufflet (Duphiney) May, and is of 
 English and French ancestry. 
 
 Albert Abraham May was reared and educated 
 in Ludlow, Vt., graduating from Black River Acad- 
 emy in i860. When the first call was made for 
 troops, at the outbreak of the Civil war, Mr. May 
 was one of the earliest to respond, enlisting April 20, 
 1861, and serving as a private in Company I, 2d Vt. 
 V. I. He participated in the battles of Bull Run, 
 
 Fredericksburg, and Falls Church, and was honor- 
 ably discharged in 1863, only to re-enlist in the same 
 company and regiment, becoming corporal. As a 
 veteran he took gallant part in the battles of the Wil- 
 derness, the Seven Days Fight before Richmond, 
 Gettysburg, Hagerstown, and the two battles of 
 Petersburg, participating altogether in twenty-seven 
 ep.gagements. Perhaps it was not wonderful that 
 Ail. iMay should suffer for his gallantry, but he is 
 one whom' his country should ever remember with 
 pride and' gratitude. He was wounded six times, 
 the first time in the face, in 1862, at Falls Church, 
 Va. Carried from the battlefield of the Wilderness, 
 in 1864, with a shattered leg, he bravely won his 
 promotion, and was honorably discharged July 15, 
 1S65, as second lieutenant. 
 
 Returning home, Mr. May, after a season of re- 
 cuperation, went to Boston, and later to Dedham, 
 Mass., and there engaged in the grocery business for 
 seven years. In 1878 he located in Salem, Mass., 
 and was there engaged as a carpenter for the Boston 
 & Maine Railway Co. until 1886, when he was ap- 
 pointed a memiber of the police force of that city, and 
 served most acceptably for nine years. Since that 
 time be has been occupied with his college in Meri- 
 den, establishing himself there in April, 1896. The 
 Pequod Business College is justly regarded as one 
 of the best institutions of its kind in the State. It 
 has been brought to its present high standing 
 tlirough the efforts of our subject and the ability of 
 Mrs. May, who is not only an expert stenographer 
 and a past master in the art of instructing in this 
 useful branch of industry, tut also' a business woman 
 of rare foresight. Mr. 'May is general manager of 
 the college, and Mrs. May has charge of the short- 
 hand department, which is a special feature. 
 
 Mr. May has been twice married. On Dec. 31, 
 1865, he married Charlotte E., daughter of James 
 E: Hooker, of Dedham, Mass. She died Nov. 15, 
 1895, the mother of one son, George Albert, a dentist 
 of Boston, who died Dec. 23, 1899, leaving a widow, 
 Mrs. Eva (Ellsworth) May, and two children, Al- 
 bert Ellsworth and Gladys Irene. The second mar- 
 riage of Mr. May was celebrated Oct. 3, 1897, Rose 
 Emery, daughter of Job and Abigail (Simpson) 
 Emery, of South Berwick, Maine, becoming his wife. 
 
 Mr. May is a busy, progressive citizen, and is 
 connected with a number of enterprises outside of 
 his college, among which is the undertaking estab- 
 lishment of The Sturgis & May Co. Socially he is 
 connected with Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R., of 
 which he is now commander, having been unani- 
 mously re-elected to that position ; belongs to Merid- 
 ian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M. ; Meridian Chap- 
 ter, Eastern Star, of which he is W. P. ; the Pilgrim 
 Fathers, of w'hich he is now governor; Meridian 
 Conclave, Independent Order of Heptasophs, of 
 which he is archon ; the N. E. O. P. ; and several 
 other beneiioiary and social organizational. In his 
 political affiliations he adheres to the Republican 
 party. Mr. May is a leading member oi the Metho- 
 
^^g^^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 353 
 
 dist Church, and for many years has been a teacher 
 in Trinity Methodist Church Sunday-school, of 
 which he is now tlie capable and beloved superin- 
 tendent. In every way he is a good citizen, and en- 
 joys the respect and esteem of all whO' know him. 
 
 'Mrs. May, in spite of her many duties at the 
 college, into which she puts her own personality, 
 giving the pupils under her charge not only the 
 knowledge of stenography requisite to fit them for 
 successful business careers, but also the benefit of 
 her personal experience, still finds time for social 
 obligations, and is an active member of Meridian 
 Chapter, of the Order of the Eastern Star, being its 
 present conductor; a member of the Woman's Re- 
 lief Corps, G. A. R., in which she has also held 
 office; lieutenant governor of O. H. Piatt Colony, 
 of the Pilgrim Fathers ; and a member of the N. E. 
 O. P. As may be inferred, she is a lady of high 
 attainments, social and intellectual. 
 
 CARRINGTON. Few names indeed in the 
 history of New Haven for the past sixty years have 
 been more potent and influential than the one intro- 
 ducing this sketch. The late John B. Carrington 
 and John B. Carrington, Jr., the latter now presi- 
 dent and treasurer of the Carrington Publishing 
 Co., of New Haven, have in turn conducted the 
 newspaper styled the Journal and Courier for sixty- 
 five and more years, and aided materially in shap- 
 ing and supporting measures which have led to the 
 development of the city and its institutions. 
 
 The late John B. Carrington was born in 1811 
 at Bethany, Conn., son of Ailing and Nancy (At- 
 wood) Carrington. In 1824 he left home and came 
 to New Haven, and began an apprenticeship to the 
 printing business in the newspaper office managed 
 by Thomas G. Woodward, then one of the ablest 
 Whig editors in Connecticut. Young Carrington 
 served a full apprenticeship in the mechanical de- 
 partment of the office, and in the' meantime began 
 writing articles for the paper on the topics of the 
 day. Later on, for several years, he was engaged 
 in a newspaper enterprise in Macon, Ga., but re- 
 turned to New Haven and, in connection with Mr. 
 Woodward, in 1835 began the publication of the 
 Daily Herald, the first daily newspaper published in 
 the State. Of this paper Mr. Carrington in 1845 
 was the sole publisher. The Journal and. Courier 
 of to-day is the outgrowth of the Herald, and few 
 men in the newspaper business labored under 
 greater difficulties to keep their paper alive than did 
 the older Carrington, and in a season of strong com- 
 petition and great business depression it was only 
 accomplished by his tact, energy, ability and per- 
 sonal popularity. These qualities, combined with 
 rare foresight, built up and established a great 
 daily paper and made it a success. In 1849 Mr. 
 Carrington formed a partnership with John B. 
 Hotchkiss for the publication of the paper, and on 
 Mr. Hotchkiss' retirement acquired the entire prop- 
 
 23 
 
 erty, and later associated with him in the enter- 
 prise his two sons, Edward T. and John B. Car- 
 rington, Jr. The partnership was so continued un- 
 til the death of Edward T., when another change 
 was made, and the paper and business of the office 
 again became conducted by a company of which 
 John B. Carrington, Jr., was made president and 
 treasurer. 
 
 Mr. Carrington was a successful newspaper 
 man and a business man in a general sense, and 
 citizen as well. He was a broad-minded, liberal 
 gentleman, of irreproachable character and busi- 
 ness integrity, and most careful and judicious in 
 the conduct of his paper. He introduced into New 
 Haven journalism a spirit of forbearance and cour- 
 tesy toward men and newspapers of different politi- 
 cal complexion or adverse views in measures of 
 public interest. Personally he was affable and gen- 
 ial, and his considerate treatment of public m^atters, 
 giving fair treatment to all sides, gave great popu- 
 larity to his paper. He possessed great tact along 
 the line indicated, and was possessed, too, of a high 
 order of judgment, which made him an excellent 
 editor and newspaper man. "His editorial letters 
 while in Europe in 1871 and 1872 were character- 
 ized by a rare blending of polished diction, their 
 writing showing an agreeable faculty of telKng in 
 a straightforward manner all those things which 
 came under his trained observation. He was fond 
 of travel and of seeing nature in every aspect, and 
 when on trips both abroad and in this country he fre- 
 quently wrote most interesting articles for the 
 Journal and Courier." From Europe, the West In- 
 dies and Utah, his letters to his paper were filled 
 with the best spirit of journalistic correspondence. 
 
 The political affiliations of Mr. Carrington were 
 with the Republican party and parties of which it 
 was the outgrowth. During the Civil war his paper 
 was loyal, constant and unflinching in its vigorous 
 support of the Government. His religious connec- 
 tions were with the First Congregational Church at 
 New Haven. As a citizen he was enterprising and 
 public spirited, his sympathies being elicited in all 
 public improvements. So many years the editor 
 and manager of one of the mtost successful journals 
 in the State, Mr. Carrington left his impress for 
 good on the community in which he so long and 
 prominently figured. He became identified as early 
 as 1848 in the manufacture of malleable iron, be- 
 ing among the first to see the value of the material. 
 There were very few enterprises started in New 
 Haven along some years prior to the Civil war and 
 following it that he did not assist both in giving 
 advice, which was sought, and means. He was in- 
 terested in the Bigelow Manufacturing Co., was 
 a director in the first horse street railway company 
 organized in New Haven and the State, in the 
 New Haven County National Bank, the Grilley 
 Screw Co., the Mansfield Elastic Frog Co., the New 
 Haven Gas Light & Water Co., and also of the New 
 
354 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Haven Palladiimi. For some years prior to 1849 
 Mr. Carrington published the Nczv Englander, then 
 edited by Theodore D. Woolsey, of Yale, and Rev. 
 Leonard Bacon. j\lr. Carrington acquired more 
 than a competence. 
 
 On Sept. 12, 1838, ;\Ir. Carrington was married 
 to Harriet Hayes Trowbridge, who was born May 
 22, 181 5, daughter of Capt. Roswell Trowbridge, 
 a representative of a distinguished New Haven 
 family, she being a descendant in the seventh gen- 
 eration from Thomas Trowbridge, the common an- 
 cestor of the Trowbridges in this country, and who 
 emigrated from Taunton, Somersetshire, England, 
 prior to 1636, in which year his name is of record 
 as joining the church. He located in Dorchester, 
 Mass., removed to Xew Haven, Conn., in 1638-39, 
 and returned to England in 1644. From this emi- 
 grant ancestor Mrs. (Trowbridge) Carrington's 
 line of descent is through Thomas (2), Thomas 
 (3), Daniel, Newman and Capt. Roswell Trow- 
 bridge. 
 
 (H) Thomias Trowbridge (2), son of Thomas 
 the emigrant, born in England in 1632, married 
 (first) in 1657 Sarah, daughter of Henry Ruther- 
 ford, who died in 1687. i\Ir. Trowbridge was an 
 enterprising and successful West India merchant, 
 and a man of note. He died in 1702. 
 
 (HI) Thomas Trowbridge (3), son of Thomas 
 (2), born in 1664, married in 1685 ]\Iary, daughter 
 of John Winston. She died in 1742. and he died 
 in 1704. He was a planter and merchant. 
 
 (IV) Daniel Trowbridge, son of Thomas (3), 
 born in 1703, married in 1731 Mehetabel, daugh- 
 ter of Francis Brown. He died in 1752, and she 
 in 1797. 
 
 (V) Newman Trowbridge, son of Daniel, born 
 in 1738, married (second) in 1778 Widow Rebecca 
 Cables, daughter of Thomas Dodd. He died in 
 1816, and she in 1808. 
 
 (VI) Capt. Roswell Trowbridge, son of New- 
 man, born in 1784, married in 1813 Nancy, daugh- 
 ter of Ezekiel Hayes. Capt. Trowbridge was a 
 mariner. He died in 1844, ^nd his wife in 1857. 
 
 (VII) Harriet Trowbridge (Mrs. John B. Car- 
 rington). 
 
 To the marriage of Mr. Carrington and Har- 
 riet Trowbridge came children as follows : Fran- 
 ces E., born in 1839. died in 1843: Roswell T., born 
 in 1841, died in 1843; Edward T., born in 1843, 
 died in 1883; Harriet F. was born in 1845; Emily 
 A., in 1847; John Bennett, April 24, 1849; Har- 
 riet T., in 1851 ; and \^'illiam, born in 1855, died in 
 1856. 
 
 HENRY JAMES CHURCH, the oldest funeral 
 director and undertaker in Meriden, was born in 
 East Haven, New Haven county, Aug. i, 183 1, a 
 son of James and Huldah (Barnes) Church, natives 
 •of Haddam and East Haven, respectively. 
 
 The remote ancestor of this family was Thomas 
 
 Church, who came from England in 1680 and lived 
 and died in Plainfield, Conn. He was the grand- 
 father of that Church who served in the Revolution- 
 ary army and, when taken prisoner by the English 
 and confined on their prison ship in New^ York 
 harbor, escaped by swimming. This distinction 
 he divides with only one other man. He was the 
 grandfather of Henrj' James Church, was a farmer 
 and spent his life in the town of Haddam. 
 
 Isaac Barnes, the maternal grandfather of Mr. 
 Church, enlisted under Benedict Arnold in the Rev- 
 olutionary army and marched from New Haven to 
 Fort Ticonderoga. His powder horn is now in the 
 possession of Andrew Stoper, of New Britain. 
 Isaac Barnes' was a farmer in the town of East 
 Haven, and his daughter, Huldah, and grandson, 
 Henry J. Church, were born there in the house he 
 built for his own home. 
 
 James Church, noted above, was a shoemaker, 
 and the latter part of his business career was spent 
 as a shoe merchant in the West Indies. He died in 
 East Haven in 1839. He was a soldier in the war 
 of 1812. His children were: Mary; Harriet, who 
 is the widow of Horace Hart; Maria, widow of 
 Edward Barton Lewis ; Daniel M. ; Julia, wife of 
 John H. Andrews ; George K., who went to Cali- 
 fornia in 1849 and is supposed to have died there; 
 William, who died in California ; and Henry J. All 
 the sons are deceased, except the youngest born, 
 who is the subject of this article. The daughters 
 survive. 
 
 Henry James Church was reared in East Ha- 
 ven, New Britain and Meriden, where he reached 
 manhood. In 1847 he began at Meriden an appren- 
 ticeship of three years to the trade of cabinetmaker, 
 which he mastered; h^ was engaged as clerk in a 
 furniture store at the breaking out of the Civil 
 war. In August, 1862, Mr. Church enlisted in Com- 
 pany F, isth Conn. V. I., and participated in the 
 iDattle of Fredericksburg and the siege of Suffolk, 
 after which he was assigned to the subsistence de- 
 partment of the Army of the Potomac, 9th Army 
 Corps, 2d Division, under Gen. Burnside, with 
 which he remained until the beginning of 1863, 
 v/hen he was transferred to the District of North 
 Carolina and continued with same until the close 
 of the war. He was discharged July 8, 1865. 
 Since his return to civil life our subject has fol- 
 lowed his present business and has officiated at 
 the funeral services of over six thousand people. 
 
 Mr. Church was married, in 1853, to Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Luke T. and Elizabeth (Faster) Dra- 
 per, of Monson, Mass. Of the five children born to 
 this marriage but one survives, Louis H., who is 
 associated with his father in business. He married 
 Maude Lillian Marshall, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and 
 has one daughter, Grace Huntington. Mr. Church 
 and his family attend the services of the First M. 
 E. Church, of Meriden. He is past commander of 
 Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R. ; has taken the 
 Knight Templar degree in Masonry; is connected 
 
35^ 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mass., and educated in the public schools of Cleve- 
 land, Wallingford and New Haven. For many 
 years he has been employed in the factory of the 
 Edward Miller Co., and is now foreman of the 
 lamp department. His social nature has made him 
 prominent in the fraternal and benevolent organ- 
 izations of the town. He is a member of Meridian 
 Lodge, No. yy, A. F. & A. M. ; Keystone Chapter, 
 No. 27, R. A. M. ; Hamilton Council, No. 22, R. & 
 S. J\I., in which he is recorder; St. Elmo Com- 
 mandery. No. 9, K. T. ; and Pyramid Temple of the 
 Mystic Shrine, of Bridgeport. He is also identified 
 with Pacific Lodge, No. 87, L O. O. F., and Silver 
 City Lodge, No. 90, N. E. O. P. He is a member 
 of the Baptist Church, and has been several years 
 secretary of its Sunday school. He is independent 
 in politics, but devoted to every work promising 
 to promote the general welfare. 
 
 LETSOME TERRELL WOOSTER. One of 
 the most influential men of the Naugatuck Valley is 
 Letsome Terrell Wooster, whose face is familiar in 
 business, church and educational circles through- 
 out the State. Mr. Wooster was born in Water- 
 bury. He is the seventh in descent from Edward 
 Wooster, who came across the water from England 
 in 1630 and founded the family home in the green 
 hills of Connecticut, whence this branch of the fam- 
 ily has not migrated for over two and one-half cen- 
 turies. 
 
 The Colonial hero, a man of great courage, 
 deep piety and abiding patriotism, uprooted him- 
 self for religion's sake from the haunts of his 
 ancestors and, with a handful of trave compatriots 
 of like convictions, established the first traces of 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization along the shores of the 
 Housatonic, the two towns which are glad to do 
 him honor being Milford and Derby. It is not sur- 
 prising that the descendants of Edward Wooster 
 were early drawn into the Revolutionary movement 
 and that we find them everywhere connected with 
 the wars of that period. Thus it is that the sub- 
 ject of this sketch point's to an ancestry of six 
 illustrious Revolutionary commissioned officers, 
 among them Gen. David Wooster and the great 
 lieutenant of French and Indian war fame, Gideon 
 Hotchkiss. 
 
 Letsome T. Wooster is likewise sixth in descent 
 from Rev. John Bower, a graduate of Harvard Col- 
 lege in the class of 1649 who became, in 1652, the 
 first instructor in the classics in the school which 
 eventually grew into Yale University, and who 
 later, in 1672, became the first minister in Derby, 
 where he performed the multifarious duties which 
 fell to the lot of such a Colonial dignitary until his 
 death, in 1688. 
 
 The two and one-half centuries which have inter- 
 vened since the stirring Colonial days have served 
 but to transfer, as through a single generation, the 
 ■sterling characteristics of these early heroes to their 
 lineal descendant, Letsome Terrell Wooster. The 
 
 sympathy and interest in the welfare of the com- 
 munity that Mr. Wooster feels and substantially 
 shows in his many benevolences are the outcome of 
 generatioms of patriotic forbears who have devoted 
 themselves to the cause of church and State in this 
 locality since 1630. He has been from early man- 
 hood closely identified with educational matters_ and 
 is at the present time a trustee of Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity. His interest in the cause of religion is one 
 of the strong traits of his character and he has al- 
 ways given munificently to churches throughout the 
 Valley. 
 
 Mr. Wooster is the oldest and best-known brass 
 manufacturer in the United States. He is the 
 founder and principal stockholder of the Seymour 
 Manufacturing Company, a prosperous concern 
 brought to its present degree of success by Mr. 
 Wooster's executive ability, inventive genius and 
 rare knowledge of metals. He is a metallurgist of 
 admitted power, using many of his own secret 
 formulas, notably one for German silver, which 
 make the product from his manufactory especially 
 in demand by concerns requiring delicacy and pli- 
 ability, as well as strength and durability, in their 
 metals. His molds for casting brass have revolu- 
 tionized that feature of this great manufacturing in- 
 dustry, and innumerable devices of his own inven- 
 tion for saving time and labor have made the Sey- 
 mour Manufacturing Company a model of modern 
 methods in its unsurpassed capacity for business. 
 
 Mr. Wooster's pre-eminence in the business af- 
 fairs of the Naugatuck Valley is recognized. Early 
 in life he was prevailed upon by the president of the 
 Waterbury Brass Company to abandon his chosen 
 career of mechanical engineer and engage in the 
 manufacture of brass. This was in 1852. He sub- 
 sequently went to Torrington with Hon. Lyman W. 
 Coe, and with him organized the Coe Brass Com- 
 pany, remaining as manager for eight years. For 
 the last twenty years he has been associated with 
 his brother in Seymour, and is oflficially connected 
 with the following concerns in that town : The 
 Seymour Manufacturing Company, the Seymour 
 Electric Light Company, the H. A. Mathews Com- 
 pany and the Rimmon Manufacturing Company. 
 
 FRANK S. ANDREW. For generations the 
 Andrew family have been residents of New Haven 
 county, and for a third of a century the name has 
 been one of prominence in the commercial circles of 
 the city of New Haven, the name being particularly 
 well known through all this section on account of 
 the extensive business, in the meat and provision 
 line, conducted by the establishments of F. S. An- 
 drew & Co., C. C. Andrew & Co., and H. L. Andrew 
 & Co., at Nos. 183 to 197 State street. The last 
 named firm has retired from business. 
 
 Frank S. Andrew, the founder of this business, 
 has long been an influential citizen and prominent 
 business man of New Haven. Born Nov. 21, 1841, 
 in the town of Naugatuck, he is a son of the late 
 

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 357 
 
 Samuel and Salina (Smith) Andrew, and grandson 
 of William Andrew. Samuel Andrew was born in 
 1800, and after his marriage settled in the town of 
 Orange, where he resided until the latter part of 
 the 'thirties, when he moved to Oxford. He died 
 in 1875 in the village of Naugatuck. Five children 
 were, born to Samuel Andrew and wife: Samuel 
 N. ; Caroline A., widow of B. Booth, of New Hav- 
 en; Esther L., deceased; George S., also deceased; 
 and Frank S. 
 
 Frank S. Andrew attended the public schools of 
 Naugatuck and at intervals clerked in the store of 
 his brother, George S., who for years was a prom- 
 inent merchant in that town. He was occupied in 
 clerking the greater part of the time until 1855, 
 when he came to New Haven, and for two years 
 was clerk and errand boy in the store of B. Booth. 
 Returning to Naugatuck in 1857, he was for about 
 four years a bookkeeper for the firm of H. Stevens 
 & Co., manufacturers of carriages. Following this, 
 for a short time, he traveled for a Philadelphia busi- 
 ness house through Massachusetts. He taught 
 school in Red Oak district, in the town of Oxford, 
 Conn., during one winter, and soon after opened a 
 store in Naugatuck, Conn. The first week's sales 
 amounted to five dollars and sixty-seven cents. His 
 energy and push were soon felt in the business, 
 which rapidly increased until the weekly sales ap- 
 proximated from eight hundred to one thousand dol- 
 lars. Mr. Andrew carried on thisi general store until 
 1867, when he disposed of the business and returned 
 to New Haven, in which city he was employed as a 
 salesman in the pork packing establishment of 
 William Hull & Co. In 1868 he associated himself 
 in the pork packing and provision business with 
 Ansel Hurlburt, under the firm name of Andrew & 
 Hurlburt, and managed an extensive trade. In 1872 
 these gentlemen erected a large pork-packing house, 
 and they continued in business together until 1874, 
 when Mr. Andrew purchased his partner's interest, 
 and later the firm became F. S. Andrew & Co., 
 our subject taking as partners two of his clerks, 
 L. C. Bates, now of L. C. Bates & Co., and B. A. 
 Booth, now of the Booth Meat Co., all of New 
 Haven. Their establishment was destroyed by fire 
 in 1883, but was soon rebuilt by the new firm. In 
 the course of the intervening years the business has 
 grown largely, through the enterprise, industry and 
 good management of the chief head, Frank S. An- 
 drew, and the several branches as given above under 
 different titles, have been added. These houses do 
 an extensive wholesale and retail business in meats, 
 provisions, butter, eggs, cheese, etc. Mr. Andrew 
 has the reputation of being a broad-minded, liberal 
 and progressive gentleman, and has ever taken a 
 deep interest in the growth and advancement of 
 New Haven. During his third of a century's active 
 business life in New Haven he has been connected 
 with various outside enterprises, and figured quite 
 extensively in the city's affairs. Mr. Andrew was 
 one of the incorporators and for a time a director 
 
 in the New Haven Co-operative Loan Association, 
 which is now out of business. He has been a large 
 holder of real estate and of stocks, and is a member 
 of the New York Produce and Jilercantile Ex- 
 change. Politically Air. Andrew is a Democrat, 
 but while ever greatly interested in public affairs, 
 he has cared little for political preferment. How- 
 ever, for a number of years he held the office of 
 selectman in New Haven, and for several years of 
 that time served as president of the board. Plainly 
 through his efforts "Springside Home" was given 
 its present location, Mr. Andrew doing practically 
 all the negotiating for the farm, on which this grand 
 institution of the city is located. It was during his 
 service as selectman that the eastern city limits were 
 extended, annexing Fair Haven, Morris Cove, 
 Light Bouse Point, and South End. This addi- 
 tion to the cit}' was bitterly fought, and at the 
 time, the officials who were instrumental in bring- 
 ing it about came in for an abundance of censure 
 from the less foresighted. The wisdom of, and ad- 
 vantages from, this annexation have long been evi- 
 dent, and its one time opposers soon afterward 
 became its most ready sanctioners. In 1882 Mr. 
 Andrew was declared elected mayor of New Haven, 
 and received his certificate of election. This elec- 
 tion was contested in the courts and after a pro- 
 tracted hearing his opponent was seated, though our 
 subject had many friends who stood by him faith- 
 fully. For nearly six years he served the city of 
 New Haven as police commissioner, and for sev- 
 eral terms acted as president of that board. During 
 his connection with that portion of the city's gov- 
 ernment he was a leader in many movements that 
 were then new, and which the less progressive op- 
 posed. The judgment and foresight of those in 
 favor of them will be evident when it is stated that 
 these new ideas included the conduit system, the 
 Veteran Reserve and the Police Pension Bill, and 
 other features in that department that remained 
 permanent fixtures. The outlying police districts 
 were established, enabling members of the force 
 to report at nearer stations, thus obviating the neces- 
 sity of going long distances to report at head- 
 quarters, and rendering the service much better. 
 The police department made rapid strides toward 
 advancement during Mr. Andrew's connection 
 therewith. In all his public service Mr. Andrew 
 has taken the same business-like interest in his 
 duties that he takes in his own affairs. He is at 
 present a member of the Civil Service Board of New 
 Haven, for examination of all municipal employes, 
 and has been secretary of that board for years. 
 
 Socially Mr. Andrew is a member of Hiram 
 Lodge, F. & A. M.; Franklin Chapter; Harmony 
 Council ; New Haven Commandery ; and has reached 
 the thirty-second degree, and holds membership in 
 Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine. He also belongs' 
 to the Royal Arcanum, the Knights of Honor, the 
 Ro3'al Society of Good Fellows, and the Chamber 
 of Commerce of New Haven. Mr. Andrew is one 
 
358 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of the prominent members of Dwight Place Church, 
 and for over fifteen years served as a member of 
 the society committee, being excused from further 
 service as sudh at his own request. While a mem- 
 ber of that committee, he acted on two occasions as 
 chairman of the building committees that caused 
 to be built the Sabbath-school room, made other im- 
 provements that greatly enlarged the auditorium, 
 saw to the putting in of new seats, the lowering 
 of the main floor of the edifice and other improve- 
 ments. 
 
 ^Ir. Andrew has been successful, and has risen 
 to his position among the substantial residents of 
 the city entirely through his own efforts. His life, 
 while successful, has had its ups and downs, its re- 
 verses as well as its successes. He has gone stead- 
 ily forward, and his standing in his city today has 
 come after years of straightforward business deal- 
 ing. As a business man he is considered one of 
 the safe, shrewd and careful kind, being able to 
 see readily the value of an enterprise. 
 
 The first marriage of Mr. Andrew, which was 
 celebrated May 17, 1866, was to Miss Julia Cutler, 
 a daughter of Joseph Cutler. Her death occurred 
 Feb. II, 1888. The following children were born 
 to this marriage ; Clarence C. ; Harry L. and Louis 
 (twins), the latter deceased; Alfred, deceased; and 
 Frank L The second marriage of Mr. Andrew, in 
 1891, was to Miss Clara Lamson, of Beverly, Mass., 
 and the children of this union are: Ruth, Esther 
 and Helen. j\Ir. Andrew is a genial, companion- 
 able man, the soul of generosity and hospitality, 
 and consequently is popular with all classes, and 
 has been deservedly successful. He ranks very high 
 in the esteem of both his business and social 
 associates. 
 
 \;ALENTINE BOHL, one of the most sub- 
 stantial and respected business men of Waterburv, 
 whose methods in trade are characterized by hon- 
 esty and integrity, and whose personal reputation 
 is of the best, was born in the town of Roschbach, 
 Rhenish-Bavaria, Germany, Feb. 28, 1847. 
 
 Valentine Bohl, his father, was born Jan. 22, 
 1820, at Burrweiler, in, the same province, son of 
 Jacob Bohl, a shoemaker, and grandson of Simon 
 liohl. Valentine Bohl was a clerk of the town, a 
 teacher and a musician, with about one hundred 
 pupils under his charge. He never came to Amer- 
 ica, dying in Bavaria im 1895. He marnedi Anna 
 Maria Seiter, who was born in 1819, in the town 
 of Ramberg, same province, daughter of Phillip 
 Seiter, who was a butcher and an innkeeper. Airs. 
 Bohl died in 1892, The parents were Catholics m 
 religious fait'h. They had a family of six children : 
 Valentine, Edward, John, Simon, Anna and Cath- 
 erine. Edward died in the old country about 1897; 
 as ])iincipal of a large normal school he had at- 
 tained eminence. John is a teacher in the high 
 school at Ludwigshafen, Bavaria. Simon is a 
 butcher in Waterburv, Conn. Anna married a Air. 
 
 Flail, who is a teacher at Ludwigshafen. Catherine 
 married John Bruch, a teacher, who succeeded to 
 the place left vacant by the retirement of Valentine 
 Bohl, Sr. 
 
 Valentine Bohl spent the first fourteen years of 
 his life in Germany, and came to this country in 
 1861, in company with an uncle who was engaged 
 in the butcher business in the city of New York. 
 With him 3'oung Valentine spent seven years, and 
 learned the business thoroughly. In 1869 Mr. Bohl 
 came to Waterbury, wliere he opened a shop to 
 engage in his trade. From December, 1869, to Feb. 
 I, 1888, he carried on a retail meat business, and 
 had a patronage that steadily increased under his 
 management. In February, 1888, he disposed of 
 his retail meat interests and opened a wholesale 
 market for all kinds of fresh and prepared meatS' — - 
 his business at the present time. Success has at- 
 tended his eflrorts to a remarkable degree. In 1893 
 he put up a very valuable block, one of the best 
 in the city, which he sold in 1898. Mr. Bohl is 
 doing well, and all who appreciate thrift and honest 
 industry will be interested in the story of his suc- 
 cessful career. 
 
 In 1873 Valentine Bohl married: Emma Draher, 
 who was born in Waterbury, daughter . of John 
 Draher, a native of Germany. She died in 1882, 
 the mother of live children, of whom the only one 
 now living is Amelia. Mr. Bohl has not remar- 
 ried. Politically he is a Democrat, and socially he 
 is a member of Townsend Lodge, I. O. O. F., the 
 Concordia .Singing Society and other German as- 
 sociations and takes much pride and satisfaction 
 in preserving the old German songs and social 
 pleasures. He attends the Episcopal Church. 
 
 PATRICK JOHN QUIGLEY, superintendent 
 of the Hubbard, Brookside, and City Parks, is one of 
 the Silver City's well-known Irish-Americans. He 
 was born in the town of Orange, New Haven Co., 
 Conn., March 27, 1842. 
 
 His father, Patrick Ouigley, was a native of 
 Kilkenny, Ireland, where, at one time, well-to-do 
 farmers and land owners made up the family, the 
 patrimony being later reduced by investments in 
 fast horses and kindred unprofitable speculations. 
 Patrick Quigley could not find prospects of suf- 
 ficient brightness at home, so left for the new 
 world, and after a long passage in a sailing vessel 
 landed in New York. Coming to Derby, Conn., 
 he found employment with "Uncle" John B. Davis, 
 at eight dollars a month, and remained at it for a 
 year and a half. He was the first Irishman in 
 Derby, and as there was then no Catholic Church 
 there, he had to go to New Haven to attend mass. 
 This he did regularly every Sunday for the first 
 ten months of his residence in D"erby, having been 
 brought up strictly in the tenets and faith of the 
 Church of his fathers. After saving $150, he went 
 to the town of Orange, Conn., where he invested in 
 a small tract of land, and engaged in farming and 
 
/^^^*S<»s*S«i?. 
 
 -*-aP<i-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 359 
 
 timbering. SHe contracted for ship timber, which 
 was shipped to New York on scows from Derby, 
 and he also engaged in furnishing telegraph poles. 
 He thus furnished the poles for the first telegraph 
 line between New Haven and Derby, as well as the 
 tall poles used to string the wires over the elm trees 
 at the New Haven Green. While unloading poles 
 he met with an injury to his back which laid him up 
 for a considerable time, and his troubles were 
 further increased by a cold, caught while engaged 
 in cleaning out a well. These combined disasters 
 resulted in his death in 1855, and he found a last 
 resting place in Birmingham. He was a Whig, an 
 anti-slavery man, and a devoted member of the 
 Catholic Church. Through the agency of Francis 
 Donnelly he furnished for Fair Haven 300 maple 
 trees which still stand to shade and beautify the 
 streets of the town. His wife, who was formerly 
 Catharine Deleaney, a native of County Queens, 
 Ireland, died in Ansonia in 1870, and is buried be- 
 side her husband, whom she resembled as a con- 
 sistent Catholic, and to whom she bore ten children : 
 (ij James, a bugler and later lieutenant in the 
 Civil war, now dead; (2) Patrick J., subject of this 
 sketch; (3) William, a well-known citizen of Water- 
 bury; (4J Catharine, deceased, wife of Eugene 
 Flannigan; (5) Alice; (6) Edward, both dead; 
 and four others, all of whom died young. 
 
 Patrick J. Quigley was still very young when he 
 lost his father, and he is a self-educated man, owing 
 to the fact that when nine years of age he was ob- 
 liged to face the problem of self support. Later, 
 when he grew to know the value of education, he 
 spent his leisure in well directed study and has thus 
 become a well informed man. His first work, in 
 the cotton mill of Mr. Perkins in the town of 
 Orange, and which netted him fifty cents a week, 
 was so well performed that he was soon able to earn 
 fifty cents' a day. After a service of two years in 
 the mill he went to work for A. H. & C. B. Ailing, 
 manufacturers of woolen goods in Orange, and 
 later, in Birmingham, Conn., held the position of 
 assistant' foreman until the breaking out of the 
 Civil war. Thereupon he enlisted in Orange as a 
 member of Company E, 15th Conn. V. I., under Col. 
 Dexter R. Wright and Captain George M. White, 
 with whom he served for three years, participating 
 in the battles of Fredericksburg, Kinston, Suffolk 
 and others. He was the first citizen of Orange to 
 enlist, and he not only faithfully performed the 
 regular service of his regiment, but frequently vol- 
 unteered for reconnoissance and other hazardous 
 responsibility. At the battle of Kinston, he re- 
 ceived a bullet wound, but was fortunate in being 
 one out of a hundred to escape capture by the en- 
 emy. At the time he was a corporal, and after the 
 parole of the regiment, he was placed in the color 
 guard, and there remained for the rest of the 
 service. He attended the Grand Review at Wash- 
 ington under Gen. Casey, and was mustered out at 
 New Haven. Returning home, he spent a year 
 
 with his mother on the farm, and then went to An- 
 sonia, where he continued as clerk in a store until 
 after his mother's death. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Quigley came to Meriden and ob- 
 tained a position with the Wilcox Silver Plate Co., 
 and for nine years was employed as contractor on 
 special work. Resigning this position, he went west 
 and located in Kansas, where he remained some 
 months, but, preferring the East, returned, and 
 again entered the Wilcox Silver Plate factory, re- 
 maining for two years. During this period he be- 
 came interested in a new system of disinfecting 
 cesspools, etc., and after resigning his position with 
 the silver plate company, introduced this system in 
 Meriden. He was engaged also in paving and 
 other contract work on the highways, and in 1896 
 sold out his business* to ^Ir. Edward H. Higgin- 
 son, since which time he has been engaged in park 
 work. 
 
 When Mr. Hubbard wished to lay out the park 
 which bears his name, Mr. Quigley was appointed 
 to superintend the work, and so faithfully and well 
 was his task performed, that in the estimation of 
 the people of Meriden, he shares with Mr. Hubbard 
 the credit of having produced one of the city's finest 
 and most beneficent pleasure grounds. The pretty 
 artificial lakes and beautiful driveways, the tower, 
 36 feet high, and the rustic seats, were all created 
 under Mr. Quigley's supervision. In addition to 
 Hubbard park, he superintended the laying out of 
 Brookside park, and he is (at present) superintend- 
 ent of the City park. As indicated in his work, 
 Mr. Quigley is a man of artistic tastes, and his con- 
 scientious devotion to the best interests of those 
 who rely upon him insures a continuation of the suc- 
 cess so richly deserved. 
 
 Mr. Quigley was married by Father Russell, 
 in Meriden, Aug. 31, 1874, to Elizabeth Greer, born 
 in Meriden, a daughter of George and Margaret 
 (Moran) Greer, natives of Ireland. The former, 
 of Scotch descent, died in Meriden. The latter, 
 who is living here with her daughter, is a wo- 
 man of fine character, and a member of the Cath- 
 olic Church. Mrs. Quigley, who is a cultured wo- 
 man of pleasing manners, is a devoted wife and 
 mother, and presides over the finest home on Ken- 
 sington avenue with well-known hospitality. Of 
 enviable ancestry, she is a direct descendant of 
 King Gregory, of Scotland. Her paternal grand- 
 father, Abraham, was a well-to-do farmer of Sligo, 
 Ireland, whither he removed from Scotland about 
 181 5, and where he spent the remainder of his life. 
 His wife, Margaret (Strudgeon) Greer, belonged 
 to a wealthy mercantile family of the vicinity of 
 Sligo, and she became the mother of two daughters 
 and one son, the latter of whom was born in 1817, 
 and died in Meriden, in 1884. This son, who mar- 
 ried against parental wishes, • was disinherited in 
 consequence, and thereafter went to England. In 
 1849 he came to America, and after spending a 
 year in Massachusetts, located in West Meriden, 
 
36o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 where for several 3'ears he was employed as steward 
 on the Alvah Alerriam estate. While holding this 
 position, he bought a farm of nine acres on North 
 Broad street, and in 1869 increased his possessions 
 by the purchase of 250 acres on the Westfield road. 
 East Meriden. Here he spent the remainder of 
 his life. Although opposed to slavery, and an 
 ardent Republican, he never took an active interest 
 in politics, preferring in later life to devote his 
 energies entirely to agriculture. The wife for whom 
 he had sacrificed his heritage died in 1839, and in 
 Liverpool, England, he married Margaret Moran, 
 about 1846. 'i'he second Mrs. Greer is a daughter 
 of Patrick and Margaret (Austin) Moran, natives 
 of County Queens, Ireland. Abraham, a son of the 
 first marriage, died in Meriden at the age of nine- 
 teen. Of the second marriage there are'seven chil- 
 dren, viz: Elizabeth, wife of Patrick J. Ouiglev ; 
 Thomas ; Margaret, wife of William Burton ; Jane, 
 the wife of Patrick Swain ; George and Mary, twins ; 
 and Sarah, wife of Henrv Monahan. All live in 
 Meriden except the third, who resides in Bridge- 
 port. The father was an Episcopalian. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Quigley and their three children 
 are members of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. Of the 
 children, (i) Mary Elizabeth was born in Meriden, 
 educated at St. Rose's Convent, afterward taught 
 music, and is now the wife of Harry S. Bradford 
 of Meriden; (2) Josephine, educated at St. Rose's 
 school and graduated from Meriden High school, is 
 a young lady of musical and general talent; (3) 
 and Kittle A., also educated at St. Rose's school and 
 graduated in 1900 from Meriden High school is 
 equally versatile. ' 
 
 Mr. Quigley is a member of Merriam Post 
 No. 8, G. A. R., of Silver City Lodge, No. 3, A. 
 O- U. W., and a charter member of the Amaranth 
 Club. In politics he is a Republican, and during 
 the war was a strong anti-slavery man. He was 
 twice elected to the council from the Fifth ward 
 and served on the Street, Health, and Water com- 
 mittees. 
 
 CHARLES JOHN HEINEMAX (deceased), 
 for many years one of the leading German-Amer- 
 ican citizens of .Alenden, was born D<?c. 12, 1842, 
 at Wolfhagen, in Hessen-Cassel, Germany. His fa- 
 ther, John Heineman, was born in the same place, 
 and acquired the art of making fine shoes. There 
 he married Amelia Ritter, who bore him three chil- 
 dren, of whom the subject of this sketch was the 
 eldest. Henrietta, the second, died when young. 
 The youngest, John Conrad, makes his home m 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. He married (first) Sarah Holmes, 
 and (second) Jane, widow of William Wheeler, 
 and sister of his first wife. John Heineman, Sr.[ 
 brought his wife and young children to America, 
 arriving in New York Jan. 22, 1845, and worked 
 at his trade in New York until obliged bv ill health 
 to give it up. After spending a short time at Sa- 
 vannah, Ga., in the hope of restoring his strength. 
 
 he returned to New York, where he died and was 
 buried. He was a member of the Moravian Church. 
 His widow married Moritz Kramer, a native of 
 Germany, with whom she came to Meriden. She 
 died Aug. 2, 1877, while on a visit to her son in 
 Brooklyn, and was buried in Greenwood cemetery, 
 in that city. Mr. Kramer died April 14, 1901, and 
 was buried in Walnut Grove cemetery. The first 
 two of his seven children — Minnie and Augusta — 
 died in childhood. Herman, who married Louise 
 Martin, resides in Meriden. Pauline is the widow 
 of William Brownlee, who died in New Bedford, 
 Mass. Edward", who married Mary Wickham, re- 
 sides in Meriden. Emily and Minnie, both of whom 
 are unmarried, reside in Meriden. 
 
 Charles J. Heineman came to America with his 
 parents, and remained in New York until fifteen 
 years of age, attending the schools of that city. He 
 then went to Wallingford, Conn., where he learned 
 the art of chasing and engraving with August Gang- 
 loff, who was engaged in Britannia manufacturing. 
 When that business was moved to Meriden, and 
 conducted by I. C. Lewis and others, Mr. Heineman 
 came to Meriden and worked in the Britannia fac- 
 tory, at his trade, several years. After spending 
 two years in the same line in Brooklyn, N. Y., he 
 returned to Aleriden and entered the factory of the 
 Wilcox Silver Plate Co., as engraver, continuing 
 with them until 1900, when ill health compelled him 
 to abandon active labor. On the retirement of 
 Mr. Easy, as foreman of the engraving depart- 
 ment, Mr. Heineman took his place, which he con- 
 tinued to fill with conspicuous ability and success 
 as long as he was able to work. After years of 
 battling with disease he passed away, at his home 
 on Hobart street, Oct. 12, 1901, and was buried in 
 the East cemetery. The following notice of his 
 funeral is copied from the Meriden Journal of Oct. 
 15, 1901: 
 
 The most largely attended fvineral that Meriden has 
 had in several years was that of Charles J. Heineman, 
 which took place this afternoon from the house, 156 Hobart 
 street. By i o'clock the friends of the deceased began to 
 assemble at the house, and at i :30 o'clock, half an hour 
 before the time set for the funeral, the house was filled 
 with sympathizing friends and a large number who could 
 not find room in the bouse were on the lawn in front. 
 
 About I :45 the members of the Meriden fire depart- 
 ment, who had met at the Pratt street headquarters, and 
 the Turners, who had met at their hall across the street, 
 marched in a body to the house, increasing the number by 
 about 150. Chief F. L. Cowing and Assistant Chief W. 
 H, Seery were at the head of the firemen and President 
 Fred Weber led the Turners. 
 
 During the noon hour the employes of Factory N, I. 
 S. Co , visited the house in a body to view the remains' of 
 their fellow workman. 
 
 The remains reposed in a handsome black broad- 
 cloth covered casket in the front parlor, and one by one 
 friends passed by to take a last look at the departed who 
 had ever been well liked and respected by all who knew 
 him. 
 
 T „ The Episcopal funeral service was read by Rev A 
 i . Randall shortly after 2 o'clock, and as he finished the 
 impressive ceremony the Turner Liedertafel sang in Ger- 
 man Ruhig Schlaeft der Saenger" (Sweetly Sleeps the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 361 
 
 Smg-er). The singing was followed by prayer by Rev. 
 Mr. Randall, and then Charles Meyer, representing the 
 iurner Society, delivered a touching eulogy upon the life 
 of the dead member. He spoke in highest praise of the 
 many good qualities of Mr. Heineman. 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Meyer's remarks Joseph Geld- 
 macher, of Brooklyn, a nephew of the deceased, sang in 
 a deep baritone voice "That Beautiful Land on High." 
 
 The lire department headed the procession, which 
 included every public hack in town, as well as a large 
 number of private carriages. The Turners followed the 
 liearse, the bearers walking on either side. The bearers 
 were: L. H. Sutterlin and D. T. Lyon, from the Volun- 
 teer Hose Company; Joseph Heck, from Montowese Tribe, 
 I. O. R. M. ; Herman Weber, from the Turner Society ; 
 William Dickinson, from Court Meriden, F. of A., and 
 Matthew Beatty, from Factory N, Shop Aid Society. 
 
 The flower bearers were: Albert Patzke, from Silver 
 City Lodge, A. O. U. W., and Wihon A. Taylor, from 
 Electric Lodge, N. E. O. P. 
 
 At the grave in the family lot in the East cemetery 
 the committal service was read by Rev. Mr. Randall and 
 the Liedertafel sang "Rest in Peace." 
 
 As the funeral procession started, shortly after 3 
 o'clock, the fire alarm bells began to toll, Superintendent 
 Buckley sending in fifty-nine strokes, one for each year of 
 life of the deceased. 
 
 The room in which the body reposed at the house 
 was hardly large enough to hold all the floral tributes 
 sent to the funeral and the casket was covered with a rare 
 assortment of beautiful flowers. 
 
 Mr. Heineman was active in public affairs, and 
 was a stanch Republican in political principle. He 
 was elected a member of the city council, repre- 
 senting the Fifth ward, in 1896, and was later 
 elected and served as alderman of the same ward, 
 being chairman of several important committees. 
 On account of his keen and intelligent interest in 
 city matters he was appointed by ]\Iayors Ives and 
 West (Democrats) on the Board of Apportionment, 
 and held that position up to his death. He felt 
 a warm interest in the fire department, having been 
 one of the charter members of Volunteer Hose 
 Company No. 5, and in January, 1901, the com- 
 pany unanimously elected him captain, out of re- 
 gard for his long and faithful service, an honor 
 which he fully appreciated. Mr. Heineman was 
 baptized in youth in the Moravian- Church, in 
 Brooklyn, and always endeavored to live up to the 
 highest moral standards. He was a true husband 
 and father, and won the respectful regard of all 
 classes of the community. He was at one time 
 identified with Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. 
 M. ; was past sachem of Montowese Tribe, I. O. 
 R. M., of which he was a charter member; and 
 was also affiliated with Electric Lodge, N. E. O. P., 
 and Court Meriden, F. O. A. He was a charter 
 member of the Cosmopolitan Club and a member 
 of the Eaton Guards and Meriden Turnverein. 
 Cherishing a warm interest in the German Amer- 
 ican School, of which he was one of the organizers, 
 he served on its official board several years. 
 
 Mr. Heineman was married in Meriden, Jan. 
 15, 1868, to Miss Ida Louise Hammarth, daughter 
 of'james and Janet (Delvie) Hammarth, both na- 
 tives of Hessen-Cassel, Germany, of French de- 
 
 scent. They brought their family to Wallingford, 
 Conn., where the father was employed as engraver 
 and diesinker, and where he died. His widow still 
 resides there, aged eighty-three years. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Heineman were blessed with four children, 
 namely : Charles J., Fannie A., Amy L. and Cen- 
 tennial Robert. The second died in childhood. The 
 third married Charles Berry, of Meriden. C. Rob- 
 ert is employed in the music department of the 
 Aeolian Co., of JMeriden. Mrs. Heineman is an at- 
 tendant of the Center Congregational Church, and 
 for over thirty years has been a member of Meri- 
 dian Chapter, No. 8, O. E. S. ; she is also identified 
 with the N. E. O. P., the Ladies' Turnverein, of 
 Meriden, and is shepherdess of Star of Welcome 
 Lodge, Sons of Bethlehem. 
 
 Charles J. Heineman", Jr., was born Aug. 24, 
 1868, in Meriden, and was educated in the dis- 
 trict and German-American schools. He learned 
 the art of engraving under his father's instruction, 
 and now holds the latter's position of foreman with 
 the Wilcox Silver Plate Co. He was for some 
 time connected with the sewer department of the 
 city of ]\Ieriden, in the capacity of timekeeper. He 
 attends the Congregational Church, and politically 
 is a supporter of Republican principles. Socially he 
 is a member of the Meriden Cycle Club, the For- 
 esters of America, Silver City Lodge, No. 3, A. O. 
 U. W., and the Meriden Turnverein, of which lat- 
 ter he is financial secretary. For twelve years he 
 has been a member of the city fire department. 
 
 SAGE. The Sage family, of which Mrs. Adele 
 De Ette (Sage) Booth, one of Meriden's well- 
 known educators, is a descendant, is one of the old- 
 est families of Middlesex county, Conn. The name 
 is first found in English history upon the Roll of 
 Battle Abbey (1066) made by William the Con- 
 queror after the battle of Hastings, when he divided 
 the English lands among his principal followers. 
 All of the Sages in England, -Scotland and Wales 
 belong to the line founded at that time, as do also a 
 few found in Ireland, where the name was intro- 
 duced by the English conquerors. There are three 
 coats of arms belonging to the Sage family. The 
 one granted by William the Conqueror would seem, 
 by the wreath of grain, fruit and flowers which sur- 
 rounds it, to indicate a people devoted to agricul- 
 tural pursuits. The motto, Non Sibi (not for our- 
 selves) is deserved by most members of the num- 
 erous Sage family, especially Elisha L. Sage, of 
 Cromwell, Conn., compiler of the Sage Record, 
 1878. 
 
 David Sage, the first of the name in America, 
 was a native of Wales, bom in 1639, and came to 
 this country about 1652, being one of the first 
 settlers in Middletown, Conn. There he spent the 
 remainder of his days, died in March, 1703, and 
 was buried in the Riverside cemetery, Middletown. 
 The stone marking his grave is still standing. He 
 took a deep interest in the settlement and develop- 
 
362 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ment of }iIiddletown, and his descendants have held 
 positions of prominence in their different callings, 
 as educators, financiers, philanthropists and profes- 
 sional men. Among them we may mention Hon. 
 Russell Sage, of New York, and Henry W. Sage, 
 of Brooklyn, famous financiers and philanthropists. 
 
 David Sage married, in February, 1664, Eliza- 
 beth Kirby, born Sept. 18, 1645, daughter of John 
 Kirby. After her death Air. Sage married (sec- 
 ond) ]\Iary Wilcox. The children of his first mar- 
 riage were: David, born in 1665; John, 1668; 
 Elizabeth, 1670; Alary, 1672. The children of his 
 second marriage were: Jonathan, born in 1674; 
 Timothy, 1678; and Nathaniel and Alarch (twins), 
 1680. 
 
 Timothy Sage, son of David and Alary (Wil- 
 cox) Sage, was born in Middletown in 1678. He 
 located in what is now the town of Cromwell, where 
 he spent his life, and died in 1725, being buried 
 in the old cemetery at Cromwell ; the stone which 
 marks his last restmg place is still to be seen. He 
 married Alargaret Holibiet, and to this union seven 
 children were born : Samuel, in 1709 ; Alercy, 1712 ; 
 Timothy, 1714; Alary, 1716; David, 1718; Solomon, 
 1720; Amos, 1722. 
 
 Solomon Sage, son of Timothy, was born in 
 Cromwell in 1720, and married Hannah Kirby. 
 He spent his life in Cromwell, where he died in 
 1794, and was buried in the cemetery in that town. 
 Solomon Sage was a deacon in the church, in which 
 he took a deep interest, and was a man of high 
 standing in the community. His children were as 
 follows : Samuel, born in 1746, married Elinor 
 Edwards ; Seth, born in 1746, was a minister, and 
 married Phoebe Wilcox; Chloe was born in 1749; 
 Stephen, in 1752; Alattie, in 1755; Alillie, in 1751 ; 
 Simeon, in 1759; Solomon, in 1762; Hannah, in 
 1764; Alercy, in 1768. 
 
 Solomon Sage, son of Deacon Solomon, was 
 born in Cromwell in 1762, and married Ann Will- 
 iams. They had eight children : Eben was born 
 in 1790 ; Roxy, 1791 ; Ann, 1792 ; Ezra, 1796 ; Emilyj 
 1798; Laura, 1799; Solomon, 1802; Luther W., 
 1803. 
 
 Ezra Sage, son of Solomon, and grandfather of 
 Airs. Booth, was born in 1796 in Cromwell, where 
 he spent his life. He married Bathsheba M. Wil- 
 cox, of Cromwell, and to their union came nine 
 children, namely: Anna AT, born in 1819; Henry 
 M., 1821; Eliza E., 1823; Bathsheba, 1826; Ezra 
 S. and Alarion (twins), 1829; Edward W., 1832; 
 Frederick B., 1834; John N., 1837. By his second 
 wife, Emmeline Belden, there were three children : 
 Emma L. was born in 1848; Ella F., 1849; Albert 
 
 P., 1851. 
 
 Henry AlcCall Sage was born in 1821, in the 
 town of Cromwell, and there resided until his fa- 
 ther's second marriage, in 1847, when he engaged in 
 farming. He then removed to Aleriden, where he 
 established a good business as a dealer in beef and 
 provisions, and was widely known and respected. 
 
 He married and afterwards moved to Rocky Hill, 
 Conn., where he resumed farming until the call was 
 issued for volunteers for the Civil war. He was one 
 of the first to respond, and .served his country until 
 the close of the war as a member of Company A, 
 1 6th Regt. C. V. After the close of the war he re- 
 turned to Rocky Hill, Hartford Co., Conn., where he 
 lived until the death of his wife, in 1B89. At that 
 time he went to live with Airs. Booth, and remained 
 with her until his death, which occurred Alarch 9, 
 1892. He was buried in West cemetery, Aleriden. 
 During his long and useful life he lived up to the 
 teachings of the Golden Rule, as embodied in the 
 tenets of the Congregational Church, which he at- 
 tended from early childhood. 
 
 On Alarch 5,' 1848, Air. Sage married Julia Arin 
 Parker, in Southington, Conn. She was born in 
 Oneida county, N. Y., Aug. 8, 1830, and was one 
 of the eleven children of James A. and Alaria (Ives) 
 Parker. Her grandfather, Ichabod Ives, served in 
 the Revolutionary war. Airs. Sage's death occurred 
 Alay 14, 1889, and she was buried in West ceme- 
 tery, Aleriden. She was a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church of Rocky Hill. One child was 
 born to these parents, Adele De Ette, who married 
 Eli Birdsey Booth, sixth child of Capt. Henry Davis 
 and Eliza Ann (Curtis) Booth, of Aleriden. Three 
 children were born to A-Ir. and Airs. Booth: Paul 
 Curtis, who is mentioned below ; Elizabeth Parker, 
 born Feb. 3, 1876, who died Aug. 6, 1878; and 
 Robert Henry Sage, born June 3, 1889. 
 
 Airs. Booth was born Nov. 12, 1849, in Meriden, 
 Conn., and removed with her parents to Rocky 
 Hill, Hartford county, in 1856. She was but thir- 
 teen years old when she entered the Rocky Hill 
 Academy, from which she graduated after a three 
 years' course, and received a thorough training 
 under some of the best teachers in Connecticut. In 
 1865 :she came to Aleriden, and for the past thirty- 
 seven years has been devoted to the educational in- 
 terests of young and old, in the public and private 
 schools of that city. She is one of the best-known 
 educators in the State. Alany of the best-known 
 men and women of the locality have been her pupils, 
 and have afterward filled positions of trust and 
 responsibility both in Aleriden and elsewhere. As 
 has been written of her by Rev. J. T. Pettee, acting 
 school visitor for thirteen years, in the Meriden 
 Daily Journal souvenir: "Airs. Adele Sage Booth's 
 career in the educational interests of Aleriden is a 
 conspicuous example of a high position won and held 
 by a woman of much energy. In the ranks of edu- 
 cation she stands among the leaders, the place hav- 
 ing been universally accorded her by reason of suc- 
 cess achieved by her in private and public schools. 
 
 "Aleriden was her birthplace and where she re- 
 ceived her early education until removal of her 
 parents to Rocky Hill, Conn. There she entered 
 the academy in her thirteenth year. Her teaching 
 ability was recognized by her teacher who encour- 
 aged her to make it a profession. After a thorough 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 363 
 
 training by one of the best teachers in Connecticut, 
 she began to teach in the pubhc schools of Meriden, 
 in her sixteenth year, 1865. 
 
 "The occupation proved very congenial to her 
 tastes and has been her life work, in connection 
 with her home cares and the training of her two 
 sons, one of whom, Paul Curtis Booth, has proved 
 a valuable assistant for his mother, as he is familiar 
 with her methods, as well as gifted, like herself, 
 from the Sage family, many of whom have been 
 professors of distinction in the Middle, Western 
 and New England State;. Being a teacher born 
 and not made, she carries her pupils, bv her own 
 enthusiasm, through the most difficult lessons. 
 
 Her methods are peculiarly her own, and, if 
 used by a person with less force of character or 
 without the singular talent possessed by j\Irs. Booth, 
 might result in failure, but with her exceptional 
 faculty for imparting information, the most obtuse 
 pupil has been able to learn easily. 
 
 "For many years she was at the head of her 
 profession as a public school teacher, and refers 
 with pride to some of the best of Meriden's citizens, 
 who were her pupils and have sent her their chil- 
 dren. 
 
 "She recognized, early in her profession, that the 
 combination of dullness and diffidence in a pupil 
 was not likely to be treated with a great degree of 
 patience by the average teacher in our crowded pub- 
 lic schools. She, therefore, opened a private school 
 (the Booth School, 54 Olive street), in which her 
 plans have met with the most cordial approval and 
 extensive patronage from this and adjoining towns. 
 Her classes have been filled by those desirous of en- 
 tering high, normal and business schools, as well as 
 by younger pupils who have been in delicate health 
 or wish to enter higher classes by a course of es- 
 pecial instruction. 
 
 "Mrs. Booth has ever been interested in the 
 working classes and has done a great deal to elevate 
 them, especially foreigners, who cannot speak or 
 read English. Some of her most satisfactory work, 
 in her own mind, has been done in the Connecticut 
 School for Boys, under the able superintendence of 
 Mr. and ]Mrs. George E. Howe. She also taught 
 in their private schools for boys, Milford, Conn. 
 She established an educational department in the 
 Boys' Club in 1890, which was one of its beneficial 
 features ; also had supervision of the Y. W. C. A. 
 classes, 1892-93. 
 
 "When, in 1893, the State legislature passed a 
 compulsory evening school law, she was selected 
 to conduct it in city hall. One of the especial 
 dreams of her many years bade fair to be realized, 
 and the working people were benefited thereby with- 
 out expense. Under her administration, with the 
 assistance of her son, and many of her private 
 scholars, the evening school was a marked success, 
 and Mrs. Booth was highly commended by,the board 
 of education, and her services engaged for the en- 
 suing year. Mrs. Booth's ' building adjoining her 
 
 private school has been remodeled under her super- 
 vision and hired and furnished by the town for a 
 free evening school, upon an entirely different plan 
 from those which had been less successful in 
 previous years. Airs. Booth and son mean to keeg 
 the prospects improving for the future educational 
 privileges of the working people, as well as for 
 those who may patronize her private school. She 
 is as much in earnest with free scholars as those 
 paid for, and means to make Meriden's Free Even- 
 ing School and the Booth Private School institu- 
 tions which Meriden may be pleased to sustain. 
 Both these schools are commendable institutions and 
 the branches taught are of broad scope, pupils of 
 all ages being taken by Mrs. Booth and prepared 
 for business or professions." 
 
 The night school mentioned in the foregoing was 
 in charge of Airs. Booth and son for six years. Her 
 attention is now given to private tutoring. She is 
 a woman of high moral culture and attainment; 
 has devoted her life to her school and family, and 
 is popular with all classes. In character, she is a 
 lady of ability and sterling worth, and her varied 
 experiences have made her broad-minded and lib- 
 eral. In her religious ideas she is a member of St. 
 Andrew's Episcopal Church, of Meriden. 
 
 Paul Curtis Booth, the eldest son of Mrs. 
 Adele (Sage) Booth, was born in Meriden Nov. 5, 
 1872, and received his early education under his 
 mother and in the public schools of Meriden. Later 
 he spent two years at Storrs Agricultural College, 
 and returning, was his mother's able assistant for 
 seven years, in her private school and the Meriden 
 Free Evening School. He inherits his mother's 
 wonderful faculty for imparting knowledge, her 
 love of study, and has a frank, pleasant manner 
 and courteous way which wins many friends for 
 him. He was made instructor in the Connecticut 
 School for Boys under George E. Howe, superin- 
 tendent, and in 1899 was appointed supervisor of 
 the North Division of that institution, under the 
 present superintendent, Mr. Williams. For seven 
 years Mr. Booth has faithfully discharged the 
 duties of his responsible position, having under his 
 charge one hundred boys, in whom he takes a deep 
 interest. His intelligent handling of his charges, 
 and thorough knowledge of his work, as well as 
 his pleasant, genial manner, have won for him the 
 hearty commendation and co-operation of superin- 
 tendent and staff, and, being a young man of 
 studious habits and excellent education, he is well 
 posted on current events as well as in all branches 
 of study, and is well and favorably known through- 
 out the community. Fraternally he is a member of 
 the O. U. A. M. and the N. E. O. P. at Meriden, 
 and is also a member of the Home Club. 
 
 Robert Henry Sage Booth, the last child of 
 Eli B. and Adele (Sage) Booth, is seventeen years 
 younger than his brother, Paul Curtis Booth, who 
 is much interested in his training and education. 
 He is studying in the Meriden public schools, and 
 
364 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 bids fair to achieve success in whatever he may un- 
 dertake. 
 
 It has been very difficult to ascertain much con- 
 cerning the ancestry of Capt. Henry Davis Booth, 
 of Meriden (grandfather of Paul Curtis Booth and 
 Robert Henry Sage Booth, sons of Eli B. and Adele 
 (Sage) Booth), as only one sister, Airs. Joseph 
 Becket, of Meriden, survived him. Ebenezer Booth, 
 their father, is supposed to have been a descendant 
 of Richard Booth, of Stratford, said to have been 
 born in England in 1607, which seems probable, as 
 the name of Ebenezer was given to seven children 
 between the years 1651 and 1802. Capt. Henry 
 Davis Booth was a son of Ebenezer and Betsey 
 (Benham) Booth, of Bridgeport, Conn. He fol- 
 lowed the sea for over twenty years, and had visited 
 many foreign countries. During the latter part of 
 his life he lived upon his farm in East Meriden. 
 .On Aug. 29, 1831, in Meriden, he married Eliza 
 Ann Curtis, who was a member of one of the most 
 respected families in that city, being a daughter of 
 Samuel and Polly (Andrews) Curtis, of Meriden, 
 and they had seven children, twelve grandchildren, 
 and twelve great-grandchildren. The record of 
 their children is as follows: Elizabeth Benedict 
 Booth, born in Meriden Aug. 25, 1832, died in Mer- 
 iden Feb. 8, 1872; William Henry Booth, born in 
 Meriden Oct. 2, 1834; Mary Pierpont Booth, born 
 in Philadelphia March 17, 1837; Ann Eliza Booth, 
 born in Meriden July i, 1841 ; Emma Matilda Booth, 
 born in Meriden Dec. 7, 1842; Eli Birdsey Booth, 
 born in Meriden July 7, 1845 ; John Coleman Booth, 
 born in Meriden Dec. 31, 1844. Capt. Henry Davis 
 Booth, father of this family, died in Meriden Nov. 
 27, 1872, and his much esteemed wife, who was a 
 member of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, died in 
 Meriden April 29, 1884. Both are buried in the 
 family plot in East Meriden cemetery. 
 
 NELSON lAIORRIS (deceased) was born in 
 Milton, Litchfield Co., Conn., July 21, 1831, a son 
 of Arville Morris, and a grandson of Asa Morris, 
 the latter a native of Woodbridge, where he fol- 
 lowed farming and reared his family of children. 
 
 Arville Morris was born in Woodbridge, and 
 when a young man went to the West Indies, where 
 he was a merchant. Later in life he came back to 
 New England, where he married Miss Caroline 
 Castle, daughter of Dr. Jehiel Castle, and settled on 
 a farm. They had the following named children: 
 Theodore, a hardware merchant in Texas, where 
 he died ; Caroline, deceased wife of Andrew Guild, 
 of Bethlehem; Dewitt, who died when about eight 
 years old ; Nelson mentioned below ; Lucretia, wife 
 of S. A. Munson, of Waterbury ; Elizabeth, who 
 died when eighteen years old ; and Susan A., wife of 
 Rev. J. D. GilHland. 
 
 Nelson Morris spent his earlier life in Bethle- 
 hem, and lived on the farm until he was seventeen, 
 when he came to Waterbury to take a position as 
 bookkeeper for Ransomi S. Todd, a retail meat 
 
 dealer. At the death of Mr. Todd, in 1857, Mr. 
 Morris took the business, and carried it on until 
 1883, when he retired. He died Jan. i, 1893. 
 
 On Alay 25, 1859, Nelson Morris married Miss 
 Eveline Todd, daughter of Streat and Ruth H. 
 (\A'elton) Todd, of Wolcott. Streat Todd was 
 born in Cheshire, Conn., became a farmer and stock 
 raiser, and died Oct. 25, i860, aged sixty-eight 
 years. Hezekiah Todd, his father, was born in 
 North Haven, Conn., and was a farmer and pork 
 packer. He was a son of Hezekiah Todd, who was 
 descended from a Yorkshire, England, emigrant, 
 who located in New Haven county about 1637. 
 Thomas Welton, the father of Ruth, lived at Chest- 
 nut Hill ; he was a son of Stephen Welton. Twelve 
 children were born to Streat Todd and his wife: 
 Ransom S., Jennette, Robert C, one that died in in- 
 fancy, Edwin, James, Willis and William (twins), 
 Franklin, Eveline (Airs. Alorris), Jane, and Will- 
 iam (2), all now deceased but Franklin, who is a 
 farmer in Ohio; Mrs. Morris; and William (2), 
 who is a resident of Waterbury. 
 
 One child, Nellie, was born to Air. and Airs. 
 Alorris. In religious connection Mrs. Morris and 
 her daughter are Episcopalians, as was also the be- 
 loved husband and father. Air. Morris was con- 
 spicuous in Alasonry, identified with Harmony 
 Lodge. He was a generous man, and a good man, 
 and though he made no display of his kindly deeds 
 the world was better for his having been in it. 
 
 HON. TILTON EDWIN DOOLITTLE, late 
 of New Haven, passed nearly forty years of his 
 professional life there, and during that time adorned 
 the legal profession of the State and county, serving 
 in the public capacities of United States District 
 Attorney, Speaker of the Lower House of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of Connecticut, and State's Attorney 
 for the New Haven court. He was the representa- 
 tive of families in both paternal and maternal lines 
 who early came to the colony of New Haven, and 
 who were among the founders of both Wallingford 
 and New Haven. 
 
 Abraham Doolittle, said to have been the pro- 
 genitor of all who bear the name in this country, 
 was a resident of Massachusetts soon after the settle- 
 ment of Salem, and removed thence to New Haven 
 prior to 1642, becoming a householder there. Being 
 appointed one of a committee to establish a new 
 colony in Wallingford, Conn., he took up his resi- 
 dence there in the year 1669, and held military rank 
 among the defenders of the town during King 
 Philip's war. He was often chosen as deputy to 
 the ^General Court, from New Haven, later from 
 Wallingford, and was undoubtedly a man of repute, 
 esteemed and respected by his fellow-townsmen. 
 From this first American ancestor, on his father's 
 side, Tilton Edwin Doolittle, of this brief biography, 
 was a descendant in the seventh generation. His 
 birth occurred July 31, 1825, at Riverton, Conn., and 
 his father, Ambrose E. Doolittle, and grandfather, 
 
^^.^^^^ ^^m^c^^iyi^H^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 365 
 
 Benjamin Doolittle, were both natives of the town 
 of Cheshire. The mother of our subj ect was Ehza- 
 beth (Benham) DooUttle, also of Cheshire, Conn., 
 a descendant of Joseph Benham, who removed from 
 Xew Haven to WalUngford in 1670. 
 
 Tilton E. Doohttle was prepared for college at 
 the Protestant Academy in Cheshire, and in 1840 
 entered Trinity College, at Hartford, from which 
 institution he was graduated in 1844. He then en- 
 tered Yale Law School, from which he was grad- 
 uated in 1846. In August of the same year he was 
 admitted to the Bar, in Middletown, Conn., within 
 a few days of his twenty-first birthday. Establish- 
 ing himself in practice in Cheshire, _he remained 
 there until 1850, wnen he removed to Meriden, and 
 in 1858 to New Haven, which he ever after made 
 his place of residence. 
 
 In 1861 our subject entered into a law partner- 
 ship with Judge Samuel L. Bronson, and was asso- 
 ciated with him until 1870, four years later forming 
 a new partnership, with Judge Henry Stoddard. 
 To this combination of legal talent, two years later, 
 was admitted William L. Bennett, the firm being 
 styled Doolittle, Stoddard & Bennett. In 1882 Judge 
 Stoddard was lost to the firm, leaving to go upon 
 the Superior Court Bench, but the business asso- 
 ciation of Mr. Doolittle and Mr. Bennett continued 
 until the death of the former, existing for more 
 than twenty-five years. 
 
 In the spring of 1859 Mr. Doolittle was ap- 
 pointed United States District Attorney, by Presi- 
 dent Buchanan, in the place of Judge William D. 
 Shipman, who had been appointed Judge of the 
 United States District Court, and our subject held 
 that office until i860. In 1866, 1867 and 1870, he 
 represented New Haven in the Lower House of the 
 Legislature, and in 1874 he was again one of the 
 representatives from New Haven, and was elected 
 Speaker of the House. In 1879 tie was appomted 
 State's Attorney for New Haven county, succeed- 
 ing Hon. Orville H. Piatt, and held that office until 
 January, 1896, when, at the opening of the January 
 term of the Superior Court in New Haven county, 
 he resigned, failing health warning him that his pub- 
 lic duties were too onerous. 
 
 For more than a year prior to the time of his 
 resignation, Mr. Doolittle had been aware that the 
 work of his life, if not life itself, was near;ng its 
 end, and on the 21st of March, 1896, after a fqw 
 weeks' illness, from which he seemed about to re- 
 cover, he died suddenly, without pain. At a large- 
 ly attended Bar meeting called to take action upon 
 Mr. Doolittle's death, ex^Gov. Charles R. Ingersoll, 
 in presenting resolutions which were unanimously 
 adopted, spoke substantially as follows : "I confess 
 that it is very difficult for me, here in this assem- 
 blage of lawyers of New Haven county, to speak of 
 Tilton E. Doolittle as no longer among living, men. 
 He has been for so many years a living, actual 
 presence in this court room, at these tables, before 
 this bench, and among the busy men who daily come 
 
 and go through the offices and halls of this build- 
 ing, that I cannot yet easily bring myself to think 
 of him in any other association. It seems to me 
 that he must still live as our courts live, so thorough- 
 ly has he been identified with them, nor can it be 
 necessary for me to tell any one here who Tilton E. 
 Doolittle was. His personality was so individual 
 that the youngest lawyer at this Bar knew him as 
 he actually was. He never posed for what he was 
 not. He never posed, indeed, for anything that 
 he was. In all his ways, in all his moods, under all 
 circumstances, he was simply himself, he was Doo- 
 little. I never knew a man more content to let 
 the world put its own valuation upon his worth. 
 This forcefulness of character was certainly born 
 with him, but it was greatly strengthened by his 
 career at thisi Bar. He came into practice a half- 
 century ago, and with the exception of a few 
 months, when he was out of the State, I do 
 not think there has been a term of the Superior 
 Court for this county at which he has not been 
 present and generally an active participant. Look- 
 ing at that long career in all its aspects of a much 
 varied and hard-working practice, so largely in the 
 court room, it is not easy to find the parallel in 
 our State, and in this practice the individuality of 
 which I have spoken was conspicuous. That voice, 
 even, so familiar to these walls, had its tone, char- 
 acteristic of him. His method® of trial, his vigor 
 of attack, his skill of defense, his promptness to use 
 every weapon of the thoroughly equipped lawyer 
 which he was, were all manifested in a manner, that 
 was hisi own peculiarly, and impressed. upon every 
 one his own. strong personality. He has gone 
 through these fifty years of professional life with all 
 the burdens and heat of conflict that are inseparable 
 frorn it, with the respect and esteem and friendship 
 of bis fellow members of this Bar. But it was not 
 altogether in this court room that these forceful 
 traits of character were shown. There was a side 
 of his character which those who have known him 
 as long as I have, and particularly in these latter 
 years, have had frequent occasion to recognize. 
 He had a most kindly nature, and it was quick to 
 respond to any appeal to his sympathy or friend- 
 ship. In his administration of that most responsible 
 and important office which he has held with such 
 marked ability for so many years, the State's At- 
 torneyship for this county, he is to be remembered, 
 not more for the zeal and vigor with which he has 
 prosecuted crime, in the courts, than for the wisdom, 
 prudence, humanity and integrity with which he has 
 discharged its great responsibilities outside the 
 court." 
 
 Ex-Gov. Henry B. Harrison, having recalled 
 the names of many brilliant members of the Bar at 
 the time Mr. Doolittle began practice — ^Ralph I. In- 
 gersoll, Roger S. Baldwin, Dennis Kimberly, Clark 
 Bissell, Henry Dutton and Alfred Blackman — 
 said : "Such a galaxy of great lawyers as had 
 never been seen here before and has never been 
 
366 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 seen since," and then proceeded with this tribute : 
 "In that school our friend began his professional 
 life, and under the influences which a high-minded 
 and honorable set of great men and great lawyers 
 would necessarily exert upon him, in that school, 
 under those influences, he got his training. The 
 school and its influences would have been of no use 
 to him had he not possessed, as he did, the instincts, 
 the tastes, the moral character, which fitted him to 
 feel the influences of his environment there and to 
 absorb and assimilate all that was valuable in them. 
 Well, in due time, these men passed away. The 
 young lawyer continued his course; I will not go 
 over it; continued it, always gaining strength by 
 going, until he reached that place which for many 
 years has been by all of you unanimously accorded 
 to him. He cared little for public life, although he 
 repeatedly served the public well, for short periods 
 of time, by the mandate of his fellow-citizens ; but 
 the court room was his place ; he was a lawyer down 
 to the quick; he delighted in the contest, the stress 
 and strain, and the struggle of forensic life in such 
 a place as this. He was here the hero of many 
 battles; he enjoyed the victory, always believing he 
 was on the right side, never doubting that; but 
 when defeat came, why, like every manly man, he 
 took it in a manly way. 
 
 "And now he has died at last, a veteran, as 
 veterans always hope to die, in the very act of lay- 
 ing down his armor. Those who entered this Bar 
 contemporaneously with him are few in number — 
 there are, in this county, only some six or eight still 
 living; but they are in the place that nobody else 
 fully occupies, for they stand at the end of his car- 
 eer and they are able to look back for fifty years 
 during the whole of it to its beginning, and they 
 see in that career not one act done by him, unworthy 
 of a high-minded and honorable and generous man. 
 They part with him in sorrow ; and so long as they 
 shall live they will remember him with profound 
 respect and sincere affection." 
 
 Ex-Judge Henry Stoddard also spoke, and said 
 in part: "I knew Mr. Doolittle somewhat inti- 
 mately after I came to the Bar, and was his associate 
 in business for several years. In consultation at the 
 office, his knowledge of law was intuitive, grounded 
 of course upon a thorough study and appreciation of 
 its fundamental principles ; and even in the most in- 
 tricate cases, arising but seldom in our practice, his 
 unerring sagacity invariably went straight to the 
 marrow of the controversy. In the trial of his 
 cases he was both sagacious and bold in attack, and 
 in defense prudent and wary, a most dangerous 
 antagonist and a most powerful ally. In the ex- 
 amination of witnesses I may say that he was with- 
 out a peer, and especially so in his cross-examina- 
 tions." 
 
 When a young man, in 1848, our distinguished 
 subject married Mary K. Cook, who was born Dec. 
 9, 1829, a daughter of John and Mary (Munson) 
 Cook, the former of Cheshire, the latter of North- 
 
 ford, and to this union were born: Sarah, who mar- 
 ried Dr. Presley Carr Lane, of St. Louis, Mo.; 
 George T., M. D., now a resident of Spokane, 
 Wash. ; and John A., a resident of New Haven. 
 
 Mrs. Mary K. (Cook) Doolittle is also a de- 
 scendant of an early and prominent family of Con- 
 necticut, being in the eighth generation from Henry 
 Cook, who came from Kent, England, to Plymouth, 
 Mass., before 1640, where he is supposed to have 
 remained. 
 
 Samuel Cook, a son of Henry the emigrant, 
 came to New Haven in 1663. He (first) married 
 Hope, daughter of Edward Parker, of New Haven, 
 and they went to Wallingford, in April, 1670, with 
 the first founders of that town. Samuel was the 
 first and perhaps the only shoemaker and tanner in 
 the place, frequently held public office in both town 
 and church, and was regarded with respect by his 
 neighbors. He died in 1702. 
 
 Samuel Cook (2), son of Samuel, was born in 
 1667 in New Haven, and in 1692 married Hannah 
 daughter of William Ives, of New Haven. He was 
 a farmer, and died in 1725. 
 
 Samuel Cook (3), son of Samuel (2), was born 
 in 1695, and in 1721 married Hannah, daughter of 
 Ebenezer Lewis, of Wallingford. He became a 
 wealthy shipping merchant from the port 'of New 
 Haven, died in 1745, and was buried at Cheshire, 
 where he gave generously to the church and to the 
 poor. 
 
 Col. Thaddeus Cook, son of Samuel (3), was 
 born in 1728, and for his second wife married Sarah, 
 daughter of the Hon. Benjamin Hall, of Cheshire. 
 Col. Cook served in the war of the Revolution under 
 Gen. Gates, and his townsmen gave h.m almost 
 every office of trust within their gift. His death oc- 
 curred in 1800. 
 
 Samuel Cook (4), son of Col. Cook, was born 
 in 1758, and married Constant Kirtland, of Walling- 
 ford, who passed away in 1893. He was a thrifty 
 farmer in the west part of the town, and died in 
 1824. 
 
 John Cook, son of Samuel (4), was born about 
 1801, and in 1823 married Mary Munson, of North- 
 ford. The death of Mr. Cook took place in 1858. 
 
 GEORGE LAMPING (deceased), who was 
 one of Meriden's well-known and highly respected 
 citizens, a leading druggist, was born in NyeJieen, 
 Holland, Feb. 11, 1848. His father, Dr. Herman 
 Lamping, a medical practitioner, died when George 
 was but two years old. The son was educated in 
 his native home, and took up the study of the 
 science of medicine in Utrecht, Holland, where he 
 received the degree of M. D. He immediately set 
 out for the United States, intending to locate'here 
 in the practice of his chosen profession. The ship 
 in which he sailed came in collision with another 
 vessel in the English Channel, and out of the two 
 hundred and fifty persons comprising the passen- 
 gers and crew only three were saved. Dr. Lamping 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 367 
 
 remained in the water several hours, and was finally 
 picked up by an Italian vessel bound for New York, 
 to which port he was carried. All his belongings 
 were lost in the wreck, and he arrived at New 
 York with but fifty cents in his pocket. This mis- 
 fortune prevented his going West, as he had in- 
 tended, and he was obliged to seek employment at 
 once in order to maintain himself. He found a po- 
 sition in a drug store in New York, and subse- 
 quently worked in drug stores in Brooklyn and 
 Hoboken. Having a liking for the drug business, 
 he entered the College of Phannacy and secured a 
 diploma, after which he became manager of one 
 of the largest drug stores in the metropolis, con- 
 tinuing in that capacity until 1879. 
 
 Having saved some money. Dr. Lamping sought 
 a location for business on his own account, and 
 found it in New Haven, where he bought out a 
 store. He conducted same three years, and after 
 keeping a drug store in New Britain for a like 
 period he came to Meriden, in 1886, and establislied 
 a branch store in the Morse & Cook block, on 
 East Main street. He continued to operate both 
 establishments until 1890, when he sold out his New 
 Britain interest and gave his entire attention to the 
 Meriden business. In 1896 he removed his store 
 to the Cahill block, and continued to do a success- 
 ful business until his death, which occurred April 
 I, 1900. His remains rest in Walnut Grove cem- 
 etery. 
 
 IDr. Lamping was a man of broad views, and 
 gave much time and freely of his means for the 
 benefit of local beneficent efi:orts, and was ever ready 
 to lend a helping hand to those in need of en- 
 couragement. Among the objects of his care were 
 the Young Men's Christian Association, the Boys' 
 Club and the German-American School. He served 
 several years on the official board of the last named 
 institution, and was ever ready to aid any work 
 calculated to benefit the community at large. A fine 
 linguist, he spoke German, French and Latin, be- 
 sides English and his native tongue. His genial 
 nature made him a pleasant companion, and he was 
 ever popular with a large element in the city. A 
 member of the Turners' Society and the Amaranth 
 Club, he was an active factor in the social life of 
 the town. Enterprising and progressive, he aided 
 in establishing business undertakings outside of, as 
 well as in, his home town. He was president of 
 the Goodwin & Kintz Co., of Winsted, Conn., and 
 was interested in the Cardonez Mining & Milling 
 Co., of Guanajara, Mexico. In politics Dr. Lamp- 
 ing was an earnest Republican, always ready to 
 further the propagation of his principles. He was 
 chairman of the board of assessors of Meriden at 
 the time of his death, in which the city lost one of 
 its most large-hearted and worthy citizens. 
 
 In 1885 Dr. Lamping was married, at New 
 Britain, Conn., to Hedwig (Hattie) Kaunitz, who 
 was born near the city of Stettin, Germany, daugh- 
 ter of Ludwig Kaunitz, a native of the same place. 
 
 Mr. Kaunitz received a good education, having been 
 trained to be a bookkeeper, and held such position 
 with a shipbuilding concern near his native home. 
 There he married Clementine Wolkner, who bore 
 him six children, namely : Bertha, Margaret, Frank, 
 Elizabeth, Hellene and Hedwig. The first named is 
 the widow of Henry Heck, and is residing in Meri- 
 den. The second died in Germany. Frank is man- 
 ager for the Consumers' Oil Co., at Macon, Ga. 
 Elizabeth is the widow of Carl Heuer. Hellene 
 married Hans von Metzardt, and after his death 
 became the wife of Edward Seeling, of Austin, 
 Texas. In 1882 Mr. Kaunitz came with his fam- 
 ily to America and located in New Britain, where 
 he found employment with the Russell & Erwin 
 Manufacturing Co., with whom he continued eight 
 years. He died suddenly, from heart failure, July 
 24, 1890, and his remains were brought to Meriden 
 and interred in Walnut Grove cemetery. His widow 
 survived him nearly three years, dying at the home 
 of Mrs. Lamping, in Meriden, June 2, 1893 ; she 
 was buried beside her husband. She was a true 
 Christian, a devoted wife and mother, and a faith- 
 ful member of the Congregational Church. Mr. 
 Kaunitz adhered to the teachings of the Lutlftran 
 Church. 
 
 Mrs. Lamping is a lady of much ability, as well 
 as culture, and continues the business established 
 by her husband with the same success which char- 
 acterized his efforts. She is a useful member of 
 the Lutheran Church, and highly regarded in. Meri- 
 den society. 
 
 EDWARD KILBOURN ROBERTS, M. D., 
 is one of the well-known physicians of New Haven, 
 Conn., who have been prominently identified with 
 the city's interests for a number of years. 
 
 Dr. Roberts was born in Milwaukee, Wis., Nov. 
 15, 1857, son of John Roberts, a native of Morris, 
 Conn. The father married Louisa M. Coe, a na- 
 tive of Litchfield, Conn., a member of one of the 
 oldest families! of the State, and to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Roberts were born three children: Walter C, who 
 is an Episcopal clergyman in Corning, N. Y. ; Helen, 
 who married John H. Fitzgerald, an Episcopal 
 clergyman of Hebron, Conn. ; and Edward K., our 
 subject. John Roberts, the father, was for many 
 years a carpenter, builder and superintendent in a 
 planing mill in New Haven. At the time of his 
 death he was a superintending architect, and testi- 
 monials to his ability may be s'een in the Normal 
 school buildings of Willimantic, New Britain and 
 New Haven. In politics Mr. Roberts was a Repub- 
 lican ; for many years he was one of the prominent 
 members of the Church of the Ascension and St. 
 Thomas' Episcopal Church ; and he carefully reared 
 his family in the same faith. 
 
 At about the age of two years our subject was 
 taken to New Haven, in the family removal from 
 Milwaukee to the eastern city, and passed his boy- 
 hood in this beautiful place. Finishing a course in 
 
368 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the Sheffield Scientific School, he in 1878, entered 
 the Medical Department of Yale, graduating there- 
 from in 1880, after which he went West to enter 
 upon his first practice. Settling in Alinneapolis, 
 Minn., he remained there some time, and then re- 
 turned to the congenial surroundings of his Con- 
 necticut home, where he has reniained ever since, 
 building up what is generally conceded to be one 
 of the most lucrative practices in the whole city. 
 
 On Aug. 29, 1880, Dr. Roberts married Miss 
 Clara N. Ludington, of New Haven, a daughter of 
 Nelson A. and Adeline (Permin) Ludington. Mrs. 
 Roberts' maternal grandfather came to America 
 from Denmark. Two children have come to Dr. 
 and Mrs. Roberts: Chfiford L., born May 7, 1882; 
 and Edward K. Jr., born Aug. 19, 1886. The latter 
 is a student in the New Haven High School, class 
 of 1904, and intends to enter Yale. Although an 
 ardent Repubhcan, Dr. Roberts has never accepted 
 any political office. He is a well-known member of 
 various medical and fraternal societies — the Royal 
 Arcanum, of which he is the examiner ; the Forest- 
 ers; the American Medical Association, and the 
 State and County Medical Societies. He and his 
 wife are members' of Grace Episcopal Church, and 
 possess the esteem of a very large circle of social and 
 professional friends. 
 
 ^' ARTHUR A. BENHAAI is one of the influen- 
 tial citizens of West H&ven, that town having been 
 his birthplace and the sphere of his active life. He 
 was born Dec. 9, 1848, and, while he has yet scarcely 
 passed middle life, the natural development of his 
 innate c[ualities has both challenged and enforced 
 respect. 
 
 For several generations antecedent to our sub- 
 ject the family has resided in the same town, and 
 the ancestral homestead is well-nigh a landmark. 
 The Benhams are of English origin, and John Ben- 
 ham, the first American ancestor, sailed from 
 Plymouth, England, in the ship "Mary and John" 
 March 20, 1630, and arrived at Nantasket Point 
 May 30, 1630. Next day Capt. Squib put them on 
 shore and left them. By the aid of planters they 
 obtained a boat and went up the Charles river to a 
 place called Watertown, where they landtedi. They 
 found a neck of land at Mattapan and removed 
 there, naming their town Dorchester. They had 
 many cattle. John's two sons, Jo'hn and Joseph, 
 probably came with him. John Benham was one 
 of the iirst set of "freemen" of Boston of May 18, 
 1631. In 1639 be and his sons came with the orig- 
 inal colony of Eaton and Davenport to New Haven, 
 he being one of the seventy heads of families that 
 settled that place. To him was assigned one each 
 of the four-acre house lots and sixteen-acre out lots 
 set off to those first principal colonists. 
 
 John Benham, Jr., and his brother Joseph took 
 the oath of fidelity in 1654. Joseph removed to 
 Wallingford in i66g or 1670. John remained on the 
 original grant. Probably the s'ixteen-acre out lot 
 
 was on 2\Iain street near the public square, as rec- 
 ords show they owned land there and later moved 
 to "Benham Hill," two miles west of West Haven. 
 The holdings were extensive. The first John fol- 
 lowed to some extent his trade of brickmaker, as 
 well as agricultural pursuits, which pursuits his sons 
 and succeeding generations also followed, likewise 
 filling prominent and influential places in the com- 
 munity. Many of them filled town offices, a distinc- 
 tion which in those early days was highly prized 
 and carried a deep significance. The family united 
 with the Congregational Church, and were among 
 its earliest and most liberal contributors. John 
 (2) married in 1654 Sarah Wilcoxson, and for his 
 second wife Alercy Smith, in 1669, and had nine 
 children. He died in 1690. 
 
 John Benham (3), son of John (2), died in 
 1745. He and his wife Comfort had five children. 
 John Benham (4), son of John (3), had nine 
 children. He died in 1777. 
 
 Gamaliel Benham, son of John (4), married 
 Lyidia Painter, and had five children. He was born 
 in 1738, and died in 181 1. He served in the Revolu- 
 tionary war in Capt. Bradley's company, enlisting 
 June 5, 1780, and was discharged Jan. i, 1781. 
 
 Elisha Benham married Phoebe Keeler, of Lit<;h- 
 field, and had six children. He was born in 1782, 
 and died in 1876, attaining the good old age of 
 ninety-four years. He served in the militia in tihe 
 war of 1812. His two sons lived at the old home- 
 stead until the marriage of Elijah E., father of 
 Arthur A. 
 
 Elijah E. Benham was born in March, 1820, 
 and in 1842 married Mary E. Hine, who descended 
 from the earliest settlers of Milford, being one of 
 a family of four children born to Andrew P. Hine, 
 a farmer and innkeeper of Orange in the dayg of 
 the old-fashioned coach. She died at the age of 
 seventy-five. Her brother, Albert A. Hine, yet lives 
 m the old familv homestead in Orange. Arthur A. 
 was the only child of Elijah E. and Mary E. Ben- 
 ham. Elijah E. Benham built a house and lived 
 on a farm adjoining the old homestead, was a suc- 
 cessful farmer, and as a citizen influential' and re- 
 spected. He possessed sound judgment and' was 
 eminently public-spirited. In early life he was a 
 Whig, and later a Republican, and he was a select- 
 man of the town and held various minor offices. 
 He lived to see his seventy-second birthday, dying 
 in 1892. His brother, Lucius A., remained on the 
 old homestead, was likewise a successful farmer 
 and prominent in town affairs, and was a deacon 
 of the Congregational Church. In 1854 he married 
 Sarah L. Plimpton, of Sturbridge, Mass., and they 
 had four daughters, only one, Catharine M., living 
 at the present time. Arthur A. and Catharine M. 
 Benham are the only ones bearing the name of this 
 branch of the family. 
 
 Arthur A. Benham was educated in the public 
 schools. For many years his life was. devoted to 
 agricultural pursuits, in connection with which he 
 
61 UdMi-^a 
 
 'a-ppL- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 369 
 
 carried on a wholesale produce commission business 
 in New Haven. At his father's death he came into 
 possession of the farm and disposed of it in 1899, 
 the old homestead having been previously sold, in 
 1897. He built his present home in West Haven 
 in 1889. Mr. Benham is held in high esteem by 
 his fellow townsmen on account alike of his keen 
 sense, excellent judgment and blameless life, and 
 has been repeatedly elected to the ofhce of assessor, 
 and is at present chainhan of that board. He is 
 also member of the board of relief and board of 
 burgesses. In political faith he is a Republican. 
 
 On Nov. 17, 1870, Mr. Benham married Mary 
 Baker, of New Haven, now the sole survivor of a 
 family of three children. Her father, Capt. Otis 
 Baker, commanded a merchant vessel sailing to 
 Havre. Mr. and Mrs. Benham 'had one child-, a 
 daughter named Albertina M., born in Utica, N. Y., 
 Aug. 22, 1876. She was educated in the public 
 schools in West Haven, and was highly esteemed, 
 and her death, on July 14, 1899, at the early age 
 of twenty-three, was a source of deep grief to her 
 parents. 
 
 BENEDICT. The family at Waterbury bear- 
 ing this name is one of the oldest in New England 
 and Connecticut, as well as one of the most prom- 
 inent. Several generations of the family covering a 
 period of one hundred and thirty years, have lived in 
 and been leading citizens of Waterbury. The late 
 Deacon Aaron Benedict, of whom special mention 
 is made in what follows, was one of the great, use- 
 ful and noble citizens of his day, and there are still 
 residing in the city some of the descendants — useful 
 men and women in the various callings of life. 
 
 Deacon Benedict was in the sixth generation 
 from Thomas Benedict, his first American ancestor, 
 the line being through Lieutenant Daniel Benedict, 
 Daniel Benedict (2), Capt. Daniel Benedict and 
 Lieut. Aaron Benedict. 
 
 (I) Thomas Benedict of Nottinghamshire, Eng- 
 land, born in 161 7, came to America in 1638, in the 
 same vetesel with Mary Bridgman, a daughter of 
 his stepmother, and whom he afterward married. 
 They lived for a time at places about Massachusetts 
 Bay, then moved to Southold, L. I., where their 
 children were born. After a residence at other 
 points on Long Island they removed to Norwalk, 
 Conn., it appearing of record that in 1665, he was 
 chosen clerk of the town. He was a leading man 
 in all of the places where he resided, and held a 
 number of high public trusts. 
 
 (II) Lieut. Daniel Benedict, son of Thomas 
 Benedict, the emigrant, born in 165 — , after his re- 
 moval to Norwalk, Conn., married Mary, daughter 
 of Matthew and Mary Marvin, of Norwalk, Conn. 
 Daniel Benedict was a soldier in the direful Swamp 
 fight in 1675. He removed from Norwalk to Dan- 
 bury, Conn., and the recordsi show he sold prop- 
 «rty March 25, 1690. 
 
 (III) Daniel Benedict (2), son of Lieut. Dan- 
 
 24 
 
 iel Benedict, married Rebecca, daughter of 
 Thomas and Rebecca (Ketcham) Taylor, original 
 settlers of Danbury, Conn. His will was made 
 March 26, 1762, and proved Aug'. 5, 1776. 
 
 (IV) Capt. Daniel Benedict, son of Daniel Bene- 
 dict (2), born in 1705, married in 1728, Sarah, 
 daughter of Thomas and Mary (Bronson) Hickok. 
 From the inscription on his tombstone we read: 
 "He was for many years Deacon of this town [Dan^ 
 bury] and by an exemplary life and conversation 
 endorsed the sincerity of his Christian profession. 
 'The memory of the righteous is blessed.' " He 
 died Nov. 9, 1777. 
 
 (V) Lieut. Aaron Benedict, son of Capt. Daniel 
 Benedict, born in 1745, married in 1769, Esther, 
 daughter of John i.nd Mary (Com'stock) Trow- 
 bridge. The year after his marriage he removed to 
 Waterbury, and settled in the eastern part of what 
 is' now the town of Middlebury. He was in the 
 French war, probably, and was a lieutenant in the 
 war of the Revolution, served before Quebec, and 
 became a pensioner. He was one of the leading mert, 
 of the town, which he represented in the Legis- 
 lature in 1809 ^nd 1810. In 1818 he was a delegate 
 to the Constitutional Convention for Middlebury. 
 Mr. Benedict was a remarkable and superior type of 
 the old time, strong-minded, tetraight-forward, 
 square men. He died Dec. 16, 1841. 
 
 The late Deacon Aaron Benedict, of Water- 
 bury, was born Aug. 9, 1785, in what is now the 
 town of Middlebury, Conn., a son of Capt. Daniel 
 and Esther (Trowbridge) Benedict. He entered' 
 Yale College, but, owing to ill health, had to aband- 
 on his college course after having pursued it for a 
 year and a half. At the age of nineteen years he- 
 removed from the out-skirts of the town, and set- 
 tled within the limits of the "First Society," where- 
 in 1804 he became partner of Joseph Burton in mer- 
 cantile business. After several years of experience 
 asi a merchant he began in 1812, the manufacture 
 of bone and ivory buttons, a business in which he 
 continued until 1823. He then formed a partner- 
 ship with Bennet Bronson, of Waterbury, and three 
 New Haven gentlemen, for the manufacture of gilt 
 buttons, he having the exclusive management of 
 the concern. "The prosperity of Waterbury a's a 
 manufacturing town," says Dr. Henry Bronson, 
 in the history of Waterbury, "may be said to date 
 from the formation of this company," the capital of 
 which was $6,500. It was a small beginning, but 
 industry, perseverance and skilled labor were not 
 long in securing success. The partnership was re- 
 newed in 1827, and the capital increased to $13,000. 
 In 1829 a new partnership was formed uiider the- 
 name of Benedict & Coe, -with a capital of $20,006, 
 and in addition to the manufacture of gilt buttons, 
 the firm undertook the rolling of brass for market, 
 this establishment becoming one of the most import* 
 ant and lucrative departments of 'their rapidly ex- 
 tending business. The- fiVm also dealt in mercharf- 
 dise. On Feb. 10, 1834, at the expiration Of thfe 
 
370 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 partnership of Benedict & Coe, a new one was en- 
 tered into with a capital of $40,000 under the name 
 of Benedict & Burnham. Thisi partnership was re- 
 newed in 1838, and the capital increased to $71,000, 
 and again renewed in 1840, with a capital of $100,- 
 •000. In 1843 *^he firm of Benedict & Burnham be- 
 came The Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing^ Co., 
 the first joint stock corporation formed in the town 
 of Waterbury. Mr. Benedict was chosen president 
 ■of the company, and remained as its executive head 
 -until the close of his life. 
 
 This Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Co., 
 -which has developed into such a great industry, was 
 "the parent from which sprang the American Pin Co., 
 in 1846, the Waterbury Button Co., in 1849, the 
 Benedict & Scovill Co., in 1852, and the Waterbury 
 Clock Co., in 1857. 
 
 Mr. Benedict was a member of the State Legis- 
 lature in 1826 and 1841, and State Senator in 1858- 
 59. He became a member of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church of Waterbury, in February, 1S17. In 
 1832, he was chosen to the office of deacon, the du- 
 ties of which he fulfilled for forty year's in the most 
 .ixemplary manner. He was noted throughout his 
 life, not only for fidelity in all religious duties, but 
 for his practical benevolence. In his later life his 
 gifts bestowed in the most unostentatious way 
 amounted to thousands of dollars annually. He con- 
 tributed $10,000 to the erection of Divinity Hall, 
 New Haven; $10,000 for the endowment of the 
 Benedict professorship of Latin in Iowa College ; 
 and $30,000 toward the erection of the First Con- 
 gregational Church edifice, Watefbury. "Mr. Bene- 
 dict's death will be keenly felt not only in the church 
 where he has worshiped so long and served faith- 
 fully, but throughout the community and State. In 
 his death, another of the ties is broken by which the 
 Waterbury of to-day is connected with the Water- 
 bury of fifty years ago. The tran'sformation of the 
 insignificant village, which some of us remember, 
 into the busy and prosperous city, which now fills 
 the valley and over spreads the hillside is due to 
 Aaron Benedict more perhaps than to any other 
 man. It fulfilled our conception of the fitness of 
 things, that he was permitted to see and enjoy the 
 fruits which sprang from his early labors, and to 
 stay amongst us for so many years as a representa- 
 tive of what is past, and at the same time a beauty 
 lover of the present." 
 
 At the time of his death the New Haven Palla- 
 diiLtn said : "Mr. Benedict was one of the most prom- 
 inent men of the State, more particularly in con- 
 nection with its manufacturing interests, and was a 
 very public-ispirited and greatly honored citizen. 
 He was at one time somewhat active in politics, and 
 was chosen on different occasions a member of the 
 State Sienate. His energy and exemplary character 
 as a business man gave him a controlling interest 
 as a counselor in matters engaging the attention of 
 men of interest. His death will be greatly re- 
 gretted." 
 
 On Sept. 17, 1808, Mr. Benedict was married to 
 Charlotte A., daughter of Abel and Hannah (Eliot) 
 Porter, and their children were: Charlotte A. mar- 
 ried Scovill M. Buckingham; Frances J. died single; 
 George W. ; Charles; and Mary L. married John 
 S. Mitchell, of Tarrytown, N. Y. Aaron Benedict 
 died Feb. 9, 1873, and his wife died May 9, 1870. 
 
 George William Benedict, son of Aaron and 
 Charlotte A. (Porter) Benedict, was born Nov. 26, 
 1814, married Feb. 6, 1838, Caroline R., daughter 
 of Austin and Polly (Beecher) Steele, of Water- 
 bury. She was born March 13, 1824, and died Dec. 
 II, i860. Mr. Benedict was reared in Waterbury, 
 and received practical training in the manufactur- 
 ing business of his father, and his business life was 
 given to the interests of the business of the compan- 
 ies originated by his father. The son was an ardent 
 Whig and Republican, and took an active interest 
 in local affairs. He was warden of the borough 
 from 1843 to 1846, a selectman in 185 1 and 1859, 
 and mayor of the city from June, 1855, to June, 
 1856, councilman in 1859 and i860. In 1857 he 
 represented the town in the State Legislature. He 
 was a man of integrity and honesty, a man of action 
 rather than words ; interested in every thing relating 
 to the prosperity of the town ; reserved but possessed 
 of a generous heart. He died April 12, 1862. His 
 children were : Mary C, married Lewis D. Griggs, 
 of Waterbury ; Frances J., married Edward L. Rice ; 
 George H., was a soldier in company A, 23rd Conn. 
 V. I., in the Civil war ; Aaron A. ; and Clara L. 
 
 SUMNER T. THAYER, a well-known retired 
 citizen of New Haven, was born in Worcester, 
 Mass., April 24, 1850, only child of Alexander 
 Thayer. 
 
 Alexander Thayer was born in Bellingham, 
 Mass., June 15, 1812, a son of Marvel Thayer, who 
 also was a native of Bellingham, aind for a number 
 of years was a successful farmer of that town. 
 Marvel Thayer married Julia Bullard, and became 
 the father of five children, namely: Sewell; 
 George, who became a carpenter and builder and 
 moved to Providence, R. I. ; Levina ; Alexander ; 
 and a daughter who died young. Alexander Thayer 
 was a lad of twelve years when be lost his father. 
 Being of a medhairiical turn of mind, he early in 
 life took up work along that line. Practically- 
 thrown on his own resources, his energetic and in- 
 dustrious disposition helped him to fight life's battle 
 alone. He was only a boy when be went to Wor- 
 cester, Mass., and there secured work calculated to 
 develop the natural mechanical skill he possessed. 
 In toolmakinig and in machinist's work he secured 
 much practical experience, while his steady habits 
 and industry enabled him to accumulate some cap- 
 ital, with which he soon went into business for 
 himself. He was one of the founders of the well- 
 known firm of Thayer & Hou'ghton, tool and ma- 
 chinery manufacturers, of Worcester, Mass. The 
 product of this firm was shipped to various parts 
 
ALEXAHDER THAYER, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 371 
 
 of the United States and foreign countries, and was 
 noted for its excellency. For a time, also, Mr. 
 Thayer was associated with his brother Sewell in 
 business at Worcester. Alexander Thayer remained 
 in Worcester until about 1865, when be removed 
 to New Haven. During hfe long residence in the 
 former city he became one of its prominent citi- 
 zens, and took an active part in public affairs, serv- 
 ing as a member of the city council, as well as be- 
 ing honored with election as a member of the Mas- 
 sachusetts Legiislature. In his political affiliations 
 he was a stanch supporter of Republican principles. 
 Disposing of his m^ainufacturing interests in Wor- 
 cester, Mr. Thayer came to New Haven about 
 1865 to become superintendent of the New Haven 
 Manufacturing Co., a position he afterward held for 
 twenty-five years. In that capacity he proved to 
 be a most efficient man, and his retirement, as a 
 result of his advanced years and impaired health, 
 was the source of much regret to the stockholders 
 of the concern'. He was a director and stockholder 
 in that business, in which capacity he was succeeded 
 by his son, our subject. After becoming a citizen 
 of New Haven he gave 1m.s attention entirely to his 
 duties in the business with which he was connected, 
 refraining from any part in public affairs. In re- 
 ligious matters he took an active and prominent 
 part, and was one of the founders of Calvary Bap- 
 tist Church, lin which he held the office of deacon 
 from its organization up to the time of bis death, 
 which occurred March 23, 1895. He was ever 
 strong in example of his religious professions, and 
 a man who was respected by all. His successful 
 life was marked by a conscientiious discharge of 
 his duties toward his fellow man. From a penni- 
 less start he had amassed a comfortable com- 
 petence, but it was the result of his industry and 
 frugality, not of oppression or speculation. Alex- 
 ander Thayer married Miss Lucinda Weaver, of 
 Central Village, Conn., where she was born Dec. 
 31, 1814, daughter of Remington' Weaver, a farni- 
 er. Mrs. Tihayer died June 3, 1880, while on a 
 visit to Worcester, Mass. The only child born of 
 this union was Sumner T., our subject. 
 
 Sumner T. Thayer spent his early life in Wor- 
 cester, Mass., and there attended the public schools 
 and later a private school. He was about sixteen 
 years old when his parents rem<ived to New Haven, 
 where he was enrolled as a student in John Lovell's 
 School, and later in the Hopkins Grammar School. 
 For a considerable period he worked at the trade 
 of a carriage trimmer, but for a number of years 
 has lived retired from business. On Nov. i, 1882, 
 Mr. Thayer was married to Miss Anna Mary Piatt, 
 born in Chester, Conn., daughter of William Piatt, 
 who was bonn in Westbrook, Conn., Aug. i, 1826, 
 son of Elisha Piatt, who was also born probably in 
 Westbrook. The mother of Mrs. Thayer, Marilla 
 (Smith) Piatt, was bom in Chester, Conn., Oct. 
 31, 1844. Both parents still survive, the father, 
 however, being unable to follow his trade of molder 
 
 on account of injuries received during his service 
 as a soldier in the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Piatt 
 had four children, namely: Alice M.; Florence 
 L. ; Anna M. ; and Rosa, who died young. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Thayer have no children. In politics Mr. 
 Thayer is a Republican. Both he and his wife are 
 valued members of Calvary Baptist Church. Their 
 very pleasant home is located at No. 140 Dwfight 
 street, and their summer home is at Woodmont, 
 Conn. Both enjoy the esteeni of a wide circle of 
 friends. Mrs. Thayer is a member of the Womans 
 Relief Corps of New Heaven. 
 
 REV. EDWARD E. ATWATER, late of New 
 Haven, whose death occurred Dec. 2, 1887, was one 
 of the able men of the Gospel ministry in his day. 
 He was descended from one of the earliest settled 
 families in Connecticut, having been in the seventh 
 generation from David Atwater, a planter of New 
 Haven, to whom a tract of land was assigned in the 
 first division of lands in the prospective town. His 
 assignment was in what was known as the "Neck," 
 a strip of land between the Mill and the Quinnipiac 
 rivers, and there it is believed he lived until his 
 death, in 1692. Mr. Atwater's line of descent was 
 through David (2), Joshua, David (3), Jared and 
 Elihu Atwater. 
 
 David Atwater (2), 'son of David, of New Ha- 
 ven, was born in 1650, cultivated a part of the land 
 assigned to his father, and died in 1736. 
 
 Joshua Atwater, son of David (2), bom in 1687, 
 was married in 1721, to Anna Bradley, and spent 
 his life on the old homestead, where his son, 
 
 David Atwater (3), was born in 1728. In 1746 
 he married Elizabeth Bassett, who wasi his first 
 wife, and the mother of all his children. 
 
 Jared Atwater, son of David (3), was born in 
 1758, married Eunice Dickerman, and lived on 
 Cedar Hill, where he died in 1813. 
 
 Elihu Atwater, his son, born in 1786, married 
 Julia Thompson in 1811, and Betsy Tyler in 1819. 
 He was the father of the following children : Lydia 
 H., born in 1812; Elihu W., born in 1814; Edward 
 Elias, whose name introduces this article, born May 
 28, 1816; and John T., born in 1820. Edward E. 
 was the only one of these four children to survive 
 infancy, none of the other three living to complete 
 their second year. 
 
 Edward E. Atwater was born in New Haven, 
 and, graduating from Yale College in the class of 
 1836, became a Congregational minister, having his 
 first church in Ravenna, Ohio. Later he was called 
 to Salmon Falls, N. H., and while yet a young man 
 returned to New Haven to assume the pastorate of 
 the Davenport Congregational Church. The hand- 
 some structure of that society on Green street is an 
 enduring monument to the liberality of the Atwatei^s, 
 father and son. The father gave the land for the 
 churchj and the son contributed the money to the 
 building. During the latter years of his life Mr. 
 Atwater was considerably engaged in literary work, 
 
372 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and wrote a history that throws much light on the 
 early Colonial days. In 185 1 he prepared in pamph- 
 let form a genealogy of the Atwater family that 
 was^ complete to the fifth generation, and a second 
 edition of this was prepared and issued by him in 
 1873, brought up to the sixth generation. He was 
 the editor of what is called Atwater's History of 
 New Haven, which was published in 1887. Mr. 
 Atwater was a Congregationalist of the Old School, 
 and was highly esteemed in New Haven, both in 
 and out of the church. At Ravenna, Ohio, he was 
 married to Miss Rebecca Dana, a native of Pomfret, 
 Vt. Their only child, a son, died in childhood, and 
 their adopted 'Son, Harry T. Clark, has his home at 
 No. 212 English street. New Haven. 
 
 On the death of Mr. Atwater, the Davenport 
 Congregational Church had the following minute 
 made a matter of record : "This Church has learned 
 with great sorrow and regret the recent death of 
 Rev. Edward E. Atwater, its first founder and pas- 
 tor. We wish to express in the most fitting way our 
 sincere regard and earnest love for this loyal servant 
 of Jesus Christ. In the years of our beginning as a 
 church, he^ was faithful, hopeful, self-sacrificing and 
 laborious in the pastoral office among us, exhibit- 
 ing Christian love and zeal in all his work as our 
 rninister. Since he left us we have loved and revered 
 him scarcely less even as his generous and tender 
 affection for us never changed, and our hearts are 
 grieved at his departure. We believe him to have 
 been a man of God, in mind, heart and life ; one who 
 was glad to labor for his Lord, and willing and 
 ready to obey the summons out of life." 
 
 HORACE WILLIAM de les DERNIERS, M. 
 D., a leading physician of Meriden, was torn at St. 
 Scholastique, Canada, April 6, 1851. The de les 
 Demiers are of Swiss extraction, and are suppased 
 to have originated close to the line of France. Three 
 brothers of that name came to America at an early 
 day, one settling in Nova Scotia, another in Maine, 
 and another, the grandfather of the subject of this 
 notice, in Vermont. 
 
 Horace Nelson de les Derniers was born in Ver- 
 mont, and was quite young when his parents re- 
 moved to Canada, locating at Vaudreuil, in the 
 Province of Quebec, where the father carried on 
 the mercantile business, and where he died while 
 still in middle age. There Horace N. de les Derniers 
 grew to manhood, and became a clerk in the store 
 of Francois Exavier Desjardins, a prominent mer- 
 chant, who married 'his aunt. When he became 
 of age he secured an interest in the business of his 
 uncle, and married his partner's daughter. Her 
 parents oppo-sed this union, and the partnership 
 was dissolved in consequence of the bitterness de- 
 veloped by the controversy. Young de les Derniers 
 took his bride to St. Scholastique, where he en- 
 gaged in mercantile business and prospered until a 
 fire destroyed all his accumulations in both store 
 and house, leaving him penniless. In i86g he and 
 
 his family removed to Meriden, Conn., where he 
 was employed as a salesman in the dry-goods store 
 of D. S. Williams. After this he opened a grocery 
 for 'himself, on East Main street, and the venture 
 was attended with much success. Horace N. dJe les 
 Derniers and a partner invested considerable money 
 in real estate. A period of hard times ensued, and 
 he was left to meet all obligations, with the result 
 of financial ruin. After this he retired from busi- 
 ness and he died in Meriden in 1894, being buried 
 in St. Patrick's cemetery in that city. In his young- 
 er days he belonged to the Episcopal Church, but 
 on his marriage he united with the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church, in the faith of which he died. In Can- 
 ada he was a supporter of the Liberal party, and 
 while in St. Scholastique served as mayor of the 
 city. 
 
 Horace Nelson de les Derniers was married, in 
 Vaudreuil, Canada, to Normantine Desjardins, his 
 cousin, who died in 1880, and rests beside her hus- 
 band. Her paternal ancestors belonged to an old 
 Quebec family, and were firm adherents of France 
 in the early days. Mrs. de les Derniers received 
 her education at the famous Notre Dame Convent, 
 in Montreal (being especially proficient in music and 
 art), and was a devout Catholic. She had a sweet 
 disposition, and bore her trials patiently. Devoted 
 to her family, she was a good and true woman. 
 She became the mother of sixteen children, eig^ht 
 of whom lived to reach maturity: Nelson, now a 
 groceryman in Meriden; Horace William.; Ferdi- 
 nand, employed at the factory of the Bradley & 
 Hubbard Mfg. Co., Meriden; Edward, of Meriden; 
 Mary, who married William C. Knipfer; Ida, a 
 saleswoman in Meriden; Sophia, who married 
 Frank Talbot, of Meriden; and Emilia, who died 
 unmarried. 
 
 Hprace William de les Derniers attended a pri- 
 vate school in his native town, and also St. Theresa 
 College, where he remained until fifteen years old. 
 Having a strong passion for music, he gave it much 
 attention, and while at college took first honors in 
 that study. His parents, 'having a large family, 
 could not give him the opportunities in that line he 
 craved, and he resolved to do what he could to 
 help them. In his native country there was little 
 outlook for a boy, however bright and ambitious he 
 might be, so at the age of fifteen years, in 1866, 
 he came to the United States, and located at South 
 Meriden, Conn., w'here he obtained a position with 
 the Meriden Cutlery Co., continuing with that 
 house until 1872. During the first year he re- 
 ceived as compensation a dollar and a quarter a 
 day, and after that he was engaged at piece work. 
 In 1872 he bought a piano with his surplus earn- 
 ings, in order to keep up his practice. At a later 
 period our subject entered the employ of the Meri- 
 den Britannia Co., and was a burnisher in their 
 factory nine years, during which time he began the 
 reading of medicine with Dr. Jenigor, and later read 
 with Dr. E. W. Smith. The young man, ready to 
 
^.(^C^A 
 
 '£yiy?Z4X^ 
 
 9^® 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 373 
 
 go to college, was desirous of retaining his position 
 in the factory in case of untoward experiences, and 
 asked Horace Wilcox, president of the concern, if 
 he might not feel that his position was open for 
 him in- case he should wish to return. This was 
 assured him. He attended the University of Ver- 
 mont, and was graduated from the Medical Depart- 
 ment after a full course of four years. The first 
 summer's vacation he spent in the factory, and tht; 
 last in the drug store of H. K. Rice. Graduating 
 in the class of 1885, he returned to Meriden and 
 took up the practice of medicine, but after a year 
 moved to Gilbertville, Mass., where he followed his 
 profession three years. In 1889 Dr. de les Derniers 
 came back to Meriden, and since that time has been 
 one of the busy physicians of the city. A good 
 clientage has come to him, he has given his calling 
 hard work and close attention, and is one of the 
 leading French-Americans in New Haven county. 
 Possessing a pleasing and courteous manner, he 
 has many friends, and is much respected. 
 
 Dr. de les Derniers was married, in 1889, in 
 JMontreal, Canada, to Marie Louise \^alentine La- 
 londe, who was born in Montreal, daughter of 
 Charles F. Lalonde, a prominent man of St. Cune- 
 gonde (Montreal West), who was mayor of the city 
 for six years. Three children were born to this 
 union: Leath and Lionel, who are living; and an 
 infant that died unnamed. The Doctor and his 
 wife are much esteemed in the community as people 
 of culture and refinement. Mrs. de les Derniers 
 •obtained her education at Mount St. jMarie's Sem- 
 inary in Montreal, and is an artist of much ability. 
 
 Dr. de les Derniers has served as physician of 
 the town of Meriden, to which position he was ap- 
 pointed by the board of selectmen. He is a mem- 
 ber of the various medical organizations o-f the 
 city, county and State, and also holds membership 
 in the National Medical Association. He is not a 
 politician, but supports the principles of Democracy, 
 and was nominated by his party as candidate for 
 alderman in the First ward in 1900. He is a mem- 
 ber of the French Catholic Church. Socially he 
 belongs to Myrtle Lodge, K. of P., being assistant 
 surgeon of the Second Regiment, Uniformed Rank, 
 Division 12 ; he fills the office of medical examiner 
 in the A. O. U. W., and also in the N. E. O. P., 
 the K. O. T. M. and the R. A. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY ELLSBREE, a well-known 
 and respected citizen of Meriden, died at his home 
 in that city, April 6, 1901, in the seventy-eighth 
 year of his age. His ancestry was English, and his 
 family was planted in this country about the middle 
 ■of the eighteenth century, at which time three broth- 
 ers of the name eame to America. Two of them re- 
 turned to their native country. The third, Boomer 
 Ellsbree, settled in Rhode Island, and reared a 
 large family, viz. : Ephraim, Jemima, John, James, 
 Joshua, Nathaniel, David, Benjamin, Norman, 
 Aaron, Thomas, Edmond and Mercy. 
 
 Ephraim Ellsbree, the eldest of the family, had 
 ten children, namely: Harriet, Bradford B., Will- 
 iam, James, Isaac, Jemima, Mercy, Juliu's, Lewis 
 and Ruth. Ephraim Ellsbree died Jan. i, 183 1, aged 
 sixty-one years. 
 
 Bradford B. Ellsbree, eldest son of Ephraim, 
 was born at Fall River, in 1801, and died in Sep- 
 tember, 1880, at Chicopee Falls, Mass. His wife, 
 Waity Aldrich, born in 1799 in Simsbury, Conn., 
 died Sept. 4, 1873. Their children were : James, 
 George Henry, Susan E., Lyman A., Elizabeth R.,. 
 Ephraim B., Mary, Irving A., Charles M. and Ed- 
 mond S. Only two of these are now living — Ed- 
 mond S., who resides in Chicopee Falls, Mass., and 
 the eldest daughter, Mrs. Susan E. Scjuires, of Athol, 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 George Henry Ellsbree was born Aug. 12, 1823, 
 in Smithfield, R. I., and mo'st of his life was passed 
 in Massachusetts. During nearly all of his active 
 life he was connected with the cotton industry, and 
 for a period of eleven years was overseer in a cotton 
 cloth mill at West Springfield, Mass. He gave three 
 years of willing service to his country during the 
 Civil war, enlisting first in the 8th Mass. Light Bat- 
 tery, and subsequently in the 3rd Mass. Heavy Ar- 
 tillery. He participated in the second battle of 
 Bull Run, the battles of Antietam and South Moun- 
 tain, besides numerous engagements of less prom- 
 inence, and returned to the arts of peace with honor. 
 He was a valued member of Merriam Post, G. A. 
 R., of Meriden, and was also identified with the 
 Order of Chosen Friends. Mr. Ellsbree took up his 
 residence in Meriden in 1877, and, while doing some 
 occasional clerical work, gave much of his attention 
 to meteorology. With self-registering thermometer 
 and barometer he kept a daily record of weather 
 and barometric conditions and temperature, and his 
 data were often sought by parties interested in such 
 records. In the enjoyment of the respect and es- 
 teem of the community he thus passed his declining 
 years in congenial pursuits, and closed a long and 
 useful life in peace and contentment. 
 
 On March 20, 1846, Mr. Ellsbree was married, 
 at Three Rivers, Palmer, Mass., to Emeline Pierce, 
 a native of Orange, Mass., daughter of Emery and 
 Sophronia (Barnes) Pierce, both born in that State, 
 the former a son of Ichabod Pierce, a farmer of 
 Hopkinton, Mass. Mr. and Mrs. Ellsbree had four 
 children, George Lyman, Clarence Eugene, Flora 
 Emeline and Effie Marian. The daughters died 
 before reaching adult age ; Clarence Eugene is en- 
 gaged in business in Boston, and resides in Cam- 
 bridge, Massachusetts. 
 
 George Lyman Ellsbree, a leading business 
 man of Meriden, hate been identified with its material 
 and moral interests since 1875. He was born Nov. 
 I, 1851, in Palmer, Mass., and his education was 
 supplied hy the public schools of his native State, 
 chiefly in New Bedford and Belchertown. In Oc- 
 tober, 1867, having just completed his ^sixteenth 
 year, he set out to equip himself for business life. 
 
374 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and entered a store ait Pittsfield, Mass., to master 
 the mysteries of the drug business. That he was 
 diligent and apt is shown by the fact that he has 
 ever since been successfully following the same line, 
 and for more than a quarter of a century as pro- 
 prietor. His ftrsit drug store wa's in Amherst, 
 Mass., where he established himself in 1871, and 
 continued until obliged by ill health, two years later, 
 to seek outdoor employment. In 187s, after a yeai 
 of botanizing, he came to Meriden to take charge 
 of the drug store of N. B. Welton, in the Palace 
 block. This business he purchased in 1877, and 
 has ever since conducted it, with profit to himself 
 and with satisfaction to his patrons. The location 
 is a most desirable one, and the genial and courteous 
 manner's of the proprietor have attracted and held a 
 desirable line of trade. Mr. Ellsbree has become 
 interested in local manufacturing, and is recognized 
 as a sound and reliable business man. 
 
 It is but natural that the public should make 
 demands for (service upon one who has demon- 
 strated ability in the direction of his own concerns, 
 and Mr. Ellsbree is no exception to this rule. Just 
 previous to the town election in 1894 he was pur- 
 suaded to become the candidate for first selectman, 
 and the subsequent vote demonstrated his popular- 
 ity with the people. After being twice re-elected 
 in succession, he declined to be again a candidate, 
 feeling that he had devoted his share of time to the 
 service which only a sense of public duty induced 
 him to accept. In 1899 he represented the town 
 in the Legislature, and during his term was chair- 
 man of the House committee on Manufactures and 
 a member of the committee on Roads, Rivers and 
 Bridges. He was one of the authors of the "good 
 roads bill," which became a law at that session. 
 Mr. Ellsbree has served 'several years as a member 
 of the city council and board of Education. He is 
 now a member and treasurer of the State Board of 
 Pharmacy. Fraternally he is a Freemason, being 
 identified with Pacific Lodge, of Amherst, Mass., 
 and Keystone Chapter and St. Elmo Commandery, 
 of Meriden. 
 
 In November, 1876, Mr. Ellsbree was married to 
 Miss Elizabeth Russell, a native of Amherst, Mass., 
 and a daughter of Emerson and Barbara Russell, 
 of old Massachusetts families. The only child of 
 this union is Edward Clarence, born Nov. 6, 1877. 
 
 THOMAS BRIGHT, who passed away Jan. 
 15, 1876, was in his day one of the most respected 
 self-made men of New Haven, where, though he 
 died in the prime of life, he had succeeded in gaining 
 a substantial position in the business world. 
 
 Mr. Bright was a native of London, England, 
 born Dec. 9, 1827, son of James and Elizabeth 
 (Tuffs) Bright, the former a native of Oxford, 
 England, the latter of Kent. They had a family of 
 ten children, none of whom survive. The father 
 served a number of years in the English navy, and 
 his last years were spent in London, where he died 
 
 in 1830. The mother lived to the advanced age of 
 seventy-five years, and died in Thompsonville, 
 Conn., where she is buried; she was a member of 
 the Methodist Church. Thomas Bright remained 
 in London until he was eighteen years old, and re- 
 ceived his education in the public schools. At the 
 age mentioned he came to America with his mother 
 and several children, locating first in Thompson- 
 ville, Conn., where he followed weaving for a few 
 years. He next spent a year in Hartford, this state, 
 where he was in the crockery business, and in 1859 
 came to New Haven and engaged in business, open- 
 ing a store for himself at the corner of Elm and 
 Howe streets, where he continued for eight years ; 
 he then removed to Broadway, where he was lo- 
 cated during the remainder of his Hfe. He car- 
 ried on a crockery and glassware establishment in 
 Broadway, and also conducted a junk, business, and 
 by industry and good management he succeeded in 
 amassing a "comfortable fortune, although he began' 
 with no financial capital whatever. Mr. Bright was 
 successful in more than the ordinary acceptance of 
 that term, for he won and retained the respect of 
 all who had dealings with him for his integrity and 
 genuine worth, as well as his executive ability. He 
 was cut off at the height of his career, being only 
 forty-eight at the time of his death. He took arr 
 active interest in the public affairs of the city, and' 
 was a Democrat in political affiliation. 
 
 In January, 184Q, Mr. Bright married Jean Mc- 
 Crone, a native of Scotland, who was born June 23, 
 1830, daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth (Neshit) 
 McCrone, and granddaughter of Robert McCrone, 
 all born in Scotland. Hugh McCrone came to 
 America in 1832 and settled in Thompsonville, 
 Conn. In 1834 he sent for his family, and the wife 
 and six children started for America. On the way 
 over the eldest daughter died. The remainder, after 
 a voyage of several weeks, reached New York. Mr. 
 McCrone followed weaving throughout his long 
 life, reaching the great age of eighty-eight years, 
 and died in Thompsonville. The parents of Mrs. 
 Bright had a family of nine children, three of whom 
 survive at this writing (1902) ; Hugh, who is a 
 resident of Philadelphia, Penn. ; Jean, Mrs. Bright ;■. 
 and Mary, Mrs. Richard Nesbit, of Norwalk, Conn. 
 The mother died at the age of forty-three, in 
 Thompsonville. Ten children were born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bright, seven of whom are yet living. Thom- 
 as died when four months old, Elizabeth when two 
 and a half years old. Thomas (2) died Nov. 17,. 
 1883, at the age of thirty-three years ; he married 
 Nellie Mercer, and their daughter, Kitty, now Mrsi 
 Mitchell, of Florida, has one child. Of the living, 
 (i) Robert C. (twin of Thomas, who died) fol- 
 lowed in his father's footsteps, engaging in the- 
 crockery and glassware business. He is a well- 
 known resident of New Haven, and takes an active 
 part in political matters in the city. He first mar- 
 ried Florence Bodge, who died at the age of twenty- 
 nine years, and by whom he had four children, Roib- 
 
THOMAS BRIGHT, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 37S 
 
 ert, Ida (wife of Marcellin Adams, of Pittsburg, 
 Penn.), Florence and Mabel. For his second wife 
 Robert C. Bright married Annie Sumner, and they 
 have two children, Thomas S. and Jean. (2) 
 Charles C. is a letter carrier in New Haven. He 
 married Emma Heubisch, and they have two chil- 
 dren, Thomas and Helen. (3) Jennie is the wife 
 of George Robinson, a machinist, and has two chil- 
 dren, Jessie and Georgie. They reside in Belvi- 
 dere. 111. (4) Jessie, twin of Jennie, married Will- 
 iam Fleury (deceased), and had two children, Jen- 
 nie and John. (5) Mary married Benjamin Vann, 
 of New Haven. (6) Ida is the wife of Walter 
 Crump, a railroad man of Shelton, Conn., and they 
 have one daughter, Alice. (7) Alice married Fred- 
 erick Osborn, a civil engineer for the city of New 
 Haven, and they have one child, Marion. 
 
 Mrs. Bright occupies the comfortable home at 
 No. 140 Golfe street which her husband erected, 
 and which stands on a large lot, comprising one 
 and a quarter acres besides a regular building lot. 
 Mr. Bright also erected a block at the corner of Elm 
 and Park streets. Mrs. Bright and her family at- 
 tend the Congregational Church, of which her par- 
 ents were devout members. Mr. Bright was identi- 
 fied with Christ Episcopal Church. He is laid to 
 rest in Thompsonville, near his parents. 
 
 CHARLES W. BRADLEY. A valuable chro- 
 nology and genealogy, with a few . abbreviated 
 biographies of some of the first settlers of the 
 suburban town on the eastern border of one of the 
 principal New England cities, was edited, com- 
 piled, and published in book form, seventy-eight 
 years ago, by Rev. Stephen Dodd, a resident clergy- 
 man of East Haven. No copies of this valuable 
 work are for sale, and the few still remaining in 
 the town, are treasured with the greatest care by 
 their fortunate possessors. Among those mentioned 
 upon the two hundred pages of the work the Brad- 
 ley families are dealt with at length, and it appears 
 that there were three brothers bearing the name, 
 who came from England to this locality about 1640, 
 
 one of whom married Elizabeth . The 
 
 record further states that "he first appeared on the 
 Branford records in 1674; is noticed as a sojourner 
 at New Haven and the town, probably Branford, 
 granted him a home lot of two acreis, at Conoe 
 Brook." This settler, who removed to East Haven 
 in 1683, had the following children: Isaac; Will- 
 iam; Samuel; Daniel; Sarah, who married George 
 Pardee in 1703; and Elizabeth, who married John 
 Auger in 1710. Thirty-six faniilies having this 
 euphonius cognomen are mentioned in Mr. Dodd's 
 book, after Isaac, the first. The following vital 
 statistics of one branch of the Bradley family, is 
 brought down to about 1812, taken mostly from, the 
 volume above mentioned. 
 
 Azariah Bradley married Elizabeth Thompson, 
 on Nov. 7, 1759, nothing being said about children. 
 His second wife, Elizabeth Woodward, he marrried 
 
 Jan. 18, 1764, and their children were: Elizabeth, 
 born on July 12, 1765 ; Samuel, born on Jan. 6, 1767 ; 
 Esther, born on Aug. 15, 1770, married Leverett 
 Bradley in 1791 ; John, born April 9, 1774; Lydia, 
 born July 8, 1776; and Roswell, born Aug. 15, 
 1780. 
 
 Samuel Bradley, son of Azariah, and the grand- 
 father of Charles W. Bradley, of East Haven, mar- 
 ried Sarah Bradley, the daughter of Jared Bradley, 
 who, at the time of the marriage of his daughter, 
 had charge of the Gov. Saltonstall farm, near the 
 lake which bear's that name. The children of Sam- 
 uel and Sarah were: Laura, William, George, 
 Esther, Lue, Azariah, Adeline, Lydia, Samuel H. 
 and Justin. 
 
 Samuel H. Bradley, son of Samuel, was the vil- 
 lage blacksmith of East Haven, sixty-five years ago, 
 and by his industry accumulated considerable 
 wealth. James and Edward E. Thompson, Samuel 
 Chidsey and other large farmers in the town kept 
 for New Haven shippers hundreds of horses and 
 mules collected in Kentucky. Thus it happened 
 that a large share of the work which fell to the 
 genial blacksmith consisted in pulling off the shoes 
 of the animals' preparatory to shipping. He mar- 
 ried Sarah Louisa, a daughter of Jacob and Huldah 
 (Stannard) Tyler, the former of whom was born 
 in North Branford, and the latter in Westbrook, 
 Conn. Neither lived to middle age, Samuel Brad- 
 ley dying in 1843, ^^ the age of thirty-five years, 
 and his widow in 1848, at the age of thirty-three. 
 
 Charles William Bradley, the only child of Sam- 
 uel H., was born on the north side of East Haven 
 Green, on Monday, Dec. 8, 1834; and the old home, 
 having withstood the attacks of time and the ele- 
 ments for more than 100 years, is still a feature 
 of the landscape. Mr. Bradley's preparatory edu- 
 cation was received in the district schools, after 
 which he studied art Branford Academy, under Mr. 
 Fri'sbie ; at Samuel M. Brown's Academic school ; 
 at St. Mathew's Hall, Port Golden, N. J., under 
 Rev. P. L. Jaques ; and at a select school, which was 
 conducted in the town hall, in East Haven. 
 
 Mr. Bradley is well-known to the residents of 
 East Haven, where for many years he has been iden- 
 tified with public and private interests. For several 
 years he engaged in educational work in this and 
 other towns, and has at times been interested in the 
 grocery and provision business, as well as in agri- 
 culture and stock-raising. In 1867 he was ap- 
 pointed keeper of the New Haven light-house, and 
 he has filled the positions of superintendent of the 
 New Haven alms-house, and secretary of the board 
 of education. As a military man he was at one 
 time a member of the 2nd Company of the Govern- 
 or's Horse Guards, and as a forceful and even 
 brilliant writer he has for fifty years contributed 
 to the Journal and Courier. 
 
 On April 9, 1854, Mr. Bradley was united in- 
 marriage with Sarah Amelia Leete, a direct de- 
 scendant of Gov. William Leete, the chief executive 
 
376 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 •of Connecticut, in 1676. Three children were born 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Bradley, Annetta Adeline, Harriet 
 Louisa and Seymour Percy. 
 
 Seymour Percy Bradley developed into a young 
 man of much more than usual ability. In 1879 he 
 entered the West Point Alilitary Academy as a 
 cadet, a representative from the 2nd Congressional 
 district, of Connecticut, and he is now an official 
 and a civil engineer, in the construction of the rapid 
 transit tunnel, in New York city. 
 
 Although at one time the Bradley family seemed 
 almost th€ most numerous in East Haven, of any 
 there, it has scarcely kept its place in the changing 
 generations. It is believed that at the present time 
 there is only one male member, under thirtVj of that 
 name in the place. However, although a recent 
 election showed that but seven Bradleys registered, 
 the name has not by any means become extinct or 
 of little worth in the world. Probably no .family 
 in the United States has more conspicuous members 
 in various walks of life, in the many States to 
 which they have drifted, than the family established 
 by the first Bradley in the little Connecticut ham- 
 let, so many years ago. 
 
 GEx\. PHELPS :\IOXTGO}dERY, Judge Ad- 
 vocate General on the staff of Gov. ^IcLean, was 
 born in Portland, Oregon, Xov. 17, 1872. Though 
 still a young man he has become one of the most 
 popular characters in the city of New Haven, where 
 his manly qualities and genial disposition have won 
 him a host of friends. 
 
 Gen. Montgomery was educated at the public 
 schools, the Portland high school, Phillips Exeter 
 Academy, in New Hampshire, and Yale University, 
 of which latter he is a graduate in both the acad- 
 emic and law departments. In 1898 he was admit- 
 ted to the Bar, and on Dec. 10, 1900, he was ap- 
 pointed Judge Advocate General, his appointment 
 being confirmed by the Senate the 7tli of the follow- 
 ing January. iVfter his admission to the Bar he 
 opened an office for the practice of the law in asso- 
 ciation with Judge Livingston W. Cleaveland and 
 Roger Sherman Baldwin. He is president of the 
 West Haven Buckle Co., and has considerable inter- 
 ests in many of the large local corporations. He is 
 a popular and genial gentleman, and is prominent 
 alike in social, business and professional circles. 
 
 Gen. Montgomery was married, Oct. 12, 1896, 
 to Miss Elsie Slatthias, only child of the late John 
 J. Matthias, the well-known West India importer 
 and merchant, and granddaughter of the late Daniel 
 Trowbridge, formerly president of the New Haven 
 Gas Light Co. Gen. and Mrs, Montgomery reside 
 in a beautiful home at No. 221 Whitney avenue; 
 They are the parents of three children, Elsie Matth- 
 ias, John Phelps and Mary Marjorie, 
 
 Gen. Montgomery was born a Republican and 
 has never changed his political faith. During the 
 campaign of 1900 he was active in his support of 
 the Republican candidates, partictilarly of Gov. Mc- 
 
 Lean, making several effective speeches in his be- 
 half. ' In Oregon he was connected with the Na- 
 tional Guard, but had no connection with the mili- 
 tary in this State previous to his present incum- 
 bency. Always interested in military affairs, how- 
 ever, he has kept in close touch with them, and the 
 duties of his present position are particularly con- 
 genial to him. 
 
 Gen. ^Montgomery is a member of the Gradu- 
 ates' Club, the Quinnipiac Club, the Union League 
 Club, the Young Men's Republican Club, the Coun- 
 try Club, the New Haven Lawn Club, the Sons of 
 the American Revolution, and Wooster Lodge, A. 
 F. & A. j\I. He is a member of the board of public 
 park commissioners of New Haven and formerly 
 served as a director of the Free Public Library. 
 
 Gen. Montgomery is the son of the late James 
 Boyce Montgomery and Mary Phelps Montgomery. 
 His father, who was a native of Pennsylvania, be- 
 gan to make his own way in the world at the age 
 of sixteen, at the printing trade. He rose to be 
 editor of several successful newspapers, but finding 
 a larger field for his energies in the development of 
 the railroad industry, then in its infancy, he became 
 a contractor, and after meeting with considerable 
 success in his native State moved to the Pacific 
 coast and located in Oregon in 1871. He there con- 
 tinued his railroad building, and was also largely 
 occupied in the manufacture of lumber and in ship- 
 ping wheat to Europe. 
 
 The first of the Montgomery family to locate in 
 this country was Archibald Montgomery, who came 
 from Galway, Ireland, and settled in Lancaster 
 count)'. Pa., where he engaged in, farming the re- 
 mainder of his life at what became Montgomery's 
 Ferry, he owning the ferry privilege at that point. 
 William Montgomery, son of Archibald, and father 
 of James B., was born there Jan. 22, 1791, and 
 passed most of his life in his native place, dying in 
 1852. He was a prosperous farmer. 
 
 Gen. Montgomery's mother was born in Spring- 
 field, jMo., daughter of John S. Phelps, who repre- 
 sented that State in Congress for eighteen years, 
 and served as its governor from 1876-80. He com- 
 manded a Union regiment during the war, and was 
 also for a time military governor of Arkansas. Al- 
 though he is known chiefly as a Alissourian, having 
 moved there as a young man, he was a native of 
 Simsbury, Conn., and graduated from Trinity Col- 
 lege, in Hartford, or, as it was then known, Wash- 
 ington College. 
 
 The Phelps family, which is one of the oldest 
 in New England, is descended from AA'illiam Phelps, 
 who was born in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, 
 England, in 15-99, and came to Dorchester, Mass., 
 in 1630. In 1636 be became one of the first settlers 
 of Windsor, Conn., where he died July 14, 1692. 
 He was appointed by the governor anci council of 
 Massachusetts as one of the board of com- 
 missioners authorized to govern the people of 
 Connecticut, for one year next ensuing. The 
 
t^^-^-L^L^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 577 
 
 following year the same commissioners, with 
 ■committees from the three towns then consti- 
 tuting the Colony, carried on the government. 
 Mr. Phelps was chosen one of the magistrates in 
 1643. From this William Phelps Gen. Montgomery 
 descended through (II) Joseph, born in England 
 m 1629; (III) Joseph (2), born in Windsor in 
 1667; (IV) David, born in 1710; (V) Gen. Noah, 
 born in Simsbury in 1740 (>He fought in the Revo- 
 lutionary war and was at Ticonderoga with Ethan 
 Allen. He entered the fort disguised as a farmer, 
 the day before its capture, and was shaved by the 
 fort barber. He noticed the armament, position of 
 the sentries, etc., and reported to Ethan Allen) ; 
 (VI) Elisha, born in Simsbury in 1779; (VII) 
 John S., born in Simsbury in 1814; and (VIII) 
 Mary, born in Springfield, Mp., in 1846. 
 
 FRANK PECK EVARTS, superintendent of 
 :the ornamental department of the Bradley & Hub- 
 l3ard- Manufacturing Co., of Meriden, is one of the 
 •city's well-known and esteemed citizens. 
 
 Mr. Evarts was born in Hudson, Columbia Co., 
 N. Y., April 21, 1846, and is a descendant of one 
 of the oldest families of New Haven county; Conn. 
 The first of the name in New England was John 
 Evarts, who was born in Hereford, England, in 
 1610, and came to Amercia with some of the early 
 settlers and located at Guilford, Conn., in 1640, 
 where he spent the remainder of his life, his death 
 occurring Alay 10, 1669; his remains were interred 
 in Guilford. John Evarts was a son of Samuel 
 Evarts, born 1570-74 at Hereford. The Stone fam- 
 ily, which frequently intermarried with the Evarts 
 family, is descended from Rev. Samuel Stone, a 
 non-conformist clergyman of Hereford. John 
 Stone, his son, born 1610, came to Guilford with 
 John Evarts and several others. The distinguished 
 New York statesman, William M, Evarts, was a 
 gcion of the 'same family. 
 
 John Evarts was twice married. His first wife, 
 Anne, died in 1651, and was the mother of all his 
 children. His second v/ife, Eliza, was the wid- 
 ow of John Parmelee, and a daughter of Jacob 
 Sheaffe, of Guilford. The children of John and 
 Anne Evarts were: John, born Feb. 28, 1641, 
 married (first) Mary French, daughter of Thomas 
 French, and (second) Sarah Crampton, daughter of 
 Dennis Crampton, of Killingworth; Judah, born 
 Oct. .27, 1642; James, born 1644, married Lydia 
 Guttridge, daughter of Nicholas Guttridge; Daniel, 
 born 1646, married Elizabeth Baldwin, daughter 
 of John Baldwin; and Eliza, born 1648, married 
 Peter Abbott. 
 
 (II) Judah Evarts, son of John,, was born at 
 Guilford, Oct. 27, 1642, married Aug. 3, 1670, Mary 
 Hayden, daughter of Thomas Hayden, of Killing- 
 worth. He died in 1696. His children were: 
 Mary, born June 28, 1675, died 1678; Samuel, born 
 Oct. 4, 1678; Mary (2), bom May i6;^i682, died 
 young; and Ebenezer, born June 16, 1^"" 
 
 (HI) Ebenezer Evarts, son of Judah, was born 
 in what is now the town of Meriden, June 16, 1688, 
 married Rachel Crampton, of Killingworth, May i, 
 1711, and died at Saybrook, .Conn., in 1759. His 
 children were: Rachel, who died young; John, 
 born in 1714, married Submit Stone; Ebenezer, born 
 in 1 716, married Ann Norton; Rachel, born in 1718, 
 married Benjamin Stone ; and Anna. 
 
 (IV) John Evarts, son of Ebenezer, born in 
 1 7 14, married in 1738, Submit Stone, and their 
 children were: John, born in 1739, married Naomi 
 Branch in 1769; Samuel, born in 1741 ; Daniel and 
 Anna died young. 
 
 (V) John Evarts, son of John and Submit 
 (Stone) Evarts, born in 1739, married, either in 
 Guilford or Killingworth. He was a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary war. His children are thus recorded : 
 Samuel, born in 1771 ; Daniel, in 1773; John, in 
 1775 ; Isaac, in 1778; Emeline, in 1780; and Branch. 
 
 (VI) Isaac Evarts, fourth son of John and Sub- 
 mit Evarts, born in 1778, married Nov. 28, 1799, 
 Elizabeth Phinney, who was born Sept. 20, 1778, 
 and died Aug. 30, 1855. Isaac died of cholera in 
 Athens, N. Y., Sept. 2, 1832. His children were: 
 Claudius Lucius, born Jan. 6, 1804, died in Low- 
 ville, AVis., Aug. 29, 1854; Lauriston Lewis, born 
 Feb. 26, 1806, died Jan. 28, 1813; Marcus Corn- 
 ight, born May i, 1808, died Alay 22, 1S72 ; Char- 
 lotte Ann, born Sept. 5, 1810, died Nov. 21, 1890; 
 Clythera, born July i, 1812, died April 13, 1840; 
 Emeline, born July i, 1814, died Dec. 7, 1879; 
 Isaac Branch, born Feb. 13, 1816, died May 2, 1864; 
 Lauriston Lewis (2), born Sept. 20, 1821, was 
 killed by lightning, June 15, 1832; and Philo Gris- 
 wold, born Aug. 15, 1823. 
 
 (VII) Philo Griswold Evarts, father of Frank 
 P. Evarts of Meriden, was born Aug. 15, 1823, at 
 Athens, N. Y., where he was educated. He began 
 his business life as commander of a sloop which 
 plied the Hudson river between Athens and New 
 York city. Later he carried on a business in 
 stoneware and pottery, at Hudson, N. Y. On June 
 13, 1845, he was married, in Athens, N. Y., to Jane 
 Pallas Seward, who was born in Scipio, New York, 
 Sept. 5, 1822, a distant cousin of the noted Auburn 
 statesman, Wiliam H. Seward, who was secretary 
 of State, under President Lincoln. 
 
 After the birth of his son, Mr. Evarts. went 
 West, with his family, locating in Middleburg, 
 Ohio, where he followed the pottery business. From 
 there he removed to Bridgeport, Mich., and there 
 became financially interested in the lumber business. 
 From there he moved to Lowv'ille, Wis., and en- 
 gaged in farming until 1858, returning then to Mich- 
 igan. Until i860 he resided in Bridgeport, where 
 he was interested in the salt works, removing from 
 there to Oberlin, Ohio. In the latter city he worked 
 as a carpenter and joiner, and during his residence 
 there joined the State militia, which was called out 
 by the Governor of Ohio at the beginning of the 
 Civil war. In 1864, Mr. Evarts returned East, and 
 
378 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 after locating in Southington, Conn., enlisted in the 
 I2th Conn. V. I. From the close of the war until 
 1870, Mr. Evarts worked at his trade, coming in 
 that year to Meriden, where he died, in June, 1898, 
 and was interred in the West cemetery. He drew a 
 pension for military service. 
 
 Mr. Evarts was a Democrat in his earlier life, 
 but later became a Republican. In his last years 
 he became attached to the Prohibition party, taking 
 a deep interest in the work of this organization. 
 He belonged to Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R., 
 Meriden, in which he was a valued comrade. His 
 wife also died in Meriden, March 8, 1900, and rests 
 beside her husband, in West cemetery. Both Mr. 
 and Mrs. Evarts were consistent members of the 
 Methodist Church, earnest workers for the advance- 
 ment of religious and moral enterprises, and were 
 held in high esteem. They had three children, 
 namely: Frank Peck, our subject, born April 21, 
 1846; Benjamin Seward, born in Bridgeport, Mich., 
 Oct. 4, 1851, as a painter and decorator by trade, 
 married Clara Vandenberg, of Coeymans, New 
 York, and died in Meriiden, in March, 1901 ; and 
 Charles Lucius, born in Lowville, Wis., Aug. 10, 
 1856, married Charlotte (Lottie) Lucas, of Meri- 
 den, and resides in Boston. 
 
 Frank Peck Evarts was educated at Oberlin, 
 Ohio, and later learned the carpenter trade with 
 his father, and worked at it successfully prior to the 
 location of the family in Southington. At this time, 
 although but a lad of seventeen, he was fired with 
 the patriotic spirit which was sweeping in such a 
 wave over the country, and unknown to his parents, 
 made his way to Hartford, in March, 1863, and 
 there enlisted in Co. I, 12th Conn. V. L, under Col. 
 Peck and Capt. Frank Smith. Until the close of 
 the war, the young soldier served his country faith- 
 fully and well, participating in the operations of the 
 Army of the Gulf, and in Sheridan's Shenandoah 
 campaign. He was discharged at Savannah, and 
 with the thousands of the survivors, took part in 
 the triumphal review at Washington, D. C. 
 
 After being mustered out of the army, at Hart- 
 ford, Mr. Evarts returned to the family home and 
 followed his trade until 1869, when he accepted a 
 position as millwright with the great Bradley & 
 Hubbard Manufacturing Co., of Meriden. Since 
 that time Mr. Evarts has been a resident of Meriden, 
 and has watched with interest the growth of many 
 of its great concerns. The plans from which the 
 Winthrop Hotel was erected, were drawn under his 
 supervision and he superintended its construction. 
 Mr. Evarts occupies a position of responsibility 
 with the Bradley & Hubbard Co., in being the super- 
 intendent of the ornamental department, and pos- 
 sesses the confidence of the directors to .such a de- 
 gree that he is sent on the road as their representa- 
 tive, a part of the time. He has made the interests 
 of the house his own interests, and by honesty and 
 reliability has attained his present position. 
 
 On Sept. 3, 1867, in New Britain, Conn., Mr. 
 
 Evarts was married to Mary H. Bodwell, born in 
 Farmington, Conn., daughter of Wood-bridge and 
 Sarah Elizabeth (Hull) Bodwell. The latter was 
 a daughter of Timothy Gilbert and Polly (Ocame) 
 Hull, natives of Old Milford. Mrs. Evarts is a 
 member of Susan Carrington Clarke Chapter, D. 
 A. R., being a descendant of Benjamin Bodwell, a 
 soldier of the Revolution. Isaac, father of Timothy 
 Hull, was a pensioner of the Revolution. Two 
 children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Evarts, 
 namely : Arion F., born Nov. 14, 1868, is a photog- 
 rapher connected with the Bradley & Hubbard Co., 
 married Elizabeth Walker, of New Britain, and 
 has onfe child, Walter Bodwell; and Walter 
 Clement, born Nov. 21, 1875, died March 3, 1876. 
 Mr. Evarts has taken a very active part in po- 
 litical life in Meriden. He is a Republican, and in 
 1890 was elected alderman from the Second ward, 
 serving with efficiency on the committees on Water, 
 Fire and Claims. Both his wife and son, with him- 
 self, are members of the Congregational Church. 
 Mr. Evarts has been prominently identified with 
 fraternal and social organizations, being well-known 
 and valued in Meridian Lodge, No. yy, A. F. & 
 A. M. ; Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; Ham- 
 ilton Council, No. 22, R. & S. M. ; St. Elmo.Com- 
 mandery. No. 9, K. T. ; Pilgrim Harbor Council, 
 No. 543, Royal Arcanum ; Loyal Additional Benefit 
 Association ; and the Home Club. In the social 
 circles of Meriden, both Mr. and Mrs. Evarts are 
 factors. Although now Mrs. Evarts devotes the 
 greater part of her time and interest to her family 
 circle, many of her admirers remember her as a 
 gifted vocalist, who contributed to the church music 
 in Hartford, New Britain and Meriden. The beau- 
 tiful family residence is the result of plans and de- 
 signs made by Mr. Evarts, and it stands as one of 
 the most imposing and attractive on Lincoln Street, 
 Meriden, testifying in a very substantial way, to the 
 mechanical knowledge and artistic genius of its 
 owner. 
 
 WILLIAM ROBERTSON MACKAY, a well- 
 known and mjuch respected citizen of Meriden, and 
 a veteran o^f the Civil war, was born near Troy, 
 Bradford Co., Penn., Nov. 13, 1840, a son of Jbhn 
 R. Mackay, and a grandson of Captain Daniel 
 Mackay. , 
 
 Daniel Mackay was a native of Edinburgh, 
 Scotland, and a member of a Highland Clan whose 
 coat-of-arms dates back more than a thousand years. 
 The greater part of Captain Mackay's life was spent 
 at sea, where he was in command of a ship which 
 sailed from Edinburgh. After being shipwrecked 
 seven times, he met with an accident from the ef- 
 fects of which he was compelled to retire from the 
 sea, and spent his last years,' at hom^, where he 
 died, old in years and prolific of honors. 
 
 Mrs. Mackay, who was formerly Mary Rait, 
 was born in Lannock, Scotland, and became the 
 mother of five children: (i) William, who died in 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 379 
 
 Edinburgh, his native home; (2) Catherine, who 
 died young; (3) John Rait; (4) Donald, who lived 
 at one time in Meriden, and later in Long Island, 
 where he died; and (5) M^ary, who died young. 
 
 John R. Mackay was bom in Edinburgh, Scot- 
 land, where his parents died in 1813, and where he 
 learned the silversmith's trade. When a young man 
 he came to the New World, locating first in Canada, 
 where he was employed for a time with the Hudson 
 Bay Company. Removing to New York City some 
 years later, he married Isabella K. Robertson, 
 daughter of William Robertson, a native of Scot- 
 land, and at that time a crockery merchant in New 
 York. Mr. Mackay removed to Pennsylvania with 
 his young bride, making a home near Troy, in 
 Bradford county, where he followed' farming for 
 several years. Not finding the life of an agricul- 
 turist as congenial and remunerative as he hoped, he 
 returned to New York City and resumed his trade 
 as a silversmith,, working principally in Sterling 
 Silver. At a later period he removed to Dorchester, 
 Mass., and found employment with R. Gleason & 
 Sons, a position maintained until shifting his al- 
 legiance with the starting of the Britannia business 
 by H. C. Wilcox and others, in Wallingford, Conn. 
 When the latter named concern was removed to 
 Meriden, Mr. Mackay brought his family to this 
 city, where he passed the remainder of his life work- 
 ing in the die and mould-making department of 
 the Meriden Britannia Company. While still in 
 middle 'life he died in 1878, and was buried in Wal- 
 nut Grove Cemetery. In politics he was first a 
 Whig, and became by natural development a Repub- 
 lican. His devoted wife and widow died in 1880, 
 and was also laid to rest in Walnut Grove cemetery. 
 In religion she was a member of the Congregational 
 Church, a Christian woman, and devoted to her 
 home and family. Mr. and Mrs. Mackay had a 
 family of four children: (i) Daniel, who died in 
 Wallingford in 1868, and was buried in Walnut 
 Grove Cemetery, married Cecilia Kissam, and had 
 two children, Isabella Robertson, who died young ; 
 Elizabeth, who married D. A. Toles, of Jersey City, 
 N. J. ; (2) William Robertson ;.( 3 ) John Rait, who 
 died in Meriden in 1901, and wa§ buried in Walnut 
 Grove Cemetery; (4) Catherine B., of Meriden. 
 The latter is an active worker in the Congregational 
 Church, and is a woman of marked culture and 
 social ability. 
 
 William Robertson Mackay removed with his 
 parents to New York City, where he attended school, 
 and later went to Dorchester, Mass. While still 
 in his teens he came to Wallingford and worked in 
 the Britannia shops until the breaking-out of the 
 Civil war. On Aug. 6, 1862, he enhsted in Com- 
 pany K, 15th Conn. Vol. Infantry, under Col. Dex- 
 ter R. Wright, and Capt. H. H. Stiles, of New 
 Haven, and, as recruiting officer, succeeded in en- 
 listing fifty-nine men. Serving until his discharge 
 at New Haven at the close of the war, he partici- 
 
 pated in the various engagements of his command, 
 and was never sick or off duty a day. 
 
 Upon resuming a life of peace, Mr. Mackay lo- 
 cated in Meriden, where his parents were living at 
 the time, and worked for nine months in the spin- 
 ning department of the Meriden Britannia Company. 
 Being a man of resource and possessing progressive 
 ideas, he formed, in company with P. S. Pelton, 
 Jesse Cline, Henry Lewis and Lewis Hall, a Britan- 
 nia business in Philadelphia, a venture of short dura- 
 tion, owing to the fact that the climate and com'r 
 mercial spirit of Meriden were more favorable to a 
 profitable management of the business. When the 
 firm of Parker, Casper & Company was formed, Mr. 
 Mackay became interested therein, and was a -stock- 
 holder and contractor for three years. He was also 
 engaged in contracting with the Silver Plating 
 house of the Wilcox Company, and continued with 
 that house until the formation of the Meriden Silver 
 Plate Co., of which he was one of the organizers 
 and stockholders, and assistant treasurer and super- 
 intendent for over thirty years. He then became 
 identified with the International Silver Company, 
 and has since efficiently performed bis numerous 
 duties to the entire sa.tisfaction of the management 
 of that institution. 
 
 Mr. Mackay is a man noted for his upright char- 
 acter. He was one of the charter members of the 
 Meriden Post, No. 6, G. A. R., and is affiliated with 
 Meriden Lodge, No. yy, A. F. & A. M., Keystone 
 Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M., and St. Elmo Com- 
 mandery, No. 9, K. T. He was one of the charter 
 members of the Home Club. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican, and represented the First ward in the city 
 council, where he served on the Fire and Police 
 committees. 
 
 In 1879 '^''- Mackay married in Meriden. Miss 
 Minnie E. Billard, daughter of the late John D. 
 Billard, of Meriden. Mrs. Mackay died in 1880, 
 and is buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery. For his 
 second wife Mr. Mackay married in 1883 Miss 
 Matie E. French, of New Haven, daughter of the 
 late Capt. William French. The two children which 
 have brightened this home are William Robertson, 
 Jr., born Nov. 6, 1884, now a student, and Stanley 
 F., born July 20, 1888, a student in the Grammar 
 School. 
 
 Mrs. Mackay is a woman of culture, and, like 
 her husband, is liberal in her religious views. She 
 is domestic in her tastes, and profoundly devoted to 
 the interests of her family, a keen observer of men 
 and events ; with her husband and others she has 
 traveled to Europe, visiting many places of interest 
 in France and Germany. Mr. Mackay is a man 
 deeply interested in the comfort and welfare of his 
 wife and sons, and is justly proud of their standing 
 and character. 
 
 John Rait Mackay, a brother of William Rob- 
 ertson Mackay, was born in New York City, and 
 secured his primary education in the schools of 
 
38o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Jersey City, where his parents were living- before 
 their removal to Dorchester. At the latter place 
 he also attended school, and completed his education 
 in Wallingford. In 1865 he came to Meriden, and 
 for years held a position with the Meriden Silver- 
 plate Company. His death occurred at the home of 
 his brother, William R., Dec. 15, 1901, and he was 
 buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery. Mr. Mackay 
 united with Company I, National Guard, in 1872, 
 under Capt. Dexter W. Parker, and was promoted 
 to corporal, and later to sergeant. He was made 
 second lieutenant, Jan. 11, 1876, under Theodore 
 Byxbee, and served as a commissioned officer until 
 he was honorably discharged, February, 1878. 
 In 1876, Lieutenant Mackay commanded his com- 
 pany on the occasion of its journey to Philadelphia 
 to participate in the Centennial exercises in that 
 city. "^^ 
 
 j\Ir. Mackay was a strong Republican, but no 
 politician. He was one of the best known citizens 
 of the town, and was noted for his genial dis- 
 position and upright character. He was one of the 
 best informed men of the city, keeping himself 
 posted on all the leading events of the day, and on 
 most subjects he was regarded as authority. He 
 was an upright citizen, and was much beloved by 
 those who knew him best. 
 
 The French F.vmily, of which JMrs. Jilackay 
 is a notable representative, are old settlers of New 
 England. David French, her great-grandfather, 
 was a resident of Vermont, and bore an important 
 part in the War of the Revolution, as did also his 
 brother, William, who was the first man to shed his 
 life blood in that great struggle in New Hampshire, 
 in which state a stone monument is erected to his 
 memory. 
 
 David French, son of David, and grandfather of 
 Mrs. Mackay, was a resident of Andover, Windsor 
 Co., Vt., where he married, and became the honored 
 sire of a family of thirteen children. Removing 
 with his family to New York, he located at Cox- 
 sackie. Green county, where he became a large land 
 owner and successful merchant, and died ten years 
 after settling in that locality. 
 
 William French, the son of David, and the father 
 of Mrs. Mackay, waj born Oct. 10, 1819, in An- 
 dover, Vt., and was but three years old when he 
 removed with his parents to New York. Left an 
 orphan when thirteen years of age, the remainder 
 of his youth was spent on the farm, and he was 
 given a good common school education. He was 
 a man of much reading and wide observation. When 
 young, he became a steamboat man on the Hudson 
 river, working under his brother-in-law, Capt. 
 Harry Squires, and in time was made captain of a 
 schooner. After this nautical experience he was 
 extensively engaged in the manufactu-re of brick 
 at Hudson, N. Y., where he had one of the largest 
 kilns in that section, and in connection therewith 
 owned several schooners and sloops emploved in 
 the transportation of his products to New Ynrk and 
 
 other points. For many years he carried on this 
 business very successfully, and after disposing of 
 his brick interests became engaged in the coal trade. 
 From Hudson he came to New Haven with his 
 family, and undertook the management of the canal 
 wharf for the Canal Railroad Company, and was 
 thus employed for three years. He then began a 
 wholesale coal business, which was carried on until 
 1895, when he retired from active business. While 
 on a visit to his d'aughter, Mrs. Mackay, at Meriden, 
 he died May 24, 1898, and he was laid to rest 
 beside his wife in Evergreen Cemetery, at New 
 Haven. 
 
 The Methodist Church had a stanch supporter 
 and helpful member in j\lr. French. Domestic in 
 his habits, he was much devoted to his wife and 
 family. In early life he was a Whig, but on the 
 formation of the Republican party, united with its 
 fortunes, and though no office seeker, was always 
 an earnest worker in that organization. He was a 
 member of the Masonic fraternity, and was noted 
 for his honorable and upright character. 
 
 William French was married in Coxsackie, N. 
 Y., to Lydia A. Briggs, who was born in Coeymans, 
 N. Y., and was a daughter of John Benjamin and 
 Nancy (Hempsted) Briggs. The Briggs were an 
 old family in Coxsackie, and the Hempsteads 
 founded Hempstead, Long Island. Mrs. Lydia A. 
 French died in New Haven, Sept. 24, 1893, and was 
 buried in Evergreen Cemetery, of that city. She 
 was a devout and consistent member of the Meth- 
 odist Church, a notable Christian woman, and a de- 
 voted wife and mother, whose many virtues and 
 graces of heart and character are long remembered 
 by those who come after. She was the mother of 
 six children: (i) William F., of New Haven; (2) 
 George, who died young; (3) Anna, deceased; (4) 
 Charles I., of New Haven, who has three children, 
 Donald, Walter and Charles I., Jr.; (5) Matie E., 
 who married William Robertson Mackay; and (6) 
 Grace, who married E. Z. Dow, of New Haven,, and 
 is the mother of three children, William French, 
 Arthur Kimball and Gardner. 
 
 HENRY GLEASON NEWTON, residing in 
 New Haven, where he is; the senior member of the 
 law firm of Newton, Church & Hewitt, was born in 
 Durham, Conn., June S, 1843. He is of Colonial 
 descent, numbering among his ancestors Roger 
 Newton, first minister of Farmington, Conn., and 
 second minister of Milford, and Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker, first minister of Hartford, Conn. He is a 
 member of the Sonsi of Colonial Wars and Sons of 
 the American Revolution. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Newton entered Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity, Aliddletown, and was obliged by ill health 
 to abandon his studies ; in 1863 he entered again, 
 and a second time his health failed him, but he 
 succeeded eventually in completing the course, 
 graduating in 1870, and ranking third in his class ; 
 he made a specialty of mathematicsi. He then en- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 3S1 
 
 tered Yale Law School, and by diligent study com- 
 pleted the course there in 1872, winning_ the prizes 
 for essays in civil and common law. The same year 
 he was admitted to the Bar, and in Newi Haven, 
 entered upon the active practice of his profession, 
 in which he has taken high rank. He has taken an 
 active interest in the administration of public affairs, 
 and in 1885 was a representative in the General 
 Assembly from Durham, and became House chair- 
 man of the Judiciary committee. The following 
 term he was declared elected, but a miscount being 
 claimed, Mr. Newton, as attorney for his opponent, 
 contested his own election and succeeded in unseat- 
 ing himself. In 1895 he again became a representa- 
 tive in the General Assembly,' this time, however, 
 from New Haven. During this term he drew sev- 
 eral imfKjrtant laws, as well as a revision of the 
 Constitution recommended by the House. At the 
 present time he is serving as a member of the State 
 Board of Health, and is referee in Bankruptcy for 
 New Haven county. He is also a director in and 
 attorney for the Yale National Bank. He is the 
 author of the work on Probate Law in the Con- 
 necticut Civil Officer ; article on the Bankrupt Law 
 of 1898 in Encyclopedia Britannica; article on the 
 Blue Laws of New Haven in the New Haven His- 
 torical Society ; and the History of Durham in 
 History of Middlesex county. 
 
 In 1885 Mr. Newton was united in marriage 
 with Sarah Allen Baldwin, of Cromwell, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 HON. JOHN P. STUDLEY, Judge of the 
 Court of Common Pleas of the County of New 
 Haven, is a representative of a family that has long 
 lived in New England. 
 
 Bom May 15, 1846, in the town of Sharon, 
 Conn., Judge Studley is a descendant in .direct line 
 from Benoni Studley, who lived in Sandwich, Mass., 
 and was in that part of Scituate now called Han- 
 over, in 1702, in which year his house was built in 
 Hanover street. In 1701 he married Abigail, 
 daughter of John Stetson, of Scituate. He died 
 suddenly in 1746. 
 
 The 'name Studley is an old English one, found 
 in the County of Kent, and also in Yorkshire._ Sav- 
 age in his Genealogical Dictionary, in referring to 
 Benoni Studley, . says that perhaps he was a son of 
 John, who was a son of John Studley, of Boston, 
 who had by his wife, Elizabeth, a son John, born m 
 1659. This John and Elizabeth were in Boston m 
 
 From Benoni Studley of Sandwich, Mass., Judge 
 Studley's line is through his son, Joshua, who was 
 born in 1707, arid married in 173S Lya>a Pratt. 
 Joshua died in 1759 or 1760, and his wife m I759- 
 
 ToBhua Studley (2), son of Joshua, the next m 
 line, born in 1742, married Ruth Allen, and in 1771 
 settled in the town of Sharon, Conn. He was a 
 carpenter by trade, and a man of successful enter- 
 prise. 
 
 Ichabod Studley, son of Joshua (2), was the 
 father of children as follows : Joshua, Gideon A., 
 Enoch and Calvin. 
 
 John P. Studley, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, in his early boyhood removed with his par- 
 ents to Ansonia, and from the town of Derby, when 
 but sixteen years of age, enlisted Aug. 4, 1862, in 
 Company B, 20th Conn. V. I., the fortunes of which 
 he shared and in which he bore an honorable record 
 for three years, being mustered out with his com- 
 pany June 13, 1865. The 20th saw much active 
 service from start to finish. For a period in its 
 early history it formed a part of the 12th Corps, 
 Army of the Potomac, under Gen. Hooker, and was 
 engaged at Chancellorsville May i, 2 and 3, 1863^ 
 losing some eighty-five in killed and wounded, and 
 as many more in prisoners. The regiment was 
 among the first to arrive at Gettysburg, under Gen. 
 Meade, where for a time it was on the defensive, 
 awaiting the arrival of other troops. The 12th 
 Corps occupied a position at the extreme right of 
 the line at Gulp's Hill, pitted against Ewell's Corps 
 (formerly Stonewall Jackson's), aiid after seven 
 hours, fighting, drove the enemy back with great 
 loss. The following fall the regiment, with the 
 I2th Corps, joined the Army of the Cumberland at 
 Chattanooga, and on Jan. 20, 18^4, were engaged at 
 Tracy City, Tenn. In April, 1864, the nth and 
 I2th Corps became the 20th, and in this corps the 
 20th regiment thereafter remained. The regiment 
 was in action at Boyd's Trail, Tenn., May 9, 1864,. 
 and bore an honorable part at Resaca, Ga., May 
 15, 1864; CassviWe, Ga., May 19J and at Pumpkin 
 Vine Creek. The 20th also took an active part in 
 all the marches and skirmishes and battles for the 
 two months following, the regiment doing proudly 
 at the battle of Peach Tree Creek, July 20, 1864, by 
 a gallant charge which drove the enemy back from 
 the field, and capturing prisoners and arms. Again, 
 the 20th regiment was the first to enter the city 
 after the siege of Atlanta, from July 21 to August 
 7, 1864. It was afterward engaged at Silver Run, 
 N. C, March 15, 1865, then at Bentonville, on 
 March 19, losing thirty-six enlisted men. The regi- 
 ment was at Raleigh, N. C, in the fight of April 13, 
 and thence started homeward by land, passing 
 through Richmond, Va., May 11, and on the 20th, 
 reaching Washington, where it participated in the 
 Grand Review. It was mustered out June 13, 1865. 
 On the close of the war our subject began anew 
 his school days, entering Phillips Academy, at An- 
 dover, Mass., taking the college preparatory course, 
 and graduating in 1868. The same year he entered 
 Yale College, where he pursued his studies for two 
 years, then temporarily accepted a position in the 
 Navy Department at Washington. He held this 
 appointment nearly three years, resigned and re- 
 turned to New Haven, entering Yale Lav/ School, 
 from which he was graduated in 1875. After his 
 graduation he was immediately admitted to the Bar 
 in New Haven, began the practice of law in the 
 
382 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 office of the late Hon. George H. Watrous, and was 
 , soon, owing to his energy, habits and perseverance, 
 on the road to usefulness as a citizen and success 
 in his profession. For the past twenty years the 
 former soldier boy has occupied a prominent place 
 in the citizenship of his adopted city, and has filled 
 a number of positions of honor, trust and responsi- 
 bility, and, to his credit be it said, the duties of 
 each have been most efficiently and ably performed. 
 In 1878 he was elected to the common council of 
 the city and served therein two years, the last year 
 as its president. In 1880 he was elected a member 
 of the board of aldermen, and served for a term 
 of two years. In 1881 he was elected by the State 
 Legislature as Assistant Judge of the New Have 
 City Court, and in January, 1883, he was made 
 Judge of the same court, his term of office expiring 
 in March, 1895. Two years later he was elevated 
 to the Judgeship of the Court of Common Pleas for 
 New Haven County, a position he has since held. 
 He has also held by appointment the office of as- 
 sistant city attorney. 
 
 Socially Judge Studley is prominent in the 
 Knights of Honor. He was initiated into Roger 
 Sherman Lodge, No. 323, at New Haven, Feb. 26, 
 1878, and has since served the lodge in various 
 official capacities. In 1880 he was chosen to repre- 
 sent the Grand Lodge. In 1881 he was elected 
 Grand Vice Dictator, and in May, 1883, he was 
 promoted to the Grand Dictatorship of the Grand 
 Lodge of Connecticut. 
 
 FREDERIC SPRING, M. D., is the senior 
 member of the well-known firm of Spring & Bull, 
 prominent physicians and surgeons of Naugatuck, 
 Conn. The talent and culture of these gentlemen 
 have gained them an honorable position in the med- 
 ical profession, and they enjoy an extensive practice. 
 
 Dr. Spring was born in New York City, April 
 25, 1858, and on the paternal side is of English de- 
 scent, though the family was founded in this country 
 in the early colonial days. His great-grandfather, 
 Rev. Samuel Spring, pastor of a church at New- 
 buryport, Mass., was a Revolutionary chaplain, and 
 went with Benedict Arnold to Quebec. The grand- 
 father. Rev. Gardinar Spring, was born in New- 
 buryport, Mass., and for over half a century was 
 pastor of the Presbyterian Church at the corner 
 of Thirty-seventh street and Fifth avenue. New 
 York City. A part of this time he also preached 
 down town where the Times building now stands. 
 He married Susan Barney, of New Haven, Conn., 
 a daughter of Hannibal and Phoebe (Wolcott) 
 Barney and granddaughter of Gov. Wolcott of this 
 State. She was born Sept. i, 1781, and died Aug. 
 7, i860. Lucius L. Spring, the father of our sub- 
 ject, is the youngest in their family of fifteen chil- 
 dren, two of whom were lawyers, one a doctor and 
 some merchants. Nearly all settled in New York. 
 Lucius L. Spring is a native of New York City, 
 and there he has made his home throughout life. 
 
 For many years he was a manufacturer of railroad 
 iron, such as rails, but is now living a retired life, 
 having acquired a comfortable competence which 
 enables him to lay aside all business cares. He 
 married Miss Martha C. Parson, who was born in 
 New York, a daughter of an editor. She died at 
 the age of fifty-two years. To them were born 
 nine children, namely : Louis, deceased ; Mary E., 
 also deceased; Frederic, our subject; Gardinar, a 
 physician of White Haven, Md. ; Edward Walton, 
 auditor of the Erie railroad; Cleveland Winslow, 
 d'eceased; Samuel; Charles, deceased; and Lillian, 
 wife of Howard L. Isbell, of Naugatuck. In po- 
 litical sentiment the father is a Republican. 
 
 Dr. Spring passed his boyhood and youth in New 
 York, and was graduated from the Harvard prep- 
 aratory school. For a few years thereafter he en- 
 gaged in business, and then entered the University 
 of the City of New York, where he completed his 
 medical course and was graduated with the class of 
 1884. He next made a special study of the diseases 
 of Women and Children, and in 1886 came to Nau- 
 gatuck, where he has since successfully engaged in 
 the practice of his chosen profession. He is now 
 associated with Dr. Thomas M. Bull, under the firm 
 name of Spring & Bull, and they have a fine resi- 
 dence and office in Naugatuck. Constant study and 
 close application to the details of their profession 
 have won for them a prominent place in the medical 
 fraternity. 
 
 On Sept. 15, 1879, Dr. Spring was united in 
 marriage with Miss Isabel Brockway, who was born 
 in New York, daughter of Oscar F. Brockway. 
 They now have three children: Gardinar, Eliza- 
 beth Paton and Natalia. The Doctor and his fam- 
 ily are members of the Congregational Church, and 
 be also belongs to Centennial Lodge, No. 100, I. 
 O. O. F., the Knights of Pythias; and the Nauga- 
 tuck, New Haven county and State Medical So- 
 cieties. In his political affiliations he is a Repub- 
 lican. 
 
 WALTER WHITTLESEY BRONSON is the 
 son of William Clark Bronson, and grandson of Ira 
 Virgil Bronson, M. D., who was born in New York, 
 and spent most of his life in Washington, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 The Bronson family in Connecticut begins its 
 American history with John and Richard Bron- 
 son (Brownson or Brunson), the former of whom 
 was early in Hartford, and is believed to have been 
 one of the company which came in 1636 with Rev. 
 Mr. Hooker, of whose church he was a member. 
 During the Pequot war he served as a soldier. He 
 was an original proprietor of Hartford, "by cour- 
 tesie of the town," in 1639. About 1641 he removed 
 to Tunxis, now Farmington, and was deputy from 
 Farmington to the General Court in 1651. His ad- 
 mission to the Farmington Church is recorded Oct. 
 13. 1652, and his death occurred in 1680. John 
 Bronson had the following children: Jacob, John, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 383 
 
 Isaac, Abraham, Mary, Dorcas and Sarah. Of 
 these (i) Jacob, born in 1641, lived in Kensington 
 Society, Farmington, where he died in 1708. His 
 children were: Samuel; Jacob, of Kensington; 
 Roger, of New Milford ; Isaac, of Lyme ; Elizabeth ; 
 and Rebecca. (2) John (2), is mentioned below. 
 (3) Isaac was born in 1645. (4) Abraham, bap- 
 tized in 1647, removed to Lyme. 
 
 Richard Bronson, supposed to have been at Hart- 
 ford with his brother John, removed in 1653 to 
 Farmington, where he united with the local church 
 the following year. His wife was a sister of the 
 wife of Williami Pantry, of Hartford. When he 
 died, in 1687, he had a second wife, Elizabeth, who 
 had been the widow of George Orvis, of Farming- 
 ton, and, still earlier, of David Carpenter. She died 
 in 1694. Richard Bronson had the following chil- 
 dren : Abigail, born about 1643; John, born about 
 1645; and Mary, baptized Feb. 12, 1658 (Farming- 
 ton records). 
 
 John Bronson (2), son of John, was born in 
 1644, became one of the first settlers of Waterbury. 
 His children were: John, of Southington; Eben- 
 ezer, of Woodbury; William, of Farmington; and 
 Moses, who married in 1712, and had a son, Moses, 
 born in 1736. 
 
 Cothren, in his "History of Ancient Woodbury," 
 1854, says: "Moses Bronson, probably a de- 
 scendant of John, of Farmington, removed from 
 Berlin, Conn., to Hillsdale, N. Y. ; had a son 
 Ephraim, who married Bertha Virgil, of Hillsdale, 
 and had fourteen children," giving Ira V., as the 
 fourth child. According to Hinman's "Puritan 
 Settlers of Connecticut," Moses Bronson moved to 
 Hillsdale, N. Y., about 1755, his son Ephraim at 
 that time being a child of about ten years of age. 
 
 Ephraim Bronson reared his family in Hillsdale, 
 Kinderhook, or in Delhi, N. Y., in which places the 
 family resided at different times. They settled last 
 in Groton, N. Y., where Ephraim died. 
 
 Ira Virgil Bronson, M. D., noted in a preced- 
 ing paragraph, was bom Oct. 18, 1778, in New 
 York, and went, while still young, to Simsbury, 
 Conn., where he read medicine with Dr. Everett. 
 In 1804 he removed to Washington, Conn., where he 
 settled and practiced medicine. Dr. Bronson mar- 
 ried Sarah Ann Moseley, daughter of Capt. Abner 
 Moseley, and granddaughter of Increase Moseley, 
 who was born in 1738, and was a member of the 
 Committee on Safety during the war of the Revolu- 
 tion. Dr. Broni&on was a Whig and a Congrega- 
 tionalist. 
 
 William. Clark Bronson spent his early years in 
 Washington, Conn., and married Lucy Ann, daugh- 
 ter of Charles Whittlesey. In his early manhood 
 Mr. Bronson taught school for a time, but his vo- 
 cation was farming. His death occurred in Wash- 
 ington. To him and his good wife were born: 
 (i) Martha Augusta, who married Henry S. Nettle- 
 ton; (2) Mary Ann, who married Edward W. 
 
 Fenn; (3) Walter Whittlesey; and (4) Harriet, 
 who died young. 
 
 Mrs. William C. Bronson traced her descent 
 from (I) John Whittlesey, a native of Cambridge- 
 shire, England, who came to New England with 
 the Lords Say and Seal Company in 1635. Mr. 
 Whittlesey was married there June 20, 1664, to Ruth 
 Dudley. He held a number of town offices, being 
 a number of times elected representative to the 
 General Court between 1644 and 1703. He died 
 April 15, 1704. 
 
 (II) Eliphalet Whittlesey, born July 24, 1679, 
 married Dec. i, 1702, Mary Pratt, and in 1707, they 
 moved to Newington, Conn., where he was engaged 
 in farming. He died Sept. 4, 1757. 
 
 (III) Eliphalet Whittlesey (2), born May 10, 
 1714, married (first) Dec. i6, 1736, Dorothy Kel- 
 logg, and in 1761 removed with his family to Wash- 
 ington, Conn. Mr. Whittlesey was a prosperous 
 farmer, a pillar in the church, one of the leading 
 men in the town in which he lived, and an energetic 
 soldier and officer in the Colonial wars, in which he 
 took an active and important part. He died July 
 17, 1786. 
 
 (IV) Martin Whittlesey, born Oct. 5, 1737, mar- 
 ried Nov. 27, 1760, Sarah Deming. He was a 
 farmer of Newington and Washington. He was 
 a soldier in the war of the Revolution, and became 
 a United States pensioner for the loss of his health 
 incurred in the service. He died May 29, 1800. 
 
 (V) Joseph Whittlesey, born March 20, 1764, 
 married Oct. 6, 1785, Mary (Polly) Camp. He 
 was a captain in the State Militia, and served a 
 number of times as a representative in the State 
 Assembly. He died March 8, 1838. 
 
 (VI) Charles Whittlesey, father of Mrs. Bron- 
 son, born Oct. 5, 1793, married (first) Oct. i, 1816, 
 Mary Ann Camp. He was a farmer in New Pres- 
 ton, Conn., and was a deacon in the church from 
 1826 to his death, which occurred Feb. 6, 1855. 
 
 Walter W. Bronson was born Feb. 18, 1848, in 
 Washington, Conn., and there spent his early days. 
 In 1865 he attended the Connecticut Literary Insti- 
 tute, Suffield, and for several years thereafter 
 taught winter school, working on the farm in the 
 summer season. When he became of age he se- 
 cured a clerkship in a general store at Washington, 
 which he held until he was twenty-four years old. 
 In 1872 Mr. Bronson came to New Haven to enter 
 the store of Robert Barnes Bradley, and remained 
 with him and his successors until the organization of 
 The Bronson & Townsend Co., in December, 1898. 
 His home was in Washington until 1880, when he 
 removed to Waterbury, three years later returning 
 to his Washington home, where he remained until 
 1896, in which year he took up his residence in New 
 Haven. 
 
 Mr. Bronson was married in Washington, Conn., 
 Oct. 4, 1877, to Helen M., daughter of"Seth S. 
 Logan, a farmer and leading citizen of that com- 
 
384 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 munity. Mr. Logan was an old-time Democrat, 
 and at one time held the office of State Comptroller. 
 Walter S. Logan, at one time the president of the 
 New York State Bar Association, is a brother of 
 Mrs. Bronson. To Mr. and Mrs. Bronson have 
 been born three children: (i) Howard Logan, 
 Yale, 1900, is now an instructor in Yale, as an as- 
 sistant to Professor Wright. (2) Clarence Whit- 
 tlesey, Yale, 1900, is now a law student at his alma 
 mater. (3) Lewis Hollister, Yale, 1901, is in the 
 employ of the Bronson & Townsend Co. Walter 
 W. Bronson belongs to the Young Men's Repub- 
 lican Club of New Haven, and in religious connec- 
 tion is a member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 WILLIAM DWIGHT PARKER, original in- 
 ventor of self-playing instruments, has been a resi- 
 dent of Meriden fourteen years, and during that 
 time has been a valued worker in the staff of the 
 Wilcox & White Company. His family is a very 
 old one in New England, having been established 
 here as early as 1630. His father, Charles A. Park- 
 er, was a native of Princeton, Mass., a carpenter and 
 owner of a saw mill, and was possessed of con- 
 siderable mechanical genius, which seems to have 
 been inherent in the family. His death, which oc- 
 curred in Princeton, at the age of forty-six years, 
 was caused by cancer of the stomach. He was an 
 old-line Whig and a member of the Congregational 
 Church. His wife, Sylvia A. Moore, who was also 
 a native of Princeton, was a descendant of an old 
 colonial family, and died while visiting a daughter 
 at Plainfield, N. J. Mrs. Parker, who is buried in 
 Princeton, was the mother of seven children, name- 
 ly: Lucy, Sarah, George, William D., Mary, Ella 
 and Emma F. The fifth and sixth both died in 
 childhood, while the first married Thomas R. Howe, 
 and the second, Milton Howe, both of Princeton. 
 George resides in Champaign, 111., and Emma F. is 
 the widow of George Bartlett, of Princeton, Mass. 
 The subject of this sketch had very little op- 
 portunity to attend school, but has broadened his 
 mind and developed his character by private re- 
 search and discriminating observation. He was ear- 
 ly introduced to wearisome toil, and after working 
 in his father's saw mill until he was sixteen years of 
 age, had qualified to contract for the construction 
 of a house. This early evidence of ambition, en- 
 ergy and ability is still standing, a monument of 
 which he is justly proud. For some time he was 
 employed in the operation of woodworking machin- 
 ery at Worcester, Mass., being first in the service 
 of Howe & Chase, and later with the Bradley Car 
 Company. 
 
 Before attaining his majority, Mr. Parker re- 
 sponded to the call of his country fot volunteers to 
 preserve its integrity, enlisting Aug. 15, 1864, in 
 Co. F, First Battery of Mass. Heavy Artillery, and 
 served until his discharge at Fort Warren, in 1865, 
 at the close of the struggle. In 1865 he returned to 
 Worcester and worked as a carpenter for a short 
 time, subsequently spending four years in the shops 
 
 of Taylor & Farley, organ manufacturers, and eight 
 years with the Loren & Blake Organ Company, 
 of Worcester, being superintendent of its plant dur- 
 ing the last three years. His mind was not idle 
 during this time, but was ever studying the mechan- 
 ism of musical instruments, with a view to design- 
 ing improvements. Many ideas now in universal 
 use are due to his constant study. After leaving. 
 Loren & Blake Organ Company Mr. Parker became 
 a stockholder and director of the Tabor Organ 
 Company, of Worcester, and was superintendent of 
 its factory for five years. Believing in the possi- 
 bilities of the West, he was induced to sell his stock, 
 and invest in the Kansas Organ Company, of Leav- 
 enworth, Kas., in which city he resided one year. 
 Not satisfied with his western environment, he sold 
 out his interests there and returned to Worcester, 
 where he was engaged as inventor and perfector by 
 the Monroe Organ Reed Company, manufacturers- 
 of automatic instruments. 
 
 Mr. Parker became a resident of Meriden in 
 1888, and has since continuously served the interests, 
 of the Wilcox & White Company, makers of the- 
 celebrated "Angelus" — an automatic organ-player,, 
 and other automatic instruments. His skill and 
 faithfulness are well-known, and he fills a re- 
 sponsible and lucrative position in the musical world 
 of Meriden — no circumscribed circle among the in- 
 dustries, of the "Silver City." Though he does not 
 enjoy all the emoluments arising from their manu- 
 facture, the ideas involved in the valuable products 
 of this factory are largely due to the genius and 
 indefatigable effort of Mr. Parker. 
 
 On Christmas day, 1866, William D. Parker mar- 
 ried in Worcester, Mass., Miss Margaret Colwell 
 Smith, who was born in Newport, R. I., a daughter 
 of Morton Smith, of that city. Only one of the^ 
 three children of Mr. and Mrs. Parker is living, 
 namely: Herbert. Two daughters died in child- 
 hood. Mr. Parker is a member of Atherton Lodge^ 
 A. F. & A. M., of Worcester, is a Republican in 
 political principle, and is independent in religious 
 thought. Though he does not affiliate with any 
 established Church organization, he is respected as 
 an honest man and good citizen. The Golden Rule- 
 supplies his moral code, and in the game of life 
 he endeavors to "play fair." 
 
 WILLIAM A. CLARK was born in Seymour, 
 Dec. 25, 1810, and died Jan. 15, 1879. He was en- 
 dowed with inventive genius of a high order, and his 
 justly celebrated expansive bit, which he invented 
 and rnanufactured is one of the most valuable inven- 
 tions in the tool line that has ever been perfected in 
 this country. His large factory in Westville, which 
 was built in 1870, was a model of its kind. He- 
 conducted this establishment until his death, turning- 
 out small hardware, bits, hollow augers, etc. It is 
 also claimed that Mr. Clark invented friction match- 
 es, previous to 1835, and before his location in West- 
 ville he manufactured them in Woodbridge, finally 
 turnmg that business over to his son, Frank E. He- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 385 
 
 employed about fifteen hands in the factory, and 
 seventy-five hands in making the boxes, mostly 
 women and children in their own homes, and turned 
 out twenty thousand gross per year, using sixty 
 thousand feet of lumber. The work was done 
 mostly by hand. Hqwever, Mr. Clark's skill was 
 not confined wholly to invention and manufacturing. 
 He was an up-to-date farmer, his skill in husbandry 
 being unsurpassed in his locality. 
 
 On' June 10, 1841, Mr. Clark married Emily 
 Dibble, a native of Woodbridge, and daughter of 
 John Dibble, who was; born in Woodbridge, where 
 he followed farming all his life. He married Bet- 
 sey Hine, who was born in Woodbridge, a daughter 
 of Moses Hine and granddaughter of Stephen Hine. 
 Philo F. Dibble, the father of John Dibble, was born 
 in Woodbridge, and his father, John Dibble, who 
 graduated from Yale, came from Danbury, Conn. 
 After their marriage WiUiam A. and Emily (Dib- 
 ble) Clark settled in the town of Woodbridge, 
 they were the parents of four children: Will- 
 iam Eugene, Theodore Dibble, Frank Emerson 
 and Jessie A. (Mrs. Newton). William Eugene 
 died when he was twenty-six years old; Theodore 
 Dibble died at the age of thirty-one years ; Frank 
 E. lives in California. Mrs. Clark, the mother, is 
 still living. Jonathan Clark, the father of William 
 A., was a farmer in Woodbridge. He married 
 Amelia Osborn, and had two sons, Elizur and Will- 
 iam A. George Clark, the father of Jonathan, was 
 the fifth in descent from George Clark, the settler, 
 who located in Milford in 1639. 
 
 JAMES DWIGHT DANA, Scientific Explorer, 
 Mineralogist, Geologist, Zoologist, Professor in 
 Yale University. We quote freely from the open- 
 ing chapter of the life of James Dwight Dana, by 
 President D. C. Gilman : 
 
 "The life of Prof. James Dwight Dana is the 
 life of a distinguished naturalist, successively an ex- 
 plorer, an investigator, a writer, an editor and a 
 teacher. His versatility is as noteworthy as his 
 longevity. Gifted with uncommon powers cf ob- 
 servation, memory, comparison and reasoning, he 
 devoted them to the science of mineralogy, geology 
 and zoology. He had the advantage of a favorable 
 environment in hisi youth — at home, at school and at 
 college. Rare opportunities were subsequently en- 
 joyed for seeing the most interesting parts of the 
 globe — a visit to the Mediterranean sea; a voyage 
 around the world, with prolonged stay among the 
 South Sea Islands ; a summer in Switzerland ; and 
 a journey, .later in life, across the American conti- 
 nent, and beyond it to the Hawaiian islands. Long 
 periods of quiet study and reflection intervened. 
 Close relations with the most distinguished investi- 
 gators in this country and abroad (principally by 
 correspondence), and the prompt reception of their 
 latest publications and their communications to the 
 journal of which he was an editor, gave him early 
 information of the progress of science and quickened 
 
 25 
 
 in him the spirit of research. The duties of an in- 
 structor, never burdensome, kept him in touch with 
 youth. During the latter half of his life he suffered 
 from continuous ill health, but by calmness of mind 
 and economy of energy, by extraordinary concentra- 
 tion white he was at work, and by habits of complete 
 repose at stated intervals, he accomplished far more 
 than ordinary men who have no sense of mental 
 weariness and no bodily ailment. With self-imposed 
 restrictions, supported by the cheerfulness and se- 
 renity of his wife and children, he continued to work 
 until the very last hours of his life, which extended 
 two )'ears beyond four-score. Death came to him 
 with a gentle summons after he had been crowned 
 with abundant honors, and after his contribution to 
 science had given him the foremost rank among 
 his scientific countrymen and an honorable place 
 among illustrious naturalists of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 "Mr. Dana's life, in the main, is one of tranquifity. 
 Its chief interest consists in the unfolding of a mind 
 of rare abilities, and in the progress of his scientific 
 work. Yet during his long career there were inci- 
 dents of more or less exciting nature, such as the 
 perils of the sea, including shipwreck ; the observa- 
 tion of life among cannibals ; the ascent of lofty 
 ^mountains ; the pleasures of discovery in unknown 
 regions ; the interchange of ideas with the leaders 
 of contemporary thought ; the controversies of sci- 
 ence and religion, and the earnest discussions inci- 
 dent to the advancement of knowledge. The re- 
 organization of a university, the building up of a 
 school of science, the establishment of a museum 
 of natural history, the conduct of the American 
 Journal of Science, the maintenance of correspond- 
 ence with investigators from Berzelius to Darwin, 
 and the inspiration of successive generations of 
 young students are among the services of his life. 
 Five great works, several smaller volumes, and 
 numerous minor publications are enduring illustra- 
 tions of his ability. 
 
 "Problems of world-wide interest engaged his 
 attention. Opportunities such as will never come 
 again were opened to him in the exploration of the 
 Pacific ocean. Moreover, he lived in a period when 
 scientific inquiry was more varied, comprehensive 
 and exact than it ever was before in the progress 
 of mankind ; when new fields invited students ; 
 when new instruments of research were at his com- 
 mand ; and large outlays for the advancement of 
 science were made by institutions and governrhents. 
 The great principle of evolution was announced 
 and developed during this period, and Dana's cor- 
 respondence on this and kindred subjects;, with 
 Darwin, Gray, Agassiz and Guyot, and his success- 
 ive papers, bearing more or less on this subject, 
 are of significance in the history of the acceptance 
 of that doctrine. 
 
 "James Dwight Dana was born Feb. 12, 1813, in 
 Utica, Oneida Co., N. Y., the eldest of ten children 
 of James and Harriet (Dwight) Dana, who were 
 
386 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married in 1812, she a diaugiiter of Seth Dwight, 
 of Williamsburg, Mass. Mr. Dana's forefathers 
 had lived in Massachusetts for several generations. 
 He removed to Utica soon after his marriage, and 
 died there in August, i860. 
 
 "The parents of James Dwight Dana were alike 
 characterized by thrift, integrity and good sense. 
 Both of them were of strong religious convictions, 
 based upon the modern Calvinistic doctrines of the 
 Congregational Church, to which they belonged. 
 Everything in his home life at Utica was wholesome 
 and invigorating." 
 
 Prof. Dana attended the Utica high school after 
 his fourteenth year, from which school he went to 
 Yale College, in 1830, attracted, as he afterward 
 said, by the reputation of Prof. Benjamin Silliman, 
 who was then at the height of his reputation as a 
 teacher, lecturer and editor, and under whose guid- 
 ance many of the leaders in American science re- 
 ceived their erliest training. He began his new 
 life at the (beginning of the Sophomore year, and 
 graduated, B. A., in 1833. In his Senior year he 
 offered himself for the position of teacher of the 
 midshipmen in the United States Navy. This ap- 
 pointment he received, and in this capacity he 
 visited the ports; of France, Italy, Greece and 
 Turkey while on the "Delaware" and the "United 
 States." From 1836 to 1838 he was assistant in 
 chemistry to Prof. Silliman. In December, 1836, he 
 was appointed mineralogist and geologist of the 
 United States exploring expedition then about to be 
 sent out by the United States government to the 
 Southern and Pacific oceans under the command of 
 Capt. Charles Wilkes. The expedition sailed in 
 August, 1838. Mr. Dana was on the "Peacock" 
 until it was wrecked on a sand-bar at the mouth of 
 the Columbia river, July 18, 1841. With this ex- 
 pedition he was absent from the United States three 
 years, returning in the summer of 1842, making 
 his residence at Washington from 1842 to 1844. 
 Relations were quickly established with the fore- 
 most naturalists in America and Europe. For more 
 than a decade his absorbing duties consisted in the 
 preparation of three voluminous reports entrusted 
 to him. Besides mineralogy and geology, he had 
 under his supervision the zoological department, in- 
 cluding the Crustacea and corals. Mr. Dana had 
 been first appointed in the field of geology, and his 
 observations and deductions are given in a large 
 quarto valume of 756 pages, with a folio atlas of 
 21 plates (1849). Later, however, in part because 
 of the return of one of his colleagues to the United 
 States, he asisumed -charge of the Crustacea and 
 zoophytes. These combined departments gave full 
 scope to his zeal and industry. The result of his 
 work in this departments of zoology include a Re- 
 port on Zoophytes, a quarto volume of 741 pages, 
 with a folio atlas of 61 plates (1846) ; and a Report 
 on Crustacea, in two quarto volumes, aggregating 
 1620 pages (1853), accompanied by a folio atlas of 
 ninety plates (1854). A large part of the drawing 
 of the plates in both books was made by the ex- 
 
 plorer's own hand. These were published by the 
 government in Washington, and only a hundred 
 copies of each were is.sued. 
 
 In 1850 he was appointed Silliman professor of 
 Natural History and Geology in Yale College, and 
 entered into the administration of the chair in 1856. 
 The subsequent delivery of the lectures on natural 
 history by others led to a change in the title of the 
 professorship, in 1864, to that of Geology and Min- 
 eralogy. During the earlier years of his professor- 
 ship the measures were adopted which transformed 
 the rudimentary Scientific School of Yale College 
 into that great institution which bears the name of 
 it; chief benefactor, and is widely known as the 
 Sheffield Scientific School. In the plans for its ex- 
 pansion Dana took an active and influential part. 
 He inquired into the work of kindred institutions 
 in Europe, as they were described to him by those 
 who had lately returned from studies abroad, and 
 he advocated the adoption of some of their methods. 
 He urged the securing of an endowment, and he 
 pointed out the uses that could be made of funds 
 which should be supplementary and auxiliary to 
 those already held by Yale College. The cabinet of 
 minerals belonging to Yale received a great deal of 
 attention and care. Professor Dana undertook its 
 arrangement and the preparation of labels, conform- 
 ing closely to his own manual of Alineralogy, and 
 he encouraged the students and public to visit freely 
 the collections. He was one of the original board 
 of trustees, and the construction of the building, 
 as regards internal arrangements, was largely deter- 
 mined by plans made by him. 
 
 Like Silliman, Dana was soon invited to deliver 
 public lectures in different cities, usually under the 
 auspices of Young Men's Institutes. The only ex- 
 tended tour that he consented to make was made in 
 the winter of 1857, when he visited, in rapid succes- 
 sion, Utica, Fort Plains, Canajoharie, Bufifalo, Cleve- 
 land, Louisville, Cincinnati and Pittsburg. From the 
 enthusiastic report of his lecture upon "Corals" in 
 Utica, his native place, it is obvious that he held the 
 audience in delighted attention. "No scientific lectur- 
 er ever spoke more directly than he to the popular 
 appreciation and instruction. To lively and pic- 
 turesque language he added an earnest, distinct and 
 pleasant delivery." Not far from thirty vears had 
 passed since the Utica schoolboy was collecting 
 rocks and minerals, and now he came "home" with 
 wide experience, high station and national renown, 
 to address his townsmen on the most fascinating 
 branches of geological investigation. 
 
 For fifty years Mr. Dana was associate editor of 
 the American Journal of Science and Arts, now the 
 oldest scientific paper in the United States. The 
 duties connected with this journal received a large 
 portion of his time, for that period, a service entitled 
 to ample recognition. This journal was founded by 
 the elder Benjamin Silliman in 1818, and conducted 
 chiefly by him alone until 1838, when his son, Ben- 
 jamin Silliman, Jr., late professor of chemistry in 
 the college, was associated with him, and with the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 387 
 
 beginning of the second series Mr. Dana, soon to 
 l)e made Professor of Geology and Mineralogy, be- 
 came also one of the editors-in-chief. These two 
 gentlemen then carried on the work together, the 
 senior editor having retired, but later most of the 
 editorial labor devolved upon Prof. Dana, and this 
 remained true until the later years of his life. Then 
 these duties were assumed by his son, Edward S. 
 Dana, whose name appears among its editors-in- 
 chief in 1875. 
 
 Dana's Manual of Geology first appeared in 1862, 
 and the subsequent editions came in 1874, 1880 and 
 1895. This work, as his son has said, is not simply 
 a compilation of facts, but a development of the 
 whole subject with a breadth, philosophy and orig- 
 inality of treatment that have seldom been attempt- 
 ed. Among hi& works in book form are "System 
 of Mineralogy" (New Haven, 1837; 5th edition, re- 
 vised. New York, 1868) ; "Manual of Mineralogy" 
 (New Haven, 1848; 4th edition, revised in New 
 York, 1881); "Coral Reefs and Islands" (New 
 York, 1853) ; "Manual of Geology" (Philadelphia, 
 1863 ; 3d edition, revised in New York, 1880) ; 
 "Text Book of Geology" (1864; 4th edition, revised, 
 1883) ; "Coral and Coral Islands" (New York, 
 1853) ; "The Geological Story Briefly Told" (1875; 
 levisedj 1895). 
 
 Professor Dana was a member of scientific socie- 
 ties in the United States and abroad, including the 
 Royal Society of London, the Institute of France, 
 the Royal Academy of the Lincei of Rome, the 
 Royal Academies of Berlin, Vienna and St. Peters- 
 burg, and one of the original members of the Acad- 
 emy of Science in the United States. For a time 
 he attended the meetings of the American Associa- 
 tion for the Advancement of Science, and the Na- 
 tional Academy of Sciences, of both of which 
 he was chosen president. But he had no liking for 
 such assemblies, and as years went on he excused 
 himself more and more frequently from engage- 
 ments which took him away from home at periods 
 fixed for the convenience of others. Throughout 
 his later life academic honors had been abundant. 
 Am.herst College conferred upon him the honorary 
 degree of Doctor of Laws, in 1853, before he en- 
 tered upon the professorship of Yale. He was ad- 
 mitted to the like distinction at Harvard, in 1886, 
 and at Edinburgh in 1889; from Munich, in 1872, 
 he received the honorary degree of Doctor of Phil- 
 osophy. On several occasions he was the recipient 
 of distinctions still more personal. The Copley medal 
 was awarded him by the Council of the Royal So- 
 ciety of London. Five years before, in 1872, the 
 A\"ollastan medal of the Royal Geological Society 
 of London had been awarded to him for his con- 
 tributions to mineralogy and geology. The^ Royal 
 Society of New South Wales awarded him the Clark 
 jMemorial medal, in 1882. 
 
 Professor Dana's religious life "was simple and 
 devout, full of good will to all men, absolutely free 
 from dogmatism and obtrusiveness. Even among 
 
 his most intimate friends he rarely referred to his 
 inmost convictions and hopes." Just before the ex- 
 pedition sailed he became a member of the First 
 Church of Christ in New Haven, and in later life he 
 was a communicant in the college church and was 
 constant in his attendance upon divine worship. In 
 national politics he was deeply interested in all the 
 controversies that preceded the Civil war. He was 
 strongly devoted to the cause of the Union, but 
 never participated in public meetings. 
 
 Some; months after Mr. Dana's return from the 
 Pacific, he announced his engagement to Miss Hen- 
 rietta Silliman, daughter of his former teacher, 
 Benjamin Silliman, and sister of his future colleague, 
 Benjamin Silliman, Jr. The marriage took place in 
 New Haven, June 5, 1844, ^i^d after that New Haven 
 was his permanent abode. The happiness of the 
 home was greatly increased by the children that 
 from time to time came into it. These were six in 
 all, of whom four survive, two — a son and a daugh- 
 ter — died of diphtheria in early childhood, in Au- 
 gust, 1861. The eldest daughter, Frances, has been 
 since November, 1870, the wife of George D. Coit, 
 of Norwich, Conn. The eldest son, Edward Salis- 
 bury, is well known as his father's associate in the 
 faculty of Yale LTniversity, and in the editorship o£ 
 the Journal of Science. Another son, Arnold Guyot, 
 is connected with the Financial Chronicle, edited by 
 his uncle, William B. Dana, in New York City. 
 The youngest daughter is still her mother's com- 
 panion. 
 
 Prof. Dana died at his home on Hillhouse ave- 
 nue, New Haven, April 14, 1895. 
 
 JOHN JOEL OSBORN, for many years one 
 of New Haven's leading busintsji men and promi- 
 nent citizens, and several of whose children are 
 now identified with the city's interests, notably John 
 J. and Frederick A. (the latter engaged in the life 
 insurance business), was a representative of one of 
 New Haven's Colonial families — a familj' whose de- 
 scendants have been closely allied with the growth 
 and progress of the city and vicinity, the name oc- 
 curring in different lines of trade and in the vari- 
 ous professions through a period of 260 years. 
 
 Born Dec. 18, 1817, in New Haven, Conn., Mr. 
 Osborn was a son of Joel and Nancv ( Hitchcock) 
 Osborn, and a grandson of Capt. Medad and Ra- 
 chael (Hotchkiss) Osborn, both Captain and Joel 
 Osborn being of New Haven, and were engaged in 
 farming and manufacturing in the line of woolen 
 goods. Capt. Medad Osborn was a soldier of the 
 Revolution. 
 
 It is stated in Atwater's history of New Haven 
 that John Joel Osborn was a descendant in the 
 eighth generation from Thomas Osborn, who set- 
 tled in New Haven in 1638. Savage, in his "Gen- 
 ealogical Dictionary of New England," gives a 
 Thomas Osborn of New Haven, 1639, and as remov- 
 ing to Easthampton, L. I., in 1650. The town of 
 Easthamipton was purchased as far eastward as 
 
388 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Montauk in 1648 by Theophilus Eaton, Governor 
 of the Colony of ■ New Haven, and Edward Hop- 
 kins, Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, for the 
 fcenefit of the original settlers, and was assigned to 
 them in the spring of 1651. Six of the nine original 
 settlers of the town were from Lynn, Mass., to that 
 point. Thomas Osborn's name is not given as one 
 of the original nine settlers, but it is one on the list 
 of those who followed, and became verv early their 
 associates. Hedges, in his Address and History of 
 Easthampton, L. I. (1839), from which the fore- 
 going relative to Easthampton was taken, says that 
 Thomas Osborn died Sept. 12, 1712, aged ninety 
 years, and that the "Osborn family appears to have 
 been eminent for their industry, frugality, morality 
 and piety." 
 
 John Joel Osborn early met with a two-fold mis- 
 fortune — the loss of his father and his own health — 
 his father dying when the lad was eight years of 
 age, and for seven years John J. was an invalid 
 confined to the house. After the regaining of his 
 health he attended a well-known school at Wilbra- 
 ham, Mass. He returned from school in 1833, at a 
 period when the city of New Haven seemed to be 
 the .center of the carriage manufacturing business 
 of the country. Young O'sborn became an appren- 
 tice to the carriage business with Isaac Mix & Sons, 
 then one of the two leading firms in the business in 
 that city, the other being JameS' Brewster. This 
 firm failed during the panic of 1837, and Mr. Osborn 
 found employment in a carriag-e factory in the town 
 of Milford, Conn., and two years later, in 1839, 
 bought out his employer. In 1840 Mr. Osborn 
 closed up the Milford business, and became asso- 
 ciated in the same kind of business as a partner of 
 the late Henry Hooker, of carriage manufacture 
 note, under the firm name of Hooker & Osborn. 
 These gentlemen in 1841 established a branch house 
 at Richmond, Va., and soon afterward another 
 branch at New Orleans, La. Mr. Osborn took 
 charge of the house at Richmond and lived in that 
 city from 1841 to 1852, and built up an extensive 
 business. On July I, 1855, Mr. Osborn purchased 
 Mr. Hooker's interest in th© business in Richmond 
 and New Haven, and the following year took in 
 with him as a partner John Adriance, and the two 
 were associated together in carrying on the business 
 until 1879, when Mr. Osborn retired from active 
 business, and thereafter until his death, which oc- 
 curred June 25, 1887, devoted his time to his pri- 
 vate business affairs. H!is career was one of marked 
 success, he early displayed characteristics which go 
 to make up a successful business life. He was a 
 man of excellent judgment and ability, and his 
 opinions were regarded' as of the best — good and 
 safe — and he was not infrequently consulted in re- 
 gard to business matters. He owned considerable 
 property in New Haven. He was a plain, unassum- 
 ing gentleman and greatly attachecl to his family 
 and home. 
 
 On June 27, 1853, Mr. Osborn was married to 
 
 Charlotte A. Gilbert, of Seymour, Conn., a daugh- 
 ter of Ezekiel Gilbert, a retired New Haven mer- 
 chant, and a descendant of Judge Matthew Gilbert^ 
 an early settler of the Colony of New Haven. 
 Ezekiel Gilbert, father of Mrs. Osborn, was the son- 
 of Thomas Gilbert, who was a farmer and shoema- 
 ker in the town of Huntington, Fairfield Co., Conn. 
 He served in the Revolutionary war. Six children 
 were born to John J. and Charlotte A. (Gilbert) 
 Osborn, namely: Curtis E., who died an infant; 
 Robert G. ; John J. ; Frederick A. ; Virginia ; and 
 Seldcn Yale. 
 
 JARED BENHAM. The expression the "dig- 
 nity of labor" is exemplified in the life record of 
 this gentleman, who, without reserve, attributes his 
 success to earnest work. He is a man of strong 
 force of character, purposeful and energetic, and his 
 keen discrimination and sound judgment are shown 
 in his capable management of what is one of the 
 leading industrial concerns of Hamden — the Ham- 
 den Manufacturing Co. — of which he is president. 
 
 Mr. Benham was born on the farm where he 
 now resides. May 18, 1823, and belongs to an old 
 New Haven county family. His paternal grand- 
 father. Deacon Joseph Benham, was a native of the 
 town of Cheshire, born in 1750, and there he grew 
 to manhood and learned the tanner's and shoe- 
 maker's trades. After his marriage he came to 
 Hamden, where he continued to follow his chosen 
 occupation throughout his active business life, but 
 he spent his last days in retirement from labor with 
 the father of our subject. He always took a deep 
 interest in public affairs, and was numbered among 
 the useful and respected citizens of the community 
 in which he lived. In Cheshire he married Miss 
 Elizabeth Bunnell, a native of that town, born about 
 1752. _ She died in Hamden in 1832, and he passed 
 away in the same place Jan. 25, 1836, and both were 
 buried in the Hamden Plains cemetery. They were 
 earnest, consistent Christian people, and held mem- 
 bership in the Congregational Church, of which 
 Mr. Benham was a deacon. Their children were 
 George, Amos, Ransom, Betsey, Ada, Jared (who 
 died at sea) and Isaac, all now deceased. 
 
 Isaac Benham, father of our subject, was born 
 in Hamden Aug. 2, 1791, and received only a dis- 
 trict-school education. He learned the shoemaker's 
 trade with his father, and made the same his life 
 work. He owned the small farm on which our sub- 
 ject now resides, partly built a house, and made 
 other improvements upon the place. The house is 
 still standing, and is kept in good repair. Mr. Ben- 
 ham was noted for his temperate habits, was a 
 strong advocate of the cause of temperance, and arr 
 active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 in which he served as class-leader and held several 
 church offices. Politically he was first a Whig and 
 later a Republican, but never sought political hon- 
 ors. On March 8, 1815, he married Miss Annie 
 Tuttle, a daughter of Aaron Tuttlfr, and a school 
 
(^tA.,^^^^ /^^^-^^-T^^rt-^^^^j^'i^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL. RECORD. 
 
 339 
 
 teacher, who was born m Middlebury, Conn., Jan. 
 ^°' 179s. and died in Hamden Aug. 2, 1876. She 
 "was a lady of education and refinement, and was also 
 a faithful member of the' Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. The father died at his home in Hamden, 
 Jan. 23, 1879, from the effects of an injury he had 
 received in the bowels, and was laid to rest by the 
 side of his wife in the family cemetery in Hamden 
 Plains. To them were born four children: (i) 
 "William, born March 4, 1817, a retired citizen of 
 North Haven, married March 27, 1843, Nancy Ives, 
 who was born Aug. 22, 1817, and died July 11, 1884, 
 the mother of two children, Addie Betsey and Anna 
 Nancy. (2,) Isaac, born July 6, 1821, died when 
 one day old. (3) Jared is the subject proper of 
 this review. (4) Betsey Ann, born Sept. 30, 1827, 
 died July 30, 1846. Isaac Benham, the father, was 
 a most remarkably well-preserved man, and at his 
 advanced age he was spoken of by all as a man who 
 surely would live to be one hundred. He lived a 
 -most exemplary life, his influence and example al- 
 ways for right and the betterment of all. 
 
 The common schools of Hamden afforded Jared 
 Benham his educational advantages, but he was able 
 to attend school only through the winter months, 
 as he was employed during the remainder of the 
 year on the home farn'i, or by neighboring farmers, 
 after he attained his fifteenth year, and his small 
 wages went toward the support of his parents until 
 lie attained his majority. At the age of twenty.-one 
 his father gave him $100 and a cheap satinet suit of 
 clothes, as was the style those days, as a bonus, and 
 "he found employment in the rubber shop of L. Can- 
 ■dee & Co., of Hamden, where he at first worked for 
 $1 per day. During the eleven years he remained 
 -with that company, by the faithful discharge of his 
 duties, he worked his way upward to the position of 
 superintendent of the packing department. The 
 following year he engaged in farming in Hamden, 
 and then obtained a position in the auger and bit 
 manufactory of W. Churchill & Co., where he was 
 gradually advanced until he became manager of the 
 l^lant. Later he was a stockholder of Ives & Co., 
 in the same line of business, and when that firm dis- 
 continued business he became a stockholder, man- 
 ager and treasurer of the Hamden Manufacturing 
 Co. On the retirement of Horace P Shares as 
 president he was elected to that office, which he has 
 •since filled, in connection with that of assistant treas- 
 urer, to the entire satisfaction of all concerned. 
 
 In 1844, in Hamden, Mr. Benham married Miss 
 Hhoda M. Woodin, a native of that town, and a 
 daughter of Charles and Betsey (Cooper) Woodin. 
 Her paternal grandfather was Benjamin Woodin, 
 "her maternal grandfather Abram Cooper, a soldier 
 of the Revolutionary war. Two children have been 
 "born to 'Mr. and Mrs. Benham: (i) Charles Isaac, 
 secretary and manager of the Hamden Manufactur- 
 ing Co., was married May 9, 1867, to Miss Emma 
 Adelle Dorman, and they have children as follows: 
 Charles Jared, a thrifty and enterprising merchant 
 
 in the flour, feed and grain business in New Haven, 
 born April 12, 1868, married Dec. 25, 1890, Miss 
 Kathleen Peters, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and has one 
 daughter, Mildred Adelle, born Jan. 7, 1892 ; Sarah 
 M. was born Oct. 17, 1882; and Leroy Orrin was 
 born March 7, 1891. (2) Jared A., also with the 
 Hamden Manufacturing Co., was educated in the 
 district schools and the schools of New Haven. He 
 was married Dec. 4, 1870, to Ineetta Potter. He 
 is very prominent in social circles, is a member of 
 Day Spring Lodge, F. & A. M., of Hamden; the 
 Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of 
 Pythias, and Sterling Lodge, A. O. U. W., all of 
 New Haven; Ansantawae Tribe, I. O. R. M.; Jun- 
 ior Order United American Mechanics ; Washington 
 Camp, P. O. S. A.; Golden Rule Encampment, I. 
 O. O. F. ; and the Mutual Aid Association. 
 
 By his ballot Jared Benham, our subject, has 
 supported first the Whig and later the Republican 
 party, but he has never sought political preferment, 
 though he was at one time a candidate for repre- 
 sentative, losing the election by a single vote. He 
 had frequently declined to allow his name to be 
 used as a candidate, and this defeat came at a time 
 when Harnden was a Democratic town. At the regu- 
 lar election the vote was tie, which was voted over 
 on the day after election, at which time Mr. Ben- 
 ham was bedfast with pneumonia. In town affairs 
 Mr. Benham looks first to the man, and his political 
 connection has been simply that of a good citizen, 
 who has at heart the town's welfare. He is well 
 known and highly respected by all classes on ac- 
 count of his sterling worth. He continues to reside 
 on the old homestead, where he has made many im- 
 provements, including the erection of a fine resi- 
 dence, supplied with all modern conveniences, and 
 this beautiful home is noted for its hospitality and 
 good cheer. For the success that Air. Benham has 
 achieved in life he deserves great credit, for it is 
 due entirely to his own well-directed efforts and 
 strict integrity. 
 
 In church affairs Mr. Benham has shown greater 
 activity than in politics. He has always been prom- 
 inently identified with church work, as also was his 
 estimable wife in her lifetime. In the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, during over forty-five years, he 
 was always in some office, holding every office in the 
 church at different times, except that of class-leader, 
 which he declined. In Sabbath-school work he took 
 an active part. He was for years a teacher, and for 
 almost thirty years was superintendent. The fol- 
 lowing set of resolutions were given him by Ham- 
 den Plains Sabbath-school in I'ecognition of his 
 faithful services : 
 
 Whrrkas, Our esteemed brother, Jared Benham, has 
 for more than a quarter of a century filled the office of 
 Sabbath School Superintendent in the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, at Hamden Plains, Cnnn., 
 
 Resolrcil, That the Sabbath School Board, composed of 
 officers and teachers, and representing more than 200 mem- 
 bers, do record our hi^h estimate of the ability, the integ- 
 rity, the liberality, and the self-denying labors oE our dear 
 
390 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 brother, whose disinterested efforts for the welfare of the 
 school, we have seen and admired. 
 
 Reaolved, That his presence in the school has yielded us 
 the highest gratification, and his cheerful spirit and strong 
 and steady faith in God has enlisted our affection and 
 inspired us with greater efforts in the work of our blessed 
 Lord. 
 
 Resolved, That we desire Heaven's richest blessings to 
 rest upon him and that the same may attend him through 
 life. 
 
 Resolved, That these resolutions be entered in the Sab- 
 bath School record book, also that a copy be prepared and 
 neatly framed and presented to Brother Benham. 
 Hamden, Conn., March, 1884. 
 
 [Signed] Nelson L. Porter, 
 
 Hubert E. Warner. 
 Edward D. Sanford. 
 
 Mrs. Jared Benham died IMay 22, 1901, after 
 fifty-six years of married life, and was bt,iried in 
 Hamden Plains cemetery. She was a noble, kind- 
 hearted, Christian woman, who had the profound 
 respect of ever)' one. The life of jNIr. Benham has 
 been one of constant effort to do unto others as he 
 wished to be done by. Xo- man in Hamden has, 
 to any greater extent, the respect of every one. His 
 kind and gentle manner is known of by old and 
 young. His remarkable activity and well-preserved 
 condition are the result of a temperate life- and regu- 
 lar habits. When eighteen years old he made his 
 mother a promise never to use tobacco, and he never 
 did afterward. He tasted ale once when a young 
 man, and that was the last time he ever used intoxi- 
 cants, and he is just as strong in example as in pre- 
 cept. He was a "home spun' boy of his time, reared 
 under Christian influence and teachings, and has ever 
 endeavored to live a Christian life, not one day, but 
 seven days in the week. His nearly eighty years 
 of life have been spent, with exception of a few 
 years, at the same home where he is now passing the 
 evening of his well-spent life. 
 
 BENJAMIN SILLIMAN, M. D., LL. D., Pro- 
 fessor of Chemistry, Mineralogy and Geology in 
 Yale College from. 1802 to 1865, and the most emi- 
 nent teacher of Natural Science of his time in Amer- 
 ica, was born in North Stratford (now Trumbull), 
 Conn., Aug. 8, 1779. In the following pages we 
 quote freely from the memoirs of Prof. Silliman by 
 Prof. George P. Fisher. 
 
 Daniel Silliman, the first of the name who set- 
 tied in Fairfield, Conn., is understood in the tradi- 
 tions of the family to 'have, been an immigrant from 
 Holland. "Later discoveries, in which Professor 
 Silliman was much interested, indicate that the fam- 
 ily was of Italian origin. At the epoch of the Ref- 
 orm.ation persons bearing the name of Sillimandi, 
 and professing the Reformed faith, removed from 
 Lucca, in Tuscany, and took refuge in Geneva, then 
 the common resort of persecuted Protestants. Their 
 descendants, who had dropped the terminal syllable 
 di from the name, are found established in Swit- 
 zerland. They have among them the tradition that 
 a member of their family, named Daniel Silliman, 
 who had held a civil office in Berne, left that city 
 
 for political reasons and went to America about the 
 time of the Puritan emigration from England. There 
 are strong reasons for believing that the first Daniel 
 Silliman of Fairfield was either the emigrant from 
 Berne, or a near relative. In this case Holland may 
 have been a temporary place of sojourn, and at any 
 rate,, from Holland he would naturally embark for 
 America, which will perhaps account for the tradi- 
 tion which identifies the progenitor of the Fairfield 
 Sillimans with that country." 
 
 Judge Ebenezer Silliman (1707-1775), the 
 grandfather of Professor Silliman, was a graduate 
 of Yale College in the class of 1727; he pursued the 
 profession of law, became a judge of the Superior 
 Court of the Colony, and was a member of the 
 Governor's Council. He was the proprietor of a 
 large landed estate, and an influential man in public 
 affairs. His son,. Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman (1732- 
 1790), the father of Professor Silliman, was like- 
 wise graduated from Yale College, in 1752. After 
 engaging for a short time in business he studied 
 law, and became a successful practitioner at the Bar, 
 as is indicated by his holding the office of Prosecut- 
 ing Attorney for the County. He had interested 
 himself in military affairs, and at the outbreak of the 
 Revolution was a Colonel of Cavalry in the local 
 inilitia. But during most of the war he was Brig- 
 adier-General, and wasi charged with the superin- 
 tendency of the defense of the Southwestern front- 
 ier of Connecticut, which, on account of the long 
 occupation of the: City of New York and West- 
 chester county, as well as Long Island, b}^ the Brit- 
 ish, was a post requiring much vigilance and effi- 
 ciency. He took the field at the head of a regiment 
 early in 1776, was in the battle of Long Island, and 
 both in that retreat and in the retreat of tire Ameri- 
 can forces from New York City his command was 
 placed as the rear guard. He bore a perilous and 
 honorable part in the battle of White Plains, and on- 
 this, as on several other occasions, narrowly escaped 
 the balls of the enemy. While serving in the camp 
 of Washington, Gen. Silliinan enjoved his confi- 
 dence. In May, 1779, a party that was sent to 
 Lloyd's Neck by Sir Henry Clinton surprised Gen. 
 Silliinan in his own house, and for a year he re- 
 mained a prisoner on parole at Flatbush and Graves- 
 end, L. I. Subsequently he was exchanged. 
 
 On his inother's side Professor Silliman was di- 
 rectly descended from Pilgrims of the "Mayflower."" 
 His grandmother, whose maiden name was Rebecca 
 Peabody, was the daughter of Elizabeth Peabody, 
 who lies buried in Little Compton, R. I., and was 
 well remembered by her grandson, she dying in her 
 eightieth year at his father's house, and she was 
 fourteen when her grandmother died ; and her 
 mother was tlie daughter of John Alden and Pris- 
 cilJa MuUins, the legend of whose love, whic'h 
 brought disappointment to the hopes of Miles Stand- 
 ish, has been commemorated in Mr. Longfellow's 
 verse. 
 
 The grandfather of Professor Silliman in the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 SQJ' 
 
 maternal line was Rev. Joseph Fish, a graduate of 
 Harvard College, and for fifty years the pastor of 
 a church in North Stonington, Conn., whose repu- 
 tation as a man of exemplary piety is sustained by 
 his letters. Hi& eldest daughter, Mary Fish, the 
 mother of Professor Silliman, was first married, in 
 1758, to the Rev. John Noyes, son of the pastor of 
 the First Church in New Haven. Mr. Noyes died 
 in 1767. Her marriage with Gen. Silliman took 
 place in 1775. He had been previously married, and 
 a son, William Silliman, the fruit of this earlier mar- 
 riage, was now a youth. Three of her children also 
 survived, Joseph, John and James Noyes, the last 
 two of whom ultimately became faithful ministers 
 of the Gospel, and died at an advanced age. In 
 1804 she was married a third time, to Dr. John 
 Dickenson, of Middletown, who died in 181 1. Her 
 own death occurred in 1818. "She combined in her 
 nature a woman's tenderness with a remarkable 
 fund of energy and fortitude." 
 
 Benjamin Silliman was prepared for college un- 
 der the tuition of his pastor, Rev. Andrew Elliot. 
 He entered Yale College in 1792, and was graduated 
 in 1796, and passed the following year at the home 
 of his mother in Fairfield, which had been the place 
 of residence of the Sillimans from the early Colo- 
 nial days. He then taught school in Wethersfield, 
 and was a resident there the greater part of the 
 vear 1798. In that same year he returned to New 
 Haven, and began the study of law in the office of 
 Simeon Baldwin; and in September, 1799, when he 
 had reached the age of twenty, he was appointed a 
 tutor in Yale. This he held until his admission to 
 the Bar, in 1802. One of his classmates and a tutor 
 in Yale with him was Charles Denison, and both 
 were admitted to the Bar at the same time. Denison 
 became a lawyer of high repute. Among his fellow 
 pupils were two with whom he was destined to be 
 intimately associated for nearly the whole of his 
 long life, Jeremiah Day and James L. Kingsley. 
 
 At this period in young Silliman's life natural 
 science was beginning to attract the attention of 
 educators. The corporation of Yale had, several 
 years before, at the recommendation of President 
 Dwight, passed a vote or resolution to establish a 
 professorship of Chemistry and Natural History 
 as soon as the funds would admit it. The time had 
 arrived when the college could safely carry the reso- 
 lution into effect, and at the solicitation of President 
 Dwight Mr. Silliman abandoned the profession of 
 the law and devoted himself to the profession of 
 science. The circumstances of this change of plan 
 he describes as follows : "The president then did me 
 the honor to propose that I should consent to have 
 mv name presented to the corporation, giving me 
 at the same time the assurance of his cordial sup- 
 port, and of his belief that the appointment would 
 be made. I was then approaching twenty-two years 
 of age — still a youth, or only entering on early man- 
 hood. I was startled and almost oppressed by his 
 proposal. A profession — that of the law — in the 
 
 study of which I was already far advanced, was ta 
 be abandoned, and a new profession was to be ac- 
 quired, preceded by a course of study and prepara- 
 tion, too, in a direction in which in Connecticut 
 there was no precedent. The good President per- 
 ceived my surprise and emibarrassment, and with 
 his usual kindness and resource proceeded to remark 
 to this effect : T could not propose to you a course 
 of life and of effort which would promise more use- 
 fulness or more reputation. The profession of the 
 law does not need you ; it is already full, and many 
 eminent men adorn our courts of justice; you may 
 also be obliged to cherish a hope long deferred, be- 
 fore success would crown your efforts in that pro- 
 fesion, although, if successful, you may become rich- 
 er by the law than you can by science. In the pro- 
 fession which I proffer to you there will be no rival 
 here. The field will be all your own. The study- 
 will be full of interest and gratification, and the pre- 
 sentation which you will be able to make of it to the 
 college classes and the public will afford much in- 
 struction and delight. Our country, as regards the 
 physical sciences, is rich in unexplored treasures, and 
 by aiding in their development you will perform an 
 important public service, and connect your name 
 v.ith the rising reputation of our native land. Time 
 will be allowed to make every necessary preparation ; 
 and when you enter upon your duties you will speak 
 to those to whom the subject will be new. You will 
 advance in the knowledge of your profession more 
 rapidly than your pupils can follow you, and will 
 always be ahead of your audience.' " Mr. Silliman 
 in 1802 was chosen to this professorship, and as a 
 means of preparation for it he passed two winters 
 in Philadelphia in the study of chemistry under 
 Prof. James Woodhouse, Professor of Chemistry in 
 the University of Pennsylvania. On April 4, 1804, 
 he delivered his first lecture to the senior class in a 
 public room, hired for college purposes, in Mr. Tut- 
 tle's building on Chapel street, on the history and 
 progress, nature and subjects, of chemistry. "I con- 
 tinued to lecture, and I believe in the same room 
 until the Senior class retired, in July, preparatory 
 to their commencement in September. My first 
 efforts were received with favor, and the class which 
 I then addressed contained inen who were afterward 
 distinguished in life. On the 4th of April, 1804, I 
 commenced a course of duty as a lecturer and pro- 
 fessor, in which I was sustained during fifty-one 
 years." In the following year he gave a complete 
 course of lectures, and in March, 1805, he went 
 abroad to purchase scientific books and apparatus,, 
 and spent about a year in study in Edinburgh and 
 London. He also visited and met many distin- 
 guished men of science. Returning to this country, 
 he devoted himself to the duties of his professorship, 
 which included chemistry, mineralogy and geology, 
 until 1853, when he was made professor emeritus, 
 but at the special request of his colleagues continued 
 his lectures on geology until 1855, when he was 
 succeeded by his son-in-law, James D. Dana. The 
 
392 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 latter, in his inaugural discourse, delivered Feb. i8, 
 1856, in part said : 
 
 "In entering upon the duties of this place, my 
 thoughts turn rather to the past than to the subject 
 of the present hour. I feel that it is an honored 
 place, honored by the labors of one who has been 
 the guardian of American science from its child- 
 hood, who here first opened to the country the won- 
 derful records of Geology; whose words of elo- 
 quence and earnest truth were but the overflow of 
 a soul full of noble instincts and warm sympathies, 
 the whole throwing a peculiar charmi over his learn- 
 ing, and rendering his name beloved as well as illus- 
 trious. Just fifty years since. Professor Silliman 
 took his station at the head of chemical and geologi- 
 cal science in this college. Geology was then hardly 
 known by the name in the land, out of these walls. 
 Two 3'ears before, previous to his tour in Europe, 
 the whole cabinet of Yale was a half bushel of un- 
 labelled stones. On visiting England he found even 
 in London no school, public or private, for geologi- 
 cal instruction, and the science was not named in the 
 English universities. To the mines, quarries and 
 cliffs of England, the crags of Scotland, and the 
 meadows of Holland, he looked for knowledge, and 
 from these and the teachings of Murray, Jameson, 
 Hall, Hope and Playfair, at Edinburgh, Professor 
 Sillim.an returned equipped for duty, and creating 
 almost out of nothing a department not before rec- 
 ognized in any institution in America." 
 
 AVhile in Edinburgh, Professor Silliman became 
 interested in the discussions, then at their height, 
 between the Wernerians and Huttonians, and attend- 
 ed lectures on geology; and on his return he began 
 the study of the mineral structure of the vicinity of 
 New Haven. "I arrived in New Haven from Scot- 
 land on the first of June, 1806, and on the first day 
 of September I read to the Connecticut Academy of 
 Arts and Sciences a report on the mineral structure 
 of the environs of New Haven, which was printed 
 in the first volume of the Transactions o'f the Acad- 
 emy. This report occupies fourteen pages, and hav- 
 ing been published more than fifty-two years ago — 
 when I was t\\'enty-seven years of age — I have been 
 gratified to find that an attentive re-perusal yester- 
 day (Jan. 6, 1859) — after I know not how many 
 years of oblivion — suggested very few alterations, 
 and I have not discovered any important errors." 
 
 About 1807-08 the corporation of Yale was per- 
 suaded by Professor Silliman to purchase the cabi- 
 net of minerals belonging to Mr. Benjamin D. Per- 
 kins, of New York. It was transferred to Mr. Silli- 
 man's chamber, and was the starting point for more 
 extensive collections added afterward. A few years 
 later Mr. Silliman secured the loan of the magnifi- 
 cent collection of George Gibbs, which in 1825 be- 
 came the property of the college. 
 
 Professor Silliman's scientific work, which was 
 extensive, began with the examination in 1807 of 
 the meteor that fell near Weston, Conn. He pro- 
 cured fragments of this, of which he made a chemi- 
 
 cal anaylsis, and he wrote the earliest and best au^ 
 thenticated account of the fall of a meteor in Amer- 
 ica. He began, in 181 1, an extended course of ex- 
 periments with the oxy-hydrogen hydric, a com- 
 pound blow pipe, invented by Robert Hare, and he 
 succeeded in melting many of the most refractory 
 minerals, notably those containing alkalies and alka- 
 line earths, the greater part of which had never been 
 reduced before. After Sir Humphrey Davy's dis- 
 covery of the metallic bases of the alkalies, Profes- 
 sor Silliman repeated the experiment, and observed 
 for the first time in this country the metals sodium 
 and potassium. 
 
 Professor Silliman, in 1830, explored Wyoming 
 A'alley and its coal formations, examining about 100 
 mines and localities of mines ; in 1832-33 he was en- 
 gaged under a commission of the Secretary of the 
 Treasury in a scientific examination on the subject 
 of the culture and manufacture of sugar, and in 1836 
 he made a tour of investigation among the gold 
 mines of Virginia. His popular lectures began in 
 1808, in New Haven, on chemistry. He delivered 
 his first course in Hartford, in 1834, and in Lowell, 
 Mass., in the fall of that same year. He subsequent- 
 ly lectured in Salem, Boston, New York, Baltimore, 
 Washington, St. Louis, New Orleans and elsewhere 
 in the United States. In 1838 he opened the Lowell 
 Institute in Boston, with a course of lectures on 
 Geology, and in the three following years he lectured 
 there on Chemistry. "The series were without doubt 
 the most brilliant of the kind that were ever deliv- 
 -ered in this country, and its infiuence in developing 
 an interest in the young science was very great. 
 Many of the present leaders of science trace their 
 first inspiration to those popular expositions of Pro- 
 fessor Silliman." 
 
 Professor Silliman was opposed to slavery, and 
 during the Kansas troubles was instrumental in or- 
 ganizing a colony in New Haven for that point and 
 spoke in favor of their being provided with rifles. 
 Durmg the Civil war he was a firm supporter of 
 President Lincoln, and exerted his influence in the 
 abolition of slavery. 
 
 In 1818 Professor Silliman founded the Ameri- 
 can Journal of^ Science and Arts, and it has con- 
 tinued to be edited and published by members of his 
 family from that time to this, aided more or less by 
 other scientific experts. For a long time it was 
 quoted as Silliman's Journal. The Journal was con- 
 ducted by Silliman chiefly alone until 1838, when his 
 son, Benjamin Silliman, Jr., later professor of chem- 
 istry in the college, was associated with him, and 
 with the beginning of the second series Mr. Dana, 
 soon to be made Professor of Geology and Mineral- 
 ogy, became also one of the editors-in-chief. As 
 Dana's part in it became more and more important. 
 it was properly spoken of as the American Journal. 
 
 Bowdoin College conferred upon Professor Silli- 
 man the degree of M. D. in 1818, and iNIiddlebury 
 that of LL. D., in 1826. He was the first president 
 of the American Association of Geologists and Nat- 
 
•c ^ , i- 
 
 I. G^^c^:. 
 
 -L T. <L-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 393 
 
 uralists, in 1840, which society later became the 
 -American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
 ence. He was one of the corporate members named 
 by Congress in the formation of the Natural Acad- 
 •emy of Sciences, in 1863. He was corresponding 
 member of the Geological Societies of Great Britain 
 and France. He was also connected with other so- 
 cieties both in this country and abroad. 
 
 Professor Silliinan, as referred to in Appleton's 
 Encyclopedia, edited three editions of William Hen- 
 ry's "Elements of Chemistry" (Boston, 1808-1814) 
 also three editions of Robert Bakewell's "Instruc- 
 tions in Geology" (New Haven, 1829-33- and 39) 
 and was the author of "Journals of Travels in Eng 
 land, Holland and Scotland" (New York, 1810) 
 "A Short Tour Between Hartford and Quebec in 
 the Autumn of 1819" (1820) ; "Elements of Chem- 
 istry in the Order of Lectures given in Yak Col- 
 lege" (two volumes, New Haven, 1830-31) ; "Con- 
 sistency of Discoveries of Modern Geology, with the 
 Sacred History of the Creation and Deluge" (Lon- 
 ■don, 1837) ; and "Narrative of a Visit to Europe, 
 1851" (two volumes, 1853). 
 
 An important event in the life of Mr. Silliman 
 ■occurred in 1809, about three years after his return 
 from Europe. This was his marriage to Miss Har- 
 riet Trumbull, daughter of the second Governor 
 Trumbull. Jonathan Trumbull, the elder, a graduate 
 of Harvard College, had distinguished himself bv 
 refusing to join a part of his colleagues in Council 
 in administering to Governor Fitch the oath to exe- 
 cute the stamp act, and, being chosen lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor, he had himself likewise refused to take the 
 oath to carry out the oppressive measures of Parlia- 
 ment. Chosen governor in 1769, he was re-electpd 
 for fourteen consecutive terms — the only Coloriial 
 governor who retained his office after the beginning 
 of the Revolutionary war. He stood very high, as 
 is well known, in the esteem of Washington, who 
 pronounced himi "one of the first of patriots," and 
 whom he sustained with resolute, unfailing patriot- 
 ism to the end of the great struggle. A sedate Puri- 
 tan, deeply imbued with the spirit of religion, and 
 fearless in the discharge of every duty, he stands 
 among the heroic figures in our national history. 
 His son, the second governor, and the father of 
 Mrs. Silliman, was worthy of such a parent. After 
 filling various important offices he was' made gov- 
 ernor of Connecticut in 1798, and held this station 
 until his death, in 1809. 
 
 One of Professor Silliman's dauehters, ^lana, 
 married John B. Church; another, Faith, married 
 Oliver P Hubbard, professor of Chemistry at Dart- 
 mouth Colleee. who died in 1900, when ninety years 
 old, in New York : another daughter, Henrietta, mar- 
 ried the distinguished scientist, James Dwight Dana 
 late professor in Yale University; Juha married 
 Rev Edward W Gilman, Secretary of the Ameri- 
 can Bible Society; and Benjamin, Jr., M. D., LL. D. 
 (1816-188S), was a distinguished chemist and scien- 
 tist a professor in Yale University. The elder 
 
 Silliman was married a second time, Mrs. Sarah J. 
 Webb becoming his wife, Sept. 17, 1857, in Wood- 
 stock, Connecticut. 
 
 Professor Silliman was styled by Edward Everett 
 the "Nestor of American Science." His person was 
 commanding, his manners dignified and affable, and 
 his general traits of character such as to win uni- 
 versal respect and admiration. He died at New Ha- 
 ven Nov. 24, 1864. A bronze statue of Professor 
 Silliman was erected on the Yale grounds in 1884. 
 
 CURTIS. This family is one of the oldest in 
 New England, and the branch in which ran the line 
 of the late Hon. George Redfield Curtis, a promi- 
 nent manufacturer and leading citizen for many 
 years of Meriden, where his widow and son still 
 reside, is one of the ddest of Connecticut. The 
 late George Redfield Curtis was seventh in line 
 from his first American ancestor, John Curtis, the 
 line of his descent being through Thomas, Nathan- 
 iel, Benjamin, Benjamin (2) and Asahel. 
 
 (I) John Curtis, born in England, a son of 
 Widow Elizabeth Curtis, was at Stratford, Conn., 
 in 1639, among the first settlers there with his 
 mother and brother William. 
 
 (II) Thomas Curtis, son of John, born in 1648, 
 settled in Wallingford, Conn, (one of the original 
 settlers), in 1670. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Curtis, son of Thomias, born , in 
 1677, married (second), in 1702, Sarah Howe. 
 
 (IV) Beniamin Curtis, son of Nathaniel, born 
 in 1703, married in 1727 Miriam Cooke. 
 
 (V) Benjamin Curtis (2), son of Benjamin, 
 born in 1735, married Mindwell Hough in 1763. 
 
 (Yl) Asahel Curtis, son of Benjamin (2), and 
 the father of Georsre R. Curtis, born luly 2, 1786, 
 married in 1812 M-ehitable Redfield. She was from 
 Clinton, Conn., born in 1790, and was a descendant 
 in the seventh generation from her first American 
 ancestor, William Redfield. He was from England, 
 and came to the Colony of Massachusetts at an early 
 day, locating on the Charles river, six miles from 
 Boston. The line of Mrs. Curtis' descent is through 
 James, Theophilus, Daniel, Roswell and Augustus. 
 The last named married Anna Grinnell, through 
 whom Mrs. Curtis was a descendant of John Alden. 
 The children of Mr. and Mrs. Asahel Curtis were: 
 Jennett, Phebe A., Benjamin U., Asahel and George 
 Redfield. 
 
 George Redfield Curtis was born Dec. 25, 
 1825, in Meriden, in which place in the main he 
 receiyed his education. He began life for himself 
 at the age of eighteen years, as clerk in a dry-goods 
 store in Middletown, remaining so employed four 
 years. In 1847 he went to Rochester, N. Y., and 
 for a vear was occupied in teaching school in that 
 vicinity. The following year he Dursued the same 
 occupation in Meriden, and in 1849 he became a 
 bookkeeper for Julius Pratt & Co., of Meriden, with 
 which firm he remained until October, 1850, when 
 he was made teller of the Meriden Bank. On Jan. 
 
394 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 7, 1853, the month following its org^anization, he 
 entered the employ of the Meriden Britannia Co., 
 and in April following was elected its treasurer, a 
 position he held until his death, May 20, 1893, a 
 portion of the time serving also as secretary of the 
 company. For many years of his life his best 
 efforts, energy and ability were given to the great 
 and growing interests of that company, and his la- 
 bor and care contributed largely to its prosperity 
 and success. 
 
 Mr. Curtis was- always interested in what affect- 
 ed the prosperity of his native town, and his con- 
 nection with the financial and manufacturing con- 
 cerns of Meriden is indicated by the following list 
 of offices held by him. He was treasurer of the 
 Meriden Britannia Co. : president of the Meriden 
 Silver Plate Co. ; Meriden Horse Railway Co. and 
 Meriden Gas Light Co, ; was director of Manning, 
 Bowman & Co., the Home National Bank, Meriden 
 Trust & Safe Deposit Co., R. Wallace & Sons Manu- 
 facturing Co. of Wallingford, Rogers & Brother of 
 Waterbiiry, and the William Rogers Manufacturing 
 Co. of Hartford. He was a trustee of "the Meriden 
 Savings Bank, and of the Curtis Home for Orphans 
 and Old Ladies. 
 
 In his political views Mr. Curtis was a Repub- 
 lican, but never a politician. He served the city as 
 councilman and alderman, and from 1879 to 1 88 1 as 
 mayor. He was intellectual in his tastes and widely 
 read in general and historical literature. Socially he 
 was a most genial and responsive companion and ac- 
 quaintance. As a husband and father he was most 
 loving and indulgent ; as a son most filial in his de- 
 votion to his mother, whose life almost reached a 
 century of years. His religion seemed to be innate. 
 For almost forty-five years he was an officer of St. 
 Andrew's parish and for many years either senior 
 or junior warden. As the years went on and his 
 means increased, he gave to his beloved church mu- 
 nificently. In 1891 his sister, Mrs. Hallam, died and 
 left the bulk of her property to build a new church 
 in Meriden as a memorial to her husband ; Mr. Cur- 
 tis supplemented this gift largely, and two days 
 before his death addecl to his generosity by pre- 
 senting to the new parish a house and lot for a 
 rectory. Mr. Curtis was elected, on Easter Monday 
 prior to his death, lay delegate to the diocesan con- 
 vention, and he attended the General Episcopal Con- 
 vention at Baltimore in the fall of 1892. He was' a 
 member of several committees on the diocesan board. 
 His gifts to St. Andrew's were bestowed with the 
 characteristic modesty • that always distinguished 
 him. 
 
 On May 22, 1855, Mr. Curtis was married to 
 Augusta Munson, youngest child of Jesse and 
 Sophia (Talmadge) Munson, of Bradford, in west- 
 ern New York. The marriage was blessed with 
 three children, namely : George Munson ; Frederick 
 Edgar, who died in childhood; and Agnes D., :\Irs. 
 Allan B. Squire, of Aleriden, who died May 20, 
 1900. The mother of these was born June 17, 1833. 
 
 and was in the eighth generation from her first 
 American ancestor, Thomas Munson, a pioneer of 
 Hartford and New Haven, Conn., the line of her 
 descent being through Samuel, Joseph, Ephraim, 
 Jared, Rufus and Jesse. 
 
 On the death of Mr. Curtis one of the Meriden 
 papers thus referred editorially to his life : 
 
 One by one the pioneers in the great work of building- 
 up Meriden are passing from the stage of human activities. 
 The latest to go is (jeorge R. Curtis, so long a prominent 
 figure in the prosperity of his native town. The news of 
 Mr. Curtis' death, while not a surprise, owing to the feeble 
 state of his health for some time past, was never-the-less a 
 severe shock to the community, for none of his colleagues 
 or contemporaries in the larger sphere of Meriden busmess 
 life was more generally respected. Those who knew him 
 intimately loved him, and his death came to them as a per- 
 sonal loss. Of a peculiarly refined and sympathetic nature, 
 Mr. Curtis was always courteous and kind, under the most 
 trying circumstances of a busy career. His love for his 
 native town was only equalled by his unflagging interest in 
 everything that pertained to its welfare and his unosten- 
 tatious efforts to assist in every way possible, even at per- 
 sonal sacrifice, the growth and advancement of the commu- 
 nity alontf the right lines. Like all our leading ciitizens 
 Mr. Curtis began life at the bottom of the ladder, and by 
 his ability, pluck and integrity worked his way up round by 
 round. But he was never so absorbed in his own advance- 
 ment as to refuse an encouraging word or a helping hand to 
 others on the same toilsome journey who stood in need of 
 both. His business associates had the most implicit confi- 
 dence in his judgment, and his relations were always infused 
 with that spirit of refinement and gentleness which was a 
 dominant part of his nature. In the rush and complications 
 of modern business life it was a genuine pleasure to find a 
 man like Mr. Curtis with that old-school faculty of smoothing 
 rough surfaces, rounding off sharp edges and bringing har- 
 mony out of discord. 
 
 Mr. Curtis held many positions of honor und trust. His 
 business connections were wide and varied, but he alscv 
 found time for other relations necessary to round out a suc- 
 cessful career. He served the city as a member of the 
 council and as its chief magistrate, and zealously devoted 
 to the performance of his public duties the same character- 
 istics that were the secret of his business success. Long an 
 honored member of St. Andrew's church, Mr. Curtis will be 
 missed by every member of the parish. His lite was emi- 
 nently consistent with deeply rooted religious convictions, 
 but not obtrusively so. With a pleasant greeting and a 
 kind word, and acts of charity known only to himself, loved 
 and respected by his fellow-men, George R. Curtis' life 
 among us has been such that while we are filled with grief 
 because the end has come, we are thankful for such lives 
 for the good they do, for the encourag,ement they give and 
 for the example they are to others. 
 
 George M. Curtis was married Nov. 30, 1886, to 
 Sophie Phillips, who was born May i, 1869, daugh- 
 ter of Thomas Trowbridge and Catherine (Hurl- 
 but) Mansfield. 
 
 AUGUSTUS LINES (deceased) is well re- 
 membered 1d_v both youn.g and old in New Haven, in 
 which city all his long life was passed. For thirty 
 years he was a member of the board of assessors, 
 and he was long prominent in commercial circles, 
 for a time carrying on a business established by his 
 father, at the corner of State street and Grand 
 avenue. 
 
 Mr. Lines was born in New 'Haven, Sept. 13, 
 1797, not far from the historic old mansion at No. 
 
i:^::^^^//'^^^ Qv£^-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 395 
 
 144 Olive street still occupied by his widow, and 
 where he resided for over eighty years. It was 
 built in 1804, by one of his ancestors, and is one of 
 the oldest houses in that part of the State. The 
 Lines family has long been located in Woodbridge, 
 this county, and there our subject's father, Ezra 
 Lines, was born. Coming to New Haven in early 
 manhood, Ezra Lines remained in that city until his 
 death, at the age of sixty, engaged in mercantile 
 business. He was three times married, and Au- 
 gustus was one of the six children (all now de- 
 ceased) born to his last union, with Ehzabeth Um- 
 berfield. She also died at the age of sixty. They 
 were originally Episcopalians in religious connec- 
 tion, and later attended the North Church, known as 
 the United Church. 
 
 Augustus Lines was reared and educated in the 
 cit}- of his birth, and early commenced his business 
 training under the careful guidance of his father, 
 later carrying on that store on his own account' for 
 a time. He subsequently had a tailoring establish- 
 ment, in which, as in his other business ventures, he 
 made a decided success. He was long a director in 
 the New Haven National Bank, the oldest bank in 
 the city, at the corner of Orange and Chapel streets, 
 and was regarded as a man of integrity and un- 
 questioned honor in every transaction. As above 
 mentioned, he was on the board of assessors for 
 thirty years, and was the oldest member thereof at 
 the time of his retirement. He was also on the 
 school committee for many years. Mr. Lines 
 reached the age of ninety, dying Dec. 31, 1887, and 
 he was remarkably well preserved, retaining his 
 faculties to the last and continuing to take an active 
 interest in all around him. In political faith he was 
 a stanch Republican. 
 
 Augustus Lines married Lucy Ann Ritter, and 
 they had three children : ( i ) Augustus E., who re- 
 sides in New Haven, married Mary A. Kimberly. 
 (2) George P. died in New Haven in June, 1875. 
 He was twice married, and by his first wife, Elmira 
 Augur, had two children, who died very young; 
 there were no children by his second union, with 
 Ann Eliza Hibbard. (3) Jane E., born Aug. 2, 
 1830, resides in New Haven. 
 
 On Aug. 5, 1852, Mr. Lines was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Martha Kimberly, a native of New 
 Haven, and they made their home at once in the 
 old Lines residence, where Mrs. Lines still resides. 
 Two children blessed this union, Martha Kimberly 
 and Maria Kimberly, the eldest dying in infancy. 
 Maria K. Lines became the wife of James Henry 
 Rowland, Jr., of New Haven, and died at the age 
 of twenty-nine years. They had four children: 
 Stuart Lines, Mabel Silliman (now Mrs. William 
 C. Lloyd, of New Haven), Marion (deceased) and 
 Edith (deceased). Mrs. Lines attends the Third 
 Church ( Congregational ) . 
 
 The Kimberly Family, to which Mrs. Lines 
 belongs, has long been identified with West Haven, 
 and was founded in America by Thomas Kimberly, 
 
 who came from London to New Haven in 1638. He 
 was one of the founders of the New Haven Colony. 
 He removed to Stratford, and died in 1673. His 
 family consisted of four sons and two daughters, 
 and Eleazer was the first male white child born in 
 New Haven ; he became a prominent man, was for 
 many years secretary of State, and died at Glaston- 
 bury in 1707, leaving one son and four daughters. 
 Thomas, the second son of Thomas, died at New 
 Haven in February, 1705, leaving no children. 
 Abraham was killed by the Indians in South Caro- 
 lina. Nathaniel is next in the line of descent to 
 Mrs. Lines. 
 
 (II) Nathaniel Kimberly died at West Haven in 
 1705. He had five children: Mrs. Elizabeth Mall- 
 ory, Mrs. Sarah Blakeslee, Nathaniel, Mrs. Kirby 
 and ]\Irs. Mary Chittenden. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Kimerbly (2), son of Nathaniel, 
 died at West Haven in 1720. His children were: 
 Nathaniel (3), Zuriel, Abraham, Abigail, Hannah, 
 Mary and Bathsheba. 
 
 (IV) Nathaniel Kimberly (3), son of Nathaniel 
 (2), died at West Haven in 1780. His children 
 were : Israel, mentioned below ; Silas, who mar- 
 ried Mary Smith, daughter of Jonathan, and died 
 in 1803 (they had two children) ; and Abigail, wife 
 of Lamberton Smith. 
 
 (V) Israel Kimberly, son of Nathaniel (3), died 
 in 1768. He married Mary Umberfield, and they 
 had children as follows : Azel, Gilead, Nathaniel, 
 Israel, Ezra, Gideon, Liberty, Huldah, Mary, Sarah 
 and Hannah. 
 
 (VI) Gilead Kimberly was a sea saptain, and 
 lived to the age of seventy-six. He married Mary 
 Brocket, and their children were: Maria, who 
 married Eliakim Kimberly; William, father of Mrs. 
 Lines ; Elizabeth, who married Capt. Francis B. 
 Davis ; Hannah ; and Lydia, who married Capt. 
 John Neagle. 
 
 (VII) William Kimberly was bom in West 
 Haven, but spent the greater part of his life in New 
 Haven, dying at the age of fifty. He was a farmer 
 by occupation. Mr. Kimberly married Ruth Ann 
 Nichols, who was a native of Trumbull, as was also 
 the father, and who died at the age of forty-five 
 years. She and Mr. Kimberly were both members 
 of the Congregational Church. Twelve children 
 were born to this worthy couple, four of whom lived 
 to maturity, and of whom we have the following 
 record: (i) William Henry (deceased) married 
 Mehetable Coggshall, and they had a family of six 
 children— Martha Elizabeth, who married George 
 Spencer, of Hartford (no children) ; Mary Ruth, 
 widow of George G. Baldwin, residing in New 
 Haven (no children); William Henry; Harriet; 
 Hettie, Mrs. Eugene Del Foss, who has one child, 
 Eugene; and Frank William, who married Harriet 
 V. Kelsey (no children). (2) Eliza Ann and (3) 
 James are both deceased. (4) Martha is the widow 
 of Augustus Lines. (5) Gilead, now a resident of 
 New Hartford, married Abigail Baldwin, and they 
 
396 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 have eight children — William Gilead, who married 
 Laura Dennis, and has had four children, Caroline, 
 Agatha and two sons; Ellen Mary, wife of Felix 
 Chantrell, who has had two sons and one daughter ; 
 Angeline, Mrs. Frederick Domian, who has had 
 two children, Abigail and Arthur; Martha Emma, 
 who married Flenry; Fairchild, resides in Lynn, 
 Mass., and has had three children, Dwight, Henri- 
 etta and Louisa ; Augusta Lines, who married John 
 Ransom, and had three daughters; Abigail; Fred- 
 erick Abner, who is married and has one son; and 
 Harry. (6) Dennis is deceased. (7) Francis (de- 
 ceased) married Jane Piatt; they had no children. 
 (8) Harriet Newel (deceased) married Charles 
 Gates Bostwick, and they had four children — Leon- 
 ard, married to Helen Friend Plumb (one daughter, 
 Ruth Plumb) ; Martha Kimberly, who is deceased ; 
 Harriet Kimberly, wife of Henry Smith Patten, and 
 the mother of three children, Lenora Bostwick, 
 James Thomas and Leonard Bostwick ; and Charles 
 Gates, deceased. (9) Edwin is deceased. (10) Eliza 
 (deceased) married Cornelius Starr Morehouse, 
 and their daughter, Mary Louise, married Rev. Ed- 
 win Stevens Lines, by whom she had four children 
 ■ — Edwin Morehouse, Henry Starr (deceased), Mar- 
 garet Kimberly (deceased) and Harold Stevens. 
 (ii() James, who now resides in New Hartford, 
 married Margaret Eunice Clark, and to their union 
 were born four children — James William, Robert 
 Barnard, Edwin Nelson and Ruth Minerva, (12) 
 George Dwight lives in Fair Haven. He married 
 Mary Louisa Hurlbut, and to them were born two 
 children — Caroline Emily and Edna. The former 
 is the widow of John Horax Hall, and has had two 
 children. 
 
 ABNER AUSTIN. The Austin family of New 
 Haven, Conn., traces an honorable ancestry for 
 many generations, many of its members having been 
 conspicuous in public, military and religious life, 
 possessing also, domestic virtues and leaving credit- 
 able records in business careers. Among the resi- 
 dents of New Haven, and a representative of this 
 old and respectea family, is Miss Sarah E. Austin. 
 
 Great-great-great-grandfather John Austin, lived 
 in Wallingford,Conn., a region rich in historic as- 
 sociations, and he there married Prudence Royce. 
 Joshua, son of John was born in Wallingford, and 
 there married Nancy Hall. Abner, son of Joshua, 
 born also in that town, married Ann Beers, and their 
 son, Joseph, born in Wallingford, married Bethiah 
 Page, also of Wallingford, 
 
 Abner Austin, son of Joseph and Bethiah Austin, 
 was born in Madison, Conn., Jan. 3, 1810, and died 
 in New Haven, Nov, I, 1884, He was sixteen 
 years old when he first came to New Haven, which, 
 for so many years was destined to be the scene of 
 his commercial success. Naturally intelligent and 
 very studious, he was at this time better educated 
 than youths of his age ordinarily were, and after 
 two years with Prof. Benjamin' Silliman, of this 
 
 city, he was engaged by Professor Shepherd, and 
 assisted that distinguished man in laboratory work. 
 Later he was employed by Mr. Eli Whitney, with 
 whom he remained for a number.of years, accepting 
 then a situation as clerk in the grocery house of 
 Smith & Ives. Some time later he embarked in 
 the grocery business with his brother-in-law, Elijah 
 Gilbert, and their grocery and market was located 
 on the corner of Elm and Church streets (the site 
 being now occupied by Mr. Nesbit), and for more 
 than thirty-six years this business was conducted on 
 principles which reflected honor upon both the firm 
 and this city. Through times of activity and those 
 of depression, the foundations of this business were 
 ever the same, speculation having nothing to do with 
 its success or failure. By those incorruptible 
 methods of honesty and fair dealing, Mr. Austin 
 gained and kept the confidence of both the trade and 
 his patrons. 
 
 The lamented death of Abner Austin removed 
 one of the oldest merchants in New Haven. His 
 establishment had long been recognized as the most 
 complete in the city, and he was a leader in his line 
 for many years. His prominence and success had 
 come to him by honest effort, as he was a self-made 
 man, beginning at the bottom of the financial ladder. 
 Close attention to business commended itself to Mr. 
 Austin as the surest way to succeed, and he built up 
 a business that contributed to the prosperity of a 
 large force of employes, added prominence to the 
 city, and brought competence to his own family in 
 whose welfare he took so deep an interest. 
 
 Mr. Austin was united in marriage with Esther 
 A. Gilbert, a lineal descendant of Matthew Gilbert, 
 one of the chief men of the commonwealth in the 
 early days of Connecticut. Two children were born 
 '00'^'^"'^'" ^"^''" ^"'^ wife : E. Gilbert, who died in 
 1886, at the age of forty-one vears, a finely educated 
 man, who was associated with his father as book- 
 keeper; and Miss Sarah E., the-Voungest of the 
 family. The death of i\Irs. Austin occurred June 
 22, 1873, at the age of sixty-four vears. Both par- 
 ents had been worthy and consistent members of the 
 -North Church, now the United Church. 
 
 JOHN RUGGLES ROSSITER, one of the ven- 
 erable retired residents of the town of Guilford, 
 comes ^of a family which has long been identified 
 with tnis region, and is a descendant of Edward 
 Rossiter, one of the early settkrs of Boston and 
 an assistant of Governor Winthrop, and the first of 
 the name in America. He arrived at Salem, Mass,, 
 in June, 1630, and died in the autumn of the same 
 year. 
 
 Dr. Bryan Rossiter, jon of Edward, came to this 
 country with his father in 1630, making the voyage 
 m the 'Mary & John." In 1631 he was'made a free- 
 man m Dorchester, Mass., whence he removed to 
 AVindsor, Conn., in 1639; he was the first town clerk 
 of the latter place. In 1651 he removed to Guil- 
 ford, where he passed the greater part of his remain- 
 
^^^^-^^^^^-i^^e^t- K^^^^i^t^^tiX^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 397 
 
 ing years, dying there Sept. 30, 1672. On account 
 of difficulties' with the people of Guilford "about the 
 union of the New Haven and Hartford Colonies, 
 he removed to Killingworth, now Clinton, but later 
 returned to Guilford. He enjoyed an extensive 
 practice. Dr. Rossiter married Elizabeth Alsop, and 
 eleven children were born to them: Johanna, who 
 married Rev. John Cotton, died Oct. 12, 1702; 
 Esther died in 1649; John married Mary Gillette, 
 and died in September, 1670; Samuel died Aug. 10, 
 1640; Timothy died in 1647; Josiah is mentioned 
 below; Peter died in 1651 ; Abigail died in 1648; 
 Susanna, born Nov. 18, 1652, married Rev. Zach- 
 ariah Walker, and died April 26, 17 10; Elizabeth 
 died in Septemlber, 1651 ; Sarah died Aug. 10, 1669. 
 Josiah Rossiter, fourth son of Dr. Bryan, was 
 born in Windsor, and came to Guilford with the 
 rest of the family, spending the remainder of his 
 life in this town. He was a farmer by occupation. 
 He married Sarah Sherman, daughter of Samiuel 
 and Sarah (Mitchell) Sherman, of Stamford, and 
 they died Jan. 31, 1716, and March 13, 1713, re- 
 spectively. They had a large family: .Sarah, born 
 Nov. 26, 1677, died May 18, 1679; Elizabeth, April 
 16, 1679, Sept. 17, 1698; Josiah, May 31, 1680, 
 Sept. 23, 1751 (married Mary Hill) ; Samuel, Jan. 
 28, 1682, Aug. 23, 1682 ; Timothy, June 5, 1683, 
 Feb. 7, 1725 (married Abigail Penfield) ; John, Oct. 
 13, 1684, Jan. 8, 1687; Samuel, Feb. 17, 1686, Jan. 
 6, 171 1 (married Anna Ward) ; David, April 17, 
 1687, April 29, 1688; Jonathan, April 3, 1688 (mar- 
 ried Anna Pierson) ; Nathaniel, mentioned below: 
 Sarah, Feb. 25, 1691 (married Abraham Pierson) ; 
 Patience, April 6, 1692 (married John Belding) ; 
 Johanna, April 23, 1693, June 16, 1703; Mary, Sept. 
 
 3, 1694 (married Samuel Chesebrough) ; Theophi- 
 lus, Feb. 12, 1696, April 9, 1771 (married Abigail 
 Pierson); Susanna, June 13, 1697; Ebenezer, Feb. 
 
 4, 1699, Oct. II, 1762 (married Hannah White). 
 Nathaniel Rossiter, son of Josiah, born in Guil- 
 ford Nov. II, 1689, spent his entire life in that 
 town, where he died Oct. 4, 1751. He engaged in 
 farming. On July 8, 1714, he married Anna Stone, 
 also a native of Guilford, born June 17, 1692, died 
 April 20, 1770, daughter of Nathaniel and Mary 
 (Bartlett) Stone. Five children were born to this 
 marriage: Nathaniel, March 23, 1716, died Nov. 
 21, 1769 (married Deborah Fowler) ; Benjamin, 
 Sept. 25, 1718 (mentioned below) ; Sarah, June i, 
 1720, died April 4, 1760 (married Aaron Evarts) ; 
 Noah, April 15, 1725, died Feb. 9, I757; Nathan, 
 Oct. 31, 1730 (married Sarah Baldwin). 
 
 Benjamin Rossiter, born Sept. 25, 1718, in Guil- 
 ford, died Sept. 27, 1796. He was a lifelong farmer, 
 living in the northern part of the town. On March 
 21, 1751, he married Abigail Baldwin, daughter of 
 Timothy and Bathsheba (Stone) Baldwin, born 
 March 5, 1724, died Sept. 14, 1754- On Nov. 19, 
 I7S5, he married for his second wife Sarah Morse 
 Baldwin, widow of Timothy Baldwin, a brother of 
 the first 'wife. Mrs. Sarah Rossiter was born May 
 
 6, 1728, and died Jan. 27, 1828, when almost one 
 hundred years old. Children: Bathsheba, born 
 Jan. 18, 1752, died Oct. 10, 1770; Timothy, men- 
 tioned below; Sarah, born June 6, 1757, died April 
 19, 1852 (married Theophilus Fowler) ; Lois, bom- 
 July 13, 1759, died June 17, 1791 (married Eben- 
 ezer Fowler) ; Benjamin and Abigail (twins), born 
 Nov. 21, 1762, died July 5, 1764, and Jan. 22, 1821, 
 respectively (she married Ebenezer Russell). 
 
 Timothy Rossiter, born in North Guilford May 
 21, 1754, died Feb. 26, 1835, and was buried in 
 North Guilford cemetery. He passed most of his 
 life in his native place, and was quite active 
 in all its interests, and a deacon in the church. He 
 was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. On May 
 
 14, 1783, he was married in Guilford to Mary Rug- 
 gles, daughter of Deacon Nathaniel and Anna 
 (Bartlett) Ruggles, born 1758, died March 16, 
 1816. On Oct. 16, 1816, he was married to widow 
 Anna Arnold, of Haddam, Conn., who died in No- 
 vember, 1844. Children: Benjamin, born Aug. 20,. 
 1784, died Oct. 31, 1787; Abigail, Aug. 3, 1786, 
 Sept. 20, 1796; John, Aug. 22, 1788, Oct. 8, 1799;. 
 Benjamin "(2) (mentioned uelow) ; Lois, May 12, 
 1793, Feb. 22, 182 1 ; Timothy, Dec. 2, 1796, Aug.. 
 
 15, 1879 (married Sally Todd) ;, Daniel, Oct. 8, 
 1798, Nov. 29, 1837 (married Harriet Hanford) ; 
 Mary, July 28, 1801, April 6, 1883 (married John 
 Norton). 
 
 Benjamin Rossiter was born Oct. 10, 1790, on 
 the old Rossiter homestead in- North Guilford, and 
 there spent his entire life. He took an active inter- 
 est in the affairs of his day, and was well known 
 in public and church circles, serving as deacon in 
 the church. In political opinion he was first a Whig, 
 later a Republican. On July i, 1816, he married 
 Catherine Brooks, born in 1793, daughter of Dr. 
 David S. and Annis (Benton) Brooks, and she died 
 Jan. I, 1825. He subsequently married, Dec. 12, 
 1827, Nabby Dudley Fowler, widow of Daniel Fow- 
 ler, born Oct. 21, 1786; she died Nov. 19, 1872, and 
 he died Nov. 20, 1866. Children, all by first mar- 
 riage : John Ruggles, born June 20, 1817, is men- 
 tioned below; David Brooks, born Nov. 16, 1819, 
 married Carrie M. Rossiter; Sophronia Annis, born 
 Nov. 8, 1822, married Nathan C. Dudley. The 
 parents both sleep in North Guilford cemetery. 
 
 John R. Rossiter was born on the old homestead 
 in North Guilford, and received a good education, 
 which he put to practical use, engaging in the teach- 
 er's profession for forty years in the public schools 
 of New Haven county. He also carried on farming, 
 and has assisted in the local civil administration in 
 various capacities, though specially active in educa- 
 tional affairs. As selectman, justice of the peace, 
 assessor and school visitor he gave universal satis- 
 faction to all concerned, and his services in the 
 State Legislature received substantial a-pproval in 
 his re-election; he served four terms in the House. 
 Mr. Rossiter has, like his forefathers, taken a deep 
 interest in the work of the Congregational Church, 
 
398 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of which he is a member, and in which he was 
 elected deacon in 1856, serving many years. He has 
 led a temperate, industrious, useful life, and is now 
 enjoying in retirement the fruits of his early efforts, 
 deservedly contented in the substantial rewards 
 which have attended his industry and the esteem 
 which he commands' wherever he is known. 
 
 On June 11, 1845, Mr. Rossiter married Miss 
 Cleora Frances Cruttenden, who was born Aug. 29, 
 1824, and children as follows were born to them: 
 Benjamin, born Sept. 7, 1846, is mentioned below; 
 Adeline, born March i, 1848, is a teacher; John, 
 born Jan. 20, 1850, is a resident of Norwich, Conn., 
 and is also a teacher (he married Eleanor G. Brown, 
 of New Canaan) ; Catherine, born June 30, 1852, 
 was married Feb. 13, 1883, to George H. Chitten- 
 den, and died March 15, 1885; Frances, born Dec. 
 18, 1854, is unmarried, and is a trained nurse ; Lois, 
 born Oct. 3, 1857, was married July 27, 1882, to 
 William j\f. Foote ; j\lary, born Dec. 28, 1859, was 
 married Jan. 3, 1880, to Arthur Newton, of Durham, 
 Conn. ; Anna, born April 8, 1862 ; and Ruth Fow- 
 ler, born Sept. 21, 1864, died Aug. 20, 1884. 
 
 Benjamin Rossiter is a representative citizen 
 of North Guilford, where he was born, and where 
 his entire life has been passed. He received his edu- 
 cation in the district schools and North Guilford 
 Academy, and taught in the district schools of Guil- 
 ford and Durham, Middlesex county, in his earlier 
 manhood, but he is now engaged in agricultural 
 pursuits on the old homestead. His life has been 
 one of useful, effective industry, and by his tem- 
 perate habitS' and uprightness he has won universal 
 respect among his fellow men. The confidence 
 which his townspeople have in his ability and intelli- 
 gence has been shown in his election to the State 
 Legislature, where he represented them in 1891. 
 ]Nf r. Rossiter is an active member of the North Guil- 
 ford Congregational Church, in which he holds the 
 office of deacon, and he is a worthy representative of 
 ancestry which has always held an honored place 
 in the life of the cominunity. 
 
 The Cruttenden family, to which Mrs. John R. 
 Rossiter belongs, is also of English origin, and 
 Abraham Cruttenden, the first of whom we have 
 record, came from Cranbrook, England, settling in 
 Guilford in 1639. He died there in January, 1683. 
 After the death of his first wife, Mary, he married 
 Mrs. Johanna Chittenden, a widow, on May 31, 
 1665; she died Aug. 16, 1668. Children: Thomas, 
 who died Feb. 8, 1698; Abraham, next in line of 
 descent ; Isaac, who married Lydia Thompson, and 
 died July 10, 16S5 ; Marv, who married Deacon 
 George Bartlett, and died Sept. 11, 1669; Elizabeth, 
 wife of John Graves ; Hannah, wife of George 
 Highland ; and Deborah, who died April 30, 1658. 
 
 Abraham Cruttenden, son of Abraham, was mar- 
 ried May 13, 1661, to Susanna Gregson, daughter 
 of Thomas Gregson, of New Haven: she died Sept. 
 8, 1713. Children: Abraham, born JNIarch 8, 1662, 
 died I\Iay 14, 1725 (married Susanna Kiirby) ; 
 
 Sarah, born Aug. 21, 1665, died in October, 1692 
 (married Thomas Robinson) ; Thomas, born Jan. 
 31, 1667, died Sept. 14, 1754 (married Abigail 
 Hall); John, born Aug. 15, 1670, died May 16, 
 1751 (married Bathsheba Johnson) ; Joseph, born 
 April 9, 1674, died Feb. 6, 1763 (married Mary 
 Hoyt). 
 
 John Cruttenden, born in Guilford Aug. 15, 
 1670, died May 16, 1751. On May 6, 1703, he 
 married Bathsheba Johnson, born Aug. 20, 1683, 
 died April 25, 1752. Children : EHzabeth, born Feb. 
 3, 1704, died Aug. 31, 1789 (married Ebenezer 
 Hall) : Rachel, born Nov. 27, 1707, died Sept. 22, 
 1751; John, born May 2, 1710, died June 18, 1784 
 (married Lucy Lee) ; Mary, born March 13, 1713, 
 died Feb. 22, 1795; David is mentioned below; 
 Isaac, born April 5, 1720, died July 13, 1796 (mar- 
 ried Lucy Benton). 
 
 David Cruttenden was born in Guilford Dec. 3, 
 1716, and died Sept. 30, 1770. On Oct. 20, 1742, 
 he married Elizabeth Stone, born May 6, 1717, died 
 Sept. 3, 1797, and they had children: Elizabeth, 
 born 1744, died Oct. 8, 1820; David, born May 15, 
 1746, died Sept. 27, 1829 (married Hannah Foster) ; 
 Nathan, born Jan. 22, 1751, died July 28, 1817; 
 Ruth, born Jan. 7, 1749, died March 2, 1829; Abra- 
 ham, born Oct. 11, 1756, died Nov. 28, 1837. 
 
 Abraham Cruttenden, born in Guilford Oct. 11, 
 1756, spent his entire life as a farmer in East Guil- 
 ford (now Madison), where he died Nov. 28, 1837. 
 On Jan. 15, 1783, he married Hannah Dudley, born 
 April 23, 1754, died Aug. 7, 1810, and on March 19, 
 1812, he married widow Nabby Griswold, daughter 
 of Josiah Kelsey. Abraham Cruttenden was a sol- 
 dier in the Revolutionary war, serving as a private 
 in Capt. Hand's Company, Col. Talcott's Regiment. 
 Children : Abraham, born March 9, 1784, died May 
 14, 1861 ; Eber is mentioned below ; Harvey, born 
 Nov. 17, 1788, died 1868 (married Catherine Mur- 
 phy) ; Sally, born Jan. 19, 1791, died Oct. 23, 1844 
 (married Jared Redfield). 
 
 Eber Cruttenden, born March 5, 1786, died 
 Aug. 6, 1872. On Jan. 2, 181 1, he married Olive 
 Dudley, born in June, 1791, died Aug. 25, 1826. 
 On June 25, 1827, he married Ruth Fowler, born 
 Feb. II, 1783, died May 13, 1866. Children: Han- 
 nah ilaria, born May 21, 1812, died Nov. 5, 1882; 
 Eber Dudley, born June 7, 1814, died Aug. 15, 
 1821 ; Adaline, born Jan. 2,' 1817; Samuel Dudley, 
 born Jan. 25, 1819, died Feb. 25, 1819; Eber Dud- 
 ley, born April 2, 1823, died May 20, 1889; Cleora 
 Frances, born Aug. 29, 1824, married John R. Ros- 
 siter ; Samuel Dudley, born Dec. 5, 1825, married 
 Rhoda B. Chittenden. 
 
 :\IA^^R ZUNDER (deceased), the founder of 
 the firm of M. Zunder & Sons, wholesale dealers in 
 foreign produce, Hquors and tobacco, and late presi- 
 dent of the National Savings Bank, was long one 
 of the leading business men and most substantial 
 citizens of New Haven. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 399 
 
 Mr. Zunder was born j\Iay 24, 1829, in Fuerth, 
 Bavaria, son of Aaron and Besla (Kaiser) Zunder, 
 and was of that nationality to which this country 
 is greatly indebted for a good class of citizens, 
 whose frugality, industry and public spirit have been 
 potent factors in the general progress. In 1848, in 
 company with three brothers, Mr. Zunder came to 
 the United States. For a time he worked as a print- 
 er, which trade he had learned at home, and in 1852 
 began business on his own account, his patron- 
 age increasing from a very modest beginning to 
 large proportions under his able management. Be- 
 fore his demise the business was located in a five- 
 story brick building, with basement, in State street, 
 New Haven. Each story has a floor space of 25x100 
 feet, and ample room was afforded for the manipu- 
 lation and display of a choice line of goods, embrac- 
 ing French and German wines and liquors, the better 
 grades of domestic whiskies and California vintages, 
 tobaccos, and table condiments of almost every de- 
 scription. The firm has an extensive patronage, and 
 they act as agents for various ocean lines, issuing 
 drafts payable in all the principal European cities. 
 
 i\Ir. Zunder was first associated with his brother, 
 Samuel, at No. 54 Church street. After the latter's 
 death our subject carried on the business in the 
 Church street location until i860, when he removed 
 his store to State street. For many years he was as- 
 sociated with Mr. Metzger, the firm being known 
 as M. Zunder & Co., and in 1882, when Albert, the 
 eldest son of Mr. Zunder, was admitted to the firm, 
 it became M. Zunder & Son. In 1887 another son, 
 Theodore, was taken in, and the firm was composed 
 at the time of the death of Mr. Zunder of himself 
 and his two sons, Albert and Theodore. Both these 
 young men are natives of the "Elm City," and are 
 prominent in various social and benevolent organ- 
 izations. 
 
 Maier Zunder was both enterprising and public- 
 spirited to an exceptional degree, and contributed 
 not a little of his time and means to work in dif- 
 ferent lines leading up to the advancement of New 
 Haven. For more than twenty years he was a 
 member of the school committee, to which he was 
 first elected in 1867, and was re-elected seventeen 
 consecutive times. While on the board he served at 
 different times on every committee, and succeeded 
 the late Harmanus M. Welch as president of that 
 body. Always interested in public affairs, his office- 
 holding was confined to the board of education. 
 The Zunder school in George 'street was named in 
 honor of him. 
 
 Maier Zunder held membership in several or- 
 ganizations. He was treasurer of the Congregation 
 Mishkan Israel; was a past master of the I. O. O. 
 F. ; belonged to the Germania Lodge ; Connecticut 
 Rock Lodge, F. & A. M., of which he was a char- 
 ter member; and Horeb Lodge, I. O. B. B., of which 
 he was at one time president. He was a member of 
 the board of governors of the Bnai Brith Home, in 
 Yonkers, N. Y. Socially he was connected with 
 the Harmony Club and other organizations. Mr. 
 
 Zunder was a man of open heart and generous spirit, 
 and did a work of charity in the city of which little 
 was known, but which made his death, on June 29, 
 1901, a serious loss to many worthy and unfortunate 
 people. In commercial circles Mr. Zunder was very 
 strong. Thirty-five years ago he assisted in the 
 founding of the National Savings Bank, and for 
 twenty-five years was its president. It is said that 
 during that long period he was never absent from 
 any regular meeting of the bank officials. For many 
 years he was one of the directors of the Mechanics'" 
 Bank, and was one of the most active members of 
 the Chamber of Commerce. He was also associ- 
 ated with the New Haven Colony Society. 
 
 Mr. Zunder is survived by two brothers and. 
 two sisters : Louis, who is at Grand Rapids, Mich. ;. 
 Seligman, who is connected with the National Sav- 
 ings Bank of New Haven; and Mrs. David Lauten- 
 back and Mrs. Feuchwanger, both of whom reside 
 in New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Zunder was twice married. His first wife^ 
 Mina Rosenthal, died, and he then wedded her sis- 
 ter, Mrs. Regina (Rosenthal) Zunder, widow of 
 bis brother. This union was blessed with the fol- 
 lowing children: Isabella, who is the wife of Seig- 
 wart Spier, of New Haven ; Albert ; Theodore ; So- 
 phie, who married Isadore Chase, of Waterbury; 
 Delia, who is the wife of Charles L. Weil, of New 
 Haven ;, and Reginal E., a clerk in the National Sav- 
 ings Bank. By her former marriage Mrs. Zunder 
 had three children : Flora, wife of Lewis P. Weil ;, 
 Carl ; and Albert Rosenthal. 
 
 Albert Zunder was born June 29, 1856, in 
 New Haven, and was there reared to manhood, re- 
 ceiving his education in a private school, and finish- 
 ing at the Wooster school. When he was seventeen 
 years of age he was taken into his father's 'store,, 
 and, in a sense, grew up with the business. At 
 the present time he is at the head of the firm. 
 Albert Zunder was married Oct. 8, 1882, to Rose 
 E. Falk, a daughter of Maier Falk, of Albany, N. 
 Y., where she wais born, and where her father was. 
 in the tobacco trade. Monroe F. is the only surviv- 
 ing child of this union. 
 
 Albert Zunder takes an independent position in 
 politics and holds to the principle of voting for the 
 best men for public position. Since the death of his 
 father he has been elected treasurer of the Jewish 
 Synagogue. For five years he has been treasurer 
 of the Harmony Club, and for fifteen years was as- 
 sociated with its management ; he is also a member 
 of the I. O. O. F. ; of Connecticut Rock Lodge, F. & 
 A. M. ; Knights of Honor, and the Heptasophs. 
 
 JAMES H. SANDERSON, one of the success- 
 ful and progressive agriculturists of Hamden, New 
 Haven county, has made his special field of industry 
 a success, and is highly esteemed and respected by 
 all who know him. He was born in Middletown, 
 Conn., Oct. 7, 1829, son of David Sanderson, a na- 
 tive of Hamden, where the grandfather, Cyrus San- 
 derson, was employed in the gristmill owned by 
 
400 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Eli Whitney and Jerry Davisi. Cyrus Sanderson 
 died at about the age of sixty years. 
 
 David Sanderson passed his boyhood and youth 
 near Whitneyville, where in early life he served an 
 apprenticeship to the gunmaker's trade, and he con- 
 tinued to follow that occupation there for some time. 
 Subsequently he worked in Johnson's gun shop, at 
 Middletown, and while there married Miss Sarah 
 H. Tiffin, of that place. After the birth of our sub- 
 ject the father returned to Hamden and entered the 
 Whitney Gun Works, where he was employed until 
 1861. He removed to the farm where our subject 
 now resides in 1841. There he died in 1862, at the 
 age of fifty-eight years. James H. is the oldest of 
 his three children ; \A'illiam H. is a resident of Rock 
 Island, 111. ; and Chandler died in 1862. 
 
 James H. Sanderson was twelve years of age 
 when the family removed to the farm in Hamden, 
 and amid rural scenes he grew to manhood. He 
 remained on the farm until about fifteen, assisting 
 in its operation, and then entered old Squire Whit- 
 ney's gun shop at Whitneyville to assist his father, 
 who was employed there. In those days this shop 
 was turning out the first of the old Navy revolvers 
 of the Colt pattern. Mr. Sanderson spent in all 
 about twenty years at gun and pistol working, giv- 
 ing up that work in 1865. About 1857 he built the 
 house near the old homestead and lived there for 
 twelve years, after which he returned to the farm 
 where his boyhood was passed. Since about 1865 
 he has devoted his entire time and attention to agri- 
 cultural pursuits, for the past thirty years making a 
 -specialty of market gardening, raising all kinds of 
 vegetables, which he retails ; he also carries on fruit 
 growing. He has a good farm of twenty acres. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Sanderson was united in marriage 
 with Miss Ellen R. Curtiss, of Hamden, daughter 
 of Philo Curtiss, and they have had three children: 
 Elizabeth; Maria; and Hattie, wife of William C. 
 Mansfield, of Hamden. In his political affiliations 
 Mr. Sanderson is a Republican, though he seldom 
 attends an election, his assistance to the party being 
 rendered almost entirely through the influence he 
 exerts. He was a stanch supporter of the Free Soil 
 doctrine during the period of itsi agitation. Mr. 
 Sanderson gives an earnest support to all measures 
 which he believes will prove of public benefit. He 
 is widely and favorably known and has a host of 
 warm friends in the community where he has so 
 long made hisi home ; for a man of his age he is 
 well preserved, in spite of his life of activity. 
 
 HENRY C. ROWE, the head of the firm of H. 
 C. Rowe & Co., growers and shippers of Rhode 
 Island and Long Island Sound oysters, was the 
 pioneer in deep water oyster culture, and this firm 
 now owns more oyster ground than any other in the 
 United States. 
 
 Mr. Rowe was born in New Haven April 23, 
 1851, son of Ruel and Abbie (Gordon) Rowe, and 
 grandson of Levi Rowe. His ancestors were land 
 holders in New Haven in 1640. His great-grand- 
 
 father, Ezra Rowe, and Matthew Rowe (3), brother 
 of Ezra Rowe, were in the Colonial army in the war 
 of the Revolution. Mr. Rowe's ancestors were pub- 
 lic-spirited and enterprising citizens. His father, 
 Ruel Rowe, carried on various commercial and mer- 
 cantile enterprises, and at the time of his death, in 
 1868, was engaged in the importation of oysters, 
 principally from Southern waters, and in shipping 
 them to Canada, New York and the West. Upon 
 his death, in ^lay, 1868, his son, Henry C, under- 
 took the conduct of the business, although then ibut 
 a boy of seventeen. His mother was, however, a 
 woman of rare intelligence, character and energy, 
 and it was with the aid of her advice that he was 
 able to lay the foundation of what has 'become a 
 great and successful enterprise. 
 
 For about a year after his father's death, Henry 
 C. Rowe carried on the business along the same 
 lines, but the Southern competition for the Western 
 trade was strong, and he soon began to build up a 
 New England trade, which formed the nucleus of 
 the extensive business of the present firm. In later 
 years he has shipped all over the northern parts of 
 the United States and Canada, as far west as Cali- 
 fornia and Oregon, and as far east as England and 
 Germany. Mr. Rowe now owns over ten thousand 
 acres of oyster ground in Long Island Sound, be- 
 side controlling a large area in the State of Rhode 
 Island, and gives employment to a great number of 
 persons and vessels of various kinds. The culti- 
 vated oysters of Connecticut and Rhode Island are 
 superior in quality and flavor to most of the Chesa- 
 peake Bay and other Southern stock, and Con- 
 necticut alone ships annually millions of bushels 
 of oysters, opened and in shell, to the markets of 
 the United States, Canada and Europe. 
 
 Before this result was reached, however, many 
 great difficulties were encountered and overcome, 
 which cannot even be mentioned within the limits 
 of this sketch. Before 1870 Mr. Rowe realized the. 
 great possibilities and immense future for the oyster 
 industry of New England — if oysters could be prop- 
 agated on a great scale in Northern waters, in- 
 stead of depending principally upon supplies from 
 the South. In order that this could "be done, im- 
 portant legislation was necessary, and it was not 
 until May 14, 1874, that he took from the State the 
 first large grant of oyster ground made in the deep 
 waters of the Sound, outside of the harbors, reefs 
 and islands, and commenced the work of oyster 
 propagation on a large scale. This new enterprise 
 was looked upon as foolhardy, the general opinion 
 being that no defensible right could be secured to the 
 ground, and that, if it could, the culture itself, for 
 many reasons, was impracticable. Many of the 
 predictions were not wholly mistaken, and the 
 young man found a rough road to travel over ere he 
 reached the goal of his ambition. When some of 
 the early obstacles were overcome, and he had con- 
 verted some of the sea bottom of the Sound into a 
 prospective oyster farm, numerous other difficult- 
 ies arose. The general public had an idea that 
 
^-?X..^yw^ C^< 
 
 -^~F 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 401 
 
 ■oysters grew like wild fruit, and needed only to 
 be plucked ; and many believed that the right of 
 property in oyster ground was a wrong to the pub- 
 lic, and that all oysters in the water were common 
 plunder. Much prejudice against the enterprise 
 ■existed, and it was for a few years almost impos- 
 sible to get redress from the courts for the thefts 
 and trespassing practiced, for, as the oyster farms 
 ■were increased to include hundreds of acres, thefts 
 were frequent and the beds difficult to guard. As 
 Mr. Rowe's experiment began to give promise of a 
 successful industry, others went into the enterprise, 
 and some of them, not 'Understanding the law for a 
 written title, went into the Sound and staked out 
 ground here and there, regardless of the rights of 
 ■others. In substance, sucb were the nature and con- 
 ditions attending the earlier years of oyster culture 
 in Long Island Sound, and they clearly show that 
 the undertaking was fraught with difficulties on 
 every hand, and imposed on the projectors grave, 
 and sometimes most unpleasant, responsibilities, as 
 Suits in court were frequent and embittered. But 
 "the pluck and energy of Mr. Rowe and his asso- 
 ciates were equal to the occasion and finally tri- 
 -umphed, establishing the largest oyster industry in 
 New England, and Mr. Rowe now owns and pays 
 taxes upon more oyster ground than any other per- 
 son or firm in the United States. 
 
 Rowe & Co. in iSgj commenced the use of ex- 
 tensive grounds in Narragansett Bay, Rhode ■ Is- 
 land, in connection with their vast oyster fields in 
 Long Island Sound, and they now control more 
 ground in Rhode Island — as well as in Connecti- 
 cut — than any other person or firm. Their prin- 
 cipal shipping house is located at the east end of 
 'Quinnipiac bridge. New Haven, and is' arranged 
 on an entirely different plan from any other oyster 
 house in the United States. The oysters are handled 
 "by such methods as to insure their perfect condi- 
 tion, and with the least labor practicable. This 
 firm own and use three wharves about seven hun- 
 dred feet in extent, and with a depth of water 
 sufficient to permit the loading and unloading of 
 •their steamers at either high or low water. The 
 -plant is equipped with every facility for storing, 
 shucking and packing oysters, and is the most con- 
 venient, as well as the most complete, in the coun- 
 try. Five thousand bushels can be caught and 
 handled per day. 
 
 During the years of progress in this line of in- 
 dustry in Long Island Sound much legislation has 
 -naturally come up in matters of titles and regula- 
 tions, and for twenty-five years no such bills have 
 come up and been passed without Mr. Rowe's 
 careful consideration. One of the most vigorous 
 ■contests in the Legislature, in which he was en- 
 gaged, occurred in 1880, when he secured the pass- 
 age of a bill permitting him to dredge on his own 
 -ground with his own steamer, which was the only 
 ■oyster steamer then owned in New Haven. The 
 'Other oyster planters vigorously opposed its use, 
 rand through their influence Mr. Rowe was opposed 
 
 26 
 
 by the representatives from New Haven and East 
 Haven, both in the House and before the Legislative 
 committee. Thirteen persons were before the com- 
 mittee to oppose the provision, and Mr. Rowe only 
 in its favor. After a lively contest the committee 
 favored it by a vote of eight to one, the Senate by 
 fourteen to four, and the House by a two-thirds 
 vote, deciding that Mr. Rowe was right, and that 
 the act was just to those who opposed him so bitter- 
 ly. They claimed that steam dredges would not 
 only destroy his own oyster beds, but those of his 
 neighbors, but later they owned and used steam 
 dredges themselves. 
 
 Since its formation, in 1881, Mr. Rowe has been 
 one of the leading spirits in the Oyster Growers' 
 Association, and for five years past 'has been its' 
 president. Men who were once his opponents now 
 support his views. He has been connected with 
 many measures having for their object the advance- 
 ment of the oyster culture. He was mainly instru- 
 mental in the removal of the place for depositing 
 dredged material, in the government work, through 
 the orders of the United States engineer officers. 
 He also secured the passage of an act, by the Legis- 
 lature, for the same purpose. In 1882 Mr. Rowe 
 assisted Lieut. Francis Winslow, of the United 
 States navy, in carrying on some interesting and 
 successful experiments in the artificial propagation 
 of oysters. 
 
 In 1887 Mr. Rowe presented to the General As- 
 sembly a statement of the conduct of the Shell Fish 
 Commission, as it was then constituted, and showed 
 where the 'State could save nine thousand dollars 
 per year in the management of this commission. 
 The General Assembly acted upon this information 
 and by legislation passed upon Mr. Rowe's state- 
 ment m^ore than one hundred and twenty-five 
 thousand dollars have been saved to the State up 
 to the present time. 
 
 Few men managing such extensive interests are 
 willing to sacrifice time and energy to public meas- 
 ures. Mr. Rowe has not sought public responsi- 
 bility, but when it has been placed upon him by 
 various organizations, including the New Haven 
 Chamber of Commerce, the Connecticut Oyster 
 Growers' Association, and other organizations, he 
 has performed the duties entrusted to him with 
 faithfulness. Among other public movements, he 
 was one of the first to advocate the annexation of a 
 part of the town of East Haven to New Haven, and 
 was on the committee to secure the passage of the 
 bill providing for annexation. He was active in the 
 preliminary work to secure the building of the 
 Quinnipiac bridge, and later for .the new bridge, to 
 replace Tomlinson's. On the petition of H. C. 
 Rowe and others the Legislature in 1885 ordered 
 the draw in the 'bridge just referred to widened to 
 eighty feet or more, and it is an interesting coin- 
 cidence that the General Assembly of 1842, upon 
 the petition of his father, Ruel Rowe, ordered the 
 draw widened to fifty-four feet, while twenty years 
 before that date his grandfather, Levi Rowe, headed 
 
402 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a movement to have the draw widened, the width 
 then being but twenty-six feet. In 1883 Mr. Rowe 
 procured the passage of a bill by the Legislature to 
 protect infant children from ill usage when in the 
 care of other than their parents. In 1884 and 1885 he 
 was chairman of a committee from the Thirteenth, 
 Fourteenth and Fifteenth wards of New Haven to 
 oppose the schemes of consolidation then before the 
 Legislature, and in 1886 was a member of a similar 
 committee from the borough of Fair Haven, East. 
 
 As a member Of the Chamber of Commerce of 
 New Haven, Mr. Rowe has rendered the city valu- 
 able service. He has worked faithfully for the im- 
 provement of New Haven harbor. He was secre- 
 tary of the New Haven Harbor committee for one 
 year, and for the past three years, as chairman of 
 the committee, has labored successfully with others 
 in securing Congressional legislation for harbor im- 
 provement. His duties in these capacities necessi- 
 tated preparation of a great amount of information 
 and statistics. The legislation secured was a pro- 
 vision for the expenditure of $345,000 for dredging 
 the harbor of New Haven, and exceeded by $105,- 
 000 the total amount that had been previously ex- 
 pended for that purpose by the Government during 
 the whole history of the. city. On March 29, 1899, 
 at the fifty-ninth annual meeting of the Chamber of 
 Commerce of New Haven, resolutions were unani- 
 mously passed thanking Mr. Rowe for his efficient 
 services on the Harbor committee. 
 
 In 1901 the Chamber of Commerce requested 
 suggestions of legislation to remedy the very unjust 
 assessments which then existed in New Haven. 
 The need of remedy was urgent, as the assessments 
 ranged from one and one-fourth times to three times 
 the market value of real estate. There were 3,580 
 appeals to the board of relief among the 10,377 real- 
 estate tax-payers of New Haven. Neither the board 
 of relief nor the Superior Court proved of any avail 
 io remedying these evils. Under these circum- 
 stances the Chamber of Commerce invited all citi- 
 zens of New Haven to offer remedies, and a method 
 proposed by Mr. Rowe was unanimously approved 
 by the committee on Legislation of the Chamber, 
 and by the Chamber itself. The 'leading members 
 of the Chamber, with Mr. Rowe, urged the passage 
 of what was known as the "Rowe Bill," and the Ju- 
 diciary committee of the General Assembly voted 
 to recommend its passage, notwithstanding its very 
 unique and original provisions. After having so 
 voted, however, four members of the Chamber ap- 
 peared before the committee in opposition to the 
 measure. The committee then reversed its posi- 
 tion, on the ground that the Chamber of Commerce 
 was not united, and as the measure was quite with- 
 out precedent they hesitated to pass it, although the 
 committee had previously shown its approval of the 
 principle involved by voting to recommend the 
 measure. Although the Bill did not become a law, 
 the able presentation of the case to the public made 
 at that time resulted in a reduction of the unjust 
 assessments by the amount of twenty million dol- 
 
 lars on the next assessment made after this work 
 of the Chamber. 
 
 Mr. Rowe's public services, however, have been 
 only in cases where he was asked to assume re- 
 sponsibility, and his principal work has been the 
 great enterprise of cultivating oysters on a large 
 scale in the deep water of Long Island Sound, in 
 which work he has come to be a recognized author- 
 ity. As such, at the request of the United States 
 Government, he read a paper before the Interna- 
 tional Fisheries Congress at the World's Fair in 
 Chicago, in 1893, and also addressed the members 
 of the Legislature of Virginia in January, 1894, by 
 invitation of the Fish Commission of Virginia. His 
 success in the oyster industry has resulted not only 
 from a thorough study of the practical culture of 
 oysters, but is also largely due to the fact (for he 
 has achieved success in the commercial department 
 of the industry as well) recently expressed in a 
 pithy way by one of the competitors of the firm, who 
 said : "It is of no use to try to get the trade of H. 
 C. Rowe & Co., because their customers know that- 
 they can not only depend on the quality and condi- 
 tion of the oysters, but they know that they will 
 always get full measure and solid meats." This- 
 reputation enables the firm to hold its trade, al- 
 though often undersold in price, by competitors. 
 The unprecedented success of H. C. Rowe & Co. 
 emphasizes the old saying that "honesty is the best 
 policy." 
 
 SHELDON BRAINERD THORPE is a widely 
 known citizen of North Haven, a descendant of an 
 old family whose ancestry dates from William: 
 Thorpe, who sailed from England to America in- 
 1635, coming with wife and daughter, both of the 
 name of Elizabeth, and settling in New Haven in 
 1638. His second marriage was to Margaret Pigg. 
 The eldest son of William, named Nathaniel, owned 
 land at "Blue Hills" which his daughters. Experi- 
 ence and Lydia, sold to Enos Tuttle in 1733. The- 
 wife of Nathaniel was Mary Ford, of Charlestown, 
 Mass., and the children of this marriage were : Na- 
 thaniel, Samuel, Mary and Abigail. His second 
 marriage was to 'Sarah Robbins, who bore him : Sa- 
 rah, Experience, Lydia, William' and Elizabeth. 
 
 Nathaniel Thorpe, of the above family, grew tO' 
 manhood. He and his wife Elizabeth had eight 
 children : Nathaniel, Samuel, Isaac, Hannah, Re- 
 becca, Moses, Aaron and Elizabeth. Isaac Thorpe, 
 son of Nathaniel, married Dinah Ludington in 
 1725, and their residence was in North Haven, 
 where the records of the Congregational Church' 
 testify to them being devout people. Their children 
 were: Isaac, Mary, Nathaniel, Nathaniel (2), 
 Jonathan, Titus, Jacob, Amos and Dinah. 
 
 Jacob Thorpe married Eunice Bishop June 20, 
 1768, and was killed by the British forces at East 
 Haven, July 6, 1779, leaving children: Asa, Zophar,. 
 Jacob, Beda and Billa. The widow, Eunice Thorpe,, 
 married Jonathan Ralph, and the children of this- 
 union were: Tilly, Jonathan and Eunice. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 403 
 
 Billa Thorpe, the grandfather of our subject, 
 in 1800 married Polly Moulthrop, who died in 
 1867, her husband dying two years previously. The 
 children of this union were : Beda, Eunetia, Jacob, 
 William Darius, Beda Roxsina, Dennis, Polly De- 
 light, Rachel and Grace. 
 
 Dennis Thorpe, the lather of our subject, resided 
 in North Haven, on the Wallingford road, in an old 
 brick house which was a noted landmark in the lo- 
 cality, having been built in 1759. At the time of his 
 death, Nov. 7, 1900, he was' the oldest male resident 
 in the town. He married, Jan. 3, 1837, Elmina Bas- 
 sett, who died Jan. 2, 1901. The children of this 
 union were : Our subject, Marthena, Amanda, Ells- 
 worth Harrison, and Henry Lewis. 
 
 Sheldon B. Thorpe was born in the old brick 
 house, on the upper plains of North Haven, Conn., 
 Feb. 21, 1838. Educational privileges in that place 
 were most meager, but, by the aid of a few terms in 
 the local academy of the town, he had acquired suf- 
 ficient knowledge, by the age of sixteen, to engage 
 in teaching, and was employed in the public schools 
 of Northford, Hamden and North Haven. In that 
 day the old-fashioned country "Lyceum," with its 
 lectures, debates and dramatic entertainments re- 
 ceived 'his support, and he was an occasional con- 
 tributor to the newspaper press of that period. 
 
 The demands of the Civil war claimed his at- 
 tention, and, with many of his companions, he en- 
 listed Aug. 9, 1862, in Company K, 15th Conn. V. I., 
 and saw hard service along the Atlantic seaboard. 
 In 1865 he entered the employ of the N. Y., N. H. 
 & Hartford R. R. Co., as assistant station agent, 
 at Windsor Locks, Conn., where he remained several 
 years, and was then engaged by the Adams Express 
 Co., as a messenger between New York and Spring- 
 field. Mr. Thorpe served this company for four 
 years, a portion of the time being in charge of the 
 Merchants' L^nion Express Co., in New Haven. 
 In 1871 he resigned this branch of the business and 
 connected himself with the commission house of 
 H. E. Smith & Co., in whic'h line, in one capacity 
 and another, he remained until he entered the em- 
 ploy of The Stiles Brick Co., of North Haven, 
 where he is at present engaged. 
 
 Mr. Thorpe was married Dec. 25, 1865, to 
 Isabel Jane Barnes, a daughter of Daniel and Jane 
 (Barnes) Barnes, and two sons have been born to 
 them : Gardiner E., agent of the Bradstreet Co., at 
 Boston; and Arthur B., connected with the New 
 England Engineering Co., with residence in Hart- 
 ford, Conn. In 1858 Mr. Thorpe became a member 
 of the Congregational Church, later served as sup- 
 erintendent of the Sunday-school .some years, was 
 also treasurer and clerk of the church for a time, 
 and has been clerk of the First Ecclesiastical So- 
 ciety for twenty-five years. In politics he has al- 
 ways been a Republican, and represented the town 
 in the Legislature in 188 1. For many years he was 
 a member of the board of education, acting as school 
 visitor a portion of the time. 
 
 The Bradley Library Association (of which our 
 
 subject is a charter member and ex-president), the 
 Veteran Soldiers' Association, the Pierpont Park 
 commission, and other public projects, have always 
 received from him warm support. Through his 
 great-grandfather, Sergt. Jacob Thorpe, killed at 
 East Haven, Conn., in 1779, in the war of the Revo- 
 lution, he became a charter member of the Con- 
 necticut Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and 
 was a member of its first board of managers; he 
 also belongs to Trumbull Lodge, No. 22, F. & A. 
 M., and to Admiral Foote Post, No. 17, G. A. R. 
 Perhaps Mr. Thorpe will best be remembered in 
 his native State by his History of North Haven, 
 issued in 1892, and his History of the 15th Conn. 
 Vols., issued in 1893, both of these valuable works 
 displaying a wonderful amount of research and 
 making a complete and reliable history of the sub- 
 jects named. In 1901 he was the compiler of the 
 memorial volume issued by the "20th Century Com- 
 mittee." Mr. Thorpe has in his possession the early 
 genealogies of the early settlers of the town, and 
 has made extended studies in large manuscript vol- 
 umes of the Thorpe, Bassett and Barnes families ; 
 his collection of old documents, autographs, photo- 
 graphs, cemetery inscriptions, church history papers, 
 and the thousand and one things picked up, proba- 
 bly constitute him the best authority on local his- 
 tory in the town. This laborious and painstaking 
 work is done in his leisure time, its accuracy mak- 
 ing it very valuable to others in substantiating old 
 claims, and in sometimes proving that some families 
 are not like those of whom De Foe speaks, when he 
 says they are like unto potatoes, the best being un- 
 derground. 
 
 HARMON HUMISTON, one of the venerable 
 citizens of Hamden, New Haven county, was born 
 in that town Jan. 15, 1818, on the old homestead 
 which adjoins his farm on the south. The Humis- 
 ton family is one of the old ones of that town, and 
 one that is soon to become extinct, as our subject, 
 his brother Elihu and his maiden sister, Maria S., 
 are its last surviving representatives. Harmon 
 Humiston is a son of Justus and Elizabeth (Har- 
 mon) Humiston, who are mentioned elsewhere 
 under the sketch of Elihu Humiston, of Hamden. 
 He was reared a farmer's boy, and attended the 
 country schools, among his teachers being Joel 
 Cooper and Allen Tuttle. He also attended a 
 private school that was conducted in the basement 
 of the Whitneyville Congregational Church. His 
 home was made with his parents practically un- 
 til he was married, which event occurred in Ham- 
 den on Jan. i, 1844, when Miss Maria L. Dick- 
 erman became his bride. The ceremony was 
 performed by Rev. Dr. Taylor,- of Yale College. 
 Mrs. Humiston came from one of the old and 
 numerous families of Hamden. She was born 
 Nov. 8, 1819, at Hamden, the daughter of Eli 
 and Sophia (Bassett) Dickerman, the former 
 originally from Westville, and employed for many 
 years in the gun factory at Whitneyville, while the 
 
404 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 latter, Sophia (Bassett) Dickerman, was a native 
 of Hamden. Mrs. Humiston taught school, begin- 
 ning at the early age of sixteen years, teaching first 
 a private school in the basement of Whitneyville 
 ■Congregational Church; she later taught district 
 schools in North Haven and Hamden, being so em- 
 ployed in all about twelve years. 
 
 After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Humiston 
 went to housekeeping on their present farm, where 
 iie built the house in which they have since lived. 
 Farming has been his lifelong business, except 
 that when a young man he at one time worked in an 
 auger shop in Hamden. He has amassed a com- 
 fortable competence. In church matters he and 
 .his wife have taken an active part, and he served as 
 deacon for years in Whitneyville Congregational 
 Church, and for almost sixty-four years taught a 
 •class in Sabbath school, only giving up that work 
 when his hearing became defective. In 1867 he 
 -was made a life member of the American Board of 
 Foreign Missions. Mrs. Humiston began teach- 
 mg a class in Sabbath-school when she was little 
 more than sixteen years old, and continued until 
 about 1900 (about sixty-five years). Mr. and Mrs. 
 Humiston have always been great workers in the 
 church, and they took active part in the choir, 
 the former singing bass and the latter alto for many 
 years. Their example has ever been a worthy one, 
 and their influence ever the best. While they have 
 no children of their own, their home has sheltered 
 several young people. Col. H. A. Tyler, of Hart- 
 ford, Conn., lived for several years with them, until 
 his enlistment as a young man in the Civil war. 
 Mr. Humiston and his wife have lived together 
 over fifty-eight years, and in their quiet lives, full 
 ■of happiness and good works, have shown a per- 
 fect picture of calm content. In politics Mr. Humis- 
 ton is a Republican, 'but has never aspired for honors 
 in politics. No more highly respected old people 
 reside in the town. 
 
 _ REV. CHARLES PAGE. To the early Colon- 
 ial families are due the credit and praise for the evi- 
 dences of thrift and prosperity to be seen on every 
 hand. Their industry, frugality and undaunted zeal 
 changed this once wooded and desolate coast to a 
 land of abundance, dotted with prosperous homes, 
 public schools and churches. The wonderful trans- 
 formation was accomplished by the class of our early 
 settlers brought up to the idea that labor and re- 
 ligion should go hand in hand. Our Colonial fam- 
 ilies instilled these views into the minds of their 
 ■children, and to-day the good results of their 
 efforts are most apparent. To no family in New 
 Haven county can we point as better examples of 
 this desirable colonizing class than the Pages, com- 
 bining as they do willingness to carve out success 
 for themselves with true religious principles. 
 
 From the Probate Records (Vol. II) we learn 
 that George Page, a Christian gentleman, emigrated 
 from England and came to America, soon taking up 
 his permanent location at Branford, Conn. In 1667 
 
 he, with a number of others, signed an agreement to 
 build a Congregational church, and two years later 
 the building was completed. His marriage to Sarah 
 Linsley, daughter of John Linsley, took place soon 
 after they crossed the ocean, and the many good 
 qualities of heart and mind that she possessed, 
 coupled with those of her husband, have been 
 handed down through generations, making their 
 descendants desirable citizens, good neighbors and 
 true friends. Mrs. Page died in 1695, when still in 
 the prime of life. In another of the records we 
 find that George Page made his will in 1689, and 
 that it was probated the same year, thus giving posi- 
 tive assurance that his death occurred in that year. 
 His children were Sarah, born in 1666; Samuel, 
 1670; George, 1672; Jonathan, 1675; Hannah, 1677; 
 Nathaniel, 1679; Daniel, 1683; and John, 1684. 
 
 Daniel Page, son of George, was but six years 
 old when his father died, and like many was thrown 
 upon his own resources at an early age. When a 
 young man he located in North Branford, where he 
 purchased land and engaged in farming. He be- 
 came one of the representative citizens of the town, 
 was a deacon of the Congregational Church, served 
 as selectman about 1727, and also as one of the 
 grand jurors. He was married Feb. 3, 1710, to 
 Hannah Johnson, and died April 17, 1766. Their 
 children were Prudence, born in 171 1; Hannah, 
 1713; Daniel, 1715 (died in 1716) ; Abraham, 1717; 
 Mary, 1719; Daniel (2), 1724; Martha, 1727; Eph- 
 raim, 1730 ; and Sarah, 1732. 
 
 Daniel Page, Jr., son of Daniel, was born in 
 North Branford, and remained there until 1776, 
 when he moved to Bare Plain, in the southwestern 
 part of the town. There he died July 4, 1779, just 
 three years after the signing of the Declaration of 
 Independence, and while the war for freedom was 
 still raging. He served as constable from 1755 to 
 1759; selectman from 1763 to 1777; and represented 
 his town in the Legislature for eight terms. On 
 Feb. 13, 1749, he married Dinah Baldwin, daugh- 
 ter of Israel Baldwin, and to them came the follow- 
 ing named children: Esther, born in 1749 (died 
 in 1751) ; Dinah, 1752; Esther, 1754; Daniel, 1757; 
 Mary, 1759; Lois, 1763; Tryphena, 1766; and Ben- 
 jamin, 1769. 
 
 Benjamin Page, son of Daniel, Jr., was born Oct. 
 18, 1769, and died Nov. 29, 1851. He was twice 
 married. On May 16, 1798, he wedded Lois Ford, 
 who died June 25, 1810, and for his second wife he 
 married Mary Hurd, who died Aug. 15, 1852. By 
 the first union there were six children, whose names 
 and dates of birth were as follows : Esther, July i, 
 1799; Daniel, Feb. 24, 1801 ; Lois, Nov. 24, 1802; 
 Phoebe A., Nov. 25, 1804; Benjamin, Aug. 11, 1806; 
 and Selina, July 30, 1808. The children by the sec- 
 ond marriage were Mary, born in 181 5; Judson, 
 born in 1816; Daniel an'd others who died in in- 
 fancy; and Darwin, born in 1822. The father of 
 this numerous family was a man of considerable 
 prominence in his day and neighborhood. He had 
 received some advantages in the way of education 
 
(S/Uaul^ fo^-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 405 
 
 an by reading and observation he added greatly to 
 •ri T^ of useful information. His merits were 
 evmently appreciated by his neighbors and friends, 
 as ne was called upon to serve as justice of the peace 
 101 toity 3^ears, as a member of the Legislature two 
 terms ; and as town clerk one vear. He was an ac- 
 Ch ^?^^^ ^^ .^^1' as member of the Congregational 
 Church and like his ancestors was a Democrat in 
 political views. 
 
 Benjamin Page, Jr., son of Benjamin, and father 
 of our subject, was married in Meriden, Conn., Oct. 
 20, 1836, to Sarah E. Merriam, who was born Feb. 
 S, 1816, and died Alay 12, 1887; he died July 16, 
 1876. He was an earnest and consistent member 
 of the Congregational Church, and Mrs. Page 
 united with the Episcopal Church. Mr. Page was a 
 strong Democrat in politics. He was prominently 
 identified with public aiifairs, filled various local 
 offices, and served as town clerk and justice of the 
 peace for twenty-three years each. In his family 
 were five children: John M., born Feb. 14, 1838, is 
 engaged in the hardware business in Naugatuck, 
 and has served as a member of the General Assem- 
 bly; Charles, our subject, is next in order of birth; 
 Benjamin, bom Sept. 4, 1840, is in the insurance 
 and real estate business in Meriden, and has served 
 two terms as mayor of the city; Martha E., born 
 Feb. 25, 1845, is the wife of T. A. Smith, of North- 
 ford; and Robert, boi-n July 5, 1846, is a farmer of 
 North Branford. 
 
 Charles Page w'as born May 21, 1839, in North 
 Branford, where he grew to manhood, and his pri- 
 mary education was obtained in the district school 
 of the neighborhood. Later he attended the Meri- 
 den high school and the Guilford Institute; spent 
 one winter at the State Normal School ; and for 
 three years was a student at Yale Divinity School, 
 New Haven. Previous to entering the Divinity 
 School he engaged in school teaching five years in 
 his native town, one each in Branford and Walling- 
 ford, and two in New Haven. He has always owned 
 farm property in North Branford, but has devoted 
 his time to other pursuits, and has only superin- 
 tended the operation of his land. 
 
 In Guilford, April 22, 1863, Mr. Page married 
 Miss Elbertine A. Dudley, a daughter of Luther F. 
 and Eliza (Buck) Dudley. The father was a tanner 
 bv trade, but followed farming in later life. He 
 was born in North Guilford March 7, 1814, and 
 died May 22, 1876, while his wife, born Feb. 22, 
 1816, died May 24, 1897. Mrs. Page was born 
 June II, 1841, and is the second in order of birth 
 in a family of four children : Lois R., born Oct. 
 27, 1839, is the wife of George Ford, of North 
 Branford; Mary A., born May 17, 1843, is the wife 
 ■of W. P. Niles, of New Haven ; and Fannie E., born 
 April 9, 1855, married A. L. Rice, of New Haven, 
 and died Aug. 12, 1898. Mr. and Mrs. Page have 
 three children : Charles A., born Feb. 12, 1865, be- 
 gan railroad work in 1884, and since 1890 has been 
 a conductor on the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 
 ford Railroad; Edson C, born May 21, 1868, mar- 
 ried Sylvia L. Gates, and now superintends the 
 operation of his father's grist and saw mill in North 
 Branford (they have one child, Genevieve Ge- 
 nevra, born March 3, 1900) ; and May C, bom 
 Aug. I, 1870, is the wife of John R. Merrick, post- 
 master of Totoket, North Branford, and has four 
 children — Libertine A., born Dec. 12, 1893; Velma 
 A., Jan. 12, 1896; Jonathan Lucius, March 11, 1899; 
 and a daughter, Jan. i, 1902. 
 
 The Republican party finds in Mr. Page a stanch 
 supporter of its principles, and his fellow citizens 
 recognizing his worth and ability have often called 
 him to public office. He has served as town clerk 
 for the past thirty years ; town treasurer for the 
 same time; justice of the peace for a number of 
 years; and representative in 1874 and 1901. On 
 Sept. 30, 1885 he was licensed to preach as a minis- 
 ter of the Congregational Church, was ordained Feb. 
 13, 1894, and is now pastor of the church at Foxon. 
 His life has been manly, his actions sincere, his 
 manners unaffected, and his example is well worthy 
 of emulation. 
 
 HENRY WARREN, president of the Butler & 
 Lyman Land Co., and a director of the Bridgeport 
 Wood Finishing Co., is one of the most respected 
 citizens of Meriden. 
 
 Mr. Warren was born Sept. 17, 1837, in Water- 
 town, Litchfield Co., Conn., a son of Alanson and 
 Sarah M. (Hickox) Warren, and is a descendant 
 of one of the oldest families in England, as well as 
 America. We give the complete genealogy from the 
 Earl of Normandy and the daughter of William 
 the Conqueror: (i) William de Warenne, Earl 
 of Normandy, who died in 1088, married Gundred, 
 youngest daughter of William the Conqueror. (2) 
 William de Warren, second Earl of Warren and 
 Surry — Isabel. (3) Reginal Warren — Adelia de 
 Mowbray. (4) William Warren — Isabel de Hay- 
 den. (5) Sir John Warren — Alice de Townsend. 
 (6) John Warren — Joan de Post. (7) Sir Ed- 
 v.'ard Warren — Maude de'Skeyton, 1327. (8) Sir 
 Edward Warren — Cicely de Eaton. (9) Sir John 
 Warren — Agnes de Wynnington. (10) Sir Law- 
 rence Warren (born 1394) — Margery Bulkley. 
 
 (11) John Warren (born 1414) — Isabel Stanley. 
 
 (12) Sir Lawrence Warren — Isabel Leigh. (13) 
 Wilham Warren — Anne . ( 14) John War- 
 ren ( died 1523)— Elizabeth. ( 1 5 ) John Warren 
 
 . (16) Christopher Warren . (17) 
 
 William Warren— ^Anne Marble. (18) Christo- 
 pher Warren — -Alice Webb. 
 
 (19) Richard Warren — Elizabeth Janette Marsh, 
 came from Greenwich, England, on the "May- 
 flower," to Plymouth, Mass., in 1620. Richard died 
 at Plymouth in 1628, and his widow died in 1673. 
 Children: Nathaniel, Mary, Joseph, Anne, Sarah, 
 Elizabeth and Abigail. (20) Nathaniel Warren — 
 Sarah Walker, married November, 1645 ! Nathaniel 
 died in 1667, his widow in 1700. Children: Rich- 
 
4o6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ard, Jabez, Sarah, Hope, Jane, Elizabeth, Alice, 
 Mercy, Mary, Nathaniel, John and James. (21) 
 
 Richard Warren ; Richard died in Middle- 
 
 boro, Mass., 1697. Children: John, Samuel and 
 James. (22) John Warren — (i) Naomi Read, (2) 
 Anne Read; John died in Middleboro, Mass., 1768. 
 Children : James, Nathaniel, Nehemiah, John, Na- 
 omi and Anne. (23) James Warren and Abigail 
 Thomas, of Woodbridge, Conn., were married in 
 July, 1744. They lived in New Haven and Wood- 
 bridge, Conn. Abigail died in Watertown, Conn., 
 Sept. 13, 1800. Children: Jason, born Feb. 20, 1745 ; 
 Sarah, born Feb. i, 1746, married a Mr. Tuttle, 
 Catskill, N. Y. ; Rachel, born July 4, 1749, married 
 John Russell; Abigail, born June 3, 1752, married 
 James Pritchard ; Nathaniel, born Jan. 15, 1755, 
 married Susannah Johnson and Alary Wedge ; Je- 
 mima, born Oct. 15, 1758, married a Air. Hosford, 
 Putney, Vt. ; Edward, born Sept. 18, 1761, married 
 Mary Steele; Richardson. (24) Edward Warren — 
 Mary Steele. Edward \\'arren, born Sept. 18, 1761, 
 served in the Revolutionary war, was drowned in 
 Naugatuck river Dec. 10, 1814. Mary Steele died 
 in Watertown, Feb. 26, 1849, aged eighty-five years. 
 Children: Isaac; Mary, who died March 20, 1863, 
 aged seventy-eight, married Parmelee Richards, 
 who died Dec. 6, i860, aged eighty years ; Lewis 
 married Susan Judd ; Lyman, who died March 4, 
 i860, aged seventy, married Abigail J. Allen, who 
 died Sept. 17, 1885, aged eighty-six years, nine 
 months; Sheldon, who died Nov. 21, 1825, aged 
 thirty-two, married Clarenda Welton, who died Oct. 
 17, 1821, aged twenty-four, and (second) Ann 
 Mead, who died Nov. 13, 1883, aged eighty-eight 
 years ; Alanson, born May 10, 1796, died Oct. 20, 
 1858, aged sixty-two years ; Truman, who never 
 married, died Jan. 10, 1822, aged twenty-two, and 
 was buried in Darien, Georgia. 
 
 Alanson Warren, father of Henry, was reared 
 to manhood in his native town, where he became en- 
 gaged in the manufacturing business. He was a 
 man of progress and enterprise, and was foremost 
 in everything for the benefit of his town and its 
 people. He was one of the first members of what 
 is now the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine Co., 
 in 1848 becoming a partner of Nathaniel Wheeler 
 and George P. Woodrufif, under the firm name of 
 Warren, Wheeler & Woodruff. They engaged in 
 the manufacture of metallic articles, and Mr. 
 Wheeler was the manager of the business. Early 
 in the year 1850 Mr. Warren formed a partnership 
 with Messrs. Wheeler, Wilson & Woodruff, under 
 the style of the Wheeler & Wilson Co., as manu- 
 facturers of sewing machines. He died Oct. 20, 
 and was buried in Watertown. He was a 
 
 Whig and Republican in political faith. Mr. War- 
 ren married Sarah M. Hickox, who died April 20, 
 1866, aged sixty-seven years. They had eight chil- 
 dren, viz. : Belinda, who married George P AA'ood- 
 ruff, and, for her second husband, Owen B. King; 
 Truman A. ; David Hard, who married Louisa Bron- 
 
 son; Sarah, who married Tracy J. Bronson; Charles 
 A. ; Henry ; Mary, who died unmarried ; and Alan- 
 son. 
 
 Henry Warren grew to manhood in Watertown, 
 and like his father became interested in manufac- 
 turing and similar enterprises. He is president of 
 the Butler & Lyman Land Co., of Meriden, and a 
 director of the Bridgeport Wood Finishing Co., and 
 is also interested in other concerns in New Haven 
 and Meriden. Personally Mr. Warren is a man 
 of domestic tastes and genial disposition, well-read, 
 and endowed with more than ordinary intelligence. 
 Politically he is a Republican. He worships at St. 
 Andrews Episcopal Church, of which his wife and 
 daughter are members. On May 5, 1868, in Meri- 
 den, Air. Warren married Josephine Griswold Ly- 
 man, daughter of Hon. William Worcester Lyman,, 
 and one child, Etta Lyman, blessed this happy 
 union. She began her education in Meriden and' 
 graduated at Mrs. Sylvanus Reed's school. New 
 York. Like her mother, she has artistic tastes, and 
 is a quite skillful performer on the violin, mandolin- 
 and piano. She is also a vocalist. Aliss Warren re- 
 ceived instruction on the violin under Michael 
 Banner, of New York, and Prof. Milche, of Wall- 
 ingford. She is a young lady of refinement and- cul- 
 ture, much devoted to her parents and they to her,, 
 and their home is one of the happiest in Meriden. 
 Airs. Warren attended school in Meriden, also at 
 Mrs. Edwards' school in New Haven, and received 
 thorough instruction in both vocal and instrumental 
 music under the following masters : Prof. Rivarde, 
 Tamaro, Ritzo, Bristol, and Madame Torry, of 
 New York. She possesses a beautiful voice, and 
 has been a member of St. Andrews choir. She is a 
 lady of character and culture, and presides over 
 her beautiful home with ease and grace, dispensing 
 a charming hospitality to the many who enjoy the 
 friendship of the family. 
 
 Ashbel Griswold, the foster father and uncle by 
 marriage of the late Mrs. Lyman, mother of 
 Mrs. Henry Warren, was one of Aleriden's grand 
 old men. He was born April 4, 1784, at Rocky Hill, 
 Hartford Co., Conn., where he grew to manhood. 
 He learned the blacksmith's trade, there with Capt. 
 Danforth, and at the age of twenty-four came tO' 
 Meriden, and soon after started in business at 
 Tracy, engaging in the manufacture of tea pots 
 and similar articles, from block tin. He contin- 
 ued this until J842, when he retired. He built a 
 home on what is now Britannia street, near the 
 home of Mrs. William Lyman, about 1810. He 
 was a member and warden of the Episcopal Church. 
 Air. Griswold represented his town in the State Leg- 
 islature in 1831 and 1847, and was justice of the 
 peace for several years. For a number of years he 
 was president of the Aleriden Bank, and he was 
 known universally as an honest, upright man in all 
 dealings. He died Alay 30, 1853, and is buried in 
 Aleriden. Air. Griswold married Lucy Frary, 
 daughter of James Frary, and after her death 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 407 
 
 wedded Ann (Hall), widow of Andrew Lyman and 
 mother of William Worcester Lyman, father of 
 Mrs. Warren. 
 
 PAUL CHEESEBOROUGH SKIFF, M. D., 
 a leading physician of New Haven, for forty years 
 has been actively engaged in the practice of his pro- 
 fession in that cit)', and has risen to eminence in 
 his chosen work. The good opinion of his fellow 
 citizens is his to a marked degree, and he is a typi- 
 cal representative of one of the sturdy families of 
 old New England, whose coming to this contment 
 was but a little after the landing of the Pilgrim 
 fathers. 
 
 Dr. Skiff was born Oct. 4, 1828, at the old fam- 
 ily homestead in the town of Kent, Litchfield county, 
 now his own property. This home antedates by 
 at least a decade the breaking out of the war of the 
 Revolution, and it has sheltered several generations 
 of this name through a period of 134 years. Dr. 
 Skiff is a son of Luther and Hannah (Comstock) 
 Skiff, a descendant in the seventh generation from 
 James Skiff (who is the ancestor of all the Skiffs 
 in America), of Plymouth, Mass., where he is on 
 record as early as 1636, and later at Lynn, and then 
 at Sandwich, which was founded by settlers from 
 Lynn in 1637, including himself. For thirteen 
 years, counting from' 1645, James Skiff' represented 
 this town in the Colonial Legislature ; and his son 
 Stephen, beginning with 1676, also performed the 
 same function for many years. The Doctor's line of 
 descent is through Nathan, Stephen, Nathan (2), 
 Nathan (3), and Luther Skiff. 
 
 Nathan Skiff, the son of James, was born in 
 1645, was married to two wives, Mary Chipman, 
 daughter of John Chipman, of Barnstable, and 
 Ruth (surname not known). 
 
 Stephen Skiff, son of Nathan, married Elizabeth 
 Hatch, and in 1720 settled in what is now Tolland, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Nathan Skiff (2), son of Stephen, born in 1718, 
 was married in 1741 to Thankful Eaton. They set- 
 tled in the town of Kent, Litchfield county, where 
 they occupied for a time the log cabin, which gave 
 way in 1766 to the frame house noted above. 
 
 Nathan Skiff (3), son of Nathan (2), was born 
 in 1 75 1, and was married to Abigail Fuller, and 
 nine children were born of this union. Nathan 
 Skiff (3) served in the Revolutionary army under 
 Capt. Abraham Fuller. He responded to the call 
 for the defense of New York in 1776, and helped 
 defend Danbury, which was raided by Gen. Tryon 
 in 1777. His wife, Abigail Fuller, was a daughter 
 of Zechariah and Abigail (Hubbell) Fuller, the 
 former a son of Joseph and Lydia (Day) Fuller. 
 Joseph Fuller was one of the original grantees and 
 incorporators of tlie township of Kent, to which 
 he came from East Haddam in 1738; he was a son 
 of John and Mehitable (Rowley) Fuller, and a 
 grandson of Samuel Fuller and Jane, a daughter 
 of the Rev. John Latlirop, of Scituate. The last 
 
 named couple were married by Capt. Miles Stand- 
 ish. Samuel Fuller, with his father, Edward, and 
 his uncle. Dr. Samuel Fuller, were among the Pil- 
 grim fathers, who crossed in the "Mayflower." 
 
 Luther Skiff, son of Nathan (3), and the father 
 of Dr. Skiff', was born Oct. 4, 1793, and he died Feb. 
 II, 1856. On April 8, 1818, he was married to 
 Hannah Comstock, and they had eleven chil- 
 dren: Elijah, Mary Ann, Edward, Peter, Paul C, 
 Helen, Hannah J., Giles, Samuel A., Alargaret and 
 Mira. 
 
 Airs. Hannah (Comstock) Skiff" was the daugh- 
 ter of Peter and Hannah (Piatt) Comstock, and a 
 granddaughter of Eliphalet and Sarah (Pratt) 
 Comstock. Eliphalet Comstock was a son of Daniel, 
 Jr., and grandson of Daniel Comstock, Sr., who 
 were both among the incorporators of Kent. Dan- 
 iel Comstock, Sr., was the son of Christopher Com- 
 stock, who came to Fairfield from England in 1661. 
 
 Mrs. Hannah (Piatt) Comstock was a daughter 
 of Judge Zephaniah Piatt and Hannah Davis, of 
 Plattsborough, N. Y. Judge Zephaniah Piatt was 
 the son of Captain Zephaniah Piatt, who was a son 
 of Jonas and Hannah (Saxton) Piatt, of Hunting- 
 ton, L. I., the former a son of Capt. Ephenetus 
 Piatt and his wife, Phoebe Wood. Capt. Ephenetus 
 Piatt was a son of Richard Piatt, the emigrant, who 
 came to New Haven in 1638, and settled in Milford. 
 Thus it will be seen that of the early settlers and 
 old families in Kent, Dr. Skiff's ancestors include 
 branches of the Comstock and Fuller line, also the 
 Hubbell, Piatt and Pratt families. 
 
 Dr. Skiff was reared on the old homestead in 
 Kent after the usual manner of the times. He at- 
 tended the neighboring schools and the Kent Acad- 
 emy until fifteen years of age, when an opportunity 
 for better educational privileges was presented by 
 an aunt (Mrs. Roderick Bissell), who lived on the 
 Western Reserve in Ohio. For four and a half 
 years Dr. Skiff lived with her at Austinburg, Ohio, 
 and attended the Grand River Institute. For two 
 3rears of that time he had as a roommate John 
 Brown, Jr., of Harper's Ferry fame. Dr. Skiff had 
 intended to enter Hudson College on the Western 
 Reserve, but owing to the illness of an older brother, 
 he was needed at home to take charge of the farm. 
 For a time he worked there and was able to teach 
 school during the winter season. Deciding ufKDn 
 the study of medicine he, in 1850, entered Yale 
 Medical School, from which he was gradu- 
 ated in 1853. Subsequently he passed two years 
 in the Jefferson Medical College in Phila- 
 delphia, and following this, the young doctor 
 located in New Haven, which has continued 
 to be the scene of his professional labors 
 to the present time. The year he settled here it was 
 his privilege to meet and renew his acquaintance 
 with young Brown, who was temporarily a resi- 
 dent of the city, in company with his father; they 
 were then planning that enterprise which resulted 
 so disastrously at Harper's Ferry. 
 
4o8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Dr. Skiff was educated in the tenets of the old 
 school of medicine, but after a tiiorough comparison 
 of the two schools, he deliberately selected Home- 
 opathy as his life work. At Philadelphia he was 
 'under the instruction of such men as Mutter, Pan- 
 coast, Meigs and Dunglison. Dr. Skiff was one of 
 the earliest homeopathic physicians in New Haven, 
 preceded only by a cousin, Dr. Charles H. Skit¥. 
 His experiences through forty years of constant 
 and busy practice have been many and varied. 
 One who knows whereof he writes, says of Dr. 
 Skiff: "He combines skill in the healing art with 
 prompt judgment, admirable foresight, inexhausti- 
 ble good temper, and an independent attitude 
 towards all schools of practice. Few possess in 
 such an eminent degree the personal magnetism, 
 which immediately attracts and retains the confi- 
 dence of the invalid, that gentleness and prompt- 
 ness which lingers so gracefully in the memory of 
 the patient ; and, more than all else that charity, 
 which the doctor is called upon above all men to 
 so frecjuently exercise towards his fellows in the 
 Tiumble walks of life. All bear testimony, who 
 know him, that Dr. Skiff possesses all these quali- 
 ties and many others which are important factors in 
 the success of the true physician." 
 
 Dr. Skiff was one of the founders of the State 
 Homeopathic Society. He was an incorporator of 
 Grace Hospital, of which he isnow a director and 
 the consulting physician ; this is one of the most 
 successful hospitals in New England. Dr. Skiff' 
 has been a frequent contributor to various medical 
 journals, and he has taken an active interest in the 
 Humane Society, and other worthy enterprises. 
 
 On June 20, 1874, Dr. Skiff was married to 
 Emma McGregor Ely, of Brooklyn, N. Y., who is 
 a descendant of a prominent New England family. 
 She is the great-granddaughter of the Rev. David 
 Ely, D. D., of Lyme, Conn., and a descendant of 
 Richard Ely, who was an early settler in America. 
 She is also the granddaughter of the Rev. Thomas 
 Runderson, one of the seven pillars of the First 
 Church of Christ in New Haven, and its deacon 
 from 1689 to 1730. This marriage was blessed with 
 the birth of one daughter, Pauline, born in May, 
 1880. 
 
 DR. AUGUSTUS BEEKMAN SMITH, one 
 of the best known and highly respected citizens of 
 New Haven, comes from a family distinguished for 
 probity and learning. Dr. Smith was born in White 
 Plains, N. Y., Oct. 15, 1826, a son of Rev. John 
 Mott and Amanda (Day) Smith. 
 
 The paternal grandfather, Joseph Smith, was 
 born in Brooklyn, N. Y., Feb. 11, 1765. By trade 
 this estimable gentleman was a cork cutter, and was 
 very successful in his work. Taking a great inter- 
 est in the Methodist Church, of which he was a 
 lifelong member, he became class leader and local 
 preacher, and was always a faithful worker in re- 
 ligious undertakings. By his first marriage, which 
 
 was with Miss Honeywell, he had eight children, as 
 follows : Elizabeth, who married J. D. Myers ; John 
 Mott; Peter, who married Catherine Fisher; Will- 
 iam, who married Eliza Saunders; Joseph B., who 
 married Ann Steele; Deborah, who married Amos 
 Smith ; and two who died in infancy. For his sec- 
 ond wife he married Mrs. Mary Poillion, who, by 
 her first marriage, was the mother of six children : 
 Cornelius, George, Ann E., Ellen, Games and Ade- 
 line. In the John St. Methodist Church, New 
 York, the first one built in America, with which he 
 was directly connected, the memory of this good 
 man is cherished as a type of upright manhood and 
 true Christian living. 
 
 Rev. John Mott Smith, the father of Dr. Smith, 
 was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., Oct. 10, 1795, and 
 died Dec. 27, 1832, in Middletown, Conn. For two 
 years he was one of the professors in the Wesleyan 
 University, and in 1816 was graduated at Colum- 
 bia College with the degree of A. B., afterward re- 
 ceiving that of M. A. The following year, 1817, 
 he took up the study of medicine, and later joined 
 the New York Conference, being assigned to the 
 Jamaica Circuit. In 1818 Rev. Smith was assigned 
 to the Suffolk Circuit; in 1819-20 the Stanford Cir- 
 cuit; in 1820-31 was principal of the Wesley," ,i 
 Seminary, situated in New York City until 1826, 
 when it was transferred to White Plains, N. Y. ; 
 from 1831 to 1832, he was professor of Latin, 
 Greek and literature at the Wesleyan University at 
 Middletown, Conn. ; and also acting professor of 
 Natural Science. While in full possession of his 
 faculties and remarkable powers, he passed away in 
 this city one of the greatest educators of his time. 
 
 On Nov. 19, 1820, Rev. Smith was married to 
 Miss Amanda Day, of Norwalk, Conn., a daughter 
 of Absalom and Betsey Day, and to this marriage 
 were born: William F., born Nov. 19, 1821 ; John 
 M., Jr., born Nov. 13, 1824; Augustus B., our sub- 
 ject; Amanda Day, born July 21, 1829; Eliza Mead, 
 born July I, 1832. Of these children, Eliza Mead 
 died Aug. 29, 1832; John Mott, Jr., Aug. 10, 1895; 
 and Wm. F., who was a clergyman of the Methodist 
 Church, and member of the New York East Con- 
 ference, located 1882, died Oct. 29, 1883 ; and 
 Amanda D. married H. W. Monson, of Middlebury, 
 Conn. At the time of his death John Mott Jr. was 
 a large property owner in the Sandwich Islands, 
 possessing several fine plantations. Amanda, the 
 wife of John Mott, afterward the wife of Charles 
 Peck, of steamboat fame, died Oct. 5, 1853. 
 
 Dr. Augustus B. Smith enjoyed unusual advan- 
 tages in his youth for acquiring knowledge, his 
 parents recognizing the importance of giving to 
 their children, a good education. After six years 
 residence at White Plains, N. Y., with his parents 
 he removed to Middletown, where he remained two 
 years, and then went to live with his grandfather at 
 South Norwalk, Conn., remaining six years, dur- 
 ing which time he attended public and high schools, 
 and then entered the Daniel H. Chase preparatory 
 school, Middletown. After two years in that well- 
 
^ HtJd)nyu!tk 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 409 
 
 tnown institution he went to Troy, N. Y. At this 
 latter city, the young man, being ambitious, earned 
 liis own living, and in 1845, came to New Haven and 
 began business for himself as an instrument maker. 
 During all this time, his natural inclinations seemed 
 to be in the direction of dentistry, and after seven 
 years of faithful study with Dr. Samuel Mallett, 
 Dr. Smith began the practice of his profession Feb. 
 17, i860, and built up a very successful practice, 
 •continuing it until 1901, when he retired. 
 
 On April 12, 1849, Dr. Smith married Emily 
 Bartlett, a native of Bridgeport, Conn., born Sept. 
 19, 1831, and died Jan. 11, 1890, a daughter of Rev. 
 Horace Bartlett, a Methodist minister. .To this 
 miarriage . two children were born: Henrietta J., 
 who married Rev. J. O. Monson ; Heman Bangs, 
 who married Lilly Carrington Norton, Oct. 28, 1880, 
 and died July 15, 1891. On March 24, 1897, Dr. 
 Smith married Esther Emeline Braman, born in 
 Pleasantville, N. Y., a daughter of Henry Romer, 
 a native of Westchester county, N. Y. Henry 
 Romer married Levinia Banks, also of Westchester. 
 The father of Henry Romer, Jacob Romer, traced 
 his ancestry 'back to the same common ancestors as 
 the Romers of Kingston, X. Y. (who came from 
 Switzerland), one of whom Jacob Romer, was of the 
 party that captured ;\lajor Andre. Dr. Smith has 
 now in his possession the Van Courtland table that 
 Gen. Washington dined on, on several occasions, 
 above the town where Major Andre was arrested. 
 
 In politics. Dr. Smith was originally a Whig, 
 and is now a Republican ; socially he is connected 
 with the I. O. O. F., Ouinnipiac Lodge of New 
 Haven, and following in the footsteps of his honored 
 father and grandfather, is a consistent member of 
 the Trinity Methodist Church. During the many 
 years Dr. Smith has made his home in New Haven, 
 he has proven himself a man of whom the com- 
 munity may well be proud, and both he and his 
 ■charming wife number many friends among those 
 with whom they are associated. 
 
 ANDREW WOODWARD De FOREST, late 
 president of the New Haven Gas Light Co., and 
 of The De Forest & Hotchkiss Co., lumber dealers 
 on Water street. New Haven, was one of those up- 
 right citizens, whom all good men delight to honor. 
 He passed away at his home. No. 351 Orange street, 
 Nov. 29, 1900, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. 
 He was born in Watertown, Conn., Jan. 24, .1817, 
 son of John Hancock and Dotha (Woodward) De 
 Forest. 
 
 John Hancock De Forest was born in Hunting- 
 ton, Conn., April 10, 1776, and was a prominent and 
 successful shipping merchant in Watertown. He 
 owned no vessels himself but hired them to ship 
 the pork, beef and grain of the neighboring far- 
 mers to New York by way of Derby, the Housa- 
 tonic River and Long Island Sound. There were 
 ventures across the ocean in which he was the super- 
 cargo, and various New England productions were 
 
 carried to the West Indias, France, Spain, Portugal 
 and Morocco. In 1818, yielding to the advice of his 
 brother, David Curtis De Forest, he settled in New 
 York as a broker and commission merchant. His 
 sales and shipments of merchandise to the West 
 Indies, to South America and to Europe were many 
 and large. At tliat time a disastrous business de- 
 pression affected Europe and all of the civilized 
 regions of the American continent. In 1821, weary 
 with struggling against the persistent panic, he gave 
 up his New York brokerage and commission busi- 
 ness, having lost about one-tenth of his capital, and 
 with his family returned to Connecticut and settled 
 in Hum'phrevsville (now Seymour). This was a 
 little village named in honor of Col. David Humph- 
 reys, who had established large mills there. At his 
 death, work in the mill ceased, and the buildings 
 remained unoccupied until in 1822, when they were 
 purchased by John H. De Forest and Messrs. Wain 
 & Leaming, of Philadelphia. A new company was 
 organized, under the name of the Humphreysville 
 Manufacturing Co., of which John H. De Forest 
 was president, and J. Fischer Leaming, secretary. 
 Although Mr. De Forest knew nothing of manufac- 
 turing, he nevertheless made a success of his ven- 
 ture. The new company immediately started the 
 paper mill, gristmill and sawmill, while they altered 
 the woolen mill into a mill for cotton sheetings, and 
 so the company became one of the minor founders 
 of cotton manufacture in the United States. Mr. 
 De Forest continued in the manufacturing business 
 until his death, which occurred Fe'b. 12, 1839. Dur- 
 ing his residence in Humphreysville, Mr. De Forest 
 was repeatedly elected to the State Legislature, and 
 was for years the principal trying justice of the dis- 
 trict. Mrs. Dotha (Woodward) De Forest was 
 the youngest daughter of Elijah Woodward, of 
 Watertown, Conn., who marched with one of the 
 first Connecticut companies to the rescue of Bos- 
 ton at the Lexington alarm. She was married to 
 John Hancock De Forest, Dec. 5, 181 1. 
 
 It may not be uninteresting to note that David 
 Curtis De Forest, uncle of Andrew W. De Forest, 
 once lived in New Haven, as a prosperous retired 
 merchant. He built for his residence, which was 
 then called "the elegant De Forest mansion," the 
 house standing on the corner of Church and Elm 
 streets, now owned and occupied by ex-Mayor Jos- 
 eph B. Sargent. Mr. De Forest had lived in South 
 America much of his life and had amassed a for- 
 tune. He was greatly interested in the struggles 
 of the Buenos Ayreans, Chilians and Bolivians for 
 independence, particularly of the Buenos Ayreans, 
 and was elected First Consul to the United States 
 from the new government of Buenos Ayres. Mrs. 
 De Forest (who was Miss Julia Wooster) was a 
 granddaughter of a cousin of General David Woos- 
 ter, and was said to be a most beautiful woman. 
 Two excellent portraits of Mr. De Forest and his 
 beautiful wife, painted by Alorse, hang in the Yale 
 Art Gallery. About 1822, his duty done to Buenos 
 
4IO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Ayres, Mr. De Forest resigned his consul-general- 
 ship. Somewhat later he journeyed to Montreal to 
 put his eldest daughter in a French school there, 
 and thus was absent from home when his "elegant 
 mansion" received its most illustrious visitor, Gen- 
 eral Lafayette, who was in New Haven four hours 
 on Aug. 21, 1824. Says the Columbia Register of 
 that date : 
 
 The hero had a reception at the court house, then a 
 breakfast with Gov. Wolcott and all the authorities, after 
 that three hundred ladies with their children stormed the 
 hotel and were presented to the courtly old nobleman. At 
 twelve he reviewed the troops on the Green. After that he 
 paidhisrespectstovarious widows and daughters of slain Rev- 
 olutionary heroes; next, to the house of David C. DeForest, 
 Esquire, late Consul-General from Buenos Ayres, and the 
 provinces of the Rio de la Plata. Mr. DeKorest being 
 absent, he was received at the door by Mrs. DeKorest with 
 her accustomed politeness. Here he remained several min- 
 utes and partook of some refreshment. From the portico 
 in front of this splendid mansion he surveyed the beautiful 
 Green, full of people, with the long line of troops, the build- 
 ings around, and the line foliage ot the trees. A lively sen- 
 sibility at once appeared. He was struck with the beauty of 
 the scene. " Such another prospect can hardly be presented 
 m America." After taking leave of his handsome hostess, 
 " Mr. Street's elegant barouch " bore him through the double 
 line of hurrahing students to the college, there to be received 
 by the President and faculty, after which he visited the 
 burying ground and the graves of Humphreys and other old 
 comrades, and then fifteen guns roared him out of town 
 with their worshiping farewell. 
 
 David C. De Forest's life in New Haven was 
 conducted on a generous scale, spending and giving 
 away much. His money had come to him easily and 
 he parted with it freely. It was his custom every 
 February to send $50.00 to the almshouse in order 
 that the inmates mig'ht celebrate Washington's birth- 
 day by having a good dinner and a glass of wine 
 each. He divided $15,000 among his relatives; and 
 he offered his mother $5,000 more, but as she re- 
 fused it, he -presented the check to Yale College for 
 the benefit of the library. The magnitude of the 
 gift hurt the vanity of one of the elder trustees, a 
 locally illustrious gentleman who had just donated 
 $1,000 for the same purpose, consequently Secretary 
 Goodrich and Treasurer Hillhouse called on Mr. 
 De Forest and requested him to withhold his check 
 until the aforesaid dignitary could be reconciled to 
 it. A year later, fearful of losing the money, they 
 called again and suggested that it should be given in 
 another way. "Gentlemen," said Mr. DeForest, 
 "the trustees returned my check when I offered it. 
 Now they want it for a purpose which fails to in- 
 terest me. I will give it ; but I will not give it out- 
 right to the college. I will give it for the benefit of 
 my own flesh and blood." Thereupon he proposed 
 that the money should be held at interest until it 
 amounted to $26,000, when the income should be 
 devoted to four scholarships for De Forests, and 
 an annual gold medal, worth $100, for superiority 
 in English Composition and Declamation. The 
 proposition was accepted, and the check paid over 
 Sept. 12, 1823. A vigorous opposition was offered 
 by the aforementioned local grandee and one of his 
 
 personal friends among the professors, but was 
 voted down. The De Forest scholarships (now 
 three in number) have done good, and the De Forest 
 medal is one of the chief prizes of the Academic 
 course of Yale. David Curtis De Forest died at 
 his home, corner of Church and Elm streets, Feb. 
 22, 1825. His remains lie buried in Grove street 
 cemetery. 
 
 As a boy Andrew Woodward De Forest at- 
 tended the common schools in Humphreysville, and 
 the Goshen (Conn.) Academy, a school which was 
 then famous, and which in its time has graduated 
 many men of note. At about eighteen years of age 
 young De Forest went to New York as a clerk in 
 the large silk importing house of De Forest & 
 Downes, the senior member of the firm being a rela- 
 tive of his. He expected to make this his life work,, 
 but a severe rheumatic sickness at the age of twenty- 
 three compelled him to abandon his plans, and tO' 
 return to his home in Humphreysville. While liv- 
 ing in New York he had become interested in mili- 
 tary affairs, and was captain of a company which he 
 used to drill in Washing'ton Square. In 1847 ^Nlr. 
 De Forest came to New Haven to reside and estab- 
 lish a lumber business on Custom House Square 
 with Albert Steele as a partner, the firm being 
 known as Steele & De Forest. The partner- 
 ship formfed continued until 1852, when }ilr. 
 Steele retired, and Justus S. Hotchkiss became 
 a partner in the business, the firm name be- 
 ing changed to De Forest & Hotchkiss. Twen- 
 ty-one years later (1873) the De Forest & 
 Hotchkiss Co. was incorporated, and seven years 
 later (1880) Mr. Hotchkiss retired. From this 
 date vmtil his death, Mr. De Forest was only 
 the nominal president of the coinpany, the business 
 being carried on and managed by his two sons, 
 Charles S. De Forest and Eugene De Forest. In 
 previous years, in connection with his New Haven 
 lumber business, Mr. De Forest at one time owned 
 and operated a lumber mill in Canada. Heavy 
 freshets worked such disaster to his property that 
 he finally abandoned it and sold the mill. 
 
 During his fi'fty-three years' residence in New 
 Haven he attained by large ability, untiring patience 
 and quiet persistence a distinguished place in the 
 business affairs of the city, and won for himself the 
 sincere respect of his fellow citizens. His ability as 
 a sound and wise counsellor and able administrator 
 of important business affairs was recognized and 
 called into service. At the organization of the 
 Tradesmen's Bank in 1854, he was elected one of 
 its directors, a position which he held for forty-six 
 years (until his death), and in 1896 he was elected 
 vice-president. In 1863 he was elected by the peo- 
 ple a member of the Board of Education to fill a two 
 years unexpired term of a member who had died. 
 He was re-elected in 1865 for the full term of three 
 years, and was president of the Board in the years 
 1864-1865, and 1866-1867. It was during his first 
 term that the study of music was introduced into 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 411 
 
 the public schools of New Haven. At this time also 
 the question of a public high school, which had 
 been considered and discussed by the voters and tax- 
 payers of the city for many years, was revived with 
 great earnestness. Public meetings were held to 
 discuss the question, at which Mr. De Forest pre- 
 sided, and the outcome of this agitation was the 
 starting of a public high school in the old Palladium 
 building on Orange street. In October, 1871, the 
 cornerstone of the present high school building, on 
 the corner of Orange and Wall streets, was laid, 
 and the building completed in 1873. Mr. De Forest 
 was one of the oldest directors in the New Haven 
 Gas Light Co., having been elected in 1880. He 
 succeeded to its presidency on the death of Daniel 
 Trowbridge in 1894, previous to which he had for 
 several years been vice-president. He was also 
 president of the Tontine Co. In all the varied ex- 
 periences of his long and useful life, he showed by 
 his wisdom, his kindness, his tact, his rehability and 
 his integrity, that he was a man of true worth and 
 solid character. His life from its beginning to its 
 close was unimpeachable. When a young man he 
 united with the Congregational Church in Humph- 
 reysville. On coming to New Haven he identified 
 himself with the old College Street Church, and at 
 once entered heartily and enthusiastically into the 
 work of the church. For a long time he was a 
 deacon of the church and a teacher in its Sunday- 
 school. Deacon De Forest was with the College 
 Street Church about twenty years, when he took 
 a letter to the North (now United) Church on ac- 
 count of its being more convenient for his wife. For 
 many years he was a member of the New Haven 
 Congregational Club. He was in all ways a worthy 
 Christian citizen, abounding without ostentation in 
 good works, and devoted to his church, his family 
 and his friends. 
 
 On Oct. 30, 1844, Andrew W. De Forest mar- 
 ried in Fairfield, Conn., Lucretia Sturges Bennet, 
 daughter of Thaddeus Wakeman and Deborah 
 Lewis (Sturges) Bennet, of Southport, Conn. Five 
 children were born of this union, of whom three 
 sons survive: Edward Linson, of Springfield, 
 Mass. ; Charles Sturges, president and secretary of 
 the De Forest & Hotchkiss Co. ; Eugene, vice-presi- 
 dent and treasurer of the De Forest & Hotchkiss 
 Co. ; Mary Woodward, who became the wife of 
 S. Duncan Leverich, and died at her home in New 
 York, March 31, 1897 ; and Lucretia Hotchkiss, who 
 died in New Haven, March 19, 1886. Edward Lin- 
 son De Forest married Louise Hawley, and has one 
 daughter, Edith M. Charles Sturges De Forest 
 wedded Lilian Ives, and has one child, Antoinette. 
 Mary Woodward (De Forest) Leverich left a 
 daughter. May D., now the wife of Major Ira A. 
 Shaler, of New York City. Eugene married Minnie 
 B. Richards, of Boston, Mass. A brother. Rev. 
 Henry Alfred De Forest, M. D., a graduate of Yale 
 College, class of 1832, and missionary to Syria, 
 died at Rochester, N. Y., Nov. 24, 1858. A second 
 
 brother, George Frederick De Forest, a graduate of 
 Yale College, and in 1852 president of the Eagle 
 Manufacturing Co., of Seymour, capital $100,000, 
 died in Freeport, 111., Sept. 16, 1883. One brother 
 survives, Major John W De Forest, of this city, a 
 novelist, who was captain of the 12th Conn. V. I. 
 in the Civil War, and was breveted ]Major of 
 United States \'olunteers. 
 
 BENJAMIN R. ENGLISH is one of the well- 
 known men of New Haven, and is a son of Henry 
 English, a son of James English, who in his time 
 held many prominent positions. 
 
 James English followed the cabinet making busi- 
 ness in company with Sherman Blair. He was the 
 father of nine children: Benjamin; John; James 
 E. ; George D. ; Charles L. ; Henry ; Nancy, the 
 widow of William B. Pardee, resides in New 
 Haven ; Elizabeth married Philo Babbit, and has a 
 son, Edgar, now engaged in business in New 
 Haven ; and Caroline married Fred Bronson, of 
 Waterbury. 
 
 Henry English acquired his education in New 
 Haven. After leaving school, he went into the car- 
 riage business with a Mr. Kimberry, under the firm 
 name of Kimberry & English, and later, in company 
 with his brother, James E., engaged in lumber deal- 
 ing. He died at the early age of thirty. He mar- 
 ried Grace E. Fowler, daughter of Timothy Fowler, 
 and one child, Benjamin R., was born of this union. 
 Mrs. Grace (Fowler) English died Feb. 19, 1889, 
 at the age of seventy-two years. The Fowler fam- 
 ily is an old and important one in the history of 
 Connecticut, their first American ancestor being as- 
 sociated with Governor Davenport, and at one time 
 the first magistrate of the Colony. Timothy Fowler 
 was the father of nine children, of whom one daugh- 
 ter married Gov. English ; all are deceased except 
 a son, William H. Timothy Fowler died at the age 
 of eighty-two, and his wife at the age of fifty-four. 
 Both were members of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Benjamin R. English was born Feb. 26, 1842, 
 and acquired his education in the public schools of 
 New Haven, and in the military school of Gen. Rus- 
 sell, at that time one of the noted educational insti- 
 tutions in New England. His business career be- 
 gan as an errand boy in a dry-goods store, where 
 he remained two years, and then for four years he 
 worked in the clock factory. In 1861 he engaged in 
 the lumber business in company with John P. Tut- 
 tle, with whom he continued for sixteen years, when 
 he entered the real estate business in which he has 
 been very successful, and which he continues to the 
 present time. 
 
 In 1866, Mr. English was united in marriage 
 with Teresa H. Farren, one of the three children 
 born to John S. and Polly (Pardee) Farren, the 
 former an oyster dealer in Baltimore, and the latter 
 a native of New Haven, who died when over seven- 
 ty years of age. The other two children in the 
 family of John S. Farren are Ellen, wife of O. E. 
 
^412 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Maltby ; and Burdette, who now lives in Baltimore. 
 Mr. and Mrs. English have had three children : ( i ) 
 James E., who married Gertrude Worth, of Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y., and is the father of twins, Worth and 
 Grace Atherton ; he is in business with his father. 
 (2) Benjamin F.. who is connected with Peck 
 Brothers. (3) A daughter, Grace L., died Dec. 5, 
 1895, aged eighteen years. Politically Mr. English 
 is a Democrat, and has held a number of offices in 
 the gift of the people. In 1884 he was elected 
 selectman, and became president of the board. He 
 was on the fire board five years, and was postmaster 
 from 1884 until 1889. At the present time he is a 
 director of the Free Public Library, a position he has 
 held since 1894. He was secretary of the New 
 Haven school district in which position he served 
 for six years. For ten years he has been a com- 
 missioner of the Sinking Fund, and is one of the 
 trustees of the town deposit fund. In financial and 
 commercial circles he has played an important part, 
 and is a director of the First National Bank, and 
 a trustee of the Connecticut Savings Bank. He is 
 a director of the New Haven Trust Company, the 
 New Haven Saw Mill Company and of the Danbury 
 and Norwalk R. R. Co. ; director and secretary of 
 the Evergreen Cemetery Association, and the New 
 Haven County Historical Society. He is also a 
 trustee and treasurer of the Clergymen's Retiring 
 Funds, and Aged and Infirm Clergy Fund ; trustee 
 and secretary of the Bishop's Fund. Religiously 
 he is connected with the Episcopal Church in Con- 
 necticut, being a leading and influential member and 
 warden of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in New 
 Haven. Socially Mr. English belongs to the I. O. 
 R. ]M., and is one of the executive committee of the 
 Sons of American Revolution, in which his eldest 
 ^son, who is now secretary of the New Haven Park 
 Commission, takes an active interest. 
 
 CORNELIUS C. RYDER, a representative and 
 prominent farmer of Oxford, Conn., is a native of 
 this State, born in Greenfield, Aug. 19, 1835, a son 
 of Ralph and Harriet E. (Qrapman) Ryder, in 
 whose family were nine children, six sons and three 
 daughters. Those living are Henry A., town treas- 
 urer of Seymour ; Mary P. ; Stephen, a resident of 
 Seymour; and Cornelius C. 
 
 During the childhood of our subject, the family 
 removed to Danbury, Conn., and at the age of nine 
 years he went to Thomaston. Later he spent a 
 short time in Seymour, and then returned to Dan- 
 bury, where he was employed on a farm until eight- 
 een, when he again went to Seymour. He found 
 employment in the Globe Mills, and engaged in the 
 inanufacture of augers for three years. In 1857 
 he removed to the farm in Oxford where he has 
 since made his home. He now owns 150 acres, one- 
 half of which is valley land under a high state of 
 cultivation, and upon which he is successfully en- 
 gaged in general farming and dair3'ing. For ten 
 years or mi.irc he was also interested in the butcher 
 
 business, but now devotes his entire time and atten- 
 tion to agricultural pursuits with most gratifying 
 results. 
 
 On Sept. 21, 1856, Mr. Ryder was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Sarah B. Tomlinson, by whom he 
 had seven children, one, William T., now deceased. 
 Those living are Lillian O., Ralph W., Bennet H., 
 John J., Martha E. and Cornelius C. He was again 
 married, Nov. 7, 1883, his second union being with 
 Mrs. Emma V. Shippy, daughter of Marcus Mer- 
 win, of Woodmont. In his political affiliations, Mr. 
 Ryder is a Democrat, and he has been quite prom- 
 inently identified with local politics. He served as 
 selectman of Oxford in 1893 and 1894, as justice of 
 the peace for many years, and as grand juror for 
 over ten years.. He is an active and influential 
 member of the Episcopal Church, of which he is 
 now senior warden, and is held in high regard by 
 all who have the pleasure of his acquaintance. 
 
 JAMES H. PECK, Warden of the Borough of 
 West Haven in the town of Orange, and one of its 
 most prominent and substantial citizens, comes of 
 Revolutionary stock, his grandfather, a farmer of 
 Middlebury, having served in the War for Independ- 
 ence. 
 
 Ward Peck, his grandfather, was born in New 
 Haven near where the Tontine hotel now stands. 
 His father. Ward Peck, Sr., was there shot in his 
 own dooryard by British soldiers, and this so en- 
 raged his sons that one and all volunteered for ser- 
 vice in the Continental army. Although Ward was 
 but fourteen at this time, he joined his brothers and 
 tried to enlist. He was too short, however, and on 
 going home revolved in his mind various ways by 
 which he could outwit the examiner, in order to 
 enter the service. He presented himself for examin-' 
 ation a second time, having increased his height by 
 stuffing his boots with paper, and was accepted, and 
 served seven years, participating in the hardships 
 at \'alley Forge, and at Stony Point. He helped to 
 carry Gen. Lafayette off the field when the latter was 
 wounded. In 1822, when the French General made 
 his memorable visit to America, he visited ^Ir. Peck, 
 who was transformed from a mere stripling into a 
 man six feet three inches tall and weighing three 
 hundred pounds. He went to Middlebury and 
 there died. Prominent in public affairs, he repre- 
 sented his town in the State Legislature several 
 times. His wife, Dorcas Bronson, bore him twelve 
 children. Ward Peck was a namesake of his uncle, 
 Artemus Ward, who had charge of the forces at 
 Bunker Hill. The remains of Ward Peck, Sr., were 
 laid to rest under old Center Church on the New 
 Haven "Green." 
 
 William Augustus Peck, father of James H., 
 a native of Waterbury, was a man of shrewd busi- 
 ness foresight and great energy of character. Reared 
 upon a farm and educated in the district schools, at 
 the age of twenty-one he began his business career 
 as a common carrier. That was before the com- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 413 
 
 pletion of the New York & New Haven Railroad, 
 and young Peck engaged in hauling freight by 
 teams. .He had thirty horses, and carried to New 
 Haven, Farmington, Tannersville, Meriden and 
 Southington. He was strict with his men, insisting 
 that they must neither smoke nor drink, and, above 
 all, must be Whigs in political sentiment. His 
 teams brought the first organ and the first sticking 
 machine (for putting pins in papers) ever brought 
 to that part of the country. The latter machine had 
 aroused considerable curiosity, and, to prevent its 
 being injured or stolen, an armed man walked be- 
 side the wagon all the way from Meriden to Water- 
 "bury. Mr. Peck's enterprise proved profitable until 
 the coming of the iron horse, when he abandoned 
 it. Then, going to Fairhaven, he purchased a large 
 tract of land, which he subdivided, partially im- 
 proved and sold as building lots ; he opened 
 Peck street, and had the trees set out along the 
 Toad there. From that point he removed to West 
 Haven, where he bought about 100 acres, which 
 lie disposed of in the same manner; here he threw 
 twenty acres into streets, naming them after the 
 members of, his family. He was a man of broad 
 public spirit and universally esteemed. He passed 
 the remainder of his life there, dying in June, 1891, 
 at the ripe old age of eighty-six. Both he and his 
 wife were members of the Congregational Church. 
 Mrs. Peck, whose maiden name was Lucretia Leete, 
 was born in North Haven, and was a great-grand- 
 daughter of Gov. Leete, of Colonial days, whose 
 home was near Leete's Island. She died in her 
 fifty-seventh year. To Mr. and Mrs. Peck were 
 born ten children, six members of which large family 
 are yet living. Their names in order of their birth 
 are as follows: George L., a resident of Jamaica, 
 Long Island; William A., Jr., who died in 1897; 
 Eliza J., now Mrs. Joseph Andrews, a widow of 
 West Haven ; Caroline D., who became Mrs. George 
 M. Anderson, of the same place; Nancy A., widow 
 of Capt. Albert Chase, of that borough; James H.; 
 Emma L., unmarried, also of West Haven; Clara, 
 who died at Jamaica, L. I., aged twenty-five ; an in- 
 fant son that died unnamed ; and Sherman, who died 
 in the 'sixties. 
 
 Gov. Leete, mentioned above, was at first deputy 
 governor under Gov. Winthrop, and later governor 
 of the Colony. His brother was one of the judges 
 at the trial of Charles I, but later came to America, 
 and died in this country. 
 
 James H. Peck remained at home and attended 
 school until he was fourteen years old, when he 
 shipped before the mast. He followed the life of a 
 sailor for six years, a part of the time being spent 
 in the coasting trade and a part on vessels bound 
 for foreign ports. Growing weary of the sea, he 
 returned to West Haven, and started in business as 
 a contractor for house painting. In 1877, however, 
 a longing for new scenes once more took possession 
 of him, and he made a trip to California, and for a 
 year he engaged in various enterprises, returning to 
 
 Connecticut in 1878. From that time until 1884 he 
 served as deputy sheriff of his native county, under 
 John C. Bixby, of Meriden, and in the year last 
 named was appointed ganger and inspector in the 
 Internal Revenue District, which was then the whole 
 State, under the first administration of President 
 Cleveland. After three and a half years he resigned 
 this post, and in 1888 made a second visit to Cali- 
 fornia, remaining until the spring of 1890. On his 
 return to West Haven Sheriff Charles A. Tomlin- 
 son, of Milford, made him his deputy, Mr. Peck 
 serving during the remainder of the term, which 
 expired in 1894. He is a Democrat in politics, and 
 one of the most active and influential of his party's 
 leaders in New Haven county. From 1878 to the 
 present time ( 1901 ) he has been registrar of voters, 
 with the exception of the two years which he spent 
 in California. During the greater portion of the 
 last twenty years he has been chairman of his party's 
 town committee, and is now serving his second term 
 as a member of the State Central Committee. He 
 was first elected warden in 1897, and re-elected in 
 1898 and 1899. 
 
 Mr. Peck is a man of sterling worth and social, 
 happy temperament, who has a wide circle of ac- 
 quaintances and hosts of friends. He is a mem- 
 ber of numerous fraternal lodges, among them be- 
 ing Annawon Lodge, No. 115, F. & A. M. of 
 West Haven, in which he has filled all the chairs, 
 and is now Past Master, and of Joseph Andrews 
 Chapter, R. A. M., of which he is a charter mem- 
 ber and Past High Priest; he is also a member of 
 Crawford Council, of New Haven ; of the Order of 
 O. U. A. M., of which he is likewise a charter mem- 
 ber, and in which order he has taken all the degrees 
 and filled all the chairs. His business career has 
 been a prosperous one. He has dealt largely in 
 real property, and has built wholly upon lines sug- 
 gested by himself one of the finest residences in the 
 village, at the coriier of Savin avenue and Church 
 street. 
 
 In September, 1869, Mr. Peck married Miss 
 Henrietta M. Thompson, youngest child of Capt. 
 John Thompson, of West Haven, well known in the 
 merchant marine service. Mrs. Peck is one of 
 six children, the others being Louise J., wife of 
 Henry M. Ailing, of New Haven; John W., of 
 Lathrop Cal. ; Henry A., of Oakland, Cal. ; Walter 
 W. ("Capt." Thompson), of West Haven; and 
 Sarah M., wife of Theron Ford, of Milford. The 
 union of Mr. and Mrs. Peck has been blessed with 
 a daughter, Louisa Lucretia, who is the wife of 
 Edwin S. Thomas, Esq., of New Haven, a leading 
 member of the Bar, as well as a justice of the 
 peace and ex-member of the State Legislature. One 
 daughter, Roberta, died in infancy. 
 
 DANIEL MEIGS WEBB, M. D., the oldest 
 medical practitioner on the shore line, and for over 
 half a century a physician and surgeon of Madi- 
 son, New Haven county, is a native of that town, 
 
414 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born April 6, 1822. He is a member of one of the 
 oldest families of America, and comes of English 
 ancestry. 
 
 (I) Richard Webb, the first of the name in 
 America, came in 1626 from Dorsetshire, Eng- 
 land, to Cambridge, Mass., thence moving to Bos- 
 ton, where he was made a freeman in 1632. In 
 Boston he remained until 1635, in that year coming 
 to Connecticut and locating on the banks of the 
 Connecticut river, in Hartford county, there mak- 
 ing his home until 1650, when he moved to Fair- 
 field county, locating in Norwalk until 1655. In 
 that year he took up his residence in Stamford, 
 same county, but did not live long afterward, dy- 
 ing Jan. I, 1656. In 1655 he was a deputy. He mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Gregory, daughter of John Gregory, 
 and eight children were born to them: {1) Jo- 
 seph, who married Hannah Scofield, died in 1685; 
 (2) Richard, the next, died March 15, 1676; (3) 
 Caleb died May 24, 1704; (4) Mary -died Sept. 18, 
 1706; (S) John died May 19, 1670; (6) Joshua; 
 
 (7) Samuel is mentioned below; (8) Sarah, became 
 the wife of John Marshall. The mother of these 
 died Jan. 24, 1680. 
 
 (II) Samuel Webb, born March 30, 1662, lived 
 all his days in Stamford, Conn., dying there Oct. 
 7, 1729. By his wife Hannah he had six children: 
 (i) Waitstill, born Jan. 6, 1691, married Jan. 18, 
 1713. Joseph Holly; (2) Samuel, sketch of whom 
 follows; (3) Mercy, born April 11, 1695, married 
 June 18, 1713, Francis Brown; (4) Charles, born 
 March 12, 1697, married May 23, 1723, Mary 
 Smith; (5) Mary, born Jan. 7, 1699, married 
 May 13, 1722, John Bates; (6) Nathaniel, born 
 Nov. 6, 1700, married (first) April 20, 1724, Sarah 
 Webster, (second) Sarah Webb, and (third) 
 Deborah Lockwood. 
 
 (III) Samuel Webb, horn Nov. 16, 1692, in the 
 town of Stamford, died there in January, 1731. 
 He married Dec. 8, 1720, Abigail Slason, born 
 March 8, 1700, who died in 1760. Children: (i) 
 Abigail, born in January, 1722, married Jan. i, 
 1749, Francis Holly; (2) Samuel, sketch of whom 
 follows; (3) Elizabeth, born Jan. 16, 1725; (4) 
 Charles, born April 19, 1730, died April 19, 1730. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Webb, bom Nov. 14, 1723, in 
 Stamford, Conn., thence removed in manhood to 
 Chester, Middlesex countv, where he was a land 
 owner and farmer, and where he died in October, 
 1762. He married in 1744, and his wife, Mary, 
 who was born in 1722, died in 1770. Children: 
 (i) Samuel, born in 1745, died in November, 
 1778: (2) Jemima; (3) Stephen, born in 1746, 
 married Lucy Spencer, and died Aug. i, 1826; 
 (4) Mary was born in 1749; (5) Ann married 
 Martin Southworth ; (6) Esther married a Mr. 
 Douglas; (7) Reynolds, sketch of whom follows; 
 
 (8) Isaac; (9) James. 
 
 (V) Reynolds Webb, born Oct. 9, 1759, in the 
 town of Chester, Middlesex county, was a farmer 
 and land owner, and took a very active part in the 
 
 Revolutionary war. He enlisted June 2, 1777, in 
 Capt. Kirkland's Company, Col. William Douglas' 
 Regiment, 6th Connecticut Line; was discharged in 
 January, 1778 ; during the latter part of the war,, 
 he was transferred to the French army under Gen. 
 LaFayette, and was present at the battle of York- 
 town and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. He 
 was a pensioner in 1818; died March 20, 1834, and 
 was buried in Chester, Conn. He married Nov. 15, 
 1787, Catherine Parmelee, born June 30, 1768,, 
 who died July 15, 1851. Their children: (i) 
 Samuel Parmelee, born Oct. 24, 1788, died Nov. 
 24, 1812. (2) Reynold, sketch of whom follows. 
 (3) Sally, born Dec. 4, 1792, married Deacon 
 George Weed, and died May 18, 1876. (4) Cath- 
 erine, born April 20, 1795, married Joseph Mather, 
 and died Sept. 16, 1825. (5) Isaac, born Jan. 15, 
 1798, was a graduate of Yale College, where he 
 took the degrees of B. A. and M. A. in 1822 and 
 1826, respectively; was tutor, 1825-27; he was twice 
 married, first to Mary McClellan, second to Sarah 
 McClellan. (6) Mary, born April 29, 1801, mar- 
 ried Noah Shipman, and died Oct. 27, 1851. (7) 
 Ambrose, born Dec. 9, 1803, married first Eliza- 
 beth W. Pratt, and second Sarah Tower, and died 
 April 27, 1879. (8) Ann, born March 6, 1806, 
 married Rev. Emory Shailor, and died Jan. 16, 
 1 89 1. (9) William Jones, born April 11, 1808, died 
 July ID, 1836, of consumption, and was buried at 
 sea while on his passage home from Naples, Italy. 
 
 (VI) Dr. Reynold Webb, father of Dr. Daniel 
 M. Webb, was born Jan. 3, 1791, in the town of 
 Chester, Middlesex county, where he was educated 
 and prepared for college, after which he attended 
 Yale Medical School, where he graduated in 1819 
 with the degree of M. D. He then commenced 
 the practice of his profession at Essex, and was 
 later at Madison. From there in a short time he 
 returned to Essex, Conn., but after a sojourn there 
 he returned to Madison and passed the rest of his 
 days in that town, in the full practice of medicine 
 and surgery. He died July i, 1856, aged sixty- 
 five years, and was buried in Deep River cem- 
 etery. In church views he was liberal and in pol- 
 itics a Democrat. He represented the town of 
 Madison in the State Legislature; was probate 
 judge from 1836 to 1842, also from 1850 to 1852; 
 was justice of the peace, and a selectman of the 
 town. Socially he was a member of the Connecti- 
 cut Medical Society, and of the American Medical 
 Association; in fraternal predilections he was affil- 
 iated with the I. O. O. F., and at one time was 
 grand master of the State. During the war of 
 1812 he was a musician from July 5 to 14, 1813, 
 in Col. Elisha Sill's Regiment attached to Capt. 
 Zachariah Clarke's Company. He was at all times 
 active in public life, a good citizen, noted for his 
 honorable and upright character. 
 
 On March 8, 1821, Dr. Reynold Webb was 
 married to Deborah Hopson Meigs, bom May 24, 
 1797, in East Guilford (now the town of Madi- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 41S 
 
 son), a daughter of Capt. Daniel and Millicent 
 (Hopson) Meigs, the former of whom was' in the 
 Revohitionary war, and a sergeant in the "Lexing- 
 ton alarm." Mrs. Webb died Dec. 7, 1859, and 
 was buried in Deep River cemetery. She was a 
 lady of refinement and culture, a loving wife and 
 mother, beloved by all. Two children came to 
 Dr. Webb and his wife: Daniel Meigs was born 
 April 6, 1822. Catherine Millicent, born June 13, 
 1832, married June 17, 1855, Col. Vincent Meigs 
 Wilcox, of the I32d P. V. I.; she died April i, 
 i860, the mother of Dr. Reynold Webb Wilcox, 
 M. D., LL. D., of New York City. 
 
 (VII) Dr. Daniel Meigs Webb, the subject 
 proper of this sketch, commenced to attend school 
 at the very early age of four years, and when 
 ten he entered Lee's Academy, later studying at 
 Clinton Academy, Middlesex county, where he pre- 
 pared himself for college. In 1842 he entered 
 Yale College, taking an academic course, and in 
 1846 received the degree of B. A. (afterward that 
 of M. A.), after which he entered the Medical De- 
 partment, and there graduated in 1849 with the 
 degree of M. D. 'Returning now to Madison, he 
 began the practice ,of his chosen profession with 
 his father, and at' the latter's death continued it. 
 He has- now been a physician and surgeon in his 
 native town for ,over half a century, his ride ex- 
 tending to Clinton, Guilford, Madison and North 
 Madison. 
 
 On April 29, 1849, at Clintqn, Conn., Dr. Webb 
 married Mary Elizabeth Eldprkin, born in Clin- 
 ton, March 20, 1825, daughter of Buckminster 
 Brintnall Elderkin, of that town. Dr. Wdbb is 
 a fellow of the State Medical Society ; is affiliated 
 with the F. & A. M. Lodge, No. 87, Madison, of 
 which he was medical examiner ; is a Knight 
 Templar, member of New Haven Commandery, 
 No. 2 ; and for several years was identified with 
 the I. O. O. F. In politics he is a Republican, but 
 no office seeker, in religious- faith a member of the 
 Episcopal Church, of which he is one of the war- 
 dens. He is a broad-minded man, highly cultured, 
 being master of several languages, extremely pop- 
 ular both in and outside of his profession, and 
 highly respected. 
 
 EDWARD RUTHERFORD HAYES (de- 
 ceased) was in his' lifetime one of the most re- 
 spected and useful citizens of Connecticut, a man 
 of sterling worth and integrity. He was born Jan. 
 30, ■ 1822, in New Haven. The Hayes family be- 
 gins its history in this country with the advent of 
 George Hayes, who went from Scotland to Derby- 
 shire, England, and came to this country, and ap- 
 pears- at Windsor, Conn., very early in the history 
 of the Colony. His first marriage was to Sarah 
 (surname not known), who died in 1683, and he 
 married for his second wife Abigail, a daughter 
 of Samuel Dibble, of Windsor and Simsbury, the 
 same year. About 1698 the family removed to 
 
 Salmon Brook, in the town of Simsbury, which is- 
 now a part of Granby. He died in Simsbury, Sept. 
 22, 1725. His second wife and eleven children 
 survived him. 
 
 Daniel Hayes, a son of George, was born April 
 26, 1686, in Windsor. In 1716 he married Martha 
 Holcomb, who died the year following. In 1721 
 he married Sarah Lee, of Wheatfield, Mass., who- 
 died in 1738. In 1739 Mr. Hayes married his third 
 wife, Mary. Mr. Hayes died in Simsbury in 1756. 
 During Queen Anne's war Daniel Hayes was taken 
 prison by the Indians almost within sight of his own 
 home, and carried to Canada, where he was kept in 
 captivity more than five years, when he was re- 
 leased, and he returned to his home as one risen 
 from the dead. 
 
 Ezekiel Hayes (i), son of Daniel, born Nov. 
 21, 1724, married in 1749 Rebecca, a daughter 
 of Rev. Samuel Russell, of Branford. Mr. Hayes 
 was an early .settler in New Haven, where he 
 owned and occupied a home on Court street. He 
 was a prominent citizen, and a large proprietor 
 in New Haven. He lived many years at Bran- 
 ford, where in 1756 he built a handsome brick 
 residence, which is still standing. His death oc- 
 curred in New Haven Oct. 17, 1807. From 1749 
 until after the Revolution his home was in Bran- 
 ford the most of the time. He served as a captain 
 in the Revolution, and was present at the surren- 
 der of Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown. A grand- 
 son of Ezekiel (i) was Rutherford B. Hayes, 
 President of the United States. 
 
 Ezekiel Hayes (2), son of the above, was born 
 in Branford in 1753, and married June i, 1775, to 
 Mary Hemingway. Wealthy (Trowbridge) 
 Barnes became his wife June 21, 1800. She was 
 the widow of Samuel Barnes- and a daughter of 
 Rutherford Trowbridge and Dorothy Hitchcock. 
 Elizabeth, the widow of Archibald Rice, became 
 his third wife, Dec. 8, 1822, and she survived him. 
 Mr. Hayes, like his father, was a blacksmith and 
 scythe maker. Mr. Hayes resided in Court street. 
 New Haven, where he died Oct. 20, 1828. 
 
 John Hayes, son of Ezekiel (2), born Nov. 
 17, 1786, in New Haven, was married June 28, 
 1810, to Elizabeth Bills, a daughter of William and 
 Elizabeth (Thompson) Bills-; she was born Jan. 
 8, 1790, and died Dec. 5, 1872. Mr. Hayes was a 
 merchant tailor, and died July 23, 1836. His chil- 
 dren were as follows : Ezekiel ; William Bills ; 
 Susan, who married a Williard ; Elizabeth T., who 
 married a Johnson ; John Hemingway ; Edward 
 Rutherford ; Charles Russell ; Harriet Rebecca ; 
 and Mary B., who married Edward T. Mix, men- 
 tion of whom will be made further on. All were 
 born in New Haven. 
 
 Edward Rutherford Hayes, son of John, was 
 for many years the efficient bookkeeper and ac- 
 countant of the firm of Henry Trowbridge & Sons, 
 one of the most substantial and best-known con- 
 cerns in New England. He retired from active 
 
4i6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 life in 1889, and died on Dec. 9, 1895. On Oct. i, 
 1849, he was married to Anna Cooke Silliman, 
 who was born Jan. 5, 1825, at Mt. Pleasant, N. 
 Y., a daughter of Elisha and Amelia (Cooke) Silli- 
 man, of New Haven. She died May 9, 1876. To 
 them were iborn: (i) Martha Silliman, who is a 
 daughter of the American Revolution; (2) Caro- 
 line Rutherford, who died Aug. i, 1858. Mr. Hayes 
 was a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 
 which he served as a vestryman many years. In 
 early life he was captain of a militia company. 
 In politics he was a Republican, and belonged to 
 the Republican Club. His great-grandfather built 
 the old brick house, one of the famous taverns in 
 Branford in the early days. 
 
 The grandmother of Mrs. Anna C. (Silliman) 
 Hayes was a great-grandchild of Gen. Lyon, who 
 came to America very early in the colonial history. 
 The family are all connected with the Sillimans 
 of Yale College. The mother of Mrs. Hayes was 
 a member of a family of ten children, three, of 
 whom are living, two in New York, and one in 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Edward Townsend Mix, who was an architect 
 of Milwaukee, learned his profession of Sidney 
 Stone, and became one of the leading architects 
 of the Northwest. His biography appears in the 
 National Cyclopedia of American Biography. Mr. 
 Mix was born at New Haven, Conn., May 13, 183 1. 
 His father and grandfather followed the sea, and 
 were navigators of distinction, the exploits of each 
 being named in the annals of the New Haven 
 Colony Historical Society. In 1836 young Mix 
 went West with his parents, who settled in An- 
 dover. 111., on a large farm which his father had 
 purchased. In 1845 the family returned to New 
 York, where Edward T. tegan his education in 
 the city schools, and completed it in the Collegiate 
 School, in Batavia, N. Y. In 1848, while on a 
 visit to New Haven, he became acquainted with 
 one of the leading architects of New England, 
 whose office he entered as a student. At the ex- 
 piration of seven years he refused a partnership 
 with his instructor, and settled in Chicago, 111. 
 In 1856 he went to Milwaukee, Wis., where his 
 ability as an architect was speedily recognized, and 
 liis application to his profession, with his unswerv- 
 ing fidelity in discharging its duties, brought him, 
 in a very few years, into the front rank of his pro- 
 fession. In 1868 Gov. Fairchild appointed him 
 State architect of Wisconsin, and he had charge 
 of the construction of the State buildings until 1879, 
 when he resigned. His reputation was not confined 
 to Milwaukee, but extended to other cities, East and 
 West, and received for him engagements where pro- 
 fessional talent and experience of the highest order 
 were required. Mr. Mix was a leading member of 
 New York Institute of Architects, and was presi- 
 dent of Wisconsin State Architectural League 
 from 1888 to 1890. A great number and variety 
 of noble and stately buildings in Milwaukee, Min- 
 
 neapolis and other western cities, bear testimony 
 of his high attainments. Among many of the 
 finest buildings in Milwaukee which he designed 
 are the Chamber of Commerce, St. Paul's Church, 
 Mitchell's Bank, the St. Paul R. R. Depot, Plank- 
 ington House, and St. Grace's Church at Minne- 
 apolis. He was also the architect of the Guar- 
 antee Loan Building, costing $1,000,000. He 
 married Mary Hayes, of New Haven, Conn., 
 a relative of ex-President Hayes. Edward Town- 
 send Mix died Sept. 23, 1890, at Minneapolis, 
 Minnesota. 
 
 FRANKLIN HENRY HART, than whom 
 there are few better known business men in New 
 Haven, is one of the sterling residents of that city, 
 where his long and honorable career has placed him 
 in a foremost position in the commercial circle. 
 
 Mr. Hart comes from one of the old and honor- 
 able families of New England, and one of the very 
 oldest in Connecticut, he being a representative of 
 the seventh generation from Deacon Stephen Hart, 
 who was the progenitor of this family in America. 
 His line is from Deacon Stephen through Thomas, 
 Hawkins, Samuel, Samuel (2^,^iind William Au- 
 gustus. ■* 
 
 (i) Deacon Stephen Hart, born about 1605, at 
 Braintree, County of Essex, England, came thence 
 to the Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1632, ac- 
 companied by his wife and daughters, Sarah and 
 Mary, and his sons; John and Stephen (2). He is 
 supposed to have belonged to the company that 
 settled Braintree, Mass. He located for a time at 
 Newtown (now CambridgeV where his first wife 
 died. For his second wife he married Margaret 
 Smith, widow of Arthur Smith. Mr. Hart was' one 
 of the fifty-four settlers at Cambridge, Mass., later 
 went to Hartford with the company of Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker, in 1635, and was one of the original pro- 
 prietors in 1639. At Cambridge he had been a 
 member of Mr. Hooker's Church and continued a 
 member in Hartford. In 1672 he became one of the 
 eighty-four proprietors of Farmington, Conn. In 
 1647 he was a deputy to the General Court of Con- 
 necticut, and continued to serve as such during most 
 of the succeeding years up to 1660, from the town 
 of Farmington. At the latter place he was one of 
 the seven pillars of the church and was chosen the 
 first deacon. An extensive farmer, he became a 
 man of influence, and was one of the leaders in the 
 town. His death occurred in 1683, his widow dy- 
 ing in 1693. 
 
 (II) Thomas Hart, son of Deacon Stephen, was 
 born in 1644, and married Ruth Hawkins, who was 
 born in 1649, in Windsor, Conn., a. daughter of 
 Anthony Hawkins, a man of distinction in Farming- 
 ton, whose wife was the daughter of Governor 
 Welles, of Connecticut. Mr. Hart served as en- 
 sign, lieutenant and captain, respectively, of the 
 train band. Mr. Hart and John Hooker were the 
 two most prominent men of the town, and conspic- 
 
-*.-'" 
 
 Mil ifl^ 
 
 
 yy^/n^ 
 
 ^^-^n^ ( 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 417 
 
 uous in the Colony, being men of wealth, activity 
 and usefulness. From 1690 to 171 1 he represented 
 the town in the General Court, for twenty-nine ses- 
 sions, and he was several times clerk and speaker. 
 Capt. Hart died in 1726, and was buried with mili- 
 tary honors. He was a man of wealth and influ- 
 ence. His family consisted of two daughters and 
 five sons. 
 
 (HI) Hawkins Hart, son of Capt. Thomas, was 
 born in 1677, in Farmington, and was a farmer. He 
 married in 1701 Sarah Roys, who was born; in 
 1683, daughter of Nathaniel Roys and Sarah 
 (Lathrop), of Wallingford. They lived for a time 
 in Farmington, and then removed to Wallingford, 
 where Mrs. Hart died in 1733. Mr. Hart then 
 married Mary Eliot, daughter of Rev. Joseph Eliot, 
 and his second wife Mary (Willys), of Guilford, 
 the latter a daughter of Hon. Samuel Willys, of 
 Hartford. Mr. Hart held the rank of lieutenant, 
 and represented Wallingford in the General Court 
 nine sessions, between 1714 and 1732. He died in 
 1735. He was a large land holder and owned and 
 occupied a twenty-seven^acre tract on North ]\Iain 
 street, Wallingford, now known as the Rice (or 
 Ro3's) homestead. He was a representative man of 
 his time, prominent in State, civil and military life. 
 Mrs. Mary (Eliot) Hart was a granddaughter of 
 Rev. John Eliot, the apostle to the Indians, who 
 read the Bible to the red men under the massive oak 
 at South Natick in 165 1 ; he used his own transla- 
 tion of Holy Writ, and was the first to give them 
 this sacred work in their own language. After the 
 death of her first husband, Mrs. Hart married Rev. 
 Abraham Pierson, first President of Yale College, 
 who died some time after, and his widow married 
 (third) Samuel Hooker, of Kensington, a grand- 
 son of Rev. Thomas Hooker, of Farmington. One 
 child was bom to Lieut, and Mrs. Hart, Samuel, 
 mentioned below. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Hart, son of Lieut. Hawkins, was 
 born in Wallingford July 18, 1735. He married, 
 in 1759, at Durham, Conn., Abridget Fowler, 
 and settled on a tract of land which had been 
 given to Rev. Joseph Eliot by the Colonial Leg- 
 islature, for valued and distinguished service. 
 Both he and his wife were taken into full church 
 .com.munion in 1771. Mr. Hart held the rank 
 of lieutenant in the Continental Army during 
 the Revolutionary war, and was wounded at the 
 battle of Saratoga, Sept. 19, 1777, after which 
 he drew a pension. He rendered further service 
 to his country as Captain in Col. Comfort Sage's 
 regiment July 5, 1779, in the invasion of New Ha- 
 ven. His death took place Jan. 12, 1805, and his 
 widow passed away Nov. 26, 1827. Their graves 
 are well preserved in the old cemetery of his native 
 to.wn, his bearing the bronze marker of the society 
 of Sons of the American Revolution. 
 
 (V) Samuel Hart (2), son of Lieut. Samuel, 
 was born July 12, 1770, and was baptized in Dur- 
 ham, Conn. On March 3, 1803, he married Patience 
 
 27 
 
 Hubbard, who was born in August, 1772, a daughter 
 of Eber and Patience (Chittenden) Hubbard. Mr. 
 Hart was a farmer living on his father's homestead, 
 and was an industrious man. He died Dec. 25, 1857, 
 his widow surviving until Alarch 15, 1864. 
 
 (VI) William Augustus Hart, son of Samuel 
 (2), was born April 26, 1806, at Durham, Conn., 
 and was well known to the residents of New Ha- 
 ven, Middletown and Durham, as he carried on a 
 provision business in these towns, and also kept 
 a country store on the old homestead. He married 
 Sally Ann Jones, who was a daughter of John Jones, 
 of North Madison, and the children of this union 
 were as follows: Elizabeth H., born May 17, 1831, 
 married Charles E. Camp, of Aliddlefield, Conn. ; 
 Franklin H., born April 29, 1834; Mary E., born 
 July ID, 1836, is deceased ; William Lewis, born 
 Dec. 28, 1838, is residing in Brighton, Ohio (he 
 served as a private in ist Conn. Heavy Artillery 
 in the Civil war, and receives a pension) ; Ellen M., 
 born March 11, 1841, married Isaac Hall, of Wall- 
 ingford, and both are deceased ; Charles E., born 
 April 2, 1843, enlisted during Civil war in the isth 
 Conn. v. I., and was promoted to captain in the 
 109th colored regiment; Frederick J., born Feb. 26, 
 1845, ^"d now a resident of Joplin, Mo., was during 
 the Civil war a lieutenant in the 109th colored regi- 
 ment, 1st Heavy Artillery; Catherine S., born Aug. 
 19, 1847, lives in Durham, Conn. ; Alice L., born 
 April 19, 1852, is an artist in Boston, Mass. The 
 parents of this family died in Durham, Conn. They 
 were honored members of the South Congregational 
 Church, and Mr. Hart was a deacon in same. Air. 
 Hart was noted for his strict total abstinence fronr 
 all kinds of intoxicants, and for his firm stand on 
 this subject of temperance. 
 
 Franklin Henry Hart was born in the town of 
 Durham, on the farm which has been in the family 
 since the time of Rev. Joseph Eliot, granted by 
 special act of the general court of Connecticut in 
 1698, to Mary Eliot, his great-great-grandmother. 
 His literary training was received in the public 
 schools of Durham, and his first business venture, 
 at the age of fourteen years, was the peddling o£ 
 charcoal. At sixteen he attended the first organ- 
 ization of the State Normal School, in New Britain, 
 where he was a student for two terms, in 1849-50. 
 He had fitted himself for teaching, but before he 
 could obtain a school had to pass an examination, 
 which was conducted by nine residents of the town 
 including the minister. One very important quali- 
 fication of a teacher in this district was the ability 
 to make pens from quills furnished by the examin- 
 ers. The use of steel pens was strictly prohibited, 
 the pupils bringing the quills, and the teacher with 
 his pocket knife converting them into pens. In 1851 
 Mr. Hart taught a district school in Middlefield, 
 continuing to teach for two winters in the South 
 End District in Durham. In 1854 he became asso- 
 ciated with H. H. Strong in business in New Haven, 
 where he remained until March, 1856. About this. 
 
4i8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 time the trouble in Kansas regarding slavery was 
 -attracting attention from all over the United States. 
 The Abolition element in Connecticut was active, 
 and in order to stimulate that side of the con^ 
 troversy, a colony was formed at New Haven for 
 migration to Kansas. The meeting to organize this 
 ■colony was held in the Xorth Church, New Haven, 
 March 20, 1856. Henry Ward Beecher made a stir- 
 ring address, and after he had concluded it was an- 
 nounced that while the party was well fitted to dig 
 and plow, it was not in shape to fight. Professor 
 Silliman of Yale arose and in a short speech urged 
 the furnishing of the colonists with guns, so that 
 they could do something for freedom, as well as for 
 the building up of prosperity on the plains. He 
 ended by subscribing $25 for the purchase of a 
 Sharps rifle. Others followed his example, and in 
 a short time half of the colonists had been provided 
 with weapons for either offense or defense. Mr. 
 Beecher, then at the zenith of his power, again took 
 the rostrum, and in a magnetic speech gave his 
 blessing to the new plan, and promised that if the 
 ■colonists could get half enough rifles there, he would 
 promise that his church would furnish the remain- 
 der. In a few days he sent the company the re- 
 quired number of guns, over $600 having been sub- 
 scribed by his parishioners for the purpose, and 
 along with the guns came a Bible and hymn book 
 for every member of the party. In the party were 
 doctors, lawyers, mechanics, teachers and preachers, 
 and on March 29, 1856, they marched out of New 
 Haven, as splendid a party of men as ever gathered 
 for the colonization of the West. With them went 
 the words of Mr. Beecher as he wrote them from 
 his study in Brooklyn, as he sent the rifles. 
 
 Let these arms hang above your doors as the old Revo- 
 Jutionary muskets do in many a New England dwelling. 
 May your children in another generation look upon them 
 -with pride and say, " Our fathers' courage saved this land 
 from blood and slavery.'' Every mornmg's breeze shall 
 •catch the blessing of our prayers and roll them westward to 
 your prairie homes. May your sons be as large hearted as 
 the heavens above their heads. May your daughters fill 
 the land as the flowers do the prairies, only sweeter, fairer 
 than they. You will not need to use arms when it is known 
 that you have them. It is the essence of slavery to be arro- 
 gant before the weak and cowardly before the strong. 
 
 One of these historic Sharps rifles, which did 
 service against armed invasion of the slave power, is 
 treasured by Mr. Hart as a factor in making Kan- 
 sas a free state, and the flrst gun fired in the pre- 
 liminary skirmish of the Civil war. 
 
 Mr. Hart was a member of the colony which was 
 under Chas. B. Lines, and settled at Wabaunsee, 
 Kansas. Mr. Hart remained in Kansas until the 
 fall of 1859, excepting during a period of about 
 seven months, in the winter of 1858-59, when he 
 taught school at Camp Point, 111. He returned to 
 Connecticut in the fall of 1859, ^^'^'^ again associated 
 himself in business with Air. Strong, and since that 
 time has been one of the reliable business men of 
 New Haven, one whose integrity is unquestioned. 
 
 and whose success has been merited. In 1872 he 
 became associated in the wholesale provision busi- 
 ness, under the firm name of Strong, Barnes, Hart 
 & Co. 
 
 On Dec. 24, i860, at Durham, Mr. Hart was 
 united in marriage with Miss Adaline Jackson, a 
 daughter of John Jackson, and they have had one 
 son, Horace Sedgwick, who was born Aug. 30, 
 1864, and is a brilliant young man. He graduated 
 from Yale in 1887, studied medicine in the College 
 of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, and grad- 
 uated in 1893, spent two years in Bellevue Hospital, 
 and began practice in 1896, in Cambridge, N. Y. 
 At Tarrytown, N. Y., he married Miss Amy Rich- 
 ards, and they have two children, Gertrude Richards 
 and Franklin Jackson. Mr. and Mrs. Hart are 
 members of the Church of the Redeemer. He was 
 for a number of years a member of the society's 
 committee and its chairman. 
 
 Franklin H. Hart is a member of Wooster 
 Lodge, F. & A. M. ; the Sons of the American Revo- 
 lution; and of the Union League. He was one of 
 the organizers of the Republican League, which was 
 organized on the defeat of James G. Blaine, and 
 with three hundred miembers. His connection with 
 civic affairs has been notable in town and city. In 
 1879 and 1880 he was a member of the board of 
 selectmen, and it was during this period that Fair 
 Haven was annexed to New Haven, and the town 
 line extended, taking in the entire east shore of New 
 Haven Harbor to and including Southend. From 
 188 1 to 1891 he was a member of the board of police 
 commissioners, during which period was introduced 
 the Gamewell Police Telephone and Signal system ; 
 also the patrol wagon and ambulance. It was in 
 1889 that the Veteran Reserve Grade pension act, 
 and Reserve fund in Police department were estab- 
 lished. In the inauguration of all these plans and 
 devices, Mr. Hart took a prominent part. While 
 a member of this board he was presented with a 
 valuable watch, as a testimonial of the regard in 
 which he was held by the citizens of New Haven. 
 Mr. Hart is one of the well known citizens of his 
 city, and has made life a success. While well along 
 toward three-/score and ten, Mr. Hart is active in 
 mind and body— Ja man of regular habits, as his 
 well-preserved physical condition will attest. He is 
 an enthusiastic and successful amateur photograph- 
 er, and during his travels has collected a vast num- 
 ber of interesting views with his camera, his col- 
 lection of Cuban, Jamaican and Mexican views being 
 especially interesting, and, to no small extent, in- 
 structive, as they embrace many photographs which 
 a student of sociology would consider rare and ex- 
 tremely valuable. 
 
 RUSSELL HALL, a prominent citizen and na- 
 tive of Meriden, and one of the leaders in grocery 
 supplies, dealing also in woodenware, and a manu- 
 facturer of tinware, was born Julv 26, 1835. 
 
 The family records of the Hall family reach 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 419 
 
 back to John Hall, who was born in England in 
 1605, and died in Wallingford, Conn., in 1676. He 
 came to Hartford, Conn., either just before, or in 
 company with Rev. Thomas Hooker, and was 
 granted six acres by courtesy of the town. He 
 married Jane WoUen, in 1641, and she died Nov. 
 14, 1690. Nine children blessed the home of this 
 pioneer couple: (i) Richard, born July 11, 1645, 
 married, in 1699, Hannah, daughter of John and 
 Mary (Alsop) Miles, and died in New Haven in 
 1726, aged eighty-one years. (2) John, baptized 
 Aug. 9, 1646, married Dec. 6, 1666, Mary, daugh- 
 ter of Edward and Mrs. (Potter) Parker (she was 
 baptized Aug. 27, 1648, and died Sept. 22, 1725), 
 and died Sept. 2, 1721. (3) Sarah, twin to John, 
 baptized Aug. 9, 1646, married in December, 1664, 
 AVilliam, son of Thomas Johnson, of New Haven. 
 (4) Daniel, born in 1647, married in 1670, Mary, 
 daughter of Henry Rutherford, and died in Bar- 
 badoes, West Indies, in 1675. (5) Samuel, born 
 I\Iay 21, 1648, married in May, 1666, Hannah, 
 daughter of John Walker, and died March 5, 1726, 
 survived by hisi wife until Dec. 20, 1728. (6) 
 Thomas, born March 25, 1649, married Grace Wat- 
 son, June 5, 1673, and died Sept. 17, 1731 ; she died 
 I\Iay I, 1731. (7) Jonathan, born April 5, 1651, 
 "exchanged accommodations in New Haven in 1667, 
 for those of John Stevens of New London," where 
 he was probably a vessel owner and captain. (8) 
 David, born March 18, 1652, married Dec. 24, 
 
 1676, Sarah Rockwell (who died Nov. 3, 1732), 
 and died July 7, 1727. (9) Mary, born in 1653, 
 is probalbly the Mary Hall who testified as to John 
 Hall's nuncupative will in 1676. She married in 
 
 1677, Henry Cook, son of Henry and Judith (Bdrd- 
 sall) Cook, of Salem, Mass., and died Oct. 31, 1718. 
 Henry Cook was born Dec. 30, 1652, and died in 
 1703. 
 
 Thomas Hall, fourth son of John and Jane 
 (Wollen) Hall, was born in New Haven, March 
 25, 1649, married Grace Watson, who was born in 
 1653, a daughter of Edward and Grace (Walker) 
 AVatson. This is the first marriage in the Walling- 
 ford records. Their children were: Abigail, born 
 Jan. 7, 1674, married John Tyler; Thomas, born 
 July 17, 1676, married Abigail Atwater; Mary, 
 born Nov. 22, 1677; Jonathan, born July 25, 1679, 
 married Dinah Andrews, May 12, 1703 ; Joseph, 
 born July 8, 1681, married Bethiah Terrell; Esther, 
 born Feb. 3, 1682, married Benoni Atkins ; Ben- 
 jamin, born April 19, 1684, married Mary Ives ; 
 Peter, born Dec. 28, 1686, married Rebecca Bar- 
 tholomew; Daniel, born Jan. 29, 1689, married 
 Martha Dooliftle; Rebecca, born Jan. 6, 1691, mar- 
 ried Daniel Holt; Israel, born Oct. 8, 1686, married 
 Abigail Powell. 
 
 Jonathan Hall, son of Thomas, married on May 
 12, 1703, Dinah Andrews, who survived until 1784, 
 dying at the age of ninety-nine years, and he died 
 at the age of eighty-one. Their children were : 
 
 David, born Oct. 16, 1705; Jonathan, born Jan. 13, 
 1708, married Sarah Cook, in 1739; Joseph, born 
 May 31, 1710, married Hannah Scoville, on April 
 
 19, 1736; Anna, born Jan. 18, 1712; Isaac, born 
 July II, 1 714, married, Nov. 5, 1735, Mary Moss; 
 Phebe, born Feb. 12, 1717, died May 14, 1735 ; Eze- 
 kiel, born May 13, 1719, married Anna Andrews; 
 Thankful, born Sept. 20, 1722; Benjamin, born Oct. 
 
 20, 1725; and Temperance, born April 16, 1727. 
 Ezekiel Hall, son of Jonathan and Dinah (An- 
 drews) Hall, was born in the Hall homestead May 
 13, 1719, and married Anna Andrews, Oct. 20, 1743, 
 and his children were : Ezekiel, born Oct. 24, 1744 ; 
 Titus, born Oct. 19, 1746, died Sept. 4, 1748; Eben, 
 born May 23, 1749; and Benajah, born in 1762. 
 
 Benajah Hall, son of Ezekiel, was born in what 
 is now the town of Meriden, and on Aug. 19, 1784, 
 married Ruth Francis, and their children were: 
 Orrin, born June 5, 17S5 ; Esther, born June 13, 
 1787; Ruth, born Aug. 25, 1789; Nancy, born Nov. 
 9, 1792 ; Martha, July 13, 1795 ; Philo, May 13, 
 1798; Jacob, April 5, 1801 ; Joseph, Oct. 17, 1803; 
 Joel, Nov. 3, 1806; and Levineas, July 21, 1810. 
 
 Orrin Hall, the father of our subject, in his early 
 days was a tin peddler, traveling througli the South- 
 ern States. In those days the housewives who lived 
 far from towns and villages, always welcomed the 
 peddlers, who not only brought necessaries within 
 reach, but gave news of the great world outside. 
 Later Mr. Hall retired to Meriden, and farmed in 
 that neighborhood. He married Anna G. Hall, a 
 daughter of Brinton Hall, of Meriden, and died in 
 July, 1853. His children were : Almon ; Mariette, 
 who married Stephen Ives; Nelson; Philo; Elvira, 
 who married Silas Ives ; Margaret ; Russell ; Mar- 
 tha, who died young; and Eliza, who married Henry 
 L. Baldwin. 
 
 Russell Hall, our subject, is also a lineal de- 
 scendant of Rev. Samuel Hall and Anne Law, 
 daughter of Gov. Jonathan Law, of Connecticut, 
 by Anne (Eliot) Law, his first wife. She was a 
 granddaughter of Rev. Joseph Eliot, of Northamp- 
 ton and Guilford, and great-granddaughter of 
 Rev. John Eliot (the Apostle), and of Gov. Will- 
 iam Brinton, of Rhode Island. 
 
 Russell Hall was reared to manhood on the farm. 
 He obtained his education under the veteran peda- 
 gogue, James Atkins, and at an early age entered 
 trade, and his success, although gratifying, has been 
 the natural result of unceasing hard work. At 
 eighteen years of age, with a mere pittance for a 
 capital, he engaged in the making of tinware and 
 supplied peddlers. His little business increased un- 
 til at the end of eight years he branched out in his 
 present business, that of dealing in wholesale 
 grocers' supplies. In his present business Mr. 
 Hall is one of the largest dealers in his line in the 
 State; his trade covers a large territory, the 
 name of his establishment being recognized as 
 a synonym for honest goods at popular prices. 
 
420 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 The customers of this jobber are well looked 
 after by traveling men, and Mr. Hall himself, who, 
 from the fact that he has made them regular visits 
 for years past, is the best known and most popular. 
 
 Having gradually become interested in real es- 
 tate, Mr. Hall is a large tax payer and improver of 
 property. He now owns some dozen houses, and in 
 building the same, and in keeping them in repair 
 has furnished employment to many men. While 
 he has always devoted his full time and attention to 
 business, he takes an interest in public affairs, but 
 has never sought nor accepted office. He is, how- 
 ever, one of those genial whole-souled men, who 
 win the regard of all with whom they come in con- 
 tact, and his strongest friends are those who know 
 him best. 
 
 Mr. Hall has been twice married. His first 
 wife was Emily Preston, daughter of Ira Preston. 
 On Jan. 28, 1866, he wedded Mary E., daughter 
 of Ransom and Sarah (Twiss) Baldwin, and six 
 children have been born of this union : Luther 
 Russell, born Jan. 23, 1869, died Dec. 11, 1875; 
 Irving Baldwin, born Aug. 13, 1871, died Dec. 14, 
 1875; Lena Augusta, born July 17, 1873, died Dec. 
 26, 187s ; these three all died from the effects of 
 diphtheria. Of the others, Wesley R., born Jan. 27, 
 1877, died April 27, 1878; Bessie M., born Feb. 8, 
 1879, •iis'i Nov. II, 1891 ; and Howard Baldwin, the 
 only survivor, born i.lay I, 1881, is engaged in 
 business with his father. Mr. Hall supports the 
 Baptist Church, of which his wife and son are mem- 
 bers, and in political affiliations is a Democrat, and 
 of considerable influence in his party. A thorough 
 and experienced man of business, Mr. Hall has been 
 before the public for many years, and has won the 
 confidence and esteem of all by the upright methods 
 he has always pursued. 
 
 Mr. Hall's maternal grandfather, Brinton Hall, 
 was the father of a numerous family, of whom we 
 have the following record : William Brinton, born 
 May 13, 1764, died July 29, 1809; Collin, born July 
 8, 1766, died Feb. 2, 1849; Samuel, born June 10, 
 1768, died March 11, 1795; Lucy, born March 13, 
 1771, died May 12, 1791 ; Sarah, born July 15, 
 1774; Lamont, born July 12, 1776; Oliver, born 
 Dec. 12, 1779, was a clergyman ; and Joab, born Jan. 
 12, 1 781. The mother of these died and by a sub- 
 sequent marriage, Brinton Hall became the father of 
 Augustus, born July 5, 1785; Ira, born Dec. 27, 
 1787, died May 12, 1862; Casper, born April 5, 
 1790; and Anna Guy, who married Orrin Hall, fa- 
 ther of Russell Hall. 
 
 Ransom Baldwin, father of Mrs. Russell Hall, 
 was born on the Baldwin homestead, in East Meri- 
 den, near Baldwin's Mill, March I, 1793, son of 
 James Baldwin and Bethia (Goodsel). A full his- 
 tory of the Baldwin family is found elsewhere in 
 this volume. Ransom Baldwin grew up on a farm, 
 and received his education in the district schools. 
 He was a peddler of dry goods for nine >cars in 
 the Southern States, after which he returned to his 
 
 native home, and settled down to farming, buying a 
 tract of land, over 180 acres, on which he built a 
 dwelling house, barns, etc., and where he spent the 
 balance of his days. He was a man of domestic 
 tastes, and lived at peace with all the world. In his 
 religious views he was a Baptist ; in his political 
 affiliations he was a stanch Democrat,- but no office 
 seeker. He died in 1870, well-known, highly re- 
 spected, and was buried in the East Cemetery. Mr. 
 Baldwin married Sarah Twiss, who was born Jan. 
 9, 1801, and died Oct. 30, 1872, a daughter of 
 Joseph and Lois (Austin) Twiss. This union was 
 blessed with nine children as follows : Hiram,_ 
 Vincey Ann, Lois, and Augusta, all died young ; 
 Sarah (deceased) married William Briggs (she had 
 five children, one that died young; Delia; Rose,, 
 who married Charles Ferry, and has two children, 
 Edna and Ruth Margaret ; Lizzie, principal of Skin- 
 ner school. New Haven ; and Waldo, a civil engin- 
 eer in New York) ; Ransom, who married Mary 
 Hall (who died in 1897), and had four children,. 
 Flora, Ransom L., Henry (died young) and Alice 
 (wife of Charles Morgan) ; Mary E., wife of Rus- 
 sell Hall ; Roxanna, who died young ; and Justina 
 C who married Benjamin C. Kennard, and has two 
 children, Helen M. and Benjamin Leighton. The 
 mother of these children was a faithful and con- 
 sistent member of the First Baptist Church, Meri- 
 den. 
 
 James Baldwin, father of Ransom Baldwin, was 
 a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He introduced 
 Joseph Twiss to Lois Austin, and they later married 
 and became the parents of Sarah, wife of Ransom 
 Baldwin. 
 
 CHARLES E. FAIRCHILD. The family of 
 Fairchild was among the earliest to settle in Ox- 
 ford, in which town our subject was born March 9, 
 1831. His grandfather, Abial Fairchild, was a 
 farmer, and a native of the same place, as was also- 
 his father, Ebenezer Fairchild. Abial Fairchild. 
 was a citizen of prominence and influence in his com- 
 munity, holding many local offices, among which 
 was that of selectman. 
 
 Ebenezer Fairchild was but one year old when 
 he was deprived of paternal care throug'h the death 
 of his father. He grew up on the home farm, and 
 while a young man learned the trade of carriage- 
 builder in the shops of James Brewster, whqse 
 name has been for decades associated and indis- 
 solubly connected with this great industry. He 
 served his apprenticeship in New Haven, and started 
 in business for himself at Oxford, meeting with 
 good success. His trade was chiefly with the 
 Southern markets, and as an index to the extent of 
 his business it may be stated that his son can recall 
 numerous shipments of vehicles to New York by 
 sloop. From Oxford he removed to Seymour, con- 
 tinuing in the same business until his death, which 
 occurred Feb. 21, 1880, after he had reached his. 
 seventy-sixth birthday. He married Sarah Can- 
 
(21/2:^:^^^' 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 421 
 
 <lee, of Oxford, and both were earnest and con- 
 sistent members of the Congregational Church. Mr. 
 Fairchil'd was a RepiibHcan in politics. Mrs. Fair- 
 child, like her husband, descended from one of the 
 town's early families. Her father. Job Candee, was 
 a successful farmer, and lived to be ninety years old. 
 On Oct. 3, 1784, he married Sarah Benham, of 
 Middlebury, and they had seven children: Enos, 
 Horace, Leverett, Laura, Esther, Roxy and Sarah, 
 •of whom Sarah, the youngest, was the last survivor, 
 living until Aug. 20, 1899, ^"d reaching the age of 
 ninety-two years. Mrs. Sarah (Benham) Candee 
 lived to the age of seventy-six. Job Candee served 
 in the army of Gen. Washington, enlisting as a 
 fifer, but rising to the rank of captain before the 
 conclusion of the war. His soul-stirring anecdotes 
 of the great struggle which began in 1776, were 
 full alike of pathos and humor, and to listen to their 
 narration was one of our subject's great pleasures in 
 -early life. Under the heading, "A Daughter of the 
 Revolution," an interesting article appeared in a 
 local paper a few years ago, and we here give same 
 in part : 
 
 Se)mour has a chapter of Daughters of the Revolution 
 composed of hneal descendants ot soldiers of the Revolu- 
 tion, mostly of the third and fourth generations, and has 
 also what very few cities or towns in the United States can 
 boast, a daughter of a soldier of the Revolution. This is 
 Mrs. Sarah l"'airch]ld, of Washington avenue, now nearly 
 ninety years of age. She is the daughter of Job Candee, of 
 Oxford, who enlisted Feb. 9, 1779, in Captain Bradley's 
 ■company of Matrosses (artillery), raised for the defense of 
 New Haven. He was discharged Feb. 8, 1780, but re-en- 
 listed March 1st in the artillery under Capt. Bradley, and 
 served until Jan. 1, 1781, returning to his home during the 
 most inclement weather, as wai the custom with a great 
 number of the patriots during that long Contest. In 1781 he 
 served in Col. Canfield's regiment, at West Point. He is 
 mentioned in the list of Revolutionary pensioners, in 1832, 
 and again in 1840, being then eighty years of age and a 
 resident of Oxford. In the records of the Oxford Congre- 
 gational Church (of which he became a member ]uly 20, 
 1788) he is mentioned under date of 1792 as Lieutenant, 
 and in the Candee genealogy as Captain in 1802. His 
 monument reads — " Capt. Candee was the last survivor of 
 nine brothers, whose aggregate ages were785X years, averag- 
 ing 87X years. Reader, yet a few years or days or months 
 pass in silent lapse, and time to you will be no more." 
 
 Charles E. Fairchild received the benefit of an 
 ■excellent English education, passing through both 
 the common and high schools of Oxford, and the 
 academy at Newtown. Like many of the bright 
 young men of New England, he believed that he 
 might better his fortunes by leaving the rock-girt, 
 mountain-crested section in which he had been born, 
 and at the age of twenty years he carried himself 
 and his modest outfit to Tennessee, where for five 
 years he filled a clerical position in a store. Re- 
 turning East at the end of that time, he found em- 
 ployment in the city of New York, with a wholesale 
 dry-goods house, as an accountant. He left this 
 position to become a bookkeeper in the Manufactur- 
 ers & Merchants Bank, where he remained fourteen 
 years, resigning his post to become a traveling sales- 
 man for the Fowler Nail Co. ; the territory assigned 
 
 him extended as far west as the ^Mississippi. He 
 left the Fowler Co., in 1876, to accept his present 
 position as superintendent and general manager of 
 the H. P. & E. Day Manufacturing Co., of Seymour, 
 a concern engaged in the manufacture of hard rub- 
 ber goods. Here he has found an ample field for 
 the exercise of his rare mental powers, sound judg- 
 ment and executive capacity. The plant is one of 
 the largest and best-equipped in Connecticut, and 
 Mr. Fairchild's strong common sense and tireless 
 energy have contributed in no small measure to the 
 company's remarkable success. He is a director of 
 the Valley National Bank, of Seymour, of which he 
 was one of the organizers. 
 
 Mr. Fairdiild has been twice married. His 
 first wife was Martha W. Davidson, of Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., to whom he was united in June, 1862. She 
 was a daughter of William A. Davidson, a well- 
 known custom house keeper of New York, and was 
 a member of the Tabernacle Church, of which Dr. 
 T. DeWitt Talmage was pastor. She died in 1887, 
 after reaching the age of fifty years. On Sept. 18, 
 1888, Mr. Fairchild married, for his second wife, Ida 
 (Geeren) Coffin, daughter of Alexander and Fran- 
 ces (Clark) Geeren, the former one of the success- 
 ful brick manufacturers of Catskill, New York. 
 
 The party ties rest lightly on Mr. Fairchild, his 
 necj<: bearing no partisan yoke. He votes as his 
 intelligence, prompted by his conscience, dictates, 
 his natural preference being for men rather than 
 party. His fellow citizens have not failed to rec- 
 ognize his keen perceptive mental powers and his 
 incorruptible integrity. They have chosen him to 
 fill the office of assessor, and to membership on the 
 board of relief. While making no bid for popu- 
 larity he makes friends as a matter of course, and 
 his moral worth commands the undisguised respect 
 of the community, without distinction of party. He 
 is one of the influential members of the Board of 
 Trade. Our subject was one of the charter mem- 
 bers of the local lodge of the Order of Red Men, 
 and has filled many chairs in that organization. His 
 residence at No. 25 Washington avenue is one of 
 Seymour's most handsome and best-appointed 
 homes, and there, in his seventieth year, he enjoys 
 the rest which pertains to a serene old age and a 
 "conscience void of offence." Both Mr. and Mrs. 
 Fairchild are comimunicants of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 WHITE. Prominent among the manufactur- 
 ers of Waterbttry, for nearly sixty years have been 
 the several members of the White family, sons and 
 grandsons of the late Jacob White, of Cromwell, 
 formerly Micldletown Upper Houses. This fam- 
 ily has descended on both sides from early and dis- 
 tinguished New England ancestry. Elder John 
 White, with his wife and several children, sailed 
 from England in 1632 on the ship "Lyon." The 
 head of the family lived at Cambridge, Mass., 
 Hartford, Conn, (of which place he was one of the 
 
422 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 original proprietors), and Hadley, Mass. The 
 late Luther Chapin White and his brothers (sons 
 of Jacob White), of Waterbury, were in the eighth 
 generation from Elder John White, the first Amer- 
 ican ancestor of the family, the line of their de- 
 scent being through Capt. Nathaniel, Jacob, John, 
 Jacob (2), John (2), and Jacob (3). 
 
 (II) Capt. Nathaniel White, son of Elder John, 
 born in England, was twice married. His first 
 wife. Elizabeth, died, and he married (second) 
 Widow Alartha Mould. He became in 1650 or 
 1651 one of the original proprietors and first set- 
 tlers of Middletown, Conn., his home being in that 
 part of the town formerly called "Upper Houses," 
 now Cromwell. He was one of the leading men 
 of the Colony and acquired great influence. He 
 was elected a representative from Middletown to 
 the General Court eighty-five timesi. 
 
 (III) Jacob White, son of Capt. Nathaniel and 
 his wife Elizabeth, born in 1665, married (first) 
 in 1692, Deborah Shepherd, and (second) in 1729, 
 AVidow Rebecca Ranney. He served as constable 
 and also as .selectman. 
 
 (IV) John White, son of Jacob, was born in 
 1712, at Middletown Upper Houses, where he lived 
 and died. He married, in 1736, Elizabeth Bord- 
 man. 
 
 (\^) Jacob White (2), son of John, was born 
 in 1737, in Middletown Upper Houses, where he 
 lived and died. He married, in 1760, Lucy Savage. 
 
 (VI) John White (2), son of Jacob (2), born 
 in Middletown Upper Houses, married, in 1790, 
 Ruth Ranney. He was drowned at sea in 1799. 
 
 (VII) Jacob White (3), son of John (2), born 
 1792 in Upper Middletown, married, in 1815, 
 Susan, daughter of Capt. William Sage. She was 
 born in 1796. Jacob White was a tanner and 
 shoemaker, and in 1819 removed to Sandisfield, 
 Mass., where he carried on the business of tan- 
 ning for twelve years.. He returned' to Upper Mid- 
 dletown, and resided there chiefly until his death, 
 in 1849. Elis children were : William S., Henry 
 S., Luther Chapin, Harriet M., Jacob Watson, 
 Abigail E., Orrin S. and Jane A. 
 
 Capt. William Sage, the maternal grandfather 
 of the late Luther Chapin White, was a great- 
 grandson of David Sage, a native of Wales. The 
 latter was born in 1639, and became one of the 
 first settlers of Middletown, in 1652. Capt. Will- 
 iam Sage was bom in 1748, son of Amos Sage. 
 He married Bathsheba Hollister, and they had nine 
 sons' and five daughters. William Sage was in 
 the war of independence. Immediately after the 
 battle of Lexington, an event that aroused the 
 country to arms, he, like thousands of others, left 
 family and business and hastened to' the scene of 
 conflict, and wasi at the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 He was afterward in other placesi in this State 
 when the citizens were called upon to resist in- 
 vasion of the enemy. He died in 183 1, lamented 
 and respected by all who knew him. 
 
 Luther Chapin White, son of Jacob (3) and 
 Susan (Sage) White, was born Dec. 25, 1821, in 
 Sandisfield, Mass. From the age of ten until he 
 was seventeen he passed the time on his father's 
 farm, in Cromwell, where he attended the district 
 school. At seventeen he was apprenticed to his 
 eldest brother, who was a builder in Middletown, 
 but owing to an injury from a fall he was com- 
 pelled to abandon the business. He then for a 
 time was in the employ of L. E. Hicks, of Crom- 
 well, a maker of plated door trimmings. In 1841 
 he came to Waterbury and entered the employ of 
 E. E. Pritchard and H. J. White, manufacturers of 
 umbrella trimm.ings and small brass goods. In 
 December, 1842, he entered the employ of the Sco- 
 vill Mfg. Co., remaining some two years. For 
 the next six years he was employed as foreman by 
 J. S. Norton, a manufacturer of door trimmings, 
 in New Haven, Middletown and Aleriden. In 
 185 1, having invented and patented a valuable 
 improvement in the making of burners for "fluid" 
 lamps;, ;\Ir. White formed a partnership with Frank 
 Smith, in ileriden, for their manufacture. Two 
 years later they removed their business to Water- 
 bury,. and in 1853 organized the City Manufac- 
 turing Co., of which Mr. White was made presi- 
 dent. A year later Mr. Smith died and his inter- 
 est was purchased by Mr. White. The latter con- 
 tinued in the management of this business for 
 fifteen years, although during that time an entire 
 change in the character of the articles manufac- 
 tured was made, owing to the introduction of coal 
 oil and afterward of kerosene. In his important 
 field Mr. White was a pioneer, having been the 
 maker of the first burners ever made in America 
 for utilizing these oils. He was largely interested 
 in the numerous inventions and improvements in 
 the manufacture of lamp burners which were made 
 during this period. The manufacture of these- 
 goods was carried on in the building of the Bene- 
 dict & Bumham Manufacturing Co., on South 
 Main street, and the business developed so rapidly 
 that the capacity of the factory was more than 
 quadrupled. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. White purchased from the estate 
 of his brothers, J. W. and Henry S. White, the 
 paper and paper box business established in 1851, 
 and associated with him Capt. Alfred Wells, under 
 the firm name of White & Wells. They built up 
 a large trade in paper and straw board and the 
 extensive manufacture of paper boxes, which is, 
 carried on in the buildings on Bank street, and 
 in this line they were closely associated for twenty 
 years. The partnership continued until the death 
 of Mr. Wells, July 11, 1886, after which Mr. White 
 became the sole owner of the business. Toward 
 the close of 1881 the Southford Paper Co., then' 
 newly organized, with L. C. White, as president, 
 bought out the Southford Mfg. Co., with its pa- 
 permill, which had been established since 1853,, 
 erected new buildings, and entered upon manufac- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 423 
 
 turing straw board and manil'la paper on a large 
 scale. This company in 1887 ceased operations and 
 the mill was idle for some five years, starting up 
 again only a few weeks before Mr. White's death. 
 
 On July I, 1868, Mr. White sold to the Benedict 
 & Burnham Manufacturing Co. all his interest in 
 the City Manufacturing Co., but retained the but- 
 ton back business, which he transferred to the 
 building on Bank street and which was afterward 
 conducted by the L. C. White Co. Mr. White 
 was the owner, also, of a paper box factory in 
 Naugatuck, and of the Bridgeport Paper Box 
 Company. 
 
 Although really an invalid for many years be- 
 fore his death, Mr. White was reluctant to ac- 
 knowledge it, even to himself, and exhibited great 
 fortitude and courage, ^\''hen not actually laid 
 aside by illness he applied himself closely to busi- 
 ness, exercising a strict watch over details, and 
 exhibiting the unwearied diligence which charac- 
 terized him in earlier years. The result was visible 
 in his marked success as a business man. He was 
 not, however, so engrossed in business as to ex- 
 clude interest in public affairs, or in the doings 
 of the social world. He was fond of good com- 
 pany and interested in all that was going on 
 around about him. He was of a cheerful and 
 hopeful nature, and those with whom he met from 
 day to day felt the genial influence of his life. He 
 believed in the legitimate pleasure of life, as well 
 as in hard work, and sought entertainment and 
 profit in travel. There was no important section 
 of his own country which he had not visited, and 
 he had also traveled abroad. He was a close ob- 
 server of men and things, and gave his friends 
 not a little pleasure in recounting his' adventures 
 and describing what he had seen in other places. 
 
 Politically Mr. White was an earnest Republi- 
 can, exhibiting in politics, as in other departments 
 of life, the whole-so-uled characteristics which 
 made him so attractive to his fellow citizens. In 
 religious affairs he held closely, but without a 
 particle of bigotry, to the faith in which he was 
 brought up. He was for many years a member 
 of the First Congregational Church, and took a 
 warm interest in its welfare. 
 
 On Nov. 28, 1844, Mr. White was married to 
 Miss Jane Amelia Moses, of Waterbury, who sur- 
 vived him. Their children were : William Henry, 
 who died in 1873, at the age of twenty-six; George 
 Luther, now a resident of Waterbury; and Mrs. 
 Lynde Harrison, of New Haven. Luther Chapin 
 White died April 5, 1893. 
 
 George Luther White, son of the late Luther 
 Chapin White, was born July 15, 1852, in Meri- 
 den. He attended the common schools of Water- 
 bury and for a time the school known as the 
 "Gunnery," in Washington, Litchfield Co., Conn. 
 He was afterward more or less associated with his 
 father in his different lines of business until his 
 death, and then succeeded to his large business in- 
 
 terests. In January, 1892, he became the man- 
 ager of the business of M'hite & Wells, and in 
 January, 1895, organized The White & Wells Co., 
 as successors to the business of White & Wells, 
 and was chosen president and treasurer, and has 
 since most efficiently performed the duties of those 
 trusts. At the death of his father he became presi- 
 dent and treasurer of the L. C. White Co. and still 
 holds those offices. He is also vice-president of the 
 New England Watch Co., of Waterbury, and of 
 the Weston Strawboard Co., of St. Mary's, Ohio, 
 and Gas City, Ind. Air. ^^''hite is one of the 
 younger prominent manufacturers! and business 
 men of Waterbury. Socially he is a member of 
 the Waterbury Club, and for some nine years 
 served on the house committee, and from 1899 to 
 1901 was its president. Politically he is a Repub- 
 lican. He was a member of the common council 
 in 1890, from the Second ward. He has the confi- 
 dence and esteem of the community to a marked 
 degree. On April 15, 1874, Mr. White was mar- 
 ried to Julia Phelps Haring, daughter of James 
 Demarest Haring, of New York City, and the 
 marriage has been blessed with children as follows : 
 Caroline Haring, \\'illiam Henry and George 
 Luther, Jr. 
 
 Jacob Watson White, son of Jacob and Susan 
 (Sage) White, was born Sept. 19, 1827, in Sandis- 
 field, jNIass. In 1831 he came to Cromwell, Conn., 
 with his father's family, and lived the greater part 
 of the time until 1850, when he located in Water- 
 bury. There, associated with his brother Henry 
 S. White, he established, in 1851, the paper and 
 paper box businessi described in the foregoing, 
 which he conducted the remainder of his life. He 
 died July 5, 1865, and the business was managed 
 by his executors until February, 1866, when it was 
 purchased by his brother, Luther C. White. Jacob 
 Watson White was one of the original members 
 of the Second Congregational Church, in the af- 
 fairs of which he took a great interest. He was a 
 man of good business ability, and held the confi- 
 dence and esteem of his fellow citizens. He mar- 
 ried, Oct. 19, 1850, Anna Eliza, daughter of 
 Chauncey Wells, of Hartford, and their children 
 were: (i) Edward Luther White, born Dec. 12, 
 1853, in Waterbur)', was prepared for Yale Col- 
 lege at Williston Seminary, and graduated from 
 Sheffield Scientific School in 1875. He then en- 
 tered the employ of White & Wells, as manager 
 of their business at Bridgeport. On the death of 
 Capt. Wells, in 1886, Mr. White returned to Wa- 
 terbury, and wasi manager of their business here 
 until Jan. i, 1892, when he was appointed secre- 
 tary of the Waterbury Watch Co. He remained 
 connected with that business until his death, Aug. 
 5, 1893. In January, 1876, he was married to 
 Laura V., a daughter of Judge James L. Ogden, 
 of Jersey City, N. J., and to them were born three 
 children, Ogden Watson, Howard Sage and Ed- 
 ward Luther. (2) Chauncey Howard White was 
 
424 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born March 24, 1856, in Waterbury, and was ed- 
 ucated at ^^'illiston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. 
 He was vice-president of the White & Wells Co., 
 at the time of his death, Aug. 23, 1901. (3) Anna 
 S. White. (4) Mary VV. White. The mother of 
 these died in Mav, 1862. 
 
 WILLIA:\I a, waterbury, one of the best 
 known railroad men of Connecticut, and a prom- 
 inent citizen of New Haven, is the superintendent 
 of the Air Line — Northampton Division of the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad. His career 
 as a railroad man extends along toward a half cen- 
 tury, and with but one exception he is the oldest, in 
 point of service, division superintendent in the em- 
 ploy of the Consolidated Railway Company. 
 
 Mr. Waterbury was born jNlarch 23, 1838, in 
 Stamford, Conn., where the Waterbury family has 
 been settled for generations. They have been iden- 
 tified with the history of that town from the earliest 
 period, taking an active part in public affairs, and 
 an equally active part in the Revolutionary war. 
 The members of the famih' have always commanded 
 the highest esteem in their respective communities. 
 Enos Waterbury, the grandfather of our subject, 
 was one of the most respected citizens of Stamford. 
 He lived to the age of ninet)^ 
 
 Jonathan B. Waterbury, the father of our sub- 
 ject, was a native of Stamford. By trade he was 
 a blacksmith and wheelwright, and for many years 
 he did all the blacksmith work at Stamford for the 
 old stage line which ran between New York and 
 Boston. He also carried on farming at one time 
 in his life, and owned much of the land which now 
 comprises Strawberry Hill, the most aristocratic 
 residence section of Stamford. His spacious home 
 of over twenty rooms, was one of the places in 
 Stamford noted for hospitality. His family was a 
 large one, and they entertained frequently and lav- 
 ishly. Mr. Waterbury married Betsy Weed, bv 
 whom he had three children : Enos, Charles and 
 Betsy Ann. For his second wife he married Sallie 
 Smith, of Stamford, a daughter of Rev. Frederick 
 Smith, a Baptist minister of that city, who had sev- 
 eral other children who lived to maturity. To this 
 marriage were born ten children : Enos, deceased ; 
 Charles, deceased; Betsy Ann, deceased; Elizabeth 
 J. ; James \.. deceased ; Henry E., deceased ; George 
 A., deceased ; Cornelia A. ; William A. ; and Mary 
 A., deceased. Elizabeth J. married Andrew Boyd, 
 of Stamford, who belonged to the 28th Conn. V 
 I. George A., who was also' in the sanie regiment, 
 was taken prisoner at Port Hudson ; he was in the 
 celebrated charge there, known as "The Forlorn 
 Hope." Cornelia A. married Samuel W. ^leakim, 
 a gardener of Flushing, L. I. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
 Waterbury died in Stamford, where they were 
 prominent members of the Universalist Church. 
 Mr. Waterbury was a Republican. 
 
 The 1)oyhoofl days of William A. Waterbury 
 were spent in Stamford, where he ajttended both a 
 
 common and graded school. At the age of six- 
 teen he went to Bridgeport and clerked for about 
 one \ear. In 1857 he was employed on the Nauga- 
 tuck' division of w'hat is now the New York, New 
 Haven & Hartford Railroad, as clerk and ticket 
 agent at Waterbury, continuing in that capacity for 
 five 3'ears. At the expiration of that time, he was 
 promoted to the position of conductor and general 
 ticket agent, serving five years as such, three of 
 which he also had the lexamination of all freight 
 receipts for that road. The next position he held 
 with the road was that of agent at Waterbury, and 
 he was then transferred to New York City, and 
 made ticket agent there. At that time the Air Line 
 Railroad, running from Middletown to New Haven, 
 was being built, and Mr. Waterbury was appointed 
 superintendent of the construction. As soon as it 
 was completed he was appointed superintendent of 
 the road, and located stations, etc., on its extension 
 for five years, until it was completed to Willimantic, 
 Conn., when in October, 1875, he came to New Ha- 
 ven and took charge of the freighting business at 
 Belle Dock, serving ten years ; during nine years of 
 that time he also served as harbormaster. In 1885 
 Mr. Waterbury was made superintendent of the 
 Air Line and Shore Line, and he retained this posi- 
 tion for three years, but the business then became 
 too extensive for one man to handle, and he dropped 
 the work of the Shore Line. After about three 
 years more he was transferred to the Shore Line, 
 in the same position, remaining there until Feb. i, 
 1 90 1, when he was appointed superintendent of 
 the Air Line — Northampton division, having 
 charge of about two hundred miles of road. 
 
 In Waterbury, Conn., Dec. 25, i860, Mr. Wat- 
 erbury married Miss Martha E. Kelsey, of Middle- 
 town, a native of New York City, born June 10, 
 1841, daughter of William and EUzabeth Kelsey. 
 Four children have been born to ]\Ir. and Mrs. Wat- 
 erbury : ( I ) Carrie Amelia married Nelson D. 
 Coe, of Winsted, Conn., who is a clerk in the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad offices at 
 New Haven. Mr. and Mrs. Coe have two children : 
 Harriet Waterbury, a graduate of the New Haven 
 high school, class of 1902; and Frederick Kelsey. 
 (2) Frederick Smith graduated from a hospital col- 
 lege of medicine in Louisville, Ky. He is now a 
 traveling salesman. He is married and has two 
 children — Fred W. and Lois E. (3) Lyman died 
 in infancy. (4) Harriet Elizabeth married Charles 
 E. Burton, of New Haven, who is a member of the 
 firm of George R. Burton & Sons, insurance men, 
 of that city; Charles E. Burton is himself a prom- 
 inent insurance man, special agent for the American 
 Insurance Co., of Philadelphia, with an office in 
 Boston. He is also an insurance adjuster. 
 
 In politics Mr. Waterbury is a Republican. He 
 has served his party as a member of the board of- 
 aldermen, and was chairman of the Lamp commit- 
 tee, which furnished the first electric lights to the 
 city. Although repeatedly solicited he has declined 
 
^^Zyi^^T-nr-d-t^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 425 
 
 any other offices. He is a member of tlie Masonic 
 fraternity, affiliating with Trumbull Lodge, No. 
 .22 ; New Haven Commiandery, No. 2, K. T. ; and 
 Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Bridgeport. He 
 is a member and trustee of the Knights Templar 
 Club ; a member of the board of directors of the 
 Masonic Mutual Benefit Association, and treasurer 
 of Trumbull Lodge. He is also past regent of Live 
 •Oak Council, Royal Arcanum ; a member and trus- 
 tee of the Knights of Honor; and very popular in 
 all these organizations. Both be and his family are 
 consistent members of the Universalist Church. 
 
 When Mr. Waterbury severed his connections 
 with the Shore Line he was presented with a beauti- 
 ful silver loving cup, appropriately engraved, to- 
 gether with a large framed engrossed set of resolu- 
 tions from his men bearing testimony to their appre- 
 ciation of him as an official, and their friendship for 
 liim as a man. Mr. Waterbury is a man of unusual 
 ability, faithful in the discharge of duties confided in 
 iim, upright in his deahngs, both with his superior 
 officers and the men under him, genial in his asso- 
 ciations with his friends and fellow townsmen, with 
 an untarnished record as a public man and a private 
 citizen ; and the success which has attended his ef- 
 forts is certainly well merited. 
 
 INGERSOLL. The ancestors of the New 
 Haven family bearing this name, and their posterity 
 in turn, have dwelt for two hundred and fifty or 
 more years in New England, and for one hundred 
 and fifty years in New Haven, where they have 
 figured conspicuously in public afl^airs — Colonial, 
 State and National. They have here been a family 
 of lawyers, men of great eminence in the profession. 
 Such names as Hon. Jared, Judge Jonathan, Hon. 
 Ralph L, Judge Charles A., Gov. Charles R., Hon. 
 Colin ]\I. and son, Hon. George P. Ingersoll, have 
 reflected great honor upon the profession, the State, 
 the Nation and the family name, and constitute 
 within themselves a famil)- galaxy of distinguished 
 lawyers and public men. 
 
 Hon. Colin M. and Hon. Charles R. Ingersoll, 
 brothers, still members of the Bar of New Haven, 
 though in advanced life, are in the sixth generation 
 from John Ingersoll, who was at Hartford in 1653 
 or earlier, then at Northampton and Westfield, 
 ]\Iass., respectively. He died in 1684. His third 
 wife was -Mary Hunt, a granddaughter of Gov. 
 \\'ebster. From this John Ingersoll, Colin and 
 Charles R. Ingersoll's line of descent is through 
 Jonathan, Rev. Jonathan, Judge Jonathan and Ralph 
 T. Ingersoll. 
 
 (II) Jonathan Ingersoll, son of John of Hart- 
 ford, born in 1681, married in 1712, widow Miles, 
 who died in 1748, aged sixty-two years. ^Ir. In- 
 gersoll in 1608 was a resident of Milford, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 (III) Rev. Jonathan Ingersoll, son of Jonathan, 
 torn about 1713, in Stratford, Conn., married in 
 1740, Dorcas, daughter of Rev. Joseph Moss, of 
 
 Derby. Mr. Ingersoll was graduated from Yale 
 College in 1736, and. entered the ministry, being 
 licensed by the Presbytery of New Jersey, at Eliza- 
 bethtown, Feb. 15, 1738. He lived for a time in 
 Newark, N. J. On Aug. 8, 1739, he was installed 
 pastor of the Ridgefield (Conn.) Congregational 
 Church, succeeding Rev. Thomas Hawley, who died 
 in 1738, and becoming the Society's second pastor. 
 He was a man of fine mind and good heart, and he 
 served the church with great faithfulness until his 
 death, which occurred Oct. 2, 1778, when he was 
 in the sixty-fifth year of his age and the fortieth 
 of his ministry. In 1758 he joined the Colonial 
 troops as chaplain, on Lake Champlain. He is 
 said to have exerted an excellent influence on the 
 army, and to have been highly respected by the 
 soldiers. 
 
 (IIII) Hon. Jared Ingersoll, son of Jonathan, 
 and brother of Rev. Jonathan, born in 1722, in Mil- 
 ford, Conn., married (first) in 1743, Hannah Whit- 
 ing, who died in 1779, and (second) in 1780, he 
 married Hannah Ailing. He was graduated from 
 Yale College in 1742, and soon afterward settled in 
 the practice of law in New Haven. In 1757 he went 
 to Great Britain as the agent of the Colony, receiv- 
 ing a special appointment from the General Assem- 
 bly. He went again in 1764, while there was ap- 
 pointed to the office of stamp master, and as such 
 was famous. In 1770 he was appointed by the 
 Crown, Judge of the Vice-iAdmiralty Court in the 
 ^Middle district of the Colony, and went to Philadel- 
 phia to reside. The office was abolished at the be- 
 ginning of the Revolutionary war, when he returned 
 to New Haven tO' live, and where his death occurred 
 in 1 78 1. Judge Ingersoll was one of the ablest 
 lawyers of his time. He was a remarkably eloquent 
 man, and as a lawyer made the cause of his client 
 clear to the jury by his power of explicit statement 
 and his logical method of reasoning. He was of 
 open, frank and engaging manner, and was very 
 successful. 
 
 (I\') Judge Jonathan Ingersoll, son of Rev. 
 Jonathan, born in 1747, in Ridgefield, Conn., mar- 
 ried Grace, daughter of Ralph Isaacs, of Branford. 
 He was graduated from Yale College in 1766, and 
 became a lawyer, locating in practice at New Haven, 
 where for many years he pursued his profession 
 with great industry, fidelity and success. Before he 
 had reached middle age, he entered public life by 
 the unsolicited suffrages of his fellow citizens, and 
 became one of the purest statesmen Connecticut 
 has ever had. He was for years a member of the 
 General Assembly. He was once elected to the 
 Congress of the LTnited States, but declined to ac- 
 cept the honor. From 1798 to 1801 he was on the 
 Bench of the Superior Court, and in 181 1 he suc- 
 ceeded Gov. Smith as Judge of the Supreme Court 
 of Errors, and as such served until 1816. He soon 
 after re-entered the field of political life, and was 
 one of those who did most to secure the final over- 
 throw of the Federalists. The Toleration party led 
 
426 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 by Judge Ingersoll and Oliver Wolcott carried the 
 State in 1818, and they were elected lieutenant-gov- 
 ernor and governor, respectively. It had been a 
 long struggle of the people against the Legislature, 
 and the people had triumphed. Judge Ingersoll 
 held the office until after the adoption of the pres- 
 ent constitution. He died in New Haven, Jan. 12, 
 1823. 
 
 (V) Hon. Charles Anthony Ingersoll, son of 
 Judge Jonathan, born Oct. 19, 1798, in New Haven, 
 married in 1839 Miss Henrietta Sidell, of New 
 York City. He studied law under the direction of 
 his older brother, Hon. Ralph I., and attained emi- 
 nence at the Bar, serving as State Attorney from 
 1849 to 1853. In the latter year he was appointed 
 by President Pierce, Judge of the United States 
 District Court of Connecticut, and continued in 
 that position until his death Jan. 12, i860. 
 
 (V) Hon. Ralph Is.vacs Ingersoll, son of 
 Judge Jonathan, and the father of Colin M. and 
 Hon. Charles Roberts! Ingersoll, of New Haven, 
 was born Feb. 8, 1789, in New Haven. After his 
 graduation from Yale College in 1808, he read 
 law for two years under Hon. Seth Staples, and 
 then opened an office in New Haven. The period 
 was an interesting one. Pierpont Edwards, able 
 and eloquent, had recently been transferred to the 
 Bench of thfe District Court of the United States, 
 leaving at the Bar, as its m'ost promiinent mem- 
 bers, David Daggett, Nathan Smith and S. P. 
 Staples, each pre-eminent in his way. It is the 
 best evidence of Mr. IngersoU's energy and talent 
 that he was able, in the presence of these strong 
 men, first to stand erect, then to attain eminence. 
 
 While still young, Mr. Ingersoll became inter- 
 ested in politics. Though by birth a Federalist, 
 when the question was presented whether Con- 
 necticut should longer have a State religion, and 
 Congregationalists' be a privileged sect, he, with 
 his father and other influential churchmen, took 
 the side of equal rights, and in 1817 became a 
 "Tolerabionist." As a member of the new part^', 
 he was chosen, two 3'ears later, to represent New 
 Haven (previously a. strong Federal town) in the 
 Legislature. The session which followed, on ac- 
 count of the new constitution, was an important 
 one. Mr. Ingersoll immediately took a high po- 
 sition among the leaders in debate. He was a 
 working m'ember, faithful to his trust, and prob- 
 ably the ablest man on hiis side, and was retained 
 there until wanted for a higher place. In 1820 
 and 1 82 1 he was chairman of the finance commit- 
 tee, and in 1824 he was Speaker of the House. 
 In 1825 he was elected a representative to Con- 
 gress, which election vacated his seat in the Legis- 
 lature, to which he had been again chosen. He 
 was continued in Congress for eight years, sup- 
 porting, the first four, the administration of Presi- 
 dent Adams, and afterward acting with the Na- 
 tional Republicans, led by Henry Clay. He served 
 for four years on the Ways and Means committee. 
 
 the most important committee in the House, and 
 during the last two years held the second place 
 on that committee. He was' able, industrious and 
 vigilant, and from the start rose rapidly and stead- 
 ily in the estimation of the public. While a mem- 
 ber of Congress Mr. Ingersoll served one term 
 as Mayor of New Haven. After the expiration of 
 his Congressional career, in 1833, he returned to- 
 New Haven and resumed the practice of law. In 
 1834 he supported the administration of President 
 Jackson. In 1835 Mr. Ingersoll was selected to- 
 fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, but de- 
 clined the great honor. He several times declined 
 nomination for governor when his party was in 
 power, and it is stated that he could have had any 
 office in the gift of the people. While in Congress- 
 he became an intimate friend of Mr. Polk, and 
 when that gentleman was elected president of the 
 United States, in 1846, he appointed Mr. Inger- 
 soll minister to Russia, without his knowledge or 
 consent. This honor he accepted, and after an 
 absence of two years at St. Petersburg gladly re- 
 turned to his profession, and for twenty years 
 practiced law with unabated vigor and never with 
 greater success. He loved the law, and with great 
 energy devoted himself to it through a long life. 
 He desired to attain excellence and eminence as 
 a lawyer ; and on that objective point were brought 
 to bear the converged forces of his whole nature. 
 He had noble endowments of intellect, vigorous 
 and well balanced, and obedient to his will, and 
 equipped with all needful adornment. He was a 
 hard student of both books and human nature. 
 
 Mr. Ingersoll was noted for the proportionate' 
 and harmonious development of all his powers. That 
 he was an able lawyer, a close thinker, adequate- 
 ly learned, and familiar with the whole field of 
 practice, all admit. His voice, pleasant, almost 
 musical, and of unusual compass, could be heard 
 distinctly in its lowest tones. The ready, fluent 
 speech, graceful delivery, and active but natural 
 gesticulation ; the energetic, earnest manner ; and 
 the continence which mirrored every thought, all 
 contributed to his power as an advocate. While 
 his language was select, his argument was clear,, 
 logical, compact and complete. Eminently per- 
 suasive, forgetting nothing and digressing rare- 
 ly, he touched lightly on the weaker points, and 
 knew where to place the strain. If the chain broke 
 the fault was not his. 
 
 Though speaking well, with little premedita- 
 tion, Mr. Ingersoll was accustomed to prepare his 
 cases thoroughly ; looked at both sides and weighed 
 opposing considerations. Well fortified himself, he 
 was quick to see and expose an unguarded point 
 in the enemy, dexterously driving home his ad- 
 vantage. Though when speaking to the Court, or 
 a deliberate body, he addressed himself wholly to 
 the intellect, using little ornament, when before 
 a jury or popular assembly he gave himself more 
 liberty, was sometimes impetuous, often eloquent. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 427 
 
 On these occasions he would show bis power over 
 the common mind, putting himself in contact with 
 those primitive sentiments, convictions and in- 
 stincts which lie at the foundation of human na- 
 ture and which are older than reason. With his 
 hand on the hidden springs of action, he shaped 
 and directed the cerebral movements, awakened 
 emotion or quickened the sense of right, carry- 
 ing his auditors whither he would. Says one of 
 large experience: "He was the best public speak- 
 er I ever saw." In a notable degree he was pos- 
 sessed of that personal magnetism by the aid of 
 which the orator sways and sets on fire the sym- 
 pathetic multitude. At one time he was witty and 
 humorous, at another serious and pathetic, and 
 he could be sarcastic. Oppression of the weak by 
 the strong he would vehemently denounce ; a pre- 
 varicating witness flay, if he could. 
 
 Mr. Ingersoll was an experienced and accom- 
 plished writer. Concerning his facts he was con- 
 scientiously scrupulous, and would state nothing 
 which was not wholly and exactly true. No man 
 ever lived a purer or more exemplary life than he. 
 His character was adorned hy all the public and 
 private virtues. Honorable, manly and just, it is 
 believed he was never guilty of a deed of mean- 
 ness or conscious wrong. 
 
 Mr. Ingersoll was delicately organized, of 
 moderate stature, slender, straig'ht, and of healthy 
 constitution. For his size his head was large, full 
 in the frontal regions and prominent at the angles. 
 He had finely cut features, thin lips, and dark eyes 
 well protected by jutting brows. Till nearly 
 eighty, with unclouded intellect, he continued his 
 practice, and till the 'last went daily to his office 
 when health permitted. There he would sit, writ- 
 ing and reading, giving a cordial welcome to any 
 friend who might call. His intimate acquaintance 
 with political life and character, taken in connec- 
 tion with his urbanity, kindness and candor and 
 simple dignity, made his conversation extremely 
 interesting. He died, without a known enemy, 
 Aug. 26, 1872. In his last years he was a com- 
 municant of Trinity Church. 
 
 On Feb. 10, 1814, Mr. Ingersoll was married 
 to Miss Margaret Van den Heuvel, of Dutch par- 
 entage, of New York, a lady of great energy and 
 discretion. 
 
 Hon. Charles Roberts Ingersoll, son of 
 Hon. Ralph Isaacs Ingersoll, is a native of New 
 Haven, where his birth occurred Sept. 16, 1821. 
 He received his primary education in the private 
 schools of his native city and also attended the 
 Hopkins Grammar School. He then entered Yale 
 College, from which he was graduated in the class 
 of 1840. It was next Ms privilege to spend two 
 years abroad, as a member of the official family 
 of his uncle, Capt. Voorhes Ingersoll, then com- 
 mander of the U. S. Frigate "Preble." Return- 
 ing to the United States and to his home in New 
 Haven, young Ingersoll spent two years in Yale 
 
 Law School, having such instructors as Judge 
 Samuel J. Hitchcock, Chief Justice David Daggett 
 and Hon. Isaac H. Townsend. After his admis- 
 sion to the Bar in New Haven county, lin 1845, 
 he settled in practice in his native city, associat- 
 ing himself with his father, with whom he con- 
 tinued more or less for nearly thirty years, and 
 on the death of the father, in 1872, succeeded him, 
 and is still active in the profession. During all 
 this long period Gov. Ingersoll has figured prom- 
 inently in the profession, and has been connected 
 with many of the most important cases in the sec- 
 tion, and he has also been of great usefulness as 
 a citizen, giving invaluable public service to the 
 city and State. 
 
 At the very outset of his career young Inger- 
 soll, like his distinguished father and forefathers, 
 became interested in politics, and like them, too, 
 offices and public trusts sought him and not he 
 them. It has been said of him, "He has declined 
 more nominations than he has accepted, and re- 
 fused more offices than he has filled." In 1856, 
 1858, 1866 and 1871 he served as a representative 
 from New Haven in the General Assembly, and 
 was accorded influential places on important com- 
 mittees. He declined a nomination for State Sen- 
 ator, at a time when his party was in power and 
 he would have been almost sure of an election. 
 In 1864 he was a member of the National Demo- 
 cratic Convention at Chicago, which nominated 
 Gen. McClellan for president, and served on the 
 committee on Resolutions. Again in 1872 he was 
 a delegate to the National Convention, at Balti- 
 more, which nominated Horace Greeley, and served 
 as chairman of the Connecticut Delegation. In 
 1873 the Democratic party nominated Mr. Inger- 
 soll for governor, an honor unsought. He was 
 elected, running far ahead of his ticket, gave the 
 State a clean and judicious administration, and so 
 eminently satisfactory were bis services that he 
 was re-nominated and re-elected to that high of- 
 fice, receiving a majority of more than seven thou- 
 sand. Again in 1875 his name was presented, and 
 he received the highest number of votes up to that 
 time ever polled for governor. During this term 
 Gov. Ingersoll signed the bill, which had received 
 a two-thirds vote of each House, providing for 
 submitting to the people an amendment to the Con- 
 stitution of the State which made an official term 
 of all State officers and State senators biennial, 
 changed the date of annual election from April to 
 November and terminated his own duties in Jan- 
 uary, 1877. Mr. Ingersoll had the honor of be- 
 ing one of the Centennial Governors of the sev- 
 eral States composing the American Republic in 
 1776. Gov. Ingersoll was largely instrumental for 
 the creditable representation of Connecticut Man- 
 ufacturers at the Centennial at Philadelphia. On 
 his retiring from the executive chair he had the 
 praise and admiration of both Democrats and Re- 
 publicans. Said one of the Republican papers at 
 
• 428 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the time; "\'ery few men could 'be named for the 
 office by that (Democratic) party in whose suc- 
 cess the people of opposing views would so cheer- 
 fully acquiesce." Gov. Ingersoll is a lawyer of 
 great ability, a 'dignified, scholarly and cultured 
 gentleman, affable and courteous. In 1874 Yale 
 College conferred on him the degree of LL. D. A 
 writer in the University magazine thus referred 
 to the governor : 
 
 "Governor Ingersoll's record in public life is 
 ■ one which most statesmen can only hope for 
 and envy, and it has received the praise of his 
 bitterest political opponents. His career as a legal 
 practitioner in New Haven is such as to make his 
 snow-white head, his military bearing and his 
 charming personality a by-word throughout the 
 State." 
 
 On Dec. 18, 1847, Gov. Ingersoll was married 
 to Virginia, daughter of Rear-Admiral Francis H. 
 Gregory, of New Haven, and the union has been 
 blessed with children as follows : Justine Henri- 
 etta ; Francis G., with the Standard Trust Com- 
 pany, of New York City; \^irginia G., who married 
 Harry T. Gause, of Wilmington, Del. ; and Eliza- 
 beth Shaw, who married George G. Haven, of New 
 York. 
 
 ENOCH H. SOMERS (deceased), in his life- 
 time one of the public spirited and highly esteemed 
 citizens of West Haven, was born in the town of 
 Orange, June 15, 1827, a son of Enoch and Sarah 
 (Downs) Somers, and died Feb. 2, 1894. 
 
 Enoch Somers, his father, was born in the town 
 of Orange, and passed his life there successfully en- 
 gaged in farming. He died at the age of sixty-five, 
 and his remains rest in the old cemetery, West Ha- 
 ven. He was a man of local prominence, a cap- 
 tain of the Orange militia, and possessed large in- 
 fluence. By his wife, Sarah Downs, of Orange, 
 who died in her forty-seventh year, he had two chil- 
 dren. In his religious belief he was a L'niversalist, 
 while his wife was a Congregationalist. 
 
 Enoch H. Somers passed his early boyhood upon 
 the paternal farm, but at the age of fourteen went 
 to the city of New York, where he acquired an ex- 
 cellent common school education. His first practi- 
 cal business experience was acquired as a clerk for 
 the old and well known pawnbroker, William Simp- 
 son, whose name was long a synonym for integrity. 
 After some years he was admitted into partnership 
 with his former employer, and remained a member 
 of the firm for nearly forty years. On his retire- 
 ment, he selected West Haven as his home, and 
 there he purchased the house now occupied by Mrs. 
 Somers, in which he resided until his death, at the 
 age of sixty-five. He was active in public affairs 
 and a man of influence in the community, although 
 persistentl)- declining nomination for office. While 
 not a communicant, he was an attendant upon the 
 Congregational Church, as is also his widow. 
 
 On Dec. 3, 1850, Air. Somers was married to 
 
 Eliza A. Durand, born in West Haven, but whose 
 father, Alvah J. Durand, was a native of Milford. 
 Eight children, three of whom died in infancy, were 
 born of this union; Carrie A. is the wife of Dr. 
 F. M. Wilson, of Bridgeport, and has two daugh- 
 ters—Ethel S. and Helen B. Elmer E. was pro- 
 prietor of a factory for the manufacture of decor- 
 ated tin boxes in Brooklyn, N. Y., but is now a 
 broker of that city (he married Helen A. Gage, 
 and has one daughter— Mabel B.). Alvah D. lives 
 at home with his mother, while his twin sister, Addie 
 D., is the wife of Harry D. Sutton, of West Haven, 
 and has one daughter, Gladys A. William V., the 
 youngest living child, is a successful actor, and re- 
 sides in West Haven. Those deceased are Elcie E., 
 Wilfred I. and Charles H. All these children were 
 born in New York City, where the first twenty years 
 of their parents' married life were spent. The fam- 
 ily home has been in West Haven, at the intersec- 
 tion of Elm street and Campbell avenue, some thirty 
 years or more, and the comfortable house has been 
 enlarged and beautified since its early days. Mrs. 
 Somers, who is one of the best known and most uni- 
 versally beloved residents of West Haven, is pass- 
 ing the evening of her life in this beautiful, richly 
 furnished home. 
 
 Mrs. Somers' ancestry is French, and her great- 
 great-grandfather was among the early settlers of 
 IVlilford, and was a man of distinction and influence. 
 Her grandfather, Lemuel Durand, was born in Mil- 
 ford, and served as a soldier in the war of 1812; he 
 was a farmer and ended his days in Milford, dying 
 in his eightieth year. His wife (Mrs. Somers' grand- 
 mother), Catherine Smith, was also of Orange, and 
 became the mother of five children, all of whom are 
 dead, and she, herself, entered into rest after round- 
 ing out her eightieth year. 
 
 Alvah J. Durand, the father of Mrs. Somers, 
 was born in 1800, and was a farmer by occupation. 
 He removed from Milford to Orange in early life, 
 becoming a man of substance and influence, and 
 passed away after reaching the age of four score 
 years. He married Sarah A. Piatt, born in Orange, 
 a daughter of, and one of eleven children born to, 
 Nathaniel and Catherine ( Alerrick ) Piatt. She 
 died in 1875 at the age of seventy-one. Mr. Durand 
 and his wife were the parents of four children, two 
 of whom are living ; IVIrs. Somers ; and Charlotte, 
 the elder, who is the widow of Thomas D. Cousins, 
 whom she married in New "^'ork ; Mr. Cousins was 
 killed in an accident on the N. H. & H. R. R., and 
 his widow resides in A'irginia. Both Air. and Airs. 
 Alvah J. Durand were prominent and consistent 
 members of the Congregational Church of West 
 Haven. 
 
 ALDEN H. HILL. Honored and respected 
 by all, there is no man in North Branford who oc- 
 cupies a more enviable position in business circles 
 than Alden Fl. Hill, not alone on account of the 
 wonderful success that he has achieved, but also 
 
iS fi^ ^h-^x-c^y 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 429- 
 
 on account of the honorable, straightforward busi- 
 ness poHcy he has ever followed. He possesses 
 untiring energy, is quick of perception, forms his 
 plans readily and is determined in their execution ; 
 and his closie application to business and his excel- 
 lent management have brought to him the pros- 
 perity which is to-day his. 
 
 Mr. Bill was born Sept. 4, 1831, in Kilhng- 
 worth, Middlesex Co., Conn., of which place his 
 parents, Arden and Flora (Davis) Hill, were also 
 natives, and the latter was a daughter of Leonard 
 Davis. Throughout life the father of our subject 
 engaged in farming, and died at the age of sixty- 
 four years. In hisi family were nine children, two 
 sons and seven daughters, all of whom are now de- 
 ceased, with the exception of our subject. The 
 others were jNIarilla, wife of Hiram Thompson ; 
 Betsey, wife of James L. Chatfield, of Killing- 
 worth ; Rachel, wife of Henry Francis, of the same 
 place; Diantha, wife of William J. Hall, of North- 
 ampton, ]\Iass. ; Mabel, wife of Mathias G. Frank- 
 lin, of Killingworth ; Maria, who first married 
 Charles Franklin, of Killingworth, who died in 
 Libby prison during the Civil war, and second 
 married Joseph Davey, of Big Rapids, Mich. ; 
 Sarah, who remained unmarried; and a son, who 
 died in infancy. 
 
 His parents being in limited circumstances, Mr. 
 Hill's educational advantages were limited to three 
 months' attendance at the district schools in the 
 winter, and at the age of fifteen years he began 
 to assist in the support of the family. His first 
 employment away from home was as a farm 
 laborer, at which he made $70, but as a wealthy 
 neighbor held his father's note for that amount, 
 he asked for the same and in return handed over 
 his first earnings to pay his: father's debt, as it 
 v,'as more than the latter could do to provide for 
 his large family. At the age of seventeen years 
 Alden H. Hill began shop work, and on attaining 
 his majority came to North Branford, where he 
 secured employment in a saw and feed mill. In 
 1865 he embarked in business on his own account. 
 He purchased land and lumber, and engaged in 
 ship building for fifteen years, and also became an 
 extensive ship owner. In the years that have since 
 passed he has lost $23,000 in floating property from 
 storms, etc., having seven vesselsi lost at sea. He 
 has continued to purchase stock in different ves- 
 sels since 1876. He now operates' a sawmill on 
 his property in North Branford and manufactures 
 various kinds of lumber, which his ships carry as 
 far south as Galveston, Texas, while others are 
 engaged in the coasting trade between New Haven, 
 Norfolk, Charleston and Mexican and South 
 American ports. His landed possessions in North 
 Branford consist of 300 acres of farmi and timber 
 land. 
 
 ' On Nov. 18, 1879, Mr. Hill was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Sarah E. Page, who received a 
 thorough education and successfully engaged in 
 
 teaching school in her native town for a number 
 of years. Her father, Judson Page, one of the 
 leading men of his time in North Branford, was 
 born in 1816, and died Feb. 5, 1862. He engaged 
 in farming and also taught school for many years. 
 Politically he wasi a stanch Democrat, and was 
 called upon to fill the offices of school visitor, as- 
 sessor, and selectman for many years. He was 
 also an active and prominent member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and a member of the So- 
 ciety's committee. Judson Page married Mariette 
 Thompson, who was born April 14, 1817, and died 
 in August, 1 85 1. Her parents were Anson and 
 Sally (Barnes) Thompson, the former born Jan. 
 25, 1792, the latter, Dec. i, 1791, and they were 
 married May i, 1816; their other children were 
 George W., born Dec. 29, 1819; Daniel B., Alay 
 18, 1824; and Merwin S., Dec. 21, 1828. Mrs. 
 Hill's brother, Herbert O. Page, a resident of 
 North Branford, was married Oct. 23, 1876, to 
 Betsey R. Baldwin, and has two children, a son 
 and daughter. Mr. Hill and his wife have two 
 children: Raymond T., born Jan. 11, 1883; and 
 Alden J., born Aug. 12, 1886. The elder son is 
 now a student at Yale, where he entered in 1900, 
 and the younger is. at Morgan's School at Clinton, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Hill is a consistent member and liberal sup- 
 porter of the Congregational Church, and has long- 
 served as a member of its Society's committee. In 
 his political affiliations he is a Republican. He was. 
 a member of the Legislature in 1877, and served 
 on the fishery committee; filled the office of select- 
 man for eight years and three months ; and at 
 various times has acted as appraiser of lands for 
 water and insurance companies and railroad cor- 
 porations. He is undoubtedly the most prominent 
 man in North Branford, and his popularity is well 
 deserved, asi in him are embraced the characteris- 
 tics of an unbending integrity, unabated energy 
 and industry, that never flags. He is what the 
 world terms a self-made man, and his life record 
 is well worthy of emulation. 
 
 ALBERT FRANKLIN ANDRE'WS (de- 
 ceased), well known as one of the most ingenious 
 mechanics in Connecticut, was descended from one 
 of the oldest families in New England, the name 
 originally being spelled Andrus. 
 
 (I) John Andrus was one of the early settlers, 
 and in 1672 one of the eighty-four proprietors of 
 the ancient town of Tunxis (Farmington), Conn. 
 Mr. Andrus was a plain farmer of common intelli- 
 gence. His farm was situated on the east side of 
 the river, about two miles north of the village of 
 Farmington, and isi still cultivated by Andrews, 
 who are his direct descendants. His wife's name 
 was Mary, and both were members of the church 
 there. He died in 1681, and she died in 1694. 
 
 (II) Benjamin Andrews, son of John, the set- 
 tler, born in 1659, was married in 1682 to- Marr 
 
430 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Smith. He lived on, and inherited, the homestead 
 of his father. Both he and his wife 'United with 
 the church in Farmington Jan. 3, 1686-7. His wife, 
 IMar)-, died in 1707, and he died in 1727. 
 
 (III) James' Andrews, son of Benjamin, born 
 Aug. I, 1700, was married in 1730, to Elizabeth 
 Gillet, of SufReld, Conn. He inherited and lived 
 on the homestead of his father and grandfather. 
 His wife joined the church soon after her mar- 
 riage. Mr. Andrews died July 18, 1761. 
 
 (IV) Elijah Andrews, son of James, born in 
 1731, was married in 1761, to Sarah, daughter 
 of Timothy Thompson, of Avon. Elijah Andrews 
 was by trade and occupation a goldsmith, and he 
 lived in Farmington on the east side of the road 
 nearly opposite the house of John, the first set- 
 tler. He died in 1803, and his widow passed away 
 in 1814. 
 
 (V) James Andrews (2), son of Elijah, born 
 Nov. 22, 1762, was married March 13, 1791, to 
 Eunice Gillette, of Northington, born Jan. 19, 
 1768. Mr. Andrews was a farmer, and a soldier 
 of the Revolution. He lived on, or near, the old 
 home farm of his ancestors, and his death occurred 
 May 31, 1845. 
 
 (VI) Romeo Andrews, son of James (2), was 
 born Jan. 16, 1796, at the old home of his father 
 in Farmington. He was married Jan. i, 1824, to 
 Serepta Gillett, of Avon, born in Farmington, Sept. 
 16, 1803, daughter of Obadiah and Rosanna (Pet- 
 tibone) Gillett. Mr. Andrews located at the cen- 
 tre of East Avon, near the church and railroad. He 
 was a joiner by trade. He was a wealthy farmer 
 and fuse maker, and a substantial and worthy man. 
 He died in Avon Jan. 23, 1867, aged seventy-one 
 years. His widow survived him and died at the 
 age of seventy-nine. Their children were : Albert 
 Franklin, Robert Nelson, Jenette, Mary E., Mary 
 C. and John H., of whom Mary E. and Mary C. 
 both died young. 
 
 Albert Franklin Andrews was born at Avon, 
 Hartford Co., Conn., Sept. 16, 1824, and acquired 
 his education in the schools of his native town and 
 at the academy at Westfield, Mass. In his youth 
 he traveled extensively and lectured on phrenol- 
 ogy with Prof. Fowler, but later taught school in 
 New Jersey. He made many useful and valuable 
 mechanical and chemical inventiions, a few of 
 which are enumerated hereafter. In 1852, with 
 his father and brother, he established the Safety 
 Fuse Manufacturing Co., known as R. Andrews 
 & Co., at Avon, using the methods and machinery 
 for making the Endless Safety Fuse, of which he 
 was the original inventor. This company, now 
 known as the Climax Fuse Co., is still in success- 
 ful operation and forms the principal industry at 
 Avon. In 1862 Mr. Andrews invented machinery 
 for making hats from paper pulp and similar ma- 
 terials. He also, at about this time, made great 
 progress 'in the art of extracting aluminum from 
 clay; in i86ij he made some useful and valuable 
 
 inventions connected with the preparation of flax 
 for use in the textile industries ; in 1876-79 he 
 invented and perfected processes for making mal- 
 leable iron and fine steel directly from common 
 iron castings. 
 
 In 1881 he again assumed an active interest in 
 the fuse making concern of R. Andrews & Co., 
 which he shortly after reorganized as the CUmax 
 Fuse Co., and which he operated very sut- 
 cessfully until his retirement in 1889. Dur- 
 ing this period he made many valuable in- 
 ventions and improvements in the art of mak- 
 ing safety fuse. He died in 1896, when sev- 
 enty-one years old. An able man of rare me- 
 chanical ability, he showed his great originality by 
 working out all his plans unaided. He was a 
 prominent man in public affairs, and independent 
 in his thinking. In the days of the old Greenback 
 party, Mr. Andrews was its candidate for repre- 
 sentative in the State Legislature, and also for 
 governor. He was a fluent speaker, and at one 
 time was a familiar figure on the lecture platform.. 
 He was a member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 On June 4, 1856, Mr. Andrews married Lou- 
 isa M. Alford, who was born Feb. 22, 1831, a 
 daughter of Daniel AI. Alford. One daughter 
 blessed this union, Isabel Tyler, now the wife of 
 George A. Saunders, a manufacturer and merchant 
 at New Haven, Conn., and the mother of three 
 children : Winifred Andrews, Aretas Andrews and 
 Dorothea. 
 
 Daniel ]M. Alford, father of ]\Irs. Andrews, 
 was born in Avon, one of the two sons of Samuel 
 Alford, a farmer of that town. He became a 
 prominent man, and, as a Democrat, held a number 
 of the offices, among them justice of the peace, 
 judge of probate, selectman, etc. His death oc- 
 curred when he was seventy-seven years of age. 
 He married Emira Mills, who was born in Can- 
 ton, a daughter of Joel Mills, grandson of John 
 iMills, a Baptist clergyman. Of the eight chil- 
 dren born of this marriage four are now living, as 
 follows: Mrs. Albert F. Andrews; Mrs. Asa Hos- 
 kins, a widow residing in Simsbury ; Mrs. Sarah 
 J.' ]\Iallory, of Bristol; and Frank N., of Avon. 
 The mother of these passed away at the age of 
 seventy-nine, in the faith of the Baptist Church. 
 
 JOHN BUNTING, a representative farmer 
 and fruit grower of Cheshire, New Haven coun- 
 ty, was horn in the Town of Moy, County Tyrone, 
 Ireland, March 28, 1837, a son of Robert and 
 Elizabeth (Martin) Bunting, also natives of that 
 country, where they continued to make their home 
 throughout hfe. The father, who was by occupa- 
 tion a farmer, died in 1876, and the mother de- 
 parted this life in 1891. Of their six children only 
 two are now living : John and William, and, with 
 the exception of one mentioned below, John is the 
 only one who left Ireland. One son, Thomas, came 
 to America in 1 871, and after spending one sum- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 431 
 
 mer in Sayibrook, Conn., went to New York City, 
 where his death occurred in 1896. 
 
 Reared in his native land, John Bunting ob- 
 tained his education in its public schools. De- 
 termined to try his fortune in the New World, 
 where he believed better opportunities were afford- 
 ed ambitious young men, he sailed from Liverpool, 
 England, May i, 1863, on a sailing vessel and 
 landed in New York July 5, the day following the 
 great riot. The following December he came to 
 Meriden, Conn., where he worked at farm labor 
 for. Deacon Allen twelve years, and in 1877 he 
 purchased the well-known Beach farm in Cheshire, 
 to the cultivation and improvement of which he 
 has since devoted his energies. He is engaged in 
 general farming and fruit-growing, and has met 
 with well-deserved success in his labors. 
 
 In Meriden, in 1882, Mr. Bunting was united 
 in marriage with Aliss Ida Alenkirk, a native of 
 Holland and a daughter of Louis A. and Ellen 
 ( Amelinxeen) Alenkirk, who emigrated to Amer- 
 ica in 1881 and located in Meriden, Conn., where 
 the father died in 1891, but the mother is still liv- 
 ing there. Mr. and Mrs. Bunting have one child 
 living, Elizabeth; Anna died Jan. 2, 1896; and 
 Robert died Jan. 4, 1896. 
 
 GEORGE F. PECKHAM, one of the highly re- 
 spected and well-known retired business men of 
 New Haven, is a native of this city, having been 
 born here Aug. 8, 1836, a son of Charles W. and 
 Elizabeth P. (Coggeshall) Peckham, and a grand- 
 son of George Peckham, a cooper of New Haven, 
 where he married a Miss Merwin, of Milford. 
 
 Charles W. Peckham was a cabinet-maker and 
 resided in New Haven all his life, dying there in 
 October, 1842. His wife was a native of Milford, 
 Conn., a daughter of Capt. Freegift Coggeshall, 
 and died on May 16, 1882, the mother of nine chil- 
 dren : Charles, born May 14, 1829, died Dec. 13, 
 1831 ; Caroline E., born January, 1831, died Dec. 26, 
 1831 ; Charles W., born in 1833, now resides in West 
 Haven; Sarah E., bom Oct. 23, 1834, married 
 AA'illiam H. Lawrence, of New Haven; George F., 
 our subject; Harry W., born Aug. I, 1838, died 
 Oct. 18, 1842; David H., born July 8, 1839, died 
 Sept. 2, 1843 ; Martha C, born April 26, 1841, is the 
 widow of Albert E. Barnett, of New Haven ; ^Nlary 
 C, born June 16, 1843, died on Oct. 6, 1843. The 
 father was a Whig in politics, and the family were 
 Congregationalists. 
 
 George F. Peckham grew to manhood in his 
 native city, attending the excellent pu'Llic schools, 
 as well as the private one of Amos Smith. After 
 finishing school, he took up harness making, and 
 followed that calling for three years and then learned 
 the trade of carriage tiimmer under Ribert Sizer, 
 continuing with him three years. His knowledge of 
 the harness maker's trade was of great help to him 
 in taking up the carriage trimmer's trade, which 
 he learned rapidly, as after but one month he was 
 
 put at trimming a carriage. Ordinarily an appren- 
 tice was supposed to work two or two and a half 
 years before he was put on such work. He took 
 contracts in carriage trimming, and before he was 
 twenty years old, his net profits were at times as 
 high as $60.00 per week. He then spent three years 
 in the freight department of the N. Y., N. H. & H. 
 R. R. Mr. Peckham next became a clerk in a gro- 
 cery establishment, continuing in that capacity for 
 about eight years. Having learned all the details 
 of this line of business, in 1872, he established a 
 grocery store on the corner of Howard and Congress 
 avenues, where he remained until February, 1890, 
 when he retired with a comfortable competence. He 
 began mercantile business on small capital, but his 
 credit was good, and all during his eighteen years 
 of business his credit remained gilt edge. In 1891 
 he built his excellent home at No. 412 Howard ave- 
 nue, in which vicinity he owns some valuable real 
 estate. 
 
 On March i, 1859, Mr. Peckham married Mary 
 A. Glennon, a native of Ireland, who was reared in 
 New Haven, and to this marriage seven children 
 were born: Ella L., born Dec. 17, 1859, died Jan. 
 16, 1900, married Joseph McGuire, of New Haven, 
 and had one son; Mary E., born July 17, 1862, died 
 July 13, 1865; George F., born Oct. 8, 1864, died 
 March 9, 1867; Charles W., born Dec. 18, 1866, 
 died May 10, 1871 ; George H., born Oct. 23, 1872, 
 is an electrician, married, and has a son, George N. ; 
 Albert W., born Sept. 16, 1874, died Aug. 26, 1880; 
 Martha B., born March 11, 1869, married Joseph 
 F. Hubon, of New Haven, and hs.s four children. 
 In political affiliations, Mr. Peckham is a Democrat, 
 and fraternally is connected with Hiram Lodge, No. 
 I, F. & A. M.; also with the Knights of Honor, 
 Sherman Lodge. Both he and his estimable wife 
 have many friends, whose good will they have 
 gained through their excellent qualities and pleas- 
 ing personalities-, and are justly numbered among 
 the representative people of New Plaven. 
 
 CHARLES A. ROBERTS (deceased), who 
 during his life was a well-known and highly-es- 
 teemed citizen of Meriden, was born in the town 
 of ■Middletown, Conn., March 3, 1828, and was a 
 descendant of an old and deservedly famous fam- 
 ily of Connecticut. 
 
 Ambrose Roberts, his father, was born in Mid- 
 dlesex county. Conn., and in his lifetime sustained 
 a good name as a citizen of Middletown, where he 
 was engaged in agricultural pursuits, and where 
 he died. 
 
 Charles A. Roberts was educated in the public 
 schools of his native town and grew up on the 
 homestead farm.- While still a lad he learned the 
 tinner's trade with P. J. Clark, of Meriden, with 
 \vhom he worked rriany years. Later in life he 
 began in business for himself as a manufacturer 
 of novelties, securing a large patronage. His 
 death occurred in Meriden, Oct. 29, 1872, and his 
 
432 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 remains were laid to rest in the West cemetery of 
 that city. He was noted for his honesty and up- 
 right character, and was well-known and highly 
 respected. His spirits were genial, and his man- 
 ners pleasant and attractive. A devoted husband 
 and an upright citizen, his personal standing was 
 beyond question. He was a stockholder and di- 
 rector in the first National Bank of Meriden, and 
 was also a member of the ^teriden City Council. 
 In politics he belonged to- the Democratic party. 
 In traternitv circles, he was a IMaster JMason, and 
 was affiliated with Center Lodge, No. 97, A. F 
 & A. M. Domestic in his habits, he was broad- 
 minded and well-read, being thoroughly posted on 
 all the leading events of the day. He and his wife 
 attended the 'Universalist Church. 
 
 Mr. Roberts was married in 1853 to Miss 
 Belinda Shailer Adams, who was boni' in the town 
 of Suffield, Conn., a daughter of John and Betsy 
 (Snow) Adams, both of whom were natives of 
 Suffield, where they lived and died. None of the 
 children 'born to Mr. and Mrs. Roberts grew to 
 maturity. 
 
 LINUS MEAD, president and sole owner of 
 the Crystal Ice Co., of New Haven, was born in 
 Lewisboro, N. Y., Sept. 20, 1835, son of Richard 
 and Hannah (Keeler) Mead. The family was early 
 settled in Greenwich, Conn., where two brothers of 
 the name, of English birth, settled in 1660. 
 
 Solomon Mead, the great-grandfather of our 
 subject, was born there. He was the first minister 
 of the Presbyterian Church in South Salem, N. Y. 
 His son Clark, the grandfather of our subject, mar- 
 ried Lois Gilbert, of South Salem, and they had a 
 family of four sons and three daughters, all now 
 deceased. Clark Mead died at the age of sixty-three 
 years. His wife, who was a consistent member of 
 the Presbyterian Church, died at the age of seventy- 
 nine years. 
 
 Richard Mead, the father of our subject, was 
 reared on a farm, and received a part of the 
 old homestead as his portion of his father's estate. 
 He died there at the age of eighty years. He mar- 
 ried Hannah Keeler, a daughter of Ammi and 
 Phoebe (Strang) Keeler, the former of whom was 
 a farmer in Lewisboro. Mrs. Keeler, who was one 
 of a family of thirteen children, lived to be over 
 eighty years of age, as did all the family except one. 
 She had two children : Hannah, the mother of our 
 subject ; and Henry, who was during his life a prom- 
 inent man, well known in his section of New York 
 State. The parents of our subject reared five chil- 
 dren, all sons, and all of whom survive : Solomon, 
 whose sketch appears in another part of this vol- 
 ume ; Clark, who resides near the old homestead in 
 South Salem; Linus, our subject: H!enry, a resi- 
 dent of New Haven; and Stephen S., who formerly 
 resided in New Haven, but now lives on the old 
 home farm in New York State. The beloved mother 
 still survives at the advanced age of ninet^•-six \ears. 
 
 in good health and in full possession of all her fac- 
 ulties. In 1832 she and her husband became mem- 
 bers of the Presbyterian Church, in which he served 
 as trustee. 
 
 The early years of Linus Alead were spent on 
 the farm and in attendance in the common schools 
 of his locality. At the age of eighteen years he 
 came to New Haven, but two years later returned to 
 South Salemi and engaged in farming and other 
 kinds of work in that nieighborhood. Some two 
 years later he married, and then bought a farm of 
 his father-in-law, but some time later sold it and 
 removed to Bedford, N. Y., where he was foreman 
 on a stock farm, and was also engaged in the busi- 
 ness of bu3'ing and selling cattle and poultry, suc- 
 cessfully conducting this enterprise for some time. 
 He then went to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he 
 was engaged as a farm manager on the farm of one 
 Burell, a grandson of John Jacob Astor, remain- 
 ing for two 3'ears, and then spent two years in the 
 same capacity on the land of M. S. Beach, editor 
 of the New York Sun, near Poughkeepsie. He 
 then removed to New Haven arid built his present 
 residence, entering into the foundry business with 
 his brother, Solomon Mead. Later Mr. Alead re- 
 turned to Salem, where he spent one 3'ear. Later 
 he managed a business west of New Haven, at 
 Tyler's Shore, Conn., for Mrs. Tyler. Here, in 
 1877, Airs. Mead died, at the age of forty years. 
 Her maiden name was Sarah E. Bouton, and she 
 was born in Lewisboro, a daughter of Linus and 
 Laura (Pardee) Bouton. Linus Bouton was a far- 
 mer, and died at the age of sixty years ; his widow 
 survived until the age of ninety^wo, dying in 1900. 
 They had three children, the survivor being Mrs. 
 Laura \'. Bennett, of Pulteney, N. Y. One son 
 was born to Mr. and Mrs. Mead, Frederick L., 
 who was educated in the public schools, and at the 
 age of eighteen engaged with his father as book- 
 keeper. Later he was made secretary of the ice 
 company, and now assists in a general way. In 
 1886 he married Alice L. Russell, a native of the 
 town of Orange, and a daughter of William M. 
 Russell, who is a prominent man in that town, and 
 the present assessor. Two children have been born 
 of this marriage. May E. and Walter Llewellyn. 
 
 About 1878 Mr. Mead went into the ice business,, 
 beginning in a small way, and gradually increasing 
 — employment being given at present to some thirty- 
 five men and from twenty-eight to thirty horses^ 
 during the busy season. The harvest consists of 
 some 20,000 tons of ice, which is sold both retail 
 and wholesale. A track has been constructed for 
 the transportation of the ice, and every modern 
 method is used for expeditious handling. The first 
 ice-house was fifty feet scpare, and the ice was put 
 in by hand. Soon after four other houses were 
 erected, each 25x60 feet in dimensions, and still 
 another 40x60 was soon reciuired, and another 35 
 x6o. Two years later another — 50x75 — was added, 
 and t\\o years later the business was so extendecl 
 
ti;.^,^ .Ju^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 433 
 
 that he built another house, 35x75. The business 
 continued to expand, Mr. Mead buying out another 
 dealer, and adding a 6,000-ton ice-house. In 1890 
 he shipped all of his ice from Maine, no ice forming 
 in New Haven or elsewhere in Connecticut, and 
 in February, 1891, in company with two other deal- 
 ers, he put up a large storage house, having a ca- 
 pacity of 15,000 tons, at Congamond Lake, Mass. 
 This is kept filled for an emergency, and during the 
 ten years has been filled and emptied five times. 
 Mr. Mead's business has increased from 1,200 tons 
 to 20,000 tons annually, and he has become one of 
 the financial factors of the city of New Haven. 
 Mr. Mead's residence is in the Second Ward, in 
 which vicinity he owns quite extensively of real 
 estate. He has not only built his own residence, but 
 also that of his son, and has constructed all his own 
 ice houses, in which he has made use of all modern 
 improvements. 
 
 Mr. Mead's second marriage was to Harriet L. 
 Hoyt, who was born in Lewisboro, and two children 
 have been born of this union : Clarence Hoyt ; and 
 Florence Greenley, who died when two months old. 
 In politics Mr. Mead has been a lifelong Republi- 
 can (his son also being a member of that party and 
 has served in the city council. He is a member of 
 the I. O. O. F., and prominent in that Society). He 
 has always been interested in religious work. For- 
 merly he was a deacon in the church in Hyde Park, 
 N. Y., and superintendent in the Sunday-school. 
 At present the family attend the Plymouth Church, 
 of New Haven, and Frederick L. Mead is librarian 
 and usher in the Dwight Place Church, where his 
 father was formerly librarian. As an item of in- 
 terest it may be mentioned that the great-grand- 
 father of Mrs. Mead was a great musician, and 
 was the first one to ring the chimes of Trinity 
 Church, New York. 
 
 Mr. Mead has been a successful man in business, 
 and is a strong temperance advocate, being an ab- 
 stainer from the use of tobacco and liquors, and 
 while on the farm in his early days believed in the 
 old saying: 
 
 "That he who by farming would thrive 
 Must himself either hold or drive; 
 
 Work hard all day. 
 
 Sleep hard all night. 
 
 Save every cent. 
 
 And never get tight." 
 
 HOMER LEVI COOPER. The name "Ridge 
 Farm" carries with it a guarantee of superior ex- 
 cellence in dairy products. This farm has been 
 in the possession of the Cooper family for a nurn- 
 ber of years, and is a well-known tract in the vi- 
 cinity of North Haven, Conn., where it is success- 
 fully managed by its owner. Homer Levi Cooper. 
 
 The Cooper family traces its ancestry as far 
 back as 1641, when John Cooper came to America 
 from England, and the tomb of one ancestor whose 
 dust lies in the cemetery of North Hiaven, bears 
 
 28 
 
 the date of 1722, the most ancient in that venerable 
 ground. Justus Cooper, born in Hamden in 1750, 
 married Lois Bradley Jan. 17, 1782. He was a 
 farmer in North Haven, going there from Ham- 
 den, and locating on a farm, part of which is now 
 owned by Homer L. Cooper. Justus Cooper had 
 a son, Justus (2), born in 1797. 
 
 Justus Cooper was born on the Cooper home- 
 stead in North Haven, and during the early years 
 of his' life followed the occupation of farming on 
 his father's land. Later he removed to Hamden 
 Plains, where for about ten years he conducted a 
 tavern known as the "Old Red Tavern." This was- 
 a well-known hostelry in its day, and is still re- 
 called by some of the older residents. After dis- 
 posing of that business, he returned to North 
 Haven and continued farming until the time of his- 
 death, which occurred Sept. 24, 1883. He married 
 Julia Gorham, a native of Hamden, a daughter of 
 Levi and Rhoda (Miller) Gorham, and she died 
 June 8, 1879. The children born of this union were : 
 Levi Justus, and George H., who married Betsey 
 Coe. 
 
 Levi Justus Cooper was born in the "Old Red 
 Tavern," Dec. 22, 1831, and in time was sent to, 
 the district school. He grew up on the farm, and 
 in early manhood entered the Candee Rubber Co.'s 
 shop in Hamden, where he worked for some time, 
 and then embarked in the butchering business, for 
 a number of years peddling meat in North Haven. 
 Later, as the country became more closely popu- 
 lated, it was more profitable to open a market in- 
 New Haven, and for eight years he successfully- 
 conducted an enterprise of this kind, leaving it to. 
 open a grain business. This was organized un- 
 der the firm name of Cooper, Hinman & Co., but 
 some time later Mr. Cooper disposed of bis in- 
 terest and returned to North Haven, where he 
 resumed farming and also engaged in the dairy 
 business. On July 14, 1853, he married Sarah 
 White, a native of Southwick, Mass., and they hacJ 
 two children : Jennie, who married William Cam- 
 eron, of New York; and Homer Levi. 
 
 Homer Levi Cooper was born Feb. 28, 1859,. 
 in the old home now owned- and occupied by his- 
 father. His educational opportunities were ex- 
 cellent in character, and he was an apt pupil in the 
 New Haven district and high schools. After com- 
 pleting his education he worked in various places 
 — at Westville, where he was employed to run a 
 steam sawmill, and in New Haven, but later in 
 Woodbridge, where he drove a milk wagon for 
 L. G. Hemingway and learned all the practical 
 points about dairying. In 1880 he went to North- 
 Haven and purchased part of his present farm 
 from his' uncle, George H. Cooper. He has added 
 to it until, at the present time, his well cultivated' 
 farm of thirty acres shows that a man of intelli- 
 gence is its manager and proprietor. In 1899, in 
 company with M. B. and F. S. Hubbell, under 
 the name of Cooper & Hubbell, he established a. 
 
434 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 prosperous and growing dairy business, on High 
 street, in New Haven, where they carried on a 
 retail and wholesale business in dairy products and 
 operated several delivery wagons. In June, 1901, 
 JNlr. Cooper withdrew from this connection. 
 
 On Nov. 24, 1886, Mr. Cooper was married 
 to Alice Elizabeth Monson, of Westville, a daugh- 
 ter of David C. ^lonson, the postmaster of that 
 place. To this union have been born four chil- 
 dren : Eleanor G., Kenneth, Harold and Roland 
 Justus. Kenneth and Harold were twins, and 
 both died when nine months old. Like his parents, 
 l\Ir. Cooper is connected with the Congregational 
 Church, and both he and his father are stanch 
 supporters of the Republican party. Socially he 
 is connected with the A. O. U. VV., in which he 
 is popular and valued. He is considered one of 
 the most prosperous and progressive business men 
 of the vicinity, and his energy and thoroughly 
 honest methods have won him the confidence of 
 the community. 
 
 JOHN H. BURTON (deceased) was for many 
 years one of the most highly esteemed and valued 
 citizens of Hamden. He was of foreign birth, but 
 his duties of citizenship were performed with a 
 loyalty equal to that of any native son of America, 
 and when the nation was imperiled by rebellion, he 
 went to the defense of the Union and protected the 
 cause of his adopted country on many a southern 
 battle field. 
 
 ;\'Ir. Burton was born in Perth, Scotland, Oct. 
 14, 1833, and was educated in the common schools 
 of his native land. During his youth he learned 
 landscape gardening with his father, and continued 
 to follow that occupation until his emigration to 
 the United States in 1854. Locating in Philadel- 
 phia, he followed his trade there for two years, and 
 then went to Boston, where he was similarlj' em- 
 ployed until coming to New Haven, Conn., in 1857. 
 After working at his trade for a short time here, 
 he entered the employ of the Winchester Shirt Co., 
 for whom he was working when the Civil war broke 
 out. 
 
 Air. Burton enlisted as a private in Company F, 
 4th Conn. \'. I., which was afterward re-organized 
 as the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, and assigned 
 to the Ami)- of the Potomac. They participated in 
 the siege of Bermuda LIundreds, under Butler, the 
 siege of Yorktown, siege of Richmond, and the en- 
 gagements at Chickahominy Swamp, Alalvern Hill 
 and Fairfax Court House. For bravery on the battle 
 field, Mr. Burton was promoted from time to time, 
 and on Aug. 2/, 1863, was commissioned captain, in 
 which capacity he seryed until Dec. 23, 1864, when 
 he resigned and returned to New Haven. In De- 
 cember, 1863, while going the rounds of the forts, 
 as field officer at W'ashingtim, D. C, his horse fell, 
 breaking the leg of our subject. After his return 
 from the war, Air. Burton spent four years in New 
 Haven, and then located upon the farm in Hamden, 
 
 where he passed the remainder of his life and where 
 his widow still resides. He was quite extensively 
 engaged in market gardening and met with excel- 
 lent success in the enterprise. 
 
 On Oct. 17, 1863, Mr. Burton was united in 
 marriage with Miss Candace C. Norton, of Spring- 
 field, Mass., and to them were born five children, 
 namely : William T., who now carries on the home 
 farm ; James H., who is engaged in the lumber busi- 
 ness in New York; John H. J.; George G. ; and 
 Lilias L. Mr. Burton was accidentally drowned 
 Jan. 22, 1895. Politically he was a very strong Re- 
 publican, and fraternally was an honored member of 
 Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R., of New Haven, while 
 religiously he was an active and prominent member 
 of the Congregational church and was serving as 
 church trustee and Sunday-school superintendent 
 at the time of his death. His influence was great 
 and always for good ; and his sympathies, his benev- 
 olence and his kindly greeting will long be remem- 
 bered. His duties were performed with the greatest 
 care, and throughout his life his personal honor and 
 integrity were without blemish. 
 
 WILLIAM BENHAAI is one of the oldest and 
 most highly respected citizens of North Haven, 
 where he has spent a long and worthy life, ujiion 
 which he can look back with pleasure and thankful- 
 ness, so honest and upright has it been throughout. 
 
 This branch of the family is supposed to have 
 been descended from John Benham, who came to 
 the new world in the ship "Mary and John," and 
 was at Dorchester, Mass., in 1630. In May, 1631, 
 he was made a freeman. In 1640 he removed to 
 New Haven, and his name appears in a list of New 
 Haven planters in 1643. He was engaged in the 
 manufacture of brick. Joseph Benham, of New 
 Haven, was married at Boston, Jan. 15, 1657, to 
 AA'innifred Ring, and they had twelve children. He 
 was one of the first settlers of Wallingford in 1670. 
 
 Joseph Benham, grandfather of the subject of 
 this sketch, was a deacon of the Congregational 
 Church at Hamden Plains, where he lived and 
 died. He reached the great age of eighty-six years, 
 passing away Jan. 25, 1836. His wife, Elizabeth, 
 died in 1831, aged eighty years. They had seven 
 children: George, Amos, Ransom, Betsey, Adah, 
 Jared and Isaac. 
 
 Isaac Benham was born Aug. 2, 1791, in Ham- 
 den, and died there, Jan. 23, 1879. He was a shoe- 
 maker and farmer. On Alarch 8, 181 5, he married 
 Anna Tuttle, who was born Jan. 20, 1795, in Alid- 
 dlebury, Litchfield Co., Conn., and died Aug. 2, 
 1876, in Plamden. They had four children : Will- 
 iam, Isaac, Jared and Betsey Ann. 
 
 William Benham was born on a farm Alarch 
 24, 18 1 7, in the town of Hamden, and there re- 
 mained until he was eight 3rears old, enjo\-ing but 
 few educational advantages. A comparison is very 
 interesting between the modern school room and 
 his last "hall of learning," which was in a barroom. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 435 
 
 located just north of the Alethodist Church. Until 
 he was seventeen years old Mr. Benhani learned 
 more about the science of farming, and the handling 
 of plow and hoe, than he did of books, and it was 
 necessary for him, as for many another respected 
 citizen of our country, to wield those useful im- 
 plements of agriculture. Wages were small in! 
 those days and hours of labor long, fifty cents be- 
 ing considered fair compensation for farm laborers 
 who worked from sunrise to sunset, and on these 
 terms our subject was hired by Merritt Allen, a 
 farmer near Westville, whose land comprised the 
 present site of the New Haven town farm. Most 
 industrious, and determined to win independence 
 and a competency, Mr. Benham labored for two 
 summers for Mr. Allen, and during the winters 
 learned the shoemaker's trade in Hamden, where he 
 worked for S. W. Baldwin, of New Haven. He 
 would make shoes in lots of fifty pairs, and carry 
 them to New Haven, whence they were shipped to 
 supply the southern trade. Although the pay was 
 small, he worked at the bench until his health gave 
 out, and then hired out to Jeremiah Woodard, of 
 East Haven, to drive a milk wagon through New 
 Haven, ^^'ith this out-door employment Mr. Ben- 
 ham regained his health, although his work was 
 laborious, and for two and one half years he con- 
 tinued with this employer; he delivered to i6o cus- 
 tomers, among the best families in the city, some- 
 times making three trips daily, with milk and veg- 
 etables. In connection with his other business Mr. 
 A\'oodard entrusted our subject with the making 
 out and collecting of bills. Mr. Benham's wages 
 were fifteen dollars per month and board for fif- 
 teen hours of work daily. Having saved enough 
 money he bought his present farm, from Deacon 
 Elias Bassett, in 1840, and had enough left over to 
 IDUt the place in good shape. Farming has been his 
 principal occupation ever since, although he has 
 had seasons of work in the Candee & Lester rubber 
 factory, for Henry Hotchkiss, in Centerville, and 
 in the auger shops, for eight years driving one of 
 the teams for the latter factory. 
 
 ^Ir. Benham was married March 27, 1843, to 
 Nancy Ives, a native of North Haven, who was born 
 Aug. 22, 181 7, a daughter of Talcott Ives, and died 
 July II, 1884. Two children were born of this 
 miion: Betsey Adelaide, who married \Y. W. 
 Price, a book binder and directory printer and pub- 
 lisher, of New Haven; and Nancy Anna, who mar- 
 ried ?\Iilo Wooding, now of North Haven. I\Ir. 
 Benham is a Republican in his political convictions, 
 and has declined inany tenders of office. Formerly 
 he was connected with the 3,1. E. Church, but is 
 now a member of the Congregational Church at 
 "Whitnevville. No one has been more energetic or 
 industrious through life than has our subject, who 
 is a well preserved specimen of the honest, hard- 
 working American citizen. By right of his own 
 efforts, he possesses a competency which insures 
 
 him a life of comfort during the rest of his days, 
 and ofifers an example to others who expect to en- 
 joy a future of ease without endeavoring honestly 
 to earn it. 
 
 LEWIS E. OSBORN, whose long and use- 
 ful career has been passed in New Haven, with 
 the exception of two years in Milwaukee, Wis., 
 was born in the city with which his life has been 
 associated. May 22, 1836, a son of Walter Os- 
 born- In 1851 he returned from Milwaukee to 
 New Haven, to serve an apprenticeship with his 
 uncle, Minot A. Osborn, at that time the editor 
 of the Register, with whom he learned the print- 
 ing business, at which, however, his health was 
 impaired, and he was obliged to turn to other em- 
 ployment. In 1880 he became assistant to the 
 treasurer of Yale University, a position he held 
 until 1890, when he resigned, and is now living 
 retired. 
 
 Mr. Osborn was married Sept. 20, 1858, to 
 R. Sophia Merwin, of New Haven, a daughter of 
 Samuel E. Merwin, and a sister of Gen. S. E. 
 Merwin. To Mr. and Mrs. Osborn have come 
 two children : Henry M., the bursar of Yale, 
 married Lizzie Ramsdell, now deceased; and Ruby 
 ]M., who is the wife of Lieut. Clarence B. Dann, a 
 prominent carriage manufacturer of the city. Like 
 his father Mr. Osborn holds to the principles of 
 Democracy, thougli he is in no sense a partisan 
 voter only. He is broad and patriotic in his ideas, 
 and seeks the best good to the community and the 
 country. For forty years he has been associated 
 with Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. F & A. M., of 
 New Haven, and in religious connection belongs 
 to the Church of the Redeemer. 
 
 Walter Osborn, in whose death, July 3, 1880, 
 New Haven lost one of its old-time business men, 
 long respected and esteemed, was descended from 
 a family identified with New Haven from its very 
 beginning. Mr. Osborn was born Dec. 21, 1805, 
 in New Haven, a son of Eli and Elizabeth (Augur) 
 Osborn. Eli Osborn was a merchant tailor on 
 State Street, and a man of high character. Minot 
 A. Osborn, another son of EM, and a brother of 
 ^^'alter Osborn, was editor and publisher of the 
 Register, and a sketch of his life and character 
 may be found on another page. In his early man- 
 hood Walter Osborn was associated with Albert 
 W'alker in the cabinet-making and furniture busi- 
 ness. A\'ith him in 1833 he erected a building 
 which was afterward occupied by William H. 
 Bradley as a carriage factory, and which is still 
 standing, on Chapel street. In 1849 Mr. Osborn 
 moved to ^Milwaukee, Wis., but returned in 1853 
 to his old home, where, in company with his 
 brother-in-law, Air. Stanley, he formed one of the 
 principal coal firms of New Haven. For a time 
 he was inspector of customs, under his brother, 
 ;\linot A. Osborn, who was for eight years col- 
 lector of customs in New Haven. 
 
436 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Walter Osborn was chosen collector of the 
 town and city taxes in i860, a position he filled 
 until 1875. At that time the growth of the busi- 
 ness of the office and the advanced age which he 
 had attained, compelled his retirement from active 
 life. While he was collector the office was never 
 under better management, and maji)- of his wise 
 business methods are still in vogue. In his later 
 years Mr. Osborn was called to take the difficult 
 position of a receiver of the Townsend Savings 
 Bank, which he filled with admirable skill and 
 courtesy. When he died he was a director of the 
 National New Haven Bank. He was a veteran in 
 the famous military organization known as the 
 New Haven Grays. Mr. Osborn commanded the 
 confidence of bis townsmen to a remarkable de- 
 gree, and when a candidate for tax collector, re- 
 ceived many votes from those of the opposite faith. 
 His political affiliations were with the Democratic 
 party, but during the Civil War he was an ardent 
 Union man, and did all in his power to support the 
 Government. 
 
 Mr. Osborn was married Sept. 17, 1833, to 
 Miss Mary Jane Reemer, of Derby, Conn., by 
 whom he had the following children : E. Walter 
 (mentioned below), Lewis E., George W. (an at- 
 torney at New Haven), Minot R. (who died in 
 New Haven when eighteen years old), Mary Jane 
 (who is the wife of 'Wilbur F. Day, president of 
 the New Haven National Bank) and William F. 
 (who is connected with the American Sugar Re- 
 fining Co., of New York City). 
 
 E. Walter Osborn, the eldest son, gave a 
 promising young life to his country during the 
 Civil War. The following reference was made to 
 him in Atwater's "History of New Haven ;" 
 
 Still another family in the same Congregation was smit- 
 ten in the spring of 1865, when IVIajor E. Walter Osborn, 
 of the 15th Regiment, havmg been mortally wounded in 
 North Carolina, and taken prisoner, died in captivity. He 
 was born in New Haven, and was thirty years old at the 
 time of his death. He was for several years a captain of 
 the Grays, and at all times was an active and enthusiastic 
 member of that popular organization, which he commanded 
 at the first battle of Bull Run, when the Grays were in the 
 Second Regiment. When the 15th Regiment was formed, 
 he was made major, m which position he had nearly com- 
 pleted his three years of enlistment. He was on detached 
 service when his regiment moved to battle, and on his own 
 application secured permission to rejoin his comrades, and 
 share their fortunes. His equable and generous tempera- 
 ment, his unselfishness, and his kindly manner, joined with 
 high manly attributes, attracted love and confidence. His 
 death was sincerely mourned by the brave men, who had 
 known him m camp and battle. 
 
 CHARLES E. HOADLEY was born in New 
 Haven ^May 4, 1858, and remained in his native 
 city until he was seventeen years of age, attending 
 the public schools, and acquiring a fund of solid 
 information with which he has made a very credit- 
 able success. 
 
 When Mr. Hoadley began life for himself he 
 was in the service of the Adams Express Co. some 
 four or five years, and then was in the lumber busi- 
 
 ness at Bennington, Vt., some eight years or more. 
 Mr. Hoadley spent a dozen years in Florida, where 
 he was engaged in various capacities by his uncle, 
 H. B. Plant. The real-estate business as he handled 
 it presented great opportunities, and he was very 
 deeply interested in Florida lands, and at the present 
 time has extensive land interests in that State. Mr.- 
 Hoadley came to Waterbury June i, 1899, and be- 
 came associated with the New England Mutual Life 
 Insurance Co., for which he is now district man- 
 ager, and in the development of his business career 
 as an insurance man has met with phenomenal suc- 
 cess. For the month of May, 1900, he was the sec- 
 ond most successful man in New England in the 
 service of the company. In the month of Septem- 
 ber, same year, he was a leader, having written 
 and paidi for twenty-one policies amounting to 
 $81,000. In 1901 he wrote about two hundred 
 policies, considerably over $500,000, about twice the 
 business done by any other United States agent of 
 the New England Mutual, and the largest amount 
 written and paid for by any life insurance agent 
 in Connecticut for the 5'ear. 
 
 Mr. Hoadley and Miss Einma J. Anderson, of 
 Cleveland, Ohio, were married Sept. 15, 1882. Mrs. 
 Hoadley is a daughter of George Anderson, a na- 
 tive of Scotland, and she is true to the best traits- 
 of her Scottish ancestors. They have a beautiful 
 home in the northern part of the city, and are uni- 
 versally respected. Three children have come to' 
 bless their union : Bessie A. ; Edwm A. ; and' 
 Giles R. Mr. Hoadley is a Republican, and the 
 family are associated with the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 Horace P. Hoadley, the father of Charles E., 
 was born in Martinsburg, N. Y., July 17, 1833, and 
 died in New Haven, Conn., Oct.- 20, 1893. On 
 April 10, 185s, he was married, in Cape May, tO' 
 Amelia O. Hubbard, who was born Sept. 8, 1836, 
 in Berlin, Conn., daughter of Edwin and Hannah 
 (North) Hubbard. Her death occurred in New" 
 Haven Oct. 2, 1861. Mr. Hoadley was again mar- 
 ried, Aug. 27, 1873, in Rutherford, N. J., to Mrs. 
 Jeanie (Ivison) Campfield, widow of Rev. Naithan 
 Perkins Campfield, of Newark, N. J., and daughter 
 of Henry and Sarah Bogart (Brinkerhofif) Ivison, 
 of New York City. Mr. Hoadley was brought by 
 his parents to New Haven before he was three- 
 years of age, and with the exception of one year 
 in Meriden, and a year spent in Texas before the- 
 Civil war, passed the remainder of his life there. 
 He was one of the original pupils in the Lan- 
 casterian School, and later became a pupil of Gen. 
 Russell's Military School, where he attained the 
 rank of captain or training master on the school 
 field. He became a master of military science, and 
 at the breaking- out of the Civil war hastened to 
 ofifer his services to the government. He was ap- 
 pointed a major in the army, and rendered con- 
 spicuous services by organizing and training the 1st 
 Connecticut Cavalry, which was equipped and pre- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 437 
 
 pared for active duty in a very brief time. He was 
 connected with the (now) United Church, and for 
 years was a teacher in and superintendent of its 
 Sa)bbath-school. Mr. Hoadley was closely identi- 
 iied with the Young Men's Christian Association, 
 and was deeply interested in the welfare of the 
 young men. While in Texas he was in the carriage 
 "business, and was connected with the Adams Ex- 
 press Co. He waS' also an insurance man, and 
 largely interested in the real-estate business, long 
 acting as secretary of the Plant Investment Co. 
 Two children were born to his first marriage : ( i ) 
 Charles E., whose name introduces these lines ; 
 and (2) Horace G., born Sept. 23, 1861, w'ho mar- 
 ried Helen L. Anderson. Henrietta A. was the 
 only child of the second marriage. 
 
 Philemon Hoadley, the grandfather of Charles 
 E., was born in Southampton, Mass., March 31, 
 1797, and died in New Haven Jan. 28, 1862. His 
 first wife, Rosetta (Goodrich) was the daughter 
 'of James and Lois (Wilcox) Goodrich, and was 
 born Nov. 12, 1804, in Glendale, N. Y. Her death 
 took place at Martinsburg, N. Y., Aug. 17, 1826. 
 Mr. Hoadley subsequently married Mrs. Betsy 
 (Bradley) Plant, widow of Anderson Plant, of 
 Branford, and daughter of Levi and Lydia (Beach) 
 Bradley. She was born Aug. 28, 1799, in Branford, 
 and died Jan. 20, 1886, in New Haven. The chil- 
 dren of the first marriage were : ( i ) Henry, born 
 in October, 1823, and (2) James, born in June,. 
 1825. There were also two children by the second 
 marriage: (i) George A., born in October, 1831, 
 who died in April, 1836; and (2) Horace P., who 
 IS mentioned in the foregoing. Philemon Hoadley 
 lived in Martinsburg, N. Y., until about 1838. He 
 was instrumental in raising funds for the Connecti- 
 cut State Reform School in Meriden, and was a. 
 member of its first board of trustees. In recogni- 
 tion of his marked business abilities and deep in- 
 terest in the school he was made its first superin- 
 tendent, in 1853. 
 
 Philemon Hoadley, the great-grandfather of 
 Charles E., was born June 11, 1755, in Branford, 
 Conn., and died in West Turin, N. Y., Jan. 18, 
 1811. On May i, 1776, in Branford he married 
 :\Iary Rogers, who was born in Branford Feb. 22, 
 iJSJ, daughter of Jonathan and Mary (Foote) Rog- 
 er;. She died Dec. 11, 1843, '" West Turin, N. Y. 
 ^Ir. Hoadley moved to Westfield, Mass., and his 
 first child was baptized there in 1777. After_ a 
 period of some years he returned to West Turin, 
 where he died. The names and years of birth of 
 his children are as follows: Sophia, 1776; Irene, 
 1779; Lyman, 1781 ; Mary. 1784; Roxana, 1787; 
 Chester, 1790; Lester, 1794; and Philemon, 1797 
 (whose history is already given). 
 
 Jacob Hoadley, the great-great-grandfather of 
 Charles E., was born in Branford, Conn., March 
 :8, 1731, and died in Turin, N. Y., in November, 
 1816. His marriage to Jemima Buell occurred July 
 a, 1752, in Branford. She was born in' October, 
 
 1726, in Killingworth, Conn., daughter of Capt. 
 Samuel and Lydia (Wilcox) Buell. Jacob Hoadley 
 went to Westfield, Mass., and from there to West 
 Turin, N. Y., where he died. He was born and 
 bred a farmer, and followed that occupation all his 
 life. He was the father of ten children : Jared, 
 Philemon, Lucy, Jacob, Jemima, Lydia, Hannah, 
 Mary, Abigad and Jacob. 
 
 Samuel Hoadley, the great-great-great-grand- 
 father of Charles E., was born in Branford Feb. 20, 
 1696, and died in that town Feb. 22, 1756. He mar- 
 ried Lydia Frisbie, who was born June i, 1698, 
 daughter of Caleb and Hannah Frisbie, and died 
 Feb. 6, 1756. They were farming people. To them 
 were born eight children : Abigail, Gideon, Sam- 
 uel, Ebenezer, Jacob, Lydia, Jerusha and James. 
 
 The father of Samuel Hoadley also bore the 
 name of Samuel. He married Abigail Farrington, 
 daughter of John and Mary (Bullard) Farrington. 
 She was born in Dedham, Mass., April 30, 1668, 
 and died Feb. 26, 1745, long after the death of her 
 husband, on Feb. 8, 1714; he was killed under a 
 hay mow. He is first mentioned in the records 
 of the' town of Branford April 4, 1683, and on 
 March 4, 1687, he and others were granted a tract 
 of land one mile square in the western and north- 
 western portions of the town of Branford. He and 
 his wife had children as follows : Abigail, William, 
 Hannah, Samuel, Gideon, Lydia, Benjamin, Daniel 
 and Timothy. 
 
 William Hoadley, the emigrant, and also known 
 in the old records as Capt. Hoadley, was the father 
 of Samuel (i). He was born in England about 
 1630, and his death occurred in 1709 in Branford. 
 The name of his first wife is not known. For his 
 second wife he married Mary (Bullard), widow of 
 John Farrington. Capt. Hoadley married Ruth 
 (Powers) Frisbie, wid'ow of John Frisbie, for his 
 third wife. Seven children were born to himi : Will- 
 iam, Samuel, John, Mary, Elizabeth, Hannah and 
 Abraham. 
 
 FRANKLIN FARREL. For sixty years Al- 
 mon and Franklin Farrel, father and son, respect- 
 ively, have been most closely and prominently iden- 
 tified with the industries of Ansonia and the Naug- 
 atuck Valley, and from the incorporation of the 
 foundry and machine company bearing their name 
 at Ansonia — a period of fifty years — have each in 
 turn served as its president. 
 
 Alnion Farrel was born Oct. 12, 1800, in Oak- 
 ville, the son of Zebah and Mehitabel (Benham) 
 Farrel, of Waterbury, Conn. He learned of his 
 father the trade of a millwright, and for many years 
 was the leading millwright, machinist, engineer, 
 builder and contractor in his line in the Naugatuck 
 Valley. There was probably no man in the State 
 at the time of Mr. Parrel's death who had superin- 
 tended the construction of so many first class mills 
 and manufacturing establishments. He was noted 
 for the strength and permanency of his work. What- 
 
438 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ever he put his hands to was successfully carried 
 through, not always inexpensively, but with good 
 judgment and thorough workmanship. Monuments 
 of his skill may be seen in Waterbury, Seymour, 
 Ansonia, Birmingham, Plymouth Hollow, Wolcott- 
 ville, Bristol, Westville, Poquonock, Newtown and 
 other places, and at the time of his death he had a 
 large contract in Chicago, III. He was a self- 
 taught man, one whose success was owing to his 
 own native genius, and whose services in building 
 up the manufacturing interests in his native town 
 and the Naugatuck Valley were almost indispensa- 
 ble. Be died on May 31, 1857, in the prime of life 
 and in the midst of his usefulness. 
 
 On May i, 1826, Almon Parrel was married 
 to Miss Emma, daughter of Mark Warner, and the 
 marriage was blessed with seven children. 
 
 Franklin Parrel, son of Almon Parrel, was born 
 Feb. 17, 1828, in Waterbury, Conn. He received 
 only a common school education, and like many 
 boys who have made their mark in the world he 
 "roughed it" in early life. He was for a time at 
 West Point. At the age of fourteen he commenced 
 to learn the trade of a millwright under the practical 
 direction of his father, and in December, 1844, he 
 went to Derby, Conn., and assisted his father in en- 
 gineering for the water works and other projects 
 within the limits of Ansonia. In 1849 young Parrel 
 became associated in the foundry and machine busi- 
 ness in the firm of Parrel & Johnson, into which his 
 father had put $8,000, and S. and S. M. Colburn, 
 with Dr. Josiah M. Colburn, $7,000. Later, with this 
 small capital, the concern was reorganized under 
 the name of the Parrel Foundry & Machine Com- 
 pany, and Almon Parrel became its president, an 
 office he held until his death in 1857. Franklin 
 Parrel succeeded his father to the presidency, and 
 has ever since remained the executive officer of 
 the company. Prom the very start, and all through 
 these many years, the works of this company have 
 played an important part in the growth and pros- 
 perity of Ansonia. The growth of the business has 
 been steady and rapid until, under the able manage- 
 ment of its president, it has become one of the larg-- 
 est of its kind in the United States, the stock having 
 been raised from a nominal cash capital of $100,000 
 to a real capital of $500,000. This speaks louder 
 than words of Mr. Parrel's capabilities as a shrewd 
 and far-sighted business man and financier. The 
 business is the second largest in Ansonia, the works 
 covering several acres of ground and giving steady 
 employment to 600 men. They manufacture a heavy 
 casting for machinery of nearly every description, 
 and turn out on an extensive scale, iron, brass and 
 copper mill machinery, chilled rolls, etc., for all 
 purposes, consuming annually about 20,000 tons of 
 metal in the manufacture of their goods. ]\Ir. Par- 
 rel has devoted himself with great assiduity to var- 
 ied lines of business, his labors having been uni- 
 formly crowned with success, and he is, and has 
 
 been, identified with many other enterprises of im- 
 portance in the commercial world. 
 
 In his political views Mr. Parrel is a Republican, 
 and he and his family are connected with the Epis- 
 copal Church, of Ansonia, to which he has been 
 most liberal. In 1850 Mr. Parrel was married to 
 :\Iiss Julia L. Smith, of Derby, Conn., who died 
 in September, 1874. On Dec. 12, 1876, ]\Ir. Par- 
 rel married Miss Lillian Clarke, a native of New 
 Haven. By his first marriage he had five children, 
 of whom one is living: Alay Wells, who married 
 Rutherford Trowbridge, of New Haven, and has 
 two children — Rutherford, Jr., and Rachel. By his 
 second marriage our subject had four children: 
 Florence A., who married George Clarke Bryant ; 
 Elise Marion; Franklin F., Jr.; Lillian Estelle. 
 
 STEPHEN WHITNEY, formerly of the 
 United States army, now living retired in a pa- 
 latial home at New Haven, has long been one of 
 the familiar figures and well and favorably known 
 men of the "City of Elms." 
 
 Born Oct. 20, 1841, in New Haven, Mr. Whit- 
 ney is the son of Henry and Hannah Eugenia 
 (Lawrence) Whitney, and is a representative of a 
 sturdy and prominent New England and New York 
 ancestry, and on his father's side is of the seventh 
 generation from Henry Whitney, who was born in 
 England about 1620, and appears first of record in 
 this country at Hashammock in Southold, L. I., in 
 1649. Later he was at Huntington, L. 1., and is of 
 record at Norwalk, Conn., as one of the early pi- 
 oneers of the place in 1665. 
 
 From this emigrant settler, the lineage of 
 Stephen Whitney, of New Haven, is through John, 
 Josiah, Henry, Stephen and Henry (2) Whitney. 
 
 (II) John Whitney, son of Henry, the settler, 
 born probably before his parents went to Southold, 
 L. I., settled with his father in Norwalk, Conn., 
 and succeeded him as a miller and millwright, and 
 to the mill and homestead property. On IMarch 
 17, 1674-5, he married Elizabeth Smith, daughter 
 of Richard Smith. In Norwalk, Conn., John built 
 a fulling mill, was prominent as a citizen, and died 
 about 1720, and his widow passed away some time 
 after, about 1 741. 
 
 (III) Josiah Whitney, son of John, married'Oct- 
 30, 1729, at Norwalk, Conn., Eunice Hanford, 
 daughter of Eleazer and Hannah Hanford. Josiah 
 settled at Norwalk, where he died as early as 1750. 
 
 (R) Henry AMiitney, son of Josiah, born Feb. 
 19, 1735-6, in Norwalk, married about 1 761, in 
 Derliy, Conn., Eunice Clark, born April 15, 1745, 
 in Derby, and settled in that town. Eunice Clark 
 was the daughter of William Clark, who descended 
 from Thomas Clark, who, it is thought, was mate oP 
 the "Mayflower." A sister of Eunice Clark, Eliza, 
 of L\'mc, Conn., married Joseph Hull^ of Derby,, 
 in 1749, and became the mother of Gen. William 
 Hull, and grandmother of Commander Isaac Hull. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 439 
 
 of historic note. Henry • Whitney was for many 
 years an active and useful citizen of Derby. Both 
 he and his wife died in the town, her death occur- 
 ring Aug. 21, 1794, and his May i, 1811. He was 
 the founder of King Hiram Masonic Lodge m 
 Derby. 
 
 (V) Stephen Whitney, son of Henry, born 
 Sept. 14, 1776, in Derby, married Aug. 4, 1803, at 
 Newtown, L. I., Harriet, born Sept. i, 1782, daugli- 
 ter of Hendrick and Phoebe (Skidmore) Suydam, 
 of Hallets Cove, L. I. After their marriage, they 
 settled in the city of New York, where Mr. Whit- 
 ney became one of the most wealthy and influential 
 merchants of his time. Both he and his wife died in 
 that town in i860, his death occurring Feb. 16, and 
 hers May 12. Mr. Whitney, when he first went to 
 New York City, at eighteen or twenty years of age, 
 and began his career as a clerk in the business house 
 of Lawrence & Whitney, early showed good intelli- 
 gence and remarkable energy, and was shortly sent 
 to the West Indies as a super-cargo. Saving his 
 earnings, he soon went into business for himself, 
 forming a partnership in 1800 with one John Currie, 
 a Scotchman by birth. The new firm engaged in 
 the wholesale grocery business, but in 1809 the 
 partnership dissolved. During the war of 1812, Mr. 
 Whitney dealt largely in cotton and accumulated 
 money rapidly. Li about 1818, he abandoned the 
 grocery business, and engaged extensively in ship- 
 ping interests, building many vessels and sending 
 them to various parts of the world, especially trad- 
 ing largely with China and the East Indies. Among 
 other interests, he held large shares in the Kermet 
 line of packets plying between New York and Liv- 
 erpool. Mr. Whitney was among the early projec- 
 tors and founders of the great systems of railways 
 and 'canals, which did so much to increase the pros- 
 perity of New York, and held interests in the New 
 Jersey Railroad Co., the Delaware, Lackawanna & 
 Western Railroad Co., and others, as well as im- 
 mense financial institutions. His personal interests 
 ■became so large that for some thirty years before his 
 death, he gave up active business and occupied his 
 time in caring for his private business. His estate 
 at his death was worth something like $5,000,000. 
 Mr. Whitney was a man of strictest integrity and 
 honor, and won and held the esteem and admiration 
 of all. 
 
 (VI) Henry Whitney, son of Stephen and the 
 father of Stephen (2), was born in New York- City, 
 Aug. 23, 1812, and was graduated from Yale col- 
 lege in 1830. On Jan. 27, 1835, he married Hannah 
 Eugenia Lawrence, born Jan. 27, 1815, in New 
 York, a daughter of Isaac and Cornelia (Beach) 
 Lawrence, the latter the daughter of Rev. Abraham 
 Beach, D. D., rector of Trinity Church, New York 
 City. Mrs. Whitney died March 10, 1844, in New 
 Haven, Conn., and Mr. Whitney married July 25, 
 1850, at Norwich, Conn., Maria Lucy Fitch. 
 
 In 1837, Mr. Whitney located in New Haven, 
 and began the erection of the Whitney home, which 
 
 when completed was the finest mansion and grounds 
 in New Haven. Until its completion, the family re- 
 sided in "Alaple Cottage" on Trumbull street. Mr. 
 Whitney being a man of ample means, had time for 
 gratifying a taste he possessed in agricultural lines, 
 and was greatly interested in that pursuit both lo- 
 cally and in the country in general, giving consider- 
 able tirne to the breeding of cattle. He was secre- 
 tary of the New Haven Agricultural Society, and 
 was well known in agricultural circles. His death 
 occurred in New Haven ^larch 21, 1856, and hi^ 
 wife, Maria L., passed away in New York City about 
 1886. 
 
 The children born to the first marriage were : 
 Isaac Lawrence, born in New York, Nov. 15, 1835, 
 died Dec. 7, 1835; Harriet, born in New Haven, 
 Conn., March 2, 1838, married June 5, i860, Charles 
 H. Berryman, of New York, and they now reside in 
 that city; Cornelia Lawrence, born Nov. 27, 1839, 
 in New Haven, Conn., married Alarch 4, .1862, John 
 Girard Heckscher, who served as first lieutenant in 
 the 1 2th Reg. U. S. I. for two years during the 
 Civil war, and she died March 30, 1891 ; Stephen, 
 born Oct. 20, 1841 ; Hannah Eugene, born March 
 10, 1844, in New Haven, died there Sept. 15, 1845. 
 The children born of the second marriage of Henry 
 Whitney were: Alaria, born May 26, 185 1, mar- 
 ried April 28, 1870, Robert C. Livingston, and re- 
 sides at Islip, L. I. ; Caroline Suydam, born Nov. 
 17, 1852, married Oct. 18, 1871, John N. A. Gris- 
 wold, who died Dec. 8, 1871, in Germany, and she 
 married, in Alilford, Conn., June 21, 1874, Cornelius 
 Fellows, and resides in New York. 
 
 Stephen Whitney (2), son of Henry (2), and 
 the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch, 
 was in the pursuit of a liberal education when the 
 Civil war burst upon the country, and Aug. 5, 186 1, 
 he entered the army as first lieutenant in the 4th 
 United States Artillery, and from that time until 
 Nov. 12, 1863, shared the fortunes of the cpmmand, 
 retiring with an honorable record. 
 
 On April 27, 1864, Mr. Whitney married, in New 
 York City, Margaret Lawrence Johnson, born in 
 New York City June I, 1841, daughter of Bradish 
 and Louisa Anna (Lawrence) Johnson, the latter 
 then a resident of New York. She died in Novem- 
 ber, 1884, and April 29, 1886, Mr. Whitney married 
 Louisa Johnson, a sister to his first wife. Mr. Whit- 
 ney's children by his first marriage were: (i) 
 Louisa Lawrence, born June 16, 1867, married 
 (first) Hugh Dickey and had one child, Frances 
 De Koven; (second!) Charles D. Dickey, and has 
 two children, Charles D. and Stephen W. Mr. 
 Dickey is in the banking house of Brown Bros., in 
 New York. (2) Hannah Eugene Lawrence, born 
 April 29, 1871. (3) Henry, born Dec. i, 1872. (4) 
 Lawrence, born Oct. 21, 1874, died in 1896. By his 
 second marriage, Mr. Whitney has one child, 
 Stephen, born April 13, 1887. 
 
 Mr. Whitney and family have been prominent in 
 social life, and from their elegant home on Whit- 
 
440 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ney avenue a generous hospitality has ever been 
 dispensed. j\lr. Whitney is a gentleman of cul- 
 ture and extended travel, and is an interesting con- 
 versationalist. For years he was interested in sugar 
 planting in Louisiana, and himself and family 
 passed the winter months on Woodland Plantation. 
 Mr. Whitney is a member of the Quinnipiac Club 
 of New Haven, of the Union Club of New York, a 
 member of the Society of Colonial Wars, Order of 
 Runn3Tnedes (or descendants of the Barons who 
 obtained a charter from King John), and also a 
 member of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, 
 New York State Commandery. 
 
 ELI C. BARNUM, the efficient secretary, treas- 
 urer and general manager of the Naugatuck Water 
 Co., was born in the town of Kent, Litchfield Co., 
 Conn., Dec. 14, 1844. He is a grandson of Rich- 
 ard and Anna (Blakeman) Barnum, farming peo- 
 ple of that town, who were the parents of six chil- 
 dren. Beecher, the oldest, was the father of the gen- 
 tleman whose name appears at the beginning of 
 this sketch. Mills was a farmer in Litchfield, and 
 died in East Hartland, whither he had retired to pass 
 the rest of his life. Calvin, also a farmer, passed 
 his life in Litchfield, dying unmarried. Emeline be- 
 came the wife of Daniel Chamberlain, a farmer of 
 Kent. Curtis was a wheelwright in that town. Ade- 
 line married a Mr. Hurd, of the same place. 
 
 Beecher Barnum was born in 1800, and grew to 
 manhood on his father's farm, and died in Cornwall 
 Bridge, Conn., in 1858. By trade he was a mill- 
 wright. He married Sophia, daughter of Eliud 
 Combs, of Danbury, and of the five children born 
 to them, Eli C. was the youngest, the others being 
 Lafayette, Lewis, Marcus and Mary. The three 
 elder sons were engineers ; all are deceased. Mary, 
 the only daughter, married Levi Barnum, of Bridge- 
 port, where she still resides. 
 
 Eli Q. Barnum was educated in the schools of 
 Kent and Danbury, the parents moving to the latter 
 place for a time when he was a lad of ten years. 
 The family soon returned to Kent, however, re- 
 maining there until the death of the father, which 
 occurred when our subject was scarcely fourteen 
 years old. j\Irs. Barnum and the children then 
 removed to Bridgeport. Thence Eli C. went to 
 Botsford Station, Conn., where for three years he 
 worked as clerk in the general store of Oliver Bots- 
 ford. In 1864 he went to Naugatuck, which town 
 has since been his home. For some years after his 
 arrival he filled the post of clerk in the dry goods 
 store owned by Frank S., and later George, An- 
 drews. In 1869, through patient industry, joined to 
 regularity of habits and economy in expenditure, 
 he found himself able to engage in business on his 
 own account, in co-partnershij) with Calvin Hotch- 
 kiss, the style of the firm being Hotchkiss & Bar- 
 num. They conducted a general store. Four vears 
 later Mr. Barnum purchased Mr. Hotchkiss' inter- 
 est, and for twenty years managed the business 
 
 alone. Meanwhile, in 189*0, he was made secretary 
 and treasurer of the Naugatuck Water Co., then 
 an infant and comparatively unimportant concern. 
 Mr. Barnum, however, was quick to perceive the 
 possible future of the corporation, and in 1893 he 
 disposed of his store, and has since devoted his 
 v/hole time and energy to the upbuilding and de- 
 velopment of the company, in which he has been re- 
 markably successful. He is a citizen of public spirit, 
 and the people of Naugatuck have shown their con- 
 fidence in his capability and probity, by repeatedly 
 electing himi to local offices, the duties attaching to 
 which he has always discharged with fidelity and 
 ability. He is a member of Shepherd's Lodge, A. 
 F. & A. M., and of the I. O. R. M. ; is a Republican 
 in political creed ; and a Congregationalist by re- 
 ligious profession. For about twent3--five years 
 he has been treasurer of the Ecclesiastical Society. 
 In 1868 Mr. Barnum was married to Miss Eliza 
 Ward, a daughter of Lauren Ward, and a niece of 
 William Ward, a biographical sketch of whom may 
 be found elsewhere. Mr. and Mrs. Barnum have 
 had two children, Frederick W. and Earl M. The 
 first named is an employe of the Water Company. 
 
 CHARLES HENRY REDFIELD. The Red- 
 field family, of which Charles Henry Redfield, one 
 of Madison's well-known farmers, is a member, has 
 long been prominent in New England, where it has 
 been noted for its integrity and uprightness of life. 
 
 William Redfield, the progenitor of the family 
 in America, emigrated from England with the early 
 settlers of Massachusetts, and before 1639 he 
 owned a home on the south side of the Charles 
 River, near Boston. He later joined others in re- 
 moval to Connecticut, the Colony settling at what 
 is now New London, where he built a house and 
 spent the remainder of his life, dying in ^lay, 1662. 
 His v/ife, Rebecca, bore him the following children : 
 Lydia, born in 1636, married Thomas Bayley, of 
 New London, Conn; Rebecca, born in 1641, mar- 
 ried Thomas Roach, of New London; James, bom 
 in 1646; Judith, born in 1649, married Alexander 
 Pygan, of Norwich, England, June 17, 1667. 
 
 James Redfield, son of William, born in 1646, 
 came to New London with his parents, and bound 
 himself to Hugh Roberts, to learn the tanning trade. 
 He later followed the sea and also engaged in 
 farming. For a short time he lived in Saybrook, 
 but his death occurred in Fairfield, Conn., about 
 1723. In May, 1669, he married Elizabeth How, 
 who was born in 1645, a daughter of Jeremy How, 
 of New Haven, and upon her death married Delilah 
 Sturgis, daughter of John Sturgis, of Fairfield. 
 James Redfield was the father of the following chil- 
 dren : Elizabeth, born in New Haven, May 31, 
 1670; Sarah, born about 1673: Theophilus, 'born 
 1682; Margaret, baptized Oct. 7, 1694; and James, 
 baptized Oct. 25, 1696. 
 
 Theophilus Redfield, son of James, born in 1682, 
 learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, and set- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 441 
 
 tied in Killingworth, where, in 171 7, he bought a 
 •tract of land in what is now North Killingworth, 
 ■and there spent the remainder of his life, and died 
 Feb. 14, 1759, highly respected for his genuine 
 worth. On Dec. 24, 1706, he married Priscilla Grin- 
 nell, daughter of Daniel and Lydia Grinnell, of 
 Saybrook, and she died Jan. 12, 1770, at the age of 
 eighty-one years. The following children blessed 
 •their union: Daniel, born Sept. 22, 1707, served in 
 the French and Indian war, and died Jan. 11, 1758; 
 Elizabeth, born May 8, 1709; Richard, born June 
 II, 1711 ; Ebenezer, born Dec. 3, 1713; Lydia, born 
 Feb. 9, 1715 ; Theophilus, horn June 20, 1720 ; Peleg, 
 born April 2, 1723; George, born Nov. 7, 1725; 
 William, born Dec. 5, 1727; Josiah, born Sept. 6, 
 1730; Jane, born June 24, 1733; and James, born 
 March 29, 1735. 
 
 Theophilus Redfield (2), son of Theophilus, 
 lived in Killingworth, where he was engaged in 
 farming. He was a sergeant in the French and 
 Indian war. His death occurred in Killingworth 
 Jan. 30, 1770. He first married Mary Buell, daugh- 
 ter of Benjamin and Hannah Buell, and she died 
 Aug. 22, 1749. For his second wife he married 
 jNIartha Gray, daughter of Philip Gray, of Killing- 
 worth. By his first marriage his children were as 
 follows: Eliakim, born May 26, 1741 ; Nathan, 
 born July 31, 1743; Levi, born Aug. 17, 1745; and 
 Isaac, born July 29, 1749, died Nov. 23, 1749. By 
 the second marriage were born Philip, born Nov. 
 :25, 1751, died 1780; Constant, born July 30, 1753; 
 Mary, born Jan. 24, 1755 ; Elias, born Jan. 31, 1757 ; 
 Martha, born Feb. 18, 1758; and Nathan (2), born 
 Aug. 17, 1763. 
 
 Constant Redfield, son of Theophilus (2), was 
 born in Killingworth July 30, 1753, and was a 
 cooper by trade, and took an active part in the Rev- 
 olutionary war. On x^pril 9, 1778, he married 
 Amanda Buell, who was a daughter of Daniel Buell, 
 and who died in October, 1837. He died in. Guil- 
 ford at the home of his son Ebenezer, Jan. 15, 1839. 
 The children born of this union were: Pardon, 
 born Feb. 20, 1779; Martha, Feb. 3, 1781 ; Theodore, 
 Oct. I, 1782, died 1847; ^lary, born Nov. 14, 1784; 
 Siba, Dec. 18, 1786; Lydia, June 29, 1789; Lyman; 
 Ebenezer, 1794; Ruth, July 11, 1796; James; 
 Amanda; and one that died unnamed. 
 
 Lyman Redfield was born in Killingworth in 
 1 791, and became one of the prosperous farmers of 
 Killingworth, where his life was spent, and where he 
 died July 19, 1848. He first married Clarissa Par- 
 melee, daughter of Henry Parmelee, of Killing- 
 worth; for his second wife, he wedded Sophronia 
 Kelsey, of Clinton. His children were: Mari- 
 etta Elizabeth, born March, 1818; Henry Lyman, 
 1820; Gustavus Kimberly, Nov. 14, 1822; Charles 
 Parmelee, March 8, 1825; and Francis Sherman, 
 April, 1828. All are now deceased except Charles 
 Parmelee, who resides in Clinton, Connecticut. 
 
 Henry L. Redfield was born in 1820, and engaged 
 in the coasting trade. He married Elizabeth Coe, 
 
 daughter of Darius and Thankful Coe, of Madison, 
 where Mr. Coe owned a large tract of land." The 
 children born of this marriage were as follows : 
 Charles Henry; John Darius, born May 31, 1842, 
 died in the army ; Wellington Monroe, born Feb. 18, 
 1845, died March 9, 1845 ; George, born March 25, 
 1847; Clarissa Elizabeth, who married Edgar Spen- 
 cer, of Madison. Mr. Redfield died March 19, 
 1851, aged thirty-one years, and was buried in 
 West cemetery, where a monument marks his last 
 resting place. His life was one of duty well per- 
 formed, and he died esteemed by the whole com- 
 munity. His widow resides with her son Charles 
 Henry, and has attained the advanced age of eighty- 
 three years. 
 
 Charles H. Redfield was born June 10, 1840, in 
 Madison, where he attended the district schools. 
 The farm of 100 acres, formerly known as the Coe 
 farm, is now ocupied and managed by him, and he 
 has been engaged since his youth in making im- 
 provements, and in bringing his land to a high state 
 of cultivation. He has also successfully engaged in 
 stock raising, at the same time carrying on a thriv- 
 ing dairy business. 
 
 On Feb. 20, 1862, Mr. Redfield was married to 
 Emeline Smith Bolles, who was born in Niantic, 
 Conn., a daughter of Francis and Nancy (Morgan) 
 Bolles, of that town, the former of whom was a 
 son of Calvin Bolles, and the latter a daughter of 
 George Morgan, who was a native of England. 
 The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Redfield are as 
 follows : ( I ) Jennie Thankful was educated in 
 the district school, Hand Academy in Madison, Wil- 
 limantic Normal and Gafifney Business College, of 
 New Haven. She is an expert typewriter and sten- 
 ographer, and has taught school for four years. (2) 
 Frank Henry, a carpenter and joiner, married Net- 
 tie Griswold, and has three children, Marguerite, 
 Leslie Bolles and Charles Kenyon. (3) Willard, 
 a machinist in New York, married Josephine Con- 
 way, of Holyoke, Mass., and has one child, C. Mor- 
 gan. (4) Charles Gustavus, a farmer, married 
 Susan Trainer, of New Haven, and has one child. 
 Earl Trainer. (5) Burdette Bolles is a machinist 
 in New Haven. (6) Emeline Coe is a graduate of 
 Hand Academy. Mr. Redfield has always taken an 
 active part in the improvements in his town and 
 district, and for a long time has served on the board 
 of relief, where his judgment is much valued. In 
 politics he is a Republican, and socially is connected 
 with the A. O. U. W. The family are members 
 of the Congregational Church, to which Mr. Red- 
 field cheerfully contributes, and where they are most 
 highly esteemed. A man of quiet and unostentatious 
 manner, he is one of the substantial citizens who 
 well represent the town of Madison. 
 
 ALMON JESSE IVES. The Ives family is one 
 of the oldest in the town of Wallingford. John Ives, 
 the first settler of that name in the town, was a farm- 
 er and land owner, and died in Meriden. He was 
 
442 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 father to the following children: John, bom in 
 1669, died in 1738; Hannah married Joseph Ben- 
 ham Aug. 17, 1682; Joseph, 'born in 1674, married 
 Esther Benedict May 11, 1697; Gideon married 
 Mary Royce Feb. 20, 1706; Nathaniel, born in 1677, 
 married Mary Cook in 1699; Ebenezer; Samuel 
 was born June 15, 1696; Benjamin was born Nov. 
 22, 1699. 
 
 Gideon Ives, noted above, was a farmer and 
 land owner. He and his wife, Mary (Royce), had 
 the following children: Sarah, born Sept. 8, 1708; 
 Jonathan, born Sept. 20, 1710 (died Sept. 2, 1753) ; 
 Amasa, born Aug. 24, 1712 ; Rhoda, born Dec. 12, 
 1714; Martha, born Aug. 10, 1716; Amasa, born 
 Nov. 15, 1718; Gideon, born Sept. 24, 1720; Joel, 
 born Jan. 13, 1723; Mary, born Dec. 16, 1724; 
 Susannah, born May 26, 1727; Esther, born Oct. 
 14, 1729. The mother died Oct. 15, 1742. 
 
 Jonathan Ives, son of Gideon, was engaged with 
 his father in farming. He died Sept. 2, 1753, at 
 the age of forty-three years. He married Abigail 
 Burroughs, Feb. 28, 1736. 
 
 Zachariah Ives, son of Jonathan, was bom Jan. 
 31. 1737. and was a farmer all his life. He located 
 in the town of Cheshire, where he died March g, 
 181 5. His wife, Lois, also died in Cheshire. Their 
 children were: (i) Rev. Reuben, born in 1761, 
 graduated from Yale College in 1785, and was or- 
 dained by Bishop Seabury in 1786. He was rector 
 of St. Peter's Episcopal Church at Cheshire for 
 thirty years, and died Oct. 14, 1836, at the age of 
 seventy-five years. (2) Chauncey, born in 1762, 
 died Nov. 17, 1778. (3) Lowly married Seth De 
 Wolf. (4) Jared was a farmer of Cheshire. (5) 
 Jesse. 
 
 Jesse Ives was born and reared in Cheshire, and 
 upon reaching man's estate removed to the town of 
 Meriden, where he lived and died. He married 
 Marilla Johnson, and became the father of four 
 children: Jotham ; Ahnon, who died in 1896; 
 Rosetta, who married John Bardon ; and Lyman, 
 who married Betsy Sanderson, and is deceased. 
 
 Jotham Ives was born on the home farm in 
 Meriden, where he was a farmer and stock raiser 
 all his life. He died there May 18, 1864, at the 
 age of fifty-six years, and was buried in the Aleri- 
 den cemetery. A man of strong domestic habits, he 
 was honorable and upright in all his ways, and held 
 in the highest esteen by those who knew him best. 
 He was a Democrat in politics, but had no taste for 
 party machinery, and never sought office. He mar- 
 ried Mary R. Way, who was bom in Meriden, a 
 daughter of Samuel and Betsey (Preston) Way. 
 They had children as follows : Edward ( who died 
 in Cheshire): Amos; Betsey (wife of Robert W. 
 Hallani) ; Julius I. : and Almon J. The family are 
 members of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Amos Ives is engaged in business in ^leriden, 
 as a coal dealer; has been very successful and is 
 quite well-to-do. He has twice served as mayor of 
 
 that city, to which office he was' elected on the Dem- 
 ocratic ticket, and proved very capable, his services 
 giving general satisfaction. He has two sons, Wil- 
 bur B. and Cleveland A. The elder, after an at- 
 tendance of a year or two at the high school, stud- 
 ied at a school in Canada, and has since been in 
 business with his father. Cleveland A. graduated 
 from the Meriden high school in 1897, and from 
 the Wesleyan College in 1901. 
 
 Julius I. Ives still resides on the old homestead, 
 and is a very successful farmer and stock raiser. 
 He is a member of Hancock Lodge, No. 28, I. O. O. 
 F., and is past grand of the local lodge. He has 
 two children. Minor and Lucretia. The son has 
 finished his school work, and is now helping his 
 father on the farm. 
 
 Almon J. Ives attended the district school of 
 ^leriden, and remained on the farm until nineteen 
 years of age, when he went to Plymouth, Conn,, 
 and there he spent a year clerking in a store. At 
 the expiration of that time he returned to the home 
 farm and engaged in its cultivation in company with 
 his brother Julius I. Their father was dead, and the 
 brothers continued together in farming for fifteen 
 years, when Almon J. retired and settled on the 
 Allen farm, in the town of Meriden. In 1880 he 
 came to Wallingford, and located in the village of 
 Tracy, where he set up in business, buying out 
 the grocery and good will of his father-in-law. 
 Here for over fifteen years he has carried on a 
 very successful and popular establishment, dealing 
 in groceries and feed. In 1885 he was appointed 
 postmaster under President Cleveland and has held 
 that position to the present time. He is a good busi- 
 ness man, and noted for fair dealing, courteous 
 demeanor and unswerving honesty. 
 
 In 1879 '^I''- Iv^s was married to Miss Ellen A. 
 Parker, who was bom in ^Meriden, a daughter of 
 Edward and Harriet A. (Blake) Parker. To this 
 union have come two children : Marv, a graduate 
 of the ?ileriden High School, class of 1901 ; and 
 Edward Jotham. 'Mr. Ives is a member of Hancock 
 Lodg'e, No. 28, I. O. O. F., and is now past grand of 
 the local lodge. 
 
 The Parker family, to which ;\Irs. Ives belongs, 
 is traced back to John Parker, the first of the family 
 in this country. He was one of the earlier settler's 
 of Wallingford, and made his location at what is 
 known as Parker's Farms, in the western part of 
 the town. He died in 171 1, and Hannah, his 
 widow, survived until June 7, 1726. Their children 
 were as follows: (i) Hannah, born Aug. 20, 1671, 
 married William Andrews Jan. 12, 1692. (2) Eliz- 
 abeth married Joseph Ro^^ce March 24, 1693. (3) 
 John, bom Alarch 26, 1675, married Mary Kibbe, 
 of Springfield, Mass., Nov. i, 1699. (4) Rachel, 
 born June 16, 1680, married Thomas Rebyea in 
 1700. (5) Eliphalet married Hannah Beacli Aug. 
 5, 1708. (6) Samuel married Sarah Goodsell, of 
 Middletown, July 16, 1713. (7) Edward was bom 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 443 
 
 in 1692. (8) Mary married Joseph Clark Nov. 27, 
 1707. (9) Abigail, born March 10, 1710, married 
 Joseph Bradley Dec. 8, 1765. 
 
 Edward Parker, son of John, the first settler of 
 Parker's Farms, grew up in the town of Walling- 
 ford, and after his marriage settled in Cheshire, 
 where he followed farming all his life. He died 
 Oct. 21, 1776, and is buried in Cheshire. He was 
 three times married. Jerusha, his first wife, died 
 Dec. 27, 1745. On Dec. i, 1748, he married Re- 
 becca Ives, who died May 23, 1762; and on Sept. 
 30, 1762, he was married to Ruth Merriman Mer- 
 win. His children were as follows : Ralph, born 
 Jan. 9, 1718, married Martha Ives, daughter of 
 Gideon Ives; Athildred, born July i, 1719, mar- 
 ried Timothy Hall Jan. 10, 1748; Edward, born 
 J\Iarch II, 1721, is mentioned below; Joel, born Feb. 
 24, 1723, married Susannah Hotchkiss Dec. 25, 
 1746; Ephraiin, born Aug. 23, 1725, married Bath- 
 sheba Parsons Nov. 11, 1747; Amos, born Nov. 26, 
 1726, died Aug. 20, 1748; William, born in 1728, 
 died May 2, 1752; Eldad, born Sept. 14, 1731, mar- 
 ried Thankful Bellamy April 24, 1755, and died July 
 6, 1779; Joseph Merriam, born Feb. 2, 1734, died 
 March 21, 1734; Joseph, born Oct. 9, 1735, married 
 Mary Andrews May 30, 1758. 
 
 Edward Parker, son of Edward Parker, was also 
 a farmer. He married Sarah Burroughs, and their 
 children were as follows : Sarah was born in 
 Cheshire Aug. 28, 1745; Elizabeth, born June 7, 
 1748, married Enos Clark, of Southington; Will- 
 iam was born June 18, 1752; Abigail, born July 7, 
 175s, married Deacon Benjamin Yale Dec. 17, 1777; 
 Edward, born April 21, 1760, married Rebecca Hen- 
 drick, and removed to Cazenovia, New York. 
 
 William Parker, the great-grandfather of Mrs. 
 Ives, was born in Cheshire, and was a farmer all 
 his life. He married Desire Bunnell, and of their 
 children we have the following record : Sarah, born 
 Nov. 7, 1779, married Charles T. Hill; William 
 married the widow of Reuben Hull ; Nancy married 
 Dixon Lusk ; Anson ; Abigail married Elnathan 
 Beach; Fanny married Simeon Perkins, and after 
 his death Simeon Hersey; and Marcus was the 
 grandfather of Mrs. Ives. 
 
 Marcus Parker was born in Cheshire, where 
 he spent his life engaged as a carpenter and joiner. 
 He married Mehitable Mathews. 
 
 Edward Parker, son of Marcus and Mehitable 
 Parker, was a carpenter in early life, and finally en- 
 gaged as a grocer at Tracy. In 1882 he sold out to 
 his son-in-law, and spent his last days in New Ha- 
 ven, where he died. He married Harriet A. Blake, 
 and their daughter, Ellen A., is Mrs. Almon J. 
 Ives. 
 
 JAMES ELTON SMITH, one of the prom- 
 inent farmer citizens of North Haven, bears the hon- 
 orable badge of having suffered for his country's 
 liberty during the Civil war. His ancestors were 
 sturdy New Englanders, the first of the line in 
 
 America, Thomas Smith, coming to these shores at 
 an early day. He came by way of Boston to New 
 Haven, where he was propounded for a freeman in 
 1669, and was a proprietor in 1685. He evidently 
 lived in that part of New Haven from which was 
 created East Haven, where Dodd (who writes of the 
 early families of East Haven ) locates him and many 
 of his posterity. In 1662 he married Elizabeth, only 
 daughter of Edward Patterson, one of the original 
 settlers of New Haven. 
 
 Thomas Smith, grandfather of James E., was 
 one of the well-known citizens of the Northeastern 
 part of North Haven, then called "Smithtown," be- 
 cause of the number of inhabitants of that name 
 living there, but now known as Clintonville. Thomas 
 Smith married (second) Rosanna Hull, and to 
 this union were born : Ebenezer, who married Bede 
 Bassett; James, the father of our subject; Hiram, 
 who married Polly Smith ; Rosanna, who married 
 David Doolittle ; and Martha, wife of George 
 Thorpe. 
 
 James Smith was born in Clintonville June 11, 
 1805, and spent his youthful days in that locality. 
 He was still a lad when he lost his father. Select- 
 ing the trade of a shoemaker as a lucrative one, 
 Mr. Smith bade fair to become an excellent work- 
 man, but he accidentally thrust an awl into his eye 
 and was deprived of the sight of that member, later 
 in life becoming totally blind. Being thus obliged 
 to give up his trade, farming seemed the best occupa- 
 tion open to him, and he secured farm work in var- 
 ious parts of his town and Wallingford. He finally 
 settled down to agricultural work on the homestead 
 in North Haven, now occupied by his son, where he 
 and his wife died, he in 1887. Mrs. Smith sur- 
 vived to be ninety 3-ears and thirteen days old, dy- 
 ing in May, 1897. Her maiden name was Emily 
 Bassett, and she was a daughter of Jesse and Pa- 
 tience (Blakeslee) Bassett. The children born to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Smith were: Sarah Lavinia, who 
 married Marcus A. Marks, of Wallingford (a sol- 
 dier of the Civil war) ; Edward A., who married 
 Hannah Maria Tucker; Willis L., who married Me- 
 lissa Way, and lived in Meriden ; James Elton ; 
 Emily A., wife of Isaac L. Doolittle, who resides 
 with Mr. Smith (he served through the Civil war) ; 
 Sanford B. (also a veteran of the Civil war), who 
 married Sarah Lovejoy ; Catherine A., who resides 
 with her brother, and Charles B., who married, first, 
 Mary Boyington (who died in 1888), and second 
 Edith Church (who also died). 
 
 James E. Smith was born Aug. 8, 1835, in Wall- 
 ingford, where his boyhood days were spent, and 
 there he attended the district school, later going to 
 work on a farm and earning what were then consid- 
 ered good wages. He spent sixteen years in Wall- 
 mgford, and four years in Ulster county, N. Y. 
 Upon his return to New Haven he was employed by 
 William Parmelee as a gardener, but the tenor of 
 his whole life was changed by the Civil war. On 
 Sept. 7, 1861, he became a member of Company E,. 
 
•444 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 7th Conn. V. L, under Capt. Charles Palmer, of 
 Winsted, who died in the service. During the 
 stormy days which followed, Mr. Smith accom- 
 panied his regiment through the battles of Port 
 Royal, Johnson's Island, Fort Pulaski, James Island, 
 Pocotaligo, St. John's Bluff, Fort Wagner, Fort 
 Gregg, Fort Sumter, Bermuda Hundred, Drury's 
 Bluff, Deep Bottom and Deep Run. At the last 
 named engagement, on August 16, 1864, he was se- 
 verely wounded in the leg, and for one and one- 
 half years this gallant and faithful soldier made 
 his way on crutches, his right leg being yet so crip- 
 pled that it is stiff, and his foot, ever so ready to 
 follow in the march, is crooked beyond help. He 
 received his discharge for disability May 22, 1865. 
 These things are written on the hearts of the 
 younger generation and explain in part the respect 
 accorded the American veteran soldiers. 
 
 When able again to take up the duties of life, 
 Mr. Smith returned to farm work, his aged father 
 needing his assistance, and after the death of the 
 father Mr. Smith took entire management of the es- 
 tate. He holds a high position in the community, 
 commanding the unqualified respect of all who know 
 him. 
 
 A stanch Republican in political views, Mr. Smith 
 has been active in local affairs, and has been called 
 tipon to serve in several important positions. He 
 is a member of the board of relief, and during the 
 administrations of Speakers Harrison, Hall, Chase 
 and Pine, in 1881-82-83-84, was doorkeeper of the 
 Connecticut House of Representatives. Socially he 
 is connected with Admiral Foote Post, No. 17, G. 
 A. R., of New Haven. He hasi long been a member 
 ■of the Congregational Church of North Haven. 
 
 SAMUEL A. LEWIS is well known in New 
 Haven business circles as the proprietor of an ex- 
 cellent storage and transfer warehouse, the best 
 and largest in the city. He was born in Nauga- 
 tuck, this county, April 4, 1846, son of Lucien F. 
 Lewis, also a native of Naugatuck. Asahel Lewis, 
 his grandfather, was a farmer, and died at the 
 early age of thirty-five years. He married Sarah 
 Atkins, who lived to be eighty-one years old, and 
 the)^ had five children, all of whom are now de- 
 ceased. 
 
 Lucien F. Lewis, the father of Samuel A., was 
 reared in Naugatuck, where he followed farming 
 during the earlier years of his life, and he was en- 
 gaged in brickmaking at Southington and Cheshire. 
 He died at Southington in 1878. He married 
 Susan Hitchcock, a native of Southington, where 
 her father, Samuel Hitchcock, was long a promi- 
 nent farmer. INlrs. Susan Lewis was one of a fam- 
 ily of three children. To Mr. and Mrs. Lewis 
 came five children, four of whom are now living : 
 Henry D., who is in New Haven ; Samuel A. ; Ed- 
 Avard ^1., a foundryman in Annistcm, Ala.; and 
 Elliot L., superintendent of a wire mill at Troy, 
 N. Y. Mrs. Lewis died at the ase of sixtv-eisrht. 
 
 Both parents were members of the Congregational 
 Church, in which he was a deacon, and they were 
 active workers in both church and Sunday-school. 
 Their children were reared in the faith of the 
 church, and became members as they reached ma- 
 ture vears. 
 
 Samuel A. Lewis spent his earlier years m 
 Naugatuck, and in 1853 accompanied his parents 
 to West Haven, where the family resided until 
 1862. From that year until 1868 he was engaged 
 in the Cheshire brickmaking enterprise, in com- 
 pany with his father. Fromi the year last named 
 he was in Southington with his father until 1872, 
 when he bought out his father's interest, and ran 
 the business alone until 1874. The ensuing year he 
 was in the brick 'business at North Haven, and then 
 engaged in trucking at Naugatuck until 1881, in 
 which year he transferred himself to North Haveri, 
 and again carried on the manufacture of brick until 
 1884. That year he came to New Haven and 
 founded the business which he now carries on; 
 until 1890 he was also engaged in trucking. In 
 1893 he finished his present warehouse in Olive 
 street, a magnificent structure, having 102 feet 
 front, 168 feet depth, and four stories in height, 
 the entire space being devoted to storage. It is 
 the largest building of the kind in the city, and 
 the business created now gives employment to fif- 
 teen men and twenty horses, and is constantly in- 
 creasing. Mr. Lewis is noted as having the larg- 
 est business of the kind in the State, incorporated 
 as the S. A. Lewis Storage & Transfer Co., of 
 which he is president. He has another warehouse, 
 built in 1884, 55 by no feet, and two and one- 
 half stories high, which is situated on Whalley 
 avenue. There he did business until 1893, when 
 he put up a building in OHve street, and in 1898 
 erected another, on Brewery street, 40 by 90 feet, 
 and two stories in height. Air. Lewis is well pre- 
 pared for every kind of work that belongs to 
 trucking and storage. Mr. Lewis began life with- 
 out capital, and by dint of his own energies has 
 won a foremost position among the better class of 
 business men in his city, and the foremost posi- 
 tion of any man in his line, in either New Haven 
 or Connecticut. He is a man of energy, and has a 
 personal knowledge of every detail of the immense 
 business of which he is the head. Personally he 
 is a modest, plain man, enjoying to an unusual 
 extent the confidence of the best people of New 
 Haven, who make up the major portion of his pa- 
 Irons. 
 
 Air. Lewis was married in 1870 to Sarah J. 
 Pardee, a native of Cheshire, and a daughter of 
 George F. Pardee, a farmer of that town, who 
 lived to be seventy-five. Louisa (Cook), his wife, 
 was born in Cheshire, of an old family. They had 
 four children, three of whom are -living : Sarah 
 J., Airs. Lewis; and George and Georgia, twins, 
 the former a resident of Cheshire, the latter the 
 wife of Edward T. Llall, of Cheshire. 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 44? 
 
 ]\Ir. Lewis is a Republican, and belongs to the 
 Congregational Church. He is popular in the city, 
 and his friends regard him highly as a reliable and 
 trustworthy man. 
 
 GEORGE C. FIELD, a prominent citizen of 
 Branford, who has united the occupations of farm- 
 ing and blacksmithing in a long and honorable life, 
 was born in Killingworth, Conn., March 6, 1836, 
 son of Danford Clark and Lucretia (Griswold) 
 Field, natives of Clinton and Killingworth, respec- 
 tively. 
 
 I'he father of our subject was reared in his native 
 place, and was a shoemaker by trade. At one time 
 in his life he was a merchant. Locating in Bran- 
 ford April I, 1836, he followed farming there the 
 balance of his life, dying Nov. 29, 1890, at the ven- 
 erable age of eighty-five years. He had a numer- 
 ous family, of whom the following lived to maturity : 
 Cynthia J., who married James S. Ludington; John 
 R., now deceased ; Miohael G., now deceased ; 
 George C. ; Chancellor W. ; Edmtmd L, who was 
 . killed at the battle of Antietam, during the Civil 
 war ; David DeF., who is now deceased ; Stillman 
 K., now deceased; James R. ; Viletta S.; and Har- 
 riet M., who married Elmer Hurst. The paternal 
 grandfather of George C. Field, James E. Field, 
 was a son of Samuel Field. The maternal grand- 
 father of Mr. Field was Michael Griswold. Both 
 these worthies were lifelong farmers, the former in 
 Clinton, and the latter in Killingworth. 
 
 George C. Field was reared in Branford, where 
 he has always lived. Here he began his business 
 career by serving an apprenticeship of three and a 
 half years at the blacksmith -trade, and he has also 
 carried on farming in connection with the shop. 
 Mr. Field was married, Aug. 27, 1863, to Sarah, a 
 daughter of George L. and Matilda L. (Dowd) 
 Dowd, of Madison. Mr. Field has been selectman 
 0f Branford, and in politics is a Democrat. 
 
 REV. WATSON LYMAN PHILLIPS, D. D., 
 pastor of the Church of the Redeemer, New Haven, 
 was born in West Troy, N. Y., Jan. 28, 1850, son of 
 Rev. Jonas and Maria E. (Nims) Phillips. 
 
 Rev. Jonas Phillips was a native of Fishkill-on- 
 the-Hudson, where many of the name still reside. 
 He and his wiie had four children: Anna,, now 
 a resident of Ballston Spa, .N. Y. ; Emma F., who 
 died in 1871 ; Watson Lyman, whose name intro- 
 duces this sketch; and Olin F., who died in early 
 childhood. The father died in 1883, at the age of 
 sixty-three, and the mother lived to the age of 
 eighty. Rev. Jonas Phillips was a teacher in early 
 life, and afterward entered the ministry of the 
 :\Iethodist Church, becoming a member of the Troy 
 Conference. He was a fluent speaker, an effective 
 lecturer, a zealous temperance worker, and was 
 also active in missionary work, serving as treasurer 
 of the missionary society of his conference. Mr. 
 Phillips enjoyed great popularity wherever he was 
 
 known, and commanded the highest respect of all 
 with whom he came in contact. He was a prominent 
 member of the Masonic Fraternity, in politics was 
 an ardent Republican, and he was an unusually well- 
 informed man in many lines. 
 
 Through his mother Dr. Phillips is descended- 
 from Godfrey Nims, one of the early settlers of 
 Deerfield, Mass., whose house was burned, some 
 of his children killed, and others, with his wife, car- 
 ried to Canada, at the time of the Deerfield massa- 
 cre. 
 
 Dr. Phillips obtained his early education at pri- 
 vate schools, at the Poultney (Vt.) Academy, and 
 the Fort Edward (N. Y.) Institute. He was gradu- 
 ated from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., 
 in 1872, and then took a partial course at the Theo- 
 logical School of Boston University, in the spring 
 of 1873 joining the Providence Annual Conference 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His first pas- 
 torates were in Massachusetts, where he preached 
 successively in the churches at West Duxbury,. 
 South Yarmouth, Fall River (the First Church)' 
 and New Bedford (the County Street Church). In' 
 1880 he was called to -the pastorate of the Summer- 
 field Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., and later to St. 
 John's Church, in that city. In 1888 he became pas- 
 tor of the First Church in Wilkesbarre, Pa., one 
 of the largest and strongest churches in that part 
 of the State. In 1890 he accepted a call to the- 
 Church of the Redeemer (Congregationalist), New 
 Haven, Conn., where he still remains. Dr. Phillips 
 made the change of denominations because of his 
 fondness for the Congregational polity and for a 
 settled pastorate, and because of the influence of 
 Presbyterian blood inherited from his mother's fam- 
 ily. The Church of the Redeemer is one of 'the 
 most prominent churches of the State, and is dis- 
 tinguished for its members' influence and liberality. 
 The society conducts the Oak Street Mission, ne- 
 cessitating the employment of an assistant pastor 
 and a lady missionary. This energetic and active 
 congregation conducts a reading room, clubs for 
 boys and young men, a sewing school, mothers' 
 meeting. Band of Hope, Penny Savings Bank, sing- 
 ing classes, kitchen garden and the usual Sunday- 
 school and gospel services. 
 
 Dr. Phillips is well known as a lecturer and 
 after-dinner speaker. He is deeply interested in 
 all movements toward good citizenship. In college 
 he was a member of the Greek letter fraternities 
 Alpha Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. He received 
 the degree of M. A. from Wesleyan University in 
 course, and the degree of D. D. in 1889 from that 
 institution and Dickinson College. Dr. Phillips is 
 a. Freemason, and was formerly chaplain of lodges 
 in South Yarmouth and Fall River, Mass. He 
 is a member of the Graduates Club and of the 
 Congregational Club, both of New Haven, and 
 served one year as president of the latter. He is a 
 corporate member of the American Board and the 
 Connecticut Bible Society ; is a director of the Con- 
 
446 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 gregational Home Missionary Society, of the Con- 
 necticut Missionary Society and the Organized 
 Charities Association, New Haven ; and has for 
 man)' years been president of the New Haven City 
 Missionary Association. His political support is 
 given to the Repubhcan party. 
 
 On June 22, 1873, Dr. PhilHps was married to 
 Ella Vernon Stetson, of East Pembroke, Mass., and 
 children as follows have been born to this marriage : 
 Arthur Vernon, Frank Lyman and Ruth Palmer. 
 The eldest son received his literary education in the 
 common and high schools, studied one year at the 
 Yale Law School, and is now on the staff of the 
 Evening Leader. He married Miss Charlotte Pal- 
 mer, of New Haven. Fiank L. is attending Shef- 
 field Scientific School, preparatory to taking up the 
 study of medicine. The daughter is being educated 
 at the National Park Seminary, Forest Glen, Mary- 
 land. 
 
 Mrs. Phillips heartily co-operates in her hus- 
 band's work, and is a manager of the Home for the 
 Friendless, and of the Young Woman's Christian 
 Association in New Haven. She is a member of the 
 Daughters of the American -Revolution, and her 
 family has a fine record for services in the Revolu- 
 tion. One of her ancestors. Cornet Robert Stetson, 
 a resident of Scituate, Mass., was active in Colonial 
 affairs in his locality and iwas a member of the 
 First Company, Governor's Guard. He owned a 
 large tract of land. Alexander Stetson, Mrs. Phill- 
 ips' father, was born on the original tract in Scituate, 
 and worked all his life as a mechanic and "box fit- 
 ter." He died at the age of eighty-four, the mother 
 at the age of seventy-three. They were identified 
 with the Methodist Church. Mrs. Phillips is also 
 descended from Gov. Thomas Prince, who served 
 as governor of Plymouth Colony from 1634 to 
 1638, and from 1657 to 1663, and assistant governor 
 from 1635 to 1657. 
 
 JOHN LINES, an ex-soldier of the Civil war, 
 and at present superintendent of the burner depart- 
 ment for the Scovill Manufacturing Co. at Water- 
 bury, was born in that town, then known as Naug- 
 atuck, Jan. 7, 1833. His father, Joseph W. Lines, 
 a farmer of Bethany, New Haven county, was one 
 of a large family of children, several of whose 
 names are still remembered, viz. : Lewis, Linas, Jos- 
 eph W., Nancy and Julia. Others went AA'est, and 
 their names are not now known. Lewis was a far- 
 mer in Bethany, where his death took place ; Linas 
 went to Illinois when young, and was a farmer ; 
 Julia was married to a Mr. Boughton, and went 
 AA'est ; Nancy first married a Mr. Sperry, and later 
 became the wife of John Gorham. 
 
 Joseph A\' Lines, father of our subject, was an 
 axmaker by trade and later became an adept at the 
 forge, at which he worked in Naugatuck, Spring 
 Mills, N. J., Farmington, Conn., and Berlin, this 
 State. At one time he was an overseer at the Con- 
 cord, N. PL, State prison. He married Lvdia Rus- 
 
 sell, daughter of Enoch Russell, a sawmiller of 
 Prospect, Conn., where her birth took place, and to 
 this marriage were born four children : Henry ; 
 Jane ; one that died in infancy, unnamed ; and John, 
 the subject of this sketch, who is the only one that 
 survived childhood. The father was first a Whig 
 politically, and later became a Republican. He 
 passed the declining years of his life in Naugatuck. 
 
 John Lines spent his boyhood in Waterbury, 
 in New Jersey and at Farmington, Conn. At the 
 proper age he was apprenticed to a machinist in 
 Bristol, Conn., thoroughly learned the trade, fol- 
 lowed it at New Haven for a time, and later with 
 the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co. at Wat- 
 ertown. Conn. He also worked in Waterbury, and 
 was there at the breaking out of the Civil war, when 
 he enlisted in Company C, 14th C. A'. I. He was 
 detailed as a musician, and served two years and 
 ten months. 
 
 After returning to Waterbury from his army 
 service Mr. Lines worked at his trade for various 
 employers until 1873, when he was given the su- 
 perintendency of a contract at Sing Sing, N. Y., 
 which occupied his attention one year. Returning 
 to Waterbury, he was employed there until 1881, 
 when he was placed in charge of a contract at 
 Cleveland, Ohio, which took another year of his 
 time. On his return, in 1882, he accepted his pres- 
 ent position with the Scovill Manufacturing Co., 
 which he has filled with the utmost satisfaction to 
 all concerned. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Lines married Miss Sarah J. Neale, 
 of Plainville, Conn., a daughter of Jeremiah Neale, 
 a native of the town. This union has been graced 
 with one child, Clarence W., who is in the employ 
 of the Scovill Manufacturing Co. Mr. Lines is a 
 stanch Republican in politics. He is a member of 
 the Grand Army of the Republic, and also belongs 
 to the Improved Order of Red Men. In religion he 
 is a Baptist. He is universally respected in the' 
 community for his integrity and steady-going habits. 
 
 HERBERT BARNES belongs to an old and 
 prominent Connecticut family, of which he is a 
 most worthy descendant. The first member of the 
 family in Connecticut was Thomas Barnes, who 
 arrived from England in 1^40, and located at East 
 ITaven, where he married. To this emigrant settler 
 and ancestor, and his wife Elizabeth, was born a 
 son, Thomas (2), whose birth occurred Aug. 26, 
 1653. This son married Mary Hubbard, June 26, 
 iC->75, and on her death wedded Abigail Frost. 
 
 Thomas Barnes (3), son of Thomas (2), was 
 born July 26, 1687, and married Mary Leek Alay 
 18, 1709, 
 
 Capt. Joshua Barnes, son of Thomas, was born 
 July Ti, 1722, and married Deborah Woodin Dec. 
 26, 1745. He won hi^ title in the Revolution, and 
 died June 7, 1790. She died in 1782. 
 
 Deacon Joshua Barnes, son of Capt. Joshua, was 
 born in 1756, and died Aug. 11, 1839. A patriot of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 447 
 
 the war of the Revohition, he first enhsted in June, 
 1776, in the company commanded by Capt. Jacob 
 Brockett. In 1779 he was a member of the "Alarm 
 List." In 1797, 1798 and 1799 he represented his 
 town in the General Assembly, and for fifteen 
 3'ears served as justice of the peace in North Ha- 
 ven. In 1800 he was chosen a deacon in Dr. 
 Trumbull's Church, and retained that position until 
 his death, on Aug. 11, 1839. His name appears on 
 the United States Pension Rolls of 1832. Deacon 
 Barnes was an extensive farmer in North Haven, 
 where he was also engaged in stone dealing. In 
 the community he exercised much influence, and 
 was highly esteemed for his many good qualities. 
 Feb. 15, 1781, he married Mercy Tuttle, who died 
 April I, 1828. They became the parents of six 
 children: (i) Joshua, born in 1781, died Nov. 25, 
 1886; (2) Frederick, born July 4, 1784; (3) Mary, 
 born Aug. 16, 1787, died at the age of four months ; 
 (4) Mary (2), born j\Iay 30, 1789, was married 
 in 181 1 to Andrew Pierpont, and died May 20, 
 1840; (5) Rebecca, born April 5, 1791, was mar- 
 ried in 1818, to Eleazer Warner; (6) Byard, born 
 in North Haven, Jan. 22, 1794. 
 
 Deacon Byard Barnes, youngest child of Deacon 
 Joshua and Mercy (Tuttle) Barnes, was a prom- 
 inent man of godly spirit. During the first half of 
 the century just closed he was one of the best 
 known and most highly honored citizens of North 
 Haven. Born near the close of the i8th century, 
 he early walked before his fellow men with such 
 sterling worth and manly piety that in 1824, when 
 only thirty years of age, he was chosen a deacon 
 in the church, and sustained such relations until his 
 death, Feb. 5, 1861, a period of thirty-seven years. 
 A devoted Christian and high-minded gentleman, 
 he died in the triumph of faith, leaving to his chil- 
 dren the legacy of a good name, and the memory 
 of a beautiful affection, and to all men the example 
 of an upright and just life. 
 
 Deacon Byard Barnes remained at home until 
 his marriage to Dede E. Gill, Nov. 6, 1816. Soon 
 after this he went to Ithaca, N. Y., where he was 
 engaged in farming some two years, then returned 
 to North Haven. A stone cutter by trade, he also 
 worked at cabinetmaking and blacksmithing very 
 successfully, becoming quite well-to-do. He filled 
 the office of justice of the peace for many years. 
 Bv his first marriage he had three children : _Vu- 
 gusta, born Aug. i, 1817; Dede G., born Oct. I, 
 1819; and Ellen A., born Feb. 15, 1822. Deacon 
 Barnes was married (second) Alareh 31, 1824, to 
 Cleora Lindsey, by whom he had the following 
 children: Andrew, born Feb. 3, 1825; Byard, Dec. 
 II, 1826; Celestia C, Aug. 10, 1828; ^larcus L., 
 Dec. 10, 1830; Eli H., July 20, 1832; Herbert, Feb. 
 4, 1834; Stewart, July 16, 1836; and Eli Henry (2), 
 Jan. 17, 1838. 
 
 Herbert Barnes, whose birth is noted in the 
 above family, is one of the most important factors 
 in the business life of Fair Haven, where his good 
 
 sense, sterling honesty and manifest ability have 
 won him success and the confidence of the public. 
 Mr. Barnes has had but little assistance from 
 friends or fortune in climbing the heights to which 
 he has attained. His enterprise, well-directed effort 
 and grim determination to win out, along with deal- 
 ings of the utmost honor, have contributed es- 
 pecially toward his prosperity, and he has arrived 
 at a period where he can look back over the years 
 and congratulate himself that so much has been 
 accomplished by his industry and character. 
 
 'Mr. Barnes was reared in North Haven, where 
 he attended the local schools, and remained at home 
 with his parents until his marriage, Jan. 28, 1858, 
 to Miss Elizabeth S. Dickerman. To them have 
 been born two children : Edward H. and Arthur 
 D. Edward H. was born Nov. i, i860, and on 
 June 20, 1883, married Lula R. Hemmingway. They 
 have two children — Herbert, born Jan. 8, 1884, and 
 Harold H., born Aug. 28, 1886. Edward H. 
 Barnes now takes his father's place in Strong, 
 Barnes, Hart & Co., and has proved himself a busi- 
 ness man. He has many fine traits of character, 
 and is greatly respected among all his associates. 
 (2) Arthur D., born Nov. 14, 1862, was married 
 Oct. II, 1899, to Anna May Stoner, and they have 
 one child, Elizabeth Sylvia, born July 17, 1900. He 
 is a manufacturer in Philadelphia, being a member 
 of the Murray, Barnes & Murray Co., manufac- 
 turers of chamois leather. He is very prosperous 
 and a capable business man. 
 
 Soon after his marriage Mr. Barnes located 
 where he is found at the present time, and where 
 he was successfully engaged in the wholesale 
 butcher and stock business until 1872. That year 
 he consolidated his business with that of Strong 
 & Hart, of New Haven, under the firm name of 
 Strong, Barnes, Hart & Co. They carry on a whole- 
 sale meat and cold storage business, and do the 
 most extensive business of any firm in New Ha- 
 ven. In 1887 Mr. Barnes became a heavy stock- 
 holder in the Swift Packing Co., of Chicago, and 
 holds a position io that organization as one of its di- 
 rectors. He has practically retired from active par- 
 ticipation in business afliairs, though his interest 
 has in no way abated. 
 
 Mr. Barnes is a member of the Congregational 
 Church, of Fair Haven. Socially he is a Royal 
 Arch Mason, having been associated with the fra- 
 ternity for about forty years. He is a Republican in 
 politics. His pleasant manner wins him many 
 friends, and he is one of the popular and honored 
 citizens of his community. 
 
 CHARLES AUGUST SCHMELZER, one of 
 the well-known and enterprising German-Ameri- 
 cans of ;\Ieriden, was born at W'erdau, Saxonv, Ger- 
 many, May 26, 1841, and is a descendant of a long 
 line of notable ancestors. 
 
 Gottlieb Schmelzer, his grandfather, was a na- 
 tive of the same town, which was the home of his 
 
448 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 family, and devoted his life to the manufacture 
 of woolen goods. A very successful man, he left 
 his family in good circumstances. 
 
 Charles August Schmelzer, Sr., son of Gottlieb 
 and fatiher of Charles August, was also born in 
 Werdau and followed his father's business. He 
 was very successful and died at the age of forty- 
 five years. Johanna Wetzel, his wife, was born 
 in Werdau, the daughter of August Wetzel. She 
 became the mother of ten children, eight of whom 
 died while young. Of this family Charles August 
 is the eldest, and the only survivor ; Bruno died in 
 1897, in his native town. ^Nlrs. Schmelzer died in 
 1896 in her native town. 
 
 Charles August Schmelzer had a good educa- 
 tion in his native town, and upon leaving school was 
 sent by his parents to an adjoining town to learn the 
 woolen manufacturing business, receiving only his 
 board for his four years' services. Returning home 
 on the death of his father, in company with an uncle, 
 he took charge of the manufacturing business, and 
 remained with him until he reached the age of 
 twenty-two 3fears. At that age he began business 
 for himself, which he continued seven years, when 
 he had to give it up, as the times had set in fatally 
 against his trade. Resolved to retrieve his mis- 
 fortunes, he brought his fainily to this country in 
 1871, landing in New York. He found employment 
 in the woolen mills, in Meriden, and remained 
 there for six months. At the end of that time he 
 worked in the screw factory of the Charles Parker 
 Co., six months, and after an absence of several 
 months in New York and Albany, came back to 
 Meriden in 1872, where he was again employed in 
 the screw factory of the Parker Company, and then 
 in the woolen mill. In 1879 the failure of the mill 
 compelled him to take a position as shipping clerk, 
 with the Malleable Iron Co., where he was busy for 
 a period of nine years. 
 
 In 1889 Mr. Schmelzer bought the coal and 
 wood business which was owned by George C. 
 Beadle, and this has been his vocation for the past 
 twelve years. In that time he has built up a very 
 successful business. In 1893 he bought the present 
 place, owned at that time by Walter Hubbard, where 
 he has superior accommodations. Here he has built 
 a coal pocket of ten departments, holding 2,000 tons 
 of coal, and made other improvements, which have 
 cost him over $20,000. In 1873 Mr. Schmelzer 
 started a news depot and stationery business, which 
 has proved very successful. In 1886 he began an 
 express business, which has greatly grown on his 
 hands. , In 1897 he began the manufacture of cigars, 
 which he carries on both as a wholesale and retail 
 enterprise; this has proved highly remunerative, 
 and gives employment to a number of men. Air, 
 Schmelzer has extensive real estate interests, and 
 is a hustling and energetic business man. 
 
 Mr. Schmelzer was married in Germany to 
 Flora Schoen, a daughter of Gottlieb Schoen, and a 
 native of Werdau. To this union were born ten 
 
 children, five of whom lived to maturity : Edmund, 
 who is in business with his father ; Oscar, wha 
 married a i\Iiss Maloy, and died in 1899; Victor, in 
 the drug business on East Main street ; Charles, who 
 lives in Germany with an uncle ; and Emma, wh& 
 graduated from the high school, and also from the 
 li:'oung Ladies' Institute at Hoboken, New Jersey. 
 In 1875 Mr. Schmelzer secured the agenc)' of 
 the North German Lloyd & Hamburg S. S. Line,, 
 which he still holds. In local affairs he is some- 
 what prominent, and for six years represented the 
 Fifth Ward in the city council. In politics he is a 
 Democrat, but takes a very independent stand. In 
 matters of education he takes a deep interest, and 
 is one of the organizers of the German-American 
 School. Mr. Schmelzer was one of the organizers 
 of the Board of Trade, and his connection with it 
 has been very prominent and highly useful. He 
 has taken a broad view of the commercial interests 
 of Meriden, and a letter of his dated Jan. 18, 1897,. 
 and addressed to the directors of the board, was 
 replete with useful information and valuable sug- 
 gestions. It was attended with much discussion,, 
 and produced valuable results. Socially he- belongs- 
 to Teutonic Lodge, No. 95, I. O. O. F., the D. O. 
 H., and the Cosmopolitan Club. He also belongs 
 to the Saengerbund, and was four years treasurer of 
 the Turnverein. The family attends Emanuel 
 Evangelical Lutheran Church. 
 
 DR. CALVIN L. ELY, a retired dentist of 
 Branford, was born in Cheshire, New Haven Co.,. 
 Conn., Nov. 7, 1828, a son of Calvin and Nancy 
 Ely (Alford) Ely, both natives of Harwinton, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Jacob Ely, the grandfather of Calvin L., was 
 born in Old Lyme, New London Co., Conn. He- 
 served in two different regiments during the war 
 of the Revolution, holding rank as a sergeant, tak- 
 ing part in the battle of Bunker Hill and in other- 
 important engagements. Five of his brothers,. 
 John, Benjamin, Gad, Andrew and Seth, also took 
 part in the war, Andrew Ely being killed in a 
 skirmish at King's Bridge, New York. Afteip the 
 struggle, Jacob Ely settled in Harwinton, where 
 he carried on farming, and for twenty-eight years, 
 taught school in his own house. He died in 1836. 
 He was twice married, and his first wife. Tem- 
 perance Tiffany, bore him three children : Eli, 
 Aaron and Temperance (who married Samuel Os- 
 borne). For his second wife he married Lois 
 Beebe, daughter of David and Sarah (Lord) Bee- 
 be, of Lyme, and by this union had seven children : 
 Calvin, Clark, Seth, Benjamin, Gad, Seabury and 
 Jacob. The family were all well educated, and sev- 
 eral members became well known in their various, 
 lines. Aaron was one of the co-mpilers of the orig- 
 inal Webster's dictionary; he was assisted by his. 
 brother Calvin, father of Dr. Calvin Ely. Gad Ely, 
 who died in Philadelphia in 1837, aged thirtv- 
 nine, was noted for his penmanship, of -which our 
 
CALYIH L. ELY. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 449 
 
 subject has several fine specimens; and he taught 
 ornamental penmanship in this country and Eu- 
 rope. He was married, but left no children. Seth 
 Ely was a composer of sacred music, and he died 
 unm;arried at the age of forty. Benjamin Ely, 
 who was a teacher of vocal music, died young. 
 Clark Ely died in Pittsburg, Penn., leaving one 
 child, now Mrs. John Getty, of Pittsburg. Sea- 
 bury Ely died on Long Island, leaving a large 
 family. 
 
 The paternal great-grandmother of Dr. Ely was 
 Dorcas (Andrews) Ely, a daughter of an old fam- 
 ily. James Ely was the son of William, who was 
 a son of William, who was a son of Richard Ely, 
 the ancestor of the family in this country, who 
 came from Plymouth, England, in 1660, and was 
 among the first settlers of Lyme. His wife was 
 a sister of Lord FenwUck. 
 
 Calvin Ely, son of Jacob, and the father of 
 Calvin L., was reared in Harwinton. He was a 
 farmer and teacher in early life, teaching school in 
 the States of New York and Pennsylvania. His 
 last years were spent in Naugatuck, Conn., where 
 he died in 1868. He left two children, Calvin L. 
 and Griswold S., twins. Griswold S. went to 
 California, where he died in 1896. 
 
 Calvin L. Ely was reared and educated in 
 Cheshire, Conn., and locating in Branford in 1849, 
 began the study of dentistry in 1851. Three years 
 later he opened an office for the practice of his 
 profession in New Haven, where he continued un- 
 til 1862, when he recruited Company B, 27th 
 Conn. V. L, and went to the front as its captain. 
 He entered the service Aug. 19, 1862, and took 
 part in many of the bloodiest battles of the war, 
 particularly at Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. 
 He was never wounded or captured. Mustered out 
 July 28, 1863, he returned to the practice of his 
 profession in New Haven. Dr. Ely organized the 
 first cornet band in the town of Branford, and was 
 organist in the Baptist Church of that place for 
 over twenty years. In 1890 he gave up active work, 
 and is now living retired. 
 
 On June 5, 1850, in the Baptist Church of 
 Branford, Dr. Ely married Sarah Beers, only 
 child of Lester and Mary (Stedman) Beers. Her 
 father died when forty-three years of age, and 
 his widow afterwards married James Linsley. 
 She died in 1900 at the advanced age of eighty- 
 nine years, six months. Mrs. Ely comes from an 
 old and noted family. James Beers of North 
 Guilford, was her grandfather, and his father, 
 James Beers, of Middletown, was a son of James 
 Beers, of Stratford, both being soldiers in the Rev- 
 olutionary war. Benjamiin Stedman, father of 
 Mary, named afcove, was born in Newbern, N. 
 C, was a sea captain, and met his death at sea. 
 Polly Linsley, his wife, was a daughter of Samuel 
 Linsley, of Branford, whose wife was a Wheaton. 
 Mrs. Ely's great-grandmother, Sila Foote, was a 
 native of Connecticut, and went to Newbern, N. 
 
 C, to teach school; she was also a music teacher. 
 There she married Benjamin Stedman, and their 
 son Benjamin, previously mentioned, was the ma- 
 ternal grandfather of Mrs. Ely. Rew Hopson, 
 great-grandfather of Airs. Ely, was a sergeant in 
 tht Revolutionary war; his wife was Sarah Tib- 
 bals, of Haddam. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Ely 'have four children: (i) 
 Frances Anna married Benjamin E. Goodrich, 
 owner of the Indian Neck Hotel at Branford, and 
 had one daughter, Mabel Ely Goodrich. After his 
 death, she became the wife of Charles K. Gorham. 
 (2) Adrian Griswold married Elvira Averill, and 
 has three children : Esther E., John Calvin and 
 Leila May. One child, Adrain Fenwick, died in 
 infancy. (3) Hattie Alford, a graduate of the 
 Branford High School, was a teacher in the gram- 
 mar school, teacher of music in several depart- 
 ments, and instructor of German in the High 
 School ; she is now an official court stenographer 
 in New Haven, Conn., and is a notary public, and 
 as such acts in many important hearings. (4) Lot- 
 tie M. married Charles Beers, and has four chil- 
 dren living, Maud Beatrice, Hazel Ely, Maida Re- 
 becca and Irma Elizabeth. Two, Charles Harold 
 and Violet, are deceased. On June 5, 1900, the 
 Doctor and his wife celebrated their golden wed- 
 ding. About four hundred guests were present, 
 and the occasion was a very enjoyable one. Dr. 
 Ely is a member of the Widow's Son Lodge, No. 
 66, F. & A. M. He is of irreproachable habits, 
 and is widely known as a man of the finest char- 
 acter. The first commander of Mason Rogers Post, 
 No. 7, G. A. R., he has ever taken a deep interest im 
 the prosperity of that order. In politics he is a 
 stanch Republican. 
 
 While abroad this summer, Miss Hattie Alford 
 Ely visited Winchester, England, the ancestral home- 
 of the Ely family, where the genealogy dates back 
 to before the discovery of America. One of the an- 
 cestors, John Ely, was Warden of the Palace of 
 the Bishops of Winchester in 1540. The office 
 of Warden was one of great dignity and im- 
 portance, ranking next to that dignitary, the 
 Bishop. A member of the family who died recent- 
 ly in England, in the town of Ely, was John Ely, 
 Lord Bishop of the Diocese of Ely. 
 
 TUTTLE. The Tuttle family, of whom the 
 late Joel Tuttle, general merchant, Guilford, was 
 an honored member, is an old settled one in New 
 Haven county. 
 
 (I) William* Tuttle, the first of that name in 
 this country, emigrated with his wife Elizabeth, 
 from England in the "Planter," and was among- 
 the earliest settlers on Stony creek, in East Haven, 
 about the year 1635. At the time of sailing his age 
 was given as twenty-six. He was a man of cour- 
 age, enterprise, intelligence, probity and piety, 
 and was the equal socially of any of the colonists.. 
 His wife died in 1684. We have the following rec- 
 
450 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ord of his children : Thomas, Jonathan, Sarah, 
 Joseph, Simon and Nathaniel. Of these, 
 
 (II) Joseph Tuttle, baptized 'in 1640, in New 
 Haven, married, in 1667, Hannah Munson, daugh- 
 ter of Capt. Thomas ^lunson. Joseph Tuttle died, 
 m 1690, and his widow mlarried Nathan Bradley. 
 He left the following children : Joseph, born 
 March 18, 1668 (mentioned below) ; Samuel, July 
 15, 1670; Stephen, May 20, 1673; Joanna; Tim- 
 othy, September, 1676; Susanna, Feb. 20, 1679; 
 Elizabeth, July 12, 1683; Hannah, May, 1685 (who 
 died young) ; and Hannah (2). 
 
 (III) Joseph Tuttle married in Milford, Conn., 
 Xov. 10, 1691, Elizabeth Sanford, and had chil- 
 dren : Joseph, born Nov. 10, 1692, who died in 
 1761 (mentioned below) ; Noah, born Oct. 12, 
 1694; Catherine; Elizabeth, born July 27, 1705; 
 and Thankful, born Sept. 3, 1709. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Tuttle was captain of a train-band 
 in East Haven and was C[uartermaster of troops 
 in the Second Regiment in 1742. He was several 
 times elected moderator, and was at various times 
 school committeeman. He married Mercy Thomp- 
 son, daughter of John and Mercy Thompson, of 
 East Haven. She died in 1761, leaving seven chil- 
 dren : Joel, born Oct. 28, 1718, who is mentioned 
 below ; Mary, born Dec. 22, 1720, who married 
 John Heminway ; Anne ( or Anna ) ( i ) , born in 
 1726; Mercy, born Sept. 17, 1730, who married, in 
 1746, Abraham Heminway; Comfort, born in 1732; 
 Joseph, born in 1734; and Samuel, born in 1741. 
 Joseph Tuttle married (second) Mrs. Sarah Wash- 
 burn, a widow, and by her had three children : 
 Joseph, Anne (or Anna) (2), and Benjamin. 
 
 (V) Joel Tuttle married, in 1743, Rebecca 
 Rowe, who was born in East Haven in 1713, a 
 aaughter of Matthew and Rebecca (Mix) Rowe, 
 and they had eight children : Stephen, born in 
 1744; Joel, born in East Haven, Conn., Aug. 21, 
 1746; David, born Sept. 29, 1749; Abraham, born 
 Nov. 17, 1750; Mercy, born in April, 1752, who in 
 1781 married Joshua Barnes; Rebecca, born Dec. 
 20, 1755, who in 1781 married Joseph Bracket; 
 Christopher, born Sept. 26, 1759; and Mary A., 
 born April 11, 1764. 
 
 (VI) Joel Tuttle, son of Joel, about the begin- 
 ning of the Revolution moved to Guilford. He was 
 twice married, on Jan. 6, 1774, to Anna Woodward, 
 who was born in East Haven Nov. 30, 1749, daugh- 
 ter of John and Mary Woodward. She died in 
 October, 1775, in Guilford, without issue, and for 
 his second wife Joel Tuttle wedded, in Guilford, 
 (Jet. 15, 1778, Elizabeth Fowler, a native of Guil- 
 ford. They had seven children : Sarah, born July 
 12, 1779; Elizabeth and Anna (twins), Alarch 11, 
 1782; Rebecca, Feb. 22, 1785; Polly, Sept. 6, 1787; 
 Julia, June 8, 1790; and Joel, the only son, a sketch 
 of whom immediately follows. The father of these 
 died No\'. 30, '['!<22, the mother, who belonged to 
 one of (iuilford's nidest families, passing away 
 Sf'iJt. 26, 1842, aged over ninety-one }'ears. 
 
 (VII) Joel Tuttle, born 'in Guilford, May 8, 
 1792, died May i, 1855. He received only a lim- 
 ited common-school education in his native town, 
 but in his later years was a great reader and dili- 
 gent student, and became remarkably well edu- 
 cated by his own efforts. He early showed an in- 
 clination for business pursuits, and he was trained 
 for mercantile trade, which he successfully fol- 
 lowed until 1850. His store was on Broad street, 
 west of the new residence which he occupied as a 
 homestead in the latter days of his life. He was 
 very energetic and industrious, prospering in his 
 affairs, and became one of the leading business men 
 of his part of the country. The care of a farm also 
 received his attention, and he was much interested 
 in the construction of the Shore Line Railroad. 
 He had a clear judgment and his integrity was un- 
 sullied. Hence his advice on business matters was 
 often sought, and nmny safely rested on his coun- 
 sels. He manifested a warm interest in the affairs 
 of the town, and his fellow townsmen showed their 
 appreciation of his worth by electing him to various 
 positions of honor and trust. He was a judge of 
 the probate court, and served as a representative 
 from Guilford in the State Legislature. Although 
 not a member of any Christian church, he lived a 
 life of the strictest morality, and. was esteemed as 
 a just and upright man. 
 
 Joel Tuttle was married April 25, 1851, to Lucy 
 E., daughter of Isaac and Harriet Sage, of Crom- 
 well, Conn., and two children came to them: Joel 
 Edward, born March 8, 1852, died Aug. 29, same 
 year. William Sage, born Dec. 28, 1853, died July 
 27, 1867. He was a youth of unusual promise, and 
 his intellectual development was, for one of his 
 years, unusual. His mother fitly perpetuated his 
 memory by giving Olivet (Mich.) College a memor- 
 ial library fund of $15,000. Mrs. Tuttle was a 
 woman of many excellent qualities, and, like her 
 husband, was much esteemed in this community. 
 The Tuttle homestead is now occupied by her sis- 
 ter, Miss Clarissa I. Sage. 
 
 Sage. The Sage family, of which Miss Clar- 
 issa I. Sage lis a member, is an old and highly hon- 
 orable one of Connecticut, and is of Welsh origin. 
 
 (I) David Sage, the first of the name in Con- 
 necticut, was born in 1639 in Wales, at an early 
 age coming to America, and about 1652 settling in 
 Middletown, Middlesex Co., Conn., where he 
 passed the rest of his days, dying in 1703; his re- 
 mains were interred in what is now known as River- 
 side cemetery, where the stone marking his grave 
 ib still to be seen. In February, 1664, he married 
 Elizabeth Kirby, daughter of John Kirby, and by 
 her had four children : David, born in 1665 ; John, 
 born in 1668, who married Hannah Starr; Eliza- 
 beth, born in 1670 ; and Mary, born in 1672. In 
 1673 David Sage married for his second wife Mary 
 AVilcox, by whom he also had four children: 
 Jonathan, born in 1674; Timothy, born in 1678; 
 Nathaniel ; and Marcy, born in 1680. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 451 
 
 (II) Timothy Sage, born in Middletown in 
 1678, was a landowner and farmer in Cromwell, 
 ^liddlesex county, dying there in J725, and the 
 ^■ravestone still marks his resting place in the old 
 cemetery of that town. He married Margaret Hol- 
 bert, of Cromwell, and by her had seven children : 
 Samuel, born in 1709; Timothy, born in 1714, who 
 married Mary Warner, and resided in Cromwell; 
 Mercv, born in 1712; Mary, born in 1716; David, 
 bom in 1718, who married Sarah Stockings, and 
 resided in Portland, Conn, (he was a deacon in the 
 church) ; Solomon, born in 1720, who married 
 Hannah Kirby (he was a deacon in the church) ; 
 and Amos, born in 1722. Of these, 
 
 (III) Deacon Amos Sage was born in Crom- 
 well, and spent his entire life there, dying in 1759. 
 He married Rebecca Willcox, and they had a fam- 
 ily of eight children: Amos, born in 1747, mar- 
 ried Mary Lewis, and resided in Cromwell; Will- 
 iam was born in 1748; Hezekiah, born lin 1750, re- 
 sided in Salem, Mass.; Nathan, born in 1752, mar- 
 ried Huldah Ranney, and resided in Crom^vell ; 
 Rebecca, born in 1754, married a Mr. Riley; Elisha, 
 born in 1755, married Martha Montague, and re- 
 sided in Cromwell; Abigail, born in 1756, married 
 a Air. Swift; Submit, born in 1759, married a Mr. 
 AVillitts. 
 
 (IV) William Sage was bom in 1748 in the 
 town of Cromwell, and was there reared and edu- 
 cated. Fired with patriotism at the outbreak of the 
 Revolutionary war, he left family and business and 
 enlisted in the army of patriots. As captain he 
 participated in the battle of Bunker Hill, and was 
 present at other places in this State when the citi- 
 zens were called up>on to resist invasion by the 
 enemy. He died in 1831, the community thereby 
 losing a good, upright citizen, one of the m'ost 
 highly respected in the county. H,is remains re- 
 pose in the old cemetery. William; Sage married 
 Bathsheba HoUister, and they had fourteen chil- 
 dren: William, born 'in 1768, married Elizabeth 
 Cook and resided in Middletown ; Betty, born in 
 1769, married G. Butler; Josiah (known as "Colo- 
 nel"), born in 1770, married Sarah Savage, and 
 resided in Cromwell ; George, born in 1772, mar- 
 ried Harriet Edwards and resided' in Cromwell, 
 Conn, (he died dn 1808) ; Roswell, born in 1778, 
 died young; Sally, born in 1780, married a Mr. 
 Deming; Levi, born in 1782, died young; Roswell, 
 born in 1784, died young; Clarissa, born in 1785, 
 married J. Butler ; Isaac, sketch of whom follows ; 
 Nathan was born in 1788; Orrin, born in 1791, 
 died in 1875; Sophy, born dn 1794, died aged fifty; 
 and Susan, bom in 1795, married a Mr. White. 
 
 (A') Isaac Sage, father of the late Mrs. Joel 
 Tuttle and Miss Clarissa I. Sage, of Guilford, was 
 born in 1786 in the town of Crom'well, Middlesex 
 Co., Conn., and received a liberal education. 
 Learning the trade of carpenter and joiner, he fol- 
 lowed same all his life; and in connection was a 
 contractor and builder in both Middletown and 
 
 Cromwell. He was a very domestic and temperate 
 man in his habits, for many years a deacon in the 
 Congregational Church of Cromwell, and was 
 widely known and universally respected. 
 
 In 181 2 Isaac Sage married Harriet Sage, who. 
 was born in 1791, a daughter of Lemuel and Lois 
 (Savage) Sage, and granddaughter of Lewis S. 
 and Deborah (Ramey) Sage, of Cromwell. To 
 this union came eight children, all daughters: 
 Lucy E., born in 1814, married Joel Tuttle, and 
 both are now deceased. Harriet Maria, born in 
 1817, married Annis Merrill, an attorney at law of 
 Boston, Mass., and they reside in San Francisco. 
 Miss Bathsheba, born in 1818, lives in Cromwell. 
 Jane E. married Rev. Edgar Doolittle. Mary Ann 
 died young. M'iss Clarissa I., a lady of cukure and 
 refinement, most highly respected, has traveled 
 over both the American and European continents; 
 she has a beautiful home in Guilford. Almira is 
 the deceased wife of Rev. William Corning. Ade-' 
 laide died in childhood. The mother of this fam- 
 'ily was called from earth in 1868. She was a mem- 
 ber of the Congregational Church, and beloved by 
 all who knew her. 
 
 THEODORE D. L. MANVILLE, for many 
 years Clerk of the City Court and former Super- 
 intendent of Charities of Ansonia, is one of the 
 leading citizens of that place, and his biography 
 will be read with more than ordinary interest. 
 
 Mr. Manville was born Jan. 13, 1843, in Middle- 
 bury, New Haven county, and is descended from 
 good French Huguenot stock, the family in this 
 country being traced to three brothers who came 
 from France at an early day and settled in Con- 
 necticut. Uri Manville, our subject's grandfather, 
 was born in Middlebury and passed his life there 
 in agricultural pursuits, his death occurring at the 
 age of seventy-two. He was prominent in local 
 affairs, holding* various township offices, and was 
 extremely popular in the community, being famil- 
 iarly called "Uncle Uri" by young and old. His 
 wife, Betsey Strong, a native of Southbury, died 
 Vv'hen eighty years of age. Both were connected 
 with the Congregational Church. Their familv 
 consisted of two daughters and five sons, none of 
 whom are now living. 
 
 William Manville, our subject's father, was 
 born in Middlebury, and during his active years 
 followed the carpenter's trade there and at Wood- 
 bridge. He died at the age of forty-two years, and 
 was buried 'at Aliddlebury. His wife, Maria C. 
 Lord, was born in Woodbridge, the daughter of 
 Ransom and Chloe Lord. She survived hiuT; mar- 
 ried for her second husband Henry Richardson, a 
 resident of Woodbridge, and died aged seventy- 
 lour years. Throughout her life she was a consist- 
 ent member of the Congregational Church in 
 Woodbridge. She had six children by her first 
 marriage and one by her second, and four of the 
 former are nov/ living: (i) Uri D. is a dealer in 
 
452 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sewing machines and pianos in New Haven. (2) 
 Harvey W. is superintendent of the yard work at 
 the Farrell Foundry and Macliine Co., in Ansonia. 
 
 (3) Theodore D. L. was next in the order of birth. 
 
 (4) Albert P., a commercial traveler, resides in 
 New Haven. Jane A., a daughter by her second 
 marriage, married Edgar C. Squires, and resides in 
 Fair Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 Theodore D. L. IManville's boyhood was spent 
 in Middlebury, and as he was but six years old 
 when his father died, he made his home with his 
 grandfather, Uri Alanville. He received a com- 
 mon-school education, and when he was twenty- 
 one years of age entered the employ of the Ameri- 
 can Fish Hook and Xeedle Co., of New Haven, re- 
 maining with them two years. He then removed 
 to Middlebury, Conn., and for the next fixe years 
 he worked in a woolen factory there, owned by his 
 father-in-law. On removing to Ansonia, in 1870, 
 he engaged in business as a shoe dealer, and two 
 years later took a position in the case department 
 of the Ansonia Clock Co., was there some two 
 years, and was then with the Farrell Foundry and 
 Machine Co., in the wheat roll department, under 
 Charles Moore, then superintendent, until 1893. 
 In the latter year he was appointed Superintendent 
 of Charities, but a change of administration caused 
 his retirement in December, 1895. On Jan. i, 1896, 
 he was appointed Clerk of the Citv Court for one 
 year, and in July, 1897, he was again appointed to 
 serve until July, 1899. He still holds the position 
 by appointment. In December, 1897, Mr. Man- 
 ville was re-appointed Superintendent of Charities, 
 and was retained in that incumbency until Jan. i, 
 1900, discharging the duties with marked efficiency, 
 the books and accounts being kept by him person- 
 ally. In November, 1900, he was elected a member 
 of the Lower House of the State Legislature, and 
 was chairman of the Committee on Labor. He 
 affiliates with the Republican party, and has always 
 been active in politics, serving as chairman of ward 
 committee, member of town committee, registrar of 
 voters, and in other offices. 
 
 On Oct. II, 1864, Mr. Manville married Miss 
 Sarah E. Dews, a native of England, and daughter 
 of George and Ann Dews. She died aged twenty- 
 six years, and he later married Miss Ella J. Wood- 
 in, of Chelsea, Mich., who was born in Seymour, 
 Conn., daughter of Aner F. Woodin, a carpenter ; 
 the latter married Delight Bronson, a sister of Dea- 
 con Orin H. Bronson, a leading lumber dealer of 
 Waterbury. By his first marriage our subject had 
 Iv/o sons: (i) Charles H., who has been for some 
 years employed as an electrician with the Rubber 
 Glove Co., of Naugatuck, married I\Iargaret 
 Lasher, and has two children, Eleanor M. and 
 Charles Theodore. (2) Edwin A., superintendent 
 of the Ansonia Electrical Co., married Miss Hat- 
 tie S. Judson, and has two daughters, Ethel May 
 and Elizabeth. By the second marriage our subject 
 has two children : ?\Iiss Sadie E., a talented young- 
 
 lady, who is assistant city clerk ; and A. Theodora, 
 a pupil in the high school. The family is actively 
 interested in the work of the Methodist Church and 
 Sunday-school, ^[r. Alanville is also prominent in 
 various fraternal orders, notably the I. O. O. F., 
 belonging to Naugatuck Lodge, No. 63, with which 
 lie united March 18, 1874, and to Hope Encamp- 
 ment, No, 26 ; he has passed the chairs in both the 
 societies. He also passed the chairs of the Grand 
 Encampment of the State, having been Grand 
 I'atriarch in 1893-94, and was sent as a representa- 
 tive at Atlantic City, N. J., to the Sovereign Grand 
 Lodge, in 1895, and in 1896 to Dallas, Texas. In 
 1898 he visited the Boston session of the Sovereign 
 Grand Lodge. In 1899 the fiftieth anniversary of 
 the lodge was celebrated, Mr. Manville being one 
 of the oldest members present. He also holds, 
 membership in Sylvan Lodge, No. 5, Daughters of 
 Rebekah, at Se)rmour. Mr. Manville has passed 
 the chairs in Friendship Lodge, No. 34, A. O. U. 
 W ., of which he was a charter member, and in the 
 Order of Red Men, at Ansonia, being past sachem^ 
 of Wepawong Tribe, No. 7 (since dissolved). He 
 lielped to organize the Ancient Essenic Order in 
 Ansonia some years ago, but it has also been dis- 
 solved. 
 
 THOMAS ELMES (deceased) was for many 
 years identified with the commercial and municipal 
 growth and prosperity of Derby, of which city his 
 widow is still an esteemed resident. His father, whO' 
 was also' named Thomas, was one of three brothers 
 — the others being Abner and Lazelle — who emi- 
 grated from Old to New England. Thomas Elmes, 
 Sr., married Lydia Coles, and shortly after their 
 union the young pair took up their residence in 
 Philadelphia. They were the parents of ten chil- 
 dren: Lydia, Phoebe, Maria, Thomas, Mary, An- 
 gelina, David B., Henry M., Fannie and an un- 
 christened infant. Of this numerous progeny only 
 one daughter Fannie, is yet living, residing in Phila- 
 delphia. Phoebe died there recently. 
 
 Thomas Elmes was born in that city Aug. 23, 
 1818. His school days over, he became associated 
 with his father, then a dealer in hats, caps and furs, 
 and at the age of twenty-seven left the city of his 
 birth to become a resident and. merchant of Quincy, 
 111. Previous to that emigration, however, on June 
 19, 1839, he had married Lucy R. Atwater, concern- 
 ing whose ancestry more will be said in a succeeding- 
 paragraph. His wife accompanied him to Illinois, 
 but their Western experience was not of a sort to 
 induce them to make their permanent home in the 
 "Prairie State," and in 1848 they returned East, 
 finally taking a residence in Bimiingham, Conn.' 
 where Mr. Elmes died, Nov. 15, 1880. Even in 
 boyhood he displayed mechanical ability of no com- 
 mon order and on his settling in Birmingham wa.s 
 made superintendent of the Birmingham Iron and 
 Steel Works, in which his father-in-law, Mr. Charles 
 Atwater, was a large stock holder. He continued 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 453 
 
 ±0 discharge the arduous duties of this responsible 
 position with marked ability and fidelity until 1876, 
 when failing health compelled him to retire to pri- 
 vate life. 
 
 Mr. Elmes was a stanch Democrat, and stood 
 high in the councils of his party. For many years 
 lie was an influential member of the State Central 
 Committee. In 1871-72 he represented the Fifth 
 District in the State Senate, and in 1875-76 was the 
 chosen delegate from Derby to the Lower House. 
 In both positions he brought to bear upon the dis- 
 charge of his official duties native shrewdness and 
 well developed executive ability. In 1876 he was a 
 delegate, from the New Haven district, to the Na- 
 tional Convention which nominated Tilden and Hen- 
 jdricks. From what has been said, Mr. Elmes' pop- 
 -ularity may be inferred. It may be said to have 
 been attributable to his unfailing courtesy, his faith- 
 fulness as a friend, and his worth as a man. His 
 death was deeply mourned by citizens of Derby, 
 ■without distinction of political or religious creed. 
 IHe was a Mason of high degree, a Knight Templar 
 and an Odd Fellow, being a member of King Hiram 
 iodge, of Birmingham, the New Haven Command- 
 ^ry, and Housatonic Lodge, I. O. O. F. 
 
 Mrs. Elmes can trace her English ancestry back 
 j:o the days of Charlemagne. Her maiden name, 
 Atwater, is a corruption, through Attwater, from 
 •Outwater. She is the great-great-great-grand- 
 daughter of David Atwater, who was born in Eng- 
 land in 1 61 5. From him the line of descent runs 
 through Ebenezer, James and Timothy to Charles, 
 -Mrs. Elmes' father. Timothy Atwater, her grand- 
 father, was born in 1749, and was the owner of a 
 Jarge farm, which is now the site of a very consider- 
 able portion of the city of New Haven, including 
 York Square. He was a gentleman-farmer, fond of 
 hooks, and a man of ability and education. He 
 ■died in 1824. He married Susan Macomber, a 
 lady of Scotch descent, who was according to extant 
 tradition, the greatest beauty in New Haven. Nine 
 ■children were born to them of whom Charles, Mrs. 
 .Elmes' father, was the seventh. The others, in the 
 ■order of their birth, were Susan, Sarah, Harriet, 
 Julia, Jeanette, James, Robert and Henry. 
 
 Charles Atwater was born in New Haven, where 
 after reaching manhood, he engaged in the dry- 
 goods business with Joel Root, his father-in-law, in 
 which he continued for nearly eighteen years. He 
 was eminently successful, and little by little became 
 interested in banking in both New Haven and New 
 York, and was made president of the Mechanics' 
 Bank of the latter city. He was also the founder 
 ■of the Birmingham Iron and Steel Works of Derby, 
 investing about $300,000 in the plant, and acting as 
 president and manager of the company from the 
 time of its organization until his death. He owed 
 his influence not so much to his wealth as to his gen- 
 erous nature and his moral worth. In politics he 
 was first a Whig and afterward a Republican ; his 
 Teligious belief was that of the Congregational 
 
 Church, of which he was a devoted member and to 
 which he was a liberal contributor. He married 
 Miss Lucy Root, who was born in Southington, 
 Conn., a daughter of Joel Root, who traced his line- 
 age back, through five generations, to John Root, 
 who was born in 1608. A distinctively martial spirit 
 has characterized the family since their emigration 
 from England, which was chiefly due to a refusal to 
 serve in the army of "Old Ironsides." Stephen, the 
 son of John Root, the American progenitor of the 
 family, was a man of extraordinary stature and 
 phenomenal physical strength. He stood six feet 
 six inches in his stockings. In athletic sports — 
 wrestling, boxing and running — he was especially 
 expert, frequently "outclassing" the fleetest Indian 
 runners. Timothy, Stephen's son, was the great- 
 great-grandfather of Mrs. Elmes' mother. Timothy 
 (born in 1681) was the%on of Stephen and father of 
 Jonathan. The next Root in the descending line 
 was Elisha, the maternal great-grandfather of Mrs. 
 Elmes, he was a soldier in the Revolutionary army, 
 and was stationed in New York, dying at East 
 Chester, on his way home. Joel Root, the maternal 
 grandfather of Mrs. Elmes followed a sea-faring 
 life in his youth, but later became a dry-goods mer- 
 chant. He was originally a resident of Southing- 
 ton, but subsequently removed to New Haven. Mrs. 
 Elmes, as has been said, survives her husband and 
 is esteemed in Derby for those traits which, when 
 happily combined, go to make up the estimable 
 woman and valued citizen. 
 
 WILLIAM DAGGETT BRYAN was in his 
 day a well-known merchant tailor and prominent 
 citizen of New Haven, where his widow still re- 
 sides, at No. 198 Crown street. 
 
 Mr. Bryan was born May 13, 1819, in New 
 Haven, son of Oliver Bryan and grandson of Major 
 Oliver Bryan, who died in Milford, this county. 
 Oliver Br\-an, father of our subject, was born in 
 Milford, and, coming to New Haven, engaged in 
 the merchant tailoring business, which he followed 
 until his death, at the age of sixty-nine years. He 
 prospered, a^nd did much toward the improvement 
 of his section of the city, erecting several houses, 
 among them the one in which the widow of his son 
 William D. now resides, which was built about 
 1840. He also put up the buildings at Nos. 200-202^ 
 and No. 210 Crown street, and that at Nos. 194- 
 196, occupied by the Young Men's Republican 
 Club. Oliver Br3'an married Phoebe Gorham, a 
 native of New Haven, who died at the age of sixty- 
 seven years, and six children blessed their unaon,^ 
 only two of whom, Oliver and Stephen G., sur- 
 vive. The former is a real-estate broker in New 
 York City, where he resides. Stephen G. is a com- 
 mercial traveler, with office in Boston. Another 
 one of the sons, Benjamin Sherman Bryan, went 
 to California with the "forty-niners," and remained 
 in the State a number of years, keeping a hotel. 
 He returned East, and died in Saybrook, Conn., at 
 
454 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the age of fifty. On Nov. i6, 1868, he married 
 iviiss 1\I. Louise Hayden, a native of Essex, Conn., 
 and they had one son, Oliver, now making liis 
 home in New York City, who married Bessie Ida 
 Gitt, of Xew Oxford, Penn. JMrs. M. Louise 
 (Hayden) .Bryan resides with tlie widow of her 
 husband's brother William, Mrs. Mary M. Bryan, 
 in the city of New Haven. 
 
 William D. Bryan learned the merchant tailor- 
 ing business with bis father, and after the latter's 
 death carried on the establishment successfully on 
 his own account until his death, which occurred 
 June I, 1884. Mr. Bryan was a man of the strict- 
 est integrity in all his transactions, esteemed wher- 
 ever he went, and socially was one of the most 
 genial and companionable of men, winning numer- 
 ous friends by his amiable disposition and engaging 
 manners. He was a member of the Quinnipiac 
 Club, the New Haven Grays, Connecticut Volun- 
 teer Militia, the I. O. O. F and the Alasonic fra- 
 ternity, 'in which latter he reached the thirty-sec- 
 ond degree, affiliating with Wooster Lodge, F & 
 A. M., the Council, Chapter and Commandery. 
 His political support was given to the Republican 
 party, and he was a stanch friend of Gov. English. 
 Mr. Bryan was a member of the Episcopal Church, 
 attending first at St. Thomas, later at Trinity. 
 
 On Sept. I, 1852, Mr. Bryan was 'united in mar- 
 riage with i\Iary Miles Brown, a native of New 
 Haven, who survives him. All the children born 
 of this union are deceased. 
 
 Jacob Brown, father of ^Irs. Bryan, was born 
 in New Haven, son of Walter Brown, a sea cap- 
 tain, who made his home in that city. Jacob Brown 
 carried on a grocery store in Chapel street until his 
 death, at the early age of thirty-three years. He 
 married Henrietta iNLles, also a native of New Ha- 
 ven, and three children were born to them, of 
 whom Mary Allies, Mrs. Bryan, is the only sur- 
 vivor. The others were Henrietta and Sarah. 
 Mrs. Brown died at the age of thirty. Her father, 
 Capt. John Miles, served in the Revolutionary war, 
 and lived to the age of eighty-one. By calling he 
 was a sea captain, and his vessel was once captured 
 by the French, and Mrs. Bryan's claim against the 
 French Government is on file in Washington. 
 
 SAMUEL P. CRAFTS, president of the Quin- 
 nipiac Brick Co., and a member of the Chamber of 
 Commerce of New Haven, has led an interesting 
 career. Though his life has been a busy and use- 
 ful one, lit has been diversified by travel and con- 
 tact with people of every condition, and until the 
 past few years he has been engaged in business 
 enterprises demanding constant activity in their 
 supervision. 
 
 The family from which Air. Crafts springs is 
 one of the oldest in Connecticut, the first of his line 
 coming to America in 1630. Edward Crafts, hi> 
 grandfather, a natix'e of Pomfret, Conn., settled in 
 Derliy, this State, where he followed the medical 
 profession until his death, which was caused bv a 
 
 fall from a horse. He had quite a numerous fam- 
 ily, of w^hom Gen. Chauncey Crafts, father of Sam- 
 uel P., was born in Derby, where he was reared. 
 During his early manhood he clerked in a store, 
 but for the greater part of his entire life he was en- 
 gaged as a manufacturer in Woodbury, Conn., 
 turning out horse-power machinery, which he also 
 invented. He died in Woodbury, at the compara- 
 tively early age of forty-one. Chauncey Crafts 
 married Miss Alaria Bacon, a native of Woodbury, 
 and nine children were born to them. But two of 
 this family survive : Samuel P., whose name open.s 
 this sketch ; and Fanny, widow of Gen. Charnly. 
 Airs. Crafts passed away at the age of sixty-five 
 years. In religion she and Air. Crafts were mem- 
 bers of the North Church of Woodbury. He took 
 a deep interest in military matters, and was a briga- 
 dier general of the Connecticut militia. 
 
 Samuel P. Crafts was born Jan. 30, 1824, in 
 Woodbury, where he passed hi-s earlier }ears, re- 
 ceiving a thorough education in the common and 
 select schools. Before going to sea he spent eight- 
 een months in Bridgeport, this State, in the harness 
 business. He was not many )-ears a mariner before 
 he rose to the position of master, and he sold his 
 ship to enter the navy, being in that service as act- 
 ing ensign during the Civil war. Incidental to 
 his share in the capture of Fort Fisher is men- 
 tioned his promise to meet Gen. Terry inside the 
 fort, which he kept. He was recomm'ended for 
 promotion to acting first master and later for the 
 rank of lieutenant. 
 
 Air. Crafts wen.t to California in 1849, and had 
 bis share in the exciting experiences of those law- 
 less times. He was a member of the vigilance 
 committee, and witnessed the hanging of three men, 
 two of whom* were buried in the grave they had 
 prepared for their murdered victim, a Capt. Snow, 
 of Nantucket. In 1855 our subject was in Nor- 
 folk, \'a., where hundreds were dying of yellow 
 fever, and he was in Barbadoes during the terrible 
 rage of cholera, where there was an average of 350 
 deaths per day. He has traveled extensively all 
 over the country. 
 
 After his discharge from the navy Mr. Crafts 
 went to Liverpool, where he took charge of a bark 
 tor Funk & Aleincke, and made a few European 
 voyages. He continued to devote himself to vari- 
 ous matters up to 1872, in which year was or- 
 ganized the Quinnipiac Brick Co., and he was 
 elected president thereof. He has continued to hold 
 that position to the present, and its duties receive 
 the same faithful and efTective attention which has 
 characterized all ovu" subject's undertakings. In 
 1895 Mr. Crafts moved from Hamden to New Ha- 
 ven, where he still makes his home. He was not 
 long in establishing himself in the esteem of his 
 new neighbors and fellow citizens, for in 1896 he 
 was elected selectman in New Haven, and filled 
 that office to the satisfaction of all concerned. Our 
 subject gives his political allegiance to the Repub- 
 lican party, and has long been a member of the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 455 
 
 Young Men's Republican Club. Socially he holds 
 membersihip in the Loyal Legion and in Admiral 
 Foote Post, No. ii, G. A. R. He was commander 
 of Gideon Welles Naval A''eterans. 
 
 In 1859 Mr. Crafts was united in marriage to 
 Miss Sarah A. Thomson, who was born in New 
 Haven, daughter of Isaac Thomson, a mason 
 builder, who put up many of the college buildings 
 m the city, as well as the large insurance build- 
 ings. He was a memtoer of the firm of Thomson, 
 Sperry & Smith. Air. Thomson died in 1876. Of 
 his four daughters three are yet living, Mrs. Crafts, 
 Mrs. Bacon (in California) and Mrs. Burt (in 
 Cincinnati). 
 
 HENRY KIRKE WHITE. For a quarter of 
 a century the name of White has been prominent 
 in the business and social circles of Meriden, where 
 have resided Henry Kirke White and his sons 
 James Henry, Edward H. and Howard, all of 
 whom have been identified with the extensive in- 
 terests of the W^ilcox & Wliite Co., whose products 
 have gone to the ends of the civilizrtl world and 
 brought fame to the name of White and to the city 
 of Meriden. 
 
 Henry Kirke White was born in Bolton, Conn., 
 Feb. 7, 1822, and conies from an ancestry on both 
 sides reaching back to the early Colonial period of 
 Connecticut, one of his forebears being a member 
 of the party led by Rev. John Warham, who came 
 from England to these shores in the ship "Mary 
 and John" in 1630, landing at Nantasket, Mass. 
 Henry Kirke \\liite was reared on a farm, Ijut pos- 
 sessing musical tastes and genius, he soon found 
 a new and broader field for the exercise of his tal- 
 ents. While yet in his "teens"' he was a conspicu- 
 ous figure in the singing schools of his locality, 
 as a teacher and musical director, and he soon be- 
 came known throughout the State. In 1841 he 
 mastered the art of tuning musical instruments, 
 and was engaged in that capacity until 1845 i'l '^''^ 
 West and Northwest. Returning to Connecticut, 
 he began the manufacture of musical instruments 
 at Colchester for Dennison Smith. Two years 
 later, in 1847, he began on bis own account the 
 making of nielodeons in New London, Conn., mov- 
 ing his business in 1853 to Washington, N, J., 
 where he remained until the great panic of 1857 
 and the subsequent outbreak of the Civil war ren- 
 dered it unadvisable to continue in business. For 
 several years he was mainly occupied in piano 
 tuning in Philadelphia, and in 1865 took charge of 
 the tuning and action department of the Estey Or- 
 gan Works at Brattleboro, Vt., where he and his 
 several sons soon obtained high positions. In 1876 
 and the following }'ear Mr. White and his sons, 
 throug'h their tact and energy, interested several 
 citizens of Meriden, among them the late Horace 
 Wilcox, in the establishment of a factory for the 
 manufacture of musical instruments, and these 
 efforts resulted in the organization of the Wilcox 
 
 & White Organ Co. To this concern there was a 
 guarantee of success in the very beginning of its 
 efiforts, in the person of Mr, White. A man of 
 genius and energy, of high honor and most un- 
 swerving integrity, with long years of experience 
 in business and manufacturing, not a little of the 
 great success and the achievements of the company 
 in the last twenty-five years is due to lienry Kirke 
 White. He enjoys the distinction of being one of 
 the oldest makers of reed instruments now living, 
 and can look back over an experience of more than 
 fifty years in this line, with a just pride in the 
 achievements credited to his genius and labors. 
 
 The ^^'ilcox & White Co. is, to-day, foremost 
 among the manufacturers of musical instruments 
 in all the world. The great effects produced by 
 their instruments have won for them the hearty 
 welcome into the 'homes of all the civilized coun- 
 tries of the globe. The Wilcox & White organ is 
 one of the most celebrated of reed instruments. 
 To the builder of these was given use of the best 
 old features and the new ones of the organ. The 
 principal inventions of the company are the "Pneu- 
 matic Symphony," or self-playing organ, and the 
 "Angelus" Piano Player. The former has the fea- 
 tures of an ordinary organ, and can be played as 
 such, while the latter can play any piano ; they are 
 also supplied with mechanism whereby perforated 
 paper is made the medium for automatic playing. 
 With this perforated paper, and the use of the ped- 
 als and stops as in ordinary playing, the most in- 
 tricate and beautiful music can be produced with- 
 out touching the fingers to the keys. This com- 
 pany, in which the Whites figure conspicuously, is 
 one of the leading industries of the great and fa- 
 mous center of manufactories^, Meriden, and gives 
 employment to over 300 people. Under the admin- 
 istration of James H. White the business of the 
 company was very largely increased, and an addi- 
 tional brick factory, four stories high, and 250 by 
 40 feet on the ground, was erected for the manu- 
 facture of the "Angelus." This is the invention of 
 Edward H. White, and is the first instrument ever 
 manufactured! for automatic piano playing. 
 
 Henry Kirke White has been called by his fel- 
 low citizens to a number of public offices, and in the 
 discharge of their duties has conscientiously and 
 faithfully used his time and best efforts. He has 
 served as alderman from the Fifth ward, and for 
 a period was Mayor pro tempore of Meriden. For 
 many years in succession he was first committee- 
 man of h'is school district, and both as a citizen and 
 as a man he has held the full confidence of the com- 
 munity in which he has lived so long. 
 
 i\Ir. White was married Sept. 2, 1846, to Lucy 
 Cornwell, who was born Jan. 2, 1825, a daughter of 
 William and Julia (Robert) Cornwell, of Middle- 
 town, Conn. She died Feb. 18, 1867, and Mr. 
 White then was married to Airs. Betsey Herrick, 
 who was born July 12, 1840, a daughter of Benja- 
 min Stickney, of Dummerston, Yt. The children. 
 
456 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 all born of the first marriage, were : James Henry, 
 Frank, Edward H., Howard and Julia Cornwell, 
 the last named now the wife of Silas Donavan, of 
 Meriden. Fraternally, Mr. White is a Mason of 
 Knight Templar degree, and is highly respected in 
 the craft. He is now retired from active business on 
 account of a paralytic stroke, which deprived him 
 of the use of 'his limbs. He is a well-read man, 
 with a clear mind, and is noted as a genial gentle- 
 man and a brilliant conversationalist. Although he 
 was greatly broken down by the death of his two 
 sons, Edward H. and Howard, he is cheered by the 
 near presence of all the surviving members of the 
 family. 
 
 James Henry White, son of 'Henry Kirke 
 White, and for years the president and treasurer of 
 the Wilcox & White Co., is a native of Connecticut, 
 born at Westfield, Sept. 26, 1847. His education 
 was received at Somerville, Washington and Phil- 
 lipsburg, in the State of New Jersey, whither his 
 father removed. The family later removed to Phil- 
 adelphia, and there James H. White began his 
 business career as a clerk in the famous "Oak Hall" 
 clothing house of John Wanamaker. This experi- 
 ence, however, was of short duration, as his father 
 was sought by the Estey Company, and the family 
 settled in Brattleboro, Vt., where James H. was 
 employed with his father in the tuning department 
 of that famous factory. Possessed of natural musi- 
 cal gifts, the young man devoted his time to the 
 work of tuning, and by stead}' application soon rose 
 to a position where with his father he was in joint 
 control of that department. There he remained 
 some thirteen years, when he was induced by the 
 late Horace C. Wilcox to come to iMeriden, with 
 his father and brother, and organize the company 
 which has since borne the family name, and of 
 w'hich for years he 'has been the executive head, 
 making a great name for himself as one of the en- 
 terprising and public-spirited citizens of Meriden. 
 He is a member of the Home Club of Meriden. 
 Mr. White was married Dec. I, 1868, to Kate, 
 daughter of Samuel T. R. and Martha (Brown) 
 Cheney, of Brattleboro, Yt., by whom he became 
 the father of three children : Frank Cornwell, edu- 
 cated in Meriden, and now the assistant superin- 
 tendent of the Wilcox & White Co. ; Grace Louise ; 
 and Florence May. Mr. AA'hite has represented 
 the Fifth ward in the city council, having been 
 elected on the Republican ticket, though he is no 
 office seeker, preferring to .give his vindivided at- 
 tention to his business. Fie is a trustee of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and a man of high character, 
 greatly respected in the city. 
 
 Edward H. White, son of Henry Kirke White, 
 was born in Washington, N. J., April 5, 1855, and 
 had a thorough training in the building of musical 
 instruments, chiefly in the Estey Organ Works at 
 Brattleboro, Vt. For twenty-five years he was a 
 valuable adjunct in the W'ilcox & White Co., at 
 Meriden, in which establishment the tuning and 
 voicing of instruments left to his supervision was 
 
 thorougfhly done. He was the owner of the "An- 
 gelus" patents, and was secretary and superintend- 
 ent and one of the directors of the reorganized 
 Wilcox & White Co. Edward H. White died Sept. 
 16, 1899, and was buried in Walnut Grove Ceme- 
 tery, Meriden. A Republican in politics, he had 
 no time for office-seeking; was a believer in the 
 Golden Rule, and was liberal in his religious ideas ; 
 domestic in his habits, he found his greatest pleas- 
 ure in his home. He was early married to Mary 
 Carter, a daughter of Bela Carter, and to this union 
 was born one child, Allan Hubbard, now a student 
 at Choate School, Walhngford. Mrs. White makes 
 her ihome in Meriden, and is a lady of culture and 
 refinement. 
 
 Howard White, the youngest son of Henry 
 Kirke White, was for years superintendent of the 
 Wilcox & White Co., of i\Ieriden. He was born 
 Sept. 9, 1856, in Somerville, N. J., and his life was 
 not unlike that of his brothers, as it was given to 
 the work of building musical instruments. Inherit- 
 ing in a large degree his father's musical genius 
 and taste, through close attention to the work of 
 building musical instruments, he acquired great ap- 
 titude in it, and made for himself a creditable place 
 in the work. His early experience was acquired 
 with the Estey Company at Brattleboro, but he came 
 to Meriden with his family, and from the very be- 
 ginning of the Wilcox & White Co. was identified 
 v,'ith it, rising to the position of superintendent. 
 He was one of the directors of the company and 
 proved himself a valuable citizen of Meriden. 
 With his brother Edward H. and others of the 
 family he belonged to the Home Club of Meriden. 
 Air. White was married in 1880 to Flora A., daugh- 
 ter of Russell J. Ives, of Meriden, and their union 
 was blessed with two dhildren : Russell Ives and 
 Stanley. Howard White died Dec. 9, 1897, and 
 was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery. .A Repub- 
 lican in politics, he soug'ht no official position. 
 Domestic in his habits, he lived in charity for all 
 men, and tender memories of him survive. His 
 widow resides in Meriden. 
 
 AUGUSTUS E. LINES. Among the retired 
 business citizens of New Haven, who for almost 
 a half century pursued one calling in this, his na- 
 tive city, is Augustus E. Lines, one of 'the most 
 highly esteemed residents. His ancestors for sev- 
 eral generations had made the name known and 
 respected in commercial circles, and Mr. Lines' 
 own career added luster to the family title. Grand- 
 father Ezra Lines was born in this beautiful dty, 
 grew to useful manhood here, and for very many 
 years conducted a successful grocery 'business on 
 the corner of Grand and Staite streets. New Haven, 
 He was a soldier of the Revolution, under the 
 command of Gen. Israel Putnam, and was pres- 
 ent with him when he rode horseback down the 
 stone steps at Horse Neck, now Greenwich, to 
 escape the British. His death occurred at about 
 the age of sixty, and the grocery business was 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 457 
 
 continued by his sons Augustus and Frederick, 
 the former 'being the father of Augustus E. 
 
 Augustus Dines, father of our svibject, was 
 born Sept. 13, 1797, and died Dec. 31, 1887. Not 
 only was he prominent in commercial circles, but 
 also in political and financial affairs, for twenty- 
 five years being assessor with Willis Anthony, 
 who was the father of the present collector of 
 taxes, of the same name, and Mr. Lines was also 
 a member of the common council, for a number of 
 terms, and was a director in the New Haven Na- 
 tional Bank. In military circles Augustus Lines 
 was also conspicuous, being an active member of 
 the Old Grays, and the accomplished fifer of the 
 noted old regiment, for very many years. He mar- 
 ried Miss Lucy Ann Ritter, a daughter of David 
 Ritter. She was born in New Haven and died in 
 1851, at the age of forty-eight years, one of a 
 numerous family. David Ritter was a well-known 
 .stone and marble cutter, married twice in New 
 Haven, and died at about the age of sixty years. 
 Three children were born to Augustus Lines and 
 Avife: Augustus E., of New Haven; George P., 
 who died in 1884; and Jane E., who resides in 
 New Haven, at the age of seventy-one years. Au- 
 gustus Lines married for his second wife Martha 
 Kimberly, of West Haven, and two children were 
 born to this union, ^lartha and Maria, both of 
 whom died some years ago. It is remembered of 
 ]\Ir. Lines that he was skilled in musical instru- 
 ments, played the double bass viol with fine exe- 
 cution, and was the first resident double bass viol 
 player, in New Haven. 
 
 Augustus E. Lines was born on the corner of 
 Grand and Olive streets, in New Haven, Nov. 4, 
 1822, and attended the old Lancasterian School. 
 A'ery early in life, he displayed a leaning toward the 
 engraver's trade, taking lessons in the same in New 
 York, at the corner of Fulton and Nassau streets. 
 :\Ir. Lines was employed there by a firm located 
 at the intersection of Broadway and Cedar streets, 
 being apprenticed with the firm of Stiles, Sher- 
 man & Smith, located at the above named places. 
 For six years Mr. Lines found a pleasant home in 
 the family of Mr. Sherman, who then lived at No. 
 18 Rose street, the neighborhood which is now 
 given up to a lower class of residences, then bdng 
 a fine residence district. The venerable iMrs. 
 Sherman still survives. From 1838 to 1844 ^Ir. 
 Lines remained in the citv of New York, becommg 
 during this period skille'd in his trade, and able 
 to enter into successful competition with others. 
 Returning to his native city, ;\Ir. Lines embarked 
 in the engraving business for himself, founding 
 a house which prospered for forty-two years, until 
 in 1886 he retired from active work, justified m 
 seeking rest after so continuous a career. There 
 are few of the older residents of New Haven who 
 do not readily recall his establishment on Chapel 
 street. 
 
 On Jan. 9, 1849, Augustus E. Lines was mar- 
 
 ried to Miss Mary A. Kimberly, who was bom in 
 Guilford, Conn., and was a daughter of Eli Kim- 
 berly, and a member of one of the first families 
 of this part of Connecticut. Eli Kimberly was a 
 sea-faring man and he made his home on Faulk- 
 ner's Island, Guilford and Sachems Head, having 
 charge of the lig'ht house on Faulkner's Island for 
 tnirty-three years. No resident along this coast 
 was better or more favorably known to both lands- 
 men and sailors than Capt. Eli. His lamented 
 death took place at the age of seventy-nine years. 
 The mother of Mrs. Lines was Mary Fowler, of 
 New London, her marriage to Capt. Kimberly tak- 
 ing place the 12th of November, 1812, and twelve 
 children resulting from this union, the four sur- 
 vivors being: ]\irs. Lines; George, a resident of 
 New London, Conn. ; David Calvin, a resident of 
 Sacramtnto, Cal. ; and Henry W., a resident of 
 New Haven, a well-known carpenter and builder. 
 The mother of these children died at the age of 
 fifty-two years. Both parents of Mrs. Lines were 
 worthy members of the North Church, and this 
 family was one of the most intelligent and liberally 
 educated of any on the coast, the father having a 
 teacher installed in the household. 
 
 One son, Augustus K., blessed the union of 
 'Mr. and Mrs. Lines, born in 1850; he was edu- 
 cated in New Haven, and made this city his home 
 until his death at the age of thirty-five years. An 
 adopted son, Harry Kimberly Lines, was educated 
 in the schools of New Haven, and is now one of 
 the valued employes of the Electric Co., and has 
 cnarge of thdr work in the dififerertt States. He 
 married Clifford Cooke, who was born in Mari- 
 etta, Ga., and, they have one daughter, Louise 
 Douglas, aged twelve years. 
 
 Mr. Lines has always ardently supported the 
 Republican party, thoroughly believing in its prin- 
 ciples, but has never sought political preferment. 
 From his respected father, he has inherited a great 
 talent and love for music, the careful cultivation 
 of which has resulted in making him the admirer 
 of many instruments, but particularly of the flute, 
 which he has performed upon more or less for 
 fifty years. One of his early pupils in this sweet 
 music was a nephew of Mrs. Lines, who is now 
 connected with the New York Symphony Orches- 
 tra, and who is regarded as one of the most fin- 
 ished flutists in the United States. Both Mr. and 
 ^Irs. Lines belong to the Church of the Redeemer, 
 formerly Chapel street Church, becoming connect- 
 ed with' it under Rev. William T. Eustis. Few men 
 of this city have been more omnivorous readers 
 than Mr. Lines, and his thorough knowledge cov- 
 ers a wide range of subjects, his interest being 
 still as keen in public affairs as in his earlier days. 
 For his immediate ancestors he cherishes a high 
 regard and highly values a wonderful picture in 
 his possession, of his uncle William Lines. An- 
 other very interesting picture which he preserves 
 with care, is of a house on Grand avenue, near 
 
458 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the railroad bridge, which was taken down many 
 3'ears ago, it being the one in which his mother 
 was born, the Farmington canal then being where 
 the railroad tracks of one of the branches of the 
 Consolidated Railroad are now placed. Mr. Lines 
 enjoys recalling the old days of the city, and his 
 recollections are of the most interesting nature, 
 the limits of a sketch of this kind preventing a 
 recitation of some of the most entertaining records 
 of more than a half-century past. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Lines celebrated their golden wedding, in January, 
 1899, and it is the sincere wish of their hosts of 
 friends that they may be spared to also celebrate 
 their seventy-fifith anniversary. 
 
 JOHN GOODRICH NORTH (deceased) was 
 born in Berlin, Conn., Feib. 22, 1823, and died 
 March 9, 1892, at JMilford, Conn., a son of Lem- 
 uel North, who, although a tinner by trade, en- 
 gaged in farming in Berlin. 
 
 The history of the North family in America 
 begins with John North, who was born in Eng- 
 land in 161 5, married Hannah Bird, of Farming- 
 ton, after his arrival in this country in 1635, on the 
 ship "Susan and Ellen." He died about 1691. 
 His land in Farmington was entered to him in 
 1653, ^"^cl with his sons John and Samuel, he was 
 among the eighty-four proprietors among whom 
 the unoccupied lands of the town were divided in 
 1672. His name is given in the list of "persons of 
 quality emigrating from England to America, 1600- 
 1700," and he is recorded as being twenty years 
 old. His first child, Job, was born in 1641. 
 
 Thomas North, who was born in Farmington, 
 Conn., about 1649, ^"d died in 1712, married Han- 
 nah Newell, who was born in 1658. 
 
 Thomas North (2), son of Thomas, was born in 
 1678, married Martha Royce, and died in 1725. 
 Martha (Royce) North was born in 1679. 
 
 Deacon Isaac North, of Wethersfleld and Ber- 
 lin, was born in 1702, married' Mary Woodford 
 (who was born in 1709), and died in 1788. 
 
 Jedediah North, also of Wethersfleld and Ber- 
 lin, was born in 1734, and died Dec. 16, 1816. In 
 1757 he married Sarah Wilcox, w'ho was born in 
 1739, and who died Oct. 5, 1775. 
 
 David North, son of Jedediah, was born in 
 1 76 1, and lived in Berlin. He married Salome 
 Wilcox in 1781, and died in 1831. His wife, who 
 was born in 1761, died March 15, 1807. 
 
 Lemuel North, of Berlin, was born in 1786, and 
 died Aug. 25, 1845. He married Rebecca Good- 
 rich, who was born June 26, 1783, and died July 
 5, 1857. John Goodrich, their son, is the subject 
 of this article. 
 
 John Goodrich North was reared in Berlin, 
 where he attended the local schools until he was 
 about sixteen years old, when he came to New 
 Haven to take a position as a clerk in the dry goods 
 line. After some two or three years he began busi- 
 ness for himself as a merchant, and some years 
 
 later turned to the fire and life insurance interests,, 
 in which he engaged until his death. For at least 
 a half a century he was associated with insurance 
 interests, and was regarded as one of the best 
 posted and most successful men in that line in this 
 section of the State. 
 
 Mr. North was married May 31, 1843, to Eliza- 
 beth Dickinson, who was born in New Haven, Dec. 
 8, 1821, a daughter of Raphael Dickinson (who was 
 born Feb. 6, 1781, and died Feb. 26, 1837), 
 and his wife, Nancv McNeil (who was born 
 June 4. 1783, and died Feb. 9, 1833). Mrs. 
 Nancy (McNeil) North was a daughter of Will- 
 iam McNeil, who graduated from Yale and be- 
 came a civil engineer, but spent his later years as 
 a sailor and sea captain. To Mr. and Mrs. John 
 G. North were born five children: Mary G., John 
 C, Sarah E., Edward C. and Nellie C. Of these, 
 John C. is in the insurance business in New Haven ; 
 Edward C. is in the same line in Boston ; Sarah E. 
 married S. P. Warren, M. D., a graduate of Yale,, 
 and they now live in Portland, Maine ; Mary G. 
 married Rev. Erastus Blakeslee and lives in Brook- 
 line, Mass.; Nellie C. married Prof. Samuel T. 
 Dutton, of Columbia University, who at one time 
 was superintendent of schools in New Haven and 
 in Brookline. John G. North was a Whig and a 
 Republican. In religion all the family have long 
 been associated with the Congregational Church. 
 
 The Dickinson Family, to Which Mrs. John 
 G. North belongs, has an authentic history that runs 
 back in England to a period beyond 1475. Thomas 
 Dickinson, who was a native of- Abingdon, Eng- 
 land, went toi Ayrshire, Scotland, about 1670. 
 where he had three sons, Thomas, Josiah and 
 -\Ioses. 
 
 Moses Dickinson, born in Ayrshire, came to 
 Boston, from which point he went to Deerfield, 
 i\Iass., about 1690. 
 
 Daniel Ebenezer Dickinson, son of Moses, mar- 
 ried Sarah Winslow, the great-granddaughter of 
 Gov. Winslow. 
 
 Oliver Dickinson, son of Daniel Ebenezer, grew 
 to manhood, and married Mary Parmalee. 
 
 Oliver Dickinson, the son of Oliver, was born 
 July ID, 1757, in Litchfield, Conn., and died March 
 23, 1847. He married Anna Landon, June 11^ 
 1778, and served in the Revolutionary army, in 
 which he made a noble record as a gallant soldier 
 and a patriotic citizen. He was in the army from 
 1776 to 1781. 
 
 Raphael Dickinson, second son of Oliver, was 
 born Feb. 6, 1781, and died Feb. 26, 1837. He mar- 
 ried Nancy AIcNeil Feb. 25, 1805, and their daugh- 
 ter Elizabeth was married to John G. North, as 
 noted above. 
 
 Leonard A. Dickinson, a son of Raphael, and a 
 brother of Elizabeth North, became one of the 
 noted citizens of New Haven. In 1861 he enlisted 
 in the 12th Conn. \'. I., and the same year was 
 made captain of Company C of that regiment. He 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 459 
 
 served througihout the war, and returning to Hart- 
 ford, was made local agent of the Aetna Fire In- 
 surance Company, in which capacity he served 
 thirty-two years. For three years he was quarter- 
 master on the staff of Gov. Jewell, and for four 
 years he was postmaster at Hartford. Fraternally 
 he was active in Masonry; in the Grand Army he 
 was past commander of the department of Con-' 
 necticut, and treasurer of the Soldiers' Home at 
 Noroton, Connecticut. 
 
 Leonard A. Dickinson died Jan. 27, 190 1, and 
 his funeral services were verj largely attended, by 
 the public generally as well as by the Grand Army 
 of the Republic and the insurance agencies with 
 which be had been so long and intimately associ- 
 ated. Seldom' has a man passed into the Great Be- 
 yond wlhose loss has been so deeply and generally 
 felt. Of high character, unimpeachable integrity 
 and a winning personality, he had a host of friends, 
 who knew him as a man of honor, of business abil- 
 ity beyond the average, whose useful life and many 
 virtues shed honor upon the State. 
 
 The McN"eil Family^ of which the mother of 
 Mrs. North was a member, has a history in Con- 
 necticut that begins with the purchase of land by 
 Archibald McNeil at Branford, about 1735. At 
 the same time he married Mary, a daughter of 
 Samuel Russell, and a widow of Benjamin Fenn. 
 He died about 1753, leaving three sons, John, Sam- 
 uel and Archibald. 
 
 Archibald McNeil was born Sept. 20, 1736, at 
 Branford, and May 2, 1758, married Sarah Clark, 
 of Derby. They had a son, William, born May 13, 
 1759, in New Haven, who was graduated from Yale 
 in 1777. He was a gunner on the privateer "Mar- 
 quis De Lafayette" from Jan. 30, 1782, to Aug. 13, 
 1783. On Sept. 25, 1779, he marri'^d Huldah Au- 
 gur in New Haven, and they had six children : 
 William, John, Henry, Maria, Nancy and Abra- 
 ham Archibald. Of these, Nancy married Raphael 
 Dickinson, as noted above. 
 
 WILLIAM C. RUSSELL, formerly a whole- 
 sale meat and provision dealer on Cedar street, 
 New Haven, is a resident of Orange, where he was 
 born March 13, 1835. The family has long been 
 prominent in Woodbridge and Orange, and 'his 
 great-grandfather, C)tephen Russell, who served 
 eight years as a private in the Revolutionary war, 
 was a resident of Woodbridge for many years, 
 later removing to Orange, where he died at an ad- 
 vanced age. 
 
 Chauncey Russell, our subject's grandfather, 
 was born in Woodbridge, and died in Orange. 
 March 30, 1825, at the early age of thirty-nine. 
 He was a carpenter and wheelwright by trade, and 
 a number of water-wheels in different places in 
 this section were built by him. He married Lu- 
 cinda Sperry, a native of Woodbridge, and a 
 daughter of Lieut. Job Sperry, an officer in the 
 Revolutionary war. They had six children : Henry, 
 
 William Ell, Roswell, Wealth)-, Catherine and 
 Charlotte, all now deceased. 
 
 William Ell Russell, our subject's father, was 
 a native of Orange, and made his permanent home 
 there. For a time he followed the shoemaker's 
 trade, and later he purchased a farm, where his re- 
 maining years were spent, his death occurring at 
 the age of fifty-nine. His homestead, a farm of 
 medium size, is now owned by a son. Politically 
 be was first a Whig and later a Republican, and his 
 services in various offices showed much public 
 spirit. He marriea Susan Parsons, who died in 
 1888, aged seventy years. She was born in Or- 
 ange, but her ancestors were early settlers in 
 Derby, of which place her father, Levi Parsons, 
 was a native ; he followed the sea for some time 
 before engaging in farming. During the war of 
 1812 he raised and drilled a company in Derby. 
 He died aged seventy-seven years, and his wife, 
 Emily (Clark), who was born dn Derby and who 
 was a member of a pioneer family of Milford, lived 
 to a good old age. She was a very able woman 
 and reared her three children with rare ability. 
 In religious faith they were Congregationalists. 
 Our subject was one of a family of seven children, 
 of whom four are living: William C. ; Elford C, 
 a resident of Orange ; Betsey, who married An- 
 drew D. Thomias, of West Haven ; and Edward 
 W., who was employed by our subject in New Ha- 
 ven, and resides at the old homestead. 
 
 As a boy William C. Russell assisted his father 
 upon the farm, and attended the public schools and 
 the academy at Orange. When sixteen he began 
 to run teams to West Haven and to New Haven, 
 to supply the retail trade in meat and provisions, 
 and continued' thus several years, the business in- 
 creasing under his management. Later he began 
 a wholesale business in Orange, and for seven 
 years was a silent partner with C. C. Andrew & 
 Co. In March, 1893, he rented a. large building 
 on Cedar street, constructed for the wholesale 
 meat and provision business, and he built up a 
 large local trade and also sent to adjoining cities. 
 He has a farm wlhich he purchased when twenty 
 years old, and he now owns three farms in Orange, 
 which his son-in-law operates for him. In ad- 
 dition to general farming they are engaged in 
 dairying and in other lines of work, Mr. Russell 
 employing a number of men. 
 
 On April 15, 1855, Mt. Russell married Miss 
 Mary J. Lyon, who' was born in Woodbridge, 
 daughter of Dilazon Goodsell Lyon, who is now 
 deceased. Her mother, whose maiden name was 
 Eliza Beadli, was a native of Woodbridge, and 
 died Jan. 4, 1900, at the age of eighty-nine years. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lvon had five children, and four 
 are yet living: William, who resides in Derby; 
 Sarah, wife of Isaac Dickinson, of Westville; 
 Emily, who married Edward Grant, of Water- 
 bury; and Mary J., Mrs. Russell. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Russell have one child living, Jennie, wife of 
 
460 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Frederick C. Sperry, who superintends our sub- 
 ject's farm; they have two children, Russell Fred- 
 erick, born Jan. 4, 1897; and William Curtis, born 
 July 10, 1900. George Lyon, only son of our sub- 
 ject, was born Feb. 21, 1857, and died Dec. 14, 
 1863. Jessie E., born Oct. 20, 1873, died Aug. 29, 
 
 1893- 
 
 Mr. Russell is a Republican in politics. He 
 has served a number of years as selectman, mem- 
 ber of tihe board of relief and assessor, and for a 
 time he was chairman of the board of assessors. 
 In 1871 he was sent to the Legislature, and during 
 his term served on the committee on fisheries ; he 
 introduced the bill on shad fisheries, and the bill 
 appropriating money from the State to the school 
 of Deaf Mutes in Hartford, to provide for teach- 
 ing reading by the motion of the lips ; a number 
 of private bills were introduced and gained by 
 him. His influence and vote were also given to 
 the bill to consolidate railroads. j\Ir. Russell is 
 a member of the Republican Club of New Haven, 
 and has been a delegate to several State conven- 
 tions with Senator Graham. As one of the oldest 
 members of Annawan Lodge, F. & A. M., of West 
 Haven, he holds a prominent place in JMasonic 
 ■circles in that locality ; he is a charter member of 
 the Grange, a member of the Orange Agricultural 
 Association and of the Milk Dealers Association 
 of New Haven, of which he was the first presi- 
 dent. For some years lie was a member and di- 
 rector of the Orange & Milford Agricultural As- 
 sociation and took an active part in sustaining the 
 work ; bis exhibits frequently won premiums. He 
 has also served in tIhe State Militia, and for sev- 
 eral years was in the Light Guards of New Haven. 
 He and his family are members of the Congrega- 
 tional Church of Orange, in which he held' office 
 for some years as a member of the Society's com- 
 mittee. 
 
 LEROY SUNDERLAND WHITE, inventor, 
 patentee, natural mechanic and business man of 
 Watcrbury, was born in Springfield, Mass., May 
 14, 1828, and is a worthy representative of one of 
 the oldest families of New England. 
 
 Elder John White came to the New England 
 colonies in 1632, bringing with him his wife and at 
 least one child, Nathaniel. 
 
 Nathaniel, afterward known as Capt. Nathan- 
 iel White, was born in England in 1629, and was, 
 therefore, but three years of age when brought to 
 America. The family made their first home in 
 Cambridge, Mass., but after four years removed to 
 Hartford, Conn. In 1650 or 1651 Capt. Nathaniel 
 moved to Middletown, Conn., of which place he 
 v.as one of the original proprietors. 
 
 Deacon Nathaniel White, son of Capt. Nathan- 
 iel, was born in IMiddletown, Upper Flouse.s, Conn., 
 Julv 17, 1652, and died in Fladley, ^tass., Feb. 15, 
 
 Daniel AA'hite, son of Deacon Nathaniel, was 
 
 born at Hadley, Mass., March i, 1690, and set- 
 tled in West Hempfield, where he died Oct. 19, 
 
 Preserved White (i), son of Daniel, was born 
 in West Springfield, Aug. Z^, 17^1- He was a 
 weaver by occupation, and his death occurred m 
 Springfield July 16, 1802. 
 
 Preserved White (2), son of Preserved (i), 
 was born m Springfield, Nov. 25, 1743- He was an 
 armorer, learning his trade in the famous armiory 
 of his native citv. He died June 8, 1823. He was 
 married Aug. 26, 1767, to Miss Mary Terry, daugh- 
 ter of Samuel and Sarah Terry, of Springfield, 
 Mass. Thirteen children blessed this union: 
 Roderick, Martin, Luther, Mary, Luther (2), 
 Roderick (2), Rachel, Hannah, Roderick (3), 
 Hannah (2), Walter, Preserved (father of sub- 
 ject) and Persis. 
 
 Preserved White (3), father of Leroy Sunder- 
 land White, was born in Sprlingfield, in 1789, and 
 died in September, 1832. He was married July 
 13, 1823, to Lucinda Rice, a daughter of Jeduthan 
 Rice, of Ludlow, Mass. Mrs. Lucinda White sur- 
 vived until February, 1879, when she passed 
 away. The family born of this union consisted of 
 the following named children: Albert AI., born 
 June 18, 1824; Lewis, born Dec. 22, 1825; Lyman, 
 born Feb. 18, 1827; Leroy S. ; Sarah Ann, born 
 jMarch 24, 1830; and William W., March 9, 1832. 
 Of this family Albert M., Lewis and Lyman are 
 deceased; Sarah Ann was married March 7, 1854, 
 to the late Gen. George A. Washburn, of Hart- 
 ford ; and William W. is a machinist of Water- 
 bury. 
 
 Shortly after the death of his father, Leroy 
 Sunderland White was bound out to a farmer until 
 nine years old. He then returned home, and next 
 found employment as a bobbin bo}' in a cotton fac- 
 tory at Chicopee ; while there he was promoted 
 from place to place until he became a room superin- 
 tendent. At a ver\' early age young White mani- 
 fested a decided tendency for mechanics and a pre- 
 cocious faculty for invention. At the age of twelve 
 jears he made a miniature tool chest, which he 
 filled with planes, saws, chisels and other tools be- 
 longing to a joiner's outfit, and all of his own 
 manufacture. This kit was for many years the 
 admiration of his friends, and it foreshadowed the 
 future of the youthful mechanic. He was em- 
 ployed for some years in the Springfield armory, 
 where in former }-cars his father worked. When 
 he was about eighteen years of age he entered the 
 employ of the Autcs Manufacturing Co., sword 
 makers of Chicopee, where his duties included die- 
 sinking and ornamental work upon swords, especi- 
 ally ordered by the United States government as 
 presentation swords. About 1855 Mr. White 
 moved from Chicopee, or Springfield, to Hartford, 
 Conn., where he was employed as a machinist and 
 die cutter by the Hartford JNIanufacturing Co. 
 There he invented the first successful machines for 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 461 
 
 burnishing silver-plated flatware, and this patent he 
 sold to the company. The firm; of Rogers & 
 Brothers (consisting of Asa Rogers, Simon Rog- 
 ers, the late Mr. D. B. Hamilton and L. S. White) 
 was soon afterward organized in Waterbury, and 
 for this firm, from 1858, Mr. White was for seven- 
 teen years superintendent and master mechanic, 
 and part of this time was its secretary. While 
 with this firm J\Ir. White invenlted several new 
 burnishing- machines. In 1874 Mr. White was em- 
 ployed by Brown & Brothers to superintend the 
 erection of the plant for the manufacture of flat- 
 ware, and while with them he invented and per- 
 fected machinery for making seamless tubing and 
 kitchen boilers. Since leaving Brown & Brothers 
 he has devoted his time to the invention and manu- 
 facture of a large variety of articles, most of them 
 for use in the application of electricity to mechan- 
 ical devices. 
 
 On April 24, 1852, Mr. White married Sarah 
 Jane DeLancey, of New Market, N. H. They 
 have lived in Waterbury since 1858, and here have 
 reared their three children, namely: Emma L., 
 who was married, Dec. 19, 1876, to Alexander C. 
 Mintie, of Waterbury ; Jennie C, married, in July, 
 1890, to Thomas G. Lane, of Portland, Me. ; and 
 Edith S., married in June, 1897, to Dr. Edward 
 W. Goodenough, of Waterbury. In 1874 Mr. 
 White passed three months in Europe on a tour 
 for both pleasure and study, and in 1884 he made 
 a more extensive tour. In politics Mr. White is a 
 Republican, and has filled several local offices, such 
 as councilman, street commissioner, etc., but has 
 been more interested in his private affairs than in 
 the concerns of thie public. He is a member of Con- 
 tinental Lodge, F. & A. M., Clark Commandery, 
 and of the American Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science. Although he never attended a 
 school after reaching his seventh year, he has ac- 
 c(uired a wonderful store of practical and theoreti- 
 cal knowledge by studying at all favorable oppor- 
 tunities, and he has a fine library well supplied 
 with the works of the best scientific writers and 
 metaphysicians. He experiments a great deal with 
 the X-Rays, in which he is quite skilled, and is 
 classed among the true scientific investigators of 
 Waterbury. 
 
 NATHAN FOWLER GRISWOLD, one of 
 Meriden's best-known business men, and president 
 of The Griswold, Richmond & Glock Co., dealers 
 in stoves, furnaces, etc., Meriden, was born in Lock- 
 port, N. Y., and is descended from one of the old- 
 est families in New England. 
 
 The lineage of the family m)ay be traced, in an 
 unbroken chain of descent, from Humphrey Gris- 
 wold, a "Lord of the Manor," who lived in Eng- 
 land in the sixteenth century. The Malvern estate 
 came into his possession in 1600, and the heritage 
 still remains with the English branch of the fam- 
 ily. In 1679, Malvern Hall, with the Coat of Arms, 
 
 was mentioned in English records as belonging to 
 Humphrey Griswold, who died in 1671, and was 
 succeeded by his brother, Rev. Henry Griswold, 
 who died about 1720. From him the title passed 
 to his eldest son, Humphrey, and upon the latter 's 
 death, in 1772, to his youngest son, Henry. Henry 
 dying without male issue, the estate and title passed 
 to Rev. Mathew Griswold, a justice of the peace 
 for the County of Warwick. On his death, in 1778, 
 he left a daughter, Mary, who became the wife of 
 David Lewis. She died without surviving male 
 issue, but left three daughters, Magdalene, Anne 
 Maria and Eliza. The oldest married the fourth 
 Earl of Dysart, Anne Maria married the fifth, and 
 Eliza died a spinster. A male heir in the direct line 
 being still wanting, the Malvern estate, and the 
 Arms of Griswold, passed to Henry Griswold 
 Lewis, a son of David Lewis by a second mar- 
 riage. The next heir was Lieut. -Col. Edmund. 
 Meysey Griswold, who was succeeded by his uncle, 
 Henry Wigley, M. A., who assumed the surname 
 of Griswold, and whose descendants are still own- 
 ers of the ancestral estate and arms. 
 
 The American branch of the Griswold family 
 claims as its first-known English progenitor 
 Mathew Griswold, Esq., of Kenilworth, Warwick- 
 shire, an uncle of Humphrey Griswold, the first 
 Lord of the Manor above named. Mathew had 
 ihree sons, Thomas, Edward and Mathew, and of 
 these, Mathew, the 3'oungest, was the first to come 
 to America. While yet very young, he joined a 
 company of pilgrims collected from Warwickshire^ 
 Worcestershire, Somersetshire and Devonshire, un- 
 der the leadership of Rev. John Warham, who left 
 England during the reign of Charles I, and landed 
 on the shores of Massachusetts Dec. 30, 1620. 
 Nine years later Edward Griswold joined his 
 brother Mathew, and the two removed from Massa- 
 chusetts to Connecticut, Edward settling at Wind- 
 sor and the younger brother at Saybrook. 
 
 Edward Griswold, mentioned above, was born 
 in England in 1607, emigrated to America, and 
 made his first permanent settlement in Connecticut, 
 at Saybrook, in 1663, and in 1667 moved to what 
 is now Killingworth, in Middlesex county, where 
 he settled and which he named after his birthplace 
 in England. Here he became an extensive land- 
 owner, and died in 1691. In 1630 he married Mar- 
 garet (surname not given), who died Aug. 23, 
 1670, and two years later he married Sarah, widow 
 of James Remes, of New London, Conn. His chil- 
 dren were: Sarah, born in 1631 ; George, in 1633; 
 Francis, in 1635; Lydia, in 1637; Sarah, in 1638, 
 married Samuel Phelps, Nov. 10, 1650, and mar- 
 ried (second), July 21, 1670, Nathan Pinney; Ann, 
 in 1642; Mary, born Oct. 13, 1644, married Tim- 
 othy Phelps, on March 19, 1661 ; Deborah, June 28, 
 1646, married Samuel Buell ; Joseph, March 12, 
 1647; Samuel, Nov. 18, 1649; John, Aug. i, 1652. 
 
 John Griswold, youngest son of Edward, the 
 emigrant, was born in 1652, in Windsor, Conn., 
 
462 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and removed with his parents to Killingworth, now 
 the town of CHnton, where he became a land owner 
 and farmer, and died there Aug. 7, 171 7. John 
 Griswold was a man of intelHgence and influence 
 and was a deacon in the church. On Oct. 27, 1671, 
 he was married to Mary (surname unknown), and 
 after her death to Bathshe'ba (surname unknown), 
 who died March 19, 1736, and he was the father of 
 these children: Alary, born an February, 1673; 
 Margaret, in December, 1675 ; Hannah, in October, 
 1677; J6hn B., Sept. 22, and died Dec. 27, 1679; 
 Dorothy, born in Aiay, 1681 ; Bathsheba, in Decem- 
 ber, 1682, married Daniel Clark, Dec. i, 1708; 
 Samuel, April, 1685; Lucy, in July, 1686; Martha, 
 in June, 1689, died in March, 1690; Joseph and 
 Benjamin (twins), Sept. 26, 1691 ; Dorothy, in 
 September, 1692; Martha, in June, 1694; Daniel, 
 in October, 1696; and Walter, in March, 1700. 
 
 Joseph Griswold, twin 'brother of Benjamin, 
 and son of John, of Killingworth, like his father 
 and grandfather, spent his days in the town of his 
 birth, where he was influential, and a worthy mem- 
 ber of the church, and died April 18, 1770. On 
 Dec. 27, 1714, he married Temperance Lay, who 
 died in September, 1772, and their children were : 
 John, born Oct. 12, 1715; Joseph, Oct. 22, 1716; 
 Martha, April 28, 1719; Giles, June 3, 1725; John; 
 uaniel, who married Lydia Hull; and Jedediah. 
 
 Giles Griswold, son of Joseph, was born in Kill- 
 ingworth, June 3, 1725, and on Nov. 17, 1746, mar- 
 ried Mary Chatfield, and their children were : 
 Mary, born April 18, 1747; Giles, Oct. 28, 1748; 
 Mercy, Oct. 19, 1751 ; Lucy, Oct. 15, 1753; Jesse, 
 Aug. 28, 1756, died Sept. 21, 1777; Zenas, born 
 May 10, 1759; Abner, March 31, 1762; Drusilla, 
 Jan. 21, 1764, died in March, 1764; Drusilla (2), 
 May 21, 1766; David, Nov. 20, 1768; and Charity, 
 Feb. 12, 1774. 
 
 Zenas Griswold, grandfather of Nathan Fowler 
 Griswold, was born May 10, 1759, in Killingworth, 
 where he grew to manhood, and where he became 
 a farmer and landowner. He participated in the 
 war of the Revolution, having enlisted Jan. 3, 1777, 
 in Capt. Stevens' company, and was discharged 
 Dec. 21, 1779, re-enlisting May 3, 1781, and served 
 in Capt. Nathaniel Edwards' company. By an act 
 of Congress, passed March 18, 1818, he was made 
 a pensioner, and died in his native home, full of 
 years and honors, in 1836. Zenas Griswold was 
 twice married. His first wife, Mary Lane, was 
 born in 1758, and died in May, 1803. Her chil- 
 dren were: Philip, born in January, 1786, settled 
 in Genesee, N. Y. ; Jesse, born in February, 1788, 
 settled in Lockport, N. Y. ; Deborah, born Aug. 
 2, 1790, married William Hill, and died Oct. 15, 
 1873; Rachel, born in January, 1793, died in 1809; 
 Martin married Sally Fowler; and Sarah married 
 Elias Norton. For his second wife Zenas Gris- 
 wold married ?\Iary Pettibone, a widow, who died 
 in 1843. Two children were born to this union: 
 
 Amasa Pettibone, who married Charlotte Chatfield; 
 and Rachel, who married Louis Chatfield. 
 
 Martin Griswold, father of Nathan Fowler 
 Griswold, was born on the old Griswold homestead 
 in Killingworth, where he grew to manhood, and 
 where he married Sally Fowler, daughter of Nathan 
 and Chloe (Davis) Fowler. After his marriage he 
 removed with his wife to Lockport, N. Y., where 
 his brother Jesse was also located, and engaged in 
 farming for some time, but after the death of his 
 wife, which occurred shortly after the birth of our 
 subject, he sold out, and returned to Connecticut, 
 locating in Middletown. There he engaged at gun- 
 making for several years for the United States 
 Government, and then went West, locating in 
 Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where he bought a farm 
 and spent the remainder of his days. Mr. Gris- 
 wold was a hard-working, honest man, well known 
 for his integrity and for his fair and honorable 
 dealings, a man who made the Golden Rule his life 
 motto and steadily endeavored to follow it. His 
 happiness was only found when he was square 
 with the world and his fellow men. In his younger 
 days he was a Democrat, but held anti-slavery 
 views, and at the formation of the Republican 
 party associated himself with it, ever after being a 
 strong partisan, although no office seeker. For his 
 second wife he wedded Mary Post, of Westbrook, 
 Conn., who died in Ohio. She became the mother 
 of several children, all of whom are dead except 
 Anne and Willard M. Griswold, a railway agent, 
 residing in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. 
 
 Nathan Fowler Griswold, the subject proper of 
 this sketch, was only three days old when his 
 mother died, and he was thus early deprived of 
 her tender, fostering care. While still a babe he 
 was taken by his bereaved father from his native 
 New York home to Connecticut, and there placed 
 under the care of his maternal grandparents, in 
 Durham, and there attended the district schools. 
 When he was but eleven years of age he started 
 out to make his own way in the world, trying one 
 season on a farm. This life did not entirely please 
 him, and he then engaged to work in the store of 
 L'riah A. Avers, of East Haddam, where he re- 
 mained four years, receiving as compensation his 
 board and clothes. AVbile filling this position he 
 managed to attend school during the winters, but 
 the greater part of his education was received 
 through study at home, through reading, and in the 
 severe school of experience. The desire to learn 
 a trade first brought him to Meriden, and he worked 
 first with Pomeroy & Ives, learning the tinning 
 trade, and during his four years with that firm he 
 received for the first year $25, with an increase of 
 $5 every year. After completing his trade within 
 one or two months of his apprenticeship, he pur- 
 chased his remaining time, and started for the 
 AA'est, with Cincinnati as his objective point. The 
 trip was an interesting one, filled with variety and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 463 
 
 excitement. By canal he reached Buffalo, thence 
 by boat he went to Toledo, thence again by canal, 
 and here the canal gave way and the passengers 
 suddenly found their boat high and dry on land 
 in the woods. Each one had to do the best he 
 could, Mr. Griswold finally reaching the Queen 
 City by team. He soon found employment at his 
 trade, with Greenfield & Winchell, and there for a 
 period of three years worked as a journeraian. 
 Returning to JNIeriden, he worked for Pomeroy & 
 Leonard, and later removed to Holyoke, Mass., 
 where he first started in business and remained 
 two years, and then returned to JNIeriden. In 1854 
 he started in the tinning business for himself, first 
 with George F. Searles as partner, who later sold 
 out. With Henry J. Lewis, son of the well-known 
 citizen, Isaac C. Lewis, the business was conducted 
 under the firm name of Griswold & Lewis, until 
 1876, when Mr. Charles C. Clock became a partner, 
 and the firm became Griswold, Lewis & Clock. 
 J\Ir. Lewis later sold out to Mr. J. L. Richmond, 
 the firm' thus becoming Griswold, Richmond & 
 Glock. In 1889 the firm changed into a stock com- 
 pany, known as the Griswold, Richmond & Clock 
 Co., of which ]\Ir. Griswold is president and J\Ir. 
 Glock is superintendent. 
 
 Air. Griswold has conducted a successful busi- 
 ness for nearly half a century, succeeding on ac- 
 count of bis ability, energy and keen foresight. A 
 man of kind and genial disposition, large-hearted 
 and generous, he is very frequently called upon for 
 aid for charitable purposes, and liberally responds. 
 In his religious views Mr. Griswold avows himself 
 an agnostic, declaring his belief to be founded on 
 facts and science, in the place of superstition and 
 faith, which has been opposed to progress. Air. 
 Griswold believes there is much wisdom in Paine's 
 "Age of Reason" and in Ingersoll's "Age of 
 Truth," and closes his testimony with the gentle 
 assertion, "with malice toward none, and charity 
 for all, I simply confess that I don't know." Mr. 
 Griswold's spotless private life and his untarnished 
 public reputation disarm all criticism, and he is in 
 every way a citizen of whom his city is justly 
 IDroud. 
 
 In Meriden Mr. Griswold married Eliza Will- 
 iams, a native of that town, where she died, and 
 her remains rest in the West cemetery. She was a 
 consistent and valued member of the Universalist 
 Church. The children born to this union were : 
 Ella A., who married Eugene H. Ray, superintend- 
 ent of the Silver City Plate Co. ; Charles, who died 
 in young manhood, and now sleeps in the West 
 cemetery by his mother; Erank, who died while 
 a resident of Chicago; and Lewis F., who is a de- 
 signer for the Charles Parker Co. For his second 
 wife Mr. Griswold wedded Alira Rockwell, who 
 was born in Hartford, a daughter of Capt. Samuel 
 Rockwell, and is a lady of high culture and of fine 
 attainments. Mr. and Mrs. Griswold reside in their 
 beautiful home on Lincoln street, where they offer 
 a bounteous hospitality. 
 
 The Rockwell family, of which Mrs. Nathan 
 F. Griswold is a descendant, is one of the oldest in 
 Hartford county. William Rockwell, the first of 
 the family in America, was born in Dorchester, 
 England, April 14, 1624, was married in his native 
 country to Susannah Capan, a daughter of Bernard 
 Capan. They came to America in 1630, locating 
 first in Dorchester, Mass., where he was one of the 
 twenty-four freemen who took the oath of fidelity 
 on May 18, 1631, was a deacon in the church there, 
 and was one of the jurors in the first manslaughter 
 case tried in the Colony. In 1637 he removed his 
 family to Windsor, Conn., where he passed the re- 
 mainder of his days, dying May 15, 1640. William 
 Rockwell was also a deacon in the church at Wind- 
 sor. On May 29, 1645, his widow married for her 
 second husband Mathew Grand, and she passed 
 away Nov. 14, 1666. The children were : Joan, 
 born April 25, 1625, in England; Samuel, July 18, 
 1627, in England; John, March 28, 1631, in Dor- 
 chester, Mass. ; Ruth, in August, 1633, in Dor- 
 chester; Sarah, July 31, 1634, in Windsor, Conn.; 
 and Joseph, in 1635, in Windsor. Ruth married 
 Christopher Huntington, and removed to Say- 
 brook in 1660, and later to Norwich, where they 
 were early settlers. Sarah became the wife of 
 Walter Gaylor. 
 
 Sergeant Samuel Rockwell, son of Deacon Will- 
 iam, was born in England, came to America with 
 his parents, and removed with them to Windsor 
 and was one of the early settlers of what is now 
 East Windsor, and there engaged in farmmg until 
 his death, in 171 1. On April 6, 1662, he was ad- 
 mitted to membership in the Windsor Church, and 
 on April 7, 1660, he married Mary Norton, of Guil- 
 ford, a daughter of Thomas and Grace (Wells) 
 Norton, and to them were born these children : 
 Alary, baptized in January, 1661, married, Oct. 23, 
 1683, to Josiah Loomis; Samuel, baptized Oct. 19, 
 1667; Joseph, Alay 22, 1670; John, May 31, 1673; 
 Abigail, April 11, 1676, married, Nov. 9, 1704, 
 John Smith, and died Oct. 12, 1741 ; and Josiah, 
 baptized March 10, 1676. 
 
 Lieutenant Joseph Rockwell was born in East 
 Windsor, where he grew to manhood and was en- 
 gaged in farminp' all his life, dying on June 26, 
 1733. His marriage was to Elizabeth Drake, born 
 \ov. 4, 1675, a daughter of Job and Elizabeth (Al- 
 vord) Drake, and to them were born six children: 
 Joseph, Nov. 23, 1695 ; Elizabeth, Dec. 12, 1690, 
 died in infancy; Benjamin, Oct. 26, 1700; James, 
 June 3, 1704; Job, April 13, 1709; and Elizabeth, 
 July 24, 1713, married Jonathan Huntington. 
 
 Benjamin Rockwell, son of Lieut. Joseph, was 
 born in East Windsor, Oct. 26, 1700. At the age 
 of nineteen years he removed to Stafford, Tolland 
 county, where he became engaged in farming and 
 passed the remainder of his life. He married Mar- 
 garet Park, a daughter of Robert Park, of Preston, 
 Conn., and their children were Margaret, Samuel 
 and Elizabeth. 
 
 Samuel Rockwell, only son of Benjamin, was 
 
464 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born in Stafford, Conn., Nov. 28, 1727, and died 
 there Nov. 24, 1794. He was twice married, the 
 first time, Dec. 15, 1757, to Hannah Orcutt, born 
 Jan. 2, 17^8-9, a daughter of Nathan and Phebe 
 (^j^ittle) Orcutt, and to this union these children 
 were born: Benjamin, Job, Samuel, Nathan, Han- 
 nah and ]\Iargaret. His second marriage was to 
 Hannah Johnson, the widow of Ehas Lee, and she 
 died Dec. 16, 1834, at the age of eighty-one, having 
 been the mother of one daughter, Lucy. 
 
 Benjamin Rockwell, the grandfather of l\Irs. 
 Griswold, was born in 1758, on the old homestead 
 in Stafford, where he died in 1803. His marriage 
 was to Eunice Lillibridge, of Stafford, and these 
 children were born to the marriage : Park, Sept. 
 16, 1790, and died Sept. 4, 1877, miarried Esther 
 Slater, a daughter of Moses Slater, born May 14, 
 1793, and died in March, 1883, and they had five 
 children, Benjamin, an unnamed infant, Maurice, 
 Miranda and Emeline; Samuel, the father of Mrs. 
 Griswold ; David, born in 1800, died Jan. 18, 184c* 
 married Lavinia Hyde, of Stafford, who was born 
 in 1794, and died June 8, 1852; and Polly. 
 
 Capt. Samuel Rockwell was born on the old 
 homestead in Stafford, where he received- a com- 
 mon-school education, growing to manhood in his 
 native town. In early manhood he came to Hart- 
 ford county, where he started in business and be- 
 came one of the largest grain and feed dealers in 
 the city of Hartford, building up a prosperous 
 trade, and becoming noted for his honesty and up- 
 right dealings. Domestic in his habits, neverthe- 
 less he took an interest in public affairs, was a 
 stanch supporter of the Democratic party, and 
 although he ever upheld its principles, he just 
 as strenuously refused public office. Mr. Rockwell 
 was captain of the State mjilitia in Stafford, and 
 always took a deep interest in it. His religious 
 connection was with the Congregational Church, 
 where he was liberal in the support of charity, and 
 was a devoted husband and father, a man who en- 
 joyed the respect of the community. 
 
 Capt. Rockwell was twice married. He first 
 married Lydia Lillibridge, and three children were 
 born to them : Benjamin, Emery and David, the 
 latter a theological student at Trinity College, 
 Hartford. He married, second, Hannah Hyde, and 
 to this union five children were born : James, 
 Clark, Almira, Charles and Willard, all deceased 
 except Mrs. Griswold and Charles, who resides in 
 Hartford. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rockwell are buried 
 in Spring Grove cemetery. Mrs. Rockwell was 
 noted for her gentle, winning manner, and was a 
 consistent member of the Congregational Church. 
 She had descended from one of the oldest families 
 in Connecticut, William Hyde having been one of 
 the oldest settlers of Norwich. The name of Will- 
 iam Hyde first appears in Hartford in the old bury- 
 ing ground as one of the oldest settlers, but the 
 name was well known in England for many \-ears 
 before it was found in America. Sir Robert Llyde 
 
 was chief justice of the court of common pleas 
 in 1660. Sir Edward Hyde, afterward the Earl of 
 Clarendon, is known to all students of English his- 
 tory as the grandfather of Queen Anne and of Ed- 
 ward Hyde, who became one of the provincial gov- 
 ernors of New York. 
 
 William Hyde was probably a contemporary of 
 Sir Robert and came to America with Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker, the first minister in Hartford, removing 
 to Saybrook and later to Norwich, where he died 
 on Jan. 6, 1681. William Hyde's children were:. 
 Hester, who married John Post; Samuel, born in 
 Hartford, about 1637, married, in June, 1659, Jane 
 Lee, a daughter of Thomas Lee, of East Saybrook, 
 and their children were Elizabeth, born in August, 
 1660, married Richard Lord; Phebe, born in Jan- 
 uary, 1663, married Mathew Griswold; SamueU 
 born in 1665, married Elizabeth Calkins ; John, 
 born in December, 1667, married Experience Abel;. 
 William, born in January, 1670, married Ann Bush- 
 nell ; Thomas, born in July, 1672, married Mary 
 Backus ; Jalus, born in May, 1677, married Eliza- 
 beth Bushnell; and Sarah, born in 1675, died the 
 same year. 
 
 Thomas Hyde, son of Samuel, was born in July, 
 1672, in Norwich, Conn., and died April 9, 1755. 
 In December, 1696, he married Mary, daughter of 
 Stephen Backus, of Norwich, and their children 
 were: Alary, born Feb. 21, 1698, married John 
 Pember; Thomas, born July 29, 1699, married 
 Elizabeth Huntington; Phe-be, born March 16, 
 
 1702, married John French; Jacob, born Jan. 20^ 
 
 1703, married Harriet Kingsbury; Jane, born Dec. 
 4, 1704, married John Birchard ; and Abner, born 
 Sept. 12, 1706, married first Jerusha Huntington,, 
 and second, Mehetable Smith. 
 
 Jacob Hyde, born on Jan. 20, 1703, in Norwich, 
 Conn., died Jan. 22, 1782, was married Oct. 11,. 
 1727, to Hannah, daughter of Joseph Kingsbury,, 
 and their children were: Jacob, born Aug. I, 1730,. 
 married Hannah Hasen ; JNIary, born March 24, 
 1732, married Peabody Moseley; Ephraim, born on. 
 April 23, 1734; Joseph, born June I, 1736, married' 
 first Abigail Abel, and second married Justicia 
 Abal ; Hannah, born Alay 8, 1738, married Samuel 
 Ladd; Ruth, 'born Jan. 26, 1740, married EzekieL 
 Ladd ; Jonathan, born Jan. 4, 1742, died Oct. 22, 
 1743; Silence, born April 13, 1744, married Joseph 
 Ladd; Rebecca, born Dec. 11, 1745, married Leb- 
 beus Armstrong; and Phebe, born Oct. 7, 1751^ 
 died Jan. 28, 1771. 
 
 Ephraim Hyde, son of Jacob, v/as born in Nor- 
 wich, later removed to Stafford, and married Mar- 
 tha Giddings, of Norwich, the children born to them; 
 being: Nathaniel, IMarch 7, 1757, married first 
 Sarah String, and second Cynthia Palmer; Han- 
 nah, Nov. 15, 1758; Lydia, Jan. 6, 1760, married 
 Joseph Alden ; Ephraim, Jan. 23, 1763, married 
 "Margaret Walbridge; Nathan, Feb. 15, 1765, mar- 
 ried Olive \\'ales ; Jacob, Nov. 13, 1767, married 
 Lydia Llall ; Jasper, December, 1769, married De- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 465 
 
 light Strong; Emma, Aug. 2, 1772, married Eli 
 Converse; Eli, Alay 4, 1777, married Alehitable 
 Lyon. 
 
 Jacob Hyde, son of Ephraim, was born in 
 Stafford, on Nov. 13, 1767, and died June 8, 1847, 
 and married Lydia Hall, of Stafford. The children 
 of this marriage were: Ephraim Hall, March 17, 
 1794, died Feb. 22, 1873, married first Nancy Shaw, 
 second, Esther Foster; Jacob, born in 1802, died 
 Nov. 30, 1828; Lydia, born in 1797, died Dec. 20, 
 1832, married Daniel Pinney; Hannah, born March 
 6, 1808, died in Meriden, Oct. 13, 1893. On Sept. 
 24, 1834, she married Samuel Rockwell, the father 
 of Mrs. N. F. Griswold. 
 
 ROLAND AUSTIN SMITH. One of the well- 
 known farmer citizens of that part of North Haven 
 known as Montowese, is Roland Austin Smith, who 
 is a descendant of an old and honored family of 
 Crawfordshire, England. Asa Smith, the grand- 
 father, came to America when a young man, landing 
 at Boston and opening up a blacksmith shop, which 
 he operated for some time there, later moving to 
 Sherburne, Mass., where he also' worked at his trade. 
 He subsequently located in the home of his daugh- 
 ter in Walpole, Mass., where both he and his wife 
 died. The children born to this couple were : Em- 
 ery; Louisa, who married Metcalf Smith; Roxie, 
 who married Reuben Clapp; Caroline, who married 
 William Carroll; and Roland Sumner. 
 
 Roland Sumner Smith was born in Sherburne, 
 Mass., and learned the trade of blacksmith under 
 Mr. Plimpton, in Walpole, Mass., and also engaged 
 in making hoes, scythes, in those days all the work 
 being performed by hand. Later he removed to 
 Burrville, Mass., and still later entered into work 
 at his trade in both Walpole and Foxboro, his last 
 work being done in Walpole Center, removing some 
 time previous to his death to Norfolk, Mass. His 
 marriage was to Eliza Gilbert, who was a sister of 
 Lydia Curtis, who became the mother of Gen. 
 Nelson Miles. The father of Mrs. Smith was 
 Solomon Gilbert, a basket manufacturer, who was 
 born in Sharon, Mass. The children of this union 
 were Roland A. ; Maria, who married Ellis Boyden, 
 of Walpole, Mass.; Levi E., a resident of Lynn, 
 JNIass. ; and Charles H., a resident of Boston. 
 
 Roland Austin Smith was born in Walpole, 
 Mass., May 24, 1824, and removed with his par- 
 ents to Foxboro when a lad, and went to the dis- 
 trict schools in that village and in Walpole. After 
 the age of twelve he had little educational opportun- 
 ity and came to New Haven, where he was em- 
 ployed by his uncle, Levi Gilbert, as a clerk in a con- 
 fectionery store at the corner of Center and Church 
 streets. Remaining with his uncle for two years, 
 he then returned home and was occupied on the farm 
 until he was eighteen, when he started in to. learn 
 the trade of a baker, in Medfield, Mass., and be- 
 came skilled in the business. For fifteen years he 
 worked at this trade in New Haven, in a building 
 
 30 
 
 located where the Hyperion Theater now stands, 
 and then embarked in the oyster business. Hiring 
 a depot on Orange street, he dealt in the bivalves, 
 both wholesale and retail, shipping many to distant 
 States, remaining in this line about nine years. 
 Later he started a restaurant where the Second 
 National Bank is now located, remaining there but 
 a short time, as this did not prove a favorable lo- 
 cation. 
 
 JNIr. Smith then took a position as brakeman on 
 the Hartford & New Haven R. R., and filled many 
 positions on the road, acting as a general mechanic 
 at times, and becoming conductor, severing his con- 
 nection with the road when business became poor 
 with it, on account of the Civil war. Entering the 
 shop of Peck, Smith & Co. of Southington, Conn.,, 
 now the Peck, Stowe & Wilcox Co., he remained in 
 their employ for ten years, doing general mechani- 
 cal work, and being employed on bayonets, which 
 were sold to the government. He remained all 
 through the war, but after its close the demand for 
 these weapons ceased, and another line of goods 
 was produced. A man of many resources, when 
 one line of work failed Mr. Smith found another, 
 and coming to North Haven, he was employed to 
 care for an aged lady, Mrs. Bedotha Button, for 
 nine years faithfully performing the duties re- 
 quired of him. After her death he bought his pres- 
 ent farm from Eli Hayes, and has made many im- 
 provements, and carries on a general line of farm- 
 ing. 
 
 On May 25, 1848, Mr. Smith was married tO' 
 Lois Eaton, a native of North Haven, and a daugh- 
 ter of Theophilus and Elmira (Bronson) Eaton, and' 
 two children have been born of this unioh : Charles- 
 and Harriet. A very pleasant and companionable' 
 gentleman, his recollections of former days are very 
 interesting, and he possesses a wonderful memory,, 
 stored with incidents of interest. His political affil- 
 iation is with the Republican party, and he is ever 
 ready to uphold its principles, although he is unwill- 
 ing to hold any position in the gift of the party. 
 
 TH0:MAS ANDREW SAIITH, who in early 
 life was prominently identified with the industrial 
 mterests of New Haven county, and is now en- 
 gaged in agricultural pursuits in North Branford, 
 was born in that town Jan. 9, 1827, and belongs 
 to old Colonial families. His paternal grandfather, 
 Thomas Smith, was born about 1762, and died 
 Feb. 20, 181 5. Fie was a soldier of the war of 
 1 81 2, and succeeded in blowing up an English 
 craft, but was injured in the explosion and died 
 from the effects of his wounds. His first wife, 
 Sarah Frost, was the mother of Thomas (father 
 of the subject of this sketch), John and Sarah. 
 On April 22, 1801, he married Rosanna Hull, who 
 died Feb, 3, 1846. In their family were five chil- 
 dren, namely: Ebenezer, born March 17, 1802, 
 who wedded Mary Ann Rogers ; Rosanna, bap- 
 tized June 21, 1812; Martha, who married George 
 
466 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 L. Thorpe; Hiram, baptized May 6, 1810; and 
 James. 
 
 Deacon Thomas Smith was born in North 
 Haven Sept. 20, 1798, and died Dec. 10, 1874. 
 He was married Jan. 24, 1819, to Hannah Tuttle, 
 daughter of Jude Tuttle. She was born Jan 4, 
 1802, and died Dec. 6, 1876. To them were born 
 the following- children: Julius, born Dec. 6, 1819, 
 wedded Alary Frost; he was engaged in the 
 butcher business in Fair Haven and Hartford. 
 George R., born Jan. 18, 182 1, married Emeline 
 Munson, and followed farming near the old home- 
 stead. Sarah L., born April 20, 1824, died young. 
 Thomas Andrew is next in order of birth. James 
 F., born Dec. 31, 1830, also followed farming near 
 the old homestead. Jane F., twin sister of James 
 F., is the widow of William S. Munson, of Wall- 
 ingford. John W., born Jan. 14, 1835, first married 
 Anna Fowler and second Ida Bradley, and is en- 
 gaged in farming in Seymour, Conn. Julia A., 
 born Aug. 20, 1844, married Henry Harrison, of 
 North Branford. All are now deceased with the 
 exception of Thomas A., Jane and John W. 
 
 (Dn the maternal side Thomas A. Smith traces 
 his ancestry back to William Tuttle, a passenger 
 on the "Planter," who came to New England at 
 the age of twenty-six years, and died in June, 
 1673. His wife, Elizabeth, was born in 1612, and 
 died in 1684. In their family were the following 
 children: John, born in 1631 ; Hannah, born in 
 1632 or 1633; Thomas, born in 1633 or 1634; 
 Jonathan, who was baptized in 'Charlestown, Mass., 
 July 8, 1637; David, who was baptized April 7, 
 1639; Joseph, who was baptized in New Haven, 
 Conn., Nov. 22, 1640; Sarah, who was also^ born 
 in New Haven and married John Slauson ; Eliza- 
 beth, who married Richard Edwards; Simon, who 
 was baptized ]\Iarch 28, 1647; Benjamin; jMercy, 
 who married Samuel Brown ; and Nathaniel. 
 
 Jonathan Tuttle, son of William, was born in 
 Charlestown, Mass., in 1637, and died in 1705. 
 He married Rebecca Bell, of Stamford, Conn., a 
 daughter of Lieut. Francis Bell. She died in 1676. 
 They had six children, whose names and dates of 
 birth were as follows: Rebecca, Sept. 10, 1664; 
 I\Iary, Sept. 7, 1666; Jonathan, April 6, 1669; 
 Simon, March 11, 1671 ; William, May 25, 1673; 
 and Nathaniel, Feb. 25, 1676. 
 
 William Tuttle, son of Jonathan, wedded Mary 
 Abernethy, of Wallingford, Conn., and they had 
 eleven children: Aaron, born Nov. 25, 1698; 
 Moses; Alary, August, 1702; Ezekiel, April 21, 
 17 — ; Abel; Susanna, Nov. 10, 1708; Lydia, Feb. 
 22, 1711; Jemima, Feb. 13, 1713; Hannah, Nov. 
 10, 1715; William, Aug. I, 1718; and Daniel, 
 April 30, 1722. 
 
 Aaron Tuttle, a son of William, was one of 
 the founders of the Episcopal Church in Walling- 
 ford, Conn. He was married, Feb. 6, 1724, to 
 Alary Munson, and to them were born the fol- 
 lowing children : Jude, the eldest, was born Aug. 
 
 16, 1724; Ddborah, born Dec. 30, 1725, married 
 Amos Clark; Abel, born Feb. 14, 1728, married 
 Dorcas Thomas; Aaron, born Oct. 23, 1729, died 
 in 1737; Mary, born May 22, 1732; Eleazer, born 
 iJct. 12, 1734, died in 1739 ; Ithamar, born Oct. 
 26, 1736, was the great-grandfather of our sub- 
 ject; Aaron, born Nov. 30, 1738; Eleazer, born 
 Sept. 2, 1740; Rachel, born July 14, 1742, mar- 
 ried James Hill; and Isaac, born Feb. 4, 1745. 
 
 Ensign Ithamar Tuttle, also captain in the 
 militia, was born Oct. 26, 1736, and died Nov. 8, 
 181 7. He was married, July 28, 1762, to Rhoda 
 Barnes, who died May 6, 1806. Their children 
 were Joshua, who was born in 1764; Jude, the 
 grandfather of our subject; Levi, who married 
 Molly Bassett ; Polly, who married David J. Tut- 
 tle ; Betsey, who married Reuben Doolittle ; Patty ; 
 Jerry, who married Mary Bronson; Whiting, who 
 married Lucinda Tuttle ; L}'man, who with the 
 toregoing was baptized Oct. 7, 1780; Manning, 
 who was baptized Feb. 23, 1781 ; Rhoda, who was 
 baptized April 13, 1783, and married Amos Brad- 
 ley ; and Ithamar. 
 
 Jude Tuttle, the maternal grandfather of our 
 subject, was born June 24, 1765, and died probably 
 Sept. 26, 1808. He married Louisa Smith, Jan. 
 I, 1791, and they had six children, namely: 
 Aurelia, Who married Jesse Bassett ; Whiting, who 
 married a member of the Fairbanks family ; JPatty, 
 who was born in Rome, Mass. ; Lorinda, who died 
 in North Adams, Mass. ; Hannah, mother of our 
 subject; and Jude S., who was born July 4, 1804. 
 
 Thomas A. Smith, whose name introduces this 
 sketch, passed his boyhood and youth in North 
 Branford, and began his education in the district 
 schools of the town. Later, however, he attended 
 the graded schools of North Flaven. -When a 
 young man he secured employment in a factory 
 at Meriden, where he remained two years, and 
 then embarked in the foundry business at Clinton- 
 ville. Conn., as a member of a company, manufac- 
 turing locks and similar articles. Prior to the war 
 of the Rebellion they did a large business in the 
 South, depending on the mail order system to ad- 
 vertise and sell their wares. About 1855 JMr. 
 Smith sold out, and took stock in the agricultural 
 implement manufacturing company, then being or- 
 ganized in Northford, which enterprise was car- 
 ried on very successfully for a number of years, 
 and then discontinued. He next engaged in mer- 
 chandising at that place until 1896, when he dis- 
 posed of his business, and has since superintended 
 the operation of his farm of sixty acres in North- 
 ford. 
 
 In that town, Mr. Smith was married, May 9, 
 1855, to Miss Ann Delia Harrison, a daughter of 
 Albert and Ann (Foote) Harrison. She died Dec. 
 I, 1859, leaving one child, Albert Harrison, who 
 was born Feb. 11, 1856, and died May 25, 1898. 
 He was engaged in fruit raising at Paw Paw, 
 Mich., and was married, March 18, 1885, to Emma 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 467 
 
 R. Snyder, by whom he had two children: 
 Thomas Albert, born Jan. 25, 1886; and Paul 
 Harrison, born Sept. 20, 1889. Mr. Smith was 
 married, second, Oct. 21, 1869, 'by Rev. Mr. Davis, 
 to Miss Martha E. Page, of North Branford, 
 whose ancestral history is given in connection with 
 the sketch of her brother on another page of this 
 volume. 
 
 Politically Mr. Smith is an ardent Republican, 
 and in religious connection a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church of Northford. He has been 
 honored with several official positions of trust and 
 responsibility, having served as postmaster of 
 Northford for about fourteen years; selectman 
 several terms ; tax collector six consecutive years ; 
 member of the State Legislature two terms ; and 
 mem|ber of the school board. In business affairs 
 he was always energetic, prompt and notably re- 
 liable, and he is a man whose worth and ability 
 have gained him success, honor and public confi- 
 dence. 
 
 EDWIN W. COOPER, who was born in West- 
 ville. Conn., Feb. 3, 1826, passed out of life Dec. 
 10, 1898, and in his death Westville lost not only 
 one of its most successful manufacturers, but also 
 a citizen who was prominently identified with and 
 interested in the progress and industrial develop- 
 ment of his section to an unusual degree. 
 
 The birth of Edwin W. Cooper occurred in the 
 town where his business success was obtained. His 
 early educational opportunities were very limited 
 as, by the death of his father, when only a child, he 
 was obliged to labor for his mother's support, she 
 being left with a family to care for. Entering a 
 cooper shop as early as he would be received as an 
 apprentice, he worked there for a time and then 
 took passage on a vessel owned by Abram Heaton, 
 gradually being promoted until his wages permitted 
 the saving of money. This vessel plied between 
 New Haven and Southern ports, and Mr. Cooper 
 continued on it for three years. 
 
 Upon his return to Westville, Mr. Cooper en- 
 tered into business in partnership with Joseph D. 
 Payne, the association continuing for fifteen years. 
 It was at this time that the business was inaugurated 
 in the town of Madison, by Mr. Cooper, that proved 
 such a financial success and resulted in the founding 
 of an industrial enterprise which has been of the 
 greatest value to this section of the county. For 
 about fifteen years Mr. Cooper was a manufacturer 
 of manilla and straw board paper, utilizing the force 
 of two mills, and giving employment to a large 
 number of competent workmen. For some years 
 prior to his death he had retired from the active 
 management of the business. 
 
 Mr. Cooper was married, first, to Ruth Ann 
 Wooster, who was a daughter of Garry Wooster, 
 of Westville. She died, leaving one son, Zenas W., 
 who is a resident of Windsor, Conn. On Sept. 8, 
 1868, Mr. Cooper was married to Miss Martha S. 
 
 Hotchkiss, who was born in Naugatuck, Conn., a 
 daughter of Gideon O. and Nancy (Smith) Hotch- 
 kiss, the latter of whom was a daughter of Anson 
 Smith, also of Naugatuck. One child was born 
 of this union: Eleanor M., born in 1872, married 
 Harry B. Kennedy, of New Haven, Conn., and died 
 Feb. 8, 1896. 
 
 Mrs. Cooper was a daughter of Gideon Oscar 
 Hotchkiss, a son of Alajor Orrin, a son of Amos, 
 who was a son of Gideon. Gideon Oscar Hotch- 
 kiss was a fanner of prominence, and was also a 
 leader in the Democratic party, for nine years being 
 one of the most efficient sheriffs of the county, hold- 
 ing the office at the time of his death, in 1872. The 
 children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hotchkiss were: 
 (i) Martha and (2) Alarian, twins, the former of 
 whom became Mrs. Cooper, and the latter Mrs. 
 George W. Davis. (3) Orrin Waite, deceased, 
 was born in Naugutuck where he was educated, 
 learned the trade of machinist and became superin- 
 tendent of the E. S. Wheeler factory in Saugatuck, 
 spending his last years in Bridgeport; he married 
 Emma Perry, who was born in Westport, and they 
 had one son^ — Edwin Benton, who was educated 
 in Westville, became also a machinist, and in 1895 
 went to Rotterdam, Holland, where he is the super- 
 intendent of a factory. (He married Katherine Mc- 
 Carty, of Brooklyn, N. Y., near which city her' 
 father is a farmer, and they have two sons, Harold 
 Orrin and Vernon Le Grand.) (4) George Lean- 
 der is deceased. (5) Ida married Willis B. Isbell, 
 well known as "Parson" Isbell, and they have two 
 children, Lena May, who married Rev. Charles O. 
 Scoville in New Haven, and has a daughter Helen 
 May ; and Grace Lillian, who married Dennis Crum- 
 my, and has two children, Teresa and Julia. (6) 
 Hobart is a prominent lawyer and a judge in the 
 city of New Haven. (7) Howard L. married May 
 Towne of Cleveland, Ohio, and is superintendent of 
 the malleable iron department of the Deering Manu- 
 facturing Co., of Chicago. 
 
 Mr. Cooper was a life-long Democrat and for 
 eight years served his city as selectman. Frater- 
 nally he was connected with the Masonic order, and 
 both he and family were consistent and devoted 
 members of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 SELDEN CHARLES WILLIAMS, who is 
 one of the well-known and popular men of Meri- 
 den, is now living as a retired farmer, and is en- 
 joying in bis old age the fruitage of honest and 
 industrious years. He was born on the Middle- 
 town Road, East Meriden, May 22, 1832, a grand- 
 son of David Williams, a native of New York, 
 who followed the occupation of ship carpenter. 
 ' Robert Williams, son of David, and the father 
 of Selden, was born in Catskill, N. Y., and as his 
 father died four years after, Robert was taken to 
 bouth Glastonbury, Conn., and received into the 
 home of David Tryon, where he remained until 
 sixteen years of age. At that time he came to 
 
468 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Meriden, and entered the employ of Xoah Pom- 
 eroy, a tinner, and devoted himself to learning the 
 tinner's trade. For several 3'ears he was an ap- 
 prentice with ^Ir. Pomeroy, and for fifteen years 
 after leaving him followed the trade as a journey- 
 man. He then boug'ht his native farm, embracing 
 twelve acres in East Merickn, which became the 
 home of the family. He traveled through the 
 United States for several years, selling patent 
 rights, with great success. His last years, how- 
 ever, were spent on the farm, where he died. In 
 politics he was a Democrat, and in religious mat- 
 ters a believer in the faith of the Baptist Church, 
 of which his wife was a life-long member. Mr. 
 Williams was married in Meriden to Rachel Bald- 
 win, daughter of Samuel Baldwin, of East j\'Ieri- 
 den. She was a school teacher in her early years, 
 and died on the farm where she had lived many 
 years, and her remains are buiiied in the East 
 Cemetery. They had nine children : Alonzo J., 
 who died in 1900; Hannah, the wife of Henry 
 Winslow, of Middletown ; Selden Charles ; Jo- 
 seph H., who died in 1902 ; Russell, of jVIeriden ; 
 Francis, of East Meriden; Linus, of Akron, Ohio; 
 Isaac B., of Meriden; Harvey Miller, who died 
 when nine months old. 
 
 Selden Charles Williams received his education 
 in the district school and at Meriden Academy. 
 He grew up on the farm, and at the age of eight- 
 een years began traveling through the Middle 
 States and the South, engaged in peddling. At 
 New Orleans his health failed, and he took passage 
 on a Swedish barque for Italy, acting as third mate 
 on. board the ship while on the voj'age. While 
 returning home he learned at West Sicily, of the 
 breaking out of the Civil war in the United States. 
 He hastened home and enlisted in Company F, 
 15th Conn. Y. I., with Capt. Al. Harvey and Col. 
 Dexter Wright as his superior officers. Although 
 he had a crippled hand, he was accepted, and par- 
 ticipated in several battles; proving himself a brave 
 and loyal soldier. He was transferred to the 
 quartermaster's department, having charge of the 
 captured horses and mules brought in by Sher- 
 man's men. Mr. AA'illiams was mustered out of 
 the service in North Carolina, and returned home, 
 feeling that he had done a man's part in the hour 
 of his country's need. 
 
 At home Mr. Williams was engaged in the 
 cultivation of the home farm for a time, and then 
 found work in the factory of liradley & Hubbard. 
 For eight years he was with that noted house, and 
 then resumed h'is work on the farm, where he is 
 still engaged. Air. Williams is well read, and is 
 thoroughly posted on all the subjects of the da\-. 
 An earnest and intelligent believer in the cardinal 
 principles of Democracy, he is a worker for the 
 success nf the party. He is not committed to an\' 
 church, and holds the Gulden Rule as a sufficient 
 law of life. 
 
 On Sept. 4, 1865, .Mr. Williams was married 
 
 to Sarah L. Remington, who was born in Meriden, 
 a daug^hter of Oliver T. and \'ince_y ( Morse j Rem- 
 ington. To this union were born eigiit children, 
 of whom four are living, namely : Carson E. 
 married Anna E. Loy ; Flora E. is at home ; Har- 
 vey, born Oct. 24, 1875, and now a butcher and 
 meat dealer, was married to Josephine Iviemli ; and 
 Sarah Lois married Edwin S. Culver, of Meriden, 
 and is the mother of three children, Howard 
 Marcus, Raymond George and Robert Almon. All 
 the others died in infancy. j\Irs. Williams is a 
 lad)- of intelligence, and has proved' a worthy help- 
 meet to her excellent husband. 
 
 CHARLES GRANNISS MERRIMAN, now 
 living retired in Westville, is a native of New 
 Haven, born May 29, 1823, in Elm street, and 
 through a long and exemplary life has upheld the 
 prestige of a family whose members have ever com- 
 manded the highest respect. The connection of 
 the Merriman family with the history of Connecticut 
 dates back to the earliest Colonial days. The name 
 has been variously spelled Merriman, Merriam, etc. 
 From the History of Wallingford we extract the 
 following : 
 
 "Joseph Merriam took the freeman's oath in Lex- 
 ington, Mass., March 14, 1638, and died Jan. i, 
 1641, and some of his descendants assumed the name 
 of or were recorded as Merriman. Capt. Nathaniel 
 Merriman was one of the original settlers of Wal- 
 lingford, Conn., in 1670. He died Feb. 13, 1693, 
 aged eighty years. 
 
 "John, born Feb. 28, 1659, had three wives, first 
 Hannah Lines, of New Haven, second Mary Doo- 
 little, and third Elizabeth Peck. 
 
 "John, son of John and Elizabeth Peck, born 
 Oct. 16, 1691. This John (i) was probably a Bap- 
 tist preacher, preaching at Wallingford aiid after- 
 ward at Southington, where he died Feb. 17, 1784, 
 and he was my grandfather's grandfather, as fol- 
 lows : Silas (2), Marcus (3), Marcus Jr. (4), 
 my father, Charles Granniss (5) Merriman, myself, 
 aged sixty-five now (1888), born iNIay 29, 1823. 
 
 "Silas Merriman, my great-grandfather, was 
 born 1734, died Alay 8, 1805, age seventy-one; his 
 wife, Hannah Upson, died 1820." 
 
 Marcus Merriman, grandfather of our subject, 
 was born Oct. 31, 1762, in Cheshire, Conn., and 
 died in New Haven. Just before his death he wrote 
 a sketch of his life which is now in the possession 
 of his grandson, our subject. He was very active 
 during the Revolutionary period, and took' part in 
 that struggle as an artillerist, being in manv 
 of the engagements- in and around New Haven. 
 His parents had moved back to Southington, 
 and remained there throughout the war. In 
 1780 Marcus Merriman went to sea on a privateer, 
 :ind he Eer^'ed several months on the Atlan- 
 tic, visiting, in company with other privateers, 
 France and other countries. In March, 1781 he 
 enlisted on board a 20-gun ship which was to 'sail 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 469 
 
 out of New Lonaon, under letter of marque. He 
 went to the West Indies, where at Port an Prince, 
 Hayti, he had yehow fever. In the Bay of Biscay, 
 whither the vessel had sailed after visiting the West 
 Indies, they were engaged by two British war ves- 
 sels, were hard pressed, and obliged to run ashore 
 near Bayonne, where the ship was abandoned. After 
 recovering the cargo they sold it, and Air. Merri- 
 man walked to Bordeaux, a distance of 100 miles. 
 This consumed four or five days, and after waiting 
 a month, he and his companions left on foot for 
 Xantes, 200 miles away. At the latter port they 
 shipped for $8.00 per month, on a Rhode Island 
 brig. Here they heard the good news of the sur- 
 render of Lord Cornwallis to Gen. Washington. 
 After leaving the coast of France, they did not see 
 another vessel until they arrived in Providence, after 
 a voyage of fifty-three days. They carried silks and 
 brandy from France. Finally returning to New 
 Haven, JXIarcus Merriman completed his trade, that 
 of a jeweler and silversmith, which he continued -to 
 follow, becoming a member of the firm of Alerri- 
 man & Bradley. Marcus Merriman was a good citi- 
 zen and a devout believer in the principles of Chris- 
 tianity, which he earnestly tried to follow. He was 
 four times married. In November, 1783, he wed- 
 ded Sarah Parmelee (grandmother of our subject), 
 who died May 16, 1793, leaving three small children. 
 Bv his second wife, Susan Bonticou, who died in 
 January, 1807, he had five children, all of whom 
 ■died in infancy but Sarah, who became the wife of 
 Eben N. Thomson, of Goshen, Conn. On Dec. 22, 
 1807, Mr. Merriman married Lydia Wilcox, of Kill- 
 ingworth, who died Feb. 5, 1822. In November, 
 1822, he married Betsey, widow of Othniel De For- 
 est, of Huntington, Connecticut. 
 
 Alarcus Merriman, Jr., father of Charles G., was 
 born in New Haven, and there died Dec. 11, 1864, 
 On Sept. 12, 1813, he married Alary Hotchkiss, who 
 was born in New Haven, March 18, 1793, a daugh- 
 ter of Hezekiah Hotchkiss, also a native of New 
 Haven, and a member of an old Connecticut family. 
 Airs. Merriman died March 12, 1855. Nine chil- 
 dren blessed this union, of whom we have the fol- 
 lowing brief record: James E., born Jan. 27, 1815, 
 resided in Memphis, Tenn., where he was engaged 
 in the jewelry business; he died Alay 15, 1879, in 
 New Haven. Alarcus P., born Nov. 18, 1817, died 
 June 3, 1821. Elias P., born Alay i, 1819, lives in 
 Westville; for many years he was in the tax col- 
 lector's office. George T., bom Feb. 22. 1821, died 
 on November 29, 1829. Charles G. is the sub- 
 ject proper of this article. William, born Dec. 
 22, 1825, died in infancy. Alary G., born June 13, 
 1827, died in July, 1830. Grace H., born Nov. 2, 
 1829, died Dec. 17, 1834. Samuel P., born July 9, 
 1831, died Sept. 21, 1854. Alarcus Alerriman, Jr., 
 the father of this family, was a silversmith during 
 liis early manhood, and in later life a manufacturer 
 of hardware. He took a very active part in the pub- 
 lic affairs of his section, held numerous local offices. 
 
 and discharged the duties thereof so completely to 
 the satisfaction of his fellow citizens that they hon- 
 ored him with election to the State Senate. His 
 political affiliation was originally with the Whig- 
 party, and he eventually became a Republican. In 
 religion he was a Congregationalist, holding mem- 
 bership with the North Church. 
 
 Charles Granniss Alerriman remained in the 
 city of his birth until he was fourteen, and received 
 his literary training in the Lancasterian School, 
 where Air. Lovell was then the instructor. He then 
 went to New York City, remaining there until he 
 was twenty-one, when he went to Montgomery, Ala., 
 for two years. His next move was to Memphis, 
 Tenn., where he resided for twenty years, engaged 
 in the jewelry business. In 1858 Mr. Merriman 
 brought his family to Hamden, Conn., purchasing 
 a farm whereon they lived until 1875, since which 
 year their home has been in Westville. He never 
 engaged in farming as an occupation, residing on 
 the place mentioned from preference. No citizen 
 of the community enjoys more thoroughly the es- 
 teem and affection of his neighbors than does our 
 subject. Mr. Merriman has literary tastes, which 
 in his years of retirement he has had plenty of op- 
 portunity to gratify. He has written numerous arti- 
 cles for different papers, and has published several 
 books of poems, among them "The Legend of the 
 Sleeping Giant," "Crude Thoughts In A'erse," 
 "Past and Present," and "Memories, Reminiscences, 
 etc. in verse of the Old Lancasterian School." Like 
 his father, before him, he is a Republican in politics 
 and a Congregationalist in religion, in the latter con- 
 nection holding membership in the Westville Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 On Aug. 22, 1855, Mr. Merriman married Aliss 
 Alartha L. White, who was born in Waterbury, 
 Conn., but was living in Alemphis at the time of 
 their marriage. Her parents, Hiram J. and Hen- 
 rietta White, were Waterbury people. Three chil- 
 dren were born to Mr. and Airs. Alerriman : Fran- 
 cis, who died in infancy; Laura W., who died Oct. 
 15, 1880, aged twenty-two years; and Miss Alice 
 AI., residing at home. 
 
 ROAIANTA T. LIXSLEY, one of the leading 
 and influential men of North Haven, is a worthy 
 representative of an old family in Connecticut. 
 The original settlers in America were two brothers, 
 Francis and John, who came from England-, and 
 located and bought land in Totoket, in 1643. From 
 John are descended the Linsleys of North Haven. 
 For genealogy see sketch of Edward Lee Linsley, 
 elsewhere in this volume. 
 
 Romanta T. Linsley was born in Northford, 
 Dec. 17, 1832, and received every educational ad- 
 vantage that the time and place afforded, having 
 both district and select schooling. Until eighteen 
 years of age he attended school, a part of the time, 
 and assisted about the farm, and then started to 
 learn the cabinet maker's trade, later the car- 
 
470 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 penter's trade. His first wages did not cover more 
 than the price of his board. Hampered by poor 
 heahh, he was not able to continue very long at 
 one occupation. He worked in North Haven in 
 an agricultural implement factory, and then went 
 to Pennsylvania, where he tried work on a railroad. 
 Returning later to North Haven, he assisted his 
 father in the lumber business. The war breaking 
 out, his brother Samuel gave up his butchering 
 business to become a soldier, and our subject took 
 charge of this, selling meat over a large territory. 
 Closing out this business, he returned to his old 
 trade of joiner, and continued in that line until 
 1885, when he was elected first selectman, to the 
 duties of which office he gave his whole time and 
 attention. For twelve years Mr. Linsley held that 
 important position, his term expiring in 1897, 
 since which time he has lived on the pleasant farm 
 of eleven acres, somewhat retired from public life. 
 During his administration the beautiful Memorial 
 Hall, in North Haven, was erected, and he was 
 chairman of the building committee. In October, 
 1899, he was further honored by his fellow citi- 
 zens with the appointment to the office of town 
 treasurer, to succeed the late F. Hayden Todd, 
 which position he still fills. He has also served 
 efficiently as grand juror. 
 
 Mr. Linsley married Miss Angeline B. Pardee, 
 a native of North Haven, a daughter of John and 
 Deborah (Todd) Pardee, and the only child of 
 this union was Idora, who was born Aug. 2, 1858, 
 and who died Alarch 18, 1872. In politics Mr. 
 Linsley is a stanch Republican. For twenty-five 
 years he has been 'the treasurer of the Episcopal 
 Church, of North Haven, and yet retains the po- 
 sition, and he has also been vestryman; both he and 
 his wife are valued members of the same. Kind 
 and obliging in manner, Mr. Linsley has many 
 friends, and is regarded as one of the substantial 
 and representative mien of North Haven. 
 
 ALFRED D. TYRRILL, superintendent of 
 the New Haven branch of the National Casket 
 Co., is one of the well known men of the business 
 world in New Haven. Almost his entire life has 
 been passed within the confines of New Haven 
 county, and there, where he is so well known in 
 commercial and social circles, no man stands higher 
 in the estimation of the people. He was born in 
 Derby, Conn., Dec. 10, 1837, a son of Isaac H. 
 Tyrrih, of that town. 
 
 Isaac H. Tyrrill was born Jan. 5, 1812, a son 
 of Eben Tyrrill, and his wife Esther, the former 
 of whom was born in 1784, and died Feb. 21, 1825, 
 and the latter born Oct. 17, 1780, and died Jan. 
 10, 1835. Isaac PI. Tyrrill grew to manhood in 
 Derby,, and there learned the joiner's trade, be- 
 coming a master builder. In political sentiment 
 he was a stanch Whig, and' in his religious faith 
 an Episcopalian. He married Harriett S. Blake, 
 who was born April 6, 1811, a daughter of Isaac 
 
 Blake, and died June i, 1874. Two children were 
 born to them, Elmore S., born March 17, 1835, 
 now residing in New Haven; and Alfred D., our 
 subject. 
 
 Alfred D. Tyrrill was one year of age when 
 his parents removed from Derby to Newtown, 
 Conn., and there he acquired his literary trammg 
 in the public schools and in the academy, under 
 the personal tuition of J. Homer French and J. 
 E. Goodhue. He was prepared for Trinity Col- 
 lege, but was obliged to abandon bis intention in 
 regard to a higher education by the failure of his 
 health. Until he was twenty-one years of age he 
 engaged in teaching in the public schools, spending 
 his summers in looking after his mother's prop- 
 erty. By the time he had gained his majority he 
 had become prominent in public affairs, and he was 
 elected to several offices at different times, being 
 town clerk for three years, registrar of vital statis- 
 tics for a like period, member of the board of edu- 
 cation six years, etc. He had six schools under 
 his charge to visit and examine all the teachers, 
 and was chief constable for three years, tax col- 
 lector one year. When President Buchanan was 
 in power, Jerome Judson was postmaster, but as 
 he was in business in Sandy Hook, i\Ir. Tyrrill 
 attended to the postoffice. After four years in 
 Newtown, closing up his affairs, he, in 1864, came 
 to New Haven, and has since made it his home. 
 His first employment in this city was as a laborer 
 in the New Haven Clock Co. ; he remained with 
 this company some twelve years in various posi- 
 tions, but by straining his eyes while filing saws, 
 he lost the sight of one eye. He was an expert saw 
 filer and held a position as such for fifteen years, 
 at the end of which time he became assistant super- 
 intendent of the company he had served so long. 
 After one year he was chosen superintendent, tak- 
 ing entire charge of the case and brass depart- 
 ment. After nine years in this responsible position 
 he resigned, and for a short time was engaged in 
 the retail grocery business. In 1 89 1 he became 
 superintendent of the National Casket Co., and in 
 1899, when that company became the New Haven 
 branch of the National Casket Co., Mr. Tyrrill 
 was appointed superintendent, and this he con- 
 tinues to be. He has built up a large trade, and 
 has won much praise for his management of the 
 company's interests in New Haven. 
 
 On Dec. 2t, 1858, Mr. Tyrrill was married to 
 Miss M'artha Dikeman, who was born in New- 
 town, Conn., a daughter of Ebenezer and Betsey 
 M. (Dikeman) Dikeman, the former born in New- 
 town, a son of Nathaniel Dikeman, and the latter 
 born in Danbury, a daughter of Niram and Pat- 
 tie (Berker) Dikeman. Niram and Nathaniel 
 Dikeman were brothers, and thev were the sons 
 of Thaddeus Dikeman. Two children blessed the 
 home of Mr. and Mrs. Tyrrill: (i) Dwight S., 
 born Jan. 2, i860, has for many years been asso- 
 ciated with his father. When the latter was super- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 471 
 
 intendent of the Ctock Co., Dwight was the assist- 
 ant superintendent, and again with the National 
 Casket Co., Dwight was bookkeeper for two years, 
 then traveUng salesman for a like period, and now 
 is foreman of the Mill department. He married 
 Anna Daniels, and makes his home in New Haven.^ 
 (2) Gertrude married William M. Reid, of Hart- 
 ford, where he is salesman in Brown & Thompson's 
 dry-goods store, the leading business of its kind in 
 Hartford. Politically J\Ir. Tyrrlll is a Democrat, 
 but in local affairs acts independently, voting for 
 the best man regardless of party. He is a member 
 of Wooster Lodge, No. 79, F. & A. M., and the 
 Mutual Benefit Association. For fourteen years 
 he was a miember of the Second Company, Gov- 
 ernor's Foot Guards, and for the last seven years 
 of that time was secretary and treasurer. When 
 a young man, Mr. Tyrrill was possessed of a tenor 
 voice of good quality, and for many years he was 
 the soloist in the Episcopal Church choir in New- 
 town, and also in other choirs. 
 
 HON. JOHN QUINCY THAYER, of Meri- 
 den, for thirty years and more one of its substantial 
 men and honored citizens, and now Judge of Pro- 
 bate for the Meriden district, and a veteran of the 
 Civil war, has long held a prominent position in the 
 professional and social circles of the city, in which 
 his useful life is passing. 
 
 Judge Thayer was born ]\Iarch 24, 1843, in the 
 town of New Milford, Litchfield Co., Conn., a son 
 of Augustine and Electa (Fairchild) Thayer, and a 
 grandson of Lemuel and Lucy (Brownson) Thayer. 
 Electa Fairchild belonged to the old and respected 
 family of that name in Newtown, Conn., where she 
 passed her girlhood and early womanhood. 
 
 Augustine Thayer was a carpenter and builder, 
 and followed his trade all his active life in New 
 Milford, where he was justice of the peace for a 
 number of years. A man of unassuming spirit and 
 genuine worth, his advice commanded respect, and 
 many disputes were settled by him out of court. For 
 fifty years he was a member of the Congregational 
 Church, and his daily life brought no blush of shame 
 to his Christian profession. As a good husband and 
 a kind father, as well as loyal and faithful friend, 
 he is tenderly remembered by those who knew him 
 most intimately. He was a strong Anti-slavery 
 man, and gave very substantial aid to the cause of 
 the Union in the days of war and strife. 
 
 The Fairchild family, as noted above, has long 
 been noted in Fairfield county, and is supposed to 
 be of Scottish origin, the name being written Fair- 
 bairn in the early days. The family coat-of-arms 
 indicates that some of its members took part in the 
 Crusades from 1096 to 1400 A. D. The family re- 
 moved from Scotland to England where the name 
 became Fairchild. Thomas Fairchild, who was the 
 first of the name in America, came with the first set- 
 tlers, locating at Stratford, Fairfield county, in the 
 rising colony of Connecticut. He became a mer- 
 
 chant, and was one of the leading men of the settle- 
 ment, holding various positions of honor and respon- 
 sibility. In 1(364 he was justice of the peace, and was 
 also a leather sealer for the county. Li 1654 he, with 
 his brother, and Thomas Sherwood, were appointed 
 a committee to draft men for the Narragansett war. 
 His death occurred Dec. 14, 1670. Aliss Seabrook, 
 a sister of Mrs. Thomas Sherwood, was his first 
 wife; and Miss Catherine Craigg, of London, Conn., 
 his second. To these two marriages were born six 
 children. 
 
 Thomas Fairchild, born in 1644, was the first 
 white child born in Stratford. He lived and died in 
 his native town, and was the father of the following 
 children: John, Josiah, Priscilla and Emma. 
 
 Josiah Fairchild, noted in the preceding para- 
 graph, was born in Stratford, in 1664, where he 
 was a land owner, and where he died. • Edward 
 Fairchild, his son, was born in Stratford, where he 
 grew to manhood, and in 1720 removed to New- 
 town, Fairfield county, where he spent the remainder 
 of his life and where his posterity still abide. He 
 was married, and became the father of Jonathan, 
 Ebenezer, Moses and James. 
 
 James Fairchild, the great-great-grandfather of 
 Judge Thayer, was born in Newtown, Conn., where 
 he lived and died. He was a land owner and a 
 farmer, and spent his life in his native community. 
 Silas, Philo and James were his children. 
 
 Silas Fairchild, the great-grandfather of Judge 
 Thayer, was born in Newtown, in 1748, and was 
 married to Sarah Godfrey, of Weston, Conn., who 
 died March 31, 1832, at the age of eighty-three 
 years. He died Dec. 17, 1821. He was a prom- 
 inent man and was commissioned lieu-tenant and 
 subsequently a captain of Train Band by Governor 
 Trumbull. His children were as follows : Joseph, 
 born Aug. 12, 1770; Abigail, born Aug. 10, 1772, 
 died March 28, 1794; Stephen Bradley, born May 
 31, 1774, died Feb. 19, 1775; Polly, born March 3, 
 1776, died Jan. 22, 1794; Sarah, born July 6, 1781. 
 
 Joseph Fairchild, the grandfather of Judge 
 Thayer, died June 23, 1855, and his years covered 
 a long and critical period in the history of the Re- 
 public. He was three times married, his second 
 wife being AmariUas Dibble, of Danbury, Conn. 
 She died Jan. 10, 1827, and their daughter. Electa, 
 became the wife of Augustine Thayer, and the 
 mother of Judge Thayer, as already noted. 
 
 Judge Thayer received his preliminary education 
 in the old Housatonic Institute at New Milford, 
 where he was being prepared for College at the 
 breaking out of the Civil war. The firing on Fort 
 Sumter, and the stirring scenes of the summer of 
 1861, aroused within his heart a patriotic devo- 
 tion that could not be denied, and he left the school 
 room for the tented field, enlisting Sept. 21, 1861, 
 in Company I, 8th Conn. V. I., and was mustered 
 into the LTnited States service with his company and 
 regiment the same day. This command became a 
 part of the Eastern army, sailing with the Burn- 
 
472 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 side expedition in January, 1862, and from that time 
 until its discharge, Dec. 12, 1865, saw much active 
 service, and made an honorable record for itself on 
 many a bloody field. Judge Thayer shared the for- 
 tunes of his regiment from start to finish, and par- 
 ticipated in the following notable engagements 
 Newbern, N. C, March 14, 1862; siege of ]Macon 
 in April, 1862; Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862 
 Fort Huger, April 19, 1863 ; Walthall Junction, \'a. 
 May 7, 1864; Fort Darling, Va., May 16, 1864 
 Petersburg, \'a., Aug. 25, 1804; Fort Harrison, Va., 
 Sept. 29, 1864, and entered Richmond with his regi- 
 ment April 3, 1865. After the fall of Richmond he 
 was detailed as clerk in the Adjutant-General's de- 
 partment of the 24th Army Corps, commanded by 
 General Ord, and subsequentl}-, after the dissolution 
 of that corps was assigned to duty at the headquar- 
 ters of the Department of Virginia, commanded by 
 General Terrj', where he served until discharged in 
 December, 1865. When his four years and three 
 months of military service were over, young Tha3'er 
 returned to his home with a record as a Union sol- 
 dier, of which he and his friends may well be proud. 
 
 Judge Thayer promptly resumed his studious 
 habits, and became a student in the office of Will- 
 iam Knapp, of New Milford, studying law under 
 his most efficient direction, being admitted to the 
 Litchfield Bar in 1869. In that year he located at 
 Meriden, and for three years it was his privilege to 
 be in the office with Hon. O. H. Piatt, now United 
 States Senator from Connecticut. After this period, 
 Mr. Thayer was associated in the practice of the 
 law with Hon. Ratliff Hicks, under the firm name of 
 Hicks & Thayer. This partnership continued sev- 
 eral years, .and since its dissolution Judge Thayer 
 has not been a member of any legal firm. Judge 
 Thayer has served several terms as a city attorney, 
 and for about thirteen years was assistant judge 
 and clerk of the city and police court of ^Meriden. 
 He has also been justice of the peace and a judge 
 advocate of the department of Connecticut G. A. R., 
 and was chosen to his present position. Judge of the 
 Court of Probate for the Meriden district, in 1893, 
 abl)' performing its many and complicated duties, to 
 the satisfaction of all concerned. Judge Thayer is 
 a man of ability, of the strictest integrity, and com- 
 mands the esteem- and respect of the communit\- in 
 which he has so long lived. 
 
 On Jan. 19, 1873, Judge Thayer was married to 
 Annie S., a daughter of S. Iv. Devereux, of Castine, 
 ]\Iaine, Collector of Customs of the Port of Castine. 
 The only child of this union was Zerline Devereux, 
 born in Meriden, Conn., Mav 29, 1880, and died 
 Dec. 9, 1884. 
 
 GATES. Throughout the past century there 
 have lived in the town of Derljy several generations 
 of the Gates famih-, among whom have been men of 
 prominence, wealth and large influence in the com- 
 munity — such men as the late Col. Robert Gates and 
 Robert AA'ilder Gates, and the present Flon. Robert 
 
 Owen Gates, former high sheriff of New Haven 
 county, and a man of prominence not only in the 
 town and county but in the State. Various mem- 
 bers of the earlier generations in America ranked 
 with the most prominent as well as the earliest of 
 the settlers of New England. 
 
 Capt. George Gates, the progenitor of the Derby 
 branch of the Gates family, was born about 1634, 
 in England, and came to this country when about 
 seventeen years old, in the care of Capt. Nicholas 
 Olmsted. He was of Hartford, Conn., as early as 
 1661, and in the following year was an original pro- 
 prietor of East Haddam, which locality was the 
 home of his descendants for generations. He was 
 captain of the First Military Company of Haddam, 
 and served as such until October, 1697. Capt. Gates 
 married Sarah, eldest daughter of Capt. Nicholas 
 Olmsted, of Hartford, son of James, who came to 
 Boston in 1632, and removed to Hartford in 1636, 
 becoming an original proprietor. Nicholas Olmsted 
 was one of the prominent public men of Hartford, 
 and held important public offices. He served in the 
 Pequot war, also in King Philip's war, was ap- 
 pointed a captain and sent to New London in 1675. 
 He married Sarah, daughter of Joseph Loo-mis, of 
 Windsor, Conn. Capt. George Gates lived to be 
 about ninety years of age, d3dng in 1724, and his 
 wife died in 1704. From this Capt. Gates and wife, 
 Robert Owen Gates of Derby, is a descendant in 
 the eighth generation, his line being through Deacon 
 Joseph, Deacon and Capt. Joseph, Ensign Bazaliel, 
 Bazaliel (2), Col. Robert and Robert Wilder Gates. 
 
 (H) Deacon Joseph Gates, son of Capt. George, 
 the settler, born in 1662, married Elizabeth, daugh- 
 ter of Thomas Hungerford (2), and granddaughter 
 of Thomas Hungerford, of Hartford, and New Lon- 
 don. Deacon Gates died in 1712, and his widow 
 passed away in 1759. 
 
 (III) Deacon and Capt. Joseph Gates, son of 
 Deacon Joseph, born in 1695-96, married in 1 719 
 Hannah Brainard, who was born in 1694, daughter 
 of Deacon Daniel and Hannah (\'entris) Brain- 
 ard, of Haddam, and granddaughter of Daniel and 
 Hannah (Spencer) Brainard. Deacon Joseph Gates 
 died in 1770, and his wife Hannah in 1744. 
 
 (IV) Ensign Bazaliel Gates, son of Deacon and 
 Capt. Joseph Gates, born in 1726, married in 1750 
 ^lary Brainard, who died in 1796. 
 
 (\) Bazaliel Gates (2), son of Ensign Bazaliel, 
 born in 1 75 1, married Dorothy Wilder, and died in 
 1789. 
 
 (VI) Col. Robert Gates, son of Bazaliel (2), 
 born Dec. 16, 1780, married JXIarch 17, 1804, Re- 
 becca Howe, born May 12, 1782, daughter of Elisha 
 and x\nn (HoUister) Howe, of Glastonbury, Conn. 
 Col. Gates died Feb. zy, 1865, and his wife passed 
 away July 6, 1856. Col. Gates early in life removed 
 from East Haddam to Derby, in which town he ever 
 afterward made his home. He engaged in merchan- 
 dising, keeping one of the principal stores in the 
 Naugatuck Valley, from which many of the settlers 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 473 
 
 m that whole region of country obtained their sup- 
 phes. He also owned vessels, freighting between 
 Derby and New York, became a very prosperous and 
 •successful man, and was prominent and influential 
 m the community. He was postmaster of Derby 
 from 1833 to 1849, and served in the State Legis- 
 lature in 1838. He served in the war of 1812 in 
 the Connecticut militia, and our subject has four 
 ■commissions hanging in his spacious hall given to 
 the Colonel by the government of Connecticut, as 
 follows : In 1807, when he was appointed by Gen. 
 Trumbull captain; in 1813, when he became cap- 
 tain of the third company of artillery; in 1816, when 
 lie became major; and in 1818, when he was pro- 
 moted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In Sep- 
 tember, 181 3, he and his company were ordered to 
 New London, and served forty-five days. It is 
 said that he furnished and equipped his company 
 on this expedition and is so reported in history. 
 The "Derby History" states that he furnished ma- 
 terial aid to the cause. Rebecca (Howe), his wife, 
 •on her mother's side was a direct descendant of 
 Lieut. John Hollister, Richard Treat, John Tal- 
 ■cott, Hon. Elizur Holyoke, John Robbins., Gov. 
 Thomas Welles, the Gaylords, Mott, Pynchon and 
 Butler families, all prominent in the early C:)ionial 
 history of New England. 
 
 (VII) Robert Wilder Gates, son of Col. Robert, 
 was born in Derby, June 6, 1812. On June 21, 1833, 
 in old Trinity Church, New York, by Bishop On- 
 derdonk, he was married to Ann Maria Townsend 
 Hotchkiss, born June 8, 1813, daughter of John 
 Owen Hotchkiss. Mr. Gates died Dec. 9, 1882, and 
 his widow May 6, 1891. Mr. Gates was a citizen of. 
 Derby throughout his long lifetime. In his boyhood 
 .and young manhood he assisted his father in the 
 ■conduct of his business, and along in the "thirties" 
 became associated with James Standish as a builder 
 and contractor, and at the same time was engaged 
 in the lumber business. Subsequently, associated 
 with J. J. Brown, he was engaged in the carriage 
 business. Like his father before him, he was a 
 successful business man, prosperous in his under- 
 takings, and was a man of means and influence in 
 the town. His political affiliations were with the 
 Democratic party. For a time, beginning early in 
 1853, he served as postmaster of Derby, and he also 
 served as assessor and as deputy sheriff. He com- 
 manded the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. 
 
 Robert Owen Gates, son of Robert Wilder, was 
 born Nov. 23, 1838, in Derby, and in the public 
 schools of that town received his education. After 
 his school days were over, he for a period assisted 
 his father in his carriage business. Later on and 
 while yet a boy, was a clerk in the office of the Hart- 
 ford & New Haven Railroad Company, at Spring- 
 field, under B. B. Woodford, then in charge there. 
 Following an experience of a year or two so occu- 
 pied in Springfield, he returned to his native town, 
 and became employed in the manufacturing plant of 
 Robert N. Bassett, who in the latter part of the 
 
 fifties began the manufacture of hoop-skirt wires 
 and metal corset material, though previously en- 
 gaged for many years in other lines of manufacture. 
 Here young Gates early developed marked ability 
 in the business of manufacturing, and rose rapidly to 
 positions of trust and responsibility. He remained 
 actively and energetically connected with the es- 
 tablishment for a decade and more, and for much 
 of the time was in charge of the factory. Such was 
 his energy and ability, and his fidelity to his em- 
 ployers, that while at the beginning his wages were 
 but a dollar and a half per day they were speedily 
 advanced until he commanded a salary of several 
 thousand dollars per year. An idea of the growth 
 of the business during Mr. Gates' connection with 
 the establishment is shown in what follows. In 
 1858 only twenty braiders were employed, while in 
 1868 nine hundred were in running order. In 
 1858 one man tended five machines, while in 1868 
 one girl had charge of forty. In busy times the 
 plant was operated 23 1-3 out of the 24 hours ; and 
 toward the close of the decade between i860 and 
 1870 there were used annually 75 tons of cotton and 
 500 tons of wire, making about 75,000,000 yards of 
 braid. For a period during the Civil war the profits 
 of the business netted something like $50,000 per 
 year. 
 
 Since his retirement from the manufacturing 
 business Mr. Gates has given much of his time to 
 his private affairs, and has been occupied largely in 
 public life. His public service has been of a most 
 valuable order to the town of Derby and county of 
 New Haven, and his integrity and efficiency have 
 been productive of telling results. He was select- 
 man of the town from 1881 to 1887, the last four 
 years of that period serving as town agent, and dur- 
 ing his administration the board of which he was 
 president reduced the public debt from nearly $100,- 
 000 to, in round numbers, $42,000. His careful 
 handling of the finances of the town won him the 
 friendship and support of the leading citizens, 
 without regard to party lines. When waited upon 
 by his friends who urged him to become a candi- 
 date for office of sheriff of New Haven county, he 
 was given an idea of his popularity. This, how- 
 ever, was more significantly demonstrated at the sub- 
 sequent county election in 1883, when elected to that 
 office by a large majority, overturning the district 
 previously largely Democratic — a feat unprece- 
 dented in the county's history. He brought to this 
 important office the same energy and ability that 
 had characterized his successful career as a manu- 
 facturer- and town official, and his efficient and con- 
 scientious work were sustained by a re-election with 
 a more flattering vote. So great was his popularity 
 at the ifear close of his first term in 1886, when the 
 County Republican Convention assembled in New 
 Haven, that he was enthusiastically and unanimous- 
 ly renominated. On this event one of the New 
 Haven papers said : 
 
 "The action of the convention to nominate a 
 
474 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sheriff was just what it was expected to be and what 
 it ought to have been. Sheriff Gates has performed 
 the duties of his office in such a way as to win the 
 admiration and respect of all who have watched his 
 course. He has been firm, dignified, prompt and 
 courteous. Even his political opponents have noth- 
 ing to say against him, for the very good reason that 
 he has done his work so well that nothing can fairly 
 be said. He deserves a re-election, and the indica- 
 tions are that he will get it." 
 
 Mr. Gates has been one of Derby's enterprising 
 and public-spirited citizens, always taking an ac- 
 tive interest and important part in public improve- 
 ments, and for twenty years was one of the trus- 
 tees of the Birmingham Burying Ground Associa- 
 tion, seventeen years of which period he was presi- 
 dent of it, a position he resigned along in the mid- 
 dle nineties, to the regret of all concerned. His 
 great interest in the cemetery and long service as 
 president of the association resulted in the present 
 beautiful "City of the Dead" from a rude burying 
 ground once sadly neglected. He, too, should be 
 credited with the most gratifying manner in which 
 the finances of the association were handled dur- 
 ing the long term of years of his presidency. On his 
 assuming charge the association was in debt some 
 $3,000; this he liquidated, and on his retirement a 
 good, comfortable surplus had accrued. 
 
 Some years after the expiration of his eight years 
 of official life as sheriff of New Haven county, Mr. 
 Gates was looked upon as being a most valuable man 
 to lead his party in the race for Congress in the 
 second district. He had been a successful business 
 man, and most efficient and popular as a county 
 official. His knowledge of New Haven county poli- 
 tics was thorough. He had shown the power of 
 attracting to himself Democratic votes. The press 
 of the county was outspoken and strong in his 
 praise as to his fitness for that high office, as well 
 as to his availability, he being considered the strong- 
 est man that the Republicans could nominate. One 
 paper, referring to Mr. Gates in this connection, 
 said : "A more competent man to fill the office could 
 not be found. He possesses the ability and financial 
 knowledge. His popularity is extensive, and his 
 nomination would be received here with unbounded 
 satisfaction by the Republicans and many of his 
 Democratic friends." Had he consented to have 
 made the race there is no doubt in the minds of his 
 friends but he could have received the nomination 
 and been elected. But on retiring from the office 
 of sheriff" he felt that he had been well rewarded 
 at the hands of his party, and was disposed' to keep 
 out of politics thereafter. His name also at one 
 time was mentioned in connection with the office of 
 State Comptroller. 
 
 Mr. Gates is a prominent Freemason, a member 
 of the New Haven Commandery Knights Templar. 
 He is a leading member of the Derln- Board of 
 Trade, and was formerly a director of the Star 
 Pin Company. From a lifelong residence and an 
 
 active participation in public, business and social 
 life. Sheriff Gates is known as one of the most in- 
 fluential and able of Derby's residents. 
 
 On Dec. 9, 1868, Mr. Gates was married to Le- 
 titia Fletcher Hegeman, of New York City, and the 
 union has been blessed with children as follows: 
 Frank Hegeman, Ross Fletcher, Georgia Waldron 
 and Laura Hegeman. 
 
 Mrs. Letitia Fletcher (Hegeman) Gates is a 
 descendant in the seventh generation from Adrian 
 Hegeman and wife, Katrina, a native of Holland, 
 who came from Amsterdam, Holland, to New Am- 
 sterdam in 1650 or 1 65 1, and a few years later lo- 
 cated at Flatbush, Kings county, N. Y. Mr. Hege- 
 man was prominent in public affairs, and served as 
 Burgomaster. 
 
 From this emigrant settler Adrian Hegeman, 
 Mrs. Gates' line is through Abraham, Adrian (2), 
 Adrian (3), Peter Adrian and Peter Adrian (2). 
 Adrian (2). 
 
 (H) Abraham Hegeman, son of Adrian the set- 
 tler, married Geertray Jansze. 
 
 (III) Adrian Hegeman (2), son of Abraham, 
 married Adriaantje, a native of Flatbush, New York. 
 
 (IV) Adrian Hegeman (3), son of Adrian (2), 
 married Sytje Strykhes. 
 
 (V) Peter Adrian Hegeman, son of Adrian (3), 
 born Sept. 11, 1758, in Flatbush, N. Y., married 
 Letitia, a daughter of Nicholas Fletcher, of Eng- 
 land. Mr. Hegeman died Nov. 7, 1815. 
 
 (VI) Peter Adrian Hegeman (2), son of Peter 
 Adrian, born Sept. 25, 1796, in New York City, 
 married Dec. 31, 1839, Laura Nancy Hotchkiss, born 
 Oct. 4, 1818, in New Haven, daughter of John Owen 
 Hotchkiss and ]\Iary (Townsend) Hotchkiss, of 
 New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 (VII) Letitia Fletcher Hegeman, daughter of 
 Peter Adrian (2), married Dec. 9, 1868, in New 
 York City, Robert Owen Gates, of Derby, Connecti- 
 cut. 
 
 Both !Mr. and Airs. Robert Owen Gates on their 
 mothers' side are of the same ancestry, which is one 
 of distinction in the annals of New England, they 
 being in direct line of several governors of the com- 
 monwealth, as well as many of the most prominent 
 and influential settlers of New England. This 
 couple are descendants in the ninth generation from 
 Samuel Hotchkiss, who supposedly came to New 
 England from Essex, England. He was at New 
 Haven in 1641, and in 1642 married Elizabeth 
 Cleaverly. His death as given in the Tuttle Gene- 
 alogy, occurred in i6=;3. From this Samuel Hotch- 
 kiss Mr. and Mrs. Robert Owen Gates' line is 
 through John, Joshua, Caleb, John (2), Gabriel, 
 John Owen, ancl Ann ^Nlaria Townsend, and Laura 
 Nancy Hotchkiss, respectively. 
 
 (II) John Hotchkiss, son of Samuel the settler, 
 born in 1642, married in 1672, Elizabeth, born in 
 1649, daughter of Henry Peck, of New Haven. 
 Air. Flotchkiss died in 1689. 
 
 (III) Joshua Hotchkiss, son of John, born in 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 47 S 
 
 1675, married Susannah, daughter of WiUiam and 
 Mary (Clark) Chatterton, the latter a daughter of 
 James Clark, of New Haven. 
 
 (IV) Caleb Hotchkiss, son of Joshua, born in 
 1703, married in 1728, Ruth, born in 1708, daugh- 
 ter of Capt. John and Sarah (Cooper) Munson, a 
 descendant in direct line from Capt. Thomas Mun- 
 son, Williami Bradley, and John Cooper, of New 
 Haven, and John Thompson, of East Haven. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Hotchkiss died in 1785. 
 
 (V) John Hotchkiss, son of Caleb, born in 1731, 
 married in 1755, Susannah, born in 1732, daughter 
 of Timothy and Jane (Harris) Jones, and a 
 descendant in direct line from' Deputj' Governor 
 William Jones and Governor Theophilus Ea- 
 ton, of New Haven. Mr. Hotchkiss was 
 graduated from Yale in 1748, taught in the 
 Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven from 
 1749 to 1 75 1, and from 1752 to 1764 was engaged 
 in merchandising. When the British invaded New 
 Haven in 1779, Mr. Hotchkiss was one of the vol- 
 unteers who went out July 5, to oppose the march 
 of the enemy, and he was among the first of the 
 patriots to fall. His widovsr survived until May 6, 
 1813. 
 
 (VI) Gabriel Hotchkiss, son of John, born in 
 1757, married about 1780, Hilpah Rosetta, born in 
 1763, daughter of Capt. Elisha and Rosetta (Owen) 
 Phelps, of Simsbury, Conn., and a descendant in 
 direct line from William Phelps, Samuel Humphrey, 
 Matthew Grant, Gov. Thomas Dudley, Gov. Will- 
 iam Leete and Rev. John Woodbridge. Mr. Hotch- 
 kiss was graduated from Yale in 1774. He died in 
 1818. 
 
 (VII) John Owen Hotchkiss, son of Gabriel, 
 born Nov. 28, 1781, married Oct. 17, 1805, Mary, 
 born March 8, 1788, daughter of Elias and Hul- 
 dah (Shepard) Townsend, and a descendant in 
 direct line from Thomas Townsend, Edward Hitch- 
 cock, Matthew Moulthrop and John Thompson. 
 Mr. Hotchkiss died July 6, 1870. His wife, Mary 
 (Townsend) Hotchkiss, died in May, 1847. 
 
 (VIII) Ann Maria Townsend Hotchkiss and 
 Laura Nancy Hotchkiss, daughters of John Owen, 
 married Robert Wilder Gates and Peter Adrian 
 Hegeman, respectively. 
 
 (IX) Robert Owen Gates, son of Ann Maria 
 Townsend (Hotchkiss) Gates, and Letitia Fletcher 
 (Hegeman), daughter of Laura Nancy (Hotchkiss) 
 Hegeman, were married Dec. 9, 1868. 
 
 LYMAN F. BASSETT, dece^ased, a leading 
 agriculturist of Hamden, was a native of New 
 Haven county, born in the town of North Haven, 
 Feb. 27, 1827, and was a worthy representative of 
 one of its honored and highly respected families. 
 His father, Jared Bassett, was born upon the same 
 farm in 1801, and it was also the birthplace of the 
 grandfather, Eli Bassett. His great-grandfather 
 Bassett died in N6w York during the Revolutionary 
 war. 
 
 Jared Bassett spent his entire life upon the old 
 homestead in North Haven, and followed the occu- 
 pation of farming with marked success. He took 
 quite an active and prominent part in local politics 
 and was honored with several offices, including 
 those of selectman and assessor. He died in 1892, at 
 the advanced age of ninety-one years. For his first 
 wife he married Miss Polly Fenn, of Plymouth, 
 Conn., and to them were born five children, of whom 
 our subject was the eldest; David, born in 1829, died 
 in 1893 ; Eli died at the age of eighteen years ; Aaron 
 is a resident of North Haven ; and Jared lives on the 
 old homestead in that town. After the death of 
 the mother of these children, the father married her 
 sister. Miss Thankful Fenn, and for his third wife 
 wedded Mrs. Laura (Button) Foote. 
 
 During his bo3'hood, Lyman F. Bassett attended 
 the common schools and academy of North Haven, 
 where he acquired a good practical education. He 
 assisted in the operation of the home farm until 
 eighteen years of age, and then turned his attention 
 to the butcher business, which he followed in North 
 Haven at intervals for thirty years. He continued 
 to reside upon the old homestead until 1873, when he 
 removed to the farm of twelve acres in Hamden, 
 upon which he last resided, having retired from the 
 butcher business about 1892. This business he 
 had carried on in Hamden at different times as his 
 health permitted. 
 
 On Sept. 14, 1858, Mr. Bassett was married to 
 Miss Emily J. Pierpont, of Waterbury, Conn., who 
 was born Jan. '25, 1832, a daughter of Luther and 
 Delia M. (Waugh) Pierpont, natives of Water- 
 bury and Litchfield, respectively. The father, who 
 was an extensive farmer and highly esteemed man, 
 died at the age of seventy-seven years. In his 
 family were seven children : William H., James E., 
 Chloe M., Emily C, Jane A., Henry S., and Emily 
 J., all now deceased with the exception of Airs. 
 Bassett. Mr. Bassett held membership in the Con- 
 gregational Church of North Haven since 1868, as 
 has also his wife, and he took an active interest in 
 everything tending to advance the moral, intellectual 
 or material welfare of the town or community. While 
 a resident of North Haven, Mr. Bassett served as 
 justice of the peace for two years, and also filled the 
 office of assessor in a most creditable and acceptable 
 manner. He died July 9, 1901, and was buried at 
 North Haven. 
 
 STILES J. TREAT, a successful and progres- 
 sive farmer of the town of Orange, widely known 
 and as widely respected, lives in the house in which 
 he was born Sept. 2, 1835. He is a lineal descend- 
 ant of Gov. Treat, of Colonial days, whose name and 
 fame brightly illumine one of the pages of Con- 
 necticut's history. 
 
 Jonathan Treat, grandfather of Stiles J., was 
 born in Orange, not far from the birthplace of Stiles 
 J., and was a farmer. He bought his holdings early 
 in the century, and his son, Jonathan (2), father of 
 
476 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Stiles J., received the land by inheritance. The 
 grandfather was a deacon in the church. He mar- 
 ried Susanna Gunn, of Milford, who reached the 
 remarkable age of ninety, and they had three chil- 
 dren: Mrs. Benjamin Clark, Jireh and Jonathan (2). 
 
 Jonathan Treat (2) was born in Orange, not far 
 from the birthplace of our subject, and died in 1886, 
 at the age of eighty-six. He was a Republican, a man 
 of public spirit, and was held in high regard. Re- 
 ligiously he was a member of the Congregational 
 Church. He married Mary, daughter of Hezekiah 
 Baldwin, of Woodbridge, who had a family of nine 
 children. Seven children were born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Treat, of whom four reached maturity, and 
 two are yet living. Stiles J. and his elder sister, 
 Mary, who married Silas Baldwin. The mother 
 died in 1877, in her seventy-ninth year. 
 
 Stiles J. Treat was raised upon the paternal farm, 
 and after his father's death became owner of the 
 ancestral estate, consisting of 136 acres. This he 
 sold in 1898 to his son-in-law, Arthur D. Clark, with 
 whom he makes his home. Mr. Clark carries on 
 gt-.neral farming, but makes a specialty of dairying. 
 
 On Dec. 25, 1855, Mr. Treat was married to 
 Miss Anna M. Fitts, of Seneca Falls, N. Y., daugh- 
 tei of John Fitts, a wealthy retired farmer. She 
 was the youngest of seven children born to her par- 
 ents. Mrs. Treat died July 9, 1888. Their mar- 
 riage was blessed with two children : Fannie E. 
 married Charles H. Dewell (who died May 6, 1899), 
 and has one son, Robert Treat Dewell, now attend- 
 ing Storrs Agricultural College, and Mary B. be- 
 came the wife of Arthur D. Clark, son of Charles 
 A. Clark, and died Nov. 12, 1900. ^Ir. Treat is 
 independent politically, and has been justice of the 
 peace for eight years. He is a member of the 
 Grange. In religious connection, he attends the 
 Congregational Church, and is a member of the 
 Society's committee. 
 
 HERRICK PAYNE FROST (deceased), late 
 of New Haven, where for many years of a busy 
 life he was one of the useful citizens and substantial 
 business men of that city — first as a wholesale gro- 
 cer, and then as a telephone projector, as well as 
 manager — was descended from the Frost family, 
 of Wolcott, Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Frost was born Jan. 16, 1835, in the town 
 of Wolcott, a son of Sylvester and Philanda (Tut- 
 tle) Frost, and was in the fourth generation from 
 David Frost, of the same town. David Frost was 
 born Sept. 5, 1742, and his wife, },Iar\-, was born 
 Dec. 22, 1740. They had their home three miles 
 east of Waterbury, on the Southington road, at what 
 is now called East Farms. His death occurred Dec. 
 15, 1812, and that of his wife, Feb. 6, 1819, when 
 she was aged seventy-nine years. From this David 
 Frost, Herrick P Frost's lineage is through David 
 Frost ( 2 ) and Sylvester. 
 
 David Frost (2) was born March i, 1767, and 
 was married June 14 1790, to ]\Iar)- x\nn, a daugh- 
 
 ter of David Hitchcock, of Southington. Mr. Frost 
 settled on Southington Mountain, north of Capt. N. 
 Lewis, and became a man of influence and responsi- 
 bility in the town. He died March 18, 1850, and his 
 wife, Nov. 24, 1832. Sylvester Frost, his son, was 
 the father of Herrick Frost, and was born May 8, 
 1807. He married Philanda Tuttle, and was en- 
 gaged in farming in Wolcott. His death occurred 
 in Southington, Connecticut. 
 
 Herrick P. Frost passed his boyhood for the 
 greater part at the home of his uncle, Herrick Payne, 
 and was educated at the Academy. In his seven- 
 teenth year he secured a team and wagon and werit 
 on the road selling goods of various kinds through' 
 a number of States, and in this manner soon be- 
 came self-reliant and confident, as well as experi- 
 enced and fairly successful. For a number of years 
 he was engaged in this line, and in 1856 made his 
 home in New Haven, where after several experi- 
 ments in various enterprises, in 1858 he formed a 
 partnership with Julius Tyler, Jr., establishing the 
 wholesale grocery house of Tyler & Frost, on State 
 street. This business Mr. Frost prosecuted with 
 great energy and varied success for nearly twenty 
 years, the partnership being dissolved in 1876, at 
 about the time the telephone was just coming into 
 public notice. The attention of Mr. Frost was turned 
 to it, and after a careful examination of its merits, 
 its practical character was quickly revealed to him. 
 Associated with George W. Coy, an electrician and 
 at one time a telegraph manager, Mr. Frost and his 
 partner, in January, 1877, projected the first tele- 
 phone company ever formed for a general exchange 
 business in New Haven, under the name of the 
 New Haven Telephone Co., and the first telephone 
 exchange, it is said, that the world ever saw, was 
 established. The new enterprise attracted from 
 its novelty general attention, and in less than three 
 months after its inauguration it had 150 subscribers, 
 and within a year over 400. Mr. Frost and his part- 
 ner were thus instrumental in giving to New Haven 
 the credit of leading the world in this important 
 line. By 1880 capital had become interested in 
 the farther development of the system, and the 
 New Haven Telephone Co. was merged into the 
 Connecticut Telephone Co., with the late Mar- 
 shall Jewell, of Hartford, as president, and Hon. 
 Charles L. Mitchell and Morris F. Tyler as directors. 
 This company in 1884 underwent another change, 
 becoming the Southern New England Telephone 
 Co., with a capital of one and a half million dollars. 
 Through the foresight, energy and ability of Mr. 
 Frost, to whonlT was committed the general man- 
 agement of this great and growing corporation, the 
 lines of the company were carried into nearly every 
 town, hamlet and school district, within the terri- 
 tory in which they operated, and until a very few 
 years ago there was no district in the world with 
 so many telephones in use, in proportion to its pop- 
 ulation, as Connecticut. The Boston Electric Light 
 Co., of Boston, was projected by ]\Ir. Frost, and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 477 
 
 Fred A. Gilbert, of New Haven, was placed in the 
 presidenc)' of that company by M.r. Frost, and voted 
 by him a salary of $8,000 per year. Previous to 
 this Mr. Gilbert was in the paper hanging business 
 in New Haven. The New Haven Electric Light 
 Co. and the New Haven Steam Heat Co. were also 
 projects of his, and he was interested in the Chesa- 
 peake and Potomac Telephone Co., Washington, 
 D. C. ; and he was director and stockholder in thirty- 
 four electric light and telephone companies. He 
 was also one of the organizers of the opposition line 
 of steamboats. 
 
 As a man and a citizen Mr. Frost commanded 
 the esteem and respect of his fellow citizens. He had 
 been connected with the city government in various 
 relations — as a councilman, alderman, police com- 
 missioner, as well as in other capacities. For a 
 number of years he was chairman of the city board 
 of finance, and in all official relations acquitted him- 
 self with credit. 
 
 Mr. Frost was married April 22, 1858, to Miss 
 Olive Amelia, a daughter of Ashbel Mix, a highly 
 respected citizen of the town of Bristol, and to this 
 union were born : ( i ) Louie Herrick, who mar- 
 ried Clara Drake, a direct descendant of Sir Francis 
 Drake; (2) Helen Louise, who died when five years 
 old; (3) Pauline Amelia, who married Archibald 
 Ward Ives, of Boston, and is now the mother of 
 two children, Paul Frost and Olive; and (4) 
 Dwight S. M. Mr. Frost died Nov. 3, 1888, and 
 was interred in Evesgreen cemetery, New Haven. 
 
 The Mix family, to which belongs Airs. Herrick 
 P. Frost, traces its authentic history back to Tim- 
 othy Mix, who was born in 1725, and died Jan. 23, 
 1800, his will bearing date of Jan. 14, 1800. His 
 wife's christian name was Elizabeth. 
 
 Ashbel Mix, who was born in 1760, and died 
 Feb. 15, 1807, was married to Hannah Byington, a 
 daughter of Lieut. Joseph and Hannah (Warren) 
 Byington, who was born Nov. 10, 1773, and died 
 June 27, 1836. 
 
 Joseph Byington, the father of Mrs. Hannah 
 Mix, was born in 1736, and died Aug. 25, 1798. 
 Jemima Hungerford, who became his wife in 1757, 
 died in 1759. His second wife, Hannah Spencer, 
 whom he married in 1760, bore him the follow- 
 ing children: Isaac, born in 1761 ; Noah, born in 
 1762; Isaiah, born in 1764; Martin, born in 1767; 
 and Clarissa, born in 1770. Hannah (Spencer) 
 Mix died in 1771; and the third wife of Mr. Mix 
 was Hannah Warren, who was born in 1752, and 
 died May 13, 1819. To this marriage, which oc- 
 curred Feb. 20, 1772, were born the following chil- 
 dren : Hannah, born Nov. 10, 1773 ; Meliscent, bom 
 in 1775 ; Chloe, born in 1777; Joseph, born in 1778; 
 Asahel, born in 1780; Enos, bom in 1781 ; and 
 Xewell, born in 1787. 
 
 Joseph Byington served as a lieutenant in the 
 war of the American Revolution, and his name ap- 
 pears on the records from the "Lexington Alarm." 
 
 Ashbel Mix, the father of Mrs. Herrick P. Frost, 
 
 New Llaven, Conn., was born in Bristol, Hartford 
 county, where he was known as a modern and pro- 
 gressive farmer, serving his town in' many public 
 capacities. His wife, Olive Eliza Foote, was a 
 aaughter of Truman Sherman Foote, of Woodbur\-, 
 Conn. Mr. Alix died in Bristol, where his industri- 
 ous and useful life was passed. 
 
 OULLEN BEECHER FOOTE, an enterprise 
 mg agriculturist of New Haven county, is the 
 owner of a fine farm in the town of Hamden, and 
 his management of the estate is marked by the 
 scientific knowledge and skill which characterize 
 the modern farmer. 
 
 Mr. Foote is the only male representative of his 
 family left in Hamden. There he was born Nov. 
 28, 1838, son of Jared Foote, a native of North 
 Haven. His paternal grandfather. Dr. Joseph 
 Foote, was also born in North Haven, and there 
 made his home throughout life. He was a grad- 
 uate of Yale College, and was one of the most 
 prominent and influential citizens of his community, 
 as well as one of its most successful physicians. 
 Religiously he was ' an active member in the Con- 
 gregational Church. He wedded Miss Mary Bas- 
 sett. The farm now owned and occupied by our 
 subject was the ancestral home of the Bassett 
 family. 
 
 Jared Foote, father of our subject, was born 
 in North Haven in 1800. In 1821 he was gradu- 
 ated from Yale, and the day of his graduation his 
 father ^ave him the old Bassett homestead. On 
 the same day he married Miss Rebecca Beecher, 
 of Kent, Conn., who was born in 1800, and they be- 
 came the parents of six children, namely : Joseph, 
 deceased ; Wilfred, a resident of New ■ Haven ; 
 Robert, deceased; Frederick, a retired merchant 
 of Binghamton, N. Y. ; i\Iary,.who married Henry 
 C. Griggs, of Waterbury, and is now deceased 
 ( her husband preceded her to the grave ) ; and 
 Cullen B., our subject. Soon after his marriage 
 the father located on the farm, now belonging to 
 our subject, which then embraced about 300 acres, 
 and there he spent the remainder of his life en- 
 gaged as a farmer and dealer in live stock. He 
 died in July, 1873, and his wife in October, 1877. 
 Their remains rest in the North Haven cemeterv. 
 Both were active members of the Congregational 
 Church, and were held in high esteem by all who 
 knew them. He was a Whig and later a Republi- 
 can, though no politician, taking only the interest 
 of a public spirited citizen in political matters. 
 He was a great reader, and well informed, and for 
 several 3ears conducted a private school at his 
 home. 
 
 Cullen B. Foote attended public school in Ham- 
 den, private school at North Haven, and the North 
 Haven Academy and later took a supplementary 
 course, by private instruction, in Chicago. From 
 youth he had a passion for railroad service, and 
 was but a boy when he commenced that work. He 
 
478 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 took kindly to it, and his progress was rapid. He 
 A'/as engaged in the railroad train service at differ- 
 ent times, and when but thirteen years old was 
 fireman between New York and New Haven. 
 Though up to this time his service had not been 
 continuous, he was competent to perform duties 
 much in advance of his years. At an early age he 
 went to Chicago, 111., where he secured a position 
 as brakeman on the Illinois Central railroad. On 
 his first trip the engineer was taken severely ill, and 
 our subject took his place and ran the train on time. 
 He was then but seventeen. After serving as train 
 baggage master he was made passenger conductor 
 on the road, and continued to fill that position until 
 he attained bis majority, when on account of ill 
 health he returned home. Soon afterward he pur- 
 chased the farm, and has since devoted his energies 
 to , its improvement and cultivation with marked 
 success. He has constructed stone drains through 
 the farm, and now has one of the best improved 
 and most fertile and productive places in the coun- 
 ty. Until 1889 he gave his attention almost en- 
 tirely to dairy farmiing. He is a prominent mem- 
 ber of the Hamden Grange, P. of H., and is a mem- 
 ber of the county. State and national organizations 
 of that order, displaying a most intelligent interest 
 in everything pertaining to his calling. 
 
 jMr. Foote was married, Sept. 8, 1869, to Miss 
 Nancy M. Adams, of Scotland, Conn., who has 
 been a true helper to him. They are members of 
 the Congregational Church at North Haven, and 
 for ten years he was deacon and superintendent of 
 the Sunday-school, making the school one of the 
 model ones of the State and nation. For many 
 years he has been one of the prominent men in 
 Sabbath-school work in Connecticut, taking great 
 interest in the welfare of children and )'oung peo- 
 ple, and the betterment of institutions for their 
 m.oral and intellectual development. For eighteen 
 years he was a leading member of the executive 
 committee of the Connecticut Sunday-School As- 
 sociation, and for eight years president of the as- 
 sociation. He is a life member of most of the large 
 missionary societies of this country and the world. 
 While his benefactions have been largely to aid 
 organized philanthropic effort, he has ever been 
 quick to relieve, unostentatiously, individual cases 
 of need. He spends considerable time each 
 year at his summler residence at Short Beach, 
 Conn., and has taken great interest in the build- 
 ing up of the Sabbath-school and moral and 
 religious interests there. Politically he is a 
 stanch supporter of the Republican party and 
 its principles. By special request of his fel- 
 low citizens he accepted the position of school 
 visitor of Hamden, and served as such with much 
 acceptance from 1895 to 1899. Mr. Foote is a 
 thoughtful reader, and well informed on matters 
 of general interest. As a public speaker on educa- 
 tional, religious or moral topics he has been in 
 great demand, and has delivered addresses in every 
 
 town and nearly every Protestant church in Con- 
 necticut. In all the relations of life he has been 
 found true to every trust reposed in him, and is 
 justly numbered among the valued and useful citi- 
 zens of bis community. 
 
 WATSON DAVIS AUGUR is a leading and 
 influential citizen of North Branford, and is a 
 worthy representative of one of its honored old 
 families. ' His paternal grandfather, Joel Augur, 
 was an extensive and prominent farmer of the 
 town, and owned considerable land at the time of 
 his death. He had one brother, Capt. Reuben 
 Augur, who died Jan. 13, 183 1, and a sister, Rhoda, 
 who died Sept. 13, 1821, at the age of forty-four 
 years. He was born in 1790, and died July 5, 1873. 
 For his first wife he married Abigail Augur, who 
 was also born in 1790, and died Dec. 8, 1824, and 
 for his second wife he married Hannah A. Blake, 
 a school teacher, who was born in 1789, and died 
 Nov. 28, 1876. He had five children: Phoebe 
 E., born in 1820, married Henry Loper, and died 
 Nov. 24, 1895 ; Angeline married John Allen, of 
 Wallingford; Reuben, born Sept. 29, 1822, was 
 the father of our subject ; and Cornelia, born in 
 1824, married Thelus Todd, and died June I, 
 1861. One son, John P., was born of the second 
 marriage, and he died on the old homestead, south 
 of Northford. 
 
 Reuben Augur was born in Northford, and be- 
 came an extensive and very s.uccessful farmer of 
 North Branford, owning at the time of his death 
 300 acres of valuable and highly productive land. 
 He died May 10, 1898. He was three times mar- 
 ried, his first wife being Esther E. Todd, daugh- 
 ter of Willis Todd. She died Oct. 23, 1849, aged 
 twenty-three years, leaving one son, Elbert R., 
 who died July 22, 1879, at the age of thirty-one 
 years and ten months. He next married her sis- 
 ter, Maria C. Todd, who died Jan. 3, 1873, at the 
 age of forty years. By this union there were three 
 children : Robert Duane, who died Aug. 23, 1883, 
 at the age of thirty-one years and nine months ; 
 Ella M., wife of Henry M. Stevens, of Walling- 
 ford, Conn.; and Watson Davis. The father's 
 third wife was Mrs. Margaret (Barnes) Hall. 
 
 Watson Davis Augur was born in the town 
 of North Branford, May i, 1856, and began his 
 education in the district school near his boyhood 
 home, but later attended Powers' Institute at 
 Bernardston, Mass., and studied for three years 
 under the tutorship of Prof. A. J. Sanborn, a most 
 able instructor, now deceased. It was his inten- 
 tion to make the practice of law his profession, 
 but owing to ill health he was forced to discontinue 
 his studies. At the age of twenty-two years he 
 embarked in the livery husiness at Middletown, 
 Conn., and continued there for twelve years. On 
 Nov. 21, 1882, he was married to Miss Agnes 
 Gertrude Stevens, of Northford. 
 
 The first of the Stevens family of whom we 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 479 
 
 have any authentic record was Rev. Timothy 
 Stevens, a native of Bristol, Wales, who came to 
 Hartford, Conn., when a young man, and was the 
 hrst Congregational minister at Glastonbury, be- 
 ing ordained in October, 1693. He died April 
 16, 1725. His son, Joseph, born in Hartford, in 
 1705, was the father of Elisha Stevens, who was 
 born in Glastonbur}-, in 1752, and married Agnes 
 Kimberly. Their son, Milton Stevens, the grand- 
 father of Mrs. Augur, was a native of Hartford 
 county, and died in Prospect, Xew Haven coun- 
 ty, when her father was quite small. He had three 
 children : Henry ; Mary, wife of Timbthy Fowler, 
 of New Haven; and David. 
 
 David Stevens, Mrs. Augur's father, was born 
 in Prospect, July 14, 1823, and there married Eliza 
 Benjamin, who was born Jan. i, 1824, and died 
 Sept. 8, 1865. By this union were born the fol- 
 lowing children : Albert, who died at the age of 
 thirty-six years; Alice, born Aug. 17, 1849, mar- 
 ried Jared Bassett, of North Haven, and is now 
 deceased; Elizur Seneca, born March 3, 1851, 
 married Harriet !Maltby, of Northford; Henry, 
 born May 7, 1855, married Ella Augur, a sister 
 of our subject, and lives in Wallingford ; David 
 S., born April 4, 1857, is a resident of North 
 Branford; and Agnes G., born Oct. 4, 1859, is the 
 wife of Mr. Augur. For his second wife the fa- 
 ther married Frances Hart, of Quinnipiac, town 
 of North Haven, and to them were born two chil- 
 dren : Fannie, wife of Lee Revere ; and Peter, 
 both residents of Millenbeck, A'a. When a young 
 man the father moved to Quinnipiac, where he 
 engaged in the manufacture of spoons, silverware, 
 etc., until 1869, when he sold his business there 
 and came to Northford, town of North Branford, 
 where he continued to manufacture silverware for 
 some years. In 1883 he removed to Lancaster 
 county, Va., where he purchased property and lived 
 in retirement for some time. He died there March 
 24, 1895, at the age of seventy-two years. 
 
 Finding the Connecticut winters somewhat 
 severe W. D. Augur purchased property in Millen- 
 beck, \'a., where during the winter season he 
 made his home for three years, but has since dis- 
 posed of his interests there. He has a summer 
 cottage on the Sound at Stony Creek, Conn. For 
 four years he led a life of ease, but finding that 
 steady employment provided more real enjoyment, 
 he again engaged in business, owning and man- 
 aging a boarding and sale stable at New Haven 
 for two years. He then returned to Middletown, 
 where he was again engaged in the livery busi- 
 ness for four and one-half years. He has always 
 been a lover of fast horses, has followed the cir- 
 cuit for years, and like many others has not al- 
 ways been successful, though his interest has been 
 more for enjoyment than gain. In his own stables 
 he has a fine pacer, Faustina Sm'ith, who, in the 
 fifth heat of a race, driven by her owner, paced a 
 half mile in i :04>4 ; he also drove a two-year-old 
 
 that covered a half mile in i :io. On May 10, 
 1899, Air. Augur returned to the old homestead in 
 North Branford, and now oversees the operation 
 of his farm land, consisting of 400 acres. He also 
 owns property in Wallingford, and New Haven, 
 and his interest in land speculation claims much 
 of his attention. Politically he is a Democrat, 
 though not radical in his views. He is a liberal 
 supporter of the Episcopal Church at Northford, 
 taking his father's place in that respect, and his 
 wife IS a member of the Congregational Church. 
 He is a pleasant genial gentleman, who is very 
 popular with his many friends and associates. 
 
 HORATIO NELSON LYMAN (deceased). 
 The Lyman family, of which the late Horatio N. 
 Lyman was a notable representative, was descend- 
 ed from Richard Lyman, a native of the County 
 of Essex, England. In August, 1631, he left 
 England with his wife and children, in the ship 
 "Lion," sailing from Bristol for New England. 
 He located at Charlestown, where he became a free- 
 man June II, 1635. The same year he joined a 
 party who settled Windsor, Hartford and Wethers- 
 field, Conn., himself Deing one of the first settlers 
 of Hartford. He died in 1640, and his widow, 
 Sarah, did not long survive him. 
 
 Lieut. John Lyman, son of Richard, the emi- 
 grant, was born in the County of Essex, England, 
 in 1623, and came to New England with his par- 
 ents. In 1654 he was married to Dorcas, the 
 daughter of John Plumh, of Branford, Conn., and 
 settled in Northampton, Mass., where he died Aug. 
 20, 1690. Lieut. Lyman was in command of the 
 Northampton soldiers in the famous Falls fight 
 above Deerfield, May 18, 1676. 
 
 Moses Lyman, a son of Lieut. John Lyman, 
 was born in Northampton, Mass., Feb. 20, 1662, 
 and died Feb. 25, 1701. 
 
 Capt. Moses L}Tnan, son of Moses Lyman, 
 was born Feb. 27, 1689, married Dec. 13, 1712, 
 Mindwell Sheldon, and died March 24, 1762; she 
 died May 23, 1780. 
 
 Deacon IMoses Lyman, son of Capt. Moses Ly- 
 man, was born Oct. 2, 1713, and was married 
 March 24, 1742, to Sarah Hayden (or Highton), 
 of \\''indsor. Conn. She was born Sept. 17, 1716. 
 Mr. L)'man removed to Goshen, Conn., in the 
 autumn of 1739, being one of the earliest inhabi- 
 tants of the place, the settlement having only been 
 opened the preceding year. He died Jan. 6, 1768. 
 
 Col. Moses Lyman, son of Deacon Moses Ly- 
 man, was born March 20, 1743, and was married 
 to Ruth, a daughter of William Collins, of Guil- 
 ford. She died June 8, 1775, and twelve years 
 later Col. Lyman married the widow of Jesse 
 Judd, and the daughter of Capt. Jonathan Buell, 
 of Goshen-. Col. Lyman was a farmer, and oc- 
 cupied through life the homestead of his father. 
 In the State Militia he held every position from 
 that of Corporal to Colonel, and during the Revo- 
 
48o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 lution spent much of his time in the Continental 
 army. He went vrith the recruits from Goshen to 
 join the Northern Arm}- before the surrender of 
 Jjurgoyne, and was in command of a detachment 
 which was statvoned on the extreme right on tlie 
 night of Oct. 7, 1777, to watch the movements of 
 the invading enemy. It was his privilege to be 
 the first to inform Gen. Gates that the English 
 camp was deserted, and for his promptness he 
 was sent to Gen. \\'ashington to convey the in- 
 formation in person. The guard which had 
 the custody of the gallant and unfortunate 
 IMajor Andre was commanded by him. Col. 
 Lyman was afterward prominent in civil life, 
 and was elected to many important offices. A 
 man of strong will and much determination, 
 he was active and forceful all his life. His 
 death occurred Sept. 29, 1829, his second wife 
 dying in Milton Society, Litchfield, Oct. 7, 1835, 
 at the very advanced age of ninety-three years. 
 
 Erastus Lyman, son of Col. Lyman, was born 
 Nov. I, 1773, and was married Sept. 8, 1803, to 
 Abigail, a daughter of Ephraim Starr, of Goshen, 
 Conn. They resided through life in Goshen, where 
 he was known as a man of ability and energy. 
 His success in business put him among the solid 
 men of the commlmity, and his integrity and 
 benevolence declared him a man of lofty character 
 and noble soul. He died Dec. 20, 1854; and his 
 widow Jan. 22, 1855. 
 
 Horatio Nelson L)'man, son of Erastus, whose 
 name introduces this article, was born May 2, 
 1804, and was married to his first wife, Marana 
 Elizabeth Chapin, of Goshen, Conn., May 9, 1836, 
 and to Mrs. Juliet North, widow of William 
 North, June 4, 1850. After a residence in Goshen 
 of some twenty years Mr. Lyman removed to 
 Waterbury, Conn. Some three years were spent 
 by him in Germany, and on his return he located 
 at New Haven, where his home was maintained 
 until his death, July 13, 1886. To his first mar- 
 riage were born : (i) Jane E., July 11, 1837. 
 (2) Henry Alexander, Sept. 5, 1839, a member of 
 the Sons of the American Revolution. He was 
 married in Westminster, London, England, Sept. 
 12, 1866, to Isabella Maria, a daughter of T. K. 
 Faulls, of London. He compiled the pedigree of 
 the Lymans in England from the time of Edward 
 III, which appears in Dr. Lyman Coleman's His- 
 tory of the Lyman Family — 1872. (3) Josephine 
 Maria, Oct. 2, 1841. (4) Abby died an infant. 
 To the second Mrs. Lyman were born: (5) Will- 
 iam Thomson, March 5, 1851, died Feb. 15, 1853; 
 (6) George Nelson, Aug. 29, 1852, died Feb. 19, 
 1853; (7' Edward Norman, Julv i, 1855, died 
 Oct. 29, 1855. 
 
 The second Mrs. L)rman was Juliet Thomson, 
 a daughter of Elicn Thomson, and was born iu' 
 Goshen. Her father, who was born in the same 
 town, came to New ITaven, and followed the gro- 
 cery business for many years. Mrs. Lyman, who 
 
 was born in 1821, married her first husband, \\'ill- 
 iam North, a lawyer of Elmira, N. Y., who died 
 after fourteen months of married life, at the age 
 of twenty-eight years. The family were all asso- 
 ciated with the United Congregational Church of 
 New Haven. 
 
 LUCIAN DAYTON AVARNER affords in his 
 career a striking illustration of what may be achieved 
 by the hard sense, rugged determination and steady 
 insistence of the sons of Connecticut, of which he 
 is a worthy representative. 
 
 Richard Warner, his grandfather, was born in 
 Salem (now Naugatuck), Conn., in 1772, and was 
 one of a large family, the others being Obadiah, Ran- 
 som, Eri, Wakely, Walter, Philena, Carolina and 
 Roxana. Richard Warner married Polly Hicox, 
 who was born in the same town, daughter of 
 Gideon and Philena Hicox, and was four 5'ears his 
 junior. They were poor, and finding life in Con- 
 necticut by no means a bed of roses, in their com- 
 parative youth they migrated overland in a wagon 
 to Pitcher, Chenango county, N. Y., a locality then 
 considered the "far West." There they settled, shar- 
 ing bravely the toil and danger attending the estab- 
 lishment of a new home in the forest. To these 
 sturdy pioneers were born fifteen children, namely : 
 Obadiah, Sheldon, Adna, Minerva, Edward, iNIaria,. 
 David H., Curtis, Rachel, Electa, Lucina, Calvin, 
 Florilla, Elmina and Richard P. Only the youngest, 
 Richard P., now survives. With the exception of 
 Calvin, who became a minister, all the eight sons 
 were farmers, and five of the seven daughters mar- 
 ried farmers, Elmina W. becoming the wife of 
 George P. Swan, a wagon maker of Binghamton ;, 
 her home was at No. 149 Robinson street, that city. 
 Richard P. Warner has been twice married, his- 
 first wife being Lucy Parks, and his second Helen 
 Debell ; his residence is at Candor, Tioga Co., N. 
 Y. Of the other thirteen children all were married 
 but Florilla, who was born July 6, 1815, and died 
 July 8, 1863. Obadiah, born April 13, 1793, married 
 Lucy L. Sperry. Sheldon, born Nov. 20, 1794, mar- 
 ried Lucy Carter, and died Feb. 7, 1892. Adna, born 
 April 9, 1796, is mentioned below. Minerva, born 
 Jan. 22, 1798, was the wife of Elijah Fenton. Ed- 
 ward, born May 14, 1799, married Sophronia Sails, 
 and died Oct. 28, i8go. Maria, born Dec. 3, 1800,, 
 married John Hinman. David H., bom Feb. 5, 1802,. 
 married Almira Robbins, and died Aug. 9, 1896. 
 Curtis, born July 4, 1803, married Caroline Hyde. 
 Rachel, born July 4, 1805, married Orlando Pierce, 
 and died April 18, 1882. Electa, born July 5, 1807, 
 became the wife of John Robbins. Lucina, born 
 July 5, 1809, married Norinan .Burnham, and passed 
 away Jan. 20, 1887. Calvin, born in August, 1812, 
 married Delia Knight. Richard Warner, the father 
 of this large family, died on his farm in Pitcher, 
 Chenango Co., N. Y., May 25, 1857; his faithful 
 wife entered into rest nine years previous. 
 
 Adna \\'arner, the father of Lucian D.,. was born 
 
C^<^^x^>g^-^-'^ ^^' 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 481 
 
 in Naug-atuck April 9, 1796, and liad grown to early 
 manhood when he accompanied his parents to Che- 
 nango Co., N. Y., to do his part in clearing the 
 forest and plowing furrows in the virgin soil. There 
 he married Lucia Carter, a school teacher of Pitcher, 
 whose father, Elias Carter, was the scion of an old 
 English family, which settled in Lancaster, Mass., 
 in the first half of the seventeenth century. Adna 
 Warner was a blacksmith by trade, and a farmer 
 bv occupation. He owned 400 acres of land, and 
 made a specialty of dairy farming, being largely in- 
 terested in breeding fine Devonshire cattle. He was 
 a man of deep and earnest convictions, in both re- 
 ligion and politics — an energetic worker in the Con- 
 gregational Church, and a strong abolitionist, be- 
 ing first a Whig and later a Republican. He died 
 Nov. 25, 1881, preceded to the grave by his wife, 
 who passed away July 26, 1880. 
 
 Lucian D. Warner was born in Pitcher, N. Y., 
 Sept. 18, 1839. After attending the district schools 
 of that town he was sent to the academy at Cincin- 
 natus, Cortland county, N. Y., and at the close of 
 his school days entered the general store of Jefferson 
 Kingman, who in addition . to keeping store dis- 
 charged the duties of postmaster. There young 
 Warner remained for two years, in October, 1859, 
 coming to Naugatuck, Conn., where he at once be- 
 came a clerk in the general store of Thomas Lewis. 
 He evinced from the outset a natural aptitude for 
 the business, to which were joined unwearying in- 
 dustry and scrupulous fidelity. On Jan. I, 1863, he 
 became an equal partner with Mr. Lewis, the rela- 
 tion continuing for three years. In 1866 Mr. War- 
 ner was tendered and accepted the position of secre- 
 tary and treasurer of the Connecticut Cutlery Co., 
 whose plant was located at Union City, but three 
 years later he resigned this dual office to enter into 
 partnership with B. B. Tuttle and J. H. Whitte- 
 more, under the firm' name of Tuttle & Whittemore. 
 In 1871 a joint stock company was formed under 
 the style of the Tuttle & Whittemore Co., which 
 was the predecessor of the Malleable Iron Co. of to- 
 day. Mr. Warner was at first secretary and af- 
 terward treasurer, later becoming president and gen- 
 eral manager. On Jan. 2, 1899, he retired from ac- 
 tive business, and has since had no care outside of 
 the management of his estate. His home is in 
 Church street, a center of culture, refinement and 
 religious influence. 
 
 Mr. Warner has been twice married. On Sept. 
 14, 1864, he was united to Miss Julia M. Lewis, a 
 daughter of his partner, Thomas Lewis. To this 
 union were born six children : Lewis C, the eldest, 
 is superintendent of the Beacon Falls Rubber Co. 
 Winnifred L. is the wife of George B. Alford, of 
 Torrington. Carleton S. is a foreman for the To- 
 ronto Rubber Shoe Co., at Port Dalhousie, Canada. 
 Frederick A., formerly a traveling salesman for the 
 Malleable Iron Co., is now general manager for the 
 Metal Finishing Co., of Union City. George D. is 
 in the employ of the Beacon -Falls Rubber Co. Lucia 
 
 31 
 
 E., the youngest child, is attending school in Nor- 
 walk. The mother of these died ^larch 15, 1890. On 
 Nov. ID, 1892, Air. ^\'arner married Aliss Anna B. 
 Rowe, the orphaned daughter of Dr. Rufus J. 
 Rowe, of Whitehall, New York. 
 
 Mr. Warner is social in his tastes and life, fond 
 of friends and deservedly popular. He is a Repub- 
 lican in politics, but although repeatedly requested, 
 has steadily refused to become a candidate for office. 
 He is a member of the Alasonic fraternity, belong- 
 ing to Shepherd's Lodge, Xo. 78, A. F. & A. M., 
 of Naugatuck, and to Clark Commandery, K. T., 
 of Waterbury. Since 1861 he has been a devout 
 member of the Congregational Church, is a liberal 
 contributor to its support, and earnest in advancing 
 its work, having been for thirty-two years super- 
 intendent of the Sunday-school. 
 
 SAMUEL :\I. BLAIR, a well-known grocer at 
 No. 32 Mott street, Ansonia, was born in Riverton, 
 town of Barkhamsted, Litchfield Co., Conn., Aug. 
 17, 1838, son of Sherman C. Blair, wliO' was born in 
 Blandford, Mass. Nathan Blair, his grandfather, 
 was a native of the same place, and was a son of 
 one of the first settlers of that locality. The fam- 
 ily is recorded as being settled in JNIassachusetts in 
 the very early part of the seventeenth century, and 
 the great-grandfather of Samuel JNI. Blair was a 
 farmer, and received his land from the Colonial 
 government. He was a man of parts, and served ^ 
 m the Continental Congress. Nathan Blair was a 
 physician, and practiced medicine all his life in 
 Blandford. He was a well-known man, and his 
 life was a singularly honorable and useful one. He 
 married Sally Tirrell, a daughter of a well-known 
 family of that region, and to them were born thir- 
 teen children, of whom only two survive, Reuben,, 
 of Fair Haven ; and ^Nlary Ann, who resides in. 
 Massachusetts. Nathan Blair and his wife both 
 reached an advanced age. 
 
 Sherman C. Blair was reared in Blandford, 
 where he began his business career. When some- 
 what older he went to Farmington to take a posi- 
 tion as treasurer of a hoe and shovel company. 
 When the railroad was run through to Ansonia he 
 was made agent at the depot, and was among the 
 earlier railroad agents in that part of the State. 
 For a number of years after leaving the railroad 
 service he was treasurer of a building and lumber 
 company in Derby, Conn. For some time be was- 
 a bookkeeper for the Ansonia Clock Co., after leav- 
 ing which position he gave up business. He died 
 at the age of sixty-seven years. He married Lydia. 
 M. Mallory, who was born in Spencertown, N. Y., 
 a daughter of Ebenezer Mallory, a lifelong farmer 
 in that locality. Sherman C. and Lydia M. Blair 
 became the parents of seven children, three of 
 whom are living : Samuel M. ; John, who is man- 
 ager of the Apothecaries Hall Co., at Waterbury ; 
 and James, now living in California, who has' trav- 
 eled all over the world. The mother died at the age 
 
482 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of seventy years. She and her husband were de- 
 vout members of the Congregational Church, in 
 which he was a deacon and deeply interested in its 
 welfare. He was a member of the Home Mission- 
 ary Society, and an active worker in everything 
 that conserved the public good. In politics he was 
 a Republican, and for many years held the office of 
 justice of the peace. 
 
 Samuel j\I. Blair spent the earlier years of his 
 life at home, attending the public school. When 
 he was fourteen years of age he entered the store 
 of Almon Smith at Ansonia, for whom he clerked 
 a number of years, and he was employed two years 
 at Bridgeport. Mr. Blair became sergeant of Com- 
 pany F, 23d Conn. \' I., which went from Derby, 
 and received an honorable discharge after one year 
 of service. Returning to Ansonia, he entered the 
 employ of T. P. Terry & Son, in the general hard- 
 ware line. He was then employed by E. H. Ran- 
 dall, in the grocery business, also by C. H. Smith, 
 In 1884 Mr. Blair started in his present store, and 
 Avhile he has not attempted to do a large business 
 he has a very satisfactory patronage. One clerk 
 and his daughter are with him in the store. Mr. 
 Blair has been established in business many years, 
 and 'is one of the oldest and most respected men in 
 his line in the city. All his competitors speak well 
 of him, and he is much respected in the community. 
 He was a charter member of the Board of Trade. 
 
 Mr. Blair was married in 1861 to Betsy A. 
 Smith, who was born in Derby, daughter of Almon 
 Smith, a grocer of long-time standing in that city. 
 Mrs. Blair was one of six children. To our sub- 
 ject and his wife have come two children, Jennie 
 S. being the only one now living. The other child 
 died in infancy. 
 
 Mr. Blair belongs to George Washington 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., in which he has held several 
 offices, and has been senior deacon for a number of 
 years. He also belongs to the American Mechan- 
 ics, and is a charter member of Thomas M. Red- 
 shaw Post, G. A. R., in which he has filled all the 
 offices and in which he is deeply interested. He 
 vv-as an aid-de-camp on the staff of Adjt. Gen. 
 Goben in 1898. In politics he is a Republican. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Blair are members of the Congrega- 
 tional Church ; he was secretary of the society for 
 a time, has also been treasurer, and has acted as 
 l-'brarian of the Sunday-school. 
 
 DWIGHT ELI TODD, for many years a 
 farmer and honored citizen of Bethany, passed 
 away Jan. 3, 1901, in Woodbridge, where he spent 
 the last two years of his life. He was a native of 
 Xew Haven county, born in Bethany Sept. 11, 
 1834, son of Leonard and Julia (Bradley) Todd. 
 Llis father, who was born Nov. 8, 1800, and died 
 April 6, 1876, was a son of Eli and Bede Todd, 
 in whose family were three children, the others 
 being Lovisa, wife of Amos Peck, of Hamden ; 
 and Mary Ann, wife of Jesse Allen Doolittle, of 
 
 the same town. Eli Todd was also a native of 
 Bethany, and a son of Jonah Todd, who was born 
 in Northford, and went to Bethany, in 1783. 
 
 Our subject was the sixth in the order of birth 
 in a family of seven children, as follows : Grace, 
 born April i, 1823, married Rev. F. B. Woodard, 
 of Watertown, Conn., and died 'in June, 1898; 
 Emily, bom June i, 1825, married Isaac Perkins, 
 of Bethany, and diecl Aug. 3, 1880; Margaret, born 
 iWarch 16, 1828, married Chaunoey Beecher, of 
 Bethany, and died March 15, 1886; Celia, born 
 July 23, 1830, is the wife of Wales Dickerman, of 
 Hamden; Street B., born Aug. 9, 1832, married 
 Sarah Hotchkiss ; and Jasper B., born Sept. 9, 1842, 
 married Minnie Moody, and resides in the old 
 Todd homestead in Bethany township. 
 
 Dwight Eli Todd received a common-school 
 education. Throughout his active business life he 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits with marked suc- 
 cess, but during his later years, owing to ill health, 
 he discontinued all business, moving to Wood- 
 bridge. Farming was his principal occupation, but 
 he also engaged quite extensively in butchering, in 
 company with his brother Street. He owned 200 
 acres of land in Bethany, and he was one of the 
 yrell-to-do and substantial men, as well as one of 
 the highly respected citizens, of his community. 
 In his political affiliations he was a Democrat. For 
 many years he was a member of the Episcopal 
 Church, and gave liberally toward its support. 
 Though an energetic and successful man, he was 
 Cjuiet in his habits and unassuming in his manners. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1877, Mr. Todd married Mrs. Cath- 
 erine Emily Bishop, and they had two children : 
 Leonard E., born May 10, 1880, who is a student 
 a1 Yale College ; and Julia Rosette, born June 24, 
 1886, who is now a student in the Boardman Train- 
 ing School, New Haven. Mrs. Todd was born 
 Aug. 15, 1842, and first married, June 17, 1868, 
 Henry Bishop, who died March 24, 1876. By that 
 union she also had two children, of whom Charles, 
 born May 7, 1869, died in 1886. Berton F., born 
 Feb. 22, 1874, is a graduate of the University of 
 Pennsylvania, and is now a dentist in New Haven ; 
 he married Miss Mary Smith Gold. 
 
 The Sperry family, to which Mrs. Todd be- 
 longs, is probably of English origin, and was 
 founded in this country during Colonial davs by 
 Richard Sperry, who came from England and was 
 among the first to take up land in Connecticut. 
 From him have undoubtedly sprung all the Sperrys 
 in New Haven county, though there are families 
 in Woodbridge who can trace no connection with 
 others of their name in the same town. The Dick- 
 erman book says that he, had ten children and sixty 
 grandchildren ; also that his home and Ralph Lines' 
 were the only houses between West Rock and the 
 Hudson river, except a few at Derby, in 1661. 
 Woodbridge was originally known as Amity, and 
 was renamed in honor of Rev. Benjamin ^N'ood- 
 bridge, for a long time its pastor. Richard Sperry 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 483 
 
 was a man of considerable historical note. His 
 name is frequently mentioned in connection with 
 the flight and escape of the Regicides. For some 
 time they found shelter in Woodbridge (where he 
 located), and he provided them with food and aided 
 them in eluding their pursuers. He housed them 
 en his own land without the members of his house- 
 hold learning the secret. His son, Ebenezer Sperry, 
 was born in July, 1663, in Woodbridge, and there 
 passed his entire life as a farmer and hunter. -He 
 married Abigail Dickerman. Following in direct 
 descent came three who bore the name of Isaac, 
 and of the two first very little can be learned. 
 
 Isaac Sperry (3) married Polly (Mary) Tut- 
 tle, and from the old cemetery in Bethany we learn 
 that he died Feb. 7, 1844, aged eighty- four years, 
 his wife Oct. 25, 1835, aged seventy-one years. 
 To them were born children as follows : Polly 
 married Joel Hotchkiss and moved to Mosiertown, 
 Pa. ; Dolly married Theodore Page and also located 
 in Pennsylvania; Malinda was twice married, her 
 second husband being David Beecher, of Bethany, 
 Conn. ; Clara was the wife of Sheldon Hotchkiss, 
 of New Haven; Lucy died unmarried, and was 
 buried in the old Bethany cemetery ; Isaac located 
 in Alosiertown, Pa. ; Enos was the father of Mrs. 
 Todd ; Lewis located near Mosiertown, Pa. ; Allen 
 first moved to Pennsylvania and later to Michigan, 
 since which time nothing has been heard of him ; 
 Chauncey lived in New Haven ; and Gerry made 
 his home in Bethany. 
 
 Enos Sperry, Mrs. Todd's father, was born in 
 Bethany in 1801, and died in May, 1880. He was 
 married in his native town to Rosetta Russell, 
 daughter of Daniel and Eunice (Ailing) Russell, 
 also natives of Bethany, and to this union came six 
 children, namely: Louisa, born Aug. 5, 1826, mar- 
 ried Royal Nettleton, of New Haven ; Julia, born 
 in 1831, married Charles Allen Smith, of New 
 Haven; Celia died Oct. 15, 1853, at the age of 
 twenty years ; Isaac served as a cavalryman in the 
 war of the Rebellion, and then went West; Ellen, 
 bom in 1838, lives on the old homestead in Beth- 
 any ; Catherine Emily, wife of our subject, com- 
 pletes the family. The mother passed away Aug. 
 9, 1893, aged eighty-seven years. 
 
 ALEXANDER HALL, the oldest citizen in 
 the North Farms District, town of Wallingford, 
 and a retired business man of a high character 
 and an unblemished career, was born in North 
 F'arms Aug. 24, 1824. 
 
 Thomas Hall, the first of that name in Walling- 
 ford of whom' we have definite record, was born 
 there and spent his life as a farmer and land owner, 
 dying Aug. 27, 1741. Abigail Atwater, his wife, 
 was the daughter of John Atwater, and their 
 union was blessed with the following children : 
 Thomas, born March 10, 1712, married Lydia Cur- 
 tis; Phineas, born April 12, 1715; Abigail, born 
 April 12, 1719; and Joshua, born May 23, 1722. 
 
 Joshua Hall was born on the farm where he 
 spent his life engaged in its cultivation. To him 
 and his wife Hannah were born the following chil- 
 dren : Susannah, born Nov. 16, 1742; Medad, 
 born July 26, 1743; Abigail, born April 5, 1745, 
 died in infancy; Giles and Abigail (twins), born 
 Feb. 24, 1747; and Samuel, born Jan. 29, 1767. 
 
 Giles Hall, noted in the preceding paragraph, 
 grandfather to Alexander Hall, grew to manhood 
 imder his parents' roof, and owned a farm in the 
 North Farms District, which he cultivated and on 
 which he died. Lois Ives, his wife, also died on 
 this farm, and was buried in the Center Street 
 cemetery. To them were born these children : 
 Abel, born Dec. 10, 1778, died in Atwater, Ohio; 
 Sarah, born Aug. 20, 1780; Giles died April 21, 
 1791; Joshua; Lois, who married Andrew An- 
 drews ; Lucy ; Flannah ; and John. 
 
 Joshua Hall, the father of Alexander Hall, was 
 born in North Farms, and was reared to manhood 
 on the home estate, and there he spent his entire 
 life engaged in general farming, reaching the ripe 
 old age of eighty years. He died on his farm, and 
 was buried in Wallingford. In politics he was a 
 Democrat, and in religion a man of broad and lib- 
 eral views. Sophronia Gates, his wife, was born 
 in North Branford, and became the mother of the 
 following family : William Chauncey, born May 
 5, 1805; Roderick, born Dec. 21, 1806; James M., 
 born March 3, 1809; Delight, born Jan. 24, 1811, 
 died young; Delight (2), born March 29, 1813; 
 Henrietta, born Jan. 24, 1815; Lois, born Feb. 3, 
 1818; Jenette, Dec. 18, 1821 ; and Alexander, Aug. 
 24, 1824. Mrs. Joshua Hall died on the farm, and 
 was buried in Wallingford. 
 
 Alexander Hall had his education in the district 
 school in North Farms, and worked at home until 
 he reached the age of fifteen years, when he started 
 out in life for himself, working for a time at farm 
 labor, and peddling Yankee notions through the 
 country during the winter months. He was em- 
 ployed for a time in the button shop at East Meri- 
 aen, and then at Hanover, near East Meriden. 
 Married in 1846, he settled down to farming, and 
 in 1848 he bought a tract of sixty acres, which for 
 more than half a century has been his home. Here 
 he has been engaged in general farming, and has 
 also done a large business with the railroad in get- 
 tmg out ties, spokes, etc. His landed property at 
 tile present time amounts to 250 acres. 
 
 Mr. Hall is living a retired life, but is still re- 
 markably active, and looks after every item of his 
 large business. A great loss befel him in the death 
 of his only son Herbert, who died in August, 1900, 
 from typhoid fever. In politics he is a Republican. 
 In religious belief he is a Baptist, belonging to the 
 church of that denomination in Wallingford. His 
 standing among those who know him best is that 
 of a good Christian man, kind to the poor and 
 needy, honest in every detail of his life, and a pub- 
 lic-spirited citizen. 
 
484 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 On May 3, 1846, liv. Hall and Jane A. Potter 
 were married in Northford, in the town of North 
 Branford, Conn. Mrs. Hall was a daughter of 
 Jerard H. and Hannah (Bartholomew) Potter, and 
 was the mother of three children : ( i ) Mary Jane, 
 unmarried, is a dress maker, and resides at home, 
 keeping house for her father. (2) Herbert !\I., 
 who died in August, 1900, married Emma Landers, 
 and was the father of three children : Ralph, who 
 was accidentally shot and killed ; Helen ; and Clar- 
 ence. He was a farmer, a Republican, and a mem- 
 ber of the I. O. O. F. (3) Edith L. married, Oct. 
 23, 1889, William Hart, of Plainville, and is the 
 mother of two children, Ethel M. and Naoma. 
 
 Mrs. Jane A. Hall died Aug. 24, 1895, in Wall- 
 ingford, and was buried at the Center Street ceme- 
 tery. She was a member of the Baptist Church, 
 and a lady of high religious spirit. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hall had lived together for nearly fifty years, and 
 their wedded life was singularly beautiful and 
 harmonious. 
 
 CHARLES W. BEARDSLEY, a leading resi- 
 dent of Milford, was born in Stratford, Conn., May 
 27, 1829, and is a representative of a family that 
 has been prominent since pioneer days. He traces 
 his descent from William Beardsley, one of the first 
 settlers of the town of Stratford, from whom he 
 takes the name of William. William Beardsley 
 came from Stratford-on-Aivon (the birthplace of 
 William Shakespeare), England, in 1635, in the 
 good ship "Planter," commanded by Capt. Travice. 
 He was then only thirty years of age, but had a wife 
 and three children, all of whom accompanied him 
 hither. After his arrival he was made a freeman in 
 Hadley, Mass., but in 1639 settled in the Connecti- 
 cut town to which the family gave the name of Strat- 
 ford, in honor of the English town from which they 
 had emigrated. The town of Avon, N. Y., was also 
 named by descendants of William Beardsley, who 
 settled there, in honor of the old river in England. 
 William Beardsley was a deputy in Stratford in 
 1645, and for seven years thereafter, and was a 
 man of much prominence in early Colonial times. 
 He died in 1660, at the age of fifty-six, leaving three 
 children. The succession in the line to the subject 
 of this sketch is through Joseph, the youngest son, 
 the generations from Joseph being John, Andrew, 
 Henry, William- ITenry and Charles, the last named 
 being the father of Charles W. 
 
 William Henry Beardsley, our subject's grand- 
 father, was born in 1767, and died July 26, 1841, 
 aged seventy-three. ITe married Sarah Beach, a 
 native of the town of Huntington, Fairfield Co., 
 Conn., and a daughter of Israel Beach (2), a de- 
 scendant of John Beach, of Stratford. She died 
 April 25, 1827, the mother of the following children ; 
 Wilson, born April 15, 1796, was a farmer in Strat- 
 ford and died May 18, 1865 ; Henry, born in 1797, 
 was a tinsmith in Bridgeport, and died April 20, 
 1880; Lucretia, born in 1800, married a !Mr. Crofut, 
 
 a farmer in Norwalk, Conn. ; Charles, our subject's 
 father; Stephen, born in 1804, was a carpenter and 
 died in Stratford; Sarah, born July 10, 1810, mar- 
 ried Benjamin CalifT, of Bridgeport, and died at 
 the age of eighty-two years and frve months; and 
 Mirah died Oct. 11, 1839, aged twent_y-four years. 
 
 Charles Beardsley was born in 1806, and was 
 reared in Stratford upon the old farm. He learned 
 the shoemaker's trade which he followed many years 
 in connection with farming. He died in 1853, at 
 the age of forty-seven years. His wife, Sarah Bald- 
 win, who died in 1889, was a daughter of Hezekiah, 
 Baldwin, of Milford, a descendant of Joseph Bald- 
 win, one of the first settlers of the town. To Charles 
 and Sarah (Baldwin) Beardsley were born eigh!; 
 children, of whom Charles W. is the eldest. The 
 following is the record of the others, all of whom 
 are living and residents of Milford, unless therein 
 stated: Abigail, born May 9, 1832, married Charles 
 R. Baldwin, of Milford; Alvira, born June 4, 1834;. 
 Hezekiah, born April 30, 1836, is an extensive con- 
 tractor and builder of Milford; George, born Jan. 
 20, 1838, has charge of the cabinet work in the 
 schools of New Haven, where he now resides ; Theo- 
 dore, born Feb. 23, 1840, is a prominent builder of 
 Springfield, Mass. ; Sarah J., born Jan. 25, 1842, mar- 
 ried Edward Clark, of Milford ; and Frederick, born 
 Oct. 22, 1843, hs-S for twenty-two years been em- 
 ployed by the N. Y. & N. H. Railway Company. 
 
 Charles W. Beardsley was educated in the com- 
 mon and select schools of his native town, and com- 
 menced learning the shoe business at the age o£ 
 fifteen, following same for eighteen years. He 
 learned his trade in Milford, having accompanied 
 his parents to that town in 1844. His health par- 
 tially failing by close confinement in his work, he 
 engaged in the stock and produce business, import- 
 ing from Montreal, Canada, and continued success- 
 fully in this business for twelve years. He has had 
 some of the finest Jerse}^ cattle that have appeared 
 in America, for which he has obtained large prices. 
 He then bought one of the best farms in Milford, 
 and is engaged in the seed business for Peter Hen- 
 derson & Co., of New York City. He has been iden- 
 tified with some of the most important enterprises 
 of the town, and has served as a director of the Mil- 
 ford Savings Bank, and of the Steam Power Manu- 
 facturing Company. 
 
 Mr. Beardsley has held an important place in 
 public affairs. He has held the offices of selectman 
 for twelve years in succession, member of the board 
 of education, member of the fire department for 
 twenty-two years, and was a member of the Sec- 
 ond Company, Governor's Foot Guards (organized 
 1775), under Gov. Buckingham, and he was one of 
 the incorporators of the Taylor Library, of Milford. 
 In 1889 he was elected a member of the House of 
 Representatives of Connecticut, for two years, and 
 served on the railroad committee, and was com- 
 missioner of the Washington bridge. He gave a 
 full history of the old bridge, and when the bill 
 

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 485 
 
 came before the House to have the structure made 
 a free bridge, supported by New Haven and Fair- 
 field counties, he made a strong argument in favor 
 of the free bridge system, and the bill was passed. 
 Three other free bridges, the Birmingham, Zoar and 
 Bennett, now cross the Housatonic river, making 
 a well defined line between the two counties. He 
 was re-elected a member of the House of Repre- 
 sentatives for the years 1891-92, and was again a 
 member of the railroad committee. Gov. Bulkeley 
 appointed him shell-fish commissioner, and in 1893 
 Gov. Morris reappointed him to the same office. 
 
 On May 28, 1850, Mr. Beardsley was united in 
 marriage with Sarah Baldwin, who was born Jan. 
 -4, 1827, daughter of Elnathan Baldwin, of Mil- 
 ford, and their union has been blessed with three 
 •children: De Witt Clinton, born May 18, 1852, a 
 prominent contractor and builder, who married Mar- 
 tha P. Avery, of Stratford, and has four children : 
 Medorah H., Maud C., Stanley A. and Ida Frances ; 
 Sarah Etta, born Feb. 10, 1855, married Charles 
 Clark, contractor and builder, of West Haven, and 
 had two children : George W. and Elwood R. ; 
 Charles Frederick, born June 16, 1866, resides at 
 home, and is engaged in the seed business with his 
 iather. Mr. Beardsley united with the First Con- 
 •gregational Church of Milford in 1850, and is es- 
 teemed in his native town and in the town where he 
 resides and wherever known, as an honorable and 
 upright citizen. Socially he belongs to the I. O. 
 O. F., of Milford. The Beardsley family is quite 
 a numerous one in Connecticut, and in all its 
 branches has maintained the honorable reputation 
 transmitted through succeeding generations from 
 William Beardsley, the venerated ancestor. 
 
 The first record of the Baldwin family, with 
 which Mr. Beardsley is connected in the maternal 
 line, is in England, A. D. 1672, but the line is some- 
 what broken from then until 1515 when occurred the 
 "birth of Richard Baldwin in Bucks county, England, 
 and since then the descent is as follows : John, son of 
 Richard, born about 1540, and his son Richard, born 
 about 1580 ; Joseph, son of Richard, born about 1600, 
 and with his two brothers Timothy and Nathaniel 
 left their home in Stratford-on-Avon, and came to 
 America in the ship "Planter" in 1635. Joseph 
 Baldwin, who located in Milford in 1639, niarried 
 three times, first Hannah, second, Isabel Northam, 
 widow of James Northam, and third, Elizabeth 
 Hitchcock, widow of William Warriner, of Spring- 
 field. He was the father of the following children : 
 Joseph, Benjamin, Hannah, Mary, Elizabeth, Jilar- 
 tha, Jonathan, David and Sarah. Jonathan Baldwin 
 was born Feb. 15, 1649, in New Haven, and mar- 
 ried Hannah Ward, daughter of John Ward, and 
 became the father of six children: Jonathan, John, 
 Joseph, Hannah, Daniel and Joshua. Of these chil- 
 dren, Joshua is in the direct line, and he was born 
 Jan. 24, 1691, and by his marriage became the father 
 of four children : Hannah, Joshua, Elizabeth and 
 Sybil. Joshua Baldwin (2), our subject's great- 
 
 grandfather, was born in Milford, Conn., Dec. 14, 
 1726, and reared the following children : Hezekiah, 
 father of our subject's mother; Mary; Abigail; 
 Elizabeth ; Sarah ; and Elijah, born in 1789, was 
 graduated from Yale University, and became a 
 preacher of note, and died without children. 
 
 Hezekiah Baldwin was born in Milford in 1775, 
 and married Mary Ann Hine. His children were as 
 follows : ( I ) Mary Ann married Joseph Beard, of 
 Milford, and had one child, Joseph T., a farmer. 
 (2) Abigail married Louis Smith, of Milford, and 
 had four children, Miles, Elizabeth, Mary and Mar- 
 tha. (3) Hezekiah married Harriet Stowe and had 
 two children, Susan and Mary. (4) Sarah or Sally, 
 our subject's mother, was the next. (5) Betsey 
 married William Stowe, and had one son, Clark. 
 (6) Martha married Rogers Beard, of Milford, and 
 had seven children, Seymour, Miles, y\lice, Eliza- 
 beth, Charles, Pennington and Gideon. (7) Charles 
 J. married Eunice Baldwin and had three children, 
 Charles W., Henry E. and Edwin. (8) Elijah mar- 
 ried Julia Wilson, and had four children, Abigail, 
 Mary E., Eliott and Julia. (9) Susan C. married 
 Nathan C. Tomlinson, and had six children, Susan, 
 Mary, Ann, Charles, Celia and Julia. (10) Anna 
 Maria married Addison Beard, of Milford, and had 
 five children, George H., William, Herbert, Ann 
 M. and Elliott. 
 
 SAMUEL R. DEAN, late one of the pros- 
 perous merchants of Seymour, and a popular, pub- 
 lic-spirited citizen, was a native of New York 
 State, born Feb. 13, 1832, in Caroline, Tompkins 
 county, of Scottish descent. 
 
 Samuel H, Dean, his father, set out for this 
 country from the North of Ireland in 1812, but the 
 vessel on which he was making the voyage was 
 captured by the British and conveyed to Halifax, 
 Nova Scotia. From there he succeeded in making 
 his escape, and traveled afoot to Delaware county, 
 N. Y., where he located. In that vicinity he mar- 
 ried Jane Douglass, and by her had twelve chil- 
 dren : John, Alice, John C, James A., William D., 
 Mary A., Sarah, Maria H., Jane A., Samuel R., 
 Cornelia C. and one that died in infancy. After 
 the death of the mother of these children Mr. Dean 
 married Mary Thomas, of Dutchess county, N. Y., 
 and two children were born of that union. 
 
 From the early age of ten years Samuel R. 
 Dean may be said to have earned his own living. 
 In 1867 he came to Seymour and embarked in mer- 
 cantile business with a Mr. McEwen, but after 
 four and a half years the partnership was dis- 
 solved, and in 1872 Mr. Dean became a member 
 of the firm of Wooster, Dean & Buckingham, 
 doing business in the store he occupied up to the 
 time of his death. The firm continued until the 
 spring of 1880, after which it was Wooster & 
 Dean until June, 1881, when Mr. Dean bought out 
 his partner, and he carried on the business alone 
 from that time. 
 
486 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 In January, 1862, Samuel R. Dean was united 
 in marriage with ]\Iiss Anna C. Fairchild, of Ox- 
 ford, Conn., a daughter of Nathan B. and Augusta 
 (Sherman) Fairchild. Five children were born to 
 them: Cornelia A., deceased; William F. ; Benja- 
 min T., deceased; Robert K. ; and Clara A. Will- 
 iam F. was educated partly at Cornell College, 
 where he studied two years, finishing at Lehigh 
 University, Bethlehem, Pa. He vis'ited Jamaica 
 twice in the interest of the Thompson-Houston 
 Electric Co., and for the past five years has been 
 superintendent of the Canadian General Electric 
 Co., at Montreal, Canada. Clara A. and Robert K. 
 are both living at home. 
 
 In politics ]Mr. Dean was a Republican, and in 
 1886-87 represented the town of Seymour in the 
 State Legislature, the first year being' a member of 
 the committee on Incorporations, and the second 
 year of the committee of Finance. In municipal 
 matters he served as chairman of the board of re- 
 lief for seven years. Socially he was affiliated with 
 the F. & A. JVI., Morning Star Lodge, No. 47; 
 with Mt. Vernon Chapter, No. 35 ; with the Coun- 
 cil ; and with the New Haven Commandery, No. 2, 
 K. T. ; and was also a member of the I. O. R. M., 
 Nonnawank Lodge, No. 9. In religious faith he 
 was a Baptist, but attended the Congregational 
 Church. His death, which occurred March 25, 
 1900, was mourned by many friends. 
 
 DANIEL HAND is a name that deserves to be 
 forever luminous in the annals of American philan- 
 thropy. His large donations to the relief of the 
 suffering and the unfortunate victims of evil con- 
 ditions and inherited privations are m part a mat- 
 ter of historical record. In part they can only be 
 surrnised. Enough is known to warrant the in- 
 clusion of this name on the roll of the great and 
 permanent benefactors of the race — men who have 
 acquired large fortunes, and have considered them 
 a trust to be wisely administered for the welfare of 
 their brothers and sisters who have lacked precious 
 privileges of wealth and faith. 
 
 Daniel Hand belonged to an old and established 
 family of New England, whose many representa- 
 tives in former generations have been distinguished 
 alike for their ability, business energy and high 
 moral character. 
 
 The first American ancestor of the family was 
 John Hand, .who emigrated about 1635 from Kent, 
 England, and located first at Lynn, but presently 
 found a home at the east end of Long Island. He 
 was one of the original patentees of East Hamp- 
 ton, and took a leading part in the affairs of the 
 small settlement. He died in 1660. Alice Stan- 
 borough, his wife, was a woman of character and 
 force, and two of their sons remained in East 
 Hampton, where their descendants still reside. 
 Two or three other sons removed to New Jersey, 
 and their progeny may 'be found in that State and 
 
 in Pennsylvania. A daughter married and re- 
 turned to England. 
 
 Joseph Hand about the time of his father's 
 death removed to Guilford, Conn., where he mar- 
 ried Jane Wright, and settled in what is now 
 Madison. This Joseph Hand took an active part 
 in town affairs, and his name frequently appears in 
 the old records. The Hand family was represented 
 in the American Revolution, Capt. Daniel Hand 
 leading a company of East Guilforders to the as- 
 sistance of General Washington and proving one 
 of the able and valiant soldiers of that war. 
 
 The maternal ancestors of Daniel Hand were 
 also linked in with the affairs of the Colonists of 
 those far-away days, A'incent Meigs being a con- 
 temporary of the first John Hand. 
 
 Daniel Hand was born July 14, 1801, in East 
 Guilford,_ and had such intellectual and moral train- 
 ing as might be expected for a scion of an old and 
 prosperous Puritan household in New England, 
 which has been somewhat toned and softened by 
 contact with the outer world. In 1818 he went to 
 Augusta, Ga., in charge of his uncle, Daniel A'leigs, 
 an old and prosperous merchant of that place and 
 of Savannah. Here in process of time he suc- 
 ceeded to his uncle's business, up to within a few 
 years preceding the outbreak of the Civil war, still 
 keeping up close relations with his old home in 
 Connecticut, where his sisters were married and 
 settled, and where he spent nearly every summer 
 during his long Southern residence. Some fifteen 
 years previous to the war Mr. Hand had estab- 
 lished a partnership at Augusta with George W. 
 Williams, a native of the South, and a man of 
 much ability and high character. Shortly after 
 the establishment of the partnership ]\Ir. Williams 
 Opened a branch of the firm's business at Charles- 
 ton, S. C, and the branch soon became the princi- 
 pal place of 'business. The Augusta business was 
 put in charge of D. H. Wilcox, a junior partner, 
 and Mr. Hand made his headquarters in New York 
 temporarily, where he attended to the purchasing- 
 and financial interests of the business. By this 
 change of the firm's interests practically all of Mr. 
 Hand's large fortune was concentrated' at Charles- 
 ton, and there it was at the breaking out of hos- 
 tilities. 
 
 At a time when the war was about to begin 
 Mr. Williams urged Air. Hand to come South, not 
 knowing what disasters to their business might 
 occur if the two proprietors were on dift'erent sides 
 of the line. Air. Hand immediately departed for 
 the scene of their mutual interests, and the business' 
 interests of the firm carried him to New Orleans, 
 where the Mayor had him arrested on account of 
 a telegram which charged him with being a "Lin- 
 coln sp>'." When brought before that august per- 
 sonage he found Mr. Hand a very different man 
 from what he had expected, and set' him free on his. 
 parole to report to the authorities at Richmond- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 487 
 
 Stopping over night at Augusta, Ga., Mr. Hand 
 narrowly escaped being mobbed on account of his 
 known anti-slavery sentiments. Good friends, how- 
 ever, interfered, and sent bim safely on his way. 
 At Richmond Mr. Hand was set at liberty and per- 
 mitted to go where he pleased within the limits of 
 the Confederacy. He located at Asheville, N. C., 
 where he spent his time in reading, and waiting 
 for the war to close, as he knew it must, in the de- 
 struction of the Southern oligarchy. The Con- 
 federate government sought to secure Mr. Hand's 
 extensive property, which was saved after strenuor.-^ 
 efforts to confiscate it. 
 
 At the close of the war Mr. Hand came North 
 and left Mr. Williams to adjust accounts, allow- 
 ing him unlimited control in his administration. 
 Mr. Williams' final statement showed a large 
 amount due Mr. Hand, and for this he gave his 
 note at a low rate of interest. Final payment was 
 at last made, and the name of Mr. Williams is held 
 by those conversant with the facts as that of aa 
 honest and incorruptible a man as is known in the 
 annals of American business. 
 
 In the South Mr. Hand never became identified 
 with its prevailing pro-slavery sentiment, and yet 
 he never expressed tmkind or unfriendly sentiments 
 toward the Southern people. He treasured their 
 good qualities and entertained the kindest feeling 
 toward the communities where he dwelt. Sin- 
 cerely compassionating the white people as well as 
 the black, he used his great fortune to bring the 
 colored people of the South up to a higher level. 
 In order that he might return to the people of the 
 South a substantial expression of his interest in 
 their behalf, and that a portion of his fortune 
 earned there might forever work for the benefit of 
 the needy and suffering of that part of the country, 
 Mr. Hand gave to the American Missionary As- 
 sociation in 1888 a fund of one million dollars to 
 be used for educational purposes, and to be kept 
 intact as the "Daniel Hand Educational Fund for 
 Colored People." This great gift, the largest at 
 that time bestowed in a single sum, was put into 
 the hands of the officers of the Association, and has 
 for many years been doing its noble work. By the 
 will of Mr. Hand the fund was increased by over 
 $600,000. 
 
 In his youth Mr. Hand married his cousin, 
 Elizabeth Ward, daughter of Dr. Levi and Mehita- 
 ble (Hand) Ward, early settlers of Rochester, N. 
 Y. Mrs. Hand and her children all died young, 
 and for more than sixty years Mr. Hand lived a 
 widower, and in absence of family cares and 
 domestic relations, his beneficence has fallen like 
 the sunshine and the dew upon many who were 
 trying to help themselves and overcome unfriendly 
 conditions. Mr. Hand established the Hand Acad- 
 emy in Madison, and did many other commendable 
 and noteworthy deeds. Formed under the influ- 
 ence of a Puritan ancestry andi home surroundings, 
 Mr. Hand's religious convictions were deep but 
 
 never obtruded upon any. He had faith in the 
 Bible, and his consecration was marked. Uniting 
 with the First Presbyterian Church at Augusta, 
 Ga., when twenty-eight years of age, he was always 
 a ready and willing worker in the Church. For 
 thirty years he was superintendent of the Sunday- 
 school at Augusta, and maintained admirable or- 
 der and enthusiasm, yet never reproved a boy or 
 censured a teacher. He died in December, 1890. 
 George E. Hand, a brother of Daniel Hand, 
 and one of the leading lawyers and public men of 
 Michigan, was born in East Guilford, Conn., Aug. 
 16, 1809, and was graduated from Yale College at 
 the age of twenty years. After completing his 
 course at Yale he went tO' Detroit, Mich., where he 
 became a student in the law office of William A. 
 Fletcher, and on his admission to the Bar became 
 a partner of that gentleman. In the law Mr. Hand 
 very quickly attamed eminence. In 1835 he was 
 made Judge of Probate for Wayne county, and in 
 1844 Injunction Master for Eastern Michigan. In 
 1846 Mr. Hand was sent to the Legislature as the 
 representative from Detroit, and in that body took 
 an active part in preparing the revised statutes of 
 that year. He also introduced the resolution for 
 selling the public works of the State, the principal 
 ones being the Central and Southern railroads. 
 Mr. Hand prepared the charter for these roads, and 
 negotiated their final sale. The policy which he 
 advocated proved of great value to the State then 
 struggling with the problems of an impaired cur- 
 rency and profound business depression. In 1853 
 Mr. Hand was appointed United States attorney 
 for Michigan and held the office four years. 
 Founding the Young Men's Society of Detroit, he 
 was its first president. He also organized the De- 
 troit Bar Association, and for many years was its 
 president. A personal and an intimate friend of 
 General Cass, he was chairman of the Democratic 
 State Committee in 1848, when that distinguished 
 citizen of Michigan became a candidate for Presi- 
 dent. Always devoted to his profession, he was 
 long recognized as one of its leading representatives 
 in his adopted State. The last two years of his life 
 v.'ere spent in Madison, where he died Aug. 30, 
 1889. He was a member of the Fort Street Church 
 in Detroit, of which he was an elder, and main- 
 tained a high standing as a man and a citizen 
 among those at all familiar with' his life and char- 
 acter. 
 
 ROBERT DOWNS, a thorough and skillful 
 farmer and a business man of more than ordinary 
 ability, is a worthy representative of the agricultural 
 interest of Oxford. His fine farm, which is one of 
 the most desirable of its size in the town, is pleas- 
 antly located on Chestnut Hill road in the Red Oak 
 school district. 
 
 A native of this county, Mr. Downs was born 
 in the town of Bethany, March 10, 1835, a son of 
 Leverett a:nd Anna (Atwater) Downs. He was 
 
488 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 only a year old when his parents removed to the 
 farm where he now resides, and upon that place he 
 grew to manhood, assisting his father in the labors 
 of the farm and pursuing his studies in the local 
 schools. After the death of his father, which oc- 
 curred in 1859, he took charge of the farm and has 
 since carried it on with marked success. He owns 
 about 116 acres of rich and arable land under a high 
 state of cultivation, and is engaged in dairy and 
 general farming, and in bee culture. 
 
 jMr. Downs' labors were interrupted during the 
 Civil war, as he enlisted Aug. 18, 1862, for three 
 years or during the war, as a private in Co. H, 15th 
 Conn. V. I. With his regiment lie proceeded to 
 Camp Chase, Washington, D. C, and later partici- 
 pated in the battle of Fredericksburg, the siege of 
 Suffolk and the battle of Kinston, X. C, where 
 he was captured March 8, 1865. He was then taken 
 to Richmond, \^a., where they arrived after fifteen 
 days spent upon the road, and where he was held a 
 prisoner for three days. At the end of that time, 
 however, he was paroled and taken to Annapolis, 
 Md. Returning home on a furlough, he was here 
 when the war ended, but again went South, and 
 was discharged at Newbern, N. C, June 17, 1865. 
 Since the war he has engaged in farming on the 
 old homestead in Oxford. He is a stanch supporter 
 of the Republican party and its principles, and has 
 served as grand juror. In all the relations of life 
 he has been found true to every trust reposed in 
 him, and has the entire confidence and respect of his 
 fellow citizens. In his church affiliations he is a 
 member of the JMethodist Episcopal Church, of 
 Naugatuck. 
 
 HENRY REYNOLDS, long conspicuous as a 
 manufacturer and business man of New Haven, is 
 a son of Stephen and Sybil (Vinton) Reynolds, and 
 was born in Southbridge, ^Nlass., March 16, 1824. 
 His father was a blacksmith and later a manufac- 
 turer of scythes, hoes and other such articles in de- 
 mand among the people with whom he lived. He 
 was an honest man and reputable citizen. But he 
 was not wealthy, and his son Henry Reynolds began 
 his active life without capital or influential backing, 
 equipped with such a rudimentary education as he 
 was able to gain in the common schools of South- 
 bridge .and Wilbraham, to which place his father 
 moved when he was nine years old. Henry's nat- 
 ural bent was for mechanics, and he set about ac- 
 quiring a practical knowledge of mechanical en- 
 gineering, finishing his apprenticeship with Otis 
 Tuffts, a once celebrated mechanical engineer, of 
 Boston. 
 
 Later Mr. Reynolds was employed by \lr. Tufifts 
 continuously in one responsible position after an- 
 other till 1848. In February of that year Mr. 
 Reynolds went to Springfield, ^lass., and connected 
 himself with the American IMachine A\'orks, af 
 which he was superintendent and part proprietor 
 until 1861, during which period were built under his 
 
 supervision all the engines constructed by the com- 
 pany, including a large engine in the water works of 
 Columbia, S. C, and another in the United States 
 Branch Mint at New Orleans, La. The erection of 
 these two, with many others, Mr. Reynolds per- 
 sonally oversaw. The business of the company was 
 largely in the South, and at the outbreak of the 
 Civil war, in common with many others, it was so 
 seriously crippled that a change of base was deemed 
 expedient, and the manufacture of firearms was be- 
 gun. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Reynolds disposed of his interest in 
 the American Machine Co., and removing to New 
 Haven, Conn., became interested in the Plants Man- 
 ufacturing Company (a joint stock concern), and 
 engaged in the manufacture for the government of 
 pistols and gun parts, making a specialty of the 
 Reynolds, Plants & Hotchkiss revolver, of which 
 two sizes were made. The business was continued 
 until Dec. 8, 1866, when the factory was burned. 
 At that time the company was turning out an aver- 
 age of sixty revolvers per day. 
 
 In May, 1867, the present business of Mr. Rey- 
 nolds was established by Reynolds & Bigelow, and it 
 was soon sold to Reynolds & Co., a stock company, 
 of which the following named gentlemen are now 
 officers : Henry Reynolds, president and manager ; 
 William H. Reynolds, secretary ; James English, 
 treasurer ; and George F. Reynolds, superintendent. 
 The business was started with the design of man- 
 ufacturing screws which should be standards of 
 excellence, and the success of Mr. Reynolds and 
 his associates in carrying out their intentions is at- 
 tested by the popularity which their goods have at- 
 tained and the steady increase of their business, 
 which has obliged them' to make frequent large ad- 
 ditions to their facilities. Started with one screw 
 machine, five horse-power engine, many are now in 
 use and the factory gives employment to 150 skilled 
 men. 
 
 The premises comprise several brick buildings, 
 having an aggregate floor surface of about 40,000 
 square feet. The factory is equipped with the latest 
 improved machinery and tools, operated by a one 
 hundred and seventy-five horse-power engine. The 
 products of these works comprise all kinds of set, 
 cap and machine screws, machine bolts, bridge and 
 roof bolts, coach screws, nuts and washers. The 
 company also manufacture molding machines of 
 metal as the Eames, Re}molds & Hammer machines. 
 Though on the market only some twenty-odd years 
 their machines for pressing sand molds have, in 
 spite of the strong opposition shown to them by the 
 raolders, slowly but surely grown in favor with the 
 foundrymen, until there are to-day thousands of 
 them in active use, showing in each case very fav- 
 orable results, and quickly repaying the foundryman 
 for his investment. The leading sewing machine 
 foundries of the country are now making all their 
 sewing machine beds, arms, wheels, pulleys, tread- 
 lers, braces and all small castings upon these ma- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 489 
 
 chines, and they are also in general use in the larg- 
 est lockshops and malleable kon foundries both East 
 and West. The company for twenty or more years 
 has been constantly improving the machines, their 
 -endeavor being to so simplify and strengthen them 
 as to render it almost impossible for them to get 
 ■cut of order or break with any proper use. Tliis 
 end has been practically accomplished, and the ma- 
 chines they now oi?er to the public cannot be equaled 
 for strength, simplicity, compactness and easy adap- 
 tation to all classes of bench molding. These ma- 
 chines are made in several different styles and sizes, 
 and will make any kind of casting that can be 
 molded in flasks 36 inches long and 12 inches wide, 
 •or smaller, but are especially adapted to snap flask or 
 bench molding, and show the largest gain over hand 
 ramming on light work, such as is generally made 
 in flasks 20x16 inches and smaller. The molds can 
 1)6 made at considerably less cost than they can be 
 rammed up by hand, much smoother and more uni- 
 form castings produced, and owing to the simplic- 
 ity and durability of the machines they can be run 
 for years amid the dirt and dust of the foundry with- 
 out getting out of order or occasioning any outlay 
 for repairs. The company also makes a draw plate 
 machine, which is on the same principle as is em- 
 iDodied in the Reynolds machine. This machine is 
 -especially adapted to globe valves, pipe fittings keys, 
 parts of sewing machines, locks, etc. It is claimed 
 for these machines first, that they will produce 
 ■smoother and more even work than can be made 
 with hand rammers ; second, a smaller percentage 
 of poor castings ; third, a much larger number of 
 molds per day ; fourth, a saving of from 25 to 50 
 per cent, in cost of molding, according to pattern ; 
 ■fifth, considering size, strength, durability, capacity 
 and adaption to all kinds of work, they are the 
 ■cheapest machine made; sixth, they do not require 
 ■experienced molders to run them ; seventh, they 
 will soon repay any foundr)'man for his invest- 
 ment, if properly handled. 
 
 The great success of the enterprise mentioned in 
 the foregoing is attributed no less to the practical 
 mechanical skill of Mr. Reynolds, than to the able 
 business management of himself and associates. It 
 is true of him (and of many manufacturers it can- 
 not be said), that he is personally able to do quickly 
 and skillfully any work required of any machine in 
 his employ, but he learned his trade when men ac- 
 quired the whole, and did not content themselves 
 with learning portions of it. It is a distinction 
 which he enjoys, that he was the first in the United 
 States to make steel and iron set and cap screws 
 for the trade; and the first pianoagrafife screws in 
 America were made by him. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds was married to Martha A. Shearer, 
 of Massachusetts, Jan. 10, 1847. She died March 
 26, 1850. Sometime later Mr. Reynolds married 
 Nancy H. Wheeler, of Springfield, Mass. He has 
 two sons, William Henry, born in 1853 : and George 
 Francis, born in 1856. Politically ]\Ir. Reynolds 
 
 is a Democrat, and has been one from his youth. 
 While adhering firmly to the principles of that party 
 in all questions of national import, he is liberal in 
 his views, and in municipal affairs is in favor of the 
 election of the ^nan who bids fair to be the best 
 oificer. He has been for many years a member of 
 St. Thomas Episcopal Church, upon the services of 
 which he and his family are attendants. 
 
 Mr. Rejmolds has long been prominent as a 
 Mason, having attained the 32d degree. He is a 
 member of Hiram Lodge, No. i ; Franklin Chapter, 
 No. 2 ; Harmony Council, No. 8 ; and New Haven 
 Commandery, No. 2; also E. G. Storer Lodge of 
 Perfection ; Elm City Council, Princes of Jerusalem ; 
 New Haven Chapter Rose Croix A. A. S. R. ; La- 
 fayette Consistory, S. P. R. S. Since taking up his 
 residence in New Haven he has never consented to 
 accept any position of public trust, but while living 
 in Springfield he served his fellow citizens as al- 
 derman and councilman, and in other capacities. 
 He is public spirited, and has always done his full 
 share in the upbuilding of the best interests of the 
 community. He is a conspicuous example of New 
 Haven's self-made men. 
 
 JULIUS ELIZUR NORTON, one of Guil- 
 ford's successful business men, and a well-known 
 c-tizen, is a native of that city, born Oct. 23, 1841, 
 and is descended from one of the oldest New Eng- 
 land families. The first known of the family under 
 consideration was 
 
 (I) John Norton, a native of Bedfordshire, 
 England, where he passed all his life. He married 
 Jane Cooper, and had children : William, Alice, 
 John, Robert and Richard. Of these^ 
 
 (II) Richard Norton, born in Bedfordshire, 
 England, where he passed all his days, married 
 Marjory Wingate, and had children : William 
 (married to Margaret Harrison) and Thomas. 
 
 (III) Thomas Norton, born in Bedfordshire, 
 England, son of Richard, moved to Ockley, County 
 of Surrey, thence in 1639 coming to America and 
 settling in Guilford, Conn., where he died in 1658. 
 In England he had married, his wife's name being 
 Grace, and thev had children, all born in England : 
 George, born in 1606, who died in i6^g ; Thomas, 
 sketch of whom follows ; Ann, wife of John War- 
 ner: Grace, wife of William Smead; John, mar- 
 ried to Hannah Stone; Mary, wife of James Rock- 
 well; and Abigail, born in 1629, who died in 1704. 
 
 riV) Thomas Norton, born in England in 
 1626, came to Guilford with his parents, later mov- 
 ing to Saybrook, and dying at Durham, Conn., in 
 1712. He married. May 8, 1671, Elizabeth Mason, 
 who died Jan. 31, 1609, the mother of children as 
 follows : Elizabeth, born in October, 1674, died 
 April 2, 1676; Thomas, born June i, 1677, died 
 ]\Iay 22, 1726; Elizabeth (2), born Dec. 2^, 1679, 
 married Reuben Neal ; Joseph, born Nov. 6, 1681, 
 died in 17^6; Samuel Ttwin of loseph) died Tulv 
 13, 1749; Abigail and Ebenezer (twins), born Oct. 
 
490 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 26, 1683, both died young; John, sketch of whom 
 follows. 
 
 (V) John Norton, born Oct. 8, 1686, in Dur- 
 ham, Conn., passed all his life there, dying in 
 1768. He and his wife Elizabeth had children: 
 Jonathan, born Feb. 18, 1712, who died Oct. 27, 
 1801 ; John, sketch of whom follows; Benjamin, 
 born Feb. 12, 1719, who died in 1758; Ephraim, 
 born Aug. 20, 1721 ; Stephen, born June 7, 1724; 
 Elizabeth, born June 15, 1726, who died young; 
 and Elizabeth (2), born June 21, 1728, who mar- 
 ried Joseph Seward. 
 
 (VI) John Norton, born at Durham, Feb. 16, 
 171 5, in early manhood moved to Killingworth, 
 Conn., where he passed the remainder of his days. 
 In 1742 he married Mary Griswold, who was born 
 June 23, 1723, and died m Killingworth. We have 
 the following record of their children : Mary, born 
 April 13, 1743, married Cornelius Hull; Rhoda 
 was born Aug. 16, 1745; Moses, Feb. 23, 1748; 
 Aaron, June 24, 1751 ; Anna, Feb. 3, 1754; Elah, 
 May 8, 1757 (married Huldah Hull) ; Abel, July 
 4, 1762; and Amos, sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (VII) Amos Norton, grandfather of Julius E., 
 born in the town of Killingworth in November, 
 1764, removed in early manhood to East Guilford 
 (now the town of Madison), where he died Dec. 
 4, 1822, and he is buried in Madison cemetery. He 
 married Sylvia Field, who was born March 11, 
 1779, and died March 15, 1812. Their children: 
 Ph^be Ann, born May 25, 1800, who died Oct. 17, 
 1868; Mary, twin of Phebe Ann; Rebecca, who 
 married G. S. Hill and died Oct. 21, 1828; Edward, 
 sketch of whom follows ; Calvin and JNIelinda 
 (twins), born June 11, 1805 (Calvin died Sept. 12, 
 1876) ; Joseph and Mary Ann (twins), born Aug. 
 17, 1807; Joshua, born in 1809, who died in De- 
 cember, 1820; Josiah, twin of Joshua, who died in 
 1813; Grift, born March i, 1812, who died March 
 15, 1812. 
 
 (VIII) Edward Norton, father of Julius E., 
 was born at East Guilford (now Madison), Feb. 
 26, 1803, and died in Guilford June 26, 1873. A 
 butcher and cattle dealer by occupation, he became 
 a man of considerable means, but lost all or most 
 of his property. On June 9, 1834, he married Mrs. 
 Eliza (Hotchkiss) Leete, who was born May 27, 
 1800, died March 16, 1874, and is buried in Guil- 
 ford West cemetery. She was a daughter of Flenry 
 Hotchkiss, and widow of Simeon Leete, by whom 
 she had one child. To Edward Norton and his 
 wife came children as follows : Mary E., born 
 Dec. 31, 183s, married Jonathan Morse; James An- 
 drew, born in February, 1839, died Oct. 14, 1840; 
 Julius Elizur, sketch of whom follows ; and Julia 
 Elizabeth (twin of Julius E.), born Oct. 23, 1841, 
 died May 8, 1844. 
 
 (IXj Julius Elizur Norton, whose name opens 
 this sketch, received his education in the district 
 schools of Guilford, and early in life, owing to his 
 father's ill health, had to contribute toward the 
 
 support of the family. At the age of thirteen years 
 he removed to Branford, where for one year he 
 found employment in the iron works, at the end of 
 which time he returned to Guilford and com- 
 menced working in the Spencer foundry, at the 
 time conducted by Isaac S. Spencer & Son, the 
 former father of the present proprietors. Here he 
 passed over a quarter of a century, being employed 
 in all the departments, during which time, through 
 his industry and attention to business, he won for 
 himself the confidence of his employers. In 1881 
 he met with an accident which necessitated his re- 
 signing his position in the works, and as a con- 
 sequence he had to seek some other employment. 
 In 1882 he commenced in the produce business, 
 buying and sellmg on a small scale, gradually ex- 
 panding his trade, and for the last twelve years he 
 has shipped produce in large c[uantities to Preston 
 Brown, of Providence, R. I., as well as to many 
 Western points, etc. In course of time, in 1876, 
 he took his son Robert into partnership, under the 
 firm name of J. E. Norton & Son, which has since 
 continued, and they have several branch meat 
 markets in Guilford and elsewhere, besides dealing 
 extensively in live stock. 
 
 On Feb. 23, 1863, Julius E. Norton was mar- 
 ried to Maria GrifBng Hill, a record of whose fam- 
 ily is given farther on, and children as follows 
 have come to them : ( i ) Robert Henry, born Sept. 
 12, 1864, was married Nov. 30, 1889, to Laura 
 Noble Roberts. The_v have had five children — 
 Arthur Julius, born Aug. 27, 1890; Hazel Maria, 
 Sept. 19, 1892; Earl Daniel, June 8, 1895; Leslie 
 Roberts, July 12, 1897; Robert Henry, June 28, 
 1901. (2) Lelia Augusta, born July 15, 1866, mar- 
 ried, Oct. 31, 1889, George Mason, who died Aug. 
 16, 1899; she makes her home in Guilford, and has 
 four children — Frank Norton, Olive Alargaret, 
 George R. and Walter Harris. (3) Anna Laura, 
 born Jan. 19, 1872, died April 26, 1888. (4) Harry 
 Eugene, born March 20, 1878, died Aug. 22, 1893. 
 (5) Clarence Edward, born Feb. 28, 1886, is "the 
 largest boy of his age in Guilford." The family 
 are all identified with the Congregational Church, 
 and in politics Mr. Norton was formerly a Demo- 
 crat, but since 1896 has been a stanch Republican. 
 
 The Hill family, of which Mrs. Julius E. Nor- 
 ton is a member, trace their descent from old and 
 honored residents of Guilford, and the first of the 
 name in New Haven county was 
 
 (I) John Hill, who came from Northampton- 
 shire, England, and in 1654 settled in Guilford, 
 where he passed the rest of his life, dying June 8, 
 1689. He was twice married, and his first wife's 
 name was Frances. On Sept. 23, 1673, he married 
 for his second wife Catherine Chalker, born Sept. 
 8, 1657, a daughter of Alexander Chalker. Chil- 
 dren born to John Hill: (i) John, a sketch of 
 whom follows; {2} James, who died Nov. i, 1715; 
 (3) Sarah; (4) EHzabeth ; (5) Ann, wife of James 
 Topping. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 491 
 
 (II) John Hill died May 8, 1690. He married 
 Thankful Stone, who was born an May, 1648, and 
 died Nov. 18, 1711. Their children: (i) Mary, 
 born May 8, 1671, died Aug. 24, 1671 ; (2) John, 
 sketch of whom follows; (3) Elizabeth, born Feb. 
 I, 1676, married Josiah Rossiter and died July 14, 
 1739; (4) Hon. Samuel, born Feb. 21, 1678, mar- 
 ried Huldah Ruggles and died May 28, 1752; (5) 
 Nathaniel, born in April, 1680, died Oct. 10, 1764; 
 (t>) James, born in April, 1682, married May Fay 
 and died March 20, 171 5. 
 
 (III) John HSlf, born July 18, 1672, died in 
 Guilford Feb. 10, 1740. He married Hannah 
 Highland, who was born Jan. 29, 1670, and died 
 j\Iay 19, 1752. Children: (i) John, born June 
 13, 1695, married Hannah Dibble and died Sept. 
 6, 1756; (2) Hannah,- born May 3, 1699, died 
 March 13, 1768; (3) Elizabeth, born Oct. i, 1705, 
 married John Stone and died April 14, 1781 ; (4) 
 Thomas, sketch of whom follows; (5) George, 
 born April 25, 1710, married Ruth Robinson and 
 died Feb. 9, 1787; (6) Benjamin, born Jan. 29, 
 1712, died young; {yj Reuben, born Nov. 2, 1713, 
 went to Canada; (8) Abigail, born March 10, 17 — , 
 died Oct. 11, 1774. 
 
 (IV) Thomas Hill, born Sept. 27, 1708, died 
 in Guilford Feb. 23, 1792. On March 23, 1734, he 
 married Hannah Pierson, of Bridgehampton, who 
 died May 6, 1791. Children: (i) Lucy, born July 
 29, 173s, died Dec. 13, 1745; (2) Hannah, born 
 July 27, 1737, married Nathaniel Johnson and died 
 Dec. 27, 1763; (3) Eliza'beth, born Sept. 9, 1739, 
 died July 28, 1748; (4) Thomas, a sketch of whom 
 follows. 
 
 (V) Thomas Hill, born March 20, 1743, died 
 April 4, 1820. On Oct. 13, 1767, he married Eliza- 
 beth Fairchild, who died Feb. 28, 1812. Children : 
 (i) Reuben, born April 23, 1769, died Sept. 23, 
 1775; (2) Thomas, sketch of whom follows; (3) 
 William, born April 29, 1773, married Lucy Sco- 
 vill and died Sept. 13, 1832; (4) Anson, born April 
 13, 1775, married Polly Arnold; (5) Mary, born 
 Feb. 4, 1 78 1, married Alex. McQuillan. 
 
 (VI) Thomas Hill, born Nov. 16, 1770, died 
 Dec. 10, 1827. On Nov. 16, 1794, he married Rox- 
 anna Benton, who was born Sept. 10, 1776. Chil- 
 dren: (i) William, born April 4, 1796, married 
 Laura Blakeslee and died Jan. 26, 1878; (2) 
 George, born May 18, 1798, married Rebecca Nor- 
 ton and died in November, 1877; (3) Thomas, 
 bom Nov. 16, 1800, married Mary Morse and died 
 in 1835 ; (4) Clarinda, born May i, 1803, married 
 WilHam Drugin ; (5) Ralph, born Aug. 25, 1805, 
 married Dency Ives and died Aug. 6, 1881 ; (6) 
 Reuben, born Feb. 23, 1808, died April 8, 1887; 
 (7) Almira, born Oct. 7, 1810, married Alfred 
 Allen; (8) Edward, born in August, 1813, married 
 Laura Ann Hill; ^9) Maria, born July 27, 1816, 
 married William' Potter; (10) Catharine, born 
 Sept. II, 1819, married Moses Culver. 
 
 (VII) Reuben Hill, known as "Captain," father 
 
 of Mrs. Julius E. Norton, was born at Guilford 
 Feb. 23, 1808, and was engaged in the fishing busi- 
 ness in his native town, being owner and master 
 of fishing smacks. He had the misfortune to lose 
 his eyesight at sea, and was totally blind for sev- 
 enteen years before his death, which occurred 
 April 8, 1887, at his home in Guilford. He was a 
 lifelong Democrat, active in school and church 
 v^'ork, and, altogether, a good citizen. On Oct. 11, 
 1832, he married Laura Ann Stone, born Oct. 7, 
 1813, a daughter of Gideon and Nancy (Tyler) 
 Stone, and granddaug-hter of Eter and Temperance 
 (Hodge) Stone. Children: (i) Eliza Jane, born 
 May 19, 1833, married Horace Fowler and died 
 May 6, 1887; (2) William E., born June 26, 1835, 
 died April 21, 1837; (3) William Philetus, born 
 Oct. 25, 1837, married Sarah A. Potter; (4) 
 Henry Green, born April 15, 1840, died May 14, 
 1872; (5) Maria Griffing, born Sept. 18, 1843, 
 married Julius E. Norton; (6) Nancy Roxanna,. 
 born March 29, 1.847, died March 9, 1855; (7) 
 Ralph Benjamin, born Oct. 25, 1849, married Mary 
 Hitchcock; (8) Ella Elizabeth, born May 23, 1852, 
 died Dec. 10, i860 ; (9) Reuben Edward, born 
 Aug. 29, 1858, married Jennie Spencer. 
 
 HENRY HALLER, one of the older and bet- 
 ter known citizens of Yalesville, in the town of 
 Wallingford, and long an employe of the auger 
 works at Tracy, was born in Bavaria, Aug. 12, 
 1836, a son of John Haller, who was also of Bavar- 
 ian birth. 
 
 John Haller was a weaver, and spent his entire 
 life in Germany, where he married Catherine Burn- 
 hart. They were both members of the Lutheran 
 Church. To their union were born three children :. 
 Margaretia, who married George VoUmiller, and 
 was the m.other of the late Mrs. Thomas Fenn, of 
 Yalesville ; Barbara married Christian Beck, of 
 Cornwall, Conn. ; and Henry, whose name appears 
 at the opening of this article. Both John Haller 
 and his wife are now deceased. 
 
 Henry Haller had a good German education, 
 and when his parents died and left him alone in his 
 early youth he worked at farm labor until he was 
 eighteen years old. Wishing to better his condi- 
 tion, and knowing the opportunities that waited on 
 honest industry in the new world, he came to the 
 United States in his eighteenth year, and after an 
 ocean voyage of thirty-six days landed in New 
 York. He walked the streets of that strange city, 
 poor in everything save strength of body and mind 
 and an indomitable spirit. Coming to South Brit- 
 ain, Conn., he worked at the shops until 1859, when 
 he came to Cornwall, where he spent two years 
 working in the shops. On the outbreak of the 
 Civil war he enlisted in Company C, 5th Conn. 
 V. I., Capt. Collis and Col. O. S. Ferry. Three 
 years were devoted by him) to the service of his 
 adopted country, and his true German courage was. 
 proved in the battles of Cedar Mountain, Gettys- 
 
492 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 burg, Peach Tree Creek and others, and also in the 
 terrible struggle around Atlanta. In 1864 he re- 
 ceived an honorable discharge, and returning to 
 Cornwall, resumed his work in the shops. Some 
 years after he secured a position with the Chees- 
 man Co., at Ansonia, as fireman and engineer. 
 Mr. Haller remained in Ansonia until 1876, when 
 he removed to Yalesville, and was employed by the 
 C. Parker Co. for some five years, and since that 
 time he has worked at the auger shop of the Jen- 
 nings & Griffing Co., at Tracy. 
 
 Mr. Haller is sincerely respected by all who 
 know him, and his residence in Yalesville, which 
 covers more than a quarter of a century, has been 
 marked by an integrity of heart and spirit that has 
 made him many friends. Mr. Haller was united 
 in marriage in 1859 with Miss Dorothea Tiefen- 
 bach, a daughter of John Tiefenbach, and a native 
 of Prussia. To them were born three children: 
 (i) Henry, who resides at home and is employed 
 in the auger factory at Tracy. (2) Charles P., who 
 graduated from the district school and at a busi- 
 ness college at New Haven, was assistant secretary 
 of the Y. M. C. A. at Meriden, secretary for two 
 years at Thompsonville, and was general secretary 
 of the Y. M. C. A. at Stamford ; he is now a student 
 at Hahnemann Medical College at Philadelphia. 
 (3) George, who is in the tea business, married 
 Nettie Woodstock, and has three children, Charles 
 Henry, Edwin Francis and Lawrence Wallace. 
 Air. Haller belongs to the Meriden Post, No. 8, 
 G. A. R. ; Hancock Lodge, 1. O. O. F. ; and to the 
 K. of P., at Ansonia. With his wife he belongs to 
 the jMethodist Church, and in politics is a stanch 
 Republican. The entire family sustain the respect 
 and confidence of their fellow townsmen. - 
 
 HO:\IER TWITCHELL. Early records show 
 the first American ancestor of the Twitchell family 
 to have come to New England in 1633. His bap- 
 tismal name was Joseph, and his surname was 
 spelled at times Tuchel. He is believed to have 
 emigrated from Dorset, an English shire adjoin- 
 ing Devonshire. He settled in Dorset, and land 
 was assigned him in 16^5. He was the father of 
 two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, from the younger 
 of whom Mr. Homer Twitchell is descended. Benja- 
 min removed from Dorset in 1663, and is presumed 
 to have bought one hundred acres of Ranes grant. 
 Be that as it may, he built his house about eighty rods 
 southwest of Deathbridge, where the ancient exca- 
 vation for the cellar is still plainly discernable. 
 Three sons and three daughters were born to him : 
 Joseph, Alary, Hannah, Benjamin, Bertha and 
 Abiell. The last named is next in line of descent 
 toward Homer. He is presumed to have been the 
 father of Benson, who' was early left an orphan and 
 was reared bv his father's sister Alary, the wife of 
 Joseph Rochet. On reaching manhood he and Air. 
 Rochet, with a cousin, became proprietors of what 
 is now the site of the town of Oxford. Benson was 
 
 distinguished for energy, enterprise and courage, 
 no less than for intelligence and probity, and was 
 held in high esteem. He dealt extensively in real 
 estate, and his name appears upon the town records 
 of Oxford for January, 1722, as an "innholder." He 
 was the father of six children, Seth, Jeremiah, Han- 
 nah, Abigail, John and Joseph. Joseph, who was 
 born at Oxford in 1717, married Elizabeth Thomp- 
 son, of Derby ; his children were Isaac, David, Enoch 
 and Worcester. Enoch passed his life in Oxford 
 and became the father of Polly, Samuel and Isaac. 
 
 Isaac Twitchell, the father of Homer Twitchell, 
 was born in Oxford Feb. 2, 1777, and died Sept_. i, 
 1849. On Sept. 2, 1798, he married Frances Smith, 
 who bore him thirteen children, all of whom, ex- 
 cept Hope (who lived but twelve hours), attained 
 mature vears : Aliles J., Clara, Bennet, Curtis, Isaac 
 S., Robert, Thomas, Laura E., Charles, Clark, Fanny 
 and Homer. His widow survived him until April 
 2, 1865, when she, too, entered into rest, at the ripe 
 old age of eighty-three. 
 
 Homer Twitchell, the youngest child, and now 
 the distinguished citizen of Naugatuck, whose life 
 forms the subject of this sketch, was born in Ox- 
 ford, Aug. 19, 1826, and he and a sister are the only 
 members of his father's family who remained in the 
 county in which they were born. He was brought 
 up on his father's farm and received a common 
 school education. At the age of eighteen he began 
 his apprenticeship to the cutler's trade, at Water- 
 bury, and after becoming a journeyman was em- 
 ployed for several years in the shops of the Union 
 Knife Co. and other concerns. He was a skillful 
 workman and endowed by nature with rare execu- 
 tive capacity, and in time was made superintendent 
 of the Connecticut Cutlery Co., which position he 
 continued to fill until 1870. In that year he began 
 the manufacture of umbrella trimmings at Union 
 City, and two years later added the making of 
 safety pins to his business, and these specialties he 
 still continues to manufacture. In 1879 his son was 
 admitted into partnership, the style of the firm be- 
 coming Homer Twitchell & Son. Besides being at 
 the head of this industrial establishment, A^Ir. 
 Twitchell is interested in various other enterprises 
 of a semi-public character. He took an active part 
 in founding the Naugatuck Water Co., and was 
 the corporation's first president. He was also one 
 of the organizers of both the Savings and National 
 banks in that town, serving as president of the for- 
 mer until 1889, and acting as one of the trustees 
 since that date. Of the National Bank he is a di- 
 rector. 
 
 He is sincerely attached to Naugatuck, and no 
 measure looking toward the advancement of its best 
 interests ever appeals in vain for his support. His 
 natural generosity, quick sympathy, broad intellect 
 and public spirit have all combined to render him 
 one of the town's most popular and valued citizens. 
 While never seeking office, nominations have been 
 spontaneously tendered him. He has filled various 
 
J^^-^^^^'^-^.sA^ ^^>^-Q^:^^^?'^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 493 
 
 minor local offices, and has served as first select- 
 man for several terms. In 1864 he was sent to the 
 Legislature, and in 1888 was elected State senator 
 from the Fifth district, and re-elected in 1890. He 
 is a Democrat in politics, and that he stands high in 
 the local councils of his party is shown by the fact 
 that he was chosen a delegate to the National con- 
 vention that nominated Grover Cleveland for the 
 presidency. His religious affiliations are with the 
 Congregational Church. He has been a member of 
 the Masonic fraternity since 1845, and has been re- 
 peatedly chosen master of his lodge. 
 
 On May 21, 1855, Mr. Twitchell was married to 
 Miss Lavinia Mason, whose father, Abner, was a 
 prominent citizen of South Coventry, Conn. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Twitchell have but one son, Frank M., 
 who was born in Union City April 7, 1856; he was 
 educated at the academy in Wilbraham, Mass., and 
 on finishing his course there entered his father's 
 employ. In 1879, ^^ has been said, he became a 
 n:ember of the firm. He is a man of prominence and 
 influence in the community ; and besides serving 
 on school committees was chosen to represent his 
 town in the Legislature in 1894. Like his father, 
 he is a Democrat in politics, and in religious belief 
 a Congregationalist. He belongs to various fra- 
 ternal orders, being a thirty-second degree Mason, 
 a Knight of Pythias, an Odd Fellow and a mem- 
 ber of the A. O. U. W. Mr. Frank M. Twitchell 
 was married Dec. 5, 1883, to Emma, a daughter of 
 A. J. Spencer, of ^Middletown ; she died, childless, 
 Feb. 13, 1896, and on April 7, 1897, he married her 
 sister. May. 
 
 CLIFT. The name of Clift has had a place in 
 the annals of New England from the earliest 
 Colonial days. Williami Clift, of Marshfield, 
 Mass., married, 1691, Lydia, born 1676, daughter 
 of Samuel and granddaughter of William Wills, 
 or Willis, who was made a freeman in Scituate, 
 Mass., in 1639. It has been stated in print that 
 William Clift was put ashore in the harbor of 
 Scituate, Mass., when but seven years of age. 
 Tradition has it, through one Pero, an old negro 
 servant, who died in 1807, at eighty-one, and knew 
 the first generation of the family, that "Mr. Clift 
 was sent from England by interested parties be- 
 cause he was heir to a large estate which they 
 would inherit in case of his death." William Clift 
 died Oct. 17, 1722. From this ancestor descended 
 in the fifth generation the late Capt. William Clift, 
 of Groton, Conn., the parents of the latter being 
 Capt. Nathaniel and Eunice (Denison) Clift, who 
 were married Aug. 5, 1801. Nathaniel Clift 
 passed the earlier portion of his life in trading voy- 
 ages along the Atlantic and Gulf States, and rose 
 to the rank of commander. He finally settled in 
 Mvstic Bridge (Stonington), engaged to a certain 
 extent in trade, and became the popular proprietor 
 of a public house which was located in the vicinity 
 of the "Hoxie House." 
 
 Capt. AA'illiam Clift, son of Capt. Nathaniel, 
 was born April 20, 1805, in Mystic Bridge (Ston- 
 ington), Conn. He was educated in the common 
 schools of the town and in the private schools of 
 Sheffield and Kirby, at the borough of Stonington, 
 attending the latter school two terms. He com- 
 menced his active life by teaching school two years 
 in his native town, then for three years he held 
 a position as clerk in the store of Gilbert Denison, 
 at the head of Mystic river. His health, owing to 
 his sedentary life, was not good, and when twenty- 
 three years of age he went to sea in a fishing smack 
 to improve it. In three years' time he regained his 
 original strength, and then, in company with eleven 
 others, formed a joint stock company, bought the 
 sloop "Montgomery," altered her tO' a schooner, 
 and went on a sealing voyage to the west coast of 
 Patagonia. The vessel sailed from Mystic Aug. 
 18, 1831, and was the first vessel in that business 
 that sailed from Mystic. ;\Ir. Clift went out of 
 port as a common sailor, yet he appears to have 
 had the whole management of affairs. This enter- 
 prise and voyage was successful, and Mr. Clift im- 
 mediately started on a second voyage, this time as 
 master in the schooner "Mary Jane." This voy- 
 age, too, was a successful one, paying the owners 
 a dividend of one hundred and twenty-five per cent, 
 net profit in twenty months. These two voyages 
 were very laborious, replete with hardships and 
 vicissitudes, and Capt. Clift endured great physical 
 discomfort and dangers. At one time they were on 
 one rock seventy-three days and nights. On his 
 first voyage on the "Mary Jane," Capt. Clift was 
 selected by the Foreign Missionary Society to con- 
 vey two missionaries. Revs. Arnies and Cowan, to 
 Terra del Fuego. Knowing their lives not to be 
 worth anything in the hands of the people of that 
 land, as they were cannibals, Capt. Clift prevailed 
 en them to change their destination, and conveyed 
 them to Patagonia. The unprecedented success of 
 these voyages gave Capt. Clift great reputation as 
 an able navigator, and he was invited to take com- 
 mand of exploring expeditions untrammeled by or- 
 ders, and could have accepted very high marine po- 
 sitions. But his sagacity and carefulness caused 
 him to decline all these brilliant offers, and, know- 
 ing that his was a commercial mind, he bought the 
 schooner "Hudson" and larger vessels and contin- 
 ued as master during the remainder of his nineteen 
 years of seafaring life, the first five years of which 
 were spent "before the mast." He never sailed for 
 wages, but always for a share. His business ca- 
 pacity, shrewdness and ability were rewarded by 
 very handsome financial results. When he retired 
 from the sea he owned a part of a number of 
 vessels, and became their New York agent, spend- 
 ing most of his time in that city for fifteen years, 
 taking care of and managing their business. At 
 the same time he was extensively engaged with 
 Nathan G. Fish and others in ship building at Mys- 
 tic, and he purchased all the necessary material in 
 
494 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 New York. In 1865 he retired from active busi- 
 ness. Every vessel with which he had ever had 
 anything to do was successful, never failing to de- 
 clare a dividend. He was a man of careful system, 
 and for many years no policy of insurance was car- 
 ried on his vessels, and not a dollar was lost. One 
 of his peremptory rules on shipboard was that no 
 one, sailor, officer or passenger, should swear, play 
 cards or drink liquor. 
 
 On Aug. I, 1854, Capt. Clift was chosen direc- 
 tor in the Mystic River Bank, and remained in the 
 directory for many years (still in 1882). He was 
 president of the JDank from Aug. 24, 1870, until 
 June 7, 1881, when, owing to failing health, he re- 
 signed the position. On the organization of the 
 Groton Savings Bank, July 3, 1854, Capt. Clift was 
 chosen its vice-president, was elected its president 
 Sept. 6, 1870, holding such office until July 27, 
 1875, when he declined a re-election, but accepted 
 the office of vice-president, which he continued to 
 hold for years afterward (was such officer in 1882). 
 He was president of the Elm Grove Cemetery As- 
 sociation from April 16, 1866, to April 11, 1881. 
 
 Capt. Clift never held any political office, al- 
 though he did much as a private citizen to aid his 
 party, — ^Whig and Republican, — ^espousing the 
 principles of the latter on its formation in 1856. 
 For the last ten and more years of his life he was 
 very active in religious matters, using his money 
 very liberally and freely in building up not only the 
 Lnion Baptist Church, of which for many years he 
 was an esteemed member, but for all worthy ob- 
 jects. He always gave liberally to charitable so- 
 cieties, educational projects and to every good ob- 
 ject, being especially generous to the poor. 
 
 On June 18, 1833, Capt. Chft was married to 
 the youngest daughter of Sands Fish, of Groton. 
 Two children were born to them : Mary H., who 
 was married to Edward Y. Foote; and Hannah F. 
 Clift. j\Irs. Clift died Sept. 17, 1845, ^^d on Sept. 
 16, 1846, Capt. Clift married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Rev. Daniel Burrows, of Middletown. She died 
 Jan. ID, 1865. Capt. Clift passed away in October, 
 1882. 
 
 Edward Y. Foote was born in Xew Marlboro, 
 Mass., a son of Salmon and Margaret Foote. 
 Salmon Foote was born in Colchester in 1797, and 
 followed the trade of cabinet and coffin maker in 
 New Marlboro, Mass., and Colchester, Conn. The 
 latter part of his life was spent in Colchester, and 
 he died in Utica, N. Y., J\Iay 31, 1882, at the age 
 of eighty-four years. He was a capable and en- 
 thusiastic musician, and a fine singer, and during 
 the years of his residence in New Alarlboro played 
 the bass viol in church and led the first choir there 
 for thirty years. His family consisted of nine chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Edward Y. Foote removed from Marlboro and 
 Springfield to Colchester, and finally to New York, 
 "where he was in business, and spent the greater 
 part of his active life. The real estate field looked 
 
 attractive to him, and he engaged in the real estate 
 business. In 1870 he came to New Haven, and was 
 successfully engaged in that hne until his death, 
 in 1881. Fie was highly respected for his many 
 noble personal qualities, and at his death was sin- 
 cerely mourned. 
 
 Mr. Foote was twice married. His first wife, 
 Lucy Mason, died leaving one son, Emerson, who 
 was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School, 
 class of 1879, and from Yale Law School, class of 
 1 88 1, and who later went to Chicago, where he 
 attained a prominent position in real estate circles. 
 He died there. In 1863 Mr. Foote wedded Miss 
 Mary H. Clift. To this union was born one son, 
 William C, who attended Gen. Russell's school in 
 New Haven, and later the Business College in Bos- 
 ton, and finally one year at Yale Law School. He 
 is a member of the Fire Department. Mrs. Foote 
 is only five generations removed from John Alden 
 and Priscilla Mullen, and is an enthusiastic mem- 
 ber of Mary Clapp Wooster Chapter, D. A. R. 
 
 I 
 
 JOSEPH NOYES NICHOLS (deceased) 
 was one of the leading citizens and successful agri- 
 culturists of Waterbury, Conn., where he was born 
 Dec. 17, 1824. 
 
 The Nichols family is one of the oldest in Con- 
 necticut. Sergeant Francis Nichols, the first of the 
 name in New England, was a native of England, 
 and one of the first settlers of Stratford, Fairfield 
 Co., Conn., where he located in 1639. He is sup- 
 posed to have been closely related to Sir Richard 
 Nichols, the first English governor of New York. 
 Before coming to this country he was a member of 
 the Horse Guards of London. He owned property 
 in Stratford, Conn., and Southland, L. I., and spent 
 his last days in the former place, where he died and 
 was buried. For his second wife he married Barn- 
 abas Wines, who after his death wedded John 
 Elton, of Southland, L. I. By his first marriage 
 Sergeant Nichols had four children : Isaac, Caleb 
 and John, who were all born in England, and Mrs. 
 Richard Mills. The only child of the second union 
 was Ann, wife of Christopher Young. 
 
 Isaac Nichols, son of Francis, came with his 
 parents to the New World and spent the remain- 
 der of his life in Stratford, Conn., where he owned 
 and operated a farm. He died in 1695, and was 
 buried there. His wife, Margaret, bore him the 
 following children: Mary, who was born Feb. 2, 
 1648, and married Rev. Israel Channey; Sarah, 
 who was born Nov. i, 1649, married Stephen Bur- 
 rett; Josiah, born Jan. 29, 1652; Isaac, March 12, 
 1654; Jonathan, Dec. 10, 1655; Ephraim, Dec. 15, 
 1657: Patience, Feb. 2, 1660; Temperance, May 
 17, 1662; Margery, Nov. 30, 1663; Benjamin, Feb. 
 2, 1666; and Elizabeth, who was born April 2, 
 1668, and was married, July 9, 1691, to Rev. Jo- 
 seph Webb. 
 
 Isaac Nichols, Jr., a son of Isaac, was also a 
 lifelong resident of Stratford, a farmer and land- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 495 
 
 owner. There he died in 1690. He and his wife, 
 I\Iary, had three cliildren: Francis, born June 3, 
 1676; Richard, Nov. 26, 1678; and Josepli, Nov. 
 1, 1680. 
 
 Joseph Nichols, son of Isaac, Jr., was born and 
 reared in Stratford, whence he removed to Long 
 Island, and in 1728 came to Waterbury, New Ha- 
 ven county, where he owned property. Here he 
 died March 10, 1733, and was buried in Waterbury 
 cemetery. He married Elizabeth Wood, of Strat- 
 ford, and they had a family of eight children : 
 James, born on Long Island, June 27, 1712; George, 
 born at the same place, July 14, 1714; Elizabeth, 
 who was married, in 1740, to Ebenezer Wakelee; 
 Richard; Joseph, born in 1724; Maria; Isaac, who 
 was born May 4, 1729, and died in the British army 
 in 1776; and Benjamin, born May 14, 1731. 
 
 Joseph Nichols, Jr., son of Joseph, was born on 
 Long Island, and came with his parents to Water- 
 bury, where he subsequently owned and operated 
 a farm until called from this life Jan. 24, 1773, at. 
 the age of forty-nine years. On Sept. 6, 1750, in 
 Waterbury, he married Tamar Bronson, daughter 
 of Lieut. John Bronson, and to them were born two 
 children: Simeon, mentioned below; and Eunice, 
 who was born Sept. 6, 1753, and married to 
 Michael Bronson. The mother of these children 
 died Nov. 14, 1755, and on Dec. 15, 1757, the fa- 
 ther married Annie Webster, by whom he had one 
 child, Lucy, who was born Dec. S, 1758, and who 
 married Luke Adams. 
 
 Simeon Nichols, son of Joseph, Jr., was bom 
 /\pril 20, 1751, in Waterbury, where he spent his 
 entire life as a farmer, land owner and highly re- 
 spected citizen. On June 15, 1775, he married 
 Martha Hotchkiss, and to them were born ten chil- 
 dren, whose names and dates of birth were as fol- 
 lows : Joseph, April 21, 1776, died Oct. 27, 1825, 
 aged forty-nine; Tamar (wife of James Chatfield), 
 Dec. 25, 1778; Humphrey, Nov. 23, 1781, died Jan. 
 5, 1853, aged seventy-one; Abigail, March 2, 1784; 
 Chloe, July 30, 1786; Amy, Nov. 25, 1788; Will- 
 iam, August, 1791, died March 5, 1817; Chauncey, 
 February, 1794, died April 6, 1795, aged fourteen 
 months; Simon, 1796; and Philo, June, 1798, died 
 Dec. 14, 1849, aged fifty-one years. 
 
 Humphrey Nichols, son of Simeon and father 
 of our subject, made his home throughout life in 
 ^\'aterbury, where he owned a farm, and like his 
 ancestors engaged in agricultural pursuits. He 
 died Jan. 5, 1853, and his remains were interred 
 in the old cemetery where the Bronson Library now 
 stands. He had two wives, Esther and Phebe 
 Hotchkiss. Esther Hotchkiss was a native of 
 Waterbury, a daughter of Stephen Hotchkiss, and 
 died Oct. 29, 1837, aged fifty years. Humphrey 
 Nichols was the father of the following children: 
 Harriet, bom Feb. 3, 1816, married G. A. Hall ; 
 Emeline, born May 20, 1811, married, David Ter- 
 rell, and died Nov. 4, 1834, aged twenty-three; 
 Stephen H. was born April 25, 1813; Isaac, born 
 
 Sept. 27, 1814, married Lydia Frisbee; William, 
 born Jan. 27, 1817, married Elizabeth Atwater; 
 Ann, born Feb. 8, 1819, died May 12, 1835 ; Nancy, 
 born June I5_, 1821, married Marvin Mills; Eli, 
 born Sept. 15, 1822, married Jane Mann; Esther 
 married Fred Holmes ; David died Sept. 2y, 1865, 
 aged thirty-seven ; and Joseph N. is our subject. 
 Franklin, a son by his union with Phebe Hotchkiss, 
 died Sept. 23, 1848, aged six years. 
 
 Joseph N. Nichols grew to manhood in Water- 
 bury, and became a prosperous farmer and land 
 ownier of that town. Fie owned the homestead 
 farm at Hopeville and also the large Hull farm on 
 I'own Plot, Waterbury, upon which he made many 
 improvements. It was the Benjamin Moore tract 
 of eighty acres, and has since been divided into 
 lots for building purposes. He was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Lucena Clark, of New Milford, a 
 daughter of Daniel and Lucy (Hawes) Clark, and 
 by this uruion were born seven children: (i) Dan- 
 iel Humphrey, who died March 18, 1890, aged 
 thirty-three years, first married Mary C. Gladding 
 (who died Feb. 28, 1887, aged twenty-nine years), 
 by whom he had two sons, Frank Bacon and Ar- 
 thur W. ; Arthur was a member of St. John's Church 
 choir. For his -second wife he married Albertie 
 Lobdell, by whom he had one child, Harry Hum- 
 phrey. (2) Clark Holmes is a resident of Water- 
 bury. (3) Joseph Hayden, who resides on the 
 old homestead, first married Nellie Jackson, by 
 whom he had two children, Louis Hayden and Carl 
 Humphrey, deceased, and for his second wife mar- 
 ried Alice Farmer, by whom he had one child, 
 Nellie Alice. (4} Lucy Esther was educated in 
 the high school of Waterbury and resides on the 
 town plot near the old homestead. (5) Emily C. 
 died April i, 1885, aged twenty years. (6) Anna 
 L. died March 26, 1886, aged eighteen years, six 
 months. (7) William Francis, who is connected 
 with the United States mail service and resides 
 in Waterbury, married Annie O'Rourke, and they 
 have had four children, Gertrude E., Charles (de- 
 ceased), William and Elizabeth. Our subject died 
 April 21, 1878, aged fifty-three years, his wife Sept. 
 14, 1887, aged fifty-nine years, and both were laid 
 to rest in Riverside cemetery. They were faithful 
 members of St. John's Episcopal Church, and were 
 highly respected and esteemed by all who knew 
 them. In his poHtical affiliations Mr. Nichols was 
 a Democrat, and ever took a commendable interest 
 in those enterprises calculated to advance the 
 moral, social or material welfare of his town and 
 county. He was a kind father, a loving husband 
 and true friend. 
 
 ANTON REU'SS, who in his lifetime was one 
 of the best-known and most highly-respected Ger- 
 man citizens of Meriden, was born in Bomberg, 
 Bavaria, Germany, March 20, 1825. While he was 
 in his infancy his father died, and this made it 
 necessary for him to early take up the responsi- 
 
496 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 bilities of life. When still a bov he learned book- 
 binding, but this trade, while a fairly good one, 
 was not sufficiently lucrative to satisfy the ambi- 
 tious youth. Wishing to better his condition, and 
 seeing no opening in his native land, he deter- 
 mined to come to America. Accordingly he made 
 preparations for the trip, and boarding a sailing- 
 vessel in 1850, made the voyage to iVew York, 
 where for a time he engaged in making pocket- 
 uooks and similar goods. After a short time he 
 came to jMeriden, Conn., where in connection with 
 Walter Hubbard he engaged in the manufacture of 
 morocco leather cases. Later the firm branched 
 out, adding to their list of products plush and 
 chamois cases. Is'ir. Reuss conducted the business 
 for a long time on Butler street, and had as his 
 assistant Julius Knell, who later conducted a simi- 
 lar business on his own account. In 1890 Air. 
 Reuss sold out to C. E. Schunack, and passed the 
 remainder of his days in retirement. His death 
 occurred Nov. 6, 1893, at his home on Butler 
 street, and his remains were buried in the West 
 cemetery. 
 
 Mr. Reuss was one of the first German settlers 
 in JMeriden, and was held in high esteem by his 
 countrymen, as well as by all who knew him. In 
 his religious belief he was a faithful and consist- 
 ent follower of the teachings of the immortal Lu- 
 ther. In politics he was a Republican, but in no 
 sense an office seeker. Fraternally he was a mem- 
 ber of Meridian Lodge, No. 'jy, A. F. & A. M. ; 
 Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; and St. Elmo 
 Commandery, No. 9, Knights Templar. He was 
 also a member of the German Mutual Aid Society, 
 and was a stanch supporter of German schools. 
 
 Mr. Reuss was twice married. His first wife, 
 Katharine Magdalena Mueller, was born March 2, 
 1826, in Germany, and passed away June 5, 1890. 
 They had three children, Charles, Anton and Julius, 
 all of whom died young. For his second wife Mr. 
 Reuss wedded, on June 8, 1892, Mrs. Catharine 
 Mueller, widow of Joseph Mueller, and daughter 
 of Philip and Barbara Stephans. No children 
 were born of this marriage. Mrs. Reuss resides at 
 her home in Butler street. She is an active worker 
 in Esther Lodge, Daughters of Rebekah, of which 
 she is the only living charter member, and is a 
 noble woman, highly respected for her many good 
 qualities of head and heart. 
 
 Joseph Mueller was born June 15, 1828, in 
 the city of Nassau, Germany, where he grew to 
 manhood. In 1854 he came to America and located 
 in Meriden, where he was engaged in the burnish- 
 ing business, being several years employed by the 
 Meriden Britannia Co., and for several years super- 
 intendent of the burnishing department of C. Rog- 
 ers & Bros. His death occurred Jan. 6, 1891. In 
 1857 he married Catharine Stephans, who was 
 born Oct. 18, 1831, in Bomberg, Germany, and of 
 this union two children were born, Catharine and 
 Joseph, Jr. Catharine was married June 29, 1899, 
 
 to James B. Smith, who was born in New Haven 
 in 1872, son of James B. and Emily (Plumb) 
 Smith, the former a wholesale grocer in New Ha- 
 ven, where he and his wife died. James B. Smiith 
 is engaged in the banking and brokerage business 
 in New Haven. Politically he is a Republican; 
 fraternally a thirty-second-degree Mason, being a. 
 Knight 'i'emplar, and a member of chapter and 
 council ; and religiously a member of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Smith is is a mem- 
 ber of Esther Lodge, Daughters of Rebekah. In 
 religious faith she clings to the church of her an- 
 cestors, the Lutheran. Mr. and J\Irs. Smith have 
 one child, Kathryn Aliller. Joseph I\Iueller, Jr.,. 
 was born Aug. 8, i860, and was educated in the 
 public schools. For a time he was bookkeeper for 
 C. Rogers & Bros., was subsequently in Ballard- 
 vale, Mass., in the employ of Craighead & Kintz, 
 and later in Pittsburg, Pa., with the Pittsburg 
 Lamp Co., and in Allegheny, Pa., in the manufac- 
 ture of the "1890 Varnish Removing Fluid." In 
 1890 he returned to Meriden to look after his 
 father's estate. He died Oct. 31, 1897, at his fa- 
 ther's late home, and his remains rest in Walnut 
 Grove cemetery. He was a member of the I. O. 
 
 0. F. in Pittsburg, and like the rest of his family 
 was a member of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 In his political faith Joseph Mueller, Sr., was 
 a Democrat, and a stanch supporter of his party. 
 Fraternally he belonged to Pacific Lodge, No. 87, 
 
 1. O. O. F., of Meriden. In his religious faith he 
 was a Lutheran. In his business relations he was 
 a man of highest integrity. 
 
 JAMES HENRY FOY. Among the list of dis- 
 tinguished and imperishable names of those who 
 passed from life during 1900, that of James H. 
 Foy brings to the people of New Haven a feeling of 
 deep regret, that so wise and generous a man should 
 no longer be in their midst. 
 
 James H. Foy was born at Gardiner, Maine, and 
 died at his home in New Haven, Conn., in Novem- 
 ber, 1900, in his seventy-second year. The beginning 
 of his business career was in Worcester, Mass., but 
 he removed to Boston in 1861. There his business 
 was known as D. B. Saunders & Co., manufacturers 
 of corsets. In 1871 he came to New Haven, and 
 immediately engaged in manufacturing under the 
 firm name of Harmon, Baldwin & Foy, this business 
 being later removed to New York. At the time of 
 his death he was a member of the R. A. Tuttle Co., 
 of Boston, dealers in corset materials. 
 
 Both Mr. Foy and his wife were members of 
 the Davenport Avenue Congregational Church, be- 
 coming connected with it in 1872, and he was a 
 member of the board of trustees, in which capacity, 
 on account of his business sagacity and generous 
 liberality, he was of the greatest service to the 
 church. Of a retiring disposition, he always shrank 
 from any prominence, but always could be found 
 at the post of duty. Mr. Foy was a life member oL 
 
'O/n^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 497 
 
 the Good Will Home Association, and had been a 
 contributor to the Home since the beginning of 
 this charity. In the fall prior to his death, he gave 
 $5,000 to the Home to make up a deficit, and gave, 
 by will, still another $5,000, making the James H. 
 Foy fund at the Good Will Farm, $10,000. 
 
 In 1858, at Hudson, Conn., ^Ir. Foy was married 
 to Lavinia H. Jenks, a daughter of Rev. Hervey 
 Jenks, the latter a native of Brookfield, Mass., a 
 noted divine, of Welsh ancestry. The paternal fam- 
 ily of ^Irs. Foy traces its ancestry to 150 B. C., 
 while on the maternal side, her great-great-great- 
 grandmother was a daughter of Roger Williams. 
 The first marriage of Mrs. Foy was to Marvin Har- 
 mon, at Xew Lebanon, X. Y., and George M. Har- 
 mon, of Xew Haven, is her son. Air. Harmon died 
 in Brookfield, Alass., in 1854. 
 
 ]\Irs. Foy is a lady not only of education and cul- 
 ture, but also of mechanical genius. Interested in 
 her husband's business, in 1862, she invented and 
 patented what is known to the trade as the Madam 
 Foy Supporter, and there were eight infringements 
 upon the patent, which were all prosecuted. The 
 merits of the article attracted general and 
 favorable notice at once and its demand and popu- 
 larity have steadily increased from year to year, 
 until it now has a world-wide reputation. Being 
 constructed on scientific principles, yet simple and 
 practical, it answers fully the object for which it 
 was intended. Improvements have been made on it 
 from time to time and it is now covered by seven 
 letters of patent, of the United States, and is manu- 
 factured by C. X. Chadwick & Co., of Brooklyn, 
 Xew York. 
 
 Since 1884, Mr. Foy had been a director of the 
 Xew Haven County Bank, by whom the following 
 resolutions were adopted at the time of his death : 
 
 "The directors of the Xew Haven County Xa- 
 tional Bank, assembled this day, learn with deep 
 regret of the death of their highly esteemed asso- 
 ciate and fellow member, Mr. James H. Foy, and 
 in expression of their sorrow, be it 
 
 "Resolved, That while we bow to the will of 
 a Divine Providence, we sincerely deplore the de- 
 parture of one, who for many years has been asso- 
 ciated with us in the management of the aflfairs of 
 this bank. 
 
 "Resolved, That by his removal we have sus- 
 tained the loss of a conscientious and upright citi- 
 zen, an able adviser and one whose superior quali- 
 ties of heart and mind have endeared him to all. 
 
 "Resolved, That our attested copy of these reso- 
 lutions, with our deepest sympathy, be sent to the 
 bereaved family, that they be published, and that a 
 copy be spread upon the records of this bank. Xew 
 Haven, Xov. 15, 1900. Attested, H. G. Redfield, 
 secretary.'' 
 
 HEXRY A. WARNER, capitalist and real es- 
 tate dealer, whose business career from boyhood has 
 been passed in New Haven, where he is widely and 
 
 32 
 
 favorably known as one among the city's leading 
 business men and substantial citizens, has descended 
 from one of Connecticut's earliest families. 
 
 John Warner, the first of the line on this side 
 the Atlantic, at the age of twenty years came from 
 England with the party who sailed in the ship "In- 
 crease" in 1635. He became one of the original pro- 
 prietors of Hartford in 1639. In 1637 he performed 
 service in the Pequot war. In 1649 he married (sec- 
 ond) Ann, daughter of Thomas Norton, of Guilford. 
 Mr. Warner became an original proprietor and 
 settler of the town of Farmington, Conn. He united 
 with the church there in 1657, and was made a 
 freeman in 1664. In 1673 he went to view Matta- 
 tuck (Waterbury), to ascertain if it was a desirable 
 place to settle, and was a patentee of that place in 
 1674. It was his intention to remove thither, but 
 he died in 1679, leaving a widow, Margaret. 
 
 John Warner, a descendant of the John War- 
 ner mentioned in the foregoing paragraph, was a 
 captain in the Connecticut State Guards, and served 
 in Gen. Waterbury's State Brigade, assisting in 
 the defense of the sea coast in 1781. The long hill 
 between Plymouth and the township, now known as 
 Thomaston, was for many years called Warner Hill 
 in his honor. From him our subject is descended 
 through John Warner, Jr., Abijah Warner and 
 Gains Fenn Warner. Abijah Warner married 
 Betsy Fenn, a sister of Elam Fenn, who lived and 
 died at the place now occupied by his son Jason 
 Fenn. 
 
 Gains Fenn Warner was born in 181 1, in that 
 part of the town of Plymouth known as Town Hill, 
 in Litchfield county, and was the youngest of three 
 children. He was but six years old when his father 
 died, and until his marriage remained at home with 
 his mother. At the age of twenty-one he wedded 
 Harriet Jackson, of Bethlehem, that county, and the 
 young couple settled in their own home on the same 
 road as his mother's, a little to the south. For about 
 three years Mr. Warner worked the farm, a small 
 one, and then moved to Waterville to take charge of 
 a large boarding house for the employes of a button 
 factory there, continuing thus two years. His two 
 daughters, Helen and Harriet, were born during his 
 residence in Plymouth, his son, Henry A., in Water- 
 ville. During the two years of the boarding house 
 experiment Mr. Warner built for himself a com- 
 modious house (near his former home), into which 
 he moved, and again took up a small farm, also tak- 
 ing charge of the turnpike road between Waterbury 
 and Plymouth. Evidently farming was not to his 
 mind, for in 1843 he moved back to the town of 
 Plymouth, locating in Terryville in the eastern part, 
 where he kept a temperance hotel, a novelty at that 
 time, which he maintained, however, in the face of 
 all opposition, at the same time carrying on, in an 
 extended ell of his house, the manufacture of um- 
 brellas. But it was not until about the year 1847 
 that he found his life work. In his capacity of host 
 at his hotel he met a man who was in the business 
 
498 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of manufacturing malleable iron castings, and who 
 so urged him to enter this work that he finally de- 
 cided to return with him to^ Straitsville and inves- 
 tigate for himself. He soon moved his family to 
 that place, and so well succeeded in the new venture 
 that when the buildings were burned to the ground 
 he removed the works to New Haven, many of the 
 principal workmen going with him. In this line he 
 had the monopoly, and his was the largest concern 
 of the kind in the country. Mr. Warner passed the 
 remainder of his long life in that city, active alike 
 in commercial, religious and benevolent circles, and 
 widely known and beloved. 
 
 It was during Mr. Warner's residence in Terry- 
 ville that the Congregational Church in that village 
 was built, and he threw his superb energies and 
 strength into that enterprise. He hauled much of 
 the timber from the woods to the mill, and from 
 there to the church lot. At "raising day" all the 
 town turned out to help, and afterward all were 
 served, as was the custom of the time, to dough- 
 nuts, raised cake and cider. When he removed to 
 Straitsville, at that tim-e a very small village, Mr. 
 Warner greatly deplored the fact that no regular 
 church services were held there, and he very soon 
 made arrangements whereby theological students 
 from New Haven should preach in the small chapel 
 each Sunday for the sum of ten dollars and their 
 board. His house was freely opened for their ac- 
 commodation, and very often the compensation also 
 was largely given from his own pocket. As he grew 
 in prosperity he was ever ready to respond to num- 
 erous calls for benevolence, both public and private, 
 which were made upon him, notably that of Home 
 and Foreign Missions, growing stronger each year 
 of his life. Mr. Warner was a man of few words, 
 while ever friendly to those who were so fortunate 
 as to possess his love and confidence, and he showed 
 a true and loyal heart, to be relied upon in any ex- 
 tremity. In his family he was the faithful husband, 
 the kindest of fathers, and his house was ever open 
 to all his friends. 
 
 In the year i860 Mr. Warner decided to build a 
 house for himself, and chose a lot of one and one- 
 half acres in the center of the city, opposite Yale 
 College, where he erected the substantial house now 
 occupied by the Union League Club, in the rear of 
 which is now the Hyperion theatre, and on the 
 western side Warner Hall and the apartment build- 
 ing for students, erected and managed by his son, 
 Henry A. Warner. It was characteristic of him, 
 when c[uestioned quite anxiously by a member of 
 the college faculty as to his venture so carefully to 
 lay out this acre and more of ground, stocking it 
 with fruit trees, a grapery and ornamental shrubs, 
 lest he should suffer invasion by mischievous boys 
 of the college, to reply : "I shall not molest them, 
 and I don't think they will trouble me," and they 
 never did. After moving to his new home he gave 
 his best Christian efforts to the welfare of the 
 College Street Church, which building joined his 
 
 land on the eastern side, and was an earnest helper 
 and exemplary member until his death, in October, 
 1870. He died as he had lived, in full trust and 
 faith in his Saviour and God, since when, in 1837, 
 during a strong religious movement throughout the 
 entire country, he and his young wife united with 
 the Church in Plymouth Center. 
 
 Henry A. Warner was born March 10, 1842, at 
 Waterville, in the town of Waterbury, and was 
 six years old when the family settled in New Haven. 
 There, in the public and private schools, he received 
 his education, and was prepared for a business ca- 
 reer. For many years he was an iron manufacturer, 
 and he has since dealt in vitrified drain and sewer 
 pipe, in which line his efforts have met with de- 
 served success. Returning East after the Chicago 
 fire, Mr. Warner stopped at Akron, Ohio, and there 
 found a make of pipe which had not been introduced 
 East, where imported Scotch pipe and a slip glaze 
 pipe from New Jersey were in use. However, they 
 were soon superseded by the Ohio pipe, which Mr. 
 Warner introduced and sold throughout New 
 England. For many years Mr. Warner received 
 royalty on all pipe made from this clay. He has 
 also dealt extensively in real estate, and is the pro- 
 prietor of the Warner Hall Bachelor Apartments, 
 at No. 1044 Chapel street, designed to furnish select 
 apartments to college students and others. 
 
 Mr. Warner was united in marriage with Miss 
 Gertrude E. Morton, daughter of Horace J. Mor- 
 ton, long a prominent carriage manufacturer and 
 wealthy citizen of New Haven. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Warner's religious connections are with the Ply- 
 mouth Congregational Church, of New Haven, 
 which was formerly the College Street Church, of 
 which he was a deacon. Mr. Warner's political 
 affiliations are with the Republican party, but while 
 ever interested in politics and public aft'airs he has 
 kept aloof from party warfare, and has never held 
 public office. He is a member of the Union League 
 Club (formerly the Republican League), Sons of 
 the American Revolution, Chamber of Commerce, 
 Country Club, and has served as a member of the 
 Second Company, Governor's Horse Guard. 
 
 HENRY _T. WILCOX (deceased), for many 
 years a leading citizen of Meriden, was born in 
 Westbrook, Conn., Feb. 7, 181 1. His early educa- 
 tion was obtained at the district schools of his na- 
 tive town. Being the second member of a numerous 
 family of children, he was obliged to seek his own 
 living at an early age ; and when less than twelve 
 years old was employed on the farm of his grand- 
 father, Joseph Bushnell, who died in 1824. After 
 that event Mr. Wilcox was for a time a sailor ; but 
 in 182Q he came to Meriden to take a position in the 
 comb factory of Julius Pratt & Co., which he held 
 for several years. That same year he united with 
 the Congregational Church, and as long as he lived 
 was numbered among its devoted and efficient mem- 
 bers. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 499 
 
 On May 9, 1832, Mr. Wilcox was married to 
 Elizabeth White Scovil, of Meriden, and their son, 
 Henry Scovil Wilcox, was born in Aleriden, Jan. 
 4, 1835. The following year Mr. Wilcox bought 1 
 piece of land of Lewis Hotchkiss, on the Old Col- 
 ony Road, and this has been the family home- 
 stead to the present time. About 1845 ^^- Wilcox 
 built a small shop a short distance south of his resi- 
 dence, where he manufactured coffee mills, steel- 
 yards, spring balances, door knockers and bit 
 braces. This shop was destroyed by fire in 1851, 
 and a second s'hop on the same site was burned two 
 years later; whereupon Mr. Wilcox sold his coffee 
 mill business to Charles Parker, and associated him- 
 self with the Meriden Hardware Co., then estab- 
 lished on the site of the present plant of M. B. 
 Schenck & Co. For a time Henry T. Wilcox was 
 president of this company, and Henry S. (his son) 
 the secretary and bookkeeper. They severed their 
 connection with it, and in 1855 bought a grocery 
 store in the building now occupied by Campbell's 
 Pharmacy, where they conducted a prosperous busi- 
 ness under the name of H. T. Wilcox & Co. In 
 1857 they brought the business down town, and lo- 
 cated it in a brick block which had been built by 
 James F. G. Andrews about 1847, which was also 
 occupied by the Almon Andrews flour and feed 
 store. This building was consumed by fire March 
 9, 1864. H. T. Wilcox & Co. bought the land and 
 ruins of the old building and erected the present 
 brick block, which H. S. Wilcox sold to Merriam 
 Post, G. A. R., in 1895. The north store of this 
 block was occupied by Hart & Foot, drug and hard- 
 ware merchants ; and the south store by H. T. Wil- 
 cox & Co., grocers. 
 
 Early in 1867 Hart & Foot sold their business to 
 H. T. Wilcox & Co., who then had the oldest drug 
 business in the town. Ten years later they sold the 
 hardware business to Church & Sprague, but re- 
 tained the drug store, together with paints, oils and 
 manufacturers' supplies. After the death of his 
 father, in 1885, Henry S. Wilcox continued in the 
 same business until he was compelled to dispose of 
 it on account of his own ill health, E. A. Watrous 
 succeeding him March 15, 1899, in the store where 
 Mr. Wilcox had carried on an unbroken business 
 for thirty-two years. 
 
 In the public affairs of the town the Wilcox men, 
 both father and son, took an important part. Henry 
 T. Wilcox was town treasurer from 1863 to 1874, 
 and Henry S., from 1878 to 1879. Some years later 
 the latter served as councilman, as assessor, and 
 was a member of the board of compensation and 
 the board of relief. 
 
 While a school boy, Henry S. Wilcox used to 
 work in his father's shop, making packing boxes, 
 and doing various kinds of work out of school 
 hours. After securing a good education at the Old 
 Road district school and the West Meriden Insti- 
 tute, the latter kept by Henry D. Smith and David 
 N. Camp, he became his. father's bookkeeper and so 
 
 continued until the shop burned in 185 1. His place 
 in the business world in connection with his father 
 has already been described, as has also his place in 
 municipal affairs. 
 
 Henry S. Wilcox took an active interest in fi- 
 nancial affairs, and in 1886 was made trustee of the 
 Meriden Savings Bank, becoming a director of the 
 same institution the following year. Mr. Wilcox 
 was quite as zealous in the church as he was in busi- 
 ness. He became a member of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church in 1852, and from time to time was 
 entrusted with important offices, being the secretary 
 and treasurer of the Sunday-school, and of the Ec- 
 clesiastical Society. In 1889 he was honored with 
 the office of deacon, which he filled until his decease. 
 He was the last clerk of the Old Ecclesiastical So- 
 ciety, and assisted in the incorporation of the 
 Church, his son, Albert H. Wilcox, afterward 
 becoming clerk of the re-organized Church. Al- 
 though of a quiet and retiring nature, Henry S. 
 Wilcox was widely known and respected. He was 
 at one time a member of the Sons of the American 
 Revolution, his maternal great-grandfather, Amos 
 White, having been a soldier with Washington at 
 the crossing of the Delaware. Some four years prior 
 to his death, his health began to decline, by reason 
 of blood and liver troubles, which caused his death, 
 Dec. 8, 1900. Mr. Wilcox married Jane E., a 
 daughter of Ira Merriman, who, with his son, Albert 
 H., survives him. 
 
 The Wilcox family begins its history in New 
 England with John Wilcox, who was an original 
 proprietor of Hartford in 1639. He held the posi- 
 tion of surveyor of highways and died in 1651, his 
 widow surviving until about 1668. Their children 
 were: John, who married Sarah Wadsworth, 
 Catherine Stoughton, Mary (surname not known), 
 and Esther Cornwall ; Sarah, who married John Bid- 
 well, of Hartford; Ann, who married John Hall, 
 then of Hartford, but later of Middletown. 
 
 John Wilcox, Jr., noted in the preceding para- 
 graph as having had four wives, moved from Hart- 
 ford to Middletown, where he died May 24, 1676. 
 His children were as follows : Sarah, born in 1648 ; 
 John; Thomas; Israel, born June 19, 1656, married 
 Sarah Savage, about 1677, and died Dec. 20, 1689; 
 Samuel, married Abigail Whitmore; Ephraim mar- 
 ried Silence Hands ; Esther and Mary. 
 
 The children of Israel and Sarah (Savage) Wil- 
 cox were as follows : Israel, born in 1680, married 
 Mary North ; John married Mary Warner ; Samuel 
 married Hannah Sage; Thomas, born July 5, 1687, 
 married Ann North, June 28, 1716, and died Jan. 
 20, 1726-7; and Sarah. Mrs. Israel Wilcox died 
 about Feb. 8, 1723-4. 
 
 The children of Tliomas and Ann (North) Wil- 
 cox, of Middletown, were as follows : Martha ; 
 Thomas, born Oct. 5, 1720, married Freelove Brad- 
 ley, May 16, 1744, and died Nov. 9, 1778; Jonathan; 
 and Hannah. 
 
 The children of Thomas and Freelove (Bradley) 
 
500 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Wilcox, of Guilford, Conn., were as follows : Clo- 
 tilda, the wife of Samuel Hoyt, died in 1795, at the 
 age of fifty years; Tamson, born in 1747, married 
 Elizabeth Dowd, and died Sept. 15, 1820; Edmund, 
 born in 1748, married Elizabeth Scranton, and died 
 ]\Iarch 9, 1795 ; Billy, born in 1750, married Rebecca 
 Hoyt; Jonathan, born in 1753, married Elizabeth 
 Todd, and died in 1818; Samuel Dodd, born in 1756 ; 
 Benjamin B., born in 1759, married Alary Todd, 
 and died in 1805. 
 
 The children of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Todd) 
 Wilcox, of A'ladison, Conn., were as follows : Cur- 
 tis, born March 9, 1775, married Wealthy Hill, and 
 died Aug. 15, 1829; John, born April 5, 1777, mar- 
 ried Electa Goodrich; Amos Todd, born 1779, mar- 
 ried Cynthia Bushnell, and died in 1849; Elizabeth, 
 born Eeb. 22, 1782, married David Nash; Henry, 
 'born July 22, 1785, married Janet Bushnell Dec. 
 31, 1808, and died in May, 1842; Matilda, born in 
 
 1788, died Oct. 22, 1809; Sarah, born Feb. 20, 
 
 1789, married George Pratt; Jonathan Samuel, born 
 Nov. I, 1 791, married Chloe Hand, and died Feb. 
 10, 1875 ;. Augustus B., born Oct. 4, 1794, married 
 Clarissa Jewett, and died May 19, 1844. Mrs. 
 Jonathan Wilcox died Sept. 29, 1833, at the age of 
 seventy-nine years. 
 
 The children of Henry and Janet (Bushnell) Wil- 
 cox, of Westbrook, Conn., were as follows : Will- 
 iam Titus, born Aug. 23, 1809, married Minerva 
 Gaylord, and died in 1868; Henry Truman, bom 
 Feb. 7, 181 1, married Elizabeth White Scovil, and 
 died Jan. 7, 1885 ; Jonathan Samuel, born in Janu- 
 ary, 1813, married Dolly A. Southworth, and died 
 Sept. 24, 19CX); Emily Patience, born in 1815, had 
 three husbands, John Wilmarth, Ransom Gaylord 
 and Charles Spencer, and died about 1881 ; Curtis 
 Nash, born in 1817, married Elizabeth Hall, and 
 died April 3, 1874; Benjamin Bushnell, born Sept. 
 28, 1819, married Eliza A. Brainard, and died 
 March 19, 1900; George Frederick, born in 1830, 
 is supposed to have died in the western regions of 
 the United States. 
 
 The Merriman family presents an interesting- 
 history which begins with Nathaniel Merriman, who 
 was born in County Kent, England, in 161 3, one 
 of three sons of Theophilus and Hannah Merriman, 
 the other two being Caleb and Moses. Nathaniel 
 iMerriman settled in New Haven, Conn., in 1663, 
 and was married to Abigail Olney, and subsequently 
 to Jane Lines. He was one of the original settlers 
 of Wallingford, Conn., where he appeared as early as 
 1670, and became a captain of the troops five years 
 later, and a deputy to the General Court in 1685. 
 When he died in Wallingford he was about eighty 
 years of age, and was the father of the following 
 children: Nathaniel; John; Hannah, the wife of 
 John Ives ; Grace ; Abigail, the wife of John Hitch- 
 cock ; Sarah ; Mary, the wife of Thomas Curtis ; John 
 married Hannah Lines ; Samuel married Anna 
 Fields ; Caleb, mentioned below, who died July 9, 
 1703 : ;\Ioses, who married Judith Beach ; Elizabeth, 
 
 who married Ebenezer Lewis ; Anna, who died 
 young. 
 
 Caleb Merriman, son of Nathaniel, was born 
 in Alay, 1665, and on July 9, 1690, married Mary 
 Preston. Their children were as follows : Mases, 
 born in 1691 ; Elizabeth; Eliasaph ; Phoebe, de- 
 ceased in infancy; Phoebe, married to Waitstill 
 Munson ; Lydia ; Lydia ; Elizabeth ; and Hannah. 
 
 Eliasaph Alerriman, known as Captain Elia- 
 saph, was born May 20, 1695, and on Dec. 10, 1719, 
 wedded Abigail Hulls, who bore him children as 
 follows: Eunice; Eunice (2) ; Eunice (3) ; Sarah; 
 Caleb, mentioned below ; Titus ; Amasa ; Elizabeth ; 
 Esther; Elizabeth (2) ; Turhand ; Abigail, who was 
 killed by lightning, with her mother, Aug. 4, 1758. 
 The husband and father died fifteen days later. 
 
 Caleb Merriman was born Sept. 13, 1725, and 
 married, iNIay 12, 1747, 2\Iargaret Robinson. Their 
 children were : Josiah ; Christopher ; Reekab ; Jesse ; 
 Caleb; Enoch; Jesse (2) ; and Howell. Caleb Mer- 
 riman died Aug. 6, 1797, at the age of seventy-two 
 years ; his wife in July, 1795, at the age of sixty- 
 six. 
 
 Jesse Alerriman, son of Caleb, married Dolly 
 Ives in 1784, and to their union were born: Joel, 
 born in 1784, died in 1819; Salina, born in 1786, 
 married Lemuel Butler in 1810, and died in 1842; 
 one unnamed; Ira, born Dec. 25, 1789: Ives, born 
 in 1792, died in 1825; Sally, born in 1795, married 
 Lewis Hotchkiss, and died in 1870; Eunice, born in 
 1798, married John Hubbard in 1816, and died in 
 1837; Howell, born in 1801, married Harriet Yale 
 in 1830, and Mary A. Cowles, in 1843, and died in 
 1858; Charles, born in 1807, married Susannah Fet- 
 tenhoof in 1832, and died in 1876. 
 
 Ira Merriman married Elizabeth Hubbard, and 
 their children were as follows : Two died in early 
 infancy; Susan, born March 12, 1819, died July 
 31, of the same year ; an unnamed infant died March 
 28, 1820; Ira Hubbard, born Jan. 31, 1824, married 
 Hannah Baldwin Oct. 22, 1863, and died Dec. 16,, 
 1875; Elizabeth, born May 19, 1830, died March 21, 
 1833 ; Eliza Ann, born May 28, 1834, married L. P. 
 Chamberlain, April 5, 1859; EU Ives, born Jan. 21,, 
 1837, married Mary E. Miller, Jan. 19, 1870, and 
 died April 22, 1900; Jane Elizabeth, born April 12, 
 1840, married Henry S. Wilcox Dec. i, 1869; Henry 
 Stiles, born April 21, 1846. 
 
 AUGUSTUS MILO BLAKESLEY is an old 
 and prominent citizen and a leading business man of 
 the city of Waterbury, and has been identified with 
 its financial and commercial interests for many years. 
 He was born in Plymouth, Conn., March 4, 1830,, 
 where, too, had been born his father and grand- 
 father. 
 
 Tradition says that one Simeon A. Blakeslee is 
 the first of that name of whom there is any record. 
 He was one of the English gentry, and went with 
 King Richard, "Coeur de Lion," in his crusade. Also 
 that Samuel and John Blakeslee, brothers, came 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 501 
 
 from England in the early days of the ^Massachusetts 
 colony, and bought a narrow strip of land called 
 "Boston Neck," Where for several years they car- 
 ried on blacksmithing. From this place they re- 
 moved, Samuel locating in New Haven, and John 
 going still farther west. 
 
 Public records state that Samuel Blakeslee was 
 a planter in Guilford, Conn., in 1650, and was mar- 
 ried on Dec. 3 of that year to Hannah, daughter 
 of William Potter, of New Haven, to which place 
 he removed, and where he died in 1672. Their chil- 
 dren in the order of birth were John, Mary, Samuel 
 and Ebenezer. 
 
 John Blakeslee, son of Samuel and Hannah 
 (Potter) Blakeslee, was born Oct. 22, 1651, and 
 lived in New Haven. He died in 1713, leaving three 
 children, John, Hannah and Moses. 
 
 • Moses Blakeslee, son of John, married Sarah 
 Benton, of Hartford, Jan. i, 1702. He removed to 
 Waterbury about 1739, and settled on land previ- 
 ously "laid out" to him on what is now called "town 
 hill," in the east part of the present town of Ply- 
 mouth. He was appointed a deacon of the church 
 at its organization in 1740, and was an active and 
 influential' member. He also took a prominent part 
 in the affairs of the town. His children, as re- 
 corded in New Haven, were, in order, as follows : 
 Moses, Aaron, Abner, Sarah, Dinah, Job, Jesse, 
 Job (2), Aaron (2), Hannah, Phebe, John, Marah, 
 and Moses (2). 
 
 John Blakeslee, son of Moses, was born Dec. 
 iSi 1723, and settled in the Northeast Society near 
 his father. He married Olive (born June 3, 1728), 
 daughter of Samuel Curtiss, March 14, 1745. Their 
 children were as follows : John, born Alarch 3, 
 1746; Amasa, Jan. 15, 1748; Joel, Aug. 19, 1750; 
 Enos, July 12, 1752; Obed, Aug. 29, 1754; Olive, 
 March 29, 1758; Lettis, April 4, 1760; Lettis (2), 
 March 27, 1763; Jared, July 8, 1765; Sallie, Aug. 
 20, 1768; and Curtiss, Feb. 16, 1770. 
 
 Joel Blakeslee, son of John, was married to 
 Sarah, daughter of Samuel Scoville, in 1775, and 
 their children were: Linus, born in 1776; Ranson, 
 born Sept. 10, 1781 ; Betsey; Erastus ; and Amanda. 
 
 Linus Blakeslee was married to Fanny Fenn 
 Nov. 4, 1794. Their children were: Jacob, who 
 moved to Dayton, Ohio, where he died; ]\Iilo, men- 
 tioned below ; and Erastus. 
 
 Milo Blakesley, the father of Augustus Milo, 
 was born Nov. 16, 1804, and spent his entire life 
 in Plymouth. He was the first to spell the family 
 name "Blakesley," and he made the change at the 
 suggestion of a writing teacher who thought the let- 
 ter "y" made a better finish to the name. This 
 branch of the family have continued to spell it after 
 the "reformed" method. At the age of twenty, 
 Milo Blakesley entered the employ of Eli Terry, 
 and engaged in the manufacture of clocks. Later in 
 life he was in co-partnership with Mr. Terry, and 
 so continued until the business was closed up, when 
 he moved to his old farm, an extensive dairy place. 
 
 and lived there until his death, July 8, 1871. Mr. 
 Blakesley was a devout Congregationalist, and a 
 deacon in the church at Terryville. As an old line 
 Whig he naturally became identified with the Re- 
 publican party, and held some local offices in the 
 prime of his life. The abolition movement found in 
 him an early friend, and he would never admit that 
 human slavery had any possible justification. On 
 Oct. 26, 1826, Mr. Blakesley married Miss Dorcas 
 McKee, a native of Bristol, and a daughter of 
 Samuel McKee, w'ho was a cooper by trade, and 
 probably of Scotch lineage. Her father married 
 Electa Andrews, daughter of Judah Andrews, who 
 was born in 1777. Mr. and Mrs. Blakesley were 
 the parents of five children: (i) Theron, born 
 Dec. II, 1827, died April 24, 1852; (2) Augustus 
 Milo; (3) Fanny, born Jan. 18, 1832, died the same 
 year; (4) Fanny Jane, born Aug. 23, 1833, died Sept. 
 II, 1885 ; married Burr S. Beach, and lived in Terry- 
 ville, Conn; (5) Linus, born Dec. 16, 1837, was 
 graduated from Yale in i860, and for twenty-eight 
 years was pastor of the First Congregational 
 Church of Topeka, Kansas. He was a trustee and 
 the secretary of Washburn College for twenty-eight 
 years, and was the first to receive the degree of 
 Doctor of Divinity bestowed by that College, in 1893. 
 Dr. Blakesley was a director of the Kansas Medical 
 College, president of the Topeka Congregational 
 Club, and president of the Topeka school board. He 
 now resides in El Paso, Texas. 
 
 Augustus Milo Blakesley passed his boyhood 
 days at Plymouth, remaining on the farm until he 
 was fifteen years of age. He attended tli£ district 
 school, and prepared himself for an honorable and 
 useful career. The first work he did was in the stwe 
 of Andrew Terry, where he served as a clerk, and 
 following this, he clerked for Allen Hemingway. 
 In 1849 he came to Waterbury and was employed by 
 J. M. L. and W. H. Scoville, in their mercantile 
 business, remaining with them about three years, 
 and leaving to take the position of teller in the Wat- 
 erbury National Bank in February, 1852. On Nov. 
 29, 1864, he was appointed cashier of that institu- 
 tion, and is still holding that position. This makes 
 a record of nearly fifty years with the bank, and 
 during that long period he has been associated with 
 the inauguration of a number of the most import- 
 ant commercial enterprises which have found room 
 in Waterbury. The American Pin Co. has found 
 in him a stanch friend and supporter, and on the 
 death of T. L Driggs he was elected its president, 
 in which office he is still serving. The Waterbury 
 Hospital has made him its treasurer, and he has 
 fiUecl other positions of a similar character. The 
 name of this gentleman appears among the fifty 
 original members who united in the formation of 
 the Second Congregational Church in 1852, and he 
 has been treasurer of the Society and Sundat-school 
 ever since. The musical service was in his hands 
 until 1874, when his son succeeded him as organist 
 and choir master, but he sang in the choir until 
 
502 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1896. In 1879 ^^ became deacon, and his connec- 
 tion with the Church has been singularly helpful 
 and inspiring. 
 
 Mr. Blakesley and Miss Margaret Orr Johnson, 
 of Cadiz, Ohio, were married Sept. 5, 1853. Mrs. 
 Blakesley died July 12, 1885, leaving two children : 
 (i) Albert Johnson, born April 30, 1858, has been 
 connected with the Waterbury Bank twenty-seven 
 years. He has been twice married ; his first wife, now 
 deceased, was Fannie F. Atwood, daughter of L. J. 
 Atwood. His present wife was Miss Marie D. 
 Mitchell, of New York, a granddaughter of Mrs. 
 Feter Darlington, mother of Dr. James H. Darling- 
 ton, for many years pastor of the Bedford Street 
 Church in Brookljm ; they have one child, Freder- 
 ick Darlington. (2) Jennie Elizabeth, born Aug. 25, 
 1865, is now the wife of Dr. John M. Benedict, for- 
 merly of Bethel, Conn. ; they have two children, John 
 Blakesley and Ruth. Augustus M. Blakesley has 
 been a Republican since the formation of the party, 
 and a number of years ago was treasurer of the 
 town. 
 
 DANA A. BRADLEY (deceased) was born 
 Dec. 15, 1824, on the old Bradley homestead in East 
 Haven (where George C. Bradley now lives), and 
 was a son of Dana Bradley, Sr. He was educated in 
 the common schools of his native town and Fair 
 Haven, and reared upon the home farm, remaining 
 with his parents tmtil his marriage. 
 
 On April 28, 1857, Mr. Bradley wedded Miss 
 Caroline L. Tuttle, who was born Dec. 6, 1835, in 
 the house .at Fair Haven now occupied by William 
 G. Tuttle, and is a daughter of William and Harriet 
 (A«drews) Tuttle, the latter a daughter of Nathan 
 Andrews. William Tuttle was a native of East Ha- 
 ven and son of Frederick Tuttle, who was also born 
 in that town and after his marriage to Polly Frost 
 removed to the farm and built the house where his 
 son William was born. Mrs. Bradley is the oldest 
 in a family of eight children ; Cornelia H., the next 
 in order of birth, is the wife of Henry Landcraft, 
 of Fair Haven ; Hester died at the age of nineteen 
 years ; Annie died unmarried at the age of thirty- 
 four years ; William G. is a resident of Fair Ha- 
 ven; Sadie E. is the wife of George Holt, an oys- 
 ter dealer of New Haven; Edward died at the age 
 of three years ; and Edwin, twin brother of Edward, 
 married Lizzie Bradley, daughter of Warren Brad- 
 ley, and makes his home in New Haven. The 
 father of this family died March 26, 1899, aged 
 eighty-six years, the mother April 10, 1891, aged 
 seventy-nine years. They were highly respected and 
 esteemed by all who knew them*. 
 
 In 1859 Dana A. Bradley removed to the farm 
 in East Haven where his widow now resides, and 
 throughout the remainder of his life successfully 
 engaged in dairying and farming there. Two chil- 
 dren came to brighten the home : ( i ) Frederick 
 W., a dairy farmer, living with his mother, com- 
 pleted his education in the Hopkins grammar school. 
 
 He has taken a prominent part in local affairs as a 
 member of the Republican party, was a member of 
 the New Haven council in 1890, and served on the 
 Building Committee. He is a member of the Con- 
 necticut Grange, has served as assistant secretary 
 of the State Grange, and is a member of the I. O. 
 O. F. (2) Henry Dana, who was graduated from 
 Yale College in 1893, is now a civil engineer, sur- 
 veyor and real estate dealer of New York City. 
 Mr. Bradley was killed by a train at a railroad cross- 
 ing at Fair Haven, Nov. 21, 1890, and his death was 
 deeply mourned by the entire community, for he was 
 well and favorably known, and had a host of warm 
 friends in East Haven and the surrounding towns. 
 He was a member of the Episcopal Church of Fair 
 Haven, to which his widow also belongs, and his 
 upright, honorable life gained for him the confi- 
 dence and respect of all with whom he came in con- 
 tact. In politics he was first a Whig, and later a 
 Republican. 
 
 JOHN KAHL v/as born Jan. 30, 1839, in Prus- 
 sia, a son of Nicholas Kahl, a native-born Prussian, 
 who was engaged in buying and shipping coal to 
 France in ante-railroad days. As the proprietor 
 of a large farm, Nicholas Kahl was a man of con- 
 siderable prominence in his community ; he belonged 
 to the Lutheran Church, and was much devoted to 
 his home. His wife, Louisa Aultmeyer, of Prussia, 
 was a daughter of Cornelius Aultmeyer, and she 
 died in J\Iay, 1898, having long survived her hus- 
 band, who passed away in 1850, at the age of sixty- 
 one. They were the parents of the following chil- 
 dren : George, who came to the United States, and 
 died in New York City ; Henry, who died in Ger- 
 many ; Louise, who died in the city of New York ; 
 Kate, who died in Germany; and John. 
 
 John Kahl attended the Prussian schools up to 
 the age of thirteen years, when he became an ap- 
 prentice at the locksmith trade in Sanet-Johann, 
 Prussia, where he worked for two years. In 1854 
 he left his old home and came to the United States, 
 arriving in New York via Havre. For about four 
 months he was engaged in Simms & Blund's gun 
 factory, and for several years afterward was em- 
 ployed in the Dr. Andrews' Bank Lock Factory at 
 Perth Amboy, N. J. Mr. Kahl then went to New 
 Britain, Conn., where he worked in the Stanley 
 Hinge Factory for a long period, and was employed 
 for a year and a half with Russell & Erwin. He 
 was with the Stanley Level & Rule Company for a 
 time, and in 1859 removed to Yalesville, where he 
 was working in Sanford's Auger Factory at the 
 breaking out of the Rebellion. True to his adopted 
 country, he enlisted, in 1861, becoming a member 
 of Company C, 2nd N. Y. Harris Light Cavalry, 
 and was mustered out June 5, 1865, in the city of 
 New York. He received a flesh wound in his left 
 leg in the skirmish at Liberty Mills, Va.. where he 
 was taken prisoner, and incarcerated in Libbv 
 Prison, where he remained four weeks, was then 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 503 
 
 removed to Belle Island, where he was kept five 
 months before he was exchanged. When he was 
 captured he weighed 169 pounds, and when released 
 only 90 pounds. 
 
 After receiving his honorable discharge he re- 
 turned to resume his work in the auger factory. In 
 1867 he began work as a tool maker with R. Wal- 
 lace & Sons, becoming foreman of the department 
 two years later, and he holds this position at the 
 present time, now having about twenty men under 
 his direction. 
 
 Mr. Kahl is a member of Accanant Lodge, I. 
 O. O. F., and of Arthur H. Button Post, No. 36, G. 
 A. R. With his family he belongs to the Episcopal 
 Church. He is a Republican, but has never been 
 an office-seeker. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Kahl was married to Miss Christ- 
 iana Schropp, of Bavaria, Germany, who died in 
 Yalesville in 1866, leaving the following children: 
 Alfred, em'plo3'ed with his father, married Louisa 
 Wetzel, of Wallingford, and is the father of one 
 child, Fred; Edmund, employed with his father, 
 married Miss Annie Gibbons, of Wallingford, and 
 is the father of five children: Christina, Bertha, 
 John, Edmund and Roger; George, employed with 
 R. Wallace & Sons as a silversmith, married Miss 
 Lydia Broedlin, of New York, and is the father of 
 Oscar and Alesia. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Kahl married Fredericka Roselaus, 
 of Hartford, and this union has been blessed with the 
 following children : Louisa married John Broedlin, 
 of Wallingford, and is the mother of Caroline, 
 George and Rudolph ; and Louis, employed with his 
 father, married Esther Lawrence, and has three chil- 
 dren: Louis, Jr., Walter and Ernest. 
 
 ELSWORTH ALBERT BRADLEY, a leading 
 dairyman and general farmer was born Dec. 29, 
 1838, on the Bradley homestead in Centreville, 
 Hamden, where he still resides, and he belongs to 
 an old and highly respected family of that part of 
 the county. His grandfather, Lyman Bradley, the 
 son of a Revolutionary soldier, was born in the wes- 
 tern part of the town of Hamden, where he was 
 reared upon a farm, but when about sixty years old 
 he came to Cefttreville, and purchased the farm now 
 owned and occupied by our subject. He made many 
 improvements upon the place, and continued to en- 
 gage in its cultivation throughout the remainder of 
 his life. He was a supporter of the Whig party, 
 a consistent member of the Congregational Church, 
 and was well-known and highly respected. He mar- 
 ried Miss Betsey Ives, who also belonged to one of 
 the oldest and most esteemed families of Hamden, 
 and both died on the farm in Centreville, their re- 
 mains being interred in the Centreville cemetery. 
 She, too, was a member of the Congregational 
 Church, and was a most estimable lady. Their chil- 
 dren were Harriett ; Lyman A. ; William ; E. Ives, 
 father of our subject; and Betsey, wife of Merwin 
 Foote. 
 
 E. Ives Bradley was born March 15, 181 1, in 
 the old homestead in the western part of the town. 
 When twenty-five years old he came to Centreville 
 with his father and there spent the remainder of his 
 life successfully engaged in farming, dairying and 
 stock raising. His political support was given first 
 the Whig and later the Republican parties, and as 
 one of the prominent and influential men of his 
 community he was called upon to fill several local 
 offices. He was a public-spirited citizen, and was 
 an active and consistent member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church. He married Miss Charlotte B. Gil- 
 bert, a native of Hamden, and a daughter of Daniel 
 Gilbert. By this union two children were born : 
 Mary Jane, who died at the age of five years ; and 
 Elsworth A., our subject. The father died Jan. 11, 
 1893, aged eighty-two years, the mother Feb. 7, 
 1899, aged eighty-two years, and both were laid to 
 rest in the family burying ground in Centreville. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth. Elsworth A. 
 Bradley attended the district schools and the acad- 
 emy of Hamden, and upon the home farm became 
 familiar with all the duties which fall to the lot of 
 the agriculturist. He now owns the old homestead, 
 consisting of seventy-five acres under a high state 
 of cultivation and improved with good buildings, 
 and is devoting his time principally to general fann- 
 ing and dairying with good success. The Republi- 
 can party finds in him a stanch supporter of its 
 principles, and he is now efficiently serving as a 
 member of the school board. He is well known and 
 highly respected in the community where he has so 
 long made his home. 
 
 JOHN LEWIS DISBROW, who in his lifetime 
 was one of the highly esteemed business men and 
 honored citizens of New Haven, was born in that 
 city March 28, 1839, a son of John Lewis Disbrow, 
 Sr., the veteran hat manufacturer. 
 
 John Lewis Disbrow, Sr., was born in Norwalk, 
 Conn., in 1816, a son of John and Priscilla (Mall- 
 ory) Disbrow, the former a native of Saugatuck, 
 this State. At the age of fourteen Mr. Disbrow 
 learned the hatter's trade, and coming to New Ha- 
 ven followed same as a journeyman until about 
 1835, when he started in business on his own ac- 
 count, and for some years was the only hat manu- 
 facturer who conducted a store for himself. He con- 
 tinued thus for thirty years, his death, in 1864, cut- 
 ting short a prosperous business career. He mar- 
 ried Mary R. Miller, who was born in Norwalk, 
 daughter of a sea captain in the West Indies trade ; 
 his vessel and crew were all lost at sea. When, a 
 few years after Mrs. Disbrow's birth, her home was 
 broken up, she was given a home with friends, and 
 became the adopted child of Capt. Shipman, of New 
 Haven. Of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Dis- 
 brow, but one, John Lewis, Jr., grew to maturity. 
 The mother died in the faith of the Congregational 
 Church, in 1878, at the age of sixty-four years. 
 
 John Lewis Disbrow our subject, was reared in 
 
504 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 his native city and was educated in the Lancasterian 
 School. In his youth he learned the hatter's trade 
 with his father, and engaged in business with him 
 continuously until the father's death, with the excep- 
 tion of four years, when, under appointment by 
 President Buchanan, he served as railway mail 
 clerk from New Haven to Bellows Falls, Vt. In 
 1864 he assumed control of the business, and so 
 continued until his own death, Jan. 17, 1897. He 
 erected the building in State street, which he oc- 
 cupied for many years, and for many years con- 
 ducted another store, in the same line, in Church 
 street. 
 
 ]\Ir. Disbrow was a very public-spirited man. 
 For thirty-five years he was a member of the fire 
 department, acting as assistant chief under Chief 
 Hendricks, and for twenty-six years was secretary 
 and treasurer of the Firemen's Benevolent Asso- 
 ciation. When he retired the department passed a 
 set of resolutiops and presented him with a hand- 
 some pedestal. In his political faith he was a Demo- 
 crat, as was his father before him, and he at one 
 time represented the Third Ward in the city coun- 
 cil. Fraternally he was a Mason, identified with 
 Wooster Lodge ; and in his religious views he was 
 a Congregationalist. As a man his integrity was 
 unassailable, his reputation was untarnished, and 
 he was justly beloved by all who knew him for his 
 many gifts of head and heart. 
 
 On June 29, 1859, Mr. Disbrow was united in 
 marriage with Alary Russell, who was born in New 
 Haven, a daughter of Calvin Russell, and a great- 
 great-granddaughter of Samuel Russell, in whose 
 house Yale University was incorporated. Of the 
 five children born to this marriage, three are now 
 living: (i) Nellie, who is Mrs. Treat, of No. 12 
 Gill street, has two children, Disbrow and Marion. 
 (2) Mrs. William Foskett, whose husband is a mem- 
 ber of the firm of Foskett & Bishop, has one child, 
 Mildred. (3) James R., who, under his mother's 
 supervision, is running his father's store, is one of 
 the prominent young men in New Haven. He ranks 
 high in fraternal orders, being a thirty-second-de- 
 gree Alason, member of the Modern Woodmen, the 
 Naval Reserves and the Governor's Foot Guards. 
 Henry and John L. are deceased. For twenty-five 
 years Mr. Disbrow lived on Howard avenue and in 
 1896 he completed the excellent home at No. 248 
 Sherman avenue, where his death occurred, and 
 where his widow resides. 
 
 Airs. Disbrow is a lady of unusual executive 
 ability and good business judgment, and was her 
 husband's confidant and adviser at all times. She is 
 broad-minded, and charitable to the faults of others, 
 and endeavors at all times to live up to the faith she 
 professes — that of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Calvin Russell, father of Mrs. Disbrow, was 
 reared in New Haven, and here learned the black- 
 smith's trade, which he followed for a few years. 
 However, his ambition sought a wider field. He 
 embarked in the wholesale confectionery business in 
 
 Water street, New Haven, for some years, and was 
 successful. Later he founded the wholesale butter 
 and cheese business now conducted by his son Cal- 
 vin. He accumulated a large property, retired from 
 business when about fifty-four years old, and lived 
 to the age of nearly eighty-six. Mr. Russell mar- 
 ried Mary Smith, a daughter of John Smith, a pen- 
 sioner of the war of 1812, and twelve children 
 blessed this union, all of whom reached maturity. 
 The mother died in 1876. 
 
 JOSEPH DOOLITTLE PAYNE. For gener- 
 ations the Paynes have been residents of the town of 
 Prospect, Conn., and of the territory out of which 
 that town was formed, Waterbury and Cheshire. 
 The name is of record frecjuently in the towns of 
 Prospect, Waterbury and Naugatuck, in the latter 
 of which was born, July 6, 1829, and reared the late 
 Joseph D. Payne, who for many years was a prom- 
 inent business man of New Haven. The family 
 is of English origin. Our subject was a grand- 
 son of Joseph D. Payne, who was born in Cheshire, 
 and a son of Stephen H. Payne, of that town, and 
 later of Prospect, who was a manufacturer of but- 
 tons and matches, and conducted a general mer- 
 cantile business. Stephen H. Payne's wife, Abigail, 
 was a daughter of Joseph I. Doolittle, a man uni- 
 versally beloved and respected. 
 
 Joseph D. Payne was a child when his parents 
 moved from Cheshire to Prospect, where he attended 
 the public schools, and he was later a student in 
 Everest Academy. At the age of nineteen he came 
 to Westville, now a part of New Haven, entering 
 the store of Joseph Hale, as clerk, and from 1850 
 until his death, which occurred April 16, 1894, he 
 remained an active business man and a useful citi- 
 zen. In about 1852 he became associated in business 
 as a merchant with Edwin W Cooper, the style of 
 the firm being Cooper Sz: Payne, and the partnership 
 lasted about ten years, after which Mr. Payne con- 
 ducted the business alone until 1870, when he with- 
 drew from mercantile life and engaged in the manu- 
 facture of nuts in \\'^estville, in which line he con- 
 tinued until some three years prior to his death, 
 when, owing to failing health, he retired from ac- 
 tive business. 
 
 Mr. Pa}'ne was a man of excellent judgment, 
 a careful financier, industrious and energetic, and 
 prospered in his undertakings, becoming a very suc- 
 cessful business man. He was possessed of a high 
 sense of honor and great strength of character, was 
 just and strict in all his business dealings, inflexi- 
 ble in his purposes and firm in his friendships. He 
 was ever interested and active in all measures and 
 movements which he deemed beneficial to the com- 
 munity. He had managed his own affairs so well 
 that he was several times called by his fellow towns- 
 men to positions of trust and responsibility, serving 
 for a quarter of a century as a member of the school 
 board of his cUstrict, of which he was treasurer. 
 His political sympathies were with the Democratic 
 
^ ^i 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 50s 
 
 party. Mr. Payne was a Mason of high standing, 
 and for many years was treasurer of the local lodge. 
 With his wife he attended the Westville Congre- 
 gational Church. 
 
 On May 17, 1852, Mr. Payne was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Amelia F. Cooper, who was born 
 in Westville, a daughter of Jeremiah and Fanny 
 (Warner) Cooper, and one child was born to them, 
 Adelaide, who is unmarried, and with her mother 
 occupies the beautiful Payne home at No. 106 
 Fountain street, Westville. 
 
 Mrs. Payne comes from old Connecticut stock 
 in 'both paternal and maternal lines. Amos Warner, 
 her maternal grandfather, was a farmer at Hamden, 
 Conn., where the family has long been located, and 
 was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. 
 Payne's parents were both born in Hamden. The 
 mother moved first to New Haven, thence to West- 
 ville, where she was married, and where Mr. Cooper 
 followed his trade, that of cooper, until he was 
 drowned, which occurred when his daughter Amelia 
 F. was but one year old. Mrs. Payne is the youngest 
 of a family of four, Edwin W., Caroline, Zenas and 
 Amelia F. The Coopers are of English extraction. 
 
 THE FOSTER FAMILY was, throughout the 
 past century, one of the leading families of New 
 Haven, as it was also one of the old and historic 
 families of New England. It has given several men 
 to the legal profession who have graced the Bar of 
 Connecticut, and who have elevated the social life 
 of the city in which their honorable and useful ca- 
 reers have passed. Especial reference is made to 
 Hon. Eleazer Foster, and to his son, Hon. Eleazer 
 Kingsbury Foster, who in turn were conspicuous in 
 New Haven for many years. John P. C. Foster, 
 son of the latter, is now one of the leading physicians 
 and most prominent citizens of the community. 
 
 Samuel Foster, the emigrant ancestor of the fam- 
 ily, was born in England in 1619, and came to 
 New England in its very early settlement. He was 
 married, at Dedham, Mass., in 1647, to Esther 
 Kemp, and moved to Wenham three years later. In 
 1655 he removed to Chelmsford, Mass., where he 
 became an honorable and representative citizen of 
 the town. A deacon in the Church, he was also a 
 deputy to the General Court. From him Dr. Fos- 
 ter, of New Haven, is a descendant in the eighth 
 generation, the line of descent being through 
 Samuel (2), Edward, Edward (2), Edward (3), 
 Eleazer and Eleazer K. 
 
 Samuel Foster, son of the emigrant, was born 
 in Chelmsford in 1650, and when twenty-eight years 
 of age was married to Sarah Keyes. He died in 
 1730. Edward Foster, his son, was born in 1689, 
 in Chelmsford, was married to Remembrance 
 Fletcher. Edward Foster (2), son of Edward, was 
 born in Chelmsford in 1714, and with his wife, Ra- 
 chel, resided in Sturbridge, Mass., where he died 
 in 1775. Edward Foster (3), was born in Stur- 
 bridge in 1749, and married to Rachel Newell; he 
 
 saw active service in the war of the Revolution, and 
 after its termination bought and settled on a farm 
 in the town of Union, Conn., where he spent the 
 rest of his life, dying in 1818. 
 
 Hon. Eleazer Foster, son of Edward Foster (3), 
 was born in 1779, in the town of Union, Conn., and 
 was married in New Haven, in 1806, to Mary 
 Pierrepont, who was born in 1780, a lineal descend- 
 ant of Rev. James Pierrepont, a settler of New 
 Haven in 1684, and one of the founders of Yale Col- 
 lege. She is also a descendant of Mary Hooker, a 
 daughter of Rev. Samuel Hooker, of Farmington. 
 
 Mr. Foster was graduated from Yale College in 
 1802, and became a lawyer. Soon after his admis- 
 sion to the Bar he gave such decided proof of his 
 industry, capacity, integrity and discretion, that he 
 was quickly called to responsible and delicate po- 
 sitions. In 1817 he was representative from New 
 Haven in the State Legislature, where he led a 
 brilliant career. He stood so high in the public con- 
 fidence that he was frequently called on to admin- 
 ister estates, to be assignee for debtors and agent for 
 creditors. His practice was largely along the line 
 of probate business, and such was his ability and 
 integrity that he uniformly received the approlDation 
 of all interested. For the duties of a magistrate 
 he was guided by that integrity and impartiality 
 which fully evinced his love of justice and his 
 sacred regard for the true interests of the public. 
 A man of high character, he was kind and attentive 
 to the poor, courteous to all, and in every sense a 
 desirable neighbor. He was an exemplary member 
 of the Church of Christ. His death occurred in New 
 Haven May i, 1819 ; and his widow, who lived many 
 years thereafter, died in 1852. 
 
 Hon. Eleazer Kingsbury Foster, the son of the 
 foregoing, and father of Dr. Foster, was born May 
 20, 18 13, and was graduated from Yale in 1834. At 
 New Haven, and in Auburn, N. Y., he made his 
 preparation for the law, and was admitted to the 
 Bar in his native city, where he practiced law all his 
 life. Shortly after his entrance upon his profes- 
 sion he was appointed grand juror of the town. 
 From 1845 to 1849 he was probate judge of the 
 New Haven district. In 1854 he, was appointed 
 State's Attorney for New Haven, and in 1867 was 
 nominated registrar in bankruptcy by Chief Justice 
 Chase, holding both positions as long as he lived. 
 In i860 he was a member of the Republican conven- 
 tion that nominated Abraham Lincoln. For six 
 years he was a member of the city council of New 
 Haven, and was a member of the State Legislature 
 in 1844, 1845, 1855 and 1865, when he served as 
 Speaker of the House. In 1861 he declined a nom- 
 ination for Governor of Connecticut in favor of 
 Gov. Buckingham. 
 
 At the Bar, in public and private life, Judge 
 Foster was a man of mark. The eminence which he 
 attained at the Bar was not due to study and applica- 
 tion alone. A noble presence, a grand voice, the 
 graces of oratory, often becoming eloquence, wit 
 
So6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and htimor, a thorough knowledge of human nature, 
 and a quick sympathy, with all ranks of men — these 
 were the gifts that always secured to him a place 
 in the front rank of his profession. As a specialist 
 in criminal law he frequently dealt with important 
 causes and encountered the ablest of his professional 
 brethren. To these demands he was always equal, 
 and was regarded as a most formidable antagonist 
 before the jury, where he was especially successful. 
 As a cross-examiner he was remarkably skillful, 
 and many an unhappy culprit has seen the secrets 
 of his breast laid bare by him, even while believing 
 that every avenue of approach had been securely 
 guarded. As State's Attorney he sought for jus- 
 tice, never demanding the "pound of flesh," and 
 mitigating where circumstances would allow the 
 penalties of crime which took on in many cases the 
 character of ignorance and stupidity. Courteous 
 and considerate in his demeanor toward his antag- 
 onist, he often made friends of those upon whom 
 he brought the penalties of violated law. He was 
 the last survivor, save Hon. Alfred Blackman, of 
 that brilliant circle of lawyers whose fame in the 
 past is already becoming a tradition to the lawyers 
 of this generation. 
 
 In politics, Judge Foster was a Whig in his earl- 
 ier life, and became a Republican on the organization 
 of that party. On the "hustings" he was very popu- 
 lar, and often appeared to defend what he deemed 
 right and true. He was a man of deep religious con- 
 victions, and firmly held to the fundamental doc- 
 trines of the Episcopal Church, of which he was 
 a devoted member. His Christian faith and hope 
 were a great com'fort to him in his last illness. For 
 more than thirty years Judge Foster was a resident 
 of New Haven, and his death was felt by many of 
 its people as a personal loss. 
 
 Judge Foster was married Jan. 2, 1838, to Miss 
 Mary Codrington, who was born in Jamaica, Brit- 
 ish West Indies, Feb. 9, 1818, on one of her father's 
 plantations, but was educated in England. To this 
 union were born four children: William E., the 
 editor of the Buffalo (N. Y.) Coininercial; Eleazer 
 K., a lawyer in Florida; Dr. John P. C, a resident 
 of New Haven; and Mary, who died in 1864, at the 
 age of twent3'-one years. Judge Foster died June 
 13, 1877, his wife having passed awav Sept. 25, 
 1872. 
 
 William E. Foster, noted above as editor of the 
 Buffalo Commercial, was married in 1861 to Sarah 
 E. Betts, a daughter of Judge Betts, of the city of 
 New York. He enlisted in the United States navy 
 in 1861, on the first cafl for troops, and served 
 throughout the war. He was appointed assistant 
 quartermaster general, and Aug. 4, 1861, was made 
 a pa)'master in the navy, serving in that capacity, 
 and as a signal officer, during his term of service. 
 For thirty years he has been chief editor of the Com- 
 mercial, and is a man of unusual literary attain- 
 ments. Eleazer K., the other brother of Dr. Foster, 
 died Dec. 8, 1899. For years he had been a district 
 
 attorney in Florida, and had been judge of the cir- 
 cuit court, and also State Superintendent of Pub- 
 lic Instruction. He was one of the founders of the 
 Agricultural College of Florida, and one of the new 
 buildings recently put up for that institution bears 
 the name of " Foster Hall" Mr. Foster also served 
 as one of the trustees of the University of the 
 South, located at Sewanee, Tenn. Mary Benedict, 
 who became his wife, was born at Philadelphia, Pa., 
 and was a daughter of Dr. Nathan and Emma (Har- 
 ris) Benedict. They had three children, Eleazer 
 K., Emma Harris, and Mary Benedict ; all reside in 
 Gainesville, Florida. 
 
 Dr. John Pierrepont Codrington Foster was 
 born March 2, 1847, ^^ New Haven, and prepared 
 for college in the school of George Russel. In 1869 
 he was graduated irom Yale, and from the Medical 
 School connected with that College in 1875. The 
 fall of the following year he began his practice at 
 New Haven, and from the first his career has been 
 singularly successful. Many of the characteristics 
 of his father and grandfather reappear in him, and 
 his ability, close application to his work, and general 
 manly qualifications have won him a wide practice. 
 Among the students of Yale he is especially popular. 
 In connection with Prof. Chittenden of the Yale 
 Biological Laboratory, he conducted a series of ex- 
 periments with Koch's Tuberculin, which were after- 
 wards summarized and given to the world. Dr. Fos- 
 ter was the first American to administer (Dec. 3, 
 1890) the famous tuberculin of Prof. Koch. He 
 has been surgeon of the United States Marine Hos- 
 pital Service since 1880, and in 1877 was appointed 
 instructor in anatomy in Yale Art School. He is a 
 member of the American Medical Association, and 
 of the Society of the American Anatomists. At 
 Yale he belonged to the famous "Skull and Cross- 
 bones Society," as did his father before him. In 
 1884 he was instrumental in the organization of 
 the Young Men's Republican Club of New Haven, 
 of which he was the first vice-president. At the 
 present time he takes no active part in politics. 
 
 On July I, 1875, Dr. Foster was married to 
 Josephine Bicknell, a daughter of Joseph I. and 
 Theresa (Pierrepont) Bicknell, and they have had 
 the following children : Margaret Codrington, who, 
 on Feb. 8, 1899, married Rev. George H. Thomas, 
 rector of All Saints Church in Minneapolis ; John 
 Pierrepont Codrington, Jr., who died Aug. 30, 1882; 
 Josephine Bicknell ; Allen Evarts ; and William Ed- 
 ward. 
 
 NATHAN THOMPSON MORSE, a well- 
 known photographer of Derby, is an artist of wide 
 experience, and stands at the head of his profes- 
 sion in that town. He was born in New Haven Nov. 
 7, 1836, and belongs to a family of English origin, 
 which was founded in America by seven brothers 
 who settled in this county. Many of its represent- 
 atives have embraced the learned professions, be- 
 coming eminent as doctors, lawyers and preachers. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 507 
 
 Our subject's paternal great-grandfather was a 
 soldier in the Revolutionary war. His grandfather, 
 Samuel Morse, was born in Danbury, Conn., but in 
 early life went to Savannah, Ga., where he success- 
 fully engaged in the practice of law. He died there, 
 of yellow fever, and, being a member of the old 
 Chathami Artillery, then, as now, a noted military 
 organization of the South, he was buried with mili- 
 tary honors. There were other prominent members 
 of the family in the South, including Judge Morse, 
 of Mobile, Ala. The grandfather edited the first 
 Jeffersonian newspaper ever published in America, 
 called the Son of Liberty. 
 
 Orville Curtis Morse, father of our subject, was 
 born in Danbury, and went to Savannah, Ga., with 
 his parents when a child, but after the death of his 
 father he returned North with his mother and the 
 other members of the family, and spent some time 
 in the towns of Huntington and Monroe, Fair- 
 field Co., Conn. Throughout his active life he 
 was a teacher, following that profession for 
 the last twenty years of his career. He mar- 
 ried Aliss Charity Thompson, of Huntington, 
 daughter of Abraham and Sarah (Blackman) 
 Thompson. The first of the Thompson fam- 
 ily to come to tMs country was a passenger on 
 the "Mayflower." To Mr. and Mrs. Morse were 
 born four children: Samuel, a painter by trade, 
 who died in Stratford; Charles T., a retired mer- 
 chant of Chicago, 111. ; Sarah J. ; and N. Thompson, 
 our subject. In his political views the father was 
 first a Whig and later a Republican. 
 
 During his infancy our subject removed with 
 his parents to Derby, where he grew to manhood. 
 During the dark days of the Rebellion he enlisted in 
 Company B, 4th Conn. V. I., which was the first 
 three-years regiment enlisted in the country, and 
 which afterward became the 1st Connecticut Heavy 
 Artillery. After receiving his discharge Mr. Morse 
 returned North and went to Chicago, where he 
 clerked in his brother's store for some time. Learn- 
 ing photography, he engaged in that business in 
 Chicago for seven years, and then went South, where 
 he carried on the same occupation in Jacksonville, 
 Fla., and Savannah, Ga. Later he engaged in 
 photography in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New 
 York State, and finally, in 1887, returned to Derby, 
 Conn., where he opened a studio and has since been 
 busily engaged in his art. He thoroughly under- 
 stands his profession and his work possesses high 
 .artistic merit. 
 
 ]\Ir. Morse married Miss Annie S. Massey, a 
 native of Philadelphia, Pa., and a daughter of 
 Thomas Massey. She is a prominent member of 
 the Derby chapter of the Daughters of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution, which she was instrumental in or- 
 ganizing, and has the finest record in that chapter. 
 Mr. Morse is also of Revolutionary stock, his ma- 
 ternal grandfather, Abraham Thompson, having 
 aided the Colonies in achieving their Independence 
 as a soldier of the Continental army. Our subject 
 
 and his wife are both members of the Episcopal 
 Church, and he also belongs to the Grand Army of 
 the Republic and King Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M., 
 of Derby, having first united with the Masonic fra- 
 ternity in Chicago. Politically he is a stanch Re- 
 publican. 
 
 EDMUND CARRINGTON WARNER, one 
 of the best known fruit growers of the State of Con- 
 necticut, has transformed an ordinary piece of prop- 
 erty into one of the best farms in North Haven. Be- 
 ing descended from an old family of Connecticut, 
 prominent in the history of the State and nation, our 
 subject is very proud of his ancestry. Isaac Warner, 
 his grandfather, was a native of Hamden, Conn., 
 where he carried on farming extensively and where 
 he died. He had the following family : Louisa, 
 Ira and Rufus. 
 
 Rufus Warner was born Sept. 15, 1808, in Ham- 
 den, received a common school education, and pur- 
 sued the vocation of a farmer all his life, dying in 
 Hamden when seventy-two years old. His wife was 
 Harriet Dorman, a native of Hamden, and daugh- 
 ter of Edmund Dorman. To this couple were born : 
 Sarah, Rachel, Eliza, Isaac, Edmund C, Amos, 
 Charles, Elizabeth, Eber and William. 
 
 Edmund Carrington Warner was born Nov. 16, 
 1840, in Hamden, near Hamden Plains. He re- 
 ceived but a limited education, and remained on the 
 home farm until 1866, being engaged in farming and 
 in hauling wood from Hamden to New Haven. 
 Succeeding in this work, Mr. Warner was enabled, 
 in 1866, to come to North Haven and purchase the 
 Col. Blakeslee farm, a tract of seventy-five acres. 
 Not possessing the full amount of purchase money 
 required, Mr. Warner mortgaged a portion of 
 the land and then cut and hauled timber from 
 his property, and, in connection with dairying 
 and fruit growing, soon paid off the debt, be- 
 ing ably assislted by his wife. When he lo- 
 cated upon the farm he decided to embark in 
 the culture of fruits on a small scale, and be- 
 ing very successful he gradually branched out in 
 this line, in 1878 purchasing the Chauncey Blakes- 
 lee farm of fifty-six acres, which adjoined his 
 own. Most of this property Mr. Warner has brought 
 into a high state of cultivation, growing fruit and 
 berries ; he has about sixty acres in fruit, thirty acres 
 of which are in peach trees. So excellent is the 
 quality of his products that he took first premium 
 with his exhibit at Wallingford, in 1898, and again 
 in 1899, his competitors being some of the best 
 fruit growers in the State. He has recently added 
 fifty acres of land to this farm, one part of which 
 is now planted to fruit trees. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Warner was married to Miss Ves- 
 tina Wooding, of Hamden, daughter of Vinus and 
 Jane (Tuttle) Wooding, farming people of that 
 town. To this marriage have been born : Wilson, 
 who is at home. Herbert, who is a graduate of 
 Storrs Agricultural College, and is now residing in 
 
So8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 North Haven ; he married Mattie Colburn, and re- 
 sided five )'ears in Battle Creek, IMich., where he 
 was superintendent of an agricultural institution. 
 Alice married Emanuel Smith, a farmer of North 
 Haven. Elton, a t3'pewriter and stenographer, is 
 in business' in Mexico. Jane, a teacher, was em- 
 ployed three years in Battle Creek, Mich., and is 
 now at home. 
 
 Mr. Warner is a stanch Republican in political 
 sentiment, was elected selectman in 1888, serving 
 four years, and was assessor in 1897 and 1898. So- 
 cially he is a charter member of North Haven 
 Grange; a charter member of Pomona Grange; a 
 member of the State Pomological Society, and in 
 all well known and active. Mr. Warner and his 
 family are attendants of the Congregational Church 
 of North Haven, and are generous supporters of 
 same. By earnest, faithful effort Mr. Warner has 
 steadily worked his way to the front, made a place 
 for himself among the honored citizens of the town, 
 and he has reared a family which does credit to 
 his name. 
 
 ORRIN i\IUNSON is not only one of the en- 
 terprising and progressive agriculturists of Ham- 
 den, New Haven Co., Conn., but is also one of its 
 respected and honored citizens. He was born in that 
 town on the farm where Charles H. Munson now 
 lives, July 10, 1832, and there grew to manhood, re- 
 maining upon that place until twenty-six years of 
 age. The following six years were passed upon the 
 farm' just opposite his present home, and at the 
 end of that time he moved across the street into 
 the house which he had previously erected, and 
 which has since been his home. Here he owns fifty 
 acres of land, which he has converted into one of 
 the finest fruit farms of the town. When he pur- 
 chased the place it was a wild and rocky tract of 
 land, and all of the improvements found thereon 
 have been made by him and stand as monuments to 
 his thrift and industry. He has set out orchards 
 which now rank among the best in the State, and 
 in 1899 he raised between fifteen hundred and two 
 thousand bushels of apples, besides peaches and 
 other fruit. He also carries on general farming 
 and is quite extensively engaged in the wood busi- 
 ness, buying tracts of land, the timber from which 
 he converts into cord wood. 
 
 In 1858, Mr Munson was united in marriage 
 with ]Miss Mary M. Warner, a daughter of Abner 
 and Hilary Warner, and to them were born three 
 children : Cliflford H., a farmer and market gar- 
 dener of Hamden, has two children — -Hazel A., and 
 Yensie M. ; Robert A., a farmer, who is now with 
 his father in business, has one child — Olive J. ; and 
 Nora A.., wife of \^''ilbur Benham, a market gar- 
 dener of Hamden. 
 
 ]\Ir. ;\Iunson gives his political support to the 
 men and measures of the Democratic partv, but 
 takes no active part in politics aside from voting, 
 and has never sought or desired office, although 
 
 the highest official positions of the town have been 
 offered him. Religiously he is a member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. His business inter- 
 ests have been so managed as to win him the confi- 
 dence of the public and the prosperity which should 
 always attend honorable effort, and he is held in 
 high regard by all who know him on account of his 
 sterling worth. 
 
 REUBEN H. TUCKER, member of the As- 
 sembly from Ansonia, is one of the most valued 
 citizens of that town, and his influence is felt as a 
 potent factor in political, business and social life. 
 
 Mr. Tucker was born in Ansonia Aug. 9, 1847, 
 the first boy born after the town was named, and is 
 one of the few men who have watched the full de- 
 velopment of the place. His family is of good Con- 
 necticut stock. His father, Lyman Tucker, was 
 born in Oxford in March, 1799, and, after spending 
 his early years in farm work, learned the trade of 
 ax and auger maker, which he followed there until 
 he reached the age of forty. He then removed to 
 Ansonia, where he continued this work in the em- 
 ploy of David Bassett, but his last years were spent 
 in retirement upon a farm, his death occurring in 
 1861, when he was aged sixty-two. His wife, 
 Mary E. (Hotchkiss), a native of Derby, died in 
 1869, aged sixty-four. While residing in Derby 
 they were identified with the Presbyterian Church, 
 and later they assisted in organizing the Ansonia 
 Congregational Church, and were among its lead- 
 ing merrJbers. They had two children, but our sub- 
 ject is the only one living. 
 
 As a boy Mr. Tucker worked at farm work on 
 the homestead within the city limits, and he still 
 owns several houses on the site. After receiving a 
 common school education, he was engaged in brick 
 making for a time, and for two years was a clerk 
 in the Ansonia Savings Bank. He had already be- 
 come prominent in local affairs, and his election to 
 the office of clerk of the town of Derby, which then 
 included Ansonia, was but the beginning of an ac- 
 tive and successful career as an official. He held 
 the position named six years, and after the separa- 
 tion of the two towns served four years as town 
 clerk of Ansonia, until 1893, having been re-elected 
 nine consecutive times. He was elected and served 
 five terms as warden of the borough of Ansonia, 
 before it became a city. Mr. Tucker has served 
 as justice of the peace twenty years, during which 
 time many cases were submitted to his judgment; 
 was tax collector of the borough of Ansonia for 
 five years, and for the town and city from 1898 to 
 1902 ; and also served some years as school collector 
 and assessor. For ten years he was a member of 
 the town Republican committee. Our subject was 
 elected to the Legislature in 1894, 1896, 1898 and 
 1900, to serve until January, 1903. His committee 
 work in that body includes service as member of 
 the finance committee, in 1895 ; chairman of the 
 committee on fisheries and game, in 1897; clerk of 
 
()tkJ^^ncm^^cje^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 S09 
 
 the finance committee in 1899; and in 1901, chair- 
 man of that committee. His interest in local im- 
 provement is shown in many ways, and for eight- 
 een years he has been a director in the Pine Grove 
 Cemetery Association, of which, since 1883, he has 
 been secretary, treasurer and manager. 
 
 In 1867 Air. Tucker married Miss Adelia L. 
 ■Boughton, a native of Woodbury, and one of three 
 children of John Boughton, a well-known black- 
 smith. Three children have blessed this union, name- 
 ly : Reuben H., Jr., who became connected with the 
 predecessor of the Coe Brass Manufacturing Co., 
 and is now a clerk there; Miss Abbie M.; and Miss 
 Jessie B. The family is esteemed socially, and all are 
 members of Christ Episcopal Crurch. Mr. Tucker is 
 a 32d'-degree, Scottish Rite Mason. He was elected 
 to a lodge on the first meeting_ after his twenty- 
 first 'birthday ; is a member of the Veteran Masonic 
 Association ; George Washington Lodge, No. 82, F. 
 & A. AI., in which he passed all the chairs ; Mt. Ver- 
 non Chapter, No. 35, R. A. M., in which he is past 
 high priest ; Union Council, No. 27, Derby, in which 
 he holds the rank of past thrice illustrious master; 
 the Grand Chapter of the State, in which he is past 
 grand high priest; the Grand Council of the State, 
 being a past most puissant grand master; and the 
 New Haven Commandery. At present he is the rep- 
 resentative in the Connecticut Grand Lodge of the 
 Grand Lodge of Nebraska; the Grand Chapter of 
 the State of Georgia; and the Grand Council of the 
 State of North Carolina ; is chairman of the com- 
 mittee on By-laws in the Grand Chapter of the State 
 of Connecticut, and chairman of the committee on 
 Ritual, in the Grand Lodge. 
 
 HORACE W. MERCHANT, who entered into 
 rest in September, 1880, in New York, was for 
 many years a well known resident of New Haven. 
 He was born in the State of New York, and there 
 learned the blacksmith trade, becoming a very ex- 
 pert workman. As a journeyman, he came to New 
 Haven, Conn., in about 1842, and opened up an es- 
 tablishment in his line in this city, continuing in the 
 same business until his death. 
 
 In 1845 ^^^- Mercnant was united in marriage 
 with ]Mary E. Thomas, who was born in Wood- 
 bridge, a daughter of General Amos Thomas. One 
 son was born of this union, Wellington, who mar- 
 ried ]\Iary Dagle, of Montreal ; by trade he was an 
 expert carriage painter, and followed this trade un- 
 til his death at the age of fifty years. 
 
 The paternal grandparents of Mrs. Merchant 
 were John and Sarah (GilbertJ Thomas, the former 
 of whom was a successful farmer, and the latter 
 was a native of Litchfield, who lived to the advanced 
 age of eighty years. She was the mother of six chil- 
 dren (including one pair of twins), and both she 
 and all her children have long since passed out of 
 hfe. 
 
 Gen. Amos Thomas, the father of Mrs. Mer- 
 chant, was reared in Woodbridge, and in 1828, when 
 
 about twenty-five years of age, came to New Haven, 
 and opened up a store on Broadway, continuing in 
 business there for a number of years. Later he em- 
 barked in the carriage business and followed in this 
 line for a number of years, but late in life sold this 
 and bought a farm near Westbrook, where he lived 
 until his death, at the age of seventy-five years. Mr. 
 Thomas took a great interest in military affairs, and 
 when a militia company was formed he entered in 
 the ranks and was promoted until he was made a 
 brigadier general and had command of all of the 
 State militia and was well known and much es- 
 teemed. In politics. Gen. Thomas was a very stanch 
 Democrat, and acceptably served as chief of the po- 
 lice department of the city of New Haven, and in 
 every situation of life came up to the expectations 
 of his friends. He married Lucretia Baldwin, who 
 was born in Woodbridge, a daughter of George 
 Baldwin, a farmer of that locality, who later moved 
 to Huntington, where he died ; his wife died in 
 middle age. The children born to Gen, and Mrs. 
 Lucretia Thomas numbered eleven, these being: 
 John, who died in Derby, Conn. ; George, the 
 father of a family, lives in Waterbury; Mary, 
 E., the widow of 'Mr. Merchant; William Wallace, 
 a resident on Norton street, in New Haven ; Fran- 
 ces Jane, deceased ; Silas Alix, resides in California ; 
 Sarah L., widow of Edward E. Bowns ; Grace A., 
 the widow of Edward Lines, lives in New Haven ; 
 Charlotte Adele married Henry W. Munson, of 
 Hamden. The others died in infancy, and the 
 mother died in 1879. The father was a consistent 
 and worthy member of the Universalist Church. 
 Mrs. Merchant was still young in years when 
 her parents came to New Haven, and she was edu- 
 cated in the city schools. She is a lady of winning 
 manners and pleasing personality, and enjoys the 
 esteem of the residents of this city, her pleasant 
 home being at No. 289 Dixwell avenue. 
 
 ELIHU HUMISTON, a representative citizen 
 and successful farmer of Hamden, New Haven 
 county, was born Nov. 15, 1820, on the farm where 
 he still resides, and which was also the birthplace of 
 his father, Justus Humiston, it being the home of 
 his paternal grandfather, Joseph Humiston. The 
 father spent his early life upon the farm, engaged 
 in agricultural pursuits, but later turned his atten- 
 tion to the carpenter's trade, which he followed for 
 some time in New Marlborough, ]\Iass. While there 
 he met and married Miss Elizabeth Harmon. A 
 few years later he returned to the old homestead and 
 took charge of the farm, which he successfully 
 operated until called from this life in 1855, at the 
 age' of seventy-five years. In political sentiment he 
 was a Democrat, and he was honored and respected 
 wherever known. His wife died in 1848, at the 
 age of sixty-two years. To this worthy couple were 
 born six children, and the birth of all occurred on 
 the old home farm in Hamden, where our subject 
 now resides. Sylvia, the oldest, married Elihu 
 
5IO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Dickerman, and died in August, 1899, when past 
 the age of ninety-four years. Ehza married Sydney 
 Benham and died in 1889, at the age of seventy- 
 three. Harmon is Hving in Hamden, at the age of 
 eighty-three years. Ehhu, our subject, is next in 
 order of birth. Maria S. is now seventy-seven years 
 of age. Austin married Julia Bradley, and died at 
 the age of thirty-seven years. 
 
 During his bo3'hood, Elihu Humiston attended 
 the common schools near his home, and assisted his 
 father in the operation of the farm until twenty-five 
 years of age, when he commenced teaming with 
 oxen for the rubber factory at Centerville, and 
 Churchill Brothers' auger factory, being thus em- 
 ployed for many years doing more of such work 
 than any man of his time in Hamden. During this 
 time he made his home on the old farm, and when he 
 gave up teaming he turned his attention to the dairy 
 business upon that place. He has met with marked 
 success in this undertaking and was one of the sub- 
 stantial and prosperous dairy farmers of Hamden 
 until he gave up that work, as well as one of its 
 highly esteemed citizens. He is the owner of forty 
 acres of land, including the old homestead, which 
 consists of twenty^five acres under a high state of 
 cultivation and well improved. He is a member of 
 the Congregational Church of Whitneyville, and 
 his life has ever been in harmony with his profes- 
 sions. 
 
 W. CECIL DURAND, secretary and treas- 
 urer of the Milford Savings Bank, is a native of 
 Milford, born June 15, 185 1, and he belongs to one 
 of the oldest and most honored famiHes of that 
 town. 
 
 William Durand, his grandfather, was born in 
 Milford, and he and his wife, Mary Baldwin, were 
 both interred in the old Milford graveyard. Of 
 the thirteen children of this worthy couple, we have 
 record of the following: CaWn (i) died in in- 
 fancy; Calvin (2) is mentioned below; William, 
 who died in Milford in 1865, was the first Demo- 
 crat ever elected to the Legislature from Milford, 
 and for many years was prominent in public life, 
 serving as judge of probate, town clerk, surveyor 
 of the port of New Haven, and as an official in the 
 custom house in that city; Nathan L. ; Mason A., 
 a merchant, died in Bombay, and was buried there ; 
 David H. was a merchant in London under the firm 
 name of Durand & Farland, but was buried in Mil- 
 ford ; Julia and Charlotte never married ; and Mary 
 married Francis Trowbridge, a nurseryman in New 
 Haven. 
 
 Calvin Durand, our subject's father, was bom 
 in 1802, at the old homestead in Milford, and died 
 in the same house in 1884. In early manhood he 
 took a position as a clerk in the commission house 
 of Goodhue & Co., No. 64 South street. New York, 
 and after serving in that capacity for ten years, Mr. 
 Durand became a partner. Seventeen years later 
 he assumed the entire business as proprietor, and 
 
 conducted it in his own name twenty-nine years, 
 making fifty-six years in all of mercantile life in 
 New York City. During this period he carried on 
 business with all parts of the world, but for the 
 latter part of the time he confined it to Central and 
 South America. In politics he was a Democrat, 
 being an ardent believer in free trade. He married 
 in April, 1847, ^iss Sarah Cecil Hunter, of Sa- 
 vannah, Ga., a daughter of Col. James Hunter, a 
 merchant of that city. Col. Hunter was born in 
 Ireland, and his wife, Eliza Cecil, was a native of 
 England. Our subject's mother died in June, 1851, 
 leaving W. Cecil, our subject, who was but twelve 
 days old when his mother died. 
 
 Although born in Milford, W. Cecil Durand 
 spent his boyhood mainly in New York, and on 
 completing a course in the schools of that city he 
 entered Sheffield Scientific School, Yale College, 
 where he was graduated in 1871. He traveled ex- 
 tensively with his father, going abroad three times, 
 and in the fall of 1871 he engaged in business with 
 him, the firm continuing until 1878 when they sold 
 out. On Feb. 12, 1891, Mr. Durand was chosen 
 secretary and treasurer of the Milford Savings 
 Bank, and since that time the deposits have in- 
 creased from $200,000 to about $295,000. Politi- 
 cally he is a gold Democrat, and as representative 
 from Milford he served three years in the Legisla- 
 ture in 1883, 1884 and 1889, and from' 1889 to 1891 
 he was one of the State Auditors. He is also treas- 
 urer of the Taylor Library, and a member of the 
 Society of Colonial Wars. His public spirit- has 
 been shown in many ways, and he was one of a 
 committee of five on the Stone Arch Bridge, built 
 in Milford in 1889, to commemorate the 250th an- 
 niversary of the settlement of the town. 
 
 On Jan. 15, 1885, Mr. Durand married Eliza- 
 beth C. Ford, of Milford, who died Aug. 18, 1888. 
 Her father was killed in the Civil war. On June 17, 
 1890, Mr. Durand married Miss Clata Baldwin 
 Clark. 
 
 HENRY B. CARTER, late a prominent and in- 
 fluential citizen of Wolcott,is a worthy representative 
 of an old and honored family of this State. The first 
 of the name to come to Connecticut was Jacob Car- 
 ter, who was of EngHsh descent and came from 
 Southold, Long Island, locating in Branford, where 
 he spent the remainder of his life as a farmer. He 
 was married Dec. 4, 1712, to Dorcas Tyler, who 
 died in 1735. They had three chidren : Sarah, born 
 Feb. 4, 1714; Jacob, born Nov. 26, 1716; and Abel, 
 born June 4, 1718. 
 
 Jacob Carter (2) was born in Branford, and 
 when a young man removed to Southington, Hart- 
 ford county. Upon a farm in the southern part of 
 that town he m.ade his home until called from this 
 life July 6, 1796, his remains being interred there. 
 He wedded Marv Barnes, who was born in 1726, a 
 daughter of Stephen Barnes, and died in Southing- 
 ton, Oct. 23, 1788. The children born of this union 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Sii 
 
 were Jacob, May i, 1745; Sarah, Sept. 16, 1747; 
 Stephen, July 11, 1749; Jonathan, May 20, 1751 ; 
 Ithicl, Aug. I, 1753; Isaac, May 12, 1757; Levi, 
 Sept. 23, 1762; and EHhu, baptized March 18, 1759. 
 Jacob Carter (3) was born and reared in South- 
 ington, but when a young man located on East 
 Mountain, Wolcott, New Haven county, being the 
 first of the name to take up his residence in that 
 town. There he engaged in farming until his death, 
 and he was buried in the Wolcott cemetery. His 
 wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Hitch- 
 cock, was killed by being thrown from a wagon, at 
 Becket, Mass., in 1818. Their children were Pre- 
 serve, born Feb. 24, 1773; Marcus, born July 28, 
 
 1774, removed to Michigan; Rhoda, born Nov. 6, 
 
 1775, married Washington Upson; M'ary, born Feb. 
 16, 1781 ; Uri, born June 15, 1782; and Gaius and 
 Loami, twins, born Dec. 2, 1785. 
 
 Uri Carter was the grandfather of our subject. 
 He spent his entire life as a farmer in Wolcott, and 
 was well-known and highly respected throughout 
 the town. He married Lue S. Baxter, who died 
 March 17, 1867, and he departed this life Feb. 6, 
 183s, both being laid to rest in the old Wolcott 
 cemetery. In their family were six children, whose 
 names and dates of birth were as follows: George 
 W., Jan. 18, 1811; Henry J., Feb. 17, 1813; John 
 M., Oct. 2, 1815; Mary E. (wife of William; W. 
 Steele), March 12, 1818; L. Sahna, Feb. 25, 1820; 
 and Cyrus H., Oct. 19, 1822. 
 
 George W. Carter, the oldest of this family and 
 the father of our subject, pursued his studies in the 
 district schools of Wolcott, but was mostly self-edu- 
 cated. While still in his teens he traveled in the 
 South, selling clocks, and later engaged in farming 
 and stock raising in Wolcott, taking special pride 
 in his oxen, steers and horses. He was deeply in- 
 terested in public affairs, and was a stanch supporter 
 of first the Whig, and later the Republican party. 
 He was quite a prominent man of his community, 
 and was elected to the State Legislature and Senate, 
 to the latter from the 5th district. For many years 
 he was a deacon in the Congregational Church, and 
 also served as clerk and treasurer of the church for 
 over twenty years. Upright and honorable in all 
 things, he commanded the confidence and respect 
 of all with whom he came in contact. He died 
 March 3, 1884, and was buried in Wolcott Centre 
 cemetery. For his first wife he married Sarah A. 
 Bronson, a daughter of John and Hannah (Root) 
 Bronson. She was born in Wolcott, April i, 181 1, 
 and died March 12, 1868, being laid to rest in the 
 old cemetery. She was a good Christian woman 
 and a faithful wife and mother. The father was 
 again married. May 10, 1871, bis second union be- 
 ing with Mary P. Baldwin, who was born March 
 27, 1823, and died Oct. 9, 1900. Of the six chil- 
 dren born to the first marriage, our subject is the 
 eldest; Mary M. and Sarah S. (twins), born May 
 23, 1842, died Sept. 23, 1894, and Aug. 24, 1866, 
 respectively (Mary M. married George Walker 
 
 of Saybrook, Conn.) ; Hannah J., born Jan. 26, 
 1844, married Elmer Hotchkiss, and died April 7, 
 1900; Frederick W., born Oct. 27, 1845, i'ives in 
 Wolcott; and Walter S., bom Dec. 3, 1853, died 
 May 8, 1855. 
 
 Henry B. Carter was born in Wolcott, Dec. 2, 
 1839, and was educated in the district schools. At 
 the age of seventeen years he began life for himself 
 as a farm hand, working at $13 per month, and later 
 located on a small farm, which he successfully 
 operated, at the same time engaging in light and 
 heavy teaming. In 1895 he located on the Hotch- 
 kiss farm — the home of his father-in-law — which 
 comprises 187 acres of well-improved land, and en- 
 gaged in dairy and general farming, also following 
 teaming to some extent, until his death, Feb. 15, 
 1900. Mr. Carter always took quite an active part 
 in local politics, and was chairman of the Republican 
 town committee. He served his fellow citizens in 
 the capacity of assessor, road commissioner, super- 
 intendent of highways, member and chairman of the 
 school board, selectman five terms, and a member of 
 the State Legislature in 1883 and 1884, during which 
 time he served on several important committees. 
 His last term of office aS' selectman expired Oct. i, 
 1899. He was a member of Mad River Grange, 
 No. 71, P. of H., and was president of the Wolcott 
 Agricultural Society fifteen consecutive years. He 
 was a deacon in the Congregational Church, to 
 which office he was appointed after his father's 
 death. He was a member of the church committee, 
 and for many years superintendent of the Sunday- 
 school. For seventeen years Deacon Carter was 
 superintendent of a Sunday-school in an out-dis- 
 trict, and was rarely absent from his post of duty. 
 He was a man of industrious and temperate habits, 
 popular and highly respected, and took a deep inter- 
 est in everything calculated to advance the moral or 
 material welfare of his town or county. In i860, 
 in Wolcott, Mr. Carter was united in marriage with 
 Miss Mary Rufina Hotchkiss, a native of that town 
 and a daughter of Stiles L. and Mary Ann Hotch- 
 kiss. By this union was born one child, Charles 
 Hotchkiss, a merchant of Wolcott, who died in 1888. 
 He married Lois Alcott, and had one child, Sarah 
 Lois. Our subject and his wife adopted a daughter, 
 Mabel. Mrs. Carter is a lady of character and cul- 
 ture, who takes an active and prominent part in 
 church and temperance work and is a talented 
 writer, contributing many able articles to such papers 
 as the New England Homestead, the Connecticnt 
 Farmer, the New Britain Herald, the Waterbury 
 Republican and the Waterbury American. 
 
 The Hotchkiss family to which Mrs. Carter be- 
 longs was one of the first to locate in New England, 
 and the name was originally spelled Hodgkis. The 
 first to cross the Atlantic was Samuel Hotchkiss, a 
 native of Essex, England, who located in New 
 Haven as early as 1641. On Sept. 7, 1642, he mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Cleverly, and died in New Haven, 
 Dec. 28, 1663. His children were John, born in 
 
512 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1643; Samuel, 1645; James, 1647; Joshua, Sept. 16, 
 1651 ; Thomas, Nov. 30, 1654; and David, March 
 9> 1657. 
 
 John Hotchkiss, son of Samuel, was married, 
 Dec. 5, 1672, to Elizabeth Peck, daughter of Henry 
 Peck, of New Haven, and died about 1688 or 1689. 
 In his family were six children whose names and 
 dates of birth were as follows : John, Oct. 11, 1673 ; 
 Joshua, 1675 ; Joseph, June 3, 1678 ; Josiah, July 24, 
 1680; Caleb, Oct. 18, 1684; and Elizabeth, July 18, 
 1686. 
 
 Joseph Hotchkiss, son of John, was born in New 
 Haven, and when a young man removed to Guilford, 
 Conn., where he followed the weaver's trade until 
 his death, which occurred July 31, 1740. He was 
 married, in April, 1699, to Hannah Cruttendon, a 
 native of Guilford and a daughter of Isaac Crutten- 
 don, of that place. To them were born seven chil- 
 dren, namely: Joseph, born Sept. 3, 1700; Isaac, 
 Dec. 25, 1702; \Vait, Jan. 18, 1704; Hannah, Sept. 
 13, 1707; Deborah, Jan. 18, 1710 (died young); 
 Miles, July 28, 1712 (died young) ; and Mark, July 
 I, 1714. 
 
 Wait Hotchkiss, son of Joseph, was born in 
 Guilford, and in 1777 removed to Wolcott, where he 
 died July 30, 1778, being buried there. He was 
 married, Nov. 2, 1730, to Sarah Bishop, of Guil- 
 ford, where she died April 24, 1761. In their fam- 
 ily were four children: Wait, born Nov. 18, 1733; 
 Lois, who was born Oct. 5, 1735, and died May 9, 
 1818; Sarah, who was bom June 5, 1738, and died 
 Feb. 5, 1745; and Selah, born Dec. 24, 1742. 
 
 Wait Hotchkiss, Jr., a son of Wait, removed to 
 the town of Wolcott in 1764, and there he followed 
 farming until called from this life in 1799. On 
 Oct. 16, 1759, he married Lydia Webster, of Bolton, 
 Conn., who died April 12, 1776, and he was again 
 married, Oct. 10, 1776, his second union being with 
 Deborah Twitchell, who died June 18, 1831. By 
 the first marriage there were five children : Joel, 
 born Aug. 8, 1760; Lydia, Aug. 28, 1762; Sarah, 
 March 27, 1765; Abner, May 24, 1771 ; and a twin 
 sister of Abner, who died in infancy. The children 
 of the second union were Luther, born Dec. 9, 1778; 
 Miles, July 23, 1783; and Isaac, Oct. 16, 1787. 
 
 Luther Hotchkiss, son of Wait, Jr., was a life- 
 long resident of Wolcott and one of the best known 
 citizens of the town. He was a large land owner, 
 a well-to-do farmer and a highly respected citizen, 
 one who had considerable influence and was a good 
 church worker. He was known as Major Hotch- 
 kiss. On Nov. 24. 1800, he married Anne Hall, 
 daughter of Curtis Hall. She died Alarch 3, 1864, 
 and he departed this life April 14, 1863, both being 
 laid to rest in Wolcott cemetery. They had five chil- 
 dren : Olive Ann, born Nov. 22, 1801, married 
 Walter Webb and died in Meriden, in November, 
 1855 • Sarah Elizabeth, born Sept. 24, 1805, married 
 Ira Frisbie ; Lucas Curtis, born Oct. 14, 1807; 
 Thomas Gholson, born Feb. 6, 181 1; and Stiles 
 
 Luther, the father of Mrs. Carter, completes the 
 family. 
 
 Stiles Luther Hotchkiss was born near the cen- 
 ter of Wolcott, March 25, 1817, and died Nov. 30, 
 1894. He made his home on the farm now occupied 
 by our subject's widow, his time and attention being 
 given to agricultural pursuits. He was one of the 
 strongest supporters of the Congregational Church, 
 and was kind and benevolent; not only in his home 
 but in the entire community, was he loved and re- 
 spected. 
 
 He was married, Oct. 12, 1836, to Mary Ann 
 Holt, who died Sept. 9, 1863, and on March 3, 1864, 
 he married Annis E. Bassett, of Plymouth, Conn. 
 He had three children by the first union, namely: 
 Martha Anna, who was born July i, 1837, and died 
 Sept. 9, 1842; Mary Rufina, who was born March 
 29, 1840, and is now the widow of our subject; and 
 Elmer, born March 17, 1846. 
 
 THOMAS PRESTON, one of the prosperous 
 retired business men and property owners of New 
 Haven, is a native of Ireland, born June 20, 1818, 
 in County Fermanagh, a son of Thomas Preston, 
 who never came to America. 
 
 Thomas Preston, of whom we write, was the 
 only child by his father's second marriage to Sarah 
 Kelly. He remained at home upon the farm, at- 
 tending school and assisting his parents, until twen- 
 ty-one, when he crossed the Atlantic and located in 
 St. John's, New Brunswick, where he learned the 
 trade of ship carpenter. After serving a portion of 
 his apprenticeship there, Mr. Preston came to New 
 York, later removed to New Orleans, and in 1843. 
 journeyed to New Haven to see a friend. Being- 
 well pleased with the locality, he settled in the city 
 and followed the trade of joiner for several years. 
 
 During the Civil war, Commodore Gregory, a 
 friend of Mr. Preston, induced him to locate in Bos- 
 ton, and while there he worked upon the famous 
 "Merrimac." After fifteen months, he went to the 
 New York navy yards, where his skill obtained him 
 employment for five years, under Admiral Foote, a 
 friend of Commodore Gregory. Feeling, however, 
 that New Haven suited him better as a place of 
 residence, Mr. Preston removed to this city, and 
 until his retirement followed his trade, working- 
 upon ships. Being a man of prudence, he carefully 
 saved his earnings and wisely invested in real es- 
 tate, which so increased in value as to make him a 
 man of means. 
 
 On Nov. 8, 1843, Mr. Preston was married to 
 Miss Margaret Bannon, a native of the same county 
 as himself, -who died March 22, 1889. To this 
 marriage were born six children: John died when 
 about twenty years old; Margaret, widow of John 
 Waddock, lives in New Haven ; Rev. Thomas Pres- 
 ton, a Catholic priest, of Thompsonville, Conn. ; 
 Joseph, a resident of New Haven, is a real estate 
 agent. Charles, of the firm of Preston Bros., dry 
 
"(fuhyui^ Cw^i^&^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 515- 
 
 goods, died in June, 1886; Mary Catherine is the 
 wife of Michael Loughery, of New Haven. 
 
 In politics, Air. Preston is a Democrat. He was 
 the first of his nationality to be put on the police 
 force of New Haven. Religiously he is a member 
 of St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Pleasant and 
 genial in manner. Air. Preston has made many 
 friends, and is highly respected by all who know 
 him. He is a remarkably well preserved man, and 
 his good memory and jovial manner together with 
 a ready wit, make him an entertaining companion. 
 He has an extensive acquaintance in the city. 
 
 SOLOMON AIEAD. The Mead family has 
 a coat of arms, and the name is of English origin. 
 Its members have been known in America since 
 1642, and among them have been many distin- 
 guished men, who in times past have done much 
 toward the development and advancement of their 
 lespective localities. The present generation 
 worthily represents this old and honorable name. 
 
 The records tell that John Mead located in 
 Greenwich, Conn., in 1642, and our subject has 
 descended from him through John (2), John (3), 
 Ebenezer, Ebenezer (2), Solomon, Clark and 
 Richard. His great-grandfather, Solomon Mead, 
 was born in Greenwich, Conn., in 1725, and died 
 m 1812, in South Salem, N. Y. ; he was the first 
 pastor of the South Salem church, and remained 
 in charge there for forty-eight years. His son 
 Clark was born in South Salem, as was also his 
 son Richard, the birth of the latter taking place 
 Oct. 26, 1795. During the period of the Revolu- 
 tion Rev. Solomon Mead was an eloquent and 
 stirring preacher. His first wife was Hannah 
 Strong, and his second Hannah Clark. They 
 reared a family of five children. 
 
 Clark Mead, the grandfather of our subject, was 
 reared on a farm, but was of a mechanical turn 
 of mind, and is said to have made the first practical 
 electrical machine in his locality. Undoubtedly 
 he was a fine workman. His death occurred Jan. 
 8, 1832, when he was aged sixty-three years. He 
 married Lois Gilbert, who was born in South 
 Salem, N. Y., and died Jan. 21, 1851, at the age 
 of seventy-nine years ; she was a consistent mem- 
 ber of the Presbyterian Church for more than forty 
 years. They reared a family of seven children. 
 A relative of the grandfather, also of the name 
 of Solomon Mead, was a well-known man in mili- 
 tary affairs, and held the position of colonel of the 
 militia. 
 
 Richard Mead, the father of our subject, was 
 reared on the farm in South Salem, N. Y., and re- 
 ceived part of the old homestead as bis portion. 
 He lived to be over eighty years of age, and 
 throughout life followed farming. For a num- 
 ber oi years he held the rank of orderly sergeant 
 in the militia, and he was a well-known and highly 
 esteemed citizen, and Nov. 9, 1825, married Han- 
 nah Keeler, who was born in South Salem in 1805, 
 33 
 
 daughter of Ammi and Phoebe (Strang) Keeler, 
 the former of whom lived until about eighty, and 
 the latter also reaching that age. They had two 
 children, Hannah and Henry. The son became 
 one of the leading men of Westchester county, was 
 president of the County Agricultural Society, and 
 was noted as the introducer into the county of all 
 kinds of improved farming machinery ; he died 
 at the age of sixt}'-three. The maternal great- 
 grandparents of our subject were Jeremiah and 
 Elizabeth (Weed) Keeler. Five sons were born 
 to the parents of our subject, all of whom survive: 
 Solomon, subject proper of this sketch ; Clark, a 
 resident of South Salem, who is engaged in farm- 
 ing, contracting and road construction ; Linus, 
 president of the Crystal Ice Co., who is mentioned 
 elsevVhere ; Henry, a resident of New Haven ; and 
 Stephen S., residing in South Salem, who for twen- 
 ty-five years was the leading man in the finn of 
 Robert B. Bradley & Co., agricultural implement 
 dealers, of New Haven. The mother is still liv- 
 ing in South Salem, at the age of ninety-seven, 
 most remarkably well preserved, and is a beloved 
 member of her son's family. Both she and her 
 husband became connected with the Presbyterian 
 Church about 1832, and she is the oldest melnber 
 of that body. During their earlier years both par- 
 ents took a very active part in church affairs. 
 
 Solomon Mead, our immediate subject, was- 
 born in South Salem, N. Y., Nov. 10, 1829, and 
 spent his years until he was eighteen, under the 
 parental roof. He received his education in the 
 common schools and at the Ridgefield Academy,, 
 and then taught school for three winters, in New 
 Canaan, South Salem and Pound Ridge. Follow- 
 ing this experience he went to Albany and entered 
 the State University, where he finished the course,, 
 and in 1852 came to New Haven, where for three' 
 seasons he attended the Scientific Department of 
 Yale. His tastes were in the line of agriculture 
 and horticulture, and in the fall of that year he 
 purchased fifty-two acres of land lying* in the west- 
 ern suburban part of New Haven, near where he 
 still resides. At that time the nearest house was 
 nearly half a mile away. Here he engaged in 
 raising fruits and vegetables for the New Haveni 
 market, continuing thus until 1863. Mr. Mead has- 
 always been interested in mechanics, and in 1863, 
 invented the celebrated conical plow, which he in- 
 troduced, and in the manufacture of which he was 
 engaged from 1864 to 1879, at which date the 
 plant was destroyed by fire. Mr. Mead then sold' 
 part of his interest to S. E. Olmstead & Co., of 
 Norwalk, Conn. In connection with his other work,, 
 he had also dealt to some extent in ice, having or- 
 ganized the Crystal Ice Company. 
 
 In 1880 Mr. Mead was called to go to Mans- 
 field to establish the Storrs Agricultural School,, 
 the first school of its kind in the State. When 
 Augustus Storrs offered a farm to the State to- 
 establish . an agricultural school the committee 
 
SH 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 came to Mr. ACead to take the position of principal 
 and professor of agriculture, and he accepted the 
 trust. John M. Hall, now president of the New 
 York, Xew Haven & Hartford R. R., was the 
 treasurer of the institution. Thus the foundation 
 of the Storrs Agricultural School or College of 
 to-day was laid. There were from thirty to forty 
 students at first. Mr. Mead returned to New 
 Haven, where a large contract for straightening 
 West river was: placed in his hands. This work 
 required several years, and was accomplished with 
 a dredge of his own construction, and which was 
 moved 'by rollers on the surface of the meadow. 
 Later he built a floating dredge, which he used 
 from 1881, doing an immense amount of work with 
 it. In 1900 he sold the dredge, and since then 
 has lived somewhat retired from active life. He 
 has invented and received patents for five different 
 devices, all in the line of his own needs, and he 
 has invented other useful things in the line of agri- 
 cultural and mechanical appliances. In 1856 Mr. 
 Mead built his first house, which he sold, building 
 another, which he also sold, coming then, in 1867, 
 to his. present place, which he has since rebuilt and 
 remodeled. Mr. Mead has sold almost all of his 
 land, which is now covered with residences. 
 
 In January, 1855, Mr. Mead was united in mar- 
 riage with Elizabeth Chapin Deniing, a daughter 
 of William Deming, who was born in Derby. His 
 last days were spent in New Haven, where he 
 died at the age of seventy-five years. Mr. Dem- 
 ing married Phebe Munson, a daughter of Joseph 
 K. Munson, a promiinent man in this section, who 
 was connected with David Humphrey, who intro- 
 duced the culture of sheep in this locality. Mrs. 
 Deming died at the age of eighty years, at the 
 home of our subject. One son, William F., died 
 at the age of thirty-five. Mr. and Mrs. Mead 
 had seven children : Franklin Bacon, who died 
 aged eight years ; Sophia, who died when five years 
 old ; William D., an engineer in the city, who mar- 
 ried Anna Price and has two children, Esther E. 
 and Kenneth Whitney; Fanny E., who married 
 Claudius H. Post, an engineer in New Haven, and 
 has one child, Harold Deming; Charles B. and 
 George Walker, twins, the latter deceased, the 
 former married to Maggie Post (he has been en- 
 gaged in various lines) ; and Mary A., who re- 
 sides with her sister in New Haven. The mother 
 of these died April 23, 1890, at the age of fifty- 
 nine years, and in 1894 Mr. Alead married Miss 
 C. Adele Green, daughter of Switzer and Joanna 
 R. Green, of Cambridge, New York. 
 
 As a part of bis wedding tour and visit, in 
 1855, to his native town. South Salem, N. Y., Mr. 
 !Mead gave a course of scientific lectures, embrac- 
 ing several on the primary principles of geology, 
 and others on the practical application of chemistry 
 to the interests of agriculture ; and he also gave 
 the address at the Westchester County Agricultural 
 Society's annual exhibition. While practically 
 
 and especially interested in agriculture, he became 
 a life member of the New England Agricultural 
 Society. In politics Mr. Mead hais long been a 
 RepubHcan, although in his earlier years, during 
 the time it flourished, he favored the Free Soil 
 party. He was president of one of the principal 
 societies of the Sheffield Scientific School, of Yale. 
 In 1854, in connection with others, he started what 
 was named the Young Men's Association, for the 
 improvement of young men, much on the order of 
 the Y. M. C. A., which organization continued 
 several years. Later he was at the founding of 
 the Young Men's Christian Association, and he and 
 his family have always been in sympathy with its 
 v/ork, and prominent in church work. Formerly 
 they attended the First Church in New Haven, 
 but for the past twelve years have worshipped 
 and been connected with the D wight Place Church, 
 in which Mr. Mead has long held the office of 
 deacon, and has been both Sunday-:school teacher 
 and librarian, having been identified with some 
 religious work ever since his youth. He is a life 
 member of the American Sunday School Union, 
 and he is a well wisher of all causes for the ad- 
 vancement of the human race. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY PLUMMER was born 
 in New York City Oct. 4, 1825, on the site where 
 A. T. Stewart's famous store was built. Losing 
 his father when quite young, he remained with his 
 mother in the city, receiving a good practical edu- 
 cation. In 1850 he removed to Ansonia, Conn., 
 and for a few years was associated with Josiah 
 Pierce in the manufacture of clock cases. He left 
 manufacturing to engage in mercantile business. 
 Purchasing a clothing and shoe store, he carried 
 on the business alone for a time, and later, as the 
 business increased, he built the large store now 
 occupied by W. A. Fellows. William D. Galpin 
 became his partner, and the business was success- 
 fully conducted for several years, Mr. Plummer 
 retiring and Mr. Galpin continuing the business 
 until succeeded by W. A. Fellows. Honesty, 
 economy, industry and temperance always bring a 
 good and honorable harvest. 
 
 Politically Mr. Plummer was a Republican, and 
 he always took a great interest in the growth and 
 prosperity of the town, and was privileged to see 
 niany improvements during the fifty years of his 
 residence here. Naturally of a modest disposition 
 he declined to accept public office, but served as 
 a member of the town school committee and on the 
 board of assessors for several years. Although 
 baptized and reared in the Episcopal Church, he 
 attended the Congregational Church, with which 
 his family was prominently identified, giving it 
 financial support. 
 
 On Oct. 14, 1852, Mr. Plummer was married 
 to Eugenia H. Ailing, only daughter of Zenas and 
 Sarah H. Ailing, a descendant of Roger Ailing, 
 in the eighth generation. Two daughters were bom 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 515 
 
 of this union, Sarah Dwight and Luella. Mr. 
 Plummer departed this hfe Feb. 2, 1901, and his 
 wife joined him' in the land that knows no care 
 Aug. 15, following. 
 
 CHARLES AUSTIN WARREN was born 
 Jan. 12, 1826, in Cedar Hill, now part of New 
 Haven, and is a son of Dr. Sparrow Warren, of 
 the Ashfield, Mass., family of that name, who were 
 in the same line of ancestry as Gen. Joseph War- 
 ren, of Revolutionary fame. Dr. Sparrow Warren 
 was one of a family of seven children. The eldest 
 daughter, Mercy, died at the old home when near- 
 ly ninety years old. The youngest son, Lewis 
 Warren, died at the age of forty years, but his 
 widow survived to the age of ninety-eight, pass- 
 ing away Sept. 3, 1901, at the old Warren home. 
 
 Dr. Sparrow Warren was born in Ashfield, 
 Mass., and with his elder brother, Joseph, early 
 in the century studied medicine at Cummington, 
 Mass., under the well-known Dr. Peter Bryant, 
 father of the poet, William CuUen Bryant. The 
 class comprised six students, who made the jour- 
 neys to and from the Doctor's on horseback, over 
 the Cummington hills. Dr. Joseph Warren com- 
 menced his practice as village doctor at Middle- 
 field, Mass., a few years later returning to his na- 
 tive town, Ashfield, where he continued to foHow 
 his profession until late in life, dying at the age of 
 eighty-five years. After his graduation Sparrow 
 AVarren removed to New Haven, locating at Cedar 
 Hill, in the same neighborhood where his sister, 
 Mrs. Jonathan Maltbie, resided; Mr. Maltbie was 
 a brother of Holme Maltbie, the old book pub- 
 Usher of New Haven. Dr. Warren followed his 
 profession in. New Haven and adjacent towns un- 
 til his death, March 6, 1836, at the age of forty- 
 five. He married Harriet Converse, and they had 
 three children, William CuUen, Julia Ann and 
 Charles Austin. William Cullen Warren repre- 
 sented his district in the Massachusetts Legisla- 
 ture; he died March i, 1892, at the age of seventy 
 years, and his home. Maple Grove Farm, passed 
 into the possession of his only son. Mrs. Harriet 
 (Converse) Warren was the eldest of ten children 
 born to Amasa and Sina Converse, of Windsor, 
 Mass., and died Feb. 14, 1856, aged fifty-seven 
 years. Three of her brothers married Connecticut 
 women. Dr. William and Darwin marrying sis- 
 ters, members of the old Monroe family of Guil- 
 ford; and the younger, Albert, marrying Maria 
 Yale, daughter of Nathaniel Yale (who died in 
 New Haven in 1843), a great-great-grandson of 
 Elihu Yale, of New Haven, through whose gen- 
 erosity in 1718, by "books and money," Yale Col- 
 lege was established. The eldest brother. Dr. 
 AVilliam Converse, who was the second in order 
 of birth in the family, practiced medicine in North 
 Branford, Conn., until impaired health induced 
 him to return to his native State. Albert Con- 
 verse engaged in mercantile business in the lower 
 
 part of New Haven, but the coast climate im- 
 paired his health, and necessitated his removal 
 to an interior town in Massachusetts, where he died 
 in middle life; his widow lived to an advanced 
 age in Taunton, Mass., where their grandchildren 
 still live. The youngest sister, Sarah Walker Con- 
 verse, was married Dec. 11, 1850, to Rev. J. Gay 
 Dana, a Congregational minister then located in 
 Adams, Mass., who preached in Housatonic and 
 adjoining towns as supply until his sudden death, 
 which occurred June 18, 1899, at Housatonic, 
 when he was eig-hty-seven years old. Mrs. Dana 
 died Aug. 28, 1895, in Housatonic, aged seventy- 
 four years. Their only son, Stephen Dana, is a 
 prominent divine in Philadelphia, where he has 
 been settled for over thirty years as pastor of the 
 Walnut Street Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Charles Austin Warren received a practical ed- 
 ucation, attending the Lancasterian School, of 
 which John Lovell was teacher. He also studied 
 at the evening sessions, conducted by George 
 Beckwith, of Almanac fame. Thrown on his own 
 resources at the early age of twelve years, he 
 worked his way upward until, when twenty-one 
 years old, he started in business for himself, open- 
 ing a market and dealing in provisions. Some fif- 
 teen years afterward he engaged in the real-es- 
 tate business. Mr. Warren has been identified with 
 the growth and development of his native city, and 
 many of the streets along the line of his real-es- 
 tate sales are beautified by trees of his own plant- 
 ing. Various religious and secular enterprises 
 have been strengthened by his willing response 
 if the appeal met his approval. Mr. Warren's 
 home place, on the west side of State street, near 
 the junction of Middletown avenue and Ferry 
 street, conitained over forty acres, two-thirds of 
 which were sold to S. L. Blatchley and his two 
 sons, Mr. Warren retaining his interest. From 
 this point on State street the Cedar Hill & New 
 Haven Horse Railroad was started, in August, 
 1870. Mr. Warren was the second president of 
 this road, serving in that office twenty years from 
 November, 1870. The directors were P. F-oster, 
 S. M. Stone, F. Donnelly, W. J. Atwater, S. R. 
 Blatchley, Charles Blatchley and C. A. Warren. 
 Mr. Warren was the president of this and the 
 Whitney Avenue Horse Railroad (which had 
 been bought) for over twenty years, at the end 
 of which period the road was sold to a Boston and 
 New York electric syndicate. Mr. Warren was 
 made vice-president and director of this electric 
 line, which later was absorbed by the Fair Haven 
 Electric Railroad, now (1902) controlling all the 
 electric lines in the town. 
 
 On Sept. 9, 1850, Charles Austin Warren mar- 
 ried Emeline Curtiss, who was born Dec. 22, 1828, 
 a daughter of Philo and Rachel Curtiss. These 
 Curtisses are descended from the earliest settlers 
 <|f the name in Stratford, Conn. Two of the fam- 
 ily settled in Suffield. Philo Curtiss was born in 
 
Si6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Stratford, the eldest of eleven children, was a 
 gunsmith by trade, and died in Hamden Feb. 22. 
 1865, at the age of seventy-six. Philo Curtiss was 
 a commissioned officer in t'he war of 1812, and 
 his company was stationed on Groton Heights, 
 New London, Conn, ; he was granted a pension 
 lor life, which, on his death in 1865, was remitted 
 to his widow, Rachel, and was contmued until her 
 death in the last decade of the nineteenth century, 
 when there were few survivors of that war. Mrs. 
 Rachel Curtiss was born in Hamden, and died in 
 East Fair Flaven, at the age of ninety-three years, 
 a daughter of Timothy and Martha (Turner) 
 Potter, and was a descendant on both sides of old 
 Colonial stock, the earliest settlers of Quinnipiac, 
 her parents being in the fourth generation from 
 the settlers in New Haven, in 1635, who were 
 signers of the original Plantation Covenant and 
 prominent in the early military organizations. ]Mr. 
 and Mrs. Warren had two children : Mina, the 
 youngest, died Sept. 8, 1863, at the age of eleven. 
 Julia A. became the wife of Rev. Dr. Andrew W. 
 Archibald, May 18, 1876. Dr. Archibald, who is 
 an author of note, is pastor of the Porter Congre- 
 gational Church in Brockton, Mass. His earliest 
 work, "The Bible Verified" (of which there have 
 been several editions), was translated into both 
 Spanish and Japanese. His last book, the "Trend 
 of the Centuries," was dedicated in commemora- 
 tion of the fiftieth anniversary of the marriage of 
 his wife's parents. Dr. Archibald and his wife 
 have tliree sons, the eldest, Warren, married and 
 engaged in mercantile business in Brockton, Mass. 
 The other two, Kenneth and Cecil, are students at 
 Dartmouth College, in the classes of 1902 and 
 1905, respectively. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Warren have lived 
 in or near State street. New Haven, all their lives, 
 and they have occupied their present residence for 
 thirty years. In National politics Mr. Warren is 
 a Republican, in local affairs independent. He is 
 retiring in manner, genial and companionable by 
 nature, domestic in his habits, catholic in sympa- 
 thies for fellow men, and firm in opinion, and now 
 as the years advance he enjoys the well earned re- 
 pose of a life of industry. 
 
 FREDERIC WILCOX (deceased), who was 
 for a long time in business as a druggist in the 
 Apothecaries Hall Co., at Waterbury, was born 
 June 26, 1844, in Portland, Conn., and died April 
 
 7, 1897- 
 
 Horace Burt and Flavia C. (Mcintosh) Wil- 
 cox, his parents, lived in Portland, and there young 
 Frederic spent the first fourteen years of his life, 
 attending school, and making a fair start in educa- 
 tional matters. At that age he came to Water- 
 bury, where 'he g:rew up in the family of his uncle. 
 Dr. Henry F. Fish, the manager of the Apothe- 
 caries Hall Co. Here he finished his generai 
 studies, and at the New York Pharmaceutical Col- 
 
 lege prepared himself for a career as a chemist, 
 spent a little time in the Waterbury Apothecaries 
 Hall Co., and then went to New York. From there 
 he went on a trading expedition to New Granada, 
 South America and went up and down the Atrato 
 river, gathering ivory, nuts and rubber from the 
 natives, shipping same to the company in Eng- 
 land ; he contmued thus about five years. In 1869 
 Air. Wilcox came back to Portlancl, Conn., where 
 he spent some time in the recuperation of his 
 health, which was badly shattered. He then en- 
 tered the employ of the Scovill Manufacturing 
 Co., in Waterbury, as chemist, and remained with 
 them about a year. Returning to Apothecaries 
 Hall, he was instrumental 'in establishing the large 
 wholesale business of that concern, and at the time 
 of his death was its manager and secretary. 
 
 On May 23, 1871, Mr. Wilcox married Lucy 
 Hodges, who was born in Torrington, Conn., a 
 daughter of Levi and Delia C. (Drake) Hodges, 
 of Winchester, Conn., the former of whom, a farm- 
 er at Torrington, died in i860; the latter is still 
 living. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Wil- 
 cox settled in Waterbury, where they lived until 
 his death. They reared a family of three children : 
 William H. is a chemist with the Benedict & Burn- 
 ham Manufacturing Co. ; Levi is in the Apothe- 
 caries Hall Co. as a clerk; Alice M. is at home. 
 Mr. Wilcox was a Republican, served as council- 
 man for one year, and always took an active part 
 in all matters of public interest. He was one of 
 the leading citizens of his day. He was State 
 chemist for several years, and a man of consider- 
 able prominence in the 'business world. Fraternally 
 he was a Freemason and an Odd Fellow, being 
 connected with the local lodges of these orders at 
 Waterbury. He was a member of the old Scien- 
 tific Society, was prominent as a chemist, and his 
 judgment was always highly valued and almost 
 invariably correct. For many years he was sec- 
 retary of the Pharmaceutical Association. The 
 family attend the- Second Congregational Church, 
 
 HON. ALBERT CUSHMAN HENDRICK. 
 The ancestry of the subject of this biograp'hy reaches- 
 back to Holland and Scotland. Grandfather Coe 
 Hendrick was born in Compo, Westport, Conn., and 
 later removed to New Haven where he died. He 
 served his country in the Revolutionary war both on 
 land and on sea. Joel Dennis Hendrick, his son, 
 was born in New Haven, and married Maria Mc- 
 Duel, a native of Stamford, Conn., whose father was 
 lost at sea. The McDuel family came from Sco-t- 
 land. Joel Dennis Hendrick and wife reared a 
 family of nine children : John McDuel, now living 
 a retired life in New Haven ; Caroline married Ed'^ 
 ward McNeil, and is deceased; William D. resides 
 in New Haven; Maria married Norris B. Mix, a 
 prominent resident of Hamden, Conn.; Eliza mar- 
 ried L. A. Dickinson, of Hartford, and is deceased • 
 Joel, deceased; Mary married William Stuart and 
 
-^/~-(_j:^^X^^^ y^^5^^:^-ia^^e^ ^>^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 517 
 
 both are deceased; Charles B., is a resident of New 
 Haven; Albert Cushman. Mr. Hendrick was a 
 shoemaker by trade, and followed that occupation 
 all his life. A good and pious man, he was one of 
 the founders of the First Baptist Church, in New 
 Haven, the first meeting being held under his Toof . 
 Both he and wife died in New Haven. 
 
 Albert Cushman Hendrick was born March 7, 
 1833, was reared in New Haven and attended the 
 old Lancasterian school of that city. After leaving 
 school he learned the coach trimming trade, serving 
 an apprenticeship and then went to Memphis, Tenn., 
 where he remained one year, when he returned to 
 New Haven. Until i860 he was employed contin- 
 uously at his trade, but the outbreak of the Civil 
 war caused a change in his future. At this time 
 Mr. Hendrick was twenty-seven years old, and for 
 five years he had belonged to the New Haven Grays. 
 He enlisted with them for service for three months 
 in the 2d Conn. V. I., serving as first sergeant. A 
 commission as first lieutenant was tendered him by 
 Gov. Buckingham in Company C, of the 12th Conn. 
 V. I., and this he accepted, and with his regiment, 
 the first to arrive at New Orleans, served in the De- 
 partment of the Gulf for nearly two years. In No- 
 vember, 1863, he was promoted to be captain of 
 Company E, same regiment. On Sept. 19, 1864, he 
 was wounded at the battle of Winchester, Va., his 
 regiment having been sent North into the Shenan- 
 doah Valley under Gen. Sheridan. Capt. Hendrick 
 was mustered out of service in December, 1864, 
 by reason of the expiration of his term, and returned 
 to New Haven. 
 
 On July 24, 1865, Capt. Hendrick was appointed 
 chief of the fire department of the city of New 
 Haven, having been one of its efficient officers pre- 
 vious to the war, and continued in the office until 
 ¥e>h. I, 1892, when the position of general inspector 
 of the National Board of Fire Underwriters was 
 offered him, which he accepted, holding that position 
 for two and one-half years. He resigned on ac- 
 count of the travel the office required, the business 
 extending from Maine to Texas. Upon his retire- 
 ment from the fire department, with which he had 
 so long been associated, he received many valuable 
 testimonials from the fire department, the city, and 
 from private citizens, one of these being in the form 
 of a book with four hundred autographs of the city's 
 most prominent citizens, the work on which valuable 
 testimonial was done by Tiffany, at an expense of 
 $1,000. 
 
 In 1869 Capt; Hendrick was chosen as command- 
 ant of the New Haven Grays, Campany "F," Conn. 
 National Guard, serving as' such for six years, when 
 he was promoted to the office of brigade adjutant, 
 with rank of lieutenant-colonel, serving efficiently in 
 that capacity for the two following years. In the fall 
 of 1894 Mr. Hendrick was honored by his fellow- 
 citizens with election as mayor of the city of New 
 Haven, . serving two years. Although the city is 
 considered Democratic by 2,500, Mr. Hendrick was 
 
 elected by 1,700 majority, thus proving the confi- 
 dence and esteem in which he was held by the whole 
 community. 
 
 Mr. Hendrick has been prominently identified 
 with many of the public enterprises in New Haven 
 since the Civil war. In 1872 he was one of the 
 founders of the National Association of Fire Engin- 
 eers, serving as its president for one year and as its 
 treasurer for fourteen years. During his adminis- 
 tration as mayor of the city many needed improve- 
 ments were carried out and the city was well man- 
 aged as to its government and finances'. Frater- 
 nally he is connected with the Masons, Wooster 
 Lodge, No. 79; City Lodge, No. 36, I. O. O. F. ; 
 and is a charter member of Admiral Foote Post, No. 
 17, G. A. R. He is also a member of the Military 
 Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 
 Commandery of the State of New York, and also 
 of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut. 
 During the many years that Mr. Hendrick has been 
 before the public his services have been efficiently 
 and cheerfully given, and in his native city he is 
 deservedly esteemed. 
 
 BENJAMIN ADOLPHUS HOSLEY, a pro- 
 gressive farmer of Branford, was born June i, 1823, 
 on what is known as the Samuel Beach homestead, 
 in the borough of Branford. Tradition has it that 
 the family came from England, and settled in Gill, 
 Mass. The name was originally spelled "Horsley,"' 
 and that spelling is still retained by certain branches 
 of the family. 
 
 Loring Dwight Hosley, the father of Benjamin 
 A., was a native of Vermont, and about 1815 came 
 from Gill, Mass., to Branford, where he worked for 
 a time at blaoksmithing and moulding, and later at 
 farming, in 1827 coming into possession of the 
 farm on which his son Benjamin is now living, and 
 where he died in 1855, at the age of fifty-five years. 
 He married Anna Aritta, daughter of Samuel Beach, 
 of Branford, who married a lady named Barker. 
 Samuel Beach was a son of Samuel and Anna 
 (Sheldon) Beach, the former a son of Elnathan and 
 Lydia (Hamilton) Beach. Elnathan Beach was a 
 son of David, a grandson of Nathaniel, and a great- 
 grandson of John Beach, the emigrant, who settled 
 in New Haven in 1647. The children of Loring D. 
 and Anna A. (Beach) Hosley were: William B. ; 
 Benjamin Adolphus ; Mary, who married Clark Bur- 
 well ; Charlotte, wife of Elisha Ludington ; Melin- 
 tha ; David B. ; George T. B. ; Abigail, wife of 
 Elizur Johnson ; and Thaddeus. 
 
 Benjamin A. Hosley was reared on the farm, 
 and with the exception of fifteen years which he 
 spent in East Haven he has made Branford his 
 home. He received a good common-school educa- 
 tion, and was reared to farming. Mr. Hosley was 
 married April 2, 1849, to Lois Ward, a daughter of 
 William and Judith (Shepard) Ward, residents of 
 Vermont. This union has been blessed by the birth 
 of the following children: Benjamin Forest; Anna 
 
5i8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 M., now Airs. George W. Dorey ; Judith j\I. ; Carrie, 
 Mrs. George W. McClure; John H. ; Wilham H., 
 and Edward K. 
 
 Benjamin Forest Hosley, the eldest son of our 
 subject, was born in East Haven Aug. i, 1852. 
 Reared at East Haven and in Branford, he received 
 a good common-school education, and learned the 
 carpenter's trade, beginning his apprenticeship at 
 the age of ei2;hteen. In Branford he had his' first 
 building contract, the erection of a bakery, and since 
 that time he has led a successful career as a con- 
 tractor and builder in that city. In 1891 he put up 
 the four-story building known as the Hosley block. 
 In the upper three stories of this building is con- 
 ducted the "Deleven Hotel," which is pronounced 
 the leading hotel of the place. He has successfully 
 carried out a large number of other important build- 
 ing contracts, including many private buildings in 
 Branford and adjoining regions. Besides his home 
 in Branford Mr. Hosley owns several buildings in 
 that place, as well as a cottage at Sunset Beach, In- 
 dian Neck. 
 
 Mr. Hosley has been married twice, his first wife 
 being Idella Pond, of Branford, who died Jan. 5, 
 1893. His second wife to whom he was married 
 Jan. 17, 1895, was Louisa A. Zink, daughter of Dr. 
 Walter and Carrie Zink, of Branford. By this 
 union he has two children, Carrie and Flora. 
 
 Mr. Hosley is a member of Woodlawn Lodge, 
 No. 39, K. of P., and also belongs to the K. H., the 
 N. E. O. P. and the Woodmen of the World. In 
 politics he has taken an independent position, and 
 on the strength of his personal character and well- 
 known business ability was elected warden of Bran- 
 ford in 1900. 
 
 FREDERIC B. HOADLEY, a retired business 
 man of Waterbury, was born in Sheffield, Mass., 
 Sept. 30, 1839, the eldest of a family of four ohil- 
 dr»n born to Henry H. and Jane (Callender) Hoad- 
 ley. 
 
 Hial Hoadley, grandfather of our subject, was a 
 farmer in Naugatuck, Conn., and was in all likeli- 
 hood born in that town. He married Sena Benham, 
 and they at once settled on a farm in Naugatuck, 
 where were born to them four children, in the fol- 
 lowing order: Henry H., father of Frederic B.; 
 Mary, who married John Coe, the proprietor of a 
 tannery at Beacon Falls, Conn. ; Augusta, who was 
 married -to Isaac Coe, superintendent of the Amer- 
 ican Pin Co. at Waterlbury at the time of his death ; 
 and Eben, deceased, who was a lumber dealer in 
 Waterbury, and had been a yard superintendent for 
 many years. 
 
 Henry H. Hoadley was born in Naugatuck Aug. 
 19, 1816, and was reared in Sheffield, to which place 
 he had been taken when ten yearj of age. He be- 
 came a farmer and surveyor. To hisi marriage with 
 Jane Callender, who was born in Sheffield, daughter 
 of Aaron and Nancy (Keep) Callender, were born 
 four children, towit : Frederic B., the subject of 
 
 this sketch ; Mary E., who became the wife of A. N. 
 Cowlesj of Sheffield; George A., who is a professor 
 of physics in Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania; 
 and Alfred H., a physician in Northampton, Mass. 
 The father of this family died in Sheffield, Sept. 6, 
 1880, and the mother survived until Feb. 7, 1891. 
 
 Frederic B. Hoadley remained on the Sheffield 
 farm until twenty years of age, and was educated in 
 the meantime in the district and high schools. On 
 March 12, i860, he came to Watenbury from Massa- 
 chusetts and entered the American pin factory, 
 where he remained twenty-four years, working up 
 to the responsible position of foreman of the stick- 
 ing department. In 1884 he ventured into the fire 
 insurance business. Some time afterward he was 
 appointed foreman of the pin department in the 
 Plume & Atwood factory, but did not relinquish his 
 insurance interests, and for twelve years continued 
 in both. About that time Mr. Hoadley was ap- 
 pointed president and treasurer of the Washburn 
 Manufacturing Co., which position he filled with 
 consummate ability until called upon by the New 
 England Pin Co., at Winsted, whe wanted an expert 
 to aid in the sticking department and offered the 
 position to Mr. Hoadley. He accepted and held the 
 situation eighteen months, at the end of that time 
 retiring to Waterbury to care for his rents and other 
 private interests. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1867, Ml". Hoadley married Miss 
 Elizabeth C. Cowles, a daughter of Corral Cowles, 
 of Sheffield, and they have had five children, viz. : 
 Carroll, who died in infancy ; Mary L., who also 
 died young ; Henry A., who is a teller in the Fourth 
 National Bank of Waterbury ; Bessie N., still under 
 the parental roof; and Miriam G., who passed away 
 at a very early age. 
 
 Mr. Hoadley has always taken an active and 
 deep interest in religious and fraternal societies. In 
 i860 he joined the Young Men's Christian Asso- 
 ciation, of which he was treasurer for many years 
 and president one year. He was treasurer of the 
 First Congregational Benevolent Contributions for 
 thirty years, and in 1889 was elected a deacon of 
 the church. He is a member of the A. O. U. W., 
 for two years in succession was master workman, 
 has filled all the offices, and was for eight years 
 financier. He is also a member of the Royal Arca- 
 num, and has been or is prominent in work in all 
 these orders and societies. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican. 
 
 BOOTH. Throughout the last century the 
 name of Booth has been prominent in the com- 
 mercial world of New Haven, and in his day for 
 fifty years no man in the city's history stood 
 higher in business circles than Nathaniel Booth, 
 whose name is still identified with the business he 
 established and built up. Some of his descendants 
 and their families allied by marriage are still resi- 
 dents of the city. 
 
 The Booth family is an old and prominent one 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Sig- 
 
 in New England. Tradition has it that three 
 brothers, sons of Richard Booth, of Cheshire, Eng- 
 land, came to New England between 1630 and 1640, 
 landing at New Haven. Richard, the eldest, set- 
 tled in Sitratford, Conn., in 1640, one year after the 
 settlement of that town; John .settled in Southold, 
 L. I. ; and the younger brother went to the North. 
 Of these, Richard was the progenitor of many of 
 the Connecticut Booths. Hiis father, says tradition, 
 was the fifth son of Sir William Booth, Knig-ht, 
 who died and was buried in Bowdon, Cheshire, 
 England, in September, 1578. Richard Booth, son 
 of Sir William Booth, and the father of the three 
 brothers who came to America, died in December, 
 1628. Richard Booth, of Stratford, Conn., mar- 
 ried Elizabeth, sister of Capt. Joseph Hawley, who 
 was the first town clerk of Stratford, in 1640, and 
 the progenitor of a numerous family. Richard 
 Booth's name appears often in the town records of 
 his day as townsman or selectman and in other 
 commissions of office and trust. Fie had a large 
 estate. He was probably twice married, his first 
 ^^•ife being the mother of his children, who were : 
 Elizabeth, Anne, Ephraim, Ebenezer, John, Jo- 
 seph, Bethiah and Joanna. The last mention of 
 Richard Booth extant is in March, 1688-89, when 
 he was. in his eighty-second year. 
 
 Nathaniel Booth, of New Hiaven, was born 
 in Stratford, Conn., and' with his family removed 
 to Woodbury at the age of two years. His line 
 from Richard is through (H) Joseph, (HI) James, 
 (I\') James (2), and (V) Hezekiah. (IV) James 
 Booth was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He 
 formed a company at the time of Tryon's invasion, 
 and the Historical Society at Bridgeport has his 
 pay-roll. JNliss Booth, the daughter of our subject, 
 has a photograph copy of same. While yet in his 
 'teens Nathaniel Booth came from Woodbury to 
 New Haven, entering as a clerk the drug store of 
 Nathaniel Lewis, in Chapel street, where stands the 
 Lewis building, and there he obtained a thorough 
 knowledge of pharmaceutics. He finally embarked 
 in the drug business for himself in 1825, and, as- 
 sociated with the late John Bromham, established 
 the well-known firm of Booth & Bromham, in 
 State street, which continued until dissolved March 
 5, 1847, Mr. Booth continuing the business until 
 January, 1849, when he was burned out. Upon the 
 old site he erected a brick building, which later he 
 rented to Cowles & Leete, to whom he sold the 
 drug business. He then built on the corner of 
 Olive and Water street, where he carried on the 
 manufacture of varnish, to which he gave his close 
 personal attention, soon winning for this commod- 
 ity an extensive sale. The output from his estab- 
 lishment stood hig'h, and ranked among the stand- 
 ard i^roducts of the kind throughout the country. 
 Mr. Booth was a man of great energy and industry, 
 and applied himself continuously to active business 
 long after he had reached the meridian of life. 
 During the latter years of his active life he asso- 
 
 ciated with him 'in the business his sons, Nathaniel 
 and Lewis, under the firm name of N. Booth & 
 Sons. Later Lyman M. Law was taken into the 
 partnership, the firm becoming Booth & Law, un- 
 der which name the business is still carried on. He 
 was a most excellent citizen, a man of the strictest 
 honor and integrity, one whose business career fur- 
 nishes an excellent example for the young man. 
 He was a regular attendant and member of the 
 Trinity Church, in which he was a vestryman, and 
 gave liberally to church and benevolent work. He 
 was a Freemason in his earlier years, but although 
 kindly to all and sociable in disposition, was most 
 attracted by home life. He was a man of large 
 physique, and a typical gentleman of the old school. 
 On May 8, 1825, Mr. Booth was married to- 
 Ann Bromham, sister of John and daughter of 
 Capt. John Bromham, a sea captain, who was born 
 in Bristol, England. He died Feb. 26, 1866, aged 
 sixty-nine years, and his wife passed away ^March 
 27, 1880. Their remains rest in Evergreen ceme- 
 tery. Their children were : Anna, who married 
 Lyman M. Law ; Nathaniel, who was in business 
 with his father, and died in 1858; Lewis, who was 
 also engaged in business with his father, and died 
 in 1875; Julia; Emily Bromham, who died ni 1896; 
 John; John (2) ; and Mary Lewis, of New Haven, 
 Conn. Julia and Alary Lewis are the only sur- 
 vivors. They reside in the old homestead, which 
 was built in 1800, and bought by Mr. Booth in 
 1844. Both sisters are members of the D. A. R. 
 
 DAVID L. DURAND, for many years a well- 
 known and highly esteemed citizen of Derby, was 
 born in Birmingham, Oct. 18, 1841, and is a worthy 
 representative of one the honored old families 
 of New Haven county. Among both his paternal 
 and maternal ancestors we find the names of many 
 associated with positions of trust and responsibil- 
 ity, both in church and State. They were well rep- 
 resented in the Revolutionary army. His great- 
 great-grandfather and four sons, among them the 
 great-grandfather of our subject, were in that • 
 army and did good service for their country. They 
 were also represented in the second war with Great 
 Britain in 1812. 
 
 David Durand, our subject's paternal grand- 
 father, was born in 1790, and engaged in farming 
 throughout life. He married Maria Leavenworth,, 
 a native of the town of Huntington, Fairfield Co.,, 
 Conn., and a daughter of Edmund Leavenworth. 
 By this union were born four children, namely: 
 William L., father of our subject; Elizabeth M., 
 wife of Nelson M. Beach, now of Derby ; Martha, 
 wife of EIS Nichols, of Bridgeport, Conn. ; and 
 Frederick, who has been a teacher for many years, 
 and lives in Shelton, Connecticut. 
 
 William L. Durand was born in this county in 
 1814, and in early Hfe went to New Haven, where 
 he learned the harness maker's trade, which he sub- 
 sequently followed in Derby, but was finally obliged 
 
520 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 to give it up on account of ill health. He worked 
 in various places, but in i860 returned to Derby, 
 where he died i\ia}- 2, 1898. In 1838 he married 
 Miss Ruth Coe, who was born in Beacon Falls, 
 Conn., in 1817, a daughter of John Allen and Grace 
 Coe. Her father was born in Derby in 1792, and 
 was a son of John Coe, Jr., a resident of that town, 
 and a grandson of John Coe, who came to this 
 county from Stratford, Conn. Mrs. Durand died 
 Dec. 10, 1900. She was the mother of four chil- 
 dren: (ij Mary, who died Feb. zy, 1856, at the 
 age of sixteen years. (2) David L. is our subject. 
 (3) Cynthia J. died Feb. 25, 1856, at the age of 
 ten years. (4) AVilHam F. was born in 1859, S-i^'i 
 was graduated at the Annapolis Naval Academy in 
 1880, second in a class of about eighty; he served 
 for ten years in the navy and then went to Lansing, 
 Mich., where he was a professor in the State Agri- 
 cultural College for a time. After going abroad 
 be was made professor of naval architecture and 
 marine engineering at Cornell University, with 
 which he has now been connected for about seven 
 years. He married Miss Charlotte Kneen, who is 
 of English descent. 
 
 When only a year old David L. Durand was 
 taken by his parents to Beacon Falls, and in that 
 place and Xew Haven he grew to manhood. He 
 completed his education in the Naugatuck high 
 school at the age of eighteen years, and then served 
 an apprenticeship to the machinist's trade in the 
 Farrell Foundry and Machine Co., of Ansonia, 
 Conn., where he remained a year and a half. In 
 September, 1861, he enlisted in the loth Conn. 
 V. I., and was stationed along the coast much of 
 the time he was in the army. Being a skilled ma- 
 chinist, his services were valuable to the govern- 
 m.ent, and for a time he had charge of a repair shop 
 for a military railroad at Newbern, N. C. He was 
 in active service on Morris Island, when Fort 
 Sumter was reduced b}' the Union arm}', in 1863. 
 He was wounded at Drury's Bluff May 14, 1864, 
 and on the expiration of his term of enlistment was 
 honorably discharged in September of that year. 
 Returning North, he located in Waterbury, Conn., 
 where he was identified with the brass business un- 
 til 1884, and then came to Derby, being made gen- 
 eral superintendent of the Osborn Cheeseman 
 Brass Works. Upon the organization of the Bir- 
 mingham Brass Co. he was made secretary, treas- 
 urer and general manager, which position he held 
 for five years, and under his able management the 
 business steadily pro.spered. He left that company 
 when the plant came into the possession of other 
 parties, and for a time held a responsible position 
 with the Coe Brass Mfg. Co., of Ansonia. In Oc- 
 tober, 1901, Air. Durand and family removed to 
 Los Angeles, Cal, where they now reside. 
 
 In 1869 Mr. Durand married Miss Caroline S. 
 Bishop, who died in 1883, leaving no children. For 
 his second wife he married Miss Mary W. Cheese- 
 man, of Derby, by whom he has one child, Georgia 
 
 C. George Weeks Cheeseman, the father of Mrs. 
 Durand, was born in New York in 1822, a son of 
 George Cheeseman, also a native of New York, 
 who died when his son was a mere child. The lat- 
 ter continued his residence in New York until six- 
 teen years of age, when lie came to Stratford, Conn., 
 and completed his education in the schools of that 
 place. Subsec|uently he served as bookkeeper for 
 Edward N. Shelton, of Birmingham, for two years, 
 and then engaged in the dry-goods and grocery 
 business with John W. Osborn, under the firm name 
 of Osborn & Cheeseman. They also manufactured 
 hoop skirts, etc., and later engaged in the brass 
 busmess, erecting factories at Shelton and An- 
 sonia. In politics Mr. Cheeseman was a Republi- 
 can. He died in 1891, aged sixty-eight years. He 
 was a leader in the work of the M. E. Church, was 
 liberal to the poor, and always interested in prac- 
 tical benevolences. Mr. Cheeseman married Sarah 
 A. Durand, a sister of Charles Durand, of An- 
 sonia, and to them were born four children : Mary 
 W., wife of our subject; George H., who died at 
 the age of twenty-five years ; Charles D., who re- 
 sides in Los Angeles, Cal. ; and Wilbur P., who 
 died in infancy. 
 
 The Republican party finds in i\Ir. Durand a 
 stanch supporter of its principles, and during his 
 residence in Waterbury he was a prominent and 
 influential member of the town committee for 
 many years. He was also master of Harmony 
 Lodge, F. & A. M. ; eminent commander of Clark 
 Commandery, No. 7, K. T. ; and is an honored 
 member of the Grand Army of the Republic. 
 
 GILBERT BENJAMIN H O T C H K I S S. 
 Among the prominent dairy farmers and worthy 
 citizens of Waterbury, New Haven county, none 
 stand higher in public esteem than the gentleman 
 whose name introduces this sketch. He was born 
 in the town of Prospect, this county, Aug. i, 1833, 
 and belongs to one of the oldest and best families of 
 the Naugatuck Valley. The name has been various- 
 ly spelled Hodge, Hoskins, Hodgkins and Hotch- 
 kiss. 
 
 Samuel Hotchkiss, of Essex, England, the 
 founder of the family in America, and supposedly 
 the brother of John Hotchkiss, who settled in Guil- 
 ford, Conn., was one of the first to locate in New 
 Haven, where he spent the remainder of his life, 
 dying there Dec. 28, 1663. He was married in the 
 New Haven Colony, in 1642, to Elizabeth Cleverly, 
 and they had six children, namely: John, born in 
 1643, married Elizabeth Peck; Samuel, born in 
 1645, married Sarah Talmadge ; James, born in 
 1647, died unmarried; Joshua, born Sept. 6, .1651, is 
 mentioned 'below ; Thomas, born Aug. 31, 1654, mar- 
 ried Sarah Wilmot; and Daniel, born June 8, 1657, 
 married Esther Sperry. 
 
 Ensign Joshua Hotchkiss, son of Samuel, was 
 born in New Haven, and became one of the leading 
 men of that colony, where he spent his entire life, 
 
>J'.1»>> 
 
 ^UUd^ rS ^c^M^J^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 521 
 
 dying at a ripe old age. On Nov. 27, 1677, he 
 wedded Mary Pardee, and they had seven children, 
 whose names and dates of birth were as follows : 
 Mary, April 30, 1679; Stephen, Aug. 12, 1681 ; Mar- 
 tha, Dec. 14, 1683; Priscilla, Dec. 30, 1688; Abigail, 
 Oct. 12, 1695 ; and Thankful and Jesse, twins, Jan. 
 15, 1 701. Martha married Thomas Brooks and set- 
 tled in Cheshire, Connecticut. 
 
 Deacon Stephen Hotchkiss, son of Ensign 
 Joshua, was born in New Haven, and from there re- 
 moved to what is now Cheshire, then Wallingford, 
 in 1706. He was deacon of the church at that place 
 for thirty-one years, and was quite prominent in the 
 affairs of the town. He died there March 5, 1755, 
 and was buried in Cheshire cemetery'. On Dec. 12, 
 1704, he married Elizabeth Sperry, daughter of John 
 Sperry, and to them were born twelve children : 
 Joshua, born Nov. 26, 1705; Elizabeth, born Feb. 
 15, 1707, and died young; Mary, born July I, 1708, 
 married Dr. Nathan Burns ; Hannah, born Jan. 10, 
 1710, married Stephen Atwater; Elizabeth, born 
 Feb. 18, 1712; Gideon, born Dec. 5, 1716; Stephen, 
 born Dec. i, 1718; Silas, born Nov. 22, 1719; Han- 
 nah, born Feb. 23, 1722; Bathshua, born Sept. 7, 
 1726; Benjamin, born Feb. I, 1728, married Eliza- 
 beth Roberts; and Noah, born Nov. 24, 1731, died 
 Jan. 13, 1760. 
 
 Deacon Gideon Hotchkiss, son of Stephen, was 
 born and reared in the town of Cheshire, and when 
 a young man moved to what is now Prospect, then a 
 part of Waterbury, where he bought a tract of land 
 and engaged in farming throughout the remainder of 
 his life. He was quite prominent, and was one of the 
 best known citizens of the Naugatuck valley. He 
 was deacon of the church at Salem, now Nauga- 
 tuck* of which he was one of the organizers, and 
 was also one of the principal men who founded the 
 Congregational Church at Prospect, then Columbia, 
 of which he was deacon for many years, serving in 
 that office from 1783 to 1807. He was ensign in 
 the French and Indian war under Capt. Edward 
 Lewis, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. 
 During the Revolutionary war he was captain of a 
 company in the Continental army. He died Oct. 
 3, 1807, at the age of ninety-one years, leaving 105 
 grandchildren, 155 great-grandchildren, and four 
 great-great-grandchildren. On June 16, 1737, he 
 married Anne Brockett, daughter of John Brockett, 
 of Cheshire, then a part of Wallingford. By this 
 union were born thirteen children : ( i ) Jesse, born 
 Oct. 9, 1738; (2) David, born April 5, 1740, was 
 the great-grandfather of Berkley S. Hotchkiss, men- 
 tioned elsewhere in this volume; (3) Abraham, who 
 was born May 3, 1742, and died the same day; (4) 
 Abraham, our subject's grandfather, born March 
 25, 1743; (5) Gideon, born Dec. 31, 1744, wedded 
 Mary Scott, and died Jan. 6, 1819; (6) Hulda, who 
 was born June 27, 1747, and married Joseph Payne ; 
 (7) Anna, who was born Oct. 22, 1749, and married 
 Reuben Williams; (8) Amos, born Nov. 24, 1751, 
 (his grandson Julius Hotchkiss, born July 11, 1810, 
 
 married Malissa, daughter of Enoch Perkins, of 
 Oxford, Conn. Julius was the original manutac- 
 turer of suspender webbing in Waterbury, and the 
 first mayor of Waterbury, and afterward removed 
 to Middletown) ; (9) Submit, who was born June 
 2, 1753, and married David Payne; (10) Titus, born 
 June 26, 175s; (11) Eben, Dec. 13, 1757; (12) 
 Ashel, Feb. 15, 1760; and (13) Benoni, July 27, 
 1762. The mother of these children died Aug. i, 
 1762, and on Feb. 22, 1763, the father married Mabel 
 Stiles, daughter of Isaac Stiles, of Woodbury, 
 Conn. She died Sept. 3, 1807. By the second mar- 
 riage there were seven children : ( i ) Mabel, who 
 was born May 23, 1764, and married Chauncey 
 Judd; (2) Phebe, born Aug. 29, 1765; (3) Han- 
 nah, who was born Oct. 14, 1766, and died Nov. 26, 
 1766; (4) Stiles, born April 31, 1768; (5) Olive, 
 Nov. 21, 1769; (6) Millicent, May 16, 1771 ; and 
 (7) Amzi, July 3, 1774. Jesse, a son of Gideon, was 
 also a soldier of the French and Indian wars, and 
 the following letter was written to him by his fa- 
 ther while in the service : 
 
 My Dear Son: 
 
 Saratoga, N. Y., Aug. 16, 1757. 
 
 After my tender regards to you, hoping these lines may 
 find you in good health as I am at present, and so was your 
 mother and brother and sisters and all your and our friends 
 when I came from home. 
 
 You will hear the melancholy news of our fort. 
 
 I understand you were well the last I heard from you 
 and of the welfare of all our friends. Give my love to 
 Lieut. Beebe and Col. Weed, and tell Col. Weed that I 
 would not have him send me any letter but what he is will- 
 ing every one should see, for they break almost all open that 
 come. You will hear the reason of our being here. 
 
 I have not time to write for the men are now agoing 
 and so I must conclude with a word of advice to you 
 beseeching of you to seek of Him that is able to deliver you 
 and to sanctify and cleanse you from all sin. O my son I 
 beg of God to fit you for a dying hour; this is the only time 
 now while you are in health. 
 
 Gideon Hotchkiss. 
 
 Jesse, then a young soldier of nineteen years, 
 lived to return home from that war, but lost his life 
 in the Revolution, dying Sept. 29, 1776. 
 
 Abraham Hotchkiss, grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, spent his entire life in that part of Waterbury 
 now known as Prospect, and was buried in Prospect 
 cemetery. He was a land owner and farmer. On 
 Dec, 28, 1767, he married Hannah Weed, daughter 
 of John Weed, and they had six children whose 
 names and dates of birth were as follows : John, 
 Nov. 16, 1768; Ezra, March 2, 1772; Lois, Jan. 2, 
 1773; Hannah, July 5, 1775; Joel, Nov. 29, 1781 ; 
 and Benjamin, June 18, 1786. Joel died in Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 Benjamin Hotchkiss, our subject's father, was 
 reared and educated in Prospect, and in later life 
 owned and operated a farm there. In politics he 
 was a Whig. Both he and his wife were active and 
 influential members of the Congregational Church, 
 and they were among the first Sunday-school 
 teachers in the town of Prospect. He died there, 
 Feb. I, 1842, and was buried in Prospect cemetery. 
 
522 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 He was married, July 26, 1807, to Hannah Beacher, 
 daughter of Benjamin Beacher. She was born 
 June I, 1789, and died in Union Mills, La Porte Co., 
 Ind., Oct. 12, 1854. In their family were six chil- 
 dren: (i)' Horace, born Sept. 29, 1809, was a 
 school teacher and settled in the town of Burton, 
 Geauga Co., Ohio, where he died leaving his chil- 
 dren, Lester and ]\Iary. His wife also is deceased. 
 (2) Lyman, born June 4, 1812, was a carpenter and 
 joiner, and settled in Delaware county, Ohio. He 
 married Sarah Ann Scott, and at his death left two 
 children, Flora Amelia and Adeline. (3) Harriet, 
 born Nov. 19, 1815, engaged in teaching school and 
 married Julius Way. They first settled in Union 
 Mills, La Porte Co., Ind., thence removed to Illi- 
 nois, and finally to Colorado, where they both died. 
 Their children were, Lyman, Maria, Amelia, Ellen 
 and Dwight. (4) Emeline, born Dec. 14, 1818, was 
 married Feb. 28, 1850, to David Beal. They first set- 
 tled in Hopedale, Mass., and later in Mendon. They 
 had one child, Rufus, who married and became the 
 father of five children, Arthur, Carrie (who died 
 April, 1901), Lillian, Walter and Bertha. (5) 
 Rosanna, born Jan. 10, 1824, married Whiting B. 
 Dudley, and they settled first in Cheshire, later in 
 Prospect, and lastly in Waterbury, where they died. 
 Their children were Emily Maria, deceased ; Mary 
 Louise, wife of Emerson Hotchkiss, mentioned else- 
 where in this volum'e ; and Rose, who married John 
 Hermann, and has three children, Ruth, Hazel and 
 Dudley. (6) Gilbert Benjamin, who completes the 
 family. 
 
 During his boyhood Gilbert B. Hotchkiss at- 
 tended the district schools of Prospect, and a public 
 school of Naugatuck. At the age of fourteen years 
 he went to Union Mills, Ind., where he engaged in 
 farming until 1856, when he disposed of his inter- 
 ests there and returned to Waterbury, Conn. He 
 located on the Stephen Hotchkiss farm, where for 
 the past forty-five years, he has successfully engaged 
 in dairy farming and stock raising. He has made 
 many improvements upon the place, and now has a 
 valuable and desirable farm. He is quite a prom- 
 inent and influential man in his community, and is 
 highly respected by all who know him. Politically 
 he is identified with the Republican party, and fra- 
 ternally is a charter member of Mad River Grange, 
 and a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge of Water- 
 bury. A sincere and consistent Christian, he takes 
 a deep interest in church aflfairs, and has served as 
 deacon of the Prospect Congregational Church since 
 1865, and with the exception of two years, as super- 
 intendent of the Sunday-school since 1864. He is 
 also a member of the American Tract Society, and 
 his life has ever been in harmony with his profes- 
 sion. 
 
 On Jan. 7, 1856, Mr. Hotchkiss was united in 
 marriage with Miss Emma Chatfield, a native of 
 Waterbury, a daughter of Joseph Edward and Phebe 
 Irene (Hotchkiss) Chatfield, a granddaughter of 
 Joseph and Polly (I'a\ne) Hotchkiss; and a great- 
 
 great-granddaughter of Gideon Hotchkiss, who was 
 also the great-grandfather of our subject. They 
 have two children : ( i ) Hattie Rosanna, born Jan. 
 10, 1864, is the wife of William S. Strong, born 
 April 27, 1865, and has one daughter, Emma Rhoda, 
 born Nov. 29, 1893. (2) Jennie Irene, born Aug. 
 19, 1866, was married Oct. 25, 1894, to George Eph- 
 riam Nettleton, of Hartford, Conn., born Jan. 22, 
 1 87 1, and they have three children, Grace Elizabeth, 
 Irene Gilbert and Gilbert Henry. 
 
 The Chatfield Family, to which Mrs. Hotch- 
 kiss belongs, was founded in this country by three 
 brothers, Francis, George and Thomas Chatfield, 
 who came from England in 1639 i'"^ R^v. Henry 
 Whitfield's company, and located in Guilford, Conn., 
 where Francis died in 1647. Thomas removed to 
 New Haven, and later to East Hampton, Long Is- 
 land, where he was quite a prominent man ; he 
 served as magistrate under the Connecticut juris- 
 diction. George Chatfield, from whom Mrs. Hotch- 
 kiss is descended, was a resident of Guilford from 
 1639 to 1663, and then moved to Killingworth, 
 Conn., where he spent the remainder of his life, dy- 
 ing there June 9, 1671. His remains were interred 
 there. For his first wife he married Sarah Bishop, 
 who died Sept. 30, 1657, leaving no children, and 
 for his second wife he married Isabel Nettleton, 
 daughter of Samuel Nettleton. They had three 
 children: John, born April 8, 1661 ; George, Aug. 
 18, 1668; and Mercy, April 26, 1671. 
 
 John Chatfield, son of George, was but two years 
 old when the family moved to Killingworth, where 
 he grew to manhood. In 1684 he removed to Derby, 
 Conn., where he receivea a tract of land, and where 
 he spent the remainder of his life. On Feb. 5, 1684, 
 he married Anna Harger, daughter of Jabez -Har- 
 ger, of Derby, and to them were born the following 
 children: Sarah, who was born Dec. 5; 1686, and 
 was married, July 15, 1706, to John Davis, Jr.; 
 Alary, born April 29, 1689 ; Abigail, who was born 
 Sept. 16, 1693, and married Gideon Johnson; Han- 
 nah, who was married to John Coe ; Lieut. John, 
 born Feb. 21, 1697; Samuel, who is mentioned be- 
 low; Ebenezer, who was born July 4, 1703, and was 
 married in 1728, to Abigail Prindle ; and Solomon, 
 who was born Aug. 13, 1708, and married to Han- 
 nah Piefson. 
 
 Samuel Chatfield, son of John, was born in 
 Derby, Aug. 28, 1699, and from there removed to 
 Oxford, Conn., and later to Waterbury. He was a 
 member of the church at the latter place. During the 
 Revolutionary war he served as a soldier of the Con- 
 tinental army from July 9, 1780, until the 8th of the 
 following December. He died in 1797. He was three 
 times married, his first wife being Ann (surname not 
 given) ; his second, Joanna Gunn, died Aug. 20, 
 1783 ; he married, third, widow Lydia Peck, on Jan. 
 I, 1784. He had seven children: Mary, born Jan. 8, 
 1750, died Sept. 8, 1751 ; Abraham was born Dec. 
 29, 1 76 1 ; Joanna born May 21, 1766, married Abel 
 Gunn; Sarah, born April 21, 1768, married Andrew 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 523 
 
 Osborn; Joseph, born June 18, 1770, was the grand- 
 father of Mrs. Hotchkiss; Josiah, born Dec. 10, 
 177s, married Olive Tucker; and Rachel, born Dec. 
 8, 1778, married Stephen Tucker. 
 
 Joseph Chatfield, Mrs. Hotchkiss' grandfather, 
 passed his entire life as a farmer and shoemaker in 
 Waterbury. He married Polly Payric, daughter of 
 David and Submit (Hotchkiss) Payne, ana to them 
 were born the following children : Joseph Edward, 
 father of Mrs. Hotchkiss, was the eldest; Annie 
 married David Wooster; Fanny, born May 27, 1803, 
 married Edward Russell ; Rebecca was married in 
 1828 to R. M. Wheeler and settled in Michigan; 
 Mitty, born July 13, 1806, married Albert Wooster; 
 Burrett was born Feb. 27, 1808; Mary died unmar- 
 ried; Dennis wasi born July 3, 1812; Henry was 
 born Sept. 10, 1816; Samuel was next in order of 
 birth; and Jane, baptized Oct. 14, 1821, was adopted 
 by Lyman Bradley, and married Dr. Blakeslee. 
 
 Joseph Edward Chatfield, the father of Mrs. 
 Hotchkiss, was also a lifelong resident of Water- 
 bury, where he followed his trade of carpenter 
 and joiner, and where he died Oct. 20, 1830, in 
 middle life. On Nov. 24, 1823, he married Nancy 
 Scoville, daughter of William Scoville. She died 
 Dec. 26, 1828, leaving two children, Jane and 
 George, who were baptized July 6, 1828. On Dec. 
 I, 1829, he married Phebe I. Hotchkiss, who was 
 born Nov. 3, 1800, and died April 23, i860, daughter 
 of Stephen and Tamer (Richardson) Hotchkiss. 
 The wife of our subject was the only child born of 
 this union. In 1838 her mother again married, her 
 second husband being Humphrey Nichols (whose 
 first wife was her sister, Esther), and by this mar- 
 riage she had a son, Franklin, who was born in 
 August, 1842, and died in 1848. Her parents, 
 Stephen and Tamer (Richardson) Hotchkiss, were 
 the parents of the following children: (i) Joseph; 
 (2) Clarissa; (3) Esther, who became the first wife 
 of Hum.phrey Nichols, and died leaving eleven 
 children, Stephen, Isaac, Harriet, Emeline, William, 
 Ann, Nancy, Ely, Noyes, Esther and David; (4) 
 Chloe, who married William Baldwin, and had five 
 children, Joseph Ives, Tamar Elizabeth, William, 
 George Noah and Rebecca; (5) Lois, who died un- 
 married; (6) Irene, who died in infancy; and (7) 
 Phebe Irene, who first married Joseph Edward Chat- 
 field, and second Humphrey Nichols. 
 
 MRS. JANE F. (SMITH) MUNSON, of 
 North Branford, is a representative of an old and 
 honored family of New Flaven county. At one 
 time the Smiths owned a large portion of the north- 
 western part of North Branford and eastern North 
 Haven; in fact, the village of Clintonville was 
 called Smithtown, on account of the large number 
 of that name residing there. They have always been 
 numbered among the useful and valued citizens of 
 the comrnunity, and have given their suppwrt to 
 every enterprise for the pubHc good. 
 
 Thomas Smith the paternal grandfather of 
 
 Mrs. Munson, was born Oct. 10, 1761, and died 
 Feb. 20, 181 5. His first wife was Sarah Frost, 
 who bore him two sons and one daughter, Thomas, 
 John and Sarah. On April 22, 1801, he married 
 Rosanna Hull, who died Feb. 3, 1846. To them 
 were born five children, namely : Ebenezer, born 
 March 17, 1802, who wedded Mary Ann Rogers; 
 Rosanna, baptized June 21, 1812; Martha, who 
 married George L. Thorpe; Hiram, who was bap- 
 tized May 6, 1810; and James. 
 
 Deacon Thomas Smith, Mrs. Munson's father, 
 was born in North Haven, Sept. 20, 1798, and died 
 Dec. ID, 1874. He was married Jan. 24, 1819, to 
 Hannah Tuttle, daughter of Jude Tuttle. She 
 was born Jan. 4, 1802, and died Dec. 6, 1876. To 
 this worthy couple came the following children : 
 Julius, born Dec. 6, 1819, wedded 'Mary Frost; he 
 was engaged in the butcher business in Fair Haven 
 and Hartford, and died in 1894. George R., born 
 Jan. 18, 182 1, married Emeline Munson, and fol- 
 lowed farming near the old homestead, where he 
 died Sept. 13, 1885. Sarah Louisa, born April 20, 
 1824, died at the age of fifteen months^. Thomas A., 
 born Jan. 9, 1827, is a resident of North Branford. 
 James Franklin, born Dec. 31, 1830, married Fran- 
 ces E. Brockett, and also followed farming near 
 the old homestead, where he died April 10, 1899. 
 Jane Frances, Mrs. Munson, is a twin sister of 
 James F. John W., born Jan. 14, 1835, first mar- 
 ried Anna Fowler and second Ida Bradley; he is 
 engaged in farming in Seymour, Conn. Julia A., 
 born Aug. 20, 1844, married Henry Harrison, of 
 Northford, and died in New Haven, April 12, 1901, 
 leaving two daughters, Hattie and Edith. 
 
 On Dec. 31, '1877, Miss Jane F. Smith was 
 united in marriage with William S. Munson, who 
 was born Oct. 8, 1826, and died Jan. i, 1892. He 
 was an extensive farmer of Wallingford, but since 
 his death Mrs. Munson has sold the old homestead, 
 reserving the right to a part of the house as: her 
 residence. She also owns a cozy cottage at "The 
 Beach," where she spends the summer months. 
 She is held in high regard by all with whom she 
 comes in contact, and is loved and respected in the 
 community where she has so long made her 
 home. 
 
 In maternal lines Mrs. Munson is also con- 
 nected with a branch of the Smith family. Thomas 
 Smith, the first of whom there is, authentic record, 
 married, in 1662, Elizabeth Paterson, only child of 
 Edward Paterson, and their children were : John, 
 born March, 1664; Anna, April 6, 1665; John, (2), 
 June 14, 1669; and Thomas, Jan. 31, 1673. 
 
 Thomas Smith, son of Thomas, married Sarah 
 Howe. They had Thomas, Joseph, Samuel, Dow 
 and Benjamin. 
 
 Thomas Smith, son of Thomas and Sarah, mar- 
 ried Abigail Goodsell, and became the father of 
 Thomas, born July 27, 1719; David, born Nov. 15, 
 1721 ; and Stephen, born Nov. 28, 1724. 
 
 Thomas Smith, of the fourth generation to bear 
 
524 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that name, married Eunice Russel, March ii, 
 1741. Their children were: Thomas, born Dec. 
 10, 1742; Enos, Nov. 2, 1744; Abigail, Feb. 3, 
 1747, who married Stephen Pardee in 1768; Jacob, 
 July 7, 1749; Eli, Nov. 8, 1751; Elizabeth, May 
 21, 1754, who married Jesse Upson in 1775. 
 
 Thomas Smith, son of Thomas, was married 
 Nov. 20, 1766, to Anna Smith. Their children 
 were as follows : Betsy, who married Oliver Todd 
 in 1786; Louisa (grandmother of Mrs. Munson), 
 who married Jude Tuttle; Lament; and an infant 
 that died unnamed. 
 
 Concerning Thomas Smith, mentioned above as 
 of the fourth generation to bear the name, the 
 "East Haven Record" gives the following : 
 
 "In the war of Independence, which began 
 19th of April, 177s, the following persons were 
 lost: In 1776 Elijah Smith was killed in battle on 
 Long Island ; Thomas Smith conducted a fire ship 
 to the enemy, but was badly burnt, and, the attend- 
 ing boat having left him too soon, he had to swim 
 ashore, where he was found three days' after in a 
 helpless ^ state ; he was brought over to Rye, and 
 there he died." 
 
 FREDERICK F. SCHAFFER, secretary of the 
 Goodyear's India Rubber Glove Manufacturing Co., 
 and superintendent of the works at Naugatuck, is 
 one of the most popular and influential citizens 
 of that town. He was bom June 12, 1853, in 
 the Kingdom of Prussia, son of William E. and 
 Dorothy Schaffer. Our subject's father, who was a 
 tailor, emigrated to America with his wife and in- 
 fant son when young Frederick was scarcely a year 
 old, settling in Milltown, N. J., where he carried on 
 his trade. Two other children were born to Will- 
 iam E. Schafl?er and his wife, Josephine and Ernest, 
 the latter of whom is dead, as are alsio the parents. 
 
 Frederick F. Schafifer attended school in Mill- 
 town and New Brunswick until he was thirteen 
 yea.rs old, when he entered the employ of the New 
 Brunswick Rubber Co., with which concern he re- 
 mained some six years. He then began work in the 
 New Jersey Rubber Shoe Co. The burning of the 
 plant in 1876 necessitated hisi seeking other employ- 
 ment, and going to Naugatuck he found a situation 
 with the Goodyear Co. He soon showed that he 
 was endowed with intelligence, capability and fidel- 
 ity, and his promotion in the company's service was 
 merely a question of time. He rose, gradually, until 
 he now fills the responsible position abeve named. 
 Over and again has he demonstrated his innate 
 executive capacity, and the three thousand employes 
 subordinate to his commands love him no less than 
 they respect and admire him. His course has ex- 
 hibited the possession of that rare combination of 
 seemingly diverse qualities — forcefulness with sym- 
 pathy, firmness with gentleness. 
 
 In politics Mr. Schafifer is a Republican, yet such 
 is, his personal popularity and such the esteem and 
 confidence entertained for him by his fellow towns- 
 
 men that even in a Democratic stronghold he might 
 be elected to any office within the people's gift. 
 Ofifice-holding, however, is naturally distasteful to 
 him, and, while he has consented to fill various local 
 positions, involving considerable responsibility, he 
 has; persistently refused what might be termed high- 
 er political honors. He has consented to serve as 
 selectman, member of the school committee and 
 warden; in 1891 he was elected first selectman of 
 the town, in spite of former adverse political ma- 
 jorities. Socially he is a Freemason and an Odd 
 Fellow, and holds; a high place in the affection and 
 respect of his brethren of both fraternities. 
 
 It is such men as our subject that add luster to 
 the town or municipality in which they live. Never 
 self-asserting, he never forfeits self-respect; while 
 benevolent and kindly, he never loses; sight of exact 
 justice; and while always ready to cloak the failings 
 of others with the mantle of charity and silence, he 
 seeks to make his own life free from blame as the 
 natural imperfections of human nature will permit. 
 
 In December, 1877, Mr. Schaffer married Miss 
 Minnie Perkins, a daughter of Wales Perkins., of 
 Naugatuck. They had three children: Frederick 
 W., born Dec. 18, 1878; Winnibel May, born Oct. 
 20, 1879; ^nd Josephine Hazel, born July 13, 1882. 
 Mrs. Schaffer died March 7, 1888, and on Oct. 8, 
 1889, Mr. Schaffer led to the altar Miss Melicent A. 
 Nichols, who was born in Roxbury, Conn., daugh- 
 ter of Richard and Almira (Wheeler) Nichols. 
 Their union has been blessed with one daughter, 
 Dorothy Almira, born April 10, 1891. All the 
 children survive, and the domestic life of the fam- 
 ily is singularly happy and interesting, Mr. Schaffer 
 being a generous husband and a kind and indulgent 
 father. Mr. and Mrs. Schaffer are communicants 
 of the Episcopal Church, Mr. Schaffer being a mem- 
 ber of the Naugatuck Church, of which he is a 
 vestryman. 
 
 BENJAMIN C. WOODIN, an honored vet- 
 eran of the Civil war and a well-known market 
 gardener and fruit raiser of Hamden, Conn., was 
 born on the farm where he now resides, Jan. 29, 
 1828, a son of Charles; and Betsey (Cooper) 
 Woodin, and grandson of Abraham Woodin. The 
 father was also born upon that farm, and there he 
 died at the ripe old age of eighty-two years. He 
 was an earnest member of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal (Shurch, and was highly esteemed throughout 
 the community. In his family were four children, 
 namely : Eunice R., widow of John L. Sperry ; 
 Rhoda M., wife of Jared Benham, of Hamden ; 
 Benjamin C, our subject; and William H., a farm- 
 er of Hamden. 
 
 Benjamin C. Woodin remained upon the home 
 farm with his parents until nineteen years of age, 
 when he commenced working in the rubber mills 
 of Hamden, where he was employed for four years. 
 The following three years he worked in auger mills 
 at Chester, Conn., and then returned to Hamden, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 52s 
 
 where he held a position in the Churchill auger 
 factory for two years. At the end of that time he 
 went to New York State, where the following two, 
 years were passed, and on his return to Hamden 
 resumed work in the same factory, where he was 
 employed until after the Civil war broke out. 
 
 Prompted by a spirit of patriotism, Mr. Woodin 
 enlisted Sept. 16, 1861, as a private in Company F, 
 /th Conn. V. I., which was assigned to the loth 
 Army Corps. The regiment was mustered into 
 the United States service at New Haven, and was 
 stationed at Washington, D. C, for several weeks. 
 On Sept. I, 1862, he was promoted to corporal. 
 With his regiment he participated in several en- 
 gagements, among them being the following : Fort 
 Pulaski, Ga., April lo-ii, 1862; Pocotaligo, S. C, 
 Oct. 22, 1862; Morris Island, S. C, July 10, 1863; 
 Fort Wagner, S. C, July 11, 1803; Chester Sta- 
 tion, Va., Alay 10, 1864; Bermuda Hundred, Va., 
 May 10-17, 1864; Bermuda Hundred, Va., June 
 2, 1864; IBermuda Hundred, Va., June 17, 1864; 
 Deep Bottom, Va., Aug. 14-15, 1864; and Deep 
 Run, Va., Aug. 16-18, 1864. At the battle of Deep 
 Run Mr. Woodin was wounded in the wrist by a 
 minie ball, both bones being broken. The first 
 amputation was made on the field. He was sent to 
 the hospital at Hampton Roads, where he remamed 
 six weeks, and was then taken on transports with 
 800 other wounded soldiers to Willets Point, New 
 York. Through neglect of the physicians on this 
 trip, gangrene set in, necessitating a second am- 
 putation. A few weeks after coming home he went 
 to the hospital in New Haven, as amputation was 
 again necessary, and this time the operation was 
 performed above the elbow. Since returning from 
 the war Mr. Woodin has lived on the old home- 
 stead where he was born, and is now successfully 
 engaged in market gardening and fruit growing. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Woodin was united in marriage 
 with Miss Anna Beckwith, by whom he had two 
 children : Betsey, now the wife of Frank Gorham ; 
 and Hattie, who died at the age of five years. He 
 Vifas again married, in 1869, his second union being 
 with Miss Julia A. Shipman. He has ever taken an 
 active and prominent part in public affairs, has filled 
 the office of assessor two terms, and was a member 
 of the Legislature from Hamden in 1887. The Re- 
 publican party finds in him a stanch supporter of 
 its principles, and he is as true to his duties of 
 citizenship in times of peace as in time of war. He 
 is now an honored member of Admiral Foote Post, 
 G. A. R., of New Haven. 
 
 MONSON. For 260 and more years members 
 of the family bearing this name have resided in 
 New Haven, and have, been prominently identified 
 with its history. Especially conspicuous has been 
 the line of the late Dr. Alfred S. Monson through 
 several generations from just before, through and 
 following the war of the Revolution, among them 
 the honored Dr. Eneas, Dr. Eneas (2) and Dr. 
 
 Alfred S. Monson. Several of the sons of the lat- 
 ter are yet in active life in the city, among them 
 Charles C. and Capt. Frank A. Monson, substan- 
 tial citizens of that community. These two gentle- 
 riien and the other children of Dr. Alfred S. Mon- 
 son are descendants in the eighth generation from 
 Thomas Monson, of Stratford and New Haven,, 
 their lineage appearing in order in the following 
 generations : 
 
 (I) Thomas Monson, born about 1612, first ap- 
 pears in New England at Hartford, in 1637, in 
 which year he was in the Pequot war with rank of 
 captain. In about 1640 he cast his lot with the 
 Quinnipiac settlers and was at New Haven. Mr. 
 Monson was a carpenter by trade, held public office, 
 was a Congregationalist in religion, and was an 
 important and prominent man in the settlement. 
 His death occurred May 7, 1685, and that of his 
 wife Joanna, Dec. 13, 1078. 
 
 (II) Samuel Monson, son of Thomas the set- 
 tler, baptized Aug. 7, 1643 married, Oct. 26, 1665, 
 Martha, daughter of William' and Alice (Pritch- 
 ard) Bradley. Mr. Monson was a shoemaker and 
 tanner by trade, and resided respectively in New 
 Haven, Wallingford and New Haven. He was a 
 Congregationalist in his religious belief. His 
 death occurred in 1693. 
 
 (III) Theophilus Monson, son of Samuel, born 
 Sept. I, 1-675, married Esther, daughter of John 
 Mix. Mr. Monson was a locksmith by trade. 
 Like his ancestors he was a Congregationalist in 
 his religious belief. He held public trusts in New 
 Haven, and there resided on the southeast corner 
 of College and Wall streets. He died Nov. 28, 
 1747, his wife Sept. 16, 1746. 
 
 (IV) Benjamin Monson, son of Theophilus, 
 born March 28, 171 1, married in June, 1732, Abi- 
 gail, daughter of Deacon John and Abigail (Ail- 
 ing) Punderson. Mr. Monson was a schoolmaster, 
 and resided for a period, in York street, New Ha- 
 ven, and in the town of Branford, Connecticut. 
 
 (V) Eneas Monson, son of Benjamin, born 
 Jan. 13, 1734, married (first), March 15, 1761, 
 Susannah, daughter of Stephen and Susannah 
 Howell. She died April 21, 1803, and he married 
 (second), Nov. 24, 1804, Widow Sarah Perit. 
 His children were born to the first marriage. Mr. 
 Monson was graduated from Yale College in 1753. 
 He became a minister, though not a pastor, and 
 later a physician. He was Chaplain to Lord Gard- 
 ner in the French war of 1755. In 1756 he began 
 the practice of medicine in Bedford, N. Y., and 
 he became an eminent physician, was distinguished 
 in science and was celebrated as a wit. He, too, 
 was a Congregationalist, and in politics a Whig. 
 He was prominent in public affairs, holding many 
 important trusts. During the war of the Revolu- 
 tion he was chosen seven times to represent New 
 Haven in the Legislature.- His death occurred 
 June 16, 1826, at New Haven. 
 
 (VI) Eneas Monson, M. D. (2), son of Eneas, 
 
526 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born Sept. ii, 1763, married, May 6, 1794, Mary 
 Shepherd, born April 28, 1772, daughter of Levi 
 Shepherd, of Northampton, Mass. Eneas Monson 
 was graduated from Yale, and soon thereafter (in 
 1780) was commissioned surgeon's mate in Col. 
 Swift's Seventh Connecticut Continental Line 
 During the winter of 1780-81 his regiment was 
 "hutted" with the Connecticut division on the Hud- 
 son, opposite AVest Point. In June following he 
 was detached to assist Surgeon Thatcher, of the 
 Massachusetts Line, in Col. Scammell's Light Li- 
 fantry Corps, which after engaging in one or two 
 sharp skirmishes in Westchester county, marched 
 in August with the army to Yorktown, Va. There 
 it took a leading part m the siege, and was placed 
 with the other select troops under LaFayette, whose 
 position was on the right of the besieging line. Dr. 
 Monson returned North and rejoined his regiment, 
 which in 1781-82 was the Fourth Connecticut, un- 
 der Col. Butler, and served until the disbandment, 
 in June, 1783. Returning after the war to New 
 Haven, Dr. Monson became prominent in the 
 affairs of the town and city. Later he turned his 
 attention to other and more lucrative pursuits, be- 
 coming a merchant and banker. Mrs. Monson 
 died Feb. 6, 1848, and Dr. Monson Aug. 22, 
 1852. 
 
 (VII) Alfred S. Monson, M. D., son of Dr. 
 Eneas, born Sept. 23, 1795, married, May 22, 1822, 
 Mary Ann, daughter of Nathaniel Patten, of Hart- 
 ford. Mr. Monson was graduated from Yale College 
 in 1815, and took the degree of M. D. at the Univer- 
 sity of Pennsylvania in 1819. He located in the 
 practice of medicine in New Haven, but retired 
 from the profession many years before his death. 
 His transactions in real estate were many, and he 
 was a good financier, leaving a large estate. At 
 one time he was o.ffered the professorship of bot- 
 any in Yale College, but declined it owing to the 
 state of his health, and he was also offered a pro- 
 fessorship in Yale Medical School. Himself and 
 wife were members of the Congregational Church. 
 He died at his home in New Haven, No. 145 Elm 
 street. May 22, 1870, and his wife passed away in 
 April, 1887. Six children were born to them, of 
 whom we have the following record : 
 
 (i) Alfred Patten Monson, M. D., was born 
 June 20, 1823. In 1847 he was graduated from 
 Yale Medical College, but his health was such that 
 he did not practice much. He resided in New 
 Haven, in Florida and in Colorado, and died in 
 1894. He married Harriet Mygatt. 
 
 (2) Sarah Patten Monson, born Nov. 17, 1825, 
 married, Jan. 6, 1845, Thomas N. Dale, a silk man- 
 ufacturer of New York. Both died in 1880. 
 
 (3) David Daggett Monson, born Jan. 13, 1837, 
 married, at Somerville, N. J., Mary J. Wilson, and 
 both are now deceased. 
 
 (4) Charles Clayton Monson, born Oct. 3, 
 1838, was married at Chicago, June 27, 1872, to 
 Stella E. Shepherd, and they reside in Hillhouse 
 
 avenue. New Haven. Their children are Stella E., 
 Edith D., Charles S. and Ethel. 
 
 (5) Frank Augustus Monson, born Dec. 9, 
 1842, was married May 15, 1873, to Charlotte M. 
 Bishop, of New Haven, who was born Sept. 6, 
 1852. They have one daughter, Nellie Florence 
 Monson. At the breaking out of the Civil war 
 young Monson was a student at a boarding school. 
 His patriotism was aroused, and on July 19, 1861, 
 ne became a private in the ist New York Lincoln 
 Cavalry, sharing the fortunes of the army of the 
 Potomac for over three years, and receiving- an hon- 
 orable discharge July 12, 1864. On May 3, 1862, 
 he received promotion, becoming a second lieuten- 
 ant in the 5th New York Col. Cav. ; on Oct. 24, 
 same year, was made first lieutenant; and on Sept. 
 14, 1863, was made captain, which rank he held to 
 the close of his service, being finally discharged 
 on account of disability caused by wounds. Capt. 
 Monson returned to civil life with an honorable 
 war record. He took part in eighty-one engage- 
 ments, great and small, being in nearly every bat- 
 tle fought by the Army of the Potomac during his 
 connectvon therewith, with Grant through the Wil- 
 derness, at Spottsylvania and White House Land- 
 ing, where he was sent to the rear on account of 
 reopening wounds. He was wounded at Chancel- 
 lorsville, May 3, 1863, and suffered intensely from 
 his injuries. Among other important engagements 
 in which Capt. Monson saw active service may be 
 mentioned Fredericksburg, Fair Oaks and McClel- 
 lan's Peninsular campaign. Capt. Monson has had 
 an honorable and successful career in New Haven, 
 engaged principally in looking after his real estate 
 interests. He has built a number of houses. For 
 years Capt. Monson was secretary of the New Ha- 
 ven Fire Underwriters Association. He has effi- 
 ciently served his fellow citizens both as a council- 
 man and as an alderman. The Captain and his 
 family are prominent in the social life of New Ha- 
 ven, and he is an active member of Admiral Foote 
 Post, G. A. R. ; of the Loyal Legion; the Army and 
 Navy Club; the Society of the Army of the Po- 
 tomac; the Connecticut Sons of the American Rev- 
 olution ; and Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M. In relig- 
 ious connection he unites with Trinity Church. 
 
 (6) Frederick Eneas Monson, bom Sept. 18, 
 1843, was a student when he enlisted, Sept. 18, 
 1861, becoming a corporal in Company K, loth 
 Conn. V. I., in the United States service in the 
 Civil war. He was discharged Jan. 16, 1862, and 
 re-enlisted, becoming a sergeant in Company H, 
 27th Conn. V. I. At the battle of Fredericksburg, 
 Va,, Dec. 3, 1862, he received a wound which crip- 
 pled him for life, and he was honorably discharged 
 April 2, 1863, with a record for duty well done. 
 
 CFIARLES H. PINNEY, M, D., in his life- 
 time a prominent and successful physician of 
 Derby, was a man of exceptionally high scientific 
 and professional attainments, beloved by his pa- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 527 
 
 tients and universally esteemed by the community 
 at large. He was of English descent, and one of 
 his American ancestors was a soldier under Wash- 
 ington. 
 
 The first of the family to emigrate from Great 
 Britain to America was Humphrey Pinney, who 
 settled at Dorchester, Mass., in 1630, while he re- 
 turned the following year to England to attend to 
 some matters connected with the settlement of the 
 paternal estate; he became a permanent resident of 
 New England in 1634. He married Mary, a daugh- 
 ter of George Hull, who, like himself, was a pio- 
 neer settler from the mother country. Humphrey 
 Pinney, on his return from England, established 
 himself at Wmdsor, Conn. He was the father of 
 six children: Samuel, Nathaniel, Isaac, Abigail, 
 Sarah and Mary. 
 
 Samuel Pinney, eldest son of Humphrey, was 
 the great-great-great-grandfather of Dr. Charles 
 H. Pinney. He married Joyce Bissell, daughter of 
 John Bissell, of Windsor. They settled in that 
 part of Windsor which one hundred years later 
 was called Ellington, Conn. Tnree children were 
 born to them : Mary, Samuel and Josiah. 
 
 Samuel Pinney, son of Samuel, became the hus- 
 band of Sarah Phelps, daughter of George Phelps 
 (brother of William, of Windsor). They lived in 
 Ellington, at that time part of Windsor, Conn., 
 where were born their six children, who were 
 named Samuel, Joseph, Benjamin, Sarah, Mary 
 and Hannah. 
 
 . Captain Benjamin Pinney, third son of Samuel, 
 and Dr. Pinney's great-grandfather, married 
 Susanna Lathrop, who bore tiim nine children, 
 Elizabeth, Lois, Benjamin, Jedediah, Eleazer 
 (born February, 1753), Lemuel, Ruth, Chloe and 
 Ebenezer (a physician, who died July 6, 1786). 
 
 Lieut. Eleazer Pinney, son of Benjamin, was 
 born in February, 1753, and was present at the sur- 
 render of Burgoyne. His first wife was Eunice 
 King, who died July 6, 1789, leaving five children, 
 namely: Lydia, Persis, Benjamin, Elizabeth and 
 Parmelia. In 1792 he married as his second wife, 
 Anna McKinney, daughter of Andrew Mclvinney, 
 who invented the mechanism to weave table linen 
 in patterns of flowers, etc., instead of being plaided 
 or striped, as was the method previous to his in- 
 vention; he was of Scotch descent. The children 
 of Lieut. Eleazer and his wife Anna were Eleazer, 
 Ebenezer, Eunice, Loring, Nelson and Andrew. 
 
 Ebenezer, seventh child of Lieut. Eleazer, was 
 born Sept. 24, 1796. He married Mary Ann Lee, 
 daughter of Dr. Henry Tully Lee, of Hartford, 
 Conn. Of their nine children, two, Henry and 
 Mary, died in early childhood. Those who reached 
 mature years were Charles Hitchcock, Henry Lee, 
 Caroline, Mary (2), Ellen, Elizabeth and Cath- 
 erine. 
 
 Dr. Charles H. Pinney, the subject of this 
 sketch, was born at South Windsor (then a part of 
 East Windsor), April 25, 183 1. His college prep- 
 
 aration was received at Rogers Academy, at East 
 Hartford, and he matriculated, at Harvard Univer- 
 sity near the close of his third year. Repeated and 
 profuse hemorrhages from the lungs made it im- 
 prudent to longer to brave the violent east winds 
 of that locality, and his professional studies were 
 pursued at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
 of New York City. Graduating with honor in 
 1853, he at once located in Derby, Conn., where for 
 forty years he was an ornament to his profession, 
 taking part in matters of general interest as a pub- 
 lic-spirited citizen, leading a life without reproach. 
 When on his way to attend the National Medical 
 Convention, which was held at Milwaukee, Wis., 
 he died at Evanston, 111., May 13, 1893, having 
 rounded out a useful life of sixty-two years. In 
 politics he was a Republican. Professionally he 
 was a member of the local, county. State and na- 
 tional medical societies, and was for many years 
 the Connecticut State Necrologist of the National 
 Association. 
 
 On April 4, 1854, Dr. Pinney married Maria 
 Watson, of New Hartford, Conn., daughter of 
 Royal Isaac and Sally (Seymour) Watson. Royal 
 I. Watson was a descendant of John Watson, an 
 early settler of Hartford, who was a juror at Hart- 
 ford in 1644, and died there in 1650; his mother, 
 Sarah (Phelps) Watson, descended from William 
 Phelps, an early settler of Windsor. 
 
 Mrs. Sally (Seymour) Watson was a daughter 
 of Chauncey Seymour (always called "The 
 Squire;" see "New Hartford Past and Present," 
 published in 1883), who held a commission in the 
 war of 1812, and was the son of Capt. Uriah Sey- 
 mour, who was lieutenant in a company of 
 "mounted men" in the Lexington Alarm, and who, 
 as captain of a company of "Light-horse," was 
 with Washington on his retreat through New 
 ^'ork, and was at Valley Forge. The Seymour 
 line is traced back into England, to Sir Edward 
 Seymour, whose sister, Jane Seymour, was the 
 third Queen of Henry VIII and the mother of King 
 Edward VI, during whose minority he (Sir Ed- 
 ward Seymour) was acting Regent, and was 
 created "Lord Protector of England." His previous 
 titles were "Viscount Beauchamp," "Earl of Hert- 
 ford" and "Duke of Somerset." 
 
 The mother of Mrs. Sally (Seymour) Watson 
 was Isabel Sedgwick, a descendant of Major Gen- 
 eral Robert Sedgwick, a distinguished officer un- 
 der Oliver Cromwell. For several years he com- 
 manded "the Ancient and Honorable Artillery 
 Company," and in 1641 "The Castle," and was 
 made major-general of a Massachusetts regiment 
 May 26, 1652. On July i, 1654, having previously 
 visited England and engaged in the service of 
 Cromwell as commander of contemplated expedi- 
 tions, he sailed with a fleet of 'four vessels and cap- 
 tured "St. Johns," a. "strong French fort," also 
 "Port Royal" and others, which was so acceptable 
 to Cromwell that the next year he was appointed 
 
528 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 to important service in the West Indies ; he sailed 
 from Plymouth July ii, 1655, and was appointed 
 tc command the army of the West Indies, but soon 
 fell a victim to the climate, dying at Jamaica, W I., 
 Alay 24, 1656. 
 
 Dr. Pinney left one son, Royal Watson Pinne}', 
 a practicing physician in Derby. iVIrs. Pinney is 
 still living in her beautiful home, containing many 
 treasures of art and mementoes of her departed 
 husband. She is a member of the Mary Washing- 
 ton i\Iemorial Association, of Washington; of the 
 Society of Xew England Women, of New York; 
 of the Order of Descendants of Colonial Gover- 
 nors; of the Huguenot Society of America; of the 
 National Society of Daughters of Founders and 
 Patriots of America ; and she is regent of the Derby 
 Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 SAMUEL A. STEVENS, a worthy representa- 
 tive of an old and honored family of New Haven 
 county, has passed a busy life in the commercial 
 world and can look with pride over the record of a 
 past that has no stain. 
 
 Thomas Stevens, his great-grandfather, built, in 
 I73S> the old Stevens homestead, now standing on 
 Elm street, at the head of Savin avenue. West 
 Haven, Conn., nOw nearly one hundred and seventy 
 years old; it is to-day in a good state of preserva- 
 tion, and still retains its old original red color 
 paint. There Thomas Stevens lived and died. His 
 son, Jesse, was born in that home in 1744, and died 
 there in 1826. 
 
 Newton Stevens, son of Jesse, was born in 1784, 
 and married Polly Reynolds in 1809, by whom he 
 had twelve children, all of whom lived to maturity : 
 Julia Ann, who married James Tolles ; Edwin ; 
 Emily, who married William H. Talmadge; Lucius ; 
 Sarah, who married Jonathan Foote, Jr. ; H. Au- 
 gusta, who married S. G. Hotchkiss; Sherman; 
 Francis N. ; Jesse M. ; Mary E., who married Capt. 
 Frederick S. Ward; Samuel A.; and James R. 
 After fifty-four years of wedded life, the mother 
 died in 1863, at the age of seventy-four; the father 
 died in 1866, aged eighty-two years. 
 
 Samuel A. Stevens was born at the old home- 
 stead, July II, 1826, and came to New Haven when 
 ten years of age, to live with his brother-in-law, 
 William H. Talmadge, who had a shoe store on 
 Chapel street, next to the City Bank. Young Sam- 
 uel opened and closed the store, ran errands, and 
 attended the Lancasterian School, taught by John 
 E. Lovell (now the Hillhouse High School)," and 
 was a student for a year in the school of S. A. 
 Thomas, located in a building at the corner of 
 Wooster and Olive streets. In looking back to his 
 boyhood days, Mr. Stevens recalls the playing of 
 marbles with his school mates on the site of the 
 home in which he has lived for forty-one years. He 
 returned to his father, and worked on the home farm 
 for about three years. In 1842 he went to New 
 
 Haven a second time, to enter the hat, fur, and shoe 
 store, as clerk for his brother-in-law, J. Foote, Jr., 
 at No. 816 Chapel street. With him he remained 
 eight years, leaving July 11, 1851, to enter into the 
 same kind of business for himself, at No. 856 Chapel 
 street. He began business Oct. 6, of that year, un- 
 der conditions most flattering, as about this time, 
 a gentleman friend whom Mr. Stevens had known 
 for some time and who was much interested in his 
 future business prospects, had very unexpectedly 
 offered the loan of fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500) 
 without security, for the purpose of starting him in 
 a business. While the proposition was a surprise 
 he had not been long in availing himself of this 
 most beneficent offer, and soon secured the store 
 albove mentioned, where in a few days the friend 
 advanced him' fifteen one-hundred dollar bills. With 
 this fund in his stockings, eight of them in one 
 stocking and seven in the other, Mr. Stevens had 
 gone to New York City and there bought the nec- 
 essary goods for "stocking" the store, thus prac- 
 tically beginning his business career. Having a. 
 la.rge circle of friends, to whom he had commended 
 himself both by his personal and business character- 
 istics, he naturally won a good degree of success. 
 
 After about twelve years he found his accommo- 
 dations were too small for. his increasing business, 
 and in 1863 he rented one of the stores now occu- 
 pied by Howe & Stetson, on the north side of 
 Chapel street, between Orange and State streets. 
 Entirely remodeling the store, he started out in his 
 new quarters, by receiving congratulations from his 
 many friends upon having the most attractive shoe 
 store in the State. About two years after he very 
 unexpectedly sold out his very lucrative business to 
 I. T. Banks, who had carried on the same kind of 
 business in Atlanta, Ga., but who was compelled to 
 vacate when Gen. Sherman's army entered the city 
 during the Civil war. As he had been closely con- 
 fined by his business for fourteen years,' Mr. Stevens 
 determined to rest before again entering the com- 
 mercial world, and at the close of the Rebellion, 
 made a tour through the devastated portion of the 
 Southern States. Soon after his return, he formed 
 a copartnership, under the firm name of Joyce & 
 Stevens, for the purpose of manufacturing ladies' 
 and misses' fine shoes. 
 
 At the end of twelve years he withdrew from 
 this firm with the intention of not entering into any 
 permanent business again. Some two years after 
 an old friend of his, P- S. Crofut, who had been in 
 the hat, cap and fur trade on the north side of 
 Chapel street, near Orange street, for many years, 
 was compelled to go into bankruptcy, and Mr.' 
 Stevens was appointed receiver. In closing up the 
 estate he sold the stock to J. N. Collins, who con- 
 tmued the business. In 1878 Friend E. Brooks and 
 Mr. Stevens formed a copartnership, under the 
 style of Stevens & Brooks, and bought out Mr. 
 Colhns. The new firm continued the same business 
 for about ten years when Mr. Stevens withdrew 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 529- 
 
 from the firm on account of impaired health. Soon 
 after he took s. pleasure trip through .Soitnthern Cali- 
 fornia, and upora his return, three months later, he 
 was appointed secretary and treasurer of the West 
 Haven & New Haven Horse Railroad Co., to whicli 
 he devoted a share of his time for about two years. 
 When the road was sold to a Boston syndicate he 
 sold his interest and resigned his position. When 
 in California, j\lr. Stevens was so dehg-hted witli the 
 country and climate, that in tlie winter of 1893 he 
 went out a second time, spending the winter in Red- 
 lands and Moreno, and while there became so fas- 
 cinated with the culture of oranges that he pur- 
 chased four acres in Redlands and forty in Moreno, 
 set out to orange trees. 
 
 In 1894 Mr. Stevens' daughter, who had grad- 
 uated from Rye Seminary, New York, accompanied 
 him for the second time. The next year, 1895, he 
 had planned to go, but was talien critically ill and 
 was obliged to remain at home, going out the three 
 successive winters. He came home June i, 1898, 
 not feeling well, and very unexpectedly found his 
 daughter sick, and she passed awaj' July 24. From 
 that time Mr. Stevens has been a confirmed invalid. 
 
 On Sept. I, 1859, Mr. Stevens was married to 
 Miss Ellen M. Ives, at her home on Wall street, 
 New Haven, Conn. Her father, Henry Ives, man- 
 ufacturer of carriage axles in Mt. Carmel, Conn., 
 died about six months prior to the marriage of his 
 daughter. Mrs. Stevens was the mother of three 
 children, two of whom died in infancy : Eliza Ives, 
 born May 6, 1861, died Aug. 8 of the same year; 
 Nellie, born Sept. 12, 1862, died Sept. 20 of the 
 same year; and Maibel Ives, born Nov. 25, 1873, 
 died July 24, 1898. The mother of these three girls 
 died June 30, 1880, at the age of forty-seven years. 
 Mr. Stevens is now in his seventy-sixth year, and 
 through all his eventful career he has endeavored 
 to live a consistent Christian life, but he says he is 
 fully aware of his short comings and, to his regret, 
 he can only present to his Maker a few withered 
 leaves instead of the great sheaves of wheat which 
 he should have brought. 
 
 JOSEPH COAN (deceased). The Coan fam- 
 ily is of German descent, and has long been estab- 
 lished in New England. In 1715 three brothers 
 came from Worms, Germany. Their parents ac- 
 companied them' on an emigrant ship, but died on 
 the way, and consequently the boys were landed on 
 the American shore in a destitute condition. The 
 two older boys were apprenticed to Deacon Mul- 
 ford, of East Hampton, L. I., where they were mar- 
 ried when they reached adult years. After their 
 marriage they removed to Guilford, where they 
 passed the remainder of their lives and died. The 
 other brother, Abraham, left no record of his career 
 in life. 
 
 Peter Coan, one of the brothers reared by Dea- 
 con Mulford, and the progenitor of the line in 
 which we are especially interested, was born in 
 
 £4 
 
 Worms, in 1697. In East Hampton he married 
 Hannah Davis, and died in North Guilford, Oct. 
 31, 1799. Their children were: John, born in 
 December, 1729; Lucretia; Rebecca; Jacob, born 
 in 1734; Alabel; Abraham; Hannah; Martha, 
 married George Dudley; Elisha; William, born 
 Feb. 24, 1747, died Jan. 28, 1748; Mary, born July 
 30, 1750, married Jacob Kimberly. 
 
 John Coan, noted above, was born in East 
 Hampton, and came with his parents, in 1736, to 
 Guilford, where he passed the remainder of his life, 
 and died Oct. 18, 1795. In 1752 he married Mabel 
 Chittenden, who was born Nov. 5, 1737, and died 
 May 12, 1787. For his second wife he married the 
 Widow Francis. He was the father of the follow- 
 ing children : ( i ) Olive, who married William 
 Fowler, and died Feb. 12, 1849; (2) Mabel, born in 
 1758, who married Robert Kimberly; (3) Josiah, 
 born Nov. 20, 1760, who married Carrie Graves; 
 
 (4) John, who will be mentioned in full below ; 
 
 (5) Rebecca, born in 1765, who married Samuel 
 F. Loper, and died Aug. 3, 1848; (6) Simeon, who 
 married Parnell Fowler, and died Nov. 5, 181 5; 
 (7) Submit, born Dec. 7, 1769, who married Aaron 
 Chittenden, and died July 24, 1849; (8) Lucretia, 
 who married Abel Chittenden; (10) Abraham, 
 born Nov. 9, 1774, who married Martha Linds- 
 ley, and died Feb. 14, 1863; (11) Davis, born in 
 1785, who married Catherine Fowler, and died July 
 27, 1822. 
 
 John Coan, son of John, was born at North 
 Guilford in January, 1763, and there died in No- 
 vember, 1845. He married Hannah Stevens, ^v'ho 
 was born in 1767, and died Nov. 27, 1820. Their 
 children were as follows : ( i ) Hannah, born in 
 1787, married Joseph Fowler; (2) John, born Aug. 
 22, 1789; (3) Henriettta, born in June, 1794, died 
 Sept. 24, 179s; (4) Abraham, born Aug. 2, 1797,, 
 married Eunice Cook, and died Jan. 4, 1875. 
 
 John Coan, noted above, married, in October, 
 1809, Phebe A. Fowler, who was born Feb. 22, 
 1791, and died Sept. 19, 1821. For his second 
 wife he married, Sept. 22, 1829, Betsy Hart, who 
 v/as born Aug. 24, 1803, and died March 15, 1873. 
 The children by his first marriage were : One that 
 died unnamed; Jerome, born in 1816, died July 26, 
 1829; Abraham, born J'une 11, 1817, died in 1848; 
 and Julia Ann, born in 1821, married Rev. Seth L. 
 Chapin, and died Jan. 21, 1876. By the second 
 marriage were born : Phebe, born June 6, 1830, 
 married Orrin Potter; Jerome and Joseph, twins, 
 born June 19, 1834. John Coan, the father of this 
 family, was a farmer and large land owner. 
 
 Joseph Coan (deceased), whose name introduces, 
 this sketch, was educated in the district schools of 
 his native town, and remained on the farm with 
 his parents until after his marriage, when he re- 
 moved to Guilford, where he lived until the break- 
 ing out of the Rebellion. He enlisted Sept. 7, 
 1862, in Company E, isth Conn. V. I., under Col. 
 White, and died of typhoid fever, Nov. 7, 1862 ; 
 
530 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 his remains were interred in Alderbrook cemetery. 
 Politically he was a Democrat, but without official 
 aspirations. Quite popular in the community 
 where he was reared, he had many friends, and was 
 a man of character and standing. In religious 
 connection he was a communicant of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 On Alay 7, 1856, Mr. Coan was married to 
 Lydia E. Hall, who was born Jan. 29, 1836, a 
 daughter of George G. and Phebe A. (Griswold) 
 Hall, and died July 4, 1900. This union was blessed 
 with one child, Maria Elizabeth, born Feb. 23, 
 1857, now the wife of ClifTord F. Bishop. Mrs. 
 Coan was a woman of much character and was of 
 a religious disposition. For forty-eight years she 
 had been a member of the Third Church, and was 
 an active worker in its various organizations. In 
 the community her influence was marked, and in 
 the many associations in which the ladies of the 
 town sought the public good, her presence and her 
 work were always ready and appreciated. 
 
 The Hall Family, of Guilford, of whom Mrs. 
 Coan was a descendant, traces its history in this 
 country back to William Hall, who was born in 
 Kent, England, a son of Gilbert Hall. William 
 Hall came to America March 22, 1649, and located 
 in New Haven, where he died March 8, 1669. 
 Hester, his wife, died in 1683 ; she was the mother 
 of John and Samuel, of whom the latter married 
 Elizabeth Johnson. 
 
 John Hall, son of William and Hester, was bom 
 in 1648, and was but one year old when his parents 
 settled in Guilford, where he died Jan. 8, 1704. On 
 Nov. 13, 1668, he was married to Elizabeth Smith, 
 and they became the parents of seven children: 
 (i) Elizabeth, born Nov. 22, 1670; (2) Mary, 
 born Oct. 30, 1672, died Dec. 7, 1755; (3) John, 
 born Feb. 28, 1675, died September, 1724; (4) 
 Ebenezer; (5) Silence married Abraham Morri- 
 son; (6) Eliphalet, born Jan. 15, 1682, married 
 Abigail Bushnell; (7) Nathaniel, born December, 
 1683, married Rebecca Mallory, and died July 27, 
 1758. 
 
 Ebenezer Hall, who was born March 3, 1678, 
 was engaged in farming in Guilford, his native 
 town and died there in December, 1723. Deborah 
 Highland, who became his wife April 11, 1700, was 
 born in 1674, and died Oct. 27, 1758. Their chil- 
 dren were: (i) Ebenezer, born Jan. 30, 1701, 
 married Elizabeth Crittenden, and died Sept. 9, 
 1734; (2) Daniel, born April 10, 1702, died June 
 9, 1741 ; (3) Deborah, born Oct. 26, 1704, married 
 Ebenezer Field, and died April 6, 1753; (4) John; 
 (5) Joseph, born May 26, 1710, married Mary 
 Crittenden, and died Dec. 11, 1764; (6) Benjamin, 
 born :May 27, 1712, married Judith Hall, and cUed 
 Dec. I, 1802; (7) Esther, born May 27, 1717, mar- 
 ried Jehiel Johnson, and died Sept. 9, 1779; (8) 
 Timothy, born Nov. 10, 1721, married Sarah Bris- 
 tol, and died July 29, 1771. 
 
 John Flail, son of Ebenezer, was born in Guil- 
 
 ford, Dec. 27, 1706, and died Feb. 9, 1742. He 
 was married to Jerusha Johnson, Nov. 2, 1737. 
 She was born Oct. 31, 1720, a daughter of Isaac 
 and Phebe (Bristol) Johnson, and a granddaugh- 
 ter of Isaac and Mary (Hotchkiss) Johnson. P'or 
 her second husband she married, Nov. 15, I744> 
 Ebenezer Hotchkiss. By her marriage to Mr. 
 Hall she became the mother of two children : Han- 
 nah, born Aug. 14, 1738, died Nov. 30, 1738; and 
 Miles. 
 
 Miles Hall, son of John, was born in Guilford, 
 Oct. 23, 1740, and died there Oct. 26, 1801. On 
 Feb. 3, 1762, he was married to Sarah Bishop, who 
 was born Aug. 18, 1736, daughter of David and 
 Deborah (Stanley) Bishop, and died April 8, 1792. 
 This marriage was blessed with the following chil- 
 dren : (i) Sarah, born Sept. 12, 1763, married 
 Samuel Evarts ; (2) John, born 1765, died Oct. 6, 
 1769; (3) Nathan, born 1767, died Oct. 14, 1771 ; 
 
 (4) Jerusha, born Aug. 10, 1771, married Luther ' 
 Stone; and (5) John (2). 
 
 John Hall (2), born May 21, 1775, in Guilford, 
 died there Julj 27, 1807. He married Hannah 
 ■Griswold, who was born May 26, 1771, a daughter 
 of Thomas and Hannah (Cruttenden) Griswold, 
 and died Nov. 10, 1840. Thomas Griswold was a 
 private in Capt. Daniel Hand's company in Col. 
 Talcott's regiment in 1776. The children born 
 to this union were: (i) Amos, Jan. 18, 1795, mar- 
 ried Betsey Graves, and died June 11, 1847; (2) 
 Sarah,_born Jan. 22, 1798, married Ammi G. Fow- 
 ler; (3) John, born April 15, 1799, married Bet- 
 sey Davis, and died Aug. 16, 1870; (4) Betsey, 
 born July 28, 1801, married Christopher B. Davis; 
 
 (5) Caroline, born Aug. 29, 1803, married Joel 
 Bullard, and died June 17, 1842; and (6) George 
 Griswold. 
 
 George Griswold Hall, father of Mrs. Lydia E. 
 Coan, was torn in Guilford, Feb. 2, 1806, and 
 there died Sept. 11, 1887. On Oct. 4, 1830, he was 
 married to Phebe Ann Griswold, who was born 
 Nov. 27, 181 1. They became the parents of the 
 following children: (i) George Hiram, born 
 April 30, 1833, married Mary E. Morse; (2) Ly- 
 dia Elizabeth, born Jan. 29, 1836, married Joseph 
 Coan; (3) Edward Douglass, horn April i, 1840, 
 married Fannie Barstow Hyde; (4) Charles Au- 
 gustus, born Sept. 8, 1841, married Lucretia Da- 
 vis. 
 
 Miles Griswold, great-grandfather of Mrs. 
 Coan, was born Jan. 2, 1736, a son of Thomas 
 and Ann (Graves) Griswold, and a brother of 
 Thomas Griswold, who served in the Revolutionary 
 war. He died March 20, 1821. On June 14, 1758, 
 he married Sarah (Chittenden), who was born 
 July 9, 1737, a daughter of Samuel and Susanna 
 (Bishop) Chittenden, and died June 23, 1766. 
 One child blessed this marriage, Ruth, born Nov. 
 25, 1760, who married James Davis. For his sec- 
 ond wife Miles Griswold married, Jan. 4, 1769, 
 Ruth Bartlett, who was born Oct. i, 1738, a dauo-h- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 531 
 
 ter of Capt. Joseph and Mindwell (Cruttenden) 
 Bartlett, and died Dec. 31, 1831. Their children 
 were: (i) Sarah, born FA. 9, 1774, died Oct. 15, 
 1780; (2) Joy; (3) Mindweh, born Aug. 4, 1780, 
 died Sept. 18, 1845. 
 
 Joy Griswold, son of Miles, was bom Oct. 27, 
 1776, and died May 15, 1851. On Nov. 22, 1798, 
 he was married to Juliana Saxton, who was born 
 April 30, 1777, and died April 26, 1833, a daugh- 
 ter of Simeon and Sarah Saxton, the former of 
 whom was a private in the Revolutionary war. 
 For his second wife Joy Griswold married, Aug. 
 2~, 1835, Hannah Woodruff, a widow, born Jan. 
 13, 1796, died June 3, 1872. The children, all of 
 whom were born of the first marriage, were : ( i ) 
 Sarah, born May 24, 1800, died April 5, 1845, u^^" 
 married; (2) Myita, born Sept. 26, 1802, married 
 Louis Griswold, and died May 22, 1837; (3) Sher- 
 man Saxton, born Nov. 26, i8o5j married Alma 
 l^owler, and died Nov. 2, 1882; (4) Russell Bart- 
 lett, born Sept. 24, 1808, married Mary Jones; (5) 
 ■Phebe Ann, born Nov. 27, 181 1, married George 
 Griswold Hall; (6) Mary Elizabeth, born Dec. 16, 
 1817, married Edward T. Moore; (7) Juliet, born 
 Nov. 19, 1820, married John Parmelee. 
 
 The Bishop Family has long been represented 
 in New England. Its first progenitor in this coun- 
 try was John Bishop, whose son, Stephen, was a 
 farmer, and died in Guilfofd in June, 1690. 
 Tabitha Wilkinson, his wife, whom' he had mar- 
 ried May 4, 1654, died Dec. 21, 1692. Their chil- 
 dren were: (i) Stephen, born Dec. 20, 1655, mar- 
 ried Hannah Bartlett; (2-) Tabitha, born Sept. 14, 
 1657; (3) Caleb, born June 24, 1660, married 
 Lydia Evarts, and died Aug. 19, 1752; (4) Daniel, 
 born Dec. 8, 1663, died young; (5) Mehitable, born 
 Dec. 12, 1668, married John Whiteham; (6) Han- 
 nah, bom March 27, 1671 ; (7) Josiah, born June 
 30, 1674; (8) Ebenezer; (9) James, born Aug. 18, 
 1678, married Thankful Pond, and died July 2, 
 1739. 
 
 Ebenezer Bishop, who was born in Guilford, 
 Aug. 5, 1675, died in February, 1744. Ann Lati- 
 mer, his wife, whom he miarried Nov. 3, 1699, died 
 Oct. 6, 1752. Their children were: (i) Ann, born 
 April 10, 1701, died Oct. 15, 1761 ; (2) Josiah, 
 bom Nov. I, 1703, married Hannah Chittenden, 
 and died Apriri2, 1745; (3) Joshua, born 1704, 
 married Silence Crampton, and died Nov. 13, 1777 ; 
 (4) Ebenezer, born 1707, married Sarah Stevens, 
 and died Oct. 27, 1747; (5) Caleb; (6) Experi- 
 ence, born Feb. i, 1718, died Feb. 25, 1718; (7) 
 Samuel, born Oct. 28, 1719, and (8) Elisha, born 
 Aug. 6, 1723, both died young. 
 
 Caleb Bishop, who was born in East Guilford 
 in October, 1714, engaged in farming all his life, 
 and died Feb. 16, 1785. In 1744 he married Abi- 
 gail Parmelee, who was born in June, 1719, and 
 died Feb. 8, 1780.- Their children were: (i) Bud- 
 well, born Nov. 3, 1745, died Oct. 5, 1820; (2) 
 Linus, born May 10, 1749; (3) Russell, born Dec. 
 
 12, 1752, married Abigail Bartlett, and died Oct. 
 26, 1825. 
 
 Linus Bishop, who was born May 10, 1749, died 
 Sept. 14, 1830. He was married to Sarah Hill, 
 June 29, 1785, and she died June i, 1822. She was 
 a daughter of Peleg and Dorcas (Tucker) Hill, and 
 by her marriage with Mr. Bishop became the 
 mother of the following children : ( i ) Sarah, born 
 Dec. 19, 1786, died Jan. 11, 1871 ; (2) Richard, 
 born March 8, 1790, married Polyanthus Scranton; 
 and (3) Frederick. 
 
 Frederick Bishop was born Dec. 17, 1792, in 
 Madison, and there died Oct. 3, 1855. He was 
 married Dec. 24, 1818, to Olive Bassett, who was 
 born June 30, 1799, a daughter of Nathan and 
 Olive (Clark) Bassett, of Guilford, and died Feb. 
 9, 1842. Eleven childrai were born of this union, 
 as follows: (i) Frederick William, born Oct. i, 
 1819, died Feb. 9, 1822; (2) Henry, born Oct. 
 12, 1821, died Oct. 5, 1844; (3) Edward, born 
 April 20, 1823, married Elizabeth F. Stannard; 
 (4) George, born Dec., 1824, married Nancy M. 
 Evarts; (5) William Frederick (2), born May 27, 
 1827, married Sarah A. Chittenden; (6) Albert 
 Ferdinand, born May 11, 1829, married Eliza J. 
 Farnham; (7) Samuel R., born Oct. 22, 1831, mar- 
 ried Catherine E. Blatchley; (8) Joseph Richard, 
 born April 15, 1834, died Nov. 2, 1834; (9) Mary 
 Elizabeth, born Feb. 21, 1836, married George W. 
 Jacobs ; ( 10) Joseph Richard, born Feb. 28, 1838, 
 married Louisa Baldwin ; (11) Nancy Clarissa, 
 born June 27, 1842, married Birney Buddington. 
 
 Edward Bishop, who was born in Madison, 
 April 20, 1823, was married Aug. 23, 1855, to 
 Elizabeth F. Stannard, who was born in 1834, and 
 died Feb. 27, 1862. Edward Bishop was a sea- 
 faring man, and engaged in the coasting trade be- 
 tv/een Madison, Guilford and New York. He was 
 captain of a vessel for many years, when he retired 
 from active life, and miade his home in New Haven, 
 where he died June 19, 1898, and his remains were 
 interred in the cemetery at Madison. He was the 
 father of two children : Clifford Forrest ; and Min- 
 nie B., born Feb. 10, i860, became the wife of 
 James Young. 
 
 Clifford Forrest Bishop was born in Guilford, 
 Sept. 17, 1856, and received his education in the 
 district schools and at Lee's Academy in Madison. 
 He learned the sheet iron and plumbing business 
 with Robinson & Co. In his political faith he is 
 a Republican, while in his religious belief he is a 
 Congregationalist. He married Maria Elizabeth 
 Coan, daughter of the late Joseph and Lydia E. 
 (Hall) Coan. 
 
 EDWIN W. POTTER, one of the. representa- 
 tive citizens and successful business men of Ham- 
 den, New Haven county, was born on the farm 
 where he now resides, Feb. 3, 1833. He is a de- 
 scendant of John Potter, who was born in Eng- 
 land in 1607, died in New Haven in 1643; he was 
 
532 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the founder of the family in the New World. 
 Philemon (4), a descendant from the above John, 
 was born Aiarch 31, 1735. 
 
 Justus Potter, son of Philemon and grandfather 
 of our subject, was born in Hamden, Conn., in 
 1772, and married Anna j\I. Hunt, who was born 
 Dec. 5, 1777. Their son, Horace Potter, was born 
 in the same town, Dec. 14, 1798, on a farm our 
 subject now owns, and died March 8, 1869. He 
 was married May 7, 1821, to Emma Beckley, who 
 was born in Berlin, Conn., July 17, 1799, and died 
 Xov. 14, 1847. Their remains rest in the East 
 Plains cemetery in Hamden. Horace Potter was 
 but a boy when his father died, and he was thus 
 early thrown upon his own resources, but he be- 
 came a successful man in the face of adversity and 
 lack of opportunities, in his youth, and was a citi- 
 zen of no little influence. In early life he learned 
 the shoemaker's trade in Berlin, and it was there 
 that he became acquainted with his future wife. 
 Almost immediately after his marriage he located 
 on the place in Hamden where he ever afterward 
 lived, in later }-ears devoting his time and attention 
 to market gardening. He was a very prominent 
 and influential man in his community, one whose 
 integrity was never questioned, and he was called 
 upon to serve as selectman of Hamden several 
 }ears, and twice as member of the Legislature. 
 He was a Democrat in political sentiment. Relig- 
 iously he was a member of the Episcopal church of 
 Fair Haven. Physically Air. Potter was short in 
 stature and stoutly built. Mr. and Mrs. Potter 
 had born to them a family of twelve chil- 
 dren, the others besides Edwin being as fol- 
 lows : Amelia J\I., born May 4, 1822, married 
 Charles Tuttle, and died j'uly 3, 1887; Henry J., 
 born Nov. 17, 1823, died April 29, 1.829; Samuel 
 F., born Aug. 11, 1825, died in North Haven, 
 June 6, 1874; Horace B., born July 28, 1827, is 
 living retired in Muscatine, Iowa ; Henry S., born 
 Sept. 30, 1829, makes his home in Detroit, Mich. ; 
 Edwin P., born Feb. 13, 1831, died Sept. 29, 1832; 
 Emily Al., bom Aug. 28, 1834, died July 2, 1852; 
 Sarah F., born March 30, 1838, died March 23, 
 1853; Catherine A., born July 12, 1841, died March 
 6, 1852; one son died the dav of his birth; and 
 .MUiott C, born April 3, 1843, is a resident' of 
 Hamden. 
 
 Edwin W . Potter passed his early life upon the 
 farm where he now resides, and he obtained his 
 literary education in the common schools of the 
 locality, attending the little old brick school at 
 East Plains, Hamden, and a short time at Center- 
 ville, at Rev. C. W. Everest's school. On leaving 
 home, at the age of twenty-two ^-cars, he moved 
 to the farm now occupied by Elihu Davis, and upon 
 that place lived for seven years. In 1861 he began 
 the erection of his present residence upon the old 
 nome farm, and upon its completion, in the spring 
 of iSr.2, tonic up his abode there. Here he owns 
 forty acres of land, and also has propcrtv elsewhere, 
 
 his landed possessions aggregating 125 acres, a 
 part of which is valuable clay adapted for brick 
 making, which he utilizes in that way. Formerly 
 in connection with the manufacture of brick he also 
 engaged extensively in market gardening, planting 
 thirty acres of his land in vegetables of all kinds, 
 and he raises considerable small fruit upon his 
 place. He successfully carried on his brickyard 
 from 1870 to 1898, and in all his undertakings has 
 steadily prospered. 
 
 On Oct. 21, 1857, Mr. Potter was united in 
 marriage in Fair Haven with Miss Eveline AI. 
 Newton, who was born in Winchester, N. H., on 
 Christmas Day, 1836, and at the age of thirteen 
 years came to Fair Haven, Conn., with her parents, 
 Norman B. and Mary (Alexander) Newton, mak- 
 ing her home there until her marriage. To this 
 union came three children, namely : Burton D., 
 born in October, i§64, is engaged in business with 
 his father and resides at home. Evelyn N., living 
 at hotne, graduated from the New Haven high 
 school in the class of 1890, and later attended St. 
 Agnace School at Albany, N. Y. Edwin M. died 
 at the age of sixteen inonths. 
 
 The Democratic party finds in Mr. Potter a 
 stanch supporter of its principles, and he has been 
 honored with public office, having served as a mem- 
 ber of the State Legislature in 1874, the last ses- 
 sion held at New Haven, during which he was a 
 member of the committee on Cities and Boroughs. 
 In the fall of 1900 he was again elected to the 
 Legislature. His majority of 163 in a town wdiere 
 the normal Republican majority is 300, speaks for 
 his esteem. During his last term he was a member 
 of the committee on Humane Institutions. Air. 
 Potter has been selectman of Hamden for ten con- 
 secutive years, and thirteen years altogether. Fra- 
 ternally he is a member of Day Spring Lodge, F. 
 & A. M., of Hamden ; and religiously both he and 
 his wife are active and prominent members of St. 
 James Episcopal Church, of Fair Haven, of which 
 he has been a member for forty-five years, and 
 warden for over twenty-five years. Wherever 
 known he is held in high regard, and has many 
 friends throughout the county. The family stand 
 high socially. 
 
 JUDGE SAAIUEL J. BRYANT, one of the 
 prominent citizens of New Haven county, is a na- 
 tive of Massachusetts, born June 26, 185 1, in West 
 Stockbridge. 
 
 Rev. Sidney Bryant, father of our subject, was 
 born Dec. 15, 1812, in Sheffield, Alass., where he 
 lived enjoying, until the death of his father, in 1830, 
 the advantages and discipline common to farmers' 
 sons in those days. In the spring of the follow- 
 ing year he went to New Lebanon, N. Y., to learn 
 the trade of mason, intending to remain there three 
 years; but during the summer, while attending a 
 four days' religious meeting, he was converted, and 
 soon united with the Presbyterian Church. After 
 
i^ife^^^/1^l/^^^2^a^>2^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 533 
 
 teaching school for a time, he commenced to study 
 for the ministry, and in 1833 he entered the Oneida 
 Institute at Whitesboro, N. Y., graduating there- 
 from in 1837. From Whitesboro he went to Troy 
 and joined a class in theology under Dr. Beman and 
 Prof. Larned, his second year in theology being 
 spent at New Haven. On Aug. 6, 1839, he was li- 
 censed as a preacher by the Hartford South Asso- 
 ciation, and he preached in various places. In 1841 
 he was installed in West Stockbridge, Alass., re- 
 maining there twelve years, and from 1855 to i860 
 he served the Church in East Granby, in the fall of 
 the latter year locating in Twinsburg, Ohio, where 
 he remained eight years. He then spent a year in 
 Oberlin for the educational advantages of the place ; 
 preached two years in York, five in Vermilion and 
 two in Waterford, Pa. In the spring of 1877 he 
 retired from active work and remained so until his 
 death at Middletown. He was a faithful and zeal- 
 ous servant of the Master, and a member of the 
 Litchfield South Association. 
 
 On Feb. 23, 1841, Rev. Sidney Bryant was mar- 
 ried to Harriet Warner Lord, who was born in 
 Canaan, N. Y., one of the ten children of Deacon 
 Joshua and Mary (Douglas) Lord, farming people. 
 Rev. Sidney Bryant died Nov. 3, 1885, aged seventy- 
 three years, and his wife in 1886, when seventy-one 
 years old. To- their union were born three children, 
 two of whom survive: Judge Samuel J., our sub- 
 ject, and Mrs. Harriet L. Burke, of Wallingford. 
 
 Judge Samuel J. Bryant was graduated from 
 Oberlin College in 1873, ^''^'^ from Yale Theologi- 
 cal Seminary in 1876. In the winter of 1869-70 he 
 taught his first school in York, Ohio; winter of 
 1870-71, taught at Briar Hill, Ohio; winter of 1871- 
 72, taught at Brownhelm, Ohio; winter of 1872-73, 
 taught in winter school at Oberlin; winter of 1873- 
 74, taught at Weston, Vt., this last teaching being 
 while he was a member of the Theological school at 
 Yale University. From July, 1876, to July, 1884, 
 he was pastor of the Congregational Church at 
 South Britain, Conn., at the latter date moving to 
 West Haven, Conn., in the following November be- 
 coming identified with the Maltby, Stevens & Curdss 
 Co., of Wallingford, Conn. While a member of 
 Yale Theological Seminary, he spent the summer 
 vacation of 1874 in supplying a Congregational 
 Church at Braintree Hill, Vt., under appointment of 
 the Vermont Home Missionary Society. The vaca- 
 tion of 1875 he spent in supplying the Congrega- 
 tional Church at Weston, Vt., where he had for- 
 merly taught school, and during his last year at 
 the seminary, he preached every Sabbath except 
 three in Connecticut churches. Thus by teaching 
 and preaching, and in other ways, he paid a large 
 part of the expense of his education, and to 
 his credit be it said that while in college he 
 earned some money by sawing wood and work- 
 ing in gardens. He says he always found time 
 for and greatly enjoyed athletic sports, espec- 
 ially baseball. He found it easy work in his 
 
 studies, but not until he reached the seminary did 
 he apply himself assiduously and try to improve his 
 opportunities. His college honors were confined to 
 the literary society and the athletic field. In one 
 annual contest between three college societies, he 
 was one of two to represent the society of which he 
 was a member. 
 
 The first ambition of our subject was to be a 
 farmer, later, however, deciding to become a physi- 
 cian, which choice he held to until the second term 
 of his senior year in college, when he resolved on 
 the ministry for his life work. The one who most 
 influenced him to study for the ministry was, he 
 avers, Doctor Noble, of Oberlin, with whom he lived 
 during the winter of 1872-73 for the purpose 
 largely of becoming initiated in the study of medi- 
 cine ; and yet a greater influence was that of Alex. 
 Alexander, an alumnus of Yale, himself prevented 
 by poor health from preaching, but, as Mr. Bryant 
 says, the most enthusiastic and devoted man he ever 
 knew, in respect to the ministry. 
 
 When Rev. Bryant resigned his pastorate it was 
 at the time a necessity on account of his aged and 
 infirm parents, and for the same reason he was at 
 a loss to know when he could resume the work ; so, 
 rather than be dependent, he chose to accept a favor- 
 able opening in business (with the Maltby, Stevens & 
 Curtiss Co., 1884, previously mentioned), to which 
 at that time (Nov. 10, 1884) he thought he was 
 better adapted than to a professional life. 
 
 In 1892, having finally decided to take up the 
 profession of law, Judge Bryant entered the law 
 department of Yale University, and was admitted to 
 the Bar in June, 1895, immediately opening a law 
 office in New Haven. The position he had accepted 
 in 1884 he held up to 1891, when he went into part- 
 nership with Walter A. Main, in the insurance and 
 real estate business in West Haven, Conn., and this 
 continued until 1896, in which year, on account of 
 his increased practice of law, the partnership was 
 dissolved. It may be added that his practice is 
 mainly in the Probate Court. 
 
 In politics Judge Bryant is a Republican and 
 takes an active part in the affairs of the party. In 
 November, 1888, he was elected to represent the 
 town of Orange in the Legislature of 1889-90, and 
 
 while serving there he was chairman of the commit- 
 tee on contested elections and clerk of the committee 
 on humane institutions. In April, 1895, he was ap- 
 pointed judge of the Orange Town Court. He was 
 delegate from the Town of Orange to the constitu- 
 tional convention. While a resident of South Brit- 
 ain he was a member of the school board, and has 
 since for several years held a similar position in 
 West Haven; was also member of the board of 
 wardens and burgesses, was chairman of the Re- 
 publican town committee, and served as assessor. 
 In the Congregational Church he takes an active 
 interest. On Aug. 5, 1888, he was elected deacon 
 in same at West Haven; in January, 1891, was 
 elected superintendent of the Sabbath-school ; at 
 
534 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 present he is chairman of tlie board of deacons, and 
 is also treasurer. 
 
 Fraternally Judge Bryant belongs to tlie F. & A. 
 AL, having been made a Freemason in January, 
 1891 ; in June, 1892, joined New Haven Com- 
 mandery. No. 2, Knights Templar; March, 1896, 
 was elected to 32d degree; is past master of Anna- 
 wan Lodge, No. 115, New Haven, and has been 
 district deputy for New Haven county; is member 
 of the Chapter and Council, and in the Commandery 
 has held the office of eminent commander, and in 
 the Grand Commandery of Connecticut is senior 
 warden. He is a charter member of the United 
 Workmen Lodge at New Haven, of which he was 
 the first financial secretary, and was also at one time 
 identified with the Knights of Honor; and he is 
 a member of the Samoset Club, of West Haven ; of 
 the Ivnight Templar Club, of New Haven ; and Adi- 
 rondack League Club, of New York, a club organ- 
 ized for forest preservation and hunting and fish- 
 ing, owning 88,000 acres and capitalized at $500,000 
 — the largest club of its kind, and it contains a dis- 
 tinguished membership, 265 at present. 
 
 In 1876 Judge Bryant was married to Ellen Ty- 
 ler, who was born in New Haven, the only daugh- 
 ter and only living child of the family of Dr. Da- 
 vid A. and Elizabeth (Alaltby) Tyler, the former of 
 whom, born at Northford, was for forty years a 
 practicing physician in New Haven, the latter be- 
 ing now deceased. Four children, all born in South 
 Britain, came of this union, the eldest of whom, 
 Robert W., died at the age of thirteen, and Ellen T. 
 at the age of seven, both being drowned ; Harriet 
 E., born March 11, 1877, is the wife of Howard W. 
 Thompson, cashier of the National Tradesman's 
 Bank, New Haven (they have one daughter, Doris) ; 
 and Douglas L., born Nov. 19, 1881, member of 
 Sheffield Scientific School. 
 
 HIRAM W. RANDALL (deceased) was born 
 at Bridgeport Sept. 9, 1830. His father, who also 
 bore the name of Hiram, died when his son was 
 an infant in arms ; he married Sally Pritchard, 
 whose birthplace was Seymour, and who was a 
 daughter of Leverett Pritchard, who died on ship- 
 board during the war for independence. 
 
 After the death of his father our subject was 
 tenderly reared by his widowed mother. He en- 
 joyed such educational advantages as were af- 
 forded by the common schools, and while yet a 
 youth entered the store of Lucius Tuttle as a clerk. 
 He was industrious, economical and far-sighted, 
 and it was not many years before he was able to 
 purchase his employer's business. He was emi- 
 nently successful as a merchant, being at once keen 
 and upright, sagacious and liberal. Fie was re- 
 puted to be one of the best buyers in the Nauga- 
 tuck \'alley, and being satisfied with reasonalole 
 profits, his trade grew apace. He was public-spir- 
 ited ,and popular, and for more than a quarter of a 
 centur\- was the most prosperous dealer 'in his sec- 
 
 tion. He died at the age of fifty-six, enjoying an 
 unblemished reputation, esteemed by his fellow 
 men, and sincerely mourned 'by his friends. 
 
 In 1854 Mr. Randall married Miss Martha 
 IVI. Gilbert, who is yet living in the house where 
 she was born, which was erected by Gen. Hum- 
 phrey, of Revolutionary fame, and bought by her 
 father. She comes of a long line of distinguished 
 ancestors, many of whom — in both direct and col- 
 lateral lines — gained reiiown as patriot soldiers 
 during the struggle which began in 1776 and 
 was terminated by the recognition of American in- 
 dependence after a seven-years' struggle against 
 overwhelming odds. Her genealogical record is a 
 most interesting one. Her grandfather, Thomas 
 Gilbert, served in the army of the Revolution. 
 While in the service he contracted that dread dis- 
 ease small-pox, which resulted in totally depriving 
 him of his sight. H'is home was in Huntington, 
 but later in life he removed to Derby, where he 
 died after rounding out a well-spent life of ninety 
 years. He married Abigail Holbrook, whose fa- 
 ther, as well as several of whose brothers, were also 
 followers of General Washington. She, too, died 
 a nonogenarian, and was the mother of eight chil- 
 dren. 
 
 The father of Mrs. Randall was Ezekiel Gil- 
 bert, who was born and grew to manhood in Hunt- 
 ington. His early life was spent upon a farm, but 
 in 1830 he removed to Seymour, where for several 
 years he was engaged in trade, enjoying the dis- 
 tinction of being one of the town's earliest mer- 
 chants. He established his son in business in New 
 Haven, and returning to Seymour died there, in 
 his fifty-sixth year. His wife's maiden name was 
 Sarah Hurd. Her father, Wilson Hurd, was a resi- 
 dent of Oxford, where she was born ; she died at 
 Great Hill. He, too, served in the war of the Rev- 
 olution, and was a man of no little prominence in 
 the community, his fellow citizens choosing him to 
 represent them in the Legislature, and elevating 
 him to the office of selectman. Both he and his 
 wife were confirmed in the Episcopal Church, and 
 were devout members of that communion until 
 their death, Airs. Ezekiel Gilbert passing away at 
 the ripe old age of seventy-five, while her husband 
 preceded her to the grave, in his fifty-sixth year. 
 
 Airs. Hiram W. Randall has spent her life in 
 Seymour. She is one of five w'idowed sisters : 
 Esther A. (Airs. Stoddard); Catherine (Airs. 
 Alinot F. Osborne); Sarah (Mrs. Wilcox); and 
 Charlotte (Mrs. Osborne). She is the mother of 
 five children, three of whom are yet living, (i) 
 Edward, the eldest surviving son, is a resident of 
 Seymour. He was educated in the common schools 
 and ,at Cheshire Academy. For some years he was 
 employed in his father's store, but subsequentlv 
 became connected with the Silver Plate Co., of 
 Shelton. He married Ehzabeth Steinmetz, who 
 was born in New York City, and two children have 
 been born to them, Kate and Hiram. (2) Walter 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 535 
 
 Randall, the next son, was for several years super- 
 intendent of the Silver Plate Co., of Shelton, and 
 is now bookkeeper for the Whitlock jManufactur- 
 ing Co., of that town. He married Olive Voulette 
 Whitlock, whose father, H. Sturgis Whitlock, was 
 one of the founders of the Whitlock Alachine Co., 
 of Shelton, and the inventor of the press they 
 manufacture. Mr. and Mrs. Walter Randall have 
 one child, Gilbert E. (3) Gilbert, the youngest of 
 Mrs. Randall's three living children, graduated from 
 the Norwalk Military Institute, and has been in the 
 employ of Price, Lee & Co., of New Haven, as a 
 pressman. 
 
 Mrs. Randall, as were her parents, is a member 
 of the Episcopal Church, and is a communicant at 
 Trinity, in Seymour. She is a member of Sarah 
 Ludlow Chapter, Daughters of the American Rev- 
 olution, of Seymour, and was for many years a 
 member of the Woman's Club of that town. Mr. 
 Randall was a Democrat politically, but he voted 
 independently, supporting the best man. 
 
 EGBERT E. PARDEE, ex-deputy judge and 
 clerk of the town court of Orange, was born Dec. 
 16, 1840, 'in West Haven, and belongs to one of 
 the pioneer families of that section. His grand- 
 father, Silas Pardee, was a native of the town of 
 Orange, where he followed farming during his ac- 
 tive years. His death occurred in middle age. 
 This worthy citizen married Elizabeth Ailing, and 
 they had twelve children. 
 
 Wyllys Pardee, our subject's father, was born 
 and reared in Orange, and as the eldest of a large 
 family, he was early trained to hard work. He 
 possessed much intelligence, and although his edu- 
 cation was restricted to the common schools he be- 
 came 'well informed by private reading. When a 
 young man he learned the cooper's trade, which he 
 followed in his town for some time, and afterward 
 in the South and in New Haven. Later he bought 
 a small farm in the village of West Haven, to 
 which he retired, and there spent a good old age, 
 dying at seventy-seven. He married Isabella 
 Brockett, a native of the village of West Haven, 
 and daughter of Capt. Benjamin Brockett, master 
 of a vessel, who was lost at sea. Her mother, 
 Rachel (Clark), who lived to the age of seventy- 
 six, was a member of an old and respected family 
 of the village of West Haven. Benjamin and 
 Rachel Brockett had six children, but none are now 
 living. Our subject's mother, who was the only 
 daughter, died at the age of seventy-seven. The 
 Clarks, Brocketts and) Pardees have usually been 
 identified with the Congregational Church, and our 
 subject was reared in that faith. He was the 
 voungest of a family of four children, the others 
 being: George W., of North Haven; Alfred B., 
 who served in the Civil war, being a member of the 
 14th Conn. V I., and who died at the Soldiers' 
 Home in Noroton, Conn., in August, 1898; and 
 Silas S., a carpenter in West Haven. 
 
 Egbert E. Pardee was educated in the common 
 scnools of his native town and in Brown's Male 
 Seminary, attending until he reached the age of 
 nineteen. He then assisted his father for some 
 years, and at twenty-seven left home and engaged 
 in the house painter's trade, which he followed un- 
 til 1887. Since that time his public duties have de- 
 manded all his time. On Dec. 21, 1868, he mar- 
 ried Miss Maria L. Kelsey, and they had two chil- 
 dren : Bertha Isabel, who died aged six years ; 
 and Martha E., who was educated in the public 
 schools of West Haven, and at a private school in 
 New Haven, and died Aug. i, 1899, aged twenty- 
 four years. Mrs. Pardee was born in Cromwell, 
 Conn., d'aug'hter of William Kelsey, a farmer, who 
 died in early manhood; his wife, Elizabeth (Teal), 
 was a native of New York City. To William and 
 Elizabeth Kelsey were born children as follows : 
 Mrs. Howard Smith, of Watertown; Mrs. William 
 A. Waterbury, wife of the superintendent of the 
 Shore line division of the Consolidated Railroad, 
 residing in New Haven; Mrs. Pardee; David, re- 
 siding in Cromwell ; Revilo, a well-known mer- 
 cnant of Middletown, Conn. ; and William W., 
 cashier in the freight office of the Consolidated 
 Railroad at Belle Dock, New Haven. The mother 
 is still living, at the age of eighty-two years, and 
 is a much respected member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 The Judge is an ardent Republican, and from 
 an early age has been influential in public matters, 
 his wide popularity making him a most desirable 
 candidate. He has served on the board of town- 
 ship assessors fifteen years, being chairman of that 
 board except during the first year, and for ten 
 years he was on the borough board. In 1886 he 
 was elected justice of the peace as well as assessor, 
 and he continued as trial justice of the town until 
 the establishment of the town court in 1895, when 
 he was appointed to the position of deputy judge 
 and clerk of the town court. This appointment 
 was for two years, and at the end of that time he 
 v/as reappointed, serving until 1899, when he was 
 again reappointed, to serve until 1901. During the 
 time of his service as trial justice he did a large 
 amount of work, and had a great number of cases, 
 and the duties of his late incumbency he dispatched 
 with marked ability. The appreciation of the pub- 
 lic is shown by the fact that he has been success- 
 ively elected at yearly elections since 1886, making 
 fifteen years in all. He was one of the building 
 committee of the new town hall. When the new 
 LTnion school building was erected he was on the 
 school committee, and was the inspector of build- 
 ing from st^rt to finish, overlooking all the work. 
 
 EDWIN FRANCIS MERSICK, who died 
 April 8, 1898, was throughout his active life prom- 
 inently identified with business interests in the city 
 of New Haven, where he made his home from 
 boyhood. By diligence and perseverance he 
 
"536 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 gained a high standing in the commercial world, 
 where as a successful man of affairs his judg- 
 ment was sought and highly valued. 
 
 J\Ir. Mersick was born in New York City Jan. 
 S, 1838, son of John C. and Sarah (Daggett) Mer- 
 sick, the former a native of Boston, Mass., the 
 latter of New Haven. John C. Mersick hved re- 
 tired in New Haven for some years prior to his 
 ■death, which occurred in that city in January, 1887. 
 J^is wife lived to the advanced age of eighty. 
 They were the parents of two children, Edwm 
 Francis (our subject) and Charles Smith. 
 
 Edwin F. Mersick was reared in New Haven, 
 rand in his early years attended both public and 
 .private schools.' He commenced business life as 
 'k clerk with English, Dickman & English, and 
 ■.finallv formed a partnership with James G. Eng- 
 lish, continuing in business up to the time of his 
 death. He was a director in the Mechanics Bank, 
 treasurer of the Rattan Chair Co., and connected 
 in various other ways with the most important in- 
 dustries of the city, taking also an active interest 
 in public affairs and improvements. 
 
 Mr. Mersick was twice married, his first wife 
 having been Emily Augusta Cannon, by whom he 
 had one daughter, Sarah Emily, who is now the 
 wife of Frederick T. Bradley. For his second 
 wife Mr. Mersick wedded Mary Emma Lewis, 
 who survives him. Mr. Mersick was an active 
 member of Trinity Church, in which he served as 
 vestryman, and socially he belonged to the Quinni- 
 piac Club and other organizations. He took 
 especial delight in books, and was an unusually 
 well-read man. 
 
 ORLANDO JONES. Among the reliable, 
 substantial and prosperous farmers of Hamden, 
 New Haven county, there is probably no one who 
 stands higher in the public estimation than the 
 gentleman whose name introduces this sketch. He 
 was born in the town of Meredith, Delaware Co., 
 N. Y., April 19, 1827, a son of Edward' and Nancy 
 (Churchill) Jones. When he was five years of 
 age the family removed to Wayne county, Penn., 
 where they lived until 1844, and then came to 
 Hamden, Conn. Here the father died at the age 
 of sixty-six years. He had- eight children, of 
 whom our subject is the oldest ;■ Almira (Mrs. D. 
 C. Stebbins) is now a resident of Vergennes, Vt.\ 
 Edwin is deceased; Willis lives in Buffalo, N. Y. ; 
 Charles makes his home in Bristol, Conn. ; Malinda 
 is the wife of Edward Jones, of Hamden; Emma 
 is deceased; and Eliza is the wife of Harry Davis, 
 of Walhngford, Connecticut. 
 
 Orlando Jones was educated in the public 
 schools of Pennsj'lvania, where he made his home 
 until seventeen years of age. On coming to Ham- 
 den, he entered the auger factor\r of his maternal 
 uncles, Joel N. & Levi Churchill, which is now 
 owned by the Hamden Manufacturing Co., at 
 Augerville, and there he learned the trade of 
 
 au°-er making. After working for that firm eight 
 years he went to Westville, Conn., where he was 
 emploved in Wales French's auger factory from 
 18S'' to 1857, and then entered the iron foundry 
 of Guy Hotchkiss, manufacturer of axles, and was 
 in his employ until 1869, since which time he has 
 been engaged in farming and market gardening 
 upon the farm in Hamden where he now lives; 
 and he has built all the buildings thereon, the home 
 being erected there in 1862. , . 
 
 On April 18, 1855, Mr. Jones was united m 
 marriage with Miss Sylva J. Thomas, daughter of 
 Caleb and Hattie Thomas, and by this union two 
 sons were born : ( i) Lester O., a market gardener 
 of Ham'den, married Miss Mabel Ripley, of Pans 
 i\Ie. ; he is one of the selectmen of Hamden. (2) 
 Burton T., also a market gardener of Hamden, 
 married Miss Alice Woodcock, a native of Eng- 
 land, who came to the United States when a girl. 
 Fraternally ;Mr. Jones affiHated with Day Spring 
 Lodge, No. 30, F. & A. M., and politically is identi- 
 fied with the Republican party. As a citizen he 
 has the good of the community at heart and gives 
 his support to those enterprises calculated to ad- 
 vance the general welfare. He is a self-made man 
 in the fullest sense. His start in the world was 
 his own ambition and his energy, and his_ life has 
 been a busy and active one, but withal he is a very 
 well preserved man. 
 
 HENRY HOAIER OLDS, deceased. For al- 
 most sixt}f-four years Henry H. Olds, of New Ha- 
 ven, lived a life of industry and uprightness, and at 
 his death June 16, 1888, he left behind him a rec- 
 ord of honorable dealing and Christian conduct. 
 
 The birth of Mr. Olds occurred July 6, 1825, 
 in New Haven. Homer Olds, his father, was a na- 
 tive of Southwick, Mass., and his mother, Clarissa 
 (Avery) Olds, was born in Wallingford, Conn. The 
 Olds family is an old one in the State of Massachu- 
 setts, the early records telling of five brothers of 
 the name coming over in the "Mayflower" and set- 
 tling there. Homer Olds was a cigar maker by 
 trade and followed it in New Haven until his death, 
 when he left two children: Henry H., the subject 
 of this biography; and Ann, who married a Mr. 
 Stout, also a cigar maker, who removed to the State 
 of New Jersey. The mother passed away at the 
 residence of her son in New Haven. 
 
 At the age of fourteen, Henry H. Olds began 
 his business career as a farmer boy on the estate of 
 Capt. Samuel Thompson, in East Haven, leaving 
 there to go to New York, to act as errand boy in a 
 livery stable for his 'uncle, Erastus Beach. Two 
 years later he returned to New Haven and first 
 learned the blacksmith and boiler making trade, and 
 later the brass molding trade, following the latter 
 until 1851. We are not informed what turned his 
 attention to the pie-making business, in which he 
 so signally succeeded, and by which he accumulated 
 a large fortune, but it was in 185 1 that he first began 
 
A/tcSf^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 537 
 
 it. For eight years Mr. Olds studied every metliod 
 of the pie-making trade, becoming thoroughly ac- 
 quainted with all its details and a competent judge 
 of all ingredients. In 1859 he established a pie 
 bakery in Providence, R. I., for a short time, but 
 the competition was great there, and in 1861 he re- 
 turned to New Haven and built the large establish- 
 ment at No. 403 Chapel street. From the iirst it 
 was a success, for Mr. Olds was its conscientious 
 manager himself, and he held his goods to the high 
 standard he inaugurated ; and before long his trade 
 doubled, and continued to grow, until his business 
 represaited the second largest house of its kind in 
 the United States. 
 
 On July 6, 1855, Mr. Olds took to himself a 
 wife, fitted in every way to be his capable and con- 
 genial companion, this estimable lady still residing 
 in New Haven. She was Miss Elizabeth Camp- 
 bell, a native of County Down, Belfast, Ireland, a 
 daughter of Robert and Sarah (Clemens) Camp- 
 bell, both natives of Ireland, where they spent their 
 lives. No children were born of this union, but 
 Mrs. Olds takes great interest in charitable and 
 church work. Both she and her husband were much 
 attached to the Universalist Church, to which Mr. 
 Olds contributed freely, even giving a church edifice 
 to the society, but his gifts were given so quietly 
 that of the major number of them the world knew 
 nothing. 
 
 In speaking of the lamented death of Mr. Olds, 
 the New Haven Palladium said : "Mr. Olds led a 
 pure and benevolent life. Patriotic and honest, he 
 stood by his country in the dark days of the war, 
 and was a friend of the poor and oppressed. He 
 was early guided by Christian principles, though not 
 until late in life did he make a Christian profession." 
 
 CHARLES L. NORTHROP was born Feb. 
 26, 1828, in Bethany, this county, and despite his 
 seventy-four years is hale and hearty, and well 
 preserved in both mind and body. 
 
 Bela Northrop, his grandfather, was a native 
 of the same town, and followed the occupation of 
 a farmer, also running a saw and gristmill. He 
 married Betsey Johnson, and to their union were 
 born five children: Marvin (the father of our 
 subject), Allen, George, Clark and Rebecca. 
 
 Marvin Northrop was born in Bethany, and 
 followed farming throughout life, dying at the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty-one years. He married Mary 
 Sperry, who was born Sept. 26, 1805, daughter of 
 Micah Sperry, a farmer of Bethany, and is still 
 living, having passed her ninety-sixth milestone. 
 Eight children were born to iMarvin Northrop and 
 his wife, three of whom are deceased, the others 
 being as follows: Charles L. is our subject; Delia 
 married David Smith, of Woodbridge ; Elizur A. 
 resides in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Sarah is the wife of 
 JuHus Merwin, of New Haven; and Marshall is 
 associated in business with his brother Charles. 
 Both parents were devout members of the Episco- 
 
 pal Church. Mr. Northrop was regarded as one 
 of the most energetic and successful farmers of 
 his day. 
 
 Charles L. Northrop, after reaching manhood, 
 bought a farm in Woodbridge, but subsequently 
 learned the carpenter's trade and was for fourteen 
 years a successful contractor and builder. In ad- 
 dition he engaged in the manufacture of matches 
 at Woodbridge for twenty-five years. In 1896 he 
 disposed of his interest in Bethany and Wood- 
 bridge, and removed to West Haven, at first oc- 
 cupying a house not far from his present location. 
 It was not long, however, before he secured the 
 very desirable property which he now occupies, 
 and to which he has given the very appropriate 
 name of "Fairview," inasmuch as it overlooks a 
 wide and fascinating marine landscape. Here he 
 entertains boarders, and the house has already be- 
 come a popular resort for pleasure seekers. 
 
 On July 14, 1850, Mr. Northrop was married 
 to Adeline F. Andrew, a daughter of Nehemiah 
 and Ph'inett (Sperry) Andrew, prosperous farm- 
 ing people of Bethany. Five children have 
 blessed their union, and three are yet living: (i) 
 Mary married William H. Beecher, a successful 
 ice dealer of New Haven, and has one daughter, 
 Addie, who is now the wife of Burt Dickerson, 
 superintendent of a trolley line in Salisbury, Mass., 
 and has one daughter, Lila. (2) Elmer was form- 
 erly a blacksmith in Bethany, where he is now in 
 tne carpenter business ; he married Lucia North- 
 rop, and is the father of four children, Clara 
 (Mrs. Louis Sandland), Viola, Sadie and Charles. 
 (3) William, the youngest, is his father's partner in 
 business; he married Mary Moody, who died Sept. 
 28, 1899. 
 
 Politically Mr. Northrop is a Democrat, and 
 was an efficient member of the board of relief in 
 Woodbridge. He commands universal respect, 
 alike for his qualities of head and heart. 
 
 STEPHEN GUY GILBERT is a representa- 
 tive merchant as well as one of the substantial 
 and thorough business men of the town of North 
 Haven. His ancestors were old and honored set- 
 tlers of Connecticut, and his grandfather, Stephen 
 Gilbert, was a native of Hamden, where he fol- 
 lowed farming on the old place now known as the 
 Pickett farm. He is remembered as a quiet man, 
 who lived a typical rural life, farming extensively 
 and dealing justly by his neighbors, the only prom- 
 inence he desired being in the Episcopal Church, 
 of which he was a devout member. He married 
 Betsey Fowler, of New Haven, and they had two 
 children : Chloe and Stephen C. The daughter 
 married Alfred Bassett, and lived in Hamden, 
 later in New Haven, where Mr. Bassett held an 
 important office in the Customs House. 
 
 Stephen C. Gilbert was born May 7, 1802, in 
 Harrington, where his father owned a farm and 
 was living at that time. His education was only 
 
538 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that afforded by the district schools, but he so 
 appHed himself to his books that he was able to 
 teach, through the winters, and worked on a farm 
 during the summers. After his marriage he 
 opened a general store in Centerville, town of 
 Hamden, which he conducted several years. Dis- 
 posing of his mercantile business in 1830, he came 
 to North Haven, where -lie opened a general store 
 in the basement of his house, which is located 
 next to the store of his son, and remained until 
 increasing business made necessary the erection of 
 the present building used as a store. Mr. Gilbert 
 was an energetic and intelligent man, and but for 
 the lack of early education might have become 
 prominent in many lines, his natural ability mak- 
 ing him a leader m many things in spite of disad- 
 vantages. His accomplishments as a penman were 
 well known. Almost any local position of honor 
 was open to him, and during 1875-76 he repre- 
 sented the town in the Legislature ; for a number 
 of years he served as town clerk. Many sought 
 his advice in business, and he was always ready to 
 assist any who came to him. His death, which 
 occurred in February, 1886, was mourned by the 
 whole community. His devoted and estimable 
 wife, Luanna P. Abbott, was born April 3, 1810, 
 in North Haven, a daughter of John Abbott, a 
 merchant there. Her death occurred in Decem- 
 ber, 1891. She was a kind and charitable neigh- 
 bor. Children were born of this union as follows : 
 Stephen G. ; George Edward ; Anna Maria, who 
 married F. E. IveSj_ of Mt. Carmel ; John Pierson ; 
 and Mary, who married A. E. Austin. 
 
 Stephen G. Gilbert was born July 18, 1829, in 
 the town of Centerville, came with his parents to 
 North Haven when he was but a year old, and 
 received his education in the district schools. 
 When old enough he left home and entered the 
 employ of B. Douglass & Son, confectioners of 
 New Haven, as traveling salesman over the State 
 of Connecticut, and remained with them twenty 
 years, at the expiration of that time returning to 
 North Haven and entering the store of his father, 
 where he was needed. After his father's death he 
 took charge, of the business and has successfullv 
 conducted it ever since. From 1885 to 1889 Mr. 
 Gilbert was postmaster, under President Cleve- 
 land, but has never been wilKng to accept local of- 
 fices. Commerciallv and socially he is one of the 
 representative citizens of North Haven. 
 
 Mr. Gilbert married Celia Louise Fish, a na- 
 tive of Grand View, N. Y., and a daughter of Asa 
 N. and Harriet (Crossett) Fish. :\rr. and Mrs. 
 Gilbert have one of ttie most desirable residences 
 in the town. They are members of St. John's 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 CHARLES SAMUEL GILLETTE, one of 
 the most progressive citizens and prominent agri- 
 culturists of Cheshire, was born in Colches'ter, 
 New London Co., Conn., July 15, 1840, and traces 
 
 his ancestry back to the first Puritan settlers in 
 New England. The family was originally from 
 France, but removed tO' England during the days 
 of William the Conqueror, and from the latter 
 country came to America, first locating in Massa- 
 chusetts, and later in Windsor, Conn. Descend- 
 ants of these pioneers are now widely scattered 
 over the American continent. 
 
 Samuel S. Gillette, the father of our subject, 
 was also a native of Colchester, and a son of Sam- 
 uel Gillette, a farmer and land owner of New Lon- 
 don county, where his death occurred. The fa- 
 ther received a good common-school education, and 
 for several years successfully engaged in teaching 
 in the district schools of his native county. Sub- 
 secjuently he located up>on a farm in the town of 
 Colchester, and devoted the remainder of his life 
 to general farming and stock raising and dealing. 
 He was a Whig and later a Republican in politics, 
 was an active member of the Congregational 
 Church, and was quite a prominent and highly re- 
 spected man in his community. He married Jose- 
 phine Babcock, a native of East Haddam, Middle- 
 sex county, and a daughter of Samuel Babcock, 
 one of the old and respected settlers of that place, 
 and a descendant of an old Rhode Island family. 
 By this union were born four children : Charles 
 Samuel, subject of this sketch; Oscar, who died in 
 New Orleans while a soldier of the Civil war; 
 Dwight, who Kves on the old homestead; and 
 Selden L., a resident of Kent, Ohio. Both par- 
 ents died on the old homestead, and were buried 
 in Colchester cemetery. The mother was also an 
 earnest memher of the Congregational Church. 
 
 The primary education of Charles S. Gillette 
 was obtained in the district schools near his boy- 
 hood home, and was supplemented by a course at 
 the Colchester Academy. He remained under the 
 parental roof until attaining man's estate, and 
 learned the carpenter's and joiner's trade, at which 
 he worked for several years, and then bought a 
 farm, which he operated for two years. At the 
 end of that time he removed to the town of Meri- 
 den, where he followed farming until coming to 
 Cheshire, in 1874, when he purchased the Anson 
 Tuttle farm of fifty-three acres, which he has 
 since greatly improved. In connection with farm- 
 ing he continued to work at his trade in the town 
 of Cheshire and other sections of the county for 
 several years, and in 1890 embarked in the feed 
 and agricultural implement business. He now 
 represents several different manufacturers of farm 
 machinery in the United States, and is also agent 
 for fertilizers.^ He is a man of good business and 
 executive ability, is enterprising and progressive, 
 and upright and honorable in all his dealings. 
 
 Mr. Gillette was married, in Stroudsburg, Pa., 
 to Miss Emma Laing, a native of Johnsonburg, 
 Warren Co., N. J., who is well educated and is a 
 talented musician. Mrs. Gillette is a daughter of 
 Joseph C. and Phoebe A. (Bunting) Laing, na- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 539 
 
 tives of the same vicinity. Her grandparents were 
 Samuel and Edith (Lundy) Laing, natives of 
 New Jersey and New York, respectively. The 
 family has been traced back to Aberdeen, Scot- 
 land. To Mr. and Mrs. Gillette have been born 
 two children : Charles, deceased ; and Dwight 
 Laing. They have taken three girls to rear, one 
 of whomi is deceased. The eldest, Minna Bunting, 
 is now the wife of W. Percy Bristol, of Meriden; 
 tiie youngest. Amy, is now a student in the public 
 schools. Dwight L. Gillette was educated in the 
 Episcopal Academy of Cheshire, and holds a di- 
 ploma from the Amherst (Mass.) Agricultural 
 College. Mr. and Mrs. Gillette are members of 
 the Congregational Church, and he is a Republi- 
 can in politics. He is a charter member of the 
 Grange, and has served as chaplain of the same; 
 and has been elected to several local positions of 
 honor and trust, having served as selectman of 
 'Cheshire and also assessor and justice of the peace, 
 the duties of which offices he most capably and 
 satisfactorily discharged. 
 
 GLADWIN. This family, of which Gilbert A. 
 Gladwin, one of Meriden's highly respected citi- 
 zens, and the late Hon. Russell S. Gladwin, were 
 descendants, is one of the oldest and most respect- 
 ed in Middlesex county, and is of English origin. 
 
 Joseph Gladwin, the grandfather of Gilbert A., 
 was bom in Saybrook, Middlesex _ Co., Conn., in 
 1763, was a farmer, and served as a soldier in the 
 war of the Revolution. His life ended in Saybrook, 
 May 3, 1823. His four sons were Silas, Elisha, 
 Alva and Joseph. 
 
 Joseph Gladwin (2), son of Joseph (i), was 
 born Dec. 22, 1791, in Sa^'brook, and was engaged 
 through life in agricultural pursuits. His death 
 occurred at an advanced age, and tie rests in Deep 
 River cemetery. In politics he was an Old-line 
 Whig, ana for many years he was a leading- mem- 
 ber of the Baptist Church. Joseph Gladwin was 
 married in Saybrook to Sally Doane, who was born 
 June 3, 1796, a daughter of Edmund and Sally 
 (Bushnell) Doane, and died Feb. 6, 1874. Chil- 
 dren as follows were born to them : Chapman, 
 born June 2, 1819, resides in Essex, Conn. ; Almira, 
 born March 6, 1821, married William L. Jones 
 and died April 29, 1887; Russell Samuel and Gil- 
 bert A., both mentioned below; Juliet, born Dec. 
 27, 1828, died March 3, 1829; Joseph S., born 
 March 2, 1830, served in the iSth Conn. V. I., dur- 
 ing the Civil war, and is a painter in Westbrook, 
 Conn.; Juliet, born July 30, 1832, married L. E. 
 Dennison, of Saybrook, and died Feb. 16, 1857; 
 Augustus T., born May 19, 1835, died April 15, 
 1862; and Ecfor'd H., born July 16, 1838, is a 
 blacksmith in Essex. 
 
 The late Russell S.vmuel Gladwin was born 
 in Saybrook Aug. 23, 1823, grew up on' the farm, 
 was educated in the district and private schools. 
 He learned blacksmithing, and coming to Meriden 
 
 engaged in work at his trade, with Lucius Smith 
 as a partner, later becoming a foreman in the forg- 
 ing department of the Parker Bros, gun factory, 
 in which he was a director. Still later he became 
 a member of a stock company which engaged in 
 the manufacture of steel shears, this concern after- 
 ward being known as the Miller Bros. Cutlery Co. 
 After disposing of his- interest in this company, 
 Mr. Gladwin engaged for a number of years, in- 
 dependently, in the same line of work. In 1849 
 he joined the gold seekers in California, and re- 
 mained three years. Late in life he became an 
 invalid, and was kindly cared for by his brother 
 Gilbert A., who also looked after his business in- 
 terests. For many years Mr. Gladwin was a prom- 
 inent Republican, was a member of the city coun- 
 cil, and the second mayor of Meriden, holding the 
 office with credit and ability; the first mayor was 
 the venerable Charles Parker. Mr. Gladwin was 
 a prominent member of the Baptist Society, a good 
 man, an excellent citizen, beloved by his family 
 and the community. Socially he had long been a 
 member of Center Lodge, No. 97, A. F. & A. M., 
 of Meriden. The death of this prominent citizen 
 occurred May 15, 1900, and his interment took 
 place in Walnut Grove cemetery. In 1847 he was 
 married to Eunice A. Averill, who was born in 
 Branford, Conn., daughter of David and Polly 
 Averill. Two children were born to this union, 
 both of whom died in infancy. Mrs. Gladwin 
 passed away April 15, 1895, at the age of seventy- 
 two years, and was buried in Walnut Grove cem- 
 etery. She, too, had been a consistent member of 
 the Baptist Church. 
 
 Gilbert A. Gladwin was born on the old 
 homestead in Saybrook, Sept. 12, 1826. His edu- 
 cation was obtained in the district and private 
 schools, and until early manhood he worked on 
 the home farm. Possessed of business- ability and 
 mechanical genius, while still a young man he be- 
 came a manufacturer of joiners' tools, carrying 
 on a successful business in Winthrop until 1861, 
 at which time he accepted' a position as pattern- 
 maker in the Parker gun shop, in Meriden. Mr. 
 Gladwin and Philo Hart were the makers of the 
 pattern for the first printing-press in Meriden, 
 which was used by The Recorder, established by 
 the well-known Luther Riggs. Until 1865 Mr. 
 Gladwin remained with the Parker Co., and then, 
 in association with H. R. Tooley, he embarked 
 in the furniture business, the firm style being 
 Tooley & Gladwin. This partnership lasted until 
 1869, when Mr. Gladwin bought the interest of 
 Mr. Tooley and continued with Choate Howard 
 until 1879, ^"d with others of the Howard family 
 until 1884, when he sold out this enterprise, which 
 is now conducted by the Howard Brothers, on 
 Colony street. For the past sixteen years Mr. 
 Gladwin has employed his time in looking after 
 his own and his brother's real-estate interests. 
 For many years he was a very prominent factor 
 
540 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 m the business world of Aleriden, in which he was 
 well and favorably known. 
 
 On Nov. 6, 1848, Mr. Gladwin was married in 
 VVnithrop, town of Saybrook, to Marietta E. 
 Jones, who was born in Winthrop, Jan. 12, 1827, 
 a daughter of Capt. Zina Jones, of Saybrook. Her 
 death occurred April 18, 1851, and 'she was in- 
 terred in Winthrop cemetery. The only child of 
 this marriage. Marietta E., was born April 14, 
 1851, and married Edwin P. Hall; their three 
 children are Arthur G., a newspaper man of New 
 York City; Abbie; and Mabel, the latter engaged 
 in the art and embroidery business in Meriden. 
 On March 31, 1852, he married for his second wife 
 Abigail VV. Loomis, who was born May 9, 1826, a 
 daughter of Simon and Lydia (Williams) Loomis, 
 and a granddaughter of Simon and Sallie (Hol- 
 brook) Loomis. Her death occurred in Meriden 
 Aug. 6, 1898, and she was buried in Walnut Grove 
 cemetery. Mrs. Glaawin was a consistent member 
 of the Baptist Church, a lady of Christian charac- 
 ter, gracious presence and winning personality. 
 
 For over thirty years Mr. Gladwin has been a 
 deacon in the Main Street Baptist Church, and for 
 many years has been an efficient Sunday-school 
 teacher. In his earlier poHtical life he was an 
 advocate of the principles of the Free-soil party. 
 In 1859 he was elected to the Legislature as a 
 non-partisan, from the town of Saybrook. At 
 present he is a stanch supporter of the Prohibi- 
 tionist party, conscientiously believing its princi- 
 ples to be the best for the country. He is one of 
 the best-known and most highly respected men of 
 his community. 
 
 SAMUEL A. CHAPMAN. In the death of 
 this gentleman, Feb. 13, 1896, the city of Waterburv 
 lost one of her best citizens, and his family a mos't 
 indulgent head. 
 
 The coming of the Chapmans (one of the early 
 New England families) to Connecticut dates back 
 to a period beyond two and a quarter centuries ago, 
 and to the territory of the present town of Tolland 
 to approximately one and three-quarters centuries; 
 the various members have been eminently distin- 
 guished in both civil and military life. 
 
 Edward Chapman, the first American ancestor 
 of one branch of the Tolland Chapmans, came about 
 1660 to Windsor from England, where he married 
 Elizabeth Fox. He settled in Simsbury (then a 
 part of Windsor) , and lost his life at the storming 
 of Narragansett Fort in December, 1675. 
 
 Simon Chapman, a son of Edward, born in i66q, 
 lived in Windsor, but held lands in Tolland, of which' 
 town he was one of the great proprietors. He mar- 
 ried about 1692, and his son, 
 
 Capt. Samuel Chapman, born in 1696, married, 
 m 1717, Hannah Strong, and became the progenitor 
 of all the Chapmans in the western part of the town 
 of Tolland, which town began to be settled about 
 1725. He was the only justice of the peace in Tol- 
 
 land for nine years, and was selectman for eleven 
 years. He died in the service of his countr}' during 
 the French war. Capt. Samuel Chapman's several 
 sons and daughters all married and also settled in 
 Tolland, where the sons became the wealthiest men 
 in the town and were among the most active, public- 
 spirited and influential. 
 
 Col. Samuel Chapman, son of Capt. Samuel 
 Chapman, iborn in Windsor a few years prior to his 
 father's settling in Tolland, married, in 1750, Sarah 
 White, of Bolton, Conn. He was a very remarka- 
 ble man, and a very eminent citizen of Tolland. He 
 served as captain in the French and Indian war, and 
 as colonel of the 22d Connecticut Militia during the 
 entire war of the Revolution. His was the master 
 spirit that brought the citizens of Tolland into unan- 
 imous and energetic action in the Revolutionary 
 contest. His personal courage and astonishing 
 hardihood were proverbial among his soldiers. 
 Few men could be found so unflinching in mo- 
 ments of danger, and his firmness and energy never 
 faltered under any circumstances. He was rather 
 under the middle stature, had blue eyes, and his 
 voice was remarkable for its loudness and energy. 
 He was a great reader, taciturn and of studious hab- 
 its. He never laughed, and it is said a smile sel- 
 domi lighted his countenance. Col. Chapman was 
 elected to the General Assembly from Tolland forty- 
 three times, when the election was held twice a year, 
 and attended fifteen special sessions of that body. 
 He was a member of the convention in 1788, and 
 voted for the adoption of the present Constitution of 
 the United States. He was several years a select- 
 man, and for twenty-six years (1772-1797) served 
 as justice of the peace. 
 
 Among other prominent men of the name in' 
 Tolland were: Deacon Elijah Chapman, elected 
 several terms to the General Assembly, and also 
 served as selectman; Gen. Elijah Chapman, who 
 several times was a member of the General Assem- 
 bly, and for twenty-three years served as sheriff 
 of Tolland county ; and Capt. Asbbel, who was also 
 several times in the General Assembly, and a mem- 
 ber of the convention, in 1818, which framed the 
 Constitution of the State. 
 
 Of the five children of Col. Samuel Chapman, 
 Samuel, born in 1757, settled in Ellington, Conn. On 
 Oct. 24, 1782, he married Mary Carlton, and be- 
 came the father of ten children, among whom was 
 Chester, the father of our subject. 
 
 Chester Chapman grew to manhood and March 
 1832, married Abigail Loomis, who bore him four 
 children: Samuel A., our subject; Mary Carlton 
 born Dec. 19, 1834; John Melvin, born Dec 2^' 
 1836; and Emily Elizabeth, born Jan. 17, 1839. On 
 Dec 29, 1840, Chester Chapman wedded Elizabeth 
 Bull of Ellington, Conn., and five children came 
 to this second marriage: Eustace Chester, born 
 Sept 30,- 1841 ; Florence Alicia, Oct. 25, 1842; Les- 
 lie Clarence, Feb. 16, 1845 ; Randolph Butler, Nov 
 10, 1848; and Edwin Dayton, July 15, 1851. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 541 
 
 Samuel A. Chapman, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, was born Dec. 25, 1832, in the town of 
 ElHngton, the eldest in a family of nine children. 
 While yet a boy he left home and began his business 
 career in Hartford, Conn. In 1858 he came to Wat- 
 erbury as a contractor with Rogers & Bros., with 
 which firm he remained about seven years. At the 
 end of this perjod he accepted a position with the 
 Holmes, Booth & Hayden Co., as superintendent, 
 in which capacity he served that company for eight- 
 een years, becoming after a time one of the directors 
 of the company. In 1883 he organized the Chap- 
 man & Armstrong Manufacturing Co., of which 
 he himself was chosen president ; he was also 
 president of the Hammond Buckle Co. As a 
 brass manufacturer Mr. Chapman was considered 
 one of the best in the country. For several 
 years he was a member of the board of com- 
 pensation in Waterbury, and was also at one 
 time police commissioner of the city. On the ques- 
 tion of values of property he was considered an 
 expert, and his advice was frequently sought in a 
 public capacity. Mr. Chapman, without being at 
 all demonstrative, was exceedingly public-spirited, 
 and watched with keen interest all public matters, 
 and ofttimes, without appearing to do so, exerted 
 considerable influence. He was a councilman for 
 ■many years, and in every way was a man of prom- 
 inence, highly respected by all. As an employer of 
 large numbers of men, he was considered to be just 
 and considerate, winning the esteem and confidence 
 of those who were associated with him. Fraternally 
 he was a manber of Harmony Lodge, F. & A. M., 
 and of Clark Commandery, K. T., of Waterbury. 
 In politics he was a Republican. In addition to 
 his other interests he owned an extensive dairy and 
 sheep farm in Madison, Conn., on which were to 
 be found all modern improvements, and he was also 
 the proprietor of several seaside cottages. 
 
 On May 25, 1858, Mr. Chapman married Miss 
 Mary E. Lancey (also spelled DeLancey), who was 
 born in Springfield, Mass., a daughter of William 
 and Betsey (Herrick) Lancey, and to this union 
 was born March 26, 1859, a daughter, Florence 
 Mabel, who is living at home. Mr. Lancey was a 
 native of Weston, Vt., born March 10, 1801, and 
 died in 1840. He was a son of Zacheus Lancey, 
 who settled in Weston. Mrs. Lancey was born in 
 Chesterfield, N. H., a daughter of Silas Herrick, 
 and died Sept. 17, 1865. The first of this DeLancey 
 family in America came from France and settled 
 in one of the New England States some time in the 
 eighteenth century. Mrs. Chapman, the wife of 
 our subject, was one of a family of six children, 
 as follows : William J., a dentist in Centralia, III, 
 who always writes his name DeLancey; Helen M., 
 unmarried; George, who died in infancy; Sarah J., 
 wife of Leroy S. White, of Waterbury, Conn. ; Mary 
 E. (Mrs. Chapman) ; and John L., who died at the 
 age of two and one-half years. 
 
 Mr. Chapman died Feb. 13, i 
 
 at Water- 
 
 bury, and a local paper of the time pays him the 
 following well-merited eulogy: "In the death of 
 Samuel A. Chapman, Waterbury loses one of its 
 representative citizens. The news of his death came 
 with startling and shocking suddenness, and to the 
 many who loved him for what he was, it is experi- 
 enced as a personal affliction. He was a noble and 
 generous man, whose many unostentatious kind- 
 nesses and gracious deeds caused him to be held in 
 high regard." 
 
 DWIGHT J. DOWNS is a well-known busi- 
 ness man of Ansonia, where he is engaged as a 
 butcher and a dealer in hides and skins, also 
 handling fertilizers. He has quite a large estab- 
 lishment in Division street. 
 
 Mr. Downs was born in Seymour, New Haven 
 county, Dec. 3, 1839, a son of James Downs, who 
 was born in Huntington, this State, and was one 
 of a family of nine children. The mother of these, 
 Mrs. Lydia (Patterson) Downs, lived to her nine- 
 ty-second year. The father was a farmer in 
 Huntington, where he was married and died at 
 the age of fifty years. James Downs was reared 
 on a farm and educated in the public schools. On 
 reaching manhood he purchased a farm in Mon- 
 roe, and spent his life in its cultivation. He 
 died at the age of seventy-three years. He 
 married Carrie Johnson, who was born in Seymour 
 (then known as Derby), daughter of Beecher 
 Johnson, who had three children. The Johnsons 
 were early settlers in this part of the State, and a 
 grandchild of Mr. Johnson still occupies the old 
 homestead. Of the five children born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Downs, two are still living: Beech J., who 
 was the third child; and Dwight J., our subject; 
 one daughter died at the age of eighty years, and 
 one son at the age of eighty-one. Mrs. Downs 
 died when sixty-eight years old. Both parents 
 were members of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Dwight J. Downs spent the first thirteen years 
 of his life under the parental roof. He then went 
 out to work by the month, doing a man's work. He 
 was in Southbury three years, after which he took 
 up the butcher business, running a wagon in Ber- 
 lin for three years, when he sold out. In 1868 
 he came to Ansonia and started a retail meat mar- 
 ket, which he carried on for seventeen years. For 
 two years he was also engaged in a "cooler' at 
 Derby, which then passed into the hands of the 
 Derby Beef Co. At the present time he is doing 
 a wholesale business in beef and rendered tallow, 
 and also deals largely in fertilizers, collecting and 
 preparing from fifty butcher shops. Mr. Downs 
 is among the oldest business men in this section, 
 and his career has been marked by singular integ- 
 rity and honesty. He has a fine home, and built 
 his present house in 1879, on the site of one that 
 was 175 years old. He has extensive real-estate 
 interests, and has bought and now owns several 
 valuable houses and a factory. 
 
542 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ]\Ir. Downs was married in 1867 to Annie E. 
 Gray, of Southbury, where she was born, daughter 
 of Frederick H. and Harriet E.' (Tuttle) Gray. 
 The father is a farmer, and has passed all his life 
 in Southbury, where he owns a fine farm; he has 
 another in Iowa. He is a vigorous and energetic 
 man for one of his years. Mrs. Downs is the 
 eldest of a family of five children, and to her union 
 with i\Ir. Downs have come three children : ( i ) 
 Harriet married Benjamin Porter, general man- 
 ager of the electric line between Ansonia and 
 Derby, and also manager of the National Box & 
 Paper Co., one of the largest institutions of the 
 kind in the country. (2) Ruth A. is a graduate 
 of the high school, and resides at home. (3) 
 Frederick D., also at home, is employed in the 
 office of the Derby Street Railway Company. 
 
 j\lr. Downs is a Republican politically. He be- 
 longs to King Solomon's Lodge, F. & A. M., with 
 v/hich he has been connected since he was twenty- 
 one years old. He and his wife and daughter be- 
 long to the Methodist Church. Mrs. Downs and 
 her two daughters belong to the D. A. R. The 
 maternal great-grandfather of Mr. Etowns, whose 
 name was Clark, served in the American Revolu- 
 tion, was captured by the English, and died while 
 in prison. 
 
 CYRUS W. TUTTLE, for half a century an 
 honored resident of West Haven, now living retired, 
 is a native of Brooklyn, N. Y., born March 10, 1844. 
 
 James Tuttle, the first of the family in New 
 England, came in 1638 from England with Rev. 
 John Davenport. Bela Tuttle, the great-great-grand- 
 father of Cyrus W., was killed while serving in the 
 Revolutionary war in 1777. 
 
 Jesse Tuttle, son of Bela, and the great-grand- 
 father of Cyrus W., was a lifeloBg farmer of Wat- 
 ertown, Connecticut. 
 
 Isaac Tuttle, son of Jesse, and the grandfather 
 of Cyrus W., was a native of Watertown. He was 
 a farmer and clockmaker, being one of the first em- 
 ployes in the Seth Thomas Clock Works at Thom- 
 aston; in fact, he assisted in building the factory 
 there. In i860 he removed to New Haven and lived 
 retired until his death, which occurred in 1867, when 
 he was eighty-one years old. He married Chloe 
 Bidwell, daughter of Alexander and Chloe Bidwell, 
 of Farmington, and four children were born to 
 them. The mother died in 1880, aged eighty-nine 
 years, a member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 George W. Tuttle, father of Cyrus W., was born 
 in Watertown, Jan. 14, 1814, and received his edu- 
 cation in part at the common schools there, and at 
 Litchfield Academy. After leaving school he fol- 
 lowed mercantile pursuits in New Haven, Conn., 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., and South Carolina, until 1851, 
 in which year he removed to West Haven, where, in 
 1855, he assisted in organizing the buckle business 
 in West Haven and was a director up to his death. 
 In the twenty years he lived in West Haven he did 
 
 much to promote the interests of the place, and in 
 addition to the buckle works he was the organizer 
 of the key business, which he carried on some five 
 years, or until his decease. He was one of the pro- 
 moters of the New Haven and West Haven Horse 
 Railway, in 1867, and in every way gave his best 
 efforts toward assisting the town. In politics he 
 was independent; he held the office of selectman, 
 was a member of the school committee, and in many 
 ways showed the interest he had in the welfare of 
 the community. George W. Tuttle married Saloma 
 Andrews, daughter of Timothy and Saloma (Grid- 
 ley) Andrews, the former of whom was a farmer 
 of Hamden, this county. Mrs. Tuttle's grandfather, 
 who was an elder in the Methodist Church, married 
 Sybil Eaton, of Hamden. To Mr. Tuttle and his 
 wife were born five children, two of whom survive, 
 Cyrus W., our subject ; and Edward, in California. 
 The father died Aug. 5, 1871, the mother in 1890. 
 Both were members of the Congregational Church, 
 in which they took an active interest. 
 
 Cyrus W. Tuttle, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, was seven years old when the family re- 
 moved to West Haven, and he received his education 
 there at the common schools and the academy, after 
 which he worked in his father's key factory, and 
 for a time was a clerk in New Haven. In October, 
 1862, he enlisted in Company A, 27th Conn. V. I., 
 in which he served nine months, during which 
 period he participated in the battle of Fredericks- 
 burg. 
 
 In 1868 Cyrus W. Tuttle was married to Jean- 
 ette Hale, who was born in Greenfield Hill, Conn., 
 daughter of Hiram and Mary (Morehouse) Hale, 
 the former of whom was a blacksmith in the town 
 of Fairfield. Five children have been born to this 
 union, three of whom are living, viz.: ( i) Georgia 
 I. is the wife of Edwin A. Lettney, a plumber of 
 West Haven; they have three children, Eleanor, 
 Jeanette and Edwin A., Jr. (2) Ida May is the 
 wife of James W. Young, who is in charge of R. G. 
 Dun's Commercial Agency, at Richmond, Va. (3) 
 Harry E. died in December, 1900, in California. (4) 
 Elsie Morehouse is at home. (5) Alice died in in- 
 fancy. The mother of these died in 1892, at the 
 age of forty-one years, a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church. 
 
 HIDLHOUSE. During much of the eighteenth 
 and through the greater part of the first half of the 
 century just closed, the family bearing this name 
 was a conspicuous one in the annals of Con- 
 necticut and the city of New Haven. We refer to 
 the descendants of Rev. James Hillhouse, and es- 
 pecially to the line of the Hon. James Hillhouse, 
 the illustrious statesman, and his son James Abra- 
 ham Hillhouse, the distinguished poet and scholai-, 
 both of New Haven, where one of the latter's daugh- 
 ter Miss Isaphene Hillhouse, continues to make 
 her home. 
 
 Rev. James Hillhouse, the progenitor of the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 543 
 
 Montville and New Haven Hillhouses, born about 
 1687, came from a distinguished family, he being 
 the son of John Hillhouse of Free Hall, and the 
 grandson of Abraham Hillhouse, whose residence 
 was at Artikelly, the latter being among the signers 
 of an address to King William and Queen Mary on 
 the occasion of the relief of the Siege of London- 
 derry, dated July 29, 1669; while James Hillhouse, 
 an uncle of Rev. James, was one of the commis- 
 sioners to treat with Lord Mountjoy in the me- 
 morable defense of Derry against the forces of 
 James II, and was mayor of Londonderry in 1693. 
 Rev. James Hillhouse was educated at the famous 
 University of Glasgow, in Scotland, and later took 
 the divinity course in the same institution, being 
 ordained by the Presbytery of Londonderry in 
 Ireland, and appears to have resided at or near the 
 ancestral home until the death of his father in 1716. 
 Not long after his mother's death, in January, 1717, 
 he is supposed to have come with other Presbyterians 
 from the North of Ireland, who in 1719 established 
 themselves in New Hampshire, where the towns of 
 Derfy and Londonderry, and the Londonderry 
 Presbytery are the permanent memorials of that mi- 
 gration. At the close of 1720, Rev. Hillhouse ap- 
 peared in Boston, when Cotton Mather spoke of 
 him as "a worthy, hopeful and valuable young min- 
 ister lately arrived in America." He was installed 
 as pastor of the North Parish of the Church in 
 New London, Conn., in about 1724, and sustained 
 such relations with it until his death in 1740, a 
 period of about sixteen years. Rev. Hillhouse mar- 
 ried, in 1726, Mary, daughter of Daniel, and grand- 
 daughter of Rev. James Fitch, the first minister 
 of Norwich, Conn., and she died in 1768. From this 
 couple, the late James Abraham Hillhouse, the poet 
 of New Haven, was in the fourth generation, his 
 line being through Hon. William and Hon. James 
 Hillhouse. 
 
 (II) Hon. William Hillhouse, son of Rev. James, 
 the emigrant settler, born in 1728, married in 1750, 
 Sarah, 'born in 1728, daughter of John Griswold 
 and sister of the first Governor Griswold of Con- 
 necticut, and settled on the paternal estate in Mont- 
 ville, which was his place of abode until his death. 
 He was greatly trusted and honored by his fellow 
 townsmen and was probably the most prominent 
 man of his day in his native town; was a leading 
 patriot in the war of the Revolution; was many 
 times a deputy of the General Court, and in 1785 
 was chosen as assistant in the Senate. For years 
 he was judge of county and probate courts; was 
 major in the 2d Regiment of cavalry raised in Con- 
 necticut for service in the Revolution. Judge Hill- 
 house had a distinguished personality. His wife 
 died on March 10, 1777, and in 1778, he married 
 Delia Hosmer. His death occurred in 1816. 
 
 Of this same second generation, Hon. James 
 Abraham Hillhouse, a brother of Judge William, was 
 born May 12, 1730, was graduated from Yale in 1749, 
 entered the legal profession at New Haven about 
 
 1756, soon becoming distinguished at the Bar by his 
 forensic abilities as well as by his learning. In 1772 
 he was elected one of the twelve assistants, who 
 with the governor and lieutenant-governor, were the 
 council or senate. His Christian life and conver- 
 sation were truly exemplary, adorned with graces 
 of meekness, charity and humility. His wife died 
 in 1822 and he in 1775, leaving no issue. 
 
 (Ill) Hon. James Hillhouse (2), son of Hon. 
 William, born in 1754, married (second) in 1782, 
 Relbecca Woolsey. He had been adopted by his 
 uncle, James Abraham Hillhouse, of New Haven, 
 where he was graduated from Yale in 1773, which 
 institution, in 1823, conferred upon him the degree 
 of LL. p. During the war of the Revolution he 
 served his country, and in 1779 he was captain of 
 the Governor's Foot Guard at the time New Ha- 
 ven was invaded by the British under Tryon. Later 
 he practiced law in New Haven; sat in the gov- 
 ernor's council and was then elected to Congress 
 as a Federalist, taking an active part in the debates 
 of that body during 1791-95. In 1796 he was ap- 
 pointed United States Senator to succeed Hon. 
 Oliver Ellsworth, who had resigned his seat in the 
 United States Senate to become Chief Justice of 
 the United States Supreme Court. On the with- 
 drawal of Thomas Jefferson from the Senate, after 
 his election to the Presidency, Senator Hillhouse 
 was appointed president pro tem of that body. In 
 1810 he resigned his seat in the Senate to become 
 Commissioner of School Fund of Connecticut, and 
 held the office until 1825, during which period he 
 is credited with saving that fund from destruction, 
 and with adding, by judicious investments, the sum 
 of $500,000. In 1782 he was chosen treasurer of 
 Yale College, and from that time until his death, 
 a period of fifty years, continued in such relations. 
 Much of the natural beauty of New Haven had its 
 origin in the acts of Senator Hillhouse. Mrs. Hill- 
 house passed away in December, 1813, and the Sen- 
 ator in December, 1832. 
 
 James Abraham Hillhouse, son of Hon. James 
 Hillhouse (2), was 'born Sept. 26, 1789, in New 
 Haven, married Nov. 23, 1822, Cornelia, daug^h- 
 ter of Isaac Lawrence, of New York. Mr. Hill- 
 house was graduated from Yale in 1808, and later 
 went to Boston, Mass., where he remained for three 
 years preparing for a mercantile career. Later he 
 engaged in business in New York City, and in 1819, 
 he visited Europe. Returning to this country, he 
 retired after his marriage, to his country seat, "Sac- 
 hem's Wood," New Haven, Conn., where he passed 
 the rest of his life, giving his time to literature. 
 While in Europe Mr. Hillhouse became acqitainted 
 with a number of distinguished men. The father 
 of Macaulay, the historian, referred to him as the 
 most accomplished young man with whom he was 
 acquainted. Mr. Hillhouse delivered a poem be- 
 fore Yale Chapter of the Phi Beta Kappa Society 
 which was published in New York in 1822. This 
 was entitled "The Judgment." In 1819 he pub- 
 
544 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 lished in London, "Percy's Masque," a drama, which 
 was reprinted in New York, with additions, in 1820. 
 "Hadad," a sacred drama, was puibhshed in New 
 York in 1825. Others of his pubhshed works were 
 a collected edition of his writings containing the ad- 
 ditions of "Demetria," an Italian tragedy, written 
 in 1813; "Sachem's Wood," and several discourses 
 under the title of "Dramas and Discourses and 
 Other Pieces" ('2 vols., Boston, 1839). Mr. Hill- 
 house was a poet of merit and a man of high lit- 
 erary attainments. Mr. Hillhouse died at New 
 Haven, Jan. 5, 1841, and Mrs. Hillhouse passed 
 away in 1874. Their children were: Cornelia 
 (who married William Hillhouse), Mary, Isaphene 
 and James. 
 
 HUDSON B. FORBES. Among the old and 
 honored families of East Haven, none enjoy more 
 fully the esteem of the community, which has known 
 them so long, than the Forbes family, of which 
 Hudson B. is a most worthy representative. 
 
 Great-grandfather Samuel Forbes married 
 Mary Thompson and they had these children : 
 Samuel, Jehiel, Levi, Isaac, Sarah (who married 
 Jared Porter), and Mary (who married Charles 
 Bishop). Levi Forbes, the grandfather, married 
 Sarah Tuttle and had these children : Anna, born 
 in Alarch, 1770; Mary, born in February, 1772; 
 Sarah, born in May, 1774; Levins, born in July, 
 1776; Timothy, born in 1778; Lydia, born in 1780; 
 Anne, born in 1782; Levi, born in 1785; and Bela, 
 the father of our subject. 
 
 Bela Forbes was a farmer in East Haven. When 
 a boy he had seen some service on a revenue cutter, 
 and during the war of 1812 he held some military 
 office. He died in New Haven in 1873, aged sev- 
 enty-eight years. The family attended the Epis- 
 copal Church. His wife was Abigail Bradley, a 
 daughter of Joel Bradley, a farmer of East Haven. 
 She died in Januaiy, 1857. -"^ family of seven chil- 
 dren were born to this marriage : Louisa, who mar- 
 ried Abram Thompson, of East Haven, a sea-faring 
 man (both deceased) ; Lavisa, who married Joseph 
 Thompson, a brother of the above ; Jane, who mar- 
 ried John A. Dibbell, lived in New Haven (both 
 are deceased) ; Minerva, who married Jared Wed- 
 more, an oysterman of East Haven; Ellen, who 
 married Joel Bradley, a carpenter in New Haven ; 
 Lester, who married Mary Willard, was a mason 
 constructor; and Hudson B., our subject, the fifth 
 of the family. 
 
 Hudson B. Forbes was born in East Haven, or 
 Morris Cove, Alay 2, 1832, and spent his early days 
 on the farm, and attended the district schools. 
 Then he commenced a life upon the water, continu- 
 ing this until he was twenty years old; before he 
 was fifteen he was mate of a vessel. The first mar- 
 riage of Mr. Forbes took place in September, 1853, 
 to Emily Ludington, of East Plaven, a daughter of 
 Caleb Ludington. Her death occurred in January, 
 1S58, and none of her children reached maturit\-. 
 
 On Sept. I, 1858, i\Ir. Forbes was married to Ellen 
 E. Hotchkiss, who was born in East Haven, a 
 daughter of Joseph I. and Sarah Ann (Bradley) 
 Hotchkiss. Ever since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
 Forbes have lived on the fine old farm, and a large 
 family of fourteen children have been born to them, 
 the survivors being : Fanny E. married William 
 Johnson, who came from Iowa, and they had one 
 child, Quincy E., who died at the age of five; Lillian 
 J. married Frederick Van Sickle, and has four chil- 
 dren, Frederick, Mildred, Edith and Edna; and 
 Nellie A. married Everett L. Wright, and has two 
 children, Raymond Forbes and Madia NeUie. 
 Maude Adele is unmarried. Fred H., who died at 
 the age of twenty-four, married Amelia Selkj and 
 they had one child, Harry Hudson. 
 
 In 1878 Mr. Forbes built the "Forbes House," 
 at Morris Cove, now called the "]\Iorris Cove 
 House," which he ran for fourteen years, commenc- 
 ing in 1882. Like his father, Mr. Forbes has al- 
 ways been in sympathy with the Democratic party, 
 and has held many of the local offices, having been 
 selectman in both East Haven and New Haven, town 
 agent of East Haven, and a member of the board of 
 education. His religious training was in the Epis- 
 copal Church. 
 
 ALGERNON O. BEACH, a prosperous and 
 progressive agriculturist of the town of Hamden, 
 is a native of Connecticut, born in New Haven, 
 April 29, 1826, of New England ancestry. 
 
 Oliver Beach, his father, was born in 1788, in 
 Woodbridge, Conn., was a mason by trade, and died 
 in New Haven in 1850. By his wife Elizabeth Ann 
 (Allen) he had a family of ten children, named re- 
 spectively : Louisa A., Laura, Edward, Laura (2), 
 Elizabeth, Edward A., Henry O., Algernon O., 
 George E. and Wallace A. 
 
 When ten years of age Algernon O. Beach was 
 taken to live with Jeremiah Gilbert, a farmer of the 
 town of Hamden, who was childless, and remained 
 with him until his death, our subject being then but 
 fifteen years of age. He continued to live with J\ir. 
 Gilbert's widow, having entire charge of the farm, 
 until her death in 1850, at which time he went .to 
 Centreville and entered the employ of Mr. Willis 
 Churchill, in the auger shops ; thence he went to 
 Mt. Carmel and worked for Henry Ives in the axle 
 shops for some fourteen years, during the latter 
 part of which period he was foreman of the room in 
 which he was employed. Returning now to the Gil- 
 bert farm he remained thereon until 1890, in that 
 year coming to his present place in the town of Ham- 
 den. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1847, Algernon O. Beach was mar- 
 ried to Frances Hitchcock, daughter of Leveritt 
 Hitchcock, and two children were born to them,, 
 Elizabeth and Margaret E., both of whom died 
 young. The mother of these passed away April 29, 
 i860, and Feb. 20, 1861, Mr. Beach wedded Julia 
 S. Tuttle, of Middlebury, Conn.,, who entered into^ 
 
^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 54S 
 
 rest Feb. 22, 1901, aged sixty-three years. One 
 child graced this union, Frances E., now the wife 
 of Wilson E. Goodsell, of North Haven; they have 
 two children, Flora L. and Lillian F. 
 
 Mr. Beach is a member of the Congregational 
 Church, as was also his wife. In politics he is a 
 Republican, and has been elected to various positions 
 of honor and trust, such as assessor several terms, 
 justice of the peace some twenty years, trial justice 
 a good many years, and has served as grand juror. 
 Mr. Beach is remarkably temperate, never having 
 chewed tobacco, nor smoked more than one cigar 
 in his life. 
 
 CHARLES HENRY YOUNG, a leading rep- 
 resentative of the agricultural and business interests 
 of that part of the town of Wallingford which is 
 known as Yalesville, was born in the North Farms 
 District Jan. 4, 1839. 
 
 William Young, the great-grandfather of 
 Charles H., was a land owner and an extensive and 
 successful farmer of Middlesex county. Conn. Syl- 
 vester Young, his son, when a young man, came to 
 Wallingford and located at East Farms, where he 
 married Pattie Mattoon, a native of Wallingford. 
 There he engaged in agriculture, spending his life 
 on the farm. He was a Democrat, a good citizen, 
 and a well-known business man. He and his wife 
 had five children : Samuel and Harley, who died at 
 Liberty, Sullivan Co., N. Y. ; Horace, who died in 
 Bradford county. Pa. ; Orimell ; and Fenelon, who 
 was a merchant in Alabama, where he died. Mrs. 
 Sylvester Young died on the farm and was buried in 
 the Center Street cemetery with her husband. 
 
 Orimell Young, the father of Charles Henry, 
 was born in the East Farms District, where he at- 
 tended the local school and grew up after the 
 fashion of the farm lads of his day. As a young 
 man he was engaged in buying and selling cattle, 
 making trips to remote points in Vermont and other 
 regions. Later on he combined with his buying and 
 selling the wholesale butcher business. When he 
 was married he gave up road work and settled down 
 to farming on the old homestead, where he built a 
 fine dwelling house and made many improvements, 
 including the erection of a mill, where he manu- 
 factured cider and brandy. Mr. Young was widely 
 known as one of the best judges of cattle in the 
 State. A hard worker, he was noted for his indus- 
 trious habits, but intense devotion to business 
 somewhat clouded his mind at the time of his death, 
 Sept. 5, 1884. In politics he was a Democrat, and 
 in religion held to the Golden Rule. He married 
 Fanney M. Rogers, who was born in Stony Creek, 
 this county, daughter of Gerris Rogers, of that town. 
 To this union came children as follows : Charles 
 Henry; Lewis, who is a butcher of Wallingford; 
 Frank, living on the family homestead ; Fanney, 
 who died young; Mary, who died when seventeen 
 years old; and Cornelius V., living on part of the 
 homestead. Mrs. Orimell Young died Feb. 14, 1893, 
 35 
 
 in Wallingford, and was buried in the Centre Street 
 cemetei-y. She was a member of the Advent Church, 
 and was known as a good Christian woman, of kind 
 heart and strong domestic virtues. 
 
 Charles Henry Young attended the district 
 school in the East Farms District, and when he 
 reached manhood engaged with his father in the 
 cattle business, presently settling down on the old 
 Mattoon farm, where he remained five years. At 
 the expiration of this period he sold out and re- 
 moved to the town of Guilford, where he located on 
 the Murry farm. In 1872 he came to Yalesville 
 where he has bought land, and he has also bought 
 in Cheshire, his two purchases making a farm of 137 
 acres of fruitful and valuable land. In addition to 
 his other interests he has also handled lumber, and 
 has built up quite a trade in that line. 
 
 Mr. Young was married in Wallingford Oct. 
 25, i860, to Julia T. Hine, a native of Litchfield, 
 Conn., and a daughter of Sylvester and Sally 
 (Churchill) Hine. She is a lady of marked excel- 
 lence of character, and is especially gifted as a 
 business woman. To Mr. and Mrs. Young have 
 come eight children : ( i ) Cassius O. is engaged as 
 an iceman. He married Nellie Terrill, and they have 
 had three children — Maude, born Oct. 8, 1888; 
 Charles B., Aug. 8, 1890; and Harold B., May 2, 
 1893. (2) Wilber F. resides in Springfield. On 
 June 22, 1887, he was married to Sadie Wilcox 
 Peck, who died Nov. 22, 1891. On Nov. 16, 1892,. 
 he married for his second wife Miss Ida M. Steven- 
 son, and they have two children — Sarah Stevenson^ 
 born Oct. 26, 1893 ; and Wilber Fenelon, barn 
 Feb. 13, 1898. (3) Jennie Phemilia was married! 
 April 17, 1895, to John E. Blakeslee, of Bridgeport,, 
 and has one child, Jennie Isabelle, born Sept. 23,. 
 1897. (4) Ida Belle graduated from the Yalesville- 
 high school, and is engaged as a bookkeeper. (5) 
 Frank Charles is in the office of the judge of pro- 
 bate at New Haven. (6) Fanny Sarah was mar- 
 ried Oct. 19, 1898, to F. H. Warner, of Walling- 
 ford, and has one child, Irene Cora, born Nov. 18,, 
 1899. (7) Cora Julia graduated from the Walling- 
 ford high school in 1894, and from the Normal 
 School at New Haven. She has taught school one- 
 years in Wallingford and three years in Groton,. 
 Conn., and has been very successful. (8) Flora May 
 married Richard M. R. Raymond May 16, 1895,. 
 and has one child, Gladis May, born April 23, 1897. 
 
 Mr. Young is a Democrat and has served on the 
 school committee at Yalesville. He is a member of 
 Hancock Lodge, at South Meriden, and of the 
 Wallingford Agricultural Society. Mrs. Young be- 
 longs to the Episcopal Church and is a good woman, 
 a faithful mother and a devoted wife. 
 
 BENJAMIN F. LEACH, D. D. S., comes of a 
 family of English origin, its first American progeni- 
 tors having been two brothers who emigrated from 
 the mother country in Colonial days. One settled 
 in New York State, the other in Massachusetts. 
 
546 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 The Doctor's father and grandfather were bom in 
 .Massachusetts, in the town of Wendell, of which 
 he, too, was a native, born April i6, 1842. 
 
 Gardiner Leach, his grandfather, was a prosper- 
 ous farmer, enjoyed the universal respect of the 
 community, and was a man of considerable public 
 prominence. He was elected to various minor town 
 offices, and also represented his district in the Leg- 
 islature. He was a man of keen intellect and sterling 
 moral worth, as well as of tried fidelity to important 
 trusts. He married Miss Macomber, and was the 
 father of five children, of whom the eldest, Chester, 
 was the father of Dr. Benjamin F. Leach. The 
 others were Whitman, who passed his life on the 
 old homestead farm ; Tamothy, who married Na- 
 thaniel Macomber, and settled in Shutesbury, ]\'Iass. ; 
 Susan, who became the wife of Smith Orcutt, a 
 shoemaker; and Salome, who was married to Hawles 
 .Williams, a farmer. 
 
 Chester Leach was a tiller of the soil, and spent 
 most of his days in the town of his birth, dying in 
 Worcester, Mass., in 1891, surviving his wife for 
 -eighteen years. He was first a Whig and later a 
 -Republican. He married Mary Orcutt, who was 
 •also born in Wendell, Mass. Her father, Samuel 
 •Orcutt, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and 
 was one of the gallant band of patriotic heroes whom 
 Ethan Allen led at Ticonderoga. The children of 
 Chester Leach were five in number. The youngest 
 died in infancy, and one son, Lucian L., at the age 
 of seven years. Those who grew to manhood were 
 Humphrey S., Valette W. and Benjamin F. The 
 eldest son, Humphrey, was an officer in the Civil 
 war and died in 1898 in Worcester, Mass. Valette 
 is practicing dentistry in Keene, New Hampshire. 
 
 The first nine years of Dr. Leach's life were 
 passed in Wendell, w'hen with his parents he moved 
 to Leverett, Mass. At the age of eighteen he be- 
 gan the study of dentistry under the tutelage of 
 his cousin. Dr. D. W. Leach, at Randolph, in his 
 native State. He completed his professional studies 
 an three years, artd in 1863 began the practice of his 
 profession at Ansonia, Conn. That was an epochal 
 '3-ear in Dr. Leach's life. It not only marked his 
 attainment of his majority and the commencement 
 of his professional career, but was also the year of 
 his marriage to Miss Emma F. Boutwell, of Lever- 
 ,ett, Mass., a daughter of Charles Boutwell, a farmer 
 of that town. 
 
 The Doctor remained at Ansonia only a year, 
 going from there to Amherst, Mass., where he was 
 engaged in active and successful practice for ten 
 years. At the end of that period he removed to the' 
 .town of Derby, Conn, (which has since become a 
 city), within whose confines he has since lived, in 
 1882 purchasing a home in Shelton, where he yet 
 resides. Dr. Leach is a skillful practitioner, keep- 
 ing fully abreast of every new discovery and fresh 
 advance in his profession. He has a large practice 
 and is universally held in sincere esteem, not only 
 for the high order of his attainments, but as well 
 
 for his pure life and unblemished character as a 
 citizen, a Christian and a man. He is a Republican 
 in politics, a member of the Masonic fraternity, and 
 an earnest worker in the cause of religion. For 
 thirty-five years he has been a consistent member of 
 the Baptist Church, having miited with that body 
 while living in Amherst, Mass. His family are also 
 of the same communion. He takes especial interest 
 in Sunday-school work, having been a superin- 
 tendent of Sunday-schools almost during the entire 
 time of his church membership, first at Amherst and 
 later in Ansonia. He is also one of the deacons of 
 the First Baptist Church of that city. 
 
 Reference has been already made to Dr. Leach's 
 marriage tO' Miss Boutwell in 1863. She died in 
 1887, leaving no children, and on June 4, 1889, he 
 was united to Miss Mary C, a daughter of Austin 
 Eastman, of Amherst, and a niece of Hon. Zebina 
 Eastman, U. S. consul at Bristol, England, for eight 
 years, part of the time under President Lincoln. 
 
 THEODORE NELSON HOTCHKISS, a rep- 
 resentative of a well known family, was born in 
 Bethany Dec. 20, 1819, a son of Harvey and Sarah 
 (Ailing) Hotchkiss, who were the parents of 
 eleven children, of whom- only one, Harpin, a black- 
 smith in Bethany, is now living. Theodore N. 
 Hotchkiss remained in Bethany until he was fifteen 
 years old, acquiring his education in the local school, 
 and then went to Westville, where he learned the 
 mason's trade; and when he became established in 
 life, married Eliza Smith, and followed his trade 
 for a nun±)er of years. Coming to New Haven in 
 middle life, he built the home where his daughter 
 Katie A. is now living, and engaged in the building 
 and contracting business on an extensive scale, hav- 
 ing at one time some seventy men in his employ. 
 For a time he was associated with Elizur H. 
 Sperry, who learned the trade under Mr. Hotchkiss, 
 and then selling out his interests, bought a tract of 
 land on Kensington street and Edgewood avenue, 
 where he built homes for some twenty-five families. 
 These he rented, became noted as one of the very 
 successful men of his day, and had the name of be- 
 ing one of the most extensive and progressive build- 
 ers of the time. What is now known as the Uni- 
 versity Club, and the Cutler building, and many 
 other fine structures were put up by him. Mr. 
 Hotchkiss was a member of the Light Guards, and 
 was an enlightened and public-spirited man, but 
 under no condition would he accept office of any 
 kind. He died Feb. 27, 1888, at the age of sixty- 
 eight. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss was twice married, his second 
 wife, Lucia Sperry, was born in Bethany, a daugh- 
 ter of Alvim and Sally Sperry, the former a car- 
 penter in Bethany, where he was a man of much 
 repute, and was knoWn as "Col." Sperry. He was 
 a man of much religious feeling, and often preached, 
 and lived to be seventy-six years of age. He had 
 eleven children, of whom four are now livino-' 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 547 
 
 Sarah ; Grace and Gracia, twins ; and Marion. Mrs. 
 Lucia Hotchkiss was the mother of four children — 
 three of whom are Hving: (i) Katie A., who re- 
 sides at No. 400 Ehn street, New Haven, where the 
 family has had its home for many years. (2) Lillie 
 M., who was the wife of Frank E. Frisbie, and died 
 in less than one year after marriage. (3) Fannie 
 C, who married Frank S. Piatt, seedsman and flor- 
 ist. (4) Charles S., a grocer in the city, married 
 first Annie L. Mann, and had one son, Harry Theo- 
 dore, who is the only grandchild of Theodore N. 
 Hotchkiss ; he married (second) Lydia Clark. Mrs. 
 Lucia Hotchkiss died at the age of seventy-three. 
 
 MISS MELISSA M. METCALFE, a highly- 
 esteemed resident of West Haven, is a native of Au- 
 gusta, Oneida Co., N. Y., and a descendant of a 
 well-known family. 
 
 Her father, the late Eleazer Metcalfe, was born 
 in Goshen, Conn., Jan. 31, 1779, and was reared 
 upon a farm. He learned the carpenter's trade, and 
 in the spring of 1799 he went to Augusta, Oneida 
 Co., N. Y., to touild barns on contract, which he did 
 with marked success, keeping a large force of men 
 employed. At that time Oneida county was an un- 
 broken forest, the public highways being marked by 
 incisions in the trees. Mr. Metcalfe was only twen- 
 ty years old, and that year erected twenty 'barns. 
 At one "raising" he heard some men talking, and 
 one of them said "That boy will never get that build- 
 ing up." The young contractor, noting that his 
 critics were the idlers present, told them to. go home 
 if they could not work like the others. He also 
 owned a carding mill and grist mill, and ground 
 wheat and corn, and later had a large farm and fat- 
 tened cattle for market. For about a quarter of a 
 century he served as justice of the peace at Augusta. 
 His death occurred Jan. 5, 1860, when he was aged 
 eighty-one. He was active in religious work as a 
 member of the Congregational Church; all of his 
 family have taken keen interest in church work. He 
 married Huldah Yale, of Lenox, Mass., who was 
 born Feb. 4, 1781, and lived to the age of eighty- 
 one. Of their twelve children the subject of this 
 sketch was the youngest and is now the only sur- 
 vivor. 
 
 Miss Metcalfe is noted for clear foresight and 
 executive ability in business affairs, and her warm 
 filial devotion was proven by the excellent care 
 which she bestowed upon her parents in their old 
 age. She left school in order to minister to their 
 needs, and also saw four sisters die. In 1877 she 
 removed to West Haven to care for her youngest 
 brother whose wife had entered into rest. Miss 
 Metcalfe has invested extensively in real estate ; she 
 has sold two houses but still owns three in the town 
 and four houses have been built by her, including 
 the handsome residence adjoining her own. Her 
 own home at No. 175 Elm street has lately been 
 much improved by a steep roof and hot water ser- 
 vice. She is most hospitable, and delights in gather- 
 
 ing her friends within her pleasant home for social 
 recreation. She is popular among her acquaint- 
 ances, and is one of the active members of church, 
 having 'broughtj her letter from Augusta to the 
 West Haven society. While in Augusta she taught 
 in the Sunday-school, and assisted in various branch- 
 es of church work, giving both time and means. 
 
 Her brother, the late Judge George W. Metcalfe, 
 remained at home in early manhood while teaching 
 in Augusta and vicinity. In 1845 he removed to 
 West Haven, where he taught for a number of years 
 and also followed the carpenters' trade for a. time. 
 For more than twenty years he held office as justice 
 of the peace, and was judge of the police court, his 
 sound judgment and impartiality making his service 
 of recognized value to the community. In politics 
 he was a Republican and throughout his life he ad- 
 vocated strict temperance principles. He was a 
 prominent member of the O. U. A. M., and was 
 always a leader in religious and philanthropic work 
 in his locality. He gave the interest on $500 to the 
 M. E. Church of West Haven and was a member of 
 the Congregational Church, where he sang in the 
 choir for a number of years. He married Mrs. 
 Miles, now deceased, and his own death occurred at 
 West Haven at the age of seventy years. 
 
 DAVIS WATSON S.MITH, a prosperous 
 farmer in East River District of the town of Madi- 
 son, was born May 8, 1840, in that part of the town 
 locally known as the Neck. 
 
 The Smith family, of which he is a worthy rep- 
 resentative, is an old one in Middlesex county. Conn. 
 His great-grandparents, William and Martha Smith, 
 resided many years ago in Haddam, that county, in 
 the old house just south of the jail. William Smith 
 was a seafaring man, owning and commanding ves- 
 sels engaged in the West Indies trade; he lost his 
 life at sea when only forty years of age. We have 
 the following record of his eight children, five sons 
 and three daughters: (i) Jonathan and (2) Ezra, 
 both of whomi died unmarried, rendered honorable 
 service in the Revolutionary war; they were pri- 
 vateers, were captured about forty miles off Sandy 
 Hook, and after untold suffering died on the noted 
 prison ship "Jersey," in Wallabut Bay : they were 
 iDuried in the banks of the bay. One of the brothers 
 was a commissioned officer, and his commission, 
 signed by Gen. George Washington, is now in the 
 possession of a distant relative of our subject, in 
 Higganum, in a good state of preservation. (3) 
 Lucy married Ezra Brainerd, of Haddam, and lived 
 to be 106 years old ; she had two or three sons Who 
 lived and died in Haddam. (4) Simon married » 
 Miss Shailer, of Haddam. (5) William was twice 
 married, and his wives were sisters of Dorothy Hub- 
 bard, who married his brother Jeffrey. (6) Es- 
 ther married Luther Bordman, of Haddam. (7) 
 Martha married George Kelsey, of Haddam. (8) 
 Jeffrey was the grandfather of our subject. 
 
 Jeffrey Smith, grandfather of Davis W., was 
 
548 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born in 1763, in the town of Haddam, and there 
 grew to manhood, and learned blacksmithing. When 
 he had mastered that trade he moved to Madison 
 and located in the Neck, where he bought a small 
 farm, which he cultivated in connection with his 
 work in the smithy. He built a fine dwelling house 
 on this tract, and spent his life there, dying Feb. 
 I, 1846. During the Revolution he drove cattle 
 across the Hudson river on the ice for Washing- 
 ton's army, and he drew a pension until his death. 
 As may be inferred, he was a public-spirited and 
 patriotic citizen. He married Dorothy (Dolly) 
 Hubbard, who was born in Haddam, and died in 
 Madison July 13, 1836. Their children were: (i) 
 Jonathan was born Jan. 4, 1785; (2) Daniel Hub- 
 bard, born March 23, 1787, married Content Fow- 
 ler; (3) Ezra, born Dec. 16, 1788, married Martha 
 Stone; (4) Esther, born Oct. 16, 1790, married Dud- 
 ley Brainard; (5) Austin, born in 1793, died in 
 November of the same year; (6) Austin (2), born 
 Feb. 9, 1794, died Aug. 8, 1820; (7) Marvin, born 
 in 1796, married Wealthy Shailer; (8) Davis, born 
 in 1798, died April 25, 1827; (9) Samuel, born 
 Aug. 16, 1799, married Lucinda, daughter of Gideon 
 Watrous, of Chester, and lived and died in Madison 
 in the house where he was born ; ( 10) Junius was 
 born March 25, 1801 ; (11) Helena, born Nov. 29, 
 1802, died Oct. 11, 1806. 
 
 Junius Smith was born in the Neck District, 
 and followed farming all his life in Madison, on the 
 farm now owned and occupied by his son Davis 
 Watson, where he made many improvements. There 
 he died March 20, 1882. He was a stanch Demo- 
 crat, but had no thirst for office. In religion he 
 was a member of the Congregational Church, and 
 he was a well-known and highly respected citizen, 
 always honest and upright in his business and per- 
 sonal relations, and had many friends. Mr. Smith 
 married Amanda, daughter of Israel Southworth, 
 of Deep River, Conn. She died in 1897, in the 
 home of her son Davis W., a good Christian woman 
 who was much respected in the neighborhood. 
 Their only child was Davis Watson. 
 
 Davis W. Smith was educated in the Madison 
 schools and in Lee's Academy. Having been the 
 only child he never left home, but remained to care 
 for his parents as the infirmities of age crept upon 
 them. The old homestead has passed into his pos- 
 session, and under his management many substan- 
 tial and elegant improvements have been made. 
 Mr. Smith has also been engaged in oyster fishing. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Smith was married in New York 
 City to Miss Melvena Tuthill, who was born in 
 Highland, N. Y., daughter of John and Catherine 
 (Rose) Tuthill. She is a lady of refinement and 
 culture of deep character. Mr. and Mrs. Smith are 
 the parents of two children : ( i ) Edith, born 
 March 25, 1873, was educated in the Madison 
 schools and in Yale Business College, and is now 
 engaged as a stenographer. (2) Ralph Davis, born 
 March 4, 1875, is with the Standard Oil Co. in 
 
 Springfield, Mass. In politics Mr. Smith is a Dem- 
 ocrat. Fraternally he is a Mason, affiliating with 
 jMadison Lodge, F. & A. M. Mr. Smith has never 
 seen fit to connect himself with any church, but he is 
 a man of fine character, kindly spirit and exalted 
 devotion to what is good and true. The family at- 
 tend the Congregational Church. 
 
 AMBROSE H. WELLS. There are no rules 
 for building character ; there is no rule for achiev- 
 ing success. The man who can rise from the ranks 
 to a position of eminence is he who can see and util- 
 ize the opportunities that surround his path. The 
 essential conditions of human life are ever the same, 
 the surroundings of individuals differ but slightly; 
 and, when one man passes another on the highway 
 to reach the goal of prosperity before others who 
 perhaps started before him, it is because he has the 
 power to use advantages which probably encom- 
 pass the whole human race. To-day among the most 
 prominent business men of Waterbury who have 
 made their own way in the world unaided is Am- 
 brose H. Wells, manufacturer of seamless tubing. 
 He was born in Newtown, Fairfield Co., Conn., 
 March 26, 1837, and is a grandson of David Wells. 
 
 Emory Wells, father of our subject, was also 
 a native of Newtown, and was a shoemaker by 
 trade. In 1841 he moved to Lockport, N. Y., 
 where he engaged in the manufacture of shoes 
 throughout the remainder of his life. Politically 
 he affiliated with the Democratic party, and re- 
 ligiously was a consistent member of the Episcopal 
 Church. He was one of the honored and highly re- 
 spected men of his community. He married Miss 
 Maria, daughter of Isaac Gilbert, and to them were 
 born three children: Jennette, deceased wife of 
 Henry Jackson ; Isaac, a resident of Fairfield county. 
 Conn.; and Ambrose H., our subject. Mrs. Wells- 
 died in Newtown and was buried there. She was a 
 true Christian woman and a model wife and mother. 
 
 Ambrose H. Wells was reared in his native town, 
 and acquired a limited education in the district 
 schools. At a very early age he commenced earning' 
 his own living by working at farm labor, and later 
 learned the iblacksmith's trade, which he followed 
 until coming to Waterbury, in 1862, when he en- 
 tered the brass mills of Brown Brothers as foreman 
 in their tube department, remaining there nineteen 
 years. He then engaged in the flour and feed busi- 
 ness on Harrison alley near South Main street, 
 Waterbury, for two years, but not 'meeting with suc- 
 cess in that venture, he sold out his business and 
 again entered the employ of Brown Brothers as fore- 
 man. A year later he started in business for him- 
 self on the Watertown road, in Waterbury, and in 
 1893 built a large factory, where he has since en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of seamless tubing, it 
 heing the only manufactory of the kind in the town. 
 He has a well-equipped plant, costing him over 
 $25,000, and furnishes employment to more than 
 twenty men. Enterprising, energetic and Indus- 
 
oi^lHrMoo 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 549 
 
 trious, he has achieved a well-merited success in life, 
 and is now enjoying a comfortable competence. 
 
 In Newtown, Conn., Mr. Wells was united in 
 marriage with Miss Eveline Judson, a native of 
 that place, and a daughter of Ze'nas J. Judson, and 
 to them were born five sons, all of whom are with 
 their father in business. Samuel, who is foreman 
 of the factory, married first Jennie Marie Fischer, 
 and second, Mary Schurlke; and Frank married 
 Amelia J. Schurlke. The others are single. Father 
 and sons are all charter members of the Pequot 
 Club, of Waterbury; Samuel, Frank and Edward 
 are miemhers of the Knights of Pythias fraternity ; 
 and Frank is also connected with the Improved 
 Order of Red Men. Mr. Wells is a member of 
 King Solomon Lodge, F. & A. M., of Woodbury; 
 and is identified with the Democratic party and is a 
 mem'ber of the board of finance of the city of Water- 
 bury. He attends religious services at Union 
 Chapel, of which he is a trustee, and he and his 
 family occupy an enviable position in the best social 
 circles of the commimity in -which they reside. 
 
 Mrs. Wells belongs to an old New England 
 family founded here in 1634 by William Judson, his 
 wife and three sons, Joseph, Jeremiah and Joshua, 
 natives of England, who located in New Haven, 
 Conn., where he died in 1662, and where his re- 
 mains were interred. His son Joseph made his 
 home there throughout life, and died in 1696. He 
 married Sarah Judson, and reared a large family. 
 One of their children, James Judson, was born in 
 1650 and died in 1 71 7. He was a land owner and 
 farmer. Among his several sons was David Judson, 
 who was born in 1693, and married Phoebe Stiles. 
 He died and was buried in New Haven. In his 
 family were four children: David, born in 171 5; 
 Phoebe, wife of Matthew Curtis, in 1717; Abel in 
 1721 ; and Agnes in 1724. Abel Judson moved to 
 Stratford, Fairfield Co., Conn., where he owned 
 and operated a farm. On May 7, 1744, he mar- 
 ried Sarah Burton, by whom he had four children : 
 John, born in 1745, who married Patience Fair- 
 man; Abel, born in 1746; Sarah, 1749, who mar- 
 ried Asher Peck; and Ruth, 1752, who married 
 Henry Fairman. 
 
 Abel Judson, Jr., the grandfather of Mrs. Wells, 
 was born in Stratford in 1746 and became a leading 
 farmer of Newtown, Fairfield county, where he 
 ■owned over 200 acres of land on Mile Hill, now 
 occupied by Daniel G. Beers. He was a man of 
 independent thought and action, and an active mem- 
 ber of the Sandemanian Church. He married Ann 
 Bennett and they became the parents of fifteen chil- 
 dren: Ruth, born Nov. 17, 1769, married M. Hard 
 and had a son, who was a physician among the 
 Catskills, at Hunter, N. Y. ; Bennett was born Feb. 
 12, 1771 ; Betsey, born Dec. 22, 1772, married Mr. 
 Prindle; Rufus, born Dec. 27, 1774, removed to 
 Ohio; Abner, born Oct. 17, 1776, married first a 
 Miss Hard, second, Miss judson, and third, Miss 
 Shephard; Abel was born in 1778; Marcus was 
 
 born Feb. 3, 1780; Laura, born Dec. 8, 1781, mar- 
 ried Zera Blackman; Jerusha, born Sept. 22, 1783; 
 was married to Eleazer Starr; Silence, born April 
 3, 1785, married Daniel Wells, a shoemaker of 
 Zoar, Conn.; Isaac, born Feb. 3, 1787; John, born 
 Feb. II, 1789, was a physician; Martin, born Feb. 
 17, 1791, was a miller at Sandy Hook ; Zenas J., born 
 March 28, 1793, was the father of Mrs. Wells; and 
 Anna, born Jan. 6, 1795, married Thomas Seeley, 
 a shoe maker and hotel keeper of Newtown. Mrs. 
 Wells' father was a tailor by trade, and made his 
 home in Newtown. He married Fanny Torrence, 
 and of their eleven chilaren, the youngest, Eveline, 
 became the wife of Ambrose H. Wells, our subject. 
 
 THOMAS McEVOY, for nearly thirty years 
 proprietor of a prosperous grocery business in 
 Waterbury, is a native of Ireland, born in Queen's 
 county in 1 83 1. 
 
 Patrick McEvoy, father of our subject, was of 
 the same nativity, and followed farming in the old 
 country. He came to this country and in 185 1 set- 
 tled in Waterbury, where he died. He married 
 Elizabeth Terrell, also a native of Queen's county, 
 Ireland, and seven children were born to them, viz. : 
 John came from Ireland to Waterbury, and died 
 there ; Patrick was a farmer in Middlebury, Conn., 
 and died there; Thomas is our subject,; Christopher 
 is a Catholic priest in Philadelphia ; Mary is the de- 
 ceased wife of Patrick Dwyer, of Simmonsville, 
 Conn. ; Elizabeth and Bridget died unmarried in 
 Ireland. 
 
 Thomas McEvoy remained in Ireland until he 
 was nineteen years old, in 185 1 coming to Water- 
 bury, where he has since made his home. For 
 seventeen years he worked as a farm laborer, and 
 then opened his present grocery business, in which 
 he has been very successful. 
 
 In 1858 Mr. McEvoy married Ann Mulhall, who 
 was born in Queen's county, Ireland, and died in 
 Waterbury about twenty-eight years ago. She was 
 the mother of eight children, three of whom are de- 
 ceased ; those living are : Mary, Sarah, Joseph, Lib- 
 bie and Thomas. Mr. McEvoy is a member of St. 
 Patrick's Church, Waterbury, and has been identi- 
 fied with that parish some twenty-eight years. In 
 politics he is a Democrat. 
 
 CALEB SMITH, a veteran of the Civil war 
 and a well-known resident- of Milford, was born at 
 his present residence March 10, 1840, and is a rep- 
 resentative of an old and respected family of that 
 locality. 
 
 Caleb Smith (i), our subject's great-grandfa- 
 ther, was born in the town of Milford. His brother, 
 Hezekiah, was the grandfather of Edgar H. Smith, 
 now a resident of that town. Caleb Smith (2), son 
 of Caleb ( i ) , was a farmer by occupation, as were 
 other members of the family ; and he built the house 
 now occupied by our subject. He married Sarah 
 Carrington, and had three children : Charles, men- 
 
550 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tioned below; Adeline, who married Lazarus N. 
 Smith, a farmer of Milford; and Garrett, a shoe- 
 maker, in Milford, who was also agent for the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, at Nauga- 
 tuck Junction. 
 
 Charles Smith was born at the present homestead 
 July i6, 1801, and died Feb. 10, 1891. In religious 
 faith he was a Congregationalist, and in politics he 
 affiliated with the Whig and Republican parties. He 
 married Maria Nettleton, of Milford, who was born 
 April 15, 1808, and died Oct. 26, 1865. Her father, 
 Thaddeus Nettleton, was a farmer of Milford. 
 Twelve children were born to Charles and Maria 
 Smith, as follows: Lucius, a carpenter and joiner, 
 who died in Milford Dec. 18, 1870; Otis, who died 
 Jan. 29, 1838, aged eight years ; Adeline, who died 
 in August, 1855, aged twenty-four; Matilda, who 
 married Dr. Dwight Lumm, a physician in Percival, 
 Iowa; Caleb (i), who died Feb. 28, 1836; Charles, 
 a farmer in Nebraska, who married Sarah Skid- 
 more; Caleb (2), our subject; Emily, who married 
 G. Truman Smith, of New Haven ; Harriet E., who 
 married (first) Caleb Duell, and (second) A. A. 
 Bradley; Isabella G., who died Aug. 23, 1845, un- 
 married ; Ann AI., who married Wallace Parker, of 
 New Haven ; and one who died in infancy. 
 
 Caleb Smith spent his boyhood in his native town 
 and received a district school education, attending 
 until he reached the age of sixteen. In September, 
 1862, he enlisted in Company C, 27th Conn. V. I., 
 and during his term of service he was taken prisoner 
 at Chancellorsville, and spent two weeks in Libby 
 prison. He was mustered out July 16, 1863, and 
 returned to the old homestead where he has since 
 been engaged in general farming. The farm, which 
 comprises seventy acres, is located two miles from 
 Milford, and aft'ords an opportunity for two of his 
 sons to carry on the ice business successfully. In 
 politics Mr. Smith is a Republican. Fraternally he 
 belongs to the G. A. R., and religiously to the Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 On Feb. 16, 1865, Mr. Smith married Miss 
 Marion C. Beard, and they have had twelve chil- 
 dren : Lucia E., who married Arthur J. Piatt, 
 of Milford, and died Alarch 20, 1896; Caleb A., who 
 died Jan. 2, 1870; Egbert L., a physician in Hotch- 
 kissville. Conn., who married Althea Allen, of that 
 town ; Robert R., who died March 24, 1873 ; Summer 
 C; Wallace P.; Mabel C, who died Nov. 13, 1880; 
 Grace I.; Elwood W. ; Nelson C. ; Clifford M.; and 
 Charles A. 
 
 The Beard family is well known in Milford, and 
 Andrew Beard, Mrs. Smith's grandfather, was a 
 resident of the town. His brother was the grand- 
 father of Joseph T. Beard, of Milford. Allen C. 
 Beard, Mrs. Smith's father, was born in Milford, 
 Jan. 28, 1813, and died Aug. 29, 1897. On March 
 22, 1840, he married Abig-ail Smith, of Milford 
 (daughter of William Smith, and his wife, Susan 
 Beard), who died Jan. 20, 1870. This union was 
 blessed with a large family of children, the names 
 
 and dates of birth being given as follows : Abigail 
 A., Sept. 7, 1841; Susan, Sept. 9, 1842; Marion C, 
 Dec. 22, 1844, in Bethany; an infant. May 23, 1847; 
 Andrew A., May 22, 1848; Kate S., Sept. 3, 1850; 
 Sarah M., July 14, 1853; Flora G., Nov. 24, 1855; 
 and William, July 17, 1858. All are living except 
 Sarah M., who died Nov. 28, 1896; William, who 
 died Oct. 17, 1858; and one that died unnamed. 
 
 JOHN EDWIN TOWNER, a machinist by 
 trade, but now engaged in agricultural pursuits, is 
 a well-known, prosperous citizen of Branford. A 
 native of Connecticut, he was bom Jan. 21, 1840, on 
 the farm' whereon he now resides. 
 
 Richard Towner, the first of the family to settle 
 in Connecticut, tradition says was a native of the 
 Isle of Man, that he was impressed on board a Brit- 
 ish warship and put ashore sick at Charleston, S. 
 C, where he married. His wife's name was De- 
 borah. From there it is said he and his family came 
 to Connecticut, settling in 1689 in Branford, where 
 he died Aug. 22, 1727. Richard Towner, his son, 
 baptized in 1700, was a farmer in Branford. He 
 married Elizabeth Tyler Sept. 28, 1720, and died 
 March I, 1753. His son Jonathan, born in Bran- 
 ford Nov. 16, 1721, married Mary Darrow Nov. 10. 
 1743. He died Feb. 20, 1804, she on Feb. 15, 1806. 
 
 David Towner, son of Jonathan and Mary (Dar- 
 row) Towner, and the grandfather of John Edwin, 
 was 'born in Branford in 1768. He was a farmer 
 by occupation, and also for a time kept a tavern on 
 the Guilford pike, although he was a scythemaker by 
 trade, which he learned of Ezekiel Hayes, great- 
 grandfather of Rutherford B. Hayes, ex-President 
 of the United States. Air. Towner would carry on 
 his back the scythes he made, and sell them through- 
 out the county. He married Betsey Bishop, of Beth- 
 lehem, and by her had the following children who 
 grew to maturity: John, Harriet, Nancy (Mrs. 
 Henry Rogers) and Davis (who married Almira 
 Brooks). The father of these died Sept. 24, 1851, 
 the mother April 4, 18^3. 
 
 John Towner, son of David and Betsej' (Bishop) 
 Towner, and the father of John Edwin, was born 
 Sept. 15, 1794, at Branford, and died June 20, 1853. 
 He was a lifelong farmer. On Feb. 6, 1825, he mar- 
 ried Martha Tyler, who bore him three children : 
 Harvey E., born Oct. 21, 1826, married Grace E. 
 Auger. Emily S., born Dec. 15, 1834, was married 
 June 16, 1855, to John R. Holcomb, who died Aug. 
 7, 1899; she has one son, Frank E. John E. is our 
 subject. The father was a Whig in politics, as was 
 also his father. John Towner volunteered for ser- 
 vice in the war of 1812, and served as coast guard. 
 
 John Tyler, the maternal gra'udfather of John 
 Edwin Towner, was a native of Branford, where he 
 carried on farming. During the Revolutionary war 
 he served in the army, and was wounded in battle. 
 His wife Ann (Rogers), who was also born in 
 Branford, was a descendant of Thomas Rogers, who 
 came over in the "Alayflower." George Tyler, father 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 55 r 
 
 of John, married Lydia Raynore. He also was a 
 farmer. 
 
 John Edwin Towner, the subject proper of these 
 lines, was reared on the old homestead, and educated 
 in part at the common schools 'of the neighborhood, 
 in part at the Branford Academy. He then served 
 a four-years apprenticeship in iSfew Haven at the 
 trade of machinist, which he afterward followed for 
 years in the railroad shops of that city. During the 
 Civil war he was a member of Company C, 15th 
 Conn. V. I., enlisting in July, 1862, and was mus- 
 tered into service Aug. 15, 1862. He participated in 
 the battle of Fredericksburg, the siege of Suffolk, 
 and in several minor engagements, was wounded at 
 Kinston, N. C, March 8, 1865, taken prisoner and 
 incarcerated in Salisbury prison fifteen days, also for 
 a few days in the jail at Danville, N. C, after which 
 he was sent to Richmond, taken through the lines 
 to Annapolis, and honorably discharged June i, 
 1865. Since 1870 he has been engaged exclusively 
 in farming. 
 
 On Nov. 16, 1872, Air. Towner married Susan 
 
 D. Hoadley, daughter of Charles and Elizabeth 
 (Gunn) Hoadley, of Branford, and three children 
 were born to them : Anna P., Merle E. and Laura 
 
 E. Anna P. died July 27, 1899 ; she was a graduate 
 of the State Normal School at New Britain, from 
 which she held an honorary diploma, and followed 
 teaching until ill health compelled her to resign. 
 Mrs. Towner passed away March 21, 1897. The 
 family attend the services of the Congregational 
 Church. In politics Mr. Towner is a Republican. 
 Socially he is a member of Wooster Lodge, No. 79, 
 
 F. & A. M., Franklin Chapter, and Harmony Coun- 
 cil, R. A. M., all of New Haven, and is affiliated 
 with the G. A. R., Mason Rogers Post, No. 7, De- 
 partment of Connecticut, of which he is the present 
 adjutant and a past commander. He was com- 
 mander when the soldiers' monument was dedicated. 
 
 HON. GEORGE OTTO SCHNELLER. In 
 sketching the life of George Otto Schneller, late of 
 Ansonia, a mere list of the large number of organ- 
 izations with which he was connected, and which 
 felt his guiding hand, would be wholly inadequate 
 to give a correct idea of the man and his methods, 
 for as a captain of industry he was a Napoleon, the 
 ablest general of his State and time. The names of 
 the institutions which felt his power may perish with 
 the years, but his methods and genius will ever re- 
 main an inspiration. 
 
 Bom in Nuremberg, Germany, June 14, 1843, 
 of an aristocratic family, and educated in the schools 
 of his native land, at the age of seventeen Mr. 
 Schneller left home and family, and, unaided by 
 money or influence, started his business career in 
 New York. His love of home had not lessened, 
 but his love of independence was greater. Self- 
 reliance was the key to all his actions. Loving his 
 family with that strong passion which showed itself 
 in his healthful dreams, and which had not faded out 
 
 in the delirium of his last sickness; he cut loose from: 
 family ties and learned the language and manners of' 
 his adopted country while engaged in occupations 
 which brought him renumeration barely sufficient 
 to pay the cost of board and clothes. 
 
 "The sun set, but set not his hope, 
 Stars rose, his faith was earlier up." 
 
 As an elegant penman and accurate accountant 
 Mr. Schneller obtained a position with O. W. Bird^i 
 of New York, who was a commission man, doingi 
 business for Osborn & Cheesman, of Ansonia, Conn.,,, 
 and thence drifted tO' Ansonia as an accountant fori 
 that firm. Rapidly rising until he commanded the 
 largest salary obtainable in that position, he left his> 
 money well invested and visited his ancestral man- 
 sion with the best wishes of his employers. But,' 
 though his stay was long, he wrote that he "felt like: 
 an eagle in a hen coop," and again came to this' 
 country. While waiting for something to turn up 
 he made an engineer map of Ansonia and Derby, on. 
 the plan of the engineer maps of the German Empire,: 
 which he considered a model for the State. > 
 
 In 1876 Mr. Schneller purchased a spectacle fac-. 
 tory at Shelton, Conn., and, applying his inventive: 
 genius to the improvement of the mechanical process,' 
 resold it in six months to a competitor for three 
 times its original cost. He then turned his attention. 
 to the manufacture of eyelets. The usual propor-j 
 tion of eyelets had been only about one half of the 
 metal employed, and the process had been slow and 
 complicated. In three years he had invented ma^ 
 chinery which saved more than sixty per cent. 06 
 the scrap wasted even by the best known process. 
 To enable him to surpass the cheap hand labor of; 
 Europe he invented and patented a machine- which 
 turned out seven thousand eyelets per minute. By 
 the process employed for setting eyelets only one at 
 a time was handled. He invented a machine for 
 setting every eyelet in a corset at one stroke, which 
 revolutionized the industry both in this country and 
 in Europe. His inventions ranged from buttons toi 
 water meters and multiplex telegraphic apparatus; 
 In addition to attending to his manufacturing inter- 
 ests, he represented his town on the board of edu- 
 cation, and in the State Legislature from 1891 to- 
 1893 ; was one of the leading spirits in the electric 
 street railroad of Derby ; and when the rubber com- 
 panies of the United States formed a gigantic cor- 
 poration he was a leading director and master 
 spirit. 
 
 When the dam which furnished power to the ex- 
 tensive mills of his former employers was carried 
 away, Mr. Schneller purchased and reorganized the 
 textile branch of the business under the style of the 
 Ansonia O. & C. Co., and became director and presi- 
 dent of the Birmingham Brass Co. At the solicita- 
 tion of friends he sometimes invested in outside; 
 schemes, but they never prospered as did those under 
 his own guiding hand. His theory was that difficul- 
 ties existed in all kinds of business, but were not apt 
 
5S2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 to be recognized in those operations carried on at a 
 distance. 
 
 "A score of airy miles will smooth 
 Rough Monadnoc to a gem." 
 
 He believed that distant ventures were of little ac- 
 count, but used to say that every young man had a 
 gold mine under his feet if he could only see it. 
 
 Mr. Schneller loved the fresh sea breeze and had 
 his lovely summer cottage by the seashore. The 
 last year of his life (1895) he determined, in the 
 spring, to build a new factory for his increasing 
 business, and when it was cornpleted to enjoy an 
 ocean trip with his family to the home of his youth ; 
 but before this could be realized he felt the breath of 
 eternal morning on his brow. Just as his factory 
 was completed, he caught a severe cold, which set- 
 tled in the region of his heart, and he never re- 
 covered. 
 
 In 1873 ^^i"- Schneller was married to Clarissa 
 Ailing, of Ansonia, and to the union six children 
 were born. The eldest, Marie Eloise, called by her 
 classmates "Birdie," easily won first honors in 
 her class, and in her memory a window has been 
 placed in the high school building at Ansonia. The 
 only son, George Otto, born in 1878, who evinces 
 much of his father's spirit, determination and busi- 
 ness ability, succeeds by the terms of the will to the 
 care of his father's various enterprises. 
 
 COL. WALTER JAMES LEAVENWORTH, 
 No history of the State of Connecticut would be 
 complete without special mention of the Leaven- 
 worth family, who from a very early day were con- 
 spicuous among its earlier settlers, and have borne a 
 prominent part in the growth and prosperity of the 
 several portions of the State where the various 
 branches have located. 
 
 The first of the family in this country of whom 
 we have mention was ( i j Thomas Leavenworth, a 
 native of England, in which country he married 
 Grace (surname unknown). Some time after 1664 
 (as learned only by tradition, however) they emi- 
 grated to America, and he died in Woodbury, Conn., 
 Aug. 3, 1683. An inventory of his personal estate 
 was taken Aug. 20, the same )'ear, showing valua- 
 tion to be £225, 2s, id; this appears on the probate 
 records of Fairfield district, also that he left two 
 sons and one daughter, to-wit: Thomas (doctor), 
 a sketch of whom follows ; John, born probably in 
 Woodbury, Litchfield Co., Conn., possibly in Eng- 
 land, died after 1718; record of birth and death of 
 daughter not given. The father of this family was 
 a farmer and settled, no doubt, on Good Hill, in the 
 Western part of the present town of Woodbury, not 
 far from the line of Roxbury, and there and in that 
 vicinity the family have continued, being now quite 
 numerous. A tradition in the family is that Thomas 
 landed at New Haven, doubtless having come from 
 England. 
 
 In Russell's "Lives of Eccentric Personages," 
 
 p. 96, in the record of the life of Sir Gerald Massey, 
 reference is made to Sir Lewis Leavenworth as liv- 
 ing in London, and to a ball given by him about the 
 middle of the eighteenth century. - Grace, the wife 
 of ( I ) Thomas Leavenworth, survived him, and re- 
 mained in Woodbury for a time (perhaps perma- 
 nently), and was there in February, 1686, owning 
 land in "Hosky Meadow," about a mile from the 
 village of Woodbury. It is supposed that she died 
 in 1715. The execution of bonds by his wife, after 
 his decease, with London persons, to which was at- 
 tached the Leavenworth arms, would indicate that 
 Thomas had formerly been a resident of London. 
 Little is known of him, however, and no headstone 
 bearing record of him is to be found in any of the 
 cemeteries of Woodbury. But he was evidently a 
 prosperous man in his affairs, judging from the 
 property that he left, and from the way in which he 
 brought up his children, viz. : in habits of industry 
 and frugality. Unfortunately few data are pre- 
 served from which to form definite opinions of his 
 character, save what may have been inherited from 
 him. Of the character of the Leavenworth family 
 there is little to be said that cannot with equal truth 
 be applied to the good and early families of New 
 England. They brought with them from the 
 mother country the pure and rigid principles as well 
 as the stern and unyielding spirit which had char- 
 acterized the Puritans of England for a century 
 previous. 
 
 (II) Dr. Thomas Leavenworth, son of (i) 
 Thomas, was born in 1673, perhaps in Woodbury, 
 possibly in England, and died Aug. 4, 1754, in 
 Ripton, Conn. About 1698, at Stratford, he mar- 
 ried Mary Jenkins, a daughter of David and Grace 
 Jenkins, born in 1680, died at Ripton, in June, 1768, 
 and she and her husband were buried at Ripton 
 Center. In 1697-98, Dr. Thomas Leavenworth was 
 received into communion with the Stratford Church, 
 having on the nth day of January, that year "owned 
 the covenant," and in 1724 he and his wife became 
 original -members of the Church at Ripton, of which 
 he was one of the founders. In 1726 he was deacon 
 of the church, and a member of the society's com- 
 mittee. In 173 1 he was one of the promoters of 
 and interested parties in a copper mine in Woodbury. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Leavenworth was a man of posi- 
 tion, influence, energy and wealth. He had the 
 proper appreciation of the value of learning, and 
 educated his son Mark at Yale, where he was grad- 
 uated in 1737. Dr. Thomas evidently gave to 
 all his children every advantage usually en- 
 joyed at that period, as all of them became active, 
 useful and prominent men in after life, in the places 
 where they resided. On July 6, 1748, he made his 
 will which was offered for probate by his widow, 
 June 12, 1754, and was proved three days later. 
 [It can be found in Book 1754-1757, pp. 41-44.] He 
 left a large property for those times. The Doctor 
 lived in Stratford as early as 1695, and probably re- 
 moved to Ripton about 1721. His residence was di- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 553 
 
 xectly on the bank of the Housatonic river, about 
 two miles above the village of Birmingham, and a 
 short distance below the site of the "Leavenworth 
 Bridge," built originally (1768-69) by his son Capt. 
 Edmund, and his grandson, Gideon, and subse- 
 quently rebuilt .by the latter. Here he had a large 
 farm fronting on the river for more than a mile ; 
 l)Ut not a vestige of his dwelling now remains. This 
 property has remained in the family for over 200 
 years. 
 
 Dr. Thomas Leavenworth and his wife are, no 
 doubt, the common progenitors of the whole family 
 now living in the United States. The headstones at 
 their graves still remain in good condition in the 
 ■old cemetery, near the Ripton Church, of which he 
 was one of the founders. A brief record of the chil- 
 dren of this pioneer couple, all born in Stratford, 
 Conn., is as follows: James, born Sept. i, .1699, 
 died Aug. i, 1760. David, born Oct. 12, 1701, died 
 April 10, 1735. Ebenezer, born April 7, 1706, died 
 in 1834, unmarried. John is fully spoken of farther 
 on. Zebulon, born about 1710, died May 2, 1778. 
 Mark, born about 171 1, died Aug. 20, 1797, in the 
 €ighty-sixth year of his age and the fifty-eighth year 
 of his ministry; in March, 1760, he was appointed 
 chaplain of the 2d Connecticut Regiment, com- 
 manded by Col. Nathan Whiting. Thomas, born 
 about 1713, died in 1795. Mary, born in 1717, died 
 in 1813. Hannah, born about 1719, was alive in 
 1763. Sarah, born Nov. 6, 1721, was alive in 1758. 
 Edmund, born in 1725, died July 17, 1785. 
 
 (Ill) John Leavenworth, son of (II) Dr. 
 Thomas, was born Nov. 3, 1708, and was baptized 
 in Bridgeport (then Stratford), Conn. He mar- 
 ried (first), about 1737, Deborah Hurd, who died 
 Jan. I, 1746; he married (second), Jan. 29, 1747, 
 Mary Bronson, who was born July 21, 1719, a 
 daughter of Ebenezer B. and Mary Mann. He re- 
 sided in Ripton in 1733. [Book IV, p. 164, Wood- 
 bury Records.] His father deeded to him lands on 
 Good Hill, in 1733, and he received a part of the 
 estate of his brother Ebenezer, as well as part of the 
 €state of his father. He died about the year 1783, 
 and his will was proved in Woodbury Feb. 17, 1785. 
 [YHI Prob. Vol., p. 164.] His sons, Amos and 
 Elihu, were his executors. He had a number of 
 slaves with their families, which he disposed of by 
 his will. During his life he was one of the leading 
 men of Woodbury, and he lived on Good Hill, near 
 the residence of the late John Leavenworth, and on 
 or near the very ground where his grandfather 
 Thomas first settled. The children born (all in 
 Woodbury) to John and Deborah (Hurd) Leaven- 
 worth were as follows: David (Capt.) is fully 
 spoken of farther on. Abigail, born about 1739, 
 died March 4, 1782. John, born in 1739, died in 
 June, 1802; served in the war of (he Revolution. 
 [Cothren, p. 783.] Lemuel, born Oct. 9, 1743, died 
 April 30, 1825 ; he took up arms to resist the inva- 
 sion of Burgoyne, and was at the battle of Benning- 
 
 ton. Deborah' was baptized May 8, 1745. The 
 children born (all in Woodbury) to John and Mary 
 (Bronson) Leavenworth were as follows: Sybil, 
 born in 1747; Amos, baptized Aug. 9, 1753, died 
 Sept. 2, 1828; Avis, born in 1754; Elihu, born Oct. 
 5, 1756, died Dec. 25, 1756; Elisha, baptized July 
 3, 1763, died early in life; Elihu, born June 10, 1763, 
 aied July i, 1817. 
 
 (IV) Capt. David Leavenworth, eldest son of 
 (III) John, was born about 1738 in Woodbury, 
 where he passed all of his days, dying March 25, 
 1820. In 1796 he was captain of the fourth com- 
 pany, 13th regiment of the Colony of Connecticut, 
 and served in the army of the Revolution. [See 
 Cothren, pp. 195-6-7 and 204-8-10-11.] His will 
 was proved April 10, 1820. [XIII Vol., Prob., p. 
 4.] He was engaged heart and soul in the war 
 of the Revolution ; was called out with his com- 
 pany to New York, besides on various other occa- 
 sions, and proved himself one of the active and ener- 
 getic men of those trying times. Accounts of his 
 services and expenses at Fairfield in 1778, and on 
 other occasions, are on file at the comptroller's office 
 at Hartford. The account for militia service, etc., 
 at Fairfield, amounted to £36, 3s, iid; another ac- 
 count is £99, 3s, 4d. 
 
 Capt. David Leavenworth married, (first) Feb. 
 8, 1759, Olive Hunt. Children: Gideon, born Oct. 
 26, 1759, died Oct. 15, 1827, in Roxbury, Conn.; he 
 served in the Revolutionary army [Cothren, p. 
 783], and was a com^missary under LaFayette. Da- 
 vid died in the spring of 1858 ; he was in the war of 
 the Revolution. [Cothren, p. 783.] Morse is fully 
 mentioned farther on. Anna, born Nov. 15, 1767. 
 Capt. David married (second) Oct. 30, 1776, Mary 
 Downs. Children : Whitman, born March 22, 
 1778. Mary, born March 16, 1780, died young. 
 Abigail, who is mentioned in her father's will, mar- 
 ried Josiah Rundle, and moved to Whitestown, N. 
 Y. Olive married Nathaniel Galpin, of Roxbury, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 (V) Morse Leavenworth, son of (IV) Capt. 
 David, was born in Roxbury, Conn., July i, 1764, 
 and died there Nov. 12, 1822. He married, Dec. 
 25, 1783, Sarah Benedict, born in New Milford, 
 Conn., Jan. 30, 1760, and died in Roxbury, Jan. 
 29, 1856. She was a daughter of Squire Jonathan 
 Benedict, who was born in 1723. Morse was a 
 highly respected farmer, and through energy and 
 perseverance, which has been characteristic of the 
 name even down to the present generation, he accu- 
 mulated considerable property. His will was 
 proved Dec. 3, 1822. [XIII, Prob. Vol., p. 138.] 
 He was a soldier in the army of the Revolution. 
 [Cothren, p. 783.] He built and lived and died in 
 the house now owned by his grandson, John H., 
 who is a teacher and farmer, living in Roxbury. 
 Children born to Morse Leavenworth : Martin, 
 born Jan. 12, 1785, died Feb. 16, 1813. Truman, 
 born Aug. 18, 1786, died March 26, 1852. Philo, 
 
554 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born Oct. 3, 1789, died Feb. 11, 1835; he served 
 in the war of 1812. Wait is fully spoken of farther 
 on. Harriet, born Oct. 30, 1796. Morse, born July 
 27, 1805, died Nov. 23, 1852. 
 
 (VI!) Wait Leavenworth, son of (V) Morse, 
 was born Sept. 12, 1792, in Roxbury, Conn. On 
 March 30, 1812, he married Amoretta Patterson, 
 daughter of James and Clara Patterson, of Roxbury, 
 Conn. He was a farmer, a good citizen and highly 
 esteemed, was pleasant, sociable and of a generous 
 disposition. He was a large man, weighing some 
 200 pounds. In 1838 he served in the Legislature, 
 and for many years held various town offices, in- 
 cluding that of selectman. His chilaren, all born 
 in Roxbury, were: James Martin, born Feb. 26, 
 1813, died Jan. 26, 1814. James Martin (2) is 
 fully spoken of farther on. William, born July 23, 
 1816. George, born Sept. 15, 1820, died i\lay 12, 
 1847. Wait, born May 9, 1827. Edwin, born April 
 21, 1831, died in 1897. Charles Royal, born Dec. 
 14, 1834, is living in Roxbury. Two others died in 
 infancy. 
 
 (VII) James Martin Leavenworth, son of (VI) 
 Wait, and the father of Col. Walter James, was born 
 in Roxbury, Conn., Sept. 28, 181 5, and died in 
 Wallingford, Conn., in 1889. By occupation he was 
 a carpenter and joiner; for some time prior to his 
 death was millwright and carpenter for the R. Wall- 
 ace & Sons Mfg. Co., and superintended the erec- 
 tion of several of the buildings belonging to this 
 firm. He was not active in political affairs, but ex- 
 hibited great zeal in educational matters, and served 
 as a member of the committee that had charge of 
 the building of the public school m Wallingford 
 (whither he had come in 1852), which was erected 
 in 1870-71 at a cost of nearly $32,000, and is said 
 to be one of the most complete buildings of its kind 
 in the State. He was a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and was a Cjuiet, unassuming man. 
 A great reader, he took considerable pride and much 
 delight in his library, which was quite extensive for 
 a private one, being replete with works of standard 
 authors. 
 
 On Feb. 7, 1844, James M. Leavenworth mar- 
 ried Julia Hurd, daughter of Jehiel and Deborah 
 (Percy) Hurd, of Roxbury, Conn., and children as 
 follows were born to them : Walter James, a sketch 
 of whom follows; Julia Isabel, born Oct. 8, 1848, 
 in Roxbury, who died May 29, 1858, in Walling- 
 ford; and Margaret Percy, born May 21, 1859, in 
 Wallingford, now the wife of Charles E. Moody, 
 of Honey Grove, Texas. The mother of these died 
 in Medford, Mass., in 1891. 
 
 (VIII) Col. Walter James Leavenworth, son 
 of (VII) James M., was born Feb. 20, 1845, i" the 
 town of Roxbury, Conn., where he received, at the 
 primary schools, the earlier part of his education, 
 continuing his studies at the common schools of 
 Wallingford, where the family removed when he 
 was seven A-ears old. At the age of fifteen years, be- 
 ing desirous of following his father's trade, he 
 
 started to learn that of joiner; but at the end of a 
 few months he gave it up and entered the factory 
 of G. I. Mix & Co., of Yalesville, New Haven 
 county, manufacturers of Britannia ware. Here 
 he remained but a short time, however, from there 
 going to the Meriden Britannia Co.'s factory in 
 Walhngford, and he continued in its employ unlil 
 1862. Heretofore he had no taste for office work, 
 but an opportunity presenting itself, he accepted a 
 position as entry clerk with Hall, Elton & Co., man- 
 ufacturers of plated ware, which position he held 
 until, owing to his marked ability, and the energy 
 which he had shown in every minute detail of the 
 business, he was promoted to the office of secretary 
 of the company. This incumbency he held and the 
 duties thereof he performed to the entire satisfaction 
 of the company, until 1877, in that year resigning 
 to accept the position of treasurer of the Wallace 
 Bros.' tactory. In 1879 this firm merged into the 
 R. Wallace & Sons Mfg. Co., and Mr. Leavenworth 
 was at the same time elected treasurer and general 
 manager of the placing of the product of this mam- 
 moth factory on the market. From his very com- 
 mencement in this capacity the business of the firm 
 was trebled, and is still increasing rapidly. The 
 company are large manufacturers of all kinds, and 
 in great varieties, of silver ware for table use, and 
 employment is given to from 700 to 850 hands. 
 They have branch houses in New York, Chicago, 
 San Francisco and London, England. 
 
 In addition to his business relations just men- 
 tioned. Col. Leavenworth was until recently presi- 
 dent and director of the Wallingford Gas Light 
 Co., of which he was one of the incorporators ; he 
 is a director of the First National Bank of Walling- 
 ford, also one of its incorporators, and on the death 
 of Samuel Simpson (late president of the bank) 
 in 1894, he was elected to succeed him. As a stanch 
 Republican he is a recognized leader, and has served 
 in various offices of trust and honor. In 1897 he 
 represented the town of Wallingford in the State 
 Legislature, and during his two years there was 
 chairman of the military committee. 
 
 In municipal affairs he was burgess of the bor- 
 ough of Wallingford four years ; chairman of the 
 board of water commissioners, also four years ; and 
 he is now president of the Wallingford Board of 
 Trade, having held that position ever since the for- 
 mation of the board. He is at present a member of 
 the Central School District Committee, having taken 
 office July 15, 1900, for two years, by the unani- 
 mous vote of the district. 
 
 Socially Col. Leavenworth is a member of the 
 ^^'allingford Club, of AVallingford, and also of the 
 Republican League Club, and the Union League 
 Club, both of New Haven. His religious connec- 
 tions are with the First Congregational Church of 
 Wallingford, of which he is a liberal supporter. 
 
 Col. Leavenworth enjoys a military record that 
 covers nearly fifteen years. On Sept. 15, 1871, he 
 enlisted in Company K, 2d Regiment, Connecticut 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 555 
 
 National Guardi; was appointed first sergeant on 
 the 19th of the same month, and promoted suc- 
 cessively to second lieutenant (Dec. 14, 1871), first 
 lieutenant (Aug. 25, 1873), and captain (Jan. 29, 
 1874), resigning Jan. 17, 1877. On Nov. 11, 1880, 
 he was again appointed to the captaincy of the same 
 company, and again resigned June 16, 1882. On 
 July 26, 1882, he was elected lieutenant colonel of 
 the 2d Regiment National Guard, and Feb. 16, 1885, 
 was promoted to the colonelcy of same, which rank 
 he held several years, resigning from the command 
 June 22, 1889. He was highly esteemed as an 
 efficient officer and a strict disciplinarian. 
 
 On Oct. 23, 1867, Col. Leavenworth was married 
 to Miss Nettie A. Wallace, a native of Watertown, 
 and a daughter of Robert and Louisa Wallace, of 
 Wallingford, and children as follows have been 
 born to them : Clifford Wallace, born May 16, 1869, 
 a graduate from Yale in 1891, is now president of 
 the Valentine Linsley Silver Co., of Wallingford ; 
 Isabel Wallace, born in 1871, died in 1889; Bessie 
 Adele, born in 1874, was married in 1897 to Carl- 
 ton H. Leach, son of the late Hon. Oscar Leach, of 
 Middletown (they have one child, Walter Leaven- 
 worth) ; and John Wallace, born July 20, 1882, is 
 at present attending school at Andover, preparatory 
 to entering Yale. 
 
 It can truly be said that Col. Leavenworth has, 
 during his business career, identified himself prom- 
 inently with every interest of his town in the line 
 of public improvement, and has earned the reputa- 
 tion which attaches to him — that of being an honor- 
 able and highly useful, loyal citizen. A repre- 
 sentative self made man, his success in life is due 
 wholly to his untiring energy and indomitable per- 
 severance, and he has in all respects proven himself 
 to be a worthy scion of a worthy family. 
 
 AUSTIN MANSFIELD, who was for many 
 years a prominent business man of New Haven, 
 came from a long and honorable line of New Eng- 
 land families. Jesse Merrick Mansfield, his father, 
 was in the seventh generation from Richard Mans- 
 field, who came from Exeter, Devonshire, England, 
 and settled in Quinnipiac (New Haven), in 1639, 
 being one of the first settlers of the Colony. Joseph 
 Mansfield, son of Richard, lived on the part of his 
 father's farm located in what is known as Hamden, 
 and died in 1692. Joseph Mansfield (2), his son, 
 born in 1673, married Elizabeth Cooper; he occu- 
 pied the homestead and farm of his father and 
 grandfather. Joseph Mansfield (3), born in 1708, 
 married Phebe Bassett in 1732, resided at the old 
 place of his ancestors, and died about 1762, leaving 
 a son, Titus, who married Mabel Todd, and lived at 
 the old Mansfield farm. Jesse Mansfield, son of 
 Titus and grandfather of our subject, was born in 
 1772, and was a carpenter by occupation ; he married 
 Keziah Stiles, and lived in Hamden, Connecticut. 
 
 Jesse Merrick Mansfield, the father of our sub- 
 ject, was born July 11, 1801, in Hamden, Conn., and 
 
 was a farmer there during the early part of his ca- 
 reer, but later engaged in the coal business in New ■ 
 Haven, where his death occurred March 23, 1878. 
 Mr. Mansfield was three times married^, first on 
 Oct. 23, 1825, to Charlotte Heaton, who' died June 
 
 19, 1844. His second wife, Julia Tuttle, died in 
 1849, ^I'^d on Nov. 3, 1850, he married Catherine B. 
 Warner. His children were : Ellen, born in 1826, 
 died in i860; Austin, born in 1829, died in 1831 ; 
 Austin (2), born April 7, 1833, died Nov. 24, 1898; 
 Susan, born in 1837; Howard, born in 1849; ^'^'^'^ 
 Burton, born in 1856. 
 
 Austin Mansfield was reared in the vicinity of 
 Hamden, and attended the district schools, and later 
 came to New Haven, where he began his career in 
 the lumber business in association with George D. 
 Gower. The death of Mr. Gower, in 1885, caused 
 some immaterial changes, and for several years Mr. 
 Mansfield continued the business alone and then 
 took his son with him, making the firm Austin Mans- 
 field & Son, this name continuing until the death of 
 Mr. Mansfield, in 1898. The first marriage of Mr. 
 Mansfield was to Emily Ford, who died in 1879, 
 leaving one son, Louis A., who carries on the lumber 
 business established by his father. On May 14, 
 1885, Mr. Mansfield married Miss Charlotte E. Jud- 
 son. 
 
 The family of Mrs. Mansfield came from old 
 Revolutionary stock. Her father, Jerome T. Jud- 
 son, was born in Newtown, Conn., Nov. 9, 1830, 
 and died in New Haven, July 16, 1872. He mar- 
 ried Jane P. Hall, who was born in Newtown, June 
 
 20, 1836, a daughter of Alexander Hall, Esq., of 
 Newtown, who was born in Putnam county, N. Y., 
 June 23, 1800, and Rebecca Colburn Hall of New- 
 town. Mr. and Mrs. Jerome T. Judson were mar- 
 ried and lived in New Haven, where he became well 
 known as the senior member of the packing house 
 of Judson Bros. Mrs. Mansfield was their only 
 child. After the death of Mr. Judson, his widow, 
 in 1879, became the wife of George M. Grant, who 
 is now also deceased. 
 
 Jerome T. Judson was a son of Truman Judson, 
 a farmer of Roxbury, Conn. He married Antoi- 
 nette Hurlburt, and reared a family of ten children : 
 Jerome T., the father of Mrs. Alansfield was the 
 eldest of the family. The others were Charles E.,. 
 deceased ; Philena ; Warner D. ; Henrietta ; Antoi- 
 nette ; Martha; Betsie ; George; and Ellen. 
 
 LUTHER WHEELER CUMMINGS was born 
 in Montpelier, Vt., July 6, 1841, son of Oren Cum- 
 mings, a native of the same place, who was born 
 Feb. 20, 1801, and died at East Montpelier, April 
 
 21, 1884. Elisha Cummings, the father of Oren, 
 was born in Sutton, Mass., and his father was Dan- 
 iel Cummings. 
 
 Elisha Cummings moved from Sutton to Mont- 
 pelier, he and his wife making the journey in an 
 ox-cart, and settled in the wilderness, engaging in 
 farming, and disputing a place with the wilcl beasts 
 
556 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that abounded at that time. At the time of his 
 location the nearest neighbor was three miles away. 
 Mr. Cummings lived to the age of ninety-one. iHe 
 and his wife reared a family of nine children; 
 Sophia, Joel, Oren (the father of Luther W.), 
 Avery, Lorenda, Almira, Amassa, and Lucius and 
 Luman (twins), all of whom, were farming people, 
 .and settled! in the same part of the State. 
 
 Oren Cummings, the father of Luther W., was 
 a farmer all his life. He married Betsy Wheeler, 
 who was born in Montpelier in 1802', and died Feb. 
 22, 1878. To them came five children : Henry 
 M., born in 1828; Albert O., born in 1829; Timothy 
 S., born in 1833; Ehzabeth, born in 1837; and 
 Luther W., whose name appears above. Henry M., 
 who was a farmer, died in East Montpelier, Vt., Aug. 
 7, 1881. Albert O. is now retired from active la- 
 bors, and is living in Montpelier. Timothy S. is a 
 farmer, and lives at East Montpelier. Elizabeth 
 married Henry S. Town, a farmer in Montpelier. 
 Oren Cummings became a Republican when the 
 party was organized. 
 
 Mrs. Betsy (Wheeler) Cummings was a 
 daughter of Jerathmel B. Wheeler, who was born 
 in 1768, and settled in Montpelier, coming with his 
 brother Benjamin from ^Massachusetts. They were 
 ^reat-grandsons of James Wheeler, who was born 
 in England. Col. Philip Wheeler, son of James, 
 was born in 1698, and died Sept. 19, 1765. Capt. 
 Philip Wheeler, son of Col. Philip, was born in 
 1733. We have the following concerning him: 
 
 Rehoboth, Mass., Nov. 22, 1774. 
 The town of Rehoboth, being legally warned and assem- 
 bled on the 21st inst., made choice of Mr. Ephraim Stark- 
 weather, Mr. Samuel Peck, Capt. Ebenezer Peck, Capt. 
 Philip Wheeler, and Capt. Thomas Carpenter, a Committee 
 for executing the Plans of the Continental and Provincial 
 Congresses; and also gave Orders to the Constables and 
 Collectors to pay Henry Gardner, of Stow, Esq., Monies 
 which they then had or in future might have in their hands 
 belonging to the Province, agreeable to a Resolve of the 
 Provincial Congress, who have considered the late Treasurer 
 Gray unworthy of any further Confidence, and an avowed 
 Enemy to the Rights of America. 
 
 From the Providence Gazette and Country Jour- 
 nal of Saturday, Dec. 3, 1774: 
 
 Sunday Night last died at Palmer's River Captain 
 Philip Wheeler, whose Death was occasioned by a Wound 
 he received in the Leg at the Training of his Company a 
 few Days before, a young Man having carelessly and con- 
 trary to Orders, discharged his Gun which contained a 
 double Charge of Powder. This fatal Accident should cau- 
 tion all that are engaged in learning the Art military to sub- 
 mit themselves entirely to the Orders of their Officers. 
 
 Capt. Wheeler has left a Wife, and a numerous Family 
 of Children, to deplore his loss. 
 
 Luther W. Cummings grew to manhood under 
 the parental roof, and remained on the home farm 
 tmtil he was twenty-one years of age, receiving his 
 education in the old district school. It was a mile 
 from his home, and his father had to go three 
 miles. When he had reached the age of twenty- 
 
 one it was time for him to strike out in life for 
 himself. The first move he made was to come to 
 Connecticut, where he worked as a laborer on the 
 railroad near Hartford, which presently led him to 
 the position of fireman on the Providence, Hartford 
 & Fishkill Railroad ; he served an apprenticeship of 
 four years. Mr. Cummings came to Waterbury in 
 1867, and took charge of the engihe for the Steele 
 & Johnson Co., and for twenty-five years was its 
 operator. For about seven years he has been re- 
 tired from active work. 
 
 On Sept. 15, 1874, Mr. Cummings married Miss 
 Isabel A. Frost, a native of Waterbury, and a 
 daughter of Jared Frost, who was born in North 
 Haven, Conn., Sept. 18, 1820, and died in Water- 
 bury June II, 1873. Jared Frost was with the 
 Benedict & 'Burnham Manufacturing iCo.,. many 
 years. He married Susan Lambert, who was born 
 in Waterbury, Dec. 26, 1822, and died Jan. 29, 1883. 
 They had two children : Charles N. and Isabel A. 
 (Mrs. Cummings). Charles N. lives in Kenosha, 
 Wis., where he is superintendent of the Chicago 
 Brass Co., and president of the Badger Manufactur- 
 ing Co. Willard Frost, the father of Jared, was 
 born in North Haven, Conn., married Miriam Ives, 
 Dec. 3, 1809, and died April 17, 1854. The fol- 
 lowing children were born to them : Horace, 
 Louise, William T., Jared (the father of Mrs. Cum- 
 mings) and Alva. The father of Willard Frost 
 was born in North Haven June 18, 1748, and 
 throughout his life was a man of mark. His wife, 
 Mabel Stiles, was a daughter of Isaac Stiles, and 
 the niece of President Stiles, of Yale College. Their 
 children were Polly, Titus, Julia, John, Samuel, 
 Willard and Leverett. Ebenezer Frost, the grand- 
 father of Willard, was born in North Haven, and 
 died about 1757. Damaris Ives became his wife, 
 and they reared a family of eight children : Mary, 
 Samuel, Sybil, Amos, Titus, Mary, Lucy and Eben- 
 ezer. Ebenezer Frost, father of the Ebenezer just 
 mentioned, was born in North Haven Aug. 15, 1677, 
 married Mary Tuttle, and reared the following 
 children : Hannah, Ebenezer, ]\Iary, Mary, Sarah, 
 Martha, John, Abigail, Amos, Thankful and Eliza- 
 beth. John Frost, the father of Ebenezer, was born 
 in England, and settled in North Haven. 
 
 After their marriage Luther W Cummings and 
 his wife settled in Waterbury, where three children 
 were born to them': Harrj' F., July 26, 1875 ; Nor- 
 man W., Feb. 27, 18S1 ; and Phillip I., Nov. 13, 
 1892. Mr. Cummings is an independent in political 
 matters. He is a man of good character and stand- 
 ing in the community. 
 
 CHARLES AUGUSTUS AIEIGS, born in Ox- 
 ford, Conn., March 6, 1825, has been prominently 
 identified with the industrial and mercantile inter- 
 ests of this county during the past half century. 
 
 Samuel Meigs, his father, was born in the town 
 of Bethlehem, Litchfield Co., Conn., in 1791, a son 
 of Dr. Phineas Meigs, a leading physician and prom- 
 
J^Zj^,Ul^^J^.^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 557 
 
 inent citizen of that place who died in 1805. Samuel 
 Meigs was reared and educated in his native town, 
 and at the age of twaity removed to Oxford where 
 he was emploj^ed by the Hon. David Tomlinson, 
 grandfather of Charles A. Meigs, as will appear 
 later. Mr. Tomlinson conducted a general mer- 
 cantile business at Quaker Farms, a village in the 
 town of Oxford, and was engaged in the West In- 
 dies trade, owning vessels plying between Derby, 
 New Haven and those Islands; was also largely in- 
 terested in agriculture, owning 2,300 acres of land, 
 mostly in the town of Oxford, and was a wealthy 
 and influential citizen of that place, serving for a 
 time as Senator in the State Legislature. Samuel 
 Meigs married Lorena, daughter of David Tom- 
 linson, and to them' were born five children, namely : 
 Sarah E., who married Charles Dick, and died in 
 1888; Jane C, widow of George Lum; Benjamin, 
 who died in childhood; David T., who died in 1889; 
 and Charles A., whom we are reviewing. Samuel 
 Meigs spent his last years upon the farm in Oxford, 
 where he died in the spring of 1855, at the age of 
 sixty-five. He was a member of the Masonic fra- 
 ternity, served in the State Legislature, and although 
 not a lawyer, he was well versed in legal matters 
 through extensive reading. 
 
 Charles Augustus Meigs passed the early years 
 of his life at the old homestead in Quaker Farms, 
 and obtained his education in the common schools 
 of the neighborhood. At the age of sixteen he went 
 to Birmingham, Conn., where he served a five years' 
 apprenticeship to the tailor's trade, but owing to ill 
 health, was unable to follow that occupation. Re- 
 turning to Oxford he taught school for one season, 
 and in 1849 removed to Waterbury, Conn., where 
 he started the first bakery in the place. He con- 
 tinued in the baking business until the spring of 
 1852, when, accompanied by his brother David, he 
 went to California by way of the Nicaragua route. 
 On landing at San Francisco they proceeded to the 
 Feather River country, where they engaged in pros- 
 pecting and mining until 1855, when they returned 
 to Waterbury. There he again engaged in the bak- 
 ing business, and in 1857 took John T. Trott into 
 partnership, under the firm name of Meigs & Trott. 
 This firm continued for over thirty years and be- 
 came well known throughout the State on account of 
 its extensive business, especially in the manufac- 
 ture of crackers. In 1858, leaving the firm business 
 to the management of his partner, Mr. Meigs again 
 went to California, where he remained for seven 
 years. Since his return to Connecticut in 1865, he 
 has divided his time between Waterbury and Quaker 
 Farms, having business interests in both places. He 
 has, however, during the past few years devoted 
 most of his time to his farming interests, and at 
 present resides at the old homestead where he was 
 born nearly seventy-seven years ago. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Meigs was married to Miss Lucy 
 Yale, of Canaan, Conn., who died the following 
 year. He was again married Jan. 3, 1867, Bernice, 
 
 daughter of Ebenezer and Julia (Davis) Riggs, 
 of Oxford, becoming his wife. 
 
 Ebenezer Riggs was a prominent citizen of that 
 town, served in the State Legislature, and was con- 
 spicuous for his hospitality and kindly characteris- 
 tics. Mrs. Meigs' ancestors include many people 
 prominently identified with the early history and 
 development of New Flaven county, among them 
 being Sergeant Edward Riggs, one of the first two 
 settlers of Derby, Conn. Of this second marriage 
 have been born three children : David, who died in 
 infancy; Mary, a resident of Waterbury; and 
 Charles E., an attorney at law of that place, who 
 is a graduate of the Scientific Department of Yale 
 University, and was a student in both the Yale and 
 Harvard Law Schools. In his political views, Mr. 
 Meigs is a Republican, and religiously he is a mem- 
 ber of the Protestant Episcopal Church, to which 
 his wife also belongs. As a business man he is 
 honorable, prompt and true to every engagement. 
 He is a man who has lived and has been active dur- 
 ing the world's greatest period of development, and 
 he belongs to the type of New England family that 
 is too fast disappearing. 
 
 ALBERT CHATFIELD. Among the ener- 
 getic and successful farmers of Oxford, who thor- 
 oughly understand the vocation which they follow, 
 and are consequently enabled to carry on their call- 
 ing with profit to themselves, is the subject of this 
 review. He is actively engaged in agricultural pur- 
 suits on a fine farm of sixty acres. 
 
 Mr. Chatfield is a native of the town of Oxford, 
 born on the farm now owned by Preston Hennian, 
 March 14, 1824, and is a son of Lewis and Thirza 
 (Perry) Chatfield. In early life the father engaged 
 in mercantile business in Oxford, but later followed 
 farming. He died in 1858, at the age of seventy 
 years, and his wife passed away at the advanced 
 age of ninety-three. In their family were only two 
 children, and Martha, the older, is now deceased. 
 
 Reared in his native town, Albert Chatfield is 
 indebted to its public schools for his educational 
 advantages, and being the only son, he remained at 
 home with his parents, aiding his father in the 
 work of the farm and early acquiring an excellent 
 knowledge of the occupation which he has chosen as 
 a life work. In i860 he removed to the farm where 
 he now resides, and to its cultivation and improve- 
 ment has since devoted his energies, being success- 
 fully engaged in general farming. Politically he 
 is a stanch Republican. 
 
 STREET WILLIAMS was born July 9, 1833, 
 in Wallingford, where his father, Julius Williams, 
 was born April 25, 1801, and where he died Oct. 26, 
 1881. The father was a Whig and became a Re- 
 publican on the formation of the party. He was 
 much interested in political affairs from principle, 
 but was never an office seeker ; he was a hard-work- 
 ing and an earnest member of St. Paul's Episcopal 
 
558 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Church and served as warden for nearly twenty 
 years, and as vestryman many years. Julius Will- 
 iams was married, in 1827, to Miss Betsy Todd, 
 who was born in 1806, a daughter of Eliazer Todd, 
 of North Haven; she died Nov. 11, 1844. To their 
 marriage were born: (ij) Dwight, born Oct. 6, 
 1828, and died May 7, 1874; he was a life-long 
 farmer, and he married Miss Sarah A. Lamphier, 
 of Branford. (2) Street. (3) Juliette E., born 
 May 8, 1841, married Edgar Squires, of Bridgeport. 
 
 Willoughby Williams, father of Julius, was born 
 in 1757, in Wallingford, where he died in 1837. 
 For many years he was senior warden of St. Paul's 
 Episcopal Church. In early life he was a Federal- 
 ist, and died a Whig. In matters of finance his 
 judgment was regarded as good, and he was much 
 employed in settling estates. He married Abigail 
 Merriman, of Wallingford, and was father to the 
 following children: (i) Philo, who died in 1805, 
 aged nineteen years ; ( 2 ) Sallie, who married John 
 Street, of Holyoke, Mass., a descendant of the 
 famous Rev. Samuel Street, one of the first settlers 
 of Wallingford; (3) Lodema, who married Ira 
 Munson, of Wallingford; (4) Harry, who married 
 Rebecca Todd, of Northford; (5) Julius noted 
 above; (6) Abby, who married John H. Johnson, 
 of Wallingford; and (7) Lucinda, who wedded 
 Jesse Tuttle, of Hamden. 
 
 Willoughby Williams, Sr., father of Willoughby, 
 and great-grandfather of Street Williams, is sup- 
 posed to have come from England, where he was 
 born in 1736. He die'd in 1776. Where he set- 
 tled in Wallingford is still known as the "Williams 
 section," and is still occupied by a large number of 
 his descendants. He was a weaver by trade, and 
 was a very active man, and exceedingly athletic ; 
 he was able to put his great strength and endurance 
 to good use in the French war, when he was taken 
 prisoner at Quebec, and confined by the French on 
 board a ship. In the night he dropped into the 
 river, swam ashore, and reached the English lines. 
 He married Abigail Allen, and had several children, 
 among whom were Willoughby and Hennan. The 
 daughters went to the West, and all trace of them 
 has been lost. 
 
 Street Williams passed his; boyhood days in 
 Wallingford, and received his education in the pub- 
 lic schools and in private schools taught by Levi 
 W. Hart, a Mr. Barnes, and Charles Cothren. When 
 he was eighteen years of age he entered the State 
 Normal School at New Britain, where he was well 
 prepared for a career in the school room. After 
 leaving the Normal he taught school for two years, 
 but circumstances turned his attention to farming, 
 which he afterward followed during his active life, 
 and made a decided success of it in the very best 
 sense of the word. In 1893 he sold the greater 
 part of his estate to his nephew, Julius D. Williams, 
 and removed to North Main street, Wallingford, 
 where he built himself a comfortable and attractive 
 residence, and here he is spending his last years in 
 
 the enjoyment of a rest for which he has richly 
 paid in long and arduous years. 
 
 Mr. Williams is a Republican, and has filled 
 various local offices. For seven years he served as 
 assessor of the town, and for three years has been 
 on the Board of Relief. Deeply interested in educa- 
 tion he has been connected with the administration 
 of the local schools for many years, for over thirty 
 years was clerk of School District No. 7. For four 
 years he has been justice of the peace, and is still 
 active in that position. From his youth he has been 
 a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, where he 
 has been vestryman for twenty-five years, and for 
 many 3'ears treasurer of the parish. He was super- 
 intendent of the Sunday-school seven years, and 
 still works earnestly for its success. 
 
 On Sept. 28, 1864, Street Williams was married 
 to Aliss Julia A. Blackman, who was born Feb. 23, 
 1838, a daughter of William Blackman, of Hunting- 
 ton, Conn. She is an excellent companion and help- 
 meet, and Mr. Williams attributes much of the suc- 
 cess and happiness in life which he has enjoyed to 
 the counsel and co-operation of his gifted wife. 
 ^Ir. Williams has, in an eminent degree, the con- 
 fidence and respect of his fellow citizens. 
 
 GEORGE MARCUS ROCKWELL. A well- 
 known business citizen of Meriden, Conn., is 
 George M. Rockwell, who is associated with the 
 Charles Parker Co., in the gun shop department, 
 engaged in his trade as contractor. 
 
 Mr. Rockwell was born in Lebanon, New London 
 Co. Conn., March 23, 1840, a son of Jabez Rockwell. 
 The latter was born in Norwich, Vermont, where he 
 was thoroughly educated, and later entered upon the 
 profession of teaching. While in young manhood 
 he came to Lebanon, Conn., purchased some land 
 and during the winters taught school and followed 
 farming in the summers. At a later date he re- 
 moved with his family to Norwich, Conn., follow- 
 ing the same lines, becoming one of the best known 
 educators in the county, and a man who was uni- 
 versally respected. During his later years he was 
 an invalid, from a paralytic attack, his last days 
 being made as comfortable as possible by the care 
 and attention of friends. In political opinion, he 
 was a Democrat, while his religious views made 
 him a Universalist. Mr. Rockwell was a valued 
 member of the Masonic fraternity, and for many 
 years was active in its work. Jabez Rockwell was 
 a man of fine character and of literary ability far 
 above the average. An omnivorous reader, he was 
 one of the ardent supporters of all educational and 
 progressive measures in his town, and was for many 
 years the most interested subscriber to the Hart- 
 ford Times, in Norwich. He was married in Leba- 
 non, Conn., to Eunice Bailey, her death taking place 
 in Norwich, where both she and her husband are 
 interred. She was a devoted wife and mother, and 
 a woman of high Christian character, for many 
 years being a consistent member of the Methodist 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 559 
 
 Church. She was known for her charity and kind- 
 ness, and as the years of lier life gathered, she grew 
 in grace, and her gentle influence still remains as a 
 benediction to all who knew her. No tribute could 
 be too great tO' honor a devoted mother. To Mr. 
 and Mrs. Rockwell was born a large family, many 
 of these having become valued and useful members 
 of society, while others have joined the "great ma- 
 jority." Their names were; Austin, deceased; 
 John, also deceased ; William, deceased ; Bailey, de- 
 ceased; Elisher, deceased ; Charles, deceased; Fred- 
 erick Augustus, a resident of Providence, R. I. ; 
 Julia married Jedediah Maynard; Mary, deceased, 
 married Henry Hasen; James and George M., twins, 
 the former deceased ; Arthur, deceased ; and Nellie, 
 who married John W. Martin, of Florence, Mass- 
 achusetts. 
 
 George M. Rockwell, the eleventh child of Jabez 
 and Eunice (Bailey) Rockwell, attended the dis- 
 trict schools in Lebanon in his boyhood and was 
 still a lad when the family removal was made to 
 Norwich. Here he entered school again for a time, 
 but while still a youth, became a clerk in the hat 
 store of Mr. J. M. Currier, remaining until he se- 
 cured a more lucrative position in the clothing 
 store of William Gardiner, of Norwich. Two years 
 were spent here by Mr. Rockwell as clerk, but his 
 desire was to learn a trade, and after looking the 
 ground over, he decided to enter the tin shop of 
 Roth & Dennis, and became skilled in that business. 
 Here he spent three years, learning the trade thoi- 
 oughly in all its branches, and then started out as 
 a journeyman, working through the various towns 
 in this capacity, for several years. Finally Air. 
 Rockwell became associated with C. R. Pryor, and 
 they opened up a business in Greenville, the firm 
 style being Pryor & Rockwell, this partnership last- 
 ing about four years, and Mr. Rockwell continued 
 alone, remaining there for a period of twelve years. 
 From Greenville Mr. Rockwell then removed to 
 Woonsocket, R. I., where he found employment in 
 a wringer factory, remaining there until 1883, at 
 which time he came to Meriden, Conn., and accepted 
 the position of inspector, offered him by the Parker 
 Bros., in the gun factory, two-years later being made 
 the contractor in the gun department, filling that 
 position with efficiency for the last si.xteen years. 
 Mr. Rockwell is one of the most valued among the 
 reliable and capable men that this great company 
 has attracted to their works. Their name and 
 product is widely known, a result of the employment 
 of skilled men who manage so many of their import- 
 ant departments. 
 
 In Meriden, Mr. Rockwell is highly esteemed in 
 social and business circles. In 1891 he purchased a 
 most desirable place on Queen street, and with his 
 own skill made improvements which have made his 
 residence the most comfortable and attractive on the 
 street. It is gracefully presided over by his most 
 amiable and estimable wife, a lady of great charm 
 of manner, and one of the capable housewives of 
 
 Meriden. Mr. Rockwell was married in 1863, in 
 Middletown, Conn., to Miss Bessie Balch, who was 
 born ni Colchester, Conn., a daughter of Ahimaaz 
 and Eliza (Lee) Balch. Socially Mr. Rockwell is 
 connected with the I. O. O. F. Uncas Lodge, No. 11, 
 of Norwich. In his political sympathy, he is a 
 strong supporter of the Republican party, but he 
 loves the quiet and peace of his own fireside, with 
 the companionship of his wife and his books and 
 papers, too much to resign them to enter into any 
 contest for political preferment. Although not 
 connected with any religious body, Mr. Rockwell is 
 a man of moral life, scrupulously faithful in per- 
 forming his duties to his employers, broad in his 
 charities, and fulfills every demand made upon him 
 as a good citizen. 
 
 EVELYN E. STEVENS, than whom few men 
 in New Haven are better known, comes of a long 
 line of eminently respectable ancestry. Of his 
 grandfather, Elias Stevens, who served in the Revo- 
 lutionary war, a more extended mention may be 
 found elsewhere. 
 
 Jedediah Chapman Stevens, son of Elias, was 
 born on Cow Hill, now Prospect Hill, in Clinton, 
 Conn., May 5, 1807. His early education was ac- 
 cjuired in the district schools, and early in life he 
 started out for himself, by working in a blacksmith 
 shop near his home. He was first associated with 
 his father, and afterward with his brother, Harvey. 
 They carried on general blacksmithing, and made 
 edge tools, Harvey having a secret method of tem- 
 pering the steel whereby he produced an extremely 
 high grade article. Their patrons came from miles 
 around, and they shod many oxen that were brought 
 in from distant towns. Jedediah Stevens was of 
 medium height, a hard-working man, and when 
 he died the business practically died too. While 
 mowing a field he received a sunstroke from which 
 his death resulted Aug. 8, 1876, and his remains are 
 buried in Clinton. His home was erected under his 
 supervision in 1855. Politically he was a Repub- 
 lican, but took only a voting interest in politics. 
 While he enjoyed but meager educational advant- 
 ages he was a thorough reader, his favorite authors 
 being Scott and Longfellow. His keen wit and in- 
 exhaustible fund of stories made him an entertain- 
 ing companion, and his company was much sought. 
 In his religious belief he was a Congregationalist, 
 and was an active worker in that society. 
 
 On Oct. 16, 1832, Jedediah Chapman Stevens 
 was wedded to Analine E. Wright, who was born 
 in Westbrook, Oct. 28, 181 1, daughter of Jeremiah 
 and Rachel (Stannard) Wright, farming people of 
 that town. She died Oct. 21, 1890. The children 
 of this union were: (i) Evelyn E. is mentioned 
 "farther on. (2) Melissa A., born June 27, 1835, 
 died Dec. 24, 1891, unmarried. (3) Effie E., born 
 May 14, 1850, married Oct. 4, 1887, Julian Warren 
 Cramer, who was born in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., 
 Jan. 5, 1854, a descendant of Gen. Joseph Warren, 
 
560 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and when a )'ear old was brought to New Haven, 
 where he was educated in the pubhc schools. Mrs. 
 Cramer is a graduate of the New Haven high 
 school, and for several years prior to her marriage 
 was successfully engaged in teaching in that school. 
 They reside in Clinton, Connecticut. 
 
 Kvelyn E. Stevens was born in Clinton, Conn., 
 Feb. 3, 1834, and in the town of his nativity received 
 his education in the public schools and the academy. 
 For one year after leaving school he was with his 
 uncle, employed on a packet running to Albany. 
 In the fall of 185 1 he came to New Haven, and hav- 
 ing inherited the mechanical genius of his father, 
 determined to learn the machinist's trade, which 
 line of business he followed until the spring of 1861. 
 In Clinton, Conn., August, 1861, he enlisted in 
 Company G, 7th C. V., and was mustered into 
 the service of the government early in September, 
 1861. He served until July, 1865. In November, 
 1 86 1, he was detailed as surgeon's orderly, which 
 led to his warrant as hospital steward, non-com- 
 missioned staff. In March, 1865, he was commis- 
 sioned first lieutenant of Company G, but upon the 
 earnest solicitation of the regimental surgeon he 
 was induced to remain as hospital steward, and was 
 therefore not mustered. Afterward he was com- 
 missioned first lieutenant and quartermaster, but 
 again not mustered. 
 
 After his return from the war Mr. Stevens en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of coach lamps and trim- 
 mings with Charles E. Thompson, under the iirm 
 name of C. E. Thompson & Co., which about twenty 
 years later became Stevens & Sackett, which firm 
 continued in that line until February, 1 90 1, at which 
 time Mr. Stevens retired from active business. 
 
 On Oct. 2, 1878, Mr. Stevens married in Clinton, 
 Conn., Sarah A. Stevens, daughter of Leander 
 Stevens and widow of Everett Hurlburt. He has 
 had a summer home in Clinton for a number of 
 years, which he at present regards as his permanent 
 home. Fraternally Mr. Stevens has been a Mason 
 since 1865, and belongs to Jeptha Lodge, F. & A. 
 M., of Clinton; he is a member of Admiral Foote 
 Post, G. A. R., the Army and Navy Club of Con- 
 necticut, and many other clubs in New Haven. In 
 his political affiliations he is an unfaltering Re- 
 publican and keenly alive to the interests of his 
 party. He attends the Church of the Redeemer in 
 Orange street. 
 
 BIRD'SEYE. The Birdseye family of Connect- 
 icut is one of the oldest and most honorable in the 
 State's list of notable families. A writer of an ar- 
 ticle, published in "Lippincott's Magazine," July, 
 1879, says: "The Birdseye pedigree is the central 
 stem of all Stratford genealogies." It is not within 
 the province of this work to give an extended gen- 
 ealogy of the family at large, but it is intended to es- 
 pecially refer to the line of the particular family of 
 the late Thaddeus Gould Birdseye. He and his son, 
 Thomas Shelton Birdseye, have been prominent in 
 
 Derby's history for sixty-five years past, forty of 
 which they have served successively as secretary 
 and treasurer of the Derby Savings Bank, in which 
 position the latter is still serving. 
 
 John Birdseye, the progenitor of the Connecti- 
 cut family, came from Reading, in Berkshire, Eng- 
 land, in 1636, and died in 1649. ^^ had two chil- 
 dren, Joseph and John, of whom the former resided 
 in Wethersfield. He had only one daughter. 
 
 (II) John Birdseye, born in England in i6i6y 
 came to New Haven with his father, and the same 
 year removed to Wethersfield. In 1639 he removed 
 to Milford, and in 1649 'o Stratford. He married 
 (first) Phillippa, daughter of Rev. Henry Smith,, 
 and (second) in October, 1683, Mrs. Alice Tomlin- 
 son, widow of Henry. Deacon Birdseye died April 
 4, 1690, and his widow on Jan. 25, 1698. He was 
 the first deacon in the Congregational Church in that 
 town, and in those days the diaconate was an insti- 
 tution of great power and dignity, the deacon being 
 a conspicuous person, second only to the parish min- 
 ister of the Established Church. 
 
 From Deacon John Birdseye Thomas Shelton 
 Birdseye, now of Derby, is in the eighth generation, 
 his line being through John (3), Joseph, Rev. Na- 
 than, Joseph (2), David and Thaddeus Gould 
 Birdseye. 
 
 (III) John Birdseye (3), son of Deacon John 
 by his first marriage, born if arch 28, 1 641, married,, 
 Dec. II, 1669, Phoebe, daughter of William and 
 Margaret Wilcoxson, of Stratford. Mr. Birdseye 
 was an esteemed citizen, held the office of selectman 
 of the town, and died in 1697. His children were: 
 Hannah, born Feb. 5, 1671, married. May 3, 1693, 
 Isaac Beach, of Stratford, and died Oct. 15, 1750; 
 Mary, born Nov. 10, 1675, died June 17, 1691 ; Sa- 
 rah, iborn May 9, 1678, died Jan. 21, 1679; Abel, 
 born November, 1679, was a lieutenant in the French 
 and Indian war, and died May 14, 1747; Joseph, 
 born Feb. 22, 1682 ; Comfort, or Elizabeth, born Oct. 
 21, 1685, died in 1692; Dinah, born in 1688, mar- 
 ried (first) Benjamin Beach, of Durham, Conn., 
 and (second) Samuel Norton, of Goshen, Conn., 
 and died Sept. 17, 1765. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Birdseye, son of John (2), born 
 Feb. 22, 1682, married, June 10, 1708, Sarah, daugh- 
 ter of Ambrose and Sarah (Wells) Thompson, of" 
 Stratford. She died May 3, 1726. Mr. Birdseye- 
 resided in Stratford, was a large land owner, and 
 commanded the esteem and respect that his intelli- 
 gence and moral character merited. He died June 
 25, 1757. His children were: Hannah, born Aug. 
 12, 1710, died unmarried; Dinah, born Oct. 18,. 
 1712, died in June, 1718; Nathan, born in August, 
 1714; and Joseph, born Dec. 10, 1717, died Dec. 17, 
 1738. 
 
 (V) Rev. Nathan Birdseye, son of Joseph, born 
 in August, 1714, married, April 17, 1739, Dorothy, 
 born Feb. 27, 17 19, daughter of Rev. Thomas and 
 Abigail (Gold) Hawley, of Ridgefield, and grand- 
 daughter of Nathan Gold, of Fairfield, Deputy Gov- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 561! 
 
 ernor of Connecticut. Rev. Birdseye was college 
 bred, and took his degree from Yale in 1736. He 
 became pastor of the West Haven Congregational 
 Church in 1742; preached there sixteen years, and 
 then removed to "his patrimonial estate in Stratford, 
 where he lived until his death, Jan. 28, 1S18, aged 
 103 years, 5 months and 9 days. His wife died 
 Sept. 21, 1807, when eighty-eight years of age. 
 Their children were: Joseph, born Feb. 4, 1740, re- 
 sided in Huntington, Conn. ; Dorothy, born Aug. 
 10, 1742, married (first) John Brooks, and (second) 
 Thomas (or Norman) Ives, of Stratford, and died 
 Sept. 12, 1834, at the advanced age of ninety-two 
 years; Nathan, born May 29, 1744, died unmarried 
 Aug. 5, 1832; Hannah, born Dec. 15, 1746, mar- 
 ried Feb. 17, 1765, Silas Curtis, of Stratford, and 
 died Nov. 24, 1812; Ezra, born Jan. 28, 1749, mar- 
 ried Phoebe, daughter of Benjamin Curtis, and died 
 Dec. 28, 1832; Helen, born July 17, 1751, married 
 Josiah, son of Nathan Peck, and died July 10, 1845 J 
 Thaddeus, born April 18, 1753, married Helen, 
 daughter of George Lewis, and died Feb. 22, 1800 ; 
 Abigail, born April 28, 1755, and died unmarried 
 May 4, 1827; Ebenezer, born May 13, 1757, married 
 (first) Eunice, daughter of Capt. Beach Tomlinson, 
 of Huntington, and (second) Sarah Bell, and re- 
 sided in Cornwall; Lucy, born March i, 1759, died 
 unmarried Dec. 24, 1823; John, born Feb. 16, 1761, 
 married (first) Phoebe, daughter of James Coe, 
 of Stratford, and (second) Joanna Calhoun, and 
 died Oct. 16, 1839; and Sarah, born Aug. 26, 1763, 
 married Rev. Payson Williston, pastor of the First 
 Congregational Church organized in Easthampton, 
 Mass., and died Aug. 19, 1845, aged eighty-two 
 years. According to the family history, all the six 
 sons of Rev. Nathan and Dorothy Birdseye ren- 
 dered military service during the Revolution, but 
 as military record of only Capt. Joseph, Sergeant 
 Thaddeus and Ezra has been found in the adjutant 
 general's report at Hartford, it is presumed the 
 others were in the skirmishes in defence of the coast 
 during Tryon's invasion. 
 
 (VI) Joseph Birdseye (2), son of Rev. Nathan, 
 born Feb. 4, 1740, married Dinah, born Jan. 20, 
 1744, daughter of James and Sarah (Frost) Black- 
 man, and resided in the town of Huntington, where 
 he died May 26, 1817. His wife died Oct. 4, 1815. 
 Their children were: Joseph, born Aug. 9, 1765, 
 died Jan. 4, 1767; Joseph (2), born March 10, 1769, 
 married Hannah, a daughter of Moses and Hannah 
 Piatt, and removed to Hopeville, N. Y., where he 
 died Aug. 14, 1805; Ezekiel, born Oct. 26, 1771, 
 died June 18, 1793; Nathan Gould, born Jan. 23, 
 1774, married Polly, daughter of Moses and Hannah 
 Piatt, and died May 24, 1846; James, born April 
 9, 1776, married Phoebe Phelps, settled at Hope- 
 ville, N. Y., and died Oct. 21, 1835; Sarah, born 
 Nov. 17, 1778, married Philo, son of Ephraim and- 
 Ann Curtis, of Stratford, and died Dec. 26, 1823; 
 Dolly, born Jan. 30, 1781, married Sylvester Post, 
 
 36 
 
 lived in Huntington, and died there Aug. 15, 1852; 
 and David, born April 3, 1783. 
 
 (VII) David Birdseye, son of Joseph (2), born 
 April 3, 1783, married Rebecca, daughter of Eph- 
 raim and Ann Curtis, and resided in Huntington. 
 He died Aug. 19, 1866. His children were: Jos- 
 eph, born Dec. 17, 1804, married April 4, 1830, Car- 
 oline, daughter of Isaac and Sarah (Hawkins) Hub- 
 bell, of Derby, and resided in Huntington, where he 
 died April 5, 1847; Ephraim, born April 8, 1808, 
 married Jan. 10, 1833, Eliza A., daughter of Isaac 
 and Elizabeth A. (Curtis) Cummings, of Hunting- 
 ton, was a merchant in Huntington, Derby and 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., and died Sept. 17, 1855; Thad- 
 deus Gould, born Sept. 9, 1810; Philo, born Oct. 24,. 
 1812, married Sarah, daughter of Anson and Betsey 
 Tucker, of Derby, was a tailor and later a farmer, 
 and died Feb. 17, 1874; Sarah R., born March 13, 
 1815, died April 17, following; Ann Rebecca, born 
 May 29, 1816, died unmarried Aug. 2, 1891. 
 
 Thaddeus Gould Birdseye, son of David and the 
 father of Thomas Shelton, of Derby, was born Sept. 
 9, 1810, at the family homestead, a farm only a few 
 miles from the now city of Derby, in the town of 
 Huntington, Conn. There is in the home of his 
 son and daughter in Derby a large oil painting of 
 great value, reproducing minutely the old home- 
 stead. There is the ancient house, the well sweep, 
 the servants, the horse, and the out buildings, all 
 speaking of the home life of those early settlers. 
 There Thaddeus G. Birdseye was born, and there 
 he lived until, as a clerk with a New York whole- 
 sale grocery house, he began his business life. Soon 
 afterward he entered the postoffice at Bridgeport,. 
 Conn., where he remained some years. In the 
 spring of 1836 he moved to Birmingham and was- 
 engaged successively in the grocery and dry goods- 
 trades. He became postmaster as the successor of" 
 Henry Atwater, and held the office eight years ; he 
 was clerk also four years, and was then chosen sec- 
 retary and treasurer of the Derby Savings Bank, a 
 position he filled for twenty years, until his death 
 at seventy, years of age, Aug. 15, 1880. 
 
 Mr. Birdseye is described as a quiet, unobtru- 
 sive, genial man, one who always minded his own 
 business, a devoted member of the Episcopal 
 Church, a faithful official, who gave great satisfac- 
 tion in the discharge of his financial duties, a tried 
 and trusted friend of the poor. There is an mner 
 history here, beautiful as rare. There are many in 
 every community who have but little of this world's 
 goods, and who are in need of a faithful, wise, lov- 
 ing counselor and friend, one who will kindly and 
 discreetly help them, invest their money, counsel 
 in its outlay, devise, make and be custodians of their 
 wills, perhaps become administrators of their es- 
 tates ; and Mr. Birdseye was the rare person to 
 whom this considerable class turned for that 
 brotherly aid they needed. Without remuneration,, 
 he did for the love of man all the helpful things- 
 
562 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that only those who so received can appreciate, and 
 their numbers were amazingly large. Mr. Birdseye 
 was, in his political views, first a Whig, then a 
 Republican. 
 
 On July 25, 1839, ^^''- Birdseye was married to 
 Miss Mary Ann, born June 5, 1819, daughter of 
 Alfred and Ruth (Beardsley) Shelton, of Hunting- 
 ton. Mrs. Birdseye died Nov. 4, 1871. To this cou- 
 ple were born children as follows : 
 
 (i) Thomas Shelton Birdseye, born Oct. 11, 
 1840, in Huntington, Conn., received his education in 
 the schools of Derby. The same general, and many 
 ■of the special, traits of the father appear in the 
 character of his only son. The latter entered the 
 Birmingham postoffice and served as assistant for 
 eight years, and later acted as assistant town clerk 
 ■during his father's incumbency. After the death of 
 liis father, in 1880, he was chosen his successor as 
 secretary and treasurer of the Derby Savings Bank, 
 a position he fills with all the efficiency, fidelity and 
 popularity of his honored predecessor. Cautious, 
 wise, faithful, loving, he has succeeded to all the 
 respect and esteem in society which his father 
 lield. The widow, the orphan and the aged all trust 
 him and seek his counsel and his friendly service, 
 -and advice is given willingly and gratuitously to 
 all. It is needless to say that a man of such char- 
 acter is held in high esteem and loving respect. 
 
 jMr. Birdseye married Miss Mary A., daughter 
 of William and Eleanor Smith, of Birmingham, 
 Conn. Their children are : Bessie Rebecca, Henry 
 -Shelton, Eleanor Louise and Mary Anna. Henry 
 Shelton Birdseye is the efficient teller in the Derby 
 Savings Bank. 
 
 (2) Mary Louise Birdseye resides at the Birds- 
 eye homestead in Derby. She has been interested 
 in the genealog}^ of the Birdseye family, and as a 
 •diversion has done considerable work in that line. 
 -She is interested in historical matters pertaining to 
 the town, county and State, and is now registrar 
 cf the Derby Chapter of the Daughters of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution, of which she is an active member. 
 
 ELAM JASON DICKERMAN, leading mer- 
 chant and progressive citizen of Mt. Carmel, town 
 of Hamden, is a native of that village, born Aug. i, 
 1845, a son of Orin and Betsey (Goodyear) Dicker- 
 man. He comes of a stalwart New England family. 
 
 (I) Thomas Dickerman, the first of the name in 
 America, and supposed to have been a native of 
 England, came to Dorchester, Mass., about 1635-36, 
 and spent the rest of his life there, dying June 11, 
 1657. His widow (Ellen) married John Bullard, 
 and they went to Medfield, Mass., July 14, 1663. 
 The children born to Thomas Dickerman were : 
 (i) Thomas, born 1623, died September, 1691. 
 (2) Abraham, a sketch of whom follows. (3) 
 Laac, born December, 1637. (4) John, baptized 
 ■ )ct. 26, 1644, died young. 
 
 (II) Abraham Dickerman (son of Thomas, 
 above) was born in 1634, and was a year old when 
 
 taken by his parents to Dorchester, Mass., where he 
 grew to manhood. From Dorchester he removed 
 to New Haven, Conn., and there spent the balance of 
 his life, dying Nov. 2, 171 1. He held several public 
 offices, and was one of the Colony's most respected 
 citizens. He married, Jan. 2, 1653, Mary (Cooper), 
 born 1636, in New Haven, and died Jan. 4, 1705, a 
 daughter of John Cooper. Children as follows were 
 born to them: (i) Mary, born May i, 1659, mar- 
 ried Samuel Bassett. (2) Sarah, bornrjuly 25, 
 1663, married Nathaniel Sperry. (3) Hannah, 
 born March 16, 1665, married Caleb Chidsey. (4) 
 Ruth, born April 5, 1668, married Nathaniel Brad- 
 ley. (5) Abigail, born Sept. 26, 1670, married 
 Ebenezer Sperry. (6) Abraham, born Jan. 14, 
 1673, married (first) Elizabeth Glover, and (sec- 
 ond) Susanna Hotchkiss. (7) Isaac, sketch of 
 whom follows. (8) Rebecca, born Feb. 2y, 1679, 
 married Isaac Foote. 
 
 (III) Isaac Dickerman (son of Abraham), born 
 Nov. 7, 1677, in New Haven, was a prominent and 
 infiuential citizen, holding many public offices. He 
 died there Sept. 7, 1758. On June 30, 1709, he mar- 
 ried (first) Mary Atwater, born Dec. 31, 1686, a 
 daughter of Jonathan and Ruth (Peck) Atwater, 
 and granddaughter of David Atwater. He married , 
 (second) Elizabeth Ailing, born November, 1691, 
 and died April, 1767, a daughter of Samuel and 
 Sarah (Chidsey) Ailing, and a granddaughter of 
 John Morris. Children born to Isaac Dickerman: 
 (i) Isaac, born March 31, 171 1, died young. (2) 
 Samuel, born Jan. 12, 1712, died young. (3) Ruth, 
 born Dec. 13, 1713, married Eliakim Hall. (4) 
 Isaac, born Jan. 31, 1714, graduated from Yale, in 
 1736, with degree of M. A., and died in 1740.(5) 
 Samuel, sketch of whom follows. (6) Jonathan, 
 born July 4, 1719, married (first) Rebecca Bassett, 
 (second) Hannah Leavenworth Moss, and (third) 
 Deborah Todd. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Dickerman (son of Isaac), born 
 March 4, 1716, removed from New Haven to Mt. 
 Carmel, becoming one of the pioneers of the town 
 of Hamden, and owning a large tract of land, where- 
 by he was one of the most extensive farmers in the 
 town ; he died in Mt. Carmel May 10, 1760. Sam- 
 uel Dickerman married, Dec. 6, 1739, Mary Ailing, 
 born Dec. 28, 1717, and died Dec. 5, 1802, a daugh- 
 ter of Jonathan and Sarah (Sackett) Ailing. Chil- 
 dren: (i) Isaac, born Sept. 16, 1740, married 
 Sybil Sperry. (2) Sarah, born Dec. 29, 1741, mar- 
 ried Joel Munson. (3) Mary, born April 2, 1743, 
 died Dec. 20, 1817, married Feb. 12, 1767, Phineas 
 Castle. (4) Samuel, born April 20, 1745, married 
 Lowly Pardee. (5) James, born June 24, 1747, 
 married Lois Bradley. (6) Rhoda, born Nov. 24, 
 1748, married Sept. 9, 1778, Medad Atwater. (7) 
 Cbauncey, born Sept. 28, 1750, married (first) Re- 
 becca Bradley, and (second) Hannah Gill. (8) 
 Jesse, a sketch of whom follows. (9) Ruth, born 
 March 9, i754,and died Oct. 2, i840,married Samuel 
 Atwater. (10) Susannah, born Feb. i, 1756, mar- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 563 
 
 ried Wait Chatterson. (11) Lucy, born June i, 
 1759, married Jesse Tuttle. 
 
 (V) Jesse Diclcerman (son of Samuel) was born 
 June 16, 1752, at Mt. Carmel, where he was all his 
 life engaged in farming, dying there May 22, 1821, 
 and was buried in Mt. Carmel cemetery. He was 
 a deacon in the Baptist Church formed at West- 
 wood, New Haven county, and he willed $100 to 
 the Church, the interest on which was to go toward 
 employing a minister. By his wife, Damaris (Ives), 
 born Dec. 25, 1754, and died Jan. 11, 1839, a daugh- 
 ter of James and Sarah (Tuttle) Ives, he had chil- 
 dren: (i) Betsey, born Sept. 29, 1778, died un- 
 married Jan. 10, 1840. (2) Elam, sketch of whom 
 follows. (3) Russell, born 1789, died March 10, 
 1790. (4) Cephas, born July 26, 1793, died Sept. 
 18, 1796. 
 
 (VI) Elam Dickerman, son of Jesse, was born 
 March 21, 1782, and died July i, 1825. He mar- 
 ried Charlotte Cook, born in 1785, and died March 
 ID, i860, a daughter of Cornelius Brooks and Louisa 
 (Hotchkiss) Cook. Their children: (i) Russell, 
 bom March i, 1804, died April 3, 1874; (2) Laura, 
 born Aug. 27, 1810, and died April 3, 1874, married 
 February, 1827, Willis Perkins, born July 17, 1805; 
 and (3) Orrin, a sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (VII) Orrin Dickerman (son of Elam and the 
 father of the subject proper of this sketch) was 
 born Aug. 10, 1816, in Mt. Carmel, and educated at 
 the public schools of the town of Hamden. For his 
 life vocation he followed farming, and was also en- 
 gaged in the butchering business, as well as in stock 
 dealing. He bought the old Dickerman homestead, 
 and died there June 24, 1893. In church matters he 
 was liberal, in politics, first a Whig, later a Repub- 
 lican, and he was an honest, upright, loyal citizen, 
 highly respected by all. In 1S38 he married Betsey 
 Goodyear, born Jan. 8, 1816, and died Nov. 15, 1891, 
 in Mt. Carmel, a daughter of Samuel and Lucy 
 (Candee) Goodyear. Children by this union: 
 
 Cynthia Goodyear, born Sept. 21, 1842, married H. 
 W. Collett ; Elam Jason, a sketch of whom follows ; 
 Chloe Atwater, born Aug. 19, 1848, married March 
 14, 1867, Joel Augur Allen, of Wallingford, Conn. ; 
 Lucy Elizabeth, born Aug. 13, 1859, is an active 
 member of the Episcopal Church in Hamden, where 
 she is much beloved and respected. 
 
 (VIII) Elam Jason Dickerman (son of Orrin, 
 and the subject of these lines) received his education 
 in the district schools of the town of Hamden, and 
 was reared on his father's farm. When a young man 
 he worked in the Mt. Carmel axle shop, and then 
 removed to Norfolk, Conn., where he spent a few 
 weeks in an axle shop there. He then found em- 
 ployment with Messrs. Ives, Woodruff Co., at Mt. 
 Carmel, later in the axle shops, after which he was 
 engaged with his father in the butchering and cat- 
 tle-droving business. In 1874 he was appointed 
 railroad agent at Mt. Carmel, a position he held with 
 eminent satisfaction to all for some seven years, and 
 then embarked in his present general mercantile 
 
 business in which he has met with gratifying success. 
 Since 1896 he has been located at Andrew's Hall, 
 where he keeps a full supply of general merchandise, 
 and where, by strict attention to business, he has 
 built up a profitable trade. 
 
 On Dec. 27, 1876, Elam J. Dickerman married 
 Emma Miller, who was born Oct. 13, 1845, 3-t Avon, 
 Conn., a daughter of Edward Miller, of that place, 
 and one child, Orrin Miller, was born to them July 
 4, 1882; he is employed on the railroad. The 
 mother died July 20, 1888, and Mr. Dickerman for 
 his second wife married, June 12, 1889, Susan L. 
 Smith, born June 25, 1846, a daughter of Garrett 
 and Ruth A. Smith, of Milford, Connecticut. 
 
 In religious faith Mr. Dickerman is a member of 
 the Congregational Church, and was assistant super- 
 intendent of the Sabbath-school. Socially, he is not 
 affiliated with any society,' except the Mt. Carmel 
 Ecclesiastical Society. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican. 
 
 GEORGE MILES GRANT, for many years 
 one of the leading mason builders of New Haven, 
 was born in that city Jan. 18, 1834, and his father, 
 William Grant, was also a native of New Haven. 
 William Grant was one of the first regular police- 
 men in the city, and was on the force altogether 
 thirty-five years, being at the time of his death the 
 oldest officer in service. He died in September, 
 1873, 3-t the age of seventy. Mr. Grant was a man 
 of irreproachable character, faithful in the dis- 
 charge of every duty. He married Martha Miles, 
 a native of Milford, and they had a large family, all 
 now deceased. 
 
 George M. Grant has always made his home in 
 New Haven. He received his education in the 
 public schools and the Lancasterian school, and 
 learned the trade of mason, which he followed all 
 his life, first as a journeyman, and from 1871 until 
 his death as a contractor. In the year mentioned he 
 was taken into the firm of Perkins, Chatfield & 
 Co., which in 1875, by the retirement of Mr. Per- 
 kins, became the firm of Chatfield & Grant. They 
 dissolved in 1886, owing to Philo Chatfield's retire- 
 ment on account of ill health, and Mr. Grant contin- 
 ued the business until 1894, when a joint stock com- 
 pany was formed consisting of Mr. Grant, W. F. 
 Gillette (who had previously been foreman) and 
 Frederick Chatfield (who had been connected with 
 the business for many years). This comprises the 
 history of Mr. Grant's association with his noted 
 New Haven firm, which has erected a great number 
 of the principal buildings in the city. 
 
 George M. Grant was for seventeen years senior 
 warden of St. John's P- E. Church, but on the 
 removal of St. John's Church to its new edifice, on 
 Orange street, he joined St. Paul's Chutch, it being 
 nearer to his residence. He was a member of 
 Hiram Lodge, I. O. O. F., and of the Knights of 
 Honor, and was for many years president of the 
 old Jeffersonian Club of the city. He also be- 
 
564 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 longed to the New Haven Chamber of Commerce, 
 and the New Haven Historical Society. For a 
 number of years he was a member of New Haven's 
 board of public works, and he also served some time 
 as a member of the city's board of health. He was 
 a director of the Connecticut Savings Bank and of 
 the Evergreen Cemetery Association. He always 
 took an interest in the famous local institution of 
 learning which he attended for several years, the 
 Lancasterian school, and was a member of the Lan- 
 casterian School Association. Mr. Grant was first 
 stricken with paralysis about two years before his 
 death, but recovered and resumed business. He 
 had a slight shock in December, 1900, and the third 
 proved fatal. He died at his home in Lyon street 
 Feb. 3, 1901, leaving a widow and one adopted child, 
 Mrs. Minnie E. Riddel, of Redlands, Cal. Mr. 
 Grant was interested in orange groves in Redlands, 
 and one of his chief diversions in his later years was 
 to visit California in the winter; he had made a trip 
 there annually for the last eight or nine years. 
 
 Mr. Grant was twice married, first to Miss Julia 
 M. Freeman, of New Haven, who died about twen- 
 ty-five years ago.' For his second wife he married, 
 in 1879, Mrs. Jane P. Judson, widow of Jerome T. 
 Judson, and daughter of the late Alexander Hall, 
 Esq., of Newtown, Conn. Mr. Grant was a man 
 of much public spirit, keenly interested in all na- 
 tional and local events of the day, and gave freely 
 of his time and attention to the faithful discharge 
 of the duties of the various public positions which 
 he had occupied. He was a kind husband and fa- 
 ther, benevolent in disposition, and a citizen whose 
 death was indeed a loss to New Haven. The late 
 Dr. Noah Porter once spoke of him as "radically 
 honest," and it was a fair index of the sterling char- 
 acter of the man. 
 
 FRANKLIN L. CURTISS, one of the older 
 and more prominent citizens and business men of 
 Waterbury, was born in Southbury, Conn., Jan. 19, 
 1835, a son of Simeon Curtiss, Jr., who was born 
 in the same place in 1808, and died in Waterbury at 
 the age of eighty-seven. Simeon Curtiss, Sr., the 
 father of Simeon, Jr., was born at Southbury in 
 1768, and it is said that the first Curtiss who set- 
 tled here got this land from the Lidians. The Cur- 
 tiss homestead was four miles from the Center, and 
 the various generations of the family who have oc- 
 cupied this farm have been prominent and re- 
 spectable people. The first representative of the 
 Curtiss family in this country came from England 
 in 1644 and settled at Old Stratford, Connecticut. 
 
 Simeon Curtiss, Sr., married Miss Mary Brad- 
 ley, of Flamden, and settled on the farm where they 
 reared a family of six children: Erastus, Reuben, 
 Jason, William, Mary Ann and Simeon, Jr. Of 
 these, Erastus was a physician, and received his 
 medical education in Yale ; he located at Coopers- 
 town, N. Y., where he practiced for about thirty 
 years. Reuben B. was a farmer and kept a select 
 
 school for boys; he was a deacon in a church at 
 Oxford, Conn. Jason was a farmer and served as 
 a deacon of the church in Southbury. William was 
 a farmer in Middlebury, Conn., where he died. 
 Mary Ann married Josiah Hine, a farmer, who was 
 very prominent, being first selectman many years 
 in Middlebury, Conn. All the sons of Simeon Cur- 
 tiss lived to he more than eighty-five years old, as 
 did Simeon and his wife. He was a man of re- 
 markable physical development, standing six feet 
 two inches in his stockings, and finely proportioned ; 
 he never had a doctor, and never was sick a day in 
 his active life. 
 
 Simeon Curtiss, Jr., the father of Franklin L., 
 was a life-long farmer. He married Miss Hannah 
 Bronson, who was born in Waterbury, and they be- 
 came the parents of three children : Josiah, Frank- 
 lin L. and Hannah J. Josiah died in Middlebury, 
 Conn., at the age of thirty-five years ; he was en- 
 gaged in the lumber business in Waterbury and in 
 Bridgeport. Hannah J. married Edward D. Tuttle, 
 who was for years connected with the Scovill Man- 
 ufacturing Co., later moving to Kenosha, Wis., 
 where he was a quarter owner in the Chicago Brass 
 Co. ; he died in that city in 1894, two years after 
 the death of his wife. Simeon Curtiss, Jr., was a 
 Whig and a Republican. In religion they were Con- 
 gregationalists. 
 
 Franklin L. Curtiss spent his boyhood days on 
 the farm in Southbury, Conn., where he attended dis- 
 trict school, and for two years was a student in the 
 school of his uncle at Southbury. In 1851 he came 
 to Waterbury and attended the high school a year 
 and then taught school in Watertown in the winter 
 of 185 1 and 1852. The next year he was a clerk in 
 the postoffice at Waterbury, and in 1853, when the 
 Citizens' Bank of Waterbury was opened by Fred- 
 erick J. Kingsbury and Abram Ives, Mr. Curtiss 
 entered as one of the operating force, and has been 
 with the bank to the present time. He has been 
 cashier since 1865, and has been assistant treasurer 
 of the savings bank many years. 
 
 On Sept. 28, 1858, Mr. Curtiss married Miss 
 Mary Louise Hine, who was born in Naugatuck, 
 Conn., a daughter of Richard Hine. Three chil- 
 dren were born to this union: Henry N., Howard 
 and Edith L. Henry N., who was in the bank about 
 fifteen years, is now deceased. Howard, who was 
 with the Waterbury Brass Co. many years, is now 
 connected with the American Brass Co; Edith L., 
 the only daughter, married Dr. John R. Poore, a 
 resident physician in Waterbury. Mr. Curtiss is a 
 Republican, but in local affairs gives his vote to 
 the best men regardless of party affiliation. In 
 Masonry he has risen to the Commandery Degree, 
 and is a Mystic Shriner. In 1859 he united with 
 the Episcopal Church, and is to-day one of its ac- 
 tive workers. For twenty years he has been the 
 treasurer of the parish, and is one of the active con- 
 tributors to all religious enterprises in the commun- 
 ity. Mr. Curtiss has been president of the Matthew 
 
y/Z.u3.we^^ ,^'/^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 565 
 
 & Willard Manufacturing Co. for twelve years, and 
 lias settled some of the largest estates in Waterbury. 
 His ward has selected him as its representative in 
 the city council. He is a large-hearted gentleman, 
 who is active in helping everybody along, and sus- 
 tains the respect of the community. 
 
 JOHN ROBINSON POORE, M. D., was born 
 in Roxbury, Mass., near Boston, June 3, 1864, and 
 ■comes of one of the oldest families in New England. 
 The past representatives of the Poore family in 
 America came from England in 1628, and settled in 
 Ipswich, Mass. Of these, there were four brothers 
 and one sister. At first they were farmers, but 
 eventually branched out into mercantile life. Five 
 Poore brothers took part in the Revolutionary war, 
 fghting together in the patriot ranks at the battle 
 of Lexington, March 19, 1775. 
 
 John A. Poore, the father of Dr. John R., was 
 torn in what was then called Danversport, Mass., 
 Sept. 10, 1843, a son of John R., and a grandson of 
 Enoch, of that settlement. He became a member 
 of the firm of Stickney & Poore, well known 
 throughout New England. Mr. Poore married Har- 
 riet P. Low, who was born in the city of New York, 
 June 23, 1845, 3- daughter of Ariel Low, a native of 
 Essex, Mass. They became the parents of six chil- 
 dren : Dr. John Robinson ; Ariel Low, who is en- 
 gaged in the paper business at Boston; Edward 
 Waldron, in the U. S. navy, and assigned to the 
 new battleship "Kentucky" ; Alice Adelaide, who 
 married George Sargent, an electrical contractor ; 
 ■George Wilbur, who died in infancy ; and Augustus 
 Sprague, who was drowned in Ipswich Bay, Mass., 
 in 1896, at the age of fourteen. Mr. Poore has been 
 a Democrat all his life. In religious belief, he clings 
 to the faith of the Established Church of England. 
 
 John Robinson Poore spent his boyhood days in 
 .Somerville, Mass., and in Chicago, where he at- 
 tended school. In 1869 he came Toack to Somer- 
 •ville and continued his schooling, and was also a 
 pupil of Dr. Hixon, at "Eagles Nest," Newbury- 
 ■port, Mass., vv^here he remained two years. In 
 March, 1877, he went into the business world as 
 a clerk in the coffee and spice house of Dwinell 
 Hay ward & Co., in Boston, and continued with this 
 concern until 1891, with the exception of two years 
 which he spent on his grandfather's ranch in the 
 West. From 1882 to 1889 he made his headquar- 
 ters at Detroit, Mich., selling coffees, spices and 
 similar goods for his house throughout that sec- 
 tion of the country. In 1891 Mr. Poore entered 
 Harvard Medical School and was graduated in 
 1894. He had an excellent opportunity for special 
 practice as resident physician in the Boston Lying- 
 in Hospital, where he was engaged for some months 
 before his graduation. As a medical attendant upon 
 a wealthy patient he spent the year after gradua- 
 tion in traveling through the South. Dr. Poore 
 came to Waterbury in 1895 and opened an office 
 for the practice of his profession in this city. His 
 
 medical skill and professional character commanded 
 quick recognition, and he has come into a very flat- 
 tering practice ; and he is surgeon of the police and 
 fire departments. 
 
 On Oct. 18, 1898, Dr. Poore wedded Miss Edith 
 L. Curtiss, who was born in Waterbury, daughter 
 of Franklin L. Curtiss, cashier of the Citizens' Bank 
 of Waterbury. To this union there is one son- 
 Franklin Curtiss Poore, born Nov. 25, 1900. Dr. 
 Poore is a Republican. He belongs to the Nosa- 
 hogan Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. F., and the Har- 
 vard Medical Association. At the present time he 
 is the secretary and treasurer of the Waterbury 
 Medical Association. In the State Medical Associa- 
 tion and in the American Medical Association he 
 is an active member. The Doctor also belongs to 
 the Sons of the American Revolution. 
 
 HOBART V.^ WELTON. The Welton family 
 has been settled in Connecticut for more than two 
 centuries, and during that long period its representa- 
 tives have, in every 'generation, been men of char- 
 acter and standing in the community. John Welton 
 and his wife, Mary Upson, came from England 
 about 1667, ^rid two years later settled in Water- 
 bury, Conn. They were parents of the following 
 children : Abigail, Mary, Elizabeth, John, Stephen, 
 Richard (the great-great-grandfather of Hobart V. 
 Welton), Hannah, Thomas, George and Elsie. 
 
 Richard Welton married and reared the follow- 
 ing children : Richard, John, Mary, Thomas, Kesiah, 
 Martha, Stephen, Eliakim (the great-grandfather of 
 H. V. Welton), Eda and Tabitha. 
 
 Eliakim Welton married and became the father 
 of the following family; Eliakim, Eunice, Avis, 
 Richard, Eli, Moses, Aaron, Benoni and Benjamin. 
 
 Richard Welton, the grandfather of Hobart V., 
 married, and in his family were the following chil- 
 dren : Noah, Richard, Richard (2), Margaret, 
 Thomas, Lydia, Hannah, Joseph D. (the father of 
 Hobart V. Welton), and Bella. 
 
 Joseph D. Welton married Miss Tomlinson, and 
 to their union were born four children, namely : 
 Julia M., Hobart V., Joseph and Henry D. 
 
 Hobart V. Welton was born in Woodbury, 
 Litchfield Co., Conn., and came with his parents to 
 Waterbury, where he grew to manhood. He mar- 
 ried Mary A. Richards, native of Vermont, and they 
 became the parents of four children: Edward D., 
 Sarah C, Harriet A. and Hobart L. Edward is a 
 tool maker, and is now leading a retired life in 
 Waterbury; Sarah C. is Mrs. D. W. Pierpont, of 
 Cheshire, Conn. ; Harriet married George Laub, of 
 Waterbury, and died in 1875 ! ^^d Hobart L. lives in 
 Waterbury. 
 
 Hobart V. Welton was a man of far more than 
 the ordinary endowment of brain and character, and 
 held through his long life the unshaken respect and 
 confidence of the community. After his marriage 
 he located on his farm near Wolcott. A good farmer 
 and a wealthy man, he maintained his fine country 
 
566 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 residence beyond all possible criticism. The house 
 was built in 1830, and is a large, roomy structure, 
 shadowed by two or three tall pines. The barn is 
 an immense structure of granite, put up in 1858, 
 and an eagle is perched on the top of the granite 
 facing. 
 
 Mr. Welton had a gift for carving, and with 
 home made tools effected some exquisite designs in 
 granite and marble. A curiously carved gate admits 
 to the premises, and its decorations all done by Air. 
 Welton, represent almost everything employed on 
 the farm in his life. Within the frame of the gate 
 are carved the plough, the harrow, the ox-3'oke, the 
 sickle, and it is one of the most interesting things 
 to be found in many a day. Within the house are 
 found many of his carvings still preserved, and they 
 are carefully kept by his son, Hobart L. Mr. Wel- 
 ton had a remarkable endowment of mechanical in- 
 genuity, and some of his boyish carvings in wood 
 still remain, and are kept by his son, who regards 
 them as beyond price. 
 
 Mr. Welton once said, "If I were to write my 
 own biography to please myself only, I should say, 
 'With an inborn taste for sculpture, but obliged to 
 earn my own living from early youth, I have been 
 of some service to society in my day and generation. 
 Had I not been placed under some such limitations 
 I might be nothing more than a third-rate artist.' " 
 Could there be a sounder philosophy ? Mr. Welton 
 was a Republican, and served in the General As- 
 sembly in 1852 and 1853. He was a regular at- 
 tendant at St. John's Church. He was one of the 
 founders of the Waterbury Brass Company, and 
 one of its early directors. He was employed by the 
 mill owners on the Mad river, to erect a system of 
 water reservoirs, which proved to be a long and 
 tedious task, occupying several years. "Mr. Welton 
 died in 1875, at the age of eighty-three, and his 
 wife died in September, 1873. 
 
 DAVID ATWATER TYLER, M. D., by Ste- 
 phen G. Hubbard, M. D., New Haven. — The mem- 
 bers of the profession who distinguish themselves 
 by brilliant discoveries, which confer upon mankind 
 great benefits, and make their names widely known, 
 are extremely few compared with the multitude of 
 educated, skillful practitioners who give character 
 and tone to the profession, and win for it the respect- 
 ful homage of ever)' community. The subject of 
 this sketch was one of these ; and he illustrated in 
 his life and character many of those sterling quali- 
 ties which all men admire, and which, in the physi- 
 cian, endear him to those who are profited by, and 
 can appreciate, his self-denying ministrations. 
 
 Dr. Tyler was born in Northford, Nov. 10, 1818. 
 Unfitted by a natural delicacy of constitution for the 
 laborious occupations of the farm, and being strong- 
 ly inclined to literary pursuits, he learned the trade 
 of a printer as a means of gaining the necessary 
 funds for acquiring a liberal education. He was 
 so far successful in this, that in Bacon Academv at 
 
 Colchester, he qualified himself to enter the Sopho- 
 more class in Yale College; but the indoor life of 
 an academic student proved so unfavorable to his 
 already feeble health that, by the advice of instruc- 
 tors and friends, he reluctantly abandoned all hope 
 of obtaining a collegiate education, and entered him- 
 self as a student of medicine in the office of the late 
 Dr. N. B. Ives. 
 
 He was a favorite pupil with Dr. Ives, and re- 
 ceived from him many evidences of esteem in un- 
 usual facilities for seeing practice, and for treating 
 by himself considerable numbers of patients. He 
 enjoyed, also, the advantage of didactic lectures and 
 office instruction from the late Dr. Eli Ives, at that 
 time the professor of practical medicine at Yale. 
 Those who knew personally, or by reputation, those 
 gentlemen, father and son, will not be surprised to 
 learn that, while Tyler became, under instructors, 
 thoroughly trained in all the elements of medical 
 science then taught, he became also an expert and 
 enthusiastic botanist, and acquired an intimate 
 familiarity with our indigenous materia medica ; or 
 that he used this class of remedies, as well as all 
 others, in after years, with remarkable skill and suc- 
 cess. On receiving, in 1844, the degree of the doctor- 
 ate, he read as his inaugural thesis, a "Dissertation 
 on the Helianthemum Canadense et Corymbosum" 
 (Frost weed, or Rock rose), which received from 
 the profession unexpected attention. 
 
 The botanical description of these plants corre- 
 sponded of course, with that given by the accepted 
 authorities, but in describing at length the medic- 
 inal properties and therapeutic value of these twa 
 helianthems (speaking of them as one), he brought 
 out, for the first time almost, an array of facts until 
 then not generally known. Practically, he re-intro- 
 duced the plant to the profession, not as a substitute 
 for any other remedy, but as entitled tO' a distinct 
 place by itself, as a deobstruent of great power in 
 scrofula, in all its various iVianifestations as well 
 as in secondary and tertiary syphilis. He supported 
 its claims to pre-eminence as a remedy in these 
 classes of disease, by full and detailed reports of 
 cases treated with it by himself and others. He 
 sent a quantity of the plants to Dr. Isaac Parrish, 
 of Philadelphia, who used them among his patients 
 in Wills' Hospital with very satisfactory results. 
 The first public notice of the frost weed is to be 
 found in "United States Dispensatory," edition of 
 1849, ill which Dr. Parrish gives concurrent testi- 
 mony in its favor, and quotes from the dissertation, 
 which by the advice of medical friends, was pub- 
 lished in the same year. 
 
 Immediately after his graduation, Dr. Tyler be- 
 gan practice in this city, where he continued to re- 
 side until compelled by protracted illness to with- 
 draw himself from active business. He suffered on 
 many occasions from pulmonary hemorrhage, but 
 continued faithfully to attend upon his patients 
 year after year, under a load of painful and de- 
 pressing disabilities such as I have seldom witnessed. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 567 
 
 His love for botanical science kept him much in the 
 open air, and to this he attributed his prolonged 
 life and the small modicum of health he enjoyed. 
 There have been within the writer's knowledge sev- 
 eral instances of persons who consulted him for the 
 relief of symptoms of incipient tuberculosis, and 
 whom he induced to begin the practical study of 
 botany, himself giving them their first lessons in 
 the field. The result in each case was a restoration 
 to a comfortable degree of health while field work 
 was continued ; and in one case of pronounced tu- 
 berculosis the gentleman lived for many years, and 
 attained a degree of eminence as a botanist, whose 
 name was known abroad. 
 
 Dr. Tyler possessed a happy, cheerful tempera- 
 ment. He was endowed with power of perception, 
 discrimination and analysis of a high order, and the 
 intuitive sagacity with which his mind detected and 
 drew forth for critical examination the controlling 
 facts and symptoms of a complicated case was re- 
 markable ; and as might have been predicted of him, 
 he developed early in life as a peculiarly successful 
 general practitioner. If he made especial study of 
 anything, it was of diseases of the lungs, the kidneys 
 and the skin. He was a man of profound religious 
 convictions, and as such in his social and profes- 
 sional life, he squared his actions by the principles 
 of the "Golden Rule," and thus it was that, while 
 his feeble health and modest estimate of himself 
 kept him from such prominence as his great quali- 
 ties would otherwise have forced upon him, he was 
 universally esteemed as one of the most able, upright 
 and honorable men in the profession. 
 
 A wide and varied intelligence, combined with 
 a gentle, assuring manner and exquisite tact, ren- 
 dered him a welcome visitor in every sick room, and 
 gained for him the confidence and love of all with 
 whom he was brought in contact. He died March 
 27, 1885. 
 
 AUGUST YOST, whose name is familiar to 
 those acquainted with the business personnel of the 
 city of Meriden as one of the thoroughly success- 
 ful and representative business men of his national- 
 ity, was born in Nieder Eschbach, near Frankfurt- 
 am-Main, Germany, April 7, 1844. 
 
 Frederick Yost, his father, was a native of the 
 same village, where he loUowed the baker's trade 
 and where he married Katherine Wehrheim. They 
 became the parents of ten children, and feeling the 
 need of a better field for the rearing of such a fam- 
 ily, they came to the United States, making the voy- 
 age in 1855 on the sailing vessel "Julia." They 
 were forty-two days on the ocean. On reaching 
 New York they made their way to Hartford county. 
 Conn., where the family spent some months at Ware- 
 house Point, and in 1856 removed to Rockville, 
 where the father obtained employment in a woolen 
 mill. There he worked three years and was then 
 able to buy a farm in the town of Vernon, devoting 
 himself to its cultivation very successfully for a 
 
 number of years. The last years of this honorable 
 and worthy man were spent in retirement from ac- 
 tive labor in the home of his son, August, who cared 
 for him with a loyal devotion. He died at the ripe 
 old age of eighty-six years, and was buried at Rock- 
 ville. In politics he was a Republican. He was 
 a very unassuming, genuine man, of good character 
 and sound principles. The following children were 
 born to Mr. and Airs. Yost: Katherine, who 
 is the widow of Abram Laubscher, of Rockville; 
 Mary, who married John Bitzer, and died in Cali- 
 fornia; Rosa, who married Daniel Sauer and after 
 his death became the wife of Frederick Hoy; Eliz- 
 abeth, wife of George Fuchs ; Martin; Margaret,, 
 who married John Bonmet, and is deceased ; August; 
 Lizzie, who married Louis Schreier ; Frederick, de- 
 ceased ; and Henry, who is ' a traveling man from 
 New York. 
 
 August Yost was only eleven years of age when 
 he was brought to this country by his parents. Ii> 
 his German home he had good schooling, but he 
 only attended at Warehouse Point a short time when 
 the family removed to Rockville, where he entered 
 the woolen mills at the age of thirteen years. He 
 had a chance to attend school in the early mornings 
 and late afternoons. For seventeen years he was 
 working in the mills, after which he began business 
 for himself as a baker in New Britain in company 
 with William Lang, the firm being Lang & Yost. 
 Not long afterward Mr. Yost sold out and in 
 1872 came to Meriden, where he again entered into 
 a baking business with William Albrecht. Mr. 
 Yost soon took the business on his own account and 
 continued in Liberty street until 1875 when he re- 
 moved to a better location in West Main street. 
 Here he carried on a good business for more than 
 twenty years. In 1893 he built a good brick block, 
 with a brick bakery in the rear, the finest in Meri- 
 den, costing over $50,000. He owns a good house 
 in Lindsley avenue, and has become one of the most 
 substantial and reliable men of the city. In 1895 
 he retired from active business, and his bakery in- 
 terests and other enterprises have passed into the 
 management of his son, though our subject still 
 gives attention to his extensive real estate interests 
 in Meriden. 
 
 During his business career Mr. Yost consist-, 
 ently declined to take any political office, but on his 
 retirement from business he took a more active in- 
 terest in local affairs ; served five terms on the board 
 of relief, and is now filling his third term as as- 
 sessor. In religious matters he is a believer in the 
 Golden Rule, and in politics is a Republican. Mr. 
 Yost belongs to the K. of P., being a member of 
 J. S. Stokes Division, No. 12, Uniformed Rank, and 
 is also a member of the Cosmopolitan Club of Meri- 
 den. He is a member of the German School Asso- 
 ciation and belongs to the German Aid Society at 
 Rockville. 1 
 
 Mr. Yost was married in 1865, in Rockville, to, 
 Agnes Neadle, a native of Moessingen, Wurtem- 
 
S68 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 berg, Germany, and a daughter of George and Ag- 
 nes Neadle. Mrs. Yost is a lady of much culture 
 and intelligence and fine spirit ; and has been a 
 great strength to her husband in his trials and strug- 
 gles. To this union were born : Frederick G., who 
 now has charge of the baking business, married 
 Mary Miller, and they have had two children, Stan- 
 ley and one that died in infancy ; Lizzie is at home ; 
 Agnes married W. C. Miller, a lawyer of Meriden ; 
 Bertha and August died young ; Emma obtained her 
 education at the local schools and the Meriden high 
 school, was graduated from the State Normal 
 School in New Britain, Conn., and is now a school 
 teacher at Bristol ; one child died in early infancy. 
 
 HON. LEVERETT MARSDEN HUB'BARD. 
 Many of the Connecticut Hubbards of this locality 
 descended from George Hubbard, born in 1601, and 
 probably in Southeastern England. His name ap- 
 peared first in America in 1639 in a list of early set- 
 tlers of Hartford. These settlers came overland 
 from the vicinity of Boston during the years 1635 
 and 1636, and located in the towns of Windsor, 
 Hartford and Wethersfield, Conn., also Springfield, 
 Mass. George Hubbard' married, in 1640, Eliza- 
 beth Watts, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth 
 Watts. He appears to have removed with about 
 fifteen other families to Mattabessett, so-called un- 
 til 1653, when it became Middletown- George Hub- 
 bard and his wife were buried in the Middletown 
 Riverside cemetery. Among the descendants of 
 this emigrant ancestor may be mentioned the Hon. 
 Samuel Dickinson Hubbard, of Middletown, United 
 States Postmaster General under President Fill- 
 more; Paymaster-General Nehemiah Hubbard, of 
 the Revolutionary war, and of Middletown ; and the 
 late Gov. Richard D. Hubbard, of Hartford. 
 
 The record of the lives of successful men who 
 influence and mold the events of life by subduing 
 adversity, and shaping toward their' personal goal 
 each condition as it confronts them, is always in- 
 teresting and instructive ; but it becomes more so 
 when such lives present in combined view the ele- 
 ments of material success blended with the com- 
 pleteness of moral attributes and the attractions of 
 an unblemished reputation. Such characters stand 
 out as the proofs of human progress, as illustrations 
 of human dignity and worth, and as beacon lights to 
 the generations which follow. The success of such 
 men is not, as some would consider, fortuitous ; 
 it is not the result of a chain of fortunate accidents ; 
 it is the logical result arising from the steady ap- 
 plication of a nature into which are infused the 
 characteristics of a strong will, keen perception 
 and indomitable energy, which, properly utilized, 
 have made their possessor a successful man. 
 
 Leverett Marsden Hubbard was born April 23, 
 1849, i" Durham, Conn., a son of Rev. Eli and 
 Georgiana (Leach) Hubbard, the latter being the 
 only daughter of L. W. Leach (for many years a 
 
 leading merchant of Durham), and a sister of Hon. 
 L. M. Leach and Hon. Oscar Leach, of Middlesex 
 county. Conn., both now deceased. 
 
 Eber Hubbard, grandfather of Leverett M., 
 was born in Massachusetts, Aug. 10, 1785. When 
 a young man, and before marriage, he moved to 
 Martinsburgh, Lewis Co., N. Y., then a frontier 
 region, where he remained for many years carrying 
 on a considerable sawmill business. Late in life he 
 bought a farm near Alexandria Bay, N. Y., in what 
 was known as Flat Rock, to which he removed, and 
 on which he passed the remainder of his days, dying 
 Sept. 22, 1841. He was married Feb. 3, 1808, to 
 Abigail Rumble, who was born April 28, 1789, and 
 died June 23, 1843. Their children were: (i) 
 Eliza, born Feb. 14, 1809, died in 1891. (2) George, 
 born July 6, 1811. (3) EH, born Aug. 18, 1813, 
 is mentioned below. (4) Diana, born Sept. 14, 
 1815. (5) Betsey, born Oct. 12, 1817. (6) Itha- 
 more, born Dec. 21, 1820. (7) Anna W., born 
 Feb. 25, 1822, died Sept. 24, 1823. (8) Anna W., 
 born March 20, 1824, died June 19, 1843. (9) Hes- 
 ter A., born June 24, 1826. (10) Phebe, born July 
 9, 1828. (11) Mary, born A-Iay 13, 1831. (12) 
 Eber, born Oct. 11, 1833, married June 27, 1858, 
 Desire G. Cole, born May 6, 1840, and they had 
 children, as follows : Walter W., born July 2, 1859 >' 
 Marshall E. born Dec. 22, i860; Charles F., born 
 Aug. 27, 1874; Eber J., born Aug. 13, 1876; Edna 
 M., born in the year 1879, died Oct. 10, 1879; Glen 
 C, born Aug. 16, 18S1 ; and Allen M., born Dec. 3, 
 1887. 
 
 Rev. Eli Hubbard, father of Leverett M., was 
 born in Martinsburgh, N. Y., and died in 1868, in 
 Macon, Miss. He graduated from Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity, Middletown, Conn., and as an educator and 
 minister of the Gospel had a long and noteworthy 
 career in the States of Aldbama and Mississippi, 
 being especially distinguished for his eloquence 
 and power as a preacher. By his first wife, Georgi- 
 ana (born Sept. 25, 1825, and died Jan. 27, 1852), 
 he had two children : Edward Melville, born Jan. 
 12, 1847; and Leverett Marsden, the subject of this 
 sketch. For his second wife Rev. Hubbard mar- 
 ried, Aug. 19, 1859, Cornelia M. Aldrioh, of Ful- 
 ton, N. Y., and to this union was born a daughter, 
 Zuilee, March 26, 1865, now the wife of Dr. J. T. 
 Barker, of Wallimgford. 
 
 Leverett M. Hubbard, the subject proper of this 
 biographical sketch, was three years old when his 
 mother died, and from that time his home was made 
 with his maternal grandfather, Leverett W. Leach, 
 already spoken of, in Durham, Conn., in the schools 
 of- which village he received his earlier education. 
 He then entered Wesleyan Academy, at Wilbra- 
 ham, Mass., later attending Wesleyan University, 
 at Middletown, Conn., receiving from the latter 
 the degree of M. A., and among whose sons he holds 
 a distinguished place. His legal studies were pur- 
 sued at the Albany Law School, Albany, N. Y., from 
 

 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 569 
 
 •which he graduated m 1870 ; and he also pursued his 
 law studies under Hon. Charles Ives, of New Ha- 
 ven, since deceased. 
 
 In August, 1870, he took up his residence in 
 Wallingford, Conn., and commenced the practice of 
 his chosen profession, soon establishing a reputa- 
 tion at the Bar of New Haven county, and through- 
 out the State, of being a young man of fine spirit 
 and rare intellectual endowments. From the be- 
 ginning of his practice he gradually grew in the 
 confidence and esteem of the public, and for many 
 years has ranked amon'g the most highly respected 
 and successful followers of Blackstone, Coke and 
 Littleton in his county and State. He has been 
 frequently identified with leading cases, some of 
 which secured for him special distinction, notably 
 the Hayden-Stanard (or Stanna'rd) murder trial, 
 and the trial of Anderson, who was indicted for 
 the killing of Horatio G. Hall. From 1874 to 1877 
 he was a law partner of Morris F. Tyler, now treas- 
 urer of Yale University, and afterward, success- 
 ively, the partner of John W. Ailing and E. P. Ar- 
 vine, Esqrs., both ranking among the most eminent 
 members of their profession. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Hubbard was appointed by Presi- 
 dent Grant postmaster at Wallingford, which oifice 
 he held by successive re-appointments until the in- 
 auguration of President. Cleveland in 1885, when 
 he resigned with an unexpired commission for three 
 years. He tendered his resignation as postmaster 
 in order that he might devote his entire attention 
 to his profession, whose increasing demands had 
 for a number of years made this step an actual ne- 
 cessity. It is almost superfluous to add that he ad- 
 ministered the duties of that office with his cus- 
 tomary intelligence and fidelity, and to the universal 
 acceptance of its patrons, who, without respect of 
 party, tendered him upon his retirement, a compli- 
 mentary banquet, remarkable for its elaborateness 
 and the enthusiasm which accompanied it. The 
 Hon. Charles D. Yale, well known throughout the 
 State as one of the most prominent and zealous of 
 Democrats presided at the banquet, and, at the con- 
 ■clusion of a highly complimentary address, used 
 these words : "The company has assembled that it 
 may go on record, in an unmistakable manner, that 
 Mr. Hubbard is beloved and respected by every man 
 in Wallingford whose good wishes are worth hav- 
 ing." The Hon. George H. Watrous, of New Ha- 
 ven, president of the New York, New Haven & 
 Hartford Railroad Company, in writing his regrets 
 that he would be unable to attend the banquet, said : 
 "I share with you, sincerely, the desire to honor our 
 esteemed friend. I have known him nearly as long 
 as you have, I presume. I early learned to believe 
 in him as a man not only of superior intelligence, 
 but of great integrity and trustworthiness. My 
 knowledge of him has increased my faith in him. 
 Mr. Hubbard has not oniy been a successful post- 
 master, but he has been in every respect a very suc- 
 cessful and highly useful member of your commun- 
 
 ity. He has already carved his way to the front 
 rank of his profession." 
 
 Notwithstanding his extensive law practice, and 
 the great demands it makes on his time and atten- 
 tion, Mr. Hubbard yet manages to devote many 
 hours to public matters. He was one of the projec- 
 tors of the First National Bank of Wallingford, 
 has been one of its directors since its organization 
 in 1 88 1, and for many years its vice-president, has 
 also been a director in the Dime Savings Bank of 
 Wallingford since 1884, and its vice-president from 
 1890 to 1894, when he was elected the president, 
 to succeed Samuel Simpson, deceased, and he is 
 still holding that office. Mr. Hubbard was one of 
 the incorporators (1881) of the Wallingford Gas 
 Light Co., and was a director of that company from 
 the time of its organization up to 1899, when he 
 withdrew from the company. 
 
 In politics Mr. Hubbard is an uncompromising 
 Republican, andrhas filled many public offices in the 
 gift of his party with characteristic ability and judg- 
 ment. In local affairs he has been a member of the 
 board of school visitors since 1874; was a justice of 
 the peace from. 1878 to 1881 ; has been borough at- 
 torney, also counsel for the town almost uninter- 
 ruptedly since 1870. On the establishment of a 
 borough court for Wallingford by the General As- 
 sembly of the State in 1886, at the earnest solicita- 
 tion of friends in both political parties, and at some 
 disadvantage to his business, Mr. Hubbard accepted 
 the position of its first judge, having been elected by 
 the unanimous vote of the Legislature. In a similar 
 manner was he re-elected for each successive term, 
 until 1897, when he retired, having been elected by 
 the General Assembly as judge of the court of com- 
 mon pleas for New Haven county, which office he 
 now administers, having been re-elected thereto by 
 the General Assembly at its last session. 
 
 In 1886 Mr. Hubbard was unanimously nomi- 
 nated for Secretary of State of Connecticut by the 
 Republican party at a convention of over 500 dele- 
 gates held at Hartford, and was elected by a larger 
 popular vote than any other candidate on the State 
 ticket. It is not too much to say that in dignity, ability 
 and enterprise, Mr. Hubbard's administration as sec- 
 retary during his two years' term has rarely been 
 equalled, and never excelled in the history of the 
 State. Among his many noteworthy special services 
 during that incumbency may be mentioned his prep- 
 aration and publication of the first comprehensive 
 and elaborate "Register and Manual for the State 
 of Connecticut" ever issued, a model upon which all 
 subsequent editions have been fashioned, one that 
 is highly valued for the great variety and accuracy 
 of its information, and easily ranking among the 
 most complete publications of its kind ever com- 
 piled. He brought the workings of the office to 
 such a precise system that, although public acts and 
 special acts of the Legislature had rarely been 
 printed and in circulation earlier than thirty and 
 sixty days, respectively, after the final adjournment, 
 
570 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 he caused it to be done in seven and fourteen days, 
 respectively. 
 
 In 1881 Mr. Hubbard was elected a trustee of 
 the Wesleyan Academy, at Wilbraham, Mass., an 
 office he has held to the present time, and to the dis- 
 charge of the duties of which he has brought the 
 same devotion, energy and capacity which have 
 marked his career in all the various positions of re- 
 sponsible trust which he has occupied. 
 
 Mr. Hubbard has long enjoyed a wide reputa- 
 tion as a speaker of unusual force and eloquence, 
 and has been much in demand as an orator, espe- 
 cially on patriotic, commemorative and political oc- 
 casions. He has stumped the State in every national 
 campaign since the Hayes campaign in 1876, and 
 his services have always been offered gratuitously 
 to the committees of his party. From the com- 
 mencement of his career he has been actively inter- 
 ested in politics and is a recognized leader in his 
 town, county and State. Among the honors con- 
 ferred upon him, and not previously referred to, 
 may be mentioned that of delegate-at-Iarge to the 
 National Convention of his party at Chicago, in 
 1888, which nominated Benjamin Harrison for 
 President. Mr. Hubbard was prominently named 
 throughout the Second Congressional District as a 
 candidate for Congress in the same year, but de- 
 clined the honor, preferring to remain in the active 
 practice of his profession. 
 
 In the matter of religion Mr. Hubbard is a mem- 
 ber of the First Congregational Church of Walling- 
 ford, of which he has been for many years a liberal 
 supporter, and in the management of whose affairs 
 he has been prominently identified. 
 
 On May 21, 1873, Hon. Leverett M. Hubbard 
 was married to Miss Florence Gazelle Ives, who 
 was born June 6, 1851, a daughter of Wooster and 
 Eliza B. Ives, of Wallingford. On her maternal 
 side she is lineally descended from Roger Wol- 
 cott, one of the Colonial Governors of Con- 
 necticut ; also from the Rev. John Davenport, one 
 of the settlers of the New Haven Colony, and 
 who was its first minister. Four children, all 
 yet living, have been born of this marriage, as 
 follows: (i) Georgiana, born March 9, 1874, mar- 
 ried to Dr. Frank Bacon Hancock, who was a sur- 
 geon assigned to the Monitor "Puritan" during 
 the recent war with Spain, and now a prac- 
 ticing physician in Philadelphia, his native city. By 
 this marriage there is one daughter, Florence, born 
 Oct. 9, 1900. (2) Samuel Wolcott, born March 
 30, 1876, holds a responsible business position 
 with the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- 
 road Company. (3) Leverett Marsden, Jr., born 
 Feb. 15, 1S82, has recently graduated from Wes- 
 leyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass., and is about 
 to enter the freshman class of Princeton Uni- 
 versity. (4) Kenneth Davenport, born Jan. 5, 1885. 
 Mr. Hubbard is esteemed throughout the commun- 
 ity as an honorable and upright citizen, enjoying 
 the utmost popularit)- among all classes. His pleas- 
 
 sn't, genial disposition has won for him hosts of 
 friends, and probably there is not in the State of 
 Connecticut any one who enjoys the acquaintance 
 of more men of national prominence than does 
 Judge Hubbard. 
 
 GEORGE H. MUNGER, a well known and 
 highly respected citizen of North Branford, was born 
 in Madison, Conn., May 26, 1827, a son of Gaylord 
 and Dency (Stevens) Munger. The Munger an- 
 cestry is traced from Nicholas Munger who, when 
 sixteen years old, came in 1639 to America with 
 William Chittenden. He settled in Guilford, now 
 known as Madison, as early as 1651, and died Oct. 
 17, 1668. Of his two sons, John and Samuel, John 
 was born April 26, 1660, and became the father of 
 a son Josiah, who was born July 20, 1704- Tim- 
 othy, son of Josiah, was born Sept. 5, 173S, and 
 his son Josiah became the grandfather of George 
 H. Munger. 
 
 Josiah Munger was born Oct. 2, 1760, and died 
 Dec. 27, 1822. He married Hannah Munger, who 
 was born Dec. 9, 1765, and died in 1833. 
 
 Gaylord Munger, son of Josiah, was born in the 
 town of Madison, New Haven county, Sept. 25, 
 1797, and died June 15, 1 87 1. Enterprising and 
 public-spirited, he was identified with the best in- 
 terests of the church and State. He married Dency 
 Stevens, who was born June I, 1802, a daughter of 
 Roswell and Submit (Field) Stevens, and died May 
 7, 1866. In their family were eight children,, 
 namely: Jane S., who was born Jan. 25, 1825, and 
 married Washington Dudley, of North Branford ; 
 George H., our subject; Selden D., who was born 
 May 29, 1831 ; Lucy A., who was born Oct. 13, 1834, 
 and is now deceased; Eliza E., who was born Jan. 
 23, 1838; Judson, who was born Dec. 26, 1840, and 
 is a deacon in the Congregational Church at North 
 Madison; Emily R., who was born June 11, 1843; 
 and Martha A., who was born Sept. 11, 1833, and 
 died young. Mrs. Submit (Field) Stevens was de- 
 scended from Zachariah Field, who, with his son 
 Ebenezer, settled in Madison in 1720. From these 
 are also descended the celebrated divine. Rev. David 
 Dudley Field, and his son, David Dudley Field, the 
 prominent New York lawyer. 
 
 Throughout his entire life George H. Munger 
 has followed the occupation of farming with good 
 success, and is the owner of considerable property 
 in North Branford. He attended the district school 
 until fourteen years old, and finished his education 
 in a private school. On Nov. 14, 1852, he married 
 Miss Susan M., daughter of Rev. Reuben Torrev, 
 pastor of the Congregational Church at North 
 Madison, who was born April 3, 1789, and died 
 Sept. 28, 1870. Rev. Torrey was a son of Dr. James 
 and Deborah (Fitch) Torrey, of Weymouth and 
 Nantucket, Mass., respectively, and for fifty years 
 was prominent as a Congregational minister, hav- 
 ing at diift'erent times charges at Ashford, Eastford, 
 North :\Iansfield and North Madison, Conn., and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 571 
 
 Elmwood and Providence, R. I. His wife, Ann 
 Eddy, was born July 5, 1796, a daughter of Capt. 
 Moses and Hannah (Carpenter) Eddy, and died 
 Dec. 5, 1890. The Eddy family is descended from 
 Rev. William Eddy, A. M., vicar at Crainbrook, 
 England (1589-1616), whose sons came to America. 
 Capt. Moses Eddy was born March 26, 1766, became 
 a prosperous merchant, running a line of packets 
 between Providence and New York; he died May 
 28, 1823. His brother, Samuel Eddy, was a judge 
 of the supreme court of Rhode Island, and for many 
 years was a member of Congress. Mrs. Hannah 
 (Carpenter) Eddy was born Oct. 17, 1766, and died 
 May 14, 1838. 
 
 Mrs. Munger died Jan. i, 1861, aged nearly 
 thirty-eight years, leaving three daughters : Mar- 
 tha C., wife of Erastus Dudley, a prominent citizen 
 of Guilford ; Ann Isabel, wife of Lawyer C. A. 
 Harrison, of Wallingf ord ; Susan, widow of Clay- 
 ton Thompson, residing in North Madison. On 
 May 15, 1862, Mr. Munger was united in marriage 
 with Miss Emily Frances Russell. One daughter 
 has blessed this union, Helen Russell, who is the 
 wife of Charles M. Bergstresser, editor of the Wall 
 Street Journal, of New York, and a graduate of 
 Lafayette College, Pa., and they have one child, 
 Ethel Munger Bergstresser. Mr. Munger has taken 
 a prominent part in public affairs, and has served as 
 selectman and filled numerous official stations while 
 living in Madison. He resided in that town until 
 April, 1888, when he came to North Branford to 
 occupy part of the Russell ancestral estate. He has 
 been superintendent of Sunday-school and choir 
 master of the Congregational Church, but has stead- 
 ily refused any political positions since coming to 
 North Branford. He has been a staunch Repub- 
 lican since the organization of the party, having for- 
 merly affiliated with the Whigs, and is noted for his 
 temperance principles and practice. 
 
 The Russell family, to which Mrs. George H. 
 Munger belongs, is an ancient and honorable one, 
 and has rendered great services to church and State. 
 Those who settled in North Branford gave 
 monies to the Congregational Church for the 
 establishment of a fund which to-day aids 
 in its support. The American line is traced 
 back to John Russell, a native of England, 
 who emigrated from London in the ship "Globe" 
 Aug. 7, 163s, with his wife, Phebe (family 
 name unknown), and two sons, John and Phillip. 
 He first located in Cambridge, Mass., but later re- 
 moved to South Hadley. In 1636 he was one of the 
 prominent citizens of the former town, was town 
 clerk in 1645, and constable in 1648. His wife died 
 July 8, 1642. 
 
 John Russell, son of John, the emigrant, was 
 bom in England in 1626, and was graduated from 
 Harvard in 1645. He was called to be pastor of the 
 church at Wethersfield, Conn., and his father accom- 
 panied him. In 1659 he moved to Hadley, Mass., and 
 
 died there May 8, 1660. He gave shelter to the 
 "Regicides." 
 
 Samuel Russell, son of John, was born Nov. 4, 
 1660, and was graduated from Harvard in 1680. 
 He moved to Branford, Conn., becoming the second 
 pastor of the Congregational Church there Sept. 12, 
 1687. In his study was founded Yale College, of 
 which he was librarian, and trustee from 1701 
 to 1 73 1. He married Abigail Whiting, daughter of 
 Rev. John and Sybil (Collins) Whiting, of Hart- 
 ford, and granddaughter of William Whiting, Esq., 
 first treasurer of the' Connecticut Colony. Rev. 
 Samuel Russell died at Branford June 25, 1733, clos- 
 ing a pastorate of forty-three years. 
 
 Jonathan Russell, Esq., son of Rev. Samuel, 
 located in what is now North Branford, where he 
 owned a large tract of land given to his father by 
 the parishioners. He served as justice of the peace 
 and held various other town offices. His brother, 
 Ithiel Russell, was the first deacon of the North 
 Branford Congregational Church in 1754. Jonathan 
 Russell married Eunice Barker, of Branford, and 
 he died July 24, 1774, aged seventy-four years; she 
 died Aug. 23, 1781, aged eighty-five. 
 
 Jonathan Russell, Jr., son of Jonathan, married 
 Lydia Barker, who died Feb. 3, 1823, at the age 
 of eighty-feight years, and he departed this life 
 March 5, 1814, at the age of eighty-two. 
 
 Deacon David Russell, son of Jonathan and 
 Lydia (Barker) Russell, and the grandfather of 
 Mrs. Munger, was born May 31, 1762, and died 
 July 2, 1836. At the age of sixteen he volunteered 
 for service in the war of the Revolution, and was 
 ever a prominent and public-spirited citizen. For 
 twenty-eight years he was a deacon in the Congre- 
 gational Church. His wife, who bore the maiden 
 nam'e of Eunice Monroe, was born Jan. 30, 1770, 
 and died in August, 1852. In their family were 
 the following children: Samuel F., who was born 
 March 12, 1794, and died April 6, 1805; Julia Eliz- 
 abeth, who was born Jan. 14, 1796, and married 
 Samuel Chatterton, a merchant tailor of New Ha- 
 ven ; Lydia Frances, who died in childhood ; Samuel 
 Factor, born Oct. 7, 1803, was a deacon of the 
 church many years and died Jan. 7, 1884; Joseph 
 Barker; Jonathan; David Andrew, father of Mrs. 
 Munger; Lucretia, who married Charles Brown, 
 a prominent man of New Haven, Nov. 25, 1825 ; 
 and Benjamin B., who died young. 
 
 David Andrew Russell was born April 6, 1805, 
 and was a life-long resident of North Branford, 
 where he engaged in farming. He was an active 
 and prominent member of the Congregational 
 Church, served as church collector. He was nearly 
 all his life in the North Branford Congregational 
 Church. In his political views he was a Democrat, 
 and held the offices of constable, grand juror ancl 
 other local, positions of honor and trust. In the 
 town of Madison, this county, he married Miss 
 Betsy Norton, the ceremony being performed by 
 
572 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Rev. Judson Root. She was born Sept. 28, 1806, a 
 daughter of Timothy Norton and his wife Polly 
 (Hutchinson), of Southold, Long Island. Mr. 
 Russell died Nov. 4, 1881, his wife, Oct. 7, 1872. 
 To this worthy couple were born six children, of 
 whom the eldest died in infancy, Jan. 13, 1834; 
 Jane Elizabeth, born Feb. 14, 1835, married Elizur 
 Foote and died Dec. 14, 1879; Julia Frances, born 
 Jan. 19, 1836, died March 23, 1839; Emily Frances, 
 born Aug. 17, 1838, is the wife of our subject; Julia 
 Augusta, born March 22, 1842, died Jan. 20, 1859; 
 and Helen Louise, born April 18, 1847, <ii^d Sept. 
 II, 1852. 
 
 Timothy Norton was a prominent man in the 
 town, and was engaged in the droving business, 
 shipping horses and mules to the West Indies. He 
 was a son of Noahdiah and Mabel (Hopson) Nor- 
 ton ; and his wife, Polly Hutchinson, was born Feb. 
 24, 1779, a daughter of Samuel Hutchinson, of 
 -Southold, L. I., who was an early settler there. 
 When Long Island was invaded by the British, he 
 shipped his family and his belongings in a sloop to 
 Guilford. 
 
 RICHARD A. PECK, a well known citizen of 
 New Haven who for many years was connected 
 with the Peck & Bishop Co., of that city, comes 
 from an old and prominent family. 
 
 Jonathan Peck, his grandfather, was born in 
 Fairfield county, Conn., where he married a Miss 
 Lockwood, and then settled at Flushing, Long Isl- 
 and, where he embarked in the transportation busi- 
 ness, continuing same until the time of his death. 
 He reared a large family: Cornell, born in 1809, 
 was in the coal and lumber business in Flushing ; 
 Anna Eliza, born in 181 1, married William Fair- 
 weather, who was in business with her brother 
 Cornell; James, born in 1813, was in the fertiliz- 
 ing business in Flushing; Richard was the father 
 ■of our subject; Thomas engaged in the sash and 
 blind business in Norwalk, Conn. ; Caroline, born 
 in 1819, married William Rowe, of Flushing; Janet 
 married Theodore Demont, of Flushing, and still 
 survives; Jonathan, born in 1825, was in the salt 
 business, and died at Hempstead, L. I. ; Henry A., 
 born in 1829, is in the fertilizing business in Flush- 
 ing; William, born in 1831, is in the real estate busi- 
 ness in New York City; and Susan A., born in 
 1823, married Augustus Mitchell, of Flushing, and 
 is deceased. 
 
 Richard Peck, the father of our subject, was 
 born in Flushing, Dec. 28, 1815, and died April 18, 
 1900. His educational advantages were limited, 
 only such as the district schools of his time and 
 place afforded. He seemed to inherit from- his 
 father a desire for "following the water," and when 
 but little more than a child had shown unusual 
 adaptation for that line of work. When a lad of 
 twelve he left Flushing with his father to ."ngage 
 in the steamboat business, and he was captain of one 
 steamboat before he was eighteen, holding that po- 
 
 sition in a highly satisfactory manner. In the early 
 forties he located in New Haven, where from 1850 
 to 1898 he managed the New Haven Steamboat 
 Co.'s line of boats, one of these, the "Richard Peck,'"' 
 a large passenger steamer running between New 
 Haven and New York. During the last year of 
 his life the "Chester W. Chapin" was added to the 
 fleet. Sometime prior to his death a deal was made 
 with the N. Y. & N. H. Consolidated Road for 
 the purchase of the New Haven Steamboat Co., and 
 the transfer was made the day Mr. Peck died. The 
 boats which he commanded on the New Haven line 
 were the "Bell," Globe," "New York" and "Con- 
 necticut," the last named being his last boat, having 
 charge of her in 1850. 
 
 In his time Mr. Peck built the "Granite State," 
 of the Hartford line; the "Elm City," the "Conti- 
 nental" and the "C. H. Northam." Also under his 
 supervision were built the "Richard Peck" and the 
 "Eleanor F. Peck," the former of which was named 
 for him, and was for years probably the best known 
 coaster steamer carrying the United States flag ; and 
 Mr. Peck, during his management of the New Ha- 
 ven line, which extended over a period of nearly 
 half a century, was probably one of the best known 
 steamboat men, on the Atlantic coast. He had 
 grown up in the business, and retired in 1898 after 
 over seventy years of active service in that line. 
 For many years he was in positions of great re- 
 sponsibility, the duties of which he always filled in 
 a most efficient manner. His life had been a very 
 busy one, and he was well known throughout the 
 country and among all men, especially in his line. 
 In politics he was a stanch Democrat. His life was 
 without reproach, and he was a grand type of man, 
 many kindly acts showing his true character. When 
 but a young man he assumed responsibilities that 
 Avere far beyond his years, displaying a keen sense 
 of duty to his parents and others of the family who 
 were less successful than he. While a disciplinarian 
 in his business, and systematic at home, he was a 
 kind-hearted, generous man, and an indulgent 
 father. He was generous to a fault, finding pleasure 
 in his home and family, in which he took great 
 interest. Accumulation of property was certainly 
 not his greatest desire, though he left a most com- 
 fortable competence, and neither he nor his family 
 ever lacked comforts or luxuries that his means 
 permitted. His substantial kindnesses and gener- 
 osity toward others were frequent and voluntary. 
 At the time of his death the New York Marine 
 Journal published the following: 
 
 The founders of our successful sail vessel fleets and 
 steamship lines are fast passing away. The latest to pay 
 the debt which nature demands is Capt. Richard Peck, of 
 New Haven, Conn., the founder of the New Haven Steam- 
 boat Co., between this port and New Haven, which has 
 been so eminently prosperous through his oversight in con- 
 nection with President Chester W. Chapin in building boats 
 of a superior class, with which Commodore Peck was 
 actively identified until increasing years forced him to give 
 way to younger men. 
 
 Mr. Peck was a native of Flushing, L. I., and came to 
 
fiuKcu.'^ /Q^. 
 
 'S 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 573 
 
 this city in 1842, in command of the steamer "Bell." A 
 short time afterward he, together with C. H. Northam and 
 Chester W. Chapin, of Springfield, Mass., organized the 
 New York and New Haven steamboat line, and he was 
 made captain of the "Connecticut " of that line. 
 
 In 1850 he was made superintendent of the company, 
 which position he held until 1895, when he resigned. After 
 his resignation as superintendent, he became secretary of 
 the company, and held the office up to his death. He was 
 commodore of the company's line of steamboats, and one 
 of their most famous ones is named after him. He is sur- 
 vived by a wife, two sons and two brothers. 
 
 It is a great victory over temptation when a man in his 
 85th year dies with a characteron which there is not a blem- 
 ish. Where is the man that can say that this veteran steam- 
 boat man ever did him a wrong? Such a one never lived. 
 True to the hard and fast principles of doing as he would 
 be done by, Richard Peck died beloved, honored and 
 respected by all who knew him. To be able to leave such a 
 legacy to family and friends is worth an hundred times all 
 the self-denial necessary to attain it. The example is as 
 valuable to his associates in social as well as in business life, 
 as the ten commandments. 
 
 On Feb. 21, 1839, Richard Peck was married to 
 Anna E. Haviland, who Hved but one year, and on 
 Oct. 16, 1842, he married Mary A. Smith, who was 
 born in Quakers Farms, Oxford, Conn., Dec. i, 
 1818. Her father, Theodore Smith, born in Ox- 
 ford, was a farmer there ; he was a captain, 9th Co., 
 2nd Reg. Riflemen, Connecticut MiHtia, in the war 
 of 1812. Mr. Smith married JuHa Bradley, who 
 was born in Humphreysville, or Hamden, Conn., 
 a daughter of Elephaz Bradley, a farmer of that 
 locality, and his wife Betsey (Perry). The great- 
 grandfather of our subject, John Smith, was a sol- 
 dier in both the Revolutionary war and in the war 
 of 1812. Soon after the marriage of Richard and 
 Mary (Smith) Peck they settled in New Haven, 
 where Mrs. Peck lives. A family of four children 
 came to them: (i) Frederick J., born in August, 
 1843, has been in the steamboat business at times 
 being like his father, the captain of several boats ; 
 his home is in New York City. (2) Richard A. 
 is mentioned below. (3) Henry, born in April, 
 1848, died Oct. 31, 1887; he was shipping clerk for 
 the New Haven Steamboat Co. (4) Miles L., born 
 in September, 1850, died July 31, 1887; he was 
 steward on a steamboat. The mother is well pre- 
 served in spite of her eighty-three years. She is 
 highly esteemed and is a consistent member of the 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 Richard A. Peck, our subject, was born in New 
 Haven, Aug. 21, 1845, and was reared in that city, 
 receiving every educational opportunity. For some 
 time he attended Russell's Collegiate Military 
 School, where the training in every department was 
 excellent. His first entrance into business was as 
 clerk in a drug store, where he remained for three 
 and one-half years, and he then went to the New 
 Haven Steamboat Co. This business was success- 
 fully pursued by all his family, and our subject was 
 no exception, his energy and interest soon making 
 him a valuable acquisition to the firm of Myers & 
 Peck. Later he engaged in the business under the 
 firm' name of Peck & Bishop, which later changed 
 
 to the Peck & Bishop Co., of New Haven, and when 
 Mr. Peck retired from' the firm his name was re- 
 tained. 
 
 On Jan. 11, 1871, Mr. Peck was united in mar- 
 riage with Nellie M. Terrell, who was born in New 
 Haven, a daughter of Horatio and Sarah (Richard- 
 son) Beecher Terrell, also of New Haven. In his 
 political connections our subject votes with the 
 Democratic party. Both he and his wife are val- 
 ued and consistent members of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 HENRY C. SEAIBROOK, whose death oc- 
 curred on Christmas day, 1901, was one of the im- 
 portant factors in the business life of New Haven, 
 Conn. He was born on the island of Nevis, West 
 Indies, March 2, 1830, a son of William Seabrook, 
 a native of London, England, who died in the West 
 Indies. 
 
 William Seabrook early in life was a steward in 
 a prominent London family, as his father before 
 him, but at the time of the birth of Henry C, his 
 son, he was conducting a large plantation in the 
 West Indies. About 183S, during the slave troubles 
 in the island, he went to Canada, built a home in 
 the wilderness and remained there one season. 
 However, as he had become accustomed to the warm 
 climate of the West Indies, he could not endure the 
 extreme cold of his northern home, and returned to 
 the island of Nevis, and there lived until his death. 
 The maiden name of his wife was Martha Freeman, 
 and she was a native of London, England. Fifteen 
 children were born to them, but our subject knew 
 nothing of his brothers and sisters, with the excep- 
 tion of two sisters, Maria Dalley and Harriet Auld, 
 late of Hamilton, Canada, but who are deceased. 
 
 Henry C. Seabrook spent the years from 1835 to 
 1846 in London at school, and in Hamilton, Can- 
 ada, where he learned the trade of carriage wood- 
 working. In 1846 he came to Rochester, N. Y., 
 and there remained until 1849, working at the trade 
 of carriage painting and woodworking, and he was 
 also employed on the canal and at other work. Dur- 
 ing the Mexican war he was at Vera Cruz, not as a 
 participant in the fighting, but loading vessels. On 
 July 15, 1849, he came to New Haven and followed 
 his trade of carriage woodworking until 1855, when 
 he went to New London in the employ of Mr. Cable. 
 From there he went to Syracuse, where he remained 
 until the fall of 1858, when he returned to New 
 Haven and entered the employ of George T. New- 
 hall, where he remained until Oct. i, 1865, when he 
 entered the business of carriage building with C. 
 F. Dibble, who remained in the concern until 1868, 
 when Mr. Seabrook formed a partnership with Ly- 
 man T. Smith, and the style of the firm laecame the 
 Seabrook & Smith Carriage Co. They manufac- 
 tured a large number of carriages, and shipped their 
 products to Texas, California, and in fact all over 
 the United States. Their plant was well equipped 
 and they gave employment to thirty-five men. 
 
574 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 On May 30, 1853, Mr. Seabrook was married to 
 Lydia Beecher, of New Haven, a daughter of Hor- 
 ace Beecher, also of New Haven. She died May 
 3, 1885. Two children were born of this marriage: 
 Charles H. and Ida. The son, who is in the livery 
 business in New York City, is a very promising 
 young man; he is married and has three children, 
 Henry Hawley, Anna M. and Clara L. Ida is 
 unmarried and at home. In politics Mr. Seabrook 
 was a Democrat, but never sought political honors. 
 In 1853 he joined Hiram Lodge, A. F. & A. M., 
 and he was also a member of the Red Men. 
 With his family Mr. Seabrook attended the Episco- 
 pal Church. Uprig'ht in all his dealings, and self- 
 made in the best sense of the term, Mr. Seabrook 
 won a firm position for himself in the commercial 
 life of New Haven, and too much credit could not 
 be given him for his energy and enterprise in build- 
 ing up his business and financial standing from such 
 small beginnings. 
 
 DAVID B. WILSON, senior member of the D. 
 B. Wilson Co., general hardware merchants. Water- 
 bury, and one of New Haven county's most progres- 
 sive and popular citizens, is well worthy of promi- 
 ment place in the pages of this work. 
 
 A native of Connecticut, Mr. Wilson was born 
 April I, 1848, in Harwinton, Litchfield county, a 
 son of Charles M. Wilson and a grandson of David 
 Wilson. The latter was born probably in Harwin- 
 ton, and followed agricultural pursuits there. He 
 died at the age of fifty-nine years. He married 
 Betsey Miller, of Middletown, Conn., and had a 
 family of five children, as follows : David A. was 
 a farmer in Harwinton, and died there ; Russell died 
 unmarried; Charles M. is fully mentioned farther 
 on; Cornelia (now deceased) married Charles En- 
 sign, a farmer in jMorris, Conn. ; Elizabeth (now de- 
 ceased) married Lemuel Ensign, a farmer. 
 
 Charles M. Wilson, father of David B., was born 
 in 1822 in Harwinton, received his education there, 
 and followed farming until 1870, in which year he 
 came to Waterbury. Here he conducted a restaur- 
 ant and confectionery business, but is now living 
 retired. He married Sarah E. Barber, also a na- 
 tive of Harwinton, daughter of Orren Barber, a 
 farmer of that locality, who died at the age of 
 eighty years. There was but one child born to 
 Charles M. and Sarah E. Wilson, David B., our 
 subject. The mother was called from earth in 1890, 
 aged sixty-six years. 
 
 David B. Wilson passed his boyhood on the home 
 farm where he remained until he was fifteen years 
 of age, attending in the summer seasons the district 
 school, afterward for two years he studied at AVil- 
 braham Academy. After clerking a short time in 
 the telegraph office at Winsted, Conn., he, in 1867, 
 came to Waterbury and purchased a restaurant and 
 confectionery business, which he conducted until his 
 father took it off his hands. He then for two years 
 was employed in the store of E. R. Sampson, hard- 
 
 ware, etc., at the end of that engagement embark- 
 ing in his present mammoth business (probably the 
 largest in the county), comprising hardware of all 
 kinds, agricultural implements, sporting goods, bi- 
 cycles, field and garden seeds, etc. Since 1880 the 
 place of business has been at Nos. 13-15-17 Broad- 
 way. In 1897 a stock company was organized under 
 the firm name of the D. B. Wilson Co., D. B. Wilson, 
 president and treasurer; E. W. Wilson, vice-presi- 
 dent and assistant treasurer ; and George Lee, secre- 
 tary. 
 
 On Jan. 5, 1869, our subject was united in mar- 
 riage with M. Christine Webster, who was born in 
 Waterbury, a daughter of Elias Webster, a native of 
 Harwinton, who for several years was a boot and 
 shoe dealer in Waterbury. Two children have been 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Wilson; Edward W. (born 
 March 20, 1871), member of the D. B. Wilson Co.; 
 and Florence Zullette. 
 
 In politics Mr. Wilson is an independent Repub- 
 lican, in religious faith has been identified with 
 Trinity Church since its organization ; and 
 socially is a member of the F. & A. M., the I. O. 
 O. F. and Order of Red Men. An enthusiast in 
 agricultural affairs, he is the owner of a fine 500- 
 acre farm in Litchfield county, which he conducts, 
 but not altogether for the profits his industry and 
 good management bring from it. His essay on farm- 
 ing entitled, "I Want to Buy a Farm," published in 
 the firm's pamphlet of 1895, is well worth, not only 
 careful perusal, but deep thought and close applica- 
 tion. Mr. Wilson has never taken an active part 
 in political affairs, caring nothing for the honors 
 or emoluments of public office, preferring to give 
 his attention to the pleasures of his home and his 
 farm, and to the prosecution of his business interests, 
 in which he is meeting with unbounded success. 
 
 STEPHEN OLIN PARKER, one of the well . 
 known business citizens of Meriden, now holding the 
 responsible position of foreman of the pattern de- 
 partment of the Charles Parker Co., was born in 
 Meriden April 22, 1847, ^ son of the late Stephen 
 L. and Martha M. (Andrews) Parker. 
 
 The Parker family has been identified with 
 the history of New Haven county. Conn., for a 
 period of nearly two centuries, and representatives 
 in each generation have held honored places in the 
 community. 
 
 Stephen Parker, the great-grandfather of Stephen 
 Olin Parker, of this sketch, was a son of Joel and 
 Susannah (Hotchkiss) Parker, and was born in 
 1759. Farming was his chief occupation and this 
 he followed with much success through life. For 
 some time he was a soldier in the Continental 
 army during the war for independence. His first 
 marriage was to Sally Twiss and his second was 
 to Mrs. Rebecca Stone, who was a daughter of 
 Joshua Ray. The eight children of the first mar- 
 riage were: Clarissa, Zeri and Stephen, two of 
 whom died in infancy; Stephen; Sarah; Clarissa; 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 575 
 
 Joel and Isabella. The second mai-riage resulted 
 in four children: John, Betsey, Charles and Ed- 
 mund, all of whom are now deceased, except the 
 venerable Charles Parker, one of Meriden's oldest 
 and most respected citizens, a full sketch of whom, 
 together with the Parker family, will be found else- 
 where in this volume. 
 
 Zeri Parker was born on the family homestead 
 in Cheshire, where he grew to manhood and here he 
 passed the greater part of his life engaged in farm- 
 ing. His latter days were spent with his sons, 
 Julius and Stephen. Liberal in his views, he found 
 good in all, and lived an honest, upright 
 life, and held the esteem and respect of all 
 who knew him. He was married in Ches- 
 hire to Tryphena Munson, who was born in 
 that town and who was a daughter of Peter 
 Munson, and two children came of this union : Jul- 
 ius, who married Mary Richmond, is now deceased, 
 having had two sons, George Wallace, who died in 
 1895, and Charles I., of Meriden; and Stephen L. 
 
 Stephen L. Parker was born in Cheshire Oct. 
 12, 1824, and during his life was a well known and 
 highly respected citizen. He passed his early days 
 after the manner of young men of the time, attend- 
 ing the district school and working on the home 
 farm with his father. Until attaining manhood he 
 continued at home, going then to Meriden, where 
 he learned the trade of carpenter and joiner. This 
 he followed for a number of years, when he became 
 foreman in the Charles Parker shop, where he spent 
 a short time. His next venture was as a lock manu- 
 facturer, in which he was successfully engaged for 
 ^about five years, after which he accepted a contract 
 of making coffee mill boxes for the Charles Parker 
 Co., with which he continued up to the time of his 
 death, which took place in Meriden, Jan. 7, 1870. 
 His remains rest in the West Cemetery. In poli- 
 tics he was a stanch Republican, but never had any 
 desire to 'hold public office; in religious belief a 
 devoted Methodist, giving liberally to the cause he 
 loved, and at the date of his death, held the office of 
 trustee. Socially he was identified with the I. O. 
 O. F. 
 
 On Nov. 23, 1845, in Meriden, Stephen L. 
 Parker wedded Martha M. Andrews, who was born 
 in Cheshire, Conn., a daughter of Hiram and Martha 
 Isl. (Hotchkiss) Andrews. Mrs. Parker was edu- 
 cated in the district schools of Cheshire, and taught 
 one term in Meriden. She is a noble, Christian 
 woman, dearly beloved for her many good deeds 
 and kindly disposition. To Mr. and Mrs. Parker 
 were born five children : Stephen Olin, of Meriden, 
 born April 22, 1847; Imogene, born April 6, 1850, 
 died in July the same year ; Martha Ella, born Aug. 
 14, 1853, married (first) George Ashdown, and (sec- 
 ond) Henry Booth, and resides in Grand Rapids, 
 Mich, (she had two children by her first marriage, 
 Edmund Parker, born April 4, 1874; and Edna Ella, 
 born Feb. i, 1878) ; Jennie, born Oct. 13, 1856, died 
 
 in 1861 ; Annette May, born March 24, 1859, resides 
 at home. 
 
 Stephen Olin Parker obtained his education in 
 the district schools of Aleriden, also in the Meriden 
 academy. At the age of sixteen years, he began 
 to assist his father in the making of coffee mill 
 boxes, continuing until his father's death, when he 
 took charge of the business and successfully con- 
 ducted it for one year. In 1871 he learned the trade 
 of pattern maker, and for the past thirty years has 
 been in the employ of the Charles Parker Co., filling 
 the position of foreman of the pattern department 
 with great ability. 
 
 On Aug. 8, 1871, Mr. Parker was married in 
 Coventry, N. Y., to Algierose Wylie, who was born 
 in Coventry, Chenango Co., N. Y., a daughter of 
 Erastus and Mary Wylie, of Coventry, of Scotch 
 descent, a full sketch of the family being found in 
 the sketch of Luman F. Parker, elsewhere in this 
 volume. Mrs. Parker is a lady of culture and refine- 
 ment and received a liberal education in her native 
 State, where for one year she was a very acceptable 
 teacher. Socially she is prominent in Meriden and 
 i-; a member of the organization of tht Daughters 
 of the American Revolution, and has served on the 
 official board of Ruth Hart Chapter. To Mr. and 
 Mrs. Parker has been born one daughter, Mabel 
 Claire, who has been educated very thoroughly, first 
 in Meriden and then in Wilbraham, Mass. Mr. 
 Parker is a member of the Home Club, the Royal 
 Arcanum and the A. O. U. W., of Meriden. As a 
 Republican he has long been prominent, and has 
 represented the third ward in the city council, served 
 two years as alderman, being on the committees on 
 License and Claims, of which latter he served as 
 chairman, and for two years was clerk of the Police 
 committee. The family attend the Methodist 
 Church. By his pleasant, genial manner, good judg- 
 ment and wise discrimination, Mr. Parker has won 
 his way to the front in his business and enjoys not 
 only the high esteem of his employers, but also the 
 respect and affection of those over whom he is 
 placed. 
 
 GEORGE C. PETTIS, treasurer of the Hogg- 
 son & Pettis Mfg. Co., manufacturers of "chucks" 
 and a large variety of small machinery in New Ha- 
 ven, and also interested in several other manufac- 
 turing concerns and enterprises, was born in 
 Plymouth, March 8, 1833. 
 
 George Pettis, his father, was born in Westville, 
 Conn., where he spent his life engaged in farming, 
 dying at Terryville at the age of fifty-two. He mar- 
 ried Sally Ford, a native of Thomaston, Conn., 
 where her father lived before the founding of that 
 city. Seth Thomas, of the famous clock company, 
 bought the ground from him on which to build the 
 clock factory. Of the three children born to George 
 and Sally Pettis, two are now living: George C., 
 whose name appears at the head of this sketch ; and 
 
576 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Jane E., wife of Solomon Palmer, of Torrington. 
 Mrs. Pettis died at the age of sixty-seven. She 
 was long a devout member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 George C. Pettis was reared at Plymouth Hill, 
 where he received a very fair education. He early 
 learned the machinist trade in the Eagle Lock Works 
 at Terryville. When he was twenty-one he came 
 to New Haven to enter the employ of the Davenport 
 Mallory Lock Co., and remained there four years. 
 In 1858 he took up contracting work with the Rus- 
 sell Irwin Co., at New Britain, where he remained 
 seventeen years, at the expiration of that time com- 
 ing to New Haven to enter the employ of the firm 
 with which he is still associated. Four years later 
 he formed a partnership with Mr. Hoggson, and the 
 business was converted into a stock concern. The 
 patronage of the firm has been greatly increased of 
 late years, and they now have a large number of men 
 on their pay rolls, filling many orders from far 
 away, even from Japan and China. The plant is 
 ■fitted up with the latest machinery, turns out a great 
 variety of products of interesting construction. 
 
 Mr. Pettis was married in 1854 to Emily N. 
 Welton, a native of Plymouth, and a daughter of 
 Selden Welton, a clockmaker in Terryville, who 
 had four children, three of whom are living. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Pettis have three children : Jennie is the 
 wife of Dr. W. W. Hawks, of New Haven. Beulah 
 married William Beckley, of New York City, and 
 has had two children, Gertrude and Margaret. Clin- 
 ton is connected with his father in business. Mr. 
 Pettis is a Republican, and while in Terryville held 
 various local positions. In New Britain he also took 
 an active part in political affairs, filling different 
 offices and was a man of prominence. In the mem- 
 bership rolls of the New Haven Union League 
 Club the name of Mr. Pettis appears as a charter 
 member. He is a member of Post No. 20, G. A. R., 
 the Masonic fraternity and several social orders. 
 With his family he attends Trinity Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 MICHAEL P. RICE, general contractor and 
 proprietor of a large livery and feed stable, Bran- 
 ford, is a native of that town, born Dec. 23, 1866. 
 
 Mr. Rice is the seventh son of the late Edward 
 Rice, who came to this country from Glanworth, 
 County Cork, Ireland, in 1848, being then a lad of 
 sixteen years. He first located in Albany, N. Y., 
 and there worked at the trade of cooper with his 
 brother, James Rice (now deceased), of Newark, 
 N. J., later securing employment in a lock factory in 
 Albany. He and the late Alexander Van Wie were 
 brought to this town by the late Thomas Kenned)^ 
 when the lock works were purchased by him, and 
 Mr. Rice remained as an employe of the factory for 
 the long period of thirty-five years, proving himself 
 a skilled and competent workman. At one time 
 he was offered the superintendency of the works, 
 but declined, as he did not care to assume the re- 
 sponsibility attached to the position. In 1856, at 
 
 New Haven, Conn., in St. Patrick's Church, Mr. 
 Rice was married, by Rev. Father Hart, to Miss 
 Ellen Pleelon, of Limerick, Ireland, and eleven chil- 
 dren — nine sons and two daughters^ — were born to 
 them, eight of whom are yet living. The father 
 died Aug. 3, 1888, the mother surviving him. 
 
 Michael P. Rice, whose name opens these lines, 
 received his education in the public schools, but 
 when very young, commenced work in the lock fac- 
 tory, rather than attend school. He learned the 
 trade of polishing, at which he earned good wages, 
 and by his thrift and economy he saved sufficient 
 money to purchase a horse and buggy, which he 
 let to his friends, continuing with his employment 
 in the factory. He prospered gradually, and later^ 
 in 1886, he formed a partnership with John T. 
 Carey and started a small livery stable in the rear 
 of the "Griswold House." The partners continued 
 to work in the factory and hired help to run the 
 business. Later Mr. Rice purchased his partner's 
 interest in the concern and built a stable on the land 
 owned by his father, at the foot of Veto street. The 
 business grew so rapidly that Mr. Rice purchased 
 adjoining property on all sides, and built on eight 
 different additions to his building, until to-day he is 
 proprietor of probably the finest equipped stable of 
 any town in New England. In addition to his liv- 
 ery business Mr. Rice engaged in contracting in 
 1894, and formed a partnership with J. T. Slineyv 
 under the firm name of Rice & Sliney. Included in 
 the work done by them is the excavating, supplying 
 of stone, and carting of the material used in the con- 
 struction of the Blackstone Library; also the ap- 
 proaches and tunneling of the three railroad bridges 
 on Kirkham, Rogers and Montowese streets, ex- 
 cepting the south approach of the Kirkham street 
 bridge. On the completion of the library the part- 
 nership was dissolved by mutual consent, each mem- 
 ber branching out for himself. In 1898 Mr. Rice 
 bid for and was awarded the contract for putting in 
 the water system in Branford, which included the 
 laying of about ten miles oif pipe. This contract 
 was completed to the full satisfaction of the Water 
 Company, and his reputation as a contractor was 
 then established. 
 
 In October, 1889, when Mr. Rice was entering 
 into his twenty-fourth year, he was nominated for 
 the office of first selectman by the Democratic party 
 and was 'elected by a majority of six votes. The office 
 he held for four consecutive years. During his ad- 
 ministration many improvements in the town were 
 ■made by him, among them being the removal of 
 the immense ledge on West Main street, and grading 
 of twelve feet on Mill Hill. He was greatly compli- 
 mented for this work by both press and public. The 
 debt of the town was reduced by him to such an 
 extent that during his second term the tax was re- 
 duced from twelve to six mills, and during his ad- 
 ministration it was never higher than ten mills. In 
 1894 he was again nominated for the office by his 
 party, but was defeated by C. H. Wilford, his op- 
 
^ y 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 S77 
 
 ponent on the Republican ticket. He was later 
 elected on the board of burgesses of the borough. 
 In 1899 Mr. Rice was again nominated for the 
 office of first selectman by the Democratic party, 
 and was elected by twenty-five majority in the face 
 of a Republican majority of one hundred and 
 twenty-five, which speaks well for his record as a 
 "town father," as well as for his popularity. He 
 was again elected in 1900 and in 1901, and he is 
 now serving his seventh term. On the organization 
 of the fire department he was elected chairman of 
 the board of fire commissioners, which office he still 
 holds. Mr. Rice was also elected a member of the 
 board of directors of the Branford Savings Bank, 
 of which he was one of the incorporators, and 
 served three years with that body. 
 
 Mr. Rice is now thirty-five years of age and one 
 of the successful young business men of the town, 
 he having accumulated considerable property and 
 an immense amount of stock in his stables. In re- 
 ligion our subject is of the Catholic faith, and a 
 regular communicant of St. Mary's Church, to 
 which, during its construction, he liberally contrib- 
 uted. 
 
 JOEL M. BRADLEY, a well known citizen and 
 a representative member of the contracting and 
 building interests of New Haven, Conn., is located 
 at No. 182 Grand avenue. Mr. Bradley was born 
 in East Haven, Conn., June 7, 1834, a son of Jesse 
 C. and Cynthia (Munger) Bradley. 
 
 Joel C.Bradley, his grandfather, was born in East 
 Haven, and there pursued an agricultural life, dying 
 at the age of eighty-three years. In politics he was 
 a Whig and took a leading part in the public affairs 
 of his time. He married Lovisa Bradley, a native 
 of the same locality, and their children were : Abram 
 Nelson ; Jesse C. ; Abagail ; Mabel ; and Amanda. 
 Both Joel C. Bradley and his wife were members 
 of the Congregational Church, in which he served 
 as sexton. 
 
 Jesse C. Bradley was read in East Haven and 
 attended the public schools of that section, later be- 
 coming an engineer and receiving promotion in his 
 line until he became a foreman. In the latter ca- 
 pacity he acted both at stationary engines and. as en- 
 gineer on the boats plying between New Haven and 
 New York. Through a long life, which reached 
 to his eighty-third year, he was well known in his 
 department. In politics he was a Democrat. He 
 married Cynthia Munger, a daughter of Bela Mun- 
 ger, a farmer by occupation, and a deacon in the 
 Congregational Church in Madison, Conn.; her 
 mother, Mrs. Munger, lived to the advanced age of 
 eighty years. The children born of this union were 
 as follows: John L., Joel M., Nelson J., James K., 
 and Stephen J., who survived, the others dying 
 in infancy ; the mother passed out of Hfe at the age 
 of thirty-six. Jesse C. Bradley was a constant and 
 consistent attendant of the Presbyterian Church, as 
 
 was also his wife. 
 37 
 
 Joel M. Bradley was reared in East Haven and 
 remained there until his tenth year, going then to 
 North Haven where he lived for three years. For a 
 life occupation he selected the carpenter trade, to 
 which he appUed himself closely at Falls Village, 
 working for four years after as a journeyman. In 
 1861 he entered into contracting, and he has contin- 
 ued in this line ever since, having previously made a 
 reputation in Fair Haven as a builder of fine resi- 
 dences. There and in East Haven he is regarded as 
 the leader in his line, and he is one of the oldest in 
 the business in New Haven. His work covers a 
 wide territory and necessitates the employment of 
 a large force of skilled workmen. 
 
 Mr. Bradley was married on Jan. 12, i860, to 
 Miss Ellen L. Forbes, a daughter of Bela Forbes, 
 extended mention of the Forbes family being found 
 in another part of this volume. This union has been 
 blessed with one daughter, Cynthia May, who mar- 
 ried Lauren Humiston, who was born in Cheshire,, 
 a son of Frank T. Humiston, and one daughter,. 
 Lila May, has brightened their home ; they live in 
 New Haven. Mr. Humiston is employed by the Ives 
 Investment Co., a sketch of this company being" 
 found in another part of this volume. Frank T.. 
 Humiston, who in earlier life was a keg manufac- 
 turer, conducted the same business in Fair Haven 
 for a time, and then entered the employ of Warren. 
 Crawford, an undertaker and furniture dealer, re- 
 tiring nine years later to Cheshire, where he died,. 
 at the age of fifty-eight years. He married Miss- 
 Ellen Lounsbury, also of Cheshire, their only child 
 being Lauren Humiston, the son-in-law of Joel M^ 
 Bradley. 
 
 In politics Joel M. Bradley is a Gold Democrat,, 
 taking an active interest in public affairs. While a 
 resident of Fair Haven he was a borough officer, but 
 his business interests in New Haven have given himi 
 little time for politics. Fraternally he belongs to the 
 Adelphi Lodge, No. 63, A. F. & A. M., has been; 
 an official in all the Masonic bodies, and is also a 
 member of the Golden Eagle order. The religious 
 home of the family is in the Episcopal Church, 
 where they are held in high esteem. 
 
 PETER A. LUNDQUIST, a well known stone- 
 mason and successful contractor of Stony Creek, is. 
 one of Branford's noted Swedish citizens. Born 
 in Fogdo., Sweden, May 27, 1846, he is a son of 
 John and Anna B. (Lindstrom) Lundquist, and was 
 reared on the farm, receiving a limited education 
 in the local schools. For three years he was an 
 apprentice at the baker's trade, which was his occu- 
 pation for some months afterward in Stockholm, 
 Sweden. 
 
 Mr. Lundquist crossed the ocean in 1872, and 
 worked in the State of New York for about nine 
 months, the following year coming to Connecticut 
 and locating at Leete's Island, where he learned the 
 stone cutter's trade, which was his occupation for 
 five years. He then removed to Stony Creek, which. 
 
57S 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 has ibeen his home up to the present time. Here 
 he has learned the trade of stone mason, which has 
 been his business in connection with contracting 
 and building of docks and bridges, culverts and sim- 
 ilar constructions ; cellar work, as well as other stone 
 work connected with stone masonry ; and well sink- 
 ing and grading. 
 
 Mr. Lundquist was married in 1874 to Mrs. 
 Sophia Johnson, of Sweden, who has one daughter 
 by a former marriage, Lina, now Mrs. Robert 
 Davis, in California. Mr. Lundquist is an adherent 
 of the Lutheran Church, and is enrolled in Widows 
 Sons Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M. In politics he 
 is a Republican. Since coming to this country he 
 has achieved a marked success, and is numbered 
 among the leading men of the town at the present 
 day. 
 
 WILLIAM A. KNOWLES, who for some thir- 
 ty-two years has been in the employ of the Holmes, 
 Booth & Hayden Mfg. Co., Waterbury, is a native 
 of Connecticut, born Nov. 15, 1844, in Farmington, 
 Hartford county. 
 
 Henry S. Knowles, his grandfather, was born 
 of English ancestry in Bristol, R. I., where he fol- 
 lowed agricultural pursuits, thence late in life came 
 to Connecticut, and died in East Hartford, where 
 his remains were interred. He married in Rhode 
 Island and there reared a family of six children : 
 Samuel, who lived and died in New Britain, Conn. ; 
 Augustus, who was a mechanic in Farmington, 
 Conn., and in Long Island ; Eliza, who married 
 Harry Cadwell and lived on a farm in Farmington ; 
 Mary Ann, who was blind, and died unmarried ; 
 Jane, who married a Mr. Powell, a mechanic, and 
 lived in New Britain, Conn. ; and William H., a 
 sketch of whom follows. 
 
 William H. Knowles, father of our subject, and 
 a farmer by occupation, was born in Bristol, R. 
 I., removed thence to Connecticut, and died in the 
 town of Farmington, Hartford county. He married 
 Julia Hazard, a native of Avon, Conn., and seven 
 children were born to them : Mary, wife of Ed- 
 ward Converse, died in Collinsville, Hartford 
 county ; Frances married John Alcott, of Thomas- 
 ton, Conn. ; Julia married (first) William Robertson, 
 of Torrington, and (second) a Mr. Beckwith ; Isa- 
 bella married Lucius Leonard, a tailor in Litchfield, 
 Conn., and died in Torrington; William A. is the 
 subject of this sketch; Alice married C. Hoffman, 
 and lives in Thomaston, Conn. ; Ella died unmarried. 
 
 William A. Knowles was four years old when 
 his parents removed from Farmington to a farm 
 in Burlington, and there the family made their 
 home some six years, at the end of that time return- 
 ing to Farmington. In these towns and in Thom- 
 aston, Litchfield county, our subject received a lib- 
 eral common school education, and in 1861, then 
 seventeen years old, he took up his residence in 
 the city of Hartford, where he worked for a short 
 time in Colt's Armory, thence removing once more 
 
 to Farmington. After an interval, during which 
 Mr. Knowles was- married, he made his home in 
 Thomaston, where he was employed in the Plymouth 
 quarry until the year 1864, when he came to Wat- 
 erbury and entered the employ of the Holmes, 
 Booth & Hayden Mfg. Co., learning the trade of 
 roller. In course of time he became assistant fore- 
 man of the rolling mill; since 1864 he has had en- 
 tire charge of the rolling department of the sheet 
 metal division. 
 
 On Oct. 3, 1867, in New York State, William 
 A. Knowles married Juliette Farrell, who was born 
 in the town of Waterbury, a daughter of Almond 
 and Emma (Warner) Farrell, both natives of Wat- 
 ertown. Conn. Two children have come of this 
 union: (i) Georgiana B. married George Corn- 
 stock, and lived in Waterbury, where she died in 
 January, 1899; she had two children, Harry and 
 May R. (2) Eleanor R. is also married. Mrs. 
 Knowles is a sister of Franklin Farrell, of An- 
 sonia, the largest manufacturer in the State, 
 and one of the wealthiest. She is widely known for 
 her ability as a painter and sculptress, being one 
 of the finest in the country, and has studied under 
 many of the most prominent artists in both branches, 
 including John Gibson (sculptor to Queen Victoria), 
 while in Rome, Italy, and others in New York. . Mr. 
 and Mrs. Knowles are members of St. John's Epis- 
 copal Church; in politics he is a Republican. 
 
 MRS. CHAUNCEY ATWOOD. Prominent 
 among the old residents and a lady who is held in 
 high esteem in New Haven, Conn., is Mrs. Chaun- 
 cey Atwood, the widow of the late Chauncey At- 
 wood, of this city, although his place of birth was 
 Woodbury. There his father, Stephen Atwood, was 
 also born, and there became a well known man, be- 
 ing interested in farming, also in teaching, his 
 whole life bein'g passed in that town. Will- 
 iam Atwood, the grandfather of the late Chaun- 
 cey Atwood, was a carpenter in Woodbury, where 
 he followed his trade and died at the age of fifty 
 years. 
 
 Chauncey Atwood was reared in Woodbury, and 
 was one of the leading agriculturists of Litchfield 
 county^ owning a large and valuable estate. For 
 a long period he was town assessor and was promi- 
 nent in public affairs. His marriage to our subject 
 took place in 1892. His death occurred at the age of 
 seventy-eight years. In her maidenhood Mrs. At- 
 wood was Mary J. Summers, and she was a daugh- 
 ter of David and Sarah M. (Upson) Summers, of 
 Woodbury, the former being a farmer of that lo- 
 cality, the latter being the only daughter bom to 
 her parents. Three children were born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Summers, of whom Mrs. Atwood is the only 
 survivor. The mother died at the age of eighty- 
 three years. Both she and her husband were mem- 
 bers of the Congregational Church. Mrs. Atwood 
 was born in Woodbury and there grew to young 
 womanhood. She first married Watson C. San- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 579 
 
 ford, of Roxbury, who was a drover and also a 
 carpenter, well known in his neighborhood. Three 
 children were born of this union, the only survivor 
 being Lillian A., who married J. H. Allen, a harness 
 manufacturer, and has three children — Howard San- 
 ford, who is a student of medicine at Yale College, 
 class of 1904; Arthur S., a resident of Woodbury; 
 and Marion F. 
 
 After the death of Mr. Sanford his widow 
 wedded George Atwood, a farmer and prominent 
 citizen of Watertown, Conn., where he was well 
 known in civic affairs, having served as selectman, 
 and in other ways showed himself as a progressive 
 and substantial citizen. The third marriage of Mrs. 
 Atwood was to the late Chauncey Atwood. She has 
 lost one son, Stephen Upson, who was a successful 
 traveling salesman, and who died at Russell, Kans., 
 at the age of twenty-two. Mrs. Atwood is a lady 
 who is highly esteemed for her many charming traits 
 of character, her charity and kind neighborliness, 
 and she is a consistent member of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Woodbury. 
 
 GEORGE CARTER LINSLEY is a well known 
 and highly esteemed citizen of North Branford, New 
 Haven county, whose entire life has been passed 
 in that town, where he is now successfully engaged 
 in agricultural pursuits upon the old homestead, 
 and where he was born Jan. 24, 1842. 
 
 Like a large number of the present residents of 
 New England, and especially of the Nutmeg State, 
 the Linsley family can trace their origin to England. 
 Two brothers, John and Francis Linsley, came from 
 that country, first locating in Branford, where 
 Francis married Sarah Culpepper. Later he re- 
 moved to New Jersey, and present residents of the 
 name in the central part of that State claim to have 
 sprung from this pioneer couple. John Linsley died 
 in Branford, where he passed the greater part of 
 his married life, though for a short time he lived in 
 Guilford. His eldest son, John, died when com- 
 paratively a young man. The latter's son, John, 
 had two sons, John and Joseph. Of these, John 
 Linsley wedded Mary Harrison, of North Branford, 
 where he had located upon reaching his majority. 
 Records show that he administered his grandfa- 
 ther's (John 2) estate, this leading us to conclude 
 that the family were property holders in both Bran- 
 ford and North Branford. He had several children, 
 including Rufus, the great-grandfather of the sub- 
 ject of this sketch, who was born in North Branford, 
 and there engaged in farming throughout life. 
 
 Solomon Linsley, the grandfather of George C, 
 was born Nov. 13, 1784, and died at the age of six- 
 ty-eight years. On Sept. 15, 1807, he married Irene 
 Stilson, of Litchfield county, Conn., who was born 
 March 23, 1782, and died June 25, 1868. Their 
 children were as follows: Edward Alonzo, born 
 Jan. 30, 1809; Mary Flavia, born Nov. 26, 1810, 
 married Philetus Montague; Abigail Rebecca, born 
 July 20, 1813, married Jonathan Foote; Floratio 
 
 Yale, born June 12, 1815, died in infancy; Eunice 
 Stilson, born June 26, 1816, married Henry Plum- 
 bly; Elizabeth, born Aug. 7, 1819, married George 
 Walker ; Irene, born April 28, 1822, was the wife of 
 William Young, of Middletown, Conn.; and Solo- 
 mon Harvey, born March 23, 1824, married Julia 
 Hayden. 
 
 Edward Alonzo Linsley engaged in farming in 
 North Branford throughout life, though when a 
 young man he learned the trade of axe making, and 
 when George C. was a child of six or seven years 
 he began the manufacture of those implements in 
 North Branford, continuing to engage in the busi- 
 ness until well advanced in years. He wedded Miss 
 Mary Baldwin, who was born in North Branford, 
 March 5, 1814, daughter of Josiah and Rhoda (Car- 
 ter) Baldwin, and died Oct. 7, 1879. Mr. Linsley 
 departed this life in April, 1874. In their family 
 were four children; namely: Charles, who died at 
 the age of twenty-four years ; Levi, who died at the 
 age of nine years ; George C. ; and Ellen A., now 
 Mrs. Payson B. Orcutt, of North Haven. 
 
 George C. Linsley, whose name introduces this 
 sketch, was reared on the home farm, and his educa- 
 tional advantages were such as the district schools 
 of the neighborhood afforded. In early life he as- 
 sisted his father in the operation of the farm and in 
 the axe factory, but since the latter's death has de- 
 voted his energies exclusively to agricultural pur- 
 suits with good results. His political support is 
 given to the men and measures of the Republican 
 party, and for the past sixteen years he has served 
 as junior deacon in the Congregational Church of 
 North Branford. He takes a deep and commenda- 
 ble interest in everything pertaining to the public 
 welfare and has been one of the useful and valued 
 citizens of his community. 
 
 Mr. Linsley has been twice married. In Fair 
 Haven he wedded Miss Hetty Ball, who died leav- 
 ing one child, Merwin B., who died at the age of 
 twenty-one years, seven months and eleven days. 
 On June 4, 1878, Mr. Linsley was married, in North 
 Haven, to Miss Vernelia A. Smith, a daughter of 
 Ebenezer and Mary Ann (Rogers) Smith. Her 
 father was born March 17, 1802, and died Dec. 20, 
 1872. The mother was born May 18, 1817, a daugh- 
 ter of Ebenezer and Rebecca (Alunson) Rogers, 
 both descendants of old Colonial families. The 
 Rogers homestead in North Branford has been 
 owned and occupied by the family for 250 years, 
 and the old house is still in a remarkable state of 
 preservation. Mr. and Mrs. Linsley have two chil- 
 dren: Charles S., born March 6, 1883; and Ernest 
 C, born Dec. 3, 1889. 
 
 FRANK SEWARD, president of the M. Seward 
 & Son Co., manufacturers of carriage hardware, is 
 one of the best known business men in New Haven, 
 and the business he represents has been familiar to 
 the people of the city for several decades. Mr. 
 Seward was born in Hamden, Conn., Sept. 28, 1842, 
 
580 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a son of Moses Seward, the founder of the present 
 corporation. 
 
 Moses Seward was born in Durham, Conn., and 
 passed away in New Haven, in March, 1891, aged 
 seventy-six years. His boyhood was spent on a 
 farm in Durham, Conn., and early in Hfe he went 
 to WalUngford, where he found employment in a 
 blacksmith shop, and there thoroughly learned that 
 trade. He later went to New Haven and opened 
 a blacksmith shop there, in 1850 building a factory 
 on Bristol street, which was the beginning of the 
 present company, known as the JM. Seward & Son 
 Co. In 1863 the firm became M. Seward & Son, 
 and as such continued until Mr. Seward died, at 
 which time a joint stock company was formed by the 
 son, Frank Seward, and the daughters. In early 
 manhood Moses Seward married Clarissa E. Col- 
 burn, a daughter of Daniel Colburn, a foundryman 
 and iron worker in Hamden, Conn. Six children 
 blessed this union, of whom two, Ellen and Ann, 
 died in infancy. Of the others, Frank is our subject ; 
 Florence married George T. Culver, a native of 
 Wallingford, but a resident of New Haven; Kate 
 married George E. Hodson, of New Haven; and 
 Carrie married Albert L. Colburn, who was born 
 in Derby, but now makes his home in New Haven. 
 Mrs. Clarissa E. (Colburn) Seward entered into 
 rest in February, 1892. Both she and Mr. Seward 
 were faithful followers of the laws of the Methodist 
 Church. In his political faith he was a Democrat. 
 
 Frank Seward was but a child when his parents 
 removed to New Haven, so that practically his en- 
 tire life has been passed within this city. His edu- 
 cation was obtained in various private schools in the 
 city, his first efforts towards a higher education be- 
 ing gained in the school of Miss Ives and Miss Will- 
 ard, after which he was- under the careful tuition of 
 Miss Jones, and a little later the Diswell Avenue 
 School, and Gen. Palmer's school. From the school- 
 room he passed into his father's factory, and be- 
 ginning on the lowest round of the ladder began to 
 learn all the details of the business he was one day 
 to control. He paid careful attention to his work, 
 and gradually passed upward until in 1863 he was 
 admitted as a partner, and when his father's death 
 made another change necessary, he was chosen as 
 president of the joint stock company, so eminently 
 fitted was he by training and by natural ability to 
 assume charge of the extensive plant. 
 
 Mr. Seward has been twice married. His first 
 wife, Carrie Dyer, was a native of New Haven, and 
 at her death left one child, Eva L., now the wife 
 of Robert E. Peck, M. D,, of New Flaven. In 1872 
 Mr. Seward wedded his present wife, Minerva M. 
 Parmelee, a daughter of William L. Parmelee. One 
 child has been born of this union, Herbert F., who is 
 bookkeeper for his father. In public affairs Mr. 
 Seward has always taken great interest, and has 
 served his fellow townsmen in a number of offices ; 
 for one year he was councilman from his ward. 
 Fraternally he belongs to Harmony Lodge, No. 5, 
 
 I. O. O. F., and Olive Branch Lodge, Westville, F.. 
 &- A. M. ; while through his political affiliations he is 
 a member of the Republican League. Religiously he 
 is a Methodist, and is identified with the First M. E. 
 Church. 
 
 HOADLEY BRAY IVES (deceased). This is 
 one of the old historic names of New -England, and 
 has been represented in Connecticut since the settle- 
 ment of William Ives, the American ancestor of the 
 family, in the Colony as early as 1642. The various 
 descendants of this man have played a part in the 
 making of a great nation, and Hoadley Bray Ive.s 
 was no unworthy representative of the name. Mr. 
 Ives was born in North Haven, in 1814, a son of 
 William Ives, Jr., and a grandson of William Ives, 
 Sr., the latter a farmer of North Haven, v\'here 
 he spent his entire life. 
 
 William Ives, Jr., was born m North Haven, 
 and followed farming as an occupation. He died 
 when about seventy-five years old. His wife was 
 born in East Haven, and died at the age of sixty- 
 five. She became the mother of five children, of 
 whom but one, a daughter who resides in Iowa, is 
 now living. 
 
 Hoadley B. Ives was reared in North Haven, 
 and was early set to learn the tin trade, but he ran 
 away from his employer, and was employed as a. 
 clerk in a grocery in New Haven until he was nine- 
 teen. At that age he set up in the grocery business 
 on State street, and after a few years moved to- 
 Church street, and there purchased two buildings. 
 He was quite successful, and was so engaged for a 
 number of years. Mr. Ives was one of the originators 
 of the National Savings Bank, and filled a position 
 in it as treasurer as long as he lived, his period of 
 active work as treasurer and director covering some 
 twenty-five years. Mr. Ives was president of the 
 Fair Haven and Westville Street Railroad Co., and 
 saw that enterprise grow in importance until it has 
 become one of the important lines of this part of" 
 the State. His death occurred March 19, 1894. In 
 his politics he was a Republican, and for three years 
 was an alderman; eight years a member of the 
 Common Council, and he always took an active part 
 in all the affaii's of the city. He was a director of 
 the Yale National Bank, and at one time owned 
 nearly half its capital stock, being intimately asso- 
 ciated with all its important transactions. The 
 house which was his home for many years was built 
 long ago, and was recently thoroughly remodeled 
 under his widow's personal direction. 
 
 On May 25, 1853, Mr. Ives was married to Mary 
 E. Fisher, a native of the city of New York, a 
 daughter of Daniel M. and Mary (Watrous) Fisher, 
 prominent in old New York circles. Daniel m! 
 Fisher was well known in business for many years 
 in the metropolis, and died at the age of eighty 
 years. Mary (Watrous) Fisher was born in New 
 York of French Fluguenot extraction, and became 
 the mother of four children, of whom three are liv- 
 

COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 581 
 
 ^g : Mrs. Mary E. Ives ; William H., of Orange, 
 Conn. ; Anna, who married Charles Emerson. Mrs. 
 -risher died at the age of forty-one. Both she and 
 Jier husband attended the Methodist Church. Mrs. 
 Ives attends the Christ Church. 
 
 ^Irs. Ives began a tour of the world Feb. 6, 
 1895, and was away from home two and a half 
 jears. She spent one month in Ceylon, three 
 months in India, three months in Japan, and made 
 a prolonged stay in Italy, where her health was 
 much improved. In 1895 j\Irs. Ives gave $10,000 
 ,to build the chancel of Christ Church, and in 1899, 
 .before her last trip to Europe, gave $2,000 for the 
 furnishing of the new Maternity Hospital. In Au- 
 gust, 1901, she made a donation of $10,000 to the 
 Y. M. C. A. for the library, and the interest on 
 .$5,000 with which to buy books for the library, 
 this money to be given them at her death. She is 
 a woman of high character and generous spirit, 
 and possesses a host of friends in the community 
 who appreciate her good qualities. 
 
 AUGUST MASCHMEYER, one of the leading 
 German-'American citizens of Meriden and at the 
 present time a member of the General Assembly, 
 ■was born near Hildesheim, Hanover, Germany, Jan. 
 14, 1843, so'^ of Edward Maschmeyer. The father 
 ■was born in that place, and was there engaged in a 
 general mercantile business very successfully until 
 1854, in which year he disposed of his store and 
 other property and sought a home for himself and 
 family in the United States. He located in Hanover, 
 in the southern part of the town of Meriden, where 
 he was employed by the Meriden Cutlery Co., and 
 later in the Parker shops at Yalesville. At the out- 
 break of the Civil war he enlisted in Company H, 
 6th Conn. V. I., and was killed Sept. 3, 1862, by the 
 bursting of a cannon ; he was buried at Hilton Head, 
 S. C. His good qualities, industrious habits and 
 manly character won him the respect of his em- 
 ployers and all with whom he came in contact. Mr. 
 Maschmeyer never saw his wife and children after 
 his departure for the United States. He was mar- 
 ried in Hanover, Germany, to Augusta Horre, who 
 was born in the same province and was a daughter 
 of Carl Horre, surgeon. The widowed mother came 
 to this country in 1866, two years after the arrival 
 of her son, was cared for by her children until her 
 death, and was buried in the West Cemetery, Meri- 
 den. A good Christian woman, she bore her many 
 sorrows patiently and reared a good family all of 
 whom are living in this country, as follows: Au- 
 gust; Hermine, who married August Melchoir ; 
 Adolph, an engraver, of Meriden; Johanna, who 
 married Christian Fisher ; and Emilie, housekeeper 
 for August and Adolph. 
 
 August Maschmeyer .received a good education 
 in Germany, attending public and private school. 
 There he learned the trade of blacksmith, and fol- 
 lowed same until his coming to America. He was 
 six weeks on the voyage to New York, which he 
 
 made on the sailing vessel "Neptune." For about a 
 month he worked as a mechanic, securing employ- 
 ment at once through the influence of friends. Mr. 
 Maschmeyer had relatives in Yalesville, and he 
 made his way to that point, where he was employed 
 with the Meriden Cutlery Co. six years. For five 
 years he was in the Charles Parker faciory, and in 
 1877 began business as a wholesaler and retailer of 
 bottled beer and other goods. This business he car- 
 ried on very successfully for eight years, and then 
 sold out to retire from active business. 2\Ir. Masch- 
 meyer still takes an active interest in his property 
 investments, and successfully handles his own af- 
 fairs. He has a fine residence in North avenue, 
 Meriden, where he is making his home at the pres- 
 ent time. His mother was cared for there and there 
 also other members of the family have made their 
 home. 
 
 Mr. Maschmeyer was a Republican up to the 
 time of Horace Greeley, and since that time has 
 been a Democrat. In 1891 he was elected a member 
 of the Meriden city council, and is now a member 
 of the board of education and is serving his 
 second term as police commissioner. In 1900 he 
 was elected to represent Meriden in . the General 
 Assembly. Mr. Maschmeyer is highly respected in 
 the city of his adoption. At one time he was a mem- 
 ber of the German-American board of education, 
 and he is now a member of the German Aid Society. 
 He belongs to German Order Harugari and to the 
 Saengerbund. 
 
 GEORGE A. ANDREWS, a prominent agricul- 
 turist and influential citizen of Cheshire, is a worthy 
 lepresentative of one of the oldest and most highly 
 respected families of New England. The first to 
 come to America was William Andrews, a native of 
 Hampsworth, England, and a carpenter by occu- 
 pation. He was one of the fifty-three persons who 
 shipped with Capt. William Cooper on the "James," 
 of London, from Hampton, England, in April, 1635, 
 and landed in Boston, where he was made a freeman 
 the same year. He came to New Haven with Rev. 
 John Davenport and others, and built the first meet- 
 ing house there in 1644. He spent the remainder of 
 his life in this county, and died in East Haven, 
 March 4, 1676. He was twice married, the second 
 time, on Dec. 7, 1665, to Anna Gibbands, daughter 
 of William Gibbands, who was colonial secretary 
 in 1657. She died in 1701. There were six chil- 
 dren born of the first marriage, but the names of the 
 daughters are unknown. The sons were William, 
 who was born in England, and died Jan. 3, 1663; 
 Samuel, born in England in 1632, and died Oct. 6, 
 1704; and Nathan, who was born in Boston in 1638. 
 
 (II) Nathan Andrews, son of William, accom- 
 panied the family on their removal to New Haven, 
 and in 1670 was one of the first to locate in the town 
 of Wallingford, his home being on Main street, 
 where he owned a house and land. He was a good 
 citizen and an upright, honorable man, who died in 
 
582 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1712, and was buried in Wallingford. On July 26, 
 1686, he married Elizabeth jMiles, and for his sec- 
 ond wife married Hannah Gibbons. He was one 
 of tlie twelve selected to lay the foundation for the 
 church in Wallingford, and was one of its active 
 members. His children were Elizabeth, born April 
 8, 1688; Daniel and Tamar, twins, born Aug. 15, 
 1690, the former of whom died the same day, the 
 latter Jan. 11, 1727; Samuel, who was born Aug. 
 15, 1691, and died Jan. 31, 1727; Daniel; Mary; 
 Jonathan; and Abigail. There was one child by the 
 second marriage, William. 
 
 (III) Jonathan Andrews, son of Nathan, spent 
 his entire life as a farmer in Wallingford, and his 
 remains were interred there. He was an earnest, 
 consistent Christian, and a well known citizen of 
 his native town. On April 11, 1727, he married 
 Jemima Hotchkiss, and they had live children, whose 
 names and dates of birth were as follows : Abel, 
 Jan. 28, 1728; Esther, Alay 9, 1730; Mary, Jan. 14, 
 1734; Daniel, June 4, 1737; and Jemima, Nov. 24, 
 1740. 
 
 (IV) Abel Andrews, son of Jonathan, was born 
 and reared in Wallingford, and when a young man 
 came to Cheshire, where he owned land and success- 
 fully engaged in general farming and stock raising. 
 He was a hard working man and a faithful Chris- 
 tian. He died and was buried in Cheshire. He 
 was twice married, and by the first wife had one 
 child, Sarah, born Feb. i, 1744. On Feb. 10, 1759, 
 he married Letitia Williams, who also died and was 
 buried in Cheshire. By this union there were five 
 children : Samuel, Maria, Abel, Chauncey and Es- 
 ther. 
 
 (V) Abel, son of Abel, Sr., and grandfather of 
 our subject, was a life-long resident of Cheshire, 
 where he owned considerable property and exten- 
 sively engaged in farming and stock raising. He 
 was a worthy member of the Congregational Church, 
 and was a Democrat in politics. His remains were 
 interred in the old family burying ground in Chesh- 
 ire. For his iirst wife he married Electa Ashley, 
 and for the second Roxana Bunnell, widow of 
 Moses Blakeslee. By the first union there were 
 children : William ; Edward ; Maria, wife of Lem- 
 uel Rice; Horace, who died young; and Eliza, wife 
 of William J. Hubbard. Horace, the only child by 
 the second marriage, is still living in Cheshire. 
 
 (VI) William Andrews, father of our subject, 
 was born, reared and educated in Cheshire, where 
 he attended the district schools and aided in the oper- 
 ation of the home farm. On starting out in life for 
 himself he chose the occupation of farming, and 
 bought 100 acres of land in East Cheshire, known as 
 the George Stevens farm, upon which he spent the 
 remainder of his life, his time and attention being- 
 devoted principally to farming and stock raising. 
 He was a prominent Democrat of his town and held 
 several local offices, including that of selectman. 
 Religiously he was a member of the Congregational 
 Church. He died Nov. 3, 1890, at the ripe old age 
 
 of eighty-seven years, and was laid to rest in the 
 family burying ground. In East Haven he mar- 
 ried Emaline Chidsey, a native of that place and a 
 daughter of Jacob Chidsey. She, too, was a mem- 
 ber of the Congregational Church, and died in that 
 faith in July, 1878, at the age of seventy-eight years. 
 The father possessed a rich voice and was a good 
 singer in early life. His children were William H., 
 a resident of New Haven; John A., who died after 
 his return from service in the Civil war ; and George 
 A., our subject. 
 
 (VII) George A. Andrews was born April 12, 
 1841, and has spent his entire life in Cheshire, his 
 education being obtained in its district schools and 
 the Cheshire Episcopal Academy. He remained 
 with his parents upon the old homestead^ and since 
 his father's death has owned the same. He has 
 made many improvements upon the place, and has 
 always devoted his energies to agricultural pur- 
 suits. He has been twice married, his first wife be- 
 ing Emaline Tucker, daughter of Elisha Tucker, by 
 whom he had three children : Georgie Etta, de- 
 ceased; Hattie M., wife of Dr. Joseph Seager, of 
 Havre de Grace, Md. ; and Emma Louise. For his 
 second wife he married Abbie J. Potter, a native of 
 Hadley, Mass., and a daughter of Ephraim and 
 Delia (Smith) Potter, representatives of an old and 
 prominent family of that State. She is a lady of cul- 
 ture and refinement, and presides with gracious 
 dignity over her home. She is a member of the 
 Congregational Church, and of Cheshire Grange, to 
 which latter Mr. Andrews also belongs. He affili- 
 ates with the Democratic party but cares nothing 
 for the honors or emoluments of public office. He 
 and his wife are widely and favorably known and 
 have many warm friends in the community where 
 they reside. 
 
 I 
 
 ARTHUR EDWIN HOBSON, superintendent 
 of the International Silver Plating Factory at Mer- 
 iden, was born in Birmingham, England, Feb. I, 
 1857, son of Edwin Hobson, of Wallingford, Conn., 
 whose sketch appears elsewhere. 
 
 jMr. Hobson came to this country with his par- 
 ents, attended the district schools at Wallingford, 
 where they made their home, and was still a young 
 boy when he entered the factory of Simpson, Hall 
 & Miller to learn the die-sinkers trade under the 
 instruction of his father. There he continued until 
 1880 when he removed to Boston to spend a year 
 and a half at die-sinking. At the expiration of that 
 time he came tO' Meriden to follow his trade, having 
 a position in the Britannia Ware Co.'s factory. His 
 next engagement was with a silver plating factory 
 at Cromwell, where he spent three years. On going 
 to I. J. Steane & Co., New York, he became super- 
 intendent, which position -he held until the organ- 
 ization of the International Silver Co., when he was. 
 retained to fill same position in factory A. This 
 responsible position he fills with credit to himself 
 and satisfaction to the corporation. Mr. Hobson i& 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 5«3 
 
 a man of much intelligence, modest, and, like his 
 father, possesses rare ability. A self-edticated man, 
 he has attained his present position through his own 
 efforts. 
 
 Mr. Hobson was married in Wallingford in 
 1879, to Miss Hattie Church, daughter of Benjamin 
 Church. She is a lady of much culture and refine- 
 ment, and a devoted wife and mother. To them 
 has come one child, Bertha, who is a charming- 
 young woman, well educated, and possessing many 
 gifts and graces. She is at home, and is very popu- 
 lar in the social circles of her native community. 
 
 Mr. Hobson is a member of Washington Lodge, 
 No. 81, A. F. & A. M., of Cromwell, and belongs to 
 Pythagoras Chapter, and Wolcott Council, No. i, at 
 Hartford. In politics he is a Republican, though in 
 no sense a politician. He served two terms in the 
 common council at Hartford when he was in busi- 
 ness in that city. Domestic in his habits and tastes, 
 Mr. Hobson finds much delight and comfort in his 
 home. He takes much satisfaction in his automobile, 
 owning one of the three in his city. Mr. Hobson 
 is well known and much respected in the community 
 where his years are passing, as well as in Hartford, 
 and other places where he has been employed. In 
 1901 he made a trip to Europe, in which he com- 
 bined business with pleasure. 
 
 FRANKLIN E. SMITH has been engaged for 
 the last twenty-five years in the livery and sales busi- 
 ness at Waterbury, and in that time has won for him- 
 self an enviable reputation as an upright and honora- 
 ble man. As a horse dealer he has bought and sold 
 some of the best animals driven on the streets of 
 Waterbury. He is a popular man with the public, 
 and has long been favored with a good patronage. 
 Mr. Smith was born in Middlebury, Conn., April 
 25, 1S42, and Horatio N. Smith, his father, was born 
 in Naugatuck, Conn., and died in Middlebury about 
 thirty-five years ago. Elisha Smith, the grandfather 
 of Franklin E., was a native of Naugatuck, and fol- 
 lowed the avocation of a blacksmith. 
 
 Horatio N. Smith was reared in Naugatuck, 
 where he learned the trade of a blacksmith under 
 the instructions of his father, and when a young 
 man followed his trade in Middlebury. There for 
 a time he was engaged in the manufacture of car- 
 riages, but when he died was doing a straight black- 
 smith business. Maria Booth, his wife, was born 
 in Middlebury, and was a daughter of Lewis Booth, a 
 well known farmer of that community. She died in 
 1898, the mother of seven children : Frederick L. ; 
 Franklin E. ; Perry E. ; Charles B.; Horatio N. ; 
 Annie; and Emma. Frederick L. is a blacksmith 
 in Seymour, Conn. Perry is a farmer in Middlebury, 
 where Horatio is engaged in the butcher business. 
 Charles B. is dead. Annie married George Curtis 
 and lives in Torrington. Emma died unmarried. 
 
 Franklin E. Smith spent his boyhood and youth 
 on the farm in Middlebury until he reached the age 
 of nineteen years. During these years he had at- 
 
 tended the local schools and acquired a very fair 
 preparation for an active business life. At nineteen 
 he went to New Haven and drove stage to Ansonia 
 for some four years, and he was driver for a 
 bottling firm at Seymour, Conn., for five years. 
 At Woodbridge, Conn., the young man worked in a 
 hotel for a year and was in the horse business at 
 Meriden for another year. In 1875 Mr. Smith came 
 to Waterbury, and this city has been his home to 
 the present time. For some months he held the po- 
 sition of foreman in a livery barn, and in 1876 he 
 set up a livery barn for himself. In this enterprise 
 he has been highly successful, and for almost a quar- 
 ter of a century has kept one of the leading establish- 
 ments of the kind in the city. His business is that 
 of a livery, sales and boarding stable, but principally 
 he does a livery and boarding stable trade. 
 
 On Jan. 28, 1886, Mr. Smith and Mrs. Nettie 
 Umberfield were united in marriage. Mrs. Smith 
 was born in Waterbury, Conn., a daughter of Capt. 
 James Grannis. To this union no children have 
 been born. Mr. Smith is an independent in political 
 matters, and he and his wife attend) St. John's 
 Episcopal Church, to which he is drawn by ances- 
 tral ties. 
 
 LAWRENCE BRUCE. The successful career 
 of the subject of the present review is pleasant to 
 trace, as it is that of a worthy, upright and enter- 
 prising citizen, always willing on the way to lend a 
 helping hand to those more needy than himself, 
 though never more deserving. 
 
 Lawrence Bruce is a native of the Scottish High- 
 lands, born in Forgandenny, Perthshire, Scotland, 
 June 30, 1840, a son of James and Anna (Bane) 
 Bruce, the former of whom was born in Dunkell par- 
 ish, and after a whole life passed in agricultural pur- 
 suits, died in Burntisland, Fifeshire. Lawrence 
 Bruce is fourth in a family of eight children, and 
 his two brothers, Edward and James, also came to 
 the United States. Receiving only the limited 
 schooling afforded in the local schools, Mr. Bruce 
 early engaged in work on his father's farm, but the 
 family grew beyond the needs of the farm and our 
 subject sought other remunerative employment. 
 
 In 1872, while looking for something of a per- 
 manent nature, Mr. Bruce was engaged by Simon 
 Beatty to accompany a consignment of heavy draft 
 horses to Canada. Mr. Beatty was a very large im- 
 porter of these horses and young Bruce gladly ac- 
 cepted the offer, desiring, as every young and am- 
 bitious man should, to see something of the world 
 beyond the home environment. Safely making the 
 trip, he landed at Quebec, and then made his way 
 to the farming district near Toronto, where he was 
 employed for a year in agricultural work, pursuing 
 the same in the Province of Quebec for the suc- 
 ceeding four years. 
 
 In 1877 Mr. Bruce came across the border into 
 the United States and went to Jasper county, Iowa, 
 where he took charge of a large ranch, consisting of 
 
5^ 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1,240 acres, as foreman (this land being utilized as 
 a stock farm), and remained at this place some two 
 3'ears. His experience was such that he had no dif- 
 ficulty in securing his next engagement, this being 
 with James J. Webb, a large dairy farmer of Ham- 
 den, Conn., and as foreman here, with a number of 
 men and the care of seventy-five cows, iVtr. Bruce 
 remained four years, giving to Mr. Webb this faith- 
 ful service which insured the success of the model 
 farm upon which its owner prided himself. Follow- 
 ing this engagement Mr. Bruce came to North Irla- 
 ven, where he rented the Col. Warner farm, adjoin- 
 ing his present place on the north. This farm he 
 conducted until he purchased his home in 1882, with 
 four acres of land, this being locally known as the 
 Dr. Stillman place. In 1883 he added twenty-seven 
 acres to the original purchase, from the Col. War- 
 ner farm. This makes a very charming home, but 
 Mr. Bruce is so busy with his other line of work 
 that he devotes but little time to its cultivation. In 
 1881 Mr. Bruce began contracting, and is the only 
 one in his line in North Haven, and has most suc- 
 cessfully pursued it for the past twenty-one years, 
 his motto being first class work at .lowest possible 
 price, the work consisting of the building of mac- 
 adam roads, bridges, culverts, excavating, etc., and 
 his men and teams are never idle. The macadam- 
 ized road in North Haven from Old Cemetery to 
 State street, which is considered by experts to be 
 one of the finest pieces of work in the State, is an 
 example of his skill. 
 
 Mr. Bruce was marrijcd in the Province of Que- 
 bec, Canada, to Jane Duff, a native of Canada, and 
 two children have been born of this union : Jennie 
 Maud, who is a bookkeeper for the American Agri- 
 cultural Chemical Co., North Haven, Conn. ; and 
 Lawrence W., a student of civil and electrical en- 
 gineering. A stanch Republican, when approached 
 with offers of political preferment, he answers that 
 he is too busy to hold office, the only one he has con- 
 sented to fill being that of highway surveyor. So- 
 cially Mr. Bruce is connected with the North Haven 
 Grange and is a member of the Ancient Order of 
 United Workmen. His religious views are liberal, 
 and he is one of the most highly esteemed men in 
 North Haven. His word is as good as his bond, 
 and his generosity and liberality to his employes have 
 endeared him to- them all, although he is a man of 
 thorough business habits. 
 
 EDWARD THOMAS TURNER (deceased) 
 was born in Northfield, Conn., March 21, 1835. He 
 was the youngest of the eight children born to 
 Eber and Melita (Wilmot) Turner, both natives of 
 Connecticut. He spent his youth upon the farm 
 and attended the schools of his native town. Early 
 in life he learned the shoemaker's trade, but did 
 not think it profitable enough to follow, so went 
 into manufacturing at Northfield. Three years 
 later, in company with a party of several young men, 
 he started for the gold fields, but returned after be- 
 
 ing out three months. For a short time he was en- 
 gaged in the dry goods business in Plainville, and 
 in 1863 went to Waterbury, where, in company with 
 William Newton, he engaged in the same business 
 in the old Arcade building under the firm name of 
 Newton & Turner. At the end of two years, Mr. 
 Turner purchased his partner's interest, and re- 
 moved to the Lathrop block on Bank St., where his 
 business steadily increased, until it necessitated a 
 removal to more commodious quarters. According- 
 ly, in 1874, he purchased from Benedict & Burnham, 
 the building formerly occupied by them as a dry- 
 goods store, and removed to that building. The 
 firm was later known as E. T. Turner & Co., Mr. 
 FI. A. Skidmore being admitted as a'partner in 1881, 
 remaining in it until 1894, and Charles E. Turner, 
 Mr. Turner's only son, was admitted into the firm 
 in May, 1890. 
 
 Mr. Turner was president of the Fourth Na- 
 tional Bank of Waterbury, treasurer of the Con- 
 necticut Electric Company and member of its board 
 of directors. He always took a deep interest in 
 public affairs, and did much to advance the welfare 
 of the city of Waterbury. Mr.. Turner was a zeal- 
 ous Republican, and served the city as councilman 
 and alderman. He was elected in 1883 to represent 
 the Fifth district in the State Senate, and there 
 rendered efficient service as a chairman of the com- 
 mittee on Banks. Deeply interested in Masonry he 
 had been advanced to the Knig'ht Templar and 
 Scottish Rite degrees, and he was a trustee of the 
 Masonic Temple of Waterbury. 
 
 On June 4, 1856, Mr. Turner married Miss Jane 
 E. Hubbard, a native of Watertown, Conn., by 
 whom he had two children : Charles E., who mar- 
 ried Kate E. Seymour, and Edith, married to George 
 A. Ailing, of New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Turner died Dec. 2, 1891. A man of ster- 
 ling worth, he was deeply mourned in the commun- 
 ity in which 'he was so well known. 
 
 FREDERICK WUTERICH, agent for the 
 Henry Ellis Brewing Co., of New York, and bottler 
 and wholesale dealer in beer, is a well known busi- 
 ness man of Meridlen, and possesses the esteem of the 
 community. He was one of the first of his country- 
 men to locate in this city, and is prominent in many 
 successful German organizations. 
 
 Mr. Wuterich was born in the town of Mezingen 
 O. B. Urach, Wurtemberg, Germany, Feb. 29, 1837, 
 son of Jacob Frederick Wuterich, a native of the 
 same place. The latter's grandfather was a soldier 
 under Napoleon at the siege of Moscow, survived 
 that memorable campaign, and received a gold medal 
 which he cherished until his death and which is an 
 heirloom in the family. Jacob F. Wuterich was a 
 machinist by trade, operating his own shop, which 
 he successfully managed until his death, in 1852. 
 Like all the family he was a Lutheran, and was a 
 good and worthy man. He married Mary Kaechele, 
 a native of his locality and they had eight children, 
 
i~lr 
 
 ^'"i^^^<:^^t^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 585 
 
 ■all of whom have followed her to the other world 
 except three: Frederick; Katie, who married Fred- 
 erick Beerman, and resides in Webster City, Iowa; 
 and Christian, who lives in Meriden. 
 
 Frederick Wuterich received an excellent educa- 
 tion in the public schools of Germany, and engaged 
 in work in the machine shop of his father. In the 
 year following the latter's death, when only sixteen 
 years old, he left Germany, crossing the ocean in 
 the sailing vessel "Rhine," with 800 other passen- 
 gers, and landed in New York after a voyage of 
 forty days. Although a stranger in a strange land, 
 young Wuterich soon found some of his own coun- 
 trymen, and being most willing and energetic suc- 
 ceeded in finding work at his trade, remaining in 
 New York six months. On going from there to 
 Connecticut he located at Glastonbury, in Hartford 
 county, and a short time later, April i, 1854, came 
 to Tracy, in the town of Wallingford. There he 
 entered the auger factory, where he remained hard 
 at work until the outbreak of the Civil war so dis- 
 turbed business that the factory was closed. Mr. 
 Wuterich then went to Pittsburg, where he was em- 
 ployed in a gun shop, going thence to the govern- 
 ment shops in Yonkers, X. Y., and from there six 
 months later to Meriden. Here he entered the auger 
 factory of the Jennings Griffin Hardware Co., and 
 continued with that firm for a long time, being for 
 twenty-five years the foreman in the finishing de- 
 partment. He gave complete satisfaction, and left 
 -only in order to enter another business. 
 
 After closing his long and profitable connection 
 with the factory, Mr. Wuterich bought out the in- 
 terest of John Bario, bottler and wholesaler, in 
 East Main street, and conducted that business four 
 years, selling it to take charge of the "Byxbe House" 
 cafe and saloon, which, four years after, he also sold. 
 He then bought the interest of Mr. Oefinger in the 
 ■bottling and wholesale trade, and accepted the 
 agency of the Henry Ellis Brewing Co., of New 
 York, which he still conducts with excellent success. 
 
 Mr. Wuterich was one of the first German set- 
 tlers in Meriden and vicinity, and was one of the 
 prominent movers in the organization of the Ger- 
 man Mutual Aid Society, and also in the establish- 
 ment of the German schools and the Lutheran 
 Church, to all of which organizations he has 
 given largely, both of time and means, and much 
 credit is due 'him for his liberality. Before the 
 Civil war he was a Democrat, but since that 
 struggle he has been an ardent Republican, and 
 is very active in the councils of the party, hav- 
 ing unbounded influence with his fellow-coun- 
 trymen, who regard him with perfect confidence. 
 Mr. Wuterich is of a genial, social nature, and en- 
 joys membership with various clubs and orders, be- 
 ing one of the oldest members of the Elks in this 
 community; has been a member of the I. O. O. F. 
 since 1868; and is prominent in the German social 
 clubs, the Saengerbund and the Turnverein. 
 
 Mr. Wuterich's marriage took place in East 
 
 Hartford, Conn., the bride being Miss Frederika 
 Handel, who was born in Germany, daughter of 
 Philip A. Handel, a prominent farmer of East Hart- 
 ford. To this union have been born twelve children, 
 seven of whom died in infancy, the survivors being : 
 Paulina, a dressmaker by trade, married Louis 
 Schlayer, of Southington ; Emma married Stanley 
 Jarvis, of Tracy, Conn. ; Philip A. occupies the po- 
 sition of paymaster with the Charles Parker Co.; 
 Josie is a popular music teacher of Meriden; Min- 
 nie is a student at the State Norman School. Our 
 subject enjoys the esteem of the public generally, 
 and he is regarded as one of the substantial citizens 
 of Meriden, where he is respected for his public 
 spirit and his acknowledged integrity. 
 
 Philip A. Handel, Mrs. Wuterich's father, was 
 born in Wurtemberg, Germany, in 1813, son of 
 Philip Handel, a hotel proprietor and prominent man 
 in his locality. His early training was all in the 
 line of farm work. On reaching man's estate he 
 married Christina Decker, who proved a noble help- 
 meet. Accompanied by his son. Christian, and 
 daughter, Frederika, Mr. Handel came to America, 
 and the mother followed two years later, after the 
 father had found steady employment. In January, 
 1854, he went to Glastonbury, Conn., where he 
 worked for a time in a shoddy factory, and in 1856 
 he located in, Naubuc (then called Curtisville), 
 where he found employment in a spoon and spectacle 
 factory for some time. In 1857 he purchased a farm 
 in East Hartford, eight years later built the dwell- 
 ing thereon, and he also put up the barn and 
 other outbuildings that improved the place to the 
 extent of making it one of the finest in the town. 
 There he made his home until his death, Jan. i, 
 1880. In 1863 Mr. Handel made a ten months' visit 
 to his old home in Germany. In politics he was a 
 Democrat. In business, honorable, industrious and 
 upright, he left his wife and family well provided 
 for by the labors of his own hands. He was pro- 
 gressive and public-spirited, and anxious to see his 
 town well abreast of the times. His good wife, who 
 survived him but six months, bore him the follow- 
 ing children: (i) Frederika is the wife of Freder- 
 ick Wuterich, of Meriden. (2) Jacob. (3) Chris- 
 tian a well-to-do farmer of Hockanum, Hartford 
 Co., Conn., who now owns the large tobacco farm of 
 his father, P. A. Handel ; he married Paulina Wuter- 
 ich, since deceased, and has nine children, Edward, 
 Bertha, Rosa, Mary, Christian F., Albert, Pauline, 
 William and Florence. (4) Paulina is the wife of 
 Charles Sorries, of South Meriden. (5) Louise 
 married Charles Youch, of Hockanum. (6) Gott- 
 leib lives in East Hartford. (7) Emma married 
 Joseph Hirth, of Hartford. (8) Bertha. (9) Katie 
 is the wife of Benjamin Fulton, of Hartford. 
 
 CAPT. EDGAR S. DO WE has been promi- 
 nently identified with marine interests during his 
 residence in New Haven, which now covers a period 
 of over twenty-two years. Quite naturally he has 
 
586 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 also been interested in harbor facilities and im- 
 provements, and he is equally well known as harbor 
 inspector and as president of the New Haven Tow- 
 ing Company. 
 
 The Captain is a native of North Carolina, born 
 Dec. 12, 1858, on Roanoke Island, where the family 
 has long held valuable property. His grandfather, 
 William Dowe, was born in the same place, and 
 passed all his life in the cultivation of his large es- 
 tate, being one of the well known planters of that 
 section. He owned slaves, all of whom returned ta 
 him after the Civil war. William Dowe lived to 
 the age of sixty-six years. He and his wife, Alice, 
 had a family of eight children, two of whom still 
 survive, Walter (father of our subject) and Chester. 
 Three died while serving in the Civil war. j\'Irs. 
 Dowe was a member of the Baptist Church. 
 
 Walter Dowe was born on Roanoke Island, 
 where he is still living on a farm. He became a 
 sailor, was master of a vessel plying to the West 
 Indies, and followed marine life until 1 861, when 
 his vessel was used to help form a blockade, and he 
 retired from that calling. J\Ir. Dowe owned the 
 territory on which Fort Raleigh (established by Sir 
 Walter Raleigh) was located, and recently sold it 
 to a historical society. He is a Democrat, and has 
 throughout his entire life been a leader in local poli- 
 tics and public affairs generally, serving as county 
 commissioner and justice of the peace. Always a 
 great reader, he has become well informed and in- 
 creased the capabilities of a naturally intelligent 
 mind, and his services have been highly acceptable. 
 Walter Dowe married Miss Margaret Meekins, who 
 was born on Roanoke Island, one of the two chil- 
 dren of William Meekins, a farmer, who^ spent his 
 entire life there ; he died of cholera. Three chil- 
 dren came to this union, Blanche (who married 
 William Forbes, at present in the South), Edgar S. 
 and Thomas. The mother died at the age of thirty- 
 eight. She attended the Baptist Church, as does 
 also Mr. Dowe, and both were interested in the 
 work of the church, and very hospitable to its min- 
 isters. 
 
 Edgar S. Dowe passed his early life on Roanoke 
 Island, and received his education there. During 
 his youth and early manhood he began ma- 
 rine life as engineer, in which capacity he 
 was engaged three years, finally receiving 
 promotion to captain. Capt. Dowe early began tow- 
 ing, and has been engaged in that particular 
 line ever since coming to New Haven, in 
 1879. Since 1880 he has been connected with the 
 New Haven Towing Company, entering their em- 
 ploy as engineer, and two years later became cap- 
 tain. In 1882 he was made pilot, buying an interest 
 in 1887, and he- has also run the "James H. ITogan." 
 Capt. Dowe has been active in promoting every en- 
 terprise for the benefit of vesselmen, and improve- 
 ment of the harbor. He acted several years as 
 deputy harbormaster, served two years as member 
 of the board of harbor commissioners, bv appoint- 
 
 ment of the governor, and was elected inspector by 
 that board, which position he still holds, giving emi- 
 nent satisfaction in evetj' incumbency. Though in- 
 terests affecting his business have received special 
 attention, the Captain has shown himself just as 
 ready to give his time to affairs affecting the gen- 
 eral welfare of his adopted city, and his fellow citi- 
 zens have honored him by choosing him as their 
 representative more than once. He was councilman 
 from 1895 to 1898, and served a two years term as 
 alderman, during which time he was aldermanic 
 member of the board of finance three yeaft, a fact 
 which speaks highly for his judgment, ability and 
 integrity as a business man. Our subject gives his 
 political allegiance to the Democratic party. 
 
 On June 29, 188 1, Capt. Dowe married in New 
 Britain, Conn., Miss Edith Augusta Church, who 
 was born in East Haven. Her father, Daniel M. 
 Church, now deceased, was a steeple builder, and 
 put up fourteen steeples in Connecticut. Ad!rs. 
 Church is also deceased. They had a family of 
 five children, four now living: Sarah France.';, 
 widow of William H. Thompson; James, of East 
 Haven ; Allie J., wife of John P. Hemingway, of 
 New Britain, Conn. ; and Edith A., ]Mrs. Dowe, who 
 is the youngest. The Captain and his wife are 
 members of the Congregational Church at East 
 Haven, and at one time were identified with the 
 Christian Endeavor Society. Capt. Dowe is a mem- 
 ber of the New England Order of Protection. He 
 formerly affiliated with the I. O. O. F., and was a 
 member of the Engineers Association. 
 
 DRYDEN WILLIAM PHELPS. The Phelps 
 genealogy is traced as follows : (I) William Phelps, 
 son of William and Dorothy, of Tewkesbury, Glou- 
 cestershire, England, born there in 1599, with his 
 wife, Elizabeth, and six children, and his brother, 
 George, then unmarried, sailed from Portsmouth, 
 England, in the spring of 1630 in the ship "Mary 
 and John," 140 passengers, for New England, where 
 the company settled. They were the founders of 
 Dorchester, Mass. William Phelps took an active 
 part in the new settlement, and held a number of 
 offices, being several times a deputy to the General 
 Court. In the fall of 1635 he and his family, with 
 his brother George, went with the company headed 
 by Rev. Mr. Warham, and settled Windsor, Conn. 
 j\Irs. Phelps died that year, and in 1638 Mr. Phelps 
 married JMary Dover, who died Nov. 27, 1675. jNIr. 
 Phelps died in Windsor July 14, 1672, one of the 
 most prominent and highly respected men in the 
 Colony. 
 
 (II) Joseph Phelps, son of William the settler, 
 born in England about 1629, married (first) in 
 1660 Hannah Newton, who died in Simsbury. Jos- 
 eph resided in Windsor until his death, in 1684. 
 
 (HI) Joseph Phelps (2), son of Joseoh, born 
 Aug. 2, 1667, married (first) Mary Collier, born in 
 Hartford, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (San- 
 ford) Collier, and died in 1697 in Simsbury. Mr. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 587 
 
 Phelps settled in Simsbury and was one of its most 
 influential citizens, was justice of the peace many 
 years and served in the General Assembly from 1709 
 to 1727. He died Jan. 20, 1750. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Phelps (3), son of Joseph (2), born 
 Oct. 9, 1689, married (first) in 1714 Rebecca North, 
 born in 1693, who was the mother of his children, 
 and died Nov. 8, 1732. He was a farmer and set- 
 tled in Turkey Hills, near East Granby. He died in 
 June, 1763. 
 
 (V) Elijah Phelps, son of Joseph (3), born May 
 II, 1720, married Esther, born in 1718, daughter of 
 Daniel Kent, and settled in Turkey Hills. He died 
 in 1795, and his wife in 1797. 
 
 (VI) Judah Phelps, son of Elijah, born May 12, 
 1750, married in 1778 Abigail Bishop, born Aug. 
 18, 1758, settled in Suffield, and probably lived for 
 a time in Granby. He died in Suffield Oct. 6, 1818, 
 and his wife died there Dec. 17, 1845. ^'^r. Phelps 
 served in the war of the Revolution, enlisting Oct. 
 23, 1775, in the 7th Company, Capt. Abel Pettibone, 
 Col. Josiah Spencer's Regiment. 
 
 (VII) Israel Phelps, son of Judah, born Oct. 20, 
 1782, in Granby, Conn., married May 28, 1806, 
 Mercy Stevens, born Feb. 26, 1785, in Suffield, 
 Conn., a daughter of Phineas and Mercy (Root) 
 Stevens. Mr. Phelps settled in Granby, Conn., re- 
 siding there up to 1815, when he removed to Suf- 
 field, Conn., and there died Jan. 3, 1827. The chil- 
 dren born to him were : Mercy Maria, born Aug. 
 7, 1807, died July 23, 1843, unmarried; Emily, born 
 June I, 1809, married Josiah Rockwood, and died 
 March 5, 1900; Israel Cromwell, born July 3, 1811, 
 married Teresa Rising and died July 10, 1855 ; Julia 
 Ann, born April 26, 1814, married Josiah Parsons 
 Kent, and died Aug. 19, 1882 ; Rev. S. Dryden, born 
 May 15, 1816, is mentioned below; Judson Root, 
 born July 17, 1818, married Frances Lovisa Noble, 
 and died April 10, 1861 ; Newell, born Aug. 15, 1820, 
 died Sept. 16, 1822; Apollos Newell, born Aug. 2, 
 1822, married Sarah A. Ketcham, and died March 
 10, 1886. 
 
 (VIII) Rev. Sylvanus Dryden Phelps, D. D., 
 the fifth child of Israel and Mercy Phelps, was a 
 man of great prominence and was closely identified 
 with educational as well as theological matters 
 throughout Connecticut. Mr. Phelps taught the 
 Connecticut Literary Institution at Suffield, Conn., 
 and in the academy of Southwick, Mass. After be- 
 ing graduated from Brown University he pursued 
 the study of theology, and was graduated from the 
 Yale Divinity School in 1847, receiving his license 
 to preach, however, in 1840. After supplying the 
 First Baptist Church in New Haven for about a 
 year he was ordained pastor there, Jan 21, 1846, 
 a relation that closed Dec. 7, 1873. During 1874-76 
 he was pastor of the Jefferson Street Church, in 
 Providence, R. I. In 1876 he became editor and pro- 
 prietor of the Christian Secretary, which was pub- 
 lished in Hartford, Conn., continuing so for twelve 
 years; and also published several books of poems 
 
 and other literary works. He spent some time trav- 
 eling abroad through the Holy Land, Egypt and the 
 East, in connection with which he published "The 
 Holy Land, with Glimpses of Europe and Egypt, A 
 Year's Tour." In 1879 Rev. Dr. Phelps became a 
 trustee of Brown University, from which he had 
 graduated in 1844. Finally he returned to New 
 Haven, living at No. 44 High street, where he died 
 Nov. 23, 1895. He married Sophia Emilia Linsley, 
 a native of Stratford, Conn. Their children were 
 all born in New Haven, as follows : Sophia Lyon, 
 born May 24, 1848, died Feb. 21, 1871, unmarried. 
 Dryden William, born March 16, 1854, was 
 educated at Yale College ; was licensed to preach in 
 1876; graduated from Brown University in 1877; 
 passed two years in the Hartford Theological Sem- 
 inary, and for several years was assistant editor of 
 the Christian Secretary, published by his father ; 
 on Feb. 16, 1887, he was settled over the Baptist 
 Church of Wilmington, Vt. ; graduated from the 
 Yale Divinity School in 1892, and now resides in 
 New Haven. James Linsley, the third child of 
 Rev. Mr. Phelps, was born April 8, 1856, and died 
 Jan. 27, i860. Arthur Stevens, born Jan. 23, 1863, 
 married Blanche Stroud ; graduated from Yale Col- 
 lege in 1886, and from the Yale Divinity School in 
 1889; was ordained June 5, 1890, in Colorado. Will- 
 iam Lyon, born Jan. 2, 1865, married Annabel Hub- 
 bard, and now resides in New Haven, being a pro- 
 fessor in Yale University, from which he was grad- 
 uated B. A. with the class of 1887, receiving the 
 degree of Ph. D. in 1891, the same day that of M. 
 A. was bestowed upon him by Harvard. 
 
 Mrs. S. Dryden Phelps is a lady of culture and 
 refinement, and in early life published an able and 
 touching memoir of her father, Rev. James H. Lins- 
 ley. 
 
 WILLIAM LOUNSBURY, the genial proprie- 
 tor of the "Owenego House,'' at Indian Neck, one 
 of the most popular summer resorts on Long Isl- 
 and Sound, was born in Branford Nov. 10, 1843, a 
 son of David and Ann (Spencer) Lounsbury. His 
 paternal grandparents were Calvin and Betsy Louns- 
 bury, of Bethany, Conn. His maternal grandparents 
 were Belah and Polly (Bradley) Spencer, of Bran- 
 ford. 
 
 David Lounsbury was born in Bethany in July, 
 "181 5, and for some fifty-three years was a resident 
 of Branford. He first began taking boarders at In- 
 dian Neck in what is now the "Annex" of the "Ow- 
 enego House," in 1847, but the demand was so great 
 for accommodations that in 1867 he put up a much 
 larger house, the "Owenego," from the name of a 
 son of an Indian chief locally celebrated. Mr. Louns- 
 bury continued in this business until his death, in 
 1898. William Lounsbury was associated with his 
 father for a period of twenty-six years, beginning 
 with 1867, and since his father's death, has con- 
 ducted the business very successfully alone. 
 
 This well known summer resort was among the 
 
588 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 very first buildings to be used for the purpose. It 
 is located at the point where the Sound reaches its 
 widest dimensions, and looking south there is a fine 
 view of Long Island Sound, with Thimble Island 
 in the distance, while to the north is obtained a fair 
 view of the country, with its inviting roads for cy- 
 cling and driving. Indian Neck is fast becoming one 
 of the most popular summer resorts on the coast. 
 The hotel is noted for its fine location, pleasant 
 rooms and superb table. 
 
 Mr. Lounsbury has been a life-long resident of 
 Indian Neck. He was educated in the public schools 
 and in Branford Academy. Reared in the hotel busi- 
 ness, he is a master of its every detail, the knowl- 
 edge having come to him by practical experience, and 
 its possession, together with his genial and courteous 
 manner toward his guests, makes the "Owenego" 
 one of the most popular resorts of the present day. 
 
 Mr. Lounsbury has been twice married, the first 
 time in November, 1873, to Elizabeth Palmer, who 
 died June 2, 1886. On Feb. 26, 1891, he married 
 Bertha M., a daughter of Elizur and Abigail (Hos- 
 ley) Johnson, of Branford. Mr. Lounsbury belongs 
 to the N. E. O. P., and is also a Mason, being en- 
 rolled in the Widows Sons Lodge, No. 66, and his 
 genial ways endear him to members of the frater- 
 nit}- ; in politics he is a Republican. 
 
 BEACH. The name of Beach has been a 
 familiar one in the manufacturing annals of New 
 Haven county for many years. Andrew Yale Beach 
 and Sharon Dayton Beach, of the S. Y. Beach Paper 
 Co., of Seymiour, trace their descent from David 
 and Ann Yale, who came from England to America 
 in 1637, settling in New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 Thomas Yale, their son, born in 1616, in England 
 or Wales, came with his parents to New Haven. In 
 1645 he married Mary Turner, and they had a 
 family of nine children, of whom Capt. Thomas 
 Yale, born in 1647, i'l New Haven, married three 
 times, and had eight children, one being named 
 Nathaniel. Nathaniel Yale, born Dec. 31, 1702, 
 married Ruth Bishop, of New Haven, and (second) 
 Thankful Bassett, on Jan. 15, 1728-29, and had four 
 children: Mary, born Dec. 17, 1729; Nathaniel 
 James, born July 31, 1731 ; Nathaniel, born Aug. 
 29, 1732 ; and Rebecca, born Oct. 9, 1737. Of these 
 Mary Yale married Capt. Jonathan Dayton, of 
 North Haven, Conn., and they had children, as fol- 
 lows : One that died when young, Thankful, Jona- 
 than, Nathaniel, Cornelius, Mary, Bezaleel, Miriam, 
 Bedotha and Darlin. Of these, 
 
 Mary Dayton, born Sept. 4, 1765, died March 
 18, 1829. She married Giles Beach, of North Haven, 
 and they had eleven children, namely: (i) Beda, 
 born April i, 1790, married Samuel Hemingway, of 
 East Haven, and died at the age of ninety-nine years 
 and four months. (2) Ancey, born March 5, 1792, 
 died Oct. I, 1794. (3) Joseph Dayton, born Jan. 8, 
 1/1)4, married Julia Curtis, of Sharon, Conn., and 
 had five children, Dayton, Curtis (deceased at the 
 
 age of seventeen years), Franklin, David and Lor- 
 enzo. (4) Amelia, born Oct. 6, 1795, died same 
 day. (s) Benjamin Hubbard, born Sept. 21, 1796, 
 died Oct. 7, 1855; he served in the war of 1812; he 
 married Hannah Shannard, of New Marlboro, 
 Mass., and t'hey had children — twins, born and died 
 Aug. 17, 1826; a son, born andi died Nov. 27, 1828; 
 John Francis, born May 20, 1831; a son, born and 
 died Sept. 4, 1835 ; and Mary Jennett, born May 28, 
 1838, who married Oct. 2, 1855, William A. Dixon, 
 of New Boston, 111. (6) and (7) twins, born Feb. 
 II, 1799, died Feb. 26, 1799, and March 4, 1799, re- 
 spectively. (8) Mary, born Jan. 11, 1800, died 
 April 19, 1809. (9) Abraham, born Dec. 24, 1801, 
 died Aug. 23, 1832 ; he married Rfioda Dorathy, of 
 Fair Haven, Conn., and they had two sons — Henry, 
 who died in 1832, when six years old; and Cyrus, 
 living in Fair Haven, Conn. (10) Ancey, born 
 June I, 1805, died in 1887 in North Haven, Conn. 
 (11) Sharon Yale, born ^lay 21, 1809, died March 
 ly, 1899; he married, Oct. 4, 1832, Adeline Sperry, 
 and had c'hildren : George W., Andrew Y., Emeline 
 E., Stiles D., Sharon D., and Theodore B. George 
 W. is president of the S. Y. Beach Paper Co., and 
 Theodore B. is secretary of that concern. 
 
 Andrew Y. Beach, born Oct. 27, 1836, in the 
 village of Humphreysville, town of Derby, New 
 Haven county, was first engaged with his father in 
 the paper making business at Seymour, under the 
 name of S. Y. Beach, from 1852 to 1856, and then 
 entered the employ of the Hartford & New Haven 
 Railroad Co., as clerk at Springfield, Mass. In 1858 
 he left this position to accept that of agent 
 at Naugatuck, Conn., for the Naugatuck Railway 
 Co., but soon thereafter moved to Seymour, and 
 again entered his father's employ in the paper mills. 
 In 1 861 he became agent for the Naugatuck Rail- 
 way Co. at Seymour ; in 1867 he was appointed gen- 
 eral ticket agent for the same company, with office 
 at Bridgeport, but resigned in November, 1872, to 
 accept the position as agent at Springfield, Mass., 
 for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- 
 way Co. This he continued to hold until July i, 
 1887, when he resigned, owing to impaired health 
 through hard work, and returned to Seymour. He 
 is again interested in the S. Y. Beach Paper Co., of 
 which he is now vice-president, and he is also en- 
 gaged in the coal, grain and grocery business. 
 
 Mr. Beach is a stanch Republican in politics, and 
 while a resident of Springfield, was elected to the 
 board of aldermen three terms, president of the 
 board in 1886. For six years he has been trying 
 justice at Seymour, now serving his fourth term in 
 this office. In religious faith he is a Congregation- 
 alist, and chairman of the Church Society, being a 
 power in the work of that society. 
 
 In 1857 Andrew Y. Beach was united in mar- 
 riage with Mary Cordelia Woodford, of Springfield. 
 Mass., a daughter of Benjamin Barber Woodford, 
 one of the first agents there for the Hartford & New 
 Haven Railroad (1856-1862). To this union was 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 5i 
 
 born one child, Addie, wife of Gustav J. Faber, of 
 Seymour, and they have three children, Frederick 
 Woodford, Mary Alice and Margery. Mrs. Mary C. 
 Beach died Dec. 17, 1885, and on March 17, 1888, 
 Mr. Beach married Mrs. Alice M. (Hilton) Spencer, 
 a native of Seymour, and a daughter of John and 
 Maria (Molthrop) Hihon. Mrs. Beach had two 
 children by 'her first marriage, Lewis H. and Otis 
 G. Spencer, both of whom are married and live in 
 New Haven. 
 
 Sharon Dayton Beach was born Nov. 23, 
 1849, i'^ the village of Humphreysville, town of 
 Derby, New Haven county, and since leaving school 
 has been engaged in the paper business established 
 by his father in 1843. Since 1880 he has been man- 
 ager and treasurer of the concern, which is known 
 as the S. Y. Beach Paper Co. The firm manufac- 
 ture colored paper almost exclusively ; it i& shipped 
 to all parts of the United States, and there are no 
 two paper makers that use the "stock" in the same 
 way. Mr. Beach is a stock-holder in the Valley 
 National Bank, of Seymour, and in the New Haven 
 County National Bank, of New Haven. 
 
 On his 2ist birthday, Nov. 23, 1870, Sharon D. 
 Beach married Mary E. Rider, a native of Sey- 
 mour, and a daughter of Stephen R. and Mary 
 (Meeker) Rider, the former of whom was from 
 Danbury, and the latter from Reading. Three chil- 
 dren have graced their union, viz. : Sharon M., 
 Ralph S. and J. Mabel, both sons being employed 
 in the paper mill of which their father is manager. 
 Sharon M. married Eva Gray, and they have one 
 son, Albert Gray, born July 16, 1898. 
 
 Fraternally Sharon D. Beach is a member of 
 the F. & A. M., Morning Star Lodge, No. 47, Sey- 
 mour, and of Mount Vernon Chapter, No. 35, An- 
 sonia; is also affiliated with the L O. R. M., Non- 
 nawauk Lodge, No. 9, Seymour; with the A. O. 
 U. W. Lodge, No. 60 (of which he has been "re- 
 ceiver") ; and with the N. E. O. P., No. 100, Sey- 
 mour. Mr. Beach and his wife are both members 
 of the Order of the Eastern Star. Politically he is 
 a Republican, and for the last two years has been a 
 member of the board of relief. He has been offer- 
 ed other offices, but always declined, having no 
 desire for political preferment. 
 
 CHARLES MERRIAM WILLIAMS, the ef- 
 ficient superintendent of the Connecticut School for 
 Boys, and who for twenty and more years has been 
 a teacher in the public schools of the city, is one 
 among the leading educators of the State. Mr. 
 Williams was born Nov. 13, 1851, in the town of 
 Rocky Hill, Conn., son of the late Deacon Thomas 
 Danforth and Mary Jane (Boardman) Williams, 
 and is a descendant of a sturdy New England an- 
 cestry. 
 
 Thomas Williams, the first of his paternal ances- 
 tors of whom we have record, bought land in Weth- 
 ersfield, Conn., in February, 1661, and in the same 
 year received a grant of twelve acres, along the 
 
 river and near the landing at Rocky Hill, where he 
 settled about 1670, and died in 1693. He is believed 
 to have been one of the very earliest settlers at 
 Rocky Hill. He and his wife, Rebecca, had ten chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Jacob Williams, son of Thomas, was born in 1664, 
 and made his home in Stepney Parish. He was a 
 sea captain and .owned a home near the landing in 
 Stepney, now Rocky Hill, and died there in 1712. 
 He married Sarah Gilbert, who was born in 1661, a 
 daughter of Josiah Gilbert, who died in 1688, and his 
 wife, Elizabeth, who was born in 1632, and died in 
 1682. 
 
 Ephraim Williams, son of Jacob Williams, was 
 born in 1690 and resided In Wethersfield, Conn., 
 where he died in 1761. He was a merchant, and 
 from 1748 until his death we have account of his 
 shipping "oynons" (onions) from Stepney to New 
 York and the West Indies, and importing sea coal 
 and products of the West Indies. He married Eliza- 
 beth Russell, born 1695, died 1765. She was a 
 great-granddaughter of John Russell, the emigrant ; 
 and also of Stephen Terry, one of the first settlers of 
 Windsor, Conn., afterward of Hadley, Mass., who 
 was married in Dorchester, Mass., about 1635, and 
 died in 1668; his daughter, Ehzabeth, born Jan. 4, 
 1641, married Jan. 10, 1665, and with her son, 
 Stephen, was slain by the Indians Sept. 19, 1677. 
 
 Elias Williams, son of Ephraim, was born in 
 Wethersfield, Conn., Feb. 10, 1718, and about 1750 
 located in Stepney Parish. Both before and during 
 the Revolution he was a man of much prominence in 
 both parishes. Fie was a member of the Board of 
 Safety of the town. In June, 1774, he was chosen on 
 the committee to receive contributions to send to 
 Boston. In the following December, he was a mem- 
 ber of another committee. In 1795, with Jacob, and 
 probably his sons Eliel and William, he owned the 
 schooner "Industry," and is sometimes spoken of 
 as a sea captain. His death occurred in Stepney 
 Parish Dec. 5, 1798. On April 29, 1742, Elias Will- 
 iams married Prudence Robbins, who was born in 
 1723, and died in 1799. She was a great-grand- 
 daughter of John Robbins, the settler. He had a 
 conveyance of land at Wethersfield as early as 
 1638, and was a member of the General Court in 
 1644. It is supposed that his father, John, came with 
 him to Wethersfield, and died soon after, as he 
 (John, the settler) mentions land owned by his 
 father (John). Elias Williams was a captain in 
 the 6th Conn. Militia in 1777. This regiment was 
 composed of companies from Wethersfield and Glas- 
 tonbury. 
 
 Eliel Williams, son of Elias, was born in Stepney 
 Parish Jan. 30, 1746, and died there Aug. 2, 1819. 
 He was second of the four corporals, enrolled under 
 Capt. John Chester, and sent by Wethersfield, Conn., 
 when the Lexington alarm in April, 1775, reached 
 them. He also participated in the battle of Bunker 
 Hill. On Jan. 26, 1769, he wedded Comfort Mor- 
 ton, born in 1747, died in 181 1. Through her ma- 
 
S90 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ternal ancestors she was sixth in descent from 
 Thomas Wells, governor of Colony of Connecticut 
 in 1655 and 1658. Her mother, Sarah Robbins, was 
 a sister of Abigail, who, for her second husband, 
 married Hon. Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Con- 
 necticut. Her father's great-grandmother. Honour 
 Treat, was a sister to Robert, governor from 1683 
 to 1698 (fifteen years), and wife of Hon. John Dem- 
 ing, one of the first settlers of Wethersfield. 
 
 Merriam Williams, son of Eliel, was born in 
 Stepney Parish July 3, 1785, and made his home in 
 Rocky Hill. He was a tanner and currier by trade, 
 and also carried on shoe making, giving work to 
 a number of his townsmen. Later in life he turned 
 his attention to agriculfure. Among old papers he 
 left a bundle of deeds, fifty-two in number — convey- 
 ances of land to Elias, Eliel and Merriam, father, 
 son and grandson — the oldest bearing date 1753- On 
 March 25, 18 19, he wedded Elizabeth Danforth, who 
 was born Aug. 23, 1789, and died March 29, 1852, 
 a daughter of Thomas Danforth, a partner in a 
 large manufacturing business in Rocky Hill and 
 Philadelphia, later establishing a large trade in 
 Rocky Hill, where he included every possible kind of 
 hardware of the period. Merriam Williams died 
 May 10, 1857. 
 
 Thomas Danforth Williams, son of Merriam 
 Williams, was born Dec. 4, 1819, in Rocky Hill, 
 Conn., and there passed away Dec. 4, 1881. He 
 united vifith the Congregational Church, in his na- 
 tive town, in 1837, was one of its deacons from 
 March, 1852, until his death, and was an earnest 
 worker for its prosperity and welfare, and forward 
 in many works for the well-being of the community. 
 He was married on April 6, 1842, to Mary Jane 
 Boardman, who was born in Rocky Hill, March 20, 
 1820, and died Aug. 7, 1888, the last survivor in 
 that town of the twelve children of Capt. Jason 
 Boardman, for fifty years a prominent ship builder, 
 owner and captain of Wethersfield, or Rocky Hill. 
 "Mrs. Williams," says one who knew her well, "was 
 a most estimable woman, and well filled her part in 
 every relation of life." To the marriage of Deacon 
 Thomas Danforth and Mary Jane (Boardman) 
 Williams were born children as follows : ( i ) Lu- 
 ther Boardman, born June 7, 1844, married June 
 27, 1872, Addie Boardman, and they have four chil- 
 dren. He is a machinist by trade, and for some 
 fourteen years actea as superintendent of the loom 
 room, much of the time in the employ of PL & 
 G. W. Ward, manufacturers of twine and netting, 
 at Boston, Mass., and Kennebec, Me. Since 1885 he 
 has resided in Rocky Plill and been occupied in gen- 
 eral and dairy farming. He has been honored a 
 number of times by election to offices of trust and 
 honor, serving in 1897 and 1898 in the State Legis- 
 lature. (2) Caroline Elizabeth, born Nov. 6, 1847, 
 lives at Rocky Hill, Conn. (3) Charles Merriam 
 is the subject of this sketch. (4) Annie Jane, born 
 April 17, 1858, died Aug. 19, 1877. Thomas Dan- 
 
 forth Williams was a plain, unassuming man, who 
 was engaged throughout life in the pursuits of agri- 
 culture. He was a deacon in the church and was 
 held in high esteem by the community, who for 
 twenty years, though not consecutively, honored him 
 with the office of town assessor. 
 
 On his mother's side, Charles M. Williams is in 
 the seventh generation from Samuel Boreman, who 
 was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, England, bap- 
 tized there in 161 5, son of Christopher and Julia 
 (Carter) Boreman. He came to New England in 
 1638, appearing first as a settler in Ipswich, Mass., 
 and disposing of his property interests there about 
 1641 or 1642, settled in Wethersfield, Conn. He 
 married about this time Mary, daughter of John and 
 Mary Beets who were living in Claydon, England, 
 in 1627. From this emigrant settler j\Ir. Williams' 
 line is through Jonathan, Jonathan (2), John, Capt. 
 Jason and Mary Jane (Boardman) Williams. 
 
 Capt. Jason Boardman, from his prominence 
 among the men of his day, is deserving of more than 
 simply the mention of his name. His birth occurred 
 in Rocky Hill Jan. 16, 1762, and on July 7, 1784, he 
 was married to Hepzibah, daughter of Deacon 
 Thomas and Dorothy Bulkley Curtis, of Rocky 
 Hill, the latter a daughter of Dr. Thomas Hastings, 
 of Hatfield, Mass. Jason's father was a sea captam, 
 and was lost at sea when Jason was eighteen years 
 of age. The latter succeeded the father in the old 
 homestead, and as a sailor and sea captain, and later 
 became prominent as a ship builder and ship owner. 
 He owned, it is said, a line of packets which sailed 
 regularly from the Connecticut river to Richmond, 
 Va. He was also connected with vessels in the West 
 Indies trade. Mrs. Boardman died Jan. 4, 1807, and 
 Capt. Boardman married Jan. 3, 1808, Lydia Dem- 
 ming, who died Feb. 11, 1842. He died Feb. 6, 1844. 
 Four of his twelve children were born to the second 
 union. Two of his sons were sea captains, making 
 three generations in succession sea-faring men. 
 Capt. Boardman was a man of fine appearance, 
 courteous and dignified in manners. 
 
 Charles M. Williams passed his boyhool on the 
 home farm in the manner customary to the sons of 
 the general farmer of that day, at school in the win- 
 ter, and at work on the farm in season. He fur- 
 thered his schooling at Williston Seminary, East- 
 hampton, Mass., and made his debut as a teacher 
 as principal of the Railroad District School in Meri- 
 den. Conn., in 1874. He was later made principal of 
 the Center School, and still later was appointed 
 principal of the West District school, now the 
 second largest school in Meriden. The West 
 District included the Lewis Avenue school and 
 gave him in all about 500 pupils. The grad- 
 uates from his district showed excellent train- 
 ing and attained creditable scholarships at the 
 high school. When the schools of the city were con- 
 solidated in 189s Mr. Williams was advanced to the 
 position of superintendent of the Meriden schools. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 591 
 
 In 1898 he was appointed superintendent of the Con- 
 necticut School for Boys by the board of trustees of 
 the school, which position he still holds. 
 
 On June 17, 1881, Mr. Williams was married to 
 Emeline McFarland, and to this union has come 
 one child, Stanley Thomas, born Oct. 25, 1889. So- 
 cially Mr. Williams is a member of Meriden Lodge, 
 No. 77, A. F. & A. M., and St. Elmo Commandery, 
 No. 9, Knights Templar. He also belongs to the 
 Sons of American Revolution, and to the Home 
 Club, of which latter he was treasurer for twelve 
 years. Though not an active politician, he sustains 
 the principles of the Republican party. 
 
 FRANCIS S. HAMILTON, chief clerk in the 
 office of the New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 Railroad Co., at Belle Dock, and registrar of voters, 
 is one of the active and successful business men of 
 New Haven. He was born in Bridgeport, May 12, 
 1846, a son of Starr and Frances (Hyde) Hamilton. 
 
 Starr Hamilton was a native of Bridgeport, 
 where his father was a merchant. He attended the 
 Lovell school at New Haven, and adopted the mer- 
 cantile profession, the business of his father, con- 
 ducting for many years a dry goods store at Apal- 
 achicola, Fla. He married Frances Hyde, a daugh- 
 ter of Richard Hyde, and six children were born 
 to them : Frances Jane ; Isabella Jane ; and Adeline 
 English ; all three died in infancy ; John F. ; Cather- 
 ine A. E. ; and Francis S. John F. served in the 
 Civil war, enlisting at Brooklyn, N. Y., in the 14th 
 regiment. He was for many years a tea broker and 
 died Nov. 5, 1900. Catherine A. E. married Major 
 William L. Hubbell, of Bridgeport, an officer of the 
 17th Conn. V. I. In politics Starr Hamilton was a 
 Whig. He died in New York in 1854. 
 
 Francis S. Hamilton, the youngest of the sur- 
 viving children, was a boy of only eight years when 
 his father died. He spent his boyhood days in 
 Bridgeport, attending the public schools there, and 
 also French's military school on Staten Island, and 
 the school at Greenfield Hill, Conn. As his parents 
 •died when he was young, he was thrown early in life 
 upon his own responsibilities. He began his career 
 as cashboy in a store in Bridgeport. Later he was 
 salesman in a dry-goods tore at St. Louis, Mo., for 
 three months, but returning to Bridgeport, he be- 
 came office boy and messenger for the Adams Ex- 
 press Co., continuing in the service of that company 
 for seven years. In 1872 he came to New Haven, 
 accepting a position as waybill clerk in the office of 
 the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. Co., at Belle Dock, and 
 he has since been continuously in their service, oc- 
 cupying all the desks successively to that of chief 
 clerk, which position he now holds. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton married, in 1872, Mary E. Lewis, 
 of Bridgeport, daughter of George L. Lewis, of that 
 city. By this marriage there were six children, 
 namely: George Lewis, Francis Starr, William 
 Hubbell, Edward Waterman, Elsie Hyde and Clar- 
 ence Hinman, the last named dying in infancy. Mrs. 
 
 Flamilton, the wife and mother, died in 1884, and 
 four years later our subject married Addie E. Howe, 
 a native of Granville, :\Iass., daughter of Chaun- 
 cey P. and Clara A. (liubbard) Howe. Chauncey 
 P. Howe died in the military service of his coun- 
 try during the Civil war, leaving four children: 
 Lucelia N., Bion E., Lottie T. (deceased) and Addie 
 E. By his second wife, Addie E., our subject has 
 one child, Hubert Howe Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton 
 and family are members of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 In politics Mr. Flamilton has always been a Re- 
 publican, and he has been one of the active and in- 
 fluential workers in the county organization. For 
 six years he was chairman of the ward committee 
 of the Eleventh ward, and for two terms he served 
 as councilman and as alderman for the same length 
 of time. Removing to the Fifth ward, a Democratic 
 stronghold, he was made chairman of the ward com- 
 mittee and was elected one term as alderman of the 
 ward. He was elected registrar of voters in 1896 
 and is still serving in that capacity. Mr. Hamilton is 
 a member of the Royal Arcanum, the Improved Or- 
 der of Heptasophs, Knights of the Golden Eagle, 
 Patriotic Sons of America, Home Circle, and also of 
 the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guards. He 
 has an extensive acquaintance throughout the city, 
 and is one of New Haven's most popular citizens. 
 
 FRANKLIN R. WHITE, master mechanic in 
 the factory of Piatt Bros. & Co., Waterbury, is a 
 native of Connecticut, born Aug. 26, 1854, in Hart- 
 ford. 
 
 Lewis White, father of our subject, was born in 
 Springfield, Mass., a son of Preserved White, and 
 a brother of Leroy S. White, a sketch of whom ap- 
 pears elsewhere. Lewis, after his marriage, was 
 employed in the Colts gun factory, and on leaving" 
 there went into the manufacture of sundry small ar- 
 ticles, receiving a medal for the invention of a 
 shield (patented) for the protection of women's fin- 
 gers when sewing. For a time, during the Civil war, 
 he was inspector of army guns at Springfield, Mass. 
 In 1866 he came to Waterburj^, and for some thirty- 
 one years was employed by the Rogers & Brother 
 Silver Plate Co. He died in July, 1897, a Republi- 
 can in politics, and a Congregationalist in religious 
 faith. By his wife, Mary (Wakefield), he had four 
 children, viz. : Charles L., Franklin R., Mary R. 
 and Maud. Of these, Charles L. died in Waterbury 
 in 1876; Mary R. and Maud are single. 
 
 Franklin R. White, our subject, was educated 
 partly in Springfield, partly in Hartford, Conn., and 
 was twelve years old when the family came to Wat- 
 erbury, the public schools of which place he also at- 
 tended. On completing his studies he went to learn 
 the button tool-making trade with the Waterbury 
 Button Co., remaining with that firm five years, and 
 he passed the succeeding five years in the silver plate 
 factory of Rogers & Brothers. Leaving these, his 
 next employment was with the White Machine Co. ; 
 but in 1883 he disposed of his interests in that con- 
 
592 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 cern to enter the employ of Piatt Bros. & Co., as 
 master mechanic and foreman, his present position. 
 Franklin R. White was twice married, first time 
 Oct. 27, 1875, to Emma Breedon, of Waterbury, a 
 daughter of Robert Breedon, and by her has one 
 daughter, Emma, now the wife of Charles Curtis, 
 a civil engineer with residence in Waterbury. On 
 May 7, 1879, Mr. White married (second) Emma 
 H. Fields, a daughter of Judge George S. Fields, 
 of Waterbury, and four children were born to this 
 union: Charles (deceased at the age of eight 
 months), Edna C, Elsie H., and Ethel S. The en- 
 tire family are identified with the First M. E. Church 
 of Waterbury, Mr. White being steward of the offi- 
 cial board. In politics he is a Republican, and is 
 now serving his second term as alderman of the 
 First ward, Waterbury. He served eleven years in 
 the Connecticut National Guard, retiring as cap- 
 tain of Company A, Second Regiment. Socially he 
 is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Uniformed 
 Rank, Endowment Rank and D. O. K. K., and has 
 been grand chancellor of the State ; also affiliated 
 with the Improved Order of Red Men, the A. O. 
 U. W. and the Golden Cross. 
 
 GEORGE W. SOMERS has, since 1889, held 
 the position of New England Freight Agent at New 
 Haven for the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and 
 he is well known in that city, both in his business 
 connection and in fraternal circles. Mr. Somers 
 comes of a family which has long been identified 
 with New Haven county, being a great-great-grand- 
 son of Henry Somers, and a great-grandson of Abel 
 Somers. His grandfather, Benjamin Somers, was 
 born July i, 1762, and engaged in farming in the 
 northern part of the town of Milford. He married 
 Mary Marks. 
 
 Enoch Somers, father of our subject, was born 
 Aug. 4, 1799, in Milford, was reared in that town, 
 and learned the trade of shoemaker, which he fol- 
 lowed for a time. Later in life he settled on a farm, 
 and continued agricultural pursuits to the close of 
 his earthly career, in January, 1863. He married 
 Mary Piatt Johnson, born March 12, 1806, in the 
 northern part of the town of Orange, daughter of 
 Nathan and Katy (Beers) Piatt, who had ten chil- 
 dren, all now deceased. Mr. Piatt was a son of 
 Josiah Piatt; Mrs. Piatt was a native of Great Bar- 
 rington, Mass. By her first marriage with Enos 
 L. Johnson, Mrs. Mary (Piatt) Somers had five 
 children, one of whom, Mrs. P. M. Cady, now a 
 widow, is a resident of West Haven. By her union 
 with Enoch Somers she had but one child, our sub- 
 ject. Mrs. Somers passed away July 23, 1889. She 
 and her husband were members of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, of West Haven. Mr. Somers served 
 as captain of a company of militia. 
 
 George W. Somers was born Feb. 17, 1854, in 
 West Haven, town of Orange, and spent his early 
 years in that town, receiving his education in the 
 public schools near his home and a boarding school 
 
 in West Haven. At the age of twenty he com- 
 menced his business career, taking a position with 
 the New Haven Steamboat Co., with whom he re- 
 mained a few years. His next employment was with 
 George R. Kelsey, for whom he ran a mail steamer 
 on the St. John's river in Florida four years, serv- 
 ing as captain. For a short period following, in 
 1884, he was with the New York, New Haven & 
 Hartford R. R., and he was again with them as 
 clerk in the freight office previous to his appoint- 
 ment, in 1889, to his present incumbency. Mr. 
 Somers is now Southern New England Freight 
 Agent for the Central Railroad, of New Jersey, and 
 Philadelphia & Reading Railway Co., and his office 
 is in the First National Bank block. New Haven. 
 The exacting and multitudinous duties of this posi- 
 tion require constant oversight, judgment and sys- 
 tematic management, but our subject has proved 
 himself eminently qualified to fill the position, and he 
 has won high praise from his superiors. 
 
 Mr. Somers is prominent in Masonic circles, be- 
 longing to Annanon Lodge, F. & A. M., of West- 
 Haven, in which he has held many offices ; Franklin 
 Chapter, No. 2, R. A. M., of New Haven ; Harmony 
 Council, R. & S. M.; life member of New Haven 
 Commandery, K. T., of New Haven, in which he 
 was sword bearer a number of years ; Lafayette Con- 
 sistory; Pyramid Temple, Nobles of the Mystic 
 Shrine, of Bridgeport; and the Scottish Rite Ma- 
 sons, 32d degree. For a number of years our sub- 
 ject has been a member of the Second Company,. 
 Governor's Foot Guard, of New Haven, and he is 
 now assistant quartermaster of the company, on 
 Major Clark's staff, with the rank of first lieuten- 
 ant. His first office was that of commissary ser- 
 geant, from which he has advanced steadily, by 
 merit, to his present important position. Mr. Som- 
 ers is popular among all his associates, and his ac- 
 tivity in social and military circles has brought him 
 a wide acquaintance in New Haven. 
 
 ALBERT W. PHILLIPS, M. D., of Derby, 
 traces his descent from the hardy race of English 
 yeomen farmers to whom Great Britain owes, in no 
 small degree, her prosperity at home, and the steady 
 development of her power abroad. Hard-headed, 
 strong-armed, of tireless industry and stern integ- 
 rity, they are at once the bulwark and the pride of 
 their native land. The Doctor's father, whose 
 baptismal name was George, was born in Worle, 
 Somersetshire, where he married Betsey Clegg, a 
 maiden of his native place. He was a farmer, as 
 was also his father, and emigrated from England 
 to the United States in 1833, settling on a farm in 
 Onondaga county. New ,York, where he died in 
 1842. The wife of his youth survived him until 
 1884, when she, too, entered into rest. Both had 
 been members of the Established Church in Eng- 
 land, and naturally connected themselves with the 
 Episcopal Church on reaching their new home. 
 George Phillips was a man of keen intelligence and- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 595 
 
 sturdy purpose, and a loyal citizen of his adopted 
 country. He was a bitter opponent of human 
 slavery, and naturally affiliated with the Whig- 
 party in politics. Four children were born to him, 
 of whom Albert W. was the youngest. The others 
 were Eliza, Edward and George. Eliza married 
 Ralph McKinney, a contractor and builder of Au- 
 burn, N. Y. ; Edward is a farmer in South Dakota ; 
 and George is a court clerk in jMontezuma, Iowa, 
 having been for some years a merchant of Brookl)-!!, 
 that State.- 
 
 Dr. Albert W. Phillips was born at ^larcellu?, 
 Onondaga Co., N. Y., July 26, 1838. His boyhood 
 was passed on his father's farm, and his rudimen- 
 tary education obtained at the district schools and 
 at a private school in Syracuse, N-. Y., where be 
 spent two years. Having reached the age of eight- 
 een years, and chosen the medical profession as his 
 vocation, he entered the office of Drs. Cator and 
 Morgan as a student. He remained with these in- 
 structors for four years, demonstrating at once his 
 intelligence as a man, his aptness as a pupil, and 
 his capability as an assistant. Later he matricu- 
 lated at the Hahnemann College, in Chicago, gradu- 
 ating therefrom in the class of 1861. Returning to 
 Syracuse, he was taken into partnership by his 
 former preceptor, Dr. Morgan. Their business 
 connection, however, was of short duration. The 
 outbreak of the war of the Rebellion stirred young 
 Phillips' blood, and on May i, 1861, he enlisted in 
 Company A, 12th N. Y. V. I., responding to the 
 first call of the President for men for two years' 
 service. Because of his professional training, he 
 was made hospital steward at Washington; and 
 after serving in that position until October, 1862, 
 he was promoted to be assistant surgeon, being as- 
 signed to the 149th N. Y. Volunteers. He served 
 with the Armies of the Potomac and the Cumber- 
 land until May, 1864, when his term of enlistment 
 having expired, he was honorably discharged. On 
 leaving the army he went to Derby, Conn., in 
 which city he still resides, having built up an exten- 
 sive and lucrative practice. 
 
 Dr. Phillips' acquaintance extends over the en- 
 tire State, and the respect and affection felt for 
 him are co-extensive with his acquaintance. Those 
 who best know his sterling worth appreciate him 
 most highly. He has attained nearly every honor 
 which the Masonic fraternity can confer. He is a 
 member of King Hiram Lodge, No. 12, of Derby, 
 of Solomon Chapter, No. 3, of New Haven Com- 
 mandery. No. 2, K. T. He is also a member of 
 Ousatonic Lodge, No. 6, of the L O. O. F. Nor 
 has hs at all lost sight of his comradeship with the 
 veterans of the war of 1861-5. He is a past com- 
 mander of Kellogg Post, No. 26, G. A. R., and an 
 honored member of the societies of the Army ot 
 the Potomac and the Armv of the Cumberland, as 
 well as of the Army and Navy Club of Connecticut, 
 and of the New York Commandery of the Military 
 Order of the Loyal Legion. During the years 
 
 38 
 
 1896 and 1898 he was surgeon general on the staff 
 of Gov. Cooke. The Doctor is a director in the 
 Derby Savings Bank. He is a Republican, and sev- 
 eral times has been the nominee o^ his party for 
 office, and in the face of the overwhelming Dem- 
 ocratic majority to be overcome he was elected for 
 nine consecutive years as burgess of Birmingham, 
 now Derby, and in November, 1900, was elected 
 mayor of Derby. He has also been made registrar 
 of vital statistics in recognition of his eminent fit- 
 ness for the position. 
 
 In October, 1862, Dr. Phillips was married to 
 Miss Nancy Pratt Owen, of Syracuse, a daughter 
 of Augustus H. and Maria (Pratt) Owen, of that 
 city. Mrs. Phillips lost her father when she was 
 but four years old, and her mother one year later. 
 Dr. Phillips and his wife have one child living, El- 
 len P., who married Frank E. Bradley, a lawyer of 
 New York City, in 1897; one child, Nancy, has been 
 born of this union. In 1893 Mrs. Phillips organ- 
 ized the Sarah Riggs Humphreys Chapter, Daugh- 
 ters of the American Revolution (the twelfth chap- 
 ter in the State of Connecticut), and was its first 
 regent, continuing to fill that office for three years. 
 ^Irs. Phillips is a communicant of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 THOMAS L. REILLY, city editor of the Meri- 
 den Daily lournal, and secretary of and stockholder 
 in the Journal Publishing Co. of that city, is one of 
 its well known citizens. 
 
 John Reilly, the father of our subject, was a na- 
 tive of Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland, whence he- 
 came to America. Locating in New Britain, Conn.,, 
 he followed his trade of iron molder there until 
 1877, when he moved to Meriden, again engaging in: 
 his trade for several years. From Meriden he went 
 to Hamilton, Ontario ; thence to Buffalo, on the offi- 
 cial stafif, in the Erie county penitentiary, and he 
 efficiently filled that office until Oct. 3, 1901, when: 
 his death occurred. He was married in New Brit- 
 ain to Catherine Fagan, who was born near his old 
 home in Ireland, daughter of Lawrence Fagan. Her 
 death, in 1878, was the result of an accident, and 
 she was buried in the Catholic cemetery in New 
 Britain. 
 
 Thomas L. Reilly was born in New Britain, 
 Conn., Sept. 20, 1858, and received his early educa- 
 tion there in the parochial school of St. Clary's 
 Church, or "Town School," as it was called. In order 
 to fit himself for the profession of teacher he attend- 
 ed the State Normal School, from which he graduat- 
 ed with honor in 1876, but instead of teaching he 
 took the position of town clerk's assistant, spending 
 about a year in the office with John Walsh, when that 
 citizen was the incumbent. Soon after this he en- 
 gaged as a reporter on the Hartford Sunday Globe. 
 In the fall of 1877 he came to Meriden with his par- 
 ents and entered the law office of Judge D. J. Dona- 
 hoe, now one of the leading, jurists of Middletown,. 
 Conn., remaining a student there for one year. Dis- 
 
594 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 turbed by the sad death of his mothdr and the remov- 
 al of his mentor, Judge Donahoe, to Middletown,Mr. 
 Reilly found circumstances unfavorable to the con- 
 tinuance of his legal studies and took a position as 
 bookkeeper with the firm of J. F Butler, continuing 
 with them until 1880, when he became the Meriden 
 correspondent of the New Haven Union, which then 
 had no circulation in Meriden. However, it soon after 
 reached a circulation of 1,600. Later our subject 
 became connected with the Meriden Penny Press, 
 under J. H. Mabbett, filling a reportorial position, 
 and still later was associated in a like capacity with 
 W. F. Graham, on the Meriden Republican, remain- 
 ing with this latter journal until December, 1885, 
 when he went to the New Haven Register. He was 
 the paper's legislative reporter during the session 
 of 1886. In April, 1886, with Francis Atwater, Lew 
 Allen and F. E. Sands, he formed the Journal Pub- 
 lishing Co., and was made secretary of the company 
 and city editor of the paper, which positions he has 
 since filled. An active Democrat, he has been one of 
 the leaders in his party in Meriden, and In the Pres- 
 idential campaign of 1900 he was elected chairman 
 of the town committee, and had the satisfaction of 
 reducing the Republican majority from 1,477 i" 
 1896 to 54 in 1900. 
 
 Mr. Reilly has taken an active part in all pro- 
 gressive movements in Meriden, is a member of the 
 school board, a director of the Meriden Public Li- 
 brary, and equally prominent in social and fraternal 
 organizations, being a member of Meriden Lodge, 
 No. 35, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, 
 in which he filled the office of exalted ruler for two 
 terms ; of the Amaranth Club, in which he has filled 
 the office of president for years ; a charter member 
 and organizer of Silver City Council, No. 2, Knights 
 of Columbus ; one of the organizers of the Catholic 
 Club ; a member of the Royal Arcanum ; the Macca- 
 bees ; and of the Silver City Lodge, A. O. U. W. 
 A Inch is due to Mr. Reilly for the stand he has taken 
 in regard to sports in Meriden. 
 
 In 1884, in Blackstone, Mass,, was celebrated 
 the marriage of our subject to Maria E. Rowen, a 
 popular young school teacher of that town. To this 
 union have been born seven children, Robert, Kath- 
 crine, Mary, Louis, Arthur, Rose and Agnes. The 
 religious connection of the family is with the Cath- 
 olic Church. 
 
 FRANK ELBERT SMITH, secretary, treas- 
 urer, superintendent and general manager of the 
 Stony Creek Oyster Co., was born in New Haven, 
 July 31, 1854, son of Giles Griswold and Emily 
 (Potter) Smith. The parents were natives of Alid- 
 dlesex and New Haven counties, respectively. The 
 paternal grandfather was David Smith, a farmer 
 and shoemaker by occupation, lived many years in 
 Madison, where he died. He married Mercy Gris- 
 wold. The maternal grandfather, William Potter, 
 was a merchant of New Haven. He married Miss 
 Mary Bills. 
 
 Giles Griswold Smith was reared in Madison, 
 and for twenty years was engaged in the oyster and 
 fish business at Stony Creek, where he died Aug. 31, 
 1891, at the age of fifty-eight. The following chil- 
 dren were born to him and his wife : Frank Elbert ; 
 Charles E. ; Jennie Louise, who married Charles 
 Huntley; Mary A., who is the wife of Anderson 
 Cook; and Ethel E., who married Robert Rowe. 
 
 Frank Elbert Smith was reared in Madison and 
 Stony Creek, received a common-school ed'ucation, 
 and served his apprenticeship to the -business in 
 which he is engaged with the S'tony Creek Oyster 
 Co., beginning this work at the early age of six- 
 teen years. Mr. Smith has been associated with 
 this company continuously since the first day he be- 
 gan work, is now the largest owner in the com- 
 pany, and has held his present position since 1885. 
 
 Mr. Smith was married Nov. 11, 1876, to Helen 
 E., a daughter of Nathaniel H. and Adeline (Doo- 
 little) Bishop, of Stony Creek. They have two 
 children, Gertrude A. and Maude H. E. Mr. 
 Smith and his family are members of the Stony 
 Creek Congregational Church, and he is a member 
 of Seaside Lodge, No. 84, I. O. O. F. ; Binder 
 Lodge, No. 65, A. O. U. W. ; and the N. E. O. P. 
 Mr. Smith has served on the Board of Education, 
 and has proved himself a man of public spirit and 
 good character. His business ability and energetic 
 nature command respect, and have pushed him 
 rapidly to the front. He is a Republican in politi- 
 cal faith. 
 
 ARTHUR NETTLETON FARNHAM is 
 widely known in and around New Haven as pro- 
 prietor of the Crescent Gardens, at Westville, where 
 for almost twenty^ave years he has carried on a 
 thriving business in market gardening in all its 
 branches, and on an extensive scale. He is one of 
 the substantial business men of the city, and in all 
 the relations of life has proved himself a worthy 
 scion of a family which has been established in Con- 
 necticut since early Colonial days, and whose mem- 
 bers have always been among the most respected in 
 the community. 
 
 (I) Ralph Farnham, the first of this branch on 
 American soil, came from England, and settled in 
 North Andover, Mass. He died Jan. 8, 1691. He 
 married Elizabeth Holt, who died Oct. 14, 1710, and 
 their children were Sarah, Ralph, John, Henry, 
 Hannah, Thomas and Ephraim. 
 
 (II) Ralph Farnham, son of Ralph, the settler, 
 married Sarah Sterling Oct. g, 1685, and their chil- 
 dren were Sarah, Henry, Ralph, Daniel, Abigail, 
 William, Nathaniel, Barachias, Benjamin, Joseph 
 and Zebediah. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Farnham, son of Ralph, moved 
 from Andover, Mass., to Connecticut, settling in 
 Hampton, town of Windham, where he died July 9, 
 1760, aged sixty-five. On May 19, 1719, he married 
 Hannah Preston, and they had the following named 
 children: Nathaniel, Hannah, Sarah, Anne. Solo- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 595 
 
 mon, Rebecca^ Asa, Jeremiah, John, Martha and 
 Aaron. 
 
 (IV) Jeremiah Farnham, son of Nathaniel, was 
 born July 31, 1733, in Hampton, and died March 19, 
 1827. On Nov. 9, 1774, he married Lucy Durkee, 
 who died Sept. 2, 1809, aged sixty-two years. Their 
 children were Rufus, Aaron, Lucy, Jeremiah and 
 Asa. 
 
 (V) Aaron Farnham, son of Jeremiah, was born 
 Nov. 15, 1776, in Hampton, was a farmer, and died 
 April 30, 1853. Oil Aug. II, 1803, he married 
 Sarah Abbott, who died Sept. 25, 181 5, and chil- 
 dren as follows were born to them: Aaron, Will- 
 iam H., Henry A., Sally L., William Holt, Elisha, 
 Betsey, and one that died in infancy. 
 
 (VI) William Holt Farnham, father of the gen- 
 tleman whose name introduces this sketch, was born 
 Aug. 6, 1810, in WindhaKi, Conn., and after his 
 marriage settled in Seymour, this state, where he 
 was engaged as an ax maker. He was' married in 
 Seymour Sept. 18, 1841, to Miss Orilla Nettleton, 
 who was born May 8, 1822, and survives him. His 
 death occurred April 23, 1878, in Westville, whither 
 he had removed, and where his youngest child was 
 bom. The others are natives of Seymour, (i) 
 Sarah married Charles E. Gorham, a farmer and 
 milkman of Westville, and they have two children, 
 Lena J. and Myrtle O. (2) William H. is men- 
 tioned more fully below. (3) Julia A. married 
 Sergt. Henry j\I. Crocker, of New Haven. (4) Ar- 
 thur N. is mentioned more fully below. 
 
 It will not be|out of place in this connection to 
 give a brief record of the Nettleton family, to which 
 Mrs. Orilla Farnham belongs: Her emigrant an- 
 cestor, Samuel Nettleton, came from England in 
 1639, was in Wethersfield, Conn., for a time and in 
 1644 settled in Branford. He died in Fairfield, 
 Conn., in 1655-56. He and his wife, Maria, whom 
 he married in England, had children as follows : 
 John, Martha, Mary, Isabelle, Hannah, Sarah, Let- 
 tice and Samuel. Some of these were born in' Eng- 
 land. 
 
 (II) Samuel Nettleton, the next in the line we 
 are tracing, was born in Milford, Conn., and married 
 Martha Baldwin, of that town, who was born April 
 I, 1663. Their children were Elizabeth, John, Sam- 
 uel, Nathan, Martha, Joseph, Theophilus, Sylvanus 
 and Elizabeth (2). 
 
 (III) John Nettleton, son of Samuel (2), was 
 born in Milfor'd Sept. 18, 1689, and died in March, 
 1767. He married Sarah Bryan, and their children 
 were John, Theophilus, Sarah, Joseph, Mary, Isaac 
 and Nathan. 
 
 (IV) Nathan Nettleton, son of John, was born 
 in Milford May 4, 1734, and died in 1782. On Nov. 
 3, 1757. he married Sybil Buckingham, who was 
 born Sept. 13, 1737, and their children were Nathan, 
 Eli, John, Sybil. 
 
 (V) John Nettleton, son of Nathan, was born 
 in Milford Oct. 9, 1765, and died Aug. 8, 1842. On 
 Nov. 29, 1785, he married Comfort Hine. He was 
 
 a private under Capt. Davidson in the Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 (VI) Oliver Nettleton, son of John, and father 
 of Mrs. Farnham, was born in Milford March 3, 
 1787, was a farmer by occupation, and died Jan. 31, 
 1864. He married Sarah Treat, a native of Milford, 
 Conn., and six children were born to them : Min- 
 erva, Samuel T., Sarah E., Orilla (Mrs. Farnham), 
 Clarissa A. and John F. 
 
 William H. Farnham was born May 26, 1846, 
 in Seymour, Conn., and was reared in Westville, 
 where he received his education in the public schools. 
 During his earlier life he remained on the farm 
 with his father, and he has for some years been in- 
 terested in business with his brother. He is a man 
 of considerable executive ability, active in various 
 lines, and has become well known in the city of his 
 residence. He was the first alderman elected from 
 the Thirteenth ward after the consolidation of the 
 town and city, and was re-elected to that incum- 
 bency, which he filled two years. He is a Republican 
 in political sentiment. Always interested in mili- 
 tary affairs, he commenced as a private in the Sec- 
 ond Company, Governor's Horse Guard, and was 
 promoted steadily until advanced to the rank of 
 major, which, however, he refused to accept. Mr. 
 Farnham is a fine horseman, and when the Guard 
 attended the Buffalo Exposition he was selected to 
 carry the colors. Fraternally he is a member of the 
 F. & A. M., Olive Branch Lodge, and the A. O. U. 
 W. In religion Mr. Farnham is a devout Method- 
 ist, and he has been an earnest worker in the church 
 over ithirty-ifive years, during which time he has effi- 
 ciently filled many official positions in that body, and 
 he served faithfully twenty years as superintendent 
 of the Sundajf-school. On March 30, 1870, Mr. 
 Farnham married Miss Helen J. Smith, of Milford, 
 a daughter of Edward and Electa (Clark) Smith, of 
 that place. Two children have blessed this union, 
 Mae P. and Benndtt W. The latter received a thor- 
 ough education, attending the public school in West- 
 ville, Hopkins Grammar School, and Yale Scien- 
 tific School, from which latter he was graduated in 
 June, 1897 ; he was quite prominent in athletics dur- 
 ing his college career; he married, Nov. 27, 1895, 
 Mary Dana Foote, of Westville. 
 
 Arthur N. Farnham was born Oct. 16, 1854, 
 in Westville, as previously stated, and there has 
 passed his entire life. He obtained a good literary 
 education, attending the Westville public school, the 
 Dwig'ht school, and Gen. Russell's Military Insti- 
 tute, and com.menced work with S. E. Merwin & 
 Son, pork packers, in the office, remaining with them 
 four years. On Jan. 18, 1877, he embarked in the 
 business which has since engaged his attention, and 
 in which he has met with such abundant success. 
 His farm, which is located in Westville, comprises 
 five hundred acres, all under cultivation, and em- 
 ployment is given to from one hundred to two hun- 
 dred hands, according to the season. Fruit, plants 
 and vegetables in great variety are raised, and Mr. 
 
596 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Farnham also gives his attention to the breeding of 
 high class land and water fowl, and to some extent 
 to fine stock, always keeping a number of new 
 milch cows. His products are shipped to various 
 places. In addition to all this he takes contracts 
 for teaming in Xew HavAi, and, as may well be sup- 
 posed, is a very busy man, all the numerous branches 
 of his large business being under his personal su- 
 pervision. The Crescent Gardens are famed for 
 the quality of the products raised, and the success 
 which Mr. Farnham enjoys has been won in a con- 
 stant endeavor to do the best he can, and to give his 
 patrons the best value, a fact which they have not 
 been slow to recognize and appreciate. 
 
 ^Ir. Farn'ham has found time, with all his multi- 
 farious interests, to concern himself about the wel- 
 fare of his locality, and his public spirit has been 
 specially evident in his active connection with the 
 Westville Improvement Society, of which he is presi- 
 dent. He served twelve years on the Westville 
 school board, and the character of the man is suffi- 
 cient key to the nature of his services. He is a Re- 
 publican in politics. Like his brother, he is a zeal- 
 ous worker in the Methodist Church, and he has been 
 associated for about thirty years with the Westville 
 M. E. Church, of which he has been a trustee for 
 twent}' years. He has served as president of the 
 board, and was chairman of the building committee 
 at the erection of the new church, in 1893. Socially 
 he is a member of Olive Branch Lodge, F. & A. if., 
 and of West Rock Lodge, Xo. 48, A. O. U. W., of 
 which he has been treasurer since its formation, 
 about ten years ago. For about twenty-eight years 
 he belonged toi the Governor's Horse Guard, and 
 he held all the offices in that organization up to 
 captain, in which rank he was serving at the time 
 the Guard disbanded. 
 
 On Nov. 3, 1880, Mr. Farnham married Miss 
 Jennie B. Austin, daughter of John N. Austin, of 
 Westville, and they have had five children, Birdsey 
 A., Selletta O., Anneva ]\I., John Royden (deceased) 
 and jMyrlon A. 
 
 ALBERT A. IRIOX, retired, for over a quarter 
 of a century a respected resident of Waterbury, and 
 a well-known builder and contractor, is a native of 
 Massachusetts, born at Great Barrington April 13, 
 
 1845. 
 
 George Irion, his father, was born at Baden- 
 Baden, Germany, and came to this country when 
 thirty-six years of age, eventuallv settling in Great 
 Barrington, Mass., where he followed the business 
 of contractor and builder. He there married Hen- 
 rietta Glentz, also a native of Germany, born in 
 Hessen-Darmstadt, whence the family came to Great 
 Barrington, wliere her father was engaged in the 
 tanning business. A family nf six children \v;re 
 born to George Irion and his wife, as follows : Ma- 
 tilda is the deceased wife of Charles I'uller, a 
 machinist in Lee, Mass.; Augustus is a sewing- 
 machine agent in Long Island Citv ; Albert A. is our 
 
 subject; Edward', a cigar merchant in Xew York,, 
 died in Colorado ; ^Mina died unmarried ; Colena is 
 the wife of Edward Morree, and they live in the 
 West. The parents of this family both died in 
 Great Barrington, the father in 1879, the mother in 
 1 867. 
 
 .Vlbert A. Irion, whose name opens this sketch, 
 received a liberal education at the schools of Great 
 Barrington, and at the age of fourteen years com- 
 menced working in a woolen-mill. After four years' 
 experience there he learned' carpentry, a trade he fol- 
 lowed all his life, together with a considerable 
 amount of contracting and building in Waterbury, 
 to which city he came- in 1868. In 1898 he retired 
 from active business. 
 
 On Sept. 27, 1869, Mr. Irion married Gennette 
 A an Alst3aie, who was born in West Stockbridge, 
 Mass., a daughter of Thomas L. \'an Alstyne, who 
 was descended from old Dutch stock. Six chil- 
 dren were born to j\Ir. and Mrs. Irion, all sons : 
 George, Julius, Burton, Roley, Albert and Edward; 
 Julius and Roley are deceased. The family in re- 
 ligious faith are Episcopalians ; in politics Mr. Irion 
 is independent. For a number of years he served 
 en the Doard of public works in Waterbury. 
 
 ORVILLE HARA'EY STEVENS, long an 
 honored and respected citizen of Waterbur}-, -was 
 born in Clinton, Conn., March 31, 1824, and died 
 Xov. 17, 1894, at the age of seventy. 
 
 Capt. Elias Stevens, his grandfather, was born 
 in Clinton Sept. 20, 1762, and died June 6, 1852. 
 In the war of the Revolution he served at West 
 Point. Priscilla Chapman, his wife, was the daugh- 
 ter of Deacon Jedediah Chapman, and was born at 
 West Brook, Conn., in 1766. They were mar- 
 ried in 1785, and became the parents of ten chil- 
 dren: Hiel, Polly, Henry, Charles, Elias, Harvey 
 ( father of Orville Harvey), Samuel L., Louisa, 
 J'edediah and Nathaniel. 
 
 Harvey Stevens was born in Clinton March 31, 
 1799, and died April 19, 1888. He married Betsy 
 Kilbourn, who was born in Clinton, Conn., a daugh- 
 ter of Jonathan Kilbourn, a representative of an old 
 English family. Jonathan Kilbourn was born in 
 East Hadldam, and was descended from Thomas Kil- 
 bourn, who was born in England in 1578. John, 
 son of Thomas, was born in England in 1624, and 
 had a son John (2), born in Waterford. Jonathan 
 Kilbourn (i), son of John, was born in Glaston- 
 bury, Conn., and his son, Jonathan (2), was born 
 in Colchester, Conn., and became the owner of sev- 
 eral mills. Jonathan (2) was of an inventive turn 
 of mind, and the iron screw is the product of his 
 thought ; he was a politician, and represented his 
 district in the General Court. Capt. Jonathan (3), 
 son of Jonathan (2), was born in Colc'hester, and 
 served in the Revolutionary war, and his son, Jona- 
 than (4), was born in East Haddam, and became 
 the father of Jonathan (5), the father of Mrs. 
 Betsy (Kilbourn) Stevens. To Mr. and Mrs. Ste- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 597 
 
 Tens were born two children : Orville Harvey and 
 Elizabeth, the latter the wife of S. Wilcox, of Clin- 
 ton. 
 
 Orville Harvey Stevens was reared to early man- 
 hood on his father's farm and had the privilege of 
 an unusually good education. When a young man 
 Tie worked on the farm during the summer, and in 
 the winter taught school. In early manhood he went 
 to Hartford, Conn., where he was engaged in the 
 grocery business for some two years, and in 1852 
 made his first appearance in Waterbury. Here he 
 promptly became established in business, and was 
 associated with the commercial interests of the city 
 as long as he lived. The Blake & Johnson Co. owes 
 -not a little of its extended business to his arduous 
 labors as its president for many vears. At one time 
 he was treasurer of the Carrington ^lanufacturing 
 Company. 
 
 On May 5, 1853, Mr. Stevens was united in 
 marriage with Harriet E. Elton, who was born in 
 Hartford, a daughter of Calvin and Jerusha (Cad- 
 wdl) Elton, the former a son of William Elton. 
 John Ehon was the first of the family to come to 
 this country, and he settled at Branford, Conn., later 
 moving from there to Bristol. Ebenezar Elton, his 
 son, was born at Middletown, Conn., was the father 
 of a numerous family, of whom Nathaniel Elton 
 was the father of William, whose name appears 
 above. The union of Air. and Airs. Stevens was 
 Vlessed with two children: Charles E. and Jennie 
 E. Jennie E. became the wife of William K. Mayo 
 (deceased), who was a commodore in the navy; she 
 is still living. Charles E. graduated from Princeton, 
 , was a mining engineer in the western country, and 
 is now a hotel keeper at Readfield, Maine. Mr. 
 Stevens was a Republican, and was closely associated 
 with municipal politics, serving as selectman and 
 road commissioner many years. He had other im- 
 portant nominations, but suffered the fate of his 
 party and was not elected. He filled a long term as 
 water commissioner and another as police commis- 
 sioner. Mr. Stevens was a courteous gentleman, 
 of a kind heart and a gracious manner. Honesty, 
 integrity, breadth of view, a high sense of honor 
 and a deep religious feeling were strongly marked 
 characteristics of the man. 
 
 GEORGE AIYERS, master mechanic for the 
 Goodyear India Rubber Glove Co., and a highly es- 
 teemed citizen of Naugatuck, is a native of Pennsyl- 
 vania, born in Lycoming county, Nov. 22, 1845. 
 
 George Myers, Sr., his father, was born and 
 1 eared en a farm in the same county, and there spent 
 his entire life engaged as a farmer and lumber 
 dealer. He wedded Mary Snyder, who was born 
 m New Jersey, of German ancestry, and to them 
 were born twelve children, namely : Lucy married 
 O. Ramsdale, a lumberman from Massachusetts, 
 now deceased ; Andrew is a farmer of Jersey Shore, 
 Pa.; Barbara and Eliza both died young; Harriet 
 married John Cast, a meat dealer of Lock Haven, 
 
 Pa. ; Catherine (deceased) was the wife of G. P. 
 Smith, a railroad man from Massachusetts ; Re- 
 becca married Edward Alesser, a lumberman of 
 Williamsport, Pa.; Mary died unmarried; Lydia 
 is the wife of Robert Easton, a machinist of Will- 
 iamsport, Pa. ; Michael is a lumber dealer of that 
 place; George, our subject, is next in order of birth; 
 Robert died young. The father died when our sub- 
 ject was only four years old, and the mother de- 
 parted this life in 1892. Both were earnest mem- 
 bers of the Methodist Church, and he was a Whig 
 in politics. 
 
 The first sixteen years of his life George Myers 
 spent upon the home. farm in Lycoming county, Pa., 
 aiding in its operation and attending the district 
 schools of the locality. He then left home, and for 
 thirteen years was engaged in railroad construction 
 in different sections of the country, devoting two 
 years to the building of the New England railroad. 
 He then went to Carmel, Putnam Co., N. Y., where 
 he worked on the railroad for the same length 01 
 time. While there Mr. Myers was married, Dec. 24, 
 1870, to Miss De Ette Nichols, a daughter of Isaac 
 Nichols and a sister of F. S. Nichols, of Nauga- 
 tuck. On leaving Carmel they went to Pleasant- 
 ville. Pa., where cur subject ran an oil pumping en- 
 gine in the oil region for about six months. He 
 was next engaged in railroad work at Brighton, 
 Alass., for one year, and at Zoar, Mass., for the 
 same length of time, after which he went to Plain- 
 field, Vt., and was similarly employed until coming 
 to Naugatuck, Conn., in 1875. Here he has since 
 made his home. For six years he was engineer for 
 the Goodyear India Rubber Shoe Co., and at the 
 end of that period entered the employ of the Good- 
 }ear India Rubber Glove Co. as machinist, remain- 
 ing with them up to the present time. He is now 
 one of the most trusted employes of the firm, hav- 
 ing their entire confidence and respect, and has held 
 the responsible position of master mechanic for the 
 past twelve years. His son, Charles S. Alvers, has 
 been bookkeeper for the Goodyear Metallic India 
 Rubber Shoe Co. for ten years. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Myers have had two children ; the daughter, Kather- 
 ine, is now deceased. 
 
 Politically Air. Alyers is identified with the Re- 
 publican party. He was chief of the Naugatuck 
 fire department for about three years, and has always 
 taken a deep and commendable interest in public 
 affairs. He is a prominent and active member of 
 several civic societies, including the Improved Or- 
 der of Red Men, the Foresters of America, the An- 
 cient Order of United Workmen and Shephard 
 Lodge, No. 78, F. & A. AL, of Naugatuck. With 
 his wife he also belongs to the Eastern Star Chapter 
 and the Amaranth of Waterbury, and both hold 
 membership in the Episcopal Church. 
 
 GUSTAV A. BECRER is an intelligent, indus- 
 trious citizen of German birth, who has contributed 
 his mite toward the material and intellectual growth 
 
59S 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of New Haven county. His family has been among 
 the most respected in Frankfurt, on the River Oder, 
 in Prussia, in which city he was brought up. He 
 was born in Koenigsberg, Aug. 9, 1834. His pa- 
 ternal grandfather was John Frederick, and his fa- 
 ther's Christian name was Carl Frederick. The 
 latter was for many years a clerk in the employ of 
 the government, retaining his position until his 
 death, July i, 1851; he married Johanna j\Ielchert, 
 whose birthplace was New Brandenburg, Mecklen- 
 burg, Germany, and she died at the age of seventy- 
 six. Six children were born to them, of Whom three 
 are yet living: Adelheid and Johannes reside in Ber- 
 lin, Germany; and Gustav A-. The father and 
 mother were both members of the Evangelical 
 Church. 
 
 Mr. Becker remained in the Fatherland until he 
 was twenty-six years old. In i860, he crossed the 
 ocean with the family of his intended to find a new 
 home among people whose customs and speech were 
 to him new and strange. He brought with him, 
 however, what was better than fortune — good health, 
 a sound constitution, sturdy purpose and rugged in- 
 tegrity. He had learned the trade of brass work- 
 ing in his native country, but after reaching these 
 shores he found his way to Kentucky, and went to 
 work upon a farm. From that State he went to 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, and thence drifted back to New 
 York. In 1863 he went to Seymour, where he en- 
 tered the employ of Austin G. Day, Hard Rubber 
 Works, which in time changed to the H. P. and E. 
 Day Manufacturing Co., as a turner of hard rubber. 
 He soon demonstrated his skill as a workman, and 
 in' 1872, nine years after beginning his new experi- 
 ence, he was promoted to a responsible position, 
 and has continued to discharge the arduous and 
 responsible duties of that important post with signal 
 ability and unswerving fidelity. His technical 
 knowledge is superior to that of any man about the 
 works.; and this, joined to his long practical experi- 
 ence, makes him a most capable and efficient super- 
 intendent. Naturally endowed with mechanical 
 genius of a high order, he has been able to devise 
 and perfect many improveinents in the machinery 
 used in the plant. The force of employes not infre- 
 quently numbers one hundred, and all are under his 
 direct personal supervision and control. During his 
 long connection with the establishment, he has seen 
 many changes in its management, one generation 
 succeeding an earlier one, and sons taking the places 
 once filled by their fathers. 
 
 Mr. Becker has been twice married. His first 
 wife was Auguste S. Trost, a German maiden, who 
 died within a year after their union, in 1867. His 
 second wife was Elizabeth, a dauglrter of Conrad 
 and a sister of John N. Popp,- a biographical sketch 
 of whom may be found upon another page. She 
 was born in Bavaria, March 27, 1852, and departed 
 this life June 24, 1901, after a happy union of twen- 
 ty-three years. 
 
 Like most men of his race and temperament, Air. 
 
 Becker is genial, whole-souled and generous, faith- 
 ful to his friends and charitable toward human frail- 
 ty. He built his present handsome residence in 
 189s, and here he loves to dispense a liberal hos- 
 pitality. He is a member of Morning Star Lodge, 
 No. 47, A. F. & A. M., of Seymour, and formerly 
 belonged to the Concordia Society. His political 
 creed is that of the Republican party, while in relig- 
 ious faith he is an Episcopalian, and was for many 
 years a vestryman in that communion. 
 
 SHERMAN W. CHIPMAN, D. D. S., who for 
 the past twenty-two years has been practicing den- 
 tistry in Waterbury, has won for himself a reputa- 
 tion in the profession second to none in the State. 
 
 Dr. Chipman is a native of Connecticut, born 
 Oct. 2, 1852, at the old Wheaton place, on the edge 
 of the town of U'aterbury, a son of William Chip- 
 man, who was born in Waterbury Aug. 13, 181 1. He 
 was apprenticed to the trade of shoemaker, but be- 
 coming dissatisfied ran away from home, eventually 
 reaching Mobile, Ala., where he learned the car- 
 penter's trade, and followed same there several years. 
 Returning to Connecticut, he, in company with his 
 brother George, purchased a farm in Watertown, 
 Litchfield county, at which time he was in the em- 
 ploy of the Seth Thomas Clock Co. After a time 
 he removed to Middlebury, New Haven county, pur- 
 chased the old Wheaton place, and there for several 
 years conducted a milk route. Retiring from that 
 business, he went to Cheshire, New Haven. county, 
 and in his later years bought and sold farms, at the 
 same time carrying on the carpentry business. He 
 died in Cheshire April 21, 1893, a Republican in 
 politics, and a member of the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 On May 6, 1840, William Chipman was married 
 to Rowena Baldwin, who was born April 11, 18 16, 
 of Scottish lineage, and died Jan. 27, 1894, in Che- 
 shire, Conn. Four children came to this union i 
 Miss Jane E., born Sept. 17, 1842; Susan N., bom 
 Nov. 25, 184s, died April 26, 1886; Timothy L., born 
 June 14, 1850, a jeweler by trade, but now conduct- 
 ing the old homestead in Cheshire ; and Sherman W. 
 
 Sherman W. Chipman, whose name introduces 
 this sketch, received his education in Cheshire, at- 
 tending the Episcopal Military Academy. He then 
 taught school two terms in his native town, also one 
 term in Somerville, N. J., and upon returning tO' 
 Connecticut commenced the study of dentistry with 
 Dr. Austin B. Fuller, of New Haven. At the end 
 of about one year with Dr. Fuller our subject at- 
 tended the Pennsylvania Dental College, at Phila- 
 delphia, and dissected at the Jefferson Medical Col- 
 lege, then returned to Cheshire and opened a dental 
 parlor which he continued for two years. During 
 this time, as he had made himself proficient in medi- 
 cine and surgery while in Philadelphia, he was called 
 in to assist at a post mortem examination. On Feb. 
 28, 1874, he graduated from the Pennsylvania Den- 
 tal College. The Doctor then opened a dental office 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 599 
 
 in Torrington, Litchfield county, the first of its liind 
 in the place, and here he practiced three years, mean- 
 time opening a branch office at Thomaston, same 
 county, attending to both for a time. In 1879 h^ 
 abandoned the Torrington office, and opened a 
 branch in Waterbury, New Haven county, in course 
 of time giving up the Thomaston office and moving 
 to Waterbury, where he has for a period of twenty- 
 two years, been engaged in the continuous practice 
 of his profession. 
 
 The Doctor in politics is a Republican, but not 
 active in the affairs of the party. By his own in- 
 dividual efforts he has risen from the position of a 
 poor boy (who had to teach school in order to secure 
 the means of taking him through college) to that of 
 a man of wealth, accumulated by ability in his pro- 
 fession, assisted by industry and indomitable per- 
 severance, not to speak of the popularity he has so 
 justly earned. 
 
 WALTER CLARK LEWIS, one of the esteem- 
 ed and well-known citizens of the town of Madison, 
 is a descendant of an old and honored family, origin- 
 ally located in England. 
 
 George Lewis, the first of the name to locate in 
 New England, came, about 1633, from East Green- 
 wich, Kent Co., England, where he had married 
 Sarah Jenkins, and located at Plymouth, Mass. A 
 year later he removed to Scituate, and there joined 
 the church, later removing to Barnstable, where he 
 died in 1663. His children were : Mary, who mar- 
 ried John Bryant, of Scituate, Mass. ; Thomas ; 
 George, who married Mary Lombard, of Scituate; 
 James, who married Sarah Lane; John; Ephraim ; 
 Sarah ; Nathaniel ; and Joseph. 
 
 Thomas Lewis, son of George, came to America 
 with his parents. He was a surveyor of highways. 
 He married Mary Davis. 
 
 Thomas Lewis, son of Thomas, was born in 
 Barnstable in 1656, lived in Falmouth, later in East- 
 ham, where he died. His fifth son, Zebulon, was 
 the direct ancestor of our subject. 
 
 Zebulon Lewis removed to Haddam, Conn., in 
 1723, from Salem, Mass. He became the father of 
 six sons : Zebulon, Nathan, Eleazer, Levi, Elisha 
 and Thomas. 
 
 Nathan Lewis, son of Zebulon, married and in 
 his family of children was a son, Francis. 
 
 Francis Lewis grew to manhood, married and 
 became the father of three sons, Ansel, Milton and 
 Levi. 
 
 Levi Lewis, the grandfather of our subject, was 
 born in Haddam, where he engaged in agricultural 
 pursuits. He married Sarah Doane, and moved 
 with his family to Madison, where he located on the 
 Kelsey place, near the county line, continuing to 
 farm. A stanch Whig, he upheld the principles of 
 that party throughout life. His death occurred in 
 Madison. In his family were three children : Phil- 
 ander; John E., and Philona, who married Joseph 
 Doane, of Clinton, Connecticut. 
 
 John Erastus Lewis, the father of our subject, 
 was born in Haddam, Feb. 9, 1815, and came with 
 his parents to Madison, where he grew to manhood. 
 His life was a busy one. He engaged in farming 
 and the manufacture of lumber, was also in the prod- 
 uce business, and he was part owner of a vessel. 
 Endowed with considerable energy and business 
 ability, Mr. Lewis became a prominent man in the 
 community, was noted for the correctness of his life, 
 and was spoken of as one who lived up to the pre- 
 cepts of the Golden Rule. 
 
 On Feb. 13, 1854, he was married in Haddam, to 
 Drusilla Clark, daughter of Coleman and Betsey 
 (Pelton) Clark, granddaughter of Asher Clark, and 
 great-granddaughter of Aaron Clark, a soldier of 
 the Revolutionary war. Three children were born 
 of this union: Walter Clark, the subject of this 
 sketch ; Wallace ; and Catherine, who married Ralph 
 Burr, of Middletown. Mr. Lewis died Dec. 23, 
 1893. Mrs. Lewis, who sttll survives, resides on the 
 old homestead. 
 
 Walter C. Lewis, the eldest son of the family, 
 was born April 24, 1855, at the family homestead, 
 where he was reared, and attended the district school 
 and Lee's Academy. His life has been occupied with 
 farming, and he has taken a deep interest in the 
 cultivation of the land, making his place, yearly, 
 more attractive and valuable. On May 14, 1879, 
 Mr. Lewis married Mary Nellie Bristol, a daughter 
 of Charles and Mary (Parmelee) Bristol, and a 
 granddaughter of Uriah Bristol and Albert Par- 
 melee. Three children have come to this tmion : 
 Catherine Francelia, born Sept. 12, 1886; Wallace 
 Frank, born Jan. 24, 1895 ; and Raymond Bristol, 
 born Dec. 22, 1896. In politics Mr. Lewis adheres 
 to the Republican party. The family is identified 
 with the Congregational Church. There are no 
 more highly esteemed residents of Madison than our 
 subject and his wife. 
 
 EUGENE R. HUBBARD, one of the well- 
 known residents of New Haven, connected with the 
 prominent firm of Reynolds & Co., and serving the 
 city as president of the Board of Aldermen, is one 
 of the solid and substantial citizens who are de- 
 voted to the advancement and progress of this city 
 and her industries. 
 
 Mr. Hubbard is a product of New Haven, born 
 here Sept. 23, 1852, a son of Russell Hubbard, who 
 was born in Middlesex county, Dec. 6, 1807, and 
 died in June, 1887. Russell Hubbard married Miss 
 Mahala Wright, also of Middlesex county, born 
 April 17, 1813, and she died April, 1899. After 
 marriage, Russell Hubbard, who was a carpenter and 
 joiner, came to New Haven, about 1835, and here 
 reared in comfort his family of six children : Mahala 
 who married Theodore F. Lamb, of New Haven ; 
 Chauncy R., who went to Brazil, where he died 
 when alDOUt twenty years of age; Ralph, who died 
 in 1877; Willard, a dealer in brass goods, resides in 
 Boston, Mass. ; Herbert L., who is with Reynolds 
 
6oo 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 & Co., of New Haven ; and Eugene R. During his 
 wliole life, Mr. Hubbard was a consistent Demo- 
 crat, and both he and wife were members of the 
 Universahst Church. 
 
 Eugene R. Hubbard spent his boyhood days in 
 New Haven, and attended both common and high 
 school there. After he had passed his fourteenth 
 year, he went to work in the New Haven Clock Co., 
 where he remained three years, and then became an 
 employe of the Reynolds Company, screw manufac- 
 turers, where he continued for two years, going 
 thence to Danbury, Conn., remaining one year. He 
 then worked with Peck Bros. & Co., of New Haven, 
 one year, and in March, 1874, he became shipping 
 clerk with Reynolds & Co., and has continued with 
 that firm ever since. 
 
 On Sept. 17, 1874, Mr. Hubbard was married to 
 Miss Ethma J. French, of New Haven, a daughter 
 of Smith and Emelie French, and two children have 
 been bom to them, Maud I. and Eugene E. Mr. 
 Hubbard has always been a Democrat, and has taken 
 an active interest in politics. In 1895, he was elected 
 councilman in the Eleventh ward, which is regarded 
 as a Republican ward, and he was the only one on 
 the Democratic ward ticket that was elected, this 
 testifying pretty strongly to the confidence and es- 
 teem in which he is held by the community. In 1896, 
 he was nominated for alderman of the same ward, 
 but in the city convention, he was nominaited for the 
 position of police commissioner, and thus was 
 obliged to resign the previous nomination, in the 
 following December being elected to the office, for 
 three years, a Republican mayor being elected at the 
 same time. x-V short time after his term began, a 
 new city charter was formed and this threw Islr. 
 Hubbard out of office by legislation, but the mayor 
 appointed him police commissioner, for one year. 
 In April, 1900, he was elected alderman of the Sixth 
 ward, and has served most acceptably ever since, 
 and has recently been made president of the board, 
 and acting mayor in case of the absence or disability 
 of the incumbent of that office. 
 
 Fraternally, Mr. Hubbard is connected with 
 Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. F. & A. M., and with 
 Montowese Lodge, No. .15, I. O. O. F., and is a 
 member of the Odd Fellows Mutual Aid Association 
 having passed through all the chairs in the I. O. 
 O. F., and has been its secretary. Mr. Hubbard has 
 the respect and esteem of all classes, in New Haven, 
 irrespective of party, and may be justly called one 
 of her representative men. 
 
 EDWIN RUSSELL WHITING. For three 
 generations the Whiting family have been promi- 
 nently identified with the industries of Connecticut. 
 
 Jacob Whiting, the grandfather of Edwin R., 
 was born in Danbury, Conn., Dec. 27, 1770. He 
 moved to Whitneyville, where for many )'cars he 
 was closely identified with Eli Whitney, the manu- 
 facturer, and as the right-hand man of Mr. Whit- 
 ney aided greatly in the development of his inven- 
 
 tions and factory. Jacob Whiting married', Feb. 11, 
 1791, Sarah Blake, who was born Feb. 17, 1769. 
 Their fami!)- of seven children were as follows : 
 Sally, born Sept. 28, 1791 ; Nathan, born April 11, 
 1794; Jacob, father of our subject, born March 5, 
 1796; Jane, born Dec. 31, 1798; Daniel, born Aug. 
 I, 1801 : Daniel (2), born July 8, 1803; Eveline, 
 born Alay I, 1805. 
 
 Jacob Whiting, the father of Edwin Russell, 
 was a life-long resident of Hamden, Conn. He ac- 
 quired the trade of gunsmith, serving an eleven years 
 apprenticeship with Eli Whitney, Sr., and for many 
 years worked in the Whitney factory. He married, 
 in October, 1816, Rebecca Ailing, a native of Flam- 
 den, daughter of a farmer and butcher of that town. 
 To Jacob and Rebecca (Alliiag) Whiting were born 
 seven children, as follows : Maria, born June 10, 
 1818, married James F. ^^'ilcox, of Westville, and 
 died in 1898, leaving two daughters, Angeline 
 (widow of Frank Cummings) and Ella (wife of 
 Edwin Payne, of Flartfordi) ; Jared, born in 1820, 
 married Susan Leek, and died in the town of Ham- 
 den in 1895, leaving a widow (who resides in 
 Whitneyville), and seven children, Ellen (de- 
 ceased), Dennis, Isabella (deceased), Frederick 
 (deceased), Putnam, Hayden and Isadora; Russell, 
 born in 1822, died in infancy; Grace, born in 1824, 
 is the widow of Frederick Thomas, of Westville; 
 Mary, born May 4, 1827, died April 10, 1847, leav- 
 ing one son. Burton L. Umberfield, now a prom- 
 inent member of the police force, Hartford, Conn. ; 
 Edwin R., subject of this sketch, born May 20, 
 1830;. Ellen, born in 1838, died Oct. 5, 1840. Re- 
 becca, the mother of these children, died in New 
 Haven April 7, 1880, aged eighty-three years. 
 Jacob Whiting, the father, died in Hamdien June 2, 
 1866; he was a Democrat in politics, and in his re- 
 ligious views independent. 
 
 Edwin R. Whiting, the subject of this sketch, 
 passed his boyhood days at Whitneyville, attend- 
 ing the public schools of the town until the age 
 of fourteen years, when, on Sept. 18, 1844, he came 
 to New Haven, and at that age began a service at 
 two dollars per week in what are now the works of 
 C. Cowles Co., manufacturers of carriage trim- 
 mings, but which was then Judson, Cornwall & 
 Cowles, which extended through the long period 
 of thirty-five years. 
 
 This long term of service was broken by Mr. 
 Whiting's military service during the Civil war. 
 He enlisted at Centerville, Conn., Aug. 9, 1862, in 
 Co. I, 24th Conn. \'. I. The regiment was assigned 
 to Gen. Banks and participated in his Louisiana 
 campaign, performing an important part at the 
 siege of Port Hudson. Mr. Whiting was taken ill, 
 and was confined in the hospital from May 20, 
 1863,^ until August, when he was sent home. He 
 was in the service thirteen months and was mus- 
 tered out at Middletown, Conn., Sept. 30, 1863. 
 
 Returning to New Haven Mr. Whiting resumed 
 his position with the C. Cowles Co., and during the 
 
(jP^X^out^o^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 6oi 
 
 latter years of his connection with the company did 
 worl< on contract for them and lastly as- superin- 
 tendent. In 1880 he retired from active work in 
 the factory to devote his time exclusively to his real 
 estate interests, of which he now possesses consid- 
 erable. 
 
 On July 4, 1849, ^^^- Whiting married Louezer 
 A. Hickox, of Woodbridge, who was born July 28, 
 1828, daughter of Henry and Lucy (Ailing) 
 Hickox, farming people, and great-granddaughter 
 of Reuben Hickox, who, as an English emigrant, 
 settled in Durham, Conn. The maternal grand- 
 father of Mrs. Whiting was Justice Ailing, of 
 Woodbridge. Of these families Henry Hickox is 
 the only one left in Woodbridge. To our subject 
 and wife were born four children, viz. : Jennie 
 A., who died at the age of thirteen ; E. Park, who 
 died at the age of seventeen; Howard E., of New 
 Haven, who married Marguerite O'Neil, and has 
 three children, Ceres Belle, Henry and Edwin ; Le- 
 roy E., proprietor of the hosiery manufacturing fac- 
 tory known as the White Knit Mills, New Haven, 
 and who married Carrie Anna Elder, of Hartford. 
 
 In politics j\Ir. Whiting is independent. He is 
 one of the charter members of the New Haven Cre- 
 mation Society, which has about one hundred mem- 
 bers. Possessing business sagacity of a high order, 
 he is a typical citizen of the city of New Haven, in- 
 terested in its splendid progress, and contributing 
 not a little during his residence of more than a half 
 century within its limits. Mr. Whiting has de- 
 signed and arranged the plans of the houses he has 
 built and, with the aid of his faithful wife, he has 
 ornamented and furnished the handsome house on 
 Dixwell avenue, so that probably no house in the city 
 of equal value is its superior. Mr. and Mrs. Whit- 
 ing began married life poor, and from their united 
 and well directed efforts, coupled with much hard 
 work, their well deserved success has come to them 
 in their declining years. 
 
 TREAT (Line of A. B. Treat). From the 
 earliest settlement of Connecticut, at Hartford, 
 Windsor and Wethersfield, the Treats have been 
 residents of the Commonwealth and prominent in 
 its annals. For generations the town of Orange 
 has been the home of manv of the name, and of a 
 number in the line of Isaac, Isaac Piatt and Arthur 
 D. Treat — father, son and grandson--the lat- 
 ter of whom for years has been a prominent and 
 one of the leading mason builders and contractors 
 in New Haven, and of him and his lineage it is the 
 purpose of this article to treat. 
 
 Born Aoril 6, 1853. i" Orange, son of Isaac 
 Piatt and Marv J. (Barnes) Treat, Arthur Barnes 
 Treat is descended in the ninth generation from 
 Richard Treat, who was born in 1584, in Pitmmister 
 Somersetshire. England, was married there April 
 27 161 q to Alice Gaylord, baptized m 1594, and 
 with wife and nine children left England about 
 1638 for the American colonies. Mr. Treat was 
 
 among the early settlers in Wethersfield, Conn., 
 where he is on record as among the freemen of 1669. 
 From this emigrant settler Artliur B. Treat's 
 lineage is through Gov. Robert Treat, Capt. Joseph, 
 Joseph (2), Deacon Joseph (3), Isaac, Isaac (2), 
 and Isaac Piatt Treat. 
 
 (II) Gov. Robert Treat, son of Richard the set- 
 tler, born in 1624-5, i" Pitminister, married (first) 
 Jane Tapp. She died in 1703. Mr. Treat located 
 in the town of Milford where Nov. 20, 1639, at 
 the first meeting of the planters, he was one of the 
 nine appointed to survey and lay out the lands of 
 the town. From the very beginning Mr. Treat took 
 a prominent part in the public affairs of the town, 
 and through a long period of years was a conspicu- 
 ous character in the colony of Connecticut. Mr. 
 Treat was town clerk in 1640. His public career can 
 be thus summed up; first a deputy from Milford to 
 the General Court six years ; five more years from 
 Newark to the Assembly of New Jersey ; magistrate 
 in New Haven General Court and assistant in that 
 of Connecticut for eight years ; and twenty years 
 in the halls of legislation ; seventeen years as deputy 
 governor ; and thirteen years as governor. He and 
 his wife were early received into the church in Mil- 
 ford. Gov. Treat died July 12, 1710. 
 
 (III) Capt. Joseph Treat, son of Gov. Robert, 
 born Sept. 17, 1662, in Milford, continued-to live 
 tliere. He married (first) Frances, daughter of 
 Richard and Mary (Pantry) Bryan. Mr. Treat 
 rose successively from sergeant to captain, and ren- 
 dered good service to his country in the Indian 
 troubles. He was deputy from Milford in 1707 and 
 1708 to the General Court; and a justice of the 
 peace for New Haven county, 1702-19. Capt. 
 Treat was one of the original proprietors of the 
 town of New Hartford. He died Aug. 9, 1721, and 
 his wife, Frances, who was born Feb. 13, 1668, died 
 Sept. 21, 1703. 
 
 (IV) Capt. Joseph Treat (2), son of Capt. Jos- 
 eph, born March 21, 1693, in ^Milford, married first, 
 June 9, 1720, Hannah Buckingham, who died May 
 25, 1733- Capt. Treat, Hkfe his father before him, 
 served successively as ensign, lieutenant and captain 
 in the train band of Milford. He was deputy to the 
 General Court for five years between 1748 and 
 1756, and served as selectman in 1 771 and 1772. 
 His death occurred May 17, 1772. 
 
 (V) Deacon Joseph Treat (3), son of Capt. 
 Joseph Treat (2), born Nov. 28, 1727, in Milford, 
 married Mary Merwin, and resided in North Mil- 
 ford, now the town of Orange. Deacon Treat died 
 July 27, 1791, and Mrs. Treat, July 23, 1803. 
 
 (VI) Isaac Treat, son of Deacon Joseph (3), 
 born in North Milford (Orange), April 7, 1756, 
 married Feb. 9, 1785, Mehitabel Piatt, born March 
 c, 1762. Mr. Treat was a farmer on Grassy Hill. 
 He died Oct. 9, 1822, and Mrs. Treat died Sept. 15, 
 1836. 
 
 (VII) Isaac Treat (2), son of Isaac, born April 
 8, 179s, in Orange, married Oct. 20, 1820, Martha 
 
6o2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 M. Piatt, and resided in Orange where he was a 
 farmer and a wealthy and influential citizen. He 
 died Oct. i6, 1861, and Mrs. Treat died Nov. 4, 
 1876, aged seventy-four years. 
 
 (VIII) Isaac Piatt Treat, son of Isaac (2), 
 born Nov. 8, 1826, in Orange, married (first) Jan. 
 27, 1850, Mary Jane Barnes, who died Jan. 31, 1857. 
 He married (second) June 15, 1858, Sarah Booth, 
 who died in 1881, and (third) in 1885, he wedded 
 L.ydia M. Osborn. She died in May, 1900. Mr. 
 Treat was formerly a farmer of Orange. He held 
 various town offices, among them member of the 
 board of school visitors, selectman, assessor and 
 grand juror. His children, all born in Orange, were : 
 Emma J., born May 23, 1851, married Nov. 28, 1872, 
 Henry C. Beers, and is a resident of New Haven ; 
 Arthur Barnes is referred to more fully farther on ; 
 Howard Piatt, born Jan. 20, 1857, married Dec. 22, 
 1880, Alfreda Isabel Rogers. Flora B., a daughter 
 by the second marriage, married W. M. Andrew. 
 
 Arthur Barnes Tre.vt, son of Isaac Piatt 
 Treat, received his school training in the neighbor- 
 hood district school and the high school, then for a 
 period in 1869 attended Oberlin College, at Oberlin, 
 Ohio, taking the preparatory course in that institu- 
 tion. Returning to Connecticut in 1870 he learned 
 the mason building trade, serving an apprenticeship 
 of three years with the firm of Smith & Sperry, and 
 for six years following was in the employ of that 
 firm, during that period working on a number of the 
 \'ale College buildings and others of importance in 
 the city of New Haven. It is of note to state that 
 young Treat early began to be self-reliant, and at 
 fourteen undertook and successfully completed a 
 contract he madle with the Derby Railroad to supply 
 it with stone. At twenty-five, in 1877, Mr. Treat 
 began a business career on his own account, which 
 has been most honorable and successful, following 
 the line in which he had served an apprenticeship. 
 He was first associated for a short time with Hill- 
 ard B. Fenn, who died a few months thereafter. 
 He then for years conducted the business alone, 
 later becoming a member of the firm of Smith, 
 Sperry & Treat, with the senior member of which he 
 had previously been identified. Still later the firm 
 became as it has since remained, Sperry &■ Tieat, 
 whose office is at Room 308 Washington Building, 
 No. 39 Church street: The individual memliers of 
 the firm — Hon. N. D. Sperry and Arthur B. Treat 
 - — need no introduction to the people of New Haven, 
 nor of the State of Connecticut, as both are well 
 and favorably known throughout the State, in nearly 
 every section of which their building operations 
 have been carried. Then Mr. Sperry's long and 
 honorable public career, which is known to even 
 everv schoolboy, makes the firm doubly well known. 
 
 For a quarter of a century Mr. Treat has been 
 prnminentlv identified with the building interefts of 
 Xcw Haven especially, and has figured conspicu- 
 ouslv in the erection of scores of the modern dwell- 
 
 ings, business and public buildings that have gone 
 up in the 'city. He has also done much work in var- 
 ious other localities and in other cities of the State. 
 He built the Crockett Varnish Works at Bridgeport, 
 and the Bridgeport Hospital, the mason work of 
 which alone was, approximately, $40,000. He built 
 Christ's Church edifice in Westport; the graded 
 school building in Stratford; and a handsome resi- 
 dence on the Sterling estate; and the Fairfield 
 county court house in Bridgeport. For a time, 
 through the middle eighties, he had a branch es- 
 tablishment and a partner in Bridgeport, and in 
 that city erected many structures not named in the 
 foregoing. Among the many buildings erected by 
 him in New Haven, as a partner in Smith, Sperry 
 & Treat, are : The Burrett Manville block on East 
 Chapel street, and the carriage works of that gen- 
 lleman; the A. B. Dodge block; the F. S. Bradley 
 dwelling on West Chapel street ; the large brick 
 dwelling of Robert Brown on the Yale Observa- 
 tory lot ; the George C. Pettis dwelling on High 
 street; the brick block of Maj. T. Atwater Barnes 
 on Bradley street ; the block owned by Airs. Mary 
 .A.. Treat on St. John street ; the Henry Kelsey 
 block on .State street ; the Gregory street school 
 building ; the Humphrey street church edifice. 
 Sperry & Treat built twenty-six of the new uni- 
 versity buildings, including all the dormitories ex- 
 cept one. They are now constructing the follow- 
 ing : Fayerweather Dormitory ; Administration 
 building ; Clinical building for the medical depart- 
 ment ; addition to the Kent laboratory ; new memor- 
 ial building for the scientific departnient of Yale ; 
 rebuilding and remodeling the old "commons" into 
 a laborator}'. These six buildings alone will cost 
 $450,000; and all this is under Air. Treat's manage- 
 ment. They are working under ten diiTerent archi- 
 tects, and are employing about one hundred and 
 twenty-five nie;n, besides six or seven sets of sub- 
 contractors, who employ about three hundred men. 
 Besides these buildings for the university, they are 
 constructing other public buildings in the city and 
 a few private houses. Owing to the many monu- 
 ments to their handiwork in the university grounds 
 they are often called the "College Builders." As 
 Mr. Sperry's duties as congressman necessitate his 
 being in Washington, D. C, a great deal of the 
 time he knows but little of the business, and the 
 burden of the management naturally falls upon Mr. 
 Treat's able shoulders. 
 
 Mr. Treat and Prof. H. L. Wells, of Yale, are 
 manufacturers and dealers in antihydrine, a prep- 
 aration they originated. This is a material made of 
 a high gradte of asphalt, carefully prepared in com- 
 bination with several chemicals, which give it the 
 peculiar property of forming (without heating) 
 a continuous glossy and impervious coating upon 
 porous surfaces. It does away with wood furrings, 
 renders walls damp proof, and prevents staining of 
 plastering on walls and on fire-proof work, .and pre- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 603 
 
 vents staining of limestone, brick facings, etc. Tliev 
 have agents all through the United States and arc 
 doing an extensive business. 
 
 'Arthur B. Treat owes his success to his own in- 
 domitable will and untiring energy. He began life 
 without a dollar and has, by good management and 
 careful business methods, won a substantial fortune. 
 Politically he is a Republican and belongs to the 
 Young Men's Republican Club. Fraternally he is 
 a 32d degree Mason, being a member of Wooster 
 Blue Lodge, No. 79, F. & A. M. ; New Haven Com- 
 mandery; Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine, of 
 Bridgeport, Conn. ; also the Consistory at that place, 
 and the Knights Templars Club, of New Haven. 
 He also belongs to> the 2d' Company, Governor's Foot 
 Guards, having served first as a private for five 
 years, then for two years as corporal, and for one 
 year chief of engineers with rank of captain on the 
 m.ajor's staff. He is a member of the Sons of the 
 American Revolution, his right to membership be- 
 ing through maternal lines. Merritt Barnes, grand- 
 father of our subject, was a captain in the war of 
 i8i2 and lived to the age of ninet3'-four ; his wife 
 lived to be ninety, and their wedded life lasted over 
 seventy-one years. Jonathan Barnes, father of Mer- 
 ritt, was in the Revolutionary war and fought at 
 Monmouth and Valley Forge. 
 
 Mr. Treat is one of the trustees of the Howard 
 Avenue Congregational Church, where he wastenor 
 soloist eight years, and he is now chairman of the 
 music committee. In the same church he is also 
 chairman of the committee on church property, and 
 be is one of the most prominent supporters of that 
 church. He belongs to the "Gounod" singing so- 
 ciety, in which he had been on the board of govern- 
 ment seven years, and he is the third oldest mem- 
 ber of that board. 
 
 Mr. Treat is owner of a large farm of two 
 hundred acres in the town of Orange, which farm 
 has been in the family ever since Gov. Treat bought 
 ic from the Indians, except for a period of about 
 ten years, when Mr. Treat, the present owner, 
 bought it back, and he is the ninth to own it. He 
 is at present building an excellent new home on 
 Whitney avenue. Mr. Treat married Leona Weeks, 
 and they had children as follows: Fannie, who is 
 at home; Arthur B., Jr., w'ho died in infancy; 
 George Arthur, born Oct. 19, 1883 ; and Florence 
 B. For his second wife Mr. Treat married Mrs. 
 Catherine (Chapman) Stanley, widow of Herbert 
 S. Stanley, and they have one child, Robert Sperry, 
 born Oct. 15, 1898. 
 
 GEORGE M. GRISWOLD, one of the leading 
 business men and prominent citizens of New Haven, 
 was born April 10, 1848, in South Glastonbury, 
 Conn., son of Anson and Samantha (Tryon) Gris- 
 wold. The Griswold family is one of the oldest in 
 Connecticut, and on the maternal side our subject is 
 a descendant of the Tryon family, one of the very 
 oldest in Glastonbury. 
 
 Anscn Griswold, father of George M., is sup- 
 posed to have been born at Griswoldville, where 
 there is a record of his having been "bound out" to 
 a farmer. Later he was apprenticed to the trade of 
 blacksmith for a short time, and then to that of car- 
 penter, working at the latter for some years in Glas- 
 tonbury. His latter days, however, were spent upon 
 a farm in South Glastonbury, where he died aged 
 sixty-one. His wife was a daughter of Jesse Tryon, 
 who was a farmer, builder of. vessels, shad fisher 
 and also owned and operated a sawmill, accumulating 
 comfortable means. Jesse Tryon married Wealthy 
 Shaler, a native of Middle Haddam, Conn., who 
 lived to be eighty, and they had a family of five chil- 
 dren, two of whom grew to maturity, Samantha 
 (Mrs. Anson Griswold) and Edmund. Three chil- 
 dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Anson Griswold: 
 Hudson, who is in California; Jesse, on the farm; 
 and George M., our subject. Mrs. Griswold died 
 m 1899, aged ninety-one, a member of the Episco- 
 pal Church. Politically he was a Democrat. 
 
 George M. Griswold spent his boyhood da3fs in 
 South Glastonbury, and in September, 1861, entered 
 the general store at East Berlin. In the spring of 
 
 1862 he returned home, spent the summer on the 
 farm, and during the winter of 1862-63 attended the 
 Naubuc Academy, which was his last schooling. ' 
 In the spring of 1863 he went to Meriden with less 
 than five dollars and worked for a short time with 
 N. C. Stiles at the trade of machinist, and from 
 
 1863 to 1871 was in the employ of Charles Parker. 
 He was then for a short time employed by the Meri- 
 den Britannia Co. Later he was engaged as a tool 
 maker by the Whitney Arms Co. and the Pratt & 
 Whitney Co., of Hartford. There were many fine 
 workers in metals in those days, and Mr. Griswold 
 formed many very pleasant acquaintances, which 
 friendships have been retained to this day. 
 
 In 1875, having been frugal and saved his money, 
 Mr. Griswold was enabled to locate in New Haven 
 as a machinist. Although his capital was small, but 
 $800, by his industry and the excellence of his work, 
 he built up a fine trade, and in 1898 built his pres- 
 ent building on Union and Fair streets. Previous 
 to his removal to this location he was in the Atwater 
 building for twenty-three years. He manufactures 
 dies and tools for fine nielal working, and the prod- 
 uct of his factory is sent to all parts of the civilized 
 world, even to Africa, China, Japan and the South 
 American states. He makes all kinds of special ma- 
 chinery from designs or suggestions of inventors. 
 The concern also designs a great deal of machinery. 
 The plant is a large one, covering an area of 48x85 
 feet, and the structure is four stories high. All 
 the most improved machinery is used, and employ- 
 ment is given tO' thirty men. Mr. Griswold's thor- 
 ough acquaintance with all the intricate details of 
 the business enables him personally to superintend 
 the work of manufacture and to give to the prodluct 
 of his establishment an excellence that gains for 
 the goods a ready and high-priced market. Our 
 
'6o4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 subject is a self-made man in the fullest sense of 
 the . term. From boyhoodi hq has had practical 
 knowledge of hard work. He started in life with 
 no resources but his natural ability, and he has suc- 
 ceeded well, not only in accumulating worldly 
 goods, but in securing a position as a citizen in the 
 best ranks. 
 
 ^Ir. Griswold was married in 1888 to Miss Edna 
 E. Cooke, born in Brooksvale, daughter of Lorin E. 
 Cook, a farmer and keg and' furniture manufacturer, 
 who is still living; his wife, who died in 1899, was 
 a lady of high intelligence and she was deeply 
 mourned. Mrs. Griswoldl was one of a family of 
 five children. She and her husband have one daugh- 
 ter, Lura Ednas. They are prominent members of 
 St. Paul's Church, of New Haven, and are infiu- 
 •ential in church and social circles. Mr. Griswold is 
 .a member of the Missionary and Benevolent So- 
 ciet}- of St. Paul, in which he is also an official. 
 The family reside in a very pleasant home in West- 
 ville, built in 1895. 
 
 In politics Mr. Griswold is a Democrat, but has 
 never sought for political distinction, being so oc- 
 cupied with his own affairs that, aside from cast- 
 ing his vote for the candidates of his party, he has 
 left the management of civic affairs to others. He 
 ■has taken an active part in the Masonic fraternity, 
 iDeing a member of Trumbull Lodge, A. F & A. M., 
 in which he has held offices ; he is also a member of 
 Pyramid Lodge, A. O. \J. W., and of the Golden 
 Cross, being treasurer of the latter. 
 
 EDWARD LAURENS FRISBIE, son of 
 Laurens and Artemisia (Welton) Frisbie, was born 
 in Waterbury Aug. 22, 1824. He is a descendant of 
 Edward Frisbie, who came from Wales and settled 
 in the Hartford Colony soon after its establishment, 
 and who, in 1644, was one of a party that purchased 
 Totoket (now Branford), and organized a town 
 government there. About 1750 Elijah Frisbie, a 
 descendant of Edward, left Branford and settled in 
 Waterbury. 
 
 Edward Laurens Frisbie was educated in the 
 common schools of his native town. He was em- 
 ployed chiefly in farming until 1847, when he en- 
 tered the kettle department of the Waterbury Brass 
 Co., continuing in this situation until the summer 
 of 1848, when the old method of manufacturing ket- 
 tles by stamping was superceded by a machine for 
 spinning them. In the spring of 1849 ^^ engaged 
 in casting brass and German silver at the factory 
 ol i;rov\'n & Elton, and remained in the SL'r\'ice of 
 that firm until the organization of Brown & 
 Brothers. He entered the employ of the new com- 
 jjany to take charge of its casting department, and 
 remained with it for thirty years (until January, 
 1883), holding iJDsitims of responsibility and influ- 
 ence in connection with the management of the con- 
 cern. In 1854 he i.urchased an interest in it. 
 
 IMr. Frisbie represented the town in the Legis- 
 lature in 1854, and again in 1872. He has held the 
 
 offices of justice of the peace, selectman, and as- 
 sessor, and has served as a member of the board of 
 relief fdr the town. In the city government he has 
 served as a councilman and as a member of various 
 boards and committees. He is the president of the 
 Waterbury Savings Bank, has been a trustee of the 
 Dime Savings Bank since its formation, and is a 
 director in the Manufacturers' Natiorial Bank. He 
 has been from the first a director of the Waterbury 
 Hospital. When St. John's Episcopal Church was 
 divided, he became connected with the new enter- 
 prise, and has since that time been a member of 
 Trinity parish, and a vestryman, or warden, in it. 
 On Feb. 11, 1850, Mr. Frisbie married Hannah 
 A., daughter of Hershel Welton, of Wolcott. She 
 died July 10, 1857. The children by this marriage, 
 besides two daughters who died in infancy, were 
 Mary A., who married Ellis Phelan, and Edward 
 Laurens. On Jan. 12, i860, Mr. Frisbie married 
 Josephine, daughter of Abner Deming, of Derby. 
 She died Oct. 14, 1872, leaving one daughter, Jose- 
 phine. On Oct. 2, 1884, he married Emily J., third 
 daughter of George W. Welton. 
 
 DANIEL J. MAHANEY, a popular hotel 
 keeper in Waterbury, and formerly a well known 
 contractor and builder, was born in Ansonia, this 
 county, March 16, 1850. 
 
 Andrew Mahaney, father of Daniel J., was born 
 in County Cork, Ireland, in July, 1816, a son of 
 Daniel Mahaney, a landholder. Andrew Mahaney 
 married Honora Ryan, and their marriage was 
 blessed with seven children, of whom three are still 
 I'vinp-, viz.: Michael is an itinerant bricklaver; 
 Norah married Thomas Sherlock, of Waterbury; 
 and Daniel J. is' the subject of this sketch. The 
 father of these children died in i88g, and the mother 
 
 m 1892. 
 
 Daniel J. Mahanev attended school in Ansonia 
 until quite a lad, and in August, 1867, was appren- 
 ticed to the Farrel Foundry Co., at Ansonia. At 
 the termination of seven weeks, however, he ran 
 away to New Haven and worked on a bench as mol- 
 der for five months. On March 29. 1869, he was 
 apprenticed to Railley & Benham to learn bricklay- 
 ing; he worked for this firm six months in New 
 Haven and then went to Bridgeport and worked for 
 them until the spring of 1871. He then began work 
 in that cit_\' on his own account, and so continued 
 until June 6, when be went to Cleveland, Ohio, and 
 worked on an asylum in Newburg, then in the course 
 of construction, from June to October. Returning 
 t(. Connecticut he worked at Shelton the remaining 
 two months of 1871, and on Jan. i, 1872, went to 
 New Haven, where he worked until March 16. He 
 then made a short visit to his home in Ansonia, 
 on March 2^-,. 1872, going to Chicago, 111., in which 
 western metropolis he worked as foreman on the 
 "Palmer House'' until Dec. 25, when he returned to 
 AVaterbury. He remained there until April, 1873, 
 at which time he went to Boston, where he worked 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 60$. 
 
 until the following winter. Upon 'bis return to 
 Waterbury, the same year, he married Aliss Mar- 
 garet Casey, a native of Bethlehem, Conn., and a 
 daughter of Timothy Casey. After marriage Mr. 
 and Mrs. Mahaney went to Boston, where he fol- 
 lowed his trade tmtil March, 1875. For a few 
 months he was engaged in various places, including 
 Waterbury, Holyoke, Mass., and Hartford, Conn., 
 and in 1876 began contracting and building in Wat- 
 erbury, in which he continued for five years, meet- 
 ing with flattering success. In 1876 Mr. Mahanev 
 engaged in the retail liquor business and hotel keep'- 
 ing, and is still thus engaged. 
 
 To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Mahaney have 
 been born fourteen childlren, of whom ten still sur- 
 vive, as follows: Nora, Ellen, Mollie, William, 
 Catherine, Daniel, Jr., John, Agnes, Alice and Mar- 
 garet. Air. Mahaney has always worked hard for 
 the Democratic party wherever he has lived, and 
 has wielded considerable influence in its coimcils, 
 being himself quite popular in its ranks. He is at 
 present representing his party as alderman from 
 the Fourth ward, is also a member of the board of 
 public works, and has served on the board of fire 
 commissioners. Fraternally he is a member of the 
 B. P. O. E. and the Foresters of America. He is 
 one of those genial, whole-souled, public-spirited 
 men who make friends everywhere, and he is "as 
 honest as the day is long.'' 
 
 WILBUR FISK ROGERS, a member of C. 
 Rogers & Bros., and secretary of that company, was 
 born in the old town of Saybrook, Conn., July 18, 
 1841. While still young he came with his parents 
 to Meriden, becoming a pupil in the local schools, 
 and at the age of twelve years began for himself, 
 securing work with the Charles Parker Co. at fifty 
 cents a day. He attended school during the winter 
 season-. This relation continued for a number of 
 years, and young Rogers became an adept at the 
 business of silver plating. His second employment 
 was with the Meriden Britannia Co., where he was 
 given a place in the plating department. At New- 
 ark, N. J., he became manager of the plating depart- 
 ment of A. J. Towner, who was engaged at job 
 plating. There Mr. Rogers spent a year and then 
 returned to Connecticut to work at his trade for 
 Rogers & Bros., at Waterbury, beginning on the es- 
 tablishment of the concern. In New York he was 
 afterward employed by his brother, Gilbert Rogers, 
 who was associated at that time with A. H. & G. 
 Rogers Silver Plating Co. This business was sus- 
 pended on account of the opening of the Civil war. 
 
 While in New York Wilbur F. Rogers was fired 
 with patriotic fever of the hour, and joined the mob 
 in its attack on the New York Daybook, a paper then 
 supposed to be in sympathv with the South. At that 
 time all the newspaper offices were compelled to 
 make a display of the American flag. On the day 
 following President Lincoln's first call for trooos 
 Mr. Rogers put down his name and was mustered 
 
 into the State service April 22. On May 2, 1861, he 
 was mustered into the United States service as a 
 member of Compan\- F, 4th N. Y. V. I., Col. Tay.- 
 lor and Capt. Camp commanding. This regiment 
 was known as the ist Scott Life Guard, as the com- 
 mand was formed out of the old organization of vet- 
 erans of the jMexican war residing in New York. 
 This splendid regiment gave true and loyal service,. 
 made a fine record for itself, and never failed to re- 
 spond bravely to the call of duty. It was in the 
 battle of Big Bethel, among the first of the war,, 
 and from that time on Mr. Rogers performed guard 
 duty with the regiment at Newport News, \'a., Fort 
 AIcHenry, Perryville and Black River Bridge, Aid., 
 and Suffolk, Va. In 1862 the regiment was trans- 
 ferred to the 2d Corps', Army of the Potomac, and 
 took part in the battles of Antietam, Fredericksburg 
 and Chancellorsville. At the last place the regiment 
 volunteered to go into the fight, although its two 
 years' term of enlistment had expired. For this 
 conduct the regiment received a magiiificent recep- 
 tion from the city of New York after its arrival 
 home, and the honor of a review by Gen. Scott, who 
 threw kisses to the wounded of the regiment from 
 the balcony of the "Fifth Avenue Hotel'' as they 
 passed in carriages. Air. Rogers was with his com- 
 mand from the first to the last, took part in all its- 
 battles and became third sergeant of his company 
 and right general guide of the regiment. On May 
 5, 1863, he was mustered out of the service. He re- 
 turned to his home in Meriden, and after three- 
 months re-enlisted in Company G, 35th New Jersey 
 Zouaves, under Col. Clark and Capt. Helmer, be- 
 ing made sergeant and general guide of the regi- 
 ment. This command was sent to the west, be- 
 came a part of the army under Gen. Sherman, and 
 was with him on his famous expedition across 
 Alississippi from Vicksburg. Then it became a 
 part of the 17th Corps of Gen. Sherman's army 
 and took part in the battles of the Atlanta campaign, 
 . as follows : Resaca, New Hope Church, Dallas, 
 Big Shanty, Kenesaw Mountain, Roswell's Alills, 
 Nickajack Creek, Ruff's Mills, Decatur, the siege of 
 Atlanta, Ezra Chapel, Jonesboro and the March 
 to the Sea :, thence through South Carolina to Ral- 
 eigh, N. C. ; was at the surrender of Johnston, and 
 from there to Petersburg, Richmond and Washing- 
 ton, where Mr. Rogers participated in the Grand 
 Review. He was mustered out of the service at 
 Trenton, N. J., July 20, 1865, receiving a discharge 
 that reflected credit on bis devotion to his country. 
 After his return home Mr. Rogers worked at 
 his trade with the Charles Parker Co. until the form- 
 ing of the firm of Rogers & Bros., of which he be- 
 came a member. The first plating room established 
 was superintended by him for fifteen years. A full 
 account of this interesting and historic company is 
 found elsewhere. Air. Rogers began life as a poor 
 boy, worked hard from early youth, and acquired his 
 education as best he could. His manly character, 
 honor, integrity and genial disposition have secured 
 
6o6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 for him the confidence of his employers and the 
 respect of the public. 
 
 , ]n 1895 Mr. Rogers was elected alderman on 
 the Republican ticket from the Fourth ward and 
 served four years, druing which time he was ap- 
 pointed chairman of several important committees. 
 While a Republican, be is not a politician, and only 
 consented to serve the city because it seemed to 
 him a duty he owed) his neighbors. A public-spirited 
 man, he takes pride in the service he has been able 
 to render his friends and neighbors. Mr. Rogers 
 and his family belong to the First Methodist Church, 
 in which he is a member of the official board, a 
 steward and teacher in the Sunday-school. He be- 
 longs to the Army and Navy Club, of Connecticut, 
 the Sons of the American Revolution and is a char- 
 ter member of the Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. 
 F., at Meriden, in which he haS' passed all the chairs. 
 As might be expected, judging from his fine military' 
 record, Mr. Rogers takes much interest in the for- 
 tunes of the G. A. R., holding membership in Mer- 
 riam Post, No. 8, at Meriden, and has filled all the 
 offices up to and including State commander. In 
 1880 be was appointed aide-de-camp on the staff of 
 National Commander-in-Chief Wagner. In 1886 he 
 filled the office of inspector of the Department of 
 Connecticut, and was a delegate to the National En- 
 campment held at St. Louis. In 1891 he was hon- 
 ored by election to the office of junior vice comman- 
 der and was promoted to senior vice commander 
 of the Department at the Encampment held at Dan- 
 bury in 1892. In 1893 he was elected department 
 commander at Willimantic. During his army days 
 Mr. Rogers was never off duty, wounded or sick in 
 the hospital through his entire term, and these quali- 
 ties of rugged health and) hardihood have made his 
 assistance in the G. A. R. very valuable. He agrees 
 never to ask the government for a pension or any 
 other favor for his services in the war. 
 
 Mr. Rogers is domestic in his tastes and has a 
 fine home, beautifully located on Akron street, where 
 he displays alike the qualities of a devoted husband, 
 thoughtful and kind father, a good citizen and an 
 abstemious and upright man. Mr. Rogers and Miss 
 Mary J. Corbin were married Jan. I, 1867. She is a 
 daughter of the late Hezekiah H. Corbin, and be- 
 longs to one of the oldest families' in New England, 
 whose ancestral history runs far back into the annals 
 of old England. 
 
 The name of Corbin appears on the rolls of the 
 armor-bearers of Suffolk and other English coun- 
 ties as early as 1272. They came from Normandy, 
 where the family is mentioned in 1180. The first 
 of the family to come to this country was Robert 
 Corbin, who came from England, settling in the 
 Casco Bay territory, near Portland, Maine, and 
 ''Corbyn Sound" perpetuates his name. James Cor- 
 bin, born at Roxbury, Mass., in 1667, is supposed to 
 be a remote ancestor of Mrs. Rogers. He married 
 Hannah Eastman in 1687, and among their children 
 
 was one Philip, who married Dorothy Barstow, in 
 1 73 1. Among their children was Lemuel, who 
 married a lady from Dudley. Their son, Philip, 
 who married Rody Healev, was the father of Philip 
 Corbin, Jr. He married Lois Chaffee, and became 
 the father of Hezekiah H. Corbin and the grand- 
 father of Mrs. Rogers. 
 
 Hezekiah H. Corbin was born Nov. 29, 1821, 
 and by his industrial activity, commercial genius 
 and high manliness made his name an important 
 element in the history of New Britain, to which 
 point he came in the early forties. In 1866 he en- 
 tered into partnership with T. W . Loomis and en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of paper boxes. This 
 partnership came to an end at the expiration of 
 about a year, and Mr. Corbin and his son, Frank E., 
 joined their energies and built up a large box manu- 
 facturing business under the name of H. H. Cor- 
 bin & Son. In 1890 Frank E. Corbin retired from 
 the business and was succeeded by his brother, Wil- 
 lis P. Hezekiah H. Corbin died Nov. 6, 1897, and 
 left the memory of a good man, a straightforward 
 and reliable person in the business world and a 
 genial companion and obliging neighbor. He was 
 married Feb. 16, 1844, in the town of Willington, 
 to Maria B. Ryder, a daughter of Byers and Abi- 
 gail (Eldridge) Ryder, and born in Westford, Jan. 
 6, 1825. To this union were born four children: 
 Mary Jane, born at Willington, June 13, 1845, is the 
 wife of Wilbur F. Rogers, of Meriden. Frank 
 Eugene was born at Hartford, Dec. 13, 1849. Homer 
 Montrose, born Hampden, Ohio, died Oct. 13, 1853. 
 Willis P., born in New Britain, Feb. 20, 1856, since 
 the death of H. H. Corbin has been in entire charge 
 of the immense box manufacturing business already 
 mentioned. Hezekiah H. Corbin was a man of 
 much intelligence and wide reading. As a leader 
 in the Advent Church he was known throughout 
 the State, and was one of the principal organizers of 
 the church of that faith in New Britain. 
 
 J\Irs. Wilbur F. Rogers is a lady of refinement, 
 of wide information and is a very enthusiastic ad- 
 vocate of the cause of woman suffrage. Though 
 domestic in her tastes, she takes a deep interest in 
 matters of local interest, and for several years has 
 been president of the Meriden Political Equality 
 Club, which she helped to organize. She was elected 
 a member of the high school committee of Meriden, 
 and was chairman of the board several years, en- 
 joying the distinction of being the first woman 
 elected to such a position in the State. Mrs. Rogers 
 was a graduate of the high school and the State 
 Normal School at New Britain, and for several 
 years was a teacher in the schools of Meriden. As 
 a wife and mother she is all that could be desired, 
 and in her home the utmost happiness and content- 
 ment prevail. In the First Methodist Church she 
 is, and has been for several years, the efficient presi- 
 dent of the Ladies Aid Society. She is a prominent 
 member of Susan Carrington Clark Chapter, D. A. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 607 
 
 R., of Meriden. A great reader and well posted on 
 all the issues of the day, her words command atten- 
 tion, and her conversational powers are marked. 
 
 The home of Mr. and Mrs. Rogers has been 
 brightened by three children : ( i ) ZtUa Elizabeth, 
 born Sept. 21, 1874, graduated from the Meriden 
 high school and from the Wesleyan University, in 
 Middletown, with the degree of B. S., in 1898; then 
 becoming a teacher, she taught at Bordentown a 
 year, and is now one of the force of instructors con- 
 nected with the high school at Meriden, though at 
 the present time abroad on a trip through Europe. 
 She pursued post-graduate courses at Harvard and 
 Yale, is a student of microscopy and a linguist of 
 no mean ability, reading and sneaking readily the 
 French, German, Italian and other foreign tongues. 
 She is a young woman of exceedingly modest char- 
 acter. (2) Burton Cephas is a graduate of the Mer- 
 iden high school, and for two years was a student 
 at the Wesleyan University, but met with a foot- 
 ball accident which prevented him from completing 
 the course. For a time he was shipping clerk for 
 C. Rogersi & Bro., and is now at Danbury as director 
 and secretary of the Russell-Tomlinson Electric Co. 
 A young man of ability and promise, he is poptilar 
 in the circles in which he moves, where his worth 
 and modest character are known and approved. (3) 
 Howard Wilson, born Dec. 27, 1870, died May 30, 
 1883. 
 
 The Rogers family, to which Wilbur F. Rogers 
 belongs, is traced back to John Rogers, the mar- 
 tyr, who was born in 1505. James Rogers, the 
 first of the family in America claiming to be a de- 
 scendant of John Rogers, the martyr, brought over 
 the latter's Bible, which is now in Alfred University, 
 in New York. James Rogers was born in 1615 in 
 England, and came to America in 1635, making the 
 voyage in the ship "Increase" from^ London. He 
 made his home in Stratford, Conn., and there mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Rowland, a daughter of Samuel Row- 
 land. They afterward removed to New London, 
 where he died in 1688. Their family consisted of 
 the following children : Samuel, who married 
 Mary Stendon. ; Joseph, who married Sarah Will- 
 iams ; John, who married Elizabeth Griswold, a 
 daughter of Mathew Griswold; Rethsheba, who 
 married Richard Smith and Samuel Fox, respect- 
 ively ; James, who married Mary Jordan,- a daughter 
 of Jefferson Jordan ; Jonathan, who married Naomi 
 Benedict; and Elizabeth, the wife of Samuel Bebee. 
 
 James Rogers, son of James, was born in Mil- 
 ford, Feb. 15, 1652, married Mary Jordan in 1673, 
 and died in 1713. To him and his wife were born: 
 James, who married Elizabeth Harris; Mary, who 
 married Thomas Prentiss; Elizabeth, who married 
 Samuel Rogers, son of Joseph Rogers ; Sarah, who 
 married Jonathan Haynes, and on his death became 
 the wife of Stephen Gorton; Samuel, who died 
 young; Jonathan, who died in 1714; Richard, who 
 married Mary Raymond, a daughter of Joshua and 
 
 Mercy Raymond ; William, who married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Samuel Harris. 
 
 James Rogers, eldest son of James, was born 
 Feb. 2, 1674, and married Elizabeth Harris. He 
 made his home on Town Hill, near New London, 
 where he owned a windmill. Mrs. Rogers died in 
 1713, when he removed to Norwalk, Conn., and there 
 died in 1733. Freelove, daughter of Stephen Hurl- 
 burt, who became his second wife, died in 1739, at 
 the age of forty-six years. James Rogers was the 
 father of the following children : Edward ; James ; 
 Jedediah; Uriah;, Mary, who married Jonathan 
 Chester; Nehemiah; Stephen; Moses; and Aaron. 
 
 James Rogers, second son of James, was born 
 Aug. 20, 1704, and married Mary, daughter of Peter 
 Harris. They had the following family: Samuel 
 married Love Richards ; Peter married Grace Rog- 
 ers; Ichabod married Ruth Shapley; Mary married 
 John Griffin ; Edward ; Uriah married Mary Howell 
 (their son, Dr. Howell Rogers, settled in Colches- 
 ter, Conn.) ; Jeremiah married Mary James; James; 
 Elizabeth married Robert Manwarring, the grand- 
 father of Miss Calkins, the historian of New Lon- 
 don. 
 
 Ichabod Rogers was born in February, 1728, 
 and in 1751 married Ruth Shapley, daughter of 
 Adam Shapley. Mr. Rogers was a seafaring man, 
 and was widely known throughout the colonies. To 
 him and his wife were born: Benjamin; Rebecca, 
 who married D. Lathrop; Ichabod; andfRuth. 
 
 Ichabod Rogers (2), born in 1754, in 1778 mar- 
 ried Mary Hall, daughter of John and Susan 
 (Hobbs) Hall, and they had the following family: 
 Nancy, Mrs. Silsby ; Ichabod (3) ; Mary, who mar- 
 ried Nathaniel Middleton ;, Sarah, who married John 
 Kibbe; Seabury, who married Betsey Daniels; Eliz- 
 abeth, who married John Hanley ; and Esther, wife 
 of Thomas Riley. Ichabod Rogers (2) served as a 
 soldier in the Continental forces during the Revolu- 
 tionary war, and in his time was a prominent citizen. 
 
 Ichabod Rogers (3), son of Ichabod and Mary 
 Rogers, was born Sept. 2, 1781, in New London, in 
 that quarter of the town that was locallv known as 
 Hog Neck, and is now Winthrop Neck. In 1801 he 
 married Rhoda Blakeslee Southworth, born March 
 18, 1785, in Deep River, daugliter of William" and 
 Rhod'a (Blakeslee) Southworth. Mr. Rogers served 
 in the war of 1812 at Fort Saybrook. Most of his 
 life was spent at Deep River, where he died in 1843. 
 His children were: President Merritt, boi'n April 
 29, 1802, married Harriet M. Tryon ; Ruel Chaun- 
 cey, born Nov. 25, 1803, married Susannah Bailey; 
 Flam Hervey, born Jan. 19, 1805 ; Asher, born Sept. 
 29, 1807, died June 11, 1808; Artemas, born Jan. i, 
 1809, died young; Achsah, born July 27, 1810, died 
 April 28, 1842'; Rhoda Blakeslee, born March 11, 
 181 1, married Jeremiah Jones Tryon, and died Nov. 
 23, 1828; Julius Chapman, born July 28, 1813, died 
 June 25, 1818; Betsey, born Dec. 15, 1815, died 
 April 20, 1841 ; Lucinda, born Oct. 23, 1817, died 
 
6o8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Feb. iS, 1876 ; Julia Augusta, born, Jan. 2, 1819, mar- 
 ried Frank N. D. Rogers; Juliusi VV., born Nov. i, 
 1822, married Esther Culver Meigs, and on her 
 death wedded Maria Howe; Mary Sophia, born 
 April 13, 1827. 
 
 Flam Hervey Rogers, the third child of the above 
 marriage, and the father of the Rogers brothers, was 
 born in Middletown, married Elizabeth Ann Tryon, 
 daughter of Jedediah and Belinda (Jones) Tr)'on, 
 of Old Saybrock, Conn., Nov. 16, 1826, and died 
 March 13, 1881. Mrs. Rogers was born June 11, 
 1807, and died Feb. 27, 1886. Their children were 
 as follows: George Washington, born Aug. 11, 
 1827; Hervey, Jan. 18, 1829; Watson Brewer, June 
 23, 1 83 1 (lost at sea in 1856) ; Cephas Brainard, 
 Dec. 30, 1836; Gilbert, July 4, 1838; Wilbur Fisk, 
 July 18, 1841 (the subject of this article) ; Isabella 
 Virginia (i), May 14, 1844 (died March 21, 1846) ; 
 Isabella Virginia (2), June 21, 1846 (married Eg- 
 bert J. Young) ; Nathaniel Burton, July 6, 1848. 
 The last named, who resides in Danbury, is the larg- 
 est stockholder of the Russell-Tomlinson .Electric 
 Co. of that city. 
 
 NORRIS B. MIX, a prominent agriculturist 
 and former ice dealer of Hamden, New Haven 
 county, has all his life been one of the most public- 
 spirited residents of his locality. He has taken an 
 active and effective part in the public affairs of the 
 community, its religious and political interests, and 
 by a life of integrity has won the high esteem of all 
 he has met, in whatever capacity. 
 
 Mr. Mix was born in Hamden Feb. 3, 1826, a 
 son of Benjamin and Betsey (Potter) Mix, the 
 former of whom was born on the same farm. In 
 their family were ten children, namely: Ethil P., 
 who is now deceased ; Grace, who married Alfred 
 Haworth, and is now in her ninetieth year; Eliza, 
 wife of George W. Bradley, of Hamden, aged 
 eighty-five years ; Benjamin, who died in California ; 
 Henry, who died in Flamden ; D wight W., who re- 
 sides on the old homestead; Frances B., widow of 
 William Potter; Norris B. ; James P., deceased; 
 and Rebecca, Mrs. Walter Nichols, deceased. 
 
 Norris B. Mix attended the common schools of 
 his native town, and later the Lancasterian School 
 in New Haven, and upon the home farm early be- 
 came familiar with all the duties which fall to the 
 lot of the agriculturist. At the age of ten years 
 he went to New Haven to live with Judge Dyer 
 White, with whom he remained two )'ears, and the 
 following two years he clerked in the store of 
 George Abbott, in Chapel street. New Haven. Fie 
 next went to Westport to learn the tailor's trade, 
 at which he worked for_ six months and then spent 
 about five years at the cabinetmaker's trade, in the 
 same place. Returning to New Haven at the end of 
 that period, he worked in Chancy Jerom's clock fac- 
 tory for two years, andi was engaged in the shops of 
 the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad at 
 that place for eleven years as a mechanic on wood 
 
 work. During the succeeding five years he was em- 
 ployed as a carpenter in New Haven, and at the 
 end of that time, November, 1863, came to Ham- 
 den and purchased the farm, on which he now lives 
 at Shepherds Brook. In 1866 he embarked in the 
 ice business, which he successfully carried on in 
 connection with farming until March, 1900. He 
 erected the ice house upon his farm which he filled 
 each winter with ice from Shepherds Brook, which 
 is fed by mountain springs.- The ice being of a su- 
 perior quality, found a ready sale in the market. 
 For some years before our subject's retirement, the 
 business was carried on under the firm name of N. 
 i\lix & Son. 
 
 On Sept. 13, 1849, Mr. Mix was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Maria N. Hendrick, who was 
 born May 23, 1826, in New Haven, the daughter 
 of Joel D. and Maria (McDuel) Hendrick, and sis- 
 ter of ex-mayor A. C. Hendrick, of New Haven, a 
 sketch of whom appears elsewhere.' Mrs. Mix was 
 one of nine children, and is the only daughter sur- 
 viving. Mr. and Mrs. Mix have had six children, 
 of whom three died in infancy. Those living are : 
 (i) Arthur H., who was engaged in business with 
 his father, resides in New Haven ; he married Miss 
 Minnie Rawling, of New Haven, and they have 
 two children, Marion Rawling and Emelia Jepson. 
 (2) Cora M. first married William Terrell, who 
 died Nov. 16, 1896; she afterward married, Dec. 9, 
 1900, Lewis E. Wilcox, of New Haven; she had 
 two children by her first union, Warren H. and 
 Irene M. (3) Anna M. is the wife of, Clarence 
 Englehart, of Philadelphia, Pa. For over fifty-two 
 years Mr. and Mrs. Mix have traveled life's jour- 
 ney together, sharing its joys and sorrows, its ad- 
 versity and! prosperity, and on Sept. 13, 1899, they 
 celebrated their golden wedding. The affair was 
 one of the largest of the kind ever held in Hamden, 
 and evidences of the esteem in which they are held 
 were numerous. There are no. more highly re- 
 spected residents of the town than this venerable 
 old couple, and now, in their declining years, they 
 are surrounded by a large circle of friends and ac- 
 quaintances who esteem them hig'hly for their sterl- 
 ing worth and many excellencies of character. Both 
 are remarkably well preserved. Norris B. Mix is 
 one of the best known citizens in his town. As a 
 citizen and' as a public official his record is clear, for 
 he has been conscientious in all the relations of life, 
 and his career has been a long, busy and helpful 
 one. In his active period he was a most useful citi- 
 zen. Mr. Mix affiliates with the Democratic party, 
 but he has enjoyed the friendship and support of 
 many not of his political faith. He was a member 
 of the school board seveial years, first selectman of 
 Hamden six years, and a member of the State Leg- 
 islature in 1878, and again in 1879. For over half 
 a century he has been a consistent member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. He is a member of 
 Day Spring Lodge, F. & A. M., of HaiTnden, hav- 
 ing first joined Wooster Lodge, No. 79, of New Ha- 
 
TAKEN SOON AFTER THE CELEBRATION OF THEIR GOLDEN WEDDING. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 609 
 
 ven, in 1853; Franklin Chapter, No. 2; Harmony 
 Council, No. 8 ; and New Haven Commandery, No. 
 2. On July 5, 1848, be joined City Lodge, No. 36, 
 I. O. O. F., of New Haven. 
 
 "'' JAMES MINOTT AUGUR (deceased) be- 
 longed to the old New Haven family of that name, 
 which is of Huguenot descent. The earliest rep- 
 resentatives of the family in the colony were Dr. 
 Nicholas Augur, who appeared in 1640, his sister, 
 Hester Coster, and brother, Robert. From the last 
 named) the Augur family in this vicinity is de- 
 scended. 
 
 (I) Robert Augur married Mary Gilbert Nov. 
 20, 1673. She was the daughter of Deputy Gov. 
 Matthew Gilbert, who, from the settlement of the 
 colony until his death, held a high position in the 
 settlement. "From an early period, and for a long 
 term of years, he was in civil affairs second only to 
 Gov. Eaton. No name except that of Gov. Eaton 
 appears more frequently in the records in connec- 
 tion with important public business and high and 
 difficult trusts than that of Matthew Gilbert." Of 
 Robert Augur we know but little. In 1689 he was 
 allotted lands on the east side of the town (East Ha- 
 ven) . The tradition is that be moved! to his lands 
 in East Haven, and the destruction of the early rec- 
 ords of that town accounts for the lack of informa- 
 tion concerning him and his son, John. 
 
 (H) John Augur, son of Robert, married Eliza- 
 beth Bradley July i, 1710. She was the daughter of 
 Isaac Bradley, of East Haven, whose house is still 
 standing andJ has lately been remodeled. "It was 
 built of material obtained on the spot, viz. : Bould- 
 ers of granite and trap rock, with mortar com- 
 pounded of sand, clay and lime from shells burned 
 ?.nd taken from the river and meadows close by. 
 The interior is constructed from' the neighboring 
 forests, and to-day this colonial house stands forth 
 a remarkable example of the skill of the owner, who 
 was a carpenter, a good architect and a most valu- 
 able acquisition to the town." 
 
 (HI) Abraham Augur, son of John, married 
 May 21, 1746, Elizabeth Bradley, of Amity Parish 
 (Woodbridge). It seems a matter worthy of note 
 that this man married a woman whose maiden 
 name was the same as that of his mother. For a 
 time he madle his home in Amity with his father-in- 
 law, Mr. Bradley ; the cellar of the house in which 
 they lived is still to be seen at the Old Oaks Cor- 
 ner. About 1760 Abraham Augur moved to New 
 Haven. He took an active part in the affairs of the 
 town and was elected to many positions of honor 
 and trust, serving on the committee of inspection 
 in 1775, and in 1784, when the town became the 
 city of New Haven, he was chosen one of the coun- 
 cilmen. "Though many honorable and talented in- 
 dividuals have been connected with the city govern- 
 ment since then, there has probably never been a 
 time when so manv remarkable men were united 
 in its various offices and boards, as was the case in 
 39 
 
 the first year of its operation. They will be rec- 
 ognized as the principal men of New liaven at that 
 period." Mr. Augur was one of the selectmen of 
 the town for seven, years. For twenty-five years 
 he was deacon of what is now called the United 
 Church. His family Bible, printed in 1752, is still 
 in existence and cherished by some of his descend- 
 ants. He was married twice, and raised a large 
 family of children, most of whom were daughters. 
 His daughter Lydia married Dr. Levi Ives in 
 1771 ; another daughter married Timothy Atwater; 
 and yet another married James Howell. Abraham 
 Augur died May 31, 1798, and was laid to rest in 
 the old burying ground upon the Green ; his tomb- 
 stone v,'as removed to the Augur lot in the Grove 
 Street Cemetery. 
 
 (IV) Hezekiah Augur, son of Abraham, was 
 born in 1750, and was a Revolutionary patriot. His 
 trade, which he learned in the city of Boston, was 
 that of joiner and carpenter. As a mechanic of ac- 
 knowledged skill and talents he was often employed 
 in forming the models and machinery of inventors. 
 "Hezekiah Augur was a sensible and thoroughly 
 practical man, respected for his virtues and excel- 
 lence of character, as well as for his mechanical gen- 
 ius and skill." His first wife, who was Susan Minot, 
 of the famous Minot family, of Boston, died leav- 
 ing no children. He then married Lydia Atwater, 
 youngest child of James and Elizabeth (Ailing) At- 
 water. Of their eight children one daughter mar- 
 ried Eli Osborn, another Benjamin Thompson, and 
 a third Joseph Barber, who was the first editor of 
 the New Haven Register. Hezekiah Augur, Jr.,- 
 tlie noted sculptor and inventor, was one of the sons 
 of Hezekiah and Lydia Atwater. He devoted the 
 leisure hours of his boyhood' to the device of ma- 
 chinery of various kinds ; several articles constructed 
 bv him before he attained the age of twelve years- 
 were procured: by the proprietors of museums as- 
 curiosities. His father wished him to be a merchant,, 
 but he was not successful in trying to be what he 
 could not be. His sole amusement was in carving. 
 Prof. Morse urged him to change his wood for mar- 
 ble carving, and he made a marble head of Wash- 
 ington, a figure of Sappho, and' a bust of Chief Jus- 
 tice Ellsworth, which latter is now in the room of 
 the Supreme Court at Washington. But his most- 
 elaborate work was the statuette group of Jephthah 
 and his daug'hter, which is now in the Yale Art 
 School. These are not copies of other statues, but 
 wrought from an original conception, and are re- 
 markable considering that their author had received 
 no artistic education and practiced only wood carv- 
 ing. In 1833 he was made an honorary member of 
 the Alumni of Yale College. In point of time he 
 may be called the first Connecticut sculptor. lie 
 was an inventor as well, and one of his most import- 
 ant inventions was a machine for carving. He was 
 the designer of the massive gateway at the entrance 
 to the Grove Street Cemetery. The bronze medals 
 of 1838, for the commemoration of the two hun- 
 
6io 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 dredth anniversary of the settlement of New Haven, 
 were his work. "He was a man of rare genius, 
 pecuhar temperament, and was religiously honest." 
 The home of Hezekiah and L3'dia Augur was at 
 the junction of Whallev avenue and Goffe street, 
 lacing the Green on Broadway ; his shop was at the 
 rear of the dwelling and faced on Whalley avenue. 
 Some years ago the house was moved to Elm street, 
 where it now stands next to Christ Church, and it 
 is now (1901) owned and occupied by the church 
 as a parish house. It bears the marks of British 
 bullets, for Broadway was the battle ground at the 
 time of the British invasion in 1779. Hezekiah 
 Augur was one of the original members of the Sec- 
 end Company, Governor's Foot Guards, and 
 marched with that company under Capt. Benedict 
 Arnold to Boston in response to the Lexington 
 Alarm. He also participated in the then famous and 
 approved march of seventy-five young men from 
 New Haven to New York city, under the leadership 
 of "King Sears," to destroy the printing office of the 
 Tory Worthington, whose pamphlets of seditious ut- 
 terances were causing patriots much annoyance and 
 alarm. The type was molded into bullets and re- 
 turned to the British with interest. Mr. Augur 
 died Nov. 7, 1818, after a long and painful illness. 
 A copy of the Religious Intelligencer, under date 
 of Jan. 2, 1819, preserved by the family, contains 
 his obituary, which speaks of him as an exemplary 
 Christian. He is buried in the Grove Street Ceme- 
 tery. 
 
 (V) James Augur, son of Hezekiah, spent his 
 youth in the home of his parents and worked with 
 his father at the carpenter's trade. At the age of 
 twent>'-one he went to work in the Armory at Whit- 
 neyville. He had a military turn of mind, and al- 
 though never actively engaged in warfare, belonged 
 for many years to the Governor's Foot Guards and 
 aided in fortifying Beacon Hill during the war of 
 1812. On ]\[ay 6, 1819, be married Almyra A. Ford, 
 granddaughter of Deacon Moses Ford, and they 
 were spared to celebrate their golden wedding. He 
 built a house in Whitney avenue and lived there until 
 1850, when they moved to the farm on the northern 
 slope of ^lill Rock, which he had bought and cleared 
 some \ears before. After that his attention was 
 devoted entirely to fruit raising and the nursery 
 business, in which he was very successful. Politi- 
 cally he was an ardent Republican and took part in 
 every presidential election from the time of Mon- 
 roe to Grant's second term. He was a member of 
 the North Church (so-called at that time), for 
 many years, until he withdrew to the Whitnejwille 
 Church, which he had materially aided in erecting, 
 and of which he was a prominent and efficient mem- 
 ber until his death, which occurred Aug. 19, 1873. 
 
 James ;\Iinott Augur, who was for many years 
 ? shoe dealer in Chapel street, New Haven, was a 
 man in his day honored for his sterling integrity 
 and his genial manner won for him hosts of friends. 
 He was born in Whitneyville Oct. 16, 1821, and 
 
 obtained his education in the Lancasterian School 
 in New Haven. On Nov. 15, 1850, he was married 
 tc Esther Morrell, of Northampton, a lady of re- 
 markable beauty of character. In 1864 and 1865 
 he was a councilman of the city of New Haven. 
 He was a member and deacon of the Church of the 
 Redeemer, and as superintendent of the Sunday- 
 school of that church (which office he filled for a 
 number of years) was highly esteemed. At one 
 time he belonged to the Second Company, Gov- 
 ernor's Horse Guards, and held office in the com- 
 pany. He died in New Haven Dec. 27, 1875, leav- 
 ing a widow and five children : Frederick Minott, 
 James Morrell, Nellie Newkirk, Martha Elizabeth 
 (Mrs. Burton A. Davis) and Esther Helena. Mr. 
 Augur was buried in the Whitneyville Cemetery, 
 in the Augur lot, with his brothers, George and 
 Charles, and his parents, James and Almyra A. 
 Augur. 
 
 THE DAVIS FAMILY. For more than fifty 
 years this- has been a noted family, not only in 
 Meridcn, but conspicuous in the professional activ- 
 ities of the State, where father and sons have held 
 high rank in both the practice of medicine and the 
 law. 
 
 The late Timothy Fisher Davis, the son of Eli- 
 phaz and Hannah (Sawyer) Davis, was born March 
 13, 1810, in Marlboro, Mass., and was in the sixth 
 generation from Dolor Davis, one of the original 
 settlers at Barnstable, Mass., in 1634. Timothy F. 
 Davis attended the common schools of his native 
 town and was then apprenticed to a trade in Spring- 
 field, Mass. In 1837 he began the study of medi- 
 cine in the office of Dr. Riley, of Goshen, Conn., 
 and as he had a wife and a family, be continued to 
 work at his trade while Engaged in his preparation 
 for the career of a physician. Subsequently he en- 
 gaged in practice at Goshen and Litchfield, and in 
 1846 removed to Plymouth, where he built a home 
 and bought a drug store. There he obtained a fine 
 and extensive practice in the town and about it, be- 
 ing frequently called to Wolcott, Bristol, Bethle- 
 hem and Watertown, and the adjoining towns. On 
 llie death of his old friend. Dr. Allen, of Meriden, 
 the widow of that gentleman urged him to come to 
 that city and take the practice which her husband 
 had had. This he did, beginning in Meriden in 1850, 
 and bringing his family in the following year. For 
 more than seventeen years he was a successful prac- 
 titioner in Meriden, "a prudent and! skillful opera- 
 tor, a careful and discriminating prescriber, ever im- 
 proving by the lessons of experience." 
 
 Dr. Davis received in 1843 a diploma from the 
 Botanic Medical Society of Connecticut, and in 
 1850 an honorary diploma, being at that time the 
 vice-president of the society. Afterward he was 
 its president. Dr. Davis was one of the founders of 
 the State Eclectic Medical Society and was at dif- 
 ferent times its secretary, treasurer, vice-president, 
 president and one of its censors. Socially Dr. Da- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 6ii 
 
 vis was a genial, kind and companionable gentle- 
 man, liberal in money' matters, with a profound con- 
 tempt for money hoarding, enjoying the passing 
 moments and believed in getting the most out of 
 life. By a great number of the best people of the 
 community he was personally esteemed both as a 
 friend' and as a physician. Not a man of fluent 
 speech, and somewhat reticent, he was a close lis- 
 tener and would attend with eagerness and delight 
 to hear men of sense and information talk. Fond of 
 horticulture, he evinced much skill in the cultiva- 
 tion of his land, and exemplified the old saying, a 
 "little land well tilled." 
 
 Dr. Davis died Feb. 24, 1870, as the result of a 
 cancer on his upper lip, and "during his long and 
 distressing illness not a shadow of distrust or fear 
 passed over his soul. He felt that his life was with 
 Christ in God, and death would not disturb it. Al- 
 ways his language was, 'I am ready.' " Dr. Davis 
 belonged to the Masonic fraternity and was buried 
 imder the auspices of that society. 
 
 Dr. Davis was married in November, 1832, to 
 Miss Mary Parsons, who died April i, 1834, in 
 Pleasant Valley, Conn., leaving a daughter, Mary 
 N. M., who became the wife of Edward Miner in 
 1853. Dr. Davis was married, second, in 1836 to 
 Miss Moriva Hatch, of Springfield, Mass., and to 
 them were born the following children : ( i ) Julia, 
 born in April, 1838, died in infancy; (2) Charles H. 
 S.; (3) Julia M., born in July, 1844; (4) Wilbur 
 Fiske, born in September, 1846, died the following 
 July; (S) Wilbur Fiske (2). 
 
 Charles Henry Stanley Davis^ M, D., born in 
 Goshen, Conn., March 2, 1840, is of the seventh 
 generation from Dolor Davis, whose name ap- 
 pears in the opening of this review, and acquired 
 his education in the Meriden public schools, prepar- 
 ing for college under private tutors, intending to 
 enter the Sophomore year and to bring the Freshman 
 studies up to the requirement. On the breaking 
 out of the Civil war he was for two years in the 
 service of the United States government. After 
 a brief business experience succeeding this in New 
 York, he entered the office of Dr. William Baker, 
 where he prepared for entrance to the medical 
 school, in the meantime officiating as a teacher in 
 one of the night schools. In due time he was gradu- 
 ated from the Medical Department of the Univer- 
 sity of New York, and spent the year following in 
 Boston, where he took a special course in Biology 
 and Microscopy at Harvard. The following win- 
 ter he attended lectures at the University of Mary- 
 land, and then located at Meriden, succeeding his 
 father in his extensive practice. After two years 
 of hard work Dr. Davis went abroad to study and 
 travel, visiting England, Ireland, Scotland, Holland, 
 Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. 
 For several months he followed hospital practice 
 in Paris and London. Returning to Meriden he 
 has since had a large and lucrative practice, ex- 
 tending to the surrounding towns. 
 
 Dr. Davis was one of the founders of the City 
 Medical Society and for many years served as its 
 secretary. He belongs to the New Haven county 
 association and the Connecticut State Medical So- 
 ciety. For eighteen years he has been the attend- 
 ing physician of the Curtis Home for Old Ladies 
 and Orphans, and for five years was the attending 
 physician of the State School for Boys. When the 
 City Hospital was organized he was appointed one 
 of the attending physicians, but was obliged to re- 
 fuse the position. During his practice Dr. Davis 
 has been present at the birth of over five hundred 
 children, but for want of time has been obliged to 
 give up that branch of his practice. He has exam- 
 ined over one thousand applicants for life insur- 
 ance. Dr. Davis has been a frequent contributor to 
 the medical press. 
 
 When Dr. Davis first went to New York he en- 
 tered into partnership with Charles H. Thomas, a 
 well known philologist and translator, and opened 
 a book store for the sale of Oriental and classical 
 books, they being the only firm at that time which 
 made a specialty of philological works. Several 
 gentlemen interested in philology were accustomed 
 to gather weekly in a back room connected with 
 this store, and here the Philological Society was or- 
 ganized. Dr. Brown, who translated the Bible into 
 Assamese, was the president. Dr. Scott, afterward a 
 missionary to Burmah, was vice-president, and Dr. 
 Davis was corresponding secretary. Under Dr. 
 Brown's guidance, Dr. Davis took up the study of 
 Hebrew and Syriac, which he followed in after 
 years with Arabic, Assyrian, ancient Egyptian, the 
 old Persian tongues and the Celtic dialects, always 
 being an omnivorous reader. Before his eighteenth 
 year Dr. Davis was the owner of over five hundred 
 volumes. This library now exceeds six thousand 
 volumes and is very complete in Oriental languages 
 and literature. In his eighteenth year he contrib- 
 uted every week for a year a column of literary notes 
 to the New York Chronicle. He was also a con- 
 tributor to the Round Table and the Saturday Press, 
 the only distinctly literary papers of the time. In 
 1870 he published a history of Wallingford and 
 Meriden, an octavo volume of nearly a thousand 
 pages, and containing some sixty genealogies. 
 Shortly after was published his work, "The Voice 
 as a Musical Instrument," and also his work on the 
 "Classification, Training and Education of the Fee- 
 ble-Minded, Imbecile and Idiotic." Many articles 
 on this subject were translated into Spanish and 
 were published in El Rcpetario Medico. 
 
 Dr. Davis has for eighteen years been the secre- 
 tary and corresponding secretary of the Scientific 
 Association and has edited its eight volumes of 
 "Transactions." He has attended to the exchange 
 with over three hundred home and foreign societies. 
 For fifteen years he has edited Biblia, a journal of 
 Biblical and Oriental archaeology, the organ of the 
 Egyptian Exploration Fund, the Grjeco-Roman 
 Fund and the Palestine Exploration Fund. In con- 
 
6l2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 nection with the Rev. Dr. Coburn, Dr. Davis wrote 
 a "History of Ancient Egypt in the Light of Mod- 
 ern Disco\-eries," with an introduction by the Rev. 
 Dr. William C. Winslow. This is the finest work- 
 en the subject ever pubHshed, containing some four 
 hundred folio pages and nearly one thousand illus- 
 trations. In 1894 Dr. Davis published an edition 
 of the "Egyptian Book of the Dead." This unique 
 work contains the seventy-nine pages of the great 
 Louvre Papyrus and the twenty plates of the great 
 Turin Papyrus, with a complete translation of one 
 hundred and sixt)'-seven chapters, with full intro- 
 ductory notes. Dr. Davis has written a Grammar 
 of the old Persian language ; an Introductorj^ Gram- 
 mar of the New Testament Greek; "Lucretius, Poet 
 and Epicurean" ; a work on Roman Stoicism, with 
 selections from Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius and 
 Seneca, and several other works. For some years 
 he has been engaged in a translation of the Koran 
 from the Arabic, and has nearly completed a 
 Grammar of the Irish language. The Doctor has 
 done all this work while following a laborious pro- 
 fession, which demands nearly all his time, but he 
 also keeps abreast of the times and receives all the 
 principal monthlies and quarterlies published in this 
 cotmtry and in Europe devoted to medicine, litera- 
 ture, science and art. 
 
 Dr. Davis has never greatly interested himself 
 in politics beyond the ends of good government, but 
 he has filled nearly all the town and city offices. In 
 1873, 1885 and 1886 he represented the town in the 
 State Legislature, where he served on important 
 committees. In 1887 he was nominated for State 
 Senator, but failed of election by thirty-four votes. In 
 his own town he was 200 ahead of his rival. In 1887 
 he was elected ma^-or of the city by a large majority, 
 and again the following year, and declined a third 
 nomination. During his first term in the office he 
 vras instrumental in the organization of three build- 
 ing and loan associations, serving as president in 
 two and trustee in the third. Over a thousand per- 
 sons became members of these associations. In 1872 
 Dr. Davis was elected a member of the board of edu- 
 cation, and has continued a member of that board 
 to the present time. For the greater part of this 
 long period he has been chairman or president of 
 the board. Since the organization of the high school 
 he has been chairman of the school committee. Pie 
 has also purchased the library of over 3,000 vol- 
 umes with funds furnished for that purpose. In 
 1891 Dr. Davis was appointedl by Gov. Coffin a trus- 
 tee of the School for Pioys, and for five years was 
 treasurer of the institution and spcretarv of the 
 board of trustees. In i8g8 he was elected city treas- 
 urer, which included the handling of the money 
 belonging to the water fund'; he declined a second 
 nomination. 
 
 Fraternallv Dr. Davis is a thirty-second-degree 
 Masnn and a Shriner, a member of the Odd Fellows, 
 the Knights of Psthias, Elks and a number 'of 
 other secret and benevolent societies. Pie also be- 
 
 longs to some twenty-five scientific archaeological, an- 
 thropological, literary and historical societies in this 
 country and in Europe. He is one of the local hon- 
 orary se:retaries of the Egyptian Exploration Fund, 
 and at the Chicago \A'orld's Fair he was appointed 
 a member of the Auxiliary Committee on Archse- 
 ology and Egyptolog)'. In addition to his tr'avels. 
 in Europe he has visited New Mexico, Arizona, Cal- 
 ifornia, New Brunswick, British Columbia, Nova 
 Scotia, Prince Edward Island and a great part of 
 the United States. On Sept. 23, 1869, Dr. Davis 
 was married to Caroline Elizabeth, daughter of 
 George W Harris, and has one son, Henry Winter 
 Davis, who married Annie Laurie, daughter of 
 Howard L. Hine, Esq., of Brunswick, Georgia. 
 
 Judge Wilbur Fiske Davis, son of the late Dr. 
 Davis, was born July 25, 1848, in Plymouth, Conn., 
 and received his literary education in the public 
 schools and the academy at Meriden, where he be- 
 gan the study of law in the office of Judge Smith. 
 This was in 1868, and he spent a year after this in 
 the Yale Law School. On the death of Judge Dut- 
 ton, then at the headi of the Law Departpient of 
 ^'ale, he retired from Yale and entered the Harvard 
 Law School, from which he was graduated in 1870. 
 In September of that year he was admitted to the 
 Bar in New Haven, Conn., at once opening air 
 office in Meriden. For nearly a decade, beginning 
 with 1873, ]\Ir. Davis served as clerk of the Meri- 
 den Citv Court. For the civil business of the city 
 of Meriden he was attorney from 1887 to 1890. In 
 the latter year he was elected Judge of Probate for 
 the district of Meriden, which office he held until 
 1893. He is a successful lawyer, and as a citizen 
 is held in high esteem. For five years he was cor- 
 poration counsel of Meriden. 
 
 Judge Davis was married May 29, 1874, to 
 ]\liss Adelaide Stevens, a daughter of Joshua and 
 Jabe (Morris) Stevens, of Chicopee Falls, Mass. 
 Their children are as follows: Wilbur F., Jr., and 
 Robert S. Judge Davis belongs to St. Elmo Com- 
 mandery, No. 9, K. T., of Meriden. 
 
 CAPT. DANIEL GOFFE PHIPPS, retired, of 
 New Plaven, not only descends from a distinguished 
 and historic family, but in his own life has a rec- 
 ord of unusual interest and full of stirring inci- 
 dents. 
 
 Born June 20, 1820, in New Haven, Capt. 
 Phipps is a son of Capt. Solomon and Esther (Peck) 
 Phipps, and a descendant in the sixth generatiorr 
 from Deacon Henry Peck, who was one of the orig- 
 inal settlers of New Haven in the spring of 1638. 
 Capt. Solomon Phipps was a descendant of Jame;- 
 Phipps, who settled at Pemaquid (now Phipps- 
 bury), !Maine, about 1621. Of this family was Sir 
 AVilliam Phiiijis, governor of Massachusetts under 
 the charter of William and Alary. Our subject's line 
 is through (II) Solomon, of Charlestown, Mass., 
 who was born in 1619, and died July 25, 1671. His 
 children: Elizabeth, born April 23, 1643; Solonion,^ 
 
C^W L^eJo 
 
 i^ i^7^u5 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 613 
 
 liorn in 1645; Samuel; and Joseph, born in 1661. 
 [Boston rec] 
 
 (III) Solomon Phipps, born in 1645, married 
 Mary, daughter of Deputy Gov. Danforth. Chil- 
 dren: Mary, born July 3, 1670; Solomon, Jan. 10, 
 
 1675; Thomas, Nov. 22, 1676 (he graduated from 
 Harvard College in 1695) ; Elizabeth, Jan. 27, 1681 
 (died Feb. 27, 1681) ; Jonathan, Jan. 7, 1683; EHz- 
 abeth (2), June 5, 1684. 
 
 (IV) Solomon Phipps, born Jan. 10, 1675, was 
 married Oct. 13, 1720, to Catherine Rouse, a sister 
 of Capt. John Rouse, of the English navy, who did 
 notable service in the Colonial wars. 
 
 (V) Capt. Solomon Phipps, their son, born 
 Nov. 10, 1 72 1, was married Sept. 3, 1747, to Abi- 
 gail Gofife, granddaughter of Christopher Goffe, 
 gent. [Suffolk rec], and they had two children: 
 Ehzabcth, born June 10, 1749; and Daniel Goffe, 
 horn July 13, 1751. The Goffe family came to 
 America early in the seventeenth century, and has 
 "been very prominent in New England. Thomas 
 Goffe, of this family, was the owner of the "May- 
 flower," and a magistrate of the Massachusetts Col- 
 ony in 1629. In the English and American expedi- 
 tion against Cartagena in 1740, Capt. Daniel Goffe 
 commanded one of the Massachusetts companies, 
 and in the 3d battalion with him was Capt. Lawrence 
 Washington, of Virginia. [Harper's, Oct. 1896.] 
 Capt. Solomon Phipps was very active in the Co- 
 lonial wars, being with Sir Peter Warren at the 
 siege of Louisburg, and in 1756 he was commander 
 of the "Monckton," [Murdoch's hist.] twenty guns, 
 named after Gen. Monckton, governor of the Col- 
 onies. He met his death March 26, 1758, in the fol- 
 lowing tragic manner: His majesty's frigate, 
 ^'Sutherland," was firing a salute in the harbor of 
 Halifax, and one of the English officers present was 
 Capt. Phipps, who was a nephew of John Rouse, 
 the commander of the frigate. Capf. Phipps, while 
 standing on the shore waiting for a boat to take 
 Tiim on board, was accidentally shot, in the presence 
 of his seven-year-old son, Daniel Goffe Phipps, the 
 grandfather of the subject of this sketch. The ac- 
 cident was the result of the neglect of the gunner to 
 withdraw the ball from one of the guns, as was the 
 custom on entering port, and this ball struck and 
 instantly killed Capt. Phipps. [Wyman's Gen.] 
 
 (VI) Capt. Daniel Goffe Phipps, son of Capt. 
 Solomon Phipps, was born July 13, 1751, in Boston, 
 and early began a sea-fa'ring life. He was one of 
 that mob of men and bovs who defied the English 
 troops under Capt. Preston. He heard Capt. Pres- 
 ton give the order to fire, and was near "Crispus 
 Attucks," the first man killed in the Revolutionary 
 war, when he fell. From the time of the "Boston 
 Massacre" to the end of his life he was a warm sup- 
 porter of the cause of the Colonies. When a boy 
 be was one of the crew of that historic sloop "Lib- 
 erty," belonging to John Hancock. He was twice 
 taken prisoner by the English, and was carried to 
 Boston three days after the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 He was sent aboard the "Wallace" again, after 
 much abuse ; was on the "Defence" in the severe 
 battle with the "Sirius"; and then took command of 
 the brig "Nancy," of fourteen guns. At this time 
 he writes to Abraham Livingstone, of Charlestown, 
 that "with a blessing and my good stout crew, I 
 hope to capture a prize before the month is out." 
 Fie succeeded and brought to port the English ship 
 "Maccarone." One of the "Nancy's" guns is now 
 in possession of the New Haven Historical Society, 
 w'here it was placed by the present Daniel Goffe 
 Phipps, grandson of the commander. Capt. Daniel 
 Goffe Phipps was the first of the family in New Ha- 
 ven, coming to that city in 1769. He became in- 
 terested in the West India trade, and the owner of 
 a number of vessels, one of which, captured by him 
 from the British, he fitted out for the West India 
 trade. He married Anna Townsend, sister of Eben- 
 ezer Townsend, the owner of the "Neptune," 
 which made the famous sea voyage of 1796-99. 
 Children: Daniel Goffe, born in 1777; Elizabeth, in 
 1781; and Solomon, in 1784. Of these, Daniel 
 Goffe married Esther Peck, daughter of Henry and 
 Hannah (Lewis) Peck. 
 
 (VII) Capt. Solomon Phipps, son of Capt. Dan- 
 iel Goffe Phipps, and the father of Capt. Daniel 
 Goffe Phipps (2), was born in 1784, married Mrs. 
 Esther (Peck) Phipos, widow of his brother, Dan- 
 iel Goffe Phipps. They had seven children. Capt. 
 Phipps became a master and owner of vessels, and 
 engaged in the West India trade. Later in life he 
 opened a school on Meadow street, which attained a 
 high standing in New Haven, where he taught navi- 
 gation, surveying, drawing and French. 
 
 Daniel Goffe Phipps (2), son of Capt. Solomon 
 and the subject proper of this sketch, followed in 
 the footsteps of his ancestors, becoming a sailor and 
 sea captain. Owing to the death of his father and 
 family reverses, he was obliged at an early age to 
 leave home, and for thirty years his life was 
 crowded with adventure and varied experiences in 
 all parts of the world — too man)^ to be here given 
 in detail. He began his seafaring life at the age of 
 fifteen, on the bark "Condor." He was next on the 
 ship "Illinois," from. New York to Trieste, thence 
 to Smyrna, where the vessel lay for three months, 
 through the prevalence of the plague then raging 
 there. While enroute home the ship was dismast- 
 ed off the Western Islands, and the crew sub- 
 jected to suffering for want of water and provisions. 
 Following this experience he received, through the 
 influence of his umcle, then Lieut. Peck, an appoint- 
 ment as master's mate in the U. S. navy, and was 
 ordered aboard the briar "Dolohin," which carried 
 ten guns and cruised, during the winter of 1839-40, 
 on the coast in aid of diotressed vessels. Later, 
 on the same vessel, on which he remained two 
 years, young Phipps served in the Gulf of Mexico. 
 While on the "North Carolina," he was a messmate 
 of midshipman Spencer, son of the Secretarv of 
 War, who was afterward hanged for suspected in- 
 
6r4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tention of mutiny on board the brig "Somers." 
 From the "Dolphin" Mr. Phipps was transferred 
 respectively to the old frigate "Constitution," the 
 "Pennsylvania," a line of battle ship of 120 guns, and 
 to the U. S. brig "Truxton," then fitting out at the 
 Philadelphia Navy Yard, under Commander Bruce, 
 for the west coast of Africa, to assist in suppressing 
 the slave trade. The "Truxton" arrived in the early 
 part of 1843 ^t Monrovia, where, in addition to his 
 regular duties, Mr. Phipps was assigned to the duty 
 on the coast of obtaining meteorological data in be- 
 half of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sci- 
 ences. The English sloop-of-war "Ardent" and the 
 brig "Truxton" united to capture two slavers, which 
 lay 100 miles up the Rio Pongo, at Gordon's barra- 
 coons. Arriving at the mouth of the river, they sent 
 up a boat expedition with thirty men from the 
 American vessel and fifty from the English, and 
 were successful in making the capture. Mr. Phipps, 
 who had command of the third cutter, was the first 
 to board the prize "Spitfire," and the person nearest 
 at that moment with his back toward him, he 
 struck with the flat of his sword; as the man 
 whirled they recognized each other. He was a 
 mulatto boy by the name of Jackson, whom Mr. 
 PhipDS had often seen on the streets of New H;j.ven. 
 
 The climate up the coast rivers was then deadly, 
 and all but two of the thirty sailors who accompan- 
 ied Phipps up the Rio Pongo took the coast fever. 
 The associates and friends of Mr. Phipps on board 
 the "Truxton" formed by coincidence rather a nota- 
 ble group. The midshipmen's mess, to which he 
 belonged, contained Creighton, son of Commodore 
 Creighton ; Truxton, the grandson of the old Revo- 
 lutionary commodore of that name ; and Selim 
 Woodworth, son of the author of the "Old Oaken 
 Bucket." Among the officers of the ward room 
 were Decatur Hurst, nephew of Com. Decatur ; and 
 McDonough, son of another of the old heroes of 
 1812. On the return of the "Truxton," in 1846, 
 Capt. Phipps resigned and took command of a ves- 
 sel running between New Orleans and the Spanish 
 Main, and during a voyage to St. Vincent encoun- 
 tered the great hurricane of Sept., 1846, and was 
 in its vortex. Again, on the night of Dec. 18, 1846, 
 he was wrecked on the coast of Maine, the cold be- 
 ing so severe on this occasion that seventeen persons 
 froze to death during the night. Another of Capt. 
 Phipps' experiences was that of 1841, while cruis- 
 ing for pirates on the U. S. brig "Dolphin" on the 
 south coast of Cuba. He was in sight of Cape Ni- 
 cola Mole, at the time that town, a place of 3,000 in- 
 habitants, was partially engulfed by the great 
 earthquake of that year. In 1843 Mr. Phipps aided 
 in the suppression of the "Know-nothing" riots, be- 
 ing ordered from the Norfolk Navy Yard to take 
 shore duty at Philadelphia. 
 
 When it was announced in 1848 that gold had 
 been discovered in Califrirnia, Capt. Phipps left New 
 York in December on the steamer "Crescent City," 
 for Chagres, and thence \valked across the Isthmus 
 
 to Panama, Where he took passage on a Guayaquil 
 coaster with forty passengers; they sailed for San 
 Francisco, and the hardships of that four months' 
 cruise up the Pacific may be imagined. Capt. Phipps 
 passed two years in mining on the forks of the 
 American river, and was successful. He returned 
 to the East in 1851, crossing Central America from 
 Realejo on the Pacific to Lake Nicaragua on foot, 
 and in a desperate encounter with brigands, near 
 the old volcano of Masaya, he came near losing his 
 gold dust, and barely escaped with his life. In i86,l 
 he became identified with the New Haven Water 
 Company, and later engaged in hydraulic engineer- 
 ing, and building water works. The Captain is 
 president of the Saybrook Water Co., which was 
 chartered in 1885. I" following the records of this 
 family — which are unusually complete — a rather re- 
 markable similarity of life andi character, and the 
 repetition of names ma)' be noted. The sea has been 
 the chosen profession of the majority, with a life 
 of great activity and adventure; and very marked 
 traits — determination, courage, great reserve, a 
 high sense of honor — have followed through the 
 line from the earliest time. The family is thor- 
 oughly identified with Harvard, nine of the name 
 having graduated between 1695 and 1832. [Sav- 
 age Diet.] 
 
 Mr. Phipps married Mary Elizabeth Hunt, 
 daughter of Capt. James Hunt, a prominent West 
 India merchant, whose family has been in New Ha- 
 ven since about 1774. She was born in the famous 
 old house on Water istreet built and occupied by 
 Benedict Arnold in 1771, and since owned by Noah 
 Webster, and Mrs. Phipps' grandfather and father. 
 Her mother was a Cutler, belonging to that Tory 
 family living at the time of the Revolution in the 
 old homestead, corner of Chapel and Church streets, 
 where the office building known as Cutler Corner 
 now stands. During the invasion of New Haven 
 in 1779 it wais under British protection. This prop- 
 erty is still in possession of the family after nearly 
 140 3rears of ownership. Mrs. PhipDS died in June,. 
 1896. Of Capt. Phipps' six children, only the two 
 youngest, Edward Hunt Phipps, Yale Scientific, 
 and Lina Mary Phipps, are now living. 
 
 HARRISON WEED (deceased) , who was bom 
 in what was then the town of Newtown, Conn., and 
 is now Bethel, May 11, 1827, died in New Haven, 
 Nov. 27, 1898. 
 
 Levi S. Weed, his father, was born in the 
 same place, a son of Solomon Weed, a farmer there, 
 and followed agricultural pursuits all his life. He 
 married Rachel Barnum, by whom he had a family 
 of nine children: (i) Eliza Ann ; (2) Edwin; (3) 
 Austin J. ; (4) Granville; (5) Ira; (6) Emily; (7) 
 Harrison ; (81 Henry R. ; (9) John S. Eliza Ann 
 married first, Charles Sherman, a farmer, and sec- 
 ond. Booth Blaclanan. Edwin was a harness maker 
 in Clinton Corners, N. Y., where he died. Austin 
 J. was a merchant in New Haven, and is now de- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 61$ 
 
 ceased. Granville, also deceased, was associated 
 with his brother, Austin J. Ira was a silver plater. 
 Emily died single. Henry R. was a farmer on the 
 old homestead. John S. was a harness maker, and 
 sold carriages in the South. 
 
 Harrison Weed grew up on the farm in Bethel, 
 where he remained until he was nineteen years of 
 age, attending school and helping on the farm. He 
 then went to New York, where he learned the car- 
 penter trade of his brother, Granville, though re- 
 maining with him but a short time, when he went to 
 Bridgeport, Conn., and there engaged in the sash 
 and blind business. After twelve years in farming 
 in Derby and Newtown, Conn., he located in New 
 Haven where he entered the wholesale harness 
 business with his brother, Granville, the firm name 
 being Weed & Co. 
 
 On Nov. 27, 1851, Harrison Weed was married 
 to Elizabeth E., the daughter of Levi S. and Patty 
 (Hawley) Piatt, of the town of Washington. To 
 this union were born four children: Ira D., who 
 belongs to the firm of Weed & Co. ; Lorin L., who 
 died) when twenty-six years old; Henry H., who is 
 connected with the Sargeant Manufacturing Co.; 
 Elizabeth married Aro I. Ward, the secretary of the 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Co., of New Haven. 
 Politically Harrison Weed v/as an independent 
 Democrat, and with his family he attended the Bap- 
 tist Church. 
 
 Levi S. Piatt, father of Mrs. Weed, was born 
 Jan. 6, 1787, a son of Nathan Piatt, a native of New- 
 town, Conn., and a wheelwright by trade. This line 
 of the Platts is the same as that of the Platts of 
 Milford. Levi S. Piatt, like his father, was a wheel- 
 wright by trade, and he died March 26, 1845. His 
 wife, Patty (Hawley) Piatt, was born in Brook- 
 field, Conn., Nov. 14, 1790, and died Oct. 9, 1859. 
 She was a daughter of Liverus Hawley, who served 
 in the Revolutionary struggle, as did also the grand- 
 father of Harrison Weed, who witnessed the burn- 
 it!g of Danbury. 
 
 THOMAS J. SLINEY, chief engineer of the 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Co., was born in Gene- 
 va, N. Y., Oct. I, 1839, of Irish' descent. 
 
 William Sliney, his father, was born in County 
 Cork, Ireland, and came to the United States while 
 still a boy. He was reared to manhood at Geneva, 
 N. Y., where he became an engineer of a passenger 
 boat on Seneca Lake ; his death occurred in Geneva. 
 Alice Duggan, his wife, was born in the same coun- 
 ty in Ireland, and was reared to womanhood in 
 Geneva, where she, too, passed away. To William 
 Sliney and his wife were born six children : John 
 is an engineer, and has charge of the electric light 
 plant in Geneva ; Mary resides in New Haven ; 
 Thomas J. ; Catherine married Frank A. Paulson, 
 and lives in Brooklyn ; Alice married Frank Smyth, 
 and lives in Augusta, Ga. ; and William is a machin- 
 ist in New Haven. The parents of William Sliney 
 
 located in Canada, where they were engaged in 
 farming. 
 
 Thomas J. Sliney lived in Geneva, his native 
 town, until he was twenty years of age, and learned 
 engineering on Seneca Lake, being afterward em- 
 ployed on boats in the river and harbor in New 
 York. During the Civil war he was on the Govern- 
 ment boat "Cossac." In 1868 he became connected 
 with the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., while 
 that company was still established in Bridgeport, and 
 when it was removed to New Haven in 1870, Mr. 
 SHney came with it as its chief engineer, a position 
 he has held to the present time with credit to him- 
 self and satisfaction to the management. 
 
 Mr. Sliney was married in 1866 to Miss Mary 
 Taylor, of Bridgeport, a daughter of Thomas B. 
 Taylor; she died in 1892. Mr. Sliney is a Demo- 
 crat, and socially, is a member of the A. O. U. \V.. 
 and the N. E. O. P. 
 
 JOHN F. BARNETT, M. D., is one of West 
 Haven's oldest, most successful practitioners and a 
 valued citizen. His grandfather, Samuel, was born 
 in New Haven, and' the family — which is of Revo- 
 lutionary fame — is among the oldest in the county. 
 San, jel Barnett was a shoemaker by trade, and 
 died in his native city at an advanced age. 
 
 William N. Barnett, son of Samuel, was born 
 in the same town, but while yet a young man went 
 South, settling in Charleston, S. C where he en- 
 gaged in the wholesale book trade. In 1845 he re- 
 turned to his native State, taking up his residence 
 in West Haven. The first house which he built in 
 that town is still standing, adjoining the town hall. 
 He bought much real estate, and was recognized as 
 one of the most prominent citizens. In politics he 
 was a Democrat, and in religious faith an Episco- 
 palian., serving for many years as a warden and 
 parish clerk. He. died in Florida, in 1878, at the 
 age of sixty-eight years. While living in South 
 Carolina he was married to Mary S. Pritchard, a de- 
 scendant of the Huguenots. Her father, Paul 
 Pritchard, was a ship builder, and she was one of 
 a large family of children. Of the four sons born 
 to William N. Barnett and his wife, three are yet 
 living: Dr. John F. ; William E., who holds the 
 position of third vice-president in the Consolidated 
 Railroad office at New Haven ; and the Rev. F. W. 
 Barnett, of South Glastonbury. 
 
 Dr. John F. Barnett was- born in West Haven, 
 June 26, 1846. He was educated in the common 
 schools of the town and at Brown's private school, 
 graduating from the Hopkins Grammar school in 
 New Haven. In 1867 he entered the medical school 
 of Yale University, and received his diploma and 
 degree from that institution in 1869. The follow- 
 ing year he devoted to study in the Hartford Hos- 
 pital, and then for some months was surgeon on an 
 emigrant vessel plying between New York and 
 Liverpool. In 1871 he went to the West Indies, 
 
6i6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 where he practiced his profession for about six 
 months. This experience afiforded him an admirable 
 opportunity to become familiar with the character 
 and conditions of life in the tropics, which a man 
 of his native talent and powers of observation was 
 not slow to improve. Returning to the L'nited 
 . States in 1872, he established himself in Brookb'n, 
 N. Y., where he remained for three years. His 
 professional ability was soon recognized. He was 
 appointed on the staff of the Central Dispensary, 
 and made a member of the Kings County Medical 
 Society. In 1875, however, he turned again to- 
 ward his birthplace, and from that year until the 
 present he has made his home among the scenes of 
 his childhood. In August, 1897, he built his pres- 
 ent home on Church street, fronting the "green," 
 and there he loves to dispense a generous, refined 
 hospitality. He is a member of both the New Ha- 
 ven County anfl State Medical Societies and has 
 been a "Fellow" of the former. Both he and his 
 wife are members of the New Haven Historical So- 
 ciety, in whose work Dr. Barnett takes a deep in- 
 terest. He is a charter member of the Samosett 
 Club, and was at one time connected with the 
 Knights of Pythias. For many years he has been 
 a member of the vestry of Christ Episcopal Church, 
 and was formerly a teacher in its Sunday-school. 
 While by nature averse to holding public office, he 
 has consented, at the urgent solicitation of his fellow 
 townsmen, to serve in such positions. Since 1882 
 be has been, except for two years, treasurer of the 
 borough, having been elected seventeen times, and 
 for a longer period school visitor, while for about 
 sixteen years he has filled the statutory office of 
 medical examiner for the coroner. 
 
 In 1887 Dr. Barnett was married to Miss Mary 
 E. Keeley, of Kingston, Canada, whose father, Will- 
 iam, died in Canacla, aged forty vears. The maiden 
 name of her mother, who is still living, was Julia 
 Gilliard. Mrs. Barnett was one of a family of six 
 children, of whom three besides herself are yet liv- 
 ing, \A'illiam J-, Robert and David H. Dr. and 
 Mrs. Barnett have had two children, only one of 
 whom, Frederick H., is living. 
 
 JAilES REILLY, one of the notable and rep- 
 resentative citizens and business men of New Haven, 
 was born in County Cavan. Ireland, June 24, 1835. 
 He came to New Haven when he was ten years of 
 age, where he attended Smith's Academy (How- 
 ard avenue), and other schools until he was set to 
 learn the mason trade under Asa Hoyt. For three 
 years he worked with him, and followed his trade 
 until 1866. That year he began for himself as a 
 contractor and builder, and met with such suc- 
 cess that he was encouraged to persevere in that 
 line to the present day. ]\Iany important buildings 
 in New Flaven have gone up under his personal 
 care and direction, and he has strongly impressed 
 himself upon the city as a thoroughly reliable and 
 trustworthy man. 
 
 Mr. Reillv is a Democrat, and for two terms 
 was an alderman from the Seventh Ward. For 
 six years he was a member of the board of public 
 works, and when a young man was captain of a 
 company of independent militia, called the Emmet 
 Guard. ' Out of this organization grew the 9th Conn. 
 A" I. and the 24th Conn. V I., both of which made 
 noble records in the Civil war. Mr. Reilly belongs 
 to St. Patrick's Parish of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, and is one of the most genial and estimable 
 gentlemen of the city. A man of wide reading and 
 much intelligence, he has a fine library in his beauti- 
 ful home at No. 21 Bradley street. Aluch property 
 is held by him in the city, and his long and honor- 
 able career shows the worth of his sterling manhood 
 and unflagging industry. 
 
 DAA'ID THOAIAS WELCH (deceased) 
 was for twenty years a leading resident of West 
 Haven, where his death occurred, March 7, 1897. 
 Coming of good old Colonial stock, he well repre- 
 sented the best blood of the country, and the founda- 
 tion for his succassful career was laid in inherited 
 traits of character. He was born April 19, 1838, 
 in Milton, Litchfield Co., Conn., the son of Garrett 
 P. Welch. 
 
 Major David Welch, his great-grandfather, 
 served in the Revolutionary war. and was appointed 
 Captain of 4th Company, later major of the First 
 Connecticut Regiment, of which Gen. David Woos- 
 ter was colonel; he represented the town of Litch- 
 field from 1770 to 1780. His later years were spent 
 in Milton, where he owned a large estate and 
 passed an honored old age. 
 
 Judge John Welch, our subject's grandfather, 
 graduated from. Yale in 1778, entered the Continen- 
 tal army as lieutenant of sappers and miners, .serv- 
 ing five years ; he participated in the battles of Sara- 
 toga and Yorktown. He was one of the founders 
 of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of 
 Rhode Island. His talents brought him to the 
 front in public life, and he became judge of the 
 county court at Litchfield ; wais a member of the 
 famous Constitutional Convention of 1818 ; repre- 
 sentative of Litchfield, 1799-1822; State Senator, 
 1825: judge of quorum, 1819-1820; judge of 
 county court, 1820-1829. He married Rosanna 
 Peebles, of Albany, and bis sons were: William, 
 a graduate of Yale, and later a captain in the U. S. 
 army; Hugh, a lieutenant in the U. S. army; David 
 Thomas, a lieutenant and later a captain in the U. 
 S. army ; William Henry, a graduate of Yale in 
 1827, and after governor and chief justice of Min- 
 nesota ; and Garrett P. 
 
 Garrett P. Welch, the father of the late David 
 Thomas, was born and reared in Milton, receiving 
 a good education. He engaged in the manufacture 
 of iron and in mercantile business in early man'hood. 
 He inherited a large amount of real estate, includ- 
 ing a number of farms which were operated for 
 him. He was a man whose influence could always be 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 617 
 
 counted upon for any worthy cause, and for many 
 years he and his wife were leading members of the 
 Episcopal Church at Milton. He died in Milton, 
 aged fifty-two years, and his wife, whose maiden 
 name was Clarissa Marsh, died at eighty-six. She 
 was born in Litchfield, the daug'hter of Rev. Tru- 
 man Marsh, a native of that town, and for more 
 than forty yeafls a popular and beloved minister of 
 the Episcopal Church, and) for several years rector 
 emeritus. Her mother, Clarissa Seymour, a woman 
 of pronounced beauty of face and most attractive 
 personality, was a daughter of Major Moses Sey- 
 mour, an influential citizen of Litchfield, who served 
 with distinction in the Revolutionary war. (See 
 Hollister's History of Connecticut.) On his ma- 
 ternal side Mr. Welch was also a lineal descendant 
 of Gov. John Webster, one of the early Governors 
 of Connecticut. 
 
 David Thomais Welch spent his youth in Mil- 
 ton, receiving the best educational opportunities 
 that Litchfield afforded, and) before he was twenty- 
 one he engaged in business for himself. At twenty- 
 five he went to Michigan and took charge of sev- 
 eral stores belonging with the copper mines, but 
 after five years he returned to the East, locating in 
 Elizabeth, N. J., where he was engaged for himself 
 in the drug business for two years. His health 
 failed, and for five years he was employed by A. T. 
 Stewart in New York City, and finding another 
 change advisable he removed to West Haven in 
 1877. Ill 1879 he laid the foundation for the large 
 coal business, which still bears his name. He a:ave 
 employment to a large number of men, the business 
 as a single industry being the most extensive of any 
 in that locality. His office was located on the shore, 
 near the. Winchester avenue power house. While 
 Air. Welch took much interest in local affairs he 
 declined to run for office when urged, as he pre- 
 ferred the peace and quiet of domestic life after his 
 tusiness cares were over for the diay. Soon after 
 his removal to West Haven he united with Christ 
 Episcopal Church, and ten years later was elected 
 senior warden. He was one of the liberal suppor- 
 ters of the church and a regular attendant at all 
 church services. "I shall never forget his cheerful 
 face and cordial handclasp," says one man. He al- 
 ways welcomed newcomers to the church, and it 
 will be long before his accustomed presence will be 
 forgotten. His deeds of charity were many ; greater 
 than the public were aware. His minister, the Rev. 
 R. H. Gesner, gives testimony to this fact, and 
 speaks warmly of the splendid) character and the 
 unostentatious g-enerositv of his friend and parish- 
 ioner. Mr. Welch belonged to the Masonic order 
 and was a member of the Annawan Lodge, in which 
 he held the office of treasurer, but he was not buried 
 with Masonic rites, preferring to have his obsequies 
 conducted! in the "dear old Episcopal form." 
 
 Rich and poor, old and young, mourned for him 
 and there was not a man in his employ that did not 
 feel a sense of personal loss at the news of his 
 
 death. In 1892 he wrote a letter of instruction to 
 be opened after his death, and Mrs. Welch, found, 
 on breaking the seal, that it expressed his wishes 
 with regard to his funeral. It was requested that 
 carriages be provided for all the workmen in his 
 employ, and that the bearers should be his associate 
 officers in the church. Six of these tenderly bore 
 the casket, the remaining five acting as honorary 
 bearers. The funeral services were held on March 
 ID, at 2 130 P. M. at Christ Church, the rector, R. 
 H, Gesner, being assisted by the Rev. E. S. Lines, 
 of St. Paul's, New Haven. The interment took 
 place in Oak Grove cemetery. West Haven. 
 
 Mr. Welch married Miss Sarah E. S. Bradley, 
 of Woodbury, and their life was one of much hap- 
 piness. Mrs. Welch presided over their home, a 
 pleasant residence at the corner of First avenue and 
 Main street, with grace andl hospitality; they had 
 no children of their own, and they delighted to 
 bring about them the young people of the borough, 
 and frequently gave musicales and other enter- 
 tamments. Mrs. Welch is a member of the D. A. 
 R., and was an alternate and regular delegate, al- 
 ternate years to the national congreiss at Washing- 
 ton, D. C., in 1896, '97, '99, '00. In the local branch, 
 the Mary Clap Wooster Chapter is one of the larg- 
 est in the State. She is a leading worker, and is 
 now serving her third vear as treasurer. She is 
 also a member of the Kalmathean Club, of West 
 Haven, and has been active in religious work as a 
 member of Christ Church. She is descended in 
 different lines from some of the earliest colonial fam- 
 ilies' of the State and her paternal grandfather, Col. 
 Aner Bradley, was prominent in the militia, serv- 
 ing as sergeant, ensign, lieutenant, and retired as a 
 colonel of militia in the Revolutionary war. In the 
 Governor'is Foot Guards, Benedict Arnold, Captain, 
 he was one of the original members, having joined at 
 an early age ; and was one of the sixty who marched 
 from New Haven to Lexington in less than twenty- 
 four hours after the news reached this place of open 
 hostilities. He was also at Ticondcroga, and was 
 commissioned sergeant. He was born in New Fla- 
 ven but spent much of his life in Watertown, Conn., 
 where he was engaged in business as a silversmith. 
 He filled the office of town clerk for twenty-seven 
 consecutive years. His death occurred at the age 
 of seventy-one and his wife, Anna Guernsey, sur- 
 vived bim several years. Of their nine childiren, 
 none are now living. Phineas Sherman Bradley, 
 Mrs. Welch's father, was born at Watertown, but 
 settled in Woodbury, as a leather manufacturer in 
 early manhood. He lived to the advanced age of 
 ninety years, his last years being passed in retire- 
 ment. For many years be held a leading place in 
 public affairs in his section, serving a's selectman for 
 a number of terms, and as representative in the 
 Legislature in 1842-43. He was known as one of 
 the pillars of St. Paul's Church at Woodbury, and 
 held the office of senior warden for many years, 
 greatlv beloved bv all. His wife, Sarah Scoville 
 
6i8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Porter, who died aged seventy-six, was one of 
 three children born to Dr. Stephen Porter, of Wat- 
 ertown, who married Lydia Manville, a lady of 
 French Huguenot descent. 
 
 DR. THEODORE SMITH RUST, one of the 
 leading dentists, and well-known men of Meriden 
 comes of one of the oldest families in New Eng- 
 land, the ancestry being traced back to Plenry Rust, 
 who came from England in 1633-35, ^^d settled in 
 Hingham, Mass., making the trip in the ship "Dili- 
 gent," of Ipswich, Capt. John Martin. He re- 
 mained at Hingham until about 1651, when he re- 
 moved to Boston, where the remainder of his life 
 was spent, and where he became a man of property 
 and influence ; he died about 1685. Six children 
 were born to him : Samuel, baptized in Hingham, 
 Aug. 5, 1638, married Elizabeth Rogers; Nathaniel 
 was baptized Feb. 2, 16^9, and married Mary War- 
 dell ; Hannah was baptized Nov. 7, 1641, and mar- 
 ried Robert Earle ; Israel was baptized Nov. 12, 
 1643, and married Rebecca Clark; Benjamin was 
 baptized April 5, 1646; and Benoni died Oct. 23, 
 1647. 
 
 (II) Israel Rust, son of Henry Rust the settler, 
 removed from Hingham to Northampton, Mass., 
 when a young man, and there, Dec. 9, 1669, married 
 Rebecca Clark, a daughter of William Clark. On 
 Dec. 8, 1678, Israel Rust took the oath of allegiance, 
 and March 30, 1690, took the freeman's oath in 
 Northampton. His death occurred Nov. 11, 1712, 
 and his wife died Feb. 8, 1733. Their children 
 were: A son, who was born Sept. 12, 1670, and 
 died on the 25th of the same month and year ; Na- 
 thaniel, who was born Nov. 17, 1671, and who mar- 
 ried Mercy Atkinson ; Samuel, who was born Aug. 
 6, 1673, and died in January, 1701 ; Sarah, who was 
 born May 29, 1675, and married in Northampton 
 Feb. 20, 1699, to Deacon Samuel Allen, who died 
 March 27, 1739; Experience, who was born July 
 30, 1677, and died young; Israel, who was born 
 July 15, 1679, and married to Sarah North, April 3, 
 1704; Jonathan, who was born June 11, 1681, and 
 married to Elizabeth Allen, and (second) Anna 
 Lyman; Rebecca, who was born about 1683, mar- 
 ried Robert Danks ; and John, who was born about 
 1685. 
 
 (III) Israel Rust, son of Israel Rust (i), died 
 Dec. 27, 1759, and he had a family of the following- 
 children : Sarah, born Dec. 23, 1704, married May 
 24, 1727, Samuel Clark; Mary, born Oct. 30, 1706; 
 Lydia, born Feb. 24, 1709, married Jan. 11, 1730, 
 Eliakim Phelps; Israel, born Feb. 15, 1712, mar- 
 ried jNIary Warner. The sixth child of this family 
 was born Feb. 4. 1 714, and died in infancy. 
 
 (I\') Israel Rust, son of Israel (2), was by oc- 
 cupation a lumberman in Northampton. He was 
 married on April 10, 1735, to Mary Warner, daugh- 
 ter of ;\Iark and Lydia (Phelps) \A'arner, born Mav 
 24, 1715, and (lied Nov. 10, 1809; he died Nov. 10, 
 1779- The children born to them were: Elijah, 
 
 born :\Iarch 8, 1736, married Miriam Strong; Mary, 
 born Dec. 11, 1737, died April 4, 1802; Sarah, bap- 
 tized Aug. 19, 1739, married Nathaniel Parsons in 
 1768; Israel, born Dec. 4, 1741, married Esther 
 Bartlett; Daniel, bom Jan. 12, 1744, died August, 
 1744; Lydia, born July 18, 1745, died inT752; Es- 
 ther, born in October, 1747, married, Feb. 28, 1771, 
 Seth Clapp; Eunice, born October, 1749, married 
 Jan. 9, 1772, Nathan Clark; Jerusha, born in 1751, 
 married, in 1771, Noah Edwards; Daniel, born in 
 1753: married Penelope Cook; and Jonathan, born 
 Nov. 2, 1755, died March 9, 1776. 
 
 (V) Israel Rust, son of Israel (3), was a farm- 
 er by occupation. He was married in Northampton, 
 Aug. 22, 1768, to Esther Bartlett, daughter of Will- 
 iam and Abigail (Lyman) Bartlett. She was bap- 
 tized March 8, 1741, and she was a sister of Phebe 
 Bartlett, whose conversion at the age of four years 
 and interest in Sunday-school books have given her 
 great notoriety. Israel died Oct. 21, 1816, and his 
 wife probably about Dec. i, 1829. The children 
 born of this union were as follows : Chester, born 
 Feb. 12, 1769, married, in 1798, Esther Wright; 
 Electa, born Oct. 7, 1770, married Jared Clark, Jan. 
 8, 1800, had one son, and died June 27, 1853; Seth, 
 born March 15, 1772, married Jerusha Starr, Sept. 
 10, 1794, and died !March 17, 1838; Phineas, born 
 Aug. 29, 1773, married Miltiah Everett, Nov. 10, 
 1803, and died Dec. 30', 1848; Israel, bom July 9, 
 1775, died March 6, 1800; Jonathan, born in 1777; 
 and Esther born Juh^ 1 1, 1779, married, June 4, 1806, 
 Col. Josiah Dickinson, and died Nov. 23, 1869. 
 
 (\T) Jonathan, son of Israel (4), was a farmer 
 by occupation, and his death occurred in North- 
 ampton, April 18, 1828. He married, in 1805, Fan- 
 nie, daughter of Cotton and Olive (Field) Dickin- 
 son, of Hadley. She was bom in 1770, and died in 
 Boston, Mass., May 24, 1852, aged eighty-two. 
 Their children were : Sibyl Partridge, bom Nov. 29, 
 1806, married Theodore M. Smith, and died Nov. 
 29, 1861 ; William, born in Northampton, Marc'h 6, 
 1809, removed to Canada, where he died March 13, 
 1846, leaving two children ; Frances Amelia, born 
 in Northampton, March 4, 1813, married in the same 
 town, Aug. 3, 1831, Dr. Marcus Crary, son of Peter 
 and Lovisa (Griswoldi) Parker, and died in Cleve- 
 land, Ohio, Dec. 20, 1887 ; and Daniel, born in 
 Northampton, April 10, 1815, married (first) Ann 
 Haskell, (second) Chloe Haskell, and (third) Elea- 
 nor Nelson. 
 
 (\TT) Daniel Rust, son of Jonathan, and father 
 of Dr. Rust, became a carriage manufacturer, but 
 later retired and lived on a farm. He married first, 
 Feb. (), 1741, in Peru, Mass., Ann Haskell, who was 
 born in that town, Dec. 19, 1813, and died in East- 
 hampton, June 23, 1847. His second wife, whom 
 he married Oct. 5, 1847, was her sister, Chloe, born 
 April 8, t8i2, died Aug. 26, 1855. On May 7, 
 1857, he married Eleanor Nelson, and he died in 
 Easthampton, Oct. 13, 1872. The children by his 
 first marriage were : Chloe Ann, born Jan. 17, 1842, 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 619 
 
 died July 22, 1865 ; Theodore Smith, born April 14, 
 1844; and Mary Sibyl, born Jan. 19, 1846, died 
 March 31, 1846. One child was born of the second 
 marriage, Fannie Frances, who was born in East- 
 hampton, June 10, 1849, and died July 15, 1865. By 
 his third marriage Mr. Rust had the following fam- 
 ily: Charles Nelson, bom Aug. i, 1859, married 
 Carrie Barton, of Granby, Mass. ; Nellie E., born 
 July I, 1 861, is unmarried and resides in Nauga- 
 tuck. Conn. ; and George, born Nov. 9, 1863, is un- 
 married and resides in Springfield, Mass. Mrs. 
 Rust removed to Naugatuck about 1887 to live with 
 her daughter. 
 
 Dr. Theodore Smith Rust was born April 14, 
 1844, and was reared upon a farm, learning the trade 
 of machinist, but having a strong inclination toward 
 a professional life, he took up the study of dentistry, 
 in 1863, with his brother-in-law, Dr. Colton, in 
 Meriden. Continuing with him, Dr. Rust became 
 thoroughly versed in his profession, and upon the 
 death of the former, continued the business alone. 
 For thirty-eight years he has been in successful 
 practice in the city of Meriden, and has been in his 
 present quarters ever since Place Block building was 
 erected, he being the first dentist to locate there. 
 He is a member of Connecticut State Dental Asso- 
 ciation and North Eastern Dental Association, and 
 he is the oldest and leading dentist of Meriden and 
 numbers the best people of the city among his pa- 
 tients. 
 
 Dr. Rust is also well-loiown as a mechanical gen- 
 ius, electrician, and skillful machinist. He was one 
 of the first to construct a telephone, and also to ex- 
 periment with Roentgen rays, and is now interested 
 in wireless telegraphy. Socially and fraterrially 
 he is very popular, and is a member of Meriden 
 Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M. ; the Home Club ; 
 and the Wheel Club, of which he was president for 
 a number of years. He was one of the first persons 
 in Meridten to ride a wheel, and is still enthusiastic 
 over the sport. 
 
 On May 3, 1864, Dr. Rust married Fannie M. 
 Colton, a woman of refinement and culture. Two 
 children have been born to this union : Theodora 
 Frances, bom May 30, 1870, is a young lady of 
 many attainments ; Annie Marinda graduated from 
 the art school at Smith College in 1896, and after- 
 ward studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts. Both 
 daughters at present reside at home. 
 
 The Colton Family. George Colton, from 
 whom all the Coltons in this country are descended 
 as far as is known, came from Sutton-Coldfield, 
 England. He married Deborah Gardner, of Hart- 
 ford, and settled in that part of Springfield called 
 Longmeadow. Quartermaster George Colton died 
 Feb. 13, 1699. His wife dlied Sept. 5, 1689. Their 
 children were: Isaac, born Nov. 21, 1646, married 
 Mary Cooper, June 30, 1670, and died Sept. 3, 1700; 
 Ephraim, born April 9, 1648, died May 14, 1713;. 
 Mary, born Sept. 22, 1649; Thomas, born May i, 
 1651,'died Sept. 30, 1728; Sarah, born Feb. 24, 1652; 
 
 Deborah, born Jan. 25, 1654, died Nov. 26, 1733; 
 Hepsibah, born Jan. 7, 1656; John, born April 8, 
 1659, died Feb. 3, 1727; and Benjamin, born May 
 26, 1661. After the death of his first wife, De- 
 borah (Gardner) Colton, George Colton married 
 Lydia Lamb. 
 
 (H) Isaac Colton, son of Quartermaster George, 
 the emigrant, married Mary, daughter of Lieut. 
 Thomas Cooper, June 30, 1670. ' She was born Nov. 
 15, 165 1, married (second) Edward Stebbins, and 
 died Aug. 29, 1742. Isaac Colton died Sept. 3, 
 1700. The children of Isaac and Mary (Cooper) 
 Colton were: Mary, born March 30, 1671 ; Sarah, 
 born June 11, 1673, died July 9, 1689; George, born 
 June 16, 1677, died Aug. 6, 1760; Rebecca, bom 
 June 20, 1681 ; Deborah, born July 26, 1684; a child 
 born Aug. i, 1687, died the same day ; Hannah, born 
 Aug. 8, 1688; Joseph, born April 20, 1693; Benja- 
 m.in, born June 18, 1695, died May 6, 1770. 
 
 (III) Benjamin Colton, son of Isaac Colton, set- 
 tled in Springfield, and afterward removed to Lud- 
 low. On Feb. 6, 1721, he married Elizabeth Pyn- 
 chon, daughter of John and Bathshua (Taylor) 
 Pynchon. She was born Dec. 17, 1702, and died 
 Sept. 26, 1776; he died May 6, 1770. Their chil- 
 dren were: Benjamin, born Feb. i, 1722, died June 
 20, 1808; Charles, born March 8, 1724, died March 
 9, 1809; Moses, born Feb. 9, 1726, died Sept. 23, 
 1771 ; Gideon, born Feb. 11, 1728, married Johanna 
 Colton, and died June 16, 1S23; Elizabeth, born 
 April 13, 1730; Bathshua, born Sept. 6, 1732; Isaac, 
 born Aug. 22, 1734, died March 3, 1812; Wihiam, 
 born Nov. 6, 1736; Margaret, born Oct. 24, 1738; 
 Hannah, born Oct. 27, 1740; Mary, born Jan. 26, 
 1742; Aaron, born March 21, 1744; Rhoda, born 
 June 9, 1748 ; Edward, born April 10, 1750; Reuben, 
 born Jan. i, 1752, died Sept. 26, 1757. 
 
 (IV) Gideon Colton, son of Benjamin Colton, 
 lived at Longmeadow, Mass., and was said to be a 
 man of small stature, and for that reason could not 
 serve in the Revolutionary war. His first wife was 
 Sarah Burt, daughter of David and Sarah Burt ; she 
 had two children, Simon, who died young; and 
 Sarah, who married Reuben Warriner, Feb. 15, 
 1783. Gideon Colton married his second wife, Jo- 
 hanna Colton, daughter of Lieut. John Colton, June 
 18, 1761. She died Sept. 10, 1788, and be died June 
 15, 1823. The children by his second wife were 
 as follows: Gideon, born May 10, 1763, married 
 July 23, 1788, Leucretia Woodworth ; Hanon, born 
 Oct. 4, 1764, married Eunice Cooley, Tune, 1788, 
 and died Aug. 28, 1828; Zadock, born Feb. 5, 1766, 
 married Hulda Lanckton, Nov. 5, 1794, and died 
 Dec. 17, 1836; Chauncey, born Nov. 4, 1768, died 
 Jan. 6, 1775; Sabra, born Nov. 30, 1770, married 
 Jan. 25, 1790, Harrison Ewell ; Elizabeth, born Dec. 
 30, 1774, died July 16, 1861 ; and Chauncey, born 
 Jan. II, 1779, died Feb. 15, 1789. 
 
 (V) Zadock Colton, son of Gideon Colton, also 
 lived at Longmeadow, Mass., and at Conway and 
 Westfield, the same State. On Nov. 5, 1794, he 
 
■620 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married Hulda Lanckton, who was born Aug. 7, or 
 Sept. 18, 1777, and died March 11, 1833. He died 
 Dec. 17, 1836. Both passed! away in Westfield at 
 the home of their son Chauncey. Their children 
 were as follows: John, born April 28, 1796, died 
 that same day:, John (2), born Aug. 7, 1797, mar- 
 ried Lemira Batchelder, and died April 10, 1868; 
 Chauncey, born Jan. 29, 1800, married Marinda 
 Flagg, and died Jan. 9, 1862 ; Hulda, born Sept. 28, 
 1801, married Stephen Harrison, and died Sept. 16, 
 1838: Elizabeth, born Dec. 11, 1806, married Board- 
 man Noble, and died Alay 3, 1892; Mehitable, born 
 Way 8, 1810, died July 9, 1826; Emily, born May 
 20, 1812, married Moses N. Williams, and died 
 March 6, 1895 ; Pbilinda, born April 24, 1815, mar- 
 ried William Sackett and died ;\Iarch 8, 1837 ; and 
 Gideon, born June 16, 181 7, married Magdalen 
 Young, and died Aug. 29, 1873. 
 
 (VI) Chauncey Colton, son of Zadock Colton, 
 was a farmer by occupation. He married Marinda 
 Flagg, who was born Feb. 25, i8og, a daughter of 
 Eleazer and Elizabeth (Warren) Flagg, of Con- 
 way, Mass., Oct. 26, 1830. He died, Jan. 9, 1862, 
 in Westfield, Mass., where they lived, and where 
 their children w^ere born. After his death his wife 
 removed to Meriden, Conn., to live with her son 
 Dr. D. S. Colton, and died Aug. 20, 1896, aged 
 ■eighty-seven. The children of Chauncey and Ma- 
 rinda Colton were as follows: Ann M., born Aug. 
 22, 1831, married James Bliss, of Owen, 111., and 
 died July 8, 1881 ; Jane E., born Jan. 21, 1834, mar- 
 ried Henry Thurston: Benton H., born Aug. 14, 
 1836, and married Lozina Wheeler ; Delizon S., born 
 Feb. 4, 1839, died Sept. 13, 1864; Fannie M., born 
 July 20, 1841, married May 3, 1864, Theodore Smith 
 Rust : Emma E., born July 4, 1844, married Henry 
 A. Shipman, andi died Aug^. 12, 1885; Francis V., 
 torn ;\Iay 25, 1847, died Aug. 29, 1849; ^"d Ernest- 
 ine L., born Dec. 13, 1850, died July 22, 1865. 
 
 EDWARD DAVIS, who was the head of the 
 Davis family of Hamden, New Haven county, and 
 whose sons, William E. and James A., constitute the 
 extensive brick manufacturing firm of W. E. Davis 
 & Co., of New Haven, was a member of the old 
 Davis family, of Willington, Connecticut. 
 
 From Avery Davis, a prosperous farmer of Staf- 
 ford, a native of the town of Willington, Tolland 
 cnunty, and a son of Avery Davis, came the mem- 
 bers of that familv in Stafford, Hamden and New 
 ITaven. Averv Davis married Hannah Tyler, a 
 daughter of Deacon Samuel Lyon, of the same 
 town, and their children were : Charles, Eliza, Mary, 
 Edward, William, Samuel (sketch of whom appears 
 elsewhere) and John. Avery Davis passed his life 
 in agricultural pursuits in Stafford, and there died 
 at the age of seventy-seven years. His youngest son, 
 Jiihn, was born in 1826, and married Aurelia, 
 daughter of Joseph Allen, of Ellington. Fie set- 
 tled in Rockville, where he became a large holder 
 of real estate, over which that cit}' later spread. 
 
 making him wealthy. Davis avenue there was 
 named for him. He died Jan. 11, 1899. 
 
 Edward Davis, son of Avery, and the father of 
 William E., James A. and Burton A., was born in 
 1818 in Stafford, and in 1837 established himself 
 on a farm in Hamden, coming to that town with his 
 brother, Samuel. By his upright life and exem- 
 plary habits he won the profound respect of the 
 community. He was selectman of the town and 
 assessor, and also filled other positions of trust and 
 responsibility. In 1842 he was married to Betsey 
 M. Augur, daughter of James and Almyra (Ford) 
 Augur, and a member of an old New England fam- 
 ily. She was born in Whitneyville, and spent her 
 life in that part of Hamden. She early identiiied her- 
 self with the Whitneyville Congregational Church, 
 always took a dieep interest in its affairs, and lived 
 a busy, useful life, but one which seemed always 
 serene and peaceful. In her later years she became 
 indeed "a mother in Israel." She was a constant 
 reader and deep thinker, the subjects of temperance 
 and missions being of special interest to her. 
 Thoroughly good and lovabk, she left to her chil- 
 dren a legacy of precious memories. Her death 
 occurred Aug. 16, 1889, and she was buried in 
 Whitneyville cemetery by the side of her husband. 
 Children as follows were born tO' their union : ( i ) 
 James A., born June 6, 1844, in the town of Ham- 
 den, is mentioned 'elsewhere. (2) Betsey Maria, 
 born April 12, 1846, is the wife of George W. Ives, 
 of Hamden, by whom she has had two children, Al- 
 fred and Lucy, the latter deceased. (3) William 
 E., born Jan. 30, 1848, married Sophia Tambling- 
 fon, and has three children, William Edward, Jr., 
 Jessie and Harold M. (4) Carrie M., born in i860, 
 died at the age of sixteen years ; ;she was attending 
 New Flaven high school at the time of her decease. 
 (5) Burton A., born Sept. 15, 1862, married Mar- 
 tha E. Augur, and has one daughter, Marjorie, and 
 one son, Alinott, (6) ]\Iyra L., born in 1865, 
 married William T. Burton, of Hamden, and died 
 Feb. I, 1901 ; she was the mother of John Edward, 
 Ralph AA'illiam and Donald Hepburn. 
 
 After his marriage Edward Davis located on the 
 farm where his son. Burton A., now lives. Although 
 he began life a poor bov, with only a common school 
 education, be prospered in his undertakings, as he 
 was industrious, enterprising and energetic, and be 
 became a large land owner and extensive farmer — 
 in fact, he was one of the successful men in his dav 
 in Flamden. During the latter years of his life he 
 devoted his attention to the dairy business. He 
 was a man of good common sense and sound judg- 
 ment. When be began life his capital consisted only 
 of energy and business tact, which latter trait was 
 apparent from his youth. He was a disciplinarian, 
 and his management of affairs, public or private, 
 was such as to secure the best results, for though 
 stern in some, respects he could be indulgent, and 
 was a good judge of human nature. Mr. Davis was 
 well known, and his personal acquaintance included 
 
^cUocu^'^^^^i'^i-^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 621 
 
 many of the prominent men in the business and 
 financial circles of New Haven. He reared an ex- 
 cellent family to whom he left not only a comfort- 
 able competence, but a name which can be pointed 
 to with pride. His tastes were domestic, and his 
 heart always in his home and family, and he never 
 sought or cared for public preferment, taking an 
 interest in politics solely as a public-spirited citi- 
 zen. He contributed liberally to the support of the 
 Whitneyville Congregational Church, of which he 
 was a leading member. 
 
 YALE. The Yale family of New Haven coun- 
 ty has long been prominent and comes of an hon- 
 oi-able race. 
 
 (I) Thomas Yale was born in England or Wales 
 about 1616, son of David and Ann (Morton) Yale, 
 'David Yale being a descendant of an ancient and 
 wealthy family of that name in Wales, and Ann 
 Morton, the daughter of Bishop Morton of London. 
 Their marriage occurred in 161 3, and Mr. Yale died 
 in 1617 leaving three children. The widow in 1618 
 married Theophilus Eaton, then an opulent mer- 
 chant of London, and with him, and a large com- 
 pany, including her three children by David Yale, 
 came to America in the "Hector" in 1637, stopping 
 in Boston and going to New Haven in the spring of 
 1638. Gov. Eaton died! in New Haven in 1657, and 
 in 1658 Mrs. Eaton and daughter, Hannah Eaton, 
 returned to England. 
 
 Thomas Yale married, in 1645, Mary, daughter 
 of Capt. Nathaniel Turner. He had come to New 
 England with bis step-father, Gov. Eaton, and party, 
 and settled in New Haven as a merchant in 1638. 
 On the death of Gov. Eaton he accompanied his 
 mother and sister to England, but returned to New 
 Haven in 1659 and purchased lands in that part of 
 the town which afterward became North Haven, 
 and settled there as early as 1660. He was one of 
 the principal men in the colony ; was a signer of the 
 Plantation Covenant and filled with honor many 
 offices of trust. He died March 27, 1683, his wife 
 surviving until Oct. 15, 1704- 
 
 (II) Thomas Yale (2), son of -Thomas, the set- 
 tler, born about 1647 in New Haven, married 
 (first) Dec. 11, 1667, Rebecca, born Feb. 26, 1650, 
 daughter of William Gibbards, of New Haven. 
 Capt. Yale removed to Wallingford, Conn., in 1670 
 as one of the first settlers of the town. He was one 
 of the most active and energetic men of Walling- 
 ford, assisted in the organization of the church, was 
 a justice of the peace, captain of the train band, etc. 
 He died in Wallingford Jan. 26, 1736. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Yale, son of Thomas (2), born 
 July 21, 1681, married Anna, daughter of John 
 Peck, of Wallingford, and settled as a farmer in 
 that part of the town which is now Meriden. He 
 died Dec. n, 1711. His widow married Joseph 
 Cole and died Feb. 16, 1716. 
 
 (IV) Abel Yale, son of Nathaniel, born March 
 9, 1707, married (first) July 22, 1730, Esther Cook, 
 
 and (second) June 3, 1742, Sarah Atkins, of Mid- 
 dletown. Mr. Yale was a farmer and settled in the 
 eastern part of the town, now Meriden. He died 
 April 8, 1784, and his wife, Sarah, died Dec. 20, 
 1800. 
 
 (V) Nathaniel Yale (2), son of Abel, born June 
 28, 1753, married, Sept. 15, 1778, Hannah Scoville, 
 and lived in Meriden. In early life he was a joiner, 
 but later was engaged in farming. He was for a 
 number of years a deacon in the Congregational 
 Church. He died Dec. 12, 1814, and his wife died 
 Feb. 28, 1847. 
 
 (VI) Levi Yale, son of Nathaniel (2), born 
 Nov. 31, 1780', married (first) Polly Yale, daughter 
 of Joel Yale, and (secondl) March 5, 1815, Anna 
 Gu3^ Mr. Yale was a farmer of Meriden. He died 
 Nov. 10, 1844. His wife, Polly, died July 13, 1811. 
 One child, Maj-y, was born to the first marriage, 
 born in 1807 and died in' 1837. Tlie children born 
 to the second marriage were : Sarah A., born April 
 17, 18 1 7, married Henry J. Tennent and resided in 
 Meriden ; Hannah S., born Dec. 18, 1818, married 
 Ira N. Y'ale and died 'March 18, 1847; Bertrand 
 Leland, born Nov. 17, 1820; Clarissa K., born Dec. 
 15, 1822; Dewitt C, born Jan. 6, 1825, died Oct. 
 9, 1846; and Letiza X., born Oct. 6, 1827, died 
 March 14, 1833. 
 
 Bertrand Leland Yale, late of Meriden, whose 
 lineage is set forth in the foregoing, was reared 
 amid agricultural pursuits, living on the home farm 
 until twenty years of age when he commenced in a 
 small way the manufacture of cigars. Later he be- 
 gan business as a merchant tailor and dealer in 
 furnishing goods. During this time he was ap- 
 pointed postmaster and) held the office, performing 
 his duties most efficiently, for eight years. He added, 
 in time, to his establishment both a fire and life in- 
 surance business, this branch soon requiring so 
 much of his time that he disposed of his store and 
 devoted his energies to the establishment of quite an 
 extensive insurance business, which he carried on 
 successfully for a period of some twenty-five )-ears. 
 He then returned to his farm and was occupied in 
 farming the remainder of his life, bis death occur- 
 ring Oct. I, 1892, and he sleeps in East Cemetery, 
 Meriden. 
 
 Mr. Yale's political affiliations were with the 
 Democratic party, and) in his earlier' life he took 
 quite an active part in politics. For many years 
 prior to his death his business duties rather pre- 
 vented him from active work in public affairs. He 
 served with ability and efficiency as an alderman of 
 Meriden, elected in 1888, served in that year on the 
 Finance and Water committees, and in 1889, in ad- 
 dition to these, on the committee on By-laws. Dur- 
 ing the last year of his service as alderman Mr. 
 Yale acted as mayor pro tem. For many years he 
 was a director of the Meriden Bank. He was a 
 man who commanded the respect and esteem of his 
 fellow citizens and held their full confidence. His 
 good common sense and practical business ideas, 
 
622 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 along with good judgment, made him a valualole 
 man in the community. Fraternally Mr. Yale was 
 a Mason, becoming an apprentice in Harmony 
 Lodge, No. 27, New Britain, Oct. 4, 1848, and he wa's 
 a charter member of Meridian Lodge, serving as 
 the first secretary ; he was made senior warden in 
 1852 and Master Mason in 1854. 
 
 On Feb. 4, 1861, Mr. Yale was married to Chloe 
 Elizabeth Holcomb, daughter of Hon. Raynor Hol- 
 comb, of East Granby, Conn., and to them came a 
 daughter, Jennie Holcomb. Mrs. Yale is a repre- 
 sentative of several of the oldest and best families 
 in Connecticut, and is a lady of fine attainments, 
 with natural charm of manner. 
 
 Jennie Holcomb Yale was united in marriage 
 with John B. Hall, son of Seth J. Hall, mention of 
 whom is made elsewhere in this volume. Two chil- 
 dren have blessed this union : Liane Holcomb and 
 Elizabeth Yale. Mr. Hall is engaged in the fiour 
 and grain business with his father, and politically is 
 a Democrat. 
 
 JEROME C. MUNSON, one of the best known 
 citizens and most progressive farmers of Hamden, 
 belongs to an old and prominent family of New 
 Haven county. The first to come to America was 
 Thomas Munson, who was born in England in 1612, 
 and was a carpenter by trade. For a time be re- 
 sided in Hartford county. Conn., but in 1647 came 
 to New Haven county with Samuel Whitehead, and 
 later was granted 100 acres of land in this county. 
 In 1653, when war was declared against the Dutch 
 of the New Netherlands, he enlisted in the first com- 
 pany that was organized here, was elected sergeant 
 and afterward promoted to the rank of lieutenant. 
 He also participated in the Pequot war as one of 
 Mason's renowned' army, and at that time held 
 the rank of sergeant. He seems to have been a 
 member of the Congregational Church. He died 
 May 7, 1685, and his wife, Joanna, who was born 
 in 1610, died Dec. 13, 1678. Their children were: 
 Elizabeth, wife of Thomas Cooper ; Samuel, who 
 was baptized in August, 1645; and Hannah, who 
 was baptized June 11, 1648. 
 
 (H) Samuel Munson, son of Thomas, was a 
 shoemaker and tanner by trade, was a member of the 
 Congregational Church and was quite prominent 
 in civil and religious affairs. He resided in New 
 Haven and Wallingford and died in the former 
 place in 1693. He was married Oct. 26, 1665, by Rev. 
 Mr. Gilbert, to Martha, daughter of William and 
 Alice (Pritchard) Bradley, and to them were born 
 ten children, whose names and dates of birth were 
 as follows : Martha, May 6, 1667 ; Samuel, Feb. 28, 
 1668; Thomas, March 12, 1671 ; John, Jan. 28, 1672 ; 
 Theophilus, Sept. i, 1675; Joseph, Nov. i, 1677; 
 Stephen, Dec. 5, 1679; Caleb, Nov. 19, 1682; Joshua, 
 Feb. 7, 1684; and Israel, March 6, 1686. 
 
 (Ill) John Munson, son of Samuel, was a mil- 
 ler of New Haven, took an active part in public af- 
 fairs and was a member of the Cong-reg-ational 
 
 Church. He was married Nov. 10, 1692, by Rev. 
 John Moss, to Sarah Cooper, daughter of Sergeant 
 John and Mary (Thompson) Cooper, and they had 
 eight children : John, the oldest, was born July 7, 
 1693; Elizabeth, born May 15, 1695, was married 
 Feb. 28, 1716, to Seth Perkins; Hannah, born Feb. 
 9, 1697, married A. M. Andrews; Joel, born Aug. 
 18, 1702, is mentioned below; Ruth, born Jan. 30, 
 1707, was married Dec. 19, 1728, to Caleb Hotch- 
 kiss; Anne, born Sept. 18, 1704; Mehitable, born 
 Oct. 17, 1709, married Benjamin Morris ; and Sarah, 
 born Sept. 27, 1713, married Enos Stone. 
 
 (IV) Joel Munson, son of John, was born and 
 reared in New Haven, but later removed to Ham- 
 den and became a member of the Mt. Carmel So- 
 ciety and the Congregational Church. He owned 
 and operated a grist and sawmill in that town. On 
 May 9, 1726, he wedded Mary Morris, of New Ha- - 
 ven, who was born in East Haven in January, 1702, 
 a daughter of Joseph Morris. They became the 
 parents of seven children, whose names and dates of 
 birth were as follows: Austin, March 20, 1727; 
 Bazel, Jan. 23, 1729; Sarah, March 18, 1731; Joel, 
 July 14, 1734; Mary, Jan. 2, 1736; Mehitable, Nov. 
 14, 1739; and Sybil, Oct. 25, 1743. 
 
 (V) Bazel Munson, son of Joel, owned land in 
 Mt. Carmel and also engaged in the sawmill busi- 
 ness there with good success. He was married May 
 2, 1 75 1, to Keziah Stiles, of New Haven, a daugh- 
 ter of Isaac Stiles. She was born Aug. 6, 1731, and 
 died Oct. 16, 1768. He was again married Oct. 
 22, 1771, his second union being with Abigail Bas- 
 sett, of New Haven, who died in July, 1772, and his 
 third wife, Alary, died Oct. 5, 1777. He died Nov. 
 17, 1803, and was buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery. 
 By his first wife he had six children: Bazel, Jr., 
 born Sept. 26, 1752; Titus, Jan. 31, 1755; Ezra, 
 jMay 15, 1757; Isaac Stiles, Sept. 13, 1761 ; Keziah, 
 March i, 1763; and Mehitable, Sept. 6, 1766. By 
 the second union there was one daughter, Abigail 
 Bassett, who was born July 20, 1772, and was mar- 
 ried March 6, 1791, to George A. Bristol. 
 
 (\^I) Bazel Munson, Jr., son of Bazel, was also 
 a land owner and miller, operating both a saw and 
 grist mill in Hamden. His home farm is yet in the 
 family, owned by his great-great-grandson, George 
 \\'. Munson. He was a member of the Episcopal 
 Church, of Hamden. Prominent in public affairs, 
 he was highway surveyor in 1789; constable of 
 New Haven from 1779 to 1781 ; was collector of 
 taxes and also held other offices. He was married 
 Oct. 26, 177s, to Lucy, daughter of Ebenezer Beach, 
 of Hamden. She was born in 1758 and died Sept. 
 22. 1807. He was again married April 10, 1808, 
 his second union being with Nancy Thompson, of 
 Farmington, who was born Jan. 21, 1779, and died 
 about 1862, while he died Jan. 10, 1828. His chil- 
 dren \\-ere Ebenezer Beach, bom Sept. 14, 1777; 
 Mehitable, Dec. 14, 1779; Bazel, Dec. 30, 1781 ; 
 Sarah, March, 1785; Lucy, Oct. 19, 1787; and Job 
 Lucianus, Nov. 25, 1789. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 623 
 
 (VII) Job Lucianus JMunson, the grandfather 
 of our subject, was a farmer and miller by occupa- 
 tion, grinding Indian corn for the West Indies 
 markets. He was liberal in his religious views and 
 a Democrat in politics. He died of dropsy of the 
 chest June 28, 1864. For his first wife he married 
 Sally Moss, of Cheshire, who died Feb. 9, 1S30, at 
 the age of forty years. On June 17, 1830, he mar- 
 ried Adelia Tuttle, daughter of Lyman Tuttle. She 
 was born in 1804 and died Sept. 14, 1849. He was 
 again married Dec. 30, 1850, his third wife being 
 Mrs. Rachel L. Watson, daughter of Lodema Moss. 
 His children were as follows : Julia Ann was mar- 
 ried April 25, 1830, to Nehemiah Curtis, of New- 
 town. Bazel, father of our subject, is next in order 
 of birth. Sarah Nancy, born Aug. 23, 1817, was 
 married April 10, 1838, to James Clark, who was 
 born April 14, 1815, and she died in Newtown, 
 Conn. Cornelia married George W. Bradley. 
 Lucy Lodema, born Jan. 17, 1821, died in October, 
 1824. Abigail Adielia died Jan. 22, 1835. Job Lu- 
 cianus is a resident of West Port, New Zealand. 
 Adelia, born in 1840, was married Feb. 4, 1864, to 
 Frederick M. Wood. Lyman Tuttle, born in 1841, 
 was a member of Company A, loth Conn. V. I., 
 during the Civil war and died at Newbern, N. C, 
 Dec. 27, 1862, from a wound received in the battle 
 of Kinston, N. C. John Watson, born in 1843, was 
 also a soldier of the Civil war, and he died in the 
 Sandwich Islands in May, 1891, leaving $20,000 
 to the Salvation Army. 
 
 (VIII) Bazel Munson, father of our subject, 
 was born July 7, 18 14, and spent his boyhood and 
 youth on the home farm in Hamden, his education 
 being acquired in the district and high schools of 
 that town. When a young man he engaged in the 
 butcher business, and later followed farming in 
 West Woods, Hamden, on a tract of 100 acres of 
 land, and also engaged in the wood and charcoal 
 business. He met with success in his undertakings 
 and became one of the prosperous and substantial 
 citizens of the community, as well as one of its hon- 
 ored residents. His political support was given the 
 Democratic party, but he took no active part in 
 public affairs, and was liberal in his religious views. 
 On April 9, 1838, he married Jennet Lovisa Peck, a 
 daughter of Amos Peck, of Mt. Carmel. She was 
 born in Hamden Dec. 24, 1818, and died Aug. 30, 
 1888, and he died Jan. 15, 1891, the remains of both 
 being interred in the Mt. Carmel cemetery. They 
 had four children: Francis Bennett, born April 14, 
 1839, of Hamden;, Jerome Courtland, our subject; 
 Sarah Jennet, who was born April 26, 185 1, and 
 died April 16, 1853 ; and a daughter, who was born 
 April 14, 1855, and died unnamed. 
 
 (IX) Jerome C. Munson, whose name intro- 
 duces this sketch, was born on West Wood road, 
 m the town of Hamden, Nov. 5, 1845, and received 
 a limited district school education. He was mar- 
 ried while still in his teens and located on a small 
 tract of land near the home farm., where, for over 
 
 twenty years, he engaged in market gardening and 
 fruit growing. Since about 1866 he has resided 
 where be now lives, his time and attention be- 
 ing devoted to general farming, stock raising and 
 dairying. He has made many improvements upon 
 the place, including the erection of a fine residence 
 in 1897. 
 
 On Nov. 3, 1864, in Hamden, Mr. Munson was 
 united in marriage with Miss Sarah Jane Doolittle, 
 who was born in that town Oct. 5, 1844, a daughter 
 of Heman and Julia (Allen) Doolittle. They have 
 three sons: (i) George Walter, born July i, 1866, 
 married Effie Perkins; they live in Hamden and 
 have one child, Grace J. (2) Bennett Peck, born 
 Feb. 14, 1870, married Amelia Holt; he is superin- 
 tendent of the Hamden town farm. (3) Willis 
 Burton, born Sept. 11, 1880, married Carrie Grace 
 Wooding, of North Haven, Conn., and has one son. 
 Burton Noyes. 
 
 J\Ir. and Mrs. Munson are member of Hamden 
 Grange, of which he was master two years, and 
 both are widely and favorably known. He gives 
 his political support to the Republican party and 
 its principles, and has most creditably filled the 
 offices of constable nine years, justice of the peace 
 four years and' grand juror four years, and assessor 
 one year. Although he began life for himself in 
 rather limited circumstances, he has, through his 
 industry, integrity, good business ability and sound 
 judginent, succeeded in accumulating a comfortable 
 competence, and his course has ever been such as 
 to gain for him the confidence and high regard of 
 those with whom he has come in contact, either in 
 business or in social life. 
 
 ED:\IUND ARM01)R PARKER, one of the 
 highly respected and well known citizens of Meri- 
 den, a worthy descendant of a long line of highly 
 honorable ancestors, and a member of a family 
 whose record! is without blemish, was born in Meri- 
 den June i, 1843, son of Edmund and Jennett 
 (Bradley) Parker, and nephew of the venerable 
 Charles Parker. The genealogy appears elsewhere. 
 
 Edmund Parker, the youngest son of Stephen 
 and Rebecca (Ray Stone) Parker, was born Feb. 
 9, 1811, in Cheshire, Conn. In early life he removed 
 to Aleriden, and soon thereafter became associated 
 with his brother, Charles, and Heman White, in the 
 manufacture of hardware, under the firm name of 
 Parker & White, the concern being the pioneer in 
 the hardware business in Meriden. To the energy, 
 perseverance and great ability of the partners, cou- 
 pled with their enterprise and public spirit, are due in 
 a great measure the growth and prosperity of the 
 city of Meriden. When the firm dissolved Edmund 
 Parker associated himself with his brother, John, 
 in the brass and iron foundry business and in the 
 manufacture of coffee mills and other hardware, 
 the style of the firm being J. & E. Parker. The 
 business was so conducted until 1865, when Ed- 
 mund's health failing, he sold his interest to Charles 
 
624 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Parker. Edmund Parker died April 19, 1866. For 
 several years he had served the town as selectman 
 and the county as commissioner, and he was dis- 
 tinguished for the clearness and strength of his judg- 
 ment, the ease and accuracy v^fitli which he trans- 
 acted business, and the kindlness and affability which 
 he uniformly manifested in all relations of life, and 
 while always attentive to business, he never neg- 
 lected the duties of friendship nor social life gener- 
 ally. At an early age he embraced Christianity, and 
 for many years was a member of the Methodisr 
 Church in Meriden. In 1858 he united with the 
 Episcopal Church, in which communion he remained 
 until his death. 
 
 J\Ir. Parker wedided jNIiss Jennett, daughter of 
 Anson Bradley, and the union was blessed with chil- 
 dren as follows : John Edward lives in Hamilton, 
 Ontario ; Elizabeth Ann died at the age of sixteen ; 
 Ellen Maria is the widow of Horace C. Wilcox; 
 Georgiana Augusta, wife of Augustus P. Day, re- 
 sides in Brooklyn; Edmund Armour, our subject; 
 Candora Alice married Junius A. Talmadge, of 
 A\'estfield, ^lass. ; Jennett died at the age of six. 
 
 Edmund Armour Parker attended the public 
 schools of ^leriden, finishing his course of study at 
 the Flushing Institute, Long Island, N. Y. At the 
 age of seventeen he was filled with patriotism, and 
 when the call came for volunteers to defend the 
 Union, he enlisted in September, 1861, in Company 
 K, 8th Conn. V. I., for three years, undter Col. Har- 
 land and Capt. Upham (now Col. Upham, of Mer- 
 iden). Mr. Parker was mtistered in as corporal, 
 and served in that capacity until June i, 1862, when 
 he was promoted to sergeant major at Newbern, 
 X. C. On July I, 1862, he was promoted to second 
 lieutenant of Company F, of the same regiment, 
 and served his country until Nov. 7, of that same 
 year, when he was honorably discharged on account 
 of ill health. Returning home he made a voy^age 
 to the West Indies in the hope of improving his 
 health, but the climate not agreeing with him, he 
 returned to New York and took passage to Cali- 
 fornia, via Aspinwall and Panama, remaining in 
 San Francisco until the death of his father, in April, 
 1866. Returning by the same route he came direct 
 to Meridien and accepted a position as traveling- 
 salesman with the Meriden Britannia Co. He re- 
 mained in this service eleven years. The Simpson, 
 Hall & ;\Iiller Co. offered him the position of super- 
 intendent of their works, and he served most ac- 
 ceptably for three years at Wallingford. Wishing 
 to go upon the road again, he engaged with the 
 firm of R. Wallace & Sons, of Wallingford. as trav- 
 eling salesman, with territory west of the Missouri 
 river to the Pacific coast, and continued in this ca- 
 pacity eight years, after which he settled down in 
 Meriden, and has since made that city his home. 
 Notwithstanding his labors as a traveling man, Mr. 
 Parker has found time and opportunity to give ex- 
 pression to his genius as an inventor, and has placed 
 upon the market many useful articles. 
 
 On Dec. 17, 1894, ;\Ir. Parker married Aliss 
 Katherine Leonard Relfe, who was born at Elmira, 
 X. Y., daughter of the late William and Sarah 
 (A\'arwick) Relfe. The ceremony was performed in 
 Milwaukee, Wis., at St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral. 
 Congenial in tastes, hospitable, they have made 
 their home an ideal one, where it is a pleasure to 
 visit. Mrs. Parker is a lady of refinement and pos- 
 sessed of many excellent characteristics, which, com- 
 bined with her pleasing personality, win for her 
 hosts of devoted friends. Air. Parker is a member 
 of the Arthur Dutton Post, G. A. R., Wallingford, 
 and is also a !Mason. In politics he is an independ- 
 ent Republican, but has never been a politician. 
 During the many^ years he has been associated with 
 men of all classes in his extensive travels, Mr. Par- 
 ker has learned to estimate humanit}' at its true 
 value, and judges a man not by the length of his 
 purse, but by those characteristics which go to 
 make a good citizen and an honorable business as- 
 sociate. He is generous and kindhearted, a model 
 husband, a good citizen, a noble friend and a worthy 
 representative of the men who fought so bravely 
 to maintain the prosperity of the greatest country 
 in the world — the United States of America. 
 
 PIERPONT. The Pierpont family, of New 
 Haven, Conn., is one illustrious in the city's history. 
 The family record in America reaches back to the 
 coming of the Puritansi to New England, in the per- 
 son of John Pierpont, born in London, England, 
 in 1619, a son of James Pierpont, of that city, who 
 was an early settler at Roxbury, \a the colony at 
 Massacbusettis Bay, where his death occurred in 
 1682. He married Thankful Stow, and of their five 
 children, all sons, James, of Roxbury, born in 1659, 
 is the ancestor in whom we have an interest. His 
 graduation from Cambridge occurred in 1681, and 
 be was 'settled in the ministry over the First Church 
 (Congregational) in New Haven, in 1684. He 
 took possession of what was long afterward known 
 as the old family mansion, about which cluster en- 
 dearing memories and historic facts. Two years 
 after coming, in 1686, he planted two elm trees in 
 front of the north side of the village green, and 
 these are still standing. The sweet Christian char- 
 acter of Mr. Pierpont made him beloved by his peo- 
 ple, and for thirty years he was pastor over the 
 church at New Haven, and became one of' the 
 founders of Yale College. Sarah, one of his daugh- 
 ters, became the wife of the noted divine. Rev. 
 Jonathan Edwards, whose name has been given a 
 place in the Temple of Fame, in New York. Rev. 
 Pierpont was married three times, his third wife be- 
 ing Mary, daughter of Rev. Samuel Hooker, of 
 Farmington, Conn. Rev. Pierpont died in 1714. 
 
 From this ancestor came the late Cornelius 
 Pierpont, of New Haven, long a prominent citizen 
 of the city, and whose widow and children survive 
 and fill honorable positions in the spheres of life 
 where fortune has placed them. Rev. James Pier- 
 
CORNELIUS PIERPOHT. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 625 
 
 pont (2) was born in New Haven tO' the third mar- 
 riage of Rev. James Pierpont, andl was educated in 
 Saybrook, Conn. From Saybrook he went to Bos- 
 ton, Mass., and then to New Haven, becoming for 
 a time one of tlie professors in Yale College. 
 
 James Pierpont (3), a son of Rev. James (2), 
 was born in New Haven and settled in early life in 
 what is now the town of Morris, Litchfieldi Co., Conn, 
 where for years he was engaged in the manufacture 
 of woolen goods, but later was occupied in farm- 
 ing; he first married Elizabeth Collins, a grand- 
 daughter of Rev. Timothy Collins, of Litchfield, 
 and second, Mrs. Crossman, of Salisbury, Connect- 
 icut. 
 
 Cornelius Pierpont, a son of James, and late 
 of New Haven, was born Aug. 15, 1829, in what is 
 now the'i town of Morris, Conn., where he was 
 reared! on his father's farm and attended the neigh- 
 borhood schools and also the well known Washing- 
 ton Academy. Later he taught school for a period 
 in East Chester, N. Y., and in 1854 located in New 
 Haven and engaged in the grocer-y and provision 
 business. For thirty years he so successfully con- 
 ducted this enterprise that his name became known 
 throughout Connecticut, Hundreds of farmers were 
 his customers, some of whom drove in from great 
 distances to sell their produce and make trades. 
 While conducting his business on Broadway, he 
 was interested in several other enterprises, princi- 
 pally the manufacturing of agricultural implements, 
 at the corner of Crown and Park streets, and he 
 also became interested in the development of what 
 is now the ninth and tenth wards, built the Dixwell 
 avenue car line, and equipped it and Shelton ave- 
 nue with horse cars. A few years ago this he sold 
 to a Philadelphia firm who in turn dispo>sed of it 
 to the Fair Haven & Westville R. R. Company, who 
 liave ecjuipped it with electricity. 
 
 For several years prior to his death Mr. Pier- 
 pont was not in any active business. In 1879 he 
 became a member of the New Haven Chamber of 
 Commerce. The only political office he ever held 
 wasi that of alderman from the tenth ward, and this 
 was about twenty-five years ago. While teaching 
 school at East Chester, N. Y., Mr. Pierpont became 
 acquainted with Miss Martha Hinman, a descend- 
 ant of an old family of that place, whom he mar- 
 ried in 1856, being twice married after this, his 
 second wife being Catherine Smith, of Litchfield, 
 and the third, Helen E.' Brooker, of Torrington, 
 who survives, as also do three sons and a daughter : 
 Frank H. ; James, who is professor of mathematics 
 in Yale College ; Henry P., of New York City ; and 
 Sila H., now Mrs. Levi T. Snow, of New Haven. 
 
 The death of Cornelius Pierpont occurred on 
 March 21, 1900, at his home, No. 262 York street. 
 New Haven. 
 
 Samuel Brooker, the father of Mrs. Cornehus 
 Pierpont, was a native of Torrington, Conn, (then 
 known as Wolcottvilk), where he lived and died. 
 
 40 
 
 He married Julia A. Seymour, also of Torrington, 
 and the following children^ blessed their union: 
 Maria; Albert, who became a major during service 
 in the Civil war, and is' now a resident of Torring- 
 ton ; Helen, Mrs. Pierpont; Jennie, deceased; Alice 
 J.; Frank, deceased; Arthur S., of Torrington; and 
 Ella T., deceased. The Brooker family is an old and 
 prominent one, the father of Mrs. Pierpont repre- 
 senting his town in the Legislature, and a cousin 
 of Mrs. Pierpont is Charles F. Brooker, of Ansonia 
 and Torrington, known to the world as the million- 
 aire brass manufacturer. 
 
 ROBERT OWEN, one of the successful and 
 prosperous agriculturists of the town of Meriden, 
 whose fine establishment is located in Murdock ave- 
 nue, was born in Glanhespin, Llaneledan, Denbigh- 
 shire, Wales, March 8, 1844. William Owen, bis 
 father, was born in the same place, where his life 
 was dtevoted to farming, and where he died at a 
 ripe old age. He was married to Catherine Owen 
 (no relative), whose father was agent for Sir Hugh 
 Williams, and they became the parents of thirteen 
 children : William and John, who died in England ; 
 Elizabeth, who married Price Williams, and resides 
 in Wales ; Mary, who married Joseph Gardner and 
 resides in Wales ; Robert ; Thomas, a hotel keeper 
 in Coventry, England; Frederick and Hugh, living 
 in England; Catherine, who married John Gardner 
 and lives in Denbighshire ; and four who died in 
 early childhood. The parents died in Wales. They 
 were members of the Church of England. 
 
 Robert Owen is a self-educated man, having- 
 enjoyed only brief attendance at the common schools- 
 of his native place. He remained on the home farm; 
 until 1863, in which year he camp to this country,, 
 by way of Liverpool, crossing the ocean on the 
 steamship 'Minnesota" to New York. Mr. Owen, 
 came directly to Meriden, where he was employed 
 by Zina K. Murdock, with whom he remained a 
 year and a half. After the expiration of this period 
 he was employed in the factory of Edward Miller 
 & Co. The employment proved congenial ; he was 
 a close and hard worker, and gave general satisfac- 
 tion to his employers during his connection with 
 that house of more than twenty-five years. With 
 the interests of a growing family on his hands to 
 care for, he, in 1889, boueht what was known as 
 the Nelson Ives farm, a tract of 100 acres, where 
 for the past twelve years he has been engaged in 
 dairying and general farming with the co-operation 
 of his sons. Under his capable administration the 
 farm has been greatly improved with new buildings- 
 and extensive alterations and adaptations to mod- 
 ern conditions, and is now one of the most attrac- 
 tive places in the town. In 1901 the house was 
 destroyed by fire, and was at once rebuilt. 
 
 In 1861, in Denbigh, North Wales, Mr. Owen- 
 was married to Alice Evans, a native of that place, 
 daughter of Thomas Evans, a cattle and sheep 
 
626 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 dealer, and sister of David Evans, of Meriden. 
 Children as follows have been born to them : Mar- 
 garet Alice, who married) Ebenezer Davis and re- 
 sides in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Catherine Jane, who mar- 
 ried Arthur Hart, of Meriden ; William Thomas, a 
 traveling salesman for the Eddy Plow Co. ; and 
 Frederick Robert, who died Dec. lo, 1901, aged 
 twenty-five years ; and Arthur Evans, at home. 
 Twins died in infancy. Mr. Owen belongs to Meri- 
 den Grange and to A. O. U. W., Silver City Lodge, 
 No. 3. He and his wife are members of the Bap- 
 tist Church, and in politics he is a Democrat. He 
 is a man much liked and respected in the communitv. 
 
 ELBERT N. CLARKE. The Clarke family, 
 which has long been prominent in this section, orig- 
 inated in England, and the subject of this sketdi, 
 a well known agriculturist of Milford, is of the 
 eighth generation in descent from George and Mary 
 Clarke, who came from England about 1637. With 
 him came three relatives, James, John and another 
 George Clarke, and all remained in Boston for some 
 time. Later our subject's ancestor came to Con- 
 necticut, locating first in New Haven and then in 
 Milford, as a member of a band of over a hundred 
 men who settled in the wilderness. A tract of three 
 acres, purchased for a common or public park, is 
 still free from buildings, and has been in the pos- 
 session of the Clarke family since 1639. It is now 
 owned by the father of our subject, bis grandfather 
 having bought out the other heirs. The family tra- 
 ditions convey much valuable information concern- 
 ing the early days, and among the relics is a church 
 record which was started in Milford Aug. 22, 1639, 
 on the organization of the Congregational Church 
 in tliat town. The First Church of New Haven was 
 established on the same day. George Clarke was a 
 deacon in the church and a man of wealth and 
 prominence. Like all of the pioneers he gave much 
 time to clearing and farming his land, but as he was 
 a contractor and builder it is probable that all of 
 the houses in Milford in his day were built by him. 
 He died June, 1690, and his wife, Mary, also died, 
 in Milford. They had nine children, viz. : Samuel, 
 Thomas, Sarah, George, John, Abigail, Elizabeth, 
 Rebecca and Mary. 
 
 Thomas Clarke, son of George, was born in 
 1637, probably in Boston, and died Oct. 23, 1719. 
 He was a farmer by occupation and owned more 
 land than any other man in Milford. In 1663 he 
 married Hannah Gilbert, of New Haven, who died 
 in "\Iilford. Six children were born to them, viz. : 
 Sarah, Samuel, Thomas, George, Joseph and Han- 
 nah. 
 
 Thomas Clarke, Jr., who was also a farmer, died 
 in 1728. Lie was married in 1703 to Martha Clarke, 
 of Farmington, Hartford county. They reared a 
 family of six children: Martha, Ann, Thomas, 
 Kczia, Jonathan and Jarcd. 
 
 Jared Clarke, born in 1719, died in 1789. He 
 followed farming throughout his active life. His 
 
 wife, Martha Baldwin, a daughter of Deacon Bald- 
 win, was born Dec. 8, 1723, and) died before 1770. 
 They reared a family of eight children, as follows: 
 David, Enoch, Hial, David (2), Hial (2), Jerusha, 
 Abel and Martha. 
 
 David Clarke was born in 1751 and died in 1831. 
 Like his ancestors he was a farmer, and as his ma- 
 ture years fell during the stirring period of the Rev- 
 olutionary war he showed the patriotism of the 
 family by active participation on the side of free- 
 dom. He was with Gen. Washington on Long Isl- 
 and and above New York, and many incidents have 
 been preserved) in the family concerning him. 
 When General Tryon, with his army, went to Dan- 
 bury, Conn., he, with Justus Wood, Samuel Green 
 and others, proceeded to the path, and from behind 
 fences and trees they shot and killed many English. 
 Samuel Green was killed, but Mr. Wood and Mr. 
 Clarke escaped. Flis wife, Anna Clarke, was born 
 in what is now the town of Orange in 1755, a daugh- 
 ter of Isaac Clarke, and a descendant of Dr. Andrew 
 Clarke, one of the founders of Yale College and 
 pastor of the First Church of New Haven. She 
 died in 1812. The children born to David and Anna 
 Clarke were as follows : David, Hannah, Martha, 
 Nancy, David (2), John, Samuel, Hial, Elizabeth, 
 Jerusha, Sarah A-, Mary A. and Mabel. 
 
 David Clarke was born Nov. 15, 1782, and died 
 Jan. 17, 1853. He followed agricultural pursuits 
 during his active years and was prominent in local 
 affairs as a member of the Whig party and of the 
 Congregational Church. His wife, Mary Smith, 
 was born in Milford Nov. 2, 1784, and died Feb. 
 II, 1857. Shd was a daughter of Samuel B. Smith, 
 of Milford, who was with General Montgomery 
 when he went to Quebec, and at one time was com- 
 mander of a vessel which transported troops across 
 the lakes. He also had charge of a fort on one of 
 the Great Lakes, and while there a vessel loaded 
 with English ofHcers drifted ashore in a fog; they 
 were taken prisoners by the men of the fort. A 
 family of ten children were born to David and 
 Mary Clarke: Maria, born Oct. 9, 1806, married 
 Dennis Beach, of Milford, a carriage manufacturer 
 by trade. Louisa A., born April 21, 1809, never 
 married. Laurette, born Aug. 19, 181 1, married 
 Isaac F. Stone, of Orange, a carriage maker and 
 successful merchant, who died in Louisville, Ky. 
 Catherine, born Oct. 29, 1813, married Elias Clark, 
 a farmer of Milford, now deceased; she died in 
 1901. jMason S., born Nov. 11, 1815, was a whole- 
 sale merchant in New Orleans, where he died. Em- 
 ily S., born July 21, 181 7, married Lemuel Powell, 
 of Brooklyn, -N. Y., and both are now deceased. 
 Julia S., born Sept. 29, 1819, married Harvey 
 Beach; both are deceased. David N. is mentioned 
 more fully below. Samuel B., born Feb. 19, 1824, 
 was a wholesale merchant in New York, where he 
 died. Charles W., born Sept. 19, 1827, died in boy- 
 hood. 
 
 David N. Clarke was born Oct. 8, 1821, and was 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 627 
 
 educated in Milford. Since early manhood he has 
 had charge of the homestead, but for three years 
 he also sold goods in Milford for his brother, Sam- 
 uel. He is now a general farmer, but devotes much 
 attention to market gardening and fruit culture. He 
 also deals in native wood and timber. Mr. Clarke is 
 a prominent member of the Congregational Church 
 in his town and is influentid in the local Republican 
 organization, having held various offices, including 
 those of selectman and assessor. On June 19, 1854, 
 Mr. Clarke married Miss Charlotte N. Piatt, daugh- 
 ter of Newton Piatt, and sister of A. Clarke Piatt, 
 of Milford. She died Oct. 10, 1866, and on Oct. 
 17, 1867, he married her sister, Miss Lenora S. Piatt. 
 By his first marriage he had three children : David 
 L., a farmer of Milford; Miss Mary E.; and El- 
 bert N., who is mentioned below. There were also 
 three children by the second marriage: Charlotte 
 A., wife of Frank Hine, a civil engineer; Vincent 
 B., a student in Yale College, class of 1903 ; and one 
 that died in infancy. 
 
 Elbert N. Clarke was born in Milford Sept. 7, 
 i860, on a place adjoining the one he now occupies, 
 and was educated in the district school near his 
 home and the graded schools of Milford. On leav- 
 ing school, at the age of eighteen, he turned his 
 attention to the work of the homestead, and at 
 twenty-one he engaged in business with his father 
 under the firm name of D. N. Clarke & Sons. They 
 carried on farming and general market gardening, 
 and Elbert N. Clarke continued in that business until 
 1894 when he became a general contractor. His 
 buslines® includes the laying of concrete and cement 
 walks, road building and grading, and he deals: ex- 
 tensively in hardwood posts and native lumber. Mr. 
 Clarke began contracting in a small way, and by 
 good management this business has steadily in- 
 creased. He owns a farm of twenty-five acres, and 
 leases other land for agricultural purposes, and all 
 his varied enterprises are carried on with uniform 
 success. Mr. Clarke is still a young man, but he 
 has accomplished more than the average man of 
 his years, and he is conceded to be one of the most 
 progressive and aggressive business men of the com- 
 munity. The respect which his fellow men show 
 him is in no way lessened because his high posi- 
 tion has been gained by his own efforts. His ex- 
 tensive operationsi in general contracting have af- 
 forded much opportunity for the display of ability 
 of a high onder, and Mr. Clarke has not been found 
 wanting. His financial obligations have been 
 equally well met, ^and in all his transactions involv- 
 ing the handling of many thousands of dollars, he 
 has borne the highest reputation for straightfor- 
 ward, honest methods. 
 
 In politics our subject is a Republican, and al- 
 though he is not an office holder, his influence is 
 recognized as a factor in local affairs where his 
 support is invariably given to good and competent 
 officials. Socially he is identified with the Milford 
 Wheel Club and the Milford Driving Association. 
 
 He is a member of Arctic Fire Company, No. i . He 
 and his family are prominent workers in the First 
 Congregational Church, in which for five or six 
 years he has served on the society committee. In 
 short, Mr. Clarke is the type of citizen to perpetuate 
 an honored family name along the same lofty plane 
 it has occupied for generations. 
 
 On Feb. 18, 1885, Mr. Clarke was married in 
 Milford to Miss Susie I. Smith, and four children 
 have blessed the union, all of whom are living, viz. : 
 Stanley Newton, bom Dec. 7, 1887; Mildred Leo- 
 nora, born June 19, i8gi ; Florence Isabelle, bom 
 March 14, 1897; and Marjorie Theresa, born Sept. 
 18, 1898. Mrs. Clarke formerly taught in the Sab- 
 bath-school, and she is a member of the Ladies' Be- 
 nevolent Union of the Congregational Church, of 
 Milford. She is a charter member of Freelove 
 Baldwin Stowe Chapter, D. A. R., at that place. 
 
 The Smith family, to which Mrs. Elbert N. 
 Clarke belongs, has been settled in Milford from^ an 
 early day. Her great-grandfather, Isaac Smith, 
 her grandfather, Nathan Smith, and her father, E. 
 Stiles Smith, made shoe making their occupation. 
 E. Stiles Smith, who is still living in Milford, mar- 
 ried Maria Theresa Piatt, a native of Milford, who is 
 a daughter of Jonah Piatt; her grandfather, Fisk 
 Piatt, was also the grandfather of A. Clarke Piatt, 
 of Milford. Three children were bom to Mr. and 
 Mrs. E. Stiles Smith : Susie I. and Sadie T., twins, 
 born Feb. 13, 1862, in Milford, the former the wife 
 of Elbert N. Clarke, the latter the wife of Charles 
 S. Clarke, a seed grower of Wakeman, Ohio; and 
 Frank W., of New Haven, who married Miss Carrie 
 W. Beard, of Milford. 
 
 Through her mother Mrs. Clarke is a member of 
 the Fowler family, one of the oldest in New Eng- 
 land, being a descendant in the tenth generation 
 from William Fowler, who came to the New World 
 in company with Theophilus Eaton, John Davenport 
 and Peter Prudden. She is of the sixth genera- 
 tion from Capt. John Fowler, who was commis- 
 sioned by the assembly captain of the 2d Company, 
 or train band, of the Second Regiment, and served 
 his town and country by raising troops for the 
 Continental army. 
 
 Mrs. Clarke is also descended maternally from 
 Capt. Charles Pond and Sir Charles Hobby, the lat- 
 ter an officer in the Colonial wars, who was one 
 of the six American knights knighted at Windsor 
 Castle in 1705. He was the ancestor of Mary Hob- 
 by, who married Zachariah Hubbard. Their daugh- 
 ter, Mary, married Peter Pond, and they became the 
 parents of Capt. Charles Pond. Capt. Charles Pond 
 was first ensign in Capt. Peter Peret's company, 
 Col. Charles Webb's regiment, and was at the siege 
 of Boston. On Jan. 17, 1776, he was commissioned 
 first lieutenant, and in June, 1776, was in command 
 of the war vessel "Scuyler,'' thirty-three men cap- 
 tured from the British ship "Crawford," and a 
 sloop. In August, 1776, he captured three prizes, 
 and the same season recaptured vessels belonging to 
 
628 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the United States, and stores taken to Long Island. 
 He was at the battle of White Plains and crossed 
 the Delaware with Washington in Decemher, 1777. 
 He was also at Princeton. On Jan. i, 1777, he was 
 commissioned captain, resigning April 20, 1779, to 
 take charge of the war vessel "New Defense," which 
 was captured after an engagement with a British 
 brig and taken to New York, while the captain was 
 confined on the prison ship "Jersey" ; however, he 
 was soon exchanged. He became a member of the 
 Societv of the Cincinnati. Capt. Pond married Mar- 
 tha Miles, and their daughter, Sally, became the 
 wife of William Herpin Fowler, and their daughter, 
 Sarah, wai? the wife of Jonah Piatt, Mrs. Clarke's 
 matemal grandfather. 
 
 THOMAS FITZSIMONS, one of the pro- 
 sressive men who have done so much to develop 
 Watprbury, and make it the industrial center of so 
 much life and activity, was born in Cou^tv West- 
 meath. Ireland, April 13, 1838. He was the erand- 
 son of Hubert Fitzsimons, a soldier in thp English 
 armv. who distinguished himself for eallantrv in 
 the Franco-Engflish war, under the Duke of Well- 
 ington. Hubert Fitzsimons had two sons and one 
 dauehter. One son came to America quite young 
 and began life in Utica, N. Y., and the daughter 
 married a Canadian architect of great ability. 
 
 Thomas Fitzsimons, the second son and father 
 of the gentleman whose name appears at the intro- 
 duction of this article, married Miss Susan Laird, 
 who was of Scotch descent. Thev were the par- 
 ents of seven children : William, Thomas, George, 
 Robert, Alicia, Charlotte and Susan. The mother 
 and daughter, Susan, both died and were buried in 
 New York City, whither the family had removed 
 in 1848. Thomas Fitzsimons and his son, our 
 subject, came to Waterbury in October, 1849, ^''^^ 
 in the following year the father married Miss Anna 
 Groves. To this second unions were born seven 
 children. 
 
 Thomas Fitzsimons, Jr., attended the Water- 
 bury public schools for a short time, and at the age 
 of thirteen was put to work in a factory to learn 
 the trade of chasing buttons, which at that time was 
 principally done by boys and girls. In 1862 he be- 
 gan work in Steele & Johnson's button company, 
 then known as The Jewelry Co. After working 
 there for twelve years he rose to foreman of the 
 finishing department. In 1871 he went to Newark, 
 N. J., to take charge of the establishment of God- 
 dard & Brothers, button manufacturers, remaining 
 there for one year. Returning to Waterbury in 
 '1872, he, with William Blake, Edwin Putnam and 
 John Kirschbaum, organized the firm known as the 
 Novelty Mfg. Co., of which he was first elected sec- 
 retary. At the death of William Blake he was 
 elected treasurer, and upon the death of Edwin Put- 
 nam he wa:s elected president, which position he 
 still holds. The business has grown from a one- 
 story building with a few workmen, to a four-story 
 
 plant of modern structure, fully equipped with 
 special machinery and operated by steam. Their 
 trade is rapidly increasing, and extends over all 
 parts of the United States. Mr. Fitzsimons has 
 been interested in real estate, and has shown keen 
 foresight in selecting tracts of land for improve- 
 ment. He was the originator of the Columbia Boul- 
 evard, which has since become such a desirable 
 residential section. He has' been a member of the 
 city council, and served on the committee of the 
 street department and of the law department, and 
 has held other offices of trust. When the electric 
 lighting enterprise came up he worked faithfully for 
 the lighting of the city by electricity. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Fitzsimons married Sarah A. 
 Essex, of Cornwall Bridge, Conn., who (belonged 
 to one of the oldest families in New England of 
 English extraction. To Mr. and Mrs. Fitzsimons 
 were born the following children: Joseph Essex, 
 who is a practicing physician in Waterbury; Louis 
 Edward, secretary and treasurer of the Novelty 
 Manufacturing Co. ; Mary Louise, who married 
 Emery Gilson, of Machias, Me. ; Oscar Samuel, as- 
 sistant secretary of the Novelty Manufacturing Co. ; 
 and Grace Leffingwell, at home. The children all 
 reside in Waterbury. Mrs. Sarah A. Fitzsimons died 
 June 26, 1895. On April 15, 1897, Thomas Fitz- 
 simons married Mrs. Rhoda M. H. Strong, daugh- 
 ter of Sheldon Hotchkiss, and whose ancestry runs 
 back to the Revolution. Mr. Fitzsimons is a pub- 
 lic-spirited man, and has done much towards 
 bringing Waterfjury to its favored position. Al- 
 though not a politician, he is a stanch member of 
 the Republican party, as are also his sons. He has 
 always been an active church worker, and his first 
 instruction in religion was received in St. John's 
 Episcopal Church under the Rev. Dr. Qark. At 
 the age of seventeen he became quite active in the 
 Baptist Sunday-school and a singer ih its choir. 
 After his first marriage he accompanied hii wife 
 to the Methodist Church, and became a teacher in 
 its Sunday-school, a member of its official board and 
 chairman of its finance committee for six years. 
 He was also .superintendent of Sunday-school at 
 Waterville, and was also an exhorter in the church. 
 He was a member of the Connecticut State Sunday- 
 school Association for ten years and in this capacity 
 kept in close touch with forty-four Sunday-schools. 
 He is now an active member of the Second Advent 
 Church, and for many years has been the superin.- 
 tendent of its Sunday-school, chairman of its finance 
 committee and official board, and also for many 
 years has been elder of the church ; from year to 
 year he has taken an active part in revival work, 
 and was president of the Hope Mission for a time. 
 His donations for church purpo'ses have always been 
 liberal. 
 
 SAMUEL W. CHAPMAN, foreman of the 
 lamp-burnishing department of the Holmes, Booth 
 &Haydens Co., Waterbury, and a stockholder in the 
 
z' 
 
 .*<«<»■-««>, 
 
 aJ 
 
 .C-(^J 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 629 
 
 '^g"*:'"'''"' is a native of Waterbury, born' Nov. 13, 
 
 Adam Chapman, his grandfather, was born in 
 -rnnceton, Mass., and died there. He was a farmer 
 by occupati(_n. He was a Baptist in religious con- 
 nection. His children were : Lorenzo, William, 
 Aloses, Level, Leander and Angelina. 
 
 Leander Chapman, father of Samuel W., was 
 born in 1831, in Princeton, ]\Iass.,and died in Water- 
 bury, Conn. He married Isabella Benn, also a na- 
 tive of Alassachusetts, and they removed from Mas- 
 sachusetts to Waterbury where Mr. Chapman fol- 
 lowed his calling of mechanic. Here were born to 
 them a family of six children, as follows : Lottie, 
 who is married to Irving C. Beecher and resides in 
 Santa Cruz, Cal. : Samuel W., whose name opens 
 this sketch; Leander (i) and Leander (2), both 
 deceased; Frederick C, a mechanic in Waterbury; 
 and Ella J. married to Sumner Holt, also of that 
 city. 
 
 Samuel W. Chapman was preliminarily educated 
 at the Town Plot school in Waterbury, and later 
 attended the Waterbury 'high school. For a short 
 lime he worked on a farm and was then employed by 
 the Waterbury Button Co., as shipping clerk, three 
 years, leaving this company to form a connection 
 with the Holmes, Booth & Hayden Co., with which 
 he has been identified since April i, 1869. 
 
 ^Ir. Chapman first marriedi. May i, 1879, Miss 
 Lillian L. Beecher, who was born May 22, 1859, 
 and died Feb. 16, 1881 ; no children graced this 
 union. On Nov. 23, 1898, he chose for his second 
 wife ]^Iiss Laura B. Peck, who was born in Suffield, 
 Conn., and is a daughter of Rev. Edmund Peck. 
 Rev. Edmund Peck was born in Greenwich, Conn., 
 was educated to the ministry of the Methodist 
 Church and married Elizabeth B. Smith, who was 
 born in Bethany, Conn., a daughter of Theophilus 
 Smith, a native of Milford, Conn. Rufus Peck, 
 father of Rev. Edmund Peck, was no doubt also 
 a native of Greenwich, Conn. Rev. Edmund Peck 
 still survives at the advanced age of eighty-four 
 years, while his wife has attained the age of seventy- 
 two. 
 
 Samuel W. Chapman is one of the most popular 
 Republicans in his city and has been a member of 
 the Republican town committee. He has repre- 
 sented the Third Ward in the board of the common 
 council many years ; has served as alderman, grand 
 juror and justice of the peace; and as notary public 
 for several years. He has ever been a most pub- 
 lic-spirited gentleman, and has been an ardent ad- 
 vocate of many local improvements, and through 
 bis influence two parks have been donated to the 
 
 city Hamilton and Windemere Parks, the latter 
 
 comprising at least 100 acres on the town plot. He 
 has also been instrumental in the laying out of west 
 Porter street; the tunneling of Banks street under 
 the New York & New England road; the cutting 
 down of Washington avenue at the intersection of 
 Leonard street. Mr. Chapman is a member of the 
 
 Alasonic fraternity and of the Concordia Singing 
 Society. In religion he is a Congregationalist and 
 has been clerk of the Third Church ever since its 
 organization, April i, 1892. He has led a pure, 
 abstemious life and is greatly respected by the com- 
 munity at large for his many personal merits, while 
 he and his wife are always gladly welcomed in the 
 best social circles of Waterbury. 
 
 JOSEPH PIERPONT. To trace a noble an- 
 cestry is a desirable object of research, but few, in 
 the present day, have succeeded so well as Joseph 
 Pierpont, of North Haven. The derivation of the 
 name is of noble origin, being derived from a stone 
 bridge which the emperor Charlemagne supplied in 
 place of a ferry. From Hugh in the first generation, 
 the line is traced through Sir Godfrey, Robert, Will- 
 iam, Hugh, William (2), Robert (2), Sir Henry, 
 Sir Henry (2), Sir Robert (3), Sir Edmund, Sir 
 Henry (3), Francis, Sir William (3), Sir George, 
 William (4), James and Hon. John. Hon. John 
 Pierpont, the last named, was the first to come to 
 America, which he did in the early colonial period, 
 and was accompanied by his brother, James. He 
 resided in Roxbury, near Boston, in 1640, and his 
 grave may yet be seen in the old burying ground of 
 that historic place. 
 
 (II) On July 2, 1685, James Pierpont, son of 
 Hon. John, was ordained a minister in New Ha- 
 ven. He gave to North Haven "Pierpont Park," 
 a record of which is found in the family archives- 
 He diedi Nov. 22, 1714, aged fifty-four years. 
 
 (ID) Joseph Pierpont, son of Rev. James, was 
 born Oct. 21, 1704, and was the first of the name 
 to settle in North Haven. On Sept. 27, 1727, he 
 married Hannah, youngest daughter of Rev. Noah- 
 diah Russell, of iVIiddletown. Of this union were 
 born, Samuel, Joseph, James, Benjamin, Hannah, 
 jN.Iary, Giles, Abigail, Hezekiah and Sarah. Joseph 
 Pierpont died Nov. 24, 1748, and his widow on 
 Aug. 6, 1752, married Samuel Sackett. She died 
 June 6, 1 79 1. 
 
 (R') Joseph Pierpont, son of Joseph and Han- 
 nan Pierpont, was born Sept. 13, 1730, and died at 
 the home of his son, Daniel, in North Haven, Feb. 
 8, 1824, in his ninety-fourth year. On Sept. 21, 
 1756, he was united in marriage with Lydia Bassett, 
 who bore him five children, as follows : Ezra, Jos- 
 eph, Lydia, Lucy and Daniel. Lydia, wife' of Jos- 
 eph, died Nov. 9, 1783. For his second wife Mr. 
 Pierpont wedded Annis Blakeslee, of Plymouth, 
 Oct. 26, 1791 ; she died Sept. 4, 1800. 
 
 (V) Daniel Pierpont, Esq., son of Joseph, was 
 born May 6, 1775, and became one of the prominent 
 men of the town. A cabinet maker by trade, he fol- 
 lowed it only occasionally, as much of his time was 
 occupied in' looking after public affairs, being at 
 various times clerk, selectman, justice of the peace, 
 representative from the town in 1813, 1815 and 
 1824, and delegate to the constitutional convention 
 in 1818. In the church he was as prominent as in 
 
630 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 public life, and was active in the work of St. John's 
 Episcopal Church. On Sept. 26, 1799, he married 
 Esther Humiston, and their children were: Bede, 
 Elias, Esther, Harrick, Sally, Jared and Rufus. Dan- 
 iel Pierpont, Esq., died in North Haven, Nov. 16, 
 185 1, aged sevent3'-six and one-half years. Esther 
 (Humiston) Pierpont died Aug. 17, 1864, aged over 
 ninety years ; she was a daughter of Samuel and 
 Mary Humiston, the former born May 16, 1743, 
 and died June 20, 1809. Mrs. i\Iary Humiston died 
 June 6, 1820, aged seventy years. 
 
 (VI) Rufus Pierpont, son of Squire Daniel, 
 spent all his life in the town of North Haven, where 
 he was born Alarch 5, 1818. He received his educa- 
 tion in the district schools and for several winters 
 was employed in teaching, after which he embarked 
 in the mercantile business, founding at that time 
 the great store of which his son is the fortunate 
 owner. The beginning of this enterprise was in a 
 small way — one room, located in the southwest cor- 
 ner of the house now occupied by his widow, suf- 
 ficing for the storage and display of the goods of- 
 fered for sale — but long before his comparatively 
 short life ended, it had grown beyondl the limits first 
 accorded it. 
 
 Mr. Pierpont was a popular man with his neigh- 
 bors and associates, and was captain of the North 
 Haven Blues — a local military organization. He 
 was one of the faithful members of St. John's Epis- 
 copal Church from 1841 until his death, being the 
 clerk of the parish and foremost in every good work 
 organized under the wing of the church. He died 
 suddenly July 31, 1855, leaving, beside a large circle 
 of friends, a widow and three dependent children. 
 He had married Sept. 14, 1847. 
 
 Harriet Richards, the mother of Joseph Pier- 
 pont, was born in Westminster, Vt., Oct. i, 1824, 
 and was one of the noblest andl most self-sacrificing 
 of her sex. Confronted with the problem of exist- 
 ence with her three helpless children, she faced life 
 bravely and took upon herself the unexpected bur- 
 den. For twenty-one years she ably managed the 
 store, increasing its business, added new features 
 as modern ideas crept in, until, when her son was 
 able to relieve her by purchasing it, she was able to 
 give a faithful account of her stewardship. Her 
 residence is now in North Haven. The children 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Pierpont were: (i) Elias 
 Richards, born in 1849, died in 1850. (2) Daniel 
 Hobart, born in 185 1, graduated from Yale Scien- 
 tific School at the age of twenty years, and for two 
 3'ears was in the employ of the government in- 
 coast survey work; he died in 1874. (3) Joseph is 
 mentioned below. (4) George Rufus, born Sept. 
 3, 1854, married Anna Cheney, a niece of ex-Gov. 
 Bigelow and is located in Salem, Va., engaged in 
 brickmaking. 
 
 (VH) Joseph Pierpont was born in the old house 
 in North Haven, in which his mother still resides, 
 March 11, 1853. While a lad he was kept at the 
 district schools, his mother determining to give her 
 
 children tlie benefits of a good education, and he was 
 then sent to Cheshire Academy, leaving school at 
 the age of eighteen years to become his mother's as- 
 sistant in the store. At the age of twenty-one he 
 purchased the business and since that time, by his 
 admirable business methods, has built up an im- 
 mense trade, having now one of the largest and most 
 complete stores in the county. Six delivery wagons 
 are required to accommodate his patrons in Ham- 
 den, Northford, New Haven and Wallingford, and 
 the shelving required to hold the great stock of 
 merchandise would cover a mile in length. In ad- 
 dition to a general store which supplies every want, 
 Mr. Pierpont also conducts a feed and ice business, 
 the same honest, upright dealing which marked the 
 career of his father being the secret of his great 
 success. 
 
 Mr. Pierpont was married in 1875 to Miss Hat- 
 tie Brockett, who was born in North Haven, a 
 daughter of Atwater and a granddaughter of Beth- 
 uel Brockett, an old family of the section. The chil- 
 dren of this union were : Grace Genevieve, born in 
 1877, married Frank S. Brockett, now with the 
 Pittsburg Plate Glass Co., of New York; Richards 
 Brockett, born in 1881, a student in Meriden ; and 
 Joseph, born in 1888. 
 
 Mr. Pierpont has taken great interest in public 
 affairs and has been identified with all important 
 measures of public good in his neighborhood for 
 many years ; has been elected town clerk, but has 
 declined other local offices, accepting in 1893 an 
 election as representative, however, and during his 
 term of office bringing about many needed reforms 
 in various lines. For fifteen years he has been 
 senior wardfen of St. John's Episcopal Church, 
 where he is esteemed and valued! for his many ex- 
 cellent traits of character. Mr. Pierpont is one of 
 those who do not publish their generosity and char- 
 ity to the world, but his intimate friends have found 
 him out and are able to value him at his worth. 
 Fraternally he is connected with Quinnipiac Lodge, 
 O. U. A. M., being a charter member of the same;^ 
 Day Spring Lodge, A. F. & A. M. ; for ten years 
 has been treasurer of the Bradley Library, of North 
 Haven, and has been and is now guardian for a num- 
 ber of persons in the neighborhood, his character 
 being such that he possesses the confidence and es- 
 teem of the whole community. The success which 
 has come to Mr. Pierpont is but the natural result 
 of application and energy combined with tact, good 
 judgment and honesty. 
 
 HARRY S. HOLCOMB, whose recent death 
 was such a severe shock to his friends and acquaint- 
 ances, was a retired carriage manufacturer in New 
 Haven, formerly a member of the firm which op- 
 erated the New Haven Carriage Works. He was 
 born in Branford ^larch 5, 1846. 
 
 Frederick A. Holcomh, his father, was born in 
 Guilford, but was reared in Branford and educated 
 in that town, and there carried on a small car'riasfe 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 631 
 
 making plant; he madie the first bent shaft used in 
 carriage making. As he was a fine mechanic he did 
 a prosperous business for a number of years, con- 
 tinuing same up to tlie time of his death, which oc- 
 curred in Branford when he was seventy-six years 
 old. He took an active part in politics, and at one 
 time was the choice of the Democratic party for the 
 Legislature. In religious faith he was an Episco- 
 palian. Mr. Holcomb married Mary Rodgers, who 
 was born in Stony Creek, a daughter of James 
 Rodgers, a farmer there, who, during the Revolu- 
 tionary war, was in the patriot army. The parents 
 of our subject had nine children, the survivors be- 
 ing: Fanny, who resides in Portland, Oregon; Mrs. 
 James H. Page; G. F., ex-mayor of New Haven; 
 C. N., of New Haven; and Minnie B., of New Ha- 
 ven. The mother was a member of the Episcopal 
 Church, and lived a beautiful, consistent life ; she 
 died at the age of seventy-six, in Branford. 
 
 Harry S. Holcomb was reared in Branford and 
 remained there until he was twenty-four years of 
 age, learning to be a skilled workman in his father's 
 shop. He was but iseventeen years of age when he 
 first went into business, becoming a member of the 
 firm of F. A. Holcomb & Sons, which firm, at the 
 death of the father, became Holcomb Bros. (G. F. 
 and Harry S.). The latter firm existed for some 
 years, and in 1870 they moved to New Haven. La- 
 ter the style became Holcomb Bros. & Co. Our sub- 
 ject subsequently organized the New Haven Car- 
 riage Co., his brother retaining his connection with 
 Holcomb Bros. & Co. These two firms were closely 
 connected in a financial way, and later consolidated, 
 becoming the New Haven Carriage and Wagon Co., 
 which after a short time became the New Haven 
 Carriage Co., which was absorbed by the Columbia 
 Electric Vehicle Co. Harry S. Holcomb was for 
 one year a member of the board of directors of that 
 combination, and at the same time was superin- 
 tendent of the company's New Haven plant. In 
 1898 he retired from the carriage business and gave 
 up all activity. He was one of the best known men 
 in the carriage trade in the country, and was at one 
 time one of the larger manufacturers in his line. 
 The plant that he founded in New Haven was one 
 of the leading concerns in the country. He made a 
 success of the business, and from his own efforts 
 accumulated a comfortable competence, which he 
 retired to enjoy at a time when he was really in the 
 midst of his business life. Pensonally he was a 
 modest, unassuming man. He made a success in all 
 he undertook, and as a successful business man and 
 public-spirited citizen was much honored among the 
 circle of his acquaintances. 
 
 In March, 1867, Mr. Holcomb was married to 
 Esther 'M. Bradley, who was born in Branford, one 
 of the eight children of Gurdon and Ann Maria 
 (Spinks) Bradley; six survive. Two children were 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Holcomb: Anna M. married 
 Samuel A. York, an attorney, ^ son of Judge York 
 
 Samuel. Harry C. carries on a general carriage 
 business at No. 105 GolTe street; he married Mar- 
 garet Manson. 
 
 In politics Mr. Holcomb was a Democrat and his 
 position in political affairs was ever a leading one, 
 although he steadily refused office ; however, he 
 served as president of the board of fire commis- 
 sioners. In the Masonic fraternity Air. Holcomb 
 held many positions. He joined the fraternity in 
 1867 in Branford and there became past grand mas- 
 ter ; he belonged to Adelphi Lodge, Fair Haven ; 
 Pulaski Chapter, in which he was past high priest; 
 and was a member of Crawford Council and New 
 Haven Commandery. Mr. Holcomb was something 
 of a traveler, and spent the years between 1878 and 
 1882 in San Francisco, looking after a branch house 
 for the sale of carriages. His social position gave 
 him membership in the Quinnipiac Club ; in the 
 Yacht Club, of which he served as commodore ; 
 and in the Ansantawae Club, in which he served 
 on the board of directors. For many years he was 
 connected with St. Paul's Church, of New Haven. 
 His death, on Jan. 20, 1902, was the result of a 
 fall on the ice, which fractured his skull and pro- 
 duced concussion of the brain. Few men have been 
 so deeply mourned, and none more highl}' esteemed 
 by the community at large. 
 
 GEORGE B. ZORN, who was efficiently serv- 
 ing as superintendent of the town poor farm of 
 Hamden, New Haven county, at the time of his 
 death, Jan. 15, 1901, was born in Germany, Feb. 
 12, 1848, son of Solomon and Christina (Wise) 
 Zorn, also natives of that country. The father at- 
 tended the public schools of Germany, and when his 
 literary education was completed engaged in farm- 
 ing there until 1854 when, with his wife and family, 
 he emigrated to America. They crossed the Atlan- 
 tic on a sailing vessel and landed in New York City, 
 thence going to Lewis county, N. Y., and locating 
 at High Market, where the father purchased the 
 farm on which he still continues to live, his time 
 and attention being devoted to general farming and 
 stock raising. He is an ardent supporter of the Re- 
 publican party, and both he and his wife are mem- 
 ioers of the Lutheran Church and are held in high re- 
 gard by all who know them. To them were born 
 three children, namely : Christiana, now the wife 
 of Peter Burdick, of Lewis county, N. Y. ; George 
 B., our subject; and Emma, deceased wife of Gus- 
 tave Seidel. 
 
 George B. Zorn was a child' of six years when 
 brought by his parents to the United States, and 
 upon the home farm in High Market, Lewis Co., 
 N. Y., he grew to manhood, receiving his education 
 in the district schools of the neighborhood. On leav- 
 ing the parental roof, at the age of nineteen years, 
 he started out to make his own way in the world, 
 working at first as a farm hand for $22 per month. 
 At the age of twenty-five years he came to Ham- 
 
 of New Haven; their children are Holcomb and den, New Haven county, where he worked at farm 
 
^32 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 labor for others for several years, and then operated 
 rented land in the same town until 1890, in which 
 year he was appointed by the selectman of Ham- 
 den as superintendent of the town poor farm. This 
 responsible position he filled in a most creditable 
 and satisfactory manner, displaying excellent busi- 
 ness ability and sound judgment in the management 
 of the place. Previousl)' the farm had cost the tax- 
 payers of the town over $2,000 per year, but dur- 
 ing his administration the expenses very materially 
 lessened. He carefully looked after the welfare of 
 the poor unfortunates in his charge, and was kind 
 and generous in his treatment of them. In the dis- 
 charge of his duties he was ably assisted by his es- 
 timable wife, who proved a true helpmeet to him. 
 Mr. Zorn's death was keenly felt in the town. He 
 was no doubt one of the alDlest incumbents of the 
 position of town farm superintendent, and his serv- 
 ices were very highly appreciated, though the 
 praises bestowed on his management were justly 
 earned, for he took the same interest in the work 
 as if his individual interests had been at stake. 
 
 On Dec. 4, 1877, Mr. Zorn married Louise 
 Chatterton, a native of Hamden, and a daughter of 
 Edwin and Eliza (Warner) Chatterton. To them 
 were born two children, Robert and Elsie, the for- 
 mer of whom died at the age of seven months. Mrs. 
 Zorn is a consistent ancli faithful member of the 
 Congregational Church, which her husband had at- 
 tended and contributed toward its support. He was 
 a stanch Republican in political sentiment. 
 
 JAMES R. SUTLIFF, late president of Fos- 
 ter, jMerriman & Co., manufacturers, Meriden, was 
 one of the best known and most highly respected 
 citizens of the Silver Citv. and was born in South- 
 ington, Conn., July 10, 1839, ''• ^'^'^ °^ the late John 
 Sutliff. Mr. Sutliff was descended from an old Con- 
 necticut family. The first of the name of whom we 
 have any record is Nathaniel Sutlifl:, who lived at 
 M'Edfield, j\Iass., in 1667. He was a settler of Deer- 
 field, Mass., in 1673, and became chief military of- 
 ficer when King Philip's war began, and May 16, 
 1676, he was, with Capt. Turner, killed at Falls 
 Fight. In 1664 he married Hannah Plympton, a 
 daughter of Sergt. John Plympton, who was born 
 in Cambridge, England, and came to America in 
 John Winthrop's company in 1640. 
 
 Sergt. Nathaniel Sutliff, son of Nathaniel and 
 Hannah (Plympton), was born in Deerfield, Mass., 
 in 1672, and located at Branford, Conn., in 1702, 
 "becoming prominent there in religious anl educa- 
 tional matters. He was a representative to the Gen- 
 eral Court from 1728 to 1731. His wife, Saraii 
 Savage, died April i, 1732. 
 
 The first of the name in Wolcott was Joseph 
 Sutliff, 'Son of Sergt. Nathaniel and Sarah (Sav- 
 age), who located there as early as 1765, and lived 
 at the foot of Chestnut Hill. He was born in 
 Branford, Conn., in 1712, and was a tailor by occu- 
 pation. He was twice married, his first wife, Sa- 
 
 rah, dying in 1780; he married (second), 1791, 
 Catherine Seward. His children by the first wife 
 were Joseph, Nathaniel, Anne and Sarah. Joseph 
 Sutliff died Nov. 11, 1801. 
 
 Nathaniel Sutliff", the great-grandfather of 
 James R. Sutliff, was bom in Durham, Conn., Dec. 
 7, 1740, and married Hannah Pritchard, a daugh- 
 ter of James and Elizabeth (Johnson) Pritchard. 
 Their children were : John, Nathaniel, Titus, Han- 
 nah, Anne, Ruth and Elizabeth. He died in 1808, 
 and his wife Jan. 2, 1791. 
 
 John Sutliff, son of Nathaniel, was born Feb. 
 19, 1773, and died in Wolcott, April 23, 1836. He 
 married Eunice Munson, a daughter of Samuel and 
 Susanna (Tyler) ]\Iunson, of \\'aterbury, Conn. 
 Their children were: Anson, born in 1798, went to 
 Meriden in 1817. He married Mehitabel Comstock, 
 of Deep River, Conn., and removed to Minnesota 
 in 1857, and died there when aged sixty-four years. 
 Statira, born in 1800, married Jerry Williams, of 
 Waterbury, Conn. He settled in Meriden in 1835, 
 where she died in 1873 when aged seventy-three 
 years. John is mentioned later. Lucius, born in 
 1806, married Rachel Foote, and settled in South- 
 ingtcn. Conn. Lucas A., born in 1808, married 
 Maria Matilda Upson, of Wolcott, Conn., who died 
 in 1871, in Southington, Connecticut. 
 
 John Sutliff, son of John Sutliff', was born 
 Aug. 2, 1802, in Wolcott, Conn. At the age of six- 
 teen years he bought nis time from his father, for 
 which he agreed to pay one hundred dollars, giving 
 his note for two years. He went to Northford and 
 found work on a farm. Although he received but 
 seven dollars per month and board, be managed to 
 save enoug'h to pay off his note. His industrious 
 disposition and economical habits brought him to 
 the notice of the Meriden capitalists, andi after fif- 
 teen years of work for wages at the manufacture 
 of ivory combs, a partnership with three others was 
 formed, and combs were manufactured in the town 
 of Southington. The business was then conducted 
 with the least possible risk of loss.. The combs were 
 salable in the market, and the factory and power 
 were engaged on terms of easy relinquishment, so 
 that if the hopes of the young men were not real- 
 ized, the business could be discontinued without 
 loss. The business was, however, progressing sat- 
 isfactorily when one of young Sutliff's friends, Al- 
 bert Foster, who had observed his business ability 
 and habits, and who in part composed the firm of 
 Foster, Merriman & Co., invited him to purchase 
 an interest in the firm. He did so and took charge 
 of a dei^artment himself, his ])artners devoting their 
 time and energies to the development of their in- 
 dustry. The large business of Foster, Merriman & 
 Co., of Meriden, was incorporated under the laws 
 of the State in 1866. Nelson Merriman was elected 
 its first president, holding that office until his death, 
 when Mr. Sutliff was made its president. At the 
 time of his entrance into the firm, the whole product 
 of the factory was wrought out by only five or six 
 
t' '^ ^-^ 
 
/ '^h,F- G Ke-rn-'.T'J^''-'' 
 
 /a^^^-^^ ^.^i-^:^- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 633 
 
 liands, while to-day about 300 are employed. The 
 growth thereafter was rapid, and to his ability, en- 
 ergy and management, much of the great success 
 which the company attained was due. He was ac- 
 tive late in life, going to the factory up to the time 
 of his last illness. 
 
 As a capitalist of Meriden Mr. Sutliff was prob- 
 ably best known. He was for many years a direc- 
 tor of the First National Bank of ^leriden, and was 
 a trustee of the City Savings Bank at the time of 
 his death. He made large investments in the West, 
 as well as at home, audi was never lacking in funds 
 with which to aid persons who desired a few hun- 
 dred or thousands of dollars. The fortune so 
 meager at the beginning of his residence in Ji'Ieri- 
 den became a great estate in late years. 
 
 On Nov. 22,1828, Mr. Sutliff was married (first) 
 to Miss Mary Ann Dayton, of North Haven, and 
 (second) Nov. 9, 1842, to Miss Rebecca Miles, of 
 Cheshire. The children born to the first marriage 
 were: Mary Ann, who married Frederick A. 
 Higby, and died Dec. 22, 1859; John A.; and 
 James R. To the second marriage were born: 
 Abby R. and Edgar M., both of whom died in in- 
 fancy. Mr. Sutliff passed away June 22, 1897, at 
 the advanced age of ninety-five years. 
 
 James R. Sutliff, who succeeded his father as 
 president of Foster, Merriman & Co., obtained his 
 education in the district schools of Meriden. His 
 chances for an education were good, but he pre- 
 ferred the shop to the school, and while still a boy, 
 entered the factory of Foster, Merriman & Co., be- 
 ginning as a common hand. Being a boy of en- 
 ergy and ambition, he soon raised himself to fore- 
 man, then to superintendent, later to that of stock- 
 holder and director. In 1887 he was elected vice- 
 president of the company, which office he filled up 
 to the death of his father in 1897, when he was 
 elected president, which high office .he ably filled un- 
 til his death, Jan. 18, 1902. A man who thor- 
 oughly knew every department of the business, hav- 
 ing begun from the bottom round, he climbed to the 
 lop through his own efiforts. 
 
 Of a genial disposition and high ideals, Mr. Sut- 
 liff was honored and respected by the citizens of 
 Meriden In politics he was a Republican, but 
 no politician. He was elected councilman for the 
 Pourth Ward, and be also served as alderman, and 
 was chairman of several committees. He was a con- 
 sistent member of the First Congregational Church, 
 of which he was elected Deacon. He was deacon 
 of the Center Congregational Church six years and 
 superintendent of its Sunday-school four years, al- 
 ways being quite active in church matters He 
 was a well-read man, and thoroughly posted on all 
 
 leading events. ,^ • , r a/t,- c;„t 
 
 On Nov 2, 1869, m Meriden. Conn., Mr. Sut- 
 liflf was united in marriage with Sarah D- Easton, 
 who was born in Providence, R. L Mrs. Sutliff is 
 a lady of culture and refinement, a good, Christian 
 -woman, and a loving mother. Two children blessed 
 
 this union: (i ) Hattie E., born Feb. 27, 1871, was 
 married in April, 1895, to Dr. Oswald A. Parker, 
 a native of Nova Scotia, Canada, now a leading 
 dentist at Wakefield, Alass. ^Irs. Parker was edu- 
 cated in the Meriden High School, also in Abbott 
 Academy at Andover, Mas;., and at the Conserva- 
 tory of Music in Boston. (2) James, born Sept. 
 19, 1873, is at home. 
 
 ULRIC EDWARD NE\^EU, a member of the 
 firm of N. P. Lamontagne & Co., an old and well 
 established house in State street, Aleriden, dealers 
 in groceries and wines, was born at St. Scholastic[ue, 
 in the Province of Quebec, Canada, June 9, 1849. 
 
 Joachim Neveu, the father of Ulric E., was born 
 in the same place, of French descent, the family be- 
 ing one of the oldest in Quebec. Joachim Neveu 
 was a blacksmith, engaged in business on his own 
 account at St. Scholastique, where he died at the 
 age of sixty-nine years. In religion he was a stanch 
 Roman Catholic, and in politics a supporter of the 
 Liberal movement in Canada. He married Mar- 
 celine Hogue, who was born in St. Vincent de Paul, 
 County Terrebonne, Canada. This union was 
 blessed with fifteen children, eleven of whom grew 
 to maturity. Eight are now living: Alphonse, a 
 dry goods' dealer in Montreal ; Ulric E. ; Emma, 
 widow of Nazaire P. Lamontagne; Malvina, who 
 makes her home with Ulric E. ; Adelle, who married 
 A. Vermette, of Montreal;, Alphosine, married to 
 Michael Labelle, of Montreal; Marie Louise, of 
 Troy, N. Y., who married Charles De Fault; and 
 Ferdinand, a clerk with his brother, Ulric E. 
 
 Ulric E. Neveu attended the schools of his na- 
 tive town until he reached the age of sixteen years, 
 when he entered his father's smithv to learn the 
 blacksmith's trade. At the age of nineteen years he 
 left his native town to better his condition, and in 
 1868 appeared in Meriden, where he worked three 
 years as a burnisher for the Wilcox Silver Plate Co. 
 Saving his money, at the end of that time be was 
 able to start in business for himself, and with his 
 brother, Alphonse, and Mr. Langlois, founded and 
 conducted a grocery. For three years these three 
 continued together, when the last two retired, leav- 
 ing Ulric E. Neveu alone in the business, which 
 he conducted five years. Subsequently he had a 
 partner, Leander Govreau, for two and one-half 
 years, when thev sold out to N, P- Lamontagne, 
 and the firm engaged in the grocery and wine busi- 
 ness with much success. In 1886 Mr. Lamontagne 
 died, but under the able management of Mr. Neveu, 
 the firm has continued very successful. 
 
 Mr. Neveu was instrumental in the organiza- 
 tion of the Knights of Columbus in Meriden, and 
 is a member of the French Catholic Church of that 
 city. Politically he is a Democrat, with but little 
 ambition, however, for the honors of official position. 
 A good man and an upright tradesman, he is well 
 liked in the community. He has a fine home in 
 Franklin street. 
 
634 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Nazaire p. Lamontagne, whose name is men- 
 tioned above, was born in Verchere, Quebec, and 
 there learned the harness making trade. During 
 the Civil war he came to the United States to take 
 a position in the ordnance department of the army, 
 making harness for the government. He was lo- 
 cated first at Springfield, Mass., and was afterward 
 a burnisher in one of the shops at Taunton, Mass., 
 until 1876. In that 5'ear he came to Meriden and 
 entered the grocery business with his brother-in- 
 law, Mr. Neveu. He died in June, 1886, and was 
 buriedi in St. Patrick's cemetery. He was a mem- 
 ber of the French Catholic Church. Mr. Lamon- 
 tagne belonged to the Knights of Columbus in 
 Meriden, and politically he was a Democrat, but 
 had no desire for office. A careful business man, 
 he was noted for his honesty and fair dealing. 
 
 ^Ir. Lamontagne married Aliss Emma Neveu, 
 a sister of his partner, and to them were born five 
 children : Ernest attendfed the public schools and 
 Montreal College, where he studied theology and 
 took holy orders from Archbishop Bruchesi, of 
 Montreal, by whom he was ordained a priest. He 
 spent some time in Rome and is now a professor in 
 the Catholic Seminary at Hartford. Ernestine, a 
 graduate of Mt. St. Mary's College, at Montreal, and 
 from Yale Art School, is an artist in both music 
 and painting, and is a lady of much culture and re- 
 finement. Olaus, a graduate of Montreal College, 
 is now a student at Yale Law School. Henry, a 
 graduate of Montreal College, is now studying med- 
 icine. Camilla is a student at Mt. St. Mary's Col- 
 lege, Montreal. Mrs. Lamontagne is still living at 
 the beautiful home in Franklin street, and her fine 
 qualities and sweet spirit make the home an ideal 
 one. 
 
 CHARLES W. SCRANTON. The family 
 bearing the name of Scranton,. from which sprang 
 the late Hon. Erastus Clark Scranton, of Madi- 
 son and New Haven, and) the late Hon. Sereno 
 Hamilton Scranton, of Madison, both men of prom- 
 inence in the public affairs of their respective com- 
 munities, and who have representatives in New Ha- 
 ven in the persons of Miss Mary E. and Charles 
 Woolsey Scranton, is the oldest and most prominent 
 of the families of the towns of Guilford and Madi- 
 son. Miss Mary E. Scranton has erected in memory 
 of her father, the former of the two brothers noted 
 above, a substantial library building; and Charles 
 W. Scranton is one of the leading and substantial 
 citizens of New Haven. 
 
 John Scranton, the progenitor of the New Ha- 
 ven Scrantons, was one of the early planters who, 
 with about twenty-five other heads of families, 
 made a settlement in Guilford in October, 1639. 
 These settlers arrived in Boston June 26, 1637, com- 
 ing from there to New Haven in company with Mr. 
 Davenport and Mr. Prudden and their congrega- 
 tions. They were possessed of considerable prop- 
 erty, and some of them are recorded as wealthy. 
 
 They were pious, intelligent and industrious, most 
 of them being farmers from Kent and Surrey, Eng- 
 land. John Scranton is thought to have been about 
 thirty years of age at the time of his coming to this 
 country, and is supposed to have married in Eng- 
 land, his first wife, Joanna, dying in 1661. Five 
 years later he was married to Adaline Hill, who died 
 in 1685. Mr. Scranton served as a deputy to the 
 General Court in 1669 and 1670, and died the fol- 
 lowing year. From this John Scranton Charles 
 Woolsey Scranton is a descendant in the eighth gen- 
 eration, his line being through Capt. John, Capt. 
 John (2), Capt. Ichabod, Tbeophilus, Jonathan and 
 Hon. Sereno H. Scranton. 
 
 Capt. John Scranton, son of John the emigrant^ 
 was born about 1641 in Guilford, and was first mar- 
 ried March 12, 1674, to Alary Seward, who was born 
 Feb. 28, 1652, daughter of William and Grace (Nor- 
 ton) Seward. He located in East Guilford, now 
 iMadison, as early as 1672, where he followed farm- 
 ing, and died in that town Sept. 2, 1703. 
 
 Capt. John Scranton (2), son of Capt. John, 
 noted above, was born about 1676 in the Hammon- 
 assett District. On Dec. 12, 1699, he married for his 
 first wife Mary Norton ; his secondl wife was Mary, 
 daughter of John Evarts. She died Oct. 8, 1749, 
 and Capt. Scranton married his third wife, Mary 
 Bushnell, and died March 21, 1758. 
 
 Capt. Ichabod Scranton, son of Capt. John (2) 
 and Mary (Evarts) Scranton, was born Feb. 19, 
 1717, and married Chloe Fowler, who was born 
 March 3, 1723, daughter of Abraham Fowler, of 
 Guilford. Capt. Scranton was a farmer and lived 
 in Madison. He was a captain in the French and 
 Indian war, serving at Louisburg and Ticonderoga, 
 and died of disease while on the homeward journey 
 m December, 1760; he was buried at midnight on 
 Clapboard Hill, Guilford. He was a man of patri- 
 otic character and ability, and his death was deemed 
 a public loss. 
 
 Tbeophilus Scranton, son of Capt. Ichabod, was 
 born Dec. i, 1751, and married Abigail Lee, who 
 was born July 11, 1754, daughter of Jonathan Lee, 
 of ^iladison. Mr. Scranton was a farmer in the 
 town of Madison, where he died Feb. 16, 1827, his 
 widow surviving him until Dec. 23, 1840. 
 
 Jonathan Scranton, son of Tbeophilus, bom Oct. 
 10, 1781, married for his first wife, Jan. 27, 1805, 
 Roxana Crampton, who was boni May 30, 1789, 
 daughter of Ashbel Crampton, of Madison, where 
 he made his home, being a prominent member of the 
 church, a prosperous farmer, and in his active years 
 a constructor of breakwaters and wharfs. Mrs. 
 Scranton died Dec. 27, 1833, and Mr. Scranton was 
 married the following year to Jemima, daughter of 
 Daniel Piatt. 
 
 Hon. Sereno Hamilton Scranton, son of Jona- 
 than, and the father of Charles Woolsey, was born 
 March i, 181 1, and married Sept. 29, 1833, to 
 Susan Roxanna Dowd, who was born Oct. 12, 1814, 
 daughter of William Dowd. Mr. Scranton was one ' 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 635 
 
 of the prominent and reliable citizens of Madison, 
 and held the confidence and esteem of his fellow 
 townsmen to such a degree that he was honored by 
 repeated elections to positions of trust and respon- 
 sibility; and they in turn were honored by the effi- 
 ciency and ability which he gave to the discharge of 
 the duties placed upon him. He was a representative 
 to the General Assembly from Madison in 1859, 
 i860, 1867 and 1872. In 1870 he was elected to the 
 State Senate. In political faith he was a Repub- 
 lican. Mr. Scranton died! Jan. 25, 1896, and Mrs. 
 Scranton passed away July 28, 1894, both in Madi- 
 son. To Mr. and Mrs. Sereno Hamilton Scranton 
 came the following children, aU born in Madison: 
 Roxanna, born Sept. 4, 1834 ; Samuel W., born Dec. 
 30, 1836, who died April 8, 1841 ; Edward Sereno, 
 born June 26, 1840, who died Dec. 30, 1897; Jona- 
 than Samuel, born Feb. 22, 1842; William D., born 
 April 18, 1844, who died Aug. 18, 1865; Charles 
 Woolsey, born Dec. 21, 1846; Catherine L., born 
 Feb. 18, 1849; George Curtis, born March 13, 1851, 
 ■who died Nov. 30, 1863; Susan A., born Feb. 21, 
 1854, who died April 3, 1887. 
 
 Charles W. Scranton grew up in Madison, where 
 he attended the local school, finishing his education 
 at Gen. Russell's Military Academy in New Haven. 
 At first be was engaged with his father in the 
 wholesale produce business, and was later engaged 
 in the mercantile business at Branford, Conn., where 
 he married Marietta Palmer Sept. 23, 1869. She 
 was born Aug. 6, 1851, daughter of Capt. Henry 
 Palmer. To this union have come five children: 
 Minnie Irene, born Nov. 13, 1870, who married E. 
 E. Conover and resides in Boston ; Alice Palmer, 
 born March 24, 1872, who married Robert E. Milli- 
 gan, and lives in Chicago; William Dowd, born 
 June ID, 1875; Helen Woolsey, born Feb. 15, 1878; 
 and Charles Woolsey, born Sept. 24, 1883, who 
 died Feb. 13, 1897. 
 
 Mr. Scranton moved to New Haven in 1870, 
 where be has been in business as a broker since that 
 time. In politics he is a Republican, and in religion 
 a member of the Congregational Church, of Madi- 
 son. He is a member of Widows' Sons Lodge, No. 
 66, F. & A. M., of Branford, is associated with the 
 Royal Arcanum, and also with the Union League 
 and Yacht Clubs, well known institutions of New 
 Haven, and 'has many friends in every circle where 
 he moves. 
 
 GEORGE W. IVES, senior member of the well 
 known firm of George W. Ives & Son, former brick 
 manufacturers of Hamden, is a worthy representa- 
 tive of the industrial interests of the town and an 
 important factor in its business circles. He was 
 born in the town of North Haven Dec. 23, 1842, 
 and belongs to an old and honored family of this 
 county. His great-grandfather was Noah Ives, a 
 farmer of North Haven and a soldier of the Revolu- 
 tionary war, who lived to a ripe old; age- 
 
 Talcott Ives, son of Noah, was born on the same 
 
 farm, and in early manhood married Hannah Todd, 
 a native of the same town and a daughter of Daniel 
 and Lucy (Frost) Todd. By this union the fol- 
 lowing children were born : Harvey, a farmer and 
 brick maker of North Haven, now deceased; Al- 
 fred, father of our subject; Mary, who married 
 Loyal Thorpe, of North Haven, and both are now 
 deceased; Nancy, deceased wife of William Ben- 
 ham., of North Haven ; Loyal, a farmer of the same 
 town, now deceased ; Olive, who married the late 
 Merritt Lane, a manufacturer of b"uttons, and lived 
 in Waterbury until her death in 1901 ; and Caroline, 
 deceased wife of James Payne. The father of these 
 children followed farming throughout life and lived 
 to be over seventy years of age. 
 
 Alfred Ives, the father of our subject, was born 
 Sept. 17, 1813, on his father's farm in North Ha- 
 ven, and there passed his boyhood. At the age of 
 thirteen years he began life for himself as a farm 
 hand for Elias Bassett, with whom he remained un- 
 til he attained his majority. He then turned his 
 pttention to the manufacttire of brick and was 
 among the first to use an engine for grinding the 
 clay, horses having previously been used for that 
 purpose. He continued in that business up to the 
 time of his death, which occurred May 22, 1887, his 
 remains being interred in the North Haven ceme- 
 tery. He was a consistent and faithful member of 
 the Congregational Church for many years, and 
 was a stanch supporter of the Republican party. He 
 was quite a prominent and influential man in his 
 community and was called upon to represent his 
 town in the State Legislature two successive terms. 
 He was a self-educated and self-made man, who 
 started out in life for himself in limited circum- 
 stances, and through his own well-directed efforts 
 became quite well-to-do. In 1836 he removed to 
 the place in North Haven where he spent the re- 
 mainder of his life and where his widow still con- 
 tinues to reside. 
 
 On Dec. 29, 1B34, Alfred Ives married Miss Syl- 
 via Blakeslee, who was born in North Haven Oct. 
 26, 1816. Her father, Levi Blakeslee, was also a 
 native of North Haven, and was a son of Joel 
 Blakeslee, who was born in the same town in 1739. 
 Levi Blakeslee married Mercy Beach, a daughter of 
 Benjamin Beach, and to them were born eleven chil- 
 dren, namely : Alfred ; Eunice ; William and Willis, 
 twins; Joel; Mercy; Betsey; Benjamin; Sylvia; Al- 
 vira ; and Roxana. Mrs. Ives is the only one of this 
 family now living. She is a most estimable lady 
 and has been an earnest member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, of Whitneyville, for over half a cen- 
 tury. She has two children : Susan Charlotte, 
 wife of Horace P. Shares, a former brick manufac- 
 turer of New Haven; and George W., our subject. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth George W. Ives 
 pursued his studies in the common schools, and at 
 the age of eighteen commenced his business career, 
 being engaged in the manufacture of brick with 
 James E. Brown for one year. He then formed a 
 
636 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL .RECORD. 
 
 partnership with his father, and together they were 
 engaged in the same business until the latter's death. 
 The plant formerly owned by George W. Ives & 
 Son was established by our subject and his father 
 in 1883, and here from seven to eight million brick 
 are now manufactured annually. He continued his 
 residence in North Haven until 1894 and then re- 
 moved to the place in Hamden where he is now 
 living, it being a part of the old Eli Whitney home- 
 stead and consisting of forty acres of land on the 
 Ridge road, three miles from New Haven. 
 
 On Dec. 23, 1863, Mr. Ives was married to 
 Miss Betsey M. Davis, of Hamden, who was born 
 April 12, 1846, oldest daughter of Edward and 
 Betsey i\I. (Augur) Davis, and to them were born 
 two children: (i) Alfred E., formerly in business 
 with bis father, married Elizabeth Peabody, and 
 they have three children, Alfred, Robert and Edna. 
 (2) Lucy married William J. Konold, of New Ha- 
 ven, and died at Antwerp, Belgium, while on her 
 wedding trip, Feb. 28, 1896. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Ives is a Knight Templar Mason, 
 belonging to Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M., of New Ha- 
 ven ; Harmony Council ; Franklin Chapter ; and 
 New Haven Commandery. He is a stanch suppor- 
 ter of the Republican party, has filled the ofiice of 
 selectman, and in 1892 was a member of the State 
 Legislature, where he servedi on committees on Fed- 
 eral Relations, and on Humane Institutions. He is 
 a man of excellent business and executive ability, 
 whose sound judgment, unflagging enterprise and 
 capable management have brought to him a well 
 merited success. In manner he is pleasant and cor- 
 dial, which, combined with his sterling worth, 
 makes him one of the popular citizens of his com- 
 munity. 
 
 HENRY WHITNEY AIUNSON, who is now 
 living practically retired in Hamden, was for many- 
 years prominentlv identified with the business inter- 
 ests of New Haven. He was born in Hamden, 
 Feb. 4, 1835, and was given the name of Whitney 
 in honor of Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton 
 
 gin- 
 Henry Munson, his father, was also a native of 
 Hamden, born Jan. 29, 1807. He was a gun-smith 
 by trade, employed in the gun factory of iMr. Whit- 
 ney for some time. He made the first rolled solid 
 steel gun-barrel, and invented a machine for keep- 
 ing the barrels in proper position while drilling or 
 boring out the sam'e, which is now used by the gov- 
 ernment and all gun makers. He never applied for 
 a patent on this machine. Previous to its invention 
 the successful drilling of gun-barrels was a long, 
 tedious, and not infrequently unsuccessful process. 
 The drill often, after entering the steel bar and 
 following the mechanical center as was necessary, 
 would swerve from the proper course and come out 
 the side, or would follow a line on one side or other 
 of the center, in each instance ruining the bar and 
 wasting the operator's work. The value of this in- 
 
 vention is thus evidenced when it is considered that 
 the machine which he devised not only made ac- 
 curate drilling possible, but also gave the operator 
 a positive knowledge of the location of the drill in 
 the center of the long piece of steel. The fact that 
 the machine is universally used to-day, and has been 
 ever since its invention, about 1845, without prac- 
 tically an improvement, goes to show that it origin- 
 ated in the brain of a thorough mechanic. In those 
 days patents were not so largely sought after, and 
 ]Mr. Munson probably felt that he was sufficiently 
 rewarded for his ingenuity, as his business of con- 
 tractor in the gun shop was made much more profit- 
 able by the efficiency of his invention. A patent on 
 this device would have yielded him a fortune. In 
 1857 he embarked in the manufacture of coach and 
 saddlery hardware in Temple street. New Haven, 
 under the name of Munson, Morse & Co., also man- 
 ufacturing wrenches, hammers, pistols, lathe 
 clamps and other tools. In 1862 he returned to 
 Hamden, where he spent the remainder of his life, 
 dying March 21, 1893. Mr. Munson was one of 
 the best known m-en of Hamden, and no man en- 
 joyed the general respect of the people to any great- 
 er extent than be did. He resided in Hamden for 
 the quietude of country life, but though be owned 
 farm land and had a good knowledge of agriculture, 
 he was never a farmer. He built the house wdiere 
 he lived and died, and which our subject vet occu- 
 pies. In the construction of this bouse he made 
 thorcughness a special feature, as in everything 
 else he undertook, and as a result it is still one of 
 the most substantial houses in the town. Mr. Mun- 
 son took great interest in the aflfairs of the town, 
 and was ever ready to aid with his purse or in- 
 fluence any movement of benefit ; he was equally 
 ready to oppose any project that in his judgment 
 had other motives, and he was in every way a most 
 valuable citizen. In politics he was a Democrat un- 
 til the Civil war, when he claimed "the party left 
 him" and he united with the Republicans to become 
 one of their staunchest members and most efficient 
 servants. He held almost every office in the gift 
 of his townspeople, not from any desire for political 
 preferment, but from his sense of duty as a citizen. 
 He twice represented the town in the Legislature. 
 During the war he was active in filling the town's 
 quota of soldiLr;. Wherever the efforts of a good 
 citizen were needled he could be found. He was one 
 of the substantial members of Whitnevwille Congre- 
 gational Church, and an active member of the So- 
 ciety, taking a foremost part in religious affairs. 
 His good wife preceded him to the grave some 
 >ears, and both are buried! in Whitneyville cemetery. 
 A self-made man in the fullest sense of that term, 
 Mr. Munson left a grand name to posterity, and 
 passed away at a ripe old age, after a well-spent 
 and useful life. He lived to see his great-grandson, 
 Lester Munson Shares. Henry Munson married 
 Miss Jane Ford, a daughter of Squire Joel and 
 Eunice Ford, of Hamden, and to them were born 
 
^^HH 
 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^''^'^^^^^S^g^B^^^^ 
 
 
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 ■■■^^^^H|r ^^^^^^^K^' 
 
 fl^^l 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 637 
 
 six children, namely: Henry Whitney, the eldest, 
 is the only survivor. Gustavus B. died young from 
 whooping cough. Robert P., who never married, 
 was drowned in Guilford, Conn., when about forty- 
 nine years old. Eunice L. married George H. Gor- 
 ham, of Hamden, where she died leaving one son, 
 Henry J. Catherine T. was twice married, her sec- 
 ond husband being Cornelius Warner; she died in 
 Hamden leaving two children, Warren C, and 
 Catherine T. Warner, twins. Mary T. married 
 John H. Piatt, of New Haven, and died at Sara- 
 toga, N. Y., leaving no children. 
 
 Henry W. Munson spent his early life in the 
 - manner of most boys of his time. He attended pri- 
 vate schools and completed his education in the old 
 Temple, comer of Orange and Court streets, in 
 . New Haven, under the instruction of Prof. Mills'. 
 From boyhood he was handy with tools, seeming to 
 inherit the mechanical skill of his father, and his 
 practical training was almost entirely along me- 
 chanical lines. At the age of twenty-one he became 
 a stockholder in the concern of Munson, Morse & 
 Co., New Haven. Four years later he removed to 
 Bridgeport arid entered the employ of the Win- 
 chester Repeating Arms Co., remaining at that place 
 until 1871. While there he did considerable con- 
 tract work as a gun maker. He then returned to 
 New Haven, and in 1871 was made superintendent 
 of the gun department of the Winchester Repeating 
 Arms Co.'s plant at that place, which responsible 
 position he moisit capably and acceptably filled until 
 1885. Since then he has done consiiderable contract 
 work in New Haven, sprinkling the streets of the 
 city for twelve years, but is now living retired, hav- 
 ing by years of activity acquired sufficient capital to 
 enable him to lay aside all business cares, and to 
 spend his remaining days in ease and quiet. He was 
 always a wide-awake, energetic business man, gen- 
 eraiUy carrying forward to successful completion 
 whatever he undertook. His successi in life has not 
 consisted merely in amassing worldly possessions, 
 but in doing at all times and doing well the duties, 
 as be sees them, of a good citizen. Whatever trust 
 he has held, has served only to bring forth the noble 
 qualities of the man. Plain and approachable, suc- 
 cess has not changed him personally. His capital 
 in life when he began the struggle consisted only 
 of his mechanical skill and energy, with which equip- 
 ment he has won a position of affluence and respect- 
 ability, and although his business affairs have de- 
 manded much of his time, he has never shirked the 
 duty of a generous citizen. Mr. Munson is a well 
 preserved man, in mind and body. He has retired 
 at an age when he is able to enjoy the fruits of a 
 busy and much more than ordinarily successful life. 
 He has a pleasant home in Hamden. 
 
 Mr. Munson was married, May 16, i860, to 
 Miss Lottie A. Thomas, a native of New Haven, 
 born Sept. 3, 1838, daughter of Gen. Amos Thomas, 
 a prominent officer in the Connecticut State militia. 
 To this union two children have been born : Jennie 
 
 A. died at the age of six and a half years. Codie 
 May, born Feb. 21, 1870, was married May 2, 1889, 
 to John Orrin Shares, and they have one son, Lester 
 Munson, born Jan. 16, 1892. They reside in Ham- 
 den with our subject. Mr. Shares is a son of 
 Horace P. and Charlotte (Ives) Shares, and is a 
 prominent young manufacturer of Cheshire ; in 1897 
 he represented Hamden in the Connecticut Legis- 
 lature, serving as clerk of the committee on roads, 
 rivers and bridges. 
 
 In political sentiment Mr. Munson is a staunch 
 Republican, and has served his town as selectman, 
 and in 1885 was a member of the Legislature. Fra- 
 ternally he is a member of Day Spring Lodge, No. 
 30, F. & A. M., of Hamden, and of the Knights of 
 Honor, and religiously he has been an active mem- 
 ber of Whitney ville Congregationall Church for over 
 twenty years, and a deacon of the same since about 
 1882. He is a man of exemplary habits, commend- 
 able purpose and unbending integrity, and in all 
 life's relations merits the confidence which is so 
 freely accorded him. 
 
 WILLIAM G. GALLAGER, Messenger of the 
 United States Senate, and one of Meriden's most 
 respected citizens, was born in Newark, N. J., Aug. 
 9, 1846, of ancestors who were among the earliest 
 settlers of New Jersey. 
 
 Jacob Gallager, the great-grandfather of Will- 
 iam G., was a brave soldier in the war of the Revo- 
 lution and lost his life at the battle of Germantown. 
 His son, Jacob Gallager, made his home in Philadel- 
 phia, where he married a daughter of Dr. J. Durang, 
 a native of France, who had come to the United 
 States in 1767 and later joined Gen. LaFayette; 
 during the Revolutionary war he accompanied the 
 army as surgeon. The Doctor's two sons, Ferdi- 
 nand and Francis, participated in the war of 1812, 
 and it was the former of these, Ferdinand Durang, 
 who put the citizens of the United States under last- 
 ing obligation to him, for he was the talented musi- 
 cian who set to music the "Star Spangled Banner." 
 
 James Gallager, the father of William G., son 
 of Jacob, and grandson of Jacob Gallager and Dr. 
 Durang, was born in Philadelphia, where be grew 
 to manhood and learned the trade of cooper. For 
 the most part he was self-educated, but during his 
 attendance at school he was a schoolmate of Ed- 
 win Forrest, the actor. Later Mr. Gallager became 
 a minister in the Universalist Church, and preached 
 through Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Connecticut, 
 while in Meriden holding his services in Odd Fel- 
 lows Hall. From Meriden he removed to Hamilton, 
 Butler Co., Ohio, and preached there a short time, 
 but his useful career was ended at the early age of 
 forty-six years; his remains were taken back to 
 Newark and laid beside those of his wife in Fair- 
 mont cemetery. His death deprived the world of a 
 good man and an excellent citizen, who fulfilled 
 every duty of life in a most exemplary manner. 
 Rev. James Gallager married for his first wife 
 
638 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 
 
 Frances Oliver, a daughter of Rev. D. Oliver. She 
 died in 1847. To this union four children were 
 born: Charles is a member of the firm of Tower 
 & Lyon, Chamber street, N. Y. ; Leona married B. 
 S. Pelton, of Meriden, and is now deceased; Marie 
 Louise died in 1896; and William G. is our subject. 
 For his second wife James Gallager married Jane 
 Brown, who resided with our subject, and died at 
 his home; she is buried in West cemetery. 
 
 William G. Gallager removed to Ohio with his 
 father, and after the latters death returned to Meri- 
 den, where he attended the common schools, much 
 of his education being acquired in later life. At 
 the age of fourteen years, he entered the Britannia 
 shop of L C. Lewis, and worked there for four 
 years. During the Civil war, although still a youth, 
 he responded to the call for defenders of the flag, 
 in March, 1864, enlisting in Company F, 15th Conn. 
 V. L, under Col. Upham and Capt. R. Waterman. 
 He was transferred with other recruits to the 7th 
 Regiment, and his discharge bears date August, 
 1865. Previous to his enlistment Mr. Gallager had 
 attempted to join the army several times, but was 
 rejected on account of his youth. Returning to 
 work m the shop, for eleven years Mr. Gallager 
 continued in the metal business, and then opened up 
 a business of his ovra in partnership with George 
 Pelton. The firm conducted same successfully for 
 twenty years, dealing in meats in Meriden and vicin- 
 ity, both partners gaining the high regard of the 
 community on account of honest dealing. In 1896 
 Mr. Gallager retired from activity in the business. 
 
 Throughout his Jife Mr. Gallager has been an 
 active Republican, and for many years has been a 
 hard worker for the Republican party, both in local 
 and national aiifairs, enjoying the full confidence of 
 its best elements. In 1896 he was elected to the 
 State Legislature, which body he served faithfully, 
 being chairman of the committee on the Putnam 
 Memorial, and also had the honor of presenting the 
 name of Senator Piatt for his fourth term in the 
 U, S. Senate, to which he was unanimously elected. 
 In 1900 he was appointed a Messenger of the United 
 States Senate, which position he fills with ability. 
 
 In 1870 William G. Gallager was married in 
 Meriden, to Clara E. Savage, a daughter of Elliott 
 Savage, and to this union six children have been 
 bom : James P., a civil engineer, resides in Okla- 
 homa; he married Effa Wickerson, of Meriden. 
 Charles Durang is engaged in the meat and poultry 
 business ; he married Lydia McCormick, of Meriden, 
 and has one child, William Charles. Elliott Savage 
 is in the United States navy. William died in in- 
 fancy. Leona and Horace are at home. Mrs. 
 Gallager possesses both domestic and -social graces ; 
 she is prominently identified with the Woman's Re- 
 lief Corps. Mr. Gallager is a member and past 
 commander of Meriden Post, G. A. R., and is also 
 a member of the Royal Arcanum and the A. O. U. 
 W. The religious connection of the family is with 
 the Universalist Church. Mr. Gallager's standing 
 
 in this locality, whether in social or business cir- 
 cles, is high, and he is justly regarded as a truly 
 representative citizen. 
 
 GEORGE T. BRADLEY needs no introduction 
 in the business world of New Haven. As a mem- 
 ber for over twenty years of the firm of Benedict 
 & Co., coal merchants, and in other important com- 
 mercial relations, he has commanded a wide ac- 
 quaintanceship in the city, and his reputation is 
 without a blemish. Mr. Bradley has sustained the 
 good name of his ancestors, who have been identi- 
 fied with New Haven for many generations. We 
 extract the following from a paper now in the pos- 
 session lOf the subject proper of these lines,: 
 
 "William Bradley, who took the oath of fidelity 
 in New Haven, Conn., in 1644, was the ancestor of 
 this branch of the Bradley family. Tradition, con- 
 firmed by research, according to the Hon. Gharles 
 W. Bradley, who was at one time secretary of the 
 State of Connecticut, and a resident of New Haven, 
 states that William Bradley came from the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire, England. 
 
 "(I) William Bradley married Alice Prichard, 
 daughter of Roger Prichard of Springfield, Mass., 
 and Milford, Conn., Feb. 18, 1645. His will was 
 recorded in the New Haven Records, Vol. II, page 
 no. He died probably in 1690. She died, as it 
 is thought, in 1692. They had issue : Joseph, bap- 
 tized Jan. 4, 1646, died Jan., 1705; Martha, Oct., 
 1648, died Jan. 9, 1707; Abraham, born Oct. 24, 
 1650, died Oct. 19, 1718; Mary, born April 30, 1653, 
 died Oct., 1724; (II) Benjamin, born April 8, 1657, 
 
 died 1728 ; Esther, born Sept. 29, 1659, died ; 
 
 Nathaniel, born Feb. 26, 1661, died Aug. 17, 1743; 
 Sarah, born June 21, 1665. 
 
 "(II) Benjamin Bradley, called sergeant, mar- 
 ried Elizabeth, daughter of John Thompson, of 
 New Haven, Oct. 29, 1677. She died Nov. 3, 1718. 
 His will was recorded in the New Haven Probate 
 Records in Vol. V, page 446. Their issue: Eliza- 
 beth, bom Sept. 11, 1678; Sarah, bom June 7, 1680; 
 Hannah, bom April 18, 1682 ; Susanna, born July 
 10, 1684; Mary, born April 15, 1687; Benjamin, 
 born Oct. i, 1692; Desire, born ?\pril 29, 1690; 
 Abner, born March 6, 1695; (III) Caleb, born 
 1700. 
 
 "(Ill) Caleb Bradley married Dec. 30, 1731, 
 Thankful Gilbert, of New Haven. He died prob- 
 ably in 1783. Their issue: (IV) Jonah, bom Oct. 
 26, 1732, died March 6, 1814; Elizabeth, born May 
 3, 1737, died Feb. 8, 1815; James, born Nov. 9, 
 
 1739- 
 
 "(IV) Jonah Bradley married Aug. 12, 1759, 
 Rachel, daughter of James Atwater, iborn April 
 26, 1737, died Oct. 2, 1809. Their issue: Caleb, 
 born July 20, 1760; Lydia, born Dec. 29, 1761, died 
 Oct. 12, 1847; Phebe, born Jan. 9, 1764; Esither; 
 Huldah; Betsey; (V) Justus, born Jan. 20, 1772, 
 died Dec. 28, 1857; Sarah. 
 
 "(V) Justus Bradley married April 12, 1797, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ^29 
 
 Sarah, daughter of Ezekiel Hayes, born Dec. 28, 
 1777, died March 5, 1837. Their issue: Russell, 
 born April 30, 1798; Justus, born April 21, 1800; 
 Maria, born May 5, 1802; (VI) George Hayes, born 
 Oct. 31, 1804, died Oct. 4, 1880; Charles, born Nov. 
 4, 1806; Elizabeth R., born Nov. 14, 1808; William, 
 born July 20, 181 1; Sarah A., born Feb. 26, 1814; 
 Jane C, born Sept. 28, 1816. 
 
 "(VI) George Hayes Bradley married, Oct. 7, 
 1840, Theodlosia F., daughter of Samuel Daskam. 
 Their issue: Charles Lewis, Helen Sophia, (VII) 
 George Thomas, Henry Kelly, Samuel Justus, 
 William Francis." 
 
 Of these, we know further that Justus Bradley, 
 grandfather of George T., was a shoemaker by 
 trade. George Hayes Bradley, the father of our 
 subject, lived and died in New Haven. He was 
 engaged in the boot and shoe business there and in 
 Wilmington, N. C, in partnership with his brother 
 Charles, the firm name being G. & C. Bradley, and 
 they were manufacturers as well as retailers. They 
 commanded a large trade in the South. Mr. Bradley 
 was an Episcopalian in religious connection, and a 
 Democrat in politics. His wife, who survived him 
 a number of years, dying March 4, 1899, was a sis- 
 ter of Col. Samuel Daskam, of Norwalk, Fairfield 
 Co., Conn., and a daughter of Capt. Samuel Dask- 
 am, who commanded a packet plying between Nor- 
 walk and New York. Her mother, whose maiden 
 name was Lucretia Fitch, was a great-grandniece of 
 Thomas Fitch, who was governor of Connecticut 
 from 1754 to 1766. Her grandfather Daskam 
 fought in the Revolution. 
 
 George T. Bradley was born Oct. 15, 1845, in 
 New Haven, and grew to manhood in his native 
 city, receiving his education in the Washington 
 school, the Webster School and Dr. Thomas' Acad- 
 emy, in St. John street. During the first three years 
 of his business life he was in the employ of Daniel 
 Trowbridge, in a general store, and continued thus 
 with other firms for seven years longer, entering the 
 coal business in 1870, in the office of H. W. Benedict 
 & Co. On March 22, 1878, he became a member 
 of what is now the firm of Benedict & Co. This 
 bouse was first established in 1833, and has been in 
 active business ever since, though the name has 
 changed several times. Mr. Bradley has given his 
 attention principally to the interests of this concern, 
 but he has been prominently connected with numer- 
 ous important business enterprises in the city of his 
 residence, and, as a coal merchant, with firms in 
 New York and Philadelphia, being a director in 
 the Tradesman's National Bank; the Sterling Coal 
 Co., of Philadelphia; and the Powelton Barge Co., 
 of New York. 
 
 On June 3, 1868, Mr. Bradley married Miss 
 Emma Minor. Their children are Milton Hobart, 
 Walter Minor and Mabel Daskam. The family are 
 Congregationalists in religious connection. In poli- 
 tics he is a Republican. Fraternally he unites with 
 
 Wooster Lodge, No. 79, F. & A. M. ; Quinnipiac 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F. ; the Knights of Honor; the 
 Union League; and the Sons of the American Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 The Minor Family, of which Mrs. George T. 
 Bradley is a member, was founded in America by 
 Thomas Minor, who was born April 23, 1608, in 
 England, and came to New England in 1630, with 
 John Winthrop's company, settling at Pequot. He 
 married Grace Palmer, and died in Stonington, 
 Conn., Oct. 23, 1690. 
 
 (II) Capt. John Minor, son of Thomas, moved 
 to Stratford, Conn., and married Elizabeth Booth, 
 of that place. He was born in 1634, and died in 
 1719. 
 
 (III) Ephraim Minor, born Oct. 24, 1675, died 
 Sept. 16, 1762. He married Rebecca Curtiss. 
 
 (IV) Timothy Minor, son of Ephraim, born Dec. 
 ID, 1702, died Nov., 1760. He married Elizabeth 
 Judson. 
 
 (V) Seth Minor, son of Timothy, born Nov. 23, 
 1733, died Nov. 4, 1820. He married Eunice Root. 
 
 (VI) Adoniram Minor, son of Seth, was born in 
 Woodbury, Conn., Dec. 3, 1763, and died April 21, 
 1847. He married Patience Mitchell. 
 
 (VII) Judson Minor, son of Adoniram, was 
 born in Woodbury March 20, 1787, and died Jan. 
 19, 1876. He married Electa Way. 
 
 (VIII) Henry Minor, son of Judson, was born 
 March 28, 1814, in Woodbury, and died Oct. 12, 
 1854, in Plymouth, this State. He married Nancy 
 Mather, and their daughter Emma, who was born 
 in Brooklyn, N. Y., is the wife of George T. Brad- 
 ley, of New Haven. 
 
 The Mather Family, from which Mrs. George 
 T. Bradley is descended on the maternal side, was 
 first represented in New England bv Rev. Richard 
 Mather, who was born in Lowton, Winwick Parish, 
 of Toxteth Park, in 1596, and married Catherine, 
 daughter of Edmund Holt. 
 
 (II) Timothy Mather, born in 1628 in Liver- 
 pool, England, died Jan. 14, 1684, in Dorchester, 
 Mass. He married Catherine, daughter of Major 
 Gen. Humphrey, Atherton. 
 
 (III) Atherton Mather, born Oct. 4, 1663, died 
 Nov. q, 1734- He married Mary Lamb. 
 
 (IV) Richard Mather, born April 2, 1708, in 
 Suffield, Conn., died at Windsor. He married 
 Louise Burbank. 
 
 (V) Elihu Mather, born in Torrington in 1741, 
 died there Dec. 17, 1778. The name of his wife is 
 not given. 
 
 (VI) Richard Mather, born in 1767, died Oct. 
 14, 1835. He married Olive Soper. 
 
 (VII) Horace Mather, born in Torrington, Dec. 
 12, 1789, died in New Haven March 11, 1867. He 
 married Martha Bishop. Their daughter Nancy, 
 born Jan. 8, 1816, in Torrington, Conn., married 
 Henry Minor, and died Aug. 23, 1889, in New 
 Haven. 
 
640 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 PLATT. The family of this name at Water- 
 bur_y is one of the oldest in Connecticut and among 
 the prominent ones. The late AlfrecL Piatt was its 
 head, and with several of his sons — the late 
 William S., and Clark AI., and Alfred L., of Piatt's 
 Mills — and grandsons in turn, figured eminently in 
 the industrial life of the city for a hundred years, 
 and through the inventive genius of these worthy 
 citizens great profit and advantages have been given 
 to A\'aterbury. 
 
 Richard Piatt, the progenitor of many of the 
 New England Platts, came to this country in 1638, 
 and landed at New Haven. He owned land in and 
 around Xew Haven. He was enrolled among the 
 first settlers of Alilford, Nov. 20, 1639, having four 
 in family. "He had probably brought with him 
 from England his children, Mary, John, Isaac and 
 Sarah, for his first child baptized in Milford, by the 
 record, was Epenetus, July 12, 1640. Subsequently 
 were baptized Hannah, Oct. i, 1643; Josiah, 1645, 
 and Joseph in 1649." Richard and his sons, John 
 and Josiah, are recorded among the original pur- 
 chasers and proprietors of Newtown, Conn. But 
 John finally went to Norwalk, Isaac and Epenetus 
 to Huntington, L. I., only Josiah and Joseph remain- 
 ing in Milford, the first home of the family. 
 
 The late Alfred Piatt, of Waterbury, was a 
 descendant of Richard Piatt, of Milford, through 
 one of the sons named. The Newtown records 
 show that Josiah Piatt, of the town and county of 
 New Haven, in consideration of love and affection 
 to his son Josiah, of Newtown, willed him half his 
 land on Gelding Hill in Newtown, Oct. 18, 1758. 
 And they further show that Josiah Piatt of ?\Iilford, 
 Conn., ''in consideration of love and good will which 
 I have and do bear unto my grandson, Josiah Piatt, 
 of Newtown, Oct. 18, 1788" willed him land in 
 Newrtown. John Piatt, of Newtown, conveyed land 
 in that town to his sons Ebenezer and Moses, in 
 1741. In Newtown Records (Vol. VIII) the fol- 
 lowing is found: "Josiah Piatt and Sarah Sanford 
 were joined in marriage covenant Nov. 13, 1758. 
 Childr^: Hannah, born Oct. 3, 1759; Nathan, 
 born Alarch 3, 1761 ; Isaac, born Dec. 24, 1762; 
 Louisa, born May 28, 1765; and Jonas, born Jan. 
 II, 1770." 
 
 Of the children of this Josiah and Sarah (San- 
 ford) Piatt, Nathan Piatt, born March 3, 1761, was 
 the father of the late Alfred Piatt, of Waterbury. 
 j^iathan Piatt and his brother Isaac, as shown by 
 their father's will, probated in New Haven county, 
 and bearing date of 1 785, were given lands in Water- 
 bury. Nathan was twice married, marrying (first) 
 Pnby Smith, of Newtown, who died in 1829, and 
 ( second') in 1829, Charlotte Dickerman. Nathan 
 Piatt was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. He 
 resided in Waterbury many years, but he died in 
 Wallingford in 1845, aged eighty-four years. His 
 children bv his first marriage were: Levi S., Al- 
 fred, Ely, Almon, Anna, Leonard, Sarah and 
 ]\Iartha. 
 
 The late Alfred Piatt, of Waterbury, son of Na- 
 than and Ruby (Smith) Piatt, was born April 2, 
 1789, in Newtown, Conn., and at the age of ten 
 years came to Waterbury with his father, who set- 
 tled on the river at a point afterwards known as 
 Piatt's Mills (and Plattsville). He studied at the 
 school in Litchfield of which James Morris was the 
 master and he began business for himself at the age 
 of nineteen. He was employed for a time in a saw- 
 mill which he himself built near his father's flour 
 mill. Later he was engaged in traveling through 
 the South selling the old Waterbur}^ wooden clocks. 
 He became an' early member of the firm of "A. 
 Benedict," which was formed in 1823, the outgrowth 
 of a business begun in 1812 by Mr. Benedict, who 
 then began the manufacture of bone and ivory but- 
 tons, and which business finally resulted in the 
 Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Co. Mr. Piatt 
 was the first man in Waterbury who manufactured 
 brass and copper wire. For several years he made 
 all the wire used by the Scovill and the Benedict & 
 Burnham manufacturing companies in making but- 
 ton eyes. Subsec[uently he disposed of his interests 
 in the Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Co., and 
 purchased of his father and Gideon Piatt, the mill 
 and the water power of Piatt's Mills. He operated 
 for a time the oldl mill, then he replaced it by a new 
 one which he operated as long as he lived. Soon 
 after he purchased the mill he devised an improved 
 method of making buckwheat flour, and built ma- 
 chinery for this purpose, obtaining a patent on the 
 machinery and on the process of manufacture. 
 
 On Mr. Piatt's withdrawal from the Benedict & 
 Burnham Manufacturing Co., he began manufactur- 
 ing buttons for himself, his sons, William S. and 
 Clark M., then not yet of age, being employed in 
 the factory. In 1847 a partnership was entered 
 into between the father and the sons, under the firm 
 name of A. Piatt & Co., which afterwards became 
 A. Piatt & Sons. The business grew to large pro- 
 portions during the father's life time, and the com- 
 pany, the outgrowth of that concern, is to-day one 
 of the most prosperous of those engaged in button 
 making in Waterbury. Alfred Piatt was a deacon 
 in the Baptist Church, and was one of the three m'en 
 who gave obligations to the full extent of their prop- 
 erty as security for the debt incurredl in building the 
 first Baptist meeting house in the center of the town. 
 On June 8, 1814, ]\Ir. Piatt was married to Irene, 
 daughter of Hiram Blackman, of Brookfield, Conn., 
 and to the union were born six sons. Mr. Piatt 
 died' Dec. 29, 1872, and Mrs. Piatt passed away Nov. 
 2, 1863. Their children were: 
 
 (i) Nirom B. Piatt was born Sept. i, 1818, at 
 Piatt's Mills, and in boyhood attended the then 
 somewhat famous school of Amos Smith in New 
 Haven. He became a merchant, was a man of ir- 
 reproachable character, strong in his convictions and 
 a devoted member of the Baptist Church. He mar- 
 ried Sept. 17, 1840, Eliza, daughter of Wheeler 
 Kirtland, of Woodbury, Conn., and their seven chil- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 641 
 
 dren were: Frances E., widow of Charles H. Rus- 
 sell; Margaret P., wife of Wilson S. Osborn ; Ida 
 K., wife of Lewis E. Perkins ; Willard W. ; and 
 three who died in childhood. Nirom B. Piatt died 
 Oct. 14, 1863. 
 
 (2) CharleS' S. Piatt was born July 30, 1820, and 
 on Sept. 4, 1861, married Mary M. Tobey. He re- 
 moved to western Massachusetts, and died Feb. 5, 
 1896. 
 
 (3) William S. Piatt was born Jan. 27, 1822, 
 and died March 27, 1886. He was educated in the 
 common schools, at the Waterbury Academy, and 
 at a school of high grade in New Haven, taught by 
 Amos Smith, where he was greatly interested in 
 phvsics and chemistry, and also became fascinated 
 with mechanical engineering. He had acquired, 
 before reaching his majority, the art of rolling sheet 
 zinc, and was the first to produce it successfully in 
 Waterbury. He had also invented and constructed 
 machinery for the manufacture of buttons from the 
 same, and for the manufacture of seamless zinc tub- 
 ing. In 1847 he entered into partnership with his 
 father and his brother, Clark M. Piatt, for the man- 
 ufacture of metallic buttons, and in 1876 the Piatt 
 Brothers & Co. was incorporated with a capital of 
 $30,000. Of this company William S. Piatt was 
 chosen president, and Clark M. Piatt, secretary and 
 treasurer. At the same time the Patent Button 
 Co. was formed and incorporated, and consisted for 
 the most part of the same stockholders, but included 
 representatives of Porter Bros. & Co. Both of these 
 branches of business were eminently successful — a 
 fact which was due largely to the ingenious ma- 
 chinery which Mr. Piatt was constantly inventing. 
 There is probably no place in the Naugatuck Valley 
 in which the triumphs of inventive skill are better 
 illustrated than in the button factories of the Piatt 
 Brothers & Co. Mr. Piatt, as referred to in the 
 sketch of his father, had been associated with him 
 in business beginning back in 1847. "He was a 
 man of strong marked traits, among which were ab- 
 solute independence and self-reliance, great power 
 of abstraction, and a mind which could not cease 
 from effort until the problem before it was solved. 
 He was an original investigator in questions of phy- 
 sical science, psychology and theology. _ In relig- 
 ious matters, especially, he met every question fairly, 
 not dismissing it from bis mind until it was solved 
 by patient and thorough investigation. His success 
 in business brought him considerable wealth, but it 
 was apparent not in any change in his style of life, 
 but in the increase of his benevolence. He was a 
 deacon in the Baptist Church at the time of his 
 death, and had been for many years its largest bene- 
 factor." On Oct. I, 1844, Mr. Piatt was mairied to 
 Caroline, daughter of William and Alma (Porter) 
 Orton, who after the death of her parents, lived in 
 the family of Deacon Timothy Porter, her mother's 
 brother. ' The children born to this marriage who 
 reached maturity are: Irving G. (born June 18, 
 
 41 
 
 i860, who died Dec. 6, 1896), Helen I. (Mrs. Wal- 
 lace H. Camp) and Caroline A. 
 
 (4) Clark M. Piatt was born Jan. i, 1824. In 
 boyhood be entered his father's shop and began 
 learning the button manufacturing business. Be- 
 fore reaching his majority, however, he dropped 
 out for a time, and for a year was in attendance at 
 the Connecticut Literary Institute, in Suffield. After 
 this he returned to his father's factory and resumed 
 his business, which he continued to follow through 
 life. As stated in the preceding sketch of his fa- 
 ther he joined him in business in 1847, and was 
 connected with the business through the several 
 changes indicated in the sketches of father and 
 brother, and with them built up the extensive and 
 successful business still carried on under the Plate 
 name. Like bis father and brother, Mr. Piatt was 
 a successful inventor, and obtained patents on a 
 number of inventions which aided in the success of 
 their business. On May 20, 1846, Mr. Piatt was 
 married to Miss Amelia M., daughter of Selden 
 Lewis, of Naugatuck, and to them were born chil- 
 dren as follows : Bertha Lewis, now Mrs. Jay H. 
 Hart, of Waterbury; Lewis Alfred and Edward 
 Legrand, both of whom died in childhood ; and 
 Lewis Alfred (2), now secretary of Piatt Bros. & 
 Co. Clark M. Piatt diedl Dec. 20, 1900. 
 
 (5) Alfred Legrand Piatt was born June i, 1825, 
 and received his education in the schools of Water- 
 bury and New Haven. Like his father and brothers 
 he, too, learned the art of manufacturing buttons,, 
 and in his earlier manhood was so occupied in New- 
 town, Conn., and Leominster, Mass. Returning to 
 Waterbury in 1861 he took up his residence at Piatt's 
 Mills, where he was engaged with his father in the- 
 milling business. In 1863 he assumed charge of 
 the distribution of the mill products and worked up' 
 a large demand for them. In 1876 he organized 
 the Piatt Mill Co., of which he was principal owner 
 and director. In 1882 they erected an elevator in 
 Waterbury with a capacity for 60,000 bushels of 
 grain. A storehouse is also maintained in Nauga- 
 tuck. He, with his son, Alfred S. Piatt, and Oliver 
 G. Camp, leased the flour mill which they sold to> 
 Piatt Bros. & Co. in 1892, and conducted a flour 
 and feed business at Piatt's jMills and in the city of 
 Waterbury and town of Naugatuck. On Feb. 6, 
 1895, the mill was destroyed by fire, after which 
 they continued the business in Waterbury and 
 Naugatuck. On July 28, 1847, Mr. Piatt married 
 Sarah Ann Sherman, who was born Feb. 10, 1827, 
 in Danbury, Conn., daughter of Oman and Clara 
 (Lake) Sherman, farming people in the town of 
 Danbury. Her father was born Dec. 10, 1795, and 
 died Dec. 5, 1864; her mother was born March 22, 
 1796, and died Feb. 28, 1861. Mrs. Piatt died Sept. 
 5. 1898, surviving her husband, who passed away 
 Aug. II, 1896. Two children came to ^Ir. and 
 Mrs. Piatt, Sarah Jane and Alfred Sherman. The 
 daughter, born Jan. 8, 1849, was married May 10,. 
 
642 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1870, to Jared P. King, a carpenter of Water- 
 bury. 
 
 ^6) Seabury B. Piatt was born Oct. 5, 1828, in 
 the town of W'aterbury. He was a student at Yale 
 in the class of 1852, but owing to ill health aban- 
 doned his college course during his junior year. In 
 1861 he became a student of law in the office of J. 
 W. Webster, and was admitted to the Bar in May, 
 1864. In June of that year he located at Birming- 
 ham, Conn., and there became judge of the borough 
 court. He died at Derby, Conn., Aug. 12, 1895. 
 
 Alfred S. Platt, whose standing among the 
 business men of Waterbury is of the very best, was 
 born in Newtown, Conn., Nov. 12, 1854, a son of Al- 
 fred Legrand Platt. He was between six and seven 
 years of age when his parents removed to Water- 
 bury, and there he grew to maturity. The public 
 schools and the business college of New Haven af- 
 forded him his education, and he was ready early in 
 Jiis life to learn the miller's trade under his father's 
 instructions, in the mill which that gentleman owned 
 and operated. M'r. Platt grew up in the business, 
 working with his father until the latter's death, and 
 there is not a detail in the practical working of the 
 mill which he does not know by personal experience. 
 When a joint stock company was formed in 1876, 
 jNIr. Platt was one of the stockholders. After the 
 death of the elder Platt, he joined with O. G. Camp, 
 and bought out all the other interests, they becoming 
 the sole owners of the property. They are known 
 as the Platt Mill Co., and transact a large business. 
 
 Mr. Platt and Miss Eugenie A. Nettleton were 
 married Dec. 18, 1876. Mrs. Platt was born in 
 Naugatuck, Conn., Feb. 20, 1854, a daughter of 
 Clark Nettleton. One child has blessed the home 
 of Mr. and Airs. Platt, Alice E., born Oct. 7, 1877. 
 Mr. Platt is a Republican. Fraternally he belongs 
 to Townsend Lodge, No. 89, Ansantawae Encamp- 
 ment, No. 20, I. O. O. F., and others. Their home is 
 at Piatt's Mills, three miles south of Waterbury 
 Center. They are all highly respected members of 
 societ}', and are regarded as among the best people 
 of the city. 
 
 DEXTER OS WIN DOOLITTLE, general 
 farmer and fruit grower, and one of the highly re- 
 spected citizens of Wallingford, was born on the 
 homestead, on the old New Haven road, in the town 
 of Wallingford, Jan. 8, 1847. Mr. Doolittle is a 
 lineal descendant of Abraham Doolittle, the first of 
 that name in Wallingford, who -was also one of the 
 first settlers. 
 
 Alfred Doolittle, the grandfather of Dexter O. 
 Doolittle, was a native of Wallingford, and was a 
 son of Joel Doolittle, an extensive farmer of the 
 same place. Alfred Doolittle was a man of educa- 
 tion for that time, and taught school for a number 
 of years, and at one time was the principal of the 
 A\'allingford Academy, manv of the older residents 
 having received instruction from him. His estate 
 consisted of a large tract of land, on the old New 
 
 Haven road':, where he carried on general farming. 
 A Democrat of the old Democracy, he upheld its 
 principles, and was a man in every way estimable. 
 He died of pneumonia, at the advanced age of 
 .eighty-nine years, in Wallingford on the old home- 
 stead where he was born. Alfred Doolittle married 
 Lois Dayton, of North Haven, and to this union 
 were born three children : Oswin, who graduated 
 from Yale College and was a prominent lawyer; 
 Jonathan Edward, the father of our subject; and 
 Lucy, the widow of Henry B. Fowler, a resident of 
 Wallingford. The mother of these children died 
 in North Haven, at the age of eighty-four, a devoted 
 member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Jonathan EdKvard Doolittle was born on the old 
 homestead and attended the schools in Wallingforrl, 
 and later iwent through Yale College and graduated 
 from the medical department, beginning his practice 
 in Wallingford, but bis promising career was cut 
 short at the early age of thirty-two, from an attack 
 of pneumonia which no skill could cure. His death, 
 in 1852, was a great loss to the community. In his 
 profession, he was one of the rising men, and he 
 was a man of such pronounced temperance prin- 
 ciples, that the workers in that cause felt almost 
 bereft. As early as the age of seventeen, he had 
 bravely upheld his views, and during life lectured 
 in its behalf. 
 
 Dr. Doolittle was married in 1845, to Elizabeth 
 Hull, of North Farms, a sister of the well-known 
 Deacon Samuel and Colonel Henry Hull, of North 
 Farms, and to this union two children were born: 
 Dexter Oswin ; and Jonathan Forestus, who died in 
 1864, from lockjaw, caused by getting his hand 
 crushed in a sorghum mill. The mother married, 
 second, Horace Smith, of Wallingford, who died in 
 1891. Mrs. Smith resides with her son, on the old 
 homestead, and is a valued and consistent member 
 of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Dexter Oswin Doolittle attended the district 
 schools of Wallingford and North Haven, and also 
 had other educational adtvantages. He remained 
 with his mother until he was sixteen years old, at 
 which time he went to Naugatuck, where he was 
 engaged as clerk for F. S. Andrews, remaining at 
 a salary, of $8 per month, for the first year, and 
 steadily advancing until he became a confidential 
 clerk at increased salary. He then operated a store 
 of his own, but finally sold out and returned to the 
 farm where he has ever since remained engaged in 
 general farmmg, mat'ket-gardening and peach grow- 
 ing. Here Mr. Doolittle has a fine farm of 100 
 acres which yields abundantly, and here he has 
 erected a new house and made many improvements. 
 Industrious and persevering, JNIr. Doolittle has not 
 yet exhausted the possibilities of bis fertile farm. 
 
 In 1868, Mr. Doolittle was married to Hattie 
 Elizabeth Palmer, of Naugatuck, who was born in 
 Sharon, Conn., a daughter of Liberty Palmer, and 
 four children have been born of this union : Lillian 
 Elizabeth, who married! Elbert Twing, of Walling- 
 
cl 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 643 
 
 ford; Minnie AlnJra, who married William Burk, 
 of Wallingford; Jonathan, who in infancy met his 
 death from scalding; and Samuel Walter, a bright 
 promising young man, who died Feb. 3, 1901, after 
 an illness of one day from pneumonia. Mr. Doo- 
 little has taken an interest, as does every good citi- 
 zen, in public affairs, but is no. office seeker. An 
 independent Democrat, he uses his judgment in as- 
 sisting candidates to office, and sets an example of 
 temperance and morality, in his neighborhood. For 
 many years be has been a member of the Advent 
 Church, and started! out as an Evang'elist in 1890, 
 his sincerity and his neighborly kindhess causing 
 him to be highly esteemed and thoroughly respected 
 through Wallingford. 
 
 ISAAC EDWIN MANSFIELD is one of the 
 most extensive farmers and substantial citizens of 
 North Haven, as well as a worthy representative of 
 a family which settled in this part of New Haven 
 county as early as 1639. Richard Mansfield was 
 the ancestor of the family, which had its origin in 
 England, and has now numerous descendants 
 through almost all the states of the Union. He 
 owned town property in New Haven, and land at 
 East Farms some four miles from' New Haven where 
 he lived from 1641 until his decease, Jan. 10, 1655. 
 In 1657 his widow married Alexander Field; she 
 was the owner of part of the land upon which Yale 
 College now stands, which was inherited by her 
 second son, Moses. 
 
 Joseph Mansfield, son of. Richard, was probably 
 born in England. He took the freeman's oath, Feb. 
 8, 1657, and died) in 1692. His children were : 
 Mary, Martha, Mercy, Silence, Elizabeth, Comfort, 
 John, Joseph, Ebenezer and Japhet, the last three 
 of whom lived at "Mansfield Farms." Of this fam- 
 ily Joseph (II) was the direct ancestor of the sub- 
 ject of this sketch, the others also becoming con- 
 nected in marriage with the other old and promi- 
 nent families. 
 
 The children born to Joseph Mansfield (II) 
 were: Mary, Lydia, John, Elizabeth, Joseph (III), 
 Amos, Josiah, Abigail, Thomas and Ebenezer. 
 
 The line falls on Joseph Mansfield (III), whose 
 children were : Dan ; Titus, who lived at Mansfield 
 Farms; Capt. Joseph of the Revolutionary Army; 
 and Phoebe. 
 
 The children of Titus Mansfield were: Eben- 
 ezer, Enos, Hannah, Richard, Mabel, Titus, Jesse, 
 Mabel, Lemuel, Joel and Mary. 
 
 Ebenezer Mansfield, son of Titus, served in the 
 Revolution, and was present at the hanging of 
 Major Andre. He preserved as one of bis treas- 
 ures,' a silver dollar given to him by Lady Washing- 
 ton for making a milking stool for her. Jgis chil- 
 dren were: Rhoda, Sally, Mabel, Ebenezer, John 
 Lewis and Mary. 
 
 Ebenezer Mansfield, son of Ebenezer, was born 
 Jan. 23, 1791, and died in 1865. He was a farmer, 
 and his residence was on State street, in the town 
 
 of Hamden, where be erected the house lately occu- 
 pied by Lyman Bassett. His wife was Laura Stiles, 
 who was born in 1787, a daughter of Isaac C. Stiles. 
 Their children were: Isaac, who married Maria 
 Hitchcock andl lived in Morris, Otsego Co., N. Y. ; 
 Edwin Lewis ; Mary Elizabeth ; Laura Louisa ; 
 Eunice, who married Edward Johnson; and Laura. 
 
 Edwin Lewis Mansfield was born May 18, 1817, 
 in the home on State street, and had but limited edu- 
 cational advantages. Leaving home when but a lad, 
 he endeavored to assist his parents, working for 
 some time for Major Elias Bishop, for whom Bishop 
 Gate was named, and from' his small wages always 
 managed to give some to his parents. When other 
 lads of his age were at healthful play, he was plow- 
 ing, picking stones, clearing out brush, or doing 
 chores, early enduring the pangs of poverty. One 
 incident he was fond of relating, was of a time when 
 a penny would have given him much happiness. A 
 fishing party was proposed, but as he had neither 
 book nor line, nor money to purchase either, he re- 
 solved to apply to Deacon Blakeslee, who kept a 
 small store in the vicinity. Not doubting the child's 
 honesty, the worthv deacon thought to teach him a 
 lesson, and instead of trusting him for the penny 
 hook, he said. "Earn the penny first, get the hook 
 later," and although no doubt this was a great afflic- 
 tion, Mr. Mansfield said he had always remembered 
 that advice and followed it through life. The per- 
 severance and honesty of the boy received its re- 
 ward, for he found employment in the neighbor- 
 hood, and when older learned brick-making, after 
 the methods of those days, working faithfully at this 
 until he became the proprietor of a brick business 
 of his own. For twenty summers he worked in 
 this line, becoming a molder and receiving good 
 wages. Disposing of his brick interests in North 
 Haven, in connection with Franklin Shepherd, he 
 engaged in the business in Berlin, where be re- 
 mained for several years, in the meantime pur- 
 chasing from Riah Bishop, in the fall of 1843, the 
 old home and the farm now occupied by his son. 
 His parents' last days were passed in his home, and 
 when he was ready to retire from active work in the 
 brick business, he came back to the old place, which 
 was then his own, and spent his last days in farm- 
 ing. .He passed away Sept. 8, 1888. His wife was 
 Polly Content Bishop, a daughter of Riah and Con- 
 tent (Blakeslee) Bishop, and she still survives. 
 (See descendants of Lieut. Gov. James Bishop, of 
 New Haven Colony.) The children born to her 
 were : Mary Aurelia, born in 1844, married on Nov. 
 30, 1864, to Hubbard Bradley and upon his death 
 to William H. Doolittle ; and Isaac Edwin. 
 
 Isaac Edwin Mansfield was born in the old home 
 where his beloved mother now lives, on Thanksgiv- 
 ing Day, Nov. 28, 1850. His educational advant- 
 ages were excellent, coni'prising a course through 
 the district school, this being supplemented by sev- 
 eral terms at North Haven Academy and a private 
 school at Mt. Carmel, kept by Mrs. Mary Dicker- 
 
644 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 mail. After leaving school he engaged in teach- 
 ing for two or three years in Xorth Haven, in dis- 
 tricts Xos. 7 and 8, but later returned to assist his 
 father on the farm, at the latter's decease taking en- 
 tire charge of it. He has addfed land until now the 
 estate comprises more than loo acres, and is a credit 
 to New Haven county. 
 
 j\Ir. Mansfield was married May 28, 1874, to 
 Mary D. Shepherd, a native of North Haven, and a 
 daughter of Franklin and Sarah (Mansfield) Shep- 
 herd, the former of whom was one of the largest 
 brick manufacturers of North Haven. The chil- 
 dren born to this union were : ( I ) Irving Holmes, 
 born in 1875, lives near jMansfield Bridge in North 
 Haven; he married Tosephine M. Zuber, and has two 
 children, Leslie A. and Albert Irving. (2) Edith 
 Laura, born in 1877, married Albert B. Brockett, a 
 farmer in North Haven, and has two children, War- 
 ren E, andi Newton Eli. (3) Edwin Shepherd, born 
 in 1880, resides on the farm with his father; he mar- 
 ried Lena Mae Nickloy. In politics Mr. Mansfield is 
 a Democrat, and has efficiently served his town on 
 the board of selectmen, for two years, being an as- 
 sociate with Capt- Cyrus Cheney, and has been on 
 the board of relief. The family was reared in the 
 faith of the Episcopal Church, in which he has been 
 a vestryman, and of which his wife is also a com- 
 municant. Among the representative men of this 
 section, Mr. Mansfield takes a pride in his ancestry, 
 and sustains the family reputation for integrity and 
 a high order of citizenship. 
 
 EDWARDS DOOLITTLE SHELDON is the 
 elder of the Sheldon Brothers, proprietors of the 
 "Sheldion House" and cottages, a popular summer 
 resort at Pine Orchard. Conn. He comes of a 
 family who have been identified with the State of 
 Connecticut for the past two hundred and fifty years. 
 
 Isaac Sheldon, the founder of the family of 
 Sheldon in Connecticut of whom we write, was born 
 about the year 1629, probably in England. Is first 
 in Windsor, Conn., 1651-2. Married Mary Wood- 
 ford in 1654, and became a first settler of Northamp- 
 ton, Alass., where all of his children were born. A 
 son, Thomas, born in 1661, married Mary Hinsdale, 
 and' settled in Sufifield ; they had eight children. A 
 son, ("Capt.) Josiah, born 1695, married ]\Iay 30, 
 1721, Anne Stanley, daughter of Caleb Stanley, of 
 Hartford, Conn., and their children were: Dan, 
 born Feb. 2, 1725 : Asher, born Nov. ifi, 1728 ; Anne, 
 born Dec. 28, 1730, died Feb. 11, 1731 ; Anne (2), 
 born June 28, 1732; Ruth, born Sept. 4, 1736. Dan 
 marriedi Susanna King:, and their children were 
 Susanna, Charity, Charles, Hiram. All died leaving 
 no heirs. [The above information was furnished 
 by Flezekiah S. Sheldon, of A\'cst Suffield, Conn., 
 and W. L. Looniis, town clerk of Sufiield, Con- 
 necticut.] 
 
 Asher Shehlnn, born Nov. 16, 1728, was the first 
 of the name in Branford, Conn., where he purchased 
 land in 175 — ; he was by trade a hatter. On Aug. 
 
 22, 1751, he married Wealthea Ann Steele, and their 
 children were: Wealthea, born Sept. 5, 1753, died 
 Nov. 2, 1753; Asher, born Jan. 30, 1756, baptized 
 Feb. I, 1756; Wealthea, born March 17, 1758, bap- 
 tized March 26, 1758; Daniel, born Nov. 11, 1760, 
 baptized Nov. 16, 1760; Roswell, born June 28, 1763, 
 baptized Juh' 3, 1763; Mary, born April 15, 1766,. 
 baptized April 20, 1766, died aged ninety-one years,, 
 ten months and twenty-four days ; Abigail, born 
 Nov. 28, 1771, baptized' Dec. i, 1771. Asher Shel- 
 don born Nov. 16, 1728, baptized Nov. 17, 1728^ 
 died Feb. 19, 1794. Wealthea, his wife, died March 
 13, 1772. 
 
 Asher Sheldon, Jr., born Jan. 30, 1756, married,. 
 ;\Iarch 25, 1778, Hannah Rogers, daughter of Sam- 
 uel Rogers, a direct descendant of Thomas Rogers, 
 ninth signer of the Mayflower compact. They had 
 one son, Jerry, born Feb. 17, 1779. Asher Sheldon, 
 Jr., served in the war of the Revolution in 1775, and 
 the following is a certified record of said service : 
 '■Enlisted July 11, 1775, in Second Company, Capt, 
 Street Hall, Seventh Regiment, Col. Charles Webb,. 
 Commanding Continental Troop. Discharged Dec. 
 20, 1775- Their regiment was raised by order of 
 the Assembly at the July Session, 1775. Recruited 
 in Fairfield county, Litchfield and New Haven coun- 
 ties. Its companies were stationed at various points- 
 along the Sound until September 14, when, on re- 
 quisition from Washington, the regiment was or- 
 dered to the Boston camp. Then it was assigned ta 
 General Sullivan's brigade, on Winter Hill, at the 
 left of besieging line, and remained until the expira- 
 tion term of service in December, 1775. Adopted 
 as a Continental." Asher, Jr., died April 27, 1780, 
 and his widow, Hannah, afterward married Ira. 
 Zacheus Baldwin ; their children were — Betsey,. 
 Ammi and Timoth)-. 
 
 Jerry Sheldon, born Feb. 17, 1779, married Caty 
 Lanfair, June 29, 1801, and died Nov. 30, 1870, aged 
 ninety-one years, nine months and thirteen days. 
 Caty, his wife, died Feb. 29, 1864, aged eighty-six; 
 she was a daughter of Capt. Oliver Lanfair (who- 
 ched ;\Iay 7, 1812, aged sixty-three years) and 
 Phoebe L. (Rogers), his wife (who died Dec. 14, 
 1847, aged ninety-three years, seven months and 
 thirteen days). Mrs. Phcebe (Rogers) Lanfair was 
 a daughter of Daniel Rogers, brother of Samuel. 
 Capt. Lanfair was in the war of the Revolution, and 
 the recordi of his services is the same as that of 
 Asher Sheldon, Jr. The children of Oliver and 
 Phoebe L. were Oliver Jr., Caty, Sophia and 
 Horace. Following are the children of Jerry and 
 Cat)- Sheldon : ( i) Saphronie, born March i, 1802, 
 married James Burton, of New Haven, and their 
 children were ^lary, James, Aaron and Catherine. 
 (2) Truman, bom May 17, 1803, is mentioned be- 
 low. (3) Nicholas, born Oct. 15, 1804, married 
 Susan Norvil, of Goshen, Conn,, and their children 
 were ]\Iary (died young), Newton, Lena and Eulius. 
 (4) .\ustin, born June 20, 1806, married JuHa Ann 
 Tuttle, of Bristol, Conn. (5) AVilson, born April 
 
s,i^^,iy^-iix^f-ig>^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.' 
 
 64 s 
 
 •9, 1808, marrkd a Miss Mathews of Bristol, Conn., 
 and their children were Alargaret, Emeline, Nancy 
 and Orlando, the last named a member of the ist 
 Connecticut Artillery. (6) Apollas, born May 14, 
 iBio. (7) Betsey, born Jan. 15, 1812, married Har- 
 vey Frisbie, Sept. 15, 1834, and her children were 
 Cornelia and Henry Leonard (twins), the latter of 
 whom served as a soldier from Illinois; Elizabeth; 
 Caroline ; John Rogers, who served in the Civil war, 
 and was killed at Murfreesboro, Tenn. ; and Sarah 
 Jane. (8) Asher, born March 12, 1814, married 
 Sarah Bunnell, of Middletown, Conn. One child 
 died young. His second wife was Jane Doolittle, of 
 Middletown, Conn., and their chiklren were Walter 
 and George. (9) Wealthean, born March 13, 1816, 
 married Seth Peck, of Bristol, Conn., May 28, 1842, 
 and became the mother of Franklin, Cecil, Cecelia, 
 Alice, Fannv, Elvira, Emily, Minerva, Wilber and 
 Ahen. (10) Roswell B., born Oct. 24, 1817, mar- 
 ried Louise Hendricks, of New Haven, Conn., and 
 their children are : Emily, Oliver and Edward. 
 (11) Phoebe Sophia, born Nov. 25, 1820, married 
 WilHam Baldwin, of Pennsylvania, their children 
 are Wealthean, LilHe, Lulu, Elvira and Lura. 
 
 Truman Sheldon, born May 17, 1803, married 
 May 26, 1840, Almira Apley (born Feb. 2, 1805), 
 at Goshen, Conn., and died June 14, 1886. She 
 died May 10, 1871. (The parents of Almira Apley 
 were John Apley and Sarah Van Dyke. Their 
 children were: Almira, Clarence, Philo, Alanson, 
 John, Sarah Ann and Amanda). The children of 
 Truman Sheldon and' Almira Sheldon were Sarah 
 Cornelia, born Aug. 2, 1841 (she is now the wife of 
 ■Charles A. Young) ; Edwards Doolittle, born April 
 18, 1843 '• George Lewis, born April 7, 1845 ; and 
 Franklin Luther, born March 13, 1847. 
 
 Of the above, Truman Sheldon, the father of 
 Edwards D., settled with his parents, in 1820, on 
 the property at Pine Orchard now occupied by our 
 subject and his brother, George L. During his 
 •earlier life for a number of years he was a "coaster," 
 and built two vessels ; but after his marriage, in 
 1840, he disposed of these vessels and took up the 
 fiotel business, which he conducted until succeeded 
 hy his sons in 1870. 
 
 Edwards D. Sheldon, whose name opens this 
 sketch, was born in Branford, Conn., April 18, 1843, 
 and received! his education at the common schools 
 and academy of the place. In August, 1862, he en- 
 listed in Company B, 27th Conn. V. I., and after 
 nine months' service was honorably discharged at 
 New Haven, Conn. He participated in the battles 
 of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. 
 On his return to the paths of peace, he assisted his 
 father in the hotel and on thefarm, and in 1870 he 
 and his brother George L. succeeded to the business. 
 On Nov. 29, 1870, Edwards D. Sheldon married 
 Eunice E., daughter of Robert A. and Eunice (Bail- 
 ey) Geer, of Norfolk, Conn., who bore him one son, 
 liobert Truman. The mother died Feb. 10, 1874, 
 and for his second wife Mr. Sheldon, on Oct. 19, 
 
 1877, wedded Marion Geer, sister to his first wife. 
 In religious faith they are members of the Congre- 
 gational Church. In politics Mr. Sheldon has al- 
 ways been a stanch Republican, and for ten years 
 served on the Branford Town Republican commit- 
 tee, while in 1895 he was a member of the Legis- 
 lature, overcoming a previous Democratic majority 
 of one hundred, a difference of two hundred votes 
 between the two elections. He was one of the char- 
 ter members of Mason Rogers Post, G. A. R., of 
 which he is the present commander. 
 
 Robert Truman Sheldon, son of our subject, was 
 born Nov. 14, 1871, and received his education in 
 the common and high schools. He is now employed 
 as private secretary in a private trust office in New 
 York City. 
 
 George Lewis Sheldon, brother of Edwards D., 
 was born in Branford, Conn., April 7, 1845, ^"d 
 received his education in the common schools and 
 academy of that place. When old enough he as- 
 sisted his father in the hotel and on the farm, and 
 in 1870 he and his brother, Edwards D., suc- 
 ceeded to the business, as already recorded. He 
 married, Dec. 8, 1868, Alice E., daughter of Russell 
 and Lydia (Tyler) Pond, of Branford, and they 
 have one child, Cornelia I., now Mrs. Thomas 
 Parker Preble. Mrs. Sheldon is a member of the 
 Congregational Church. In politics he is a Republi- 
 can. The "Sheldon House," with its adjacent cot- 
 tages, is a well-known resort and was established in 
 1845 by the Sheldons. It is situated on Long Isl- 
 and Sound, near Thimble Islands, and has enjoyed 
 the reputation of being one of the best located of 
 the Sound resorts. It is open each year from June 
 I to October i. 
 
 HENRY D. HOTCHKISS, the enterprising 
 real-estate dealer, road builder and general con- 
 tractor at Waterbury, was born in the town of Pros- 
 pect, New Haven county, June 21, 1850, a son of 
 Harry and Sarah (Hoppin) Hotchkiss, and in the 
 paternal line is of ante-Revolutionary descent. 
 
 Gideon Hotchkiss, great-great-grandfather of 
 Henry D., reared a family of nineteen children, 
 manv of whom took part in the war of the Revolu- 
 tion. His son Eben was born in Prospect, and Gid- 
 eon M., son of Eben, was born in the same town- 
 Both were farmers. Gideon M. Hotchkiss, grand- 
 father of Henry D., married Arvilla Brooks, and 
 they reared three children, viz. : Harry, father of 
 our subject; Brooks, who- lived and died, a farmer, 
 in the town of Prospect ; and Mary, who was mar- 
 ried to George Sloper, a farmer, and died in Che- 
 shire, Connecticut. 
 
 Harry Hotchkiss was born in the town of Pros- 
 pect in 1814, and became a farmer. His family 
 consisted of three children, viz. : Henry D., the 
 subject of this sketch; Ellen M., who married Levi 
 Elton, of Berlin, Conn., and is now living in Water- 
 bury ; and Elizabeth F-, wife of John R. Piatt, of 
 Prospect. In politics Harry Hotchkiss was a Re- 
 
646 
 
 'COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 publican, at one time represented his district in tlie 
 State Legislature, and was also assessor for a num- 
 ber of years. Personally he was very popular. He 
 died on his farm in Prospect, a faithful member of 
 the Congregational Church, and his widow died in 
 Waterbury, in the same faith. 
 
 Henry D. Hotchkiss was reared on the Prospect 
 homestead, and was educated in the district school. 
 In 1879 h'£ came to Waterbury and commenced con- 
 tracting for the building of road's, etc., and has prob- 
 ably constructed more miles of road than anv other 
 man in the city. He also engaged in trucking, and 
 has been in the grocery business. Real estate, how- 
 ever, has afforded him his chief and most lucrative 
 occupation, and he has made strenuous efforts in 
 the development of North Waterbury, having sold 
 most of tne property which has since been improved, 
 or built upon, and having laid out all the streets. 
 
 On March 16, 1870, Mr. Hotchkiss was united 
 in marriage with i\Iiss Ella E. Kimball, daughter 
 of William E. Kimball, of Prospect, and to this 
 marriage has come one child, H. Ray Hotchkiss, 
 who is a .resident of Waterbury. In politics Mr. 
 Hotchkiss is a Republican. He has represented his 
 fellow citizens in the board of aldermen as a mem- 
 ber from the First ward. Fraternally be is a mem- 
 ber of the I. O. O. F. He and family worship at 
 the Second Congregational Church. Socially they 
 stand very high, and all are greatly esteemed for 
 their many personal merits- 
 
 THOMAS BERKLEY ROBERTSON has, 
 since 1871, been one of the most highly respected 
 business citizens of New Haven, where he conducts 
 a granite and marble business of large proportions. 
 
 Hugh Robertson, the father of Thomas B., was 
 born near Edinburgh, Scotland, but removed to Eng- 
 land, where he carried on the business of paper mak- 
 ing, and married Isabella Berkley, a native of Eng- 
 land. The parents spent their lives in that country. 
 They had a family of five children, of whom Thomas 
 B. and Annie Isabella were the only members to 
 come to America. 
 
 Thomas B. Robertson was born near New Castle, 
 England, Sept. 21, 1847, ^'^^d attended school in 
 Hexham. He was apprenticed to the stone cutter's 
 trade for five years, which be thoroughly learned, 
 becoming a finished workman in stone, granite and 
 marble. He was employed in England, and in Edin- 
 burgh and Glasgow, Scotland, before crossing the 
 ocean to the United States. In 1871 he located in 
 New Haven, and very soon won recognition as a 
 reliable and competent marble and stone worker- 
 On March 9, 1876, he opened up his commodious 
 yards and began a business in marble, stone and 
 granite, which has prospered ever since. Much of 
 the excellent work in this line to be seen in the city 
 has been produced in his establishment. He has 
 just added to his polishing plant, compressed air and 
 pneumatic tools, all of the best and latest inventions, 
 for marble and granite lettering and carving. 
 
 On May 13, 1874, Mr. Robertson was married 
 to i\Iiss Maria Elizabeth Downs, of Woodbury, 
 Conn., a daughter of Albert Zeri and Sarah Cook 
 (Pritchard) Downs, the former a well-known cabi- 
 net-maker of Waterbury. Two children have been 
 born to Air. and Mrs. Robertson : Luella Alma and 
 Hattie Berkley. Luella Alma married Fred Harri- 
 son Lincoln, of New Haven, and has one child, Es- 
 ther Berkley Lincoln. Mr. Robertson is a Repub- 
 lican, and always exercises the rights of an Amer- 
 ican citizen. Fraternally he is connected with Quin- 
 nipiac Lodge, No. i, I. O. O. F. ; Olive .Branch 
 Lodge, No. 84, F. & A. M. ; the A. O. U- W. ; the 
 Woodmen of the World ; and the Heptasophs. In 
 religion the family are identified with the Congre- 
 gational Church. j\lr. Robertson has proven him- 
 self an excellent man of business, and has won the 
 esteem and confidence of the community by his up- 
 right dealings, no one in his line in New Haven be- 
 ing more highly regarded. 
 
 BURTON A. DAATS, superintendent of the 
 Country Club Grounds at Whitneyville, is one of the 
 well and favorablj' known of the younger citizens 
 in the town of Hamden, where he was born Sept. 
 15, 1862, 3'oungest son of Edward and Betsey M. 
 (Augur) Davis. 
 
 Mr. Davis was a child of but five years when his 
 parents removed to the farm where he has since re- 
 sided. He obtained a good practical education in 
 the common and private schools, and when his school 
 days were over at once took up the work of a farmer,, 
 to which he had been for the most part reared. 
 After his marriage he located on the farm with his 
 father, with whom he was associated until the lat- 
 ter's death, after which he took charge of the place. 
 He carried on the dairy business extensively, being- 
 one of the best known men in that line around New 
 Haven. He had a most excellent herd and; com- 
 modious buildings, everything well kept and up to- 
 date, as he has always been known for his sys- 
 tematic and thorough manner of doing anything he 
 undertakes. He continued the dairy business until 
 1897, when he leased the greater part of his farm 
 of eighty-five acres to the New Haven Country 
 Club for ten years, with the privilege of extending- 
 the time to twenty years. They purchased five acres 
 of the land, upon which they have erected a very 
 fine club-house, while the remainder of the farm 
 is leased for golf grounds. This beautiful place 
 is located on the old Hartford turnpike, only three 
 and a half miles from New Haven. Mr. Davis has 
 since been superintendent of the s'rounds for the 
 Club, and the reputation enjoyed by this organiza- 
 tion as having one of the finest golf courses in 
 America, certainly reflects credit upon his efficiency 
 in that position. 
 
 On Feb. 3, 1885, ]\Ir. Davis was married to Miss 
 Martha E. Augur, who was born Oct. i, 1861, in 
 New Haven, the second daughter and fourth child 
 of James Minott and Esther (iMorrell) Augur. The 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 647 
 
 father, who is now deceased, was formerly a mer- 
 chant of New Haven, in Chapel street. Mrs. Davis 
 is of the seventh generation in descent from 
 Robert Augur, whose wife was Mary, daughter of 
 Deputy Gov. Matthew Gilbert, her line being from 
 Robert Augur through John, Abraham, Hezekiah, 
 James and James Minott. Mr. and Mrs. Davis had 
 three children : Marjorie M. was born July 26, 
 1890; Minott Augur was born Dec. 17, 1891 ; Rich- 
 ard B. died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Davis are 
 prominent in social circles. In political sentiment 
 he is a Republican, but not a politician, for when 
 he has held office it has been simply from a sense 
 of his duty as a citizen, and not for any personal 
 benefit. For some years he has been a member of 
 the school board, of which he is now chairman. 
 He and bis wife are active and prominent in the 
 support and work of the Whitneyville Congrega- 
 tional Church, of which he is treasurer and a trus- 
 tee. For over twenty-five years she has been a mem- 
 ber of the choir, and for a long period one of the 
 teachers and earnest workers in the Sunday-school. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Davis are eligible for membership in 
 the Sons of the American Revolution and Daughters 
 of the American Revolution, respectively, although 
 they have not joined. 
 
 From an early age IMr. Davis has been an ad- 
 mirer of a good horse, and during years of associa- 
 tion with good ones he has become an excellent 
 judge of horseflesh and a good amateur reinsman. 
 He has owned many good horses, and he has at 
 present in his stable "Martha Marshall," with a rec- 
 ord of 2:o7>4, and "Robert W.," 2:20, as well as 
 others of promise and ability in the matter of speed. 
 Mr. Davis' interest in horses springs more from a 
 desire for ex rcise and from love for a good horse 
 rather than from any idea of revenue. As a citizen 
 Mr. Davis is well known in his community as one 
 of the progressive type, and a man whose generos- 
 ity and kind heartedness are surpassed only by his 
 genuine modesty. He began his active business ca- 
 reer when a comparatively young man, and early 
 displayed the business tact which has always marked 
 his dealings. In all his transactions Mr. Davis' in- 
 tegrity is never questioned, showing as he does_ a 
 clear record for principle, and he is a lover of fair- 
 ness in everything. Poissessed of a genial disposi- 
 tion, he is altogether popular with associates, a val- 
 uable citizen, and a credit to an honored old family 
 of Hamden. 
 
 CHARLES HENRY THORPE is a well- 
 known citizen of North Haven, and is a descendant 
 of one of the old families of New England, some 
 of his ancestors being among the earliest settlers of 
 New Haven. Among the passengers who sailed 
 from England to America in 1638 was William 
 Thorpe, who became a resident of New Haven, 
 the name frequently appearing in the Colonial rec- 
 ords. 
 
 Titus Thorpe, the great-grandfather of the sub- 
 
 ject of this sketch, lived in what was then the 
 North Parish of New Haven,, in a house which 
 stood on the farm now occupied by Charles H. 
 Thorpe. The house was torn down, and in 1878 
 upon its site was erected the handsome residence 
 now occupied by our subject. The old house was 
 commenced previous to 1756, by one of the broth- 
 ers of Titus who was killed at the battle of Lake 
 George, in the French andi Indian war. It was 
 completed by Titus, who was the village blacksmith, 
 hence a man of affairs, and he took his bride there 
 in 1764; it is recorded that his wedding feast lasted 
 for three days. Later he left his wife, Miriam, to 
 care for the farm! while he became a member of the 
 Revolutionary arm}'. While her husband served 
 his country, with her own hands she harvested the 
 rye. When he returned home sick with dysentery, 
 she nursed him until he recovered, but a young son 
 was taken ill of the same disease and died. Mrs. 
 Miriam Thorpe was a woman of noble character,, 
 and lived to be 100 years old, ever full of charity 
 and good will to all. 
 
 Joshua Thorpe, son of Titus and Miriam, was 
 born in 1777, and became a prominent farmer of 
 North Haven. On Nov. 25, 1801, he married Re- 
 becca Dickerman, who died Dec. 9, 1805, at the age 
 of twenty, leaving one daughter, Harriet, who mar- 
 ried Horace Stiles. On June 2, 1806, Joshua 
 Thorpe married (second) Mary Ann Cook, and the 
 children of this union were, Rebecca, James H., 
 Anson Cook, Abigail and Willis. 
 
 James Hervey Thorpe was born on the old 
 homestead, and had the educational advantages 
 afforded by the district schools and the North Ha- 
 ven Academy. After finishing his schooling he took 
 up the work of the farm, where he was busily em- 
 ployed for a part of the time, and then learned the 
 joiner's trade, but spent the later years of his life 
 . in peaceful vocations at his old home, the house 
 where he lived and died having now given place to 
 the commodious structure as before noted. In re- 
 ligious matters, Mr. Thorpe was a conscientious 
 man, and he was so imbued with temperance prin- 
 ciples that during 1840-41 he became prominently 
 identified with the Washingtonians. At his death, 
 July 21, 1876, many mourned the decease of a good 
 and worthy citizen, whose influence had ever been 
 for the best interests of the community. His wife 
 was Caroline E. Flint, a native of Williamstown, 
 Vt., and her death occurred, in 1888, at the home of 
 her son, in North Haven. The children of this 
 marriage were: (i) Edwin A., born in 1841, mar- 
 ried Alice Stackhouse ; he was over three year^ a 
 soldier in the Civil war, and is now an employ of 
 the Custom House m Philadelphia. (2) Mr.y A., 
 born in 1842, resides with our subier* ^^j Henry 
 C. is deceased. (4) Charles H. was born Dec. 9, 
 1845. (5) Ellen, born in 1847, died in 1864. (6). 
 Caroline, bom in 1850, resides in North Haven. (7) 
 Jane, born in 1854, resides in Weston, Massa- 
 chusetts. 
 
648 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 The educational advantages enjoyed by Charles 
 H. Thorpe were superior to those of many others 
 of his locality. After he had completed the course 
 at the district schools, he enjoyed one term's in- 
 struction under IVliss Eunice Linsley, and another 
 under Mr. Rossiter, both of these private schools 
 being conducted in North Haven. When he had 
 finished his education, he returned to the care of 
 the farm, where his services were needed, and has 
 remained there continuously ever since, carrying, 
 on general farming and stock raising, and makes a 
 specialty of fattening calves, his veal being consid- 
 ered the most desirable of the local market. Air. 
 Thorpe has made a success of his enterprises, and 
 has one of the largest and best cultivated farms in 
 this vicinity. 
 
 On March 12. 1879, Mr. Thorpe married Han- 
 nah Lewis, a native of Radnor, Pa., a daughter of 
 Lewis and Rachel (Milner) Lewis, the father a 
 farmer of that locality. One child, Alfred Lewis, 
 born Sept. 19, 1883, blessed this union. The politi- 
 cal opinions of Mr. Thorpe attach him to the Re- 
 publican party, and he has been called upon to 
 serve as constable and to hold many minor offices, 
 and also succeeded to the position of sexton of 
 North Haven cemetery, his father having long held 
 that position. Socially he is connected with North 
 Haven Grange, of which he has been chaplain, and 
 for five years has efficiently filled the office of sec- 
 retary. Both Mr. Thorpe and his wife are valued 
 members of the Congregational Church, of which 
 he is one of the trustees. The community esteems 
 both Mr. 'and Mrs. Thorpe highly, her reputation 
 being established as a liberal and kind-hearted mem- 
 ber of society, while the good citizenship of her hus- 
 band is never questioned. An intelligent and public- 
 spirited man, Mr. Thorpe lives up to the demands 
 of the day, and takes a deep interest in the progress 
 of the institutions which will build up North Haven, 
 his purse and influence being ever ready to assist 
 all worthy objects. 
 
 IMRI A. SPENCER, an ex-soldier of the Civil 
 war and the well-known head of the grocery firm of 
 The Spencer & Pierpont Co., Waterbury, was born 
 in Canton, Plartford Co., Conn., May 3, 1842, son of 
 Imri L. Spencer, and grandson of Amos Spencer, all 
 natives of the same place. Caleb Spencer, father of 
 Amos, lived in Hartford, Conn., and was a farmer 
 early in life. He afterward settled in Canton, where 
 he died. 
 
 Amos Spencer was reared to manhood in Can- 
 ton, Conn. He married Candice Case, a native of 
 Granliy, Conn., and then settled on a farm, devoting 
 his life to agricultural pursuits. To his marriage 
 were born tbrre children; Seth, who located in 
 Rcotstown, Ohio, and engaged in farming; Imri L., 
 mentioned below ; and Da\ton, who died while in 
 the army during the Seminole war. 
 
 Imri L. Spencer grew to manhood in Connect- 
 icut. After his marriage he followed farming and 
 
 stock droving in Canton for many years, and then 
 moved to Bloomfield, Conn., where for fourteen 
 ) ears he engaged in mercantile business. In 1865 
 he located in Waterbury, and passed the remainder 
 of his active life as a merchant there. He married 
 Susan Barber, who was born in Canton, a daughter 
 of Jonathan Barber, a farmer of the same town. 
 They reared a family of six children, of whom we 
 have the following record: Amos L., who was a 
 farmer, and died in Alanchester, Conn. :, Susan, who 
 married Franklin Moses, and lived in New York 
 State, where she died at the age of twenty-four 
 years ; Hannah, who never married ; Jane, who died 
 at the age of three years ; Imri A. ; and Jonathan, 
 who died when three years old. Imri L. Spencer 
 was a Republican in politics. Both he and his wife 
 died in the faith of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Imri A. Spencer passed the first twelve years of 
 his life on the farm in Canton, Conn., and attended 
 the school in the district. He clerked for his father 
 in a general store in Bloomfield, Conn., until the 
 call for volunteers to assist in crushing out the Re- 
 behion. In Julv, 1862, be enlisted in Co. F, 14th 
 Conn. V I. This regiment was assigned to the 
 Army of the Potomac, and served until mustered 
 out at Hartford in June, 1865. Mr. Spencer's ser- 
 vice was onerous andl dangerous, but he endured 
 the privations of a soldier's life with courage and 
 fortitude. He was wounded in 1862 ; and in August, 
 1864, was taken prisoner at Reams Station, and 
 confined about six months. The war over, Mr. 
 Spencer returned home, and in October, 1865, joined 
 his father in business in Waterbury, this partnership 
 lasting until the death of the latter. Our subject 
 carried on the business on his own account for some 
 time, and then formed a partnership with R. D. 
 Pierpont, under the firm name of Spencer & Pier- 
 pont. Within the past four years a joint stock com- 
 panv was formed under the name of The Spencer 
 & Pierpont Co., and this company now does the 
 largest business in groceries, provisions, feed, grain 
 and flour in Waterbury. 
 
 In December, 1865, Imri A. Spencer married 
 Aliss Christiana Whiton, of Bloomfield, Conn., a 
 daughter of Augustus Whiton, who was born in 
 Westford, Conn. This union has been blessed with 
 one child, Alice, now Mrs. Davis Rich, of Water- 
 bury. In politics Mr. Spencer is a Republican, 
 and although no office seeker, has filled, as a matter 
 of public dut.y, several local offices. Socially he is 
 a member of the I. O. O. F., the Royal Arcanum 
 and the G. A. R. His social standing is very high, 
 and as a business man he bears a name second to 
 none in the county of New Haven. The family at- 
 tend the Methodist Episcopal Church, .of Water- 
 bury. 
 
 EVAN E. HUGHES, cabinetmaker, a respected 
 resident of Trem'ont street, Meriden, where his at- 
 tractive and comfortable home is located, was born 
 in Bangor, Caernarvonshire, Wales, March 10, 1847. 
 
yM^ 
 
 ^,^.^^^C3^>^— 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 649 
 
 Evan Hughes, father of Evan E., wais a native 
 of the same place, where he engaged in farming. 
 He married Mary Wilhams, born in Anglesea, 
 Wales, and they had these childrem born to them : 
 Mary ; William, of Winnebago, Wis. ; Robert, who 
 died at Brattleboro, Vt. ; John; Catherine, who mar- 
 ried Hugh Pritchard, resides at Fairhaven, \'t. ; 
 Jane, who. married Benjamin Williams, lives at 
 Fairhaven; Evan E., of this sketch; Grace, who 
 married Thomas Hogan, of Salem, N. Y. ; Joseph, 
 of Fairhaven, Vt. ; Llewellyn, of Hydeville, Vt. ; 
 Anne, who married John Roberts, of Fairhaven; 
 Hugh F., who lives at Saratoga, N. Y. ; and Maggie, 
 who married Edward Green. In 1854 Mr. Hughes 
 with his wife and eight children started for Amer- 
 ica, on a sailing vessel bearing the name of "Moses 
 Wheeler," reaching Boston, Mass., in safety. Mr. 
 Hughes and his family left the vessel at that city, 
 and it started on its way to New York City, but 
 was never heard of afterward. The Hughes fam- 
 ily removed to Vermont and located at Castleton, 
 being pioneers of their countrymen in that locality, 
 WiUiam Hughes, the brother of Evan Hughes, and 
 the uncle of Evan E., was the discoverer of the 
 slate quarries both in Vermont and Maine, these 
 quarries being of great value to the sections in which 
 they are located. Evan Hughes worked in the slate 
 quarries in the neighborhood of Castleton until his 
 death, in 1868, and his remains repose in the ceme- 
 tery in Fairhaven. In his native country Mr. Hughes 
 had been a mem'ber of the Established Church, and 
 in Vermont both he and his wife became worthy 
 members of the Episcopal Church. In politics he 
 was a Republican. Airs. Hughes died in Vermont 
 also, where their memory is still cherished as kind 
 neighbors and highly esteemed residents. 
 
 Evan E. Hughes has passed almost the whole of 
 his life in the United States, as he was but six years 
 old when the long voyage was made from Wales. 
 His educational advantages were limited to the dis- 
 trict school in his Vermont home, and when he was 
 but thirteen yeans old his services were required to 
 assist in the support of the family. He soon went 
 to work on a farm, first in Castleton, later at Brat- 
 tleboro, but his inclinations lay in another direction, 
 and as soon as he could accomplish it he started in 
 to learn the trade of cabinetmaker, with S. & H. S. 
 Smith, at Brattleboro. He remained there until 
 1877, coming to Meriden at that time to accept the 
 position of foreman of the milling department of 
 the Wilcox & White Organ Co., where his ability 
 made him a valued employe, and where he remained 
 until 1898, at which time the company was re-or- 
 ganized, and Mr. Hughes severed his long connec- 
 tion with it. Partially with a view of seeing the 
 country, and also with the idea of trying the gold 
 fields for himself, Mr. Hughes went to Alaska, in 
 1898, but not meeting with satisfactory success, he 
 remained only eight months. Since his return to 
 Meriden, he has continued to follow his trade of 
 cabinetmaker, a trade in which he has few superiors. 
 
 Mr. Hughes was married in Hampton, N. Y., 
 to Elizabeth Jones, born in North Wales, daughter 
 of Edward Jones. No children have been born to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hughes. In politics Mr. Hughes is 
 identified with the Republican party, but he has 
 never sought any office, being a man who is com- 
 pletely interested in his business and his home. 
 He owns a beautiful home on Tremont street, Meri- 
 den, built from his own plans, and there he and his 
 devoted wife enjoy every comfort of life. In man- 
 ner Mr. Hughes displays the kind feeling of friend- 
 ship which he feels for every one, for his religious 
 principles are based upon the Golden Rule. Both 
 he and wife are highly esteemed in Meriden. In 
 1890 they visited his Jairthplace, and all points of 
 interest in England and Wales. For a number of 
 years Mr. Hughes has been connected with the 
 order of Odd Fellows, and has taken a deep interest 
 in this organization. 
 
 RILEY T. SMITH, of New Haven, Conn., is 
 a mem'ber of the well-known and reliable firm of 
 Smith Bros., oyster dealers and planters, of Oyster 
 Point, and he is also a leading and influential citi- 
 zen of his city. 
 
 Mr. Smith comes of a very old New England 
 family, its founder in Connecticut having been 
 George Smith, who was one of the first settlers 
 who assisted in the establishment of the city of New 
 Haven, as early as 1638. For many years the fam- 
 ily engaged in farming and in sailing the sea, but 
 about 1850, Willis Smith and his brother, Jeremiah 
 Smith, became pioneer operators in the oyster farm- 
 ing br .iness, in the waters of Long Island sound, 
 on the shores of Connecticut, at New Haven. 
 
 Riley T. Smith, of New Haven, a son of Willis 
 Smith, was born in West Haven, Dec. 10, 1844, and 
 was six years of age when his parents settled in 
 New Haven, on Oyster Point. His mother, Sarah 
 L. (Hinman) Smith, a native of Middlebury, still 
 survives, but his father died in New Haven, at the 
 age of seventy years. j\Ir. Smith received an ex- 
 cellent education, attending the West Haven pub- 
 lic school, later a school in New Haven, going 
 then to the Washington school on Cedar street, com- 
 pleting his studies in a boarding school in West 
 Haven. Thus thoroughly equipped, Mr. Smith re- 
 turned home and immediately became interested 
 with his father in the oyster farming business, and 
 later, with his two brothers, formed the strong and 
 reliable firm known to the trade and the business 
 world as Smith Bros. Capable and energetic, Mr. 
 Smith has made a great success of this business, 
 and in many ways is a leader. His adoption of new 
 methods and machinery has resulted in an increase 
 in quantity and also in the quality of his output. 
 A taste for the bivalves raised under the favorable 
 conditions at Oyster Point has been formed over the 
 country, and miany vessels are kept busy liy this firm 
 in order to supply the demand. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Smith was married to Miss Ellen 
 
650 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 A. Barnes, of New Haven, a daughter of William 
 S. Barnes, a most estimable lady, who passed out 
 of life Feb. 5, 1895. She had been the devoted 
 mother of six children, four of whom survive : 
 Agnes j\I., who married Frank Eberth, of New 
 Haven; Herbert T. ; Florence B. ; and Wilbur 1. 
 In his political sympathy Mr. Smith has long been 
 an active Republican, served efficiently as council- 
 man in the Fourth ward, and is a member of the 
 Young Men's Republican Club. For a number of 
 years Mr. Smith has been a member of the How- 
 ard Avenue M. E. Church, to which he is a liberal 
 contributor. 
 
 CLARENCE G. AMES, the capable and efficient 
 superintendent of the factory of L. Candee & Co., 
 manufacturers of rubber boots and shoes, was born 
 in New Haven, Oct. 29, 1852, a son of William B. 
 Ames, who was born in Millborough, Mass., in 1829. 
 
 Bezer Ames, the grandfather of Clarence G., 
 was born in Bridgewater, Mass., where he spent the 
 earlier part of his life, later moving to New Haven, 
 where he was engaged in the pork packing business, 
 and where he died at the age of sixty. Lucy Good- 
 enough, who became his wife, was born in Roxbury, 
 Mass., and was the mother of a large family. Will- 
 iam B. Ames came to New Haven while still a boy, 
 and after attending the Lovell School learned the 
 trade of rubber cutting. During the Civil war he 
 served as a member of Company D, isth Conn. 
 V. L, and was at the front three years. Participating 
 in many heavy battles, he was captured and kept for 
 a time in Libby prison. After the war he returned 
 to New Haven, where he resumed his trade as a 
 rubber cutter, and there" he died at the age of forty- 
 seven. Elkn B. French, his wife, was born in Sey- 
 mour, Conn., and was a daughter of William French 
 and granddaughter of Walter French, the inventor 
 of augers, who manuf ctured them at a very early 
 day in Seymour. 
 
 Clarence G. Ames has spent his entire life in 
 New Haven. His education was secured in the pub- 
 lic schools, and at the age of fifteen he entered the 
 Rubber Company's factory, mastering all its 
 branches by degrees, until every process is thor- 
 oughly familiar to him. For a time he was time- 
 keeper; then foreman of the shoe department; next 
 assistant superintendent; and in 1896 he was made 
 superintendent of the entire plant, with 1,600 people 
 under his direction. The output of the plant is 
 25,000 pairs of boots and shoes daily. When Mr. 
 Ames connected himself with the factory it was 
 thought a big day's work to put out 2,000 pairs. 
 The entire force at the factory then consisted of 
 about 400 hands. There are but ten men now on the 
 rolls of the company who were there in 1868, when 
 Mr. Ames entered upon his connection with the 
 company. 
 
 Air. Ames was married in 1884 to Sarah Ellen 
 Davis, who was born in Jamestown, Tenn., a daugh- 
 ter of Edward Davis, of New York. Three children 
 have been born to them, Clara Ellen, Walter Aloore 
 
 and William' Benton. Mr. Ames is a Republican, 
 and was elected a fire commissioner in 1897, and 
 when the law was changed he was appointed by the 
 mayor. He is a prominent member of the Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows, belonging also to the 
 Encampment; and he is connected with the Young 
 Men's Republican Club. In his religious connection 
 he is a member and treasurer of the Grand Avenue 
 Baptist Qiurch. 
 
 FREDERICK HENRY BROCKETT. The 
 Brockett family in England dates back to the time 
 of the Norman conquest, and the head of the house 
 in the time of Henry III was knighted by that mon- 
 arch. But a more honorable record still is that of 
 John Brockett, supposed to be the eldest son of Sir 
 John, of Hertfordshire, England, who, having dis- 
 agreed with his father on religious matters, when 
 about twenty-eight years of age, in the time of 
 Charles I, relinquished the bright prospects which 
 were his, and cast his lot with the Puritans, in 1638 
 coming with Rev. John Davenport to New England. 
 He settled in New Haven, and his cognomen in the 
 records was John, the planter. He had a good edu- 
 cation, and was by profession a surveyor, laying 
 out the original nine squares of New Haven ; he 
 was often employed in his profession both by the 
 court and by the people. His house lot was near 
 the corner of Chapel and York streets. In 1667 
 he removed to Wallingford, where he became one 
 of -its most prominent settlers, filling many impor- 
 tant offices in the village, his death occuriing there 
 March 12, 1689. John Brockett's children were : 
 John, Befruitful and Benjamin (twins), Mary, Si- 
 lence, Abigail, Samuel and Jabez. Of these, 
 
 John Brockett was the first resident physician 
 of New Haven. Educated at Oxford, England, he 
 had the advantages of the best European schools, 
 and was a remarkable man. Dr. John Brockett 
 had children: John, Mary, Marj^ (2), John (2), 
 Elizabeth, Hannah, Moses, Abigail, John (3), Sam- 
 uel and Benjamin. 
 
 Moses Brockett, born April 23, 1679, died in 
 1764. He married Jan. 8, 1706, Ann Grannis, and 
 had children : Ann, Silence, Lydia, Moses, Eliza- 
 beth, Mary, Abigail, John, Abel, Richard, Stephen, 
 Sarah and Keziah. 
 
 John Brockett, son of Moses, born Dec. 31, 1722, 
 married Thankful Frost, Dec. 14, 1745, and their 
 children were : Thankful, Miary, Isaiah, John and 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 Isaiah Brockett, son of John, was a Revolution- 
 ary soldier, and was with Washington in the battle 
 of Long Island and the retreat to New York, where 
 he was taken sick. A neighbor from North Haven 
 went down and brought him home on horseback, 
 this good friend being obliged to walk all the way 
 home, leading the horse. Mr. Brockett did not re- 
 turn to the army, but furnished a substitute. Eli I. 
 Brockett, of Holyoke, Mass., one of his great-grand- 
 children, remembers hearing him tell of this. On 
 Aug. 23, 1775, Isaiah Brockett married Sarah 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 651 
 
 Cooper, and they had three children : EH, born Sept. 
 15. 1776; Thomas, born April 12, 1778; Bethuel, 
 June 22, 1780. He died Feb. 13, 1840, aged eighty- 
 six years. 
 
 Eli Brockett, great-grandfather of the subject 
 of this sketch, married Lucy Atwater, April 15, 
 1801, and to them were born: Bethuel, Oct. 11, 
 1802; William, June 22, 1805; Lucy Adeline, May 
 23, 1810; and George, June 14, 1816. The father 
 of these died Oct. 26, 1823, aged forty-seven. _ 
 
 William Brockett was an extensive farmer, living 
 ing in North Haven, near Montowese. On May 27, 
 1829, he married Louisa Eaton, a descendant of 
 Gov. Eaton, of the New Haven Colony. She died 
 Sept. 29, 1884, he on Oct. 10, 1891. Their family 
 consisted of four children: Eli Irwin, the father 
 of Frederick H. ; Robert, who married Amanda Con- 
 ner, of Ada, Ohio, and was a mine operator in Colo- 
 rado for some years, now in Chicago ; William, who 
 married Carrie Clark, was a farmer, and is now 
 engaged in the lumber business in Fair Haven ; 
 and Ida, now deceased, who married Edgar Good- 
 year, and later George W. Smith. 
 
 Eli Irwin Brockett was born April 6, 1834, in 
 the North Hill District of North Haven, and re- 
 ceived a district-school education. He learned the 
 trade of carpenter, art which he worked until his 
 enlistment in Company K, 15th Conn. V. I., for 
 service in the Civil war. Entering the regiment as 
 a private, he was promoted to sergeant, and con- 
 tinued to serve through the entire struggle, being 
 mustered out in 1865. Returning to North Haven, 
 he again began work at his trade, at which he re- 
 mained some time, afterward taking up the agency 
 for New England for the Wrought Iron Bridge 
 Co., of Canton, Ohio. In 1883 he removed to Hol- 
 yoke, Mass., where he now resides. On Nov. 25, 
 1856, Mr. Brockett married Mary Todd, of North 
 Haven, who was born Nov. 25, 1836, a daug'hter 
 of Orrin and Aurelia (Clinton) Todd. Her death 
 took place Nov. 28, 1886, and on July 10, 1890, 
 Mr. Brockett married Eliza Whitaker. 
 
 Frederick Henry Brockett, the only child of his 
 parents, was born April 6, 1858, in North Haven. 
 He enjoyed a district-school training, was given in- 
 struction at a private school kept by Mrs. Dr. Lord 
 and daughter, and attended Cargill's Business Col- 
 lege, New Haven. With his father he worked at the 
 carpenter's trade and at bridge-building, and assisted 
 in placing bridges in all parts of New England. 
 He also worked in Carr & Hobson's agricultural im- 
 plement shops, in Clintonville, removing with them, 
 in 1882, to Bergen Point, N. J., remaining there one 
 year. Returning to North Haven, Mr. Brockett, 
 in 1887, engaged with G. H. Todd and H. L. Thorpe 
 in the manufacture of bricks. The firm was known 
 as Brockett & Todd, and continued in business five 
 years. Then Mr. Brockett bought out his partners, 
 and for several years was engaged in the businesis 
 for himself. In 1896 he leased the Quinnipiac Brick 
 Co.'s plant, and has continued to operate it since. 
 
 making annually 4,000,000 brick, of a superior 
 quality. 
 
 On June i, 1882, Mr. Brockett was married to 
 Charlotte T. Bishop, born March 11, 1859, a daugh- 
 ter of Erus B. and Charlotte (Thorpe) Bishop. To 
 this union have come : Myron, born July 27, 1883, 
 a student of the Boardman Manual Training School, 
 class of 1902, in New Haven; Joseph, born in 1885, 
 who died in 1886; Horace, born April 25, 1887; and 
 Nelson, born Nov. 28, 1895. In politics Mr. Brock- 
 ett is a Prohibitionist, being conscientiously opposed 
 to the liquor traffic; he is no office-seeker. Both 
 he and his wife are valued members of the Congre- 
 gational Church, in Ayhich he has been a deacon 
 since 1896. Socially he is connected with North 
 Haven Lodge, No. 61, Ancient Order of United 
 Workmen, and has been its receiver each year since 
 it was organized ; he is also a member of the North 
 Haven Grange. Mr. Brockett has lived a busy life 
 and reaps the just reward, being one of the most 
 substantial citizens of North Haven, where he en- 
 joys the esteemi of all. 
 
 DANIEL H. BACON, one of the representative 
 citizens of Derby, is a native of Connecticut, born in 
 Woodbury, Litchfield county, June I, 1855, and be- 
 longs to quite a prominent and distinguished fam- 
 ily. His great-grandfather, Jabez Bacon, was a 
 very shrewd, enterprising and successful fnan, being 
 well known throughout lower New England, and 
 eastern New York. He became very wealthy, for 
 that day and generation, before be died, having ac- 
 cumulated immense holdings in real estate as well 
 as ready money. 
 
 Daniel Bacon, grandfather of our subject, spent 
 his entire life as a farmer in Woodbury, Conn. He 
 married Rebecca Thompson, a native of the same 
 place, and to them were born eight children : Lydia, 
 who married Charles C. Thompson ; Rebecca and 
 Fannie, who both died unmarried ; Maria, who mar- 
 ried Gen. Chauncey Crafts ; Julia, who married John 
 Marvin; John, a cripple, who married Augusta 
 Walker, and spent his life in Woodbury ; William 
 T., father of our subject; and Daniel, who married 
 Jane Green, of Woodbury, and lived in New Haven. 
 
 William' T. Bacon was also born in Woodbury, 
 and was educated at Yale, being a member of the 
 celebrated class of 1837, his room-mate part of the 
 time while be was at college being the late William 
 M. Evarts, of New York. After graduating from 
 the academic department he attended the divinity 
 school, from where he graduated in 1840. While 
 in New Haven he married Miss Elizabeth Ann 
 Knight, daughter of Dr. Jonathan Knight, professor 
 of surgery at Yale College, and one of the most 
 celebrated surgeons of his day. Both had relatives 
 who aided the Colonies in their struggle for inde- 
 pendence as soldiers of the Revolutionary war. 
 After his marriage William T. Bacon accepted the 
 pastorate of the Congregational Church in Trum- 
 bull, Conn., but was soon forced to give it up on 
 
-652 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 account of ill health. He then moved to Woodbury, 
 Conn., where he remained until 1866, when he came 
 to Derb\', where he died in 1880, his wife in 1887. 
 There were nine children born to this couple : Jon- 
 athan K. was a physician of New Milford, where 
 he died in 1898; William T. was a veteran of the 
 Civil war, and afterward engaged in the printing 
 and publishing business in Derby, Conn., being edi- 
 tor of the Derby Transcript at the time of his death, 
 which occurred in Derby June i, 1884; Frederick A. 
 is a mechanic, now living at Pittsburg, Pa. ; Walter 
 C is in the insurance business in Kansas City, and 
 is one of the most prominent men of that place ; 
 Daniel H. is our subject; James F. died young; 
 Rebecca T. is unmarried ; Annie F. is the widow of 
 the late Hanford L. Shaw, of Middletown, N. Y. ; 
 and Bessie died in infancy. 
 
 Daniel H. Bacon passed the first eleven years of 
 his life in Woodbury, and then accompanied his 
 parents on their removal to Derby, where he attended 
 the common schools, but he completed his education 
 at Great Barrington, Mass. In 1869 he commenced 
 work in his father's printing establishment in Derby, 
 and continued with him until he finally assumed 
 charge and ownership of the business, which in- 
 cluded the publishing and editing of the Derby 
 Transcript. In 1889 he started the Daily Transcript, 
 but the strain proving too much, he sold the paper 
 the following year and has since successfully en- 
 gaged in the general printing and publishing busi- 
 ness in Shelton's Block, Derby. 
 
 On Oct. 15, 1879, Mr. Bacon was united in mar- 
 riage with M'iss Mary K. Stillman, a daughter of 
 Dr. Rosswell Stillman, of North Haven, and to 
 them have been born three children, namely : Ross- 
 well, who is now with the Armour Packing Co., 
 at Kansas City, Mo. ; William T., who is being pre- 
 pared for Yale College at Phillips Academy, Ando- 
 ver, Mass. ; and Marjorie, aged nine years. Mr. 
 Bacon is a member of the Derby-Shelton Board of 
 Trade, and fraternally is affiliated with King Hiram 
 Lodge, F & A. M. Politically he is a Republican, 
 ever ready to give his support to any enterprise for 
 the public good. In his religious connection he be- 
 longs to the Second Congregational Church. 
 
 GEORGE HORACE WILCOX, vice-president 
 of the International Silver Co., of Meriden, is a 
 native of that city, born Aug. 22, 1856. His father, 
 Horace C. Wilcox, was founder of the Meriden 
 Britannia Co., as elsewhere related. The son re- 
 ceived his primary education in Washington, Conn., 
 and after courses in a private preparatory school at 
 Ithaca, N. Y., and the Hopkins Grammar School 
 at New Plaven, he entered Yale Scientific School, 
 from which he was graduated in 1875. He at once 
 entered the office of the Meriden Britannia Co., as 
 errand boy, anrl gradually won promotion until he 
 assumed its presidency in 1893. Five years later, 
 by consolidation of this and other silver-producing 
 concerns, the International Silver Co. was formed. 
 
 and Mr. Wilcox became its vice-president, a position 
 which he fills with characteristic ability. Partaking 
 of the keen business ability naturally to be expected 
 from his father's son, he occupies a responsible and 
 pleasant position among his contemporaries and 
 lousiness associates. 
 
 In manner Mr. Wilcox is genial and affable, 
 and the humblest among his employes is sure of 
 considerate and kind treatment from him. He has 
 long been identified with the First Congregational 
 Church of Meriden, and is a Mason of Knight 
 Templar degree, affiliating with Meridian Lodge, 
 No. yy; Keystone Chapter, No. 27; and St. Elmo 
 Commandery, No. 9, all of Meriden. In political 
 principle he is a Republican with independent ten- 
 dencies, and has never accepted any political prefer- 
 ment. 
 
 In 1884 Mr. Wilcox was married to Miss Net- 
 tie B. Curtis, of New Britain, Conn., daughter of 
 Lucius W. and Olive (Hotchkiss) Curtis, the for- 
 mer a native of Bristol, Conn., and the latter of 
 Meriden. The family of Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox in- 
 cludes three sons, namely: Harold C, Roy C. and 
 Horace Wilcox. 
 
 WILLIAiM TAYLOR, the senior partner in the 
 firm of Taylor & Taylor, plumbers, steam and gas 
 fitters, and one of jNIeriden's busy and successful 
 men, was born in Sheffield, England, Jan. 21, 1851. 
 
 Thomas Taylor, his father, was a native of the 
 same place, where he grew to manhood, and worked 
 in the cutlery business, for which that city is famous. 
 He was married in England, to Mary A. Wright, 
 but in 1852 Mr. Taylor came alone to America, 
 making the trip on a sailing vessel, from Liverpool 
 to New York. His destination was Naugatuck, 
 Conn., where he had learned there were works en- 
 gaged in his line, and there very soon he secured 
 employment as a knife maker at the factory of the 
 Union Knife Co., and there he spent the greater 
 part of his succeeding life. When he gave up fac- 
 tory work he bought a small farm in the town of 
 Prospect, and there he died, an upright, industrious 
 and honest man. His affiliation in politics was with 
 the Republican party, and through life he had been 
 a consistent member of the ^lethodist Church. Six 
 months after Mr. Taylor came to America, and had 
 established himself permanently, his wife, with their 
 three children, embarked at Liverpool, and after a 
 long and stormy passage, during which Airs. Tay- 
 lor gave birth to a child and died, and was buried 
 at sea with her infant, the three bereaved children 
 reached their father, at Naugatuck. These children 
 were.: Sarah, who married Charles E. Longden ; 
 John W., now a traveling salesman for a Boston 
 firm ; and William, of this sketch. The father later 
 married Mary Ann Hall, a native of Birmingham, 
 Conn., to which union one child was born, Freder- 
 ick H., who resides in the West. 
 
 William Taylor was only two years old when he 
 left his native land, with his mother, brother and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 653 
 
 sister, to join his father. His schoohng was re- 
 ceived in the commDn schools of Naugatuck, and, 
 being apt, he entered high school, although by the 
 time he was twelve years old he start'ed out to care 
 for himself. His first employment was with the 
 Union Kn'ife Co., with his father, and there he re- 
 mained until he had attained his majority. In 1870 
 he left home and went to Wallingford, where he 
 engaged with the Miller Bros., in the cutlery busi- 
 ness, and remained in their employ seventeen years, 
 during which time he was forem'an in the finishing 
 department, enjoying the confidence of his employ- 
 ers and the respect of those under his direction. 
 In 1887 Mr. Taylor formed a partnership with 
 James T. Kay, under the firm title of Kay & Taylor, 
 gas fitters and plumbers, which continued for two 
 years, and then a new combination was formed, 
 with O'Connell & Aleiklen; two years later he 
 bought out these partners, and in 1892 the present 
 strong firm was formed, the associating partner be- 
 ing Charles Taylor, and the firm title, Taylor & 
 Taylor, has for nine years stood as a synonym for 
 excellent work and' honest dealing. 
 
 Mr. William Taylor is one of the leading business 
 men of Meriden, and is fraternally connected with 
 the Masonic order, dating back twenty-five years, 
 the Royal Arcanum, and the New England Order 
 of Protection. In politics Mr. Taylor has always 
 been an active Republican. He has represented 
 the Third ward in the city council, and has been 
 alderman for two terms, serving from that ward at 
 the present date. In January, 1901, he was elected 
 president pro tem. of the council, which office he 
 fills with dignity and credit. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. Taylor was married in Meriden to 
 Inez J. Gladwin, a daughter of Timothy O. and 
 Lois (Case) Gladiwin, a lady of beautiful character 
 and one of education and culture. The children of 
 this marriage number four : Ernest, a graduate of 
 'the M'eriden high school, in business with his fa- 
 ther; Arthur W., a graduate of the Meriden high 
 school, is engaged with the Aeolian Co., of Meri- 
 den; Lewis I. and Louisa L. are students. The 
 family connection is with the Congregational 
 Church, where Mr. Taylor is generous in its sup- 
 port, and where Mrs. Taylor is a valued teacher in 
 the Sunday-school. Her acquaintance in Meriden 
 is large, as for several years she was a favorite 
 teacher in the public schools. The esteem in which 
 Mr. Taylor is held in Meriden is very genuine, and 
 he is one of the substantial citizens of the city. 
 
 EDWARD S. PRITCHARD, an energetic and 
 successful business man of Waterbury, belongs to 
 one of the oldest and most highly respected fam- 
 ilies of the Naugatuck Valley. The first to locate 
 in Waterbury was Roger Pritchard, who was born 
 in Milford, Conn., a son of Benjamin Pritchard, and 
 grandson of Roger Pritchard, who was the progeni- 
 tor of the family in America and a resident of Mil- 
 ford. The grandson of this worthy pioneer removed 
 with his family to Waterbury at an early day, and 
 
 here spent the remainder of his life, dying Miay 
 18, 1760. He was married in his native town March 
 8, 1715, to Hannah Northrop, daughter of William 
 Northrop. By that union were born five children, 
 whose names and dates of birth were as follows : 
 Roger, Dec. 25, 1716; Hannah, Oct. 2, 1718; Mary, 
 March 4, 1722; Ann, Feb. 14, 1724; and Ephraim, 
 1726. The mother of these children died Nov. 28, 
 1726, and by his second wife, Sarah, Roger Pritch- 
 ard had six children: Phebe, born April 16, 1731 ; 
 Abigail, IVIarch 15, 1733; Sibeha, Jan. 9, 1736;. 
 Abraham, Oct. 12, 1737; Amos, Aug. 27, 1739; and 
 Elihu, Oct. 27, 1741. The two youngest were born 
 in Waterbury, the others in Milford. 
 
 Amos Pritchard, son of Roger, engaged in farm- 
 ing all his life on what is now known as Bucks 
 Hill. He was married May 26, 1768, by Rev. i\lark 
 Leavenworth, to Lydia Blakeslee, by whom he had 
 two children: Lydia (wife of Eleazer Hall), born 
 April 12, 1769; and Amos, born Oct. 22, 1770. The 
 wife and mother died Sept. 21, 1771, and on Aug. 
 20, 1777, Amos Pritchard wedded i\Irs. Mary 
 Adams, widow of Samuel Adams. By that union 
 there were seven children: Roger, born May 17, 
 1778, died Aug. 13, 1779; Sabra, born Jan. 6, 1780, 
 married Isaac Allen; Roger, born March 7, 1782;., 
 Ora, born Oct. 26, 1783, married Dyer Hotchkiss ; 
 Elias, born Jan. 28, 1786, was the grandfather of 
 our subject; Aaron, born Dec. i, 1788, died March 
 31, 1795; and Ruth, born Oct. 7, 1791, died un- 
 married. 
 
 El'ias Pritchard, our subject's grandfather, spent 
 his entire Hfe on Bucks Hill, and was buried in the 
 cemetery there. He was a stone mason by occupa- 
 tion, and a Jefifersonian Democrat in politics. He 
 married Hannah, daughter of David and Submit 
 (Hotchkiss) Payne, and granddaughter of Capt. 
 Gideon Hotchkiss. In their family were the follow- 
 'ing children: Luman, born Feb. 16, 1805; Aaron, 
 born Jan. 5, 1807, died March 27, 1807; Minerva,, 
 born Oct. 2, 1808; Emeline, born Dec. 29, 1810, 
 married first William Tulford, and second Bennett 
 Scott; Rebecca, born July 2, 1814, married Norman 
 Alhng; Clarissa, born July 27, 1816, married AI. 
 W. Welton ; Roxanna and one who died in infancy 
 were twins, born Jan. 15, 1818; George Nelson, 
 father of our subject, was next in order of birth; 
 David Miles, born March 2, 1825; and Wilham 
 Harry, born June 21, 1826. 
 
 George Nelson Pritchard was born Aug. 17, 
 1819, and was educated in the district schools of 
 Waterbury. He learned the carpenter's and joiner's 
 trade with Bennett & Chatfield, and has always 
 followed that occupation, being a contractor and 
 builder for several years. He spent some time at 
 work in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but for the past 
 forty years has lived on the Wolcott road in the 
 town of Waterbury. He is still quite active, and is 
 employed in the wood working department of our 
 subject's shop near Mill Plain. He is a Jacksonian 
 Democrat in politics, and is liberal in his religious 
 views, though he attends the jNIethodist Episcopal 
 
654 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Church. On Nov. 4, 1843, ^^ Waterbury, he was 
 united in marriage with Miss Laura A. Peck, a 
 native of Bethany, Conn., and a daughter of Titus 
 Peck. They have now traveled life's journey to- 
 gether for fifty-eight years, sharing its joys and sor- 
 rows, its adversity and prosperity. To them were 
 born nine children, namely : Elias, who died in 
 Ohio; Hannah, deceased wife of William Sanford; 
 Eliza M., who first married Thomas Linsley (de- 
 ceased), second the late Charles Leonard, and third 
 Robert J. Walker; Edward S., our subject; Mary, 
 deceased ; Anna, who died at the age of ten years ; 
 Harry, a caster of Newark, N. J., married Carrie 
 Andrews, of Waterbury; Elias, a carpenter and 
 joiner, formerly of Waterbury, married first Sarah 
 Barnes, and second Mrs. Annie Hoar, of Fall 
 River ; and Mercy, who died young. 
 
 Edward S. Pritchard, whose name introduces 
 this sketch, was born Feb. 7, 1851, in Waterville, 
 Conn., and attended the district schools of Mill 
 Plain, Waterbury. In early life he worked with his 
 father at the carpenter's trade, and also followed 
 farming to some extent. After attaining his ma- 
 jority he entered the employ of Brown Bros., of 
 Waterbury, and worked under E. L. Frisbee as a 
 caster in the brass shop for eighteen years. For 
 the past twelve years he has been connected with 
 the firm of Booth & Hayden as a contractor 
 caster, and is one of the oldest in that line of busi- 
 ness in the Naugatuck Valley. Since 1892 he has 
 had a blacksmith and general repair shop at his 
 home near Mill Plain, where be works during spare 
 moments. For several years he has been interested 
 in the ice business, and at present is also engaged in 
 the meat business. He is very industrious, enter- 
 prising and progressive, and to his own unaided 
 efforts may be attributed his success, for be started 
 out in life for himself with no capital or influential 
 friends to assist him. He owns a well-improved 
 place at Mill Plain, upon which he has erected a 
 comfortable residence, a good barn and other build- 
 ings. By his ballot he supports the men and meas- 
 ures of the Republican party, but has never sought 
 official honors. For five years he was a member of 
 the State Militia, but has never taken a very active 
 part in public affairs, preferring to devote his entire 
 attention to his business interests. 
 
 J\'Ir. Pritchard was married in Waterbury, Dec. 
 25, 1871, to Miiss Jennie S. Wamer, a native of 
 Hamden and a step-daughter of Hobart Warner. 
 
 JAMES B. SCRANTON. Among the well- 
 known business citizens of New Haven is James B. 
 Scranton, the efficient superintendent of the Biglow 
 Manufacturing Co., of this city. ITe was born in 
 Augusta Center, Oneida Co., X. Y., Jan. 5, 1847, ^ 
 son of Harry and Eliza (Ives) Scranton, the for- 
 mer of whom was a son of Samuel Scranton, who 
 was born in Guilford, Conn., where he engaged in 
 farming. There he married and reared a family of 
 four children, these being : Samuel, Harry, Amanda 
 
 and Julia. Samuel was a farmer in Guilford on 
 the old homestead; Amanda married a Mr. Frisbie, 
 a sea-faring man ; and Julia married a Mr. Benton, 
 all of Guilford. 
 
 Harry Scranton, the father of our subject, was 
 born in Guilford, Conn., in 1801, and died in Sep- 
 tember, 1855. His early years were spent on a farm 
 in Guilford, and while still a young man he went 
 to Florida, later moving to Oneida county, N. Y., 
 where he bought land and built a home. He mar- 
 ried Eliza Ives, who died Dec. 25, 1855. The fam- 
 ily born to Harry Scranton and wife numbered nine 
 children, two of whom died in infancy, the others 
 being: Samuel, who was a carpenter and lived in 
 Augusta Center, N. Y. ; William C. for many years 
 has been a clothier in Utica, N. Y. ; Henry A. for 
 a time was a carpenter in Augusta Center, but later 
 removed to Oil City, Pa. ; Julia, deceased, married 
 Charles Eastman and lived in Iowa; George I. lives 
 in West Haven, Conn. ; James B. ; and Albert M., 
 who was a ship carpenter on a whaler, later settled 
 in Riceville, Pa., and for a time was postmaster of 
 that place. In politics Harry Scranton was a Demo- 
 crat, believing in the principles of that party, and 
 he served as town clerk for many years. He was 
 one of the leading members of the Methodist Church 
 in his locality. 
 
 The boyhood days of James B. Scranton were 
 spent in Augusta Center, and there he attended the 
 district schools until he was ten years of age, at 
 that time entering the Onondaga Academy, where 
 he studied for four years. The next two years he 
 occupied in work on the grounds under the direc- 
 tion of the school principal, at the end of this period 
 being apprenticed to the machinist's trade, entering 
 the shops of the N. Y. C. R. R. 
 
 In 1868 Mr. Scranton made the trip to Califor- 
 nia by way of the Isthmus, and reimained in that 
 section for two years engaged in work for the Cen- 
 tral Pacific Railway Co., in the spring of 1870 locat- 
 ing in Syracuse, N. Y., as foreman in one of the 
 shops of the N. Y. C. R. R., where he remained 
 so connected until 1874. For four years Mr. Scran- 
 ton filled the responsible position of engineer on the 
 route between Syracuse and Watertown, and then 
 became general foreman in the shops in East Buf- 
 falo, remaining until 1883, when he was made super- 
 intendent of the D. Frisbie & Co. Alanufactory, 
 New Heaven. Since 1892 he has filled a sim- 
 ilar position with the Biglow Company. Perhaps, 
 no man in his position has had more thorough 
 training than Mr. Scranton. Beginning the work 
 with a natural liking for it, he has made it a life 
 study, and understands it both scientifically and 
 practically, and he is considered one of the most 
 reliable and careful men in his department in this 
 city. 
 
 On Nov. 21, 1872, Mr. Scranton was married 
 to Miss Jane Plandwrig'ht, who was born in Marcy, 
 N. Y., a daughter of Jam«s and Elizabeth Hand- 
 wright, of the same locality, but of Irish extrac- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 655 
 
 tion. Four children have been born to this union : 
 Edith M., James B., Jr., William J. and Mary T. 
 Mr. Scranton has long been an active and influential 
 member of the Republican party, and he is socially 
 connected with the A. O. U. W. and Legion of 
 Honor. The religious home of the family is with 
 St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, to which he is 
 a liberal and cheerful contributor. Mr. Scranton is 
 not only highly esteemed by the company he so ably 
 and faithfully serves, but is regarded as an excellent 
 citizen and most desirable neighbor. 
 
 EDWARD A. HOTCHKISS, a well-known 
 contractor and builder of Naug-atuck, is one of the 
 most energetic and enterprising business men of 
 that place. The thoroughness and persistency with 
 which he applied himself while learning his trade 
 have characterized his entire' business career and 
 have been supplemented by careful attention to de- 
 tails and by honorable, straightforward effort that 
 has gained him a most excellent and enviable repu- 
 tation. 
 
 The Hotchkiss family have long resided in this 
 county. Dyer Hotchkiss, grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, was born in the town of Waterbury, and 
 throughout life followed farming and carpentering. 
 He married Orra Camp, and located upon a farm in 
 Naugatuck, where he spent his remaining days. His 
 remains were interred in that town. In his family 
 were five children: Charles (deceased) was a con- 
 tractor and builder of Torrington, Conn. ; Henry 
 (deceased) was a farmer of Cheshire; Mary (de- 
 ceased) was the widow of Zenas Potter, a black- 
 smith by trade, and made her home in Waterbury; 
 Amos H. was the father of our subject; and Sarah 
 married Harmon Payne, a farmer and cattle dealer 
 of Bristol, Connecticut. 
 
 Amos H. Hotchkiss, father of our subject, was 
 a native of Naugatuck, and died there in 1893. In 
 early life he also engaged in contracting and build- 
 ing, but later followed the occupation of farming. 
 In politics he was a Republican. He married Miss 
 Sally M. Scott, a native of Middlebury, New Haven 
 Co., Conn., and a daughter of Joseph Scott. She 
 died in 1898. To this worthy couple were born nine 
 children, as foUows : Mary, deceased wife of David 
 Morse; Jane, wife of James Megin, of Bethany, 
 Conn. ; Dyer, a carpenter of Naugatuck ; Alice, wife 
 of C. F. Wedge, of Naugatuck ; Ann, wife of Henry 
 Dudley, of Ansonia, Conn. ; Sarah, deceased wife 
 of Stephen Johns ; Marcia, a resident of Naugatuck ; 
 Esther, wife of Edmund F. Hoyt, of Middlebury; 
 and Edward A., our subject. 
 
 Edward A. Hotchkiss was born in Naugatuck 
 June II, 1854. He attended the common schools of 
 Naugatuck until eighteen years- of age, and then 
 assisted his father in the operation of the home farm 
 until twenty-five. The following five years he de- 
 voted to thoroughly learning the carpenter's trade 
 with Hial Stevens, a contractor of Naugatuck, and 
 for one year he worked at various places. In 1884 
 
 he began contracting and building on his own ac- 
 count., and is still successfully engaged in that busi- 
 ness. He also owns and operates a sawmill and 
 farm in Beacon Valley, where he makes his home, 
 and is accounted one of the leading business men 
 of the community. 
 
 On Nov. 19, 1879, Mr. Hotchkiss married Miss 
 Jennie Schofield, a daughter of Joseph Schofield, 
 and they have had a family of five children : Wal- 
 ter A., George B., Ida M., Tracy J. and Sarah R. 
 (deceased). Mr. Hotchkiss is 'identified with no 
 particular political party, voting for the man whom 
 he believes best qualified to fill the office, regardless 
 of party lines. Socially be is a member of the Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Golden Cross 
 and the Grange. 
 
 SANFORD HAWKINS, a leading business 
 man of Milford, was born Feb. 19, 1854, in Say- 
 ville. Long Island, son of Jonas N. and Keturah 
 (Newton) Hawkins. 
 
 Jonas N. Hawkins was a native of Middle Island, 
 born July 25, 1817, and in early manhood went to 
 Smithtown, Long Island, where he learned the 
 blacksmith's trade. For some years he followed his 
 trade in Sayville, and in 1867 he removed to Mil- 
 ford, engagmg first in the oyster business, which 
 he carried on two years. In about 1870 he became 
 interested in the grocery business, and in 1873 the 
 store was removed to Broad street, on the north 
 side of the "Green," where it is still located, our 
 subject now conducting it. Mr. Hawkins died in 
 Milford July 26, 1892. His first wife, who died 
 May 27, 1861, was a native of Smithtown, and a 
 daughter of Benjamin Newton, a well-known resi- 
 dent of that place. Of the eight children of Jonas 
 N. and Keturah Hawkins the following is the rec- 
 ord : Michael S. is a druggist in Salem, Ohio ; 
 Theodore is deceased ; Edgar W. is engaged in the 
 real-estate business in San Francisco, Cal. ; Jones N. 
 died in boyhood ; Albert E. is deceased ; Miss Emma 
 K. resides in Sayville, L. I. ; Sanford and Annie E. 
 are in Milford. The father married again in 1865, 
 and his widow resides in Milford. 
 
 Sanford Hawkins attended the schools of Say- 
 ville until he reached the age of fourteen, and on 
 Jan. 2, 1868, went to Milford, where he continued 
 his studies in a private school. On leaving school 
 he became a clerk in his father's store, and after 
 the death of the latter he succeeded him in busi- 
 ness. He carries a large and well-selected stock of 
 groceries, crockery, hardware, cutlery, paints, oils, 
 window glass, woodenware, cordage, and similar 
 commodities, and is the agent in Milford for the 
 Belcher & Taylor Agricultural Tool Co., Masury's 
 railroad colors, and Crockett's wood preservatives. 
 He has always identified himself with matters of 
 public interest in the town, and was an active mem- 
 ber of the Board of Trade during its existence. 
 He is now president of the Business Men's Associa- 
 tion, in which his enterprise and foresight have 
 
6s6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 found a wide field for useful effort. Politically 
 ]\Ir. Hawkins is a Republican. He has been town 
 auditor, and is now town treasurer. He is one of 
 the most active members of Wopowage Lodge, Xo. 
 14, I. O. O. F., of Afilford, of which he has been 
 treasurer for fourteen years. He and his family be- 
 long to the Congregational Church of Milford, for 
 many years he has served on the Society's commit- 
 tee and the Church committee, and for lifteen years 
 he has been secretary and treasurer of the Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 In 1883 J\Ir. Hawkins married Miss Laura E. 
 Cole, of Alansfield, Alass., who died in 1885, leaving 
 one son, Harold S. For his second wife Mr. Hawkins 
 married Aiiss Julia Smith, of Milford, and by her 
 he has two children, Eleanor D. and Newton Smith, 
 the latter born Dec. 24, 1899. 
 
 EDWARD M. WOODWARD, now living in 
 the old Woodward home in New Haven, was for 
 over thirty years engaged in the coal business in 
 that city, and was ranked among its successful and 
 substantial residents. 
 
 ]\Ir. Woodward was born Aug. 20, 1842, in East 
 Haven, now New Haven, and belongs to a family 
 which has long' been established this side of the 
 Atlantic. His emigrant ancestor. Rev. John Wood- 
 ward, was graduated from Cambridge College in 
 1693, and was ordained pastor of the church at Nor- 
 wich, Conn., Dec. 6, 1699. He was admitted an in- 
 habitant of New Haven Dec. 24, 1716. From him 
 our subject is descended through John, John (2), 
 John (3), John (4) and Lyman. 
 
 John Woodward (4), like all his immediate fore- 
 fathers, followed the occupation of a farmer. He 
 lived on the site of St. Andrew's M. E. Church, 
 of New Haven, in what was then East Haven, in 
 the locality known as Woodwardtown. His wife, 
 Mary (Davenport), was of the fourth generation 
 in descent from Rev. John Davenport, the noted 
 divine who early settled in New H&ven. They had 
 a family of seven children : Clarissa, Roswell, Eliza, 
 Emeline, John, and Leura and Lyman (twins). 
 
 Lyman Woodward, father of Edward M., was 
 born in 1810, in East Haven, and reached a good 
 old age, dying Nov. 19, 1885. He commenced life 
 on his own account at an early age, leaving home 
 when a mere lad of twelve years, and for a time 
 clerked in a store in Fair Haven conducted by 
 H. & S. R. Hotchkiss. Later he was employed as 
 clerk in a store in New Haven, and afterward, in 
 partnership with a cousin, James C. Woodward, em- 
 barked in the grocery business for himself, in Fair 
 Haven, continuing thus some twenty-five years. The 
 partnership was then dissolved, and Lyman Wood- 
 ward started anew, but alone, in the grocery busi- 
 ness in the same street (East Grand avenue), where 
 he continued for another twenty-five years, retiring 
 about a year previous to his death. Mr. Woodward 
 married .Miss Jeannette R. Maltby, of East ITaven, 
 a daughter of Degrasse Maltby, the latter born in 
 
 Northford, Conn. She passed away Sept. 20, li 
 Mr. and Mrs. Woodward had two children, Edward 
 M. and S. Isabelle. The parents were actively iden- 
 tified with the Grand Avenue Congregational 
 Church, in the founding of which Mr. Woodward 
 took a prominent part, and he served for many 
 years as treasurer of that congregation. He also 
 served as treasurer of the school district, and in offi- 
 cial position, as in private matters, proved himself a 
 capable man of business. In 1851, having purchased 
 the property, he built the house at No. 169 Grand 
 avenue, which his children now occupy, neither hav- 
 ing married. 
 
 Edward M. Woodward was born in Quinnipiac 
 avenue, where he lived for nine years, and his home 
 has since been in the old family residence dn Grand 
 avenue. He received his education in the city 
 schools, attending the Thomas G. Sloan school and 
 Gen. Russell's Military Academy. Leaving school 
 when about sixteen, he spent the next ten years with 
 his father in the grocery business, and in October, 
 1868, engaged in business independently as a coal 
 merchant, continuing in that line until June, 1900, 
 since when he has lived retired. Mr. Woodward 
 enjoyed a lucrative trade and the highes.t confidence 
 of his business associates throughout his career, and 
 ever maintained the standards of honor and integrity 
 upheld by his ancestors through many generations. 
 Like his father, he attendis the Grand Avenue 
 Church, in which he holds membership. He is a 
 Republican in political sentiment. 
 
 CAPT. MAGNUS iM ANSON has been a resi- 
 dent of New Haven since 1852, and throughout that 
 long period has been identified with the marine in- 
 terests of that city, though for the past several 
 years he has lived semi-retired. 
 
 The Captain is a native of the Shetland Isles, 
 born June 29, 1829, son of John and Mary (Mouat) 
 ^NJanson, both of whom were born in Scotland, the 
 former also a native of the Shetland Isles. They 
 had six children, three of whom survive, our sub- 
 ject being the youngest; Capt. Gilbert is a resident 
 of Boston ; Ann married Dan A. Tulleck, of Scot- 
 land, whom she survives, now living in New Ha- 
 ven with her sons. The father was engaged as fish- 
 erman, sawyer and weaver. He reached the ad- 
 vanced age of ninety-five vears, and the mother lived 
 to be ninety. Both were members of the Established 
 Church of Scotland. 
 
 Magnus Manson received his education in his 
 native land, where he remained up to the age of 
 twenty years. He then went to England, and hav- 
 ing decided to adopt a sea-faring life served his 
 time as apprentice on board ship. After two years, 
 he came to New Haven on board a brig with coal 
 from England for Benedict & Son, of New Haven 
 In the summer of 1852 he left the brig and worked 
 on a farm for six days. He then went before the 
 mast en a coasting vessel, later becoming mate and! 
 m 1857 he rose to the rank of master, taking com- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 6S7 
 
 mand of the schooner "Alary EHza," and after run- 
 ning her for about two years took another boat, 
 the "Isaac Merritt," of i6o tons, which he ran until 
 i860. Having had the "J. W. Hine" buih he started 
 in this schooner, remaining until 1866, when he took 
 the schooner "Henry Hobart," making the voyage 
 to Porto Rico with a general cargo, returning with 
 sugar and molasses for L. W. & P. Armstrong. 
 His next vessel was the "Henry Hobart, No. 2," 
 after which he built the "John T. Manson," 650 
 tons burden, which he took with a cargo to Balti- 
 more, thence to New York and thence to New Or- 
 leans. In 1872 she crossed to Antwerp, thence sail- 
 ing to Newcastle, England, and putting in at New 
 London on her return ; she was lost oiT Block Isl- 
 and in 1880. Capt. Manson built the "James 
 Boyce," in New Haven, 860 tons burden, launch- 
 ing her in March, 1S76, and ran this vessel four 
 years. His next boat, the "Helen H. Benedict,'' 
 1,160 tons, was built in Bath, Maine, and carried 
 coal along the coast for the Boston and Albanv Rail- 
 road, running from Baltimore and Norfolk and 
 Philadelphia to Boston, and also taking ice out 
 from Maine. The Captain was especially success- 
 lul with this boat. In 1889 he built the "Agnes E. 
 Manson," 1,370 tons, which, like the "Helen H. 
 Benedict," is a large first class merchant vessel. He 
 commanded her in the coast tradte until 1893, since 
 which year he has been practically retired, though 
 he still manages his marine interests, being part 
 owner of six vessels. Our subject was one of the 
 oldest captains along the coast, and he is now one 
 of the oldest residents of his adopted city, where 
 he is highly respected by both friends and associ- 
 ates. 
 
 On June 14, i860, Capt. ]\Ianson married Mar- 
 garet R. Mouatt, like himself, a native of the Shet- 
 land Isles, and six children have blessed this union : 
 The eldest daughter, Agnes E., married Fred 'Wat- 
 terson, of New Haven, and died at the age of thirty- 
 one, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Mary E. became the 
 wife of Edward Gruner, a tailor, of New Haven, 
 and they have three children, Margaret, Leopold 
 and Catherine. Margaret is the wife of Harry Hol- 
 comb, a prominent carriage maker in New Haven. 
 John T. is mentioned below. Daniel E. married 
 Effie Comie, 'daughter of Dr. Comie, a physician 
 of Worcester, Mass., and they have one child, 
 Marion. Henry, who lives at home, is in the em- 
 ploy of Byard, Minor & Read. The Captain built 
 his present magnificent home at No. 31 Dwight 
 street in 1894. He and his wife attend Grace M. 
 E. Church; fraternally he is a member of Wooster 
 Lodge, F. & A. M. ; politically he is a Republican 
 in sentiment, but he gives his support to the best 
 man. 
 
 John T. Manson, of the firm' of Benedict, 
 Downs & Co.,wholesale dealers in coal, with an office 
 at No. 82 Church street. New Haven, is one of the 
 prominent young business men of the city. Born 
 
 42 
 
 Aug. 30, 1861, in New Haven, son of Magnus and 
 Margaret (Mouatt) Manson, of New Haven, he re- 
 ceived his elementary education in the public schools 
 of his native town, and early in life entered the em- 
 ploy of the firm of H. W. Benedict & Son, as an 
 office boy. He was faithful to his duties, industri- 
 ous and energetic, and in time rewarded by pro- 
 motions and finally admitted to membership in the 
 firm which is now, as given in the foregoing, the 
 individual members other than himself, being Frank 
 W. Benedict and Willis Downs. These gentlemen 
 and those previously conducting the business are 
 among New Haven's substantial citizens and busi- 
 ness men. 
 
 John T. Manson is one of the active and pro- 
 gressive men of New Haven, and though young in 
 years is old in experience, as he has been active 
 in the duties of citizenship, andi has been variously 
 identified with the city's institutions. For a period 
 of five years he was president of the Y. M. C. A., 
 and! has been a State director of the Association ; 
 has served as president of the Young !\Ien's Repub- 
 lican Club, was president of the New Haven Or- 
 phans Asylum Donation Day committee, and has 
 been a member of the Board of Education. He has 
 also been one of the board of harbor commission- 
 ers. Fraternally he is a Freemason, a member of 
 the New Haven Country Club and of the Republi- 
 can League. 
 
 JAMES T. COUGHLAN, prominent as a meat 
 dealer, druggist and city official in Waterbury, was 
 born- in King's County, Ireland, May 17, 1856, the. 
 eldest child of Torrance F. and J\Iary (Condon) 
 Coughlan, who were the parents of four children, 
 the others, in order of birth, being named Patrick, 
 John and Torrance F. All are mentioned elsewhere. 
 The father of this family died when the subject of 
 this sketch was but eight years of age, immediately 
 after which event the mother brought her children 
 to America, and after a trifling delay elsewhere at 
 once settled in Waterbury, Connecticut. 
 
 James T. Coughlan had attended school for a 
 short period before leaving Ireland, and the educa- 
 tion there acquired was supplemented by instruc- 
 tion at the public schools of Waterbury, which he 
 attended until he was sixteen years of age. He 
 then went to work in a shop at a compensation of 
 eight dollars per month, and gave his earnings to 
 his mother until he went to Hartford. Mr. Cough- 
 lan now went to Hartford, where he passed about 
 ten years in Colt's Armory, learning the trade of 
 toolmaker and machinist, and thence went to New 
 York City, and for five years and seven months had 
 charge of the machine department of the Bishop 
 Gutta Percha Co. He then returned to Connecti- 
 cut, and for one year was in the machine shop at 
 Forestville. In October, 1870, he came to Water- 
 bury, and started in the retail butcher trade in Bald- 
 win street, in a rented store. A little later he erected 
 
658 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 bis present block, and was for some time in the 
 wholesale trade, having his cattle shipped from the 
 West and slaughtered on his own premises, but the 
 retail trade has been his chief reliance, and in this 
 he has been remarkably prosperous. 
 
 About twelve years ago Air. Coughlan opened 
 a drug store, adjoining his meat market in Baldwin 
 street. This store is kept constantly supplied with 
 fresh drugs and chemicals, proprietary medicines 
 and fancy articles, such as are usually kept in estab- 
 lishments of the kind, is nicely furnished, and the 
 whole is under the supervision of Air. Coughlan's 
 daughter. Miss Margaret E., with the aid of an as- 
 sistant. Our subject's fortune has been made by 
 close attention to business, push and affability, and 
 he is still at work. 
 
 James T. Coughlan married Miss Lucy E. 
 Laughlin, a daughter of James L. Laughlin, a farmer 
 of AA'atertown, Conn., and this union has been 
 blessed with six children, born in the following or- 
 der : Alary E., who is a school teacher in Water- 
 Inu-y ; Alargaret E., the young lady in charge of 
 ^Ir. Coughlan's drug store; Rose, Ann, Catherine 
 and (_;ertrude, all four attending school. 
 
 Ailr. Coughlan is in politics a Democrat, and has 
 served as second selectman one year, as alderman 
 four years, as councilman one year, as road and 
 sewer commissioner thirteen years, and in 1891 was 
 tax collector ; while an incumbent of the latter office 
 he was under bonds for $150,000. Fraternally he 
 is a Knight of Columbus, and a member of the 
 Foresters of America and the United Workmen. 
 He and family attend St. Francis Xavier Church, 
 and are greatly respected wherever known. 
 
 .'^ANFORD C. STONE, of the well-known firm 
 of Stone & Norton, poultry and produce dealers, 
 New Haven, is a descendant of an old and promi- 
 nent family of Connecticut and New England. At 
 a very early period in our country's history Will- 
 iam and John Stone (who were probably sons of 
 Rev. Samuel Stone, of Hertford, England) emi- 
 grated from England and settled in Guilford, Conn., 
 in 1639, and William became the progenitor of the 
 branch of the family in which we are most inter- 
 ested. The Guilford records show the line in Amer- 
 ica to be as follows: (II) William (2), son of 
 A\'iniani, was a tailor and ordinary, and died in 
 1683. (Ill) William, born in 1642, died Sept. 28, 
 1730. (IV) William, born Feb. 22, 1672, died Sept. 
 21, 1753- (V) Jehiel, born Nov. 11, 1702, died Oct. 
 18, 1780. (VI) Deacon Aaron, born Oct. 21, 1741, 
 died June 7, 1821. 
 
 (VII) Heman Stone, grandfather of Sanford C. 
 Stone, was born Nov. 21, 1783, in North Madison, 
 Conn., where his father engaged in farming. He, 
 too, became a farmer, and was one of the substantial 
 citizens of the town. In public affairs he took an 
 active part, and represented his town in the State 
 Legislature, having been elected as a Whig. Lie 
 
 married Clarissa Coe, and became the father of the 
 following children: Wealthy, Eliza, Amanda, Al- 
 fred, Lleman (father of our subject), Aaron and 
 Wealthy. In religious faith the family were Con- 
 gregationalists. Heman Stone died Nov. 29, 1864. 
 
 Heman Stone, son of Heman, was born Sept. 
 3, 1815, and died Jan. 29, 1890. He passed his life 
 m Madison, Conn., and there engaged in farming. 
 Like his father before him, he was actively inter- 
 ested in matters pertaining to the general welfare 
 of his town and county, and he held a number of 
 important offices in the gift of the people. First a 
 Whig, he later joined the ranks of the Republican 
 party. For some time he served as a representative 
 in the State Legislature, sustaining the dignity of 
 his office with great credit to himself and much satis- 
 faction to his constituents. He married Sarah Hol- 
 lister, who was born in Little Falls, N. Y., Feb. 26, 
 1815, a daughter of Anson and Sally (Beardsley) 
 Hollister. They became the parents of two chil- 
 dren : Sanford C. ; and George B., a farmer of Aladi- 
 son, who died at the age of forty years. 
 
 Sanford C. Stone was born in Madison, Conn., 
 Feb. 2, 1848, and passed his boyhood days on his 
 father's farm. The district school of the neighbor- 
 hood and the public schools of Guilford and Meri- 
 den afforded him ample facilities for a good educa- 
 tion. After leaving school he made his home in 
 Aleriden and North Branford until he was twenty- 
 eight years of age, when he came to New Haven. 
 Here in partnership with T. E. Norton he engaged 
 in the produce and poultry business on Chapel street, 
 under the firm name of Stone & Norton. Their es- 
 tablishment was known as the Public Market, and 
 remained in its first location for eighteen years, 
 when they located ait No. 373 State street, where 
 they have since remained. They have been emi- 
 nently successful in winning and retaining patrons, 
 as {hey pay especial attention to the quality of their 
 goods, and are ever courteous and obliging to their 
 customers. 
 
 On Dec. 25, 1871, Mr. Stone was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Jennie Lane, who was born in Kil- 
 lingworth. Conn., a daughter of Charles Lane, of 
 that place. She passed away July 24, 1892, leaving 
 two children. May Hollister and Maud Irene. Po- 
 litically Mr. Stone is a Republican. In his social 
 relations he belongs to City Lodge, No. 36, I. O. 
 O, F. ; and in religious connections is a member of 
 the Church of the Redeemer, on Orange street. 
 
 JOHN F. NETTLETON, long and favorably 
 known to the people of New Haven as an intelligent 
 and gallant member of the city police force, was born 
 in Bethany, Conn., June 13, 1827, a son of Oliver 
 Nettleton, who was born in what is now Orange, 
 but then known as North Milford, Conn., March 3, 
 1787, where he died Jan. 31, 1864. 
 
 The history of the Nettleton family in this coun- 
 try begins with Samuel Nettleton, w'ho was probably 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 659 
 
 born in England and who lived in Milford and 
 Branford, and died in Fairfield about 1655. His 
 wife, Maria, died in Branford on Oct. 29, 1658. 
 Samuel Nettleton, son of Samiiel and Maria, 
 was a native of Milford. On Feb. 8, 1681, he mar- 
 ried Martha Baldwin, who was born April i, 1663, 
 a daughter-of Ric'hard Baldwin, of Milford. 
 
 John Nettleton., son of Samuel and Martha, was 
 born Sept. 18, 1689, and he married Sarah Bryan, 
 a daughter of Ric^hard Bryan. 
 
 Nathan Nettleton, son of John and Sarah, was 
 born May 4, 1734, and married Sibyl, a daughter of 
 Nathaniel and Sara'h L. Buckingham. 
 
 John Nettleton, son of Nathan, and grand- 
 father of John F., was born Oct. 9, 1765, followed 
 fanning in Bethany and died Aug. 8, 1842. He 
 married Comfort, a daughter of Abraham and Sarah 
 L, (Bristol) Hine. Their son Oliver is noted above 
 as the father of John F. Nettleton. 
 
 Oliver Nettleton was a farmer all his life in 
 Bethany and elsewhere in Connecticut. On Sept. 
 8, 1813, he married Sarah Treat, a daughter of 
 Samuel Treat, a farmer in Milford, Conn., where 
 she was born. The Treat family is one of the oldest 
 and most prominent in the State and begins with 
 Richard Treat, who was born in Pittminster, Eng- 
 land, in 1584 and died about 1669 in Wethersfield, 
 Conn., of which place his wife, Alice Gaylord, was 
 a native. Robert Treat, his son, was born in Eng- 
 land in 1624, became governor of Connecticut and 
 died July 12, 1710; married Jane Tapp, of Milford. 
 Robert Treat, son of Governor Treat, was born 
 Aug. 14, 1654, and died March 20, 1720; he married 
 Abigail Camp, who was born March 28, 1667, and 
 died March 20, 1742. Samuel Treat, their son, was 
 born Nov. 28, 1697, and died April 28, 1753 ; he mar- 
 ried Anna Clark, who was born in 1709 and died 
 Dec. 12, 1731. 
 
 Samuel Treat, son of Samuel and Anna, was 
 born Aug. 6, 1728, and died Aug. 17, 1787; he mar- 
 ried Frances Bryan, w'ho was born Aug. 16, 1726, 
 and died June 13, 1806. Their son, Samuel Treat, 
 born Aug. 16, 1760, married Sarah Nettleton, who 
 died in 1793 at the age of thirty-two years, and he 
 died May 3, 1813. Their daughter, Sarah, born 
 Dec. 2, 1788, was the mother of John F. Nettleton. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Nettleton were the parents 
 of the following children: Minerva, born July 9, 
 1815; Samuel T., born Nov. 29, 1817; Sarah E., 
 born Feb. 28, 1820; Oriel, born May 8, 1822; Cla- 
 rissa A., born Sept. 20, 1824; and John F. Oriel 
 married William H. Famham, of New Haven, who 
 is dead ; Clarissa A. married George G. Fowler, w'ho 
 is dead; Minerva, Samuel and Sarah E. are all 
 dead. OMver Nettleton was a W'hig and a Republi- 
 can later in life. In religion he was a member of 
 the Congregational Church, his life conforming well 
 to his faith. 
 
 John F. Nettleton spent the first ten years of 
 his life on the farm in Bethany, where he attended 
 school, and he also attended school for a period of 
 
 seven years in Seymour. He came to New Haven 
 in early manhood. 
 
 On Oct. I, 1854, Mr. Nettleton was married to 
 Sarah L. Peck, who was born in Berlin, Conn., 
 a daughter of Evelyn Peck. To this union were 
 born : Oliver Ellsworth, Evelyn Frank, Edward S. 
 and George R. 
 
 Soon after his marriage Mr. Nettleton removed 
 to Rochelle, 111., w'here he was engaged in, the gram 
 business until the outbreak of the Civil war, when 
 he enlisted Aug. 14, 1862, in Company PI, 92d 111. 
 Mounted Infantry. He became ist lieutenant and 
 as such was under General Sherman in his famous 
 ''March to the Sea." He was mustered out on 
 June 21, 1865, and returned to New Haven, where 
 he engaged in the grocery business until 1873. 
 
 Mr. Nettleton is a Republican and was appointed 
 policeman in New Haven Oct. 19, 1873, and his 
 service on the force was unbroken until his retire- 
 ment Jan. I, 1894, a period of more than twenty 
 years. It is a record of efficiency and ability sel- 
 dom surpassed and Mr. Nettleton has a host of 
 friends in the city w'ho appreciate bis manty quali- 
 ties and wish him well. He belongs to the City 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., and the Admiral Foote Post, G. 
 A. R., and is an earnest member of the ^Methodist 
 Church. 
 
 FRANK L. COWING, Chief of the Meriden 
 Fire Department, and foreman of the Press depart- 
 ment of the Manning & Bowman Manufacturing 
 plant, is one of the well-known and highly esteemed 
 citizens of this city. He comes of good Colonial 
 stock, his great-grandfather, Gathelius Cowing, a 
 native of Massachusetts, having served as a soldier 
 in the Revolutionary army. 
 
 Job Cowing, our subject's grandfather, was born 
 'in ScituaJte, Plymouth Co., Rlass., but removed in 
 early manhood to Chesterfield', Hampshire Co., that 
 State, where he made his permanent home and en- 
 gaged in farming and stock raising. In politics he 
 was a Whig, and as a citizen he was held in high 
 esteem. By bis first wife, Rachel Coleman, he had 
 one daughter, Electa, who married George Kendall, 
 of Northfield, Alass. His second wife, Sybil King, of 
 West Hampton, Mass., -was a woman of rare worth, 
 and was sfreatlv beloved by her family and associates. 
 She died in Chesterfield in 1857, he in 1856. They 
 had children : Auralia, deceased wife of R. Gurney ; 
 Elvira, married to Ansel Thyer ; Cynthia, married 
 to Jacob Loomis ; Dexter, deceased ; Eunice, who 
 died unmarried ; Fannie, deceased wife of Jason 
 Thyer ; Job ; Charles ; Sybil, deceased wife of Spell- 
 man Stevens; Sumner, deceased; and Austin. 
 
 Job Cowing, son of Job, was born Aug. 31, 1820, 
 at the old homestead in Chesterfield, Mass., and 
 was reared as a farmer boy, receiving only a district- 
 school education. When a young man he went to 
 Orange county, N. Y., to learn the millwright's 
 trade, which he followed for many years. After 
 ten years he removed to Northampton, Mass., and 
 
66o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 later he spent six years at Stamford, Bennington 
 Co., Vt., where he became interested in the lumber 
 business. He then ca'me to Connecticut to engage 
 in farming, and settled upon Capt. Simon Kendall's 
 farm in Suffield, where he has since resided. ' In 
 addition to general agriculture, he devotes much 
 attention to dairying and stock raising, and by his 
 able management he has gained satisfactory results 
 in all 'these lines. Throughout his life he has been 
 a firm believer in the policy of the Democratic party, 
 and while not an office-seeker, he has not shirked 
 the duties of citizenship, aijd at one time served as 
 assessor of Suffield. He is a man of sound judg- 
 ment and extensive reading, and in religion bases 
 his faith upon the underlying principles of all creeds 
 rather than in those of any one denomination. 
 
 On Dec. 25, 1844, Mr. Cowing was married in 
 Port Jervis, N. Y., to Miss Eleanor Cole, daughter 
 of Josiah Cole, a prominent citizen of Paterson, 
 N. J. Their home is marked by the influence of 
 Mrs. Cowing's refined taste, and their eight chil- 
 dren have been reared in a way to make them a credit 
 .to their parents ; Walter is a blacksmith in Meriden ; 
 Julia married Senator George F Kendall, of Suf- 
 field ; Laura married Irvin Linsley, of Meriden ; 
 Fanny married Arthur Tilden, of Terryville, Conn. ; 
 Frank L. is our subject; James resides in Toronto, 
 Canada ; Miss Helen is at home ; and Addie mar- 
 ried Ernest Austin, of Suffield. 
 
 Frank L. Cowing was born in Stamford, Vt., 
 Oct. 17, 1855. While he was still a lad the family 
 removed to Suffield, and in that town Frank received 
 his education up to the age of fifteen, when he de- 
 cided to leave home and learn a tradte. Selecting 
 that of wood-turning, he entered an establishment 
 of that kind in Cunningham, Mass., and remained 
 there for the succeeding five years, receiving his 
 board andi a compensation of $12 per month. Re- 
 turning to Suffield, drawn thither by family affec- 
 tion, he engaged in business with his father, as 
 carj>enter and joiner, until 1879, when he removed 
 to Meriden, where he entered into the employ of 
 the Manning & Bowman Co., remaining there ever 
 since one of its most capable and trusted workmen. 
 At that time the business of the company was in- 
 significant, while now it is one of the largest and 
 most important among the prominent manufacturing 
 concerns of this city. Almost all of these twenty- 
 two years of faithful service by I\'Ir. Cowing have 
 been spent as foreman of the press department, and 
 he has earned not only the entire confidence of his 
 employers, but also the respect of those whose work 
 he directs. 
 
 Mr. Cowing was married in Meriden, in 1885, 
 to Miss Emma Walkley, who was born in Elizabeth- 
 port, N. J., a daughter of Richard ^^'alkley, of Shel- 
 don, Conn,, a lady whose graces of mind and char- 
 acter fit her to be the devoted wife and mother, 
 and the good Christian woman whom her friends 
 and neighbors admire and esteem. Two children 
 were born of this union : Ethel, who is attending 
 
 school; and little Frank L., whose life passed out 
 when he was but four years of age, leaving a void 
 which can never be filled. In 1880 Mr. Cowing 
 became a member of the Fire Department Truck 
 Co., of which he was clerk until 1886, and was as- 
 sistant engineer for the following two years. In 
 1898 he was appointed chief of the "department, 
 under Mayor Ives, and for three years has filled 
 this arduous office with the greatest efficiency, re- 
 flecting credit upon 'himself and his city, and giving 
 the people a feeling of security which they have 
 never previously enjoyed. Personally Mt. Cowing is 
 very popular, his genial manner winning friends 
 easily. Fraternally he is valued in Center Lodge, Xo. 
 97, F. & A. M. ; and ^leriden Center Lodge, No. 68, 
 I. O. O. F. ; is past noble grand of the last named 
 lodge, and past chief patriarch of Oasis Encamp- 
 ment, No. 16, of the same order. He is also a 
 member of Meriden Lodge, No. 35, B. P. O. E., 
 and of jMontowese Tribe, I. O. R. M., of Meriden. 
 The religious connection of the family is with St. 
 Paul's Universalist Church, where Mr. Cowing's 
 S3'mpathy and help are given to all the various 
 branches of charitable work. In politics he is a 
 Democrat, and was a member of the city council 
 during 1886-7, from the First ward, and served 
 effectively on the committees of police and finance, 
 and was clerk of the former, and also was made a 
 member of the committee on by-laws. In 1891 he 
 was elected on the same ticket as town auditor, and 
 served through one term. Mr. Cowing has been 
 prominent in many enterprises for the bettering of 
 his department, and was one of the organizers of 
 the firemen's relief fund, and has been the presi- 
 dent of that organization for the past eighteen years. 
 Frank L. Cowing stands high in the esteem of this 
 community, as he fills every relation of life as befits a 
 good citizen and representative man. Justly popular, 
 he enjoys a regard that is genuine and is well de- 
 served. 
 
 EDWARD ERNEST WEST, ex-mayor of 
 Meriden, and one of the most popular and efficient 
 officials the city ever had, is a native of Great Brit- 
 ain, born Nov. 29, 1847, in London, England. His 
 ancestors were among the most uncompromising ad- 
 herents of the Independent Church in England. 
 
 John Aaron West, Sr., his grandfather, was for 
 many years head master of Barking School, in Mid- 
 dlesex, near London, and subsequently became an 
 Independent minister, in charge of Bethnel Green 
 Chapel, London. 
 
 John Aaron West (2), son of John Aaron West, 
 Sr., stood a test of the ability of the Established 
 Church to collect religious taxes, and spent seven 
 days in jail for his principles. The last-named be- 
 came secretary and manager of one of the largest 
 chemical works in England, and died at St. Helen's, 
 Lancashire, Oct. 31, 1844, aged forty-four years. 
 His wife, Louisa Amanda Bourdon, was, like him- 
 self, a native of England, though a daughter of 
 
Z^^H^i/rZiyLC^ 
 
 i^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 66 1 
 
 French parents. Her father, Frederic Bourdon, 
 came from Rouen, France, to England in 1813, and 
 •was the first French dyer in London. Mrs. West 
 is still living, at the age of eighty-five vears, and 
 Tesides in Rainhill, Lancashire. Of her three sons 
 and two daughters, all save one son are now living. 
 Frederick J., the eldest, is a wholesale draper at 
 Prescott, Lancashire, England, and is one of the 
 greatest volunteer rifle shots in that country; since 
 1859, he has been color sergeant of Co.' A, St. 
 Helen's Rifle Brigade — a period of forty-two 
 years. 
 
 Edward E. West is the second child of John 
 Aaron and Louisa Amanda (Bourdon) West. He 
 pursued his primary education in the public schools, 
 graduating from the Mill Hill Grammar School, and 
 passed the examination for admission to Cambridge 
 University, but the sudden death of his father pre- 
 vented his taking up a university course. Being 
 now compelled to undertake his own maintenance, 
 he engaged in the marine insurance business for a 
 short time. Having resolved to seek his fortune in 
 the United States, he set out in 1866, being then in 
 his nineteenth year, for this country. Arriving at 
 Xew York, he soon found anploj-ment on a farm 
 near Coxsackie, N. Y., and was subsequently en- 
 gaged in copper mining near Soraerville, N. J. Oct. 
 25, 1866, found him in Meriden, where he went 
 to work within a few days in the office of the Meri- 
 den Britannia Company. For thirty-five years he 
 has continued in this service, though he has several 
 times received merited promotion, and now occu- 
 pies a remunerative and desirable position, having 
 charge of the orders and foreign correspondence. 
 This long-continued business relation, and the pro- 
 motions received, sufficientlv attest his business 
 capacitv, industry and integrity. 
 
 The genial and upright nature of Mr. West 
 naturally has attracted and maintained friendships, 
 and his social connections are wide and varied. A 
 Democrat in political principle, he was elected to 
 the office of mayor in the spring of 1900, largely by 
 Republican votes, being the only Democratic candi- 
 date who won in that campaign, and received 369 
 votes more than the balance of his ticket. He had 
 previously served two years as aldennan from the 
 Second ward, being elected in 1898, and re-elected 
 the following year. For the past thirty years he has 
 heen a member of Myrtle Lodge, No. 4, K. of P., 
 and is connected with Meridian Lodge, No. 35, B. P. 
 O. E. He affiliates with Menden Lodge, No. 77, 
 A. F. & A. M., Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M., 
 Hamilton Council, No. 22, R. & S. M., and St. Elmo 
 Commandery, K. T. In all these organizations ex- 
 cept the Commandery, he has passed through the 
 principal chairs. Mr. West is a vestryman in All 
 Saints' Memorial Episcopal Church, where all his 
 family worship. When he was nominated for 
 mayor, it was said that his business connections 
 would prevent his giving proper attention to the 
 ■duties of the office, but he was acknowledged to be 
 
 the most faithful officer that has ever occupied the 
 chair. 
 
 In 1871, Edward E. West was married to Miss 
 Alice Pel ton La Barnes, daughter of George and 
 Esther (Whitney) La Barnes, all natives of Meri- 
 den. The names indicate French and English an- 
 cestry, on the paternal and maternal sides respect- 
 ively. The first of the six children born to Mr. 
 and Mrs. West — Frederick Arthur, born in 1872^ 
 died at the age of seven and one-half years. Of the 
 others, Florence Annette is now the wife of Wil- 
 bur A. Goodrich, of Wallingford, Conn ; Albert Er- 
 nest, now temporarily located in Chicago, in the in- 
 terest of a Meriden manufacturing concern, makes 
 his home here ; Edward Winsor, Leila L. andi Alice, 
 all at home. The second daughter has thus had far 
 only two birthday annivers?.ries, having been born 
 on Feb. 29, 1888. 
 
 TIAIOTHY E. NORTON, junior partner of 
 the firm' of Stone & Norton, dealers in country prod- 
 uce, at No. 373 State street. New Haven, is a na- 
 tive of North Madison, Conn., born June 28, 1853, 
 and is of the third generation of his family tO' bear 
 the name of Timothy. 
 
 Timothy Norton, his grandfather, was probably 
 a native of the Nutmeg State, and he followed the 
 occupation of a farmer, also engaging to some ex- 
 tent in the West Indies trade. He shipped many 
 cargoes of mitles to those islands, the return voyage 
 bringing the products of the tropics. 
 
 Timothy Norton, son of Timothy (i), grew to 
 manhood in Madison, and engaged in agricultural 
 pursuits as a means of livelihood. He married Se- 
 lina Norton, who was born in Killingworth, Conn., 
 a daughter of Jonathan Norton, a farmer there, and 
 she died in 1875. She became the mother of eight 
 children, of whom four lived to maturity : Gris- 
 wold, who died at Port Royal, S. C, in the Civil 
 war; Abbie M., wife of Osmer Hill, a farmer of 
 Madison ; Lewis L., who passed away at the age of 
 thirty-three; and Timothy E. In politics Timothy 
 Norton was a Republican, and in religious belief a 
 Congregationalist, serving as a deacon of that 
 church for about forty years. 
 
 Timothy E. Norton passed his early years on 
 his father's farm, receiving his education in the dis- 
 trict school, and also in the North Madison 
 high school. At the age of eighteen he went to 
 Meriden, and there for one year was employed by 
 Henry C. Rowe in the fish business. In 1876 he 
 came to New Haven, and in company with Sanford 
 C. Stone engaged in the produce business, under the 
 firm name of Stone & Norton. For nineteen years 
 they remained at their first location on Chapel street, 
 and then removed to their present place of business, 
 at No. 373 State street, where they are meeting with 
 the greatest success. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Norton was married to Miss Fannie 
 E. Leonard, who was born in Middletown, Conn., 
 a daughter of George Leonard, and three children 
 
662 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 have been born to them, as follows : Louis L., 
 Cora ^I. and Gertrude M. In his political faith 
 Mr. Norton is a Republican. Socially he belongs 
 to City Lodge, No. 36, L O. O. F. ; and the Royal 
 Arcanum, Davenport, No. 700. In his religious be- 
 lief, like his father before him, he is a Congregation- 
 alist, and he holds metnibership in the Dwight Place 
 Church of that denomination. 
 
 JOSEPH STEPHEN STOKES, one of the self- 
 made and most highly-respected citizens of iMcriden, 
 was born June 8, 1845, ii^ AVednesbury, Stafford- 
 shire, England. 
 
 John William Stokes, his father, was also born in 
 Wednesbury, a son of Stephen Stokes, a gunlock- 
 maker of that town, where he lived and died, a faith- 
 ful member of the Established Church. John Will- 
 iam Stokes received such limited education as the 
 national schooJs of his time afforded, and under 
 his father's instructions learned the latter's trade, 
 which afforded him occupation for many years. He 
 married Martha Birch, a native of the same place, 
 and a daughter of Joseph Birch, a butcher of that 
 town. Their children were seven in number, name- 
 \y : Joseph Stephen ; John William, who died in 
 boyhood ; Georgiana, deceased in infancy ; Enoch 
 Charles, now a resident of ^Minneapolis, ]Minn. ; 
 George Alfred, a citizen of Meriden; Alfred Henry, 
 of Montreal, Canada; and Sarah x-\nn, who mar- 
 ried E. O. Goodrich, resided several vears in An- 
 sonia. Conn., and is now deceased. The father with 
 his wife and younger children came to America in 
 1867. He located at Springfield, Mass., where he 
 remained si.x years, in the service of the Wesson 
 Fire Arms Co. In the meantime his son, whose 
 name begins this article, had become established as 
 a contractor in the gun shops of Parker Bros., in 
 Meriden, and in 1873 the father came here to take 
 a position with him in the same shops. Thus he 
 spent fourteen years, and then retired from active 
 labor, dying at his home in 1887; his remains were 
 lovingly deposited in Walnut Grove cemetery. He 
 was survived two years hy his wife, who was, like 
 himself, a faithful comlmunicant of the Episcopal 
 Church. She was a devoted wife and mother, and 
 a kind friend and neighbor. Mr. Stokes was noted 
 for his integrity, kind heart and upright Christian 
 character. He and his wife were entitled to, and 
 received, the respect and commendation of all who 
 had the privilege to know them. 
 
 Joseph Stephen Stokes was trained in, early 
 life to habits of industry, and in boyhood laid the 
 foundation of that sturdy independence and thrift 
 which have characterized his life. His education 
 was supplied by the national schools of his native 
 place, and he began at an early age to learn the 
 trade of his father, tmder \yhose example and teach- 
 ing he became a very skilled workman. After the 
 removal of his parents to this country he remained 
 in \\^ednesbury, and became a contractor in the 
 manufacture of guns. However, he was soon con- 
 
 vinced that the western world afforded better oppor- 
 tunities for an ambitious man, ana set sail from 
 Liverpool Feb. 2Tf, 1869, arriving at New York in 
 due time. He came directly to Meriden, the fame 
 of whose products was not wholly unknown to him, 
 and before the close of the year he was a contractor 
 in Parker Brothers gun shops, to which occupation 
 he has continuously given his attention up to the 
 present time — a period of over thirty-three years, 
 in bus}' times he gives employment to seventy men, 
 and his success is what might naturally be expected 
 from a knowledge of his character. Himself a 
 skilled workman, he has surrounded himself with 
 capable workmen, and his faithful attention to detaih 
 and energetic supervision of the work in hand, has 
 always brought satisfactory results. In 1873 he 
 built his present commodious and handsome resi- 
 dence on Queen street, Meriden, the finest on the 
 street, and provided with all modern conveniences. 
 Of genial and companionable nature, Mr. Stokes, 
 bas naturally allied himself with numerous fraternal 
 and beneficial associations. He has been for several 
 terms Chancellor Commander of Myrtle Lodge, Xo. 
 4, Knights of Pythias, and has also occupied the 
 highest position in the State Grand Lodge of that 
 order. He is a member and founder of J. S. Stokes 
 Company, Uniformed, Rank, Knights of Pythias, 
 and was made a brigadier general of that branch of 
 the order in 1901. During its existence jNIr. Stoke.s 
 was connected with the Order of Chosen Friends. 
 He has occupied many positions of honor in the 
 Masonic fraternity, being a past master of Center 
 Lodge, No. 97, A. F. & A. M. ; past high priest of 
 Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; past illustrious 
 master of Hamilton. Council, No. 22, R. & S. ]M. ; 
 and was eminent commander of St. Elmo Coni- 
 mandery, K. T. He has represented ]\Ieriden 
 Lodge, No. 35, Benevolent and Protective Order of 
 Elks, in the Grand Lodge, and has served as exalted 
 ruler and district deputy. As past chief ranger of 
 Court Excelsior, No. 6, Foresters of America, he 
 was its delegate to the convention at Detroit which 
 had under discussion, and settled for that order, the 
 matter of a color hue. 
 
 On April 6, 1865, Mr. Stokes was married in 
 his native place to Miss Elizabeth Heseltine, wha 
 is now the only survivor of eight children born to 
 Ridiard and Nora (Gill) Heseltine. Richard Hesel- 
 tine was a clothing merchant at Bilston, Stafford- 
 shire, England, for many years ; both he and his wife 
 were adherents of the Established Church, and were 
 worthy of the universal respect which they enjoyed. 
 Mrs. Stokes is the admirable companion of her hus- 
 band in dispensing the cheerful hospitality of their 
 delightful home, and is a lady of many graces of 
 character. With her husband she is numbered 
 amiong the active and useful members of St. An- 
 drew's Episcopal Church of Meriden. She re- 
 mained in England a year after Mr. Stokes' removal 
 to this country, and was accompanied hither by their 
 only child, Angelo John Stokes, who was born Dec- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 663 
 
 26, 1866. He was educated in Meriden, and is now 
 an engraver, appreciated as one of the most valu- 
 able on the staff of the International Silver Co. He 
 married Etta, a daugihter of Charles C. Camp, of 
 Middletown. He is a highly respected member of 
 the Masonic fraternitv, identified with Center 
 Lodge, A. F. & A. ^\. : Keystone Chapter, R. A. M. : 
 and Hamilton Council, R. & S. M. In politics a 
 Eepublican, he is recognized as a young man of 
 more than ordinary character and moral force, and 
 reflects credit upon his parentage and training. 
 
 A man of high moral principles and gentlemanly 
 instincts, Joseph S. Stokes is much esteemed in the 
 community where he has passed a life of industry 
 and effort to- build up all that is ennobling in human 
 character, and all who have had an opportunity to 
 observe his career unite in the hope that he may 
 be 'enabled to continue his labors for many years to 
 come. 
 
 JARED WARNER (deceased) was born in 
 Hamden, Conn., Jan., 1831, a son of Samuel War- 
 ner, who was a native of the same town, though 
 not born in the same house. 'Samtuel Warner was a 
 farmer and served in the war of 1812 ; he died on 
 the old homestead. Abigail Gorham, his wife, was 
 a native of Hamden, and was the mother of ten 
 children: Susan (deceased, Alary Ann, Cornelius 
 (deceased), Jared (deceased), Aeneas, Henry, El- 
 len, Cornelia (deceased), Adelia (deceased) and 
 Frances ( deceased ) . 
 
 Jared Warner was reared on the paternal acres, 
 and in his earh^ manhood worked in an auger fac- 
 tory. About thirty-five years aeo he came to West- 
 ville and started a grocery, which he carried on al- 
 most to the time of his death, which occurred April 
 22, 1901, when he was aged seventy years. 
 
 On Oct.- 23, 1853, Jared Warner was married to 
 Louisa Mix, who was born at Kingsbury, Washing- 
 ton Co., N. Y., a daughter of Samuel Mix. a car- 
 riage maker, who was born in Wallingford, Conn., 
 June 23, 1792, and died in Argyle, N. Y., in 1869. 
 Samuel Alix married Polly Moore, who was born 
 May 7, 1791, and died March 18, 1868; to this 
 union was born a familv of five children : Sally, 
 who married Abram Sebring, of Argyle, N. Y, ; 
 William, an engineer in Rose, New York ; Lyclia, 
 who married David' Frost, of Maine ; Louisa, 
 who married 'Sir. Warner; and Versil, who is a 
 farmer and carriage maker. John Mix, the father 
 of Samuel, was born in Wallingford, Conn., and was 
 a pioneer in the spoon-making business. AMlliam 
 Moore, the father of Polly (Moore) Mix, was born 
 in Boston, Mass., Xov. 10, 1758, and served in the 
 war of the Revolution ; he settled in Kingsbury, N. 
 Y., at that time far in the wilderness, where he died. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Jared Warner were born: 
 Carrie, who -married Z. W. Cooper, of Westville ; 
 William, who is unmarried; Edward, who is asso- 
 ciated with the Royal Baking Company, and has 
 his home in Boston; Qiarles S., who is with hi? 
 
 brother William, who succeeded to his father's gro- 
 cery business in Westville; and Raymond V., who 
 died at the age of two years and eight months. Mr. 
 Warner was a Republican, and with his family at- 
 tended the Episcopal Church. 
 
 EDWARD FOOT THOMPSON. The Thomp- 
 son' family in Connecticut was founded by three 
 brothers, John, Anthony and A\'ilham, who came 
 from Lenham, Count\- Kent, England, where the 
 old manor house still stands, and were signers of 
 the Colony Constitution, in 1639. John Thomp- 
 son, the son of John, married Priscilla Powell, both 
 of whom were natives of East Haven, and their son 
 John was born in East Haven, in 1667, and married 
 Mercy Mansfield, daughter of Alajor Moses Mans- 
 field. John Thompson, son of John and Mercv, 
 was born in East Haven, in 1692, while his son 
 Stephen Thompson was boni' in 1723. The present 
 Thompson residence, and also the old stone church, 
 which is a landmark, were partly built by Stephen 
 Thompson, in 1774, but he fell and so injured his 
 skull that trepanning was necessary. 
 
 Jamjes Thompson, son of Stephen and grand- 
 father of Edward F., of this biography, was born 
 in 1788, and died March 7, 1851, married Lydia 
 Chidsey. They had a family of ten bo^-s and one 
 girl: Stephen, Alary, Leonard, Nathaniel, Henrv, 
 Elizur, James, Abraham, Abraham, Edward E., and 
 Haynes. For many years Nathaniel was president 
 of the Mechanics Bank. 
 
 Edward E. Thompson, the father of Edward F., 
 was born in the old East Haven home, Oct. 10, T817, 
 and diec4 Alay 22, 1888. His inarriage was to Caro- 
 line Smith, who was born in East Haven, a daugh- 
 ter of Stephen Smith, who was a son of Nehemiah 
 Smith, a son of Job ; a son of John, who settled in 
 South Haven. The four children of this marriage 
 were : jjames Smith ; Edward Foot ; William Ells- 
 worth ; and John Root. William and John died in 
 childhood. James graduated from Yale College in 
 1877, from the law school and became a judge in 
 this city, dying in 1897. 
 
 Edward Foot Thompson was born in East Ha- 
 ven, Conn., Jan. 10, 1858, and spent his boyhood 
 days in East Haven, attending the local schools, the 
 New Haven schools, Hopkins Grammar School, also 
 Selleck's Alilitary School, at Norwalk. After this 
 thorough educational drill, Mr. Thompson spent 
 some time on the farm, and has been engaged in 
 various enlterprises, making several trips to the 
 A\'estern coast. 
 
 On Oct. 22, 1884, Air. Thompson was married to 
 Charlotte Lancraft, who was born in East Haven, 
 a daug'hter of Williami and Josephine (Chidsc)) 
 Lancraft, natives of East Haven, where he was bom 
 April 17, 1833, and she -in 1841. The parents of 
 William Lancraft were William and Amanda 
 (Frost) Lancraft, the latter of North Haven, whuse 
 ancestor was the first mayor of New York City, and 
 descendant of John Eliot and Thomas Hooker. The 
 
664 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 next generation was George and Sarah (Jocelin) 
 Lancraft, the former born in East Haven, the latter 
 probabl)' of Hlolland stock. 
 
 The Chidsey home was originally in Chidsev, 
 England (at that time spelled Chedsey), and Deacon 
 Jdhn Chidsey, of Center Church, New Haven, came 
 from there with his wife, Elizabeth. His name is 
 attached to the Colony constitution in 1644, and he 
 located at Stony River. Deacon Caleb Chidsey 
 married Anna Thompson, and their son, Caleb, 
 married Abigail Smith. Isaac Chidsey, son of Caleb 
 and Abigail, married Sarah Bradley, and served in 
 the Revolutionary war. Samuel Chidsey, son of 
 Isaac and Sarah, married Betsey Holt, and was a 
 captain in' the local militia. Samuel, son of Capt. 
 Samuel, married Esther Bradley, and they became 
 the parents of Josephine. 
 
 A family of two children were born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Thompson, Margery Ellsworth and Doris 
 Eliott. In politics, Air. Thompson is a Republican, 
 and has been assessor of East Haven for many years. 
 In November, 1890, he was elected Representative, 
 and is now the very efficient county commissioner, 
 and is clerk of the Railroad committee in the House, 
 and for some time was a member of the board of 
 education. Airs. Thompson is a member of the 
 Mary Clapp W'ooster Chapter, Daughters of -Vmer- 
 ican Revolution, and is president of the ^^'oman's 
 Club, of East Haven. Socially, Mr. Thompson is 
 connected with the Union League Club, and both 
 lie and his wife are prominent in social circles, and 
 leading members of the Congregational Church. 
 The old homestead has been in the family name for 
 over 200 years. 
 
 CHARLES WOOD\\'ARD G.VYLORD, M. 
 D., one of the foremost physicians of Branford, and 
 the oldest practitioner of that place, was born in 
 Wallingford, this county, Aug. 28, 1846, a son of 
 David P. and Bertha (Bartholomew) Ga}dord. 
 The father was born in 1814, and was a farmer by 
 occupation. His famil}' consisted of the following 
 children : Charles W., William B., Ida W. and 
 Frank; the last named died in infancy, ^^'illiam B. 
 Gaylord, wlio was a merchant in Meriden, died at 
 the age of forty. He first married Mary Jerrold, 
 who died leaving no children, and his second union 
 was with Julia Hodgkinson, by whom he had one 
 son, David W., who is now living in Hartford, 
 Conn. Ida Gaylord became the wife of Frank 
 Brown, of Meriden, and had one daughter, Bertha. 
 David Gaylord was a Republican in political senti- 
 ment, and for some time was the only man of that 
 political faith on the west side of Wallingford. In 
 religion he was a member of the Congregational 
 Church. He died July 27, 1896. 
 
 The Doctor's paternal grandparents were John 
 and Betsy (Tuttle) Gaylord, farming people of 
 ^\'allingford ; the former was born in 1790, and 
 served in the war of 1812. He was a son of John 
 Gaylord, born in 1752-3, a veteran of the Revolution, 
 
 and a farmer on the west side of Wallingford. This 
 John Gaylord was a son of Nathan Gaylord, who 
 was born in 1724, and died in Cheshire, July 2, 1802. 
 He was a son of John Gaylord, born April 12, 1677, 
 at Bucks Hills, and who made his home at Durham, 
 moving later in life to Wallingford, where he died 
 in 1753. There his wife, Elizabeth, also died, Dec. 
 19, 1751. This John Gaylord was a son of Joseph 
 Gaylord, who was born in 1649, while Joseph was 
 a son of \A'alter Gaylord, who was born in England, 
 a son of Deacon William' Gaylord. Deacon Will- 
 iam came to America in 1630 and located at Wind- 
 sor, Conn., in 1636 with the earliest settlers, and be- 
 came one of the leading citizens there. Throughout 
 the various generations of this family its repre- 
 sentatives were among the leading people of the 
 community. The maternal grandparents of Dr. 
 Gaylord were William and Hannah (Bronson) 
 Bartholomew, of Wolcott, iConnecticut. 
 
 Charles W. Gaylord began his education in the, 
 district school and continued same at the Connecti- 
 cut Literary Institute, at Suffield, Conn., from which 
 he was graduated in 1866. He worked on the farm 
 until eighteen years of age. In the fall of 1866 he 
 entered Yale College, graduating from the Acade- 
 mic Department in 1870, and from the Medical 
 School in 1872. The young Doctor spent some 
 time in the Bellevue Hospital, and in the College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. In 
 the fall of 1872 he was engaged for a brief time in 
 the practice of medicine in Wallingford, and in 
 December of that year, he came to Branford, where 
 he entered upon a professional career that has con- 
 tinued to the present time without a break or stain. 
 
 Dr. Gaylord was married Feb. 27, 1873, to Anna 
 Rose, a daughter of Asa and Electa A. (Bushnell) 
 Rose, of Essex, Conn., and by this union has be- 
 come the father of six children : L. Vincent, Bertha 
 R. .Annie E. (who has just entered Vassar College), 
 Charles W., Ruth Margaret and Donald David. Dr. 
 Gaylord is a member of the Congregational Church, 
 and his professional associations are with the New 
 Haven County and the State Medical Societies, and 
 the American Medical Association. Prominently 
 identified with the school interests of Branford, he 
 is a broad-minded and public-spirited man, es- 
 pecially in educational lines. For over twenty years 
 he has been a member of the board of education, and 
 part of the time its chairman, also serving as act- 
 ing school visitor. Dr. Gaylord is a trustee of the 
 Blackstone Memorial Library of Branford, of which 
 he was one of the incorporators, and he has always 
 been connected with the institution. In politics he 
 is a stanch Republican. 
 
 FENN. The Fenn family, of which Dr. Ava 
 H. and Judge Willis I. Fenn, well-known citizens 
 of Meriden, are worthy descendants, is one of the 
 oldest in New Haven county. 
 
 Edward Fenm, tradition says, was the first of the 
 name in the New Haven Colony, was a native of 
 
CH^.^au^cl^^.^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 665 
 
 England, and is supposed to liave been one of three 
 tirothers who came to America with the early set- 
 tlers. Benjamin, another of the brothers, settled in 
 Milford, Fairfieldi county, and the third brother, 
 Theophilus, settled in Litdifield. Edward located 
 in the new settlement of AVallingford, Conn., where 
 lie became a large land owner, and there he died on 
 Feb. 2, 1728, at the aa:e of eighty-four. His first 
 marriage, Nov. 15, 1688, -was to Mary Thorp, who 
 died on July 24, 1725, and his second marriage took 
 place Jan. 26, 1726, to Abigail Williams. His chil- 
 dren were: Mary, born Sept: 27, 1689; Elizabeth, 
 born April 29, 1692, who on May 21, 1722, mar- 
 ried John Moss; Sarah, born Nov. 24, 1694, who 
 on Aug. 15, 1728, married Solomon Moss; Theo- 
 philus, born Jan. 28, 1698, who married Martha 
 Doolittle; John, born ^Nlarch 23, 1702, who married 
 Sarah Doolittle; Hanna'h, born Dec. 13, 1704, who 
 married Thomas Doolittle; Thomas, born Sept. 13, 
 1707, who married Lydia Ackley ; and Naomi, born 
 May ID, 1712, who on Nov. 21, 1732, married Sam- 
 uel Frost. 
 
 Theophilus Fenn, son of Edward, was born Jan. 
 28, 1698, in Wallingford, where he accumulated 
 property and spent his life. On May 24, 1722, he 
 was married to Martha Doolittle, whO' was baptized 
 in 1698, daughter of Samuel Doolittle, and grand- 
 daughter of Abraham- Doolittle, who was the first 
 settler of that familv in America. To this union 
 came Elizabeth, born Oct. 25, 1723, who married 
 Solomon Moss; Martha, born Sept. 23, 1725, who 
 married Levi Moss, son of John and Elizabeth Moss, 
 June 19, 1743 ; Bethia, born Feb. 18, 1728, who mar- 
 ried Joseph Austin; Benjamin, born Aug. 3, 1730, 
 ■who died in 1819, at the age of eighty-nine ; Ed- 
 ward, mentioned below; Phebe, boi Feb. 12, I735' 
 who married Timothy Hart, March 6, 1757; Theo- 
 philus, born Feb. 20, 1737, Who died Nov. 8, 1737; 
 Eunice, born jMarch 16, 1741, who married David 
 AVay; Susannah, born Sept. 28, 1746; and Theo- 
 philus, born in 1748, who married Ann Rood. 
 
 Edward Fenn, son of Theophilus, was born Sept. 
 2, 1732, and located in what is now known as the 
 North Farms ■ District, in \\'allingford, where he 
 lived on fond taken up by his grandfather, and the 
 grant of deed is now in the possession of Nathan 
 Fenn, of Meriden, and bears the date of May 21, 
 1722, in the eighth year of the reign of King George 
 of England. Edward Fenn was a cooper by trade. 
 He spent all his life in the old place, dying at the 
 age of eighty-nine. His wife was Demaris Austin, 
 of WaUingford, who died April i, 1793. and the 
 children born to their marriage were: Edward, 
 who became a soldier in the Revolutionary war, died 
 Jan. 6, 1834, in Wallingford. Austin married 
 Hannah Ives, who died Mav 20, 1829; he died July 
 30, 1845. Abigail married Amasa Hart. Theo- 
 philus, born Jan. 12, 1769, married Polly Dibble, and 
 died July 30, i860, at the age of ninety-one. 
 Reuben married Thankful Darrow, and died April 
 5, 1837. Susan married Lum'an Horton, of Litch- 
 
 field county. Martha married a Mr. Austin, and 
 died in 1820. Sarah, born Dec. 27, 1773, married 
 Noah Culver. Nabby married Amasa Hart, re- 
 moved to Vermont, and died Aug. 22, 1876, at the 
 age of eighty-five. Joel married Hannah Curtis. 
 
 Joel Fenn, the grandfather of Dr. Ava H. and 
 Judge Willis I. Fenn, was born April i, 1781, in the 
 old homestead in North Farms, and followed the 
 business of coopering all his life, his death occur- 
 ring April I, 1825, at the comparatively early age of 
 forty-four, his family being noted for longevity. 
 His wife, Hannah Curtis, was born in Wallingford, 
 a daughter of Joel and Hannah (Kelsey) Curtis, 
 and died Aug. 22, 1876, at the age of eighty-five. 
 1 hey became the parents of the following children : 
 (i) Alartha, born Sept. 11, 1812, died Jan. 25, 1857; 
 she married March 23, 1843, Morgan Williams, of 
 Meriden, who died in 1900. (2) Abner, born May 
 17, 1813, died Sept. 2q, 1864; on April 29, 1846, he 
 married Maryette Tuttle. (3) Hubbard, born Oct. 
 27, 1814, died Sept. 9, 1884; he married Jennie E. 
 Whiting, of Branford, Conn. (4) Joel was born 
 Aug. 15, 1817. (5) Thankful, born April 21, 1822, 
 died in April, 1852 ; she married Elijah Lee, of 
 Selma, Ala. (6) Nathan, born March 15, 1824, a 
 jeweler and watchmaker in Meriden, married Susan 
 M. Nettleton, of Killingworth ; they had children — • 
 Martha ^Morgan, born March 13, 1855, who mar- 
 ried S. S. Bodurtha, of Agawam, Mass. ; Abner N., 
 born March 4, 1857, an engineer; Hubbard Henry, 
 born June 17, i860, a jeweler in Meriden; and Joel 
 Alden, born Jan. 22, 1870, a machinist. 
 
 Joel Fenn, the father of Dr. and Judge Fenn, 
 with whom this sketch is directly concerned, was 
 born Aug. 15, 1817, and died Nov. 19, 1892, in Meri- 
 den, and his remains lie in the beautiful cemetery of 
 Walnut Grove. An architect and builder by oc- 
 cupation, he followed his trade in the State of New 
 York, and in, Wallingford and Plainville, Conn., 
 but spent the remainder of liis life in Meriden. 
 There he also engaged in manufacturing for several 
 years, part of the time in partnership with his 
 larother Nathan, in the manufacture of matches. 
 Joel Fenn was a man of integrity, a hard worker, a 
 good citizen, and highly esteemed wherever known. 
 In his earlier life he was an opponent of slavery, 
 was a stanch supporter of Fremont, and upon its 
 organization united with the Republican party, in 
 the success of which 'he was actively interested, 
 though not as an office seeker. He was of a do- 
 mestic nature, and a most exemplary husband and 
 father. In the Baptist Church he was well known 
 as a man of high Christian character. 
 
 Joel Fenn was married to Marv H. Hamlin, 
 who was born in Plainville, Conn., a daughter of 
 Ava and Nancy (Gillette) Hamlin, and she still sur- 
 vives at the age of eighty years. Her connection 
 with the Baptist Church has covered a long period, 
 and she is known and beloved as a kind neighbor and 
 a most devoted motlier. "The members of the family 
 born to Joel and Mary H. Fenn are among the most 
 
666 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 highly esteemed residents of this city, and well rep- 
 resent their old and honorable ancestry. They are : 
 
 ( 1 ) Ava Hamlin is mentioned more fully Selow. 
 
 (2) Carrie Elvira Jennette, born Dec. 9, 1848, was 
 married on Feb. 9, 1876, to Charles L. Bodurtha, 
 who died Nov. 5, 1879. They had one child, Mil- 
 dred F., born July 20, 1879, who graduated from 
 the high school in Meriden and also from the Con- 
 necticut State Normal, New Britain, and is now a 
 school teacher in the latter city. (3) Joel, born Sept. 
 24, 1851, married, Nov. 28, 1877, Katie J. Forbes, 
 and resides in Meriden, where he is a carriage build- 
 er. They have had three children : Ina May, born 
 April 23, 1880, who died March 15, 1887; Burton 
 W., born Oct. 8, 1883 ; and Hamlin S., born May 23, 
 1896. (4) Willis I. is mentioned more fullv below. 
 (S) Edward, born Dec. 15, i860, died Dec. 19, 1862. 
 
 Ava Hamlin Fenn, 'SI. D., eldest child of Joel 
 and Mary H. Fenn, was born in Elm street, A¥al- 
 lingford, April 15, 1847, and removed with his par- 
 ents to Plainville, where he attended the District 
 schools. He had previously attended the schools of 
 Wallingford. He learned the trade of carpenter 
 and joiner with his father, and after working witli 
 him a few years started for himself in Meriden as 
 a builder. Later he became engaged in the manu- 
 facturing business in Meriden, in the manufacturing 
 of matches. Having had a strong desire from early 
 boyhood, for the Medical Profession-, he took up the 
 reading of medicine under Dr. Nehemiah Nicker- 
 son, of Meriden, and later entered the College of 
 I'hysicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, where he grad- 
 uated in 1886, with the degree of M. D. Return- 
 ing to Aleriden, he has for the past fifteen years 
 practiced his chosen profession with skill and gen- 
 tleness, and has won esteem and confidence by his 
 genial and unostentatious manner. He is a modest 
 man, and attends strictly to his profession, in which 
 he has met with gratifying success. He is a mem- 
 ber of the New Haven County Medical Society, and 
 also of the Cit)- Medical Society, of which latter he 
 was secretary and later president. He is a member 
 of no lodge. Liberal in church views, he attends 
 the Baptist Church. 'Politically the Doctor is a 
 Republican, but not a politician though he has served 
 as alderman in the city council from the Second 
 ward, to which position he was elected in 1896; as 
 chairman of the health and water boards in 1898; 
 and the health and fire committees, proving himself 
 a true, public-spirited citizen. 
 
 On Nov. 13, 1889, Dr. Fenn married Miss Letitia 
 Burrell, of Rockland, Mass., and they have one 
 child, Edward Burrell, born July 2j, 1893. 
 
 Willis L Fexx, deputy judge of the Meriden 
 City Court, was born in Wallingford, and removed 
 to Plainville, where he attended school, finishing in 
 the Meriden schools. Flaving a strong inclination 
 for the legal profession he entered the law office of 
 Judge Emerson A. ^lerrim^n, where he read law 
 for two years. In 1880 he ente'-ed Yale Law 
 School, and graduated therefrom, after a two-years' 
 
 course, in the class of 1881, after which he was ad- 
 mitted to practice his chosen profession in the courts 
 of Connecticut. He began legal practice in Meri- 
 den where for the past twenty years he has, through 
 his ability and strict attention, to duty, won for him- 
 self a front place among the leading lights of the 
 Bar. In 1895, he was appointed by the State Leg- 
 islature as deputy judge of the city court of Meri- 
 den, for a session of two years ; was re-appointed 
 by the Legislature for another session; and in 1901 
 was re-appointed for another two years. He fills 
 the office with dignity, and metes out justice with 
 an even hand. Of a very unassuming and genial 
 disposition, he has throueh his kind and afifahle 
 manner made hosts of friends. In political senti- 
 ment Mr. Fenn is a stanch Republican and stands 
 high in the ranks of the party. In 1882 he was 
 elected to the city council from the Second ward, 
 and served four years ; was alderman for the same 
 ward one term ; register of voters for twelve years : 
 and discharged all the duties of all these incumben- 
 cies with ability and credit. In 1900 he was the 
 nominee of his party as candidate for representative 
 of Meriden, and polled a large vote, losing the 
 election by one vote only. In religion Mr. Fenn is a 
 member of the First Baptist Church, and is a trus- 
 tee of same. He is a trustee of the Y. M. C. A., 
 and also of the I. O. O. F., uniting with the Meriden 
 Center Lodge, of which he is past grand. The 
 Judge is quiet and domestic in his habits. He is 
 unmarried and makes his home with his mothe'-, 
 to whom he is much devoted. Temperate in his 
 habits, loyal in his filial duties, active in the welfare 
 of his community, and able in the discharge of the 
 important judicial responsible duties which have 
 been intrusted to him, he is indeed a model citizen, 
 one whose conduct in every relation of life i-; 
 worthy of emulation. 
 
 NEHEAHAH HARDY HOYT, president of the 
 Hoyt Beef and Produce Co., of New Haven, is the 
 son of Nehemiah Hardy and Lucy Baldwin (Dur- 
 and) Hoyt, and a descendant in the eighth genera- 
 tion from John Hoyt, who was one of the first set- 
 tlers of Salisbury, Mass., where he is on record as 
 early as 1639. John Hoyt was born in 1612, and 
 had two wives, each of whom bore the name of 
 Frances. He was a man of proininence in the 
 colony, filled many local offices, and died on his farm 
 in 1687. 
 
 From John Hoyt the line of descent to Nehemiah 
 Hardy, of New Haven, is through Thomas, Eph- 
 raim, Ephraim (2). W^illiam, Abraham, and Nehe- 
 miah Hardv Hoyt. 
 
 Thomas Hoyt, the son of John, was born in 
 1640 in Salisbury, married Mary Brown, daughter 
 of William Brown, of Salisbury, and died in 1690. 
 
 Ephraim Hovt, the son of Thomas, was born in 
 1671, married Hannah Godfrey, in 1695, ^ second 
 Hannah Godfrey in 1736, and Elizabeth JMacrest in 
 1738. He lived and died in Hampton Falls. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 667 
 
 Ephraim Hayt (2), son oi Ephraim, married 
 three wives, Sarah Clough, Abigail Welch and Sus- 
 annah . He lived in Hampton Falls until 
 
 1757, and then removed to Chester, N. H., where he 
 died in 1767. 
 
 William Hoyt, son of Ephraim, married Sarah, 
 a daughter of Benjamin Smith, and lived in Exeter, 
 N. H. He served in the French and Indian war, 
 and was a soldier in the American Revolution, be- 
 ing killed in battle, July 5, 1777. 
 
 Abraham Hoyt, son of William, was bom in 
 1764, married Be'thiah Estebrook in 1793, and lived 
 many years at Hartford, Vt., removing to Royalton, 
 in the same State, where he died in 1841, his wife 
 having died in 1826. 
 
 Nehemiah Hardy Hoyt, son of Abraham, and the 
 father of the gentleman whose name appears at the 
 introduction of this article, was born in Hebron, N. 
 H., Feb. 25, 1808, and on Oct. 2, 1831, married iVIrs. 
 Lucy (Baldwin) Durand, daughter of Jesse Bald- 
 win, and to this union came children as follows : 
 (i) Saraih M., born June 24, 1832, married George 
 A. Lord in. 1852, and Abron Lamb in 1863. (2) 
 Lucy A., born March 6, 1834, married Henry E. 
 Hotchkiss, in 1852, and William H. Abrams, in 
 1864. (3) Clarissa T., born June 22, 1838, married 
 Perlin Warriner Aug. 22, 1859. (4) Susie M., 
 born July 28, 1840, married James H. Lee in 1867. 
 (5) Nathan B., born July 23, 1842, married Frank 
 M. Bartlettin 1866, and was a bonnet and hat manu- 
 facturer in New Haven. jHe served in a Connect- 
 icut regiment in the Civil war, and participated in 
 the first battle oif Bull Run ; for more than two years 
 he was a steward in the hospital service of the 
 regular army, and is still living in New Haven. (6) 
 Nehemiah Hardy, born Oct. 2, 1844, in New Haven, 
 was married Oct. 2, 1866, to Emma J., a daughter of 
 William P. Gardner, an organ builder in New 
 Haven. 
 
 Nehemiah Hardy Hoyt had his education in the 
 New Haven city schools, and while still a boy be- 
 gan work at the machinist trade, which was his busi- 
 ness for seven years. In 1869, in company with 
 James H. Lee, he began a wholesale meat business, 
 the partnership continuing to 1899. At first their 
 business was done in a small way, but under care- 
 ful management and painstaking attention it became 
 very successful. In 1899 Mr. Lee retired and a 
 joint stock company was formed, which took the 
 namie of the Hoyt Beef and Produce Company, with 
 Mr. Hoyt as president. The business has become 
 very extensive, the house buying enormous quan 
 tities of beef, butter and eggs, and shipping all over 
 New England. Their present building on Union 
 Street, five stories higdi, was especially fitted up for 
 the business. Mr. Hoyt does the buying for the 
 house on the New York markets, and his son Charles 
 W., the secretary and treasurer of the company, is 
 the general manager of the office business. They 
 employ fifty men in New Haven, and have two 
 salesmen on the road. 
 
 Of the children of Nehemiah Hardy and Emma 
 J. (Gardner) Floyt, (i) Qiarles W. was graduated 
 from Yale in 1897, taking a course in mechanical 
 engineering; he is a member of the Naval Reserve. 
 In 1897 he married Effie Smiifh, of Baltimore, a 
 daughter of Henry Smith, and they have one child, 
 Winthrop Clayton. (2) Samuel E. graduated from 
 "^'ale in 1897, and from the Law Department of 
 Yale in 1899, and is now engaged in legal practice 
 in Xew Haven. He married Grace Alvord, of 
 Bridgeport. 
 
 Mr. Hbyt is a Republican in his political re- 
 lations, and is associated with the Congregational 
 Church. He belongs to Harmony Lodge, No. t, 
 A. F. & A. M., and is past grand in Relief Lodge, 
 No. 86, I. O. O. F. Mr. Hoyt has long been a 
 member of the Union League Club. 
 
 CHARLES EDWIN PARK, ]M. D„ comes of 
 a well-known family of Connecticut, his father, Ed- 
 win Avery Park, being one of the noted physicians 
 of the State, his paternal ancestry being easily traced 
 as far back as the year 1630. 
 
 Edwin Avery Park was born in Preston, Xew 
 London Co., Conn., Jan. 27, 1817, a son of Benjamin 
 Frankhn and Hannah (Avery) Park, the father a 
 farmer and merchant in Preston, where he lived and 
 died in the old liomesteadl, which has been in the 
 family for generations. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin Park was the son of Elisha, 
 who was the son of Rev. Paul Park — a minister 
 who preached in the same church, in his native 
 town, for over fifty years — and he was a son of 
 Flezekiah Park, a son of Robert Park, who with 
 his wife and three sons came from England, in 1630, 
 and settled in Boston, Mass. The English ances- 
 tors of the family resided in Lancashire, and the late 
 Baron Park, of England, descended from the same 
 ancestral line, the name until within a few years be- 
 ing written with a final e. 
 
 Dr. Edwin Avery Park spent his early life upon 
 his father's farm, working there during the summer 
 and attending school during the winter, and at the 
 age of sixteen beginning to be a teacher, himself. 
 For several seasons he taught school, and. then be- 
 came a student at Wilbraham Academy, but when 
 about twenty-one took up the serious study of medi- 
 cine, in Durham, under the tuition of Dr. Ruftis 
 Wellington Matthewson. For several years he con- 
 tinued with this noted practitioner,- in the meantime 
 taking a course of lectures in the Xew York Medi- 
 cal College, and later in the Yale ^Medical College, 
 graduating from the latter institution in 1846. At 
 once opening an office. Dr. Park soon found his 
 services in demand. Until this time he had carved 
 out his own career, as limited mieans prevented 
 many of his cherished plans being put into execu- 
 tion, but his energetic and resolute character had 
 enabled him to overcorae many difficulties, and when 
 he took up his practice, he found himself well pre- 
 pared to gain and keep the confidence of the pulalic. 
 
668 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 During the Civil war, he was surgeon of the enroll- 
 ing board in association with Col. Dexter R. 
 A\' right, and in that position he performed efficient 
 and valuable service. A man of liberal and active 
 mind, well-informed, ready but not rash, he won the 
 respect of his medical associates and was equally es- 
 teemed in social circles. 
 
 In 1853 Dr. Park married Hester Ann, daugh- 
 ter of Charles J. Allen, of New Haven, and five 
 •children were born of this union, the survivors be- 
 ing: Catherine B., Hester M., Franklin A., and 
 Charles E. lOf the brothers of Dr. Park, none re- 
 main : Chief Justice Park, of the Supreme Court 
 -of Connecticut, is deceased ; Albert was a prominent 
 attorney of Norwich ; and Ralph H., who last lived 
 in Boston, was the late principal of the Wooster 
 school, of Xew Haven. The death of Dr. Park 
 occurred on Jan. 17, 1879. 
 
 From his early days Dr. Charles E. Park was 
 marked for the practice of medicine, having in- 
 herited much of his father's trend of mind. He was 
 "born Oct. 24, 1857, and after attendance at the pub- 
 lic schools and at Gen. Russell's Alilitarv School, he 
 "began the s}-stematic study of the profession which 
 he has adorned for a numfcer of years. So thor- 
 ough was the instruction that he received from his 
 father, that he was soon prepared for Yale, from 
 which Ivledical school he graduated in June, 1881, 
 naturally associating with his father and taking up 
 the practice which the latter had onl)r resigned at 
 death. 
 
 Dr. Park was married to JMiss Grace B. Car- 
 penter, of Whitehall, Mich., and one child has been 
 horn of this union : Theo Marguerite. Although 
 Dr. Park does not pose as a leader in medical cir- 
 cles, neither does be lag behind, his practice em- 
 bracing some of the best clientage of the city. Pro- 
 fessionally he is well known as an active member of 
 the Medical societies of New Haven county, and 
 city, the Medical Association of the State of Con- 
 necticut and also of the American Medical Associa- 
 tion. Fraternally he is a 32d Degree Scottish Rite 
 Mason, and prominent in Hiram Lodge, A. F. & 
 A. j\l. ; Franklin Chapter ; Harmony Council ; New 
 Haven Commandery ; Pyramid Terrtple, Mystic 
 Shrine; A. O. U. W., and Improved Order of Hep- 
 tasophs, and is examiner for both orders, and he is 
 a member of the Knight's Templar's Club. For 
 many years, like his respected father, he has been 
 connected with the United Congregational Church. 
 
 LUMAN FRANKLIN PARKER, an old and 
 highlv respected citizen of Meriden, was born Aug. 
 18, 1813, in Coventry, Chenango Co., N. Y., and is 
 a worthy descendant of one of the oldest families 
 in New England. 
 
 (I) William Parker, the first of the name in 
 Connecticut, settled first at Hartford, later at Say- 
 brook. He had three sons, William, Ralph and 
 John. 
 
 (II) John Parker, youngest of the above men- 
 
 tioned family, was the ancestor of all bearing the 
 name in New Haven county. He had five children, 
 as follows: John, born Oct. 8, 1646; Mary, born 
 April 2y, 1648, who married John Hall in 1666; 
 Hope, born 'May 26, 1650, who married Sanitiel 
 Cook May 2, 1677; Lydia, born May 26, 1653, who 
 married John Thomas Jan. 12, 1671 ; and Joseph, 
 who married Hannah Gilbert in 1673. 
 
 (III) John Parker and his wife, Hannah Bas- 
 sett, were among the first planters in Wallingford, 
 locating in the district now known as "Parker's 
 Farms," about two miles west of the borough. He 
 was quite active in public matters, and did much to' 
 advance the interests of the settlement. He died in 
 171 1, and bis wife June 7, 1726. Their children 
 were: Hannah, born Aug. 20, 1671, married Will- 
 iam Andrews Jan. 12, 1692; Elizabeth married Jo- 
 siah Royce March 24, 1693; John, born March 26, 
 1675, married Mary Kibbe, of Springfield, Nov. I, 
 1699 ; Rachel, born June 16, 1680, married Thomas 
 Relzea, of New Haven, in 1700; Joseph married 
 Sarah Curtis June 7, 1705; Eliphalet married Flan- 
 nah Beach Aug. 5, 1708: Samuel married Sarah 
 Goodsell, of Middletown. July 16, 1713; Edward is 
 mentioned Delow : Mar_v married Joseph Clark Nov. 
 27, 1707; Abigail married Joseph Bradley March 3, 
 1710. 
 
 (IV) Edward Parker, son of John and Hannah 
 Parker, born in 1692 on the Parker Farm, grew up 
 there and on reaching manhood located in the parish 
 of Cheshire (now the town of Cheshire), where he 
 spent the remainder of his days, engaged in farm- 
 ing. He died Oct. 21, 1776, and was buried in 
 Cheshire. Edward Parker married (first) Jerusha 
 ^Merriman, who died Dec. 27, 1745. On Dec. I, 1748, 
 he married Rebecca Ives, who died May 23, 1762, 
 aged sixty-five years. On Sept. 30, 1762, he mar- 
 ried (third) Ruth Merriman Merwin. His chil- 
 dren: Ralph, born Jan. 9, 1718, married Martha, 
 daughter of Gideon Ives, Dec. 25, 1740; Athildred, 
 born July I, 1719, married Timothy Hall Jan. 10, 
 1748; Edward, born March 11, 1 72 1, married Sarah 
 Burroughs Aug. 21, 1744; Joel, born Feb. 24, 1723, 
 married Susan Hotchkiss Dec. 25, 1746; Ephraim, 
 born Aug. 23, 1725, is mentioned below ; Amos, born 
 Nov. 26, 1726, died Aug. 20, 1748; William, born 
 in 1728, died May 2, 17,^2: Eldad, born Sept. 14, 
 1731, married Thankful Bellamv, daughter of Mat- 
 thew, April 24, 1755, and died July 6, 1779; Joseph 
 Merriam, born Feb. 2, 1734, died March 21, 1734; 
 Joseph, born Oct. 9, 1735, married Mary Andrews 
 May 30, 1758. 
 
 (V) Ephraim Parker, son of Edward Parker, 
 was born in Cheshire Aug. 23, 1725, and on Nov. 
 II, 1747, married BathshelDa Parsons. Their daugh- 
 ter, Hannah, married Hiland Hall, on the same day 
 their son was married. 
 
 (VI) Jotham Parker, son of Ephraim, was a 
 wagoner in charge of transportation in the Revolu- 
 tionary war, with the rank of captain. He mar- 
 ried Sarah Seward, of Oneida county, N. Y., and 
 
^mA^ ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 669 
 
 their children were : Sarah married Dr. Thaddeus 
 Mather, of Coventry, N. Y. ; Lucy married George 
 McGeorge and died in Virginia ; Luman died in 
 early manhood; Hiland Hall is mentioned below; 
 Hannah married Hezekiah Loveland, and died in 
 New York State; Jotham died in Coventry; Emily 
 miarried Ruggles Merwin. 
 
 (VII) Hiland Hall Parker, son of Jotham, was 
 born in Coventry, N. Y., where he grew up and 
 married. In 1818 he went with his family to Mid- 
 dlebourne, Tyler Co., W. A^a., where he became 
 extensively engaged in the manufacture of bricks 
 and lumber. While on his way to New Orleans 
 with a cargo of his products the vessel was lost, 
 and no tidings of it were ever received. Hiland 
 H. Parker was a member of the 'Masonic fraternitv. 
 His wife, Lydia P. Pratt, was born Nov. 16, 1788, 
 in that part of the town of Berlin which is now 
 New Britain. Their children were as follows : (i) 
 Luman F., born Aug. 18, 1813, whose name intro- 
 duces this sketch; (2) Sarah Elizabeth, born June 
 26, 1815, who married Ezekiel Andrews, of New 
 Britain; (3) Isabella Richards, born Feb. 25, 1817, 
 who married Benjamin B. Blake, of Coventry, N. 
 Y. ; (4) Lydia Diana, born May 27, 1820; and (5) 
 Emily Eliza, born Jan. 11, 1822, who married Cal- 
 vin Taggart. The two last named were born in 
 West Virginia. After the death of Mr. Parker 
 his widow married, on May 19, 1830, Benjamin 
 Taggart, by vvhoni she had one child, Julia, born 
 Aug. 3, 183 1, who niarried Franklin Edgerton, of 
 Binghamton, N. Y. The mother died in Coventry, 
 N. Y., at the ripe age of ninety-six years. She was 
 a faithful member of the Presbyterian Church, and 
 lived a true Christian life. 
 
 Luman F. Parker went to Virginia with his par- 
 ents when only five years old, and remained there 
 until 1824. At the age of eleven years he came to 
 New Britain, Conn., where he remained six months, 
 thence removing to Coventry, N. Y., where he lived 
 with his uncle, Jotham Parker, who was a farmer 
 and drover. His mother removed from New 
 Britain to Coventry the year following. While with 
 his uncle he attended school, and he assisted bis 
 uncle until he was eighteen years of age, when he 
 went to Oxford, and there spent two years learning 
 watch repairing. For a period of two years he 
 traveled with a caravan and' circus, and then re- 
 turned to New Britain, where he worked at carriage 
 trimming a short time. In 1837 he met an agent 
 from Houston, Texas (then a wild region which 
 'had just asserted its indeoendence of Mexico), rep- 
 resenting the Houston Town Co., who owned a large 
 tract of land on which the town of Houston is now 
 situated and offered one thousand acres of heavy 
 pine timber to any one who would locate a sawmill 
 on said land. A company was organized in Nev/ 
 Britain, called the Texas Steam Mill & Buildmg 
 Co., of which Mr. Parker was a member, and which 
 sailed from New York on the i8th day of August. 
 The party, which consisted of twenty-two persons. 
 
 including stockholders and employes, arrived off 
 Galveston Sept. 28th, but did not get into the bay 
 and anchor until the 4th of October, because of head 
 winds from the south, where the wind had been for 
 six days, filling all the bays and bayous. It sudden- 
 ly changed to the north, and all this water went 
 out in about twelve hours, and of twenty-two vessels 
 afloat in the bay at eight o'clock on the morning of 
 the 9th of October, there was but one at ten o'clock 
 at nig'ht, the rest being hard aground on the island. 
 The brig "Elbe," on which the company arrived, 
 was on the island 150 feet from the bay, and they had 
 a hard task to get their machinery aboard the small 
 steamer "Leonidas," which carried it through Gal- 
 veston and San Jacinto bays and Bufl^alo bayou to 
 Houston, where the mill was built and put in run- 
 ning order by the ist of March, 1838, after a hard 
 winter's work. As many of the men were unaccus- 
 tomed to tha/t kind of labor, a number sickened and 
 died, and of the twenty-two who landed only seven 
 lived to return; and Mr. Parker and a niece (who 
 was at that time two years old) are now the only 
 survivors. On his return from Texas he went to 
 Coventry, N. Y., where he married, and then came to 
 New Britain and remained a short time, expecting 
 to return to Texas. However, as the company 
 failed, he returned to New York State and traveled 
 selling merchandise for a period of seven years, at 
 the end of which time he returned' to New Britain, 
 where he was a contractor at Russell & Erwin's until 
 1865. In that year he became a resident of Meri- 
 den, and has since been among the progressive citi- 
 zens of that place. For a period of seven years he 
 was a contractor in the works of Parker & Whip- 
 ple. For nearly fourteen years he has been retired 
 from active business, and has been obliged by infirm 
 hearing to refrain from participating in many move- 
 ments which had his sympathy. He is a member of 
 Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M., and of 
 Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. While resid- 
 ing in New Britain Mr. Parker was senior deacon 
 of Harmony Lodge, of that place, and served as- 
 deputy sheriff of Hartford county. He is a Demo- 
 crat in politics, and, with his family, is connected 
 with St. Andrew's P. E. Church. 
 
 On Sept. 8, 1839, at Coventry, N. Y.. Mr. Parker 
 was married to Miss Elizabeth Wyhe, who was born 
 in that place, a daughter of Daniel Wylie. For six- 
 ty-two years this couple have lived a life of happy 
 congeniality and mutual regard, a record seldom 
 equalled. Mrs. Parker is a woman of many Chris- 
 tian virtues, a most lovable character, revered by all 
 who knew her. Five childtien have come to this 
 union: (i) Lydia Almira, the eldest, born Sept. 
 22, 1841, in Coventry, married Emery O. Hall; they 
 have no children living. She is a member of Ruth 
 Hart Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolu- 
 tion, which she has served as secretary, and is now 
 a member of its official board. (2) Hiland Hall, 
 born July 17, 1845, in Coventry, is a traveling sales- 
 man residing in St. Louis, Mo. On July 14, 1877. 
 
670 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in Chicago, he married Cora Frances' Strong, of 
 Cincinnati, who is now decease'd. At the age of 
 seventeen years he enHsted in the Union army, and 
 served three years. He was wounded at the battle 
 of Antieltam. (3) Luman FrankHn, born Sept. 26, 
 1847, in Lexington, N. Y., is a prominent attorney 
 of St. Louis, and is now general solicitor for the 
 St. Louis & San Francisco system. On Feb. 22, 
 1872, he married Sara B. Maupin, daughter of Col. 
 A. \l. Maupin, of Union, Mo., and they have had 
 five children, Luman Franklin (who is married and 
 resides in Indian Territory), Jacqueline O., Rex 
 William (who died when five years old), Grace 
 Malcolm, Rowe Albert, and a twin bi-other of the 
 last named, who died when three months old. (4) 
 Charles Jotham, born Dec. 4, 1848, at Xew Britain, 
 died Oct. 31, 1899, in New Orleans. (5) William 
 D. Wylie, born March 6, 1852, is mentioned below. 
 The Wylie Family, of which Mrs. Luman F. 
 Parker is a descendant, is of Scottish origin, and 
 was early located in New York. James AVylie, 
 great-grandfather of Mrs. Parker, and James Wylie, 
 her grandfather, were soldiers in the Revolution, 
 and settled in Coventry. The latter's children were : 
 Daniel ; Betsy, who married Wiilliam Thomas ; 
 Jamies, who married a Miss Fairchild ; Sally, who 
 married W. Button ; Temperance, who' married 
 Whiting Cornish ; Samuel Hawley, who married 
 (first) Deborah Sands and (second) Minerva Bene- 
 dict ; Maria, who married Coleman Mandeville and 
 ( second) Charles Hatch ; and John, who married 
 Esther Hinkley. 
 
 Daniel Wylie, son of James, was a native of 
 Coventry. He married Lucy, daughter of Roger 
 Edgerton, and granddaughter of Mathew Cole, both 
 of whom were Revolutionary soldiers. They were 
 of Norman-French descent. Daniel Wvlie's chil- 
 dren were : Almira, who died at the agie of twenty- 
 four years ; Elizabeth, wife of Luman F. Parker ; 
 Stewart H., now deceased; Helen M., w'ho married 
 Joseph Elliott ; Erastus, the father of Mrs. S. Olin 
 Parker, of Meriden ; Hial E., a resident of Sa't 
 Lake City ; Angeline, wife of iMarcus Scott, of 
 Franklin, N. Y. ; and two who died in childhood. 
 The Pratt Family, to which Luman F. Parker 
 belongs through his mother, is traced back to the 
 eleventh century. With regard to the home of the 
 English Pratts, as they were anciently, so they are 
 to-day, seated chiefly in eastern and southern parts 
 of England, in the contiguous counties of Leicester, 
 Hunting, Norfolk, Lincoln and Hertford. The name 
 of Pratt is variously spelled in more ancient writings 
 thus: Pratt, Prat, Pratte, Pradt, Praed, Prate, also 
 Praer and Prayers. It is a surname derived, like 
 many of the Nonnan and Saxon names, from a lo- 
 cality, from the Latin word pratiiin, a meadow. The 
 mottO' belonging to thie emblazonry of Pratt of Roys- 
 ton Flail, in Norfolk, thus alludes to the etymology 
 of the name, "Ridcnt Florentia Prata'," "Flowery 
 meadows smile." The name of Pratt occurs among 
 the earliest of English surnames, and members of 
 
 the family in many of its branches held stations of 
 influence and power in the English empire. 
 
 The earliest mention of Pratts in England is 
 prior to the year 1200 of the Christian era, and 
 shows tbait they came to England from Normandy. 
 Four brothers, John, William, Engebran and Peter, 
 figure largely in the reigns of Kings Richard and 
 John. They were all living A. D. 1201, as they 
 witnessed the settlement of Robert, Earl of Mallent, 
 at Peter's marriage. John Pratt was a favorite 
 minister of Richard Cceur de Lion. In 1193 we 
 find him associated with William, Bishop of Ely, 
 and others, as the English commissioners to make 
 peace with Philip Augustus, concluded at Mayence 
 on the eighth day before the Ides of July. William 
 and John are also witnesses to a charter granted at 
 Podly, 'in 1199, with the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 In various places the records show their possessions 
 in Northampton, Berkshire and Oxford. In 1 191 
 William accompanied King Ridiard to the Holy 
 Land and became of great service to the King b}' 
 rescuing him from the Turks. One day, while 
 King Richard slept, he was seized by the Turks, 
 when Wilham Pratt calls out, "I am the King." 
 Whereupon they released King Richard and cap- 
 tured William. Of course .the King, thankful for 
 his own rescue, but grieved for \Mlliam Pratt, who 
 loyally redeemed him at the price of his own liberty, 
 could not leave the Holy Land without ransoming 
 the gallant friend who had saved his life at such a 
 cost. But he was not released until the following 
 year, when, during a truce between Richard anci 
 Saladin, he was exchanged for ten emirs. We find 
 him, A. D. 1189, as witness to a grant of land to the 
 Earl of Norfolk, and again on Charter Privileges 
 to the Jews, in the first year of the reign of King 
 Richard I. His name also occurs verv frequently 
 in the charter and documents of John's reign. 
 
 Of the name of Pratt there have been families 
 of consideration from early times, in different parts 
 of England and Ireland, as members of Parliament, 
 and holding positions of honor in the government. 
 Some of them were of knightly degree and those of 
 Berkshire were baronets. The branch of which we 
 are treating- wore soon, at least in the middle of 
 Queen Elizabeth's reign, settled at Careswell priory, 
 in Devonshire, which house and estate were sold 
 b>' Richard Pratt. This Richard was the grand- 
 father of Lord Chief Justice John Pratt, lineage of 
 the families from which the first settlers of Hart- 
 ford, John and Lieut. William Pratt, descended. 
 
 Lieut. AVilliam and John Pratt came from Hert- 
 fordshire, and we trace their lineage back to the 
 eleventh century. It is quite probable that they de- 
 scended from William, one of the four brothers who 
 came over to England from Normandy at that time, 
 the same William mentioned before, who rescued 
 King Richard from the Turks in 1191. Lieut. Will- 
 iam and his brother John were among the first band 
 of adventurers who settled Hartford. They em- 
 barked for the New World in the ship "Griffin," a 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 6ji 
 
 ship of 300 tons, and arriving at Boston Sept. 4, 
 1633, probably came to Hartford with Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker in 1636. They appear there among the 
 ■original proprietors, and drew home lots in the 
 first division of land, in February, 1639. John 
 drew lot No. 6, on Main street, Lieut. William drew 
 lots Nos. 8 and 6 on Burr street, now North Main 
 stredt. Lieut. William was one of the band who 
 went from Hartford on the expedition against the 
 Pequots in 1637, which resulted in the annihilation 
 of their power as a tribe. Subsequently be re- 
 ceived a hvmdred acres of land, by order of the 
 General Court, probably for services performed in 
 the expedition. About 1645 he sold his land in 
 Hartford to Mathew Beckwith and removed to Say- 
 brook. His first two children were born in Hart- 
 ford and the rest in Saybrook. He located in what 
 is now the borough of Essex, ' his home lot and 
 house being in the region now occupied by the Rope 
 Walk. It appears from the records of the State 
 and O'blier sources that he was a man of note in the 
 Colony and represented his town in the General 
 Asemibly from October, 1666, to ^lay, 1673, sup- 
 posed to be the year of his death. Im June, 1636, 
 he married Elizabeth Clark, daughter of John Clark, 
 first of Saybrook, afterward of 2\Iilford. The fact 
 of her being the dauglhter of John Clark is proved 
 by a will found in the probate office at New Haven. 
 Tlieir children : Elizabeth, John, Joseph, Sarah, 
 Will, Samuel, Lydia and Nathaniel. 
 
 (H) Ensign John Pratt, second child and eldest 
 son of Lieut. Willianii Pratt, born Feb. 20, 1644, 
 married, June 8, 1669, Sarah Jones, daughter of 
 Thomas Jones, of GuilfoTd. Their children : John, 
 Elizabeth, Thomas, Ysacke, Sarah, Lydia, Mehet- 
 able and Mary. 
 
 (III) Ysacke Pratt, fourth child of Ensign John 
 Pratt, born Jan. 16, 1677, married Alary Taylor. 
 Their children : Isaac, Timothy, Mary, Plumphrc)-, 
 James and Elizabeth. 
 
 (IV) Humphrey Pratt, fourth child of. Isaiac 
 Pratt, born May 16, 1716, married Lydia Tully, 
 daughter of William Tully, Nov. 30, 1746. They 
 resided in Old Saybrook. Mr. Pratt died Aug. 20, 
 1799. Their children : Humphrey, William, Lydia, 
 Elias and Andrew. 
 
 (V) Andrew Pratt, fifth child of Humphrey 
 Pratt, born Nov. 8, 1756, was thrice married, first 
 to Nancy Dorrance, of Rhode Island, who died Feb. 
 2, 1785, aged twenty-eight. In 1787 he married 
 Elizabeth Wbaples, who died May 15, 1795, aged 
 thirty. On June 12, 1796, he married (third) tlan- 
 nah Andrews, of Berlin, Conn. Andrew Pratt en- 
 tered the army at eighteen years of age, and was in 
 in the Revolutionary war until its close. Plis chil- 
 dren : By first wife — Sally, Tully ; by second wife 
 —Lydia P., Daniel Humphreys ; by third wife— Bet- 
 sey W., Henry M., William T., Nancy Dorrance and 
 Horaltio M. 
 
 (VI) Lydia P. Pratt, daughter of Andrew and 
 Elizabeth Pratt, born Nov. 16, 1788, married Hiland 
 
 H. Parker Nov. 10, 181 1, and on May 19, 1830, 
 married (second) Benjamin Taggart. 
 
 Lineage from which John and Lieut. William 
 descended is found in the registry of wills in Hert- 
 fordishire, England, as follows : 
 
 The first record w© find in direct line of descent 
 is the will of Thomas Pratt, of Baldoc, in Hertford- 
 shire. There is no date of his birth; but his will is 
 dated Feb. 5, 1539. Therein ihe remembers his wife 
 Joan and sons Thomas, James and Andrew, and 
 daughter Agiiies. 
 
 Of Andrew Pratt, the next in line of descent, no 
 will has been found, but the parish records contain 
 the following names and baptisms of his children : 
 Ellen, daughter of Andrew, baptized 1561 ; William, 
 baptized October, 1562; Richard, baptized June, 
 
 1567- ' 
 
 The will of William Pratt, son of Andrew and 
 grandson of Thomia's of Baldoc, is found in the 
 Doctors Commons, dated November, 1629, at Stern- 
 age, in Hertfordshire, of which parish he was rector 
 thirty years. The history of the Coimty of Hert- 
 ford, England, contains the followling memorial : 
 "Here lies Rev. William Pratt, Bachelor of Sacred 
 Theology, and most illustrious rector of this churcii 
 for thirty years." He married a lady whose name 
 was Elizabeth, by whoni! he had six children, and 
 died in 1629, aged sixty-seven. Their children : 
 Sarah, baptized Feb. 6, 1606; Mary, baptism not 
 found; Elizabeth, April 2, 1613; Richard, Feb. 16, 
 1618; John, Nov. 9, 1620; Lieut. William, baptismi 
 not found. It appears that William and John were 
 not remembered in the will, probably for the reason 
 that they left for Amferica or signified their inten- 
 tion of leaving and received their portion. 
 
 By the foregoing records we are able to trace the 
 pedigree of Lieut. William Pratt, the settler of 
 Hartford, backward three generations, that is, to his 
 grandfather, Thomas Pratt, of Baldoc, in Hertford- 
 shire, who- died in 1539, one hundred' years pre- 
 vious to the time when the settlers of Hartford 
 drew their home lots. As we find' the line traced 
 backward to Thomas ■ of Baldoc in the fourteenth 
 century, the record makes it probable that the line- 
 age goes back to William, one of the four brothers 
 wlho oame to England from Normandy in the 
 eleventh century. 
 
 WILLIAM DANIEL WYLIE PARKER, chief 
 clerk of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, at Hart- 
 ford, was born M'arch 6, 1852, in New Britain, son 
 of Luman F. Parker. He received his education 
 in the public schools of New Biritain, and at an early 
 age began to work with his father in the shops of 
 Parker & Whipple, in Meniden, to which town his 
 father removed about 1865, and he also worked as a 
 contractor in that city and in Pittsburg, Bridge- 
 port and Middietown, continuing the latter line until 
 1893, when he received appointment to his present 
 position through ex-Congressm'an Vance. At the 
 expiration of his first term of four years be was re- 
 
672 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 appointed, by Samuel B. Home, and is now serving 
 under Harry E. Dack. His conitiinuation in the 
 incumbency is the liigliest compliment that could be 
 paid to the value of his services. In political affilia- 
 tion Mr. Parker is an independent Democrat. 
 
 On Aug. 2j, 1878, Mr. Parker was married in 
 Jileriden to Miss Ella (Nellie) J. Clark, who was 
 boirn in Easthampton, Middlesex count}-, daughter 
 of C)-rus R. and Zuba ( Tryon j Clark, and three 
 children have blessed their union: Charles ^Villiam, 
 born Feb. 28, 1880, is a lithograph worker in Hart- 
 ford; Harold Hiland, born Sept. 23, 1883, is a 
 priinter, employed in the office of the Meriden 
 Journal; Elmer CHfTord, born Sept. 20, 1885, at- 
 tends the ^Deriden high school. The family are 
 identified with the Episcopal Church. !Mr. Parker 
 is a man of domestic tastes, well liked among all his 
 acquaintances and respected wherever he is known, 
 and his wife shares with him the high regard of all 
 in the circle of their friendship. 
 
 DENNIS WARD, a typical self-made man, now 
 successfully engaged in the coal and wood trade in 
 New Haven, was born in that city Oct. 8, 1842, 
 son of Owen Ward. 
 
 Owen Ward was born in County Kildare, Ire- 
 land, a son of Dennis Ward, a well-known pork 
 packer, who lived and died in his native land. In 
 1840 Owen Ward left the Emerald Isle and came 
 to A,merica to find a home and fortune for himself. 
 He married Mary Hogan, a native of the same lo- 
 cality as himself, and a daughter of Owen Hogan, 
 a dealer in produce, who passed his entire life in 
 Ireland. Mrs. Ward passed away in 1862, the 
 mother of nine children, namely: Dennis, Bridget, 
 Owen, James, William, Frank, John, Mary Ann 
 and Ann, four of whom are yet living, two sons and 
 two daughters. 
 
 Dennis Ward acquired his early literary training 
 in a little school taught by a Miss Jacobs, and later 
 attended one taught by a Miss Bartfish. He then 
 passed five or six years in West St. Mary's par- 
 ochial school and completed his education in the 
 Rogers school. AMien he began life for himself 
 he found employment driving a team, and at the 
 age of twenty-one was contracting on his own be- 
 half. He became of age on Wednesday, and the 
 following Mondav he branched out on his own ac- 
 count, carrying lumber from a vessel to a scow, for 
 which work he received forty cents per hour. By 
 economy he managed to save enough to embark 
 in business. On Sept. 30, 1880, he began his 
 present business, in whioh he has rapidly risen 
 to the front rank. He is careful and conscientious 
 in his dealings and has won a fine trade. 
 
 In 1868 Mr. Ward was united in marriage with 
 ]Mary T. Lee, \\ ho was born in County Carlow, Ire- 
 land, a daughter of James Lee, and a family of seven 
 children has come of this union, of whom four are 
 now living: James, Mary E., Annie and Elizabeth. 
 In his political relations Mr. Ward is a stanch Dem- 
 
 ocrat and takes a keen interest in the questions of 
 the day. True to the faith of his fathers, he has 
 continued his membership in the Church of Rome 
 and is identified with Sacred Heart Catholic Church. 
 In all the relations of life he has been found honest 
 and upriglit, ever seeking to do that which he 
 thought was right. He is temperate in all his habits 
 and has never tasted intoxicating liquor. He has 
 found that success is the reward of honest effort, 
 and in his work he has been enabled to accumulate 
 considerable property in New Haven. He built his 
 home at No. 395 Columlbus avenue and has occu- 
 pied same ever since. 
 
 CHARLES B. WOOSTER, a leading con- 
 tractor and builder at Ansonia, is a representative of 
 the best element in business' life, his fine presence 
 and sympathetic nature giving pleasure even in a 
 chance greeting, while a well-stored mind makes his 
 conversation of rare interest. While he has been 
 very successful in business, he has always found 
 time for participation in local affairs and has been 
 especially prominent in fraternity work. He was 
 born July 2, 1844, in Oxford, this county, a son of 
 Daniel and Caroline (Bassett) Wooster. 
 
 Daniel Wooster, who ^\■as a farmer by occupa- 
 tion, was born and reared in Derby, this count}', 
 but made his peirmanent home in Oxford, where he 
 owned a large farm. In politics he was a Democrat, 
 but be did not seek official honors, and for many 
 3'ears he was a faithful member of the Methodist 
 Church. He died at the age of seventy-three, while 
 his estimable wife died aged forty-four. They bad 
 four children, as follows : John, a resident of Sey- 
 mour; Mary, who married first James F Carle)', of 
 Oxford, and later Stiles Loveland, of Newtown ; 
 Charles B., our subject; and Harriet, wife of John 
 Hawkins, of Oxford. The mother was a native of 
 Great Hill, Seymour, this county, where her an- 
 cestors settled at an early day. Her father, Isaac 
 Bassett, was a sea captain for some years, but passed 
 his last days in retirement at Se)inour, his death 
 occurring at the age of e'ightv-eight, and her mother 
 Betsy, reared a large family and died aged seventy- 
 five years. 
 
 Charles B. Wooster was trained to farm work 
 in his youth, and received a common-school educa- 
 tion only. At the age of twenty he began working 
 at the m'asons' trade, which he followed in dift'erent 
 towns in this section for about five years, when he 
 engaged in business for himself at Ansonia. For 
 some time his business included contracts in various 
 places, but later his work in Ansonia justified him in 
 restricting his operations to that locality. The 
 business having been established in 1873, he is now 
 one of the oldest mason contractors' in the town. 
 He has built many of the best buildings there, in- 
 cluding the Elm street school, and has made a spec- 
 ialty of constTOCting dams. He has also dealt ex- 
 ten'sively in real estate, buying the land for the pur- 
 pose of building houses for sale, and a number of 
 
^aJili^Ti .L^^^^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 673 
 
 dwellings near his own attractive residence, at No. 
 263 Wakelee Ave., were thus placed in the market. 
 H'is contracts are for wood, stone, or any other 
 building material, and at times he has from twenty- 
 five to fifty men employed. 
 
 On Oct. 25, 1871, Mr. Wooster married jMiss 
 Henrietta Strnckman., a nati\-e of Derby, and daugh- 
 ter of Conrad Struckman, a copper refiner, whose 
 last years were spent in Ansonia. She was the only 
 child by his first wife, Henrietta Hubbell, but he had 
 three children by a second marriage. Our subject 
 has one son, DWight, a mason builder in Ansonia, 
 who married Alisis Alice Pope, and has had three 
 children, Earle and Wynola, deceased, and Homer, 
 who survives. 
 
 Mr. Wooster is a Republican in politics, and has 
 served one term as selectman, and two years as 
 deputy judge of the cit}- court. He and his family 
 attend Emmanuel Church, at Ansoniia, andi he is an 
 active member of the ^lasonic order, belonging to 
 George Washington Lodg'e, No. 82, F. & A. M. ; 
 Mt. Vernon Chapter, No. 35 ; Union Council, No. 
 27, of Derby; New Haven Commanderv, No. 2, K. 
 T., at New Haven; and Pyramid Temple, at Bridge- 
 port. He also belongs to the Knights of Pythias : 
 the I. O. O. F., Naugatuck Lodge and Hope En- 
 campment, at Ansonia; the A. O. U. W., of whiqh 
 hfe is a charter member ; and he assisted in organiz- 
 ing in Ansonia the Independent Order of Red Men, 
 the Order of American Mechanics, and the Order of 
 Eastern Star. He takes special interest in the work 
 of the Knights of Pvthias, with which he united 
 March i, 1880, and has contributed liberally to vari- 
 ous projects for the good of the order. Many of 
 the offices in the local lodge have been held by him, 
 and he is prominent in the work of the Uniform 
 Rank, — C. B. Wooster Co., of Derby, having been 
 named in his honor. For some time he was treas- 
 urer of the Uniform, Rank, but he is now serving 
 on the Brigade staff, and his excellent business judg- 
 ment has madle him a valued worker in the Endow- 
 ment Rank. Mrs. Wooster is a member of the 
 Eastern' Star, the Rebekahs, and the Relief Corps. 
 
 HON. JAMES D. AIcGAUGHEY, M. D., who 
 for nearly a third of a century has 'been actively en- 
 gaged in the practice of medicine in Wallingford, of 
 which town he is one of the foremost citizens and 
 physicians, descends in an honorable lineage from 
 an historic family, members of which were con- 
 spicuous in the war of the Revolution and in the an- 
 nals of the State of Tennessee. 
 
 Dr. McGaughey was born Aug. 6, 1848, at 
 Greeneville, Tenn., son of Samuel and Caroline A. 
 (Burkhart) McGaughey, and a descendant on his 
 father's side of Scotch-Irish parentage, being in the 
 fifth generation from William McGaughey, who 
 married Elizabeth Lackey, and came from Scotland 
 to this country before the war of the Revolution 
 and lived for a time in the State of Pennsylvania, 
 whence they moved to Plolston, near Abins-don, Va., 
 43 
 
 but later and some time after the Revolution set- 
 tled in Greene county, Tenn. From there they 
 moved to Boyd's Creek in East Tennessee, where 
 the wife died in 1804. The husband then removed 
 to Middle Tennessee and died about 1810, near 
 Duck River. While living at Boyd's Creek he 
 built a stockade, which was known in the early his- 
 tory of Tennessee as AfcGaughey's Station (See 
 Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee). Of the ancestors 
 of this couple little is loiown, but it is believed that 
 they were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. 
 
 (II) Capt. Samuel McGaughey, son of William,, 
 was born in York county, Penn., July 15, 1763, and 
 was nine years old when his father removed to Hol- 
 ston (at that time Washington county, Va.). "In 
 1778 the Indians made war upon the settlement, and 
 his father was called to serve, but the son took his 
 father's place, as his substitute, and served through- 
 out the Revolutionarv war. He was under Capt. 
 James }tIontgomery in IMarch, 1779, in the expedi- 
 tion commanded by Col. Evan Shelby, against the 
 Chickamauga Indians. In 1779 he served under 
 Capt. John McKee, also in a movement against the 
 Indians, as a mounted rifleman. In 1780 he was in 
 Capt. Andrew Cowan's company, under Col. Isaac 
 Shelby, all being under the command of Gen. Chas. 
 McDowell, and marched into South Carolina. He 
 w as in the engagements on the Tiger River and ob 
 the Pocatelle. At the battle of King's ]\Iountain he- 
 was in Capt. John Pemberton's company, one of the 
 900 selected in Col. Shelby's regiment. In 1781 he- 
 commanded a company under Gen. Marion in Col. 
 John Sevier's regiment, and was with Alarion at the 
 battle of Eutaw Springs. 
 
 The foregoing account of Capt. AIcGaughey's 
 service is of record in United States Pension OfSce- 
 and from his own statements, and the family ances- 
 tral history in this sketch is from a written record! 
 that he left. This record further tells us that he 
 had been on fourteen different expeditions after the 
 Indians, and in a personal encounter with one, on 
 the Tennessee river, killed him with a corn knife. 
 He was a verv swift runner. After the war Capt. 
 McGaughey was appointed territorial sheriff of his 
 county, by John Sevier, and was with Sevier and 
 against Tipton, in the contest for the State of Frank- 
 lin, which existed about four years. He also 
 served as one of the commissioners to lay off the 
 county site of Sevier county. His home was on a 
 beautiful farm, a mile east of ^IcGaughey's Station. 
 He married Jane Laughlin, and they had a family of 
 eleven children — five sons and six daughters. Capt. 
 ^IcGaughey and his family helped found the old 
 Urbanna Church, in the upper end of Blount coun- 
 ty, Tenn., their minister being Rev. Gideon Black- 
 burn, the great western orator. Capt. McGaughey 
 died in 1845, and his wife passed away in 1848. Mrs. 
 lane (Laughlin) McGaughey was a daughter of 
 John Laughlin, who with his wife came from Ire- 
 land. iMr. Laughlin was a weaver of celebrity in 
 his day, and his wife kept a large dairy at their 
 
674 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 home some twelve miles from Abingdon, Va. They 
 were stanch Presbyterians, and strongly supported 
 the Revolution. 
 
 ( III ) Major John McGaughey, son of Capt. 
 Samuel, was born in Greene county, East Tennessee, 
 July 12, 1792. He married Jane Robinson, whose 
 father, as an associate of John Sevier, assisted in 
 organizing the first government of Tennessee. She 
 was born in Greene county. East Tennessee, Jan. 29, 
 1792. ;\Iajor ^IcGaug'hey was a clear-headed, even- 
 tempered man, but had a fearless disposition. He 
 -served in many public capacities and was one of 
 the commissioners to treat with the Indians before 
 their removal from Tennessee and he served as a 
 soldier under Gen. Andrew Jackson in his Indian 
 ■campaigns in Alabama and Mississippi. He was a 
 ■delegate, representing Greene, Sevier, Cocke, "Shm- 
 loe, Blount and McAIinn counties, to the convention 
 to revise the constitution of 1796, under which the 
 State was first governed. Under the provisions 
 of that constitution free persons of color were al- 
 lowed to vote. This right was taken away in the 
 new constitution. 3.Iajor ^IcGaughev offered an 
 ^imendment to restore it, but the proposition was 
 I'oted down, thus doing away with free colored suf- 
 frage. Although being the owner of a very large 
 farm he would never be the owner of slaves and 
 hired all his work done by the day. He also served 
 in both branches of the State Legislature a number 
 of times. He took a great interest in the building 
 of the E. T. & Va. R. R., from Bristol to Knoxville, 
 now part of the Southern Railroad, using all his 
 means to that end, and was a director of the com- 
 pany at the breaking out of the Civil war. In that 
 struggle he maintained his character as a Jacksonian 
 Democrat and stood out straight for the Union dur- 
 ing the terrible poHtical excitement in East Ten- 
 nessee in the first two years of the war. He died 
 at the old homestead ^lay 20, 1874, at the advanced 
 age of eighty-two years. His wife died Jan. 12, 
 1864, and the remains of both rest side by side at 
 ^It. Bethel, near Greeneville, TeUiUessee. 
 
 (IV) Samuel McGaughey, son of Major John, 
 and the father of Dr. James D. McGaughey, of 
 AVallingford, was born A'lay 31, 1816, on his father's 
 farm near the Nolachuckey river. He was a mer- 
 chant, both retail and wholesale, and was also largely 
 engaged in a commission business. He was a broad- 
 minded, liberal, Christian gentleman whose integrity 
 was of the highest order. A man of intellect and 
 unusually great business capacity, he did an exten- 
 sive business and accumulated means which, how- 
 ever, the Civil war wiped out. After the restoration 
 of peace he began anew with increased energy and 
 v.as rapidly regaining his lost fortune when he 
 suilered a terrible fall which produced concussion 
 of the brain, from which he died in ten days, his 
 death occurring at his home in ( ireeneville, Tenn., 
 Feb. 25, 1870. For many years he was a deacon of 
 the First Presb)^terian Church. He was generous 
 
 and sympathetic to the poor and took great pleas- 
 ure in his gifts to them and all worthy objects. 
 
 In early life Samuel McGaughey was married to 
 Miss Carohne A. Burkhart, born March 4, 1821, at 
 F'aperville, East Tenn,, daughter of George and 
 Elizabeth (Castle) Burkhart (originally spelled 
 Burkhardt but abridged by this George). 
 
 The Burkhart family was of German origin. 
 Peter Burkhart, the first of the family in this coun- 
 try, came from Germany before the war of the Rev- 
 olution and settled in Frederick county, Md., where 
 George Burkhart, mentioned above, was born Sept. 
 30, 1775. He married (first) Sept. 8, 1794, Hannah 
 Hedge, who bore him five children and died in 1801, 
 and he married (second) Jan. 7, 1805, Elizabeth 
 Castle and the union was blessed with twelve chil- 
 dren, of whom Caroline A. (Burkhart) McGaughey 
 was the eleventh child in order of birth. Elizabeth 
 (Castle) Burkhart was of English descent, born 
 Sov. 25, 1779, near Frederick City, Aid., then called 
 Frederick Town, where she was reared. Her death 
 occurred July 14, 1855, at Paperville, East Tennes- 
 see; George Burkhart died June 29, 1852, at the 
 same place. This couple had settled in that section 
 of Tennessee in 1806, when the husband built a 
 paper mill, in which was made the first paper manu- 
 factured in the State, and for which he received a 
 premium of fifty dollars. From this mill the loca- 
 tion became known as Paperville, a hamlet four 
 miles east from Bristol. Of this Burkhart family 
 one member only — J. W. Burkhart — of Ruthton, 
 Sullivan Co., Tenn., survives. He has preserved the 
 family record. 
 
 To the marriage of Samuel McGaughey and Car- 
 oline A. Burkhart were born eleven children, six 
 sons and two daughters surviving the mother, whose 
 death occurred Jan. 27, 1886, at Atlanta, Ga. All of 
 the surviving children, except Dr. McGaughey, of 
 Wallingford, Conn., reside in the South. The 
 mother of this family was a woman of great piety 
 and worth, and her lovable disposition won the es- 
 teem of all who knew her. She was an earnest, con- 
 sistent member of the First Presbyterian Church, 
 ever greatly interested in its welfare. She reared 
 all her children to become useful and honorable 
 citizens. 
 
 James D. McGaughey, the subject proper of this 
 notice, received his first instruction in school in 1854 
 in a small boys' department in a youne ladies sem- 
 inary at Greeneville, presided over bv Mrs. Valen- 
 tine Sevier, a daughter of Deacon Lyman Cannon, 
 of Wallingford, Conn. Following this he attended 
 Greeneville College, the oldest institution of learning 
 in the State. Much of the school period of his life 
 was during the trying scenes of the Civil war and 
 it was greatly interrupted thereby, and his education 
 was received under difficulties. At this time the 
 Third Georgia Battalion of Confederate troops was 
 Cjuartered in the town to intimidate the inhabitants, 
 two-thirds of whom were Unionists. This com- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 675 
 
 mand took the college for a smallpox hospital and 
 destroyed one of the most valuable libraries in the 
 State and all the apparatus belonging to the insti- 
 tution. Driven from college but determined to pur- 
 sue his studies, young McGaughey entered a private 
 school, which was also disbanded on account of hos- 
 tilities in that section. He next received instruction 
 imder the private tutorship of Robert McCorkle, one 
 of the most thoroughly educated men in the State. 
 Some days he could not reach the house of his tutor 
 on account of the guerrilla warfare in the streets 
 and the fear of being pressed into the Confed- 
 erate service by these lawless men. By persever- 
 ance, however, he continued his studies through 
 those perilous times and until he entered Jefferson 
 Medical College at Philadelphia in 1866. He was 
 graduated with all the honors of a full-fledged M. 
 D. from that institution in 1870, returning to East 
 Tennessee where for a year he practiced his profes- 
 sion. In 1872 the Doctor located permanently in 
 WaUingford, Conn., v^rhere his life and citizenship 
 *have been such as to command the respect and es- 
 teem of his fellow townsmen, and to win for him a 
 place amonsr the foremost professional men and citi- 
 zens of the town. He has been industrious, very act- 
 ive professionally and a useful member of church 
 and society, a gentleman in every way worthy of his 
 honorable hneage. He has built up a large and 
 lucrative practice, has occupied honorable stations 
 in the profession in which he stands high, and also 
 m town affairs. He is the medical examiner for the 
 town of WaUingford and post surgeon for exemption 
 from military taxes. He is also examining surgeon 
 for a number of boards and insurance companies. He 
 is a member of the American Medical Association, 
 the State Medical Society, and of the New Haven 
 County Medical Society, in which he has always 
 taken an active interest. He is a contributor of 
 papers to current medical periodicals. Fraternally 
 he belongs to the K. of P. ; Accanant Lodge, I. O. 
 O. F. ; Compass Lodge, F. & A. M., at WaUingford ; 
 and he is vice-president of the State Board of the 
 State Masonic Home. In 1880 he was a representa- 
 tive from the town in the State Legislature and 
 took part in the debate on the final settlement of the 
 boundary line between New York and Connecticut, 
 which had been in dispute for upwards of two 
 Iiundred years. He was register of vital statistics 
 for nine years. 
 
 On June 8, 1871, Dr. McGaughey was married 
 to Sarah V., daughter of Burdett and Juliett (Merri- 
 man) Cannon, and granddaughter of Deacon Ly- 
 man and Sally Cannon, all of WaUingford and of 
 sturdy New England stock. To the Doctor and his 
 wife have been born five children, of whom two 
 daughters and one son survive, the others, a son 
 and daughter, dying in infancy. Carrie Vene, born 
 Feb. 4, 1876, married June 7, 1899, Henry L. Mor- 
 ris, son of Dennis Morris, of WaUingford; Juliet 
 Daisy, bom Oct. 25, 1879; James David, Jr., born 
 May 15, 1882, is attending Lawrenceville (New 
 
 Jersey) School for Boys and is directing his ambi- 
 tion towards a medical career ; Annie, born Aug. 25, 
 1872, died at the age of thirteen months; and Sam- 
 uel, a twin of James D., Jr., died at the age of 
 fourteen months. 
 
 HON. EDWARD E. BRADLEY. For upward 
 of two and a half centuries the ancestors of our sub- 
 ject have been associated with New Haven's his- 
 tory, and for fifty years past several of the name, 
 notably Isaac Bradley and sons, William^ H. and 
 Edward E., in turn have been largely identified with 
 the manufacture of coaches, carriages and carriage 
 v/heels of all kinds — an industry that has given New 
 Haven note and fame throughout the world as a 
 carriage center and home of a superior made ve- 
 hicle. 
 
 Edward E. Bradley, president of the New Eng- 
 land Dairy Corporation, and for many years one of 
 the city's prominent public men and leading citizens, 
 was born Jan. 5, 1845, i^ New Haven, a city which 
 has been the scene of his active, busy and successful 
 career and one in which he has been highly honored 
 by his fellow men. Mr. Bradley is the son of Isaac 
 and Abigail Knowles (Hervey) Bradley, the for- 
 mer for years a carriage manufacturer in New Ha- 
 ven who engaged in business first on the corner of 
 Church and Wall streets and later on Trumbull 
 street, near State, until 1854, in which year he re- 
 moved to a farm in West Haven, upon which he re- 
 sided until his death, in November, 1858, when 
 nearly sixty-four years of age. Mrs. Bradley 
 passed away in January, 1891, at the advanced age 
 of eighty-nine years. She was a great-granddaugh- 
 ter of Rev. Dr. Dibblee, a noted missionary of the 
 Church of England to New York and Connecticut 
 a century and a half ago. 
 
 The emigrant ancestor of this branch of the 
 Bradley family was Captain William Bradley, who 
 took the oath of allegiance in New Haven in 1644, 
 being therefore among the very early settlers of 
 New Haven. William Bradley was one of several 
 of a family which tradition, confirmed by careful 
 research, tells us descended from a family in the 
 market town of Bingley, on the River Aire, in the 
 West of Yorkshire, England. The emigrants, six 
 or seven in number, were all Cromwell men and 
 stanch Dissenters. 
 
 Edward E. Bradley- attended the old Lancas- 
 terian public school in New Haven and later the 
 public school and Brown's Academy in West Fla- 
 ven, and for one year, 1859, Robbin's Contmercial 
 School in New Haven. In April, i860, he began his 
 business career as shipping clerk in the New Ha- 
 ven Wheel Company's works. Several months later 
 he was made the bookkeeper of the same, sustaining 
 such relations until 1865. He resigned his position 
 in that year to accept one with Lawrence, Bradley 
 & Pardee, then considered one of the largest and 
 best carriage manufacturing firms in the United 
 States. He remained with this concern for a short 
 
6/6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 time only, leaving it to go into the hardware house 
 of John English & Co., but remained only a few 
 months when, owing to failing health from over- 
 work, he dropped out of business for three months 
 rest. On recovering his health, he in 1865 again en- 
 tered the employ of the New Haven AA'heel Com- 
 pany, the outline of the history of which is here 
 given from the fact that ^Ir. Bradley has played so 
 conspicuous a part in its affairs for so long a time. 
 The business of this company was started in 1845 by 
 Henry Stow and finally through several changes 
 became, in 1853, a corporation under the name of 
 the New Haven Wheel Company with a capital of 
 $60,000. The business for some years was not very 
 flourishing, owing mainly to a prejudice against 
 machine made wheels, as they were then called in 
 contradistinction to hand made ; then came the panic 
 of 1857, and later the Civil war, so that until the 
 close of the latter the affairs of the company were 
 not such as its promoters had anticipated, in 1865- 
 66 the stock of the company was bought in by Will- 
 iam H. and Edward E. Bradley, William and Henry 
 G. Lewis and Frederick Ives, new buildings were 
 erected and (he business greatly enlarged, with the 
 result that from a small beginning, perhaps a dozen 
 sets of wheels per week in 1845, fifty in 1853, ^'^^ 
 one hundred in 1865, the capacity of the concern ran 
 lip to three hundred sets per week in 1874. In Sep- 
 tember of that year the greater parts of the works 
 were destroyed by fire, entailing a great loss, but 
 such was the enterprise of the company that within 
 a few months still larger works were erected, and 
 its capacity again increased until it ranked for many 
 years as the largest in its line in New England. The 
 Vv'orks occupied a frontage of over four hundred feet 
 on York, Grove and Ashmun streets. 
 
 In 1866 Edward E. Bradley was made secretary 
 and treasurer of the company, succeeding Elenry G. 
 Lewis, who was chosen president. Mr. Bradley 
 most efficiently filled such positions until 1887 when, 
 on July I, he was elected president and remained 
 in that position until 1898 when, his old partners 
 having all deceased, he desired to enter into other 
 and different business relations, and accordingly he 
 closed out the business and retired from wheel man- 
 ufacturing. He has been president of the Boston 
 Buckboard and Carria.o-e Co., one of New Haven's 
 fine carriage making establ'shments, since 1886. He 
 was also president for a number of years of the 
 Charles W . Scranton Co., of New Haven, investment 
 brokers, and of the News Publishing Co., of New 
 Haven, publishers of the Daily Alorning Nczvs. He 
 v/as a director and the treasurer of the Fort Bascom 
 Cattle Raising Co., and is now a director and treas- 
 urer of its successor, the Red River \'alley Co., 
 which owns a ranch of 718,000 acres of land with 
 a herd of 30,000 head of cattle, in New Alexico ; is 
 
 a director in the Nt 
 
 Haven Countv National 
 
 Bank ; for upwards of twenty years was a member 
 of the Connecticut Local Board of the New York 
 Life Insurance Company, retiring from that board 
 
 Jan. I, 1902; president and member of the Execu- 
 tive committee of the New Haven Chamber of Com- 
 merce; director of the New Haven Colony Histori- 
 cal Society and vice-president and a director of the 
 ^'oung Men's Institute of New Haven. Mr. Brad- 
 ley is actively engaged at present as the president 
 of the New England Dairy Corporation, capitalize;! 
 al- $175,000, and engaged in the bu,siness of distrib- 
 uting from their main establishment on Hazel street- 
 milk, creami, butter and other dairy products to 
 the citizens of New Haven. They also have a 
 branch house on Commerce street, where they man- 
 ufacture ice cream, ices, frozen puddings, -mousse,, 
 etc., in a large wav, also fancy cakes from small 
 macaroons and lady fingers up to large decorated 
 wedding loaves. The business is an extensive and. 
 important one, recjuiring the services of a number 
 of experts and a large force of workmen. 
 
 Mr. Bradley has been prominent in military af- 
 fairs both in city and State. In 1861 he joined the 
 famous military company known as the New Ha- 
 ven Grays and rapidly rose through all the grades, 
 of command to the captaincy in 1S65, and held the 
 same until June, 1868, when he was chosen lieuten- 
 ant colonel of the Second Connecticut Regiment,, 
 and in 1869 was made its colonel. He was devoted 
 and faithful in his various military positions, and 
 especially efficient in devising legal measures for 
 the general improvement of the State Military 
 service, fostering and maintaining the excellent mil- 
 itary spirit that remained after the Civil war. While 
 in command Col. Bradley, under the orders of Ad- 
 jutant General Merwin, was engaged in the capture, 
 April 30, 1870, of a gang of New York roughs who. 
 had come to Charles Island in the town of Milford 
 to hold a prize fight. The gang numbered some 
 one hundred strong and the adroit manner in which 
 they were captured reflected great credit upon the 
 ready tactics of Col. Bradley and his officers and 
 men, all of whom were the subjects of favorable- 
 comment by the. press of the day. After ten years 
 of service, owing to pressure of business upon his 
 time. Col. Bradley resigned the colonelcy of the- 
 regiment. During these years Col. Bradley was the 
 recipient of many testimonials of esteem from the 
 men of his command and frequent ovations were- 
 tendered him on interesting occasions by the various 
 associations with which he was connected. Col. 
 Bradle)^ served as pa^mtaster-general in 1877-7S 
 under Gov. Hubbard, ranking as a brigadier-gen- 
 eral, and by his promptness in the performance of his- 
 duty, gave great satisfaction to the soldiery of the 
 State. In 1884 the General took an active and effi- 
 cient part in the ordering of the exercises at the Cen- 
 tennial celebration of the city of New Haven, held 
 July 3 and 4, and commanded, as one of the officers 
 of the day, the Fourth Division, which included the 
 Governor of the State and his staff. In 1893 he- 
 was appointed Adjutant-General of the State, with 
 rank of brigadier-general, on the staff of Gov. Luzon 
 B. Morris and served ably and acceptably in that: 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 677 
 
 - — the highest military position in the State — until 
 the end of Gov. Morris' administration. 
 
 Gen. Bradley, when a resident of the Borough 
 •of West Haven, from 1876 to 1886, served as a 
 member of its board of burgesses and also as a mem- 
 ber of the Union School District committee of the 
 town of Orange for several years. He has been 
 twice elected a member of the State House of Rep- 
 resentatives, in 1882 and 1883, and his popularity 
 Avas here shown from the fact that the town was a 
 Eepublican stronghold, no Democrat having been 
 ■elected for nearly a generation previous. In the 
 Lower House he served on the committee on Banks 
 and as House chairman of the joint standing com- 
 mittee on Roads and Bridges, also as clerk of joint 
 •committee on Cities and Boroughs. He introduced 
 the biennial session amendment to the State Con- 
 stitution, which is now a part of the fundamental 
 law of the State, and ably advocated its first adoption 
 Tjefore the House. He was also prominent in the 
 debates on mlatters in general, and especially on 
 those reported from his committees and on legis- 
 lation regardinp- . the shell fisheries of the coast 
 towns. He presided over the House at the closing 
 hours of the session of 1883 and was chosen to 
 make the farewell address to the Speaker, which 
 lie did in a graceful and eloquent iruanner. In 
 1886 he was elected a member of the State Senate 
 and bore a leading part in that body, being especially 
 active in legislation regarding education and sani- 
 tary laws. As chairman of the joint select committee 
 on New Counties and County Seats he was promi- 
 nently engaged in the most exciting controversy of 
 the session — the struggle between Bridgeport and 
 Xorwalk for the possession of the county seat of 
 Fairfield county. His arguments in that matter 
 were successful in securing the adoption by the Sen- 
 ate of the report of his commjittee in favor of 
 Bridgeport. 
 
 For more than a decade preceding Jan. i, 1902, 
 Gen. Bradley was one of the New Haven public park 
 commissioners, a board which has charge of the 
 city's splendid park system. He was the Demo- 
 cratic candidate for lieutenant-governor in 1886, 
 and though he had about 2,000 more votes than his 
 leading opponent, yet was debarred from taking 
 the office by the Constitution of the State, which re- 
 <[uires a majority over all opposing candidates. He 
 was also the candidate of the Gold Democrats of 
 New Haven for mayor in 1896, but was defeated 
 because the party split on the gold and silver 
 question, though he ran 1,600 votes ahead of his 
 ticket. 
 
 Gen. Bradley's religious connections are with 
 St. Paul's Episcopal Church at New Haven, of 
 which for many years he has been a vestryman. He 
 is a director of the Missionary Society of Connecti- 
 cut and a trustee of the Episcopal Academy of Con- 
 necticut, at Cheshire, founded in 1794. In all the 
 varied positions which Gen. Bradley has held, many 
 requiring ability and tact, he has shown high execu- 
 
 tive ability and skill, and as a man in contact with 
 men has gained a wide popularity. Starting out 
 for himself at the age of fifteen, with no capital but 
 brains, energy and good health he has made a de- 
 served success and won a position in the front rank 
 of the progressive men of New England. 
 
 On April 26, 1871, Gen. Bradley was married to 
 Mary Elizabeth, only child of Mary (Jones) and 
 the late Nathaniel Kimberly, of West Haven, and 
 their three children are : Edith Mary, Bertha Kim- 
 berly and Mabel Louise. 
 
 FREDERICK PERRY OWEN, the efficient 
 bookkeeper at the Connecticut School for Boys, lo- 
 cated in Meriden, was born in Buxton, York Co , 
 Maine, July 18, 1859, the family being a well-known 
 one in that great State. 
 
 John Owen came to this country from England, 
 and in 1770 married Sarah Bradbury, who bore him 
 five children, namely : Abigail, Betsey, William, 
 Elijah and John, Jr. John Owen served through 
 one winter's campaign in New York during the 
 war of the Revolution. 
 
 John Owen, Jr., was born in Buxton, Maine, 
 June 9, 1789. He married May 26, 1816, Ruth Hill, 
 daughter of Daniel Hill, an ensign in the Revolu- 
 tion under his brother, Capt. Jeremiah Hill, of 
 Biddeford, Maine. John Owen, Jr., died March 5, 
 1868, and his wife, Ruth, passed away Nov. 18, 
 1859. 
 
 Melville C. Owen, son of John, Jr., was born 
 Nov. 8, 1832, in York Co., Maine, where he is a 
 farmer of prominence and a large land holder. In 
 his locality he has been selectman, is a stanch ad- 
 herent of the Republican party and a leading mem- 
 ber of the Methodist Church. He married Martha 
 W. Davis, daughter of Simeon Davis, who has been 
 a most estimable wife and mother, beloved in her 
 family and neighborhood. Their children are : Os- 
 car, who resides in Boston, Mass. ; Frederick P., of 
 Meriden, Conn. ; Lincoln, a resident of Boston ; and 
 Mary Louise, who married Frederick Sanborn, of 
 Standish, Maine. In the Davis line Thomas Davis 
 was an early settler of Buxton, and he served in the 
 war of the Revolution. Simeon Davis, his son, 
 and the father of Martha W. Davis, was born in 
 Buxton Mav 31, 1790, and married Jane McLellan, 
 daughter of William, a Revolutionarv soldier, and 
 granddaughter of James and Abagail McLellan. 
 Abagail was a daughter of Sir Hugh McLellan and 
 his wife, Elizabeth, earlv settlers of Gorham, Maine, 
 and they were of Scotch-Irish blood : he was a car- 
 penter and made himself so useful on shipboard that 
 his passage money was returned to him. 
 
 Frederick Perry Owen grew up on a farm, in 'bis 
 boyhood attending the district schools of his locality, 
 graduating later from the Western Normal School, 
 at Gorham, Maine, in the spring class of 1880. For 
 two years he taught school in his own locality, and 
 in 1882 accepted the position of overseer at the Re- 
 form School at Cape Elizabeth where he remained 
 
678 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 two years, coming to Meriden, Conn., and entering 
 upon his duties as supervisor of the North Division 
 in the Connecticut School for Boys in January, 1884. 
 After filling this position five years he became su- 
 pervisor of Cottage D for a period of ten )-ears. 
 After -fifteen years of faithful performance of the 
 duties assigned him ^Ir. Owen was appointed book- 
 keeper of the institution and these duties also have 
 been performed with efficiency and to the satisfac- 
 tion of the trustees. He has proved a valuable as- 
 sistant to the superintendent and continues to give 
 the_ same careful, patient attention to all details 
 which has marked him ever since his first connection 
 with this State institution. 
 
 Mr. Owen was married in 1886 to Emily G. 
 Hurd, a most estimable lady who, as assistant ma- 
 tron in the school, attends to a very important 
 branch of the work. Mrs. Owen is a faithful mem- 
 ber of the First Methodist Church, and both she 
 and her husband are highly esteemed in social life. 
 In politics Mr. Owen is a Republican and is an 
 excellent representative citizen. 
 
 FRIEND E. BROOKS. Even as America is 
 distmcbively the homie of the typically self-made 
 man, so is it the glory of the 'na;tron that here are 
 aftnrded the opportunities which enable one to so 
 profit by his own industry and powers as to attain 
 a success worthy of the name. 
 
 Among the native sons of Connecticut who have 
 been the architects of their own fortunes, and whose 
 business careers have been characterized bv the high- 
 est i-ntegritv and honor, is Afr. Brooks, who is one 
 of the representative citizens of New Haven, where 
 be is engaged in the men's furnishings and fur busi- 
 ivess at Nos. 791-795 Chapel street, having an estab- 
 lishment of distinctively metropolitan equipment and 
 accessories, and a trade of representative order. For 
 more than three decades Mr. Brooks has been iden- 
 tified with the mercantile activities of New Haven, 
 and within this period he has bfecome well known 
 an'd has gained unqualified confidence and esteem 
 as one whose straightforward course and observance 
 of the highest ethics of commercial life have made 
 him a wiorthy factor in the commiunity. He is a 
 man of keen dliscrimiination and sound judgment, 
 and his excellent management and sound judgment 
 have brought to his mercantile enterprise a marked 
 degree of success. The safely conservative policy 
 which he inauguratetl at the inception of the business 
 commends itself to the judgment of all patrons and 
 has mjade the volume of business transacted one of 
 importance and no slight magnitude. In any work 
 purporting to touch upon the lives and deeds of 
 those whio stand among the leading lousiness men 
 of the fair city of New Flaven it is consonant that 
 definite consideration be accorded to the gentleman 
 v/hose name initiates this review, for he conducts 
 the leading enterprise in his line in that citv and 
 richly merits the prestige which he has attained. 
 
 Like many of the most successful business men 
 
 of the nation, Mr. B;rooks was reared under the 
 sturdy and invigorating discipHne of the farm, where 
 he waxed strong in both mental and physical vigor, 
 contributing his quota to its wiork and imbibing co- 
 pious draughts from the springs of independence 
 and activity which are always accessible to those 
 who thus live close to nature's heart. Here alsa 
 were formed the habits of industry and consecutive 
 application and that high regard for the dignity of 
 honest endeavor, whidb have been dominating char- 
 acteristics in his career, while the varied occupations 
 of his more youthful years proved a valuable experi- 
 ence. Mr. Brooks was born Nov. 3, 1840, at Beth- 
 any, Conn., son of Isaac Richard Brooks, who was- 
 born in the Nutmeg State, son of Isaac Brooks, 
 who was also bom in Connecticut ; father and 
 grandfather were farmers by vocation. Among the 
 children of Isaac Brooks, were the following: Mary, 
 wife of George Aldrich, of Waterbury, Conn. : 
 Sarah, wife of Eben Hoadly, of the same place : 
 Elizabeth, wife of John ?*Iullings, also of Water- 
 bury; Cynthia, wife of George Osbom, of Beacon 
 Falls; and Isaac Richard, the father of our subject. 
 Tlie last mentioned married Miss Laura Bald'win 
 and they became the parents of two sons, Edwin A. 
 and Friend E. Edwin A. Brooks died in Ne.v Ha- 
 ven in 1890. His politeness and courtesy to a 
 wealthy lady when a }'oimg man were so appreci- 
 ated by her that he was eruabled to engage in busi- 
 ness in New Haven under favorable circumstances 
 and he became one of the city's successful and hon- 
 ored merchants. At the time when the integritv of 
 the nation was menaced by armed rebellion he went 
 to the front as a valiant soldier of the Union arm}' 
 and madte an enfyiable military record. 'The father 
 of our subject passed away in 1848 and was in- 
 terred in the P'ines Bridge cemetery at Seymour, 
 Conn. His wife, who survives at the age of sev- 
 enty-six years, resides in New Haven. 
 
 Friend E. Brooks, to whom this review is dedi- 
 cated, vv^as but two years of age at the time of hii 
 lather's death, and thereafter he remained with 
 his mother until he attained the age of fourteen. 
 His early scholastic advantages were meager in 
 scope, being principally such as were afforded in the 
 district 'schools in the vicinity of hSs farm home. 
 As a boy he lived in different towns, Durham, 
 .Cheshire, Ansonia and others, and in each of these 
 he also attended school in' a 'somewhat desultorv 
 way, while the only institution of higher learning 
 where he pursued Ms studies was the Cheshire 
 Academy. At the age of fourteen years he left home 
 and went to Wallingford where he secured work on 
 a farm, his original remuneration consisting of his 
 board and clothing, with the privilege of three 
 months' schooling in the year. Of 'this period be 
 utilized in the pursujit of his education only ten 
 clays. Hie was of an exceedingly miodest and re- 
 t:.ring disposition, reticent almost to the poin't of 
 bashfulness, and thus he endured .90 much discom- 
 fort in tihe school room that after the tai days he 
 
^^P^^^-Z-^^-^-^e^siC^ ^^^/ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 6/9 
 
 indicated his preference for staying at home and 
 chopping wood in place of attending- school, doubt- 
 less to the satisfaction of Ms employer. Later he 
 entered the employ of his uncle, Eben Hoadly, who 
 held a contract for the delivering of barytes from 
 the mines in Cheshire to the railway depot ; this 
 mineral was in that period largely and profitably 
 j)ro!duce'd in th&t section of the State. Still later he 
 was employed by Andrew Bradley, of the same town, 
 receiving his board and schooling for doing chores 
 and he also worked for his uncle, Thomas Brooks, 
 who was one of the prominent business men of 
 ChesMre in the early clays. Subsequently he en- 
 tered upon an apprenticeship at the kegiTuaker's 
 trade in Cheshire, this industry being at that time 
 one of no little scope and importance in that town, 
 wlhere many thousand kegs were annually produced 
 and were used by the shippers of oysters. Tlius it 
 will be seen that the youth early learned the lessons 
 of consecutlive application and that his experiences 
 were along divers lines. He had also worked in a 
 clock shop in Ansonia ; had been employed in an 
 establishment where were turned out the old-time 
 hoopskirts then, in the early sixties, in demand by 
 every woman of any social pretensions ; and 'he was 
 thus ever ready to take advantage of any opportunit;- 
 which presented itself and to make the best possi- 
 ble use of his time. While attending school he em- 
 ployed Ms leisure time in trapping, in which line 
 he was exceptionally successful, often earning very 
 substantial sums from 'bis operations. While still 
 a young man he also served as a clerk in the gen- 
 eral merchandise establishment of E. R. Brown, of 
 Cheshire. 
 
 The year 1868 marked the advent of Mr. Brooks 
 in the city of New Haven, and here he secured a 
 clerkship in the mercantile establiishment of the firm 
 of Crofut & Co., whose headquarters were what is 
 now the west half of his own finely equipped busi- 
 ness place. His brother, Edwin A. Brooks, w-as at 
 that time the silent member of the firm, and there 
 our subject was retained in a clerical capacity for 
 the period of three years, when his brother severed 
 his connection with the business and the brothers be- 
 came associated in the same line of enterprise m a 
 different location. This alliance contmued about 
 five years For the past quarter of a century our 
 subjeot has been located at his present headquarters, 
 wliere for seven ^-ears he had as a business coad- 
 jutor, Samuel A. 'Stevens, w-hde smce 1886 he has 
 conducted the business indivrdually under h.s ow 
 name. In 1899 he added to his beadquarteis the 
 
 store at" Xo. 79 f; .^'^^^ '?£■ '''' ^°™^'' ^^'"'' '" 
 
 Chapel street, 
 
 fur department, wj 
 
 Chapel street, and. in the new section installed his 
 
 vhich jjroves a valuable and well 
 
 Datronized complement to his men s furnishing s ore, 
 patronizea co 1 j^j ^^est reputation in the long 
 
 w.Hich has ga'nS''..'|7,.,g\^s conducted business in 
 
 .'hie 
 
 .u . ,■ rrJip two stores are connected by an arch 
 
 that line. 'J "e lwl; 
 
 vears during ^v 
 
 rrhe t 
 
 *^i' ■ .^rerv respect the establishmient is metro- 
 nL'n hTving a large and select stock and catering 
 
 to a most discriminating- patronage, firmly held by 
 reason of many years of honorable and courteous 
 dealing. 
 
 The position which Mr. Brooks holds in the 
 business community is in a measure indicated by the 
 fact that he retains membership in ithe Chamber of 
 Commerce and the Business Men's Association, 
 while fraternally he is identified with Hiram Lodge, 
 No. I, F. & A. j\I., the Union League and the Pe- 
 quot Clubs. Mindful of the duties of citizenship, 
 he exercises hlis franchise in support of men and 
 measures, maintaining an independent attitude 
 rather than being guided by strict partisan lines. 
 He has never sought or desired the honors or 
 emoluments of public office, being essentially a busi- 
 ness man and believing that his legitimate line of 
 enterprise is worthy of his undivided attention. As 
 a result, in connection with his unvarying courtesy 
 and honorable dealing, he has built up a large and 
 profitable business and an enviable reputation for 
 commerdial integnit}-, his standing in the commun- 
 ity being indicated by the uniform confidence and 
 esteem in wddch he is 'held as one of its pioneer busi- 
 ness men. His success is the natural secjuel of his 
 own efforts and entitles him to a foremost position 
 among the self-made men of New Haven. 
 
 In 1 89 1 Air. Brooks completed his fine residence 
 at No. 591 Whitney avenue, where he has since 
 maintained his home and where a gracious hospital- 
 ity is extended to the wide circle of friends gained 
 during his long residence in the city. Signall}' true 
 and steadfast in all the relations of life, he richlv 
 merits the high regard in which he is held in New 
 Haven, and the biographer may review his career 
 with a feeling of distinct respect and satisfaction. 
 
 On Sept. 6, 1877, J^r- Brooks was united in 
 marriage with Miss Jennie Allen, of New Haven, 
 a native of Northampton, Mass., and daug'hter of 
 William B. Allen. Of this union two children have 
 been born, Alice L. and Flarold A., both of whom 
 are attending school at the time of this writing. Mr. 
 Brooks is a communicant of the Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church, as is also 'his wife, and he is at the pres- 
 ent time a member of the vestry of St. Paul's 
 (diurch, whose parish is one of the important one^ 
 of the c'ity. He is a man of broad Christian tol- 
 erance and charity, mindful of the springs of human 
 thought and action, and not passing undue judg- 
 ment on his fellow men of "all sorts and conditions." 
 This epitome of his career will be perused with 
 pleasure by those who know him and have cogni- 
 zance of his worthy and upright career. 
 
 JOHN H. PLATT. In these days of lavish 
 expenditure and beautiful furnishings the estab- 
 lishment of well-appointed apartments for the dis- 
 play and sale of high class interior decorations ha? 
 iDCCome a necessity and in this line the city of New 
 Haven takes a front rank. Among those who 
 through exquisite taste and excellent judgment have 
 become leaders in the trade mentioned is John H. 
 
■6So 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Piatt, whose beautifully arranged and completely 
 stocked store, at Xo. 90 Orange street, supplies every 
 reasonable demand. There may be found the rar- 
 est and most expensive of Oriental or other decora- 
 tions and also those which come within the reach of 
 a moderate income. 
 
 John H. Piatt was born in Prospect, Conn., Dec. 
 I, 1842, a son of Henrv P. and Rebecca (Nichols) 
 Piatt, the former of whom was a son of Capt. Ben- 
 jamin Piatt. 
 
 Caplt. Benjamin Piatt was born in Milford, 
 Conn., but later moved to Prospect and located on 
 a farm, becoming also a drover. Taking a great 
 interest in military affairs he was made the captain 
 of a militia company and was well-known all 
 through the State, tie married Nancy Bristol, who 
 was born in 3,Iilford, Conn., and she was a most 
 excellent wife and the devoted mother of a family 
 of ten childlren : Benjamin, who long \vas connected 
 as a contractor with the Seth Thomas Clock Co., of 
 Thomasiton, Conn. ; Henry P. ; Harris, who was a 
 farmer, lived and died in Prospect: A\'illiam R., 
 who lived and died in Waterbury ; John R., who is 
 a farmer in Prospect, Conn. ; Adelia, who married 
 Luther IVIorse; ]\Iar)-, who married a Mr. Clark; 
 Nancy, who married Al. Kelsey; Jane, unmarried: 
 and Augusta, who first married Henr)- Stevens and 
 second a Mr. Hall. Capt. Piatt was prominent in 
 political life, held many of the local offices and 
 served in the State Legislature. In the Congrega- 
 tional Church he was also conspicuous, taking an 
 active part in all charitable enterprises and liberally 
 contributing to its support. 
 
 Henry P. Piatt, a son of Capt. Piatt, and the 
 father of John H. Piatt, of New Plaven, lived all 
 his life in Prospect, Conn., where he was a carpen- 
 ter and joiner, a most worthy citizen and estimable 
 and upright man. Pie married Rebecca Nichols, of 
 Waterbury, Conn., who was born in Waterbury and 
 died in Prospect. Their children were: Benjamin, 
 who died at the age of twelve years ; Caroline, who 
 lived until her thirteenth year ; and John H. INIr. 
 Piatt was a stanch Whitr in his earlier years, later 
 becoming an active Republican and he served the 
 town as deputy sherifif for many years. The family 
 all belonged to the Congregational Church. 
 
 Growing up in his native town of Prospect, John 
 H. Piatt was a school boy of eighteen Acars at the 
 outbreak of the Civil war. The stirring events of 
 1861 awakened in his young breast the fires of pa- 
 triotism and he became one of the soldiers sent from 
 his village, enlisting in Co. A, 20th Conn. Y I., and 
 serving until the close of the war, taking part in the 
 battles of Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg, Cettvs- 
 iDurg, and after being transferred to the AYestern 
 Division went with the army of Gen. Sherman on 
 his memorable journc}' to the sea. A wound that 
 he received at Bentonville, N. C, still troubled him 
 and kept him in Prospect for the vcar succeeding 
 the close of the struggle, but by iSfif) his injured arm 
 had recovered sufficientlv to enable him to make 
 
 use of it and he came to New Haven to engage in 
 business. Here he has remained ever since, having 
 been identified' with the same line of business during 
 all these years. For fourteen years he was con- 
 nected with F. A. Gilbert, a merchant dealing in in- 
 terior decorations, since which time he has conducted 
 a similar business in his own interest, having now 
 the most elaborate and costly display of goods o^ 
 any bouse in tlie city, catering particularly to a 
 wealthy and cultured, as well as to a traveled pat- 
 ronage. Few houses in New England afford better 
 facilities in the line of interior decorations, includ- 
 ing paper, rugs, tapestries and bric-a-brac from 
 every land. 
 
 John H. Piatt was first married in 1875, his 
 bride being Miss Mary ]Munson, a native of Ham- 
 den, Conn., a daughter of Henry Munson, a well- 
 known resident of that localit)-. Her death took 
 place in 1879. In 1883 Mr. Piatt was united in mar- 
 riage to Miss Mettie H. Bishop, who was born in 
 this city, the daughter of Merritt Bishop, of New 
 Haven. No children have been born to Mr. Piatt. 
 In spite of absorbing business interests Mr. Piatt 
 has found time to show interest in public aflfairs, 
 filling the position of police commissioner for three 
 years, during which time many municipal reforms 
 were instituted. An active member of the Republi- 
 can party he takes a deep interest in the Union 
 League and the Republican Club and exerts con- 
 siderable influence in political circles. Fraternally 
 he is a popular member of the Quinnipiac and the 
 Ansantawae Clubs, the- Country Club, the Forest 
 and Stream Club, and New Haven Commandery, 
 Knights Templar, while in the Commercial Club he 
 has most efficiently served on the committee for the 
 promoting of new industries. In religious connec- 
 tions Mr. Piatt is a member and one of the vestry- 
 men of Trinity Episcopal Church of this city. 
 
 CFIARLES ALONZO KING, superintendent of 
 the gun anid madbine shops of Parker Brothers, 
 Tvleriden, is one of the best known and most highly 
 respected residents of that city. His birth occurred 
 in Franklin, New London Co., Conn., Feb. 10, 1837, 
 anid he comes from' one of the old families which 
 was established in this State long prior to the Rev- 
 olutionary war. 
 
 Samuel King and his wife. ^Mary, appear to have 
 been the first of the name recorded in Mansfield, 
 Conn. Their children were born there and the 
 printed records show that James was born March 
 20, 1748; Samuel, IMarch 22, 1751 ; and Ruth, Nov. 
 
 9, 1753- 
 
 James King, son of Samuel and Mary, was mar- 
 ried Nov. 25, 1779, to Irene Jennings, and accord- 
 ing to the Mansfield records their children were: 
 Alpheus, born April 2, 1781 ; Jehiel, Dec. 8, 1783; 
 Irene, Feb. 13, 1786; and James, Aug. 12, 1788. 
 
 Jehiel King, son of James, was married Nov. 
 15, 1804, to Zerviah Dunham. 
 
 Jehiel Dunham King, son of Jehiel and Zer- 
 

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 68 1 
 
 viah, was born Oct. 9, 1805, and, Ms faither dying 
 -when he was an infant, he was reared to manhood lin 
 the home of an uncle, assi'sting in the farm work, 
 and ranaining there until his marriage. Then he 
 removed to New London county, locating first at 
 Franklin, where he followed farming, and later re- 
 moving to Norwich, where he spent the remainder 
 of his life, dying there April 25, 1882. Few men 
 followed the teachings of the Golden Rule more 
 successfully than did I\Ir. King. All his life an in- 
 dustrious man he tried to live up to the highest 
 ideals of citizen, husband and father. In political 
 belief he adhered to the Jetfersonian principles of 
 Democracy. 
 
 On Feb. 11, 1827, ^Ir. King married Emmeline 
 Eliza Jennings, who was born in 2\Iansfield, Conn., 
 daugfhter of Asahel and Emmeline (Parsons) Jen- 
 nings, the latter a daughter of Jesse Parsons, a 
 soldier in the Patriot army during the Revolutionary 
 war. Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 King, one of whom died in infancy. jMary Eliza 
 married George W. Symionds, of East Hartford. 
 Asahel A. is now living at JMystic, Conn. Nancy 
 married George A¥ilber, now a resident of Shelton, 
 Conn. Martha D. (deceased) married John L. 
 Wilbur, of New Haven. Charles Alonzo is our 
 subject. Newell D. was a soldier in the Civil war 
 for three years, serving in the 21st Conn. V. I. 
 AMlliam WaUace was also a soldier in the Civil war, 
 serving four and one-half years in the 13th Conn. 
 V. I. Emmeline J. married Millcn Shumway, of 
 Middlefield, Conn. The beloved mother ot this 
 family died in June, 1874, in Springfield, Alass., and 
 was buried in Indian Hill cemetery, at Middletown, 
 Conn. She was a good. Christian woman, ivind and 
 fATnpathetic, devoted to her family and a valued 
 member of t!he r\Iethodist Church. 
 
 Charles A. King, of Meriden, was reared on the 
 home farm and attended the district schools of his 
 native locahty up to the age of eight years, at which 
 time his parents removed to Fitchville. There he 
 also entered school, and he subsequently attended 
 at Norwich until his sixteenth year, when he en- 
 tered the machine shop of J. S. & S. J. ^Mowry, re- 
 maining until he had become a skilled machinist. 
 When the business depression of 1857 fell on the 
 country it affected Norwich also, and Mr. King left 
 that town for Aliddletown, where he found em- 
 ployment in the sewing machine factory of Pratt & 
 Johnson. Later he became connected with the 
 AVheeler & Wilson Sewing ]\Iachine Co., of Bridge- 
 port, Conn., remiaining in that employ for a short 
 time. In i860 he went back to Middletown and there 
 entered the gunniaking department of the Savage 
 Fire Arms Co., continuing With that concern' untd 
 1867 when he accepted the position of supenntenid- 
 ent with the Smith & Wesson Co., manufacturers 
 of pistols, at Springfield, where he remained tin 1 
 coming to Meriden, in 1874- While at Springfield 
 he invented and patented the automatic ejector so 
 
 widely used on revolvers. This patent was sold 
 to his employers. He also made many improve- 
 ments 'in the machinery for manufacturing inter- 
 ohangeable work, and the high rating of the Smith 
 & Wesson weapon is largely due to his skill. 
 
 Probably no house in the United States is better 
 or more favorably known in its line than that of 
 I'arker Brothers and it was as superintendent of 
 their gun and machine shops that Mr. King came 
 to Meriden. For the past twenty-seven, years he 
 has been the effioient incumbent of that position. 
 He is the designer and patentee of the hammerless 
 breech-loading shot gun, now so widely known 
 throughout the world. With from 200 to 300 men 
 in bis charge Mr. King has not only satisfactorilv 
 perfonned the responsible duties of his office, but 
 he has also earned the confidence and affection of 
 both employers and employes. A position of this 
 kind requires the possession of attributes wholly 
 apart from skill in workmanship. In these days of 
 general business discontent he 'has so managed the 
 affairs of Parker B'rothers in his department that 
 there has been little friction. 
 
 In 1859 Charles A. King was married in Nor- 
 wich to Frances Ann Balch, who was born in Nor- 
 wich and died in Miiddletown, leaving two children : 
 Minnie F., who married C. E. Gaskell, of Mystic, 
 Conn. ; and Charles Winfield, who is a bookkeeper 
 for the H. Wales Lines Co. The second, marriage 
 of Mr. King took place in Springfield, Mass., to 
 Adeline R. Austin, a daughter of John Austin, of 
 Canterbury, Connecticut, and the children of 
 this union are: Walter A. and Raymond Earle. 
 The former is connected with the Parker gun Works. 
 He married Martiha W. Landis and they have one 
 daughter, Dorothy Elizabeth. The younger son, 
 Ravmond, is a student in the Meriden high school. 
 
 In 187s Mr. King erected a fine residence in 
 King street, Meriden, designed and finished accord- 
 ing to Mrs. King's ideas. It is not only one of the 
 most attractive homes in the city but is also one of 
 tlie most hospitable. The religious connection of^the 
 family is with the Universalist Church, Mr. King 
 giving liberally and generously to its support. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. King 'is connected with St. 
 John's Lodge, A. F. &"A. i\l., and Washington 
 Chapter, both of Middletown, and is also a member 
 of St. Elmo Commanderv, No. 9, K. T., of Meriden, 
 In politics he is a stanch Republican. During his 
 residence in Spiingficld he served in the citv Cf/Un- 
 cil, representing the Third W^ard. In Meriden he 
 was for four years an alderman, chairman of the 
 Police and Claims committees, a member of the 
 Water committee and has been president pro tem. of 
 the council, and was appointed police co'inmissioner 
 by Mayor Seeley in January, 1902; he is a trustee 
 of the Meriden Savings Bank. Mr. King is a man 
 of intellectual 'attainments and stud'ies on many sub- 
 jects, taking intense interest in the advance of sci- 
 ence. 
 
682 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 HORACE B. PERRY, long and favorably 
 known in the mercantile circles of New Haven, was 
 born in Oxford, Conn., Nov. lo, 1843, a son of 
 Capt. Herman A. Perry. The father was a farmer 
 and was born in 1807 in the house in which he 
 died in 1898. 
 
 Cyrus Perry, the grandfather of Plorace B., was 
 born in the old home, a son of Gideon Perry, and 
 there died. He was a farmer by occupation. 
 
 Capt. Herman A. Perry derived his title from 
 his connection with the State Militia, and was a 
 veterinary surgeon of note, serving in that capacity 
 at Harper's Ferry during the Civil war. Emma j. 
 Swift, his wife, was born in Monticello, Sullivan 
 Co., N. Y., and she died in Oxford, Conn., at the 
 age of eighty-four. The Swift family was of Eng- 
 lish origin and Mrs. Perry's father was a joiner and 
 builder. Three children were born to Capt. and 
 Mrs. Perry: Henry A. and Horace B. were twins; 
 and Frederick. Henry A. is a resident of Water- 
 bury, Conn. ; and Frederick, who is a farmer, is now 
 living letired at Bethany Center. Capt. Perry was 
 a Vvhig and later a Republican. With his wife 
 he belonged to the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Horace B. Perry spent his boyhood days on the 
 old farm at Oxford, Conn., where so many of his 
 name had been reared, and attended the district 
 school. When he was thirteen years old he was sent 
 to Sullivan, Hancock Co., Maine, to live with an 
 uncle and attend school, where he remained four 
 years. At the end of that period he came home to 
 enter upon the active duties of life and for two or 
 three years was employed as a clerk in the store of 
 H. W. Randall, at Seymour, Conn. For a year he 
 was a clerk in xA.nsonia in a store also belonging to 
 Mr. Randall; and in 1867 he entered the New Ha- 
 ven store of Sherman Smith, a nested center of trade 
 in dry goods and carpets. From Mr. Smith he 
 went to Beacon Falls, Conn., where with a partner 
 he opened a general store and for five years was in 
 business at that point. Circumstances seemed to 
 make it advisable that he sell out at the exoiration of 
 that period and buy from Sherman Smith his store 
 in New Haven, which he did, and the move has 
 been attended with the happiest results. For thirtv 
 years Mx. Perry has been in business at the old 
 stand. No. 914 Chapel street, dealing in carpets, dra- 
 peries, paper hangings and similar goods, and his 
 store has become a landmark in the local trade. 
 
 , Mr. Perry was married July i, 1868, to Sarah 
 J. Beecher, a daughter of John Beecher, and a native 
 of Oxford, Conn. To this union were born two 
 dhildreni: John B. and Harry L. Mr. Pcrr\- is a 
 Republican and has represented his ward in the com- 
 mon council four years. He is a member of the 
 Chamber of Oomimerce and for years has served in 
 the Governor's Foot Guards. ^!r. Perry is a Mason 
 and belongs to New Haven Commandery, No. 2, K. 
 T., being also connected with City Lodge, No. 36, 
 I. O. C). F., and the Red Mem. In religion he is as- 
 sociated with the EpiscG])al Church. Wherever he 
 
 is found he is recognized as a true and honorable 
 man, of high character, fine spirit, genial disposi- 
 tion and the most excellent motives and ambitions. 
 
 EDGAR J. PERKINS, superintendent of the 
 Charles Parker Co. spoon shop on East Main street, 
 Meriden, Conn., was born in the town of Meriden 
 Nov. 20, 1852, and is a descendant of an old and 
 highly respected Massachusetts family. 
 
 Russell G. Perkins, the grandfather of Edgar 
 J. Perkins, was a native of Springfield, Mass., and 
 a son of Elisha Perkins, who was a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary war and later a resident of Spring- 
 field. Elisha Perkins was one of the heroes of 
 Bunker Hill and after his marriage to Lois Newton 
 settled in Springfield, where he carried on a mill- 
 ing business. Both husband and wife lived a long 
 and happy domestic life, and when the husband died 
 the wife, worn out by anxiety and want of rest, 
 passed away on the same day, and their solemn 
 burial was made in one grave. Russell G. Perkins 
 learned the milling trade from his father and fol- 
 lowed the samie at Ludlow, Mass., and later at 
 Pittstown, N. Y. Still later he removed to Meri- 
 den, Conn., and locating on the Middletown road, 
 went to work in the spoon shop of Parker & Per- 
 kins, his son being the junior member of the firm. 
 His death occurred in his old home when he was 
 aged seventy-five and his remains were interred in 
 East cemetery, Meriden. All his life he was a close 
 Bible student, was a faithful member of the Baptist 
 Churdh, believed in the efficacy of daily prayer, was 
 a living exponent of the religion he professed and in 
 which he died. Russell G. Perkins married Salh" 
 Bartlett and to them were born seven children : 
 Russell, who became a partner with Charles Parker 
 in the business of Parker & Perkins ; James j\Ion- 
 roe, deceased ; Sarah, w'ho married Jerard D. Chase ; 
 Electa, who married George Cook, deceased ; Orson, 
 who lives near Eustis, Fla. ; Alary Adeline, who first 
 married Frederick C. Booth and second Dr. Jerard 
 Chase, her brother-in-law ; and Louise, at home. 
 The mother of this famil)- died in Meriden, was 
 laid to rest by the side of her husband, she also hav- 
 ing been a most worthy member of the Baptist 
 Church. Mr. Perkins was a Whig in his early davs 
 but later became a Republican. 
 
 James Alonroe Perkins was born in Ludlow, 
 Mass., where he grew to manhood and accompanied 
 his parents on their removal to the State of New 
 ''S'ork. For several years he held a position with 
 the New York & Erie Railroad, as engineer on the 
 Lightning Express, but later came to Meriden and 
 entered the employ of Parker & Perkins, his brother, 
 Russell, being one of the partners. After a short 
 time here, with several others, he made trip to 
 Iowa, and after prospecting a while, located at what 
 i-^ now the thriving little cin- of Grinnell, which was 
 settled by J. B. Grinnell in association with several 
 other pioneers from Meriden. Here Mr. Perkins 
 spent three years but finally decided to return to 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 683 
 
 the vicinity of liis former home. When he reached 
 Meriden he re-entered the employ of Parker & 
 Perkins, being made assistant superintendent, under 
 his brother, Russell, and he held this place until he 
 was made superintendent, when the partnership was 
 dissolved. Until his death Mr. Perkins, by faithful 
 attention to his duty, retained the confidence of the 
 firm, his decease Aug. 2, 1898, leaving a vacancy 
 which was immediately placed att the disposal of his 
 son, Edgar. He was buried with his parents in 
 East cemetery, in Meriden. Although not a member 
 of any church he lived up to 'Christian precepts and 
 was known as an honorable man. He was a mem- 
 ber of the Masonic fraternity, was a Republican in 
 his political sentiments but never accepted office. 
 The marriage of James M. Perkins took place in 
 the State of New York, his bride being Almira Al- 
 len, a native of that State, and the children born to 
 this union were : Charles, who died in 1896 ; Edgar 
 J., of Meriden ; and Harvey, who resides at Erie, 
 Colorado. Mrs. Perkins died Jan. i, 1870, and she 
 was laid to rest in East cemetery. The second mar- 
 riage of James Monroe Perkins was to Abbie Bel- 
 den, of Meriden, who is still surviving and she re- 
 sides in West Hartford. 
 
 The educational advantages ai¥orded Edgar J. 
 Perkins, of Meriden, were of a limited nature, and 
 v/hile still a youth he faced the "fact that he must 
 carve out a career for himself. This is not always 
 the worst thing that can confront a young man and 
 it brought to the surface the energy and industry oi 
 Edgar Perkins, which has resulted in his efficient 
 superintendency of this important branch of the 
 great manufacturing business of the Charles Parker 
 Company. His first work was on the neighboring 
 farms, but later be went as a coal heaver to New 
 York, New Jersey and as far south as Virginia, on 
 the Old Dominion steamship line. After drifting 
 around for several years, gaining much experience 
 v/hich 'has been of use to him in the managernent of 
 the large force of men under his control in his pres- 
 ent position, he returned to Meriden and at the age 
 of eighteen started in to learn the trade of tool 
 maker in the spoon shop of which his father was the 
 superintendent. Later he was employed as a ma- 
 chinist by the Elm City Shirt Company, of New 
 Haven, where he remained for three years and then 
 went back to Meriden, accepting a position as fore- 
 man of the spoon shop of the Parker establishment. 
 Later he entered the die-sinking shop where he con- 
 tinued until the death of his father, at which time 
 he was appointed to fill the position he so ably holds. 
 Mr. Perkins has a force of 100 hands in charge and 
 has the ability to nmnage both work and men to the 
 satisfaction of the latter, and in the quantity and 
 degree of excellence demanded by his employers in 
 the former. 
 
 Mr. Perkins was marnied in Meriden tc Miss 
 Ellen M. Smith, a native of this city, and to them 
 were born three children : Belle, who married Leon 
 Brainerd, of Hartford ; Daisey, who married George 
 
 Farrow, of Middletown, and Howard, who is a 
 maker of tools. In 1900 Mr. Perkins completed a 
 fine residence which is one of the most complete 
 and attractive on the Middletown road, from plans 
 of his own, a delig'htful, comfortable and most hos- 
 pitable mansion. 
 
 Although Mr. Perkins has long been an active 
 member of the Republican party he has sought no 
 political honors, his good citizenship being shown 
 in 'his upholding of law and his encouraging of all 
 beneficial public enterprises. Mr. Perkins has served 
 as grand juror of the town of Meriden and for 
 some years was school tax collector and was very 
 active on the school board under the old district sys- 
 tem, taking great interest m the educational ad- 
 vancement of his district. He is a valued member 
 of Center Lodge, No. 97, A. F & A. ]\f., and in his 
 religious views he is liberal. 
 
 SAMUEL DICKINSO'N OTIS, :M. D., one 
 of Meriden's best known medical practitioners, was 
 born in old Saybrook, Middlesex Co., Conn., Dec. 27, 
 1856, and is a worthy representative of a sturdy an- 
 cestry that dates back to the early Colonial period. 
 
 John Otis emigrated from England to Hing- 
 "ham, Mass., in 1635, and emoved to Weymouth, 
 Mass., where he died in 1657, aged seventy-six. 
 His first wife, Margaret, came from England and 
 died in Hingham in 1653. This John Otis was the 
 ancestor of the Otis family that first settled in New 
 London and Coldhester, Conn. 
 
 There was an Israel Otis, born June 28, 1781, 
 apparently of the Montville, Conn., family, who was 
 a descendant in the seventh generation from John 
 (above), his line being through (II) John, of Eng- 
 land and New England; (III) Joseph, of Montville, 
 Colchester and Salemi (all in Connecticut) ; (IV) 
 Nathaniel, of Colchester, Conn.; (V) John (3), of 
 Colchester, Conn.; (VI) Nathaniel (2), of New 
 London, Conn.: and (VII) Israel, born June 28, 
 1781. Israel Otis, grandfather of Dr. Otis, of Meri- 
 den, was a native of Lyme, New London county, 
 where he grew to manhood on a farm. He married 
 in his birthplace, where he followed farming for sev- 
 eral years, and later removed with his family to 
 Old Saybrook, Middlesex county, where he spent 
 the remainder of his days in agricultural pursuits, 
 and where he died. He was a communicant of the 
 Episcopal Church and politically was a Democrat 
 of ihe Jefferson and Jackson type. He married a 
 Miss Babcock, who died in Old Savbrook. She, 
 too, was a member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Israel Sabine Otis, son of Israel and the father 
 of the genial Meriden Doctor, was born in Lyme, 
 Conn., removed to Old Savbrook with his parents 
 and there attended the public schools. He studied 
 for the medical profession under the well-known 
 practitioner. Dr. Thomsion, and later with Dr. 
 Sperry. He began his practice in Lyme, his birth- 
 place, where he continued for four years, when he 
 moved for the second time to Saybrook and started 
 
684 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in the fish and oil business, becoming a large manu- 
 facturer of fish oil, also dealing extensively in fish. 
 He built up a successful business and was a well- 
 known business man, noted for his upright character 
 and honest dealings. He was a consistent member 
 of the Episcopal Church and died in Saybrook in 
 IMarch, 1868. In politics he was a Democrat. Israel 
 Sabine Otis was married in Saybrook to Caroline 
 Dickinson, a daughter of Samuel Dickinson. She 
 is a lady of culture and refinement, a worthy mem- 
 ber of the Episcopal Church, still making her home 
 in Saybrook. Five children were born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Otis : James E., manufacturer of oil in Tuck- 
 erton, N. J.; Josephine, wife of Ely Spencer; Lucy 
 Caroline, at home; Samuel Dickinson; and \'irginia, 
 at home. 
 
 Samuel Dickinson' Otis attended the district 
 school and also a military academy in Saybrook and 
 was graduated from the high school in that town. 
 He had early determined upon a professional career 
 and had studied for some time with that end in view. 
 He began his medical studies under Dr. Grannis, of 
 Saybrook, and in 1874 he entered the medical depart- 
 ment of the University of New York, and after a 
 three years' course he was graduated in 1877. His 
 first location for the practice of his profession was in 
 Kew Jersey, where he remained for a year and a 
 half. In 1878 he came to Meriden and for the past 
 twenty-three years he has been kept busy with his 
 constantly growing practice. In spite of the many 
 hours each day he is obliged to give his patients 
 he has managed to study and keep well up in his 
 profession. He is a man of unassuming manners, 
 a thoughtful and quiet student, but is very popular 
 and has the respect of the people of Meriden. In 
 politics he is independent, was elected to the city 
 council from the Second Ward in 1881 and served 
 on several committees. Socially he belongs to Me- 
 ridian Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and St. Ehno Com- 
 mandery, K. T. He is a member of the State, County 
 and City Medical societies, and of the American 
 Medical Association. In religious belief he follows 
 the faith of his ancestors and is an attendant of the 
 Episcopal Church, as is also his wife. 
 
 In 1882 Dr. Otis was married, in Meriden, to 
 Mary Newport, who was born in Windsor Locks, 
 a daughter of Edward C. and Caroline (Norton) 
 Newport. Their children are : Fessendon Newport, 
 torn Sept. 19, 1891 ; and Israel Sabine, born Feb. 
 2, 1895. 
 
 Edward Charles Newport, M. D., was born 
 in Halle, Germany, July i, 1837, and died Aug. 2, 
 1895. In pajternal lines he was of English descent 
 and in maternal lines his ancestry is traced back to 
 the family of Martin Luther. His father an active 
 participant in the Revolutionary disturbances in 
 Germany in 1848, was obliged to emigrate. Young 
 Newport remained in his native land until his 
 twenty-second year, when he, too, came to America 
 and joined a brother at Windsor Locks, where he 
 found employment as a cutter in the Aledlicott Mills. 
 
 In 1862 he became a member of Company C, 25th 
 Conn. V. I., and was corporal of his comipany, was 
 later promoted to chief bugler of the regiment and 
 in January, 1863, was made brigade bugler. He was 
 disabled in the attack on Port Hudson and after 
 two months returned home. His medical studies 
 were pursued in the New York Homeopathic Hos- 
 pital College, from which institution he was gradu- 
 ated in 1868. After a year in California he located 
 in Meriden and made that place the scene of his 
 professional labors. He was prominent in the civil 
 life of his town and served one term as alderman. 
 He also served a term as medical director of the 
 Staite Encampment of the G. A. R. 
 
 Dr. Newport was a prominent Mason, being a 
 member of Apollo Lodge, Suffield ; Meriden Chap- 
 ter, O. E. S. ; Keystone Chapter, R. A. M. ; Hamilton 
 Council, R. & S. M.; St. Elmo Commandery, K. 
 T. ; and Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of 
 Eridlgeport. He was enrolled as well in the mem- 
 bership of Merriam Post, G. A. R. ; Teutonic Lodge. 
 I. O. O. F. ; Montowese Tribe, I. O. R. M. ; Silver 
 City Lodge, A. O. U. W. ; and the Meriden Scientific 
 Association. Dr. Newport held the office of medi- 
 cal examiner for a number of life insurance com- 
 panies and societies. 
 
 JOHN M. RICHARDS, a leading citizen of 
 AA^est Haven, and a representative of the Diamond 
 M.atdh Co., was born Nov. 2^, 1834, near the site 
 of his present residence. 
 
 John Richards, his grandfather, and William 
 Richards, his father, both followed the sea and were 
 captains of vessels. The father was connected for 
 some time with the trade to the West Indies, but 
 his last }-ears were spent in West Haven and his 
 deaith occurred at the age of sixty-seven years. Our 
 subject's m'other, whose maiden name was Mehet- 
 able Reynolds, was born in W'est Haven and died 
 there aged' eighty-two years. Of the eleven children 
 born to William and Alehetable Ridhards, four are 
 living, as follows : Frederick, wiho resides in Ohio ; 
 Henry H. ; John M. ; and Mrs. Edson Doohttle. 
 
 John M. Richards was educated in the West 
 Ha-ven and New Haven schools and in early man- 
 hood went to New Haven where he was employed 
 for some time as a hotel clerk and then engaged in 
 the coal business in partnership with his brother, 
 Henry. Later he bought his brother's interest and 
 for a time conducted the business alone, selling out 
 to the Ne\\' Haven Coal Co. After this he engaged 
 m the coast shipping business, o\\'ning several ves- 
 sels. He built one three-masted schooner in the 
 yards in West Haven that bore his name. Three 
 of his vessels were wrecked and he then disposed 
 of his other 'shipping interests, subsequently becom- 
 ing connected with the Diamond Match Co. as a 
 stockhoMer and representative. He has assisted 
 in buying up a numbe-r of factories throughout the 
 country and travels chiefly in the South and South- 
 west, Wis shrewd judgmlent being of recognized 
 

 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 685 
 
 value to the compan)^ In politics he is a Republican 
 and in religion a Con'giregiationalist. He takes keen 
 interest in all public movements and while perma- 
 nently residing in West Haven was prominent in 
 Sunday-sohool work and served on the committee 
 on pubic schools. 
 
 In i860 Mr. Ricliardis married Mis's Gertrude 
 Baldwin and five children have blessed the union : 
 
 ( 1 ) Lida G. married Edward F. Smith, a m^anu- 
 facturer of wire goods in New Haven, and has four 
 children — Gertrudte, Marjorie,* Arthur and Elisabeth. 
 
 (2) William I., formerly in the men's furnishing 
 business in Xew Haven, is now representing (in 
 New York) Brown, Durrell & Co., of Boston, hav- 
 ing charge of their Southern and Western business. 
 
 (3) Nettie B., who resides in West Haven, married 
 Harry E. Nettleton, chief clerk to the general su- 
 perintendent of the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 ford Railroad, and has two children, Vincent R. and 
 Constance. (4) John Elbert, for a number of years 
 connected with H. R. Hatch & Co., of Cleveland, 
 Ohio, and now in the men's furnishing goods busi- 
 ness in that city, married Mary Earle, of Milwaukee, 
 Wis. (5) Harry Van Dusen Is residing in West 
 Haven and takes charge of his father's real estate 
 and other interests in the absence of the latter. The 
 children were educated in West Haven and New 
 Haven, the daughters completing their studies in 
 Cleveland, Ohio, and New York City. The family 
 holds a leading place in tlie social life of West Ha- 
 \'en. The present residence, Hedgehurst, was built 
 by Mr. Richards in 1868. 
 
 Mrs. Richards was bom in New Haven, a daugh- 
 ter of Silas Irving Baldwin, and granddaug'hter of 
 Silas Baldwin. Her father, who was bom in Wood- 
 bridge in July, 1 80 1, was connected with the shoe 
 busiiness and resided in New Haven, but had an ex- 
 tensive trade in the South. At one time he was in- 
 terested in the dry goods business with a son in 
 Cleveland, Ohio, but several ye'ars before his death, 
 which occurred) in 1881, he spent in retirement. His 
 wife, Eliza (Newton), was one of the five children 
 of Jonah Newton, a farmer in Woodbridge, and his 
 wife, Mary (Peck), a native of that town, who 
 lived to the age of eighty-five years. Mrs. Rich- 
 ards' parents were members of Dr. Leonard Bacon's 
 Church in New Haven and their four children, of 
 whom she is the only one living, were all baptized 
 by Mm. Hter brother, Elbert Irving Baldwin, born 
 in New Haven, was engaged in the dry goods busi- 
 ness in New York, and later in Cleveland, Ohio, 
 where he became a prominent citizen. Her sister, 
 Eliza Newton, married Henry R. Hatch, who was 
 at one time in business with Elbert Irving Bald- 
 win and is now senior member of the firm, of H. 
 R. H^toh & Co., of Cleveland. Another brother, 
 Adtolphus Kirk, died at the age of eleven years. 
 
 SIGMUND BERNSTEIN, one of the best 
 known citizens of Meriden, and proprietor of the 
 immense clothing and men's furnishing establish- 
 
 ment, conducted under the firm name of Baum & 
 Bernstein, was born in the town of Lissa, province 
 of Posen, Prussia, July 31, 1849, a son of Jacob and 
 Jennette (Baum) Bernstein. 
 
 Jacob Bernstein was also a native or Lissa, 
 where he resided most of his life. Being in com- 
 fortable circumstances, he was enabled to give his 
 children good educational advantages. After his 
 death his widow came to America, settling in Jer- 
 sey City, where she still resides with a daughter, 
 having attained the age of eighty-one years. To 
 herself and husband were born six children who 
 grew to maturity: Sigmund ; Augusta, wife of 
 M. Serge, of Jersey Citv ; Morris, a real estate dealer 
 in New York City; Isaac, a merchant of Ithaca, N. 
 Y. ; Tina, who married Joseph Calf, a diamond mer- 
 chant of Jersey City ; Joseph, a clothing merchant of 
 Jersey City. 
 
 Not only did Sigmund Bernstein receive a good 
 common school education in his native language, but 
 he also attended a preparatory college and was one 
 of the primary teachers. While yet attending school, 
 at the age of fifteen, he entered a hard\vare store as 
 an apprentice. Having long possessed a strong de- 
 sire to see the New World he left his family and 
 friends in 1864, embarked on a steamer for America, 
 finally locating at Haverstraw, N. Y., where he ac- 
 cepted a position in the clothing store of Jacob 
 Baum. Here he worked faithfully for seven vears 
 and in 1871 was taken into partnership. He 
 can well remember the happiness he experienced 
 when he saw the firm name of Baum & Bern- 
 stein upon the door. This sign still remains, 
 although j\Ir. Bernstein long ago left the town. 
 Mr. Baum being engaged in the manufacture of 
 brick Mr. Bernstein was left in charge of the store. 
 In September, 1877, Mr. Bernstein came to Meri- 
 den and purchased the establishment of Mr. Morris 
 Levy, clothing merchant, and for the past twenty- 
 five years he has remained in the same location, en- 
 larging the business until he now operates one of 
 the largest clothing and men's furnishing houses 
 in New England and is also extensivelv engaged in 
 custom tailoring. The firm name of Baum & Bern- 
 stein still continues, although Mr. Bernstein is the 
 sole proprietor. Mr. Bernstein is one of the most 
 liberal men in every respect and believes in conduct- 
 ing his business upon broad methods. He has given 
 away thousands of dollars as prizes in guessing con- 
 tests and other ingenious ways of advertising. One 
 of the most notable of Mr. Bernstein's advertising 
 schemes was a "button guessing" contest with a 
 valuable prize awarded to the one who guessed the 
 correct number. To give the scheme proper eclat 
 Mr. Bernstein gave a banquet at one of the leading 
 hotels to which were invited the mayor and the com- 
 mon council, all the town and city officials and a 
 number of State dignitaries. Practically every one 
 who was invited responded and letters of regret 
 were read from' U. S. Senator O. H. Piatt, Governor 
 Waller and other notables. The buttons were 
 
686 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 counted at the banquet by the mayor and council 
 members. J\Ir. Bernstein was one of the first cloth- 
 iers to organize "Mackintosh Clubs." To sliow "the 
 boys" how such a job should be run he undertook 
 personally to sell the first 400 tickets and executed 
 the contract inside of twenty-four hours. The 
 unique method he took to conduct the scheme gave 
 him very wide newspaper publication without a 
 great expenditure. 
 
 In 1897 Mr. Bernstein purchased a tract of 
 thirty-five acres, known as the Holcomlb place, and 
 offered a valuable prize to the person suggesting the 
 best name for the property and hundreds of names 
 were suggested. Judge Levi Coe, who was then 
 mayor, suggested the name of Bernstein Heights, 
 which was accepted. In order to encourage the. 
 building up of what has proved to be one of the most 
 healthful spots in or about Meriden, he has given 
 away over twenty lots and has constructed several 
 handsome residences, fitted with all modern con- 
 veniences. A reservoir with a capacity of 1,500,000 
 gallons has been built. He laid out the streets and 
 turned the waste tract into a beautiful residence dis- 
 trict. He, with Mr. A. Sclimelzer, also purchased 
 a tract of land at Kensington Heights and they have 
 built several handsome residences in that locality. 
 
 In all his undertakings Mr. Bernstein does noth- 
 ing by halves and shows his enterprise on every 
 available occasion. One of the first paving stones 
 laid in Meriden was presented by him to Mayor 
 Ives and put down on Main street opposite the Mer- 
 iden Journal office, engraved with his name and 
 the date. When the electric road was opened ^Ir. 
 Bernstein gave the first trolley ride between Meri- 
 den and Wallingford to the newsboys and completed 
 their enjoyment by giving each little fellow a nice 
 box of sweetmeats, showinp- thus he had not forgot- 
 ten his own youth. His many thoughtful deeds dem- 
 onstrated his broad-minded, kind-hearted, generous 
 nature. 
 
 ]\Ir. Bernstein has traveled widely, both in this 
 country and abroad. In 1891 he spent the summer 
 in England, Germany and Austria. He made a 
 European 'trip again in 1897, bringing his aged 
 mother to this country wiith him. This incident 
 illustrates one of his characteristics. He was the 
 oldest of six children and when he left his home 
 in the Fatherland in his boyhood days Mr. Bernstein 
 promised his mother he would make places across 
 the Atlantic for his brothers and sisters and for the 
 parents as well. This pledge, like every one he has 
 since made, he has kept. From time to time he 
 found an opening for one brother after another and 
 brought them to this country with his earnings. In 
 1897 he was preparing to bring the aged parents 
 across the sea when a cablegram announced the sud- 
 den death of his father. In twelve days Mr. Bern- 
 stein was in the ancestral home arranging to bring 
 his mother back to this country and thus fulfill the 
 pledge of his youth. 
 
 In politics our subject is an independent Republi- 
 
 can but the cares of his business and his many charit- 
 able enterprises absorb his time so that he has none 
 to spare for party matters. So genial a man is of 
 necessity prominent in social circles, and he is very 
 popular in various fraternal organizations, among 
 which are Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M. ; 
 Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; Hamilton 
 Council, No. 22, R. & S. M. ; Pacific Lodge, No. 
 87, I. O. O. F. ; and Atlantic Encampment, No. 
 28, of the same order; Myrtle Lodge, No. 4, and, 
 J. S. Stokes Div., No. '12, Uniform Rank, Knights 
 of Pythias; Pilgrims' Harbor Council, No. 543, 
 Royal Ardanum; Aniaranth and Cosmopolitan 
 Clubs and the Turn Verein and' Saengerbund, of 
 Meriden. 
 
 On Oct. 27, 1878, in New York, Mr. Bernstein 
 was married to Miss Jennie Baum, who was born 
 in Seymour, Conn., a daughter of Jacob Baum, a 
 native of German}?, who came to America and lo- 
 cated in Haverstraw, N. Y., where he engaged in 
 the clothing business, being the senior member of 
 the firm of Baum & Bernstein. Mr. Baum, after 
 a long and successful life, died in 1889 in Haver- 
 straw, being the first to be interred; in a beautiful 
 cemetery which he had donated to the congregation 
 with which he was connected. His wife, Rachel 
 Koerpel, who survived her husband until 1901, died 
 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Bernstein, in 
 Meriden, and is buried by the side of Mr. Baum. 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Baum six children were born, 
 namely : Moses, engaged in the clothing business 
 at Pitts'ton, Pa. ; Jennie, wife of Siigmund Bernstein ; 
 Charles, with Bernstein & Co., Jersey City; Esther, 
 who married Israel Rich, of Michigan, but is now 
 deceased ; Aaron, a member of the firm of Baum 
 Bros., of Haverstraw, N. Y. ; Sadie, wife of A. 
 Mayer, a banker of Jersey City. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Bernstein the following chil- 
 dren have been bornr. Algernon J., a graduate of 
 high school andt Packett's Business College, N. Y., 
 now engaged in a wholesale house in New York 
 City ; Louisa, Daisy and Melville, at home attend- 
 ing high school ; Frances and Jacqueline, students 
 in the public schools. 
 
 PERRY MILES TWITCHELL was born in 
 ■ Broome county, N. Y., Feb. 15, 1834, a son of Miles 
 Johnson Twitchell, a native of Oxford, Conn. 
 Isaac Twitchell, father of Miles J., was a farmer 
 in Oxford. 
 
 Miles J. Twitchell was born Feb. 24, 1800, and 
 died in October, i860. He was a prosperous and 
 successful agriculturist and owned a large farm 
 which he tilled in the most modern and progressive 
 fashion. When he became of age he left his native 
 town and located in New York where he secured a 
 farm of 120 acres, which always evinced ihe touch 
 of a master farmer. A Democrat, politically, he 
 was not a politician. Always much interested in 
 military matters he was captain of a company in the 
 old State militia. He was a member of the Baptist 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 687 
 
 Church and a solid and substantial citizen. Mr. 
 Twitchell married Eliza Alden, daughter of Benj. 
 Alden ; she died in 1864 in Windsor, Broome county. 
 To this union were born : ( i ) Hannah is the wife 
 of Charles Snedeker and is living in Aurora, 111. (2) 
 Elvira married Elias Andrews, of Naugatuck, and 
 died in Indianapolis, Ind., in 1897. (3) Anas 
 Tecia married Joel Brown, of Kirkwood, N. Y. 
 (4) George H. was a carriage and wheel maker in 
 New Haven, served in the army and died in Dur- 
 ham, Conn. (5) Perry Miles. (6) Ursula mar- 
 ried Benjamin Andrews, of Knox county, HI., and 
 died there. (7) Thomas Edgar served in the army 
 and is now an, inmate of. the Soldiers' Home at 
 Noroton, Conn. (8) Olinda married John Hoadley 
 and is living in Windsor, N. Y. (9) Jerome served 
 in the army and is now connected with the post- 
 office at Binghampton, N. Y. This family presents 
 a remarkable record, four of the sons, George H., 
 Perry M., Thomas E. and Jerome, and three sons- 
 in-law, Charles Snedeker, Elias Andrews and Ben- 
 jamin Andrews, all serving in the Union army dur- 
 ing the Civil war. 
 
 Perry Miles Twitchell was bom in Windsor, 
 X. Y., where he had his schooling, and at the age 
 of seventeen began work as a carpenter. In 1857 
 he came to New Haven to take a place in the carriage 
 factory of George T. Newhall, where he worked un- 
 til 1 861. The greater part of that year he was work- 
 ing as a carpenter in Durham, Conn., and late in the 
 fall of that year he enusted in the army. Mr. 
 Twitchell was mustered in as a member of Company 
 C, I2th Conn. V. I., and served throughout the 
 Southern States and in the Gulf region. In the 
 spring of 1864 he came into Virginia and was a 
 part of the command of General Sheridan. Mr. 
 Twitchell saw much hard service and participated in 
 many fierce conflicts, but was never wounded. Mus- 
 tered out at Hartford, Conn., in December, 1864, he 
 completed full three years of service, and though 
 he was not in at the death of the Confederacy, yet 
 he feels that he was all through the critical years 
 and that the Rebellion was virtually crushed before 
 he left the army. Returning from the army Mr. 
 Twitchell was located in Delaware county for some 
 fifteen years working as a carpenter, and in 1880 he 
 came to Durham, Conn., to follow this same occu- 
 pation. In 1883 his home was removed to Walling- 
 ford and since that year he has been in business in 
 this city as a contractor and builder. Here his 
 most im'portant contract was the Lindsey & Valen- 
 tme factory. Many handsome and attractive resi- 
 dences in Wallingford and in the neighboring com- 
 munities have been put up by him and he is regarded 
 as an honorable and trustwor!thy workman. 
 
 Mr. Twitchell (belongs to the O. U. A. M., where 
 he has passed through all the chairs. A member of 
 Arthur H. Dutton Post, No. 36, G. A. R., he has 
 filled its various chairs, and is Past Commander. 
 A Republican, he has no desire for official honors- 
 and emoluments. Mr. Twitchell alttends the Method- 
 
 ist Church, where his wife is a member. She is a 
 member also of the W. R. C, No. 37, and is one of 
 its most efficient workers, having filled its several 
 offices. 
 
 Mr. Twitchell was married July 25, 1855, to 
 Miss Belarma Woodmansee, a daughter of Simeon 
 Woodmansee, and a native of Delaware county, N. 
 Y. She died April 24, 1878. This union was 
 blessed with one child, John Clark, born April 22, 
 1856, who is now running a ranch in Azusa, Cal. ; 
 he has been twice married, his first wife was born 
 in Illinois, and left two children, Earle (born Feb. 
 22, 1892) and Howard H. (born Aug. 8, 1894), 
 and his present wife, Maggie Hassett, was born in 
 Pennsylvania, but at the time of her marriage she 
 was living in San Miguel, California. 
 
 On March 31, 1891, Perry M. Twitchell was 
 married to Mrs. Elizabeth A. (Bailey) Twitchell, 
 the widow of George H. Twitchell, his brother, and 
 the daughter of Jeremiah B. Bailey, of Durham, 
 Conn. To this marriage there have been no chil- 
 dren, but Mrs. Twitchell had one daughter, Ida M., 
 by her first husband, who married Elliott C. War- 
 ner, a farmer of Durham, Connecticut. 
 
 THE FRANCIS FAMILY. For generations 
 the family of this name in turn have been honest 
 tillers of the soil in Wallingford, and have proved 
 themselves upright and honorable men. Such 
 names as Joseph, Jacob, Tacob (2), William, Will- 
 iam' J., and John H. will live long in the memories 
 of the agricultural communities of the town in 
 which their industrious and useful lives have been, 
 and are being, passed. On the old farm in North 
 F"arms, W'allingford, reside descendants in the sixth 
 generation from Joseph Francis, its first occupant, 
 from whom William J. and John H. Francis, farm- 
 ers of the town, are fifth in line of descent, their 
 line being through Jacob, Jacob (2), and the late 
 William Francis. 
 
 On their mother's side these eentlemen are de- 
 scended from sturdy New England ancestors, and of 
 that type who fought through the war of the Revo- 
 lution, and have never hesitated at any sacrifice 
 which the good of their country seemed to demand. 
 The mother of William J. Francis was Emily 
 Blakeslee, of Wallingford, a family whose record 
 in Wallingford begins as early as 17 12, in the per- 
 sons of Samuel and Elizabeth Blakeslee. The origin 
 of the Blakeslee family in tradition is that two 
 brothers of that name left the western part of Eng- 
 land to come to Massachusetts. One died en route, 
 and the other came to Plymouth, where he died in 
 the early days of the Colony, leaving a son, who was 
 placed with a blacksmith to learn the trade in New 
 Haven. The mother of John H. Francis was Julia 
 (Cook) Tuttle, widow of Lewis Tuttle, daughter of 
 Col. Thaddeus Cook, and a descendant in the 
 seventh generation from Samuel Cook, who came to 
 New Haven in 1663, and married in 1667, Hope, the 
 daughter of Edward Parker. He went with the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 first planters to W'allingford in 1670, and was per- 
 haps the first and onh- shoemaker and tanner of 
 leather in that town for man_v 3-ears. He was a 
 member of the church and held public office, and he 
 died in 1702. The line of descent of Julia (Cook) 
 Francis was through Samuel, Samiiel (2), Capt. 
 Samuel, Col. Tbaddeus Samuel (4), and Col. Thad- 
 deus (2). 
 
 Samuel Cook (2) was born in 1667 in Xew Ha- 
 ven, and married his first wife, Hannah Ives, in 1692. 
 He died in 1725. Capt. Samuel Cook, son of the 
 foregoing, was born in 1695, married in 1721. Eliza- 
 beth Lewis, of Wallingford. He was a wealthy 
 shipping merchant from the port of Xew Haven, 
 and died in 1745. Col. Thaddeus Cook, the son of 
 Capt. Samuel Cook, born in 1728, married for his 
 second wife, Sarah Hall, of Cheshire. He served 
 under Gen. Gates in the Revolution, and was highly 
 honored) by his fellow townsmen, being elected in 
 turn to all the county offices in their gift. He died 
 in 1800. Samuel Cook (4), son of Col. Thaddeus, 
 born in 1758, married Mar)', daughter of Constant 
 Kirkland, of Wallingford. He too was a patriot in 
 the Revolution serving with his father in the army. 
 He was a thrifty farmer residing in the western 
 part of the town of Wallingford. He died in 1824. 
 
 Col. Thad'deus Cook (2), son of Samuel (4), 
 born in 1791, married for his first wife, Julia Cook. 
 Col. Cook was a Colonel of Militia, having served 
 in the war of 1812, and his military experience was 
 afterward put to good account. In civil life he 
 was equally prominent, and served as selectman, and 
 member of the Legislature. He died in 1879, and 
 at the time of his death, was the oldest man in Wall- 
 ingford, having passed his eighty-ninth birthday. 
 
 The late William Francis, the father of William 
 J and John H., was born March 3, 1804, on the old 
 Francis farm in Wallingford where his seventy-five 
 years of useful life were passed. In early boyhood 
 he attended the North Farms district school, and 
 after fifteen years of age took private instruction. 
 Being of a delicate constitution he was for a time 
 deprived of following the inclina:tion and taste of 
 his mind in the avocation of farming, much to his 
 dislike. So on the advice of his physician he 
 adopted an out-door life that really calledi for little 
 physical labor, and for a time was engaged in ped- 
 dling Yankee notions through the State of New 
 York. This business, however, was ndt to his lik- 
 ing, and he longed to be a farmer, trusting that care 
 and good sense would give him still a long lease of 
 life on the farm. Jacob Francis, his father, having 
 died in July, 1829, William Francis the following- 
 spring began the erection of the house where he 
 lived the rest of his life, and where his son and 
 grandchildren still reside. Through necessity at the 
 start, he gave much thought to the easiest methods 
 of farming, and thus became a student of farm 
 methods and watchful -for all improvements in farm 
 machinery. He had faith in labor-saving devices, 
 and was the first farmer in all his district to place 
 
 on his farm a mowing machine, a horse rake and a 
 reaper. He early learned that abundant fertilizers 
 richly paid for themselves. He read and studied, 
 and practiced the best ideas he could glean from the 
 world around him. He was a pioneer in tobacco 
 culture, and put on the market the best product that 
 was sold in the State. Mr. P'rancis became a lead- 
 ing farmer, and was as successful as he was progres- 
 sive and intelligent. Planning for the future, he 
 had a long look ahead, made much money, and 
 taught his sons in such a manner that they too haA^e 
 become successful farmers, and solid and substantial 
 citizens. He was en'terprising and pushing, and 
 though bearing alwavs a \yeight of ill-health so care- 
 fully handled himself, that he lived to a ripe old 
 age. He was recognized among his fellow citizens 
 as a man of excellent and energetic business quali- 
 ties, and of high moral worth. He was put into 
 offices of trust and responsibility, and he was able to 
 meet their various duties readily and well, lax 
 collector for a number of years he was popular and 
 efficient in this onerous position. He was road com- 
 missioner, and for a time was entrusted with the 
 care of all the roads in the town. 
 
 JNIr. Francis' religious connections were with the 
 Episcopal Church, as were those of his immediate 
 family, holding membership in St. Paul's Church in 
 Wallingford. On March 30, 183 1, Mr. Francis was. 
 married to Emily Blakeslee, and after her death he 
 married Mrs. Julia (Cook) Tuttle, of Hampden, 
 Conn. Two children were born to the first mar- 
 riage: '(i)l William J., born in 1832, married 
 Marietta J., daughter of Justus and Jane (French) 
 Peck, and they have a son, Lyman H. William J. 
 Francis is a resident of a part of the original Joseph 
 Francis farm referred to in the foregoing. He is 
 one of the leading farmers of Wallingford. He is 
 a member of Meriden Grange, No. 29, P. of H. 
 (2) Emory was born Feb. 10, 1837, and died on 
 July 14, following. To the second marriage of 
 William Francis were also born two children: (i) 
 Henry, born Dec. 18, 1842, and died Feb. 22, 1843. 
 (2) John H., born June 20, 1858, married Oct. 10,. 
 1858, married Oct. 10, 1883, Carrie P. Wooding, 
 who died Dec. 18, 1887, and on Feb. 21, 1889, he 
 married JMatoel A. Wooding, and they have four 
 children, Isabel A., Caroline M., William H. and 
 Edward R. Mr. Francis lives at the old homestead. 
 
 HON. LYNDE HARRISON, lawyer, jurist 
 and statesman of New Haven, is a widely known 
 man of forceful character. He is able and public- 
 spirited and has' made his mark on the history of 
 his city, county and State. 
 
 The Harrison family in New England and 
 throughout the country has produced' many men of 
 rare worth, and some have risen to diistinotior,. 
 Thomas Hlarrison, from England, settled in New- 
 Haven as a }'oung man in 1640, and soon after- 
 ward moved to Bonford, taking the oath of fidelity- 
 April 4, 1654. His brother, Richard, and their 
 
^^S^^/^y^^^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPEIICAL RECORD. 
 
 689 
 
 father, also named Richard, came to this country 
 with him. Richard was settled at Branford for 
 some years, but removed to Newark, N. J., in 1662. 
 Among the ancestors of Judge Harrison are 
 found the Wolcotts, of whom the first ancestor in 
 tliis country was Henry Wolcott, who settled in 
 Massachusetts in 1630 and five years later came to 
 Windsor, Conn. Henry AVolcott (2), his son, was 
 one of the number who received the charter of Con- 
 necticut from King Charles II. Roger Wolcott was 
 colonial governoT in 1754. Another ancestor of 
 Judge Harrison was Justice Simon Lynde, of Bos- 
 ton, whose son, Judge Nathaniel Lynde, was one 
 of the first settlers of Saybrook. Rev. John Daven- 
 port, pastor of the first church establiished in New 
 Haven, is also on his ancestral line. 
 
 The paternal grandparents of Judge Harrison, 
 Philemon and Sarah (Wblcott) Harrison!, were 
 married in 1784. Mrs. Sarah Harrison was born in 
 1767, daughter of Dr. Alexander Wolcott, and was 
 of the fifth generation in descent from Henry Wol- 
 cott. James Harrison, the eldest son of Philemon 
 Harrison, and the father of Judge Harrison, was 
 married to Charlotte N. Lynde in 1836. 
 
 Judge Harrison acquired hi? literary and legal 
 education in his native city, attending the I-ancas- 
 terian and Hopkins Grannnar Schools, and Rus- 
 sell's Collegiate and Commercial Institv-te. ^Vitl! 
 some further preparation he entered Yale Law 
 School, from which he was graduated with the 
 class of i860 and he was admitted to the Bar in 
 May, 1861. In 1862 and 1863 he was clerk of the 
 House of Representatives. In 1863 he opened his 
 office in New Haven and entered upon the profes- 
 sional career in which he has been so signally suc- 
 cessful. Fn 1864 he was clerk of the State Senate, 
 and developing a taste for political life was nom- 
 inated and elected by the Republicans to the State 
 Senate in 1865 and re-elected in 1866. With little 
 intermission, for nearly twenty years he remained in 
 public life, becoming a conspicuous figure from the 
 start. Duning his two years in the Senate he was 
 especially instrumental in assisting the project of 
 the Shore Line railroad across the Connecticut river 
 at Saybrook. For a few years following his work in 
 the Senate Mr. Harrison devoted himself to his pro- 
 fession. In 1871 he was appointed by the State 
 Legislature Judge of the City Court, a position he 
 filled for three years. In the meantime he had estab- 
 hshed bis residence in Guilford, and in 1874 re- 
 tired from the Bench to take a seat in the Legisla- 
 ture, to which he was chosen from that town ; he 
 was re-elected in 1875 and 1876. In 1877 he was 
 elected Speaker of the House. In July of that year 
 he became Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for 
 New Haven county, and at the expiration of his 
 term, four yeiars later, was again sent to the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, serving there imtil 1882. During 
 this period he was chairman' of the Judiciary com- 
 mittee, and in 1877, when Speaker, he was a de- 
 cided advocate of the bill allowing married women 
 44 
 
 equal ownership and equal rights in the disposition 
 of property. Leaving the chair he delivered a brill- 
 iant and exhaustive address in advocacy of the bill, 
 and it was finally passed, after having come up 
 before many sessions. In 1875, 1876, 1884 and 
 1886 Judge Harrison was a member of the Repub- 
 lican State Central Com'mittee and attended as a 
 delegate the National conventions of that party in 
 1876 and 1880. Judge Harrison did not agree with 
 the high protective ideas that ruled the party in the 
 campaign of 1892, nor with the Republicans of the 
 State upon a number of State issues in 1891. In 
 1892, under the guidance of his convictions, he voted 
 for Grover Cleveland. 
 
 During his long and varied career Judge Harri- 
 son has ever been more than a prominent, influential 
 man and a public leader. As a jurist and a states- 
 man he has beeni enabled to leave a deep impression 
 upon the statute and fundamental laws of Connecti- 
 cut. Of the twenty-seven amendments to the Con- 
 stitution thirteen have been the result very largely 
 of his work. He is the author of the amendment 
 changing the time of the State elections from the 
 spring to the fall ; of the amendment forbidding- 
 representation of new towns in the General As- 
 sembly unless the new and parent town shall each 
 have more than 2,500 population ; of the amend- 
 ment extending the term of judges; of the amend- 
 ment forbidding any county or municipality incur- 
 ring debt in aid of any railway corporation, and 
 from subscribing to the capital stock of such cor- 
 porations; and of the amendment forbidding any 
 increase of salary to any public officer during the 
 term for which he was elected. Judge Harrison 
 drafted the Biennial Sessions Amendment of 1884, 
 the present State Election Law and the well-known 
 Specific Appropriation Bill, by which many thous- 
 and dollars are annually saved to the State. 
 
 Since the early eighties Judge Harrison has been 
 actively engaged in the practice of his profession, 
 principally as counsel for several corporations. His 
 residence in New Plaven is near the head of Hill- 
 house avenue and his summer cottage at Bayhurst, 
 on Long Island Sound, in the town of Guilford, is 
 one of the most beautiful natural locations on the 
 coast. He passes a portion of each winter wivli his 
 family in Thomasville, Georgia. 
 
 On May 2, 1867, Judge Harrison was married to 
 Sarah Plant, of Branford, who died in March, 1879, 
 and Plarriet .S. White, of Waterbury, became his 
 second wife Sept. 30, 1886. To his first marriage 
 were born : William L., Paul AV. and Gertrude P. 
 To the second marriage, one child, Katherine ^V., 
 was born in August, 1892. 
 
 PION. JAMES NOYES STATES, General 
 Ticket Agent for the New York, New Haven & 
 Hartford Railroad, trustee for the State Reform^ 
 School, President of the Board of Charities and Cor- 
 rections of New Haven, State Senator from 1889- 
 92, and one of the leading men of New Haven, is a 
 
690 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 native of Connecticut, having been born in Stoning- 
 ton, on May 16, 1839. 
 
 Adam States, the grandfather of the subject of 
 this' iMograph}", was born on Cheesequake Creek, 
 South Amboy, X. J., a son of AEatthias and Eliza- 
 beth (Gould) States, who came from Holland and 
 settled first in New York. Adam States was a 
 soldier in the Revolutionary war, and' was with Gen. 
 W'ashington at Valley Forge. His family num- 
 bered fifteen children, many of them later becoming- 
 honorable and distinguished members of society. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin States, the youngest son of 
 Adam States, and the father of Hon. James Noyes, 
 was born in Stonington, Conn., March 15, 1809, and 
 died in 1896. When he was but ten years old, his 
 father died. He spent his entire life in Stonington, 
 with the exception of about three years, which time 
 he spent in Providence, and became one of the lead- 
 ing merchants of his native place, and was also very 
 prominent in civic affairs. Favored with vigorous 
 health, and as industry and enterprise were inherent 
 in his nature, these characteristics mapped out for 
 liim a busy life, much of which was spent in pub- 
 lic service, and- it has been truly said of him that he 
 performed the duties of the different positions which 
 he held with strict fidelity. When twenty-one 
 years of age, be was elected to the positions of con- 
 stable and tax collector. These offices he held until 
 appointed deputy sheriff, which office he held for 
 sixteen years, four under Sheriff David Baldwin, 
 and twelve under Alexander Stewart. In 1834 he 
 was elected captain of the local company of Light 
 Artillery, having previously held the minor offices 
 of the company. For a long series of years he 
 served as notary public, having commissions issued 
 by Gov. C. F. Cleveland in 1842, Gov. Isaac Toucey 
 in 1846, and Gov. James E. English in 1867. In 
 1846 he was elected by the Legislature as one of the 
 Commissioners of what was then known as the New 
 ^'ork and Stonington Railroad. He held the posi- 
 tion of postmaster for two terms, one commission 
 being signed by Postmaster-General Charles A. 
 "Wickliffe on Nov. 29, 1844, and one by President 
 I'ranklin Pierce on May 23, 1853. Aside from the 
 above prominent positions held by him, he was ap- 
 pointed Collector of Customs for the District of 
 Stonington on June 2, 1856, which office he held for 
 nearly five years. For many years he was vestry- 
 man and parish clerk of Calvary Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church. He was a member of the school 
 committee for many terms, and served the public 
 in .=ome prominent official capacity during a large 
 portion of his long and useful life, besides hold- 
 ing almost innumerable offices of smaller magni- 
 tude, which are not mentioned above. 
 
 Benjamin F. States was married to Harriet Pal- 
 mer Burtch, wiho was born in Stonington, a 
 daughter of Thomas Burtch, a sea-faring man, 
 who was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war. 
 ]\Irs. States was born in 1812, and lived a long and 
 useful life, dying in 1897, having seen six of her 
 
 children grow to maturity : Ichabod, who served in 
 the Civil wiar, in Company C, ist Conn. Heavy 
 Artillery, and after his honorable discharge returned 
 home only to die; Benjamlin F., who died about 
 ten 3-ears ago; James Noyes ; Alary, who became a 
 school teacher, married Benjamia F. Chester, and 
 removed to Providence; Hortense; and Henry, who 
 resides in New Haven. 
 
 James Noyes States spent his bojdiood days in 
 Stonington, where be attended the public schools, 
 and Woodbridge's Academy, and was fitted for 
 college. When twenty-one years old he went to 
 New York for a short time, then located in Bridge- 
 port, Conn., and kept a hotel there for one year. It 
 was in 1862 that he became connected with the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, as freight 
 agent at Bridgeport, holding that position until 1869, 
 when he was made special agent, retaining that po- 
 sition rmtil 1 87 1, in which year he came to New 
 Haven. There he held the office of local ticket 
 agent until 1887, when he was made general ticket 
 agent, and holds that responsible position at present. 
 Mr. States' rise has been gradual and permanent, 
 as he has worked his way upward by his own efforts, 
 and now enjoys in the highest degree the confidence 
 of the managers of this great railroad. 
 
 Mr. States is a Democrat, and is one of those 
 energetic and forceful men who are bound to come 
 to the front. Entering the court of common council 
 in 1876 as a councilman, representing the Fourth 
 ward, he was electied alderman in 1877, and re- 
 elected at each successive election, his last term as 
 alderman expiring with 1887, bearing the record of 
 more continuous re-elections than any other man 
 in the council. While holding this office, he was 
 several terms president of the board of aldermen, 
 acting mayor, member and president of the board of 
 finance, a member of the comffnissioners of Public 
 Parks, chairman of committee on Ordinances, 
 Claims, Sewers and Lamps. In 1887 he was elected 
 to the board of Public Works to which office he was 
 re-elected, holding the office until the board was 
 superseded in 1898 by a director of Public Works. 
 He was president of the Board, and chairman of 
 the committee on Streets for several terms, holding 
 office under M'ayors Shelton, Bigelow, Robertson, 
 Lewis, Peck, Holcomb, York, Sargent, Hendrick 
 and Farmsworth. Upon the inauguration of the 
 Free Public Library in 1886, he was appointed by 
 INIayor Holcomb, one of the directors of the library, 
 and was elected to the presidency of the board, which 
 office he filled until 1887, and he had much to do 
 with the successful starting of the library. 
 
 In 1889 he was elected to the State Senate for 
 two years, where be did credit to himself and his 
 constituents. He was appointed by the Senate of 
 1889 a trustee of the State School for Boys (then 
 State Reform! School) for a term of six years ex- 
 piring in 1895, when he declined a reappointment. 
 He was again appointed a trustee of this institution 
 in 1899, which office he still holds. Recognizing 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 691 
 
 his peculiar fitness, the General Assembly of 1893 
 appointed James N. States, Henry C. White, Fran- 
 cis G. Beach, George D. Watrous and Eli Whitney, 
 Jr., a commission with instructions "to make investi- 
 gation and consider whether it is desirable that any 
 amendments should be made to the New Haven City 
 Charter, or a new Charter be granted." Soon after 
 the rising of the General Assembly, this commission 
 organized by the election of Hon. James N. States 
 as chairman, and proceeded to investigate and con- 
 sider the matter referred to, and in September, 1894, 
 reported to the General Assemlbly a revised Charter, 
 which, however, was not adopted at the following 
 session, but at a later session was passed substan- 
 tially as recommended, and it is now the Charter 
 under which the City of New Haven is governed. 
 Senator States is president of the Board of Chari- 
 ties and Corrections of the city, and is identified with 
 this' work. 
 
 For many years Senator States has been con- 
 nected with church affairs in this city, and has long 
 been one of the vestrymen of St. Paul's Protestant 
 Episcopal Church. Fraternally he is connected 
 with St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M., of Bridgeport. 
 On Jan. 22, 1868, 'Mr. States was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Louise T. Ayers, of Bridgeport, 
 who was bom in New Canaan, Conn., a daughter of 
 Lewis B. Ayers, and one child was horn of this 
 union, who died in infancy. 
 
 JOHN MILTON HARMON, one of Meriden's 
 respected citizens, and assistant manager of the In- 
 ternational Silver Co., in Meriden, was born Oc- 
 tober 20, 1854, on a farm in West Sufifield, Hart- 
 ford county, and is a descendant of one of the 
 oldest families of New England. 
 
 (I) John Harmon, born in 1617, In England, 
 came to Boston in 1636, and for a time was in Rox- 
 bury, but finally, in 1640, located at Springfield. 
 His wife, Elizabeth, was born in England in the 
 same year as himself. Mr. Harmon died March 7, 
 1660-1, and his wife afterward married Anthony 
 Dorchester, and died May 16, 1699. 
 
 (II) Nathaniel Harmon, son of John, the emi- 
 grant settler, born March 13, 1653-4, in Springfield, 
 married in Suffield Nov. 19, 1685, Mary Skinner, 
 born Sept. 22, 1667, in Windsor, Conn., and to them 
 were born ten children. Mr. Harmon and his 
 brother, Joseph, became interested in trading with 
 the Indians, and for many years were the principal 
 partners of that noted trader. Col. Pynchon, the 
 original proprietor of the site of Springfield, Mass. 
 Nathaniel Harmon located, in 1670, in Sufifield, 
 then Southfield, which remained a part of Hamp- 
 shire county, Mass., until 1749. He died May 21, 
 1712, and his widow married, in 1713, John Han- 
 chett, and died Sept. 17, 1730. 
 
 (III) Samuel Harmon, son of Nathaniel, born 
 Aug. 15, 1699, in Suffield, married there, April 28, 
 1723, Deborah Winchell, born in Suffield, Aug. 5, 
 1703, and they had ten children. Mr. Harmon died 
 
 Aug. II, 1/55, and his widow married in May, 
 1757, Isaac Stiles, and died Feb. 18, 1784. 
 
 (iV) Samuel Harmon (2), son of Samuel, 
 born yizy 0, 1736, in Suffield, married there Nov. 
 II, 1762, Abial Sheldon, born in Suffield, Jan. 24, 
 1741-2, and they had these children: Abial, born 
 1763; Deborah, born 1764; Samuel, born 1765; 
 Rhoda, born 1767; Ruth, born 1769; Anna, born 
 1770; David, born 1772; Elizabeth, born 1773; 
 Jonathan, born 1775; ?\Iercy, born 1777; Alex- 
 ander, born 1779; Ozias, born 1781 ; and Aaron, 
 born 1801. Deacon Samuel Harmon held the po- 
 sition of captain in the militia, his commission bear- 
 ing the signature of King George, and he was 
 also a soldier in the Revolutionary war, as well as 
 a deacon in the Congregational Church in West 
 Suffield. He died Feb. 21, 1812, and his wife died 
 in Suffield, Sept. 12, 1802. 
 
 (V) Ozias Harmon, son of Deacon Samuel, 
 born in Suffield, March 14, 1781, died April 3, 1855. 
 He married Feb. 17, 1813, Cynthia Taylor, born 
 March 9, 1784. She died Aug. 29, 1849. To this 
 union came six children. j\Ir. Harmon was a man 
 of prominence and substance. The names of his 
 children were as follows : John Milton, born Dec. 
 17, 1813, still living in West Springfield, JNIass. ; 
 William Edwin, born Aug. 31, 1815, died in 1877; 
 Cynthia, born Jan. 28, 1817, died Nov. 3, 1838; 
 Jane, born Dec. 29, 1818, died July 23, 1891 ; James 
 Flezron, born Jan. 14, 1821 ; and Roland, born Sept. 
 6, 1826, and died Nov. 25, 1895. 
 
 (VI) James Hezron Harmon, father of John M. 
 Harmon, was born Jan. 14, 1821, in West Suffield, 
 where he grew to manhood on a farm and where he 
 followed agricultural pursuits until 1867, when he 
 came to Meriden with his family. Here he en- 
 gaged for a short time in business, removing to 
 Wallingford where he was engaged in business, 
 and where he spent the remainder of his life, dying 
 April 26, 1895. He was buried in Wallingford. 
 James H. Harmon was a consistent member of the 
 Congregational Church, a man of sterling integrity 
 and excellent business qualifications. He belonged 
 to the order of Odd Fellows, took a prominent part 
 in public affairs, serving as first selectman in Suf- 
 field, and voted with the Republican party, whose 
 principles he actively upheld. 
 
 On May i, 1844, James H. Harmon was mar- 
 ried in West Springfield, Mass., to Frances A. 
 Whitney, born Oct. 6, 1822, daughter of Theodore 
 and Ann (Avery) Whitney, and four children were 
 born to this union, namely: Charles Whitney, 
 born Dec. 16, 1845, is a resident of Jasper, Ala- 
 bama; Ellen Amelia, born Aug. 16, 1848, resides in 
 Wallingford ; Minnie Loomis, born Jan. 24, 1852, 
 married B. A. Treat, resides in Jasper, Ala. ; and 
 John Milton, born Oct. 20, 1854. Mrs. Harmon 
 still resides in Wallingford, and is one of the es- 
 teemed members of the Congregational Church. 
 
 John Milton Harmon was born on a farm in 
 West Suffield, where his boyhood, was spent. He 
 
692 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was eleven years old when he accompanied his 
 parents to Meriden, attending- school here for a 
 short time before he obtained a position in the 
 Meriden Britannia Company's factory. From this 
 position at the bottom of the ladder, Mr. Harmon's 
 ability has brought him to the responsible office in 
 the company which he now holds. On the organ- 
 ization of the International Silver Co., in 1898, he^ 
 was appointed its assistant manager. Ever since 
 that time Isir. Harmon has performed his duties 
 with an eye single to the interests of his employers, 
 and enjoys in the fullest d'egree their confidence. 
 His genial personality and sense of jusftice are ap- 
 preciated by those under his control, and he is justly 
 popular with them. 
 
 On Nov. 14, 1878, Air. Harmon was married to 
 Rose Whiting Dudley, daughter of A\'hiting B. and 
 Rosanna (Hotchkiss) Dudley, of Waterbury. Three 
 children have been born to this union, viz. : Ruth, 
 born Nov. 22, 1880, was educated in the Meriden 
 schools, graduating froni the high school ; Hazel, 
 born April 26, 1882, graduated from the Meriden 
 high school; and Dudley, born Nov. 18, 1886, is 
 still a student. Although Mr. Harmon is intelli- 
 gently interested in public affairs, as becomes a good 
 citizen, he is in no sense a politician, casting his 
 vote with the Republican party. He was reared in 
 the Congregational Church and is still attached to 
 -it. Socially he is identified with Capt. John Couch 
 branch of the S. A. R. ]\Irs. Harmon is a lady of 
 domestic tastes, devoted to the interests of her fam- 
 ily and, with her daughters, assists in making a part 
 of the refined social life of Meriden. 
 
 The Whitney Family of which Mrs. James H. 
 Harmon is a descendant on the maternal side, early 
 settled in New England. 
 
 John Whitney, son of Thomas and grandson of 
 Robert, born in England in 1589, with his wife, 
 Elinor, who was born in 1599, came to New Eng- 
 land in 1635, locating in Watertown, Alass. Elinor, 
 who was the mother of his eight sons, having died 
 May II, 1659, he married (second) Sept. 29, 1659, 
 Judith Clement. Mr. Whitney was made a free- 
 man in 1635-6, was appointed constable in 1641, 
 served as .selectman 1638-1655 and as town clerk 
 in 1655. He died June I, 1673. 
 
 (II) Richard \\'hitney, so.n of John the settler, 
 born in England in 1626, married J.Iarch 19, 1650, 
 Martha Coldiman. He was admitted a freeman 
 May 7, 165 1, and became a proprietor of Stow, 
 Mass., June 3, 1680, and probably moved there 
 when it was a' part of Concord. 
 
 (III) Closes Whitney, son of Richard, born 
 Aug. I, 1655, married Sept. 30, 1686, Sarah Knight, 
 of Stow, wiio died March 23, 1755. He had land 
 granted to him in t68i in Stow, and in 1708 pur- 
 chased land in Sudbury, Mass. His places of resi- 
 dence were in Stow and Sudbury. He served in 
 King Philip's war, in 1676. 
 
 (IV) Jonas Whitney, son of Piloses, born Feb. 
 I, 1699, in Stow, married Jan. 19, 1723, Dorcas 
 
 Wood, and was a resident of Stow and Harvard^ 
 .Mass. Mrs. Whitney died Feb. 22, 1725, and he 
 married (second) March 12, 1726, :\Iargaret Strat- 
 ton, and died Sept. 18, 1770. 
 
 (V) Esquire Timothy Whitney, son of Jonas^ 
 born in February, 1729, in Harvard, married there. 
 May 20, 1752, Alice Whitney, of that town, born 
 April 13, 1733. They lived in Harvard and Peter- 
 sham, Mass. Both died in June, 1803. 
 
 (VI) Peter Whitney, son of Timothy, born- 
 April 20, 1760, in Harvard, married Mary Blair. 
 Mr. Whitney was a tailor and his place of residence 
 and business was in Chester, Mass. His death oc- 
 curred March 6, 1826, and the death of his wife 
 March 11, of the same year. 
 
 (VII) Theodore Whitney, son of Peter, born in 
 Chester, married in Montgomery, IMass., Marilla- 
 Ann Aver}', born May 3, 1799. Mr. Whitney was 
 a farmer and was also engaged' in the manufacture 
 of window blinds and shades. He lived at different 
 times in various places, Chester, and Norwich,. 
 Mass.-, at Charlotte, Canada, at West Suffield, 
 Conn., and at Agawam, Mass. His stay in Canada 
 covered the period of the Rebellion of 1837, and un- 
 til after that war he was engaged in keeping a hotel. 
 During the Rebellion the military authorities occu- 
 pied his house, which \vas used as the officers' head- 
 quarters. No person was allowed to leave or enter 
 the house without giving the countersign. His-- 
 children witnessed at different times, three persons 
 shot, presumably as spies, as they were not able to 
 give the pass-word. Mr. Whitney died Aug. 7, 
 185 1, his widow survived, a number of years, dying 
 in West Suffield, in 1883, and both were buried in- 
 Suffield. Their children were as follows : Char- 
 lotte married Aaron Frank, and both died in Suf- 
 field ; Martha Sheldon married Hezekiah Nooney ; 
 Frances Amelia married James H. Harmon; Eliza- 
 beth Allen married first George La Barnes, and sec- 
 ond i\Iiner M. Pomeroy ; Catherine Fowler married 
 first Frank Grover, second, Cyrus King; Alice Pel- 
 ton married Roland Harmon ; and Marilla Ann mar- 
 ried Henry G. Smith, and they became the parents 
 of Airs. AA'illis J. Prouty, of Meriden. 
 
 JOIiN SHERAIAN LANE, a veteran of the 
 Civil war and one of'the leading and prominent busi- 
 ness men a-nd citizens of Meriden, where he is at 
 the head of the firm of John S. Lane & Son, which 
 conducts one of the great and important industries 
 of the busy manufacturing city, descends fr-om 
 sturdy New England ancestry, on his mother's side 
 from the illustrious Sherman family which has given 
 to the country men who have achieved fame in both 
 civil and military life. 
 
 Mr. Lane was born Nov. 27, 1839, '™ the town 
 of Kent, Conn., son of Hon. Daniel P. and Polly 
 B. (Sherman) Lane. Daniel P. Lane served his- 
 country in the war of 1 81 2 and was a man of prom- 
 inence in his town, holding a number of public 
 trusts; he served in the State Assembly from Kent. 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 693 
 
 in 1840. He was a Democrat of the Jefferson-Jack- 
 :S'On school. His death occurred in Kent in the 
 spring of 1865 and his ranains were buried there. 
 His wiife died at Falls Village, Conn., in 1881, and 
 was buried at New IMilford. Their children were 
 ■as follows: Martha, who married (first) Harry 
 Edwards, and (second) Jackson Brown, of New 
 Milford; John Sherman; Charles S., a road builder 
 for John S. Lane & Son ; Byron, an engineer, who 
 was killed in a railroad accident Feb. 6, 1894; and 
 •Sylvia, who married Henry Straub, of New Mil- 
 ford, and died in 1882. 
 
 John S. Lane received the customary district 
 school education afforded the general Connecticut 
 farmer lads, attending the neighborhood school 
 during the winter months and working on the farm 
 in the summer season. When thirteen years old he 
 worked one year as clerk in a store and at eighteen 
 he left home, going to Bridgeport, Conn., where he 
 was employed on track repairs on the New York 
 & New Haven Railroad. He showed such adapta- 
 tion for the work that in three months time he was 
 made foreman and later held a similar position on 
 the Housatonic line. He assisted in laying the 
 ■double tracks between New Haven and New York, 
 anil also in laying the tracks into the old station at 
 Fourth avenue and Twenty-seventh street. New 
 York, since abandoned. 
 
 In 1859 ^Mr. Lane went West in company with 
 Col. R. B. Mason, then mayor of the city of Chi- 
 cago and general manager of the Logansport, Pe- 
 oria & Burlington Railroad. He remained in that 
 section until the battle of Bull Run, Va., in July, 
 1861. Fired by patriotism' he returned to his native 
 State and cast his lot with the 8th Conn. V. L, en- 
 listing from ^lilford. Conn., Sept. 14, 1861 ; he be- 
 came a sergeant in Company I and was mustered 
 into the United States service Sept. 21. The 8th 
 Connecticut was organized at Camp Buckingham, 
 Hartford, and' was in command of Col. Edward Har- 
 land, of Not wich. Its principal engagements were 
 at Roanoke Island, Feb. 8, 1862; Newbern, N. C, 
 March 14, 1862; siege of Fort Macon, N. C, April, 
 1862; South Mountain, Sept. 14, 1862; Antietam, 
 Sept. 17, 1862; Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862; 
 Fort Huger, Va., April 19, 1863 ; Watthall Junc- 
 tion, Va., May 7, 1864; Fort Darling, Va., May 16, 
 1864; Cdld Harbor, August, 1864; Petersburg, Va., 
 Aug. 25, 1864; and Fort Harrison, Va., Sept. 29, 
 1864. Our subject shared the fortunes of his com- 
 mand from sta;rt to finish and returned with an hon- 
 orable war record. He was promoted to first ser- 
 geant April 20, 1863 ; second lieutenant Sept. 29, 
 1863; first lieutenant Sept. 21, 1864; resigned and 
 was discharged from the service Oct. 14, 1864. He 
 had been tendered a captain's commission, having 
 commanded the company during the last year of 
 his service. 
 
 At the close of his service Lieut. Lane returned 
 to Connecticut, and on Jan. i, 1865, he was ap- 
 pointed supervisor of the Housatonic railroad, a po- 
 
 sition he acceptably filled until 1880, when he be- 
 came supervisor of the New York, New Haven & 
 Hartford Radroad, :his jurisdiction covering the 
 road from New Haven to Springfield, including its 
 branches. Fie remained in that position until 1890, 
 and during his ten years' service stone-balla-sted 
 sixty-two miles of the main track. This work di- 
 rected his attention tO' the stone business, and re- 
 signing his position he became the pioneer stone 
 contractor east of the State of Pennsylvania in the 
 furnishing of stone and concrete work for streets 
 and railroads. In 1892 he received the contract for 
 supplying all the ballast for the four track improve- 
 ments of the New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 Railroad. This contract necessitated the supplying 
 of a daily average of one hundred car loads of 
 stone. 
 
 In 1894 the base of Mr. Lane's operations was 
 at Hartford. In that year he moved to Meriden, 
 where the great industry of John S. Lane & Son in 
 the quarrying and crushing of trap rock for use in 
 macadamizing highways, ballasting railroads, etc., 
 has ever since been carried on and grown to great 
 proportions. The business is the largest of the kind 
 in the United States, the dail}' capacity being 2,500 
 tons of stone. Beginning- in 1890 with one crusher 
 with a capacity of 300 tons per day, Messrs. Lane 
 & Son now operate fourteen large crushers, be- 
 sides two large steam rollers for road' building. The 
 firm has built over forty miles of raacadamiizecl roads 
 in Connecticut and Massachusetts and has recently- 
 erected a plant for that purpose and built a large 
 dam at New Milford. Their ]\Ieriden plant is lo- 
 cated above the Staite fair grounds and is modernly 
 equipped for the speedy handling of their extensive 
 business. As many as 173 carloads of stone have 
 been loaded and shipped in a single day. In order to 
 handle this large number of cars with convenience 
 and dispatch the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 ford Railway Co. has provided ample side tracks, 
 which extend from "Gracey's Junction" to the fair 
 grounds. One hundred and seventy-five cars at a 
 time can be placed there and a switch engine is kept 
 busy all the time placing empty cars ready for load- 
 ing and making up trains of loaded cars ready to 
 be forwarded in the different directions. Spring- 
 field, Middletown, New London, Windsor, East 
 Hartford and Thompsonville and man}' smaller 
 towns get their supply of broken stone from this 
 concern. The rock found in Meriden is conceded to 
 be the best oteainable for the purpose. A quarry 
 was opened in 1893 near Westfield, Mass., on the 
 Boston & Albany Railroad where the same class of 
 stone is found and a market secured in the import- 
 ant businiess centers on the line of that railroad. 
 The stone from that quarn' has been adopted by 
 such cities as Worcester, Pittsfield, Holyoke and 
 Springfield, and laree lamounts are sent to Boston. 
 The firm has quarries at Westfield and Holyoke, 
 on a branch of the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 ford Railroad, at Hingh'am, Mass., on the Old 
 
694 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Colony Raiiroad, and in Guttenberg, N. J. Eight- 
 een crushers are operated in the conduct of the busi- 
 ness and emploj'ment is given to over five hundred 
 men and a large number of teams. 
 
 John S. Lane has ahva3's been a Republican po- 
 litically. He lias served Meriden as a member of 
 the compion council. Fratemially he is a Mason, 
 identified with Aleridian Lodge, No. jy, A. F. & A. 
 M. ; Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; Hamilton 
 Council, No. 22, R. & S. M. ; St. Elmo Commandery, 
 No. 9, K. T. ; and the Mystic Shrine, of Bridgeport. 
 He also belongs to Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. 
 F. ; Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R. ; Alfred Hall 
 Council, Royal Arcanum ; New York Commandery, 
 Lo}'al Legion; and the Army and Navy Club, of 
 New London. 
 
 On Jan. 27, 1863, Mr. Lane was married to 
 Em'ma S. Plumb, daughter of Wilson Plumb, and 
 to them have come children as follows : Arthur S., 
 who is the junior member of fhe firm of John S. 
 Lane & Son ; Bertha, wife of VV R. Smith, who is 
 in charge of the quarries at Guttenberg, N. J. ; E. 
 Le Roy, who is superintendent of quarries and road 
 buildfer at Hingham, Mass. (he married Harriet 
 Pufifer, of jNIeriden, and has' one child, Doris) ; 
 Harrjr C, w'ho is engaged in the stone business in 
 Meriden ; and Edna C, who was educate'd in a 
 boarding school at Lyme and at Smith College, 
 Northampton, ^Nlass., and has also studied music 
 and art. The family are all members of the Con- 
 gregational Church. i\Ir. and Mrs. Lane spend 
 their winters' in Florida where they have a fine or- 
 ange grove, in which Mr. Lane takes great pride. 
 The home on '\\'ashington Heights in Meriden is 
 a most delightful one, and is completely equipped 
 •with all modern devices to make it a comfortable 
 and elegant residence. 
 
 The Plumb Family, of which Mrs. John Sher- 
 man Lane is a descendant, is an old and highly re- 
 spected one in New Eng^land. The name is' traced 
 back to the Norman Conquesit and' hias been spelled 
 several -different ways, Plumme, Plome, Plume, 
 Plumb and Plum, but is now written Plumb. A 
 full and complete genealogy of the family was pub- 
 lished in 1893 by H. B. Plumb, of Luzerne county. 
 Pa., a copy of which is in the possession of Mrs. 
 Lane. 
 
 Robert Plumb was born Dec. 30, 1617, in Ridge- 
 well, England, and emigrated to America with his 
 father's family, locating at Wethersfield. In 1639 he 
 removed to Milford,, Conn., where he spent the re- 
 mainder of his hfe and died there May 12, 1655. 
 His father, John Plumb, settled in Wethersfield, 
 later at Branford, Conn., where he died in 1648. 
 Robert Plumb married Jan. 9, 1642, Mary Baldwin, 
 who was born Feb. 19, 1625, and died Feb. i, 1707, 
 in Milford. To this union six children were born. 
 
 John Plumb, eldest son of Robert, was born Aug. 
 12, 1646, in jMilford, Conn., where he was a land 
 owner and farmer, and where he became quite a 
 prominent citizen. He died in March, 1728, at the 
 
 ripe age of eighty-two years and was buried in Mil- 
 ford. He married Elizabeth Norton, by whom he 
 had ten children. 
 
 John Plumb (2), son of John, was born July 
 29, 1671, and pa,ssed his entire life in Milford, dying 
 in August, 1716, while still a comparatively young 
 man. He was a land owner and quite a prominent 
 citizen. About 1700 he married Rached Bunnel, 
 who was born Dec. 16, 1683, and died July 21, 1728. 
 Seven children were born to them. 
 
 John Pkmib (3), son of John (2), was born 
 July 30, 1704, in. Milford, where he followed farm- 
 ing and where he spent his life. He died in 1763. 
 On j\Iay 27, 1723, he married Keziah Allen, and the 
 union was blessed with four sons and seven daugh- 
 ters. 
 
 John Plumb (4), son of John (3), was born 
 July 7, 1726, and spent his entire life in Milford, 
 where he 'died while still a young man. He mar- 
 ried, in New London, Conn., Mary Hotchkiss, who 
 was born in 1723 and; who died Sept. 17, 1803. 
 They had three chiMren : Abigail, born Nov. 16. 
 1748; Prudence, born July 17, 1750; and John Still. 
 
 John Still Plumb was born June 4, 1752, and 
 lived in ^Milford, where he passed his life and where 
 he died in February, 1833, at the ripe age of eighty- 
 one years. On Jan. i, 1771, he married Elizabeth 
 Sears, Avho was bom in 1753 and died Jan. 30, 1829. 
 Eight children were born to them: John, Dec. 31, 
 1771; Elizabeth, May 14, 1775; Joel, Nov. 5, 1777. 
 (married Oct. 12, 1800, Lou Bassett, and died 
 March 9, 1857) ; Isaac, June 16, 1780 (married Abi- 
 gail Bassett, and died in 1804) ; Frances, in Decem- 
 ber, 1782; Lucindy, July 23, 1786 (married Jona- 
 than Sackett) ; Leuman, i\Iay 27, 1788 (married 
 Mary Whitney) ; and Samle Still, Dec. 27, 1790. 
 
 John Plumb, eldest child of John Still and 
 Elizabeth ( Sears) Plumb, was born in Milford 
 December 31, 1771. He grew to- manhood in 
 that town and there died in 1846, a highly respected 
 citizen. His remains are buried in the ceme- 
 tery in Milford. On Jan. 11, 1795, he married Sibyl 
 Smith, who was born in 1770 and died Dec. 24, 
 1830. Seven children blessed this union : Thad- 
 deus, born Sept. 29, 1795, married Elizabeth Oviatt 
 and (second) Betsey Smith, and died Sept. 29. 
 184s ; Harriet, born Felx 12, 1798, married Elipha- 
 let Beecher and (second) Aaron Fairchild, and died 
 Sept. 19, 1878; Lyman, born Feb. 8, 1801, married 
 Harriet Smith and died March 28, 1882; David, 
 born June 13, 1805, married Esther Nettleton and 
 died June 29, 1866; William, born Nov. 29, 1807, 
 married Tamar Baldwin and died in March, 1865 ' 
 Wilson was the twin of William; and Nancv, born 
 Oct. 20, 1810, died Sept. 19, 1833. 
 
 Wilson Plumb, father of Mrs. Lane, mentioned 
 above as twin brother of William, was born Nov. 
 29, 1807. On Nov. 29, 1831, he married Naomi 
 Nettleton and he died }i[arch 18, 1850. He was 
 a contractor and builder and was well known and 
 very highly respected. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 695 
 
 GEORGE H. JOSLIN, M. D., of Mt. Carmel, 
 Conn., is one of the successful young physicians of 
 New Haven county, and one whose success in Hfe 
 has been entirel}' the result of his own efiforts. His 
 high position as a practitioner and as a citizen is but 
 the outgrowth of eft'orts to succeed in which his 
 determination and persistency were more than once 
 found to be valuable traits of character. Dr. Jos- 
 lin is wedded to his profession, and by thorough 
 preparation has fitted himself eminently for its prac- 
 tice ; he is also interested in social and public affairs 
 of his town, and his personality has won for him 
 a wider recognition than his mere professional 
 status, however eminent that may be. 
 
 Dr. Joslin is of an old New England family, and 
 one that has scattered over almost every state in the 
 United' States. The name is spelled in various 
 wavs, the original spelling, Josselyn, has been cor- 
 rupted into Joselyn, Joslyn, Joslin and many other 
 ways. The family is of distinctively French origin, 
 and descends from John Josselyn, who came to New 
 England in 1638. He was accompanied by his 
 brother Henry, who never married. From John 
 Josselyn comes a long line of descendants, and a 
 family that has been closely identified with the early 
 history of several New England towns, among 
 which can be mentioned Hanover, Mass., and Poult- 
 ney, Vt. They took part in the Revolutionary war. 
 All in all they have always been of the better class 
 of people. 
 
 Pierre Joslyn, the grandfather of Dr. George H. 
 Joslin, for a number of years conducted the old 
 "Knickerbocker House," on Sixth Avenue, New 
 York City. In those days this was a well-known 
 hostelry in New York, and many noted and prom- 
 inent Frenchmen were entertained there. He lived 
 the latter years of his life at Williston, Vt., and 
 there he died at the home of his son, Louis Na- 
 poleon, having attained the venerable age of more 
 than ninety years. Pierre Joslyn had a large fam- 
 ily, in which were a number of sons, several of 
 whom served in the war of the Rebellion. 
 
 Louis Napoleon Joslyn, father of Dr. George 
 H. JosUn, was born in Montpelier, Vt., and was a 
 schoolmate of Admiral Dewey in the public schools 
 of that citv. He became a civil engineer, later a 
 carriage manufacturer. He married Elizabeth Sen- 
 na, a native of A^^ermont of French descent. She 
 comes of a family particularly noted for superior 
 physical strength and prowess, several of her 
 brothers being men whose feats of strength were 
 remarkable, and who, in this day, would be noted 
 as powerful athletes. Their family consisted of 
 three children, of whom George H. is the only son. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Louis Napoleon Joslyn make their 
 home in P>urlington, \'ermont. 
 
 George H. Joslin was born in Burlington, Vt., 
 July 24, 1864, and there he passed his boyhood days 
 and received his earlier education. When sixteen 
 years of age he secured an engagement in the postal 
 service, then under Postmaster General James, and 
 
 was stationed at Holyoke, Mass. It was during 
 this time that he first entered upon the study of 
 medicine, his preceptor being one of the most suc- 
 cessful practitioners of that section of Massachu- 
 setts. After about four years young Joslin entered 
 the Aledical department of the University of Ver- 
 mont at Burlington, from which he was graduated 
 in 1887. During his attendance at the University, 
 he was in the Dean's office under Professor Grinell. 
 While there, too, he took a prominent part in ath- 
 letics, and served in succession as director, secretary 
 and president of the University Athletic Associa- 
 tion. As an athlete Dr. Joslin was a prominent 
 and successful contestant. In 1885 he took five 
 first prizes in athletic events. He also held the pole 
 vault record (11 ft. i in.) of the institution — a rec- 
 ord that stood for some time. After leaving college 
 on his graduation Dr. Joslin went to Montreal, 
 Canada, where he passed one year in the General 
 Hospital at that city, after which he returned to 
 A^ermont, and began the practice of his profession 
 at Westminster, remaining there one year, after 
 which he went to New York and took a course at 
 Post Graduate School Hospital, from which he re- 
 ceived his diploma in 1888. In 1889 he came to 
 Mt. Carmel, Conn., succeeding Dr. Wright, and 
 where he has since been located, having built up a 
 most enviable practice which extends into several of 
 the surrounding towns. 
 
 On Oct. 13, 1888, Dr. Joslin was married in 
 Westminster, Vt., to Miss Mary E. Nutting, who 
 was born in that town, daughter of Chas. A. Nut- 
 ting. Two children have blessed this union : Helen 
 and Adele. 
 
 Mrs. Joslin is a lady of refinement and culture, 
 and possessed of excellent musical ability. She 
 taught school successfully previous to her marriage, 
 having been graduated from the Vermont Academy 
 at Saxtons River, class of 1885. She also took a 
 course at Boston Conservatory of ]\Iusic. ]\Irs. 
 Joslin comes from one of the very oldest families 
 at Westminster, her ancestors being among the first 
 settlers there. They originally came from Connec- 
 ticut, and going up the Connecticut river in birch 
 canoes, came to what is now Bellows Falls. Their 
 means of travel being interrupted, they made a 
 settlement there, and the city now includes the land 
 on ^vhich they settled. Equally as prominently 
 identified with the Revolutionary history of the 
 town of Westminster are her ancestors, who were 
 stanch Whigs, and' their armed resistance of the 
 representatives of King George III, in March, 1775, 
 was the first blood shed of Revolutionary war. As- 
 sociated with the above event is a relic of great in- 
 terest that Dr. Joslin has in his possession : ^^'hcn 
 the representatives of King George III went to 
 Westminster, in March, 1775, to hold court, they 
 met with bitter opposition from the Whigs, and 
 William French with his main strength held the 
 door of the room in which court was to be held. 
 A bullet fired from outside bv the armed force of 
 
696 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the King, penetrated the door and killed French. 
 The State of Vermont has erected a $25,000 monu- 
 ment over the grave of this French and a Mr. Hel- 
 ton. The door through which the shot was fired 
 remained for many years in its position, it is now 
 in the rooms of the \'ermont State Historical So- 
 ciety at Montpelier, but the panel through which 
 the shot entered, the path of the fatal bullet being 
 plainly visible, is in the possession of Dr. Joslin, 
 being given him by Judge Stoddard, of W'estmin- 
 ster, to whom he ministered in his last illness. 
 
 In 1893, Dr. Joslin builded from his own de- 
 signs, one of the finest homes in his town, and one 
 known far and near for its architectural beaut)- and 
 unique design. The residence and barn (the latter 
 an elegant structure and also of the owner's design) 
 stand in beautiful and well-kept grounds, all of 
 which previous to the Doctor's purchase was a 
 rough, unsigihtly piece of land. Its present condi- 
 tion is simply an illustration of our subject's thor- 
 oughness and originality. 
 
 As a practitioner Dr. Joslin is a most successful 
 one and at his age has met with success such as 
 many fail to acquire even in a lifetime. He is a 
 good judge of human nature, and 'has a pleasing 
 personality, a combination of great value to any 
 member of his profession. He is thoroughly up- 
 to-date in medical science and ranks high among 
 the professional friends, he being one to maintain 
 the profession's dignity, etc. As a man his popular- 
 ity is but in keeping with his success as a physician, 
 and his value as a citizen is second to none in his 
 town. Dr. Joslin is certainly of the progressive 
 school, as evidenced by his interest and advocacy of 
 everv movement of benefit to his town. He was, 
 probably more than any other citizen of his part of 
 town, instrumental in getting the trolley line ex- 
 tended to ISlt. Carmel. His active and coustant la- 
 bor for this necessitated much time, and no little 
 outla}' O'f means, in which, strange to say, he had 
 the oppositicn of not a few of the citizens, who 
 were to be benefited by the extension. This did 
 not serve to discourage him, rather, indeed, to one 
 of his makeup, it encouraged him, for he then 
 thought, as time has proved, that those opposing 
 this improvement would be the warmest supporters 
 when it was once secured.- This activity of his was 
 simply that which prompts a public spirited and 
 progressive citizen to do his duty as such. The 
 Doctor gave land on which a car bam was erected, 
 that his locahty might have better service in which 
 all would be benefited. Other evidence has been 
 shown of his public spirit, which is never of the kind 
 that is contained in a mere expression of satisfac- 
 tion, but of the more substantial "take off your 
 coat," or "go down in your pocket" variety. Dr. 
 Joslin is liberal in church matters and political af- 
 fairs, not being bound to any particular creed or 
 party. Fraternally he is a member of Day Spring 
 Lodge, No. 30, F. & A. M., of Hamden. He is 
 also affiliated with the Independent Order of Forest- 
 
 ers and the Hamden Grange; and professionally 
 he is a member of New Haven County Medical 
 Society, and of the New Haven Medical Associa- 
 tion. While a man whose life has had its ups and 
 downs, and not a few times when one less cour- 
 ageous would no doubt have sought other channels 
 as a means of making a living, his persistency and 
 indomitable will would not permit him to give up, 
 and success came to him, all of which has not 
 served to change his characteristically democratic 
 waj's. 
 
 JOHN N. CHAAIPIOX. (I) Henry Cham- 
 pion emigrated from England to the American Col- 
 onies and settled at Saybrook, Conn., where be is 
 found as early as 1647. After 'having assisted in 
 the development of Saybrook he removed with his 
 family to the east side of the Connecticut river and 
 became one of the first and most active founders of 
 Lyme. It seems that he was twice married; the 
 Christian name of his second wife was Deborah, 
 and they were married in 1690. Henry Champion 
 died in 1709. 
 
 (II) Henry Champion (2), son of Henry, the 
 emigrant settler, born in 1654, married in Lyme, 
 Conn., in 1684, Susannah De Wolf, of Lyme, and 
 resided on Meeting House Hill. In addition to re- 
 ce'iving land from his father he obtained several 
 tracts by grants from the town. His death occurred 
 in 1704. 
 
 (III) Stephen Champion, son of Henry (2), 
 born in L)fme, Conn., in 1702, married (first) in 
 Lyme, in 1726, Deborah Leech, who was born in 
 1706, daughter of Wolston and jMargaret (Brook- 
 v.'ay) Leech. She died in 1737 and in 1753 Stephen 
 married Abigail Barnes. He was a farmer and re- 
 sided in Lyme until his second marriage, when he 
 removed to Saybrook, there passing the remainder 
 of his days. 
 
 (IV) Dr. Reuben Champion, son of Stephen, 
 born in 1727, in L^^me, married in Saybrook in 
 1755, Lydia Dunk, -wifio was born in 1730 in Say- 
 brook, daughter of Samuel and Sarali (Ingram) 
 Dunk (which name was later changed to Duncan). 
 Dr. Champion for many years resided in Saybrook 
 and there brought up his children, but about 1772 he 
 removed to Springfield, Mass. At the beginning of 
 the Revolution he joined the forces assembling under 
 Gen. ^Vashington and continued to act as a surgeon 
 in the Continental army until attacked by a fever 
 v.'hile on duty at Fort Ticonderoga, which soon 
 caused his death on March 29, 1777. 
 
 (V) Reuben Champion (2), son of Dr. Reuben, 
 born July 30, 1760, in Saybrook, married 'in West 
 Springfield, Mas-s., in 1782, Silence Ely, who was 
 born June i, 1760, in West Spring-field, Mass., 
 daughter of Nathan and Silence (Morgan) Ely. 
 When but fifteen years old Reuben enlisted as a 
 soldier in the Continental army in which, young 
 as he was, he served with credit unitil the close of 
 the war. His life was passed on a farm in Amos- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 697 
 
 town, a parish of West Springfield, and he died May 
 26, 1832, his widow surviving until Oct. 30, 1852, 
 in West Springfield. 
 
 (VI) Elias Champion, son of Reuben (2), was 
 horn in West Springfield June 10, 1790, and April 
 5, 1827, miarried, in Springfield, Esther Strong, 
 w*ho was born Dec. 8, 1801, in Northampton, Mass., 
 •daughter of Oliver and Ruth Strong. Elias Cham- 
 pion was engaged in the hat business in Springfield. 
 He died Oct. 13, 1839, and Mrs. Champion survived 
 him until Aug. 29, 1843. 
 
 (VII) John Newton Champion, son of Elias, 
 born Oct. 21, 1828, in Springfield, j\Iass., was mar- 
 ried in New Haven Oct. 24, 1853, to Cordelia Eliza 
 Sanford, who was born M'ay 21, 1833, in Wood- 
 hridge. Conn., daug'hter of Stephen and Cordelia 
 (Hotchkiss) Sanford. They resided in New Ha- 
 ven, in which city Mr. Champion was a builder. 
 He was first lieutenant of the New Haven Ligh: 
 ■Guards, Company E, 2d Regiment, C. N. G. ; a mem- 
 ber of Olive Branch Lodge, A. F. & A. AI. ; past 
 noble grand of City Lodige, I. O. O. F. ; a member 
 of Grand Canton Sassacus, Patriarchs Militant ; 
 and was a charter memlber of the following named 
 associations: Croton Engine, No. i, a temperance 
 fire company, of which he was foreman ; the New 
 Haven Independent Rangers, a temperance military 
 company; the Latch String Originals, a temperance 
 society; and New Haven Lodge, D. of R., I. O. O. 
 F. In religion he was a member of the First Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 To Mr. and ]\Irs. John Newton Champion were 
 born children as follows: (i) Sarah Ann, born 
 Oct. 24, 1859, died in infancy. (2) John Newton 
 is mentioned belo'w. (3) Stephen Elias, born Oct. 
 19, 1862, was graduated from Gen. Russell's Mili- 
 tar}- School in New Haven and is engaged in the 
 confectionery business in that city ; he is a member 
 and drummer of the New Haven Light Guards, a 
 member of Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. F. & A. M., 
 and a charter member of Flammonassett Tribe, No. 
 I, I. O. R. II. (4) Moses Aaron, born June 18, 
 1868, died in infancy. 
 
 John Newton Champion (2), son of John New- 
 ton, bom March 20, 1861, in New Haven, Conn., 
 married in that city Nov. 21, 1883, Minnie Monk, 
 viho was born July 26, 1863, in New Haven, daugh- 
 ter of Joseph C' and Amelia Louise (Brown) 
 Monk. John Newton Champion was graduated 
 from. Russell's Military School at New Haven in 
 1877, and after completing his studies entered the 
 florist business. For thirteen years he was in the 
 florist's department of the Frank S. Piatt Co. and 
 in 1890 he engaged in business for himself on Chapel 
 street, where he has since buiU up a very large ami 
 widely increasing patronage and is justly regarded' 
 as one of the best in his line, not only in New Ha- 
 ven, but the surrounding district. Mr. Champion is 
 a member of the Chamber of Commerce; of the 
 2d Company, Governor's Foot Guards; president of 
 the ^ew Haven County Horticultural Society ; vice- 
 
 president (State of Connecticut) of the American 
 Florist Association ; member of the New Haven 
 Colony Historical Society; member of the Sons of 
 the American Revolution ; and for eleven years was 
 a member of the New Haven Grays, which is desig- 
 nated as Company F, 2d Regiment, C. N. G. ; he 
 was drum sergeant of the 2d Regiment. Socially 
 i\lr. Champion is a past noble grand of City Lodge, 
 No. 36, I. O. O. F. ; member of Wooster Lodge, 
 No. 79, A. F. & A. M.; Hamiony Council; Frank- 
 hn Chapter ; the Union League Club ; the Pequot 
 Club ; the New Haven Yacht Club ; the Sachem's 
 Head Yacht Club ; and the Young Men's Republican 
 Club, being an ardent Republican in politics. Mrs. 
 Champion is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 W. A. BEERS, the veteran photographer, is a 
 son of Charles Beers, and grandson of David Dia- 
 mond Beers, who followed farming and shoemak- 
 ing in Fairfield, Connecticut. 
 
 Charles Beers was born in Fairfield, Conn., 
 where he spent his school days, and left home to 
 work for a family by the name of Sanford. When 
 he was seventeen he walked from Fairfield to New 
 Haven, and apprenticed himself to James Brewster, 
 a carriage manufacturer ; in his time he worked 
 twelve hours a day. In New York City he worked 
 for Benjamin Brewster, a noted carriage maker of 
 the day, and later, in Bridgeport, he was employe:! 
 by Tomlinson & Wood, in the same line. In 1844 
 he removed to New Haven to take charge of the 
 estate of Capt. William Jocelyn, his father-in-law, 
 and in that city he became foreman for George 
 Hoadley, the well-known carriage manufacturer, 
 with whom he remained until his death. It is said 
 of him that he never attended a theatre, and being 
 of the strict old school he thought the devil, him- 
 self, was in playing cards. In 1837 he married 
 Elizabeth Ann Jocelyn, daughter of Capt. William 
 Jocelyn, well known in New Haven. Their chil- 
 dren were as follows: W. A., mentioned below; 
 Susan Elizabeth Sanford married William Gay, 
 publisher, of the firm of Gay Brothers. 
 
 W. A. Beers was born in New Haven, Conn., 
 Sept. 17, 1837, and received his education in what 
 is now the Webster school, and in Oxford Acad- 
 emy. In his youthful days Air. Beers was under 
 instructions with Wells .Bros., who took a da- 
 guerreotype picture by electric lisht in Yale Chem- 
 ical Laboratory as early as 1853. Prof. Seropean, 
 of Yale, with Mr. Beers, who then was with Wells 
 Brothers, of New Haven, were the first in New 
 Haven to make pictures in a camera on paper with- 
 out a negative. This they did in 1853, but the 
 process was difficult, and of no pi-actical value. 
 Mr. Beers was one of the first photographers in 
 New Haven to make photographs on paper and to 
 use the wet process for photographs, and the first 
 one to take daguerreotypes by electric light in 
 the city, and he has kept pace with every improve- 
 
698 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ment in his calling-. In 1854 he begdn business in 
 photograp'hy for himself. The following year he 
 began business at his present location in company 
 with Sereno Alansfield, under the name of Beers & 
 Mansfield. This firm continued for twenty years, 
 and then Mr. Mansfield retired, leaving Mr. Beers 
 to conduct his business alone, which he has done to 
 the present time with marked success. He has 
 been in business on Chapel Street for a longer time 
 than any other person. 
 
 W. A. Beers was married in Fair Haven to 
 Cynthia Jenette, a daughter of Col. Joseph Wilcox, 
 a shoe dealer, and a prominent man in that com- 
 munity. To this union came one son, Willie Wil- 
 cox, who died at the age of seventeen years. Mr. 
 Beers was a member of the New Haven Colony 
 Historical Society, and belongs to the Chamber of 
 Commerce. In the Hiram Lodge, A. F. & A. M., 
 he has been a valuable member since 1867, being 
 secretary for twent)'-one years — the oldest secretary 
 in the State at that time. For over twenty-three 
 years he has been secretary of the Masonic Pro- 
 tective Society, and has been for years a member 
 of the Young Men's Republican Club. For three 
 years be was Councilman from the First Ward. 
 
 The Beers family appears to have originated in 
 Westcliff, County Kent, England, at a place called 
 Bere's Court. William deBere, of Bere's Court, was 
 bailiff of Dover, about 1275. Nicholas deBere held 
 in the Manor of Bere's Court in the twentieth year 
 of the reign of Henry III. The first of the' an- 
 cestry of the American family, was Martin deBere, 
 of Rochester, Kent, who was living in i486. He 
 married a daughter of Thomas Nyssell, of 
 Wrotham, England. From this couple in the fifth 
 generation was Capt. Richard Bere, who was born 
 in 1607, a son of John -and Mary (Selby) Bere, he 
 of Gravesend, and she of Yorkshire. Capt. Bere 
 came, to America in 1635, making his home at 
 Watertown, Mass. He represented that town in 
 the General Court for thirteen years. During the 
 trouble with the Pequot Indians he commanded a 
 company in several battles, and was killed by the 
 Indians near Northfield, Mass., in 1675. 
 
 In the fifth generation was also James Bere, of 
 Gravesend, who was not living in 1635. His wid- 
 ow, Hester, died in 1635, and the same year her 
 two sons, Anthony and James, accompanied their 
 uncle, Capt. Richard, to America. James Bere 
 came to Fairfield, Conn., in 1657, and twO' years 
 later purchased a house and lot. TwO' years later 
 he purchased a second lot of eight acres in Green- 
 field, and in 1664 he took the freeman's oath. He 
 died in 1694. To him and his wife, Abigail, were 
 born five children, two of whom were sons, James 
 and Joseph. 
 
 Anthony Bere, notedi above, was a native of 
 Gravesend, Eng., and the first record of his name 
 in this countr)- is at AVatertown, Mass., where he 
 took the freeman's oath in I('i57. In i'')55 he re- 
 moved to Roxbury, Mass., and in 1658 came to Fair- 
 
 field, Conn. He was married, and was lost at sea 
 in 1676. His widow Elizabeth survived him. They 
 had seven children ; the sons who grew to manhood 
 being: Ephraim, born in 1648, in Watertown, 
 Mass.; John, born. Jan. 20, 1652; and Barnabas, 
 born Sept. 5, 1658. 
 
 Mr. W. A. Beers has a musket and cutlass that 
 were used by one of his ancestors in the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 MOREHOUSE. The family bearing this name 
 in Meriden, the head of which is the well-known 
 contractor and builder Henry L. Morehouse — a sub- 
 stantial and progressive citizen of that busy manu- 
 facturing city — is one of the oldest in Connecticut, 
 reaching back as it does for 260 and more years. 
 
 Born Sept. 25, 1845, i" ^^ew Preston, in the 
 town of Washington, Litchfield Co., Conn., a son of ' 
 the late Cyrus A. and Cornelia (Canfield) More- 
 house, Henry L. Morehouse, of Meriden, is de- 
 scended in the seventh generation from Thomas 
 Morehouse, who was at Wethersfield as earh- as 
 1640, and the next year at Stamiford, where he 
 shared in the first distribution of land, receiving 
 seven acres. He was in Stamford in 1649, and in 
 1653 in Fairfield carrying on a gristmill. He mar- 
 ried Isabella, daughter of Ralf Keeler, of Norwalk. 
 From this ancestor Mr. Morehouse's lineage is 
 through Jonathan, Stephen, John, John (2), and 
 Cyrus Morehouse. 
 
 (II) Jonathan Morehouse, son of Thomas the 
 settler, married (first) Mary, daughter of Edward 
 Wilson, of Fairfield, and (second) April 16, 1690, 
 Rebecca, daughter of John Knowles. Mr. More- 
 house purchased the homestead of his father in 
 Fairfield. 
 
 (III) Stephen Morehouse, supposedly a son of 
 Jonathan, (the latter having a son Stephen, bap- 
 tized May 21, 1704) born in Fairfield in 1702, mar- 
 ried Abigail Tredwell, of Fairfield, and settled in 
 Redding, where he was instrumental in establishing 
 the first Episcopal society there. Both himself and 
 his wife died and were buried at Redding. Their 
 tombstone inscriptions read as follows : 
 
 "Here lies buried the body of Mr. Stet)hen More- 
 house, who departed his Life JNIay ye 2d, 1767. in 
 ye 66 year of His age." 
 
 "The Remains of Mrs. Abigail Morehouse, Wife 
 of Mr. Stephen Morehouse, who after a course of 
 Piety and Virtue exchanged this life for immortality 
 Sept. 6, 1759, in ye 56 year of her age." 
 
 (IV) John Morehouse, son of Stephen, born 
 about 1725, settled in New M'ilford, Conn. He 
 married, Dec. 27, 1763, Phebe, daughter of Deacon 
 Eleazer Beecher ; she died Feb. 20, 1807, in the 
 'seventieth year of her age, and he married, Dec. 23, 
 1808, Thankful Atwell, of Montville, and resided in 
 Marblehead. Stephen was the father of the fol- 
 lowing children : Anna, born Dec. 2, 1764, mar- 
 ried Matthew ]\Ialktt ; Daniel, born April 27, 1768; 
 John, born Jan. 21, 1770 ; Jabez, born June 12, 1775 ;: 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 699 
 
 Pbebe, born Dec. 13, 1776, married Abijah Patter- 
 son, of Roxbury ; and Jan, born March 14, 1781. 
 
 (V) John Morehouse (2), son of John, born Jan. 
 21, 1770, married, Jan. 22, 1793, Sarah Straight, 
 of Kent, and resided in 'Marblehead. Mr. More- 
 house died Sept. 21, 1837. His children were : 
 Isaac, born April 19, 1794; Jabez, born Sept. 22, 
 1797; Sylvia, born June 25, 1800, married Harmon 
 Couch; Anna, born Aug. 11, 1803, married George 
 Foote; Cyrus, born Nov. 11, 1808; and Catherine, 
 born Oct. 18, 181 1, married Horace Clark. 
 
 (VI) Cyrus Morehouse, son of John (2), born 
 Nov. II, 1808, was a marble worker in New Mil- 
 ford. He married, Nov. 20, 1832, Cornelia A. Can- 
 field, and the children born to the marriage were : 
 Jane, now the widow of John Knowles, residing in 
 New Milford ; Mary, widow of Perry N. Hall, of 
 the same place; Annette, who married Isaac San- 
 ford, and both are now deceased ; Albina, widow of 
 John Addis, of New Milford ; Frank, who married 
 Miss Woolsey, and lives in New Milford; Andrew, 
 a contractor and builder in Bridgeport, Conn. ; 
 Henry L., born Sept. 25, 1845. Both parents died 
 and are buried in New Milford. 
 
 Henry L. Morehouse^ the last named, now of 
 Meriden, received, in his native town of New Mil- 
 ford, a common-school education. This was sup- 
 plemented by a course at Eastman's Business Col- 
 lege at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., from which he was 
 graduated in 1866. After this he learned the trade 
 of carpenter and builder in Bridgeport, with Mr. 
 Dykeman, and established himself in business as a 
 contractor in Bridgeport. In 1869 he removed his 
 business to New Haven, and in 1872, located in 
 Meriden, where he has ever since carried on building 
 operations under contracts, and has erected many of 
 the residences and business structures of that city, 
 including St. Laurent's Roman Catholic Church, 
 the high school building, and other notable struct- 
 ures. He commands the esteem and respect of the 
 community, of which he is the leading contracting 
 builder. While not an office seeker, Mr. Morehouse 
 takes an intelligent interest in public afifairs, local 
 and general, and supports the principles of the Re- 
 publican party. He is a member of the First Con- 
 gregational Church, is domestic in habit and taste, 
 though ready to contribute of time and means in 
 furthering any plan for the general welfare. 
 
 In 1869, Ml"- Morehouse was married to Miss 
 Mattie C. Wright, daughter of Charles D. Wright, 
 of East Haddam, Conn. She died at her home on 
 Wilcox avenue in 1895, and was buried in East Had- 
 dami Cemetery. She was a member of the M. E. 
 Church, a devoted wife, kind mother, and charitable. 
 Christian neighbor. Her children were four in 
 number. The eldest, Allison F., was educated in 
 Meriden, engaged in business with 'his father, and 
 is now president of the Morehouse Brothers' Com- 
 pany, builders of the City. Andrew C, secretary 
 and treasurer of the same company, was educated in 
 
 his native city and learned the building business with 
 his father. Mattie C. and Franklyn are among the 
 valued members of [Meriden society. 
 
 ABNER WARNER, one of the representative 
 farmers and prominent citizens of Hamden, New 
 Haven county, was born in that town, Oct. 31, 1842, 
 upon the farm which originally belonged to his 
 grandfather, Jonah Warner, who was the first of 
 the family to locate thereon. He followed the join- 
 er's trade throughout life and was a devout member 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was twice 
 married, his first wife being Alma Peck, by whom 
 he had two children : Alma ; and Wealthy, wife of 
 Chester Gaylord. For his second wife he married 
 Olive Sanford, and to them were born nine children, 
 namely: 'Lizzie, wife of Alfred Doolittle; Maria, 
 wife of Seymour Doolittle, a brother of Alfred; 
 Lithia, wife of Silas Hotchkiss ; Miranda, who died 
 unmarried ; Eliza ; Abner ; Minor ; Zelas ; and Har- 
 ley. The grandfather died at the age of eighty- 
 eight years, and his wife was over eighty at the time 
 of her death. 
 
 Abner Warner, Sr., the father of our subject, 
 was also a native of Hamden, and was a farmer by 
 occupation. He was a very hard working man and 
 prospered in business affairs. He was a great fox 
 hunter, and that sport furnished his chief source of 
 enjoyment. Religiously he was a faithful member 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and took an 
 active part in its work. He wedded Miss Mary 
 Bradley, and to them were born the following chil- 
 dren : Bradley, who died at the age of twenty-one 
 years ; Minerva, wife of Bennett Doolittle ; Cyrus, 
 a resident of Woodbridge, Conn. ; Frederick, who 
 died at the age of fifty-nine years; Albert, who acci- 
 dentally shot himself while out hunting at the age 
 of twenty-one years ; Miranda, wife of Orrin Mun- 
 son, of Hamden ; Chauncey, who died at the age of 
 fifty-six years; and Abner, our subject. The father 
 died at the age of sixty-three years, the mother at 
 the age of eighty-two, honored and respected by all 
 who knew them. 
 
 Abner Warner was reared upon the old home- 
 stead, his education being obtained in the common 
 schools of the neighborhood. He did not leave the 
 parental roof until long after the death of his father 
 and mother, as he purchased the home farm, and 
 there continued to reside until 1889, when he went 
 to Centerville, Conn., and engaged in the meat busi- 
 ness for one year. From there he removed to Ham- 
 den Plains, where he followed farming, and was also 
 interested in the milk business until 1894, when he 
 purchased the Enoch Bassett farm of thirty acres 
 in the town of Hamden, carrying on the dairy busi- 
 ness there until the spring of 1899. He then took 
 up his residence in the house which he had erected 
 on a part of the Bassett farm, on Whitney avenue, 
 opposite Whiting Park, and here he successfully 
 engaged in market gardening and the poultry busi- 
 
700 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ness until the fall of 1901, when he moved to Beth- 
 any, Conn., where he now owns the "William 
 Lounsbury, 2d, farm." 
 
 On April 3, 1863, Mr. Warner was united in 
 marriage with Miss Laura- A. Hitchcock, and to 
 them has been born a daughter, Elsie j\I., a gradu- 
 ate of the State Normal School of New Britain, 
 Conn,, who has successfully engaged in teaching in 
 the schools of \\'est Haven for five years. Mr. 
 Warner affiliates with the Prohibition party, and for 
 thirty-five years has been an active member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, and has served as su- 
 perintendent of the Sundav school. Both his wife 
 and daughter were members of the same church, 
 and Mrs. Warner has been an efficient teacher in the 
 Sunday school. A public-spirited and progressive 
 citizen, Mr. Warner takes a deep interest- in every- 
 thing pertaining to the public welfare, and never 
 withholds his support from any enterprise which he 
 believes will prove of benefit to his town and county. 
 
 JA:MES SAI\IUEL ELTON, son of John Prince 
 Elton, was born in Waterbury Nov. 7, 1838, and 
 ^^as educated at Rev, C. W. Everest's School in 
 Hiamden and at Gen. Russell's Military School in 
 New Haven. In 1863, after a brief apprenticeship 
 v.-ith the American Pin Co., and in New York, he 
 engaged in business in his native town and has been 
 responsibly connected with the Waterbuiv Brass Co. 
 from that time to the present. On the death of Jos- 
 eph C. AA'elton, in 1874, he was elected his successor 
 in the presidency, a position which he has continued 
 to fill with much wisdom and efficiency. He is a 
 director of the American Brass Co,, the New Eng- 
 land ^^'atch Co,, the Oakville Co., Blake & John- 
 son, the Waterbury National Bank (of which his 
 father was one of the organizers and the second 
 president), and sevenal other business corporations. 
 
 Mr. Elton is an officer and active member of St. 
 John's Episcopal Churdh, the managing trustee of' 
 the Hall "Church Home" fund, a director of St. 
 Margaret's Diocesan School, the Waterbury Hos- 
 pital and the Silas Bronson Library and an efficient 
 supporter of the charitable and semi-charitable in- 
 stitutions of the city. 
 
 In 1881 Mr. Elton was made the nominee of 
 his party — the minority party in the district — for 
 State Senator, and, having been elected, served 
 his constituents wit'h abilitv in the General Assem- 
 bly in 1882 and 1883. 
 
 On Oct. 28, 1863, James S. Elton married Char- 
 lotte, daughter of Hiram- Steele, of East Bloom- 
 field, N. Y. They had one son, John Prince, who 
 was born June 20, 1865, is a graduate of Trinity 
 College and is now treasurer of the AVaterbury 
 Brass Co. Mrs. Elton passed away May 8, 1899. 
 
 EDAMN HOLT ENGLISH, son of the late 
 Charles L. and Harriet (Holt) English, was born 
 in New Haven, Conn., Sept. 28, 1854. In his youth- 
 ful days he attended French's Private School, and 
 
 subsequently he prepared for College at Hopkins 
 Grammar School, from which he was graduated in 
 the class of 1871. He entered Yale with the class 
 of 1875, but ill health prevented the completion of 
 his course. After leaving college he went to Ko- 
 komo, Ind., and there entered the employ of Calvin 
 Gallup"& Co. (in which firm his father was a part- 
 ner), wholesale dealers lin hardwood lumber. 
 He remained in the West two or three years, and 
 then he returned to New Haven. In 1876 Charles 
 L. English retired from the firm of English & Holt, 
 and Edwin H. succeeded to his father's interest in 
 the business, the firm name of English & Holt being 
 retained until the retirement of Mr. Holt, July i, 
 1897, when it was changed to E. H. English & Co. 
 
 On Oct. 5, 1882, Mr. English married Miss 
 Lucy W. Kellogg, second daughter of Hon. Stephen 
 W. Kellogg, of Waterbury. Immediately after his 
 marriage, he and his wile spent several months 
 traveling in Europe and the East, 
 
 During the last four years of his life Mr. Eng- 
 lish suffered greatly from ill health, lung trouble 
 having developed. A\'hile facing and fighting with 
 great pluck and courage a fatal disease, he was ever 
 at the head of his larp^e business interests, retaining 
 even in hours of weakness and suffering the active 
 control of itsi management. ^Ir. English was a 
 man of exceeding worth, a man of strong and cer- 
 tain ability, a man sure and reliable. He enter- 
 tained no doubt as to his position upon matters under 
 discussion, and had no timidity in stating his views. 
 Those who knew him and even those who met him 
 casually liked and respected him. In national poli- 
 tics he was a Republican, and was in favor of gold 
 monometalism, of moderate protection and muni- 
 cipal reform. He was interested in and endorsed in- 
 ter-collegiate foot ball and athletics in general. In 
 religious connection he was a member of Center 
 Church, and socially he belonged to Ouinnipiac 
 Club. Mr. English was a director in the Merchants 
 National Bank, C. Cowles and Co., and the New 
 Haven Colony Historical Society, and he was 
 elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce 
 April I, 1878. 'Mr, and Mrs, English had a family 
 of eight children. Their first child, Lucia Hosmer, 
 was born April 16, 1884, and died May 22, 1892. 
 The other children are as follows : Marguerite 
 Griswold, born Eeb, 11, 1886; Stephanie Kellogg, 
 born Aug, 27, 1887; Charles Leverett, born Oct, 20, 
 1888 ; Harriet Holt, born Oct, 21, T8qo ; Edwin Holt, 
 born Jan, 16, 1893 ; Katharine Atherton, born 
 Dec, 27, 1894; and Frank Kellogg, born Feb, 
 28, 1898, Mr. English passed away at his home 
 No. 390 Prospect street, New Haven, Oct. 6, 1899. 
 
 ELI COE BIRDSEY. One of Meriden's best 
 known and highly respected citizens, is Eli Coe 
 Birdsey, whose distinguished ancestry, both paternal 
 and maternal, reaches far back beyond the settle- 
 ment of the State of Connecticut. 
 
 On the maternal side, through the family of Gov. 
 
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 ^^^:S>2^*,!>^j^ 
 
 -^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 701 
 
 Thomas Welles, who was governor of the Colony 
 during the years 1655 and 1658, he traces through 
 many titled gentlemen in both France and England 
 to the year 929. Among these was Simon de 
 Welles, who was one of the Crusaders- during the 
 third Crusade in Palestine, and, although it is im- 
 possible to obtain a positive knowledge of his 
 achievements in the Holy Land, it is historical that 
 '"he was in the siege of St. Jean d' Acre during the 
 year 1191 with Richard, Coeur de Lion, and had a 
 special grant of arms bv the king," a copy of which 
 is in the possession of Mr. Birdsey, of Meriden. 
 
 The Birdsey family is among the earliest im- 
 planted in Connecticut. John Birdsey, a native of 
 Reading, Berkshire, England, came to Boston, 
 Mass., in 1636, bringing or accompanying his adult 
 sons. He settled at Milford, Conn., in 1639, and 
 was one of the first planters there and died in 1649. 
 It is supposed that he had sons, Edward, Joseph and 
 John. 
 
 John Birdsey (2), son of John, was born in 
 1616, and died in Stratford, Conn., April 4, 1690, 
 having married Philippa, daughter of Rev. Henry 
 Smith. Their daughter, Joanna, bom Nov. 18, 
 1642, married Timothv Wilcoxson. 
 
 John Birdsey (3), son of John (2), was born 
 March 28, 1641, and died July 9, 1697. He mar- 
 Phoebe Wilcoxson, Dec. 11, 1669. His will is 
 found in Fairfield. His children were: Hannah, 
 born Feb. 5, 1671, married Isaac Beach; Mary, born 
 in November, 1675, died June 17, 1691 ; Sarah, born 
 May 9, 1678, and died in 1679 ; Abel, born Nov. 30, 
 1679, and died June 8, 1704; Joseph, born Feb. 22, 
 1681, and married first Sarah Thompson, and sec- 
 ond Tabitha AA'alker ; Elizabeth, born Oct. 21, 1685, 
 died in 1692, and Dinah, born in 1688, married first 
 Benjamin Beach, and second Samuel Norton. 
 
 Abel Birdsev, son of John (3), a native of Strat- 
 ford, Conn., died May "14, ^747- His first wife. 
 Comfort, was a daughter of John Welles, a grand- 
 daughter of John Welles, and a great-granddaughter 
 of Thomas Welles. She died June 29, 1717, and 
 Feb. 25, 1 718, he married Mrs. Mercy Dunton, of 
 Hempstead, Long Island. The latter died Feb. 6, 
 1763. The children of the first marriage were: 
 Mary, born March 31, 1705; Elizabeth, born Dec. 
 17, 1706, married Benjamin Curtis; Johanna, born 
 Oct. 17, 1708; Phoebe, born Sept. 9, 1710; John, 
 born Sept. 26, 1712; Eunice, born in Jan. 1715; 
 Comfort, born in May, 1717, and Samuel. ^ The 
 children of the second marriage were: Wdliam, 
 born Feb. 20, 1720; Sarah, born July 20, 1722, mar- 
 ried Ephraim Lewis; Abel, born Jan. 4, 1724; and 
 Thomas, born Sept. 5, 1727- 
 
 John Birdsey, son of Abel, of Stratford and 
 Middletown, Conn., died June 5, 1798- 'It is prob- 
 able that he was twice married, as the Stratford 
 records speak of his wife, Hannah, while the Mid- 
 dletown records give her name as Sarah. It is 
 possible also that his first two children, Benjamin 
 and Gershom were twins, as records are confused 
 
 about them, and the father's will mentions them to- 
 gether as of the same age, although they died before 
 he did. The baptism of Benjamin is given as occur- 
 ing in May, 1734, and that of Gershom in 1735. 
 They are supposed to have been the ' children of 
 Hannah. The Middletown records give the chil- 
 dren as follows: Gershom, born Nov. 21, 1734, 
 John, born March 16, 1736; Mary, born April 16, 
 1738; Sarah, born April 2, 1740; Eunice, born Dec. 
 20, 1742; Abel, born Feb. 23, 1745; David, born 
 May 12, 1748, and Seth, born Oct. 13, 1751. The 
 will of John Birdsey was proved Sept. 24, 1798, at 
 Middletown, and on Dec. 15, Elisha H. Birdsey, of 
 Mid'f'itown, and John Curtis, of Newtown, began 
 proceedings to appeal from the order of the Middle- 
 sex Probate Court to the Superior Court. In the 
 distribution ordered April 29, 1799, the heirs of 
 Benjamtin and' Gershom, received their portions. 
 After trial of the appeal and numerous legal pro- 
 cedures, which reduced the estate from $18,268.57 
 to $16,510.12, the distribution was finally made May 
 25, 1801. 
 
 Gershom Birdsey, son of John, of Middletown, 
 died Nov. 17, 1789. His marriage according to the 
 family records was to Hannah Bartlett, on Nov. 12, 
 1772, although the Middletown records place it one 
 vear earlier. Their children were : Eunice, born 
 March 12, 1773; Samuel, born Feb. 12, 1775, and 
 married Betsey Cravell ; Gershom, born Dec. 29, 
 1776, married Lucy Coe, born March 7, 1779. 
 
 Gershom Birdsey (2), of Middletown and Meri- 
 den, died in the latter place March 13, 1865. His 
 wife, Lucy Coe, was a daughter of Capt. Eli Coe, 
 and was bom in 1779 and died in 1863. Their chil- 
 dren were: Eli Coe, born Dec. 21, 1799, married 
 Rebecca Cooke Wilcox, and died Oct. 9, 1844; Julia, 
 born June 4, 1802, died unmarried; Alanson, bora 
 Nov. 26, 1806, married Clarissa Wilcox, and died 
 June 17, 1881 ; Delia, born March 8, 1812, married 
 Orsamus Crocker, and died Oct. 8, 1862; Edwin, 
 born April 3, 1816, married Lavinia Maria Bailey, 
 and Lucv J., born Feb. 6, 1824, married William J. 
 Ives. 
 
 Eli Coe Birdsey, of Meriden, son of Gershom 
 (2), was one of the best known citizens of Meri- 
 den, where he died in 1844, and was buried in East 
 cemetery. For many years he was a leading mem- 
 ber of the Baptist Church in which he was a deacon, 
 and was a man who possessed the confidence of his 
 fellow citizens to such a degree that he was called 
 upon frequently to act as a banker at a time when 
 there were no such financial institutions in Meriden. 
 Mr. Birdsey was long engaged in the mercantile 
 business, and was well known for his honest and up- 
 right methods. In politics he was a Jeffersonian 
 Democrat, and he faithfully served the town both as 
 clerk and selectman. He was married on June 3, 
 1824, to Rebecca Cooke Wilcox, by the Rev. Samuel 
 Miller, pastor of the Baptist Church in Meriden. 
 The three children born to this marriage were: 
 Linus, born Apr. 13, 1825, married first Vincey Ann 
 
702 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 jMiller, second Julia Davis, and resides in Meriden ; 
 Alina, born Sept. 25, 1826, married John Ives, and 
 died March 13, 1855; and Eli Coe, who was born 
 Dec. 23, 1843. 
 
 Eli Coe Birdsey (2) was only eight months of 
 age when he lost his father. His education was ob- 
 tained in the common schools of his native town and 
 later an academic course was taken in Pierce Acad- 
 emy, in Middleboro, Mass. His residence is still 
 in the old, colonial mansion that has been his home 
 from' his birth. His beginning in the mercantile 
 line was with his brother, Linus, who at that time 
 was conducting a general store, and the youth re- 
 mained for a period of four years with him as clerk. 
 Then he embarked in the hardware business, in as- 
 sociation with Wallace A. Miles, on East Main 
 street, in Meriden, on the corner of Center street, 
 which has been a landmark for residents of this 
 pleasant city for the past thirty-three years. When 
 Air. Miles later withdrew from the firm, Air. Frank 
 S. Foster became a partner, the firm style being 
 Birdsey & Foster, and upon the death of Mr. Fos- 
 ter, the firmi name became Birdsey & Raven, Mr. 
 John F. Raven becoming the new member of the 
 firm. 
 
 Among the active citizens of Meriden, Mr. Bird- 
 sey is known as a most energetic, clear-headed and 
 progressive man of affairs. Devoted to mercantile 
 pursuits he has steadily refused all political prefer- 
 ment. During the existence of the Meriden Mer- 
 chants' Association he was its capable secretary, and 
 upon the organization of the Meriden Board of 
 Trade, he was elected secretary as well as a director, 
 and is now one of the vice-presidents of the State 
 Board of Trade of Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Birdsey is an honored member of the Sons 
 of the American Revolution, a member of the Con- 
 necticut Historical Society of Hartford, and the 
 Homie club, of Meriden. It is in the Masonic order, 
 however, that he has become most prominent, hav- 
 ing been closely identified with it since 1864. He 
 was made a Master Mason at the age of twenty-one 
 years, in Meridian Lodge, No. yy, and for several 
 years was its secretary. Subsequently Center Lodge 
 No. 97, was organized near his home, and he became 
 a charter member, and served his lodge as secretary, 
 junior warden and senior warden, and for many 
 years as trustee and treasurer. In 1865, he became 
 a member of Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M., 
 and held several official positions in this body, and 
 in 1866 he was knighted in New Haven Command- 
 ery, No. 2, and during 1869 assisted in the organiza- 
 tion of the widely-known St. Elmo Commandery, 
 No. 9, of Meriden, of which he was a charter mem- 
 ber, and the first Generalissimo. There were only 
 the requisite number (9) of Knights Templars in 
 Meriden, to perfect this organization, therefore, in 
 order to devote more time to his Commandery and 
 many business interests, Mr. Birdsey was con- 
 strained to decline the election of worshipful master 
 in his lodge and further advancement in his chapter. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Birdsey became Eminent Commander, 
 and in 1878 Grand Warden of the Grand Comimand- 
 ery of Connecticut, and was rapidly promoted until 
 his election as Grand Commander in 1884. His 
 administration of Templar aft'airs in Connecticut 
 was greatly to his credit and most serviceable to the 
 Order. His address before the Grand Commandery 
 at its annual conclave in New Haven, on March 17, 
 189s, was characterized by excellent sense, intelli- 
 gent discernment and a true Masonic spirit. It was 
 eminently a business document, dealing in a 
 straightforward way with the various matters dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 Mr. Birdsey has been honored in the Order as 
 Grand Recorder of the Grand Commandery of Con- 
 necticut, since October, 1894, and also as secretary- 
 treasurer of the Connecticut Association of Past 
 Grand Commanders since its organization in 1888, 
 and holds the same position in the New England 
 Association of Past Grand Commanders, having 
 been unanimously elected at the organization of 
 that body. IHis influence in the financial affairs of 
 the Grand Encampment of the LTnited States is 
 acknowledged by the honor of apoointment as a 
 member of the committee on Finance, v^fhich posi- 
 tion he has held for several terms and he has been 
 the chosen secretary of that committee. 
 
 There being no Scottish Rite bodies in his native 
 town, Mr. Birdsey holds his membership in E. G. 
 Storer Lodge of Perfection, the Elm City Council 
 and the New Haven Chapter of Rose Croix, all of 
 the city of New Haven, and in Lafayette Con- 
 sistory of Bridgeport. He is also the Grand Repre- 
 sentative of the Grand Commandery of the District 
 of Columbia near the Grand Commandery of Con- 
 necticut. The thirty-third and last degree was giv- 
 en to him at Philadelphia, on Sept. 19^ 1899, when 
 he was received, welcomed and proclaimed a Sover- 
 eign Grand Inspector General of the Ancient Ac- 
 cepted Scottish Rite and enrolled an honorary mem- 
 ber of the Supreme Council of the Northern Juris- 
 diction of the United States of America. This 
 high honor was richly deserved as a fitting recog- 
 nition of a long and active Masonic career, earnest- 
 ly devoted to the interests of all Masonic bodies. 
 One of Mr. Birdsey's most cherished possessions 
 is a souvenir Masonic emblem which was left to 
 him, at his death, by his attached friend, Frederic 
 A. Spencer of Waterbury. 
 
 Mr. Birdsey was married, in 1864, to Miss 
 Catherine Butler, who was born in Meriden, and 
 was a daughter of Lyman and Mary Ann (Clark) 
 Butler, and a granddaughter of the late John Butler, 
 who was so well-known in this locality as "Uncle 
 John." Mr. Birdsey is noted for his honesty of 
 purpose and high-minded integrity. With pleasure 
 he enjoys the companionship of his fellows, and. he 
 has a clear head, a well cultivated mind and a warm 
 heart, and is devoted to his friends who are many, 
 not only in the State of Connecticut, but through- 
 out the country. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 703 
 
 BURNUM WEBSTER FRANCIS is one of 
 the leading business men of Cheshire, New Haven 
 county, where he is engaged in house painting, 
 graining, whitewashing, paper hanging and glazing, 
 and is a dealer in paper, mouldings, paints and oil's, 
 while at present he is also giving some attention to 
 farming. A native of this county he was born in 
 Meriden Feb. 22, 1840, a son of Frederick A. and 
 Jeannette (Hall) Francis. 
 
 Cyrus Francis, his paternal great-grandfather, 
 was a major in the Revolutionary war and in a 
 hand-to-hand conflict had to brain his opponent in 
 order to preserve Ms own life. The grandfather, 
 Appleton Francis, was a soldier of the Mexican 
 war. He was born in Meriden but was reared in 
 Kensington, Hartford Co., Conn., where he spent 
 the remainder of his life as an agriculturist. He 
 \\as the father of the following children : Herbert ; 
 Charlotte; Frederick A., father of our subject;, and 
 Catharine, wife of Almon Ives, of Cheshire. 
 
 Frederick A. Francis was born in Berlin, Hart- 
 ford county, in 1801, and was reared and educated 
 in Kensington. Throughout life he followed the 
 occupation of farming. At one time he was a irtem- 
 ber of the State militia. In Wallingford, this 
 county, he married Miss Jeannette Hall, a native 
 of that town, who died in Meriden in 1844, and he 
 died in 1845. In their family were four childten : 
 Harriet, who married William Powers, and died in 
 Meriden ; Jeannette, wife of Amos Tuttle, of North 
 Haven, Conn. ; Frederick, the inventor and origina- 
 tor of the system of burning coal in engines, who 
 lived in New Britain but died in New Haven ; and 
 Burnum W. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth our subject at- 
 tended school in Meriden and New Britain, Conn. 
 Coming of a very patriotic and loyal family which 
 has been well represented in the wars of this country, 
 he espoused the cause of the Union during the Re- 
 bellion and enlisted in 1862 at Bristol, Conn., in Co. 
 K„ i6th Conn. V. I., and was mustered into the 
 United States service at that place Aug. 5, 1862. 
 He participated in the battles of Antietam and Fred- 
 ericksburg, the siege of Suffolk, and at Plymouth, 
 N. C, was taken prisoner, being confined in Ander- 
 sonville for eight long months. He was finally ex- 
 changed at Charleston, S. C, and taken to the pa- 
 role camjp at Annapolis, Md. He remained in the 
 service until the war ended and was honorably dis- 
 charged at Hartford, Conn., in 1865. Mr. Francis 
 then made his home in Bristol, Conn., until com- 
 ing to Cheshire, in 1884, since which time he has 
 successfully engaged in his present business. 
 
 In Bristol, in 1865, Mr. Francis was married to 
 Miss Helen Blakeslee, who died in Hartford county 
 in 1882, and in Cheshire he was again married, in 
 1888, his second union bding with Miss Harriet 
 Humiston, a native of Cheshire, and a daughter of 
 John and Rhoda (Nicbols) Humiston. Her father 
 died in that town in 1856, her mother in 1896. Po- 
 litically Mr. Francis is a Republican and he is now- 
 
 most credStably serving his sixth year as justice of 
 the peace in Cheshire. He was one of the charter 
 members of the Grand Army Post at Bristol, and in 
 days of peace, as in times of war, has shown him- 
 self to be a worthy and loyal citizen, true to the best 
 interests of his country. 
 
 CHARLES E. HART stands high among the 
 substantial business men and valuable citizens of 
 New Haven, where he is considered a representative 
 dealer in his line. His unassuming and pleasant 
 personality has made him as popular personally as 
 he is reliable commercially. 
 
 Mr. Hart was born April 2, 1843, in the town 
 of Durham, Conn., and comes from one of the old 
 and honorable families of New England, and one 
 of the very oldest in Connecticut, he being a repre- 
 sentative in the seventh generation from Deacon 
 Stephen Hart, who was the progenitor of this fam- 
 ily in America. His line is from Deacon Stephen 
 through Thomas, Hawkins, Samuel, Samuel (2), 
 and William Augustus. 
 
 (I) Deacon Stephen Hart, born about 1605, 
 at Braintree, County of Essex, England, came 
 thence to Massachusetts Bay Colony about 1632, 
 and is supposed to have belonged to the company 
 that settled Braintree, Mass. He located for a time 
 at Newtown (now Cambridge), where he married 
 and where bis first wife died. For his second wife 
 he married Margaret Smith, widow of Arthur 
 Smith. Mr. Hart was one of the fifty-four settlers 
 at Cambridge, Mass., later went to Hartford with 
 the company of Rev. Thomas Hooker, in 1635, and 
 was one of the original proprietors in 1639. At 
 Cambridge he had been a member of Mr. Hooker's 
 church and continued a member at Hartford. In 
 1672 he became one of the eig'hty-four proprietors 
 of Farmington, Conn. In 1647 he was a deputy to 
 the General Court of Connecticut, and continued to 
 serve as such during most of the succeeding years 
 up to 1660, from' the town of Farmington. At the 
 latter place he was one of the seven pillars of the 
 church, and was chosen the first deacon. An ex- 
 tensive farmer, he became a man of influence, and 
 was one of the leaders in the town. His death oc- 
 curred in 1683, bis widow dying in 1693. 
 
 (II) Thomas Hart, son of Deacon Stephen, 
 was born in 1644, and married Ruth Hawkins, who 
 was born in 1649, in Windsor, Conn., a daughter of 
 Anthony Hawkins, a man of distinction in Farming- 
 ton, whose wife was the daughter of Gov. Welles, 
 of Connecticut. Mr. Hart served as ensign, lieuten- 
 ant and captain of the trainband. Mr. Hart and 
 John Hooker were the two most prominent men of 
 the town, and conspicuous in the Colony, being men 
 of wealth, activity and usefulness. From 1690 to 
 171 1 he represented the town in the General Court, 
 for twenty-nine sessions, and he was several times 
 clerk and speaker. Capt. Hart died in 1726. 
 
 (III) Hawkins Hart, son of Capt. Thomas, was 
 born in 1677, in Farmington, and was a farmer. He 
 
704 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married, in 1701, Sarah Lathrop, who was born in 
 1683, daug-hter of Nathaniel and Sarah Lathrop, of 
 WaUingford. They lived for a time in Farmington, 
 and then removed to WaUingford, where Mrs. Hart 
 died in 1733. Air. Hart then married Mary Street, 
 daughter ot Rev. Joseph ElHott, and liis second wife 
 Mary (Willys), of Guilford, the latter a daughter 
 of Hon. Samuel Willys, of Hartford. i\Ir. Hart 
 held the rank of lieutenant, and represented WaU- 
 ingford in the General Court nine sessions, between 
 1714 and 1732. He died in 1735. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Hart, son of Lieut. Hawkins, born 
 in 173S, in Walhngford, married, in 1759, at Dur- 
 ham, Conn., Abridget Fowler, and settled on a farm 
 in that town ; this farm was part of a tract of land 
 which had been given to Rev. Joseph Eliot by the 
 Colonial Legislature, for preaching the election ser- 
 mon. Both he and his wife were taken into full 
 church communion in 1771. Mr. Hart held the rank 
 of lieutenant in the Continental Arm)' during the 
 Revolutionary war, and was wounded at the battle 
 of Saratoga, after which he drew a pension. His 
 death took place Jan. 12, 1805, and his widow passed 
 away Nov. 26, 1827. 
 
 (V) Samuel Hart (2), son of Lieut. Samuel, 
 was born July 12, 1770, and was baptized in Dur- 
 ham, Conn. On March 3 , 1803, he married Patience 
 Hubbard, who was born in August, 1772, a daugh- 
 ter of Eber and Patience (Chittenden) Hubbard, 
 Air. Hart was a farmer, living on his father's home- 
 stead, and was an industrious man. He died Dec. 
 
 25, 1857, his widow surviving until March 15, 
 1864. 
 
 (VI) William Augustus Hart, son of Samuel 
 (2), was born April 26, 1806, at Durham, Conn., 
 and was well known to the residents of New Haven, 
 Middletown and Duiiiam, as he carried on a butch- 
 ering business in these towns, and also kept a coun- 
 try store on the old homestead. He married Sally 
 Maria Jones, daug'hter of John Jones, of North Mad- 
 ison, and the children of this union were as fol- 
 lows : Elizabeth H., born May 17, 1831, married 
 Charles E. Camp, of Middlefield, Conn. ; Frankhn 
 H. was born April 29, 1834 (he is mentioned else- 
 where) ; Mary E., born July 10, 1836, is deceased; 
 William Lewis, born Dec. 28, 1838, is residing in 
 Brighton, Ohio (he served as private in the First 
 Connecticut Heavy Artillery in the Rebellion) ; El- 
 len M., born March it, 1841, married Isaac Hall, of 
 W^allingford, and both are deceased; Charles E., our 
 subject, was born April 2, 1843 ; F. J., born Feb. 
 
 26, 1845, now a resident of Joplin, Mo., was during 
 the Civil war a lieutenant in the 109th U. S. Col- 
 ored Regiment, previous to which be had served 
 as a private in the First Connecticut Regiment, 
 Heavy Artillery; Catherine S., born Aug. 19, 1849, 
 lives in Durham, Conn. ; Alice L., born April 19, 
 1852, is an artist in Boston, Mass. The parents of 
 this family died in Durham, Conn. They were hon- 
 ored members of the South Congregational Church, 
 and Mr, Hart was deacon in the same. Mr. Plart 
 
 was noted for his strict total abstinence from all 
 kinds of intoxicants, and for his firm stand on the 
 subject of intemperance. 
 
 Charles E. Hart was born on a farm that had 
 been in the family since the time of Rev. Joseph 
 Eliot. He spent his early school days in Durham, 
 and at the age of seventeen came to New Haven to 
 work as a clerk in the establishment of Horace H. 
 Strong, which stood on the site of Mr. Hart's pres- 
 ent place of business, on State street. On Aug. 2, 
 1862, Mr. Hart enlisted in Company I, isth Conn. 
 V. I. In 1864 he was promoted to the rank of first 
 lieutenant, in the 109th United States Colored In- 
 fantry, and just before the surrender of Gen. Lee 
 he was promoted, in March, 1865, to the rank of 
 captain. In March of the following year he was 
 mustered out of the service at Louisville, Ky. Mr. 
 Hart was in service for nine months in Texas, at 
 the time Maximilian made his raid along the border. 
 
 On his return from the army Mr. Hart engaged 
 in the market business with his brother, William 
 Lewis, at Welhngton, Ohio, for about four months. 
 Coming back to New Haven, he became a member 
 of the firm of Strong, Hart & Co., and later became 
 a member of Frisbie & Hart, of New Haven, the 
 members being John Frisbie and C. E. Hart. This 
 partnership lasted until 1866, when Charles E. Hart 
 engaged in business alone for a year. Then he be- 
 came a member of C. E. Hart & Co., which organi- 
 zation consisted of our subject, R. H. Nesbit and 
 W. E. Judd, and continued until 1894, when the C. 
 E. Hart Co., a corporation, was formed. C. E. Hart 
 became president and treasurer, and W. A. Hart, 
 his son, became secretary. Mr. Hart has been at his 
 present location since 1886. 
 
 Mr. Hart is a member of Actairal Foote Post, 
 G. A. R., and is an enthusiastic Grand Army man ; 
 is a member of the New York Commandery of the 
 Loyal Legion ; the Sons of the American Revolu- 
 tion ; the Sons of Temperance, with which he be- 
 came connected in 1861 ; and Hiram Lodge, A. F. 
 & A. M. He is a member of the official board of 
 the Davenport Congregational Church. Genial and 
 hearty in disposition, he is welcomed wherever he 
 goes. 
 
 Mr. Hart was married in New Haven, Feb. 12, 
 1870, to Belle F. Burns, of New Haven, and two 
 children have been born to this union, Edith M. and 
 William A. AVilliam A. is an attorney in New York, 
 having graduated from Yale in 1897, after which 
 he studied law in Harvard and the New York Law 
 School. Miss Edith M. lives at home. The family 
 residence is at No. 19 W^arren street. New Haven. 
 
 FIERMAN HESS, whose name is familiar to 
 the people of Meridteri) as that of a man who has 
 served them^ for fifteen years as city and town clerk 
 and registrar of vital statistics, comes of German 
 parentage, and was born in Meriden April 4, 1861. 
 
 Frederick Hess, his father, was born in the 
 Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany, 
 
MiJ^^/Cj^^^^-C-i^^JZ--^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 70s 
 
 where he spent his early life, coming to the United 
 States, however, before he had reached his majority. 
 He located in Meriden and was among the first of 
 his nationaHty to settle in this section of the State. 
 Finaing employment as a burnisher in the works of 
 the Meriden Britannia Co., he was there actively en- 
 gaged all his life. Noted for his industry and in- 
 tegrity, he had many friends, and was held in general 
 respect. In political affairs he was a Democrat, but 
 he never was an office-seeker. In Augi.tst, 1861, he 
 enlisted in Company H, 6th Conn., V. I., Col. John 
 L. Chatfield and Capt. Henry Bibel being his com- 
 manding officers. The following March he was 
 discharged from the service on account of disabili- 
 ties. The death of this worthy gentleman occurred 
 in May, 1898, and his remains were interred in the 
 East cemetery. In religious connection he was a 
 member of the Lutheran Church. Fraternally he 
 prized his membership in Merriam Post, No. 8, G. 
 A. R., Meriden. 
 
 Frederick Hess was married in the city of New 
 York to Miss Johanna Yobke, a native of Germany. 
 She died in 1872, and was buried in the East ceme- 
 tery. A good wife and mother, she was a good 
 Christian woman and a devout member of the 
 Lutheran Church. To Mr. and Mrs. Hess were 
 born three children : Herman, Frank and Frances, 
 the last named' now the wife of James Story, of 
 New Haven. 
 
 Herman Hess was afforded somewhat meager 
 advantages for education in his youth. He attended 
 the district school until he was eleven years of age, 
 when he became a cash boy in the mercantile estab- 
 • lishment of W. H. Babb, in Meriden, beginning at 
 a salary of $2.50 a week. There he was employed 
 five years, meantime devoting much time to study 
 at home nights, bringing his education up to a 
 more practical standard. In 1877 he obtained a 
 situation with the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 ford Railway Co., with which he spent five years as 
 a clerk, being one year in the ticket department and 
 four 3'ears in the freight office at Meriden and New 
 Haven. In 1882 he secured a position as bookkeeper 
 with the Meriden Malleable Iron Co., and held same 
 five years. Since September, 1900, he has been a 
 director of the Meriden National Bank. 
 
 In 1883 Mr. Hess was elected city auditor to 
 fill a vacancy. In October, 1886, he was elected 
 town clerk and registrar of vital statistics, and in the 
 same year was made city clerk. For fifteen years he 
 has continued to fill these offices with credit to him- 
 self and satisfaction to the public. His first elec- 
 tion was as a Democrat, but since 1892 he has been 
 the nominee of -both parties. Hie is a genial and 
 popular gentleman, thoroughly efficient, and in 
 every way an honorable and upright man. 
 
 Mr. Hess is well versed in Masonic lore, be- 
 longing to St. Elmo Commandery, No. 9, K. T., 
 and to Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. ; he is 
 also a member of Meriden Center Lodge, No. 68, 
 I. O. O. F. ; the K. of P. ; the R. A. ; the B. P. O. E. ; 
 45 
 
 and the American Order of Foresters. He and his 
 family are members of the Universalist Church. 
 
 A'Ir. Hess was married May 28, 1883, to Eugenia 
 De Crosby Pomeroy, who was born in Meriden, a 
 daughter of Norman W. and Ruth Ann (Norwood) 
 Pomeroy, and a granddlaughter of the late Noah 
 Pomeroy. They have had two children, Raymond 
 Pomeroy and Ruth Imogene, the latter deceased. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hess are people of much refinement 
 and evident culture, and the latter belongs to one 
 of the oldest families in this part of Connecticut. 
 
 ALBERT BARNES MATHER, A. M., super- 
 intendent of the public schools of Meriden, where 
 for a third of a century he has been prominent in 
 educational matters and a useful citizen, is one of 
 the leading educators of the State. 
 
 Prof. Mather was born July 13, 1845, at Fair- 
 field, N. Y., a son of Jairus and Eliza (Jones) 
 ;\Iather, and is a descendant in the eighth generation 
 from Rev. Richard Mather, who came to New 
 England in 1635, stopping for a time in Boston, and 
 going thence to Dorchester, Mass. Rev. Mr. Mather 
 was a native of England, born in 1596 in Lowton,, 
 Winwick Parish, of Toxeth Park, son of Thomas, 
 and grandson of John Mather, both of Lowton.. 
 Rev. Richard Mather married (first) in 1624 Cath- 
 erine, daughter of Edmund Holt, of Bury, who died 
 in 1655, and he married (second) in 1656 Sarah 
 Story, widow of Rev. John Cotton. He died at 
 Dorchester in 1669, and his wife, Sarah, in 1676. 
 
 From Rev. Richard Mather Prof. Mather's line- 
 age is through Timothy, Atherton, William, Will- 
 iam (2), Moses and Jairus Mather. 
 
 (II) Timothy Mather, son of Rev. Richard, the 
 emigrant settler, born in 1628, in Liverpool, Eng- 
 land, married (first) Catherine, daug'hter of Major 
 Gen. Flumphrey Atherton, and (second) March 20, 
 1678-79, Elizabeth, daughter of Amiel Weeks. As 
 a farmer he settled in Dorchester, Mass., and died 
 in 1684. 
 
 (III) Atherton Mather, son of Timothy, born in 
 1663, married (first) in 1694 Rebecca Stoughton, 
 daughter of Thomas, and (second) in 1705 Mary 
 Lamb, of Roxbury. When a young man Mr. 
 Mather settled at Windsor, Conn. He removed in 
 1712 to Suffield, Mass., which in 1752 became a 
 part of Connecticut, and was there a prominent 
 and useful man and citizen. For four years he was 
 a deputy from the town to the General Court at 
 Boston. He died in 1734. 
 
 (IV) William Mather, son of Atherton, born 
 in 1698 in Windsor, Conn., married in 1821 Silence 
 Butolph, daughter of Daniel Butolph, of Simsbury, 
 Conn., and lived in Suffield. 
 
 (V) William Mather (2), son of William, was 
 born April 25, 1735, in Suffield, and later was of 
 Marlboro, Vt., and Fairfield, N. Y. He married 
 (first) April 10, 1760, Helen Allyn Talcott, daugh- 
 ter of Peletiah Allyn ; she died in 1770, and he mar- 
 ried (second) Martha Dickinson, who died May 29, 
 
7o6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1809. Mr. Mather died in Fairfield, N. Y., May 22, 
 1810. 
 
 (VI) Moses jMather, son of William (2), born 
 Feb. I, 1774, in Suffield, Conn., was later of Marl- 
 Tboro, Vt., and Fairfield, N. Y. He married June 
 19, 1799, Sarah Dresser, who died Nov. 15, 1863. 
 Mr. Mather died Dec. 20, 1832. Their children, 
 all born between 1802 and 1819, inclusive, were: 
 William, Jairus, Jacob D. and Martha. 
 
 (A'^II) Jairus Mather, son of Moses, born Aug. 
 23, 1819, at Fairfield, N. Y., married July 30, 1844, 
 Eliza Jones, and to the marriage came children as 
 follows : Albert Barnes, born July 13, 1845 ; 
 Charles Jairus, born Oct. 22, 1847, who married 
 Dec. 21, 1875, Mary B. Getman, and died March 
 28, 1884; Laura Maria, born Feb. 7, 1850; and 
 Frederick Dresser, born June 20, i860. 
 
 Albert Barnes Mather, whose name introduces 
 this sketch, received his primary education and was 
 prepared for college in the schools of his native 
 town. He was graduated with honors from Am- 
 herst College in 1868, and in the fall of the same 
 3'ear located in Meriden, Conn., having been placed 
 in charge of the Meriden High School for one term. 
 Following this he was given charge of the schools 
 of the Corner District of the same city, and from 
 that time to this has been identified with its schools. 
 Prof. Mather is an intelligent and enthusiastic edu- 
 cator, and is well and favorably known in this line 
 of work throughout the State and beyond State 
 lines. Since 1898 he has been the superintend- 
 ent of the Meriden schools. He has been presi- 
 dent of the State Teachers' Association, and of 
 the State Council of Education, and is a member of 
 Phi Beta Kappa. He has been a prominent mem- 
 ber of the Scientific Association, of which he has 
 served as an officer for a decade or more, and is a 
 Knight Templar Mason, and for a dozen years or 
 more was recorder of St. Elmo Commandery, of 
 Meriden. He is also a member of the Home Club, 
 and has served as its president, and is clerk of St. 
 Andrew's Episcopal Parish. He is a popular and 
 genial gentleman. 
 
 On Feb. 27, 1887, Mr. Mather was married to 
 Anne Wylie, daughter of Dr. Wylie, late of Mer- 
 iden. 
 
 DA\'TD STEARN STEVENS was for many 
 years prominently identified with the printing in- 
 dustry of New Haven county, and made for himself 
 an honorable record in business. He was pro- 
 gressive, reliable and energetic, and won the con- 
 fidence and respect of all with whom he came in 
 contact, in either business or social life. He now 
 makes his home in Northford. 
 
 The first of the Stevens family of whom we 
 have any authentic record was Rev. Timothy Stev- 
 en?, a native of Bristol, Wales, who came to Hart- 
 ford, Conn., when a young man, and was the first 
 Congregational minister at Glastonbury, being or- 
 dained in October, 1693. He died April 16, 1725. 
 
 His son, Joseph, born in Hartford, in 1705, was 
 the father of Elisha Stevens, who was born in 
 Glastonbury, in 1752, and married Agnes Kimberly. 
 Their son, Milton Stevens, the grandfather of our 
 subject, was a native of Hartford county, and died 
 in Prospect, New Haven county, when our sub- 
 ject's father was quite small. He had three chil- 
 dren : Henry ; Mary, wife of Timothy Fowler, of 
 New Haven; and David S. 
 
 David Stearn Stevens, Sr., our subject's father, 
 was born July 14, 1823, in Prospect, and there mar- 
 ried Eliza Benjamin, who died at the age of thirty- 
 six years, leaving the following children : Albert 
 died at the age of thirty-six years ; Alice, born 
 Aug. 17, 1849, married Jared Bassett, of North 
 Haven, and is now deceased; Eliza Seneca, born 
 March 3, 185 1, is the wife of H. Maltby, of North- 
 ford; Henry, born May 7, 1855, married Ella 
 Augur, a sister of Watson ID. Augur, and lives in 
 Wallingford; David S., our subject, is the next in 
 order of birth; and Agnes G., born Oct. 4, 1859, is 
 the wife of Watson D. Augur, of North Branford. 
 For his second wife the father married Frances 
 Hart, of Quinnipiac, town of North Haven, and to 
 them were born two children: Fannie, wife of Lea 
 Revere, and Peter, both residents of Millenbeck, 
 Va._ When a young man the father moved to 
 Quinnipiac, where he engaged in the manufacture 
 of spoons, silverware, etc., until 1869, when he 
 sold his business there and came to Northford, 
 town of North Branford, where he continued to 
 manufacture silverware for some years. In 1881 
 he removed to Lancaster county, Va., where he pur- 
 chased property and lived in retirement for some 
 time, and died in 1895, at the age of seventy-two 
 3^ears. 
 
 On the maternal side our subject traces his an- 
 cestry back to Samuel Benjamin, who was married, 
 in 1731, to Ehzabeth Boswick, and in 1754 removed 
 from Stratford to Hartland, Conn. His children 
 were John, Patty, Asher and Samuel. The last 
 named was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, en- 
 listing from Hartland, in June, 1776, for one year, 
 under Capt. Woodbridge. He married Rachel Hol- 
 comb, of Granby, and to them were born three chil- 
 dren : David, who married Rachel Moore, and 
 lived in Southwick, Mass. ; Eleazer, father of Eliza ; 
 and Samuel, who married Asenath Holcomb, and 
 lived in Granby, Conn. Eleazer Benjamin married 
 Polly Case, of Simsbury, Conn., and to them were 
 born the following children: Rachel, born Aug 
 18, 181 1, married Dr. Russell H. Tiffany, of Can- 
 ton, Conn., and died April 23, 1863 ; Abigail, born 
 Feb. I, 1813, married Anson Holcomb, of Simsbury, 
 and died Jan. 18, 1890; Polly, born Feb. 10 1815 
 married Charles P. Clark, of East Granbv, Conn.! 
 and died Dec. 16, 1892; Mariette, born Nov. 28^ 
 1817, died Sept. 13, 1819; Mariette, born May 21,' 
 1821, died unmarried S'ept. 14, 1853; Eliza, the 
 mother of cur subject, was born Jan. i, 1824 and 
 died Sept. 8, i860; DeWitt Clinton, born June 4 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 707 
 
 1826, went to California as a gold seeker in i ,^. 
 and is still a resident of Georgetown, that State; 
 Eleazer, born Jan. 6, 1828, died Dec; 25, 1850; and 
 Scott, born Oct. 26, 1830, died October, 1853. 
 
 David S. Stevens, Jr., was born in Quinnipiac, 
 town of North Haven, April 4, 1857, and for three 
 years was a student at Gen. Russell's Institute, 
 in New Haven, and two years at Durham Academy. 
 Soon after the completion of his education he con- 
 ceived the idea of the card printing industry — a 
 business that was soon afterward taken up by scores 
 of firms throughout Connecticut, depending for 
 sales upon newspaper advertising and the mail order 
 system of delivery. He was the first to engage in 
 this business extensively. Beginning as he did in 
 a corner of his father's silverware factory, with a 
 small press, he increased his business by continual 
 application and the use of original methods, to an 
 establishment occupying three floors and employing 
 from seventy-five to eighty hands. Owing to vari- 
 ous causes the business in time lost patronage, and 
 after twenty-two years of successful operation ]\Ir. 
 Stevens discontinued it. In connection with his 
 printing business he dealt extensively in novelties, 
 scrap pictures, etc., and in a single year imported 
 $50,000 worth of scrap pictures alone. 
 
 On Oct. 9, 1879, ^^- Stevens married Miss 
 Clara Hoadley Maltby, a daughter of Chapman 
 :\Ialtby and granddaughter of Julius Maltby, na- 
 tives of Northford. She is the fourth in order of 
 birth in a family of eight children, the others being 
 Harriette; Flora Belle, wife of John M. Dutton, of 
 Hamden, Conn. ; Arthur, a resident of Wallingford ; 
 Robert, who is engaged in the real estate business 
 in Seattle, Wash. ; Wilbert, who is connected with 
 a coffee house at Plainfield, N. J.'; Douglass Fowler, 
 a resident of Matawan, N. J. ; and Mary Irene, who 
 died at the age of twenty years. Mr. Stevens and 
 his wife have five children, whose names and dates 
 of birth are as follows: Douglass Maltby. Sept. 
 4, 1880; Clifford Fleetwood, July 8, 1885; Wilbert 
 Benjamin, Dec. 3, 1886; David Stearn, July 23, 
 1888; and Clara Margaret, Dec. 31, 1889. The eld- 
 est son is a graduate of the normal school at Blooms- 
 burg, Pennsylvania. 
 
 Mr. and'iMrs. Stevens are members of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and give liberally to its support, 
 and politically he is an ardent Republican. In 1899 
 he most efliciently represented his town in the State 
 Legislature, and was a member of the Railroad 
 Committee. He is a member of the Second Com- 
 pany, Governor's Foot Guards. Courteous, genial 
 well-informed, alert and enterprising, he stands to- 
 day one of the leading men of his town — a man who 
 is a power in the community. 
 
 AUGUSTUS HOWARD JONES, who is 
 named in honor of the pilot who first brought the 
 steamer "Great Eastern" into New York harbor, 
 was born in the city of New York Dec. 21, 1851. 
 
 Joseph Jones, his father, was born in Wales, of 
 
 which country his father was also a native. Joseph 
 Jones was reared in his native country, and learned 
 the trade of scroll sawyer. Being a natural genius, 
 he could successfully turn his hand to almost any 
 kind of mechanical labor. Before attaining his ma- 
 jority he crossed the Atlantic, and spent some time 
 at Quebec, Canada. Thence he went to New York, 
 where he followed his trade. His death was caused 
 by septicaemia, brought on by the bite of a dog, and 
 his body was deposited in. Greenwood cemetery, 
 Brooklyn. While livinig in Quebec he married 
 Martha Jackson, also a native of Wales, who passed 
 her last days in Meriden tenderly cared for in the 
 home of her son whose name begins this article; 
 her last resting place is in Greenwood cemetery, be- 
 side the remains of her husband. They had six 
 children, namely : William, who died in New York ; 
 Nathaniel, a mechanic, who also died in New York ; 
 Jane, wife of William Luckey, of Meriden; Au- 
 gustus Howard ; Walter, a citizen of Meriden ; and 
 an infant that died unnamed. 
 
 Augustus H. Jones was- deprived of a father's 
 care at the early age of nine years. He continued 
 to attend school until twelve years old, and then 
 entered a store, where he might earn something to 
 aid in his maintenance. Anxious to secure an edu- 
 cation, he attended a night school while discharg- 
 ing his duties in the store by day. At the end of 
 three years he left this employment in order to give 
 a year's time exclusively to study. Having a natural 
 taste for mechanics, he determined to- master a trade, 
 and secured a position in a brass foundry where his 
 brother, Nathaniel, was a foreman, serving an ap- 
 prenticeship of four and one-half years. ^ For the 
 first six months he received as compensation three 
 dollars per week. Being energetic and ambitious, 
 he soon made himself valuable to his employer, and 
 during the next year he was paid ten dollars weekly. 
 In time he became highly expert as a-coremaker, 
 and his salary for the succeeding years was, re- 
 spectively, fifteen, twenty and thirty dollars per 
 week. After completing his trade he worked one 
 year as a contractor in the manufacture of locks. 
 In 1867 Mr. Jones came to Meriden and spent 
 the two years succeeding as foreman in the brass 
 foundrv of the Bradley & Hubbard IManufacturing 
 Co., making gas fixtures and similar articles. He 
 then started a sm-all brass foundry, but at the end 
 of two weeks he received such a flattering ofier 
 from his former employers that he sold out to them 
 and made a five-years contract to resume his former 
 position. He continued in a responsible relation 
 with this concern until 1882, when he assisted in 
 organizing the Foster Hardware Co., to carry on the 
 production of brass goods. In 1885 this concern 
 was reorganized, under the name of the Meriden 
 Bronze Co., of which Mr. Jones became president 
 in 1891. His pluck and energy were admired by 
 the older manufacturers of Meriden, who often ten- 
 dered him assistance, and he continued to operate 
 the business fourteen years. The financial de- 
 
7o8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 pression of the latter part of the nineteenth century 
 was severely felt by all the industries of Meriden, 
 and Mr. Jones was forced out, with a loss of one 
 hundred thousand dollars. But his ambitious spirit 
 could not be put down, and he began business again 
 in February, 1901, under the name of the A. H. 
 Jones Manufacturing Co., and is engaged in the 
 manufacture of novelties. 
 
 Mr. Jones was married, in ]\Ieriden, in January, 
 1870, to ]\Iiss Jennie E. Logan, who was born in 
 Meriden, a daughter of Thomas and Margaret 
 Logan, both now deceased. Mrs. Jones is a culti- 
 vated lady, fit companion for an energetic and in- 
 telligent man. She presides over their modest home 
 with that ease and grace which betoken good breed- 
 ing. Two children have been born to this couple, 
 of whom the youngest died in infancy. The other, 
 William H. Jones, is associated with his father in 
 business. The family are identified with the First 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 ' Of genial and companionable nature, Air. Jones 
 has naturally allied himself with various social and 
 fraternal organizations of his city. He is a mem- 
 ber of the Home Club, and is a thirty-second-de- 
 gree Mason, affiliated with Meridian Lodge, No. 
 yy, A. F. & A. M. ; Kevstone Chapter, No. 27, R. 
 A. M. ; Hamilton Council, No. 22, R. & S. M. ; and 
 St. Elmo Commandery, No. 9, K. T. In politics he 
 is a stanch Republican. He has served four years 
 as a member of the Meriden common council, and 
 during that period acted on the committees on Fire, 
 Sewers and By-laws. He served for two years 
 more as an alderman, and was mayor pro tem. dur- 
 ing the last year, and chairman of Police, By-laws 
 and Lamps committees. 
 
 ALBERT H. BARTLETT was for about twen- 
 ty years one of the successful building contractors 
 of New Haven, and he has left many substantial 
 evidences of his skillful and thorough work in that 
 city and other places in New Haven county. 
 
 Mr. Bartlett was born in Northampton, Mass., 
 a son of -Samuel Bartlett. The father, who was 
 also a contractor, laid out all the roads in North- 
 ampton. Our subject's mother was engaged during 
 her earlier 3'ears as a teacher. Albert H. was one 
 of fourteen children, several of whom still survive. 
 
 Albert H. Bartlett spent his youth in New Jer- 
 sey, where he early engaged in carpenvenng, and at 
 the age of eighteen he undertook the erection of two 
 houses at Vineland, that State. About 1871 he came 
 to New Flaven, where he was a contractor of note 
 until his death, in December, 1890, putting up a 
 large number of houses. Some fine residences in 
 Orange street, New Haven, in Fair Flaven and 
 elsewhere testify to the grade of work which he 
 executed, and his financial success would be suf- 
 ficient proof in itself, having been gained solely on 
 the merits of his work. A man of the highest honor 
 and strictest integrity, he commanded respect for 
 his personal qualities no less than for his business 
 
 abilit)-, and was held in high esteem by the large 
 numlDer of people with whom he came into daily 
 contact in his busy career. His shop was located 
 on the present site of the New England Telephone 
 Co.'s building, and he furnished employment to a 
 number of men. Fraternally l\Ir. Bartlett was a 
 mem'ber of the Knights of Pythias (in which he 
 held the office of treasurer) and the New England 
 Order of Protection. He was a Republican in po- 
 litical affiliation. 
 
 In October, 187C, Mr. Bartlett was united in 
 marriage with Miss Marion Bird, a native of Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y., and two children blessed this union: 
 Frank was a student at Yale Law School, and is en- 
 gaged in business in New Haven ; Alice attended 
 the A'Vesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass., and 
 is now devoting herself to the study of music. The 
 family reside in a comfortable home at No. 312 
 Orange street. New Haven, and they have many 
 friends in the city. They worship at the Church of 
 the Redeemer. 
 
 CHARLES A\\ S. FROST, M. D., whose sci- 
 entific acquirements, upright character and devotion 
 to his profession have given him a leading place 
 among the phvsicians of Waterbury, was born in 
 that city Dec. 22, 1857, a son of Warren S. Frost, 
 who traces his ancestry to Samuel Frost, of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 Samiuel Frost came to America from the mother 
 country in 1700, and on March 21, 1733, wedded 
 Naomi Feiin, of \\'allingford. 
 
 David Frost, son of Samuel and Naomi, was 
 born in Southington, Conn., Sept. 16, 1743, and 
 died Dec. 15, 1812. During the war of the Revolu- 
 tion he was a soldier in the Continental army. He 
 married Mary Beach Nov. 6, 1761, a daughter of 
 Joseph Beach, a prominent man of his day. 
 
 Enoch Frost, son of David, was born in South- 
 ington Jan. 8, 1765, and died May 27, 1822. His 
 entire life was passed as a farmer. Anna Culver 
 V. as his wife and they became the parents of six 
 children : Anna, Stephen C, Selah, Nancy, Enoch 
 W. and Eunice. 
 
 Selah Frost, the Doctor's grandfather, was born 
 
 in Waterbury Feb. 2, 1798, and died in 1848. He 
 was engaged as a merchant in Torrington. His 
 wife was Ursula Brooker and they reared a familv 
 of two children: Mary and Warren S., the father 
 of the Doctor. IMary married George ]\Iason, who 
 IS now deceased. 
 
 AVarren S. Frost was born in Torrington Jan. 19, 
 1827, and his long and useful life was terminate'd 
 April 20, 1899. He married Miss Edna J. Spring, 
 of Co'llinsville, Conn., a daughter of Thomas Spring, 
 wdro was born in Granby, Conn., and was a farmer 
 and wheelwright. The Springs are of English ex- 
 traction and the first representative of the family 
 on the American shores came over about 1680. 
 Mrs. Edna J. Frost died Sept. 20, 1897, and is re- 
 membered as a woman of far more than the usual 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 709 
 
 gifts and attractions. She was a good wife to her 
 husband and a wise and helpful mother to her (Chil- 
 dren. Mr. Frost was a Repuljlican and served many 
 years in the Waterbury common council. The fam'- 
 i'jy were ail connected with the Congregational 
 'Church. 
 
 Dr. Charles W. S. Frost spent 'his boyhood days 
 in Waterbury where he acquired his elementary and 
 general English education in the public schools and 
 the Waterbury English and Classical School. He 
 entered Yale Medical School in 1876 and graduated 
 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of 
 New York City in 1880. His vacations were spent 
 in the hospitals of the great city, and' soon after his 
 graduation he came to Waterbury, opening an ofifice 
 here. The svuTimer of 1880 marked the begiraiing 
 •of a singularly successful professional career. Dr. 
 Frost and Miss Jennie G. Davis were married Feb. 
 5, 1880. By this union was born one daughter, Edna 
 J. Dr. Frost was again married Dec. 31, 1891, to 
 i\Irs. Minnie L. Ryder, the daughter of Leander 
 AVright, of West Ashford, Conn. Two children 
 have been born of this union : Barbara and Sela. 
 The Doctor is a Republican and was president of the 
 ■board of health for two A^ears, of whi^h he has been 
 a member since 1887. He is city and town health 
 officer and is a member of the staf¥ of Waterbury 
 Hospital. Dr. Frost was secretary of the Water- 
 bury Medical Society for eleven years and is a mem- 
 ber of both the State and County Medical Societies. 
 On the membership roll of the Masonic fraternity, 
 ■tbe K. of P., the Red Men, the R. A., the Hepta- 
 sophs, the K. O. T. M., the O. U. A. M., the Sons of 
 the .\merican Revolution and several social organ- 
 izations, such as the Waterbury Club and the Golf 
 Association, the name of Dr. Frost is found ; and 
 "wherever he appears he is sure to be a welcome 
 presence. Dr. Frost is a member of the First Con- 
 gregational Church and is a man of fine character 
 and superior professional standing. - 
 
 CHRISTIAN FISCHER, one of Aleriden's 
 lest known German- American citizens, and the ca- 
 pable foreman of the packing department of the 
 Bradlev & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., was born 
 at Biskirchen, Rhine Province, Germany, April 27, 
 1846. 
 
 Henry Christian Fischer, father of Christian, 
 was a native of the same place, and was well edu- 
 cated in the German schools. At the age of seven- 
 teen years, according lo the law of his land, he en- 
 tered'the Prussian army, joining the cavalry branch 
 of the service, and spent three years in defending 
 bis country. Among the many experiences of his 
 army life was an expedition upon which he was 
 sent with a detail to capture horses, at Wallachia, 
 Roumania where he secured a mare with a little 
 colt. He kept the latter for himself and it grew to 
 be a pet of the family for many years, reaching the 
 age of forty-four years. The other members of the 
 family to which Henry Christian Fischer belonged 
 
 were : Frank, who became a minister in the Dutch 
 Reformed Church ; Frederick, who went to Paris, 
 and was there during the Revokttion and was lost 
 to bis family afterward; and Emma, who married 
 Valentine Konold, came to America, and resides in 
 CoUinsville, Conn. By trade Mr. Fischer was a 
 blacksmith and learned his work at his father's 
 fo'ige. For many years he carried on a successful 
 business, reared a large famiily and was a much re- 
 spected man. His death was' caused by cramps at- 
 tacking him when bathing in a river, near Ills home, 
 June 7, 1846. His marriage was to Katharine Zipp, 
 in Niederhausen, Nassau, Germany. She was a 
 most estimable woman, a devoted wife and the 
 mother of eight children. Both parents were con- 
 sistent members of the Dutch Refonned Church. 
 The children were: Katharine, now deceased, was 
 the wife of August Pistorius, of Meriden ; Eliza- 
 beth died in Germany, the wife of Frederick Fischer, 
 superintendent of a factory at Ems, who died from 
 heart failure ; Conrad, who died in CoUinsville, 
 Conn., in 1894; Ernestine, who married Carl Mon- 
 tanus and lives in Germany ; Christina, who married 
 Emil Weidig, died with her husband from asphyxia- 
 tion in Germany ; Louisa, who died in infancy ; 
 Louisa (2) was the second wife of August Pistor- 
 ius ; and lastly Christian, the subject proper of this 
 sketch. 
 
 Christian Fischer received an excellent German 
 education in his native land and there became pro- 
 ficient in the blacksmith trade. His service was de- 
 manded in the army when he was seventeen years 
 old, but he decided that three years of his life could 
 be better spent in other directions, and with this 
 end in view he left his home and made his way to 
 Brem^en, where he took passage on a sailing vessel 
 for America, arriving in New York in December, 
 1865. 
 
 As a brother was already located at CoUinsville, 
 Conn., the young German lad made his way thither 
 and soon secured employment at his trade with the 
 Collins Company, and there he remained two and 
 one-half years. In 1868 Mr. Fischer came to Meri- 
 den and worked in the machine room of the Bradley 
 & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., until 1869, enter- 
 ing then the shipping department of the busines'S. 
 For a period of thirty-fo'Ur years he has satisfac- 
 torily filled the position of foreman of this import- 
 ant department, gaining the confidence of the com- 
 pany in greater degree as the years go by, and they 
 more fully realize the earnest and honest service 
 which he renders. Mr. Fischer is gifted with the 
 ability which all do not possess, by which he is 
 able to manage his department in a thoroughly sat- 
 isfactory, orderly and economical manner with the 
 respect of his assistants and to the benefit of his 
 employers. 
 
 On September 24, 1870, Mr. Fischer was mar- 
 ried, in Meriden, to Miss Johanna Maschmeyer, 
 a sister of August Maschmeyer. To the union of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fischer five children have been born: 
 
7IO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Heniy August, Theodore A., Augusta A., Lillian 
 L. and Catherine E., aill of whom reside at home 
 but Theodore, who resides at ^ledford Hillside, 
 Mass. While Air. Fischer has a tendency to lean 
 toward the Democratic party in politics, he de- 
 clares himself more of an independent, being a man 
 of intelligence and ability, perfectly capable of de- 
 ciding the merits of a candidate, or to measure for 
 himself. During 1879 and 1880 he was a member of 
 the city council from the third ward, and was a 
 member of several important committees. Mr. 
 Fischer has always been deeply interested in the 
 cause of education and he was the first German resi- 
 dent of Meriden to call a meeting to look toward 
 the establishment of a German-American school, 
 and was one of the trustees of this institution for 
 six years. For a considerable period he had been 
 a trustee of the West school district before the con- 
 solidation. Mr. Fischer has been a member of the 
 German Aid Society for thirty-two years. He and 
 family are all members of the Universalist Church, 
 active in its work in every direction. All his life 
 he has believed in progress and advancement and 
 lends his assistance to all worthy objects. Mr. 
 Fischer enjoys popularity with all classes, is indus- 
 trious and upright, and a man who is devoted to 
 the welfare of his family. To him Aleriden means 
 home, and he takes an interest in every measure 
 which is calculated to benefit her locally or abroad. 
 Mr. Fischer has added to the beauty of the city by 
 the erection of a fine dwelling place on Fourth street, 
 which he built in 1875, at a time when there had 
 been little building on that street. It is a roof un- 
 der which generous hospitality is offered tO' the hosts 
 of friends who are made welcome by Mr. Fischer 
 and his most estimable family. 
 
 GEORGE WILLIAM HENRY HUGHES. A 
 prominent representative of an old and most hon- 
 orable family, which has been conspicuous in the 
 State of Connecticut for many years, is George 
 William Henry Hughes, a citizen who has been 
 identified with the material growth of New Haven 
 for a long period. 
 
 Mr. Hughes was born in Prospect, Conn., Aug. 
 28, 1848, a son of Reuben Beecher and Harriet M. 
 (Sloper) Hughes. The great-grandfather of 
 George W. H. Hughes was sturdy, honest William 
 Hues, a man well known in his day as an excellent 
 farmer and respected citizen. Reuben Hughes, son 
 of William Hues, was born in Southington, Conn., 
 and early in life learned the trade of carpenter and 
 joiner. His talents lay in the direction of inven- 
 tion, and he displayed remarkable mechanical skill. 
 One of his machines intended for the dressing of 
 flax was the cause of his losing his deft right hand, 
 thus probably causing many of the excellent ideas 
 on machinery to remian within his fertile ibrain. 
 It is known that he did a soldier's duty in the war 
 of 1812, and at that time went to New London, and 
 later settled in Southbury, Alass. He married Jane 
 
 Beecher, who belonged to the celebrated Beecher 
 family, which traces clear ancestry as far back as 
 1637 as the time of the settlement of this family in 
 New England. 
 
 Reuben Beecher Flughes, a son of Reuben, who 
 with carefulness and accuracy has published an in- 
 teresting record of the Beecher family and connect- 
 ing branches, is one of the best-known and hig-hly 
 regarded citizens of New Haven. He was born in 
 Southbury, Alass., Jan. 27, 1820, in the first house 
 south of the famous White Oak Tree on the Mitchell 
 land. This now beautiful mansion is the residence 
 of William Beecher, a prominent citizen of South- 
 bury. Soon after this date Reuben Hughes, Sr., 
 purchased the home, lying between the residences of 
 Ezra Beecher and Nathaniel Beecher, south of the 
 school-house. Here his boyhood days were passed, 
 attending school as opportunity offered, and assist- 
 ing in the farm work. The family being large, 
 Reuben also worked occasionally for the neighbor- 
 ing farmers, but in 1836 removed to New Haven. 
 Here he remained four years with Pernett Booth, 
 and learned the trade of painter. Just about the 
 time that Mr. Hughes was prepared to commence 
 a career of his own in the trade he had mastered, 
 there fell a business depression over the countr}', 
 and then began the musical career which has made 
 Air. Hughes famous. Music had always been with 
 him a passion, and upon his settlement in the city 
 he had connected himself with several church choirs, 
 and now, when there was no promising outlook in 
 his trade, he turned his musical ability tO' good ac- 
 count. Mr. Hughes is a master of the 'cello, trom- 
 bone, string bass, ophicleide, violin and other in- 
 struments, and he was soon recognized as a su- 
 perior teacher of band music. In this connection it 
 may be mentioned that many of the members of his 
 mother's family were distinguished musicians. 
 
 A natural mechanic, Mr. Hughes became skilled 
 in many lines, was an excellent shoemaker, and 
 learned the trade of toolmaker, and also became an 
 expert engineer, and subsequent to the Civil war 
 made tools for manufacturing pistols, cutlery, clocks, 
 guns, carriage springs and many other articles. For 
 a great many years he was engineer in the works 
 of the Wheeler & Wilson Company, at Bridgeport, 
 Conn,, and was toolmaker for the New Haven and 
 the Waterbury Clock Companies. 
 
 Prior to coming to New Haven Mr. Hug'hes 
 worked at shoemaking, also did carpentering, and 
 at the same time cultivated a farm which he owned 
 at Prospect, living there for a period of nine years. 
 He was sent to the Legislature from that town, for 
 the session of 1849-50, serving also as justice of the 
 peace, tax collector, member of the school board 
 and lieutenant in a military company. 
 
 It is in musical circles that Mr. Hughes is so 
 widely and favorably known. For fifteen years he 
 was a member of the Union City and AMieeler & 
 AWlson celebrated male quartette, also the AA'heeler 
 & Wilson Band, was a member of the Second Com- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 711 
 
 pan}' Governor's Foot Guards Band, and when over 
 seventy-five years of age he played in bands and 
 marched fifteen miles. In Nangatuck he had charge 
 of the orchestra, and for ten years led the choir 
 in the Methodist Church, and later for several years 
 in the Congregational Church, living in this place 
 for fifteen years. For fifty years Mr. Hughes has 
 ■been engaged in organizing and instructing bands, 
 orchestras and church choirs. In 1877 he organized 
 an orchestra for the benefit of the New Haven Citv 
 [Missions, conducting it for twenty years free of 
 charge. 
 
 Mr. Hughes is a member of the Churcli of the 
 Redeemer in New Haven, and in his earlier years 
 he was a member of the choir. For many years 
 his orchestra played for five different services every 
 Sunday. Mr. Hughes is still in the enjoyment of 
 vigorous health, and presents the appearance of a 
 man not over sixty years of age, although the 
 records show the almost unbelievable fact that he is 
 eighty-two. On his trusty wheel he sometimes 
 covers as many as fifty miles a day, and his friends 
 would not be surprised if he made a "century run." 
 A man of high order of talent, he has always fa- 
 vored all enterprises that in combination with music 
 work for the uplifting and refining of the city's life. 
 
 On Dec. 31, 1840, Reuben Beedier Hughes and 
 Harriet M. Sloper were united in marriage. She 
 was born in Bath, England, May i, 1821, a daugh- 
 ter of the Rev. Jacob Sloper, and the children born 
 to this union were : George William Henry, born 
 Aug. 28, 1848, and Charlotte Matilda, born Aug. 
 14, 1858. In his political belief Mr. Hughes has 
 always been a Republican, but has not in late years 
 taken any active interest in party afifairs. In 1882 
 he retired from mechanical pursuits, and is amply 
 supported by the income derived from the labors of 
 a life of strict temperance, industry, prudence, econ- 
 omy and integrity, and is now able to enjoy the 
 fruits resulting from such a life, without labor ot 
 care. Mr. Hughes has legions of friends and 
 myriads of acquaintances. 
 
 While George W. H. Hughes was still a child 
 his parents removed from Prospect, Conn., to 
 Naugatuck, and here he took advantage of the ex- 
 cellent educational opportunities afforded, and in 
 the high school was under the instruction of the 
 well-remembered A. N. Lewis, graduating from 
 this school in 1864. The musical talent which was 
 a most natural inheritance from a gifted father, soon 
 displayed itself in young Hughes, and his entrance 
 into the business world was as a tuner of organs 
 about twenty-five years ago. Under the firm style 
 of Vogel &' Hughes, he became interested in the 
 manufacture of organs, in Norwich, Conn., this 
 enterprise prospering until its career was closed by 
 a disastrous fire destroying nearly all of the prop- 
 erty of the firm. 
 
 'With the assistance of Mr. J. W. Huntington, a 
 financial magnate, Air. Hughes then built a factory 
 in Norwich, and until the death of Mr. Huntington, 
 
 in 1879, the manufacture of organs was successfully 
 carried on in this place. Then Mr. Hughes closed 
 this business and returned to New Haven, embark- 
 ing in the coal and flour trade at No. 34 Church 
 street, conducting this very successfully until 1891, 
 when he sold this business and organized the Royal 
 Shoe store, which one year later he gave to his 
 cousin, Harry Hughes, who is still conducting it. 
 
 Mr. Hughes is a man of most varied talents, 
 and possesses business ability of a superior order. 
 For some ten years he has been actively engaged 
 in the real estate business, and in 1889 he pur- 
 chased an interest in the Hyperion Theater, in this 
 city, and with his partner. Dr. A. E. Winchell, has 
 improved this property very greatly. It had been 
 badly managed and required renovation and busi- 
 ness tactics to place it upon a paying basis. Air. 
 Flughes is also a stockholder, owning a controlling 
 interest in a corset factory, and also in some pros- 
 perous patent medicines, outside of this city. Active, 
 alert and energetic, Mr. Hughes has long been a 
 very important factor in the business life of New 
 Haven. In the manag-ement and sale of real estate 
 he has been far-seeing and politic, and his manage- 
 ment of various properties and their disposal have 
 brought him large commissions, notably in the case 
 Oif the "Florence House." Howard avenue in this 
 city has been principally built up by Mr. Hughes, 
 and some of its edifices are still his property. Soon 
 after building the imposing Hughes block, on the 
 corner of Congress and Asylum streets, he disposed 
 of it to Mr. Newman. 
 
 In 1886 Mr. Hughes was married to Miss Maude 
 Kellogg, of Bridgeport, Conn,, a daughter of Will- 
 iam Kellogg, of that city, and to this union was born 
 one son, George W. R., Sept. 14, 1887. This young 
 man is a student of the Day school, in New Haven, 
 and is a very interested member of the foot-ball 
 team. Mr. Hughes votes with the Republican party, 
 but has no political ambition. His business interests 
 in this city are large and growing, but are under 
 his control, his ability and grasp of afifairs making 
 him one of the leading factors in the growth and 
 development of this beautiful city. 
 
 CHARLES ELII-IU IVES, a prominent market 
 gardener and selectman of Cheshire, New Haven 
 county, was born in that town Sept. 23, 1857, and is 
 a descendant of John Ives, the first of the name in 
 this county. The grandfather, Elihu Ives, was a 
 native of the town of AA'allingford, where he en- 
 gaged in farming during early life, and where he 
 married Rachel Llakeslee. Their children were 
 Charles; John, a resident of Marion, Iowa; Elihu, 
 of the same place ; George ; and Norman, all of 
 whom, with the exception of Charles, went West 
 and located in Iowa. The grandfather also removed 
 to Iowa, becoming one of the first settlers of Marion, 
 where he took up land and engaged in farming until 
 his death. He was a Jefifersonian Democrat, and a 
 member of the Baptist Church. 
 
7i; 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Charles Ives, the father of our subject, was born 
 and reared in Wallingford, and when a young man 
 came to Cheshire, where for several years he en- 
 gaged in agricultural pursuits upon what is now 
 known as the Morgan farm. He then purchased the 
 farm now operated by his son, and upon that place 
 made many improvements. His death occurred 
 Sept. 4, 1866, on the Morgan farm, and his remains 
 were interred in Cheshire cemetery. He, too, was an 
 earnest member of the Baotist Church, and a Dem- 
 ocrat in politics. In Cheshire he married Sarah L. 
 Moss, a native of that town, and a daughter of 
 Joseph }\Ioss. She is still living, and now makes 
 her home in Wallingford. To them were born five 
 children, namely : Ceorge Rodney, who died in in- 
 fancy ; George Rodney (2), also deceased; Mary 
 C, wife of Amos Ives, of Wallingford ; Matilda 
 L., wife of Robert Aliner; and Charles Elihu. 
 
 During his boyhood Charles Elihu Ives attended 
 the district schools of his native town and early be- 
 came familiar with the duties which fall to the lot 
 •of the agriculturist. He was only nine years of age 
 when his father died, and he early took charge of 
 the home farm, and has since devoted his energies 
 to its operation. It consists of seventy-five acres, 
 upon which he has made many useful and valuable 
 improvements. He is engaged principally in market 
 gardening, and in this branch of industry is meet- 
 ing with good success. 
 
 Mr. Ives was married at Meriden, Conn,, in 1887, 
 to ]\Iiss Harriet L. Todd, a daughter of James and 
 Esther (Hall) Todd, and granddaughter of Streat 
 Todd, all natives of Wolcott. She is a most esti- 
 mable lady and a member of the Episcopal Church. 
 In his political views Mr. Ives is a Democrat and 
 has filled the offices of selectman and assessor of 
 his town, and is now a member of the board of 
 selectmen. Fratemally he is a member of the 
 Grange. Industrious, enterprismg and progressive, 
 he commands the respect and confidence of all with 
 whom he comes in contact, and has many warm 
 friends throughout the town. 
 
 ANDREW HENDERSON has been engaged 
 in business in New Elaven as a florist since 1875, 
 and he has long been regarded as one of the best 
 in that line in the city. He is a native of Sweden, 
 born June 24, 1858, son of John H. Henderson, who 
 passed all his life in that country. Our subject's 
 father was a machinist, and alwavs followed that 
 trade. His death at the age of si>^ty-two was the 
 result of an accident. He married Sadie Erickson, 
 also a native of Sweden, whose father was a farmer, 
 and seven children were born to them, six of whom 
 are yet living: John, in Sweden; Charles, a resi- 
 dent of Emporia, Ivans. ; Hannah, in Sweden ; Au- 
 gustus, in Vienna, Austria; Andrew, our subject; 
 and Daniel, a machinist of New Haven. The 
 mother died at the age of sixty-one. Both parents 
 attended the Swedish Lutheran Church. 
 
 Andrew Elenderson spent his boyhood in his na- 
 
 tive land, attended the common schools, and at an 
 early age commenced work at the business which 
 he has continued to follow. He worked at nursery 
 and landscape gardening until coming to this coun- 
 trv, in 1871. His first three years in America were 
 su'ent in New Rochelle, N. Y., with James S. Knapp, 
 and he was subsequently in business a short time 
 a. Long Branch, N. J., before coming to Westville, 
 in 1875. For four years he was partner in a florist 
 b.-isiness, at the end of that time starting in busi- 
 ness for himself in a small way at first. His busi- 
 ness has attained such proportions, however, that he 
 now has more land than any other florist in the 
 place, having four acres devoted to growing roses, 
 violets and carnations. He gives employment to a 
 number of men, having a fine local patronage, and 
 supplying the large florists in the city of New Ha- 
 ven. ' His place of business is at No. 845 Whalley 
 avenue. Mr. Henderson caters to first-class trade 
 onl)-, and makes a specialty of the best grade of 
 flowers. By integrity and honest dealing he has 
 gained a substantial footing among the reliable busi- 
 ness men of Westville ana New Haven and has 
 prospered deservedly. 
 
 Mr. Henderson was married, in 1885, to Miss 
 Ellen Jane Pritchard, a native of England, who, on 
 coming to America, lived in Pennsylvania before 
 her marriage. Three children have been born to 
 them, Seigert, Ida and Jennie. The family attend 
 the Episcopal Church. Mr. Henderson is a Repub- 
 lican in political faith. 
 
 CHARLES HENRY FRISBIE, one of Bran- 
 ford's respected citizens, comes of good old New 
 England Revolutionary stock. A native of Con- 
 necticut, he was born Oct. 28, 1836, in Stony 
 Creek, New Haven county, and was reared and 
 educated in Branford, in the northern part of the 
 town, called the Mill Plain District. 
 
 Josiah Erisbie, grandfather of our subject, was 
 a native of Branford, and died at the age of ninety- 
 one years. He was a farmer by occupation, and 
 served as a soldier in the war of the Revolution. 
 Eour children were born to him : Augustus, Levi, 
 Samuel and Lavinia. Of these, 
 
 Levi Frishie, father of our subject, was also of 
 Branford nativity, and followed the pursuit of a 
 fisherman at Stony Creek, where he died at the age 
 of fift)r-four years. By his wife, Betty (Beach), 
 daughter of Elnathan Beach, he had five children : 
 Elnathan B., Russell, Anna B., Thaddeus B. and 
 Charles Henry. 
 
 Charles Henry Frishie, the subject proper of 
 these lines, learned the trade of carpenter, and fol- 
 lowed same up to and some time after the Civil war. 
 On Aug. 13, 1862, he enlisted in Company E, 15th 
 Conn. A^. I., and participated in the first battle of 
 Fredericksburg, after which he was placed on de- 
 tached service in the quartermaster's department, 
 2d Division, 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac. 
 Later he had charge, as wagonmaster, of all the 
 

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 713 
 
 land transportation at Newbern, N. C, over one 
 thousand horses and mules and one hundred men. 
 After three years' service he was honorably dis- 
 charged at New Haven, Conn., July 11, 1865. 
 After the close of hostilities j\Ir. Frisbie followed 
 his trade and lumbering up to June 3, 1874, when 
 he had an accident with a buzz-saw whereby he 
 lost his left arm, at the elbow. Since 1890 he 
 has been engaged in the manufacture of hammer 
 handles for granite cutters. 
 
 On Dec. 31, 1854, J\lr. Frisbie married JNIary 
 Foote, daughter of Jonathan and Abigail R. (Lins- 
 lev) Foote, of North Branford, Conn., and they 
 have one son, Frank H. Socially jNlr. Frisbie is 
 a member of Mason Rogers Post, No. 7, G. A. R., 
 of Branford, and served three consecutive terms 
 as commander of the post, an evidence in itself 
 of his popularity in the G. A. R. In politics he is 
 a Republican, and has held the office of assessor 
 two years. 
 
 JERE DEWEY EGGLESTOX, M. D., of Mer- 
 iden, where for twenty and more years he has suc- 
 cessfully practiced his profession and been a valued 
 and useful citizen of that manufacturing center, is 
 one of the commonwealth's selfmade men. 
 
 Born Oct. 28, 1853, in Longmeadow, Mass., Dr. 
 Eggleston is a son of the late Jere D. and Louisa 
 (Carew) Eggleston, and a descendant in the seventh 
 generation from Begat Eggleston, who was born in 
 1590, and came probably from Exeter, England, to 
 Dorchester, Mass., in 1630, only ten years after the 
 landing of the Pilgrim Fathers. He was a freeman 
 in 1631, was an original member of Mr. Warham's 
 Church and with it removed to \\'indsor. Conn., in 
 1635, becoming one of the first settlers of the town. 
 His second wife was Mary Talcott, of Hartford. 
 ^Ir. Eggleston died Sept. i, 1674, and his wife 
 Mary died in Windsor Dec. 8, 1657. 
 
 From this first American ancestor Dr. Eggles- 
 ton 's lineage is through James, Nathaniel, Nathaniel 
 (2), Bber, Eli and Jere D. Eggleston. 
 
 (II) James Eggleston, son of Begat, the erni- 
 grant settler, born in England, married Hester, sis- 
 ter of Roger Williams, and she is said to have been 
 the first female white child born in Hartford, Conn. 
 Mr. Eggleston was made a freeman in 1637. He 
 was in the Pequot fight, for which services he re- 
 ceived in 1671 a grant of fifty acres of land. He 
 died Dec. i, 1679, at the age of fifty-nine. His 
 widow married, April 29, 1680, James Enno. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Eggleston, son of James, born 
 Aug. 15, 1666, married, Sept. 13, 1694, Hannah 
 Ashley, of Westfield, Mass., born Dec. 26, 1675, 
 and removed from Windsor to Westfield, Where his 
 death occurred. 
 
 (IV) Nathaniel Eggleston (2), son of Na- 
 thaniel, born in Westfield April 3, 1712, married 
 Auo- 17 1 741 Esther Wait, of Northampton, and 
 died" in Westfield :\Iarch 7, 179°. aged nearly ninety. 
 Their children were: Eber, Simeon and Abner. 
 
 (V) Eber Eggleston, son of Nathaniel (2), 
 married Submit Judd, of Southampton, who died 
 July 4, 1 82 1. Mr. Eggleston was a soldier of the 
 war of 1812, was wounded in battle, losing three 
 fingers, and was a United States pensioner. His 
 children were: Eli, born in Westfield in 1784; 
 Eber, born in 1790; Eunice; Judd; Submit; Laura; 
 and Esther. 
 
 (VI) Eli Eggleston, son of Eber, born in 1784, 
 married (first) Oct. i, 1805, Zeruiah Searle, bom 
 at Southampton in August, 1789, and died in West- 
 field Oct. 3, 1826, at thirty-seven; he married (sec- 
 ond) Laura, niece of Benjamin Eggleston, of Mid- 
 dlefield, Conn. Eli Eggleston was an honest, in- 
 dustrious, cheerful and obliging man, a great reader 
 of the Bible and was greatly respected. He was 
 engaged in farming. His children were: Eunice, 
 born Dec. 19, 1806, died Sept. i, 1827; Minerva, 
 born April 19, 1808, married, in November, 1834, 
 Sylvester Cooper, and died at Springfield, Mass., 
 Feb. 2, 1841, had children, Cornelius and Russell; 
 AMlliam Judd, born Aug. 21, 1809, died in Hamp- ■ 
 ton, Mass., had three sons and three daughters; 
 Zeruiah, born Feb. 7, 181 1, married May 3, 1835, 
 Abel Pendleton, of Norfolk, Conn., and died there 
 July 31, 1842, had two daughters, Mrs. Sherman 
 Kimberly and Mrs. Humphry, both of Goshen, 
 Conn. ; Jere Dewey is mentioned farther on ; Electa, 
 born Jan. 4, 1814, married Sumner Cooper, of Suf- 
 field, Conn., and removed to Woodstock, Conn., had 
 three children ; Russell Searle, born in September, 
 1816; Harmon, born Jan. 18, 1818, married Maria 
 Root, of Westfield, where he died; Eli, born Sept. 
 21, 1819, died Feb. 18, 1822; Julia, born in 1821, 
 died when young; and Julia (2), born Sept. 30, 
 1822, married, June 22, 1842, James D. Collins, 
 then a gunsmith of Colts factory, Hartford. 
 
 (Vil) jere Dewev Eggleston, son of Eli, born 
 Julv II, 1812, married, in 1831, Louisa Carew, and 
 resided for a time at Broad Brook, East Windsor, 
 Conn. He was a miller by occupation, a man of 
 generous impulses, of strict integrity and of de- 
 cided opinions. He died in Enfield, Conn., March 
 10, 1855, and his widow passed away some years 
 later. Their children were : ( i) George, who died 
 in 1876, leaving a son, Charles. (2) Mary Louise 
 married Horace King, and had five children. (3) 
 Arthur F., born Oct. 23, 1844, and married, March 
 I. 1871, Marv Isabel Abbe, of Windsor Locks, 
 Conn, judge Eggleston is now one of the foremost 
 lawvers of the State, a member of the firm of Buck 
 & Eggleston, of Flartford. He was prepared for 
 college at ?\Ionson Academy, :\Ionson, ]\lass._ The 
 breaking out of the Civil war gave him a spirit of 
 uneasiness and restlessness that could only be 
 quieted by actual participation in the conflict, and 
 though not yet as old as was generally deemed 
 necessarv he managed to enlist in the 46th Mass. 
 y I., followed its vicissitudes until it was mus- 
 tered 'out, and received an honorable discharge. He 
 then resumed his studies, in 1864 entering Williams 
 
714 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 College, from which he was -graduated in 1868. 
 He read law in the office of Strong & Buck, Hart- 
 ford, and was admitted to the Bar of Hartford 
 county in 1872. Some time after Mr. Strong's 
 death in 1872 he became a member of the firm of 
 Buck & Eggleston, an association which has since 
 remained unbroken, and which has developed into 
 one of the strongest law firms in the state, as well as 
 one of the most successful. Judge Eggleston is a 
 Republican, and active and influential in the coun- 
 cils of the party. He has served as president of the 
 common council. He served for a period of ten 
 years as attorney for the board of County Commis- 
 sioners, and filled the office of county treasurer a 
 like number of years. In 1877 he was appointed 
 judge of the Hartford police court, and continued 
 on the bench until 1883, when he declined re-elec- 
 tion. In 1888 he succeeded Hon. William Ham- 
 mersley to the office of States Attorney for Hart- 
 ford county, a position he has since filled with 
 signal ability and efficiency. From 1892 to 1895 
 ' he was police commissioner of the city of Hartford. 
 (4.) Hannah married B. Tillson, and resided in 
 Pomfret, Conn. (5) Herbert E. (6) Jere Dewey, 
 
 Jr. 
 
 Dr. Eggleston's father having died in the son's 
 infancy, and his mother while he was yet a youth, 
 he became self-reliant and dependent when a mere 
 lad, but rose equal to circumstances and conditions. 
 At thirteen years of age he began supporting him- 
 self by working on a farm, and later by teaching 
 school he was prepared for and passed through col- 
 lege, graduating from Williams College, and later 
 in 1879 from the College of Physicians and Sur- 
 geons at New York City. He began the practice 
 of medicine in the town of Windsor Locks, Conn., 
 and in about 1880 located in the city of Meriden, 
 where through his studious habits, close attention 
 to his profession and agreeable manners he gained 
 the good will and confidence of the people, and db- 
 tained a large share of the practice in that growing 
 city, and is now in the enjovment of an extensive 
 and successful patronage. He has kept abreast of 
 the times in the profession and has earned the rep- 
 utation of being a conservative and safe practitioner. 
 Like his brother. Judge Eggleston, the Doctor is a 
 Republican in his political affiliations and has given 
 some time to the duties of citizenship, having served 
 the municipality of jMeriden for several years as' an 
 alderman. Dr. Eggleston is known as a man of 
 strict integrity and honor, and as a man of energy 
 and snap. He is self-made, his position in society 
 and his professional success being due wholly to the 
 force of his make-up. He is prominent in his com- 
 munity in both Freemasonrv and Odd Fellowship, 
 and is a member of the local orders there. 
 
 On Mav 18, 1881, Dr. Eggleston was married 
 to Elizabeth C. Duncan, of Poquonock, AA'indsor, 
 Conn., and to them have crime children as follows: 
 Robert D., born ]\larch 7, 1882; Ralph B., born 
 November, 1884, and died ^larch 19, 1886; Jeanette 
 
 L., born April 18, 1887; Arthur J., born Nov. 19, 
 1890; and Jere Dudley, born May 29, 1894. 
 
 Mrs. Eggleston is a native of Poquonock, and 
 the daughter of one of its prominent citizens and 
 manufacturers — Thomas Duncan (2), who is a na- 
 tive of Scotland, where he was born. Aug. 13, 1832, 
 son of Thomas Duncan, a descendant of an excellent 
 Scotch ancestry. Thomas Duncan (2) for upwards 
 of forty years' has been a resident of Connecticut, 
 and here has been prominently connected with re- 
 ligious and civil interests. He is an expert paper 
 manufacturer and for many years has been identi- 
 fied with the making of paper in Poquonock and 
 elsewhere in the State. Late in the 'nineties he re- 
 moved to New York city. His first wife, the mother 
 of his children, was formerly Miss Grace Yule, 
 who was born June 14, 1834, and died Feb. 15, 
 1867. Their five children were : T. E. and John 
 C, both well known men to the paper trade of 
 the country ; Grace, now deceased ; Agnes, now de- 
 ceased, formerly the wife of Nelson R. Lord, of 
 Poquonock; and Elizabeth C, wife of Dr. Eggles- 
 ton. 
 
 CAPT. DANIEL LOYAL BARBER was born 
 March 19, 1855, in Litchfield, Conn., a son of Loyal 
 Rossetter Barber, who was born Aug. 21, 1811, in 
 Harwinton, Litchfield Co., Conn. The father was 
 a farmer and was extensively engaged in the tim- 
 ber business. He was a Republican, and remov- 
 ing to Litchfield when he was twenty-two years of 
 age became a prominent member of the commu- 
 nity, serving for several terms as selectman; and 
 was an active member of the Congregational 
 Church. On June 25, 1833, he was married to ]\Iiss 
 Lucretia Buell, born in Litchfield April 25, 1814, 
 and a daughter of Norman and Lucretia (A\'ebs- 
 ter) Buell. Loyal R. Barber died ^lay 25, 1885. in 
 the town of Harwinton, where he had been living 
 for some years on his farm. His widow is still liv- 
 ing in Waterbury. Their children were : ( I ) 
 Amelia B., born Sept. 9, 1835, married Edwin F. 
 Perkins, of Ljtchfield, who died in the war of the 
 Rebellion ; she is now living in Litchfield. (2) Nor- 
 man B., born Oct. 9, 1837, died Oct. 12, 1863, at 
 Alexandria, Va., during the Rebellion ; 'he married 
 Susan Wood, of ]\Iilton, Conn. (3) Lucretia R., 
 born March 17, 1840, married D. M. Hancock, of 
 Raynham, Mass., where she died Oct. 22, 1899. 
 (4) Minerva W., born Sept. 4, 1842, died Aug. 9, 
 1843. (5) Marina W., born May 30, 1849, mar- 
 ried L. O. Bradley, of Torrington. (6) Lyman 
 B., bom March 8, 1847, died April 12, 1897 ; he 
 married Miss Jennie W\ Cooper, of Bristol, Conn., 
 and died in Wallingford. (7) Augusta B., born 
 May 2, 1853, married Edgar H. Chipman, of Water- 
 biny. (8) Capt. Daniel L. (9) Julia M., born Aug. 
 30, 1859, married George E. Taft, of Unionville, 
 Conn., and died April 27, 1891. 
 
 Asa liarber, the grandfather of Capt. Daniel 
 L., was born in Harwinton, Conn., where he spent 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 715 
 
 his entire life engaged in farming. An active Whig, 
 he held many town offices, although he died when 
 but thirty-one years old, and he was prominent in 
 church matters. He married Miss Mindwell Ros- 
 seter, of Harwinton, and to them were born: Ab- 
 ner, Asa, Loyal and Lyman. 
 
 Capt. Daniel Loyal Barber had his early edu- 
 cation in his own home town, and then attended 
 the Harwinton schools, whither his parents removed 
 when he was about thirteen years old. Leaving 
 school at the age of eighteen years, he began life 
 for himself in charge of an engine in the Barber & 
 Dayton Spring Bed and Scaffold Bracket Co. He 
 remained with this company about a year and a 
 half, when it failed and he took charge of the wood 
 department of the Stanley Level and Rule Co., at 
 New Britain. Mr. Barber was with this estab- 
 lishment about three and a half years, and then 
 removed to Burlington, where he was foreman of 
 W. R. Hartingan's wood turning establishment, 
 having some twenty-five wood turners under him. 
 He held this responsible position for two years or 
 more, and then came to Wallingford to be assistant 
 foreman of the buffing department of the R. Wallace 
 & Sons Manufacturing Co., where he remained for 
 nearly ten years. At that time he began contract 
 work in the same department, in which he is now 
 engaged, having in his employ about twenty hands. 
 Capt. Barber joined Co. E, First Conn. Nat. 
 Guards, as a private, at New Britain in 1875, and 
 served for four years. On Sept. 20, 1883, he united 
 with Co. K, 2d Conn. Nat. Guards, at Walling- 
 ford, as a private, and became a corporal May 20, 
 1885; sergeant, Dec. 30, 1886; first sergeant, Sept. 
 20, 1890; second lieutenant, June 25, 1891, and cap- 
 tain, Nov. 17th of the same year. On Nov. 17, 
 1896, he made application to be placed on the re- 
 tired list, and Jan. i, 1900, Captain Barber was ap- 
 pointed inspector of small arms practice on Col. 
 T. F. Callahan's staff at New Haven. 
 
 Capt. Barber was one of the charter members of 
 Ivy Lodge, No. 43, K. of P., and is a member 
 of Compass Lodge, of the Eastern Star Lodge, No. 
 37, F. & A. M., and of Mira Temple, No. 90, 
 Knights of Khorrassan. He was colonel of the 
 second regiment, U. R. K. P., for two years, where 
 he was on the staff of Major General Carnahan. 
 Capt. Barber is a charter member of Court Samuel 
 Simpson, No. 131, Foresters of America, and was 
 the first Chief Ranger oi the Court, where he 
 served two terms. He belongs to the Charter Oak 
 Circle, C. of F., auxiliary to the Foresters. Capt. 
 Barber is a charter member of Putnam Council, 
 O. U. A. M., and for six years was secretary of 
 that body. He is also a member of the Walling- 
 ford Club. 
 
 Capt. Bar^ber has served on the town commit- 
 tee for several terms. For a number of terms he 
 has served on the Court of Burgesses, and is one 
 of the solid and influential citizens of the county. 
 On national issues he is a pronounced Republican, 
 
 but in local aft'airs is a Republican with a tendency 
 toward the best man of either side for the office. 
 
 Capt. Barber was married, June 25, 1878, to Miss 
 Emma J. Butler, born May 8, 1859, at Harwinton, 
 a daughter of Lewis L. and Pearly (Brace) Butler, 
 of Torrington, Conn. In 1896 he built one of the 
 most modern and handsome homes in Wallingford, 
 in Church street. Capt. Barber and his wife attend 
 the Congregational Church at Wallingford. 
 
 JOHN PHILANDER HOPSON, the very ef- 
 ficient superintendent of the Berkshire Division of 
 the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 
 was born in Wallingford, Conn., Dec. 15, 1852, a 
 son of Philander, also a native of AA'allingford, and 
 a grandson of Samuel, who was born in Walling- 
 ford, where he followed farming, and died at the 
 early age of thirty-five. 
 
 Philander Hopson was only ten years old at 
 the time of his father's death, and was reared on 
 the farm. When quite young he was set to work, 
 and learned the carpenter trade, which became his 
 avocation during life. He worked at it first as a 
 journeyman, and then as a contractor, having a very 
 extensive business on his hands, and building in 
 Branford and elsewhere. At one time he had six 
 hundred men in his service, and he not only did a 
 vast amount of building, but had an extensive lum- 
 ber yard and planing mill. When he was sixty- 
 two years of age he died in Branford from an 
 apoplectic attack. He was a deacon of the Baptist 
 Church, and was a man of much character and 
 ability. His mother, Mary Blackstone Hopson, who 
 died at the age of seventy, came from a prominent 
 famil}', and was a sister of the father of Timothy 
 Blackstone, who gave the public library to the town ; 
 she was the mother of five children, two of whom 
 are still living in Wallingford, and have their resi- 
 dence on the old homestead, the farming opera- 
 tions being under the care of George Blackstone, a 
 cousin. Philander Hopson married Betsy Ann 
 Newell, who was born in Cheshire, a daughter of 
 Nathaniel Newell (a mason and contractor, who 
 came to Cheshire to work on the Northampton canal, 
 and he also engaged in farming) and his wife, 
 Mary Rogers (who was born in Vermont). Na- 
 thaniel Newell and wife had three sons and three 
 daughters, three of whom are living: Cornelia, 
 who is Mrs. Crook, of Troy; Betsy Ann, the mother 
 of J. P. Hopson; and Edward J., who is in the 
 gentlemen's furnishing business on Fifth avenue. 
 New York. The mother of these children belonged 
 to the Congregational Church and died at the age 
 of eighty-nine. Mrs. Betsy Ann Hopson, who is 
 still living, hale and hearty at the age of seventy- 
 one, had three children, of whom John Philander 
 is the only survivor. 
 
 John Philander Plopson spent his early years in 
 Branford, where he attended the common_ schools, 
 and at the age of fourteen began life for himself as 
 a clerk in Branford Station, where he was later ap- 
 
7i6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 pointed agent. After ten years at Branford he was 
 transferred to Xew London, where he was agent 
 for six years, when he resigned to go into business 
 as a stock broker. He ran office for Henry Clews, 
 and still has a letter of recommendation from that 
 eminent financier. Mr. Hopson entered the busi- 
 ness of stock broking in October, 1882, and fol- 
 lowed it until June, 1885. At that time he was ap- 
 pointed agent at South Norwalk, where he was en- 
 gaged two years. For eleven months he was super- 
 intendent of the New York, Rutland and Montreal 
 Railroad, when he took charge of the New Haven 
 & Derby Railroad until its consolidation with the 
 New ^ork & New Haven Railroad. The comple- 
 tion of that deal was followed by the appointment 
 of Mr. Hopson as the superintendent of the Berk- 
 shire Division of the reorganized line. He now has 
 200 miles of the line under his personal supervision, 
 including seventy-five stations, many of which do a 
 ver)- large business. As a railroad man he has made 
 a very high reputation and is rated as one of the 
 most efficient men on the line. 
 
 Mr. Hopson was married, in 1871, to Sarah 
 Hull, who -was born in Branford, a daughter of 
 Eliza Hull. To this union was born one child, 
 Homer B., now an engineer on the New York & 
 New Haven Railroad, to whom is given charge of 
 all the official trains on the line; Florence Gardner, 
 his wife, was born in Ashford. Mrs. Sarah Hop- 
 son died at the age of thirty-nine, and Mr. Hopson 
 married for his second wife Martha A. Howland, 
 who was born in Danbury. 
 
 J\Ir. Hopson is a Republican, and is a prominent 
 Mason, belonging to Widows' Sons Lodge, No. 66, 
 of Branford; Franklin Chapter, R. A. M. ; Har- 
 mony Council ; New Haven Commandery, No. 2, 
 K. T. ; Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Bridge- 
 port; and the Knights of Malta. He is also con- 
 nected with the Union League ; the Royal Arcanum ; 
 the A. O. U. W. at New London, and the Hepta- 
 sophs. At one time he was a member of the Pequot 
 Club and now belongs to the Knights Templar 
 Club. In the New England Association of railroad 
 superintendents his experience and ability command 
 attention. At one time he was a director of the 
 Masonic Mutual Benefit Association. 
 
 MARTIN HENRY BROWN, the efficient 
 superintendent of the E. A. Bliss Co., manufac- 
 turers, of Meriden, is one of the well-known and 
 highly esteemed residents of that city, in which 
 he has served as a useful member of the council, 
 and now holds a position on the board of public 
 works. 
 
 John Brown, father of Martin H., was born 
 in County Clare, Ireland, and came to America 
 when a young man, finally locating at Sydney, 
 Cape Breton, where he engaged in mining. There 
 he married Hannah Ormond, who was a native 
 of Cape Breton. In 1852, with his family, he re- 
 
 moved to the United States and located at North 
 Attleboro, Mass., at which place he was employed 
 as a silversmith, by Tifft & Whiting, and he con- 
 tinued in the employ of this great manufacturing 
 company the remainder of his life. In 1869 he 
 passed away, sincerely mourned by a large circle of 
 friends. His political affiliation was with the 
 Democratic party, but he never sought office, being 
 content to work hard and provide and care for his 
 famih' and live up to the standard of a good 
 Christian citizen. 
 
 John Brown reared his family in the faith of 
 the Roman Catholic Church, and they became ex- 
 cellent citizens, respected in the localities' in which 
 they found homes. Mrs. Brown died in 1898, and 
 was buried by the side of her husband at Attleboro. 
 After his death she assumed the care of the family, 
 and much of the success which has attended the 
 career of ihe subject of this biography may doubt- 
 less be traced to the teaching of his estimable 
 mother. The family consisted of thirteen children, 
 six of whom still survive : Mary, who married 
 Michael Crossey and removed to Bisbee, Arizona ; 
 Martin H., subject of this sketch ; William, a sil- 
 versmith of Wallingford; Frank M., a jeweler of 
 North Attleboro, Mass. ; and Pattie and Annie, 
 both of whom reside in North Attleboro. 
 
 Martin Henry Brown was born at Sydney, 
 Cape Breton, Nov. 10, 1846, and removed with his 
 parents to Massachusetts. His educational oppor- 
 tunities were limited, and at the age of fifteen he 
 engaged as an office boy with the S. Richardson 
 Co., jewelers, working for forty cents a day. 
 There he contmued three years. Although he did 
 not prosper financially with this firm, he learned 
 obedience to authority and business methods which 
 proved of value later in life. A very sensible pro- 
 ceeding was his apprenticeship to Tifft & AVhiting, 
 manufacturing jewelers, with whom he learned the 
 trade of silversmith, or jeweler, and received $9 
 per week. In 1868 he obtained a position with the 
 firm of A\'hitney & Rice, and the five succeeding 
 years were spent as a journeyman in their employ; 
 he was then made foreman of their factory, which 
 important position he filled satisfactorily for ten 
 and one-half years. 
 
 The fertile brain of j\Ir. Brown saw wider use- 
 fulness in another field, and in 1882 he was one of 
 the organizers, stockholders and directors of the 
 J. R. Nichols Co., remaining with that corporation 
 two and one-half years. In 1885 he accepted a 
 tempting offer from the E. A. Bliss Co., then of 
 North Attleboro, and in January of the following 
 year was made superintendent of the company, 
 which in July, 1890, removed to Meriden. Here 
 Mr. Brown for the past eleven years has been the 
 capable superintendent, and enjoys the confidence 
 and respect of the finn. As a manager he has 
 proven himself very efficient, those under his au- 
 thoritv esteeming him highly. Mr. Brown is a self- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 717 
 
 made man, of liberal mind, and is the fortunate pos- 
 sessor of an affable manner and a genial person- 
 ality. 
 
 In 1874 Martin H. Brown was married, in 
 North Attleboro, Mass., to Miss Mary A. Ken- 
 nedy, a daughter of Patrick and Margaret Ken- 
 nedy, and four children have been born of this 
 union : Walter, a student in the M'eriden high 
 school; Estella; Charlotte; and Hazel. A life-long 
 Democrat, Mr. Brown has very liberal ideas. He 
 well served the Fifth ward in the city council in 
 1892, and in 1897 was elected from the First ward, 
 serving two years. In 1898 he was appointed, by 
 Mayor Ives, a member of the board of public works 
 for a term of four years, and is still filling that 
 office. Socially and fraternally he is popular, and 
 belongs to the A. O. U. W. in Meriden, the Ama- 
 ranth Club, and the Jewelers' League, of New 
 York. The family belongs to St. Joseph's Catho- 
 lic Church. Mr. Brown stands very high in the 
 esteem of the people of ^Meriden, where he has lived 
 so many years. His neighbors know him to be 
 kind and helpful, charitable and generous, and the 
 general public feels that in Martin H. Brown it 
 finds an honest and upright citizen. 
 
 CHARLES B. ALLING. One of the most sub- 
 stantial and highly esteemed citizens of New Ha- 
 ven county, and for a half-century engaged in the 
 manufacture of woolen hosiery and underwear, is 
 a resident of Derby, in which city he is an extensive 
 owner of real property and probably the largest 
 tax-payer. He was born in Orange on June 20, 
 1824, and traces his ancestry back to Roger Ailing, 
 one of the early settlers of New Haven county, who 
 emigrated from England in the spring of 1637. A 
 somewhat detailed history of his line may be found 
 in the sketch of Amos H. Ailing on another page 
 of this work. His father, Charles W. Ailing, was a 
 pioneer manufacturer in Orange and his mother 
 (nee Lucy Booth) was the daughter of Walter 
 Booth of Woodbridge, one of the patriot heroes 
 of the Revolutionary war. The foundation of both 
 his scholastic and commercial education was laid in 
 his early boyhood, when he alternated attendance 
 upon the district school with collecting wool from 
 the farms around about to be used in his father's 
 mill. It is unnecessary to direct the reader's atten- 
 tion to his primitive methods of securing raw ma- 
 terial and that which now obtains in the great 
 manufactory, with its five hundred employes, of 
 which to-day he is the sagacious, energetic head. 
 He early developed a natural aptitude alike for 
 the mercantile and mechanical branches of the busi- 
 ness, and at the age of seventeen was given charge 
 of the wool carding, spinning, weaving and finish- 
 ing of the cloth, which was for the major part sold 
 to the farmers of the surrounding country. 
 
 In 1845, i" connection with his brother, Amos 
 H. Ailing, he leased the small mill from his father 
 and embarked in the career which, through his keen 
 
 acumen, untiring watchfulness and unblemished 
 honor, has not only made him a capitalist, but has 
 won for him the respect of the commercial world, 
 and the love and respect of his fellow townsmen. 
 The style of the young firm was A. H. & C. B. 
 Ailing, and both brothers worked industriously and 
 faithfully, early and late to extend its business. 
 At the outset their capital was very small. Upon 
 the shoulders of Mr. C. B. Ailing devolved the 
 weightier share of the actual management of the 
 concern's business affairs, and to the discharge of 
 this task he brought habits of economy, a close ap- 
 plication to business and a mental fitness of no com- 
 mon order. From the making of custom cloth for 
 farmers the line of manufacture gradually devel- 
 oped — first into the production of yarn for the mar- 
 ket, and later into the turning out of hose and 
 hosiery, which find a ready sale in every State of the 
 L^nion. As the business grew the brothers Ailing 
 perceived the limited advantages offered by a com- 
 paratively small town, such as Orange, to a busi- 
 ness of the character and extent which theirs prom- 
 ised to become. Looking about for a new situa- 
 tion, their attention was attracted to Derby with its 
 magnificent water-power and its exceptionally g^ood 
 transportation facilities. There they established 
 themselves in 1858, and the value of the mills in 
 the development of the city belongs to the domain 
 O'f history, not to the realm of conjecture. The 
 original plant was destroyed by fire in 1864, but the 
 firm promptly rebuilt, on a larger scale, locating 
 their new works in the immediate vicinity, and pur- 
 chasing the site once occupied by the copper works 
 of the late Anson G. Phelps. For thirty-five years 
 the Ailing woolen mills have stood there, gradual 
 enlargements being made as the exigencies of the 
 constantly growing business demand. 
 
 As their trade expanded the brothers bought real 
 estate in the city of their adoption, having faith that 
 the future Oif Derby would abundantly justify the 
 wisdom of the investment, and not unnaturalh^ be- 
 ing anxious to aid in the town's development. Their 
 business instinct and keen foresight induced them 
 to buy chiefly near the city's center, and here Mr. 
 C. B. Alling's interest and influence is shown on 
 nearly every street along which the weary stranger 
 may turn his feet. Many of the business blocks 
 and office structures of Derby owe their erection 
 to the sound judgment and public spirit of A. H. 
 and C. B. Ailing. Among the best known of 
 these is a handsome brick structure at the corner 
 of Main and Elizabeth streets ; and in this connec- 
 tion it is worthy of mention that the erection of this 
 structure virtually marked a new epoch in the build- 
 ing history of Derby. 
 
 Apart from interests which may be character- 
 ized as more or less self-engrossed, Mr. Ailing has 
 always shown himself one of Derby's most public 
 spirited citizens. \"arious public improvements may 
 be traced, more or less directh-, to his personal ef- 
 forts, notably the dam across the Housatonic river. 
 
7iS 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Since the death of his brother, Amos H., Mr. 
 C. B. Ailing has conducted the business alone. De- 
 spite his seventy-eight years, his physical powers 
 are unimpaired and his mind as active and keen as 
 when in early manhood he laid — broad, deep and 
 sound — the foundations of the great business which 
 has grown up under his careful scrutiny and watch- 
 ful care. His muscular frame, undimmed eye, and 
 active step, one and all, give convincing evidence 
 of a life of well-directed energy and temperate self- 
 restraint. It is men such as he that shed lustre on 
 their native State, and bring honor upon the name 
 of New England. His nature is kindly, his dis- 
 position genial and his impulses generous. Phil- 
 anthropic in the best and truest sense of that much 
 abused term, his charity is unostentatious ; his life 
 simple and sincere. His religious faith is that of 
 the ]M. E. Church, of which body he is a devout 
 and consistent member. He is an esteemed mem- 
 ber of the local Board of Trade, to whose delibera- 
 tions he brings a keen intellect and a ripe experience. 
 
 His home is one of the most beautiful in Derby. 
 Situated near the heart of the city, it stands upon a 
 high elevation, overlooking the streets which he has 
 built up and beautified. Two thoroughfares abut 
 against its spacious grounds. Here he passes those 
 hours which he can redeem from business cares to 
 devote to leisure and recreation. Here, too, he may 
 review his past ^^•ith that pardonable pride which is 
 the legitimate oii'spring of self-conquered success, 
 and here he can look forward to life's sunset with- 
 out dread. 
 
 LEE JOSEPH AUBR^' Amono- the pn;mi- 
 nent citizens of New Haven who have done much to 
 contribute to the industrial prosperity of that city 
 is Lee Joseph Aubry, proprietor of the L. J. Aubry 
 Carriage Co., located at Xo. 139 Park street. 
 
 The industry which has brought wealth and 
 prominence to ]\Ir. Aubry and which has reflected 
 credit upon this city for a long period is the manu- 
 facture of carriage bodies ironed up and ready to 
 paint and trim, this business being one of the most 
 prosperous concerns in New Heaven. Carriage mak- 
 ing in all its branches has been the occupation of 
 the Aubry family for several generations. 
 
 Grandfather Francis Aubry was born in F"rance, 
 but later became a citizen of Canada, taking part 
 in the Revolution of 1837. In St. Scholastique, 
 Canada, he established himself in the carriage build- 
 ing trade and was one of the capable, persistent and 
 trust-worthv men who live successful lives on ac- 
 count of their close and constant attention to busi- 
 ness. Francis Aubry established a reputation for 
 excellent work in his line, which has been supported 
 by both his son and grandson. His death occurred 
 in his seventy-fourth year, after a life of industry. 
 Possessing the strong, wiry frame of his country- 
 men he also inherited the energy and ability of his 
 race. His family consisted of four sons and one 
 dausrhter. 
 
 Gregory Aubry, son O'f Francis, and father of 
 Lee Joseph Aubry, was born in Canada in 1819 
 and died in Troy, N. Y., in the autumn of 1887. 
 In his youth he became an expert worker in wood 
 and learned the carriage making trade under his 
 father and when the latter removed to Montebella 
 he engaged in the business for himself in St. Schol- 
 astique, where he prospered exceedingly until 1857, 
 at which time by a disastrous fire he suffered the 
 loss of all he possessed. Unfortunately he had no 
 insurance and thus was left to 'begin the world 
 over again, meeting this misfortune with a courage 
 and patient perseverance which commanded the re- 
 spect of all who knew him. For three years he 
 worked at his trade in New Haven, Conn., going- 
 from there to Troy, N. Y., where be died of pneu- 
 monia one year later. 
 
 In 1842 Gregory Aubry was married to Edmire 
 Chaurette, also a native of Canada, a daughter of 
 Joseph Chaurette. Her death took place in Hart- 
 ford, Hartford Co., Conn., in 1900. The chil- 
 dren of this marriage were : Alice, who was born 
 in 1844, niarried Paul Dupuis, who died some 
 twenty years ago, but she still lives in Hartford, 
 Conn., and has a family of three sons; Lee Joseph, 
 of the L. J. Aubrjr Carriage Co. ; Alfred, who was 
 born in 1852, married Lotiise Gandron, and is in the 
 employ of the aforesaid company ; and \'alarie, who 
 was born in 1854, married Edmund Jacques and 
 died in New Haven in 1880, leaving no children. 
 Gregory Aubry was a good and law-abiding citizen 
 and after locating in the United States became a 
 member of the Republican party, although never a 
 politician. In religion he belonged to the Catholic 
 Church, of which he was always a consistent and 
 most worthy member. 
 
 Lee Joseph Aubry was born in St. Scholastique, 
 Province of Quebec, on May i, 1848, the second 
 child of his parents, and was very liljerally educated, 
 attending an English school until he was nine years 
 of age, then receiving- instruction in a French 
 school, in Lower Canada, and later entering an Eng- 
 lish school in Upper Canada. Mr. Aubry was four- 
 teen years old when the family located in Troy, N. 
 Y. This was after his father's misfortunes, and 
 young Aubrv began to learn his trade, in preparation 
 for a future career under Edward Chamberlain^ 
 working hard all day and stud)'ing in the night 
 schools after his work was done. The perseverance 
 thus manifested in the lad has been a foundation 
 stone in his business success. For three years his 
 life continued thus in Troy under Mr. Chamberlain 
 and was followed by one year of journeyman work 
 in the same city and then he went to Pownal, Vt., 
 where he found work for three months, but then 
 drifted to New York City. 
 
 The ability and energv he displayed in connection 
 with the excellence of his work soon secured for 
 Mr. Aubry a very lucrative position with the R. M. 
 Stiver Co., resulting in a residence there for two 
 years, enabling him to feel justified in marrying. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 719 
 
 Hlis honeymoon was spent in Peekskill, N. Y., 
 where he easily found employment which he kept 
 for four months, accepting then a position with the 
 Beers & Hanover Carriage Manufacturing Co. in 
 New Haven, Conn., coming to that city in October, 
 1869. For two years he continued with this com- 
 pany, doing some of the most satisfactory work that 
 had ever been turned out from this large establish- 
 ment, although he was still young in years. His 
 next business connection was with Durham & Woos- 
 ter in the manufacture of sidebar buggies; these 
 vehicles being new at that time, his work, on account 
 of his thorough knowledge, was confined to the 
 finest product of the firm. For seven years he re- 
 mained with this firm, going then into the employ of 
 Osborne & Adriance, for two years doing their 
 most particular work. For a short time he gave his 
 services to the firm of Brockett & Dorman, returning 
 then to his former employers, Durham & Wooster, 
 ^Yhere he continued until the financial panic which 
 was so seriously felt in industrial circles, resulting 
 in the severing of his business relations with this 
 firm. 
 
 Mr. Aubry then went to Quincy, 111., andl en- 
 gaged in work for the firm of E. N. Miller & Co., 
 serving as foreman, but three months later returned, 
 at their urgent request, to Durham & Wooster, in 
 New Haven. This last association with this firm 
 continued for one and one-half years, and then for a 
 few months his talents were g'iven to the firm of 
 Brockett & Tuttle, and immediately after he became 
 foreman in the responsible firm of Henry Hale & 
 Co., remaining here for the space of seven years. 
 
 This long business association with reputable 
 and well-established' firms thoroughly prepared Mr. 
 Aubry to embark in business for himself, and he 
 made his start in March, 1888, with a capital of 
 $19, hiring a fire in the works of Beers & Hanover. 
 His success was such that in January, 1899, he was 
 able to hire the building of his former employers, 
 Osborne & Adriance, and three years later his orders 
 had increased to such a degree that larger quarters 
 were required, and he then leased his present build- 
 ing at No. 139 Park street. From this small be- 
 ginning and- insignificant cash capital Mr. Aubry 
 by strictly attending to his business and by pro- 
 ducing work superior to that of competitors, has 
 won a place in the front rank of carriage manufac- 
 ■ turers, no other firm successfully competing in the 
 line of his specialty, that of the manufacture of 
 fashionable carriag'es. His business has extended 
 in every direction and has been a source of prosper- 
 ■ity in many homes, Mr. Aubry employing a very 
 large force in his factory. 
 
 Mr. Aubry is gifted in many ways, being not 
 only a skilled mechanic, but also so accurate a 
 ^draughtsman that his sketches are in the greatest 
 demand for the trade magazines, although he never 
 took a lesson in mechanical drawing in his life. 
 Added to this technical knowledge Mr. Aubry is a 
 keen man of business, quite able to handle large en- 
 
 terprises and manage vast interests. At the time he 
 located) in New Haven there were thirty-five manu- 
 facturing plants in his line, his successful competi- 
 tion crowding out in this short time all but ten of 
 these. The business of the L. J. Aubry Carriage 
 Manufacturing Co. includes the construction of all 
 kinds of carriages, wagons, automobiles and similar 
 vehicles, these being made ready for trimmings 
 and painting, and his product is shipped all over the 
 country. The correctness and excellence of his 
 carriage drawings have not only given him an en- 
 viable prominence in the trade, but have been of 
 substantial value, bringing him many prizes. 
 
 On June 22, 1871, Lee Joseph Aubry was mar- 
 ried to Miss Alzina Castell, of Troy, N. Y., a 
 daughter of Benjamin and Margaret Castell, and 
 the children born to this union were : Charles G., 
 born May 30, 1872, is a carriage painter, located in 
 Erie, Pa.; on Dec. 25, 1900, he was married to 
 Miss Josephine Hunt. Arthur L., born in New Ha- 
 ven, died there Dec. 16, 1892. Alice was married in 
 September, 1897, to Frank Cargill, bookkeeper for 
 the New Haven Baking Co., and they have two 
 children. Dexter and Valorie. Benjamin, a travel- 
 ing salesman, was married to Miss Ruby Bean, and 
 their one child died in infancy. Estelle, Lilian, 
 Mable and Wilfred are all at home. 
 
 While Mr. Aubry is a successful manufacturer 
 he is also much more. For many years he has been 
 a leading member of the Methodist Church, liber- 
 ally contributing to its charities, and although not 
 an active politician he ardently supports the Repub- 
 lican party and lives up to the highest ideals of cit- 
 izenship. Fraternally he has long been an active 
 member of Davenport Council, No. 700, Royal Ar- 
 canum, of New Haven, and is past chancellor of 
 Ezel Lodge, No. 2, Knights of Pythias. Few men 
 can point to more substantial returns or wider use- 
 fulness in so short a time as can Mr. Aubry, and 
 the city of New Haven cherishes a feeling of pride 
 in his success and prominence. 
 
 JOHN EDWARD ROGERS, a successful agri- 
 culturist of the town of Milford, was born in that 
 town May 6, 1834, and is a member of a well-known 
 family of the locality. 
 
 Joseph Rogers, our subject's grandfather, was 
 a native of Milford, and made his permanent home 
 on a farm in that town. He married Jane Smith, and 
 had three children : Mary, deceased, who never 
 married; Joseph, our subject's father; and Nancy, 
 who married William Nettleton, of Milford, and 
 had a son, Joseph W., now a prominent resident of 
 the town. 
 
 Joseph Rogers (2), our subject's father, was 
 born in Milford in February, 1792, and was always 
 engaged in farming at the homestead. Politically 
 he was a Whig, and in religious faith he and his 
 estimable wife were Congregationalists. He died 
 in 1853. His wife, Anna Nettleton, daughter of 
 Benajah Nettleton, of Milford, was born in the 
 
720 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 town of ]\Iilford, in September, 1801, and died Jan. 
 31, 1892. They had the following children: Eliza- 
 beth A., deceased, who never married; Charles J., 
 who died at the age of forty-two, unmarried ; John 
 Edward, our subject; George E., deceased, a farmer 
 at the homestead; Mary A., a resident of Milford; 
 and Theodore H., deceased, who never married. 
 
 John E. Rogers began his education in the dis- 
 trict schools of Milford and at sixteen years of age 
 entered the Milford high school. He has been en- 
 gaged in farming all his life, and his farm of eighty 
 acres is a part of the old homestead, which con- 
 tained 300 acres. On Oct. 2, 1861, he married Miss 
 Charlotte L. Plumb, of Milford, daughter of Ly- 
 man Plumb, a joiner of that town. She died Jan. 
 28, 1886, leaving no children, and on June 6, 1888, 
 Mr. Rogers married Miss Ella Wilcox, daughter of 
 Russell Wilcox, a native of Cromwell, Conn. Mr. 
 Rogers is influential in a quiet way in local affairs, 
 and is a member of the Grange and of the Congre- 
 gational Church of Milford. In politics he is a 
 stanch Republican. 
 
 WALTER HENRY TWITCHELL is one of 
 the representative public-spirited and progressive 
 citizens and business men of Naugatuck, who has 
 won success through his own assiduity, intellect 
 and industry, to which has been joined a sturdy 
 and unquestioned integrity. 
 
 Robert Twitchell, his father, was born in Ox- 
 ford, and passed the greater part of his life in 
 Naugatuck, where he died when his son Walter 
 was a lad of ten years. Hie married Jennette 
 Clark, who was born in Prospect, New Haven 
 county, in which town her father, Amos Clark, was 
 a well-to-do farmer. Three sons were born to 
 them, Edward C, Walter H. and Robert C. Ed- 
 ward C. conducts a meat market in Union City, 
 town of Naugatuck, and Robert C. is a farmer in 
 Prospect, living in the old Clark homestead, where 
 his mother was born and where she passed the days 
 of her girlhood. Robert Twitchell was a Demo- 
 crat in politics. Both he and his wife were mem- 
 bers of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Walter Henry Twitchell was born in Nauga- 
 tuck Oct. 17, 1858. He attended the local schools 
 until he reached the age of fifteen years, w'hen he 
 went to reside with an uncle on a farm near Syra- 
 cuse, N. Y., going to school during the winter 
 months. After four 3'ears spent thus he returned 
 to Naugatuck, and for a time worked as a farm 
 hand there, finally entering the employ of Fremont 
 W. Tolles, an undertaker and furniture dealer, who 
 also carried a general hue of carpets and house 
 furnishing goods of every description. In Jan- 
 uary, 1897, Mr. Twitchell bought the business from 
 Mr. Tolles, and has since conducted it alone. To its 
 management he broug'ht a thorough familiarity of 
 every detail, a power of mental concentration and 
 sound business sense. It is not surprising, there- 
 fore, that he has succeeded. To enterprise he has 
 
 joined conservatism, and to sagacity unfailing 
 courtesy. His establishment occupies the fine brick 
 building at Nos. 132-134-136 Church street, is well 
 stocked, and his goods are tastefully arranged. 
 
 On June 15, 1882, Mr. Twitchell married Miss. 
 Addie Richard's, of Wethe-rsfield. No children 
 have been born to them. Mr. and Mrs. Twitchell 
 attend the Congregational Church. His political 
 affiliations are with the Republican party. In 
 private life he is social, and readily makes and 
 keeps friends. He is a member of the I. O. R. M. ; 
 and is a Mason of high degree, belonging to Shep- 
 herd's Lodge, No. 78, A. F. & A. M. ; Allerton 
 Chapter, No. 39, R. A. M. ; Clark Commandery, 
 No. 7, K. T., of Waterbury; and Pyramid Temple, 
 of Bridgeport. 
 
 JOHN N. LEONARD, contractor and also- 
 mason and builder, well-known and valued in New 
 Haven, was born in that city Jan. 24, 1842, son of 
 Linus H. and Maria (Burwell) Leonard, the for- 
 mer of whom was born in Charlestown, Mass., in 
 1809, and the latter a daughter of Daniel Burwell, 
 who died in Barkhamsted ; both he and his wife 
 lived to be over eighty years of age, and ten of their 
 thirteen children also reached that age. Linus 
 Leonard removed first to Springfield, Mass.. and 
 then to Westville, where he was connected with the 
 hardware firm of Blake Brothers, and in that place 
 he died at the age of sixty-three. His widow sur- 
 vived until Feb. 3, 1890. Both had been active and 
 earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, in which Mr. Leonard was a steward and 
 class-leader. 
 
 John N. Leonard was the only survivor of a 
 family of three children. His education was ob- 
 tained in the schools of Westville and at West 
 Rock Seminary, and after finishing his course he 
 learned the trade of mason with N. D. Sperry. This 
 was interrupted! by his enlistment for service in the 
 Civil war in Company E, 15th Conn. V. I., in 1862. 
 His devotion to his country cost him three years, 
 of his life, during which he saw some hard service. 
 At Kinston, N. C, he was captured and incarcerated 
 in Libby .Prison for a short time. When discharged 
 he held the rank of sergeant. 
 
 Upon his return to New Haven Mr. Leonard 
 worked as a journeyman for a season, and then went 
 to Rockville, where he spent three years, going ■ 
 back to New Haven and again taking up his trade 
 as a journeyman. In 1885 he began contracting and 
 building and has continued in active work ever 
 since, his business being continually on the increase. 
 In one year he built and sold twenty houses and also 
 did much other building and improving. So thor- 
 oughly does Mr. Leonard understand his business, 
 and so faithfully does he carry out his contracts, that 
 he has gained much of the best custom in the city, 
 his patrons numbering among the wealthiest and 
 most exacting of the citizens. 
 
 On Aug. 4, 1869, Mr. Leonard was married to. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 r2r 
 
 Miss Martha F. Pardee, a daughter of William L. 
 I'ardee, a farmer and mechanic, who was born in 
 Madison, Conn., and grew up in Oxford, and to this 
 union has been born: Harr)? A., in business with 
 his father, married Bertha E. Gorham, and has one 
 child, Janice; Susie May and' Grace Abigail are 
 graduates of both high and private schools ; and 
 Jennie E., who died in childhood. 
 
 Fraternally j\Ir. Leonard is connected with E. 
 & A. M., Olive Branch Lodge, No. 84, Chapter and 
 Council, of New Haven, and Commandery, up to 
 the 32d degree, having been connected with the ^la- 
 sonic order for twenty-five years. j\Ir. Leonard also 
 has membership with the O. U. A. ]\L, the Red 
 Men, the Royal Arcanum., the Heptasophs and the 
 A. O. U. W. The family attends the Methodist 
 Church, to which ^Mr. Leonard is a generous con- 
 tributor. For a number of years he was a member 
 of the Governors Foot Guards. ^Ir. Leonard built 
 the Westville Methodist Church and donated a me- 
 morial window in memory of his parents. 
 
 SAMUEL B. BRONSON, for many years a 
 capable and trustworthy carpenter and builder in 
 Ansonia, where he has a cozy and attractive home 
 at No. 56 Franklin street, was born in Middlebury 
 Jan. 24, 1828. 
 
 Jared Bronson, his father, was also a native of 
 Middlebury, where his grandfather, Thaddeus Bron- 
 son, was also born. Both father and grandfather 
 were engaged in the tanning business. Jared Bron- 
 son lived to be eighty-four years old. He was mar- 
 ried to Lydia Mallory, a daughter of Thomas Mal- 
 lory, and both father and daughter were natives of 
 Middlebury, where he was engaged in farming. Es- 
 ther (Benham) Mallory, her mother, had eight chil- 
 dren. Jared and Lydia Bronson were the parents 
 of four children, of whom two are living: Lewis, 
 who is living in Middlebury, and Samuel 1\. Both 
 Mr. and Mrs. Bronson attended the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 Samuel B. Bronson spent the first twenty years of 
 his life in Middlebury where he attended the local 
 schools and secured a very good education, which 
 was supplemented by a course at AA'oodbury Acad- 
 erajy. When he came to a suitable age he was ap- 
 prenticed to the carpenter's trade and served three 
 years under instruction, becoming quite proficient, 
 and when his term of apprenticeship was up he be- 
 gan contracting and building on his own account, 
 and for some years was a resident of ^Middlebury. 
 Then he removed to Waterbury where he spent three 
 years at his work. After some time in Plymouth, he 
 in 1865 came to Ansonia and the next year opened a 
 contracting and building business, in which he was 
 actively engaged until 1896. In 1869 he formed a 
 partnership with Mr. Barnes and the two continued 
 together for a number of years. Mr. Bronson is the 
 oldest builder in this section, having been in the 
 business forty-five years. In his career he has had 
 to do with the building of many of the finest homes 
 
 46 
 
 m this part of the State, and in Ansonia alone he 
 has built nearly two hundred houses. His advice 
 and instruction as an expert in his business are still 
 freely sought and heeded. 
 
 Mr. Bronson was married to Aliss ]\Iary ]. Cas- 
 tle, of Woodbury, a daughter of Seeley Castle. Mrs. 
 Bronson is the only child of her parents now living 
 and is herself the mother of a family of two chil- 
 dren : Walter and Frederick. :\Ir.' Bronson is a 
 Republican in his political associations, but a strong 
 believer in prohibition. He has served on the board 
 of burgesses and is a public-spirited citizen. He 
 belongs to Naugatuck Lodge, I. O. O. F., and is a 
 member of the Congregational Church, where he 
 has been a deacon for some years and also superin- 
 tendent of the Sunday-school. A very active part 
 is taken by him in church and Sunday-school work. 
 • W.\LTER Bronson, noted above, was born in 
 \\'oodbury Feb. 27, 1859, ^"d was brought to An- 
 sonia when he was five years old. He had his edu- 
 cation in the high school and when fifteen years of 
 age began life for himself as a clerk in a store in 
 iliddlebury. He was engaged in this fashion about 
 nine months and then returned to Ansonia where he 
 attended school a few months more and then began 
 in the store where he is now found, clerking for H. 
 C. Miles, with whom he remained eighteen years. 
 At the end of this time he bought him out and' 
 since that transaction he has been in business for 
 hmiself. Mr. Bronson is with one exception the 
 longest in business of any^ man on the street. He 
 carries a large stock of foreign and domestic goods 
 and employs three clerks to meet the demands of a 
 very large and profitable trade. The store which he 
 occupies has been entirely remodeled and it is to- 
 day one of the most attractive on Main street. 
 
 AA'alter Bronson was married in 1883 to ^Miss 
 Anna French, born in Ansonia. Her mother was 
 Harriet Johnson before her marriage and is stil! 
 living. Mr. Bronson is a stanch Republican and in 
 local affairs votes for the best man. He is a mem- 
 ber of the Masonic fraternity and is affiliated with 
 Washington Lodge, F. & A. M., and Mt. Vernort 
 Chapter. He also belongs to the Naugatuck Lodge, 
 I. O. O. F., the Ancient Order of Heptasophs, the 
 New England Order of Protection, and is also a 
 member of the Board of Trade. He is an attendant 
 at the Congregational Church and belongs to the 
 Ansonia Club. 
 
 BENJAMIN HUBBELL is a wide-awake and 
 energetic business man of Derby, New ■ Haven 
 county, where for a quarter of a century he has suc- 
 cessfully conducted a livery stable. He was born in 
 the town of Wilton, Fairfield Co., Conn., Nov. 20, 
 1841, and is a representative of an old and highly re- 
 spected family of that county. His grandfather, 
 Nathan Flubbell, spent his entire life in Wilton, his 
 time and attention being devoted to agricultural pur- 
 suits. 
 
 V/akeman Hubbell,, father of Benjamin, wa.~ 
 
72 2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born in the same house where our subject's birth 
 occurred and remained on the old homestead en- 
 gaged in farmling throughout life. He was quite a 
 prominent man of his town and was known as 
 Deacon 'Hubbell. He married Miss Julia Ann 
 Lynes, a native of Ridgebury, town of Danbury, 
 I'airfield county, and a daughter of Benjamin Lynes, 
 of thattown. Four children were bom of this union, 
 namely: Henry L., who is a Doctor of Divinit}' 
 and followed the ministry at one time, is now presi- 
 dent of Lake Charles College, Louisiana ; James 
 AA'., who was also a Doctor of Divinity, died in 
 Alansfield, Ohio ; Stephen is engaged in the insur- 
 ance business in Des Aloines, Iowa; and Benjamin 
 is our subject. 
 
 Benjamin Hubbell spent his boyhood on the 
 home farm in Wilton anidi was fitted for college un- 
 der Prof. Edward Olmstead. He began his busi- 
 ness career as a drug clerk in Hartford, Conn., 
 which position he filled for some time and later stud- 
 ied medicine with Dr. Samuel Lynes, of Norwalk, 
 for about three years, after which he took a course 
 of lectures at the College of Physicians and Sur- 
 geons, of New York City, and was graduated at the 
 institution in 1862. ]Mr. Hubbell then operated the 
 liome farm until coming to Derby, in 1871. He en- 
 gaged in the grocery business in East Derby for 
 about four vears, and has since devoted his time and 
 attention to the liver)- business. 
 
 In 1864 l\Ir. Hubbell was united in marriage 
 with ]\Iiss Alice jMarvin, of Wilton, a daughter of 
 Charles Marvin, a prominent man of that place, who 
 was a member of the State Legislature several 
 terms and also served as bank commissioner. Our 
 subject and his wife have two sons: Henry M., 
 who is engaged in the lumber business in Derby ; 
 and Benjamin, who- was graduated from Yale in 
 i8j7, and is now a teacher of languages in the 
 Derby high school. Mr. Hubbell and his family are 
 niiembers of the Congregational Church and are 
 quite prominent in the community where they re- 
 side. Politically he is a stanch supporter of the Re- 
 publican partv ; has served as alderman from the 
 Third A\'ard of Derby for two years ; was select- 
 man one vear, in 1898; is at present one of the as- 
 sessors and is also a representative to the Legisla- 
 ture. He is a man of recognized ability, is genial 
 and pleasant in manner and is C[uite popular both 
 in business and political circles. 
 
 FRANK R. STILLMAN, the well-known far- 
 iiitr and dairyman of Meriden, was born June 9, 
 1847, on the Stillman homestead at Beach Hill, in 
 Colebrook, and is a descendant of one of the old and 
 honorable families of Connecticut. 
 
 There was a coat of arms issued to Stillman, 
 of Steeple Ashton, Wiltsliire, England, on May 6, 
 1552, having a camel's head and a crest. Rev. John 
 Stillman was a chaplain in Cromwell's arm}-. He 
 was opposefl to beheading Charles I, but was in 
 favor of dethroning him. (leorgc Stillman, the 
 
 founder of the family in America, was a native of 
 London, England, where he was born in 1654, a son 
 of a London merchant. George also became a mer- 
 chant. The Stillmans were supporters of Oliver 
 Cromweil during the da}-s of the Commonwealth. 
 L'pon the restoration of Charles II George was 
 forced, for safety, to assume another name, selecting 
 that of Pritchard or Piccering. His marriage to 
 Lady Jane Piccering occurred in London, where his 
 son, George, was born. Those were times of storm 
 and stress and many of the Cromwell supporters 
 found it necessary to emigrate secretly to America. 
 This was the case with Mr. Stillman, and in 1680, 
 leaving little George with friends in London be, with 
 his wife, set out on the voyage to the free land 
 across the ocean, but this Mrs. Stillman never 
 reached, her death occurring before land was 
 sighted. Mr. Stillman located at Hadlev, Mass., 
 and in 1685 he there married Rebecca Smith. Later 
 he removed to Wethersfield, Conn., and there spent 
 the remainder of his days, dying in 1728, and his 
 remains lie in the old cemetery there with the dust 
 of so many other early settlers. George Stillman 
 and bis second wife were the parents of ten chil- 
 dren : Nathaniel; Benjamin; John; Henrv ; Mar- 
 tha ; Rdbecca ; and others whose names are un- 
 known. George, the son of the first marriage, whom 
 Mr. Stillman left in England, came later to America 
 with a party of Seven Day Baptists and settled in 
 Rhode Island. 
 
 John Stillman, son of George, was born in 
 Hadley; Mass., Feb. 19, 1693, and removed to 
 W'ethersfield, Conn., with his parents, where he 
 spent the remainder of his days engaged in farming. 
 A prominent citizen and a deacon in the church he 
 died full of years in 1775 and was buried in Weth- 
 ersfield. On May 26, 171 5, he married Mary Wol- 
 cott, who was born IMay 14, 1694, and died in 
 1777, a daug'hter of Mrs. Judith Wolcott and a 
 granddaughter of Samuel Appleton, of Wethers- 
 field. Their union was blessed with eleven children : 
 John, Rebecca, May, Abigail, Martha, Sarah, Elisha, 
 Abigail (2), Appleton, Huldah and Benjamin. 
 
 John Stillman, son of Deacon John, was born 
 Aug. 19, 1717, in Wethersfield, where he grew to 
 manhood and where he married Oct. 26, 1738, Ra- 
 chel Robbins, a daughter of Richard and Martha 
 (Curtis) Robbins, of Wethersfield. In 1757 he re- 
 moved with his wife and family to Sandisfield. 
 Berkshire Co., Mass., where he spent the remainder 
 of his days and died July 15, 1782. His widow re- 
 moved to Colebrook, Litchfield Co., Conn., where 
 she died Tuly 12, 1807, at the age of eighty-nine 
 years and was buried in the old cemetery there. 
 John Stillman was one of the founders of the church 
 ir, Sandisfield. The children born to John and 
 Rachel Stillman were: Josiah, Sept. 16, 1739; 
 Hannah, Feb. 13, 1741 ; John, Jan. 16, 1743 ; Joshua; 
 Roger ; Appleton ; and Robert. 
 
 Roger Stillman, son of John, was born July 4, 
 1754, in Wethersfield, where he grew to manhood. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 723 
 
 He then removed to Sandisfield, Mass., where he 
 enhsted. Roger Stilhriian was one of the first to 
 enlist in the Continental army for service in the 
 Revolutionary war, and he participated in the battle 
 of Bunker Hill and many other engagements, fin- 
 ally being honorably discharged at Lake Champlain. 
 In 1780 he located at Colebrook where he spent the 
 remainder of his days, dying Dec. 8, 1832, and on 
 the morning of the dark day he was engaged in 
 building his house. Both his name and that of his 
 wife occur among the founders of the Congrega- 
 tional Church in Colebrook, in 1705. He married 
 Mehitable Hurd, who was born March 4, 1757, in 
 Killingworth, now Clinton, Conn., and died in 
 Colebrook Aug. 24, 1828, and there her remains are 
 laid to rest. She was the mother of ten children, 
 five of whom were sons: William, Deacon Daniel, 
 Osburn, Edmund and Chester. 
 
 Chester Stillman, son of Ro'ger, was born in 
 Colebrook, Conn., April 9, 1797, on a farm, one- 
 half mile south of the main road. Mr. Stillman be- 
 came a land owner and farmer in Colebrook and 
 built a house there in 1825 and he was buried in 
 Stillman's cemetery in Colebrook. On Dec. 10, 1815, 
 he united with the church and was appointed deacon 
 in 1838. On March 2, 1820, he was married to 
 Clarissa Esther De Wolf, of French ancestry, who 
 was born Aug. i, 1797, at Otis, ]\Iass., and died 
 ^lay 14, 1864, and was laid to rest in Stillman's 
 cemetery. Eight children were born to this union, 
 four of whom were sons: Edwin C, Dorwin E., 
 Lester R. and Collins L. 
 
 Edwin C. Stillmaft, the father of Frank R. Still- 
 man, was born in Colebrook, in the Beach Hill dis- 
 trict, Sept. 14, 1821, and grew to manhood in his 
 native home, following the life of an agriculturist. 
 Later, with his family, he moved to Southington, 
 Conn., where he settled down to farming and dairy- 
 ing and spent the balance of his life, dying June 6, 
 1895, and was buried in Southington. Mr. Stillman 
 was a consistent member of the Congregational 
 Church, liberal-minded and progressive, a most 
 worthy citizen and an exemplary father and hus- 
 band. In politics he was a Republican but was 
 never an office seeker. ■ 
 
 On June 28, 1846, Mr. Stillman was married to 
 Sarah M. Doolittle, who was born April 18, 1828, 
 in Westfield, Middlesex Co., Conn., a daughter of 
 Seth Doolittle, who removed from Westfield to 
 Barkhamsted, then to Pleasant Valley, where he 
 died. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Stillman 
 were : Frank R. ; William C, a dealer in butter and 
 eggs, in Meriden; Jesse E., mentioned elsewhere in 
 this work ; Waldo, of Meriden. 
 
 The Doolittle Family, on the maternal side, 
 is one of the oldest in Wallingford. Abraham Doo- 
 little^ the first of that name in Wallingford, was a 
 native of England who came to America and lo- 
 cated in New Haven before 1642, later removed to 
 Wallingford as one of the earliest settlers and there 
 died Aug. 11, 1690. He was twice married, the 
 
 second wife being Abigail Moss, who died Nov S 
 1710. 
 
 Daniel Doolittle was the tenth child of Abra- 
 ham Doolittle and was born Dec. 9, 1675. He mar- 
 ried Hannah Cornwall, of Middletown, Conn., and 
 later removed to 'Middiletown, where he spent several 
 years, returning again to Wallingford, where he 
 died in 1755 at the ripe age of eighty years, his wife 
 having diecl Jan. 16, 1736. 
 
 Daniel Doolittle (2), son of Daniel Doolittle, 
 was bom Feb. 3, 1707, and engaged in farming near 
 the North Haven line, living there through life, and 
 dying in September, 1791, at the age of eighty- 
 four years. ' He married Elizabeth Dayton, and to 
 them seven children were born. 
 
 Michael Doolittle, son of Daniel (2), was a far- 
 mer by occupation and became a deacon in the Bap- 
 tist Church in Wallingford, where he lived to a 
 ripe old age. He married Millicent Hough, of Wall- 
 ingford. 
 
 Seth Doolittle, son of Michael and ]\Iillicent Doo- 
 little, was born in Wallingford, but later removed 
 to Westfield parish, Middletown, where he followed 
 the trade of wagon maker, but still later removed 
 his family to Barkhamsted, where he pursued his 
 trade and died there. He married Betsev Healey 
 and their daughter, Sarah M. Doolittle, married Ed- 
 win C. Stillman, as before related. 
 
 Frank R. Stillman attended the Beach Hill dis- 
 trict school in Colebrook and remained at home until 
 he was twenty-one years old, removing with his 
 family to Southington, where he assisted his father 
 in his farming operations. On attaining his major- 
 ity he came to Meriden and for one year was em- 
 ployed by Deacon Samuel Paddock in the butcher 
 business. Returning to Southington he worked for 
 his uncle, Richard Williams, during the following 
 two years in the express business but his services 
 were needed on the farm of his father and he re- 
 turned home, there to engage in farming, dairying 
 and the raising of tobacco until 1874, when he came 
 to Meriden and bought his present farm on South 
 Broad street, consisting of fifty acres. Many im- 
 provements were needed here but Mr. Stillman soon 
 had everything in first class condition ; and for many 
 years he has been known as a fine farmer and suc- 
 cessful raiser of the best breeds of cattle. 
 
 On Nov. 28, 1872, Mr. Stillman was united in 
 marriage, in Southington, to Miss Julia L. Hart, 
 of that town, a daughter of Roswell and Permelia 
 (Amsden) Hart, the latter a native of Boston, the 
 former of Southington. To ]Mr. and Mrs. Stillman 
 five children were born : Harry Hart, born Feb. 5, 
 1875, died Aug. 5, the same year; Marion, born 
 Sept. 19, 1879, died Sept. 13, 1881 ; Flora P., born 
 Sept. 25, 1884: Dorwin, born April 11, 1886, died 
 Nov. 2, 1890; and Elsie Julia, born Dec. 21, 1887. 
 Both of the survivors are attending school. In 
 political preference Mr. Stillman is a Republican 
 and both he and his amiable wife are members of 
 the Meriden Grange and have long been valued 
 
724 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 members of the Baptist Church. In the communit}^ 
 Mr. StiUman stands high, and he is justly con- 
 sidered one of the representative men of the town 
 of Meriden. 
 
 CHARLES LEE SCRANTON, retired agri- 
 culturist, and one of the most highly respected citi- 
 zens of the town of ^ladison, is a native of the 
 same, born Feb. 21, 1825, in the Xeck District. 
 He is an honored member of one of the oldest and 
 most highly respected families in Xew Haven 
 county. 
 
 (1) John Scranton, the first of the name in 
 Guilford, had a son (H) John (Capt.); who had a 
 son (HI) Ebenezer, born March 16, 1696, in Guil- 
 ford, whence he in early manhood removed to 
 North Guilford, there passing the rest of his days 
 in farming pursuits, dying Oct. 6, 1774, at the age 
 ■ of seventy-eight years. His wife, Ann, born in 
 1693, died July 2, 1780, aged eighty-seven years. 
 Both were buried in the North Guilford cemetery. 
 Four children constituted their family: (i) John, 
 born Aug. 2y. 1726, died in November, 1736; (2) 
 Ebenezer, born Aug. 17, 1728, settled in the east- 
 ern part of Connecticut or in Rhode Island; (3) 
 Ann, born ^larch 31, 1731, married, in 1751, John 
 Dibble, of Boston; (4) Jared is mentioned below. 
 
 (I\') Jared Scranton, born in North Guilford 
 June 25, 1733, was a lifelong farmer there, 
 died Xov. 12, 1816, and was buried in the North 
 Guilford cemetery. On Jan. i, 1766, he married 
 Lucretia Russell, who died June 14, 1813. Chil- 
 dren: (i) John Russell, born July 14, 1769, who 
 married Zerviah Fowler and died Dec. 21, 1820; 
 (2) Jared, sketch . of whomi follows; and (3) 
 Ebenezer, born Sept. 6, 1773, who was drowned in 
 Quinebaug pond, Guilford, May 21, 1794. 
 
 (Vj Jared Scranton, grandfather of Charles 
 L., was born May 16, 1771, in North Guilford, 
 on the old homestead, and received his earlier edu- 
 cation at the district schools of the neighborhood, 
 after which he attended Yale College, graduating 
 therefrom in 1795, with the degree of A. B. Like 
 his forefathers, he was a tiller of the soil all his 
 days in North Guilford, dying there March 15, 
 185 1. He married Rachel Fowler, born in North 
 Guilford, a daughter of Asher Fowler, and nine 
 children were born to them, as follows : ( i ) 
 Frederick William, sketch of whom follows; (2) 
 Evelyn, born Aug. 9, 1798, who married (first) 
 Susan Newkirk and (second) Eunice Davis; (3) 
 Eliza Ann, born March 2, 1800; (4) Asher Fowler, 
 born Sept. 20, 1801, who when a young man left 
 home for the \\'est; (5) Cvnthia Russell, born 
 Oct. 12, 1803; (6) Juliette, born May 24, 1805: 
 (7) Jared, born April 20, 1807, who married Lucy 
 Edwards and lived in Cromwell, Conn.; (8) 
 Romeo, born Dec. 27, 1809, who died May 14, 
 1827; and (9) Elnathan, born March 27, 1814. 
 
 (\l) Frederick W". Scranton, father of Charles 
 L., was born Aug. 15, 1796, and at the age of 
 
 three years was adopted- by his uncle and aunt, 
 Capt. Frederick and Ann Lee, of Madison, with 
 whom he grew to manhood. For a time, in earh- 
 mianhood, he was a clerk in. the Xew Haven post 
 office, and then returning to the Lee homestead 
 (Capt. Lee appointing him his heir) took charge of 
 the farm, and cared for his foster father in his 
 declining years. He diedi in 1877, a Democrat in 
 politics and a member of the Episcopal Church of 
 Guilford. Air. Scranton married Flannah Barker, 
 a native of Branford, and a daughter of Archillis 
 and Mary Barker, well-known citizens of that lo- 
 cality. She died in Madison, Aug. 9, 1890, and 
 her remains were laid beside those of her husband 
 in the West cemetery, 3iIadison. Their children: 
 (i) Charles Lee, a sketch of whom follows; (2) 
 Harriet, born Feb. 26, 1826, who died Oct. 27, 
 1846; and (3.) Romeo, born May 14, 1829, who 
 died March 4, 1832. 
 
 (VII) Charles Lee Scranton, the subject proper 
 of these lines, received his education in part at the 
 district schools of Madison, in part at Lee's Acad- 
 emy, and remained on the home farm with his par- 
 ents, taking care of them in their old age. For 
 many years he followed agricultural pursuits on 
 his father's farm, known as the Capt. Frederick 
 Lee homestead, but he is now living retired at the 
 advanced age of over seventy-six years, yet hale 
 and active, and well posted on all the leading events 
 of the day. In politics he is a lifelong Democrat,, 
 in religious faith a member of the Episcopal Church 
 of Guilford, and a vestryman in the same. 
 
 On May 17, 1854, at North Lyme, New London 
 Co., Conn., Charles L. Scranton was united in 
 marriage with Louisa Stark, a native of that place 
 and a daughter of Christopher and Phebe (Jewett) 
 Stark, and one child graced their union, Anna 
 Louise, who died in 1880, at the age of twenty-one 
 years, deeply mourned not only by her parents but 
 by a wide circle of friends, by whom she was much 
 admired and beloved. Mr. and ]\Irs. Scranton are 
 a most estimable couple, and deservedly enjoy the 
 friendship and esteem of the best people of the 
 community in which they live. 
 
 WALLACE S. CFIASE, the efficient librarian 
 of the Ta>lor library in Milford, was born Jan. 28, 
 1847, ill Paxton, Worcester Co., Mass., .a son of 
 John and grandson of X'athan Chase. 
 
 The family traces its descent from one of three 
 brothers who came from England at an early period 
 and settled in Rhode Island. 
 
 Nathan Chase, grandfather of our subject, re- 
 sided near Providence, R. I., and his wife, Content 
 Anthony, was a native of that State. They had 
 two sons: Rufus, a shoemaker in Paxton, Mass., 
 who died in 1864, and John S., our stibject's father. 
 Nathan Chase died when the latter was a young 
 man. 
 
 John S. Chase was born J\Iay 18, 1819, at his 
 father's home and died in Paxton, Mass., Nov. 23,. 
 
OAPT. FREDERICK LEE. 
 
 ^ Z^^ ^ 
 
 (^ ci& <vGt(^i/r0f7i:: 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 725 
 
 J 00 1. His boyhood was mainly spent at I'axton, 
 J\[ass., where he learned the shoemaker s trade. 
 lit married Miss Amey E. Warren, a native of 
 Paxton, and they had six children: Wallace S., our 
 subject; Charles E., who died at the age of twenty- 
 one : Carrie E., wife of Almon Pingree, of Denmark, 
 Oxford Co., Me.; Emma G., who died aged eight- 
 .een ; George, who died aged two years ; and Em- 
 mons W., a resident of Milford. 
 
 Amey E. (\\'arren) Chase was born Dec. 12, 
 1828, daughter of John Warren, of Paxton, and a 
 descendant of John Warren, who came from Eng- 
 land in 1783, and located at Marlboro, Mass. Her 
 mother, Lucretia Merrick, traced her descent from 
 John. Merrick, a native of Wales, who came to 
 America in 1614. The line of descent is John Mer- 
 rick, born 1655 ; James, born 1699 ; Elisha, born 
 Sept. 13, 1735 ; Telly, the father of Lucretia. 
 
 Wallace S. Chase was educated in the public 
 schools of Paxton, attending until nearly the age of 
 seventeen. In November, 1863, he enlisted at Pax- 
 ton in Co. L, 2d Mass. Heavy Artillery, with which 
 lie served nearly two years, being mustered out 
 Sept. 3, 1865, at Smithville, N. C. The following 
 vear was spent at Paxton and for two years he 
 worked in a shoe factory at Barre, ]^Iass. He then 
 went to Norwalk, Conn., where he was employed for 
 two years in a hat factory and in 1870 he came to 
 IMilford. After working two years in a hat factory 
 there he entered the Baldwin shoe shop and two 
 years later he went to Albany, N. Y., to take charge 
 of a retail shoe store, remaining about a year. Re- 
 turning to Milford he worked in the shoe shop 
 most of the time until 1894 when he was elected to 
 liis present position as librarian of the Taylor li- 
 brary. 
 
 On Feb. 14, 1868, Mr. Chase married Miss 
 Emma Chickerimg, of Rutland, Mass., daughter of 
 Salmon Chickering, a well-known resident of that 
 town. They have one son, Charles R. Mr. Chase 
 is a Republican in politics and he and his wife are 
 prominent in social life. He belongs to the Masonic 
 fraternity ; the G. A. R. ; the Order of American 
 JMechanics; and is am active worker in the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, being a trustee at the pres- 
 ent time. 
 
 AVILLIAM H. FORSYTH, president and treas- 
 urer of the Pond Lilly Co. For forty years and 
 more the name of Forsyth has been most closely as- 
 sociated with the business interests and growth of 
 New Haven, the late Thomas Forsyth establishing 
 liere ini 1868, the well-known Elm City Dye Works, 
 which he and his sons, following him, have devel- 
 oped into one of the largest and most complete es- 
 tablishments of its kind in the country. No name 
 in New Haven stood higher than that of Thomas 
 Forsyth, carrying with it such suggestions of honor 
 and integrity and all the other qualities that go to_ 
 make up a sound business life. His sons, one of 
 %vhom is still identified with the business, and wliose 
 
 name appears at the opening of this article, were 
 identified with many important business enterprises 
 in the city. 
 
 TIhe late Thomas Forsyth was born in Paisley, 
 Scotland, March 26, 1830, a son of Thomas Gordon 
 and Mary (McCunnel) Forsyth, both highly re- 
 spected citizens of their community. They were 
 in moderate circumstances and Thomas received but 
 a limited schooHng, but being of a bright and studi- 
 ous disposition he read much and became familiar 
 with the best literature of the language. When he 
 was twelve years of age he 'began learning the dye- 
 ing and bleaching trade, but soon turned to weaving 
 at Paisley, where he worked for five years in the 
 factory that produced the celebrated Paisley shawls. 
 Flis extensive reading had stirred within him a spirit 
 of independence and in 1848 he was' involved in the 
 Chartist movement. He was finally moved to seek 
 a fairer field in the United States. Landing in New 
 York in November, 1848, with but a half penny in 
 his pocket, the beginning of his career in this coun- 
 try was attended with every discouragement. 
 Friends in Springfield whom he had expected to 
 find had gone away ; weeks passed without his find- 
 ing employment ; finally he discovered a young coun- 
 tryman at Maiden, Mass., with whom he had worked 
 in a Paisley dyeing shop and who was carrying on 
 a small dye shop at Maiden. He gave young For- 
 syth employment but after two months the enterprise 
 proved a failure and all the wages Mr. Forsyth had 
 earned during the entire period were lost and he 
 was three months indebted to his landlord. Mr. 
 Forsyth secured employment with Barrett Brothers, 
 then the largest dyers and bleachers in Maiden, who 
 later moved to Somerville, and remained with them 
 eighteen years, learning the business from start to 
 finish. 
 
 Thomas Forsyth was energetic, frugal and in- 
 dustrious, and by saving bis money was able to 
 start in 1867 for Saccarappa, Maine, accompanied by 
 Abial Foster, for the purpose of starting in business 
 for himself in the line in which he had been so long 
 engaged. This partnership was of but short duration 
 as Mr. Forsyth, owing to poor health, was obliged 
 to retire from business for a time. In 1868 Mr. 
 Forsyth located in New Haven, where he was as- 
 sociated with Henry Fisher in the establishment of 
 the business with wibich he was so long successfully 
 and prominently associated, under the firm name of 
 Forsyth & Fisher. It was later carried on under 
 the name of the Forsyth D)-eing, Laundering and 
 Bleaching Co. In the beginning the concern was 
 a small afifair and its first location was at the corner 
 of Elm and Orchard streets. After a time the firm 
 erected a building of their own near their present 
 location. In 1870 a steam laundry department was 
 added and they were the first laundry company in 
 the State to do business by machinery. On the death 
 of Mr. Fisher, in 1876, Mr. Forsyth became sole 
 proprietor, his sons gradually coming into the busi- 
 ness and relieving him of the active management and 
 
726 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 responsibilit)-. In 1882 the demand of the business 
 for more commodious quarters was answered by 
 the erection of a commodious bricl-c building on the 
 corner of State and Lawrence streets, the plant cov- 
 ering nearly an acre of ground and answering all de- 
 mands for dyeing and bleaching, principally dye- 
 ing for rubber shoe manufacturers. Their customers 
 in this line at one time included a dozen or more of 
 the largest rubber concerns in that line in the 
 United States, and in the year 1885 there were 
 colored and sent out from this house more than four 
 million yards of cloth fifty-two inches in width. The 
 laundry could handle 500 shirts, 17,000 cuffs and 
 collars a day and 10,000 pieces of unstarched goods 
 at the same time. Carpet cleaning was also an im- 
 portant branch of the business and the house could 
 handle 20,000 yards of carpet a day. In 1887 the 
 firm was incorporated under the name of the For- 
 syth Dyeing, Latmdering & Bleaching Co., with 
 a capital of $25,000. In 1896 J\Ir. W . H. Forsyth 
 withdrew from the management of the Forsyth 
 Dyeing. Laundering & Bleaching Co. and organ- 
 ized the Pond Lilly Co., which in 1899 absorbed 
 the former business, buying out their machinery and 
 real estate. 
 
 Thomas Forsyth was a Republican and took de- 
 light in the thought that he was a Republican be- 
 fore the organization of the party, having been a 
 Whig and an Abolitionist, and at one time an as- 
 sociate with John Brown, in Kansas. In his re- 
 ligion he was a Presbyterian. 
 
 JNIr. Forsyth was married in March, i860, at 
 St. John's, Xew Brunswick, to IMiss Agnes White, 
 who died in 1895 in Paisley, Scotland. To this 
 union were born the following named children : 
 AVilliam H. ; Leslie \\'., who died in 1887; Thomas 
 Gordon, now in Bridgeport ; and Janet, who mar- 
 ried Franklin K. Hickok, of Xew Haven. All the 
 sons grew up in the business and were identified 
 with it at one tim? or another. 
 
 William H. Forsyth, one of the surviving sons, 
 and now the active head of the Forsyth estate, was 
 educated in Xew Haven, where his early life was 
 spent. He was a student in the Dwight school and 
 afterward in the Workley school at Fairhaven. Flis 
 preparations for business were made in a business 
 college. For two years he had private teachers and 
 was liberally educated in the business that he was 
 to follow. In 1896 he formed the Pond Lilly Co. 
 and purchased from his brother the other business 
 in 1899. The Pond Lilly Co. does general cotton 
 dyeing for manufacturers. i\Ir. Forsyth is president 
 of the Pond Lilly Co., of which William C. Har- 
 mon is secretary and treasurer, and president of the 
 Poiid Lilly Laundry Co., which occupies the plant 
 of the old Forsyth Dyeing, Laundering & Bleach- 
 ing Co., corner of Lawrence and Mechanic streets. 
 Ceorge A. Ke^es is secrctar)', and C. R. Whedors, 
 Jr., treasurer of this company. Fraternallv Mr. 
 A\' H. i-"ors\-th is cnnnccted with Olive Branch 
 Li.dge, F. &'A. M.; Pyramid Lodge, A. O. L. W. ; 
 
 the Heptasophs ; and the Woodmen of the World. 
 In 1887 Mr. Forsyth was married in New Haven 
 to Mary L. Easton, a granddaughter of Joseph Fair- 
 child, one of the old and prominent citizens of Xew 
 Haven. To this marriage have been born three 
 children, Lesle}- Easton, Thomas and Donald W. 
 
 CH.VRLES ELKAXAH PADDOCK, one of 
 Aleriden's well-known farmers and dairymen, was 
 born on his father's farm in Meriden Aug. 31, 
 1844, and is a representative of a very honorable 
 family of his locality. 
 
 Throughout the last century the name of Pad- 
 dock has been identified with the history of Meriden, 
 where have dwelt the family of the late Samuel 
 Paddock, the latter for sixt\' and more years one of 
 the active and influential men of the town. He was 
 succeeded by his son, Charles L. Paddock, who 
 passed away full of years and good deeds. 
 
 Zachariah Paddock, from Wales, says tradition, 
 came to Xew England) along in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, landing on the Rhode Island' coast, and thence 
 later came to JNIiddletown, Conn., where he passed 
 the remainder of his life and died May 13, 1800, 
 when in the seventy-third year of his age. His 
 wife, Hannah, survived him until 1819, dying- 
 March 3, of that year, aged eighty-one years. 
 
 Samuel Paddock, son of Zachariah, the emi- 
 grant, born June 18, 1758, resided in Aliddletown. 
 On May 12, 1782, he married Mehitabel Loveland. 
 who was born Jan. 29, 1759. 
 
 Samuel Paddock (2), son of Samuel, born Feb. 
 22, 1784, in Middletown, married (first) Aug. 30, 
 1806, Polly Sears, who was born Dec. 2, 1782. In 
 1806 they removed to Meriden and made that town 
 their home the balance of their lives, saving a few 
 years' residence in Wallingford. There Mrs. Pad- 
 dock died Oct. 26, 1822. On Jan. 22, 1823, Mr. 
 Paddock married Charlotte Yale. As above stated, 
 for more than sixty years J\Ir. Paddock was an in- 
 fluential man of the LOwn, holding a number of 
 offices in the gift of his fellow men and proving- 
 worthy of the civic trusts bestowed upon him. For 
 many years he was extensively engaged in agricul- 
 tural pursuits. 
 
 Charles L. Paddock, son of Samuel (2) and 
 father of the subject of this biography, was born 
 on the old Paddock homestead in the town of Meri- 
 den June 6, 1807, and was engaged in farming all 
 his life. He was a successful agriculturist and 
 well-known citizen and was the owner of one of 
 the largest farms in East Meriden when he died, 
 March 13, 1879. He married Elizabeth Day Hall, 
 a daughter of Elkanah Hall, of Wallingford, and 
 a granddaughter of David Hall, and to this union 
 four sons and three daughters were born : El- 
 bridge G., deceased; Frances E,, v/ho married Jus- 
 tin Bradley, of East Haven, and is now deceased ; 
 Sarah, now deceased, wife of Horace Hemingway, 
 of Fairhaven; Alary A., deceased, was the wife of 
 Seth Hotchkiss, of Georgia; Charles Elkanah; John 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 727 
 
 ]\1., a farmer of East Meridem; and Joel H., a 
 prominent fruit grower of Wallingford. 
 
 Charles Elkanah Paddock was reared upon the 
 old family farm, attended the district schools and 
 also Meriden Academy and has spent almost all of 
 his life on the farm. For several years he worked 
 as a mechanic and then settled down on a part of 
 the old homestead, built a mice residence and has 
 successfully followed general farming, market gar- 
 dening and dairying. 
 
 In July, 1866, Mr. Paddock was married to 
 Miss Ellen Jennette Hubbard, a native of Meriden, 
 daughter of Asaph Hubbard and a member of one 
 of the oldest families in Connecticut. They adopted 
 one daughter, Nellie M., who is a highly educated 
 young lady, and was engaged as a stenographer 
 and typewriter in Hartford for several years, and 
 on Oct. 17, 1 901, she was married to L. Morelle 
 Cooke, of Wallingford, Connecticut. 
 
 Like his father Air. Paddock is in sympathy 
 with the Democratic party but has always declined 
 office at its hands. His religious membership is 
 with the Congreg-ational Church and Mrs. Paddock 
 is a manber of the First Baptist Church, of Meri- 
 den. Both are valued members of the Meriden 
 Grange. Mr. Paddock is a representative citizen, 
 honest and upright in his dealings, of exemplar\- 
 life and enjoys the esteem of the whole community. 
 
 WARD H. SANFORD, M. D. Among the 
 prominent young professional men of the city of 
 New Haven the subject of this brief biography. Dr. 
 Ward H. Sanford, takes an envied position, for in 
 the comparatively short time since his graduation 
 and location in this city he has built up a practice 
 larger and more satisfactory than that of many 
 older practitioners. 
 
 Dr. Sanford was born in Liberty, N. Y., Aug. 
 27, 1859, a son of Elias W. Sanford, who was born 
 in Fulton Setitlemient Jan. 29, 1821, and died in 
 1900, a worthy son of Hiram Sanford who, with 
 his wife, Phoebe Warren, was born in Connecticut. 
 Grandmother Warren was a cousin of the brave 
 Gen. Warren, oi Revolutionary fame. Elias W. 
 Sanford, the father, settled in Liberty, N. Y., and 
 attended the common schools, later going to school 
 in New York City. All his life he was a great stu- 
 dent of history and every moment that he could 
 spare from business was devoted to the enjoyment 
 of this taste. Mr. Sanford learned the trade of tan- 
 ner at Liberty Falls and worked at it at Cochecton, 
 N. Y., later becoming the first postmaster of that 
 village, holding the office many years. He married 
 Mary T., daughter of the late' Capt. H. P. Horton, 
 of Bethel, N. Y. In 1861, with his family, he re- 
 moved to New York and was there appointed 
 weigher and inspector for the government for the 
 New Jersey division and as he was exceedingly well- 
 qualified for such a position he held it for five )cars. 
 In 1877 he removed to White Lake and purchased 
 the old John Linson farm, which is now known as 
 
 Koneonga Place. In 1892 be sold this and returned 
 to Liberty, where his wife died Oct. i, 1895. 
 
 Air. Sanford was a consistent member of the 
 M. E. Church for a period of fifty years. The 
 children who survive their parents are: Ward H., 
 our subject; Bruce E. and Alice M., both of whom 
 reside in Liberty. 
 
 Ward H. Sanford spent his boyhood days at 
 White Lake and attended private schools both 
 there and at W^alton, X. Y., entering the LTniversity 
 of Vermont, although previous to this time he had 
 pursued special studies under private tutors at L'tica, 
 N. Y., for several years. Leaving the University of 
 \'ermon't before graduation he entered the Baltimore 
 Aledical College and graduated in the class of 1895, 
 coming immecliately to New Haven. Ini this city Dr. 
 Sanford soon found there were plenty of patients 
 awaiting his skill and he has built up a still grow- 
 ing practice. 
 
 On May 24, 1889, Dr. Sanford was married to 
 Aliss Rosa Rhine, a native of Watertown, N. Y. 
 With his brother physicians our subject is held in 
 high esteem and is very often called in consultation 
 upon subjects of which he has made a special stud}-. 
 He is connected with a number of societies, among 
 these, Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M., of New Haven; 
 I. O. O. F.. of Utica ; Royal Arcanum, of LItica ; 
 New England Order of Protection ; State and coun- 
 ty Aledical and New Haven Medical Societies ; also 
 the New York State Pharmaceutical Association. 
 In politics Dr. Sanford has long been connected 
 vi'ith the Republican party, but his professional du- 
 ties are so urgent that he takes only a voter's inter- 
 est in the contests at the polls. 
 
 JOHN T. KENT. The large industrial com- 
 panies reach out and select as foremen and super- 
 intendents of their various departments the best 
 men they can find for their responsible places. It 
 is a guarantee of superior ability for one to hold a 
 position of that nature. For nineteen years the sub- 
 ject of this sketch has been foreman in the wood- 
 working department of the Farrell foundry at An- 
 sonia. 
 
 Air. Kent was borni in Aleriden, Conn., Dec. 27, 
 1851, a son of Timothy and Ellen (Rowan) Kent. 
 The father, a native of Ireland, migrated when a 
 young man to America, locating first in Massachu- 
 setts and later in Connecticut. He was a carpenter 
 and builder and worked as a journeyman until his 
 death at Ansonia at the age of forty-eight years. 
 His wife, also a native of Ireland, lived to the age 
 of fifty-three years. To Timothy and Ellen Kent 
 were born five children, three of whom, John T., 
 Anna and Nora, survived. Anna married William 
 Conklyn, of Waterbury ; and Nora is married and 
 lives in Bridgeport. 
 
 John T. Kent, when ten years of age, left his 
 home and worked as a farmer in Cheshire, Conn., 
 until he was sixteen years old, attending the com- 
 mon schools. He then began to learn his trade with 
 
728 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 his father, remaining with him and his partner until 
 1871. He then came to Ansonia with his father and 
 here worked at bis trade, first with Jolin Dixburv 
 and later successively with D. F. Johnson and Piatt, 
 Lines & Co., with the latter company acting occa- 
 sionally as foreman and he was sent by them to 
 Farrell Foundry and was engaged in its construc- 
 tion about a year. Hje was then employed by the 
 Farrell Foundry and a few months later, in 1880, 
 was made foreman of the wood-working department, 
 a position which be has since held uninterruptedly. 
 At first he had seven men in bis department and novvf 
 be has eighteen, and at times when constructing 
 some of the buildings he has employed sixty men. 
 Mr. Kent does all the drafting for new buildings 
 or alterations. He has seen the business of the 
 foundry grow to more than double in size and its 
 employes increase from 200 to 500. He is a thor- 
 ough wheelwright also, one of the few masters of 
 that trade that can now be found. 
 
 'Mr. Kent is prominent in the fraternal organiza- 
 tions of America. He is a member of the Macca- 
 bees, Tent No. 5, and has served as its commander. 
 He has been through all the chairs and is chief of 
 the Ancient Order of Foresters and also of the Cir- 
 cle of Foresters. For twenty-six years be has been 
 a member of the Young Men's Temperance Society, 
 has filled all the offices and be takes a deep interest 
 in its aff'^'.irs. He is also a prominent member of the 
 Farrell Foundry Beneficial Association and is one 
 of the oldest and most active members of the 
 Knights of Columbus. He is an attendant of the 
 Catholic Church, of Ansonia. 
 
 .Mr. Kent is one of the public-spirited citizens 
 of Ansonia. His sound business principiles, stern 
 integrity and high attainments have commended him 
 to the good wishes of the community and he com- 
 mands a host of friends. He is not only conversant 
 with current affairs but has a large and well se- 
 lected library, including standard works of history, 
 poetry and mechanics, and of these and the latest 
 literature be is an appreciative student. 
 
 BENJAMIN LOTT LAMBERT, M. D., one 
 of the prominent and respected physicians of New 
 Haven, whose pleasant home is at is^o. 358 Howard 
 avenue, in that city, was born in New Haven 
 Feb. 16, 1856, son of Denison David Lambert, who 
 was born Sept. 20, 1820. 
 
 The Lambert family can trace its descent from 
 high antiquity, going back with all the certainty 
 of written records to the time of William the Con- 
 cjueror, in the eleventh century, and by history of 
 undoubted credibility to the Kingdom of the Lom- 
 bards, in Italy. The earliest account we have of 
 the Lombards is that they were a roving clan from 
 Norway, that they settled awhile in Vindili (in 
 Germany), till, attracted by the fair plains of 
 Moclcna, they rushed from their mountain fast- 
 nesses, took possession, and founded one of the most 
 powerful States in Italy. The .signification of the 
 
 name in their language was long beard, as his- 
 tory states that "this clan parted their hair and suf- 
 fered it to grow to whatever length it might at- 
 tain." This clan is described as being of a warlike 
 temper, as the fact and manner of their establish- 
 ing themselves in Italy would prove. Upon the 
 subversion of the Kingdom the descendants of the ■ 
 clan were dispersed into various parts of. Europe, 
 many of them settling in cities and large towns in 
 that part of the world. The family from which 
 the Milford (Conn.) branch is descended we find 
 in history had established itself in Normandy, 
 France. It appears from the records of heraldry 
 that they were of the highest respectability in the 
 said place, and on them were bestowed the various 
 orders of knighthood. When William the Con- 
 queror invaded England he took with him Rodolph 
 de Lambert as his armor bearer, or knight at arms. 
 Cardinal Lambertini, of this family, was elected 
 Bishop of Rome Aug. 27, 1730, and took the title 
 of Benedict XIV. 
 
 Rodolph de Lamhert left one son, Hugh, and 
 from him are descended all of the name in Eng- 
 land and North America. Among the most noted 
 of these were John Lambert, who commanded the 
 Parliamentary forces against King Charles I ; also 
 Richard, ancestor of the Earl of Cavan ; his heir, 
 the first baron, who was created Lord Lambert, 
 and Earl of the County of Cavan, in 1617 (he died 
 July 9, 1718) ; his son Charles on May 12, 1642, 
 was made governor of the city of Dublin. Jesse 
 Lambert, the ancestor of the Lambert family of 
 Milford, Conn., emigrated from England about 
 1680. He was from a branch of the Earl of Cavan's 
 family who settled in Wiltshire (or Devon). 
 Jesse Lambert, previous to his coming to New Eng- 
 land, had been an officer in the British na^y, and 
 had been up the Mediterranean sea against the 
 Tiu"ks. His first landing in America was at Boston, 
 but in a few days he proceeded on to New Haven, 
 and soon after to Milford, where he settled in 1684. 
 His residence was on the west side of the Wepo- 
 wage river, a few rods north of the First Presby- 
 terian meeting-house, on No. 7 of the lots of the 
 early planters. On May 10, 1688, he married De- 
 borah Fowler, daughter of Capt. William Fowler, 
 and granddaughter of William Fowler, magis- 
 trate. Jesse Lambert died in the autumn of 1718; 
 his will is recorded on Probate Records, New Ha- 
 ven, Lib. IV, page 553. Plis son Jesse was born 
 April 20, 1693, and died Dec. 26, 1773. 
 
 David Lambert, great-grandfather of the Doc- 
 tor, and third son of Jesse (2) was born Dec. 2, 
 1 73 1, in Milford, settled in the family homestead 
 there, and was the owner of a large real estate. 
 He was a farmer by occupation. In 1755 he mar- 
 ried Martha (Gunn) Northrop, and they had ten 
 children. He died Nov. 8, 1815, aged eighty-four; 
 his wife, born July 21, 1737, died Oct. 27, 1815, 
 aged seventy-eight. Mr. Lambert was a large, 
 well-built man, of dignified carriage. He bad a 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 729 
 
 iirm, unbending spirit, and was noted for his de- 
 <:ision and independence of mind. He was sincere 
 in his attacliments as a friend, and stubborn and 
 uncompromising to those who offended him. Truly 
 benevolent, his house was ever opened to the poor 
 and friendless. In his active years he was one of 
 the leading men of the community, serving as town 
 clerk, justice of the peace, and in other capacities. 
 
 Benjamin Lott Lambert, seventh son of David 
 and grandfather of our subject, was born Sept. 
 29, 1782, in Milford (now the town of Orange), 
 Conn. He taught in the academy in Milford for 
 eleven years, then settled on a farm in Orange. 
 He was the first representative sent to the Legis- 
 lature from the town of Milford, and was also town 
 •clerk for several years. He died Oct. 11, 1825, at 
 the early age of forty-three, from an overdose of 
 root given for swamp fever. He was buried in the 
 Orange cemetery. He was married Sept. 8, 1817, 
 to Eunice, daughter of Isaac Hemingwa}-, of Wood- 
 bridge, Conn. One of their sons, Benjamin Lott 
 Lambert, born Dec. 28, 1825, is still living in New 
 Haven. 
 
 Denison David Lambert, son of Benjamin L., 
 was reared upon the farm in North Milford, and 
 was educated in the common schools. Until 1840 
 he was engaged in the cultivation of the old home- 
 stead. For -a number of years he was employed as 
 a carpenter and builder in New Haven ; was also 
 engaged in erecting mills in the South, at Atlanta, 
 Ga., for a time; and for fifteen years was in busi- 
 ness at Milledgeville, Ga., after which he retired. 
 After his return to New Haven he entered the real- 
 estate business, which he followed for only a few 
 years, his death occurring May 13, 1871. He mar- 
 ried Jane Adams Hinman, who was born in Wood- 
 bury April 27, 1827, and they had three children, 
 of whom Benjamin Lott and David Denison sur- 
 vive. Jennie Celia, twin sister of Benjamin L., 
 died Aug. 4, 1898, after a life of usefulness in 
 the United Church. ;\Irs. Lambert belonged to the 
 Minor family through her mother, Mrs. Hinman, 
 who died when Mrs. Lambe'rt was a little girl. 
 The father married for his second wife a lady of 
 the same name, Hinman, who lived to the advanced 
 age of ninety-six years. 
 
 Dr. Benjamin L. Lambert has spent his life in 
 New Haven, where he received his literary edu- 
 cation, finishing at Yale. In 1883 he graduated 
 from the Medical Department of the University of 
 New York. For two years he was engaged m the 
 practice of his profession in Brooklyn, and m 1882 
 became a resident of his native city. His home and 
 business have been maintained here since that time 
 with most excellent and satisfactory results. In 
 his medical practice, while he was broad and thor- 
 ough in his preparation, he makes a specialty of the 
 diseases of children. 
 
 Dr. Lambert was married Dec. 15, 1881, to 
 Marv Durant Gilbert, of Durant, Ohio, who was 
 the iirst child born in that town, hence her name ; 
 
 she received two building lots for the honor. She 
 was one of five children born to Isaac U. and 
 ^lary (Husson) Gilbert; her mother, a native of 
 Lancaster, Pa., is still living. Dr. and ]\Irs. Lam- 
 bert have had one son, Harold Denison, who died 
 Aug. 22, 1899. The Doctor built the house in 
 which he resides. 
 
 Dr. Lambert is a Republican, and was the first 
 of his political faith to be elected from his ward to 
 the court of common council. For the four and 
 one-half years ensuing he was elected alderman, 
 in 1895, 1896, 1897 and until July i, 1898, being 
 a member of the board of aldermen, and during this 
 time he served as chairman of the lamp committee, 
 and as president of the board of aldermen in 1897 
 and six months of 1898. In 1895 and 1896 he was 
 on the board of finance, and for one year was a 
 member of the park commission. For the past 
 two years he has been police suirgeon of the Third 
 precinct ; he was chairman of the committee to 
 improve Beecher pond and the adjacent land. 
 
 Dr. Lambert takes pride in his social relations, 
 and is highly esteemed in fraternal circles. In 
 Masonry he is an adept, having risen to the 
 thirty-second degree, belonging to Trumbull Lodge ; 
 Franklin Chapter ; Harmony Council ; Lafayette 
 Consistory, No. 2 ; Pyramid Temple ; and other 
 bodies. He is also affiliated with the I. O. *0. F. ; 
 the A. O. U. W., in which he is past master; and 
 the K. P., having assisted in organizing the local 
 lodge, in which he is now past chancellor. He is 
 past archon of the Order of Heptasophs, and be- 
 longs to the Red Men at New Haven ; is past presi- 
 dent of the American Guild; also supreme medical 
 director of the American Mutual Life Society. 
 The Doctor since he began life for himself has 
 been a member of fifty-two different societies and 
 associations, and in all these relations he has been 
 much esteemed, winning a host of friends who 
 wish him well and are glad to see him prosper. 
 He is identified with the Howard Avenue Congre- 
 gational Church, and has placed a memorial win- 
 dow in this church for his son. 
 
 In his professional associations Dr. Lambert 
 stands well among his brethren of the science of 
 practice as well as with the general public. His 
 membership in the city, county and State medi- 
 cal societies and the American Medical Associa- 
 tion serves to display his professional enthusiasm 
 and to emphasize his kindly and fraternal feeling 
 toward all who are walking in the same lines with 
 him. He has acted as vice-president of the City 
 and County Medical Societies, and has written 
 often for publication on important medical themes. 
 
 DAVID DENISON LA^MBERT, the present 
 popular and capable supervising principal of the 
 Day District, in New Haven, was born in that city 
 Aug. 7, 1862, a son of Denison David and Jane 
 Adams (Hinman) Lambert. He acquired his edu- 
 cation in the New Haven schools, and was grad- 
 
73° 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 uated from the Academic Department of Yale in 
 1886, receiving his degree of M. A. two years 
 later. After this special course of two years he 
 began teaching mathematics in New York city, 
 where, after a year of good work, he received a 
 call to the schools at AVest Ansonia, in New Haven 
 county. Conn. At this place he spent two years, 
 after which for three years he was principal of the 
 public schools at Westville. In 1894 he entered 
 upon his present work, as supervising principal of 
 the Day District, which in 1901 consisted of five 
 buildings, forty teachers and' 1,700 pupils. 
 
 In 1888 Mr. Lambert was married to Katie A. 
 Latham, who was born in New York, a daughter 
 of Joseph A. Latham, who was a rare mechanical 
 genius, and moved to New Haven to take up the 
 steam fitting business, later becoming a pattern 
 and model maker, and he died there in 1893. Ellen 
 A. (Atkins) Latham, mother of Mrs. Lambert, 
 was a daughter of Samuel Atkins, of Waterbury. 
 Three children have blessed the home of Mr. and 
 Airs. Lambert, namely: Cecile, Rheta and Deni- 
 son Latham. 
 
 Mr. Lambert is a Republican, and belongs 
 to the Union League and the Young Men's 
 Republican Club. He is also a member of the 
 Young Men's Institute, the A. O. U. W., the 
 New Haven Golf Club and the American ]\Iu- 
 tual Life Society. As a mathematician he has 
 more than a local reputation, and he has 
 perfected a perpetual calendar, which shows any 
 day of any year by a simple change which re- 
 quires but a moment to effect. AVith his family 
 he has attended for eight years the Howard Ave- 
 nue Congregational Church. 
 
 WILLIAAI A. PENFIELD, of Meriden, is a 
 scion of one of the early families of New England. 
 
 Nathaniel Penfield, the first of the American 
 branch of the family, was a member of the New 
 Haven Colony, and settled at Wallingford, where be 
 died in January, 1776. 
 
 Nathaniel Penfield (2), son of Nathaniel and his 
 wife Hannah, was a farmer in what is now Meri- 
 den. On June 9, 1755, he married Lydia Barnes, 
 and died in Meriden May 18, 1777. His widow 
 married Jeremiah H. Osgood, April 23, 1778, and 
 died Jan. 31, 181 1, aged seventy-six years. 
 
 Phineas Penfield, son of Nathaniel (2) and bis 
 M'ife Lydia, was born June '>, 1756. From Farming- 
 ton, Conn., he became an enlisted private soldier in 
 the Continental army, and saw actual service for the 
 space of twelve months and twentv-three days, a 
 part of this time being under Capt. Curtis and Col. 
 Enos. On April 9, 1778, he married Lucv, daughter 
 of Jeremiah H. and Lucv (Churchill) ( >sgnnd, and 
 he died March 28, 1834, in Hartford county, at the 
 age of seventy-seven years. Nathaniel, a brother 
 to Phineas Penfield, but four )-ears his junior, also 
 enlisted at Farmington, as a private, in the Con- 
 necticut troops, and his service lasted for eighteen 
 
 months and twelve days, during a portion of which 
 time 'he served under Capt. Bray and Col. Butler. 
 Phineas Penfield (2), son of Phineas and Lucy, 
 was born Oct. 18, 1785, and Nov, 25, 1812, he mar- 
 ried Ruth Judd Hart, who was born May 3, 1793, 
 a daughter of Linus Hart, of Farmington. She 
 died Dec. 11, 1848, at the age of fifty-five years. 
 Phineas Penfield was a farmer and cooper and died 
 in his sixtieth year, Aug. 3, 1845. 
 
 Lemuel Penfield, son of Phineas (2), was born 
 in New Britain, and' died in 1876, aged fifty-six 
 years. He was reared in his native place, and while 
 still a youth he entered the shipping department of 
 the Stanley Rule & Level Co., where he remained for 
 several years.- Mr. Penfield was the first policeman 
 appointed under the city government of New Brit- 
 ain, and continued on the force until bis death. His 
 remains rest in the New Britain cemetery. His 
 first wife was Caroline Allen, who bore him four 
 children, the eldest of these died in infancy ; Henry 
 B. resides in Meriden ; William A. ; and Caroline 
 married Spencer Page and lives in New Britain. 
 Lemuel Penfield was married a second time. Miss 
 Hattie Terrell becoming his wife. During life he 
 was a faithful and valued' member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and espoused the principles of the 
 Repubhcan party from its first organization. 
 
 William Allen Penfield, son of Lemuel and Caro- 
 line (Allen) Penfield, was born March 30, 1852, in 
 New Britain, Conn., and there attended the district 
 school, passing through the course at the high 
 school. When but fourteen vears of age he entered 
 the employ of the Stanley Rule & Level Co., in the 
 rule department, where he continued for twelve yars, 
 eight of these being employed on piece work. Then 
 he came to Meriden, and here accepted a position 
 with the Meriden Britannia Co., in the German silver 
 department, remaining in this city for three years in 
 the same capacity. When ?\Ir. Penfield returned to 
 his old home. New Britain, he worked in the lock 
 shop for one year, but decided to come back to Meri- 
 den and accepted a position in the brass department 
 of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., as a 
 contractor, and for seventeen years he has continued 
 with this well-known concern. His reliability and 
 substantiality are well established in this city, where 
 he is regarded as a representative citizen. 
 
 Mr. Penfield has been prominently identified with 
 public afl:"airs in this city for a number of years. 
 LTntil 1901 bis political connection was with the 
 Democratic partv, but the issues of that time caused 
 him to vote with the Republicans and he 'has been 
 warmly welcomed into that party. In 1896 he was 
 elected on the Democratic ticket as alderman from 
 the Third ward, in this cit>\ was chairman of the 
 Claims committee, and in 1899 l^^ was appointed a 
 member of the board of Public A\'orks, having two 
 years yet to ser\'e. Under Mayor Ives he also served 
 as fire commissioner for one vear. 
 
 ( )n Oct. 16, 1874, Mr. Penfield was married in 
 New Britain, Conn., to Sarab Briggs, who was born 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 731 
 
 in New Brunswick, Canada, a daughter of Eben 
 and Mehitable (Taylor) Briggs, and tlie four cliil- 
 dren born to this union were : Harry Briggs, who 
 died young; Mattie May, wlio married Lorenzo T. 
 Fuller, has one child, Briggs Penfield ; William 
 Lemuel, with the Bradley & Hubbard M-anufactur- 
 ing Co. ; and Charles Larkin. The home which 
 Mr. Penfield erected on Randolph avenue, in Aleri- 
 den, is one of the most attractive and stately on that 
 beautiful thoroughfare, and it is presided over with 
 ease and grace by his most estimable wife, who is 
 prominent in both religious and social circles in 
 Meridten. She is an active member of All Saints' 
 Episcopal Church, while Mr. Penfield shows by an 
 exemplary life his liberal and discerning bequests to 
 all deserving objects and his public spirit on all oc- 
 casions, that he is actuated by true Christian prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 Fraternallv Mr. Penfield is a meniber of ^lyrtle 
 Lodge, No. 6, Iv. of P., also of Meriden Lodge, 
 No. 35, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, 
 and Montowese Tribe, L O. R. M., Silver City 
 Lodge, O. U. A. M., and Pilgrim's Harbor Coun- 
 cil, R. A. Perhaps Mr. Penfield's first interest, 
 outside his business and his family, is the posses- 
 sion of fine horses, and usually he owns some speedy 
 trotters. Several specimens which have attracted 
 attention have been trained under his eye. Although 
 in no way a sporting man, the interest he takes in 
 horses is an enjoyable diversion from business 
 cares. 
 
 / 
 
 E. EUGENE HUBBARD, a well-k-nown agri- 
 culturist of the town of Orange, was born June 10, 
 1848, on his present farm, an attractive homestead 
 at Oyster River, or Woodmont, about three miles 
 from West Haven. 
 
 The family has been prominent in this section 
 from an early day, and our subject's great-grand- 
 father. Gen. John Hubbard, served as a general in 
 the training of the old-time militia, under appoint- 
 'ment from the governor. He resided in New Haven 
 in early manhood, and for more than twentv j'ears 
 was chorister of the Center Church, but his last 
 days were spent in Litchfield, Conn., where he died 
 at the age of eighty-six. 
 
 John Hubbard, our subject's grandfather, was 
 born in Hamden and became a farmer by occupa- 
 tion, locating at the present homestead in 181 7. He 
 died there in 1861, aged eighty-three years. In 
 1802 be married Sally Peck, of Woodbridge, who 
 died in 1855, at the age of seventy 4:hree. Thev 
 were devout members of the Congregational Church 
 and attended for a time in New Haven and later in 
 West Haven. They had two children, a son and a 
 daughter. 
 
 John P. Hubbard, our subject's father, was born 
 in Hamden, and much of his'early life was spent at 
 the present homestead. For some years he was in 
 the shoe business in Norfolk, Va., but he then re- 
 turned to agricultural pursuits at the farm where 
 
 he died at the age of seventy. In religious faith he 
 was a Congregationalist, and politically he was first 
 a Whig, and later active as a member of the Re- 
 publican party. At times he held offices in the town- 
 ship, including that of assessor. He married Miss 
 Sarah Ann Clark, a native of Woodmont, and the 
 daughter of Thomas Clark, a well-known tailor and 
 farmer of that town. Her mother, Eunice Mallett, 
 of Bridgeport, lived to eighty-three years of age, 
 and of the seven children six lived to maturity. Of 
 these one is still living, Mrs. Harriet Law, of New 
 Haven. Our subject's mother died in 1899, at the 
 advanced age of eighty-two. John P. Hubbard and 
 his wife had seven children, of whom six are now 
 living, the other having died in childhood. John 
 M. and Lewis C. reside near our subject; E. Eu- 
 gene ; Anna married William Cottle, of Waterbury, 
 who conducts the West Side Hill greenhouses ; 
 Rev. George H., who has been in China as a mis- 
 sionary since 1884; and Mary E., wife of Charles 
 R. Lawrence, of Waterbury. 
 
 As a boy our subject assisted his father on the 
 homestead, of which he took charge at the latter's 
 death. The place contains about eighty acres, which 
 he devotes to general farming and gardening, with 
 excellent results. In pohtics he is a RepujDlican, 
 and at one time he served as a constable. He was 
 reared in the Congregational Church, to which his 
 parents belonged, and he and his wife are active 
 members of the First Congregational Church of 
 West Haven and of the Sunday-school. In 1877 he 
 married ^liss \'ara Smith, and they have had six 
 children, of whom five are living, viz. : Minnie, Ber- 
 tha, William, Florence and Clarence. ]\Irs. Hubbard 
 is a native of the town of Orange, and a daughter 
 of Marcus Smith, a prominent agriculturist, who 
 died there aged eighty-two years. Her mother, 
 Lucy Garlick, was born in Clyde, N. Y., and died 
 in 1888, aged sixty-five years. Of the four chil- 
 dren of Marcus and Lucy Smith, three are living, 
 viz. : Brace, a resident of West Haven ; Fann>-, 
 wife of Lewis Hubbard (our subject's brother); 
 and Mrs. Hubbard. 
 
 THOMAS ENGLISH WORTHINGTON, a 
 representative of one of the oldest and best known 
 families of Massachirsetts, and for many years a 
 prominent contracting brick mason of New Haven, 
 was born in Oxford, Conn., Aug. 25, 1842, a son of 
 Thomas and Nancy (Hoyt) Worthington. The fa- 
 ther was a native of Agawam, Mass.. and by occu- 
 pation a hatter. He died in Oxford, in 1848, when 
 our subject, second of a family of four boys, was six 
 years old. The mother, Nancy Floyt, was a native 
 of New York City, where she was educated, remov- 
 ing later to- Connecticut, where her father engaged 
 in farming. She died in 1873. The four children 
 of Thomas and Nancy (Hoyt) \\'orthington were 
 Harvey, Thomas E., George and Albert. Harvey 
 was a carriage builder, head of the Concord Car- 
 riage Co., of'Concord, N. H., and he died in if 
 
732 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 George, also a carriage maker of Gilmanton, N. H., 
 died in 1898; Albert was a rubber boot manufact- 
 urer, and died in 1881. 
 
 Thomas E. Worthington spent his boyhood days 
 •on a farm in Oxford. Hie attended the old district 
 school until he was fifteen years of age, and a year 
 later he came to New Haven and began an appren- 
 ticeship at the mason trade. He continued steadily 
 at his trade until August, 1862, when he enlisted 
 for three }'ears or until the close of the Civil war, 
 in Company B, 20th Conn. W. I. He saw much 
 .active service and was wounded at the battle of 
 Gettysburg in July, 1863, and was mustered out of 
 service at Washington at the close of the war. 
 
 Returning to his old home, Mr. Worthington 
 resumed his old trade at once, and 'has ever since 
 been prominently identified with the same. Most 
 of his work has been in New Haven, but occasion- 
 .ally business called him to other cities, and one year, 
 1877, he spent in St. John's, X. B., where he built 
 three churches. 
 
 On Sept. 3, 1867, Mr. Worthington married 
 Mary Jane Pardee, a native of Oxford, daughter of 
 William L. and Sarah E. (Sackett) Pardee. Her 
 father was born in Madison, and lier mother in 
 what is now Beacon Falls, Mr. and Mrs. Worthing- 
 ton are members of the Universalist Church, Mr. 
 Worthington is prominent in the fraternal benevo- 
 lent and social orders. He is a member of Admiral 
 Foote Post, G. A. R., No. 17; Garfield Council, 
 American Mechanics ; Camp No. 8, Patriotic Order 
 Sons of America; Hammonasset Tribe, No. i, Red 
 Men; Vetrain Lodge, No. i. Good Fellows; and 
 also a member of the Bricklayers' Union. In poli- 
 tics he has always identified himself with Repub- 
 lican principles, and he has been an active and influ- 
 ential worker in the ranks of the party organiza- 
 tion. For eleven years ht has been the sewer in- 
 spector of New Haven, and in 1901 he received 
 from Mayor John P. Studley the appointment of 
 superintendent of sewers. He is highly respected, 
 successful in business, and one of the prominent, 
 self-made men of New Haven. 
 
 GEORGE BRONSON MURDOCK, whose 
 standing in Meriden as a man of affairs and as an 
 honorable citizen is unquestioned, was born in the 
 town of Waterbury, New Haven county, Feb. 25, 
 1846, and is connected by both maternal and pa- 
 ternal ancestry with old Connecticut families. 
 
 The Murdocks are of Scottish descent. The 
 first of the family in America was Peter Murdock, 
 a native of Limerick, Ireland. He was a son of 
 John Murdock, a wool comber by occupation, 
 whose parents were natives of Scotland, but set- 
 tled in Limerick on account of religious persecu- 
 tion at home. John Murdock was a stanch sup- 
 porter of William of Orange, losing nearlv all 
 his iM'operty because of this lovalty. He married 
 Mary Munson, who became the mother of four 
 
 children, Peter Murdock, our subject's emigrant an- 
 cestor being of the number. 
 
 Peter Aturdock was eleven years old when he 
 was sent from his native place, because of his 
 .father's losses and the troublous times, to seek a 
 home with his uncle, Peter Alurdock, who re- 
 sided in the North of England. There he re- 
 mained until seventeen years old, when he came 
 to the ^zw AVorld, landing at Philadelphia with 
 Only a crown in his pocket. Finding employment 
 witli a Quaker family, he worked on the farm for 
 a time, and finally, having saved a few shilhngs, 
 he invested in cutlery and notions, which he ped- 
 dled. Coming North, he settled in Long Island, 
 and married i\Iary E. Fithin, at Southampton. He 
 bought a small store at East Hampton, the care of 
 which fell to his wife, while he devoted himself 
 to the coast trade with a small vessel. Making 
 some money, he bought 2,200 acres of land in 
 Little Egg Harbor, N. J., and 840 acres in what is 
 now Westbrook, Conn., to which latter point he 
 moved his store. There he died Nov. 6, 1753, in 
 the seventy-fourth year of his age, and there he 
 was buried. His wife died Oct. 29, 1755, in her 
 sixty-ninth year. Becoming established on Long 
 Island, Peter Murdock sent for his three sisters, 
 Abigail, Elizabeth and Dorcas. The first of these 
 had died in the meantime, but the other two came. 
 The last named married John Conklin ; those of the 
 name mentioned in this article were of the same 
 lineage as United States Senator Roscoe Conkling. 
 Elizabeth married a Mr. Sing, a goldsmith of Phila- 
 delphia. 
 
 John :\Iurdock, only child of Peter, was born in 
 1706 on Long Island, and accompanied his father 
 to Saybrook, where he became engaged in farming, 
 and was an extensive land owner. He was a dea- 
 con in the Congregational Church from 1764 to 
 1778; was a major in the Colonial militia; judge 
 of the common pleas court of the countv of 
 New London ; and represented his town, then Say- 
 brook, in the Legislature. He died in Saybrook, 
 and was buried in the local cemetery. John Mur- 
 dock was twice married. Phoebe Sill, his first 
 wife, was born in Lyme. Conn., and died ten 
 months after marriage. Frances Conkhn, his sec- 
 ond wife, was a native of East Hampton, Long 
 Island, and became the mother of thirteen children : 
 Peter, who graduated from Yale College, and died 
 the same year; Mary, who married Nathaniel 
 Hunting, Jr.; John; Phoebe, who married Rev. 
 John Devotion; William; Abigail, i\Irs. Lee, who 
 had nine children ; Enoch ; Jonathan, a graduate of 
 Yale and a clergyman in after life; Anna, Mrs. 
 La\' ; :\liriam, Mrs. iMorgan ; Abraham ; Frances, 
 who married Lewis Jones and had a large family; 
 and James, a graduate of Yale College. 
 
 \Villiam Murdock, son of Major John, was born 
 -^"g- 31. 1740. and was a farmer in Westbrook. 
 Fie married Jerusha Lay, of Lyme, who bore him 
 
\ 
 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 733 
 
 thirteen children : John ; William ; Phebe, who 
 was twice married, first to a JNIr. Hambleton, sec- 
 ond to a ]\lr. Richardson ; Peter, grandfather of 
 our subject; Elisha (twin of Peter), who was 
 drowned ; Polly, Mrs. Zachariah Hurd ; Miriam, 
 Mrs. Isa Hurd; Anna, Mrs. Daniel Anderson; 
 Frances, Mrs. Benjamin Smith; Enoch; Jonathan; 
 James ; and Abigail, ;\Irs. Samuel Whitney. The 
 mother of these died in 1796, aged fifty-five years, 
 and the father subsequently married Thankful War- 
 ner, widow of David Warner, of Millington ; she 
 ,died in 1S16. There were no children by this 
 union. William ^lurdock, the father, died in 1821 
 or 1822. 
 
 Peter ]\Iurdock, son of \Wlliam, was born in 
 Westbrook in 1768, died March 20, 1852, and was 
 buried in Westbrook cemetery. He was a cabin 
 boy on three privateers during the Revolution, and 
 in later life a farmer and land owner, becoming One 
 of the substantial citizens of his day. He married 
 Mrs. Bathsheba (Dodge) Bush, widow of John 
 Bush, in East Lyme, and to this union were born : 
 Polly U., who married a Mr. DeWolfe, of Clinton, 
 Conn. ; Charles and Delia, twins, the latter of 
 whom married Edwin Dowd, and was the mother 
 of Zina Dowd, of Meriden ; Emeline, who married 
 Horace Nettleton; Zina Kelsey; and Mathew 
 Griswold. Mrs. Murdock was the mother of three 
 children by her first marriage : Fenner, a promi- 
 nent manufacturer of Meriden ; John ; and Ama- 
 ziah. Mrs. Murdock died in Westbrook in 1852. 
 Zina Kelsey Murdock, the father of George 
 B., was born in Westbrook, March 2, 181 1, and 
 his education was obtained in the district schools of 
 his native town. In early boyhood he had delicate 
 health. Endowed with a restless disposition, he 
 left home at the age of fourteen )'ears to make his 
 way in the world, walking from Westbrook to 
 Meriden, where his brother, Fenner Bush, was en- 
 gaged in the business of manufacturing ivory 
 combs. For several years he worked in this fac- 
 tory, and then became engaged in a mercantile 
 business in partnership with Curtis L. North, Mr. 
 North managing the local business, while Mr. Mur- 
 dock carried on trading along the Ohio and Mis- 
 sissippi rivers. This arrangement did not prove 
 satisfactory and Mr. ]\Iurdock retired, leaving Mr. 
 North in possession. He bought the farm where 
 his son George Bronson now resides, in Murdock 
 avenue, then known as the Curtis farm, and here 
 spent his last days, dying Jan. 30, 1874. He was 
 at the time among the large .land owners in the 
 town. A broad-minded man, he was a lover of 
 fair play and liberty, and left a fine reputation. 
 His courage and regard for free speech were fully 
 demonstrated during the so-called riots of 1837 
 in Meriden. In the fall of 1837 Rev. Mr. Ludlow 
 came to Meriden to lecture on Anti-slavery, and 
 as Meriden was a pro-slavery town it was proposed 
 to shut him out. Mr. ]\Iurdock and several other 
 advocates of free speech insisted on hearing him. 
 
 and in consequence a mob gathered which inflicted 
 serious mjuries on the brave defenders of free 
 speech. A Whig in early life, j\Ir. Alurdock had 
 no sympathy with slavery and no patience with 
 those who brought on the Civil war. In his last 
 years he supported the Democratic party. He never 
 sought political honors. In his early life he was a 
 Congregationalist in religious connection; after his 
 marriage he and his wife united with the Episcopal 
 Church, and in that communion he died. He mar- 
 ried Harriet M. Bronson, who was born in Water- 
 bury, daughter of Judge Bennet and Anna (Smith) 
 Bronson. To this union were born three children : 
 Mary E., Oct. 8, 1843; George Bronson, Feb. 25, 
 1846; and Charles Z., May i, 1850. 'Mn. Mur- 
 dock died on the farm in 1895, and was buried in 
 Meriden cemetery. 
 
 George Bronson Murdock attended the district 
 schools, and the Russell Military Academy, at New 
 Haven. He grew to manhood on the farm, where 
 he has always remained, engaged in general agri- 
 culture, and he is one of the better known farmers 
 of his section, highly respected for his industrious 
 habits, kindly disposition and intelligence. 
 
 Mr. Murdock was married, in April, 1896, in 
 Meriden, to Harriet Elizabeth Graves, a native of 
 New Haven, a lady of charming disposition, a 
 vocal artist of much ability, and known as a model 
 wife and mother. They have three children. George 
 Peter, Harriet Josephine and Bennet Bronson. Mr. 
 Murdock is a Democrat, and has served on the 
 school committee of the town. As one of the or- 
 ganizers of ]Mediden Grange he takes nuch interest 
 in its work, and held the office of master for the 
 first three years. !AIrs. Murdock is also a member 
 of this society. 
 
 JOHN N. POPP, late of Seymour, Conn., where 
 his death occurred Oct. 2, 1897, was for nearly a 
 third of a century one of the town's business men 
 and commanded the esteem and respect of his fellow 
 citizens and townsmen. 
 
 Mr. Popp was born in 1841 or 1842, in Bavaria, 
 Germany, a son of Conrad and Katherina Popp, and 
 in about 1865 came to America, and not long there- 
 after to Seymour, Conn., which place he ever after- 
 ward made his home. He was a merchant tailor 
 by trade, and for a short time was employed at 
 journey work. He then went into business for 
 himself at Seymour, and continued therein up to 
 the time of his death, meeting with deserved suc- 
 cess. Of a kind disposition and generous nature, 
 he was popular in the community and made a good 
 citizen. Socially be was identified with a number 
 of diff^erent orders or fraternities, among which 
 were the Masonic fraternity and the Independent 
 Order of Odd Fellows. He was also a member of 
 the A. O. U. W., and of the New England Benefit 
 Association, and of the German Society of Her- 
 manns-Sohne. On }ilr. Popp's death marked respect 
 was shown his memory, the business houses of Sey- 
 
734 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 mour closed during- the funeral. Many beautiful 
 floral tokens of esteem and respect came on that 
 occasion from the various orders to which the de- 
 ceased had belonged, and from personal friends. 
 The funeral was largely attended, attesting- the af- 
 fection, esteem and respect of the community at 
 large in the deceased as a friend, neighbor and citi- 
 zen. The pall-bearers were Charles Monwhiler, 
 Henry Schneider, Antone Noe, Leonard Wyont, 
 Wolfgang Schaeffer and Louis Aliller. 
 
 Mr. Popp in his religious faith was a German 
 Lutheran, but, there being no church of that de- 
 nomination at Seymour, he attended there, with his 
 wife, the Congregational Church. In his political 
 views Air. Popp had been a Democrat up tO' the 
 campaign of 1896, but voted in that year for Will- 
 iam McKinley for President. 
 
 In 1867 Air. Popp was married' to Aliss Sarah 
 E. Wirth, born in Seymour, Conn., the only daugh- 
 ter of Peter and Alary A. (Andrews) Wirth, the 
 former a native of Bavaria, Germany, bom in about 
 1825, and the latter a native of Olneyville, R. I., 
 born in about 1828, a daughter of Denipon and Lu- 
 cinda Andrews: Peter Wirth came tO' America 
 in a sailing vessel when quite a young man and 
 located in the town of Seymour, Conn., many years 
 ago, and here lived the rest of his days. Pie was 
 an industrious and law-abiding citizen, and he and 
 his wife were respected and esteemed citizens. Air. 
 Wirth for vears was connected as an employe with 
 the manufacturing concern of Raymond French. 
 His death occurred Nov. 16, 1871, and that of his 
 wife April 6, 1886, when they were aged, respect- 
 ively, forty-si:c and fifty-eight years. 
 
 THOAIAS H. AIAGUIRE, supervisor of the 
 South Division of the Connecticut School for Boys, 
 is not only a competent official of that institution, 
 but is also well known in musical circles as leader 
 of the Aleriden Alilitary Band. He has been a 
 worthy resident of Aleriden from early manhood. 
 
 Air. Alaguire was born Nov. 30, 1863, in Bos- 
 ton, Mass., one of the three children of Thomas 
 and Catherine (Keys) Alaguire, the former of 
 whom died in Alilwaukee, Wis., the latter in New 
 Haven, Conn. Thomas H. attended the Boston 
 public schools until he was ten years old, when he 
 removed to Alilwaukee, Wis., and there attended 
 school until about eighteen years of age. Plis 
 school days over, he returned East, locating at Aler- 
 iden, and obtained employment at the Connecticut 
 School for Boys, commencing in the engine room, 
 \\'here he had charge of the boilers. He faithfullv 
 performed his duties, and in time was promoted to 
 the position of night watchman, where he exhibited 
 the same fidelity to every trust. He rose by degrees 
 until be reached his present position, that of super- 
 visor of the South Division, the duties of which he 
 has discharged with general satisfaction to all con- 
 cerned. 
 
 Concerning Air. Alaguire's musical career we 
 
 quote from the Dominant, a musical journal, of 
 April, 1898: 
 
 At the agre of fifteen he became deeply interested in 
 band music, and chose the baritone as his favorite instrii- 
 iment. Studying under the direction of first-class teach- 
 ers, he has nearly all the better class of solos for baritone, 
 and is recognized as one of the best baritone players in his 
 vicmity. IVIr. Maguire has attained his present t>osition 
 by dint of hard work and constant study. He is the owner 
 of a splended library of music for band, orchestra, voice 
 and piano, embracing some of the best European publica- 
 tions, and was for some years a regular subscriber to J. R. 
 Lafleur Sons' Challenge Jviinial for Band, and Wright & 
 Rounds Lh'crpool Brass Band Nczvs. He has scored for 
 military band such overtures as "William Tell." "Semira- 
 mide," "Oberon," and "Tannhauser," and the labor and 
 care of scoring such works for band can only be appre- 
 ciated by those who are familiar with the compositions. 
 Recognizing the fact that in order to teach intelligently 
 one must be familiar with the compass of all ordinary in- 
 struments, he has studied instrumentation in a most prac- 
 tical manner, viz. . Getting full scores of compositions di- 
 rect from the composers. 
 
 At tb'» last quarterly meeting of the Board of Directors 
 of the Connecticut School for Boys, the matter of having 
 a band was taken up, and as a result i\Ir. Maguire was ap- 
 pointed bandmaster. The course of instruction imparted 
 the thirty bovs who compose the school band may prove 
 interesting- to readers of The Dominant. The boys are 
 divided into three classes, according to ability, and at their 
 daily meetings, which occupy several hours, rehearse the 
 scales in every form from key of C to Gb, and from C to 
 key of A for bases, making key of F sharp for Eb instru- 
 ments. The blowing of sustained tones being the founda- 
 tion of all instrumental practice, a great deal of attention 
 is given to that much neglected course of instruction ; and 
 it is surprising the beautiful tone that can be produced by 
 a well balanced band. If the time be taken up in this man- 
 ner, the benefit will soon be noticed. 
 
 l\Ir. Maguire has studied voice culture, and the knowl- 
 edge gained from that study is of great benefit in band 
 work. He has adopted a new idea for so far as. I am aware 
 it has not been tried before. Every teacher knows how 
 hard it is to teach players to read readilv. He has taken 
 Greenwood's two-part exercises for singing classes, and 
 arranged the most important of them in different keys for 
 full band. Scale practice is usually looked upon as dry 
 stud" but with the above exercises, you combine time with 
 tune. The band is divided into sections ; those on the right 
 playing the simple scale in time; those on the left claying 
 the counterpoint, four quarters to the measure ; then re- 
 versing the parts, and so on till the value of all notes are 
 mastered. Any one who adopts that method with new ma- 
 terial will be amply repaid for his labor. After but three 
 months' practice the boys nlay such pieces as "Sweet Brier 
 Overture," "Philo Senate March." "American Belle March" 
 etc. etc. 
 
 The school has a fine room which has been placed at 
 the disposal of the band, and the boys have made it ad- 
 ditiorally attractive by adorning the walls with pictures of 
 musical organizations and portraits of all the well-known 
 band leaders. Among- whom, here as elsewhere the only 
 Sousti seems to be the favorite. Leader Maguire is very 
 much attached to his art, and we have every reason to be- 
 lieve has a bright future before hin-i. 
 
 We ma)' add that the Aleriden A/Iilitary Band, 
 which now has thirty-six mei-i-ibers, has under 
 Air. Maguire's direction filled some very im- 
 portant engagements, chief of which might be 
 n-ientioned the trips of ten days with Merriam 
 Post, G. A. R., to the battlefields of Gettys- 
 burg and to Washington, D. C. Mr. Ala- 
 guire has studied under Bandmaster John Lyon; 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 735 
 
 harmony and composition with Prof. F. T. South- 
 wick, of Meriden ; voice culture with J. Jerome 
 Hayes, of New Haven, and with George M. Greene, 
 of New York. He has sung at various times in 
 several of the local churches. He makes a practice 
 of spending his annual vacation where the hest of 
 band music is performed, and in numerous other 
 ways displays his enthusiastic devotion to his pro- 
 fession. His musical library, mentioned in the 
 foregoing, embraces also many valuable works on 
 musical literature, including some of the principal 
 works of the masters. 
 
 Mr. Maguire was married in New York City, 
 by Rev. Dr. Burtsell, to Miss Catherine ]\Iulvaney, 
 and they have two children, Mary Elizabeth and 
 Francis Lawrence, both pupils at St. Rose's School 
 Airs. Maguire is a woman of refinement and strong 
 character. She fills the position of supervisor of 
 the dining room in the Connecticut School for 
 Boys. Mr. and Airs. Maguire are members of St. 
 Joseph's Church, Meriden. Socially he unites with 
 Silver City Lodge, A. O. U. W. ; the Modern 
 Woodmen of America; the Amaranth Club; the 
 Catholic Club ; and the Meriden Turner Society. 
 
 JOHN HARWOOD PEARCE. A leading citi- 
 zen of New Haven, who for many years has been 
 prominently identified with the rubber industries 
 of the country, is John H. Pearce, of this citv, now 
 the efficient superintendent of L. Candee & Co. 
 
 Richard Pearc€, his grandfather, was born, 
 reared and married in England, and was a miller by 
 occupation. In his later years he moved to Center- 
 ville, Canada, where he died at a good old age, re- 
 spected by the community. 
 
 Richard M. Pearce, son of Richard and father 
 of John H., of this biography, was born in Barn- 
 stable, England, Feb. i, 1828, and was married to 
 Alary A. Harwood, in his native land. He was a 
 leather shoemaker by trade in the old country. In 
 1850 he brought his family to Alontreal, Canada, 
 and there became tihe superintendent of the Cana- 
 dian Rubber Co., remaining in that capacity for 
 thirty years. He then removed 'to Boston, Mass., 
 and entered the employ of the Boston Rubber Shoe 
 Co., later becoming interested in the Lycoming 
 Rubber Co., at Williamsport, Pa. His death took 
 place in New Haven, while on a visit to his son, 
 April 15, 1886, his widow surviving until April i, 
 1889, when she passed awa\' in Xew Haven, 
 His political sympalthies were with the Re- 
 publican party, and both he and wife were devoted 
 to the Episcopal Church. The children born to 
 Richard M. Pearce and wife were : Richard M., 
 who is with the Hood Rubber Co., of Boston ; Eliza- 
 beth A., who died at the age of twenty; and John 
 Harwood, of this sketch. 
 
 John H. Pearce was born in Alontreal, Canada, 
 Alay 16, 1855, and spent his boyhood days in that 
 city, remaining there until be was twenty-'tihree, 
 His education was acquired in the public and normal 
 
 schools, upon the completion of which he entered 
 into the rubber business, under his father, with the 
 Canadian Rubber Co., remaining about eight years, 
 and thoroughly mastering every .detail. He then 
 accepted a position with the Boston Rubber Shoe 
 Co., at Maiden, Mass., continuing there for the 
 succeeding two years, when he was appointed as- 
 sistant superintendent, with his father, at Will- 
 iamsport, Pa., and remained with the Lycoming 
 Rubber Co., of that city, for four year.s. On May 
 20, 1884, he accepted the responsible position of 
 foreman with L. Candee ■& Co., of New Haven, and 
 efficiently and acceptably performed the duties of 
 that position until 1892, when he became assistant 
 superintendent, so continuing until Nov. i, 1901, 
 w'hen he was made superintendent. 
 
 Although Mr. Pearce has been immersed in busi- 
 ness ever since his location in New Haven, he has 
 taken an active part in the civic life of the com- 
 munity, his services being recognized by his elec- 
 tion as councilman in 1895, and as alderman from 
 the Fifth ward in 1897, his friends regarding these 
 elections as personal tributes, as the ward is de- 
 cidedly Democratic, and Mr. Pearee is an ardent 
 and active Republican. Mayor John P. Studley 
 has recently recognized his merits by appointing 
 him fire commissioner, showing a high degree of 
 confidence. 
 
 On May 16, 1883, Mr. Pearce was married to 
 Miss Estella A. Nichols, of Williamsport, a daugh- 
 ter of Jared P- Nichols, of old Connecticut stock, 
 and five children have been born of this union : 
 John Harwood, Jr. ; Walter Nichols ; Frederick 
 Richard; and Bessie and Charles J., both deceased. 
 Fraternally Mr. Pearce is connected with Hiram 
 Lodge, No. I, A. F. & A. M., of which he is past 
 master; with Franklin Chapter, No. 2: Harmony 
 Council, No. 8; Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine, 
 of Bridgeport; New Haven Commandiery, No. 2' 
 Knigihts Templar ; and has taken all the higher de- 
 grees, including the thirty-second. As a member 
 of St. Paul's Episcopal Church he is highly esteemed 
 and in business and social circles is favorably re- 
 garded. Aside from all his other duties, Mr. Pearce 
 has interested himself in perfecting a number of 
 useful inventions in the rubber business, and owns 
 the patents on a number of them. 
 
 JOHN V RATTELSDORFER. One of 'the 
 prominent citizens of New Haven who has done 
 much in the waj^ of city legislation for its improve- 
 ment, and who also is a successful man of business, 
 is John \' Rattelsdorfer, who was born in New 
 Haven April 21, 1858. 
 
 His father, John V. Rattelsdorfer, Sr., was born 
 in Bavaria, Germany, and came to New York in 
 1848, and one }'ear later to New Haven, serving in 
 the Civil war as sergeant of Company C, 6th Conn. 
 V. I., and he died from wounds and disease con- 
 tracted at that time. By trade he was a weaver, 
 and manufacturer of silk vests and similar goods. 
 
736 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 while his fatlier was a gentleman of leisure. In 
 A'ienna he married Thekla Drexler, who was born 
 in the province of Aloravia, Austria, and who died 
 in 1879. After coming to New Haven John V. 
 Rattelsdorfer, Sr., went to work as a weaver in 
 some of the numerous shops, and for a short time 
 was eniplo)-ed by the New Haven Clocl<: Co., and 
 then engaged in business for himself, opening up 
 a refreshment hall, and soon becoming a force in 
 politics, and was the very first German Republican 
 in New Haven. In his political ambitions he was 
 encouraged by his able wife, who was a woman of 
 great force of character, and together they had much 
 influence with the German element. Twelve chil- 
 dren were born to these most worth)' people, but 
 the others before the hirth of our subject. 
 
 John \' Rattelsdorfer, our subject, spent his 
 boyhood days in what was then the Fifth city ward, 
 but is now the Sixth, and attended the AVooster 
 grammar school, and later graduated from the Rus- 
 sell Commercial Collegiate Institute. After finish- 
 ing his education he became a clerk in a meat busi- 
 ness, but w'hen 'he was about eighteen his careful 
 and devoted mother sent him to Vienna for a visit 
 of six months as a finish to his education. Upon 
 his return he engaged in the meat business, on the 
 corner of State and Clark streets, for a short time, 
 later opening on State street, where he remained 
 tmtil other interests claimed his attention. The six 
 following years were spent by jMr. Rattelsdorfer 
 in clerking, and then he went to Fairlhaven and 
 started into business on the corner of Poplar and 
 Grand streets, where he remained one year, later 
 clerking for his old firm for some six months. He 
 then opened up a business in his own ward, on the 
 corner of Green and Wallace streets, where he was 
 located for eight years, later purchasing his present 
 location on the corner of Green and Chestnut streets. 
 Here he has built up a fine brick block, and has 
 conducted a large business in the meat and grocery 
 line ever since April 5, 1892. 
 
 In 1893 Mr. Rattelsdorfer entered politics, and 
 has been one of the most active members of the 
 Republican party in this localitv ever since. In 1895 
 he was a member of his ward committee, and wag 
 elected alderman, and served through 1895-6, in 
 1895 the vote being a tie. A new election was called 
 and the result was the seating of our subject by 
 twenty-five votes, although the ward was some 400 
 votes Democratic, which made Mr. Rattelsdorfer 
 the first Republican alderman ever elected in it. 
 Onl}' one Republican has been elected since then, 
 which followed our subject's teiTn of office, he hav- 
 ing declined a re-election. Ever since that time he 
 has been a leader in his ward, belongs to its com- 
 mittee ; was elected a d'elegate to the .State Conven- 
 tion at Hartford, one of the four from this cit\-. 
 In 1901 he was appointed chairman of the board 
 of Charities, by Mayor Studley, which is considered 
 a wise selection on account of the conscientious 
 manner in which he performs public duties. i\Ir. 
 
 Rattelsdorfer has been very active in furthering 
 measures of public benefit, and it was through his 
 instrumentality that pemianent pavements were 
 laid. 
 
 Fraternall)' our subject is very popular, and is 
 connected with the Masonic fraternity in Connecti- 
 cut Rock Lodge, Franklin Chapter, and Harmony 
 Council ; and he also 'belongs to the Royal Arca- 
 num, New England Order of Protection, Ancient 
 Order of United Workmen, Knights of the ]\Iac- 
 cabees, Patriotic Sons of America, the German so- 
 ciety Deutsche Gesellschaft, and others, and he is 
 a member of the 2d Company of the Governor's 
 Fpot Guards. 
 
 On Oct. 20, 1878, Mr. Rattelsdorfer was mar- 
 ried to Miss Anna B. Oppel, who was born in New 
 Haven, although her parents were native Germans. 
 Five children have blessed this union: John Y., 
 Jr. ; Charles D. ; Anna T. ; Bessie J. ; and Minnie \. 
 Of these John V., Jr., married Minnie Rogerson. 
 The religious connection of the family is with the 
 St. Paul's Episcopal Church. 
 
 EDWARD J. MORSE, a well-known and 
 highly esteemed citizen of New Haven, retired cap- 
 tain of the Second Company, Governor's Foot 
 Guards, and the owner and successful manager of 
 large greenhouses near Morris Cove, was born in 
 Durham, Middlesex Co., Conn., Aug. 9, 1851. 
 
 Joseph I. Morse, the father of Edward J., was 
 born in Wallingford May 24, 1810, a son of Jona- 
 than, Jr., and grandson of Jonathan, Sr., and his 
 wife, Esther Curtis. Jonathan Morse, Jr., who was 
 a farmer in Wallingford, married Thankful Blakes- 
 lee. Joseph I. Morse married Elizabeth Hill, of 
 Guilford, in 1833, and four children were born to 
 them, as follows: Jane A., who married Charles 
 L, Shepard and resides in New Haven; Augustus 
 W,, who is married and lives in Guilford; Lois E., 
 who married Wilson Clark and lives in New 
 Britain; and Joseph, the youngest, died in child- 
 hood. The mother of these children died in 1839. 
 Joseph 1. Morse married (secondi) Mary Nettle- 
 ton, who was born in North Killingworth, and 
 passed out of life in 1861. A family of seven chil- 
 dren were born of this union, five of whom grew 
 to maturity : Eckford I. is a painter in Durham ; 
 Rosella died young; Harriet L. married William 
 T. Hayden and lives in Hartford ; Frederick L. 
 is an eng-ineer and lives in West Haven; Herbert 
 H. is an engineer in North Haven ; Nelson died in 
 infancy ; Edward J. was the fourth in the famih'. 
 In 1863 Joseph I. Morse married a third time, 
 Phoebe Wedmore becoming his wife. Their chil- 
 dren were : Nellie, Joseph, Charlotte, George and 
 Bertha, some of whom are now deceased. In poli- 
 tics Mr. Morse was a lifelong Democrat, and both 
 he and wife were valued and consistent members 
 of the ?\lethodist Church. He died in 1881. 
 
 The bi)\hood of Edward J. Morse was spent in 
 I Durham, and there he attended school. When he 
 
^(::^^^U-^2^^^ ^:^^^^t/^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 717 
 
 was twelve years old he began to assist neighbor- 
 ing farmers^ during the summer months, and at- 
 tended school during the winters, in both North- 
 ford and Wallingford. At the age of fifteen his 
 school days were over, and a year later he went 
 to Westville, where for four years he clerked in a 
 meat market, and for seven years was a valued 
 employe of S. E. Merwin, the pork packer, going 
 then to Fairhaven, where he opened up a meat 
 'business of his own, which he conducted for ten 
 years. Returning to Air. Merwin, he took charge 
 of his business in Allentown, and was successfully 
 engaged there for five years, but in January, 1897, 
 he opened up his present business, which is that of 
 a florist. Mr. Morse is well situated for this line, 
 near Morris Cove, and has extensive grounds, 
 large greenhouses, fitted with all modern appli- 
 ances, and has a very large trade which is con- 
 stantly increasing. 
 
 On April 24, 1879, JNIr. Morse was married to 
 Miss Ida V. Smith, of New Haven, a daughter of 
 Edward D. Smith, and a family of three children 
 have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Morse, Jessie M., 
 Ruby A. and Edward S. In politics Mr. Morse has 
 been an active Republican, and is now efficiently 
 serving as alderman of the Fifteenth ward, to 
 which office he was elected in April, 1900. For 
 eight years he served as captain of the Foot Guards, 
 but has since retired from that body. Socially he 
 was connected with Quinnipiac Lodge, No. i, I. O. 
 O. F., and he and family are hiehly regarded in 
 the Methodist Church. 
 
 FRANK HENRY WHEELER, M. D. The 
 subject of the present biography has been more 
 than a spectator in the evolution of medical practice 
 in the State of Connecticut, where he has passed 
 the best years of his life, and is still an active fac- 
 tor in the profession. Dr. Wheeler was born in 
 Montville, New London Co., Conn., July 18, 1856. 
 Grandfather Henry Wheeler, also a native of Con- 
 necticut, married Lucretia Loomis, and reared a 
 family of three children : William H. ; Edwin ; and 
 Maria, who married Harvey Derrin, and resided in 
 New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 William H. Wheeler, the father of our subject, 
 was a prominent man in Montville, and when he 
 removed in 1873, to New Haven, he threw himself 
 heartily into all public enterprises, soon after being 
 elected president of the board of councilmen. So- 
 cially he was connected with Somerset Lodge of 
 Norwich, F. & A. M. Later he became a manufac- 
 turer of cotton goods, and also conducted both a 
 saw and grist mill, but late in life engaged in the 
 life insurance and real estate business. Lie mar- 
 ried Waitselle E. Whalley, a native of Chesterfield, 
 Conn., a daughter of James Whalley, who was a 
 farmer of that locality, of English descent. Mrs. 
 Wheeler is still living, Mr. Wheeler having died in 
 1886, in New Haven. ■ 
 
 An only child, Frank Henry Wheeler had many 
 47 
 
 educational advantages superior to those of many 
 of his present colleagues not so fortunately situated. 
 At the age of sixteen, after attendance on the dis- 
 trict schools in Montville, his parents decided to 
 leave the village in order to give their son oppor- 
 tunities he could not have at the old home. Mr. 
 Wheeler was a man of education himself, particu- 
 larly in the law, but our subject did not incline to 
 that profession. After passing through the Hop- 
 kins Grammar school, graduating in 1876, he en- 
 tered Yale College, graduating from the academic 
 department in 1880, and he then entered the J\Ied- 
 ical school from which he graduated in 1882, the 
 next year becoming an interne in the New Haven 
 Hospital, acting for six months as house physician, 
 and as surgeon for seven months, following this 
 practice with a special course in New York, in the 
 College of Physicians and Surgeons. 
 
 Enthusiastic in his profession, Dr. Wheeler 
 then returned to New Haven, and here has won 
 many triumphs by his skill as a surgeon and his 
 thorough knowledge as a physician. Dr. Wheeler 
 was married on Feb. 28, 1889, to Miss Florence 
 Woodhouse, of New Haven, a daughter of Capt. 
 James H. and Lucretia Charlotte (Gillette) Wood- 
 house, the latter of New Haven, the former of 
 Wethersfield. Two children have been born 
 to Dr. and Mrs. Wheeler: James Woodhouse 
 born April 5, 1890, and Harold Whalley, born Aug. 
 26, 1898. 
 
 Dr. Wheeler has been prominently identified 
 with the progress of medicine in New Haven, and 
 for nine years was assistant professor of Pathol- 
 ogy in Yale College, and at the same time at the 
 New Haven Hospital ; for six years he was con- 
 nected with the New Haven Dispensary, and for 
 fifteen years has been attending physician at the 
 New Haven Orphan Asylum. 
 
 Politically Dr. Wheeler is a Democrat. In July, 
 1901, he was appointed by the Hon. 3iIayor John P- 
 Studley as a member of the Board of Police Com- 
 missioners. Fraternally he belongs to Hiram 
 Lodge, No. I, A. F. & A. M., of which he is Past 
 Master ; is district deputy Grand blaster for New 
 Flaven County and is a member of Franklin Chap- 
 ter, No. 2 ; Harmony Council, No. 8 ; New Haven 
 Commandery, No. 2 ; New Haven Chapter, Rose 
 Croix ; Lafayette Consistory, of Bridgeport ; and 
 Pyramid Temple, of the Mystic Shrine. For a 
 number of years he has been connected with the A. 
 O. U. W., and is now Grand Medical Examiner for 
 Connecticut ; in the Foresters he has been Supremp 
 Treasurer, and has held other offices, and he is a 
 valued member of the Graduates and of the Pe- 
 quot Clubs. He is now President of the Yale 
 Medical Alumni Association. Professionally, Dr. 
 Wheeler is a member of the New Haven Medical 
 Society, of which he is president ; also of the New 
 Flaven County Medical Society and the Connecti- 
 cut State Medical Society. 
 
 Dr. Wheeler is one of the busiest of men, at- 
 
73» 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tends to the various organizations mentioned, loolvs 
 carefully after a large practice, meets in consulta- 
 tion with other surgeons and ph_vsicians, and pre- 
 serves the activities and medical tests tthich have 
 made him well and favorably known over so wide 
 a field, and an honor to his profession. With all the 
 calls made upon him, he finds time to keep thor- 
 oughly posted upon the advances in his profession, 
 and to maintain an intimate acquaintance with his 
 •ivell filled library. 
 
 HUBERT LITTLE, a member of the well- 
 known firm of Little, Somers & Hyatt, wholesale 
 dealers in paints, papers and similar goods, is one 
 of the prominent business men of Aleriden, and 
 was born in the town of Colum'bia, Tolland Co., 
 Conn., Nov. 14, 1848, a descendant of one of the 
 oldest and best families of the State. A full his- 
 tory of the family is found in connection with the 
 biography of Saxton Bailey Little, which appears 
 on another page. 
 
 William Buckingham Little, the father of Hu- 
 bert, was born in Columbia, Conn., June 6, 181 5, 
 and died Dec. 16, 1897. He was a son of Samuel 
 Little, and a brother of Saxton B. Little, of Meri- 
 den, and was reared on the farm of his father. 
 His education was acquired in the Columbia schools, 
 .and nearly all his life was spent on a farm which he 
 o^vned and operated in Columbia. He was a man 
 ver}- well known and much respected by the com- 
 munity, in which he served as probate judge for 
 Columbia many years. As a member of the State 
 Senate, to which he was elected on the Republican 
 ticket, he served his constituency faithfully and 
 well. His remains are resting in the Columbia 
 Cemetery. In the Congregational Church he was 
 known as a faithful and devoted memiber, and his 
 domestic habits were keyed to high and pure mo- 
 tives. ^Ir. Little was married in Vernon, May 19, 
 1S41, to Harriet N. Palmer, of \'ernon, a daughter 
 of Elliot and Ann (Loomis) Palmer. She is still 
 living in Columbia, Conn., and is known as a lady 
 of much domestic character, a devoted wife and 
 mother, and an earnest and consecrated member of 
 the Congregational Church. To Mr. and Mrs. Lit- 
 tle v.'ere born the following children: (i) Myron 
 AA'ihslow, born Oct. 11, 1842. married Emily 
 Wright, Nov. IS, 1869; (2) Elliot Palmer, born 
 July 3, 1844, died June 31, 1855; (3) Anna Maria, 
 June 23, 1846, died Oct. 25, 1855; (4) LIubert; 
 (3) Alonzo, born April 17, 1851 ; (6) Elbert Cor- 
 nelius, born Oct. 24, 1853; (7) Prescott Palmer, 
 born Sept. 16, 1856; and (8) Payson Elliot, born 
 Aug. 31, 1859. 
 
 Hubert Little spent his boyhood days on the 
 parental farm, where he attended the local school, 
 and he finished his literarv training in the high 
 school in Willimantic. Until he was eighteen 3'ears 
 did he worked at home, and at that age he came to 
 ?\Ieriden, where he learned the painter's trade with 
 Charles L. Little, his cousin, with whom he worked 
 
 for several years. At the end of that period he 
 bought out his instructor's esta;blishment, and 
 formed a partnership with his brother, Elbert C, 
 to deal in paints and papers and conduct a general 
 decorating business under the firm name of H. 
 Little & Company. This partnership continued 
 until 1884 when Mr. Somers bought out the inter- 
 est of E. C. Little. In 1886 Isaac B. Hyatt boug:ht 
 into the firm, and for the past sixteen years it has 
 been Little, Somers & Hyatt. 
 
 On Nov. 14, 1871, Mr. Little was married to 
 Alice L., a daughter of Egbert Brown, of Colum- 
 bia; she died May 20, 1877. Three children were 
 born of this union : Flora L., born Nov. 18, 1872, 
 died Jan. 14, 1875 ; Clayton E., born Dec. 19, 1874, 
 died March 27, 1875 > ^^^d Clinton E., who was 
 born May 8, 1877, is a traveling salesman for the 
 Beacon Falls Rubber Company. Mr. Little mar- 
 ried for his second wife, Martha L., a daughter of 
 AA'illiam Williams, of Westfield, Conn. To this 
 union were born : Edna M., born Jan. 28, 1879, 
 died April 9, 1883 ; Thomas Saxton, born Nov. 27, 
 1882, died May 12, 1883; Harold Saxton, born 
 Jul)' 7, 1884; and Burton Elbert, born May 4, 1890, 
 died Oct. 30, i8qi. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Little are members of Trinity 
 Methodist Church, and he is a member of Pacific 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., and Pilgrim's Harbor Council, 
 Royal Arcanum, at Meriden. In politics he is a 
 Republican, but no office seeker. His domestic 
 habits are of the best, and he is a good citizen, 
 with a host of friends. 
 
 HORATIO NELSON SMITH, one of the 
 leading citizens of Middlebury, first selectman of 
 the town, and a butcher by occupation, is a native 
 of that village, born June 22, 1851, in the house 
 where the first Ecclesiastical society met over one 
 hundred years ago. 
 
 Horatio Nelson Smith, his father, was a native 
 of Naugatuck, Conn., and was a son of Elisha 
 Smith, an old settler of that locality. Our sub- 
 ject's father received a common school education, 
 and further instructed himself by abundant reading. 
 He learned the trade of blacksmith in his native 
 town, and when a j'oung man removed to Middle- 
 bury, \A-here he bought the home now owned by our 
 subject (the one above referred to), and built a 
 shop, in which he did general blacksmithing and re- 
 pairing; he also engaged in general farming. Here 
 he passed the rest of his days, dying in 1866, and 
 was Ijuried in Middlebury. He was a member of 
 the M. E. Church, and in politics a Democrat. 
 Twice married, his first wife was Nancy Nichols, 
 of Naugatuck, who died in Middlebury, leaving 
 two children : Nancy, who married Marlin J. 
 Piatt, of Torrington, Conn. ; and Anna, deceased 
 wife of Alvic Wooster. For his second wife Mr. 
 Smith wedded Maria Booth, daughter of Lewis 
 Booth, and children as follows were born to them: 
 Frederick, of Seymour, Conn. ; Frank, proprietor 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 739 
 
 of a livery in WateAury; Perry, a farmer in the 
 town of Middlebury ; Charles, who died in Middle- 
 bury ; Horatio Nelson, a sketch of whom follows ; 
 Anna, wife of George Curtis, of Torrington, Conn. ; 
 and Emma, who died unmarried. The mother of 
 these died at the home of her daughter in Torring- 
 ton, Conn., at the age of eighty-two years, and was 
 buried in Middlebury. She was a member of the 
 ]\I. E. Church, a good Christian woman. 
 
 Horatio N. Smith, whose name introduces this 
 sketch, received a liberal education at the schools 
 of Middlebury, and while yet a youth followed the 
 trade of carpenter, working as a jobber until 1881, 
 in that year commencing the butchering business, 
 which he has since followed in connection with 
 farming pursuits. Through perseverance, indus- 
 try, honorable dealing and politeness he has built 
 up a fine trade and a constantl3r-increasing custom. 
 In 1880, in the town of Bethany, New Haven 
 county, Horatio N. Smith was married to Mary A. 
 Wright, who was born in Sullivan county, N. Y., 
 a daughter of Artemus Wright, and eight children 
 were born to them: Harry, Florence, Burton 
 Grover, Lyman, Rodger, Wynford, Ray, and Ken- 
 neth E. Mrs. Smith is a lady of refinement and cul- 
 ture, a sterling wife and mother. She and her hus- 
 band attend the Congregational Church. In poli- 
 tics Mr. Smith is a Democrat, and in 1895 he was 
 elected to the State Legislature by the people of his 
 native town; in 1897 was elected first selectman of 
 the town, and re-elected in 1898, in itself showing 
 his well-merited popularity. 
 
 DR. GEORGE I. HEMINGWAY, whose office 
 is at No. 86 Broadway, New Haven, takes a promi- 
 nent position among the physicians of the city, not 
 only by reason of his high attainments and scien- 
 tific spirit, but also by his personal attributes of 
 high character. He was born in Woodbridge, 
 Conn., May 26, 1867, a son of John I. Hemingway, 
 a native of the same town. ' 
 
 Isaac Hemingway (2), the grandfather of 
 George I., was born in Woodbridge in 1794, a son 
 of Deacon Isaac, who was born in East Haven, in 
 1762, and was an early settler in Woodbridge 
 where he followed farming. He was a deacon of 
 the Congregational Church, and a prominent man 
 in the community, and passed away at the age of 
 'eighty-seven. Isaac Hemingway (2) was also a 
 farmer, and owned part of the original land grant 
 to the family. He died at the early age of thiirty-' 
 six. Abraham Hemingway, his brother, lived in 
 New Haven, and died when seventy-five years old. 
 Isaac Hemingway (2) married Esther Smith, who 
 was born in Woodbridge, in 1793. She was the 
 mother of only two children, John I. and Nancy, of 
 whom the latter is still living in Westville unmar- 
 ried. Mrs. Hemingway, who died at the age of 
 fifty-two years, belonged to the Congregational 
 Church, and was a lady of much character and 
 many excellencies of mind and heart. 
 
 John I. Hemingway was born in Woodbridge, 
 Dec. 13, 1828. His education was obtained in the 
 public school and the Orange Free Academy. For 
 many years he was a painter and decorator, making 
 his home in Westville, and at New Haven. In his 
 old age he came back to Westville, where he died 
 March 25, 1901, at the age of seventy-two. Mary 
 Piatt Flemingway, his wife, who is still living, was 
 born in Milford, Conn., a daughter of Col. William 
 Piatt, prominent in Milford affairs. One child. 
 Dr. George I., blessed the home of John I. and 
 Mary (Piatt) Hemingway. 
 
 Col. William Piatt, who was born in Milford in 
 1794, descended in the seventh generation from 
 Richard Piatt, the first settler in that town. He 
 was a Colonel of the militia, and was a large and 
 influential farmer. By his marriage with Anna 
 Stowe, daughter of Jedediah and Sarah (Clark) 
 Stowe, he became the father of seven children, six 
 of whom are still living: William, Richard and 
 Phineas all live in Milford; Charlotte married 
 William C. Hall, who was employed for fifty years 
 in the car shops in New Flaven; Sarah married 
 Linus Cornwall, of Berlin; and Mary is Mrs. Hem- 
 ingway. Mrs. Anna (Stowe) Piatt was born in Mil- 
 ford in 1793, and lived to be over ninety years old. 
 With her husband, she belonged to the Congrega- 
 tional Church. Jedediah Stowe, father of Mrs. 
 Piatt, was a soldier in the Revolution, and in his 
 later years drew a pension from the government for 
 his services ; he married Sarah Clark, who was 
 born in Milford, and died in the faith of the Con- 
 gregational Church at the age of eighty-eight, the 
 mother of seven children. Stephen Stowe, the 
 father of Jedediah, was also a hero of the Revolu- 
 tion, and gave food and shelter to American pris- 
 oners who escaped from the British prison ships 
 by swimming ashore on a cold, bleak winter's night. 
 These prisoners brought ship fever and smallpox 
 with them, and while Mr. Stowe ministered to their 
 needs, he fell a victim to the disease and died in the 
 path of duty. 
 
 Dr. George I. Hemingway spent his early years 
 in Westville, where he received his elementary edu- 
 cation in the common schools, and in the Hopkins 
 Grammar School. His medical education was (be- 
 gun in the College of Phvsicians and Surgeons, 
 and was continued in the University of Vermont, 
 from which institution he was graduated in 1897. 
 The same year, after giving not a little thought to 
 the matter, he selected New Haven for his home, 
 and opened his office for practice here, Nov. 29, 
 1897. A very flattering success has attended his 
 career in this citv, and he has won an enviable 
 standing both professionally and personally. 
 
 On Nov. 29, 1892, Dr. Hemingway was married 
 to Miss Ida Hallenbeck, a native of Catskill, N. Y., 
 where her father was a prominent citizen. She was 
 the only child of her parents, and is the mother of 
 one boy, Thornton W. Dr. Hemingway is a Re- 
 publican, and is a member of the State and County 
 
740 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Medical Societies of New Haven, where his devo- 
 tion to his profession and high character command 
 attention and inspire respect. 
 
 HORACE TEAIPLE SAHTH, who died Aug. 
 14, 1898, at his liome in Meriden, was one of the 
 most respected residents of that cit}'. He was born 
 •Sept. 30, 1833, in Landgrove, Bennington Co., \'t., 
 where his fatlier, Solomon Smith, was a farmer. 
 
 Solomon Smith was a native of Guilford, Vt. 
 He continued to till the soil in Landgrove and 
 Plymouth, that State (going to the latter town soon 
 after 1840), until past middle life. He came to 
 Meriden about 1867, making his home with his 
 son. He was killed by a train at Drury's crossing 
 Feb. 14, 1873, and was buried in the West cem- 
 etery. 2\Ir. Smith was much respected for his up- 
 right character. He married Hannah Holman, 
 who died Oct. 23, 1850, in Plymouth, Vt., and was 
 buried in Springfield, that State. They were the 
 parents of eight children. Chauncey, the eldest, 
 born Aug. 30, 1818, is a resident of Hiawatha, 
 Neb. Sally, born July 12, 1820, died in San Ber- 
 nardino county, Cal. Lucy died in infancy. Lydia, 
 born April 30, 1826, iirst married Charles P. Still- 
 well, and for her second husband James Lawton ; 
 all are now deceased. Alva, born Nov. 4, 1828, is 
 deceased. Lucy A., born June 30, 1821, is the 
 widow of Almon Pratt, who was killed by a train 
 in AJeriden. Horace T. was the seventh. Sibyl, 
 born March 30, 1836, married James Roberts, and 
 resides in Ludlow, A'ermont. 
 
 Horace T. Smith grew up in a rural com- 
 munity, and had such educational advantages as the 
 region afforded. Before attaining his majority he 
 engaged in teaming on his own account in Plym- 
 outh, \t. Li 185s he settled in Meriden, and was 
 employed until 1859 ^Y Deacon R. B. Perkins, in 
 the express business. At the end of this period he 
 set up in business for himself, beginning with 
 four horses. His genial manners, integrity and 
 faithful attention to the wants of the public had 
 already made him popular, and his business stead- 
 ily increased until at the time of his death he was 
 the owner of thirty-six horses, and had the largest 
 patronage, by far, of the kind in Meriden. In 
 1897 he suffered a shock of paralysis, and further 
 attacks ultimately took away — ^Vug. 14, i8g8 — one 
 of the most enterprising and industrious citizens 
 Meriden ever held. His remains rest in the West 
 cemetery. 
 
 \A'hile not affiliated with an'\- religious organi- 
 zation, "sir. Smith led an exemplary life," and 
 sought to follow the injunction laid down liy the 
 Divine Master in the golden rule. Pie was not a 
 politician, but supported the principles of the Re- 
 publican party, and >L'rved the city three years as 
 superintendent of streets. His broad and benevo- 
 lent dis]iosition is indicated by the fact that be was 
 affiliated with the three principal fraternal and 
 benevolent orders of the \\-orld. He held member- 
 ship in Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F. ; Alyrtle 
 
 Lodge, Xo. 4, Knights of Pythias ; and ^Meridian 
 Lodge, No. jy, A. F. & A. M., Keystone Chapter, 
 No. 27, R. A. ;\I., Hamilton Council, No. 22, R. & 
 S. M., and St. Elmo Commandery, K. T., all of 
 ^Meriden. He was always a patriotic supporter of 
 the government, and when the Civil war began he 
 wished to go to the front as a soldier, but the de- 
 mands of his family kept him at home. However, 
 when his name was found among those drawn by 
 chance to serve, he procured a substitute, and thus 
 aided in suppressing rebellion. 
 
 i\Ir. Smith was married. May 15, 1855, to Ade- 
 line Allen, daughter of Cyrus and Sally (Hall) 
 Allen, of Ludlow, Yt. Four children came to Mr. 
 and Mrs. Smith: (i) George P. is now a part 
 owner of the H. T. Smith Express Co., of Meri- 
 den; he married Ella Desmond, and has five chil- 
 dren, Horace "T., Carl D., Allen C, Adeline T. and 
 Stephen L. (2) Allen, the second child of Horace 
 T., died when three years old. (3) Charles S., the 
 third, is engaged in the express business at Shel- 
 burne Falls, Mass.; he married Lena Rachor, who 
 died leaving one child, Harold F (4) Nellie be- 
 came the wife of Charles Tredennick, who is in- 
 terested in the H. T. Smith Co., and has a son, 
 Ch.?.rles Max. Mrs. Smith has been connected 
 with Meriden Chapter, No. 8, O. E. S., since 1869, 
 and has served over twenty years as secretary of 
 the chapter. She is also identified with Merriam 
 AVomans Relief Corps. A lady of high Christian 
 character, she enjoys the esteem of a wide ac- 
 quaintance, and takes part in many good works. 
 
 HON. JOHN WALTER MIX, United States 
 Collector at the Port of New Haven, and for many 
 years a prominent manufacturer and business man 
 at the town of Cheshire, Conn., is one of the sub- 
 stantial and influential men of New Haven county. 
 
 Mr. Mix was born ^March 31, 1850, in Cheshire, 
 a son of John and Eliza (Merriman) ]\Iix, and a 
 descendant on both sides from early Colonial fam- 
 ihes. On the paternal side he descends from 
 Thomas Mix (^Mixx, or Meeks, as the spelling is 
 varied), who came to New Haven from London, 
 England, when a young man. In 1649 he married 
 Rebecca Turner, daughter of Capt. Nathaniel 
 Turner, one of the most prominent Pilgrim settlers 
 in New England. Thomas Mix died in i6qi, and 
 was buried near the old church in the burying 
 ground on the "Green" in New Haven. 
 
 (II) John Mix, son of Thomas, was born in 
 1649, and in 1670 removed to Wallingford. He 
 married Elizabeth Heaton, of New Haven. He 
 died Jan. 21, 171 1, and she passed away Aug. 21, 
 following. 
 
 (II) Daniel Mix was born Sept. 8, 1653. On 
 :Ma\- 2, ir.-8, he married Ruth, daughter of John 
 and Sarah (Ensign) Rockwell, of Hartford, Conn. 
 
 (HI) Thomas :Mix, son of Daniel, was born 
 March 25, 1679, and married on March 12, 170^ 
 to Deborah Roys. ' / j> 
 
 {.i-Y) Thomas Alix (2), son of Thomas, was 
 
^ ^ ^, &^^-r..^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 741 
 
 torn Nov. 27, 1709, and married on April 5, 1736, 
 to Ruth Manross. 
 
 (V) John Mix, son of Thomas (2), born Aug'. 
 25, 1750, married Dec. 10, 1781, Elizabeth Hall, 
 who died Sept. 7, 1845. He died Oct. 3, 1824. 
 
 (VI) John Mix (2), son of John, was born 
 Feb. 10, 1784. On April 6, 1808, he married Olive 
 Ives, who passed away Sept. i, 1856. He died 
 April 5, 1849. 
 
 (VII) John Mix (3 ), son of John (2), and fath- 
 er of John Walter, was born Jan. 16, 18 13, and he be- 
 came one of the pioneer manufacturers at Cheshire. 
 About 1830 Edward A. Cornwall had a small shop 
 which was operated with water power from the 
 Canal below the second lock, at a place then called 
 Beachport, now West Cheshire, and there made 
 •coffee mills. Mr. Mix leased this shop, and began 
 making Britannia spoons in a small way, increasing 
 Ills output as the years passed until he came to em- 
 ploy a working force of more than thirty hands. 
 He was also engaged in the manufacture of gim- 
 lets and au'ger bits, and was in business until the 
 abandonment of the Canal in 1846 took away his 
 power. The place on Ten-Mile River afterward be- 
 came Mixville, where a power had been improved 
 to operate a small gristmill. Mr. Mix built new 
 shops in which he made bits and gimlets. In 1853 
 he formed a stock companv. entitled the John Mix 
 ilanufacturing Co., and finally leased the factory 
 in Mixville to J. W. Mix & Co., who sold out and 
 removed to Southington, and remained there 
 eighteen months. Mr. Mix, however, continued the 
 manufacture of edge tools in Cheshire until his 
 retirement in 1876. His death occurred in March, 
 1889. He married Eliza Merriman, a daughter of 
 Albert Merriman, a resident of Southington, and 
 a man of much character and standing in his day. 
 
 (IX) John Walter Mix was educated in the 
 Episcopal Military Academy of his native town and 
 at Golden Hill Institute, Bridgeport, Conn. He 
 became associated with his father in the manufac- 
 ture of edgie tools in 1876, and when his father 
 retired, took full charge of the business, added a 
 full line of carpenter's edge tools and, developing 
 much business and mechanical ability, soon built up 
 a very large business. In 1886 Mr. Mix took 
 charge of a similar enterprise conducted by the firm 
 of G. I. Mix & Co., at Yalesville, where he has 
 made for himself a most admirable reputation in 
 business circles, being well and favorably known, 
 not only at home, but throughout the State. 
 
 From boyhood Mr. Mix has taken a deep inter- 
 est in public affairs, and for years has been one of 
 the prominent men in his native county, where he 
 is now looked upon as an able and talented leader. 
 In 1883 he w^as the representative of his town in 
 the General Assembly. In 1892 he was defeated 
 for State Senator, but in 1895 was triumphantly 
 elected to that body, being re-elected in 1897, from 
 the Sixth Senatorial District. His services to the 
 State as a member of the Legislature were charac- 
 
 terized by patriotic zeal, marked business ability, 
 and won for him deserved distinction. In Febru- 
 ary, 1899, Mr. Mix was appointed by Pres. McKin- 
 ley. Collector of the Port of New Haven, an im- 
 portant position which he has since filled with sig- 
 nal ability. He is a member of the Republican! 
 State Central Committee, the Union League, and 
 the Young Alen's Republican Club of New Haven, 
 and the Home Club of Meriden. Collector Mix is 
 one of the prominent Masons of the State, having 
 taken the Ihirty-Second Degree, and is now Past 
 Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, 
 and is Grand Captain General of the Grand Com- 
 mandery of the Knights Templar. 
 
 On Oct. 2, 1872, Mr. Mix was married to Miss 
 Kate Wallace, daughter of Franklin Wallace of 
 Cheshire. This union" was blessed with six chil- 
 dren : Edna, Tenna (died), Ethel, Helen, Clifford 
 (died), and Breckenridge. Edna married Eugene 
 A. Hall, treasurer of the town of Meriden, trustee 
 of the State School for Boys, and treasurer and 
 teller of the Meriden Savings Bank, and Eminent 
 Commander of St. Elmo Commandery, K. T. ; they 
 have two children, Fanny and Edna. Helen gradu- 
 ated from the State Normal School at New Britain 
 in 1902, and Mrs. Hall and Ethel from the Meriden 
 High School. Mrs. Hall was a teacher in the pub- 
 lic schools for five years, including three years in 
 New Haven. Ethel has been teaching in the Wal- 
 lingford schools three years. The son, Breckenridge, 
 is now a member of the Boardman Training School 
 of New Haven. Mr. Mix is a member of the Sons 
 of the American Revolution. In January, 1902, 
 Mr. Mix removed to Meriden, severing his connec- 
 tion with the manufactory at Yalesville. 
 
 LEW ALLEN LIPSETTE, better known as 
 Lew Allen, editor and one of the founders of the 
 Meriden Daily Journal, is one of the best-known 
 newspaper men in the State, and, in point of serv- 
 ice, the oldest in the city of 'Meriden. He was born 
 Feb. 18, 1S52, in the city of New York, where he 
 received his education in the public schools. His 
 first independent undertaking was in newspaper 
 work, and for more than a quarter of a century he 
 has been engaged in journalism in Connecticut. He 
 was city editor of the New Haven Union until 1886, 
 when he became interested with Francis Atwater, 
 Thomas L. Reilly and Frank E. Sands in forming 
 the Journal Publishing Company, which began the 
 issue of the Meriden Daily Journal. Mr. Allen was 
 made vice president of this company, and has been 
 editor of the paper from its birth. It has grown 
 steadily in size and influence, and is to-day one of 
 the most enterprising and successful newspapers in 
 the State. It is a violation of no confidence, nor of 
 any rule of propriety, to say that much of this prog- 
 ress is due to the fertile mind and ready force of 
 Mr. Allen. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Allen is an Independent, and he 
 has served as a member of the Meriden Common 
 
742 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Council. For a period of five years he was a mem- 
 ber of Co. I, 2nd Regiment, Conn. National Guard. 
 He is connected with All Saints' Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church of Meriden. Fraternally he belongs 
 to Pilgrims' Harbor Council, No. 543, Royal Ar- 
 canum. ' • 
 
 In 1878 J\Ir. Allen married Miss Amelia Urick, 
 and his family includes two sons, Walter and Lewis, 
 Jr., now students in the Meriden High School. 
 
 WILLIS L. j\llX, who conducts one of the 
 most popular and complete drug stores in the city 
 of New Haven, and is prominent among druggists 
 throughout the State, was born iMarcli 13, 1851, 
 in New Haven, son of Lewis Mix, who is fully 
 mentioned elsewhere. ^ 
 
 ]\Ir. ^lix attended the public schools of his 
 native city, and later was a student at Russell's 
 Military Academy four years, after which, in 1867, 
 he entered old Ap(jthecaries Hall, acquiring his 
 first knowledge of the drug business with Noyes 
 & Shepard. He was subsequently with Lannam & 
 Sevin, in Norwich, and his last employer was 
 J. H. Klock, who carried on the drug business at 
 our subject's present location. Church and Chapel 
 streets. IMr. 2\Iix continued with Mr. Klock until 
 the latter's death. He had enjoyed a partnership 
 in the business for eighteen months prior to that 
 event, and has since been sole proprietor, having 
 purchased the remaining interest. In 1901, Air. 
 Mix completely renovated and refitted his estab- 
 lishment, which is one of the largest and best 
 appointed in the city, and also one of the best- 
 known, having been carried on without interrup- 
 tion for over fifty years. It was known for many 
 years as Klock's drug store. Our subject has a 
 large and varied assortment in his stock, and the 
 large patronage he enjoys requires the services of 
 six clerks. Mr. j\lix is well known to the trade 
 generally all over Connecticut. He was formerly 
 president of the Connecticut Pharmaceutical Asso- 
 ciation, and is at present one of the State Board of 
 Commissioners of Pharmacy, consisting of three 
 druggists appointed by the governor to examine 
 candidates for druggists' licenses. 
 
 On Dec. 29, 1875, Air. Mix was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Harriet E. Bradley, a native of 
 New Haven, and they have had one child, Claribel, 
 who was educated in New Haven and Northamp- 
 ton, Alass., and was married Nov. 20, 1901, to 
 Albert L. Whitcomb, a photographer of Walling- 
 ford, this county. Mrs. Mix was one of the six 
 children of Frederick and Elvira (Wakeley) 
 Bratllev, of whom Theodore S. is a resident of 
 Meriden; Harriet E. is Mrs. Mix; Mrs. L. L. Camp 
 resides in New York ; and Mrs. George T. Strong 
 lives in Maiden, Alass. The mother is still living 
 in New Flaven. Mr. Bradley was engaged as a 
 carriage manufacturer and was a prominent citizen 
 of New Haven. 
 
 Mr. i\Iix stands high in Alasonic circles, having 
 
 taken the thirty-second degree. He holds mem- 
 bership in Wooster Lodge, F. & A. AL, of which 
 he is senior warden ; Franklin Chapter ; Harmony 
 Council, No. 8, in which he has held all the offices; 
 New Haven Commandery, No. 2, in which he has 
 held a number of offices and was eminent com- 
 mander in 1895; the Lodge of Perfection, of which 
 he is grand senior warden ; the Scottish Rite Ma- 
 sons ; Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. ; is a 
 trustee of the Grand Lodge of the State of Connec- 
 ticut ; and is an active member of the Knights 
 Templar Club. He also affiliates with the A. O. U. 
 W., and is a member of the Sons of the American 
 Revolution. Mr. Alix is a Republican in political 
 sentiment. In religious connection he is a Congre- 
 gationalist, belonging to the Dwight Place Church, 
 is a member of the society's committee and of the 
 Congregational Club. A worker in all the organ- 
 izations with which he is identified, progressive in 
 his chosen line of business, and honorable in all 
 the relations of life, he ranks high among his asso- 
 ciates as a man whose intelligence and worth com- 
 mend him --J the unc[ualified esteem of all who 
 know him. 
 
 OSCAR C. HUPFER, the junior member of 
 the grocery firm of Pierce & Hupfer, of Britannia 
 St., Meriden, is one of the esteemed citizens and 
 successful business men of this city. He was born 
 at Haydenville, Hampshire Co., Mass., June 16, 
 1862, and is of German descent. 
 
 Christian Hupfer, his grandfather, was a native 
 of Germany, and was the owner and operator of 
 a flour mill. He was twice married, his first wife 
 being Christina Herman, who died in Germany. 
 His second wife was Belina Millenzuer, who came 
 to America with him and family about 1871. From 
 New York Air. Hupfer removed to East Hampton, 
 Mass. In his native land he had followed milling, 
 but he now settled down on a small farm and spent 
 the remainder of his days on it, dying in 1896, at 
 the age of eighty-four years. His iDurial took place 
 in East Hampton. In Germany he belonged to the 
 Lutheran Church, but his religious views were 
 broad enough to enable him to take comfort in the 
 Congregational services held in his vicinity. He 
 was a Democrat in his political belief. Airs. Hup- 
 fer still resides in East Hampton. A family of 
 twenty-four children was born to Mr. Hupfer, thir- 
 teen by his first marriage, the survivors being as 
 follows : Charles Frederick ; Minnie ; Sidonia, 
 who married William Sanford of Aleriden ; Au- 
 gustina, who resides in East Hampton ; Ernestina, 
 who married Albert O. Hartenstine, of Aleriden. 
 Of the eleven children born to the second marriage, 
 the survivors are as follows : Mary, who married 
 Henry C. Kline, of Aleriden; Sarah, who married 
 Air. Knodel, of East Hampton; Frederick; Rich- 
 ard ; and Hattie, who resides at East Hampton. 
 
 Charles Frederick Hupfer, father of Oscar C, 
 
 was born in Germany, and 
 
 sood, Ger- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 743 
 
 man education, and then learned the trade of gold- 
 smith. His father having a large family and busi- 
 ness prospects not lookmg very bright for the 
 }Oung man's future, he left home and emigrated to 
 America while still in his teens. By the time he 
 reached New York his means were pretty well ex- 
 hausted, hut his destination was Haydenville, Aiass., 
 and he managed to reach there, soon finding work 
 at his trade with some of his countrymen. Later 
 he removed to East Hampton, where he industrious- 
 ly followed his trade, quietly accumulating means, 
 and in middle life was able to invest the same in 
 a small farm, to which he then retired and which 
 he is still engaged in operating. In his commun- 
 ity, Mr. Hupfer is much respected for his honesty 
 and industry, and he is a leading member of the 
 Lutheran Church. In former years he was a Demo- 
 crat, but later issues caused him to become a Re- 
 publican. 
 
 In East Hampton, Mass., 'Mr. Hupfer married 
 Wilhelmina (]\Iinnie) Knipfer, born in Saxony, 
 Germany, daughter of William Knipfer, who owned 
 and operated a woolen mill, in Germany. Mrs. 
 Hupfer, the mother of our subject, still resides in 
 her home in East Hampton, Alass. The children 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Hupfer were : Minnie, who 
 married Frank Miller, resides in East Hampton, 
 Mass. ; Oscar C. ; Max L., of Bridgeport, Conn. ; 
 Charles August, who resides in East Hampton ; 
 Flora, at home ; and one that died in infancy. 
 
 Oscar C. Hupfer moved with his parents from 
 Haydenville to East Hampton, where he had school 
 advantages for a short time. As early as nine years 
 he began to be a wage earner, in the East Hampton 
 woolen mills, remaining there, a f:iithful employe, 
 until he reached his majority, in the meantime con- 
 tributing to the family support. From early child- 
 hood he had displayed musical talent, and as soon 
 as he was able to do so, began the serious study 
 of the clarionet, mastering this musical instrument, 
 and becoming so perfect a performer upon it, that 
 when he discontinued work at the mills, he was able 
 to make this tuneful little instrument a source of 
 income. He started out on the road on a trial trip 
 with a minstrel troupe, and later was connected 
 with the Si Perkins Comedy Co., the J. C. Lewis 
 Comedy Co., as clarionet performer, and met with 
 such success that he remained in the musical line 
 for some six years, traveling all over the country. 
 ^ In 1886 Mr. Hupfer decided to locate, and with 
 this end in view came to Meriden and accepted a 
 position with the lamp department of the Charles 
 Parker Co., where he remained for five years, dur- 
 ing all this time playing in the Meriden Opera 
 House orchestra. Then Mr. Hupfer accepted a 
 clerical position in a store conducted by Shaw 
 Bros., on Britannia St., where he spent one year, 
 when, in company with his brother-in-law, H. At- 
 chison Pierce, he 'bought out the interest of Shaw 
 Bros, and embarked in the grocery business. Since 
 that time the business had been enlarged and ex- 
 
 tended and the firm name has become one "asso- 
 ciated with upright methods and honorable deal- 
 ings. No concern in the city stands better with 
 the trade and the general public than does that of' 
 Pierce & Hupfer. After a business life of eleven 
 years they have the assurance that their efforts to 
 secure and keep patronage meets with public ap- 
 proval. 
 
 On June 6, 18S6, Mr. Hupfer was married in 
 East Hampton, Alass., to Miss Edna E. Pierce, 
 born in Windsor, istass., daughter of Orris G. and 
 Harriet Pierce. Three children have been born to 
 this union : Raymond Douglas, Clarence Welling- 
 ton and Emma Harriet. Fraternally Mr. Hupfer 
 is connected with Center Lodge, No. 97, Meriden, 
 A. F. & A. M.; Aferiden Center Lodge, I. O. O. F., 
 taking an active interest in both organizations. Air. 
 Hupfer is also deeply interested in musical matters 
 in Meriden, and is a member of the Edwin D. Korn 
 orchestra, contributing to it a high order of musical 
 ability. In politics he is a Republican. His fam- 
 ily attend the Congregational Church. 
 
 Although Mr. Hupfer is now one of the sub- 
 stantial men of Aleriden, he was the architect of 
 his own fortunes. His industry and ability have 
 brought him from the very bottom of the ladder, 
 and his present prosperity is jiistly deserved. He 
 enjoys the respect of all classes for he is widely 
 known for his upright character, his charitable ac- 
 tions and his devotion to the best interests of his 
 community. 
 
 JAMES T. AfORAN is one of the younger 
 members of the New Flaven bar, who has taken 
 high rank in the profession, and who maintains a 
 creditable position in society as a man and a citizen. 
 
 Air. Aloran was born Sept. 19, 1864, in the town 
 of North Haven, Conn., a son of Thomas and 
 Alaria (CuUom) Aloran. He attended the public 
 schools of New Flaven and the Hillhouse high 
 school, from which he was graduated with the class 
 of 1883. The following year he was graduated 
 from the Yale Law School, with the degree of 
 LL. B., and the following year received the grad- 
 uate degree of AI. L. from Yale University. Soon 
 after his graduation he was admitted to the bar in 
 New Haven, and he presently became a member of 
 the prominent law firm of Tyler, IngersoU & Alor- 
 an. For the past seventeen years he has been 
 earnestly and indefatigably engaged in the practice 
 of his profession with abundant and deserved suc- 
 cess, and he is the general attorney of the Southern 
 New England Telephone Company. 
 
 A^r. Aloran's political affiliations are with the 
 Democratic party, and in municipal affairs he has 
 been quite active and useful. His manly character- 
 istics and faithful labors- in his profession have com- 
 mended him to the consideration of his fellow citi- 
 zens.. For three years he served as a member of 
 the common council, being the president of that 
 body in 1888. From 1888 to 1892 he was a di- 
 
744 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 rector of the Free Public Library. Since 1893 lie 
 has been a vahied member of the board of educa- 
 tion, and is chairman of the committee on schools. 
 For three years he was a member of the board of 
 police commissioners, and has been president of the 
 Hillhouse High School Alumni Association. 
 
 j\Ir. Moran was married April 27, 1898, to Miss 
 Mary E. McKenzie, of New Haven, and they have 
 one child, Helen, born Jan. i, 1902. Socially Mr. 
 Moran is a member of the Graduates Club and 
 Knights of St. Patrick, both of New 1-iaven, and of 
 the Yale Club, of New York City. 
 
 BYRON DAA'ID WELTUN. Prominent 
 among the enterprising and successful business 
 men of Waterbury, New Haven county, is this 
 well-known dealer in grain, feed, coal and wood. 
 He is one of the native sons of that town, having 
 been born in W'aterville, Nov. 21, 185 1. 
 
 The A\'elton family is one of the oldest and 
 most highly respected in the State. The first to 
 come to America was John Welton, a native of 
 England, and one of the first settlers of Farm- 
 ington. Conn., as well as one of the pioneers of Wat- 
 erbury, whither he came in 1679, ^*^'d where he died 
 June 18, 1726. His wife, Mary, died Oct. 18, 1716. 
 
 Richard Welton, son of John, was born and 
 reared in Waterbury, and spent the last vears of 
 his life on Bucks Hill, that town, where he pur- 
 chased a house and land of Joseph Gaylord, Jr. He 
 died in 1755. In the year 1701 he wedded" Mary, 
 daughter of Stephen Upson, anid to them were 
 born nine children. 
 
 Richard Welton, Jr., the eldest child of Rich- 
 ard, was born in Waterbury Jan. 5, 1702, and re- 
 moved with his parents to Bucks Hill, where he 
 spent the remainder of his life engaged in agricul- 
 tural pursuits. He was well known and was very 
 prominent in public aiTairs. His death occurred 
 Jan. II, 1766, and bis remains were interred on 
 Bucks Hiill. On Nov. 3, 1724, he married Anna 
 Fenton, daughter of Jonathan Fenton, of Fairfield, 
 Conn., and they had five children : Anna, born 
 Aug. 17, 1725, married John Brown ; John, the next 
 in order of birth, is mentioned below ; Alji was born 
 Oct. 29, 1729; Titus, bom Oct. 20, 1732, died July 
 9, 1757; and Abby, born Oct. 3, 1738, married 
 Thomas Fenn. 
 
 John Welton, son of Richard, Jr., was born on 
 Bucks Hill Jan. 26, 1727, and he spent his entire 
 life at that place, where he owned and operated a 
 farm. He was known as John Welton, Esq., and 
 was a man of prominence in his community. He 
 died Jan. 22, 1816, and was buried on Bucks Hill. 
 His wife, who bore the maiden name of Dorcas 
 Hickcock, was born July 11, 1736, a daughter of 
 Capt. Samuel and Mary (Hopkins) Hickcock, and 
 granddaughter of William Hickcock. They had 
 ten children: Abi, born Nov. 2, 1758, died .May 
 14, 7828; the second died in infancy; Mary, born 
 June 10, 1760, married ITezekiah Phelps aiid died 
 
 Sept. 6, 1811; Ann, born Feb. 11, 1762, died May 
 10, 1803; Titus was born July 3, 1764; Richard 
 Fenton was born April 17, 1767; John, born Oct. 
 28, 1769, died Dec. i, 1776; Dorcas, born Oct. 29, 
 1771, died July 23, 1793; Adrian is mentioned be- 
 low; and John, born Jan. 13, 1778, died April 2, 
 1813. 
 
 Adrian Welton, son of John, was born on Bucks 
 Hill, ¥th. 15, 1775, and died Oct. 26, 1804. 
 
 Horace Clark Welton, son of Adrian, a farmer 
 of Bucks Hill, was born Feb. 15, 1801, and was 
 married June 20, 1823, to Sophia Bradley, who 
 was born April i, 1804, a daughter of Daniel Brad- 
 ley, of Plymouth Bay. They had two children, of 
 whom William Alonzo, born Dec. 20, 1824, was 
 married Nov. 10, 1847, to Eliza Prichard, daughter 
 of Leonard Prichard. 
 
 Frederick Alonzo Welton^ the younger son 
 of Horace C, was born on Bucks Hill April 8, 
 1827, was reared on his father's farm, and received 
 a district-school education. At the age of sixteen 
 he went to Waterville, "where he worked in a knife 
 shop for several years, and then removed to New 
 Haven, where he engaged in business for eighteen 
 years. On his return to \\'aterville he resumed 
 work in the knife shop, and was thus employed un- 
 til he embarked in the grain, feed, coal and wood 
 business, which he successfully carried on until 
 his death, building up a large trade. He passed 
 away Sept. 20, 1897, honored and respected by all 
 who knew him, and was laid to rest in Bucks Hill 
 cemetery. Politicalh' he was first a Whig and later 
 a Republican. In all the relations of life he was 
 found true to every trust reposed in him, and he 
 was very popular with his fellow citizens. On Jan. 
 I, 185 1, Mr. Welton was united in marriage with 
 Miss Harriet Maria Boyden, who was born Oct. 
 6, 1828, a daughter of David and Lucy Ann (Scott) 
 Boyden, the former a native of Massachusetts. 
 Airs. Welton's maternal grandparents were Joel 
 and Hannah (Bronson) Scott. Mrs. Welton, who 
 was an earnest member of the Episcopal Church, 
 and a most estimable lady, died in July, 1897, ancl 
 was buried in Bucks Hill cemetery. To her mar- 
 riage with Mr. Welton were born two sons : Byron 
 David, our subject; and Edward, who died at the 
 age of seven years. 
 
 During his boyhood Byron D. Welton pursued 
 his studies in the district schools of Waterville and 
 a private school at New Haven. He began his busi- 
 ness career with his father in the knife shop at 
 Waterville, and was thus employed until his father's 
 death, when he assumed control of the grain, feed, 
 coal and wood business, which he has since carried 
 on with marked success, being a man of unusually 
 good business ability and sound judgment. He 
 holds membership in the Episcopal Church, and 
 casts his ballot for the men and measures of the 
 Republican party, but has never been a politician 
 in the sense of office seeking. In Waterville he 
 married Miss Harriet L. Hubbard, a native of 
 
^iS 
 
 ^ a. Ir^Uc 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 745 
 
 Terryville, Litchfield Co., Conn., and to them have 
 been born two children : Clark Hubbard, now at- 
 tending school ; and Mary, who died at the age of 
 four years. 
 
 WILLARD S. PAIN, superintendent of the 
 works of the Aeolian Co., at Meriden, and secretary 
 of the company, might well be termed a thorough- 
 bred. He comes to his calling by fcirth and breed- 
 ing, and so is naturally fitted for it. His fathers 
 iDefore him were musicians and musical mechanics, 
 and he has a son preparing to follow him.. He, 
 himself, was born in the citv of New York, Oct. 
 
 2, 1855. 
 
 Stephen Pain, his paternal grandfather, was a 
 native of Dover, County Kent, England, and a mu- 
 sician and church organist there. He was also a 
 composer, and a man devoted to his profession and 
 its work. He married a Miss Willard, of the same 
 town, and they had three children : Robert W.. 
 father of Willard S., and who is with his son in the 
 employ of the Aeolian Co. ; Annie, who married 
 WiUiam Gardner ; and Mary, who never married. 
 These with their mother he brought to America 
 locating in New York, where he passed the remain- 
 der of his days, and where also his wife died. They 
 were members of the iM. E. Church. 
 
 Robert W. Pain, father of Willard S., and the 
 only son of Stephen, was but five years of age 
 when 'brought to this country, having been born in 
 1832. He attended school in New York, but started 
 early to learn a trade. He first' essayed roofing, 
 probably because it was the first thing that offered) 
 but he was not born for climbing of that kind and 
 soon gave it up when opportunity opened in the 
 factory of Nurms & Clark, piano manufacturers of 
 New York, where he served a three-years' appren- 
 ticeship, and afterward followed the trade several 
 years. When Carhart & Needham began the manu- 
 facture of Cabinet organs, he accepted a position 
 with that firm and remained in it a number of years 
 during many of which he had the position of master 
 mechanic and expert ; and when the mechanical mu- 
 sical instruments were brought out he perfected 
 them, and was with the firm of E. P. Needham & 
 Son. Thereafter he was engaged with the old Or- 
 ganet Company until the formation of the Aeolian 
 Co., with which latter he is now. He is president of 
 the company, and his employment is the important 
 experimental work of this progressive concern, and 
 though now in his seventieth year, he is acutely at- 
 tentive and active in it. He is a great lover of mrisic 
 and musical instruments, has made many inventions 
 and perfected many more, all musical. He is one of 
 the best-known men in his business, is considered 
 a "born genius," and is a thorough master of the 
 art and craft to which his heart and life have heen 
 devoted, and in whose progress he still takes the 
 keenest interest. He is a man of domestic tastes 
 and habits, and a broad-minded citizen. He be- 
 longs to Mariner's Lodge, No. 67, A. F. & A. M., 
 
 and to the Consistory. His wife was Elizabeth 
 Wilson, born in Brooklyn, N. Y., daughter of Cap- 
 tain Wilson, a mariner who was lost at sea. Sh^ 
 died in her home in 187 1, and was buried in Ever- 
 green cemetery, Brooklyn. She bore five children, 
 three daughters and two sons, of whom only one 
 of the sons survives. The others were George, 
 Annie, Elizabeth and Mary. 
 
 Willard S. Pain, the only survivor of the five 
 children of Robert W. and Elizabeth (Wilson) 
 Pain, has some right to the natural heritage of all. 
 He attended the public schools of New York until 
 he was about sixteen years of age. He then en- 
 tered the employ of E. P. Needham & Son in the 
 capacity of cabinetmaker and turner, and remained 
 therein until 1880, when he accepted a position with 
 the Automatic Musical Paper Co., of Boston. He 
 continued with that con^pany till 1888; and when 
 the Aeolian Co. came to Meriden he came with it, 
 first in the capacity of foreman of the Music De- 
 partment, in charge of the work of producing the 
 rolls of music, its cutting, etc., at which he remained 
 until 1900, when he was appointed general super- 
 intendent of the works, succeeding Mr. Chase. He 
 has now filled this important and responsible posi- 
 tion for two years, with ever increasing credit to 
 himself and gratification of his employers and asso- 
 ciates. He has seen the business increase more than 
 one-half, and now has employed upward of 350 
 hands, with all of whom he enjoys the utmost con- 
 fidence and respect. He is a man of very genial 
 disposition, and is of a nature generous to a fault. 
 He is also a man of intellect and intelligence, of in- 
 ventive mind and skillful hand. Among his inven- 
 tions may be mentioned those for music cutting and 
 duplicating, a stencil machine, a machine for pre- 
 paring patterns, etc. He has made and perfected a 
 number of useful inventions relating to music and 
 musical instruments. Mr. Pain's health is like his 
 character and attainments. His sound mind dwells 
 in a sound body. He has not lost a day's pay in 
 twenty-five years. His good health comes from 
 right living. He exemplifies in his living the noble 
 doctrine of doing unto others as you would that 
 they should do unto you, and treats his body as he 
 would another that it may do likewise with himself, 
 and give him always the best thoughts and feelings 
 with strength for his duties. Politically he acts as 
 an independent Republican, but he is in no sense a 
 politician. He is a member of Alfred H. Hall Coun- 
 cil, No. 1423, Royal Arcanum, of Meriden, a good 
 man well liked and respected by all who know him. 
 It might easily be guessed that his habits are do- 
 mestic, and well they may be, surrounded, as he is, 
 by a loving and devoted wife, his son Robert — now 
 with him at the Aeolian factory — and his daughter 
 Emily, a charming young woman of the most pleas- 
 ing personality and manners, of general culture, a 
 graduate of the Meriden high school, and a culti- 
 vated as well as natural musician. 
 
 Mrs. Pain was formerly Miss Emily Jane Swee- 
 
746 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ney. She is a daughter of John and Avis (Chap- 
 man) Sweeney, and, Hke her husband, is a native 
 of Xew York, where they were married in 1878. 
 She is also a lovely woman, a member of the Episco- 
 pal Church, and devoted to her husband and chil- 
 dren. 
 
 CAPT. LAURENCE O'BRIEN, whose name 
 is written high in the military annals of his adopted 
 country, and whose sacrifices for the freedom of 
 his native land have endeared him to patriotic peo- 
 ple everywhere, is one of those Irish-Americans we 
 most delight to honor. He was born in County 
 Tipperary, Ireland, April 7, 1842, a son of Edward 
 O'Brien, a mason and builder, who came to New 
 Haven in 1852. Edward O'Brien married Eliza- 
 beth Hammel, who was born in Tipperary and died 
 in America, the mother of seven children, namely : 
 Margaret, Ellen, Laurence, Mary Ann (who mar- 
 ried Capt. William O'Keefe, of New Haven, a 
 soldier in the Civil war), Elizabeth, Catherine and 
 Felix. 
 
 Laurence O'Brien was but ten years of age 
 when his parents brought him to this country. In 
 his native Ireland he had attended the National 
 schools, and after coming to New Haven he for 
 a time studied in St. Patrick's parochial school. 
 When he left school he learned the brick-layer's 
 trade, and was engaged in this calling at the out- 
 break of the Civil war. In August, 1861, he en- 
 listed in Company B, 9th Conn. V. I. Previous 
 to this he had served in the Emmet Guards in New 
 Haven, and the training there received enabled 
 him to be of great assistance in the organization 
 of the 9th Regiment. Gen. Russell, of the Mili- 
 tary Academy, gave him considerable instruction, 
 and in October, 1861, ^Mr. O'Brien was commis- 
 sioned first lieutenant. On Oct. 15, 1862, he was 
 promoted to the rank of captain, and given com- 
 mand of Company D, same regiment. One month 
 previous to this promotion he had been wounded 
 in the left hip, while on an expedition against 
 guerrillas in the parish of St. Charles, La., and 
 the following jMarch was detailed by Gen. Banks 
 as provost marshal for the parish of St. James, La., 
 and one' month later was appointed provost judge. 
 One of the first engagements in which the 9th par- 
 ticipated, after their enlistment in 1861, was the 
 battle of Pass Christian, Aliss., and for the part 
 borne in this engagement Capt. O'Brien received 
 honorable mention. He also took part in the cap- 
 ture of New Orleans, in 1862, and was also pres- 
 ent at the capture of Forts Jackson and St. Phillip, 
 first siege of Vicksburg, the engagement at Baton 
 Rouge, and many others. Capt. O'Brien com- 
 manded the last detachment of the 19th Army 
 Corps from Louisiana, reporting to Gen. Emer\-, 
 commander of the 19th ,'Vrmy Corps, which was 
 one of the corps under Gen. Sheridan in the Shen- 
 andoah Valley, in August, 1864, and subsequentlv 
 taking part in all the engagements of that noted 
 
 General in that valley, including Winchester, Fish- 
 er's Hill and Cedar Creek. In October, 1864, the 
 9th Conn. V. I. was mustered out in New Haven. 
 At the close of his army service Capt. O'Brien re- 
 turned to New Haven, and followed his trade of 
 bricklaying for eight months. Then came the 
 call from Ireland to assist in a blow for freedom, 
 and Capt. O'Brien was the first to respond. The 
 record of that time is most graphically described 
 by himself, as follows : 
 
 In 1865 I was State Center of the F. B. in Connecticut. 
 In August I was informed that the fight for freedom would 
 begin m Ireland as soon as the harvest was gathered, and 
 we should see that none of it was allowed to go out of the 
 country. I was also informed that all ofificers of military 
 skill and ability, who expected to help in the fight, should 
 be in Ireland before the risin? as the blockade would be 
 on, and it would be difficult to get in afterwards. I noti- 
 fied the officers who lived in my district, and we reported 
 at headquarters in New York, and received our instruc- 
 tions, and when I was Efoing aboard the steamer, to sail, 
 I was informed that the council wanted me to remain in 
 New York until further orders. After one week's delay in 
 New York I was given a bag of 1,000 sovereigns in gold, 
 a second bill of exchange of 1.500 pounds. I was also given 
 a sealed dispatch, not to read until I was one day at sea. 
 I was to commit it to memor^- and destroy it before I ar- 
 rived in Ireland. I did so. I went to Tipperary and found 
 all the young men willing and anxious to do their part. 
 After one week in my native town, Cahir, I returned to 
 Dublin. I was sent to Paris and received all money coming" 
 from America. During my stay in Paris. December, 1865, 
 January, February and iVlarch, 1866, I received $113,000, 
 all of which I sent to Ireland by messengers, and not one 
 cent was lost or fell into the hands of the enemy. I left 
 Paris for Dublin, but when I arrived in Liverpool, word 
 was sent from headquarters to remain in Liverpool, and 
 to ask the chief men there to find quarters for the officers 
 who escaped arrest in Ireland, and I found places for all. 
 among whom was Michael O'Brien, the IManchester martjn', 
 who gave his life for the cause, whose last words were 
 "God save Ireland." January, 1867, I went to Ireland, and 
 at Clonmel prepared for action. I started for the place 
 rendezvous by way of Cashel, where I tried to hire a 
 car to take me to Golden, when I was arrested and com- 
 mitted to jail, for being a ptranger. Not having any refc- 
 ences, I was detained in Cashel for tAvo weeks. A warrant 
 was read to me to remove me to Clonmel jail by order of 
 the lord lieutenant. When arrested I .gave the name of 
 Osborne, but in the lord lieutenant's warrant was Osborne 
 or O'Brien. They learned who I was, but not from me. 
 I was escorted in irons by armed police to Clonmel jail. 
 After five months in that jail, it was galling monotonous, 
 and this time I was charged with high treason against Her 
 Most Gracious Majesty, and a separate charge of treason 
 felony. I then saw that they were bound to kill me. I 
 determined to escane. I received files and tools that I cut 
 the bars with. 
 
 Mr. O'Brien had friends both inside and out- 
 side the prison. One of two prison guards was 
 his chief aid. He informed his friends that he 
 would come out between twelve and one o'clock 
 on the night of September 18, which he did not 
 quite succeed in doing, his escape being between 
 four and five in the morning of the 19th. He 
 describes his escape as follows : 
 
 i\fy friends wiin were waiting for me went away in 
 despair at three o'clock, and when I came to my senses, 
 after being stunned in falling from the outside wall, at 
 just before daybreak. I started for the country, and met 
 friends four miles awav where I remained two days for 
 
\^ZyOiyi^i^>^^<- ^yyi-^^^-^-'^-'-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 747 
 
 rest. In the fall off the wall I broke my right shoulder- 
 bone, and mv face was badly disfigured. After four days 
 I traveled nights by way of Mullinahone into the County 
 of Kilkenny, along the Welsh mountains, crossed the 
 river Suir at Granny Castle, by taking one of Lord Bes=- 
 borough's pleasure boats, and when on the Waterford side 
 pushed the boat adrift and soon was among friends, and 
 after a few days was again back in Paris. 
 
 The effect of his escape upon the authorities 
 there, and their surmises as to the methods he pur- 
 sued, are well told in the following article in the 
 Irish Citizen (New York paper), issue of Oct. 19, 
 1867: 
 
 The editor of the Irish Citizen well knew Capt. 
 O'Brien, who spent many months of last year jn Paris. He 
 is a genuine and gallant patriot, and an honorable man. 
 It need not be added that we congratulate him heartily on 
 his fortunate escape from the dan.srers of the enemy. We 
 give the details of his escape from a Tipperary paper. 
 
 Considerable excitement was created at Clonniel on 
 yesterday morning by the escape of Charles J. Osborne 
 from our county jail, in whiclr for some months past he 
 has been .confined on a charge of complicity in the Fenian 
 movement. Osborne was arrested on the 28th of Febru- 
 ary, in the vicinity of Cashel. He had visited Clonmel with 
 Gen. Bourke, and soon after parting with the latter his 
 capture was effected; he was immediately transmitted to 
 Clonmel, where he remained to the 12th of August, incar- 
 cerated under the Lord Lieutenant's warrant. On the 12th 
 of. August, however, the Honorable Martin J. French, R. 
 M., held an investigation into the charges preferred against 
 the prisoner, the result of which was his commitment for 
 trial to the next assizes. Some time since informer Cori- 
 don was confronted by the prisoner, and he stated that his 
 real name was Laurence O'Brien, and he further gave evi- 
 dence as to his connection with Fenianism. Osborne, or 
 O'Brien, is a fine-looking young man, about six feet high, 
 and built in proportion. During his confinement he obeyed 
 the prison rules unmurmuringly, and no one entertained the 
 remotest suspicion of his attempting to escape, which, in- 
 deed, seemed hopeless. However, that he succeeded on 
 Wednesday night, in a most daring manner, is now beyond 
 a question. His cell was in the third story of the jail, and 
 was lighted by a single window, which was guarded by 
 thick wire bars. The prisoner was last seen by an official 
 at half past ten o'clock on Tuesday night, when, having 
 completed the inspection of the cells, the man on duty locked 
 up the corridor for the night. On openino- up the cell next 
 morning at six o'clock, it was found that the prisoner had 
 escaped. The bars had been cut through, leaving an apert- 
 ure of eight inches by fourteen, a short rope was attached 
 to another bar, and another rope was fastened around the 
 embrasure of the main wall to the north side of the trap. 
 Viewed from any point the escape appears most extraordin- 
 ary. It he got through the window he must have had more 
 than one accomplice outside, for he could not of himself 
 get on to the parapet over the front of the jail, over which 
 he must have passed, if he availed himself of the second 
 rope. A medical gentleman, who inspected the iron bars, 
 is of the ooinion that they were cut by the clever employ- 
 ment of acids, while they have also the appearance of hav- 
 ing been severed by a saw and oil. It was evidently not 
 the work of one night, for the prisoner had used a piece 
 of dark colored plaster to hide any indentation made from 
 time to time in the bars. The work of Wednesday night, 
 however, must have been arduous in the extreme. The 
 prisoner managed to keep a bar of iron in his cell, which 
 he cut around with a file and broke off in the center. One 
 end of it appears to be forged chisel shape, and with this 
 he knocked away the sittings of the bars, and made an 
 opening for himself. The ropes must have been given to 
 him from the outside; and if such was the case, a ladder 
 must have been used by his accomplice to scale the main 
 wall. The wildest conjectures have been formed as to the 
 
 mode of his escape, and to a certainty, if he went through 
 the window, the act was one of a character most daring. 
 The matter was at once reported to the constabularv, and 
 notwithstanding the most active and prompt exertion not 
 the remotest trace of the fugitive has been discovered. Os- 
 borne wore the prison dress and the oolice innuired of the 
 people in the country, as they passed, if they had seen a 
 lunatic in a gray dress going that way, but no one had seen 
 or heard of such, and the search proved unavailing. We 
 should mention that a small coil of roie was found un- 
 used in the cell occupied by the prisoner, as also the bar 
 alluaed to, a felt hat, in which were placed the stones re- 
 moved from the window frame. His hoots were found in 
 the yard under the window of the cell. They had been 
 fastened one to the other, and had evidently slipped off the 
 arm or from the hold of the prisoner. The affair will, of 
 course, undergo strict investigation, and the public will 
 look forward eagerly to its further elucidation. The affair, 
 in connection with the renorts from Manchester, created 
 unusual excitement in our town and vicinity. 
 
 After three years in the cause of the Fenians 
 in Ireland, Capt. O'Brien returned to America and 
 became superintendent of the Norwich water 
 works. In 1870 he became interested in the build- 
 ing business, and in this he continued in New 
 Haven. He has been successful in his work, put- 
 ting into his business the enthusiasm and energ)'' 
 that made him a forceful character in military af- 
 fairs. 
 
 In February, 1869, Capt. O'Brien married Cath- 
 erine Divine, who was born in Norwich, Conn., 
 a daughter of Timothy Divine, a native of Kil- 
 larney, Ireland. She passed away in 1890, the 
 mother of five children : Mary, Edward, Laurence 
 Burke, James T. and Elizabeth. Of these Edward 
 alone is married ; and all the boys are interested in 
 their father's business. In his political affiliations 
 Capt. O'Brien is independent, and, while he has 
 never in any way sought office, he was police com- 
 missioner for one term, and he has represented the 
 Fifth ward in the common council. He belongs 
 to the Knights of St. Patrick's Club, a social or- 
 ganization of the best element of the Irish citi- 
 zens ; and fraternally he is a member of Admiral 
 Foote Post, G. A. R. On Oct. 26, 1893, he was 
 elected Department Commander of the U. V. U., 
 an honor of which any soldier may well be proud, 
 and one which is conferred on no one whose war 
 record cannot bear the closest scrutiny. That he 
 conscientiously performed the duties of this office 
 need not be stated, as Capt. O'Brien is a man who 
 shirks no duty, but by his faithful performance 
 lends honor to every task. 
 
 THEODORE H. MACDOXALD, who was 
 born in New Haven, March 11, 1862, takes a lead- 
 ing part in the political, social and business interests 
 of his native city, where he is respected alike for 
 his genuine manliness, business ability and gqnial 
 disposition. 
 
 William D. Macdonald, the father of Theodore 
 H., was born in Scotland, and, coming to this coun- 
 try a young man, attended Yale College, from which 
 he was graduated with much credit. His death oc- 
 curi-ed when he was thirty-eight, and he left his 
 
748 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 son Theodore only seven years old. He was a 
 jMason, and was highly respected in his day. Har- 
 riet Newell Nims, his wife, was born in Deerfield, 
 the home of her parents being near the old stockade, 
 and associated with Revolutionary events of an in- 
 teresting character. 
 
 Theodore H. Macdonald went to work at an 
 early age. The untimely death of his father threw 
 the care of his mother on his shoulders, and at the 
 age of ten he was a telegraph messenger bo.y. He 
 then became a carrier for the newspaper house of 
 Thomas H. Pease, and at an early age entered the 
 gentlemen's furnishing store of Warner & Dudley. 
 For eight years he was with Bradstreet's Agency, 
 and for eight and a half years he was in the news- 
 paper business, being with the New Haven Union 
 for the greater part of that time. After a year's 
 service as clerk for the board of selectmen he en- 
 tered the Internal Revenue Service of the United 
 States, and was thus emplo3'ed two years, at the 
 end of which time he took an interest in the Evening 
 Leader, which he assisted in starting, and with 
 which he spent four years. His next position was 
 in the office of the town agent, and for a year he 
 was clerk of the board of selectmen. For six years 
 he was chief clerk of the board of assessors, and at 
 the present time he is a member of the board of 
 assessors, his term extending to 1906. He is a 
 strong Republican, and is chairman of the New 
 Haven Republican town committee, secretary of the 
 Connecticut Republican League : for five years was 
 secretary of the Young Men's Republican Club, of 
 which he is a life member, and which he is now 
 serving on the executive committee ; and is a 
 member of the Union League. Fraternally Mr. 
 Macdonald is associated with the Masons; the Odd 
 Fellows ; the Knights of Pythias ; New Haven Tent, 
 No. 9, K. O. T. M., of which he is treasurer; 
 Israel Putnam Lodge, A. O. U. W. ; the Legion of 
 Honor, of New Haven ; and the United Service 
 Club. Mr. Macdonald has been a member of the 
 Second Company, Governor's Foot Guards, for the 
 past seven years, and holds the position of sergeant ; 
 for ten years previous he was a member of the New 
 Haven Grays, serving as private, corporal, sergeant, 
 first sergeant and second lieutenant. 
 
 Mr. Macdonald was married in 1895 to Miss 
 Flora L. Hitchcock, of New Haven, and to them 
 has come one child, who bears the name of Harry , 
 Nims. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY HAAS (deceased) was 
 one of the most respected German settlers in iNIeri- 
 den, where for many years he was engaged in busi- 
 ness as a verv successful dairy farmer. He was 
 born in Wilhelm. Wurtemberg, Germany, Nov. 5, 
 1829, a son of Henry Haas, who was also born in 
 A\'ilhelm, and followed the occupation of farm- 
 ing during his life time. For many generations the 
 family was connected with the Lutheran Church. 
 
 George Flenry Haas received a good education 
 
 in his native land, grew up on his father's farm, 
 and remained under the parental roof until 1854, 
 in which year he emigrated to this country. He 
 had first engaged passage on a vessel which was 
 lost at sea with all hands, but by some fortunate 
 mistake missed it, and was obliged to take the 
 next vessel, arriving safely in New York after a 
 voyage of thirty days. Having a brother at 
 Yalesville, he immediately sought that place, where 
 he found work for a time in the auger factory, 
 and for a number of years was in the employ of 
 G. I. Mix & Co., where he worked in the polish- 
 ing department. For a second time he became at- 
 tached to the auger factory, and there remained 
 until 1863, -when he bought a farm in the town 
 of Meriden, consisting of a tract of thirty acres. 
 On this place he made many substantial and per- 
 manent improvements, and there for over thirty 
 years was engaged in farming and dairying, with 
 the most satisfactory results. His herd of cows 
 increased until it became one of the most extensive 
 in the town. He died on Iris farm Oct. 18, 1900, 
 and was buried at Walnut Grove cemetery, Meri- 
 den. 
 
 'Mr. Haas was one of the organizers of the 
 Lutheran Church in Meriden, and was always an 
 active worker in its behalf. In politics he was a 
 Democrat, with independent proclivities. He be- 
 longed to Teutonia Lodge, No. 95, I. O. O. F., 
 and the German Mutual Aid Society. Well known 
 as an honest, industrious man, he was highly es- 
 teemed in the community in which he lived. 
 
 Mr. Haas was married in Yalesville, May 14, 
 1854, to Margaret Bader, a German compatriot, 
 who came to this country on the same ship which 
 brought him over. ^Irs. Haas was born May 7, 
 1829, a daughter of George and Katherine (Brown) 
 Bader, and died Jan. 17, 1896, and was buried in 
 Walnut Grove cemetery. She was a member of 
 the Lutheran Church. To Mr. and Mrs. Haas 
 were born three children, namely : Henry W. ; 
 Albert Frederick, who died Aug. 16, 1879, at the 
 age of twenty-two years, from the effects of a fall 
 from a load of hay; and Katie B., who is at home. 
 
 Henry W. Haas was born ]\Iarch 14, 1855, in 
 Tracy, where he attended the district school. 
 When he became a young man he engaged in farm- 
 ing and dairying, with his father, and has now 
 charge of the homestead. He is a skilled and pro- 
 gressive farmer, and is rapidly winning a place 
 among the most successful dairymen of this part 
 of the State. 
 
 Henry W. Haas married Mary C. Duis, who 
 was born in 1880, in New Orleans, daughter of 
 Herman C. Duis, a police officer of Meriden. They 
 have a family of three children : Mabel H., Ida 
 Katie and George H. Mr. Haas belongs to the 
 ^Masonic fraternity, and is enrolled in Center 
 Lodge, No. 87. He is also affiliated with Teutonia 
 Lodge, No. 95, I. O. O. F., and belongs to the 
 German Mutual Aid Society. In political matters 
 
Q 
 O 
 
 Q 
 
 M 
 
 03 
 
 03 
 
 UN 
 
 m 
 
 03 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 749 
 
 he takes an independent stand, though preferring 
 to act with the Democratic party. In the com- 
 munity he stands well, and is highly regarded by 
 all who know him. 
 
 ALBERT CHANDLER COE, one of the most 
 popular and successful of West Haven's younger 
 business men, whose home has been in that town 
 since 1878, was born June 21, 1864, in Bethany, 
 now Beacon Falls, Conn. His course in the common 
 schools was supplemented by two years' attendance 
 at the high school in West Haven, and at the age 
 of sixteen he was given a clerkship in a banking 
 house, remaining there four years ; after that period 
 he entered the employ of L. Candee & Co., of New 
 Haven, manufacturers of rubber boots and shoes, 
 with which concern he is still identified. His busi- 
 ness career affords a noteworthy illustration of the 
 success which attends capability and fidelity. Be- 
 ginning in a clerical capacity, he has steadily mount- 
 ed the ladder of official promotion. For several 
 years he acted as purchasing agent, for five years 
 filled the dual position of secretary and assistant 
 treasurer, and is at the present time treasurer of the 
 company. He is also director in and secretary of 
 the Shoe Hardware Co., of Waterbury, Connecticut. 
 
 On Oct. 19, 1887, Mr. Coe married Miss Mary 
 Frederika Ward, and six children have been born to 
 them, as follows : Frederick Julius, Marie Eliza- 
 beth, Katherine, Albert Douglas, Esther Louise and 
 Charles Anson. Mrs. Coe's family is one of the 
 oldest and most esteemed in West Haven. She is the 
 granddaughter of Jacob Ward, and the daughter of 
 Capt. Frederick S. Ward, a sea captain sailing to 
 the West Indies, who died in New Haven, at the 
 age of fifty years, and was buried in West Haven, 
 the town of his birth. Mrs. Coe's mother was Mary 
 E. Stevens, whose family settled in West Haven 
 about 1700. Mrs. Coe is one of a family of seven 
 children, five of whom are yet living, viz. : Fred- 
 erick S., Jr., of New Haven; Elliott, of Chicago; 
 Harry K., of West Haven ; Josephine, the widow of 
 Charles P. Whitney, of that town; and Mrs. Coe. 
 
 In private life Albert C. Coe is a genial and com- 
 panionable man, fond of company, and faithful to 
 every obligation. He built his present residence — 
 one of the finest in the village — in 1893, and there 
 he and his wife dispense a generous and refined 
 hospitahty. Both are communicants in Christ Epis- 
 copal Church, and Mr. Coe is senior warden in the 
 same, to which office he was elected in 1897. Fra- 
 ternally he is a high Mason, and Past Master of 
 Annawon Lodge, Xo. 115, W'CSt Haven, Conn., be- 
 sides being a member of the Chamber of Comm'erce 
 and the Union League Club, of New Plaven, and of 
 the Connecticut Society of the Sons of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution. 
 
 The Coe family is descended from Robert Coe, 
 a native of Suffolkshire, England, born there in 
 
 1596, married Anna (or Hannah) , born 
 
 in 1591, and with his family — wife and three sons. 
 
 John, Robert and Benjamin, born about 1626, 1627 
 and 1629 — ^came in the ship "Frances," in 1634. Mr. 
 Coe was of Boston and Watertown, Mass., and of 
 Wethersfield and Stamford, Conn., and of Hemp- 
 stead, L. I., removing with his family to the latter 
 place in 1644. He died in 1659. 
 
 (II) Robert Coe (2), son of Robert, born in 
 
 England about 1627, married Susanna , and 
 
 settled in Stratford, Conn., in 1654, where he died 
 in 1659. 
 
 (HI) John Coe, only son of Robert (2), born 
 May 10, 1658, in Stratford, married Dec. 20, 1682, 
 Mary, daughter of Joseph Hawley, of Stratford. 
 Mr. Coe died April 19, 1741. 
 
 (IV) Ebenezer Coe, son of John, born Aug. 18, 
 1704, married June i, 1727, Mary Blackman, and 
 died in Stratford in 1766. 
 
 (V) John Coe (2), son of Ebenezer, born Sept. 
 18, 1729, located when a young man in Derby, 
 Conn. He married, Sept. 8, 1755, Hannah, daugh- 
 ter of John Chatfield. Mr. Coe resided in the old 
 village of Derby, and died in 1783. 
 
 (VI) John Coe (3), son of John (2), born 
 March 27, 1764, married Aug. 17, 1785, Ruth, born 
 March 31, 1765, daughter of Isaac Johnson. 
 
 (VII) John Allen Coe, son of John (3), born 
 Sept. 8, 1792, married. May 10, 1812, Grace, daugh- 
 ter of Joseph and Esther Smith. Air. Coe died 
 Sept. 23, 1849, ^'^d his wife passed away Jan. 
 21, 1869. 
 
 (VIII) John Coe (4), son of John Allen, born 
 in Bethany Aug. 18, 1815, and spent his early school 
 days there, later running the tannery. He sold the 
 tannery and removed to Derby, and after a time 
 returned to Bethany (now Beacon Falls), where he 
 built a new tannery. About ten years prior to his 
 death he came to New Haven and engaged in the 
 leather business under the firm name of Ensign & 
 Coe. He sold Out to Mr. Ensign, and then removed 
 to Derby, and was appointed treasurer of the Housa- 
 tonic Water Company. At the time of his death 
 he was overseeing the building of a reservoir. On 
 Sept. 3, 1837, he married Mary Hoadley, of Nauga- 
 tuck. Conn., and their children were: (i) Julius 
 Curtis, born Aug'. 6, 1838. (2) Frances Augusta, 
 born July 28, 1840, married, Sept. 26, i860, Rev. 
 Bennett Tyler Abbott. (3) John Allen, born Nov. 
 18, 1844. (4) Charles Hoadley, born Nov. 19, 
 1849, died in June, 1900. (5) George Albert, born 
 Aug. 5, 1854, died Oct. 13, 1855. (6) Benjamin 
 Lee, born Jan. 27, i860. Air. John Coe was a good 
 representative of the Coe family. In his later years 
 he made Birmingham his residence, and was es- 
 teemed among the useful and most exemplary citi- 
 zens. He was a consistent jNIethodist, walking after 
 the example of his first ancestor and namesake in 
 Derby ; one of his peculiar traits being to watch and 
 care for, in a quiet way, the poor of the community. 
 He died greatly respected, Dec. 15, 1876. 
 
 (IX) Julius Curtis Coe, son of John (4), born 
 in Bethany Aug. 6, 1838, married, Oct. 8, li 
 
750 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Elizabeth Dougal Wakelee, and their children are: 
 Albert Chandler, born June 21, 1864; and Rollin 
 Wakelee, born Jan. 19, 1867, connected with Coe & 
 Brown, of New Haven. Julius Curtis Coe was 
 educated in Birminghami and Bethany. Six genera- 
 tions of the family have engaged in the leather busi- 
 ness, and he was no exception. He learned the 
 business with his father in Bethany, and later he and 
 his brother, John Allen Coe, carried on the business. 
 Julius C. Coe became the first town clerk, and treas- 
 urer of Beacon Falls, July, 1871, and so continued 
 until his removal to AVest Haven in 1878; he repre- 
 sented the town in the Legislature in 1877. In 1878 
 he engaged in business with Harris Eames, and later 
 the style became H. Eames & Co. ; in 1884 the firm 
 name became Coe & Brown. Mr. Coe's church con- 
 nections, since his removal to West HaA-en, have 
 been with the ^L. E. Church of that place. Socially 
 he is a member of Harmony Lodge, L O. O. F., and 
 Savin Rock Lodge, Royal Arcanum. He has been a 
 Republican all his life. 
 
 FRANK F. CHANDLER, who is to be men- 
 tioned in any summary of the successful and pro- 
 gressive citizens of New Haven, was born in that 
 city, Nov. 2, 1858, a son of Frank Chandler, who 
 was born in Germany. 
 
 Frank F. Chandler attended the New Haven 
 public schools, and for about a year was employed 
 as a clerk in the store of Lum & Rodick. This was 
 followed by about a year in a tailoring store, and 
 then he learned the tool making trade under the in- 
 struction of his uncle, Frank P. Pfleghar, with whom 
 he remained eight years. At the expiration of that 
 time he went to Cleveland, Ohio, with Henry C. 
 Hartz, builder of machinery and light tools. For 
 one year he continued in the employ of that gentle- 
 man, when he entered the employ of the White 
 Sewing Machine Co., remaining a- year. In 1883 
 he returned to New Haven, and took a position in 
 the model room of the Winchester Repeating Arms 
 Co. Here he remained until 1890, when he became 
 contractor with the company, a position he has held 
 to the present time. On Oct. 3, 1883, j\lr. Chandler 
 was married to Lena M. Arnold, who was born in 
 New Haven, a daughter of Joseph Arnold, a na- 
 tive of Germany. A family of five children was 
 born of this union : Alma, Ferdinand, Arthur and 
 Edward, who are now living. One son, Frank, the 
 first born, died at the age of four and a half years. 
 Mr. Chandler is independent in politics, in religion 
 belongs to St. Boniface Church, where his family 
 also attend service. 
 
 Frank Chandler, the father, as noted above, was 
 born at Landstal, Bavaria, Nov. 25, 1828, a son of 
 Michael Chandler, who was in the German Postal 
 service, and never came to this country. Frank 
 Chandler grew up in the Old Country, where he 
 learned the shoemaker's trade. In Alarch, 1854, 
 he came to this country, and making his appearance 
 in New Haven the following July, this has been his 
 
 home to the present time. Here he has followed 
 the trade of shoemaker all his life, and when he 
 was fifty years of age gave up active business. Mr. 
 Chandler was married Aug. 6, 1854, to Elizabeth 
 Clemens, a German compatriot, who died Oct. 14, 
 1859. To this union were born three children: 
 Elisa, who died in 1859; Mary, who married Chris- 
 tian Richard, of New Haven; and Frank F. For 
 his second wife Mr. Chandler married Mary E. 
 Rutz, who was born in the same place in Qermany, 
 and they have had five children : Theckla, wife of 
 R. L. Kraus, of Alarshfield, Wis.; John J., who is 
 married and lives in New Haven; George W., who 
 is deceased; Catherine, deceased; Louise L., wife of 
 Paul L. Baer, of New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Chandler is a Democrat, and has served on 
 the board of relief fourteen years. He is a member 
 of the St. Boniface Church. 
 
 FREDERICK DOUGLAS SLOANE, a weh- 
 known citizen of Aleriden, where he is engaged in 
 business as a cigar and tobacco dealer, was born in 
 Rahway, N. J., August 18, 1851, son of the late 
 Andrew Sloane, and a brother of James R. Sloane, 
 of iNIeriden. 
 
 Frederick D. Sloane was educated in the city 
 schools of Thompsonville, Conn., to which point he 
 was taken by his parents when an infant, and at 
 the age of eleven years worked on a farm of Eli 
 Pease, of Enfield, Conn., receiving for his labor his 
 board, clothes and the privilege of attending school 
 during the winter months. After four years with 
 Mr. Pease he removed to Broad Brook, where he 
 worked as a farm hand for one year, and was then 
 associated as a weaver with the Hartford Carpet 
 Co., at Thampsonville, in the ingrain department. 
 He was with this company for about a year, and 
 then went to Springfield, to learn the tinner's trade 
 with Simpson Clark, but on account of illness he 
 soon had to give up and return home. Later he 
 secured a position as a clerk with S. Parsons, of 
 Thompsonville, and spent a short time with him, 
 after which he became clerk in^the general house- 
 furnishing store of Niles Pease, of Thompsonville, 
 where he was head clerk for ten years. This posi- 
 tion he resigned to become a partner with his broth- 
 ers in the grocery business, continuing with them 
 until the business was suspended, in June, 1882. 
 After this experience Mr. Sloane came to Meriden, 
 to take a position as clerk with the New York, New 
 Haven & Hartford Railway Co., which he filled for 
 two years, and was then appointed cashier of the 
 freight department. For fifteen years he held that 
 position, resigning in 1900 to accept a position with 
 the freight department of the H. Wales Lines Co., 
 which he very creditably filled two years. In Janu- 
 ary, 1902, he purchased his present business, on 
 West Alain street, and resigned his position to give 
 personal attention to the new venture. His wide 
 accjuaintance and welLknown business ability prom- 
 ise to secure and hold a remunerative trade. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 751 
 
 Mr. Sloane was miarried in December, 1871, to 
 Abbie M. Lacey, a daughter of Henry J. and Cath- 
 erine (Johnson) Lacey, both of whom were natives 
 of Leicestershire, England. Mrs. Sloane's father, 
 who was a stocljinet weaver, died in Thompsonville ; 
 he was a member of the Episcopal Church, and in 
 politics was a Republican. Mr. and Mrs. Sloane 
 have had one child, Lena, who married Richard 
 Heckel, a conductor on the Electric Railway, and 
 had one child, Mildred Abbie, now an exceedingly 
 bright and winsome girl; Mr. Heckel died in July, 
 1900, and his remains rest in Walnut Grove ceme- 
 tery. ' 
 
 Mr. Sloane is a member of the Knights of 
 Honor, of Meriden, and in politics is a Republican, 
 but no office seeker. In his daily walk and conversa- 
 tion he lives close to the Golden Rule, and is a good 
 man, well liked and very popular in the community. 
 
 :^IRS. ARTHUR M. BROOKS, a pleasing con- 
 tralto vocalist of Meriden, whose maiden name was 
 Jennie Emiria Hill, is a member of a family whose 
 ancestral history extends back to 1674, the first of 
 the name in this country having come to the Colonies 
 about that date. 
 
 This founder of the Hill family was named John, 
 and was born in North Hampshire, England, and 
 upon his arrival in the New World took up his 
 residence in Guilford, Conn. Here he spent a long 
 and useful life, engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
 dying in 1689. His second wife was Catherine 
 Chalker, a daughter of Alexander Chalker, born 
 Sept. 8, 1652, and married Sept. 23, 1673. Four 
 children were born to this union : John, James, 
 Sarah and Elizabeth, the last named marrying James 
 Tipping. 
 
 (II) John Hill (2), the son of John (i), mar- 
 ried Thankful Stowe, who was born in ilay, 1648, 
 and died Nov. 18, 171 1. He died ^lay 8, 1690, and 
 both are interred at Guilford. They left seven chil- 
 dren. 
 
 (III) John Hill (3), son of John (2), was born 
 July 12, 1672, and, like his father, spent his days 
 in Guilford, where he died Feb. 10, 1740, having 
 married Hamiah Highland, who was born Jan. 29, 
 1670, and died ;\Iay 19, 1752. Eight children were 
 born of this marriage. 
 
 (IV) Thomas Hill, the second son of John (3), 
 was born Sept. 27, 1708, and was engaged in farm- 
 ing and fishing in Guilford, where he was a well- 
 known and prominent citizen. His death occurred 
 Feb. 23, 1792, and his remains were interred in the 
 old cemetery in Guilford. He married, JMay 23, 
 1734, Hannah Brinsen, of Bridgehampton, who died 
 May 6, 1791. To this union four children were 
 born. 
 
 (V) Thomas Hill, the only son and the youngest 
 of the family, was born March 20, 1743, and fol- 
 lowed the same occupations as his father, becoming 
 a soldier in the Continental army, and faithfully 
 performing his duties as a citizen until his death, 
 
 April 4, 1820. On Oct. 13, 1767, he married Eliza- 
 beth Fairchild, who died Feb. 20, 1812, and was 
 buried in Guilford. The children of this marriage 
 were: Thomas, born Nov. 16, 1770, died Dec. 10, 
 1827; William, born April 29, 1773, died Sept. 13, 
 1832; Anson, born April 13, 1775, married Polly 
 Arnold; ^lary, born Feb. 4, 1781, married Alexan- 
 der McQuilla. 
 
 (VI) Thomas Hill, son of Thomas (2), was 
 born in Guilford Nov. 16, 1770, and was a farmer 
 and fisherman, spending his life in his native town. 
 He died Dec. 10, 1827. On Nov. 10, 1794, he mar- 
 ried Roxanna Benton, who was born Sept. 10, 1776, 
 and the children born to this marriage were : Will- 
 iam, born in April, 1796, married Laura Blakeslee, 
 and died in January, 1878; George, born in May, 
 1798, married Rebecca Norton, and died in Novem- 
 ber, 1877; Thomas, born Nov. 16, 1800; Clarinda, 
 born May I, 1803, married William Drugin ; Ralph, 
 born Aug. 25, 1805, died Aug. 6, 1881, married 
 Deney Ives ; Reuben, born Feb. 23, 1808, died in 
 April, 1887; Almdra, born in October, 1810, mar- 
 ried Alfred Allen; and Edward, born in August, 
 1813, married Laura Ann Hull. 
 
 (VII) Thomas, son of Thomas (3), was the 
 great-grandfather of Mrs. Brooks, and was born in 
 Guilford Nov. 16, 1800. He spent his life there, 
 and died in 1879, ^i^ remains resting in the old 
 Guilford cemetery. He -married Mary Morse, who 
 died in Guilford, leaving a son, William. 
 
 (VIII) William', son of Thomas (4), in his 
 boyhood attended school in his native place, but at 
 the age of fifteen went to Wallingford, where he 
 learned the carpenter's and joiner's trade with Capt. 
 Butler Ives, and followed that calling several 
 years. He engaged in the manufacture of wood 
 combs, brushes, spools and tooth-brushes, in the 
 North Farms district, for a considerable period. 
 Mr. Hill bought a farm of sixty acres, which he 
 operated, with his sons, and they also carried on a 
 business of wood-turning, under the firm name of 
 William Hill & Sons, remaining in North Farms 
 until the grandfather's death, Jan. 26, 1878. Tak- 
 ing a more prominent part in the afl^airs of his town 
 than did the others of his family, ^Ir. Hill repre- 
 sented Wallingford in the Legislature, and filled the 
 office of Major on the General Training days. A 
 lifelong Democrat and a leading member of the 
 Baptist Church, he was widely known and much 
 respected. William Hill was married to Susan Hull, 
 of Wallingford, and four children were born to 
 them: Bvroii, who is engaged in farming in Wall- 
 ingford; William, deceased; Franklin, who is con- 
 ducting a sawmill and manufacturing vinegar in 
 "Wallingford (he married Flannah A. Fenn, a native 
 of North Farms) ; and Oliver, an ice-dealer 
 in Wallingford, who married Sarah A. Wheeler, 
 a daughter of Joel Wheejer, and to this 
 marriage one child was born, Carrie D. Mrs. 
 Hill died June i, 1876, and was buried in Walling- 
 ford. ' 1 
 
752 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 (IX) Franklin Hill, the son of William, is a 
 prominent business man of W'allingford, and his 
 estimable wife was a daughter of Abner and Alary 
 E. (Tuttle) Fenn. (See Fenn history in another 
 portion of this volume.) 
 
 Jennie E. (Hillj JJrooks is the only living child 
 of her parents, and is a lady of culture and high at- 
 tainments, who has devoted herself to the perfection 
 of her magnificent vocal powers. During her child- 
 hood Airs. Brooks attended school in \\ allingford, 
 and at an early age began the training of her voice, 
 studying under ALr. Charles ESonney, of New Irlaven, 
 and later with Airs. Hattie Clapper Alorris, of Xew 
 York. After having sung for some time. Airs. 
 Brooks was, at the early age of sixteen years, en- 
 gaged by the First Congregational Church of Aleri- 
 den, and after a few years by the New Britain South 
 Congregational Church, but is now a member of the 
 First Congregational Church Quartet of A'leriden. 
 Airs. Brooks is a vocalist of note, and one of the 
 leading musical artists of Aleriden and the surround- 
 ing district. On Alay 7, 1889, she was married to 
 Air. Arthur AI. Brooks, of Aleriden, a well-known 
 and popular gentleman, who is one of the trusted 
 salesmen of the Bradley & Hubbard Alanufacturing 
 Co. To this marriage four children have been born: 
 Agnes Louise, Arthur Hill, Alarsden Todd and 
 Howard Thomas. Socially she is a member of the 
 Susan Carrington Clark Chapter, D. A. R., and 
 though engaged as she is in her professional duties, 
 she is a most devoted mother and wife, and her 
 charming family bears testimony to her faithfulness 
 in caring for the little ones entrusted to her guid- 
 ance, and in making for them and her husband an 
 ideal home. 
 
 WILLIAAI D. BENNETT. There are few citi- 
 zens of Aleriden occupying positions of more respon- 
 sibility than that filled by William D. Bennett, the 
 efficient engineer for the Connecticut School for 
 Boys, and who is also the overseer of the water, 
 gas and steam apparatus in that great institution. 
 
 Air. Bennett was born at Feltham, Suffolk, Eng- 
 land, Aug. 9, 1848, son of George Bennett. The 
 death of his mother, when he was but an infant, 
 left him without her fostering care, but the father 
 did his best for him. He went to school and re- 
 mained on the farm with his father until he was 
 thirteen years old, at which time he secured a posi- 
 tion on a threshing engine, as water boy. This 
 suited the lad very well, as he had a natural inclina- 
 tion toward mechanics, and by 1867 there was little 
 knowledge about the running of an engine that he 
 had not accjuired. He had a half-brother located 
 at Sherbrooke, (juebec, and as soon as he could ac- 
 complish it our subject sailed for Canada, with the 
 intention of making his way in the line of engineer- 
 ing. At Sherbrooke he secured a position on the 
 Grand Trunk .Railroad as a switchman, and later 
 was promoted to the position of fireman, spending 
 five years in that work, continually learning more 
 
 and more about engines. Then he came to Appo- 
 naug, R. L, where he worked as helper in an engine 
 repair shop, operated by Jordan, Alarsh & Co., of 
 Boston. He was subsecjuently appointed to take 
 charge of the engine in their printing department, 
 remaining with that responsible firm for a period 
 of nine years. The two succeeding years he spent 
 as night engineer in the Rhode Island Reform 
 School. It was in 1884 that Air. Bennett was ten- 
 dered his present position and urged to accept it, 
 and here he has continued for the past eighteen 
 years, devoted to the faithful performance of his 
 duty, trusted by his employers, and fully compre- 
 hending the great responsibility resting upon him. 
 The equipment of the establishment is large, and has 
 been much improved under Air. Bennett's adminis- 
 tration. As a careful and accurate engineer, he can- 
 not be surpassed, and he has many friends in the in- 
 stitution and also in the city. 
 
 Air. Bennett was married, in Aleriden, Conn., in 
 1891, to Alargaret A. Canole, who was born in Ire- 
 land. She passed away June 18, 1901, and was 
 buried in the Sacred Heart cemetery, in Al^eriden, 
 she having been a consistent member of St. Rose's 
 Roman Catholic Church. In political sentiment Air. 
 Bennett is independent. His religious connection is 
 with the Episcopal Church. 
 
 JOHN ELAAI WARNER, one of the leading 
 farmers and dairymen of Highwood, New Haven 
 county, comes from one of the oldest and most 
 numerously represented families in Hamden. The 
 Warners have for generations borne an honored 
 name, and our subject has shown himself to be the 
 type of citizen capable of worthily sustaining it on 
 the same lofty plane. 
 
 Air. Warner was born in Hamden July 16, 
 1842, on the farm where John Keepe now lives. 
 His father, Horace Warner, and his grandfather, 
 Elam Warner, were both natives of Hamden. 
 Florace Warner was a prosperous farmer, a high- 
 ly respected citizen, and well known in his town. 
 About 1845 he removed to the farm at the corner 
 of Dixwell avenue and Warner street, where he 
 met with success in his chosen calling. He was 
 a systematic agriculturist, and his management in- 
 variably secured the best results. Air. Warner 
 married Elizabeth Keepe, and to them were born 
 four children: John E., our subject; Webster, de- 
 ceased; Alice, Airs. Elihu Davis, of Hamden; and 
 Lizzie, who died young. The father died Aug. 
 6, 1870, and the mother passed away Aug. 27, 
 1870, aged fifty-four and forty-eight years, re- 
 spectively. They are buried in Hamden. 
 
 John E. Warner was but a child when his par- 
 ents removed to the farm where he has ever since 
 lived. During his nearly fifty years of residence 
 there he has seen many changes in the property and 
 locality. He has seen Highwood transferred from 
 a farming community to one of the most pleasant 
 residence sections around New Haven, and distinctlv 
 
^ ^, /^^4-^-t^- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 753 
 
 rememlDers when there were fewer houses betwen 
 Hamden M. E. church and Broadway than may 
 now be found in two blocks in Highwood. He 
 was reared a farmer boy at a period when work was 
 plenty and came first, regular attendance at school 
 being a secondary consideration. His advantages 
 were greatly inferior to those enjoyed by the pres- 
 ent generation. He attended Alonzo P. Shear's 
 private school, in Dixwell avenue, which with short 
 periods of study at district schools comprised all 
 his educational privileges. Reared under a father 
 who was a successful farmer and opposed to hav- 
 ing ideal boys around, he was thus "put into the har- 
 ness" when quite young, and early acquired those 
 habits of industry which have been important fac- 
 tors in his success. In 1870 Air. Warner took 
 charge of the farm, and has conducted it profitably 
 ever since. His home tract contained about thirty- 
 five acres, and he owns twenty-five acres else- 
 where. In connection with general farming he is 
 engaged extensively in the dairy business, selling 
 his milk wholesale. In all of his labors he has 
 prospered steadily, until now he is one of the well- 
 to-do citizens of his town and one of its most sub- 
 stantial agriculturists. Our subject is of the pro- 
 gressive type, and his management of the farm 
 and other interests is characterized bv the modern 
 methods which he has come to consider most ef- 
 fective, either by observation or experiment. Mr. 
 Warner's home, on the corner of Dixwell avenue 
 and Warner street, is very pleasant, and hospi- 
 tality reigns supreme. The family are prominent 
 in the social circles of the neighborhood, and the 
 children are among the best known young people 
 in the town. 
 
 In his political views Mr. Warner is a stanch 
 Republican, but not a politician, preferring to at- 
 tend strictly to his business cares, and whatever 
 connection he has had with politics has been from 
 purely unselfish motives, from his sense of duty 
 as a citizen. He never withholds his support from 
 any measure which he believes will be beneficial to 
 the public. Mr. Warner is unassuming, a man of 
 strict integrity, domestic in his disposition, and 
 takes great interest in his home and family. He 
 was fortunate in his selection of a wife, as Mrs. 
 Warner has done well her part in the conduct of 
 their home and the rearing of their family, who 
 would reflect credit on any parentage. 
 
 On November 4, 1868, Mr. Warner married 
 Miss Isabella Pardee, a native of Orange, born 
 Feb. 18, 1844, daughter of Silas and Catherine 
 (Merwin) Pardee. Mrs. Warner comes of excel- 
 lent stock. Through the Merwins she is a descend- 
 ant of one of the very oldest families of Milford, 
 Conn., prominent in that town since its earliest 
 history. ?\Irs. Warner has taken active interest 
 in church affairs, being a member of the M. E. 
 Church. Our subject and his wife have had chil- 
 dren as follows: Arthur G., born Feb. 15, 1870, 
 died when three years old; Gertrude K., born Jan. 
 
 48 
 
 3, 1874, died in childhood; Grace D., born Aug. 20, 
 1875, is living at home; Ella P., born Nov, 8, 
 1877, graduated from the New Haven Normal 
 School, took a course at Wesley Academy, and is 
 now engaged at teaching in New Haven; Ida M., 
 born July 7, 1879, was valedictorian of the class 
 of 1901 at the Boardman Training School, Xew 
 Haven. 
 
 ARTHUR W. MARSH, M. D., is well and fa- 
 vorably known in the medical circles of Westville 
 and New Haven, where he has been engaged in 
 practice for the past ten years. 
 
 The Doctor is of remote English ancestry,. 
 George Marsh, the first of the family in this country, 
 having come to America in 1635, from England. He 
 landed at Charlestown, Mass., on June 8th, of that 
 year, thence went to Hingham, Mass., and in 1674 
 to Haverhill. His descendants in the line in which 
 we are interested remained in Massachusetts for 
 several generations, the Doctor's great-grandfather 
 moving to New Hampshire. James Marsh, his 
 grandfather, was born at Salisbury, that State, and 
 moved to Cabot, Vt., where he passed the remain- 
 der of his days, living to be over ninety. He fol- 
 lowed farming. He was a strong Congregationalist 
 and served as deacon of the church for many years. 
 Of his large family there is now but one survivor,^ 
 James, a resident of Cabot. 
 
 Barachias W. Marsh, father of our subject, was 
 born Sept. 15, 1813, in Cabot, Vt., was reared ta 
 farming, and followed that calling throughout life. 
 He also engaged successfully in the insurance busi- 
 ness, doing the largest business for the Vermont 
 Fire Insurance Co. of any local agent in Vermont,, 
 and traded considerably in other lines. He reached 
 the age of seventy, dying March 28, 1884, at Cabot.. 
 Mr. ^larsh married Lomira Cannon, also a native 
 of that town, and five children were born to them: 
 Julian H., who is mentioned fully below; William 
 R. and Mary L. (Mrs. Phineas P. Garney), both 
 residing in Cabot; Arthur W., whose name intro- 
 duces these lines; and Ellen S., wife of William W> 
 Cole, of New Hampshire. Mrs. Marsh's death oc- 
 curred in 1878, when she was fifty-six years of age. 
 Both parents were members of the Congregational 
 Church. Mr. Alarsh served two terms as selectman. 
 
 Arthur W. Alarsh was born Sept. 13, 1857, in 
 Cabot, where he spent his early years. Pie attended 
 the common schools there and the academy at St. 
 Johnsbury. His medical education was acquired 
 in the University at Burlington, Vt., from, which he 
 was graduated in 1882 ; he ^vas president of his 
 class. The Doctor's first location for practice was 
 at Oriskany Falls, N. Y., where he followed his 
 profession for nine years, until his removal, in 1891, 
 to Westville, where he has siiice remained. He is 
 located at No. 1012 Whaley avenue. Dr. Marsh 
 has, by close attention to the many demands of a 
 growing practice, gained a wide patronage in his. 
 section of New Haven county, and he occupies a 
 
754 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 high position among his brother practitioners as 
 Avell. He has written some valuable papers on medi- 
 cal topics. He is a memiber of the New Haven City, 
 Xew Haven Count}' and Connecticut State Medical 
 Societies, and while in Xew York served as presi- 
 dent of the Oneida Count)' Medical Society. He 
 also served as a member of the town committee, as 
 town physician and health officer while in Oriskany 
 Falls. The Doctor has always taken an active in- 
 terest in public aiJairs, and in n:iatters political as a 
 stanch Republican, and he is a member of the Young- 
 Republican Club. Fraternally he affiliates with Olive 
 Branch Lodge, F. & A. M., of which he is past 
 master, and he has taken all the Masonic degrees up 
 to and including the Scottish Rite ; he is also a 
 member of the A. O. U. W. and Woodmen of the 
 World. 
 
 In 1883 Dr. Marsh married Miss Nellie S. 
 Drought, who was born in Burlington, Vt., daugh- 
 ter of William and [Margaret (Cummings) Drought, 
 who had three children. ]Mr. Drought was a native 
 of Scotland, but passed the greater part of his life 
 in Burlington, where he died. A teacher by pro- 
 fession, he was in his day one of the prominent 
 and representative citizens of Burlington. Two chil- 
 dren have blessed the union of Dr. and Mrs. Marsh, 
 a daughter who died in infancy, and a son named I 
 Arthur. The Doctor attends the Congregational 
 Church, of which he is a memiber. Mrs. Marsh 
 unites with the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Julian H. Marsh was born Feb. 19, 1845, in 
 Cabot, Vt., received his education in the local public 
 schools, and was reared to farming, remaining at 
 home until he reached the age of twenty. For the 
 next three years he was engaged in a general store, 
 but he was obliged to give up that work on account 
 of his health, and he spent the year following in the 
 office of the general agent of the American Encyclo- 
 pedia, at Cincinnati. He has since been engaged in 
 the drug business, which he learned in Lyndonville, 
 A't., remaining in the store where he commenced for 
 six years. At the end of that time he came to West- 
 ville and bought the store he now conducts, meeting 
 with such success here that he has remained con- 
 tinuously to the present. His establishment, which 
 is located at No. 919 Whaley avenue, is the largest 
 in Westville, and is conceded to be the finest and 
 best equipped in the city. Mr. Marsh carries a com- 
 plete line of drugs, perfumes, etc., and he commands 
 a fine trade, won by fair dealing and intelligent 
 business methods. He is a member of the Connecti- 
 cut State Pharmaceutical Association. 
 
 In November, 1880, Mr. Marsh married Miss 
 Effie ?\I. Norris, a native of Cabot, Vt., whose fadier 
 was a farmer in that locality. He entered the army 
 during the Civil war, and died while in the service, 
 in 1863. Mrs. Mafsh is one of a family of three 
 children, all yet living, the other two in Cabot. To 
 J\[r. and ?\Irs. Marsh have been born two children: 
 Eva L., a stenographer with the (^ireist Manufactur- 
 ing Co. ; and Ralph J., who is still attending school. 
 
 Our subject and his wife attend the Congregational 
 Church, in which he has held office. He is a Re- 
 publican in political opinion, and socially unites with 
 the A. O. U. W. and the Masons, holding member- 
 ship in Green Mountain Lodge, No. 63, in Vermont. 
 JMr. Marsh's standing in business circles is unques- 
 tioned, and he is equally well thought of in every 
 other relation of life. 
 
 HERMAN L. BALDWIN, a member of one of 
 the oldest and best known families of Alilford, was 
 born in that town May 12, 1852, son of James and 
 grandson of Elnathan Baldwin. 
 
 Elnathan Baldwin was born in Milford, and after 
 marriage he settled upon a farm there. His wife, 
 Sally Stowe, was also a native of Milford. They 
 had eight children, as follows : Elnathan and Charles 
 were fanners ; James is mentioned below ; Esther , 
 died unmarried; Sarah married Charles Beardsley, 
 of i\lilford; Phineas is a farmer in Milford; Will- 
 iam was a cabinetmaker ; Eunice, who died Nov. 
 25, 1876, was the wife of Joshua Baldwin, son of 
 Hezekiah and Mary Ann Baldwin. 
 
 James Baldwin, our subject's father, was born 
 in Milford Nov. 10, 1824, and grew to manhood 
 upon the farm, but also learned the shoemaker's 
 trade, which he followed for some years. He made 
 his home upon the present farm at his marriage, 
 and he and his wife, Elizabeth A. Smith, are both 
 living. Of their five children our subject is the 
 oldest; Ida L. married Edward Tuttle, of Milford; 
 Henry M., unmarried, is a farmer in Milford; 
 Frank E. is a carpenter and builder in Fairfield 
 county ; and Elizabeth L. married Frederick Wood- 
 ward, of New Haven. Mrs. Baldwin is a daughter 
 of Lewis Smith, and granddaughter of Amos Smith, 
 of ^Milford. Her mother, whose maiden name was 
 Abigail A. Baldwin, was a daughter of Hezekiah 
 and Alary Ann Baldwin, of Milford. Mrs. Baldwin 
 is the oldest in a family of four children, the others 
 being Mary J., wife of Henry Smith, a farmer in 
 Milford ; Miss Martha A. ; and Miles L., a carpenter 
 in New Haven, who married Miss Kate Smith. 
 
 Our subject was reared upon the homestead, and 
 his education was secured at the district schools. 
 He learned the patternmaker's trade at Bridgeport, 
 and followed it for many years, but at present he 
 is not engaged in any business. Politically he is 
 independent, and he and his family are members 
 of the Congregational Church of Milford. He mar- 
 ried Miss Sarah W. Bradley, of Bridgeport, and has 
 one child, Edna H. 
 
 JOHN ALOYSIUS HURLEY, secretary and 
 treasurer of the Meriden, Southington & Conipounce 
 Tramway Co., and one of Meriden's progressive and 
 active business men, is a native of New Haven coun- 
 ty, born April 30, 1854, in the city of. New Haven, 
 His parents, William and Ellen (Ray)* Hurley, were 
 natives of Ireland, born in Counties Tipperary and 
 Limerick, respectively. The mother died in New 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 755 
 
 Haven Oct. 9, 1892, and the father, now in the sixty- 
 ninth year of his age, is a resident of Bridgeport, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 The subject of this slcetch received his education 
 in the pubhc schools of his native city, and 'began 
 his business career at the age of eighteen years, in 
 January, 1872. He entered the dry-goods establisli- 
 ment of Edward Malley, in New Haven, his first 
 occupation being that of wrapper. Being capable, 
 faithful and industrious, he steadily earned and re- 
 ceived promotion, so that when he closed his con- 
 nection with the house, at the end of the year 1878, 
 he occupied the position of head bookkeeper and 
 cashier. At this time he entered the employ of Mc- 
 3iIahon & Wren, wholesale liquor dealers of Bridge- 
 port, in the capacity of bookkeeper. On Feb. i, 
 1886, he became a partner in the business, and the 
 name was changed to McMahon, Wren & Co. On 
 Jan. I, 1888, Mr. Hurley came to Meriden, where 
 he has ever since resided, to take charge of the 
 business of the Meriden Brewing Co., and continued 
 in that connection until the close of the nineteenth, 
 century, resigning the position Jan. i, 1901. His 
 business ability was soon established among Meri- 
 den business men, and his genial nature and upright 
 character readily made and retained friends. He 
 was one of those who foresaw the capabilities of 
 trolley systems, and his energetic and enterprising 
 nature led him to join Francis Atwater in securing 
 the charter under which they are now successfully 
 operating, with benefit to themselves and the general 
 public. This took place in August, 1897, the com- 
 pany was incorporated the next month, and such 
 was the energy and industry of the promoters that 
 the road was in operation by July 2, 1898, and has 
 been continuously at the service of the public, with- 
 out a hitch, ever since. ]\Iuch credit for this state 
 of affairs is due to the active manager, whose name 
 heads this article. Mr. Hurley is president and 
 treasurer of the Acme Manufacturing Co., of Plants- 
 ville, a recently organized industry, devoted to the 
 production of a patent wagon wrench, a patent 
 screw-driver, chisels and kindred articles. He is 
 also a director and vice-president of the Connecticut 
 Breweries Co. 
 
 On July 16, 1877, Mr. Hurley married Miss 
 ^largaret A. Byrne, who was born in New York 
 City, daughter of Thomas Stanford and Mary 
 (Mallon) Byrne, of Ireland. Mr. Byrne died in 
 1888, at the age of seventy-three years, and his 
 widow, now in her eighty-sixth year, makes her 
 home with her daughter in Meriden. She came to 
 New York more than sixty years ago. Three of the 
 children born to Mr. and Mrs. Hurley are now liv- 
 ing, namely: Grace L., Margaret M. and John A., 
 Jr., all of whom reside at home with their parents. 
 Being of a social disposition, Mr. Hurley is 
 among the cherished members of the Amaranth 
 Club, of Meriden Lodge, No. 35, B. P. O. E., and 
 of Silver City Council, No. 2, Knights of Columbus. 
 He is a trustee of St. Joseph's Church corporation. 
 
 In political affiliation our subject is a Democrat. 
 When 'Mayor West took the chair, in 1901, he ap- 
 pointed Mr. Hurley a memtoer of the board of ap- 
 portionment and taxation for a term 'of two years. 
 This is a fitting testimonial to his business standing, 
 integrity and judgment, and indicates the cordial 
 esteem in which he is held by all who are privileged 
 to enjoy his accjuaintance. 
 
 SEYMOUR CRANE LOOAHS, a substantial 
 citizen and highly successful lawyer of New Haven, 
 is a representative of an old and prominent Con- 
 necticut family. 
 
 Born in the town of Suffield, Conn., Nov. 12, 
 1861, Mr. Loomis is the son of George Wells and 
 Ellen (Norton) Loomis, and a descendant in the 
 eighth generation from Joseph Loomis, one of the 
 first settlers of Windsor, Conn. This original 
 American settler was a linen draper at Braintree, 
 in the county of Essex, England, and was born 
 probably about 1590. He sailed from London in 
 1638, in the ship "Susan and Ellen," to Boston, and 
 as early as 1640 was at Windsor, where he had a 
 plantation of twenty-one acres on the west side of 
 the Connecticut river, adjoining the Farmington 
 river, and also some land on the east side of the 
 river. Five sons and three daughters came with 
 himi to New England. His wife died in 1652, and 
 his death occurred six years later. From this im- 
 migrant settler the lineage of Seymour Crane Loom- 
 is is through Lieut. Samuel, William, Capt. Noah, 
 Ham, John Wells and George Wells. 
 
 Lieut. Samuel Loomis, son of Joseph, was born 
 in England, and was married Dec. 27, 1653, to 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Judd. Lieut. Loomis 
 was made a freeman at Windsor in 1654, and was 
 admitted to the church in 1661. About 1672 he re- 
 moved to Westfield, Mass., where he died Oct. i, 
 1689, his widow surviving until May 7, 1696. His 
 grandson, Capt. Noah Loomis, of Southwick, !Mass., 
 served in the war of the Revolution. 
 
 George Wells Loomis, son of John Wells and 
 Eliza (Whitney) Loomis, was born June 24, 1832, 
 at Southwick. He removed to Suffield in 1852, and 
 was married Jan. 4, i860, to Ellen Norton, who 
 was born June 6, 1836, daughter of Daniel W. and 
 Mindwell (Pease) Norton, of Suffield. To this 
 union came two children, Seymour Crane and Mind- 
 well Pease, the latter born Jan. 18, 1865. The 
 family home is in the town of Suffield, Connecticut. 
 
 Seymour Crane Loomis, son of George W., 
 passed his boyhood days in the town of his nativity, 
 where he prepared for college at the Connecticut 
 Literary Institute, one of the old-established 
 schools' of the State, graduating as valedictorian in 
 1878. He received the degree of Bachelor of Arts 
 from Yale University in 1882, and of LL. B., cum 
 laude, from its law department two years later. 
 Admitted to the Bar in June, 18S4, he engaged in 
 the practice of his chosen profession in New Haven, 
 where for three years he was in the office of John 
 
756 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 W. Ailing. From 1887 until 1893 he was associated 
 with William B. Stoddard. Since that time he has 
 conducted his office at No. 81 Church street, in the 
 Connecticut Savings Bank building. Mr. Loomis 
 was assistant city clerk in 1885 and 1886, serving as 
 city clerk the latter part of the time. In 1893 and 
 1894 he was the Executive Secretary of the State of 
 Connecticut, during the administration of the late 
 Gov. Luzon B. Morris. 
 
 Mr. Loomis was married April 20, 1892, to Miss 
 Catherine Cantield Northrop, a daughter of Samuel 
 C. and Caroline (Bassett) Northrop, of New Mil- 
 ford, Connecticut. 
 
 CHARLES A. BEVAN, M. D., has for four- 
 teen years been one of West Haven's successful 
 and highly esteemed physicians, at the same time 
 filling a prominent position in both social and fra- 
 ternal circles. 
 
 Dr. Bevan is of English descent, and the name 
 is of Welsh origin, being derived from "Ap Evan." 
 The Doctor's great-grandfather served in the Rev- 
 olution, and his grandfather in the war of 1812. 
 
 The latter, Timothy V. Bevan, was born in 
 Stratford, Conn., and was one of five children. 
 His father was a sea captain, and he too was 
 a sea captain in early life. After abandoning 
 that vocation he made his home at Trumbull, 
 and engaged in farming there and at Monroe. 
 He died after passing life's eighty-eighth mile- 
 stone, in the faith of the Episcopal Church. 
 Politically he was first a Whig and later a Repub- 
 lican. He married Samantha Hiurd, who lived to 
 the age of sixty-five, and they had nine children, 
 viz. : ( I ) Julia, who married Cyrus Botsford, died 
 in Humphreysville, Conn. (2) Russell, who was 
 a hatter, died in Danbury, Conn. He was the fa- 
 ther of George R. Bevan, chief of police of Dan- 
 bury. (3) Charles was first a shoemaker and later 
 a farmer; he died in Trumbull. (4) Lucy Ann 
 married Samuel French, and died in Trumbull. 
 (5) David C. was the father of our subject. (6) 
 John, a carpenter and builder, lives in Bethel, 
 Conn. (7) Samantha is the widow of Louis 
 French, and resides in Bridgeport, Conn. (8) Ira 
 Nichols, now living retired in Bristol, Conn., was 
 born July 5, 1825, in Trumbull. (9) Susan N., 
 Mrs. Knupp, lives in New York City. 
 
 David C. Bevan was born Sept. 29, 1816, 
 in Trumbull, and in the common schools of that 
 place received his rudimentary education. After 
 leaving school he learned the trade of a carriage- 
 maker, and later worked as a journeyman in Mid- 
 dlebury, Bridgeport and Llymouth. At the point 
 last named he was for twenty-three years a fore- 
 m,an in the employ of Shelton & Tuttle. On leav- 
 ing that firm he went to South Amenia, N. Y., 
 engaging in the carriage business there for fif- 
 teen years. Feeling himself growing old, he re- 
 tired and moved to West Llaven, making his home 
 
 with his son Charles A., at whose home he died 
 March 20, 1895. 
 
 On April 7, 1839, David C. Bevan married 
 Laura Wilson, a daughter of Charles and Martha 
 (Bennett) Wilson, of Newtown, and a lineal de- 
 scendant of John Rogers, who was burned at the 
 stake in Rhode Island. Jonathan Bennett, grand- 
 father of Mrs. Laura (Wilson) Bevan, was the 
 inventor of the first shingle mill He was a resi- 
 dent of Dutchess county, N. Y. Charles Wilson 
 was a large land owner and prosperous farmer 
 in Dutchess county, N. Y. He died at the age of 
 sixty, and his wife at seventy-eight. Nine children 
 were born to them. To the union of David C. 
 Bevan and his wife were born three children, as 
 follows : Samuel, who was in the employ of the 
 Pennsylvania Railroad Co., at Jersey City, N. J., 
 up to the date of his death, which occurred Oct. 
 15, 1899; Emma J., who married Evelyn Beecher, 
 and lives in New Haven; and Charles A., our sub- 
 ject. The mother of this family is still living, at 
 the age of seventy-nine years, and has her home 
 with our subject. Mr. Bevan and his wife were 
 active members of the M. E. Church; he was chair- 
 man of the committee which built the edifice a: 
 Thomaston, and also served as steward. He was 
 a Republican, always active in politics, and served 
 as grand juror. 
 
 Charles A. Bevan was born Nov. 29, 1849, i" 
 Middlebury, and received his early education in 
 the common schools of Plymouth and in the high 
 school at Thomaston. After leaving the high 
 school he acquired a thorough knowledge of the 
 trade of machinist, which he followed for nine years 
 at New Flaven and Hartford, passing several years 
 in Colt's Armory, with the Wetmore Machine Co. 
 and Sargent & Co., of New Haven. Although a 
 proficient workman, his tastes inclined toward a 
 professional life, wherein he might gratify his in- 
 nate yearning toward a higher training and a more 
 scholarly pursuit. He began the study of medi- 
 cine in the office of Dr. B. S. Lewis, of New Haven, 
 and finally received the degree of M. D. from the 
 Medico Chirurgical College, of Philadelphia, April 
 6, 1887. Immediately upon graduation be settled 
 in West Haven, where he has since been engaged 
 in active practice, endearing himself to his patients 
 alike by his scientific skill and the gentle kindliness 
 of his sympathetic nature. He is a member of An- 
 nawon Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of West Haven; 
 Joseph Andrews Chapter, R. A. M. ; City Lodge, 
 I. O. O. F. ; and Sassacus Encampment. 
 
 On June 27, 1885, the Doctor was married to 
 Mary J. Andrews, of New Haven, daughter of 
 James M. Andrews, a carriage painter of that 
 city; her mother, Maria H. (Grinnell), was of 
 English descent, her forefathers having been 
 among the founders of New Haven. Mrs. Bevan 
 is the sole survivor of a family of five children. 
 To the union of Dr. Bevan and Mary J. Andrews 
 
^H 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^H ^K, - '-^.'dal 
 
 ^1 
 
 ^^^^^^A -.^^Bi^l 
 
 ^^1 
 
 ^K^^ 
 
 ''" i%-'u^'i 
 
 H^K 
 
 a^HI^H 
 
 IB 
 
 f^u 
 
 ^-i^^a^i^ ^ AiL^.:**< >^.^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 757 
 
 have been born two children, Laura A. and Mary 
 J. The Doctor is a Democrat in pohtics, has been 
 a member of the school board for four years, and 
 is at present filling the responsible position of 
 health officer for Orange town. Both he and his 
 wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, and he has held the post of steward. 
 
 JOHN SHANE CRABB, who has been connect- 
 ed with the Connecticut School for Boys, at Meriden, 
 since 1890, and is now supervisor of Cottage E, was 
 born Oct. 11, 1845, "'' Ross township, Jefferson 
 Co., Ohio. He is of German descent, his grand- 
 father, Henry Krebs (as the name was then spelled), 
 having been born in Germany. On his emigration 
 to America he located in Ross township, Jefferson 
 Co., Ohio, and was one of the early pioneers of that 
 section, which was then virtually a wilderness. He 
 ■engaged in farming, became a land owner, and spent 
 the rest of his life there. In religious connection he 
 was a Presbyterian. 
 
 John Crabb, son of Henry, and father of John S., 
 was born on the home place in Ross township, and 
 there grew to manhood, receiving such education 
 as the schools of the locality afforded. He spent his 
 entire life in his native township. He was a large 
 land owner, and engaged in general farming and. 
 on an extensive scale, wool growing, from which 
 latter business he derived his principal revenue. He 
 reached the ripe old age of ninety-two, and his 
 death was caused by an accident; he tripped on a 
 •carpet and fell, breaking his hip, and died from his 
 injuries. His remains rest in the family cemetery. 
 Mr. Crabb was a stanch Republican in political sym- 
 pathy, was one of the first anti-slavery advocates, 
 and was not afraid to voice his sentiments at a time 
 when such principles were considered a disgrace 
 and their support was nothing short of dangerous. 
 He was a conductor on the "underground railroad." 
 He was a man of upright life, a good citizen, a 
 land husband and father, and thoroughly domestic 
 in his tastes. He was especially fond of horses and 
 f ne stock, and gave all his interests the best of care. 
 John Crabb was married to Jane McLaughlin, 
 'vvho was born in Carroll county, Ohio, of Scotch- 
 Irish descent, and belonged to one of the early fam- 
 ilies of that section, being a daughter of Robert 
 McLaughlin. Mrs. Crabh is still living (1902), at 
 the ripe old age of eighty-eight years, and makes 
 her home on the homestead, with her son. She is 
 a good Christian woman, a faithful member of the 
 United Presbyterian Church, to which her husband 
 also belonged, and proved a worthy and competent 
 helpmeet to Mr. Crabb in his active career. Chil- 
 dren as follows blessed their union : Henry K. en- 
 listed for service in the Civil war, becoming a mem- 
 ber of Company K, S2d O. V. I., and died while in 
 the army; Robert Mitchell, who served a term in 
 the Civil war, is a farmer and stock raiser near the 
 ■old home; John S. is mentioned below; Ross lives 
 en the old homestead with his mother ; Annie is the 
 
 wife of William K. Smith, a farmer and stock raiser 
 and dealer in Ross township. 
 
 John Shane Crabb was reared on the home farm 
 and attended the local schools during his boyhood. 
 It was his ambition to become an educator, and he 
 accordingly continued his studies in the college at 
 Hopedale, Harrison Co., Ohio, where he fitted him- 
 self for his profession. He commenced teaching at 
 the age of eighteen years, in his native town, and 
 was engaged six years in the public schools, his 
 vacations and spare time being spent at home, as- 
 sisting his father with the farm. Having managed 
 to save a little, he engaged in the mercantile business 
 with J. M. George, under the firm name of Crabb 
 & George, and they carried on a store in Moores- 
 town, Jefferson Co., Ohio, for five years, at the end 
 of which time our subject withdrew to become a 
 member of the Salineville Lumber Co. Mr. Crabb 
 was manager of the business, and he continued thus 
 for three years, when, not having met with the suc- 
 cess he anticipated, he sold out and returned to his 
 profession. He accepted a position at the Ohio State 
 Reform School, Lancaster, where he was supervisor 
 of a cottage, and remained there four years, having 
 under his charge seventy or more boys, in whose 
 care he was ably assisted by his wife, who was 
 engaged as teacher. This incumbency he was ob- 
 liged to relinquish because of political changes, and 
 took a similar charge in the House of Refuge, Cin- 
 cinnati, under Major Oliver, retaining this situation 
 until 1890. Having been tendered a position in the 
 Connecticut School for Boys by Mr. Howe, who was 
 then superintendent, he accepted and came to ^ler- 
 iden, and has ever since been connected with the in- 
 stitution, where he is regarded as one of the most 
 efficient and painstaking officials. He was made 
 supervisor of the North Division and the chair shop, 
 I-.aving over 130 boys under his charge, and since 
 1896 he has held his present position, that of super- 
 visor at Cottage E. Here he has fifty boys under 
 him, and he has faithfully performed all the duties 
 of this responsible charge, taking a deep interest in 
 the welfare of his hoys, and showing genuine de- 
 votion to his work, in which lie takes personal pride 
 and pleasure. He has won recognition by his own 
 earnest efforts, and the high esteem in which he is 
 held is ample testimony of his worth as a man, 
 apart from his usefulness in his chosen field. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1876, in Ross township, Jefferson Co., 
 Ohio, Mr. Crabb married Miss Marietta McLennan, 
 a native of Jefferson county, and a daughter of Ken- 
 neth jMcLennan ; her family is of Scottish descent. 
 Mrs. Crabb was educated in her native county and in 
 Mt. Union College, near Alliance, Ohio, and like 
 her husband has devoted her life to the teacher's 
 profession, before her marriage engaging in the pub- 
 lic schools of her native county, and since assisting 
 him in his labors. She taught in the Ohio State 
 Reform School, at Lancaster; in the House of 
 Refuge, Cincinnati ; and ever since she came to 
 Meriden has been one' of the best teachers in the 
 
758 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Connecticut School for Boys, where her work has 
 received deserved appreciation. She is a woman of 
 marlved culture and character, and under her wise 
 direction many boys have been fitted to commence 
 hfe's battle. Like her husband, she takes more than 
 a professional interest in her charges, and it is the 
 personal element in their work that gives it special 
 value. One child has been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Crabb, Janet. She attended public school in Ohio, 
 graduating from the German-American school in 
 Meriden and the Meriden high school, and is now 
 a student at the Ontario Ladies College, at Whitby, 
 Ontario, Canada, where she is receiving instruction 
 in the higher branches. She possesses musical abil- 
 ity of a high order. The family circle is a charming 
 one. Mr. Crabb is a man of pleasing manner and 
 genial disposition, an interesting conversationalist, 
 and is well liked among a wide acquaintanceship. 
 He is a Republican in political faith, and a stanch 
 supporter of the principles of that party. He and 
 his family unite with the First Congregational 
 Church, of which he is a deacon. 
 
 FRANCIS LYNCH, or as he was so well 
 known, "Frank" Lynch, was, in his life time, one 
 of the best-known Irish-Americans in Connecticut, 
 and he was well known and highly respected in his 
 home town, Meriden. He was born in County 
 Meath, Ireland, a son of Michael Lynch. When he 
 Vfas but fifteen years old he made the voyage to 
 America, and upon landing came direct to New Hav- 
 en, where he found employment with Rogers, Smith 
 & Co. During this time he was also a member of 
 the Fire Department. The breaking out of the Civil 
 war afforded him an opportunity to prove his devo- 
 tion to the land of his adoption, and he enlisted, 
 becoming a member of Co. A, gth Conn. V. I., under, 
 Col. Cahall and Capt. Duffey. He participated in 
 several battles with Gen. Butler, was in New Or- 
 leans, and fought all through the campaign of the 
 Gulf. After his term of enlistment had expired, he 
 returned to New Haven, and again entered the em- 
 ploy of Rogers, Smith & Co. This company was 
 soon bought out by the Britannia Co. and trans- 
 ferred to Meriden. Mr. Lynch continued in the 
 same position in Meriden, under the new manage- 
 ment, for eight years. He then started out in busi- 
 ness for himself as a cigar manufacturer on Center 
 St., and continued there until 1883, when he gave up 
 the business, becoming agent for the Barbour Yeast 
 in Hartford County, and at the time of his death he 
 was associated with the Francis Gowdy Distillery 
 Co., of Melrose. He died at his home Jan. 3, 1901, 
 and was buried in St. Patrick's cemetery in Meriden. 
 In his religious views, Mr. Lynch was a devout 
 Roman Catholic, and was identified with St. 
 Rose's parish, to which he contributed freely, and in 
 which he was held in the highest esteem. In the 
 days of the volunteer fire department, he was as 
 stated a fireman, and belonged to the old Washing- 
 ton Hose Co. He was one of the organizers and 
 
 a charter member of the First Division, A. O. H., 
 and was also a member of Merriman Post, G. A. R. 
 In his political faith he was a Democrat, and no man 
 in the State of Connecticut was better known as a 
 leader in the party. Unlike the majority of men 
 in the political world, he sought no political office 
 or honors for himself. He loved the battle of the 
 campaign, and was very loyal to his friends. The 
 Meriden /o;(r«a/ of Jan. 3, 1901, speaks of him as 
 follows : 
 
 Mr. Lynch was a man of strong likes and dislikes. 
 Loyalty to his friends, those who had done him good turns, 
 was one of his strong praiseworthy qualities. He never 
 forgot a favor and was outspoken against men and methods 
 that did not appear to him to be right. He took an active 
 interest in politics, local and State. He was the spirit of 
 steadfastness to any cause he espoused — a tireless worker,, 
 a keen discerner, and a fighter in uolitics from the drop of 
 the hat to the close of the polls, and when it was over, he 
 held no animosity toward his ooponent, but simply pre- 
 pared the way ta beat them again at the next contest if 
 he could. That was the way he made so many stanch 
 friends, and that was the secret -f his success in wmning 
 so many contests in the First ward — unswerving loyalty to 
 friends and eternal vigilance to opponents. Socially he 
 was a big hearted, generous, honest man who took delight 
 in doing favors for friends, and man- were asked of him. 
 When the emergencies of a campaign did not take him 
 awa^' he could always be found at home, for he was strictly 
 a home man, devoted to his family and beloved by every 
 member of it. Frank Lynch was a born leader, and in hi-; 
 plam, blunt way he exercised an influence over men that 
 proved his right to command. He fought in the open, and 
 leaves behmd him^ a record that is clean in every way. 
 He never sought office for himself, being content to let 
 others enjoy the fruits that were in many cases entirely due 
 to his planting and cultivating. He was, taken all in all. 
 a strong, unique personage, who will be greatly missed in 
 the circles in which he moved. He was well known 
 thi-ous-hout the State, especially in New Haven countv, 
 and when the news of his death becomes known, there wi'll 
 be many .expressions of sorrow. 
 
 Attorney Walter L. Bevins, whose father, Le 
 Grand Bevins, was a life-long friend of Mr. Lynch, 
 paid the following tribute, which appeared in the 
 Meriden Record, Jan. 4, 1901 : 
 
 In the death of Francis Lynch, the local Democracy 
 loses one of its most indefatigable supporters, and the 
 community one of its most prominent citizens. For over 
 thirty years Mr. Lynch had taken an active part in political 
 affairs and no Democrat in this section of Connecticut was 
 more widely known. While strongly partisan in his politi- 
 cal views and sympathies, he was as just as he was generous 
 to those with whom he differed in politics. No Democrat 
 of Meriden ever showed greater personal interest in the 
 welfare of his party, or worked harder for its triumphs. 
 Few leaders have more conscientiously, or more intelligent- 
 ly, participated in their party's .councils than Mr. Lynch, 
 and in times that tried the stoutest hearts of Democracy, 
 when overwhelming defeat temporarily gave the party only 
 remnant stability, the ardent optimism of the man who was 
 always looking to the future for better things made him a 
 central figure around whom the doubting Thomases rallied 
 with even more fervor than before the unlucky election 
 day. 
 
 Mr. Lvnch will not be longest remembered for his 
 services as a public official, -as he held ver^' few offices and 
 these were of minor importance. He will be most grate- 
 fidly remembered for his earnest devotion to the interests 
 of others. He was a most kind husband, and a more in- 
 dulgent, or more thoughtful, father could not be found any- 
 where. He was always true to his friends, and hated 
 self-seekmg, tricking and double-dealing in others 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 759 
 
 Never a personal claimant in the distribution of the 
 spoils of political meetings, but always a war(n advocate of 
 the princinle that a "public office is a public trust," and that 
 office should seek the man, rather than the man the office, 
 he gave liberally of his means to campaign funds, and 
 during Grover Cleveland's first canvass for .tne presidency, 
 it is understood that Mr. Lynch contributed $i,ooo to Mr. 
 Cleveland's election. 
 
 The tall, spare form of Mr. Lynch and the. frank friend- 
 liness of his manner will be missed on our streets. His 
 death will be mourned by a wide circle of friends in this 
 city. New Haven, Hartford, and Waterbury. 
 
 On July 3, 1859, Mr. Lynch was married by the 
 Rev. Father 'Matthew Hart, to Ellen Maloney, who 
 'was born in County Limerick, Ireland, a daughter 
 of John Maloney, who died in Westport, Connecti- 
 cut. Mrs. Lynch is a woman, of strong character, 
 and was greatly attached to her husband, to whom 
 she was, in very truth, a helpmeet and companion. 
 Their happy marriage was blessed with eleven chil- 
 dren: (i) Francis W., born April 5, i860, was 
 educated in Meriden, and now resides in Hartford, 
 where he is engaged in the cigar business. Under 
 President Cleveland, he held the office of deputy 
 collector. He married Mary A. A. Noland, who 
 was born in Portland, Conn., a daughter of Peter 
 and Bridget (Keeley) Noland. One child, Ellen, 
 was born to this union, but she is now deceased. (2) 
 John, born March 23, 1864, is a cigar manufacturer 
 in Hartford. He married Frances Bennett, of New 
 York, daughter of Fennimore Bennett, and has one 
 child, Francis Fennimore. (3) Ellen, born April 
 23, 1866, died Feb. 23, 1867. (4) Thomas J., born 
 Nov. 24, 1867, was educated in Meriden, and was 
 graduated from Yale Business College in 1888, and 
 died April 16, 1899. (5) Bernard C, born Feb. 22, 
 1870, is government storekeeper at Windsor Locks. 
 He married Mary Batten, daughter of Thomas Bat- 
 ten of Meriden, and has two children, Ellen and 
 Francis. (6) Mary, born March 20, 1872, died 
 July 26, 1873. (7) William, born Nov. 11, 1873, 
 died Nov. 22, 1874. (8) Anna C, born Sept. 28, 
 187s, was educated at St. Rose's school in Meriden, 
 and graduated from Mount St. Joseph's, Hartford, 
 in 1894. She is a fine musician, thoroughly profi- 
 cient in both instrumental and vocal music. (9) 
 James, born Feb. 10, 1878, attended New York City 
 College of Pharmacy. (10) Catharine, born Jan. 
 20, 1881, was educated at St. Rose's school. (11) 
 Edward, born Jan. 28, 1887, is at home. 
 
 CHARLES L. WEIL, one of the prominent 
 business citizens of New Haven, who is also iden- 
 tified with its public, educational and social life, 
 was born in this city, Dec. 19, 1863. Paul Weil, 
 his father, was a native of Berlin, Germany. 
 
 Charles L. Weil was the second in the family 
 born to his parents, and he spent his boyhood days 
 in this beautiful city. Mr. Weil enjoyed superior 
 educational advantages, passing from the Eaton 
 school into the Yale Business College, and gaining 
 a commercial training by associating with his 
 father in the cigar business in this city, for a period 
 
 of five years. Then, in partnership with his broth- 
 er, Louis P. Weil, he took charge of this business 
 for your years, under the firm style of Louis P. Weil 
 & Brother, conducting it on State Street. He then 
 became connected with the Springfield Brewery Co., 
 being financially interested from 1889 to 1899. 
 When this business was absorbed by the trust, Mr. 
 Weil became connected with the Manilla Anchoii 
 Brewing Co., of Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. 
 
 On Sept. 20, 1894, Mr. Weil was married to Miss 
 Delia Zunder, daughter of Maier Zunder, a complete 
 biographical sketch of this prominent family being 
 found on another page. One little daughter has 
 been born to this marriage, Regina Zunder. Mrs. 
 Weil is a lady of superior educational and social 
 graces, and is known and valued in educational en- 
 terprises and benevolent activities in New Flaven. 
 
 Mr. Weil is one of the prominent members of 
 the Democratic party, in this city, and has served 
 in a number of positions where he has greatly bene- 
 fited the city. From 1890 to 1892 he was council- 
 man from the Sixth ward, and served for two terms 
 as alderman from the same ward. In 1897 he was 
 appointed fire commissioner, for a term of three 
 years, by ex-Mayor Farnsworth, and was re-ap- 
 pointed by Mayor Studley. Mr. Weil is one of the 
 leading members of the Synagogue, the Jewish Tem- 
 ple ; is a director of the Hebrew Benevolent Society ; 
 secretary of the Harmonic Club ; member of the A. 
 O. U. W. ; Yale Conclave of Heptasophs ; Connecti- 
 cut Commercial Travelers' Association ; and the or- 
 der I. O. B. B. In all these orders and organiza- 
 tions, covering the religious, social and business 
 circles of the city, ;\Ir. Weil is deservedly popular. 
 
 RICHARD WILLIAM MUELLER, proprietor 
 of the Menna Bakery, and one of the leading citi- 
 zens of Meriden, where he is regarded as one of 
 the most .prominent German-American's of the city,- 
 was born in Spremberg, Prussia, Sept. 5, i8s^, a 
 son of William Mueller, and a brother of Williain 
 C. Mueller, a well-known attorney of Meriden. 
 
 William M.ueller, the father of Richard, was born 
 in the same Prussian town as his son, and there he 
 grew to manhood, becoming engaged in a wool 
 manufacturing business, at which he spent many 
 years, securing a large patronage, and forming many 
 associations with ail parts of the .business world. 
 He was president of a corporation, in which he was 
 a very large stockholder. The affairs of the com- 
 pany,' which was a large exporter of manufactured 
 cloth, suffered greatly from the unsettled condition 
 of Europe, especial!}- from the Franco-Prussian 
 War, and in 1870 they suspended business. Mr. 
 Mueller left Germany in 1873, not wishing that his 
 sons should be compelled to serve in the army, and 
 came to this country by way of Holland and Liver- 
 pool. He landed at Boston, and went from there to 
 Meriden, where he found employment in the ]Malle- 
 able Iron Company's Works. After a short illness 
 he died in 1879, and his remains were interred in the 
 
76o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 West Cemetery. He was a faithful member of the 
 Lutheran Church, and was noted for his integrity 
 and honesty. 
 
 ^Jr. Mueller was married in Germany, to Caro- 
 line Wilhelmina Senkel, who is still living, and has 
 her home in Aleriden. In 1874 she came to this 
 country with four children, to make her home in 
 Meriden, where she has lived to the present time. 
 She is a member of the Lutheran Church, and reared 
 her children to be upright and useful members of 
 the community. She was a devoted wife, and of her 
 only the best and kindest words are spoken. She 
 is the mother of the following family ; Richard W. ; 
 Emma, who married Lewis Krober, of jMeriden ; 
 Frederick J., who is connected with the Literna- 
 tional Silver Company, of Meriden ; Helen, who 
 married Otto George Hirscbfeld, of IMeriden ; and 
 "William C, an attorney of ]\'Ieriden. 
 
 Richard W. ^Mueller attended school in his native 
 town, where he received a good German education. 
 He was also given a good business school training, 
 and was emiployed in the office of his father until the 
 removal of the family to IMeriden. There young 
 Richard was employed for a time in the finishing 
 department of the Woolen mill, where he rose to be 
 assistant foreman. For a short time he was em- 
 ployed in Philadelphia, and also at Holyoke, Mass. 
 In 1878 he turned to the grocery trade, buying out 
 the establishment of W Balzer, which he conducted 
 for seven years with somewhat indifferent success. 
 In 1885 he bought the interest of George Stuck, who 
 was engaged in a bakery business on East Main 
 Street. There Mr. Mueller was located until 1890, 
 when he built his present place, a large brick struc- 
 ture on East Main Street, which cost over $10,000. 
 It is one of the finest bakeries in New England. 
 Here Mr. Mueller has carried on his work to the 
 present time and has built up a very extensive pat- 
 ronage. His supplies are bought in car load lots 
 from the flour mills, and all his transactions are on 
 a most extensive scale. He also has a confectionery 
 business of considerable importance. 
 
 Mr. Z\Iueller was married in 1878 to Tina Tartter, 
 of jMeriden, a native of Bavaria, Germany, where 
 she was born, a daughter of Frederick Tartter. To 
 this union have come four children : ( i ) Emily, 
 who married George F. Winslow, a foreman of the 
 International Silver Company, at Wallingford, 
 where he has a very pleasant home; (2) Lucy, who 
 died young; (3) Helen cHed young; and (4) \\'\\\- 
 iam F., who is at home, and is engaged in the 
 bakery 'business with his father. 
 
 Socially Air, Mueller is a member of .Mfred IT. 
 Hall Council, No. 1423, R. A., Meriden ; of IMeritlen 
 Lodge, No. 276, D, f), H, ; of the local Turnverein 
 and Saengerbund ; and of the Cosmopolitan Club. 
 He takes a lively interest in the welfare of the Ger- 
 man-American School, and for ten )ears was its 
 treasurer. In politics he is a Democrat. He and his 
 family belong to St. y\ndrew's Episcopal Church. 
 
 Air. Alueller has reason to felicitate himself upon 
 
 his career. Starting poor, he has steadily worked 
 himself up through his own pluck and energy to a 
 very commendable place in the world. Men respect 
 him for his integrity and business ability, and like 
 him for his manly qualities and kindly disposition. 
 Domestic in his habits, he sticks closely to his busi- 
 ness, and gives to the world a most inspiring ex- 
 ample of true worth and character. 
 
 Wjlliam C. Mueller, 'brother of Richard W., 
 is a lawyer, and a man of mark in JMeriden. Born 
 in Spremberg, Prussia, April 27, 1864, he came to 
 this country with his, parents when ten years old, 
 and here he continued his education in the Corner 
 and Prattsville District Schools of Meriden. From 
 1878 to 1884 he clerked for Howard Brothers, ap- 
 plying his leisure moments to the study of law at 
 home. Fittmg himself for entrance, he became a 
 student in the Yale Law School in 1884, and was 
 graduated from that institution in 1886. Immediate- 
 ly he became associated with W. F. Davis, forming 
 the law firm of Davis & Mueller, which still exists. 
 At the age of twenty-three, Mr, Mueller was elected 
 collector of town taxes, defeating the occupant of the 
 office for the ten years previous by the handsome 
 majority of 534, and carrying the strong Republican 
 ward in which the candidate resided by 60 votes. 
 In 1888, and a third time in 1889, he was again 
 elected to that office, which then became appointive. 
 In 1890, 1891 and again in 1892, he was chosen by 
 the board of selectmen to fill the position. In 1888, 
 1889, and in 1892 and 1893, he was city collector, 
 over a million dollars passing through his hands 
 without the slightest blunder or mistake. For eight 
 rears he was a ward committeeman in the Third 
 ward, and he also served two years as chairman of 
 the Democratic town and city committees, having 
 full charge of the campaign of 1892. The following 
 year he was appointed by Judge J. P. Piatt, city 
 attorney, a position which he had not sought, but 
 which he has so admirably filled, that he is still re- 
 tained therein, and his conservative and careful ad- 
 ministration of the affairs of the office is recognized 
 and highly commended. In 1900 Mr. Mueller was 
 appointed water commissioner by Mayor West, and 
 for two years has filled that position with dignity 
 and marked abilitv. Mr. Alueller has built up a 
 good private practice in his profession, and in the 
 management of the cases which have been intrusted 
 to him has been very successful. Socially he be- 
 longs to the various German societies, and he is also 
 affiliated with several of the IMasonic bodies of the 
 city. 
 
 Mr. Mueller was married in June, 1895, to Aliss 
 Agnes Yost, a daughter of August Yost, a well- 
 known citizen of Aleriden. 
 
 FREDERICK S. WARD, one of the prominent 
 business citizens of New Haven, and a member of 
 a familv distinguished in the Revolutionary war, 
 successfully conducts a business in real estate and 
 insurance in that city. 
 
Q^^^i-^-^^^t^-^-^^^ 
 
 'PU-ri^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 761 
 
 'Sir. Ward was born in New Haven Jan. 14, 
 1851, son of Capt. Frederick S. Ward, and grand- 
 son of Jacob and Henrietta (Kimberly) Ward, na- 
 tives of West Haven, Conn. His father, Fred- 
 erick S. Ward, was born in West Haven in 1812, 
 and died in New Haven in July, 1865, at the age 
 of fifty-three years. By occupation he was a sea 
 captain, and his father before liim also followed 
 the sea. At the time of his death Capt. Ward was 
 engaged in the West India trade, and he had 
 traveled almost all over the world, commanding 
 vessels which went to California around the Horn, 
 to South America, and to the Mediterranean, being 
 part owner himself. He married Mary Elizabeth 
 Stevens, a sister of the well-known Samuel A. Ste- 
 vens, of whom more particular mention is made 
 elsewhere. Her death occurred in 1882. Five 
 ■children were born to Capt. Ward and his wife : 
 Frederick S., subject of this sketch; Ehiott, who 
 lives in the city of New York ; Harry K., employed 
 in West Haven ; Josephine, widow of Charles P. 
 Whitney, living in West Haven ; and Frederika, 
 wife of Albert C. Coe, residing in West Haven. 
 In politics Capt. Ward was stanchly Republican. 
 Religiously he and his family were connected with 
 the Congregational Church. 
 
 Frederick S. AA^ard spent his early boyhood in 
 attendance at a private school in New Haven, later 
 becoming a student in the Whiting street public 
 school, the Webster school, the Washington street 
 school, and the Dwight street school. At the age 
 of thirteen j^ears he was placed in the Winchester 
 Institute, an excellent boarding school in Win- 
 chester, Conn., where he remained for two years. 
 On the death of his father, in 1865, he accompanied 
 Ms mother upon her removal to West Haven, and 
 lived there until 1869. In 1867 he was employed 
 by the Home Insurance Co., of New Haven, as 
 office boy, and remained with that companjr for 
 two years. In i86g he entered the employ of the 
 New Haven Steamboat Co., at Belle Dock, remain- 
 ing one year on the wharf, and then about 1870 
 going aboard the steamer "Continental," as freight 
 clerk. Until 1880, during this period, he continued 
 in the same position on the steamers "Elm City," 
 "C. H. Northam" and others. In the winter of 
 1880 Mr. Ward hecame associated with the North- 
 ampton Railroad Co., remaining for about a year, 
 and in the spring of 1882 he went to work for the 
 L. Candee Rubber Co. as an accountant, and re- 
 mained with this company until 1894. For the 
 succeeding two years our subject was associated 
 with his uncle, W. W. Ward, in the ice business, 
 and in June, 1896, he opened up his present line, 
 in real estate and insurance. 
 
 On June 25, 1878, Mr. Ward was married to 
 Miss Jennie L. Smith, of West Haven, who was 
 a daughter of Cornelius and Emeline (Rich) 
 Smith, also New Haven ' people, although Mrs. 
 Ward's birth took place in Brooklyn, N. Y. One 
 daughter, Harriette Smith, has been born to Mr. 
 
 and Mrs. Ward. The entire family belong to the 
 Church of the Redeemer. 
 
 Politically Mr. Ward is an active Republican. 
 He is identified officially with the Gounod Society, 
 the leading vocal society of the city; with the 
 Royal Arcanum, and with the Sons of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution, his mother's ancestry entitling 
 him to membership in the latter society. Lieut. 
 H. H. Ward, who was assigned to assist Judge 
 Advocate Lemly in the Schley investigation pro- 
 ceedings, is a cousin of our subject. 
 
 ^IICHAEL HENRY O'BRIEN, the present 
 superintendent of the town poor, superintendent of 
 the town roads, and of the poor farm, is known as 
 one of the most competent business men and public 
 officials of the town of Meriden. He was born in 
 the parish of Mageely, near Middleton, County 
 Cork, Ireland, March 13, 1847, ^^d belongs to an 
 old Irish familv which includes in its various een- 
 erations many of the noted men of the last two hun- 
 dred years and more. 
 
 Henry O'Brien, father of Michael H., was also 
 born in Middleton. He was a tenant farmer, 
 whose struggle for existence was a hard one, and 
 he endured 'many privations in order to care for 
 his family. Mary Walsh, his wife, was also a native 
 of County Cork, where they were married, and her 
 father, Maurice Walsh, was a native of South Cork. 
 The family were conspicuous for their devotion to 
 their country and faith. Alanv of ;\Irs. O'Brien's 
 relatives have become prominent dignitaries in the 
 Catholic Church, both in this country and in Ire- 
 land. To Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien were born three 
 children : Fanny, who married John Lahey, of 
 Meriden ; Michael Henry ; and Maurice, in the mar- 
 ket known as the Meriden City Market. Henry 
 O'Brien brought his family to the United States in 
 1865, and settled in Middletown, Conn., where he 
 spent the remainder of his days in honorable retire- 
 ment, after a long and industrious life, his sons giv- 
 ing him every attention. He was buried in St. Pat- 
 rick's cemetery. He was honorable and upright in 
 his business dealings and his personal and domestic 
 character were beyond reproach. Both parents were 
 devout members of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 Mrs. O'Brien survived her husband some years, and 
 was also buried in St. Patrick's cemetery. 
 
 Michael Henry O'Brien had limited opportunity 
 for schooling, the exigencies of the domestic circum- 
 stances necessitating his early application to some 
 money-producing occupation. From an early age he 
 worked with his parents, and remained with them 
 until he accompanied them to America. Here he 
 was first employed in Stevens' factorv, at Middle- 
 town, and also at Russell's factory, and for two and 
 one-half years he was employed at the Douglass 
 factory, where he learned the molder's trade. Later 
 in life he came to Meriden, and was given work 
 as a molder in the factory of Foster & Merriam. 
 Here he soon, however, entered the btttcher business, 
 
762 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 working for C. W. Cahill, later Coe & Cahill, re- 
 maining with that well-known firm for thirteen 
 years. On the termination of his long engagement 
 with them, in company with John Island, he began 
 business for himself, under the firm name of Island 
 & O'Brien. This firm had an existence of five years, 
 when it was dissolved by the retirement of the junior 
 member, who took a position with Patton & Will- 
 iams, meat dealers. Mr. O'Brien spent some years 
 with them, and then began a fish business with Pat- 
 rick Donavan, as O'Brien & Donavan, continuing 
 thus for a year and a half, when he entered the em- 
 ploy of Pitkin & Preston. In January, 1888, Mr. 
 O'Brien received the appointment of superintendent 
 of the poor asylum and farm, and also the position 
 of superintendent of town roads and bridges. For 
 fourteen years he has faithfully discharged the du- 
 ties of these important positions, to the very general 
 satisfaction of the public. Mr. O'Brien was a strong 
 advocate of the new poor house, which is now com- 
 plete, and is regarded as one of the very finest 
 buildings of the kind to be found in the State. Our 
 subject is a quiet and unassuming gentleman, and 
 is very popular with all classes. He is a Democrat, 
 and takes an active interest in political afifairs. 
 
 Mr. O'Brien was married in Middfetown, Jan. 
 26, 1872, to Ellen Dorgan, who was born in County 
 Cork, Ireland, daughter of Michael and Alary Dor- 
 gan, both of whom settled in Middletown many 
 }'ears ago. They were members of the Roman Cath- 
 olic Church. Mrs. O'Brien is matron of the town 
 poor, and bears the reputation of being one of the 
 most efficient and kind-hearted ladies ever appointed 
 in the State to fill that position. Mr. and Mrs. 
 O'Brien have had ten children, five of Vi^hom are 
 still living, namely : ( i ) Mary A. was educated at 
 St. Rose's Convent Schopl, Meriden, and at the 
 Meriden high school, from which she was graduated, 
 and has taught in the King street school for nine 
 years. (2) Fanny, educated at St. Rose's Convent 
 School, Meriden, is assistant matron at the alms- 
 house. (3) Michael, C4) Josephine, (5) Maurice. 
 (6) Nettie and (7) Lillie, died young. (8) Cath- 
 erine, (9) Williami Henry and (10) Arthur Bene- 
 dict are at school. The family, formerly connected 
 with St. Rose's Catholic Church, are now identified 
 with St. Joseph's, and they are counted among the 
 best families in the city associated therewith. 'Mrs. 
 O'Brien and her two eldest daughters are members 
 of the Catholic Club, to which Mr. O'Brien also be- 
 longs, and he holds membership besides in the A. O. 
 U. W., at Meriden and in Boston, the Independent 
 Order of Foresters, the Knights of Columbus, and 
 the Amaranth Club. He is a member of the First 
 Building Association in Meriden. 
 
 IRVING LUCIUS HOLT. The meaning of 
 the name Holt is given as a grove or small forest. 
 Nicholas Holt, the emigrant ancestor of Irving 
 L., was born about 1602, in England, and was a 
 passenger on the ship "James," of London, which 
 
 sailed from the port of Southampton in April, 
 1635, and arrived in Boston the following June. 
 The same year he located at Newbury, Mass., of 
 which place he was one of the first settlers, and in 
 1644 he became one of the first settlers of Andover, 
 Mass., where he died in 1665. 
 
 Nicholas Holt, son of Nicholas, was born in 
 1647, ill Andover, where in 1679 he married Mary 
 Russell. He died in Andover in 1715. 
 
 Abiel Holt, son of Nicholas, was born in 1698, 
 and married (first) Hannah, daughter of William 
 and Elizabeth (Geary) Abbott. In 1718 he re- 
 moved from Andover to Windham, Conn., where 
 they were among the early members of the Church, 
 and there he died in 1772. 
 
 Caleb Holt, son of Abiel, born in Windham, 
 March 6, 1729, married (first) Alary Alerrick, and 
 (second) Chloe Hatch. He was one of the earlv 
 settlers of the town of AVillington, Conn., and was 
 a delegate to the State convention called to ratify 
 the Constitution of the United States. 
 
 Caleb Holt, son of Caleb, was born in Willing- 
 ton, .in 1759, and died Sept. 8, 1826, aged sixty- 
 seven years. By his marriage with Sarah Goodale 
 he was the father of five children : Horace, Ryal, 
 Joshua, Ralph and Julianna. Caleb was a wealthy 
 farmer, and gave each of his sons a farm. 
 
 Ryal Holt, second son of Caleb and Sarah, was 
 born Dec. 2, 1786, in Willington, where he spent 
 the greater part of his life, and died there in 1864. 
 He married Lovina Lamb, a native of Vermont> 
 whose father served in the war of the Revolution, 
 from the age of sixteen, as a waiter boy for 
 Gen. Washington, continuing thus until the end 
 of the war. Ryal and Lovina Holt had seven sons 
 and five daughters, nine of whom spent their days 
 in Connecticut, and six of them lived to exceed 
 three-score and ten. All inherited robust constitu- 
 tions, and large physiques, were genial, handsome 
 and of ready wit, though practical and business- 
 like. All were reared in the faith of the Baptist 
 Church, although in later years many drifted into 
 other denominations. 
 
 Austin Holt, eldest son of Ryal, was born in 
 East Windsor, Conn., Aug. 4, 1810, and died in 
 Willimantic April 13, 1884. By his marriage with 
 Almira Dimmock he had four children: Henry, 
 born in Rockville in 1839, died in WilKmant'ic 
 April 26, 1873 ; Parmelia Louise was born in Man- 
 chester, Conn., in 1845 ; Julia Alice, born in Man- 
 chester in 1848, in 1875 married Arthur Carpen- 
 ter, of Wiillimantic, who died April 12, 1898; and 
 George was born Jan. 16, 1850. Austin Holt was 
 a manufacturer, living in Rockville, Manchester 
 and Willimantic. 
 
 Alary L. Holt, eldest daughter of Ryal, was 
 born in 'W'illington, Conn., March 9, 1812, and 
 died in North Haven, Conn., Aug. 25, 1876. On 
 Oct. 25, 1842, she married Nathan W. Brown, of 
 AA'illington, and for many j^ears they resided in 
 North Haven, where Air. Brqwn was station agent. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 763 
 
 Their only daughter, Mary J., was born April 18, 
 1844, married Francis S. Smith, of New Haven, 
 and had three children — Laura Minerva, born July ' 
 27, 1871, who died July 15, 1872; Sherman Wood- 
 ward, (born Nov. 25, 1873, who died July 11, 1874; 
 and Frances Sherman, born Dec. 8, 1874. 
 
 Otis Holt, second son of Ryal, was born in 
 Willington, Dec. 13, 1813, and died in Rockville, 
 May 10, 1857. He married Clarissa Allen, of Ver- 
 non, Conn., and they had three children : Rhoda, 
 born Aug. 9, 1840, married Origin Dodge, May 
 12, 1866, and died at Mansfield, Conn., April 7, 
 1872. Roland, born July 10, 1846, died June 17, 
 1873; he served in the Civil war. Horace Win- 
 slow, born June 20, 1853, married Nov. 29, 1883, 
 Ellen Slattery, of Northampton, Mass., and their 
 only child. Hazel May, was born in Rockville, Dec. 
 24, 1884. He is a gardener by occupation. 
 
 Almira Holt, second daughter of Ryal, was 
 born Aug. 5, 1815, at Willington, Conn., married 
 Harvey Lyman, of Andover in 1841, and died in 
 Andover April 14, 1889. They had four children : 
 Julia and Llewellyn died in childhood. Julius 
 Austin was born Aug. 14, 1849, married Edna 
 Curtis in 1881, and their only child died infancy. 
 Clark Lyman was born June 6, 1855. 
 
 Clark Hok, third son of Ryal, was born in 
 Willington Oct. 6, 1817, and in 1841 married Mary 
 A. Winchell, daughter of Chauncy and Mary Vi- 
 bert Winchell, of Rockville. Their only son, Gren- 
 ville, died in infancy. Clark Holt died in Man- 
 chester July 22, 1888. 
 
 Sarah G. Holt, third daughter of Ryal, was 
 born Nov. 6, 1819, at Willington, and died at 
 Mansfield, Oct. 6, 1890. She married Abel John- 
 son, of Willington, and they had five children: 
 (i) Legrand, born in 1844, married Louisa Man- 
 ning, of Willington, April 5, 1866. (2) EHsha, 
 born Aug. 25, 1845, died July 13, 1863; he served 
 in the Civil war as a member of Company D, 14th 
 Conn. V. L (3) Frederick E., born June 5, 1847, 
 married Bessie Fisk Sept. 10, 1874, and' on June 
 10, 1885, for his second wife, wedded Emma 
 Jacques, of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; he is a physician at 
 Mansfield Depot. (4) Grace, only daughter of 
 Abel and Sarah G. (Holt) Johnson, was born in 
 Willington, Aug. i, 1852, and in 1876 married R. 
 Rogers Frisbie, of New Haven, who died in 1882; 
 their only son, William, was born Sept. 11, 1877. 
 For her second husband she married George A. 
 Huntington, of Mansfield, on Sept. 11, 1889; their 
 home is in Sharon, Mass. (5) Truman was born 
 in Willington in 1854 and married Jennie A. Bix- 
 by, who was born in Burmah, India, in 1855, a 
 daughter of Rev. Moses Bixby, of Providence, R. 
 I- Truman Johnson is a missionary to Burmah. 
 
 Amirett Holt, fourth daughter of Ryal, was 
 born Oct. 21, 1821, at Willington, and on Nov. 
 20, 1840, married Otis Freeman, of Mansfield, 
 where they first resided, later moving to Flartford, 
 and still later to Southern Illinois. They had four 
 
 children: Eugenia, born in 1841, who died April 
 2, 1872, was a teacher of mathematics in the Chi- 
 cago schools. Alary J., born in 1844, died Jan. 15, 
 1853- Fred, born in 1846, died the same year. 
 Edwin, born in 1851, in 1882 married Isabella 
 Hooker, of Murphysborough, Illinois. ' 
 
 Elijah Holt, fourth son of Ryal, was born in 
 Willington Nov. 6, 1823, and died in Rockville 
 March 17, 1896, aged seventy-two years. His first 
 wife was Nancy L. Harwood, daughter of Eben- 
 ezer and jMinerva (Dimmock) Harwood, of Crys- 
 tal Lake, Conn., and they had two sons, Grenville 
 E. and Irving Lucius. The former was born in 
 Manchester March 6, 1847, married Isabella Jack- 
 son, of Shelton, Conn., and has two sons, Irving 
 Lines and Clifton Jackson. Grenville E. Holt lis 
 superintendent of the Seth Thomas clock factor\-, 
 at Thomaston. 
 
 Caleb _Holt, fifth son of Ryal, was born in Wil- 
 lington in 1826, was a mercliant, and died in Prov- 
 idence, R. I. He married Elizabeth Coggshall, and 
 had two sons, Warren H. and Frederick. 
 
 Ryal Gilbert Holt, seventh son of Ryal, was 
 born in Willington in 1830, and died at Rockville 
 July 15, 1891. In 1852 he married Eliza Matson, 
 of Windsorville, Conn., where he was engaged in 
 manufacturing, and they had two sons, Frank L. 
 and Charles H. 
 
 Ann Eliza Holt, youngest daughter of Ryal 
 was born in South Coventry, Conn., Oct. 31, 1832. 
 In 1856 she married Chauncy Hibbard, of Rock- 
 ville, who died in 1856. In 1862 she married 
 George P. Lines, who died June 10, 1874. 
 
 Ryal and Loviina (Lamb) Holt had twelve chil- 
 dren, thirty-one grandchildren, eighteen great- 
 grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren. 
 
 Irving Lucius Holt, second son of Elijah and 
 Nancy L. Harwood Holt, was born in Somers, Conn., 
 Sept. 5, 1851. A ripe student, and a thorough man 
 of business, Mr. Holt well represents the honorable 
 family from which he springs. During his early 
 years he worked a short period in the -Glasgow 
 thread mill, but spent the greater part of his time 
 in school, going from Williston Seminary, in East 
 Hampton, Mass., to Meriden, while still a youth, 
 to teach his first school at South Manchester. His 
 parents had removed to Meriden, and he returned 
 there, and was engaged as a teacher in the State 
 Reform School, remaining in charge for two and 
 one-half years. His aim was to save enough to 
 enable him to take a course in the Sheffield Scien- 
 tific School, of Yale, and in this he was successful, 
 completing his course with honor. 
 
 Upon his return to Meriden, Mr. Holt was 
 called to the Prattsville school, as principal, and 
 there he taught until, a year later, he entered the 
 office of the Meriden Fire Insurance Co., as assistant 
 secretary. He spent nineteen busy years in that 
 employ, and when the company went out of busi- 
 ness associated himself with F. A. Stevens in the 
 formation of the firm of Holt & Stevens, general 
 
764 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 insurance agents, who represent the following 
 named insurance companies : Agricultural Co., of 
 W'atertown, X. Y. ; American Co., of Newark, N. 
 J. ; American Co., of Boston, ;\Iass. : American Co., 
 of Xew York ; British-American Assurance Co., 
 of Toronto; Capital Co., of Concord, N. H. ; Con- 
 tinental Co., of N.-Y. ; Fire Association, of Phila- 
 delphia; Firemen's Co., of Newark, N. J.; Fire- 
 men's Fund Co., of San Francisco, Cal. ; Franklin 
 Co., of Philadelphia ; German-American Co., of 
 New York; Girard Co., of Philadelphia; Granite 
 State Co., of Portsmouth, N. H. ; Greenwich Co., 
 of New York; Hamburg-Bremen Co., of Germany; 
 Holyoke jMutual Co., of Salem, Mass. ; London and 
 Lancashire Co., England; Liverpool & London & 
 Globe Co., of England; Magdeburg Fire Co., of 
 Germany; Manchester Assurance Co., of England; 
 Merchants' Co., of Newark, N. J.; New London 
 County i\futual, of Norwich, Conn. ; New York 
 Underwriters' Agency, of New York; Niagara Co., 
 of New York; Northern Assurance Co., of Eng- 
 land: North British & ]\fercantile Co., of England; 
 Norwalk Co., of Norwalk, Conn.; Phoenix Co., of 
 Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Royal Co., of Liverpool, Eng- 
 land'; Security Co., of New Haven, Conn.; Spring- 
 field F & M. Co., of Springfield, Mass.; Western 
 Assurance Co., of Toronto, Canada; Westchester 
 Co., of X'ew York; and Fire Co., county of Phila- 
 delphia. The firm also represents the Northwest- 
 ern Life C., of ^lilwaukee; the .Etna Life and 
 Accident Cos., of Hartford, Conn.; the Ignited 
 States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., of Baltimore; and 
 the New York Plate Glass Co., of New York. 
 
 In political life ^Ir. Holt is a stanch Republi- 
 can, and from 1888 to 1892 was chairman of the 
 Republican town committee ; was registrar of vot- 
 ers for one year; and in 1893 was elected tax col- 
 lector for the town of Mericlen, and for the past 
 eight )'ears has been re-elected. During this time 
 he has collected over one million dollars for the 
 town. In religious views his ambition has always 
 been to live up to the Golden Rule, and he has won 
 the respect and esteem of his fellow citizens. Fra- 
 ternally he is connected with Meridian Lodge, No. 
 •jy. A. F. & A. M., and St. Elmo Commanderv, No. 
 9, K. T. 
 
 On Aug. II, 1875, ;Mr. Holt was married in 
 Meriden to Ella '\l. Rice, a lady of the highest 
 culture and refinement. Two children have come 
 to this union; Harry H., born May 28, 1876, a 
 graduate of the Meriden high school, who is now 
 with his father in the insurance business ; and 
 Ralph G., who died in infancy. 
 
 The Rice Family, of which }ilrs. Ir\-ing L, 
 Holt, of Meriden, is a descendant, is one of the 
 oldest in Connecticut. The original spelling of the 
 name was Royce, and the founder of the family in 
 America was Robert Royce, who came from Eng- 
 land and was in Stafford in U>44. 
 
 Samuel Royce (as the name was then written), 
 the progenitor of the family in New Haven countv. 
 
 was a son of Robert Royce, who died Hn New Lon- 
 don in 1676. Robert Royce was made a freeman 
 in 1634, in Boston. Before 1650 and until 1657 
 he is known to have been in Stratford, Conn. He 
 removed to New London, where in 1660 he was 
 constable — a very important position' at that time. 
 None of his sons remained in New London. His 
 son Samuel settled wlith his sons in Wallingford, 
 and thev were among the first- families of what is 
 known as the N^ew Colony. 
 
 Samuel Royce settled in Wallingford in 
 1672, married Sarah Baldwin, andi later Hannah 
 Benedict, who died Jan. 12, 1761, at the age of 
 ninety years. His death took place in Meriden, 
 May 14, 1757. He was made a deacon of the 
 church in Meriden when it was organized, Dec. 
 14, 1729. His children were: Abigail, who mar- 
 ried Joseph Cole: Prudence, born in 1680; De- 
 borah, who married Thomas Mix ; Isaac, born in 
 1688 ; Ebenezer, born in 1690 ; Nathaniel, born in 
 1692; John, born in 1694; Mary, born in 1695; 
 Jacob, born in 1697, who married Thankful, daugh- 
 ter of Moses Beach; Hannah, born in 1699, who 
 married John Ives ; Ezekiel, who married Anna 
 Merwin ; Samuel, who married Martha Moss, and 
 settled in, Cheshire; Abel, born in 1700; Benja- 
 min, born May 23, 1705, who married Mindwell 
 Rice; Mehitable; ancl Ebenezer, who died Oct. 
 18, 1752, in [Meriden. 
 
 Benjamin Rice, son of Deacon Samuel, was 
 born m Wallingford, was a clerk in the mines, 
 and spent his life in that locality, dying in January, 
 1758. To his marriage wlith Mindwell Royce or 
 Rice, a relative, came two children, Benjamin and 
 Solomon. She was born Oct. 12, 1703, and died 
 Alay 13, 1776. 
 
 Benjamin Rice, son of Benjamin, was born 
 April I, 1730, and married, April 15, 1755, Phebe 
 Halsey, of Long Island, who died June 13, 1776. 
 He passed away in February, 1777. Their chil- 
 dren were; Phebe; Benjamin; Halsey; Isaac; 
 Halsey (i) ; Elizabeth, who married Nathaniel 
 Stevens, of Norfolk; Silas; and Levi. Benjamin 
 was a private at the Lexington Alarm, under Capt. 
 John Couch. 
 
 Silas Rice, the grandfather of [Mrs. Holt, was 
 born (.)ct. 19, 1770, and was a farmer all his life. 
 In 1796 he bought the farm now owned by Will- 
 iam Benjamin, son of Benjamin Rice, in Meriden, 
 and there he died, lin 1852, and' was buried in the 
 East cemetery, Silas Rice was a deacon in the 
 Center Congregational Church of Meriden and a 
 member of the ^^'ashington Benevolent Society. 
 His political views made him a stanch Whig. His 
 first marriage, on Aug. 4, 1796, was to Ruth Cur- 
 tis, a slister of Alfred Curtis, of Meriden, and the 
 children of this union were ; Almira, born May 
 24, 1797, married Averv Hough; Phebe, born Feb. 
 23. 1799. died Aug. 13, 1799. The mother died 
 Alarch 30, 1801. The second marriage was March 
 18, 1802, in Meriden, to Rebecca Hubbard, who 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 765 
 
 was born Nov. 25, 1783, a daughter of Isaac and 
 Jane Hubbard, and died in February, 1855. Thir- 
 teen children came to this marriage, viz. : ( i ) 
 Ruth Curtis, born Oct. 14, 1803, married Lyman 
 Hough. (2) Jane, born July i, 1805, died Feb, 
 13, 1824. (3) Silas, born June 29, 1807, died the 
 same day. (4) Mary, born March 9, 1809, mar- 
 ried Joel Hbugh, of Wallingford. (5) Silas Hub- 
 bard, born April 5, 181 1, married Fanny Brooks, 
 of Chatham, and they had three children — Levi 
 Woodley (born July 2, 1837), Mary Ameret (Sept. . 
 23, 1841), and John W. (March 8, 1844). (6) 
 Phebe Rebecca, born Sept. 9, 1812, died July 30, 
 1814. (7) Henry, born Nov. 20, 1814, married 
 Emily Lane. (8) Joseph, horn March 29, 1817, 
 died March 30, 1817. (9) Benjamin Halsey, born 
 June 20, 181 8, married Mary Ann Bradley, and 
 for his second wife, Mrs. Abigail Cecelia (Har- 
 vey) Smith, who was born in Durham, a daugh- 
 ter of Asahel Harvey ; she is living with her family 
 on the farm, where Mr. Halsey's death occurred 
 June 25, 1898. (10) Emily Rebecca, born Sept. 
 16, 1820, married Samuel A. Tuttle, of Cheshire. 
 (11) Hinsdale Silliman, the father of Mrs. Holt, 
 is mentioned below. (12) Elizabeth Jane, boi'n 
 Aug. 31, 1825, died April 13, 1842. (13) Samuel 
 Atwater, born Jan. 26, 1828, married Mary L. 
 Wetherell, of Canaan, Connecticut. 
 
 Hinsdale Silliman Rice was born April 11, 
 1823, and first married Nancy Munson, of South- 
 Jngton, who died in February, 1855, the mother of 
 two children : Ella Maria, Mrs. Holt, born Oct. 
 31, 1851; and Emma Jane, who died Nov. i, 1S54. 
 For his second wife Mr. Rice married Sarah Gay- 
 lord, now a resident of Meriden, and an aunt of 
 Dr. Gaylord, of Branford. There were no chil- 
 dren by this union. Hinsdale S. Rice died Oct. 
 26, 1887. 
 
 SUMNER C. REILLY, the efficient superin- 
 tendent of the M. Seward & Sons Co., of New Hav- 
 en, for many years has been a skilled machinist, and 
 has held various positions of responsibility. His 
 birth occurred in Deansville, Oneida Co., New 
 York. 
 
 John S. and Harriet (Green) Reilly, the parents 
 of Sumner C, were natives of Rhode Island, and the 
 former died while his children were still small. The 
 latter was a daughter of Nathan Green, a direct de- 
 scendant of Gen. Green, of Revolutionary fame, who 
 also came to Oneida county from Rhode Island and 
 engaged in stove making, later in farming. Mrs. 
 Reilly survived until 1 90 1. Her nine children were : 
 John S. ; Sumner C. ; Nathan; Thomas; Frank; 
 Edward; Kate, who married Frank Huntley, and 
 lives in Binghamton, New York; Alpha, who mar- 
 ried Henry Shermerhorn, and lives in Carthage, N. 
 Y. ; and Nellie, who married Judge Joseph Logan, 
 of Cleveland, Ohio. 
 
 Sumner C. Reilly was reared in Clayville, N, 
 Y., and while still a youth became interested in 
 
 machinery, all of his brothers also becoming ma- 
 chinists. His trade was learned in the works of S, 
 A. Melard, manufacturer of edge tools, etc., and he 
 remained with that house six years, becoming thor- 
 oughly instructed in every branch and detail of the 
 business. Then he went to Ilion, N. Y., and there 
 took a contract in the Remington gun shop, where 
 he remained several years, going from there to Bing- 
 hamton, where he became superintendent of the 
 Bowles Tool Co. In this responsible position he 
 continued for ten years, and from that great estab- 
 lishment went to Terre Haute, Ind., and built there 
 the works for the Terre Haute Shovel & Tool Co., re- 
 maining as superintendent for three years. In 1891 
 he came to New Haven and took his present re- 
 sponsible position. 
 
 Mr. Reilly was married on May 7, 1878, to Miss 
 Celia Cochran, who was born in Chadwick Mills, N. 
 Y., daughter of Robert Cochran, a manufacturer of 
 cotton goods, formerly a resident of England. One 
 child was born to Mr. and Mrs. Reilly, Edith Lila. 
 
 In politics Mr. Reilly upholds the principles of 
 the Republican party, and socially he is a member 
 of Ottsengino Lodge, A. F. & A. ^I., of Bingham- 
 ton, N. Y., belonging also to the Chapter and Con- 
 sistory. As an enei'getic and successful man of 
 business and an honorable and upright citizen, Mr, 
 Reilly enjoys the esteem of all with whom he comes 
 in contact, both in public and in private life. 
 
 ROBERT LUTZ takes a leading position among 
 the prominent and substantial business men of New 
 Haven, being justly regarded as one of the city's 
 representative dealers in meats, groceries and pro- 
 visions. His location at Howard avenue and First 
 street is one of the finest in the southern part of the 
 city, while the equipment of his store is second to 
 none in New Haven. ' 
 
 Robert Lutz is a native of the city, born June 
 13, i860, son of George Lutz, who was a native of 
 Germany. The latter came to New Haven when 
 he was a young man, and followed the trade of 
 springmaker. His wife was also of German birth, 
 and they reared four children, all of whom were 
 born and still reside in New Haven, namely: George, 
 who is a grocer in the city ; Minnie, who married 
 George Macheleidt ; Fred, who is a merchant in 
 New Haven ; and Robert, the subject of this sketch. 
 The mother died in New Haven in 1889. The 
 father was a Democrat in political attachment, and 
 served as a member of the city council. He died 
 June 12, 1900. Both parents belonged to the Ger- 
 man Lutheran Church. 
 
 Robert Lutz had little financial assistance when 
 he started out in his business career, but he had 
 been afi'orded excellent educational advantages. Af- 
 ter completing the course in the Webster school he 
 attended Yale Business College, and then took a 
 clerical position with Glason Hall, in the meat busi- 
 ness. Mr. Lutz remained with Mr. Hall for eleven 
 years, at the end of this period embarking intelli- 
 
;66 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 gently in the business for himself, opening up a 
 store on Crown street, between Church and Temple 
 streets. After occupying that location for eleven 
 years he came to his present site, on the corner of 
 First street and Howard avenue, and in 1896 built 
 his brick block at that location, which continues to 
 be one of the most ornamental structures in that part 
 of the city, reflecting credit upon owner and archi- 
 tect. In his business affairs Mr. Lutz has been un- 
 usually successful, and he has the satisfaction of 
 realizing that his prosperity has come through his 
 own efforts. He is noted for his honesty and up- 
 rightness, dealing justly by everyone. He is well- 
 known in New Haven, and has as large a circle of 
 personal friends as business ones, all of whom re- 
 gard him with feelings of high esteem. 
 
 On Jan. 28, 1886, Mr. Lutz was married to Aliss 
 Irene Smith, who was born in Wilton, Conn., daugh- 
 ter of William Smith, who died when she was a 
 child. No children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Lutz. I 
 
 In politics ]\Ir. Lutz formerly voted with the 
 Democratic party, but is now independent. Fra- 
 ternally he is connected with Rock Lodge, No. 92, 
 F. & A. M., and Germania Lodge, No. 78, 1. O. O. F. 
 
 Mr. Lutz indulges his love of fine horses, and 
 in his stables are usually some excellent animals. 
 
 JARED AT WATER (deceased) was one of 
 the honored and highly esteemed citizens of Flam- 
 den, New Haven Co., Conn., and was prominently 
 identified with its agricultural interests. He was 
 a native of that town, born near Mt. Carmel in 
 1779, a son of Samuel Atwater, and grandson of 
 Samuel Atwater, Sr., both natives of Hamden. 
 Throughout life our subject followed the occupa- 
 tion of farming with marked success, and made 
 his home fin Hamden. 
 
 On Oct. 28, 1807-, Mr. Atwater married Lucy 
 Hall, of "Wallingford, Conn., daughter of Hezekiah 
 Hall, and to them were born seven children, name- 
 ly : Harriet, born Aug. 18, 1808, died March 18, 
 1883 ; Laura, born Dec. 5, 1810, married Edmund 
 Bradley, and died in February, 1899; Ruth D., 
 born April 11, 1812, married Leverett Hotchkiss, 
 and died in July, 1835 ; Jared, born Oct. 2, 1814, died 
 July 16, 1900; Elizabeth, born Sept. 23, 1816, 
 died when four weeks old; ]^Iary, born July 7, 1819, 
 died April 24, 1838; and Betsey, born Aug. 22, 
 1821, is mentioned below. Mr. Atwater died Oct. 
 13, 1850, at the age of seventy-one years, his wife 
 Aug. 30, 1870, at the age of eighty-eight. Both 
 were earnest and consistent members of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and were held in high regard 
 by all who knew them. In all the relations of life 
 Mr. Atwater was found true to every trust re- 
 posed in him, and Ms life was such as to command 
 the confidence of all with whom' he came in con- 
 tact. 
 
 On Jan. 13, 1849, Miss Betsey Atwater was 
 united in marriage with Charles G. Atwater, who 
 
 died April 4, 1874. Soon after their marriage they 
 located upon the farm in Hamden where she now 
 resides, and where he was successfully engaged in 
 the occupation of faming throughout the remainder 
 of his life. He also operated a stone quarry, and 
 in all his undertakings prospered. He was an 
 industrious, energetic and progressive man, was of 
 a kindly, generous disposition, and was an active 
 member of what was then Chapel Street Congrega- 
 tional Church of New Haven. He died at the age 
 of fifty-two years, honored and respected by all 
 who knew hiim. Mrs. Atwater was again married, 
 in 1 88 1, her second union being with Samuel A. 
 Baldwin, a native of New York State and a car- 
 penter by trade, who died in November, 1893. For 
 many years Mrs. Baldwin has been a devout mem- 
 ber of the Congregational Church, and is a most 
 estimable lady, who has a large circle of friends 
 and acquaintances who appreciate her sterling 
 worth. 
 
 DOOLITTLE. The branch of this family now 
 at Meriden, of which Hon. Edgar J. Doolittle, for 
 nearly forty years a leading citizen and prominent 
 business man and manufacturer of that city, is now 
 the head, and whose father. Rev. Edgar J. Doolittle,. 
 identified through a long and useful life with the 
 religious and social life of this community, was a 
 most striking character, has descended from an an- 
 cestry older in this locality than the city and county 
 of New Haven. 
 
 Abraham Doolittle, understood to be the emi- 
 grant ancestor of all the Doolittles in this part of 
 the world, came from England about the year 1640. 
 In 1644 he took the oath of fidelity to the Colony and 
 acted as an executive officer at New Haven, and 
 had to do with the first organization of the town of 
 Wallingford. In that region the Doolittle name for 
 several generations was not an uncommon one. 
 
 The late Rev. Edgar J. Doolittle, before men- 
 tioned, was a descendant of Abraham Doolittle, and 
 was born Oct. 19, 1810, in New Haven,, son of 
 Jared and .Vnna (Jones) Doolittle. Liberally edu- 
 cated, he was a graduate of Yale, in the class of 
 1836, and became a clergyman of the Congregational 
 Church, where his scholarly abilities, his rare spirit- 
 ual fervor and devotion, and his transparent char- 
 acter, gave him large influence over the lives and 
 hearts of the faithful of that communion, entitling 
 him also to a leading position in the community 
 where he dwelt. From May 18, 1842, to Dec. 14, 
 1852, he was the settled pastor of the First Church 
 in Flebron. From Hebron he was installed over 
 the church in Chester, where as stated supply and 
 settled pastor he served thirteen years. The clos- 
 ing years of his life were passed at Wallingford, 
 where his kindly disposition, old-fashioned courtesy 
 and high character commanded the respect and love 
 of a large circle of friends and acquaintances. 
 
 Mr. Doolittle was married in 1842 to Jane E. 
 Sage, a daughter of Isaac and Harriet (Sage) Sage, 
 
.s. 
 
d^c^ui^ 0^^t»<c^ (^io^M-,^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 767 
 
 of IMiddletown. The Sage family is an old one in 
 2\ew England, and descends from David Sage, who 
 -was born in Wales in 1639, and came to Middle- 
 town in 1652. He was twice married, and became 
 the father of eight children. Many of his de- 
 scendants in the intervening generations occupied 
 prominent positions in the community, and were peo- 
 ple of marked ability. Capt. William Sage was a 
 soldier in the Revolutionary army, and fought in 
 the battle of Bunker Hill. To this family belongs 
 Russell Sage, the noted financier of New York City. 
 To Rev. Mr. and Airs. Doolittle were born the fol- 
 lowing family: (i) Edgar Sage, born July 11, 
 1843, died May 10, 1844; (2) Edgar J., Jr., was 
 born Jan. 29, 1845; (3) Isaac Sage, born Jan. 26, 
 1847, died when a young man; (4) Henry Nathan- 
 iel was born Jan. II, 1849; (5) Annis 'Merrill, born 
 March 12, 1851, died Nov. 23, 1872; (6) Harriet 
 Anna, born April i, 1856, died May 8, 1857; (7) 
 Jane EHzabeth was born Dec. i, 1859; (8) Orrin 
 Sage was born Dec. 29, 1863. 
 
 Edgar J. Doolittle, of Meriden, was born in 
 the to\vn of Hebron, Conn., and received a good 
 education in the common schools and in the Guil- 
 ford Institute, then in charge of Prof. Eli Mack, 
 from which he was graduated in 1861. Mr. Doo- 
 hrtle began his business career, in which he has risen 
 to eminence in the commercial world, as a manu- 
 facturer of boxes. Meriden is known the world 
 over for the excellence of its manufactured goods, 
 and the output of Mr. Doolittle's establishment is of 
 the very highest grade. The Doolittle box factory is 
 finely located on Camp Street, and has a railroad 
 frontage of three hundred feet. It has the latest 
 machinery, and its capacity is equal to any demand 
 that may be made upon it. The best of workmen 
 are employed, and every variety of paper boxes pro- 
 duced, from the cheapest patterns, to hold the rough- 
 est goods, to the finest boxes, lined with silk, satin 
 and plush, and used in the packing of silver and 
 bronze art goods. Large quantities of gold, silver 
 and embossed paper are used, and the range of 
 selection is so wide that universal satisfaction is 
 given the trading public. Mr. Doolittle is one of 
 the most prominent business men of the city, and 
 holds many notable and responsible positions, includ- 
 ing those of director and vice-president of the Home 
 National Bank,, director of the Meriden Gas Light 
 Co., secretary of the Meriden Hospital, and trustee 
 in the Meriden Savings Bank. He is largely in- 
 terested in many of the local industries. Mr. Doo- 
 little is a man universally trusted and admired, and 
 has many times received honors political and social 
 at the hands of his fellow townsmen, and in the 
 several positions to which he has been called he has 
 proven himself — by his fidelity, ability and public 
 spirit — richly worthy of the honor. Five times 
 chosen mayor of Meriden, he was unanimously nom- 
 inated for a sixth term, but declined to accept it. 
 His fifth term as mayor closed Jan. 3, 1887, in 
 which year he was elected to the State Senate, 
 
 where he served with distinction and ability. Mr. 
 Doolittle is a prominent Mason, a Knight Templar, 
 and has risen to the thirty-second degree, being a 
 jMystic Shriner. 
 
 The paternal grandfather of Air. Doolittle hav- 
 ing been a soldier in the Revolution, that gentleman 
 has- taken advantage of his right and belongs to the 
 Sons of the American Revolution. This privilege 
 also comes to him from his maternal grandfather, 
 Capt. Sage, who is noted above as taking part in 
 the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 Air. Doolittle was married, Nov. 13, 1867, to 
 Alartha W., daughter of George and Mary (Warn- 
 er) Couch, of Meriden, and they have one daughter, 
 Dorothy. 
 
 CONRAD WEISS, one of the progressive, en- 
 terprising and successful business men of New Hav- 
 en, who, since 1899, has been the popular and use- 
 ful alderman of the Sixth ward, is of German 
 birth and ancestry. 
 
 The birth of Mr. Weiss occurred in Bavaria, 
 Germany, in the town of Nuremberg, March 21, 
 1864. His parents were George and Mary (Kop- 
 mann) Weiss, neither of whom ever came to Amer- 
 ica; the former was a merchant in the historic old 
 city of his birth. The five children born to George 
 Weiss and wife were : Conrad, John, Frederick, 
 William and Francis, of whom, John is a baker in 
 Bavaria; two of the sons are with their father in 
 his business ; and two others are serving in the 
 German army, Conrad being the only one who has 
 established himself in the United States. 
 
 Until he was seventeen years old, Conrad Weiss 
 remained with his father as a clerk in the store, 
 but he was an ambitious youth and longed for wider 
 opportunities, this resulting in his arrival in Amer- 
 ica in 1882. His first location was at Milltown, N. 
 J., where he found work in a rubber factory for 
 some two years, and then remained for the follow- 
 ing two years in a town in Long Island, engaged in 
 the same kind of work, coming to New Haven in 
 1886. Flere he entered the Candee Rubber factory, 
 remaining two years, and then for the following 
 three vears clerked for Otto Dietter. 
 
 This was all a preparation for a business career 
 for himself, and on Jan. I, 1891, he opened up a 
 stock of groceries and meats, at No. 485 Chapel 
 street, where ever since he has done a flourishing 
 business, the excellence of his goods securing the 
 best trade in the city in his vicinity. 
 
 On June 26, 1891, Mr. Weiss was married to 
 Aliss Anna Kapitzke, who was born in New Haven, 
 a daughter of August Kapitzke, a native of Berlin, 
 Germany, and two children have been born of this 
 union: George M. and Florence M. They reside 
 in their home at No. 501 Chapel Street. 
 
 As a Democratic politician, Air. Weiss has been 
 very active, and in 1899 was elected alderman of 
 the Sixth ward, which he is faithfully serving. One 
 of his measures which he has strongly advocated in 
 
;68 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the city coiuicil is tlie wharfage law, by which the 
 city shall own all city wharfage rights, and which 
 has the support of the business men, irrespective of 
 party. Fraternally, ^Ir. Weiss is a member of Hum- 
 boldt Lodge, No. 91, I. (J. O. F. ; Aurora Encamp- 
 ment; and is also a member of the Retail Butchers 
 and Grocers Association ; the United Order of Good 
 Fellows ; and with insurance companies, he has 
 policies in New York Life, Washington, Berkshire, 
 and the Mutual of New Jersey. The religious con- 
 nection of the family is with the German Lutheran 
 Church. As an honest, progressive and industrious 
 citizen, Mr. Weiss has a clean record, and in public 
 affairs he is looked upon as one of the rising men 
 of the city. 
 
 REV. JAAIES O'REILLY SHERIDEX is 
 pastor of St. Francis Catholic Church, in Nauga- 
 tuck, and one of the most esteemed citizens of 
 that town. 
 
 Father Sheriden was born in County Longford, 
 Ireland, Feb. 10, 1855. His father and grandfa- 
 ther, both of whom were christened Thomas, were 
 farmers in the same county. His grandmother's 
 maiden name was i.Iargaret Martin, and she and 
 her husband had five children, of whom Thomas, 
 the father of Father Sheriden, was the youngest. 
 The others in order of birth were named John, 
 James, Philip and Alargaret. Thomas only re- 
 mained in the old home and followed in the steps 
 of his father and grandfather, cultiivating the farm 
 on which he first saw the light of day. James and 
 Philip crossed the ocean and' settled in Philadel- 
 phia, in which city they engaged in business, and 
 where they both died. Margaret also came to 
 America, but not until after the death of her hus- 
 band, John O'Farrell. Of her children, one. Rev. 
 John O'Farrell, died in Hartford, thirty-five years 
 ago ; another, Thomas, became a physician, and 
 died some years ago at New Britain ; and Alice, 
 one of her daughters, became a Sister of Charity. 
 
 Thomas Sheriden, Jr., added to his agricultural 
 pursuits the business of linen and grain merchant. 
 He came to this country while a young man, but 
 after a short time returned to his native country, 
 where he remained until his death, in 1890. He 
 married Catherine O'Reilly, who, like himself, was 
 born in County Longford, as were her parents, 
 Thomas and Catherine (Sheriden) O'Reilly. Mrs. 
 Sheriden came of a distinguished famil}', whose 
 scions have attained prominence in both the old and 
 the new world, in orders, at the Bar, and as physi- 
 cians, as well as in commercial life. She was the 
 youngest of a family of three daughters and six 
 sons, all of whom are deceased : Catherine, Alice, 
 Margaret, Mcrnard, William, Thomas, James, 
 Michael and John. Of the sons, two received a 
 vocation to the priesthood, Bernard and William. 
 The first named became the second bishop of the 
 Diocese of Hartford, while AVilliam, who died at 
 Newport, R. I., was his vicar general. Thomas I 
 
 was a celebrated physician in Ireland, and James 
 and Michael were farmers and merchants in the 
 old country. John emigrated to the United States 
 and settled in Texas, where he died after accumu- 
 lating a large fortune through judicious invest- 
 ments in real estate. Mrs. Sheriden died !in 1857, 
 the mother of a large family, nine of whom reached 
 mature years : Annie, Thomas, Bernard, Cath- 
 erine, Margaret, John, William, James O'Reilly 
 and Francis. In this generation three sons re- 
 ceived hoi)' orders : Bernard, permanent rector of 
 St. John's Catholic Church, at Middletown; Will- 
 iam, who, after filling a pastorate at several points 
 in Connecticut, died in 1892; and the reverend 
 gentleman whose devoted, useful life forms the 
 subject of this brief biographical sketch. The ca- 
 reers of the other children may be briefly out- 
 lined. Annie, the widow of Dennis Gray, lives in 
 Ireland. Thomas studied medicine, and died while 
 engaged in the practice of his profession, in Texas. 
 Catherine, the widow of Patrick Mulligan, resides 
 at Aughnachff, where she is postmistress and gen- 
 eral storekeeper. Margaret died at home, shortly 
 after being married. John is a farmer on the old 
 homestead. Francis lives with his sister, Mrs. 
 Mulligan, whose business he assists in conducting. 
 Father Sheriden himself is in the prime of life. 
 It is but little more than five years since he began 
 his pastorate in Naugatuck, yet under the divine 
 blessing he has been able already to accomplish 
 a great work. He cam-e to America in boyhood, 
 and received his academic education at the Col- 
 lege of the Holy Cross, graduating therefrom in 
 1875. A course of three years study at the Grand 
 Seminary at Montreal followed, and in 1878 he 
 was ordained a priest. His first assignment was 
 to the assistant pastorate of the Church of the Im- 
 maculate Conception, at Waterbury, where he re- 
 mained six years. In June, 1884, he was placed in 
 charge of the parish at Windsor Locks. There 
 he displayed a power of mental concentration, a 
 capacity to plan and an ability to execute. During 
 the twelve years of his rectorate there he put new 
 life in the flock committed to his care. The sacred 
 edifice was improved by the installation of a steam- 
 heating plant, the substitution of new stone steps 
 for the old wooden ones, and the remodeling of the 
 interior. The parochial residence, too, was put in 
 repair, new curlDing, coping and concrete laid down 
 and every obligation incurred therefor discharged 
 in full. He also purchased a site for a school and 
 convent, and erected a substantial school house, 
 which he cleared of debt in three years. He also 
 erected the Church of the Sacred Heart in Suf- 
 field, which was ready for dedication on Thanks- 
 giving Day, 1886, and St. Joseph's Church, in 
 Poquonnock, which was dedicated Jan. 30, 1887. 
 To erect churches and school houses on credit is 
 comparatively easy, when the builder can command 
 sufficient confidence. Such was not, however, Fa- 
 ther Sheriden's policy. Within five years of the 
 
I 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 769 
 
 erection of the church at Suffield the eleven acres 
 of land occupied, costing $12,000, were paid for 
 
 in full. 
 
 In was on Jan. 9, 1896, that Father Sheriden 
 became pastor at Naugatuck. Within that com- 
 paratively short period he has noi- only endeared 
 himself to his parishioners, but by his prudent and 
 blameless life has acquired and held the sincere, 
 undisguised respect of the entire town, Protestant 
 and Catholic alike. The church building suffered 
 severe damage during a flood within a month after 
 his arrival, but he grappled with the situation 
 without hesitation and without apiprehension, feel- 
 ing confident of the support of a higher power than 
 his own. A new system of drainage with sewers 
 was established, a lawn laid out, a granite wall 
 erected, a handsome concrete walk laid, and the 
 basement remodeled and refurnished. The cost was 
 $10,000. An electric lighting apparatus was put 
 in and various parishioners contributed liberally for 
 the adornment of the House of God, among the 
 ornaments being costly chandeliers and handsome 
 statues. Father Sheriden has also greatly improved 
 the cemetery, building a house and barn thereon, 
 sinking an artesian well and cutting away the un- 
 derbrush. His predecessor in the pastorate, Fa- 
 ther Lenehan, had purchased a building for a con- 
 vent, and here, in February, 1897, Father Sheri- 
 den installed four Sisters of Mercy, who there 
 conducted a .select day academy for three years. 
 He has now ( 1901 ) completed, at a cost of $60,000, 
 a splendid parochial school, being thoroughly in 
 accord in the matter of early training with that 
 eminent educator, Rev. Francis L. Patton, D. D., 
 president of Princeton University, who holds that 
 "whether or no education be regarded as an end 
 or means to an end, it is incomplete and unsatis- 
 factory unless it has a religious side." This new 
 school building Father Sheriden is justly proud of, 
 and he has reason to be, for it is without question 
 the handsomest and best equipped school in the 
 State. It contains twelve handsome .school rooms, 
 has a large and handsome hall, and four fine rooms, 
 for societies of the parish to meet in. It is indeed 
 a model school building, and is justly looked upon 
 as the pride of the borough of Naugatuck. 
 
 As a man Father Sheriden is scholarly, genial 
 and courteous; as a citizen, loyal and public-spir- 
 ited; as a priest, self-sacrificing and devoted, char- 
 itaiblc toward human imperfections, yet always 
 ready to point the way toward a higher, truer and 
 nobler life. 
 
 JOHN C. MILROY, son and successor of the 
 late Samuel Milroy, was born in Meriden Aug. 20, 
 1850- He attended the district school of his native 
 town, and at an early age began work for the 
 Charles Parker Co., in the screw shop, where he 
 spent but a short time, accepting a position under his 
 father in the shipping department of the Meriden 
 Britannia Co. Here he began at the bottom round, 
 
 49 
 
 working up through merit, and when his father re- 
 signed, in 1879, he was appointed to succeed him. 
 For the past twenty-two years he has filled the posi- 
 tion with ability and given general satisfaction, 
 proving a worthy successor of his father. 
 
 Mr. Milroy was married April 29, 1875, to Julia 
 Sadler, who was born in England, a daughter of 
 William and Julia Sadler, both of whom were natives 
 of Coventry, England. The former died here, in 
 1898, and the latter in 1899, and both are buried in 
 Walnut Grove cemetery. Mrs. Milroy is a model 
 housewife and a devoted wife and mother. Three- 
 children have blessed this union: (i) John Will- 
 iam, born in Meriden, and educated in the public 
 schools and Morse's Business College, of Hartford,- 
 is assistant to his father in the shipping department 
 of the Meriden Britannia Co. He is a young man 
 of ability, and is a fine pianist, having studied under 
 George Marble, of Meriden. (2) Jessie Julia, aged 
 fourteen, is a pupil in the West End Institute, where 
 she is fitting for the high school. She is a pianist of 
 no mean ability and is under the instruction of Prof. 
 George Marble. She accompanies her brother, Carl, 
 and they have frequent calls to play at entertain- 
 ments. (3) Carl is a student in the public schools,, 
 and although but ten years old (1901) is a cele- 
 brated violinist, having as a master the well-known- 
 violinist. Prof. William Kerr. Mr. Milroy is a 
 member of the N. E. O. P. Politically he is an in- 
 dependent Republican. The family attend the Con- 
 gregational Church, and are highly respected by 
 those who know them best. 
 
 WALLACE. For three-quarters of a century 
 this name has stood as a tower of strength in and 
 about Wallingford, where have lived the late Robert 
 Wallace and his sons, Robert B., George M., Frank 
 
 A. and Henry L., the .sons being actively connected 
 with the leading industry of the town, the two 
 last named as president and secretary, respectively, 
 of the Wallace Manufacturing Co., while George 
 M. represents the business at Chicago, and Robert 
 
 B. in Brooklyn. 
 
 The late Robert Wallace, manufacturer of Wall- 
 ingford, belonged to and was contemporaneous with 
 that galaxy of men whose genius, ability, pluck and 
 determination from the humblest beginnings built 
 fortunes for themselves and others, and made the 
 towns of Wallingford and Meriden famous indus- 
 trial centers, especially for Britannia metal ware, 
 throughout the civilized world. That group of 
 eminent New Englanders was made up of Horace 
 
 C. Wilcox, Isaac C. Lewis, George R. Curtis, Lem- 
 uel J. Curtis, Samuel Simpson, Robert Wallace and 
 others, now all gone to their reward. 
 
 Robert Wallace was born Nov.. 13, 181 5, in Pros- 
 pect, New Haven Co., Conn., son of James and 
 Urania (Williams) Wallace. The father, a small 
 farmer of that town, came of Scottish and English 
 origin. The son received only a limited education, 
 such as was offered to the sons of the farmers of 
 
770 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that period. At the age of eighteen he began the 
 manufacture of spoons on .his own account, in an 
 old gristmill shop in Chesire, and was destined soon 
 to link his name with an event that was to mark a 
 new epoch in the manufacture of metal goods in 
 the United States. He had only been at work a short 
 time in the old mill when he was shown a spoon 
 made of .a metal new to him, called German silver. 
 A chemist. Dr. Louis Feuchtwanger, was known to 
 have brought a small bar of the metal from Germany. 
 This bar Mr. Wallace purchased, and had it rolled 
 into spoons. Later he found a gentleman who had 
 brought the recipe for making the metal, and who 
 sold it to him for twenty-five dollars. Here in his 
 factory Mr. Wallace compounded the first German 
 silver made in America, and to him is due the honor 
 of being the pioneer in this new industry. At this 
 time he removed his simple machinery from Cheshire 
 to a point on the Quinnipiac below Wallingford, and 
 tegan the manufacture of spoons and flat ware on 
 .a more extended scale. In the old mill at Cheshire 
 the output was three dozen spoons a day. Here it 
 was nine dozen. The industry gradually assumed 
 Jarge proportions. New machinery was devised by 
 Mr. Wallace, and in 1855 the business represented 
 an investment of $12,000, which very soon became 
 $14,000. In 1865 it became $100,000, and the style 
 of the corporation was Wallace, Simpson & Co. The 
 manufacturing capacity was more than correspond- 
 ingly increased. In 1871 Mr. Wallace bought out 
 Mr. Simpson, and with two of his sons formed the 
 R. Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Co. The fac- 
 tory now had added to its list of goods already made 
 a large number of new and desirable articles, sterling 
 gpods, high-grade nickle-silver plated ware, both 
 fiat and hollow. Still later, by experiment, Mr. 
 Wallace devised a new process of manufacture from 
 steel, by which a less bulky, firmer and lighter basis 
 for silver plating was secured. A new company 
 wa,s formed (the old bein^_ still continued), con- 
 sisting of himself, his sons and sons-in-law, under 
 the style of Wallace Brothers, and this factory and 
 business have since grown to be the largest in the 
 world devoted to the manufacture of flat table ware. 
 About three tons of steel are in daily demand, and 
 one-half that amount of nickls silver. The com- 
 pany has selling houses in New York and Chicago, 
 and never lacks orders. The present officers of the 
 company are : Frank A. Wallace, president ; Henry 
 L. Wallace, secretary ; and W. J. Leavenworth, a 
 son-in-law of the late Robert Wallace, treasurer. 
 The senior member of the firm passed away June 
 I, 1892, since which time the sons and son-in-law 
 liave continued the business. 
 
 Robert Wallace belonged to the old school of 
 men, plain and unassuming to a marked degree. His 
 tastes were simple, and he seemed happiest when at 
 the bench in the factory, away from the office and 
 its complicated interests. Here he was seen until 
 .within a short time before his last illness, always 
 affable and courteous. The great ambition of his 
 
 life seemed to be to excel as a manufacturer. Ac- 
 cumulating wealth, and widely known, he could 
 have had any position in the gift of his townsmen, 
 had he desired such honors, but all these he uni- 
 formly declined when proffered him. Notoriety 
 he dreaded, and his' life is a fine illustration of 
 steady and lifelong devotion to one calling. 
 
 On March 23, 1839, Mr. Wallace married Har- 
 riet Louise Moulthrop, of North Haven, Conn., and 
 their union was blessed with the following children: 
 A son who died in infancy ; William J., who died 
 at the age of thirty ; Adeline, Mrs. Morris, of 
 Wallingford ; Nettie A., wife of W. J. Leavenworth, 
 of Wallingford; Robert E., of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 
 Hattie E. and Henry L., residents of Wallingford 
 Adela C, Mrs. Sisson, of New York; George W., 
 in Chicago; and Frank A., in Wallingford. 
 
 ^ JOSHUA G. GLADWIN, one of the public of- 
 ficials of New Haven, and a very prominent Repub- 
 lican, was torn in Clinton, March 14 1856. 
 
 The ancestry of the family is traced back to the 
 grandfather Joshua G., who married Phoebe Daw- 
 son Alanwarren, died at an advanced age. The 
 father, William R. Gladwin, was born in Clinton, 
 and was a farmer, but also engaged in teaming and 
 hauling timber, and died at the age of sixty-six. In 
 politics he was a Republican, and served very ac- 
 ceptably as road master for many yearS'. His wife, 
 Harriet M. Crocker, was born in Niantic, daughter 
 of Charles Crocker, a farmer of that locality, who 
 later removed to Killingworth. Of the familv of 
 seven children born to her parents Mrs. William 
 R. Gladwin is the eldest now living, the others be- 
 ing: Fanny, residing in Waterford, Conn.; Henry, 
 in Guilford; Benjamin, in New Haven. The parents 
 of our subject had the following family: Mrs. 
 Niles Sherwood, of New Haven ; Joshua G. ; and 
 Mrs. Joseph Kegelmeyer. Mrs. Gladwin resides at 
 the old home in Clinton, Conn. She attends the 
 Methodist Church, as did her husband. 
 
 The early years of Joshua G. Gladwin were spent 
 in Clinton, where he attended the common school, 
 but when seventeen he commenced his business car- 
 eer by pound fishing for two seasons, and with the 
 money thus earned went to Guilford and entered the 
 employ of Deacon Hall to learn the trade of joiner. 
 Later, he went to John Norton, a carpenter in Guil- 
 ford, and within two years had learned his trade. 
 His next venture was upon a farm owned by Charles 
 A. Goodyear, where he had charge of the horses as 
 well as' the farm, being manager of the property. 
 Desiring to reside in a citv, he later came to New 
 Flaven and worked for three years at his trade for 
 the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. At the 
 expiration of this time he went to work on the out- 
 side for John Osborn, Smith & McQueen, and 
 Charles Loveland. On Julv is, 1884, he entered 
 the Fire Department as a substitute, and so efficient 
 did he prove that on March 31, 1885, he was made 
 call hoseman. On Jan. 11, 1887, he was appointed 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 771 
 
 permanent hosemian ; April 3, 1888, he was made 
 hose driver No. i ; May 30, 1892, came another pro- 
 motion, when he was made Lieutenant of Hook and 
 Ladder No. 2; March i, 1894, he was appointed 
 -Captain No. 2.; June i, 1898, he was transferred to 
 No. 9 as Captain, and on Nov. i, of the same year, 
 was appointed Fire Marshal, and now has charge of 
 the department in the absence of the chief, and has 
 rendered very valuable service to the people of New 
 Haven in protecting their property. 
 
 Mr. Gladwin is also building inspector, issuing 
 all the building permits, fireworks, kerosene oil li- 
 censes for the city of New Haven. That this office 
 demands a large portion of his attention, is shown 
 by the following statistics : During 1899 : Frame 
 houses, loi ; brick houses, 15; brick buildings, 24; 
 brick buildings, 15; stores 25; and tenements, 253. 
 During 1900: Frame houses, 74; brick houses, 14; 
 stores, 26; and tenements, 193. Cost of buildings, 
 $1,373,930. Repairs, $168,950. In addition, dur- 
 ing both years, Mr. Gladwin issued a large number 
 of licenses for the sale of various inflammable ma- 
 terials . 
 
 On Nov. II, 1877, Mr. Gladwin married Florence 
 A. Dudley, born in Madison, a daughter of Jason 
 Dudley, a farmer still living at the old homestead. 
 Mrs. Gladwin is one of two children, the other mem- 
 ber of her family being a brother, Clark F., who 
 resides with the parents. Mr. Gladwin is a member 
 of Wooster Lodge, No. 79, A. F. .& A. M. ; Franklin 
 Chapter, No. 2; Harmony Council, No. 8; New 
 Haven Commandery, No. 2, Knight Templars ; 
 Pyramid Lodge, A. O. U. W. ; and he is foreman in 
 .the Garfield Council of the American Mechanics ; 
 charter member of Firemen's Mutual Aid and State 
 Firemen's Associations, and he has been president 
 of the County Aid Association for two years. Both 
 he and his excellent wife attend the Baptist Church. 
 Mr. Gladwin is recognized to be one of the repre- 
 -sentative men of New Haven, and his public spirit 
 is unquestioned. Combined with these excellent 
 qualities, are many others which have made for 
 Tiim many friends, who rejoice in the success which 
 is attending his efforts. 
 
 DENNIS A. KIMBERLY, one of the prom- 
 inent and representative citizens of the town of 
 Orange, Conn., was born on Sept. 3, 1844, in 
 Derby, Conn., and traces his line of ancestry 
 through James Lester, Eliakim, Silas, Nathaniel 
 (3), Nathaniel (2), Nathaniel (i), to Thomas 
 Kimberly, who came from London, England, to 
 New Haven, Conn., in 1638, and died in Stratford, 
 Conn., in 1673. Thomas Kimberly had four sons, 
 one of whom, Elizur, was the first white male 
 •child bom in New Haven, and in after years filled 
 for a long period the ofifice of secretary of State. 
 
 Nathaniel Kimberly, son of Thomas, died at 
 West Haven in 1705. 
 
 Nathaniel Kimberly (2), son of Nathaniel, 
 •died at West Haven, in 1720. 
 
 Nathaniel Kimberly (3), son of Nathaniel (2), 
 died at West Haven in 1780. 
 
 Silas Kimberly, son of Nathaniel (3), mar- 
 ried Mary, daughter of Jonathan Smith, and died 
 m 1803. 
 
 Eliakimi Kimberly, son of Silas, married Martha 
 Kimberly. 
 
 James L. Kimberly, son of Eliakim, married 
 Mary A. Lum, of Deriby, Conn., and their children 
 were : Dennis A. ; Fannie A. married Miles Good- 
 year, and died in 1883; Edward L. died March i 
 1887. 
 
 Dennis A. Kimberly spent his early school days 
 m West Haven, Conn., and during several years, 
 lived in the Western States. Since 1883 his resi- 
 dence has been in West Haven. In 1861 he en- 
 listed, in the ist N. Y. Cav., and again, in 1862, 
 entering then the isth Conn. V. I., in which, he 
 ■gallantly served until the close of the Civil war. 
 During his cavalry service, he was at one time 
 seriously injured by the kick of a horse, but other- 
 wise returned from the army without hurt. After 
 the war Mr. Kimberly went to Michigan, where 
 he remained one year and then, from 1866 to 1867, 
 he was with the produce firm of John T. Gill, in 
 West Haven, and in 1868 ran a branch house on 
 State street. Until 1870 he was engaged in busi- 
 ness relations with the office of the Northampton 
 Railroad, on Chapel street, and then went to 
 Wichita, Kansas, which at that time was a hamlet 
 of two houses, and there engaged in the cattle busi- 
 ness until 1883. 
 
 Mr. Kimberly has taken a deep interest in all 
 m.atters pertaining to the best advancement of his 
 town and served as burgess of West Haven in 
 1888, 1889, 1890 and 1891, was warden in 1896 
 and 1897, was selectman in 1901, and was elected 
 warden December, 1901. Fraternally he is con- 
 nected with Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R., of New 
 Haven, Annawon Lodge, No. 115, F. & A. M., 
 Joseph Andrews Chapter, R. A. M. 
 
 On Jan. 10, 1876, Mr. Kimberly was married 
 to Miss Nellie A. Norton, a daughter of Alonzo 
 Norton, of Madison, and these children have been 
 born to the union : Fannie E. ; F. Lester ; Jennie 
 A. ; Dennis; Edward B. ; and Marian A. F. Lester 
 Kimberly is well known in West Haven, where he 
 is a popular newsdealer and contractor ; he was 
 married Nov. 27, 1901, to Miss Annie L. Shannon. 
 The family is one that is universally esteemed in 
 West Haven and is prominent both in business and 
 social circles. 
 
 HERMAN MICHAELIS, foreman of the lamp 
 department of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufac- 
 turing Co., is one of the leading German-American 
 citizens of the "Silver City." He was born May 
 23, 1852, in the city of Luckenwalde, near Berlin, 
 Germany, a son of Ludwig Michaelis, now de- 
 ceased. The latter was a native of Braunschweig, 
 Germany, where he grew to manhood. On attain- 
 
772 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ing his majorit_y, he settled in Luckenwalde, where 
 iie engaged in the manufacture of kid gloves and 
 suspenders and similar wares, in which ne contin- 
 ued throughout his life. There he died at a ripe 
 old age, and was buried. Hiis wife, Henrietta 
 Lohbauer, was Idotu in Potsdam, and died and was 
 buried in her native place. Both were consistent 
 members of the Lutheran Church. Of their chil- 
 dren, four died in infancy ; one more, Hermine, 
 is now deceased ; two reside in Meriden ; and the 
 others in Germany. The living are : Louis, a 
 leading baker of Aleriden, Paulina, Emma, Her- 
 man and Emil. 
 
 Herman Alichaelis received a good education in 
 his native land, and was early made acquainted 
 with the manufacturing business conducted by his 
 father, with whom he continued until twenty years 
 old, when he joined the German army. During 
 his' three years' military service, he had opportunity 
 to show his mettle, and was m'ade a non-commis- 
 sioned officer, and acquitted himself honorably. 
 One 3'ear of this time was spent in France, during 
 the closing scenes of the Franco-Prussian war of 
 1871, an opportunity which does not fall to the lot 
 of every soldier, which he made the most of. The 
 training thus received has made him a better citi- 
 zen, and its experiences will never be forgotten. 
 
 L'pon the close of his terni' of enlistment, Afr. 
 INIichaelis came to the L'nited States and immediate- 
 ly settled in Meriden, whose manufacturing possi- 
 bilities were apparent to his experienced eye. He 
 at once attached himself to the great manufactur- 
 ing establishment of the Bradley & Hubbard Manu- 
 facturing Co., entering the lamp department. Here 
 his abilities and industry soon gained recognition, 
 and in 1883 he was placed in charge of the depart- 
 ment, one of the prominent ones of the establish- 
 ment, and for the past nineteen years has conducted 
 it with signal success. His straightforward busi- 
 ness methods have made him a favorite with his 
 employers, and secured the respect and esteem of 
 all his associates, in either business or social life. 
 
 On Alay 24, 1882, .Mr. Michaelis was married 
 to Aliss Louise F,rnst, daughter of Charles and 
 Alinnie (Konold) Ernst. Mrs. Michaelis was born 
 in Meriden, and' her parents were natives of ( ier- 
 many, who died at Meriden, and were buried in 
 Walnut Grove Cemetcr)-. They attended religious 
 service at the Univcrsalist Church. Three of their 
 six children died in infancy. Those living are: 
 Louise: Amelia, wife of Augustus Raven, and Car- 
 rie, wife of Charles H. Drechsler; all reside in 
 ^Meriden. 
 
 Of the children bom to Mr. and Mrs. .Michaelis, 
 the second, Herman Walter, died in childhood. 
 The other, .Minnie X'iola, was educated in the Meri- 
 den public schoD'ls and is imw a student at Whitbv 
 Ciillcge, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Michaelis is a 
 member of the Alerideii Saengerbund, of which he 
 has been president and is now treasurer. He is 
 a member of the Cniversalist Church. In politics 
 
 he is independent, and never seeks any polJti^caE 
 favors. An industrious and thrifty citizen, he en- 
 joys the comforts of his own fireside, and leaves 
 public strife to those whose taste inclines to such 
 matters. His home on Hanover street, which he 
 purchased several years since, is one of the finest 
 on that thoroughfare, and is presided over by his 
 devoted wife with the ease and grace which come 
 from good breeding. Having come to Meriden 
 with no capital, a stranger in a strange land, Air. 
 Michaelis has achieved a success of which he may 
 be justly proud, and which may well be taken by 
 rising generations of Americans as an inspiration 
 and example. 
 
 CAXDEE. For over tvi'o centuries the name 
 of Candee, or Cande, has appeared in the annals of 
 Connecticut. Their most interesting record is as 
 follows : 
 
 (I) Zaccheus Candee first appears m New 
 Haven at the time of his marriage, Dec. 5, 1670, 
 to Rebecca, daughter of Henry Bristow (or Bris- 
 tol), of New Haven. -JMr. Candee lived and died 
 in West Haven, probably at the corner of the 
 "Green," where down to a late day remained the 
 dwelling of his son Samuel. He is called Zach- 
 ariah on his tombstone, on which the date of his 
 death and age are given as 1720, aged eighty years ; 
 and on a similar stone the death and age of his 
 wife Rebecca appear as Sept. 22, 1739, aged ninety- 
 one years. 
 
 (IIj Samuel Candee, son of Zaccheus, born 
 July 24, 1678, in West Haven, Conn., married April 
 28, 1703, Abigail, daughter of Thomas Pineon, of 
 New Haven. Mr. Candee served respectively as 
 lieutenant and captain of the AA'est Haven Com- 
 pany. He lived and died in that town, his home 
 being beautifully located at the corner of the 
 "Green," and the building stood there until taken 
 down, in 1877. Capt. Candee died Feb. 28, 1748- 
 49, and his wife passed away Jan. 9, 1743. Thom- 
 as Pineon, the father of Mrs. Candee, was of Sud- 
 bury, Alass., in 1661, likely a son of Nicholas Pinon, 
 of Lynn, 1647. 
 
 (Ill) Caleb Candee, son of Samuel, was born 
 about 1722 in West Haven. He married Lois Mal- 
 lory, of West Haven or Alilford, and settled in 
 the town of Oxford, Conn., as a farmer. There 
 he died, according to the inscription on his tomb- 
 stone, Oct. 4, 1777. 
 
 The following is extracted from the Army and 
 A'a-ry Journal. Alarch 27, 1880: 
 
 A family which has been represented in the Army and 
 Navy of the United States from the earliest period in the 
 histnry of this country furnishes one of the curiosities of 
 longevity which is worthy of mention. Early in the six- 
 Irrntli century a Huguenot family of the same name as 
 the great Conde fled from France and took up their resi- 
 dence in Scotland. One of the family afterward emigrated 
 to America and settled in Connecticut. He had a son, 
 Zaccheus Conde. born in New Haven in 1640, from which 
 all those bearing the name of Candee in this country are 
 descended. It was a hardy race, of a mixture of Hugue- 
 
,i;C^li<l^ £x/{ ^ ^^ 
 
 iSc^-T^^c 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 771 
 
 not and Puritan, and thev lived principally in the town- 
 ship of Oxford, in New Haven county. One of them. 
 Caleb by name, married in 1742 Lois Mallory, and of this 
 marriage were born nine sons, one of whom reached the 
 aa:e of ninety-four, three of them eighty-seven, one 
 «ighty-six, and one eighty-three, one seventy-six. one sev- 
 enty, and one sixty-nine, an average of a little more than 
 eighty-two years. The seventh son, Nehemiah, was the 
 grandfather of Gen. Innis Palmer and Major George W. 
 Candee, Paymaster U. S. Army, and the great-grand- 
 father of Mrs. Dr. Walter S. Schofield, of the Navy, and 
 many citizens of New York and vicinity. He had ten 
 children who lived to mature age, three of them living, viz.. 
 Mr. W. L. Candee, of Milwaukee, now in his eighty- 
 ninth year ; Mrs. Susan Palmer, mother of Gen. Palmer, 
 in her eighty-eighth year ; and Mr. G. W. Candee. of Nevi 
 York, in his eighty-seventh year. Those of the family 
 who have died attained the ages, respectively, of ninety- 
 two, ninety, eighty-two, seventy-six, seventy-four, fifty- 
 six and fifty-three. The average age of the two genera- 
 tions, viz., thfe families of Caleb and Nehemiah (nineteen 
 children), would be now about eighty years and three 
 months. All of the children of Caleb were born subjects 
 of Great Britain, and all of them, we believe, served in 
 the Revolutionary army. 
 
 (IV) David Candee, son of Caleb, was born in 
 1747, in Oxford, Conn. On Feb. 5, 1772, he mar- 
 Tied Dinah Bristol, of West Haven, who died June 
 17, 1785, aged thirty-three years. Hie married 
 (second) April 11, 1787, Abigail Buckingham. Mr. 
 Candee resided in Oxford and in Harwinton, Conn. 
 He and his wife were 'baptized into the church in 
 Oxford Sept. 10, 1774, and Jan. 6, 1797, he is 
 recommended to the church in Harwinton, Conn. 
 In 1807 he was of the committee to build the new 
 ■church. He was frequently a selectman. Mr. 
 Candee died at Harwinton, Conn., May 12, 1841, 
 aged ninety-four years. 
 
 (V) David Candee (2), son of Daviid, was bap- 
 tized Sept. 22. 1782, and on Nov. 16, 1808, mar- 
 ried Hannah, daughter of Abijah Catlin, of Har- 
 winton. His mother dying when he was a child, 
 DaVid was adopted by Timothy Candee, of Ox- 
 ford, and afterward of Pompey, N. Y. David ac- 
 companied Timothy to Pompey, but after remain- 
 ing there a year or two returned to Connecticut, 
 locating at Milford, where he resided with a Mr. 
 Woodruff, who kept a 'hotel. Later he spent three 
 vears trading in the South with a Mr. Cone. 
 Thev returned and bought the hotel and store in 
 Oxford, and opened trade tliere. Later Mr. Can- 
 dee bought his partner's interest and contmued 
 the business alone. He was a man of sound judg- 
 ment, and iin his manners, a gentleman of the Old 
 School. He was a respected and leadmg citizen 
 ■of the town, and in the course of a steadily success- 
 ful business accumulated a fortune. He died Jul) 
 II 18^1 Mrs Hannah (Catlin) Candee was a 
 Jaciv of education and intelligence. She was actrve, 
 and long survived her husband, dying in October, 
 
 ( VI) Frederic Augustus Candee, son of Davia 
 (2), was born June 15, 1818. and married Oct 7, 
 1845, Louisa A. Hotchkiss. He was a merchan m 
 Oxford and also kept a hotel until withm a few 
 
 years of his death. His constitution had never been 
 robust, and he fell a victim to consumption, passing 
 away Feb. 25, 1859. In his business affairs he 
 had displayed rare judgment, and had accumulated 
 quite a fortune. In his religlious faith he was 
 reared a Congregationalist, but after marriage he 
 united with the Episcopal Church, in wbidh faith 
 he, as well as his family, remained. 
 
 (VII) Frederick C.vtlin Candee, son of 
 Frederic A., was born in (Oxford, Conn., Aug. 15, 
 1854. He was educated in the schools of hlis na- 
 tive village and at Lovdl's Lancasterian School, in" 
 New Haven. His training in his youth was chiefly 
 along agricultural lines, and after leaving school 
 he engaged Iin farming, and he owns a valuaHe 
 farm in Prospect, Conn. Public affairs occupied 
 his attention to a considerable degree, and he 
 served three terms as selectman in Oxford at a 
 time when the Democrats had a majority of fifty. 
 Politically he is a Republlican, and a stanch mem- 
 ber of the party. In 1884 he located in New 
 Haven, where he has since been successfully en- 
 gaged in the livery business. 
 
 On May 28, '1874, Mr. Candee married Lucy 
 Ann Davis, who died the same year. She was a 
 daughter of William FI. Davis. On Nov. 13, 1878, 
 Mr. Candee wedded Julia" Allison Iveeney, of 
 Southford, Conn., daughter of Frederick Keeney. 
 Ch'ildren as follows were born to this union : 
 Frederick (born in 1880), Harry E., Agnes and 
 Julia, laving ; and two others, a boy and a girl, who 
 died in infancy. 
 
 FRANCIS FOOTE ANDREWS, a representa- 
 tive farmer and leading citizen of East Haven, 
 New Haven Co., Conn., was born iin. that town 
 where his brother Samuel A\' now li^-es. March 
 18, 1828, and belongs to one of its old and hon- 
 ored families. His grandfather, Nathan Andrews, 
 was also a native of East Haven and a soldier of 
 the Revolutionary war. Both he and his father, 
 Elisha Andrews, lived to the advanced age of 
 ninety-three years, while his wiife, who bore the 
 maiden name of Mahiitable Pardee, lived to the age 
 of ninety-one. 
 
 Rouel Andrews, father of our subject, was born 
 in East Haven, March 18, 1800, and in early man- 
 hood married Olive Foote, daughter of Samuel 
 Foote. To thenr were born seven children, namely : 
 Cdesta, who married Noah W'. Bradley, and is 
 still living; Francis F., our subject; Ann L.. who 
 died at the age of sixteen years: Minerva, who 
 married John \. Blackstone and lives in Branford, 
 Conn. ; one who died in infancy ; Eveline, who mar- 
 ried Samuel Thompson and is deceased; and W. 
 F., a merchant and postmaster of New Haven. 
 The father carried on the old tavern at East ITaven, 
 and also ran a hay press, baling hay which was 
 shipped to the West Indies. Fle took a very active 
 and prominent part in public affairs, serving as 
 selectman of East Flaven for a great many years ; 
 
774 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 town clerk for twenty years ; postmaster for thlirty 
 consecutive years; and justice of the peace many 
 years. He was also a deacon in the Congrega- 
 tional Church for fifteen years, and took a great 
 interest in the Church and its work. He was wide- 
 ly known and held in high regard by all with whom 
 he came in contact. He died at the age of sixty- 
 four years, his wife at the age of ninety-one. 
 
 Our subject acquired his literary education in the 
 common schools of his native town, and has spent 
 his entire life in East Haven, his time and attention 
 being devoted to general farming and the dairy 
 business since attaining to man's estate. He owns 
 a valuable farm of about lOO acres partly in the 
 town of Branford, and has pla-ced the land under 
 a high state of cultivation and made many im- 
 provements thereon. 
 
 Islr. Andrews was married, July 5, 185S, to Miss 
 Mary A. Hemingway, a daughter of Harvey 
 Hemingwa}-, and to them were born three children : 
 Mary U., who died in infancy; Francis Rouel and 
 Harvey Lincoln, both farmers of East Haven. The 
 wife and mother died in 1895. The Republican 
 party finds in Mr. Andrews an earnest advocate 
 and stanch supporter of its principles, and he has 
 been quite promdnentl}- identified with local poli- 
 tics. He has served as justice of the peace several 
 years ; was selectman of East Haven two years ; 
 and represented 'his town in the State Legislature 
 in 1896 and 1897, with credit to himself and to 
 the entire satisfaction of bis constituents. 
 
 DAVID BLOOMFIELD. The city of Meri- 
 den numbers among its intelligent resident profes- 
 sional men several who take high rank with the 
 architects of this country, and a prominent repre- 
 sentative of this branch of art is IDavid Bloomfield. 
 
 Mr. Bloomfield was born Nov. 6, 1851, in the 
 town of Cromwell, Middlesex Co., Conn. David 
 Bloomfield, his grandfather, was a native of Wood- 
 bridge, N. J., where he spent his entire life engaged 
 in. farming. He was an earnest member of the 
 Congregational Church. The family, which is of 
 Wels'h origin, was planted in this country soon 
 after the Revolution. 
 
 Nathan Bloomfield, a son of David (i), and 
 father of David (2), the subject of this notice, was 
 born on his father's farm in New Jersey, and his 
 boyhood days were spent in farming and attend- 
 ing the district school. When he had attained to 
 man's estate he went to Hoboken, N. J., and learned 
 the trade of shipbuilder. After hiis marriage he 
 removed to Cromwell, Conn., and worked as a ship 
 carpenter ; later locating in Middle Haddam and 
 forming a partnership with Andrew F. Parker, in 
 a ship building business, which continued for sev- 
 eral years, during which time he helped in the con- 
 struction of the U. S. gunboat "Cayuga." ITe was 
 also associated with a Mr. Gildersleeve, in Port- 
 land, Conn., in shipbuilding, and in all of his ven- 
 tures was eminently successful. The immediate 
 
 cause of liis death, which occurred in April, 1861,. 
 was the breaking of a blood vessel, and he was 
 interred in Middle Haddam, where his wife also 
 lies. Mr. Bloomfield was married in Staten Isl- 
 and, N. Y., to Elizabeth Butler, a woman of fine 
 character and many lovable qualities. She was 
 a consistent member of the Congregational Church, 
 and her husband was liberal in his religious views ; 
 both were most excellent people. In political mat- 
 ters the father was a Democrat, but aside from 
 giving his earnest support to the candidates of his 
 party he never took an active part in politics. To 
 him-self and wife were born seven children, name- 
 ly. Emily, who died 3'oung; Garry, a builder of 
 Merliden, Conn. ; Mary, who was killed while only 
 twenty years of age by bemg thrown from a car- 
 riage, in Middle Haddam ; David ; Franklin, who 
 died when young ; Frank, deceased ; and Nathan,, 
 who died at the age of twenty. 
 
 David Bloomfield was taken bv bis parents to> 
 Middle Haddam, and while attending school, also- 
 helped his father. When but seventeen years old, 
 he began to learn the carpenter's trade, and in 1869- 
 came to Meriden with bis brother, following his 
 trade in this city. Being ambitious, he began the 
 study of architecture and mechanical drawing, 
 later taking a course under the celebrated architect,. 
 Henry C. Shute, of Massachusetts. While still 
 studying under this gentleman, Mr. Blooi^jfield de- 
 signed several private residences that gave evidence 
 of his great ability in this line. In 1887, Mr. 
 Bloomfield opened an office at No. 129 State 
 street, Meriden, and he has met with unqualified 
 success. Among the buildings which bear testi- 
 monv to his skill mav be mentioned the residences 
 of W. L. Squire, A.' S. Thomas, Mrs. Mary Wil- 
 son, and scores of others. The Pacific Lodge and 
 Journal Publishing Co. buildings, the Turner Hall, 
 the Columbia, Franklin and Center street schools, 
 St. Mary's Roman Catholic and the German Luth- 
 eran Immanuel churches, and many other public 
 and private buildings in Meriden, were designed 
 by him, as well as elegant structures in Hartford 
 and New Haven. In all of his work Mr. Bloom- 
 field displays a thorough understanding of all 
 modem requirements and an originality of design 
 that mark it as distinctively his own, and his suc- 
 cess has been almost phenomenal. 
 
 Mr. Bloomfield was married June 12, 1884, in 
 Bristol, Conn., to Clara R. Richards, who was born 
 at Goshen, Conn., a daughter of Cliarles A. Rich- 
 ards. No children have been born of this union. 
 Socially, ^Ir. Bloomfield is a member of Monto- 
 wese Tribe, I. O. O. F. In political matters he has 
 always taken a leading part, in 1893 representing 
 the Fifth ward in the citv council, having been 
 elected on the Republican ticket.. He is now Fire 
 jiarshal, having served in that capacity for nine 
 years ; and he has been inspector of plumbing seven 
 years. Religiously ^tr. Bloomfield is very liberal, 
 giving freely to works designed to relieve suf- 
 
/(V/^;^^^^ /^UTzri^uJ^ci/^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 77S 
 
 fering and to promote the general betterment of 
 humanity, regardless of church affiliations. Trust- 
 worthy and talented, upright, thoroughly conver- 
 sant with all the details of h'is profession, Mr. 
 Bloomfield is one of the men of whom Meriden feels 
 justly proud, and who numbers his friends by 
 legions. 
 
 WILLIA:M henry ELY, the subject of this 
 biography, is a prominent member of the Connecti- 
 cut Bar, and former Corporation Counsel of the 
 city of New Haven. His descent in several lines 
 is from an early Puritan ancestry who were among 
 the first settlers of New England, one line reach- 
 ing back to the coming of the "Mayflower." 
 
 J\Ir. Ely was born Nov. 27, 1856, lin the city 
 of Hartford, a son of William Brewster and Eliza- 
 beth Smith (Morgan) Ely, descending, on his 
 mother's side from the Morgans of Stonington, 
 who figured in the war of the Revolution, and also 
 from Thomas Se^'mour, who \\'as King's attorney 
 before the Revolution, as well as from a Hugue- 
 not family by the name of Chenevard, while on 
 his father's side his descent was no less illus- 
 trious. Among his ancestors are Elder Will- 
 iam Brewster, of ";\Iay flower" fame, and Na- 
 than Ely, who came from Kent, England, in 1625. 
 Nathan Ely was made a freeman in New England, 
 at Cambridge, Mass., in 1635, and went to Hart- 
 ford, Conn., with Rev. Thomas Hooker in 1636, 
 and became one oi the original proprietors' of the 
 town in 1639. From this emdgrant ancestor Will- 
 iam Henry Ely, of New Haven, is a descendant 
 in the eighth generation, his line being through 
 Samuel, Deacon John, Caleb, Wdlliiam, Eli and 
 William B. 
 
 Samuel Ely, son of Nathan Ely, was born in 
 Cambridge, and in 1659 married Mary Day, born 
 in 1641, in Hartford, a daughter of Robert and 
 Editha (Stebbins) Day, and accompanied his fa- 
 ther to Springfield, Mass., where be was success- 
 ful in the acquisition of property, and where he 
 died. 
 
 Deacon John Ely, son of Samuel, was born in 
 1678, in Springfield, Mass., and in 1703, married 
 Mercy Bliss, born in 1680, a daughter of Samuel 
 and Mary (Leonard) BHss. Deacon Ely died m 
 1758, and his widow in 1763, both in West Sprmg- 
 field. 
 
 Caleb Ely, a son of Deacon John, was born m 
 1714, in West Springfield, and in 1740 married 
 Mary Edwards, who was horn in Hartford in 1721, 
 a daughter of Deacon John and Christianna (Will- 
 iamson) Edwards, the former of whom was an 
 uncle to Rev. Jonathan Edwards, once president of 
 Princeton College. 
 
 WilHam' Ely, son of Caleb, was born in 1743. 
 in West Springfield, and in 1766 married Drusdla 
 Brewster, born in 1745, a daughter of William 
 Brewster, who was a descendant of the Elder 
 Brewster of the ".Mayflower." William Ely died 
 
 in West Springfield, in 1825, and his widow two 
 years later. 
 
 ElS Ely, son of Wilham, was born in 1772, in 
 West Springfield, and in 1798, in E[artford, mar- 
 ried Bathsheba Blake, born in 1777, a daughter of 
 Abraham and H:annah (Babcock) Blake, of Mikon, 
 Mass. For years he was a successful merchant of 
 Hartford. His wife died in 1832, and he survived 
 ten years. 
 
 William B. Ely, son of Eli, was born in 1812, 
 in Hartford, and in 1845, an that city, married 
 Elizabeth Smith Morgan, born in 1821, a daughter 
 of William H. and Margaret J. (Chenevard) Mor- 
 gan. j\Ir. Ely was long known in the wholesale 
 grocery, flour and feed business, in Hartford. 
 
 Wlilliam Henry Ely, son of William B., was 
 reared in Hartford, Conn., wliere be received his 
 early education, and graduated from the Hartford 
 High school, in 1873, ^'^d then entered Amherst 
 (Mass.) College, from which he graduated in the 
 class of 1877, with credit to himself and bis Alma. 
 Alater. Selecting the law as his dhoice of profes- 
 sion, our subject became a student in the office 
 of the well-known firm of Briiscoe & Maltbie, of 
 Flartford, and applied himself so diligently that he 
 was admitted to the Bar in that city, May 27, 1879, 
 commencing the practice of his profession in A\ in- 
 sted. Conn., in the following September. Possess- 
 ing those qualities whicli insure success, ^Ir. Ely 
 came raplidly to the front, and remained in Win- 
 sted until be desired a wider field, locating in New 
 Haven on June 28, 1884, where he entered into a 
 partnership with Willliam C. Case, and this con^ 
 nection has lasted until the present time. 
 
 Taking a prominent posiition among die leaders 
 of thought, Mr. Ely soon became identified with 
 the active wing of the Republican party, and dn 
 January, 1895, was elected tO' the honorable posi- 
 tion of Corporation Counsel of the city of New 
 Haven, so efficientl)' performling the duties of this 
 position that he was unanimously chosen as his 
 own successor in 1897, irrespective of party lines, 
 a testimony of value to any public citizen. 
 
 On Oct. 18, 1881, Air. Ely was married to 
 Miss Mary Gertrude Little, a native of Sheffield, 
 Mass., and one son has been born to this union, 
 William Brewster, born Oct. 19, 1882. Activity 
 has marked the career of our subject in almust 
 ever\- line, his social relations being with the 
 Ouinnipiac Club, the Sons of the Revolution, and 
 his political affiliations with the Republican League 
 and the Young Men's Republican Club. 
 
 L P. BRONSON, a well-known contractor and 
 builder, who now makes his home in liamden, is 
 a native of New Haven county, born in Middle- 
 bury, Aug. 4, 1854. Plis father, Lester Bronson, 
 and his grandfather, Jared Bronson, were born on 
 the same farm in that town. The first of the fam- 
 ily to locate bhere was Amos i'.ronson, the great- 
 grandfather of our subject, who was born in Wood- 
 
776 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 bury, Litchfield Co., Conn., and became a large 
 land owner and extensive farmer of Miiddlebury. 
 He lived to be nearly ninety }ears of age. My oc- 
 cupation the father of our subject was a farmer, 
 wood and lumber dealer, and also engaged in the 
 manufacture of charcoal. He was cjuite a promi- 
 nent and influential man" in his community, and 
 was elected to several local offices, including those 
 of selectman and assessor. He married ^Miss Sarah 
 Scoville, of ]\liddlebury, and to them were born 
 six children: Francis E., Chester B., Alice I., I. 
 P., Julia E. and Beverly, all residents of Middle- 
 bury with the exception of our subject. The fa- 
 ther died at the age of fift)-six years, and the 
 mother at the age of forty-eight. 
 
 The first fifteen years of his life, I. P. Bronson 
 spent upon the home farm, and then went to Se_\'- 
 mour. Conn., to learn the carpenter's trade with 
 Samuel D. Bronson, serving a three years' ap- 
 prenticeship. He continued to work at hiis trade 
 in Seymour for fourteen j-ears, the last two as a 
 contractor and builder, and then went to Florida, 
 where after a year spent in contracting and build- 
 ing he went to St. Augustine, that State, and ac- 
 cepted a position as foreman with the contractors 
 building the Ponce de Leon Hotel at that place, 
 where he remained three years and two months. 
 On his return North, he located in Hamden, where 
 he worked at his trade two years, and since that time 
 has been principally engaged in contracting and 
 building houses in New Haven, 
 
 .Afr. Bronson was married, Nov. 14, 1880, to 
 Miss Lizzie J. Benhani, of Hamden, and to them 
 have been born two children : Isabella F. and Irvin 
 P., Jr. In i8go our subject erected a beautiful 
 modern residence on Dixwell avenue, where he and 
 his family now reside, and where they delight to 
 entertain their many friends. Politically he is iden- 
 tified with the Republican party, and fraternally is 
 a member of the Masonic Lodge of New Haven, 
 and the Knights of Pythias. He also belongs to 
 the Highwood Club. He is quite popular botli an 
 business and social circles, and wherever known is 
 held in high regard. 
 
 I 
 
 EDGAR K. PARKER, one of the prominent 
 and highl\- respected citizens of New Haven, was 
 born in \\'indsor, \'t., ( )ct. 12, 1845, son of Reuben 
 ]\I. Parker, who was born in A\'oodstock, \'t., in 
 1818, and died Nov. 11, 1882. 
 
 Ebeniezer Parker .was.-lnis g'rea,t-grandfather, 
 and his grandfather was named Joseph Parker, a 
 shoemaker and ta\'ern-keeper, wdio married a Aliss 
 Muzzy and settled in Woixlstuck, \vhere he reared 
 a family of four children: Sarah, Reuben M. (fa- 
 ther of Edgar K.), John and Eliza. Jnhn Par- 
 ker, the thiird in this family, \\as a dealer in shoes 
 until the war broke out, when he went to W'ashing- 
 top. D. C, and there held a government position 
 until his death, wliich occurred after many years 
 of faithful service. 
 
 Reuben M. Parker grew to manhood in Wood- 
 stock, following the trade of shoemaker. Later he 
 was emplo3'ed in a government gun factory at 
 Windsor, Vt., where he died. He married Julia 
 Burnham, a native of Windsor, \'t., who died Sept. 
 25, 1855, and five children were born to them: 
 Harriet, who married John Parker, and resides in 
 New Haven; Marian, who died unmarried; Ella, 
 who married John Boyd ; Edgar K. ; and Lizzie, 
 who is unmarried. Politically Reuben M. Parker 
 was a Republican, but never an office seeker. The 
 entlire famil}' were members of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 Edgar K. Parker spent Wis boyhood da}-s in 
 Windsor, Vt., attending- school in Windsor and 
 Woodstock. At the age of fifteen, in i860, he re- 
 moved to New Haven, Conn., and worked in a 
 gun shop for a short period, and later was a con- 
 ductor on the New York, New? Haven & Hartford 
 Railroad from New Haven to New York, being 
 engaged on that line for about twenty years in all. 
 His first service was' from i860 until September, 
 1863, when he enlisted in the United States navy 
 for one }ear, serving under Lieut. Commander 
 William B. Cusbnian. He previously had made two 
 trips to Europe. At the expiration of his term he 
 returned to the emiploy of the New York & New 
 Haven Railroad Co. ( now known as the New York, 
 New Haven & Hartford Railroad Co.), and re- 
 mained with them until Jan. 2, 1879, after which he 
 was in 'the electroplating business until 1881. On 
 the recjuest of the officers of the railroad company 
 he returned to them for about one year. In May, 
 1883, he entered the employ of the Connecticut 
 Lighting Co., conitinuing with them until the/ 
 discontinued business, in August of the same year. 
 On Sept. 23, 1883, he was engaged by the New 
 Haven Electric Co., which was absorbed by the 
 United Illuminating Co.. of which he is now super- 
 intendent in New Haven. 
 
 On Feb. 21, 1876, Air. Parker' was married to 
 Louisa E. Gedney, of Mamaroneck, Westchester 
 Co., N. Y., daughter of John Gedney, of the same 
 place. The Gedney family is an old one in New 
 York State. Four children have been born of this 
 union: Ma}- L. (who died in 1891, at the age of 
 fifteen), Herbert G., Edgar K. and Julia B. 
 
 j\Ir. Parker is a Republican, but has never ac- 
 cepted office, although nomin'atlion to various po- 
 sitions within the gift of the people has been of- 
 fered him ; he has also; refused appointment as 
 police commissioner. Socially he is a member of 
 the jMasonic fraternity, uniting' wlith Wooster 
 Lodge, No. 79; New Plaven Commandery, No. 2; 
 Lafayette Consistory, of Bridgeport ; and Pyramid 
 Temple, A. A. O. N. ]M. S., having attained to 
 the thirty-second degree. Mr. Parker is also a 
 member of the \'eterans of the Navy and Admiral 
 Foote Post, G. A. R. The family are members of 
 the' Episcopal Church, and are very active in its 
 work. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 777 
 
 Ever since coming to Xevv Haven Mr. Parker 
 has had the welfare of the city at heart, and has 
 proved himself a public-spirited, energetic man. 
 Mr. Parker is a past master in his line of business, 
 thoroughly understanding its every detail. In man- 
 ner he is genial and pleasant, and makes friends 
 wherever he .goes. 
 
 JESSE EDWIN STILLMAN, the popular and 
 successful manager of the Singer Sewing Machine 
 Co., for the dlistrict of Meriden, which includes 
 Wallingford and Cheshire, is a descendant of one 
 of the old and honorable families of Connecticut. 
 
 George Stillman, the founder of ithe famih- in 
 America, was a native of London, England, where 
 he was born in 1659, a son of a London merchant. 
 The family were stanch supporters of Oliver Crom- 
 well, during the days of the Commonwealth, and 
 upon the restoration of Charles, the Second, were 
 forced, for safety, to assume another name, select- 
 ing that of Pritchard, or Pickering. George Still- 
 m'an became a merchant. He was married in Lon- 
 don, and had a son, George. Those were stormy 
 times and soon man)- of the Cromwell advocates 
 found 'it necessary to secretly emigrate to America. 
 This was the case with Mr. Stillman, and in 1680, 
 leaving little George with friends (in London, he 
 with his wife, set ont on the voyage to the free 
 land across the ocean. ^Irs. Stillman never reached 
 it, dying on the voyage, but her husband located 
 at H'adlev, Alass., and in 1685 there married Re- 
 becca Smith. Later, he moved to Wethersfield, 
 Conn., and there spent the remainder of his days, 
 dying there in 1728, and hlis remains lie in the 
 old cemetery there, wirt;h the dust of so man}' other 
 early settlers. George and wife were the parents 
 of eleven children : George, whom he left in Eng- 
 land, came later to America, with a party of Sev- 
 enth Day Baptists, and settled in Rhode Island; 
 Nathaniel; Benjamin; John; Henry; IMartha ; Re- 
 becca; and otliers. 
 
 John Stillman, son of George, was born in Had- 
 ley, Mass., on Feb. 19, 1693, and removed to Weth- 
 ersfield, Conn., with his parents, where he spent 
 the remainder of his days, engaged in farming. 
 A prominent citizen, and a deacon in the church, 
 he died, full of years, in 1775, and was -buried in 
 AVethersfield. He was married May 26, 1715, to 
 ^lary Wolcott, born May 14, 1694, a daughter of 
 ^Irs, Judiith Wolcott and '3. granddaughter of Sam- 
 uel Appleton, of Wethersfield, and she died in 1777, 
 the mother of the following children : John ; May ; 
 Abigail; Martha; Sarah; Elisha; Abigail (2) ; Ap- 
 pleton ; Huldah ; and Benjamin. • 
 
 John Stillman, son of Deacon John, was born 
 in A\'ethersfieid, Aug. 9, 1717, and there he grew 
 to manhood, and married, on Oct. 26, 1738, Rachel 
 Robbins, a daughter of Richard and Martha 
 (Curtis) Robbins, of that town. In 1757, he re- 
 moved with his wife and family to Sandisfield, 
 Berkshire Co., Mass., where he spent the remainder 
 
 of his days, and died July 15, 1782. His widow 
 removed to Colebrook, Litchfield Co., Conn., where 
 she died, July 12, 1807, at the age of eighty-nine 
 years, and was buried in the old cemetery there. 
 John Stillman was one of 'the founders of the 
 church in Sandisfield. The children born to John 
 and Rachel were; Joseph, born April i, 1740; 
 Hannah, born Feb. 13, 1742; John, born Jan. 6, 
 1744; Joshua; Roger; Appleton; and Robert. 
 
 Roger Stillman, son of John, was born in 
 Wethersfield, on July 4, 1754, and removed yvith 
 his parents to Sandisfield, where he grew to man- 
 hood, and later removed to Colebrook, Conn., 
 where he located. Roger Stillman was one of the 
 first to enlist in the patriot army, for service in the 
 Revolutionary war, participating in the battle of 
 Bunker Hill, and many other engagements, being 
 finally honorably discharged at Lake Champlain. 
 In 1780 he located at Colebrook, where he spent 
 the remainder of his days, dying Dec. 8, 1832, 'and 
 was engaged in building his house on the morning 
 of the Dark Day. Both his name and that of his 
 wife occur among the founders of the church in 
 Colebrook. His wife was Mehitable Hurd, who 
 was born March 4, 1757, in Killingworth, Conn., 
 now Clinton, and died in Colebrook, Aug. 24, 1828. 
 She was buried there, having been the mother of 
 ten children, five of whom were sons ; William, 
 Daniel, Osburn, Edmund and Chester. 
 
 Chester Stillman, son of Roger, was born in 
 Colebrook, Conn., April 9, 1797, on a farm, one- 
 half mile south of the main. road. He became a 
 landowner and farmer in Colebrook, where he 
 built a home in 1825, and made other improve- 
 ments. His death occurred Jan. 25, 1865, and he 
 was buried in Stillman's cemetery, in Colebrook. 
 On Dec. 10, 1815, he united wiith the Church and 
 was appointed deacon in 1838. On ^ larch 2, 1820, 
 he was married to Clarissa Esther De Wolf, born 
 Aug. I, 1797, at Otis, l\Iass., and died May 14, 
 1864, and was laid to rest in Stillman's cemetery. 
 Her ancestry was French. Eight children were 
 born to Chester Stillman and wife, four of whom 
 were sons: Edwin C, Dorwin E., Lester R. and 
 Collin L. 
 
 Edwin C. Stillman, the father of our subject, 
 was born in Colebrook, in Beach Hill district, Sept. 
 14, 1821, and grew to manhood in his native home, 
 making his avocation farming. He graduated from 
 Oberlin College and studied for the ministry, but 
 failing evesight compelled him to abandon his plans 
 in that direction. Later, with his family, he moved 
 to Southington, Conn., where he settled down to 
 farming and dairying and spent the balance of his 
 days, and where he died, June fi, 1895, and was 
 buried. Mr. Stillman was a consistent member of 
 the Congregational Church, liberal minded and 
 progressive, a mo'st worthy citizen, an exemplary 
 father and husband. In politics he was a Republi- 
 can, but was never an office seeker. 
 
 On June 28, 1846, Mr. Stillman was married 
 
778 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 to Sarah :M. Doolittle, who was born in Westfield, 
 Middlesex Co., Conn., April i8, 1828, a daughter 
 of Seth Doolittle, who removed from Westfield to 
 Pleasant A'alley, then to Barkhamsted, where he 
 died. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Still- 
 man were : Frank R. ; William C, a dealer in 
 butter and eggs, in Meriden; Jesse E. ; and Waldo 
 R., the proprietor of a restaurant in this city. 
 
 The Doolittle family of wihich Jesse Edwin 
 Stillman is a descendant, on the maternal side, is 
 one of the oldest in Wallingford. Abraham Doo- 
 little, the first of that name in Wallingford, was a 
 native of England who came to America and lo- 
 cated in New Haven before 1642, later removed 
 to Wallingford, as one of the earliest settlers, and 
 there died Aug. 11, 1690. He was twice married, 
 the second wife being Abigail AIoss, who died Nov. 
 5, 1710. 
 
 Daniel Doolittle, the tenth child of Abraham 
 Doolittle, was born Dec. 29, 1675, and married 
 Hannah Cornwall, of Middletown, Conn., and later 
 removed to Middletown, where he spent several 
 years, returning again to Wallingford, where he 
 died, in 1755 at the ripe old age of eighty. His wife 
 had passed away on Jan. 16, 1736. 
 
 Daniel Doolittle, son of Daniel Doolittle, was 
 born Feb. 3, 1707, and was engaged in farming 
 near the North Haven line, where the spent his 
 days, and died there in September, 1791, at the 
 age of eighty-four. His marriage was to Eliza- 
 beth Dayton, and to them seven children were 
 born. 
 
 Michael Doolittle, son of Daniel, was a farmer 
 by occupation, and became a deacon in the Bap- 
 tist Church, in "W'allingford, where be lived to a 
 ripe old age. He married Millicent Hough, of 
 A\'allingford. 
 
 Seth Doolittle, son of Alichael and Millicent 
 Doolittle, was born in Wallingford, but later re- 
 moved to Westfield parish, ^Middletown, where he 
 followed the trade of wagon-maker, but still later 
 removed his family to Barkhamsted, where he pur- 
 sued his trade and died there. His marriage was 
 to Betsey Healey, and^ their daughter, Sarah M. 
 Doolittle, married Edwin C. Stillman, who is at 
 present a resident of Southington. 
 
 Jesse Edwin Stillman, the immediate subject of 
 this biography, was born in Colebrook, Litchfield 
 Co., Conn., in 1856, and attended the district schools 
 of his native home until the age of eight years, 
 removing then, with his parents, to Southington, 
 where he resumed attendance at school and as- 
 sisted his father in the farm, later entering the 
 dairy business. In 1878 he came to IMcriilen and 
 entered the emplov of Rogers Bros., later was with 
 the Edward Miller Co., and also was employed at 
 one period in Plainville. In 1893 J^-^i'- Stillman ac- 
 cepted the agency of the Aleriden district, for the 
 Singer Sewing AladTinv Co., and has been its ef- 
 ficient manager ever since, emploving- additional 
 men and giving excellent satisfaction over a lan-e 
 
 district. His success in this line has demonstrated 
 the fact that he possesses tact, industry and en- 
 ergy, andis a very valuable acquisition to the great 
 business with wbich he has connected himself. 
 
 Mr. Stillman was married, Dec. 25, 1882, in 
 Meriden, to Miss Lucretia, daughter of Theodore 
 Bailey, an old and respected citizen, whose biog- 
 raphy appears elsewhere. One chiild has been bom 
 of this union, Emil)^ AL, a student in the Meriden 
 high school. Airs. Stillman is a cultured and re- 
 fined lady, assisting her husband ably in the social 
 matters which claim a part of their attention, pos- 
 sesses good business ability, and is a devoted wife 
 and mother. She is a member of Susan Carring- 
 ton Clark Chapter, D. A. R. Mr. Stillrhan is fra- 
 ternally connected with the I. O. O. F., at Plain- 
 ville, and Alfred Hall Coundil, No. 1423, Royal 
 Arcanum. He is also a charter member of the 
 club. Both he and his wife attend the Congrega- 
 tional Church. 
 
 WILLIAjM hale (deceased) was during his 
 long life a well-known and highly respected citizen 
 of Meriden. His birth took place in Middlefield, 
 3.1iddlesex county, Feb. 15, 1S12, and he was a 
 worthy descendant of an old and esteemed famih- 
 of New England. 
 
 Hezekiah Hale, grandfather of the late William 
 Flale, was one of Middlefield's highly respected 
 citizens, was prominent in the church there, and for 
 many years was the sexton. His house stood on 
 Jackson Hill, almost opposite to the Joseph Coe 
 home. His death occurred Nov. 18, 1813. He was 
 twice married, and became the father of children 
 as follows: Hezekiah, born Oct. 31, 1778; Joseph, 
 born Aug. 26, 1780, who died Atig. 16, 1855 (he 
 married Julia Stowe Sept. 15, 1810) ; Hannah; Je- 
 rusha, who married Thomas Bailey, of Canton, 
 Pa. ; Eunice, 3,Irs. Turner ; and Submit, who married 
 Samuel Geer, who died in 183s. she surviving until 
 1852. 
 
 Hezekiah Hale, son of Hezekiah, was born Oct. 
 31, 1778, in Middlefield, Conn., became a large land 
 owner there, and passed his life in agricultural pur- 
 suits. He died Oct. 31, 1826, at the age of forty- 
 eight years, and. was buried in his native place. 
 On Oct. 30, 1805, he was united in marriage with 
 Nancy Miller, who was born April 6, 1786, and 
 died Aug. 31, 1878, at the ripe old age of ninety- 
 two years and four months. Their children were: 
 (i) Cornelia, born July 31, 1806, was married April 
 25, 1826, to David B. Aniler, and died Sept. 14, 
 T844, of consumption. She had children — Nancv, 
 born :\Iarch 26, T-827, died in September, 1855 ; 
 Hezekiah Hale, born Oct. 22, 182Q, married Har- 
 riet ,\twood (he is a member of the grocery firm 
 of Collins & Miller, of Meriden) ; Cornelia, born 
 Dec. 5, 1832, died Dec. 30, 1864 (she was the wife 
 of Ichabod ]\I. Roberts) ; Lucv J., born Aug. 14, 
 1835, married Dec. 20, 1866, AA^ilter P. Hall, who 
 died in 1892, and she is now the wife of Charles I. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 779 
 
 Miller, of Middlefield ; Isaac R., born April 4, 1839, 
 died July 20, 1865, of consumption ; and Milton H., 
 born Nov. 27, 1842, married Nov. 20, 1866, Frances 
 D. Hubbard. (2) Eunice, born Dec. 3, 1808, died 
 unmarried June 6, 1836, of consumption. (3) Will- 
 iam was born Feb. 15, 1812. (4) Roswell, born 
 Sept. 4, 1816, died Feb. 6, 1849, of consumption, 
 on the old homestead. (5) Phineas, born Aug. 
 9, 1818, died Jan. 20, 1845, of consumption. 
 
 William Hale, son of Hezekiah (2), was edu- 
 cated in Middlefield, Conn. He grew up on the 
 home farm, and cared for his mother, who was left 
 a widow when the son was fourteen years old. 
 When he reached manhood he married, and there- 
 after lived five years on the homestead. In 1839 
 he settled on a large farm in the town of Meriden, 
 which he operated for some six years. However, 
 this life did not altogether satisfy him, as he was 
 of a mechanical turn of mind, and he resolved to 
 become a manufacturer, beginning this business as 
 a maker of suspenders on the farm. He subse- 
 quently located his factory in what was then called 
 West Meriden, and in time added carpet bags to his 
 output. He was associated in this line with H. H. 
 Miller and E. H. Loomis. This business was dis- 
 posed of to Jedediah Wilcox, and Mr. Hale then 
 began the manufacture of sewing birds and tape 
 measures, being interested with Junius Norton. 
 For a long period be was the owner of the "Meri- 
 den House," in Meriden, and he also had several 
 other pieces of realty in the city. For many years 
 that hostelry was his home, and there he died Oct. 
 16, 1874; he was buried in the East cemetery. A 
 man of industrious habits, he achieved success in 
 business by his own efforts. Both he and his wife 
 were valued members of the Baptist Church, and 
 he was an honest and worthy citizen in every wa)-. 
 A lifelong Democrat, he never sought any political 
 honors, being thoroughly satisfied to uphold law and 
 order through the ballot, in the way he considered 
 best for the happiness of the whole country. De- 
 voted to his family, health not permitting, he gave 
 little attention to outside matters. His tastes were 
 fine, and he spent money in a manner then consid- 
 ered lavish, for the adornment of his home and fam- 
 ily interests. All his actions were ruled by a kindly 
 heart, and he was charitable toward the faults of 
 his fellow men. He was a lover of animals, es- 
 pecially of fine horses, and owned a number of them. 
 Horseback riding was then in vogue, and he kept 
 saddle horses for family use, and single and double 
 carriage horses. Looking for perfection, Mr. Hale 
 never quite found his ideal in horseflesh. He gave 
 some time to hunting and fishing, of which he was 
 very fond. 
 
 William Hale was married in Meriden, in April, 
 1833, to Phebe Ann Ives, who was born in Meri- 
 den, daughter of Watrous and Polly (Yale) Ives, 
 and two children were born to this union, Frances 
 Augusta and Hezekiah Watrous. The lattter, born 
 Dec. 8, 1835, married Harriet Endecott Haven, of 
 
 Worcester, Mass., and both now sleep in the old 
 East cemetery. Fie died of consumption. They 
 left two children, William Henry and Susan Nellie, 
 both of whom were reared and educated by their 
 grandfather. The former was born Sept. 25, 1857, 
 graduated from the Cheshire Military Academy, 
 and is a thorougib master of English ; he was sev- 
 eral years engaged in newspaper work, and is now 
 a resident of New York. Susan Nellie was born 
 July 27, 1859, in Meriden; Like her husband, Mrs. 
 Hale was an expert in handling horses. She was 
 a brilliant and attractive woman', who shone in 
 society, where she was much at home. 
 
 Frances Augusta Hale was married in Meriden, 
 Dec. 5, 1853, to Edwin FI. Loomis, a native of 
 CoventrAf, Conn., who was borni July 9, 1827, and 
 died in March, 1899. Thev had three children: 
 Frederick Hale, born Jan. 6, 1868 ; and two that 
 died in infancy. Mrs. Loomis has an active mind, 
 and a great desire tO' acquire knowledge and be 
 helpful tO' her fellow travelers on life's journey. She 
 is a moving spirit in the higher intellectual circles 
 of the city of Meriden. Her early education was 
 received in Meriden Academ}', and later she at- 
 tended a young ladies seminary in Hartford, con- 
 ducted by the Miss Drapers. Perhaps nO' one in 
 the city is better known as the instigator and pro- 
 m.oter of humane and charitable enterprises. Mrs. 
 Loomis was one of the organizers of the Humane 
 Society of Meriden. Wherever she is located she 
 exerts an uplifting and refining influence upon her 
 surroundings, being a lady of culture, traveled, and 
 thoroughly educated on many subjects far beyond 
 the usual trend in social life, and she is valued as 
 a friend and intellectual comrade by some of the 
 brightest intellects of the dav. Many abstruse sub- 
 jects have claimed her attention, and she has become 
 much interested in the teachings of Catherine 
 Thinglev, in theosoph}', is president of the Theoso- 
 phical Society of Meriden, and has attended its con- 
 ventions at headquarters at Point Loma, Cal., and 
 other points. With a trained and analytic mind, 
 s'he best enjoys life when surrounded by her books 
 and music, or deep in meditation upon her favorite 
 science. 
 
 Herman D. CLARK. Success is determined 
 by one's ability to recognize opportunity, and to 
 pursue this with a resolute and unflagging energy. 
 It results from continued labor, and the man who 
 thus accompllishes bis purpose usually becomes an 
 important factor in the business circles of the com- 
 munity with which he is connected. Mr. Clark, a 
 well-kno'wn silk manufacturer of Mt. Carmel, has, 
 through such means, attained a leading place 
 among the representative men of Hamden, and his 
 well-spent and honorable life commands the respect 
 of all. 
 
 The Clark family is one of the oldest and best 
 known in New Flaven county. Amos Clark, the 
 great-grandfather of our subject, was a native of 
 
78o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the town of Chatham, Middlesex Co., Conn., where 
 he laiter owned and operated a farm. He served 
 as an officer in the Colonial army during the Revo- 
 lutionary war, and during the remainder of his life 
 drew a pension of $112 per year from the govern- 
 ment. He died in East Hampton, lin the town of 
 Chatham, and was buried in Lake View cemetery. 
 In politics he was a Whig and in religious faith a 
 Congregationalist. He marrted a M'iss Sears, of 
 East Hampton, who was' also a member of the 
 Congregational Church, and at 'her death was laid 
 to rest in Lake \'iew cemetery. In their family 
 were five children : Amos, the grandfather of our 
 subject; Abner, a physician; Philena, who married 
 Nathan Hardin and 'had twelve children, one of 
 whom was Gen. Hardlin, of the Civil war; Annie, 
 who married a Mr. Waters 'and had eleven chil- 
 dren ; and Sarah, who married a Mr. Meach, of 
 East Haddam. All are now deceased. 
 
 Amos Clark, grandfather of our subject, was 
 born Dec. 26, 1794, in Chatham and received a good 
 common school education, which he put in practical 
 use as a school teacher for several seasons. He 
 also engaged in farming, and while still a young 
 man sold clocks throughout the Southern States, 
 and later sold 'books, etc., as a traveling salesman. 
 He made his home in East Hampton, where he 
 died, and his remains were interred in the Lake 
 View cemetery. Religiously he was a member of 
 the Congregational Church, and politically was 
 first a Whig and later a Republican. In the town 
 of Chatham -he married Betsey Mary Smith, a na- 
 tive of that place and a daughter of Sparrow 
 Smith, who belonged to an old and highly respected 
 family, and enlisted in the Continental army dur- 
 ing the Revolutionary war at the age of sixteen 
 years. She too was a consistent member of the 
 Congregational Church. Both she and her hus- 
 band lived to the advanced age of ninety years. 
 They had nine children, namely. Allen Cushman, 
 a resident of Chatham ; Amelia, deceased wife 
 of C. Bevin ; Oiflando L., a retired manufacturer 
 of Montreal, Canada; Richard Sparrow, father of 
 our subject; Mary Elizabeth Norton, who mar- 
 ried Reuben Payne, of Portland, Conn., and both 
 are now deceased ; Edward L., a retired citizen of 
 New Haven ; Herman D., also a resident of that 
 city: Matilda, deceased Wife of Leverett Sexton, 
 of East Hampton; and Rufus Don, deceased. 
 
 Richard S. Clark, father of our subject, was 
 born in East Hampton, Dec. 26, 1825, and during 
 his boyhood attended the schools of his district 
 and of New Haven, completing his education, how- 
 ever, at the Colchester iVcademy. He successfully 
 engaged in teaching school for nline terms in 
 Chatham, four terms in Glastonbury, and twO' 
 terms in ]'(jrtland and Wethersfield, Conn. For 
 a time he worked at the manufacture of bells with 
 Be\-in Brotlners, and then embarked in the same 
 business on his rnvn account in partnershi]) with 
 jMessrs. Coii;_;li and Abel. Later he was connected 
 
 with D. ^V. Watrous for eight years, during which 
 time he established a branch manufactory at Mon- 
 treal, Canada, of which his brother Orlando L. had 
 charge. They finally dissolved partnership, Mr. 
 Watrous taking the business at East Hampton, and 
 Mr. Clark that at Montreal, which he continued to 
 carr}' on until 1867, in that )ear selling out to his 
 brother and coming to Hamden, where he also en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of bells until 1882. Dur- 
 ing this time he became interested in the manufac- 
 ture of silk, but after meeting with business re- 
 verses lived retired near j\It. Carmel, in the town 
 of Ham-den. He was a well read man, keeping 
 thoroughly posted on matters of general interest 
 and the leading questions and issues of the day. 
 He was progressive and enterprising, and in dis- 
 position genial and pleasant. Religiously he was 
 an earnest member of the Congregational Church, 
 and politically always affiliated with either the 
 Whig or Republican parties. He passed away June 
 17, 1900. On June 22, 1852, at Bolton, Comi., 
 Mr. Clark married Miss Elizabeth Strong, a good 
 Christian woman, who died in Hamden, in 1882, 
 and was buried in Centerville cemetery. To them 
 were born seven children, nam/ely : George, a metal 
 dealer in Boston; Herman D., our subject; Cor- 
 nelia P. ("Nellie"), \\'life of Willis Doolittle; 
 Amelia E., of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Clarence L., a resi- 
 dent O'f Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Cleon R., a resident of 
 New York ; and one who died in infancy. 
 
 Herman D. Clark was born March i, 1856, in 
 East Hampton, Conn., and is indebted to the dis- 
 trict schools of East Hampton, and the high schools 
 of New Haven, for his educational privileges. Dur- 
 ing his 3'outh he worked at the bell business with 
 his father, and also became familiar with silk man- 
 ufacture, so that when his father retired he was 
 able to take up the business, and for the past twelve 
 years has engaged in the manufacture of silk, fur- 
 nlishing employment to a number of hands. He 
 is a thorough business man, energetic and pro- 
 gressive, and upright and honorable in all his deal- 
 ings. He is a member of the Episcopal Churdh, 
 and in politics is a Republican. Fraternally he 
 affiliates with Da)- Spring Lodge, No. 30, F & A. 
 ^L, of Hamden, of which he is a past master. 
 
 On Oct. 9, 1889, Mr. Clark was married, in 
 North Haven, to Miss Ida E. Fowler. 
 
 CHARLES F TUTTLE (deceased), for many 
 years a welHcnown business man of New Haven, 
 was a native of Connecticut, liorn April 25, 1831, in 
 New Haven, in the old Tutlie homestead, a small 
 wooden structure located on the site of his late com- 
 modious residence. 
 
 The first of the family in this country was Will- 
 iam Tuttle, who was born in 1609, in Devonshire, 
 England, where he married, and whence, in the year 
 1635, he came to this country with his \Y\it and sev- 
 eral children, on the ship "Planter." He arrived in 
 Boston, ^lass., in July, after a voyage of some 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 781 
 
 ten weeks, and became what was in those days 
 called a husbandman, while it also appears on the 
 records of a petition on a bill in Boston, Mass., that 
 he was a merchant some time in the year 1637. To- 
 gether with Eaton and Davenport and others he 
 came to New Haven in the interests of the Colony, 
 to choose a suitable location for settlement, and 
 Ouinnipiack, in what is now the town of Xorth Ha- 
 ven, was selected as the most suitable spot. They 
 built some log houses, and left seven men in charge, 
 to remain over the winter, the remainder of the party 
 returning to Boston. In 1638 this William Tuttle 
 came with his family to what is now New Haven 
 and settled on a lot of land on the square now 
 bounded by Grove, State, Elm and Church streets, it 
 being one of eight allotments into which the scjuare 
 was divided ; and it was on a part of this purchase 
 that the subject of our sketch was living at the time 
 of his death. 
 
 Jonathan Tuttle, son of William, was born, it is 
 supposed, in 1637, and the church records of his 
 birthplace, Charlestown, }ilass., show that he was 
 baptized July 8, that year. About 1670 he began a 
 settlement at what is now the town of North Haven. 
 For many years the planters there attended church 
 and buried their dead at New Haven. Jonathan 
 Tuttle built a bridge, known as the "Tuttle bridge," 
 over the Quinnipiack river at North Haven, and by 
 a decree of the court he was allowed to collect two- 
 pence in mioney for each man and horse crossing the 
 iDridge, and threepence in barter, exceptions being 
 made in the cases of deputies going to and from 
 court. He was also* permitted to take moderate 
 compensation for refreshments of any kind ( except 
 strong drinks) furnished by him to travelers. In 
 February, 1704-05, he consigned to his brother Jo- 
 seph a one-sixth part of three divisions that were 
 left to him by his father in a land grant. Jonathan 
 Tuttle died in 1707, and in the following year his 
 son Simon was appointed administrator of his es- 
 tate. 
 
 Simon Tuttle, mentioned in the foregoing, was, 
 according to various North Haven records, born 
 March 11, 1671, and his gravestone is the oldest in 
 the North Haven burial ground. He died July 6, 
 1725, the owner of eighty-four acres in the Blue 
 Hills, near ^It. Carmel, and his estate was valued 
 at £847. 
 
 Isaiah Tuttle, son of Simon, was born Jul}- 10, 
 1704, was an ensign in 1737, a deacon of the Con- 
 gregational Church, a justice of the peace, and much 
 employed in settling estates. He lived in New Ha- 
 ven for thirty-five years. 
 
 Jonathan Tuttle, son of Isaiah, born ^May 19, 
 1728, settled in the southwest corner of the town of 
 WallingfOrd, near the foot of the Blue Hills. He 
 died May 29, 1793, aged sixty-five years. 
 
 David Justus Tuttle, son of Jonathan, and the 
 grandfather of our subject, was born Jan. 27, 1765, 
 in the town of Hamden, New Haven county, in the 
 
 vicinity of Mt. Carmel. He married Polly Tuttle, 
 and their son, Jesse, served in the war of 1812. 
 
 Julius Tuttle, son of David ]-., and the father of 
 our subject, was born Dec. 2, 1798, in the town of 
 Wallingford, and died in February, 1888. He 
 built the Tuttle homestead in New Haven, and lived 
 there for years. This home is one of the oldest 
 brick houses on the street. In the forties Julius 
 Tuttle removed to Hamden township, after having 
 suffered the loss of his house on College street. New 
 Haven, by fire. His infant son, Charles F., was in 
 the cradle at the time, and in the fright and hurry 
 was forgotten. Several Yale students entered the 
 burning building and rescued the child, and, taking 
 him to the old North College, cared for him until 
 he was returned toi his distracted family. 
 
 Charles F Tuttle (son of Julius), whose name 
 opens this sketch, at an early age entered the John 
 E. Lovell school, and finished bis education at the 
 "Gunnery," at Washington, Conn. On completing 
 his studies he entered the grocery store of Howard 
 Ensign, brother of the late Wooster Ensign. Sub- 
 sequently he was clerk for John B. Beecher, an old 
 merchant of Broadwa}', and later of the Ives-Beech- 
 er Co. of New York. In 1848 the Tuttle business 
 was established in Broadway by Williami Tuttle 
 (brother of our subject), who died several years 
 ago. Charles F. Tuttle was then clerk. In a few 
 years \Mlliam Tuttle was succeeded by another 
 brother, Allen, who died in 1861. Allen Tuttle re- 
 tired in 1856, and Charles F Tuttle became the 
 sole proprietor and continued the business for for- 
 t\--five years. 
 
 ^Lv. Tuttle died of paralysis Sept. 30, 1899, at 
 his residence. No. 122 College street. He was a 
 conservative business man, upright in his dealings 
 and well-liked : contributed much for charity ; but 
 never favored having his name exposed in connec- 
 tion with his giving ; and gave largel}- to Christ 
 Church, where the family attend, and to other insti- 
 tutions. He was kind-hearted, and helped finan- 
 cially many who were experiencing business re- 
 verses. Socially he was a member of the F. & A. 
 M., Hiram Lodge, and also of New Flaven Com- 
 niandery. Knights Templar. Mr. Tuttle took much 
 pleasure in driving, and made frequent trips to his 
 large farm in Hamden, while nearly every day. for 
 several years, during the summer, he would visit 
 his summer home at Ston)- Creek, among the Thim- 
 ble Islands, where his family was sojourning. In 
 1856 ^Ir. Tuttle, in company with Philip Pinker- 
 man and Jas. King, an aeronaut, ascended in a bal- 
 loon from New Haven "Green ;" they sailed over the 
 Sound and drifted to a point of land on Governor's 
 Island, one of the Thimijle Islands, which Mr. Tut- 
 tle subsequently bought, and which is now in the 
 possession of the family. This was the first balloon 
 seen in New Haven. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Tuttle married Mary C, daughter 
 of Clark Spcrr)-, and they had one child, Charles 
 
78: 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Allen, born Xov. 30, 1858, who, with his mother, is 
 now living at the old home, whidh is surrounded by 
 Yale College. This land, or allotment, was where 
 Yale College was first founded, and for thirty years 
 ■was the only land owned by the Yale Association ; 
 in fact it was one of a long series of purchases ex- 
 tending through a period of one hundred years. 
 This land has been in the possession of only five 
 parties since its original purchase from the Indians, 
 William Tuttle being the last before it went into 
 the possession of Yale College. 
 
 Charles Allen Tuttle, son of Charles F. Tut- 
 tle, was born Nov. 30, 1858, and educated at the 
 Episcopal Academy, Cheshire, Conn., from which 
 institution he was graduated in 1878. He was a 
 member of the class of 1884 at Yale College. In 
 1882 he was one of the founders of the New Haven 
 Morning News, and was associated with that paper 
 three years ; then was engaged as a general broker 
 in New Haven from 1885 to' 1889, after which he 
 v.'-as associated with his father in business. He 
 is now retired. 
 
 Charles A. Tuttle has been twice married. On 
 April I, 1888, he wedded Florence I. Graham, of 
 New Haven, who died Jan. 12, 1890. On Oct. 15, 
 1893, Mr. Tuttle married (second) Juliet Vibbert 
 Gibbons, of Middletown, Conn. Mr. Tuttle has 
 traveled extensively, and is of a Hterary turn of 
 mind, very popular, and, withal, public-spirited and 
 generous. 
 
 ALBERT FORBES, a well-known market gar- 
 dener and dairy farmer of East Haven, was born in 
 that town on the farm where Alexander Richmond 
 now resides, July 15, 1825, and is a son of Samuel 
 Fofbes, who was also born in East Haven, in 1790. 
 The grandfather, Samuel Forbes, Sr., was a na- 
 tive of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a sea captain, 
 commanding a vessel running between this coun- 
 try and the West Indies. He married Elizabeth 
 Auger, and was lost at sea when the father of our 
 subject was but Aght years old. In his family 
 were three children, the others being Amy and 
 Mary. Throughout life Samuel Forbes, Jr., fol- 
 lowed the occupation of a farmer, and soon after 
 his marriage removed to the farm where our sub- 
 ject was born. He married Betsey Forbes, daugh- 
 ter of Eli Forbes, both of whom were natives of 
 East Haven, and she was third in order of birth 
 in a family of five children, namely : Morris, 
 Isaac, Betsey, Almira, and Sally, who died young. 
 She died in 1873, at the age of eighty-three years, 
 and her husband in 1874, at the age of eighty- 
 four. They had five children: Albert, our sub- 
 ject; Sarah, wife of Isaac Culver, living near Fair 
 Haven; Jennette, who died in 1883; Jerome, who 
 died young; and Jerome (2nd), who died in 1884. 
 
 The subject of this sketch attended the com- 
 mon schools of East Haven and Joseph Rodgers' 
 private school on Townsend avenue. He remained 
 with his father upon the home farm until thirty- 
 
 two years of age, and 'in 1854 erected the house 
 which he still occupies. He has successfully en- 
 gaged in market gardening and dairy farming, and 
 in 1849 ^^'^^ owner of the sailing vessel "Friend- 
 ship," which was destroyed by fire at sea while on 
 a voyage to the Sandwich Islaiids that year. 
 
 J\Ir. Forbes was married, April 8, 1857, to Miss 
 Harriet C. Hemingway, of Fair Haven, who was 
 born in 1832, and they had two children : Eliza- 
 beth A., now the wife of Clifford Street; and Sarah, 
 who died in 1882, at the age of thirteen years. 
 Politically Mr. Forbes is a Jacksonian Democrat, 
 and has filled the office of selectman in a most 
 creditable and satisfactory manner. Honorable 
 and upright in all his dealings he has met with 
 well-deserved s,uccess in life, and can say what few 
 men can, that he has never borrowed a dollar dur- 
 ing h'is entire life. He is highly respected and 
 esteemed by all who know him for his sterling 
 worth and strict integrity. 
 
 JA:\IES TOOTHE, foreman of the soldering 
 department of the Meriden Britannia factory, is one 
 of 'the city's best known and highly esteemed citi- 
 zens. A native of England, he was born Feb. 12, 
 1842, in the great industrial city of Birmingham, 
 son of Thomas and Jane (Ward) Toothe, the 
 former of whom was a son of James Toothe, also 
 of Biirn:ilingham, who in turni was a son of a Thom- 
 as Toothe, who followed the trade of shoemaker 
 in that city, where he was known as a respected 
 citizen and consistent member of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 Thomas Toothe, son of James, was born in 1802, 
 and learned the trade of metal spinner, at which he 
 worked for a number of years. In his native city 
 be married Jane Ward, who was born in Birming- 
 ham, daughter of William Ward, a bricklayer, 
 both of whom died in Birming'ham. There were 
 ten children born to Thomas and Jane Toothe, 
 namely : WilHam, who is vice-president of the 
 Nathan Manufacturing Co., of New York, whose 
 daughter, Jennie Ward Toothe, marrtied Dr. O. J. 
 D. Hughes, consul general at Coburg, Germany; 
 Charles, who is a metal spinner and resides in 
 Wallingford ; James, of this biography ; Henry, a 
 traveling salesman, who resides in Brooklyn, N. 
 Y.; Thomas, who died in infancy; Thomas (2), 
 who died in infancy; Mary, who died young; 
 Sophia, who died unmarried; Sarah Maria Eliza- 
 beth, who died at the age of eight years ; and Al- 
 fred, who died young. The miother of these chil- 
 dren \\-as a consistent and worthy member of the 
 Church of England, and was ever a devoted wife 
 and loving mother. After her death, in her native 
 clit}-, Mr. Toothe with his sons emigrated to Amer- 
 ica and located in Meriden, Conn., where the re- 
 mainder of his life was passed. Here he died in 
 1882 after some years of retirement from active 
 life, and his remains repose in West cemetery. He 
 was a devoted member of the Established Church 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 7^3 
 
 in his native country, and always attended the Epis- 
 copal Church in Meriden. His simple, gentleman- 
 ly demeanor won the respect of all who knew him. 
 James Toothe, son of Thomas, received his 
 early education in the school conducted by the Bap- 
 tist Church, experience, however, completing his 
 instruction. At the age of fourteen years he start- 
 ed to learn the Britannia business, and served an 
 apprenticeship- of seven years, following which he 
 worked as a journeyman in his native land, re- 
 ceiving excellent wages as he was competent to do 
 good work. His brothers were already established 
 in America, and in 1871 he came also, spending 
 a short time in New York City, and coming thence 
 to Meriden, where he has resided for the past thirty 
 years. Mr. Toothe has 'been all this' time identi- 
 fied with the Britannia Co., of that city, his effi- 
 ciency being recognized by his appointment, in 
 1895, as foreman in the soldering department, and 
 for the past seven years he has capaibly filled a 
 position requiring close and careful attention, com- 
 plete knowledge of details, and considerable ex- 
 ecutive ability. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Toothe was married, at St. Ann's 
 Church, in Birmingham, England, to Lucy Baker, 
 who was born in that city, daughter of William 
 Baker; the latter lived to the advanced age of 
 ninety years, dying in his Birmingham home. Mr. 
 Toothe owns a comfortable home which he built 
 on Linsley avenue, in 1884, and here he and his 
 most estimable wife pass a life of happiness and 
 contentment, the center of a large circle of friends. 
 Eoth are members of All Saints' Episcopal Church, 
 Meriden. Mr. Toothe has taken part in the political 
 life of the city to some extent, and in 1886 was 
 ■elected, on the Republican ticket, a member of the 
 city council, from the Third ward, serving most 
 •efficiently on the Park and License committees. 
 Fraternally he is connected with Enterprise Lodge, 
 No. 880, K. of Honor, and has been treasurer of that 
 organization. He is a very pleasant, agreeable 
 gentleman, domestic in his tastes and a lover of his 
 home. Both he and his wife delight to offer its 
 hospitality, and they number among their personal 
 friends the best people in Meriden. 
 
 DANIEL COL WELL, one of the originators 
 ■of the great social and benefit order of the Roman 
 Catholics, the Knights of Columbus, is a well- 
 known business man and public servant in New- 
 Haven, Conn. He was born in North Adams, 
 Mass., July 7, 1848, a son of Bernard and Cath- 
 erine (Reilly) Colwell. 
 
 Bernard Colwell was born in County Leitrim, 
 Province of Connaught, Ireland. With a firm belief 
 in the glowing tales of the opportunities offered 
 to young men in the New World, Mr. Colwell 
 determined to make an effort to secure a new home 
 in America. Accordingly he crossed the Atlantic 
 and located at various places, finally moving to 
 Troy, N. Y., and in 1846 moving thence to North 
 
 Adams, Mass. In his early life in Ireland he was a 
 weaver, but after coming to this country he worked 
 at the trade of stone mason. When the Civil war 
 threatened to disrupt the Union he promptly shoul- 
 dered his musket, and went forth to battle for his 
 adopted land, being assigned to the 13th Vt. V. I. 
 Before leaving Ireland Mr. Colwell married Cath- 
 erine Reilly, who passed away .in North Adams, in 
 1865, the mother of six sons and one daughter. 
 Of these children we have the following record: 
 Patrick, born in Ireland, resides in Plymouth, 
 Mass.; Mary A., born in Montreal, Canada, died 
 in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1870; John, born in Mon- 
 treal, died in Pittsfield, Mass., in 1893; Bernard, 
 born in Millerton, N. Y., was killed in battle June 
 18, 1864; Reilly, born in Schaghticoke, N. Y., 
 served in the 49th Mass. V. I. in the Civil war, 
 and lives in Pittsfield, Mass. ; William, born in 
 Schaghticoke, N. Y., resides in Pownal, Vt. ; Daniel 
 Colwell is the subject of sketch. Bernard Colwell, 
 the father, died in 1886, highly respected for his 
 many sterling qualities. His family ancestry can 
 be traced back a thousand, years in Ireland. 
 
 Daniel Colwell received his education in the 
 public schools, and when quite young took up the 
 burden of life for himself by working in a cotton 
 factory. At the age of fourteen he went to Wash- 
 ington Co., N. Y., and there was apprenticed to the 
 boot maker's trade. On July 15, 1865, he came 
 to New Haven and began work at his trade. He 
 prospered from the start, and for years kept a shoe 
 store in Congress avenue. 
 
 Mr. Colwell has always been interested in 
 public affairs, and since attaining his' majority has 
 taken an active interest in politics. He was elected 
 town constable in 1876, and was continued in of- 
 fice until he resigned seven years later. For years 
 he was court officer of the Superior Criminal 
 Court, and had charge of many noted prisoners, 
 including the Malley boys, Anderson, the mur- 
 derer, and many others. He was one of the or- 
 ganizers of the Sarsfield Guard, and was also iden- 
 tified with the social order known as the "Red 
 Knights," from which sprang the great Catholic 
 order Knights of Columbus. This last order, now 
 so well known and so strong throughout the coun- 
 try, was organized for the purpose of giving the 
 men of the Church of Rome a social and benefit 
 order like the Masonic fraternity" of the Protest- 
 ants. In Mr. Colwell's office was held the first 
 meeting to perfect an organization ; he it was who 
 drafted the articles of incorporation, and he was 
 chairman of the committee that filed the consti- 
 tution and report of the order. He was also chair- 
 man of the committee on Ritual, and prepared 
 the original three degrees, and ceremonies' of insti- 
 tution and installation. In 1884 Mr. Colwell was 
 elected general secretary of the order, and has ever 
 since held that position. He is also prominently 
 identified with the Knights of St. Patrick, of which 
 he is at present the efficient president. 
 
784 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 On Dec. 28, 1868, Daniel Colwell was united 
 in marriage with Miss Catherine B. Mullen, daugh- 
 ter of Hugh Mullen, of New Haven, where she 
 was born. Seven children have shed their bright 
 sunshine on this happy home : Edward B., born 
 Oct. 28, 1871; Margaret M., May 14, 1873; Daniel, 
 Jr., in 1875 (died in 1878) ; William, in 1878 (died 
 the same year) ; Francis A., in 1881 ; Catherine J., 
 March 9, 1883 ; and Alice, Aug. 4, 1885. 
 
 JAMES C. KENWORTHY, foreman of the 
 shipping department of Planning, Bowman & Co., 
 and fire commissioner of the city of Meriden, was 
 born May 26, 185 1, in Tariffville, Conn. 
 
 James Kenworthy, his father, was a native of 
 Leeds, Yorkshire, England, where he learned the 
 trade of silversmith, and was engaged in the manu- 
 facture of German silver ware. There he married 
 Elizabeth Worsley, who bore him six children, all 
 of whom are residents of Meriden, namely : Sam- 
 uel ; Eda, widow of George Noble ; Mary, wife of 
 James Morris Tolles, a police officer; Annie, wife 
 of William' Tyler; Sarah (Sadie) and James C. 
 The last two were born in Connecticut. About 
 1842 he left his native home, with his wife and 
 four children, crossed the Atlantic on a sailing ves- 
 sel and landed at New York. Proceeding at once 
 to Hartford Co., Conn., he located at Spoonville, 
 in the town of East Granby, and began the produc- 
 tion of German silver forks and spoons. He was 
 the first to introduce figures on these goods in this 
 country, but did not protect his invention by tak- 
 ing out a patent, and was shortly driven out of 
 the business by other manufacturers with large 
 capital. Selling out his business to Charles Parker, 
 of Meriden, about 1857, he took charge of the lat- 
 ter's spoon shop at Yalesville for some years. For 
 a short time he worked in the Parker shop in Meri' 
 den,, and then went to the Meriden Silver Plate 
 Co., as a burnisher. His last years were spent in 
 the service of Manning, Bowman & Co., and he 
 continued to work every day up to the time of his 
 death, which occurred in August, 1899, at the 
 age of eighty years. On the morning of the day 
 he died, he rose and prepared for work as usual, 
 but feeling somewhat weak, returned to his bed, 
 where his life passed out before the day was done. 
 His body was interred in Walnut Grove cemetery. 
 His life was modeled by Christian standards, and 
 he was universally respected as an honest man. In 
 political matters he affiliated with the Democratic 
 party. His wife died Dec. 31, 1891, and was buried 
 in Walnut Grove cemetery. She was a member of 
 the M. E. Church, a devoted wife and mother, a 
 good, Christian woman. 
 
 James C. Kenworthy was an infant when his 
 parents removed to Meriden, where he attended 
 the district schools. At an early age he began to 
 learn the trade of painter under Capt. Barrio, with 
 whom he spent three years. After working as a 
 journeyman painter at Middletown three years, he 
 
 returned to Meriden and entered the factory of 
 the Meriden Silver Plate Co., and became a burn- 
 isher, continuing in this employ five years. His 
 connection with Manning, Bowman & Co. began 
 in 1877, and for two years he was engaged in 
 burnishing. Since that time he has been in the 
 shipping department, holding the position of fore- 
 man during the past twenty-three years. His uni- 
 form courtesy and fair dealing have made him alike 
 popular with employers and employes, and he en- 
 joys the good will and respect of a large circle of 
 acquaintances. 
 
 On June 4, 1871, Mr. Kenworthy married, in 
 Meriden, Miss Sophia Williams, who was born in 
 Westfield, Conn., daughter of the late William and 
 Anna (Hughesi) Williams, the former a native of 
 England, the latter of Wales. Mrs. Kenworthy is 
 a sister of Mrs. Hubert Little, elsewhere men- 
 tioned in this work. Only the last of three children 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Kenworthy is living. Will- 
 iam H. died in infancy, and Maude W. in girlhood. 
 Ivy June is a student at the public schools. 
 
 The upright and industrious nature of Mr. 
 Kenworthy naturally attracted the attention of his 
 fellow citizens, and he has been called upon to 
 serve in a public capacity. Elected on the Demo- 
 cratic ticket a member of the City Council, from 
 the Fifth ward, he served on the Fire and Street 
 committees. He was appointed a member of the 
 Fire Commission by Mayor Ives and. re-appointed 
 by Mayor West, still holding that position. His 
 previous experience had well fitted him for the 
 duties of this responsible station, as he was one 
 of the first members of the Charter Oak Volunteer 
 Fire Company, in which he served upwards of six 
 years. His wife is a member of the Broad Street 
 Baptist Church, with whose faith and work he 
 is in sympathy, and both are esteemed as honest, 
 industrious, useful citizens of the "Silver City." 
 
 ROYAL M. BASSETT. The Bassett family, 
 long one of the most prominent and influential in 
 New Haven county, traces its lineage through an 
 unbroken chain, extending through two hundred 
 and fifty years, to John Bassett of England, and its 
 history is indissolubly connected with the story of 
 the virtues and the faults, the trials and the tri- 
 umphs, of the early New England Colonists, as well 
 as with the growth and development of Connecti- 
 cut. 
 
 Several generations of Bassevs have been 
 born in Derby, with the building up of which city 
 they have been prominently and honorably identi- 
 fied. More than two and one-half centuries have 
 elapsed since Robert Bassett, son of John, sought 
 a home in the New World. The precise date of his 
 immigration cannot be stated, but he is known to 
 have been a resident of New Haven in 1643. He 
 was a shoemaker by trade, and held the now ex- 
 tinct office of "town drummer." From New Haven 
 he removed to Stratford. He reared a family 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 785 
 
 of several children. Full details of his life history 
 are wanting, but he appears to have been a man of 
 profound conviction and pronounced individuality. 
 He was one of a number of citizens of Stratford 
 and Stamford who caused not a little commotion in 
 their day and generation through their vigorous 
 protest against the denial of the right of suffrage 
 to non-church members ; and it is believed that the 
 woman who bore his name and was executed for 
 witchcraft in 1651 was his wife. Robert Bassett 
 (2), son of Robert, the next in the line of Royal 
 M. Bassett's ancestors, was a sergeant in the mi- 
 litia. He was born in Stratford, and lived and died 
 there, passing away August 5, 1720. Samuel Bas- 
 sett, son of Robert (2), was the first of the family 
 to settle in Derby. He went thither in 17 16 or 
 1717, to occupy and cultivate a farm given him by 
 his father, at the foot of Great Hill, which is still 
 known as the "Bassett place." He took a lively 
 interest in military affairs, being commissioned en- 
 sign in 1722, lieutenant in 1732, and captain in 
 1735. He was held in high regard by his neigh- 
 bors, and for several years filled the ofifice of jus- 
 tice of peace. On Jan. i, 17 19, he married Deborah 
 Bennett, of Newtown. Ebenezer Bassett, son of 
 Samuel and Deborah (Bennett), was born upon 
 the paternal farm, and died May 20, 1760. James 
 Bassett, son of Ebenezer, born Sept. 16, 1757, was 
 the great-grandfather of Royal M. He died Oct. 
 24, 1848. 
 
 William Bassett, the grandfather of the sub- 
 ject of this article, was born in Derby July 18, 
 1781, and was for rnany years a successful mer- 
 chant there, dying there Nov. 28, 1863, at the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty-two years. He married Lucy 
 Smith, also of Derby, and their only child, Sheldon, 
 was the father of Royal M. 
 
 Sheldon Bassett was one of the leading, substan- 
 tial and influential citizens of his native place. He 
 held the office of town clerk. He was associated 
 with his father in business during his early life, but 
 in later years was identified with the Birmingham 
 Iron Foundry Co., which was incorporated in 1850. 
 He was a prominent Odd Fellow, having held the 
 highest offices in the State within the gift of that 
 fraternity, and organizing its first lodge in Derby. 
 Mr. Bassett died June 26, 1864, honored and 
 mourned by the community at large; and warmly 
 beloved by the innumerable friends whom he had at- 
 tracted to himself by his amiable disposition and his 
 sterling moral worth. He married Harriet L. Hull, 
 who survived him until July 22, 1872. She was a 
 daughter of Lieut. Samuel Hull, and a niece of 
 those distinguished patriots whose name are as 
 familiar to every American, Gen. William and 
 Commodore Isaac Hull. To Sheldon Bassett and 
 his wife were born seven children, of whom Royal 
 M. was second in order of birth. The eldest son, 
 WilHam H., was born Oct. 21, 1827, and died July 
 18, 1864; he was a hardware merchant in New 
 York. Lavinia H., the third child and eldest 
 50 
 
 daughter, became the wife of Thomas D. De Forest,, 
 of Derby, and died Aug. 7, 1868. Lucy M. died in 
 infancy. Lucy P. married Charles F Colt, of New 
 York, and died May 25, 1872. Ellen S. became 
 Airs. George H. Norton, of New Haven, and is also 
 deceased, having passed away Oct. 26, 1853. Theo- 
 dore S., the 5roungest member of the family, is a 
 manufacturer of rubber goods in New York. 
 
 Royal M. Bassett was born in Derby Oct. 22,, 
 1828. His training at the public schools was 
 supplemented by a year at Haddam Acad- 
 emy, and two years' attendance at the Stiles 
 and Truman French Academy, at New Haven. 
 His father destined him for business pur- 
 suits, and time has abundantly and convinc- 
 ingly demonstrated the soundness of the parental 
 judgment. From youth and through his entire life 
 Mr. Bassett has manifested commercial genius of 
 the highest order. He has displayed a comprehen- 
 sion of mercantile possibilities, a ready grasp of ex- 
 isting situations', and a capability for handling en- 
 terprises of the highest magnitude, which are ex- 
 ceptional. The ability and fidelity with which he- 
 has met and discharged the onerous responsibilities 
 devolving upon him are attested by the universal 
 esteem in which he is held by the business world. 
 He began his long and successful career as sec- 
 retary of the Birmingham Iron Foundry Co., which,, 
 as has been said above, was organized in 1850. 
 This office he filled until the death of his father,. 
 Sheldon Bassett, in 1864, when he succeeded to the 
 presidency, his brother Theodore S. becoming sec- 
 retary and treasurer. In addition to his connec- 
 tion witti the concern named, he has extensive busi- 
 ness interests in various parts of the country.. 
 From 1857 until 1887 he was associated with Nelson; 
 H. Downs in the manufacture of hoop skirts and! 
 corsets. The style of the firm; was Downs 
 & Bassett, and the co-partnership continued until 
 Mr. Downs' death. Mr. Bassett was also one of 
 the incorporators of the Housatonic Water and the 
 Derby Gas Companies. With a keen foresight of 
 the wants of the Pacific railways, he has built and 
 operated extensive rolling mills along the lines of 
 the Union and Kansas Pacific Companies. He has 
 also been connected with various raili'oad enter- 
 prises in the far West, having been president of 
 the Utah Northern and trustee for the bondholders 
 of the Utah Western Railway Co. ; after it was 
 reorganized, in Utah and Nevada, he was chosen 
 president. He has also been a director of the 
 Naugatuck Railroad Co. since 1870. 
 
 From the foregoing sketch of Mr. Bassett's life 
 the reader may glean the more important facts of 
 his ancestry and his business career. Of his per- 
 sonal characteristics, it is enough to add that he is 
 a public-spirited citizen, a devoted father, a true 
 friend and an upright man. He is deeply interested 
 in the cause of popular education, and was for fif- 
 teen or twenty years chairman of the Derby school 
 board. He is a Freemason, being a member of 
 
786 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 King- Hiram Lodge, No. 6, of Derby. His political 
 affiliation is with the Democratic party. 
 
 On Nov. 9, 1858, Mr. Bassett married 
 Miss Frances J. Stratton, a daughter of 
 Sherwood E. Stratton, Esq., of Bridgeport. 
 She died Feb. 14, 1876, and Mr. Bas- 
 set has not married again. To their union came 
 three children: Lucy, who died Feb. 4, 1879, at the 
 age of nineteen; Royal E., a lovable boy, who 
 passed out of the world Jan. 9, 1865 ; and Sheldon 
 H. The last named was born April 11, 1867, at Bir- 
 mingham, Conn., and for a period of three years was 
 connected with the Bradley Pulverizing Co., of 
 Boston, who manufacture machines for crushing 
 Cement Co., of lola, Kans., whose main office is at 
 ores. He is now at the head of the lola Portland 
 St. Louis, Mo., in which city Mr. Bassett makes 
 his home. On May 3, 1896, he was married, at 
 Kansas City, to Miss Florence Shaflenbergh. 
 
 HENRY MINOR. Ninety-two years of life, 
 filled with useful effort and crowned with the re- 
 spect and esteem of his fellow citizens, have left 
 this venerable resident of Wolcott still hale and 
 hearty, with every prospect of continued health for 
 j^ears to come. He has served as town clerk for 
 over half a century, and his faithful service in public 
 life as well as his personal worth make the following 
 history of general interest not only to the readers 
 of the present day but to future historians of this 
 section. 
 
 The progenitor of the Minor family in America 
 was Thomas Minor, a native of Somerset, England, 
 and one of the four children born to Clement Minor, 
 who died in Somersetshire March 31, 1640. The 
 son crossed the Atlantic and took up his residence 
 in Stonington, Conn., in 1683. His children were 
 John, who located in Woodbury, Conn. ; Thomas ; 
 Clement, who settled in New London ; Ephraim, 
 who settled in Stonington; Judah; Manassah, who 
 settled in Stonington ; Joseph ; Samuel ; Ann ; 
 Maria ; Eunice ; Elizabeth ; and Hannah. 
 
 Jedediah Minor, the great-grandfather of our 
 subject, and a descendant of Clement Minor, was 
 born in Lyme, Conn., and came to Wolcott about 
 1756, locating near Wolcott Center, where he owned 
 land and engaged in farming until his death. His 
 remains were interred in Wolcott cemetery. He 
 married Elizabeth Marvin, of Lyme, and to them 
 were born ten children : Betsy, wife of William 
 Roberts, of Bristol ; Joseph ; Esther, wife of Samuel 
 Atkins ; Daniel, who was a Revolutionary soldier, 
 and died of smallpox while in the army ; Caleb ; 
 Lucretia, wife of Michael Dayton, of Watertown ; 
 Lucy, wife of Jesse AIcox ; Theda, wife of William 
 Barnes, of Southington ; Joshua; and Elizabeth. 
 
 Joseph Minor, our subject's grandfather, was 
 born in Lyme, and was twelve years of age when 
 he came with his parents to Wolcott. He en- 
 gaged in farming throughout life upon the farm 
 where his father first located, and where our subject 
 
 now resides. For seven long years he fought for 
 American independence as a soldier of the Revo- 
 lutionary war and rose to the rank of sergeant. He 
 was a supporter of the Democratic party, and as one 
 of the prominent citizens of his community he was 
 called upon to fill public offices. He died on the 
 home farm, and was buried in the old Wolcott 
 cemetery. He wedded Mary Upson, daughter of 
 Capt. Samuel Upson, and to them were born chil- 
 dren as follows : One who died in infancy. May 3, 
 1783; Archibald, born May 23, 1784; Joseph, April 
 23, 1786; Wealthy (wife of Elihu Moulthrop), 
 Dec. 8, 1787; Marcus, July 17, 1790; Marvin, in 
 August, 1792; Nancy (wife of Orrin Hall), July 
 12, 1798; and Mary (wife of Ephraim Hall), Nov. 
 23, 1800. 
 
 Archibald Minor, father of our subject, spent 
 his entire life on the old homestead in Wolcott and 
 lived to a ripe old age. By occupation he was a 
 farmer, and in politics he was first a Democrat and 
 later a Republican. He was an accomplished pen- 
 man, and was gifted with a rich voice. He was 
 recognized as one of the most valued and useful 
 citizens of his community, was honored with many 
 town offices, and most efficiently served as justice 
 of the peace, selectman of Wolcott, town clerk for 
 twenty-five years, and member of the State Legis- 
 lature when sessions were held both in New Haven 
 and Hartford. On Oct. 27, 1808, he married Betsy 
 Tuttle, a native of Plymouth, Conn., and a daughter 
 of Daniel Tuttle. She died on the home farm, and 
 was laid to rest by the side of her husband in Wol- 
 cott cemetery. Both were members of the Episco- 
 pal Church, and were held in high regard by all 
 who knew them. They had two children, of whom 
 our subject is the older. Harriet, born Dec. 8, 1811, 
 married George W. Wilton, of Waterbury. 
 
 Henry Minor, whose name introduces this re- 
 view, was born Dec. 17, 1809, and is now the oldest 
 citizen of Wolcott. He attended the district schools 
 of Wolcott and also a private school taught by John 
 Clarke, but is mostly self-educated. He never left 
 the parental roof, and when old enough to be of any 
 assistance he began to aid in the work of the farm, 
 having been engaged in agricultural pursuits on the 
 homestead ever since. In 1836 he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Sarah J- Clark, a native of 
 Waterbury, and a daughter of Elias and Eliza Clark. 
 To them was born one son, Theron C. A., now a 
 resident of Waterbury, who was married Dec. i, 
 1861, to Sarah J. Warner, ,a daughter of Erastus 
 Warner, of Wolcott, and has two children, Martin 
 W. and Henry W. Mrs. Minor, who was a most 
 estimable woman "and faithful helpmeet, died in 
 October, 1895, and was laid to rest in the old 
 cemetery. 
 
 Politically Mr. Minor has been a lifelong Demo- 
 crat, casting his first Presidential vote for Andrew 
 Jackson, and in 1896 voting for Palmer and Buck- 
 ner. One of the prominent and influential citizens 
 of his community, he has been called upon to fill a 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 787 
 
 number of official positions of lionor and trust, Iiav- 
 ing served as assessor, justice of tlie peace, and 
 selectman of Wolcott for twenty years. In 1847 
 he was first elected town clerk, and has since filled 
 that office in a most creditable and satisfactory 
 manner, having served as such longer than any other 
 town clerk in the State. He has represented his 
 town in the Legislature four times, both at New 
 Haven and Hartford. He is still quite active, pos- 
 sesses an excellent memory, and keeps well posted 
 on the questions and issues of the day, as well as on 
 topics of general interest. He is widely and favora- 
 bly known, and is one of the most honored resi- 
 dents of his section .of the county. 
 
 DR. AMOS SHEPARD BLAKE, an inventor 
 of considerable note, the first resident dentist at 
 Waterbury, and for many years one of its leading 
 manufacturers and citizens, was born Jan. 18, 1812, 
 in Brookfield, Vt., son of Joseph and Prudence 
 (Shepard) Blake. 
 
 Mr. Blake received his education at Southmade 
 Academy and in Scott's Military School, at Mont- 
 pelier, Vt. He studied dentistry under the direc- 
 tion of his brother. Dr. E. W. Blake, and resided at 
 Alstead, N. H., Montpelier and Chelsea, Vt., and 
 Watertown, Conn., before coming to Waterbury, in 
 1844. Here he established himself, as the first resi- 
 dent dentist of the place, and for a number of years 
 enjoyed an extensive practice. From 1852 to 1855 
 he was superintendent of mines in the Lake Supe- 
 rior region, making his home at Eagle Harbor, 
 Mich. With that exception Dr. Blake made Water- 
 bury his home from 1844 until called to his reward, 
 Feb. 18, 1895. At the beginning of the Civil war 
 he withdrew from the practice of his profession 
 and became interested in manufacturing. He was 
 quite a genius, and of an inventive turn of mind. 
 During the winter of 1830-31 he constructed the 
 first locomotive ever seen in New England. It was 
 designed to illustrate the practicability of travel by 
 railroad, and was large enough to carry two pas- 
 sengers at a time, around a hall, on a circular track. 
 This model engine was extensively exhibited 
 throughout the New England States by Asa Har- 
 rington, of Middlesex, Vt. During his lifetime Dr. 
 Blake invented some nineteen devices and procured 
 patents on the same. During the Civil war the Doc- 
 tor was superintendent of the American Flask & 
 Cap Co., which in a single year delivered one hun- 
 dred tons of percussion caps to the National Gov- 
 ernment. He was the originator of Blake, Lamb & 
 Co., in 1865, manufacturers of articles patented by 
 himself, the firm consisting then of Dr. Blake, Will- 
 iam Lamb and Henry R. Chambers. The concern 
 was incorporated in 1867, with a capital of $9,000, 
 Dr. Blake becoming the first president. There was 
 no change in the company until the death of Mr. 
 Lamb, in 1872, at which time the other members 
 purchased the interest previously held by him. Dr. 
 Blake sold his interest in 1883. ' 
 
 For a number of years while in Vermont Dr. 
 Blake was one of the judges of jail delivery, where 
 until recent years the law authorized imprisonment 
 for debt. He was one of the selectmen of Water- 
 bury in 1846, and during his stay in Michigan he 
 was a county commissioner. He held the position 
 of councilman, alderman, assessor and road com- 
 missioner, and represented Waterbury in the State 
 Legislature in 1869, 1874 and 1875. He was one 
 of the originators of the Riverside Cemetery Asso- 
 ciation, and was active in promoting the scheme for 
 raising money by subscription for the cemetery site. 
 He also took an active part in naming the streets of 
 Waterbury and getting the street names officially 
 adopted. 
 
 Dr. Blake married Eliza Cordelia, daughter of 
 Henry Woodward, of Chelsea, Vt., and children as 
 follows were born of this union: Mrs. John A 
 Hitchcock, of Liverpool, England; Caroline B., wife 
 of Edward T. Root ; and two sons who died in child- 
 hood. The mother of these died Feb. 25, 1895. 
 
 HON. ARTHUR H. BARTHOLOMEW, first 
 mayor of the city of Ansonia, is one of the most 
 active business men and most enterprising citizens, 
 and has long held a high place in the esteem of the 
 public. He is a son of the late Jeremiah H. Bar- 
 tholomew, and was given unusual educational fa- 
 cilities in his youth. After an attendance at the 
 public schools he entered the "Gunnery," at Wash- 
 ington, Conn., and from there went to Auburndale, 
 Mass., where he spent several months in an acade- 
 my. At the age of sixteen he began his apprentice- 
 ship in the works of the Ansonia Brass & Copper 
 Co. He was quick to take advantage of every op- 
 portunity, and his insight into the mechanism of 
 clocks soon made him invaluable to the company. 
 He rapidly rose to an honored place, but he was 
 ever looking to the time he could go into business 
 for himself, and was endeavoring by strict economy 
 to save enough to make his start. In 1881 he saw 
 his ambition realized, and he became a member of 
 the firm of Phelps & Bartholomew, and at once 
 assumed a well-deserved place in the manufacturing 
 world. The Phelps & Bartholomew Co. manufac- 
 ture clocks, and their goods find a ready market. 
 Through much competition and considera.ble perse- 
 cution their business has rapidly increased, owing 
 to the reliability of their goods. In 1886 the firm 
 became a corporation, and now over one hundred 
 hands are employed. 
 
 Mr. Bartholomew has become largely interested 
 in manv concerns outside of the factory, and has 
 worthily filled several positions of honor and trust, 
 among them .that of director of the Ansonia Na- 
 tional Bank, trustee of the Ansonia Savings Bank, 
 president of the Pine Grove Cemetery Association, 
 director of the Ansonia Water Co., secretary of the 
 Ansonia Hall Co., and president of the Ansonia 
 Furniture and Carpet Co. He is also a member 
 of the Ansonia Board of Trade. 
 
788 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 In spite of his many duties connected with his 
 commercial enterprises, he has had time to look 
 after the public welfare as few busy men find time 
 to do. When Ansonia was incorporated as a city, 
 he was elected for the first mayor, and his careful 
 business administration has proven of inestimable 
 benefit to the town, and established a precedent for 
 succeeding magistrates. In his political afiiliations 
 he is a Republican, but in local affairs he endeavors 
 to avoid all partisan dealing, and steadfastly ad- 
 heres to his determination to keep out of the so- 
 called "ring." While in office he was loyal to his 
 friends, but at the same time he never lost sight 
 of the fact that he was mayor of the city, and sworn 
 to administer its affairs to the best of his ability, so 
 that his appointments were often outside of the Re- 
 publican ranks. Educational affairs find in him a 
 warm friend, and for ten years he served as chair- 
 man of the board of education. So popular is he 
 that when his name appears on a ticket it is sure 
 to win consideration from men of all parties, as he 
 acts wisely and well for the general good. During 
 the time he was in the Legislature, 1886, 1887 and 
 1893, he served on the committee on Cities and Bor- 
 oughs, and in 1887 and in 1893 he was House chair- 
 man of the committee on Corporations. His interest 
 in his home city is unbounded, and he has given his 
 hearty support to all things tending to develop its 
 resources. Fraternally Mr. Bartholomew is a mem- 
 ber of the Masonic and Odd Fellows organizations, 
 having risen to the Knight Templar degree in the 
 former. His home is one of the handsome modern 
 residences of the city, and is substantially the same 
 as that in which he passed his earlier days. 
 
 On Jan. 14, 1874, Mr. Bartholomew married 
 Miss Henrietta E. Cable, of Oxford, Conn., and 
 daughter of Horace and Ann (Curtis) Cable, and 
 they have had four children, the eldest of whom, 
 Emma, died when two years of age ; the others are 
 Henrietta Cable, Eloise, and Arthur H., Jr. Mrs. 
 Bartholomew's father was a farmer bv occupation, 
 and was a fife major of the State militia for many 
 years. He died some thirty years ago, his wife ten 
 years ago. Mrs. Bartholomew's grandfather Curtis 
 was a prominent man, a civil engineer, and repre- 
 sented his district several years in the Connecticut 
 Legislature. 
 
 JAMES PORTER, an honored and highly es- 
 teemed citizen of Waterbury, now living a retired 
 life, is the oldest representative of the Porter family 
 in that town. He is a descendant of Daniel Porter, 
 an early settler of the- Connecticut Colony, who was 
 one of the first to locate in Farinuigton. Daniel 
 Porter was a physician, and was licensed to prac- 
 tice by the General Court in 1654, his fees being 
 established by law. Pie was also required to visit 
 the sick in Plartford, Windsor, Wethersfield and 
 Middletown. Pie was more particularly a bone set- 
 ter. His death occurred in Farmington in 1690, 
 and his remains were interred there. He and his 
 
 wife, Mary, had the following children: Daniel,, 
 born Feb. 2, 1652, is mentioned below; Mary, born 
 Feb. 5, 1654, married Eleazer Knowles, of Wood- 
 bury; Nehemiah, born Oct. 24, 1656, married Han- 
 nah Lumm, of Woodbury; Richard was born 
 March 24, 1658; Anna, born in 1660, died unmar- 
 ried; John, born Nov. 14, 1662, married Rebecca 
 Woodford; and Samuel, born Oct. 24, 1665, was 
 married in 1702 to Abigail Humphreys, of Sims- 
 bury. 
 
 Daniel Porter, so'n of Dr. Daniel, after reaching 
 manhood moved to Waterbury, where he spent the 
 remainder of his life, dying there Jan. 18, 1726. 
 He married Deborah Holcomb (daughter of Joshua 
 and Ruth (Sherwood) Holcomb), who died May 4, 
 1765, at the advanced age of ninety- three years. 
 Their children were as follows : Daniel, born 
 March 5, 1699, is mentioned below; James, born 
 April 20, 1700, died in 1786; Thomas, born April 
 I, 1702, died in 1797; IDeborah, born March 6, 
 1703, married James Baldwin, and died in Water- 
 bury in January, 1801 ; Ebenezer, born Dec.24, 1708, 
 died in 1803 ; and Ann, born April 28, 1712, mar- 
 ried Thomas Judd and (second) James Nicholas, 
 and died at an old age. The father of these chil- 
 dren was also a physician and surgeon, and in addi- 
 tion to his medical practice engaged in land sur- 
 veying. He was quite a prominent citizen of Wat- 
 erbury and died after making his home there for 
 over half a century, leaving a large estate. His 
 was a long-lived family. The Connecticut Journal 
 of March 5, 1801, contains the following interesting 
 item concerning persons whose descendants are 
 numerous in this vicinity, and some of whom still 
 give evidence that the vigor of the sturdy stock is 
 but little impaired: "Died in Waterbury, Mrs. 
 Deborah Baldwin, aged ninety-seven, daughter of 
 Dr. Daniel Porter, Jr., one of the first settlers of 
 Waterbury, v\'ho died at an advanced age. Her 
 mother died aged ninety-three ; her eldest brother. 
 Dr. Daniel, died at seventy-six; her second brother. 
 Dr. James Porter, at eighty-six; her third brother, 
 Capt. Thomas Porter, at ninety-five ; her fourth 
 brother, Ebenezer, now living at ninety-three; and 
 also one sister Ann (the wife of James Nichols), 
 now living at ninety." 
 
 Daniel Porter (3) was born in Waterbury, and 
 died there Nov. 14, 1772. Like his father and 
 grandfather, he also engaged in the practice of med- 
 icine and surgery. He was a man of influence in 
 his community, and was honored and respected by 
 all who knew him. He owned a tract of land be- 
 tween East Main and Mill streets and Mad river, 
 and lived on East Main street. On June 3, 1728, 
 he married Hannah Hopkins, a daughter of John 
 and Hannah Hopkins, and sister of Stephen and 
 Timothy Hopkins. John Hopkins was a son of 
 Stephen Hopkins and his wife Dorcas Bronson 
 (daughter of John Bronson), and a grandson of 
 John Hopkins. Daniel Porter and his wife Han- 
 nah had children as follows : Preserve, born Nov. 
 
(Mi-^^X. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 789 
 
 23, 1729, was the eldest; Daniel, born March 17, 
 1 73 1, was a physician and surgeon, died of small- 
 pox in 1759 at Crown Point, while in the army; 
 Hannah, born June 16, 1733, married Obediah Sco- 
 ville; Timothy, born June 19, 1735, is mentioned 
 below; Susanna, born July 7, 1737, married Daniel 
 Killum and (second) John Cossett; and Anna, born 
 Dec. 6, 1738, married David Bronson. The mother 
 of these children died Dec. 31, 1739. By his sec- 
 ond wife, Joanna, the father had two children: 
 Elizabeth, who was married in 1764, to Ard War- 
 ner; and Jemima, was married in 1762 to 
 Timothy Scoville. 
 
 Timothy Porter, son of Daniel Porter (3), was 
 a lifelong resident of Waterbury. He, too, devoted 
 liis time and attention to the medical profession, 
 •was the principal practicing physician of his town 
 and vicinity, and served as surgeon in the Revo- 
 lutionary war. He was a man of marked ability, 
 progressive and enterprising, and was a stanch 
 advocate of higher education. He married Mar- 
 igaret Skinner, a daughter of Gideon Skinner, of 
 Bolton, Conn. She was born in 1739, and died in 
 1813. In their family were seven children : Daniel, 
 born Sept. 23, 1768, was the grandfather of our 
 subject; Sylvia C. was born Feb. 24, 1771 ; Joseph, 
 born Sept. 3, 1772, a physician, married Levinia 
 Porter, and died May 6, 1848 ; Olive, born July 26, 
 1775, married Moses Hall; Anna, born April 5, 
 1777, married R. F. Welton ; Chauncey, born April 
 24, 1779, moved to Pittsford, N. Y. ; Timothy Hop- 
 Tcins, born Nov. 28, 1785, was a representative in the 
 United States Congress about 1828. 
 
 Daniel Porter, grandfather of our subject, was 
 ■a well-educated man and highly respected citizen of 
 "Waterbury. He was a surveyor, and also a lawyer 
 of much ability, practicing in the justice courts of 
 his town. He owned quite a large amount of land 
 in Waterbury, where he spent his entire life. He 
 always took an active part in politics and held many 
 ■offices of trust and responsibility, including that 
 of selectman. On June, 9, 1789, he married Anna 
 'Clark, and they had six children, whose names and 
 dates of birth were as follows : Horace, Sept. 30, 
 1790; Timothy, Jan. 30, 1792; Elias, May 14, 179S ; 
 Alma Anna (wife of William Orton), April 18, 
 1800; Daniel' (a physician). May 20, 1805; and 
 Joseph, July 11, 1807. Mrs. Anna (Clark) Porter 
 -was a daughter of Ingham Clark and his wife Sarah 
 (Beach), who were married in 1767. Ingham 
 Clark was a son of Israel and Mehitable (Ingham) 
 ■Clark (married in 1743). a grandson of Samuel 
 Clark (2) and his wife Mary Brown (married ni 
 1694), a great-grandson of Samuel (i) and Han- 
 nah (Tuttle) Clark (married in 1672). Mrs. Mary 
 (Brown) Clark, wife of Samuel (2). was a daugh- 
 ter of Ebenezer and Hannah (Mncent) Brown. 
 Mrs. Hannah (Tuttle) Clark, wife of Samuel (i), 
 was a daughter of John and Catherine (Lane) Tut- 
 tle (married in 1653), and granddaughter of Will- 
 iam Tuttle. 
 
 Elias Porter, father of our subject, owned and 
 operated a farm at Mill Plain, and always made 
 his home in Waterbury, spending the latter part of 
 his life with our subject. He died in 1871, at a 
 ripe old age, and was laid to rest in Pine Grove 
 cemetery. On Jan. 22, 1817, he married Alma Ty- 
 ler, who was born Dec. 17, 1791, a daughter of 
 Lyman and Esther (Hoadley) Tyler, of Pros- 
 pect, Conn., who were married in 1791- 
 Their only child was our subject. The mother died 
 in 1866, and now sleeps by the side of her husband 
 in Pine Grove cemetery. They were held in high 
 regard by all who knew them. Politically the father 
 was first a Federalist, later a Whig, and still later a 
 Republican. 
 
 Lyman Tyler, father of Mrs. Elias Porter, was 
 a son of Abraham Tyler, a grandson of Isaac and 
 Susanna (Miles) Tyler (married in 1732), a great- 
 grandson of John and Abigail (Hall) Tyler (mar- 
 ried in 1694), and a great-great-grandson of Will- 
 iam Tyler. Mrs. Abigail (Hall) Tyler was a 
 daughter of Thomas and Grace Hall (married June 
 5, 1673), of whom the former, Thomas Hall, was 
 a son of John and Jane (Woolen) Hall. Mrs. Es- 
 ther (Hoadley) Tyler, mother of Mrs. Elias Porter, 
 was a daughter of William (3) and Esther (Por- 
 ter) Hoadley (married in 1761), a granddaughter 
 of William (2) and Sarah (Frisbie) Hoadley (mar- 
 ried in 1724), and a great-granddaughter of Will- 
 iam (i) and Elizabeth (Frost) Hoadley. Mrs. 
 Esther (Porter) Hoadley, wife of William (3), was 
 a daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth (Burnham) 
 Porter (married in I734). and a granddaughter 
 of Richard and Ruth Porter. Mrs. Sarah (Frisbie) 
 Hoadley, wife of William (2), was a daughter of 
 Eben Frisbie. Mrs. Elizabeth (Frost) Hoadley, 
 wife of William (i), was a daughter of John and 
 Mercy (Payne) Frost. 
 
 James Porter, whose name introduces this re- 
 view, was born March 26, 1818, on the old home- 
 stead at Mill Plain, and during his boyhood at- 
 tended the district schools and also the Waterbury 
 Academy. He assisted his father in the operation 
 of the farm until twenty years of age, when he 
 commenced work in a woolen mill. Subsequently 
 he was employed in a roller mill for six years, and 
 in 1843 learned the trade of a caster at the John 
 D. Johnson rolling mills, after which he was em- 
 ployed two years in the Brown & Elton rolling 
 mills, and in' the same capacity seventeen years in 
 the AVaterbury Brass Co.'s mill. For three years 
 he was a caster for the Scovill Manufacturing 
 Co., and then became a German-silver caster for 
 the same firm, remaining with them until 1874, 
 during which time he started silver casting at 
 Wolcottville, Bristol and Thomaston. He then 
 retired from business, and has since made his home 
 on the East Farms road, in Waterbury. Although 
 eighty-four years of age he still possesses all his 
 faculties, and is quite active.. He is an intellectual 
 and well-informed man, of genial disposition and 
 
790 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 upright character. Mr. Porter cast his first presi- 
 dential vote for William H. Harrison, the Whig 
 candidate, and his last for William McKinley, the 
 Republican nominee, being a stanch supporter of the 
 Republican party and sound money principles. He 
 is an earnest Christian, a member of the Episcopal 
 Church, is domestic in his tastes, and is a loving 
 husband and father. 
 
 On June i, 1845, i" Waterbury, Mr. Porter was 
 united in marriage with Miss Sophia Beecher, a 
 daughter of Benjamin Dutton and Pamelia (Tuttle) 
 Beecher. Her father was a well-known inventor, 
 having invented, in 1835, the first propeller, which 
 was used on canal boats, afterward on ocean steam- 
 ers. Mrs. Porter is still living, and enjoys good 
 health. Mr. and Mrs. Porter have five chil- 
 dren, namely: (i) Emily Sophia was married July 
 I, 1868, to James Elliott, of Elmira, N. Y., and they 
 had seven children — Nellie May, born March 28, 
 1869, died Dec. 10, 1877; James Porter, born 
 Dec. I, 1870, was married Nov. 28, 1895, to Ida 
 Moakley, and they have two children, Irving 
 Beecher (born Dec. 5, 1897) and James Porter 
 (born Sept. 2, 1900) ; Sarah Beecher was born 
 May 13, 1873; Fanny Amelia was born March 13, 
 1875; Sophia Alma, born Dec. 21, 1876; George 
 Ward was born March 25, 1879; Charles Luther, 
 born July 3, 1884, died Aug. 31, 1892. (2) 
 Sarah Jane was married to John Hine Sept. 
 I, 1875, and has four children — ^John Wal- 
 lace, born May 14, 1877; Mary Annie, 
 born Jan. 9, 1879; George Ward, born Sept. 
 I, 1880; and Frederick William, born March 18, 
 
 1882. (3) James Ward Beecher was married Jan. 
 18, 1876, to Elizabeth Collins, and they have six 
 children — John Beecher, born Oct. 28, 1876; Fannie 
 Elizabeth, born July 9, 1878 ; Nellie Florence, born 
 March 25, 1880; James Ward, born June 16, 1881 ; 
 Bessie Sophia, born Aug. 11, 1882, died July 17, 
 
 1883, and Harry Clinton, born March 13, 1885. (4) 
 Fannie Amelia and (5) Mary Florence (twins) are 
 at home with their parents, to whom- they are very 
 devoted. They are ladies of culture and refinement, 
 and are quite active and prominent members of the 
 Daughters of the American Revolution, the Wom- 
 en's Club and other social organizations. 
 
 The following lines from Mr. Porter's pen are 
 characteristic : 
 
 PSALM xxxn, 17. 
 
 Happy the truly honest man: 
 With no alluring; wile, 
 But cheerfully, he treats you well — 
 In whom there is no guile. 
 
 He never will put on deceit 
 For sake of gaining spoil; 
 He is the one that you can trust — 
 In whom there is no guile. 
 
 May the good Lord deliver us 
 From all that's low or vile; 
 So finallv it will be said. 
 In him there is no guile. 
 
 Dec. 2(), 1901 
 
 James Porter. 
 
 DAVID BROOKS, late of Brooks Vale, in the 
 town of Cheshire, was a worthy representative of 
 one of the prominent old families of New Haven 
 county. 
 
 The first of the name to come to America were 
 two brothers, Henry and John Brooks, both natives 
 of the County of Chester, England. Henry was a 
 stanch supporter of Oliver Cromwell, and fought 
 under his banner. Upon the restoration of Charles- 
 II to the British throne many of the followers of 
 Cromwell, known as Roundheads, fled to different 
 parts of the world, a large number coming to Amer- 
 ica. Among the latter were Henry and John Brooks, 
 who settled in New Haven about 1670, and were 
 among the founders of New Haven Colony. Some- 
 time later they removed to Wallingford, and, about 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century, took up 
 land in a part of the Colony which was afterward 
 set off from the town of Wallingford, and 'to which 
 they gave the name of Cheshire, for their native- 
 county in England. Henry Brooks, who came from 
 Cheshire, in England, became a land owner in- 
 Cheshire, Conn., and it was in his house that the 
 first religious services in that place were held. He 
 was an earnest, consistent Christian, and took a. 
 deep interest in the Cheshire Colony, and the infant 
 church which he was instrumental in establishing. 
 He was married Dec. 21, 1676, to Hannah Blakeley. 
 
 (II) Lieut. Thomas Brooks, son of Henry, was- 
 born in the New Haven Colony March 27, 1679, 
 and about 1705 removed with his parents to Che- 
 shire, where he spent the remainder of his life. He 
 was deeply interested in public affairs, especially 
 the welfare of his adopted town, and was the first 
 to petition the General Assembly to organize the 
 Congregational Church in Cheshire, in 1723, prior 
 to which time religious services were held in his- 
 home. He died of smallpox May 18, 1732, and was- 
 buried in Cheshire. He was a true and earnest 
 Christian, self-sacrificing and unselfish, doing all iir 
 his power to advance the educational and moral in- 
 terests of his community, and his loss was deeply- 
 felt by the church. He secured his title as lieuten- 
 ant in the militia. In Wallingford he married, 
 March 25, 1701, Martha Hotchkiss, a native of that 
 town, a daughter of Ensign Joshua Hotchkiss, and 
 a granddaughter of Samuel and Elizabeth (Cleaver- 
 ly) Hotchkiss. To this union were born ten chil- 
 dren, whose names and dates of birth were as fol- 
 lows : Stephen, May 28, 1702; Marv, May 14, 
 1704; Thomas, Feb. 14, 1706; Enos, Feb. 15, 1708; 
 Cornelius, Sept. 10, 1711; Martha, Feb. 21, 1714; 
 Mehitable, Feb. 23, 1716; Benjamin, Aoril 23, 1720,- 
 Henry, March 2, 1723 ; and Thankful, Dec. 19, 1725. 
 
 (III) Capt. Enos Brooks, son of Lieut. Thomas, 
 was born Feb. 15, 1708, and spent his entire life in- 
 Cheshire, where he owned a large amount of land. 
 Enos was the first Brooks to locate in the south- 
 western part of the town, now called Brooks Vale. 
 There, in about 1732, he erected an old-style "lean- 
 to" house, on the ground where the present Brooks. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 795 
 
 sided on the home farm mitil his death, Nov. ii, 
 1884; John D.jWho was engaged in business in New 
 York, and there died Jan. ig, 1867; and Julia A., 
 the only survivor. Miss Julia resides in West 
 Cheshire, and is beloved and respected by all who 
 know her. With a charity that knows no limit, she 
 seems to find her greatest happiness in doing good 
 to those around her. Even the dumb animals have 
 received her attention, and for them she placed a 
 watering tank in West Cheshire ; she gave to the vil- 
 lage the town clock; a receiving vault in Cheshire 
 cemetery ; and many other things. She takes a deep 
 interest in educational affairs, is highly intellectual 
 and cultured, and is quite popular with the public. 
 
 JOSEPH NO YES NICHOLS (deceased) was 
 one of the leading citizens and successful agricul- 
 turists of Waterbury, where he was born Dec. 17, 
 1824. The Nichols family is one of the oldest in 
 Connecticut. Sergt. Francis Nichols, the first of 
 the name in New England, was a native of England, 
 and one of the first settlers of Stratford, Fairfield 
 Co., Conn., where he located in 1639. He is sup- 
 posed to have been closely related to Sir Richard 
 Nichols, the first English governor of New York. 
 Before coming to this country he was a member of 
 the Horse Guards of London. He owned property 
 in Stratford, Conn., and Southland, Long Island, 
 and spent his last days in the former place, where he 
 died and was buried. For his second wife he mar- 
 ried Barnahas Wines, who after his death wedded 
 John Elton, of Southland, Long Island. By his 
 first marriage he had four children : Isaac, Caleb 
 and John, who were all born in England ; and Mrs. 
 Richard Mills. The only child of the second union 
 was Ann, wife of Christopher Young. 
 
 Isaac Nichols, son of Francis, came with his par- 
 ents to the New World and spent the remainder of 
 his life in Stratford, Conn., where he owned and 
 operated a farm. He died in 1695, and was buried 
 there. By his wife, Margaret, he had the following 
 children: Mary, who was born Feb. 2, 1648, and 
 married Rev. Israel Channey; Sarah, who was born 
 Nov. I, 1649, and married Stephen Burrett; Josiah, 
 born Jan. 29, 1652 ; Isaac, March 12, 1654 ; Jonathan, 
 Dec. 10, 1655; Ephraim, Dec. 15, 1657; Patience, 
 Feb. 2, 1660; Temperance, May 17, 1662; Marg^ery, 
 Nov. 30, 1663; Benjamin, Feb. 2, 1666; and Eliza- 
 beth, who was born April 2, 1668, and was married 
 July 9, 1601, to Rev. Joseph Webb. 
 
 Isaac Nichols, Jr., a son of Isaac, was also a life- 
 long resident of Stratford, a farmer and land owner. 
 There he died in 1690. By his wife, Mary, he had 
 three children: Francis, June 3, 1676; Richard, 
 Nov. 26, 1678; and Joseph, Nov. i, 1680. 
 
 Joseph Nichols, a son of Isaac, Jr., was born and 
 reared in Stratford, whence he removed to Long 
 Island, and in 1728 came to Waterbury, where he 
 owned property. Here he died March 10, 1733, 
 and was buried in Waterbury cemetery. He mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Wood, of Stratford, and they had a 
 
 family of eight children : James, born on Long. 
 Island June 27, 1712; George, born at the same 
 place July 14, 1714; Elizabeth, who was married in 
 1740 to Ebenezer Waklee; Richard; Joseph, born 
 in 1724; Maria; Isaac, who was born May 4, 1729, 
 and died in the British army in 1776; and Benja- 
 min, born May 14, 1731. 
 
 Joseph Nichols, Jr., son of Joseph, was born on 
 Long Island, and came with his parents to Water- 
 bury, where he subsequently owned and operated a 
 farm until called from this life, Jan. 24, 1773. On 
 Sept. 6, 1750, in Waterbury, he married Tamar 
 Bronson, daughter of Lieut. John Bronson, and to- 
 them were born two children : Seymour, mentioned 
 below; and Eunice, who was born. Sept. 6, I753> a'^d 
 married Michael Bronson. The mother of these 
 children died Nov. 14, 1755, and on Dec. 15, 1757, 
 the father married Annie Webster, by whom he had 
 one child, Lucy, who was born Dec. 5, I758> ^^i^ 
 m_arried Luke Adams. 
 
 Seymour Nichols, son of Joseph, Jr., was born 
 April 20, 1 75 1, in Waterbury, where he spent his 
 entire life as a farmer, land owner and highly re- 
 spected citizen. On June 15, 1775, he married Mar- 
 tha Hotchkiss, and to them were born ten children, 
 whose names and dates of birth were as follows r 
 Joseph, April 21, 1776; Tamar (wife of James Chat- 
 field), Dec. 25, 1778; Humphrey, Nov. 23, 1781 ; 
 Abigail, March 2, 1784; Chloe, July 30, 1786; Amy,. 
 Nov. 25, 1788; William, August, 1791 ; Chauncey,. 
 February, 1794; Simon, 1796; and Philo, June, 
 1798. 
 
 Humphrey Nichols, son of Se^anour, and the 
 father of our subject, made his home throughout 
 life in Waterbury, where he owned a farm, and like 
 his ancestors he engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
 His remains were interred in the old cemetery where 
 the Bronson Library now stands. He married Esther 
 Hotchkiss, also a native of Waterburv, and a daugh- 
 ter of Stephen Hotchkiss. In their family were the 
 following children: Harriet, born Feb. 3. i^tq, 
 married' G. A. Hall; Emeline, born May 20, 181 1, 
 married David Terrell : Stephen H. was born April 
 25, 1813 : Isaac, born Sept. 27, 1814, married Lydia 
 Frisbee: William, born Jan. 27, 1817, married into 
 the well-known Atwoori familv: Ann, born Feb. 8, 
 1819, died May 12, 1835; Nancy, born June 15,. 
 
 1821, married Marvin Hills; Eli, born Sept. 15, 
 
 1822, married Jane Mann; Joseph N., our subject, 
 and David complete the family. 
 
 Joseph N. Nichols grew to manhood in Water- 
 bury, and became a prosperous farmer and land 
 owner of that town. He owned the homestead farm 
 'at Simonville, and also the large Hill farm on Town 
 Plot, Waterbury, upon which he made many im- 
 provements. It was the Garry Hull tract of eighty 
 acres, and has since been divided into lots for build- 
 ing purposes. He was united in marriage with Miss 
 Lucena Clark, of New Milford, a daughter of Daniel, 
 and Lucy (Hanes) Clark, and by this union were 
 born seven children : ( i ) Daniel Humphrey, who. 
 
796 
 
 COMMEMORATIJ^E BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 died in 1890, first married Mary C. Gladding, by 
 whom he had two sons, Frank Bacon and Arthur 
 W., both members of St. John's Church choir. For 
 his second wife he married Albertha Lobdell, by 
 whom he had one child, Harvey Humphrey. (2) 
 Clark Holmes is mentioned below. (3) Joseph 
 Hayden married first Nellie Jackson, by whom he 
 had two children, Louis Hayden and Carl Hum- 
 phrey, and for his second wife married Alice Pal- 
 mer, by whom he had one child, Nellie Alice. (4) 
 Lucy Esther resides on the old homestead. (5) 
 Emma C. died in April, 1885. (6) Anna L. died 
 Feb. 28, 1887. (7) William Francis, who is con- 
 nected with the Lmited States mail service and re- 
 sides in Waterbury, married Annie O'Rourke, and 
 they have three children, Gertrude E., Charles and 
 William. Our subject died April 21, 1878, his wiie 
 Sept. 14, 1887, and both were laid to rest in River- 
 side cemetery. They were faithful members of St. 
 John's Episcopal Church, and were highly respected 
 and esteemed by all who knew them. In his politi- 
 cal affiliations Mr. Nichols was a Democrat, and he 
 ever took a commendable interest in those enter- 
 prises calculated to advance the moral, social or ma- 
 terial welfare of his town and county. He was a 
 l<ind father, a loving husband and true friend. 
 
 Clark H. Nichols, son of Joseph N., was born 
 on the home farm in Waterbury April 29, 1859, 
 and was educated in the public schools of Town 
 Plot. He remained under the parental roof until 
 he attained his majority, and then learned the trade 
 ot a brass caster, which he followed in Ansonia 
 for nine years. At the end of that period he re- 
 turned to AA'aterbury, and was employed as a caster 
 in the Scovill foundry for eight j'ears. He then 
 purchased the David Blodgett place, where he has 
 since made his home, and now gives his entire time 
 and attention to dealing in and training horses, trav- 
 eling in Canada and other sections of the country. 
 He is a wide-awake, progressive business man, and 
 is meeting with success in his business ventures. 
 He is independent in politics, and a member of the 
 Knights of Pythias fraternity. In Providence, R. I., 
 Oct. 4, 1883, he married Miss Annie Wilson, of 
 Bristol, Conn., who died May 22, 1895. 
 
 EDWIN YALE BULL, one of the highly re- 
 spected and well-known citizens of Yalesville, has 
 been a resident of this community for more than 
 half a century, and he is known as one of the most 
 "widely read and thoroughly posted men of Walling- 
 ford. Mr. Bull was born in the town of Meriden. 
 Feb. 10, 182.^, a son of William Bull, also a native of 
 Meriden. William Bull was a well-known citizen 
 of Meriden, where he worked at his trade and cul- 
 tivated his farm. In politics he was a Democrat, 
 and in religion a L^niversalist. Ruth Hall, his wife, 
 was born Aug. 25, 1789, a daughter of Benajah 
 and Ruth (Francis) Hall, and she died in Meriden. 
 
 Edwin Yale Bull was educated in the common 
 schools of Meriden, and in the Connecticut Literary 
 
 Institute of Suffield. He started life for himself 
 at an early age, his first work being the burnishing 
 of spoons at the munificent salary of forty-five cents 
 per gross. When not employed in the shop he 
 worked at home on the farm. After a time he 
 was taken into the German-silver shop at Meriden 
 as a buffer, and then was made a forger of fine 
 wares. For some years he was employed in a 
 Britannia spoon factory, and for three and a half 
 years worked for Steadman & Clark, with whom he 
 thoroughly learned the tin and sheet iron trade. 
 For ten years he was a journeyman worker at this 
 trade, and in 1853 came to Yalesville to take a 
 place as a die sinker, a trade he mastered for him- 
 self, and one in which he takes a high standing. 
 The following year he secured a similar position 
 with Garry I. Mix, at $2.00 per day, which was 
 gradually increased to $2,000 per year. In i860 
 ;Mr. Bull entered the employ of R. Wallace & Co., 
 where he remained for two years, and he was two 
 years with Hall, Elton & Co., when he resumed his 
 work with G. I. Mix. For twenty-five years he was 
 steadily at work as die sinker, but for the last twelve 
 years he has lived a retired life, spending his leisure 
 hours in the making of violins, in which he seems 
 to have the touch of a genius. Violins that come 
 from his hands give forth the sweetest tones, and 
 his name is familiar to all who love this king of 
 musical instruments. 
 
 Mr. Bull is a ripe scholar, and is a man of wide 
 reading. Latin, French and other languages have 
 been mastered by him, and he is familiar with clas- 
 sical lore. In politics he is a Republican, and was 
 a member of the "Wide Awakes" in the first Lincoln 
 campaign. Mr. Bull has been assessor of the town, 
 and holds the unstinted confidence of his fellow 
 citizens. He began life as a poor boy, and by in- 
 dustry, economy and forethought has become 
 well-to-do. Mr. Bull has never married, and has 
 lived a life of kindly deeds, finding delight and 
 companionship, not only in the world of books, but 
 in the great open world of nature around him. 
 
 ELISHA CHAP:MAN BISHOP, a prominent 
 citizen of Guilford, is a representative of one of the 
 oldest New England families. Mr. Bishop is a de- 
 scendant in the eighth generation from John Bishop, 
 a native of England, who founded the family in 
 America, .and who was one of the original settlers 
 of Guilford, Conn. He was the second person of 
 the twenty-five who signed the Plantation Cove- 
 nant, June I, 163Q, on the voyage from England, 
 and was one of the four persons who had at first 
 the sole direction of the afl^airs of the Colony until 
 the formation of the church. He was married ir 
 England, but the family name of his wife Anne has 
 not been ascertained. After his migration to 
 America John Bishop remained permanently in Guil- 
 ford, where he died in February, 1661. His wife 
 died in Hartford in 1676. To John and Anne Bish- 
 op were born three children: John, who died in 
 
Q)o(^^^^ y^'^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 797 
 
 October, 1683; Stephen, who died in June, 1690; 
 and Bethya, who married James Steel. The line 
 of descent to our subject is through John. 
 
 (II) John Bishop, son of (I) John, married Dec. 
 13, 1650, Susanna Goldham, who died Nov. i, 1703. 
 Their children were as follows: (i) Mary, born 
 Sept. 28, 1652, married John Hodgkin; (2) John, 
 sketch of whom follows; (3) Susanna, born in 
 1657, married Moses Blatchley, and died in Octo- 
 ber, 1729; (4) Elizabeth, born in 1660, married 
 John Scranton, and died in August, 1727; (5) 
 Daniel, born in 1665, married Hannah Bradley, and 
 died April 17, 1751 ; (6) Nathaniel, born in 1666, 
 married Mary Hughes, and died May i, 1714; (7)_ 
 Samuel, born Oct. 28, 1670, married Abigail Wit- 
 more, and died Feb. 17, 1753; (8) Sarah, born 
 Jan. 22, 1674, died May 12, 1712; (9) Abigail, 
 born Jan. 26, 1681, married Samuel Lee, and died 
 
 June 5, 1751- 
 
 (III) John Bishop, born in 1655, died Nov. 25, 
 1751. He married July 3, 1689, Elizabeth Hitch- 
 cock, who died March 14, 1712, and for his second 
 wife he wedded March 8, 1713, May Johnson. His 
 children were as follows: (i) Elizabeth, born Oct. 
 14, 1690, married Samuel Scranton; (2) John, bom 
 Aug. 12, 1692, married Abigail Spinning, and died 
 Jan. 28, 1752; (3) Ann, born Feb. 15, 1695, mar- 
 ried David Field, and died in 1731 ; (4) David, 
 sketch of whom follows; (5) Jonathan, born Nov. 
 8, 1699, married Hannah Chittenden; (6) Mary, 
 bom in December, 1700, married Caleb Jones, and 
 died June 23, 1724; (7) Deborah was born Feb. 
 
 19, 1702; (8) Nathaniel, born May 6, 1704, mar- 
 ried Margaret Blinn, and died April 11, 1778; (9) 
 Timothy, born in 1708, married Hannah Blinn, and 
 died in 1794; (10) William was born Oct. 18, 1714; 
 (11) Enos, born JMay 27, 1717, married Abigail 
 Burgis, and died in April, 1802; (12) Esther was 
 bom Feb. 24, 1719; (13) Mercy, born May 7, 
 1722, married Abraham Dowd, and died Dec. 3, 
 
 1793- 
 
 (IV) David Bishop, born Jan. 6, 1697, died Aug. 
 
 20, 1773. He married May 17, 1724, Deborah Stan- 
 ley, and their children were: ( i) Deborah, born 
 Jan. 17, 1725, married Jehiel Evarts ; (2) Hulda 
 was born Aug. 5, 1726: (3) David, sketch of whom 
 follows; (4) Chloe, born July 15, 1733' married 
 Handy Bushnell ; (5) Sarah, born Aug. 18, 1736, 
 married Miles Hall, and died April 8, 1792. 
 
 (V) David Bishop, born Sept. 20, 1728, died 
 Jan. 25, 1792. He married April 17, 175S, Audrea 
 Fowler, who was born Sept. 12, 1724, and died Jan. 
 24, 1815. Their children were: (i) Audrea, born 
 Feb. 28, 1756, died March 28, 1757. (2) David, 
 born July 29, 1757, married Deborah Fowler, and 
 died April 19, 1833. (3) Huldah, born March 4, 
 17.59, died Oct. 19, 1836; she married Eber Lee. 
 (4) Margaret, born Nov. 10, 1760, died Sept. 21, 
 1764. (5) Jonathan, sketch of whom follows. (6) 
 Jared, born Oct. 22, 1764, married Mary Mason, and 
 died Nov. 26, 1839. 
 
 (VI) Jonathan Bishop (grandfather of Elisha.- 
 C), born Oct. 19, 1762, died Sept. 23, 1826. He 
 married Feb. 21, 1787, Huldah Chapman, born Dec. 
 I, 1762, who died Sept. 17, 1828. Their two chil- 
 dren were Jonathan, born Dec. 19, 1787, who died 
 Dec. 22, 1787; and Jonathan (2), a sketch of whom 
 follows. (VI) Jonathan Bishop was a lifelong 
 farmer and land owner in the town of Guilford, 
 where he was a well-known and highly-respected 
 citizen. During the Revolutionary war he was a 
 member of the Home Guard, for coast defense, keep- 
 ing the Tories from supplying the English troops 
 with produce, etc. In politics he was a Federalist, 
 and in religious faith a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church. 
 
 (VII) Jonathan Bishop (father of Elisha C), 
 born March 30, 1797, received his educatioi^in the 
 schools of Guilford, and by close reading and obser- 
 vation of men and things he became well versed in 
 the leading topics of the day. In his younger days . 
 he followed the sea, chiefly engaged in the coasting 
 trade, and rose to the position of mate of a vessel 
 plying in the cotton trade between Southern ports 
 and New York. Later in life he settled down to 
 farming on the homestead, where he passed the rest 
 of his days, dying March 16, 1887, and he was laid 
 to rest in the East cemetery. In religious faith he 
 was a Congregationalist, in politics a Whig and 
 Republican. 
 
 On Jtme 18, 1821, Jonathan Bishop married 
 Polly Maria Bishop, born Jan. 30, 1796, a daughter 
 of Seth and Hannah (Parmelee) Bishop. She died 
 in July, 1839, and for his second wife Mr. Bishop 
 wedded, March 16, 1840, Fanny Maria Dennison, _ 
 bom March i, 1803, who died March 15, 1865. For 
 his third wife he married, March 15, 1866, Electa 
 Maria Stone, born Oct. 30, 1810. The children of 
 Jonathan Bishop were: (i) Ann Maria, born Jan. 
 22, 1822, died May 27, 1841 ; (2) Elisha Chapman, 
 sketch of whom follows; (3) Richard L., born Dec. 
 29, 1825, married Mary G. Hand, and died Sept. 
 7, 1889; (4) Hulda J., born April 7, 1828, married 
 George Hull, and died April 26, 1889; (5) Sophia 
 Fowler, born May 13, 1835, married Thomas Gris- 
 wold; (6) Allen, born July 2, 1837, died Jan. 13, 
 1861 ; (7) a son, born in July, 1839, died July 26, 
 1839; (8) Alfred Griswold was born Oct. 19, 1842; 
 (9) William Edwin, born Nov. 3, 1855, married 
 Ellen A. Stone. 
 
 (VIII) Elisha C. Bishop, our subject, was born 
 April ID, 1824, attended the district schools of Guil- 
 ford, and remained on the home farm until he was 
 twenty years old. At that time he commenced to 
 learn the trade of machinist, and worked at same 
 in Guilford, on his own account. In 1861 he em- 
 barked in Wsiness in the oil fields, on his own 
 speculation, at Titusville, Crawford Co., Pa., and 
 after he had been so engaged some ten years, meet- 
 ing with good success, he returned to Guilford, in 
 1870. He then settled down to general farming, 
 and has been engaged in that occupation ever since. 
 
79^ 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 In 1874 he built one of the finest dwelUngs in Guil- 
 ford, commodious and comfortable, and fitted up 
 with all modern improvements. In his political 
 predilections Mr. Bishop was formerly a Republi- 
 can, but is now a Prohibitionist in principle. In 
 1882 he represented the town of Guilford in the 
 State Legislature; was selectman seven or eight 
 years; member of the school committee; and was 
 warden" of the borough, also burgess. In religious 
 faith he is a member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 On July 5, 1846, Elisha C. Bishop was married 
 to Charlotte G. Fowler, and they had children as 
 follows: (i) Frederick Chapman, born May 15, 
 1847 (died July 27, 1847) ; (2) Frederick C. (2), 
 Dec. 23, 1848; (3) Robert D., June 14, 1850 (died- 
 Aug. IS, 1850) ; (4) Robert Allen, March 16, 1851 ; 
 (5) Edward Fowler, March 11, 1852; (6) Mary 
 Cornelia, Aug. 27, 1853 ; (7) Frank H., March 22, 
 1857; (8) Ida and (9) Eva S. (twins), April 19, 
 1859; (10) Richard Matthew, May 5, 1861 (died 
 Sept. 22, 1861); (11) Marilla Canfield, Jan. 28, 
 1864; (12) Ernest Smith, Oct. 28, 1866 (is a phy- 
 sician in New York). The mother of these died 
 Oct. 6, 1885, and for his second wife Elisha C. 
 Bishop wedded Cornelia F. Fowler, sister to his 
 first wife. 
 
 The Fowler Family, of which Mrs. Elisha C. 
 Bishop is a member, is descended from (I) Abra- 
 ham Eowler, who was born at Guilford Aug. 29, 
 
 1652, and died Sept. 30, 1719. He married Aug. 
 29, 1677, Elizabeth Bartlett, daughter of George 
 and Mary (Cruttenden) Bartlett, born in March, 
 
 1653, died Oct. 4, 1742. Children: (i) Abigail, 
 born in 1679, married Pelatiah Leete, and died Oct. 
 22, 1769; (2) Mary, born in 1681, married Samuel 
 Hopson, and died Oct. 17, 1717; (3) Abraham, 
 born in 1683, married Elizabeth Hubbard, and died 
 Oct. II, 1754; (4) Ebenezer, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows; (5) Daniel, born in 1686, married Grace 
 Baron, and died Dec. 20, 1776; (6) Josiah, born in 
 1688, married Hannah Baldwin, and died Sept. 7, 
 'I757; (7) Caleb, born in 1690, died in January, 
 1724 ; (8) Elizabeth, born in 1694, died Feb. 26, 
 1794, married Andrew Ward. 
 
 (II) Ebenezer Fowler, born in 1684, in Guilford, 
 died there Nov. 28, 1768. He married May i, 1817, 
 Elizabeth Starr, born Nov. 26, 1695, died March 
 26, 1765. Children: (i) Ebenezer, born Jan. 11, 
 1719, married Desire Bristol, and died Feb. 19, 
 1800; (2) Nathaniel, sketch of whom follows; (3) 
 Huldah, born March 6, 172-. married Samuel Chit- 
 tenden, and died Nov. 17, 1820; (4) Caleb, born 
 Jan. 21, 1726, died March 17, 1726; (5) Caleb (2), 
 born Jan. 21, 1727, died Sept. 22, 1753; (6) Eliza- 
 beth, born May 26, 1732, died Dec. 22, 1810: (7) 
 Lucy, born Feb. IQ, 173.^, married Joseph Weld, 
 and died Sept. '^, 1800; (8) William, born Aug. 6, 
 1738, died in December, 173Q. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Fnwler, born March 21, 1721, 
 died Nov. 12. 1764. He married Nov. 2, 1757, Lucy 
 Chittenden, bom March 12, 1735, died March' 5, 
 
 1807. Children: (i) Nathaniel, sketch of whom 
 follows; (2) Reuben, born June 11, 1760, married 
 Adah Willard, and died Sept. 2, 1832; (3) Lucy, 
 born Sept. 21, 1761, married Benjamin Chittenden, 
 and died June 9, 1835 ; (4) Hannah, born May 8, 
 1765, died June i, 1835, married Gilbert Cruttenden. 
 
 (IV) Nathaniel Fowler, born July 14, 1758, 
 died Feb. 24, 1841. He was a private in the war of 
 the Revolution (1776) under Col. Talcott, in Capt. 
 Hand's Company. He married Ruth Evarts, born 
 June 30, 1760, daughter of Timothy and Ann (Dud- 
 ley) Evarts. Children: (i) Ruth, born Feb. 11, 
 1783, married Eber Cruttenden, and died May 13, 
 1866; (2) Ann, born Sept. 12, 1787, died May 25, 
 1868; (3) Nathaniel, born Nov. 24, 1788, married 
 Sally Cruttenden, and died Nov. 28, 1857; (4) 
 Elisha, born April 6, 1790, died Dec. 13, 1876, mar- 
 ried Mary Parmelee; (5) Richard, born May 5, 
 1794, married Polly Hart, and died May 6, 1831 ; 
 (6) Lyman, sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (V) Lyman Fowler, born Jan. 6, 1800, died Feb. 
 16, 1877. On Nov. 24, 1822, he married Mary Grif- 
 fing, who was born July 27, 1802, daughter of Peter 
 and Polly (Fairchild) Grififing, and died March 18, 
 1885. Children: (i) Charlotte G., born Dec. 15, 
 1823, married Elisha Chapman Bishop. (2) Cor- 
 nelia F., born Oct. 7, 1826, is the wife of Elisha C. 
 Bishop. (3) Alonzo, born Jan. 23, 1829, died Sept. 
 I, 1839. (4) Edwin A., born July 2, 1834, married 
 Emeline B. Spencer. Peter Grififing, the father of 
 the above named Peter, was a captain in the Revo- 
 lutionary army, was taken prisoner, and died aboard 
 the "Jersey" prison ship in New York harbor. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON HAZARD, a 
 prominent citizen of Cheshire, who is now success- 
 fully engaged in fruit growing, was born in Berlin, 
 Hartford Co., Conn., Dec. 3, 1828, and is a son of 
 William and Lydia (Bills) Hazard, natives of Co- 
 lumbia, this State. The father was a farmer by oc- 
 cupation, and spent most of his life in his native 
 town, where he died in 1847. He was a brother of 
 Col. Hazard, the founder of the Hazard Powder 
 Co., whom he educated. Our subject's paternal 
 grandfather, Thomas Hazard, of Wapping, Conn., 
 was a seafaring man in early life, and his maternal 
 grandfather, Elizer Bills, was a farmer of Columbia. 
 
 At the age of five years our subject was taken 
 by his parents to Columbia, where he grew to man- 
 hood, receiving his education in its common schools. 
 After serving a three years' apprenticeship to the 
 cabinetmaker's trade, he worked at clock-making in 
 Bristol for a time, and later engaged in business for 
 himself as a manufacturer at Waterbury, where he 
 owned a good home and where he continued to re- 
 side nineteen years. For twelve years he was in the 
 employ of the Wheeler & Wilson Sewing Machine 
 Co., at Bridgeport, and for five years was a resi- 
 dent of Vineland, N. J., where he erected a dwell- 
 ing for himself. In i8q6 he came to Cheshire, New 
 Haven county, and purchased the Hamock place, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 799 
 
 upon which he has made many valuable improve- 
 ments, including the erection of a pleasant resi- 
 dence and good barn. He has set out 300 peach 
 trees and 250 grape vines, and is now devoting his 
 attention to fruit culture. 
 
 In October, 1849, Mr. Hazard was united in 
 marriage with Miss Sophronia Piatt, a daughter of 
 Enoch Piatt, of Waterbury, and to them have been 
 born two sons : Emerson W. and Adelbert E. Dur- 
 ing the dark days of the Civil war Mr. Hazard 
 enlisted, in the fall of 1862, in the 2d Connecticut 
 Light Battery, and participated in the battles of 
 Gettysburg and Fort Blakely and the siege of Mo- 
 bile, remaining in the service until hostilities ceased, 
 when he was honorably discharged, in 1865. He is 
 a member of the Grand Army Post at Vineland, 
 N. J. In politics he is a stanch Republican. Al- 
 though he is comparatively a recent arrival in 
 Cheshire, he has already made many warm friends, 
 and is held in high regard by all who know him. 
 
 GEORGE WELLINGTON PLANT, a very 
 successful farmer and fruit grower of the town of 
 Branford, was born March 12, 1834, on the farm 
 where he is still to be found, alert and vigorous, 
 son of John and Angeline (Beach) Plant. 
 
 Mr. Plant's father was born May 19, 1806, and 
 died May 22, 1881. The mother was born Oct. 9, 
 1807, and died Jan. 13, 1883. To them were born 
 the following children : Mary E., now Mrs. William 
 T. Norton ; Anderson W. ; Sarah J. ; George Well- 
 ington ; John B. ; Angelina B., deceased ; Emily S. ; 
 Elizabeth R., Mrs. Edward A. Ankelette; John A.; 
 and Angelina B. (2), Mrs. Henry F. Swift. Sam- 
 uel Plant, the paternal grandfather of George W., 
 was born April i, 1772, married Sarah, a daugh- 
 ter of Joseph and Sarah (Rogers) Frisbee, and 
 died Feb. 11, 1795. He lived at Branford, and 
 acted as a coast guard during the war of 1812. 
 Samuel Plant was a son of Benjamin and Lorain 
 (Beckwith) Plant, the former born in Branford 
 in 1732; he died Aug. 11, 1808. John Plant, his 
 father, was born in Branford in 1678, and died Feb. 
 10, 1752; Hannah Plant, his wife, was a daughter 
 of Thomas and Hannah (Barnes) Wheadon, of 
 Branford. This John Plant was the son of John 
 Plant, the progenitor of the family in Connecticut, 
 who settled in Branford in 1676, and was a soldier 
 in the Narragansett war. 
 
 George Wellington Plant was educated in the 
 public schools and remained on the paternal estate, 
 where he has alwavs followed farming and fruit 
 growing. In these lines of agriculture his success 
 has been marked, principally because he has studied 
 the conditions of profitable operations, and has 
 "mixed brains" with his labor in the tilling of the 
 soil. Mr. Plant was married Oct. 7, 1857, to Eliza 
 E. N. Lane, a daughter of Ebenezer Lane, of New 
 Haven, and to this marriage came one son, John L. ; 
 he married Mary E., a daughter of Egbert and 
 Grace (Bunnell) Bishop, of Branford, and -they 
 
 have one child, Ethel E. Mr. Plant and his family 
 are members of the First Congregational Church 
 of Branford, and are highly esteemed for their good 
 .works and Christian character. In politics he is a 
 Republican, but has taken little part in the manipula- 
 tions of party machinery. 
 
 WILLET B. FORBES (deceased) was one of 
 the most prosperous and successful farmers of East 
 Haven, as well as one of its most highly esteemed 
 citizens. He always faithfully performed his duties 
 of citizenship and took a deep and commendable 
 interest in the- welfare of his town and county. Be- 
 coming widely and favorably known, he made many 
 friends, and his death was a loss to the entire com- 
 munity. 
 
 Mr. Forbes was born in East Haven Nov. 23, 
 1830, a son of Henry and Almira Forbes, and was 
 reared on a farm in his native town, acquiring his 
 education in the common schools of the neighbor- 
 hood. He remained with his parents until his mar- 
 riage, which was celebrated Sept. 26, 1872, Miss 
 Marietta S. Bradley becoming his wife. She was 
 also born at East Haven, Sept. 17, 1840, a daugh- 
 ter of Justin and Esther S. (Tyler) Bradley, both 
 natives of East Haven. Her grandfather, Samuel 
 Bradley, was also born there, and became a very 
 prominent and influential man of the town, serving 
 as selectman for several years. He was a member 
 of the Masonic fraternitv. By occupation he was 
 a carpenter. His father, Azariah Bradley, was bom 
 in 1734. Julstin Bradley, Mrs. Forbes father, was 
 bom in .1815, and was a very successful and pros- 
 perous farmer. He died in March, 1895. He also 
 was quite prominently connected with public affairs ; 
 was a member of the State Legislature in 1885 ; and 
 was an active worker in the Episcopal Church. His 
 first wife, Esther S. (Tyler) Bradley, daughter of 
 John S. and Eve E. (Smith) Tyler, died in 1882, 
 and he subsequently married Frances E. Paddock, 
 daughter of Charles L. Paddock, of Meriden, Conn. 
 By the first marriage tlhere were three children : 
 Marietta S., now Mrs. Forbes; George W., who 
 was born in 1845 and lives on the old homestead in 
 East Haven, where his grandfather located and 
 built in 1792; and Louise, born in April, 1849, who 
 died in May, 185 1. By the second marriage there 
 were no children. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Forbes began their domestic life 
 upon his own farm, and to the^ cultivation and im- 
 provement of his property he devoted his energies 
 throughout the remainder of his life. ITe was con- 
 sidered one of the hardest workers in East Haven, 
 and also one of its most successful and skillful agri- 
 culturists, making a specialty of market gardening 
 and dairy farming. 
 
 To our subject and his wife came two children : 
 Louise Tyler, born Aug. 17, 1873, "^ied Jan. 9, 
 May Etta, bom April 9, 1875, was educated 
 
 at Vassar Colle.sre, and was married Oct. 25, 1899, 
 to Herbert C. Nickerson, of East Haven, who is 
 
8oo 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 now engineer at the New Haven Water Works. 
 Mr. Nickerson was born in New Canaan, Conn., 
 March 5, 1874, son of Richard G.' and Belle T. 
 (Seymour) Nickerson. He is a Republican politi- 
 cally. Mr. Forbes died Dec. 3, 1887, and since his 
 death his widow and her daughter have success- 
 fully managed the property. In 1898 they erected 
 a beautiful modern residence, one of the finest 'homes 
 in East Haven. Mrs. Forbes is an estimable lady, 
 possessed of many sterling qualities, and has a large 
 circle of friends in the community. She holds 
 membership in the Congregational Church, which 
 her husband also attended. In politics he was a 
 Republican. 
 
 DANIEL SEYMOUR BRINSMADE, civil 
 engineer of Shelton, stands prominent among the 
 native-born business men of his county, and is one 
 of the most honored and influential citizens of this 
 region. 
 
 Mr. Brinsmade was born Feb. 17, 1845, i'^ the 
 town of Trumbull, Fairfield Co., Conn., young- 
 est son of Daniel Stiles and Catherine (Mallette) 
 Brinsmade. He is a direct descendant in the eighth 
 generation from William Brinsmade, who came to 
 this country from England in 1630, locating in 
 Dorchester, Massachusetts. 
 
 John Brinsmade, the eldest son of William, set- 
 tled in Charlestown, Mass., where on May 2, 1638, 
 he was made a freeman, and the same year mar- 
 ried Mary Carter. About 1642 he moved to the 
 town of Stratford, Conn., which at that time com- 
 prised within its limits both Trumbull and Hunting- 
 ton ; and it is interesting to note that John Brinsmade 
 and his descendants have maintained a continuous 
 residence within the limits of the original town of 
 Stratford from the year 1642 to the present day — 
 a period of over two hundred and fifty years. 
 
 Daniel Seymour Brinsmade, whose name intro- 
 duces these lines, received his earlier education in 
 the public schools of his native place and in the 
 Gunnery, at Washington, Conn. In 1867 he ma- 
 triculated in the Scientific Department of Yale Col- 
 lege, and graduated in 1870, having taken the en- 
 gineering course. Immediately thereafter he went 
 to Huntington, locating in that part now known 
 as Shelton, and became assistant engineer on the 
 construction of the dam there (which is the largest 
 in the State), at that time being constructed by the 
 Ousatonic Water Co. In the fall of 1870 he was 
 made chief engineer of the company, and the further 
 development of the water-power and its surround- 
 ings, including the laying-out of the borough of 
 Shelton, together with its system of sewers and 
 water works, have since been under his charge. In 
 i8qi the dam built by the Ousatonic Water Co. in 
 1870 was swept away by an immense freshet ac- 
 companied by large quantities of ice, and upon Mr. 
 Brinsmade devolved the responsibility of design- 
 ing and constructing a new dam, one containing 
 such features as would make it safe beyond perad- 
 
 venture, and capable of meeting the conditions 
 which resulted in the destruction of the original 
 dam. The efficiency and general plan, as regards 
 strength and engineering skill, of the present Ousa- 
 tonic dam are due to Mr. Brinsmade's success in 
 this important work. 
 
 The intimate connection which the Ousatonic 
 Water Co. bears to the building up of both Shelton 
 and Derby has naturally brought Mr. Brinsmade — • 
 as president and treasurer of that company — into 
 close relations with the financial and manufactur- 
 ing interests of the community. At present he is 
 vice-president of the Home Trust Co. and a direc- 
 tor in the Birmingham National Bank, also in sev- 
 eral manufacturing companies. 
 
 Politically a Republican, our subject represented 
 the town of Huntington in the Legislature of 1882, 
 during which session he was largely instrumental 
 in securing the charter for the borough of Shelton, 
 and for much of the time since he has served that 
 borough in some capacity. In religious faith he 
 is a member of the Congregational Church of 
 Derby. 
 
 JOHN P. HUBBELL, a well-to-do and influ- 
 ential farmer of Oxford, is a native of New Haven, 
 county, born Nov. 8, 1834, in Derby, wTiere he re- 
 mained until five years of age. The family then 
 removed to' Oxford, where our subject grew to 
 manhood, upon a farm, and attended the common 
 schools of the locality. At the age of fifteen he 
 commenced work at the mason's trade, which he 
 learned under his father's direction, and continued 
 to work with him for four years. He followed his 
 trade uninterruptedly until after the Civil war broke 
 out, when, in 1862, he became a private in Com- 
 pany B, 20th Conn. V. I., and was mustered into- 
 service at New Haven. He first went to Washing- 
 ton, D. C, and from there to Sandy Hook, near 
 Harper's Ferry, where he was injured while un- 
 loading army supplies from a train, a box of am- 
 munition falling upon him. After several months 
 spent in the field hospital he was discharged, in 
 December, 1863, and returned to Oxford, but did 
 not recover from the effects of the accident for two 
 years. 
 
 On finally regaining his health Mr. Hubbell be- 
 gan taking contracts in mason work, and was en- 
 gaged in that business at Naugatuck for fifteen 
 years, also doing blacksmith and wagon work for 
 four years. In 1887 be returned to Oxford and 
 located on the farm where he now lives. Here he 
 owns no acres of land, which he has placed under 
 a high state of cultivation, and upon which he has 
 made many useful and valuable improvements. He 
 is engaged in general farming and the dairy busi- 
 ness, and in his labors is meeting with most grati- 
 fyinsr success. 
 
 Mr. Hubbell was married Oct. 4, 1858, to Miss 
 Celestia Whittlesev, and to them have been born 
 six sons and one daughter, namely: Silas, George,. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 8oi 
 
 Charles, Harold (deceased), Leslie, Edwin (de- 
 ceased), and Frances Isbell (deceased). Mr. 
 Hubbell is unwavering in his support of the men 
 and measures of the Republican party, and for over 
 ten years he most capably filled the office of con- 
 stable. Those who know him best are numbered 
 among his warmest friends, and no citizen m Ox- 
 ford is more highly respected than John P. Hubbell. 
 
 DAVID B. HULL, one of the most progressive 
 and enterprising business men in Waterbury, was 
 born Feb. 21, 1833, on the farm in that town where 
 his father, Garny Hull, was born, Jan. 10, 1803. 
 His grandfather, John Hull, was born there Feb. 
 21, 1772, and was a son of Ezra Hull, so that our 
 subject is of the fourth generation to make his 
 home in Waterbury. 
 
 John Hull, grandfather of David B., was a farm- 
 er by calling. He married Sena Adams, and they 
 had two children : Garny, the father of our sub- 
 ject; and Sarah, who died in Waterbury, unmar- 
 ried. 
 
 Garny Hull was reared a farmer, and agricul- 
 ture was his life-long vocation. He resided in the 
 town of Waterbury. On Feb. 15, 1825, he married 
 Melissa Baldwin, who was born in the neighbor- 
 hood of Waterbury — the street, or neighborhood, 
 being named in honor of her family. Fler father, 
 . David Baldwin, was a carpenter in early life, and 
 later became a successful farmer in Waterbury, his 
 native town. After their marriage Garny Hull and 
 his wife settled on a farm in Waterbury and there 
 reared a family of five children, born in the follow- 
 ing order: Ellen L., now deceased, was first mar- 
 ried to B. J. Bristol, and afterward to A. B. Pot- 
 ter; Harriet I\L married B. H. Lewis, who came 
 from Naugatuck (he is now deceased) ; Stiles D. 
 died in infancy; David B. is the subject of this 
 sketch; John L. died April i, 1858, at the age of 
 about twenty years. The mother died Aug. 5, 1887. 
 In politics Garny Hull was originally a Whig, but 
 upon the disintegration of that party became a^ 
 stanch Republican. 
 
 David B. Hull assisted on the home farm, and 
 attended the district school until eighteen years of 
 age, when he came to the city of Waterburv and 
 learned the carpenter's trade under Chester Curtis. 
 After finishing his apprenticeship he worked as a 
 journeyman until 1865, when he began contracting 
 and building on his own account, continuing thus 
 until about 1890, during which period he realized a 
 competence. He then quietly embarked in the real- 
 estate business as being less onerous. 
 
 On Oct. 7, 1855, David B. Hull was joined in 
 marriage with Miss Harriet A. Lines, who was 
 born in Thomaston, Conn., daughter of Sherman 
 Lines, a native of Oxford, and a son of Zebulon 
 Lines. Sherman Lines married Harriet French, 
 daughter of Asa French, of Oxford. One child has 
 been born to Mr. and Mrs. David B. Hull, John B., 
 who is still under the parental roof; he is a car- 
 
 51 
 
 penter by trade. Politically Mr. Hull is a Repub- 
 lican, but he has never evinced any ambition for 
 office. In religion the family are Congregational- 
 ists and fully live up to the teachings of that sect. 
 Noah Baldwin, the father of David Baldwin, 
 after whom the subject of this sketch was named, 
 was born Jan. 23, 1755, and married Elizabeth 
 Ives. He died Jan. 9, 1813. Jonathan Baldwin, 
 father of Noah, was a lieutenant colonel in the 
 Revolutionary war; he married Mary Bronson, 
 daughter of Ebenezer Bronson. The Colonel died 
 April 2, 1802, and. his widow May 17, 1821. They 
 were the parents of the following named children : 
 Eunice, Melicent, Benjamin, Noah, Jonathan, Flaii- 
 nah, David, Eunice and Mary. The father of 
 Lieut. Col. Baldwin, also named Jonathan, was 
 born Jan. 31, 1679-80, and married Mary Tibballs, 
 who was born May 27, 1690. They had born to 
 them the following named children : Mary, Mar- 
 tha, Abigail, Rachel, Jonatthan, Eunice, Hannah, 
 Esther and 'Eunice. The mother of this family 
 passed away Nov. 10, 1759, and the father died 
 Jan. S, 1761. 
 
 TFIEODORE P. TERRY, a highly-esteemed 
 resident of Ansonia, is the oldest merchant in that 
 city, and during his long and successful business 
 career he has seen the population increase from 
 1,500 to 13,000. When he first located there Derby 
 and Birmingham were one town, and. Shelton and 
 other thriving- villages of to-day were not in exist- 
 ence, the section being devoted almost exclusively 
 to farming. 
 
 .Mr. Terry was born Feb. 2, 1835, in Bristol, 
 Hartford county, where his family is well-known. 
 His grandfather, Samuel Terry, who lived to the 
 age of 88 years, was a native and life-long resident 
 of the town, and owned a large tract of land there, 
 being engaged in farming throughout his, active 
 years. He was a wheelwright by trade, but became 
 a clock maker and made the first clock ever placed 
 in a town hall in America. A brother made the 
 first house clock completed in this country. 
 
 Theodore Terry, our subject's father, was born 
 and reared in Bristol, and learned the clock mak- 
 ers' trade, which he followed for a number of vears 
 in partnership with Franklyn Andrews. At one 
 time he had all his brothers working for him, and 
 later he had four factories in successful operation. 
 Meeting Anson G. Phelps, he decided to engage in 
 business with him at Ansonia, where thev built a 
 fadtory and carried on a large business for some 
 years under the name of the Ansonia Clock Co. 
 The building burned, and for a time Mr. Terry 
 made clock movements, while later, in company 
 with P. T. Barnum, he built a factory at East 
 Bridgeport ; Mr. Terry also built and conducted a 
 factory at Terryville, and be built quite a number 
 of houses in Ansonia for his employees. He then 
 traveled extensivelv, giving: his attention to oil 
 speculations, but his last years were spent in New 
 
8o2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Haven whei-e he died at the age of seventy-two. As 
 a man of sound judgment, his opinions were valued 
 by his fellow-citizens, and while residing in Bristol 
 he served as selectman. In religious faith he was a 
 Congregationalist. His wife, Julietta Pierce, who 
 lived to be over seventy years old, was born in Bris- 
 tol, daughter of Philo Pierce, a farmer, who died 
 at the age of eighty-eight years. Her mother, 
 whose maiden name was Sally Norton, died aged 
 eighty-four years. Mr. and Mrs. Terry had one 
 •daughter and two sons, one of whom, Hubbell, is 
 cashier of the Pladley Falls Bank at Holvoke, 
 Mass. ; Ellen, the daughter, died fn Pennsylvania 
 when nineteen. 
 
 Theodore P. Terry spent his early years in Bris- 
 tol, but when fifteen years old went with his par- 
 •ents to Ansonia, and his education was gained 
 mainly in the common schools of these towns, al- 
 though he also attended a school at Troy, N. Y., 
 and spent two years at a school at Sand Lake, N. 
 Y. As a boy he learned the details of clockmaking, 
 and after his marriage he worked for two years in a 
 clock shop at Terryville. On returning to Ansonia 
 he purchased a small gristmill which he conducted 
 two years, and on disposing of the business he tried 
 to enlist in the army. He was three times rejected, 
 and finally he went to the front as a sutler with the 
 23d Conn. V L, and carried on a large business. 
 During this time he accompanied Banks' Division 
 to Ship Island. Returning to Ansonia he bought a 
 small stove and tinware store, at the site of the pres- 
 ent fine establishment, where the business has now 
 heen continuously carried on for thirty-eight years. 
 In the year 1883 his son, Frank T. Terry, was taken 
 into the business, and in 1892, owing to ill-health, 
 ]\Ir. Terry turned the store over to his son, who 
 owns the present building, which was erected in 
 1896, and is one of the finest of its kind in New 
 England. The store is stocked with a full line of 
 hardware, plumbers' materials, crockery, china, 
 silverware, house furnishing goods, paints and 
 oils, mill supplies and wooden ware, and the trade 
 is constantly on the increase. Upon completing his 
 handsome residence, Mr. Terry presented it to his 
 wife, who for twenty years has made all the im- 
 provements in the place. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican, of Whig antecedents, but he has never 
 been willing to enter public life. He and his fam- 
 ily are members of the Congregational church at 
 Ansonia, and he is now deacon and chairman of 
 the committee of that society, of which he is one of 
 the oldest members ; he first united with the church 
 in Terryville. Mr. Terrv is also a director in the 
 Y. M. C. A. 
 
 In 1854 Mr. Terry married Miss Sophronia A. 
 'Bartholomew, who was born in Plainville, daugh- 
 ter of J. H. Bartholomew, for many years a lead- 
 ing- resident of Ansonia. They have had four chil- 
 dren, of whom three are living: (i) Addie L. 
 married N. E. Barker, a native of New Haven, who 
 is now president of the First National Bank at 
 
 Birmingham, Ala. They have had three sons, 
 Terry E., Nelson and William C. (2) Frank, who 
 now has charge of the business, is a director in the 
 Business Men's Association, a member of the local 
 Board of Trade and one of the Sinking Fund Com- 
 mission, a director of the Ansonia Water Co., and 
 is regarded as a leader among the younger business 
 men of the town. He married Miss Jennie Mon- 
 tague, and has one son, Theodore M. (3) Another 
 son died at the age of about two years. (4) Caro- 
 line married W. A. Sadd, of Chattanooga, Tenn., 
 and has one child, Margaret T. Mr. Sadd was 
 reared at Wapping, near Hartford, Conn., where 
 his father was an influential citizen. He graduated 
 from the civil engineering department of Yale 
 College, and is now secretary of the Chattanooga 
 Savings Bank. 
 
 Mrs. Terry is a member of the D. A. R., and 
 took a prominent part in the organization of the 
 chapter in Ansonia, of which she was first regent, 
 filling that office for two years. She is a member 
 of the Woman's Club of Ansonia and Derby, and 
 an earnest worker in the Congregational church, 
 of which she is a member — and of all of its differ- 
 ent societies. Mr. Terry has been quite an exten- 
 sive traveler, and has visited nearly every State in 
 the Union, and has made trips to Cuba and Alaska. 
 
 JEROME CO AN (deceased), a twin brother 
 of Joseph Coan, was born in North Guilford June 
 19, 1834, and during his lifetime was one of the 
 more prominent men of that section. He received 
 a common school education, and began life for him- 
 self very early as clerk in a store in North Guilford. 
 He was employed in the same capacit}^ at Branford 
 at the breaking out of the Civil war. He and his 
 brother Joseph enlisted in Company E, 15th Conn. 
 V. I., and our subject participated in many battles 
 and skirmishes, discharging his duties with such in- 
 trepidity that he was made a corporal. During the 
 latter part of his military career he was detailed for 
 duty in the office of the provost marshal, and was 
 so engaged when the war ended. 
 
 Jerome Coan returned to Guilford, engaged in 
 farming for a time, eventually embarking in a mer- 
 cantile career, in which he was highly successful. 
 For more than thirty years he was one of the leading 
 business men of the community, and until he died, 
 Nov. 4, 1899, held the regard and confidence of the 
 public to a marked degree. He was buried in the 
 local cemetery. Mr. Coan was a leading and highly 
 respected member of the Masonic fraternity, and 
 affiliated with St. Alban's Lodge, of Guilford. He 
 also belonged to Parmelee Post, G. A. R. x'Vs a 
 member of the Congregational Church his life re- 
 flected no discredit upon his faith. In his early life 
 he was a member of the Democratic party, but in 
 his later years he became a Republican. For some 
 years he served as justice of the peace. 
 
 Mr. Coan was twice married, his first wife be- 
 ing Frances D. Griswold, a daughter of Russell 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 803 
 
 Griswold, and a native of North Guilford, where 
 she died. On Sept. 14, 1869, he was married to 
 Mary Frances Judd, who was born in Bloomfield, 
 Conn., daughter of Henry Green and Sarah Re- 
 becca (Raymond) Judd. Mr. Coan's son, Joseph 
 Franklin, is now engaged in a store at North Guil- 
 ford, and has already displayed marked aptitude 
 for a mercantile career. His youngest child and 
 only daughter, Fannie Louise, a teacher of music, 
 married Charles 0. Bartlett, of North Guilford, Jan. 
 I, 1901. 
 
 Mrs. Coan is a lady of marked character and re- 
 finement, a devoted mother and a notable housewife. 
 The family is one of the most respected in the com- 
 munity, and it is a comfort to the bereaved widow 
 to feel that her children are beginning life on so 
 high a plane of character and ambition. 
 
 JOHN BRADLEY YALE, who is drawing 
 near his seventy-first birthday, is one of the best- 
 known and most highly valued citizens of Nauga- 
 tuck. Three generations of the family have been 
 born in Litchfield county, his grandfather, Eber, 
 his father, Charles, and himself, and both of his 
 nearest lineal progenitors were farmers. 
 
 Thomas Yale, son of David and Ann (Morton) 
 Yale, born in England or Wales about 1616, came 
 to America in 1637 with his step-father, Gov. The- 
 ophilus Eaton, and others. After the death of 
 David Yale, his widow, Ann, married Theophilus 
 Eaton, then an opulent merchant of London. Mr. 
 Eaton settled as a merchant in New Haven in 1638, 
 with an estate of £300. Gov. Eaton died at New 
 Haven in 1657, and in 1658 Thomas Yale accom- 
 panied his mother and Hannah Eaton, his half- 
 sister, son Elihu and brother David, to England, 
 from which country Mrs. Ann (Morton) Eaton 
 never returned. In the following year, 1659, 
 Thomas Yale returned to New Haven, and pur- 
 chased lands in part of the town which is now 
 North Haven, settling on them as early as 1660. 
 He had married, in 1645, Mary, daughter of Capt. 
 Nathaniel Turner, of New Haven. Mr. Yale was 
 one of the principal men in the colony, a signer of 
 the Plantation Covenant of New Haven, and filled 
 with honor many offices of trust with credit to him- 
 self and to the satisfaction of his friends and fellow 
 colonists. He died in 1683, leaving an estate of 
 ^479. His wife Mary died in 1704. 
 
 (11) Thomas Yale (2), son of Thomas the set- 
 tler, born in New Haven about 1647, married 
 (first) Dec. ir, 1667, Rebecca Gibbards, born Feb. 
 26, 1650, daughter of William Gibbards, of New' 
 Haven. Mr. Yale became one of the first settlers of 
 Wallingford, removing thither in 1670, with a small 
 band of other adventurers. By the records of that 
 town it appears that he was one of the most active 
 and energetic men among them. He assisted in the 
 formation of the church, and in the call of the first 
 and second ministers, Rev. Samuel Street and Rev. 
 Samuel Whittelsev. Mr. Yale was a justice of the 
 
 peace, captain of the train-band and moderator of 
 their meetings. He died in Wallingford, Jan. 26, 
 1736, and Rebecca, his first wife, and the mother 
 of all his children, died in Wallingford. 
 
 (HI) Theophilus Yale, son of Thomas (2), 
 born Nov. 13, 1675, married Sarah, daughter of 
 Rev. Samuel and Alma Street, of the same town 
 (Wallingford). Mr. Yale was a magistrate from 
 about 1724 to the date of his death, Sept. 13, 
 1760. He also filled many other offices, both civil 
 and military. His widow, Sarah, passed away aged 
 ninety-four years. 
 
 (IV) Elihu Yale, son of Theophilus, born May 
 25, 1703, married (second) Jan. 19, 1732, Judith 
 Howe, and died at Cape Breton, Dec. 31, 1745, hav- 
 ing gone there in the expedition against the French. 
 He was a farmer of Wallingford. 
 
 (V)'Elisha Yale, son of Elihu, born Aug. 29, 
 1742, married in 1771 Rebecca North, of Farming- 
 ton. Mr. Yale was a farmer of Wallingford, and 
 afterward in Canaan, Conn. He died April i, 
 1825. 
 
 (VI) Eber Yale, son of Elisha, and grandfather 
 of John B., was born Aug. i, 1776, and settled in 
 South Canaan, where he married Phebe Pendleton. 
 He died there Nov. 25, 1816. He was the father of 
 
 two daughters — Julia and Caroline — and four sons 
 — Frederick, Roderick, Charles and Eber. Julia 
 married Constant Southwick, a mechanic of Great 
 Harrington, Mass., and Caroline became the wife 
 of L. B. Miller, of the same place. Frederick (de- 
 ceased) lived in South Canaan, and was the father 
 of two sons — Henry, a joiner in that town, and 
 John, who resides in Hartford. Roderick was a 
 farmer in Canaan, Conn., and reared a family of 
 five children, Grove Edward, Dexter, George, Eliz- 
 abeth and Maria. Eber, the youngest child of 
 Eber (i), was likewise a farmer in South Canaan; 
 his children were three in number. Wells, Albert 
 and Eliza. 
 
 (VII) Charles Yale, the father of John B., was 
 the fifth of the family in order of birih. Lie was 
 born April 25, 1800, grew to manhood upon his 
 father's farm, and died in Litchfield county about 
 1 85 1. In 1820 he married Laura Phelps, daughter 
 of Samuel Phelps, also a South Canaan farmer. 
 She survived her husband some twenty-eight years, 
 dying about 1879. Charles Yale and his wife were 
 the parents, of six sons and three daughters, John 
 B. being the fourth son and fifth child. The others 
 were as follows : Caroline, born Nov. 30, 1822, died 
 Dec. 7, 1847. William, born Nov. 16, 1824, married 
 Nov. 7, 1848, Lucy Roberts, of Colebrook, and is 
 now deceased ; in company with his brother Pitkin 
 he operated a tannery, having learned the trade, and 
 he was also a farmer, conducted a hotel, and in 
 later life practiced surgery. Pitkin, born Oct. i, 
 1826, is deceased. Frederick, born Dec. 10, 1828, 
 is a farmer living in East Hartford. Albert, born 
 Nov. 15, 1832, died in 1897; he was a farmer. 
 Lucy, born Nov. 10, 1834, became the wife of 
 
8o4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Charles ;\Icigs, and died in California. Charles, 
 born Nov. 20, 1837, is the proprietor of a market in 
 East Haven. Nettie Cebelia, born Sept. 27, 1840, 
 is the wife of Philo B. Norton, a well-known livery- 
 man of Waterbury. Charles Yale, the elder, was 
 a Democrat in politics, and he and his family at- 
 tended the services of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 The boyhood of John B. Yale was spent after 
 much the same fashion as that of the sons of other 
 Connecticut farmers of his day and generation. He 
 was born Nov. 8, 1830, and the first twenty-four 
 years of his life were passed upon his father's farm. 
 In 1854 he came to Naugatuck, to enter the employ 
 of the Goodyear Rubber Shoe Co,, with which cor- 
 poration he was connected for forty years, retiring 
 to private life in 1894, with a handsome fortune, 
 accumulated through persistent perseverance, in- 
 domitable industry, sound judgment and quick fore- 
 sight. His home is one of the most beautiful in 
 Naugatuck, and there he dispenses generous hospi- 
 tality to his friends. He is fond of horses, and in 
 his stable may be found some of the finest speci- 
 mens in New Haven county. Generous and genial 
 in private life, he is never derelict to his obligations 
 as a citizen, nor unmindful of other and more seri- 
 ous duties which have devolved upon him as a 
 churchman. He is one of the town's most public- 
 spirited residents, and an earnest and consistent 
 member of the Episcopal Church in Naugatuck, 
 which he was largely instrumental in founding, sub- 
 scribing liberally to its establishment, and going 
 about personally to solicit contributions for the 
 cause. In personal appearance Mr. Yale is of fine 
 physique, bearing his threescore and ten years with 
 the same ease with which men of less vigor carr)' 
 the weight of half a century. He is a Republican 
 in politics, and a member of the iMasonic Fraternity. 
 
 In i860 Mr. Yale married Miss Frances E. Is- 
 bell, whose father, John Isbell, was an old and 
 highly esteemed resident of Naugatuck. Her only 
 brother, John, was a gallant soldier during the Civil 
 war, and died from a fever contracted while in the 
 service. Mr. and Mrs. Yale have but one child, 
 a daughter Laura Yale, who became the wife of 
 Charles H. Ensign, of Hartford. They had one 
 child, Howard Yale Ensign. 
 
 NELSON JAMES WELTON, who was born 
 Feb. 15, 1829, in Waterbury, at Buck's Hill, three 
 miles north of the Center, is a descendant in direct 
 line from John AVelton. The latter was born in 
 Wales, and came to America, settling in Saybrook, 
 living for a time in Farmington, and finally, in 1679, 
 moving to Waterbury, where he died June 18, 1726. 
 Seven consecutive generations of the Weltons have 
 lived in Waterbury, and six have died there. 
 
 Richard Welton, the first male child of European 
 parentage born in Waterbury, was a son of John, 
 the emigrant, and was born Sept. 27, 1679 ; he died 
 ™ 1755- He was a builder, and erected the home 
 
 at Buck's Hill. There was .a fort at Waterbury 
 where the settlers would gather to sleep at night 
 under protection from hostile Indians. Eliakim 
 Welton, son of Richard, was born Jan. 21, 1715, 
 and died Nov. 20, 1794. 
 
 Richard Welton, son of Eliakim, was born on 
 the old home Oct. 10, 1743, and died Feb. 26, 1820. 
 
 Thomas AA'elton, son of Richard, was born Dec. 
 8, 1774, was baptized Jan. 5, 1775, and died April 
 18, 1856. He married Sybil Cook, of Wallingford, 
 and had a family of six children, of whom the eldest 
 was Lyman, the father of Nelson J. ; Eveline, born 
 Jan. 2^. 1800; Alinerva. born jNIarch 19, 1802; Sally 
 D., deceased in infancy; Sally D. (2) was born 
 June 14, 1810; and Nancy, born April 12, 1812. 
 Eveline married Anson Downs, of Waterbury. 
 Minerva married Burton Payne, of Bristol. Sally 
 D. married Henry Bronson, of jMiddlebury, and 
 Nancy became ilrs. Frederick A. Bradley, of 
 Bridgeport. 
 
 Lyman Welton was bom June 15, 1798, and died 
 Nov. 18, 1882. He was a farmer all his life, resid- 
 ing on the old place at Buck's Hill. He married 
 Minerva Judd, who was born in Watertown June 
 29, 1800, a daughter of Benjamin H. -and Anna 
 (Prindle) Judd, the latter of whom was a daughter 
 of the Rev. Chauncey Prindle. Three children 
 came to Lyman Welton and his wife : Henry A., 
 born Dec. 2, 1823, is a retired mechanic, now living 
 in Hartford. Franklin L., born Dec. 11, 1827, died 
 Nov. I, 1886: he was engaged in the fire insurance 
 business in AA'aterbury, where he held the office of 
 tov.-n clerk and selectman. Nelson J. is mentioned 
 below- 
 
 Benjamin H. Judd, father of ^Nlrs. Lyman Wel- 
 ton, was born Sept. 30, 1770, a son of Joel Judd, and 
 died ^May 26, i860, tie was a mechanic and cabi- 
 netmaker of AA'atertovv'n. The Judd family is de- 
 scended from one Deacon Thomas Judd, who emi- 
 grated from England about 1633, and settled in 
 Cambridge, Alass. In 1636 he moved to Hartford, 
 and in 1644 to Farmington. Pie was one of the 
 deputies to the General Court in 1647. His death 
 occurred in 1688. Lieut. Thomas Judd, the rep- 
 resentative of the second generatioTi of the family 
 in America, came to Waterbury, where he was one 
 of the first planters, and represented the town in 
 the General Sessions for eleven years. He died in 
 1703, aged about sixty-five. John Judd, son of 
 Lieut. Thomas, was born in Farmington, married, 
 and became the father of Benjamin Judd. He died 
 in 1717. Benjamin Judd was born Aug. 28, 1710, 
 became a physician of considerable ability, and mar- 
 ried Abigail Adams, who bore him several children. 
 Among them was Joel Judd, who was born in \A''at- 
 erbury, July 15, 1748, and became a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary war, in which he was wounded by a 
 bullet which he carried the remainder of his life. 
 Joel Judd married Mercy Hickox, and became the 
 father of Benjamin H., mentioned above as the 
 father of Mrs. Lvman Welton. 
 
■./rU::^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 805 
 
 Xelson J. Welton spent his boyhood clays on the 
 farm at Buck's Hill. He was educated in the dis- 
 trict school and the Waterbury Academy, where 
 he studied surveying and civil engineering under 
 Charles Fabrique. At the age of eighteen he began 
 teaching a district school, and for five years taught 
 school in the winters in Wolcott and Xaugatuck, 
 and spent his summers in surveying. In 1850, at 
 the age of twenty-one, he was appointed county 
 surveyor for New Haven county. For more than 
 fifty years Mr. Welton has been a civil engineer and 
 surveyor, and for many years was the only surveyor 
 in this part of the county. He still has his office 
 and is a consulting civil and hydraulic engineer. 
 The building in which his office is located was built 
 in 1856, and on its completion ;\Ir. Welton took up 
 his quarters there. In politics j\Ir. Welton is a 
 Democrat, and has held many important offices in 
 the gift of his party, although his personal popular- 
 ity has gained him many votes outside of the strict 
 partv vote. From 1853 to 1885 he was city en- 
 gineer: for five years from 1853 he was city clerk; 
 from 1852 to 1856, grand juror; from- 1856 to 1863, 
 town clerk : for twenty-eight years justice of the 
 peace; in 1859, judge of probate for the district of 
 Waterbury; in 1861, representative from Water- 
 bury to the General Assembly; in 1863 and 1864, 
 recorder of the city court of Waterbury ; in 1867, 
 president of the board of water commissioners, a 
 position he held until 1896, with the exception of a 
 iDreak of two years. He built the water works, and 
 for more than thirty years was the general mana- 
 ger. He was engineer in charge of the construction 
 of the city's system of sewerage, and in 1878 was 
 appointed one of the State Board of Engineers for 
 the inspection of reservoirs and dams, which posi- 
 tion he still holds. From the formation of the Riv- 
 erside Cemetery Association in 1853 ^Ir. Welton 
 has been its secretary and superintendent, and since 
 1865 has served also as its treasurer He has 
 served several terms as alderman of the city, was 
 acting mayor (in the absence of Mayor Spencer) 
 and rendered valuable service in securing the be- 
 quest under the will of the late Silas Bronson, and 
 in the establishment of the Bronson library in 1870. 
 j\Ir. Welton has been identified with many of the 
 progressive institutions of Waterburv, being one 
 of the incorporators of the Waterbury Savings 
 Bank, of which he is at present a director, and he 
 is also a director in the Waterbury National Bank. 
 He is greatl\' interested in the cause of education, 
 and is a member of the corporation and the present 
 treasurer of St. Margaret's School for Girls in 
 Waterbury. 
 
 In religiou's connection Mr. Welton is a coni- 
 municant of the Episcopal Church, where his kin- 
 dred on both sides have been found. He is a 
 member and senior warden of St. John's Church, 
 is agent of the parish and vestry, and is active in 
 all Church work. For fifty-two years he was con- 
 nected with the Sunday-school as pupil and 
 
 teacher, and for thirty-two years was a vestryman. 
 From 1877 to 1889 he was parish clerk. In the 
 Alasonic fraternity he has taken high rank. He 
 took his first degree of Masonry in Harmony 
 Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. ^NL, Waterbury, Feb. 14, 
 1856, and was made a Master Mason March 20, 
 same year. As Master of the lodge he did good 
 work from 1865 to 1866, and on the formation of 
 Continental Lodge, No. 76, he became one of its 
 charter members. Mr, Welton was made a Royal 
 Arch Mason in Eureka Chapter, No. 22, R. A. M., 
 ^larch 10, 1858, and was High Priest of the chap- 
 ter in 1863 and 1864. On October 13, 1865, he was 
 knighted in New Haven Commandery, No. 2, and 
 became a charter member of Clark Commandery, 
 No. 7, K. T., of which he was Eminent Com- 
 mander in 1873 and 1874. In 1881 he received the 
 Scottish Rite degrees in E. G. Storer Lodge of Per- 
 fection, in Elm City Council, P. of J., and New 
 Haven Chapter, Rose Croix. The next year he be- 
 came a 32d degree Mason, receiving the consistory 
 grade in Lafayette Consistory, Bridgeport, Conn. 
 He also belongs to Pyramid Temple, Ancient 
 Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, 
 Bridgeport, and is an honorary member of Mecca 
 Temple, New York City. In the Grand Masonic 
 bodies of Connecticut Sir Nelson J. Welton served 
 as Grand Commander of the Grand Commandery 
 of Connecticut in 1881 and 1882. 
 
 On Jan. 20, 1869, Mr. Welton was married to 
 Mrs. Frances R. P. Lyon, who was born in Smyrna, 
 N. Y., Oct. 17, 1832, and died Aug. 9, 1900. She 
 was the daughter of John and Abbie (Chapin) 
 PhilHps. 
 
 GEORGE ?>IARSFIALL AA^ERILL, the ge- 
 nial proprietor of "The Ark" at Indian Neck, town 
 of Branford, was born in that town Oct. 12, 1838, 
 a son of John and Almira (Hemingway) Averill, 
 and grandson of David Averill (a seafaring man 
 of Branford) and his wife, Polly Morris. 
 
 John Averill made his home in Branford and 
 followed the sea. He was a coaster speculator and 
 captain of vessels for several years, and built several 
 vessels. He was a native of Branford, in which 
 town he ever made his home. He married Almira 
 Flemingway, daughter of Stephen and Polly (An- 
 drews) Hemingway ,of East Haven, and his chil- 
 dren were: George M., Harriet J. (Mrs. Lewis 
 Frisbie), Roland G., Asahel, Frank and Alvira 
 (Mrs. Adrian Ely). 
 
 George M. Averill was educated in the com- 
 mon schools and Branford Academy, and for a 
 number of years followed the coast, holding all pos- 
 sible positions from cook to captain. For twenty- 
 two years he has been proprietor of "The Ark," a 
 most popular resort on Indian Neck, famous for 
 its shore dinners. The cheery welcome of the 
 proprietor and the excellency of the entertainment 
 hive won the good will of the public. 
 
 On March 20, 1864, Mr. Averill was united in 
 
8o6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 marriage with ^liss Harriet E., daughter of Russell 
 Babcock, of A^orth Lyme, Conn., and this union has 
 been blessed with five children : Fred L., an at- 
 torney by profession, and the present clerk of the 
 Court of Common Pleas; George Walter, John R., 
 Louis S. and Ernest L. In politics Mr. Averill is 
 a stanch Republican, and fraternally is identified 
 with Widows Sons Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M. 
 
 HENRY WATSON FRENCH, the subject of 
 this sketch, was born in the town of Chicopee, 
 Mass., July 23, 1837, son of Arasmus French, who 
 was born in Wendell, Mass., in March, 1813, and 
 died in New Haven, Conn., in June, 1890. 
 
 Samuel French, grandfather of Henry W., was 
 born in Wendell, Mass., where he lived all his days 
 and died at a good old age. He married Lucy Nor- 
 cross, and a family of seven children was born to 
 them: Allen, who died young; Arasmus, father of 
 Henry W. ; Arad, of whom little is known, as he 
 was of a roving disposition, and after reaching man- 
 hood wandered away and was never heard from; 
 Adaline, who was blind, and died unmarried; El- 
 mira, now deceased, who married a Mr. Armstrong 
 andlived in ]\Iontague, Mass. ; Thankfull, who mar- 
 ried Milton Sawyer and removed to Glens Falls, 
 N. Y. (both are deceased) ; and Lucy, a school 
 teacher in her younger days, who married a Mr. 
 Upham and lived in Royalston, Mass., and now a 
 resident of Athol, that State (she is now about 
 eighty years of age J. Samuel French was the "vil- 
 lage blacksmith" of his town. He served in the 
 war of the Revolution and in the war of 1812. His 
 ancestry served in the French and Indian war. 
 
 Arasmus French, the father of Henry W., spent 
 his boyhood days in his native town, Wendell, work- 
 ing with his father, the village blacksmith. It is 
 said of him that at the age of twelve he could shoe 
 horses. At the age of sixteen he walked to the 
 town of Lowell, Mass., where he learned the trade 
 of machinist with the Lowell Machine Co. From 
 Lowell he moved to the town of Chicopee, Mass., 
 and at the age of twenty-one married Lydia Mor- 
 ton, daughter of Dr. Joshua Morton, of Athol, 
 Mass., where she was born in March, 181 1. She 
 died in September, 1892, in New Haven, Conn. Six 
 children were born to this union: Lucy Jane mar- 
 ried J. L. Hungerford, of New Haven, and died in 
 that city; Henry Watson is the subject proper of 
 these lines ; Ellen Maria died in infancy ; Carrie Ar- 
 delia died in Ravenswood, L. I., at the age of three 
 years ; William Arasmus is a machinist and lives 
 in Ansonia, Conn. ; Emma Morton married Charles 
 L. Deming-, and lives in New Haven. 
 
 Arasmus French was connected with the Ames 
 Manufacturing Co. of Chicopee for over ten years, 
 and while there conceived the idea of knitting stock- 
 ings by machinery and invented the necessary ap- 
 paratus. The machine was considered a great won- 
 der at the time, and was on exhibition in Boston 
 and later in Barrum's Museum, New York. The 
 
 patents covering the invention were first secured 
 by Philadelphia parties, and later by a company in 
 Waterbury, Conn., and it was the foundation of 
 the American Hosiery Co., one of the industries of 
 the latter city. About 1856 Mr. French removed 
 to New Haven and became connected with the Win- 
 chester Arms Co. Pie was one of the early 
 inventors of what is now known as the Win- 
 chester Repeating Rifle, and he had much to do with 
 selecting the necessary ammunition therefor. He was 
 connected with this company at different periods 
 for nearly forty years. He was also the inventor 
 of the process of making paper boxes from paper 
 and other pulp, and of many other devices of value 
 now in use. In politics Mr. French was a Whig 
 and later a Republican. In religion he was first a 
 Congregationalist, and later in life a free-thinker 
 and spiritualist. Both the French and Morton fam- 
 ilies were of the old New England type, and were 
 associated with the history and development of that 
 part of Massachusetts' to which they were native. 
 Arasmus French and his wife are buried in the 
 New Haven cemetery. New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 Henry W. French, son of Arasmus, spent his ear- 
 ly boyhood days in the town of Chicopee, Mass., 
 where he was born, and at the age of six removed 
 with his parents to Boston, Mass., and later to New 
 York, where he attended the public schools of the 
 city up to the age of twelve. It then became nec- 
 essary for him to begin to do for himself. He 
 worked in various offices and stores until, at about 
 the age of fifteen, he went to the town of Ravens- 
 wood, L. I., where his father was engaged in the 
 mianufacture of ammunition. In 1852 the entire 
 factory was destroyed by an explosion of powder, 
 and twenty-eight people were killed. Upon this 
 disaster the father gave up that dangerous business 
 and removed to Waterbury, Conn. At this time — • 
 at the age of sixteen — Henry W. took up an unfin- 
 ished order for a million cartridges for the use of 
 the insurgents in Cuba, and completed the same 
 in West Troy, N. Y. On the completion of this 
 work ht took a position with an uncle in New Bed- 
 ford, Mass., who was a merchant. In 1854 he went 
 to Waterbury and was with his father's family 
 again, and here he learned the trade of machinist 
 with the Blake & Johnson Co., by whom he was 
 employed for about ten years. He then accepted a 
 position as toolmaker with the Waterbury Button 
 Co., with whom he remained two years. The man- 
 ufacture of cloth buttons was then in its infancy in 
 this country, and Mr. French made some valuable 
 improvements in the manufacture. After leaving 
 the last named concern he engaged with the Lane 
 Manufacturing Co., taking charge of their tool de- 
 partment, and later advanced to the position of su- 
 perintendent, which he held for twelve years. In 
 1891 he was placed in charge of the claim depart- 
 ment of his city. In 1892 he became connected with 
 the Waterbury Horse Railway Co. and had consid- 
 erable to do with the amendment of their charter. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 807 
 
 which changed the name to "Electric Co." and per- 
 mitted them to extend the line to Naugatuck. After 
 this work was finished Mr. French accepted a po- 
 sition with the Connecticut Indemnity Association 
 and had charge of their renewal department in New 
 York City, retaining his residence, however, in 
 Waterbury. After four years with this company he 
 engaged with the Monarch Manufacturing Co., of 
 Waterbury, which later changed its name to the 
 Consolidated Engine Stop Co., and has for several 
 years been representative and salesman of this con- 
 cern in the United States. 
 
 Mr. French in politics has always been a Re- 
 publican, and he has taken an active part in the work 
 of the party in his city. He represented his ward 
 for twelve consecutive terms (twelve yeai^s) as 
 councilman and alderman in the city government. 
 In 1892 he was elected tax collector, and he has 
 filled other positions of honor and trust in Water- 
 bury. In i860 he entered the military service, join- 
 ing the Connecticut National Guard, and served 
 continuously until his honorable discharge, in 1871. 
 He is a past noble grand in the I. O. O. F., a mem- 
 ber of the Grand Lodge, also of the Royal Arcanum 
 and other lodges and societies. 
 
 On Oct. 28, 1857, Mr. French married Anna 
 Maria Taylor, who was born in Waterbury March 
 13, 1838, and has always lived on Cherry street, in 
 that city. Samuel Taylor, her father, was born in 
 1812 in Birmingham, England, and came to this 
 country at the age of nineteen to assist in the manu- 
 facture of gilt buttons, his work being the burnish- 
 ing or polishing. He was first employed in Attle- 
 boro, Mass., but in 1835 removed to Waterbury, 
 and was almost continuously employed by the Sco- 
 vill Manufacturing Co. for over fifty years, until 
 his death, in 1893. Mr. Taylor married Harriet H. 
 Price, daughter of Edward Price, of Attleboro, 
 Mass., who came from England to engage in the 
 manufacture of jewelry. Both Mr. and Mrs. Tay- 
 lor were life-long members of the Methodist Church, 
 and were much respected. 
 
 Four children have blessed the union of Mr. 
 and Mrs. French: (i) Charles Henry, born Jan. 
 29, 1859; (2) George Taylor, born Jan. i, 1865, 
 who died March 25, 1870; (3) Edward Rutledge, 
 born Feb. 8, 1871 ; and (4) Cherrie Morton, born 
 April 8, 1876. 
 
 Charles Henry French commenced his education 
 in the schools of Waterbury, and continued his 
 .studies at the Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, 
 Mass., Yale Medical College, New Haven, and 
 Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, 
 where he graduated in the class of 1880. After two 
 years of service on the medical staff of the Charity 
 Hospital, Blackwell'q Island, he commenced the 
 practice of medicine in his native city, Waterbury, 
 and three years later located in Pawtucket, R. I., 
 where he now resides. He is a prominent citizen 
 of that city, is president of the Rhode Island Medi- 
 cal Society, State medical director, on the brigade 
 
 staff of the Rhode Island National Guard (with the- 
 rank of lieutenant colonel), an associate member 
 of- the United States Military Association of Sur- 
 geons, trustee of the Providence County Savings- 
 Bank, director in the National Bank, a vestryman' 
 of St. Paul's Church, and a member of various 
 lodges and clubs. In 1884 Dr. French married Flor- 
 ence S. Wells, daughter of Horace and Lydia AniT 
 Wells, of Waterbury, and three children have been 
 born to them, Horace Wells, Morton Taylor and, 
 Dorothy. 
 
 Edward Rutledge French attended the local 
 schools and graduated from the Waterbury high 
 school, class of 1888, receiving the highest honors, 
 at the age of seventeen. Two months later he pre- 
 sented himself as candidate for admission to the 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, 
 Mass., and entered that institution the same year, 
 graduating four years later, in the class of 1892, 
 course of Electrical Engineering, receiving the de- 
 gree of B. S. He at once accepted the position of 
 assistant manager of the Suburban Electric Co., 
 Elizabeth, N. J., and on the death of the manager 
 was advanced to his position. After five years' 
 service with this company he accepted a position 
 with the American Electric Heating Corporation at 
 their New York office, and later at the main office, 
 Cambridge, Mass., where he now resides. In 1895 
 he married Miss Josephene W. Nelson, of Stam- 
 ford, Conn., daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John C. 
 Nelson, of that city. They have had one child, 
 Reba, born Nov. 28, 1898. 
 
 Cherrie Morton French attended the public 
 schools of her native city, Waterbury, up to the age 
 of fifteen, and continued her education at the Wes- 
 leyan Academy, Wilbraham, Mass., St. Margaret's 
 School, Waterbury, and graduated valedictorian of 
 the class of 1896 from the Drew Ladies College, 
 Carmel, N. Y., at the age of twenty, receiving the 
 degree of A. M. She took a post-graduate course 
 at the same college the year following, winning a 
 scholarship for the Woman's College of Baltimore, 
 and is a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. At the 
 breaking out of the Spanish-American war, having 
 had previous experience at hospitals, she volun- 
 teered her services to the American National Red 
 Cross Society. She was accepted, and went im- 
 mediately on duty at the Red Cross Hospital, New 
 York, and on July 4, 1898, with others, left New 
 York to join Clara Barton in Cuba, entering the 
 harbor of Santiago the day after its capitulation. 
 Later on she sailed with Gen. Miles on his expedi- 
 tion to Porto Rico, and was present at the shell- 
 ing and capture of the forts in Guanica harbor, by 
 Lieut. Wainwright, of the "Glocester." She was 
 one of the first ladies to accompany a fleet of war 
 vessels in actual duty and service. She returned 
 to the United States on the U. S. transport "Lam- 
 passes," with about one hundred and fifty sick and 
 wounded soldiers of the army bound for the govern- 
 ment hospital at Old Point Comfort, Va., and later 
 
8o8 
 
 COMMEAIORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was detailed to duty at Camp Wikoff, Montank 
 Point, L. I. Here she was stricken with Spanish 
 malarial fever and taken to Bellevue Hospital, New 
 York, and later to her home in Waterbury, Conn. 
 She recovered from this illness, and is now on the 
 staff of nurses at the Presbyterian Hospital, New 
 York City. 
 
 Miss French received much praise and honor 
 for her heroic work during the war. She was pre- 
 sented with a valuable token by the ladies of Auxil- 
 iary Xo. 3, New York Red Cross Society, accom- 
 panied by a letter from Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, which 
 read : 
 
 New York, Jan. 14, 1899. 
 Dear Miss French; 
 
 I have been instructed by the ladies of the board of 
 managers of Auxiliary No. 3 to send you the enclosed ring 
 as a token of their appreciation of the faithful and most 
 satisfactory work you have accomplished for the said Auxil- 
 iary this summer. The ladies also herewith tender you their 
 thanks and feel they are much indebted to you for your aid 
 in so worthily fulfilling the purpose for which this Auxiliary 
 was formed. I am yours very sincerely, 
 
 [Signed] Elizabeth Mills Reid, 
 Secretary Auxiliary No. 3, New York. 
 
 Upon the return of Miss French to her home in 
 Waterbury the citizens, through the mayor and 
 board of aldermen, presented her with a very beau- 
 tiful and valuable gold and diamond-studded badge 
 of honor especially prepared for her. She is a mem- 
 ber of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 
 and distributed many articles of comfort sent her 
 by that society during her stay in Porto Rico. 
 
 PLINY HITCHCOCK (deceased) was one of 
 the honored citizens and leading farmers of Chesh- 
 ire, and a representative of one of the pioneer 
 families of New Haven county. 
 
 The first to settle here was John Hitchcock, who 
 took up his residence in the town of Wallingford 
 about 1675. To him and his wife Abigail came nine 
 children, namely: Mary, born Dec. 10, 1676 r Na- 
 thaniel, bom April 18, 1670, who died iNIav 12, 1710 ; 
 Margery, born Sept. 9, 1681 ; Elizabeth, bom April 
 8, 1684; John, born Oct. 18, 1685, who was married 
 Nriv. 21, 1712, to Marlon Munson ; Mathias, born 
 Mav 26, 1688, who is mentioned below; Hannah, 
 born Jan. 9, 1690; Damaris, born June 11, 1693; 
 and Benjamin, born ]\Iarch 24, 1696, who married 
 Elizabeth Ives. 
 
 Mathias Hitchcock, son of John, spent his entire 
 life in AVallingford, and his remains were interred 
 there. He was married in th^ year 1710 to Thank- 
 ful Andrews, and thev had thirteen children, whose 
 names and dates of birth were as follows : Mathias, 
 Tune 19, 171 1 (who died April 7, 1726) : Nathan- 
 iel. Oct. 15, 1712 (who died young) : A^alcntine, 
 Feb. 14, 1715; Oliver, Nov. 14, 1716; Jason, Aug-. 
 16, 1718; William, Oct. 16, 1720; Thankful, March 
 21), 172=;; ^lathias, Feb. ii, 1727; Ebenezer, Sept. 
 14, 1728: Tabitha, Feb. 2''), 1730; Nathaniel, May 
 7. 1733; and Enos and Flannah, twins, April 27, 
 1735- 
 
 Jason Hitchcock, son of Mathias, was also a life 
 long resident of Wallingford and a farmer by oc- 
 cupation. He married Lydia Cook, Sept. 20, 1743, 
 and to them were born seven children: William, 
 June 26, 1744; Thomas, Dec. 20, 1746; Lemuel, 
 Dec. 20, 1749; Jason, July 12, 1752 (died in in- 
 fancy) ; Jason (2), Oct. 10, 1755; Ichabod, Dec. 
 18, 1756; and Thankful, March 20, 1761. 
 
 Ichabod Hitchcock, son of Jason, and father of 
 our subject, was born in Wallingford, and from 
 there removed to Cheshire, where he spent his last 
 days. During his entire life he engaged in agricul- 
 tural pursuits. He was twice married, his first 
 wife being Lurinda Cook, by whomi he had five chil- 
 dren, namely: Pliny, our subject; Sarilla, wife of 
 George Stevens, of Burton, Ohio ; Jason ; Hannah, 
 wife of T. L. Gaylord ; and Lucinda, wife of Rich- 
 ard Beach, of Burton, Ohio. By the second mar- 
 riage there was one child, Abigail, who married and 
 went South. 
 
 During his boyhood Pliny ITitchcock pursued 
 his studies in the public schools of Cheshire and the 
 Cheshire Academy, and also learned the stonema- 
 son's trade, which he followed during the greater 
 part of his life. He was born June 30, 1791, and 
 always made his home in Cheshire, where he owned 
 two farms near Cheshire Centre, in the southern 
 part of the town, aggregating 100 acres. To the 
 improvement and cultivation of these he devoted 
 a part of his time. He was a worthy member of 
 the Congregational Church , and in politics 
 was a supporter of the Whig and Republi- 
 can parties. He was domestic in his tastes, 
 temperate in his habits and a good Chris- 
 tian man, one who commanded the respect and con- 
 fidence of all with whom he came in contact, in 
 either business or social life. He died upon his 
 farm March 13, 1864, and was buried in Cheshire 
 cemetery. 
 
 Air. Hitchcock married Miss Sally Bradley, a 
 native of Cheshire, born Jan. 18, 1703, a daughter 
 of Reuben and Roxanna (Frisbie) Bradley. She, 
 too, was a member of the Congregational Church, 
 and a most estimable lady. She died on the home 
 farm, Jan. 13, 1874, and was laid to rest 1iy the side 
 of her husband. In their family were the follow- 
 ing children : ( i ) Jason Cook, the eldest, is de- 
 ceased. (2) Lydia (deceased) engaged in school 
 teaching and later married Levi Munson, by whom 
 she had one child, Marv, now deceased, f-^) Rox- 
 anna is one of the best-known women in Cheshire,, 
 where she was successfully engaged in dressmaking 
 and the millinery business for a number of years. 
 She is well-read and refined, and presides with 
 gracious dignity over a beautiful home in Cheshire, 
 planned by herself. (4) Sarah was also a school 
 teacher, and is now the widow of Norman Steele, of 
 Waterbury. (5) Lucinda married Samuel Cook, 
 and both are now deceased. (6) Jason died in in- 
 fancy. (7) John Augustus is engaged in mercan- 
 tile business in Liverpool, England. (8) Ann 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 809 
 
 Amelia, who in earl}- life engaged in school teach- 
 ing, and (9) Cornelia A. both reside with their sis- 
 ter Roxanna, in Cheshire. The family is well- 
 known and very highly respected in the community 
 where its members have so long made their 
 home. 
 
 STILLMAX BASSETT DOOLITTLE, a suc- 
 cessful farmer of Pond Hill, W'allingford, was born 
 on the old family homestead on Pond Hill Nov. 15, 
 1841. 
 
 Abraham Doolittle, our subject's emigrant an- 
 cestor, was the progenitor of all who bear the name 
 in this country. He and his brother John were in 
 Massachusetts at a very early day. John died child- 
 less. Abraham Doolittle was in New Haven before 
 1642, and was the owner of a house. In 1644 he 
 took the freeman's oath, and was made the chief 
 executive officer (or sheriff) of the county. He 
 was chosen bj' the people of Xew Haven as one 
 of the committee to superintend the affairs of the 
 new settlement, then (1669) just commenced at the 
 village. The name of the village was changed to 
 W'allingford, and it was incorporated May 12, 1670, 
 by an act of the General Court, then sitting at Hart- 
 ford. Abraham Doolittle was one of the first to set- 
 tle in the place, and was there some two or three 
 years before the incorporation. He died Aug. 11, 
 1690, aged sevent)'. 
 
 Abraham Doolittle (2), son of Abraham, was 
 born Feb. 12, 1649, '^"'i died in 1732, aged eighty- 
 three years. 
 
 Samuel Doolittle (i), son of Abraham (2), was 
 born March 14, 1698. 
 
 Samuel Doolittle (2), son of Samuel (i), was 
 born Feb. 28, 1725. 
 
 Samuel Doolittle (3), son of Samuel (2), was 
 bom April 11, 1749. 
 
 Chauncey Doolittle, Sr., son of Samuel (3), was 
 born in 1777 in Wallingford, and died May 17, 1833, 
 in his fifty-sixth year. He was a wagon-maker by 
 trade, had a shop at Pond Hill, and supplied the 
 surrounding country for a wide extent with his 
 wares. His trade included joiner work, and he also 
 farmed his estate, continuing in the active perform- 
 ance of his duties until his death. Mr. Doolittle 
 was well known, and no man was more highly re- 
 spected. His political convictions made him a Dem- 
 ocrat, and he was one of the pillars of the M. E. 
 Church in Wallingford. 
 
 Chauncev Doolittle, Jr., son of Chauncey, Sr., 
 was born July 2, 1810, at Pond Hill, and lived out 
 his exemplary life in this quiet village, dying Feb. 
 15, 1854. Like his father, he was a member of the 
 Democratic partv. He worked as an apprentice un- 
 til he became of' age (1831), and was subsequently 
 employed at his trade bv Jared Mansfield, in North 
 Haven, until about the time of his marriage, when 
 he returned to the old homestead. On Dec. 28. i8.-^^, 
 he married Betsey Bassett, of North Haven, daugh- 
 ter of Joel and Betsey Bassett, and they became the 
 
 parents of three children: Jannette, born Oct. 17, 
 1836, died Jan. i, 1837. Stillman Bassett is our 
 subject. Sophronia, born July 2, 1844, died July 11, 
 i860. j\Irs. Doolittle made her home with her onh- 
 son until her death, on June i, 1894, when she was 
 aged eighty years, eleven days. 
 
 As a loving and unselfish mother, as a Christian 
 woman and a kind sympathizing friend, she set 
 an example worthy of record. Pier religious con- 
 nection was with the Congregational Church. 
 
 Stillman Bassett Doolittle was educated in the 
 common schools, and grew to manhood on the 
 farm, to which he has devoted the greater portion 
 of his time during many years. Agriculture inter- 
 ests him, and he has found a general line of farming 
 quite profitable. Pie has also been quite successful 
 in breeding good cattle from poor stock. 
 
 The death of his mother was a severe blow to 
 Mr. Doolittle, as, beyond everything, he was a de- 
 voted son. Her last years were made comfortable 
 through his loving care. Probably there is no more 
 highly esteemed citizen in his part of \A'allingford 
 than Stillman Bassett Doolittle. 
 
 WALTER GOODRICH BISHOP, one of the 
 honorable and meritorious citizens of the town of 
 Guilford, \yhere he has long conducted a fine farm, 
 was born in Meriden, New Plaven county, June 26, 
 1827, and is a descendant of one of the oldest famil- 
 ies in the State. Benjamin Bishop, his grandfather,, 
 was a native of North Haven, where he lived and 
 died. He owned a gristmill and was engaged in 
 farming. 
 
 Martin Bishop, father of Walter G., was born in 
 North Haven. Pie was very largely self-educated, 
 and became a good mathematician. At the age 
 of fourteen Air. Bishop ertered a factory in 
 Meriden, and was employed by 'Squire Yale, 
 learning the tinner's trade, at \vhich he worked for 
 a number of years, being for many years employed 
 as a jouriie\man tinner. He made pocket lanterns, 
 and was the first in this country to manufacture lan- 
 terns for policemen's use. Later in life he moved 
 to Stony Creek, where he kept a boarding house 
 and continued the manufacture of lanterns. There 
 he died and was buried. He was a man of active 
 spirit and progressive ideas. He contracted for 
 and built one mile of the New Plaven & Hartford 
 Railroad. In religion he was a member of the Bap- 
 tist Church, and in politics a Democrat. In Meri- 
 den he married Salvina E. Bradley, a daughter of 
 James Bradley, and a native of Meriden. Their chil- 
 dren were: Walter G. ; Sarah H., who died young; 
 Nathaniel H., a resident of Stony Creek: and Fran- 
 ces, who died in early womanhood. Mrs. Salvina 
 E. Bishop died at Stony Creek. She had been a 
 member of the Baptist Church at Meriden for many 
 years. 
 
 Walter Goodrich Bishop attended the district 
 school and later the high school. He remained on 
 the farm with his father until he was fifteen vears 
 
8io 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 old, and his first employment away from home was 
 with Coles & Stephens, under whom he learned mon- 
 ument stonecutting. While still in his 'teens he en- 
 tered the Parker foundry and learned the molder's 
 trade thoroughly, working there sixteen years. 
 After some months' employment in Hartford he 
 returned to Meriden and worked two j'ears for the 
 Isabel Curtis Co. From Meriden he went to the 
 town of Orange, where he bought a farm once 
 owned by Deacon Pardee, and cultivated same for 
 seven years, selling at the end of that time and com- 
 ing to Guilford, where he bought the Charles Fow- 
 ler farm. This place consisted of twenty-four acres, 
 and Mr. Bishop has since purchased two other 
 farms, aggregating in all 162 acres. He also bought 
 100 acres which he sold. He has made extensive 
 improvements on his place, and is engaged in gen- 
 eral and dairy farming, doing a very successful 
 business. He is president of the Dexter L. Bishop 
 Co., and by his energy and enterprise has won a 
 good position in commercial circles. 
 
 Walter G. Bishop was married in Meriden to 
 Dorcas J- Hungerford, by whom he had one child, 
 Sarah H., now deceased. His first wife dying, Mr. 
 Bishop married Nancy M. Leete, a daughter of the 
 late Rufus N. Leete, and a native of Leete Island, 
 and to this union came three children: Dexter L. 
 is an ice and lumber dealer in Meriden : he married 
 Esther Johnson. Burton W., a farmer in Guilford, 
 married Lillian R. Remington. Grace S., a gradu- 
 ate of the Guilford high school, was a bookkeeper 
 for her brother Dexter, but now resides at home. 
 ^Irs. Xancy M. Bishop died in 1886, and ]\Ir. 
 Bishop married her sister Ellen M. 
 
 In politics Mr. Bishop was originally a Demo- 
 crat, but is now a Republican. He belongs to the 
 Baptist Church at Meriden, but attends the First 
 Congregational Church of Guilford. Socially he 
 holds membership in Center Lodge, No. 68, L O. 
 O. F., ;\Ieriden, of which he is past grand. 
 
 WILLIAM M. TYLER is one of the most suc- 
 cessful and progressive agriculturists on Bucks 
 Hill, AVaterbury. He devotes considerable atten- 
 tion to fruit growing and dairy farming, and has 
 made his special field of industry an eminent suc- 
 cess. 
 
 A native of New Haven county, Mr. Tyler was 
 born in the town of Middlebury Jan. 30, 1837, and 
 is descended from one of its old and highly respected 
 families, founded here by three brothers, James, Jo- 
 siah and Daniel Tyler, who came from Branford, 
 Conn., and located in what is now known as Tylers- 
 town, Middlebury. There they married and reared 
 families. They were land owners and farmers. 
 Their remains were interred in the old cemetery of 
 Middlebury. 
 
 Daniel Tyler, Jr., son of the Daniel previously 
 mentioned, was a large land owner and farmer in 
 ^Middlebury, as well as one of the leading citizens, 
 taking quite a prominent part in public affairs. He 
 
 was a Whig in politics, represented the town in the 
 State Legislature and held many local offices. He 
 was a member of the church. His death occurred 
 upon his farm in Middlebury, and his remains were 
 interred in the old cemetery there. He married 
 Miss Sally, daughter of Asahel Bronson, a soldier 
 of the Revolutionary war, and to them were born 
 eight children, namely : Asahel, father of our sub- 
 ject; Daniel; Lucius; Mary, wife of Samuel Bloss; 
 James ; William O. ; Eli ; and Sally, who died at the 
 age of three years. 
 
 Asahel Tyler was born on the old homestead at 
 Tylerstown, where he grew to manhood, and was 
 reared to agricultural pursuits. In 1843 he re- 
 moved to Woodbury, Litchfield Co., Conn., where 
 he engaged in farming and stock dealing until 1864, 
 when he located in Oakville, same county. In 1871 
 he came to Bucks Hill, New Haven county, later re- 
 moved to Plymouth, Conn., and from there to Leb- 
 anon, Mo., where he spent two years. At the end 
 of that time he returned to Waterbury, Conn., and 
 he passed the remaining years of his life on Bucks 
 Hill, where he died; he was buried in Woodbury 
 cemetery. Mr. Tyler was a well-to-do farmer, own- 
 ing considerable property. He was liberal in his re- 
 ligious views, attended the Congregational Church, 
 and in politics was first a Democrat and later a Re- 
 publican. He married Amy Amalga Morris, of 
 Woodbury, by whom he had two children : Will- 
 iam M., our subject; and Jennette, wife of Nathan 
 Burton. Mrs. Tyler died in her native town and 
 was buried there. She was a consistent member of 
 the Congregational Church. For his second wife 
 Asahel Tyler married Virginia Shea, who was of 
 French descent. 
 
 During his boyhood William M. Tyler attended 
 the district schools of Woodbury and Roxbury, and 
 completed his education in the high schools of 
 Woodbury and Waterbury. He remained at home 
 until twenty-two years of age, when he settled on 
 Bunker Hill, Waterbury, and he was one of the first 
 men of that section to engage in the dairy business. 
 
 In I 
 
 he removed to Bucks Hill, locating on the 
 
 Col. Welton farm, a tract of 140 acres, which he 
 has greatly improved. He is still extensively en- 
 gaged in the dairy business, and is one of the largest 
 peach growers in the Naugatuck Valley, having 
 over thirty-five acres of land devoted to peaches. 
 He also buys and sells produce, and in all his un- 
 dertakings has been remarkably successful. Be- 
 sides his property in this county he owns land in 
 Missouri and other parts of the West. 
 
 On Jan. 4, 1871, in Plymouth, Conn.. Mr. Tyler 
 was united in marriage with Miss Ida J. Painter, 
 a native of that place, daughter of Capt. Edward 
 and Clarinda (Palmer) Painter, and granddaughter 
 of Thomas Painter and John Palmer. She was 
 educated in the high school of East Hampton, ^lass. 
 Mrs. Tyler has many noble traits of character. She 
 has been an invalid for several years, but bears her 
 sufferings with patience and Christian fortitude. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 8ii 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Tyler have two children: Bessie 
 Clarinda, who graduated from the Waterbury high 
 school and has successfully engaged in teaching for 
 four. years; and Robert William, who is engaged 
 in peach growing. He married Inza Gertrude 
 Phillips. The father and daughter are members of 
 Mad River Grange, in which he has served as mas- 
 ter, and she as organist. Mr. and Mrs. Tyler hold 
 membership in St. John's Episcopal Church of Wat- 
 erbury. In politics he is an independent Democrat. 
 As a public-spirited, progressive citizen, he takes a 
 deep and commendable interest in all enterprises 
 calculated to prove of public benefit. 
 
 WILLIAM EDWIN WELD, one of the oldest 
 and most highly respected citizens of the town of 
 Guilford, is a native of that locality, born Aug. 30, 
 1815, and is descended from one of the earliest and 
 best families of New England. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Weld and his brother Joseph were 
 the first of the name in America. The former came 
 from England to these shores on the ship "William 
 Francis," landing at Boston, June 5, 1632, his 
 brother Joseph arriving a year later, and both re- 
 sided in Roxbury, Mass., the former becoming min- 
 ister of a church there. 
 
 Daniel Weld, supposed to be a son or grandson 
 of one of the above brothers, was born in Roxbury, 
 and there grew to manhood, afterward removing 
 of Long Meadow, Mass., thence 'to Durham, Conn., 
 where he passed the rest of his days. He married 
 Mary Warren, a sister of Gen. Joseph Warren, 
 who fell at the battle of Bunker Hill, and two chil- 
 dren were born to them : Daniel, who married 
 Elizabeth Starr ; and Joseph. 
 
 (II) Joseph Weld, the first of the name in Guil- 
 ford, was born in Durham, Conn., in 1727; was 
 educated and served his apprenticeship in Boston, 
 IV^ass., and was a weaver by occupation. Remov- 
 ing to Guilford, he there carried on an extensive 
 business, and there died April 28, 1806, at a very 
 advanced age, his remains being interred in Guil- 
 ford cemetery. On Oct. 31, 1759, he married Lucy 
 Fowler, who was born in Guilford Feb. 19, 1735, 
 a daughter of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Starr) 
 Fowler, and died Sept. 5, 1800. Their children 
 were as follows: Lucy, born July 29, 1760, died 
 June 8, 1778; Beulah, born Sept. 6, 1762, died Sept. 
 12, 1847; Ann, born July 12, 1764, died Oct. 4, 
 1848, married Nathaniel Wilcox; Joseph, born July 
 26, 1766, married Sarah Parmelee ; Edmund, a 
 sketch of whom follows ; William, born May 27, 
 1771, married Clarissa Gillet, and removed to Paris, 
 N. Y. ; Sarah, born April 7, 1773, died Jan. 12, 
 1857; and Daniel, born Sept. 23, 1776, died July 30, 
 1825, married Submit Rossiter. 
 
 (III) Edmund Weld, grandfather of William 
 E., was born Dec. 11, 1768, in Guilford, where he 
 passed his entire life, dying there Nov. 3, 1838, 
 highly respected bv all. He had considerable talent 
 as a singer, and for many years, from the age of 
 
 seventeen, led the chior in the church at Guilford. 
 On Dec. i, 1790, in Guilford, he married Charlotte 
 Stone, who was born in 1770, a daughter of Benja- 
 min Stone, and died Jan. 20, 1810. For his second 
 wife Edmund Weld wedded, June i, 1812, Mercy 
 Nettleton, born Dec. 3, 1781, who died July 8, 1864. 
 Children by first wife: George, sketch of whom 
 follows; Charlotte, born Jan. 22, 1793, died May 
 
 28, 1886, married Robert Fowler; Lucy Ann, born 
 Nov. 15, 1794, died Aug. 16, 1797; Mary Adcock, 
 born Sept. 20, 179S; James William, born June 
 17, 1798, married Eleanor B. Coates ; Rich- 
 ard, born June 30, 1800, died Aug. 8, 1852, 
 married Sarah Walker ; Henry, born July 9, 1802, 
 married Elizabeth Ward ; Harvey Stone, born July 
 
 29, 1804, died March 20, 1885, married ElizalDeth 
 Greenleaf ; Lucy Ann, born Aug. 23, 1806, died in 
 June, 1852, married John Coats; Mary, born March 
 23, 1809, died Oct. 14, 1828. Children by second 
 wife: John, born Sept. 25, 18 13, died June 6, 1887; 
 Betsey, born May 8, 181 5, married Charles R. 
 Wheden; Edmund, born Aug. 5, 1817, died Dec. 
 8, 1881, married Betsey Isabell ; Samuel, born Sef>t. 
 
 30, 1818, died in 1850, in California; Lydia Maria, 
 born Dec. 23, 1819, married Jared Buell; Alfred 
 Washington, born March 3, 1823, married Sarah 
 Morgan; and Daniel, born April ,12, 1825, died 
 Nov. 8, 1859, married Melinda C. Connor. 
 
 (IV) George Weld, father of William E., was 
 born June 8, 1291, hi North Guilford, where he re- 
 ceived a district school education, and learned the 
 trade of carpenter and joiner. Later in life he re- 
 moved with his family to Sag Harbor, L. I., there 
 continuing his trade several years, then returning 
 to Guilford, where he passed his later years, dying 
 in March, 1876; his remains were interred in Guil- 
 ford western cemetery. He was a member of the 
 Episcopal Church, and of the choir, being a singer 
 of no mean reputation. In politics he was a Demo- 
 crat, though no office seeker. He was a temperate 
 man, an industrious, loyal citizen, a kind husband 
 and loving parent, and lived an industrious, upright 
 life. 
 
 In Guilford, in 1813, George Weld married 
 Mabel Fowler, who was born in that town May 9, 
 1791, a daughter of William and Olive (Cran) 
 Fowler, and died Dec. 21, 1821. For his second 
 wife he wedded Mabel Loper, born Sept. 5, 1788, 
 who died Nov. 4, 1869. His children : George Le- 
 ander, born March 12, 1814; William Edwin, a 
 sketch of whom follows ; Clarissa Olive, born 
 June 5, 1818, died Dec. i, 1886; and Frederick 
 Alonzo, born Feb. i, 1820. William E. is the only 
 survivor. 
 
 (V) William Edwin Weld, whose name intro- 
 duces these lines, received in the vicinity of his place 
 of birth a common-school education, which was of 
 necessity somewhat limited, as at the early age of 
 ten years he had to commence supporting himself. 
 Until he was fifteen years old he worked on a farm 
 for his board and clothes, and then removed with his 
 
8l2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 father and rest of the family to Sag Hai-bor, where 
 he learned the trade of carpenter and joiner. Dur- 
 ing this time he made a whaling voyage to the 
 South Atlantic and return; but not caring for a 
 seafaring life he continued at his trade in Sag Har- 
 bor till once more making his home in Guilford, 
 his birthplace. There he commenced business as a 
 carpenter and joiner, and for over fifty years was 
 engaged in building and dealing in lumber, becom- 
 ing one of Guilford's self-made successful men. 
 For the past few years he has, for the benefit of his 
 health, been living on and cultivating a small farm. 
 He still, however, makes his home in Guilford, 
 where he built and owns a fine residence, equipped 
 with all modern improvements. A lifelong Demo- 
 crat, 3ilr. Weld cast his first vote for Andrew Jack- 
 son ; for several years was selectman of Guilford, 
 also burgess of the borough ; in religious faith he 
 is a member and vestryman of the Episcopal 
 Church. Mr. \A''eld is noted far and near for his 
 honest and honorable dealing in both public and 
 private life, and is justly classified among Guil- 
 ford's best citizens. 
 
 On Sept. 23, 1838, in the town of Guilford, Will- 
 iam E. Weld was married to Myrta M. Holcomb, 
 born Dec. 29, 1820, a daughter of Medad Holcomb, 
 and children as follows came to them : ( I ) Jane 
 Clarissa ("Jennie"), born Aug. 21, 1841, married 
 Charles \^^ Shelton, of Windsor, Conn., and later 
 became the wife of Elenry ^lerriam, who died in 
 1897. One child was born to the first marriage, 
 Lillian Jennie, who married Erederick T. Dudley, 
 and has two ' children, Shelton Weld and Mildred 
 F. (2) William Edwin, born Aug. 23, 1843, is su- 
 perintendent of the Boston Buckboard Carriage Co., 
 New Haven ; he married Imogene Dorman ; they 
 have no children. (3) Julia Augusta, born Sept. 
 19, i860, died Oct. 28, i860. 
 
 Tfie Holcomb Family, of which Mrs. Weld 
 is a member, is one of the oldest in America. 
 Thomas Flolconib, the founder of the New Eng- 
 land branch, came from England with the early set- 
 tlers, and located first in Dorchester, Mass., later 
 in Windsor, Conn., where he died. Nathaniel FIol- 
 comb, grandfather of Mrs. Weld, was a native of 
 Granville, Mass.. and there married Jennie Adkins : 
 they had two children : Medad, sketch of whom 
 follows ; and Geneva, who married Walter Stevens, 
 and died in August, 1862. 
 
 Medad Holcomb, father of Mrs. Weld, was 
 born July 27, 1781, in Granville, Mass., whence 
 he came to North Guilford, and here on Dec. 31, 
 1800, he married Betsey Stevens, who was born 
 in 1777 and died Dec. q, 1803. For his second wife 
 he married. Dec. 10, 1804, Betsey Benton, born Oct. 
 25, 1781, died March 12, 1815. For his third wife 
 he married, Aug. 10, 181.S, Myrta M. Fowler, born 
 June 26, 1798, who died Aug. 3, 1821. For his 
 fourth wife he married, Dec. 6, 182 1, Nancv Parnel 
 Du<lley, born .\pril 29, 1707, who died Sept. 26, 
 1845. His fifth wife was Harriet Leetc. Children 
 
 born to Medad Holcomb : Betsey, born May 9, 1802, 
 married Asa Montgomery; Polly, born Nov. 29, 
 1803, married Larius Bartholomew; Elledini, born 
 Sept. 18, 1805, married Thomas Evans; Frederick, 
 born Jan. 31, 1807, married Mary Rogers, and died 
 June II, 1886; Louise, born Oct. 19, 1809, married 
 Jesse Crane, and died June 3, 1843; Henry, born 
 Oct. 18, 1811, died Feb. 25, 1842; Appollas, born 
 in July, 1813, died July 22, 1813; Sophia, born Feb. 
 4, 1817, married William C. Dudley; William Ward, 
 born Oct. 18, 1818, married Juha A. Wheadon; 
 Myrta M., born Dec. 29, 1820, married William 
 E. Weld; Lorenzo Dow, born Nov. 5, 1823, died 
 Feb. 26, 1826; Mary Ann, born April 29, 1826, died 
 Dec. 22, 1826; Medad, born Sept. 29, 1828, mar- 
 ried Lavina Sherwood ; Mary Barker, born Oct. 
 II, 1831, died Dec. 11, 1831 ; Helen, born Sept. 19, 
 1834, died March 13, 1836; Helen M., born July 
 18, 1838, married Samuel H. Cruttenden; and Ce- 
 celia, born May 12, 1842, married William Cornell, 
 There were no children by the fifth marriage. 
 
 DANIEL L. CHIPMAN, now living in quiet re- 
 tirement in Waterbury, was born in that tov.-n Nov. 
 ID, 1821. Samuel Chipman, father of our subject, 
 was born July 16, 1780, in Wallingford, this county, 
 where his father was engaged as a tailor. The latter 
 reared a family of four children, viz. : Samuel ; 
 John, who was a farmer and harness-maker 'in 
 Cornwall, Conn., and lived to the advanced age of 
 ninety-one years ; Joseph, who lived in Fairhaven ; 
 and Elizabeth, Mrs. Grannis. 
 
 Samuel Chipman was reared to manhood on a 
 farm in Wallingford. On Dec. 27, 1802, he mar- 
 ried Nancy Potter, who was born in Hamden, New 
 Haven Co., Conn., September 14, 1784. To this 
 union came eleven children, in the following order: 
 Samuel D., born Dec. 29, 1803, became a farmer 
 and died in Waterbury, April 29, 1881 ; Sherman 
 B., born June 13, 1806, died Jan. 16, i860; Lyman, 
 born Nov. 9, 1808, was a hatter in Newtown, and 
 died June 27, 1874; William, born Aug. 13, 181 1, 
 was a farmer of Cheshire, where he died ; George 
 E., born Feb. 9, 1813, was a cabinetmaker, and died 
 in New York State in February, 1898; Joseph, born 
 July 6, 181 5, was first a tailor, and later became a 
 farmer, and died in Waterbury, Sept. 25, 1884; 
 Timothy T., born April 3, 1818, died in South 
 America; Ransom, born Nov. 13, 1819, was a tailor 
 and mechanic in Waterbury, and died Oct. 31, 1884; 
 Daniel L. (the subject of this sketch) ; Elizabeth 
 M., born April 2, 1824, married John Whitnev, and 
 died in New Haven June 12, 1892 ; and Martha A., 
 born Feb. S, 1826, died March 4, 1831. 
 
 Daniel L. Chipman grew to maturity on a farm. 
 In his earlier manhood, however, he for many years 
 drove an omnibus through Waterbury, and on re- 
 tiring from that calling, about twelve years ago, 
 took up his home about half a mile from his birth- 
 place, the place comprising about seventy acres just 
 outside the city limits of Waterbury. 
 
'A 
 
 (:x.-i^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 S13 
 
 On Oct. I, 1876, Daniel L. Chipman wedded 
 Laura A. Morehouse, who was born in Washing- 
 ton, Conn., and who died, after a pleasant com- 
 panionship of nearly twenty years, June 24, 1895. 
 On Oct. 12, 1896, Mr. Chipman chose for his second 
 wife Sarah V. Worrall, who was born in Litchfield, 
 this State, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Chip- 
 man) Worrall, the former a native of England, 
 who became farmer of Litchfield; the latter was a 
 native of Cornwall, Conn., and a daughter of John 
 Chipman, uncle of the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Daniel L. Chipman, like his father before him, 
 has been a life-long Democrat. In religious belief 
 he was reared a IMethodist. He is now passing the 
 remaining years of his life in the companionship 
 of his estimable wife, surrounded by friends in- 
 numerable, enjoying the fruits of his early labors, 
 and at peace with all the world. 
 
 OSBORNE. Through all, saving the first dec- 
 ade and a half, of the century just closed, the name 
 introducing this sketch has been one of prominence 
 in mercantile and industrial life in the town of Derby 
 and of Ansonia, as well as in the social and relig- 
 ious life of those communities. Here have figured 
 a number of the immediate descendants of Capt. 
 Stephen Osborne, among them his son, the late John 
 White Osborne, and in turn his son. Major Wilbur 
 F. Osborne, the latter for years the president of the 
 Osborne & Cheeseman Co., and at this time presi- 
 dent and assistant treasurer of the Union Fabric 
 Co., both of Ansonia, as well as being interested in 
 various enterprises. 
 
 Capt. Stephen Osborne, of New Haven, with 
 his wife and family, the wife formerly being 
 Apama Gorham, a granddaughter of Capt. George 
 Gorham, came to Derby to live in 1817. Both Capt. 
 Osborne and Capt. Gorham were patriots and saw 
 active service in the war of the Revolution. A Capt. 
 Stephen Osborne is referred to in the records of 
 Connecticut men in the Revolution as being of 
 Wallingford, and was commissioned a lieutenant 
 on July 26, 1777, promoted captain ilay i, 1778; 
 while Capt. George Gorham is given as being, in 
 1779. ill the company commanded by Abner Rob- 
 inson, and in Samuel McClellan's regiment. Capt. 
 Gorham was one of the men who assisted in stretch- 
 ing the famous iron chain across the Hudson to ob- 
 struct the British from going up the river. 
 
 Both long before and after the Revolution Derby 
 was the scene of much shipbuilding which was the 
 greatest industry of the town. One Thomas 
 Wheeler, of Stratford, who settled on Birmingham 
 Point in 1657, was probably the first engaged there 
 in such industry. After some six years he was suc- 
 ceeded by Alexander Bryan, a merchant, and the 
 latter later by the Hawkenses, and from 1712 to 
 1720 it was a prominent trading point. Another 
 busy shipyard was, in early days, at the Cove where 
 were built vessels called Boston Coasters. Some 
 distance below figured the Leavenworths, who built 
 
 the old bridge m 1798. At what was styled the Red 
 House were built by Capt. Edmund & Sons, Gideon 
 and Edmund Leavenworth, many vessels, schooners 
 and sloops. Gideon Leavenworth was another of 
 the patriots of the Revolution. He was in command 
 of a company of infantry in 1777, and was himself 
 wounded ni the battle of White Plains. Packets 
 were built up the Naugatuck river earlier than 1797 
 opposite the "old Parsons place." Soon after that 
 date Capt. George Gorham built and launched a 
 schooner from near the present Naugatuck and 
 Derby stations. Capt. Gorham built many vessels 
 below the Point of Rocks now known as Hallock's 
 old ship-yard. Sea-captains and sea-faring men, 
 too, were numerous about Derby, some of whorn 
 sailed to all points of the world. ' One George Gor- 
 ham was a sea captain. 
 
 Capt. Stephen Osborne, at his death, left an es- 
 tate which in those days was considered quite valua- 
 ble, but the trustee of the estate invested the money 
 in the Derby Bank which failed, and the family 
 wei-e left without means. The son, John White Os- 
 borne, who was born June 26, 1810, in New 
 Haven, came with the family to Derby in 1817, and 
 early learned the shoemaker's trade, receiving for 
 his services his board and $25 per year. On the 
 completion of his trade he accepted a position with 
 George W. Blakeman, then a grocer and dry goods 
 merchant on the east side of the river. He re- 
 mained with Mr. Blakeman for a number of years 
 when at the latter's suggestion and with his assist- 
 ance young Osborne, in 1843, opened a grocery 
 store, on the west side of the river in Birmingham, 
 and at a point where now stand the buildings of 
 the Ousatonic Water Co. (corner ]dain and Water 
 streets). In about 1845 he formed a partnership 
 !.vith George W. Cheeseman and they moved into 
 the "stone store," built by Daniel Judson in 1836. 
 These gentlemen transacted a large business, operat- 
 ing two stores (the other in Waterbury) until 1859. 
 In 1858 the firm also engaged in the manufacture of 
 hoop skirts, and in the following year removed the 
 business of this industry to Ansonia, still retaining 
 for a time the Birmingham store. The formation 
 of the business firm in the middle forties, of Os- 
 borne & Cheeseman, was the beginning of a busi- 
 ness connection, which for so many years was a 
 great factor in the manufacturing interests of An- 
 sonia and Shelton. 
 
 In 1866 the Osborne & Cheeseman Co. was or- 
 ganized as a joint stock corporation, with a capital 
 of $120,000. Before its organization and under the 
 original firm, in 1 86 1, was built the main factory, 
 on the site of the burned Ansonia Clock Works. 
 Subsequently the building was enlarged, and the 
 line of manufacture largely increased to include 
 web goods, suspenders and wire woven tape for 
 skirts. A shop for metallic goods was also run. On 
 the organization of the company John W. Osborne 
 was made president ; Charles Durand, secretary, 
 and George W. Cheeseman, treasurer. Mr. Osborne 
 
8i4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 remained the executive head of the company until 
 his retirement from active business in the early sev- 
 enties. He had led an active, busy and successful 
 business life. 
 
 In his early life, prior to merchandising, Mr. 
 Osborne had engaged to some extent in school- 
 teaching in Derby Neck, which point later for many 
 years was the home of the family, and where the 
 son, Major Wilbur F. Osborne, continues his resi- 
 dence. Mr. Osborne had no taste for public life, 
 and held but one political office in his life time. He 
 was once elected a grand juror but refused to 
 qualify until on a Sunday during divine services 
 at Church, a man more or less intoxicated took from 
 his pocket a bottle of whiskey, and began pouring 
 the contents over the congregation. Mr. Osborne 
 qualified to prosecute this man. When quite a 
 young man Mr. Osborne was confirmed in the Epis- 
 copal Church, but soon thereafter became a mem- 
 ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and ever 
 afterward remained a consistent and active Chris- 
 tian. His life was an example to all men — one ever 
 upright and honest, free from malice and always 
 full of kindness for everyone. His life was a tower 
 of strength and a blessing to many who, upon turn- 
 ing from sin, found the new life seemingly hard 
 and the cross heavy to bear. His disposition was 
 such that care rested upon him lightl}^, and from the 
 time he became a member of the church to the day 
 of his death he gathered strength and courage from 
 all vicissitudes. He was one of the leaders of the 
 church, ever high in its councils. He at one time 
 led the choir and for many years directed the music, 
 was almost continually steward and a member of 
 the official body, and for a long period was super- 
 intendent of the Sunday-school. He often dis- 
 coursed to the congregation and his talks were full 
 of light. All through his long life in the church 
 he was the comforter and adviser of all — the one 
 sought and the one turned to in time of need. The 
 effect of his life in the church was the same on the 
 outside upon all with whom he came in contact. He 
 was a man among men. He had his opinions in tem- 
 poral as well as in spiritual affairs, and when they 
 differed from the opinions of others it had not the 
 sting of malice and spite. His opinions were al- 
 ways respected. He died with friends innumerable 
 and without an enemy. Always full of energy and 
 life he was active to the end, his more than four 
 score years falling lightly upon him. His death oc- 
 curred March 6, 1895. 
 
 Mr. Osborne was married three times, first to 
 Susan H. Durand, of Derby; second to Mary 
 Douglas, of New York ; and third to Miss Eliza 
 Hill, of Reading, Penn. His children, all born of 
 the first marriage, were Wilbur F. ; Fannie W., 
 born in 1836, married Isaac D. Drew, and died 
 April II, 1S84; Harriet J., born in 1844, died in 
 i860; and Helen V., born Jan. 15, 1848, married E. 
 H. Krehbiel, and died May 10, 1894. 
 
 Mrs. Susan H. (Durand) Osborne, the mother 
 
 of these children, born in 1816, and died in 1859, 
 was the daughter of the late Samuel Durand, and a 
 descendant in the fifth generation from Dr. John 
 Durand, who was early at Stratford, Conn., marry- 
 ing there Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Bryan, 
 and granddaughter of Alexander Bryan. Dr. 
 Durand settled in Derby about 1685. From this 
 ancestor Mrs. Susan H. (Durand) Osborne's line of 
 descent was through Joseph, Noah and Samuel 
 Durand. 
 
 (II) Joseph Durand, son of Dr. John, born 
 Dec. 20, 1709, married April 25, 1734, Ann Tomlin- 
 son. She died Feb. 14, 1778, and he passed away 
 Aug. 6, 1792. 
 
 (III) Noah Durand, son of Joseph, born May 
 
 12, 1740, married Abigail, daughter of Caleb Tom- 
 linson, and lived on Great Neck, and there died 
 April 12, 1818. His widow died Nov. 2, 1831. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Durand, son of Noah, born July 
 
 13, 17B3, married (first) Susan Hawkins, (second) 
 her sister Sally Hawkins, and (third) Nancy Beers, 
 of Trumbull, Conn., and (fourth) Nancy Brown, 
 of New Bedford. ]\Ir. Durand was a farmer on 
 Bare Plains. Fle died in February, 1852. His chil- 
 dren were: Charles, Sarah, Susan H. (Mrs. Os- 
 borne) and Samuel. 
 
 Major Wilbur F. Osborne, son of John W., is 
 a native of Derby, and has thus far in life made that 
 town his home ; his business life, however, since the 
 formation of Ansonia, has been in the latter town. 
 He has grown up in the business enterprises estab- 
 lished by his father, and from boyhood taken an 
 active and prominent part in planning and devel- 
 oping the business out of which since have come a 
 number of branches, as well as having engaged in 
 various other enterprises. A few years subsequent 
 to his father's retirement from the presidency of 
 the Osborne & Cheeseman Co. he became the exec- 
 utive head of the concern. In 1882, as an offshoot 
 of the above named company, there was incorpor- 
 ated the S. O. & C. Co., which has since been en- 
 gaged in manufacturing eyelets and eyeleting ma- 
 chinery, and also metal goods. Some years later, 
 in 1887, the Union Fabric Company was incorpor- 
 
 ated, to cover steel and other wires for use in skirts, 
 bustles, etc. Of this company, Major Osborne was 
 made president, a position he still holds. He is also 
 president of the Schneller Stay Works, of Ansonia, 
 and treasurer of the Connecticut Clasp Co., of 
 Bridgeport. The Major was one of the original 
 incorporators of the S. O. & C. Co., of Ansonia, 
 and of the Derby Silver Co., of Shelton, now a 
 branch of the International Silver Co. He is one 
 of the prominent manufacturers of the Naugatuck 
 Valley, and is recognized as an enterprising and 
 public-spirited citizen, both in Ansonia and in 
 Derby. He is president of the Derby Neck Free 
 Library. 
 
 Major Osborne served three years and seven 
 months in the Civil war, having enlisted in April, 
 1861, from the Wesleyan University, first, in, the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 815 
 
 three months service, and later in the first regiment 
 that was sworn into the United States service for 
 the entire Civil war. He received promotion to 
 sergeant, second and first lieutenant, and captain 
 of artillery ; was artillery instructor of the 2d Con- 
 necticut Artillery; inspector general of defences at 
 Washington, South of the Potomac; ordnance offi- 
 cer; acting quarter master, etc. 
 
 AUGUSTUS I. GOODRICH, who is now liv- 
 ing in Waterbury, comes of an old and honored 
 American family of English extraction. 
 
 Luther Goodrich, grandfather of our subject, 
 born July 16, 1776, in East Haddam, Conn., was 
 a sea captain. He was a member of Columbia 
 Lodge, No. 26, F. & A. M., of East Haddam. He 
 married Sarah Danforth (who died in 1861), and 
 by her had a family of four children: Sarah and 
 Miranda both died at the age of twenty-five years ; 
 George was the father of our subject; Hepsey P. 
 married William Dorrance, lived in Andover, Conn., 
 and died at the age of sixty- two years. 
 
 George Goodrich was born in East Haddam, 
 Sept. 8, 1805, and died Dec. 29, 1879. He received 
 his education in Rocky Hill, Conn. He learned the 
 trade of cabinetmaker in Hartford, from there pro- 
 ceeding to Bristol, where he worked in a clock-case 
 factory until 1878, at that time moving to Water- 
 bury, where he passed the rest of his days. He 
 married Charlotte L. Ives, who was born in Bris- 
 tol, a daughter of Ira and Cynthia (Shaler) Ives; 
 her father was a Captain in the Revolutionary war. 
 Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. George 
 Goodrich, viz.: Miss Almira M., living in Water- 
 bury; Augustus I., our subject; and George L. and 
 Samuel R., mechanics, who reside in Bristol. The 
 mother died in 1848. The father was a lifelong 
 Whig and Republican, and in religious faith both 
 he and his wife were Congregationalists. 
 
 Augustus I. Goodrich was born Sept. 16, 1833, 
 in Bristol, and there attended the common school 
 and academy. At the age of twenty-three, in the 
 year 1856, he came to Waterbury, where he has 
 resided ever since, having been continuously in the 
 employ of the Waterbury Clock Co. until May, 
 1899, since when he has lived retired. For many 
 years he was superintendent of the works, and dur- 
 ing his long service of over forty years he proved 
 himself honest, capable and industrious, leaving with 
 a record second to none in the company's employ. 
 
 On Jan. 22, 1861, Mr. Goodrich married Helen I. 
 Corbett, who was born in Rome, N. Y., daughter of 
 Samuel and Rachel Corbett, the former a repre- 
 sentative of an old Boston (Mass.) family, and the 
 latter of an old Maine family. Two children have 
 been born to this union: Frederic S. and Charles 
 G., both very talented young men. 
 
 Frederic S. Goodrich, M. A., professor of Greek 
 in Albion (Mich.) College, was born in Waterbury 
 Sept. 9, 1865, and there received his early education, 
 later attending Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, 
 
 Mass., from which he graduated in the class of 1885, 
 taking the commencement oratorical prize. For a 
 year he was engaged in newspaper work, after 
 which he continued his studies at Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity, Middletown, Conn., and was graduated in the 
 class of 1890. During his course he took prizes in 
 Latin, Greek and English literature, and led the 
 class in general scholarship. He is a member of 
 the Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Upsilon fraternities. 
 After graduation he spent a year abroad, studying 
 in the University of Berlin, and in the American 
 School of Classical Studies at Athens. He visited 
 points of interest in Egypt, Palestine and Asia 
 Minor, and on his return he taught Greek for a 
 year in Wesleyan University, and in 1892 was ap- 
 pointed to the professorship of Greek in Albion Col- 
 lege, where he has since remained. Prof. Goodrich 
 is regarded as an authority in his chosen field, and 
 is also well-known as a lecturer on various topics. 
 In 1894, under his management, the students of 
 the Greek department at Albion College gave a 
 highly successful production of Sophocles' "Oedi- 
 pus Tyrannus," and in 1900 "Iphigenia among the 
 Taurians," both in the original Greek. Prof. Good- 
 rich received the degree of M. A. from the Uni- 
 versity of Michigan in 1898. The Professor is an 
 ordained minister of the M. E. Church, and is a 
 member of the Detroit Conference. On Jan. 3, 
 1893, he married Mary M. Harrison, of Waterbury, 
 an accomplished art student, and they have two 
 children, Frederic H. and Helen R. Mr. Goodrich 
 is a Freemason and Odd Fellow. In 1900 he was 
 the nominee for governor of Michigan on the Pro- 
 hibition ticket. 
 
 Charles G. Goodrich, Ph.B., was born Sept. 19, 
 1869, in Waterbury, received his early education in 
 that city, and after attending the Waterbur)' high 
 school went to Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, 
 Mass., where he entered the College Preparatory 
 and Music departments. Even thus early his merit 
 was recognized by his appointment as organist of 
 the Memorial M. E. Church, taking the place of the 
 musical instructor of the Academy. He was grad- 
 uated with honors in the class of 1889, of which 
 class he was elected permanent president. In the 
 fall of 1889 he entered Wesleyan University (Mid- 
 dletown, Conn.) and prepared himself for teaching 
 modern languages, taking special honors in this de- 
 partment. He also won the Seney scholarship 
 prize, given for general excellence of work. He 
 was a member of Psi Upsilon fraternity, and was 
 graduated in 1893 among the first in his class, being 
 chosen to membership in Phi Beta Kappa in spite 
 of the fact that much of his time had been devoted 
 to the music of the First M. E. Church of Mid- 
 dletown, where he was organist and director of a 
 large chorus choir. He was also organist of the 
 University chapel. At the end of his course he was 
 appointed assistant librarian of the University, and 
 took a post-graduate course in his specialties. In 
 the summer of 1894 he went to Germany and stud- 
 
8i6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ied languages and music in Berlin. He returned to 
 take charge of the Department of Modern Lan- 
 guages at Albion College (Albion, Mich.), during 
 the year's leave of absence of the head of the depart- 
 ment. -Vt the end of this year he returned to Eur- 
 ope for further study at the celebrated University 
 of Bonn, studying and traveling in France and 
 Italy. On his return to America he was elected 
 head of the ]\Iodern Language Department of 
 Harry Hillman Academy, Wilkesbarre, Pa., a 
 large college preparatory school with an enviable 
 reputation for its high standard of scholarship. 
 This position he held, as well as that of organist 
 and choir leader of the First AI. E. Church of the 
 city, one of the most important musical appoint- 
 ments in the State, until Sept. lo, 1901, when he 
 resigned to take the Professorship of Romance 
 Languages at ^Marietta College, ?.Iarietta, Ohio, 
 where he now resides. He is also a member of 
 Harmony Lodge, Xo. 42, F & A. M., of AA'ater- 
 bury, Conn. On Aug. 25, 1897, he was married 
 to Annie Y. Shortle, B. A., of Provincetown, Mass., 
 a graduate of Wesleyan Academy (Wilbraham, 
 Mass.) and of "W'ellesley College (Wellesley, 
 Mass.), class of 1897, where she not only com- 
 pleted with high honor the course in Liberal Arts, 
 but also the course in the Art of Painting. 
 
 !Mrs. Augustus L Goodrich, a graduate of the 
 State Xormal School at Framingham, Alass., and 
 later a student at Allen's English and Classical 
 School, at West Newton, ^lass., was in 1859 and 
 i860 a teacher in the public schools of Waterbury. 
 She has always been closely identified with church 
 v.-ork. and for several years has been president of 
 the King's Daughters of Waterbury. It may be 
 truly added here that it was mainly through her 
 efforts and teachings that her sons took up study 
 so assiduously, and have thereby reached the en- 
 viable literary positions they now hold. 
 
 Augustus I. Goodrich is a Republican in his po- 
 litical proclivities, and for a number of years he 
 ser\'Cfl in the common council ; represented the 
 First W^ard of the city in the aldermanic board six 
 years ; was police commissioner ten years ; and was 
 one of the commissioners when the police station 
 was erected. In 1863 he joined the State militia, 
 was elected lieutenant, later captain of Company 
 A. 2d Regiment Conn. X. G., in which capacity he 
 served seven years, when he was succeeded' by 
 I\Iajor F. A. Spencer. Fie was also elected lieuten- 
 ant colonel, but declined the honor. For a num- 
 ber of vears he was connected with the Center 
 school district, was chairman of its committee in 
 1890, and re-elected to the office for two years in 
 1898. Socially he is affiliated with Harmony Lodge, 
 No. 42, F. & A. M., at Waterbury, and is a past 
 master and trustee. In religious faith he is a mem- 
 ber of the M. E. Church. Fie is a man of high 
 character, one whose well-spent life is worthy of 
 emulation, is very popular, and wields considerable 
 influence in his localitv. 
 
 CHARLES JOSEPFI PIERPOXT (deceased) 
 was a prominent and influential citizen of East 
 Farms, Waterbury, and a worthy representative of 
 an honored old famil\- of New Haven county. Of 
 French descent, he traced his ancestry back to Rob- 
 ert Ale Pierpont, or Robert of the Stone Bridge, 
 who accompanied William the Conqueror to Eng- 
 land. One of his descendants, who also bore the 
 name of Robert, was created Earl of Kingstone in 
 1628. He had two brothers, one of whom was Will- 
 iam, the father of James Pierpont, who was the first 
 of the family to come to America, and who had 
 two sons, John and Robert. The former located 
 in Roxbury, A^ass., and married Thankful Stowe, 
 and among their children was James Pierpont, born 
 Jan. 4, 1659, who was graduated at Harvard College 
 in 1681, and on July 2, 1684, was ordained pastor 
 of the Center Church of New Haven. On Oct. 27, 
 1691, James Pierpont married Abigail, daughter of 
 Rev. John Davenport. She died Feb. 3, 1692, and 
 on ]\Iay 30, 1694, he was again married, his second 
 union being with Sarah, granddaughter of Gov. 
 Haynes. Her death occurred Oct. 27, 1696, and he 
 married for his third wife, on July 6, 1698, Mary 
 Hooker, granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker, 
 of Hartford. 
 
 Ezra Pierpont, grandfather of our subject, was 
 the first of the family to locate in this section. He 
 wedded ]\Iary Blakeslee, a native of North Haven, 
 and a daughter of Isaac Blakeslee. She died Sept. 
 28, 1827, and he departed this life Jan. 7, 1842, 
 They had five children, whose names and dates of 
 birth were as follows: Chloe, Aug. 15, 1783; 
 Luther, Feb. 8, 1785; Seabury, Alarch 13, 1787; 
 Austin, Alay 19, 1791 ; and Lucy, July 26, 1793. 
 
 Austin Pierpont, our subject's father, was a lanii 
 owner and farmer at East Farms, Waterbury, where 
 he spent the greater part of his life, and is buried 
 in the East Farms cemetery. He was killed by 
 lightning. On Feb. 20, 1812, he married Sally 
 Beecher, daughter of Enos Beecher, and to them 
 came nine children: Enos Austin, born Alarch 24, 
 1813, died Jan, 9, 1814: Enos Augustus was born 
 Jan, 8, 1815: Ezra Alonzo was born Dec, i, 1817; 
 Sarah Alinerva, born !\Iarch 2, 1820, died Sept. 24, 
 1840; Nancy Jennette, born ^larch 24, 1822, died 
 Dec. 28, 1825 ; Charles Joseph, our subject, is next 
 in order of birth: Emil}- Jennette, born June ij, 
 1830, married A. J. Beers : William Seabury was 
 born June 23, 1833 ; Ellen Alaria was born June 10, 
 1840. 
 
 Charles J. Pierpont was born at East Farms 
 March 11, 1825, and was reared on the home farm, 
 acquiring his education in the schools of A\^aterbury. 
 On reaching manhood he engaged in farming on his 
 own account, and also became a successful butcher 
 and stock dealer. Upright and honorable in all 
 things, he was widely and favorablv known, and had 
 the confidence and respect of all with whom he 
 came in contact, either in business or in social life. 
 He held membership in the Episcopal Church, and 
 
It7>i^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 817 
 
 was identified witli the Democratic party, but never 
 sought political prefennent. He died on his farm 
 March 27, 1884, and was buried in the East Farms 
 cemetery, a part of which land he had given to the 
 town for burial purposes. 
 
 In the town of Waterbuiry Mr. Pierpont was 
 married, April 20, 1846, to Miss Mary A. Warner, 
 and to them were born six children, namely: (i) 
 Charles J. and (2) Austin B. are both represented 
 elsewhere. (3) Ellen C. is the wife of George W. 
 Conner, of Westside Hill. (4) Wilson L. is a dairy 
 farmer of East Farms. He is a Republican in poli- 
 tics, and a member of the Independent Order of 
 Odd Fellows. He married Annie E. Merrill, a 
 daughter of Nathan Merrill, and she died in 1898, 
 the mother of eight children, George, Edith, Albert, 
 Richard (deceased), Joseph, Charles, Nathan and 
 Harold. On April 9, 1901, he married Mrs. Anna 
 E. Hall, (s) Elmer M. is a grocer of Waterbury. 
 (6) Mary A. is the wife of Charles S. Miller, of 
 Waterbury. 
 
 Like her husband, Mrs. Pierpont is held in high 
 regard by all who know her. Her father, Jared 
 Warner, a farmer by occupation, was born Oct. 16, 
 1785, son of Mark Warner, a Revolutionary soldier. 
 In August, 1803, he wedded Mary Bronson, who 
 was born May 3, 1785, a daughter of Levi Bronson. 
 They had four children: Amanda, born Nov. 19, 
 1804, married Wesley Bronson; Levinus Bronson 
 was born Aug. 12, 1808; Olive Caroline, born Nov. 
 I, 1810, married James Converse; and Mary Ann, 
 born Dec. 8, 1828, married Charles J. Pierpont, our 
 subject. 
 
 GEORGE LINSLEY, a retired carpenter and 
 cabinet maker, is spending his last days in Bran- 
 ford in the peace and quiet to which his long and 
 useful life well entitles him. Mr. Linsley was born 
 in that borough May 29, 1829, son of Elias and 
 Mary (Bradley) Linsley. Elias Linsley was born 
 Aug. 28, 1803, in North Branford, a son of Daniel 
 and Polly P. (Jones) Linsley, and became a cabinet 
 maker and undertaker. For sixty years he was in 
 business in Branford, where he left a good com- 
 petence and the legacy of a good name. There 
 were three children in his family : George, Henry 
 David, and J. Atwood. 
 
 Daniel Linsley died Dec. 30, 1813, at the age 
 of forty-eight. His wife died in September, 1847, 
 at the age of seventy-four. To them were born the 
 following children: Betsy, who married Samuel 
 Page; Benjamin D., who married Elvira Whitney; 
 Abigail; Harvey J., who first married Laura Clark 
 and later Mary Somers ; Jeremy, who married 
 Phebe Page, and (second) Sarah Beach; Sylvia; 
 Elias ; Polly Parnell ; Charles ; Hezekiah, who mar- 
 ried Mariam' Gillette, and after her death, wedded 
 Maria Doolittle; and Daniel. Israel Linsley, Jr., 
 the father of Daniel, married Hannah Winthrop. 
 He was a son of Israel and Priscilla (Wheaton) 
 Linsley, and grandson of Jonathan and Dorcas 
 
 52 
 
 (Phipper or Phipenny) Linsley, and great grandson 
 of John Linsley, who came from England and set- 
 tled in Branford in 1646. 
 
 Mr. Linsley's maternal grandfather, Timothy 
 Bradley, of Branford, married Irene Gordon, a 
 daughter of Alexander Gordon, who was a sailor 
 and came of a Scottish family. His great-grand- 
 parents were Timothy and Sarah (Goodsell) Brad- 
 ley. He lived in Branford where Seth Thomas 
 Bradley now has his home. 
 
 George Linsley was reared in Branford, where 
 he obtained a common-school education. Early in 
 life he learned the cabinet maker's trade, under his 
 father's instruction, and followed same for nine 
 years. Desiring to see more of the world he went 
 to sea as a common sailor, and for a year was en- 
 gaged in visiting American and West Indian ports. 
 On his return he worked at the carpenter's trade, 
 in New Haven, and presently began contracting 
 and building. For forty years he was one of the 
 most reliable and aggressive business men of Bran- 
 ford, having the construction of the principal build- 
 ings, churches, private houses and store buildings' 
 as well. Time has tried his work, and his honest 
 construction and the sound material employed are 
 demonstrated in the passing of the years. Our sub- 
 ject was one of the incorporators of the Branford 
 Savings Bank. He is actively interested in every- 
 thing affecting the welfare of the town, and for 
 eighteen months had charge of the Blackstone Li- 
 brary. 
 
 Mr. Linsley was married April 30, 1855, to MisS' 
 Ellen F., a daughter of Henry N. and Almira (Tut- 
 tle) DeWolf, of New Britain, and a granddaughter 
 of John and Desire (Noyes) DeWolf, and a great- 
 granddaughter of that Paul Noyes who furnished 
 $60,000 of leather equipments for the Revolutionary 
 war, for which it is said he was never paid. The 
 maternal grandfather of Mrs. Linsley was Manning 
 Tuttle, of North Haven, who married Beda Barnes. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Linsley have one daughter, Isadora 
 A. Mr. Linsley belongs to Widows Sons Lodge, 
 No. 66, F. & A. M., and to Harmony Lodge,, No. 
 5, I. O. O. F. In politics he is a Republican. 
 
 JACOB HENRY GARRIGUS, one of the pros- 
 perous and respected farmers and worthy citizens 
 of the town of Wolcott, is a native of the State of 
 New Jersey, born March 25, 1838, in Morristown, 
 Morris county. He comes of an old Pennsylvania 
 and New Jersey branch of the family, which is of 
 French Huguenot origin. 
 
 The first of the family in this country was Da- 
 vid Garrigus, who came to America as an exile 
 from France during the religious persecutions in 
 that country. He settled in Philadelphia, Pa., and' 
 died leaving a large family, most of whom had 
 adopted the Quaker faith. Jacob Garrigus, son' 
 of David, settled in Hanover township, Morris Co.,, 
 N. J., where he became a land owner and farmer. 
 He had a family of nine children, four of whom — 
 
8iS 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 David, Isaac, Jacob and John — participated in the 
 Revolutionary war, John being present with Wash- 
 ington at the surrender of CornwalHs. 
 
 John Garrigus, son of Jacob, above mentioned, 
 was born in Hanover township, Morris Co., N. J., 
 and fohowed farming there. He married EHzabeth 
 Shipman, of the same locahty, and had children: 
 John, Isaac, Samuel, Mary, Ruth and Lydia. 
 
 Isaac Garrigus, son of John and father of 
 Jacob H., was born in 1798, in Hanover township, 
 Morris Co., N. J., and was there reared and edu- 
 cated. His occupation was that of a smelter and 
 charcoal burner, and he became a well-to-do man, 
 dying in comparatively good circumstances. He 
 passed away in August, 1865, in his native town- 
 ship, a member of the Presbyterian Church. He 
 was a Whig in politics. In 1822 Mr. Garrigus mar- 
 ried Sarah Sheppard, daughter of John Sheppard, 
 and they had a family of fourteen children, as fol- 
 lows : Mary Ann (deceased) married George 
 Griswold; David, of Waterville, Conn., married Ar- 
 minda L. Birch ; Euphemia K. married John Mes- 
 ler; Harriet died young; Phebe married John Tot- 
 ton; Isaac Newton (deceased) married Caroline 
 M. Twiss ; Lewis, of Waterbury, Conn., married 
 (first) Lizzie Parsons, and (second) Eunice Wel- 
 ton; Cyrus (deceased) married Harriet M. Doug- 
 lass ; Jacob Henry is the subject of these lines ; 
 Elizabeth Sarah married Jacob Vanslike; Char- 
 lotte married James Johnson ; Horace, of Water- 
 ville, Conn., married Maria Dailey ; Ellen Janette 
 married Homer H. Welton, of Waterville, Conn. ; 
 Aaron S. is a resident of Morristown, N. J. The 
 mother of these died in 1883, at the home of her 
 son, Jacob Henry; she was a member ®f the Pres- 
 byterian Church. 
 
 Jacob Henry Garrigus, whose name introduces 
 these lines, received a liberal education in the 
 schools of his native township, and those at Green- 
 wich, R. I., also attending Providence Conference 
 Seminary, with the intention of studying for the 
 ministry. The breaking out of the Civil war, how- 
 ever, interrupted his plan, and, in September, 1861, 
 he enlisted in Company E (Capt. Martin B. 
 Smith), 8th Conn. V. I. On July i, 1862, he was 
 promoted to corporal, and later to sergeant. On 
 Feb. 9, 1864, he veteranized, and served until De- 
 cember, 1865, when he was mustered out. He par- 
 ticipated in several general engagements, besides 
 minor battles, and skirmishes, and was also on de- 
 tached service, recruiting and drafting. He was 
 Military Post Master of Lynchburg, Va., for two 
 months, also teacher in Freedman Schools at the 
 same place for three months. Returning to the 
 pursuits of peace, he settled in the town of Wolcott, 
 where he has since resided, working at the joiner's 
 trade, and also in agricultural pursuits. Hi's home 
 had previously been in Waterbury, and he has built 
 several dwellings there. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1865, :Mr. Garrigus married Soph- 
 ronia Elizabeth L^pson, who was born in the town 
 
 of Wolcott, a daughter of Lucian and Lois A. 
 (Johnson) Upson, and children as follows have 
 been born to them: (i) Ella A. died in infancy. 
 
 (2) Walter H., salesman for the Waterbury Lumber 
 Co., married Miss Flora J. Sears, of Waterbury. 
 
 (3) Fanny Elizabeth married Edwin D. Manwar- 
 ring. (4) William Leroy, who lives in Waterbury, 
 married Fannie A. HitcJhcock. (5) Harry L. mar- 
 ried Bertha May Patterson. (6) Bessie B. married 
 Arthur J. Pierpont. (7) Annie Belle and (8) 
 Minnie Belle (twins) are students in the State Ag- 
 ricultural College. (9) Jessie Adele is attending 
 high school in Waterbury. The mother of this 
 interesting family is a lady of refinement and edu- 
 cation, and prior to her marriage taught school sev- 
 eral terms. Mr. Garrigus is a Republican in poli- 
 tics. He has served in various offices of honor and 
 trust, in 1889 representing the town of Wolcott in 
 the State Legislature; has been justice of the peace, 
 health officer and registrar of voters. Socially he 
 is a member of Wadhams Post, No. 49, G. A. R.,'and 
 Mad River Grange, of which he was chaplain sev- 
 eral terms. In religious faith he is identified with 
 the M. E. Church of Waterbury. 
 
 The Upson family, of which Mrs. Garrigus is 
 a worthy and highly esteemed member, was one of 
 the early settled families of New Haven county, 
 Conn. Thomas Upson, the first of the name in 
 New England, located for a time in Hartford, 
 thence removing to Farmington, becoming one of 
 the early settlers there. In 1646 he married Eliza- 
 beth Fuller, and their children were : Thomas, ^ho 
 died at Saybrook ; Stephen; ^lary; Hannah; and 
 Elizabeth, who died July 20, 1655. The father of 
 these passed away July 19, 1655, and his widow 
 married Edmund Scott. Of these children, 
 Stephen, deceased in 1735, married Dec. 27, 1682, 
 jMary, daughter of John Lee, of Farmington; she 
 died Sept. 15, 1715, the mother of children as fol- 
 lows : Mary, born in 1683, married Richard Wil- 
 ton; Stephen, born Sept. 30, 1686; Elizabeth, born 
 Feb. 14, 1689, married Thomas Bronson; Thomas, 
 a sketch of whom follows; Hannah, born March 
 16, 169s, married (first) Thomas Richards, and 
 (second) John Bronson; Tabitha, born March 11, 
 1698, married John Scoville ; John, born Dec. 13, 
 1702; and Thankful, bom "March 14, 1706, mar- 
 ried James Blakeslee. The father of these removed 
 to \\'aterbury, Dec. 29, 1679 (prior to his mar- 
 riage), and it was there he reared his family. He 
 served as surveyor, also on the school committee 
 and as grand juror; was deputy to the General 
 Court three times: May, 1710, October, 1712, and 
 October, 1729, and was sergeant from 171 5 to 1729; 
 he had a seat among the veterans in the new meet- 
 ing-house. 
 
 Thomas Upson, son of Stephen, was born March 
 I, 1692, in Waterbury, whence he moved, in 1732, 
 to South Farmington, afterward to Southington 
 (now a part of Wolcott), and there died Sept^ 29, 
 1761, his wife passing away July 13, 1750. He 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 819 
 
 married Rachel Judd, daughter of Thomas Judd, 
 .and children as follows came to them : Thomas, 
 born Dec. 20, 1719; John and Mary (twins), Jan. 
 21, 1721, (of whom John died in 1741, and Mary 
 married Josiah Newell, of Southington) ; Josiah, 
 Jan. 28, 1726; Asa, Nov. 30, 1728; Timothy, Oct. 
 S, 1 731; Amos, March 17, 1734; Samuel, March 
 S, 1737; and Freeman, July 24, 1739 (died, 1750). 
 
 Capt. Samuel Upson, born March 8, 1737, mar- 
 ried Ruth Cowles April 5, 1759, and settled in what 
 is now the town of Wolcott, where he was inter- 
 ested in the turnpike. He died Feb. 25, 1816, the 
 father of the following named children: May, 
 born Feb. — , 1760, married Joseph Minor; Archi- 
 bald, born April 26, 1761, who died in 1782; Isaac, 
 torn Dec. 22, 1763; Obed, born Jan. 2, 1767; Har- 
 vey, born Nov. 11, 1769; Samuel and Ruth (twins), 
 born Aug. 16, 1772 (Ruth married Joseph Bying- 
 ton) ; Jerusha, born June 27, 1775, who died in 
 1779; Manly, born March 12, 1777; and Betsey, 
 born Aug. 10, 1779, who married Lyman Higgins. 
 
 Deacon Harvey Upson, born Nov. 11, 1769, 
 married Nov. 28, 1796, Rachel Wheeler, who was 
 born Aug. 25, 1775. He was a deacon of the 
 church for twenty-five years, and was a good man, 
 faithful and sincere, in all the relations of life. He 
 held the rank of captain in the State militia. The 
 children born to him and his wife Rachel were: 
 Samuel Wheeler, born Oct. 8, 1798; Herry, Nov. 
 16, 1800 ; Marshall, Feb. 22, 1803 ; Lois Melissa, 
 Aug. 27, 1805 (married Lucas Sutliff) ; Marcus, 
 Aug. 20, 1807; Harvey Woodward, Nov. 22, 1810; 
 and Lucian and Lucius (twins), Feb. 13, 1815. 
 
 Lucian Upson, the father of Mrs. Jacob H. Gar- 
 rigus, was engaged in farming all his life, on the 
 family homestead situated in the southern part of 
 the town of Wolcott. He served fourteen months 
 during the Civil war in Company E, 8th Conn. V. 
 L, and was discharged on account of disability. He 
 married Lois A. Johnson, who was born in Wolcott, 
 a daughter of Levi and Ruth (Judd) Johnson, the 
 former of whom was a soldier in the Revolutionary 
 war, although but a lad of fifteen summers at the 
 time he enlisted. Mr. Upson died in 1895, and his 
 widow died in August, 1900, at the age of eighty- 
 two years, at the home of Mr. Garrigus. She was 
 the only real "Daughter of the Revolution" in the 
 Naugatuck Valley, and was the recipient of many 
 handsome presents at the hands of the D. A. R. 
 Children born to Lucian and Lois A. Upson as fol- 
 lows: Leroy, Jan. 14, 1840; Sophronia E., Jan. 30, 
 1842 (married Jacob Henry Garrigus) ; and Lu- 
 cella, Nov. 13, 1853. The last named was married 
 Oct. 29, 1874, to James A. Todd, now of LaGrange, 
 111., and died in Kansas. 
 
 CHARLES A. THOMPSON, for many years, 
 a leading and representative agriculturist of Wood- 
 bridge, belongs to quite an old and highly respected 
 family of New Haven county.. His great-grand- 
 father, Timothy Thompson, was p-robably a native 
 
 of East Haven. On Aug. i, 1750, he married Es- 
 ther Perkins, who died April 23, 1803, and he de- 
 parted this life Nov. 28, 1807. Their children were 
 Sarah, Samuel, Desire, Esther, John, Hulda, Tim- 
 othy and Abram. Of these, John Thompson, • the 
 grandfather of pur subject, was born April 25, 1753, 
 and became a successful farmer of East Haven, 
 where he spent his entire life. He was married, in 
 1783, to Dorcas Andrus. 
 
 George Thompson, our subject's father, was 
 born in East Haven, Feb. 15, 1786, and died Oct. 
 4, 1849. He was, for those early days, an extensive 
 farmer of East Haven, where he passed his entire 
 life. His political support was given the Whig 
 party and he took quite an active and influential 
 part in public affairs, serving as selectman, assessor 
 and in various minor offices. He married Susan 
 Bradley, a daughter of Leverett and Esther Brad- 
 ley, both natives of East Haven. She was born 
 Sept. 2, 1791, and died Dec. 12, 1862. Our subject 
 is the youngest child, and the only one now living 
 in a family of five children born of this union: 
 Horace, born May 6, 1812, was a farmer and shoe- 
 maker, and died May 20, 1892; Grace Ann, born 
 June 15, 1814, died June 22, 1873 ; Edward B., born 
 Jan. 15, 1817, died Oct. 13, 1884; and Maria, born 
 March 10, 1820, died Jan. 23, 1884. 
 
 Charles A. Thompson, whose name introduces 
 this review, was born in East Haven, March 23, 
 1825, and was given good school privileges, attend- 
 ing the public schools and also the academy at Fair 
 Haven. In Woodbridge he was united in marriage 
 with Miss Grace A. Manville, a daughter of Col. 
 Lyman and Hannah (Ball) Manville, the former 
 a native of Middlebury, the latter of Woodbridge. 
 She is one of a family of eight children, two sons 
 and six daughters, all of whom are still living. The 
 first members of the Manville family of whom we 
 have record were born in France. Four brothers, 
 John, Frank, Adarean and Simeon Manville, emi- 
 grated to America at an early day and located in 
 Connecticut. Simeon, who was the grandfather of 
 Mrs. Thompson, came in his advanced years to 
 Westville, where he owned property, and where he 
 died in 1825. He was a soldier in the Revolution- 
 ary war. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have three chil- 
 dreni! (i) George M., born March 25, 1850, is a far- 
 mer of New Haven ; he married Emma L. Morris, 
 v/ho died Sept. 6, 1886, and has three chil- 
 dren, Edward C, Louis W. and Emma. (2) Neva 
 Elwood and (3) Bertha H., twins, were born Oct. 
 18, 1861 ; the former is now the wife of A. H. Btick- 
 ingham, and has four children, Grace M., Dwight 
 M., Marion and Gladys. Bertha H. is the wife of 
 Newton J. Peck, a prosperous young farmer of 
 Woodbridge, and has two children, Ralph M., and 
 James B. 
 
 In his early life Mr. Thompson engaged in 
 farming in East Haven, and from there moved to 
 Woodbridge, locating on the old farm where his 
 wife was born and reared. His entire active life 
 
820 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 has been devoted to agricultural pursuits, and in 
 his labors he has met with well merited success. 
 However, he has recently sold his farm, and now 
 makes his home at Morris Cove, New Haven. Mr. 
 Thompson attends the Congregational Church, of 
 which his wife is a member, and at one time was 
 a member of the Sons of Temperance,, but has never 
 united with any secret order. In politics he was 
 originally a Whig, and on the dissolution of that 
 party became a stanch Republican. While a resident 
 of East Haven he served as assessor and selectman, 
 but has never cared for the honors and emoluments 
 of public office, preferring to devote his entire time 
 to his business interests. 
 
 ALMON EDWIN CHANDLER, an honored 
 veteran of the Civil war, and a leading farmer of 
 Prospect, was born in Canandaigua, N. Y., Oct. 15, 
 1830. Elis father, John W. Chandler, was a native 
 of Connecticut, but after his marriage removed to 
 Canandaigua, N. Y., where he engaged in farm- 
 ing until 1832, and then came to New Haven county. 
 Conn., locating in the town of Cheshire, where he 
 followed the same pursuit for some time. Later he 
 came to Prospect and purchased a small farm, upon 
 which he spent the remainder of his life. During 
 the Civil war, although past the age of those subject 
 to military service, he enlisted in Company E, 6tli 
 Conn. V I., and participated in several battles. 
 While in South Carolina, he was taken with small- 
 pox and confined in a hospital there for some time, 
 after which he returned to his home in Prospect. 
 In politics he was first a Whig and later a Republi- 
 can, but was never an office seeker. In Cheshire, 
 he married Miss Laura S. Doolittle, a native of that 
 town and a daughter of Obed Doolittle, a carpen- 
 ter and joiner by trade, and to them were born six 
 children : ;\Ioses, a farmer of Prospect ; Sidney, 
 who died in Yalesville ; Almon Edwin, our subject; 
 Marcus, deceased ; Betsey, wife of Frank Matthews ; 
 and one who died in infancy. The parents both 
 died in Prospect and were buried in the cemetery 
 there. 
 
 The district schools of Cheshire afforded Almon 
 E. Chandler his only opportunity for obtaining an 
 education, and his knowledge of farm work was ob- 
 tained on the home place. On leaving the parental 
 roof at the age of twenty years, he went to Yales- 
 ville, where he worked in the spoon factory for one 
 year, and during the following five years he was em- 
 ployed in a similar establishment in Prospect, after 
 which he worked in a ferrule shop for five years, 
 At the end of that period he went to Geneva, Ohio, 
 where he worked at ferrule making for six months, 
 and then returned to Prospect, locating on the farm 
 which has since been his home, and to the cultiva- 
 tion and improvement of which he has since de- 
 voted his energies. 
 
 During the dark days of the Civil war, Mr. 
 Chandler offered "his services to his country, enlist- 
 ing at Cheshire, Aug. 8, 1862, in Co. A, 20th Conn. 
 
 V. I., under Capt. Gilford and Col. Ross. While 
 at Pleasant Valley, he was sent with others to get 
 timber with which to build huts for camp, and he 
 was severely injured in his spine, so that afterward 
 he was unfit for duty. After months in the hospi- 
 tal, he returned home, but has ever since been an 
 invalid. 
 
 Mr. Chandler has been twice married, his first 
 wife being Miss Julia Ann Matthews, of Prospect,, 
 where she died and was buried. She left one child, 
 William, now a farmer of Prospect. In 1856, at 
 Newtown, Conn., Mr. Chandler married Martha 
 Morse, a native of Prospect, a daughter of Lent 
 jMorse and granddaughter of Lent Morse, Sr. 
 Mortimer, the only child born of this union, is now 
 deceased. Mr. Chandler has always affiliated with 
 the Republican party, and both he and his wife are 
 consistent and faithful members of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and are highly respected and es- 
 teemed by all who know them. 
 
 JOHN B. POPE has the distinction of having 
 won the proud American title of a self-made man. 
 Many of the leading enterprises and business inter- 
 ests of Oxford bear the impress of his individuality, 
 and in all his uhdertakings he has been remarka- 
 bly successful. His great determination and energy 
 have enabled him to overcome all the difficulties 
 and obstacles in his path, and to work his way stead- 
 ily upward to prosperity. He is known among his 
 fellow townsmen for his reliability in all trade trans- 
 actions, and he justly merits their confidence and 
 regard. 
 
 Mr. Pope was born in the town of Roxbury, 
 Litchfield Co., Conn., July 13, 1842, and is a great- 
 grandson of Thomas Pope, who came from England 
 and settled near Stratford, Conn. His son, John 
 Pope, married a Loveland. He was a farmer by 
 occupation, and he served as a soldier in the war 
 of 1812. John Pope died when his son, Nehemiah, 
 our subject's father, was but three years old, and 
 the latter afterward lived with an uncle. 
 
 Nehemiah Pope was born in the town of Oxford. 
 At an early age he went to Danbury, Conn., where 
 he worked at the tailor's trade until sixteen, and 
 from there went to Orange, this State, where he 
 was employed on the farm of Benjamin Clark for 
 five years. He next worked on a farm in Washing- 
 ton, Conn., and while there he married JMiss Eliza 
 A. Parker, a native of that place. He continued his 
 residence in Washington, engaged in farming, until 
 1863, when he removed to Michigan, locating near 
 Kalamazoo, where he purchased a tract of wild land. 
 At the end of a year and a half, however, he re- 
 turned to Washington, having met with business 
 reverses and suffering from ill health. There he 
 worked on a farm by the month, to secure the money 
 necessary to bring his wife and six children back 
 to Connecticut. Soon after their return he came to 
 Oxford, where he died in 1883, aged seventy-nine 
 years, his wife in 1885, aged eighty-two. In their 
 
£;^ S d^f^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 821 
 
 family were the following children : Elizabeth, wife 
 of William T. Bassett, of Hartford; Frederick B., 
 a wagon manufacturer of Birmingham; Julius J.^ 
 deceased; Clara, who married Stephen Gunn, of 
 Milford, Conn., and died in 1898; George S., a 
 farmer of Middlebury, Conn.; Benjamin C, a car- 
 penter of Oxford; and John B., our subject. 
 
 John B. Pope was brought to Oxford the year 
 of his birth, and on the home farm passed his JDoy- 
 hood and youth, and was provided with a good com- 
 mon-school education. He remained with his par- 
 ents until his marriage, although at the age of nine- 
 teen years he commenced work as a farm hand. On 
 Aug. 7, 1865, he married Jane M. Nichols, and 
 to them have been born eleven children, all living, 
 namely: Libbie, now the wife of Arthur D. Hub- 
 bell; John H., a farmer in Woodbury, who married 
 Edith Tucker, and has four children, Russell, Al- 
 bert, Elton and Ethel; William B. ; Albert; Jennie 
 L., wife of Charles H. Wheeler, who has had three 
 children, John D., Florence and one that died in in- 
 fancy; Alice May, who married Benwell Wilmont, 
 clerk in the National Bank at Ncugntuck, and has 
 one child, Dayton ; Lewis ; Sadie ; Edith ; Charlie ; 
 and Abbie. 
 
 After his marriage Mr. Pope located on a farm 
 which he had previously purchased, and resided 
 there for two years. He then bought the Sheldon 
 Bristol Farm, which he sold two 3'ears later, and 
 next operated a farm on shares for ten years. 
 At the end of that period he went to Naugatuck, 
 Conn., where he was extensively engaged in the 
 dairy business for two years, and then purchased 
 what is known as the Robert Wheeler farm, a tract 
 of 175 acres in the town of Oxford, upon which he 
 has since made his home. In 1893 he also purchased 
 another farm of 125 acres in the same town, and in 
 1897 bought a farm of 150 acres in the towns of 
 Watertown and Woodbury. A few years after lo- 
 cating at his present home Mr. Pope again em- 
 barked in the dairy business, which he has since 
 carried on in connection with his other business. 
 He has always been interested in buying and selling 
 horses and cattle, and there are few men in that 
 business better known than he. For the past thirty 
 years he has also engaged in the kmiber business, 
 and for six years has operated a steam sawmill 
 and engaged in manufacturing charcoal. He is one 
 of the most active and progressive business men of 
 the town, and generally carries forward to success- 
 ful completion whatever he undertakes. 
 
 The Democratic party finds in Mr. Pope a stanch 
 supporter of its principles, though he is not strictly 
 partisan, giving his support to the man he considers 
 best qualified to advance the interests of the town, 
 county or State. He has been honored with Dublic 
 office, havinar served as a member of the State Legis- 
 lature in 1881 and 1882 ; selectman of Oxford — sec- 
 ond selectman in 1879, 1887 and 1888 ; and in 1884, 
 and again in 1889, was elected first selectman, in 
 ■which office he is still retained, having been re- 
 
 elected m 1901. He has also been a member of the 
 board of relief. Fraternally he holds membership 
 in the A. O. U. W. 
 
 RHCHAEL DWYER was one of Ansonia's 
 leading business men, and the best known Irish- 
 American resident of that city. He located there 
 in the fall of 1853, and at the time of his death had 
 been in active business there longer than any other 
 man with one exception. From a village of a few 
 frame houses he saw the place grow to a city of 
 13,000 inhabitants, and he could recall the time 
 when a one-horse team supplied the families with 
 coal. In the material development of the city his 
 own enterprise and sagacity have been recognized 
 factors, he having erected a number of houses for 
 sale or rent, and as a member of the board of bur- 
 gesses he did much toward shaping municipal poli- 
 cies for several years. 
 
 Mr. Dwyer was born in 1837 in the parish of 
 Glenroe, County Limerick, Ireland, son of Patrick 
 and Hanora (Lenihan) Dwyer. His father, who 
 was a farmer by occupation, died in Ireland at an 
 advanced age, and the mother died in August, 
 1877. This worthy couple had a large family of 
 children, as follows, six surviving: Catherine, 
 Mrs. David Lenihan; Mary, Mrs. Houlihan, who 
 made her home with our subject since the death of 
 her husband in 1880; Michael, our subject; John, 
 a resident of New Haven, where he is engaged in 
 business ; Patrick, in the employ of J. B. Gardner's 
 Sons; Thomas, who lived with our subject; and 
 Hanora, widow of Edward Maum. All of these 
 children came to America in 1853. 
 
 Michael Dwyer's education was begun in the 
 National Schools of Ireland. After coming to this 
 country he made his home in Ansonia, with the ex- 
 ception of one year, which he passed in Westport, 
 working in a cotton mill. After one year's employ- 
 ment in the cotton mill, in the shop now occupied by 
 the Phelps & Bartholomew Clock Co., he appren- 
 ticed himself to learn the brass molding trade in 
 the Carter foundry, which is now the shop of F. 
 L. Gaylord Co. Being ambitious and thrifty he 
 saved his money, and at the end of thirteen years' 
 hard work there, he purchased, in 1862. a lot at the 
 corner of Main and Central streets, where he took 
 up his residence and established the liquor business 
 which he carried on up to the time of his death. He 
 was a model of integrity in all his dealings. From 
 1862 he bought and sold real estate extensively, and 
 at his demise he owned six houses on the "Square" 
 (four of which he built), besides property in other 
 parts of the city. He also owned a business block 
 at the corner of Main and Railroad streets, with 
 stores below and offices above, and was one of the 
 largest individual tax payers of the city. He was 
 a charter member of the Board of Trade, and one 
 of its directors, and was re-elected at the annual 
 meeting in December, 1900, for a term of three 
 years. 
 
822 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 In politics Mr. Dwi'er was a Democrat, but lie 
 voted for the best man in local politics. He was 
 honored repeatedly by his fellow citizens with elec- 
 tion to office. In 1893, when Ansonia became a 
 city, he was appointed a member of the board of 
 assessors, in which he served until his death. For 
 years he was one of the jurymen selected from the 
 city, being first chosen in 1881. Under the old bor- 
 ough government he was for several years a mem- 
 ber of the board of burgesses. He was much inter- 
 ested in educational matters, and was always pres- 
 ent at the graduation exercises of the high school. 
 In religious faith he was a Catholic, and his fam- 
 ily is prominently identified with the Church in 
 Ansonia. In his death, which occurred April 4, 
 1901, the city lost a man widely known and re- 
 spected for his sterling qualities, and one to whom a 
 needy man never went in vain. He was much be- 
 loved by people of all classes, being a man of good 
 judgment, whose opinions ' always carried much 
 weight. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Dwyer married Miss Mary Splann, 
 a native of Ireland, and daughter of Cornelius 
 Splann. Of eleven children born to them, seven are 
 living, as follows : Patrick J., M. D., is a physician 
 in Waterbury; John C, M. D., is now house sur- 
 geon at the Maternity Hospital at Baltimore ; 
 Michael Francis attended school at Fordham, N. 
 Y., South Orange, N. J., and later at New Haven, 
 and is now in Brown University, Providence ; Mar- 
 garet and Elsie are attending the high school in 
 Ansonia; Edward Thomas is in grammar school; 
 and Josephine in the primary public school. 
 
 Michael Francis Dwyer, mentioned above, 
 served during the Spanish-American war as a pri- 
 vate in "Yale Battery" A. This battery was so 
 called because of its being made up almost entirely 
 of Yale graduates ; a few outsiders were admitted 
 at the last in order to recruit its full strength. This 
 was a mounted light battery, armed with six 12- 
 pounders ; six horses to a gun. The following 
 speaks for itself: 
 
 Michael F. Dwyer, private of Battery A, First Regi- 
 ment of Connecticut Volunteer.s, was enrolled on the 
 eighteenth day of May, 1898 (May 18, 1898) to serve two 
 years (3 years) or during the war. Was discharged by 
 reason of muster out of organization at New Haven, 
 Connecticut, October 25, 1898, 
 
 Barlow S. Honce. 
 Capt. 1st Conn. Vol. Artillery, Commanding the Battery. 
 Countersigned : 
 
 M. W. Crofton, 
 
 1st Lieut., 1st Infty., Mustering Officer. 
 
 EARL SMITH was born in Oxford, New 
 Haven county, Aug. 8, 1829, and is a son of Abra- 
 ham' Smith, who is supposed to have been born at 
 the same place as his son, and died in the city of 
 New York. Concerning Moses Smith, the grand- 
 father of Earl, nothing definite is now known by 
 the family. 
 
 Abraham Smith spent his boyhood and youth on 
 his father's farm, and learned the tanning and shoe- 
 
 making trades, which he carried on in conjunction 
 with farming. He married Emily Candee, who was. 
 born in Oxford, and was a daughter of Moses Can- 
 dee, a farmer. She died in June, 1833. To Mr. and 
 Mrs. Smith were born four children: Burritt A.,. 
 Charlotte M., Earl and Jerome C. Burritt A. was. 
 a graduate of Yale, and became a Congregational 
 minister, holding pastorates in Massachusetts, 
 Connecticut and Illinois; he died in Worcester,. 
 Mass. Charlotte M. married William Baldwin, of 
 New Haven, where she died. Jerome C. became 
 a physician, had a fine practice in the city of New 
 York, and died in Germantown, Pa. Abraham 
 Smith was a Whig, and on the dissolution of that 
 party joined the ranks of the Republicans. In re- 
 ligion both Mr. Smith and his wife were members 
 of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Earl Smith attended an academy in Massachu- 
 setts, and finished his schooling at the age of nine- 
 teen. He began life for himself as a worker in 
 a factory, and held positions in Woodbury, Nauga- 
 tuck and West Haven. In 1855 he came to Water- 
 bury, and entered the employ of the Waterbury 
 Buckle Co., and in 1865 was put in charge of the 
 business ; in 1895 he was elected president and is 
 still acting in that capacity. 
 
 In 1850 Earl Smith married Ellen Scott, daugh- 
 ter of Jonathan Scott, and they became the parents 
 of four children, Alice L., Archer J., Nellie G. and 
 Mabel. Nellie and Mabel are deceased. Alice mar- 
 ried George L. Swift, of Waterbury. Archer J. is 
 secretary and treasurer of the American Mills Co., 
 of which Mr. Smith is president, as he is of the 
 Smith & Griggs Co., of Waterbury. Archer J. 
 Smith married Miss Susan Maltby, a daus:hter of 
 Douglass J. Maltby, of Waterbury. Earl Smith 
 is a man of character and standing. In religion he 
 is a member of the First Church. 
 
 A. BRENNAN. The career of Mr. Brennan is 
 full of interest, and the story of his life is replete 
 with instruction and encouragement for younger 
 generations. He has seen the sun rise and set on 
 the sixty-eighth anniversary of his birth, and while 
 clear in mind and vigorous in body he awaits the 
 close of life in the calm confidence which is born 
 of an earnest religious faith and the memory of long 
 years well spent. 
 
 Mr. Brennan is a son of William and Mary 
 (Lackey) Brennan, and was born Dec. 15, 1833, in 
 County Kildare, Ireland, of which his parents were 
 also natives, and where his father was a peasant 
 farmer. William Brennan was born Dec. 15, 1801. 
 Our subject crossed the water in 1854, and his 
 father came to Naugatuck, Conn., in 1864, working 
 for two years as a foundryman, and dying there 
 April 18, 1866. Eight years afterward, in 1874, his 
 widow passed away. Andrew was one of a fainily 
 of ten children, four of whom died in infancy, the 
 others being Margaret, who married James Mc- 
 Dermott, of Naugatuck; Julia, the wife of John 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 823 
 
 Brennan, of the same town ; William, a journeyman 
 molder of recognized skill ; Patrick, a foreman in 
 the Malleable Iron Works, of Naugatuck ; and Bar- 
 tholomew, a valued member of the police force of 
 Springfield, Ohio. 
 
 The first year after coming to America Andrew 
 Brennan spent in Stanhope, N. J., working upon a 
 railroad, and in 1855 he came to Hamden, Conn., 
 where he entered upon an apprenticeship to the 
 iron molder's trade in the works at that time known 
 as the Hamden Foundry. On June 7, 1857, he be- 
 gan work as a journeyman in' Union City, and for 
 exactly twenty years continued in the employ of the 
 same concern, quitting the establishment June 7, 
 1877. On Jan. i, 1880, he organized the Union City 
 Coal Co., with Peter Scadden, of Waterbury, and 
 the City Lumber & Coal Co., of Waterbury. About 
 six months afterward he bought out Mr. Scadden, 
 and in 1888 he bought out the City Lumber & Coal 
 Co. In 1888 he reorganized the company with the 
 following officers : Andrew Brennan, president ; 
 Thomas W. Ahern, treasurer and secretary. In 
 1894 his son William was made treasurer and gen- 
 eral manager, and held that position until his death, 
 Aug. 16, 1900, when Andrew C. Brennan was made 
 general manager and treasurer of the company. 
 Mr. Brennan also deals largely in real estate, and 
 owns much valuable property in Waterbury. In 
 politics he is independent of parties. In religious 
 faith he is a Catholic, and he and his family attend 
 St. Frances Church of Naugatuck. 
 
 Mr. Brennan married, May 16, 1858, Elizabeth 
 Martin, who was born in Kings County, Ireland. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Brennan have been blessed with ten 
 children: William (deceased), Ellen, Andrew C, 
 Mary, Elizabeth (i), Elizabeth (2), Catherine, 
 Margaret, Francis and Florence. Three of the 
 daughters married residents of Naugatuck, Ellen 
 being the wife of Thomas W. Ahern, and Mary the 
 wife of Patrick Daly; Elizabeth' (2) is the widow 
 of Edward P. Noonan, a merchant, who died Dec. 
 7, 1901. Andrew C. is general manager and treasurer 
 of the City Lumber & Coal Co. The four younger 
 children live at home. Francis is the manager of 
 a bottling works in Naugatuck. 
 
 CHARLES ELLSWORTH EVARTS. Prom- 
 inently identified with the horticultural and agri- 
 cultural interests of New Haven county is the firm 
 of C. E. Evarts & Son, of which Charles E. Evarts 
 is the senior partner. He is a man of standing in 
 the community, and one of its most respected citi- 
 zens. 
 
 Charles E. Evarts was born in Guilford, this 
 county, Aug. 27, 1839, and his ancestors were 
 among the oldest settlers of that historic town. 
 Abraham Evarts, his grandfather, was a native of 
 Guilford, where he became a large land owner 
 and well-known .farmer, in the Nut Plains Dis- 
 trict, and there he lived a busy and useful life, 
 and reared a family whicla has reflected 
 
 credit upon the name. Jason Evarts, his son, 
 was born in the Xut Plains District, where 
 he grew to manhood on a farm, and he also spent 
 the greater part of his life in his native place, re- 
 moving in advanced age to the town of Branford. 
 He spent his last days, in Yalesville, at the home of 
 our subject. His death occurred in 1888, and his 
 remains lie in the old Branford cemetery. During 
 early life he had been a pronounced Whig, later 
 adopting Republican principles. He was a leading 
 member of the Congregational Church. Jason Ev- 
 arts married in Killingworth Rosette Hull, the 
 daughter of Aaron Hull, one of the old settlers of 
 Killingworth, and to this union were born : Charles 
 E., subject of this sketch; Horatio; Joel; Sarah, 
 who married Edwin Clark ; Reuben, deceased ; and 
 Frances, who married Stephen Terhune. The be- 
 loved mother of this family died at her home in 
 Branford. 
 
 Charles E. Evarts grew up in the village of Guil- 
 ford, and attended the district school. While still 
 a lad he removed to Killingworth and worked with 
 his uncle, Ellsworth Hull, for eight years. He then 
 returned to Guilford, and occupied the succeeding 
 year upon the farm. His next employment was 
 teaming, in the town of Madison, and from there 
 he made a trip to Illinois and farmed for himself 
 two years in Cook county. On his return East he 
 took up his residence in Clinton, Conn., for a brief 
 season, going from- there to Meriden, where he 
 found profitable employment in the sash and blind 
 factory, and later with Stephen Parker, at coffee 
 mill manufacturing. 
 
 When the Civil war broke out Mr. Evarts was 
 one of the gallant men who immediately re- 
 sponded to the call for help, and enlisted in April, 
 1861, in Meriden, joining Company E. (Capt. Bix- 
 bee) 1st Regiment, and served through the three 
 months' term of that enlistment, taking part in the 
 battle of Bull Run and other engagements. In Oc- 
 tober, 1861, he testified to his patriotism by re-en- 
 listing, joining the ist Connecticut Light Battery, 
 under Capt. Rockwell, and for two years served 
 faithfully in the Department of the South. The 
 third enlistment of this brave and loyal soldier was 
 in the ist Connecticut Light Battery, and he con- 
 tinued to serve to the close of the war, being mus- 
 tered out at its termination at Richmond, Va. He 
 returned home after four years and three months 
 given to the service of his country. 
 
 One among the many defenders of his country, 
 bearing the marks of war and exposure, Mr. Ev- 
 arts returned to Connecticut and turned again to 
 peaceful pursuits. Until 1866 no suitable opening 
 presented itself, but in that year he removed to the 
 town of Branford and started in the butcher busi- 
 ness, which was a successful venture. He was thus 
 occupied six years, and in 1872, desiring a larger 
 field, he removed to New Haven, and there con- 
 ducted the same business for two years more. For 
 two years after leaving New Haven he was in Meri- 
 
824 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 den, employed as carpenter and joiner. Thence going 
 to Branford, he remained six months, and then went 
 to Mt. Carmel, in the town of Hamden, as foreman 
 of the anneahng department of the carriage works 
 of the Woodruff Co. This position he held two 
 and one-half years, dnd remained in Mt. Carmel six 
 years, the latter part of that period engaged at his 
 trade of carpenter and joiner. Removing to Sey- 
 mour, Conn., he worked there for a short time at 
 his trade, hut in 1887 he came to the town of Wall- 
 ingford and located near Yalesville, determined to 
 return to agricultural life. Here he purchased a 
 valuable tract of land, consisting of 160 acres, 
 known as the Watson farm, and immediately en- 
 tered the business of market gardening and fruit 
 growing, becoming so prosperous in this line that 
 his name is already known all over the county and 
 wherever horticultural or agricultural topics are 
 discussed. In his son Wesley J\Ir. Evarts has a 
 most efficient assistant, and he is now a partner in 
 the firm. In 189 1 this firm engaged in peach cul- 
 ture, and they now own seventeen acres in peach 
 trees, which yield enormously, and in which Mr. 
 Evarts sees a reward for his labor and scientific 
 study of this branch of horticulture. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Evarts was married in Guilford, 
 to Miss Emma J. Resing, who died June 17, 1874, 
 in New Haven, leaving four children : Sarah, who 
 married Elmer E. Holmes ; Nellie, of Massachu- 
 setts ; Alice Gertrude ; and Charles, of Meriden. 
 The second marriage of Mr. Evarts was to Mary 
 E. Rhodes, a native of Indiana, who passed out of 
 life in 1895, a good and worthy woman. Her chil- 
 dren number four, three of whom survive: Wes- 
 ley, Ruby and Effie. The first named is a partner 
 in the firm of C. E. Evarts & Son, proprietors of 
 the Highland Farm, fruit growers and market gar- 
 deners, and is one of the enterprising and progres- 
 sive young men of this community, possessing nat- 
 ural mechanical talent which he has displayed in 
 the construction of several wagons, and bids fair to 
 give him future prominence. 
 
 In politics Mr. Evarts is a Republican, but no 
 office seeker. His business interests and his do- 
 mestic life have engrossed his time, leaving little 
 leisure for public life, and no doubt he feels that 
 enough of his life has already been given to public 
 service. As a man and as a citizen he enjoys the 
 esteem of the community. 
 
 WALTER HAMLIN HOLT^IES, M. D.. whose 
 death at Waterbury, Nov. 27, 1898, removed one of 
 the city's most useful professional men and ripe 
 scholars, was born Jujie 23, 1854, in Calais, Maine, 
 son of Job Holmes, M. D., a physician of creditable 
 standing in the eastern part of that state. 
 
 Dr. Holmes was graduated from Bowdoin Col- 
 lege in 1875, ranking third in his class, and being 
 rated as one of the most able men in college. He 
 devoted a great part of his time to literature, and 
 educated himself to such a degree that he was able 
 
 to repeat long quotations from Greek and Latin 
 authors, and from famous authors in other tongues. 
 After leaving college be spent one year in Calais 
 with Dr. C. E. Swan, who had 'been a partner of 
 his father. Young Holmes was so well fitted for 
 the study of medicine that he entered the second- 
 year class of the Harvard Medical School, from 
 which he was graduated in 1879. From 1878 to 
 1880 he was connected with the Boston City Hos- 
 pital, for six months as "medical externe," and for 
 one year as "surgical interne" and house surgeon. 
 He was one of the leading men in his class at the 
 Harvard Medical School, and was graduated with 
 distinguished honors, securing coveted prizes and 
 displaying ability far beyond his years. He came to 
 Waterbury in March, 1880, and in November of the 
 same year formed a partnership with Dr. Gideon L. 
 Piatt, whose daughter he subsequently married. Dr. 
 Holmes at once assumed a high place in the com- 
 munity, at first having much to do with the prac- 
 tice of Dr. Piatt, but gradually acquiring a large 
 clientele of his own, and becoming one of the lead- 
 ing physicians of Waterbury. 
 
 The Doctor's interest in literature did not be- 
 come absorbed in his professional work, as the fol- 
 lowing little anecdote will show : He had secured 
 a valuable copy of a work by Lucian, a celebrated 
 Greek satirist and humorist who flourished about 
 120 to 200 A. D. He was an ardent Greek and 
 Latin scholar, reading the latter language as easily 
 as English, and as his beloved Lucian was printed 
 with alternate pages of Latin and Greek, he ufeed 
 to cover the Latin pages with a paper, in order that 
 he would study it out for himself in the Greek rather 
 than have recourse to the easier Latin. Once, when 
 reading this Lucian, he came across a passage, so 
 ambiguous in form that he felt he was unable to 
 translate it satisfactorily. He consulted a local 
 scholar, who was obliged to admit his inability to 
 help him, but referred him to a prominent Greek 
 instructor at Yale. Dr. Holmes wrote to the latter, 
 and received a reply stating that the passage re- 
 ferred to was rendered obscure by a typographical 
 error, and at 'the same time giving the correct read- 
 ing, which was identical with that of the Doctor's, 
 before he had sought assistance. His elation at the 
 explanation may be easily imagined. Later the same 
 Yale instructor made inquiries concerning 'his cor- 
 respondent to find whether he was a young man in 
 search of an instructorship, and was very much 
 astonished to find that he was a very busy physi- 
 cian, who found his recreation in the study of dead 
 languages. Intellectually he was one of the ablest 
 of men, and in addition to his phenomenal memory 
 he possessed to a remarkable degree the ability to 
 grasp instantly and to solve accurately difficult prob- 
 lems. To these qualities was added a wealth of im- 
 aginative power which would have enabled him, 
 had he devoted himself to literature, to have created 
 a name which would have been known wherever the 
 English language is read. 
 
jf^MZy /^ , Hdr^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 825 
 
 On April 6, 1881, Dr. Holmes was married to 
 Medora Caroline, only daughter of the late Dr. 
 Gideon L. Piatt, of Waterbury, who survives him. 
 Dr. Holmes' health began to fail in 1892, and in 
 1894 he was compelled to give up his practice. He 
 died Nov. 27, 1898, a sacrifice to his profession, his 
 death resulting from blood poisoning by inoculation 
 through a pricked finger during an operation on a 
 patient. Dr. Holmes' charities were many and un- 
 obtrusive. He freely gave his services and very 
 often sulbstantial offerings to the poor, and many a 
 Waterbury family can testify as to his goodness in 
 this respect. It is related of him that he kept in his 
 ^office a supply of just the things that poor people 
 might need in time of illness. He knew in such 
 cases that every penny counted, and he often loaned 
 the necessities of the needy. Occasionally his faith 
 "in human nature was rudely shocked, and at such 
 times his distress v/as acute. He was honest to a 
 ■fault, and expected others to be. While in college 
 he was a member of the D. K. E. Greek Letter 
 Society. He was a member of the Waterbury Club, 
 and of various medical societies. On philosophical 
 and theological subjects he was an independent 
 thinker, but throughout all intellectual vicissitudes 
 remained faithful to the Unitarian faith— the faith 
 ■of his childhood. 
 
 In the course of his remarks in the payment of 
 -the last sad rites to his friend and parishioner. Dr. 
 Anderson said : 
 
 Dr. Holmes was a man worth knowing, a man who.se 
 friendship was well worth cultivating. To those who met 
 liira casually, or in the range of his practice as a physician, 
 he may not have seemed so, but he was an exceptional 
 man. His commanding stature represented a man tower- 
 ing above the average in regard to mental characteristics 
 and moral qualities. A man who is large physically chal- 
 lenges the admiration of the best people, provided he is 
 large in other ways, and all who knew Dr. Holmes 
 Tecognized this quality of largeness in him. Here was a 
 ■man of broad and rich nature, through whom the bounty 
 -of God and the world flowed easily for nourishment and 
 comfort. He was especially interesting to us as a man 
 -of intellect! In these days the successful pursuit of a 
 -profession necessitates almost exclusive devotion to pro- 
 fessional routine, and this involves a narrowing process- 
 so that the average lawyer is simply a lawyer, the clergy- 
 -man, simply a clergyman, and the physician, simply a 
 physician. To be a thorough-going and busy practitioner 
 and at the same time a broad and rounded and cultured 
 man is by no means easy. It indicates early training on 
 ■a. broad basis; it indicates dominating tastes larger than 
 the limits of a profession ; it indicates fullness of manhood. 
 It indicated all this in Dr. Holmes. There is nothing to 
 suggest that he was not in love with the profession _ot 
 ■medicine; but he seemed to view that profession m its 
 relations to science as a whole, yes, and m its relations 
 to scholarship as a whole. He certainly possessed a 
 scientific cast of mind, but he was not m the least con- 
 scious of that conflict between science and letters of which 
 some have had so much to say. If he had the mmd of a 
 scientist, he had the tastes of a scholar. And so, tor a 
 few bright years, we had before us (not very common 
 in this busy community) the spectacle of a man who 
 combined in himself the utilitarian and the scholarly 
 qualities, and showed us that it is possible, even yet, to 
 do one's daily work well and earn an honest living, and 
 at the same time be loyal to the intellectual and artistic 
 
 ideals of earlier days. In thinking of Dr. Holmes I find 
 that the mental qualities merge into the spiritual, that his 
 tastes were closely allied to virtues. In attempting an 
 estimate of him, it would be more difficult than in most 
 cases to confine one's self to any one department of ^ his 
 life. I shrink from processes of analysis on such occasions 
 as this — even as I shrink from being analyzed myself — 
 but I do wish to say a word concerning these deeper and 
 more central qualities of our friend's nature. I wish to 
 say that he seemed to me a very genuine and sincere 
 person, that he was exceptionally free from affectation and 
 pretence, that his honesty was not simply commercial, 
 but spiritual. It is not always that a man impresses you 
 with being precisely what he seems to be ; but that was true 
 of him. This was not, however, the result of any blunt 
 frankness on his part, such as some men take pride in; 
 it was the product, rather, of a certain transparency of 
 nature, the entire absence of duplicity. The impression 
 of sincerity was not secured by the sacrifice of geniality 
 and sweetness; his kindliness, on the contrary, was a 
 constant and pervasive quality. 
 
 I have seldom met with a layman more ready to talk 
 upon religious themes than he was, and his outspoken 
 sincerity did not allow a moment's doubt in regard to the 
 position he occupied. He carne to us representing a type 
 of Christian belief which is not common m Connecticut, 
 and when, in an early interview, he told me that he was a 
 Unitarian, he evidently feared that he might grieve me. 
 But he could not think of holding anything back, and we 
 were at once on terms of mutual consideration and amity. 
 He was proud of his faith, as all Unitarians are,^ and 
 could not hide his contempt for "obscure dogmas," but 
 his attitude was not by any means merely critical; it was 
 receptive and friendly. His was a deeply religious nature, 
 and whatever nourished his deeper life he welcomed, no 
 matter from what source it came, or in what form it was 
 offered him. 
 
 After speaking at length in regard to the Doc- 
 tor's last illness, that tragedy of death in life, Dr. 
 Anderson adds : 
 
 To those who were called to look on, whether day by 
 day or at intervals, it must seem a mysterious thing that 
 this noble man— this man of sweetness and charity-- 
 should have been led down, as he was, into a "valley of 
 the shadow of death" more dreadful than Bunyan ever 
 saw in vision, and held captive there so many years in 
 fierce conflicts with spirits of evil; and it must seem all 
 the more mysterious when we consider that his life-long 
 training had been such as to leave no place m his normal 
 mental processes for any thought of evil spirits, but rather 
 to bring him face to face with divine benevolence. Let 
 us think of him as swiftly emerging, on that tempestuous 
 Sunday, from all the gloom and discord of these inex- 
 plicable' years, into the calmness and peace and felicity of 
 those elect souls who "after life's fitful fever" sleep well, 
 and then awake with God. 
 
 At the close of his remarks Dr. Anderson re- 
 peated Edwin Arnold's beautiful poem, "After 
 Death," a favorite of Dr. Holmes' : 
 
 He who died at Azan sends 
 This to comfort faithful friends: 
 
 Faithful friends! It lies I know, 
 Pale and white as cold as snow, 
 And ye say, "Abdallah's dead!" 
 Weeping at my feet and head. 
 I can see your falling tears, 
 I can hear your cries and prayers. 
 Yet I smile and whisper this: 
 "I am not that thing you kiss ; 
 Cease your tears and let it lie ; 
 It was mine; it is not I." 
 
826 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 'Tis a tent which I am quitting, 
 
 'Tis a garment no more fitting, 
 
 'Tis a cage from which at last 
 
 Like a liawk my soul has passed. 
 
 Love the inmate, not the room ; 
 
 The wearer, not the garb ; the plume 
 
 Of the falcon, not the bars 
 
 Which kept him from the splendid stars. 
 
 Loving friends ! be wise and dry 
 Straightway every weeping eye ; 
 What ye lift upon the bier 
 Is not worth a wistful tear. 
 'Tis an empty seashell, one 
 Out of which the pearl is gone. 
 The shell is broken, it lies there ; 
 The pearl, the all, the soul is here. 
 'Tis an earthen jar whose lid 
 Allah sealed, the while it hid 
 That treasure of His treasury. 
 A mind which loved him ; let it lie ! 
 Let the shard be earth's once more. 
 Since the gold shines in His store ! 
 
 Farewell friends, yet not farewell, 
 Where I am ye too shall dwell. 
 I am gone before your face 
 A heart-beat's time, a gray ant's pace. 
 When ye come where I have stepped 
 Ye will marvel why ye wept ; 
 Ye will know, by true love taught, 
 That here is all, and there is naught. 
 
 Weep awhile, if ye are fain — 
 Sunshine still must follow rain ! 
 Only, not at death, for death 
 (Now I see) is that first breath 
 Which our souls draw when we enter 
 Life that is of all life center. 
 
 Know ye Allah's love is law. 
 Viewed from Allah's throne above. 
 Be ye firm of trust, and come 
 Faithful onward to your home ! 
 
 He who died at Azan gave 
 
 This to those who made his grave. 
 
 LEVI ODELL CHITTENDEN traces his an- 
 cestry from William Chittenden, who came from 
 England to New England in 1639, thence in the 
 same year to Guilford, Conn. He was born in 
 Kent, England, and married Joanna, daughter of 
 Dr. Edmund Shaeffer, of Cranbrook, in Kent. A 
 man of ability, he filled many important offices in 
 the Colony. 
 
 Thomas Chittenden, son of William, was born 
 in England, married Joanna Jordan, daughter of 
 John Jordan, of Guilford, and died in 1683. 
 
 William Chittenden, son of Thomas, was mar- 
 ried twice. Ele died in 1738; 
 
 William Chittenden, son of William, born in 
 1706, married (first) Rachel White, of Middle- 
 town, and (second), Sarah Stevens. He died in 
 1786. 
 
 Jared Chittenden, son of William, born in 1734, 
 married (first) Deborah Stone, of Guilford, and 
 (second) Elizabeth Ward, daughter of Samuel 
 Dudley, of Guilford. He lived in North Guilford, 
 
 and died there in 1824. His children were all born 
 to his first marriage. 
 
 Deacon Levi Chittenden, son of Jared, born 
 May 21, 1762, married Hannah Johnson, of Wall- 
 ingford. They resided in North Guilford, where he 
 died Nov. 11, 1835, at the age of seventy-three, his 
 wife surviving ten years. 
 
 Jared Chauncey Chittenden, son of Deacon Levi, 
 born Aug. 27, 1799, in 1825 married Rowena 
 Barnes, of North Haven, born Nov. 27, 1806. They 
 had six children. Mr. Chittenden resided in North • 
 Guilford, and died April 13, 1854, aged fifty-four. 
 He engaged in cabinetmaking all his life, and was 
 considered one of the most capable workmen in 
 his locality. In politics he was a Whig. He was 
 known as an honest and upright man, and although 
 he died in the prime of life had exerted much in- 
 fluence for good in his neighborhood, and was sin- 
 cerely lamented. 
 
 Levi Odell Chittenden, son of Jared Chauncey, 
 was born Sept. 28, 1844, and was but nine years 
 of age when left to face the world deprived of a 
 father's protection. His school days ended when 
 he was ten years old, for at that time he endeavored 
 to provide for himself by working on a farm, and 
 then obtained a situation as clerk in the store of 
 E. M. Fuld, in North Haven, where he remained 
 until he was seventeen. In July, 1862, he came ta 
 Guilford and enlisted in Company I, 14th Regiment, 
 under Col. Morris and Capt. I. R. Bronson, and 
 served in the 2d Army Corps until March, 1863, 
 participating in many engagements during that 
 time. The exposure and deprivations of army life 
 brought on troubles which caused his discharge for 
 disability, after a serious illness in hospital at Har- 
 per's Ferry and later at Frederick City, Md. Fol- 
 lowing his return from the war, where he had done 
 his duty as a soldier bravely, Mr. Chittenden en- 
 tered the employ of R. S. Chittenden, of East River,, 
 as clerk in his store, and remained until 1877. Com- 
 ing back to Guilford he entered a shop, and re- 
 mained in that position for the succeeding ten years. 
 He then took up the trade of carpenter and joiner,, 
 in which he became skillful, and for several years- 
 he was considered one of the most reliable men in 
 his line in the neighborhood. His work in this 
 line was put aside when he entered the real estate 
 office of William Sewarts. Later he accepted a po- 
 sition on the Consolidated Railroad, as brakemait 
 on passenger trains on the Shore Line, and con- 
 tinued thus until i8go, when he accepted a position 
 as engineer in the Spencer foundry, where for the 
 past eleven years he has filled with efficiency this 
 position of responsibility. His natural bent has 
 been in this direction, and in such work ability like 
 his is almost indispensable. 
 
 On Jan. 20, 1870, was celebrated the marriage 
 of Mr. Chittenden to Jeannette E. Hull, daughter 
 of William A. and Mary (Parmelee) Hull, of Guil- 
 ford. She died in 1888. On March 12, 1890, our 
 subject contracted a second marriage, with Miss 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 827 
 
 Elizabeth Burr, who was born in Haddam, a 
 daughter of Edward and Elizabeth (Ladd) Burr, 
 natives of Haddam, and both of old and prominent 
 families of Middlesex county. No children have 
 been born to Mr. and Mrs. Chittenden. Their home 
 is the abode of hospitality and sociability. Mrs. 
 Chittenden is a lady of many accomplishments and 
 high culture, and is highly esteemed in Guilford. 
 Mr. Chittenden is a member of the G. A. R., and 
 past commander of the post in Guilford, and has 
 held all the offices in that organization. In politics 
 he is a Republican. He is assessor of the town and 
 a member of the board of relief, and has taken an 
 important part in all public undertakings. Both he 
 and his wife are members of the Congregational 
 Church. Mr. Chittenden owns much valuable prop- 
 erty here, and the finest bowling alley in Guilford 
 belongs to him. 
 
 As a soldier our subject won the respect and 
 esteem of his comrades, as an employe of his em- 
 ployers, and as a public official of his fellow citi- 
 zens, and in every relation of life he has done well 
 his part. Thrown upon his own resources at so 
 tender an age, his success in life only emphasizes 
 what honesty, persistent effort and courage will ac- 
 complish. 
 
 WILLIAM J. FRANCIS (deceased) was born 
 Oct. II, 1832, a son of William and Emily (Blakes- 
 lee) Francis, and attended the schools in Walling- 
 ford, his native town. Growing up on the old 
 homestead, he remained at home until x866, when 
 he went to Meriden and entered the office of the 
 Adams Express Co. At Meriden he was also em- 
 ployed by the Britannia Co., and he remained in 
 that city until 1875, in which year he came back to 
 North Farms, Wallingford, settling on the farm 
 where his father was born, adjoining the family 
 homestead on which he was reared. There he spent 
 the remainder of his industrious and honorable life, 
 making many substantial improvements on the 
 place, and, investing over $9,000 in bringing the 
 farm up to modern ideas, soon had one of the most 
 attractive country homes in the town. A general 
 fanner and dairyman, he was a successful mana- 
 ger and a good business man. Simple and unosten- 
 tatious in his habits, he was devoted to his home 
 and upright in his life. He was a member of the 
 Grange, and much interested in everything that 
 pertained to the progress of farming, and was an 
 enterprising and thoughtful citizen. Mr. Francis 
 died on his farm Dec. 4, 1895, and was buried in 
 the Wallingford cemetery. He was a half brother 
 of John Hall Francis. 
 
 Lyman H. Francis, son of WiUiam J., was 
 born Feb. i, 1865, on the same farm as his father. 
 In due time he attended the local district school. In 
 1884 he was graduated from the Yale Business Col- 
 lege, and began his life work by assisting his fa- 
 ther on, the farm. A little later he went on the 
 road as a traveling salesman for the Reed Fertil- 
 
 izer Co., of New York, and after his father's death 
 he took charge of the family h6mestead, which con- 
 sists of no acres. He has devoted the land very 
 largely to market gardening, making many improve- 
 ments to fit the changed line of work. In August,. 
 1898, a great loss befell him in the destruction by 
 fire of six farm buildings and a large crop of hay. 
 Since that time he has built a fine barn, adapted to- 
 his business. 
 
 Mr. Francis was married, in Glastonbury, Conn., 
 April II, 1894, to Miss Lucy A. Talcott, a daugh- 
 ter of George and Lucy Ann Talcott, who are both 
 deceased. They have had two children, Walter Ly- 
 man and Mildred Lucy. Mr. Francis belongs to 
 Compass Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and with his wife 
 belongs to the Grange; he was instrumental in the 
 organization of the Grange at Kensington. In re- 
 ligion Mrs. Francis is an Episcopalian, and he is 
 not connected with any church, though a man of 
 strong feeling and deep convictions as to the right 
 and the true in daily living. A more complete his- 
 tory of the Francis family appears in connection 
 with the sketch of John Francis, elsewhere. 
 
 GEORGE T. BUSHNELL (deceased). The 
 family of Bushnell, whose name is well known 
 throughout the State of Connecticut, is of English 
 descent, and a majority of the members of the 
 branch to which Mr. George T. Bushnell belonged 
 have been agriculturists. Both his parents were 
 born and both lived and died in Saybrook, where he 
 himself was born March 4, 1815. 
 
 Taylor P. Bushnell, his father, was a farmer, as 
 well as a tanner and shoemaker. He served with 
 courage and gallantry during the War of 1812, and 
 prior to the formation of the Republican party was 
 a stanch Whig in politics. From 1856 until his 
 death however, he acted with the party of Fremont 
 and Lincoln. He married Fannie Bull, a daugh- 
 ter of John Bull, a prosperous and highly respected 
 farmer of Saybrook, and at once settled upon a 
 farm in the same town. Three children were born 
 of this union — Frederick, Electa A., and George T. 
 The first born son, Frederick, has reached the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty-eight years, and after a life 
 of hard work spent in farming, has ceased active 
 labor to pass the remainder of his years in well- 
 earned, richly-merited rest. Electa A., the only 
 daughter, married Asa H. Rose, a joiner of Say- 
 brook, and died in 1897. Both Taylor P. Bushnell 
 and his wife were devout and consistent members, 
 of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 George T. Bushnell passed his youth very much- 
 as did other Connecticut farmers' sons in the first 
 third of the nineteenth century. Work upon the 
 farm alternated with attendance at the district 
 school, and so the years passed until he reached 
 the age of eighteen. He then learned the trade of 
 a turner and wood carver, and in 1836 — being then 
 twenty-one years old — removed from Saybrook tO' 
 Derby. That city was his home for sixty-four 
 
828 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 years, and during his long and useful life after 
 reaching his majority, he carried on his business as 
 a turner, and added thereto that of a dealer in real 
 estate. He accumulated a handsome competence 
 and retired from business, devoting himself to the 
 loaning and investment of his capital. Though 
 long passed the limit of three-score years and ten, 
 which was allotted to man h\ the Psalmist "through 
 reason of strength," he was hale and well preserved 
 up to the time of his death, Sept. 14, 1900. Like his 
 father, he was a Whig in early life and later a 
 Republican. After 1838 he was actively and prom- 
 inently identified with the growth and work of the 
 Congregational Church in Derby. He held various 
 offices in the First Church of that city, and was a 
 deacon for more than a quarter of a century. In 
 recognition of his long and faithful service in that 
 capacity, no less than in acknowledgment of his 
 self-sacrificing labor in and liberal contributions to 
 the cause of Evangelical religion, he was made ar 
 honorary member of the Board of Deacons, a dis- 
 tinction all the more valuable because so rarely con- 
 ferred. Deacon Bushnell attributed his long life 
 and the fact that his mental faculties remained un- 
 impaired, to his regular, abstemious mode of life. 
 He always championed the cause of temperance in 
 the highest and most comprehensive sense of that 
 term, and he himself was a living illustration of the 
 soundness of his plea. The closing years of his life 
 were passed in that serene peace befitting an octo- 
 genarian who looked back upon the past without 
 regret and forward to the future without fear. 
 
 In 1838 Deacon Bushnell was married to Mary, 
 daughter of Truman Gilbert, of Derby. The wife 
 of his youth remained by his side to the last, to com- 
 fort, to cheer and to sustain. Hand-in-hand they 
 had descended the western slope of life's hill, with 
 pleasant memories and unfaltering faith. One child 
 blessed their union: George F., who is engaged in 
 the real estate business in Bridgeport. 
 
 CHANCY W. JUDD, now retired, is almost a 
 life-long resident of Waterbury, where he was born 
 June 27, 1824, of good old Connecticut stock, and 
 he is a highly respected citizen. 
 
 Stephen Judd, grandfather of our subject, was 
 born in Wallingford, Conn., and died in Waterburv, 
 in 1820. He served in the Revolutionary army, 
 and was wounded in the knee. William R., his 
 son and the father of our subject, was born in 
 Waterbury, May 9, 1802, and died Dec. 30, 187.S. 
 He learned the trade of shoemaker, but never fol- 
 lowed it, preferring that of stone mason, which very 
 nearly was his life vocation. On Dec. 2, 1821, he 
 married Anna Brown, who was born in Waterbury, 
 Aug. 8, T804, a daughter of Curtis Brown, a farmer 
 of Waterbury. She died in New Haven, Conn., 
 Feb. 24, 1878, the mother of two children : Chancy 
 W. and Miss Henrietta, the latter of whom was 
 born Dec. 12, 1832, in New York State, and is 
 making her home with her brother in Waterburv. 
 
 The father was first a Whig, later a Republican, 
 and in religious faith he and his wife were Baptists. 
 Chancy W. Judd, our subject, was two years old 
 when his parents removed to Montgomery county, 
 N. Y., and was twelve when he returned with them 
 to Waterbury, and consequently received his edu- 
 cation in both cities. At the age of fifteen he com- 
 menced work in the Scovill Rolling Mills, Watei- 
 bury, learning the trade of brass roller, and 
 was employed there the greater part of the 
 time for the long period of forty-seven years, 
 or until 1885, since when he has lived retired. 
 He has lived on Hill street for four or five 
 years more than half a century, and has not 
 married. In politics he is a Republican, and for 
 four vears he served his city on the police force. 
 He and his sister attend the services of the Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 CHARLES COUPLAND, whose death oc- 
 curred at his home in Seymour April 25, 1901, was 
 for twenty years one of the leading citizens of that 
 town, identified with the Tingue Manufacturing 
 Co., and for fifteen years its treasurer and the man- 
 ager of the company's works at this point. He was 
 one of the most ingenious and practical manufac- 
 turers in the Naugatuck Valley. 
 
 Mr. Co'Ulpland was born at Huddersfield, in York- 
 shire, England, April 11, 1841, son of Robert and 
 Mary Coupland, and was the second of a family 
 of nine children. His father was a small wcx)len 
 manufacturer, but thoroughly skilled in his occu- 
 pation, and was considered an ingenious man. He 
 soon needed the services of his son, and when 
 Charles was but seven years of age he was placed 
 at work in the factorv, where he labored in the day- 
 time, acquiring what education he received by at- 
 tendance at night schools. But he learned in the 
 twelve years that included his apprenticeship in his 
 father's factory what proved of immense practical 
 benefit to him, every detail and all the intricacies 
 and fine points pertaining to the manufacture of 
 woolen goods. Having obtained his mechanical 
 knowledge he became, at the age of nineteen years, 
 dissatisfied with the prospects in life, and in i860 
 resolved to cast his lot in America. With others he 
 emigrated to this country, and soon found work in 
 the Windemere mills, at Rockville, Conn. After 
 working a short time as a second man in the card- 
 ing room he was given charge of the department, 
 and from that time all his service was in super- 
 visory positions. In 1865 he went to Philadelphia, 
 Pa., where he was given charge of the carding and 
 spinning of the Baltic Mills. He thence went to 
 Union Village, Conn., where he owned and operated 
 a custom woolen mill for several years. A year 
 later he removed to Burrville, Conn., where he also 
 engaged in buisiness on his own account, in the man- 
 ufacture of woolen flocks, using a machine invented 
 by himself, which very successfully performed that 
 operation, doing as much work as five of the ma- 
 
F-w ■'->-. FGKt' 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 829 
 
 chines previously used. In 1869 he sold out and 
 went to Templeton, Mass., to take charge of the 
 well-known Otter River blanket mills, and went 
 from there to the woolen mills of Berry & Stanton, 
 at Woodville, R. L, each move bringing an advance 
 in position and salary, and increasing his knowledge 
 of manufacturing. 
 
 In 1871 Mr. Coupland became the manager and 
 part owner of the mill at Thomaston, Conn., ope- 
 rated by the Plymouth Woolen Co., where he re- 
 mained until the mill was burned down, in the fall 
 of 1873. The corporation now determined to build 
 a worsted mill, and Mr. Coupland was urged to 
 prepare himself to take charge of it. His experi- 
 ence had been confined to woolen goods, whose 
 manufacture differed from worsted goods, and this 
 necessitated new instruction, which was difficult to 
 obtain, as every mill kept a close guard of its secret 
 process. Determined to find an entrance into some 
 mill, even if he would have to do ordinary labor, 
 Mr. Coupland came to Sevmour, where he applied 
 for a place in the Kalmia Mills, at that time run for 
 the manufacture of worsted varns by Scheppers 
 Brothers, of Philadelphia, with Emil Martines as 
 superintendent. He was told the only place vacant 
 was that of engineer, and if he was competent he 
 could take that. He knew but little of the work 
 of an engineer, but accepted the place at $3 per day, 
 and by diligent attention to his work soon succeeded 
 in giving good satisfaction. He remained nine 
 months, and in that period learned all he wanted to 
 know about worsted. In the meantime the death of 
 Lucius P. Porter, of the Plymouth Co., had disar- 
 ranged the plans of the corporation, which decided 
 not to rebuild. Mr. Coupland now sought a new 
 iield of labor, and applied to A. T. Stewart -for the 
 position of general superintendent of his numerous 
 woolen mills, receiving the appointment, at a very 
 large salary, in the fall of 1874. He entered upon 
 his new duty to the great surprise of his acquaint- 
 ances at Seymour, who could not imagine how a 
 man who had been so recently a workman in an 
 engine room in their midst could possibly fill that 
 place. When Mr. Coupland took charge of the 
 Stewart interests Ijut four of the thirteen woolen 
 mills in four different States were running, but 
 soon every mill was profitably operated, giving era-' 
 ployment to over 10,000 people. In this service he 
 remained six years. 
 
 In 1880, while still in the employ of A. T. Stew- 
 art, Mr. Coupland invented a new and exceedingly 
 speedy way to weave mohair pile goods, which he 
 determined to utilize in a factory of his own, with 
 the aid of interested capital. At this time he was 
 introduced to John H. Tingule, a wealthy dry-goods 
 merchant of New York, who consented to embark 
 with him in this new enterprise, Mr. Coupland 
 agreeing to devise, construct and place in operation 
 all the necessary machinery, Mr. Tingue to see that 
 there was no lack of capital. Looking about for a 
 suitable site for the factory, they came to Seymour 
 
 and bought the Kalmia, or old Eagle Silk Mill, in 
 1880, and the work of building the machinery was 
 begun by Mr. Coupland. From that time until hia 
 death he was the genius which inspired and success- 
 fully directed the Tingue Manufacturing Co. at Sey- 
 mour. The corporation was formed in 1881, and the 
 same year the work of manufacturing plush goods 
 was begun. The process was a radical departure 
 from all former methods, and not only was this the 
 pioneer mill in America in this line of industry, but 
 for five years the sole occupant of this especial 
 field. 
 
 Of this mill and its operations the American 
 Machinist said in 1885 : 
 
 I had the pleasure, a few weeks ago, of looking 
 through the plush manufactory at Seymour, Connecticut, 
 through the courtesy of the president of the company, 
 Mr. J. H. Tingue, and under tlie guidance of IVTr. Coup- 
 land, the superintendent, whose inventive turn of mind, 
 backed up by his indomitable perseverance and exceptional 
 executive ability, has accomplislied wonders in the last 
 four years. Indeed, to pass through the different depart- 
 ments, as I did, and listen to the explanations of differ- 
 ences between the methods and machinery employed by 
 the Tingue Company, and those employed by manufac- 
 tvtrers of similar goods, both here and in foreign countries, 
 with the advantages claimed both in quantity and quality 
 of production, and be told that the machinery had been 
 invented, designed and built by themselves, while to the 
 question, "How long has it taken?" came tlie answer, 
 "Four years," was to me a genuine surprise. To the 
 enterprise, perseverance, inventive and mechanical ability 
 which have left their imprint all through this truly model' 
 establishment I feel that I have no words in which to pay a 
 fitting tribute. Through the successful establishment of 
 this industry — the manufacture of mohair plush — is opened 
 up a new and profitable industry in the raising of the 
 Angora goat, which has already Ijeen found to be a sure 
 source of profit in some parts of the Southern States, 
 where sheep raising has proved a failure. The beautiful 
 silky fleeces of these animals, with a fiber of six or seven 
 to nine or ten inches long — and in extreme cases, .1 am 
 told, it is found eighteen inches in length — are by the in- 
 genious machinery of the Tingue Company carried from 
 one stage of manufacture to another till two sheets of 
 plush in one, joined by the pile of each, await the services 
 of the ingenious splitting machine of Mr. Coupland, who, 
 with the inspiration of American air for the past score 
 of years, could not be satisfied with the old way in use 
 abroad of weaving over wires, which, by withdrawing, cut 
 the pile and separate the two sheets, but has invented a 
 machine the office of which is to split in the most accurate 
 manner, and in an entirely automatic way, any width or 
 length of plush goods. Not only is the operation of 
 splitting performed automatically, but the knives which do 
 the work are automatically ground while working, and 
 so kept sharp. Enough might be said of this place to fill 
 a volume, but, wishing to be careful not to violate any 
 confidence, I have simply to say I am truly grateful, while 
 I feel — and I think every American citizen should^- 
 that many thanks are due to these pioneers in an in- 
 dustry which promises to become one of the greatest im- 
 portance, not simply in a manufacturing sense, but to the^ 
 landowner in a large section of the country. 
 
 Subsequently much other labor-saving machin- 
 ery was added by Mr. Coupland, much of which he 
 invented, and he had thirty patents awarded him for- 
 machinery to be used in the manufacture of plush 
 goods. The mill and entire plant superintended by- 
 
830 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPEIICAL RECORD. 
 
 him was a model of neatness, order, and the adapta- 
 tion of the best means to obtain the best results, 
 showing that Mr. Coupland also had fine adminis- 
 trative ability as well as inventive talent, which gave 
 him a place among the foremost mill men of the 
 country. 
 
 Mr. Coupland was a public-spirited citizen and 
 responded generously to appeals for contributions 
 for the advancement of local enterprises. He espe- 
 "cially gave liberally for the public library, and only 
 a couple of weeks before his death, when the editor 
 of the Record asked him what would be the charge 
 for the use of the opera house two evenings, for an 
 entertainment for the benefit of the public library, 
 immediately replied, "Nothing if it is for the benefit 
 ®f the library." He was especially interested in the 
 proposed electric road to Ansonia, which he believed 
 would be for the good of the public. He was the 
 leader in the formation of the Tingue Manufactur- 
 ing Co., which for twenty years has carried on the 
 manufacture of plush goods here, one of the leading 
 industries of the place. The political affiliations of 
 Mr. Coupland were with the Democratic party, bult 
 in no sense was he a partisan. He was a prominent 
 Freemason and belonged to the Order of Elks. 
 
 At a, special meeting of the directors of the 
 Tingue Manufacturing Co., held in Seymour on 
 Saturday, April 27, IQOI, the following minute con- 
 cerning the death of Mr. Coupland was adopted 
 and passed : 
 
 The directors of this company have learned with deep 
 regret and sorrow of the death of their fellow director, 
 Charles Coiipland, which occurred at his home in Sey- 
 mour on the 25th day of April, 1901. 
 
 Mr. Coupland has been connected with this company 
 since its organization in 1881. From its beginning he has 
 been one of its directors and the superintendent of its 
 manufacturing business. Since 1885 he has been its treas- 
 urer and the general manager of its affairs in Seymour. He 
 from the first, has given to its service his time and his 
 talents unstintedly, and his experience and technical skill 
 and ability in all that pertained to the business of manu- 
 facturing have been of great value to the corporation. In 
 his death the corporation loses a valuable and faithful 
 servant whom it can ill spare at this time; and we, his 
 fellow directors, have lost a friend and trusted adviser 
 whose genial presence at our meetings we shall greatly 
 miss. 
 
 We tender to his family our warmest sympathy in 
 their sorrow over this sudden and sad bereavement. 
 
 We direct that this minute shall be entered upon our 
 records as a brief memorial of our sense of loss in the 
 death of Mr. Coupland; and that a copy thereof be pub- 
 lished in the newspapers and sent to his family. 
 
 On July 14, 1890, Mr. Coupland was married to 
 Mrs. Ada M. Jewett, daughter of George and 
 Eunice (West) Gates, of Norwich, Conn., and 
 widow of Dr. Thomas B. Jewett, of Derby. By her 
 first marriage Mrs. Coupland had one child, Thomas 
 E. Mr. Coupland had one daughter, Isabelle M., 
 now the wife of Dr. G. Wilmot, of New Haven, 
 by a previous marriage. Mr. Coupland's greatest 
 pleasure was in fine horses, of which he owned 
 several. 
 
 DELOS HOTCHKISS (deceased), who dur- 
 ing life was one of the most prominent agriculturists 
 and highly respected citizens of Cheshire, was born 
 on a farm in that town in 1802, and was descended 
 from one of the oldest and best families of New Ha- 
 ven county. 
 
 Josephus Hotchkiss, his father, was a native of 
 the town of Prospect, and when a young man came 
 to Cheshire, where he engaged in farming through- 
 out the remainder of his life. His remains were in- 
 terred in Cheshire cemetery. He married Sarah 
 Benham, and to them were born the following chil- 
 dren : Benona, who died in Kentucky ; Lois, wife 
 of Alfred Blakeslee; Sarah, wife of Willis Larra- 
 bee; Delos, our subject; Mary, wife of William 
 Hotchkiss ; and Emma, wife of Joseph Dooli);tle. 
 All are now deceased. 
 
 During his boyhood Delos Hotchkiss attended 
 the district schools and learned the trade of shoe- 
 making, which he followed for many years. Dur- 
 ing the winter season he would travel through the 
 South, making shoes, going with a number of others 
 employed by a Mr. Hall, of Winsted. Subsequently 
 he purchased a farm of 100 acres in Cheshire, near 
 the Southington line, and devoted the remainder of 
 his life to agricultural pursuits. He made many use- 
 ful and valuable improvements upon his place, in- 
 cluding the erection of a fine residence and good 
 barn and other outbuildings. Upon his place was 
 the largest apple tree in the state. It was very old, 
 and during a storm a few years ago was blown 
 down. 
 
 In September, 1827, Mr. Hotchkiss was married, 
 in Cheshire, to Miss Philocia Moss, their wedding 
 taking place at the residence of the bride's parents. 
 She was born in Cheshire Dec. 24, 1807, a daughter 
 of Thomas Doolittle and Ruth (Hale) Moss, and 
 belongs to old and honored families of this county, 
 including the Moss, Doolittle and Hale families. 
 She is a very intelligent woman, and although the 
 second oldest lady in Cheshire still possesses all her 
 faculties, and is an interesting conversationalist. 
 She is very charitable and benevolent, giving liber- 
 ally of her means to the poor and needy ; she has 
 also contributed largely to the children's home in 
 Mt. Carmel, to the high school in Cheshire, and to 
 similar enterprises. She is a good Christian, a mem- 
 ber of the Congregational Church, a kind neighbor 
 and a loving wife and mother. Mary Philocia, the 
 only child of our subject and his wife, makes her 
 home with her mother in Cheshire, and is caring for 
 her in her declining years. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss was an industrious, hard-working 
 man, upright and honorable in his dealings, and 
 temperate in his habits. The only society with which 
 he was ever connected was a temperance organiza- 
 tion. Pie was a God-fearing man, and an earnest 
 and faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church in early life. Later he joined the Wesleyan 
 Methodists, because of their Abolition sentiments. 
 In his last years he was an Adventist. He was a 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 831 
 
 stanch Abolitionist, much opposed to slavery, and 
 supported first the Whig and later the Republican 
 parties. He possessed all the requirements which 
 go to the making of a good citizen, and in his death 
 the community realized that it had lost one of its 
 best and most useful members. He died upon his 
 farm Oct. 16, 1890, honored and respected by all 
 who knew him, and was laid to rest in the Cheshire 
 cemetery. 
 
 WILLIAM BRYAN, for many years owner 
 and manager of the "Montowese House," a popular 
 summer resort at Indian Neck, was born in Bran- 
 ford July 16, 1826, a son of William and Irene 
 (Bradley) Bryan. 
 
 Our subject's father was born in 1796, on board 
 an English man-o'-war the "Diana," and was a 
 son of James Bryan, who was an officer in the 
 English navy, and was at the battle of Trafalgar; 
 he was a lieutenant under Lord Beresford. For 
 bravery in that engagement he was made a captain, 
 and he was subsequently appointed governor of 
 Santa Cruz, West Indies. William Bryan, Sr., at 
 the age of twelve years came to Bath, Maine. Serv- 
 ing in the War of 1812, he took part in the battle 
 of Lundy's Lane, and was under Perry when he 
 won the remarkable victory on Lake Erie. At the 
 close of the war he settled in New Haven, where 
 he was later an officer on the first steamboat plying 
 between that city and New York. He was pilot 
 for a number of years, and in 1819 settled in Bran- 
 ford. From that point Mr. Bryan engaged in 
 coastwise trading along the Atlantic shore. He 
 married Irene Bradley, a daughter of Timothy and 
 Irene (Gordon) Bradley, and a granddaughter of 
 Timothy and Sarah (Goodsell) Bradley. Her 
 mother's parents were Capt. Alexander and Irene 
 Gordon. The children of William and Irene (Brad- 
 ley) Bryan were: Nancy, who was twice mar- 
 ried, first to John Morton, second to Malachi Lin- 
 sley ; James ; William ; Harriet, who married 
 Charles Barker; Bradley; Alden P.; and William. 
 William Bryan, Sr., died in 1887. 
 
 William Bryan, whose name introduces this arti- 
 cle, was born in Branford, where he has always re- 
 sided. In 1851 he went to California, where he was 
 engaged in mining for two years. Returning to 
 Connecticut he bought a vessel and engaged in the 
 coast trade between New York and Branford from 
 1854 to i860. In 1863 he became proprietor of the 
 "Totoket House," in Branford, where he continued 
 for three years. In 1866 Mr. Bryan put up the 
 "Montowese House," at Indian Neck, one of the 
 most pleasantly situated summer hotels on the 
 Connecticut coast, and one of the best patronized 
 along the coast. In the management of this he has 
 been very successful, and has built up a name for 
 himself as a landlord that does him credit. 
 
 Mr. Bryan was married in 1848 to Miss Lydia 
 A., daughter of Timothy Wells Palmer, of North 
 Branford, and they have three children, Scott M., 
 
 Nancy E. and William A. William A. Bryan is the 
 manager of the "Kenilworth Inn," at Biltmore, 
 Asheville, N. C, and of his fathers hotel, "The 
 Montowese," at Indian Neck. 
 
 Mr. Bryan belongs to the Masonic Fraternity, 
 being a charter member of Widows Sons Lodge, F. 
 & A. M., at Branford. In religion he is a member 
 of the Episcopal Church. In politics he is a Demo- 
 crat, but holds strongly to the gold standard. With 
 a wide experience in the world, he has made a multi- 
 tude of friends, all over the country, who have 
 pleasant memories of the hospitality he has so cor- 
 dially extended to them. 
 
 DWIGFIT L. SMITH, for over thirty years 
 superintendent of the factory of tha Waterbury 
 Buckle Co., is one of the most respected residents 
 of Waterbury, where he has been especially active 
 in religious and benevolent enterprises. 
 
 Mr. Smith was born in Waterbury March 4, 
 1839, son of Lyman P. Smith, who was born in the 
 town of Prospect, and died in 1846, at the age of 
 thirty-five. When a young man Lyman P. Smith 
 worked in Waterbury, and later in the cotton mill 
 at Quassebaug Lake, in Middlebury. Marilla San- 
 ford, his wife, was born in Wolcott, Conn., daugh- 
 ter of Truman and Anna (Curtis) Sanford, also of 
 Wolcott, the former of whom was a cooper by 
 trade. Mrs. Smith died in Waterbury, where she 
 and her husband reared their family of three chil- 
 dren: Dwight L., our subject; Rhoda A., who mar- 
 ried Wallace E. Peck, and lives in Waterbury; and 
 Sarah J., who married Franklin H. Wheeler, of 
 Middlebury. 
 
 Dwight L. Smith was reared in Waterbury, 
 where he attended the district school on East Main 
 street. For three years subsequently he studied at 
 Middlebury, and he finished his literary training at 
 the academy at Waterbury Center, when he was six- 
 teen years old. The first work he did for himself 
 was in the factory of the Hotchkiss & Merriman 
 Manufacturing Co., where he was engaged at mak- 
 ing suspender buckles. Upon the formation of the 
 Waterbury Buckle Co., in 1855, he entered the em- 
 ploy of the new firm, and has practically never left 
 them. For more than thirty years he has been 
 superintendent of the factory. During his con- 
 nection with the Buckle Co. he has seen it grow 
 from a small industry, giving employment to less 
 than fifty hands, to one of the leading concerns in 
 this line in the country, employing over five hundred 
 people. He has taken out numerous patents, most of 
 them in connection with his line of business, and his 
 inventions have had an important part in the success 
 which has been attained iDy the Buckle Co., under 
 the wise and conservative management of Earl 
 Smith, who has been for so many years general 
 manager of the concern. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1862, Mr. Smith married Miss 
 Helen M. Latta, who was born in Thompsonville, 
 Conn., daughter of James and Jane (Kenyon) 
 
832 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Latta ; her father was from Scotland. To Mr. and 
 Airs. Smith have been born three children: Howard, 
 Albert D. and Idella M., of whom Howard died 
 when only two years old. Albert D. is secretary of 
 the Springfield Knitting Co., at Springfield, Mass. ; 
 he married Minnie J. Baker, daughter of Augustus 
 and Susan Baker. Idella M. is single. 
 
 Mr. Smith is a Republican politically. In church 
 affairs he is a pronounced Baptist, and for many 
 years has acted as superintendent of the Sunday- 
 school and as a deacon of that church. Albert D. 
 Smith is superintendent of a Sunday-school in 
 Springfield. Dwight L. Smith is actively associated 
 with the Y. M. C. A., and has been since its es- 
 tablishment in Waterbury ; he was its president for 
 three years. • Mr. Smith organized a mission at 
 Hopeville, and was superintendent of its Sunday- 
 school for many years. Through his zeal and wis- 
 dom many country missions have been founded. 
 He is vice-president of the Boys' Club of Water- 
 bury. 
 
 SAMUEL ROOT, of Waterbury, although born 
 in Susquehanna county, Pa., April 1 1, 1833, de- 
 scends from one of the oldest of Connecticut's Puri- 
 tan families, and traces his pedigree in the State to 
 1640, when John Root came from England and 
 made Farmington his place of settlement. He mar- 
 ried Frances Kilbourne, and died in 1684, while his 
 wife survived until 1697. Their children were 
 named as follows : John, Samuel, Thomas, Mary, 
 Stephen, Susannah, Joseph and Caleb. Thomas 
 Root, a brother of John, had come to America in 
 1637, and settled at Hartford ; another Thomas Root 
 settled in Salem, Mass., about the same time, but 
 the relationship between them is not known. 
 
 Caleb Root, son of John, married Elizabeth Salo- 
 mon for his first wife, and a Miss Gillette for his 
 second, and died in 1712. His children were Mary, 
 Caleb, Thomas, Elizalaeth and Samuel. 
 
 Samuel Root, son of Caleb, married Elizabeth 
 Prindle, and came to Waterbury, where he died in 
 1778. His children were named Mercy, wSamuel, 
 Enos. Joseph, Elijah and Solomon. 
 
 Enos Root, son of Samuel, was born in Water- 
 bury March 26, 1753. He married ilartha Roberts, 
 lived in Waterbury, then in Bristol, but returned to 
 Waterbury, where he died in August, 1820, and his 
 wife on Oct. 24, 1824. Their children were Moses, 
 Samuel, Levia, Chauncev. Elias and Enos P. 
 
 Enos P. Root, son of Enos, was born in Water- 
 bury Nov. 30, 1792. In 1816 he married Maria 
 Downs, a daughter of John Downs, of Waterbury, 
 and thev became the parents of seven children, viz. : 
 Charlotte, Albert A., Anson A., Mary M., Samuel, 
 Willard E. and Jane. Of this, the immediate family, 
 Charlotte (now deceased) became the wife of The- 
 ron Beech, and for her second husband married Rev. 
 Mr. Baldwin ; Albert A. went to Pennsylvania, fol- 
 lowed his trade of carpenter and joiner, and there 
 passed the remainder of his life ; Anson A. is a re- 
 
 tired merchant of Woodbury; Mary M. is the de- 
 ceased wife of Rev. W. P. Gibson, of the Congre- 
 gational Church; Samuel is mentioned below; V\^il- 
 lard E., a mechanic, died young; and Jane (de- 
 ceased) was married to Rev. Richard Crittenden, a. 
 Congregational clergyman. Enos P. Root, the ta-- 
 ther of this family, who was a contractor and build-- 
 er, passed many years in the Keystone State, closing 
 his days in Springville, Susquehanna Co., Pa., dying 
 Nov. 7, 1852. In politics he was first a Whig, and 
 on the disintegration of that party became a Repub- 
 lican. 
 
 Samuel Root, whose pedigree has been given in 
 the foregoing, lived in Springville, Pa., until six- 
 teen years of age, and there received his education. 
 He then came to Waterville, a suburb of Water- 
 bury, and worked in a cutlery factory until 1853,. 
 when he went to California, via the Isthmus, with 
 $600 in his pocket. After one year he returned with 
 $1, and felt himself fortunate in securing work in a. 
 cutlery factory in Naugatuck, where he remained 
 two years. He was next employed for three years 
 by the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co., at . 
 Bridgeport ; and then, after six months in a woolen 
 factory in Norfolk, Conn., he went to work on his 
 own account, selling cutlery and plated ware on the 
 road for eight years. He then purchased a cutlery 
 shop on the outskirts of MiddlelDury, and manufac- 
 tured cutlery, including pocket ware, for twenty-one 
 years, but has now practically retired, employing his ■- 
 time in looking after his real-estate interests. 
 
 Mr. Root has .been twice married. On Dec. 2, 
 1863, he wedded H. Vienna Fenn, a daughter of 
 Harris and Jane E. Fenn. One son blessed this 
 union, Linford F., born Nov. 22, 1868, who is now 
 a lawyer of considerable prominence, and the pres- 
 ent clerk of the district court. The wife and mother ^ 
 passed away Nov. 7, 1887. On Jan. 8, 1889, Mr. 
 Root married Mrs. Mary Root, widow of Frank 
 Root, a son of Anson A. Root, brother of our sub- 
 ject. By her first marriage Mrs. Root is the mother 
 of one son, Clifford Anson, born Jan. 19, 1884, and 
 now a student in the Military Academy at Peekskill, 
 N. Y. By his second marriaare Samuel Root has 
 become the father of three children, viz. : Herbert 
 S., born Oct. 17, 1889; Barbara S., born Sept. 19, 
 1890 ; and James H., born April i, 1893, all of whom 
 are in school. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Root is a daughter of James and 
 Caroline (Capewell) Stone, the former a native of 
 Woodbury, Conn., and the latter of New York City. 
 Sheldon Stone, father of James, was a carpenter, and 
 of English extraction, and George Capewell, father 
 of Mrs. Caroline Stone, was one of three brothers — 
 Mark, George and Joseph — who came from Birm- 
 ingham, England. 
 
 In politics Samuel Root is a Republican, and has 
 served one year as a member of the common council, 
 and for some time on the -board of compensation. 
 Fraternallv he is a Freem_ason, affiliating with Har- 
 mony Lodge, No. 44, Waterbury, and he is also a 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 835 
 
 member of the Waterbury Club. Mrs. Root is a 
 member of the Episcopal Church, which Mr. Root 
 also attends. No family in Waterbury is more 
 highly esteemed for personal merits. 
 
 JOSEPH E. AND ELI T. DUDLEY, of Guil- 
 ford, are lineal descendants of (V) Nathaniel Dud- 
 ley, a farmer of Clapboard Hill District, Guilford, 
 who was the fourth son of (IV) Caleb Dudley 
 ((III) Caleb, (II) Joseoh, (i) William) and Han- 
 nah (Stone), as set forth in tne genealogy of the 
 Dudley family, given elsewhere. 
 
 (V) Nathaniel Dudley was born Oct. 3, 1745, 
 and died Feb. 21, 1826. He married, March 12, 
 1777, Mary Hart, born Aug. 17, 1751, and died Feb. 
 6, 1841, aged eighty-nine, the daughter of Thomas 
 Hart (Rev. John, Thomas, Stephen) and Concur- 
 rence Bartlett (Ebenezer, Daniel, George). He 
 lived with his father in a house built by his grand- 
 father, Caleb Dudley, probably about 1700. He had 
 four children: (i) Nathaniel, born Nov. 15, 1777, 
 died Sept. 7, 1795, unmarried. (2) Lois, born July 
 II, 1779, died Sept. 9, i860, unmarried. (3) John, 
 a sketch of whom follows. (4) Eunice, born Feb. 
 26, 1784, married May 25, 1807, George Bushnell, 
 of Saybrook, and died Dec. 15, 1825. 
 
 (VI) John Dudley, a farmer of Clapboard Hill 
 District, son of Nathaniel and Mary (Hart) Dud- 
 ley, lived in the house with his father. He was born 
 Jan. 25, 1782, married Jan. 24, 1805, Sarah Lee, 
 born Dec. 30, 1780, died Dec. 27, 1849, daughter of 
 Elon and Deborah (Johnson) Lee. They had five 
 children : (i) Hooker, born Oct. i, 1806, died Aug. 
 21, 1879; on Oct. 16, 1831, he married Mary Evarts, 
 who was bom May 22, 1806, dau'ghter of Nathaniel 
 Evarts and Julia (Parmelee), of Nutplains Dis- 
 trict, and died Feb. 20, 1895. (2) Elon, born May 
 I, 1808, died April 8, 1883, at Angelica, New York; 
 married Dec. 21, 1831, Fanny S. Latham, born June 
 I, 1812. (3) John (father of Joseph E. and Eli 
 T.), sketch of whom appears later. (4) Horace, 
 born March 16, 1812, died June 12, 1885; married 
 April 30, 1837, Hannah Amanda Dudley, born April 
 10, 1816, died Oct. 4, 1899, daughter of Timothy 
 Dudley and Hannah (Bartlett). (5) Ruth, born 
 June 4, 1814, died May 5, 1895 ; married Nov. 28, 
 1838, John Norton, born Sept. 19, 1802, died Oct. 
 17, 1839, son of Eber Norton and Mabel (Evarts). 
 They had one son. Deacon John William, born Oct. 
 19, 1839. 
 
 Amos Dudley, born Nov. 3, 1747. was the 
 youngest son of Caleb and Hannah (Stone) Dud- 
 ley. He was a farmer, and lived at Clanboard HiH 
 in a house which stood just east of the home of 
 Joseph E. Dudley. He married Feb. 27, 1771, Mary 
 Evarts, daughter of Eleazer Evarts (Samuel, Ju- 
 dah, John) and Hannah (Scranton). She died Aug. 
 23, 1797- They had six children. He married (sec- 
 ond) July i.S, 1799, Deborah (Johnson), widow of 
 Elnn Lee. They had one child. 
 
 Children of Amos and Mary (Evarts) Dudley: 
 53 
 
 (i) Amos, sketch of whom follows. (2) Timothy ,- 
 sketch of whom follows. (3) AIar_\-, born Oct. 16,. 
 1778, died Oct. I, 1840, unmarried. (4) William, 
 born Sept. 17, 1780, died July 16, 1845; married- 
 Feb. 8, 1808, Deborah Lee, daughter of Elon Lee 
 and Deborah (Johnson). (5) Russell, born Oct. 24,. 
 1787, died in 1854; he went to Richmond, Va. ; max- 
 ried Jan. 18, 1813, Mary Baldwin. (6) Daniel, born 
 in 1792, died Dec. 31, 1846, unmarried. By his sec- 
 ond wife, Deborah, Amos Dudley had one child, (7) 
 Betsey, born in December, 1800, who married Jan. 
 I, 1821, William Chittenden, born May 5, 1797, died 
 Aug. I, 1880, son of Amos Chittenden and Jerusha 
 (Graves). They had five children — Betsey Eliza, 
 born March 2, 1822, married Sidney A. Dowd. 
 Amos, born Aug. 4, 1824, married Harriet Case. 
 Mary, born July 9, 1827, married David D. Carter., 
 Lydia, born Jan. 30, 1831, died Dec. 7, 1854, unmar- 
 ried. Catherine, born Aug. i, 1835, married Joseph 
 L. Scranton. 
 
 (VI) Amos Dudley, born Dec. 31, 1771, son of 
 Amos and Mary (Evarts) Dudley, married (first) 
 April 18, 1798, Anna Shelley, who died July 16^ 
 1801, aged thirty-one. They had twO' children: (i) 
 Henry, sketch of whom follows. (2) Jonathan,, 
 born Nov. 8, 1800, died Jan. 27, i860; married Feb. 
 13, 1823, Eliza Holmes, who died Feb. 18, 1856. 
 
 (VII) Henry Dudley, bom March 9, 1799, died 
 Nov. 12, 1862. He was the eldest son of Amos Dud- 
 ley (Amos, Caleb, Caleb, Joseph, William) and his- 
 first wife, Anna (Shelley). He built and lived in 
 the house east of Charles A. Dudley's, now the home 
 of Joseph Grosvenour. He married May 14, 1823,. 
 Vesta Bradley, who died Jan. 18, 1882. They had 
 four children: (i) Anna M., born April 15, 1824,. 
 married George Shelley, who was killed by light- 
 ning Sept. 20, 1856. (2) Deborah, born Sept. i, 
 1 83 1, died April 7, 1840. (3) Henry Bradley, born 
 March 9, 1834, married June 29, 1864, Clarissa 
 Evarts. (4) Louisa Deborah, born June 6, 1843, 
 died Nov. 22, 1879; she married April 9, 1862, Ed- 
 mund J. Field, born Jan. 9, 1840, who fell at An- 
 tietam, Sept. 18, 1862. 
 
 (VI) Timothv Dudley, born Dec. 16, 1775, died 
 Aug. 27, 1819. He married April 24, 1809, Han- 
 nah Bartlett, daughter of Joseph Bartlett (Joseph, 
 Abraham, George) and Sarah (Cruttenden). They 
 had four children: (i) Justin, bom April 2, 1810, 
 died April 3, 1888, unmarried. (2) Mary Ann, born 
 Feb. 7, 1 81 3, died April i, 1900, unmarried. (3) 
 Hannah Amanda, born April 10, 1816, died Oct. 4, 
 i8Qq; married April 30, 1837, Horace Dudley 
 (John, Nathaniel). (4) Sarah, born April 17, 
 i8iq, married Dec. 9, 1840, John Dudley (John, 
 Nathaniel). 
 
 (VII) John Dudley, son of (VII John and Sa- 
 rah (Lee) Dudley, born Dec. 20, 1809, received a 
 liberal education, and was a orosperous agriculturist 
 following general farming all his life on the home- 
 stead. In politics he was first a Whig-, later a Re- 
 publican, and served in several local offices, such as 
 
834 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 selectman, assessor, etc. In religious faith he was a 
 member of the Congregational Church of Guilford. 
 He died July i, 1893, and was interred in Alder- 
 brook cemetery, Guilford. 
 
 On Dec. 9, 1840, in Guilford, John Dudley mar- 
 ried Sarah Dudley, born April 17, 1819, daughter 
 of Timothy Dudley and Hannah (Bartlett). Mrs. 
 Dudley is yet living, at the advanced age of eighty- 
 two years, and is much respected and beloved for 
 her many Christian virtues. She is the mother of 
 children as follows : Eunice Amelia, born June 6, 
 1842, who died Oct. 20, 1842 ; Joseph Edward and 
 Eli Timothy, sketches of whom follow ; Fanny 
 Amelia, born Nov. 26, 1848, living at home ; Lewis 
 Richard, born Nov. 19, 1854, who married Aug. 24, 
 1880, Nora Serviss, and lives in West Salem, La- 
 Crosse Co., Wisconsin. 
 
 (\^ni) Joseph E. Dudley was born Dec. 
 30, 1843, at Dudleytown, Guilford, received a liberal 
 district-school education, and since his father's' 
 ■death has been operating the homestead. In poli- 
 tics he is a Republican, and in religious faith a Con- 
 g-regationalist. He is unmarried, filially caring for 
 his mother in her old age. 
 
 (VIII) Eli Timothy Dudley, born on 
 the old homestead April 17, 1846, received a good 
 common school education, and took up the occupa- 
 tion of his forefathers. At the age of twenty-three 
 years he commenced farming on the L. Dudley 
 place, at Guilford, near the homestead, where he 
 made many improvements, remaining there twenty- 
 five years. In 1804 he removed to the George Dud- 
 ley place, on Claplxjard Hill, and has since been en- 
 gaged in farming there. He still owns the property 
 at Guilford. Like^all the Dudley family he is a pro- 
 nounced Republican. In religious connection he is a 
 member of the First Congregational Church. 
 
 On May 5, 1869, in Guilford, Eli T. Dudley mar- 
 ried Caroline M. Wilcox, who was born Feb. 27, 
 1847, daughter of Alfred Nelson and Caroline A. 
 (Munger) Wilcox, the former of whom was a car- 
 penter and builder by occupation ; during the Civil 
 war he served as sergeant of Company G, 14th Conn. 
 Y I. A brief record of the two children of Eli T. 
 and Caroline M. (Wilcox) Dudley is as follows: 
 '(i) William Alfred, born Sept. 13, 1874, is farming 
 near his father's homestead. He married Louva 
 Redfield, of Madison, and has one child, Carrie Red- 
 field. (2) Amy Louisa, born Jan. 23, 1878, resides 
 at home. The entire Dudley family rank among the 
 most prominent and progressive of New Haven 
 county, and well merit the esteem and respect of the 
 community. 
 
 JOHN R. PLATT, a prominent and successful 
 agricultin-ist of Prospect, is a veteran of the Civil 
 war, and bears an honorable record for brave ser- 
 vice in the cause of freedom and union. In the paths 
 of peace he has also won an enviable reputation be- 
 cause of the sterling qualities which go to the mak- 
 ing i)f a good citizen. 
 
 Mr. Piatt was born, March 13, 1824, in the 
 town where he still lives, and belongs to one of the 
 best-known and oldest families of New Haven 
 county. Richard Piatt, the first of the name to 
 come to the New World, was born in Hertfordshire, 
 England, and was a son of Joseph Piatt, who spent 
 his entire life in that country. On his emigration to 
 America, in 1639, Richard Piatt located in Milford, 
 Conn., where he spent the remainder of his life, 
 dying there in 1684. His son, Josiah Piatt, was 
 born and baptized in Milford, Nov. 15, 1645, and on 
 reaching manhood engaged in farming there until 
 his death, which occurred Jan. i, 1724. On Dec. 
 
 2, 1669, in Milford, he married Sarah Canfield, who 
 lived and died in that town. Their son, Joseph 
 Piatt, was baptized June 15, 1693, and passed his 
 entire life in Milford. He was married, Jan. 16, 
 1720, to Mehitable Fenn, who also died in Mil- 
 ford. Their son, Joseph, was born in Milford Nov. 
 
 3, 1724, and died there Aug. 30, 1806. By occupa- 
 tion he was a farmer. He married Hannah Buck- 
 ingham, a relative of Governor Buckingham. Ben- 
 jamin Piatt, son of Joseph, Jr., and grandfather 
 of our subject, was Iborn in 1756, and mar- 
 ried Abigail Green. He served as a soldier in 
 the Revolutionary war under Capt. Charles Smith, 
 in Gen. Waterbury's brigade, and participated in 
 the battle of Danbury. He was made lame for life 
 during his service. 
 
 Benjamin Piatt, Jr., the father of our subject, 
 was born in 1782, and when a young man came to 
 Prospect, where he continued to make his home 
 throughout life, spending his last years with his 
 children. He died at the home of his daughter, 
 Mrs. Mary Ann Clark, of East Hampton, Mass., 
 and was buried in Prospect cemetery. He was a 
 successful man, an earnest member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and quite prominent and influential. 
 For three terms he represented his town in the 
 State Legislature, also served as selectman and as- 
 sessor, and filled other local ofHces. On Jan. 22, 
 1800, he married Miss Nancy Bristol, a daughter 
 of Nathan and Anna (Lambert) Bristol. She died 
 in 1862, and was also laid to rest in Prospect ceme- 
 tery. To them were born twelve children, namely: 
 Mark, deceased; Mary Ann, wife of Jason Clark, 
 of East Hampton, Mass.; Benjamin, deceased; 
 Nancy, deceased wife of Hugh Kilso; Henry, who 
 died in infancy; Adelia, wife of Luther Morse; 
 Henry, Harris and William, all deceased; Jane; 
 John R., our subject; and Augusta, wife of Henry 
 Stephens. 
 
 Reared upon the home farm, John R. Piatt ac- 
 quired his education in the district schools of that 
 locality, and on leaving the parental roof, at the age 
 of seventeen, he worked in a clock shoo at Plymouth 
 for a short time, after which he took up the car- 
 penter's trade and followed it until after the Civil 
 war broke out. Prompted bv a spirit of patriotism, 
 he enlisted in August, 1862, for three years, in Com- 
 pany A, 20th Conn. V. I., under Col. Ross and Capt. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 835 
 
 Timothy Gilford. His command was assigned to 
 the i2th Army Corps. He participated in the battle 
 of Gettysburg, and was with Sherman on his cele- 
 brated march to the sea and all through the Atlanta 
 campaign, taking part in various battles. For 
 meritorious service on field of battle he was pro- 
 moted to the rank of lieutenant, and when the war 
 ended and his services were no longer needed he 
 was honorably discharged. He was in the grand 
 review at Washington, D. C., and was mustered out 
 in New Haven. Returning to Prospect, he pur- 
 chased the Hughes farm of eighty-seven acres, upon 
 which he has made many substantial improvements, 
 and where he has since successfully engaged in 
 general farming and fruit growing. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. Piatt was united in marriage with 
 Miss Augusta Carrington, of Baltimore, Md., a 
 daughter of Nehemiah Carrington, a West India 
 merchant, and to them were born two children : 
 Arthur, who died at the age of three and a half 
 years; and Charles, who died at the age of eight 
 years. The wife and mother died in Prospect, and 
 was laid to rest in the cemetery there. On March 
 29, 1893, Mr. Piatt married Elizabeth Hotchkiss, 
 a native of Prospect, a daughter of Harry and 
 Sarah (Hoppin) Hotchkiss, and a granddaughter 
 of Gideon Hotchkiss. Mr. and Mrs. Piatt are 
 members of the Congregational Church, and are 
 highly esteemed by all who know them. He is 
 a prominent member of Prospect Grange, and politi- 
 cally has always affiliated with the Republican party. 
 In 1884 he represented the town in the State Leg- 
 islature, was selectman a number of years, and 
 also filled the office of assessor, and of constable 
 forty years. His official duties were always dis- 
 charged in a most commendable and satisfactory 
 
 JONAH C. PLATT. An honorable ambition, 
 sustained by practical ability and unyielding energy, 
 is a passport to success and the biographies of our 
 leading citizens furnish many interesting illustra- 
 tions of the rule. It is a pleasure to present to our 
 headers such a forceful example as is conveyed in 
 the following sketch of one of the well-known resi- 
 dents of Ansonia. 
 
 Mr. Piatt was born Nov. 30, 1832, in Milford, 
 this county, and comes of good New England stock. 
 Fiske Piatt, our subject's grandfather, was a na- 
 tive of Milford, Conn., and the greater portion of 
 his life was spent there, engaged in farming. 
 Through his grandmother, whose maiden name was 
 Sarah Newton, our subject is descended from the 
 Newton family. 
 
 Newton Piatt, our subject's father, was born 
 and reared in Milford, and engaged in farming 
 there. His death occurred at his homestead at the 
 age of seventy years. He was prominent in local 
 affairs, holding various offices, and he and his wife 
 were active members of the first Congregational 
 Church. His wife, Anna Clark, who died at the 
 
 age of sixty-four, was born in Milford, the daugh- 
 ter of Abraham Clark, a well-known agriculturist, 
 and her mother, Mehitable Peck, was also a native 
 of Milford. Newton and Anna Piatt had the fol- 
 lowmg children : Sarah, Mrs. Clark, a widow re- 
 sidmg in Orange, this county ; Henry N. a resident 
 of Milford; Adelia C, who married John C. Mer- 
 win, of Orange (both deceased) ; Charlotte Ann, 
 who married David N. Clark, of Milford, and died 
 Oct. 10, 1866 (he afterward married her sister 
 Leonora) ; Jonah C, our subject; George F. ; Abram 
 C. ; and Leonora, Mrs. Clark. 
 
 At the age of sixteen Jonah C. Piatt left home 
 to learn the carpenters' trade at Ansonia, and on 
 completing his apprenticeship he followed the trade 
 as a journeyman for about 'four years. Later he 
 was employed for some time as foreman in the same 
 shop in which he had learned the business, but he 
 then became interested in raising garden seeds, con- 
 tinuing about eight years. The next three years 
 were spent as foreman for his old employer, and 
 for four years he was engaged in mercantile busi- 
 ness in a store near his present home, but he then 
 formed a partnership with Frederick Lines in the 
 carpenters' trade, under the firm name of F. A. Lines 
 & Co. They carried on a large business for a num- 
 ber of years, keeping several workmen employed, 
 and they built many of the important buildings in 
 Ansonia and vicinity. Mr. Piatt finally sold his in- 
 terest but did not retire from business entirely, his 
 extensive real estate holdings requiring his atten- 
 tion. He and his wife formerly owned a large 
 tract of land which was sold in building lots, and 
 they still own six houses and a store, all in one block. 
 In the development of other business interests of 
 the city Mr. Piatt has taken an active part and he 
 has been a director in the Ansonia Savings Bank 
 since its incorporation, and is now vice-president ; 
 he was one of the incorporators of that institution. 
 At the present time he is the only incorporator who 
 is still on the board of directors. Mr. Piatt is also 
 a member of George Washington Lodge, No. 82, F. 
 & A. M. at Ansonia. Politically he is a Rep^iblican, 
 and his fellow townsmen have called him to numer- 
 ous official positions. In 1884-5 he was in the Leg- 
 islature, and he has served ten years, 1889-1898 on 
 the board of selectmen. For two years he was first 
 selectman, and from 1894 to the present time he 
 has served as assessor of Ansonia, under four 
 mayors. In 1S84 and 1885 he was tax collector 
 of the town, then a portion of the town of Derby, 
 and in 1886, 1887 and 1888 he was again appointed 
 to that office. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Piatt married Miss Ellen L. Hodge, 
 who was born in the house adjoining their present 
 residence. She was one of three children of Ben- 
 jamin Hodge, and is now the only survivor of the 
 family. Her father was a highly respected citizen 
 of the town and was engaged for many years in 
 raising garden seeds. Mr. and Mrs. Piatt have had 
 five children, of whom three are living: (i) An- 
 
836 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 nie married Edward T. \'ance, a druggist of Au- 
 sonia, and has two children, Clyde (^wlio has at- 
 tended Worcester Academy, and is now a student 
 of Yale College) and Helen. (2) Frederick New- 
 ton died when two years old. (3) Alfred C, a 
 druggist, who died at the age of twenty-four, mar- 
 ried Miss Frances P. Lambert, and had one daugh- 
 ter, Allie C. (4) Ellen C. married Rev. William 
 H. I. Houghton, an Episcopalian clergyman, now 
 deceased. They had two children, Edna P. and 
 William PI. (5) Franklin B. is secretary of the 
 Ansonia Electrical Co. He married Miss Carrie 
 Nettleton, and has one son, Franklin Newton. Mrs. 
 Piatt is a communicant of the Episcopal Church, 
 and one of the active workers in the vicinity. 
 
 SEREXO BARTHOLOMEW, one of the 
 prominent citizens of Wallingford and an active and 
 useful member of the Congregational Church, is the 
 subject of this biography. Mr. Bartholomew was 
 born in the old family homestead on Oct. 27, 181 8, a 
 son of Samuel and Sylvia (Howd) Bartholomew. 
 Samuel Bartholomew had but a primitive education 
 and followed agricultural pursuits all his days. Own- 
 ing a farm of fifty acres, he continuied to improve it, 
 and he was noted for his industry and energy, and 
 as an example of temperate Christian living was 
 worthy of emulation. 
 
 Deacon Sereno Bartholomew attended school in 
 East Farms and North Durham, worked on his 
 father's farm, and also assisted on other farms, until 
 he was eighteen years old, at which time he took 
 charge of the homestead, where he has remained, 
 with the exception of two years, which were spent 
 in the factory of Hall & Elton, learning the trade 
 of silver plating. Mr. Bartholomew was one of the 
 first in this section to experiment successfully in to- 
 bacco raising, but now he devotes a small part of 
 his 200 acres to the growing of fine peaches. 
 
 Perhaps Mr. Bartholomew is better known with- 
 in the Congregational Church than in any other 
 place in the community, as, for thirty-one years, he 
 has held the office of deacon in that body, with dig- 
 nity and efficiency. At the age of twenty-two, when 
 in the stren.gth of young manhood, he joined the 
 church to which he has been devoted during a long 
 and useful life. 
 
 On Sept. 27, 1847, in Middlebury, Conn., 
 Sereno Bartholomew was united in marriage 
 with Sarah A, Benham, who died in 1886. 
 The children born of this union were: Cath- 
 erine, born in 1848, died in 1865; and Franklyn 
 M., born in 1855, married Harriet E. Tibbals (who 
 was born in Durham, daughter of David and Nancy 
 (Strong) Tibbals), and died in 1897. Franklvn 
 M. Bartholomew grew up on the farm, was edu- 
 cated at a district school until, at the age of seven- 
 teen, he spent two school vears at a private school. 
 He was well known throughout Connecticut as be- 
 ing prominent in Grange circles, and he was instru- 
 mental in procuring the Grange storehouse located 
 
 at the Air Line depot; and in 1886 he was chosen 
 purchasing agent for the Wallingford Grange, hold- 
 ing the office until he resigned in 1892. The winter 
 of 1892 he spent in the employ of a well-known 
 Boston house, introducing feeds of various kinds, 
 after which he traveled for Mr. Lucien Sanderson, 
 of New Haven, Conn., manufacturer of chemicals 
 and fertilizers, and in 1895 he was appointed by the 
 Governor of Connecticut treasurer of the State 
 Board of- Agriculture, which office he held at the 
 time of his death. The death of the son left his 
 aged father to the care of his daughter-in-law, who 
 now ministers to him. 
 
 Deacon Sereno Bartholomew can look back over 
 many years of a well-spent life. He has always been 
 interested in public affairs, and 'his political affilia- 
 tions are with the Republican party. Hi? high char- 
 acter has won for him the esteem and respect of the 
 entire community. 
 
 WILLIAM S. BISHOP, a worthy citizen and 
 representative well-to-do farmer of the town of 
 Madison, comes of a family which has for genera- 
 tions been respected as contributing many useful and 
 substantial citizens to this section. John Bishop, 
 the first of the name of whom we have record, had 
 a son John, who married Susan Goldham. 
 
 John Bishop, son of John and Susan (Goldham), 
 born in 1655 in Guilford, Conn., died there Nov. 25, 
 T73J'. He was a life-long farmer, and a man of 
 influence in the community. On July 3, 1689, he 
 married Elizabeth Hitchcock, who died March 14, 
 1712, and on Nov. 18, 1713, he married Mary John- 
 son, by whom he had thirteen children. 
 
 John Bishop, eldest son of John, by the first 
 marriage, was born Aug. 12, 1692, in Guilford, 
 where he grew to manhood. He removed to East 
 Guilford, where he passed the remainder of his 
 life, dying there Jan. 28, 1752. On July I, 1719, he 
 married Abigail Spimiing, born May 7, 1699, died 
 Feb. 22, 1 75 1, and they became the parents of five 
 children: Prudence, born July 28, 1722, died Aug. 
 
 2, 1740; Elizabeth, born Dec. 20, 1725, died Sept. 
 19, 1754; Rachel, born Feb. 23, 1727, died Dec. i, 
 1750; John is mentioned below: Abigail, born Oct. 
 8, 1 73 1, married Dr. Nathaniel Welden. 
 
 John Bishop, born April 10, 1729, in East Guil- 
 ford (now the town of Madison), died there April 
 
 3, 1807, and was buried in Madison cemetery. He 
 was well known and highly respected in the com- 
 munity, and was a devout member of the Congre- 
 gational Church. On Nov. i, 1753, he married 
 Hannah Hodgkins, born Feb. 16, 1733, died June 9, 
 1820, and they had a family of five children: Pru- 
 dence, born Aug. 4, 1754, died Feb. 25, 1834, mar- 
 ried Samuel Foster; John, born Sept. 3, 1756, died 
 Sept. 24, 1848, married Irene Bartlett; Lois born in 
 July, 1759, died April i2, 1836, married Molly 
 ludd : Rachel, born 1761, married William Baily ; 
 William is mentioned below. 
 
 William Bishop, born in 1763 in Madison, died 
 
oyLe^^^-e^fi' U^ 
 
 /?-'i'^// l^ <«-7-37i_<^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 837 
 
 June 28, 1848, and was laid to rest in the East 
 cemetery in that town. He was a large land owner, 
 and engaged successfully in general farming; was 
 a Whig in politics, and held various local offices ; 
 was liberal in religious matters, and an active mem- 
 ber of the Ecclesiastical Society. He married 
 Lucy Kelsey, who was born in 1778 in Killing- 
 worth, Conn., and died Aug. 31, 1806, and two chil- 
 dren came to this union: William Hull, born in 
 1801, who married Chloe Lee, and died Aug. 20, 
 1841 ; and Levi, father of our subject, who is men- 
 tioned below. Mr. Bishop married for his second 
 wife Mabel Murray, a native of Guilford, born in 
 1776, who passed away Dec. 30, 1868, and to this 
 marriage were also born two children: John M., 
 born in 1821, who married Cynthia Hull, and died 
 March 6, 1881 ; and .Lucy Ann, who married Fred- 
 erick Field, and died Oct. 25, 1881. All this fam- 
 ily are buried in the East cemetery in Madison. 
 
 Levi Bishop was born in 1802 in the town of 
 Madison, and died there Nov. 25, 1887, his remains 
 being laid to rest in the East cemetery. In his 
 younger days he followed the water, becoming 
 master of a vessel, and also for some time engaged 
 in the produce business, but he finally settled down 
 to the calling of his forefathers, and met with 
 substantial success in his agricultural pursuits. His 
 adaptability to any line of business or circumstances 
 stood him in good stead, and in every capacity, 
 whether public or private, he displayed marked in- 
 telligence and ability, as well as integrity and a 
 high sense of duty. Having early received a good 
 practical education, he broadened his views and his 
 knowledge by continued reading, and was well in- 
 formed on subjects of general interest. He was 
 quite active in public life in his locality. Originally 
 a Whig in political sentiment, he became a Repub- 
 lican on the organization of that party and was 
 quite active in its councils. In religion he was 
 liberal, striving always to live up to the Golden Rule 
 in his relations with his fellow men, and his temper- 
 ate habits and industrious life won him universal 
 respect. 
 
 On Feb. 14, 1828, Mr. Bishop married Miss Polly 
 M. Coe, who was born Oct. 23, 1802, daughter 
 of Thomas and Submit (Griswold) Coe, and four 
 children blessed this union: William S., whose 
 name introduces this sketch; Harriet E., born in 
 1836; Catherine E., born in October, 1845, died 
 Jan. 27, 1849; and Lucy, wife of John Spencer. 
 Mrs. Bishop died Dec. 6, 1888, at the home of her 
 son, and was laid to rest in the East cemetery. 
 
 William S. Bishop was born Dec. 25, 1829, in 
 the town of Madison, grew to manhood on the farm, 
 and acquired his education in the district schools. 
 All his life has been devoted to agricultural pursuits, 
 for he remained on the home place, caring for his 
 parents in their old age. His tract of seventy acres 
 is well improved and valuable, and in addition to 
 general farming he follows stock-raising and cattle 
 dealing to some extent, by energetic industry win- 
 
 ning success in his chosen calling. He is widely 
 and favorably known in his town as an honest, up- 
 right citizen, and, like his father, he endeavors to 
 make his daily life, in his intercourse with all, the 
 exemplification of his religious views. A Repub- 
 lican in politics, he is no office seeker, and his in- 
 fluence is given rather to the supoort of good men 
 than to party. 
 
 On Nov. 9, 1851, j\Ir. Bishop married Miss 
 Rosetta M. Cook, who was born in 1830, daughter 
 of Henry Cook, of Madison, and by her had three 
 children: (i) William L., born July 26, 1859, died 
 in infancy. (2) Catherine A., born Sept. 5, 1861, 
 married James H. Bradley, and they had one child, 
 Cora May ; for her second husband she married 
 Almon Johnson, and they have two children, Olive 
 M. and Wealthy R. (3) Lucy Rosetta, born Aug. 
 14, 1866, was married July 12, 1884, to James Mc- 
 Cann, and they have four children, Josephine, Le- 
 Roy, William and Raymond. On March 26, 1896, 
 Mr. Bishop wedded for his second wife Mrs. Hen- 
 rietta (Thomas) Van Wart, widow of Frank Van 
 Wart, of an old Revolutionary family. 
 
 JOHN BEATTIE. This in his lifetime well- 
 known quarryman and contractor, late of Leete 
 Island, Guilford, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 
 June 18, 1820. John Beattie, his father, was a free- 
 man of that city, and a direct descendant of that 
 noted Beattie family of Eskdale Moor, in Dum- 
 friesshire, Scotland, whose ancestry has been traced 
 back more than six centuries, and whose valor and 
 exploits in peace and war have been celebrated in 
 the storv and song of that country by Sir Walter 
 Scott and others. On the paternal side his grand- 
 mother was Nancy Armstrong, a descendant of the 
 Johnson family, of Dumfriesshire, also prominent 
 in the affairs of Scotland. The mother of John Be- 
 attie was Ann Richardson, a daughter of John and 
 Catherine (Tate) Richardson, both of families be- 
 longing to Haddington, Scotland. 
 
 In 1830, when John Beattie was ten years old, 
 his parents came to America and settled in Nova, 
 Scotia, Canada, where the father carried on his 
 trade of stonemason and contractor. He was con- 
 tractor in the construction of the masonry work on 
 a canal from Halifax to Pictou. In that locality, on 
 a small farm, the paternal home in this country was 
 established, and there the son was sent to school for 
 a short time ; but, his robust nature rebe'Iing against 
 the restraint imposed by sedentary life, he preferred 
 to labor in the fields of his father's farm. In Nova 
 Scotia he attended with profit a few terms the school 
 of an excellent man. Rev. Mr. Morrison, aaid'k to 
 these brief periods his school days were Hmited. 
 
 After a few years' residence in Halifax, Nova 
 Scotia, and when John would no longer attend 
 school, his father proposed to indenture him to 
 learn the trade of a shoemaker, and had selected a 
 master for him, whereupon the independent lad gave 
 so emphatic a demonstration against the step that 
 
838 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the plan was summarily abandoned. This opposi- 
 tion was probably the act in life which led him into 
 the vocation in which he for so many years was 
 most successfully engaged. Being now thirteen 
 years old, strong and healthy, with a love for out- 
 door occupation, his father was persuaded to allow 
 him to learn the trade of stonecutting, which work 
 John took up with great spirit. In the course of a 
 few years the failure of the canal company induced 
 the Beatties to make their home at Newport, R. I., 
 whence the father and John went to New York to 
 work at their trade. A year later they proceeded to 
 Boston, and not long after to Newport, where the 
 father died when John was sixteen years of age. 
 The care of the family, consisting of his mother and 
 four children, the next eldest being ten years of age, 
 now devolved upon John, who, deeply feeling the 
 responsibility placed upon him, entered upon his 
 life work with an earnestness of application that 
 was bound to bring success. In his trade he became 
 very skillful, and was a rapid and thorough work- 
 man. During the next four years he was employed 
 at Fort Adams, R. I., having, when he was eighteen 
 years old, his first contract to do work for the Unit- 
 ed States Government. At the age of twenty years 
 he was appointed foreman mason of the bridge 
 builders on a section of the Boston & Troy railroad, 
 and there for the following two years he had his 
 first experience in overseeing large numbers of men. 
 In 1846 he returned to Fort Adams, where he was 
 appointed master stonecutter by Gen. W. S. Rose- 
 crans, and superintended the preparation of the ma- 
 terial used in that fortification until work was sus- 
 pended by order of Jefferson Davis, at that time 
 Secretary of \\'ar. Again, for a year, Mr. Beattie 
 was with the Boston & Troy Railroad Co., in his old 
 capacity. He then went to California as a gold 
 miner, and for two years and two months had the 
 experience of an argonaut without realizing any of 
 the rewards sometimes associated therewith. Re- 
 turning to the East, poor in purse and with im- 
 paired health, his next work was building the stone 
 towers for the suspension bridge across the Ken- 
 tucky river at Pleasant Valley. His health continu- 
 ing poor, however, he and his brother William next 
 opened a stonecutter's yard at Newport, in which he 
 worked a year with beneficial results to his health. 
 
 In 1855 Mr. Beattie was engaged in building the 
 towers for the great bridge across the Ohio, between 
 Cincinnati and Covington, after which he had an 
 interest in the construction of Section One, of the 
 Brooklyn Water Works, at Jamaica, N. Y. That 
 work being completed, at a loss to him, he spent 
 some time building bridges on the Wabash railroad 
 in Indiana, after which he returned to Jamaica, N. 
 Y., and contracted for the construction of another 
 section of the water works. This job he personally 
 superintended, and to such great advantages that he 
 and his partner cleared $20,000 in eighteen months. 
 After this he executed many contracts for mason 
 work, in bridges, on railroads, warehouse docks and 
 
 lighthouses; built bridges on the Worcester & 
 Nashua railroad, on the Old Colony line, and on the 
 Warren & Fall River railroad ; constructed the piers 
 for the bridge at Warehouse Point (using sand 
 bags for coffer dams for the first time in bridge 
 construction in this country) and for the Old Col- 
 ony dock at Newport, all large public works. 
 
 In 1865 Mr. Beattie purchased the Harrison 
 quarry, at Fall River, but after operating it one year 
 left it in charge of his brother William and son John, 
 and opened another quarry at Niantic, Conn. In a 
 few years he disposed of that interest, and in Feb- 
 ruary, 1869, he came to Guilford, where he bought 
 sixteen acres of land at Hoadley's Point, upon which 
 were very fine ledges of excellent granite. During 
 the following season be built several houses upon 
 this tract, doing at the same time the mason work 
 for the Newport & Wickford railroad. On Aug. 
 22, 1870, he removed permanently to Leete Island, 
 where he continued to make his home until his 
 death, Nov. 18, 1899. Here he developed the large 
 quarry interests until the industry became one of the 
 largest of the kind in the state. His cfranite lands 
 and real-estate holdings at Leete Island increased to 
 more than 400 acres, and employment was given to 
 from 125 to 600 men, their operations being con- 
 ducted in a systematic manner, aided by modem ap- 
 pliances. The products were readily transported to 
 many localities by the Shore Line railroad, running 
 through, his lands, and by a fleet of vessels owned by 
 him and laden at his docks at Hoadley's Point. The 
 granite of these quarries is of several qualities ; blue, 
 pink and white — which are here cut, carved and pol- 
 ished into any desired forms ; and a coarse-grained 
 gray, having a carrying capacity of 18,000 pounds 
 to the square inch, which is much used for building 
 purposes. A large quantity was thus supplied for 
 the construction of the roadway of the New York 
 & Harlem railroad, from the river to the Grand Cen- 
 tral depot, in New York City. Much of the stone 
 in the Brooklyn suspension bridge in New York was 
 furnished from these quarries. 
 
 Mr. Beattie had a thorough, practical knowledge 
 of every department of work carried on by him, 
 and, being possessed of great industry, pluck and 
 executive aljility, he prospered in his affairs and 
 earned the distinction of being one of the foremost 
 business men in the eastern part of the country. Of 
 a strong physique, and liberally endowed with many 
 of the distinguished characteristics of the Scottish 
 race, he was a typical son of the "land of the mount- 
 ain and the flood." 
 
 John Beattie was three times married, first, in 
 1839, to Ann Kelly, a native of Longford, Ireland, 
 who died in 1859, at Newport, R. I. By her he had 
 six children, viz.: Ann, born in 1840, deceased; 
 John, Jr., a sketch of whom follows ; Catherine, 
 wife of Robert Evans (both deceased) ; Francis, 
 a sketch of whom follows ; George, deceased in 
 1887; and Isabella, wife of George Sanborn, of 
 Leete Island. For his second wife our subject 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 839 
 
 married Mary Harrington, of Fall River, Mass., 
 and three children, yet living, were born of this 
 union : Emma, David H. and Charles, David H. 
 being spoken of more fully elsewhere. For his 
 third wife Mr. Beattie wedded, in 1870, Mary Gay, 
 of Guilford, and three children were born of this 
 union: Elizabeth, who died in 1878; and Peter and 
 Thomas, residing at Hoadley's Point, Leete Island. 
 
 John Beattie, Jr., was born Aug. 29, 1841, at 
 Newport, R. I., and there received a liberal public- 
 school education. At the age of sixteen he became 
 an apprentice to the stonecutter's trade under his 
 father and uncle (William Beattie), and completed 
 his apprenticeship in i860. In the year 1865 he be- 
 came foreman of the firm. In the following year 
 he was received into partnership, the firm name be- 
 ing changed to John and William Beattie & Co., and 
 until 1867 he managed the business of the concern. 
 He then bought out the interest of his father, the 
 style of the firm becoming William & John "(Jr.) 
 Beattie, which continued until 1869, in which year 
 the partnership was dissolved, the interests being 
 equally divided between William and John, Jr. The 
 latter then conducted his portion of the business 
 until the financial depression of 1873 caused him to 
 abandon it (not being able to realize on his assets) 
 and move to his farm in Westport, with the honor- 
 able resolution of paying his creditors "one hun- 
 dred cents on the dollar" as soon as he was able. 
 At farming he engaged until 1887, during which 
 time he succeeded in accomplishing his desire with 
 his creditors, paying them in full, and also took up 
 the study of electricity. He is the inventor of what 
 is known as "Beattie's batterv zinc," which is now 
 in general use, and used entirely on the New York, 
 New Haven & Hartford Railroad ; he also manufac- 
 tured "X ray" machines, and invented other elec- 
 trical devices. In 1890 he was appointed by his 
 father to manage his business for him — both per- 
 sonal property and real-estate — which position of 
 trust he filled with characteristic fidelity and preci- 
 sion, making his home in Fall River until the death 
 of his father, since when, as one of the executors, he 
 has been managing the estate. 
 
 In politics Mr. Beattie is a stanch Republican, 
 and has held various offices of honor and trust; in 
 1879, while a resident of Fall River, Mass., he filled 
 the position of alderman ; in 1892 he was elected 
 president of the board of aldermen, and served three 
 years, during which incumbency he had the honor 
 of being the originator and introducer of the Police 
 Commission Bill, and he is known as the "father" of 
 that popular ordinance. Socially he is a Knight 
 Templar, being a member of Godfrev de Bouillon 
 Commandery, Fall River; is also affiliated with the 
 I. O. O. F.. at Fall River, and one of the first mem- 
 bers of the K. of P. in that city. 
 
 In 1864, at Somerset, Mass., John Beattie, Jr., 
 married Ellen N. Powers, a native of Bedford coun- 
 ty, Va., and a daughter of Thomas and Delia Pow- 
 ers. To this union have come three children : John, 
 
 a gold and silver plater at Fall River, Mass., who 
 married Lucinda Courtney ; Grace, wife of John D. 
 Alonroe, of Fall River; and Ernest J., mechanical 
 engineer, married to Elizabeth Tripp. 
 
 Francis Beattie ("Frank"), superintendent of 
 the Beattie Quarry Co., Leete Island, was born June 
 26, 1845, in Newport, R. I., and there received his 
 education. At the age of sixteen he commenced to 
 learn the trade of machinist in Providence, R. I., 
 where after three years he enlisted, in 1863, becom- 
 ing a member of Company E, 2d R. I. V. I. He 
 served until the end of the war, receiving an honor- 
 able discharge in 1865. Mr. Beattie took part in 
 several engagements, serving under Gen. Sheridan 
 at Winchester, Cedar Creek, Hatcher's Run and 
 Five Forks, and at the battle of Sailor's Creek, oa 
 Lee's retreat from Petersburg, he was wounded by 
 a minie ball. He was present at Lee's surrender at 
 Appomattox Court House, Va., and from there went 
 on the pursuit after Johnston, making a march of no 
 miles in forty-four hours on short rations. 
 
 In Niantic Mr. Beattie learned the trade of a 
 stonecutter and mason. In 1870 he came to Leete 
 Island, Guilford, and for thirty years was superin- 
 tendent of his father's business there, giving the 
 trust reposed in him the best of care and attention. 
 
 In Providence, R. I., in 1868, Francis Beattie 
 was united in marriage with Merriam Caroline Mc- 
 Call, born at Fall River, Mass., daughter of John 
 and Jane McCall, and seven children have graced 
 their union: Annie C, who was educated at the 
 Notre Dame Convent, Waterbury, and is now the 
 wife of Thomas T. Noel, telegraph operator, Leete 
 Island ; Carrie Isabelle, educated in the Guilford 
 high school, who was assistant postmaster at Leete 
 Island ; Rosie Frances, Mary Elizabeth and John 
 Richard, all of whom were educated in the Guilford 
 high school ; and Frank Kelley and Roy Hamilton. 
 
 Mr. Beattie is a member of Parmelee Post, No- 
 42, G. A. R., Guilford, in which he has held all the 
 offices, including that of commander ; is affiliated 
 with the F. & A. M., St. Alban's Lodge, Guilford; 
 also with Hallock Chapter, and the Order of the 
 Eastern Star, of which latter his wife and daughter 
 Carrie are also members. In politics he is a Repub- 
 lican, and under Harrison's administration served as- 
 postmaster at Leete Island. His wife and daugh- 
 ters are members of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 GEORGE ISAAC WILLIAMS, a prosperous- 
 and successful fruit farmer, dairyman and general 
 farmer of Wallingford, was born in the Pond Hill 
 District of that town Oct. 12, 1838. He is a grand- 
 son of Herman Williams, who was a brother of 
 Willoughby Williams, grandfather of Street Will- 
 iams, of Wallingford. The family history and im- 
 portant data of the Williams ancestry are given in 
 the biography of that gentleman, elsewhere. 
 
 Herman Williams was a farmer and land owner 
 of Pond Hill, where he died ; he was buried in Cen- 
 ter Street cemetery. He married a Miss Hoadley,, 
 
840 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and their children were Samuel, Hoadley, William, 
 Elizabeth, Edwin, Isaac, Mary (who married a Mr. 
 Maltby, of Northford), Caroline (who married 
 Harry Fowler, of Guilford), Julia (who married 
 John Bassett, of North Haven), and Elijah. All 
 are now deceased. 
 
 William Williams, the father of George Isaac, 
 was born on the farm where he grew to manhood. 
 Farming was his business all his life, and he was 
 a stock dealer as well, his judgment as to the fine 
 points of cattle being regarded as that of an ex- 
 pert. A fine tract of land in Pond Hill passed into 
 his possession, and there he settled, devoting his 
 life to its improvement, and prospering in an ac- 
 tive and honorable career. The land where the 
 Wallingford race track is now laid out belonged to 
 him at one time. Mr. Williams died in the home 
 of his son William H., and was buried in the Main 
 Street cemetery. He was a Whig, and later a Re- 
 publican, and in religion an Episcopalian. He mar- 
 ried Abigail Preston, a native of Wallingford, and 
 a daughter of Almon Preston. She died in North- 
 ford in 1897, and was buried in the Main Street 
 cemetery. To this union were born the following 
 ■children : Cornelia Anna, who married Henderson 
 Ives, of North Branford; George Isaac; and Will- 
 iam H. 
 
 George Isaac Williams was a student in the 
 Pond Hill District school, and grew to manhood on 
 the family homestead. Soon after his marriage 
 he bought the "Munson Farm," which then con- 
 sisted of 153 acres. It has been enlarged by sub- 
 sequent purchases until it now comprises 400 acres, 
 in a high state of cultivation, showing- the touch of 
 a practical farmer at every point. Mr. Williams car- 
 ries on both general and stock farming, and oper- 
 ates quite a large dairy ; there is also a feed and 
 saw mill on his farm. He is a man awake to every 
 turn, and anxious to keep abreast with the times. 
 
 Mr. Williams was married at Northford, to 
 Miss Eveline Munson, whose father, Julius Mun- 
 son, was crushed to death by a stampede of cattle. 
 To this marriage came three children : Arthur M., 
 a dairy farmer, who married Emma Harrison; 
 George and Fannie, both at home. Mr. Williams 
 is a Republican, and belongs to the Wallingford 
 Grange and the Agricultural Society. He is a 
 member of the Episcopal Church, which he has 
 served as a vestryman. A good all-round business 
 man, an honorable and upright citizen, he has many 
 friends, and is reararded as one of the leading far- 
 mers in Wallingford. 
 
 THOMAS A. NELSON, one of the wealthy 
 citizens of New Flaven county, who died Jan. 16, 
 1901, was a native of Scotland, born June I, 1834, 
 at Perth, on the banks of the Tay. 
 
 James Nelson, his father, was a linen manufac- 
 turer in Scotland, later carrying on the business 
 more extensively in Belfast, Ireland, where he 
 passed the rest of his days, dying in 1810. He and 
 
 his wife Susan had a family of eight children- 
 three sons and five daughters — named respectively:- 
 Margaret J., Thomas A., Mary A., George, Will- 
 iam, Letitia, Ellen E., and Jennie.^ Of these, 
 George, who was a soldier in the United States 
 regular army before the Civil war, is now living 
 retired in Chicago, 111. ; William is in the real es- 
 tate business in the same city; the daughters also 
 survive. 
 
 Thomas A. Nelson, the subject of proper of these 
 lines, was seven years old when he moved to the 
 North of Ireland with his parents, and there re- 
 ceived his earlier education. At the age of fifteen 
 years (1849) he came to the United States, locat- 
 ing at Georgetown, Fairfield Co., Conn., where he 
 attended school for some time; thence removed, 
 in 1 85 1, to Birmingham, where he commenced to 
 learn the trade of tool-making, though he did not 
 follow_ it. From Birmingham he proceeded to Char- 
 lotteville, Schoharie Co., N. Y., and there prepared 
 for college, but did not enter any college. Return- 
 ing to Birmingham, he engaged with the Downs 
 & Bassett Mfg. Co., manufacturers of corsets and 
 importers of kid gloves, and continued with that 
 firm for a period of over a quarter of a century, 
 from 1859 to 1884, after which he did not engage 
 in any active business. 
 
 In 1865 Thomas A. Nelson married Clara M., 
 youngest daughter of Abram Hubbell, of Ansonia. 
 Mr. Hubbell was born in Fairfield county, Conn., 
 and followed farming as well as carpentry ; came 
 to Ansonia in 1855, and associated himself with 
 Anson G. Phelps in the Ansonia Land & Water Co., 
 of which he was general manager up to his death in 
 1884. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Thomas A. Nelson : Clara H., Susan L. and Will- 
 iam A., the last named being secretary and treas- 
 urer of the Derby Paper Mill, with which he has 
 been connected some ten years, and of which his 
 father was president three years. 
 
 In politics our subject was a stanch Republican, 
 though not active in the workings of the party. So- 
 cially he was a member of the F. & A. M., King 
 Hiram Lodge, No. 12, of Derby; was president of 
 the Y. M. C. A. for years ; and with his family at- 
 tended the services of the Congregational Church. 
 They have a beautiful home in Ansonia, called 
 "Forestdale," the residence being one of the most 
 elegant in this section, surrounded as it is with spa- 
 cious grounds, lawns and winding paths. 
 
 SHERMAN B. CHIPMAN, in his lifetime a 
 well-known merchant of Waterbury, was born on 
 the west side of what is now known as the city, 
 June 13, 1806, a son of Samuel Chipman, and a de- 
 scendant of one of the oldest of New England fam- 
 ilies. The emigrant ancestor, John Chipman, came 
 from England in 1630, and settled in Massachusetts, 
 \yhere he married a Miss Howland, who was a 
 granddauahter of Gov. Carver. 
 
 Samuel Chipman, father of Sherman B., married 
 
-_^^7 <::::^^'^^^Y^//^^^>^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 841 
 
 Nancy Potter, to which union were born eleven chil- 
 ■ dren, as follows: Samuel D., Sherman B., Lyman, 
 William, George E., Joseph, Timothy T., Ransom, 
 Daniel L. (whose biography is given in full on an- 
 other page), Elizabeth N. and Martha. 
 
 Sherman B. Chipman remained on the home farm 
 at Waterbury until old enough to be apprenticed to 
 the cooper's trade, at which he served his full time, 
 and then followed that trade as a journeyman for 
 a number of years. He first married Amy Todd, 
 of Wolcott, Conn., who died leaving no children. 
 For his second wife Mr. Chipman, in 1833, wedded 
 Mary A. Granniss, who was born in Meriden, Conn., 
 Sept. 6, 1816, but who was reared in South Glas- 
 tonbury. The marriage took place in New Haven, 
 when the fair young bride was but seventeen years 
 ■of age. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Chip- 
 man settled in Waterbury, where he conducted a 
 successful grocery business until his death, which 
 occurred Jan. 16, i860. Their only child, Harriet 
 E., was borni April 28, 1838, and died Feb. 16, 1840. 
 
 In politics Mr. Chipman was a Democrat, but 
 was not a man to fritter away his time and energies 
 in party affairs. He preferred to devote his atten- 
 tion to his business, and to the comfort of his home, 
 and at his death he left his wife in well-to-do cir- 
 K:umstances. She continues to reside in Waterbury, 
 where she holds a high social position, honored and 
 esteemed by all who know her. 
 
 Enos Granniss, father of Mrs. Mary A. Chip- 
 man, was born in New Haven county, near the city 
 of that name, a son of Lieut. Enos Granniss, a sol- 
 dier of the Revolutionary war, whose three children 
 were named Enos, Horace and Palmer. The eldest 
 of these Enos, married Elizabeth Chipman, who was 
 a sister of Samuel Qiipman, the father of Sherman 
 B. Chipman. To Enos Granniss and his wife were 
 born six children, in the following order: Enos, 
 who was a clothier in Meriden, in Middletown and 
 later in Wethersfield, but who died in Waterbury; 
 Elizabeth, who was married to David' Scranton, of 
 'Glastonbury, and died in New Haven ; Anna C, de- 
 ceased wife of Edward Kilbourn ; William E., who 
 was an engineer for the New Haven Machine Co., 
 in New Haven, but is now deceased; Mary A., the 
 present Mrs. Chipman ; and Eunice M., deceased; 
 wife of Rev. Joseph T. Benton. 
 
 SMITH A. ABBOTT comes of ancestors who 
 Avere for many years engaged in mechanical manu- 
 facture of various sorts, and he himself has not been 
 without experience in the same general line. At 
 present he is a prosperous hardware merchant in the 
 ■city of Derby, where he deservedly enjoys the con- 
 fidence and respect of his fellow citizens. He was 
 born in Middlebury, this county, Aug. 6, 1831, the 
 sixth child of Daniel and Sally (Sherman) Abbott. 
 His. mother was a daughter of Elijah Sherman, of 
 Woodbury, who belonged to the same branch of the 
 Sherman family as did Gen. William Tecumseh 
 Sherman. 
 
 Daniel Abbott, who was also born in Middle- 
 bury, cultivated a farm, and in addition to agricult- 
 ural pursuits manufactured pumps and pipes, as well 
 as edge-tools and hammers. In later life he also 
 engaged in the manufacture of paper at Southbury 
 and Southford. His brain was as tireless as his 
 energy, and he achieved a fair success through per- 
 tinacity and courage which would not admit the 
 possibility of failure. He was a Whig in politics, 
 and died in the communion of the Methodist 
 Church. He was the father of a family of eight 
 children, only two of whom were daughters. Mar- 
 garet S., the elder, was twice married, first to E. T. 
 Abbott (he was not a member of the same branch 
 of the family as herself) ; after his death she mar- 
 ried S. Smith, who is also deceased. Nancy M., 
 the younger daughter and fifth child, became the 
 wife of Charles Warner, of Shelton. The sons of 
 Daniel Abbott were Daniel S., Samuel P., Elijah 
 E., Smith A., Charles K. and John B. Of these 
 Daniel, Samuel and Charles are deceased, the latter 
 having met death through accident when ten years 
 old. Daniel was the successful proprietor of an 
 iron foundry and machine shop at Gananoque, Can- 
 ada. Elijah and John, who were associated with 
 him in business, still reside there. Samuel P. was 
 an expert rubber manufacturer, and as such was 
 called to England, where he took charge of an ex- 
 tensive plant. Subsequently he went to Scotland, 
 where he died, meeting with an accident in the 
 shop where he was employed. 
 
 Smith A. Abbott was a boy of six years when 
 his parents took up their residence in Southford. 
 His school days over, he assisted his father for a 
 time, and then entered the employ of the Wheeler 
 & Wilson Manufacturing Co., before that concern 
 removed its works to Bridgeport. He next formed 
 a partnership with Louis Downs, under the firm 
 name of Downs & Abbott, and engaged in the manu- 
 facture of buttons and buckles. After a few years 
 this co-partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Abbott, 
 going to Beacon Falls, secured work as a machinist. 
 Epturning to Southford, he filled the same position 
 in his father's employ, and about two years after 
 the latter's death took charge of his business, in- 
 cluding the management of the paper-mill, which 
 was then turning out straw paper. In 1866 he dis- 
 posed of the plant and removed to Derby, in which 
 city he has since resided. To employ his own 
 words, he "took life easy" for a time, but in 1870 
 bought the hardware and tinware business of 
 Gould Curtis, forming a co-partnership with David 
 Curtis, the brother of Gould. Their relation as 
 partners extended over a period of seventeen years, 
 when Mr. Curtis disposed of his interest in the busi- 
 ness and Mr. Abbott admitted his son, Frank D., as 
 a partner, the style of the firm being changed to 
 Abbott & Co. 
 
 Mr. Abbott was married in 1853 to Julia B. 
 Downs, who died April 21, 1884. Four children 
 were born to them — Mary C, Frank D., Fannie L. 
 
842 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and Jessie M. The son, as has been said, is his fa- 
 ther's partner ; he married Lihy Ogden, of Ansonia, 
 Sept. i6, 1884. Mary, the eldest daughter, now de- 
 ceased, married Alfred Anderson, of Derby. Fan- 
 nie married George S. Curtis, of the same city, and 
 is deceased. Jessie M. became Mrs. Burton Wood- 
 bridge, of the same place. After the death of his 
 first wife Mr. Abbott married Miss Sarah L. 
 Downs, her first cousin ; to this union were born no 
 children. He is a Republican in politics, and both 
 himself and his family are members of the Metho- 
 dist Church. 
 
 ^ CHARLES FROST (deceased) was a leading 
 citizen of Mill Plain, Waterbury, and a worthy rep- 
 resentative of an old Connecticut family. 
 
 Samuel Frost, the first of the name in America, 
 was born in England about 1704, and on coming to 
 this country located in the town of Wallingford, 
 New Haven Co., Conn. He served as a soldier in 
 the French and Indian war. He lived to the ad- 
 vanced age of ninety-six years, dying at the home of 
 his son David, on Wolcott Mountain, Nov. 14, 1800. 
 He was an active member of the Episcopal Church, 
 and at his funeral four ministers of different de- 
 nominations — Congregational, Baptist, Methodist 
 and Episcopal — participated in the services. On 
 March 21, 1733, in Wallingford, he married Naomi 
 Fenn, who was born May 10, 1714, a daughter of 
 Edward and Mary (Thorp) Fenn. They had three 
 children: Moses, born Jan. 6, 1734; Naomi, born 
 March 31, 1735, wife of David Coggswell; and 
 David, born Sept. 15, 1743. 
 
 David Frost, son of Samuel, was a farmer and 
 land owner on Wolcott Mountain, where he spent 
 his entire life. In religious faith he was a Baptist. 
 He was married Nov. 5, 1762, to Mary Beach, who 
 was born in Wallingford Dec. 20, 1740, a daughter 
 of Joseph and Experience Beach. Mr. Frost died 
 Dec. 15, 1812, his wife on Feb. 5, 1819. In their 
 family were the following children : Jesse, born 
 Oct. 18, 1763, is mentioned below; Enoch, born 
 Jan. 8, 1765, married Anna Culver; David, born 
 March i, 1767, married Mary Ann Hitchcock; Na- 
 omi was born born July i, 1770; Mary, born March 
 24, 1775, died Sept. 14, 1778; Mary (2), born 
 March 11, 1780, married Ezekiel Smith; Elizabeth 
 married Nathan Barnes. 
 
 Jesse 'Frost, son of David, was drafted at the 
 age of sixteen years for service in the Revolutionary 
 war, and was in the service two years and nine 
 months, being under the immediate command of 
 Gen. Washington for nine months as one of the 
 teamsters carrying the baggage of the general and 
 his staff. After the war he was converted, and be- 
 came an active and prominent member of the Bap- 
 tist Church of Waterbury. Feeling himself called 
 upon to preach, he studied for the ministry, and 
 was ordained in 181 5. He served as joint pastor of 
 the Baptist Church at Waterbury with Rev. Samuel 
 Porter for many years, and died at that place Oct. 
 
 12, 1827. For a time he preached in Southington, 
 Conn., but he never located there. He was married 
 in 1783 to Abigail Culver, daughter of Lieut. 
 Stephen Culver. She died March 7, 1842. They 
 had ten children, namely: James was born March 
 21, 1784; Esther, born Aug. 29, 1786, married John 
 Smith; Leva, born April 14, 1789, married Benja- 
 min Farrell ; Alpheus, born Oct. 3, 1791, was the 
 father of our subject; Jesse Beecher was born 
 March 3, 1794; Electa, born Nov. 16, 1796, died 
 Oct. 16, 1803; Van Julius was born March 3, 1798; 
 Sylvester, born Nov. 19, 1801, died in September, 
 1803 ; Electa, born Jan. 9, 1805, married Edmond 
 Tompkins ; Abigail, born March 9, 1808, married 
 John Mitchell. 
 
 Alpheus Frost, father of our subject, was a far- 
 mer and land owner at Mill Plain, and was one of 
 the highly respected and esteemed citizens of that 
 locality. On June 17, 1816, he married Jerusha 
 Williams, daughter of Timothy Williams, and to 
 them were born seven children, whose names and 
 dates of birth were as follows : Mark Augustus, 
 April 16, 1818; Lydia Maria (wife of Hiram Will- 
 iams), Feb. .1, 1820; Melissa (wife of T. H. Pat- 
 ton), Jan. 6, 1822; Electa Ann, Feb. 28, 1824; 
 Charles, June 16, 1826; George, June 10, 1829; and 
 Styles, Nov. 7, 1831. The father died in 1834, and 
 was buried in the East Farms cemetery. Four 
 years later his widow married Martin Cook, of 
 Southington, Connecticut. 
 
 Charles Frost, our subject, attended the district 
 schools near his boyhood home. He was only 
 eight or nine years of age when his father died, and 
 he started out to make his own way in the world 
 at that early age, working as a farm hand. Sub- 
 sequently he learned the machinist's trade, which 
 he followed for a number of years, and later en- 
 gaged in the novelty business as a member of the 
 firm of Frost & Gaylord until their property was de- 
 stroyed by fire, after which he settled down to farm- 
 ing at Mill Plain, where he spent the remainder of 
 his life engaged in general farming and the dairy 
 business. 
 
 On July 13, 185 1, Mr. Frost was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Mary Ulissa Sperry, a native of 
 Cheshire, and a daughter of Luther and Mary Ve- 
 rona (Holt) Sperry. Her paternal grandparents 
 were Benjamin and Merah (Hall) Sperry, of 
 Cheshire, and her maternal grandparents were 
 Philemon and Abby (Barnes) Holt. To Mr. and 
 Mrs. Frost were born three children, one of whom 
 died in infancy, and the youngest, Ella "A., at the 
 age of twelve years. The only survivor is Mary U. 
 They had an adopted daughter, Helen L., now the 
 wife of Warren B. Hitchcock. 
 
 Mr. Frost died in Mill Plain May 9, 1897, and 
 was laid to rest in Pine Grove cemetery, Waterbury. 
 He, was an earnest member of the Episcopal 
 Church, and highly respected and esteemed by all 
 who knew him. Politically he was identified with 
 the Republican party. Fraternally he was a prom- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 845 
 
 inent member of Mad River Grange, of which he 
 was treasurer for ten years, and of which his widow 
 is also a member. Mrs. Frost is a most estimable 
 lady. 
 
 HENRY HOBART FOWLER, a prominent- 
 retired farmer of Branford, is a native of that town, 
 born Sept. 24, 1826, and is descended from a very 
 old New England family. 
 
 (I) William Fowler, a native of Birmingham, 
 England, lived in New Haven and Milford, from 
 which latter town he moved to Guilford, and died 
 there Jan. 25, 1660. He and his wife Sarah had 
 four children, William, Sarah, Ambrose and John. 
 
 (H) Deacon John Fowler, son of William, mar- 
 ried Mary Hubbard, born in 1635. He died Sept. 
 14, 1676, she on April 13, 1713. Their children 
 were: Abigail, May, Abraham, John, Mehitable 
 and Elizabeth. 
 
 (III) Abraham Fowler, son of Deacon John, 
 was born Aug. 29, 1652, and married Aug. 29, 1677, 
 Elizabeth Bartlett, born in March, 1653. He died 
 Sept. 30, 1719, she on Oct. 4, 1742. Their children: 
 Abigail, Mary, Abraham, Ebenezer, Daniel, Josiah, 
 Caleb and Elizabeth. 
 
 (IV) Ebenezer Fowler, son of Abraham, was 
 born in Guilford in 1684, and followed farming, be- 
 ing a large land owner in North Guilford. On May 
 I, 1718, he married Elizabeth Starr, who was born 
 in Guilford, Nov. 26, 1695. He died Nov. 28, 1768, 
 she on March 26, 1765. Their children : Ebenezer, 
 Nathaniel, Hulda, Caleb, Caleb (2), Elizabeth, Lucy 
 and William. 
 
 (V) Ebenezer Fowler, son of Ebenezer, was 
 born in January, 1719, in Guilford, and died Feb. 
 9, 1800. He was a minute man in the Revolution, 
 and in response to the alarm call went to Boston. 
 On Oct. 19, 1743, he married Desire Bristol, who 
 was born Feb. 6, 1719, and died Oct. 13, 1800. Their 
 children were : Beulah, Ebenezer, William, Nathan, 
 Thomas, Ruth, Caleb, Isaac, James and Oliver. 
 
 (VI) Ebenezer Fowler, son of Ebenezer, and 
 grandfather of Henrv Hobart, was born in North 
 Guilford April 17, 1747, and followed farming. He 
 was a lieutenant in the Revolutionarv war, and en- 
 joyed a pension. On Nov. 18, 1778, he married 
 (first) Lois Rossiter, born Julv 13- I7SQ. who died 
 June 17, 1791. Thev had children as follows : Ben- 
 jamin R., Fanny (Mrs. Benton), Ruth (Mrs. Eras- 
 tus Dudley) , James H. and Ebenezer. On Feb. 18, 
 1795, he married (second) Mercy Adkins, born m 
 1764, who died in 1825. She bore him two sons, 
 Ammi and Isaac. Ebenezer Fowler died Jan. i, 
 1833. 
 
 (VII) Benjamin Rossiter Fowler, son of Ebe;-.- 
 ezer and Lois (Rossiter) Fowler, and father of 
 Henry Hobart Fowler, was born in North Guilford 
 Sept. 14, 1779. In early manhood he was for six 
 years (1812-1818) keeper of the County House and 
 Jail, New Haven, which was located where the city 
 hall now stands. In 1818 he removed to Branford, 
 
 where he engaged in agricultural pursuits during- 
 the rest of his days, dying Dec. 23, 1839. He tran- 
 sacted much public business, holding the office of 
 justice of the peace, and various minor positions, 
 and served as pension agent, securing pensions for 
 Revolutionary soldiers. At one time he was deputy 
 sheriff. His political allegiance was given to the 
 Federalist party. Benjamin R. Fowler was twice 
 married, first time, Nov. 28, 1805, to Rachel Fow- 
 ler, daughter of Stephen and Temperance (Stevens) 
 Fowler. To this union were born two children that 
 grew to maturity, George R. and Randoloh. Yir. 
 Fowler married (second) June 6, 1816, Peggy 
 dauighter of Mason and Hannah (Harrison) Ho- 
 bart, of Branford, and two children, James H. and 
 Henry H., came of this marriage. The mother of 
 these was born Dec. 12, 1781, and died March 24, 
 1881. 
 
 (VIII) James H. Fowler, retired carriage mak- 
 er, was born in Branford, Conn., May 3, 1820, and 
 attended the common schools and academy of the- 
 place. At the age of sixteen he commenced^ an ap- 
 prenticeship at the carriage making business in New 
 Haven, serving five years, and then for ten years- 
 conducted a wagon shop of his own in Branford. 
 Later, also for ten years, he ran a sloop between 
 Branford and Long Island, since when he has been 
 living retired. He has been twice ma^-ried, first 
 time in 1842, to Sophia, daughter of William and 
 Esther Church, of Middletown, Conn., and four 
 children were born to them: Louisa (Mrs. N. 
 Newell), William H., Herbert and Charles. He 
 married (second) Emily, daughter of George W. 
 and Marie (Cook) Johnson, of Walling[ord, Conn. 
 His children are all now deceased except William 
 H., who lives in Denver Colo. William H. mar- 
 ried Ellen Smith, and has five children: Mary S., 
 Clara, William H., Jr., Fred and Charles. James 
 H. Fowler and his wife are members of the Bap- 
 tist Church. In, politics he is a Republican. 
 
 (VIII) Henry H. Fowler, the subject proper of 
 this memoir, received a liberal education at the com- 
 mon schools of Branford. He made farming his 
 life work up to 189S, when he retired from that 
 occupation. An active Republican politically, he has 
 held various municipal offices, all of which he has 
 filled, or is filling, with his well-known ability and 
 judgment. He has in his possession a family heir- 
 loom in the shape of a writing desk or escritoire, 
 which is said to have been made some time in the 
 fourteenth century, and which has been handed 
 down from generation to generation. 
 
 Mason Hobart, maternal grandfather of our 
 subject, was born Nov. i, 1752, at Stonington,. 
 Conn., a son of Abijah (of New London) and Mary 
 (Bartholomew) Hobart, the former of whom was 
 born in Stonington, Conn., in 1703, and died in 
 1791 ; the latter, who was born in Branford, died at 
 the age of eighty-eight years. Mason Hobart, a 
 Revolutionary pensioner, was a merchant, shipbuild- 
 ei and owner of vessels, and possessed a large tract 
 
844 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of land in Branford. He served in the Revolution, 
 and received a pension for his services. On Nov. 
 28, 1776, he married Hannah Harrison, who was 
 born in 1757, a daughter of Isaac and Rebecca Har- 
 rison, of Branford. Mason Hobart died March 27, 
 1841, and his wife passed away in 1794. 
 
 ALFRED HUGHES. New Haven county has 
 been the home and scene of labor of many men who 
 have not only led lives that should serve as an ex- 
 ample to those who come after them, but who have 
 also been of important service to their town and 
 county through various avenues of usefulness. 
 Among them may be named Alfred Hughes, who 
 passed away Oct. 18, 1899, after a life of industry, 
 and rich in those rare possessions which only a high 
 character can give. 
 
 Mr. Hughes was born Nov. 14, 1822, in what 
 is now the town of New Haven, but at that time 
 formed a part of East Haven. The Hughes family 
 of East Haven is descended from Henry Freeman 
 Hughes, whose posterity have been substantial 
 men and women and useful citizens in this and other 
 communities in which their lots have been cast. He 
 had a brother, Bodwell Hughes, who, however, has 
 no descendants in East Haven ; his only son died in 
 1815. Our subject was in the fourth generation 
 from Henry Freeman Hughes, who was born in 
 1723 in Wales, and was impressed as a seaman in 
 the English navy. On account of his dislike for the 
 service he deserted his ship, and about 1748 ap- 
 peared in East Haven, Conn., under the name of 
 Henry Freeman ; he was reported to have come 
 from Newburyport. His name was Henry Hughes, 
 but to avoid detection and capture he assumed that 
 of Freeman in remembrance of his escape, and Free- 
 man has ever since been a common name in the 
 family. On July .19, 1749, Mr. Hughes married 
 Lydia Tuttle, who was born in 1722, daughter of 
 Noah and Rachel (Hoadley) Tuttle, and a member 
 of one of the oldest and most influential families in 
 Connecticut. Mr. Tuttle was a large land owner in 
 East Haven, and Mr. Hughes by his marriage came 
 into possession of considerable property. He was 
 industrious and prosperous, but finally was over- 
 come with misfortune. He was a farmer and ferry- 
 man, and though his houtee was not a tavern he al- 
 "ways afforded entertainment for those who desired 
 accommodations. He also kept staple groceries and 
 provisions on hand for his own use and for those 
 who did not want to go to New Haven for them. 
 He was a strict Episcopalian, very firm and settled 
 in his belief. At that time, iust preceding and dur- 
 ing the Revolution, when the ground which sepa- 
 rated Puritan and Churchman was contested inch 
 hv inch, it took courage and decision to be a Church- 
 man. His wife was a Puritan, but she united with 
 his church, and their children were all brous-ht up 
 in that faith. Atr. Hughes died in 1791, and Mrs. 
 Hufhps in 1704. 
 
 (II ) Daniel Hughes, son of Henry Freeman, the 
 
 settler, was born June 17, 1759, in East Haven, and 
 married (first) Lucy Grannis, born in 1761, in New 
 Haven. She died June 25, 1791, and on Dec. 25, 
 1795, he married (second) Sarah Atwater, who 
 .was born April 26, 1756, in Cheshire, Conn., and 
 died Jan. 14, 1817. On April 5, 1818, he married 
 (third), in East Haven, Rachel Shailor, born in 
 Bristol, Conn., in 1773, who died March 20, 1844. 
 Daniel Hughes received a practical education in the 
 common schools, and took up farming, in which he 
 met with marked success ; occasionally he engaged 
 in other lines of business. He was a remarkable 
 man in many respects, and a type of the primitive 
 New Englander. Throughout life he continued to 
 reside in the neighborhood of his birth. He pos- 
 sessed good common sense and was a strong prac- 
 tical reasoner, and clung to his belief with firmness. 
 He was an acute observer and a man of quick per- 
 ception. Simple in his tastes and habits, he was 
 very active in both body and mind, and until his 
 death kept up the habit of risine between three and 
 four o'clock in the morning and retiring at sunset. 
 He never would ride and never would have a horse 
 on his farm, believing in walking. He never -used 
 spectacles, and read without them with perfect ease. 
 Mr. Hughes was dignified in his personal appear- 
 ance. Always kind, generous and hospitable, his 
 home was open to all. and those who came were 
 welcome. Blessed with abundance, he cheerfully 
 gave to the deserving who had less than he. and he 
 was widely known and beloved. In politics he was 
 a Whig, but had not much taste for party affairs. 
 He early united with the Episcopal Church, and 
 was strongly attached to its teachings, being a very 
 prominent member to the day of his death, Nov. 
 8, 1842. 
 
 (Ill) Aaron Atwater Hughes, son of Daniel, 
 born Jan. 20, 1797, in East Haven, was a lifelong 
 resident of that town, where he died Julv 14, i8,-^3. 
 On Jan. 20, 1822, he married Lydia Caroline Tuttle, 
 who was born Oct. 25, 1798, and died May 30, 1892. 
 She was a daughter of Josiah Tuttle, and grand- 
 daughter of Joseph Tuttle, who was a volunteer 
 minute-man in the Revolutionary war, and did coast 
 patrol duty at old Black Rock Fort, now Fort Hale. 
 He and his son Josiah, who joined the Revolution- 
 ary army at the age of sixteen, were both taken 
 prisoners by the English at that place, July 5, i779- 
 The British officers took possession of his house, 
 which they destroyed with considerable other prop- 
 erty. Aaron A. Hughes inherited the prominent 
 family traits of character to a marked degree, hav- 
 ing been warm hearted and open handed, genial, 
 kind and hospitable to all. He was gifted with a 
 high order of ability. Mrs. Hughes was a woman 
 educated in advance of her time, and her mental 
 store was constantlv enriched bv continual reading, 
 with keen perception, clear and strong reasoning. 
 Hers were those sterling qualities of mind and heart 
 which enabled her to guide her children in all the 
 essentials of usefulness and integritv, a duty which 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Ms. 
 
 devolved upon her by her early widowhood. She 
 always kept abreast of the times, in all current 
 events, and retained her faculties in a remarkable de- 
 gree to the last. Her birthday Scriptural proverb 
 was truly fulfilled: "Strength and nonor are her 
 clothing. She -shall rejoice m time to come." Al- 
 fred Hughes, our subject, was the older in a fam- 
 ily of two children, the other being Sarah Eva. 
 
 Miss Sarah E. Hughes was educated in the 
 schools of New Haven and the Academy at West- 
 field, Mass., and in 1853 commenced teaching in a 
 school which she attended. Later she taught in 
 private boarding schools for a few years, and then 
 became connected with the public schools of New 
 Haven, being principal's assistant at the Wooster 
 school two years, and principal of the Dixwell ave- 
 nue school for nineteen consecutive years, making 
 twenty-one years of continued service in New Ha- 
 ven. Miss Hughes was a very popular and thor- 
 ough educator, and met with most excellent suc- 
 cess. She is now living with our subject's widow on 
 the old home farm. One writer speaks thus of her 
 life and work : "Miss Hughes has not only main- 
 tained herself by a successful prosecution of a busi- 
 ness to which she has devoted her energies, but has 
 surrounded herself with the comforts of a home 
 which it is her delight also to make, in her gener- 
 ous and 'hospitable way, the home of those whofn 
 she loves and respects. Her childhood was charac- 
 terized by the early development of a bright and 
 inquiring intellect which instinctively thirsted for 
 knowledge. This literary turn of mind, together 
 with an ardent love of study, ultimately led her to 
 resolve to qualify herself for the honorable position 
 of a teacher. With this view, after spending several 
 years in the best schools in New Haven, she entered 
 the academy at Westfield, Mass., under the charge 
 of William C. Goldwaite, where she spent two years 
 in the study of the higher branches of education. 
 Upon her graduation from this institution, she com- 
 menced her career as a teacher in the same, and re- 
 mained as pupil and teacher three years and a half. 
 At the expiration of this period a flattering offer 
 was extended to her to become a teacher in a board- 
 ing school in Louisa Court House, Va., which after 
 mature consideration she concluded to accept. This 
 position she continued to fill, with the entire accept- 
 ance of her employers, from September, 1854, until 
 July, 1857, when, upon the failure of her health, she 
 was compelled to resign and return to het- friends 
 in Connecticut. Here, in consequence of ill health, 
 she remained until i860, when an ofifer was made 
 her of another position in a boarding school in Sara- 
 toga, N. Y., where she remained for one year, when, 
 findinsr that the climate did not agree with her, she 
 was obliged to relinquish the engagement and return 
 to her home. After an interval of rest, she next ac- 
 cepted the Dosition of principal's assistant in the 
 Wooster public school in New Haven, which she re- 
 tained for the period of two vears. Her next field 
 of labor was the Dixwell school — another of the 
 
 public schools of New Haven — which she entered, 
 m i8b4. Alter the laitniui and energetic discharge 
 of the duties ot the subordinate positions m this 
 institution she was ultmiately promotea to become 
 the principal, whicn position she held, to her credit, 
 as well as to the entire satisfaction of the board of 
 education, until 1883. 
 
 "in 1851 the attention of Miss Hughes was 
 drawn to ihe subject of religion, and at a subse- 
 quent period, in the rite of confirmation, she made 
 a profession of her faith in Christ, and was admitted 
 to the Holy Communion in St. James Church, Fair 
 Haven, of which parish she has continued to be a, 
 faithful and exemplary member ever since. In man- 
 ners and address Miss Hughes is courteous and_ 
 agreeable ; and as a teacher she has been eminently 
 successful." 
 
 At the age of seventeen years Alfred Hughes 
 began life for himself, taking charge of the farm 
 where his widow now resides — the homestead of his- 
 father, located about a half mile east of Tomlin- 
 son's bridge. To its cultivation and improvement 
 he devoted his time and energies throughout life,, 
 and was numbered among the best and most suc- 
 cessful agriculturists of the community, at the time 
 of his death owning quite a large and valuable 
 estate. He was a man of decided preferences and, 
 strong prejudices, but full of forbearance and con- 
 •siderate charity for those who held opposite views. 
 Although tenacious of his opinions and firm in his 
 purposes, he was a "man of strict integrity, sound 
 judgment and good business capacity. He was a 
 man of tender sympathies, which were easily 
 aroused, and led him to the performance of kindly 
 acts to neighbors, friends and strangers. Plain and: 
 utipretending in his habits and address, he com- 
 mended himself to all as the friend of the unfortu- 
 nate and helpless, but was the enemy of idleness - 
 and vagrancy. A faithful advocate and liberal pa- 
 tron of all practical improvements for the moral 
 and intellectual benefit of the community, he en- 
 joyed in a high degree the confidence of his neigh- 
 bors and townsmen, among whom his sound judg- 
 ment and faithful execution of all projects which- 
 commended themselves to his favor is proverbial. 
 An industrious, honest and substantial man, as a) 
 son, brother, husband and father, he was faithful, 
 considerate, affectionate, indulgent and tender." 
 
 Alfred Hughes was married in New Haven, 
 Nov. 4, 1861, to Miss Mary Ann Rowe, who was 
 born in East Haven, Dec. 20, 1839, a daughter of 
 Robert and Abbie Rowe ; her father was a native 
 of Falmouth, England ; her mother was born in 
 Norwich, Conn., a descendant of a Story who was 
 one of the very early settlers of Massachusetts, and 
 soon after moved to Norwich, Conn. To Mr. and 
 Mrs. Huehes were born three children, namely: 
 Caroline Tuttle ,eraduated from the New Haven 
 high school and the S'^ate Normal, and for a num- 
 ber of years taught in the New Haven public- 
 schools ; she is at present teaching in a young la-- 
 
846 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 dies' seminary at Springfield, Mass. Normand At- 
 water married Clara L. Pierce, and has one child, 
 ]\Iarion. Alfred Burdette is a graduate of Yale Col- 
 lege, class of 1895, and Yale Law School, 1897, 
 and is a practicing law3'er of New Haven. 
 
 Socially Mr. Hughes was a member of Harmony 
 Lodge, L O. O. F., of New Haven, for forty-three 
 years. He always took an active and commendable 
 interest in public affairs ; served as selectman of 
 East Haven in 1857 and other years; and in various 
 other offices. After his section of the town was set 
 aside and added to New Haven he was elected 
 selectman of the latter, in 1888. He was public- 
 spirited and enterprising, and was also very char- 
 itable, the poor and the needy always finding in him 
 a friend. During the winter be would load his 
 wagon with vegetables and produce of all kinds, 
 which he would distribute among the poor of his 
 vicinity. Throughout his career of continued and 
 far-reaching usefulness his duties were performed 
 with the greatest care, and during a long life his 
 personal honor and integrity were without blemish. 
 
 SHELTON TRUMAN HITCHCOCK. The 
 Hitchcock family of which the gentleman, whose 
 name here appears, is an honored member, is an 
 old settled one in New Milford. 
 
 In the spring of 1635, when twenty-five years 
 old, Mathias Hitchcock came from England to Bos- " 
 ton on the bark "Susan and Ellen," and from there 
 removed to Watertown, Conn., where in July, 1636, 
 he secured twenty-three acres of land in the Great 
 dividends, which he afterward sold to D. Patrick. 
 In 1639 his name appears on the records of New 
 Haven as one of the signers of the fundamental 
 agreement made on the fourth day of the fourth 
 month (then called June), 1639. According to 
 "Hitchcock Genealogy" he had a brother, Edward, 
 who also was one of the five purchasers of "South 
 End Neck" (now East Haven), where they dwelt 
 after 1651. He (Mathias) died in the New Haven 
 Colony Nov. 14, 1669, his widow in 1676. Their 
 children were : Eliakim married March 4, 1666, 
 Sarah Merrick, daughter of Thomas Merrick ; Na- 
 thaniel married Jan. 18, 1670, Elizabeth Morse, a 
 daughter of John : Johiii; a sketch of whom follows ; 
 Elizabeth, borq June 4, 1651, in New Haven, mar- 
 ried January, 1672, Anthony Howel, of Branford, 
 Conn, (for her second husband she wedded John 
 Nash). 
 
 John Hitchcock, son of Mathias, was born in 
 the New Haven Colony, there grew to manhood, 
 and removed thence to what is now Wallingford,. 
 Conn., where he was one of the original proprietors, 
 and owned a large tract of land. He died there 
 July 6, 1 716. He was twice married, first on Jan. 
 18, 1670, to Abigail Merriman, who was born April 
 18, 1654, a daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Merriman; 
 for his second wife he married Anril 18, 1677, a 
 daughter of Samuel Cook. John Hitchcock's chil- 
 dren were as follows : A daughter, born Oct. i, 1672, 
 
 died young; Abigail, born April 10, 1694, married 
 Jacob Johnson; Mary, born Dec. 10, 1676, married 
 Benjamin Beach; Nathaniel, born April 18, 1679, 
 married Sarah Jennings; Margery, born Sept. 9, 
 1681, married Joseph Munson; Elizabeth, born 
 April 18, 1684, supposed to have married Daniel 
 Lines; John, born Oct. 18, 1685, married Marlow 
 Munson; Mathias, born May 26, 1688, married 
 Thankful Andrews; Hannah, Jan. 9, 1690, is sup- 
 posed to have married John Lines ; Damaris, born 
 July II, 1693, married Sylvanus Clark; Benjamin, 
 a sketch of whom follows. 
 
 Capt. Benjamin Hitchcock, son of John, was 
 born IVIarch 24, 1696, in Wallingford. When in 
 manhood he moved to what is now Cheshire, Conn., 
 and there owned land and farmed ; he also owned 
 land in the parish of Southington. He died in 
 Cheshire, Feb. 12, 1767. By his wife, Elizabeth 
 Ives, who was born Sept. 6, 1700, and died Aug. 8, 
 1762, a daughter of Joseph and Esther Ives, he 
 had children as follows: Bela, born Oct. 27, 1719, 
 married Sarah Atwater; Hannah, born Sept. 12, 
 1 72 1, married May 26, 1740, Elnathan Andrews; 
 Benjamin, a sketch of whom follows; Elizabeth, 
 born Feb. 23, 1726; Abigail, 'born May 10, 1728, 
 married Dec. 9, 1747, Daniel Bradley, of New 
 Haven; Samuel, born April, 1730; Nathaniel, born 
 June 30, 1732, died March 12, 1734; Enos, bap- 
 tized April, 1734; Joseph, born July 12, 1737, died 
 Nov. I, 1760; Nathaniel, born Sept. 20, 1739, mar- 
 ried May 4, 1763, Lydia Dutton, and died May 30, 
 1770 ; David, born June 29, 1742, married Hannah 
 Doolittle; Damaris, born Sept. 3, 1745, died Nov, 
 25.1756. 
 
 Benjamin Hitchcock, son of Capt. Benjamin, 
 was born in the town of Wallingford Feb. 23, 1724, 
 passed the most of his life in Cheshire, and died there 
 Oct. 4, 1792. He married Feb. 27, 1745, Rhoda 
 Cook, born Oct. 22, 1724, in Cheshire, and died 
 May 16, 1808. Their children: Thaddeus, bom 
 Dec. 13, 1745, died Aug. 8, 1752; Hannah, born 
 March 9, 1748, married a Mr. Ward; Benjamin, 
 sketch of whom follows; Rhoda, born Nov. 24, 
 1752, married April 5, 1755, Obed Doolittle; Lucy, 
 born March 24, 1755; Damaris, born Dec. 5, 1756; 
 Thaddeus, born March 10, 1760, married Abigail 
 Arnold. 
 
 Benjamin Hitchcock, a son of Benjamin above, 
 was born Nov. 24, 1752, in Cheshire, then a part of 
 Wallingford, whence he removed to Waterbury, 
 where he became a land owner and farmer, a highly 
 respected and prominent citizen. He died there 
 in 1809. By his wife, Eunice (Hotchkiss), who 
 was born Jan. 8, 1755, and died in 1799, a daughter 
 of Daniel Hotchkiss, he had children as follows: 
 Anna, born April 19, 1775 ; Saly, born in 1778, mar- 
 ried J. G. Tyrrell; Reuben married Leda Plant, 
 daughter of James Plant; Jared married Dec. i, 
 1808, Lillie Bunnell; Manly, born Dec. 23, 1783; 
 Samuel, born March 3, 1787, married Amelia Os- 
 born; George, born June 27, 1789, lived in Water- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 847 
 
 town, N. Y. ; Benjamin Truman, a sketch of whom 
 follows; and Eunice, born Feb. 19, 1793, married 
 Heman Tyrrell. 
 
 Benjamin Truman Hitchcock, son of Benjamin 
 above, and the father of the subject proper of this 
 sketch, was born Aug. 9, 1791, at Waterbury, Conn. 
 He was a farmer and land owner at East Farms, 
 town of Waterbury, died there, and was buried in 
 East Farms cemetery; a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, he was a devout Christian, a good 
 and worthy man, in politics he was an old-line 
 Whig. 
 
 On Feb. 22, 1815, Benjamin T. Hitchcock mar- 
 ried Julia Frisbie, who was born in -Waterbury, a 
 daughter of Daniel Frisbie, sketch of whom appears 
 elsewhere, and the names and dates of the birth of 
 their children are as 'follows : Eliza Finette, July 
 18, 1816, married J. C. Beach, and is still living; 
 Edward M. ; Shelton Truman, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows; JuHette, born July 4, 1828, died in 1831 ; El- 
 more William, May 13, 1833; and George Benja- 
 min, a sketch of whom follows. 
 
 Sheldon Truman Hitchcock, son of Benjamin 
 Truman, and the subject of this memoir, was born 
 Dec. 13, 1822, at the homestead in town of Water- 
 bury, and received his education in part at the dis- 
 trict schools, and in part at a private school. Un- 
 til he was thirty-three years old he worked for his 
 father, and then bought the Maple Lake farm, on 
 the old turnpike near Judge Hill, town of Wolcott, 
 known first as the Lewis farms ; it is a tract of 400 
 acres, and the house was formerly a hotel owned 
 by Reuben Lewis. Here Mr. Hitchcock has lived 
 for forty-five years, during which time he has made 
 vast improvements and has added 300 acres to the 
 original place, so that the farm lies in the towns of 
 Cheshire and Wolcott. Besides general farming, 
 including dairying and stock raising, he deals 
 largely in wood, and he is noted for honesty and in- 
 tegrity in all his transactions. 
 
 On Oct. 26, 185s, Shelton T. Hitchcock was 
 married to Cornelia C. Andrews, who was born in 
 the town of Wolcott, Aug. 22, 1833, a daughter of 
 Chester and Olive L. (Bassett) Andrews, and 
 granddaughter of Luther and Martha (Thomas) 
 Andrews. She is a lady of refinement, a good 
 mother, wife and helpmeet in every sense of the 
 word. Children were born to this honored couple 
 as follows : Jennie J., born March 25, 1857, mar- 
 ried William R. Steele, of Waterbury; Nettie C, 
 born Aug. 22, i860, married George J. Alexander ; 
 Eva, born Sept. i, 1862, died Sept. 8, 1862; and 
 Elbert, born Nov. 7, 1867, died Jan. i, 1888. The 
 last named was a young man of excellent repute, 
 highly educated and clever, and his taking away 
 so early in life was a sad bereavement to his par- 
 ents and friends. Mrs. Martha (Thomas) An- 
 drews, grandmother of Mrs. Hitchcock, was a sis- 
 ter of Seth Thomas, the noted clock manufacturer 
 of Thomaston, Conn., while the wife of Seth 
 Thomas, was Laura Andrews, a sister of Luther 
 
 Andrews, and daughter of William Andrews, a 
 captain in the Revolutionary army. Albert A. An- 
 drews, brother of Mrs. Hitchcock, served three 
 years in the Civil war, and now lives in Brooklyn, 
 New York. 
 
 Li politics Mr. Hitchcock is a stanch Democrat, 
 and has filled several positions of honor and trust 
 in the gift of his party, but at all times represented 
 the people, regardless of politics. He was elected 
 to the State Legislature six terms, namely : 1859, 
 1871, 1872, 1874, 1878 and 1879, and sat in the old 
 house at Hartford the last time, and at the first 
 session in the new house, also the last session in the 
 old New Haven house. For twelve years he served 
 as a member of the board of selectmen for the town 
 of Wolcott, during several of which years he was 
 its chairman ; was a member of the board of relief ; 
 has served as assessor; and was elected grand juror 
 and justice of- the peace, but declined these offices. 
 He is very domestic in his life and habits, and tem- 
 perate in all things. In business matters he is con- 
 ceded to be the most successful farmier in Wolcott, 
 and by hard work, judicious management and 
 sound judgment he has earned a comfortable com- 
 petence. 
 
 George Benjamin Hitchcock, brother of Shelton 
 T., was born Sept. 16, 1838, on the home farm, in 
 the town of Waterbury, and all his life has engaged 
 in agricultural pursuits on the Meriden road. He 
 married Helen Alexander, daughter of John Alex- 
 ander, and sister to George J. Alexander, of Wat- 
 erbury, and three children have come to their union : 
 Irving, born in 1869, died in 1881 ; Warren B., born 
 in 1872, was married in 1892 to Helen S. Frost, 
 adopted daughter of Mrs. Charles Frost; and Fan- 
 nie, born in 1882, is living at home. Mrs. Hitch- 
 cock is a member of the Congregational Church at 
 Waterbury. 
 
 HENRY B. GRISWOLD, retired, who during 
 his active years was one of the best known business 
 men of Guilford, was born in that town Nov. 25, 
 1824, son of Joel and Polly (Bartlett) Griswold. 
 
 Mr. Griswold commenced his studies in the 
 home district, and completed his studies with two 
 terms in a select school. As he was the eldest son, 
 he had to help his father in the work, and remained 
 at home until he reached his majority, when he mar- 
 ried and removed to Clinton, where he was a farmer 
 for some years. Returning to Guilford he became 
 employed on a tract of land near the old homestead, 
 on which he made extensive improvements and also 
 took up the lumbering business. At first he cut and 
 furnished ties and timber for the New York, New 
 Haven & Hartford Shore Line. He cut and shipped 
 timber for the construction of the largest sailing ves- 
 sel built in America, and in all furnished timber for 
 more than thirty shios. Later he branched out mo.re 
 extensively, organizing the Griswold Lumber Co., 
 with headquarters at Chicago, of which he was 
 president and his son H. W. secretary and treas- 
 
848 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 urer. The company did a business of more tlian 
 $100,000 a year, furnishing more than ten million 
 feet of white oak timber for the Michigan Central 
 railroad; considerable for the Grand Trunk rail- 
 road ; and also supplying the World's Fair with a 
 large quantity of timber. They thoroughly investi- 
 gated the lumber resources of the West, from Win- 
 nipeg to Texas, and had altogether twenty^five 
 mills in different parts of the country, their mill 
 products going to all parts of the world. Our 
 subject furnished piles for a number of docks in 
 New York, and timber for many of the elevators 
 of that city. During the time he was in business 
 he dealt with many railroad men in the United 
 States and Canada, and has met many of the lead- 
 ing men of the country. He refused an offer of the 
 Canadian Pacific railroad to look after their lum- 
 ber interests, at a salary of $3,000 a year. He 
 spent one winter and part of several summers in 
 the Adirondacks, in the interest of Thomas C. 
 Durant, the builder of the Union Pacific railroad, 
 locating an old survey for a railroad from Saratoga 
 to Sacket's Harbor, on Lake Ontario, stocking his 
 mills, and looking over timber lands, of which he 
 had six hundred thousand acres. During the Civil 
 war Mr. Griswold furnished the government with 
 timber for war vessels then building, as well as for 
 docks. Mr. Griswold is a reader of character, and 
 a keen judge of men and events. He worked hard 
 at whatever he had in hand, and commandedl the 
 respect of his fellow men in every walk of life. 
 
 Mr. Griswold married, Nov. 25, 1845, Miss 
 Polly E. Wilcox, who was born Oct. 21, 1825, 
 daughter of Selah Wilcox, of Clinton. She died 
 Aug. ig, 1866, and was buried in the Alderhood 
 cemetery. To this union came two children : ( i ) 
 Emelyn, born Sept. 26, 1847, '^ the widow of 
 James A. Dudley, who died in 1897, and was buried 
 in Alderhood cemetery. They had five children — 
 Lillian E., born Oct. 21, 1871 ; Harry C, born July 
 31, 1878, now a student at Harvard; Ernest Gris- 
 wold, born in August, 1880, now at Leland Stan- 
 ford University; Alice Griswold, born June 22, 
 1883; and Laura Eliot, born Feb. 14, 1886. (2) 
 Henry Wilcox, born Feb. 21, 1850, received a good 
 business education, and was engaged in the lum- 
 ber business with his father as partner. He is now 
 the general manager of three cold storage ware- 
 houses — located respectively in Jersey Citv, Spring- 
 field, Mass., and Aftany — of the Eastern States Re- 
 frigerating Co., whose home office is in New York 
 City. He is a thorough business man and has 
 been very successful. He married Mettie M. Mor- 
 rison, who had more than a local reputation in 
 music and art, and to this union came one child, 
 Ruth, who is now in the Guilford high school. Mrs. 
 Henry Wilcox Griswold died April 18, 1896, in 
 Chicago. 
 
 Henry P.. Griswold married for his second wife, 
 Oct. 17, 1867, Eugenia Maria Scranton, who was 
 born in New Haven, daughter of Hamilton W. 
 
 and Ann Maria (Rowe) Scranton. Abraham 
 Scranton, her grandfather, was one of the best- 
 known citizens of Madison, Conn. To this union 
 came one child, Herbert H., who was born Jan. 2, 
 1876, and died May 6, 1882. 
 
 Mr. Griswold is a Republican, with strong in- 
 dependent proclivities. He was selectman for two 
 terms, and has been justice of the peace and grand 
 juror of the United States Court. In religion he 
 has allied himself with the First CongregationaJ 
 Church. He is a good, whole-souled man, and is 
 well liked in his community. 
 
 RANSOM- BENJAMIN HALL (deceased) 
 was through life one of the best known and most 
 highly respected citizens of Wolcott, New Haven 
 county, where he was born July 12, 1852. His 
 father, Heman Wilsey Hall, was a native of the 
 same town, born in 1824, a son of Deacon Orrin' 
 Hall, and a brother of Mrs. Harriet J. Gladding, 
 who still occupies the old homestead, and in whose 
 sketch more extended mention is made of the family. 
 The mother of our subject, who bore the maiden., 
 name of Betsey Ann Sperry, was descended from 
 one of the oldest families of the State, being a. 
 daughter of Joseph and Abigail Sperry, of Wolcott. 
 Ransom B. Hall acquired his literary education 
 in the district schools of Wolcott, and upon the- 
 home farm gained an excellent knowledge of agri- 
 cultural pursuits. He lived with his grandparents 
 until reaching manhood, his parents having died 
 when he was young. On starting out in life for 
 himself he chose the occupation to which he had"' 
 been reared, and in his labors met with most excel- 
 lent success, becoming one of the largest land own- 
 ers and most extensive farmers of his section of the 
 town. He was also, interested in stock raising. 
 
 In 1874, in Woodtick, town of Wolcott, Mr. Hall 
 was married to Miss Anna E. Root, a native of that 
 town, a daughter of Timothy and Marv (Goodwin) 
 Root, and a granddaughter of Mark Root and Vir- 
 gil C. Goodwin. She is a lady of education and re- 
 finement, and successfully engasjed in teadhing in 
 the district schools for several years. Since her 
 husband's death she has moved to Mill Plain, in the 
 town of Waterbury, where she has erected an ele- 
 gant residence. She is an active member of Mad' 
 River Granee, of which she is now secretarv. In- 
 religious belief she is an Eoiscopalian. Her chil- 
 dren are Nettie J., Georo-e R., Daisy M. and Robert 
 R., all at home. The older son is now engaged as a 
 traveling salesman for the Cycle Supply Co., of 
 Hartford. 
 
 Mr. Hall died on his farm in Wolcott Oct. 3, 
 1889, and was laid to rest in Woodtick cemetery. 
 He was a Republican in politics, and always took 
 quite an active and prominent part in pulic affairs, 
 being specially interested in educational matters. 
 He was serving as tax collector of his town at the 
 time of his death. Religiouslv he was a leading 
 member of the Congregational Church, and always' 
 
at^^^-z^<Hr7n' 
 
 c> 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 849 
 
 took a deep interest in its work. In his home he was 
 an indulgent father, a kind and devoted husband, 
 and his genuine worth and manly virtues were wide- 
 ly recognized. He never acted except from honest 
 motives, and in all his varied relations, in business 
 affairs and social life, he maintained a character and 
 standing that impressed all with his sincere and 
 manly purpose to do by others as he would have 
 others do by him. 
 
 EDWIN JESSE CLINTON, a member of the 
 carriage wood-work firm of E. J. Clinton & Son, 
 Clintonville, Conn., was born in the town of Wall- 
 ingford, Sept. 4, 1836, and belongs to a family long 
 located in this part of the world. 
 
 The Clintons are said to be of Scotch descent, 
 and are supposed to have come to Massachusetts to 
 Connecticut in the latter part of the seventeenth 
 century. Laurence Clinton, the first of the name in 
 New Haven, settled in what is now North Haven 
 in 1702. He became a member of Center Church, 
 New Haven, in 1704, and was one of six men who 
 united in forming an Episcopal Society in North 
 Haven in 1723. By occupation he was a mason. 
 Records show that he was born in 1679 and died 
 1757-8, and that he was married about the year 
 
 1700 to Mary (probably Brockett) , and became 
 
 the father of seven daughters, viz. : Elizabeth, who 
 married James Bishop Jan. 20, 1725-6; Abigail; 
 Mary, who married Isaac Griggs, Oct. 21, 1725; 
 Lydia ; Sarah ; Anne ; and Phebe. He married ( sec- 
 ond') Elizabeth Barnes ( ?), and had sons, Laurence 
 and John. 
 
 (II) John Clinton, second son of Laurence, was 
 born April 9, 1740, and on June 7, 1764, married 
 Ann Thorpe. A daughter, Anna, was born April 
 9, 1766. This family all died in the fall of 1777, 
 probably of smallpox — Anna, the daughter, on Sept. 
 29; Ann, the mother, on Oct. 10, and John soon 
 after in North Haven. 
 
 (II) Capt. Laurence Clinton, eldest son of 
 Laurence, was born Jan. i, 1737, and died Sept. 9, 
 1804. He was appointed captain of the Ninth Com- 
 pany, or Train Band, Connecticut Militia, in 1781, 
 and he served in the Revolutionary war. He bought 
 the "Clinton Homestead" in the town of Walling- 
 ford in 1776. It has been the home of three gener- 
 ations of the Clintons, and is now the residence of 
 Elizur Z. Clinton. Capt. Laurence Clinton was 
 a wealthy farmer and extensive land holder. His 
 wife, to whom he was married Nov. 15, 1759, was 
 Elizabeth Todd, born Sept. 29, 1736, died April 30, 
 1803. She was a daughter of Gershom Todd and 
 Hannah (Mansfield) Todd, granddaughter of Mich- 
 ael Todd, great-granddaughter of Christopher Todd, 
 one of the first New Haven Colonists. Their chil- 
 dren were Esther, Jesse, David (born Aug. 27, 1765, 
 died April 21, 1783), Eunetia and Hannah. He 
 married (second) widow Lucretia De Witt, who 
 afterward married Nathaniel Johnson, and died in 
 1844. 
 
 54 
 
 (III) Esther Clinton, oldest child of Capt. 
 Laurence Clinton, was born Aug. 5, 1760, and mar- 
 ried Solomon Jacobs, who was born July i, 1759, 
 and died Nov. 7, 1799. The children born of this 
 were as follows : David, born Jan. 6, 1781 ; Clinton, 
 Aug. 13, 1782; Solomon, Sept. 9, 1787; Hannah, 
 April 6, 1789, and died Dec. 30, 1794; Linus, Sept. 
 I, 1791 ; Anson, Sept. 27, 1793; Silas, March 22, 
 1796; and Esther, May 2, 1800. 
 
 (Ill) Eunetia Clinton, born Dec. 13, 1768, 
 fourth child of Capt. Laurence Clinton, married 
 Thomas Beach and removed to Vermont. She had 
 three children — twin daughters, and a son, Laur- 
 ence. 
 
 (HI) Hannah Clinton, fifth child of Capt. 
 Laurence Clinton, was born in 1772, and died Jan. 
 15, 1861. She married Joel Pierpont, and became 
 the mother of two children : Louis, who married 
 Rosette Jacobs, and had no children ; and Lewey, 
 born April 5, 1795, and died March 10, 1887, aged 
 ninety-two. Lewey Pierpont married John Todd, 
 who was born Feb. 4, 1791, a son of Gideon, and 
 grandson of Christopher Todd. Gideon Todd was 
 the father of Caleb Todd, from whom was de- 
 scended the wife of Abraham Lincoln. John Todd 
 died April 9, 1861, the father of three children: 
 George Clinton Todd, born Dec. i, 1816, died Oct. 
 31, 1825; Laurence Pierpont Todd, born July 7, 
 1822, married (first) Marie Antoinette Baldwin 
 (born in 1836), and (second) Mary Wiley (no 
 children by either marriage) ; and George Henry 
 Todd, born Jan. 24, 1828, married May 11, 1858, 
 Lydia C. Chapman, who was born Oct. 4, 1842, and 
 they reside on the Gideon Todd homestead in North 
 Haven, the ancestral home of Mrs. Lincoln. 
 
 (III) Jesse Eton Clinton, second child of Capt. 
 Laurence Clinton, and the only son who lived to 
 mature years, was born Aug. 9, 1762, and died Dec. 
 12, 1836. He married Patience Todd (born June 
 9, 1768, died Aug. 23, 1845), a daughter of Enos 
 and Sarah (Blakeslee) Todd, and granddaughter 
 of Gershom and Hannah (Mansfield) Todd. When 
 a young man, Jesse Clinton taught school, and was 
 afterward a successful farmer. He was the first of 
 the family to live in the town of Wallingford. This 
 couple had ten children, namely: Eunetia, David, 
 Lyman, Sally, Hannah, Elizabeth, Bemon, Cynthia, 
 Aurelia and Jesse. 
 
 (IV) Eunetia Clinton, eldest child of Jesse Eton 
 Clinton, was born June 25, 1788, and married Eli 
 Sackett, by whom she had two children, Eunetia, 
 who died Sept. 24, 1882; and Milo. Eunetia (Clin- 
 ton) Sackett died Nov. 21, 1824. 
 
 (IV) David Clinton, second child of Jesse Eton 
 Clinton, was born June 20, 1790, and died Dec. 30, 
 1879. He married Lucy L. 'Smith, daughter of 
 Jude Smith, and she died Aug. 29, 1883, aged 
 eighty-eight years. They had six children : Salina, 
 Lyman, Lavinia L., Eunetia O., Celia C. and Delia 
 M. David Clinton founded the Clintonville Agri- 
 cultural works prior to 1830. It was for a long time 
 
850 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the most successful business concern in North 
 Haven, and he was at one time considered the 
 wealthiest man in the town. Corn shellers, horse 
 rakes, and other agricultural machines were com- 
 ing into use, and on these he made many improve- 
 ments. Clinton's implements became renowned, 
 and were found wherever farming was carried on. 
 In 1850 he associated with him, his son, Lyman, 
 •inder the firm name of D. Clinton & Son, and thus 
 the business was carried on successfully until 1875. 
 (V) Salina Clinton, daughter of David Clinton, 
 married Benjamin Johnson, and had four children, 
 as follows: (i) Henrietta, who was twice married. 
 By her first husband, John Bartholomew, she had 
 a son, John. On Sept. 21, 1869, she married Henry 
 Plumley, and by this union became the mother of 
 three children — William, who married and has two 
 children; Lucy, who married Charles Barber, and 
 has one child; and Benjamin, who died at the age 
 of seventeen. (2) Julia married Elias Potter, and 
 resides in Massachusetts. Her children are, Dolly, 
 Nellie, William, Florence, Charles and Ernest. (3) 
 Lucy died unmarried. (4) William went West. 
 
 (V) Lyman Clinton, second child of David Clin- 
 ton, was born March 21, 1817, and died Jan. 30, 
 1888. He was married Nov. 24, 1841, to Lavinia 
 Blakeslee, who was 'born May 7, 1822, and died 
 May 10, 1892. Their children are: Margaret La- 
 vinia, Julia Josephine, David Laurence, Lyman 
 Frederick, Anson Blakeslee and Delia Eunetia. 
 Lyman Clinton engaged in the manufacture of ag- 
 ricultural implements with his father. 
 
 (VI) Margaret Lavinia Clinton, daughter of 
 Lyman Clinton, was born March 10, 1843, '^'^^ on 
 Oct. 25, 1866, married George Spencer Vibbert, 
 who was born May 10, 1843, a son of Nelson and 
 Lucy A. (Hosmer) Vibbert. He is engaged in the 
 card printing business. The children born of this 
 union are: (i) Edith, born Feb. 8, 1868, married 
 Nov. 17, 1896, William Smith, son of Alonzo and 
 Sarah (Neal) Smith, and has one child, Winford 
 Spencer, born Aug. 13, 1898. (2) Freddie, born 
 May I, 1870, died young. (3) Grace Lavinia, born 
 June 28, 1872, married Sept. 13, 1893, Clarence B. 
 Sherwood, son of Charles Sherwood, and has two 
 children, Roland and Stirling. (4) Stephen Spen- 
 cer, born Sept. 2, 1876, married Nov. 18, 1897, Lou- 
 ise Smith, born April 28, 1874, daughter of Hub- 
 bard and Emily (Barker) Smith, of Guilford, and 
 has two children, Esther Emily, born in June, 1899 ; 
 and a son born in June, 1901. 
 
 (VI) Julia Josephine Clinton, daughter of Ly- 
 man Clinton, was bom June 14, 1844, and married 
 Oct. 10, 1867, Edward S. Miner, son of Darius 
 Miner, of Torrington, Conn. They had children as 
 follows : Stiles, who died young ; Nellie, who mar- 
 ried John Bader; a daughter deceased; Anson; and 
 Stiles (2). 
 
 (VI) David Laurence Clinton, son of Lyman 
 Clinton, was born June 11, 1849, ^"d married Sept. 
 14. 1869, to Fannie J\I. Vibbert, born July 8, 1850, 
 
 daughter of Nelson and Lucy A. (Hosmer) Vib- 
 bert. This union was blessed with a daughter, 
 Gertrude, born Jan. 5, 1879, who married May 16, 
 1900, Edwin B. Stevens, born April 30, 1870 (a 
 son of Hiram and Marietta (Richards) Stevens, 
 formerly of Danbury (Conn.), and they have a 
 daughter, Helen Clinton, born April 16, 1901. Mr. 
 Clinton is serving a second term as postmaster of 
 Clintonville, and he has also served as deputy 
 sheriff. 
 
 (VI) Lyman Frederick Clinton, son of Lyman, 
 was born Aug. 18, 1854, and married March 31, 
 1876, to Ida A. Marks, born April 6, 1854, daughter 
 of George B. and Julia A. (Eaton) Marks. Three 
 children have been born of this marriage: (i) 
 Blanche L., born Oct. 23, 1876, married May 16, 
 1900, William' W. Stevens, born July 8, 1867, son 
 of Hiram and Marietta (Richards) Stevens. (2) 
 Inez J., born Sept. 13, 1878, married June 30, 1897, 
 Alfred W. Brooker, born Jan. 3, 1873, son of War- 
 ren and Aurelia (Blakeslee) Brooker, of Torring- 
 ton, Conn. (3) George Raymond, born April 24, 
 1887. 
 
 (VI) Anson Blakeslee Clinton, son of Lyman 
 Clinton, was born Jan. 24, 1857, and married in 
 December, 1879, to Mary Stiles, daughter of Ho- 
 bart Stiles. He resides in North Haven, but is the 
 proprietor of a music store in New Haven. He 
 has taken a prominent part in public affairs and rep- 
 resented his town in the State Legislature in 1897. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Clinton have three children, Wilson, 
 who was married in October, 1901, to Miss Anna 
 Bannell ; Stiles De Witt and Mildred. 
 
 (VI) Delia Eunetia Clinton, daughter of Lyman 
 Clinton, was born Jan. 25, 1859, and married Oct. 
 6, 1888, Willoughby Ely Fowler, bom Oct. 6, i860, 
 at Guilford, Conn., son of Sereno and Elizabeth 
 (Ely) Fowler. They have two children, Ruth 
 Ernestine, born Sept. 20, 1894; and Earl Clinton, 
 born Nov. 8, 1898. 
 
 (V) Lavinia L. Clinton, daughter of David 
 Clinton, was born in 1820, and died Sept. 8, 1849. 
 She married Ezra Munson, born in 1816, died Dec. 
 18, 1882. Their only child, George S., born in 
 1840, died April 13, 1861. 
 
 (V) Eunetia O. Clinton, daughter of David 
 Clinton, was born Oct. 23, 1824, and died Sept. 20, 
 1848. She married Nov. 25, 1846, Sereno O. Todd, 
 born March 8, 181 9. No children were born of this 
 marriage. 
 
 (V) Deha M. Clinton, daughter of David Clin- 
 ton, was born Sept. 15, 1829, and died July 20, 1855. 
 She married Jan. 14, 185 1, Sereno O. Todd, as his 
 second wife. No children. 
 
 (V) Celia C. Clinton, daughter of David Clin- 
 ton, was born Feb. 23, 1827, and died May 23, 
 1872. She married Lyman Basset, and had one 
 child, Irving L. Bassett (deceased), who married 
 May I, 1883, Catherine E. Tuttle, and had two 
 sons. 
 
 (IV) Lyman Clinton, son of Jesse Eton Clinton, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 8SI 
 
 was born Sept. 21, 1791, and drowned at Branford, 
 June 6, 181 1. 
 
 (IV) Sally Clinton, fourth child of Jesse Eton 
 Clinton, was born July 29, 1793, and she married 
 Edward Tuttle, who was born in New Haven, and 
 died at Tooele, Utah, in July, 1867. Four children 
 were born of this union, as follows : ( i ) Eliza A., 
 who was married May 16, 1838, to Joseph A. Gran- 
 nis, of Hamden, by whom she had six children — Le- 
 ander Cook, born May 29, 1841, died Sept. 22, 1846; 
 Susan Adelia, born April 14, 1843, married May 
 3, 1864, Albert M. Ives, of Mt. Carmel; Charles 
 Wallace, born Aug. 25, 1844, died Feb. 4, 1845 ; El- 
 mira Foote, born Jan. i, 1846, married Nov. 9, 1870, 
 Dana H. Cooper, of Mt. Carmel ; Anna Eliza, born 
 Sept. 17, 1847, married April 23, 1867, James 
 Duckworth, of Pittsfield, Mass. ; and Charles Ed- 
 win, born March 27, 1862. (2) Sarah married Jos- 
 eph Meacham, and resided in Toole City (or 
 Tooele), Utah. She had five children. (3) Ange- 
 line married William B. Adams, of Tooele, Utah, 
 and has three children. (4) Norton married about 
 1850, Elizabeth Utley, and has two sons and three 
 daughters. They reside in Tooele, Utah. 
 
 (IV) Hannah Clinton, fifth child of Jesse Eton 
 Clinton, was born June 10, 1795, and died Aug. 11, 
 1878. She married Harvey Todd, who was born in 
 December, 1790, a son of Joel Todd, and died July 
 15, 1867. There were the parents of three children, 
 as follows: (i) Grace, born June 15, 1816, mar- 
 ried (first) on Thanksgiving Day, 1836, Charles 
 Pierpont, born in March, 1813, and by this union 
 was born a daughter, Josephine Amelia, June 28, 
 1841, who died in February, 1873. Grace married 
 (second) Jude B. Smith, who was born March 23, 
 1808, a son of Jude Smith, and died March 18, 
 1887. (2) William, born in December, 1821, mar- 
 ried (first) Emeline Brooks, by whom he had five 
 children — Martha, Mary, Hattie (married first, 
 Carl Grainger, and second, Charles Foote), Emma 
 (wife of Alfred Allen, of Wallingford) and Jen- 
 nie (wife of Reuben Harrison). For his second 
 wife, William married Lydia Lord, who bore him 
 four children — Carrie, Rose, and William and Ar- 
 thur (both deceased). (3) Charlotte, born in No- 
 vember, 1823, is now deceased ; she married Warren 
 Cooper, and had two children, both of whom are 
 now dead. 
 
 (IV) Elizabeth Clinton, sixth child of Jesse 
 Eton Clinton, was born Sept. 20, 1796, and died 
 Nov. 28, 1886. She married June 17, 1816, Josiah 
 Todd, born Dec. 18, 1794, died Oct. 22, 1869, a son 
 of Dan Todd and his wife Lucy Frost. Dan Todd 
 was a son of Christopher, son of Samuel (2), son 
 of Samuel ( i ) , son of Christopher and Grace ( Mid- 
 dlebrook) Todd. Josiah Todd and his wife, Eliza- 
 beth Clinton, resided at New Connecticut, Newark 
 Valley, N. Y., and were both buried in Newark 
 Valley. They were the parents of seven children, 
 of whom we have the following record : ( i ) Sam- 
 uel, born Aug. 22, 1817, in North Haven, died at 
 
 Manchester, Conn., Jan. 5, 1900. He married Jan. 7, 
 1 85 1, Emily Rich (daughter of Harvey and Nancy 
 (Johnson) Rich), of Owego, N. Y., born Dec. 10, 
 1825, died at Newark Valley, Dec. 26, 1868. Sam- 
 uel married (second) June 15, 1870, Jane M. But- 
 ton, of North Haven, Conn., who was born Jan. 15, 
 1848, daughter of John and Mary Ann (Goodale) 
 Button, and two children were born of this union 
 — Clarence J., March 12, 1874; and Jennie A., Aug. 
 
 16, 1876. (2) Frederick Handel, born Feb. 26, 
 1819, was drowned in March, 1865. He married 
 Sept. 17, 1850, Phebe Elizabeth Slosson, who was 
 born March 9, 1830. (3) Aurelia Juliet, born June 
 7, 1823, at North Plaven, Conn., married March 25, 
 1847, William B. Bushnell, born April 12, 1823, and 
 they now make their home in Berkshire, Tioga Co., 
 N. Y. (4) Henrietta Wallace, born April 21, 1827, 
 in Newark Valley, died in Brooklyn, Jan. 10, 1893, 
 and was huried in Wellsboro, Penn. (5) Robert 
 Burns, born March 5, 1829, died Sept. 28, 183 1. 
 (6) Mary Josephine, born Feb. 6, 1833, married 
 May 23, 1861, Charles Grosvenor Osgood, born 
 March 22, 1820, and has three children — Harry 
 Winthrop, born Feb. 23, 1862; Mary Helen, born 
 Oct. 24, 1863, married Sept. 20, 1894, Dr. Clarence 
 W. Webb, and has a son, Charles Grosvenor Os- 
 good Webb, born March 23, 1899; and Charles 
 Grosvenor, born May 4, 1871, a teacher in Yale 
 University, New Haven. The entire family have 
 homes in Wellsboro, Penn. (7) Fidelia, born Dec. 
 
 4, 1838, married Feb. 14, i860, Mandelbert New- 
 ton Chapman, of Newark Valley, N. Y., born July 
 
 5, 1837, died Feb. 11, 1868; Fidelia married, second, 
 Edward Beason, of Kansas. 
 
 (IV) Bemon Clinton, seventh child of Jesse 
 Eton Clinton, was born Oct. i, 1798, and married 
 Lavinia Tuttle, who bore him five children, as fol- 
 lows : (i) Harriet T., born in 1830, married Aug. 
 
 17, 1 85 1, in New Haven, to Louis W. Gunn, and 
 has one child, Frank. (2) Burton, born Oct. 14, 
 183 1, at Blandford, Mass. (3) Sarah B. (deceased), 
 married at New Haven, Aug. 21, 1853, to Washing- 
 ton C. Cunningham, of Middletown, Conn., and 
 had one child. (4) Mary married William Cook 
 (both deceased), and had one child, George. (5) 
 Jane married George Auger, and had a son Sey- 
 mour. For his second wife, Bemon Clinton wedded 
 Sarah Frisbie, and for his third, Julia Wells. 
 
 (IV) Cynthia Clinton, eighth child of Jesse 
 Eton Clinton, was born Jan. 27, 1801, and married 
 Deacon Lewis Bates, by whom she had one child, 
 Angelette, who married Ellsworth Robinson, and 
 had two daughters, Emma and Jennie. 
 
 (IV) Aurelia Clinton, ninth child of Jesse Eton 
 Clinton, was born July 14, 1803, and died May 4, 
 1892. She married Oct. 30, 1823, Orrin Todd, 
 born Feb. 26, 1800, died Dec. 8, 1888, son of Joel 
 Todd. Joel Todd was a son of Hezekiah, son of 
 Caleb, son of Samuel (2), son of Samuel (i), son 
 of Christopher and Grace (Middlebrook) Todd. To 
 Orrin Todd and his wife Aurelia were born four 
 
852 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 children, of whom we have the following record : 
 (i) Francis Hayden, born Aug. 8, 1827, died Oct. 
 9, 1899. He was an enterprising and successful 
 farmer, and made an honorable record as a citizen 
 in public affairs. In 1864 he was elected a grand 
 juror, and held that office until his death — a period 
 of thirty-five years. In October, 1899, he was 
 elected treasurer of North Haven for the twenty- 
 fourth time. In 1883 he was elected representative 
 to the State Legislature ; he also served as selectman 
 several terms. On Jan. i, 1855, he married Eliza- 
 beth M. Gill, of North Haven, daughter of John 
 Henry and Louisa (Tuttle) Gill, and three children 
 were born of this union — George Henry, born Oct. 
 31, 1861, married Jennie Maginness, now deceased; 
 John Hayden, born Nov. 14, 1866, married Dec. 18, 
 1890, Josephine Cheney, and has two children; and 
 William Handel, born March 5, 1871. (2) Grace 
 Angeline, born Aug. 9, 1830, married Samuel Hale, 
 and resides in California. (3) Henry Dennis, born 
 Sept. 2, 1832, is a farmer. He has served as se- 
 lectman in North Haven. During the Civil war he 
 served as a soldier from September, 1862, to July, 
 1863. His wife was Grace A. Hartley, daughter of 
 Bernard and Sarah A. (Bishop) Hartley. (4) 
 Mary Aurelia, born Nov. 25, 1836, died Nov. 28, 
 1886. She married Eli J. Brockett, Nov. 25, 1856, 
 and had one child, Frederick H., who married Char- 
 lotte T. Bishop, daughter of Erus and Charlotte 
 (Thorpe) Bishop, and has three children — Myron, 
 Horace and Nelson. 
 
 (IV) Jesse Clinton, Jr., tenth child of Jesse 
 Eton Clinton, was born May 13, 1805, and died Feb. 
 20, 1875. On Nov. 16, 1825, he married Rosanna 
 Bassett, who was born Oct. 30, 1803, and died May 
 23, 1886. They were the parents of six children, 
 namely: Merritt Julius, George William, John 
 Henry, Isaac Bassett, Edwin Jesse, and Elizur 
 Zerah. 
 
 (V) Merritt Julius Clinton, son of Jesse Clin- 
 ton, Jr., was born June 23, 1826, and died April 
 
 11, 1879. He was married April 24, 1850, to Emily 
 Blakeslee, born Aug. 9, 183 1, and became the father 
 of three children: Origen C, born Aug. 26, 1851, 
 died July 13, 1897; Milo C, born Sept. 22, 1853, 
 married May 3, 1877, Hattie M. Smith (born Nov. 
 23, 1857, died April 12, 1897) and had three chil- 
 dren — Flora B. (born Sept. 23, 1878, died June 14, 
 1883), Lina B. (born Oct. 29, 1881, died May 
 20, 1894) and Clarence M. (born April 19, 1887, 
 died in August, 1901 ) ; and Frank R., born July 
 
 IS, 1855- 
 
 (V) George William Clinton, son of Jesse Clin- 
 ton, Jr., was born Oct. 12, 1828, and married May 
 18, 1856, to Frances A. Allen, who was born Sept. 
 
 12, 1835, a daughter of Hiram and Nancy (Button) 
 Allen, and one child, Celia A., born March 2, 
 1861, has blessed this union. Celia A. Clinton mar- 
 ried Sept. 21, 1887, Wallace H. Mansfield, who was 
 born Oct. 26, 1859. 
 
 (V) John Henry Clinton, son of Jesse Clinton, 
 
 Jr., was born March 2, 1832, and died unmarried 
 Dec. 23, 1859. 
 
 (V) Isaac Bassett Clinton, son of Jesse Clinton, 
 Jr., was born July 2, 1834, and married May 12, 
 1858, Grace A. Allen, who was born July 18, 1839, 
 a daughter of Hiram and Nancy (Button) Allen. 
 The children born of this union are as follows: 
 Evelyn B., born May 7, 1859, married Feb. 14, 1888, 
 Florence A. Redfield (born July 16, 1863, a daugh- 
 ter of Charles and Laura (Bassett) Redfield), and 
 has one son, Leroy W., born Nov. 24, 1889 ; Friend, 
 born June 20, 1862, married Aug. 2, 1888, Helen 
 G. Clark, born in Middletown, Conn., Jan. 17, 1866; 
 and Elbert, born June 15, 1872, married April 6, 
 1898, Clara G. Sanford, of Hamden, and has one 
 child, Helen Priscilla. 
 
 (V) Elizur Zerah Clinton, son of Jesse Clinton, 
 Jr., was born Sept. 18, 1847, and married Nov. 10, 
 1869, Julia A. Bishop (daughter of Erus and Char- 
 lotte (Thorpe) Bishop) born May i, 1850, died 
 April ID, 1873. On Dec. 3, 1873, Elizur Z. Clinton 
 married for his second wife, Ella J. Palmer, who 
 was born June 25, 1849, ^ daughter of Timothy and 
 Sybill (Barnes) Palmer. The children born of this 
 union are as follows : Robert J., born Feb. 6, 1875, 
 married April 21, 1898, Hilda Matilda Olsen, and 
 has two children, Charlotte Ella and Ruth ; Bessie, 
 born March 28, 1878; Lovell E., born June 5, 1883; 
 Dora P., born March 17, 1889; Jennie F., born 
 April 16, 1891. Mr. Clinton resides with his family 
 on the old Clinton homestead, and is successfully 
 engaged in farming. 
 
 (V) Edwin Jesse Clinton, son of Jesse Clinton, 
 Jr., and fifth in the family in the order of birth, was 
 born Sept. 4, 1836, and married April 11, 1859, to 
 Cornelia Tuttle, who was born Aug. 14, 1842, a 
 daughter of Amos and Harriet (Bassett) Tuttle, 
 and died March 24, 1885. Two children were born 
 of this union: Andrew D., born Sept. 7, 1862, 
 married May 21, 1885, Lucy A. Bishop, born July 
 ID, 1 861, a daughter of Erus and Charlotte 
 (Thorpe) Bishop and has a son Charles, born 
 March 15, 1901 ; and Ida L., bom Aug. 30, 1871, 
 married Heinrich Vollhardt, born in Frankfort, 
 Germany, July 21, 1870, and has had five children — 
 Frieda A. (born Sept. 9, 1895), Philip H. (born 
 Aug. 24, 1896), Edwin CHnton (born Dec. 13, 
 1897), Cornelia (born Dec. 31, 1899, died in Feb- 
 ruary, 1901), and Alfred (born Julv 24, 1901). 
 For his second wife, Edwin Jesse Clinton married 
 Jan. 20, 1886, Eliza J. Arthur, who was born in 
 Kingston, Jamaica, W. I., Dec. 18, 1853, a daughter 
 of Joseph Arthur (a native of Cornwall, England) 
 and his wife Elizabeth (Haling) Arthur (daughter 
 of William and Abigail (Hall) Haling), of Chat- 
 ham, Conn. One child, Joseph Arthur, born June 
 12, 1888, has blessed this union. 
 
 Edwin Jesse Clinton was reared on the old Clin- 
 ton homestead, and received his education in the dis- 
 trict schools. For four years after leaving the 
 school room, he was employed in the Clintonville 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 853 
 
 Agricultural Works, and then became foreman for 
 J. F. Barnes, of North Haven. During these eight 
 years he had carefully studied business methods, 
 and had thoroughly acquired that practical training 
 for the business world, that cannot be obtained by 
 years of study in the class room. He then entered 
 the business world for himself, building a mill and 
 factory near the home in Clintonville, and here for 
 thirty-five years he has been engaged in the manu- 
 facture of carriage wood work. For a part of this 
 time he had as his partner, his brother Isaac B., and 
 lately his son, Andrew D., has been associated with 
 him. He built a fine dwelling house and has made 
 many improvements upon his home place, making it 
 one of the ideal homes in this vicinity. Mr. Clinton 
 has a fine reputation as an honorable business man, 
 and counts his friends as an army in the village and 
 surrounding country. For many years he has kept 
 a diary, and his notes of passing events are some- 
 times very valuable for reference. Socially Mr. 
 Clinton belongs to the O. U. A. M., and both he 
 and his wife are members of the Grange. Mrs. 
 Clinton is a lady of cultured literary tastes, and has 
 made a specialty of the study of genealogy, spend- 
 ing much time in its investigation. 
 
 CALEB T. MERWIN, for many years a prom- 
 inent agriculturist of the town of Milford, was a 
 representative of one of the oldest and best known 
 families of that locality. The first of the name to 
 settle in this section was Miles Merwin, and the 
 line of descent is traced as follows: Miles (2), 
 Miles (3), Miles (4), and Anson, our subject's 
 father, all natives of Milford. 
 
 Miles Merwin (4) married Miss Abigail Beach, 
 of Milford, and settled on the present homestead in 
 the southern part of the town on Long Island 
 Sound. They had eight children : Mary, who mar- 
 ried Rev. Mr. Atwater, of Branford ; Anna, who 
 married Richard Hepburn, of Milford; Daniel, a 
 farmer in the town of Orange ; Samuel, a clergy- 
 man, who preached many years in New Haven, 
 Conn., and later in Wilton, Conn., where he died ; 
 Anson, our subject's father; Nathan, a farmer in 
 Oxford, Conn., and later a hotel-keeper in Milford, 
 where he died some years ago ; Benedict, who was 
 a farmer in Milford; and Miles (5), formerly a 
 butcher in Milford. 
 
 Anson Merwin, the father of our subject, was 
 born in Milford March 24, 1787, and followed 
 farming at the old homestead throughout his Hfe. 
 He died July 7, 1867. His wife, Galena (Tomlin- 
 son) who died March 4, 1866, was a native of Mil- 
 ford, and a daughter of Caleb Tomlinson, a sea- 
 faring man. Of their five children the eldest, An- 
 son W., engaged in the carriage business in Louis- 
 ville, Kv., where he died April 20, 1854: Caleb T. 
 is mentioned more fully below; Samuel M. was a 
 coal dealer in Louisville and died in 1898; Louisa 
 is the widow of Andrew Lincoln, of Massachu- 
 setts, who engaged in the furniture business in 
 
 Louisville, but afterward became a farmer in Han- 
 cock county. 111. (his remains are buried in Mil- 
 ford) ; Mary E. died Dec. 14, 1877, unmarried. 
 
 Caleb T. Merwin was born Jan. 11, 1823, at 
 Pond Point, and grew to manhood upon the farm, 
 receiving his education in a district school. He 
 taught school for about eight seasons in Milford 
 and Orange townships, afterward giving his whole 
 attention to agricultural pursuits, making a spe- 
 cialty of raising garden seeds. His farm contained 
 about 125 acres, and is situated on a high elevation 
 overlooking Long Island Sound. 
 
 On April 20, 1852, Mr. Merwin married Miss 
 Maria A. Wheeler, daughter of Ezra Wheeler, a 
 well-known farmer in Bridgeport. Seven children 
 blessed this union: Mary L., who died Sept. 3, 
 1856, at the age of three years ; Ida M., who died 
 July 12, 1889 ; Mary G. ; Jane W. ; Walter L. ; Laura 
 H. ; and Sherman T. In 1839 Mr. Merwin united 
 with the First Congregational Church of Milford, 
 and for many years was one of the leading mem- 
 bers, holding most of the offices, including that of 
 deacon for fifteen years. The family are also iden- 
 tified with that church. In politics Mr. Merwin 
 was first a Whig and later a Republican, and in 
 i860 and 1861 he represented his town in the State 
 Legislature. He passed away Dec. 23, 1899. 
 
 HARRY WOODING (deceased), a represent- 
 ative farmer and highly esteemed citizen of Chesh- 
 ire, was born in Woodbridge, Nov. 12, 1829, and 
 was a great-grandson of John Wooding, a native 
 of New Haven, who, about 1750, removed from 
 North Haven to Woodbridge, and was the first of 
 the family to locate in the latter town. 
 
 Elijah Wooding, son of John, was born in 
 Woodbridge. He was twice married, his first wife 
 being Thirza Hotchkiss, of Cheshire, by whom he 
 had two sons, Levi and Stephen. For his second 
 wife he married Emma Bradley, and to them were 
 born four children, namely: Eunice, Olive, Thirza 
 and Uriah. 
 
 Stephen Wooding, son of Elijah, and father of 
 our subject, was born, reared and educated in 
 Woodbridge, now Bethany, and throughout his ac- 
 tive business life engaged in farming in that sec- 
 tion of the county. He married Miss Deborah 
 Bradley, also a native of Woodbridge, who died 
 in Bethany in 1832, and he died in Woodbridge, in 
 1859. They had four children: Henry, who was 
 born in 1818; Milo, who went to California; Mrs. 
 Eliza Tuttle, who died in Naugatuck, Conn.; and 
 Harry. 
 
 Reared in Bethany, Harry Wooding obtained 
 his education in the common schools of that town, 
 and later learned the machinist's trade, at which he 
 worked in different places in Connecticut and Mas- 
 sachusetts. Coming; to Cheshire in 1857, he pur- 
 chased a farm, and in connection with its operation 
 continued to work at his trade for some years. 
 
 Mr. Wooding was married in Cheshire, in 1865, 
 
854 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 to Miss Irene J. Watson, a native of Torringford, 
 Conn., and a daughter of George and Jane (Belden) 
 Watson. He father died in Roseville, 111., and her 
 mother, a daughter of Jeremiah and Love (Dean) 
 Belden, of Canaan (now Falls Village), Conn., died 
 in Norfolk, Conn. To our subject and vi^ife were 
 born two children : Ida, widow of Benjamin Chat- 
 field has two children, Gladys W., and Lorin, and 
 lives in New Haven ; and Waldo, a machinist resid- 
 ing in Cheshire. Religiously, Mr. Wooding was a 
 member of the Episcopal Church, of which his wife 
 is also a communicant. Politically he was a stanch 
 supporter of the Democratic party. In all the rela- 
 tions of life he was found true to every trust re- 
 posed in him, and he commanded the respect and 
 confidence of those with whom he came in contact. 
 Brave and patient under the sufferings of his last 
 illness, he was ever considerate of those about him, 
 and when the end came, Nov. 9, 1900, a dearly be- 
 loved father and husband entered into rest, leaving 
 behind him a vacant chair to be filled only in that 
 last Grand Reunion. 
 
 ALFRED BARNETT. Among the worthy 
 men whose histories add interest to this volume, 
 none stand higher in public esteem than this well- 
 known resident of Ansonia, who is passing in retire- 
 ment the evening of a long and useful life. He was 
 born Aug. 22, 1823, in Birmingham, England, a 
 son of Joseph and Catherine (Withington) Barnett. 
 Joseph Barnett, who was born in London, England, 
 became a shoemaker by trade and for many years 
 conducted a store in London, amassing a handsome 
 competence. He then retired and spent the remain- 
 der of his life in Birmingham, where he died at the 
 advanced age of eighty years. Catherine (With- 
 ington) Barnett was born in Shiffnal, Shropshire, 
 England, and lived to be eighty j^ears old. Joseph 
 Barnett and his wife had a family of four children, 
 two of whom are still living: David, a resident of 
 Kansas ; and Alfred, our subject. Both parents 
 were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 and were highly esteemed in the community. 
 
 Alfred Barnett passed the earlier years of his 
 life in Birmingham, England, and at the age of 
 fourteen began to learn the trade of fine wire draw- 
 ing, which required an apprenticeship of seven 
 years. He continued in this business as a journey- 
 man, and at the age of twenty-five removed to New 
 York, where however he remained only a short 
 time. In 1849 ^^ went to Greenwich, Conn., but 
 soon afterward removed to Birmingham, now 
 Derby, and entered the employ of Wallace & Sons, 
 where he remained until 1851. During that year he 
 visited England, and on returning he resumed his 
 work for Wallace & Sons in their new mill in An- 
 sonia. In 1861 a desire to try the life of a farmer 
 tempted him to Wisconsin, where he remained four 
 years, but he then returned to his former position 
 with Wallace & Sons. Two years later, in 1867, he 
 was given the position of superintendent, or con- 
 
 tractor, for the fine wire department, being the 
 overseer of a number of men. He continued in this 
 work for many years, and only left it in 1887 to go 
 into complete retirement from business. His pres- 
 ent dwelling house was built in 1874. During his 
 long residence in the city it has grown from a farm- 
 ing community of only a few houses, to a city of 
 13,000 inhabitants. 
 
 In 185 1 Mr. Barnett married his first wife, Mary 
 A. Robinson, of Birmingham, England, daughter 
 of John Robinson, who died in 1865, in the West. 
 His second wife, Mary Selby, was born in Ireland, 
 a daughter of William Selby, a farmer, and died at 
 the age of sixty years. Both were members of the 
 Episcopal Church of which Mr. Barnett is a regular 
 attendant. By his first marriage he had three chil- 
 dren: Mary married Henry Miner (deceased) and 
 had two children — Hattie (who married and has 
 one child) and Edward; John; Alfred T. (de- 
 ceased) married and had two children — Mabel and 
 Ethel. There were two children by the second mar- 
 riage, viz. : Maria, who married M. P. Fillingham, 
 a draughtsman, and has one child, Alfred Barnett; 
 Melvina, who married P. K. Leng, a merchant in 
 New York, and has had two children, Alfred Steeles 
 and Mary. Mr. Barnett is a Republican in politics, 
 has been a burgess of the borough for three years, 
 and has served a number of times on the jury. 
 
 S^IITH S. CLARK (deceased) passed his last 
 years in the enjoyment of a rest which he truly 
 earned and richly deserved by reason of his indus- 
 trious efforts of former j-ears. Accomplishment 
 and progress ever imply labor, energy and diligence, 
 and it was those qualities that enabled our subject 
 to rise from the ranks of the many and to stand 
 among the successful few. 
 
 A native of New Haven county, Mr. Clark was 
 born in the town of Milford (now Orange) Feb. 
 14, 1822, a son of Celah and Hannah Stone (Smith) 
 Clark, whose sketch is given in connection with that 
 of Horatio N. Clark, elsewhere. During his child- 
 hood our subject removed with his parents to Pros- 
 pect, where he obtained his education in the dis- 
 trict schools. He remained under the parental roof 
 until he reached manhood, and then learned the 
 painter's trade, which he continued to follow to 
 some extent for a number of years, in Cheshire and 
 in other places. Later in life he turned his atten- 
 tion to farming in Prospect, near the old home- 
 stead, where at the time of his death he owned a 
 (Valuable farm of 200 acres, upon which he had made 
 many improvements. He carried on general farm- 
 ing and stock raising, also engaging in the wood 
 business, and during the spring and fall continued 
 to work at his trade. He was noted for his indus- 
 trious and thrifty habits, and prospered in his un- 
 dertakings, becoming one of the substantial citizens 
 of the communit)'. 
 
 In Prospect, Mr. Clark married Miss Abigail 
 Williams, a native of Cheshire, and a daughter of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 855 
 
 Albert Williams. She died leaving no children, and 
 was buried in Prospect cemetery. In 1859 ^^ was 
 again married, his second union being with Miss 
 Sarah E. Thomas, a native of Woodbridge, daugh- 
 ter of Noyes H. and Emma (Baldwin) Thomas, 
 •and granddaughter of Abner Baldwin. To this 
 union were born two children: Welleford Selden, 
 a painter of Straitsville, Conn., who married Alta 
 Dickerman, and has four children, Percy, Florence, 
 Leon and Hazel ; and Adelbert Smith, who operates 
 the home farm. 
 
 Mr. Clark was a member of the Congregational 
 Church, to which his widow belongs. He ever 
 took an active and prominent part in church work, 
 was a member of the society committee for a quar- 
 ter of a century, and was also clerk and treasurer of 
 the church. All the family have been well-known 
 and highly respected throughout the community in 
 which they live. Politically Mr. Clark was indenti- 
 fied with the Republican party, served as tax collec- 
 tor, and was selectman of his town for twelve years. 
 He was always enterprising in promoting agricul- 
 tural interests, and was a member of the Grange, as 
 are his widow and son, Adelbert. Mr. Clark's up- 
 right and honorable life won for him the confidence 
 and respect of all with whom he came in contact, 
 and he well deserved the high regard in which he 
 was uniformly held. 
 
 JOHN VAIL, a well-known and highly-es- 
 teemed citizen of Waterbury, residing on Washing- 
 ton avenue, was born in Riverhead, Long Island, 
 Aug. 4, 1832, son of Capt. Jasper Vail, also a na- 
 tive of Long Island, and owner and master of a 
 coasting vessel engaged in local trade. The father 
 was a Whig in politics, and was liberal in his re- 
 ligious views. He married Sophrona Edwards, 
 and they continued to make their home throughout 
 life on Long Island. Their children were Halsie, 
 now deceased ; Griffin ; Charles, who was a resident 
 of New London, Conn., was engaged in the coast- 
 ing trade, and was drowned during the seventies, 
 his vessel having capsized; Peter; Francis; John; 
 George; David; Andrew; Fanny; and Mehitable. 
 
 Our subject obtained his education in the dis- 
 trict schools of Long Island. At the age of eight 
 years he commenced working for his board and 
 clothes, and was thus employed until he was sixteen 
 years of age. He then accepted a position as cabin 
 boy on a coasting vessel, continuing thus for two 
 years, and on leaving the water, in 1850, came to 
 Connecticut. After spending two years in Bristol 
 and adjoining towns, he took up his residence in 
 Waterbury, where he has since made his home. He 
 was successfully engaged in house painting until 
 1888, and also carried on farming to some extent, 
 having for half a century owned and operated a 
 farm on Town Plot, Washington avenue. Since 
 his retirement from the painting business he has de- 
 voted much of his time to dairying, and in that 
 undertaking has met with good success. 
 
 In 1855 Mr. Vail was united in marriage with 
 Miss Mary Adams, who was born in Watertown, 
 Litchfield Co., Conn., a daughter of Seymour 
 Adams. They have become the parents of four 
 children, namely: EUa Rossette, now the wife of 
 Charles Dikeman, of Torrington, Conn. ; Jessie 
 Rosalyn, wife of Dwight Robinson; Charles, who 
 married Susie Wilson; and George, who married 
 Miss Ada Hunter. 
 
 Mr. Vail was a member of the school commit- 
 tee of Town Plot during seven of its most progres- 
 sive years. He was one of the first in Waterbury 
 to join the Republican party, voted for Fremont in 
 1856, and has since been one of its stalwart support- 
 ers, but has never been a politician in the sense of 
 office seeking. He has always been found true to 
 every trust reposed in him, and receives and merits 
 the confidence and respect of his fellow citizens. 
 
 ISAAC BASSETT CLINTON, one of the 
 best-known citizens and successful general farmers 
 and dairymen of the town of Wallingford, was 
 born July 2, 1834, on the old homestead, near where 
 he now resides. 
 
 Jesse Clinton, the grandfather of our subject, 
 was a large land owner near Clintonville, where he 
 spent his life, and added to his income very consid- 
 erably by cattle raising. His son, Jesse, the father 
 of our subject, was born on the old homestead, and 
 was the youngest of the family. His early days 
 were spent in school, and he became interested in 
 farming, which he continued all hi^ life. During 
 hiS' management of the farm, cons'sting of' 150 
 acres, he made many improvements, and became 
 well known as a raiser of fine stock. He married, 
 in North Haven, Rosanna Bassett, a daughter of 
 Isaac Bassett, and six children were born of this 
 union: Merritt, George, John, Isaac, Edwin and 
 Elizur. Mr. Clinton's connection with the Congre- 
 gational Church of North Haven began in his 
 youth, and he lived an honest and upright life. 
 
 During his early youth our subject was a pupil 
 in the district school, and later attended the North 
 Haven Academy. He remained at home until he 
 was eighteen, at which time he entered the factory 
 at Clintonville, and later, with his brother, formed 
 the partnership of Clinton Bros, in the manufactur- 
 ing of carriage woodwork, prosecuting this suc- 
 cessfully for twenty-five years, at which time Mr. 
 Clinton's health failed and he gave it up. A life on 
 the farm seemed to promise a return to good health, 
 and he then went into the dairy and fruit growing 
 business on a tract of sixty acres of the original 
 homestead farm. That his hopes were realized his 
 present excellent health attests, the only medicine 
 he needed being fresh air, sunshine and contact 
 with Nature. Mr. Clinton has proved that the Bib- 
 lical assertion that man shall eat his bread in the 
 sweat of his face is sometimes the greatest of bless- 
 ing's- . , . 
 
 On May 12, 1858, Mr. Clinton was married, m 
 
856 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 W'allingford, to Grace Ann Allen, who was born 
 in that town. Three children have been born to 
 j\Ir. and Airs. Clinton: Evelyn B., born May, 7, 
 1859, is a dairyman and peach grower; he was mar- 
 ried Feb. 14, 1888, to Florence A. Redfield, who 
 was born July 10, 1863, and they have one child, 
 Leroy W., born Nov. 25, 1889. Friend is a manu- 
 facturer of witch hazel at Higganum, Conn. ; he 
 married Helen G. Clark, of that place. Elbert mar- 
 ried Clara G. Sanford, of Hamden, where they re- 
 side. Both Mr. Clinton and wife are members of 
 the North Haven Grange, where their social quali- 
 ties are much appreciated ; they are connected with 
 the North Haven Episcopal Church. 
 
 Mrs. Clinton is descended from an old and 
 prominent family. Roger Allen came to New Eng- 
 land in 1638. The parents of Mrs. Clinton were 
 Hiram and Nancy (Button) Allen, the former born 
 in 1806, and the latter in 1805 ; she died in 1885. 
 Children as follows came to Mr. and Mrs. Allen : 
 Franklin, born in 1832 ; Frances Augusta, born in 
 1836; Hiram; Grace Ann, born July 18, 1839; and 
 Elenora Melvina, born in 1842. The maternal 
 grandfather of Mrs. Clinton, Newberry Button, was 
 a native of North Haven ; he was a fifer during the 
 Revolutionary war, and was at Fort Griswold. 
 Later he became a seafaring man. He married a 
 daughter of James Pierpont, of North Haven. 
 
 WILLIAM H. PERKINS, an enterprising and 
 progressive gentleman farmer of Bucks Hill, has 
 spent his entire life in Waterbury, where he was 
 born Nov. 3, 1848. He is a worthy descendant of 
 an old and highly respected New York family. 
 
 William Perkins, his father, was born in Butter- 
 nuts, now Gilbertsville, Otsego Co., N. Y., a son of 
 Benonia Perkins. When nine months old he was 
 broug'ht by his parents to Bethany, New Haven 
 Co., Conn., where his father engaged in farming 
 and died. William Perkins was educated in the 
 schools of Bethany, and was fifteen years of age 
 on coming to Waterbury, which town was then in 
 its infancy. Here and in Prospect he learned the 
 carpenter's and joiner's trade, and in time became 
 the best-known contractor and builder in the Nau- 
 gatutk Valley. When he was twenty-one years of 
 age he formed a partnership with Archibald and 
 Elisha Rice. He erected several of the public build- 
 ings in Waterbury, including the "Scovill House," 
 the First Congregational church, and the Scovill fac- 
 tory. His work was done with great dispatch, and 
 he put up nine houses in ten days in Waterbury. 
 For several years he also engaged in th? manufac- 
 ture of sash and blinds at his factory at City Mills. 
 He was a large land owner, having property at Lake 
 Wood, now known as Perkins avenue, and also at 
 Waterville. He was quite prominent in politics, 
 and was a recognized leader of the Democratic party 
 in Waterbury, taking a deep interest in all public 
 matters. He served thirteen years as selectman, to> 
 which office he was nominated and elected by both 
 
 the Democratic and Republican parties, and in the 
 discharge of his duties gave eminent satisfaction 
 to all concerned. He was first selectman five years. 
 He was public spirited and progressive, and gave 
 his support to all measures calculated to advance 
 the educational, moral or material welfare of his 
 town and county. He was a man of independent 
 thought, and had the courage of his convictions, 
 doing ever what he deemed best for the general 
 good. Mr. Perkins died at his home on North Main 
 street, Waterbury, in 1875, and was laid to rest in 
 Riverside cemetery. He attended the Episcopal 
 Church, and was a member of the Independent Or- 
 der of Odd Fellows. For his first wife Mr. Perkins 
 married Mary Tuttle, who was born on North Main 
 street, a daughter of John and Elizabeth (Judd) 
 Tuttle, and his second wife was Almira Jerome, of 
 Waterbury; she is buried in Riverside cemetery. 
 He had four children: (i) Elizabeth, who was edu- 
 cated at the Waterbury Academy and Miss Draper's 
 boarding-school, is now the widow of John H. 
 Smith, a son of Hon. Nathan Smith, a Congress- 
 man from New Haven, and makes her home in 
 Waterbury. She is a member of the Daughters of 
 the American Revolution. She had two children — 
 Mary Elizabeth, who died in infancy ; and William 
 Easton, a merchant of Waterbury. (2) William 
 H. is our subject. The other two children died in 
 infancy. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth William H. Per- 
 kins was given excellent educational advantages, at- 
 tending the public and select schools of Waterbury; 
 the Episcopal Academy at Cheshire ; and the New 
 Haven Military Institute, under Gen. Russell. In 
 early life he learned the carpenter's trade with D. 
 H. Meloy, a well-known architect and builder of 
 Waterbury, with much success, and followed that 
 occupation for several years. In 1887 he removed 
 to what is now known as Perkins avenue, on Bucks 
 Hill, and turned his attention to the operation of 
 the Holt farm, upon which he has made extensive 
 improvements, including the erection of a fine resi- 
 dence, beautifully located, and supplied with all 
 modern conveniences. He has built an artificial lake 
 which is well stocked with fine fish, and on which 
 he has a pleasure boat. He keeps about twenty 
 head of cattle, to supply the family wants. Fancy 
 dogs and game chickens are bred here with much 
 success, and Mr. Perkins' Great Dane "Cover" is 
 one of the best dogs in New England. At the 
 present time Mr. Perkins is erecting, regardless of 
 expense, extensive chicken barns, completely fur- 
 nished with numerous incubators and all the latest 
 appliances, witli the intention of supplying Water- 
 bury with chickens. This business is managed by 
 his son Harry, who has familiarized himself with 
 the culture of chickens, and the enterprise is ex- 
 pected to prove a big success. 
 
 As a hunter and fisherman Mr. Perkins has few 
 equals in Connecticut, All his life he has been a 
 sportsman, and in his 3'ounger days was a noted ath- 
 
WILLIAM PBRKIKS. 
 
/7l^f-iS 6?^a.' ^, ^-^41^ 
 
 ■Ct^-t-z.^ 
 
^^My^^--^ 76^/^^^^.--^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 857 
 
 lete. He was one of the originators of the Monitor 
 Base Ball Club, which was organized in the Gothic 
 Hall building, Waterbury, and of which he was 
 catcher. Later he held the same position in the 
 Waterbury Base Ball Club, and it was largely due to 
 his remarkable ability that each club held the State 
 championship during his association therewith. His 
 active participation in the great National game is a 
 thing of the past, but his interest in it is undimin- 
 ished, and he is held as an authority on the game 
 by many of the noted players of 'to-day. 
 
 Mr. Perkins was married, in Waterbury, to Miss 
 Ella L. Grilley, a native of that town, and a daugh- 
 ter of Albert Grilley. They have three children: 
 Alice M., now the wife of William R. Johnson, of 
 AVolcott ; Harry W. ; and Mary E., who is attending 
 a boarding-school in Lyme, Connecticut. 
 
 Religiouslv Mr. Perkins is a member of St. 
 John's Episcopal Church of Waterbury ; fraternally 
 he belongs to Mad River Grange. He casts his 
 ballot for the men and measures of the Democratic 
 party, but has never cared for the honor or emolu- 
 ments of political office, preferring to devote his 
 entire time 'and attention to his business interests. 
 He is a thorough and systematic farmer, and car- 
 ries forward to successful completion whatever he 
 undertakes. He is widely and favorably known, and 
 stands deservedly high in the esteem of his fellow 
 citizens. 
 
 HENRY WARD CHITTENDEN (deceased) 
 was a worthy member of an honored old Connecti- 
 cut family, one of the best in the State. 
 
 William Chittenden, the first of the name m 
 Connecticut, was a native of England, and was one 
 of a company of seventy-five— gathered chiefly 
 from the Counties of Kent, Surrey and Sussex, m 
 the South of England— who determined to _ leave 
 the mother country and seek a new home in the 
 wilderness of the Western World. This company 
 sailed from England for America about May 20, 
 1639, in a ship of 350 tons burden, and arrived in 
 New Haven July 10, after a passage of seven 
 weeks William Chittenden came from the parish 
 of Cranbrook, in Kent, some thirty-five miles south- 
 east of London. He was prominent among the 
 original settlers of Guilford, and as a man of abil- 
 ity and influence held many important offices m the 
 Plantation during his active life. He was one of 
 the six persons selected to purchase the land in 
 Guilford from the native owners, and was also one 
 of four— Robert Kitchell, William Chittenden, 
 John Bishop and William Leete— who received, ac- 
 cording to the record, full power and authority to 
 act, order and dispatch all matters respecting the 
 public weal and civil government of the Plantation 
 "until a church is gathered among us." It is sup- 
 posed that he was a soldier in the English army, 
 and served in the Netherlands in the Thirty Years 
 war as he was the principal military man of the 
 Plantation, and bore the title of lieutenant. He was 
 
 a magistrate of the Plantation, and deputy to the 
 General Court until his death, in February, 1660, 
 at the age of sixty-seven years. William Chitten- 
 den was married in England to Joanna Sheaffe, 
 daughter of Dr. Edmund and Joanna Sheaffe, of 
 Cranbrook, Kent. Her sister Dorothy was the wife 
 of Rev. Henry Whitfield, who was the first minister 
 of the Guilford Colony, and one of its leading men. 
 Ten children were born to William and Joanna 
 Chittenden, viz. : Thomas, who married Joanna 
 Jordan; Elizabeth, who married Thomas Wright; 
 Nathaniel ; John, mentioned below ; Mary, who 
 married John Leete; Hannah, born Nov. 15, 1649, 
 who died in 1650; Joseph and Hannah (twins), 
 born April 14, 1652, the former of whom died June 
 22, 1652, the latter Sept. 13, 1674; Deborah, born 
 Dec. 12, 1653, who died Sept. 16, 1674; and Joanna. 
 The mother of these remarried, her second husband 
 being Abraham Cruttenden, of Guilford, who had 
 also been previously married. She died in Guil- 
 ford Aug. 16, 1668. Her mother, widow of Dr. 
 Edmund Sheafife, came with the family from Eng- 
 land, and died in Guilford Aug. i, 1659. 
 
 Sergt. John Chittenden, son of William, was 
 married Dec. 12, 1665, to Hannah Fletcher, of Mil- 
 ford. He died in Guilford in April, 1716, aged 
 seventy-three years. Children : John, born Oct. 
 17, 1666, married Sarah Clay; Elizabeth, born Jan. 
 26, 1670, married Thomas Cruttenden; Joseph is re- 
 ferred to below ; Gideon, born Sept. 23, 1678, died 
 in 1679; Abel, born May 14, 1681, married Deborah 
 Scranton; Lydia, born March 30, 1684, married 
 William Hall. 
 
 Joseph Chittenden, born March 26, 1672, in 
 Guilford, spent his entire life there, and died Sept. 
 II, 1727. On Aug. 26, 1692, he married Mary 
 Ki'mberly, born in April, 1671, daughter of Nathan- 
 iel and Mary Kimberly, of New Haven. She died 
 Jan. 14, 1742. Children: Deborah, born Jan. 28, 
 •1693, married John Spinning; Patience, born Jan. 
 1I9, 1696, married Tohn Hubbard ; Gideon, sketch of 
 whom follows; Daniel, born March 15, 1700, mar- 
 ried Abigail Downes ; Joseph, born Jan. 25, 1702, 
 married Patience Stone; Thankful, born Jan. 27, 
 1704, married Timothy Bartlett. 
 
 Gideon Chittenden, son of Joseph, born Feb. 3, 
 1698, in Guilford, passed the greater part of his life 
 in his native town, and in 1762 removed to New 
 Milford, Conn., where he and his wife both ended 
 their days. On March 21, 1721, he married Abi- 
 gail Bishop, born April 19, 1701, daughter of 
 Samuel and Abigail (Wetmore) Bishop, of 
 Guilford, and they had children: Abraham, 
 sketch of whom follows; Millicent, born April 
 5, 1725, married John Honson ; Abigail, born 
 March 17, 1727, married Samuel Stone; Pru- 
 dence, born Oct. 14, 1729, married Nathaniel 
 Johnson; Giles, born Dec. 8, 1731, married 
 Temperance Bishop; Miles, born June 15, 1734, 
 died Dec. 15, 1755; Ruth, born May 15, 1737, mar- 
 ried Ebenezer Evarts ; Stephen, born May 9, 1739, 
 
858 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married Lucy Bardsley ; Catherine, born May 9, 
 1747, married Ebenezer Gaylord. 
 
 Abraham Chittenden, born Feb. 16, 1723, 
 ■passed his entire life in Guilford, engaged in agri- 
 cultural pursuits, and died there July 19, 1810. On 
 March 15, 1749, he married Mercy Burgis, who was 
 born Sept. 26, 1719, daughter of Thomas and 
 Mercy (Wright) Burgis, and died Feb. 24, 1801. 
 Children; Abraham, sketch of whom follows; 
 Eliab, born March 26, 1754, died Aug. 29, 1756; 
 Mercy, born April 17, 1756, married Nathaniel 
 Parmelee; Sarah, born May 13, 1760, died Aug. 30, 
 1769. 
 
 Abraham Chittenden, born Aug. 10, 1751, lived 
 to the ripe age of over ninety-six years, passing 
 away Alarch 4, 1848, and his remains rest in Guil- 
 ford cemetery. He became deacon of the First 
 Church in Guilford in 1799. On Nov. 17, 1774, he 
 married Diana Ward, born Sept. 24, 1752, daughter 
 of Gen. Andrew and Diana (Hubbard) Ward, of 
 Guilford. She died April 24, 1784, and on May 25, 
 1785, he married Lydia Baldwin, daughter of Israel 
 Baldwin, of North Branford, and widow of Simeon 
 Rose. She passed away Oct. 17, 1819. By his first 
 marriage Abraham Chittenden had three children : 
 Sarah, born Oct. 13, 1775, married Dr. Jared Red- 
 field; Betsey, born July 23, 1777, married Benjamin 
 Baldwin; Abraham I., born Nov. 17, 1781, married 
 Deborah Fowler. By the second marriage there 
 were four: Diana, born April 13, 1786, married 
 David Parmelee; John Baldwin, born Jan. 16, 1790, 
 married Eliza Robinson ; Henry Ward, sketch of 
 whom follows ; Lydia, twin of Henry W., married 
 Samuel Robinson. 
 
 Henry Ward Chittenden, whose name introduc- 
 es this sketch, was born Dec. 7, 1794. He received 
 a good practical education, and in his younger years 
 engaged in mercantile business in Guilford, later in 
 life taking up farming, in which connection he also 
 inanaged the Griffing farm, known as the "Stone 
 House farm." His entire life was spent in Guil- 
 ford, where he died Oct. 30, 1867, and his remains 
 rest in Guilford cemetery. Being a man of social, 
 genial temperament, and of unblemished integrity, 
 Mr. Chittenden was a well-known and highly re- 
 spected citizen, and quite popular. In political 
 faith he v,-as a Whig, and later a Republican, and 
 he held various local offices, including that of town 
 clerk. He held membership in the First Congrega- 
 tional Church, and was a good Christian man. On 
 May 17, 1820, Mr. Chittenden was married', in 
 Guilford, to Charlotte Griffing, born Jan. 28, 1800, 
 daughter of Joel and Sarah (Fairchild) Griffing; 
 she died Alav 5, 1822, and was buried in Guilford 
 cemetery. Oat March 10, 1824, Mr. Chittenden 
 married, for his second wife, in Guilford, Mary 
 Griffine, born in Guilford Feb. 6, 1801, daughter of 
 Hon. Nathaniel and Sarah (Brown) Griffing, and 
 a cousin of his iirst wife; she died March 2T, 1876, 
 and is buried in Guilford cemetcrv. Mrs, Chitten- 
 
 den was a lady of means, and gave liberally to the 
 poor and to the church, and was quite active in 
 every good cause. She was a member of the First 
 Church, to which she gave an excellent organ and 
 a fund for the salary of the organist. To Henry W. 
 and Mary (Griffing) Chittenden came one child, 
 Sarah Brown, born June 18, 1835, who was married 
 Sept. 14, 1859, to Edward H. Owen, of Stock- 
 bridge, Mass. He died May 28, 1864, and on 
 March 20, 1867, she married Henry D. Cone, a 
 paper manufacturer in Housatonic, Mass., who died 
 Nov. 16, 1896. Mr. Chittenden adopted the daugh- 
 ter of his sister, Mrs. Parmelee, Lydia D., who is a 
 lady of culture and refinement. She makes her 
 home in Guilford, where she is well known and 
 highly respected. 
 
 The Parmelee Family, of which Miss Lydia 
 D. Chittenden, the adopted daughter of Henry W. 
 Chittenden, is a descendant, is one of the oldest 
 families in Guilford. The first of that name in New 
 Haven Colony was John Parmelee, who came from 
 England and was one of the first settlers of New 
 Haven, where he spent the balance of his life, dying 
 there in November, 1659. He is buried there. He 
 married Elizabeth Bradley, a widow, and three chil- 
 dren were born to them : John, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows ; Hannah, who married John Johnson ; and 
 Mary, who married Denis Carpenter, and died 
 March 16, 1668. 
 
 John Parmelee spent his life in the New Haven 
 Colony, and died in January, 1689. His first wife, 
 Rebecca, died Sept. 29, 1651, and in 1652 
 he married Ann Plane, a widow, who died 
 March 30, 1658. In 1659 he again married, 
 his third wife being named Hannah. Chil- 
 dren : Nathaniel, born in 1645, married Sarah 
 French; John, born Nov. 25, 1659, married 
 Mary Mason, and died Jan. 3, 1749; Isaac, sketch 
 of whom follows ; Hannah, born Nov. 5, 1667, mar- 
 ried T. Hill; Stephen, born Dec. 6, 1669, married 
 Elizabeth Baldwin, and died Jan. 3, 1749; Job, born 
 July 31, 1673, rnarried Betsey Edwards, and died 
 Nov. 16, 1765; Caleb married Abigail Johnson; 
 Priscilla, born May 8, 1678, died Dec. 10, 1692; 
 Joel, born in 1679, married Abigail Andrews, and 
 died in July, 1748. 
 
 Isaac Parmelee, born Nov. 21, 1665, made his 
 home in Guilford, where he died Jan. 3, 1749. On 
 Dec. 30, 1689, he married Elizabeth Hillard, born 
 June 18, 1666, died June 3, 1746, and they had chil- 
 dren : Ebenezer, born Nov. 22, 1690, died Sept. 
 27. '^777> rnarried Ann Cruttenden ; Abraham, bom 
 May 28, 1692, died Sept. 29, 1752, married Mary 
 Bishop; Joseph, sketch of whom follows; Eliza- 
 beth, born Jan. 30, 1697, died March 14, 1780, mar- 
 ried Nathaniel Baldwin; Sarah, born Aug. 11, 
 1699, died May 4, 1730, married Michael Hill; 
 Isaac, born Mav 20, 1702, died July 13, 1752,; mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Evarts ; Andrew, born June 20, 1704, 
 died Aug. I, 1795; Rachel, born Nov. 18, 1707, died 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 859 
 
 Nov. 9, 1793, married Samuel Evarts; Josiah, born 
 ill December, 1709, died Aug. 10, 1739, married 
 Sarah Evarts. 
 
 Joseph Parmelee, born in Guilford Sept. 14, 
 1694, died April 21, 1751. On Sept. 19, 1716, he 
 married Abigail Kimberly, born July 22, 1696, died 
 Nov. 28, 1763. Children: Abigail, born Jan. 31, 
 1719, died Feb. 8, 1780, married Caleb Bishop; Jo- 
 seph, sketch of whom follows; Wilham, born in 
 1724, died March 13, 1799; Elizabeth, born Nov. 
 21, 1728, married Ebenezer Chittenden; Beulah, 
 born Aug. 30, 1732, died Sept. 16, 1818, married 
 Nathaniel Elliot; Samuel, born July 27, 1737, died 
 June 2, 1807, married Sarah Bishop. 
 
 Joseph Parmelee, born Aug. 3, 1721, in Guil- 
 ford, died July 3, 1804. On Nov. 30, 1742, he mar- 
 ried Obedience Spencer, born Sept. 6, 1725, died 
 June 9, 1750. On April 12, 1752, he married Abi- 
 gail Cruttenden, born Aug. 20, 1727, died June 23, 
 1788. On Oct. 12, 1788, he married Mary Den- 
 ning, died Oct. 2, 1795. 'Children: Obedience, 
 born Aug. 13, 1743, married Jesse Evarts ; Cather- 
 ine, born Aug. 23, 1744; Luther, born Jan. 25, 
 1750, died Aug. 7, 1750; Joseph, born March 19, 
 1755, died Feb. 19, 1785 ; David, sketch of whom' 
 follows. 
 
 David Parmelee, born Sept. 6, 1759, died Aug. 
 26, 1814. On Oct. 17, 1781, he married Asentha 
 Kirkham, who died Nov. 2, 1782, and on Oct. 2, 
 1783, he married Parnel Handy, who survived him, 
 dying March 21, 1839; she married for her second 
 husband Seth Cruttenden. Children : David, 
 sketch of whom follows; Benjamin, born March 11, 
 1786, died in 1805; Parnel, born July i, 1788, died 
 in 816, married Sylvester Camp ; Jonathan Handy, 
 born July i, 1790, died at sea in 1806; Clarissa, 
 born Sept. 19, 1795, died Jan. 25, 1875, married 
 George Hart. 
 
 David Parmelee, father of Miss Lydia D. Chit- 
 tenden, born in Guilford Oct. 3, 1784, died Aug. 6, 
 1870. By occupation he was a blacksmith, and he 
 spent all his life in his native town, where he was 
 highly respected. Originally a Whig in politics, he 
 eventually joined the Democratic party, and he 
 held several local offices. He was a soldier in the 
 war of 1812. On March 2, 1807, Mr. Parmelee 
 married Arta'Leete, who was born Aug. 27, 1787, 
 daughter of Amos Leete, and died Oct. 19, 1816. 
 On Dec. 13, 1818, he married Diana Chittenden, 
 who was born April 13, 1786, daughter of Abraham 
 and Lvdia (Baldwin) Chittenden, and died Feb. 7, 
 1826. ' On April 11, 1827, Mr. Parmelee married 
 for his third wife Clarissa B. Parmelee, born Feb. 
 15. 1795- died Nov. 8, 1831. There were three 
 children by the first marriage: Benjamin, born 
 Aug. 19, 1808, was drowned; Samuel, born Aug. 
 22, 1810. died Mav 15, 1877. married Catherine 
 Rooke ; David Kirkiand, born Sept. 4, 1812, is still 
 living in Guilford. Two children came to the sec- 
 ond union: Henrv Baldwin, born in June, 1821, 
 died Oct. 3, 1822; Lydia Diana, born Oct. 3, 1824, 
 
 is the adopted daughter of Henry Ward Chitten- 
 den. One child was born to the third union, Clar- 
 issa E., bom in 1836, who married Horace Red- 
 ford, of Meriden. 
 
 AUGUSTUS STREET, deceased. There is 
 particular satisfaction in reverting to the life his- 
 tory of this honored gentleman, from the fact that 
 he attained a position of distinction in his native 
 town of East Haven, where he retained his residence 
 until his death. 
 
 Mr. Street was born in East Haven May 30, 
 1819, on the place now occupied by the widow of 
 his brother Dwight, and was a representative of 
 one of the most distinguished and prominent fam- 
 ilies of New Haven county. He traced his ances- 
 try back to Rev. Nicholas Street, of Bridgewater, 
 England, who was born Jan. 29, 1603, and was edu- 
 cated at Oxford College, where he received the de- 
 gree of B. A. He came to America some time be- 
 tween 1630 and 1638, and first located in Taunton, 
 Mass., but later removed to New Haven and was 
 assistant to Rev. John Davenport, pastor of the 
 Center Church of that place, and one of the found- 
 ers of the New Haven Colony. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Street, son of Nicholas, was one 
 of the seven who graduated at Harvard College in 
 1664. He was afterward ordained pastor of the 
 Congregational Church at Wallingford, in 1674, 
 being its first pastor, and remained in charge there 
 for forty-five years. He died at the ripe old age of 
 eighty-two. 
 
 Lieut. Samuel Street, son of Rev. Samuel, was 
 born July 27, 1667. 
 
 Rev. Nicholas Street, son of Lieut. Samuel, and 
 grandfather of our subject, was born in Walling- 
 ford, New Haven county, Feb. 21, 1730, and died 
 in October, 1806. He was graduated from Yale 
 College in 1751, and in 1755 was ordained pastor of 
 the East Haven Congregational Church, over which 
 he presided for the long period of fifty-one years, 
 honored and beloved 'by all who knew him. He 
 was twice married, his first wife being Desire 
 Thompson, his second Hannah Austin, who died 
 at the age of sixty-one. 
 
 Elnathan Street, our subject's father, was born 
 in East Haven Feb. 16, 1774, and died Nov. 13, 
 1849. He was a farmer by occupation, and a wor- 
 thy member of the community, highly respected by 
 all for his many sterling qualities and unassuming 
 manner. He was a devout member of the Congre- 
 gational Church, and a stanch Whig in politics. 
 On Nov. 2, 1802, Mr. Street married Clarissa ]Mor- 
 ris, who was born July 6, 1783, and died March 2, 
 1861. Ten children were born to this union: Jane 
 Caroline, Harriet, Lucy M-, Mary A., Nicholas, 
 Benjamin, Augustus, Thaddeus,- Cornelia and El- 
 nathan Dwight. Benjamin was a soldier in the 
 15th Conn. V. L during the Civil war. 
 
 The subject of this sketch spent the first four- 
 teen years of his life in his native town, and then 
 
86o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 went to New Haven, where he clerked in the dry- 
 goods store of James D. Salter for two years. He 
 then entered the employ of Stephen A. Street, in a 
 similar capacity, and in 1835 accompanied this gen- 
 tleman on his removal to New Orleans, La., clerk- 
 ing in his store there until the employer's death, in 
 1838. Returning North to New York, Mr. Street 
 engaged in the dry-goods business until 1851, and 
 then moved to Mount Carmel, Conn., where he was 
 manager of the store of James Ives until 1855. He 
 next went to New Haven, and was bookkeeper for 
 Beecher & Winship until 1862, after which he en- 
 gaged in mercantile business for himself at that 
 place for two years. 
 
 On Sept. II, 1850, Mr. Street was united in 
 marriage with Miss Maria S. Elwell, of Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., who was born Feb. i, 1826, and died Dec. 
 31, 1898. They had five children, viz.: Augustus 
 and Alexander, twins, died in infancy; Frank died 
 at the age of ten months ; Lucy Elwell died when 
 two years of age; the only survivor being Lottie 
 E. The last named is a graduate of the private 
 school conducted by Miss Abbott, daughter of John 
 S. C. Abbott, the historian, and has been a success- 
 ful school teacher. She is now a member of the 
 board of education and school visitor, having served 
 in that position for several years past. Prior to 
 her father's decease she was appointed assistant 
 town clerk. Miss Street is a lady of considerable 
 literary ability, and is the authoress of the book en- 
 titled "A Knot of Blue," and published by the Pil- 
 grim Press, of Boston. 
 
 Shortly after his marriage Mr. Street returned 
 to East Haven, where he ever afterward made his 
 home, though he was engaged in business else- 
 where. His political support was given to the men 
 and measures of the Republican party. He served 
 as town treasurer of East Haven for several years, 
 and was town clerk from 1893 until his death, April 
 30, 1 90 1, being elected without serious opposition 
 from any party ; the last time his name was on both 
 party tickets. He was one of the oldest and most 
 influential members of the East Haven Congrega- 
 tional Church, and was treasurer of that society. 
 Mr. Street was ever found true to the trusts reposed 
 in him by his fellow citizens, and merited and re- 
 ceived their esteem and respect. 
 
 JOHN THOMAS SLINEY, one of the most 
 prominent contractors on stone work, track work, 
 teaming and trucking in Branford, where he has 
 extensive livery .stables, is a son of David and Eliza- 
 beth (Dickson) Slinev, natives of Ireland. 
 
 David Slinev and his wife came to this country 
 about 1850, and located in Branford, where the fa- 
 ther engaged in farming. After a time he entered 
 the employ of the M. I. F Company, and later in his 
 life became a farmer, dying Nov. 11, 1897, at the 
 age of seventy-one years. During the Civil war he 
 served in the Union army as a member of Company 
 G, 27th Conn. \'. I., under Capt. Ely. and was taken 
 
 prisoner at the battle of Gettysburg. After a brief 
 incarceration in sotithern prison pens he was ex- 
 changed, and honorably discharged from the hos- 
 pital at New Haven. Of the children born to David 
 Sliney and wife, we have the following record: 
 Catherine, who married Hugh McEmerney ; Bessie, 
 who married M. F. Kelly; Margaret, who is Mrs. 
 M. F. O'Brien; David; John T. ; Lucy, who mar- 
 ried Thomas Gibbons ; William R. ; and Ella. 
 
 John Thomas Sliney was reared in Branford, 
 where he was educated in the public schools, and at 
 the age of seventeen went into the milk business, 
 in which he was engaged for the next eleven years. 
 Mr. Sliney began his present business in 1892, and 
 the next year entered into a partnership with M. P. 
 Rice, which continued two years. Since that time 
 he has conducted his business without a partner, 
 and is doing a large work, not only in Branford, 
 but in New Haven and adjacent territory. 
 
 On Jan. 25, 1893, Mr. Sliney was married to 
 Hannah Agnes, a daughter of Lawrence and Mary 
 (Murphy) Buckley. To this union were born five 
 children : Mary, Elizabeth, John, Lawrence and Leo. 
 Mr. Sliney and his family are members of the St. 
 Mary's Catholic Church, at Branford. In his poli- 
 tics he is a Democrat, and for two years he served 
 as a member of the board of education, and for two 
 terms as a selectman of the town. 
 
 JOHN HOOKER DUDLEY. The Dudley 
 family, of which the subject of this sketch is a wor- 
 thy member, originated in England, and became one 
 of the earliest families in Connecticut. 
 
 (I) William Dudley, one of the original settlers 
 of Guilford, and signer of the Plantation Covenant, 
 was born at Richmond, County of Surrey, England. 
 He was a member of Rev. Henry Whitfield's Church 
 and parish at Ockley, in Surrey, where he married 
 Aug. 24, 1636, Miss Jane Lutman. They came 
 with Mr. Whitfield's company to America in 1639, 
 and their eldest child, William, was born at sea dur- 
 ing their voyage. On their arrival at Guilford they 
 established their home on the east side of what is 
 now Fair street, where Dr. R. B. West now lives. 
 William Dudley's home-lot contained three and one- 
 quarter acres and he had also considerable outlying 
 land. He was a farmer, as appears by his will and 
 inventory. He died March 16, 1683-84, and his 
 wife on May i, 1674. They had five children: (i) 
 Deacon William, born at sea, June 8, 1639, died May, 
 1701, married Nov. 4, 1661, Mary Stow. He re- 
 moved in 1670 to Saybrook, Conn. (2) Joseph, 
 sketch of whom follows. (3) Ruth, bom April 20, 
 1645, rnarried June 20, 1664, John Whittlesey, of 
 Saybrook. (4) Deborah, born Sept. 20, 1647, died 
 October, 1681 ; married (first) June, 1671, Ebenezer 
 Thompson, who died May, 1674. They had two 
 children : Jabez, born Oct. 16, 1672 : and John, born 
 November, 1674. She married (second) Thomas 
 Scranton, who died Februarv, 171 1; they had two 
 children — Samuel, married Elizabeth Bishop; and 
 
? 
 
 y ^(^^^-i^t^^-^-'^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Hannah, married Joseph Evarts. (5) Another child, 
 whose name is not known. 
 
 (II) Joseph Dudley, second son of WiUiam Dud- 
 ley and Jane (Lutman), was born at Guilford April 
 24, 1643, ^'id <iisd there June 3, 1712. He married 
 Oct. 6, 1670, Ann Robinson, daughter of Thomas 
 Robinson and wife, Mary. He was a cooper by 
 trade, also a farmer. He owned part of a sawmill 
 which he bequeathed to his son Caleb. He lived, 
 probably, on the homicstead of his father on Fair 
 street. His father mentions him in his will as fol- 
 lows : "I give and bequeathe to my son Joseph 
 Dudley, all my housings and lands and rights of 
 lands in Guilford, etc." In 1691 he was chosen by 
 the town "for the making of coffins on all occasions 
 of death." At the time of his death the inventory 
 of land, distributed to his six sons as designated by 
 his will, amounted to £751: los : 6d. Movables — 
 ii66: 15s: 6d. Joseph Dudley had nine children: 
 (i) Joseph, born June 11, 1671, died Feb. 22, 
 1726; married July 27, 1704, Abigail Hubbard. (2) 
 Benjamin (twin of Joseph), died Feb. 23, 1720; 
 married Jan. 5, 1703, Tabitha Avered. (3) Caleb, 
 sketch of whom follows. (4) Joshua, born Dec. 17, 
 1674, died Jan. 29, 1750; married Oct. 20, 1712, 
 Sarah Perry, of Stratford. (5) Miles, born Dec. 
 17, 1676, died Aug. 10, 1753; married Jan. 23, 1706, 
 Rachel Strong, daughter of Thomas Strong, of 
 Northampton, Mass. She died Jan. 4, 1769, aged 
 ninety-three. (6) William, born Oct. 18, 1684, died 
 Feb. 28, 1761 ; married (first) Ruth Strong (who 
 died Sept. 18, 1743), daughter of Thomas of Lyme; 
 mairied (second) Rebecca Fisk, daughter of Joseph 
 Elliott. (7) Anna, born 1687, died April 27, 1687. 
 (8) Mary married Joseph Wright, of Colchester, 
 Conn. (9) Mercy married Josiah Bartlett, of North- 
 ampton, Massachusetts. 
 
 (III) Caleb Dudley, the third son of Joseph 
 Dudley and Ann (Robinson), was born in Guilford 
 in June, 1673, and died March 20, 1730. He mar- 
 ied June 23, 1700, Elizabeth Buck, of Wethersfield, 
 born June 4, 1676 (died April 14, 1738), daughter 
 of Emanuel Buck and Mary (Kirby), and grand- 
 daughter of John Kirby, one of the first settlers of 
 Middletown, Conn. Caleb Dudley was a .farmer, 
 and the first one of the Dudley name who made his 
 home on "Clapboard Hill," the neighborhood after- 
 ward called "Dudleytown." His father, in his will, 
 gave him the portion of his real estate lying in that 
 vicinity. Caleb Dudley built his house on what is 
 now (1900) the home-lot of Joseph E. Dudley (the 
 old house stood a little west of Joseph E. Dudley's 
 present home). It was afterward successively the 
 home of his son Caleb; his grandson Nathaniel; 
 great-grandson John ; and the birthplace of his great- 
 great-grandchildren : Hooker, Elon, John, Horace, 
 Dudley and Ruth (Dudley) Norton, the mother of 
 Deacon J. W. Norton. The value of his estate, as 
 inventoried after his death, was £2,108. Caleb Dud- 
 ley had eight children: (i) Thomas, born April 
 23, 1701, died May 22, 1776; married June 11, 1733. 
 
 Abigail Seward, of Durham. (2) Caleb, sketch of 
 whom follows. (3) Ruth, born Dec. 28, 1704, died 
 April 13, 1736; married March 9, 1732, Samuel 
 Evarts (Daniel, Daniel, John). (4) Daniel, born 
 April 3, 1707. He removed to Bethlehem, Conn., 
 married Jan. 20, 1732, Joanna Rose, of Branford. 
 (5) Josiah, born Aug. 30, 1709, died Oct. 20, 1755; 
 married, 1738, Silence Dows. He lived at East 
 Guilford. (6) Samuel, born Dec. 4, 171 1, died Nov. 
 10, 1789 ; married May 3, 1738, Jane Talman, daugh- 
 ter of Dr. Ebenezer Talman and Ann (Morrison). 
 Samuel Dudley had but one son, Samuel, born Nov. 
 27, 1747, died Dec. 17, 1819; married Hannah 
 Evarts (Jonathan, Jonathan, James, James, John). 
 Their only son. Deacon Asher Dudley, born April 
 2, 1770, died Oct. 27, 1862, was the father of Maria 
 Dudley, born April 30, 1802, who married Oct. 13, 
 1819, Jonathan Parmelee. Samuel Dudley lived in 
 (and probably built) the old house now occupied 
 by his great-great-great-grandson, Charles E. Par- 
 melee, west of the residence of Herbert E. Parme- 
 lee, in Clapboard Hill District. (7) Noah, born 
 Aug. 15, 1716, removed to Roxbury, Conn.; mar- 
 ried May 28, 1752, Submit Talman, daughter of Dr. 
 Ebenezer (Dr. Peter, Peter) Talman. (8) David, 
 born Nov. 27, 1718, died Feb. 17, 1807; married 
 Mary Talman, daughter of Dr. Ebenezer Talman 
 (Dr. Peter, Peter). They had one son who died 
 young, and five daughters, one of whom, Anna, 
 born April 13, 1752, married Timothy Field. They 
 were the parents of Rev. David Dudley Field, D. D., 
 born May 20, 1781. 
 
 (IV) Caleb Dudley, son of Caleb Dudley and 
 Elizabeth (Buck), was born in Clapboard Hill dis- 
 trict, Guilford, Nov. 20, 1702, and died Oct. 10, 
 1793. He married May 31, 1739, Hannah Stone, 
 daughter of Nathaniel Stone and Hannah (Graves). 
 He was a farmer, and lived upon the homestead of 
 his father. Caleb Dudley had five children, all sons, 
 the eldest of whom died in infancy. The four re- 
 maining sons settled near their parents at Clapboard 
 Hill, (i) Caleb, born Feb. 24, 1740, died March, 
 1740. (2) Caleb, born July 24, 1741, died Sept. 
 14, 1802; married (first) Nov. 28, 1764, Hannah 
 Evarts, daughter of Eleazer Evarts ( Samuel, Judah, 
 John). She died Sept. 6, 1765, aged twenty-one, 
 leaving one child, Caleb (born Aug. 28, 1765, died 
 June 30, 1815). He married (second) Jan. 18, 1769, 
 Anna Munger, daughter of Ebenezer, by whom he 
 had five children: Hannah, born Oct. 31, 1769, 
 married Jan. 13, 1790, John Griswold, and died 
 Feb. 17, 1828; Ruth, born July 19, 1777, married 
 Peter Talman, and died June 30, 1849; Anna, born 
 May II, 1773, married Amos Bartlett, and died 
 Aug. 20, 1866 (their daughter Ruth, born April 15, 
 1802, married Capt. George Bartlett) ; Abel, born 
 Sept. 3, 1781, married Betsey Minor, and died 
 March 11, 1821 ; Huldah, born Oct. 29, 1784, mar- 
 ried Timothy Terryl, of Woodbury, Conn. (3) 
 Abraham was next in the family, (a) Nathaniel, 
 born Oct. 3, 1745, died Feb. 21, 1826; married 
 
862 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 March 12, 1777, Mary Hart, daughter of Thomas 
 Hart and Concurrence (Bartlett). (5) Amos, born 
 Nov. 3, 1747, married (first) Feb. 7, 1771, Mary 
 Evarts, daughter of Eleazer Evarts (Samuel, Judah, 
 John). She died Aug. 23, 1797, aged forty-seven; 
 he married (second) July 15, 1799, Deborah (John- 
 son), widow of Elon Lee. 
 
 (V) Nathaniel Dudley, born Oct. 3, 1745, in 
 Guilford, passed all his life there, dying Feb. 21, 
 1826. In Guilford, March 12, 1777, he married 
 Mary Hart, born Aug. 17, 1751 (died Feb. 6, 1841), 
 daughter of Thomas and Concurrence (Bartlett) 
 Hart. Four children came to this union, viz. : ( i ) 
 Nathaniel, born Nov. 15, 1777, died Sept. 7, 1795; 
 
 (2) Lois, born July 15, 1779, died Sept. 7, 1863; 
 
 (3) John, sketch of whom follows; (4) Eunice, 
 born Feb. 20, 1784, married May 23, 1806, George 
 Bushnell, of Saybrook, Connecticut. 
 
 (VI) John Dudley, son of (V) Nathaniel, and 
 the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was 
 born Jan. 25, 1782, on the old homestead in Guilford, 
 and died Jan. 19, 1816, his remains being interred 
 in East cemetery. He was a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church. He was a lifelong farmer and 
 landowner. On Jan. 24, 1805, he married Sarah 
 Lee, bom Dec. 30, 1780, and died Dec. 27, 1849. 
 Their children: (i) Hooker, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows; (2) Elon, born May i, 1808, died April 8, 
 1883; (3) John, born Dec. 30, 1809, married Sarah 
 Dudley; (4) Horace, born March 16, 1812, and died 
 June 12, 1885, married Amanda Dudley; (5) Ruth, 
 born June 4, 1814, married John Norton. 
 
 (VII) Hooker Dudley, son of (VI) John, and 
 the father of the subject of this sketch, was born 
 Oct. I 1806, was educated in the Clapboard Hill Dis- 
 trict school, and remained upon the old homestead 
 until removing in 1831 to the farm now owned by 
 his son John H. There during the rest of his days 
 he engaged in farming and stock raising, dying Aug. 
 21, 1879, and his remains were interred in East 
 cemetery. In religious faith he was a member of 
 the Episcopal Church, and in politics he was a 
 Democrat, but never aspired to political preferments. 
 On Oct. 16, 1831, Hooker Dudley was married to 
 Mary Evarts, born May 22, 1806, daughter of (V) 
 Nathaniel Evarts, and died Feb. 20, 1895 (see Gen- 
 ealogy of the Evarts Family further on). Three 
 children came of 'this union : ( i ) Elizabeth Mary, 
 born July 10, 1833, died single April 26, 1874. (2) 
 Andrew Jackson, born Aug. 15, 1835, living at No. 
 1157 North Chapel street, New Haven; and (3) 
 John Hooker, a sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (VIII) John Hooker Dudley, son of (VII) 
 Hooker, was born on the old family homestead 
 April 5, 1837, and received a liberal education in the 
 Clapboard Hill district school. Like his forefathers, 
 he has made agricultural pursuits his life work, and 
 since his father's death has operated the homestead 
 of seventy-five acres of land. In politics he is inde- 
 pendent, and in religious connection he is a member 
 of the Episcopal Church. A well-read man, he takes 
 
 much interest in the current events of the day, while, 
 at the same time, he is something of an archaeolo- 
 gist and mineralogist, having in his possession an 
 interesting collection of Indian rehcs, mineral ore 
 and other curiosities. Mr. Dudley has not enlisted 
 in the noble army of Benedicts. 
 
 Evarts Family, (i) John Evarts came from 
 England and settled first at Concord, Mass., where 
 he was made a freeman in March, 1638; was after- 
 ward at Windsor, Conn. He came to Guilford in 
 1651, and purchased John Mepham's allotment on 
 July 29, 1 65 1. His home-lot was situated next south 
 of Henry Dude's, on the west side of what is now 
 State street, near where the dwelling-house of Mrs. 
 James Monroe now stands. The name of his first 
 wife, the mother of his children, does not appear 
 on "Guilford Records." He married (second) 
 May 22, 1663, Elizabeth, widow of John Parmelee, 
 Sr. (who died 1659). Before her marriage to John 
 Parmelee she was widow Elizabeth Bradley, of New 
 Haven. John Evarts died May 9, 1669. He had 
 five children: Elizabeth, who married Peter Ab- 
 bel; James, who was married to Lydia Goodrich, 
 daughter of Richard and Dinah Goodrich, and died 
 in 1684; Daniel, who married (first) Mary (sur- 
 name unknown), and (second) Rebecca Dowd, 
 daughter of Henry and Elizabeth Doudi (or Dowd) , 
 and died Dec. 5, 1692; John, born Feb. 29, 1640, 
 who married Mary French, daughter of Thomas 
 French ; and Judah, a sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (II) Judah Evarts, the youngest son of (I) John 
 Evarts, was born Oct. 27, 1642, and died in Guilford 
 in 1696. He married Aug. 3, 1670, Mary Hayden, 
 born in Windsor, Conn., June 6, 1648, daughter of 
 William Hayden, of Windsor, who afterward re- 
 moved to Killingworth. They had four children: 
 (i) Mary, born Jan. 28, 1675, died October, 1678. 
 (2) Samuel, born Oct. 4, 1678, died Jan. 24, 1740; 
 married (first) March i, 171 1, Elizabeth Benton, 
 who died June 30, 1734; she was a daughter of 
 Andrew and Elizabeth (Rolf) Benton. He mar- 
 ried (second) Dec. 28, 1736, Mary Stone, daughter 
 of Joseph Stone and Mary (Scranton). (3) Mary, 
 born May 16, 1682, died May 2, 1688. (4) Eleazer, 
 born June 16, 1688, died young. 
 
 (III) Samuel Evarts, the eldest son of (II) Ju- 
 dah Evarts and Mary (Hayden), was born in Guil- 
 ford, Conn., Oct. 4, 1678, and died there Jan. 24, 
 1740. He married (first) March i, 171 1, Elizabeth 
 Benton, daughter of Andrew Benton and Elizabeth 
 (Rolf). She died June 30, 1734. They had three 
 children: (i) Ehzabeth, born Dec. 25, 1711, died 
 Dec. 16, 1734, unmarried. (2) Mary, born July 16, 
 1713, died Jan. 8, 1736, unmarried. (3) Eleazer, 
 born June 26, 1716, died Dec. 28, 1804, married 
 Jan. 29, 1740, Hannah Scranton (died Sept. 6, 
 1765), daughter of Samuel Scranton and Elizabeth 
 (Bishop). Samuel Evarts married (second) Dec. 
 28, 1736, Mary Stone, daughter of Joseph Stone 
 and Mary (Scranton). They had one child, (4) 
 Samuel, sketch of whom follows. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 863 
 
 (IV) Samuel Evarts, the only child of Samuel 
 Evarts and his second wife, Mary (Stone), of Guil- 
 ford, was born Nov. 27, 1737, and died Dec. i, 1812. 
 He lived in Nutplains District in the house now oc- 
 cupied by Alvan Eldredge, whose wife is his great- 
 granddaughter. He married April 19, 1761, Sarah 
 Nettleton, of Killingworth, and they had eight chil- 
 dren: (i) Sarah, born May 8, 1762. (2) Samuel, 
 born Feb. 20, 1764. (3) Josiah, born in 1767. (4) 
 Nathaniel, sketch of whom follows. (5) Mary, 
 born in 1771, died Dec. 16, 1829; married Oct. 31, 
 1790, Ambrose Benton, who died March i, 1847. 
 (6) Nathan, born in 1773. (7) Jared, born in 1774, 
 married Mina Parmelee. (8) WiUiam, born in 1782, 
 died Jan. 7, 1841, married Sally Bristol (he removed 
 to Wayne county, Pennsylvania) . 
 
 (V) Nathaniel Evarts, son of (IV) Samuel 
 Evarts and Sarah (Nettlrton), was born in Guil- 
 ford (Nutplains District) Jan. 13, 1769, and died 
 there Nov. 3, 1854, aged eighty-five. He was a 
 farmer, and lived in the house now owned by John 
 Bristol. He married Nov. 15, 1801, Julia Parmelee 
 (John, John, John, John, John, John). She was 
 born Feb. 18, 1778, and died Sept. 10, 1849. They 
 
 - had seven children: (i) Julia, born Oct. 12, 1802, 
 died in June, 1877, unmarried. (2) Joel, sketch of 
 whom follows. (3) Mary, born May 22, 1806, died 
 Feb. 20, 1895; married Oct. 16, 1831, Hooker Dud- 
 ley, son of John Dudley and Sarah (Lee). (4) 
 Lucy, born May 31, 1809, died Jan. 6, 1888; married 
 May 3, 1832, George Dudley, son of Deacon Abra- 
 ham Dudley and Mary (Bassett). (5) Lewis, 
 sketch of whom appears farther on. (6) Anna, 
 born Oct. 7, 1814, died April 22, 1867 (removed to 
 Kansas) ; married April 18. 1842, George Dibble, 
 died April 12, 1867. (7) John Samuel, sketch of 
 whom appears farther on. 
 
 (VI) Joel Evarts, a farmer of Nutplains district, 
 Guilford, and the oldest son of (V) Nathaniel 
 Evarts and Julia (Parmelee), was born June 25, 
 1804, and died Nov. 23, 1882. He lived in the house 
 now owned by Asahel White. He married Oct. 22, 
 1834, Clarissa Dudley, born Dec. 23, 1804, died Dec. 
 ID, 1873, daughter of Deacon Abraham Dudley and 
 Mary (Bas&ett). They had two children: (i) 
 Eliza Jane, born April 5, 1840, married April 5, 
 1865, Samuel Milton Bullard. (2) Emily Clarissa, 
 born Sept.' 8, 1845, married Nov. 16, 1864, Sylvester 
 Russell Snow. 
 
 (VI) Lewis Evarts, a farmer of Nutplains dis- 
 trict, Guilford, was the second son of (V) Nathaniel 
 Evarts and Julia (Parmelee). He was born Aug. 
 15, 1811, and died Nov. 29, 1892. He lived in the 
 house of his grandfather, Samuel Evarts, now the 
 home of his son-in-law, Alvan Eldredge. He mar- 
 ried May II, 1840, Mary Minerva Parker, born 
 April 18, 1824, died March 15, 1887, and they had 
 eight children: (i) Catherine Mary, born S^ept. 
 17, 1841, died March 2, 1890; married (first) Nov. 
 I, 1865. Charles Samuel Bartlett, born Nov. n, 
 1832, died Dec. 22, 1872, son of Capt. George and 
 
 Ruth Bartlett; married (second) Nov. 3, 1876, Ed- 
 gar Lee Fowler, born Jan. 8, 1830, died Sept. 3, 
 1893. (2) Julia Amelia, born Feb. 12, 1844, mar- 
 ried Nov. 27, 1873, Alvan Eldredge, born Jan. 19, 
 1848. (3) Samuel Lewis, born March 16, 1846, 
 died March 16, 1849. (4) George Albert, born 
 March 8, 1848, died April 3, 1848. (5) Samuel 
 Lewis, born April 7, 1851, married Dec. 14, 1880, 
 Lizzie Woodworth, of Middletown; they had one 
 child, Clarence Gardiner, born Nov. 4, 1889. (6) 
 Georgiana Parker, born Feb. 12, 1853, married Nov. 
 I, 1884, Henry W. Banks, of Southport, Conn. (7) 
 Alice Maria, born Feb. 5, 1856, died Oct. 3, 1874. 
 (8) Frank Albert, born Sept. 24, 1858 (of New 
 Haven), married June 4, 1886, Anna Wood. 
 
 (Vl) John Samuel Evarts, a farmer of Nut- 
 plains district, Guilford, is the youngest son of Na- 
 thaniel Evarts and Julia (Parmelee). He was born 
 June 18, 1817, and married (first) April 26, 1847, 
 Hannah McComb, born 1818, died Jan. 24, 1848, 
 leaving a son, John E., born Jan. 19, 1848, who died 
 May 26, 1848. He married (second) Nov. 17, 1853, 
 Harriet Hotchkiss, born June 9, 181 5, died July 4, 
 1889, daughter of Launcelot Hotchkiss and Lucretia 
 (Cook), of Branford. They had two children : (i) 
 Lucy Maria, born Sept. 3, 1854, married Sept. 29, 
 1885, Walter W. Wilcox, born Dec. 16, 1851, son 
 of Almon O. Wilcox and Ruth (Kennedy). (2) 
 Harriet Lucretia, born Feb. 24, 1859. 
 
 LEMUEL J. CURTIS. In the death, on Jan! 
 10, 1888, of Lemuel J. Curtis, there passed away 
 not only one of the wealthiest men of Meriden, but 
 one of her noblest citizens, a good man, a philan- 
 thropist. 
 
 Mr.' Curtis was born Jan. 15, 1814, in Meriden, 
 son of Elisha Curtis, and was a dtescendant of John 
 Curtis, who came from England and was one among 
 the first settlers at Stratford, Conn., in 1639. 
 Thomas Curtis, a son of John, was one of the 
 original settlers in Wallingford, Conn., in 1670. 
 
 Lemuel J. Curtis when sixteen years of age be- 
 gan to earn his own living by learning the britannia 
 business from Ira Yale, of Wallingford, and he was 
 so successful that he finally bought Mr. Yale out. 
 Before he was twenty-five he went west with the 
 late Isaac C. Lewis, intending to go into business 
 there, but gave up the idea and returned to Meri- 
 den, beginning the making of britannia ware. He 
 was associated at various times with Edwin Curtis, 
 W. W. Lyman and others. He was one of the 
 heavy stockholders of the Meriden Britannia Co., 
 and always took a particular interest in ithat concern. 
 He was president of the Miller Brothers' Co., and 
 either a director or stockholder in about every in- 
 corporated concern in Meriden. He amassed a for- 
 tune of probably a million dollars, acquired by un- 
 tiring industry, careful investments and economical 
 though not parsimonious living. 
 
 Mr. Curtis was senior warden of St. Andrew's 
 Episcopal Church of Meriden and one of its stanch- 
 
864 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 est supporters. He was the founder of the Curtis 
 Home for Aged and Indigent Women, and that 
 most worthy estabhshment will stand as a fitting 
 monument to Mr. Curtis' strong Christian character. 
 He was deeply interested in the Home, personally 
 looking after many details of the management. Be- 
 sides the building, which cost $50,000, he endowed 
 the institution with about $750,000, and this gift of 
 three-quarters of a million showed the sincerity 
 of his desire to do something for the benefit of Meri- 
 den and the honor of the church to which he was so 
 devoted. He was thoroughly reliable as a man and 
 citizen in every way, and his acts of charity were 
 notie the less because not heralded. He was a true 
 friend and an upright man in all respects, and his 
 death was a great loss to the city, which he helped 
 materially to build up. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1835, Mr. Curtis was married to 
 Bedotha P. Button, and to them were born two chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Mr. Curtis' pastor, the Rev. A. T. Randall, thus 
 wrote of his life : "In the midst of a sore affliction, 
 which weighs heavily upon me in a personal as well 
 as an official capacity, I have been asked by the 
 editor of the Journal to write a few words concern- 
 ing Mr. Lemuel J. Curtis, who last evening was so 
 suddenly called to his rest in Paradise. As a citizen 
 of unimpeachable integrity and uprightness he stood 
 in the highest rank. Few men in all the relations 
 of life were so alive to the dictates of conscience. 
 Advantage, policy, gain and affection were unhesi- 
 tatingly set aside at the bidding of conscience, and 
 no sacrifice was deemed too great when demanded 
 by this guiding power of his life. He has thus been 
 a model of integrity to all with whom he has been 
 thrown in contact, and especially to those with whom 
 he had business relations. A man who had known 
 Mr. Curtis intimately for nearly forty years once 
 said in my hearing, '"Whatever Lemuel J. Curtis at- 
 tempts to accomplish, his first thought is to do 
 right.' 
 
 "Such a characteristic cannot in these days be 
 too highly eulogized. But it is especially my duty 
 and pleasure to speak well of Mr. Curtis as a relig- 
 ious man. For forty-five years be has been a faith- 
 ful and regular communicant at St. Andrew's 
 Church, and for more than half this long period he 
 has been honored with the office of warden of the 
 parish. It was only during the last year of his life, 
 when he felt his infirmities growing upon him, that 
 inclement weather could keep him from his accus- 
 tomed seat in the House of God. He was always 
 alive to ■ every need of the church he so loved. 
 Whenever he realized that the need was pressing, 
 when there was a special offering at the dhurch for 
 religious or charitable purposes, and he througth ne- 
 cessity was absent, it was his invariable custom to 
 forward his offering to the writer within the next 
 twenty-four hours. Such a habit is only formed 
 under the conviction that a stated portion of a man's 
 wealth must be given back to God, and this convic- 
 
 tion was the source of a generosity too modest and 
 unassuming to be fully appreciated. 
 
 "Besides founding fhe only charitable institution 
 of which Meriden can boast, Mr. Curtis was not un- 
 mindful of the smaller charities, and on his last 
 Christmas eve he left many a substantial gift at the 
 doors of those who were in affliction and distress. 
 
 "He was an exceptional example of that charac- 
 ter which is animated by the spirit of a pure and 
 undefiled religion before God and the Father, and 
 whose habit it is to visit the fatherless and widows 
 in their affliction, and keep himself unspotted from 
 the world." 
 
 JAMES WARD BEECHER PORTER, now 
 living retired, is looked upon as one of the most 
 worthy citizens of Waterbury, of which city he is a 
 native, having been born there June 12, 1853. 
 
 James Porter, father of our subject, was born 
 in Waterbury March 26, 1818, a son of Elias Por- 
 ter, also of Waterbury nativity. James Porter has 
 been a lifelong resident of the city, where for years 
 he was a "caster" in several of the brass rolling 
 mills, but he is now living retired. He married 
 Sophia Beecher, who also is yet living, and five chil-' 
 dren were born to them : Emily is the wife of James 
 Elliott, of Elmira, N. Y. ; Sarah lives in Waterbury; 
 our subject comes next in the order of birth ; Fannie 
 and Mary (twins) are unmarried. 
 
 James Ward Beecher Porter received his educa- 
 tion at the common schools and high school of 
 Waterbury, and at the age of fifteen years entered 
 the hook and eye shops in order to learn the brass- 
 molding trade. With the then proprietors he 
 worked about one and one-half years, or until the 
 shops were purchased by Barnard, Son & Co., and 
 he continued with the new firm several months. He 
 then went to the Scovill Manufacturing Co., and 
 was in their employ from 1871 to 1898, a period of 
 twenty-seven years, for a long time having the en- 
 tire contract of the casting department. He is now 
 living retired, having by honest labor and persever- 
 ance amassed a comfortable competence. 
 
 On Jan. 18, 1876, Mr. Porter married Elizabeth 
 Collins, who was born in Cambridge, Mass., daugh- 
 ter of John Collins, also of Massachusetts birth, and 
 six children have been born to them, as follows : 
 John B., Oct. 28, 1876; Fannie E., July 9, 1878; 
 Nellie F., March 25, 1880; James W.^ June 16, 
 1881 ; Bessie S., Aug. 11, 1882 (died in infancy); 
 Harry C, March 13, 1885. The family attend the 
 services of Trinity Episcopal church. Mr. Porter is 
 a Republican in politics. He is very prominent in 
 fraternal circles as a member of several secret soci- 
 eties, and his Masonic record is as follows: En- 
 tered Apprentice, April 21, A. D. 1892, A. L. 5892; 
 passed to the degree of Fellow Craft, April 28, A. 
 D. 1892, A. L. 5892 ; raised to the Sublime Degree 
 of a Master Mason, June 2, A. D. 1892, A. L. 5892 ; 
 installed Worshipful Master, Dec. 6, 1894; Har- 
 mony Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. M., Waterbury, Conn. 
 
-^/g'/feii_ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 865 
 
 Received the Degree of Mark Master, Sept. 28, 
 1892; Past Master, Oct. 12, 1892; M. E. Master, 
 Nov. 9, 1892; Royal Arch Mason, Nov. 23, 1892; 
 Eureka Chapter, No. 22, R. A. M., Waterbury. Ad- 
 mitted to the Rewards and Honors of a Royal Mas- 
 ter, Jan. 19, 1893 ; Select Master, Jan. 19, 1893 ; Su- 
 per E. Master, March 15, 1893; Waterbury Council, 
 No. 21, R. & S. M., Waterbury. Was constituted and 
 created a member of The Illustrious Order of the 
 Red Cross, Sept. 5, A. D. 1894; constituted, created 
 and dubbed a Knight Templar, Oct. 3, A. D. 1894; 
 and finally constituted a Knight of Malta, Nov. 7, 
 A. D. 1894; installed Eminent Commander, Feb. i, 
 1899; Clark Commandery, No. 7, K, T., Waterbury. 
 Constituted Noble of the Mystic Shrine in Pyramid 
 Temple of Bridgeport, Nov. 26, 1894. Received the 
 degrees of the Lodge of Perfection, from the 4th- 
 14th inclusive, in E. G. Storer Lodge of Perfection, 
 Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, January, 1895, 
 New Haven, Conn.; received the degrees 15th and 
 i6th, in Elm City Council, Princes of Jerusalem, 
 Feb. 14, 1895, New Haven ; received the degrees, 
 17th and i8th, in New Haven Chapter, Rose Croix, 
 Feb. 14, 1895, New Haven ; dimitted from the above 
 Scottish Rite bodies to become a charter member of 
 The Doric Lodge of Perfection ; the Ionic Council, 
 Princes of Jerusalem (Past M. E. Sov. P. Gr. Mas- 
 ter) ; and Corinthian Chapter, Rose Croix, all in 
 Waterbury. Received the degrees, I9th-32d, in- 
 clusive, April 26, 1895, in Lafayette Consistory, S. 
 P. R. S., of Bridgeport, Conn. Mr. Porter is also 
 a member of Nosahogan Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. F. ; 
 Speedwell Lodge, No. 10, K. of P. ; Tunxis Tribe, 
 No. ID, I. O. R. M. ; and of the Connecticut Society 
 of the Sons of the American Revolution, which lat- 
 ter he joined F'eb. 8, 1897. 
 
 ROBERT ROBSON WOOD, who passed from 
 earth Aug. 20, 1890, was for many years a resident 
 of Ansonia, and by his excellent qualities of char- 
 acter won in a high degree the esteem and respect 
 of his fellow citizens. His life, which extended be- 
 yond the allotted limit of man's years, was free from 
 ambitious strivings for public notice, yet in its quiet 
 usefulness it made an impression upon the commun- 
 ity which will remain as an inspiration toward right 
 doing among all who knew him. 
 
 Mr. Wood was born April 4, 181 6, in Littl,-- 
 boro, Lancashire, England, son of James and Isa- 
 bella Wood. James Wood was for some years su- 
 perintendent of a cloth factory at Littleboro, and 
 came to America in 1828, to take a similar position 
 in a mill at Amesbury, Mass., where he died in 
 1832. His wife died July 7, 1822. This worthy 
 couple had three sons and one daughter; the last 
 named, Mrs. Joshua Miriam, of Ashburnham, 
 Mass., was the last surviving member of the fam- 
 ily, and died in March, 1883. Of the sons, Lineus, 
 who died in 1863 in New Bedford, Mass., was a 
 prominent Mason, holding the rank of Sir Knight. 
 Pliny, formerly a Methodist minister of Cam- 
 55 
 
 bridge, Mass., and at one time chaplain of the 
 State Senate, died in 1876 in Munich, having been 
 sent to the Vienna Exposition by his State. 
 
 As a boy our subject became thoroughly famil- 
 iar with all branches of the cloth manufacturer's 
 art, and before leaving England was engaged as a 
 flannel finisher for the Amesbury ^lills. On May 
 12, 1828, he arrived in this country, landing in Bos- 
 ton, and although a mere boy he proved so compe- 
 tent in his work that he was appointed in 1832 to 
 act as superintendent of the mills during the remain- 
 der of the year of his father's decease. Later he was 
 employed in Andover, Lowell and Taunton, and on 
 April I, 1839, he removed to Derby, Conn., having 
 been engaged by Plumb & Beach, cloth manufactur- 
 ers, whose mill was located opposite the old Somers: 
 building, in Main street, Birmingham. The writ- 
 ten contract, which was for the term of two years, 
 is now in the possession of the family. For seven- 
 teen years he remained in that locality, and at one 
 time he was connected with the wire drawing busi- 
 ness conducted by the Howe Pin Co., at Birming- 
 ham. In 1848 he went to Ansonia with D. W. 
 Plumb, and in 1855 he became superintendent of 
 the mills of Wallace & Sons, then newly organized. 
 During the thirty-three years which he spent with- 
 them he had the satisfaction of seeing constant 
 growth and development in the business, in which 
 his advice and masterly management were of rec- 
 ognized value. It was during the memorable bliz- 
 zard week of March, 1888, that he first found his 
 health impaired, and from that time he took no act- 
 ive part in business affairs. An attack of the grip- 
 in the following winter left him very feeble, and a; 
 brief illness in August terminated his life. After a; 
 last visit to the mill he remained at home, rpalizing" 
 that the end was near, and some of his brethren of 
 the I. O. O. F. were, at his request, constantly at 
 his bedside during his last days. 
 
 In politics Mr. Wood was a Republican, and al- 
 though he never sought public office his keen inter- 
 est in local affairs was shown in manv wavs. To ■ 
 all progressive movements he gave liberally, ac- 
 cording to his judgment, and for many years he at- 
 tended the Episcopal Church at Ansonia. Public 
 affairs bad not for him an absorbing interest, how- 
 ever, comina: second to the cares of his business 
 and the welfare of the workins:men under his con- 
 trol, over 600 in number during the last years of 
 his stay. His manner was kind, and his cheery 
 "Good morning, young man," was like a ray of 
 sunshine. In 1877, in his sixty-first vear, he and 
 his wife went to Europe, visiting; all the cities of 
 note, and making a pleasant stay at his birthplace, 
 v^■l^ere among other old acciuaintances he found the 
 man who had taken bis father's old position in the 
 mills half a century before. 
 
 On June 20, 1847, Mr. Wood was married in 
 Birmingham to Miss Elizabeth Wallace, a native of 
 Manchester, England, and a daughter of the late 
 Thomas Wallace. She passed away Feb. 19, 1900, 
 
866 
 
 COMiMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 at the age of seventy-seven, while residing with her 
 son, Thomas J. Wood, in the home built by our sub- 
 ject. Of two other sons, John W. died in Ansonia 
 in 1898, aged forty-three years; and W. R. died a 
 number of years ago. 
 
 Mr. Wood's funeral was largely attended, his 
 great popularity bringing crowds of people to 
 watch the solemn procession through jMain street, 
 from his residence on North Cliff street. Wallace 
 & Sons had ordered their mills closed for the entire 
 day in memory of his long and faithful services. 
 The workmen, many of whom had known him for a 
 score of years, assembled at the Episcopal Church 
 to pay their last tribute of respect to one who had 
 always been their friend and benefactor, and there 
 was many a moist eye among them as the hearse 
 bore the remains to their last resting-place. Nau- 
 gatuck Lodge, No. 53, I. O. O. F., marched in a 
 body in the procession, accompanied by the grand 
 officers of the State and ten members of the Veteran 
 Odd Fellows Association, of which Mr. Wood was 
 vice-president ; among the floral tributes was a cross 
 four feet in height given by the Veterans Associa- 
 tion. The pall-bearers were chosen from Nauga- 
 tuck Lodge and Ousatonic Lodge, of Birmingham. 
 Rev. Mr. Woodcock, rector of the Episcopal 
 'Church, read prayers at the house and the funeral 
 services at the church, and the procession then went 
 to Birmingham, where the remains were interred. 
 At the grave the ritual of the L O. O. F. was read 
 hy John Naukervis, N. G. of Naugatuck Lodge, as- 
 sisted by G. E. Church, Chaplain, and Grand Mas- 
 ter F. S. Hunt made a short address in which he 
 eulogized the deceased, telling of his work in the 
 society and his standing as a citizen. In this con- 
 nection it is appropriate to review Mr. Wood's long 
 service in the L O. O. F., as he was one of the old- 
 est and most prominent members of the Order in 
 this State. For nearly half a century he had been 
 an earnest worker in the society, and was looked up 
 to as the pillar around which they grew, and at the 
 yearly meeting of the Veterans' Association he was 
 always present. At the time of his residence in 
 Derby he was the oldest Odd Fellow there, and he 
 was instrumental in founding Ousatonic Lodge, 
 No. 6, of Birmingham, of which he remained a 
 member until the organization of Naugatuck lodge, 
 of Ansonia, in 1849. In 1841 there were five lodges 
 in Connecticut, and Mr. Wood, in order to re-or- 
 ganize the local lodge, became a member of Quin- 
 nipiac Lodge, New Haven. The curiosity caused 
 by the local establishment was so great that the 
 trunk containing the paraphernalia had to be hid- 
 den in the cellar over night. Mr. Wood successively 
 passed all the chairs, and became past noble grand. 
 He was a conservative Odd Fellow, and proved a 
 capable and efficient officer, discharging the duties 
 devolving upon him with care and skill, and ruling 
 with a tact that avoided all signs of unjust discrim- 
 ination. 
 
 Thomas J. Wood, the only surviving son of our 
 
 subject, was born June 8, 1848, in Ansonia, soon 
 after the place was given its name. His education 
 was secured in the common schools of the d|ity and 
 at Cheshire Academy, and at the age of sixteen he 
 entered Wallace & Sons mills, and gained a practi- 
 cal knowledge of the business under his father's 
 direction. He was pr^omoted at the latter's death to 
 the position of superintendent, which he has since 
 held — although the firm of Wallace & Sons has 
 been superseded by the Coe Brass Mfg. Co. — mak- 
 ing about thirty-five years of continuous service 
 with the establishment. Fie is a stanch Republican 
 and is prominent in municipal affairs, having been 
 a member of the board of burgesses and alderman 
 from the First ward during the first two years of 
 city government. During his term he served as 
 chairman of the Police committee and the commit- 
 tee on Claims, and his work was characterized by 
 ability and rare fidelity. He has also been active in 
 military affairs, serving five years as a member of 
 Company H, 2d C N. G., in which he was promoted 
 first to the post of orderly sergeant and then to that 
 of second lieutenant, with which rank he was dis- 
 charged. He is a charter member of the local 
 Board of Trade, and of the Eagle Hook and Lad- 
 der Company of Ansonia, of which he was foreman 
 and treasurer for some years. Mr. Wood attends 
 the Episcopal Church, and socially is identified with 
 various organizations, including the F. & A. M., 
 George Washington Lodge, No. 83 ; the Ansonia 
 Club, of which he is a charter member ; and the I. 
 O. O. F., Naugatuck Lodge. 
 
 In March, 1869, Mr. Wood was married to 
 Miss Marie C. Clemens, daughter of A. B. and 
 Catherine (Girard) Clemens, the former a prom- 
 inent retired citizen of Ansonia, and a well-known 
 expert in machinery, for many years the superin- 
 tendent of the Farrell Foundry. Mrs. Wood is a 
 member of the D. A. R., being of Revolutionary de- 
 scent through her mother, who was a Girard. The 
 only son of this union, Robert A. Wood, learned 
 the brass business with his father, and is now fore- 
 man of several departments with the Manhattan 
 Brass Co., of New York, where he resides. He 
 married Miss Eva M. Perkins, of Ansonia, and 
 they have two children : Robert Thomas, born 
 Nov. 14, 1899; and Ethel May, born May 10, 1901. 
 
 GIDEON LUCIAN PLATT, M. D., late of 
 Waterbury, where for fifty-three years he was act- 
 ively engaged in the practice of medicine, was one 
 of the city's useful and prominent citizens. He de- 
 scended from an ancestry among the oldest and 
 most prominent of Connecticut. 
 
 Richard Piatt, the progenitor of many of the 
 Platts of New England, came to this country in 
 1638, landing at New Haven. He was enrolled 
 among the first settlers of Milford, Nov. 20, 1639, 
 having four in family. In August, 1889, at the in- 
 teresting and noteworthy commemoration of the 
 settlement of Milford two hundred and fifty years 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 867. 
 
 before, the name of Richard Piatt was mentioned 
 with honor, and among- the coping stones of the 
 teautiful memorial bridge erected over the Wapa- 
 waug to perpetuate the memory of the early settlers 
 was one placed with this inscription: 
 
 DEACON 
 
 RICHARD PLATT, 
 
 OBIT 1684. 
 MARY HIS WIFE. 
 
 Dr. Piatt was a descendant in the sixth genera- 
 tion from Richard Piatt, of Milford, the line of his 
 descent being through Lieut. Joseph Piatt and three 
 consecutive Gideon Platts, our subject being fifth 
 in the line bearing the name of Gideon. 
 
 Gideon Piatt (2), son of Gideon Piatt, married 
 March 17, 1783, Hannah Clark, daughter of Joseph 
 Clark, all of Milford, Conn., and their children were 
 Gideon, Joseph and Merrit. 
 
 Gideon Piatt (3), son of Gideon (2), and the 
 father of the subject of this sketch, was born Dec. 
 19, 1784, and married Nov. 8, 1807, Lydia Sperry, 
 daughter of Capt. Jacob Sperry. They became 
 residents of Middlebury, Conn. Mr. Piatt was a 
 deacon, as was his father before him, in the Congre- 
 gational Church of Milford, where they were highly 
 respected and esteemed citizens. 
 
 Dr. Gideon Lucian Piatt, son of Gideon (3), 
 was born July 20, 1813, in the (what is now) town 
 of Middlebury, Conn., and in addition to attending 
 the schools of the town he was a pupil in the cele- 
 brated classical school of Simeon Hart, of Farm- 
 ington, Conn. He was prepared for the medical 
 profession under the direction of Dr. Henry Bron- 
 son, of Waterbury, and under Dr. William TuUy, 
 then of New Haven, and a professor in the Yale 
 Medical School, where young Piatt pursued a regu- 
 lar course of study and received the degree of M. D. 
 in 1838. He immediately established himself in pro- 
 fessional work at Waterbury, where he continued 
 same with success and rare usefulness for over fifty 
 years. Soon after settling in Waterbury he became 
 associated in the practice with his former preceptor, 
 Dr. Bronson, which partnership continued until Dr. 
 Bronson's removal to New Haven, in 1842. In 
 1849 Dr. Piatt bought what is known as the Apothe- 
 caries' Hall property, of Benedict & Coe, and along 
 with Dr. Fish opened a drug store which since 1852 
 has borne the name of Apothecaries' Hall. At one 
 time Dr. Piatt was associated with Dr. Philo G. 
 Rockwell. In 1880 he took into partnership with 
 him the late Walter Hamlin Holmes, who afterward 
 became his son-in-law, a partnership which lasted 
 until the death of Dr. Piatt. Dr. Piatt accumulated 
 considerable real estate in Waterbury that later be- 
 came very valuable. He was president of the New 
 Haven County Medical Society in 1880 and the fol- 
 lowing year president of the State Medical Society. 
 He was an active member of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church of Waterbury, and became one of the 
 incorporators of the Second Church there. 
 
 On Dec. 18, 1844, Dr. Piatt was married to 
 Caroline Tudor, a lineal descendant in the seventh 
 generation from Elder William Brewster, of the 
 Plymouth Colony, also of Owen Tudor, of Windsor, 
 Conn., and of Rev. Samuel and son. Dr. Elihu Tu- 
 dor, the eminent surgeon, who was one of the found- 
 ers of the Connecticut Medical Society. To this 
 marriage were bom four children : ( i ) Dr. Lucian 
 Tudor, born in 1846, received the degree of M. D. 
 from the University of Pennsylvania in 1869. On 
 Sept. 15, 1 87 1, he married Rebecca Hurlbut, of 
 Winsted, Conn., and has one daughter, Medora H. 
 (2) Medora Caroline is the widow of Dr. Walter 
 H. Holmes. (3) Dr. Walter Brewster, born Dec. 
 20, 1853, was graduated from Harvard Medical 
 College, and received the degree of F. R. C. S. at 
 the Royal College of Surgeons, London, England. 
 On Dec. 20, 1889, he married Mary Ferine, daugh- 
 ter of E. Glynn Ferine, of Baltimore, Md., and has 
 three sons, Washington, Lucian and David. (4) 
 Charles Easton died at the age of thirty-seven. The 
 mother of these died August 10, 1896. Dr. Gideon 
 L. Piatt died Nov. 11, 1889, and a writer in the 
 Waterbury American, who knew him well, said: 
 
 Dr. Piatt early in his professional life attained a 
 high reputation both as a physician and surgeon, but it was 
 in the practice of his profession in that very close and 
 peculiar relation of a family physician, and which especially 
 exists in a country practice, that the strong points of his 
 character were most clearly seen and his highest usefulness 
 developed. In the modern style of city medical practice, 
 where each organ has its special expert, in which it is the 
 organ rather than the man of which the case and condition 
 are considered, that peculiar relation of the family physician, 
 whose constant watchfulness continued from birth to death, 
 and included usually not only the relation of physician but 
 that of confidant, adviser and sympathetic counselor and 
 friend, is almost unknown. It may be that modern scientific 
 pathology has rendered unnecessary that intimate knowledge 
 of heredity, predisposition and environment on which the 
 success of the old-line physician was based, but whatever 
 it may do for the physical man, it can never be to the 
 spiritual, to the moral, to the intellectual nature — in short 
 to the man himself — what the close and intimate relation of 
 the family physician made him. This was pre-eminently 
 the style of Dr. Piatt's practice. He knew his patients, 
 their lives, circumstances and surroundings, their parentage 
 and history, their constitutional predispositions and heredi- 
 tary tendencies, all these consciously or unconsciously went 
 to make up his diagnosis of a case and to indicate to his 
 mind the treatment it demanded. His patience was un- 
 wearied. Calm and equable by temperament, he was still 
 more so by long training and culture, and by a noble self- 
 command that never deserted him. He brought into the 
 sick room an invigorating presence, a sense of rest, peace 
 and comfort. One of his patients says of him, " I felt, as a 
 child, when sick, that as soon as I saw Dr. Piatt I should 
 be better. I can feel now his cool hand, with a touch that 
 always seemed to bring relief." 
 
 In figure he was tall, erect, striking and dignified, 
 but in measure so kindly sympathetic that he won his way 
 at once to the confidence of his patients. He was not sat- 
 isfied with the diagnosis of the case and a prescription of 
 remedies, but he took into account all the merits of nursing 
 and the limitations of the situation, and, with much in- 
 genuity and no chemical skill, he would improvise means 
 from surrounding material, and buy comfort and con- 
 venience out of circumstances that were often unfavorable. 
 While he kept up well with the progress of the profession, 
 he still retained a knowledge and liking for many of those 
 
868 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 domestic remedies wliich were dear to the hearts of past 
 generations. His Icnowledge of Medical Botany was much 
 beyond what is considered necessary for the modern practi- 
 tioner. To relieve, and so far as possible, to prevent human 
 suffering, was his brief summing up of the physician's call- 
 ing, and he justly regarded it as a public one, requiring all 
 a man's devotion, and in which success brought its own 
 abundant reward in the consciousness of well doing. His 
 moral standard was a very high one, but he was broad in 
 his sympathies and not severe in his judgment of others. 
 His religious faith was well formed, calm and serene, and 
 shone forth as a ruling power of his life. His work 
 afforded a clear and steady delineation of the character 
 and purpose of a line of men like himself of Puritan life 
 and lineage. It may be said, without the slightest dis- 
 paragement to present or future practitioners of the art of 
 healing, that this honored and beloved physician was the 
 last example of the departing line that Waterbury will 
 know, for the time that made such a man and such a life 
 possible has gone forever. Probably since the death of 
 Rev. Dr. Clark no man in this community has passed away 
 whose loss will be keenly felt as a personal grief in so 
 many hearts and homes as that of Dr. Piatt. 
 
 JUDD. For upward of two hundred and sixty 
 years the Judds have been known to New Englarid 
 — i. e., since the arrival at Cambridge, Mass., in 
 1634, of Thomas Judd, the emigrant ancestor of 
 the New Britain and Wallingford branch of the 
 family, of which it is the purpose of this article to 
 treat. For two hundred or more years the posterity 
 of Deacon Anthony Judd have figured in the his- 
 tory of New Britain, where through the first half 
 of the last century John Judd, and his sons and his 
 grandsons, in turn, have been prominent in mechani- 
 cal and manufacturing lines ; and the son Morton, 
 and his sons, through the latter half of the century, 
 in New Haven and Wallingford, respectively. No- 
 table among the Judds thus engaged at these sev- 
 eral points have been John, the blacksmith; his 
 sons, Morton and Oliver S., and Morton's sons, 
 Hubert L., Albert D. and Edward M. Of these, 
 Hubert L. Judd was for one and a half decades 
 president of the extensive manufacturing plant of 
 H. L. Judd & Co., at Wallingford, where until his 
 death, on Dec. 11, 1899, he was one of the promi- 
 nent citizens and leading business men. President 
 Judd was a descendant in the sixth generation 
 from Deacon Anthony Judd, who was descended 
 from Thomas Judd, the emigrant ancestor, of 
 Farmington, Conn. Anthony Judd married Su- 
 sannah Woodford, and became the first deacon in 
 the Great Swamp Church. The line of descent of 
 President Judd is through John, John (2), John 
 (3) and Morton Judd. 
 
 (H) John Judd, son of Deacon Anthony, born 
 in 1718, married Mary Burnham, daughter of Rev. 
 William Burnham, fist pastor of the Great Swamp 
 Church. Mr. Judd was one of the first settlers of 
 the central part of the town of New Britain, having 
 his home and farm on the north side of West Main 
 street. He was a lieutenant in the local militia, and 
 also held some civil offices. He was a member of 
 the Ecclesiastical Society in Farmington in 1752, 
 and was there mentioned by Dr. Smiley as from 
 
 the church in Kensington. His death occurred Oct. 
 16, 1781. 
 
 (HI) John Judd (2), son of John, born in 1746, 
 married, in 1769, Lydia Mather, and resided on 
 West Main street, in New Britain, west of his 
 father. He died Jan. 6, 1796. 
 
 (IV) John Judd (3), son of John (2), was born 
 May 8, 1772, and married in 1792 Ursula Stanley. 
 He resided on West Main street, New Britain, on 
 the site where his son Morton later built. Mr. 
 Judd was a blacksmith by occupation, having 
 learned the trade with his uncle, James North. His 
 shop was opposite his house, and on the site where 
 his sons afterward engaged in the manufacturing 
 business. Mr. Judd died July 18, 1822. His chil- 
 dren were: Nancy, born Sept. 17, 1793, married 
 in 1813 Austin Woodford, and died in Vermont; 
 Aurora was born March 20, 179S; John B., born 
 March 25, 1796, married in 1822 Betsey Hart; 
 Polly, born Sept. 14, 1797, married in 1816 
 Pliny Slater; Marilla, born May 7, 1799,, 
 married in 1820 Rollin Dickinson, and (sec- 
 ond) in 1852 Oilman Hinsdale; Minerva, 
 born in 1801, died in infancy; Marinda, 
 born in 1802, died young; Harry, born Nov. 2, 
 1804, married in 1828 Julia A. Lewis ; Anna, born 
 Nov. 4, 1807, married in 1826 Lawrence Richards, 
 and (second) in 1840 Oilman Hinsdale; Morton, 
 born Nov. 5, 1808, married in 1828 Lucina Dun- 
 ham, and (second) in 1855 Julia A. Blinn; Lydia 
 was born Feb. 9, 1810; Oliver S., born Nov. 30, 
 1816, married in 1838 Emily A. Lewis, and (sec- 
 ond) in i860 Eveline Atkins. 
 
 (V) Deacon Morton Judd, son of John (3), and 
 tlie father of the late President Hubert L. Judd, of 
 Wallingford, was born Nov. 5, 1808, in New Brit- 
 ain, where he attended the neighborhood school 
 until his thirteenth year. His boyhood was accom- 
 panied with no special advantages. It was a time 
 when the originators of the industrial prosperity of 
 New Britain were struggling to lay the foundation 
 of its greatness, and young Judd felt the influence 
 of the life about him, and at thirteen years of age 
 went into a brass foundry to learn the trade of cast- 
 ing brass. Later, after working for -^ upie m South- 
 ington, and in the shops of Seth J. North and Ira 
 Stanley, in New Britain, he engaged in business for 
 himself on West Main street, adjoining his father's 
 shop on the east. In about 1833 he went into part- 
 nership with his brother Oliver S. Judd, the style 
 of the firm being M. & O. S. Judd. They soon 
 afterward established their business at another 
 point in the town, and the product of their shops 
 was plated harness hames. In 1846 this part of 
 their business was sold to Flenry North, and they 
 commenced the manufacture of other goods. By 
 1847 Morton Judd had succeeded in gaining a firm 
 foothold in the manufacturing world. He invented 
 a sash fastener (the first ever made in America), 
 patented Sept. 4, 1847, which, together with window 
 springs, etc., the brothers manufactured extensively. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 869 
 
 In 1853 Albert D. Judd became a partner under 
 the firm name of M. Judd & Co. They continued to 
 do busmess until 1863, when Albert D. Judd pur- 
 chased the establishment from his father and uncle, 
 Oliver S. However, he conducted the same but 
 a few weeks, when he resold it to his uncle, Oliver 
 S. Judd, of late years the manufacturer of builders' 
 and saddlers' hardware in the old original factory on 
 West Main street. New Britain. 
 
 In 1864 Morton Judd's sons, Hubert L., Albert 
 D. and Edward M., entered into partnership in 
 New Haven for the manufacture of upholstery 
 hardware. Two years later Morton Judd moved 
 to New Haven and entered into partnership with 
 his son Albert D., for the manufacture of builders' 
 hardware, and out of this investment grew the Judd 
 Manufacturing Co. Albert D. Judd became presi- 
 dent, and the business of the company was greatly 
 enlarged. It was continued in New Haven until 
 1877, and then removed to Wallingford, where the 
 company erected a large plant on the west side of 
 the railroad, and began the manufacture, on a large 
 scale, of stationers' and druggists' hardware. The 
 principal stockholders were Morton Judd and his 
 sons, Albert D., Hubert L. and Edward M., Hubert 
 L. acting as the company's agent for the sale of 
 their goods in New York. In 1886 H. L. Judd & 
 Co., who had been engaged in the manufacture of 
 upholsterers' hardware in Brooklyn, bought out 
 the business and plant of the Judd Manufacturing 
 Co. in Wallingford. In 1887 they moved a part of 
 their Brooklyn plant to the Wallingford factories, 
 and the remainder in 1897. In 1890 a large build- 
 ing was added to the Wallingford factories for the 
 making of brass bedsteads and a line of artistic brass 
 goods. In 1892 another building was added to meet 
 the demand for a general enlargement of their 
 business, and especially the manufacture of iron 
 bedsteads. In 1896 a still larger building was 
 erected to accommodate the rest of the Brooklyn 
 plant, which was now moved to Wallingford. At 
 this time the company ordinarily employs about 
 five hundred and fifty hands. They have a store 
 in New York and offices in Boston, Philadelphia 
 and Chicago. The capital stock is $350,000, and 
 there is considerable surplus. The company have 
 also in Chattanooga, Tenn., a large factory, built 
 in 1890, for the manufacture of wooden curtain 
 poles and trimmings. The principal products of the 
 concern are fancy art goods, upholsterers', station- 
 ers', and druggists' hardware, brass and iron bed- 
 steads, and bright wire goods. 
 
 For many years before his demise, Morton Judd's 
 business connections were ornamental and without 
 labor, rather than active. His name and association 
 gave character to the enterprises, rather than de- 
 manded of him personal attention. He lived at 
 ease in the town, on its main street, and in the 
 course of years his children gathered about him and 
 built magnificent residences, highly ornamental to 
 the town. Among the many enterprises fostered in 
 
 their infancy by Mr. Judd was the Dime Savings 
 Bank, of which he was one of the original incorpor- 
 ators, and of which he served as vice-president until 
 his resignation on account of advancing years. 
 
 Mr. Judd lived to the eve of his ninety-third 
 birthday, passing away Nov. 4, 1901, and retained to 
 a remarkable degree a good physique and the full 
 possession of all his faculties. He was erect in 
 stature, his eye bright and manner animated, and 
 full of sunshine for those about him. His visits 
 among his children and neighbors spread the light 
 of a happy, humorous nature wherever he went. 
 He was a Christian gentleman, who hesitated not 
 to declare his reverence for things sacred and his 
 faith in God. In New Britain and in the 
 Center Congregational Church, which enrolls so 
 much of his family history, he was known as 
 "Deacon," and so in general called "Deacon Mor- 
 ton Judd." He was most highly esteemed and 
 greatly appreciated in the communities in which he 
 lived during his long life. His charitable efforts re- 
 lieved the poor in many a struggle, and the un- 
 fortunate have risen again by reason of this "Good 
 Samaritan's" hand. He bore a willing part in the 
 social activities for good ends, which contribute in 
 every live community to the general welfare, and 
 by example and precept he was a distinct builder of 
 social and religious worth in society. Mr. Judd 
 was one of the very few who remembered Gen. 
 LaFayette when he visited Hartford in 1823, and 
 was always a hearty admirer of the noble French- 
 man, to whom we owe so much. When Deacon 
 Morton Judd was but fourteen years of age he 
 planted the large elm tree that stands in front of 
 his late home in New Britain, and now bears a 
 plate giving his name and the date of planting. In 
 politics Mr. Judd was rather retiring, yet under 
 pressure he held some of the highest town offices, 
 serving two terms in the General Assembly of the 
 State of Connecticut. 
 
 On Jan. 26, 1828, Mr. Judd was married to Miss 
 Lucina Dunham, of Southington, Conn., daughter 
 of Samuel Dunham. She was a Christian that 
 might serve as the impersonation of Solomon's de- 
 scription of the good wife and mother, who looked 
 well to the training of her children until her death, 
 March 21, 1853. In 1855 ^Ir. Judd married (sec- 
 ond) Miss Julia A. Blinn, daughter of Horace 
 Blinn, of Wethersfield, Conn. She died Nov. 19, 
 1887. To the first marriage were born four chil- 
 dren, namely: Hubert L., Albert D., Edward M. 
 and Martha L. To the second marriage was born 
 one daughter, Mary Burnham, who now makes her 
 home in Wallingford. So fully did the second Mrs. 
 Judd succeed to the mother's place in the family 
 that her step-children learned to regard her with 
 filial love and strong aflction. 
 
 Hubert Llewellyn Judd, eldest son of Deacon 
 Morton Judd, was born April i, 1829. Ixi the 
 midst of his busy life he found time to look after 
 the interests and the comfort of those he loved. Of 
 
8/0 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 kindly nature, he was wont to relieve the unfortun- 
 ate, and with the true charity that works in silence 
 and in the night. IMany stories are told of his 
 good deeds, but his dearest friends and confidants 
 cannot recall a single instance when his charity 
 "vaunted itself." He was a liberal supporter of 
 the First Congregational Church, and faithfully 
 and consistently followed the tenets of that faith. 
 In politics he was a Republican, but his active life 
 did not allow him time for office-seeking, even had 
 he so desired. A deep thinker and a student of 
 human nature, he associated with himself in busi- 
 ness only such men as he could rely upon for ability 
 and integrity, and those who proved eminently 
 worthy were rapidly promoted. The beautiful home 
 he built on South Main street is one of the most 
 delightful residences of the town, and will stand 
 a monument to his ,good taste and judgment. 
 
 On Aug. 14, 185 1, Hubert Llewellyn Judd was 
 united in marriage with Miss Julia Ellis, daughter 
 of William Ellis, of New Britain. She died Oct. 
 10, 1885. Their children, seven in number, were 
 as follows : ( i ) Julia Ellis, deceased in infancy ; 
 (2) Morton, Jr., deceased in infancy; (3) Flor- 
 ence B., who died at the age of forty 
 years ; (4) Edward Henry, deceased in in- 
 fancy ; (5) Emma Julia; (6) Morton El- 
 lis, born March 10, 1864, in New Britain, 
 who married, Dec. 23, 1885, Lenna Gertrude 
 Clark, of Brownville, N. Y., daughter of George 
 Alexander Clark, and has one child — Morton Hu- 
 bert, born Oct. 14, 1886; and (7) Hubert Dexter, 
 deceased in infancy. The father of these children, 
 beloved and respected by old and young, entered 
 into his last rest Dec. 11, 1899. 
 
 Albert Dunh.vii Judd, second son of Deacon 
 Morton Judd, was born Dec. 4, 1830, in New Brit- 
 ain, Conn. He took advantage of such opportun- 
 ities for an education as were offered him, and 
 after some attendance at the common schools was 
 for some time a student in the Easthampton (Mass.) 
 school. It was not an age of luxury and ease — 
 such a life does not make men strong enough to 
 found such enterprises, such nations, as the sons 
 of N'ew England have given to America. On leav- 
 ing the school room Albert D. Judd went at once to 
 work, assisting his father and uncle, M. & O. S. 
 Judd, on harness hames. He remained with them 
 until the firm sold out to Henry North, when he 
 turned his attention to the manufacture of the sash 
 fastener invented by his father. At the end of four 
 or five years he was admitted into partnership, and 
 twelve years later purchased the business, retaining 
 it, however, but a few weeks, when he resold it to 
 his uncle, Oliver S. Judd. Idleness was not at- 
 tractive to him, and in 1864 Albert D. Judd re- 
 moved to New Haven, purchasing the buildings of 
 Beech Burwell, a contractor and builder, ancl the 
 firm of ]\I. & A. D. Judd, manufacturers of uphol- 
 stery hardware, was launched. Two years later 
 E. M. Judd & Co. consolidated with the Turner & 
 
 Clark Manufacturing Co., and the Seymour Manu- 
 facturing Co., both of Torrington. The factory 
 was removed to the western part of town, and the 
 manufacture of builders' hardware was added. In 
 1870 the firm became the Judd Manufacturing Co., 
 and all of the Judds held interests in it. They con- 
 tinued to run the factory in New Haven until 1877,. 
 when it was removed to Wallingford. Albert D. 
 Judd became president of the company and so con- 
 tinued until 1888, ^»hen he sold his interest to H. 
 L. Judd & Co. He is still a large stockholder in 
 the company, which on the death of its president, 
 H. L. Judd, in 1899, was sold to his New York 
 partner, and at present he (Albert D.) is the only 
 stockholder bearing the name of Judd. He was 
 one of the original incorporators of the Wallingford 
 National Bank, and has since served as director. 
 He is also a director in the Dime Savings Bank, 
 and one of the appraisers of the Savings Bank, and 
 he also served a short time as vice-president of the 
 First National Bank, but was obliged to resign on 
 account of ill health. In all the large enterprises 
 of the community Albert D. Judd has left his im- 
 press — in nearly all he has taken an active part, but 
 it has left him little time for himself. In his politi- 
 cal affiliations he has been a strong Republican, and 
 has served on the board of burgesses and held other 
 offices, giving to the afl^airs of the people the same 
 care and consideration ever given to his private 
 affairs, and throughout his entire life, public and 
 private, he has kept his honored name free from 
 blemish. Mr. Judd has also been a faithful worker 
 in the religious world. He is a member of the 
 First Congregational Church of Wallingford, of 
 which he has served as deacon since his residence 
 there. He held the same office in the Center Congre- 
 gational Church in New Britain, and while in New 
 Haven he was instrumental in the building of the 
 Dwight Place Congregational Church, being one 
 of a committee of three who selected the site, and 
 was also one of the building committee during the 
 construction of the church edifice. Later he became 
 a member of the Society's committee, and of the 
 church committee, and also served the church as 
 deacon. 
 
 On April 25, 1855, Albert D. Judd wedded Miss 
 Lucelia Wells, who was born Oct. 27, 1828, a 
 daughter of Horace and Pamela (Sedgwick) 
 Wells, the former a native of New Britain and the 
 latter of West Hartford. j\lrs. Judd died Aug. 
 5, 1900. They had the following named children: 
 (i) Katherine Wells, at home. (2) George Mor- 
 ton has, since 1885, been connected with H. L. 
 Judd & Co. He married ]Miss Nellie Martin, 
 daughter of Henry Martin, and they have three 
 children — Alice, Katherine and Philip Sedgwick. 
 (3) Alice May died at the age of two years. (4) 
 Albert Lemuel, bookkeeper for H. L. Judd & Co., 
 married Ethel Gardiner, of Green Bay, Wis., and 
 their children were Gardiner Wells, who died aged 
 three years, and Howard Stanley. Albert L. Judd 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 871 
 
 has been a deacon in the Congregational Church 
 since 1898. 
 
 Edward Morton Judd, third son of Deacon 
 Morton Judd, was born Nov. 11, 1837, in New Brit- 
 ain, Conn., and has proved himself a worthy member 
 of the honorable family to which he belongs. He at- 
 tended the schools of New Britain and spent three 
 years in the high school there. At the age of 
 eighteen he, too, entered the manufacturing world. 
 In 1856 he began the manufacture of the first metal 
 curtain fixtures (of which he was also the patentee), 
 and in 1861 removed to New Haven, the firm becom- 
 ing E. M. Judd & Co. Upon his location in New 
 Haven he added a general line of upholstery hard- 
 ware. Later the firm was consolidated with the 
 Tuirner & Clark Manufacturing Co. and the Sey- 
 mour Manufacturing Co., of Torrington, and Ed- 
 ivard M. Judd became the general manager of the 
 Torrington plants. The firm was known as the Tur- 
 ner, Seymour & Judd Co. In 1870 he sold out his 
 interest in the company and assisted in the forma- 
 tion of the Judd Manufacturing Co. at New Haven. 
 The new company engaged in the manufacture of 
 general hardware, as well as upholstery hardware. 
 Under his management these various companies 
 prospered beyond all expectations, and in 1874 Mr. 
 Judd went to Brooklyn, and, while still retaining 
 his interest in the Judd Manufacturing Co., started 
 the firm of H. L. Juidd & Co. After three years he 
 located in Wallingford, where the Judd interests 
 have since been centered. For thirty years Mr. Judd 
 was actively engaged in the large manufacturing 
 interests of the family, and in 1887 he retired to 
 pass the latter half of his life in the rest and enjoy- 
 ment his early labors would warrant. He is the 
 inventor of a number of curtain fixtures, and his 
 last venture was a stamp cancelling machine, which 
 he considers his best work. This machine, which 
 completely destroys the stamp, has been patented in 
 this country, and it is the intention of the patentee 
 to have his rights protected in foreign countries as 
 well. ^ During his busy life Mr. Judd did not fail to 
 find time to attend to his civic duties. In politics 
 he is a stanch Republican, and cast his first vote 
 for Abraham Lincoln. While he is not an office- 
 seeker, he has not sought to evade the responsi- 
 bilities of citizenship. He has served on the board 
 of burgesses and on the school committee, while in 
 1897 he was elected judge of the borough court, 
 and is now serving his second term. In every way 
 that he can he has worked for the welfare of his 
 town and State, and gives his aid, financial and 
 moral, to the support of any enterprise that will in 
 any way benefit the community. He was one of the 
 original incorporators of the First National Bank. 
 In his religious faith he is a Congregationalist, and 
 a member of the First Church, in which he has 
 served as superintendent of the Sunday-school, and 
 as chairman of the Society's committee. Of gener- 
 ous disposition, he gives largely to charity, but car- 
 
 ries on the custom of his family in that he does his 
 good deeds quietly. 
 
 On March 27, i860, occurred the marriage of 
 Edward Morton Judd and Jane A. Peck, daughter 
 of Joel and Charlotte (Scoville) Peck, and to this 
 union have come children as follows : William 
 Theodore, born March i, 1866, died Feb. 24, 1867. 
 Jennie Susan, born March 8, 1872, married on Oct. 
 I, 1895, Charles G. Phelps, of Wallingford, secre- 
 tary to Orville H. Piatt, senator from Connecticut, 
 and clerk to the committee on Cuban Afl^airs. Ed- 
 ward Peck, born Aug. 3, 1877, is at home ; for three 
 years he was a student in Yale Law School. 
 
 Martha Louise Judd, born July 9, 1847, was 
 married Oct. 14, 1880, to Henry Hall Martin, of 
 Wallingford, who died Feb. 26, 1896. Their chil- 
 dren were Louise Ariel and Oliver Wadsworth. 
 
 Mary Burnham Judd, born April 8, 1857, is 
 unmarried, and kept house for her father. 
 
 WILLIAM CHANDLER POTTER was one of 
 the brave defenders of the Union during the dark 
 days of the Rebellion, and is now an honored and 
 highly respected citizen of Cheshire, New Haven 
 county, where he has made his home since 1891. 
 
 Mr. Potter was born in New Haven Sept. 25, 
 1829, and traces his ancestry to John Potter, the 
 first of the name to cross the Atlantic, a native of 
 England, who came to this county about 1640, and 
 located in Hamden. The father of our subject, who 
 also bore the name of John Potter, was born in Ham- 
 den in 1805, and was reared in that town. By trade 
 he was a chairmaker. He married Clarissa Parkiss, 
 who was born in Branford, New Haven county, a 
 daughter of Chandler Parkiss, and both died in 
 Burlington, this State, in 1894. Of their ten chil- 
 dren, only two are still living : William C, our sub- 
 ject; and Austin, of Waterbury. 
 
 William Chandler Potter acquired his literary 
 education in the schools of Hamden, and there grew 
 to manhood. When the Civil war broke out he en- 
 listed, at Hartford, Conn., in 1861, in Company E, 
 loth Conn. V. I., for three years. With the Army 
 of the Potomac he participated in the battles of 
 Roanoke Island, Newbern, Tarboro, Little Wash- 
 ington and Goldsboro, N. C, and he also took part 
 in the celebrated march to the sea. He was mus- 
 tered out of the United States service at Alexan- 
 dria, Va., and honorably discharged at Hartford, 
 Conn., in 1865. On the maternal side he is of Revo- 
 lutionary stock, his great-grandfather having been 
 a soldier in the war for independence. 
 
 'In 1855, at Burlington, Conn,, Mr. Potter mar- 
 ried Miss Emily Baldwin, a native of Watertown, 
 and a daughter of Joel Baldwin. Four children 
 have been born to them, namely : Frederick, who is 
 now in the West ; Melissa, who died in her eight- 
 eenth year ; Louis, who was killed by the cars ; and 
 Clara, Jilrs. Arthur Smith, a resident of Birming- 
 ham, Connecticut. 
 
^72 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Since coming to Ciieshire, in 1891, Mr. Potter 
 has been engaged in market gardening. He is a 
 stanch supporter of the RepubHcan party, and an 
 earnest advocate of temperance. Socially he is a 
 member of Grand Army Post No. 8, at Meri- 
 den, and religiously adheres to the faith of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, of which his wife is a 
 member. Both are well known and highly respect- 
 ed for their sterling worth and many excellencies 
 of character. 
 
 ALVERD E. WINCHELL, M. D., one of the 
 leading physicians and substantial men of New 
 Haven, which city has been his field of labor for 
 thirty-five years, is a representative of one of the 
 first families to settle in Connecticut. 
 
 Born June 21, 1831, in Egremont, Berkshire 
 Co., Mass., son of Ezra and Lucinda (Newman) 
 Winchell, our subject is a descendant in the eighth 
 generation from Robert Winchell, the first Amer- 
 ican ancestor of this branch of the Winchell fam- 
 ily. From the genealogy of the family prepared in 
 1869, by Alexander Winchell, LL. D,, a professor 
 in the University of Alichigan, it is learned that 
 the name is probably of early Saxon or Jutish orig- 
 in, and was known in the time of Hengist and 
 Horsa, in 449. 
 
 Robert Winchell, born probably in Wales, was 
 at Dorchester, Mass., in 1634, and at Windsor, 
 Conn., as early as' 1637, appearing to have emi- 
 grated from one of the lower Saxon shires in the 
 south of England. The line of Dr. Wincheh's de- 
 scent from Robert is through Jonathan, Benjamin, 
 Azariah, Azariah (2), and Ezra. 
 
 Jonathan Winchell, son of Robert, was born 
 probably in Dorchester, Mass., prior to 1635. On 
 May 16, 1666, he married Abigail Brusan, daugh- 
 ter of Richard Brusan, sometimes written Brown.- 
 son. She was born about 1644, and died in Suf- 
 field March 27, 1710. 
 
 Benjamin Winchell, son of Jonathan, was born 
 at Windsor, Conn., June 28, 1674, and married 
 Sarah Winchell July 18, 1700, in Suffield. 
 
 Azariah Winchell, son of Benjamin, and the 
 great-grandfather of our subject, was born in Suf- 
 field, Conn., April 5, 1710: 
 
 Azariah Winchell (2), son of Azariah, was 
 born in Suffield. 
 
 Ezra Winchell, father of our subject, son of 
 Azariah (2), was born in Hillsdale, Columbia Co., 
 N. Y., Sept. 8, 1800, and married Lucinda New- 
 man, who was born in Egremont, June 3, 1804. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was reared in his 
 native town, and was prepared for college at the 
 academy in Great Barrington, i\Iass., entering Wes- 
 leyan College, at Middletown, in 185.^. He was 
 graduated with honors in the class of 1857, receiv- 
 ing from that institution three years later the de- 
 gree of A. M. Folldwinc;" his graduation he was for 
 three )ears principal df the Owos.-o (Alich.) Union 
 Seminary, where his work was ^'crN- successful and 
 
 satisfactory, so much so that those in charge were 
 loath to give him up and urged his remaining, but 
 desiring to enter another profession, he severed 
 his connection with this institution and for a period 
 studied law under the direction of a prominent at- 
 torney of Poughkeepsie, N. Y., the well-known 
 jurist, Judge John P. H. Tallman. His tastes, 
 however, were in still another direction, so return- 
 ing to Great Barrington, Mass., he there began the 
 study of medicine under Dr. Clarkson T. Collins, 
 a man of distinction in the profession and of ex- 
 tended acquaintance. As time passed the young 
 pupil, through the kindness of Dr. Collins, became 
 acquainted with the noted physicians Alfred C. 
 Post and Valentine Mott, of New York City, an 
 acquaintance that was greatly appreciated and 
 proved beneficial for the encouragement and in- 
 spiration it gave. 
 
 After attending a course of lectures at the Col- 
 lege of Ph3rsicians and Surgeons in New York 
 City, from which institution he was graduated in 
 1865, Dr. Winchell in that city had the benefit 
 of most valuable clinical observations in the various 
 hospitals, including Bellevue, the New York Hos- 
 pital and others, and after finishing his course there 
 he located for practice in New Haven, where his 
 professional life has been spent. His career there, 
 both professional and as a citizen, has been one 
 of success and usefulness. Through unselfish de- 
 votion to his useful calling he has reached a posi- 
 tion of prominence in the profession, ranking 
 among the most able physicians in the State. His 
 preference in his earlier career was for surgery, 
 an.d in that line he has performed a number of 
 difficult and delicate operations, j-et he has devoted 
 himself to the general practice of medicine. His 
 reputation as a superior obstetrician is well known. 
 A natural student, the Doctor has advanced in his 
 profession along with the progress made in the 
 science of medicine, and has kept pace with the gen- 
 eral great progress and advancement during the 
 years of his practice. 
 
 Dr. Winchell is a member of the State Medical 
 Society, which he has served as fellow ; of the New 
 Haven County Medical Society; and of the New 
 Haven City Medical Societ)^, of which for years he 
 served as president. Also, he is connected by mem- 
 bership with the American Medical and American 
 Public Plealth Associations ; the American Academy 
 of Political and Social Science ; and the Masonic 
 fraternity. 
 
 Dr. \\'inchell has long been interested in the 
 subject of sanitation. Immediately following the 
 Civil war he made a series of visits through dif- 
 ferent sections of the South, and his attention was 
 especially directed to this subject by observations. 
 Following with investigations and study of the sub- 
 ject, he was well fitted for the office he subse- 
 quently filled so efficiently and satisfactorily for 
 many years — that of member of the board of health, 
 of New Haven, having been appointed such in 1879 
 
^^Zoi^^ (f,^^6oca/i^ y^ ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 873 
 
 and repeatedly thereafter for fourteen years. For 
 a succession of terms he was president of the board, 
 during which time much progress was made in im- 
 proving the sanitary condition of the city. 
 
 Dr. Winchell has been deeply interested in 
 Christian and philanthropic work, and is actively 
 concerned in tlie progress of New Haven. In his 
 practice he has been exceedingly charitable to the 
 poor and unfortunate, and he has the esteem and the 
 confidence both of his colleagues and of the public. 
 The city is largely indebted to his energy, foresight 
 and pecuniary outlay for the erection, of the Hy- 
 perion Theatre, pronounced by artists and public 
 speakers to be almost unequalled for its acoustic 
 properties and general appointments. 
 
 On February 9, i860. Dr. Winchell was mar- 
 ried to Helen E., daughter of Capt. Charles E. 
 Hinman, of Southbury. She died in February, 
 1863, and in October, 1865, he married Mary, 
 daughter of Elizur Mitchell, of South Britain, 
 Conn. She died in 1874, leaving one daughter, 
 Mary Helen, who is now the wife of Dr. William 
 A. Brooks, of Boston, Mass., a prominent young 
 physician; and surgeon, who has performed some re- 
 markable operations, and is well known throughout 
 the State. On Oct. 14, 1876, Dr. Winchell was 
 married to his present wife, formerly Catherine 
 Worthington Shepard, daughter of Rev. Samuel N. 
 Shepard, who for thirty years was pastor of the 
 'Congregational Church in Madison, Conn., and 
 granddaughter of Rev. Samuel Shepard, D. D., 
 who for fifty years was a preacher in Lenox, Mass., 
 and a niece of the distinguished John, Todd, D. D. 
 
 TERRELL. The Terrells of New Haven coun- 
 ty, with the earlier families to which they are allied 
 % marriage, were among the earliest settlers of this 
 locality. 
 
 Roger Terrell, from whom most of the names 
 ■of Terrell, Terrel, Tyrrel, etc., of New Haven coun- 
 ty are descended, was among the first settlers of 
 Milford, Conn. His name appears among the first 
 two lists of inhabitants of the town living there in 
 the spring of 1640. Most of the pioneer settlers 
 ■of Milford came from the counties of Essex, Here- 
 ford and York, England, and rendezvoused in New 
 Haven in 1638 and 1639. Roger Terrell married a 
 •daughter of Thomas Nefford, and his death oc- 
 ■curred in 1682. From this Roger Terrell, the emi- 
 grant settler, Wales Terrell, of Ansonia, is a de- 
 scendant in the eighth generation, his line being 
 
 through , Samuel, Phineas, Phineas (2), 
 
 Eliak'im and Truman. One branch of the Tyrrell 
 family spells the name Tyrrell. 
 
 (HI) Samuel Terrell, probably a grandson of 
 Roger Terrell, lived in Milford, and l^y his will, 
 made in 1751,'left his estate, wliich was' distributed 
 in that same year, to his widow ^larv and children 
 Samuel, Abraham, Jesse, Phineas, Mary (Tibbals) 
 and Rebecca (Mrs. Jacob Baldwin). 
 
 (IV) Phineas Terrell, son of Samuel, born about 
 
 1725, died Oct. 13, 1791, when aged sixty-six years. 
 His wife, Phebe, survived him, married Andrew 
 Baldwin, and died Jan. 15, 1803, when aged seventy- 
 six. In his will the children of Phineas named 
 were : Phineas, Eliakim, John, Anne, Phebe and 
 Susanna. 
 
 (V) Phineas Terrell (2), son of Phineas, mar- 
 ried and had a number of children, among them Eli 
 and Sarah, the latter marrying Russel Chatfield. A 
 number of the children of Phineas are buried in the 
 Sperry burying-ground, in Bethany, Connecticut. 
 
 (VI) Capt. Eliakim Terrell, son of Phineas (2), 
 born about Feb. 10, 1760, married Elizabeth, also 
 born Feb. 10, 1760, daughter of Joseph and EHza- 
 beth (Tomlinson) Twitchell, and the children who 
 survived the father were Philo, Josiah, Truman, 
 Elizabeth, Nehemiah, Anne, Eliakim, Phineas, Sol- 
 omon, Isaac, Andrew and Julia. All settled in Con- 
 necticut. Capt. Terrell was a soldier in the Revolu- 
 tion, and was known by that title. He served as 
 selectman of Woodbridge in 1800, and died March 
 15, 1807, when aged forty-seven years. 
 
 (VII) Truman Terrell, son of Cant. Eliakim, 
 baptized in the town of Derby (probably in that part 
 now Oxford) Feb. 29, 1784, married Hannah Lines, 
 daughter of Eber Lines, of Bethany. Eber Lines 
 married Hannah, daughter of Lieut. Dan Welton, 
 of Waterbury, she being a lineal descendant of Elder 
 William Brewster, of the ."Mayflower." Truman 
 Terrell died May 20, 1852, aged sixty-eight years. 
 His widow married Ansel Peck, and died Nov. 19, 
 1866, aged seventy-six years. The children of Tru- 
 man and his wife were : Louisa, Almira, Grace, 
 Lauren, Elizabeth, Smith, Wales, Calvin and Henry; 
 the two last named died young. Two of the chil- 
 dren are now living, Almira and Whales. 
 
 (VIII) Wales Terrell at the age of seventeen 
 (1843) was apprenticed to one Burr Nash, of New 
 Haven, to learn the blacksmith's trade, and in the 
 year 1849 located at Derby, where in co-partnership 
 with Silas Baldwin, and later with Hobart Soerrv, 
 he pursued the business, in a general line, of black- 
 smithing and carriage building. On Oct. 25, 1851, 
 he married Julia Irene Barbour, daughter of Luke 
 Barbour, of Simsbury, Conn. Five children were 
 born to this union: May Elizabeth (who died in 
 infancy), Arthur Wales, Plorerice Elizabeth, Lu- 
 cius Barbour and Alton Truman. 
 
 On Aug. 6, 1862, Wales Terrell enlisted in Com- 
 pany B, 20th Conn. V I., and on the 8th of the 
 same month was mustered into the I'nited States 
 service as private and promoted to corporal. The 
 20th was a three years' regiment, recruited under 
 the call of June, 1862, of the President for 300,000 
 men, and went out under Col. Ross, Lieut. William 
 B. Wooster and Major Buckingham. They soon 
 formed a part of the 12th Corps, Army of the Poto- 
 mac, and were under Gen, Hooker and later under 
 Gen. Meade. The ree-iment participated in the bat- 
 tles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, the 12th 
 Corps in the latter engagement occupying the ex- 
 
874 
 
 COMMEAIORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 treme right of the Federal hne at Gulp's Hill, Gen. 
 Williams in command. The Gorps held Ewell's 
 Gorps at bay for seven hours, finally driving them 
 back with heavy loss. In the fall of 1863 the 12th 
 Corps joined the Army of the Gumberland, at Ghat- 
 tanooga, and that winter was mainly in Tennessee. 
 A year later, in the fall of 1864, the nth and 12th 
 Gorps were formed into the 20th Gorps, and in it 
 the 20th Regiment remained until the close of the 
 war, forming a part of Gen. Sherman's army. It 
 is not the intention to give in detail the history of 
 the regiment, but only to mention some features 
 in general and refer to others especially. The 20th 
 distinguished itself at the battle of Peach Tree 
 Greek, and was at the siege of Atlanta. It later 
 moved through Atlanta, Ga., to Savannah and South 
 Garolina, and to and from there to North Garolina, 
 finally participating in the grand review at Wash- 
 ington, and was mustered out of the service June 
 IT,, 1865, at Fort Lincoln, on the Bladensburg road. 
 The engagements in which the 20th participated 
 were: Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863; Gettys- 
 burg, Pa., July 3, 1863; Tracy Gity, Tenn., May 9, 
 1864; Pe.^ch Tree Greek, Ga., July 20, 1864; siege 
 of Atlanta, Ga., Julv 21 to Aug. 7, 1864; Silver 
 Run, N. G.. March '15, 1865: Bentonville, N. G., 
 March 19, 1865; and Raleigh, N. G., April 13, 1865. 
 Young Terrell bore an honorable part from start to 
 finish with his company, and returned home at the 
 close of the war with an honorable record. On ]\ra"\' 
 4, 1864, he was promoted to sergeant, and was mus- 
 tered out with his company and regiment June 13, 
 1865. Since his return from the service he has made 
 his home in the town of Derby, and more recently 
 in Ansonia, where he has had an honorable business 
 career and been a useful citizen. 
 
 On returning to civil life Mr. Terrell entered 
 into co-partnership with Darius Wilcox, engaging in 
 the carriage hardware and file business for several 
 years, under the firm name of Terrell & Wilcox, and 
 later as Wales Terrell. Later he was associated 
 with E. Frank Sperry, under the name of Terrell & 
 Sperry, they continuing some years together, when 
 Mr. Terrell withdrew and engaged with his son, 
 Lucius B. Terrell, in the insurance and real-estate 
 business, under the firm name of A^'ales Terrell & 
 Son, handling all kinds of insurance and real-estate 
 transactions. 
 
 (IX) Alton T. Terrell, secretary and general 
 manager of the Ansonia ( ). & G. Cn., of Ansonia, was 
 born in Ansonia Oct. 3, 1872. He was educated in 
 the common and high schools of his native town, 
 and when a boy entered the office of the Osborne 
 & Glieesman Co., which concern was in 1891 suc- 
 ceeded by the Ansonia O. & C. Go. He rose to the 
 position of order clerk, which he held for some years, 
 and was then promoted to purchasing agent, which 
 position he held up to the time of Mr. Schneller's 
 (the head of the institution) death, when he was 
 promoted to his present position. They manufacture 
 suspender webbing, and employ some three hundred 
 
 hands. The building is 50 feet wide, 250 feet long, 
 and three stories high. [For a further account ot 
 this business, from its origin, see sketch of Mrs. 
 Schneller, elsewhere.] Under the management ot 
 Mr. Terrell the business has steadily increased, and 
 they send goods all over the United States and 
 Europe. They have recently had completed a mag- 
 nificent office, planned by Mr. Terrell, which is 40 
 feet square, two stories high, and is beautifully fin- 
 ished in quarter-sawed oak and brown ash, and 
 furnished with oak furniture. It is one of the finest 
 office buildings in the Naugatuck Valley. 
 
 Although a young man, Mr. Terrell has seen 
 many changes during the years that he has been 
 with the company, and with two exceptions is the 
 oldest in point of service now here. The number 
 of men has been increased from two hundred to 
 three hundred and fifty, and the output of the goods 
 has more than doubled ; much of the machinery has 
 been changed to the latest improved in their line. 
 Throughout the building many improvements have 
 been made for the benefit of the help, all of whom 
 hold Mr. Terrell in high esteem, and since he has 
 taken his present position no dissatisfaction has 
 been expressed by the employes, each and all of 
 whom are at liberty to personally lay before him any 
 grievance which they may have, with the positive 
 assurance that they will be listened to and treated 
 wisely. By the introduction of the latest improved 
 machinery this concern can at present manufacture 
 goods which place them in successful competition 
 with any other concern in the business. 
 
 Mr. Terrell married, Nov. 30, 1898, Lillian Whit- 
 lock, a daughter of Senator Sturges Whitlock, of 
 Shelton, a prominent manufacturer of the celebrated 
 Whitlock printing presses. Sturges Whitlock is one 
 of the most prominent men in this section of the 
 State and is widely known. His wife wa.s' Mary 0. 
 Singer, a daughter of Isaac Singer, the inventor of 
 the Singer sewing machine. 
 
 Alton Terrell is a member of the Board of Trade 
 of Ansonia, director of the A. O. & C. Co., and 
 member of the Ansonia Club. 
 
 EDWJ^T DOOLITTLE, one of the prominent,- 
 well-knowir citizens of Branford, is a native of 
 Connecticut, born Dec. 3, 1838, in AVallingford, New 
 Haven county. 
 
 The founder of the Doolittle family in the New 
 England States came from England, and is said to 
 have been the first settler north of Watenbrook, in 
 what is now the town of Wallingford, Jonathan 
 Doolittle, grandfather of Edwin, was born in Wall- 
 ingford, was a farmer bv occupation, and served in 
 the war of the Revolution. He had four sons : Enos, 
 the father of our subject; John, who cast his lot 
 with the Mormons, and became an apostle and elder 
 in that church; Roswell, a farmer of Wallingford; 
 and Johnson, who was a farmer and grain dealer. 
 One daughter, Betsy, married Samuel JNlorse, and 
 after her death he married her sister Delight. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 875 
 
 Enos Doolittle was born Feb. 2, 1796, in Wall- 
 ingford, where he was a hfelong- agriculturist, and 
 died March 30, 1869. He married Charritta Davis, 
 and by her had five children, viz. : ( i ) Andrew, born 
 Nov. 8, 1826, married Lucy Hall, and had two 
 sons, Charles D. and Frederick. Andrew was a 
 contractor in Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co.'s factory. 
 He was accidentally shot while out hunting, Nov. 
 8, 1854. (2) Albert, born Nov. 10, 1827, married 
 Mary Bassett. He died Aug. 22, 1877, leaving no 
 children. (3) Julius, born July 3, 1830, never mar- 
 ried, and died Dec. 18, 1886. (4) Clarissa, born 
 Nov. II, 1835, died Sept. 9, 1842. (5) Edwin is 
 O'ur subject. The father of this family was a Demo- 
 crat pohtically. 
 
 Edwin Doolittle received his education in the 
 common schools of Wallingford, and began his 
 business life in the old "Farmers Exchange Variety 
 Store," New Haven. There he remained some six 
 years, and in 1862 he commenced in the butcher 
 business at Wallingford, which he continued three 
 years, after which for seven years he was engaged 
 in farming in Wallingford. For one year thereafter 
 he was located at Windsor Locks, Hartford county, 
 engaged in the maufacture of manilla paper, and in 
 the fall of 1874 he came to Branford, where for 
 eighteen years he conducted the popular summer 
 resort known as the "Weybossett House." Selling 
 out in 1893, he managed the hotel for another until 
 May, 1894, since. when he has been living retired. 
 Mr. Doolittle is independent in politics, and at pres- 
 ent is serving in Branford as chairman of the Citi- 
 zens party. 
 
 On Oct. 10, 1865, Mr. Doolittle was married to 
 Miss Matilda L Todd, daughter of Thelus and An- 
 toinette (Harrison) Todd, of Northford, New Ha- 
 ven county. The father was born Sept. 19, 1802, 
 and died Aug. 29, 1875. The mother, born May 9, 
 1809, died March 9, 1848. They were married June 
 I, 1828, and had seven children, ApoUos E., Milo 
 A., Venelia H., Matilda I. (Mrs. Doolittle), Miran- 
 da J., Delia A. and Bertha S. By his second wife, 
 Correlia Auger, Mr. Todd had one daughter, Maria 
 A. Mr. Todd was a butcher, drover and farmer by 
 occupation. He took an active part in the affairs of 
 his day, and served two terms in the State Legisla- 
 ture, having been elected on the Democratic ticket. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle had two children: An- 
 toinette Todd, bom May 9, 1867, died March 2, 
 1868; the other died in infancy. They are members 
 of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 JAMES PEMBERTON, a hig-hly esteemed 
 resident of Ansonia, is now living in retirement at 
 his pleasant home, at No. 286 Wakelee avenue, but 
 his interest in all that concerns the welfare of the 
 community remains as keen as during his years of 
 active work in the business world. 
 
 Mr. Pemberton was born Nov. 18. 1828, in 
 Birming'ham. England, son of Maj. William Pem- 
 berton and his wife, Mary Hall, both natives of 
 
 Birmingham, and both born in 1800. Alaj. Pember- 
 ton came to America in 1829, with his family, and 
 after two years' residence at Bloomfield, N. J., lo- 
 cated in W'aterbury, Conn., entering the employ of 
 the Scovill Manufacturing Co. While there he in- 
 troduced a process for plating with gold and silver^ 
 which he had learned and worked at before leaving 
 England, and this proved very successful, giving: 
 him an important place in the firm. They made a 
 specialty of plate for pliotographing, and gold plate 
 for officers' buttons for the army and navy. In 1852 
 Mr. Pemberton went to Newark, N. J., and engaged 
 in business for himself, and his death occurred 
 there in 1880. He was a man of strong character, 
 an expert in his line of work, and was active in 
 politics as an old-line Whig. At one time he served 
 as major on the staff of Gen. Collins, of Newark, 
 and his saddle and other articles of equipment are 
 now preserved as a relic by a brother of our subject. 
 In religious faith he was an Episcopalian, and he 
 gave $500 toward the new stone edifice, erected in 
 1846, in Waterbury. His estimable wife died in 
 1886, and of their eight children only three are 
 living : Amelia is deceased ; James is mentioned 
 more fully below ; William is deceased ; Thomas 
 was killed while serving with the 14th Kansas Vol- 
 unteer Cavalry; Alfred is deceased; Samuel H., 
 who served in the Army of the Potomac throughout 
 the Civil war, married Miss Jennie A. Root, of 
 Waterbury, and resides in Newark, N. J., where he 
 held office as city clerk for a number of years; 
 Catherine is deceased ; and Frederick, now a resi- 
 dent of Newark, N. J., served in both army and 
 navy during the Civil war. 
 
 James Pemberton spent much of his boyhood at 
 Waterbury, and was educated in the common schools 
 of that town and at Cheshire Academy. He learned 
 his father's business in the shops of the Scovill Man- 
 ufacturing Co., and later was employed by Holmes, 
 Booth & Hayden, to establish it for them. For a 
 number of years he had charge of the department, 
 and for a time he was with a clock company of Chi- 
 cago, but in 1866 ihe located in Ansonia, taking a 
 position with the O. & C. Co., as caster. Soon after- 
 ward he entered the employ of the A. B. C. Co., 
 as caster in the Brass mills, and this work he con- 
 tinued until his retirement from business in 1881. 
 As he owns a number of houses in the town, his 
 real-estate interests require much of his time and 
 attention. Politically he is a Republican, and he 
 was a member of the first common council of An- 
 sonia. In religious work he was for years an active 
 worker in the Episcopal Church, of which he was a 
 member, and for a number of years he served either 
 as warden or vestryman, and for some time -was 
 superintendent of the Sunday-'school. For more 
 than forty years he has been an active Freemason, 
 and is now a member of George Washington Lodge, 
 and Mt. Vernon Chapter, No. 35, R. A. M., in An- 
 sonia, and of Waterbury Council, No. 21, at Water- 
 bury. 
 
8/6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 In 1850 Mr. Pemberton married Miss Mary J. 
 Riggs, daughter of Garry Riggs, a hatter in Oxford, 
 and a prominent citizen of that town. She was 
 born in 1831, and died in 1895, and of her four 
 sons, three are living: James R., a machinist by 
 trade, married Jessie F. Beers, and is settled on a 
 farm in Orange; William M., a clerk in a clothing 
 store in New Haven, has been married twice, and 
 has had six children: Bessie M., Lillie S., Elsie 
 A., Allie M., William M. and Ernest L. ; Edward 
 L., the youngest, was employed for a number of 
 years in the office of the Farrell Foundry Co., but 
 is now in Boston, as agent for V. W . Mason, Jr., 
 of New York. 
 
 ELI H. WAKELEE, a venerable and highly 
 esteemed resident of Ansonia. is the oldest man 
 now living who was born in that vicinity, and' his 
 reminiscences cover a' most interesting period of the 
 history of the section. Within his memory the city 
 of Ansonia has been founded and developed, and 
 when he was a boy the site of Derby, formerly 
 Birmingham, gave no sign of its present com- 
 mercial importance. 
 
 Mr. AA^akclee was born July 11, 1829, in West 
 Ansonia, and comes of good pioneer stock. Free- 
 gift Wakelee, his grandfather, was born in Anifonia, 
 and became a farmer and shoemaker by occupation. 
 He died at the age of fifty. He married JMarv 
 Smith, who was born in Derby, and who attained 
 the advanced age of eighty-four. They had seven 
 sons and one daughter, all now deceased. 
 
 Watrous C. Wakelee, our subject's father, was 
 born in West Ansonia, and learned the shoe- 
 maker's trade, but his attention was devoted 
 chiefly to farming at the homestead in AVest An- 
 sonia, now No. 220 Wakelee avenue. He was a 
 successful farmer, owning about 200 acres of land, 
 and as a citizen he was held in high esteem for 
 his sound' judgment an.d his public spirit. Political- 
 ly he was a Democrat, and he served a.=' assessor 
 and collector, and was a candidate for other offices 
 at various times. In religious faith he was an Epis- 
 copalian. He died in 1878, at the age of seventy- 
 eight, and his wife, Caroline (Hawkins"), a native of 
 Ansonia, died aged eightv-two. The Hawkins fam- 
 ily were early settlers in this county, and Lewis 
 Hawkins, father of Mrs. Wakelee, was a well- 
 known farmer. Our subject is one of a family of 
 four sons, of whom two are still living, his brother 
 Charles (aged sixty-three) being now in the West. 
 Albert died in Ansonia, Jan. 14, igoi. David, the 
 youngest, died in the West Sept. 26, 1889. 
 
 Until he reached the age of seventeen our sub- 
 ject remained at the homestead, the common schools 
 affording him an education, and he then learned the 
 mason's trade with Isaac P Davis, of Sevmonr. He 
 fallowed that trade twenty-five years, doing a 
 profitable contract business, and then built the store 
 now occupied by E. A. Curtiss, corner of Wakelee 
 avenue and Jackson street. Vov ten years he was 
 
 engaged in mercantile business there, but since sell- 
 ing out, in 1895, he has been looking after his real- 
 estate interests exclusively. He bought fifty acres 
 of the old homestead, from which he has sold a 
 number of building lots, and he has also put up a 
 number of houses, some of which he still owns and 
 rents. Mr. Wakelee attends the Episcopal Church, 
 of which his wife is a member. In politics he is a 
 stanch Democrat, having been identified with the 
 party since he was twenty-one years old. For 
 more than twenty-five years he served as assessor, 
 and held that office while Derby was still a part of 
 the town ; he served as chairman of the board of 
 assessors longer than any other man now living in 
 Ansonia. He also served a term as collector and 
 one year as selectman ; and for a number of years 
 was a member of the town committee and the local 
 board of relief. 
 
 On Jan. 12, 1853, Mr. Wakelee married Miss 
 Amanda Chatfield, a native of Bethany. They have 
 had one son, Frank W., a carpenter and joiner in 
 Ansonia, who married Miss Fannie Piatt and has 
 had two children, Cora A. and Harry W., the latter 
 of whom died when five years old. Mrs. Wakelee 
 is a member of a well-known family, her grand- 
 father, Phineas Terrell, having been one of the first 
 settlers in Bethany, where he engaged in farming. 
 Her father, Russell Chatfield, a native of Oxford, 
 was a farmer and mason in that town, and lived to 
 the age of ninety-one years. He married Sarah 
 Terrell, who died at the age of eighty-four, in the 
 same house in which she was born and married. 
 Russell and Sarah Chatfield had five daughters, of 
 whom three are living: Mrs. Mary M. Beecher; 
 Mrs. Ruth M. Warner, who still resides in An- 
 sonia with a daughter; and Mrs. Wakelee. Of the 
 others, Mrs. Sarah A. Beecher died aged thirty- 
 two, and Mrs. PameliaJ. Todd died aged thirty. 
 The family is much esteemed socially and has been 
 identified with the Episcopal Church for genera- 
 tions. 
 
 GEORGE LEANDER WELD ranked among 
 the substantial and most highly respected citizens of 
 the town of Guilford, where the greater part of his 
 useful and active life was passed. He was a native 
 of the town, horn March 12, 1814, son of' George 
 and Mabel (Fowler) Weld, and was the eldest 
 brother of the late Capt. Frederick A. and William 
 E. Weld, of Guilford. 
 
 Our subject received his education in the com- 
 mon schools, attending first in the North Guilford 
 District, and later at, Sag Harbor, L. I., whither he 
 removed with his parents. Early in life he was 
 engaged in farm work, later learning the trade of 
 shoemaker, which he followed for some time, and he 
 also engaged in carpentering and building. He fin- 
 ally took up his home at East River, New Haven 
 county, settling on the old Bartlett homestead, where 
 he passed the remainder of his days, engaging in 
 ship carpentering in addition to agricultural pur- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 877- 
 
 suits. By energetic industry and good management 
 he became quite well-to-do, and he gained the respect 
 of hi's neighbors and friends by a Hfe of integrity. 
 In religious connection he was a member of the 
 r,piscOpai Church of Guilford, and active in its work, 
 serving as warden and vestryman in the church. His 
 political support was given to the Democratic party. 
 He never sought office, preferring to give his atten- 
 tion to hi'S private affairs, but he took an intelligent 
 interest in the welfare of his locality, and was well 
 read. 
 
 On Sept. 16, 1849, ^fi'- Weld was married, in 
 Guilford, to Miss Sarah Judson Bartlett, who was 
 bom Feb. 20, 1828, daughter of Joseph Bartlett, and 
 survives him, still making her home in East River. 
 She is an intelligent woman, well preserved, and 
 enjoys the highest esteem of the community in which 
 her life has been passed. Three children blessed 
 this union : Mary Bartlett, born Oct. 27, 1855, died 
 Nov. 9, 1865 ; George M. and Joseph, twins, were 
 born Jan. 3, 1863, and the latter died Oct. 12, 1865. 
 Mr. Weld was a kind-hearted husband and loving 
 father, and his death, on Oct. 22, 1891, at East 
 River, was deeply mourned. His remains rest in the 
 East cemetery, in Guilford. 
 
 George M. Weld was born Jan. 3, 1863, received 
 his education in the local district schools, and is 
 employed in a shop in the town of Madison. He 
 married Miss Lottie M. Rogers, and they have had 
 four children: Ruth M., Mabel R., George Leon 
 and Elsie Bartlett, all living. 
 
 The Bartlett Family, from which Mrs. Weld 
 is descended, is one of the oldest in Guilford, and 
 Joseph Bartlett, the first of the name here, was a 
 native of England. He was one of the first settlers 
 of Guilford, where he passed the remainder of his 
 life, dying Aug. 3, 1669. He was a deacon in the 
 church. On Sept. 14, 1650, he married Mary Crut- 
 tenden, daughter of Abraham Cruttenden, and she 
 survived him but a few weeks, dying Sept. 11, 1669. 
 Children: Elizabeth, born in March, 1653, died 
 Oct. 4, 1742, married Abraham Fowler ; Mary, born 
 Feb. I, 1655, died Nov. 5, 1724, married Nathaniel 
 Stone; John, born Nov. 9, 1656, died Aug. 16, 
 1669; Hannah, born Nov. 6, 1658, married Stephen 
 Bishop; Deborah, born in 1660, died Dec. 4, 1692, 
 married John Spinning; Daniel, born Dec. 14, 1665, 
 died Nov. 14, 1747, married Sarah Meggs; Abra- 
 ham, sketch of whom follows. 
 
 Abraham Bartlett, born Feb. 19, 1667, in Guil- 
 ford, died Feb. 20, 1731. On June 11, 1693, he 
 married Mary Warner, born in April, 1664, who 
 died May 25, 1738, and they had children: Mary, 
 born May 18, 1694, died June 9, 1755; Abraham, 
 born March 4, 1698, died Jan. 13, 1764; Joseph, 
 .sketch of "'hom follows; Timothy, born March 15, 
 1702, died Dec. i, 1773, married Susanna Crutten- 
 den; Ebenezer, born Nov. 6, 1704, died Oct. 19, 
 1777. 
 
 Capt. Joseph Bartlett, born in Guilford Oct. 24, 
 1699, died Aug. 29, 1769. On June 9, 1726, he 
 
 married Mindwell Cruttenden, born in 1706, died 
 Sept. 24, 1769. Children: Joseph, sketch of whom 
 follows; Mindwell, born May 17, 1730, died Nov. 
 3, 1808, married Samuel Chittenden; Abraham, 
 born Jan. 12, 1734, married Submit Everts; Ruth, 
 born in October, 1735, died Dec. 21, 1831, married 
 Miles Griswold; Samuel, born Feb. 10, 1742, mar- 
 ried Abigail Ingraham. 
 
 Joseph Bartlett, born Sept. 8, 1727, died July 
 
 23, 1812, in Guilford. On Dec. 30, 1756, he mar- 
 ried Sarah Cruttenden, born Feb. 2, 1735, died June 
 13, 1818. Children: Joseph, born Nov. 8, 1757, 
 died Aug. 23, 1787; Sarah, born Oct. 21, 1762, died. 
 Feb. 5, '1773; Amos, born June 23, 1764, died July 
 12, 1836, married Anna Dudley; Noah, sketch of 
 whom follows; Hannah, born Sept. 4, 1778, died 
 March 14, 1858, married Timothy Dudley. 
 
 Noah Bartlett, bom Aug. 27, 1766, died Jan. 17, 
 1837. On June 23, 1796, he married Sally Judson,. 
 born Nov. 27, 1775, died Jan. 25, 1867. Children: 
 Joseph, sketch of whom follows ; Sally, born Nov. 
 20, 1799, died July 21, 1866, married Horace Mun- 
 ger; Polly, born Nov. 20, 1801, died Nov. 14, 1876, 
 married Joel Griswold, of Guilford. 
 
 Joseph Bartlett, father of Mrs. Weld, born July 
 
 24, I797i was one of the leading business men of 
 Guilford in his day, keeping store at East River, 
 and also conducting a hotel at that place, where he 
 spent his life. He owned vessels, in which he- 
 shipped his produce to New York and other mar- 
 kets, and was also a large land owner and dealer in^ 
 stock. In the management of his various interests 
 he became widely known, and his reputation was. 
 untarnished by any doubts as to his uprightness, 
 and integrity. During his busy career he accumu- 
 lated a comfortable competence, and he was regard- 
 ed as one of the substantial men of his locality. Mr. 
 Bartlett passed away Jan. 5, 1864, at East River, 
 and his remains rest in the East cemetery. He at- 
 tended the Congregational Church, and in politics, 
 was first a Whig, later a Republican. 
 
 On March 15, 1827, Mr. Bartlett married Mary 
 Ann Cruttenden, who was born May 21, 1798; 
 daughter of Bela Cruttenden, and died Aug. 15, 
 1876. One child blessed their union, Sarah Judson,. 
 who is now the widow of George L. Weld. 
 
 HON. SAMUEL H. CHITTENDEN, at pres- 
 ent serving in the Connecticut State Senate from 
 the Si-xth District, is a native of New Haven county, 
 born Nov. 18, 1845, on the old Chittenden home- 
 stead at East River, in the town of Madison. He 
 is a descendant of (I) William Chittenden, one of 
 the original settlers of Guilford, who came to the 
 town in 1639, and was prominent in public affairs, 
 serving as magistrate of the Plantation and deputy 
 to the General Court until his death. 
 
 (II) Sergt. John Chittenden, fourth child of 
 William, was born in 1643, and died in Guilford in 
 April, 1716. On Dec. 12, i66,S, he married Hannah 
 Fletcher, daughter of John Fletcher, and they had 
 
S78 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 six children: John, born Oct. 19, 1666; Elizabeth, 
 Jan. 26, 1670 (she married Thomas Cruttenden) ; 
 Joseph, Alarch 26, 1672 (married Mary KimberlyJ ; 
 Gideon, Sept. 23, 1678, died 1679; Abel, Aiay 14, 
 1681 (married Deborah Scranton) ; Lydia, March 
 30, 1684 (married William Hall). 
 
 (III) John Chittenden, son of Sergt. John, born 
 Oct. 19, 1666, died in February, 1710. On March 
 13, 1701, he married Sarah Clay, who was born 
 March 5, 1674, and died April 5, 1717. Her par- 
 ents, Joseph and Mary (Lord) Clay, were of Guil- 
 ford and Saybrook, Conn., respectdvely. Two chil- 
 dren were born of this union : John, June 8, 1702 
 (married Bathsheba Cruttenden) ; and Samuel, 
 Aug. 16, 1704. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Chittenden, son of John, born 
 Aug. 16, 1704, married Nov. 7, 1726, Susanna 
 Bishop, who was born Jan. 12, 1704, daughter of 
 Samuel and Abigail (Wetmore) Bishop, and died 
 Nov. 8, 1747. On Sept. 8,' 1748, he married Mrs. 
 Phyllis (Burgis) Johnson, widow of Nathaniel 
 Johnson, and daughter of Thomas and Mercy 
 (Wright) Burgis. She was born March i, 1716, 
 and died Oct. 12, 1760, and on Jan. 13, 1762, Mr. 
 Chittenden married Hulda Fowler, who was born 
 March 6, 1723, daughter of Ebenezer and Elizabeth 
 (Starr) Fowler, and died Nov. 17, 1820, at the ripe 
 age of nearly ninety-eight years. The children of 
 Samuel Chittenden were : Samuel, born Nov. 2, 
 1727 (married Mindwell Bartlett) ; Nathaniel, Aug. 
 I, 1730 (died 1730) ; Nathaniel (2), June 2, 1732; 
 Susannah, June 2, 1832 (married John Crampton) ; 
 Noah, July 31, 1734 (married Elizabeth Cramp- 
 ton) ; Sarah, July 9, 1739 (married Miles Gris- 
 wold) ; Benjamin, mentioned below. 
 
 (V) Benjamin Chittenden, son of Samuel, born 
 Nov. 23, 1749, spent his life in Guilford, and died 
 Sept. I, 1820. On Jan. 16, 1777, he married Mabel 
 Dudley, who was born Nov. 22, 1 75 1, daughter of 
 Thomas and Abigail (Seward) Dudley, and died 
 Feb. II, 1795. They had two children: Samuel, 
 born Nov. 12, 1777; and Joel, born Nov. 13, 1785, 
 who married Sally Carter. For his second wife 
 Benjamin Chittenden married, Feb. 10, 1796, Lucy 
 Fowler, who died June 9, 1835, aged seventy-three 
 years. 
 
 (VI) Samuel Chittenden, son of Benjamin, born 
 Nov. 12, 1777' was a farmer and land owner, and 
 spent his life in the town of Madison, dying Feb. 
 23, 1846. On March 31, 1803, he married Lauranda 
 Collins, born Dec. 22, 1774, daughter of Joel and 
 Bethya (Hall) Collins, the former of Guilford, the 
 latter of Wallingford, Conn. This wife died July 
 3, 1805, and in 1808 he married Amanda Kelsey, 
 who was a daughter of Preston and Clarissa 
 (Graves) Kelsey, of East Guilford, and passed away 
 Oct. 22, 181 T, at the early age of twenty- four years. 
 In April, 1813, Mr. Chittenden wedded Sally War- 
 ner, who was born July 14, 1790, daughter of Chap- 
 man Warner, of Hadlyme, Conn., and died Feb. 9, 
 1864. He was the father of seven children: Lau- 
 
 randa C, born ]\lay 19, 1809, married Timothy H. 
 Lee; Samuel Conk'lin, born Sept. 22, 181 1, is men- 
 tioned below; Henry A., born May 31, 1814, died 
 Dec. 25, 1834; Hosmer Ely, born Feb. 10, 1816, 
 was lost at sea Oct. 6, 1844, on the brig "Ocean;" 
 Chapman W., born Dec. 27, 1818, died Dec. 28, 
 1880; William F. was born Aug. i, 1825; and John 
 Newton, born Dec. 25, 1827, married Elizabeth 
 Cruttenden. 
 
 (VII) Samuel Conklin Chittenden, father of the 
 gentleman whose name introduces this sketch, was 
 born Sept. 22, 1811, on the homestead, and was for 
 many years extensively engaged in the lumber busi- 
 ness at East River, embarking in that industry be- 
 fore the building of the New Haven & New London 
 railroad, of which he was one of the original pro- 
 jectors and stockholders. During the early years 
 his lumber was brought in sailing vessels from 
 Maine and Albany. He also engaged in the manu- 
 facture of sash and blinds, in which line he was 
 quite successful, and he was ever regarded as one 
 of the prosperous, substantial citizens of his town, 
 continuing to reside on the old family homestead at 
 East River, where his widow still makes her home. 
 On Feb. 8, 1843, ^^r. Chittenden married Miss 
 Amanda A. Munger, born Nov. 27, 1813, daughter 
 of George and Parnel (Kelsey) Munger, and chil- 
 dren were born to this union as follows : Samuel 
 H., Nov. 18, 1845; Clarissa, March i, 1848 (died 
 March 3, 1848) ; George Benjamin, Dec. 25, 1849. 
 The last named was married Dec. 25, 1876, to Miss 
 Ella Spencer Delano, who was born in 1857 in 
 Washington, D. C, and they have had three chil- 
 dren : Myra D., born Feb. 2, 1879 ; Horace W., 
 born Aug. 25, 1880; and Marjorie L. Samuel C. 
 Chittenden passed awav Dec. ?.. 1886, at his home 
 in East River. Originally a Whig in politics, he 
 finally united with the Republican party, but he 
 was never an office seeker. In religious connection 
 he was a Congregationalist, and his widow is also 
 a member of that church, being a devout Christian. 
 She is a lady of culture and intelligence, and enjoys 
 the unbounded esteem of all who know her. 
 
 Samuel H. Chittenden was reared in the town 
 of his birth, and after acquiring his rudimentary 
 education in the public schools fitted for college at 
 Guilford Institute and Lee's Academy, Madison. 
 In 1867 he graduated from the Sheffield Scientific 
 School of Yale, and a few years later took an addi- 
 tional course, receiving the second degree of C. E. 
 In February, 1868, under the patronage of Cor- 
 nelius S. Bu'shnell, then a director of the Union 
 Pacific railroad, he was given an opportunity to 
 commence work at his profession, becoming a civil 
 engineer on that road. At that time the end of 
 their track was only a few miles west of Cheyenne. 
 Mr. Chittenden, joining the field party of Maj. Law- 
 rence, traveled from the end of the track with 
 freight wagons through the Indian country, the 
 party having an escort of United States cavalry, and 
 commenced work on location through the Bitter 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 879 
 
 Creek section, later moving west to Echo Canon and 
 the location over the Wahsatch Summit. During 
 1868 and 1869 the road was built and running to a 
 connection with the Central Pacific road west of 
 Salt Lake City, and some unprecedentedly rapid 
 work was done, especially in grading and track lay- 
 ing. Mr. Chittenden continued with the road, doing 
 general engineer work, until 1876, after which, for 
 about a year, he was engaged on the Quinnipiac 
 bridge, at Fair Haven, Conn. His next work was 
 in Alabama, on the Mussel Shoals improvement of 
 the Tennessee river and Coosa river, in Georgia, as 
 assistant engineer under Maj. W. R. Ring, of the 
 United States Engineers. Between 1880 and i8go 
 he was engaged with bis brother, George B. Chitten- 
 den, in mining in Arizona and New Mexico, and in 
 general engineering and contracting in Washing- 
 ton, D. C, and among other undertakings we may 
 mention the enlarged dam across the Potomac river, 
 at Great Falls, to increase the water supply of the 
 city, which he built. 
 
 In 1890 Mr. Chittenden retired from his pro- 
 fession, and he has since lived in comparative retire- 
 ment at his old home in New Haven county, where 
 he has taken an active part in local interests. The 
 year of his return he was elected clerk of the town 
 of Madison, in which office he has ever since served, 
 and he is also judge of probate, discharging the 
 duties of both offices with a satisfaction which has 
 fully warranted the confidence placed in him by his 
 fellow citizens. In 1898 he was further honored by 
 election to the State Senate, on the Republican 
 ticket, and he has since served in that responsible 
 incumbency with becoming dignity, displaying a 
 high sense of duty in the performance of the duties 
 connected therewith. He has been the efficient chair- 
 man of the committees on Humane Institutions and 
 New Counties and County Seats, and has won the 
 universal respect of his colleagues by his integrity 
 and uprightness. Mr. Chittenden's call to public 
 service from the time of his return to his native 
 place is sufficient evidence of the affectionate esteem 
 in which he is held by his fellow citizens, and he is 
 a worthy representative of one of the oldest families' 
 in the State, one whose members have ever been 
 lo)^al to the best interests of the Commonwealth. 
 Senator Chittenden is unmarried. He has been a 
 member of the American Society of Civil Engineers 
 since 1876. 
 
 EDWARD A. THOMSON, justice of the 
 peace and postmaster at Brooksvale, has for several 
 years been prominently identified with the business 
 and agricultural interests of Cheshire, as well as the 
 political affairs of that town. In connection with 
 the operation of his farm he is engaged in merchan- 
 dising, and in all his undertakings has met with a 
 fair degree of success. 
 
 Mr. Thomson was born in Stockbridge, Mass., 
 Aug. 22, 1836, a son of Henry Williams and Lydia 
 Witter (Button) Thomson. The father was also 
 
 a native of Massachusetts, born Dec. 4, 1805, and 
 was a tanner by trade. He also taught music. He 
 died in Stockbridge Nov. 15, 1840, and his wife sub- 
 sequently came to New Haven, Conn., where she 
 died May 6, 1873. I'^ their family were six children: 
 Henry W., who was a merchant, died in New Ha- 
 ven ; he was a deacon in the United Church on the 
 Green. Sarah Eliza became the wife of Robert 
 Bird, of Atlanta, Ga. David W., a member of the 
 firm of Thomson & Co., safe manufacturers, died in 
 New Haven. Jeannie died in the same city. Ed- 
 ward A. is our subject. Giles G. was a partner with 
 his brother David in the safe manufacturing com- 
 pany of New Haven ; he went to the war as a mem- 
 ber of the New Haven Grays. 
 
 At the age of six years Edward Augustus Thom- 
 son accompanied his mother on her removal to New 
 Haven, where he attended the public schools for 
 a time. From the age of eight until he was seven- 
 teen he lived in the town of Morris, Litchfield 
 county. He began his business career as a clerk 
 with the firm of Thomson Brothers, grocers and 
 dealers in flour, in State street. New Haven, and 
 in 1873 opened a feed store in Grand avenue, where 
 he continued in business alone until 1880. In 1884 
 he removed to Cheshire, and on disposing of his 
 store in New Haven purchased a part of the Charles 
 Brooks farm, which he now cultivates. He is an 
 enterprising and progressive business man, of 
 known reliability, and the success that has come to 
 him has been worthily achieved. 
 
 On Feb. 22, 1869, in New Haven, Mr. Thomson 
 married Miss Elizabeth Lawton, a native of that 
 city, and a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth 
 (Goodwin) Lawton. Her father, who was also 
 born in New Haven, was editor of the New Haven 
 Morning News, and he also owned a brass foundry 
 in State street, and an iron foundry in Grand ave- 
 nue, manufacturing car wheels. He died in New 
 Haven and his wife is still living. By this union 
 Mr. Thomson had four children, namely: Eliza- 
 beth, wife of John Seymour Dolph, a resident of 
 North Guilford; Jane B., wife of Cornell Green, of 
 South Willington, Conn. ; Edward A., deceased ; and 
 George W., a resident of Hamden, New Haven 
 county. For his second wife Mr. Thomson married 
 Miss Mary Eliza Allen, also a native of New Ha- 
 ven, by whom he has one son, Edward Allen. Mrs. 
 Thomson's parents were Ebenezer and Martha 
 (Bunnell) Allen, the former born in Vermont 
 March 17, 1805, the latter in New Haven March i, 
 1806. They were married in Fair Haven, this 
 county, April 19, 1826, and made their home in 
 New Haven, where the mother died June 5, 1887, 
 the father June 5, 1893, in Pierpont street. By oc- 
 cupation he was a joiner and ship carpenter. He 
 was one of the oldest and best known Freemasons 
 in the State, being a charter meniber of Pulaski 
 Chapter and Crawford Council, and generalissimo 
 of New Haven Commandery, K. T. To him and 
 his wife were born eleven children, namely : Henry, 
 
88o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born Feb. ii, 1827, was in the United States navy, 
 and died Jan. i, 1869 ; Lavina died in infancy ; Sher- 
 man, born Sept. 8, 1830, died Sept. 13, 1830; Sarah, 
 born May I, 1832, died May 7, 1832; Noah L., born 
 Aug. 14, 1833, was also in the navy, and now resides 
 in New Haven; Oliver B., born Jan. 8, 1837, en- 
 listed at New Haven in the 9th Conn. V. I. during 
 the Civil war, remained in the service until its close, 
 and died Sept. 24, 1887 ; Ebenezer G., born Feb. 27, 
 1840, was a lieutenant of Company K, loth Conn. 
 V. L, during the Civil war, and died JMarch 18, 1865, 
 from disease contracted in the service ; Martha, born 
 Aug. 31, 1843, is now Mrs. Starkweather, of Mans- 
 field, Conn.; George B., born Jan. i, 1847, lives in 
 Boston; Ellen J., born Nov. 21, 1849, makes her 
 home in New Haven ; and Mary E., born Aug. 5, 
 1853, is the wife of Mr. Thomson. 
 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Thomson are members of 
 the Episcopal Church of New Haven. They are 
 quite prominent socially in the town where they now 
 reside. As a Republican he has always taken an 
 active interest in political affairs, and is now serving 
 his second term as a justice of the peace, and his 
 sixth year as postmaster at Brooksvale. He is thor- 
 oughly impartial in meting out justice, and has 
 proved a most trustworthy and capable official. 
 
 JAMES AVERY DAVIS. The Davis family 
 of Hamden, New Haven county, at the head of 
 which was the late Edward Davis, whose two sons, 
 William E. and James A., constitute the extensive 
 brick manufacturing firm of W. E. Davis & Co., of 
 New Haven, is a branch of the old Davis fam- 
 ily, of Willington, Connecticut. 
 
 From Avery Davis, a prosperous farmer of Staf- 
 ford, a native of the town of Willington, Tolland 
 county, and a son of Avery Davis, came the mem- 
 bers of that family in Stafford, Hamden and New 
 Haven. Avery Davis married Hannah Tyler, a 
 daughter of Deacon Samuel Lyon, of the same 
 town, and their children were: Charles, Eliza, 
 Mary, Edward, William, Samuel (sketch of whom 
 appears elsewhere) and John. Avery Davis passed 
 his life in agricultural pursuits in Stafford, and 
 there died at the age of seventy-eight years. His 
 youngest son, John, was born in 1826, and married 
 Amelia, daughter of Joseph Allen, of Ellington. 
 He settled in Rockville, where he Joecame a large 
 holder of real estate, over which that city later 
 spread, making him wealthy. Davis avenue there 
 was named for him. The old Davis homestead at 
 Stafford finally fell into his hands, and he long 
 occupied it, engaged in farming. He died in Janu- 
 ary, 1899, in Rockville, where he lived the most of 
 his life. 
 
 Edward' Davis, son of Avery, and the father of 
 William E., James A. and Burton A., was born in 
 1818 in Stafford, and in 1837 established himself on 
 a farm in Flamden, coming to that town with his 
 brother, Samuel. By his upright life and exemp- 
 lary habits he w^n the profound respect of the com- 
 
 munity. He was selectman of the town and asses- 
 sor, and also filled other positions of trust and re- 
 sponsibility. In 1 84 1 he was married to Betsy 
 M. Augur, daughter of James and Almyra (Ford) 
 Augur, and a member of an old New England 
 family. She was born in Whitneyville, and spent 
 her life in that part of Hamden. She early iden- 
 tiiied herself with the Whitneyville Congregational 
 Church, and always took a deep interest in its wel- 
 fare, and lived a busy, useful life, but one which al- 
 ways seemed serene and peaceful. In her later 
 years she became, indeed, "a mother in Israel." 
 She was a constant reader and deep thinker, the 
 subject of temperance and missions being of special 
 interest to her. Thoroughly good and lovable, she 
 left to her children a legacy of precious memories. 
 Her death occurred Aug. 16, 1889, and she was 
 buried in the Whitneyville cemetery by the side of 
 her husband. Children as follows were born to 
 their union: (i) James A., born June 6, 1844, in 
 the town of Hamden, is mentioned farther on. (2) 
 Betsy Maria, born April 12, 1S46, is the wife of 
 George W. Ives, of Hamden, by whom she had. 
 two children, Alfred and Lucy, the latter deceased. 
 (3) William E., born in 1848, married Sophia, 
 Tamblingson, and has three diildren, William Ed- 
 ward, Jr., Jessie and Harold M. (4) Carrie M., 
 born in i860, died at the age of sixteen years;, 
 she was attending the New Haven high school at 
 the time of her decease. (5) Burton A., born 
 Sept. 15, 1862, married Martha E. Augur, and has. 
 one daughter, Marjorie, and one son, Minett. (6) 
 Myra L., born in 1865, married William T. Burton, 
 of Hamdai, and died Feb. i, 1901. She was the 
 mother of John Edward, Ralph William and Don- 
 ald Hepburn. 
 
 After his marriage Edward Davis located on 
 the farm where his son, Burton A., now lives. Al- 
 though he began life a poor boy, with only ac 
 common-school education, he prospered in his un- 
 dertakings, as he was industrious, enterprising and 
 energetic, and he became a large land owner and _ 
 extensive farmer. In fact, he was one of the suc- 
 cessful men of Hamden in his day. During the 
 latter years of his life he devoted his attention . 
 to the dairy business. He was a man of good 
 common sense and sound judgment. When he be- 
 gan life his capital consisted only of energy and 
 business tact, which latter trait was apparent from 
 his youth. He was a disciplinarian, and his man- 
 agement of his affairs, public or private, was such as 
 to secure the best results, for though stern in some 
 respects, he could be indulgent, and was a good 
 judge of human nature. Mr. Davis was well known 
 and his acquaintance included many of the prom- 
 inent men in the business and financial circles of 
 New Haven. He reared aia excellent fam.ily, to 
 whom he left not only a comfortable competence, 
 but a name which can be pointed to with pride. 
 His tastes were domestic, and his heart always 
 in his home and family, and he never sought or 
 
c:i^yV)M 
 
 Qj oU 
 
 'OUM^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 cared for political preferment, taking an interest in 
 politics solely as a public-spirited citizen. He con- 
 tributed liberally to the support of the Whitneyville 
 Congregational Church, of \vhich he was a leading 
 member. 
 
 James A. Davis was reared on the farm, and 
 spent his boyhood and early youth after the fashion 
 of the times, helping in the farm work during the 
 season, and attending school during the winter. 
 His schooling was terminated by a course of study 
 in the private school kept by Prof. Edwin Robbins, 
 in State street, New Haven. In 1872 he became a 
 resident of New Haven, and engaged in con- 
 tract work for private parties as well as for the 
 improvement of the city. After a very few years, 
 in company with his brother, William E., and Will- 
 iam J. Atwater, he established the New Haven Con- 
 crete Co., and for some years pressed the business 
 vigorously. In 1882 the two brothers established 
 the business of the present firm of William E. 
 Davis & Co., beginning the manufacture of brick 
 in the town of Hamden, with an office in Orange 
 street. New Haven. Since that time *-hese gentle- 
 men, through their energy, industry and ability, 
 have secured an extensive patronage throughout 
 this part of the State. They have a large and mod- 
 ern plant, where they make building, face and 
 moulded brick. 
 
 For ten 'years, beginning with 1877, James A, 
 Davis leased and operated the Whitney avenue 
 horse car line. When he took charge he found that 
 it had, in four years of operation, run behind $7,200, 
 but under his management it was soon put upon a 
 paying basis and soon yielded handsome returns. 
 For a period in the eighties he was a member of 
 the firm of C. B. & J. A. Davis, of Holyoke, which 
 had a general contracting business. He is also 
 one of the proprietors of the large horse boarding 
 and sales stables, in Holyoke, Mass., of which C. 
 B. Davis is the manager, and the active member of 
 the firm. 
 
 Mr. Davis in his political views is a loyal Re- 
 publican, but in local matters he selects the best 
 men. He has never sought office. He is a mem- 
 ber of the Union League Club, of New Haven. 
 Mr. Davis has many of the characteristics of his 
 honored father, with whom he was very closely 
 associated. He is a plain-going, out-spoken man, 
 easily understood, detesting deception of any kind. 
 He attends closely to business, yet has enjoyed many 
 pleasure trips to the South and elsewhere with his 
 wife, and has not lived a life of self denial. In 
 disposition jovial and self-reliant, he is one of the 
 best known men in and around New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Davis was married, Jan. 6, 1875, to Sarah 
 Emma Parks, of Bridgeport, Conn., and four chil- 
 dren were born to them: James E. (who died in 
 infancy), Emma, Helen and Howard. Mrs. Davis 
 died Nov. 26, 1896, and Mr. Davis was married, 
 Dec. 29, 1898, to Mrs. Lizzie G. (Dickerman) 
 Dutton, a native of Hamden, and daughter of Al- 
 
 56 
 
 bert and Jeanette (Andrews) Dickerman, coming 
 from one of the oldest and most numerous families- 
 of Hamden. Mr. Davis has a most comfortable 
 home in Orange street. New Haven. In religion 
 he is a Congregationalist, holding membership in. 
 the Whitneyville Church. 
 
 CHARLES H. BRONSON is a native of Wat- 
 erbury, born Oct. 5, 1835, a son of Julius G. and 
 Julia (Newton) Bronson. 
 
 Ebenezer Bronson, the great-grandfather of our 
 subject, located in Waterbury, in pioneer times, and 
 became the owner of a large tract of land in what 
 is now the city itself. He was a life-long farmer.- 
 Amasa Bronson, the grandfather of Charles H., was 
 born in Waterbury in 1765, and died in 1866 at 
 the age of loi years, never having had a sick day^ 
 At the time of his death he was the oldest man in 
 the State. He was a wealthy farmer and owned a 
 large amount of real estate in Waterbury, compris- 
 ing practically all of the western portion of the 
 town. During the Revolutionary war he enlisted in 
 the army, but peace was declared before he had an 
 opportunity for active service. He and his wife, 
 Sarah (Frost) Bronson, who lived to the age of 
 ninety-four years, were members of the Episcopal 
 Church, and very regular attendants. They had cl 
 family of seven children, all now deceased. 
 
 Julius G. Bronson was born and reared in Water- 
 bury, and engaged in farming upon a part of the 
 old homestead. In public affairs he was also prom- 
 inent, holding various offices, and he died at the 
 comparatively early age of fifty-seven. He was a. 
 selectman of the town at one time, and was a lieuten- 
 ant in the State Militia. For many years he was a 
 leading member of St. John's Church. His wife,, 
 Julia Newton, was born in Waterbury, and died in 
 1841, aged thirty-five. She was one of five children 
 of Nathan Newton, who died at forty-three, and 
 his wife, who died at ninety-two years of age.. 
 Charles H. Bronson is one of a family of four chil- 
 dren, the others being as follows : Henry and Du- 
 rand both died young; Samuel M. lives in Flartford, 
 and mention of him will be found elsewhere. 
 Charles H. Bronson received his education in 
 country schools near Waterbury, and when fifteen 
 years old went to Woodbury, Conn., where he entered 
 the employ of the American Shear Co., with whom 
 he remained some six years ; then returned to Wat- 
 erbury, and worked for the Wheeler & Wilson Co.,, 
 one year, after which he was engaged as follows : 
 For two years, along with his brother Samuel ]\I., 
 he operated a gristmill at Oakville, Conn. ; next was 
 with the Adams Express Co. (Waterbury) three 
 years; then three years with J. S. Castle, manufac- 
 turer of soda water, etc. ; after this he was in the 
 employ of the Holmes Booth & Hay dens Mfg. Co. 
 sixteen years ; then was proprietor of a meat market 
 about eighteen months ; after which, along with his 
 son Frank M., he was engaged in the feed business: 
 seven years. In 1893 Mr. Bronson became con- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 nected with the Waterbury Hospital as superintend- 
 ent of the grounds, which position he now holds. 
 
 On June 4, 1857, Mr. Bronson married Helen 
 M. Oviette, of New Milford, who died March 25, 
 1858, aged twenty-one years, the mother of one child 
 that died in infancy. On Oct. 12, 1859, Mr. Bron- 
 son wedded Mary E. Roberts, who was born in 
 Wakefield, N. H., a daughter of Simon and Esther 
 (Nason) Roberts, also natives of New Hampshire. 
 Mrs. Bronson was eleven years old when she came 
 to Connecticut. To our subject and his wife were 
 born six children, as follows : Ellen, Frank M., 
 Carrie, George, Arthur and May. Of these, Ellen 
 died in infancy, George when aged three years ; 
 Frank M. and Arthur are mechanics in Waterbury; 
 Carrie is the wife of Reuben T. Brewer, of Water- 
 bury; May is the wife of Benjamin M. Beebe, en- 
 gaged in the drug business in Bridgeport, Conn. 
 In religious faith the Bronsons have always been 
 Baptists. Fraternally Mr. Bronson is a member of 
 the F. & A. M. ; in politics he is a Republican. 
 
 JUDGE JOHN B. QUILLINAN, late one of 
 Ansonia's leading citizens, was born Dec. 25, 1831, 
 in County Tipperary, Ireland, where his family has 
 resided for generations. They were people of cul- 
 ture, and our subject's grandfather, John Quillinan, 
 was educated in Spain before settling down to life 
 as a farmer at the old home, where he died at the 
 age of sixty-six. Our subject's grandmother, whose 
 maiden name was Elizabeth Dwyer, was born in 
 the same locality and died at the advanced age of 
 ninety-four, leaving a large family of children. 
 
 John Quillinan (2), our subject's father, was 
 born at the old home in Ireland and was educated 
 in France. His death occurred at his native place 
 at the age of thirty-six. He married Miss Johanna 
 Buckley, a native of Ireland, and one of the four 
 children of James Buckley, a well known merchant. 
 She lived to the age of seventy-six and of their four 
 children one is still living: Elizabeth, who married 
 James Reilly. The family have always been con- 
 nected with the Catholic Church. 
 
 The Judge's education was begun in private 
 schools in Ireland with the intention, it is said, of 
 preparing him for the priesthood. When sixteen 
 years old he ran away and came to America, locating 
 in Connecticut in November, 1847. For some time 
 he worked on a farm in Oxford, and in August, 
 1849, he came to Ansonia to work in a brick yard. 
 At the end of the season he returned to Oxford, and 
 for several years he followed farming and brick- 
 making, alternately, according to the demand for 
 labor. In the fall of 1851 he went to New Orleans, 
 and during the following winter he set type in the 
 office of the Point Coupee Echo, published in Point 
 Coupee Parish, La. After his return to Connecticut, 
 in May, 1852, he resumed the work of farming and 
 briclcmaking, but his strong desire for better educa- 
 tion led him to enter, in October, 1854, the New 
 
 York Conference Seminary, at Charlotteville, Scho- 
 harie county, N. Y., a celebrated school which was 
 well patronized by the people of Connecticut. There 
 he had as classmates many of the noted men of to- 
 day, governors, senators, and judges, but he main- 
 tained a high standing among them. At the end of 
 a year he was obliged to return to the farm to re- 
 plenish his funds, and in April, 1856, he entered 
 Fairfield Seminary, in Herkimer county, N. Y.. 
 where he remained three years, supporting himself 
 by working in the hay fields during the summer va 
 cations and teaching in winter. In April, i86o,-he 
 went to Hamden, Conn., to engage in brickmaking, 
 and in the spring of 1864 he returned to Ansonia, 
 where he rebuilt an old and disused brick yard in 
 Beaver street. In October of that year he went to 
 Demerara, British Guiana, to construct a brick yard 
 for other parties, but he returned in the following 
 spring to his interests in Ansonia and Derby, 
 which afterward occupied his attention. On re- 
 tiring from brickmaking in 1867 he engaged in 
 dairy farming and in the wood busmess, and 
 about 1870 he built the first ice house on the 
 site now occupied by the Ansonia Ice Co. He 
 saw the growth of the town from a population of 
 1,300 to 13,000, being one of the oldest residents 
 and when he built his residence on Beaver street 
 near the present ice house there was but one 
 house near. In the work of the organization and 
 development of the town he took an active and in- 
 fluential part. From 1867 he was almost continu- 
 ously in office, and he served thirteen years as clerk 
 of the 4th school district, known as the North End, 
 seven years as burgess of the borough, three years 
 as warden, four years as collector of taxes, and at 
 different times has been a grand juror. In 1868 h- 
 was elected one of the assessors of the town of 
 Derby, Sturges Whitlock and the late Watrous 
 Wakelee being the others. In 1876 he was elected 
 judge of probate for the district of Derby for the 
 term of two years, and in 1887 he was elected first 
 selectman and town agent for the old town of Derby. 
 He had a legal turn of mind and studied law, al- 
 though he never applied for admission at the Bar, 
 and for a great many years he held the office of jus- 
 tice of the peace, having at one time tried most of 
 the cases arising in Ansonia, both civil and criminal. 
 In the settlement of estates, and work of a similar 
 nature, he also won a high reputation. He took 
 keen interest in educational affairs, and was chair- 
 man of the committee that built the present high 
 school building, one of the finest in the State. The 
 Judge was a Democrat until 1882, when he found 
 that he could no longer act with a party advocating 
 a tariff that he considered practically free trade. In 
 1884 he stumped the State for James G. Blaine 
 speaking thirty-one times during the campaign, and 
 he was ever after a firm supporter of the principles 
 of the Republican party. 
 
 In 1858 the Judge married Miss Betsy Leek, a 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 883 
 
 native of Hamden, where her ancestors were pioneer 
 settlers. Her father, Michael Leek, who lived to the 
 age of ninety, was a farmer by occupation and spent 
 his life hi New Haven county with the exception oj; 
 four years' residence in Michigan. Her mother, 
 whose maiden name was Amanda Sperry, was born 
 in Bethany, and lived to the age of sixty^four. Mrs. 
 Quillinan was one of a family of three children, -but 
 she is now the only survivor. Three children were 
 born to her marriage with our subject; but all died 
 in infancy. Socially the Judge was highly esteemed, 
 and he was for many years an active member of the 
 Episcopal Church of which his widow is also a com- 
 municant. His death occurred Sept. 13, 1900. 
 
 HENRY COTE, of Mixville, is an important 
 factor in the business circles of his locality, and his 
 popularity in Cheshire is well deserved, as in him 
 are embraced the characteristics of an unbending in- 
 tegrity, unabated industry and energy that never 
 flags. He is engaged in the manufacture of light 
 hardware, and is at the head of one of the leading 
 industries of the town. 
 
 Mr. Cote was 'born in St. Hyacinthe, Canada, in 
 1833, a son of John and Cecelia (Vincent) Cote, 
 also natives of that country. The father, who was 
 a joiner by trade, was accidentally killed in his na- 
 tive land Nov. 20, 1880. Of their eleven children 
 only five are now living. At the age of four years 
 Henry Cote was taken to Vermont, where he made 
 his home until coming to Cheshire, at the age of 
 sixteen years, arriving here in September, 1849. 
 The same year Mr. Cote entered the employ of John 
 W. Mix, for whom he worked until 1876, when he 
 became a member of the firm of J. W. Mix & Co. 
 The building which formerly occupied the site of 
 our subject's present factory, was erected by Mr. 
 Mix in 1849, and the following year the John Mix 
 Manufacturing Co. was organized. In 1876 the 
 name was changed to the J. W. Mix & Co. Edge 
 Tool Co., the members of the firm being J. W. Mix, 
 William Bailey and Henry Cote, our subject, who 
 carried on business until 1884, when the machinery 
 was sold to the Peck, Stow & Wilcox Co., and 
 moved to Southington, Conn. Mr. Cote continued 
 to own the building, and in 1891 he re-opened the 
 shop and resumed business, but finally, in 1893 
 leased the property to A. T. Bishop, of Southington. 
 The old building was burned Nov. 16, 1893, and the 
 following year he erected the one he now occupies, 
 a good frame structure, 22x60 feet in dimensions. 
 The plant is equipped with good new machinery, 
 and employment is given to from five to seven men, 
 manufacturing all kinds of light hardware, ferrules, 
 bicycle attachments, knife sharpeners, etc. During 
 his residence here Mr. Cote has steadily prospered, 
 and besides his business property, he owns a good 
 farm of forty acres in Cheshire, devoting a part of 
 his time to agriculture. 
 
 On Jan. 3, 1853, Mr. Cote married Miss Maria 
 
 S Talmadge, a daughter of James and Sylvina 
 (Russell) Talmadge, who were born in Cheshire, 
 of English and Irish ancestry. The father died 
 there m 1855, the mother in 1897. The other chil- 
 dren of their family were Hannah, who married 
 Reuben Benham, and died in Birmingham, Conn., in 
 1881 ; and Justus and Jesse, twins, both of whom 
 died m 1853, the former Aug. 16, and the latter July 
 17. Mr. and Mrs. Cote have had four children, 
 three of whom are still living: Eddie, who is mar- 
 ried and resides in Watefbury, Conn. ; Emma, Mrs. 
 Culver, who makes her home in New Haven ; and 
 Frederick, married and living in Pittsburg, p'enn., 
 where he is superintendent of some department in 
 the employ of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. For 
 some time he was secretary of the Y. M. C. A. work 
 in New Haven; later at different places in North 
 Carolina ; and was then secretary at Bellefonte, Pa., 
 from which place he went to Pittsburg, to enter 
 upon his present duties. 
 
 SILAS NOEL EDMONDS, now living a re-' 
 tired life in Wallingford, was during his active years 
 one of the best known men in the employ of the 
 New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, and 
 faithfully served the company for forty years as 
 station agent in Wallingford. Belonging to old 
 Southern stock, he possesses the genial and hospit- 
 able spirit to be expected from such notable ances- 
 try. Mr. Edmonds was born in the town of West- 
 moreland, Westmoreland Co., Va., Feb. 23, 1828. 
 The Edmonds family is of English origin, and in 
 the mother country its various members were prom- 
 inent people, and held important positions under 
 the Crown. 
 
 Amos Edmonds, the first of the name in Amer- 
 ica, was a native of Manchester, England, where he 
 was high sheriff under the king. Coming to Amer- 
 ica, he located in Westmoreland county, Va., and be- 
 came a large landed proprietor and an extensive 
 slave owner. 
 
 Vincent Edmonds, the grandfather of Silas N., 
 was a planter of extensive means, and was overseer 
 of the plantation of Gen. Washington, their land 
 adjoining. Vincent Edmonds ,f ought in the Revo- 
 lution in the regiment which was under command 
 of Gen. Langdon, and was an officer in the army. 
 When peace returned he resumed his tranquil life 
 on the Westmoreland plantation, where he lived and 
 died. In politics he was a Federalist, and in relig- 
 ion a Baptist. Twice married, he was the father of 
 five children : Meredith, New Year, Julia, Frances 
 and John, all of whom died in Virginia. 
 
 Meredith Edmonds, father of Silas N., was born 
 on the Edmonds plantation in Westmoreland county, 
 and was reared and educated on the paternal home- 
 stead. For a number of years he followed the sea, 
 and, locating at Alexandria, Va., was captain and 
 part owner of a vessel which was engaged in the 
 West Indies trade. A slave owner by inheritance. 
 
884 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 he never sold or bought slaves, and gave them all 
 their freedom when of age. Taking a deep interest 
 in the cause of education, he was himself one of the 
 finest mathematicians in the State of Virginia. He 
 died in 1843, in Alexandria, where he was buried. 
 He held Democratic convictions, but had no aspira- 
 tions for political honors or emoluments of official 
 station. Meredith Edmonds married in Westmore- 
 land county Mary Cauthern, a native of that county, 
 and to their union were born eight children : ( i ) 
 Roberta married Charles B.Miller, and is now living 
 in Palo Alto, Cal; (2) Frances (now deceased) mar- 
 ried Capt. John Kendrick, who preceded her to the 
 grave; (3) Jane A. married John H. Parr, and both 
 died in Baltimore; (4) Silas Noel is mentioned be- 
 low; (5) Albert died in Ohio; (6) Henry died in 
 Baltimore; (7) James is in the United States navy, 
 and was in the late Spanish war; (8) Milton died in 
 the Civil war while serving under Gen. McClellan. 
 Mrs. Edmonds died in Washington in December, 
 1845. She was a member of the Baptist Church, 
 and a woman of the most estimable character. 
 
 Silas Noel Edmonds attended the city schools of 
 Alexandria, and was only fifteen years old when his 
 father died. The following year he removed to 
 Baltimore, where he served an apprenticeship at the 
 carpenter's trade with Charles W^bb, a contract 
 builder of that city, remaining with him until he 
 came of age. Young Edmonds had nothing with 
 which to face the world except his trade. In 1849 
 he came to Wallingford, and worked at his trade 
 for five years, building in that time several of the 
 more pretentious homes of the town. In 1855 he 
 went to Georgetown, S. C, and built one of the 
 largest and stateliest homes in that part of the State. 
 In 1856 he came back to Wallingford, and was ap- 
 pointed station agent of the Hartford & New Haven 
 Railroad, and at the same time was made agent of 
 the Adams Express Co. For over forty years he 
 filled these positions of trust and responsibility with 
 satisfaction to the company and the public, as well 
 as with credit to himself. During these years he 
 witnessed the growth of a small railroad to the great 
 corporation now known as the New York, New Fla- 
 ven & Hartford Railroad. In the beginning only 
 one man was employed about the depot, now there 
 are fifteen. Mr. Edmonds superintended the con- 
 struction of his own depot, freight house and other 
 buildings, and during forty years took only one va- 
 cation. He was retired by the company at his own 
 request, in consideration of his long and devoted 
 services. 
 
 Mr. Edmonds was married in 1852 to Miss 
 Seraphina Reynolds, who was born in Wallingford, 
 daughter of Judge John D. and Lydia (Scarrett) 
 Reynolds. Her father was a judge of probate in 
 the towns of Wallingford, Branford and Cheshire, 
 and was the son of Hezekiah Reynolds, well known 
 to the last generation. 
 
 Mr. Edmonds belongs to the Blue lodge, hold- 
 
 ing membership in Compass Lodge, F. & A. M. He 
 attends the Episcopal Church, in which he has 
 served as vestryman. He is one of the oldest Demo- 
 crats of Wallingford, and has served on the school 
 board for five years. He was a member of the build- , 
 ing committee when the high school was erected, and 
 did valuable service in that connection. For two 
 years he was a member of the court of burgesses. 
 
 LOREN RUSSELL CARTER, prominent in 
 real estate business, fire insurance, loans, etc., Wat- 
 erbury, is a native of Connecticut, born Oct. 16, 
 1854, in Warren, Litchfield county. 
 
 Russell Carter, his father, was of the same na- 
 tivity, born in 1792, a son of Buel Carter, who 
 was born in 1766 in Warren, Conn., a son of Sam- 
 uel (born in Hebron, Conn.), a son of Thomas 
 Sr. (born in 1684, in Woburn, Mass.), a son of 
 Thomas (born in England.) Of these, Samuel 
 (great-grandfather of Loren R.) and his two 
 brothers, Thomas and Joseph, all served in the 
 Revolutionary war. This same Samuel Carter mar- 
 ried on May 4, 1759, Martha Buel, of Litchfield, 
 Conn., and settled on a farm in Warren, where they 
 reared a family of eleven children; he represented 
 Warren in the State Legislature in 1788 and 1797. 
 
 Buel Carter, grandfather of Loren R., was 
 reared on the home farm in Warren, Conn., and 
 died) there in 1856. He married_Eunice Peck, and 
 by her had three children: (i) Martha (now de- 
 ceased) married Burton Gilbert, a merchant, who 
 accumulated considerable means. (2) Loraine mar- 
 ried George Starr, a son of Rev. Peter Starr, who 
 for fifty years was a minister of the Congregational 
 Church in Warren ; George Starr was a farmer and 
 died in Warren. (3) Russell was the youngest. 
 
 Russell Carter, father of our subject, was a 
 farmer in Warren, Conn., thence moving to Water- 
 bury in 1856, where he died in 1870. He was twice 
 married, first to Rebecca Stone, by whom he had 
 two children, Buel and Harriet, of whom Buel died 
 in May, 19CX), in Warren, on the old homestead — 
 the dwelling having been built about one hundred 
 years ago; and Harriet (now deceased) married 
 Charles V. Molthrop. Russell Carter married (sec- 
 ond) Laura Hills, a daughter of John Hills (who 
 was born in Glastonbury, Conn., and was a farmer 
 by occupation) and his wife, Esther Hale (also of 
 Glastonbury, and a collateral relative of Nathan 
 Hale, of Revolutionary fame). Three children 
 were born to this union, viz. : Rebecca, who died 
 at the age of sixteen years ; Loren R., our subject ; 
 Eleanor, who died when five years old. The mother 
 is still living, now aged seventy-seven years, and 
 makes her home in Waterbury, with her son, Loren 
 R. Russell Carter was in politics a Democrat, and 
 he represented the town of Warren in the State 
 Legislature several times ; was also a selectman — 
 in fact held most of the town offices, being prom- 
 inently identified with the place. 
 
 Loren R. Carter, the subject proper of this 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 !5 
 
 memoir, was about eighteen months old when his 
 parents came to Waterbury, and here he attended 
 the public schools, Wesleyan Academy and East- 
 man Business College. Laying aside his books, he 
 was with F. L. Allen, hardware merchant. Water- 
 bury, for some time, and then commenced building 
 houses in the western part of the city, in 1892 tak- 
 ing up the business of real-estate, fire insurance, 
 loans, etc. He is owner of considerable improved 
 real estate in the town and city of Waterbury. 
 
 On Sept. 20, 1879, Loen R. Carter married 
 Irene E. Hendrick, of Waterbury, a daughter of 
 Joseph Hendrick, a native of New York city, whose 
 father was born in England. Three children have 
 been born to Mr. and Mrs. Carter: L. Russell, 
 who is attending Yale College, Academic depart- 
 ment; Earl Buel and Ethel L. In religious faith 
 our subject and his wife are Baptists ; in politics he 
 is a Republican; and socially, he is affiliated with 
 Townsend Lodge, No. 89, I. O. O. F. 
 
 GEORGE W. DIVINE (deceased). In every 
 community there dwell men who rise by their own 
 inherent ability to a recognized position as leaders 
 in the social, intellectual and political life of the 
 people. In the town of Seymour, the estimable busi- 
 ness man whose name appears above, for many 
 years took an active part in public affairs, wielding 
 a wide influence for the general welfare, shaping 
 and directing opinion by his clear insight into events 
 and by his unflagging devotion to those causes 
 which he believed essential to the public weal. 
 
 Mr. Divine was born in Newburgh, Orange Co., 
 N. Y., Feb. 5, 1822, a son of Henry and Phoebe 
 (Tilton) Divine, and grandson of Samuel Divine, 
 who reared a large family and passed the declining 
 years of his life in Sullivan county, N. Y. Henry 
 Divine, the father of our subject, was born in New- 
 burgh, N. Y., and acquired the blacksmith trade 
 which he followed until his death at the age of 
 thirty-eight years. His wife, Phoebe Tilton, was 
 an aunt of Theodore Tilton, and was born in Sulli- 
 van county, N. Y., a daughter of Joseph Tilton, 
 who served through the Revolutionary war on the 
 staff of Gen. Washington. Like her husband, she 
 died in middle life, at the age of thirty-nine years. 
 They were members of the Baptist Church. To 
 Henry and Phoebe Divine were horn seven children, 
 two of whom, Mrs. G. Leavenworth, of Seymour, 
 and Mrs. Phoebe Blake, of North Haven, are yet 
 living. 
 
 George W. Divine was reared at Newburgh. 
 At the age of eighteen years he enlisted in the 2nd 
 United States Infantry, and served five years, par- 
 ticipating in the Seminole war. He followed brick 
 making at North Haven, Conn., for a time, then en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of bits at Hamden and 
 later at Humphreysville, now Seymour. About 
 1853 he removed to Millville, Rensselaer Co., N. 
 Y., where he lived four years. During that time 
 he was actively engaged in politics, and was elected 
 
 justice of the peace. Returning to Seymour he con- 
 tinued bit making, and also the manufacture of edge 
 tools until his death, April 18, 1887, at the age of 
 sixty-five years. He was a skilled mechanic and 
 was especially expert in operating the trip hammer, 
 with which he manufactured bits. Mr. Divine pos- 
 sessed a judicial turn of mind, and for twelve years 
 served as justice of the peace. He also transacted 
 a large amount of legal business. He was a thor- 
 oughly informed man and was active in public af- 
 fairs. He was elected in 1879 a member of the 
 State Legislature, serving with credit to himself 
 and to the complete satisfaction of his constituents. 
 Among the local offices which he filled were select- 
 man and grand juror. He was an eloquent speaker, 
 convincing in argument, and conducted at one time 
 in Westville a series of debates, which lasted four- 
 teen weeks. In religious faith he was a zealous 
 member of the Disciple Church. For six years he 
 was captain of the Humphreysville Grays, and dur- 
 ing the Civil war he raised two companies ; one un- 
 der Capt. William Wyant, became a part of the 5th 
 regiment, and the other under Capt. W. Smith, a 
 part of the 20th regiment. He also drilled many 
 companies, preparatory to their active service in 
 the field. 
 
 On Nov. 28, 1847, Mr. Divine married Miss 
 Martha G. Bassett, a native of Humphreysville, now 
 Seymour, daughter of Abel and Martha (Peck) 
 Bassett and granddaughter of Abraham Bassett, who 
 was a soldier in the. Revolutionary war. Abel Bas- 
 sett was a carpenter and millwright by trade, and 
 spent his entire life at Seymour. He was a soldier 
 in the war of 1812. To himself and wife were born 
 nine children, of whom two are living, Julia A. 
 (Clark), and the widow of our subject, who is the 
 youngest of the family. Abel and Martha Peck 
 were members of the Episcopal Church. He died 
 March 23, 1864, aged seventy-seven years, and his 
 wife Sept. 6, 1850, aged fifty-seven years. To our 
 subject and his wife were born two children. Julia 
 A. married Willard G. Mitchell, who was a 
 soldier in the Civil war, a member of Company A, 
 52d Mass. V I., and who died Aug. 22, 1876. His 
 widow now makes her home with her mother. 
 
 George A. Divine, the other child of George 
 W. and Martha Divine, was born Sept. 6, 1850, in 
 Seymour, where he was reared and educated, and 
 where he spent most of his years. He is a skillful 
 musician and in that profession he has traveled quite 
 extensively. He was with P. T. Barnum one sum- 
 mer, and has played with Washburn and a number 
 of other noted persons. He is a leader of the band 
 and is a skillful player of the cornet, bass viol and 
 the violin. He transposes music rapidly, and is a 
 member of the Concordia Singing Society, and has 
 played with the Second Regiment Band. In politics 
 George A. Divine is a Republican, and in October, 
 1898, he was elected selectman, acting as first se- 
 lectman; he is now serving his third term, having 
 been re-elected in October, 1900, and again in 1901. 
 
886 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 He is a member of Morning Star Lodge, F. & A. 
 M., at Seymour, and a charter member of the Non- 
 nawank Lodge, Red Men. He is afifihated with the 
 Knights of Pythias, of which he is treasurer, and 
 is a member of the Citizens Hook & Ladder Co. He 
 married, Jan. 13, 1873, Jennie E. Short, who was 
 born in Derby, daughter of Ephraim Short, a black- 
 smith of that town. 
 
 Both Mrs. Martha Divine and her daughter, 
 Mrs. Mitchell, have been active and prominent mem- 
 bers of the Eastern Star for twenty-seven years. 
 They are also members of the Amaranth Society, 
 and of the Bassett Family Association. They are 
 members of the Disciple Church, and among the 
 leading social families of Seymour. 
 
 Jason Bassett, a brother of Mrs. Divine, was a 
 builder and architect of rare ability. He erected 
 the Episcopal churches at Hartford, Naugatuck and 
 Huntington before he was twenty-one years old. 
 He followed his profession at New York and later 
 at Rochester, where he made the specifications for 
 the handsome court house in that city. He removed 
 to ButTalo, and had there designed and constructed 
 some of its more elegant structures when his useful 
 and brilliant career was cut short in 1850, at the 
 age of forty-four years. Another brother, David 
 Bassett, settled at Racine, Wis., where he bought 
 land, cleared it, erected the first water wheel there, 
 and became one of its most prominent citizens. He 
 died in California in 1853. 
 
 JUDGE GEORGE DeFOREST BISSELL, 
 who is now living a retired life in Naugatuck, was 
 born in Torrington, this State, April 24, 1828, and 
 is a representative of a good old Colonial family. 
 His grandfather, Elisha Bissell, was born in Spring- 
 field, Mass., in 1743, and died in 1808 in Torring- 
 ton. He married Roxy Bissell, and located at 
 Windsor Hill, Conn., where they reared a family of 
 five children, namely: Seth, born in 1782, lived in 
 Windsor, and died in 1798; Elisha, born in 1787, 
 died in 181 1 ; Roxy, born in 1788, married Richard 
 Bristol, a farmer of Harwinton, Conn., and died in 
 1846; George, the father of our subject, was next 
 in order of birth; and Sila, born in 1793, married 
 Erastus Hodges, of Torrington, and (second) Ru- 
 fus Pickett, of Morris, and died in 1869. 
 
 George Bissell, our subject's father, was born 
 in Windsor Hill, in 1790, and there grew to man- 
 hood. He married Sarah Woodruff, of Torring- 
 ton. Her father, John WoodruiT, was a native of 
 Oxford, and was a farmer by occupation ; he served 
 as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and saw 
 Major Andre executed. After their marriage Mr. 
 and Mrs. Bissell located in Torrington, where the 
 father was first engaged in farming and later in 
 tanning, so continuing until his death, April 19, 
 1835. His wife, who long survived him, passed 
 away Sept. 4, 1894. They had but two children, 
 the older being Sarah A., who was born July 7, 
 
 1824, and died unmarried, Sept. 8, 1898. In politics 
 the father was a Whig, and in religious belief both 
 he and his wife were Congregationalists. 
 
 George DeForest Bissell was seven years of age 
 when, with his mother, he removed to Litchfield, 
 Conn., where he was reared and educated. In early 
 life he engaged in farming and school teaching, 
 and then went to Rock Island, 111., where he clerked 
 in a commission house for three years. Returning 
 to Litchfield, Conn., in 1859, he was engaged in 
 clerking there until 1863, when he went to New 
 Haven and was employed as clerk in the "Tremont 
 House" for three years. At the end of that time 
 he entered the office of the probate judge at Hart- 
 ford, and remained there for three years. In 1869 
 he came to Naugatuck, where he served as book- 
 keeper and secretary of the Tuttle Manufacturing 
 Co., for about seventeen years, or until appointed 
 postmaster at that place. He assumed the duties of 
 that office April i, 1887, and capably discharged the 
 same for two years and a half, since which time he 
 has lived retired. 
 
 On June 5, 1870, Judge Bissell married Miss Lil- 
 lian Adella Clarke, of Prospect, Conn., a daughter 
 of Sela Clarke, and they have one son, George De 
 Forest, Jr. They attend the Congregational Church, 
 and are held in high regard by all who know them. 
 Fraternally the Judge is a member of Shepherd's 
 Lodge, No. 78, A. F. & A. M., of Naugatuck; and 
 politically, he is a stanch supporter of the Demo- 
 cratic party. He was the first warden of Nauga- 
 tuck ; has served as selectman ; was town clerk for 
 about six years; and judge of probate four years. 
 He has been found true to every trust reposed in 
 him, and has made a most efficient and popular 
 officer. 
 
 ENSIGN NORTHROP, an honored veteran of 
 the Civil war, has been for many years a resident 
 of Waterbury, where he has established an envia- 
 ble reputation for himself both as a man of unques- 
 tioned probity and as a skilled worker, connected 
 with one of the largest industrial establishments of 
 that busy city. 
 
 Mr. Northrop was born in Chili, Monroe Co.,. 
 N. Y., March 13, 1834, son of Miles Northrop, who 
 was born in Cornwall, Conn., July 20, 1805, and 
 died in Orleans county, N. Y., in 1891. Miles 
 Northrop left home at the age of sixteen, and what 
 knowledge is now obtainable of his parentage and 
 ancestry is very obscure. He went into Genesee 
 county, N. Y., at that time far from the old home, 
 not only in distance but in the time necessary to 
 cover it. There was little communication, and the 
 young man drifted away from all intimate touch 
 with his family. He learned the cooper's trade, and 
 worked at same in Genesee, Monroe and Orleans 
 counties, N. Y. He married Eliza Ensign, who 
 was born in Sheffield, Mass., a daughter of Freeman 
 Ensign, and died in Orleans county, N. Y., in 1890 ; 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 887 
 
 she was about a year older than her hus'band. The 
 Ensigns were long settled in Massachusetts, and 
 were of French extraction. Miles Northrop' was 
 the father of nine children : George was a farmer 
 in New York, and later removed to Florida where 
 he died. Emeline married Edwin Hinche, a cooper 
 in Chautauqua county, N. Y., and is now deceased. 
 Sarah is the wife of George Phillips, a Genesee 
 county farmer. Warren is a farmer in Orleans 
 county. Ensign is our subject. Betsy married 
 Henry Pierce (who died in the Civil war), and is 
 now deceased. Mary married George Oswell, and 
 they are living in Cherry Creek, N. Y. Ellen mar- 
 ried Henry Hale, and they live in Michigan. Es- 
 ther died unmarried. 
 
 Ensign Northrop lived in Genesee county, N. 
 Y., until he was twenty-two years of age, and then 
 engaged in farming in Chautauqua county. At 
 the breaking out of the Civil war he enlisted in 
 Company K, 112th N. Y. V. I., serving three years, 
 and seeing much active duty. He was a faithful 
 soldier, and made a record of which he may be 
 justly proud. In 1869 he went into Virginia to try 
 northern farming in the South, but the result of 
 the experiment was not encouraging, and in the 
 spring of 1870, returning North, he located at Wat- 
 erbury, where his home has been to the present time. 
 Mr. Northrop entered the employ of the Scovill 
 Manufacturing Co. in 1870, and is still with them. 
 For twenty-seven years he has been engaged in saw- 
 ing brass on the same machine. 
 
 Mr. Northrop and Miss Eunice Hinche were 
 married Sept. 20, 1855. Mrs. Northrop was born 
 in Chili, Monroe Co., N. Y., daughter of Joseph 
 Hinche, a farmer, and is of French extraction. To 
 this union were born three children : Miles, who 
 died at the age of fourteen ; Charles, a foreman in 
 the White Dental Works, at Princess Bay, Staten 
 Island ; and Anna, wife of Edward Smith, of Naug- 
 atuck, Conn., a contractor and builder of more than 
 local standing. Mr. Northrop is a Republican, and 
 is a member of Wadhams Post, G. A. R. Since early 
 youth he has been a member of the Baptist Church. 
 
 JOHN M. REDSHAW, the father of Samuel 
 G. Redshaw, was born in Leeds, England, and re- 
 mained in his native country, following- the business 
 of a cloth manufacturer, until after his marriage. 
 When he came to this country he settled in Derby, 
 where he resumed his trade, and followed it for 
 some years in connection with the firm of Plumb 
 & Beach. Mr. Plumb finally came to Ansonia, ancl 
 started a business in this city under the name of 
 Plumb & Co., John M. Redshaw being the "com- 
 pany." When the establishment passed into the 
 hands of a stock company, Mr. Redshaw remained 
 as a stockholder and superintendent of a depart- 
 ment as long as the business was continued. He 
 lived retired from active labor for a time before 
 his death, on Feb. 3, 1899, at the age of seventy-nine 
 
 years. He married Sarah Gaunt, who was born 
 in the same town as her husband, a daughter of 
 Samuel Gaunt, and they had five children, three ofl 
 whom are living: Moses W. living in Bridgeport, 
 Conn. Samuel G. is mentioned below; and Joseph, 
 who lives in West Haven. The father was a well- 
 known and active member of the community in his 
 time. He came to Ansonia about 1844, and saw it 
 change from a farming community to a great indus- 
 trial center. Fraternally he was a Mason, and was 
 enrolled in George Washington Lodge, A. F. & A. 
 M., Mt. Vernon Chapter, R. A. M., and other Ma- 
 sonic organizations. He belonged to the Congre- 
 gational Church. John M. Redshaw's only brother, 
 Thomas M., served in the Union army during the 
 Civil war, and was killed in the battle of Gettys- 
 burg, and Thomas M. Redshaw Post, G. A. R., at 
 Ansonia, commemorates his name. 
 
 Samuel G. Redshaw was born in Ansonia, 
 Conn., July 27, 1849, and there he spent his early 
 life in attendance upon the local schools. On reach- 
 ing manhood he entered the woolen mill, and after 
 a time bought out the box factory of A. B. Hen- 
 dricks, carrying on the business in a small way, 
 without the aid of machinery, and employing only 
 three girls. By close attention and the constant ef- 
 fort to please his patrons he has steadily increased 
 his trade. On July i, 1896, he became the owner 
 of the factory in Derby, and working the two to- 
 gether he doubled his output, but he sold the latter 
 in November, 1899, removing part of the machinery 
 to his plant in Ansonia. His trade is strictly local, 
 and the danand crowds the productive power of his 
 business to the utmost. 
 
 Mr. Redshaw was married in 1877 to Amelia 
 Lawton, a daughter of Lewis Lawton, who lived in 
 Winsted, and was a spinner by trade. Mrs. Red- 
 shaw is one of a family of four children. Her par- 
 ents are both deceased, both passing away at the 
 age of sixty-nine years, and within a month of one 
 another. They were members of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Redshaw have two sons: John 
 Lewis, the elder, is a stenographer and book-keeper 
 for his father. Charles Joseph, the younger boy, 
 is fitting himself for college. 
 
 Mr. Redshaw is a Republican in politics, but has 
 refused all propositions to accept local offices. Long 
 ago he united with the Masonic fraternity, being 
 now a veteran Mason, and holding membership in 
 Washington Lodge, A. F. & A. M., the chapter, R. 
 A. M., New Haven Commandery, and Pryamid 
 Temple of the Mystic Shrine, having progressed as 
 far as the 32d degree. He has held all the offices 
 in the Blue Lodge, and those up to master in the 
 chapter. He is also a member of the Eastern Star, 
 of which he was grand patron of the State in 1898, 
 in that year making more than forty official visits, 
 calling on every chapter in the State. Mr. Redshaw 
 is also a veteran Odd Fellow, being enrolled in 
 
888 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Naugatuck Lodge, No. 63, where he has filled all 
 the offices ; in Hope Encampment, No. 26, of which 
 he is past chief patriarch ; and in the Grand En- 
 campment. He is connected with the A. O. U. W. 
 and the Improved Order of Heptasophs. For 
 twenty-five years Mr. Redshaw has been a member 
 of Eagle Hose Co., No. 6. He and all his family are 
 members of Christ Church. 
 
 FREDERICK WILLIAM BROCKSIEPER 
 (deceased). The country that has produced a Bis- 
 marck and a Schiller, a Von Moltke and a Goethe, 
 has contributed in no small way to the best develop- 
 ment of America, for the habits of industry, the 
 stern self-denial, the sterling integrity and the 
 faculty of true enjoyment and cheerful living are 
 characteristic of the German race, and this com- 
 bination forms a citizen of value to any country. 
 A native of the , Fatherland, Frederick William 
 Brocksieper was one of the best known and most 
 highly respected citizens of North Haven, Connec- 
 ticut. 
 
 Frederick W. Brocksieper, Sr., his father, was 
 born in Iserlohn, in the northern part of West- 
 phalia, Germany, where he engaged in the manu- 
 facture of hardware very extensively, being the first 
 manufacturer of screws in that country. A thrifty 
 and industrious man, he never gave up labor until 
 within three days of his demise, which occurred 
 when he was eighty years old. He married Anna 
 Maria Grueber, a native of Westphalia, the daugh- 
 ter of a learned man of that country, and the fam- 
 ily born to this union consisted of five children : 
 Helena married in Germany, and came to America, 
 her husband locating in Posey county, Ind. ; Theo- 
 dore, a scholarly man, speaking and writing six 
 languages, died in Germany from over-study ; 
 Elizabeth married and lives in Germany ; Frederick 
 W. is mentioned below ; Moritz remained in Ger- 
 many, where he is a skilled mechanic and engraver. 
 
 Frederick W. Brocksieper was born July 25, 1826, 
 in Iserlohn, Westphalia, Germany, and was given 
 excellent educational advantages. At the age of 
 eighteen years he was apprenticed to an engraver 
 and modeler, where he was taught mechanical draw- 
 ing, remaining in the employ of the same engraver 
 for a number of years. However, he began to feel 
 a desire to see more of the world, and the land 
 across the Atlantic seemed to possess untold attrac- 
 tions, hence the year 1849 found him on a sailing- 
 vessel from Bremen, on his way to the United 
 States. This vessel was a new one, requiring some 
 work upon it when the time set for starting ar- 
 rived, but the passengers were not willing to wait 
 longer and volunteered to make the finishing- 
 touches themselves, in order to get under way. Our 
 subject so impressed his companions with his super- 
 ior knowledge of mechanics that he was unanimous- 
 ly elected leader, and the tedium of the long voyage 
 was relieved for him b\' painting the vessel as it 
 ploughed the water. It required much stamina to 
 
 land in a strange country, with limited means and 
 the necessity of facing a new language and new 
 customs, but the courage that made him finish the 
 "Elbe," when already floated, finally brought him 
 employment, and he went to work making dies and 
 patterns in the iron foundry of James Beebe & Co., 
 on the corner of Central and Reed streets. New 
 York City. This concern afterward became a very 
 wealthy one, and they were the first range makers 
 in the United States, the Beebe range being the 
 most successful attempt in that kind of modern 
 stoves. Going to New Britain, Mr. Brocksieper 
 there engaged as a contractor with Peck & Walter, 
 manufacturers of house and builders' hardware. 
 The establishment passed into the hands of J. B. 
 Sargent, still later to J. B. Sargent & Co., and at 
 present Sargent & Co., and is now one of the largest 
 manufactories in the country, the line of manufac- 
 ture now including locks, builders' and harness 
 hardware, in connection with former lines. When 
 the business was removed to New Haven Mr. 
 Brocksieper remained with them, and until Septem- 
 ber, 1899, he so continued in their factory, but at 
 that time he concluded that a faithful service of 
 fifty-one years entitled him to take the remainder 
 of his life at ease, and with regret parted with his 
 employers, who had also been personal friend.s. 
 He passed away at his home in Montowese, April 
 27, 1900. 
 
 When Mr. Brocksieper retired from the factory 
 he was the oldest employe, having been a witness 
 of its growth from infancy to sturdy maturity. 
 The first firm consisted of Mr. Sargent as president 
 and treasurer, and Mrs. Sargent as secretary, with 
 Mr. Brocksieper as superintendent. That the long 
 and faithful connection was appreciated by Mr, 
 Sargent has been shown in many ways, perhaps in 
 none more happily than in the presentation of a 
 unique, valuable and beautiful work of art which 
 now adorns the late home of our subject. While 
 traveling in China, in 1887, Mr. Sargent purchased 
 a beautiful painting, on rice paper, representing the 
 native insects and butterflies of China, a work of 
 art exquisite in design and workmanship. While 
 this gift was valued for its beauty, Mr. Brock- 
 sieper attached still more value to the inscription 
 which was placed upon it by Mr. Sargent, viz. : 
 "Canton, China, Oct. 1st, 1887, Annual Moon-day. 
 To show that my long-time and true friend is in my 
 memory forever, I purchase these four pictures of 
 Chinese insect life for F. W. Brocksieper. J. B. 
 Sargent." 
 
 In 1869 Mr. Brocksieper came with his family 
 to Montowese, Conn., making their suminer home 
 at that place, spending their winters in the city. 
 In the beautiful family lot is erected a monument in 
 memory of the wife and mother who made a home 
 wherever she was, but who passed away Dec. 10, 
 1898. In. New York Mr. Brocksieper married An- 
 toinette Hoelscher, a native of Elberfeld, Rhine- 
 land, Germany, born Nov. 2, 1828, and to her lie 
 
i^^^^^^'i^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 889 
 
 attributed much of his success in life, and her de- 
 voted family will ever feel the value of her life of 
 kindness, sympathy and encouragement. The fol- 
 lowing named children were born to this union: 
 Antoinette, who married Francis T. Busse, is now 
 deceased; Adrienne, born in 1851, died in the same 
 year; Frederick W. married Adella J. Moulthrop, 
 and now lives in Los Angeles,- Cal., engaged in the 
 fruit-growing business ; John H. married Lucy Cor-- 
 coran, and is a farmer in North Branford ; Theodore 
 died young; Carl Moritz, who married Mrs. Jennie 
 Buckley, is now lessee and manager of the Lyric 
 Hall, New London, and was assistant secretary of 
 the Y. M. C. A. ; Anna Ma-ia ; Emma L. ; Adele ; 
 ■Charles died when seven months old,; Joseph Brad- 
 ford, who graduated at Yale Medical School in 
 1897, is a leading physician of New Britain. 
 
 In 1895 Mr. Brocksieper erected a home which 
 IS the largest and most complete and attractive in 
 North Haven. For many years he had been a col- 
 lector of butterflies, minerals and semi-precious 
 stones, and had a large collection, gathered from 
 all parts of the globe, some specimens of great 
 rarity. He was the owner of considerable real es- 
 tate, some of which he rented for farming purposes, 
 and also the property which is occupied by the 
 Montowese Brick Co., from which he received 
 royalties for the fine quality of clay used in the 
 manufacture of its brick. Originally Mr. Brock- 
 sieper was a Democrat, but later became a Repub- 
 lican, and fraternally he had attained the 32d de- 
 gree of Freemasonry, affiliating with Hiram Lodge, 
 A. F. & A. M., and Franklin Chaoter, R. A. M. ; he 
 was also a member of the Improved Order of Red 
 Men and Order of Chosen Friends. Brought up 
 in the Lutheran Church, he was always an attendant 
 of the same, although he gave liberally to every 
 religious denomination. 
 
 GEORGE W. NETTLETON, a representative 
 and prominent citizen of Naugatuck, is a native of 
 New Haven county, 'born Sept. 5, 1828, in what was 
 then called Osborne Hollow, as there were many 
 Osibornes living in that locality at the time. His 
 father, Caleb Nettleton, was born in Old Milford, 
 and was a son of Caleb and Anna (Stone) Nettle- 
 ton, farming people, who lived and died in Old Mil- 
 ford. They had three children : Jehiel, a farmer of 
 Goshen, Litchfield Co., Conn.; Elijah, a Baptist 
 minister, who lived and died in Goshen ; and Caleb, 
 our subject's father. The grandfather was twice 
 married, and hy his second wife, Louise Clark, who 
 was likewise a native of Old Milford, also had three 
 children, Alfred, David and Amy. 
 
 Caleb Nettleton was a young man when he re- 
 moved to Middlebury, and there he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Nancy A. Clark, a native of 
 that town, and a daughter of Andrew Clark, who 
 was born in Old Milford. After their marriage they 
 located on a farm in Middlebury, where they reared 
 their family. They were consistent and faithful 
 
 members of the Congregational Church, and the 
 father was a Whig in politics. Their children were : 
 Clark, a farmer, who is now deceased; Sarah A., 
 who married E. G. Stone, a farmer of Middlebury, 
 both now deceased; Julia A., who married Ches- 
 ter C. Hitchcock, a wheelmaker of New Flaven, both 
 also deceased ; Mariette, who married Charles C. 
 Woodruff, a farmer of Watertown, Conn., both de- 
 ceased; Emmerett L., wife of Henry W. Sperry, 
 a carpenter of New Haven; Alma C, who married 
 Walter Lake, a farmer of Bethany, both deceased ; 
 Royal O., who married Louise Sperry, of Bethany, 
 and has been a carpenter of New Haven for half a 
 century; and George W., our subject. 
 
 George W. Nettleton is indebted to the district 
 schools near his hoyhood home for his educational 
 advantages. On leaving the parental roof, at the 
 age of sixteen years, he went to New Haven to 
 learn the carpenter's trade with his brother Royal O., 
 and remained there until twenty-five. During the 
 following six months he worked at his trade in 
 Cheshire, this county, and then followed that occu- 
 pation in Waterbury for some time. While there 
 Mr. Nettleton was married, April 8, 1855, to Miss 
 Eunice Morris, who was born in that town Aug. 26, 
 1832, and died Sept. 2, 1896. Her father, Amos 
 Morris, a cooper by trade, was also born in Water- 
 bury, in 1790. Our subject and his wife had two 
 children : Mary, now the wife of Charles A. Smith, 
 a laborer of Naugatuck; and Charles L., a carpenter 
 of Middlebury. 
 
 Shortly after his marriage Mr. Nettleton re- 
 moved to the farm in the town of Nausfatuck, 
 which has since been his home. It consists of sixty- 
 two acres of well-improved and highly-cultivated 
 land, pleasantly located two and a half miles from 
 Naugatuck borough. Mr. Nettleton has devoted 
 his time and attention principally to his trade, leav- 
 ing his farm to be operated by hired help. He is 
 an earnest mem'ber of the Congregational Church 
 and is highly respected and esteemed by all who 
 know him. In politics he is a Republican. 
 
 JOHN SMITH TYLER, a popular and influ- 
 ential citizen of East Haven, was born in the house 
 where he now resides, on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 1834. 
 His father, William Tyler, was born June 26, 1799, 
 in the same dwelling. 
 
 John Tyler, the paternal grandfather, was a 
 native of Branford — near a well-known sea-side re- 
 sort, Short Beach — and by occupation a shoemaker. 
 He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. After 
 residing in East Haven a short time he married 
 Mabel Bradley, who was also born on the farm now 
 owned and occupied by the subject of this notice. 
 Simeon Bradley, her father, built the house about 
 one hundred and fifty years ago, and it is still in 
 excellent repair. He died July 22, 1802, aged sev- 
 enty-one years ; his wife, Abigail, passed away May 
 18, 1810, aged sixty-eight. To John and Mabel 
 
890 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 (Bradley) Tyler came six children: Ammi, born 
 Feb. 20, 1789; John, June 29, 1792; twins, June, 
 1796; William, June 26, 1799; Jerusha Louisa, Ma}- 
 2, 1805. 
 
 Upon the farm mentioned, the ownership of 
 which has descended down through many genera- 
 tions, and a portion of which is in the center of the 
 town and very valuable, William Tyler spent his 
 entire life. He was a shoemaker by trade, an ac- 
 tive worker in and a prominent member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and widely known as a useful 
 and respected citizen. He married Julia A. Thomp- 
 son, who was born in 1799, a daughter of Abraham 
 Thompson, and they had two children : Harriet A., 
 born Feb. 6, 1838, who died at the early age of 
 fourteen years ; and John Smith, the only son. The 
 father died at the age of sixty-four years, and the 
 mother was fifty-six years old when she entered into 
 rest, both of them honored and esteemed. 
 
 John Smith Tyler passed his youth upon the an- 
 cestral farm, and acquired a good practical educa- 
 tion in the public schools and in the select or acad- 
 emic institute at the town hall, Messrs. Potter and 
 Wolcott, instructors and principals. Although he 
 was born within a few miles of the third largest 
 city of New England he never at any time left the 
 parental roof, and has always devoted his energies 
 and time — except when called to official positions 
 of trust and responsibility — to the management of 
 his farm. He is a thorough agriculturist and skilled 
 in all the details of general farming. 
 
 On June 3, 1866, Mr. Tyler married Miss Jane 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Lovisa 
 Thompson. Two children were born to them : Will- 
 iam Joseph and John Alexis Dibble. The first named 
 was born May 12, 1867, and died Nov. 18, 1873, 
 aged six years, six months and six days. The sec- 
 ond, who was born Nov. 11, 1875, died July 16, 
 1879, when three years and eight months old. 
 
 Mr. Tyler is a stanch supporter of the Republi- 
 can party and its principles, but the usual narrow 
 confines of partisanship have not prevented him in 
 his official life from acting for the good of all con- 
 cerned. His manners are most gracious and pleas- 
 ing, and marked by an afifabilitv not possessed bv 
 every person. In the Eastern States the office of 
 selectman — like that of the town clerk — ranks as 
 first in importance and one of the most difficult to 
 administer in a satisfactory manner. Notwithstand- 
 ing this, Mr. Tyler has held the office continuously 
 ■ — elected annually — since 1886. No official in this 
 ■town (nor probably in any other) has such an en- 
 viable and remarkable record. The laying out of the 
 suburban electric road, the erection of a new town 
 hall, a magnificent new school house, and the build- 
 ing of a new State highway, with new roads on the 
 north shore of Long Island Sound, also an engine 
 house for a recently organized fire department, have 
 all taken place during his term of office. Mr. Ty- 
 ler ranks deservedly among the most prominent and 
 
 public-spirited citizens of his town. He and his wife 
 are members of the Grange, No. 106, and are ac- 
 tive officials in this fraternal association. 
 
 DAVID BOUGHTON HAMILTON (de- 
 ceased) was born in Danbury, Conn., Oct. 19, 1824. 
 He was in the sixth generation from' Sir William 
 Hamilton, who was born in Scotland in 1643, and 
 died in Danbury in 1746, aged one hundred three 
 years. 
 
 (I) Sir William Hamilton was the son of Gal- 
 latin Hamilton, of Glasgow, Scotland, and he set- 
 tled with his family first on Cape Cod, where he 
 was so fortunate as to capture a whale, which had 
 been driven on the beach during a storm, and for 
 this he was accused of witchcraft and of being in 
 league with the Devil. In consequence he fled to 
 Rhode Island, and later moved to Danbury, Conn. 
 There, on the verge of civilization, he established 
 his home at "Bear Mountain," where remains of 
 the old house could be found as late as 1835. Will- 
 iam had six children, all of whom lived to remark- 
 able ages, and died in Danbury: Joseph, aged 
 eightj^-six; David, aged seventy-nine; Benjamin, 
 aged ninety; Ezra, aged ninety-three; Thankful 
 (spinster), aged one hundred two; Mercy, aged 
 fifty-two. 
 
 (II) Joseph Hamilton, son of Sir William, had 
 three sons, all of whom were born at Bear Moun- 
 tain, and died in Danbury: Silas, Benjamin and 
 Joseph, Jr. 
 
 (III) Silas Hamilton, son of Joseph, had five 
 sons : Silas, Jr., Paul, James, John, and Orpha. , 
 
 (IV) Paul Hamilton, son of Silas, was born 
 Nov. 19, 1752, and died May 31, 1830. He mar- 
 ried Anna Stevens (born 1757, died 1829), who 
 was the daughter of Lieut. Ezra Stevens, an of- 
 ficer in the American Revolution. Lieut. Stevens' 
 mother, Abigail Barnum, was a daughter of Thom- 
 as Barnum, and the first white child born in Dan- 
 bury. Paul had six sons and four daughters, all 
 born at Bullet Hill, Pembroke District, Danbury: 
 Anna, born 1775, married Jesse Hoyt, and died in 
 Danbury in 1848; Hannah, born 1776, married 
 Elias Boughton, and died in Danbury, in 1843; 
 Betsy, born 1779 (spinster), died in Danbury in 
 1859; Elizabeth, born 1781, married John Knapp, 
 and died in Danbury in 1862 ; James, born 1783, 
 married Waity Budlong, and died in Danbury in 
 1865; Daniel, born 1785, married Miss Aiken, and 
 .died in New Haven in 1823; Paul S., born 1789, 
 married Reiney Wood, and died in Hartford in 
 1841 ; David, born 1791, married Deborah Knapp 
 Boughton, and died in Hartford in 1834; Silas, born 
 1793, married Isabel Williken, and died in Albany 
 in 1861 ; and Ezra, born 1801, married Sybil Prich- 
 ard, of Waterbury, and died in Hartford in 1879. 
 
 (V) David Hamilton, son of Paul, born 1791, 
 died 1834. He married Deborah Knapp Boughton, 
 born in 1790, and died in 1864. They reared the 
 following children: Julia Ann, born 1812, mar- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 891 
 
 ried William G. Ellis, died in Hartford in 1850 ; 
 Clarissa Mariette, born in 1815, married Hiram 
 Wildlman, died in Hartford in 1889; Lorenzo, born 
 in 1818, married Lavinia Delliber, died in Cali- 
 fornia in 1869; Orville, born in 1821, married Eliz- 
 abeth Lyon, died in Texas in 1888; David Bough- 
 ton, born in 1824; Elizabeth, born 1827, married 
 Henry Champlin, and is still living, a widow, in 
 Hartford. 
 
 David BoLighton Hamilton spent his boyhood 
 days in Danbury, and received his education in his 
 native town, and at a select school in Hartford. 
 In early youth he had a desire for the ministry, and 
 began preparation for a life work in the pulpit, 
 but the bent of his mind was neither in that direc- 
 tion nor in the legal profession, to which he turned 
 his attention for a time. His was a distinctively 
 business nature, and, by a process of natural se- 
 lection, he became a business man of high stand- 
 ing. In early youth he taught school for two years, 
 and in 185 1 became a clerk in the postoffice at 
 Hartford. Two years later when the Rogers' 
 Brothers organized for the manufacture of silver- 
 plated ware, he became a salesman for the new 
 firm. In 1858 he joined the firm of Rogers & 
 Bros., and his connection with the silver plating in- 
 dustry was interrupted during forty-two years only 
 on two occasions, once when he visited California 
 in 1856 for the benefit of his health, and again dur- 
 ing his service in the Union army in the Civil war. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton entered the service in 1861, al- 
 most immediately on the breaking out of the Re- 
 bellion. On that memorable April ig, 1861, he was 
 in Baltimore, just after the attack upon the Union 
 soldiers. The next .day he was in Washington, and 
 joined a company of volunteers raised by Col. 
 Cassius M. Clay for the defense of the capitol. In 
 a few days he returned to Connecticut, and en- 
 listed for regular service in the 5th Conn. V. I., 
 where he received a commission as first lieutenant. 
 He was promoted to be captain in 1862, and was 
 honorably discharged for serious disabilities Jan. 10, 
 1863. Capt. Hamilton made a fine record as a 
 soldier, and was highly esteemed' by all his old 
 comrades. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton was secretary of Rogers & Bros, 
 from the incorporation of the firm until 1868, when 
 he was elected treasurer. In 1878 he became presi- 
 dent also, filling both positions to the eminent sat- 
 isfaction of all interested in the enterprise. Capt. 
 Hamihon was president of the Manufacturers' Na- 
 tional Bank from its incorporation in 1881, of the 
 Waterbury Lumber and Coal Co. from its reorgan- 
 ization in 1883, and of the Connecticut Steam Boiler 
 Inspection and Insurance Co. from 1891 to 1894. 
 He was also extensively interested in various im- 
 portant business enterprises throughout the State, 
 more especially in the William Rogers Manufactur- 
 ing Co. of Hartford, the Meriden Britannia Co. 
 and the Bridgeport Brass Co., being a director in 
 each. 
 
 Politically Capt. Hamilton was a Republican, 
 and in his time filled many important official posi- 
 tions, which were chiefly municipal and business in 
 their character. In 1881 he was elected to fill the 
 State Senatorial vacancy created by the death of 
 Senator Brown. He served the city as councilman 
 and alderman, and was a member of the Board of 
 Water Commissioners from 1885 to 1893. He had 
 been selectman of the town, and chairman of the 
 Board of School Visitors. As a member of a com- 
 mittee of three, appointed by the Wadhams post, 
 G. A. R., to raise money for a soldiers' monument, 
 he rendered material assistance to that commend- 
 able enterprise. Capt. Hamilton belonged to the 
 New York Commandery of the Loyal Legion, the 
 I. O. O. F., and the Masonic fraternity, where he 
 was also a Knight Templar. Capt. Hamilton was 
 a man of much ambition and business energy, and, 
 in his business character, had visited every State 
 of the Union. He was an- indeoendent thinker, 
 much interested in philosophical and social prob- 
 lems, and deeply devoted to the progrese of the 
 world. 
 
 On May 6, 1847, Capt. Hamilton married Mary 
 Rogers, daughter of S. Rogers, of Hartford, and 
 she died May 22, 1859, leaving one son, Charles 
 Alfred, born May 3, 1849. On June 9, 1863, Capt. 
 Hamilton was united in marriage with Mary Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of William Birely, of Frederick, 
 Md. He became acquainted with Miss Birely while 
 doing detached duty under Gen. Banks. She died 
 Aug. 27, 1870, leaving two children, Lewis Birely 
 and Katherine, of whom the former, born in 1864, 
 is a graduate of Yale, class of 1886, and is a civil 
 engineer by profession. Capt. Hamilton was mar- 
 ried, Sept. I, 1871, to Isabel L., daughter of John 
 Griswold Ely, of Lyme. This union was blessed 
 by the birth of one child, Paul, who was born Sept. 
 I, 1S73, and is a graduate of the Sheffield Scientific 
 School at Yale, class of 1894. Capt. Hamilton's 
 last illness resulted from the lodging of a small 
 fish-bone in the larynx, where it caused ulceration, 
 and ultimately resulted in death. Eminent special- 
 ists were employed, but without avail, and Capt. 
 Hamilton , died Sunday morning, Aug. 14, 1898. 
 
 Mrs. Hamilton, the widow of this gallant sol- 
 dier, distinguished leader in the business world, and 
 old-school gentleman, still survives. She is eighth 
 in fine from Richard, "the settler." This Richard 
 Ely, first of the Ely family in America, came from 
 Plymouth, England, in 1660, and settled in Bos- 
 ton. His grandfather, Leonard Ely, Elder of 
 Wouston, who died in 1615, was the grandson of 
 John Ely, born about 1492, and who was Warden 
 of the palace of the Bishops of Winchester in 
 1540. 
 
 When Richard Ely came to this country he was 
 a widower with two sons, William and Richard. A 
 carved oak chest which he brought with him is in 
 a state of perfect preservation to-day, in the family 
 of one of his descendants. In 1664 'he married 
 
892 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Widow Cullick, sister of Col. Fenwick, and settled 
 at Lyme, on the Connecticut river, where he and 
 his sons, in a few years, owned 4,000 acres of land. 
 He died in 1690, and a few years later a stone was 
 erected to his memory, in the Ely burying- ground 
 at Lyme, on which is recorded the following : "His 
 descendants besides peopling these mansions of the 
 dead, are greatly multiplied in the land." 
 
 (H) William Ely, son of Richard, born 1647, 
 died 1717. He married Elizabeth Smith, daughter 
 of Simon Smith, who with twenty-eight others took 
 up all the land between Haddam and Saybrook, 
 except Six-Mile Island ; the latter was the home 
 of William. To William and Elizabeth were born 
 the following children : Ann, Elizabeth, Richard, 
 Wary, Daniel (had four wives), William, Jr., De- 
 borah and Johanna. 
 
 (III) William Ely, Jr., son of William, mar- 
 ried, first, in 1715, Hannah Thompson, of Ipswich, 
 Mass., and, second, Mary Noyes. He had ten chil- 
 dren, seven of whom were born of his first mar- 
 riage, namely: Jacob, James, Martha, Deborah, 
 Mary Ann, Samuel and Ammi ; by his second mar- 
 riage : Hannah, iNIary and Ann. The first si.-v 
 were baptized by the first minister of Lyme. 
 
 (IV) James Ely. son of William, Jr., born 1718, 
 died 1766. He married Dorcas Andrews, of Ips- 
 wich, in 1742. They had ten children: Elizabeth, 
 James, Ruhama, Jacob, Dorcas, Tabitha, Aaron, 
 Andrew, John and Gad. Of these, all six of the 
 sons served in the Revolution, and Aaron was killed 
 at the battle of Kings Bridge in 1776. 
 
 (V) James Ely, son of James Ely and Dorcas 
 Andrews, born in 1743, married Catherine Hays, in 
 1768, and afterward Prudence Hewitt. By his first 
 wife he had nine children : Richard, James, Dor- 
 cas, Phoebe, Aaron, John, Kate, William and Calvin. 
 
 (VI) John Ely, son of James and Catherine 
 Playes, born 1781, died 1817, married Lucy Miller 
 (died 1859, aged eighty-two). They had six chil- 
 dren : Horace, William, John Griswold, Rodney, 
 Ansel and Calvin. 
 
 (VII) John Griswold Ely, son of John and Lucy 
 (jMiller) Ely, born in 1810, died 1863, was the fa- 
 ther of Mrs. Hamilton. In 1830 he married Sally 
 Pratt Williams, who was born in 1812, and died 
 in May, 1901, in Lyme. They had eleven children: 
 John Heber, Elizabeth, Oscar, Ellen, Patterson, 
 Isabel L. (Mrs. Hamilton), Ernest, Emma, Lewis, 
 Edna J. and Edward W. 
 
 CAPT. ELBERT L. FORD, an influential citi- 
 zen of Milford, was born in that town Feb. 21, 
 1847, son of Samuel A. Ford, and grandson of 
 Samuel Ford. The family has been well known in 
 the town for several generations, our subject's line 
 of descent being as follows : Thomas Ford, Jr., 
 Thaddeus, Samuel, Samuel A. and Capt. Elbert. 
 The Fords are a very long-lived people, some living 
 to be over one hundred years of age, and many to 
 te over ninety. 
 
 Samuel Ford, the grandfather of Capt. Elbert, 
 was a native of the locality, and passed his life there 
 as a farmer. He married Polly Smith, of Milford, 
 and had the following children: David S., who 
 was a farmer and shoemaker in Milford; Lewis, a 
 carriage-maker, who was last heard from while 
 serving as a soldier in the Civil war; Samuel A., 
 our subject's father; James, a carriagemaker, now 
 residing in New York State ; and Catherine, who 
 married Everett Smith, a shoemaker in Milford, 
 where she now resides. 
 
 Samuel A. Ford was born and reared in Milford 
 and became a farmer there. Politically he was a 
 Republican, and in religious faith both he and his 
 wife were Congregationalists. He died March 7, 
 1882. He married Sarah E. Smith, a native of 
 Stratford, Conn., and a daughter of John Smith, of 
 that town. Mrs. Ford passed away Dec. 28, 1898. 
 Our subject was the eldest in the family, the others 
 being: Elizabeth M., wife of Alonzo W. Burns, of 
 Milford; Emily E., wife of Merritt C. Ford, of Mil- 
 ford; Lauren A., a mason of the same town; and 
 Edwin E., who died in infancy. 
 
 Elbert L. Ford attended the district schools 
 near his home and the high school in Milford 
 village. On leaving school he chose a seafaring 
 life, and when only twenty-two years old was mas- 
 ter of a vessel, and his skill as a master and pilot 
 won him a high reputation. In November, 1881, 
 he passed a successful examination and received a 
 United States master's license for steam vessels, 
 upon the Atlantic coast, its sounds, bays and har- 
 bors. In 1883 he became captain of William M. 
 Merwin & Sons' oyster steamer, which position he 
 held for twelve years. In 1869 Capt. Ford married 
 Miss Elva W. Whittlesey, daughter of Samuel and 
 Wealthy Whittlesey, of Stratford, Conn. She died 
 in 1872, leaving one child, Bertha E. In 1875 Mr. 
 Ford married Miss Carrie W. Sherwood, daughter 
 of Capt. Joseph Wakeman Sherwood, of Southport, 
 Conn., and bv this marriage there are nine children: 
 Lillian W., Grace S., Ethel S., Samuel E., Ada F., 
 William A., E. Lewis, Cecil and Arthur S. 
 
 Capt. Ford is deservedly popular in his town. 
 He was elected selectman in 1893-94-95-96-99-00- 
 
 01, and for five years was first selectman and town 
 agent. He is one of the oldest members of the 
 Milford Fire Department, of which he served many 
 years as foreman. Fraternally he is identified with 
 Ansantawae Lodge, No. 89, F. & A. M. ; Solomon 
 Chapter, No. 3, R. A. M. ; Harmony Council, No. 
 8, of New Haven ; New Haven Commandery, No. 
 
 2, K. T. : Pyramid Temple, Nobles of the Mystic 
 Shrine, Bridgeport ; Lucia Chapter, No. 25, O. E. 
 S. ; and Wopowage Lodge, No. 14, I. O. O. F., Mil- 
 ford. Capt. Ford and family attend St. Peter's 
 Episcopal Church of Milford. 
 
 RUFUS NORTON LEETE (deceased) is re- 
 membered as one of the prominent and influential 
 members of the Leete family, one of the oldest and 
 
f^^r—jC. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 893 
 
 best known in Guilford. He was born at Leete's 
 Island, near Guilford, Aug. 17, 1812, the second 
 son of Miner and Lucinda (Norton) Leete, and a 
 descendant of Gov. William Leete, the progenitor of 
 most of the Leetes in America. He was prominent 
 in the Menuncatuc plantation and in the town of 
 Guilford, and in his official relations to the Colony 
 of New Haven, and later the United Connec- 
 ticut Colonies. 
 
 Gov. Leete came to America in the Rev. Henry 
 Whitfield Company, and was one of the signers of 
 the Plantation Covenant, on shipboard, Jan. i, 1639. 
 He was born in Dodington, Huntingdonshire, 
 England, in 1612 or 1613, and was a grandson of 
 Thomas Leete, of Ockington, Cambridgeshire, Eng- 
 land, who married Maria Slade, of Rushton, North- 
 amptonshire, daughter of Edward Slade. To 
 Thomas Leete were born four children: John, of 
 Dodmgton (the elder); John, of Islington; Jane, 
 who married Richard Dale ; and Rebecca, who mar- 
 ried Thomas Fowler. John Leete, of Dodington, 
 son of Thomas of Ockington, married Ann Shute, 
 daughter of Robert Shute, one of the Justices of 
 the King's Bench. To this union three children 
 were born : William ; John, of Medlow Grange, 
 Huntingdonshire, England; and Ann, whO' married 
 Robert Ruly. 
 
 William Leete, son of John, of Dodington, was 
 bred in the law, and served for a considerable time 
 as clerk in the Bishops' Court, at Cambridge, where, 
 observing the oppressions and cruelties then prac- 
 ticed on the conscientious and virtuous Puritans, 
 he was led to examine more thoroughly their doc- 
 trines and practices, and eventually to become a 
 Puritan himself and to give up his office. Coming 
 to America as noted above, he arrived at New 
 Haven about July 10, 1639. When they had agreed 
 upon Guilford as a place of settlement, he was one 
 of the six selected to purchase the land from the 
 native Indians in trust for the plantation until their 
 organization. He selected for himself about 250 
 acres of land three miles west of Guilford, now 
 knov/n as Leete's Island. He filled many public 
 offices in the New Colony, and was clerk of the 
 plantation from 1639 to 1662. He was also one of 
 four to whom was intrusted the full civil power of 
 the plantation, without limitation, until a church was 
 formed. He was selected one of the "seven pillars" 
 of the foundation work. He was deputy from Guil- 
 ford to the General Court in New Haven from 
 1643 to 1650 and from 165 1 to 1658 he was magis- 
 trate of the town. In 1658 he was chosen deputy 
 governor of the Colony, and continued in that office 
 until 1661, when he was elected governor, an office 
 which he held until the union with Connecticut, in 
 1664. After the union he was an assistant until 
 1669, when he was elected deputy governor of the 
 Connecticut Colony, holding that office until 1676, 
 when he was chosen governor. He retained the 
 office by continuous re-elections until his death, 
 
 April 16, 1683. Upon being elected governor he 
 removed to Hartford, where he lived continuously 
 until his death, and was buried there. 
 
 William Leete married first in England, about 
 1638, Anna Payne, daughter of Rev. John Payne, 
 of Southoe. She died Sept. i, 1668. For his sec- 
 ond wife he married April 7, 1670, Sarah, widow 
 of Henry Rutherford; she died Feb. 10, 1673. He 
 married for his third wife, Mrs. Mary Street, who 
 had been twice married before, first to Gov. Francis 
 Newman, and later to Rev. Nicholas Street; she 
 died Dec. 13, 1683. His children were : John, born 
 in 1639, is mentioned below; Andrew, born in 1643, 
 married Elizabeth Jordan; William married Mary 
 Fenn ; Abigail married Rev. J. Woodbridge ; Caleb, 
 born Aug. 24, 1651, died Jan. 13, 1673; Gratiana 
 was born Dec. 22, 1653 ; Peregrine, born Jan. 12, 
 1658, died young; Joshua, born in 1659, died Feb- 
 22, 1660; Anna, born March 10, 1661, married John 
 Trowbridge. 
 
 (II) John Leete, son of Gov. William, was born 
 in 1639 in Guilford, and is said to have been the 
 first white child born in the town. He married, Oct. 
 4, 1670, Mary, daughter of William and Joanna 
 (Sheafe) Chittenden. She was born in 1647, and 
 died March 9, 1712. John Leete died Nov. 25, 1692. 
 Children: Ann, born Aug. 5, 1671, married John 
 Collins ; John, born Jan. 4, 1674, married Sarah 
 Allen; Joshua, born July 7, 1676, married Mary 
 Munger; Sarah, born Dec. 16, 1677, married Elia- 
 kim Marshall; Pelatiah, born March 26, 1681, is 
 mentioned below; Mehitalbel, born Dec. 10, 1683, 
 married Dr. Anthony Lahore; Benjamin, born Dec. 
 26, 1686, married Rachel Champion; Daniel, born 
 Dec. 23, 1689, died young. 
 
 (III) Pelatiah Leete, the fifth child of John 
 Leete, was married July i, 1705, to Abigail, daugh- 
 ter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Bartlett) Fowler, 
 and they soon after removed to Leete's Island, where 
 no settlement had before been made. The land had 
 been allotted to his grandfather, Gov. Leete, after 
 proper purchase from the Indians, and the title to 
 the greater part of this soil has never been out of 
 the family name. Upon these ancestral acres seven 
 generations of Leetes have resided as farmers, mem- 
 bers of each generation being content to remain 
 and follow the occupation of their forefathers, most 
 of them with success and profit. Originally the 
 soil was very fertile, and it is said of Deacon Pela- 
 tiah Leete that he farmed so successfully that he 
 did not consider a hundred bushels of shelled corn 
 to the acre more than an average yield. He also 
 had a herd of one hundred head of neat cattle. 
 In 1735 he erected a large house on a commanding 
 spot on his farm, overlooking the waters of the 
 Sound, in which he lived until his death, Oct. 13, 
 1768, at the ripe old age of eighty-seven. This 
 house was later occupied by descendants in several 
 generations. Pelatiah was deacon of the Fourth 
 Church of Guilford. He was also a representative 
 
894 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of the town in the General Court. His wife died 
 Oct. 22, 1769, aged ninety years. Their children 
 were: Abigail, born Sept. 13, 1707, died June 2, 
 1792; Daniel, born Oct. 14, 1709, is mentioned be- 
 low; Mehitabel, born Sept. 28, 1711, died Oct. 21, 
 171 1 ; Pelatiah, born March 7^ 1713, married Lydia 
 Crittenden; Mehitabel, born in 1714, married John 
 Brewster. 
 
 (IV) Deacon Daniel Leete, eldest son of Deacon 
 Pelatiah, was also a deacon of the Fourth Congre- 
 gational Church of Guilford. He was engaged in 
 farming and stockraising at Leete's Island and 
 built a house near the residence of his father, which 
 became noted in the Revolution. In 1874 it was de- 
 molished and upon its site was erected the present 
 residence of Calvin M. Leete. Deacon Daniel 
 Leete died Oct. i, 1772. He married, June 14, 
 1738, Rhoda, daughter of Caleb and Sarah (Meigs) 
 Stone, of Guilford, born Nov. 2, 1719, died Dec. 23, 
 1769. Both are buried in the Guilford cemetery. 
 Children : Rhoda, born April 14, 1739, married Noah 
 Rogers ; Daniel, born April 17, 1742, married 
 Charity Norton; Ambrose, born Jan. 19, 1748, is 
 mentioned below; Abraham, born Sept. 25, 1753, 
 died Oct. 26, 1753; Abraham (2), born April 5, 
 175s, died Nov. 5, 1757. 
 
 (V) Deacon Ambrose Leete, son of Deacon 
 Daniel, was born on the homestead at Leete's Island, 
 Jan. 19, 1748. Like his father and grandfather he 
 was a deacon of the Fourth Congregational Church, 
 chosen to that office in 1786, and to the same ofifice 
 in the First Church in 1807. He married, Nov. 
 10, 1773, Miranda, daughter of William and Ra- 
 chel (White) Chittenden, and died Feb. 14, 1809; 
 his widow survived until Sept. 16, 1838, reaching 
 the age of ninety-one years and six months. Chil- 
 dren: Amibrose, born Nov. 10, 1774, married 
 Catherine Ward; Miranda, born Jan. 8, 1777, died' 
 Dec. 21, 1822; Miner, born June 30, 1779, is men- 
 tioned below ; Abraham, born Jan. i, 1784, died Feb. 
 26, 1848; Wealthy, born Oct. 27, 1785, died March 
 23, 1870. 
 
 (VI) Miner Leete was born on the Leete's 
 Island farm, where he spent his life in agricultural 
 pursuits, a well-known citizen. He died compara- 
 tively young in life, Nov. 7, 1826, aged forty-seven 
 years, and was buried in the Leete cemetery. He 
 married, Nov. 17, 1807, Lucinda Norton, born Nov. 
 18, 1780, in Guilford, daughter of Col. Rufus and 
 Hannah (Cook) Norton. She died Aug. 28, 1848, 
 and was buried in the family cemetery. Their five 
 children were as follows: (i) Edward Lorenzo, 
 born June 28, 1810, resided through life at Leete's 
 Island, was a deacon in the church, and died May 
 3, 1884. He married Sylvia Fowler, and had two 
 children, Edward Walter and Lucy Louisa. He 
 compiled the Leete genealogy. (2) Rufus Norton, 
 born Aug. 17, 1812, is mentioned below. (3) Theo- 
 dore Adgate, born May 18, 1814, married Mary C. 
 White, and died April 28, 1886, leaving three chil- 
 
 dren, Ella Louisa, Rev. William White, and Theo- 
 dore Woolsey. He graduated from Yale College in 
 1839, subsequently from Yale Theological Seminary, 
 and filled several pastorates. (4) Calvin Miner 
 born Oct. 18, 1816, married Lucy Maria Leete. (5) 
 Louisa Maria, born Aug. 20, 1822, died unmarried 
 July 29, 1855. 
 
 (VII) Rufus Norton Leete passed his entire life 
 in the locality of his birth, revered by the associa- 
 tions of six generations of ancestors. He was reared 
 on his father's farm, and upon reaching manhood 
 adopted agricultural pursuits as his life vocation, 
 following same with merited and signal success all 
 his days. In 1848 he erected a residence at Leete's 
 Island, which he occupied until his death, which 
 occurred Dec. 28, 1894, when he was aged eighty- 
 two years. His remains were interred in Leete's 
 Island cemetery. Mr. Leete was of a retiring dispo- 
 sition, and was known to be a man of unflinching 
 honor and unimpeachable integrity, steadfast in his 
 convictions and principles. In politics he was an 
 earnest and consistent Democrat, in religious faith 
 an active member and liberal supporter of the Bap- 
 tist Church in Guilford during its existence. He 
 was largely interested in the industrial development 
 of his native town, aside from his farm pursuits ; 
 was a large stockholder in the Guilford Manufactur- 
 ing Co., and for a number of years was an efficient 
 memlber of the Guilford Savings Bank. 
 
 On Oct. 23, 1833, Rufus N. Leete married Sarah 
 Bishop, daughter of Ezra S. and Abigail (Norton) 
 Bishop, who survives him. Mrs. Leete is a de- 
 scendant of an old New England family. She is 
 of the seventh generation from (I) John Bishop, 
 the founder of the family in Guilford. (II) John 
 Bishop, his son, married Susannah Goldenham, and 
 to them were born nine children, 01 whom (III) 
 Nathaniel Bishop, the tourth child, was born in 
 1666, and died May 16, 1714. He married, Feb. 9, 
 1693, Mercy Hughes, who was born May 20, 1676, 
 and diedl Dec. 7, 1760. Their chidren were as fol- 
 lows : Nathaniel, born Nov. 17, 1693, married Abi- 
 gail Stone, and died Sept. 24, 1769; Samuel, born 
 July 20, 1695, married Elannah Hull, and died Feb. 
 24, 1771 ; Mary, born Nov. 29, 1697, died young; 
 Ebenezer, sketch of whom follows ; Exoer'ence, 
 born April 2, 1705 ; Temperance, bom April 27, 
 1709, married Nathaniel Lee, and died March 29, 
 
 1751- 
 
 (IV) Ebenezer Bishop, youngest son of Na- 
 thaniel, was born Sept. 22, 1701, in North Guilford, 
 where he engaged in farming. In 1729 he married 
 Mehitabel Chittenden, who was born Sept. 30, 1712. 
 Their fourteen children were as follows : Aliah, 
 born March 26, 1730, married Ruth Snow, and 
 died Nov. 30, 1765 ; Temperance, born March i, 
 1732, married Giles Chittenden; Mabel was born 
 Dec. 17, 1733; Amos, born May 5, 1735, died 
 young; Ezra, born Nov. 27, 1736, died young; 
 Ebenezer, born March i, 1738, died young; Eber, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 895 
 
 born Sept. i, 1740, resided in New Milford; Beulah, 
 born Dec. 10, 1742, married Thomas Fowler ; James, 
 born June 3, 1745, married Eliza Wetmore, and 
 died June 16, 1832; Nathaniel was horn May 6, 
 1747; Olive, born June 6, 1749, married Noah Gris- 
 wold, and died Nov. 28, 1817; Neriah, sketch of 
 whom follows; Jared was born Aug. 17, 1753; 
 Luther was born Aug. 20, 1755. 
 
 (V) Neriah Bishop, born Aug. 28, 1751, in 
 North Guilford, died April 22, 1796. He married. 
 May 10, 1781, Rachel Stone, who was born July 
 30, 1757- Their three children were: Rachel, born 
 Feb. 13, 1782; Neriah, born May 16, 1783 (married 
 Harriet Handy) ; and Ezra Stone, sketch of whom 
 follows. 
 
 (VI) Ezra Stone Bishop, born June 13, 1786, 
 in Guilford, died June 29, 1873. He married, April 
 23, 1809, Abigail Norton, born Feb. 11, 1791, 
 daughter of Jared and Sarah (Brockett) Norton. 
 She died Nov. 5, 1829. Their seven children were : 
 Eliza, born Sept. 9, 1810; Sarah, born Sept. 18, 
 1812, widow of Rufus N. Leete, our subject; Mar- 
 garet, born Sept. 11, 1815, who died Sept. 7, 1879; 
 William H., born March 23, 1819, who married 
 Sarah Griffing; Charles, born Dec. 12, 1823, who 
 married Emily Cochrane; George, born Sept. 12, 
 1825, married to Florilla C. Fowler; and Abigail, 
 born in October, 1829, who died Dec. 13, 1882. 
 
 To Rufus N. and Sarah (Bishop) Leete, were 
 born six children: (i) Nancy, born Oct. 23, 1834, 
 married, Feb. 12, 1862, Walter G. Bishop, of Meri- 
 den, and died in Guilford, April 4, 1886. (2) Rich- 
 ard Miner, sketch of whom follows. (3) Roger 
 Calvin, sketch of whom follows. (4) Ellen Lu- 
 cretia, born Aug. 20, 1840, married, Feb. 22, 1887, 
 W. G. Bishop. (5) Rufus Burton, born June 22, 
 1843. (6) Margaret Elizabeth, born March 11, 
 1846. 
 
 Richard Miner Leete^ eldest son of Rufus N., 
 was born on the homestead Nov. 20, 1836, and re- 
 ceived his education at the district schools and the 
 Guilford academy. Until his marriage he remained 
 at home with his parents, working on the farm 
 during the summers and teaching school in the 
 winter seasons. After his marriage he commenced 
 farming on his own account on a farm owned by his 
 father in the Leete's Island District, and also kept 
 store for seven years, though agricultural pursuits 
 have practically been his life vocation. In religious 
 faith he is a member of the Third Congregational 
 Church, as are also his wife and the several mem- 
 bers of his family. In his political predilections he 
 was originally an ardent Democrat, but is now an 
 equally zealous Prohibitionist, and for a term of 
 years has faithfully served his town as justice of 
 the peace. 
 
 On Nov. 14, 1861, Richard M. Leete was mar- 
 ried to Mary E. Norton, a daughter of Anson and 
 Fanny Norton, the former of whom descended from 
 an old Guilford family, whose genealogy is given 
 below. A brief record of the seven children born 
 
 to Richard and Mary Leete is as follows : ( i ) 
 Anson Miner, born Jan. 19, 1863, married Nellie 
 Snow. (2) Arthur Bishop, born Jan. 13, 1864, 
 married Eunice Stannard ; he is station agent at 
 East Haven for the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 ford Railroad. (3) Ellsworth Norton, born June 
 26, 1866, married, Oct. 30, 1889, Annie B. Fowler, 
 who died June 3, 1896, leaving two sons, Richard 
 F. (born Feb. 14, 1891) and Edgar R. (born April 
 30, 1893). He married second, Oct. 17, 1900, Eliz- 
 abeth Dudley. He is a bookkeeper in New Haven. 
 (4) Jennie Elizabeth, born June 27, 1868, married 
 Nathan S. Rose, of North Branford. (5) Fanny 
 Helen was born Feb. 2, 1870. (6) Sarah Ellen 
 was born April 19, 1872. (7) Carrie May, born 
 March 20, 1875, died March 29, 1875. 
 
 Norton Family. John Norton, son of Thomas 
 and Grace Norton, the first of the name in Guilford, 
 was a native of England, born in 1628 in Ockley, 
 County of Surrey. He came with his parents to 
 America, locating in Guilford, where in 1664 he 
 married Hannah Stone, born in 1644. For his sec- 
 ond wife he wedded Elizabeth Hubbard, born in 
 1638. He died March 5, 1704. His son John, who 
 was the second of that name born to him, first saw 
 the light in East Guilford, Conn., May 29, 1668. 
 On Nov. 14, 1694, he married Hannah Buck, born 
 April 12, 1671, in Wethersfield, Hartford county; 
 he died March 15, 1712, in Guilford and was buried 
 there; she died Oct. 22, 1739. For her second hus- 
 band she married John Fowler. To John and Han- 
 nah Norton were born ten children. 
 
 John Norton, third in order of birth in the fam- 
 ily of John, was born Dec. 13, 1699. He married 
 Elizabeth Robinson, and died Jan. 9, 1797. 
 
 John Norton, son of John, was iDorn in Decem- 
 ber, 1734, and died in Guilford Aug. 17, 1804. Fie 
 married, Dec. 27, 1758, Lucy Lee, horn in 1740, 
 who died in March, 1802, the mother of eight chil- 
 dren: (i) Ambrose, born Feb. 15, 1760, married 
 Hannah Hall, and died in March, 1813. (2) Sarah, 
 born in May, 1761, married Caleb J. Hall, and died 
 Aug. 24, 1843. (3) William, born in 1762, served 
 in the Revolutionary war, and died in 1782. (4) 
 John, born in 1763, died Aug. 27, 1773. (s) Ruth, 
 born in 1765, married Jehiel Strong. (6) Silas, 
 sketch of whom follows. (7) James, born in July, 
 1774, married Fluldah Chittenden, and died Sept. 
 I, 1850. (8) Andrew, born Sept. 13, 1776, married 
 Ruth Chittenden, and died July 9, 1859. 
 
 Silas Norton, born Feb. 20, 1769, died Nov. 29, 
 1821. He married, Feb. 18, 1792, Lucy Chitten- 
 den, born Feb. 9, 1774, died July 22, 1859. Their 
 children: (i) Alathea, born Jan. 12, 1795, died 
 July 22, 1811. (2) Harriet, born March 16, 1797, 
 died Oct. 14, 1875. (3) Huldah was born June 
 18, 1798. (4) Polly, born Oct. 26, 1800, married 
 Martin Hoadley. (5) John Ward, born Feb. 26, 
 1802, married Jane Nichols. (6) Anson, sketch of 
 whom follows. (7) Silas, born Aug. 28, 1805, 
 married Eliza Everts, and died Aug. 17, 1848. (8) 
 
896 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Lucyette, born Jan. 31, 1807, married George Stan- 
 nard. (9) Augustus Dennison, born Dec. i, 1810, 
 married Julia Perow. (10) James Austin, born 
 Dec. 22, 1814, married Ann Gale. 
 
 Anson Norton, father of Mrs. Richard M. 
 Leete, was born Dec. 7, 1803, and died Sept. 3, 1859. 
 He married, Oct. 7, 1838, iMrs. Fanny Bishop, who 
 was born Sept. 2, 1804, and died Nov. 10, 1871. 
 Their children: Mary Emma, born Jan. 3, 1840, 
 wife of Richard M. Leete ; and James Lewis, born 
 May 14, 1842, who married Minnie A. Hotchkiss. 
 
 Roger Calvin Leete, second son of Rufus N., 
 was born at Leete's Island, Guilford, Aug. 30, 
 1838, and received a good education, in part at 
 the district schools, in part at the high school at 
 Guilford. Until he was thirty-one years of age he 
 remained on the homestead, and then removed to 
 his present farm, which was part of the homestead, 
 and where he has since followed agricultural pur- 
 suits. 
 
 In October, 1869, Mr. Leete married IMiss Helen 
 A. Park, who was born in Sheshequin, Pa., a 
 daughter of Amos and Arlette M. (Griff en) Park, 
 and two children came to them, viz. ; Irving P., 
 born Jan. 22, 1875, attended the district school of 
 his neighborhood, also the Guilford high school, 
 and entered the third year of a course at Yale Uni- 
 versity ; he died Aug. 2, 1896. R. Wayne, the sec- 
 ond son, born Aug. 9, 1876, received a similar edu- 
 cation at the district schools, and had just entered 
 Yale when he, too, was called from earth, Dec. 8, 
 1896. The mother died May 3, 1898. She and her 
 sons were highly respected in the community, and 
 their taking away — the sons within a brief period 
 of a few monthsi — the mother following so soon 
 afterward, was a terrible blow to the bereaved fa- 
 ther, who still finds in the genuine sympathy of the 
 community some little solace to his sorrow. He is 
 a quiet unostentatious citizen, and a useful member 
 of society, one who lives up to the "golden rule." 
 In politics he is a Democrat, and at the present time 
 is serving as selectman of Guilford. 
 
 WALTER A. MAIN, one of the most in- 
 fluential and esteemed citizens of Orange, was born 
 in that town Aug. 6, 1854. His grandfather, Brad- 
 ley Main, was a farmer of Coventry, Tolland coun- 
 ty, Conn., where he passed his life, and where he 
 died at an advanced age. 
 
 Elias T. Main, father of Walter A., was one of 
 a family of six children, only one of whom is yet 
 living, Abbie, wife of Elijah F. West, of Hartford, 
 whose son Fred A. is a member of the board of 
 aldermen of that city. Elias T. Main was a man (d 
 high personal character and great public spirit, anrl 
 was universally respected and beloved by his fellow 
 townsmen, who repeatedly evinced their admiration 
 for, and confidence in, him by electing him to of- 
 fices of grave responsibility and high trust. He 
 was born in New Haven in 1819. In early life he 
 was a carriage maker, and while yet a young man 
 
 took an active part in public affairs, being foreman 
 of a (hand) fire engine company and captain of 
 the military organization known as the Governor's 
 Foot Guards. In 1852 he disposed of his business- 
 in New Haven and removed to Orange, where he 
 purchased a farm and engaged in agricultural pur- 
 suits. In 1858 he was elected town clerk, which 
 office he held, through successive re-elections, for 
 thirty years, or until his death, Sept. 20, 1888, at the 
 age of sixty-nine years. In 1873, the location of 
 the town offices being moved to the borough of 
 West Haven, he abandoned farming and devoted 
 himself wholly to his public duties. In addition 
 to the office of town clerk he held that of registrar 
 of vital statistics. His acquaintance was co-exten- 
 sive with the limits of the town, and his incor- 
 ruptible probity, joined to a keen business sagacity, 
 commanded universal respect. He was an ardent 
 Republican in politics, and was for many years 
 chairman of the town committee and a delegate to 
 numerous conventions. In 1872 he was elected a 
 member of the Lov/er House of the General Assem- 
 bly. He was of a genial disposition and fond of 
 social pleasure. A charter member of New Haven 
 City Lodge, I. O. O. F., he filled all the chairs in 
 that body, including that of past noble grand, and 
 was for forty years a member of the Grand En- 
 campment. He was an earnest and consistent mem- 
 ber of the Baptist Church of New Haven, as was 
 also his wife, who preceded him to the grave, dying 
 at the age of forty-three. Her maiden name was 
 Jane E. Smith, and she was the only child of Will- 
 iam A. Smith, a prosperous farmer of Orange, of 
 which town her family were early settlers, and 
 where she herself was born. Of the seven children 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Elias T. Main, five are yet 
 living, Walter A. being the fourth. Martha is the 
 wife of William M. Russell, of Tyler City, in the 
 town of Orange ; William D. is a resident of Hart- 
 ford; Mary E. resides in West Haven; Arthur L. 
 is manager of the Spring Lake Co., of West Haven. 
 Clifford L., who was in the employ of the Electric 
 railway, died during the summer of 1901, leaving a 
 wife and four children, who reside in West Haven. 
 Walter A. Main passed his boyhood upon his 
 father's farm in Orange, and his early education 
 was received at the common schools and academy of 
 that town. After graduating from the latter insti- 
 tution he entered his father's office, as assistant. 
 Here under the care of a wise and loving father, 
 he received his first business training, readily mas- 
 tering all details and proving himself a capable and 
 efficient clerk. In fact, he continued to render more 
 or less aid to his father in the discharge of the 
 duties of the office until the latter's demise, when 
 he became his successor. Meanwhile he was made 
 the incumbent of various other important offices. 
 From 1874 until 1883 he was deputy postmaster at 
 West Haven, the actual supervision of the office de- 
 volving almost wholly upon him. In addition there- 
 to he was chosen tax collector for the town and 
 
a 9^-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 897 
 
 borough in 1877, and was annually re-elected until 
 1885. In 1887 he was elected first 'selectman, but 
 resigned that office to accept the post of town 
 clerk, which, as has been said, was ofifered him upon 
 his father's death. In 1891, however, failing health 
 compelled him to seek recuperation in the more 
 salubrious climate of California, where he remained 
 until June, 1893. During his sojourn on the coast 
 he was connected with various local companies for 
 irrigation, besides being interested in orange cul- 
 ture. The following year, upon his return to 
 Orange, he was again elected first selectman, and 
 has been annually re-elected, holding the office at 
 the present time. Like his father, Mr. Main is an 
 earnest Republican, and a valued man in the coun- 
 cils of his party, having been for many years chair- 
 man of the town committee, and a frequent dele- 
 gate to county and state conventions. In 19GO he 
 was elected a member of the General Assembly to 
 represent the town of Orange, and has served as 
 clerk of the committee on Cities and Boroughs, 
 which was one of the important committees of the 
 session. 
 
 In 1883 Mr. Main embarked in the real estate 
 and insurance business, which he resumed on his 
 return from the West, and represents some of the 
 oldest and soundest companies in the country, 
 among them the German American, Aetna, London 
 and Commercial Union. He is treasurer of the 
 Spring Lake Ice Co., in which concern he is a large 
 stockholder. Mr. Main's business career has been 
 exceptionally successful, having been molded upon 
 the principles of sound judgment and unwavering 
 integrity. 
 
 Mr. Main is a member of the Royal Arcanum 
 and a Mason of high rank, having passed through 
 all the degrees of the fraternity up to the 32d, and 
 affiliates with Anna wan Lodge, No. 115, A. F. & 
 A. M,. of West Haven; Franklin Chapter, R. A. 
 M., and Harmony Council, of New Haven ; New 
 Haven Commandery, K. T. ; La Fayette Consistory ; 
 and Pyramid Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. 
 He is also a member of the Second Company of 
 Governor's Foot Guards, of New Haven. 
 
 In November, 1879, Mr. Main was married to 
 Carrie E., daughter of Sidney Smith, a shoe dealer 
 in West Haven, and his wife, Sarah (Goodell), of 
 Westville. Mrs. Main is one of a family of four 
 children, of whom only she and a brother, Edward 
 E., survive; her parents are also deceased. To 
 Mr. and Mrs. Main have been born three children, 
 Mildred L., Florence S. and W. Raymond. In re- 
 ligious faith Mr Main is a Congregationalist, and 
 attends the services of that denomination. 
 
 GEORGE AUGUSTUS WILCOX was born 
 in Madison, New Haven county, Sept. 30, 1830, 
 and makes his summer home in his native town. 
 He comes of one of the oldest families of New 
 England and is seventh in line of direct de- 
 scent from John Wilcox, the first of the family 
 
 57 
 
 in America, who settled in Hartford prior to 
 1639, was one of the original proprietors and 
 held several responsible offices ; he had his home 
 on the present site of the Park, near the State 
 House, and had a good estate. He died in 
 1 65 1 and left one son, John, who came with him 
 from England, and two daughters. 
 
 George Augustus Wilcox is a son of the late 
 Jonathan S. Wilcox and Chloe (Hand), a sister of 
 Daniel Hand. He was graduated from Yale College 
 in 1852, and after spending a year at the South, went 
 to Detroit, Mich., where he entered the law office of 
 his uncle. Judge George E. Hand, and was admitted 
 to the Michigan Bar in 1854. Mr. Wilcox began 
 the practice of his chosen profession, and continued 
 it until 1880, when he returned East, and has since 
 spent his summers in Madison, and his winters in 
 the city of New York. Mr. Wilcox is a gentleman 
 of genial character and much culture. He has trav- 
 eled quite extensively both in this country and 
 abroad, and has occasionally contributed literary ar- 
 ticles for publication. Independent in politics and 
 religion, he holds his own views and does not hesi- 
 tate to express them on occasion clearly and posi- 
 tively. 
 
 Mr. Wilcox was married, in Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 to Mary H. Crenelle, a daughter of William H. 
 Crenelle, and has one child, Constance. 
 
 MARTIN KELLOGG NORTHAM, a progress- 
 ive and prominent farmer of the town of Branford, 
 was born in Chatham, Middlesex Co., Conn., Oct. 
 16, 1818, son of John Cone and Rachel (Kellogg) 
 Northam. 
 
 Jonathan Northam, the paternal grandfather of 
 Martin K., was a soldier in the war of the Revolu- 
 tion, and received a pension on account of his 
 service in the Continental army. He was a farmer, 
 and died at Marlboro at the advanced age of eighty- 
 seven years. 
 
 John Cone Northam was born in Marlboro, 
 Conn. He was reared to farming, but became a 
 quarryman, and was employed for many years in 
 the quarries at Haddam Neck. He died at the age 
 of sixty-four years. Mr. Northam first married 
 Rachel Kellogg, a native of Chatham, and daughter 
 of Martin and Rachel (Hosford) Kellogg, the for- 
 mer of whom was a farmer in the town of Chatham. 
 To this union were toorn children as follows : John 
 M., Martin K., Lucy A. (wife of Hubbard Fuller), 
 Joel K. and William B., of whom Martin and Lucy 
 survive. By his second wife, Anna Brainerd, 
 daughter of Frederick Brainerd, Mr. Northam be- 
 came the father of two children: Laura B., who 
 married William Bishop; and Frederick B., a far- 
 mer, who married Ellen Lee. 
 
 Martin Kellogg Northam was reared in his na- 
 tive town, where he received a common school 
 education, and at the age of sixteen years started out 
 in life for himself as a driver in the quarries, in 
 
898 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 which employment he acquitted himself creditably, 
 and won the good opinion of his employers. When 
 he had become somewhat older he worked at stone 
 cutting, beginning at this trade in 1836, and con- 
 tinuing in same until 1867. In 1859 Mr. Northam 
 located in Branford, and there followed the stone 
 cutter's trade up to 1867, when he turned his atten- 
 tion to farming, which has been his occupation ever 
 since. He owns and cultivates a fine tract of eighty 
 acres. Our subject is active in local affairs, es- 
 pecially in the advancement of educational interests, 
 having been a meniber of the school board for twelve 
 consecutive years, during which period he has given 
 his time and influence with such good effect that 
 three new school houses have been erected in Bran- 
 ford and Stony Creek. . He has also acted as select- 
 man of the town, and in his public service, as in his 
 private life, his duties are ably and promptly per- 
 • formed. His political allegiance is given to the Re- 
 publican party. 
 
 Mr. Northam was married July 2, 1863, to El- 
 len L. Palmer, who was born May 24, 1843, only 
 child of Hezekiah and Mary (Beach) Palmer, of 
 Branford. Both her parents died in 1892, within 
 two weeks. Mr. Palmer was a sailor, as was also 
 his father, James Palmer, who was drowned ofif the 
 coast of New Jersey. Mr. and Mrs. Northam have 
 had two children, John H. and Calvin K. John H. 
 Northam was born Feb. 15, 1865, married Cora 
 Bishop, who was born June 19, 1868, and has four 
 children — Robert H., born Nov. 22, 1889; Adeline 
 E., born :\Iay 12, 1891 ; Frederick R., born July 25, 
 1892; and Martin P., born Sept. 22, 1896. John H. 
 Northam is an engineer in the Norcross Quarry, 
 Stony Creek. Calvin K. Northam was born June 
 17, 1866, married Jennie Botsford, Nov. 16, 1897, 
 and has one child, Eva May. He is a farmer by 
 occupation. Mr. and Mrs. Northam both belong 
 to the Stony Creek Congregational Church, and 
 their long career of honorable industry and fine 
 character are known and recognized in the com- 
 munity. 
 
 CHARLES THERON HOTCHKISS, a prom- 
 inent and influential citizen of Cheshire, was born 
 in the town of Bethany, July 9, 1834, and traces 
 his ancestry back to Samuel and Elizabeth (Clev- 
 erly) Hotchkiss, natives of Essex, England, who 
 came to New Haven, Conn., in 1641, and were mar- 
 ried there the following year. Samuel Hotchkiss 
 was a tiller of the soil, and was the founder of the 
 settlement in Wallingford, where he died. His chil- 
 dren were John, who was born in 1643, ^nd died in 
 1682; Samuel, born in 1645; James, born in 1647; 
 Joshua, born in 1651 ; Thomas, born in 1654; and 
 David, born in 1657. Of this family, Joshua Hotch- 
 Idss was born in Wallingford, and wedded Mary 
 Hotchkiss, of New Haven, by whom he had twelve 
 childten, namely: Mary, Stephen, Martha, Pris- 
 cilla, Abraham, Desire, Isaac, Jacob, John, Eliza- 
 beth, Mary (2), and Mary (3). Jabez Hotchkiss, 
 
 a son of one of these, was born in Bethany, New 
 Haven countv, and there spent his entire life. His 
 children were Stephen, the grandfather of Charles 
 T • Mary, born June 3, 1763; Timothy, 'born Jan. 
 22' 1766; Lydia, born April i, 1768, died m 1773; 
 Eleazer, born June 4, ^77° ; Lydia (2), born Ju'ie 
 
 7, 1774- 
 
 Stephen Hotchkiss was also a life-long resident 
 
 of Bethany, where he was born Oct. 31, 1761, and 
 he died in 1847, at the ripe old age of eighty-seven 
 years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of 
 Hannah Brown, passed away at the age of eighty. 
 In their family were the following children: Har- 
 ley, father of Charles T. ; Rebecca, wife of Minott 
 Collins ; Wealthy, who died young ; Eber, who mar- 
 ried Thurza Driver; Stephen, who married Abi- 
 gail Hotchkiss; Hannah, wife of John Russell; 
 Jared, who married Amy French, still a resident of 
 Bethany; Jesse, who married Caroline Lounsbury; 
 and George, who married Laura Sperry, who died 
 in New Haven. All lived in Bethany and are now 
 deceased. 
 
 Harley Hotchkiss was born Sept. 12, 1791, and 
 reared in Bethany, where he married Harriet Col- 
 lins, also a native of that town and a daughter of 
 Benjamin Collins. (Her mother's maiden name 
 was Ford.) They continued to make their home 
 there throughout life, the father devoting his time 
 and attention to agriculture. He died March 29, 
 i860, and his wife was burned to death by the 
 destruction of a house two years later, when she 
 was aged seventy years. To them were born four 
 children : ( i ) Wealthy Ann married William Gil- 
 yard, of Seymour, and died in 1892, leaving three 
 children, Mary, Thomas F. and Sarah L. (2) An- 
 drew T. married Belinda Buckingham, and died 
 in Bethany in 1877, leaving four children: Ernest 
 Z., Isa A., Harley D., and Andrew T., now of 
 New Haven. (3) Harris died young. (4) Charles 
 T. completes the family. 
 
 Charles T. Hotchkiss was reared in his native 
 town and obtained a good practical education, which 
 enabled him to successfully engage in teaching for 
 a period of thirty-six winters. As a teacher he 
 came to Cheshire in early life, and here he pur- 
 chased a farm in April, 1861. While following his 
 ^ profession during the winter season until recently 
 he has engaged in farming, with marked success, 
 through the summer months. He also gives con- 
 siderable time to work at the mason's trade. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Hotchkiss was married, in South 
 Canaan, to Miss Emma Victoria Watson, a native 
 of Torrington, Conn., and a daughter of George 
 and Jane (Belden) Watson, the former of whom 
 died in Roseville, Illinois, the latter in Norfolk, 
 Conn. By this union Were born three children, 
 namely: Mary Claribel, Mrs. Warren Andrews, 
 of Cheshire; Clarence H., who died at the age of 
 six and one-half years; and Harriet I., wife of 
 Everett Pardee, of New Haven. Both of the 
 daughters have been teachers. Fraternally Mr. 
 Hotchkiss is a member of the Patrons of Hus- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 899 
 
 bandry, and politically is a stanch Da-nocrat. He is 
 now serving as justice of the peace, and is the 
 present chairman of the board of education. He is 
 also secretary and treasurer of the Hotchkiss re- 
 unions, which held their twentieth annual meeting 
 in 1900, when 175 representatives of the family 
 were present. He is regarded as one of the lead- 
 ing and most highly respected citizens of Cheshire, 
 and it is, therefore, consistent that he be repre- 
 sented in a work whose province is the portrayal 
 of the lives of the prominent men of New Haven 
 county. 
 
 ALBERT PHELPS is the president of the 
 Phelps & Bartholomew Co., well known as manu- 
 facturers of clocks of all grades, and is prominent 
 among the business men whose enterprise and en- 
 ergy have created the thriving city of Ansonia. 
 The product of their factory is in demand in all 
 parts of the United States, and the reputation of 
 the firm for excellent workmanship is constantly 
 increasing their trade. The business, which was 
 established nineteen years ago under the firm name 
 of Phelps & Bartholomew, was reorganized in 1886 
 as a stock company, with a capital of $15,000, and 
 our subject has been at its head ever since. At 
 present the other officers are A. H. Bartholomew, 
 treasurer, and Howard D. Phelps, secretary. They 
 started with twelve hands and a small shop, the 
 Gardner building, and now employ over a hundred 
 hands, and have a factory 125 feet long, 45 feet 
 wide and four stories high, with a wing 30x25 
 feet in size. The firm has had some difficulties to 
 overcome on account of persecution by larger firms 
 on the question of patent rights, but they have for- 
 tunately been free from labor troubles and in the 
 regular receipt of good orders. 
 
 Albert Phelps was born July 13, 1839, i" Marl- 
 boro, Conn., where his ancestors were early set- 
 tlers. OHver Phelps, his grandfather, was a lead- 
 ing farmer of that locality and an active supporter 
 of the work of the Methodist Church. He died at 
 the age of sixty-seven, and his wife, Mary (Hills), 
 who was born in that vicinity, died at the age of 
 seventy-four. Their family consisted of six chil- 
 dren, all of whom are deceased. David Phelps, our 
 subject's father, was born in 1810, and reared at 
 Marlboro, and learned the trade of stonemason. 
 Later he went to Bristol and worked in a clock 
 factory for a time, and for twenty years he was 
 similarly employed in Hartford, but he retired a 
 few years previous to his death, which occurred 
 July 10, 1873. Politically he was a Republican, and 
 he took an active interest in local affairs, serving 
 on the board of relief and as justice of the peace. 
 He was prominent in religious work as a member 
 of the Methodist Church and for a number of 
 years he led the choir, his voice being unusually 
 fine. He married Hannah Freeman, a native of 
 Hebron, Conn., who is now living in Bristol. Of 
 their five children four are living, viz. : Jane, wife 
 
 of William Garlick, of Bristol; Albert, our subject; 
 Mary, wife of George Lewis, of Bristol; and 
 George, who is employed in our subject's factory at 
 Ansonia. 
 
 At the age of fourteen Albert Phelps accom- 
 panied the family to Bristol, and his education was 
 secured in the common schools. At eighteen he be- 
 gan work in the Bristol clock shop, where he re- 
 mained a number of years, and in 1871 he located 
 in Ansonia, taking the contract to make movements 
 for the Ansonia Clock Co. After a time he was 
 made superintendent of the movement department, 
 but on the removal of the company to Brooklyn he 
 engaged in business for himself, in partnership with 
 Arthur H. Bartholomew, as stated above. In pol- 
 itics Mr. Phelpsi is a Democrat, and he has served 
 on the board of relief. Socially the family is promi- 
 nent, and he is a member of Franklin Lodge, F. 
 & A. M., of Bristol. He is identified with the 
 Episcopal Church, his family being active workers 
 in that organization. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Phelps married Miss Nellie Oakley, 
 a native of New York City, and they have two chil- 
 dren : ( I ) Howard D., who is connected with our 
 subject's factory, married Miss Annie Tuttle, and 
 has two children, Helen and Albert. (2) Miss 
 Maud is at home. 
 
 HON. DANA BARTHOLOMEW, whose ac- 
 tive, busy and useful life closed Sept. i, 1900, while 
 he was staying temporarily with his family at 
 Saratoga, N. Y., was for many years one of the 
 leading citizens and business men of Ansonia, and 
 a representative of one of the State's early families. 
 
 The branch of the Bartholomew family to which 
 our subject belonged traces its ancestry into the 
 sixteenth century to John Bartholomew, of War- 
 borough, England, who was married there in 1551. 
 William Bartholomew, a great-grandson of this 
 John, grandson of John, and son of William, all 
 of England, born there in 1602-03, married Anna 
 Lord, and came to Boston in the ship "Griffin" in 
 1634. In 1635 he was chosen a deputy to the Gen- 
 eral Court of Ispwich, Mass. From this first Amer- 
 ican ancestor the subject of this sketch was a de- 
 scendant in the eighth generation, his line being 
 through William (2), Isaac, Abraham, Abraham 
 (2), Jonathan and Jeremiah H. Bartholomew. 
 
 Hon. Jeremiah Hotchkiss Bartholomew, the fa- 
 ther of our subject, was born April 18, 1814, in 
 that part of Farmington, Conn., now Plainville. 
 He received a limited education only, attending the 
 district school until fifteen years of age, and then 
 learned the tanner's trade. Subsequently he clerked 
 for a time for Adna Whiting, of Plainville, and fol- 
 lowed various occupations, always with application, 
 intelligence and perseverance, characteristics which 
 afterward' brought him power and influence. He 
 was employed in the Wolcottville Brass Kettle Fac- 
 tory, became superintendent and ultimately general 
 agent of a large business of the same character in 
 
goo 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Ansonia, for which Anson G. Phelps, of New York,, 
 furnished the capital. Here Mr. Bartholomew's 
 business capacity was given a field, and the Battery 
 Mills, Brass & Copper, and Brass, Copper & Iron 
 Wire Mills, with their numerous branches — which 
 were built, started and operated most successfully 
 for some twenty-five and more years by him as 
 agent, superintendent, etc., of the very extensive 
 manufacturing firm; of Phelps, Dodge & Co. — are 
 evidences of his ability. Mr. Bartholomew held 
 such position until ill heahh, in 1876, compelled 
 him to retire. 
 
 By the personal efforts of Mr. Bartholomew the 
 New Haven & Derby railroad was built to Bir- 
 mingham and Ansonia. He became its president in 
 1874, and continued as such until the time of his 
 death, in 1884. In all matters of public interest Mr. 
 Bartholomew was foremost in action, liberal in aid, 
 and completed all his undertakings successfully. 
 He represented his town and district in the House 
 and Senate. His political affiliations were with the 
 Republican party. He was a member of the Congre- 
 gational Church from 1843 until his death. 
 
 On Sept. 15, 1834, Mr. Bartholomew was mar- 
 ried) to Polly H., daughter of Truman Root, of 
 Bristol, Conn., and to the union were born chil- 
 dren as follows: Sophronia, Adele (who died 
 when ten years old), Dana, Frances, Arthur H. 
 and Emma. 
 
 Dana Bartholomew, our subject proper, was 
 born April 8, 1847, in what was formerly Wolcott- 
 ville, now Torrington, Conn., where he attended the 
 district school until he was sixteen years old, and 
 he was also a student at the Eastman Business 
 College. Then, in keeping with his father's opinion 
 that the best school for a business life is the bu'^i- 
 ness life itself, he entered the employ of the An- 
 sonia Brass & Copper Co. For fourteen years 
 he familiarized himself with all the process of brass 
 manufacture, and became a stockholder of the com- 
 pany. In 1877 he severed his managerial connec- 
 tion with the company and entered into partner- 
 ship with A. B. Hendryx for the manufacture of 
 wire bird-cages. This business venture was very 
 prosperous, and when the business was moved to 
 New Haven, Mr. Bartholomew's many interests at 
 home requiring his . attention, he severed his con- 
 nection with this company and formed another for 
 the manufacture, under patent, of bits, augers, 
 screw-drivers and braces; but in 1884 the floods 
 swept the entire plant away by the breaking of the 
 dam of the Ansonia Water Co., in which he was a 
 large owner. From that time until his death Mr. 
 Bartholomew was occupied in caring for his many 
 invested interests. He served as secretary, man- 
 ager, then as president of the Ansonia Water Co. , 
 also as president, treasurer and agent of the An- 
 sonia Hall Co., owning the principal building in the 
 town for offices and hall. He was a director of the 
 Ansonia Savings Bank, the Ansonia Ice Co. and the 
 Naugatuck Valley Ice Co., of Bridgeport, a di- 
 
 rector and treasurer of the Meriden Ice Co., and 
 vice-president of the Mallett Cattle Co. of Texas. 
 At the time of his death he was president of the 
 Ansonia Noveltv Co. and the Ansonia Telephone 
 Co. He was an enterprising and public-spirited 
 citizen, and held at various times a number of the 
 town offices. In 1880 he was a representative in 
 the General Assembly from Derby. 
 
 Throughout life Mr. Bartholomew was closely 
 identified with the Christian forces of the town. 
 For years he was deacon in the Congregational 
 Church and also church clerk. He was a Sabbath- 
 school worker and teacher of great popularity. 
 Like his father, too, he was for years one of the 
 foremost supporters of the Young Men's Christian 
 Association of the town, and whenever the general 
 Christian enterprises of the section were in need of 
 special help their appeals to him were not unheeded. 
 
 Mr. Bartholomew was twice married. On Sept. 
 17, 1867, he married Aliss Lanette Wightman, of 
 Southingtpn, who died July 21, 1886, and on March 
 17, 1888, he married Miss Isabel H. Warner, of 
 Springfield, Mass., a daughter of one of the old and 
 honored families of Enfield, Conn. To the first 
 union were born four children, namely: Ellen 
 E., Dana W., Jeremiah Hotchkiss, and Valentine 
 (who died in infancy). To the second marriage 
 came Pauline, who died in infancy ; and Helen Ger- 
 trude, born Nov. 25, 1890. The family home on 
 South Cliff street is one where wealth has set its 
 adornments and one from which its occupants have 
 dispensed a generous hosipitality. 
 
 ALLING. The New Haven branch of the 
 Ailing family to which the late Truman Ailing and 
 sons, Francis A. and John T. Ailing, belonged, 
 were descended from the first settlers of the Colony 
 of New Haven. 
 
 Roger Ailing, the first American ancestor of the 
 New Haven branch of the family under considera- 
 tion, was born in England, son of James, and 
 came to New England, about 1638 ; he settled in the 
 Colony of New Haven, then called Quinnipiac. 
 About 1642 he married Mary, eldest daughter of 
 Thomas Nash, of Bendley, England. 
 
 From this first settler the late Francis A. and 
 John T. Ailing, of New Haven, were in the eighth 
 generation, their line being through John, Capt. 
 Jonathan, John (2), Ebenezer, Jonathan (2), and 
 Truman Ailing. 
 
 John Ailing, son of Roger, was born October 
 2, 1647, married at New Haven, in 1671, Susannah 
 Coe, born in 1653. Mr. Ailing died in 1717, and 
 his widow in 1746. 
 
 Capt. Jonathan Ailing, son of John, was born in 
 1683, and married in 1713, Sarah, born in 1693, 
 daughter of John Sacket. Capt. Ailing died in 
 175s and his widow in 1766. His life had been a 
 successful one, he became a prominent citizen, and 
 was captain of a militia company. For twenty- 
 three times he served in the Legislature, after 1730. 
 
T 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 901 
 
 John Ailing (2), son of Capt. Jonathan, was 
 bom in 1714, and married, in 17.^8, Abiah Hitch- 
 cock, born in 1715. Thev resided in Allingtown, 
 where he died in 1761, and his widow in 1783. 
 
 Ebenezer Ailing, son of John (2), was born in 
 1741 and married Lydia Punderson, born in 1745, 
 and they resided in Allingtown, where he died in 
 1800, and she in 1832. 
 
 Jonathan Ailing (2), son of Ebenezer, was 
 born July 15, 1775, and Nov. 20, 1798, married 
 Susannah Piatt, born Jan. 3, 1780. By trade he 
 was a carpenter, and his last days were spent in 
 New Haven, where he died in 1861, and his wife 
 passed away in 1854. 
 
 Truman Ailing, son of Jonathan (2), was born 
 on Feb. 7, 1800, and was married Aug. 20, 1820, 
 to Clarissa Hendrick, born in 1801. He died June 
 15, 1892, and his wife Jan. 9, 1871. By trade 
 Truman Ailing was a carpenter, his principal work 
 being the making of boats and suitably fitting them 
 for the carriage of horses to the West Indies. A 
 part of his time was occupied in farming. His 
 children were : Mary, who married M. Armstrong, 
 a skilled carriage builder; William, deceased, left 
 two sons, Burton and Leonard, of New Haven ; 
 Francis A. ; Robert ; Julia, who is Mrs. Pat- 
 rick, of Norwalk, Conn. ; Amelia, who died at the 
 age of eleven years ; John Truman ; and Harriet. 
 
 Francis A. Alling, son of Truman, was born 
 Sept. 8, 1825, and married Dec. 29, 1853, Mary J. 
 Briggs, born Dec. 13, 1829. Their children were: 
 Charles F. Alling, born Dec. 29, 1854, married Oct. 
 31, 1888, Carlie A. Sweet, born Oct. 9, 1867, and the 
 tenth generation came in with the birth of Gladys 
 H., born Jan. 17, 1892; Truman F., born March 
 8, 1894; Hazel Z., born Nov. 14. 1896;. and Olive 
 A., born Dec. 27, 1897. 
 
 Francis A. Alling spent his early school days m 
 New Haven, attending the public schools. His 
 first important work in building was on the rail- 
 road on the first bridge across the meadows on the 
 N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R., and he was foreman at 
 the time the second track and bridge were put in. 
 Early in his business career, he went into partner- 
 ship with Charles Waterhouse, as bridge builders, 
 pile drivers, joiners, etc., later continued in the busi- 
 ness alone, and then the partnership of Case & 
 Alling was formed about 1866, but this business 
 was dissolved by the death of Mr. Case. A partner- 
 ship was then formed between F. A. and D. R. 
 Alling, cousins, this association still continuing. 
 
 John T. Ailing, son of Truman, was born July 
 23, 1833, in New Haven, and in December, 1857, 
 married Editha E. Baldwin, who died April 16, 
 1895. One daughter, Eva E., was born of this 
 union, Nov. 23, 1863. 
 
 The early school days of John T. Ailing ware 
 spent in New Haven, and he also worked- on his 
 father's farm, which was located where Spring 
 street and vicinity make a thoroughfare through 
 the citv. When he began to learn the trade of 
 
 builder, he was under the instruction of M. Weaver, 
 and continued in active life until his retirement, in 
 1893. Mr. Ailing was well known in the building 
 and contracting business where he possessed the es- 
 teem of his' associates. His residence is at No. 203 
 Spring street. Mr. Ailing has always been opposed 
 to secret societies and also to insurance. 
 
 David Ailing, son of Jonathan (2), was born in 
 New Haven May 26, 1802, and died May 4, 1883. 
 His education was obtained in New Haven and 
 later he engaged in farming in this city, in Orange 
 and in Westville. As a matter of interest, it is 
 related that Mr. Ailing was a winner in a plowing 
 contest, which was held on the New Haven Green, 
 many years ago, and he was considered one of the 
 best judges of cattle in New Haven county. For 
 many years he had been, a member of Trinity 
 Church. David Ailing married Anna, daughter of 
 Philo Beers, of Trumbull, Conn., and their children 
 were : Jane, deceased ; Phebe Ann, who married 
 Eli Page, and has a daughter, Mrs. B. G. Skilton ; 
 Emily, deceased ; Eliza, who married D. O. Camp ; 
 Jonathan B., deceased; David Royal and Augusta 
 Jane, twins, of whom the latter married C. G. 
 Smith, and has one daughter, Lillian J. 
 
 David Royal Alling was born Sept. 15, 1845, in 
 New Haven, where his youth has been spent. Af- 
 ter leaving the public school, he entered the Charles 
 Fabrique school, later the Stevens & Wells Busi- 
 ness College in New Haven. Then he became 
 clerk, and later bookkeeper for Case & Alling, and 
 in 1873 bought the interest of F. A. Ailing. In 
 1876, upon the death of Mr. Case, F. A. Ailing pur- 
 chased his interest, and the firm became F. A. & D. 
 R. Alling, and this house is now one of the leading 
 business firms of New Haven. 
 
 David R. Alling is a member of Quinnipiac 
 Lodge, No. I, I. O. O. F., Past Noble Grand; Sas- 
 sacus Encampment, No. i, I. O. O. F., Past Chief 
 Patriarch; Grand Grand Canton Sassacus, No. i. 
 Patriarchs Militant, Past Commandant; Grand 
 Lodge I. O. O. F., Past Grand Master and Past 
 Grand Representative to Sovereign Grand Lodge; 
 Naomi Rebekah Lodge, No. i, I. O. O. F. In Ma- 
 sonic circles he is also prominent. Raised in Hiram 
 Lodge, No. I, A. F. & A. M.; affiliated with 
 Wooster Lodge, No. 79, Past Master; FrankHn 
 Chapter, No. 2, R. A. M. ; Harmony Council, No. 
 8, R. & S. M., Past Thrice Illustrious Master; New 
 Haven Commandery, No. 2, K. T., Past Eminent 
 Commander; E. G. Storer Lodge of Perfection, A. 
 & A. S. R., Valorous Junior Grand Warden; Elm 
 City Council, P. of J., A. & A. S. R., Most Excellent 
 Senior Grand Warden; New Haven Chapter Rose 
 Croix, A. & A. S. R., Most Wise and Perfect Mas- 
 ter ; Lafayette Consistory of Sublime Princes of the 
 Royal Secret, A. & A. S. R., Second Lieutenant 
 Commander; Supreme Council of Sovereign Grand 
 Inspectors — General of the thirty-third and last de- 
 gree of A. & A. S. R. For some time he has been 
 auditor in the Grand Lodge of Masons of Connect!- 
 
902 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 cut, and is one of the managers of the Masonic and 
 Odd Fellows Home. In his religious belief he is 
 an Episcopalian, and is now serving as a vestryman 
 in Trinit)' Church. 
 
 ALONZO GRAXXISS was born Alarch 27, 
 1820, in Waterbury, where he still resides, at his 
 home on Prospect street, honored and respected by 
 all who know him, and hale and hearty at the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty-two years. 
 
 Simeon Granniss, grandfather of Alonzo, was a 
 native of X^ew Haven county, Conn., and on marr}^- 
 ing settled in Xaugatuck, New Haven county, 
 where he reared a family of five children, who were 
 born in the following order : Emerilla married 
 Leverett Benham ; Polly married Lemuel Austin ; 
 Estella became the wife of Friend Sanford ; Caleb 
 was thfe father of Alonzo, our subject; Simeon set- 
 tled in New York State, and was a farmer by oc- 
 cupation. 
 
 Caleb Granniss was doubtless born in Nauga- 
 tuck, and was reared to blacksmithing and shoe- 
 making. .He married Miss Ruth Arnst, a native 
 of Naugatuck, and a daughter of John Arnst, who 
 came from France as captain's mate, and was the 
 first professional tailor to settle at Salem Bridge, 
 in that town. To Caleb Granniss and his wife were 
 born children as follows : Edward was a carpenter 
 and joiner in New York State, where his death 
 took place (he served gallantly throughout the Civil 
 war) ; Marshall was a mechanic in Waterbury, 
 Conn., where he passed his life ; James M. was 
 a mechanic in Waterbury ; Sarah became the wife 
 of Frank Curtiss, and later n.arried a Mr. Bas- 
 ford, and is still living; Alonzo is our subject. 
 After the death of Caleb Granniss, the father of 
 this family, his widow was united in marriage with 
 Joseph Cook, to whom she bore two children : An 
 infant that died unnamed and Sarah. She passed 
 the remainder of her life in Waterbury. 
 
 Alonzo Granniss migrated back and forth with 
 his parents between Waterbury and Salem Bridge 
 (Naugatuck), and was a child when they last re- 
 moved to the latter town. There he had his home 
 for four years, when with his mother he returned 
 to WaterlDury, his father having died in the mean- 
 time. Here he has since resided. Mr. Granniss 
 did not enjoy to any great extent the advantages 
 of early education. At the early age of twelve 
 years, or in 1832, he went to work in the factory 
 of Benedict & Burnham, was shrewdand showed 
 marked ability, and when sixteen years of age was 
 made foreman of the rolling department, which po- 
 sition he held until 1893, making a continuous 
 service of fifty-nine years — an unprecedented length 
 of time in one employ in Waterbury. 
 
 In 1837 Mr. Granniss was married to Miss 
 Esther D. Payne, who lived in the village of Pros- 
 pect, Xew Haven Co., Conn., but was born in Ohio, 
 a daughter of Silas Payne. This marriage was 
 crowned with four children, viz. : Margaret, who 
 
 died at the age of nine years; Frederick A., who 
 survives ; and two that died in infancy. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Alonzo Granniss have been united in mat- 
 rimony for sixty-five years, and together have at- 
 tended the Episcopal Church that long period of 
 time. In politics he was a Democrat in his early 
 days, but of late he has affiliated with the Repub- 
 lican party. He has served his fellow townsmen 
 six or seven years as a member of the council and 
 as a member of the board of relief, as street com- 
 missioner, and was one of the organizers of the 
 Mattatuck Engine Company, in 1839. He has never 
 belonged to any of the fraternities. He has always 
 relied on his own sterling- integrity, and no man in 
 Waterbury has ever been more respected for this 
 than himself. 
 
 Hon. Frederick A. Granniss, only surviving 
 child of Alonzo Granniss, was born Oct. 18, 1851, 
 attended school in New Haven, in Litchfield, the 
 Gunn School of Washington, Conn., the Episcopal 
 Academy in Cheshire (Military Acaflemy), and 
 also a commercial college in Hartford, being better 
 prepared in this respect, for the activities of busi- 
 ness, than his father had been. He was educated 
 practically in politics, and early became an adherent 
 of the Republican party. In 1884 he was the Re- 
 publican representative of the town of Cheshire in 
 the State Legislature, but since then he has been 
 attending to his father's and his own real-estate 
 matters, being the owner of considerable real es- 
 tate. Fraternally Hon. Frederick A. Granniss is a 
 member of Temple Lodge, No. 16, F. & A. M., of 
 Cheshire, and also of the Waterbury Club. 
 
 On May 3, 1873, occurred the marriage of Fred- 
 erick A. Granniss and Fannie Charlotte Mclntire, 
 of Ottawa, Canada, a daughter of Thomas Mc- 
 lntire, and of Scottish descent. This union has 
 been blessed with one child, Margaret Mclntire, 
 who is a musician of marked ability. She has been 
 presented by her grandfather, Alonzo Granniss, 
 with a Steiner violin over 200 years old, which was 
 selected by Prof. Hermann, of New York City, 
 from the collection of Dr. Von Derhor, of Europe. 
 The summer home of Hon. Frederick A. Granniss 
 is at Pine Orchard, Comiecticut. 
 
 WALTER H. ZINK, M. D. (deceased), one 
 of the oldest and most prominent physicians of 
 Branford, New Haven county, was a man whose 
 intellectual acquirements, professional character and 
 enthusiasm, and open, candid countenance won the 
 confidence and retained the respect of the public. 
 His was a genial spirit, and he was very companion- 
 able, mingling freely in society, and taking an active 
 and helpful interest in local affairs. 
 
 Dr. Zink was born in Nuremberg, Germany, 
 March 21, 1841, son of Charles Frederick and Anna 
 Maria. (Ernst) Zink, the father a government for- 
 est master in the Province of Nuremberg. He was 
 a son of Philip Zink, also a government forest mas- 
 ter. Walter Zink was thoroughly educated in his 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 903 
 
 native countrj-, passing through the preparatory 
 schools with credit, and in 1858 entering the Uni- 
 versity at Wurzburg, from the Medical Department 
 of which he was graduated in 1862, with honor. 
 In the fall of 1863 young Zink came to America, 
 locating in New York, where he took a post-grad- 
 uate course in Columbia College and practiced un- 
 til interested in the Civil war. The cause of the 
 Union aroused his enthusiasm for liberty and prog- 
 ress, and he was almost immediately given the post 
 of surgeon and attached to the 5th Army Corps, 
 then under the command of Gen. Warner, of Vir- 
 ginia. He continued to discharge the trying duties 
 of that position for some two years, gaining a val- 
 uable knowledge of surgery and the practical appli- 
 cation of medicine. During one of the fierce fights, 
 while he was caring for a wounded soldier, a spent 
 bullet struck him in the eye. Dr. Zink did not 
 stop, but continued his work on the patient before 
 him until the leg was properly set, and then dis- 
 covered that for the rest of his life he would be 
 deprived of the sight of one eye. The Doctor was 
 very popular with the soldiers, as might be expected 
 on account of his self-forgetfulness and devotion to 
 his work. When the war was ended Dr. Zink re- 
 turned to peaceful life and settled in New York, 
 where he married, in the fall of 1865, and made his 
 home in Newtown, L. I. After eleven years and 
 seven months he went to Trenton, where he lived 
 one year, and then moved to Branford. For over 
 eleven years of his residence in Newtown he acted 
 as the local health officer. Upon the death of Dr. 
 Hall he came to Branford, in 1878, and until his 
 death, Aug. 26, 1900, at the age of fifty-nine years, 
 was a familiar and beloved presence in the homes 
 of the people, and by the bedside of the sick. A 
 kindly heart and a sympathetic spirit animated all 
 his work, and he brought to the healing of the sick 
 all the resources of his great profession. He en- 
 joyed a patronage highly complimentary to his med- 
 ical skill. 
 
 In Branford Dr. Zink was actively interested in 
 public affairs and filled many positions of honor 
 and trust, having been at different times justice 
 of the peace (ten years in all), member of the 
 school board, acting school visitor and health of- 
 ficer. The Doctor belonged to numerous social or- 
 ders in the city, and his funeral was conducted by 
 Widows' Sons' Lodge, F. & A. M. He was an hon- 
 ored member of the I. O. O. F. ; of Woodland 
 Lodge, No. 39, K. P., in which he was first com- 
 mander of the castle; and of Mason Rogers 
 Post, G. A. R., in which he held the office 
 of post surgeon from the time of organization ; he 
 was post surgeon of the State for twelve years 
 prior to his decease. Professionally the Doctor 
 held membership with the New Haven Medical So- 
 ciey and the Connecticut State Medical Society. In 
 religion he united with the Lutheran Church. The 
 Doctor's death was caused by a cancer of the 
 stomach, with which he had been afflicted some two 
 
 years. The indomitable strength and courage of 
 the man is manifest in the fact that he continued 
 his active practice until about six weeks before his 
 death. 
 
 Dr. Zink was married, Sept. 25, 1864, to Caro- 
 line A. Milling, daughter of Philip and Katherine 
 (daughter of Lord Sminke) iMilling, natives of 
 Hessen-Cassel, Germany, and residents of the city 
 of New York. To this union were born five chil- 
 dren, three of whom survive: (i) Charles E., who 
 graduated from the University of Vermont, and 
 from the Medical Department of Baltimore Uni- 
 versity, in 1900; (2) Louisa A., who married Ben- 
 jamin F. Hosley, warden of the borough; and (3) 
 Walter R. 
 
 HARVEY G. DENNISTON. The family of 
 Denniston is of Scotch-Irish descent. The pro- 
 genitors of the American branch emigrated from 
 Scotland and from County Longford, Ireland. 
 
 Abraham Denniston, the grandfather of Harvey 
 G., was a farmer in Orange county, New York, 
 where he was born, as was also his wife, Bathsheba 
 Goldsmith. There they died, and there, too, they 
 reared their three children, Harvey, Lydia and 
 Goldsmith. The eldest son, Harvey, was a farmer, 
 like his father, and passed his life in the county 
 where he was born. Lydia married Aaron P. 
 Johnes, an importer of, and wholesale dealer in, 
 dry goods in New York City. 
 
 Goldsmith Denniston, the father of Harvey G., 
 was born at Blooming Grove, Orange Co., N. 
 Y., in 1801. He was educated at Union and Prince- 
 ton Colleges. After a short time spent at farm- 
 ing, he removed to Newburgh, N. Y., and later to 
 Steuben county, that State. He passed away in 
 1878, while on a visit to his son, Harvey G. Dennis- 
 ton. He was a man of prominence, and served 
 many years as county judge of Orange county. . A 
 stanch Whig, he was active in the affairs of his 
 party, was for a long time chairman of the New 
 York State Central Committee, and was a personal 
 friend of Henry Clay, with whom he was in fre- 
 quent correspondence, as well as with Webster, Cal- 
 houn and other leading statesmen and politicians 
 of the day. About 1825 he married a second cousin, 
 Fanny Denniston, of Orange county, who died in 
 1865. To their marriage were born three sons, of 
 whom Abraham, the eldest, was a soldier in the 
 Union army, during the war of the Rebellion, 
 and lost his life in the service, in 1863. Aaron, 
 born in Newburgh, N. Y., in 1840, is a farmer 
 and justice of the peace in Steuben county, New 
 York. 
 
 Harvey G. Denniston was born at Blooming 
 Grove, Aug. 23, 1829. He passed his youth in 
 Newburgh, N. Y., and received a collegiate educa- 
 tion, graduating from Union College in 1846. The 
 eight years following his graduation he passed in. 
 the employ of the wholesale dry-goods house of 
 Johnes, Otis & Co., of New York City, the head of 
 
904 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 which firm was his uncle. His preference, how- 
 ever, was for a professional life, and in 1854 he 
 commenced the study of law in Hammondsport, 
 Steuben Co., N. Y. He was admitted to the Bar 
 in Poughkeepsie, and began practice at Branch- 
 port, Yates Co., N. Y. The outbreak of the Re- 
 bellion stirred his patriotism to its depths, and his 
 impassioned oratory was constantly brought to bear 
 in scathing and effective denunciation of slavery 
 and secession. In the spring of 1862 he enlisted in 
 Co. H, 107th N. Y. V. I., and was mustered into the 
 service in August following. While serving with 
 this regiment he took part in the battles of South 
 Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg. Chancellors- 
 ville, Gettysburg, Falling Waters and Lookout 
 Mountain. In 1864 he resigned his lieutenancy in the 
 107th, having received a captain's commission in 
 the 1 88th, which regiment he joined on October 7 of 
 that year. After the first battle, at Hatcher's Run, 
 he was made assistant adjutant general of the Sec- 
 ond Brigade, First Division, 5th Army Corps. Later 
 he was appointed to the same position for the Fifth 
 Corps, and was successively brevetted lieutenant 
 colonel, colonel and brigadier general. He partici- 
 pated in the second engagement at Hatcher's Run 
 and in the raid on the Weldon Railroad'; was under 
 fire at Lewis Farm, Boydton Plank Road, Gravelly 
 Run and Five Forks ; and was present at the sur- 
 render of Lee at Appomattox. 
 
 General Denniston was a soldier of magnificent 
 qualities. Naturally impulsive and of doubtless 
 courage, in action he was cool, determined, resolute 
 and always ready to lead where his command was 
 threatened with danger. In a work published in 
 Hartford, and entitled "The Battle Flag," the fol- 
 lowing description of his conduct in battle is given : 
 "Major H. G. Denniston has a gold badge which 
 was presented to him on the field of battle. At 
 the close of the fight at Five Forks, Va., a short 
 time before the end of the war. Major General 
 Charles Griffin commanded. It was supposed that 
 the contest was over, when the enemy opened a 
 sharp musketry fire on the right. General Griffin 
 turned to Major Denniston, who was then assistant 
 adjutant general of the Second Brigade, and said, 
 'Stop that little firing.' A detail from the First 
 and Second Brigades was assigned for the duty, 
 and Major Denniston and his command advanced 
 upon the Confederate forces. The conflict was 
 short, but exceedingly sharp. About four hundred 
 Federal soldiers fell. In the end, however, the 
 enemy was driven back and four guns and a num- 
 ber of prisoners fell into Major Denniston's hands. 
 On his return he simply reported, with characteris- 
 tic modesty, 'General, we have stopped that little 
 firing.' Instantly the commanding officer unpinned 
 frorn his breast the red and gold badge of the First 
 Division, and presented it to the brave officer in 
 recognition of his intrepid service. The badge 
 bears the inscription: 'Capt. H. G. Denniston, A. 
 A. General; presented by Major General Charles 
 
 Griffin, at Five Forks.' " General Denniston also 
 enjoys the distinction of being one of the fifty of- 
 ficers to whom the New York Legislature awarded 
 richly-painted diplomas, in testimonial of gallant, 
 devoted service. 
 
 At the end of the war General Denniston re- 
 turned to New York and resumed the practice of 
 law, settling in Steuben county. In 1872 he mar- 
 ried Miss Emogene A. Tuttle, a daughter of Phile- 
 mon Tuttle, of Naugatuck. Thereupon he removed 
 to that town, and, abandoning the law, for some 
 time devoted his time to civil and electrical engin- 
 eering. He has, however, retired from active pur- 
 suits, and in a serene old age is enjoying a well- 
 earned rest. He is an independent in politics, while 
 his religious affiliation is with the Congregational 
 Church. He is an influential member of the G. A. 
 R., but is connected with no other fraternal organ- 
 ization. Himself intelligent and well educated, he 
 takes a lively interest in educational matters, and 
 has been prominentl)^ identified therewith. In pri- 
 vate life he is genial and warm-hearted, courteous 
 and affable. 
 
 General and iMrs. Denniston have one son, 
 Franklin T., who was born in 1882. 
 
 HOMER HEBER WELTON, one of Water- 
 ville's best-known citizens, is the possessor of a 
 handsome property, and! is enabled to spend his de- 
 clining years in the pleasurable enjojTnent of his 
 accumulations. The record of his early life is that 
 of an active, enterprising, methodical and saga- 
 cious business man, who bent his energies to the 
 honorable acquirement of a comfortable compe- 
 tence for himself knd family. 
 
 Mr. Welton was born at the old family home- 
 stead on Bunker Hill, Walerbury, Feb. 22, 1837. 
 The progenitor of this family in America was Johin 
 Welton, who came to this country from England or 
 Wales about 1667, and was married! while crossing 
 the Atlantic to Miss Mary Upson, a native of Eng- 
 land. They located first in Farmington, Hartford 
 Co., Conn., and about 1679 came to Waterbury, 
 New Haven county, where they spent the remainder 
 of their lives, Mr. Welton dving here June 18, 1726, 
 his wife Oct. 18, 171 6. Their remains were in- 
 terred in Hartford. In their family were ten chil- 
 dren, namely: Abigail married Cornelius Bron- 
 son ; Mary married John Richards ; Elizabeth mar- 
 ried Thomas Griffin, of Simsbury, Conn. ; John 
 married a Miss Buck, of Wethersfield, Conn., a 
 daughter of Ezekiel Buck ; Stephen married Mary 
 GayloTd, daughter of Joseph Gaylord: Richard, 
 the next in order of birth, is mentioned below; 
 Hannah, born April i, 1683, married Thomas 
 Squires ; Thomas, born Feb. 4, 1684, married Han- 
 nah Gaylord, a daughter of Joseph Gaylord ; George, 
 born Feb. 3, 1686, married Elizabeth Mailory, of 
 Stratford; and Elsie, born Aug. 16, 1698, married 
 a Mr. Griffin, of Simsbury. The first five were 
 born in Farmington, the others in Waterbury. 
 
MRS. HARY S. WELTOU, 
 
 i^mi^-'C^ 
 
 't^^6^^ ^ ?^.^- "^^/^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 905 
 
 Richard Welton, son of John, was born in 
 Watefbury Sept. 27, 1679, the first male child of 
 European parentage born in Waterbury, and there 
 spent his entire life, engaged in farming, dying in 
 
 1755. He married, Mary Upson, who was born 
 March 5, 1683, a daughter of Stephen and Mary 
 (Lee) Upson, and granddaughter of John Lee, of 
 Farmington. Nine children came to this union : 
 Richard, bom. Jan. 5, 1701 (married Anna, daugh- 
 ter of Jonathan Fenton) ; John, born July 13, 1703 ; 
 Stephen, born March 12, 1706; Mary, born June 
 I, 1708 (married Ebenezer Warner) ; Thomas, born 
 Oct. 25, 1710; Keziah, born Dec. i, 1713 (married 
 A. Warner) ; Eliakim, born Jan 21, 1715 (men- 
 tioned below) ; Tabitha, born Feb. 17, 1721 (mar- 
 ried Ed'ward Neal) ; and Ede, born April 24, 1729 
 (married a Mr. Lewis). 
 
 Eliakim Welton, son of Richard, spent bis entire 
 life in Waterbury, and owned and operated a large 
 tract of land on Bucks Hill, making farming his 
 principal occupation. He died Nov. 20, 1794, and 
 was buried on Bucks Hill. He married Eunice, 
 daughter of Moses and Jane (Wiah) Bronson, and 
 to this union came the following children : Eliakim, 
 born Sept. 22, 1736, married Amy Baldwin; Eunice, 
 born Oct. 19, 1738, married David Roberts ; Avis, 
 born Aug. 13, 1740, married Thaddeus Barnes; 
 Richard, born Oct. 10, 1743, is mentioned below; 
 Eli, born Oct. 10, 1746, married Ann Baldwin ; 
 Moses was born June 25, 1749; Aaron, born Feb. 
 19, 1752, married Zerah Bronson ; Benoni died 
 unmarried; and Benjamin Lewis, born Feb. 18, 
 
 1756, died in infancy. 
 
 Richard Welton, son of Eliakim, was a life- 
 long resident of Waterbury, where he died Feb. 
 26, 1820. He was married April 27, 1766, to 
 Margaret Warner, and they had two children : 
 Noah, born Feb. 15, 1767; and Richard Warner, 
 born Oct. 10, 1768, who died Dec. 14, 1768. The 
 wife and mother died Oct. 19, 1768, and subse- 
 quently Richard Welton married Hannah Davis, 
 who died Dec. 11, 1839, aged ninety-four years. 
 By the second union there were seven children, 
 whose names and dates of birth were as follows : 
 Richard,May 10, 1770 (married Sarah Sunn) ; Mar- 
 garet, July 2, 1772 (wife of Daniel Steel) ; Thomas, 
 Dec. 8, 1774; Lydia, April i, 1777 (married David 
 Roberts and died Aug. 31, 1828) ; Hannah, Oct. 
 10, 1779 (wife of David Warner) ; Joseph Davis, 
 April 15, 1783; Bela, Sept. 9, 1787. 
 
 Joseph Davis Welton, the grandfather of our 
 subject, was born in. Waterbury, was ordained a 
 deacon Dec. 18, 1802, and priest of the Episcopal 
 Church Dec. 23, 1810. He had charge of churches 
 in Woodbury and Easton, but in 1819, on account 
 of ill health, was obliged to give up the work of 
 the ministry. He then returned to Waterbury and 
 located upon his father-in-law's farm, which was 
 formerly the Zara Warden place, where he spent 
 the remainder of his life, conducting a private 
 school, where he fitted many young men for college. 
 
 He died Jan. 16, 1825, and in St. John's Episcopal 
 church, Waterbury, there has been erected to his 
 memory a baptismal font of carved marble, pre- 
 sented by Hobert V. Welton. He married Eunice 
 Tomlinson, a daughter of Victory Tomlinson. She 
 was born April 27, 1788, and died Feb. 20, 1832. 
 
 Joseph Welton, father of our subject, was born 
 May 15, 1814, and was the third in order of birth 
 in a family of four children. He received an excel- 
 lent education, and at the age of fourteen years, 
 while still in school, made a careful survey and pre- 
 pared an outline map of the Green, in Waterbury 
 Center, which is still preserved, and has furnished 
 useful information for the history of Waterbury. 
 He spent his entire life in that town, where he 
 owned a large tract of land. After residing at his 
 birthplace on the Wolcott road until 1836, he re- 
 moved to the west side of the Naugatuck River, to 
 Bunker Hill, where he made his home throughout 
 the remainder of his life, devoting his time to agri- 
 cultural pursuits. As a business venture he and 
 Leonard Piatt imported a large number of Norway 
 spruce trees, some of which are still growing upon 
 his farm. Politically he was first a Whig and later 
 a Republican, and religiously he was a member of 
 the Episcopal Church. He died May i, 1894, hon- 
 ored and respected by all who knew him, and was 
 laid to rest in Riverside cemetery. He was mar- 
 ried Jan. 20, 1836, to Miss Mary S. Pierpont, a 
 daughter of Seabury Pierpont, a well-known and 
 highly-respected citizen of Waterbury. Of the 
 three children born of this union our subject is the 
 eldest ; Eunice C, born Oct. 7, 1839, married Orrin 
 Scott, and for her second husband, Lewis Garrigus ; 
 Lucy A., born Nov. 14, 1841, married A. B. Pier- 
 pont. 
 
 Homer Heber Welton, the subject proper of this 
 review, was educated in the district schools of Wa- 
 terbury, and also attended the Waterbury Academy 
 and high school. While very young he was in the 
 field with his father one day. When he started for 
 home he lost his way in the woods, and kept travel- 
 ing all night. When his parents, discovered the loss 
 the church bells of Waterbury were rung as an 
 alarm, and many searching parties were sent out. 
 He was finally found, early the next morning, near 
 Oakville, by Charles D. Kingsbury, father of Fred- 
 erick J. Kingsbury, of Waterbury. He was at that 
 time only four years old, and although he never saw 
 his rescuer again for thirty-two years he remem- 
 bered him at once as the man who had found him 
 in the woods, Mr. Kingsbury being very tall. Dur- 
 ing his minority Mr. Welton aided his father in 
 the work of the farm, and also taught school dur- 
 ing the winter months at Bunker Hill, and East 
 Side, Watertown. He worked in Wheeler & Wil- 
 son's sewing machine factory one and a half years. 
 At the age of twenty-four he went to Hartford, 
 where he worked in the Sharps rifle factory during 
 the Civil war, and later was employed in the pin 
 factory at Oakville for one year. He then came to 
 
go6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Waterville, where he embarked in the cutlery busi- 
 ness in partnership with Messrs. Sprague and Boy- 
 den, continuing thus for ten years, and when he re- 
 tired from the firm, in 1876, he became a contractor 
 for a portion of their work and was so engaged 
 for sixteen years. He is now practically living a re- 
 tired life, though managing his father's estate on 
 Bunker Hill and other property. Mr. Welton 
 learned no trade, but worked as a machinist, tool- 
 maker, and clock and watch repairer from boy- 
 hood. He spent his evenings at taxidermy (being 
 the only one in the town engaged in that work), 
 though he has never seen anyone else stuff a bird or 
 other animal. In his collection are three scarlet 
 tanagers that he shot on Lincoln's fast day ; a night 
 heron shot in front of the residence of Harriet 
 Beecher Stowe, in Hartford, while it was in process 
 of erection; a pair of the first pine grosbeaks seen 
 in Waterbury; and the first mealy redpole on rec- 
 ord in the State. He has made his greatest success 
 doing his work in an original way, accomplishing 
 more and better work with less outlay. 
 
 ■In 1868, in New York, Mr. Welton was united 
 in marriage with Miss Ellen Jennette Garrigus, a 
 native of Morristown, N. J., and a daughter of 
 Isaac and Sarah (Sheppard) Garrigus. To this 
 union have been born three children : ( I ) Julia A. 
 is now the wife of Walter Warner, a minister of 
 the Adventist Church of Portland, Oregon, and 
 they have three children, Ethel M., Harold and 
 milliard. (2) Joseph Dennison is a resident of Wa- 
 terville, and a member of Goodwill Lodge, K. of 
 P. He married Martha Leapean, and they have 
 two children, Clifford and Edith. (3) Ediith J., the 
 youngest child of our subject, died at the age of 
 eight years. 
 
 Mr. Welton is a member of Mad River Grange, 
 the Sons of Temperance, and St. John's Episcopal 
 Church. His estimable wife holds membership in 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church of Waterbury. 
 They are people of prominence in the community 
 where they reside, and are held in high regard by 
 all who know them. In political sentiment Mr. 
 Welton is a Republican. 
 
 ELLIS BENJAMIN BAKER, general super- 
 intendent of the Southern New England Telephone 
 Co., now residing in New Haven, has taken promi- 
 nent place among the business men of that city. 
 He is a representative man of Connecticut, des- 
 cended from two of the most respected families in 
 the State, and was born Sept. 24, 1854, at Winsted, 
 son of John F. and Clarissa (Benjamin) Baker. 
 
 (I) Anthony Baker, the first of his paternal an- 
 cestors of whom we have record, was born about 
 1740. He was a Tory, and he and three of his sons 
 — Jesse, Simon and Anthony, Jr. — fought in the 
 Revolution on the British side. After the close of 
 the war many Tories were given grants of land in 
 the British possessions, and it is said that Anthony 
 and his family, with the exception of Scott, who 
 
 ran away and settled in Bridgeport, left the States 
 and went to Nova Scotia. Anthony Baker had 
 eight children : Jesse, Simeon, Anthony, Jr., Scott, 
 Samuel, Lizzie, Sarah and Hannah. 
 
 (II) Scott Baker, born in 1768, died Sept. 19, 
 1852. He was a tanner and shoemaker by occupa- 
 tion. In 1790 be married Sarah Loveland, who 
 was born in Glastonbury, Conn., and they had two 
 children: Asa, born in 1791 ; and Jesse, Wn Sept. 
 18, 1794. Mrs. Baker's father, also a native of 
 Glastonbury, was a soldier in the Revolutionary 
 war, and died iwhile in the army, at Roxbury, Mass., 
 Oct. 24, 1775. For his second wife Mr. Baker mar- 
 ried Mary Beush (or Beach). About 1810 Scott 
 Baker and his family moved to Bakersville, Conn., 
 where he died. 
 
 (III) Asa Baker followed farming. He was 
 married, at South Salem, N. Y., Oct. 14, 1813, to 
 Deborah Keeler, who was born in December, 1789, 
 and died in New Hartford, Conn., Dec. 24, 1871. 
 He died in Granville, Mass., Sept. 30, 1833. Their 
 children were : William Swayze, born Nov. 28, 
 1814; Sarah, in September, 1816; John Fletcher, in 
 October, 1817; Scott, March 2, 1819; Charles Linus, 
 July 4, 1824 ; and Emily. 
 
 (IV) John F. Baker, born in Hartford, passed 
 the greater part of his life in Winsted. He was 
 married, in Salisbury, Conn., April 18, 1847, to 
 Clarissa Benjamin, who was born in Sheffield, 
 Mass., July 29, 1824. She died at New Haven, 
 Conn., Oct. 16, 1890, and he died at Bristol, Conn., 
 March 11, 1895. Three children blessed their 
 union : Emerson John, born Feb. 18, 1848, who 
 died Oct. 8, 1849; Emma Clarissa, born Sept. 25, 
 1850, who died Sept. 8, 1851 ; and Ellis Benjamin, 
 born Sept. 24, 1854. 
 
 Through his mother Ellis B. Baker is de- 
 scended from the ancient family of Benjamin, whose 
 pedigree is traced back to the time of William the 
 Conqueror, (i) John Benjamin, the first of the 
 name in America, born in 1598, came over from 
 England to Boston in the ship "Lion," Capt. Mason, 
 on Sept. 16, 1632, with his wife, Abigail Eddy, 
 two children and his brother Richard. Richard, 
 in 1663, moved to Southold, Long Island, with 
 his wife and daughter Ann, who was born Sept. i, 
 1643. He was made a Connecticut freeman in 
 1664, and his descendants are influential in Queens 
 county (N. Y.) politics at the present time. John 
 and his wife, Abigail, and their children, John and 
 Abigail, soon moved to Cambridge, where they 
 owned considerable real estate. John was made a 
 freeman Nov. 6, 1632, and was appointed constable 
 by the General Court on May 20, 1633. Of him 
 the history of Stratford, Conn., says: "John Ben- 
 jamin, Esquire, Gentleman, was the first of that 
 name who came to America. His ancestors were 
 Welsh, and were among the first of the landed 
 gentry of England. He came in company with 
 Gov. Winthrop to the Massachusetts Colony and 
 settled in Watertown, adjoining the present Cam- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 907 
 
 bridge, where he died in 1645. His house, acci- 
 dentally destroyed by fire, was unsurpassed in ele- 
 gance and comfort by any in the vicinity. It was 
 a mansion of intelligence, refinement, religion and 
 hospitality, visited by the clergy of all denomina- 
 tions from far and near." In 1637 he removed to 
 Watertown, where he died June 14, 1645, it is sup- 
 posed at an advanced age, as he was excused from 
 military duty eleven years before. His will is ab- 
 stracted in the Geneal. Register III,- 177. Abigail, 
 his wife, died May 20, 1687, at the age of eighty- 
 seven. Children: John, born about 1620, died 
 Dec. 22, 1706; Abigail was born about 1624; Sam- 
 uel, born about 1628, died in 1669; Mary died 
 April 10, 1646; Joseph was born Sept. 16, 1633; 
 Joshua, born about 1642, died in 1684; Abel. 
 
 (II) Joseph Benjamin, son of John and Abigail 
 Benjamin, born at Cambridge, Mass., Sept. 16, 
 1633, married, at Barnstable, Mass., June 10, 1661, 
 Jemima Lambert, daughter of Thomas Lambert, 
 She died there, and he removed to Yarmouth, 
 where, previous to Dec. 7, 1668, he married (sec- 
 ond) Sarah Clark. He removed to New London, 
 Conn., where he died in 1704. Children: Abi- 
 gail; Hannah, born in February, 1668; Mary, born 
 in April, 1670 ; Joseph, born in 1673 ; Mercy, born 
 March 12, 1674; Elizabeth, born Jan. 14, 1680; 
 John, born in 1682, who died Aug. 2, 1716; Jemima; 
 Sarah ; Kezia. 
 
 (III) Joseph Benjamin, son of Joseph and 
 Sarah Benjamin, born at Yarmouth, Mass., or New 
 London, Conn., about 1673, married, Aug. 25, 
 1698, Elizabeth Cook. Children : Obed, born Aug. 
 15, 1701 ; Elizabeth, November, 1703 ; Joseph, 1705 ; 
 Sarah, Jan. 17, 1707; Grace, Jan. 10, 1709; Jede- 
 diah, July 15, 1711; Daniel, Sept. 7, 1714; John; 
 Abiel, Dec. 17, 1716. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Benjamin, son of Joseph and Eliz- 
 abeth Benjamin, born at Preston, Conn., in 1705, 
 was married, at Preston, Conn., April 3, 1722, to 
 Deborah Clark. He died about 1803. She died 
 at Mount Washington, or Egremont, Mass., at the 
 home of her son Nathan. Children : Joseph, born 
 Dee. 17, 1723 ; EHzabeth, June 8, 1725 ; James, April 
 3, 1727; Barzillai, March 28, 1730; Deborah, March 
 26, 1732; Josiah, March 13, 1734; Nathan, April 
 19. 1737; Mary, June 22, 1739; Isaac, April 15, 
 1742. 
 
 (V) Joseph Benjamin, son of Joseph and De- 
 borah Benjamin, born at Preston, Conn., Dec. 17, 
 1723, married, at Preston, Abigail Dibble. He set- 
 tled at Hampton, Conn. Some of his children re- 
 moved to Mount Washington, Mass. Children: 
 William, born June 18, 1748; Samuel, in December, 
 1749; Peleg, March 5, 1752; Judah, July 8, 1755; 
 Mary, about 1757. The last four were baptized at 
 Hampton, Conn., Sept. 3, 1758. 
 
 (VI) Judah Benjamin, son of Joseph and Abi- 
 gail Benjamin, born at Hampton, Conn., July 8, 
 1755, removed to Mount Washington, Mass., about 
 1760, with his brothers William, Samuel and Peleg, 
 
 and his sister Mary. He served as a private in the 
 Connecticut militia in the Revolutionary war, from 
 July 10, 1778, to July 14, 1779. He was married, 
 a;bout 1782, and had at least two children. In 
 1819 he resided in Hamilton, Madison Co., N. Y. 
 He died Aug. 16, 1834, in Pike township, Bradford 
 Co., Pa., leaving a widow, Susan, who might have 
 been his second wife. Children: Orange, born 
 Jan. 26, 1784;, and Lavinia, who married a Wooden. 
 The following letters explain themselves: 
 
 State of Connecticut, 
 Adjutant General's Office, 
 Hartford, Feb. 16, 189S. 
 Mr. E. B. Baker, 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
 ^-jV—This is to certify tliat Judah Benjamin served 
 in the Revolutionary war, and the following is said service, 
 according to the records of this office. 
 
 On page 378. Conn. Men in the Revolution: 
 
 Judah Benjamin, a private, enlisted July 10, 177S. 
 Term of service, one year ; from town of Milford ; occupa- 
 tion, shoemaker ; stature, 5 feet, seven in. ; complexion, 
 dark; eyes, grey; hair, dark; discharged in 5th Troop, Col. 
 Elisha Sheldon's Light Dragoons, 177. —83. 
 
 Its field of service during war generally the East side 
 of the Hudson, along the Westchester front. Occasion- 
 ally its companies served at different points. In the 
 spring of 1777 Major Tallmadge joined Washington in 
 New Jersey with two troops and fought at Germantown, 
 October 4th. At the same time, Captain Seymour with his 
 troop was serving under Gates against Burgoyne. The 
 other troops were under Putnam's command at Peekskill. 
 
 In the spring of 1778, the regiment was on the Hud- 
 son, and in the fall formed part of Gen. Charles Scott's 
 Light Corps, on the lines in Winchester. 
 
 On page 535, same book, appears the following: 
 
 Judah Benjamin; a private in Captain Caleb Mix's 
 Company. Arrived in camp July 17, 1778, in Colonel 
 Moseley's Regiment. 
 
 Two militia regiments were ordered to the Hudson 
 soon after the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, and were 
 stationed at different points, such as Fort Clinton, West 
 Point. They were commanded by Colonel Moseley and 
 Colonel Enos. 
 
 On page 641, same book, the name of Judah Benjamin 
 appears as a Connecticut pensioner. Act of 1818, and as 
 residing in New York. 
 
 In testimony whereof, we have affixed hereto the seal 
 of this office. [Signed] 
 
 W:m. E. F. Landers, 
 Col. and Asst. Adjutant General. 
 
 Record and Pension Office, 
 War Department, 
 Washington, April 4, 1898. 
 Mr. E. B. Baker, 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 
 Sir — The records of this office show that one Judah 
 Benjamin served as a private in Captain Caleb Mix's de- 
 tachment of Connecticut militia, commanded by Colonel 
 Increase Moseley, Revolutionary war. He enlisted July 
 10, 1778, to serve two months; re-enlisted July 17, 1778, 
 in Captain John Shethar's troop, 2d Regiment of Light 
 Dragoons, Continental troops, commanded by Colonel 
 Elisha Sheldon, to serve one year, and he was discharged 
 July 14, 1779. 
 
 The following remarks appear on the records : "State 
 of Connecticut;" "Town of Milford;" "trade, shoemaker;" 
 "stature, 5 ft. 7 in.;" "complex., dark; eyes, grey; hair, 
 dark." No further information relative to his service has 
 been found on record. 
 
 In view of the statement that the soldier was a pen- 
 sioner, it is suggested as a possibility that additional in- 
 
9o8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 formation may be obtained from the Commissioner of Pen- 
 sions, Washington, D. C, who is the custodian of the 
 pension records of all wars, and whose office is separate 
 and distinct from the Record and Pension Office of the 
 ^\'ar Department. 
 
 By authority of the Secretary of War, 
 [Signed] F. C. Ainsworth, 
 
 Colonel U. S. Army, Chief of OMce. 
 
 Department of the Interior, 
 Bureau of Pensions, 
 Washington, April 15, i8g8. 
 Mk. E. B. Baker, 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 Sir — Replying to your recent communication, you are 
 advised that Judah Benjamin made an application for pen- 
 sion on Oct. II, 1819, at which time he was sixty-five years 
 of age, and residing at Hamilton, N. Y., and his pension 
 was allowed for one year's actual service as a private in 
 the Connecticut troops. Revolutionary War; a part of the 
 time he served under Col. Sheldon. Heenlisted at Clare- 
 mont, N. H. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 [Signed] H. Clay Evans, 
 
 Commissioner. 
 
 Treasury Department, 
 Office of the Auditor for the Interior Department. 
 Washington, May S, 1898. 
 Mr. E. E. Baker, 
 
 New Haven, Conn. 
 Sir — In reply to your letter of May 3rd, in case of 
 Judah Benjamin, Certificate 15762, New York and Penna. 
 Agencies, Revolutionary roll, you are informed that the 
 records of this office show payment to have been made 
 at $8.00 per month in September, 1834, to August 16, 1834, 
 date of death. 
 
 The pensioner died on the above date at Pike town- 
 ship, Bradford County, Pennsylvania, leaving a widow 
 Susan Benjamin, to whom the accrued pension was paid 
 as above stated. 
 
 In July, 1820, pensioner resided at Hamilton, Madison 
 County, New York. 
 
 Respectfully, yours, 
 [Signed] Wm. Youngblood, 
 
 Auditor. 
 
 (VII) Orange Benjamin, son of Judah Benja- 
 min, born at JMount Washington, Mass., Jan. 26, 
 1784, married, at Sheffield, Mass., March 10, 181 1, 
 Clarissa Thorp. He died at Dover, N. Y., Oct. 
 5, 1846. She died at Brooklyn, N. Y., Aug. i, 
 1852. Children: Joseph Seymour, born Dec. 3, 
 181 1, died June 20, 1870; Hiram, born July 26, 
 1813, died Nov. 11, 1850; Mary, born July 15, 
 1815; Laura, born June 4, 1817, died June 20, 
 1859; Harriet Whipple, born July 8, 1819, died 
 May 20, 1834; Jane, born July 20, 1822; Clarissa, 
 bom July 29, 1824, died Oct. 16, 1890 (the mother 
 of Ellis B. Baker) ; Orange, born March 8, 1828; 
 John Peck, born Oct. 10, 1830; Richard Graham, 
 born Dec. 14, 1833. 
 
 The following in regard to Ellis B. Baker ap- 
 peared in "Telegraphers of To-day" : "Like most 
 boys who have achieved success in business, he left 
 home at an early age. . His first employment was in 
 the job room of the Winsted Herald, where he ac- 
 quired a thorough knowledge of the trade. At the 
 age of fifteen years he entered the employ of 
 Beardsley & Alvord, a firm engaged in general 
 
 business in West Winsted, where he served three 
 years as a clerk. In 1872 he entered the employ of 
 Edward Miller & Co., of Meriden, holding the posi- 
 tion of paymaster, and also acting as telegraph op- 
 erator on the firm's New York wire. 
 
 "In the early part of 1878 Mr. Baker intro- 
 duced the first set 'of telephones into Meriden. He 
 soon saw the possibilities of the telephone, and on 
 January 31st of that year he opened the IVleriden 
 District Telephone Exchange, w'hich is said to be 
 the second exchange opened in the world. 
 
 "Upon the consolidation of the Western Union 
 and) the Bell Telephone interests, in 1881, he was 
 offered the position of general superintendent of 
 the Connecticut Telephone Co., with headquarters 
 at New Haven, which position he has held for the 
 past seventeen years, during which time the cor- 
 poration became the Southern New England Tele- 
 phone Company, with the State of Connecticut as 
 its territory. 
 
 "Mr. Baker is also the superintendent of the 
 Connecticut Telegraph Company, a corporation op- 
 erating several hundred miles of telegraph wires 
 throughout the State of Connecticut. He was, for 
 several years before his removal to New Haven, the 
 superintendent of the Fire Alarm Telegraph, at 
 Meriden." 
 
 On Sept. 21, 1876, Mr. Baker was united in mar- 
 riage with Mary Gorham Frost, who was born at 
 Bristol, Conn., Nov. 11, 1856, and two children 
 have been born to them: Ellis Benjamin, July 24, 
 1877; and Carroll Frost, Jan. 2, 1880. The former 
 is at Meriden, Conn., the latter at Springfield, 
 Mass. Mr. Baker is a thirty-second-degree Ma- 
 son, belonging to Hiram Lodge, No. i, F. & A. 
 M., Franklin Chapter, Harmony Council, New 
 Haven Commandery, . and E. G. Storer Lodge of 
 Perfection, A. & A. S. R. He is a member of the 
 Second Company, Governor's Foot Guards, being 
 a member of Major Clark's staff; of the Old Guard 
 of New York; of Putnam Phalanx, Hartford; of 
 the Pequot Association, New Haven ; and of the 
 Connecticut Society, Sons of the American Revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 FRANK POTTER, a successful farmer and 
 market gardener of Waterbury, is a native of that 
 town, born on the old Potter homestead in what 
 is now Hopeville, Nov. 19, 1826. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Potter, his father, was born Sept. 
 23, 1778, a son of Lemuel and Rachel (Perkins) 
 Potter ; he was a prominent Baptist minister of his 
 day, and was pastor of the Salem Church in the 
 town of Waterbury, and also ministered to the 
 spiritual wants of the people at Woodbridge, Conn., 
 but made his home near Pearl Lake, Waterbury, 
 where our subject now resides, and there he died 
 Dec. S, 1833, being laid to rest in Brockett cemetery. 
 In 1799 he married Leva Judd, daughter of Ros- 
 well Judd, and to them were born two children; 
 Samuel Darius, born Dec. 15, 1799, died in June, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 909 
 
 1803; and Leva Maria, born July 25, 1801, married 
 M. Baldwin. The mother of these died, and 
 for his second wife Rev. Samuel Potter mar- 
 ried Chloe Brockett, March 14, 1803. Our sub- 
 ject was the youngest child born of this union. 
 The oldest, a son, was born in May, 1804, and died 
 same month; Roxana, born June 23, 1805, mar- 
 ried M. D. Root; Samuel, born April 25, 1807, 
 died March 7, 1894; Zenas, born Aug. 8, 1809, 
 wedded Mary Hotchkiss, and died Jan. 11, 1856; 
 Thomas Perkins, born Nov. 12, 181 1, died May 
 22, 1822; Miller, born July 27, 1813; Isaac Fuller, 
 born July 23, 1815; Wilson, born June 19, 1817; 
 Dr. Gano, born July 19, 1819; Chloe, born Sept. 
 
 13, 1821, married W. G. Chase; and Thomas Per- 
 kins, born June 2, 1824, died March 8, 1848. 
 
 On the maternal side Frank Potter is descended 
 from John Brockett, a native of England, who was 
 one of the early settlers of New England, and re- 
 moved from New Haven to Walling-ford in 1667 
 with John Moss. He was chosen by the people uf 
 New Haven as one of the committee to manage the 
 affairs of the settlement. He filled many public 
 positions in the village, and represented it in the 
 General Court after its incorporation. He died in 
 Wallingford, March 12, 1689, aged eighty years. 
 His children were John B., who was born in Eng- 
 land, and became a physician at Muddy River, 
 North Haven; Benjamin, born in 1648, who mar- 
 ried Lydia Elcock, and died May 22, 1679; Abigail, 
 born March 10, 1649; Samuel, born Jan. 14, 1650; 
 Jabez, born Oct. 24, 1654, who was married Nov. 
 20, 1691, to Dorothy Lyman; Silence, wife of Jo- 
 seph Bradley ; and Mary, wife of William Penning- 
 ton, of New Jersey. 
 
 Samuel Brockett, son of John, was married, 
 Nov. 21, 1680, to Sarah Bradley, and they had 
 seven children, whose names and dates of birth 
 were as follows: Samuel, Feb. 15, 1682; Daniel, 
 Sept. 30, 1684; John, Nov. 8, 1685; Joseph, Oct. 
 
 25, 1688; Josiah, Julv 25, 1691 ; Alice, April 23, 
 1693; and Josiah, July 25, 1698. The last named 
 married Deborah Abbott, and John married Huldah 
 Ells. 
 
 Samuel Brockett (2nd), son of Samuel, was 
 married, April 15, 1699, to Rachel Brown, who died 
 Jan. 24, 1718, and on Aug. 5, 1718, he married 
 Elizabeth Howe. In his family were the followmg 
 children: Titus, who was born June 28, 1700, 
 and wedded Mary Turnhand; Sarah, born Aug. 
 
 26, 1702; Isaac, who was born Sept. 3, 1705, and 
 was married, June 16, 1733, to Mary Sedgwick; 
 Rachel, born March 20, 1708; Abigail, bom Feb. 
 II, 1711; and Samuel, born June 21, 1714- 
 
 Samuel Brockett (3rd), son of Samuel (2nd), 
 married and by his wife, Ruth, became the father 
 of six children, namely: Eunice, born Jan. 15, 
 1744; Zuer, born March 24, 1746; Joel, born June 
 
 14, 1749, died in infancy; Joel, born July 28, 1750, 
 was a soldier of the Revolutionary war; Zenas, 
 
 born July 12, 1752; and Benjamin, born Oct. i, 
 1760. 
 
 Zenas Brockett, son of Samuel (3rd), was born 
 and reared in Wallingford, and when a young man 
 came to Waterbury, locating on what is now known 
 as Brockett Hill, near Pearl Lake, where he pur- 
 chased a large tract of land from the Indians for 
 a small consideration. He was a farmer by occu- 
 pation, and was well known and highly re- 
 spected as a man of sterling integrity, upright and 
 true in all his dealings, and he was beloved by all 
 who knew him. He was one of the first members 
 of the Baptist Church in the town of Waterbury, 
 in which he served as deacon. Before the Baptist 
 Church in Waterbury was organized, there being 
 no church of that denomination nearer than Wal- 
 lingford, he would go sixteen miles to that town 
 to worship, in the absence of roads finding his way 
 through the thick forest by marked trees. He 
 would transact no business on Sunday. He gave 
 a small piece of land for the cemetery now known 
 as the Brockett cemetery, and the first bodies buried 
 there were those of his grandchildren of the Potter 
 family. He died on his farm on Brockett Hill, and 
 was also laid to rest there by the side of his wife, 
 who in her maidenhood was Miss Abigail Johnson, 
 of Wallingford. They had eight children : Chloe, 
 born July 15, 1781, was the mother of our sub- 
 ject; Anna, born June 3, 1783, married Benjamin 
 Farrell; Peter, born Sept. 17, 1784; Abigail, born 
 Jan. 21, 1787, died Sept. 16, 1787; Abigail (2nd), 
 born July i, 1788; Rebecca, born April 30, 1790, 
 married Loveland Judd in 1812; Rhoda, born Sept. 
 24, 1792, married Jesse Wooster;, and Zenas, born 
 April 28, 1794, died May 14, 1794. 
 
 Frank Potter, whose name introduces this re- 
 view, received a district school education, and at 
 the age of fifteen years began his business career as 
 a buttonmaker, working in the ivory button shops 
 of Union City, Waterbury and Bridgeport, Conn., 
 for over a quarter of a century. Sinee then he has 
 given his entire time and attention to farming and 
 market gardening on the old homestead at Pearl 
 Lake, where he has made many useful and valuable 
 improvements. 
 
 In Waterbury, Feb. 20, 1850, Mr. Potter was 
 united in marriage with Miss Lucy Chase, a native 
 of New Preston, and a daughter of Chauncey and 
 Clarissa (Clemens) Chase. She died of heart 
 trouble Aug. 6, 1898, and was laid to rest in the 
 Brockett cemetery. To them were born three chil- 
 dren: (i) Edna C. married William Snagg, of 
 Waterbury, and they have four children, Gertrude, 
 a stenographer and typewriter; Anna, a school 
 teacher; Burton; and Adella. (2) Adella married 
 John Buchanan, of Simonsville, and they have one 
 child, Frank, who is studying dentistry in Phila- 
 delphia. (3) Frank, the youngest child of our sub- 
 ject, died at the age of two years and a half. Mr. 
 Potter also had an adopted son, Frederick, now 
 
9IO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 deceased, who married Fanny Lum; for her sec- 
 ond husband she wedded Samuel Clark, and they 
 make their home with our subject. Their children 
 are Helen and Marion M. 
 
 In early life Mr. Potter affiliated with the Dem- 
 ocratic party, but since the Civil war has been a 
 stanch Republican. He is a temperance man and 
 active member of the Second Baptist Church of 
 Waterbury, in which he has served as deacon for 
 the past five years. He has been a member of the 
 school committee, and has always given his support 
 to those enterprises calculated to advance the moral, 
 intellectual or material welfare of his town or coun- 
 ty. He is therefore numbered among the valued 
 and useful citizens of his community, and by all 
 who know him he is held in high regard. 
 
 JOHN JUSTUS WARNER, a well-known 
 farmer and highly-esteemed citizen of Cheshire, 
 New Haven county, was born in the town of 
 Hamden, this county, Sept. 8, 1840, son of Alonzo 
 and Ruth Ann (Chatfield) Warner, and grandson 
 of Simeon T. and Cynthia T. (Tuttle) Warner. 
 The grandfather was also a native of Hamden and 
 a farmer by occupation. His children were Alonzo ; 
 Emma ; James, a sea captain ; Truxon ; Vina ; and 
 Justus. 
 
 Alonzo Warner, father of our subject, was born 
 in 1812 in Hamden, and there passed his boyhood 
 and youth. He was married in Bethany, this coun- 
 ty, but continued to make his home throughout life 
 in Hamden, where he died in 1892. His widow is 
 still living, and resides in Birmingham, Conn. In 
 their family were seven childTen, namely : Charles, 
 who was a member of the loth Conn. V. I. during 
 the Civil war, and now resides on the old home 
 farm in Hamden; John Justus, our subject; Sarah, 
 wife of Wales Chatfield, of Oxford; George Will- 
 iam, of New Haven, now deceased; Emma, Mrs. 
 Daniel Holbrook, of Ansonia ; Frank, a resident 
 of Florida ; and Birdsey, a resident of Ansonia. 
 
 In the town of his nativity John Justus Warner 
 grew to manhood and attended school. Later he 
 engaged in farming there until after the Civil war 
 broke out, when he enlisted, in September, i86t, 
 in Company K, 6th Conn. V. I., for three years, 
 as a teamster. He was appomted wagonmaster un- 
 der Gen. Sherman's command at Port Royal, S. C. ; 
 was at City Point, Va. ; and later was under Gen. 
 Grant at Bermuda Hundred, Fort Fisher and Ral- 
 eigh, N. C. On the expiration of his three years 
 term of enlistment he was honorably discharged in 
 A''irginia, in September, 1864, and later served in 
 the government employ as a civilian wagonmaster 
 until the close of the war, looking after teams, 
 having wagons painted, and keeping everything in 
 order. When hostilities ceased and his services 
 were no longer needed he returned to Hamden 
 and resumed farming. For some time he made his 
 home in Bethany, where he still owns a good farm, 
 but in 1896 he came to Cheshire and purchased the 
 
 Daniel Humiston farm, upon which he has since 
 successfully engaged in agriculture. 
 
 In 1866, in Hamden, Mr. Warner was united 
 in marriage with Mrs. Mary E. Smith (widow of 
 Edgar Smith), who was born in Bethany, a daugh- 
 ter of Kneeland and Ann (Andrews) Downs, na- 
 tives of Wolcott and Bethany, respectively. Mr. 
 Warner and his wife have four children: John, 
 who is married and lives in New Haven; Minnie, 
 now Mrs. Harry Munson, of Cheshire; Burton; and 
 Marshall. Socially Mr. Warner is a member of 
 Admiral Foote Post, No. i, G. A. R., of New- 
 Haven, and politically he is identified with the Re- 
 publican party. He served as assessor in the town 
 of Bethany, and his duties of citizenship have al- 
 ways been most faithfully and conscientiously dis- 
 ■ charged. 
 
 HENRY BEVERLY HALL was born May 
 31, 1835, in South Main street, Wallingford, a son 
 of John Parsons Hall, whose birth occurred Nov. 
 18, 1808, in Wallingford, where he died June 4, 
 1894. 
 
 The father of our subject was a farmer, and at 
 one time in his life manufactured razor strops and 
 combs. A Whig in early life, he became a Re- 
 publican on the formation of the party, and served 
 on the school committee. A member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, he stood well in the community. 
 A home man in every sense of the word, the do- 
 mestic virtues strongly prevailed in his character, 
 and to his family he was all a husband and a fa- 
 ther should be. Mr. Hall and Miss Eunice Hotch- 
 kiss were married Oct. 20, 1833. Mrs. Hall was 
 born July 9, 1 81 2, a daughter of Timothy Hotch- 
 kiss, of Wolcott. To Mr. and Mrs. Hall were 
 born the following children : ( i ) Henry Beverly 
 is mentioned below. (2) John Randolph, born in 
 1837, died in Chicago June 4, 1893, while in at- 
 tendance upon the World's Fair, representing the 
 William Rogers Mfg. Co. For many vears he was 
 a wholesale dealer in notions and hosiery in New 
 York. (3) Frederick Hotchkiss, born July 28, 
 1849, lives in New York City, where he is con- 
 nected with the wholesale house of Porter Broth- 
 ers. He married Miss Agnes Hall, daughter of 
 Joel Hall. (4) Charles S. is mentioned below. 
 
 Dr. Rice' Hall, the grandfather of the above 
 named children, was born in Wallingford May 8, 
 1784, and followed farming. He was also exten- 
 sively engaged in teaming, before the era of rail- 
 roads, running an express between between Wal- 
 lingford and New Haven. A man of strong con- 
 victions, he was a stanch Whig, and a devout mem- 
 ber of the Congregational Church. It is said that 
 he only missed one service in fifty years, and that 
 was caused by an accident which compelled hira to 
 stay at home. 
 
 Henry Beverly Hall was born in Wallingford, 
 where he received his education in the common 
 school. For one year he was a student in Rus- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 911 
 
 sell's Military School, New Haven. Leaving school 
 when nineteen years of age, he helped his father on 
 the farm for about two years, when he went to the 
 city of New York to take a position as entry clerk 
 with the jobbing house of John I. Hinchman & Co., 
 later on becoming a partner in the concern. In 
 1874 he returned to Wallingford to clerk for Leon- 
 ard B. Bishop, the proprietor of an agricultural im- 
 plement store in New Haven, Conn. After a year 
 with that gentleman Mr. Hall secured a position as 
 traveling saleman for the R. Wallace & Sons Manu- 
 facturing Co., being the first representative of that 
 company to go on the road. For ten years he re- 
 mained with them, covering the territory from 
 :\Iaine to Kansas City, and from Canada to Ken- 
 tucky. Mr. Hall's next engagement was with Simp- 
 son, Hall, Miller & Co., and he was their representa- 
 tive in New York, Philadelphia, Washington and 
 Baltimore. After one year spent with that house, 
 ;\Ir. Hall went on the road in the interest of 'the 
 Bristol Brass & Clock Co., continuing with them for 
 four years. At the present time he is devoting all 
 his thought and care to his extensive real estate in- 
 terests. In 1893 Mr. Hall was one of the origina- 
 tors of the Biggins-Rodgers Co., manufacturers 
 of all kinds of hollow ware, and employing about 
 fifty hands. Mr. Hall is secretary of that corpora- 
 tion. Our subject is a strong Republican, and ac- 
 tive in political affairs. He was elected warden in 
 1896, again in 1897, and a third time in 1899. An 
 attendant of the First Congregational Church, he 
 takes a deep interest in the welfare of the church, 
 and is a liberal supporter of its principles. 
 
 Mr. Hall and Miss Susan Parker were married 
 Oct. 17, 1866. They had no children. Mrs. Hall 
 was born May 25, 1835, daughter of Dr. Lyman 
 Parker, who practiced medicine in Wallingford. 
 She died July 19, 1892. 
 
 Charles Storrs Hall was born Nov. 13, 1852, 
 in Wallingford, dbtained his early education in the 
 public schools of that city, and supplemented same 
 by a year in Hopkins Preparatory School, and 
 another year in French's Private School. At the 
 age of nineteen he left school and secured a clerk- 
 ship in New York with the firm of Looker, Waring 
 & Co., dealers and jabbers in Yankee notions and 
 hosiery, in which concern his brother Henry B. was 
 a partner. He remained there about seven years, 
 and for the last year and a half that he was in New 
 York clerked for Hall & Co., dealers and jabbers 
 in the same line. About 1880 he came to Walling- 
 ford, and took a place in the postoffice under Judge 
 Hubbard, which position he held • for a year and a 
 half. For the next three years he was connected with 
 Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co. as order filling and stock 
 clerk. Mr. Hall was then connected with the Do- 
 mestic Manufacturing Co. for_about three years, as 
 order filling clerk, and had charge of the stock de- 
 partment. In 1890 he entered the postoffice as as- 
 sistant to Postmaster W. Burr Hall. When Mr. 
 
 Hall retired and Mr. Jones assumed the duties of 
 the office ]\Ir. Hall was still continued as assistant 
 postmaster. On Feb. i, 1898, he was appointed 
 postmaster, entering upon the duties of the position 
 the 1st of the following month. Mr. Hall was in- 
 strumental in securing free delivery in Wallingford 
 while assistant to Postmaster George T. Jones. As 
 postmaster Mr. Hall is very efficient. In Septem- 
 ber, 1900, he succeeded in introducing free deliv- 
 ery throughout the town of Wallingford. Charles 
 S. Hall is a stanch Republican, and has never hesi- 
 tated at any labor in behalf of the party organiza- 
 tion. From 1880 to 1894 he was on the Republican 
 town committee, and for nine years served as its 
 chairman. In religion Mr. Hall is a Congregation- 
 alist, while his wife attends the Baptist Church. 
 
 On June 14, 1894, Mr. Hall married Miss Flora 
 A. Fordham, of Essex, Conn., a daughter of Theo- 
 dore P. Fordham, a prominent surveyor and far- 
 mer. Mr. and ]\Irs. Hall are the parents of two 
 children: Randolph Fordham, born Nov. 7, 1896, 
 and Theodore Parsons, born Dec. 18, 1898. Mr. 
 Hall belongs to the N. E. O. P., the Masonic fra- 
 ternity and the Pilgrim Fathers. He was a char- 
 ter member of the local lodge of the last named 
 order, as he was of Robert Wallace Court, No. 123. 
 
 JAAIES CALLAN, the efiicient superintendent 
 of the tube department of the Holmes, Booth & Hay- 
 den Manufacturing Co.'s extensive works in Water- 
 bury, was bom April 12, 1841, in Douglas, Lanark- 
 shire, Scotland, son of John and Jane (Fleming) 
 Callan, who were born in the same place. 
 
 John Callan, the son of a farmer, was a weaver 
 by trade. He and his wife had eleven children, of 
 whom all save two reached mature years, and of the 
 other nine three — Adam, William and James — came 
 to Connecticut. Adam is now a machinist in Water- 
 bury. William died in New Haven. 
 
 James Callan attended school in his native town 
 until ten years old, at which age he lost his father. 
 His mother having a large family to care for, he 
 was obliged to exercise his best activities in provid- 
 ing for hirnself and in aiding in the support of his 
 mother and the little ones at home. He labored on 
 the farm until twenty years of age, when he went 
 to Glasgow, where he found employment in a store 
 for some time, and then, in 1871, came to America 
 and to Waterbury, where he has ever since been 
 employed by the Holmes, Booth & Hayden Co., 
 with the exception of two and a half years passed 
 with the Randolph & Clows Co. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Callan married EHzabeth Harriott, 
 who was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, a daugh- 
 ter of WilHam and Alice Stratton, and to this union 
 six children have been born, viz. : John, William 
 H., Adam, James A., Alice H. and George S., all 
 still Hving. John and William H. are married. 
 
 In politics Mr. Callan was a Liberal in the old 
 country, and since coming to America has been a 
 
9i: 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Republican. He is very popular with his party, and 
 has represented the Third ward of Waterbury in 
 the common council two terms, while a member of 
 this body serving on the committee on Lights and 
 Lamps at the time the first electric lights were 
 placed in the city. He has just concluded a term 
 of two years in the board of aldermen, has been re- 
 elected for a similar term, and is now vice-president 
 of the board. 
 
 As a Freemason jNIr. Callan stands very high. 
 He was "made" a Mason in Scotland in 1859, and 
 has attained to the Mystic Shrine. He affiliates 
 with Harmony Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. ^l., of Water- 
 bury, of which he was three years master ; with 
 Eureka Chapter, of which he has been high priest 
 three years, and at the present time is grand high 
 priest of the Grand Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, 
 of Connecticut ; he also holds mernbership in Clark 
 Commandery. He is a charter member of the Third 
 Congregational Church, which his family also at- 
 tend. Socially they all are held in the highest 
 estimation by their neighbors and acquaintances, 
 and they have made hosts of friends during their 
 residence in Waterbury. 
 
 WILLL\3.I COOK WILLIAMS, M. D., de- 
 ceased, who was for many years a leading physi- 
 cian of Cheshire, was born Aug. 21, 1828, in 
 Roxbury, Conn., the eldest son of William Chauncey 
 Williams, ^I. D., and his wife, Julia White Cook. 
 Through his father he was descended from Rob- 
 ert Williams, who settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 
 1637, and on his mother's side from Major Aaron 
 Cook, who located at Dorchester, Mass., in 1630. 
 Robert Williams was born in England about the 
 'year 1593, perhaps in Norwich, County of Nor- 
 folk, and was married before coming to America to 
 Elizabeth Stratton. He disembarked at Boston, 
 with his wife and several children, in the year 16^7. 
 Before the close of that year he had joined the 
 neighboring settlement at Roxbury, and, this early, 
 his name and that of his wife are found upon the 
 records of Roxbury Church, to which the Rev. John 
 Eliot then ministered. He was there made a free- 
 man. May 2 of the following year. That he was a 
 stanch and typical Puritan, whose scruples for- 
 bade his conformity with the tenets of the Estab- 
 lished Church in England, during the intolerant 
 reign of the first Charles, and encouraged his de- 
 parture thence for Massachusetts Bay, where he 
 could the more freely exercise his individual rights 
 of conscience, may readily be believed from the 
 single glimpse had of him, as signer of the petition 
 to the governor of the Colony, in 1672, in censure 
 of Harvard College. He was one of the five towns- 
 men or- selectmen in 1647 and 1653, and was inter- 
 ested in the early founding of schools in Roxbury. 
 Ellis speaks of him as "one of the most influential 
 men in the town affairs," and Farmer calls him "the 
 common ancestor of the divines, civilians and war- 
 riors of the name who have honored the country 
 
 of their birth." His wife, Elizabeth, died July 28, 
 1674, aged eighty years. He married Nov. 3, 1675, 
 for his second wife, Margaret, widow of John 
 Fearing, and upon her death he married, according 
 to tradition, a Martha Strong, who died Dec. 22, 
 1707, aged ninety-two. His last will and testament 
 is dated Nov. 26, 1685, and was probated Sept. 29, 
 1693. He died at Roxbury, Sept. i, 1693, aged 
 one hundred years. 
 
 Capt. Isaac Williams, born Sept. i, 1638, bap- 
 tized in September, 1638, in Roxbury, Mass., mar- 
 ried in 1660, for his first wife, Martha Park, born 
 March 2, baptized March 13, 1643, the third daugh- 
 ter of Deacon William and Martha (Holgrave) 
 Park, of Roxbury. In 1661 he settled in Cambridge 
 village, now Newton, Mass., and was there made 
 freeman in 1685. He and his wife were among the 
 earliest members of the first church instituted at 
 Cambridge village, and he was afterward deacon 
 therein. He served as captain of a military com- 
 pany and was selectman, 1691-93, and' deputy to the 
 General Court, 1692, 1695, 1697, 1699, 1701 and 
 1705. In 1706 he was chosen with two others on the 
 first school committee. Flis wife died Oct. 24, about 
 the year 1676, aged thirty-four. He married, Nov. 
 13, 1677, for his second wife, Judith Cooper, of 
 Taunton, Mass., who died in 1724, aged seventy- 
 six. He died Feb. 11, 1707, aged sixty-eight, and 
 was buried under arms by the Company of Foot, at 
 Newton, Feb. 14, 1707. His last will and testament 
 bears date Jan. 31, 1704, but was set aside by the 
 court for undue influence, July 27, 1708, on petition 
 of disaffected heirs. 
 
 Isaac Williams, born Dec. 11, 1661, baptized 
 March 11, 1662, in Cambridge village, Mass., mar- 
 ried, about 1685, for his first wife, Elizabeth Hyde, 
 born Sept. 4, 1659, the eldest daughter of Jonathan 
 and Mary (French) Hyde, of Cambridge village. 
 They were both early members of the church in 
 Cambridge village, in which settlement he continued 
 to reside until within a few years of his decease. 
 He was captain of the military company at Newton 
 and selectman for that town, 1734. His wife, 
 Elizabeth, died June 26, 1699, aged thirty-nine 
 years. He married, in 1709, for his second wife, 
 Mary, widow of Nathaniel Hammond, Jr., and, 
 upon her death, a third wife, Hannah. He soon 
 afterward removed to Roxbury, where he died June 
 27, 1739, aged seventy-seven. His last will and 
 testament is dated Dec. 12, 1738. 
 
 Ebenezer Williams was born Oct. 16, 1691, in 
 Newton, whence he early removed to settle in Leb- 
 anon, Conn., soon after its organization as a town. 
 The deed for his first purchase of land is dated Nov. 
 17, 1718. He was married there on July 27, 1721, to 
 Mary, eldest daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth 
 V'each, of Lebanon. His name is found on the rec- 
 ords of Lebanon (Goshen) Church as a member 
 thereof, April 2, 1732, and upon the records of 
 the town as a lieutenant and selectman, 1736 and 
 1738. His last will and testament is dated March 
 
ii.' 
 
 
 ^n^T, ^i'T^ i>K7,^-^s 'S^r.- /\,n^ 
 
 ^^ C. \k)-lW^. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 913 
 
 5, 1740, andl he died Aug. 6, 1740, aged forty-eight 
 years. His widow died prior to March 25, 1782, at 
 which date letters of administration were granted 
 upon her estate to Jonathan, the eldest son. 
 
 Veach Williams, born April 23, 1727, baptized 
 April 29, 1727, in Lebanon, was married Oct. 12, 
 1753, to Lucy Walsworth, born Dec. 3, 1732, fourth 
 daughter of William and jMary (Avery) Wals- 
 worth, of Groton, Conn. He resicled in Lebanon 
 from birth until death, and the names of both him- 
 self and wife appear on the records of the Third 
 (or Goshen) Church as admitted to membership 
 Nov. 24, 1776. He was captain of a company of 
 Connecticut Colonial militia, and for the fourteen 
 consecutive years from 1765 to 1778, inclusive, was 
 townsman or selectman, together with Jonathan 
 Trumbull, governor of the Colony, William Will- 
 iams, signer of the Declaration of Independence, 
 Hon. Joshua West, Capt. Seth Wright, and one or 
 two others, who constituted the remaining members 
 of that board during the greater part of this period. 
 Here, at the home of the governor of the Colony 
 and of the speaker of the Colonial House of Repre- 
 sentatives, at a time when all was busy preparation 
 in anticipation of an eventful war, it may be pre- 
 sumed those called into the service of the town were 
 its most patriotic and representative citizens. He 
 was deputy to the General Court of Connecticut in 
 1785. His last will and testament bears date of 
 Oct. 27, 179s, and his death occurred Sept. 11, 
 1804, at the age of seventy-seven. His wife Lucy 
 died Aug. 10, 1795, aged sixty-two years. 
 
 William Williams, born Aug. 2, baptized Aug. 
 8, 1762, in Lebanon, inarried May 20, 1784, for his 
 first wife, Lydia, daughter of Samuel Williams, of 
 Lebanon. She died June 22, 1790, aged twenty-six. 
 He married, in 1793, for his second wife, Lydia, 
 daughter of Joseph Loomis, of Lebanon. William 
 Williams was a farmer in Lebanon, and served as a 
 member of the House of Representatives in the 
 Connecticut Legislature, session of 1813. He died 
 Nov. 5, 1818, aged fifty-six. His widow, Lydia, 
 died in Lebanon, Nov. 5, 1861, aged ninety years. 
 
 Dr. William Chauncey Williams, born Oct. 23, 
 1800, was baptized Jan. 25-, 1801, in Lebanon. He 
 married, June 7, 1827, Julia White Cook, daughte;r 
 of Aaron Cook, of Ashford, Conn. He was a phy- 
 sician, and was entered as a student of medicine, 
 about 1820, with Dr. Stephen Hubbard, of Pom- 
 fret, Conn. He was an undergraduate in the Med- 
 ical Department of Yale College i-i 1821-22, and re- 
 moved in 1829 to Manchester, Conn., where he re- 
 mained in active practice until his death. He re- 
 ceived the degree of M. D. from Yale College in 
 1841. He died Oct. 6, 1857, aged fifty-six years, 
 and his widow died July 19, 1875, aged sixty-seven. 
 
 Dr. WilHam Cook Williams, the subject of this 
 sketch, received his preparatory education at Willis- 
 ton Seminary, Easthampton, Mass., and was grad- 
 uated from the Yale Medical School in 1850. On 
 June 19, 1850, he married Lucinda, daughter of 
 
 58 
 
 Beman Fairchild, of Brookfield, Conn., a descendant 
 of Thomas Fairchild, one of the first settlers of 
 Stratford, Conn. Their children were William Ed- 
 ward, who died at the age of twenty-one years ; 
 George Clinton Fairchild and Elizabeth Julia, both 
 of whom are living. 
 
 Immediately after his graduation Dr. Williams 
 began the practice of medicine in New Hartford,, 
 Conn. In 185 1 he removed to New Milford and 
 thence, in 1854, to Cheshire, where he remained in- 
 active practice through the remainder of his life.. 
 The following remarks concerning his professional 
 career are quoted from the "Obituary Record of 
 Graduates of Yale University," published in June, 
 1894: "He had by far the most extensive practice of 
 all physicians ever located in that place (Cheshire), 
 including a large clientele in all the surrounding 
 towns. His success in his profession was phenom- 
 enal, and he left the remarkable record of having 
 never lost an obstetrical case in all his long career. 
 He was gifted with the faculty of inspiring pa- 
 tients with confidence in his skill, while his geniality 
 and cheerfulness made him welcome in the sick 
 room as a friend as well as a physician." In his 
 method of practice he was liberal, and did not limit 
 his resources for the treatment of disease by alle- 
 giance to any of the "schools" of medicine. 
 
 In other respects he was equally broad-minded, 
 and progressive. He never interested himself in 
 politics and would not accept political office, but 
 was among the foremost in supporting and encour- 
 aging all measures for the public welfare and for 
 the benefit of his town. In the early years of his- 
 residence in Cheshire he took a lively interest, in 
 public matters. He was active in the religious- 
 work of the Congregational Church, of which he- 
 was a member, and he bore a prominent part in the- 
 organization and maintenance of a Young INlen'S' 
 Christian Association tmder the auspices of which 
 courses of lectures were delivered — an. organiza- 
 tion which made, in many ways, a marked beneficial 
 impress upon the young men of that time. He de- 
 livered lectures on anatomv and physiology at the 
 Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, and contributed 
 articles to the public press. He was the means also 
 of securing to Temple Lodge, No. 16, A. F. & A. 
 M., the restoration, of its charter, which was sur- 
 rendered during the dark days of free-masonry in 
 this country, and he was the first master of that 
 lodge after the charter was restored. During his- 
 later years, as the demands of an extensive practice 
 absorbed his time and bore heavily upon him, he 
 withdrew from other affairs and devoted his ener- 
 gies exclusively to his professional work. His de- 
 votion to duty was absolute. He rarely took a vaca- 
 tion. With him the interests of his patients were 
 first and personal welfare a secondary considera- 
 tion. Despite the wearing effects of much contin- 
 uous work, he was always cheery and jovial, never 
 failing in sympathy for the suffering, and ever 
 ready with jest or anecdote to cheer the dispirited' 
 
914 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and to brighten the irksome days of convalescence. 
 He was a trustee of the Masonic Mutual Benefit As- 
 sociation of Connecticut, a director in various busi- 
 ness enterprises, and, to the time of his death, post 
 iurgeon and medical examiner of his district. On 
 3,Iay i8, 1894, he died of septiczeniia, contracted in 
 the course of professional work. He was a "beloved 
 physician," and he will be long remembered as an 
 able and conscientious physician, a wise and trust- 
 ed counselor, a firm friend, a genial companion, and 
 a moral and upright man. 
 
 RANSOM CHIPMAN (deceased) was in his 
 •day one of the most progressive and highly re- 
 spected residents of Waterbury. He traced his de- 
 scent from one of the earliest of the New England 
 Colonists. 
 
 Thomas Chipman, the first of this family to come 
 to America, was born in Dorchester, England, in 
 1570. John Chipman, his son, was born in the same 
 place, and came to America in 1630. In 1646 he 
 here married Hope, daughter of John Howland, 
 and granddaughter of Gov. John Carver, the two 
 last named passengers on board the famous "May- 
 flower." Twelve children were born to this union. 
 John Chipman was an elder in the church at Barn- 
 stable, Mass., and was a deputy, or representative, 
 to the General Assembly of the Colonies. Deacon 
 Samuel Chipman, of Barnstable, son of John and 
 Hope (Howland), was born in 1661, and died in 
 1723. His son, Samuel Chipman, also called "Dea- 
 ■con," of Barnstable, was born in 1680, and died in 
 1780. John Chipman, of Stratford, Conn., was born 
 -in 1728, son of Deacon Samuel (2), and bis son, Jo- 
 seph Chipman, was the father of Samuel Chipman. 
 Samuel Chipman became the father of eleven chil- 
 dren, including Sherman B. and Daniel L. Chipman, 
 of Waterbury (whose sketches are given in full else- 
 where), and Ransom Chipman, whose name stands 
 at the opening of this memoir, and who, it will be 
 seen, was of the eighth generation of the Chipman 
 family in America. 
 
 Ransom Chipman was born in 1819, in what is 
 now called Town Plot, and passed his early days on 
 the home farm. He began the active business of 
 life by making regular trips to New Haven with his 
 father, Samuel Chipman, who was then a stage 
 driver_ to that city. Many thousands of dollars 
 were in this manner transferred to New Haven, 
 there being at that time no bank in Waterbury. 
 When he was about thirty-five Mr. Chipman en- 
 tered the employ of Holmes, Booth & Havden, 
 manufacturers, and for twenty-five years was fore- 
 man of the rolling department of their immense con- 
 cern, a reliable indication of his steady-going habits 
 and executive ability. 
 
 Ransom Chipman was twice married. By his 
 first wife, Charlotte Hurd, of Newtown, Conn., he 
 had three children, viz. : Harriet R., who married 
 George Speer, of Bridgeport; Edgar H., foreman in 
 Holmes, Booth & Hayden's factory, Waterbury; and 
 
 Charlotte M., who married HoUis D. Segur, of Wa- 
 terbury, a native of Suffield, and a representative of 
 one of the oldest families in New England, the Se- 
 gurs having been among the early settlers of Hart- 
 ford. Mrs. Charlotte (Hurd) Chipman died, and in 
 1857 Ransom Chipman wedded, for his second wife, 
 Martha Beach, who was born in Hartland, Conn., a 
 daughter of Elias and Betsie (Hayden) Beach, both 
 also natives of Hartland. Col. Nathaniel Hayden, 
 father of Mrs. Betsie Beach, was colonel of his train- 
 ing district, and was quite a prominent agriculturist. 
 He married Sallie Ransom. The Beach family de- 
 scended from William Beach, who settled in Amer- 
 ica in 1640; Elias Beach was a son of Zopher, who 
 was born in Goshen, Conn. To the second marriage 
 of Mr. Chipman no children were born. 
 
 Mr. Chipman was a devout member of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, and for many years was a 
 trustee of the society. He died in this faith Oct. 31, 
 1884, and no citizen's decease was ever more deeply 
 deplored by the residents of Waterbury. Possibly 
 no more fitting tribute can be paid to his memory 
 than the following obituary notice, published in the 
 Waterbury American immediately after his demise: 
 
 "In the death of Ransom Chipman his wife loses 
 a good husband, his children a kind and faithful 
 father, and the community at large a generous and 
 faithful citizen. Ever ready to give in a good cause, 
 hundreds have reason most substantial for blessing 
 his memory. In the beautiful Riverside cemetery 
 we have laid away all that remains of our loved 
 friend — the friend of the poor, and the man whose 
 life will in many respects serve as a worthy model 
 for the youths of to-da}'. Peace to his ashes, blessed 
 be his memory." 
 
 The honored widow of Air. Chipman still makes 
 her residence in Waterbury, and is passing her days 
 in retirement, surrounded by a host of loving friends, 
 and devoting her time to acts of kindly charity. 
 
 RICHARD WOODWARD (deceased), for 
 many years a highly respected citizen of East Haven, 
 was a native of that town, born Jan. 17, 1815, in the 
 house now occupied by his daughter. 
 
 Hezekiah Woodward, his father, was born on 
 the same farm Jan. 13, 1763, it being the home of 
 the grandfather, who was .born in 1742. The latter 
 was a grandson of Rev. John Woodward, who was 
 graduated from Cambridge College in 1693, and 
 was ordained a minister Dec. 6, 1699. Both the fa- 
 ther and grandfather of our subject took up arms 
 against the mother country and aided the Colonies 
 in achieving their independence during the Revolu- 
 tionary war. Hezekiah Woodward married Asenath 
 Bradley, who died in the fall of 1854, and his death 
 occurred May 21, 1815. 
 
 Throughout his active business life Richard 
 Woodward engaged in farming upon the old home- 
 stead in East Haven, and he was numbered among 
 the leading and prominent citizens of that town. He 
 married Miss Annie M. Potter, who was born June 
 
:OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 915 
 
 ,17, 1815, a daughter of James Potter. She died in 
 August, 185s, and Mr. Woodward departed this 
 life Aug. 25, 1855. To them were horn three chil- 
 dren: Mary A., who is mentioned helow; George 
 R., who served for three years as a member of the 
 loth Conn. V. I. during the war of the Rebellion^ 
 and died in 1867 ; and James, who died at the age of 
 two years. 
 
 On May 9, i860, }ili;s ^Nlary A. Woodward was 
 ;united in marriage with Collis B. Granniss, who 
 was iborn Nov. 13, 1830, on the farm in East Haven 
 where his brother Lyman now lives, and is now suc- 
 cessfully engaged in dairy farming on the old Wood- 
 ward homestead. He has served as school treasurer 
 for several years, and for fifteen years has been a 
 <ieacoii in the Congregational Church, of which he 
 and his wife are active and prominent members. 
 They have one child, Mary W., who was born Aug. 
 19, 1867, and was married Oct. 27, 1891, to Andrew 
 P. Allen, who was born Sept. 24, 1861. This union 
 has been blessed by one daughter, Estelle M., born, 
 June 18, 1893, in New Haven. Mr. Allen resides 
 .with Mr. and Mrs. Granniss, aiding in the operation 
 of the farm. The family are widely and favorably 
 known, and are quite prominent in the community 
 where they make their home. 
 
 DUDLEY FAMILY. (I) William Dudley, 
 one of the original settlers of Guilford, and a signer 
 of the Plantation Covenant, was born at Richmond, 
 County of Surrey, England. He was a member of 
 Rev. Henry Whitfield's Church and parish at Ock- 
 ley, in Surrey, where he married Aug. 24, 1636, 
 Miss Jane Lutman. They came with Mr. Whitfield's 
 company to America in 1639, and their eldest child, 
 William, was born at sea, during the voyage. On 
 their arrival at Guilford they established their homQ 
 on the east side of what is now Fair street, where 
 -Dr. R. B. West now lives. William Dudley's home- 
 lot contained three and one-fourth acres, and he had 
 also considerable outlying land. He was a farmer 
 jas appears by his will and inventory. He died 
 March 16, 1683-84, and his wife on May i, 1674 
 They had five children : ( i ) Deacon William, born 
 at sea June 8, 1639, died in May, 1701 ; he mar- 
 ried Nov. 4, 1 661, Mary Stow. He removed i- 
 11670 to Saybrook, Conn. (2) Joseph, sketch of 
 whom follows. (3) Ruth, born April 20, 1645, 
 married June 20, 1664, John Whittlesey, of Say- 
 ■brook. (4) Deborah, born Sept. 20, 1647, died in 
 October, 1681. In June, 1671, she married Eben- 
 ezer Thompson, who died in May, 1674. They had 
 two children— Jabez, bc-n Oct. 16, 1672; and John, 
 born in November, 1674. She married for her sec; 
 ond husband Thomas Scranton, who died Nov. 10 
 J711, and they had two children— Samuel, who 
 married Elizabeth Bishop, and Hannah, who mar- 
 ried Joseph Evarts. (5) There was another child, 
 whose name is not known. 
 
 (II) Joseph Dudley, second son of William and 
 
 Jane (Lutman) Dudley, was born at Guilford April 
 24. 1643, and died there June 3, 1712. He married 
 Oct. 6, 1670, Ann Robinson, daughter of Thomas 
 and Mary Robinson. He was a cooper by trade, also 
 a farmer, and owned part of a sawmill which he be- 
 queathed to his son Caleb. He lived, probably, on 
 the homestead of his father on Fair street. His fa- 
 ther mentions him in his will as follows: "I give 
 and bequeathe to my son Joseph Dudley, all my 
 housings and lands and rights of lands in Guilford, 
 ,etc." In 1691 he was chosen by the town "for the 
 making of coffins on all occasions of death." At the 
 time of his death the inventor)- of land, distributed 
 to his six sons as designated by his will, amounted 
 to £751, IDS, 6d. Movables, £166, 15s, 6d. Joseph 
 Dudley had nine children: (i) Joseph, born June 
 J I, 1 67 1, died Feb. 22, 1726. He married July 27, 
 1704, Abigail Hubbard. (2) Benjamin, twin of 
 Joseph, died Feb. 23, 1720; he married Jan. 5, 1703, 
 Tabitha Avered. (3) Caleb, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows. (4) Joshua, born Dec. 17, 1674, died Jan. 
 29, 1750; he married Oct. 20, 1712, Sarah Perry, of 
 Stratford. (5) Miles, born Dec. 17, 1676, died 
 Aug. 10, 1753; he married Jan. 23, 1706, Rachel 
 Strong, daughter of Thomas Strong, of North- 
 ampton, Mass. She died Jan. 4, 1769, aged ninety- 
 three. (6) William', born Oct. 18, 1684, died Feb. 
 128, 1761 ; he married Ruth Strong, daughter of 
 Thomas Strong, of Lyme; she died Sept. 18, 1743; 
 and he married (second) Widow Rebecca Fisk, 
 daughter of Joseph Elliot. (7) Anna, born in 1687, 
 died April 27, 1687. (8) Mary married Joseph 
 Wright, of Colchester, Conn. (9) Mercy married 
 Josiah Bartlett, of Northampton, Massachusetts. 
 
 (Ill) Caleb Dudley, the third son of Joseph and 
 Ann (Robinson) Dudley, was born in Guilford in 
 June, 1673, and died March 20, 1730. He married 
 June 23, 1700, Elizabeth Buck, of Wethersfield, who 
 (was born June 4, 1676, and died April 14, 1738. She 
 \was a daughter of Emanuel Buck and Mary (Kir- 
 by), and granddaughter of John Kirby, one of the 
 first settlers of Middletown, Conn. Caleb Dudley 
 iwas a farmer, and the first one of the Dudley name 
 who made his home on "Clapboard Hill," the neigh- 
 borhood afterward called "Dudleytown." His fa- 
 ther, in his will, gave him the portion of his real, 
 estate lying in that vicinity. Caleb Dudley built 
 his house on what is now (1902) the home-lot of 
 Joseph E. Dudley (the old house stood a little west 
 of Joseph E. Dudley's present home). It was 
 afterward successively the home of his son Caleb; 
 grandson Nathaniel; great-grandson John; and the 
 birthplace of his great-great-grandchildren Hooker, 
 Elon, John, Horace Dudley and Ruth (Dudley) 
 Norton, the mother of Deacon J. W. Norton. The 
 value of (III) Caleb Dudley's estate, as inventoried 
 after his death, was £2,108. He had eight children, 
 seven sons and one daughter: (i) Thomas, born 
 April 23, 1701, died May 22, 1776; he married June 
 II, 1733, Abigail Seward, of Durham. (2) Caleb, 
 
gi6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sketch of whom follows. (3) Ruth, born Dec. 28, 
 (1704, died April 13, 1736; she married March 9, 
 1732, Samuel Evarts (Daniel, Daniel, John). (4) 
 Daniel, born April 3, 1707, removed to Bethlehem, 
 Conn.; he married Jan. 20, 1732, Joanna Rose, of 
 Branford. (5) Josiah, born Aug. 30, 1709, died 
 Oct. 20, 1755 ; married in 1738 Silence Dowd. He 
 lived at East Guilford. (6) Samuel, born Dec. 4, 
 171 1, died Nov. 10, 1789. He married May 3, 1738, 
 Jane Talman, daughter of Dr. Ebenezer and Ann 
 (Morrison) Talman, and they had but one son, 
 Samuel, born Nov. 27, 1747, who died Dec. 17, 1819, 
 he married Hannah Evarts ( Jonathan, Jonathan, 
 James, James, John). Their only son Deacon 
 Asher Dudley, born April 2, 1770, who died Oct. 27, 
 1862, was the father of Maria Dudley, born April 
 30, 1802, who married Oct. 13, 1819, Jonathan Par- 
 melee. Samuel Dudley lived in (and prcbably 
 built) the old house now occupied by his great- 
 great-great-grandson, Charles E. Parmelee, west of 
 the residence of Herbert E. Parmelee, in the Clap- 
 board Hill District. (7) Noah, born Aug. 15, 1716, 
 removed to Roxbury, Conn. ; he married May 28, 
 1752, Submit Talman, daughter of Dr. Ebenezer 
 Talman (Dr. Peter, Peter). (8) David, born Nov. 
 27, 1718, died Feb. 17, 1807; he married Feb. 17, 
 1742, j\Iary Talman, daughter of Dr. Ebenezer Tal- 
 man (Dr. Peter, Peter). They had one son who 
 died young, and five daughters, one of whom, Anna, 
 born April 13, 1752, married Timothy Field. They 
 were the parents of Rev. David Dudley Field, D. 
 D., born May 20, 1781. 
 
 (IV) Caleb Dudley, son of Caleb and Elizabeth 
 (Buck) Dudley, was born in the Clapboard Hill 
 District, Guilford, Nov. 20, 1702, and died Oct. 10, 
 1793. He married May 31, 1739, Hannah Stone, 
 daughter of Nathaniel and Hannah (Graves) Stone. 
 He was a farmer, and lived upon the homestead of 
 his father. Caleb Dudley had five children,- all sons. 
 The eldest died in infancy, and the others settled near 
 their parents at Clapboard Hill. ( i ) Caleb, born 
 Feb. 24, 1740, died in March, 1740. (2) Caleb (2), 
 born July 24, 1741, died Sept. 14, 1802. (3) Abra- 
 ham, sketch of whom follows. (4) Nathaniel, born 
 Oct. 3, 1745, died Feb. 21, 1826; he married March 
 12, 1777, Mary Hart, daughter of Thomas and Con- 
 currence (Bartlett) Hart. (5) Amos, born Nov. 
 3, 1747, married Feb. 27, 1771, Mary Evarts, daugh- 
 ter of Eleazer Evarts (Samuel, Judah, John). She 
 died Aug. 23, 1797, aged forty-seven, and on July 
 15, 1799, he married (second) Deborah (Johnson), 
 widow of Elon Lee. ( )f this family 
 
 (V) Caleb Dudley married Nov. 28, 1764, Han- 
 nah Evarts, daughter of Eleazer Evarts (Samuel, 
 Judah, John). She died Sept. 6, 1765, aged twen- 
 ty-one, leaving one child, ( i ) Caleb, born Aug. 28, 
 1765, who died June 30, 1815. Caleb Dudley mar- 
 ried (second) Jan. 18, 1769, Anna Munger, daugh- 
 ter of Ebenezer, and they had five children: (2) 
 Hannah, born Oct. 31, 17^19, died Feb. 17, 1828 
 
 (married Jan. 13, 1790, John Griswold). (3) Anna, 
 born May 11, 1773, died Aug. 20, 1866 (married 
 Amos Bartlett; their daughter Ruth, born April 15, 
 1802, married Capt. George Bartlett). (4) Ruth, 
 born July 19, 1777, died June 30, 1847 (married 
 Peter Talman). (5) Abel, born Sept. 3, 1781, died 
 Alarch 11, 1821 (married Betsey Minor). (6) Hul- 
 dah, born Oct. 29, 1784, married Timothy Terryl, of 
 Woodbury, Connecticut. 
 
 (V) Abraham Dudley, son of Caleb and Han- 
 nah (Stone) Dudley, was born March 2, 1743, and 
 died July 24, 1818. He married Jan. 28, 1773, De- 
 borah Cruttenden, daughter of Joseph Cruttenden 
 (Joseph, Abraham, Abraham) and Lucy (Spen- 
 cer). For some years after his marriage he lived 
 in the "Sabbath Day House," on the west side of 
 Guilford Green, near the present home of Rev. 
 G. W. Banks :, but some time between 1785 and 
 1790 he built and removed to the house nearly op- 
 posite his father's, now the home of his great- 
 grandson, Charles A. Dudley. He was a farmer' 
 and weaver. 
 
 Abraham Dudley had three children: (i) Lucy, 
 born August 3, [775, died April 13, 1837; she mar- 
 ried June II, 1796, Deacon Asher Dudley (Samuel, 
 Samuel, Caleb, Joseph, William). They had twcf 
 children — Horace, born Nov. 10, 1798, was drown- 
 ed July 9, 1810; Maria, born April 30, 1802, who 
 died April 25, 1893, married Oct. 13, 1819, Jona- 
 than Parmelee (see sketch of Parmelee family). 
 (2) Deacon Abraham, born Feb. 2, 1779, died July 
 18, 1852. (3) Joel, born July 13, 1788, died Nov. 
 14, i86g. He married Dec. 8, 1814, Harriet Gris- 
 wold, daughter of John Griswold and Hannah 
 (Dudley) (Caleb, Caleb, Caleb, Joseph, William). 
 She died Feb. 26, 1849. aged fifty-eight. They had 
 four children — Hon. Lewis Joel, born Nov. 11, 
 1815, graduated Yale College in 1838; lived in 
 Northampton, Mass. Henry Nelson, born Nov. 9, 
 1818, died Aug. i, 1894; he married Maryette 
 Minor, of Woodbury, and had two children, Kath- 
 erine Minor and Harriet Griswold. Mary, bom 
 Dec. 29, 1820, died July 31, 1892, unmarried. Em- 
 ily was born Sept. 17, 1825. 
 
 (VI) Deacon Abraham Dudley, the eldest son 
 of Abraham and Deborah (Cruttenden) Dudley, 
 was born Feb. 2, 1779, and died July 18, 1852. lie 
 married Dec. 8, 1802, Mary Bassett, who was born 
 March 10, 1781 (died June 23, 1863), daughter 
 of Elisha Bassett and Hannah (Stone) (Deacon 
 Thomas, Nathaniel, Nathaniel, John), of East Guil- 
 ford (now Madison). Abraham Dudley lived in 
 the house built by his father, at Clapboard Hill, and 
 like him was a weaver and farmer. In 1808 he 
 and his wife united with the First Congregational 
 Church, of which he was chosen a deacon Aug. 20, 
 1827; this office he held until his death, almost 
 twenty-five years later. Deacon Abraham Dudlev 
 had three children: (i) Clarissa, born Dec. 23, 
 1804, died Dec. 10, 1873 ; she married Oct. 22, 1834, 
 Joel Evarts, son of Nathaniel and Julia (Parmelee) 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 917 
 
 Evarts, of the Nutplains District. (2) George, 
 sketch of whom follows. (3) Eliza, born March 
 2, 1810, died May 10, 1894, unmarried. 
 
 (VII) George Dudley, only son of Deacon 
 Abraham and Mary (Bassett) Dudley, was born 
 Nov. 30, 1807, and died Dec. 8, 1869. He married 
 May 3, 1832, Lucy Evarts, who was born May 31, 
 1809, daughter of Nathaniel and Julia (Parmelee) 
 Evarts, of the Nutplains District, and died Jan. 6, 
 1888. George Dudley lived in the house with his 
 father till 1840, when he built and removed to the 
 bouse on the opposite side of the street, now the 
 borne of Eli T. Dudley. He was a member of the 
 First Congregational Church, with which he united 
 in 1831, andi his wife in 1827. He died at the age 
 of sixty-two, after a week's illness with erysipelas, 
 which developed in an injured limb. George Dud- 
 ley had six children : ( i ) Lydia Clarissa, born 
 Sept. 9, 1833, died Dec. 15, 1889, unmarried. (2) 
 George Edwin, born Dec. 10, 1836, died July 16, 
 1847. 'He was drowned in East river while bath- 
 ing- (3) Lucy Jennette, born Nov. 7, 1839, died 
 Feb. 20, 1842. (4) Charles Ellsworth, born Feb. 
 
 11, 1842, died April 28, 1844. (s) Eliza Jen- 
 nette was born Sept. 8, 1845. (6) Charles Abra- 
 bam, sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (VIII) Charles Abraham Dudley, born Aug. 
 14, 1849, became a farmer of the Clapboard Hill 
 District, Guilford. He married April 10, 1872, 
 Lucy E. Auger, born May 26, 1849, daughter of 
 the late Deacon Phineas M. Augtir, of Middle- 
 field, Conn., who married May 7, 1846, Lucy Eliza 
 Parmelee, daughter of the late Jonathan Parmelee, 
 of Guilford (see sketch of Hon. Phineas M. 
 Augur). Mr. Dudley lives in the house built by 
 his great-grandfather, Abraham Dudley, between 
 1785 and 1790. He is a member of the First Con- 
 gregational Church. Mr. and Mrs. Dudley have 
 bad six children : ( i ) George Edwin, born July 
 
 12, 1873, died June 23, 1888 ; he was drowned in 
 a vain attempt to save his brother. (2) Alice Lucy 
 was born June 27, 1875. (3) Charles Parmelee, 
 born May 19, 1877, died June 23, 1888; he was 
 drowned in East river, while bathing. (4) Susan 
 Marilla was born Dec. 11, 1878. (5) Arthur 
 Augur was born Nov. 4, 1881. (6) Ruth Christine 
 was born Oct. 9, 1891. 
 
 Parmelee Family, (i) John Parmelee, Sr., 
 one of the original settlers of Guilford, Conn., and 
 a signer of the Plantation Covenant, was one of the 
 older men who came from England in Rev. Henry 
 Whitfield's company, in 1639. His home-lot, con- 
 sisting of one and one-half acres, embraced the land 
 now occupied by the First Congregational Church 
 and the buildings in the rear. Hannah, his first 
 wife, was the mother of his children. He married 
 (second) Widow Elizabeth Bradley, of New Ha- 
 ven, who after his death married, May 22, 1663, 
 John Evarts, of Guilford. John Parmelee died mi 
 1659 [Steiner's History of Guilford gives the date 
 of his death as Nov. 8, 1659, but another record 
 
 says that his will was proved on that date]. His 
 children were probably all born in England, and 
 dates of birth are not known. The only ones of 
 whom we find record are: (i) John, sketch of 
 whom follows; (2) Hannah, who married Sept. 3, 
 1651, John Johnson, of New Haven, afterward of 
 Guilford; and (3) Mary, who married Sept. 16, 
 1660, Dennis Crampton, and died March 16, 1667. 
 Widow Elizabeth Bradley, second wife of John 
 Parmelee, Sr., was the mother of Stephen and 
 Nathan Bradley, who afterwards settled in Guil- 
 ford. 
 
 (II) John Parmelee, Jr., born in England, son 
 of John and Hannah Parmelee, came to Guilford in 
 1639. He had a home-lot on the east side of what 
 is now State street, his house standing on or near 
 the site of the house of the late J. Seymour Benton. 
 He was the "town drummer," serving in that ca- 
 pacity on "training days," and from a very early- 
 period he beat the drum to call the people to church 
 on Sabbath-days, and to summon them to town- 
 meetings. He died in January, 1869. The first 
 wife of John Parmelee, Jr., Rebecca, clied Sept. 29, 
 1651, leaving one son, Nathaniel, born in 1645, who 
 died in the Indian war; he married Sarah French, 
 daughter of Thomas French. John Parmelee, Jr., 
 married (second) in 1 65 1 Widow Ann Plane, who 
 died March 30, 1658. He and his third wife, Han- 
 nah, were married in February, 1659 (the maiden 
 names of his first and third wives do not appear on 
 any Guilford records). They had nine children: 
 (2) John, born Nov. 25, 1659, died March 21, 1725 ; 
 he married June 29, 1681, Alary Mason. (3) 
 Joshua, born in 1664, died June 7, 1729. (4) 
 Isaac, sketch of whom follows. (5) Hannah, born 
 Nov. 5, 1667, married in November, 1688, Tappan 
 Hill. (6) Stephen was born Dec. 6, 1669. (7) 
 Job, born July 31, 1673, died March 6, 1765; he 
 married Elizal)eth Edwards. (8) Caleb was born 
 in 1675. (9) Prisciila was born Mav 8, 1678. (10) 
 Joel, born in 1679, died in July, 1748; he married 
 June 30, 1706, Abigail AndVews, and lived in 
 Durham. 
 
 (III) Isaac Parmelee, son of John Parmelee, 
 Jr., and his third wife, Hannah, was born in Guil- 
 ford Nov. 21, 1665, and died Jan. 23, 1749. He 
 married Dec. 30, 1689, Elizabeth Hiland (or High- 
 land), who was born June 18, 1666, daughter of 
 George and Hannah (Cruttenden) Hiland, and died 
 Jan. 3, 1746. They had nine children: (i) Eben- 
 ezer, born Nov. 28, 1690, died Sept. 27, 1777; he 
 married July 24, 1718, Hannah Cruttenden, daugh- 
 ter of Abraham and Susannah (Kirby) Cruttenden. 
 (2) Abraham, born May 18, 1692, died Sept. 19, 
 1752- (3) Joseph, sketch of whom follows. (4) 
 Elizabeth, born Jan. 20, 1696, married April 8, 
 1718, Nathaniel Baldwin. (5) Sarah, born Aug. 
 II, 1699, died May 6, 1780; she married Oct. 17, 
 1720, Michael Hill. (6) Isaac, born May 20, 1702, 
 died July 13, 1752; he married May 20, 1725, Eliza- 
 beth Evarts, daughter of Sergt. James Evarts 
 
9i8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 (Daniel, John) and Anna (Bow). (7) Andrew, 
 born July 20, 1704, died Aug. 7, 1794; he married 
 Anna Crampton. (8) Rachel, born Nov. 18, 1707, 
 died Nov. 9, 1793:, she married June 27, 1739, 
 Samuel Evarts, son of Daniel Evarts (Daniel, 
 John) and Alary (West). (9) Josiah, born in De- 
 cember, 1709, died in August, 1739. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Parmelee, son of Isaac and Eliza- 
 beth (Hiland) Parmelee, was born at Guilford 
 Sept. 14, 1694, and died April 14, 1750. He mar- 
 ried Sept. 19, 1716, Abigail Kimberly, who was 
 born July 28, 1696, daughter of Nathaniel and 
 Hannah (Downs) Kimberly, of West Haven, Conn. 
 Mrs. Parmelee died Nov. 28, 1763. They had six 
 children: (i) Abigail, born Jan. 21, 1719, died 
 Feb. 8, 1780; she married Caleb Bishop. (2) 
 Joseph, born April 3, 1721, died in July, 1804. (3) 
 William, sketch of whom follows. (4) Elizabetli, 
 born Nov. 21, 1728, married Ebenezer Chittenden. 
 
 (5) Beulah, born Aug. 30, 1732, died Sept. 16, 
 1818; she married Jan. 3, 1754, Nathaniel Elliott. 
 
 (6) Samuel, born July 27, 1737, died Jan. 2, 1807. 
 
 (V) William Parmelee, son of Joseph and 
 Abigail (Kimberly) Parmelee, was born in 1724, 
 and died March 13, 1799. He united with the First 
 Congregational Church in 1749. On June 6, 1749, 
 he married Mary Rossiter, and they had five chil- 
 dren : (i) Jerusha was born Feb. 27, 1750. (2) 
 Eunice, born jNIarch 27, 1751, married Ebenezer 
 Hopson. (3) William, born Dec. 12, 1752, died 
 Dec. 31, 1835. (4) Nathaniel, born Oct. 6, 1754, 
 died Nov. 17, 1828. (5) Amos, born Nov. 19, 
 1756, died Dec. 8, 1820. William Parmelee mar- 
 ried (second) Dec. 17, 1764, Widow Mary (Kirby) 
 Johnson, daughter of John and Hannah ■ (Stow) 
 Kirby, of Middletown, Conn. She was born in 
 December, 1727, and married (first) Nov. 8, 1753, 
 Amos Johnson, of Middletown, who died in camp 
 at Lake George, in September, 1758, while serving 
 in the French and Indian war. She died Feb. 13, 
 1813. William Parmelee and his second wife had 
 three children: (i) Jonathan, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows. (2) Mary, born March i, 1767, died March 
 7, 1854; she married Oct. 8, 1787, Thomas Hart, 
 son of Thomas and Concurrence (Bartlett) Hart. 
 (3) Eli, born May 28, 1772, died Jan. 27, 1805, 
 unmarried; he was a sailor. 
 
 (VI) Jonathan Parmelee, son of William 
 Parmelee by his second marriage, with Widow 
 Mary (Kirby) Johnson, was born in Guilford Oct. 
 4, 1765, and died Dec. 7, 1835, aged seventy. He 
 was a shoe-maker by trade, and lived in a house 
 which stood just west of the residence of Isaac Kel- 
 sey, on Boston street. He married Feb. 15, 1792, 
 Elizabeth Hart, who was born July 17, 1765, daugh- 
 ter of Thomas and Concurrence (Bartlett) Hart, of 
 Guilford, and died Dec. 21, 1846. The graves of 
 Jonathan and Elizabeth Parmelee are in one of the 
 front lots of the west or oldest part of Alderbrook 
 cemetery. They had seven children: (i) Jerusha, 
 born Sept. 8, 1793, died Sept. 2, 1795. (2) Elisha, 
 
 born May 21, 1795, died July 21, 1821 ; he married 
 Clarissa B. Elliot, daughter of Reuben and Grace 
 (Fairchild) Elliot. (3) Sarah, born Feb. 28, 1797, 
 died Oct. 31, 1884; she married (as third wife) 
 April 30, 185 1, Rev. Silas McKeen, D. D., of Brad- 
 ford, Vt. (4) Jonathan, sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (5) Mary, born Sept. 18, 1801, died Aug. 18, 1882 r 
 she married (as second wife) Charles E. Fowler. 
 
 (6) Charles S., born Oct. 11, 1804, was a sailor^ 
 and was drowned at sea. (7) Eli, born June 
 7, 1808, died Aug. 28, 1882 ; he married Betsey 
 Ann Benton, who was born Mav 8, 1808, daughter 
 of Dan Lindley and Betsey (Seward) Benton, and 
 died Nov. 10, 1891. 
 
 (VII) Jonathan Parmelee, son of Jonathan and 
 Elizabeth (Hart) Parmelee, was born Sept. 3, 1798, 
 and died June 18, 1880, aged eighty-one years and 
 nine months. He married Oct. 13, 1819, Maria 
 Dudley, who was born April 30, 1802, and died 
 April 25, 1893, being only five days less than ninety- 
 one years of age. She was a daughter of Aslier 
 Dudley (Samuel, Samuel, Caleb, Joseph, William) 
 and Lucy (Dudley) (Abraham, Caleb, Caleb, Jo- 
 seph, William). Ti,ey lived together sixty-one 
 years and eight months. The fiftieth anniversary 
 of their marriage (Oct. 13, 1869) was celebrated 
 by a Golden Wedding, at which nearly one hundred 
 guests were present, including all their children; 
 all their grandchildren, except one; and a great- 
 grandchild. 
 
 In his youth Jonathan Parmelee learned the 
 shoemaker's trade with his father, but after his mar- 
 riage was engaged as a farmer, and lived in the 
 house built by his father-in-law, now the home of 
 his grandson, Herbert E. Parmelee. In 1821 he 
 and his wife united with the First Congregationa! 
 Church, from which they were dismissed in 1843, 
 with those who left to form the Third Congrega- 
 tional Church, of which they continued active mem- 
 bers until their death. Two weeks after the organ- 
 ization of that church Jonathan Parmelee was 
 chosen superintendent of the Sunday-school, and 
 served faithfully in that relation for many years- 
 After the marriage of his youngest son, Henry E.,. 
 he left to him the care of the farm and removed 
 to the borough, where he built a house south of the- 
 "Old Stone House," on Whitfield street. This 
 house was destroyed by fire in 1898. There he was 
 for man}'- years connected with a fishing company, 
 until obliged to give up work because of the in- 
 firmities of age. He was a genial, upright, Christ- 
 ian gentleman, universally respected and beloved. 
 He died suddenly, of heart disease, having been iir 
 the street an hour or two before his death. 
 
 Jonathan and Maria (Dudley) Parmelee had a 
 family of five children : ( i ) Horace Dudley 
 Parmelee, born March 22, 1821, died Dec. 10, 1901. 
 He married Oct. 20, 1842, Clarissa Chapman 
 Seward, who was born Feb. 24, 1824, daughter of 
 Samuel Lee Seward (Timothy, David, Deacon- 
 William, John, William) and Sarah (Bartlett), of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 919 
 
 Guilford. Their children — (a) Charles- Edward, 
 born Oct. 28, 1844, a farmer of Guilford, married 
 May 15, 1868, Ann E. Grosvenor, who was born 
 May 15, 1849, daughter of Joseph and Ann (Oak- 
 ley) Grosvenor; they had one child, Frank Ernest, 
 born April 17, 1869, who died May 20, 1870. (b) 
 William Henry, born Jan. i, 1858, a merchant of 
 South Norwalk, married Dec. 31, 1885, Mary E. 
 Monroe, who was born Sept. 2, 1857, daughter of 
 Beverly and Elizabeth (Fowler) Monroe; no chil- 
 dren, (c) George Head, born Sept. 26, 1868, a 
 lawyer of Johnstown, Pa., married April 22, 189T, 
 i/Lary E. Bishop, who was born April 22, 1871, 
 daughter of William C. and Abigail L. (Davis) 
 Bishop; they have three children — Harry Bishop, 
 born Jan. 23, 1892; Earle Lindley, Jan. 18, 1894; 
 and William Horace, Jan. 21, 1897. 
 
 (2) Mary Maria Parmelee, born May 18, 1823, 
 died Dec. 3, 1887. She married Sept. 11, 1845, 
 Alfred G. Hull, who was bom May 10, 1822, and 
 died Jan. 31, 1894. He was a son of Joseph and 
 Fanny (Chittenden) Hull, of Clinton, Connecticut. 
 
 (3) Lucy Ehza Parmelee, born July 15, 1825, 
 died Jan. 4, 1895. She married May 7, 1846, 
 Phineas Miller Augur, who was born Feb. 8, 1826, 
 son of Phineas and Esther (Kirby) Augur, of Mid- 
 dlefield, Connecticut. 
 
 (4) Sarah Marilla Parmelee, born April 30, 
 
 1828, died Sept. 9, 1892. She married Dec. 3, 1858 
 (as his third wife), Josiah Pierson, son of Rev. 
 Josiah Pierson, of Bergen, New York. 
 
 (5) Henry Elislia Parmelee, born Jan. i, 1830, 
 died Sept. 7, 1896. He married May 27, 1851, 
 Georgiana Elvira Rossiter, who was born April 21, 
 
 1829, daughter of Theophilus and Eliza A. (Chit- 
 tenden) Rossiter, of North Guilford. The former 
 traced his line through William, Theophilus, Josiah, 
 Dr. Bryan. Mrs. Eliza A. (Chittenden) Rossiter 
 is descended from Amos, Jared, William, William, 
 Thomas, William. Mr. and Mrs. Henry E. Parm- 
 elee had three children : ( i ) Herbert Eugene, born 
 Nov. 27, 1853, farmer and sawyer, married Oct. 
 31, 1888, Mary Potter, of North Guilford, who was 
 bom Nov. 6, 1862, daughter of Russell and Polly 
 A. (Hull) Potter; they have one child, Sarah El- 
 vira, born Oct. 29, 1889. (2) Ella Louisa, born 
 June 23, 1855, died Sept. 12, 1857. (3) Edgar Pier- 
 son, born Oct. 16, 1859, farmer and sawyer, of Guil- 
 ford, married Oct. 16, 1884, Helen Hill, of North 
 Guilford, who was born July 17, 1863, daughter oi 
 George and Mary (Kimberly) Hill ; thev have three 
 children — Mabel Maria, born Sept. 30, 1885; 
 Ernest Eugene, born March 14, 1890; and Ella 
 Hill, born Jan. 29, 1892. 
 
 Hon. Phineas M. Augur (deceased), who m 
 his lifetime was prominent in agricultural affairs 
 of the State, and especially active in the Prohibition 
 movement, being that party's candidate for governor 
 at the last election before his death, was born Feb. 
 8, 1826, in the town of Middletown, Middlefield So- 
 ciety. Mr. Augur was in the sixth generation from 
 
 ■ (I) Robert 7\ugur, his first American ancestor, 
 who came to the New Plaven Colony from England. 
 He was the son of John and Ann Augur, of Lon- 
 don, England, and nephew (as shown by Nicholas 
 Augur's will) of Nicholas Augur, a physician and 
 trader at New Haven. Robert Augur was mar- 
 ried Nov. 20, 1673, to ]\[ary Gilbert, born June 11, 
 1651, daughter of Deputy Gov. Matthew Gilbert, 
 
 (H) John Augur, son of Robert, born Nov. 16, 
 1686, married July i, 1710, Elizabeth Bradl^', 
 daughter of Isaac and Elizabeth Bradley, of East 
 Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 (HI) Isaac Augur, son of John and Elizabeth 
 (Bradley) Augur, born about 1718, died July 29, 
 1808. On Oct. 25, 1748, he married Eunice Tyler, 
 born Oct. '>, 1729, died Feb. 3, 1812; she was a 
 daughter of Abraham and Eunice (Arnold) Tyler,. 
 of Haddam, Conn. Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Augur livetl 
 in Haddam, and had twelve children, six sons and 
 six daughters, all of whom married and had chil- 
 dren. One son, Felix, was the grandfather of the 
 late Gen. C. C. Augur, of Washington, D. C. Pros- 
 per Augur, a sketch of whom follows, was the fourth 
 child. 
 
 (IV) Prosper Augur, son of Isaac, born Jan. 18, 
 1756, married ^lay 30, 1781, Thankful Miller, born 
 Oct. 16, 175s, died Sept. 16, 1825. She was a 
 daughter of Deacon Giles Miller, of Middlefield, 
 Conn., who was a prominent man of that commun- 
 ity, a descendant of Thomas Miller (through Jo- 
 seph), who came from Massachusetts to Middle- 
 town, Conn., soon after its settlement, and located at 
 South Farms. The children of Prosper Augur and 
 his wife were: Elizabeth, who married Comfort 
 Johnson; Sally, who married Luman Wetmore; 
 Polly; and Phineas. The parents settled in Middle- 
 field. Prosper Augur was self-educated, a man of 
 sound mind, much stability of character, sterling in- 
 tegrity and great usefulness. He was for man}'- 
 years a deacon in the Congregational Church of 
 Middlefield. He died Dec. 16, 1836. 
 
 (V ) Phineas Augur, only son of Prosper, born 
 Aug. II, 1788, settled in the neighborhood of his 
 father. On Oct. 29, 1821, he married Esther Kirby, 
 of Upper Houses, Middletown (now the town of 
 Cromwell), who was born June 24, 1790, and died 
 April 16, 1872. At the age of sixteen years Mr. 
 Augur commenced teaching school ; at the close of 
 his first examination, before Dr. David Dudley Field^ 
 of Haddam, the Doctor quoted Timothy, "Let no 
 man despise thy youth." After teaching very suc- 
 cessfully for several years he died, Nov. 18, 1825, in 
 early manhood. His only child (posthumous), 
 Phineas Miller, was born Feb. 8, 1826. 
 
 (VI) Phineas M. Augur received a common- 
 school education and later attended an academy. 
 During his early life he was appointed surveyor for 
 the county, and later deputy surveyor-general of 
 Middlesex county. Lie made the first survey and 
 maps of Middlefield, with the necessary post route, 
 
■920 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 which was used successfully in Washington, D. G., 
 in obtaining a post office at Aliddlefield, by the late 
 David Lyman. When the town of ^iiddlefield was 
 set ofif from Middletown, in 1866, Air. Augur was 
 chosen assessor, and made out the first assessment 
 list of the town. At the same time he was chosen 
 a member of the board of education, and held the 
 place continually until his death, which occurred 
 July 14, 1891. He served one term on the State 
 board of education in 1869, and declined re-election. 
 In 1869 he was elected to the General Assembly, 
 serving on the committee on Incorporations, and 
 several bills that he introduced now form part of the 
 general statutes. When the ^iliddlefield Farmers' 
 Club was organized j\Ir. Augur became one of its 
 leading lights. In 1872 he was elected pomologist 
 hy the State board of agriculture, and continued to 
 serve in that capacity until his death ; he made a col- 
 lection of Gonnecticut products for the Gentennial 
 Exposition at Philadelphia. Mr. Augur was always 
 •an independent thinker, anti-slavery in old times. 
 He believed in economy in government, and that 
 •good teaching should be given in the public schools 
 and to children at home. He was faithful to Tem- 
 perance reform, became an ardent Prohibitionist, 
 was prominent in their gatherings, and was nom- 
 inated for the highest office in the State by that 
 party at the State convention some time prior to his 
 death. He was for more than thirty years a deacon 
 in the Gongregational Ghurch of Middlefield. 
 
 At the age of twenty Mr. Auger was married to 
 ?\Iiss Lucy Eliza, daughter of the late Jonathan 
 Parmelee, of Guilford. To them came children as 
 follows: (i) Edwin Prosper, born Jan. 31, 1847, 
 surveyor and civil engineer of the town of Middle- 
 town, Conn., was for twenty-nine years, from 1872 
 to 1901, city surveyor of Middletown. On May 20, 
 1869, he married Susan Buell Case,, who was born 
 April 16, 1848. (2) Lucy Elizabeth, born May 26, 
 1849, married April 10, 1872. Charles Abraham 
 Dndle}-, born Aug. 14, 1849, of Guilford, Conn. (3) 
 Mary Eliza, born April 27, 1852, married Oct. 13, 
 1874, Horace Francis Dudley, born ]\Iarch 9, 1846, 
 of Guilford, Conn. (4) Alfred Henry, born Feb. 5, 
 1855, married May 25, 1880, Anna Elizabeth Camp, 
 born Oct. 18, 1855, daughter of Charles E. and 
 Elizabeth (Hart) Camp, of Durham, Conn. He has 
 been for several years town clerk of Middlefield. 
 (5) Charles Parmelee, born Feb. 17, 1857, resides 
 in Middlefield and is a florist, in business with his 
 brother Alfred. He married Xov. 18, 1880, Ida 
 Eulalie Bradley, who was born March 20, 18^7, and 
 died April 4, ic;oi. She was a daughter of Edward 
 J. and Harriet (W'ilcox) liradley, of Westfield So- 
 ciety, Middletown. 
 
 LEWELLYX BE.MAIOXT, a prosperous 
 farmer and stockman of the town of A\'allingford, 
 where his industrious bnbits anrl uprio^ht character 
 hive made him man\- friend';, was born in that town 
 Xov. 12, 183'), a soil of John and Ann (T}-ler) 
 
 Beaumont, well and favorably known in the early 
 part of the last century in that locality. Mr. Beau- 
 mont received his education in the district school, 
 and remained at home helping with the farm work 
 until the outbreak of the Civil war. The appeal of 
 his country for help in her hour of need found in 
 him a ready response, and he enlisted in Company 
 K, 15th Conn. V. I., serving throughout the war, 
 and participating in numerous battles and engage- 
 ments. He passed through all the scenes and exper- 
 iences of that great struggle safely, and returned 
 home to resume the occupations of peaceful life, 
 thankful that the war had not been in vain, and that 
 the Republic still lived. He settled down to farm- 
 ing on the place where he now lives, and has sev- 
 enty acres of good land under cultivation, the inter- 
 vening years having brought him the prosperity that 
 is the reward of honest efifort. 
 
 ;Mr. Beaumont has never married, and is a happy 
 and contented gentleman, with a genial spirit. Well 
 read on all questions of the day, he is a Republican 
 with independent habits of thought. A hard-work- 
 ing man, he practices the strictest economy, and has 
 a horror of debt. A good all-around man, with in- 
 dustrious habits and an honest spirit, is the judg- 
 ment of all who know him. 
 
 ELIZUR EDWIX PRICHARD (deceased) 
 was born in Waterbury, New Haven county, Sept. 
 19, 1804, of English descent, and was a member of 
 one of the oldest families in Xew England, the 
 genealogy of which may be traced to the Old 
 World, as follows : 
 
 David Prichard, father of Elizur, was born in 
 AVaterbury, Oct. 24, 1775, and died Dec. 22, 1838. 
 David Prichard, father of David, was born here 
 also, April 7, 1737, and died Dec. 22, 1838. James 
 Prichard, father of David (i), was born in Mil- 
 ford, Conn., was there baptized in 1698, and died 
 Sept. 3, 1749. Benjamin Prichard, father of James, 
 was born in ]\Iilford Jan. 31, 1657, and died April 
 9, 1743. Roger Prichard, father of Benjamin, was 
 born in England (perhaps ^^'ales), and lived in 
 Wethersfield, Conn., in 1640, in Springfield in 1643, 
 and in Milford in 1653. ^^^ the latter place he mar- 
 ried Elizabeth, daughter of James Prudden, one of 
 the original settlers of Guilford. He died in New 
 Haven Jan. 26, 1670. All the family were agricul- 
 turists, l3Ut many of the members also followed some 
 trade in connection, with farming, and all were con- 
 spicuous as inembersof the Church of New Eng- 
 land. 
 
 James Prichard, great-grandfather of the sub- 
 ject of this sketch, came to Waterbury in 1733, and 
 settled where the old rink now stands, at the cor- 
 ner of Bank and Grand streets. He married, Dec. 
 25, 1721, Elizabeth Johnsdn, who was born in Strat- 
 ford, Conn., Aug. 28, 1701, and died Dec. 10, 1797, 
 the mother of seven children : James, George, 
 Elizabeth, Isaac, John, David and Hannah. The 
 family lived in the village of A\'aterbury, but the 
 
H 
 
 O 
 M 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 ft 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 gii 
 
 father conducted a farm on. the opposite side of the 
 river. He was a man of wealth for his time and 
 acquired much land. He died in the "great sick- 
 ness" of 1749- 
 
 David Prichard, youngest son of James, was a 
 farmer, cabinet-maker, carpenter and joiner. On 
 Dec. 20, 1757, he married Ruth Smith, to which 
 marriage were born ten children, viz. : Archibald, 
 Ruth, Mariana, Philo, Sylvia, MoUie, Mollie (2), 
 David, Damon and Sally. The father of this fam- 
 ily lived to be over loi years of age. When he 
 heard that his favorite son, David, had died, he 
 never spoke again. The remains of both were in- 
 ferred at one time. 
 
 David Prichard, Jr., son of David, married Nov. 
 y. 1797, Anna Hitchcock, a daughter of Benjamin 
 Hitchcock. She died Feb. 17, i860. David Prich- 
 ard, Jr., was a cabinet-maker, which business he 
 followed some forty years. He was also largely en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of clocks, in which he did 
 an extensive trade in the Southern States and Can- 
 ada. He reared a family of nine children, born in 
 Jhe following order: Minerva, William, Julius S., 
 Elizur E., Anna, Sally H., David, Samuel H. and 
 ■Charlotte L. Of these, William and Julius S. went 
 to Ohio. David graduated from Yale Medical 
 School in 1832, practiced medicine in Madison, 
 Conn., also in Ohio and New Jersey, and was in 
 practice in Norwalk, Conn., at the time of his 
 death, Oct. 30, 1868; he was a manufacturer of 
 German silver spoons in Waterbury, Conn., and the 
 first to make them in Waterbury ; was also asso- 
 -ciated with Julius Hotchkiss, under the firm name 
 of Hotchkiss & Prichard, in the manufacture of 
 webbing, cotton, etc., and held other interests. 
 
 Elizur E. Prichard, the subject of this biography, 
 grew to manhood in Waterbury. He married Bet- 
 sev Cooper, who was born in Derby, this county, 
 Oct. 25, 1805, a daughter of Asa and Hannah 
 (Botsford) Cooper. The Botsfords trace their 
 ■descent from Henrv Botsford, one of the original 
 settlers of Milford. ' The Coopers were also among 
 the original settlers of New Haven, Airs. Prichard 
 tracing her line through John, John, John, Caleb, 
 Caleb and Asa. To Elizur E. Prichard and his wife 
 were born five children, as follows : Elizabeth Ann, 
 Sarah J., one that died in infancy unnamed, Kath- 
 erine A., and Florence C. Of these, Elizabeth' Ann 
 died in 1854. The surviving daughters remain ai 
 the old home unmarried. 
 
 Elizur E. Prichard was about twenty-four years 
 of age when he began to take part in manufacturing 
 in Waterbury by making iron and brass castings. 
 In 1829 he engaged in making gilt buttons, and in 
 1833 in the manufacture of umbrella, parasol and 
 cane trimmings of fine quality, occasionally of gold. 
 He enjoyed the confidence of the solid men of Wa- 
 terbury, by whom he was implicitly trusted, and on 
 one occasion, when making a trip to Boston, he 
 carried with him to the bank in that city $30,000, 
 to accommodate a New Plaven Bank. In 1840 he 
 
 erected a residence on the corner of Bank and Grand 
 streets, in the center of Waterbury. In 1843 h"^ 
 was engaged in the manufacture of cloth buttons, 
 as in that year there was a diploma granted to him 
 by the American Institute (of New York) for "su- 
 perior specimens of silk buttons.'' For a number 
 of years he was also engaged in Norwalk, Comi., 
 in making door knobs, etc. In Waterbury and in 
 New Haven, in partnership with his brother. Dr. 
 David Prichard, he was engaged in the manufacture 
 of elastic webbing ; from this partnership sprang the 
 American Suspender Co. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. Prichard retired from active busi- 
 ness, but in 1855 his interests in the Wolcottville 
 Knitting Co. obliged him to assume the manage- 
 ment of that business, which he controlled until the 
 time of his death, Nov. 29, i860. He was possessed 
 of a spirit of tireless activity, was progressive, pub- 
 lic-spirited and benevolent. It is believed that no 
 suppliant for aid ever appealed to him without re- 
 ceiving instant and substantial relief. Much he 
 lost by lending — in his kindness of heart — the use 
 of his name to his friends in their business difficul- 
 ties, and, in fact, his kindness was his overpowering 
 weakness. He never filled a public office, but de- 
 voted his energies and time to the industrial and 
 social elevation of his fellow men. He died a mem- 
 ber of the First Church, in which faith his widow 
 also passed away. May 29, 1887. 
 
 HON. CHARLES STODDARD SPAULD- 
 ING, prominent farmer and ex-member of the State 
 Legislature from Cheshire, New Haven county, is 
 a native of this State, born in Norfolk, Litchfield 
 county. May 9, 1837, son of Frederick A. and Mary 
 ( Goodwin ) Spaulding. The father was born in 
 New Marlboro, Mass., June 13, 1810, a son of Aus- 
 tin, and Betsey (Clark) Spaulding, the former also 
 a native of that State, the latter of Connecticut. 
 Austin Spaulding lived and died in Massachusetts, 
 but at an early age Frederick, his son, removed to 
 Litchfield county, Conn., where he made his home 
 with an uncle, and where he followed farming 
 throughout his active business life. He died there 
 Aug. 30, 1892, and his wife, whom he had married 
 in Litchfield county, died in Norfolk Dec. 8; 1881. 
 In their famib' were eight children of whom Charles 
 Stoddard is the eldest; Jane P., Mrs. Booth, died in 
 New Marlboro, Mass., in 1876; Mary A. is the wife 
 of John A. Stevens, of Atlantic, Iowa; Ellen K., 
 widow of Bvron J. Perkins, lives in Winsted. Conn. ; 
 Almira, wife of Erastus Burr, lives in Norfolk; 
 Ahce, Mrs. Johnson, is a resident of Goshen, Litch- 
 field county; Abbie K., Mrs. Norton, died in Bris- 
 tol, Conn., in 1890; and John lives on the old home- 
 stead in Norfolk. 
 
 Charles S. Spauldinsr was reared in Litchfield 
 countv, and was educated in the schools of Norfolk. 
 In earlv life he engaged in business as a contractor 
 and builder throughout his native county. _ When 
 the Civil war broke out he enlisted there, in 1861, 
 
922 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in Company E, nth Conn. V. I., which was assigned 
 to the 9th Army Corps, and later to Gen, Burnside's 
 command. He participated in the battles of New- 
 bern, X. C, Roanoke, Fredericksburg, Antietam, 
 South Mountain, the siege of Suffolk, \'a. (which 
 lasted twenty-three days), and in various skirmish- 
 es. At Drury's Bluff Mr. Spaulding received a gun 
 shot wound, which confinecl him to the hospital at 
 Richmond, Va., for six months. He was honorably 
 discharged at Annapolis, Md., in June, 1865, and 
 returned to his home in Litchfield county, where he 
 continued to reside until coming to Cheshire, in 
 1886. Here he purchased one of the old and valu- 
 able farms, and has since devoted his energies to 
 agricultural pursuits, with good results. 
 
 In. Litchfield county, in 1875, Mr. Spaulding was 
 united in marriage with Miss Grace Merrill, a 
 daughter of Augustus and Adaline (Wooding) 
 Alerrill, all natives of that county, as were the 
 grandparents, Norman and Annie (Marsh) Merrill. 
 Her maternal grandparents, Edmund Anson and Lu 
 Anna (Pond) Wooding, were born in New Haven 
 and Hartford counties, respectively. Mr. Spaulding 
 and his wife have three children : Jessie G., who 
 has successfully engaged in teaching school in Falls 
 Village, and is now attending College in Holyoke, 
 Mass. ; Annie M., also a teacher of New Haven 
 county ; and Ethel, at home. Mr. and Mrs. Spauld- 
 ing are both members of the Episcopal Church.. 
 Fraternally he is an honored member of E. A. Doo- 
 little Post, No. 5, G. A. R. : Temple Lodge. No. 16, 
 A. F. & A. M. ; and the Ancient Order of L^nited 
 ^^'orkmen. As a Republican he takes an active and 
 prominent part in political aft'airs, and his fellow 
 citizens, recognizing his ability and worth, have 
 called him to public office. He has been a member of 
 the board of selectmen of Cheshire, and in Novem- 
 ber, i8q8. was elected to the State Legislature, in 
 which bodv he served in a most creditable and ac- 
 ceptable manner. 
 
 THOMAS FRENCH, an honored veteran of the 
 Civil war, and a worthy citizen of Town Plot, Wa- 
 terbur)', was born in Nealsworth, Gloucestershire, 
 England, Sept. 11, 1826, a son of Thomas and Anna 
 French, also natives of that shire, where the former 
 worked as a millwright until his emigration to the 
 United States in 1846, making the voyage on a sail- 
 ing vessel. In 1851 he located in Xaugatuck, Conn., 
 where he was first employed as a carder in the mills, 
 and later as a machinist. He was a member of the 
 Church of England, and died in that faith in 1861. 
 In his family were nine children. 
 
 Thomas French was educated in the schools of 
 his native land, and was eighteen years of age when 
 he took passage on a sailing vessel at Liverpool 
 bound for the New World. After two months spent 
 upon, the water he landed in New York, in June, 
 1844, and proceeded at once to South Hadley, Mass., 
 where he was employed in a woolen mill at $15 per 
 month for one year. He then went to Rockville, 
 
 Tolland Co., Conn., where he worked as a carder and 
 spinner in the \voolen mills until 1850, and later was 
 employed in the latter capacity in the woolen mills 
 at Naugatuck, New Haven county, until 1854. 
 During the following two years he worked as a 
 farm hand at one dollar per day, and then engaged 
 in the butcher business with J. E. Gunn and Samuel 
 Osborne, buying- cattle in Canada. In 1861 Mjr. 
 French enlisted in Company E, 8th Conn. V. I., at 
 Naugatuck, under Capt. Martin B. Smith, .and was 
 in several engagements, including the battles of 
 Roanoke and Newbern, N. C. He was discharged 
 May 12, 1862, on account of disability, and returned 
 to Naugatuck, where he was employed in the rubber 
 works until 1872. He then came to Town Plot, Wa- 
 terbury, and took up his residence on the Chatfield 
 farm, where for the past twenty-eight years he has 
 carried on general farming with fair success. 
 
 In 1849, in New York State, Mr. French was 
 united in marriage with Miss Martha, daughter of 
 William Culverhouse, and to them was born one 
 son, Aaron W., now a resident of Naugatuck, who 
 married Nellie Primrose, and has two children, 
 Harry and William. Mrs. French died in Nauga- 
 tuck, in 1863, and for his second wife our subject 
 married Miss Poljy Ann Chatfield, a native of 
 Southington, Conn., and a daughter of David and 
 Polly (Hitchcock) Chatfield. By this union were 
 borii four children, but all died in infancy. Mr. 
 French is a member of Wadhams Post, No. 49, G. 
 A. R., of Waterbury. In religious connection Mr. 
 French holds membership with the Episcopal ■ 
 Church, while his wife belonged to the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and in that faith died June 13, 11901. 
 jMr. French is widely and favorably known, and his 
 circle of friends in Waterbury is extensive. 
 
 The Chatfield family, to which Mrs French be- 
 longed, is one of the oldest of New Haven county. 
 Three brothers, Francis, Thomas and George Chat- 
 field, came to this country from England in 1639, 
 and located in Guilford, Conn., where they engaged 
 in farming. Francis died immarried in 1647. 
 Thomas moved to New Haven, where he married 
 Ann Higginson, a daughter of Rev. Naness Hig- 
 ginson, and later went to Long Island, where he be- 
 came a magistrate. George, the third brother, lo- 
 cated in Killingworth, Conn., where he died Jan. 
 9, 1671. On Sept. 30, 1651, he married Sarah Bish- 
 op, and for his second wife married Isabelle Nettle- 
 ton, daughter of Samuel Nettleton. He had three 
 children: John, born April 8, 1661 ; George, born 
 Aug. 18, 1668; and Mary, born April 20, 1671. 
 
 Lieut. Daniel Chatfield, the great-grandfather of 
 Mrs. French, was a native of Oxford. He spent the 
 greater part of his life in A^'aterbury, where he 
 owned property. He was a member of the early 
 militia, being commissioned second lieutenant of the 
 3d Company in March, 1761, and later first lieuten- 
 ant. In 1771 he removed to Derby. He joined the 
 Continental Army in May, 1778, and on Jan. 10, 
 1781, was commissioned captain of the 13th Com- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 923 
 
 pany, 2nd Regiment, serving with distinction 
 throughout the Revohitionary war. He married 
 Prudence Baldwin, who died in March, 1828, aged 
 -ninety-two years, and he died July 11, 1818, aged 
 eighty-three. ^They had four children : Esther, who 
 was born in 1770, and died October 21, 1776; Dan- 
 iel ; Reuben ; and James. 
 
 Daniel Chatfield, son of Lieut. Daniel, was a 
 farmer and land owner of Waterbury, where his 
 death occurred. He married Esther Lonsbury, who 
 died May 6, 1848, at the age of seventy-six years. 
 Their children were : David, father of Mrs. Erench ; 
 Leonard ; Enos ; Esther ; Polly, wife of J. N. Mor- 
 ris ; and Anna Maria, wife of Zenas Bronson. 
 
 David Chatfield, Mrs. French's father, was born 
 Sept. 9, 1794, and was married, June 5, 1820, to 
 Polly Hitchcock who was born June 17, 1705, a 
 daughter of Caleb Hitchcock, of Southington. 1 hey 
 had five children : Jane, bom Au.e. 22, 1822, mar- 
 ried M. E. Judd ; Polly Ann, born Sept. 5, 1824, be- 
 came Mrs. Erench; Cvrus, born May 16, 1826, was 
 married in April, 1848, to Philena ^Martin, of Pros- 
 pect, Conn.: Eidelia, born Eeb. 16, 1828; and Ema- 
 line, born March 3, 1833. 
 
 On the maternal side Mrs. French is descended 
 from Matthias Hitchcock, who came from London, 
 England, to Boston on the bark "Susan and Ellen," 
 in the spring of 1635. His third son, John Hitch- 
 cock, was born in New Haven, where he grew to 
 manhood, but later became one of the first settlers 
 of Wallingford. He was quite an extensive land 
 owner and farmer, and a prominent citizen of that 
 town, where he died July 6, 1716. On Jan. 18, 1670, 
 he married Abigail Merriman, who was born April 
 18, 1654, a daughter of Capt. Nathaniel Merriman, 
 one of the first settlers of Wallingford. After his 
 death, his second wife, Mary Hitchcock, married 
 Samuel Clark. John Hitchcock had twelve children. 
 The oldest, a daughter, born in New Haven, Oct. i, 
 1671, died in infancy; Samuel, born in 1672, died 
 young; Abigail, born April 10, 1674, married Jacob 
 Johnson; Mary, born Dec. 10, 1676, married Ben- 
 jamin Beach ; Nathaniel, born April 10, 1679, mar- 
 ried Sarah Jennings; Margery, born Sept. 6, 1681, 
 married Joseph Munson ; Elizabeth, born April 8, 
 
 1684, married Daniel Lines ; John, born Oct. 18, 
 
 1685, married Marlow Munson ; Matthias, born May 
 26, 1688, married Thankful Andrews ; Hannah, born 
 Jan. 9, 1690, married John Lines ; Damaris, born 
 July II, 1693, married Sylvanus Clark; and Ben- 
 jamin, born March 24, 1696, married Elizabeth 
 Ives. 
 
 Capt. Benjamin Hitchcock, just mentioned, was 
 born and reared in Wallingford, and from there re- 
 moved to Cheshire, Conn., where he spent the re- 
 mainder of his life, dying there Eeb. 12, 1767. He 
 owned land in that town and also in Southington, 
 Hartford county. On Oct. i, 1718, he married Eliza- 
 beth Ives, a daughter of Joseph and Esther Ives. 
 She was born Sept. 6, 1700, and died Aug. 8, 1762. 
 They had twelve children : Bela, born Oct. 27, 1719, 
 
 married Sarah Atwater; Hannah, born Sept. 12,. 
 1721, was married, ]May 26, 1740, to Elnathan An- 
 drews; Benjamin, born Feb. 23, 1724, married 
 Rhoda Cook; Elizabeth, born Feb. 23, 1726; Abigail, 
 born May 10, 1728, was married, Dec. 9, 1747, to 
 Daniel Bradley; Samuel, born April i, 1730, is men- 
 tioned below; Nathaniel, born June 30, 1732, died 
 March 12, 1734; Enos was born in 1734; Joseph, 
 born July 12, 1737, died Nov. i, 1760; Nathaniel, 
 born in Sept., 1739, was married, May 4, 1763, ta 
 Lydia Dutton, and died May 30, 1770; David, born 
 June 29, 1742, married Hannah Doolittle; and Da- 
 maris, born Sept. 3, 1745, died Nov. 25, 1756. 
 
 Samuel Hitchcock, son of Capt. Benjamin, was 
 born in Cheshire, New Haven county, and became 
 a resident of the town of Southington, where he 
 owned and operated a farm. He died May 8, 1798, 
 and his wife, Tamar, died Dec. 7, 1816, at the age 
 of eighty years. They had five children : Samuel, 
 born Feb. 27, 1757, married Mary Munson ; Caleb, 
 born May 17, 1760, married Ada Malory; Eliza- 
 beth, born Dec. 29, 1763, married Lewis Thorp; 
 Tamar, baptized in August, 1765, married Thomas 
 Cowles ; and Esther was married Nov. 11, 1798, to- 
 Barnabus Powers, and died Sept. 20, 1802. 
 
 Caleb Hitchcock, a son of Samuel, and the grand- 
 father of Mrs. French, was born in Southington, 
 and was a sea captain throughout life. He [died 
 March 17, 1826. On Dec. 28, 1784, he married Ada 
 Malory, who died Aug. 22, 1808, and on April 10, 
 1809, he married Julia Thorpe, daughter of John 
 Thorpe, of Southington. She died 'May 2, 185 1. 
 The following children were born to Caleb Hitch- 
 cock, (i) Harmon, born Oct. 15, 1785, was a. 
 sailor in the war of 1812, during which conflict he 
 had an ear cut ofif and was sent as a captive to Eng- 
 land. He died Sept. 24, 18 17. (2) Solomon was 
 born Nov. 24, 1786. (3) Ada, born May 6, 1788,. 
 was married, Nov. 7, 181 1, to Benjamin Rich, and 
 died Oct. 25, 1862. (4) Esther, born Sept. 4, 1789, 
 married A. Rupert, and died May 21, i860. (5) 
 Phila, born April 17, 1791, was married, Aug. 22, 
 1815, to Sidney Brockett, of East Haven, and di?d 
 Oct. 26, 1869. (6) Caleb, born Sept. 21, 1793, went 
 to New Orleans as a soldier of the war of 1812, and 
 is supposed to have died of yellow fever at that 
 place. (7) Polly, born June 17, 179S, married Da- 
 vid Chatfield, the father of Mrs. French. (8) Cy- 
 rus, born July 25, 1798, was married, Aug. 10, 1820,. 
 to Elizabeth Howe, and died March 4, 1826. (9) 
 Huldah, born March 26, 1800, married Jesse Mat- 
 thews, and died Feb. 2, 1875. (10) Leusania, born 
 Feb. 19, 1802, married a Mr. Seeley. (11) Alvah, 
 born Feb. 15, 1807, was married, March 30, 1828, tO' 
 Emily Neal. (12) John, born Feb. 18, 1810, died 
 Dec. 22, 1811. (13) Albert, born Sept. 24, 1812, 
 completes the family. 
 
 JOHN R. TYLER, whose name is familiar to 
 all who are acquainted with the region known as 
 Stony Hill, at Indian Neck, where he has long beem 
 
924 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a fisherman, was born in Branford Oct. 27, 1835, 
 and is a son of John and Eunice (Averill) Tyler. 
 John Tyler, his paternal grandfather, was a Revo- 
 lutionary soldier, and one of the participants in the 
 "tea party" in Boston Harbor, which may be said to 
 have ushered in the Revolution. Daniel Averill, 
 the maternal grandfather of Mr. Tyler, was a sailor, 
 and had his home in Branford. John Tyler was a 
 joiner by trade, and lived and died in Branford. 
 To him and his wife Eunice were born the follow- 
 ing named children : Betsy, Mary, John R., Sam- 
 uel and William A. 
 
 John R. Tyler passed his boyhood and youth in 
 Branford, where he attended the public school, and 
 at the age of seventeen years began life for himself, 
 becoming a sailor, and following that vocation fif- 
 teen years. Leaving the ocean at the expiration of 
 that time, he put in twelve years at the joiner's 
 trade, and has since followed the calling of a fisher- 
 man. 
 
 Mr. Tyler has been twice married, the first time 
 to Mary, daughter of Thomas C. Mather, a descend- 
 ant of Cotton Mather. Elmer S. Tyler is the only 
 hving child of this marriage. The second wife of 
 John R. Tyler was Emma, daughter of Capt. John 
 and Desire F. (Thompson) Faren, of East Haven. 
 There were three children born to this union : 
 Leonard F., Eugene and Lillian M. Mr. Tyler in 
 politics is a Republican. He and his family are 
 members of the Congregational Church, and they 
 are all highly respected members of the community. 
 Our subject is regarded as one of the most upright 
 and trustworthy citizens of the town. 
 
 MONSON. That branch of the family of this 
 name at New Haven, several members of which are 
 yet actively engaged in business, among them Capt. 
 David C. and Charles Monson, sons of the late ven- 
 erable William Monson, of Litchfield and Morris, 
 Conn., and men of prominence in business circles 
 and social life, is one of the oldest of Conneceicut's 
 families, its history reaching back to the Colonial 
 period, covering a time of 260 or more years. 
 
 The late William Monson, of Litchfield and 
 Morris, was descended in the seventh generation 
 from Thomas Monson, who was first known in 
 this country as a resident of Flartford. Conn., in 
 1637, performing military service in the Pec|uot 
 war. Soon thereafter he became a resident of New 
 Haven, where he continued to live until his death. 
 His birth occurred about 1612, and his death in 
 1685. He was a carpenter by trade, was of the 
 faith of the Congregational Church, and made a 
 good citizen. His wife's Christian name was Jo- 
 anna, and she died in 1678. From this Thomas 
 Monson, the settler, the late William Monson's 
 line of descent was through Samuel, Samuel (2), 
 William, William (2) and William (3). 
 
 Samuel Monson, son of Thomas, the settler, 
 yvas baptized in 1643, and in 1665 married Martha, 
 a daughter of William and Alice fPritchard) 
 
 Bradley. Mr. Monson was a tanner and also made 
 shoes, and resided first in New Haven, then in Wal- 
 lingford, and again New Haven. His death oc- 
 curred in 1693. , u • 
 
 Samuel Monson (2), son of Samuel, born m 
 1669, married first, in 1707, Martha, and second, 
 in 1708, Alary, born in 1674, the widow of Caleb 
 Merriman, and a daughter of Deacon Eliasaph 
 Preston, and resided in Wallingford, where he had 
 served as town clerk. His death occurred in 1741 
 and that of his widow in 1755. 
 
 Wilham Monson, son of Samuel (2), was born 
 in 1695, married Rebecca, daughter of Thomas 
 Curtis, of Wallingford, and resided in that part of 
 that town which is now Cheshire. His death oc- 
 curred in 1733. 
 
 William Monson (2), son of William, was born 
 in 1731. He married in 1753, Sarah, born in 1734, 
 a daughter of Isaac Griggs, of Wallingford and 
 resided in what was then the town of Waterbury, 
 but later, Wolcott. Mrs. Monson died in 1806, 
 and her husband in 1815. 
 
 William Monson (3), son of William (2) was 
 born in 1769, and he married first, in 1790, Olive 
 Dayton, and second, in 1835, Elizabeth Ford. Pie 
 resided in Plymouth and Litchfield, Conn., and 
 Meredith, N. Y. 
 
 William Monson (4), son of William (3), and 
 the father of David C, and Charles Monson, of 
 New Haven, was born Jan. 10, 1793, in the town 
 of Plymouth, Conn., and became a currier and 
 tanner, by occupation, residing in Litchfield, in 
 that part of the town which, in 1859, was set oft 
 as the town of Morris. His religious connections 
 were with the Congregational Church, and his po- 
 litical affiliations with the Whig and later with the 
 Republican party. Mr. Monson was twice married, 
 first, Sept. 4. 1815, to Alice Emmons, who was born 
 May 3, 1791, and died May 6, 1821. He married sec- 
 ond March 19, 1822, Polly Benton, born in March, 
 1792, and died Sept. 30, 1875. Mr. Monson survived 
 until Aug. 5, 1887, when in the ninety-sixth year of 
 his age. His children were : William H., born Aug. 
 I, 1816, a tanner, settled at Cheraw, S. C, where 
 his death occurred in 1887 (he served in the Con- 
 federate army as adjutant of the Home Guards) ; 
 Julius, born in 1818, died in 1819; Charles B., born 
 in 1821, died in 1825 ; Phebe A., born April 5, 1823, 
 married May 8, 1845, Elias C. AVoodruff, and re- 
 sides in Westville, Conn. ; Cornelia A., born March 
 22, 1825, married twice, and died in Hamden, in 
 1877; Elizabeth L., born Nov. 3, 1827, resided in 
 Westville, and died, unmarried, at an advanced 
 age, in 1895; David C, born Aug. 7, 1832; Charles, 
 born Feb. 14, 1834, is a merchant of New Haven; 
 and Homer G., born April 11, 1837, is an orange 
 grower and investor, residing at Sanford, Florida. 
 
 Captain David C. Monson, son of the late Will- 
 iam Alonson, was born Aug. 7, 1832, in the town 
 of Litchfield, Conn., where his school days and 
 youth were passed. Learning the trade and business 
 
Qa^ySi^ 
 
 ^^-ru^-a^^ ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 925 
 
 of tanner from his father, he followed that during 
 his earlier life. On Aug. 4, 1862, during the prog- 
 ress of the Civil war, in response to the call ot 
 President Lincoln for 300,000 men, in July of that 
 year, Mr. Monson enlisted, as a private, in Com- 
 pany C, 19th Conn. V. I., which later became Com- 
 pany C, 2d Conn. Heavy Artillery. The engage- 
 ments in which this regiment participated were : 
 Spottsylvania, Va., May 22 to 24, 1864; Talopoto- 
 my, Va., May 28, 1864; Cold Harbor, Va., June i, 
 1864; Petersburg, Va., June 20 to 26, 1864; Win- 
 chester, Va., Sept. 19, 1864; Fisher's Hill, Va., 
 Sept. 22, 1864; Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864; 
 Hatcher's Run, Va., Feb. 6, 1865 ; Petersburg, Va., 
 March 25 and April 2, 1865 ; and Little Sailor's 
 Creek, Va., April 6, 1865. Captain Monson shared 
 the fortunes of his regiment from start to finish, and 
 returned to his home with an honorable war record, 
 being promoted from_ sergeant on Dec. 26, 1864, 
 to second lieutenant, and April 18, 1865, to first 
 lieutenant of his companj^, and was mustered out 
 with his regiment Aug. 18, 1865. 
 
 Captain Monson has resided in Litchfield, Mor- 
 ris, Wolcottville, now Torrington, and Westville, 
 and for many years was foreman in the Diamond 
 Match Co., of Westville. His political afifiliations 
 have been with the Republican party, in which he 
 has been active and influential. Since a resident 
 of Westville he has served as constable, fence viewei 
 and registrar of the Thirteenth ward, and is an 
 enterprising and public-spirited citizen and com- 
 mands the respect of his fellow townsmen. 
 
 On April 27, 1856, Capt. Monson was married 
 to Sarah A. Holcomb, of Torrington, Conn., born 
 Nov. 2, 1837, and to this union have come children 
 as follows: Alice Elizabeth, bom March 13, 1859, 
 in Morris, Conn., married Homer L. Cooper, for- 
 merly of Westville, now of New Haven, and they 
 have had four children, Gertrude and Roland sur- 
 viving; Mary Eliza, born Nov. 18, i860, in Morris, 
 Conn., is a resident of Westville ; William Holcomb, 
 who died in January, 1899, was born Dec. 10, 1862, 
 in Torrington, Conn., married Oct. 23, 1889, Annie 
 Wright Page, and had three children, Marjone 
 Fuller, Ruth and Mary ; and Clifford Benton, born 
 Nov. 13, 1875, in New Haven, died Feb. 6, 1892. 
 Capt. and Mrs. Monson are members of the Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 When the town of Morris was set oflf from Litch- 
 field, Capt. Monson went to Hartford to represent 
 his section of the town before the committee 
 for this purpose. His fraternal connections are 
 with the Masonic order, Olive Branch, No. 55, 
 having entered in i860, through Seneca Lodge, 
 in Torrington ; American Mechanics ; and Ad- 
 miral Foote Past, G. A. R., of which he is 
 past commander. His connection with the Diamond 
 Match Co. ended when it went into a trust, in 1895. 
 In 1897 he was made postmaster of Westville, and 
 when this office was consolidated with the New 
 Haven office, he was made superintendent, and as 
 
 such has since efficiently served the Government. 
 His home on Central Avenue, Westville, Conn., was 
 erected by himself, and there he is passing his de- 
 clining years in peace and comfort, surrounded by 
 many friends. 
 
 WILLIAM N. HOUGHTALIXG, builder of 
 concrete walks and floors, Ansonia, is a native of 
 New York State, born Jan. 22, 1838, at Sandlake, 
 Rensselaer county. 
 
 Tunis Houghtaling, his great-grandfather, a 
 farmer by occupation, was born in Holland, whence 
 he came to this country, settling near Sandlake, N. 
 Y., where he died at the age of eighty years, the 
 father of ten children. His son Christopher Hought- 
 aling, grandfather of William N., was born at Coey- 
 mans, N. Y., and passed his entire life on a farm 
 there, dying when seventy-eight years old. He mar- 
 ■ ried Nancy Mixter, who died at the age of fifty-six, 
 the mother of a large family. 
 
 William M. Houghtaling, the father of William 
 X., was born at Sandlake in 1813, and received his 
 education at the common schools. After following 
 agricultural pursuits for some years at the place of 
 his birth he removed to Canaan, N. Y., then, after a 
 couple of years, making his home in West Stock- 
 bridge, Mass., later, for six years, in Lenox, J\Iass. 
 Following this he resided in North Adams two 
 years; Colerain ten years; Windsor, Vt., for a time; 
 finally in Holyoke, Mass., where he died at the age 
 of eighty-one years. He married Cynthia P. Gard- 
 ner, of Stephentown, N. Y. (one of ten children 
 born to her parents), and they had ten children, six 
 of whom survive: William N., Martha, Christo- 
 pher, Charles, George and David, all living in. Holy- 
 oke except William N., in Ansonia, and Charles, 
 in Seymour. The mother, born April 13, 1813, is 
 yet living, at the patriarchal age of eighty-nine. 
 
 William N. Houghtaling, our subject, received a 
 liberal education at the public schools, and remained 
 under the parental roof until he was twenty-two 
 years old, at which time he went to Goshen, Mass., 
 thence to Colerain. From there he proceeded to' 
 Shelburne Falls, where he engaged as a mechanic, 
 in 1866 removing to Seymour, Conn., being there 
 employed as a bit and auger maker up to 1884, when 
 he commenced the business of making concrete 
 walks and floors. He remained in Seymour until 
 November, 1891, in that year coming to Ansonia, 
 where he has since remained, his house and office 
 being at No. 33 Pleasant street. He is the only one 
 in his special line in the city, and does a large 
 amount of work, employing a considerable number 
 of men. What he does is of the finest quality, and 
 he has achieved an enviable reputation, not only as 
 a thorough master of his business, but also as a citi- 
 zen of the community, in which he is highly respect- 
 ed by all who know him. In politics he is independ- 
 ent. 
 
 In i860 William N. Houehtaline married Miss 
 Lucy L. Loomis, who was born Feb. 3, 1841, ire 
 
926 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Goshen, Mass., a daughter of Almon B. Loomis, a 
 native of Becket, ]\Iass., and a granddaughter of 
 Calvin Loomis, who was born in bpringfielcl, Mass., 
 Dec. 13, 1779. Her great-grandfather, Jonathan 
 Loomis, first saw the liglit in Feeding Hills, Mass., 
 where he followed farming during his early life, 
 then removed to Becket, Mass. ; he died at the age 
 of ninety years. He served in the war of the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 Calvin Loomis left Becket when a young man, 
 and journeyed to what is now PainesviWe, Ohio, but 
 which was then a part of the great unknown West. 
 After seven years he returned to Becket, and on 
 July 10, 1810, he married Anna Freeland, daughter 
 of Joseph and Mollie (Mann) Freeland, of Bland- 
 ford, Mass. She died Jan. 7, 1876, at the age of 
 ninety-five, after sixty-six years of happy wedded 
 life. Mr. Loomis survived until Dec. 14, 1878, when 
 he passed away at the advanced age of ninety-nine 
 years. He could well remember his great-grand- 
 mother, at the great age of 103 years, as she laid 
 her hands in blessings on his head. Six children 
 blessed the union of Calvin and Anna Loomis, of 
 whom Almon B. was the third son, and was of the 
 sixth generation in descent from Joseph Loomis, 
 who came from Braintree, England, in 1638, and 
 settled in Windsor, Conn., in 1639; he was born 
 about 1590, and died in 1658. 
 
 Almon B. Loomis, father of Mrs. William 
 Houghtaling, was born Dec. 11, 1816, and passed 
 his early years in Becket, Mass., later removing to 
 Washington, Mass., then living in Peru, Windsor 
 and Savoy, Mass., each for a short time, and finally 
 settling in Goshen, Mass. ; he purchased the old 
 homestead, conducting same, also quarrying the 
 finest flagstone in Massachusetts, until retiring from 
 active life ; he has since made his home with our 
 subject. He married Hester Willcutt, a daughter of 
 Rev. William Willcutt, a minister of some renown, 
 who was born in 1796, and died at the age of sev- 
 enty-three years. Rev. William Willcutt was a son 
 of Zebulon and Mercy (Litchfield) Willcutt, the 
 former a soldier of the Revolution, who received a 
 life pension ; he died at the age of ninety-six years. 
 Rev. William Willcutt's wife, Betsy (Daniels), was 
 born in Plainfield, Mass., May I, 1796, and died 
 Nov. 3, 1875, aged seventy-nine years and six 
 months. She was one of eisfht children, and had a 
 family of eight children. Her mother died at the 
 age of eighty-nine. Mrs. Houghtaling's parents 
 reared a family of four children, two of whom are 
 yet living, viz. : Mrs. Houghtaling and Mrs. Addi- 
 son D. Blanchard, the latter residing in Goshen. 
 The mother died Dec. 14, 1803, ^t the ace of sev- 
 enty-four years. Mr. Loomis is a Republican in pol- 
 itics, and a man of rare intelligence, now eighty-five 
 years of age. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Houghtaling have been born 
 three children, a brief record of whom follows : (i) 
 Lucy, born Alav 24, 1862, died at the age of two 
 years. (2) Idella G., born Aug. 7, 1869, died April 
 
 27, 1899; she married Henry W. Phelps, a mason 
 by trade, at present working for Mr. Houghtaling. 
 (3) Lillian L., born Feb. 3, 1872, was educated in 
 the Seymour schools, and later commenced the study 
 of medicine, but on account of ill health had to 
 abandon it. When the eldest daughter Lucy was 
 born she had living four grandparents and five great- 
 grandparents — a most unusual record. 
 
 In January, 1900, Mr. Houghtaling purchased 
 land at No. 10 Arch street, West Ansonia. His 
 daughter Lillian at once designed and drew plans for 
 a fine residence, which was built accordingly, and in 
 November the place was ready for occupancy, and 
 is now the family home. The house is well elevated, 
 large and well lighted, and is furnished with all 
 modern improvements, including gas and electric 
 lights. 
 
 CHARLES H. PULFORD, M. D., so widely 
 and favoraibly known in the town of Seymour, is a 
 man of sterling quality and broad, sound education, 
 which he has manifested most liberally in his life 
 and work. He was born in Stafiford Springs^ 
 Conn., Dec. 18, 1859, and spent his early life under 
 the guidance of his father, obtaining his primary 
 education in the public schools of Connecticut. Later 
 he took the Collegiate Institute Course at Hacketts- 
 town, N. J., and then went to New York City to 
 enter the college at the corner of 23d Street. and 
 Third Avenue, and in 1888 he was graduated from 
 the Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago. He 
 practiced with his father until the latter's death, 
 after which he continued in general practice by him- 
 self, continuing to occupy the same office. Dr. Pul- 
 ford is the oldest practitioner in the town, and has 
 a large clientele both in this and surrounding 
 towns. 
 
 A glance into the ancestral life and history of 
 our subject may here be of interest. His grand- 
 father, William C. Pulford, was born in Leeds, 
 England, and there he spent his life. He married a 
 Miss Bannister, who was also of English birth and 
 lived to the age of sixty years. Six children were 
 born to them ; one resides in Delaware, Ohio ; one 
 in Bradford, England; Eliza;beth and Charlotte, 
 both married, reside in Worcester, Mass., and two 
 are deceased. 
 
 Frederick W. Pulford, the father of our subject, 
 and the oldest son of William C, was also born in 
 Leeds, England, where he lived until twelve years 
 of age, when he sailed for this country, taking up 
 his abode in Ohio. His early education was that 
 afforded hy the public schools. He was engaged 
 in the woolen business until 1865, in which year 
 he began the study of medicine. He commenced 
 practicing in Royalston, Mass., continuing there 
 until 1876, when he removed to Seymour, where he 
 resided until his demise in June, 1803, at the age 
 of sixty-six years. He was the oldest practitioner 
 in the town and had a larger practice than any other 
 physician there. In politics he was a Republican. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 927 
 
 Fraternally he was a member of Morning Star 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., of Seymour, and professionally, 
 belonged to the State Medical Society. He married 
 Sarah A., daughter of Chester Leonard, a lumber 
 dealer of Dunkirk, who lost his life on Lake Erie. 
 Two daughters and seven sons were born to them 
 of whom the following are now living : ( i ) Ruf us 
 A., superintendent of a department of the Scoville 
 Mfg. Co., resides in Waterbury; (2) Charles H. 
 is our subject; (3) William E. resides in Prospect, 
 Conn.; (4) Arabella E. married Andrew J. Miles, 
 of the firm of Baldwin & Miles, meat dealers. Dr. 
 and Mrs. Frederick W; Pulford were both members 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church. They possessed 
 considerable musical talent and ability, and were 
 active in all local musical entertainments. In addi- 
 tion to his vocal accomplishments Dr. Pulford was 
 a violinist and cornetist and played in a band and 
 orchestra at one time. Mrs. Pulford died in 1892, 
 aged sixty-three years. 
 
 Born and reared in an environment of culture 
 and refinement, the early inclinations of Dr. Charles 
 H. Pulford received that recognition and training 
 which developed the aibility displayed in his daily 
 life. He has lived very largely among the people, 
 and is deservedly popular. As a vocalist he is 
 active in all musical entertainments, and he also 
 plays the piano. His religious views are liberal. In 
 his fraternal relations, he is identified with Morning 
 Star Lodge, No. 47, F. & A. M., of which he is the 
 musical director; and he also belongs to Evening 
 Star Lodge, R. A. M. Professionally, he is^ a 
 member of the State Medical Society. In politics 
 he is a Republican. His office and residence is at 
 No. 26 Maple Street. 
 
 JUDGE ALEXANDER DANA McLEAN is a 
 worthy and notable descendant of the McLean fam- 
 ily of Wallingford, one of the most respectable and 
 noted names in New England history. 
 
 Dr. Neil McLean, the first of the family in 
 America, was born in the Island of Coll, in Scot- 
 land, about 1702, and, according to tradition, came 
 to this country in 1736, with the celebrated) Dr. 
 Morrison, with whom he was associated in several 
 difficult cases. On Jan. 5, 1737, he settled in Hart- 
 ford, Conn., where he was highly esteemed 
 as a successful physician and as a man of much in- 
 telligence and of high character. He had a beau- 
 tiful country seat at Bloomfield, Conn., which was 
 approached through an avenue of white pine trees, 
 but these trees were cut down soon after his death 
 because "they shaded the soil." Dr. McLean died 
 in Hartford, Jan. 15, I78'"4, while on a visit to his 
 friend, Dr. Nichols. He had been twice married. 
 His first wife, whom he wedded in Hartford, was 
 Mrs. Hannah (Stillman) Cadwill, daughter of Geo. 
 Stillman, who came from London, England, about 
 1680, and married Rebecca, daughter of Lieut. 
 Philip Smith, and granddaughter of Nathaniel 
 Foote, of Wethersfield, Conn-. Mrs. McLean was 
 
 the great aunt of General Warren and James Otis, 
 of Revolutionary fame. She died April 22, 1755, at 
 the age of fifty-two years. In 1757 Dr. McLean 
 married Mrs. Knowles, who died in 1766. By his 
 first marriage Dr. McLean became the father of the 
 following children: Allen, baptized Oct. 2, 1737, 
 died Sept. 19, 1741 ; Lachlan, born Nov. 4, 1739, 
 marrid Sarah Humphrey, and lived in White- 
 stone, N. Y., until his death Sept. 19, 1813; Allen 
 (2), born Dec. 13, 1741, graduated at Yale College 
 in 1762, became a physician, and died in March, 
 1S29 (he married Mary Sloan, of New Haven) ; 
 John, baptized Jan. 29, 1744, is mentioned below; 
 Neil, born Feb. 9, 1746, died in August, 1793; and 
 Catherine, baptized Sept. 23, 1748. 
 
 John McLean, fourth in the family of Dr. Mc- 
 Lean, became a farmer in Windsor, Conn., where 
 he spent his life, dying Sept. 2, 1822. Sarah 
 Goodwin, his wife, was a daughter of Daniel Good- 
 win, of one of the best-known families of Hartford, 
 and died May 5, 1817, at the age of seventy years. 
 She was a woman of good character, kind heart and 
 ardent piety. To John McLean and his wife Sarah 
 were born the following children : ( i ) Dolly Good- 
 win, born May 18, 1771, married William Willis- 
 ton, of Suffield, and died May i, 1861. (2) John, 
 born in 1776, was a sailor, and died in 1805. (3) 
 James, born May 6, 1779, was a sea captain, and 
 was one of the impressed seamen that caused the 
 war with England in 1812, and spent seventeen 
 years on board a British man of war ; he died Jan. 
 2, 1865, at Sailors Snug Harbor, Staten Island. (4) 
 Harry is mentioned farther on. (O Sally, born in 
 1784, married Edward Vining, of Simsbury, and 
 died in 1815. (6) Betsy, born Aug. 9, 1787, died 
 Nov. 15, 1810. 
 
 Harry McLean, the father of Judge McLean, 
 was born in Windsor, which is now the town of 
 Bloomfield, April 30, 1782, and died in 1844, and 
 his remains were buried in the old Bloomfield ceme- 
 tery. He was a farmer by occupation, and was one 
 of the best known men of Bloomfield. A stanch 
 Democrat, he worked hard for the party, and was 
 a man of influence in political matters, and served 
 as selectman many years. He attended the Epis- 
 copal Church, and was a good Christian man and 
 upright citizen. On Dec. 22, i8o7, Mr. McLean 
 married Miss Susanna Gillette, a daughter of Jona- 
 than Gillette, of Windsor. This union was blessed 
 with eight children: (i) Betsy, born April 25, 
 1810, married Eliezur Latimer, and removed to 
 Ohio, where she died Oct. 15, 1886. (2) Polly, 
 born April 30, 1812, died May 10, 1817. (3) 
 Henry, born April 17, 1814, died May 25, 1815. 
 (4) Henry (2), born May 26, 18 16, married Jan. 
 9, 1846, Abigail Allyn, and died Oct. 26, 1863. (5) 
 John, born April 25, 1818, married Elizabeth Allyn 
 in 1842, and died Feb. 16, 1897. (6) Daniel Good- 
 win, born Sept. 3, 1820, married Maria Dana, of 
 Wilkesbarre, Penn., and removed to Enterprise, 
 Fla., where he died March 30, 1895. (7) Susanna 
 
928 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married Watson Dewey, of Granby, and died ia 
 1854. (8) Alexander Dana, born May 24, 1829. 
 
 Alexander Dana McLean was still young when 
 he lost his father. He had his education at the pub- 
 lic schools, the Connecticut Institute at Suffield, and 
 at a private school in Bloomfield. Growing up on 
 the farm, he took up the study of surveying and 
 civil engineering, and engaged in the practice of 
 that calling in his native town, and was also a car- 
 penter. He remained in the town of Bloomfield 
 until 1869, when he went to Edgerton, Wis., and en- 
 gaged in tobacco culture and general farming for 
 nine years. He took up the study and practice of 
 law, becoming quite successful, and was judge of 
 the city court of Edgerton four terms, and justice 
 of the peace, filling other offices as well. In 1878 
 he removed to Chester, Virginia, where he carried 
 on extensive building operations, the Presbyterian 
 church of that place being one of his principal 
 constructions. He was one of the organizers of 
 this church, and became an elder. After spending 
 four years in that country he returned to Walling- 
 ford, Conn., settling at North Farms, and engaging 
 in tobacco and general farming for six years ; and 
 while he has been in the tobacco business for twen- 
 ty-five years, he never uses the article in any form. 
 In 1887 he removed to Wallingford, where he 
 settled in the city, and followed his profession as 
 surveyor, for four years being surveyor for the 
 borough of Wallingford. For a number of years 
 his wife was engaged in the florist business, and 
 this business has grown so much that it now takes 
 the most of Mr. McLean's time rs well. He is a 
 man well-known and highly respected. He was 
 elected Borough Judge of Wallingford in 1895, and 
 has served two years, filling the position with dig- 
 nfty and honor. The Judge is a life-long Demo- 
 crat, and has held many positions of trust. In 1863 
 he was elected to the State Legislature from Wall- 
 ingford, and served on the committee on civil en- 
 gineering. He was selectman, tax collector and as- 
 sessor. All his life he has been known as a thor- 
 oughly honorable and upright man, of the most un- 
 swerving integrity, and wherever he has lived has 
 had a host of friends. He is a prominent and active 
 member of the Wallingford Agricultural Society, 
 and is deeply interested in everything that touches 
 the local welfare. He belongs to the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and is a devoted worker in the Sun- 
 day School, having been a superintendent of differ- 
 ent Sunday-schools for ten years. 
 
 Judge McLean has been twice married. On 
 March 30, 1851, Ellen A. Dana, daughter of Francis 
 Dana, and a sister of the wife of Daniel Goodwin 
 McLean, became his wife; she died in July, 1863, 
 leaving two children: (i) Harry Francis, who 
 married Nancy Stewart, and settled in Michigan 
 City, Ind., where he is a railroad engineer. (2) 
 Nellie Edith, who married Pitman Angel, of J\Ian- 
 chester, Va. Judge McLean, for his second wife, 
 married Mrs. Mary J. Churchill. She was born in 
 
 Wethersfield, and is the mother of one child,. 
 Charles Levi, who is in the express business be- 
 tween Wallingford and Meriden ; he married Emma 
 Tooth, and has two children, Harry E. and Russell 
 J. jNIrs. i\Iary J. jMcLean was the widow of Levi 
 Churchill, and a daughter of Elisha Blinn, of ^\'eth- 
 ersfield. 
 
 CALVIN MINER LEETE, late of the towni 
 of Guilford, was one of the best known and most, 
 highly respected citizens of New Haven county, 
 and his industry, thrift and intelligent application 
 to agricultural pursuits won' him a marked degree- 
 of success in that vocation. 
 
 Mr. Leete was born Oct. 18, 1816, on the old 
 Leete homestead in the town of Guilford, the 
 youngest son of Miner and Lucinda (Norton) 
 Leete, and received his education at the common 
 schools of the neighborhood. He worked on his 
 father's farm up to the age of nineteen years, at 
 which time, impaired health demanding a change- 
 of residence, he removed to Meriden and made his 
 home there for several years. Returning to Guil- 
 ford greatly improved in health, he began his life 
 vocation on Leete's Island, and there engaged in 
 agricultural pursuits until his retirement from active 
 life. j\Ir. Leete died Feb. 17, 1899. His estimable 
 virtues made him one of the foremost citizens of 
 the community, and his many sterling qualities won 
 tor him the high regard and respect of all. Though 
 averse to holding office he was elected a representa- 
 tive of Guilford in the State Legislature in 1856,, 
 again in 1862, and, for a third time, in 1878. He 
 also served the town in various other capacities, 
 and was always deeply interested in the local wel- 
 fare and progress. Earl}- in life he espoused the 
 cause of abolition, and he cast his presidential vote 
 for Birney and Hale. He voted for Van Buren in 
 the Free-Soil movement, ard after the formation 
 of the Republican party supported its principles and 
 candidates. In 1849 ^^r. Leete became a member 
 of the Congregational Church in Meriden, from 
 which he transferred his membership to the Third 
 Church at Guilford, of which, for a long time, he 
 was a leading member and for many years a deacon. 
 Deacon Leete married, Feb. 7, 1866, Lucy ]\I.. 
 daughter of Morris A. and Clarinda (Graves) 
 Leete. Of this union there is one son, Calvix 
 Morris Leete, born Jan. 11, 1867, and now living 
 at the ancestral home. 
 
 (III) Pelatiah Leete (1681-1768), the great- 
 great-grandfather of Deacon Calvin M. Leete, was 
 the great-great-great-grandfather of his wife, Lucy 
 i\l. She is of the eighth 'generation from William 
 Leete, the founder of the family in Connecticut. 
 From Pelatiah (III) the line of descent to Mrs. 
 Leete is as follows : 
 
 (IV) Pelatiah Leete, born March 7, 1713, mar- 
 ried, March 26, 1740, Lydia Crittenden, who was 
 born m Guilford March 14, 1719, daughter of 
 Deacon Samuel and Mindwell (Meigs) Crittenden. 
 
k"*™* 
 
 ^i^^X-^ 
 
 I 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 929 
 
 She died Aug. 13, 1772, and he survived until May 
 28, 1783. He was a deacon of the Fourth Congre- 
 gational Church. The children of Pelatiah and 
 Lydia Leete were: Pelatiah, born March 4, 1741, 
 died April April 20, 1741 ; Pelatiah, sketch of whom 
 follows; Lydia and Noah (twins) were born Oct. 
 24, 1749 (Lydia married John Leete) ; Eber, born 
 March 25, 1752, died Oct. 22, 1769; Simeon, born 
 April 14, 1753, married Zerviah Norton; Amos, 
 born April 25, 1758, married Hannah Ward; 
 Nathan, born in 1762, died Nov. i, 1769. 
 
 (V) Pelatiah Leete, son of Deacon Pelatiah, 
 was born Aug. 22, 1744. He married, June 17, 
 1766, Bethiah Norton, daughter of Thomas and 
 Bethiah Norton, of Guilford. She died June 30, 
 1793, aged fifty-six years. For his second wife 
 Pelatiah Leete married, Nov. 10, 1794, Mary Fris- 
 bie, of North Branford, who died Jan. 14, 1852. 
 He died March 2, 1806, at Leete's Island. His 
 children were : Joel, sketch of whom follows ; 
 Noah, born Feb. 22, 1770, married Hulda Ward; 
 Pelatiah, born July 3, 1773, married Betsy Ramy; 
 Mary, born Feb. 15, 1798, married Jude Ludington. 
 
 (VI) Joel Leete, born April 15, 1768, married, 
 May 27, 1790, Molly Crittenden, who was born Aug. 
 25, 1765, daughter of Noah and Naomi (Atwell) 
 Crittenden. They lived at Leete's Island, where he 
 died Jan. 28, 1842, his wife surviving to Nov. 24, 
 1843. Their four children were : Alvan, born Aug. 
 24, 1791, married Rebecca Butler; Polly Maria, 
 born March 7, 1794, died Jan. 3, 1795; Morris At- 
 well, sketch of whom follows ; Frederick William, 
 born July 6, 1803, married Sarah Jane Fowler. 
 
 (VII) Morris Atwell Leete, son of Joel, was 
 born at Leete's Island Nov. 10, 1795. He married, 
 Oct. 25, 1820, Clarinda Graves, who was born Aug. 
 27, 1795, daughter of Milton and Lucy (Buel) 
 Graves. They had children as follows : Joel Mor- 
 ris, born Dec. 25, 1821, died Oct. 7, 1858; George 
 Augustus, born May 4, 1824, died Nov. 27, 1825; 
 Lucy Maria, born June 2, 1827, became the wife 
 of Calvin M. Leete, our subject; George Cornelius, 
 born Sept. 17, 1829, married Harriet Stebbins ; 
 Henry Walter, born Nov. 9, 1832, died Feb. 26, 
 1853; Harvey Ward, born Nov. 9, 1832, married 
 Miss Christiana Faulkner ; Joseph Alvan, born Aug. 
 19, 1836, married Orphana Hill. 
 
 JOHN W. OSBORNE (deceased) was for 
 many years prominently identified with the indus- 
 trial and business interests of Derby and Ansonia, 
 New Haven county, and was one of the most highly 
 esteemed citizens of his community. He was a na- 
 tive of New Haven, and a son of Stephen Osborne, 
 who was engaged in business in that city for some 
 years. 
 
 Our subject, who was one of a large family of 
 children, came to Derby with his parents during 
 childhood, and was there reared and educated. 
 When a young man in 1842, he formed a copartner- 
 ship with his brother-in-law, George W. Cheese- 
 59 
 
 man, and embarked in general merchandising, Avhich 
 business they carried on until 1858, when they 
 turned their attention to the manufacture of hoop- 
 skirts. The following year they moved their plant 
 to Ansonia and were engaged in business there for 
 many years, meeting with marked success in their 
 undertakings and becoming quite well-to-do. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Osborne married Mrs. Eliza Hill 
 Baker, of Redding, Conn. Our subject died March 
 6, 189s, at the age of eighty-four years. Politically 
 he was a Republican, and he gave his support to 
 every enterprise which he believed would prove of 
 public benefit, or would advance the moral or ma- 
 terial welfare of his town and county. He was one 
 of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 of Derby, and took a very active and prominent part 
 in all church work, contributing liberally to its sup- 
 port. He commanded the respect and confidence of 
 all with whom he came in contact, either in business 
 or in social life, and in his death the community lost 
 one of its best citizens. 
 
 DEACON SAMUEL WILLIAM DUDLEY, 
 late of North Guilford, was a lineal descendant of 
 (III) Capt. William Dudley (born Oct. 18, 1684,- 
 died Feb. 28, 1761), youngest son of (II) Joseph, 
 who was the second son of (I) William, one of the 
 original settlers of Guilford, as set forth in the Dud- 
 ley genealogy. 
 
 (III) Capt. William Dudley was a prominent 
 man in North Guilford in his day. Early records 
 show that in 1725 he was a justice of the peace,, 
 captain of militia, and a deacon in the church i:i 
 that place. The latter office he held until his death, 
 in 1761. He married Ruth Strong, daughter of 
 Thomas Strong, of Lyme. She died Sept. 18, 1743, 
 and he married (second) Rebecca Fisk, of New 
 Milford, daughter of Joseph Elliott. His children,, 
 all by the first wife, were: (i) Submit, born Oet- 
 I, 1713, died April 16, 1733. (2) William, born 
 Dec. 28, 1715, died Oct. 23, 1717. (3) William (2) 
 was born Dec. 28, 1717. (4) Asahel, born June 
 17, 1719, died in 1809; he removed to Middletown ; 
 he married Jan. 25, 1742, Betsey Hatch. (5) Lucy, 
 born March 29, 1721, married Michael Baldwin, 
 son of Timothy Baldwin. (6) Lois, born Feb. 14,. 
 1723, died Oct. 7, 1743. (7) Medad, born Feb. 23, 
 1726, is mentioned below. (8) Jared, born Nov> 
 17, 1727, died June 14, 1811; he married Dec. 25,. 
 1754, Mary Chittenden, daughter of Daniel C. (9) 
 Sarah, born July 14, 1730, died Oct. 7, 1743. (io> 
 Mabel (twin of Sarah) married April 30, 1754, 
 Ebenezer Russell. (11) Ruth, born June 9, 1733,- 
 died June 20, 1745. 
 
 (IV) Medad Dudley (son of (III) Capt. Will- 
 iam), born Feb. 23, 1726, died Feb. 10, 1804. Orr 
 June 10, 1756, he married Mary Fowler, daughter 
 of Daniel Fowler. She died July 14, 1810, aged 
 eighty-one. They had nine children: (i) Am- 
 brose, sketch of whom follows. (2) Lucy, born 
 Jan. 18, 1759, died Dec. 23, 1834; she married 
 
930 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 March 3, 1790, Oliver Fowler, son of Ebenezer and 
 Desire (Bristol) Fowler. (3) William, born Feb. 
 19, 1 761, lived at Litchfield, Conn. ; he married 
 May 18, 1785, Abigail Baldwin. (4) Rebecca, born 
 Dec. 8, 1762, died Feb. 10, 1846, unmarried. (5) 
 A^^edad, born Dec. 16, 1764, died Jan. 13, 1854; in 
 1797 he married Phebe Conklin, of East Hampton, 
 L. I. (6) Charles, born Dec. 6, 1766, lived at Litch- 
 field; he married Ruth Hart and (second) Rhoda 
 Baldwin. (7) Submit, born Nov. 26, 1768, mar- 
 ried Jan. 2, 1797, Jonathan Bishop. (8) Paul, born 
 Oct. 19, 1771, died Oct. 10, 1847; he married Anne 
 Moulthrop, of East Haven, Conn. (9) Molly, 
 born Feb. 20, 1774, died Aug. 11, 1810, unmarried. 
 
 (V) Ambrose Dudley, the eldest son of (IV) 
 Medad and Mary (Fowler) Dudley, was born April 
 I' I7S7> was a farmer of North Guilford, and died 
 Jan. 10, 1826. He married April 29, 1783, Eliza- 
 beth Russell, born Nov. 23, 1758, died July 15, 1834, 
 daughter of Samuel Russell. Ambrose Dudley 
 served in the Revolutionary war, being in 1776 a 
 private in Capt. Hand's Company, Col. Talcott's 
 Regiment. He had three children: (i) Russell, 
 l>orn Jan. 19, 1784, died at sea Dec. i, 1806, unm-ir- 
 i-ied. (2) Abigail, born Oct. 21, 1788, died Nov. 
 19, 1872; on Oct. 27, 1816, she married Daniel 
 Fowler; and she subsequently married (second) 
 Benjamin Rossiter. (3) Samuel William, sketch 
 of whom follows. 
 
 (VI) Deacon Samuel William Dudley, son of 
 (V) Ambrose and Elizabeth (Russell) Dudley, of 
 North Guilford, was born July 16, 1800, and died 
 Dec. II, 1881. He was a farmer, and lived all his 
 days on the homestead. He was a prominent and 
 influential member of the Congregational Church of 
 North Guilford, which he served in various ca- 
 pacities. He was chosen a deacon in the same in 
 May, 1856, and held that office until his death, or 
 over twenty-five years. He was a justice of the 
 peace as early as 1832 ; a representative to the Gen- 
 eral Assembly in 1844, 1853, 1857, 1863 and 1865 ; 
 and state senator in 1869. Physically, he was a 
 man of large proportions and commanding per- 
 sonal appearance. His manner was courteous and 
 cordial, his integrity unswerving. A faithful friend 
 and a wise counselor, he was universally respected 
 and loved. He received a liberal education at Uie 
 district schools, also North Guilford Academy, and 
 for several years taught school in the town of 
 Guilford. He was a large land owner in both 
 North Guilford and North Branford, and in addi- 
 tion to general farming, stock raising, etc., he 
 shipped away considerable quantities of timber. 
 
 On Jan. 2, 1833, Deacon Samuel W. Dudley 
 married Lucy Ann Chittenden, daughter of David 
 and Lucy (Fowler) Chittenden, and they had six 
 children: (i) Charles Samuel, born May 24, 1834, 
 is an insurance agent at New Haven, Conn. He 
 married, in 1871, Mary Austin, of Westville, Conn., 
 "a teacher. He was a soldier in the Civil war, serv- 
 ing as a private in the 14th Conn. V. I. (2) Henry 
 
 Chittenden, born Ma_v 9, 1836, died while in the 
 army, Jan. 17, 1863 ; he was sergeant in the 14th 
 Regiment, Conn. V. I.; he married Oct. 16, 1861, 
 Anna E. Parmelee, daughter of Deacon Eli Parm- 
 elee, of Guilford. She subsequently married (sec- 
 ond) Lieut. Edward Griswold. (3) Elizabeth 
 Russell, born June 25, 1838, married Jan. 3, 1876, 
 Deacon John W. Norton, of Guilford. (4) James 
 Ambrose, born Aug. 21, 1840, married Oct. 13, 
 1870, Emelyn M. Griswold, of Guilford. He is de- 
 ceased. (5) George Chittenden, a sketch of whom 
 follows. (6) William Russell, born March i, 1849, 
 was a professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., 
 afterwards professor at Leland Stanford Uni- 
 versity, San Francisco, California. 
 
 (VII) George Chittenden Dudley, son of 
 (VI) Deacon Samuel W., was born Sept. i, 1842, 
 on the homestead, and has always lived there, 
 having operated same since the death of his father. 
 His education he obtained in part at the district 
 schools of the neighborhood of his home, in part at 
 North Guilford Academy, and he is otherwise a 
 well-read and well-informed man. In politics he is 
 a Republican, but has never aspired to political 
 preferment, though he has served as tax collector 
 and in some minor town offices. In religious faith 
 he is a member of and deacon in the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and is a member of the choir. Social- 
 ly he is affiliated with the Good Templars and with 
 the Grange. Mr. Dudley's industry, integrity and 
 sound common sense have secured for him, in an 
 unusual degree, the uniform respect of the com- 
 munity in which he lives. 
 
 JAMES H. BARTLETT, a well-known and 
 highly-esteemed citizen " of Oxford, New Haven 
 county, who is now successfully engaged in general 
 farming and tobacco growing, was born on a farm 
 near Millbrook, Dutchess county, N. Y., Oct. 7, 
 1829, son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Swift) Bartlett, 
 and grandson of Littlefield Bartlett, all natives of 
 Dutchess county. Our subject is the eldest in a fam- 
 ily of nine children, the others being as follows: 
 Deborah, wife of Lucius Osbourne, a farmer of 
 Dutchess county; Susan, wife of Dewitt Benson, 
 of Clinton, Iowa; Sarah E., wife of Edwin Chapin, 
 of Minneapolis, Minn. ; Phebe J., wife of Davis 
 White, of Dutchess county, N. Y. ; George L., a 
 carpenter of Ansonia, Conn. ; Maria J., wife of 
 Clarence Vail, of Poughkeepsie, N. Y. ; Charles T., 
 a farmer of Jackson county, Iowa ; and Annie, wife 
 of Edwin Dunham, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. 
 
 In the county of his nativity James H. Bartlett 
 grew to manhood, and in its public schools he ac- 
 quired his literary education. On leaving the par- 
 ental roof, at the age of twenty years, he went to 
 New York City, where he clerked in the wholesale 
 grocery house of Meads & Co. for a year and a 
 half, and was then with Skeel, Van Valkenberg 
 & Co., as receiving and delivering clerk, for eight 
 years. At the end of that period, in company with 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 931 
 
 Truman E. Herd, of Southbury, Conn., he went to 
 p-reeport, 111., where he was engaged in general 
 merchandising from 1855 to 1863. During the lat- 
 ter year he secured a position as clerk in the quar- 
 termaster's department at Corinth, Miss., and held 
 same for a little over a year, at the end of which 
 time he returned to Freeport, 111. He soon after- 
 ward purchased a farm in Adams county, that state, 
 and operated the same for one year, during which 
 time his wife died. With his three little children 
 he then returned to New York, taking them to their 
 maternal grandmother, in Chester, Orange Co., N. 
 Y. He next went to the oil regions of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and in Pit Hole City he purchased an inter- 
 est in what was known as the Ball farm, and 
 also served as superintendent of the Fisher oil wells 
 for six months. Subsequently he engaged in the 
 manufacture of paper at Southford, Conn., until 
 1867, when he purchased the place in Oxford, New 
 Haven Co., Conn., where he now resides. It is 
 one of the finest farms of its size in the Quaker 
 Valley, and in its cultivation he has met with well- 
 deserved success. 
 
 Mr. Bartlett has been three times married, his 
 first wife being Phoebe Beach, of Orange county, N. 
 Y., by whom he had three children: Ella E., who 
 was for many years a teacher in the schools of 
 Oxford and Seymour, Conn., and for the last four 
 years in the Emma \Villard Seminary, at Troy, N. 
 Y.; but is at present travehnp- in Europe; Eva J., 
 wife of Horace H. Oatman, of New Haven, Conn. ; 
 and Joseph L., who died in infancy. The mother 
 of these children died in 1865, and in 1866 he mar- 
 ried her sister, Kate C. Beach, by whom he had 
 two children, twins : Kate, wife of Arthur J. Ben- 
 son, of Dover Plains, N. Y. ; and Joseph, a machin- 
 ist of Clinton, Iowa. Our subject's present wife 
 was in her maidenhood Miss Josephine Flagg. 
 There is one child by this union, Annie, who is at 
 home. 
 
 Socially Mr. Bartlett is a member of King Solo- 
 mon Lodge, No. 7, F. & A. M., of Woodbury, while 
 politically he is not identified with any particular 
 party, but votes independent of party lines. He 
 was a member of the State Legislature in 1879 and 
 again in 1882, and served as selectman for fifteen 
 consecutive years, with credit to himself and to the 
 entire satisfaction of all concerned. 
 
 EDWARD GRISWOLD has in the thirty-five 
 years of his mercantile career in Guilford become 
 one of the best-known figures in the commercial 
 and public life of that town and vicinity, where he 
 is widely and favorably .known ini many con- 
 nections. . 
 
 Mr. Griswold was born June 30, 1839, m Guil- 
 ford, son of Joel and Polly Griswold, and received 
 his early education in the district schools in the 
 neighborhood of his home, later attending the Guil- 
 ford Institute. From early boyhood he was (rained 
 to farm work, assisting his father on the home 
 
 place, where he remained until the breaking out of 
 the Civil war. On Oct. 26, 1861, he enlisted in 
 the Union service, becoming a member of the ist 
 Light Battery, C. V., which formed a part of the 
 loth Army Corps, and serving a full three years, 
 being mustered out Oct. 26, 1864. He took an 
 active part in all the battles, etc., in which his 
 command was engaged. After his return from the 
 army Mr. Griswold rented the homestead, and also 
 embarked in merchandising in partnership with 
 his brother Charles, as general merchants and 
 produce dealers, our subject taking charge of the 
 produce business and his brother of the other 
 branch. They continued thus three years, when 
 our subject bought his brother's interest, and he 
 has since engaged in general merchandising on his 
 own account. Though he has always commanded 
 a wide patronage Mr. Griswold has met with re- 
 verses, and at one time lost his all, but he has 
 continued in the face of discouragements, and does 
 a thriving business at present. His store, however, 
 has not occupied all his time and attention. For a 
 few years he was interested in the canning business, 
 being one of the first in that line in Guilford. 
 In the organization of the Savings Bank he was 
 prominent as one of the prime movers and pro- 
 moters, and he served several years as trustee, 
 being one of the first to hold that office. He was 
 the organizer of the Guilford Light Battery, in 
 whose welfare he has always taken the deepest in- 
 terest, and served as commander of same for six 
 years. It was through his efforts that this battery 
 was accepted as the battery called for from Con- 
 necticut by the United States Government in the 
 Spanish-American war, in 1898. 
 
 Mr. Griswold is a lifelong Republican and an 
 ardent supporter of the principles of that party, 
 though he is independent in giving his support to 
 candidates, especially in local affairs. He is a loyal 
 friend of Gen. Hawley, the Connecticut senator, and 
 was a stanch McKinley man. Though not an of- 
 fice-seeker he has never shirked public service, and 
 his ability and trustworthiness have been recognized 
 by his fellow townsmen, whom he has not disap- 
 pointed in his discharge of the duties of the various 
 offices to which he has been chosen. In 1882 he 
 was elected tO' the State Legislature, on his own 
 party ticket, and was re-elected to that incumbency 
 the following year as the candidate of both Re^ 
 publican and Democratic parties. During his first 
 term he served on the committee on Fishery, the 
 second term as chairman of committee on Military 
 Affairs, and he proved his efficiency in many ways 
 gratifying to his constituents. However, no more 
 flattering approval of his services could be desired 
 than his return to the House as noted. On Nov. 
 5, 1901, Mr. Griswold was elected by the citizens 
 of his town as delegate to the Constitutional Con- 
 vention, held Jan. i, 1902, at Hartford, for the 
 purpose of revising the State Constitution. He is 
 the recognized leader of the country contingent, and 
 
932 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 it is claimed, by his fellow townsmen that he is 
 more widely and favorably known throughout the 
 state than any other citizen of Guilford. 
 
 j\Ir. Griswold has ever been active in the G. A. 
 R., and has served as delegate to the National En- 
 campment. He was a charter member of Parmelee 
 Post, of Guilford, in which he filled many offices, 
 and new belongs- to Foote Post, No. 17, New 
 Haven. At present he is serving on the staff of the 
 Department Commander of Connecticut as chief 
 mustering officer, and in his visits to the different 
 posts is heartily welcomed bv the comrades. Being 
 an interesting and ready speaker, he seldom escapes 
 being called upon for remarks or addresses. 
 
 On May 12, 1868, Mr. Griswold was married, 
 in Guilford, to Mrs. Anne E. (Parmelee) Dudley, 
 who was born i\Iarch 22, 1834, daughter of Eli 
 Parmelee, and first married Henry D. Dudley; he 
 was killed while serving in the Civil war. Three 
 children blessed this union, born as follows : Eliza- 
 beth Hart, July 23, 1869 ; Edward Parmelee, July 
 -6, 1870; and Nelson Hotchkiss, Jan. 12, 1872. The 
 mother passed away Nov. i, 1899, and was laid to 
 rest in the cemetery at Guilford. She was a de- 
 vout Christian, a woman of charitable impulses and 
 kindly deeds, and was sincerely mourned by her 
 many friends in the town. Mr. Griswold holds 
 membership with the Congregational Church, of 
 which his wife was also a member. Though always 
 an active man, his tastes are domestic, and he takes 
 his greatest pleasure in his home and family. In 
 his long and honorable life he has gauied many 
 warm friends, and though his independence of spirit 
 and action have sometimes roused aggression it 
 has always been in the support of what he believed 
 to be right, and he is universally respected for his 
 sincerity and integrity. 
 
 CLARK W. STOWE, one of the venerable resi- 
 dents of the town of Milford, senior member of the 
 firm of C. W. Stowe & Son, well-known seed grow- 
 ers and farmers, was born in that town March 17, 
 1838, son of WiUiam and Elizabeth (Baldwin) 
 Stowe. Our subject bears an honored name, the 
 Stowe family having been prominently identified 
 with the town from an early day, and Jedediah 
 Stowe, his grandfather, was probably born there. 
 This worthy citizen was a farmer by occupation, 
 and for some time he also conducted a store in Mil- 
 ford. He and his wife had the following children : 
 Isaac, a seafaring man, who died in Milford ; David, 
 a shoemaker and farmer ; Jeremiah, a farmer ; Will- 
 iam, our subject's father; Sally, who married El- 
 nathan Baldwin, a farmer; Sybil, who married 
 Clark Piatt, a farmer; and Nancy, who married 
 William Piatt, a farmer. 
 
 William Stowe, who was also a farmer, was 
 born in Milford in 1794, and died in 1844. His 
 wife, Elizabeth (Baldwin), was a daughter of Pleze- 
 kiah Baldwin, a prominent farmer of Milford. She 
 was born Aug. 16, 1809, and died Dec. 30, 1885. 
 
 They had two children: Clark W., our subject; 
 and Mary Elizabeth, who was born in 1842, and 
 died at the age of three years. 
 
 Clark W. Stowe was reared upon the old home- 
 stead in Milford, and obtained a common-school 
 education in his district. When a young man he 
 commenced in farming, and at present he has the 
 able assistance of his son, the farm of 100 acres 
 affording scope for various branches of their work. 
 Mr. Stowe lived on the old homestead until 1865, 
 when he moved to what is now known as Walnut 
 Beach, he being one of the first to settle there. 
 Politically he and his son arc Republicans, and the 
 family is active in religious and philanthropic work, 
 Mr. Stowe having given the lot for the chapel at 
 Walnut Beach. 
 
 Mr. Stowe married Miss Mary Catherine Hand, 
 who was born Jan. 22, 1841, in Litchfield county. 
 Conn., daughter of Guy S. Hand, a farmer of that 
 section. She died Nov. 3, 1898, leaving: two chil- 
 dren: (i) Miles W., born July 12, 1857, married 
 Miss Mercy Blakeman, born in 1862, in Fairfield 
 county. Conn., daughter of Ezra and Urania (Hub- 
 bell) Blakeman. They have had two sons — Clark 
 W., born Nov. 25, 1895, and Cornelius Ard, bom 
 Jan. 15, 1897. (2) Edith E., born Feb. 24, 1865, 
 married Edward W. Beers, of Stratford. 
 
 Our subject has won success far beyond the 
 ordinary, by methods that have retained for him 
 the profound respect of all. He is a plain going 
 man, and has so lived as to leave to his posterity 
 a name that may be referred to with pride. 
 
 JOHN GILBERT CUTLER, who has been in 
 the harnessmaking business in Waterbury for the 
 long period of thirty-seven years, is a native of Ben- 
 nington, Vt., and of English extraction. 
 
 David Cutler, grandfather of our subject, was 
 born in Killingly, Windham Co., Conn., married 
 there, and followed farming. He and his wife 
 both died in Killingly, the latter at the age of 
 about one hundred and six years. They were the 
 parents of two children: David H. and Asa S. ; 
 the latter was a farmer in Killingly, and died in Put- 
 num, Connecticut. 
 
 David H. Cutler, father of our subject, was born 
 in Killingly, was educated there, and in early man- 
 hood went to Bennington, where he followed the 
 trade of shoemaJ<er. He married Harriet A. Gil- 
 bert, who was born in Mansfield, Conn., a daugh- 
 ter of John Gilbert, a farmer andi country mer- 
 chant. Two children were born to David H. Cutler 
 and his wife: Harriet A. and John Gilbert. The- 
 father died in 1879, in 'the Shaker settlement, Mass. 
 He was a lifelong Whig in politics. The mother 
 passed away March 4, 1882, in Waterbury. 
 
 John G. Cutler, whose name introduces these 
 lines, at the age of six years was taken from his 
 native place, Bennington, Vt., to Tolland county. 
 Conn., and there remained on a farm for some 
 time, receiving his education in the district schools-. 
 
.i u? y^i^ii^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 933 
 
 At the time of the breaking out of the Civil war 
 he was learning the harnessmaker's trade, and after 
 coming to Waterbury, in 1862, he followed same 
 as a journeyman until Alarch 22, 1865, at which 
 time he commenced in that business in Exchange 
 place, Waterbury, on his own account, and has con- 
 tinued it ever since. He is now located in Piatt's 
 block, at No. 39 East ]\Iain street. There is only 
 one man in business now in the city who was in 
 business at the time our subject commenced. Mr. 
 Cutler deals in harness, leather, saddlery hardware, 
 liorse clothing, trunks, and everything to be found 
 in a shop of that nature. 
 
 In 1863 our subject was married in Waterbury 
 to Mary Karrmann, who was born in Middletown, 
 Conn., Nov. 10, 1843, a daughter of Sebastian 
 Karrmann, a German by birth. They have no chil- 
 dren. Mr. and Mrs. Cutler attend the services of 
 the Isl. E. Church; in politics he is a Republican; 
 socially he is a Knight Templar Mason and a mem- 
 ber of the Royal Arcanum. 
 
 MRS. ESTELLA J. (HARTLEY) MILLS. 
 The Mills and Hartley families are well known in 
 this section, the former having been identified with 
 Ansonia, and the latter with New Haven, since 
 their first settlement, and the names of both are as- 
 sociated with a high order of citizenship. 
 
 The late Thomas Mills, who was for many years 
 a leading resident of Ansonia, was born at Hud- 
 dersfield, England, Aug. 24, 1801, a son of James 
 Mills, and came to this country about 1828, locating 
 at Little Falls, N. J. From there he removed to 
 Newark, N. J., where he followed the blacksmith's 
 trade for several years, and in 1843 he removed to 
 Derby, Conn., being there employed at his trade, by 
 Phelps, Dodge & Co., in their new plant. In their 
 employ he remained forty-five years, removing with 
 them to Birmingham, Conn., afterward to Ansonia, 
 and he was regarded as an excellent workman in 
 bis line. On going to Birmingham he moved mto 
 the second house built there, and in Ansonia he was 
 also one of the first settlers. During his residence 
 there he witnessed the development of Derby, Shel- 
 ton and Ansonia, the location having been meta- 
 morphosed from a farming community to a thriving 
 business and manufacturing center, with a popula- 
 tion of more than 20,000 people. He took an active 
 part in town affairs, being an ardent Republican m 
 politics, and he was prominent in fraternal society 
 work as a member of the I. O. O. F. He united 
 with the Order before coming to this country, and 
 continued active in its work throughout his lite, 
 Tiolding every office in the local branch, in re- 
 ligious faith he was a Methodist, and he served' 
 on the committee for locating and building the new 
 church at Ansonia. Hi> death occurred m An- 
 sonia Feb. 3, 1883. Mr. Mills was first niarned, m 
 England, Dec. 4. 1825. to Miss Grace Eastwood, 
 who was born Anril 2. 1805, and who died at An- 
 sonia in 1857. Bv this marriage he had ten chil- 
 
 dren, two of whom are still living: Mary J., who 
 married J. M. Burrall, of Waterbury ; and George 
 E., a resident of Wallingford. On July i, i860, 
 Mr. Mills married Miss Margaret Ball, who sur- 
 vives him, and by this union he had two children: 
 Thomas B., -mentioned below; and Albert E., who 
 died in childhood. 
 
 Mrs. Margaret (Ball) Mills still resides at the 
 family homestead. No. 185 North Main street, and 
 is highly respected in the community for her philan- 
 thropic work. For years she has been one of the 
 active members of the Methodist Church of An- 
 sonia, having been in entire sympathy with her 
 husband in his religious work, and for some time 
 she was a teacher in the Sunday-school. She was 
 born in Oldham, England, a daughter of Joseph 
 Ball (2), and granddaughter of Joseph Ball (i), a 
 native of Manchester, England. Her father, who 
 was a mechanic, came to America in 1841, locating 
 in Pennsylvania, and he passed away in Pottsville, 
 that state, at the age of eighty years. Her mother, 
 Margaret (Hargreaves), a native of Manchester, 
 England, and a devout Methodist, died at the age 
 of thirty-nine, when Mrs. Mills, who is the only 
 survivor of eleven children, was but four weeks 
 old. She was reared in England, and came to 
 America at the age of twenty-five. 
 
 Thomas B. Mills, son of Thomas and Margaret 
 (Ball) Mills, was born June 18, 1861. After secur- 
 ing a common-ischool education he learned the trade 
 of machinist, and became one of the most valued 
 ■employes of the firm of Wallace & Sons. His 
 death, which occurred June 20, 1891, cut short a 
 promising career. His high character was recog- 
 nized in the community, and for so young a man 
 he held an influential place in social affairs, and in 
 the Republican organization. For a number of 
 years he served as an active fireman in Eagle Hose 
 Co., No. 6, and on many occasions he showed 
 marked courage in the discharge of his duties. As 
 a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he 
 took a prominent part in the Sunday-school work 
 and Young People's Meetings. Socially he was a 
 member of the Order of Red Men, in which he held 
 office, and of Naugatuck Lodge, No. 63, I. O. O. F. 
 At the age of twenty-two he had passed all the 
 chairs in the latter organization, being then the 
 youngest noble grand ever elected to that office. On 
 April, 20, 1887, Mr. Mills married Miss Estella J. 
 Hartley, and they had two sons, Paul H. and Albert 
 E. Paul died at the age of seven years and nine 
 months ; he was a remarkably bright boy, as may be 
 judged from the fact that his favorite reading was 
 biographies of Garfield, Grant and Franklin. 
 
 Mrs. Estella J. Mills, who is widely known as 
 an author, was born May 5, 1864, inWestville, New 
 Haven Co., Conn. She completed a course in the 
 Hillhouse high school, at New Haven, in the class 
 of 1883, with the intention of teaching. Her tastes 
 and abilities inclined to business life, however, and 
 she took a position aj bookkeeper with George W. 
 
934 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Walker, on Main street, Ansonia, remaining three 
 and one-half years, when she married Thomas B. 
 Mills, as above related. In 1892 she opened a store 
 next door to her residence, and here she carries a 
 supply of dry-goods, fancy goods, notions, school 
 supplies and art materials. She is a gifted artist, 
 and has done notable work in oil and on china, but 
 her literary efforts have met with such success as to 
 indicate that the pen is her best medium for ex- 
 pression. At the close of her last year at high 
 school she wrote the class song, and was chosen 
 class poet. In all she has written over 150 poems. 
 A large volume, "Storm Swept," published by 
 James H. Earle, of Boston, has been widely sold. 
 Her sympathy with reforms of all kinds has led 
 her into public life, and in 1893 she was elected 
 to the board of education, being the first woman in 
 the State to be chosen for that office. In 1896 she 
 was re-elected, for another term of three years, and 
 since Alarch, 1894, she has served as school visitor. 
 Mrs. !Mills is an active member of the W. C. T. U., 
 the Daughters of Liberty, the Order of the Golden 
 Cross, the Woman's Relief Corps, and she and her 
 mother both belong to the Ells-Wood Rebekah 
 Lodge, No. 9, in which she has held different of- 
 fices, including that of secretary. In religious faith 
 she is a Alethodist, and she formerly taught in 
 the Sunday-school. Her family has been identified 
 with Xew Haven for many years, and her father 
 (William Hartley) and grandfather (Henry Hart- 
 ley) were prominent in business circles in that city. 
 Henry Hartley, who died in New Haven in 1813, 
 aged forty-seven years, was born in Manches- 
 ter, England, and after coming to America gained a 
 wide reputation for skill as an architect and build- 
 er, and carried on a large business in bridge-build- 
 ing and other branches of engineering. Many of the 
 large buildings and bridges of this section — includ- 
 ing some of the Yale College buildings — were con- 
 structed under his direction, and for building pur- 
 poses he ordered stone from Portland, Conn. William 
 Hartley was born and reared in New Haven, and 
 for three years attended Yale College. He taught 
 school in North Haven, and later became a civil en- 
 gineer of marked ability. In 1850 he published a 
 map of New Haven, and he served some years as 
 deputy surveyor general ; he also made the survey 
 for the first sewer laid in the city of New Haven. 
 During the Civil war he enlisted in the 27th Conn. 
 V. I., which regiment was first assigned to the 2cl 
 Army Corps under Gen. Hancock, and for six 
 months he served as topographical engineer of the 
 Engineer Corps. Mr. Hartley was in several 
 battles including Fredericksburg, and at Gettys- 
 burg he was surgeon's assistant in the ambulance 
 corps. He died in New Haven Aug. 16, 1877, '^^ 
 the age of seventy-two, and was buried with Ma- 
 sonic honors, having been a member of the F. & 
 A. M. for years. His widow, who in her maiden- 
 hood was Jane E. Barnett, now resides in Ansonia. 
 She is a native of New Hartford, was reared at 
 
 Westville, this countv, and v/as married, first, in 
 1842, to William L. 'BHss, son of the Hon. Abel 
 Bliss' of Wilbraham, Mass. By this marriage she 
 had 'one child, now deceased. By her marriage 
 with William Hartley she had five children, two 
 sons and one daughter dying in infancy. Estella 
 J. is the widow of Thomas B. ^lills. Lillian C, 
 who was two years her senior, married Henry 0. 
 Coon, and died June 5, 1900; she is survived by 
 her h'usbaixi and three children. Glen H., Jeanette 
 E. and William O. William Hartley first married 
 Rebecca Thorpe, of North Haven, and their son^ 
 William H., Jr., made the first survey of Pike's 
 Peak, and the first survey and map of Denver,, 
 Colo.' He accompanied John Brown in his first 
 encounter with the border ruffians, and fired the first 
 shot in the first engagement. Brown saying "Let 
 Hartley fire first, for he's the best shot among us." 
 A daughter by the first marriage, Mrs. Adelaide 
 (Hartley) Merz, resides in North Haven. 
 
 In her mother's hne Mrs. Estella J. Mills is de- 
 scended from Jabez Barnett, an Englishman, who. 
 was among the first settlers in New Haven. His 
 son, Jeremiah, great-grandfather of Mrs. Mills, 
 kept a tavern on what is now Armstrong's Wharf, 
 in New Haven, and also followed the cooper's trade^ 
 being extensively engaged in manufacturing barrels- 
 for the West Indies. Rev. Eli Barnett, grand- 
 father of Mrs. Mills, was, at the age of fifteen 
 years, apprenticed to the shoemaker's trade, but 
 feeling a strong call to the ministry, he educated' 
 himself by private study in his evenings and early 
 mornings. During his years of active service he 
 preached the Gospel from Canada to Long Island 
 Sound, the earliest portion of his work being done 
 on the Middletown circuit. He died in New Haven 
 in 1878, at the age of eighty-six. On Jan. 6, 1822, 
 he married for his second wife, Betsey Tabor, of 
 Shelburne Point, A't., and they had three children, 
 two of whom are living : ]\Irs. Jane E. Hartley, of 
 Ansonia; and Mrs. Betsey A. Cowap, of Danville, 
 111. The third daughter,' Miss Ellen C. Barnett, 
 a writer of note, died in 1886. The Tabors are a 
 well-known fanuly in New England, and Mt. 
 Tabor in Vermont was named for them. Betsey- 
 Tabor was a daughter of iNIajor John and Jemima 
 (Trowbridge) Tabor, the former of whom was^ 
 born in 1766, at Princeton, R. I., and became a 
 pioneer settler at Shelburne, \t.. where he died in 
 1813. His title of Major was gained by his service- 
 in the militia. 
 
 AUGUSTUS HALL BARTHOLOMEW, de- 
 ceased. The Bartholomew family, of which Au- 
 gustus Hall Bartholoniew, of Wallingford, was a 
 descendant, has a record which is a credit to New 
 England. The first of the name to come to these 
 shores was William Bartholomew, son of WiUiam,- 
 of Burford, England, who was educated in Bur- 
 ford, was chaplain to King Charles, became sub- 
 dean of Westminster, and upon his marriage witb 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 935 
 
 Ann Lord came to America in the ship "Grifhn," 
 arriving in Boston in 1634. In 1654 he with 
 others was granted the privilege of trading with 
 visiting vessels. He died at Charlestown in 1683. 
 
 William Bartholomew (2), son of the emigrant, 
 born in 1646 in Ipswich, married Mary Johnson, a 
 daughter of the Capt. Johnson who had the title of 
 surveyor to the King's armies in America. William 
 was a carpenter, and followed his trade in Rox- 
 bury, later moving to Branford, Conn., where he 
 built a mill. He died in Woodstock. 
 
 Andrew Bartholomew, son of William, was born 
 in Roxbury in 1670, and married Hannah Frisbie, 
 of Branford, who died in 1741. As manager of 
 his father's mill in Branford he continued until the 
 death of his father, when, in association with his 
 brother Benjamin, he engaged in farming very ex- 
 tensively, removing in 1727 to ^^''allingford, where 
 he spent the remainder of his life, dying about 
 
 1754- 
 
 Joseph Bartholomew, the ninth in the family of 
 Andrew, was born in Branford in 1721, and married 
 Mary Sexton in Wallingford. At the time of his 
 death he owned large tracts of land in the south- 
 eastern part of Wallingford, near the Branford line, 
 and was a lieutenant of militia. 
 
 Isaac Bartholomew, son of Joseph, born in 1748 
 in Wallingford, first married Martha Morse, his 
 second marriage being to Demaris Hall. His death 
 occurred in 1821. Isaac was a large farmer, own- 
 ing the land which now constitutes the homestead 
 in Wallingford. In 1793 there was made a record 
 teUing that Harvey and Ruth Stephens, of Walling- 
 ford, deeded to Demaris, wife of Isaac Barthol- 
 omew, for love and affection, a farm in Walling- 
 ford. Their children numbered nine, the sixth of 
 the family being Ira, the father of our subject. 
 
 Ira Bartholomew was born on the homestead in 
 1788, and Oct. i, 1816, married Eunice Hall, who 
 was born in 1794, a daughter of Augustus and 
 Parmelia Hall. Their children were: (i) Au- 
 gustus Hall was born Sept. 20, 1817. (2) Fred- 
 erick. (3) Sarah E. married Samuel M. Cook, 
 and became the mother of three children — John A. 
 Cook, of Wallingford; Frank, deceased; and Abba, 
 Mrs. Samuel E. Hopkins, of Naugatuck, Conn. (4) 
 Abby Ann in 185 1 married Elisha M. Pomeroy. 
 Mr. Bartholomew received a liberal education, and 
 followed farming all his life on the homestead at 
 East Farms, where he built the house in 1850. 
 Well known and highly respected, he was also noted 
 for his industry, working unceasingly all his life. 
 He owned at the time of his death 125 acres of 
 valuable land. First a Whig, then a Republican, 
 he served in many of the town offices, was a select- 
 man, and a correct and estimable member of the 
 Congregational Church. He passed away at the 
 age of sixty-three years. 
 
 Our immediate' subject was born on the old 
 homestead Sept. 20, 18 17, attended the district 
 school, and was also sent to the best select schools 
 
 in Fairhaven and ]\Ieriden. Later he engaged in 
 teaching in Durham, Aleriden and Wallingford, but 
 returned to the farm and remained the comfort of 
 his parents' declining years. Upon their decease 
 he took charge of the farm, continuing there until 
 1882, and making many desirable improvements. 
 He became known as a successful farmer and 
 stock raiser, and also was one of the first in the 
 section to make a success of raising tobacco. For 
 the last eighteen years of his life he resided in 
 Wallingford, where he erected a fine, modern brick 
 residence, at a cost of $8,000. 
 
 The first marriage of our subject took place Jan. 
 II, 1846, to Mary K. Cook, a daughter of Mr. and 
 Mrs. George Cook ; the latter first married Ralph 
 Pomeroy. One child was born to this union, Ed- 
 ward, who passed away in infancy. Mrs. Bar- 
 tholomew diedl in 1848. In 1850 Mr. Bartholomew 
 was married to Mary E., daughter of Enos Camp,, 
 the children of this union being: Elizabeth AL, 
 born in 1851, married Hiram N. Childs, of Hanover, 
 N. H., by whom she had two children, Bertha and 
 Lena ; her second marriage was to Alexander Ham- 
 ilton. Emma Jane died young. James D. married 
 Anna Chandler, and had' two children, Llarry and 
 Ethel. William H., born in 1857, married Lillian 
 Andrews, and lives on the homestead. Charles F., 
 born in 1859, married Carrie Crook, and has three 
 children, Augustus, Dale and Delius. 
 
 ]\Ir. Bartholomew was formerly an Old-line 
 Whig, but later became an ardent Republican, and 
 he held many offices of the town : was selectman ; 
 served some years on the board of relief ; for eight 
 years was the efficient assessor ; and was a member 
 of the school board. A kind and generous man, 
 he was one of the most highly esteemed men of 
 Wallingford, where his death, on Aug. 25, 1900, 
 was sincerely mourned. A member of the Congre- 
 gational Church, he ever lived according to its 
 teachings, and was a cheerful and liberal supporter 
 of all benevolent and charitable enterprises. Liv- 
 ing up to the Golden Rule, kind to the poor and 
 generous to the unfortunate, setting an example 
 through life of industry and sobriety, Mr. Bar- 
 tholomew lived up to what must be considered 
 the height of good citizenship. 
 
 MILES BLACKSTONE (deceased) was in his- 
 lifetime a prominent representative of the agricul- 
 tural interests of the town of Branford, where he 
 was born April I, 1806, and where he made an- 
 eminent success of his career. Industry, economy 
 and unswerving integrity marked all his life, and 
 as the years passed his sterling worth and genuine 
 manhood were more and more appreciated. 
 
 Miles Blackstone was a son of Timothy and 
 Margaret (Goodrich) Blackstone, and his paternal 
 grandfather was John Blackstone, who was a son 
 of John Blackstone, and a grandson of that John 
 Blackstone who settled in Branford about 1717, and 
 was a son of Rev. William Blackstone. That 
 
936 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 eminent worthy of the early days was a graduate 
 of Emanuel College, at Cambridge, England, and 
 was among the first settlers of Boston, where he 
 was made a freeman in 1671. 
 
 Timothy Blackstone, father of Miles, was a 
 leading farmer in Branford, where he died at the 
 advanced age of eighty-eight. To him and his wife 
 were born the following children : Eunice, who 
 married Charles Harrison ; James, who married 
 Sarah Beach; Grace, who married Andrew Hopson; 
 Willis, who married Lucinda Hoadley ; Samuel ; 
 Nancy ; and I\Iiles. 
 
 Allies Blackstone was reared in Branford, and 
 as he grew to manhood became deeply interested 
 in farming, which was his life occupation. He was 
 a. hard-working and industrious man, and alive to 
 all new and progressive methods of agriculture. He 
 married Lois Robinson, daughter of Linus and Re- 
 becca (Hobart) Robinson, and a granddaughter of 
 Mason Hobart, one of the pioneers in the settle- 
 ment of Branford. The Rol)insons were also a well- 
 known family there. To this union were born five 
 children : Elizur, who died when two j^ears old ; 
 Betsey J. ; Edwin E., a farmer, who died at the age 
 of 58, unmarried : Grace R., who married William 
 H. Warner ; and Miss Sarah, who died aged thirty- 
 one. ]\Ir. Blackstone was a most unassuming and 
 modest gentleman of the Old School, with a kindly 
 heart, and was greatly honored and respected in 
 the community in which he lived. 
 
 In his religious relations he was strongly at- 
 tached to the Episcopal Church, where he habitual- 
 ly attended and to which he contributed liberally. 
 In politics he was an intelligent and broad-minded 
 Republican, much devoted to the good of the com- 
 munity, and anxious to promote by his vote the 
 prosperity of his country. He died March 29, 1875. 
 
 GEORGE HOADLEY, who is now living re- 
 tired in Branford, belongs to an old and distin- 
 guished family of Connecticut, whose members in 
 different generations have been conspicuous in the 
 various fields of action in which they have been 
 engaged. 
 
 The record of this branch of the Hoadley fam- 
 ily begins with William Hoadley, who was born in 
 England about 1630, and was a resident of Say- 
 brook, Conn., as early as 1663. In 1666 he bought 
 property in Branford, and engaged in mercantile 
 business. His name first appears in the Branford 
 Covenant in 1667, and he was made a freeman of 
 the Colony in 1669. He was one of the deputies 
 from Branford at nine sessions of the Assembly 
 between 1678 and 1685 ; was one of the patentees 
 of the town in 1685; between 1673 and 1690 was 
 one of the selectmen for the town ; in 1683 was ap- 
 pointed to keep the ordinary in Branford; was one 
 of the grand jurors at the court held in New Ha- 
 ven in June, 1688 ; and was one of a committee ap- 
 pointed in 1686 to make application to the General 
 Court at Hartford for liliertv for the town to form 
 itself into a church estate. He was a slaveholder. 
 
 and owned at his death a mulatto maid and an In- 
 dian boy. His estate was valued at more than five 
 thousand dollars. William Hoadley died in 1709. 
 
 Abraham Hoadley, son of William, died) in 
 Branford July 14, 1748, at an advanced age. He 
 was made a freeman of Branford in 1702, and was 
 a farmer. Elizabeth (Maltlay), his wife, was the 
 daughter of Capt. William Maltby. 
 
 Abel Hoadley, son of Abraham and Elizabeth 
 (Maltby) Hoadley, was born in Branford, Dec. 24, 
 1705, and died in August, 1734. His wife's name 
 was ?dartha. He was a farmer in the Damascus 
 District. 
 
 Isaac Hoadley, son of Abel and Martha Hoadley, 
 was born in Branford in December, 172S, and died 
 Jan. 21, 1812. Elizabeth (Blackstone), his wife, 
 daughter of Capt. John and Elizabeth (Foote) 
 Blackstone, was noted among the women of her 
 time for her domestic skill. Isaac Hoadley was a 
 carpenter by trade, inherited his father's farm, and 
 became a very prosperous resident of the Damascus 
 District. He was a prominent member of Trinity 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 Abel Hoadley, son of Isaac and Elizabeth Hoad- 
 ley, was born in Branford Oct. i, 1764, and died 
 ?\iarch 29, 1845. He married Lucinda Bradley, 
 daughter of Timothy and Sarah (Goodsell) Brad- 
 le} , of Branford, and they had children : Martha, 
 who married Deming Hoadley ; Isaac ; Samuel ; 
 Ralph; Sally S., who married James Harrison; Lu- 
 cinda, who married Wyllys i31ackstone; Harvey; 
 Harriet, who married John Gordon ; and Ammi. 
 Abel Hoadley was a farmer in the Damascus Dis- 
 trict, and was selectman and constable for many 
 years. 
 
 Isaac Hoadley, father of our subject, married 
 Laura Tyler, daughter of Solomon and Dorcas, 
 (Fisk) Tyler, the former a farmer of Branford. 
 Isaac Hoadley was a sailor in early life, and then 
 engaged in farming. He died on the farm now 
 occupied by his son George, Oct. 10, 1825, at the 
 earh age of thirty-five years. His children were 
 George, Anna Tyler and Charles E. The last 
 named married Elizabeth Gunn, a native of Georgia, 
 and a daughter of James and Elizabeth Gunn, and 
 they had four children : Laura, who is the wife of 
 R. T. Humphrey; Susan D., who married J. Edwin 
 Towner, and died in j\Iarch, 1897 (she had three 
 children, Anna P., Avho died July 27, 1899, Merle 
 E. and Laura E.) ; AI. Georgia, who died Jan. 21, 
 1884; and Edna J. Charles E. Hoadley was a 
 merchant in Fredonia, Ala., where his children were 
 all born. He returned East in 1866, and his wife 
 died Oct. II, 1867. He died Oct. 22, 1S78. 
 
 George Hoadley, whose name introduces this 
 article, was born Feb. 14, 1814, im the house he now 
 occupies, and was reared on the old homestead — 
 where he yet resides. The house in which he lives 
 is over one hundred years old. In the sitting-room 
 is one of the old "grandfather's" clocks, made in 
 England, probably more than two hundred years 
 old, and which still keeps good time. Mr. Hoadley 
 
/^^ 
 
 c- ^^^^z^i^^e^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 937 
 
 worked at the carpenter's trade from the time he 
 was seventeen years old until he was forty-one, 
 when he engaged in farming. At the present time 
 his health is practically as eood as it was twenty 
 years ago. For his age, eighty-seven, he is one 
 of the most vigorous and satisfactory specimens of 
 manhood to be found, anywhere, hale and hearty, 
 and able to "hustle" in a fashion which many 
 younger men might envy. Mr. Hoadley attends the 
 Congregational Church, and politically is a Demo- 
 crat. He has never married. 
 
 MRS. HENRY P. (NICHOLS) WIRTH, for 
 many years one of Ansonia's social leaders, was a 
 member of an old and honored family of that sec- 
 tion, her ancestors having been pioneers of Oxford. 
 Francis Nichols, her great-great-grandfather, pur- 
 chased land there in 1743, the title passing to him 
 from a Quaker who had bought it from the Indians, 
 and his remaining years were spent 'there. 
 
 Sergt. Isaac Nichols, the next in the line of de- 
 scent, was bom and reared on the old homestead in 
 Oxford, and became a farmer by occupation. His 
 military title was gained by service in the militia 
 and his sword was prized by Mrs. Wirth as a relic 
 of the early times. In 1769 he married Abigail 
 Lyman, daughter of Rev. Jonathan Lyman, the 
 first Congregational minister at Oxford, and their 
 family consisted .of four children. Sergt. Isaac 
 died March 5, 1805, aged fifty-seven years, while 
 his wife lived to the age of eighty-four. 
 
 Russell F. Nichols, Mrs. Wirth's grandfather, 
 was born in 1772 at the homestead, where he spent 
 his life engaged in farming, and his death occurred 
 there in 1849. For many years he was a prominent 
 worker in the Episcopal Church. He married 
 Nabby Riggs, a native of Oxford, and a daughter 
 of John Riggs, and they had four children, among 
 whom was a son Benjamin. 
 
 Benjamin Nichols, father of Mrs. Wirth, was 
 born in Oxford, and grew to manhood on the old 
 farm, receiving a common-school education, which 
 he supplemented by a generous course of reading 
 in later years. For a time he conducted the home- 
 stead, which contained 280 acres, but in 1882 he 
 removed to Ansonia and built a home near Mrs. 
 Wirth's late residence. Subsequently he purchased 
 the site of her home, but he did little active busi- 
 ness in his later years except probate work, his 
 sound judgment, uprightness and ripe experience 
 causing him to be frequently called upon to settle 
 estates. For some time he was a director in the 
 Birmingham National Bank.' He enjoyed in a 
 marked degree the confidence of the people, and 
 was prominent in political life as a member of the 
 Democratic party. He was first selectman of Ox- 
 ford during the Civil war, and had control of the 
 funds for hiring substitutes. In 186—, 1872 and 
 1875 he served as representative, and in 1876 he 
 was chosen State senator, being one of very few 
 men who were elected to that office from the town 
 
 of Oxford. In 1864 he united with Morning Star 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., at Seymour, and later he be- 
 came a charter member of Union Chapter, R. A. M., 
 at Ansonia. He held $2,000 insurance in the Ma- 
 sonic Benefit Association, and in his will left $1,000 
 to the Masons' Home at Wallingford. He also left 
 $3,000 to the Episcopal Church at Quaker Farms, 
 the interest to be used for the proper care of the 
 two cemeteries, for the insurance of the church, and, 
 if any remained, for other purposes of the church. 
 Mr. Nichols married Minerva Tomlinson, who' was 
 born at A'olney, near Castleton, Vt., and was one 
 of a family of eight children. Her father, Trum.m 
 Tomlinson, was a native of Oxford, and passed 
 many years in that locality as a farmer and black- 
 smith, dying there. Her mother, Nancy Perry, 
 was the daughter of Telverton and Patience Perry, 
 and died aged seventy-eight years. 
 
 ^Irs. Wirth, who was the only child of Benjamin 
 and Minerva Nichols, was born in Oxford, and re- 
 mained at the homestead until she reached the age 
 of nineteen. In October, 1862, she married George 
 A. Tomlinson, a native of Oxford, son of George 
 Tomlinson, who was born at Quaker Farms. His 
 grandfather, David Tomlinson, a native of Wood- 
 bury, was a farmer and merchant of Quaker Farms, 
 where he died in 1822. In 1818 he was elected 
 State senator. George Tomlinson, the father of 
 George A., passed his entire life in Oxford, and 
 died in 1859, aged fifty-nine. He married Eliza 
 Judson, daughter of Wells Judson, a leading resi- 
 dent of Quaker Farms, and his wife Ruth (Wil- 
 cox), who was born in Southbury, and died at 
 Quaker Farms, at the age of forty years. George 
 A. Tomlinson was one of a family of three chil- 
 dren ; his sister, Marietta A., wife of Smith B. 
 Glover, now resides in Newtown. As a boy George 
 A. Tomlinson became familiar with farm work, 
 but finding it uncongenial he studied dentistry in 
 Hartford. Deciding finally to engage in mercantile 
 business, he located at Ansonia in 1870, and opened 
 a news and toy store, which he conducted success- 
 fully for a few years. He was highly respected 
 in the community. In 1891 he built the handsome 
 residence at No. 301 Wakelee avenue, Ansonia, oc- 
 cupied by Mrs. Wirth until her death, and he died 
 that year, at the age of fifty-nine. He was a man 
 of literary tastes. For a number of years he served 
 as secretary of George Washington Lodge, F. 
 & A. M. 
 
 In April, 1896, Mrs. Tomlinson married Henry 
 P. Wirth, who was born at Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
 Germany, the son of Louis and Mary Ann (Menck) 
 Wirth, who owned a large hotel there. Before 
 coming to this country Mr, Wirth was a salesman 
 for wholesale mercantile houses, and was engaged 
 several years in that line in Russia. He was em- 
 ployed for a long time in the Farrell foundry, and 
 later proved himself a successful salesman by dis- 
 posing of 2,000 copies of "Grant's Memoirs," and 
 selling many other publications. 
 
938 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mrs. A\'irth was an able business woman, tak- 
 ing keen interest in the management of her estate, 
 and not long before her death she purchased a large 
 tract of land with five houses near her home, in 
 order to protect her beautiful grounds from in- 
 trusion. In the house are to be found many in- 
 teresting and valuable relics of the past, one room, 
 which she called her "Curiosity Shop," being en- 
 tirely devoted to heirlooms. Among a large num- 
 ber received from her mother are rare spoons and 
 pieces of valuable plate, from fifty to one hundred 
 and fifty years old, and a gold and silver tea set 
 presented the mother on her wedding day. Excel- 
 lent portraits of both her mother and father occupy 
 places of honor in the house, testifying to her filial 
 reverence and devotion. She contributed liberally 
 to the support of Christ Church, Quaker Farms, 
 and left in her will $2,000 for the same purpose as 
 her father's bequest; also $3,200 to St. Peter's 
 Church, in Oxford, and $3,200 to the Congregation- 
 al Church in Oxford, the interest to be used to put 
 the cemeteries in the best of order and keep them 
 so at all times. She made many other bequests 
 for the benefit of the public. Airs. Wirth was prom- 
 inent in many lines of social activity, including the 
 work of the D. A. R., in which she held membership 
 by right of descent from John Riggs. She passed 
 away Noy. 6, 1900, and her death was sincerely 
 mourned among a wide circle of friends and ac- 
 quaintances. 
 
 ERASAIUS D. KETCHAAI is one of the older 
 citizens of Waterbury, and holds a responsible posi- 
 tion in the industrial life of that city. He is a 
 plain, straightforward man of good habits, and pos- 
 sessing an intimate knowledge of his business, 
 commanding at once the confidence of his employers 
 and the respect of the community. 
 
 Mr. Ketcham was born in the town of Perinton, 
 Monroe Co., N. Y., Jan. 23, 1838, son of John V. N. 
 Ketcham, a native of Rensselaer county, that state. 
 Joseph Ketcham, the grandfather of Erasmus D., 
 came from the eastern part of the State, and was a 
 farmer in Rensselaer county. He married a Miss 
 Van Ness, and they had twelve children : Morgan, 
 a farmer in St. Joseph county, Mich. ; Daniel, a 
 farmer in Monroe county ; John V. N., already men- 
 tioned ; Cornelius, a farmer of Oswego county, N. 
 Y. ; William, a farmer and an influential politician 
 in Ontario county, X. Y. ; Joseph, a farmer in Mon- 
 roe county, where he is yet living; Melvin, a miner 
 and speculator in California ; Alarvin, a Monroe 
 county farmer ; Elidie, who married Jacob Van 
 Ness, a farmer of Monroe county; Phoebe, who 
 married a Mr. Porter, and later a Mr. Washburn, 
 a farmer of Ontario county ; Sally, wife of Mr. 
 Mosher, a mechanic; and Angeline, wife of John 
 Aldrich, a farmer in Monroe county. 
 
 John \'. N. Ketcham was a farmer Ijy occupation. 
 He married Miss Alma J. Tedman, a native of 
 Wayne county, X. Y., and a daughter of Robert 
 
 Tedman, a farmer, and a native of Connecticut. 
 After marriage Air. Ketcham and his wife settled 
 on a farm in Monroe county, where they reared a 
 family of five children : Erasmus D. ; Mary S., de- 
 ceased, who married Joseph Nellest, a farmer in 
 Niagara county, N. Y. ; Charlotte A., who married 
 Burt Rowlev, a farmer in Ontario county, N. Y.;, 
 Arabella, who married Homer Foote, a farmer in 
 Niagara county, N. Y. ; and Franklin I., a farmer, 
 who lives on the old homestead. Mr. Ketcham 
 passed away in 1886. Mrs. Ketcham is still living 
 at the advanced age of eighty-three. 
 
 Erasmus D. Ketcham spent his boyhood and 
 youth on the farm in Monroe county, N. Y., at- 
 tending the old district school, and also enjoying 
 the advantages of a year at an academy and a term 
 at a business college. In 1872, then in the prime 
 of life, he came to Waterbury to take the position 
 he holds to-day, and which he has filled so accept- 
 abl}- in all the intervening years, that of foreman 
 of the yard, or outdoor foreman for the Scovili 
 Manufacturing Co. As foreman of the outdoor 
 work of this compan}; he is reliable and attentive 
 to the interests of his employers, and careful and 
 considerate of the needs of the men under his 
 
 j direction. 
 
 I Mr. Ketcham and Miss Caroline B. Webster 
 were married Jan. 10, 1881. Mrs. Ketcham is a 
 native of Waterbury, daughter of Truman Web- 
 ster, a mason of that city. Two children have been 
 born to this union, Truman J. and Earl D. Mr. 
 Ketcham is a Republican, and a reliable and hon- 
 ored citizen. His face is a familiar sight in the 
 assembly halls of X'osahogan Lodge, No. 21,. 
 I. O. O. F., and he is much interested in 
 the workings of that noble order. The Ketcham 
 family attend the Congregational Church. 
 
 LEON IDAS W. ALLIXG (deceased) was bom 
 in Orange, X"ew Haven county, Feb. 23, 1840, the 
 sixth child in the family of Charles W and Lucy 
 (Booth) Ailing, who are mentioned elsewhere. 
 
 Mr. Ailing spent his boyhood, after attendance 
 at the district school (and during that time as well), 
 assisting his father in the latter's woolen mill, a; 
 moderate business and large family necessitating 
 contribution to the general fund on the part of the 
 sons as well as of the father. Yet his intuitive in- 
 clination was toward a higher education, and his 
 father was willing to gratify the boy's natural trend. 
 Accordingly young Leonidas received a course of 
 instructions at Wilbraham Academy, and later ma- 
 triculated at Yale. Ill-health prevented the com- 
 pletion of his college course, and returning to 
 Orange in 1868 he engaged in the manufacture of 
 woolen yarns. In this he was reasonably successful 
 until 1891, in which year his plant was destroyed 
 l)y fire. In that year, not caring to resume business- 
 in Orange, he removed to Derby, where he as- 
 sumed a responsible position in connection, with the 
 management of the extensive factory owned by his 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 939 
 
 brothers, A'. H. and C. B. Ailing. This post he 
 filled, with an ability born of native talent and ripe 
 experience, until his death. May 12, 1896. 
 
 On Dec. 28, 1870, Mr. Ailing married Marion 
 Merwin, a daughter of Alpheus and Mary (AlUng) 
 Merwin, the latter a daughter of Bela Ailing, who 
 was the great-uncle of Leonidas W. The earliest 
 American progenitor of the Merwin family, of 
 whom any authentic record is preserved, came from 
 Scotland nearly two centuries ago. His baptismal 
 name was John, and following down the line we 
 find John, born in Milford; John, a native of 
 Orange ; Nathan ; and Alpheus, who was Mrs. All- 
 ing's father. Nathan Merwin, the father of Al- 
 pheus, was born in Orange, as were also his father 
 and his children. He married Esther Clark, born 
 in the same town in 1791, a daughter of Elias 
 Clark, and their nine children were: Elias, Esther, 
 Nathan, Sarah, Alpheus, John, Mary, Susan and 
 Sheldon. Elias removed from Connecticut to Oak- 
 land, Cal., where he lived and died ; he was a landed 
 proprietor. Esther (deceased) became Mrs. Fred- 
 erick Durand, of Seymour. Nathan was a pros- 
 perous dealer in grain and flour at New Haven, 
 where he died. Sarah married Joseph Treat, of 
 Milford, and died in Iowa. John engaged in the 
 manufacture of cutlery at Lakeville, Conn., and 
 died there. Mary is the widow of Harvey Seward, 
 a merchant in Leadville, Colo., where she yet lives. 
 Susan died unmarried. Sheldon died in early 
 youth. 
 
 Alpheus Merwin was reared in Orange, where 
 he learned the trade of a carpenter under the in- 
 struction of his father and Elias Clark, of Derby ; he 
 followed same until his death, July 13, 1880. In 
 1848 he married Miss Mary Ailing, and they had 
 two children, Marion and John,. Marion, as has 
 been said, became Mrs. Leonidas W. Ailing; John 
 is a farmer in Orange. Beta Ailing, father of Mrs. 
 Mary Merwin, married Julia Rogers, of Orange, 
 and three children wer!= born to them : Mary, Mrs. 
 Merwin; Sheldon, a farmer in Orange; and Julia, 
 who died in childhood. Julia Rogers was the 
 daughter of Jonathan Rogers, who was born in 
 Orange in 1780, and w .s a farmer. In 1803 he 
 married Polly Treat, whose father, Joseph Treat, 
 was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. The chil- 
 dren of this marriage were four in number: Julia, 
 Jonathan, Jonah and Mary. The youngest daugh- 
 ter (Mrs. Merwin) is yet living. 
 
 Leonidas W. Ailing was a man of kindly dis- 
 position a:nd affectionate heart. His blameless life, 
 joined to keen mental power and a genuinely un- 
 selfish interest in public affairs, gained for him the 
 warm respect of his friends and neighbors. Po- 
 litically he was a Republican, and he was a success- 
 ful candidate on that ticket for the offices of town 
 treasurer and representative in the Legislature. He 
 was a deacon in the Congregational Church for 
 many years, and in his daily life exemplified the 
 sincerity of his belief in the religious faith which 
 
 he professed ; yet his virtues were of the unas- 
 suming rather than of the assertive sort. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Ailing were born four chil- 
 dren : Mary, Walter, Wilbur M. and Leon. Mary 
 is married and lives in Philadelphia. Walter died 
 in boyhood, and Wilbur is a manufacturer of 
 hosiery, with mills in New York and Philadelphia. 
 Leon is assistant superintendent of the New York 
 City mill. 
 
 REUBEN H. COE. New Haven county has 
 many well-to-do and successful farmers who have 
 accumulated what they have of this world's goods 
 through individual effort. Among this class the 
 name of the subject of this notice is entitled to a 
 place. For forty years he has been a resident of 
 East Haven, where he is industriously engaged in 
 the prosecution of his noble calling, and is meeting 
 with far more than ordinary success. 
 
 Mr. Coe was born in the town of Durham, Mid- 
 dlesex Co., Conn., May 26, 1837, a son of Merrick 
 R. Coe and grandson of Abram Coe, also natives 
 of Durham. The latter was a soldier of the war of 
 1812, and was living at that time in East Haven; 
 he helped to build the old Tomlinson bridge. His 
 death occurred when he was about the age of seven- 
 ty-two years. By his marriage with Rebecca El- 
 well, he had three children : Hannah, wife of Will- 
 iam Peck ; Phebe, wife of Samuel Peck ; and Aler- 
 rick R. 
 
 In early life Merrick R. Coe served a four years' 
 apprenticeship to the shoemaker's irade, which he 
 followed for a time in East Haven, but the greater 
 part of his life was spent upon a farm in Durham. 
 He married Miss Asenath Harrison, of Northford, 
 Conn., a daughter of Amos Harrison, and to them 
 were born two children, Reuben H., our subject, 
 being the youngest; Mary, born in 183 1, became 
 the wife of Enoch Camp, and died in 1849. The 
 father died in the fall of 1888 in his eighty-fourth 
 year ; the mother Dec. 29, 1874, at the age of sixty- 
 seven years. Both were consistent and faithful 
 members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 Reuben H. Coe remained under the parental 
 roof until twenty years of age, and then went to 
 Plymouth, Conn., where he was variously employed, 
 working on a road and also on a farm. In i860 
 he came to East Haven, and for two years operated 
 what is known as the Richard Woodward place. He 
 then purchased his present farm in the same town, 
 and here he has made his home since April, 1862. 
 His first purchase consisted of but twenty-seven 
 acres, but as he has prospered in his undertakings 
 he has added to his landed possessions from time 
 to time, and is now the owner of about 200 acres 
 in Branford and East Haven. He has made all of 
 the improvements upon his place, which is now one 
 of the most attractive and desirable farms in the 
 locality. In connection with general farming, he 
 has also engaged in the wood and dairy business, 
 and for the past ten years has given special atten- 
 
■94° 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tion to the raising of hogs. He has been eminently 
 successful, and is now one of the most substantial 
 and prosperous farmers of the community. 
 
 On June 25, 1857, Air. Coe was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Mariette Sanford, of Plymouth, 
 Conn,, a daughter of William Sanford, and to themi 
 were born two children: Hattie R., who died ni 
 her twelfth year; and Herbert W., who is engaged 
 in the milk business in East Haven. He married 
 Imogene Hall and has three children, Herbert E., 
 Ethel M. and Bertha H. Both Mr. and Mrs. Coe 
 hold membership in the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, and are highly respected and esteemed by 
 -•all who know them. He is c|uite prominent in 
 agricultural circles and has served three years as 
 master of East Haven Grange, No. 106, and treas- 
 urer of the New Haven County Pomona Grange 
 for five years. He is a stanch supporter of the 
 Democratic party and its principles, and has been 
 •elected to official positions of honor and trust, hav- 
 ing served as assessor of his town for seven years, 
 and first selectman for two terms, first with Henry 
 Smith and Ruel Thompson, and second with John 
 S. Tyler and Ruel Thompson. Over his life record 
 there falls no shadow of wrong; his public service 
 was most exemplary ; and his private life has been 
 marked b}' the utmost fidelity to duty. He is pub- 
 lic-spirited and progressive, and gives his support to 
 all measures for the public good. 
 
 JOHN E. MAR, a citizen of West Haven, is 
 •one of New leaven county's successful business 
 men. His family is of Scotch extraction and noble 
 ■descent, his great-great-great-grandfather, John 
 Mar, having been the eldest son of the Earl of 
 Mar. He cam.e to America from Scotland in 1715, 
 settled in Kittery, Maine, and married Catherine 
 Surplus, of that place. They were members of 
 the Congregational Church, in which faith their 
 four sons were baptized. Some years later, wishing 
 to visit Scotland, John Mar took passage in a vessel 
 which was wrecked off Cape Cod, and he was 
 drowned. His youngest son. Surplus, passed his 
 life as a farmer in Kittery. 
 
 James Mar, the grandfather of John Mar, was 
 born in the town of Kittery, Maine, and removed 
 to I^incoln county, that State, settling in the town 
 of Alna, where he became a citizen of substance 
 and influence. Pie was a mason by trade, and was 
 also a surveyor and civil engineer. He served as 
 lieutenant in the war of 1812, and was conspicuous 
 for his gallantry and daring. He passed the eighty- 
 seventh milestoine on life's journey, and died full 
 ■oi years and honors. He married Susannah, daugh- 
 ter of Lieut. Richard Bailey, who served in the 
 French and Indian war. 
 
 James Mar, son of James, learned the trade of 
 a mason, which he followed through the greater 
 portion of his life, which ended at the age of eighty- 
 four. He married Susan Averill, who was "born 
 in the town of Alna, a daughter of Ezekiel Averill, 
 
 who enjoyed the proud distinction of having been 
 a member of Washington's body guard. After he 
 had seen independence an accomplished fact, he re- 
 turned — as did most of New England's_ patriot sol- 
 diers — to the farm, to resume the pursuits of peace, 
 and to do his part toward the building up of the 
 infant Republic. He attained the extraordinary age 
 of ninety-eight years. His family consisted of four 
 daughters and three sons, and Mrs. Mar was the 
 fifth in order of birth. She died in her eighty-fifth 
 year. Mr. and Mrs. Mar had four children, three 
 of whom are yet living: Frederick, whose home 
 is in Kent, Va. ; John E. ; and William H., who- 
 is still a resident of Maine. 
 
 John E. Mar was born March 15, 1834, in Alna, 
 where his parents settled. As a boy his mind was 
 quick and his memory retentive, and before he was 
 twenty-two years old he had learned the two trades 
 of mason and carpenter. From the little hamlet 
 in Maine where he was born he went to Boston, 
 and thence after some years to Fair Haven, Conn. 
 This was in 1862, when the government was a 
 constant buyer of steam vessels at a high price. 
 Mr. J\Iar, in company with others, built several 
 steamers, and in 1865 went to West Haven, which 
 lown has since been his home. His father-in-law 
 was at that time engaged in shipbuilding there, and 
 he became associated with him, the business rela- 
 tions continuing for many years. The business of 
 tJie yards grew apace, and at present includes both 
 steam and sail vessels, of many grades and large 
 burden. JMr. Mar's name is a pledge of probity and 
 a synonym for skill. In the two elements in his 
 character, capability and integrity, may be found 
 the keynote of his success. He has built many four- 
 masted schooners, barges and grain elevators. 
 
 On Nov. II, 1863, Mr. Mar married Helen 
 Gesner, whose father, \\'illiam Nicholas Gesner, 
 was a shipbuilder in New York City, and thence 
 removed to Connecticut. Four sons and one daugh- 
 ter have blessed their home : ( I ) Frederic W. at- 
 tended the West Haven schools, graduated from 
 Hillhouse high school of New Haven, and from 
 Yale University with the degree of B. A., in 1888; 
 he spent, three years in post-graduate work, and is 
 now principal of a school in Brooklyn, N. Y. He 
 married, at Sirampscott, Alass., Carlotta Lotsch, 
 and they have one child, Frank. (2) James C. 
 graduated from Eastman's Business College, 
 Poughkeepsie, N. Y. .and is now engaged in the 
 lumber business. He married Kate Smith, of 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., and they have one child, Frederick 
 Eugene. (3) Margaret G. married Eugene F. 
 Perry, of N)-ack, N. Y., secretary of the Wholesale 
 Lumbermen's Association. They have three chil- 
 dren, Dorothy, Helen and Eugene F., Jr. (4) John 
 E., Jr., now of Bayonne, N. J., is a joiner by 
 trade. He married Amy Dillion, of New Haven. 
 (5) Charles Edgar is in Bridgeport, Conn., where 
 he is engaged as mechanical draughtsman ; he is un- 
 married. 
 
C^h 
 
 vi\ ^o 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 941. 
 
 For more than a century Mr. Mar's family has 
 been prominently identified with the growth and 
 development of the Congregational Church in the 
 localities in which its various members have resided. 
 Men and women of rugged character and sterling 
 worth, they have never lost sight of their bounden 
 duty to the cause of Christ, for which all the mem- 
 bers of Mr. Mar's immediate family are active 
 workers. While our subject has not departed from 
 the family tradition, he is a man to whom the ad- 
 vanced ideas of the latter half of the nineteenth 
 century have not appealed in vain. Social by in- 
 stinct and genial by temperament, his popularity 
 has been assumed without any concession to lower 
 impulse. He is a Republican in politics, but has 
 never had any desire to hold office. He is prominent 
 in the Masonic fraternity, having been senior war- 
 den and twice master of Annawan Lodge, No. 115, 
 F. & A. M. ; treasurer of Joseph Andrew Chapter, 
 No. 46, R. A. M. ; and a member of Crawford 
 Council. He takes a deep interest in the cause of 
 temperance, being ever ready to co-operate in every 
 well-directed effort for its advancement. 
 
 EDWIN ALONZO LEETE, a well-known 
 business man and resident of Guilford, now en- 
 gaged in undertaking and embalming, is a de- 
 scendant in the eighth generation from William 
 Leete, the founder of the family in America. The 
 first three generations of the ancestral line are: 
 (I) Gov. William Leete, 1612-1683 ; (II) John 
 Leete, 1639-1692; (III) Pelatiah Leete, 1681-1768. 
 
 (IV) Pelatiah Leete, son of Pelatiah, noted in 
 the foregoing, was born March 7, 1713, married 
 Lydia Crittenden, a daughter of Deacon Samuel 
 and Mindwell (Meigs) Crittenden, and had the 
 following family: Pelatiah, Pelatiah (2), Lydia 
 (Mrs. John Leete) and Noah (twins), Eber, 
 Simeon (who married Zerviah Norton,), Amos 
 (who married Hannah Ward) and Nathan. 
 
 (V) Pelatiah Leete, born Aug. 22, 1744, mar- 
 ried Bethia Norton, a daughter of Thomas and 
 Bethia Norton, of Guilford. She died June 30, 
 1793, and for his second wife he married Mary 
 Frisbie, at North Branford. He was the father of 
 four children: Joel, Noah, who married Huldah 
 Ward; Pelatiah, who married Betsy Ramy; and 
 Mary, who married John Ludington. 
 
 (VI) Joel Leete, born Aprd 15, 1768, died 
 Jan. 28, 1842. He married Mollie Crittenden, a 
 daughter of Noah and Naomi (Atwell) Crittenden, 
 who lived at Leete Island. Mrs. Leete died Nov. 
 24, 1843. Their children were : Alvin, mentioned 
 below ; Polly Maria ; Morris Atwell ; and Frederick 
 William, who married Sarah Jane Fowler. 
 
 (VII) Capt. Alvin Leete, son of Joel and Mollie 
 Leete, was born on Leete Island Aug. 24, 1791, and 
 was married Jan. 15, 1816, to Mrs. Rebecca Butler, 
 widow of William Butler. She was born Feb. 14, 
 1798, a daughter of Isaac and Abigail (Tyler) 
 Palmer, and died Jan. 16, 1862. Capt. Leete died 
 
 July 6, 1882. His children were: (i) Abigail 
 Maria, born Nov. 18, 1816, married A. W. Leete; 
 (2) EHza Ann, born March 3, 1818, married C. 
 Robbins ; (3) Isaac Palmer, torn March 9, 1821,, 
 married Clarissa Foote; (4) Edwin Alonzo is men- 
 tioned below; (5) Marietta, born July 20, 1827,- 
 died Jan. 18, 1877. Capt. Leete earned his title in. 
 the militia service. He was a Whig and a Republi- 
 can, and belonged to the Congregational Church. 
 He was deeply interested in all educational matters, 
 and for more than thirty years was a teacher in the 
 public schools. 
 
 Edwin A. Leete was born Dec. 21, 1822, and 
 married Ellen Hotchkiss, who was born Nov. 10, 
 1825, daughter of Eber S. and Fannie (Norton)' 
 Hotchkiss. To this union came two children :■ 
 Fannie Rebecca, born Oct. 23, 1848, married Ezra 
 S. Kelsey ; and James Spencer, born Sept. 8, 1850,. 
 died March 23, 1857. Mrs. Leete died July 5, 1854. 
 On Jan. i, 1855, Mr. Leete married Mary Ann- 
 Leete, who was born Sept. 20, 1827. a daughter 
 of Albert A. and Betsy A. (Parmelee) Leete, and 
 granddaughter of Ambrose Leete. To them came 
 children as follows: (i) Edward Morris, born, 
 Aug. 18, 1858, is mentioned below. (2) Cather- 
 ine Ward, born Nov. 28, i860, married Fred W.- 
 Seward. (3) Elizabeth Morris, born Feb. 10, 1867, 
 was graduated from the State Normal School at 
 New Britain, and for the past five years has been- 
 a teacher in the William Penn Charter school, in 
 Philadelphia. (4) William Henry, born Dec. 3, 
 1868, in Guilford, married Caroline Hopkins- 
 Barnes, of Binghamton, N. Y. He has been en- 
 gaged in the railroad service for ten years, having 
 been on the New York, New Haven, & Hartford- 
 Railroad, and assistant to the general superintend- 
 ent of the Los Angeles Terminal Railroad. He is- 
 now cashier and paymaster on the San Pedro, Los 
 Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. 
 
 Edward Morris Leete married Eva Bishop, whO' 
 was born April 19, 1859, daughter of Elisha Chap- 
 man Bishop, and they have three children — Frank 
 Chapman, born Aug. 16, 1881, who is quite profi- 
 cient in music ; Earl Bishop, born in November, 
 1888; and Charlotte Elizabeth, born Aug. 14, 1890. 
 Edward Morris Leete is a partner in business with 
 his father, and at present represents his district in 
 the State Legislature, to which he was elected in 
 1900. In religion he unites with the Congregational 
 Church, and socially he is a member of the Ma- 
 sonic Fraternity. Mrs. Edward Morris Leete be- 
 longs to an old family, and is a lady of unusual at- 
 tainments. She is' an extensive dealer in antique- 
 furniture. 
 
 Edwin A. Leete became a cabinetmaker, learn- 
 ing his trade under John Kimberly, with whom he 
 spent four years. For a time he worked as a 
 journeyman with Jonas H. Bowditch, of New Ha- 
 ven, manufacturer and dealer in furniture. After- 
 ward he came to Guilford and worked two years in 
 the shipyards at East River, for Eber Hotchkiss. 
 
942 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 For several years he dealt in hardwood timber for 
 the New York market. 
 
 Mr. Leete donned the Union blue in 1862, be- 
 coming a member of Company I, 14th Conn. V. 
 I., under Col. Dwight Morris and Capt. Isaac Bran- 
 son. He was in the service six months, taking part 
 in the battle of Antietam, and was discharged at 
 Alexandria on account of serious disability. Re- 
 turning from the war he resumed the cabinetmak- 
 ing business, in which he has been continuously 
 engaged for thirty-seven years, and is known as the 
 leading undertaker and furniture dealer on the shore 
 hne. 
 
 Mrs. Leete descends from Deacon Daniel Leete, 
 eldest son of Deacon Pelatiah Leete. He married 
 Rhoda Stone, a daughter of Caleb and Sarah 
 (Meigs) Stone, and resided on Leete Island. He 
 was a deacon of the Fourth Congregational Church 
 of Guilford. He died in 1772, his wife in 1769. 
 They were the parents of five children : Rhoda, 
 who married Noah Rogers ; Daniel, who married 
 Charity Norton ; Ambrose, who is mentioned be- 
 low ; and two who bore the name of Abraham, both 
 deceased 'in infancy. 
 
 Deacon Ambrose Leete in 1773 married Miranda 
 Chittenden, a daughter of William and Rachel 
 (White) Chittenden, of Guilford. He was made 
 a deacon of the Fourth Church of Guilford in 1784, 
 and of the First Church in 1801. He died in 1809, 
 his wife in 1838. Their children were: Ambrose, 
 Miranda, Minor, Abraham and Wealthy. Minor 
 married Lucinda Norton. 
 
 Ambrose Leete was born in 1774, and in 1802 
 married Catherine Ward, who was born in 1780, 
 a daughter of Thelus and Sarah (Shelley) Ward. 
 They had the following children : Sidney Wash- 
 ington married Susan Atwater; Albert Augustus is 
 mentioned below ; Harriet married John Fowler ; 
 Ambrose Ward married Abigail N. Leete ; Cather- 
 ine Ward; Miranda Cornelia married Hezekiah 
 Parmelee ; Charles Frederick, born in 1820, mar- 
 ried Martha H. W. Lay. 
 
 Albert A. Leete, the father of Mrs. Edwin A. 
 Leete, was born Oct. 11, 1805, and married June 
 6, 1825, Betsy A. Pannelee, of Fair Haven. She 
 was born Dec. 23, 1805, and died Oct. 14, 1881. 
 Albert A. Leete was made a deacon of the First 
 Congregational Church in Guilford in 1832, and 
 served forty-three years in that capacity. The fol- 
 lowing children were born to him and his wife : 
 Mary Ann, born Sept. 20, 1827, married Edwin A. 
 Leete; Sidney Ward, born April 7, 1833, married 
 Isabelle H. Clark; John Fowler, born May i, 1838, 
 died in 1840; Martha Elizabeth, born June 4, 1841, 
 married Samuel S. Parmelee; Harriet Cornelia was 
 born April 3, 1848. 
 
 DENNIS BARNETT, one of Ansonia's pio- 
 neer citizens, was born in Ireland in 1831, son of 
 Patrick and Ellen (O'Brien) Barnett, both natives 
 of the Emerald Isle. His father, who was a farm- 
 
 er by occupation, died in Ireland, and the mother 
 is also deceased. Of their six children our subject 
 is now the only survivor. 
 
 On coming to America, in 1850, Mr. Barnett 
 located in Ansonia, where he has since remained 
 almost continuously, making but few visits, even 
 out of town. In 1851 he entered the employ of the 
 A. B. C. Co., in whose service he was retained for- 
 ty-three years — longer than any other man in the 
 factory. Since retiring from that work he has car- 
 ried on a grocery store at No. 72 Central street, An- 
 sonia, the active management being in the hands 
 of his daughter Ellen, and he also owns three lots 
 upon which he built two houses. Mr. Barnett has 
 seen Ansonia develop from a village of one thousand 
 inhabitants to its present proportions, and his in- 
 telligent observation and excellent memory enable 
 him to give most interesting and instructive ac- 
 counts of the early days. At the time of his arrival 
 there were but one store and only a few houses on 
 Main street, and none on the west side of the river, 
 where there are now five hundred houses. Exten- 
 sive farms have been transformed into residence 
 tracts under his eyes, and two generations have 
 passed before him, there being now only two or 
 three men who were here on his arrival. In 185 1 
 Mr. Barnett married Ellen Hannagin, who was 
 born in Ireland, daughter of Thomas Hannagin, 
 and of their twelve children three are now living: 
 (i) Patrick has been employed for some time in 
 the clock shop in Ansonia. (2) Thomas, who is now 
 with the A. B. C. Co., married Mary A. DriscoU, 
 and has had eight children, six of whom are liv- 
 ing, Ellen, Timothv, Mary, Geneva. Dennis and 
 Thomas, Jr. (3) Ellen was married in 1884 to 
 James Cotter, shoe manufacturer of Philadelphia, 
 who died two years later. Mrs. Cotter now man- 
 ages the store for her father. Politically Mr. Bar- 
 nett is a Democrat, and he has always been a de- 
 vout Catholic, his parents having reared him in 
 that faith. He was one of the first members of the 
 Catholic Church in Ansonia, and is the only one 
 now living who took part in the organization of 
 the society. Temperance reform has claimed his 
 warm support for many years, and he is now the 
 only living charter member of the Father Matthew 
 Temperance Society, organized in 1868, and later 
 known as the St. Joseph Temperance Society. 
 
 GEORGE SCARD, one of the most prosperous 
 dairy farmers and stock dealers of East Walling- 
 ford, was born in Dorchester, England, May 9, 
 1838. Robert Scard, his father, was a native of the 
 same place, and was a tanner by occupation. The 
 latter part of his life was spent in farming, and 
 his closing days were passed in the homes of his 
 children in Wales, where he died at a ripe old age. 
 In his religious belief he was an Episcopalian. He 
 was a man of good character, and is remembered as 
 a gentleman of high standing with those who knew 
 him best. Sarah Mores, his wife, was born in Dor- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 943 
 
 Chester, and was the mother of his thirteen children, 
 of whom six died young. Those who grew to more 
 mature life were: George; Moses, dead; Robert, 
 who resides in Newport, South Wales ; Simeon, who 
 was drafted for service in the Bristol police (Eng- 
 land), and remained several years, but now has a 
 store in Newport, South Wales, selling groceries 
 and other goods ; Henry, deceased ; Sarah, who mar- 
 ried a Mr. Anthony, and is now deceased ; and Char- 
 lotte, deceased. 
 
 George Scard had a common school education 
 in the national schools of England. When he was 
 ten years old his parents took him to Newport, 
 South Wales, where he became errand boy for his 
 brother Simeon, working in the beginning for his 
 board and clothes. After some years he saved 
 enough to buy a team and go to farming. That 
 was his occupation for several years, when he 
 turned to trade. In 1871, having a strong desire to 
 see the New World, he came to New York, whence 
 he went on west to Chicago, at that time just rally- 
 ing from the great fire. He went to work as a 
 hod carrier at three dollars and fifty cents a day, 
 and put in something over nine months in that way. 
 After the expiration of this time he returned to 
 New York, and, locating in Meriden, secured a po- 
 sition with the Malleable Iron Works, being em- 
 ployed here for four years at one dollar and fifty 
 cents a day. Here he was joined by his family, 
 ■and all united their energies in farming, first in 
 a small way, and then as they began to know their 
 power, they moved into Wallingford, and bought 
 the Terry farm in 1876. Here they started in the 
 dairy business, and as circumstances improved, 
 bought the William Every place, and still later the 
 Robinson farm. Here they have a fine home, which 
 Mr. Scard built, and this with other buildings cost 
 more than $10,000. Mr. Scard keeps more than 
 forty cows, and is known as the most extensive dairy 
 farmer and stockman in the town of Wallingford. 
 This entire family is noted for the industry and 
 thrift of all its members. They are all enterprising 
 and progressive people, and richly deserve the good 
 fortune that has waited on their labors. 
 
 In July, 1859, Mr. Scard was married in New- 
 port, South Wales, to Ellen Gammon, who was 
 born in Barnstable, England, and was a daughter 
 of George and Hannah Gammon, both of whom are 
 now deceased. To this union were born nine chil- 
 dren: Mary Jane, who married James Prin, and 
 is now deceased; Lavinia', who married David A. 
 Crouch, of Middletown, and is the mother of two 
 children, Frances and Etta Mabel ; Emily, who mar- 
 ried Albert Beaumont, of Wallingford; George, 
 who is a partner of his father; Eliza, who died 
 young ; Moses and Simeon are both at home ; Char- 
 lotte, who married John Mead, of North Haven; 
 and Rosanna, immarried and at home. 
 
 The sons aie interested with their father m the 
 dairy business. All the family attend the Congrega- 
 tional Church. Mr. Scard is independent in his 
 
 politics. Known as a man of most temperate 
 habits, and as a hard worker, and a good neighbor, 
 he is much respected in the town. With his sons he 
 belongs to the Grange, and is much interested in 
 all questions that pertain to the welfare of the 
 farmer. 
 
 George Gammon, the grandfather of Mrs. 
 Scard, was a native of Devonshire, England, where 
 he followed farming, and died at the venerable age 
 of one hundred years. George Fishley, the ma- 
 ternal grandfather of Mrs. Scard, was a native of 
 Thornington, Devonshire, England, where he was 
 engaged in the making of pottery ; he owned a farm, 
 and lived to be more than one hundred years of age. 
 Both her grandfathers were members of the Church 
 of England. The mother of Mrs. Scard died when 
 she was very young. 
 
 WILLIAM G. MITCHELL, the well-known 
 manufacturer of Milford, was born in Paisley, 
 Scotland, Dec. 3, 1827. His family has long been 
 identified with manufacturing interests, and his 
 father, William W. Mitchell, was engaged in the 
 manufacture of carpets in Scotland before coming 
 to this country. An vmcle, James W. Mitchell, pre- 
 ceded the other members of the family and carried 
 on the same business in New York City. Hand 
 looms were then in use. Later he removed to Yon- 
 kers, N. Y., and in 1849, after the introduction of 
 power looms, the establishment there was bought 
 by Alexander Smith, who continued and enlarged 
 the business. It is now the largest carpet manu- 
 facturing concern in this country. 
 
 William W. Mitchell came from his father's 
 (David Mitchell's) carpet factory in Kilmarnock, 
 Scotland, in 1829, and brought with him a colony 
 of workmen for the carpet works of Orrin Thomp- 
 son, at Thompsonville, Conn. The descendants of 
 this worthy colony are now numerous in that place. 
 About 1835 he went to New Haven tO' take a po- 
 sition with Galpin & Robertson, carpet manufac- 
 turers, each member of which firm was called in 
 turn to serve as mayor of New Haven. In 1836 he 
 returned to Scotland and took charge of a cotton 
 factor)^ belonging to his brother George, and his 
 death occurred in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1888. He 
 married Agnes Dunlop, and had three children, of 
 whom only two lived to mature age, Tanet and Will- 
 iam G. Janet is the widow of David Mitchell, and 
 resides in Manchester, England. 
 
 William G. Mitchell went to. Lovell's Lancas- 
 terian school in New Haven, and, spending a por- 
 tion of his youth in Glasgow, went to school there 
 until 1 841. On completing his course he entered 
 the office of a friend in Glasgow as a clerk, and 
 he was afterward employed bv his father for a 
 time. For two years he was in the office of a whole- 
 sale commission house, without pay, his experience 
 being regarded as a sufficient recompense, and later 
 spent six months in a Scottish Marine Insurance 
 office. For nine years he was employed asi a book- 
 
944 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 keeper by Oliver F Winchester, of New Haven, 
 and in 1857 he went to Milford as bookkeeper for 
 Flagg & Baldwin, manufacturers of straw goods, 
 continuing with the house through various changes 
 of name. The firm became known as Flagg, Bald- 
 win & Co. in 1859; N. A. Baldwin & Co. in 1865; 
 Baldwin, Rice & Read in 1867; Baldwin & Hills in 
 1872; The Baldwin Manufacturing Co. in 1874; N. 
 A. Baldwin in 1878; and the business has since 
 1886 been conducted in the name of our subject. 
 The factory is composed of very large brick and 
 , frame buildings, and in the season about 250 hands 
 are employed in making various kinds of straw hats 
 for men, women and children. During the half 
 century of its existence the business has been a rec- 
 ognized factor in the development and prosperity 
 of Milford, milHons of dollars having been put into 
 circulation by it. 
 
 On Jan. 11, 1853, Mr. Mitchell was married, in 
 West Granby, Conn., to Miss Harriet A. Kasson, 
 of Granby, born July 4, 1830, in Hartford count}^, 
 daughter of Thomas A. and Amelia (Holcomb) 
 Kasson. They have had two children, Flattie and 
 Amie, both at home. The family is identified with 
 the Episcopal Church, and Mr. Mitchell also be- 
 longs to Ansantawae Lodge, No. 89, F & A. ]\F, 
 of Milford; Solomon R. A. Chapter, F. & A. M., 
 at Derby, Conn. ; and City Lodge, No. 36, L O. O. 
 F., of New Haven. In politics he is a Democrat, 
 and he takes interest in local affairs, though he has 
 been a business man, rather than a politician. He 
 served about twelve years as judge of probate, while 
 his interest in educational advancement is shown 
 by his continuous service on the board of education 
 since 1862. 
 
 CAPT. CHARLES GRISWOLD, one of the 
 prominent citizens of Guilford, served as an officer 
 during the Civil war in two Connecticut regiments, 
 and is the representative of one of the oldest and 
 most influential families of the State. He is of the 
 seventh generation from Michael Griswold, who 
 was one of the first settlers of Wethersfield. About 
 the time the founders of the family in America 
 migrated to the New England coast close relatives 
 had become prominent in English history. In 1600 
 the ]\Ialvern estate came into the possession of 
 Humphrey Griswold, a "lord of the manor," and 
 the heritage still remains with the English branch 
 of the family. 
 
 The American branch of the Griswold family 
 claims as its first known English progenitor Mat- 
 thew Griswold, Esq., of Kenilworth, Warwickshire, 
 an uncle of Humphrey Griswold, first Lord of the 
 Manor, above named. He had three sons, Thomas, 
 Edward and Matthew. Of these, Matthew, the 
 youngest, was the first to come to America. While 
 yet very 3'oung he joined a company of pilgrims col- 
 lected from Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Somer- 
 setshire and Devonshire, under the leadership of 
 Rev. John Wareham, who left England during the 
 
 reign of Charles I, and landed on the shores of 
 ]\Iassachusetts Dec. 20, 1630. Nine years later 
 Edward Griswold joined his brother Matthew, and 
 they removed from Massachusetts to Connecticut, 
 Edward settling at Windsor, and the younger broth- 
 er at Saybrook. 
 
 In 1645 another member of the Griswold fam- 
 ily, Michael by name, emigrated from England to 
 Connecticut, and settled at Wethersfield. He was 
 born in 1610. His descendants- are numerous, and 
 many of them are among the most prominent citi- 
 zens of that section of the State. He himself may 
 be reckoned among Wethersfield's pioneers. He 
 bought land, and, being by occupation a mason, 
 erected thereon a fine house, besides, making other 
 improvements. There he passed the remainder of 
 his days, dying Sept. 26, 1684, highly esteemed for 
 his many admirable qualities. The children of 
 Michael and Ann Griswold were as follows : Thom- 
 as, born Oct. 22, 1646; Hester, born May 8, 1648; 
 Michael, born Feb. 14, 1652 (died young) ; Abi- 
 gail, born June 8, 1655; Isaac, born Sept. 30, 1658 
 (died June 18, 1727) ; Jacob, born in April, 1660 
 (died July 28, 1737) ; Sarah, born Sept. 30, 1662; 
 Michael, born Jan. 7, 1667 (died Sept. 9, 1741). 
 The line of descent to our subject is as follows: 
 
 (II) Thomas Griswold, son of Michael, was 
 born in Wethersfield Oct. 22, 1646. He and his 
 wife, Mary, whom he married Nov. 28, 1672, had 
 children as follows: Thomas, born June 11, 1674, 
 is next in the line; Jacob, born Feb. 5, 1676, mar- 
 ried Abigail Hand ; Martha was born Aug. 20, 1678 ; 
 Michael, born Jan. 28, 1681, married Mary Gilbert; 
 Samuel married Mary Francis, and died in Septem- 
 ber, 1733. 
 
 (III) Thomas Griswold (2), born June 11, 
 1674, in Wethersfield, removed to Guilford in 1695, 
 and was the first settler of the name in that town, 
 where he spent the remainder of nis life. He died 
 Oct. 19, 1729. He married, May 9, 1697, Sarah 
 Bradley, who was born in Guilford Oct. 17, 1676, 
 daughter of Stephen and Hannah (Smith) Bradley. 
 The children of Thomas and Sarah Griswold were : 
 Mary, born Sept. 28, 1700, married Samuel Fitch; 
 Experience was born May 9, 1703; Sarah, born 
 Jan. 15, 1706, married Samuel Post; Thomas, born 
 March 26, 1708, died Jan. 11, 1754; Submit was 
 born Sept. 26, 1710; Anna, born April 4> 1713, mar- 
 ried John Hall. 
 
 (IV) Thomas Griswold (3), born at Guilford 
 March 26, 1708, married Feb. 17, 1735, Ann Graves, 
 who was born April 12, 171 5, daughter of John 
 and Elizabeth (Stevens) Graves, of Guilford. "She 
 died May 29, 1801. The children of Thomas and 
 Ann Griswold were as follows: Miles, born Jan. 
 2, 1736, married Sarah Crittenden, and died March 
 20, 1821; Thomas was born Sept. i, 1737; John, 
 born June 17, 1742, married Mary Burgis, and 
 died May 10, 1777; Ezra, born Dec. 10, 1753, mar- 
 ried Mehitabel Cleveland, and died March 4, 18 15. 
 
 (V) Thomas Griswold (4), the great-grandfa- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 945, 
 
 ther of our subject, was born in Guilford Sept. 
 I, 1737- It is said he served as a private in the 
 Revolutionary war. He died Jan. 7, 1821. He 
 married; Dec. 17, 1761, Hannah Crittenden, who 
 was born Aug. 22, 1740, daughter of Joseph and 
 Lucy (Spencer) Crittenden. She died March 31, 
 1816. The children of Thomas and Hannah Gris- 
 wold were: Thomas, born April 26, 1763, mar- 
 ried Miner Crittenden, and died March 8, 1846; 
 Joel, born Dec. 6, 1764, is mentioned below; Han- 
 nah, born May 26, 1771, married John Hall, and 
 died Nov. 10, 1840; Amos, born Jan. i, 1780, mar- 
 ried Rachel Bushnell, and died Aug. 21, 1876. 
 
 (VI) Joel Griswold, the grandfather of our 
 subject, was born in Guilford Dec. 6, 1764, and 
 died July 19, 1835. He maiTied Lucy Lee, who was 
 born July 8, 1770, daughter of Capt. Samuel and 
 Agnes Lee, and died March 24, 1854. The chil- 
 dren of Joel and Lucy Griswold were : Joel, born 
 Feb. 27, 1796; Clarissa, born Jan. 7, 1791, who 
 married Abram F. Scranton, and died Dec. 18, 
 1881 ; and Lucy Ann, born Sept. ig, 1808, who died 
 Dec. 22, 1816. 
 
 (VII) Joel Griswold, the father of our subject, 
 was born in Guilford Feb. 27, 1796. He married 
 Jan. 5, 1820, Sally Bartlett, who was born Nov. 
 20, 1801, daughter of Noah and Sally Judson Bart- 
 lett, and granddaughter of Joseph and Sarah (Crit- 
 tenden) Bartlett. She died Nov. 14, 1876. Chil- 
 dren were born to Joel and Sally Griswold as fol- 
 lows: Lucy Ann, born Nov. 16, 1820, is the widow 
 of D. Loper Davis, of Guilford. Clarissa Judson, 
 born Dec. 9, 1822, died Sept. 2, 1826. Henry 
 Bartlett, born Nov. 25, 1824, married Polly E. Wil- 
 cox. Clarissa Judson (2), born Nov. 10, 1827, is 
 the widow of Henry N. Davis, of Guilford. Thom- 
 as, born March 10, 1832, married Sophia F. Bishop. 
 Joel, born Jan. 2, 1836, first married Margaret 
 Coan; Mrs. Carrie (Walters) Griswold, his widow, 
 is yet living in Guilford. Mary was the twin of 
 Joel. Edward, born June 30, 1839, married Anna 
 E. Dudley. Charles, born July 26, 1841, married 
 Mary Griswold. Joel Griswold, the father of these 
 children, was a man of unusual intelligence. He 
 received a good education in his younger days, and 
 taught school for a number of terms, but his prin- 
 cipal occupation was farming. He was an extensive 
 land owner, and ranked as one of the leading citi- 
 zens of Guilford. His sage counsel was frequently 
 sought, and his good judgment and business ca- 
 pacity often led to his selection as administrator 
 of estates and guardian of orphaned children. In 
 politics he was a Whig and later a Republican. 
 He served the town of Guilford as selectman and 
 filled various other local offices. During the Civil 
 war he was an active defender of the Union, and 
 only his advanced age prevented him. from enlist- 
 ing in the army. However, he gave to his country 
 three sons, all of whom survive, and two of whom 
 afe now business men of Guilford. He was hon- 
 orable in all his dealings and scrupulously honest. 
 
 60 
 
 He lived a good Christian life, and died Aug. 29, 
 1879, mourned I5}- a wide circle of friends. 
 
 Charles Griswold, 3"0ungest son of Joel and 
 Sally (Bartlett) (iriswold, was born at Guilford 
 July 20, 1841. He was reared in his native town, 
 and was in. his youth when the war of the Rebellion 
 began. He enlisted Aug. 5, 1862, becoming a pri- 
 vate in Company E, isth Conn. V. I., was made a 
 sergeant, and later was transferred to the 29th 
 Conn. V I., as captain of Company B. During his 
 service he was in X'irginia and North Carohna, and 
 later through Maryland, South Carolina and Texas, 
 and in the latter State was stationed along the Rio 
 Grande to enforce the Monroe Doctrine. Among, 
 the men in command were Gen. Shafter and the 
 late Gen. Lawton. Among the battles and sieges- 
 in which Capt. Griswold participated were Fred- 
 ericksburg (where he was under Gen. Burnside) 
 and the siege of Richmond, his regiment being the- 
 first to enter Richmond after the surrender. In the 
 siege of Richmond Capt. Griswold lost twenty-twO' 
 men, killed and wounded, out of his company of 
 sixty-six. He was mustered out of the service Oct., 
 24, 1865. 
 
 At the close of the war Capt. Griswold returned 
 to Guilford and engaged in business, so continuing, 
 with the exception of four years, up to the present 
 time. In 1875 he helped to establish the Guilford 
 Savings Bank, and in 1880 was elected its treas- 
 urer, remaining in that position until 1889, the time 
 of his appointment as bank commissioner of the 
 State. After four years in this position he was 
 again elected treasurer of the Savings Bank. In 
 1900 he promoted and organized the Guilford Na- 
 tional Bank, of which he is cashier and general 
 manager. Among Capt. Griswold's other accom- 
 plishments may be mentioned surveying, in whichi 
 line he has done much work in his own and neigh- 
 boring towns. His father was a mathematician, and: 
 had intended to educate his son for the business o£ 
 civil engineering. The Captain is very methodical 
 in his business affairs, and his annual reports while 
 he was bank commissioner were prepared with great 
 care, and were published in a volume of some 300 
 pages. During this time he traveled over 20,000 
 miles, visiting many States. While out of business 
 in Guilford he was interested in real estate in New 
 Haven. He has been made conservator, guardian 
 or administrator in a number of cases. 
 
 In local affairs Mr. Griswold has taken a promi- 
 nent part, and has been an active worker in the 
 ranks of the Republican party. He has held a 
 number of town offices, was school visitor for 
 twenty years, has been president of the Board of 
 Education, and is justice of the peace. In 1887 he 
 was elected to represent his district in the State As- 
 sembly, and was chairman of the committee on 
 Manufactures, and a member of the committee on. 
 Engrossed Bills. At present he is trustee of the 
 Guilford Institute. In religious connection he is. 
 a member of the Congregational Church, and at 
 
946 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 present trustee of the societ)-. Socially he belongs 
 to the Loyal Legion, of New York, the Sons of 
 the American Revolution, the Army and Navy Club, 
 and Parmelee Post, G. A. R. (of which he was the 
 first commander). 
 
 Mr. Griswold was married, Feb. i8, 1864, to 
 Miss Mary E. Griswold, who was born March 
 13, 1841, daughter of Russell B. and Mary (Jones) 
 Griswold, of Guilford. To them were born two 
 children: Anna L., born Oct. 4, 1866, married Rev. 
 Edmund Vittum, D. D., of Grinnell, Iowa, May 16, 
 1889; and' Alfred Russell, born June 17, 1868, is 
 engaged in business with his father. 
 
 ICHABOD LEE SCRANTON, a retired sea 
 captain, is a member of one of the oldest and most 
 prominent families of New Haven county, of which 
 he is a native, having been born March 12, 1829, 
 in the town of Madison. 
 
 (I) John Scranton, the first of the name in 
 Guilford, was a native of England, whence he came 
 to America with a number of other families, and in 
 October, 1639, settled at Guilford, Conn., where he 
 passed the rest of his days, dying Aug. 27, 1671. 
 He was twice married. His first wife, Joanna, 
 whom he married in England, died July 22, 1661, 
 and, for his second wife he wedded, in Guilford, 
 Mrs. Ada Hill, widow of Robert Hill; she died in 
 April, 1685. Children: (i) John, sketch of whom 
 follows; (2) Thomas, born in 1643, married Mrs. 
 Deborah Thompson, widow ol Ebenezer Thomp- 
 son, and daughter of William Dudley; (3) Sarah, 
 born May 16, 1645, married John Bushnell. 
 
 (H) Capt. John Scranton, born in 1641 in Guil- 
 ford, removed in early manhood to the eastern part 
 of the town (now Madison), locating in the Ham- 
 monassett school district, where he spent the re- 
 mainder of his life engaged in farming. He died 
 in 1703, and was buried in Madison cemetery. Capt. 
 Scranton took the oath of freeman in 1670, and 
 was a member of the Congregational Church. 
 He was twice married, first time on March 12, 
 1673, to Mary Seward, born Feb. 28, 1652, daugh- 
 ter of William and Grace (Norton) Seward. This 
 wife died in 1688, and for his second wife he mar- 
 ried Dec. 16, 1691, Elizabeth Clark, born in 1660, 
 a daughter of John Bishop; she died in August, 
 1727. Eight children were born to (H) Capt. 
 John Scranton, as follows : ( I ) John, sketch of 
 whom follows; (2) Mary, born in 1678. married 
 July 9, 1699, Joseph Stone, and died March 21, 
 1758; (3) Mercy, born 1680, married Dec. 27, 1717, 
 Samuel Cowles, of Cheshire; (4) Mehitabel, born 
 1682; (5) Elizabeth, born Nov. 4, 1692, married 
 Dec. 27, 1717, William Rowlson; (6) Anne, born 
 Dec. 27, 1693, married Ebenezer Munger, and died 
 April 20, 1725; (7) Ebenezer, born March 16, 
 1696, married Ann Rowlson, and died Oct. 6, 1774; 
 (8) Deborah, born Dec. 3, 1697, married July 5, 
 3721, Abel Chittenden, and died Nov. 6, 1749. 
 
 (HI) Capt. John Scranton was born in East 
 
 Guilford, in 1676, and passed all his life there, en- 
 gaged in farming, dying jMarch 21, 1723. He was 
 three times married: (first) Dec. 12, 1699, to Mary 
 Norton, born in 1680; (second) to Mrs. Sarah Ev- 
 arts, widow of Ebenezer Evarts (she died Oct. 8, 
 1749) ; (third) to Mary Bushnell, of Saybrook, 
 daughter of Deacon Francis and Sarah (Scranton) 
 Bushnell. Children born to (HI) Capt. John 
 Scranton: (i) Mary, born July 6, 1701, married 
 Benjamin Bushnell; (2) John, born April 14, 1703, 
 was drowned in 1738 in the Hammonassett river, 
 Madison; (3) Josiah, born July 19, 1705, married 
 iNIary Dickson, and died Sept. 8, 1751; (4) Sarah, 
 born Nov. 25, 1707; (5) Hannah, born March 3, 
 1709; (6) Submit, born June 18, 1712, married 
 Simeon Chittenden, and died April 15, 1796; (7) 
 Noah, born June 20, 1715, married Esther Brad- 
 ley, and died Dec. 4, 1760; (8) Ichabod, sketch of 
 whom follows; (9) Hannah, born March 3, 1718, 
 married Nathaniel Allis, Nov. 20, 1739, and died 
 June 20, 1783; (10) Ann, born May 16, 1720, mar- 
 ried John Bushnell, of Saybrook, Conn.; (11) Re- 
 becca, born Sept. 12, 1722, married David Hoyt, of 
 Madison, and died May 5, 1798. 
 
 (IV) Ichabod Scranton, born Feb. 19, 1717, in 
 East Guilford (now Madison), Conn., was a life- 
 long agriculturist. He was a captain in the old 
 French war, and in that capacity went to Louis- 
 bourg. Cape Breton, Canada, also to Ticonderoga. 
 While returning home from the latter expedition 
 he was seized with smallpox at Albany, N. Y., of 
 which he died Dec. i, 1760, and he was buried pri- 
 vately, by night, on Clapboard Hill. Several sol- 
 diers of his company died during the campaign in 
 the north. Ichabod Scranton married Chloe Fow- 
 ler, born March 29, 1723, and died Dec. 10, 1791. 
 Children : ( I ) Chloe married Daniel Meigs, and 
 died May 26, 1788; (2) Elizabeth, born 1747, mar- 
 ried Edmund Wilcox, and died Aug. 26, 1813, in 
 Bergen, N. Y. ; (3) Theophilus, sketch of whom 
 follows; (4) Abraham, born Sept. 10, 1754, mar- 
 ried Lucy Stone and he died Feb. 24, 1844; (5) 
 Ichabod, born Dec. 10, 1757, died May 24, 1792 
 (he was an officer of distinction, in a troop of cav- 
 alry in the Revolutionary war). 
 
 (V) Theophilus Scranton, born Dec. i, 1751, 
 in Madison, a farmer bv occupation, died Feb. 16, 
 1827, and is buried in Madison cemetery. He mar- 
 ried Abigail Lee, born July 11, 1754, daughter of 
 Jonathan and Mary Lee, of Madison ; she died Dec. 
 23, 1840, at the ripe old age of nearly eighty-six 
 years. Children: (i) Erastus, born Aug. i, 
 1777, was a minister; he married Mary Prudon, 
 and died Oct. 5, 1861 ; (2) Parnel, born March 18, 
 1779, married William Whitsey, and died April, 
 ^'^58; (3) Jonathan, born Oct. 10, 1781, marrip'J 
 Roxanna Crompton, and died July 27, 1847; (4) 
 Charlotte, born Jan. 21, 1783, married Nathan 
 Clark, and died March 5, 1823; (5) Chloe, born 
 Oct. 2, 1784, married first Reuben Judson, and 
 second, Jan. 18, 1823, Nathan Bushnell, of Madi- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 947 
 
 ioii, and died July 5, 1873; (6) Theophilus, born 
 April 13, 1786, married Elizaibeth Warner, and 
 died May 14, 1859; (7) Hubbard, born jMay 4, 
 1788; (8) Leman, born Alay 10, 1790, died Aug. 
 20, 1791 ; (9) Ichabod Lee, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows; (10) Henry, born Nov. i, 1794, married Ra- 
 chel Linsley, and died March 4, 1876; (ii)- Abi- 
 gail, born May 15, 1797, died May 10, 1810. 
 
 (VI) Ichabod Lee Scranton, father of the sub- 
 ject proper of this sketch, was born July 15, 1792, 
 in Madison, Conn., where he was reared and edu- 
 cated. In his younger days he taught school, later 
 becoming engaged in mercantile business in Madi- 
 son, as coal dealer, grocery merchant, etc., from 
 there moving to New Haven, afterward to New 
 York, in both of which cities he was engaged in 
 business, in the latter conducting a produce busi- 
 ness some fifteen years. The later days of his life 
 he spent in Madison, dying there June 18, 1881, 
 and his remains were buried in the cemetery there. 
 He was a colonel in the militia, and at one time was 
 offered the position of brigadier general, but de- 
 clined the honor. In politics he was first a Whig, 
 later a Republican, while in religious faith he was 
 a member of the Congregational Church for over 
 fifty years. He built and owned over twenty ves- 
 sels, being captain of several engaged in the local 
 trade, and he was also a stockholder in the Shore 
 Line Railroad. A very quiet, unassuming man, he 
 was of a comparatively retiring disposition, and 
 was highly respected for his integrity and probity. 
 
 Mr. Scranton was twice married, (first) Nov. 
 26, 1827, in Madison, to Artemisia Hand, born 
 Sept. 15, 1807, and died June 12, 1838; she was 
 a daughter of Daniel and Artemisia (Meigs) Hand, 
 and a granddaughter of Capt. Daniel Hand. Chil- 
 dren by this union: (i) Ichabod Lee. sketch of 
 whom follows; (2) Artemisia Meigs, born April 
 14, 1831, died Sept. 10, 1832; (3) Artemisia Meigs 
 (2), born Sept. 7, 1833, married William Skinner; 
 (4) Daniel Hand, born Jan. 15, 1838, died in in- 
 fancy. For his second wife Mr. Scranton wedded 
 Lucey Ann Easton, born March i, 1808, in New 
 York, died March 6, 1880, and is buried in Madi- 
 son cemetery. By this union there was one child, 
 Mary Augusta, born June 8, 1848, died July 2, 
 1848. 
 
 (VII) Ichabod Lee Scranton, whose name opens 
 this memoir, received his education in part at the 
 district schools of Madison, in part at Lee's Acad- 
 emy, and at an early age commenced "a life on the 
 ocean wave," first on his father's vessel. At the 
 age of eighteen he was part owner and master of 
 the sloop "Falcon" in the produce trade to New 
 York and other ports on the Atlantic coast. For 
 over thirty years he was engaged in the coasting 
 trade, freighting, etc., after which he took up agri- 
 cultural pursuits on the Leete farm at East River, 
 where he is now living retired. Mr. Scranton is a 
 man of education, well read, well known and highly 
 respected, a member of the Congregational Church, 
 
 and a member of the I. O. O. F. He is a Republi- 
 can in politics, and in 1880 was elected on that 
 ticket to the State Legislature, and served on the 
 committee on Sales of Land. 
 
 Capt. Scranton has been twice married, (first) 
 May 18, 1853, in Madison, to Deborah Ward 
 Scranton, born Feb. 9, 1834, and died June 22, 
 1877; she was a daughter of Ichabod Benjamin and 
 Fanny Antha (Wilcox) Scranton, and grand- 
 daughter of Abraham and Lucy (Stone) Scran- 
 ton, the former of whom was a soldier in the war 
 of the Revolution from the time he was sixteen years 
 old up to the close of the conflict. Children born 
 to this marriage: (i) Wallace Lee, born June 24, 
 1854, is a mechanical engineer of Madison; he mar- 
 ried Harriet ("Hattie") Crompton, daughter of 
 George Crompton ; one child, Catherine Deborah, 
 born in 1886, graces their home. (2) Benjamin 
 Hand, born Nov. 7, 1856, resides in Detroit, Mich., 
 and is president of the American Electrical Heater 
 Co.; he married Nancy Andrews. (3) Daniel Hand, 
 born May 22, 1859, married Oct. 11, 1888, Alida 
 Josephine Scranton ; he resides in Trenton, N. J., 
 and represents R. G. Dun & Co.'s Mercantile 
 agency. (4) Lizzie Ward, born Dec. 17, 1863, 
 married Edwin W. Munger. (5) George Edward, 
 born Aug. i, 1865, lives in Chicago; he married 
 Julia Jerome, of Detroit, Mich. (6) William 
 Skinner, born Feb. 22, 1873, is in the building and 
 loan business, and running a Pan-American hotel 
 at Buffalo. On June 20, 1900, in Buffalo, he mar- 
 ried Ethel Blackstone. For his second wife Capt. 
 Scranton married, in 1879, in New Haven, Mrs. 
 Emily (Isbell) Lee, of Killingworth, Conn., widow 
 of Newton Lee. She died in 1884, and is buried in 
 Madison cemetery. There were no children by 
 this marriage. 
 
 MICHAEL DONOHUE, retired merchant, 
 Waterbury, of which city he has been a resident 
 since 1836, is a native of Ireland, born June 18, 
 1817, in County Cavan. 
 
 Bryan Donohue, father of our subject, and who 
 never left his native land, Erin, was a farmer there 
 all his days. He married Ellen Lynch, also of 
 County Cavan, and a family of eight children were 
 born to them, named as follows : Thomas, Pat- 
 rick, James, Bryan, Michael, Ann, Bridget and 
 Mary. Of these, Mary is yet living in Ireland; and 
 Patrick came to America, lived in Waterbury for 
 a time, and then went to Wisconsin, where he died. 
 All the rest, except our subject, are also deceased. 
 
 Michael Donohue, whose name introduces these 
 lines, attended school in his native land, also helped 
 on his father's farm, and at the age of nineteen, 
 came to the United States, landing at New York 
 after a voyage of over seven weeks in a sailing ves- 
 sel, there being no steamships in those days. From 
 New York he came direct to Waterbury, in 1836, 
 and has been here ever since, except for a short 
 time spent in Wisconsin, where he bought 100 acres 
 
948 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of land. He is now the oldest living Irishman in 
 the city, all those that were here when he came be- 
 ing dead. For a time he worked in Benedict & 
 Burnham's factory, before the days of steam power, 
 when bells were rung to call the people to work, 
 and he well remembers the hard times of 1837, 
 when everything was at a standstill, and during that 
 long-to-be remembered financial crisis not a bell 
 was heard from the six factories in Waterbury. 
 
 About the year 1840 Mr. Donohue embarked in 
 the grocery business at the corner of Bridge and 
 Baldwin streets, and successfully conducted same 
 for several years', or until 1842, when he retired, 
 having amassed a comfortable competence. 
 
 In 1840 Mr. Donohue married Bridget Coyle, a 
 native of County Longford, Ireland, and seven chil- 
 dren were born to this union, a brief record of 
 them being as follows: Thomas (deceased) was 
 a lawyer in Waterbury; Michael (deceased) was a 
 painter ; James died in infancy ; Helen is the widow 
 of Maurice Grelle ; Mary A. is a school teacher in 
 Waterbury ; Kate is the deceased wife of Albert 
 Beach, of Waterbury; and the youngest died in 
 infancy. The mother of these passed from earth 
 Jan. 16, 1892. In religious faith Mr. Donohue is a 
 member of Immacvilate Conception parish, Roman 
 Catholic Church. When he came to Waterbury 
 there was no Catholic priest nearer than New Ha- 
 ven. A Democrat in politics, his first presidential 
 vote was cast for Martin Van Buren ; in municipal 
 matters he has served his adopted city as council- 
 man and as a member of the board of education. 
 He owns considerable propert}- in Waterbury, which 
 he rents, and he is one of the most popular men 
 in the city and vicinity, all his fellow countrymen 
 looking up to him as to a patriarch. 
 
 SUMNER WESLEY BRAY, a highly es- 
 teemed resident of Milford, in which town he ranks 
 among the most thrifty farmers, was born in Dover, 
 Maine, March 21, 1838, son of Sumner and Sarah 
 (Shipley) Bray. The family is of English origin, 
 and his great-grandfather was born in England. 
 
 Daniel Bray, the grandfather of our subject, 
 was born probably in Maine, where he spent his 
 manhood, engaged in farming. He married, and 
 had the following children : Daniel is a farmer near 
 Houlton, Aroostook Co., Maine ; Asa was a farmer 
 in that State; Lebbeus is a Methodist minister; 
 Comings was also an M. E. preacher; Cyrus is a 
 farmer in Maine ; Sumner is mentioned more fully 
 below; Betsey (deceased) was a school teacher; 
 Jane married Moses Washburn; Phoebe, a school 
 teacher, died unmarried. 
 
 Sumner Bray, our subject's father, was born in 
 181 1, in Minot, Maine, and followed farming for 
 many years, dying in 1885. His wife, Sarah (Ship- 
 ley), was born in Maine, and her .father was a 
 native of the same State. They had four children : 
 Mary died unmarried, aged tw'enty-one; Sumner 
 W., our subject, was next in the order of birth- 
 
 Sarah married Elijah Marrell (now deceased), a; 
 native of Maine, and a farmer and carpenter by 
 occupation ; Willard is a farmer in Milford, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Our subject assisted his father on the homestead 
 until he reached the age of twenty-three, and^ 
 though his advantages were inferior to those en- 
 joyed by the youth of the present day, he secured 
 a practical education in the neig'hboring district 
 school, attending until eighteen years old. While 
 under the parental roof he gave his earnings to his 
 father, and his own start in life was accordingly 
 humble, his only capital being a full stock of en- 
 ergy and ambition. Hard work and persevering in- 
 dustry, however, supplied the , financial lack, and 
 before many years had elapsed he was on the high 
 road to prosperity. Shortly after his marriage he 
 located in West Upton, Mass., where he was em- 
 ployed for seven years in a straw factory. Here 
 his native ability for getting the best results in 
 whatever he undertakes soon asserted itself. He 
 began very modestly, but his faithful services and 
 steady habits were noted by his employer, W. 
 Kno'wlton, who rewarded them with advancement,, 
 so that at the end of the period mentioned he had 
 charge of the large farm of that gentleman, who 
 owned 3,000 acres of land, and kept much stock. 
 Mr. Bray also filled numerous positions of respon- 
 sibility in and about the factory, being general su- 
 perintendent of the outside work and having charge 
 of the shipping. In 1870 he left, of his own ac- 
 cord, and came to Milford, New Haven Co., Conn., 
 taking a similar position in the factory there, and 
 so continued for about fifteen years. At the end 
 of that time he purchased his present farm, but 
 instead of taking possession at once he went to 
 Scarsdale, N. Y., to manage a farm for William 
 Adams, of No. 33 Wall street. New York City. 
 The position came unsolicited, Mr. Bray having- 
 the reputation of being a first-class farmer. 
 
 Returning to Milford four years later our sub- 
 ject engaged in farming at his homestead, an at- 
 tractive place of fifty-six acres, where he now makes 
 a speciaky of raising garden stufif and dairying. 
 Mr. Bray has erected all the buildings on this- 
 place, which under his systematic management has 
 been broug-'ht to a high state of cultivation. He 
 has succeeded, by constant thrift, in acquiring a very 
 comfortable competence, and has succeeded equally 
 well in maintaining the high standards of integrity 
 and honor which were early set before him. Reared 
 under Christian influences, and impressed with the 
 value of a good name, he has never swerved from' 
 the paths laid out for him in his youth, all his 
 transactions bearing the stamp of honesty and 
 straightforwardness. To-day he stands high in the 
 esteem of his fellow men, a credit to his parentage 
 and to the community which has so long claimed 
 him. Mr. Bray is very unassuming in his manners 
 and habits. He takes an intelligent interest in pub- 
 lic affairs, is a stanch Republican in politics, and is- 
 
^/U'^'ni^nJ/i^ 
 
 #3 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 949 
 
 conscientious in the discharge of what he believes 
 to be his duty as a citizen. 
 
 In July, 1861, Mr. Bray was united in marriage 
 with Miss Hattie Field, of Garland, Maine, who 
 was born July 16,, 1838, a daughter of Capt. Will- 
 iam Field, a well-known sea captain. All Mr. 
 Bray's children were bv this union, viz. : Edgar, 
 born May 27, 1863, died in infancy. Ervin J., born 
 Aug. I. 1864, is married and has three children, 
 Bessie M., James S. and Helen ; he is employed 
 in a straw factory in Brooklyn. Seyston V., born 
 March 3, 1869, is a conductor in the North Haven 
 freight yard ; he is married and has one child, El- 
 liott. Lillian, born July 11, 1870, died in infancy. 
 Howard E., born March 9, 1874, died in infancy. 
 William S., born Sept. 25, 1880, died May i, 1901 ; 
 he was a most promising young man, superior in 
 every way, and of great help to his father, having 
 always lived at home. The mother of these passed 
 away Nov. 28, 1881. On June 17, 1883, in Mil- 
 ford, Mr. Bray married, for his second wife, Mrs. 
 Martha Ellen (Dickey) Clements, who was born in 
 1838 in Cormwallis, Nova Scotia, daughter of 
 George and Sarah Jane (Bennett) Dickey, who had 
 a family of nine children. Mr. Dickey was a farmer 
 bv occupation. Mrs. Dickev now riiakes Her home 
 with her daughter, Mrs. Bray, in Milford,, and, 
 though almost ninety-one years old, is well pre- 
 served and enjoys good health. Mrs. Bray is a 
 tliorough business woman, and has proved an effi- 
 cient helpmate to her energetic husband, who at- 
 tributes much of his success to her careful manage- 
 ment and industry. She is a Baptist in religious 
 connection, and our subject is identified with the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 HERBERT CLARK BALDWIN, a represen- 
 tative farmer and one of the most influential and 
 popular citizens of Beacon Falls, is a native of New 
 Haven county, born in the town of Oxford Sept. 
 3, 1840, son of Lucian Baldwin. 
 
 Our subject's father was born Feb. 6, 1800, in 
 what is now Naugatuck, but was then known as 
 Waterbury. The grandfather, Mathew Baldwin, 
 spent his life as a farmer in Naugatuck. In his 
 family were seven children, namely : Alanson, who 
 engaged in farming in Naugatuck until his death ; 
 Marshall, also a farmer of that town; Lucian, the 
 father of our subject; Miles, who died young; 
 Lockey, who married a Mr. Wooster, a farmer of 
 Naugatuck ; Emeline, who married a Mr. Sperry, a 
 farmer of Milford; and Harriette. 
 
 By occupation Lucian Baldwin was a farmer and 
 school teacher. In politics he was a Whig. He 
 died Sept. 20, 1855, honored and- respected by all 
 who knew him. He first married Laura Johnson, 
 and they had one child. The mother died young, 
 and Mr. Baldwin married Aurelia Tolles, who was 
 "born in Bethany, this county, Aug. 12, 1803, and 
 died Sept. 21, 1889. Her father, Daniel Tolles, was 
 a farmer of Bethany. Our subject is the fifth m 
 
 the order of birth in a family of seven children, the 
 others being as follows: Mary T., born July 8, 
 1833, died Jan. i, 1837 ; Ellen A., born Dec. 5, 1834, 
 died April 5, 1836; Milo L., born March 12, 1836, 
 died May 23, 1864; Henry D., born Aug. 15, 1837, 
 was a stone mason by trade, and died Nov. 15, 1882 ; 
 Edward W., born May 29, 1843, is a hotel-keeper 
 in Boston, Mass. ; and Ellen A., born March 20, 
 1846, is the wife of William D. Gilbert, a carpenter 
 of Derby. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth Herbert C. Bald- 
 win attended the local schools and assisted in the 
 labors of the home farm. He was fifteen years of 
 age at the time of his father's death, when more of 
 the farm work fell to his share, and for three years 
 thereafter he also worked for neighboring farmers. 
 In September, 1861, he laid aside all personal inter- 
 ests and joined the boys in blue, being mustered in 
 at New Haven, Nov. 7th, as a member of Company 
 K, 13th Conn. V. I., which wag first assigned to 
 the Department of the Gulf. He participated in the 
 engagements at Georgia Landing, Irish Bend, Cane 
 River, Mansuary Plains, and the siege of Port Hud- 
 son ; was also through the Red River campaign, 
 and in 1864 was transferred with his command to 
 Virginia, having re-enlisted for three years' more 
 service. There under Gen. Sheridan, he took part 
 in the battles of Berryville, Winchester, Fisher Hill 
 and Cedar Creek, where he was wounded. He was 
 made corporal Dec. 12, 1862; sergeant, Aug. 27, 
 1863 ; first sergeant, Nov. I, 1864; second lieutenant, 
 Jan. I, 1865; and was brevetted first lieutenant to 
 date from March 13, 1865, for gallant and meri- 
 torious service at Port Hudson. He was mustered 
 out April 25, 1866, and returned to Oxford. In the 
 fall of that year he bought his present farm of 
 eighty-eight acres, in Oxford, and now included in 
 the town of Beacon Falls, which was incorporated 
 as a town in 1871. He has since devoted his ener- 
 gies, with the most gratifying results, to the culti- 
 vation and improvement of this tract. 
 
 On Dec. 25, 1866, Mr. Baldwin was united in 
 marriage with Miss Josephine H. Jones, a native of 
 Scott, Cortland Co., N. Y. Her parents. Van 
 Rensselaer and Helen (Clute) Jones, were natives 
 of Onondaga and Saratoga counties, N. Y., re- 
 spectively, and the father was a farmer and coun- 
 try merchant. He died in 1888, but the mother is 
 still living. They were faithful members of the 
 Baptist Church, and in politics he was a Democrat. 
 To them were born eight children : One that died 
 in infancy; Elizabeth; Harriet; Mary; Josephine 
 H. ; another who died in infancy ; George ; and 
 William. Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin had seven chil- 
 dren, whose names and dates of birth are as fol- 
 lows : Edward D., June 11, 1868; Lucian E., Jan. 
 20 1870; Alfred C, Dec. 5, 1872; Hattie M., May 
 2 1874; Herbert C, Jr., Aug. 8, 1876; William A., 
 Jan. 21, 1884; and Harold T., Dec. 24. 1886. Ed- 
 ward D. died. Feb. 18, 1869, and William A. died 
 July 7, 1885, but the others are still living. Lucian 
 
95° 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 E. is now a traveling salesman, residing in Rye, 
 N. Y., and Alfred C. is an attorney of Derby, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Mr. Baldwin is a member of Upson Post, No. 
 40, G. A. R., of Seymour, and also of the Grange. 
 Politically he is a stanch supporter of the Republi- 
 can party, and his fellow citizens, recognizing his 
 worth and ability, have often called him to public 
 office. He has served as assessor ; member of the 
 board of relief; justice of the peace; first selectman 
 many years; selectman from 1873 to 1890, inclusive, 
 being chairman of the board during that time with 
 the exception of two years ; and represented his 
 town in the State Legislature in 1876, 1880, 1883, 
 1884, 1891, 1899 and 1901. His public and private 
 records are above reproach, for his career has ever 
 been characterized by the utmost fidelity to duty. 
 He is public-spirited and progressive, and gives 
 his support to all measures for the general good. 
 
 RICHARD TALBOT was born in the parish 
 of Dagnal, near London, England, Feb. 28, 1838, 
 a son of George Talbot, who was born in London 
 Oct. 16, 1818. The father was a straw hat and 
 bonnet manufacturer, and was quite successful in 
 his business. He took an active part in London 
 politics, and was a great worker in the Episcopal 
 Church. In 1869 he came to the United States, 
 and set up in his business at Westboro, Mass., and 
 also at South Framingham, same State, for a num- 
 ber of years being engaged in it, but finally remov- 
 ing to Cheshire, Conn., where he lived on a farm 
 several years before his death, Aug. 18, 1888. His 
 remains were interred at Wallingford, Conn. Han- 
 nah Norman, of Buckingham county, England, born 
 March 11, 181Q, became his wife in 1837, ^'id died 
 in Dunstable, England, June i, 1850, and was bur- 
 ied in the cemetery at that place. To them were 
 born two children : Richard ; and Charles W., now 
 living in Leominster, Mass., where he is an etcher 
 on cutlery. 
 
 George J. Talbot, father of George and grand- 
 father of Richard, was engaged as a house decora- 
 tor in London, and had his place of business on 
 Drury Lane. Born in 1784, he died at the early 
 age of thirty-four. Fannie Paul, his wife, was of 
 the family to which John Paul Jones, the great 
 sailor, belonged. Their children were: Marv M., 
 Mira B., John G. (who died at the age of sixteen 
 years), George and Fannie. George John Talbot, 
 father of George J., was a man of independent' 
 means, which largely came to him as an inheritance. 
 His wife's Christian name was Mary Martha, and 
 thev had two children, George J. and James. The 
 family sprang from one of the youngest branches 
 of the Shrewesbury family, and is one of the oldest 
 names in England. Its ancestry can be traced 
 farther back than 14J.2, when John Talbot was 
 knie'hted and made an Earl. 
 
 Richard Talbot was educated at Dunstable, 
 England, and left school at the age of thirteen 
 
 years, to become an apprentice at the shoemaking 
 trade in Northampton, where he remained seven 
 years. He then worked at his trade in London and 
 in Northampton until he came to this country. 
 Leaving Liverpool, Jan. 19, 1861, he crossed the 
 ocean, and immediately came to Wallingford, em- 
 ployment being secured by him with L. C. Ryerson,. 
 where he worked as a boot-maker for about a year. 
 On May 2, 1862, he began business for himself in 
 the Lewis building, on North ^vlain street, where 
 he remained eleven years. For about five years he- 
 was on Fair street, and then he built his present 
 store on Centre street. ^Ir. Talbot is a very skill- 
 ful workman, and in former days made a specialty^ 
 of fine custom work, and had several men working 
 for him. At the present time he is devoting his- 
 attention to fine repairing, and is carrying a first 
 class stock of boots and shoes. 
 
 The oldest business man in Wallingford, his- 
 reputation as a boot and shoe maker is second to- 
 none in the State. 
 
 Mr. Talbot is a member of -Accanant Lodge,, 
 No. yy, I. O. O. F., where he has passed through 
 the various chairs, and) is now chairman of the- 
 board of. trustees, and he is a member of Atlantic 
 Encampment, No. 28, of Meriden ; he is also iden- 
 tified with the Red Men. He has been treasurer of 
 Compass Lodge, No. 9, F. & A. AL, since 1878, 
 and has risen to high standing in the Masonic fra- 
 ternity in the intervening years, having attained" 
 the 32d degree. He is enrolled in Keystone Chap- 
 ter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; Hamilton Council, No. 22, 
 R. & S. M. ; St. Elmo Commandery, No. g, K. T;- 
 the Mystic Shrine ; and LaFayette Consistory, S. 
 P R. S., Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, 32d' 
 dbgree. Politically Mr. Talbot is a Republican,, 
 and in his religious belief is a Methodist. 
 
 On Nov. 29, 1858, Mr. Talbot was united in 
 marriage with Miss Elizabeth James, of North- 
 amptonshire, England, a daughter of Joseph- 
 James. They have had the following children: (l) 
 George J., connected with his father in business 
 at Wallingford, married May Chapman, and is the 
 father of Arthur R. : G. Vernon ; Earl C. ; Miltoir 
 A. and Hazel M. (2) Fannie E. died at the age- 
 of thirteen months. (3) Frank AV., a silver smith 
 with R. Wallace & Sons, married Mrs. Sarah 
 Shrives, of Kansas. (4) William A., a railway mail 
 clerk on the N. Y., X. H. & H. R. R., between 
 Springfield and New York, has his home in Spring- 
 field ; he married Aliss Hattie M. Wilcox, of Nev,- 
 Haven, and has two children : Frank E. and Louise 
 W. (5) Harrie J., born Jan. 12, 1869, is employed 
 at the factory of R. Wallace & Sons ; he married 
 Miss Emma A. Williams, of Wallingford, who died' 
 May 2, 1900. (6) Frances A. died June 29, 1872. 
 
 WILBUR W. SMITH. One of the best known 
 citizens of Seymour is its genial and popular post- 
 master, the subject of this sketch. For many years 
 he has resided in that flourishing little city, and b}^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 951 
 
 his fellow citizens he has beeiT frequently honored 
 at the polls. 'He was a veteran officer of distinction 
 and merit. 
 
 Captain Smith was born in Westville, Conn., 
 Jan. g, 1829, a son of Sylvester and Henrietta 
 (Cadwell) Smith. The father, a prominent paper 
 mamiifacturer, was born in Springfield, Mass., in 
 1808, and in 1832 removed to Seymoiir. There 
 he found work in a paper mill, following it for a 
 number of years. Later he began the manufacture 
 of paper and continued the business successfully 
 until 1869. At that time he was the oldest paper 
 manufacturer at Seymour. He was also engaged 
 in the manufacture of strawboard, employing a 
 large number of hands. Sylvester Smith was a 
 man of unusually forceful character. He was ar- 
 dent in his political convictions, a prominent church 
 worker and in every sense public spirited and en- 
 terprising. In politics he was a Republican and 
 twice he was elected a member of the State Leg- 
 islature, first in 1850 from the town of Derby, 
 which then included Seymour, and later in 1865, 
 from the latter town. Himself and wife were prom- 
 inent members of the M. E. Church ; in fact Mr. 
 Smith was a leading spirit in the denomination and 
 often conducted religious services, preaching in 
 every village within a radius of twenty miles. He 
 accumulated considerable real estate, the rewards 
 of his manufacturing business. He was a member 
 of Mechanics Lodge, L O. O. F., serving many 
 years as chaplain of the Lodge. He died in 1892, 
 aged eighty-four years. His worthy helpmeet died 
 aged eighty-two years. To Sylvester and Henri- 
 etta Smith were born twelve children, four of 
 whom, our subject; Mary, wife of Seth Warner; 
 Martha, wife of William B. Bissell ; and Robert 
 N., a paper maker of Seymour, are still living. 
 
 The education of A\'ilbur W Smith wast re- 
 ceived in the common schools, and he then began 
 work in his father's mill, in which service he con- 
 tinued with increasing responsibility and duties un- 
 til his enlistment in 1862 in Company H, 20th Conn., 
 V. I. It w^s largely through the efforts of Capt. 
 Smith that the company was enlisted. He was 
 commissioned its first lieutenant, and in January, 
 1863, was promoted to captain of Company C, 
 same regiment, serving in that rank until the close 
 of the war. The 20tb Connecticut was first assigned 
 to the I2th Army Corps, First Division, and later 
 to the 20th Corps. Our subject participated in a 
 number of severe engagements, including Chan- 
 cellorsville, Gettysburg and about twelve battles 
 fought by Gen. Sherman in his march from Atlanta 
 to the Sea. At Chancellorsville Captain Smith was 
 taken prisoner and confined for a time in Libby 
 Prison, rejoining his regiment when exchanged. 
 
 When mustered out as captain at the close of the 
 war, Capt. Smith returned home and resumed his 
 connection with his father's paper mill, until the lat- 
 ter's retirement in 1869. Fie then assumed charge 
 of the business and conducted it until 1890, when 
 
 he closed the mill. In 1891 he was appointed post- 
 master at Seymour, serving four years. In 1899 he 
 was re-appointed and is now filling his second term. 
 The office has steadily risen in importance, and is 
 now a third class office, handling 3,000 letters per 
 day, and Postmaster Smith has two assistants. In 
 1896 he was elected first selectman and town agent 
 and re-elected in 1897 and 1898, successively, serv- 
 ing until October, 1899. Among other local offices 
 he has filled are those of assessor and member of 
 the school board. 
 
 Ill 1850 Mr. Smith was married to Miss Jane 
 jNI. Wooster, one of the seven children of Mark and 
 Eliza (Lake) Wooster, the former a farmer of 
 Oxford, and at one time sheriff^, and a member of 
 an old and influential family that took an active 
 part in public aft'airs. To Mr. and Airs. Smith 
 was born one daughter, Jennie W., a young lady of 
 many accomplishments, who is now officiating as 
 the efficient assistant of her father in the postoffice. 
 The estimable wife of our subject died June 4, 1899, 
 aged sixty-nine years. She attended the Episcopal 
 Church. To her surviving parent Miss Jennie is a 
 most devoted daughter and helper, both in the office 
 and at home. 
 
 Captain Smith is a stanch Republican in poli- 
 tics. He is a member of the Morning Star Lodge, 
 F. & A. ~\l.. of Seymour, and for two years has 
 been its secretary. He is also a prominent member 
 of Upson Post, No. 40, G. A. R., and for four years 
 has served as its commander. Possessing that kind- 
 liness and courtesy which mark the gentleman, and 
 that camaraderie which invites respect and friend- 
 ship, Capt. Smith has a warm place in the hearts 
 of his fellow men. He has a large circle of friends 
 and is widely popular. W^ith his genial manners 
 are associated a high integrity, a public spirit and 
 keen business judgment, which make him one of 
 Seymour's most valued citizens. 
 
 AXSOX F. ABBOTT, one of the most prom- 
 inent and influential citizens of Waterbury, and a 
 man intensely interested in every good work and 
 word, was born in Middlebury, this county, April 
 23, 1830. 
 
 Alvin Abbott, his father, was born in the same 
 place May 7, 1794, and died in Waterbury Jan. 23, 
 1861. Robert Abbott, the ancestor of the family 
 on these shores, was one of three brothers from 
 England. He came to Wethersfield, Conn., about 
 1640, thence moving to Xew Flaven, and in 1645 
 to Branford, where his son Daniel was born. 
 Stephen Abbott, son of Daniel, married Hannah 
 Frisbie in 1725, and moved to Middlebury, Conn., 
 in 1750. His son, Daniel Abbott, was born in 1726, 
 and married Lois Smith, and their eldest son was 
 David, the grandfather of Anson F. The Smiths 
 were of Wallingford, Connecticut. 
 
 David Abbott, the grandfather of Anson F., 
 was born June 6, 1764, in Middlebury, where he 
 died. On May 30, 1786, he married Sarah Tyler, 
 
9S: 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 daughter of James Tyler, and sister of Rev. Ben- 
 nett Tyler, D. D., at one time president of Andover 
 Theological Seminary, and a noted man of his time. 
 David Abbott and his wife settled on the old farm 
 in ]vliddlebury, where they reared the following 
 family: Eben, born in 1789; Philomelia, born in 
 1791, who died young; Alvin, born May 7, 1794. 
 the father of Anson F. ; David, bom in 1797 ; Sally, 
 born in 1799, who died young; Anna, born in 1800; 
 Philo, born in 1802; Philomelia (2), born in 1805; 
 Emma, born in 1807; Ruth, born in 1810; Iva, born 
 in 1812; and Sarah, born in 1817. Those who 
 reached maturity married and reared families. Ira 
 was a ^Methodist minister, and the other sons were 
 all farmers. 
 
 Alvin Abbott, the father of Anson F., was 
 reared in Middlebury, and studied for the ministry, 
 but was prevented from following it as a life work 
 by long-continued ill health, followed by a perma- 
 nent nervous infirmity. He married Fanny Woos- 
 ter, who was born in Oxford, Conn., April 3, 1794, 
 and died Feb. 3, 1884. Thomas Wooster, her 
 father, was captured I)}' the Indians when a young 
 •man and carried off to Canada, where he suffered 
 manv hardships. At the close of the Revolutionary 
 war he returned from Canada and settled in Ox- 
 ford, Conn., where he died at the age of forty-three. 
 He married Elizabeth Bishop. Thomas Wooster, 
 father of this Thomas, was a grandson of a Woos- 
 ter who, according to family traditions, came from 
 England and settled at Derby, Conn. After mar- 
 riage Alvin Abbott and his wife settled on a part 
 of the old homestead farm in ^^liddlebury, and 
 there lived until 1840, when they moved to New 
 Haven, in 1846 coming to Waterbury. They had 
 eight children: (i) Larmon W., bom Jan. 11, 
 1818, died April 12. iqoo: he was a Alethodist min- 
 ister. (2) Benjamin, born Aug. 19, 1820, was a 
 farmer, and died in Nebraska Alarch 21, i8q8. (3) 
 Charles S., born Dec. 12, 1822, is now living in 
 Bridgeport, Conn., where he is a printer, and owns 
 an office. (4) Lochinvar, born Jan. it, 1825, was 
 a carpenter, and died in Waterbury May 14, 1888. 
 (5) Alvin v., bom Dec. 12, 1827, is now a ^leth- 
 odist minister. (6) Anson F. is mentioned below. 
 (7) Nathan B.. born Feb. to, T833, is a contractor 
 in Columbus, Ohio. (8) James M,, born June t2, 
 183s. was a manufacturer in Waterbury, and died 
 at Noroton, Conn., June T5, 1893. 
 
 Anson F. Abbott spent the first ten years of his 
 life in Middlebury, two vears in New Haven, and 
 five years on a farm in Watertown, Conn. He at- 
 tended district school, and the academy winters, 
 and when his school days were over, served three 
 years as clerk in the stores of Amos A. Gridley and 
 Eli Curtiss, removing to ^^'aterbury in 1850. As 
 a bookkeeper-and salesman he worked six vears in 
 the store of the Benedict & Burnham Mfg. Co., 
 and with the Benedict & Scovill Co., of which latter 
 companv he was Eecrctar\- and then liecame secre- 
 tary and treasurer of the AA^atcrbury Building and 
 
 Loan Association, which ceased to do business in 
 1867. Since that time Mr. Abbott hasi been exten- 
 sively engaged in real estate, insurance and invest- 
 ments. In September, 1901, he admitted Howard 
 T. Parker to a partnership in his business, which is 
 now conducted in the name of Abbott & Parker. 
 
 Mr. Abbott and Miss Nancy H. Merriman were 
 married Sept. 28, 1852, and to this union seven 
 children have been bom: Mary M. is a graduate 
 of Vassar College, and is now a teacher in the Wat- 
 erbury high school. Anna E. is the wife of Rev. 
 T. M. Peck, an Episcopal minister. Frederick C. 
 is in the real estate business and president of the 
 Southern States Trust Co., in Charlotte, N. C. 
 George Benjamin has a fruit farm in Corning, Cal. 
 Kate B. married Frank B. Deane, and died July 23, 
 1894. Burton H. died in infancy. John V. is a 
 surveyor in Waterbury. j\[rs. Abbott was born in 
 W^atertown, where the family of her father, George 
 F. Merriman, a farmer, had been long established. 
 
 Mr. Abbott is a Republican of independent pro- 
 clivities. He and his family are members of the 
 Methodist Church, of which be was trustee and 
 treasurer for twenty-five years and superintendent 
 of the Sunday school for twenty-seven years. Mr. 
 Abbott was the first secretary of the local Y. M. C. 
 A. From his pen has come a history of his church 
 in Waterbury, which appears in a history of that 
 city. In 1858 he organized a Band of Hope in 
 "\\^aterbury, and, always active in temperance work, 
 lent assistance in organizing the Waterbury Wo- 
 men's Christian Temperance Union, and other tem- 
 perance societies. As a man, a citizen and a gentle- 
 man of the old school he is highly respected by all 
 who know him. 
 
 WILLIA^I SKINNER (deceased), in his life- 
 time one of Guilford's leading citizens, than whom 
 none was more highly respected, was a member 
 of one of the okl settled families of New England, 
 ranking among the best. 
 
 (I) John Skinner, the first of the name in New 
 England, was a native of England, born in Brain- 
 tree, County of Essex. There is a family tradition 
 that after the revolution in England three brothers 
 by the name of Skinner came to America, one set- 
 tling in A'ermont, one in ^laryland, and the third 
 in Connecticut, but of this there is no reliable rec- 
 ord, (t) John Skinner was a member of the 
 Rev. Thomas Hooker company that settled in Hart- 
 ford, Conn., and he became one of the original pro- 
 prietors. Fie (lied in Hartford in 1650. In Wind- 
 .'or. Conn., he married Mary, daughter of Joseph 
 Loomis, and' after the death of Mr. Skinner she 
 wedded. Nov. T3, 1654, Owen Tudor, of Windsor, 
 in which town she passed the rest of her days, dying 
 Aug. Tg, 1680. Children born to John and Marv 
 (Loomis) Skinner: (i) ]\Iary, born Dec. i, 1638, 
 married Robert Reeves, of Hartford; (2) Ann, 
 born in 1639, married John Colt, the ancestor of 
 the Colts of Hartford: (3) John, sketch of whom 
 
WILLIAM SKIHIiER, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 953 
 
 .follows; (4) Joseph, born in 1643, married Mary 
 Filley, of Windsor; and (5) Richard, born in 1646, 
 Temoved to Colchester, Conn. 
 
 (II) John Skinner, son of (I) John, was born in 
 1641 in Hartford, and passed all his life there, 
 dying Sept. 15, 1690. In 1662 he married Mary, 
 daughter of Joseph Easton, and they had seven chil- 
 dren, as follows: (i) Mary, born in 1664, married 
 
 Joshua Carter; (2) John, sketch of whom follows; 
 (3) Joseph D., born Aug. 26, 1669, married Mary 
 Grant, of Windsor; (4) Nathaniel, born April 5, 
 1672, married Alary Gillette, of Windsor, May 13, 
 1706 (he removed to Colchester, and was the fa- 
 ther of Rev. Thomas Skinner, pastor of Church 
 .at Westchester) ; (5) Richard, born Jan. 16, 1674, 
 married Sarah Carrie; (6) Sarah, born Nov. 4, 
 1677; and (7) Thomas, born Nov. 15, 1680, mar- 
 ried Sarah Grant. The mother of this family died 
 June 18, 1695, and she and her husband were both 
 buried in Hartford cemetery. 
 
 (III) John Skinner, son of (II) John, was 
 "born March i, 1666, in Hartford, and there passed 
 his entire life, dying Oct. 27, 1743. On Feb. 22, 
 
 1693, he married Rachel Pratt, who died Aug. 17, 
 1748. Their children: (i) Rachel, born Feb. 2, 
 
 1694, and died Jan. 18, 1787, married, May 19, 
 1726, Ebenezer Wells, who died Dec. 27, 1737; (2) 
 John, sketch of whom follows; (3) Daniel, born 
 Jan. 19, 1699, died Jan. 15, 1701 ; (4) Timothy, 
 1)orn Feb. 8, 1701, married, May, 1738, Ruth Col- 
 son; (5) Mary, baptized May 26, 1704; (6) Han- 
 nah, born June 27, 1707, died Oct. 23, 1707. 
 
 (IV) John Skinner, son of (III) John, was 
 horn July i, 1697, and died Aug. 14, 1773; mar- 
 ried, Dec. 24, 1724, Mary Turner, of Hartford; she 
 died Aug. 15, 1771. Their children: (i) John, 
 horn March 29, 1726, married (first) Mary Whit- 
 ing, Nov. 21, 1748; she died May 23, 1772, he on 
 ilay 19, 1794. (2) Hilary, born !March 22, 1727, 
 married James Steele Dec. 7, 1749. (3) Deliver- 
 "ance, baptized ]\Iarch 8, 1729, married March 26, 
 1752, Jared Seymour. (4) Ephraim, born Aug. i, 
 1736, died in infancy; (5) Racliel, baptized Oct. 
 
 ■.9. ^737> married Jan. 9, 1757, Ashbel Steele. (6) 
 Ephraim, baptized Feb. 24, 1737. (7) Elizabeth, 
 iaptized Aug. 22, 1742, married Oct. 9, 1765, Joseph 
 Gladings, of Windham. (8) Nathaniel, sketch of 
 whom follows. 
 
 (V) Nathaniel Skinner, son of (I\') John, was 
 born in Hartford July 28, 1745, and passed all his 
 days there. It is supposed that he fought in the 
 
 . Revolutionary war. Twice married, for his first 
 wife he wedded July 28, 1769, Rebecca Bigelow, 
 and for his second he married, in 1781, Margaret 
 Hunt. The names and dates of birth of his chil- 
 dren are as follows: (i) Nathaniel, 1782, died 
 1784; (2) Crosby, 1783; (3) Nathaniel Leonard, 
 sketch of whom follows; (4) Alexander, 1787; (5) 
 John, 1788; (6) Samuel H., 1790; (7) Charles 
 King, 1792; (8) George, 1793, died in infancy; (9) 
 
 George (2), 1795; (10) Thomas Chapman, 1800; 
 (11) William Thomas; and (12) Crosby. 
 
 (\T) Nathaniel Leonard, son of (V) Nathaniel, 
 and father of the subject of these lines, was born 
 in 1785, in Hartford, and there educated. He was 
 a man of prominence and considerable literary abil- 
 ity, being at one time editor of a newspaper in 
 Bridgeport, where he died in 1826, in middle life. 
 By his wife, Abigail (Weher), of Boston, he had 
 nine children, their names and dates of birth being 
 as follows: (1-2) Abigail Weller and Crosby 
 (twins), born 1811; (3) Sarah Copeland, born 
 1813, married John Worstell, of Ohio; (4) Maria, 
 born in 1814, died in infancy; (5) William, sketch 
 of whom follows; (6) Nathaniel, born 1818, diecj 
 in 1873; (7) Abigail, born 1820, died in early life; 
 (8) George, born 1823, died in New York, 1900; 
 and (9) Charles, born 1825, died in New York, 
 1890. The entire family were members of the 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 (\TI) William Skinner, the subject proper of 
 this memoir, was born, in 1816, in Bridgeport, 
 Conn., and was ten years old when his father died. 
 Removing then to Philadelphia, to live with his 
 uncle. Rev. George Weller, he received his educa- 
 tion there. On his return to Connecticut he learned 
 the printing trade with Sidney Babcock, in New 
 Haven, later becoming engaged in the stationery 
 and music business in that city with a Mr. Sperry, 
 of Woodbridge, Conn., under the firm name of 
 Skinner & Sperry. In 1876 the partnership was dis- 
 solved, and JNIr. Skinner retired into private life, 
 making his home in Guilford, where he passed the 
 rest of his days, dying Oct. I, 1896; his remains 
 were laid' to' rest in Grove street cemetery. New 
 Haven. 
 
 Mr. Skinner was a lifelong Democrat, but never 
 an aspirant for official preferment. In matters of 
 religion he was a member of the Episcopal Church, 
 for many years was a vestryman of St. Paul's 
 Church, New Haven, and for ten years was warden 
 of Christ Church, Guilford. Socially he was affil- 
 iated with the F. & A. M., and I. O. O. F., at 
 New Haven. Fidelity to duty was one of the pre- 
 dominating traits of his character, and in all the re- 
 lations of life he was found true and faithful to 
 the trusts reposed in him, thereby winning the con- 
 fidence and high regard of all. 
 
 In New York City, in October, 1857, William 
 Skinner married Artemisia Meigs Scranton, who 
 was born in Madison, Conn., a daughter of Col. 
 Ichabod Lee Scranton, mention of whom is made in 
 the sketch of Capt. Ichabod Lee Scranton else- 
 where. Five children graced this union, namely: 
 (i) William Scranton, born Sept. 23, 1858. is en- 
 gaged in the lumber business in New, York City; 
 he married Bertha Anderson Booth, of New Ha- 
 ven, and they have one child, Theodora Booth. (2) 
 Elizabeth Augusta, born Aug. 23, i860, married 
 Frank Elbert Piatt, and they reside in Scrantonj 
 
954 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Penn. ; they have four children — Margaret Scran- 
 ton, born Jan. 9, 1886; Joseph Curtis, Nov. 18, 
 1887; PhiHp Skinner, Nov. 26, 1889; and Leonard 
 Scranton, June 12, 1900. (3) AUce Weller, born 
 Dec. 18, 1862. (4) Artemisia Hand, Aug. 2, 1868, 
 and (5) George Edward Hand, Sept. 3, 1878; all 
 three reside in Guilford. 
 
 DANIEL H. GRANNISS, a leading and rep- 
 resentative citizen of New Haven, has for many 
 years been identified with the oyster business. He 
 has done much to promote the commercial activity, 
 advance the general welfare and secure the material 
 development of his town, and is recognized as one 
 of the most useful and valued of its citizens. 
 
 Mr. Granniss was born Nov. 23, 1821, on the 
 farm in East Haven where his brother Lyman now 
 resides, and comes of good old Revolutionary stock, 
 his grandfather, Samuel Granniss, having aided the 
 Colonies in achieving their independence. His 
 great-grandfather was Joseph Granniss. The 
 father of our subject, who also bore the name of 
 Joseph, was born in the town of East Haven, July 
 24, 1791, and by occupation was a farmer and oys- 
 ter dealer, being one of the first to establish him- 
 self in the oyster business in his locality. He was 
 engaged in the wholesale trade. On Nov. 26, 1812, 
 he married 2\Iiss Louie Luddington, who was born 
 July 22, 1794, and they became the parents of thir- 
 teen, children, namely: (i) Almira, Ijorn Aug. 22, 
 1813, died :\Iarch 11, 1888. On April 4, 1833, she 
 married John Lindsey, by whom she had three chil- 
 dren — ^Maria, born Oct. 17, 1833, died April 7, 
 1878; Olive A., born June 25, 1836, died Oct. 29, 
 1859; and Hannah A., born June 11, 1838, died 
 April II, 1897. By her second husband, John 
 Foote, she had two — Harriet Emma, born Sept. 2, 
 1846, living; and Henry H., born March 16, 1850. 
 (2) Joseph A., born May 25, 1815, died May I, 
 1895, in Blount Carmel, Conn. On May 16, 1838, 
 he married Eliza Tuttle, daughter of Edward Tut- 
 tle, and they had three sons and three daughters — 
 Leander C, born May 29, 1841, died Sept. 17, 1847; 
 Adelia S., born A])ril 14, 1843; Charles W., born 
 Aug. 25, 1844, died Feb. 4, 1845; Almira F., bom 
 Jan. I, 1846: Anna Eliza, born Sept. 17, 1847; 3-"^ 
 Charles E., born March 27, 1852. (3) Ebenezer 
 C, born Feb. 21, 1817, removed in 1846 to Macon, 
 Ga., and died there Feb. 25, 1890. He married 
 Huldah E. Ludington, and they had five children 
 ■ — ^Charlotte A., born July 22, 1838, died Sept. 5, 
 1838: Horace M., born July 16, 1839, 'S living in 
 Orlando, Fla. ; Edward J., born Jan. 9, 1841, died 
 July 4, 1863 (he joined the Confederate army, in 
 which he held the rank of lieutenant, and was killed 
 while doing. his duty) ; Emma A., born Nov. 22, 
 1849, died ^March 2, 1863 ; and Harriet L., born July 
 12. 1851, died Sept. 17, 1874. (4) Sylvester j\I., 
 born Jan. 4. 1820. died ]\lay 4, 1882, in Hamden, 
 Conn. On Oct. 6, 1847, hs ^'^'^^ united in marriage 
 with Lois R. Curtis, and they had one child, Lois 
 
 A., born April 14, 1854, who died in infancy. Mrs. 
 Granniss died April 29, 1854, and en Sept. 25, 1854, 
 he married Lyda L. Bradley, by whom he also had 
 one child, Joseph W., born July 14, 1857. The 
 mother died Sept. 24, 1875, her death being caused 
 by the explosion of a lamp. For his third wife i\lr. 
 Granniss married Ellen H. Blatchley, on Sept. 1, 
 1881. Thev had no children. (5) Daniel H., our 
 subject, is next in the order of birth. (6) Willard, 
 born March 2, 1823, died A'lay 28, 1850, in Galves- 
 ton, Texas. He never married. (7) Henry L.. 
 born April 10, 1825, died Dec. 17, 1845, unmarritd. 
 (8) Harriet was born March 4, 1827. (9) Heze- 
 kiah, born Dec. 16, 1828, died Oct. 4, 1850, un- 
 married. (10) Collis B,, born Nov. 13, 1830, is a 
 prominent and successful dairy farmer of New Ha- 
 ven; he is mentioned elsewhere. (11) Harriet L., 
 born Feb. 10, 1834, died Oct. 4, 1850. (12) Ly- 
 man and (13) Louie, twins, were born March 3,. 
 1837. The former is now a prominent dairy farmer 
 and ice dealer, residing on the old homestead in 
 East Haven. On April 23, 1862, he married An- 
 toinette M. Thompson, of East Haven, and they had 
 two children — Henry H., born Nov. 5, 1863, died 
 .\Iarch 30, 1865; and Lou Elizabeth, born Nov. 14,. 
 1868, died May 23, 1874. Louie married D wight 
 Kellogg, and died in Baltimore, Md., April 21, 
 1889. Hezekiah and Harriet left home Sept. 28, 
 1850, with the intention of journeying to Macon, 
 Ga., to spend the winter with their brother, Ebe- 
 nezer. Going to. New York they took passage on 
 the barge "Isaac Meade," but when fourteen hours 
 out from harbor they encountered a storm, and the 
 ship was lost Oct. 4, 1850, both being drowned. 
 The father died Feb. 29, 1876, the mother Aug. 12,. 
 1859. 
 
 At the age of eight Daniel H. Granniss was 
 bound out to Daniel Hinman, of Harwinton, Conn.,, 
 for about two years. He then rettirned home, 
 where he remained until seventeen }'ears of age, 
 and next learned the joiner's trade with Elbert L. 
 Munsel, serving 3 four years' apprenticeship. He 
 continued to follow that trade until he entered the 
 service of his country during the dark days of the 
 Rebellion. On Aug. 12, 1862, he enlisted in Com- 
 pany D, 15th C. v.; was mustered into the United 
 States service at New Haven ; and from there was 
 ordered to Washington, D. C, wdiere the regiment 
 was stationed in defence of the city for some time. 
 He participated in the battles of Fredericksburg, 
 Suffolk and Yorktown, and after eighteen months 
 of active service was transferred to the \'\'^ar Depart- 
 ment at Washington, where he remained until hon- 
 orably discharged, June 29, 1865. 
 
 Mr. Granniss married Miss Abigail \\'. Brough- 
 ton, who was born in East Haven April 30, 1822V 
 and died Aug. 30, 1876. Thev had five children, 
 as follows: (i) George H., born Nov. 8, 1846, 
 died July ii, 1891. He married Henrietta White, 
 who was torn in Bridgeport, Conn., April 17, 
 1847, and they had one child, Edward L., born Sept. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 955 
 
 I, 1868. (2) Willard A., born March 16, 1849, 
 married Parthenia Lavere, and they have one son, 
 Willard A. (3) Lillian A., born May 13, 1854, 
 died April i, 1861. (4) Nettie I., born March 11, 
 1859, is the wife of Robert C. Hart, of Fair Haven. 
 (5) Harriet A., born April 11, 1862, died April 
 14, 1864. Each year the Granniss family has a 
 reunion, which on Aug. 20, 1901, was held at the 
 home of our subject, some sixty being present on 
 this occasion, the thirty-fifth reunion at which he 
 presided. 
 
 Soon after his return from the war Mr. Granniss 
 opened a meat market and grocery store in Fair 
 Haven, which he conducted for about ten years, 
 and then embarked in the wholesale and retail oys- 
 ter business, which he has since carried on with 
 marked success. His son, George H., was engaged 
 in business with him until his death. He was also 
 a soldier in the Civil war, enlisting on the same day 
 as his father, and in the same company and regi- 
 ment, being one of the youngest soldiers from Con- 
 necticut to bear arms in that struggle. He partici- 
 pated in all the battles in which his father took part 
 and was made color-bearer of the regiment. At the 
 battle of Kinston he was captured with his com- 
 mand. For many years he was a prominent member 
 of Admiral Foote Post; G. A. R., of New Haven, 
 and also of Polar Star Lodge, L O. O. F. In poli- 
 tics he was' a Republican. Our subject is also. one 
 of the leading members of both of these orders, 
 having united with the Odd Fellows Society in 1854 
 and filled all the chairs in the local lodge, at present 
 serving as treasurer, which office he has filled for 
 fourteen years. Politically he is a strong Republi- 
 can, and he never withholds his support from any 
 enterprise for the public good. 
 
 NOYES S. WILMOT was born Sept. 16, 
 1830, in that portion of the town of Naugatuck 
 which was then a part of Waterbury. He is a 
 grandson of Valentine Wilmot, who was born in 
 what is now Bethany (then Milford), where both 
 he and his wife died, and was a farmer by occupa- 
 tion. He was the father of two children, John and 
 Finnette. The daughter married Eliphalet Tyrrell, 
 a farmer of Hartland, Connecticut. 
 
 John Wilmot, the father of Noyes S., was born 
 in Bethany in 1779, and spent the greater portion 
 of his life there, engaged in farming. He married 
 Asenath Clark, who was born April 29, 1789, in 
 Old Milford, a daughter of Andrew and Annie 
 Clark. They were also born in Old Milford, the 
 father about 1751. He was a farmer by occupation, 
 and died in Middlebury, Conn., about 1835, aged 
 eighty-four years. His wife also died at the age 
 of eighty-four. She was a granddaughter, on the 
 maternal side, of Gov. Treat, of Connecticut. An- 
 drew 'Clark and his wife were the parents of nine 
 children, Nancy, Nathan, Asenath, Andrew, Sam- 
 uel, Julia, Edmund, Susan and Marv. Nathan was 
 a farmer as well as carpenter, and lived in Middle- 
 
 bury. Asenath, as has been said, was the wife of 
 John Wilmot, and the mother of Noyes S. Nancy 
 married Caleb Nettleton, also a farmer, who was 
 the father of George Nettleton, of Naugatuck ; after 
 her death he married her sister Alarv, who passed 
 away in 1896, aged ninety- four years. Andrew was 
 a tailor by trade, and made his home in the South. 
 Samuel married, and was a farmer in Middlebury. 
 Julia became the wife of Almond Clark, of Water- 
 bury. Edmund, who was a tailor in Troy, N. Y.,, 
 died in Bridgeport aged ninety-two years ; he was 
 twice married, each time to a Miss Fry, his wives 
 being sisters; he went to California in 1849. Susan 
 died in infancy. 
 
 Andrew Clark served with gallantry and dis- 
 tinction in the patriot army during the Revolution. 
 His first experience as a soldier covered a period of 
 eighteen days under Lieut. Col. Thomas Seymour, 
 at the time of the "Lexington Alarm." From July 
 10, 1776, until Aug. 5, following, he served in Ma- 
 jor Skinner's troop of light horse, and from Sept. 
 7 to Nov. ID, of that year, he was with the 21st 
 Regiment of militia in New York. Later, from 
 March 12, 1782, to Jan. 12, 1783, he was a member 
 of a company commanded by Capt. Jabez Fitch. He 
 was a Revolutionary pensioner in New Haven 
 county, where he died. The following Wilmots 
 served in the Revolutionary war: John, Daniel, 
 Amos, David, Elisha, Francis, Joel, John A., Jos- 
 eph, Samuel, Thomas, Timothy, Walter (brother 
 of the grandfather of our subject) and Zophar. 
 
 After their marriage our subject's parents set- 
 tled upon a farm in Bethany, and in April, 1830, 
 removed to Naug-atuck. He died in 1837, and his 
 widow Feb. i. 1887, aged nearly ninety-eight years. 
 Noyes S. Wilmot was the youngest and is the only 
 surviving member of a family of five children. 
 Lewis, a carpenter in New Haven, died about 1891. 
 Lucius died at the age of nineteen. Julanty died 
 when two years old. Edmund A., who was a farmer, 
 died April 6, 1887. The male members of the 
 family were Whigs, and all of the adults became 
 members of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Noyes S. Wihnot passed the first seventeen 
 years of his life in Naugatuck, but when his school 
 days were over he went to New Haven to learn 
 the trade of an iron molder. He remained there 
 six years, when he returned to his native place and 
 found work in the Naugatuck Iron Foundry. For 
 thirty years he remained with that concern, mani- 
 festing such mechanical skill, fidelity, industry and 
 executive capacity that during twenty-one years he 
 filled the post of superintendent. At the age of 
 fifty-eight he retired, having accumulated a hand- 
 some competence, which through judicious invest- 
 ment and wise management he has since materially 
 increased. His home is at Union City, where he 
 owns farms comprising 220 acres. During the Civil 
 war he served one year in Company H., 23d Conn. 
 V. L 
 
 Both socially and as a citizen Mr. Wilmot is 
 
•956 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 deservedly popular, while his high moral worth 
 commands respect. Besides being a member of the 
 G. A. R., he belongs to the Masonic fraternity', the 
 I. O. O. F. and the I. O. R. M. As a ^Mason he 
 has attained high rank, being a member of Shep- 
 ard/'s Lodge, No. 78, A. F. & A. M., Allerton Chap- 
 ter and Waterbury Council. He is also an officer 
 in the I. O. O. F. Politically he is a Republican, 
 and in religious, faith a Congregationalist. 
 
 On Nov. 24, 1859, j\Ir. Wilmot married Miss 
 Mary A. Breneiser, a daughter of Benneville and 
 Lavina (Drinkle) Breneiser. She was born in 
 Reading, Pa., her parents being also natives of that 
 State, although of German extraction. Mr. AVil- 
 mot's marriage has been blessed with seven chil- 
 dren : Edmund B., Louisa R., Frank H., Charles 
 E., Lewis H., Benneville N. and Mary T. Louisa 
 and Charles are deceased, the former dying in 1895, 
 and the latter in 1803. Edmund and Mary live at 
 hiome. Frank was formerly superintendent of the 
 Malleable Iron Co., of Bridgeport. Lewis H. is a 
 practicing physician in Ansonia. Benneville N. is 
 a clerk in the Naugatuck National Bank. 
 
 HENRY WILLL\:\I HUBBARD, well and fa- 
 vorably known as a leading manufacturer of car- 
 riages in Branford, was born; in Hartford, Conn., 
 June 2~, 1833, son of Richardi and Rhoda (An- 
 drews) Hubbard. The father is supposed' to have 
 been a native of Durham, Conn., but he lived a 
 good part of his life in Hartford and Middletown, 
 where he followed the trade of a shoemaker. He 
 died at the home of his son, Henry William, in 
 Branford, Jan. 27, i860, at the age of seventy-eight 
 years. Richard Hubbard was twice married. By 
 his first wife he had five children, William, Ediwin, 
 Hiram, Frederick and Sara A. He married for his 
 second wife Rhoda (Andrews) Graham, of Wal- 
 lingford, New Haven Co., Conn., and they had 
 four children: Sara A., who married Harvey Bar- 
 ker ;, Susan, wife of Ed'ward Spencer ; and Henry 
 W. and H. Cornelia, twins, the latter of whom mar- 
 ried Harvey Beach. 
 
 Henry William Hubbard was reared from the 
 age of five years in Middletown, where he re- 
 ceived a limited education in the common schools, 
 and! at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to 
 the carriagemaker's trade in Middletown, at which 
 he served six years, becoming a master workman, 
 and developing an unusual business capacity. In 
 1854 J\Ir. Hubbard located in East Haddam and 
 engaged in business in partnership with Edward 
 H. Cheney. This partnership was terminated the 
 following year. In 1855 Mr. Hubbard came to 
 Branford, and in ( )clnlier of that year began busi- 
 ness with his half-brother, William E. Graham, un- 
 der the firm name of Graham & Hubbard. This 
 association continued for many years, and when it 
 was terminated the business was divided, Mr. 
 Hubbard taking into his cjwn hands the blacksmith 
 and painting dejjartments. Mr. Graham died in 1889 
 
 and iNIr. Hubbard has since continued the business 
 in all its branches. Our subject was one of the 
 incorporators of the Branford Savings Bank, and 
 of the James Blackstone Memorial Library. 
 
 During the Civil war Mr. Hubbard was a mem- 
 ber of Companv B, 27th Conn. C. V., Capt. C. L. 
 Ely, enlisting Aug. 22, 1862, for nine months, and 
 being mustered into service on Oct. 3, of the same 
 year. He participated in the desperate battle of 
 Fredericksburg, and was taken prisoner at Chan- 
 cellorsville, being confined in Castle Thunder about 
 two weeks, after which he was paroled, on May 3, 
 1863, and for a time was at the parole camp at 
 Annapolis, subsequentl}' at the convalescent camp 
 at Alexandria, Va. From this point he was hon- 
 orably discharged July 27, 1863, with the rank of 
 corporal, to which he was promoted before the bat- 
 tle of Chancellorsville. On his return from the war 
 he joined Company K, 2d Conn. N. G., and served 
 five years. He entered that command as orderly 
 sergeant, was promoted to second lieutenant, and 
 later to first lieutenant, being discharged with the 
 latter rank. 
 
 Mr. Hubbard was married, June 6, 1858, to 
 Miss Emma P- Linsley, a daughter of James and 
 Henrietta (^longer) Linslev, of Branford, the for- 
 mer a native of that place ; 'Mr. Linsley was a car- 
 penter by trade. Mr. and ]\Irs. Hubbard have three 
 daughters : ( I ) Ida married Frank W. Jerrold, 
 and has three children, Olive M., Gladys L. and 
 Emma H. (2) Henrietta W. (3) Luella L. is 
 the wife of Wilfred L. ]Mcore, and has one child, 
 Ethel. Mr. Hubbard and his wife are members of 
 the First Baptist Church of Branford, in which he 
 is deacon. In politics he is a Republican. Though 
 no politician, he has been delegate to the county 
 convention, and once was nominated for the Legis- 
 lature, but was defeated, the town being Demo- 
 cratic. In Alay, 1901, he was elected burgess. Mr. 
 Hubbard belongs to ^lason Rogers Post, No. 7, G. 
 A. R., and his wife is a member of Mason Rogers 
 Relief Corps, No. 46, which is associated with the 
 Branford post. They are good people and have a 
 host of friends. 
 
 JOHN LA:\IBERT FOOTE. Fortunate is he 
 who has back of him an ancestry honorable and 
 distinguished, and happy is he if his lines of life 
 are cast in. harmony therewith. 
 
 Our subject, one of the prominent citizens and 
 retired business men of Cheshire, is blessed in this 
 respect, for he springs from one of the oldest and 
 most prominent families of Connecticut. The first 
 to locate here was Nathaniel h'oote, who was a 
 pioneer of W'ethersfield, Hartford county. His son, 
 Robert Foote, removed from that town to New 
 Haven count>', and took up his residence in Walling- 
 ford, where he remained until 1678. He then went 
 to Branford, Conn., where he died suddenly, in 
 1681, at the age of fifty-two years, and was buried 
 there. He was married in 1659, and after his death 
 
u^ 
 
 ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 957 
 
 his widow, Sarah, married Aaron Blachle}', of Bran- 
 ford, in 1686. 
 
 John Foote, the sixth child of Robert and Sarah 
 Foote, was born July 24, 1670, and spent his entire 
 Hfe in Branford, dying in 1713. Seven children 
 were born to him and his wife Mary. 
 
 John Foote, son of John and Mary, was born 
 in Branford in 1700, and when a young man lo- 
 cated in North Branford, where he died Jan. 26, 
 1777. He was twice married, first Dec. 25, 1733, 
 to Elizabeth Frisbee, who died Feb. 3, 1737, aged 
 twenty-two years. On. Aug. 16, 1738, he married 
 Abigail Frisbee, who died May 17, 1779. By the 
 first union there was one son, Jonathan, who was 
 born Jan. 23, 1737, and died in North Branford in 
 1801. The only childi by the second marriage was 
 John, mentioned below. 
 
 John Foote, grandfather of our subject, was 
 born in North Branford' April 2, 1742, and was 
 graduated at Yale College in 1765. He had studied 
 in the divinity school and was ordained a minister 
 of the Congregational Church, succeeding Rev. Mr. 
 Hall at Cheshire, where he ministered to the spirit- 
 ual needs of the people until his death, which oc- 
 curred Aug. 31, 1813, when he was aged seventy- 
 one years. His remains were interred in Cheshire 
 cemetery. He was beloved and respected by the 
 entire community. He was twice married, his first 
 wife being Abigail Hall, of Cheshire, a daughter of 
 Rev. Samuel Hall, and granddaughter of Gov. Jona- 
 than Law, of Connecticut. She died Nov. 19, 1788, 
 at the age of thirty-nine years, and for his second 
 wife he married Eunice Hall, a daughter of John 
 Hall. Her death occurred Jan. 31, 1817. All of his 
 children were by the first marriage, namely: Abi- 
 gail Sarah HaU, born Jan. 2, 1769, died Jan. 20, 
 1775; Mary Ann, born Sept. 21, 1770, died Sept. 
 25, 1775 ; Lucinda, born May 19, 1772, married Dr. 
 Thomas T. Cornwall, of Cheshire; John Alfred, 
 born Jan. 2, 1774, died Aug. 25, 1794; Abigail M. 
 A., born Sept. 16, 1776, died Aug. 9, 1778; William 
 Lambert, father of our subject, was next in the or- 
 der of birth; Samuel Augustus, born Nov. 8, 1780, 
 died Sept. 16, 1846; Roderick, born Dec. 15, 1782, 
 died May 16, 1791 ; and Matilda, born May 6, 1785, 
 died Oct. 9, 1787. 
 
 William Lambert Foote, father of our subject, 
 was born in Cheshire Oct. 10, 1778, and attended 
 the schools of his native town. Subsequently he 
 was graduated from the Medical Department of 
 Yale College, and throughout the remainder of his 
 life successfully followed his chosen profession in 
 Cheshire and adjoining towns, having built up an 
 extensive practice. He was quite prominent in pub- 
 lic affairs, and was one of the first to hold the of- 
 fice of judge of probate in his town; also served 
 as town clerk, and represented Cheshire in the State 
 Legislature. He was one of the leading and influen- 
 tial residents of the town, ond one of the most high- 
 ly respected, and always faithfully performed his 
 duties of citizenship. In politics he was a lifelong 
 
 Democrat. Religiously he was a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church. He died Aug. 9, 1849, and was 
 laid to rest in the family cemetery in Cheshire. In 
 March, 1801, he wedded Mary Scoville, a native 
 of Berlin, Hartford Co., Conn., and daughter of 
 Capt. Daniel Scoville, later of Saybrook, Conn. She,, 
 too, was an earnest member of the Congregational 
 Church, and died in that faith Jan. i, 1861 ; she 
 was buried in Cheshire cemetery. In their family 
 were six children, of whom John L. is the youngest, 
 and the others were as follows : ( i ) William Sid- 
 ney, born Nov. 21, 1802, graduated from Yale Col- 
 lege, and became a physician of Ohio. He was mar- 
 ried ini 1827 to Mary Butler. (2) Mary A., born. 
 May 23, 1806, died unmarried April 20, 1888. She 
 possessed a remarkably sweet voice, and sang for 
 a number of years in the Congregational Church 
 of Cheshire. (3) Abigail, born April 28, 1808, was 
 also a singer, and was connected with the choir 
 of the same church. She married Edward Doo- 
 little, who died March 4, 1837, and she died March 
 29, 1892. (4) Scoville D., born April' 10. 1810, 
 married Martha Whiting, of Milford, Conn., and 
 was engaged in merchandising in New York, where 
 he died March 28, 1883. (5) Eliza S., born June 
 29, 1812, died unmarried March 19, 1892. 
 
 John Lambert Foote, whose name introduces 
 this sketch, was born Sept. 14, 1817, and pursued 
 his studies in the district and select schools of 
 Cheshire. While still quite young he worked in 
 a store at New Haven for two years. After his 
 return to Cheshire he was employed at farm labor 
 for a time, and from his wages managed to save 
 $16, with which he embarked in merchandising on a 
 small scale, although only fourteen years of age. 
 By close application to business his trade steadily 
 increased, and from time to time he enlarged his 
 stock until he had a good general store. For over 
 forty-eight years he was successfully engaged in 
 business along that line, and on his retirement, in 
 1885, had accumulated a handsome fortune, having- 
 become one of the wealthiest men of the town. His 
 career sqems almost phenomenal, yet his success 
 has by no means been the result of fortunate cir- 
 cumstances. It has come to him through energy,, 
 labor and perseverance, directed by an evenly bal- 
 anced mind and by honorable business principles. 
 From early life he made it his plan to spend less than 
 his income. Although economical, he is liberal. In 
 his religious views and in politics he is independent, 
 and during President Van Buren's administration 
 served as postmaster at Cheshire for four years. 
 Although he is now over eighty-four years of age, 
 he is still quite active in both mind and body. His 
 life has been well spent, and he is now enjoying a 
 well-earned rest, surrounded by a large circle of 
 friends and acquaintances who esteem him highly 
 for his sterling worth. 
 
 Gov. Samuel Augustus Foote, an uncle of our 
 subject, was born in Cheshire Nov. 8, 1780, a. son 
 of Rev. John and Abigail (Hall) Foote. He was 
 
958 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 graduated at Yale in 1797, and after studying law 
 engaged in practice in his native village. He mar- 
 ried Eudocia Hull, a daughter of Gen. Andrew and 
 Elizabeth Mary Ann Hull, of Cheshire, and later 
 became a partner of Gen. Hull in commercial busi- 
 ness at New Haven, though he continued to make 
 his home in Cheshire, where his mansion is still 
 standing. He was a member of Congress in 1819: 
 was re-elected in 1823 and 1834; was Speaker of 
 the House of Representatives in the Connecticut 
 Legislature in 1825-26; and was chosen United 
 States senator in 1827. In 1834 he was elected gov- 
 ernor of Connecticut, and while in that office re- 
 ceived the degree of LL. D. from Yale. He died 
 Sept. 16, 1846, and was buried in Cheshire. His 
 wife died at the home of her son, in Cleveland, 
 Ohio, but her remains were brought back and in- 
 terred by the side of her husband. In their family 
 were five children, two of whom died in infancy, 
 and the others were : Hon. John A. Foote, a promi- 
 nent lawyer of Cleveland; Rear Admiral Andrew 
 H. Foote, of the United States navy, who died in 
 New Haven ; and Augustus E. Foote, of Cleveland. 
 
 CAPT. FREDERICK ALONZO WELD (de- 
 ceased) was, in his day, one of the best-known 
 whaling captains along this part of the Atlantic 
 coast, and in his long life on the water met with 
 many an adventure. He was born Feb. I, 1820, 
 in the town of Guilford, and attended the public 
 schools there and on Long Island, whither he re- 
 moved with his parents while still yourg. A por- 
 tion of his boyhood was spent upon a farm, and 
 at the age of twelve he became an apprentice to the 
 jeweler's trade with Zebulon Elliot, of Sag Harbor, 
 who was also a watchmaker, gunsmith and repairer 
 of chronometers. He accjuired a thorough knowl- 
 edge of all these branches, remaining with Mr. 
 Elliot three years, after which for a time he was 
 engaged with his father in carpenter andi joiner 
 work. Having a strong desire to go sea, when 
 fifteen years of age he shipped as cabin boy on a 
 whaling vessel, and in time worked himself up from 
 that humble position until he commanded a vessel. 
 He was promoted from second mate on the old 
 whaling ship "James Hamilton.,'' under Capt. Isaac 
 Ludlow, to captain. The first ship he commandeil 
 was the whaler "Italy," of Greenport, Long Island. 
 Later he was master of the "Marengo," of New 
 Bedford, and his last voyage was made in the "Odd 
 Fellow," of Sag Harbor, returning in 1868. Capt. 
 Weld met with gratifying success in his chosen call- 
 ing, and during his career as a sailor went farther 
 north than any of the explorers had yet penetrated, 
 and twice sailed around the world. His voyages 
 took him to many seas and strange lands, and his 
 home contains numerous relics and souvenirs of his 
 voyages to different countries. He was the first 
 man who went whaling in the Sea of Ochotsk, and 
 as tlie natives along the shore had never seen a 
 whaling vessel, they were much alarmed, thinking 
 
 it a Russian man-of-war. However, he was a very 
 unassuming man, and although he passed through 
 manv exciting and perilous scenes, he never boasted 
 oi h'is achievements in any line. Or. Nov. 3, 1856, 
 he encountered a hurricane in Behring Straits, al- 
 most wrecking the vessel, which was laden with a 
 valuable cargo of oil and whale-bone. In a badly 
 disabled condition they drifted about forty-two days 
 before reaching the Sandwich Islands, and as pieces 
 of the vessel had been picked up, they had been 
 given up as lost. During those forty-two days the 
 vessel had been leaking fearfully — both pumps go- 
 ing night and day in order to keep afloat, clothes 
 and bedding wet, and men dying frequently with 
 scurvy, sometimes two in. one day, induced by wet 
 clothes, exposure and want of vegetable food. The 
 men, themselves, had long given up all hopes of 
 life, v/hen land was finally discovered, and their 
 lives and cargo saved; only six men of a crew of 
 thirty were able to be about the vessel. On account 
 of the saving of the cargo, the underwriters of the 
 vessel presented Capt. Weld with a valuable ring. 
 During one of Capt. Weld's voyages in the "Italy" 
 five of the crew, being thwarted in their plans to 
 steal a boat and desert, conspired to fire the ship, 
 throw the mate overboard, kill the captain and other 
 officers. The ringleader carried a knife in his boot- 
 leg, and at one time drew it to attack the captain. 
 Fortunately the fire was discovered; the mutineers 
 were put in irons, and when the vessel reached 
 Lahaina, Sandwich Islands, they were delivered to 
 the American Consul to be dealt with according 10 
 law. 
 
 After abandoning the water Capt. Weld settled 
 at Guilford, where he passed the remainder of his 
 days in quiet retirement, dying in January, 1893. 
 His remains rest in Guilford cemetery. On April 
 26, 1849 he married, at Sag Harbor, Miss Mary 
 Douglass Washburn, who was born in that place, a 
 daughter of Capt. Noah Washburn (3), a native of 
 Hartford, and Nancy C. (Hodges) Washburn. 
 Capt. Noah Washburn was a mate on a gunboat in. 
 the war of 1812, and later a captain of artillery in 
 the 13th Regiment, of New York State, and later 
 for twenty-five years was an officer in the Custom 
 House. Two children were born to Captain and 
 Mrs. Weld : Frederick Floyd, who is mentioned 
 below ; and Eliais J., who died young. Capt. Weld 
 attended the Episcopal Church, as does also his 
 widow. In political faith he was a Republican, but 
 was not active in public life. Fraternally he held 
 membership in St. Alban's Lodge, F. & A. M., 
 Guilford, and he and his wife both belonged to the 
 Order of the Eastern Star, Mrs. Weld serving as 
 matron in her lodge for eight years. She is highly 
 esteemed by her many friends in Guilford, and is 
 a woman of many sterling Christian qualities. 
 
 Frederick Floyd Weld (deceased) was born 
 Feb. 19, 1850, in Sag Harbor, Long Island, and 
 early displayed a penchant for his father's calling. 
 While yet in his 'teens he made application, en- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 959 
 
 dorsed by the governor of Connecticut and other 
 citizens of the State, for appointment as cadet en- 
 gineer at the Naval Academy at Annapolis, ?.Id. 
 Receiving assurance that his application would be 
 o-ranted, providing he was qualified to enter, lie 
 prepared himself to pass the necessary examinations. 
 For some reason, however, Congress failed to pa=s 
 the necessary appropriation for the academy for that 
 year, and Mr. Weld instead entered the Sheffield 
 Scientific School of Yale, taking the course in civil 
 engineering, in which he was graduated with the 
 class of 1872. For the year following he was in the 
 employ of the United States Coasting Survey, sur- 
 veying the Delaware river from Easton to Trenton, 
 and in August, 1873, he obtained a position as 
 draughtsman and general assistant in the office of 
 the city engineer at New Haven, continuing in that 
 incumbency until July, 1881, when he resigned in 
 order -to accept a more lucrative position, becoming 
 managing engineer for Thomas P. Simpson, a con- 
 tractor on the Pittsburg & Western railroad. In the 
 summer of 1883 Mr. Weld accepted a position as 
 assistant engineer in charge of the construction of 
 a system of sewers in Waterbury, Conn., designed 
 by Rudolph Hering, and so ably did he discharge 
 the duties of this position that when, a few months 
 later, a vacancy occurred in the office of city en- 
 gineer, caused by the resignation of N. J. Welton, 
 he was at once selected for the incumbency. In 
 this office he remained continuously under different 
 administrations until his death, June 28, 1890. Al- 
 though a large portion of his time and resources 
 were given to devising means for checking the 
 ravages of preventable diseases, he was one of the 
 first victims in the epidemic of typhoid which pre- 
 vailed in Waterbury that year. For several years 
 he had been one of the most prominent and efficient 
 workers on the Waterbury board of health, and in 
 company with H. J. Ivellogg, his first assistant, he 
 designed a system of sewers for the borough of 
 Wallingford. He also acted as consulting engineer 
 in the construction of the sewer systems of Tor- 
 rington and Ansonia, as well as many less important 
 engineering works. On Sept. 3, 1884, he became a 
 member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 
 and he was a leading member of the Connecticut 
 Civil Engineers & Surveyors Association, of which 
 he was serving as president at the time of his de- 
 mise. 
 
 The Waterbury American under date of June 
 28, 1890, says: 
 
 City Engineer F. Floyd Weld died at his home at No. 
 I27 North Main street at 2:30 this morning. Mr. Weld 
 had been confined to his home not quite two weeks with a 
 severe attack of typhoid fever. June 16, he was one of a 
 party that left this city to visit New York and mvestigate 
 the laying of asphalt paving in that city. He returned the 
 same night and his physician found him suffering from an 
 advanced stage of the disease. For weeks he had not 
 been himself and his physical condition was such that it 
 feebly opposed the ravages of the fever. 
 
 The deceased was born at Sag Harbor, L. I., and was 
 forty years of age last February. Graduating with the 
 
 class of '72 from the Sheffield Scientific School, he en- 
 tered the office of the city engineer in New Haven. He 
 was assistant city engineer there when called to this city 
 in June, 1883, by City Engineer N. J. Welton, who was 
 then very busy in laying out and constructing the sewer 
 system just adopted here. In January, 1884, Mr. Weld 
 was appointed city engineer and from that time devoted 
 himself to the extension of a pipe system for Waterbury 
 which has few superiors in eastern cities, and which has 
 served as a model for many more pretentious cities. As 
 an accurate engineer his reputation was State wide, if not 
 more. Every foot of sewer planned and laid by him was 
 the result of a carefully thought out system, and every 
 minor detail of the work was completely mastered and 
 carried in mind by him. His maps were always models ; 
 he was abreast of municipal developments and improve- 
 ments in every particular that concerned his profession. 
 He was an admitted authority on sewer systems, and the 
 Connecticut Association of Civil Engineers and Survey- 
 ors acknowledged his ability by electing him its president. 
 At the time of his death he was giving much of his time 
 and attention to Waterbury's paving question. He thor- 
 oughly believed in the merits of asphalt for our city's 
 streets, and visited many cities and collected a vaiSt 
 amount of data to defend his position, and to demonstrate 
 the growing importance of this material for paving. 
 Whatever the material eventually used, and however 
 done, the absence of the experience and judgment of the 
 late city engineer in these matters will be a great loss to 
 the city. 
 
 The deceased leaves two daughters, aged respectively 
 12 and 14 years, and a mother and father. He was the 
 last child, his brother dying several years ago. Both 
 parents were with him at his death, but his father was 
 the only one recognized by him in the interval of a long 
 period of unconsciousness. He was insured in the Life 
 Union, the New York Equitable and the Knights of 
 Honor association. 
 
 Mr. Weld was made a Mason in Continental lodge of 
 this city in 1884. He afterward became exalted to the 
 Royal Arch in Eureka chapter, November 11, 1885. A 
 friend says of him: "He has held an official position in 
 the chapter during the past four years with great credit 
 to himself and honor to the fraternity. His usefulness as 
 an officer, and quiet demonstration of an intelligent and 
 upright Mason, had won for him the esteem of all his 
 brothers and companions." 
 
 Mr. Weld was a most efficient member of the city 
 board of health. Always watching the health of others 
 and so prominently connected with the establishment of 
 the sewer system which plays so important a part in pre- 
 serving the city's health, it seems particularly sad that he 
 should fall a victim to this disease through impure milk 
 from the Middlebury farm. 
 
 Alderman H. W. French on behalf of the alderraanic 
 board extended the sympathy and offered the services of 
 the members of the court of common council to the 
 family. 
 
 Though a thorough business man, and devoted 
 to his profession, Mr. Weld was a man of genial 
 social qualities, and he had a special tact for "get- 
 ting along" with the various people with whom he 
 came in contact during his professional career, se- 
 curing compliance with his plans without arousing 
 aggression or unpleasant antagonism. With a rep- 
 utation for strict integrity, he gained a high stand- 
 ing in his ingenuity, which was considerable,^ united 
 with a sound common sense which characterized all 
 his actions. He was quick and accurate in the per- 
 formance of his duties, and the work which he ex- 
 ecuted will long be a silent witness to the thor- 
 
960 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 oughness and painstaking effort which marked all 
 his undertakings, for he neglected no detail of a 
 work, however seemingly unimportant. His serv- 
 ices were especially valuable in New Haven and 
 Waterbury. Air. Weld did not reap large pecuniary 
 reward in his calling, but he leaves a name unspotted 
 for integrity and honesty, and he was esteemed by 
 all who knew him as a true friend and an upriglit 
 man. On Dec. 15, 1874, Mr. Weld married Miss 
 Mary \'. Crockett, and they had two children, ]\Iary 
 Washburn and Fredericka Floyd, who have lio.jn 
 reared by their grandmother, Airs. Weld. 
 
 DAVID MERRIMAN HALL, an old and 
 prominent farmer of the town of Wallingford, 
 whose character exacts the veneration his years de- 
 mand, was born in South Elm street, in that 
 borough. May 27, 1818. John Hall, his remote pro- 
 genitor, was an early settler of New England, and 
 his sons, John, Thomas and Samuel, were among 
 the first settlers of Wallingford. 
 
 Thomas Hall was born March 25, 1649, and 
 came from New Haven, where he married Grace 
 Watson June 5, 1673. She died jMay I, 1731, and 
 he on the 17th of the following November. Both 
 were buried in Wallingford. He was a farmer by 
 occupation. His family consisted of eleven chil- 
 dren: (i) Abigail, born Jan. 7, 1674, married John 
 Tyler; (2) Thomas, born July 17, 1676, married 
 Abigail Atwater, daughter of John Atwater; (3) 
 Mary' was born Nov. 22, 1677; (4) Jonathan, born 
 July 25, 1679, married Dinah Andrews May 12, 
 1703 ; (5) Joseph, born July 8, 168 1, married Bertha 
 Terrel; (6) Esther, born Feb. 23, 1683, married 
 Benoni Atkins; (7) Benjamin, born April 19, 1684, 
 married Mary Ives; (8) Peter was born Dec. 28, 
 1686; (9) Daniel was born Jan. 27, 1689; (10) 
 Rebecca, born Jan. 6, 1691, married Daniel Holt; 
 (11) Israel, born Oct. 8, 1696, marriedi Abigail 
 Palmer. 
 
 Peter Hall, noted above, was born in Walling- 
 ford, and was reared on the farm. Farming was 
 his life occupation, and he became an extensive 
 land owner. At the time of his death, which oc- 
 curred in Wallingford, he had reached the age of 
 ninety years. He was married, Oct. 19, 1732, to 
 Rebecca Bartholomew, who died Oct. 31, 1798, and 
 to their marriage came children as follows : ( i ) 
 Susannah, born Feb. 26, 1734; (2) Hiel, May 6, 
 173s; (3) Abigail, May 15, 1737; (4) Rebecca, 
 born July 3, 1740; (5) Eunice, Nov. 8, 1742; (6) 
 Josiah, born July 3, 1745; (7) Peter, June 7, 1748; 
 
 (8) Andrew, Sept. 12, 1750 (died Oct. 14, 1776) ; 
 
 (9) Anna, March 30, 1753; (lol Keziah, June 16, 
 1755; (11) Lois, Sept. 25, 1757. 
 
 Hiel Hall was born in the town of Wallingford, 
 and like his father was engaged in farming, and 
 owned extensive tracts of land there. Catherine, 
 his wife, died Jan. 4, 1788, at the age of forty-two 
 years. She was the mother of the following named 
 children: (i) Josiah, born in 1775, died Dec. 15, 
 
 1821; (2) Catherine was born Jan. 2, 1776; (3) 
 Andrew, born in 1777, died Jan. 25, 1812; (4) 
 Chauncev, born Sept. 8, 1778, married Marilla 
 Hall; (5) Peter, born May 31, 1780, married De- 
 light Kirkland; (6) Hiel, born Feb. 7, 1782, mar- 
 ried Sarah Kirkland; (7) Rice was borni May 2, 
 1784; (8) Justus was born Feb. 14, 1787. 
 
 Deacon Josiah Hall, the father of David Merri- 
 man Hall, was born in Wallingford, where he grew 
 to manhood. In his mature years he had a large- 
 farm on Elm street, and he died while still in 
 middle life, in Wallingford, at the age of nearly 
 forty-seven years. In politics he was a Democrat, 
 and in religion a member of the Congregational 
 Church, in which he officiated as deacon. He is re- 
 membered as a useful citizen, a good husband and 
 a kind father. Deacon Hall was married April 7, 
 1795, to Alartha R. Hall, who was born Aug. 22, 
 1777, daughter of Giles Hall, of Wallingford, and 
 granddaughter of John and Mary (Street) Hall. 
 To them were born children as follows : ( i ) 
 Thankful, born May 23, 1796, married Col. Thad- 
 deus Cook; (2) Catherine, born May 18, 1798, died 
 unmarried; (3) Eliza, born May 15, 1800, died, 
 young; (4) Eliza, born July 25, 1801, married 
 James Reynolds; (5) Edward L., born May 15,. 
 1804, married Mary K. Cook, daughter of Billious 
 Cook; (6) George Chaulicey was born April 19, 
 1806; (7) Martha R., born Oct. 19, 1808, married 
 Col. Thaddeus Cook; (8) Josiah was born June 
 15, 1812; (9) Ogden, Sept. 13, 1815; (10) David 
 Merriman, May 27, 1818; and (11) James, April 
 II, 1 82 1. David M. is the only survivor. The- 
 mother died in Wallingford, and was buried in the 
 Center street cemetery. 
 
 David M. Hall was very young when he lost, 
 his father. His education was begun in the district, 
 school of Wallingford, and later he attended the 
 school at Cook Hill, where he went to live with 
 his sister, Mrs. Thaddeus Cook, after his father's- 
 death. He was also a pupil in the academy at Ber- 
 lin and the one at Middletown. Remaining in the- 
 hospitable home of his sister until he was sixteen 
 years of age, he went to New Haven and learned 
 the tin andi sheet-iron trade. To dt) this prop- 
 erly and in the old-fashioned, thorough-going way, 
 required his time until he was twenty-one years 
 of age. Then he became a journeyman, and worked 
 at his trade. A few years later he bought a farm 
 on Cook Hill, where he lived until 1854, in that 
 year settling on his present farm, which is part of 
 the original Cook estate. For nearly half a cen- 
 tury he has been engaged in farming andi stock 
 raising, and to-day he is known as one of the most 
 successful farmers in Wallingford. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1843, Mr. Hall married Catherine 
 Maria Cook, who was born on Cook Hill, daugh- 
 ter of Col. Thaddeus and Sylvia (Hall) Cook, 
 and sister of Mrs. William Francis, of North Farms. 
 Mrs. Hall is a lady of innate refinement, and of" 
 kindly disposition, and all who know her speak vvelL 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 961 
 
 of her. She has been a good wife and a loving 
 mother. Mr. and Mrs. Hall have bad three chil- 
 dren: (i) James Cook, born July 6, 1845, died 
 at the age of seventeen years. (2) Edward Thad- 
 deus, born Oct. 16, 1849, married Georgiana Par- 
 dee, and has one child, Sarah Edna, born July 8, 
 1897- (3) George David, born June 20, 1859, is 
 now living on the homestead; he married, Oct. 23, 
 1884, Jennie Blakeslee Hough, daughter of Elijah 
 Hough, and has three children — Louis Cook, born 
 March 27, 1888; Almon Blakeslee, born Nov. 27, 
 1891 ; and Mabel Hough, born March 7, 1898. 
 
 David Merriman Hall is one of the thoughtful, 
 leading men of his community. In his religious 
 belief he is a consistent follower of the rules of 
 the Episcopal Churdh. He is domestic in his tastes, 
 and upright in his habits. In politics he is a Dem- 
 ocrat, but puts the good of the community before 
 any question) of party expediency. 
 
 BLATCHLEY. There was a Thomas Blatch- 
 ley who sailed for New England in 1635 ; was in 
 Hartford in 1640 ; New Haven in 1643 ; Branf ord 
 in 1645 ; and in Guilford in 1666. In the last named 
 place he was admitted as a planter April 23, 1668. 
 His business was that of a merchant, and he died 
 in Boston in 1674. Some of his descendants are 
 yet in Guilford. 
 
 There was a Samuel Blatchley who removed 
 from Guilford in about 1653, where he was an early 
 planter, to that part of the town which later be- 
 came Madison. 
 
 Soon after 1725, the time of the permanent set- 
 tlement of Madison, there was a Joshua Blatchley 
 who settled in the south part of the town. 
 
 Few men have been more prominently identified 
 with the growth of New Haven, through the past 
 fifty years, than the family introducing this article. 
 The extensive real estate firm of S. L. Blatchley 
 & Sons was established in 1852 by the fa- 
 ther, the late Samuel L. Blatchley, who, along 
 in the late 'sixties, took his sons, Samuel R., 
 the late Charles Carroll, and later Joel Blatchley, in 
 the business with him, and, from the beginning, 
 these men together, or in turn, have carried on ex- 
 tensive building operations and real estate trans- 
 actions, and have been interested in public improve- 
 ments which have materially aided in New Haven's 
 growth. 
 
 The late Samuel L. Blatchley was born Feb. 
 13, 1804, in North Madison, Conn., a son of Joel 
 and Ruth (Loper) Blatchley, of that town._ Joel 
 Blatchley was one of the prominent men. of his day 
 in the town, and at the first town meeting, in 1826, 
 was chosen one of the selectmen. The name of 
 Blatchley has been identified with the towns of 
 Guilford and Tvladison from the early Colonial pe- 
 riod, and the name is on record from that section 
 in the war of the Revolution, in the professions, and 
 a number of times as graduates of Yale College. 
 
 Samuel Loper Blatchley received his boyhood 
 
 61 
 
 education in the common schools of his native town, 
 and, by application as he advanced to manhood, suc- 
 ceeded in obtaining a good business education. His 
 business career was commenced as an insurance 
 agent in his town, and later he kept a country store 
 there, in which the handling of clocks was a chief 
 feature of the business. In those days it was no un- 
 common thing for a merchant to travel over the 
 country, and especially in the South, selling goods- 
 and Yankee notions. Mr. Blatchlev had some ex- 
 perience in this line, making his headquarters in 
 Baltimore. In 1846 he removed to New Haven, 
 Conn., and ever afterward made that city his home. 
 Here he opened a co-operative grocery store on 
 State street, and the "Commercial Union" is still, 
 remembered by the older people of the city. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. Blatchley engaged in the real es- 
 tate business and his efforts were soon crowned 
 with an assured success, and in time he built many 
 business houses and dwellings, and bought and sold 
 real estate quite extensively. Among the structures- 
 built by him were : The "Madison House," later 
 called the "Selden House ;" the building of the 
 Daily Courier; the building on the corner of State 
 and Court streets, and a number of brick buildings 
 on State and St. John streets. In 1866 he pur- 
 chased of the Maltby heirs and the Yale College 
 corporation a large tract of land south of Grand 
 street, in Fair Haven, and ooened the avenue bear- 
 ing his name, and at its junction with East Grand 
 street erected the large brick house which there- 
 after was his place of residence. At the time of 
 the opening of Blatchley avenue, there were few 
 buildings in that part of the Eleventh ward. Just 
 south of his residence he gave a lot to Grace Epis- 
 copal Church, on which a tine church edifice and 
 parsonage were afterward erected, and in this en- 
 terprise he was largely interested. Mr. Blatchley 
 sold many building lots on Exchange and Woolsey 
 streets, which streets were opened by him, and he 
 also purchased, at a cost of something like $40,000, 
 some forty acres of land on Fair Haven Heights, 
 which he subdivided and sold in building lots. 
 Also he purchased some twelve acres of ground of 
 Deacon John Farren at a cost of about $40,000, 
 and opened up Farren avenue, selling the land in 
 building lots ; he purchased other building sites 
 on Grand avenue and Bright street, from Grand 
 avenue north. 
 
 In 1869 Mr. Blatchley associated in the business 
 with him his sons, Charles C. and Samuel R., both 
 young, active men, who were chiefly instrumental 
 in building up and conducting the extensive real 
 estate business of the firm of S. L. Blatchley & 
 Sons. These gentlemen were largely instrumental 
 in projecting and building the old State Street 
 Horse Railway. They operated' largelv in the vi- 
 cinity of Cedar Hill, and greatlv developed the city 
 eastward and northward. They also were promi- 
 nent in advancing the projects resulting^ jn the Quin- 
 nipiac and Chapel street draw-bridges, and causeel 
 
962 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 many streets to be opened, erecting many build- 
 ings, and were most potent factors in the progress 
 of New Haven. 
 
 The senior Mr. Blatchle}' in early life was a 
 member of the Masonic fraternity. While residing 
 in the city proper he attended the North Congre- 
 gational and Third Churches, and later Grace Epis- 
 copal Church, in Blatchlev avenue. Of a genial 
 and cheerful disposition, he had many friends ; was 
 of commanding personality, standmg six feet three 
 and one-half inches in height, and in his prime had 
 an erect form and a fine carriage. 
 
 On Dec. 23, 1827, Mr. Blatchley married Mary 
 A. Robinson, who was born July 20, 1805, daugh- 
 ter of Ebenezer Robinson, of Durham, Conn., and 
 died Dec. 9, 1874. Mr. Blatchley survived her, 
 passing away July 26, 1883. Of their nine chil- 
 dren: (6) Samuel Robinson and (7) Charles- Car- 
 roll are mentioned below, (i) Joel S., who died 
 Jan. 8, 1874, was a graduate of Yale, class of 1850, 
 and was a lawyer by profession, practicing at Du- 
 bucjue, Iowa, and later at San Francisco. Losing 
 his health, he returned to New Haven, where until 
 his death he was a member of the firm of S. L. 
 Elatchley & Sons. He married Marion Hall, who 
 survives him, with two children, Louise and Mar- 
 gery; they reside in Denver, Colo. (2) Helen 
 Lavinia is the wife of Rev. H. C. Hovey, of New- 
 buryport, Mass. They are the parents of three chil- 
 dreni — Edmund Otis, one of the curators of the 
 Xew York Museum of Natural History in Central 
 Park; Helen Carter, wife of Rev. Henry F. Ellin- 
 wood, of Medina, N. Y. ; and Clara, wife of Rev. 
 Royal W. Raymond, of Stratford, Conn. (3) Mary 
 J. is Mrs. William Ludden, of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 
 they have had, no children, but have an adopted 
 daughter, Gertrude. (4) Ann Elizabeth, who died 
 June 19, 1892, was the wife of Alexander Emery, 
 of the firm of Steel & Emery, New Haven. They 
 had several children — Jacob E., now deceased, who 
 was in the employ of S. L. Blatchley & Sons; Mary 
 C, deceased; Alice S. ; Charles A., of Bridgeport; 
 Louise and Elizabeth, twins, both deceased; Helen, 
 deceased; Joel, deceased; and Samuel W., of New 
 Haven. (5) Alice C, who died Nov. 15, 1877, un- 
 married, was a teacher in the Woodward high 
 school, Cincinnati. (8) Sarah Louise, who died 
 March 13, 1873, ivas a member and valedictorian 
 of the first class graduated from Vassar. (9) Clara 
 L died unmarried Dec. 28, 1882. 
 
 Charles Carroll Blatchley^ a son of Samuel 
 L., and late of the firm of S. L. Blatchley & Sons, 
 was born July 28, 1841, in North Madison, Conn. 
 His parents having removed to New Haven when 
 he was but a lad, he there passed his boyhood, at- 
 tending the public schools, and was graduated from 
 the high school. Then he entered Yale College, 
 from which he was graduated in 1863, studied law 
 in New York, and was admitted to the Bar in that 
 city in December, 1864. In May, 1865, he opened 
 an office in New Haven, but after several years' 
 
 practice in that place he associated himself with his 
 father and brother, Samuel R., in the real estate 
 business, which engrossed his entire attention, and 
 in which he was most successful. Mr. Blatchley 
 was a director and large owner in the State Street 
 Horse Railroad, and was a life member and sec- 
 retary of the East Rock Park commission, and a 
 director in the Young Men's Institute. About the 
 middle of January, 1887, Mr. Blatchley became 
 seriously ill with Bright's disease, and died at 
 his home March 5, 1887, in his forty-sixth year. 
 
 On Nov. 27, 1863, Mr. Blatchley was married 
 to Susannah, daughter of Jacob Emery, of Hogans- 
 burg, N. Y., who survives him with five children. 
 Of their family Catherine E., a graduate of the 
 Musical Department of Yale, is a music teacher and 
 musical supervisor of the Westville schools. Mary 
 Nancy graduated from high school, and is now an 
 eighth grade teacher in the Strong school. Susan 
 L. and Charles C. are deceased. Jacob Emery and 
 Samuel L. were twins, and the latter is deceased; 
 the former is a member of the firm of Blatchley & 
 Shepard. Alice is deceased. William Joel is a 
 sophomore in the Sheffield Scientific School. 
 Charles Alexander is attending the Boardman 
 Training School for Boys. Henry died in infancy. 
 Charles C. Blatchley was a man of correct morals, 
 and of the highest integrity, possessed good judg- 
 ment, and was an excellent business man. He was 
 straightforward and true in his friendships. 
 
 Samuel Robinson Blatchley was born at 
 North Madison Nov. 15, 1839, ^^'^^ spent his school 
 days in New Haven and Cincinnati, attending the 
 high schools in both cities, passed through the Hop- 
 kins grammar school in New Haven, and graduated 
 at Yale in 1862. For five years he taught school in 
 Cincinnati, and then returned to New Haven. JMr. 
 Blatchley was president of the old Horse Railroad 
 Company at the time of its sale to the syndicate, 
 and his brother Charles had previously served in 
 the same capacity. He now deals extensively in real 
 estate, laying out lots, etc., having a large interest 
 on Prospect street, where in company with Dr. 
 Phillips he owns thirty-two acres. C3n June 23, 
 1864, he was married, in Cincinnati, to Miss Nancy 
 McM. Evans, a daughter of Hugh Evans, of that 
 city. 
 
 JARED A. BASSETT (deceased), an energetic 
 and skillful agriculturist, who owned and operated 
 a fine farm of forty acres on Dixwell avenue. Ham- 
 den, was born Nov. i, 1832, a son of Jared and 
 Eliza (Bradley) Bassett, and grandson of Timothy 
 Bassett. His birth occurred in the same house i;i 
 which he lived all his life, and in which he died 
 Dec. 31, 1899. 
 
 Jared Bassett, the father, was also born upon 
 the -same farm, and throughout life successfully 
 engaged in agricultural oursuits. He was a good 
 sized man, being five feet, eleven inches in height 
 and weighing 165 pounds. Being one of the lead- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 963 
 
 ing and influential citizens of his community, he 
 was called upon to serve his fellow citizens as se- 
 lectman of Hamden, and member of the Legislature. 
 In religious faith he was an Episcopalian and a 
 member of the church of that denomination in Ham- 
 den. He died at the age of sixty-six years, and 
 his wife at the age of fifty-five. In their family 
 were three children, namely : Eunice, deceased 
 wife of James T. Mix, of New Haven; Cornelia, 
 who died at about the age of sixty years ; and 
 Jared A., our subject. 
 
 Upon the home farm Jared A. Bassett early be- 
 came familiar with all the duties which fall to the 
 lot of the agriculturist, and his literary education 
 was obtained in the common schools of Hamden 
 and Everest's private school of Centerville. He as- 
 sisted in the operation of the farm until his father's 
 death, and then took complete charge of the same. 
 He engaged in general farming and the dairy busi- 
 ness, and in his labors met with well-deserved 
 success. 
 
 Mr. Bassett was married, Feb. 26, 1862, to Miss 
 Elizabeth A. Percy, of Watertown, Conn., and to 
 them was born a daughter, Annie E., who died at 
 the age of twenty-one years. The Democratic party 
 always found in Mr. IJassett a stanch supporter of 
 its principles, and as a citizen he was ever ready 
 to discharge any duty that devolved upon him. 
 
 LYMAN A. GRANNISS, a well-known and 
 reliable contractor and builder at No. 116 Franklin 
 street. New Haven, was born in the house where 
 he now lives in East Haven, March 3, 1837, a son 
 of Joseph Granniss, who was also born in East 
 Haven, as was also his father, Samuel. The latter 
 was probably a farmer, and died at a great age. 
 
 Joseph Granniss was one of a number of chil- 
 dren, and was reared on a farm. His life was de- 
 voted to the cultivation of the soil, though for a 
 number of years he was largely engaged in the 
 oyster business, carrying oysters from New Haven 
 to Albany, N. Y., by team, and later from Bridge- 
 port to the same destination by boat. He lived in 
 East Haven all his life, and died there at the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty-five years. His wife, Louisa 
 Luddington, was born in East Haven, a daughter 
 of one of the old families of that section. She be- 
 came the mother of thirteen children, of whom three 
 only are living: Daniel H., Collis B. and Lyman 
 A., all of whom are now residing in New Haven. 
 Mrs. Granniss died at the age of sixty-five years. 
 Both she and her husband belonged to the Con- 
 gregational Church. Politically he was a Repub- 
 lican. 
 
 Lyman A. Granniss spent his early years at 
 home, where he had his education in the local 
 schools. After the demise of his father, he bought 
 out the other heirs, and still owns th^ old home- 
 stead. Under his energetic management the farm is 
 well cultivated, and produces fine crops. About 
 1880 Mr. Granniss began a contract business, very 
 
 largely in street work, laying macadam, setting 
 telegraph poles, and doing similar work, in company 
 with E. J. Upson. In 1890 he took up the ice busi- 
 ness, and for ten years did both a large wholesale 
 and retail business. He has been a director of the 
 Hygienic Ice Co. since its organization, and he is 
 also interested in the Swift Beef Co., of New Haven 
 and Chicago. 
 
 Mr. Granniss was married, in April, 1862, to 
 Antoinette Thompson, a native of East Haven, and 
 a daughter of Elizer Thompson, for years the keeper 
 of the New Haven Light House, and previous to 
 that a groceryman. Mrs. Granniss was one of a 
 family of nine children, and is herself the mother 
 of two children, both of whom are dead. Mr. 
 Granniss is a Republican, and was elected first se- 
 lectman in 1868, a position he held until 1875, hav- 
 ing been chosen to this on several subsequent oc- 
 casions. In the General Assembly of 1871 he held 
 a seat with credit. Mr. and Mrs. Granniss attend 
 the Old Street Congregational Church of East 
 Haven. 
 
 JOHN PIXNEY PHELPS, until the spring of 
 1901, was one of Hamden's worthy citizens and 
 prominent dairy farmers. He was born in the town 
 of Winchester, Conn., Dec. 24, 1834, and is de- 
 scended from one of the old and honored families 
 of New England. His father, Ralzemon Phelps, 
 was a native of West Granville, Mass., and a son 
 of John and Betsey (Bingham) Phelps, both of 
 whom were born in Enfield, Conn., and at an early 
 day removed from West Granville, Mass., to Ohio, 
 locating in Granville, Licking county, where they 
 spent their remaining days. The father of our sub- 
 ject was but two years old on the removal of the 
 family to Ohio, and in Granville he grew to man- 
 hood and learned the carpenter's and joiner's trade. 
 On attaining his majority he returned East and 
 took up his residence in Colebrook, Litchfield Co., 
 Conn., and' after his marriage he located in the 
 town of Winchester, Conn., where he continued to 
 make his home throughout life. There he followed 
 his trade and also conducted a hotel and store with 
 marked success, and became the owner of pron- 
 - erty in that town. In his religious views he was a 
 Universalist, and in political sentiment was a Dem- 
 ocrat. He married Miss Emma Pinney, daughter 
 of Asaph Pinney, and to them were born two chil- 
 dren : Emeret E., who died at the age of twelve 
 years ; and John P., our subject. Both parents died 
 in Winchester, and were laid to rest in the cemetery 
 at Colebrook, Connecticut. 
 
 John P. Phelps received his educatioil in the 
 district schools of his native town, and began his 
 business career as an employe in the factory of the 
 Winsted Auger Co., of Winsted, Conn., where he 
 remained until 1861. After the death of his father 
 he located on the home farm, and engaged in its 
 cultivation until 1885, when he came to the town of 
 Hamden, New Haven county, where until April, 
 
964 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1901, he was extensively engaged in general farm- 
 ing, dair^'ing and stock raising, owning and operat- 
 ing a fine farm of eighty-seven acres, which he 
 placed under a high state of cultivation. When he 
 left the farm in 1901 he moved to Centerville, and 
 is now living retired. 
 
 On Nov. 21, 1854, in Hamden, Mr. Phelps was 
 united in marriage with Miss Nancy Gorham, a 
 native of that town, and a daughter of William and 
 Lucretia (Dorman) Gorham. For the past thirty 
 years she has been an invalid, having lost the use 
 of her limbs by locomotor ataxia, but she bears 
 her suffering with great patience. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Phelps had two children: (i) Cora E., born Dec. 
 21, 1857, was married on Jan. 6, 1876, to Luther 
 C, Phelps, and they have one child, Emma Pinney, 
 born June 3, 1888. Luther C. Phelps died Jan. 23, 
 1890, and his widow now lives at home with her 
 parents. (2) Charles J., the younger child of our 
 subject, was born Nov. 5, 1875, and died the same 
 month. 
 
 Mr. Phelps is a supporter of the Democratic 
 party, and has served as a member of the board of 
 relief and as justice of the peace. He is a broad- 
 minded man and liberal in his religious views, and 
 he attends the Episcopal Church. Fraternally he 
 is a member of Hamden Grange, and he gives an 
 earnest support to every enterprise which he be- 
 lieves calculated to advance the moral, intellectual 
 or material welfare of his town and county. He is 
 therefore numbered among the useful and) valued 
 citizens, and is well and favorably known. 
 
 THEODORE BRISTOL, a well-known busi- 
 ness man of Milford, New Haven county, was born 
 in that town Feb. 18, 1837, son of Johnson and 
 Elizabeth (Davidson) Bristol. His family has been 
 identified with Milford from an early date, his 
 grandfather, Jehial Bristol, who attained the ad- 
 vanced age of ninety-four years, having been a 
 farmer and shoemaker there. This worthy pioneer 
 married Miss Martha Beecher, amative of Orange, 
 New Haven Co., Conn., for his first wife, and they 
 had children as follows : Miranda, who married 
 John Welch, of Milford; Clarinda, who died in 
 childhood; Willis, who conducted a wholesale and , 
 retail shoe business in. New Haven until his death, 
 and was a prominent man in local politics as a 
 member of the Whig and Republican parties ; John- 
 son, our subject's father; and Martha C, who mar- 
 ried William Thomas, of Fair Haven, an oyster 
 dealer. By his second wife, Flavid, daughter of 
 Dr. Austin, also of Milford, Jehial Bristol had two 
 children : Hiram, a shoemaker by trade, who died 
 in New Haven: and Lucia, who married Samuel 
 Sanford, son of Capt. William Sanford, of Milford. 
 
 Johnson Bristol, our subject's father, was born 
 in Milford Nov. 19, 1807, and died Dec. 16, 1891. 
 For thirty years he conducted a grocery business 
 in Milford, but his last years were spent in retire- 
 ment. Politically he was a Democrat, and as a citi- 
 
 zen was held in high esteem by his fellow towns- 
 men. His wife, Elizabeth (Davidson), who died in 
 Milford July 10, 1893, was a niative of Milford, and 
 daughter of Richard T. Davidson, a carpenter, who 
 lived to the age of ninety-four years. Of their nine 
 children, the eldest, Henry, is a grocer in Milford ; 
 the second and third died in, infancy ; Jane married 
 Monson Hiniman, of Bridgeport, Conn. ; Theodore, 
 our subject, is mentioned more fully below; Har- 
 riet died at the age of sixteen years ; Charles is 
 in the employ of our subject; Elizabeth married 
 Edward Burleigh, of Milford; and Edson is a 
 farmer in Milford. 
 
 Theodore Bristol was reared in Milford, and for 
 twenty-three years was employed by N. A. Bald- 
 win, a straw hat manufacturer in tihat town, but in 
 1872 he purchased his preserut livery business, in 
 which he has met with decided success. He attends 
 Plymouth Congregational Church, and is an active 
 member of the Masonic fraternity, while politically 
 he affiliates with the Democratic party. Mr. Bristol 
 married for his first wife Caroline A. Merwin, 
 daughter of Mark Merwin, of Milford ; at her death 
 she left one child, Julia E., now the wife of Walter 
 M. Irving, contractor and builder, of Milford. By 
 his second wife, Rachel C. Wright, of Clinton, 
 Conn., Mr. Bristol has had two children: Grace 
 L., who married George R. Clarke, a meat dealer 
 in Milford; and Royal M., who died at the age of 
 six years. 
 
 FRANK BRAZOS has carried on a thriving 
 business as a contractor in New Haven for the 
 past six years, and his success has been commen- 
 surate to that enjoyed by the other members of this 
 well known family. 
 
 Antoine Brazos, his father, the senior member 
 and founder of the firm of Brazos & Sons, Middle- 
 town, is probably one of the best examples of a 
 self-made man that Middletown can present at the 
 present time. When all the circumstances of his 
 history are considered, his early life and lack of ed- 
 ucational advantages, and his beginning life afresh 
 in a new country, it is doubtful if a parallel case 
 can be foundl in all Connecticut. A man's success 
 in life ought not to be determined by the heights 
 to which he has climbed, but by the depths from 
 which he arose. 
 
 Mr. Brazos was born at Pico, Azore Islands, 
 Aug. 15, 1826. His parents, Joseph and Rosa 
 Brazos, were both natives of the Islands, and his 
 father was a farmer. It was in that far away cor- 
 ner of the earth that Antoine spent the first nine- 
 teen years of his life. Instead of common schools 
 for all the people, as is the rule in this country, he 
 had never seen an institution of that character until 
 he came to the United States. His education has 
 been gained entirely in the great school of experi- 
 ence. When nineteen years of age Mr. Brazos came 
 to the United States, where his brother had already 
 preceded him, and had attained a good position as 
 
dUCt^O-cL^-JL /(JyUMy^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL REC'ORD. 
 
 965 
 
 mate of the schooner "Smith D. Bellows," plying 
 between the Connecticut river and the coast points. 
 Antoine made the voyage across the ocean on the 
 bark "Azore," bound for Boston. He landed in that 
 city, expecting to find his brother Manuel. A ship- 
 wreck delayed his arrival, and Antoine was a strang- 
 er in the city, not able to speak one work of English. 
 His predicament was anything but pleasant. He se- 
 cured work, however, on a vessel, and began a ca- 
 reer as a sailor which lasted some seven or eight 
 years, and was an eventful period in his history. He 
 had many narrow escapes, and more than once 
 was saved with but a few of the crew. One ship 
 on which he was a sailor was wrecked on the ex- 
 treme lower coast of Florida, and he with two com- 
 panions were all that escaped death out of a crew 
 of twelve men. At another time his ship was blown 
 far out to sea, and badly damaged, and for seven 
 weeks the crew were without food, and suffered 
 greatly from lack of water. 
 
 Communication with his brother Manuel had 
 long been established, and that gentleman finally 
 persuaded his brother to give up a sea-faring life 
 and come to Middletown. Manuel Brazosi was one 
 of the founders of the Hartford and New York 
 Transportation Co., and was its general manager 
 for a number of years. He died in Hartford. 
 Frank Brazos, another older brother of Antoine, also 
 came to the United States, and died in Hartford 
 when about forty years old. 
 
 Mr. Brazos began business in Middletown in 
 1854, and his beginning was a very modest one. 
 He bought out Philo Clark in a stevedore business, 
 and had three horses as his principal working force. 
 In 1872 his business had so increased that he re- 
 solved to make still farther extension and took all 
 kinds of contracting, such as raising sunken ves- 
 sels, general trucking, railroad building and sewer 
 construction, not only in Middletown, but anywhere 
 in the United States. He gave up the stevedore 
 business a number of years ago, and as his sons 
 became old enough he took them into business. At 
 the present time the firm of Brazos & Sons is com- 
 posed of the father and five sons, Joseph, Manuel 
 A., Louis, John and George. Brazos & Sons have 
 a department in their business devoted to ice in 
 Middletown, which requires six wagons in season. 
 In Middletown they have constructed twenty-seven 
 houses from start to finish, a magnificent record for 
 the firm. Many thousands of dollars have passed 
 through their hands as wages for their employes. 
 At the present time their pay roll is about $3,000 
 a month. The senior member of the firm has been 
 particularly fortunate in the ability possessed by all 
 his sons, and their devotion to the business. 
 
 Antoine Brazos was married, in 1855, to Miss 
 Ann Neale, a native of County Carlow, Ireland, and 
 a daughter of James Neale. They are the parents 
 of a numerous family : Eunice J. married W. W. 
 Hulse, a real estate man of Amityville, Long Isl- 
 and. Julia A. graduated from Wesleyan Uni- 
 
 versity, and is now a teacher in the. Middletown 
 high school. Joseph is a member of the firm men- 
 tioned above. Mary is a teacher in Middletown, 
 where she was educated in the high school. Frank 
 is our subject. Manuel A. is a member of the firm. 
 Annie E. is a trained nurse at Hartford. Alice R. 
 graduated from the Middletown high school in 1889. 
 Louis belongs to the firm as do also John and 
 George. Mr. Brazos has a beautiful home at the 
 corner of High and Loveland streets, which was 
 built in 1890. He is a Republican politically, and 
 he attends. the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Frank Brazos was born in Middletown April 8, 
 1864, and spent his early years in his native town, 
 where he received his education. At the age of 
 eleven years he began working for his father. For 
 five years he was with the Chichester estate, in the 
 real estate business in New York City. He then 
 became a member of the firm of Brazos & Sons, 
 and so continued until May, 1895, since which time 
 he has engaged in general contracting business, in- 
 dependently. He enjoys a large patronage, employ- 
 ing an average force of one hundred men. He has 
 resided in New Haven for seventeen years. Mr. 
 Brazos is a Republican politically, and a member of 
 the Union League and the Young Men's Republican 
 Clubs. He was married, in New Haven, to Miss 
 Ida Englehart, of that city, and they reside at No. 
 808 Elm street, where he built a home in 1894. 
 
 PORTER GAY and HENRY ADELBERT 
 HULL, worthy representatives of an old and hon- 
 orable New England family, are great-grandsons 
 of Benjamin Hull. 
 
 Benjamin Hull was born about 1725, was a 
 farmer by occupation, and resided on the old Hull 
 homestead, which lies about one-eighth of a mile 
 southwest of the present home. It is related that the 
 said BenjamJn and a son were one day at work in 
 the fields, during the Revolutionary war, when three 
 British soldiers came by on horseback, and that 
 they captured both Benjamin and his son, who were 
 never seen or heard of again. Benjamin Hull mar- 
 ried Amy Hill, who was born July 6, 1726, and 
 died Dec. i, 1826. The fourth son in their family 
 of seven children was Benjamin, who married Han- 
 nah Humiston, the records telling of her baptism 
 in St. John's Church in 1781, and of her death in 
 1845. Benjamin Hull was a farmer, and passed 
 his life on the homestead. He left a family of nine 
 children, the seventh beii^g Jarvis, father of the 
 gentleman whose name opens this article. 
 
 Jarvis Hull was born June 15, 1800, on the 
 home farm, and had only the limited educational 
 advantages obtained in the primitive schools of the 
 locality. Selecting the trade of shoemaker, he soon 
 became an expert, and, as the custom was in those 
 days, would go with his bag of tools from house 
 to house, remaining until the whole family had been 
 shod. Later he established a shop on his own farm, 
 engaging in cultivating his land during the sum- 
 
966 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 mers and in the winter time attending to his shoe- 
 making. One of his specialties was the making of 
 wedding gear, and he successfully manufactured 
 neat and dressy boots and shoes from leather, gain- 
 ing considerable reputation in the vicinity. Mr. 
 Hull died June 25, 1872, and was buried in North 
 Haven. In politics he had always been a stanch 
 Democrat. He reared his whole family in the faith 
 of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Hull married Eliza 
 Gay, who was born in 1809, in Meredith, Delaware 
 Co., N. Y., daughter of Lucian Gay, a farmer there. 
 She died April 8, 1874, a member of the Episcopal 
 Church. The children born to this union were : 
 Julia A. is the widow of Charles Hine, and now re- 
 sides in Northford; Porter Gay is mentioned be- 
 low; Jane E. married Smith Tyler; Celia E. mar- 
 ried Jasper E. Higbie, of Meriden, and both are 
 deceased ; Henry Adelbert is mentioned below ; and 
 Harriet A. resides in North Haven. 
 
 Porter Gay Hull was born Sept. 5, 1832, and 
 enjoyed the educational advantages of the district 
 schools. While still a young man he engaged in 
 business with his uncle, Orrin Hull, at City Point, 
 at which time City Point had but three houses from 
 the Bridge down to the Sound. Ten years later he 
 returned to North Haven and was employed by 
 Sharon Bassett, who had a shop on the farm now 
 owned by George Morgan, where he engaged in the 
 making of wagon bolts, by horse power. After 
 two years at this place Mr. Hull removed to Bir- 
 mingham, Mr. Bassett changing his location to that 
 place, and continued with him in the same business. 
 An opportunity offering, he left Mr. Bassett to enter 
 upon the trade of machinist with the Hamden Iron 
 Co., one year later going to Waterbury, Conn. 
 There he engaged in the manufacture of cotton gins, 
 but his career here was interrupted, the company 
 going out of business, and he was then employed by 
 Blake Bros., of Westville, manufacturers of hard- 
 ware, with whom he remained eight years. He was 
 thus employed when Fort Sumter was fired upon, 
 the works closing down on that day. By this time 
 Mr. Hull was a skilled mechanic, and easily secured 
 employment with Eli Whitney, of Whitneyville, 
 with whom he remained some four years, in the 
 manufacture of guns, pistols and other fire arms 
 for which there, was great demand on account of 
 the progress of the Civil war. While engaged in 
 these works he was called upon to assist in guard- 
 ing the factory, as fears were entertained that at- 
 tempt might be made to burn or loot it. Leaving 
 this factory, Mr. Hull went to New Haven, where 
 he accepted a position in the restaurant and ice 
 cream parlors of C. F. Lockland (who was lo- 
 cated where Plemblein & Co. now are), remaining 
 there until 1864, when he became head clerk for 
 the "Tontine Hotel." This situation he held effici- 
 ently for the following twent3'-seven years, retiring 
 in May, 1897. 
 
 In 1897 Mr. Hull came to his present home, 
 the people of the "Tontine" regretting his de- 
 
 parture, as he had been a very popular adjunct of 
 the house. The traveling public have many pleasant 
 recollections of Mr. Hull, whose genial personality 
 made him admirably qualified for the position he 
 filled. His present residence is a comfortable one, 
 his busy life having earned him a competency. Po- . 
 litically Mr. Hull is a Republican, although all the 
 other members of his family are Democrats. So- 
 cially he is connected with Hiram Lodge, No. 36, 
 I. O. O. F., and Franklin Chapter, No. 2, R. A. 
 M., all of New Haven. 
 
 Henry Adelbert Hull was born Nov. 16, 1844, 
 and attended the district schools, returning to agri- 
 cultural work after his school days were ended, part 
 of the time on the home farm, the remainder on 
 farms in the vicinity. Until he purchased his pres- 
 ent farm of sixty-five acres he remained on the 
 home place, and is now engaged in the successful 
 operation of his own estate. As an active member 
 of the Democratic party he has been called upon to 
 hold man}' of the local offices, and is socially con- 
 nected with the New Haven Grange, and Quinnipiac 
 Lodge, No. 62, O. L\ A. ;\I. He is a member of 
 North Haven Co-operative Feed Co., an organiza- 
 tion of the substantial men of this locality. Both 
 the Hull brothers are among the representative citi- 
 zens of North Haven. 
 
 JAMES AT. EAIERSON, who for the past quar- 
 ter of a century, has been editor and proprietor of 
 the Ansonia Sentinel, the first newspaper of that 
 place, is a native of Maryland. His birth occurred 
 in December, 1845, i" Denton, the county seat of 
 Caroline county, that State. His early education 
 was received at the public schools of that town, and 
 at the age of fourteen he became a student in the 
 preparatory department of Washington College, 
 Chestertown, Md., from which he was graduated 
 four years later, taking the second honors of his 
 class. 
 
 Mr. Emerson's active career as a newspaper man 
 began not long after he attained his majority, when 
 he succeeded his father, John H. Emerson (now 
 deceased), in the publication of the American 
 Union, the Republican organ of Caroline county. 
 He remained in charge of this paper as editor un- 
 til July, 1871, when he accepted a call to the ed- 
 itorial staff of the Wilmington (Del.) Daily Com- 
 mercial. He sustained this relation until his re- 
 moval to Ansonia, in August, 1876. In July of 
 that year lie and W. H. Cramer (who came from 
 Wilmington) purchased the Sentinel from Rev. Ed- 
 ward M. Jerome, the senior member of the firm of 
 Jerome & Carpenter, by whom the journal was 
 founded in November, 1871. When Mr. Carpenter 
 withdrew Mr. Jerome engaged as foreman F. M. 
 Rider, until recently business manager of the New 
 Haven Leader. After a couple of years Mr. Cramer- 
 sold out to Mr. Emerson and returned to Wilming- 
 ton, and the latter has since been sole proprietor. 
 
 The Sentinel has risen to its present prestige 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 967. 
 
 from humble beginnings. The first office was on 
 the main floor of the Gardner block (opposite the 
 post-ofliice), where a space 16x40 feet in dimensions 
 was fenced off for its use. When Mr. Emerson 
 took charge there were but 935 subscribers, and the 
 outlook at first was none too encouraging, for, 
 while he lost no ground, he apparently gained none. 
 But when the growth set in it proved strong and 
 steady. The job department had considerable busi- 
 ness, and in 1879, when Mr. Gardner built a large 
 addition to his factory, the Sentinel sought better 
 accommodations in the new portion of the build- 
 ing. From this time the business of the paper be- 
 gan to increase. New machinery was introduced, 
 and the second story oi a small frame building 
 which stood on the present site of the Y. M. C. A. 
 building, was used for a composition room. In 
 1881 Mr. Emerson, feeling himself justified in se- 
 curing a permanent location, bought the present 
 site of the Sentinel building, of the W. & L. Hotch- 
 kiss Co. He erected a three-story building, the 
 presses being established on the lower floor, and the 
 composing room, etc., on the upper story. The sec- 
 ond story was for a time rented out for offices, but 
 one after another was found necessary as the Sen- 
 tinel continued! to grow, until the entire building 
 was needed to carry on the business of the paper. 
 Another story was finally added, where, to the pres- 
 ent, the composition and job work have been car- 
 ried on. When the linotype machines were put in 
 and new floor space was required, the top floor of 
 the building next door was leased, for editorial pur- 
 poses. Then the sidewalk at the north end of the 
 building ^yas dug out to give storage room for the 
 paper, which is received by the car-load, and thus 
 every foot of available space has been utilized. 
 Further extension will require a new site, which 
 would have been selected long ago, had any suitable 
 location been found. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1884. appeared the first issue of the 
 Evening Sentinel, and the paper has been published 
 daily ever since. But 600 copies of the daily were 
 sold at first, and the subscription list remained sta- 
 tionary for some time, but various local circum- 
 stances combined to demonstrate its importance to 
 the public, and, as before, the progress made has 
 been sure and substantial. The patronage has in- 
 creased until the present ratio is one subscription 
 for every six inhabitants in the field it covers — a 
 record unequalled by any paper in the State. There 
 is no doubt that this happy condition of affairs is 
 due for the most part to Mr. Emerson's public spirit, 
 which he has shown in numerous ways since his set- 
 tlement in Ansonia. It is an undisputed fact that 
 the Sentinel as a business enterprise ranks as ot 
 first importance in Ansonia, the mere statement that 
 $20,000 is paid annually, all in the locality, for work 
 on the paper and in the job printing department, 
 carrying som.e idea of its commercial value. The 
 business has not lacked rivals, but they have come 
 and gone without appreciable effect on its popu- 
 
 larity or influence, except, perhaps, the healthy 
 stimulus of opposition. The New Haven papers 
 at one time enjoyed a large circulation in the valley, 
 and it was the need of a local daily thus plainly 
 demonstrated that Mr. Emerson attempted to fill 
 when he made the important change in 1884, thus 
 bringing to Ansonia a revenue and an industry that 
 were rapidly being monopolized by outsiders. The 
 name was changed to the Ansonia Sentinel when 
 the borough was made a town by action of the 
 Legislature in May, 1888. 
 
 The mechanical outfit of the Sentinel is worthy 
 of special mention. A Potter drum cylinder press, 
 a small Gordon jobber and type enough for im- 
 mediate needs were all the office boasted when the 
 business was started. At the present day there is 
 hardly a city of the size of Ansonia which has a 
 newspaper equipment so up to date and complete. 
 The setting of type by hand was discontinued sev- 
 eral years ago, and three Alergenthaler linotype 
 machines installed. These have since been increased 
 to five. New presses have been purchased from 
 time to time, each an improvement on its predeces- 
 sor, aiul the Hoe two-deck Straight-Line Rotary 
 now in use has a capacity of 20,000 4 or 8-page pa- 
 pers, or 10,000 10, 12 or 16-page papers per hour. 
 The facilities for obtaining news are on a par with 
 the equipment. The Sentinel is served by the As- 
 sociated Press, and receives the news direct in the 
 editorial rooms by private wire. 
 
 ANDREW FOOTE AUSTIN is one of the best 
 known and most influential citizens of North Ha- 
 ven, his public life having covered many years. 
 His family ranked among the oldest settlers in the 
 State. John Austin married Prudence Roys, and 
 testified to the birth of their son, Joshua, in Walling- 
 ford. Conn., in 1708. Joshua Austin married 
 Mercy Hall, and their son, Abner, was born in 
 Wallingford. Nov. 17, 1734. Abner Austin married 
 Ann Beers, and their son, Joseph, became the grand- 
 father of the subject of this review. 
 
 Joseph Austin followed agricultural pursuits in 
 Wallingford, where he married Bethia Page. They 
 had three sons, Abner, Caleb and Joseph. He died 
 in North Haven. 
 
 Joseph Austin was born April 23, 1803, and in 
 1825 came to North Haven, locating on the land 
 now owned and occupied by his son, following the 
 occupation of farming and butchering until his 
 death, which occurred Oct. 14, 1854. He married 
 Celia, daughter of Rufus and Elizabeth (Harrison) 
 Foote ; the three children born to this union were r 
 Andrew Foote ; Abner E., who married Ruth B. 
 Coe, and after her death wedded Mary Gilbert ; 
 Charles R., who died in August, 185 1. 
 
 Andrew F. Austin was born March 26, 1834, on 
 the farm he now owns. His primary education was 
 received in the district schools, and was supple- 
 mented in the State Normal School, his natural abil- 
 ity placing him in the rank of teachers when but 
 
■968 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 eighteen years old. For fifteen years he was en- 
 gaged in teaching in the winters and farming in the 
 summers. When he reached his twenty-fifth year 
 he was appointed a justice of the peace, which po- 
 sition he has held for forty-three years, being a 
 trial justice, and still holds the office. His decisions 
 are of such an impartial character, and show so 
 much wisdom, that his fellow citizens have been 
 justified in reposing their confidence in him for so 
 long a period. Mr. Austin has held for many years 
 the office of school visitor, the duties of which he 
 has faithfully performed. In 1880 he was made 
 census enumerator, in the taking of the tenth cen- 
 sus of the I02d district, which then included his 
 native town. In 1882 he had the honor of repre- 
 senting his town in the Legislature, serving on the 
 committee on Claims. In 1862 he was made a se- 
 lectman, and served for fourteen years in that ca- 
 pacity as town agent. For many years he was a 
 trusted and valued employe of the Marvin Safe 
 Co., of New York, and traveled in the sale of 
 burglar proof safes, severing this connection when 
 the company entered the combine ; he was similarly 
 •engaged with the firm of Bradley & Co., of Syra- 
 cuse, N. Y., leaving them only when the firm went 
 •out of business. 
 
 Although the owner of a fine farm, Mr. Austin 
 •does little farming himself, hi,s time being occupied 
 with his business in the community, and with that 
 of the Mutual Life Insurance Co., of New York, 
 ■of which he is the agent. Mr. Austin settles up 
 estates where the intricacies of the law make dif- 
 ficult and long continued litigation, and his methods 
 of honest and fearless justice have caused his ad- 
 vice to be sought and acted upon. Had JMr. Austin 
 entered the legal profession, it is the opinion of 
 his acquaintances that he would have made his 
 mark; his judgments are almost always sustained 
 by the higher courts. 
 
 On Nov. 26, 1857, ;\Ir. Austin married Char- 
 lotte P. Stiles, a native of Xiortli Haven, and a 
 daughter of Horace and Lois P. Stiles, the former a 
 brick manufacturer of North Haven. Mr. Stiles 
 was a son of Isaac Clark Stiles, and a grandson of 
 Isaac Stiles, who was a brother of Ezra Stile.s, 
 president of Yale College. Isaac Stiles was born in 
 Windsor. His father, Isaac Stiles, came to North 
 Haven in 1724, and was a Congregational minister 
 there until 1760. Isaac was a son of John Stiles, 
 who was born in Windsor, in 1697, a son of Francis 
 Stiles, who came with seven others of the name to 
 America on the ship "Christian" in 1634, landing in 
 Boston, and going to Windsor with the Rev. War- 
 ham expedition. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Austin were given two sons. 
 The younger. Gardener E., died in l''c1)ruary, 1895. 
 The elder, Frederick W., married Juline Rebecca 
 Barnes, and two children ha\e been born to them, 
 Clarence A. and Esther Louise. He resides in New 
 jiaven, where he is employed in the office of the 
 jMerwin Provision Co, In politics our subject has 
 
 always been a stanch Republican and has been a 
 useful and active .worker for his party. All the fam- 
 ily are identified with the North Haven Congre- 
 gational Church, and they enjoy the esteem of the 
 community. 
 
 BENJAMIN HALL, dairy farmer of East Wal- 
 lingford, warden of the Episcopal Church, and one 
 of the leading spirits of his community, was born 
 on the farm which is now his home Oct. 30, 1830. 
 A descendant of one of the old families of New 
 Flaven county, he has worthily sustained the family 
 honor .by a clean and upright life. 
 
 Tohn Hall was the first of this family to settle 
 in New Haven county. Coming from England' to 
 Boston prior to 1650, with his family, he located 
 in this region. In 1669 his three sons, with others, 
 came to Wallingford, and were signers of the Plan- 
 tation Covenant. On this interesting document 
 John Hall's name appears in 1672. In 1675 he 
 was chosen selectman of the town, as was also his 
 son Jo'hn, and here the remainder of his life was 
 spent; he died in 1676, at the age of seventy-one 
 years. He and his wife, Jane ( Woolen) , had seven 
 children: (i) John, baptized Aug. 9, 1646, died 
 Sept. 2, 1721 ; (2) Richard was born July 11, 1645; 
 (3) Samuel, born May 21, 1646, died March 5, 
 1725; (4) Sarah was jjaptized Aug. 9, 1646; (5) 
 Thomas was born March 25, 1649; (6) Jonathan 
 was born April 5, 1651 ; (7) David, born March 
 18, 1652, died July 17, 1727. 
 
 John Hall (2), the eldest in the family of John, 
 was one of the first settlers of Wallingford, where 
 he was postmaster and a man of influence, and 
 where he died. On Dec. 6, 1666, he was mari-ied 
 to Mary, daughter of Edward Parker, and she died 
 Sept. 22, 1725, the mother of the following chil- 
 dren: (i) Elizabeth, borni Aug. 11, 1670;, (2) 
 Daniel, born July 26, 1672, who married Thankful 
 Lyman; (3) Mary, born June 23, 1675; (4) Na- 
 thaniel, born Feb. 8, 1677, who married Elizabeth 
 Curtiss; (5) John, born March 14, 1681 ; (6) Lydia, 
 born Jan. 21, 1683 ; (7) Samuel, laorn Dec. 24, 1686, 
 who died Nov. i, 1689; (8) Esther, born Aug. 30, 
 1693; (9) Caleb, born Sept. 14, 1697. 
 
 John Hall (3), whose name appears in the fore- 
 going list, was born in Wallingford, and was mar- 
 ried June 28, 1707, to Elizabeth Royce, who died 
 Sept. 2, 1755, at the age of sixty-six years. He 
 lived to be eighty-five years old, passing away April 
 zy, 1766. A land owner and a practical and suc- 
 cessful farmer, he spent his entire life in Walling- 
 ford, He had a numerous family, wihose names 
 and dates of birth are as follows: (i) Isaac and 
 (2) Peter, twins, July 22, 1709; (3) John, Dec. 
 28, 1712; (4) Asahel, Jan. 19, 1717; (5) Royce, 
 Dec. 26, 1718 (graduated from Yale, 1737, and died 
 May 29, 1752); (6) Abigail, March 7, 1723; (7) 
 Elizabeth, July 9, 1725 ; (8) Benjamin, April 4, 
 1728 (married Phebe Hall, and died Dec. 11, 1806) ; 
 i (9) Elisha, Sept. 15, 1730; (10) Sarah, Aug. 25, 
 
A 
 
 l^L^X 
 
 H^-oM 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 969 
 
 1752; and (11) Abel, the date of whose birth is now 
 ■unknown. 
 
 John Hall (4), son of John (3), born Dec. 28, 
 1712, was a lifelong farmer in his native town of 
 Wallingford, where he died May 13, 1795; he was 
 buried in Guilford. Abigail Russell became his 
 wife June 11, 1739, and they had the following 
 diildren: (i) Ehas, born March 10, 1740; (2) 
 Jared, July 19, 1741 ; (3) Abigail, Oct. 16, 1743; 
 (4) John, Dec. 6, 1744;, (5) Elizabeth, Sept. 28, 
 174s; (6) WiUiam, June 15, 1747; (7) Mary, Jan. 
 ■23, 1749; (8) Eunice, July 6, 1751 ; (9) Anna C, 
 Aug. IS, 1755; (10) Benjamin, July 2, 1757. 
 
 Benjamin Hall, the grandfather of our subject 
 proper, was born as noted above in the town of 
 Wallingford, and like his father was an extensive 
 land owner and farmer. He owned and cultivated 
 the farm where his grandson now lives, and the 
 handsome house which is the home of the Hall fam- 
 ily was built by him. In politics he was a Whig, 
 and in religion a member of the Congregational 
 Church. Mr. Hall married Lydia Cook, and they 
 had four children : ( i ) Lyman was born March 
 20, 1798; (2) Mary, born June 12, 1799, married 
 Joel Curtis; (3) Emeline married Miner Harrison; 
 (4 )Orrin was born March 2, 1803. 
 
 Orrin Hall, father of Benjamin, lost his father 
 hy death while he was still very young, and ob- 
 tained only a district-school education. From an 
 ■early age he was engaged in farm labor. When he 
 was twenty-eight years old he settled on the old 
 . homestead, where he became engaged in farming 
 and stock raising, and he remained on the farm all 
 "his hfe, dying there at the ripe age of seventy-two 
 years. His remains rest in the Center street cem- 
 etery at Wallingford. In religion he was a mem- 
 her of the Congregational Church, and in politics 
 a Whig in early life, and in later years a Demo- 
 crat. Abstemious and temperate in his habits, and 
 a hard-workinig man, he was a good citizen and a 
 ■kind father. Orrin Hall and Mary Todd were mar- 
 ried in Wallingford, where she was born, in the 
 Society of NortMord, daughter of Thelas Todd. 
 Four children came to this union: (i) Benjamin 
 is mentioned below; (2) Gloson is living retired in 
 New Haven; (3) Mary is the widow of Ransom 
 Baldwin; (4) Elbert resides in western Missouri. 
 The mother died in Meriden, at the home of her 
 daughter, and was buried in the Center street cem- 
 etery, Wallingford. A member of the Episcopal 
 Church, she was a good Christian woman, and was 
 liighly respected in every relation of life. 
 
 Benjamin Hall began life as a poor boy, and had 
 only the advantages of a common-school educa- 
 tion. He worked at farm' labor from a very early 
 age, and continued thus until his marriage, when 
 he settled dow# to farming on his own account, 
 and has ever since been engaged in general agri- 
 culture and stock raising. To-day he is one of 
 • the most extensive dairymen of Wallingford, keep- 
 ing a herd of sixty cows. Many improvements have 
 
 been wrought on the farm since it passed into his 
 hands, and he is one of the largest land owners 
 in the town of Wallingford, accumulating this ex- 
 tensive property very largely through his own ef- 
 forts. A genial and affable man, he is pronounced 
 a good neighbor, and a kindly-hearted and upright 
 member of the community by all that know him. 
 He resides on the old homestead where five genera- 
 tions of Halls have lived. Twice appointed post- 
 master at East Wallingford during the McKinley 
 administration, he filled that position until the of- 
 fice was abandoned for the rural delivery. 
 
 Benjamin Hall was married, in 1857, in East 
 Haven, to Miss Martha Todd, daughter of Jonah 
 H. Todd. She died in 1862 in East Wallingford, 
 and was buried in the Center street cemetery. A 
 member of the Episcopal Church, she was an ex- 
 emplary woman in every respect. For his second 
 wife Mr. Hall married, on April 11, 1866, Clarissa 
 C. Porter, who was born in Farmington, Conn., a 
 daughter of William S. Porter. Two children were 
 born to the first marriage: (i) Jane Elizabeth, 
 who married Alson B. Bartholomew, of Walling- 
 ford, and died April 23, 1892; and (2) Martha 
 Todd, who married Hon. Henry C. Wooding, of 
 Yalesville, a dairy farmer. Mr. Hall is now serving 
 his sixth year as senior warden of the Episcopal 
 Church, of which he has been a vestryman for many 
 years. He is also a member of the Wallingford 
 Grange, and is highly respected in the community. 
 Domestic in his habits, he has led a clean and 
 wholesome life, and believes that the noblest ideals 
 may be largely carried out in our daily acts. He is 
 singularly free from the petty vices that mar social 
 life, has never used tobacco, and has never been 
 under the influence of intoxicants ; he has never 
 taken a drink at a bar. 
 
 RICHARD MANSFIELD EVERIT, a retired 
 merchant, formerly of the old firm of Hotchkiss 
 JJros. & Co., of New Haven, but more recently of 
 the firm of Burdett & Everit, of New York, who 
 were extensively engaged in foreign trade with 
 Europe, the West Indies and South America, has 
 long been one of New Haven's leading citizens. 
 
 Born April 9, 1824, in the old Mansfield home- 
 stead — the home of his maternal ancestors, which 
 stood in Grand avenue, a little east of the Mill river 
 bridge and which was purchased by his father — 
 Mr. Everit is the son of the late Capt. Richard and 
 Sarah (Mansfield) Everit. The former was a son 
 of William Everit, a soldier of the Revolution and 
 a descendant of one of the earliest settlers of Long 
 Island, while the latter was descended from one 
 of New Plaven's early planters. 
 
 William Everit, seeing the British land on Long 
 Island, immediately went with two others to the 
 house of the commanding officer, Capt. WoodhuU, 
 to notify him of the landing. While they were in 
 the house it was surrounded by British troops, and 
 the captain of the British demanded the surrender 
 
970 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of Capt. Woodhull ; the latter gave up his sword to 
 the British officer, who thereupon ran him through 
 with it. During the excitement Wilham Everit 
 and his companions escaped through the window 
 and hid under the floor of the barn. They were 
 located by the British and made prisoners of war, 
 being confined where the old post-office was in 
 Nassau street. New York. Mr. Everit made his 
 escape from the prison through the aid of his wife, 
 who was in the habit of bringing him provisions 
 each week. The day of his escape she brought him 
 a suit of clothes instead of provisions, and after 
 donning them he mingled with the visitors, and 
 so escaped, rejoining the Colonists. 
 
 Capt. Richard Everit was born in New York 
 City Dec. 23, 1772. He became a ship master, com- 
 manding packet ships trading between New York 
 and Holland, London and Bristol, England, and 
 also made voyages to other European ports, the 
 West Indies and South America. The second 
 American vessel which visited Rio Grande do Sul, 
 Brazil, now a great hide exporting place, was com- 
 manded by him. Capt. Everit's life in some respects 
 was remarkable. He began going to sea at the age 
 of eleven years, and followed a sea-faring life umil 
 he was fifty, when he retired to New Haven and 
 lived there for forty years. During his whole life 
 he never drank a glass of rum, gin or brandy, a 
 remarkable circumstance considering his occupation 
 and the habits and customs of his class and the 
 times. Being of a kindly and genial disposition, he 
 had many friends, and few, if any, enemies. He 
 died !March 4, 1863, in New Haven. 
 
 On March 31. 181 1, Capt. Everit was married 
 to Elizabeth Mansfield, who was born Jan. 27, 1780, 
 daughter of William ^lansfield, of New Haven. 
 She died March 28, 1818, and Capt. Everit mar- 
 ried, Feb. 6, 1820, her sister Sarah, who was born 
 April 4, 1 79 1. Mrs. Sarah Everit died July 23, 
 1875. C)"2 son came to the first marriage, Phineas, 
 born Dec. 7, 1812, who died unmarried Sept. 18, 
 1854, in New York. The children of the second 
 marriage were: Elizabeth, born Jan. 15, 1822, died 
 July 7, 1822 : Richard Mansfield is mentioned be- 
 low ; William Lyon, born Oct. 21, 1826, married 
 July 28, 1853, Adelaide Prescott Erink ; Mary Mer- 
 cein, born Feb. 7, 1829, married, Aug. 4, 185:, 
 John H. Coley, who for many years was a leading 
 dry-goods merchant in New Haven. 
 
 Richard Mansfield Everit was educated in the 
 schools of New Haven and vicinity, attending the 
 John E. Lovell Lancasterian School, the school 
 kept by S. A. Thomas, and the old Fair Haven 
 Academy, an excellent institution, then kept bv 
 Joshua Pearl. Young Everit prepared for college, 
 but sickness at the time prevented him from com- 
 mencing a college course, and he entered upon his 
 business career, beginning Feb. I, 1841, as a clerk 
 under the late Charles FL Oaks. After remaining 
 with Mr. (3aks a little less than five years, and going, 
 during the latter part of his stay, on business for 
 
 the first time to the West Indies, he became the 
 agent of the Peck Bros. — Nathan, Wyllys and 
 Henry E. — of New Haven, for three years. After 
 this experience he associated with J. A. Bishop, and 
 entered upon his first business venture on his own 
 account. For seven years he spent a large part 01 
 his time in the West Indies, where nearly all the 
 New Haven trade was then concentrated. In 1851 
 he became associated with Russel, Henry O. and 
 Edward Hotchkiss, who were the successors of 
 their father on Long Wharf. Early in that year he 
 embarked for Brazil on a business inspecting tour, 
 to ascertain what might be done in a business line. 
 At Para, on the Amazon, a place then but little 
 known to Americans, he remained some eighteen 
 months, and there established a good trade. This 
 enterprise was the means of introducing into that 
 region many articles of American growth and pro- 
 duction, which were before wholly unknown. On 
 returning from Brazil, Mr. Everit became a part- 
 ner in the house of Hotchkiss Bros. & Co., which 
 relations he continued until i860. Desiring a larger 
 field of operation than New Haven afiforded, and 
 for other reasons, he went to New York City, and 
 there with Charles P. Burdett formed a partnership 
 under the title of Burdett & Everit, which continued 
 for nine or ten years, the firm building up a large 
 and profitable business with Brazil, the West Indies 
 and Europe. 
 
 In 1869 in the very prime of life and in the 
 full tide of prosperity, Mr. Everit, at the early age 
 of forty-five, retired from business, solely in con- ^ 
 sequence of ill health. Returning to New Haven, 
 he established for himself a beautiful and charming 
 home, located on a level plateau, on the east side of 
 Whitney avenue, only half a mile distant and in full 
 and grandi view of the precipitous front of East 
 Rock, the park itself extending nearly to his 
 grounds. Here he is enjoying with his family the 
 fruits of a well-spent life, and dispenses a generous 
 hospitality to his man}- friends. Mr. Everit is en- 
 terprising and public-spirited, as is evidenced in the 
 appearance of his commodious grounds and resi- 
 dence, which add great beauty to the "City of 
 Elms." In 1869 he purchased a large farm about 
 twenty-two miles west from Boston, in what is now 
 the flourishing town of South Framingham. This 
 land is laid out for the building of a city, and Mr. 
 Everit has spent a great amount of money and 
 time on the property. 
 
 On Feb. 5, 1861, Mr. Everit was married to 
 Miss Mary Talman Lawrence, daughter of Watson 
 E. Lawrence, of New York, and Augusta Maria 
 ( XicoU) Lawrence, of New Haven, and children 
 as follows have been born to them : Richard Law- 
 rence, of South Framingham, Mass. ; Emma Au- 
 gusta, deceased; Arthur Mansfield^ of Buffalo, N. 
 Y. ; Annie Coley, wife of Dr. L. S. De Forest; and 
 Edward Hotchkiss, at this writing superintendent 
 of Equipment of the Southern New England Tele- • 
 phone Co. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 971 
 
 On his mother's side Richard Mansfield Everit 
 is in the seventli generation from Richard Mans- 
 field, who came from Exeter, Devonshire, England, 
 and settled in Quinnipiac (now New Haven). 
 From this settler our subject's lineage is through 
 Major Moses, Jonathan, Lieut. Nathan, William 
 and Sarah (Mansfield) Everit. William Mansfield, 
 son of Lieut. Nathan, was born April i, 1750, at 
 the old Mansfield home on the present site of the 
 Sheffield North College, and married (first) Dec. 
 25, 1770, Elizabeth Lyon, daughter of William and 
 Elizabeth (Maltby) Lyon. 
 
 EDWARD IVES (deceased) was for many 
 years one of the best known citizen's and prominent 
 farmers of Cheshire. He was a native of New 
 Haven county, born in Meriden, Oct. 14, 1836, and 
 was a great-grandson of Zachariah Ives, one of the 
 first settlers of Cheshire, where he followed farm- 
 ing. Jesse Ives, son of Zachariah, followed farming 
 in Meriden, where he died Feb. 12, 1836, leaving 
 his wife, Marilla (Johnson), a native of South- 
 ington. Conn., and four children, Jotham, Lyman, 
 Rosetta and Almon, all now deceased. 
 
 Jotham Ives, father of our subject, was born 
 in Meriden Sept. 7, 1808, and was there reared and 
 educated. He wedded Mary Rice Way, who was 
 born in Meriden Sept. 10, 1807, and died Aug. 31, 
 1878. His death occurred May 18, 1864. Of their 
 five children Edward was the eldest ; Amos was 
 mayor of Meriden in 1897-98-99 ; Betsey is the wife 
 of Robert Hallam, of South Meriden ; Julius Isaac 
 is a resident of Meriden ; and Almon J. makes his 
 home in Tracy, a town of Wallingford. 
 
 Edward Ives pasised his boyhood and youth in 
 Meriden, and attended school there. In 1862 he 
 purchased a farm in Cheshire, to which he moved 
 in May of that year, and on which he continued to 
 make his home until called from this life Mareh 25, 
 1880. As a public-spirited and progressive citi- 
 zen he gave his support to every worthy enterprise 
 for the public good, and in his death the commu- 
 nity realized that it had lost a valuable and useful 
 citizen. He wais widely and favorably known and 
 had a host of warm personal friends, who esteemed 
 him highly for his sterling worth. 
 
 On April 25, 1862, in Middletown, Conn., Mr. 
 Ives married Miss Lois Lucelia Smith, and to them 
 were born two children: (i) Howard Edward, 
 who is engaged in general farming on the home 
 place, was married, Oct. 25, 1899, in Cheshire, to 
 Miss Cornelia Matilda Atwater ; they have a son, 
 Edward Atwater, born Sept. 16, 1901. (2) Henri- 
 etta, who married, Aug. 30, 1888, John C. Rapson, 
 of South Meriden, and hais two children, Hazel 
 Lucelia and Lilian Gertrude. 
 
 Mrs. Ives is a native of Cheshire, and belongs 
 to quite an old and prominent Connecticut family. 
 Her paternal great-grandparents were David and 
 Abigail (Lewis) Smith, natives of Southington, 
 Conn., and the former a son of David Smith and 
 
 grandson of Gideon Smith. Mrs. Ives' grandpar- 
 ents were Gideon Lewiis and Lois (Barnes) Smith, 
 also natives of Southington, who in 1823 moved to 
 Cheshire, where the grandfather followed farming 
 throughout the remainder of his life, dying there 
 Jan. 20, 1850. His wife died July 31, 1846. Their 
 children were Elizabeth, wife of Sherman Hart, of 
 Berlin, Conn. ; Rhoda, wife of John Hall, of Ken- 
 sington ; Abigail, wife of Seth Pratt, of Southing- 
 ton ; Sylvia, wife of David Beach, of Southington ; 
 Loyal, the father of Mrs. Ives ; Rollin, who died in 
 Cheshire; Lois, who married Asahel Warner, and 
 died in Auburn, New York ; and Lola, wife of 
 Burritt Parker, of Southington. 
 
 Loyal Smith, Mrs. Ives' father, was born in 
 Southington, July 14, 1807, and died Oct. 31, 1870. 
 He wais sixteen years of age when the family re- 
 moved to Cheshire, where he afterward engaged in 
 farming throughout life. He was quite a prominent 
 and influential citizen of his community, and was 
 a member of the State Legislature from Cheshire in 
 1856 and again in 1867. In that town he was mar- 
 ried, Oct. 29, 1829, to Miss Henrietta Dickerman, 
 who was born in Hamden Nov. 26, 1807, and died 
 June 10, 1864, a daughter of Samuel and Lois 
 (Peck) Dickei-man, also natives of Hamden, where 
 her mother died Nov. 12, 1822. Her father died 
 in Cheshire June 30, 1840. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Smith were born eight children, as follows : Sereno 
 D., a resident of Meriden ; Lois, who died at the age 
 of six years ; Eliza, who died in Cheshire in 1848, 
 at the age of eleven years ; Lois Lucelia, now Mrs. 
 Ives ; Rhoda, wife of Amos Ives, of Meriden ; 
 Loyal B., of Cheshire; Samuel D., of Wallingford; 
 and Franklin Pierce, a farmer of Cheshire. 
 
 EDWIN AUGUSTUS HOTCHKISS, who 
 passed away Dec. 16, 1883, ranked among the lead- 
 ing business men and citizens of New Haven in his 
 day, and no man enjoyed to a greater extent the 
 esteem of all with whom he was associated. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss was born in New Haven Dec. 4, 
 1835, and was a son of Isaac Thompson Hotchkiss, 
 also a native of that city, where he was long en- 
 gaged in the coal business, becoming a prominent 
 figure in the mercantile circles of the city. He 
 died in 1870. Edwin A. Hotchkiss attended the 
 New Haven schools, also Major Russell's Military 
 Academy — the school in which many of the leading 
 citizens of New Haven have finished their literary 
 training. .A.fter reaching his mature years he was 
 associated with his father in the coal business, 
 which after the death of that honored gentleman 
 he carried! on with his brother, David T. Hotch- 
 kiss, until his death. He was one of the largest 
 dealers in coal in the city, and took a high position 
 in mercantile circles by reason of his force and 
 strength of character, backed by executive ability, 
 good judgment and the strictest integrity. 
 
 On Nov. 23, 1858, Mr. Hotchkise was united 
 in marriage with Miss Caroline Mulford Parker, 
 
972 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 who was born Feb. 6, 1838, and they had three 
 children, two of whom are Hvmg-: (i) Edwin A., 
 born Sept. 28, 1859, is engaged with his uncle in 
 the blotting paper business, and is a very fine young 
 business man. He and his brother are both es- 
 teemed for their genuine and unaffected manli- 
 ness, and have a host of friends. Edwin A. Hotch- 
 kiss is a member of the Union League Club, and like 
 all the family attends Trinity Church. (2) Caro- 
 line M., born July 31, 1866, died Dec. 18, 1868. 
 (3) Howard Parker, boTn April i, 1870, a graduate 
 of Sheffield Scientific School, is now in the employ 
 of the Security Insurance Co. On June 14, 1900, 
 he married A. Mabel Lee, of Athol, Mass., daugh- 
 ter of Joseph Lee, now deceased, and they have one 
 child, Howard Parker, Jr., born Aug. 27, 1901. 
 All of the family enjoy a reputation for superior 
 character, kindliness and general intelligence of a 
 high order, and their fine qualities, cordial spirit, 
 general progressiveness and wide-awake ideas, are 
 fully appreciated by their many friends. The com- 
 fortable and attractive home, which Mrs. Hotchkiss 
 now occupies, at No. 1226 Chapel street, was erected 
 by, her father. Col. Joseph Parker, and is one of 
 the most imposing in this city of elegant homes. 
 Edwin A. Hotchkiss, the father, was a man far 
 above the average in qualities of both head and 
 heart. Though an able bu'siness man and inflexible 
 in the discharge of his duties, he was kindness itself 
 to all with whom he came in contact in any of the 
 relations of life, and especially in his own home, 
 where he was ever regarded as the model husband 
 and father. In his death New Haven suffered the 
 loss of a worthy citizen, the commercial world a 
 man of fine business talent, and society a gentleman 
 whose presence was ever welcome among the ranks 
 of the most cultured. 
 
 Col. Joseph Parker, father of Mrs. Hotchkiss, 
 was the inventor of blotting paper, and was one of 
 the largest manufacturers of paper in the country. 
 He was born in Litchfield county, Conn., son of 
 Dr. Joseph Parker, practicing physician in that 
 ■county all his life. Col. Joseph Parker married 
 Caroline Mulford, who was born in New Haven, 
 daughter of Hervey Mulford, one of the old resi- 
 dents of that city. Hervey Mulford was a grad- 
 uate of Yale College, and was a lifelong merchant. 
 To Col. and Mrs. Parker were born six children, 
 two of whom are now living : Joseph, who is still 
 carrying on his father's business, and ;\Irs. Edwin 
 A. Hotchkis's. 
 
 WILLIS C. HALL, proprietor of a leading 
 grocery in Waterbury, is a native of Connecticut, 
 born March 16, 1833, in Cheshire, and comes of 
 good old Connecticut stock, of English ancestry. 
 
 John Hall ( i ) , the great-great-great-great- 
 great-grandfather of our subject, came to these 
 shores from England about the year 1638, first lo- 
 cating in Boston, then in New Haven, Conn., and 
 later settling in Wallingford, where he died. His 
 
 son John (2), and grandson John (3), were born 
 in England, and his great-grandson John (4) was 
 born in Wallingford. Jared Hall, great-great- 
 grandson of the emigrant, and the great-grand- 
 father of our subject, was born July 19, 1741, in 
 Wallingford. He married Lucy Hall. 
 
 Amos Hall, son of Jared, and the grandfather 
 of our subject, was born May 21, 1773, in Cheshire, 
 Conn. He married Elizabeth Bontecou, a lineal 
 descendant of Pierre Bontecou, merchant, who was 
 a French Huguenot refugee from La Rochelle, 
 France, and landed in New York in 1689. He was 
 a prominent member of the French Huguenot Epis- 
 copal Church in New York, in which he held prom- 
 inent offices. Amos and Elizabeth (Bontecou) 
 Hall settled on a farm in Wallingford, now in Che- 
 shire, where they reared a family of children as 
 follows: (i) Eliza, born Sept. 21, 1804, married 
 William Prichard, son of David and Ann (Hitch- 
 cock) Prichard, and they then settled in Bruns- 
 wick, Ohio, where he was a farmer and drover; he 
 died in Jefferson, Iowa. (2) Charles is the father 
 of our subject. (3) Nancy, born in November, 
 1808, died May 4, 1873 ; she married Hiram Brad- 
 ley, of Cheshire, Conn., born Oct. 3, 1809, and they 
 settled in Southington, Conn., where he followed 
 the business of carriage and wagonmaker. (4) 
 Amos, born Feb. 18, 181 1, married Aspatia Doo- 
 little, and for some time they lived in Cheshire, later 
 removing to Brunswick, Ohio, where he followed 
 farming. He returned to Cheshire, and died there 
 Aug. 16, 1861. She is also deceased, and they are 
 buried at Cheshire. (5) George A., born Jan. 31, 
 1814, married Sarah ]\Ierriams, of Prospect, Conn., 
 a daughter of Rufus and jNIary (Hotchkiss) Mer- 
 riams ; he was a farmer, and now lives in the town 
 of Waterbury. (6) Susan S., born Oct. 13, 1817, 
 married Henry Livingston, of Brunswick, Ohio, a 
 son of Henry G. Livingston; they both died in 
 Brunswick, she om May 5, 1885. (7) Henrietta E., 
 born April 30, 182 1, married Edward Terrell, of 
 Waterbury Conn,, and died there Feb. 5, 1870. 
 
 Charles Hall, father of our subject, was born in 
 Cheshire, Conn., Oct. 12, 1806. On Sept. 30, 1830, 
 he married Amy Z\Ioss, daug-hter of Asahel and Amy 
 Andrews ( Hitchcock) IMoss, and a lineal descend- 
 ant from John Moss, one of the first settlers of 
 Wallingford, who died at the patriarchal age of one 
 hundred and three years. Some time after their 
 marriage our subject's parents moved to Brunswick, 
 Ohio, settling on a wild tract of farm land. In 
 1843 he returned to Cheshire, where he died on his 
 farm;, his wife passed away Aug. 13, 1875. In re- 
 ligious faith they were identified with the Congre- 
 gational Church, he being a Sunday-school teacher 
 in same. In politics he was first a Whig, later a 
 Republican. In 1832 he was commissioned, by Gov. 
 Peters of Connecticut, as captain of the 32d Regi- 
 ment of Militia. A family of nine children were 
 born to Charles Hall and his wife: (i) Celia E. 
 died at the age of four years. (2) Willis C. is our 
 
^:<^^ 
 
 C^x^ 
 
 ^^^^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 973 
 
 subject. (3) Ellen M., born Jan. 12, 1835, mar- 
 ried Seth Eleada Frost, who was born in Wolcott 
 Feb. 24, 1832, and is a farmer in Southington, 
 Conn. (4) Emma, born Aug. 11, 1837, was mar- 
 ried, Dec. 25, i860, by Rev. John S. C. Abbott, to 
 Elmer William Hitchcock, and they settled on a 
 farm in Cheshire. (5) Gardner M., born ini Bruns- 
 wick, Ohio, Jan. 11, 1841, diedi Oct. 13, 1880; he 
 was a member of the firm of the Hall & Upson Ice 
 Co., also president of the Naugatuck Valley Co., of 
 Bridgeport, Conn. On May 10, 1870, he married 
 Georgiana Elizabeth Mullings, daughter of John 
 and Elizabeth (Brooks) MuUings. (6) Franklin 
 Amos, born im Brunswick, Ohio, Aug. i, 1843,. en- 
 listed in Company H, 20th Conn. V. I., during the 
 Civil war, was captured and confined in Libby 
 prison. On his return home he became a travel- 
 ing salesman, and later proprietor of the "Earle 
 House," Waterbury. On Oct. 9, 1867, he married 
 Adelaide Ulissa Hunger, daughter of Daniel and 
 Eliza (Russell) Hunger, of Waterbury. He died 
 Feb. 20, 1879. (7) Denison Asahel, born Jan. 18, 
 1847, died unmarried Dec. 2, 1875. (8) Adelaide 
 Eliza, born Sept. 17, 1849, was married, June 14, 
 1871, to George B. Lawton, of Waterbury; he is 
 a diesinker in Waterbury, and lives in Cheshire. 
 (9) Warren L., born Hay 21, 1856, is a merchant 
 in Waterbury; he married, Dec. 14, 1881, Etta 
 Louise Andrews, of Naugatuck. 
 
 Willis C. Hall, the subject proper of these lines, 
 passed his boyhood in his native place, Cheshire, 
 with the exception of the five years he lived in 
 Ohio, and he received a liberal education at the dis- 
 trict schools. For a time he worked on a farm, and 
 later clerked for Samuel Hitchcock, in Cheshire, 
 some four years, after which for two years he con- 
 ducted a dry-goods and grocery business. His store 
 being destroyed by fire, he returned to the old farm 
 for a time, or until 1862, in that year taking up his 
 residence in Waterbury, where he worked for the 
 Scovill Hanufacturing Co. for some time, and then 
 clerked for B. S. Hotchkiss eight years, after 
 which he and I. A. Spencer conducted a grocery 
 store in Waterbury seven years. Mr. Hall then 
 opened a grocery on Bank street, which he conr 
 tinued one year, at the end of which time he and 
 his brother, Warren L., went into a fruit and com- 
 mission business, the copartnership existing four 
 years. In the fall of 1890 he opened his present 
 grocery business at No. 11 Cherry street, in which 
 he is meeting with desirable success. 
 
 On May 26, 1857, Mr. Hall married Elizabeth 
 Heatly, daughter of William Heatly, of England, 
 whose ancestors fought under William the Con- 
 queror; she died Nov. 20, 1873, the mother of three 
 children: Charles Edward, Walter (deceased) and 
 Gardner Irving. On June 13, 1876, Mr. Hall mar- 
 ried (second) Orinda Daniels, who was born in 
 Poug-hkeepsie, N. Y., daughter of Joseph B. and 
 Eleanor (Hiller) Daniels, and two children came 
 of this union, Joseph and Alfred, both of whom 
 
 died at the age of five years. Mr. and Mrs. Hall 
 are members of the Episcopal Church at Water- 
 ■bury. In politics he is a Republican, and he cast 
 his first presidential vote for Fremont. He is a 
 prominent member of the community in which he 
 lives, a supporter of all matters of public concern 
 that are calculated to advance the public welfare, 
 and all who know him liold him in high regard. 
 
 BENJAMIN BREWSTER BROWN was a 
 deacon of the Congregational Church of Prospect 
 for several years, and the oldest living resident of 
 that town. He was born in Windsor, N. Y., Sept. 
 24, 181 5, a son of Daniel and Charlotte (Roe) 
 Brown, both natives of Long Island. His maternal 
 grandfather was Capt. Roe, who served as ajj of- 
 ficer in the Revolutionary war. The father fol- 
 lowed farming both on Long Island and in Wind- 
 sor, N. Y., and both he and his wife died at the 
 latter place. They were earnest and consistent 
 members of the Presbyterian Church, and he was a 
 Democrat in politics. 
 
 Our subject attended the public schools and also, 
 a select school of his native town, but the greater 
 part of his education was acquired through his own 
 unaided effort's. He assisted his father in the op- 
 eration of the farm until sixteen years of age and 
 then learned the tailor's trade, which he continued 
 to follow until 1845. It was during that year that 
 he came to Prospect, and located on the farm which 
 he owned and occupied until his death. Through 
 the summer months he engaged in agricultural pur- 
 suits, while during the winter he successfully en- 
 gaged in teaching school for . fifteen years, being- 
 employed in the district schools of Prospect and 
 Cheshire, and at that time he was one of the most 
 popular educators of the community. He continued 
 to actively engage in farming until old age com- 
 pelled his retirement. 
 
 In Prospect Mr. Brown married Miss Emily 
 B. Hotchkiss, anative of that town and a daughter 
 of David M. and Zeruah (Stevens) Hotchkiss, and 
 granddaughter of Frederick Hotchkiss. By this 
 union were born two children : ( i ) Clarence Henry, 
 a resident of Wallingford, Conn., andi deacon of the 
 Baptist Church there, married Nettie F. Mansfield, 
 and has two children, Emily Adeline and Edna 
 Louise. (2) Frederick Hotchkiss, who is engaged 
 in the furniture business in New Haven, and is dea- 
 con of the Congregational Church there ; he mar- 
 ried Kate E. Woodward, of Bethany. The wife 
 and mother, who was a good Christian woman and 
 an active member of the Congregational Church, 
 died April i, 1887. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Brown was elected on the Repub- 
 lican ticket to the State Legislature, and was called 
 upon to fill other offices, having served as a mem- 
 ber of the school committee, as selectman of Pros- 
 pect, and justice of the peace for several years. On 
 attaining his majority he became identified with the 
 Whig party ; later was a stanch Republican, and still 
 
974 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 later, on account of his views on the temperance 
 question, he cast his ballot with the Prohibition 
 party. For many years he was an active and promi-' 
 nent member of the Congregational Church, and 
 served as teacher in, and superintendent of the Sun- 
 day-school, and for the long period of forty years 
 filled the office of deacon. His long and well-spent 
 life justly entitled him to the high regard in which 
 he was held, and no citizen in Prospect was more 
 honored or esteemed. Over his life record there 
 falls no 'S'hadow of wrong, his public service was 
 most exemplary, and his private life was marked 
 by the utmost fidelity to duty. He died at his home, 
 which he loved so well, July 31, 1900, and was 
 laid to rest beside his wife in the Prospect cemetery. 
 
 LEWIS ROSSITER ELIOT (deceased), in 
 his lifetime one of Guilford's best known and most 
 highly respected citizens, descended from one of 
 the oldest families of Connecticut. Tradition traces 
 the ancestry of the Eliots of England to the time of 
 the landing of William the Conqueror on the shores 
 of that country in 1066. In the early history of 
 England the name was variously spelled Eliot, El- 
 liot, Elyot, Elyotte, etc. 
 
 John Eliot, commonly called the ''apostle to the 
 Indians," was the American ancestor of the Elliots 
 and Eliots, of which family our subject is a worthy 
 member. That great and good man was born in 
 England, Dec. 20, 1604, in — as authorities claim — 
 Nasing, County of Essex, though both the counties 
 of Devon and Cornwall lay claim to his birthplace, 
 and there is a record of his baptism in the register 
 of the church at Widford, Herefordshire. Nothing 
 is related of his parents except that they gave him 
 a liberal education and were exemplary for their 
 ■piety, to which fact Mr. Eliot himself bore testi- 
 mony, when, in after years, he wrote thus : "I do 
 see that it was a great favor of God unto me to 
 season my first years with the fear of God, the 
 word, and prayer." He was educated at Jesus Col- 
 lege, University of Cambridge, where he became 
 distinguished for his love of the languages, es- 
 pecially Greek and Hebrew, of which he acquired 
 a sound, thorough and discriminating knowledge. 
 He became well versed in the general course of lib- 
 eral studies, and was particularly learned in the- 
 ology. After leaving the university he was em- 
 ployed as usher in the grammar school of Rev. 
 Thomas Hooker, at Little Baddow, County of Es- 
 sex. Mr. Hooker subsequently was one of the 
 most eminent of the worthies of New England. 
 He exerted a salutary influence on the formation 
 of Mr. Eliot's character and principles, and decided 
 him in pursuing the profession of a Christian min- 
 ister. When Mr. Hooker was driven from Eng- 
 land, Air. Eliot followed him to the New World, 
 making the voyage in the ship "Lion," and arriv- 
 ing at Boston Nov. 3, 1631, in company with his 
 brothers Jacob and I'hilip, Gov. Winthrop's wife 
 and children and about sixty others. He was im- 
 
 mediately placed in charge of the First Church of 
 Boston, the pastor, Mr. Wilson, having gone to 
 England temporarily, on business. His betrothed, 
 Annie Mountfort, who was bom Sept. 16, 1603, 
 followed him to New England, and they were mar- 
 ried in October, 1632. Mr. Elidt continued in 
 charge of the Boston congregation imtil his re- 
 moval to Roxbury, where he was ordained Nov. 5, 
 1632. He was the first minister in that place, and 
 continued as teacher of the church there until his 
 death, a period of nearly sixty years, preaching as 
 long as his strength lasted. His meeting house was 
 on the hill where the present meeting house of the 
 First (Unitarian) Church of Roxbury now stands. 
 At that time there were many Indians within the 
 limits- of the English plantations, and to Christianize 
 and improve them became the ruling motive of Mr. 
 Eliot's life, his work among them commencing Oct. 
 28, 1646, at Nonantum, in Newton. He devoted 
 his great intellect to learning their language, and 
 made several translations of Holy Writ, the most 
 noted being that known as the 'Indian Bible." The 
 New Testament was published at Cambridge in 
 Septemlber, 1661, and was followed by the Old, and 
 thus the entire Bible, with a catechism and the 
 Psalms of David in metre, was given to the Indians 
 in their own tongue within fort)' years after the 
 settlement of the country. This work was of such 
 magnitude, requiring such deep and exhaustive 
 learning, that it yet excites the wonder of philolo- 
 gists. Eliot's labors were far greater than those 
 of any of the translators in Germany, England and 
 France, for they had the facilities aft'orded by copies 
 of the Bible in Latin, which was the conventional 
 language of the priests and students of Europe, 
 while his work was in an unwritten and 'Unknown 
 language, which he was first obliged to learn ; and, 
 after his Bible was published, he had to establish 
 schools and prepare a grammar and other books for 
 instructing the savages to read it. In all these ar- 
 duous duties he had no assistant but an Indian boy. 
 Thus a humble and modest, yet faithful and zealous, 
 pastor of a small , Christian community, on the 
 shores of a vast continent which was then almost a 
 wilderness, alone achieved a work which excited the 
 wonder and admiration of both continents, and has 
 rendered his name memorable forever in the annals 
 of literature and piety. ^Vith such holy ardor and un- 
 tiring perseverance did he prosecute his great and 
 commendable labors as to richly deserve his exalted 
 title of "apostle to the Indians." His manner of 
 preaching was very plain, yet powerful ; his de- 
 livery graceful. The old oak at South Natick be- 
 neath which he preached to the Indians in 1690 is 
 still standing. Mr. Eliot's death occurred May 20, 
 1690, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, and he was 
 laid to rest in what was called the minister's tomb, 
 in the First burying ground. His wife died March 
 22, 1687. Their children were : Ann, born Sept. 
 17, 1633, was a daughter of excellent character, and 
 remained with her parents as long as .they lived ; 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 975 
 
 she was the wife of Habakkuk Glover. John, born 
 Aug. 31, 1636, died Oct. 11, 1668. Joseph, born 
 Dec. 20, 1638, is mentioned below. Samuel, born 
 June 22, 1641, died in 1664. Aaron, born Feb. 19, 
 1644, died Nov. 18, 1655. Benjamin, born Jan. 29, 
 1647, died Oct. 15, 1687. 
 
 (II) Joseph Eliot, first of the name in Guilford, 
 born Dec. 20, 1638, died Islay 24, 1694, at Guilford, 
 where he was settled as a minister. He owned the 
 home and ground occupied all his lifetime by the 
 subject of this sketch, and which is now the resi- 
 dence of Mrs. Eliot and her son Edward. He was 
 graduated from Harvard in 1658. On Nov. 23, 
 1662, the people of Northampton tmanimously ex- 
 pressed their desire to settle Mr. Eliot as a teacher, 
 and fixed his salary at fifty pounds. In 1664 he 
 was settled at Guilford receiving ordination Dec. 
 23, of that year. It is said that he delivered an 
 annual sermon before the General Assembly, and 
 he received a grant of land from that body, prob- 
 ably in acknowledgment of these services. He 
 continued to discharge his pastoral duties at Guil- 
 ford until his death. Joseph Eliot first married 
 Sarah, daughter of Hon. William Brenton, gov- 
 ernor of Rhode Island, and after her death he mar- 
 ried Mary, daughter of Hon. Samuel Wyllys, of 
 Hartford. She died Oct. 11, 1729, at the age of 
 seventy-three years. His children, four by each 
 wife, were as follows: (i) Mehitable, born Oct. 
 4, 1676, married William Wilson, of Guilford, and 
 died April 14, 1723, without issue. (2) Ann, born 
 Dec. 12, 1677, married Dec. 20, 1698, Hon. Jona- 
 than Law, of Milford, governor of Connecticut, 
 and died Nov. 16, 1703. (3) Jemima, born in 1678, 
 married Rev. John Woodbridge, of West Spring- 
 field, Mass., and died June 10, 1718. (4) Barshua, 
 married Augustus Lucas, of Fairfield, a French 
 refugee. (5) Jared, born Nov. 7, 1685, died April 
 22, 1763. (6) Abiel is mentioned below. (7) 
 Mary, born in 1688, married in 1734, Hawkins Hart, 
 of Wallingford, and had a. large family. (8) Re- 
 becca, born in 1690, married John Trowbridge, 
 sheriff of New Haven, and after his death became 
 the wife of Ebenezer Fisk; for her third husband 
 she married Capt. William Dudley. 
 
 (III) Abiel Eliot, son of Rev. Joseph; was a 
 farmer in Guilford, and died Oct. 28, 1776. He mar" 
 ried Mary Leete, daughter of John Leete, of Guil- 
 ford, and great-granddaughter of William Leete, 
 governor of Connecticut. Their children w^ere : ( i ) 
 Nathaniel, mentioned below; (2) Wyllys, born Feb. 
 9, 1 73 1, who died Sept. 20, 1777; (3) Rebecca, 
 born Sept. 8, 1733, who married Nathaniel Graves, 
 of Guilford, and died July 7, 1820 ; (4) Timothy, 
 born Oct. 23, 1736, who died April 17, 1809; (5) 
 Levi, born Nov. i, 1739, who died March 21, 1765; 
 (6) Margery, born March 19, 1742, who married 
 Theophilus Merriman, of Wallingford, and died 
 May 15, 1823. 
 
 (IV) Nathaniel Eliot, son of Abiel, was born 
 Aug. 15, 1728, and died April 24, 1804. Fie was a 
 
 farmer and land owner in Guilford. On Jan. 3, 
 1754, he married Beulah Parmelee, born in Guil- 
 ford Aug. 30, 1732, a daughter of Joseph Parmelee; 
 she died Sept. 16, 1818. Their children were: 
 William (sketch of whom follows) ; and Alary. 
 The daughter, born May i, 1762, died Sept. 10, 
 1819. On Sept. 30, 1787, she married Israel Halleck, 
 of Dutchess county, N. Y., who died ]\Iarch 7, 1839. 
 They had three children: Maria, born July 19, 
 1788, resided in Guilford; Fritz Greene, -poet and 
 writer, born July 8, 1790, was also a resident of 
 Guilford; Nathaniel E., born in 1792, died Sept. 29, 
 
 1793- 
 
 (V) William Eliot (grandfather of Lewis R.) 
 was born Feb. 10, 1755, in Guilford, where he was 
 a lifetime farmer, dying there Feb. 14, 1833; he was 
 buried in Alderbrook cemetery. He married Nov. 
 26, 1780, Ruth Rossiter, born in North Guilford 
 April 17, 1757, daughter of Nathaniel and Deborah 
 (Fowler) Rossiter. She died July 19, 1814, the 
 mother of three children : ( i ) William Horace, 
 Sept. 13, 1781, married to Mary Law; (2) Charles, 
 sketch of whom follows; and (3) George Augustus, 
 born June 6, 1792, married Sarah Brown, and set- 
 tled in Erie, Pennsylvania. 
 
 (VI) Charles Eliot (father of Lewis R.), born 
 July 29, 1787, in Guilford, spent all his' life there 
 in farming pursuits, dying in 1870. In Guilford, 
 Oct. 15, 181 5, he married Chloe Pardee, born April 
 5, 1785, a daughter of James Pardee, of East Haven, 
 and six children were born to them : ( I ) Adeline, 
 born June 28, 1816, married May 12, 1839, Josiah 
 Griswold, of Guilford; he died Dec. 22, 1842, and 
 she married (second) Leveret C. Stone; (2) Lewis 
 Rossiter, sketch of whom follows; (3) Edward, 
 born March 25, 1820, became a merchant in Detroit, 
 Mich.; (4) Sarah Ann, born Nov. 3, 1821, married 
 Dec. 31, 1843, Henry Reeves Spencer, of Guilford; 
 (5) Charles Morgan, born Dec. 8, 1824, resident in 
 Meriden; (6) Ruth, born Nov. 23, 1829, married 
 April 23, 1848, Samuel Augustus Wilcox, of Guil- 
 ford. 
 
 (VII) Lewis Rossiter Eliot, the subject proper 
 of this memoir, was born Jan. 23, 1819, in Guilford, 
 where he followed agricultural pursuits all his life, 
 being a large land owner, and successful in all his 
 operations. As a Democrat, he took a lively inter- 
 est in the affairs of his party, of which he was one 
 of the leaders in his town. For several years he 
 served as assessor, and filled other offices of trust 
 with marked ability and characteristic fidelity; was 
 a director, and at one time president, of the Guilford 
 Savings Bank. In church matters he always took a 
 livelv interest as member of the Episcopal Church, 
 of which he was a vestryman for several years ; 
 taken all in all, he was a good, loyal citizen, re- 
 spected and esteemed. In his domestic relations he 
 was especially happy as a loving husband and kind, 
 indulgent father. Well-read, and possessed of 
 good executive ability, he was often appealed to in 
 intricate matters of business, and at various times 
 
976 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 called upon to settle estates. He died June 9, 1893, 
 and was laid to rest in Alderbrook cemetery. 
 
 The late Lewis R. Eliot was twice married, first 
 time Dec. 5, 1847, to Fanny Griswold, born in 
 Guilford, Oct. 2^, 1823, died Dec. 24, 1856, and 
 one child, Fanny Maria, born March 26, 1853, 
 graced this lunion. For his second wife Mr. Eliot 
 wedded Nov. 17, 1858, Catherine Graves, a native 
 o£ Guilford and daughter of Sherman and Ann 
 (Griswold) Graves, to which union came two chil- 
 dren ; Miss Elizabeth, who was educated in part 
 in Guilford, in part at Mount Holyoke Seminary, 
 Mass. ; and Edward, sketch of whom follows. The 
 mother of these, a lady of culture and refinement, is 
 yet living in Guilford. 
 
 (VIII) Edward Eliot, only son of the late 
 Lewis R. Eliot, was born in Guilford, Oct. 14, 1861, 
 and received a liberal education at the public and 
 high schools of the locality. He was reared on the 
 home farm of 150 acres, and has ever since operated 
 same, raising tomatoes chiefly, and conducting a 
 dairy. 
 
 On Oct. 16, 1889, Edward Eliot married Maud 
 A. Lee, born in Berlin, Wis., a daughter of William 
 W. and Elizabeth (Vedder) Lee, both of whom 
 died in Guilford. Three children have been born 
 to this union, viz.: Elizabeth Maud, July 14, 1890; 
 Lewis R., April 2, 1892; and Catherine Graves, 
 Sept. 5, 1894. 
 
 In politics Mr. Eliot is a Democrat; for five 
 years served on the board of burgesses of Guilford ; 
 in 1898 was elected warden of the borough; is a 
 member of the school committee; and a director 
 of the Guilford Savings Bank. Socially, he is 
 affiliated with the New England Order of Protec- 
 tion. In religious faith he is a member and vestry- 
 man of the Episcopal Church in Guilford. 
 
 Graves Family, (i) George Graves, the an- 
 cestor of Mrs. L. R. Eliot, and the first of the name 
 in Connecticut, was a native of England, whence he 
 came to this country, settling in Hartford, Conn., 
 where he died in 1673. He had three children: 
 George, sketch of whom follows; John, and a 
 daughter. 
 
 (II) George Graves, died in Hartford, Dec. 3, 
 1692. He married, April 2, 1651, Elizabeth Vent- 
 nor, and had six children: George; Elizabeth; 
 John, sketch of whom follows ; Ruth, wife of John 
 Webb; Mehitabel, wife of James Harrison; and 
 Mercy. 
 
 (III) John Graves, born in Hartford, married 
 in 1680, Susannah W.ebster, born Oct. 26, 1658, and 
 died in 1680, a daughter of Robert Webster, of 
 Middletown ; he married (second) Harriet, daugh- 
 ter lof Philip Davis. Children: Elizabeth, wife 
 of Ebenezer Dudley; John, sketch of whom follows; 
 Sarah, born Sept. 25, 1698, wife of James Munger; 
 and four other daughters. 
 
 (IV) John Graves, born March 3, 1695, in Hart- 
 ford, moved to East Guilford, and died there April, 
 1759. He married (first) Phebe Hand March 19, 
 
 1719, and (second) Keziah Norton, Aug. i, 1723. 
 She was born Dec. 21, 1700, and died Oct. 8, 1771. 
 Children : George, born May 30, 1724; Phebe, Jan. 
 29, 1726, married Enos Hall; Samuel, born Aug. 
 3, 1728, died Nov. 25, 1736; Joanna, born Oct. 8, 
 1730; Sarah, born Jan. 23, 1733; John, sketch of 
 whom follows; Submit, Jan. 13, 1738; Keziah, born 
 June 27, 1743, died Oct. 8, 1775; Samuel (2), June 
 II, 1746; and Rufus, born Sept. 27, 1749, married 
 Elizabeth Benton. 
 
 (V) John Graves, born Oct. 9, 1735, in East 
 Guilford, died April 13, 1791. He married Dec. 
 20, 1760, Elizabeth Graves, born Sept. 24, 1736, 
 died April 17, 1767, a daughter of Ebenezer and 
 Mary (Isbell) Graves. He married (second) Sarah 
 Dudley, born March 14, 1744, and died Nov. 17, 
 1797. Children: John, sketch of whom follows; 
 Merriman, wife of Joseph Bartlett, died Sept. 23, 
 1791 ;Titus, married to Rachel Dudley, died' in 1814; 
 George died without issue. 
 
 (VI) John Graves, born at East Guilford Oct. 
 16, 1761, died Sept. 28, 1819; married January, 
 1787, Hannah Crane, born 1764, died Jan. 16, 1852. 
 Children : Henry Crane, born June 12, 1788, mar- 
 ried Clarissa Crompton, and died in 1846 ; Elizabeth 
 Amelia, born Feb. 17, 1791, married Phineas Dud- 
 ley; Nancy Merriam, born Sept. 10, 1793, died 
 March 16, 1849; Sherman, sketch of whom follows; 
 Rebecca, born March 4, 1798, married W. W. 
 Dowd, and died Oct. 28, 1873; and John Adams, 
 born Sept. i, 1805, married Amelia Bailey, and died 
 in 1837. 
 
 (VII) Sherman Graves, born Sept. 20, 1795, 
 died Sept. 12, 1875; married Nov. 4, 1819, Ann 
 Griswold, daughter of John and Hannah (Dudley) 
 Griswold. Children : Elizabeth, born Sept. 18, 
 1820, died Sept. 20, 1849; John, born Feb. 17, 1822, 
 married Nancy Landon, and died Nov. 4, 1883; 
 Catherine born May 16, 1824, now the widow of 
 Lewis R. Eliot; and Harriet, born Sept. 26, 1825, 
 died May 18, 1849. 
 
 HON. RICHARD R. HEPBURN, judge of 
 probate and clerk of the town of Milford, was 
 born in Milford May 23, 1847, son of Richard and 
 Maria Hepburn, and comes of an excellent line. 
 The Hepburns were of the family famous in Scot- 
 tish history. Judge Hepburn is a great-grandsqn 
 of Capt. Peter (born in Stratford) and Mary 
 (Cobb) Hepburn, of Taunton, Mass. Peter was 
 a sea captain previous to the American Revolution, 
 and sailed between the Colonies and Europe. After- 
 ward he had extensive rope walks reaching from 
 River to High street, and his homestead was on the 
 corner of Broad and River streets, where the Taylor 
 Library now stands. In winter he taught naviga- 
 tion, and his nephew, who afterward became cele- 
 brated as Commodore Isaac Hull, was among his 
 pupils. 
 
 Richard Hepburn (i), youngest sou of Capt. 
 Peter, and grandfather of Hon. Richard R., was a 
 
iveA/cuvdL <^-W<4^^.ui^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 977 
 
 sea-faring man in early manhood, but afterward 
 engaged in the draying business in New York City. 
 He died in Brooklyn in the year 1865, at the age of 
 eighty-eight, and was buried in Milford. This 
 worthy citizen married Harriet Miles, of Milford, 
 and had seven children, as follows : ( i ) Thomas 
 was connected with the police force in New York 
 City, and also with the custom house in the same 
 place for a time. He was prominent in the Masonic 
 fraternity. He died in New York, but was buried 
 in Milford. (2) Richard, our subject's father, is 
 mentioned more fully below. (3) Henry, who died 
 in San Francisco, was a shipmaster and commanded 
 vessels running between New York, Liverpool and 
 China. He, too, was identified with the Masonic 
 fraternity. (4) Jane (deceased) married Nathaniel 
 C. L'Hommedieu, who in early life was in the 
 United States navy, and for many years in the em- 
 ploy of the government at the Brooklyn navy yard. 
 (5) Elizabeth (deceased) married John C. O'Con- 
 nor, who entered' the United States navy early in 
 life, and later became a merchant and ship owner, 
 and the possessor of valuable realty in New York 
 City. (6) Harriet married Samuel Bryan, a cop- 
 per-plate printer in, New York, afterward a trusted 
 employe of the government at the Bureau of En- 
 graving and Printing, at Washington, D. C. (7) 
 Sarah resides in Milford, Connecticut. 
 
 Richard Hepburn (2), our subject's father, was 
 reared in New York City, spending some years of 
 his boyhood as a clerk in a ship chandler's store 
 on South street. He afterward followed the sea, 
 and at the age of twenty-one years was placed in 
 command of a vessel. Much of his time in later 
 years was passed in Milford. During the trouble 
 between this country and Mexico he com^manded a 
 troop ship carrying a New York regiment to Mata- 
 nioras, with our subject on board. When the Re- 
 bellion broke out he enlisted in the navy, with the 
 rank of acting ensign, and served as such on, board 
 the monitor "Passaic," and other vessels, until the 
 close of the war. A notable incident in his career 
 was the successful voyage to the Canary Islands 
 in the bark "Grapeshot," for the capture of Lu 
 Baker, the man who shot Bill Poole in, a theatre in 
 New York City, which event gave Capt. Hepburn 
 a National reputation for rapid passages. He died 
 at Staten Island Jan. 2, 1891. He married Maria 
 J. Curry, who died Sept. 17, 1873. She was a na- 
 tive of Peekskill, N. Y., and her father was a 
 farmer of that town. Two children were born 
 of this union : Richard R. and Fannie, of whom the 
 latter died Aug. 26, 1877, unmarried. 
 
 Richard R. Hepburn, the third of the name and 
 the subject of this sketch, attended, the schools of 
 Milford when a boy, and completed his course of 
 study in Brooklyn, but he did not go to school 
 after he reached the age of twelve years, the best 
 part of his education having come fromi contact 
 with the world. During boyhood he made several 
 trips across the Atlantic with his father. For eight- 
 
 62 
 
 een or twenty years he was employed by Nathan A. 
 Baldwin, of [Milford, the manufacturer of straw 
 hats, but his public duties have since occupied much 
 of his time. 
 
 On July 17, 1884, Judge Hepburn married Miss 
 Ella V. Clements, a native of Milford, and an 
 adopted daughter of John F. Clements. One child, 
 Famiy, has blessed this union. 
 
 In politics Judge Hepburn is a Republican, and 
 his popularity is shown by the fact that he now 
 holds several public offices, within the gift of his 
 fellow citizens, having served as Town Clerk and 
 Registrar of Vital Statistics since January, 1895, 
 Judge of Probate since January, 1897, ^"d Judge 
 of the Milford Town Court since July, 1901 ; he 
 is vice-president of the Milford Savings Bank. So- 
 cially he is prominent and belongs to the following 
 fraternal organizations : William Fowler Council, 
 No. 64, Order United American Mechanics, of 
 which lodge he has been recording secretary since 
 its organization ; Wepowage Lodge, No. 14, I. O; 
 O. F., with which he united in 1881 ; and Volun- 
 teer Council, No. 819, Royal Arcanum, of which 
 he became a member in 1897. He has recently ac- 
 cepted the secretaryship of the Milford Cemetery 
 Association, and is at the jDresent time clerk and 
 treasurer of the Plymouth Congregational Church 
 of Milford, and a member of the Society's com- 
 mittee. 
 
 PROF. WILLIAM H. WILLIAMS is one of 
 the well-known and most highly esteemed citizens 
 of Wallingford, where during his long residence he 
 has won a high place in the regard of the commu- 
 nity. His talent and skill as a violinist have brought 
 him considerable renown. 
 
 Prof. Williams was born June 18, 1849, on the 
 old Williams homestead, and was reared on the 
 farm. He early displayed remarkable talent for 
 music, and at the age of nine years had mastered! 
 the principles of violin playing. His teachers have 
 been among the most distinguished of the world, 
 one the celebrated Prof. Frantz Milcke. For a 
 number of years he has played violin solos in pub- 
 lic, charming his audiences, and receiving many ex- 
 pressions of pleasure from them. For several years 
 he conducted the Williams Orchestra, which, dur- 
 ing its existence, was one of the best in the State, 
 and he has figured in almost all the prominent con- 
 certs and musical gatherings of his section, at one 
 time playing with the well-known Theodore 
 Fleisher. He has written a number of orchestral' 
 composition's. Some of the pupils of Prof. Will- 
 iams have become celebrated, and his name is known 
 far beyond local boundaries. He owns one of the 
 finest old violins in existence. Prof. Williams is in- 
 terested in several enterprises in the locality of 
 Wallingford. He is the owner of the race track 
 and fair ground site, very valuable land, which he 
 has leased to the Agricultural Society, and to the 
 Wallingford Cycling & Trotting Association. As a-. 
 
978 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 lover and fine judge of good horses, Prof. Williams 
 lias become the owner of some fine specimens, and 
 liis trotting stock is well known through the State. 
 
 Prof. Williams was married, in January, 1878, 
 in Wallingford, to Miss Mary E. Jones, daughter 
 of Charles N. Jones, a merchant of Wallingford, a 
 lady of refinement and culture, who holds an en- 
 viable position in the social circles of the city. 
 Seven children have come to this union : Charles 
 Leslie, born in 1878; Robert Cook, in 1881 ; Sarah 
 Emma, in 1883 (a graduate of the high school, 
 now a bookkeeper) ; Elsie L., in 1886; Florence, in 
 1888; Herman, in 1890; and William, in 1895. 
 Prof. Williams is a member and supporter of the 
 Republican party, but is no office seeker. The re- 
 ligious connection of the family is with the Epis- 
 copal Church, and they are highly esteemed in 
 •Cliurch circles. 
 
 Charles Nicholas Jones, father of Mrs. Williams, 
 was born on the old Jones homestead, Sept. 18, 1830, 
 son of Street Jones and a grandson of Nicholas 
 Jones, old settlers of New Haven county. Street 
 Jones was a man of education, became a large land 
 owner, at one time owning 10,000 acres, dealt ex- 
 tensively in cattle and raised many horses. He 
 "died at the age of eighty-four. He took an active 
 interest in the welfare of the Democratic party, and 
 served as a member of the State Legislature, as 
 selectman, and in other local offices, taking also an 
 active interest in educational matters. Through his 
 influence school houses were built, charitable insti- 
 tutions were planned, and religious work in the Con- 
 gregational Church carried on. Street Jones was 
 married in North Haven to Mary Pierpont East- 
 man, a daughter of Benjamin Eastman, and to this 
 xmion were born ten children, of whom we have rec- 
 ord of the following: Benjamin Trumbull, Peter 
 Eastman, Charles N., Marjr P. (who njarried 
 Charles D. Childs, of Wallingford, AT.), Sarah, one 
 that died in infancy, Julia (who married and re- 
 moved to Albany, N. Y.), and Samuel (who be- 
 came a stock dealer in Kansas). 
 
 Charles N. Jones received excellent educational 
 advantages, attending the district 'school in youth, 
 and later the Connecticut Literary Institute, at Suf- 
 field. His home continued to be on the farm until 
 1870, and he engaged in farming a part of the 
 Cook homestead. In the year mentioned he re- 
 moved to Wallingford, where he started a grain 
 and feed business, in connection with a grocerv, 
 and has been thus engaged fpr over thirty vears. 
 !\Ir. Jones also owns and operates a farm at Cook's 
 Hill, on which he has a productive peach orchard. 
 Mr. Jones married Ellen Cook, of Cook's Hill, a 
 daughter of John and Mary (Munson) Cook, and 
 a member of an old and representative family. 
 Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Jones : 
 3,Iary E., the wife of Prof. Williams- Emma, who 
 married William Hodgkinson, of Wallingford ; 
 Sarah Cook, who married William Talcott, of Wall- 
 ingford; and Florence Bertha, now Mrs. Samuel 
 
 Clulee. Mrs. Jones died in 1879. In 1889, Mr. 
 Jones married Abbie Bristol, daughter of Uriah 
 Bristol, of Cheshire. Mr. Jones is a prominent 
 member of the Congregational Church. He has 
 served his fellow citizens as selectman, and for six 
 years has been chairman of the board, and is treas- 
 urer of the borough. The family is held in high 
 esteem in Wallingford, where Mr. Jones has long 
 been regarded as one of the representative citizens. 
 
 EDWARD PAYSON BRETT, one of the old- 
 est builders in New Haven, and a man of stability 
 of character, who possesses the esteem of the com- 
 munity, is a descendant, in the seventh generation, 
 of one of the pioneer settlers of Massachusetts. 
 
 William Brett and Margaret, his wife, came 
 from England, in 1645, and with Miles Standish 
 and others, became early settlers of the town of 
 Bridgewater, Mass. He was an elder in the church, 
 and often took the pastor's place. 
 
 Nathaniel Brett, son of William and Margaret, 
 married Sarah, daughter of John Hayward. 
 
 Seth Brett, son of Nathaniel and Sarah, mar- 
 ried Sarah Alden, daughter of Isaac Alden. 
 
 Samuel Brett, son of Seth and Sarah, married 
 Hannah, daughter of David Packard. 
 
 William Brett, son of Samuel and Hannah, 
 married Molly, daughter of Ezra Allen. 
 
 C3TUS Brett, son of William and Molly, the 
 father of the subject of this sketch, was born Oct. 
 18, 1789, in North Bridgewater, Mass. He mar- 
 ried ]Mary Winchester, who was born in 1802 in 
 Boston, ;\Iass. From 1836 to 1856, Mr. Brett was 
 a successful dealer, in Baltimore, Md., in the line of 
 gents' furnishing goods, but coming troubles warned 
 him of business disturbance, and he wisely closed 
 out his interests, and returned North, dying in New 
 Haven, Dec. 30, 1864, his wife having passed away 
 but little more than one month previously, on 
 Nov. 9. 
 
 Edward Payson Brett was born Sept. 12, 1837, 
 at Baltimore, Md., where he «pent his early school 
 days. In March, 1855, he came to New Haven and 
 began work, as an apprentice, with Bristol & Mer- 
 win, builders, on Artisian street, working for them 
 until 1863, when he formed a partnership with 
 Horace Hubbell. They continued in business to- 
 gether until 1867, when the partnership was dis- 
 solved. In 1869 Air. Brett entered into partnership 
 with Charles E. Brown, and they continued to- 
 gether until 1880. From 1882 to 1884 Mr. Brett 
 had as a partner C. M. Manning, but for the past 
 seventeen years has been alone. Mr. Brett has 
 built many of the dwelling houses in New Haven, 
 and was entrusted with the work for the Winchester 
 factory. He is one of the most extensive jobbers in 
 New Haven. For the past ten vears he has also 
 engaged in the manufacture of boxes. He is noted 
 for his industry and activity, as well as for his high 
 sense of honor in business dealings. On Dec. 24, 
 1866, Mr. Brett was married to Harriet J. Crossley, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 979 
 
 who was born Dec. 25, 1842, at Tariffville, Conn., 
 daughter of Thomas Crossley, of Middletown, 
 Conn. Mr. and Mrs. Brett have had children as 
 follows: Mary and Hattie, who died in infancy ; 
 Lulu, who is a graduate of the Connecticut State 
 Normal School, at New Haven, and is a teacher in 
 that city ; Edna P., a graduate of Hillhouse High 
 School, at New Haven ; Thomas C, a graduate of 
 Sheffield Scientific School, class of 1896, and now 
 (secretary of the Yale Safe and Iron Co., of New 
 Haven; and Williami W., also of that city. Since 
 the spring- of 1881 the family home has been in Gil- 
 bert avenue. Mr. Brett is a Mason, holding mem- 
 bership in Wooster Lodge No. 70, and is a member 
 of the United Congregational Church, of New Hav- 
 en. .In politics he is a Republican, and his first 
 Presidential vote was cast for Lincoln. 
 
 ELLSWORTH B. COOPER, the well-known 
 and popular town clerk and treasurer of Hamden, 
 is a native of that town, born in Centerville, Sept. 
 25, 1838. 
 
 Charles Cooper, his father, was born in the town 
 of Hamden, Jan. 29, 1798, a son of Ezra Cooper, 
 and during his youth learned the blacksmith's trade, 
 which he followed in New Haven for some time. 
 Going subsequently to Whitneyville he was em- 
 ployed in the gun factory there until about 1836 
 or '37, and, after leaving the gun factory, built 
 a blacksmith shop at Centerville, where he followed 
 his trade for twelve or fifteen years. He resided 
 at Centerville for many years before his death, 
 which occurred Feb. 11, 1872. He married Laura 
 Cadwell, who was born Oct. 8, 1807, on the Pardee 
 homestead in Centerville, in the same house where 
 our subject's birth occurred. She was a daughter 
 of Elizur and Esther (Pardee) Cadwell (the latter 
 a daughter of Joseph and Esther Pardee), and died 
 Feb. 6, 1879, and was buried in Centerville ceme- 
 tery, where her husband also rests. Elizur Cad- 
 well came from Durham, Conn., to Centerville, 
 where he followed his trade, that of blacksmith. 
 In the family of Charles and Laura Cooper were 
 five children of whom two grew to adult age. 
 Charles Whitney, the eldest, was born in 1836, and 
 served one year as a soldier in the Civil war, having 
 enhsted in 1861, in Company K, 6th Conn. V. L; 
 he has never married and is now a resident of 
 Centerville. Charles Cooper was a Democrat in 
 political faith, and took a deep interest in his party's 
 success, but he was in no sense a politician. Mrs. 
 Cooper was a member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Ellsworth B. Cooper acquired his primary edu- 
 cation in the district schools of Hamden, which he 
 attended until 185 1, and then entered a select school 
 conducted by Miss Elizabeth H. Dickerman, where 
 he remained two years (this school was at the pres- 
 ent location of Mt. Carmel Children's Home). 
 Subsequently he was a student in the North Haven 
 Academy under Miss Eunice Linsley, and later at- 
 tended Stiles French's boarding school in Wall 
 
 street in New Haven. In 1858 he commenced teach- 
 ing, and successfully followed that profession for 
 several years, in the public schools of North Bran- 
 ford, North Haven and Hamden. In 1867 he was 
 assistant teacher in Rev. H. H. Noble's boarding 
 school, of Brookfield, Litchfield Co., Conn., and the 
 following year taught at Mt. Carmel. In 1871 Mr. 
 Cooper commenced clerking in the store of Eneas 
 Warner, of Centerville, and remained with him until 
 1877. I'^ 1876 he was elected town clerk and treas- 
 urer of Hamden, which offices he most creditably 
 and satisfactorily filled until November, 1900, when 
 he resigned the position of treasurer, but he still 
 continues to serve as town clerk. 
 
 Mr. Cooper was married Oct. 9, 1889, to Miss 
 Julia A. Culver, of North Haven, a daughter of 
 Samuel Culver, and a successful teacher in North 
 Haven and Wallingford, Conn. In December, 1874, 
 our subject joined Day Spring Lodge, No. 30, F. & 
 A. M. Politically he is independent. As a citizen he 
 ever stands ready to discharge all duties devolving 
 upon him, and the best years of his life have been 
 devoted to the interests of his town and county. 
 A most courteous, obliging official whose com- 
 petency and efficiency may be judged from the 
 length of his service in town office, few men are 
 better known throughout the community, or have 
 more warm friends than Ellsworth B. Cooper. 
 
 KENDRICK HARVEY SIMONS, the well 
 known contractor and builder of Waterbury, Conn., 
 was born in Sandisfield, Berkshire Co., Mass., 
 March 11, 1838. 
 
 Sylvanus Simons, his grandfather, was a farmer 
 in Massachusetts, where several of the Simons 
 brothers had settled at a point then called "Simons 
 Pond," and there he reared a family of seven chil- 
 dren, of whom we have the following record : Solo- 
 mon was a farmer, and reared a large family, most 
 of whom' went to Ohio, in which State he, too, 
 passed the latter years of his life ; Harvey was the 
 father of our subject; Hiram was a farmer; Daniel 
 and Philip also followed the same calling; Mary 
 was the next in order of birth ; and Eunice was 
 the youngest. 
 
 Harvey Simons, his father, was a native of 
 Sandisfield, Mass. (just over the Connecticut line), 
 born June 13, 1795, and his death occurred 
 Dec. 4, 1877. He was reared a farmer. His wife, 
 who was Dianthy Bailey, a daughter of Andrew 
 Bailey, a Massachusetts farmer, died at the age of 
 fifty-two years, the mother of four children, viz. : 
 Darwin, who was a soldier of the Civil war, and is 
 now a mechanic in Waterbury ; Juliaette, widow of 
 Fliram Andrews, late of Norfolk, Conn. ; Andrew 
 B. and Kendrick H., both mentioned below. 
 
 Andrew B. Simons was born in (ioshen, Conn., 
 April 2, 1833, and like his younger brother, Ken- 
 drick H., is a carpenter and builder. He lived on 
 his father's farm in Massachusetts until seventeen 
 years of age, and then came to Connecticut, where 
 
98o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 under Joseph Bunnell at Winsted, Litchfield Co., 
 he learned the carpenter's trade. He remained with 
 Mr. Bunnell two or three years, and then worked in 
 Torrington, Ansonia, Bridgeport, and other places 
 until 1852, when he came to Waterbury, where he 
 has since been actively engaged as a contractor and 
 builder, with the exception of two years passed^ in 
 the Pennsylvania oil regions. During this period 
 of over half a century he erected, for three or four 
 years, 150 houses per year, many of them at a cost 
 of $15,000 each. In 1865 he moved to his present 
 place in the southern part of Waterbury, which, in 
 his honor, is now called Simonsville, he having 
 been the principal factor in developing that partof 
 the city. In 1854, Andrew B. Simons married 
 Julia Ann Taylor, who was born in Willimantic, 
 Conn., a daughter of John Taylor. Two children 
 have blessed this union: Charles H., a carpenter; 
 and Ida, who is married to George E. Shay, of 
 Woodbury. In politics Mr. Simons was formerly a 
 Democrat, as was his father, but after the Civil war 
 he became an ardent Republican. Although he has 
 been foreman of Fire Company No. I, and also first 
 assistant of the fire department, he has not escaped 
 the devastation of the fiery fiend, and within two 
 months lost twenty tenements through its malevo- 
 lence. ^Ir. Simons is a member of Harmony Lodge, 
 No. 42, F. & A. M., of Waterburv. With his fam- 
 ily he attends the IMethodist Episcopal Church, by 
 the members of which they are all most highly es- 
 teemed, as well as by society at large. Mr. Simons 
 is a public-spirited man in the broad sense of the 
 word. 
 
 Kendrick H. Simons was reared on the Sandis- 
 field homestead until sixteen years of age, then 
 came to Connecticut and for two years worked in 
 a cutlery factory at AA'insted. In 1857 he came to 
 Waterbury and learned the carpenter's trade with 
 his brother Andrew B. Simons. At this trade he 
 worked as a journeyman about fifteen years. He 
 spent the year 1865 in Titusville, Pa., at that time the 
 principal center of petroleum oil, and began then to 
 contract and build on his personal account. Being 
 artistic and skillful, he has met with unusual success, 
 and many of the more elegant, as well as the ordin- 
 ary, buildings that dot the streets of Waterbury 
 and its suburbs, attest his mastership of his trade. 
 
 On Jan. 3, 1866, Kendrick H. Simons married 
 Maria Antoinette Neal,a native of Burlington, Hart- 
 ford county, Conn., and a daughter of Ira T. Neal, 
 of Winsted, Conn. Two children were born of this 
 union: Herbert A., who died at the age of four 
 years; and Irving N., who passed away at the age 
 of twenty-six, when he had nearly completed his 
 studies in the medical department of the University 
 of Pennsylvania. The latter had married Aug. 15, 
 1895, Miss Emma Michaux, who with one child, 
 Mildred N., survives him. In politics Mr. Simons 
 is a Republican, and in religious belief both he and 
 his wife are members of the Advent Church. 
 
 Ira T. Neal was of Scotch extraction, and his oc- 
 
 cupation was that of a mechanic. He married 
 Rachel AI. Bradley, who bore him three children: 
 George W., deceased ; Jane M., wife of Charles C. 
 Lathrop, of Bridgeport ; and Maria Antoinette, wife 
 of Kendrick H. Simons. Mr. Neal passed away 
 June 14, 1880, and his wife survived until June 
 17, 1893, when she, too, entered into rest. 
 
 EDWIN SOMERS PARMELEE, one of the 
 progressive business men of W^allingford, New Ha- 
 ven Co., Conn., and Thomasville, N. C, was born 
 April 16, 1834, in Southbury, New Haven county. 
 
 Walter Parmelee, his father, was born Nov. 12^ 
 1808, in Newtown, Conn., and died Dec. 7, 1886, 
 in the city of Wallingford. He was a wagonmaker^ 
 and followed that occupation throughout life. In. 
 1 88 1 he retired from active life and came to Wall- 
 ingford, to spend his remaining years with his sons. 
 Previous to his coming to this city he had a little ■ 
 wagon shop in Southbury, and always had been a. 
 very active and industrious man. In 1828 Mr. 
 Parmelee married Miss Harriet Dikeman, of New- 
 town. Both were members of the Episcopal Church, 
 and in later years attended the Methodist Chapel 
 at Southville. A Democrat, and very well informed 
 in current questions, Mr. Parmelee was, howevei, 
 too much pressed with businesss cares to take much 
 interest in the machinery of the party organization. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Parmelee were the parents of twO' 
 children, Edwin S. and Bruce Leavenworth, the 
 latter at present living in Wallingford. 
 
 Amos Parmelee, the father of Walter Parmelee, 
 was a wagonmaker ; he married Mary Somers, and 
 lived in Newtown, Conn. Noah Parmelee, father 
 of Amos, came from England, and was a manufact- 
 urer of saddle trees. He married a Scotch woman. 
 The Parmelees have always been woodworkers. 
 
 Edwin Somers Parmelee acquired his education 
 in the common schools of his native town, and git 
 leaving school went into his father's shop to leam 
 wagonmaking. When he was twenty-three he left 
 home, and went to Naugatuck to take the position. 
 of foreman in the factory of the Naugatuck Wheel 
 Co. There he remained until i860, when he pur- 
 chased a piece of timber land in Southbury, and 
 began to make heavy wagons and carts. In 1864. 
 he bought a wheel factory, and a farm in Wood- 
 bury, where he was busily employed until 1872, in 
 which year the factory was destroyed by fire. Short- 
 ly after this catastrophe Mr. Parmelee, in company 
 with his brother-in-law, Bryant A. Treat, purchased 
 the Naugatuck Wheel Co., and became president 
 thereof. They conducted the plant very successfully 
 until 1878, when it was removed to Wallingford in- 
 connection with the Wallingford Wheel Co., which 
 they had purchased some two years before. On 
 May 30, 1888, the Wallingford factory was struck 
 by lightning, and entirely destroyed by fire. Mr. 
 Parmelee sold his interest to the American Wheel 
 Co., and retired from the business before it was- 
 resumed. The same year he bought the Thomas- 
 
^ ^ (^^I^'t^^^^^^rtt/c^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 981 
 
 viUe (N. C.) Spoke Works, and the next year the 
 Newton (N. C.) Spoke & Handle Works. He 
 conducted both until 1898, when they were consoli- 
 dated at Thomasville, where he is still engaged in 
 business. About seventy-five men are employed 
 in the works at Thomasville. j\Ir. Parmelee is also 
 largely interested in native lumber, and in this line 
 •o-ives employment to quite a number. 
 
 On Sept. 14, 1859, J\Ir. Parmelee was married 
 to Miss Mary A. Treat, of Oxford, a daughter of 
 Atwater Treat, and a direct descendant of Gov. 
 Treat. Their children are as follows: (i) Jennie 
 M., born Aug. 4, 1862, was married Oct. 6, 1880, 
 to Seymour G. Baldwin, a wholesale lumber dealer 
 •of Wallingford, son of the late Dr. Vincent Bald- 
 win, of Wallingford. They have had the following 
 <;hildren — Mary E., born Sept. 30, 1884; Walter P., 
 "born June 13, 1889; Elizabeth G., born Aug. 26, 
 1892; and Edwin Seymour, born July 21, 1881 (died 
 •Oct. 28, 1881). (2) Hattie Elizabeth, born June 
 2, 1865, married Aug. 30, 1893, Robert C. Canby, 
 a native of Philadelphia. Mr. Canby is a metallui- 
 gist, and has charge of a smelter in San-Luis-Potosi, 
 Mexico, the largest in that country. (3) Mary Re- 
 Tjecca, born June 22, 1868, is now bookkeeper in 
 the ofHce of her father's spoke works at Thomas- 
 Tille. (4) Eva Treat, born Nov. 11, 1874, is, at 
 home. (5) Sarah Edwina, born Aug. 30, 1881, is 
 at present taking a finishing course in German and 
 French in Coburg, Germany. Mr. Parmelee was 
 born and bred a Democrat, but he is unalterably op- 
 posed to the ratio of 16 to i. The entire family 
 are members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. 
 
 JUDGE JAMES R. CAMPBELL is one of the 
 most favorably known citizens of the town of Wall- 
 ingford, where he holds the position of Deputy 
 Judge of Wallingford Police Court. He was born 
 in Windham, N. H., Nov. 14, 1829, and belongs to 
 the celebrated Scotch Campbells. For hundreds of 
 years the various generations of this family have 
 been conspicuous in Scotland. Among the stoutest 
 followers of Oliver Cromwell, they were given a 
 tract of land in Derry, Ireland, which they aban- 
 doned after the restoration of Charles H, and came 
 to New Hampshire, where many of their descend- 
 ants may still be found. Some have penetrated into 
 other parts of the United States, and wherever they 
 have gone, their upright, honorable and industrious 
 lives have done credit to the New Hampshire Camp- 
 bells. 
 
 Henry Campbell, born in Ireland, located in the 
 Derry colony in New Hampshire, and took an 
 active part in the French and Indian war. He be- 
 came the father of five children : ( i ) Daniel, born 
 in Windham, N. H., in 1737, became a land owner, 
 and there died. (2) John, born 1747, served in' 
 the Revolution, and died in 1823, He married 
 Molly Campbell. (3) Jane Hylands. (4) Sophia 
 L. (5) David. 
 
 David Campbell, born in Windham, N. H., m 
 
 1757, died March 11, 1830. He was a farmer and 
 mill owner, and erected the first carding mill in that 
 part of the State. A soldier in the Continental 
 army, he served at the battles of Bunker Hill, Long 
 Island and Bennington, being twice wounded at 
 Bunger Hill, and also in the Cherry Valley cam- 
 paign. Elizabeth Dickey, his wife, became the 
 mother of the following children: (i) Rachel, 
 who died single; (2) Mary; (3) Martha, who mar- 
 ried and lived im Francestown, N. H. ; (4) David, 
 who was twice married, first to Mary Marden, and, 
 second to Mehitable Marden ; (5) James; (6) Han- 
 nah, who married James Clark Cloyd; (7) John. 
 
 John Campbell was born July 17, 1803, was edu- 
 cated in the common schools, arid was reared a 
 farmer boy. Much success attenctfd his labors and 
 he spent his last years in Nashua. An active and 
 devoted Methodist, he was a trustee of the church 
 and a faithfuul worker for its advancement. Mr. 
 Campbell was also deeply interested in school mat- 
 ters, and was a strong advocate of public education. 
 In politics he was a Whig. On May 29, 1828, John 
 Campbell was married to Hannah Pierson, who 
 was born in Nashua, a daughter of Captain Joshua 
 Pierson. To this union were born four children : 
 James R., born Nov. 14, 1829; Charles; Caroline; 
 John. 
 
 James R. Campbell attended the public schools 
 of Nashua, and for two and a half years was a 
 student in the engineering department of the West 
 Point Military Academy, but was compelled by his 
 ill health to give up the course. In 1852 Mr- 
 Campbell removed to Yonkers, N. Y., where he en- 
 gaged in the contracting business in company with 
 Deboise & Hendrick, dock and bridge builders, re- 
 maining with them until 1865. That year, again 
 consulting his health, which had failed him, he came 
 to Wallingford, and bought the farm on which his 
 home is now made. For a number of years he was 
 engaged in manufacturing, and in 1878 became in- 
 terested in a brown-stone quarry, to which he gave 
 his attention for sixteen years, when he retired from 
 every kind of business interests except his farm. 
 
 Judge Campbell is a man well known in Wall- 
 ingford for his upright character and genial man- 
 mer. He is much respected in the community, and 
 has been a leader in every kind of forward move- 
 ment. To the schools especially does he give a 
 willing service, serving on the Central District Com- 
 mittee; and on the building committees of the 
 Colony Street School and the High School. 
 
 Judge Campbell was married Nov. 28, 1852, to 
 Jane Barnes, who was born in Litchfield, N. H., 
 a daughter of Reuben and Rebecca (]Martin) 
 Barnes, and a granddaughter of Joseph Barnes 
 (who was a physician and surgeon in the war of the 
 Revolution), and of Dr. Amos ^Martin (who served 
 in the war of 1812). To this union were born the 
 following children: (i) Charles, born in March, 
 1855, died April 3, 1879. (2) Ida E., born July 20, 
 1857, married Dec. 27, 1877, Rev. L. E. Rockwell, 
 
982 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a Methodist minister, of Portland, Oregon, and has 
 one son, Foster, born in September, 1880. (3) 
 Jennie, born May 29, 1869, was educated in the 
 Wallingford schools and at Smith College, grad- 
 uating from the latter in June, 1893 ;she also studied 
 one year in the graduate school at Yale College, 
 giving special attention to the classics. At the 
 present time she is teaching Greek and Latin in the 
 Wallingford High School, and her work there is 
 highly appreciated. I\Irs. Rockwell was also a 
 teacher before her marriage. 
 
 Mrs. Campbell taught school when a young 
 woman, and is a lady of education and refinement. 
 Much devoted to her husband and family, she is 
 a consistent Christian woman. Mr. Campbell is a 
 Republican, and a stanch party man, but has never 
 had a hunger for political position. He was elected 
 Deputy Judge in 1897. For twenty years he has 
 been a trustee of the Yalesville Methodist Church, 
 to which his wife and daughters also belong. Since 
 1851 Judge Campbell has been a member of the Odd 
 Fellows. 
 
 HOX. GROVE J. TUTTLE, who, for a quarter 
 of a century and more, has been a member of 
 the New Haven County Bar, and a useful citizen 
 in his community, has descended from one of the 
 Colony who settled New Haven, in' 1639. 
 
 William Tuttle, the emigrant ancestor of Grove 
 J. Tuttle, with his wife Elizabeth and three chil- 
 dren, sailed in the ship "Planter'' from London, 
 England, to New England, in 1630, landing at Bos- 
 ton, and later were of the colony which settled New 
 Haven, in 1639. From this William Tuttle, our 
 subject, is a descendant in the seventh generation, 
 his line being through Jonathan, Nathaniel, Nathan- 
 iel (2), Jesse and Jesse Tuttle (2). 
 
 Jonathan Tuttle, son of William, the emigrant, 
 baptized in Charlestown, Mass., in 1637, married 
 Rebecca, a daughter of Lieut. Francis Bell; of Stam- 
 ford. Mr. Tuttle began a settlement near the Quin- 
 nipiac river in what is now the southern part of the 
 town of North Haven, in about 1670, and built a 
 bridge over the river which was long known as 
 Tuttle's bridge. He died in 1705. 
 
 Nathaniel Tuttle, son of Jonathan, born in 1676, 
 married Esther Blakeslee, and died in 1728. Na- 
 thaniel Tuttle (2), son of Nathaniel, born in 1714, 
 married first in 1737, Mary, a daughter of Josiah 
 Todd, who died in 1742; and second he niarried 
 Abigail Ingham. 
 
 Jesse Tuttle, son of Nathaniel (2), born in 1750, 
 married first Lucy, daughter of Samuel and Mary 
 (Ailing) Dickerman, of Hamden, and, second, 
 Eunice Gilbert. Mr. Tuttle was chosen tything- 
 man of Hamden for the year 1794; grand juror in 
 1798; one of the surveyors of highways, in 1803; 
 and a selectman, in 1805, 1806, 1807 and 1808; and 
 as representative in General Assembly for several 
 terms. He died in Hamden, in 1849. 
 
 Jesse Tuttle (2), son of Jesse, of Hamden, and 
 
 the father of Hon. Grove J. Tuttle, of New Haven, 
 was born Aug. 18, 1802, and first married Dec. 29, 
 1825, Dencey R., daughter of John B. Johnson, of 
 Wallingford. She died in 1840, and his second 
 marriage took place May i, 1842, to Lucinda, 
 daughter of Willoughby Williams, of Wallingfonl. 
 To the first marriage were born John, Lucy and 
 Charles R., and to the second marriage, Dwight W. 
 and Grove J. 
 
 Grove J. Tuttle was born in the town of Wall- 
 ingford, Conn., April 2, 1851. His early educa- 
 tion was acquired in the public schools of New 
 Haven, and in the High school of that city and 
 then he entered upon the study of law, under the 
 direction of Charles H. Fowler, and was admitted 
 to the bar in New Haven, in 1874, and has since 
 been actively engaged in the practice of his pro- 
 fession in that city, meeting with deserved success. 
 
 Mr. Tuttle has held various local offices in a 
 manner creditable to himself, and satisfactory to his 
 fellow-citizens. A number of times (1879, 1886 
 and 1893) he has ably represented his town in the 
 General Assembly of the State. For twenty-five 
 years, Mr. Tuttle has been an efficient member of 
 the school board of which he has been president for 
 ten years ; for twenty-five }-ears also has been jus- 
 tice of the peace ; three terms he nas served as grand 
 juror; and was appointed county auditor for 1893- 
 
 1894. Fie held the office of prosecuting agent for 
 New Haven County for two years, from 1893 until 
 
 1895. In 1898 he was the Democratic candidate for 
 State Senator from the Seventh district, and though 
 defeated reduced the Republican majority from 
 2621 in 1896, to 880 in 1898. 
 
 On June 8, 1887, Mr. Tuttle was married to- 
 Miss Emma J., daughter of Eber and Almira 
 Downs, of New Haven, the former of whom was 
 formerly a farmer of Woodbridge, and died at the 
 age of fifty years ; the mother died in 1901, aged 
 eighty years. Mrs. Tuttle has one sister, now the 
 wife of L. W. Hotchkiss, of Shelton. Socially he is 
 popular in Adelphi Lodge, F. & A. M., and is 
 considered one of the leading men in New Haven. 
 
 CAPT. OLIX'ER N, BROOKS, one of the old- 
 est and most respected citizens of the town of Guil- 
 ford, and a member of the Legislature, was born in 
 West Brook, Conn., Feb. 7, 1822, a son of Nathan 
 Brooks. Simeon Brooks, an uncle of the Captain,, 
 was a prominent manufacturer in the town of 
 Chester. 
 
 Nathan Brooks was a stone-cutter by trade. He 
 married Nancy A. Clark, a daughter of Joseph 
 Clark, a farmer in Chester, who was a soldier in 
 the Revolutionary war, and a man of much char- 
 acter and ability. After marriage Nathan Brooks 
 was located for a time at Westbrook, but after- 
 ward removed to Killingworth, where he followed 
 his trade for many years. In 1839 he located at 
 Guilford, where he made his home until his death 
 at the ripe age of eighty-eight years, and was- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 983 
 
 Burkd in the Guilford cemetery. He was a Demo- 
 crat in early life, but in his last years was a Re- 
 publican. Mrs. Nathan Brooks also died in Guil- 
 ford and was buried in the same cemetery. The 
 few who are alive to remember her speak well of 
 her as a woman of high character and religious 
 faith. She was the mother of thirteen children, 
 three of whom died in infancy. Those who lived 
 to maturity are the following: (i) Julius died in 
 1849. (2) Zera C. resides in Derby, Conn., at the 
 age of eighty-one years. (3) Roxanna M., the 
 widow of George H. Chapman, of Saybrook, for 
 many years a merchant in Boston, is living in Win- 
 chester, Mass. (4) Capt. Oliver N. (5) Eliza F. 
 is the widow of James H. Prince, of Winchester, 
 Mass. (6) Laura A. iparried Frederick H. Fowler, 
 and both are deceased. (7) John G. was drowned 
 in Nebraska in 1859, while on his way to California. 
 (8) Juha A. married Richard H. Woodward, a real- 
 estate man in Long Branch, N. J. (9) Cynthia E. 
 married Erastus H. Cusby. (10) Frances E. mar- 
 ried R. H. Chipman, a coal dealer in New York, 
 who has his home in Philadelphia. 
 
 Capt. Oliver N. Brooks removed with his par- 
 ents to Clinton when he was four years old, and 
 there attended the public school and the academy. 
 When thirteen years of age he went out as a cabin 
 boy with Capt. Eldikin, on board the schooner 
 "Planet," making a short voyage from Clinton to 
 Philadelphia to take on a coal cargo for New 
 Haven. From this humble heginning he worked 
 himself up in rank to a position as commander and 
 master, when he was only nineteen years old. At 
 that early age he was perfectly competent to com- 
 mand a vessel, and the first in his charge was the 
 slcop "Ostrich." For eleven years be commanded 
 different vessels in the Atlantic coast-wise trade. 
 In 185 1 Capt. Brooks was appointed keeper of the 
 Faulkners Island Lighthouse, receiving his appoint- 
 mjent from Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury, and for thirty-one years he was always at his 
 post of duty, and rendered valiant service in the res- 
 cue and service of those imperilled by wind and 
 water. During his long term of activity over one 
 hundred vessels were stranded near the Island; in 
 seventy-one of these disasters, eight of which were 
 total wrecks, Capt. Brooks rendered valuable as- 
 sistance in an open boat, often at the great peril 
 of his life. One noble rescue he effected was that 
 of the crew of the schooner "Moses F. Webb," 
 which went ashore on Goose Island on Nov. 23, 
 1858. Single handed and alone he rescued the crew, 
 and his daring efforts won the applause of the whole 
 country. Many valuable and touching letters and 
 testimonials were sent him, and are now preserved 
 as valuable m'ementoes of a noble deed. 
 
 From the Life Saving Benevolent Association 
 of New York he received a letter of ardent appre- 
 ciation, accompanying the bestowal of a gold medal, 
 only bestowed where "Life has been exposed m 
 saving life," which was signed by Daniel Lord, 
 
 the vice-president of the association. The medal 
 bears this inscription : "Presented to Oliver N. 
 Brooks, keeper of the Faulkners Island Light, for 
 rescuing with great courage and humanity four 
 lives from the wreck of the schooner Moses F. 
 Webb, on tlie 23rd of November, A. D. 1858." The 
 value of this medal was fifty dollars, and its weight 
 forty dollars. 
 
 From the citizens of New Haven he received the 
 following letter, bearing date Dec. 6, 1858: 
 
 "Impressed by the account of your bravery on 
 the 23rd of November, 1858, in rescuing five per- 
 sons from the wreck of the schooner Moses F. 
 Webb, at the hazard of your own life, we have pro- 
 cured the accompanying testimonial of our admira- 
 tion of your courage and your humanity. We 
 present your wife the salver and tea set, your chil- 
 dren the cups and napkin rings, and yourself the 
 purse containing $126, in the hope that your ex- 
 ample may encourage others to succor the im- 
 perilled. That your life may long be spared and 
 your health and prosperity be continued is the earn- 
 est wish of yours respectfully, Washington Webb. 
 In behalf of Thos. R. Trowbridge; Hotchkiss Bros. 
 & Co.; L. W. & P. Armstrong; E. C. Scranton; 
 James W. Brester; Canfield & Spencer; D. M. 
 Welch ; English, Atwater & White ; George D. Eng- 
 lish; C. L. English; Minott A. Osborn ; D. S. 
 Graves ; S. W. King; C. T. Candee ; P. A. Pinkman ; 
 Dr. Bishop ; E. A. Mitchell ; T. Q. Betts ; R. Chap- 
 man; C. B. Whittlesey; City Fire Insurance Co., 
 N. H. ; William Conner (Secretary Springfield Fire 
 Insurance Co.) ; S. A. Thomas; Fred Lines; S. W. 
 Mansfield ; Wylie & Brother ; C. P. Hubbell ; Law- 
 rence, Bradley & Pardee; Lindsley & Carlisle; 
 James E. English; Lucus Gilbert; S. L: Smith & 
 Co.; Sylvanus Butler; S. D. Cooley, Jr.; D. A. 
 Benjamin; C. M. Ingersoll; Bishop & Bros.; W. A. 
 Ensign.; Wm. B. Johnson; S. B. M. Huges; S. 
 Punderford; Leonard Daggett; S. S. Griffing; S. 
 S. Atwater; D. S. Glenney; Isaac Thompson; W. T. 
 Bradley & Co.; Isaac Anderson; Bushnell & Co.; 
 L. Treadway & Co.; D. Trowbridge; Solomon 
 CoUis ; John Walker ; H. J. Norton ; M. R. Shepard; 
 S. G. Peck; John W. Russell; C. S. Chaplain; E. 
 Arnold & Co.; Benjamin Noyes ; C. H. Tuttle; E. 
 Marble; Cowles & Leete; Strong & Hall; E. E. 
 Hall; R. P. Cowles; Joel Ives; D. Killam & Co.; 
 F. L. Bostwick; C. O. Crosby; S. R. Spencer; S. 
 S. Rowland; S. E. Stone; Saml. Rowland; Edw. 
 Bromley; D. S. Stout; J. H. Benham ; N. D. 
 Sperrv; Alfred Blackman ; W. T. Eustis, Jun. ; G. 
 S. Sheffield ; and W. Bristol." 
 
 The original documents are in script, executed 
 by D. Stanton, beautifully done, and could not be 
 duphcated for less than thirty dollars. The salver 
 bears the following inscription : "Presented to Mrs. 
 Mary M. Brooks, by the citizens of New Haven, in 
 honor of the noble conduct of her husband, Capt. 
 Oliver N. Brooks, who at the peril of his own, 
 saved the lives of five persons from a wrecked ves- 
 
984 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sel during a storm in Long Island Sound, on the 
 23d of November, in 1858." The salver alone is 
 worth $80. At this time the citizens of Guilford 
 presented him with a membership in the Masonic 
 lodge. 
 
 During Capt. Brooks' term of service in the 
 lighthouse many improvements were miade, such as 
 the introduction of kerosene oil. He had three as- 
 sistants from 1866 to 1882, in which latter year he 
 retired from the service, with a record of which any 
 man might be proud. Locating on the old home- 
 stead in Guilford, he became interested in real es- 
 tate at Sachem's Head, where he built a number 
 of summer cottages. In 1887 he went to Cali- 
 fornia, and located in Arch Beach, where he was' iri 
 business, and where he spent three years. During 
 this time he was appointed postmaster, and visited 
 many places of interest in the southern part of the 
 State. In 1890 Capt. Brooks came hack to his Guil- 
 ford home, and has since lived retired from active 
 business. The Captain is a keen observer, and a 
 fine conversationalist, being a well-read man and 
 widely informed on all current topics. Capt. Brooks 
 was elected to the Legislature in 1892, though he 
 is' a Democrat, and was a member of the Committee 
 on Temperance. In 1898 he was again elected by a 
 good majority. 
 
 On Jan. 4, 1846, Capt. Brooks was married 
 to Mary M., who was born in Guilford, a daughter 
 of John and Betsy (Field) Hart; she was a lady 
 of a charmiing personality, with fine artistic tastes, 
 and was highly esteemed by tho-se who had the 
 privilege of her acquaintance. In her home are 
 many creations of her artistic skill, especially notice- 
 able being preparations of rare -and beautiful sea 
 shells, which evidence her love of nature. Mrs. 
 Brooks died Oct. 28, 1899, and was buried in Guil- 
 ford cemetery. The Captain and Mrs. Brooks were 
 the parents of three children: (i) Oliver N., Jr., 
 who died in infancy; (2) Mary E., who married 
 Henry I. Thrall, formerly of Guilford, now of Cuba, 
 has two children, Allison Irwin and Edith Amelia, 
 both born in Riverside, Cal. ; (3) Nancy Amelia, 
 who married Edwin G. Hewsted, a nephew of Prof. 
 Cyrus Northrop, president of the University of 
 Minnesota, and has two children, Oliver Brooks 
 and Edwin G. Capt. Brooks is a skilled taxi(ier- 
 mist, and has a valuable collection of animals and 
 birds. Mrs. Thrall, his daughter, has much ability 
 in music and art. 
 
 HARVEY W. BEACH, late of Branford, where 
 in his lifetime he was a successful and popular 
 business man, was bo^m May i, 1834, in that bor- 
 ough, a son of Timothy and Esther (Cook) Beach. 
 The father, a native of Branford, and a farmer all 
 his life, was a son of Andrew Beach. The maternal 
 grandfather of Harvey W. Beach was Joseph Cook, 
 a resident of Branford for many years, who mar- 
 ried a Miss Wheadon. He served as a private in 
 the war of the Revolution. 
 
 Harvey W. Beach grew to manhood in Bran- 
 ford, where he obtained his education in the com- 
 mon schools. A miller by trade, he owned and 
 operated a combined grist and sawmill. For many 
 rears he was in the ice business. During the Civil 
 war Mr. Beach was a member of Company B, 27th 
 Conn. V. I., enlisting Aug. 22, 1862. He partici- 
 pated in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chan- 
 cellorsville, was taken prisoner May 3, 1863, in- 
 carcerated in Libby prison six days later, and pa- 
 roled on the 2 1st of the same month. Mr. Beach 
 was honorably discharged at New Haven after nine 
 m.onths' service. For some five years after his re- 
 turn from the war he was a member of the State 
 militia, in which he rose to the rank of captain. 
 
 On coming home Mr. Beach resumed his busi- 
 ness of mailing, and carried it on until his death. 
 May 3, 1881. He was married, Nov. 16, 1856, to 
 Cornelia Hubbard, daughter of Richard and Rhoda 
 (Andrews) Hubbard, of Durham, Conn., and to 
 them were born nine children: (i) Willys E., born 
 Dec. 27, 1857, married Frederica Miller, and has 
 one son, Lewis, born March 8, 1880. (2) An- 
 zonitta, born Dec. 20, 1858, died Dec. 12, 1863. (3) 
 Isaac P., born Alarch 20, i860, married Grace 
 Wheeler; they had no children. (4) Harvey E., 
 born Aug. 14, 1861, died Aug. 30, 1862. (5) Cor- 
 nelia A., born Jan. 30, 1863, married Walter Boyn- 
 ton, and has two children — Nellie May, bona May 
 15, 1885, and Clarence N., born April 29, 1888. 
 (6) Fred A. M., born Feb. 28, 1868, died April 
 II, 1899. (7) Clara L., born Jan. 4, 1871, died 
 Oct. 2, 1891. (8) Edna L., born Sept. 15, 1873, 
 died Jan. 3, 1874. (9) Ada V. was bom Nov. 
 8, 1877. 
 
 Mr. Beach was a member of the Baptist Church, 
 with which his widow also unites. He was en- 
 rolled in Widows' Sons Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. 
 M. In politics he was a Republican. 
 
 RUFUS M. GILLETTE, an honored and high- 
 ly respected citizen of Naugatuck, who is now liv- 
 ing a retired life, was born in Prospect, this coun- 
 ty, March 30, 1829, and is of French descent. His 
 paternal grandfather, Benjamin Gillette, was born 
 in France, and on his emigration to America lo- 
 cated on a farm in Milford, New Haven Co., Conn., 
 where he -spent the remainder of his life. He had 
 only two children: Garret, father of our subject; 
 and Benjamin, who never married and was en- 
 gaged throughout life in farming in Milford. 
 
 Garret Gillette was bom and reared in Milford, 
 and there he was married, Oct. 23, 1804, to Nancy 
 Piatt, of the same town, but shortly after his mar- 
 riage he removed to Prospect and located upon a 
 farm, where he spent the remainder of his life, 
 dying there April 16, 1874. His wife passed away 
 May 6, 1841. To them were born eleven children, 
 as follows : Abigail, born Jan. i, 1810, married 
 Lucius Talmadge, a farmer of Prospect, now de- 
 ceased, and she died in March, 1892; George S., 
 
J^(^^^^t^ J^^^3^2^^i^^a/C 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 985 
 
 born March 26, 181 1, was a mechanic, and died in 
 Seymour; Martha, bom June 19, 1813, died Oct. 
 22, 1835; Nancy, born Nov. 4, 1815, died Aug. 29, 
 1836; Jonathan, born June 19, 1817, was a carpenter 
 of Prospect and died in 1880; Mary, bom Sept. 
 18, 1819, married Harry Smith, a manufacturer of 
 Prospect, and died Jan. i, 1877; William, born 
 Nov. 12, 182 1, was a farmer of Milford, and died 
 in 1878; Sarah Ann, bomi Jan. 8, 1824, is the widow 
 of Harry Morse, a farmer of Prospect; Bennett, 
 born Sept. 5, 1826, was a carpenter of Prospect, 
 and died in 1876; Rufus M., our subject, is next in 
 order of birth; and Garret, born Feb. 4, 1831, was 
 a farmer of Prospect, and died Dec. 8, 1878. 
 
 The boyhood and youth of Rufus M. Gillette 
 were passed in Prospect, and his education was ac- 
 quired in its district schools. In early life he 
 learned the carpenter's trade with his brother, and 
 continued to follow the same throughout his active 
 business life, but for the last three years he has lived 
 retired. On April i, 1896, he reni'oved from Pros- 
 pect to Naugatuck, where he owns a beautiful home 
 and is surrounded by all the comforts which make 
 life worth the living. 
 
 Mr. Gillette was married, Atay 20, 1854, to Miss 
 Abigail Payne, alsO' a native of Prospect and a 
 daughter of Stephen and Abigail (Doolittle) Payne, 
 who were born in the same town. Her maternal 
 grandfather was Joseph Doolittle, a farmer of Pros- 
 pect. In early life her father was a speculator and 
 manufacturer of buttons, but later engaged in the 
 hotel business in Naugatuck, Waterbury and Mil- 
 ford. He died in 1892, and her mother departed 
 this life in 1854. To our subject and his wife were 
 born three children, namely : Ruble, who died at 
 the age of twenty-one years ; Mary, wife of George 
 W. Andrew, of Naugatuck ; and Joseph, an electri- 
 cian of New London, Connecticut. 
 
 Politically Mr. Gillette is identified with the Re- 
 publican party, and in 1888 he represented his town 
 in the State Legislature. He and his family are in- 
 fluential members of the Congregational Church, 
 and he has always taken an active part in church 
 work. He has championed every movement de- 
 signed to promote the general welfare, has sup- 
 ported every enterprise for the public good, and 
 has materially aided in the advancement of all so- 
 cial, educational and moral interests. After a use- 
 ful and honsrable career he can well afford to lay 
 aside all business cares and live in ease and retire- 
 ment at his elegant home in Naugatuck, which, in 
 its appointments, evinces the refinement and culture 
 of the inmates'. 
 
 JOSEPH T. BEARD. The Beard family is 
 one of the oldest and most prominent in the town 
 of Milferd, and the old homestead, now occupied 
 by the subject of this sketch, has been held by the 
 family since 1639— the only tract of land in town 
 which can show a title running unchanged in one 
 family since the first settlement. The Fowler prop- 
 
 erty, with which the Beard homestead formerly 
 divided that honor, has changed hands, being sold 
 first to George Gunn, and by him to tire New Haven 
 Water Company 
 
 Joseph T. Beard traces his descent from Capt. 
 John Beard, the pioneer, through Benjamin, son of 
 Capt. John; Joseph; Benjamin, who married Abi- 
 gail Clark; Andrew; and Joseph Beard, his' father. 
 
 Andrew Beard, our subject's grandfather, was 
 born March 3, 1752, on his farm in Milford. Dur- 
 ing the Revolutionary war he served as a soldier. He 
 married Susan Rogers (who was born in Milford) 
 Nov. 30, 1779, and eleven children came of this 
 union: Sally, 1781 ; Andrew, 1784; Andrew (2), 
 1786; Benjamin, 1788; Susan, 1790; Abigail, 1793; 
 Abigail (2), 1794; Mariah, 1796; David, 1798; 
 Joseph, 1800 (father of our subject) ; and Minerva, 
 1802. 
 
 Joseph Beard was born in Milford in May, 1800, 
 and, like his ancestors, carried on farming as an 
 occupation. Politically he was a Whig, and later a 
 Republican. His death occurred Oct. 4, 1870, from 
 an accident on a railway. He married Mary Ann 
 Baldwin, daughter of Hezekiah Baldwin, of Mil- 
 ford, and 'she lived to the good old age of ninety- 
 two, dying Feb. 17, 1892. 
 
 Joseph T. Beard was born in Milford April 19, 
 1840, and, as the only child, inherited the home- 
 stead. He attended the district 'schools near his 
 home and the high school at Milford, and on leav- 
 ing school at the age of nineteen gave his attention 
 to farming as a business. He is a general farmer, 
 and is noted for his excellent management. At 
 present the farm comprises 200 acres, a portion of 
 his inheritance at the site of Naugatuck Junction 
 having been sold to the New York, New Haven & 
 Hartford Railroad Company. 
 
 Politically Mr. Beard is a Republican, and he 
 and his family are m'cmbers of the Congregational 
 Church. In 1872 he married Miss Alice A. Davis, 
 of Seymour, Conn., and they have had five children : 
 Nellie is a school teacher in Milford; Ernest T., a 
 farmer in Milford, married Fannie W. Booth, of 
 She'lton ; Alice married Fred M. Smith, of Milford ; 
 Warren is a machinist oi Bridgeport, Conn. ; and 
 Harold is at home. 
 
 Mrs. Alice A. (Davis) Beard is of Welsh de- 
 'scent in the paternal line, and her family is well 
 known in Seymour, where her grandfather. Dr. 
 James W. Davis, practiced medicine at an early day. 
 Pier father, Henry P. Davis, was born in Smith- 
 town, Montgomery Co., N. Y., May 16, 1818, and 
 spent the greater portion of his life in Seymour. 
 His death occurred there March 31, 1885. By oc- 
 cupation he was an axmaker and later a farmer. He 
 married for his second wife Almira Steele Holcomb, 
 who was born in Seymour Feb. 22, 1810, and died 
 March 20, 1885. Of their three children, George 
 S. is a mechanic in Waterbury, Conn. ; Burr S. is 
 a miner in California; and Alice A. married our 
 subject. The Steele family is one of the oldest in 
 
986 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Se3-mour, and Airs. Beard's maternal grandfather, 
 Deacon Bradford Steele, served for about eight 
 months in the Revolutionary army, enlisting about 
 July 10, 1777, as a lad of sixteen. His wife, Ruth 
 "Wheeler, was born Sept. 17, 1765, a daughter of 
 Simeon Wheeler, and died Feb. 20, 1856. Her 
 mother, Sarah Baldwin, wiho was born April 11, 
 1746, and died May 13, 1826, married first a Mr. 
 Wheeler, and second Capt. Bradford Steele. In 
 this line Mrs. Beard is a descendant of Sylvester 
 Baldwin, the pioneer, the line being traced as fol- 
 lows : Sylvenius, son of the pioneer ; Richard ; 
 Timothy; and Capt. Timothy Baldwin, father of 
 Sarah Baldwin Wheeler. 
 
 WEBSTER. This well known and numerous 
 family of New England traces its line of descent to 
 John Webster, fifth Colonial governor of Connecti- 
 cut, who landed in 'Massachusetts Sept. 4, 1635. 
 He and his wife Agnes left Warwickshire, England, 
 in the spring, and settled first in Cambridge, Mass. 
 During that year a company of one hundred persons 
 was organized to form a Colony on the banks' of the 
 Connecticut river, and in June, 1636, a well ordered 
 band set forth. Gentlemen of fortune and rank 
 and delicately bred ladies were there, and bravely 
 endured the hardships of that journey over moun- 
 tains, through swamps, across rivers, and drove 
 their flocks and herds before them. 
 
 In Benjamin Trumbull's "History of Connecti- 
 cut" we find the following: "For twenty years 
 Mr. John Webster had been annually chosen into 
 the magistracy of Connecticut, being elected Gov- 
 ernor in 1656. At the election in Hartford, May 
 17, 1655, Thomas Wells was elected Governor, and 
 John Webster Deputy Governor. At the election 
 in 1656 John Webster was elected Governor, and 
 Thomas Wells Deputy Governor. At the election 
 in 1657 John Winthrop was elected Governor, 
 Thomas Wells Deputy Governor, and John Webster 
 Chief Magistrate. Mr. Webster removed to Had- 
 lev, Mass., in 1659." During this entire period he 
 -was active in the administration of public affairs, 
 atid the records show him to have acted in nearly 
 every important movement. In 1639 .he was one 
 of a committee appointed to confer with a like com- 
 mittee from New Haven concerning the best way 
 to treat with the Indians regarding their murderous 
 attacks at Middletown. In 1640 he acted on another 
 committee, which in this day and generation seems 
 extremely curious if not futile, "to consult with the 
 elders of both plantations" to prepare instructions 
 for the punishment of lying, "which begins to be 
 practiced by many people in the commonwealth." 
 In 1645 we find him as one of a committee ap- 
 pointed by the General Court to arrange "all par- 
 ticulars and several charges of the late war and 
 for the support of Uncas" — the "late war" referring 
 to trouble with the Narragansett Indians, and a little 
 later, when Long Island was threatened by the 
 Dutch and Ninigrate, he was appointed with others 
 
 to secure a frigate of some ten guns' for the neces- 
 sary defense. In 1649 the New England Congress 
 employed him to levy on the towns for the neces- 
 sary men and ammunition for the Indian troubles. 
 Besides all these various duties it is found that he 
 surveyed highways, administered justice, looked 
 after the impost duties, and the exportation of pro- 
 visions in times of scarcity, and he assisted in draw- 
 ing up legal papers and petitions. During the time 
 he was a member of the New England Congress he 
 was one of the authorities on Indian troubles, both 
 as regards protection from them, and as regards the 
 Indians' conversion to Christianity and his educa- 
 tion at Cambridge. The fact that the papers and 
 correspondence on these topics were written in 
 Latin speaks well for the educational standing of 
 the men in the Colony. 
 
 During his administration as governor there 
 seems to have been a period of comparative quiet. 
 The term of office was .for but one year, and not 
 until 1660 could the same person be elected gov- 
 ernor more than once in two years. The dutie-s of 
 governor were varied, and for a long time no com- 
 pensation was received, but in 1647, owing to the 
 many expenses, the sum of thirty pounds was 
 granted. 
 
 For some time there had been an increasing dif- 
 ference on the subject of religion, the disputed 
 points being chiefly baptism, and various rules in 
 church government. Gov. Webster and many other 
 prominent members of the Colony advocated the 
 strictest construction of doctrines, denying baptism 
 to any but the children of members in full com- 
 munion. He was firm in his belief, and in the de- 
 bates that occurred he took an active part, and when 
 after all other waysi had been tried it was decided 
 to found a new Colony at Hadley, in Massachusetts, 
 he signed the agreement, dated April 18, 1659. 
 After locating at Hadley he seems to have had 
 much to do with the laying out of the town, but 
 shortly after became ill, and in 1661 passed to his 
 last rest. He had a family of four sons and three 
 daughters. -The eldest, Robert, ultimately located 
 in Hartford in the old homestead, with his wife 
 Susannah. Dr. Noah Webster, of New Haven, was 
 a lineal descendant of Gov. Webster, through 
 Robert. The children mentioned in Gov. Webster's 
 will are: Robert; Thomas, who married Abigail 
 Alexander, of Northampton, Mass., where he set- 
 tled, and where he died in 1686, leaving several 
 children; William, who, with Thomas, inherited the 
 estate at Hadley, married Mary Reeves in 1671, 
 and died in Hadley in 1687 or 1688; Matthew, who 
 settled in Farmington, and died there leaving a 
 son, John ; Anne, who married John Marsh, of Had- 
 ley; Elizabeth, who married William Markham, 
 of Hadley ; and Mary, who married a Mr. Hunt, by 
 whom she had a daughter, Mary, who married John 
 Ingersoll, of Westfield, and their descendants are 
 now the Ingersolls of Connecticut. 
 
 (II) Robert Webster, eldest son of Gov. John 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 987 
 
 Webster, married Susannah Treat, daughter of 
 Richard Treat, of Wethersfield, Conn. They made 
 their home in Middletown, Conn., and in 165 1 Rob- 
 ert Webster became the first recorder of the town. 
 In 1660 they removed to Hartford, where he died 
 in 1676, and his wife in 1705. Their children were: 
 John, born Nov. 10, 1653 ; Sarah, born June 30, 
 1655; Jonathan, born Jan. 9, 1657; Susannah, born 
 Oct. 25, 1659 ; Samuel, Joseph, William and Mary. 
 There is no record other than the names of the four 
 children last mentioned. 
 
 (III) Jonathan Webster, son of Robert, was 
 twice married. His first wife was Dorcas Hop- 
 kins, of Hartford, where he, too, made his home, 
 and by her he had five children : Jonathan, born 
 March 18, 1682; Susannah, born April 25, 1686; 
 Mary, born Sept. 29, 1688; Mehitable, born March 
 8, 1691 ; and Stephen, born Jan. 21, 1693. His sec- 
 ond wife was, in her maidenhood, Mary Judd, 
 daughter of Thomas Judd, of Farmington, Conn., 
 and she bore him but one child, Benjamin, born 
 Aug. 9, 1698. 
 
 (IV) Benjamin Webster, son of Jonathan, ap- 
 pears on the records as "Deacon Webster," and he 
 made his home in Litchfield, Conn., where he mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Peck, daughter of Deacon Paul Peck, 
 and died July 10, 1755. He was the father of 
 seven children: James, born June 2, 1734; Elijah, 
 born Dec. 28, 1732; Benjamin, born Dec. 8, 1736; 
 Stephen, born in Litchfield May 21, 1739; Elizabeth, 
 born Jan. 23, 1741 ; Charles, born March 9, 1743 I 
 and John, born April 3, i747- 
 
 (V) Stephen Webster, son of Benjamin, mar- 
 ried Hanor Kilbourn, daughter of James Kilbourn, 
 by whom he had three children: Sarah, born, Sept. 
 8, 1765; Truman, born Jan. 12, 1770; and Orange, 
 born Dec. 28, 1780. 
 
 (VI) Truman Webster, son of Stephen, was 
 born in Litchfield, and settled there, engaging in 
 farming. He married Diadema Sanford, daughter 
 of Stephen Sanford, of Northfie.ld, Conn., their 
 marriage taking place Oct. 8, 1795. In 1799 they 
 went to Northfield on a visit, and there their two 
 boys were taken ill and died, and were buried in 
 Northfield, whither Mr. Webster then removed, arid 
 where their other six children were born: David 
 Sanford, born May 30, 1800; Sophia, born May 
 10, 1802, married Titus Turner ; Lyman, born Nov. 
 7, 1805, married Elizabeth Smith; Abigal, born 
 July 10, 1808, married Tertius Turner ; Annie, born 
 April 12, 181 1, married Abner G. Fox; and Sally, 
 born April 11, 1814, married Aaron W. Fox. The 
 father of these children died Sept. 17, 1844, aged 
 seventy-four years, and the mother on Aug. 10, 
 1839, when over seventy. They were devout mem- 
 bers of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 (VII) David Sanford Webster, son of Truman, 
 was born in Litchfield, and followed farmmg until 
 within ten years of his death, which occurred m 
 Virginia in 1867. He married Clarissa Wattles, 
 daughter of Joseph and Lydia (Dean) Wattles, of 
 
 Bethlehem, Conn., the former a well-known bridge 
 builder of the town, who died aged eighty-two years. 
 Mrs. Lydia (Dean) Wattles, who was born in Ox- 
 ford, died at the age of seventy-seven. David 
 Webster and his wife settled in Bethlehem, where 
 two children were born that died in infancy. In 
 1837 Mr. Webster purchased a large farm in Pleas- 
 ant \'alley. Conn., and there lived until 1850, when 
 he removed to Waterbury. Both he and his wife 
 were members of the Presbyterian Church, and 
 took a keen interest in all that pertained to the wel- 
 fare of the town. Mrs. Clarissa (Wattles) Webster 
 was born in Hebron, Conn., May 11, 1800, and 
 died in Waterbury Jan. 15, 1873. Of their chil- 
 dren, four grew tO' maturity, as follows : ( i ) Hen- 
 rietta Louise, born June 11, 1830, was married, 
 Oct. 9, 1848, to Rev. Apollos Phelp Viets, and pre- 
 vious to locating in their present home in Water- 
 bury they lived in Canton and Milford, Conn., and 
 Hancock, Mass., respectively. They have had six 
 children, namely: Elsworth Phelp, born Nov. 12, 
 1850, was drowned at Ansonia, Conn., July 28, 
 1867; Wordsworth B., born Nov. 18, 1854; John 
 C, born Nov. 18, 1856; Mary Louise, born June 
 16, 1858, married William L. Horton, July 3, 1884; 
 Beulah Ruth, born June 11, 1861, died Sept. 22, 
 1861 ; and Henrietta C, born Nov. 28, 1863. (2) 
 Truman Monroe, born March 13, 1833, learned the 
 trade of a mason, and located at Waterbury, Conn. 
 In 1866 he wounded his foot by stepping on a nail, 
 and his death occurred from lockjaw Nov. 23, 1866. 
 His marriage to Miss Sarah White, of Durham, 
 Conn., had occurred Oct. 15, 1855, and at his death 
 he left three children, as follows: Eugene A., boi-n 
 July 16, 1856, now a druggist of Springfield, Mass.. 
 married Miss Nora Mead, of New Haven, Conn. ; 
 Arthur T., born Aug. 15, 1858, now a .druggist of 
 Waterbury, married Miss Addie Talmadge, of Mid- 
 dletown, N. Y., Sept. 2, 1880, and has one daugh- 
 ter ; Carrie B., born March 14, i860, married K. 
 Darwin Ketcham, Jan. 10, 1882, and has three chil- 
 dren. (3) Erwin Wattles, mention of whom will 
 be made below. (4) Albert William, born Jan. 21, 
 1838, learned the machinist trade, and worked at 
 this in Waterbury and New York, until his loca- 
 tion in Ansonia in 1864, when he began the manu- 
 facture of metal goods, which he continued for four 
 years, and then sold out to enter the dry goods 
 trade. In 1873 he disposed of his dry goods store, 
 and entered into partnership with Plummer & Gal- 
 pin, dealers in clothing, dry goods, boots, shoes, 
 etc., which continued for three years, when_ Mr. 
 Plummer withdrew, and the business was continued 
 under the name of Galpin & Webster for the next 
 decade, when it was sold to W. A. Fellows & Co. 
 Two years later Mr. Webster moved to New Ha- 
 ven, Conn., where he started the Elm City Shoe 
 Store, which he still continues. He has been twice 
 married, first on June 13, 1865, to EHza Marden- 
 brough Peck, daughter of Eleazer and Louise M. 
 Peck, of Ansonia, who died Aug. 10, 1882, leaving 
 
988 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 three children : Louise Mardenbrough, born March 
 5, 1866, married John Disoswa}-, of Staten Island, 
 and has one daughter; William Wattles and Susie 
 (twins), born March 16, 1869, the former of whom 
 died in Brooklyn, N. Y., April 10, 1896, and the 
 latter in infancy. For his second wife Mr. Webster 
 married on Nov. 14, 1887, Miss Jennie P. Hor- 
 ton, daughter of Joseph S. and Annie Eliza Horton, 
 of Port Ewen, N. Y., and thev haye two children : 
 Albert Raymond, born Sept. 29, 1889; and Annie 
 Clarissa, born Feb. 21, 1894. 
 
 (VIII) Erwin Wattles Webster^ son of 
 David Sanford AVebster, was born in Bethlehem, 
 Conn., April 9, 1836, and his common school course 
 was supplemented by one term at the select school 
 in Watertown, Conn. In 1853, when seventeen 
 years old, he left home to make his way in the 
 world, taking a place in the ticket office of the 
 Naugatuck Railway Company, at Waterbury, and 
 in 1857 he removed to Ansonia, to assume the duties 
 of his present position as general freight agent of 
 the Naugatuck division of the N. Y., N. H. & H. 
 R. R. He has charge of all the freight and pas- 
 senger traffic and of the telegraph office, the entire 
 working force being under his direction. When 
 he took charge he had but one man as assistant, but 
 at present the station has seven clerks, being the 
 second largest of the twenty-seven stations on the 
 line of sixty-five miles of railway, all manufactur- 
 ing towns. He has now been connected with this 
 company for forty-eight years, and, with the ex- 
 ception of the superintendent, has been in their serv- 
 ice longer than any other man. In 1863 he formed 
 a partnership with his brother, Albert W ., and for 
 four years they operated a factory at Ansonia, mak- 
 ing fancy metal goods. Politically Mr. Webster 
 has been a. Democrat all his life, but his breadth of 
 view and liberality of opinion have won him friends 
 in both parties. His public spirit has been shown 
 in many ways, notably in official life, to which he 
 has frequently been called by his fellow citizens. 
 He has served many years on the town committee 
 and as delegate to State and county conventions, 
 and as selectman and town agent of Derby and An- 
 sonia he gained the approval of the best element in 
 both parties. He was first elected in the old town 
 of Derby in 1877, and in the following year was 
 made town agent. This position he held seven 
 years, and when Ansonia was organized he became 
 the first town agent there. In 1893, when a candi- 
 date for the State Legislature, he had a handsome 
 majority, and his re-election in 1895 was a well- 
 deserved tribute to his faithfulness and efficienc)^ 
 as a member of that body. When nominated for 
 mayor of Ansonia, in 1895, he defeated one of the 
 strongest candidates in the Republican party, and 
 in 1896 he was again chosen for the position. He 
 has been actively interested in educational affairs, 
 and served as a member of the school board for a 
 number of years, part of the time as chairman. He 
 has also been burgess of the borough, register of 
 
 vital statistics, and grand juror, and has filled other 
 positions of a public nature, giving to the duties of 
 each the sound judgment arid executive ability 
 which have characterized his business career. So- 
 cially he is identified with George Washington 
 Lodge, No. 82, F & A. M. ; Mount Vernon Chap- 
 ter, R. A. M., and the Council, and his thirty years' 
 membership make him one of the oldest Masons in 
 the locality. He and his wife are members of the 
 Episcopal Church, of which for three years he was 
 junior warden. 
 
 ]\Ir. Webster has been twice married, first to 
 ]Miss Jane Miller, of Avon, Conn., who died Aug. 
 15, 1858. On Jan. i, 1861, he married Miss Sarah 
 Rogers, who was born in Millerton, N. Y., daugh- 
 ter of Orlandto and Thirza (Fuller) Rogers. One 
 child was born of this union — Alcine Virginia, who 
 married Frank G. Hotchkiss, April 25, 1887, and 
 died at the age of twentv-five, Nov. 7, 1889, leaving 
 one daughter, Alcine Webster, born Jan. 4, 1889, 
 who resides with her grandparents. Mrs. Webs- 
 ter's ancestors were early settlers on Long Island, 
 and her great-grandfather, Isaac Rogers, and his 
 wife, Annie Wilcox, removed from there to Fish- 
 kill-on-the-Hudson, and in 1773 to Millerton, then 
 called Northeast. Joel Rogers, son of Isaac Rogers, 
 was born at Fishkill-on-the-Hudson, and later made 
 his home, with his wife, Annie Hedger, on a farm 
 near "Boston Corners," where he died at the age 
 of eighty years, leaving a large family. His wife 
 died at the age of eighty-one. Orlando Rogers, 
 father of Mrs. Webster, was a son of Joel, and was 
 born and reared on the old homestead, following 
 farming in that vicinity for many years, and dying 
 at the age of sixty-one. Both he and his wife, 
 Thirza Fuller, were devout members of the Meth- 
 odist Church, in which faith she died at the age of 
 sixty-three. Thirza ( Fuller) Rogers was a daugh- 
 ter of Nathaniel Fuller, a farmer of North East, 
 and his wife, Dorcas, and his father, also Nathaniel 
 by name, was a soldier in the Revolutionary army. 
 Orlando Rogers and wife had eight children, of 
 whom two sons and three daughters are living: 
 Hilan, station agent at Torrington, and a promi- 
 nent man there ; Henry ; Harriet Ellen, who mar- 
 ried the late Nathaniel Lewis : Sarah, Mrs. Webs- 
 ter : :Mary, widow of Walter Gilbert. Mrs. Webs- 
 ter is a member of the Daughters of the American 
 Revolution, through her great-grandfather, Isaac 
 Rogers, mentioned above. 
 
 EDMUND GOODRICH, one of the active, 
 prominent and enterprising citizens of East Haven, 
 is now devoting his time and attention to dairy 
 farming and the wood business. He owns and ope- 
 rates a well-improved and valuable farm of 125 
 acres, and, being a man of keen discrimination, 
 sound judgment and good business ability, he is 
 meeting with most gratifying success in his under- 
 takings. 
 
 A native of New Haven county, Mr. Goodrich 
 
EDHUHD GOODRICH. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 989 
 
 was born' Aug. 7, 1828, on the old homestead in the 
 town of Branford, son of WilHam and Mary A. 
 (Whiting) Goodrich, and grandson of Bartholomew 
 Goodrich, a hfelong farmer, who died at the ripe 
 old age of eighty-six years. The father was born 
 on the same farm as our subject, and died at the 
 age of fifty-three. In his family were eight chil- 
 dren, namely: John, who died at the age of nine- 
 teen years; Edmund, our subject; Sarah, now the 
 widow of N. S. Hallenbeck; Jennette, widow of 
 George Baldwin ; Miles and Grace, both deceased ; 
 Horace, who lives on the old homestead in Bran- 
 ford ; and one who died in infancy. 
 
 The subject of this review remained on the home 
 farm in his native town until fifteen years of age, 
 and then went to New Haven, where he served a 
 five years' apprenticeship to the carriagemaker's 
 trade with David Wilcoxon, receiving $25 per year 
 and his board. He continued to work at his trade 
 until 1861, when he removed to Seymour and en- 
 gaged in farming for three years, after which he 
 again followed carriagemaking in New Haven for 
 two years. In 1865 he located upon the farm in 
 East Haven where he still makes his home, and to 
 its cultivation and improvement has since devoted 
 his energies with marked success. 
 
 On Oct. 6, 1852, Mr. Goodrich married Miss 
 Mary A. Chandler, who was born July 7, 1829, in 
 Elizabeth, N. J., and when a child was brought to 
 New Haven. She died Dec. 30, 1900. Edmund C, 
 the only child of this union, born May 18, 1857, is 
 engaged in farming with his father. He married 
 Miss Mary A. Hall, who was born in North Bran- 
 ford, daughter of Samuel L. and Anna (Leete) 
 Hall, the former of whom served as a private in the 
 Civil war, was wounded, and received an honorable 
 discharge. Six children have been born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Edmund C. Goodrich, viz. : Emma E., Dec. 
 21, 1880; Lymani H., March 15, 1884; Merton A., 
 Aug. 26, 1887; Grace C, April 10, 1892; Carrie M., 
 July 17, 1896; William E., May 23, 1898. 
 
 Politically our subject is identified with the Re- 
 publican party, and religiously he is a member of 
 the Congregational Church. As a public-spirited 
 citizen he has manifested a deep interest in the prog- 
 ress of his town and county, and has ever taken 
 his part in support of those measures calculated to 
 prove of public good. 
 
 JAMES McDERMOTT, a retired stone mason 
 and highly esteemed citizen of Union City, Com., 
 was born in County Kildare, Ireland, in 1827. His 
 father, John McDermott, was also a stone mason 
 by trade, and spent his entire life on the Emerald 
 Isle. He married Ellen Dunn, a native of Kings 
 County, Ireland, and to them were born eleven chil- 
 dren, all of whom lived and died in Ireland with 
 the exception of our subject. He grew to manhood 
 in his native land, was educated in the national 
 schools, and there learned the stone mason's trade. 
 
 Mr. McDermott was married in Ireland to Miss 
 
 Margaret Brennan, a sister of Andrew and P. J. 
 Brennan, of Naugatuck, Conn., and they became the 
 parents of the following children : James, who has 
 now retired from business and is living on the in- 
 come derived from his property ; William, a Catholic 
 priest now located at Danville, Ohio ; John, a farm- 
 er of Naugatuck ; Andrew, a grocer of Union City, 
 Conn. ; Mary A., wife of Joseph Le Roy, of Nauga- 
 tuck ; Patrick, foreman for E. E. Stevens, a lum- 
 ber dealer of Naugatuck; Julia, wife of James 
 Hagerty, of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Margaret, wife of 
 Joseph Doran, of Naugatuck ; and Thomas and 
 Nellie, who died in infancy. 
 
 In 1871 Mr. McDermott, with his family, emi- 
 grated to America, and took up his residence in 
 Naugatuck, New Haven Co., Conn., where lie 
 worked at his trade for many years, but is now 
 living a retired life in Union City, enjoying a Well- 
 earned rest. He is a faithful member of St. Francis 
 Catholic Church, and is a Democrat in politics. 
 
 GEORGE FRANKLIN TYLER, a prominent 
 and influential citizen of Cheshire, was born in the 
 town of Prospect, Nov. 23, 1833, a son of Spencer 
 and Sally ( Ferrell) Tyler, also natives of Prospect, 
 where they spent their entire lives. The father, 
 who was a son of Ichabod and Elizabeth (Stearns) 
 Tyler, natives of Cheshire,' died in 1856, the mother 
 in 1857. Our subject is the fourth in order of 
 birth in a family of six children, the others being 
 as follows : Mary, who first wedded Stephen Beech- 
 er, and second a Mr. Day, and died in Forestville, 
 Conn. ; Luke, a merchant of Short Beach ; Charlotte, 
 wife of Henry Mix, of Bristol ; Sarah, who mar- 
 ried Henry Russell, and died in Wallingford in 
 1894; and Fannie, wife of \\'illiam Berkley, of 
 Waterbury, Connecticut. 
 
 The early life of George F Tyler was passed 
 in his native town, where he attended school and 
 learned the matchmaker's trade, which he followed 
 for some time. Later he worked at brazing in a 
 hoe and fork factory before and after' the Civil war. 
 During that conflict he laid aside all personal in- 
 terests and offered his services to the government, 
 enlisting at Prospect, in July, 1862, in Company A, 
 20th Conn. V. I., for three years. The regiment 
 was mustered in at New Haven and assigned to the 
 Army of the Potomac. While stationed at Arling- 
 ton Heights, Mr. Tyler was taken ill and was hon- 
 orably discharged Dec. 4, 1862. He continued to 
 make his home in Prospect until 1893, when he 
 removed to Cheshire, where he now lives. 
 
 In his native town Mr. Tyler was married, in 
 1853, to Miss Emily A. Mix, who was born m 
 Wallingford, a daughter of Elias and Maria (Judd) 
 Mix, also natives of New Haven county. The fa- 
 ther was a spoonmaker at Wallingford, and from 
 there moved to Wolcott, thence to Cheshire; he 
 died in Prospect April 11, 1861, aged fifty-six 
 years, and his wife died in the same town July 28, 
 1894, at the age of eighty-three years. To our 
 
990 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 subject and his wife was born one daughter, Emma 
 G., who married Edgar B. Jeralds, and' died in 
 Prospect in Februar}', 1876. 
 
 Mr. Tyler was for two vears commander of 
 Edward A. Doolittle Post, No. 5, G. A. R., of 
 Cheshire, andi is an active and prominent member 
 of the Congregational Church, of which he is one 
 of the deacons. His political support is always 
 given to the men and measures of the Republican 
 party, and he has been honored by his fellow citi- 
 zens with several important official positions. He 
 was a member of the State Legislature from Pros- 
 pect in 1870 and in 1882 ; was doorkeeper of the 
 House in 1887, 1889 and 1894; and doorkeeper of 
 the Senate in 1897. He also served as selectman, 
 justice of the peace, and in various other local 
 offices in Prospect, and since coming to Cheshire 
 was elected justice of the peace, but resigned. His 
 public and private life are alike above reproach, 
 and wherever known he is held in high regard. 
 
 FRANK HARVEY THOMAS, a representa- 
 tive and prominent citizen of Woodbridge, traces 
 his ancestry back to more than one honored old 
 family of that town. On the paternal side his great- 
 great-grandfather was Amos Thomas, and the 
 great-grandfather, John Thomas. The grandfather, 
 who also bore the name of Amos Thomas, was prob- 
 ably a native of Woodbridge, where he grew to 
 manhood and married Lucretia Baldwin, a native 
 of that town and a granddaughter of Thomas Bald- 
 win, who was born there. Her great-grandfather, 
 Barnabus Baldwin, the first of the family in this 
 locality of whom we have any definite knowledge, 
 was a farmer of Woodbridge and Milford, and was 
 probably born in the latter place. Our subject's 
 grandfather, Amos Thomas, was a carriagemaker 
 by trade, and engaged in that business in New Ha- 
 ven, where he also conducted a grocery store for a 
 time. He owned property on Whalley avenue. A 
 man of fine physical appearance, he was commis- 
 sioned general in the State Militia, was captain of 
 the police force of New Haven, a member of the 
 fire department of that city, and foreman of No. 2 
 for a time. In politics he was a stanch Democrat. 
 
 John Thomas, the father of our subject, was 
 born in Woodbridge in 1819, and was educated in 
 the schools of that town. He lived in New Haven, 
 Conn., and Newark, N. J., in both of which cities 
 he engaged in carriage building — a trade he had 
 learned from his father — and for many years was a 
 resident of Derby, where he engaged in the gro- 
 cery business. His political support was also given 
 the Democratic party. In Oxford he married Miss 
 Eunice Johnson, a daughter of Harvey and Nancy 
 (Riggs) Johnson. She was born Sept. 28, 1822, 
 and died April 27, 1897, while he died Jan. 8, 
 1865. Their children were Charles (i), Charles 
 (2), John, Adelia and Lottie, all deceased; Frank 
 Harvey, our subject; and Charles, a piano tuner 
 of Derljv, Connecticut. 
 
 Frank H. Thomas was born in New Haven Sept. 
 17, 1844, and was five years of age at the time 
 of the removal of the family to Derby, where he at- 
 tended school. At the age of eighteen he began 
 life for himself as a mechanic in the Colt rifle shops 
 at Hartford, Conn., and also clerked in his father's 
 store. For three years he was engaged in the livery 
 business in Derby, and embarked in the manu- 
 facture of corsets there, but later the plant was 
 moved to New Haven, where business was carried 
 on under the firm name of I. Newman & Co., and 
 where employment was furnished 400 hands. Mr. 
 Thomas owned a third interest in this business, but 
 owing to poor health sold out at the end of eight 
 years. In March, 1880, he returned to Woodbridge, 
 where he purchased a farm of fifty acres, and has 
 since successfully engaged in farming, making a 
 specialty of vegetables and fruits. 
 
 At Derby, Dec. 25, 1866, Mr. Thomas was mar- 
 ried by Rev. Stephen L. Mershon to Miss Jane 
 Miller,' a daughter of Samuel and Barbara (Smith) 
 Miller and granddaughter of Samuel Miller. The 
 father was born, reared and married in England, 
 where he worked at carriage painting for some 
 years, and then emigrated to America, locating in 
 New Haven, Conn., where he died at a compar- 
 atively early age. After his death the family moved 
 to Derby, where the mother died at the age of 
 seventv-five years. She, too. was born in England, 
 and was a daughter of Arthur Smith. Henry Grat- 
 ton, a relative of the Smith family, and a man of 
 some literary note, is buried in Westminster. Mrs. 
 Thomas was born Feb. 13, 1848, and is one of a 
 large family of children, the others being as fol- 
 lows : David, deceased, who was in the carriage 
 business in New Haven ; Eleanor, wife of George 
 Smith, of Shelton, Conn., upon whose land the 
 home for working girls now stands ; Elizabeth, de- 
 ceased wife of James Buckley, of Derby ; Arthur, 
 an officer of the British army in active service, who 
 first enlisted as one of the Queen's Own Guard, 
 and when last heard from was about to embark for 
 India ; Mary, wife of William Tyther, of Shelton, 
 Conn. ; Samuel, also a resident of Shelton, who 
 was a soldier in the Union arm}'' during the war of 
 the Rebellion, and was severely wounded and taken 
 prisoner while in the service ; Martha, deceased ; 
 Martha (2), deceased: Jane and Sarah, twins, the 
 former the wife of our subject, the latter de- 
 ceased ; and Richard, deceased. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have five children: 
 Martha Eva, born June 14, 1868, is a milliner of 
 New Haven. John Amos, bom Jan. 30, 1870, mar- 
 ried Lillian Truella, of Derby, by whom he has one 
 daughter ; he is a carpenter of Shelton. Dwight 
 Samuel, born Sept. 6, 1871. is a mason of Hart- 
 ford. Arthur Frank, born March 21, 1876, married 
 Carrie Flills, and has one child, Franklin Arthur; 
 he is a machinist of Shelton, Conn. Lillian Bar- 
 bara, born Jan. 4, 1885, is at home. Both our sub- 
 ject and his wife are consistent members of the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 991 
 
 Congregational Church, and while in business j\Ii'. 
 Thomas also affiliated with the Knights of Pythias. 
 He is a stanch Republican, but has never been an 
 office seeker. He is a man of recognized ability, 
 and, with his estimable wife, stands high in the com- 
 munity where they make their home. Those who 
 know them best are numbered among their warmest 
 friends. 
 
 WILLIAM SMITH, a highly esteemed citizen 
 of East Haven, who for many years has been identi- 
 iied with its agricultural interests, was born in that 
 town on the farm where John Thompson now lives, 
 Dec. 28, 1822. It was also the birthplace of his 
 grandfather, Samuel Smith, a son of Daniel Smith. 
 Our subject's father, Asahel Smith, was born there 
 Dec. ID, 1787. He married Eunice Miner, and to 
 them were born eight children, namely: Mary, 
 Lester, Henry, William, Harriett, Lucius, Harvey 
 and Elizabeth. He died at the advanced age of 
 ninety-one years, and his wife at the age of sev- 
 enty-six. He was a soldier of the war of 1812, and 
 his father was a member of the Continental army 
 in the Revolutionary war. 
 
 William Smith remained upon the old home- 
 stead, aiding his father in its operation until the 
 spring of 1849, when a company of seventy-five men 
 purchased the bark, "J. Walls," and made prepara- 
 tions to go to the gold fields of California. They 
 sailed from New Haven on June 4, rounded Cape 
 Horn, and after a voyage of seven months and five 
 days landed in San Francisco. Mr. Smith went to 
 Sutters Mills and was engaged in prospecting and 
 mining on the south fork of the American river for 
 some time, starting back east in November, 1850. 
 On his return to East Haven he resided on the old 
 homestead until his marriage. 
 
 On April 25, 1852, Mr. Smith married Miss 
 Sarah J. Thompson, who was born June 19, 1827, 
 a daughter of John and Julia A. (Foote) Thomp- 
 son, the latter born Dec. 19, 1802. Her father was 
 born Aug. 12, 1802, and was a son of John Thomp- 
 son, Sr., a soldier of the Revolutionary war. The 
 latter was a son of Timothy Thompson, a resident 
 of the town of East Haven, where many of his 
 descendants still make their home. JNIrs. Smith is 
 the third in order of birth in a family of six chil- 
 dren, the others being Elizabeth A., John H., Will- 
 iam S., Jerah F. and Isaac B. Jerah F. Thomp- 
 son was a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, en- 
 listing first at Trenton, N. J., in August, 1862, for 
 nine months, in Company B, 21st Regiment, and 
 second in 1863 ; he served until the close of the war, 
 and died in 1885, aged forty-eight years. Isaac 
 B. Thompson enlisted in Company B, 15th Conn. 
 ■\^ I., in August, 1862, and was killed by a shell 
 in front of Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 12, 1862, aged 
 twenty^one years. 
 
 After his marriage Mr. Smith purchased the old 
 Samuel Chidsey farm in the Foxon District of 
 East Haven, where he lived for a year and a half. 
 
 and then went to New Jersey, locating near Jersey 
 City, where he made his home for four years. Re- 
 turning to East Haven at the end of that time, he 
 bought the place now occupied by Edward Eld, 
 and after living there two years purchased the farm 
 on which he now resides. Here he has since en- 
 gaged in farming with fair success. He is a 
 stanch supporter of the Republican party, and takes 
 a deep and commendable interest in public affairs. 
 He never withholds his support from any enter- 
 prise which he believes calculated to advance the 
 welfare of his town and county, and justly merits 
 the high regard in which he is held. His estimable 
 wife is a member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 AMOS HENRY ALLING (deceased) was for 
 forty years one of Derby's most influential and hon- 
 ored citizens. He was descended from Roger 
 Ailing, one of a party who emigrated from Eng- 
 land in 1636, and who, after passing a winter m 
 Boston, settled at New Haven in the spring of 
 1637, making the journey from Boston by vessel, 
 the voyage occupying three weeks. Roger Ailing 
 married Mary, a daughter of Thomas Nash, of 
 New Haven, and became the father of seven chil- 
 dren : Mary, Samuel, John, Sarah, Eliza, Susan 
 and James. 
 
 Samuel Ailing, eldest son of Roger, was one of 
 the proprietors of the Colony in 1685. He died in 
 1707. He was twice married, and was the father 
 of eight sons and three daughters, of which large 
 family ten were living in 1709. His first wife was 
 Eliza, daughter of John Winston, who bore him 
 seven sons : Samuel, John, James, Roger, Roger 
 (2), Theophilus and Daniel. His second marriage 
 was to Sarah Chedsey, and the children of this 
 union were Caleb, Sarah, Elizabeth and Esther. The 
 line of descent to the late Amos H. Ailing comes 
 through Dan,iel Ailing, the seventh son of Samuel, 
 who became the father of Timothy, Silas and 
 Daniel (2). Silas Ailing, the great-grandfather of 
 Amos H. Ailing, married Dorcas Baldwin, of 
 Woodbridge. Their children were Amos, Edward, 
 Silas, Lewis, Asa, Anna and Rebecca. Amos Ail- 
 ing, the first born, married ]\Iillie Beecher, bv 
 whom he was the father of six children : Rebecca, 
 Charles W., Asa, Sheldon, Bela and Alfred. 
 
 Charles Wyllis Ailing, son of Amos, and father 
 of Amos H., married Lucy Booth, of W'oodbridge. 
 They were the parents of seven children : The 
 eldest, Mary, who is yet living, married Reilly 
 Davis, of Oxford, Conn. Amos H., the subject 
 of the present memoir, was the second child and 
 eldest son. Charles B., a sketch of whose life ap- 
 pears elsewhere, is a successful and wealthy woolen 
 manufacturer of Derby. Sheldon, the fourth in or- 
 der of birth, died in infancy. Lucy married Nathan 
 Treat, of New Haven county. Leonidas, whose 
 biography may be found elsewhere, was the sixth 
 child. John W., the seventh, is an attorney at law 
 in New Haven. Charles W. Ailing, the father of 
 
992 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 this large family, for many years conducted the 
 ■business of carding wool and weaving cloth, his 
 principal trade being with the farmers of the neigh- 
 borhood. His home and factory were in Orange, 
 where he died April 6, 1868. His widow survived 
 until Dec. 9, 1890. Long before his death Mv. 
 Ailing leased his factory to his sons, Amos H. and 
 Charles B., under whose skillful management the 
 business developed until they took up the manu- 
 facturing of hosiery and underwear, the plant being 
 removed to Derby in 1858. A more detailed de- 
 scription of the growth of this enterprise may be 
 found in the biographical sketch of Charles B. 
 Ailing. 
 
 Amos H. Ailing was born in Orange Jan. 3, 
 1823. In his boyhood and youth he worked in his 
 father's mill, and in 1845 formed a co-partnership 
 with his brother, Charles B., to lease and operate 
 the same as has been already said. The business 
 connection between the brothers continued until the 
 death of Amos H., which occurred Feb. 6, 1898. In 
 1847 j\Ir. .Ailing married Sarah E. Prudden, of 
 Orange, a direct descendant of Rev. Peter Prudden, 
 the first minister and founder of the church in Mil- 
 ford. They had three daughters, two of whom, 
 Louisa Maria and Carolyn Elizabeth, survive. 
 Mary died in 1862. In 1874 Louisa M. married 
 Dr. George Lucius Beardsley, of Milford, and they 
 have two children, Ailing Prudden and Elizabeth 
 Coley. In 1882 Mr. Ailing married, for his second 
 wife, Mrs. Harriet E. Griffin, who survives him. 
 
 Mr. Ailing was not only a successful man of 
 business, but also a public-spirited citizen, one 
 whose manly character, liberality and upright life 
 gained for him the esteem of the entire community. 
 He was one of the original proprietors and incor- 
 porators of the Housatonic Water Co. in 1866, and 
 one of the board of directors of same until his 
 death. Fraternally he was a member of the I. O. 
 O. F. In politics he was a stanch Republican, and 
 the temperance cause found in him a true supporter. 
 Early in life he joined the Methodist Church, of 
 which he was always a strong pillar. His religion 
 was more than a form — it was active Christianity, 
 governing his daily life, and entering into every 
 dealing with his fellows. His benefactions, though 
 liberal, were unostentatious. He will long be re- 
 membered as a man of Christian vigor, and one 
 always active in causes to advance the kingdom 
 of his Master on the earth, and to help lift the world 
 to a higher plane. 
 
 WILLIAM W. HUGHES has in his career 
 illustrated most forcibly the possibilities that are 
 open to the young man who possesses sterling busi- 
 ness qualifications. It proves that neither wealth 
 nor social position, nor the assistance of influential 
 friends at the outset of his career, are necessary to 
 place him on the road to success. It also proves 
 that ambition, perseverance, steadfast purpose and 
 indefatigable industry, combined with sound busi- 
 
 ness principles, will be rewarded, and that true suc- 
 cess follows individual effort only. 
 
 ;\lr. Hughes, who is now engaged in farming in- 
 Oxford, was born in Southbury, New Haven county, 
 Dec. 22, 1823, son of Reuben Hughes, also a native 
 of Southbury, and a soldier of the war of 1812. 
 The paternal grandfather, William Hughes, was- 
 born in Wales, and as a soldier of the Revolutionary 
 war aided the colonies in gaining their independence. 
 He was with Washington's army during the dread- 
 ful winter at Valley Forge. 
 
 Our subject is a self-educated as well as a self- 
 made man. He was only twelve years of age when 
 his father died, and he at once began work on a farm 
 in his native town for his board and clothes. At 
 the age of nineteen he went to New Haven, where 
 he learned house painting, which he followed for 
 twenty years, several years of this time being spent 
 in Naugatuck, the remainder in New Haven. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1862, Mr. Hughes enlisted, at Nauga- 
 tuck, becoming a private in Company F, 59th N. Y. 
 V I., and was detailed as a musician, having pre- 
 viously been a member of the 2d Regiment State 
 Band for several years. During most of his service- 
 he was in and around Washington, D. C, and was 
 discharged May 27, 1862. Returning to Naugatuck,. 
 he followed painting for two years, and then went 
 to New Haven with the firm of W. & E. T. Fitch,- 
 a wholesale hardware firm, with whom he had a 
 contract for the manufacture of harness hooks- 
 which he had patented. He received a royalty and 
 interest in the business, and continued his connec- 
 tion with the firm for fifteen years. Giving up his- 
 contract in 1877, he came to Oxford, where he has 
 since lived. He purchased property and turned his 
 attention to fruit growing, and now has upon his- 
 place 300 plum trees, including six Japanese varie- 
 ties, several hundred pear trees and currant bushes,, 
 besides other small fruits of all kinds, all in a good 
 healthy condition. His place, which is known as the 
 Oxford Valley Fruit Farm, is one of the most de- 
 sirable in the town. 
 
 Mr. Hughes has been twice married. His first 
 wife, who died in 1871, was Miss Martha Nettle- 
 ton, of Prospect, Conn., by whom he had three chil- 
 dren : Kate and Agnes, both deceased; and Harry 
 N., proprietor of a shoe store in New Haven. Mr. 
 Hughes' second wife was Miss Emily McEwen, of 
 Oxford, Connecticut. 
 
 Progressive and public spirited, Mr. Hughes 
 takes a deep interest in everything calculated to 
 advance the moral, intellectual and material welfare 
 of his town and county, and his home has become 
 headquarters for literary, musical and other enter- 
 tainments in Oxford. He was instrumental in 01- 
 ganizing the Oxford Town Library, and volunteered 
 his services as librarian free of charge. This library 
 has been in his house ever since it was organized, 
 and now contains nearly 900 volumes. Socially 
 Mr, Hughes is a member of Delphi Lodge, F. & 
 A. M., of New Haven; and Upson Post, No. 40, 
 
<^^^^iW ^^y/-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 99 3- 
 
 G. A. R., of Seymour ; and politically he is a stanch 
 supporter of the Republican party. He has been 
 called upon to serve in several local offices of honor 
 and trust, having been tax collector one year ; grand 
 juror and trial justice for several years each; and 
 first selectman of Oxford. He is widely and fa- 
 vorably known throughout the county, and merits 
 the high regard in which he is uniformly held. 
 
 JOSEPH F. GILPIN, whose widow now re- 
 sides in her pleasant and attractive home at No. 114 
 South Cliff street, Ansonia, was a native of Man- 
 chester, England, born July 18, 1837, a son of 
 James Gilpin, a native of Fairfield, England. James 
 Gilpin was a carpenter, and followed that trade 
 up to the time of his death, at the age of fifty-five 
 years. He married Sarah Hitchen, who was born 
 in Norwich, England, and they became the par- 
 ents of thirteen children, three of whom are still 
 living: (i) Hannah, Mrs. Sacheler, in New Zea- 
 land. (2) Luzetta, widow of Alfred J. Swick, liv- 
 ing in Ansonia. (3) John E., who lives in Hart- 
 ford. Alice, Mrs. Fielding, who resided in Lock 
 street, Ansonia, died Feb. 10, 1900. Joseph F. was 
 the second child and eldest son. The mother 
 reached the age of eighty-two years. Both parents 
 were members of the Moravian Church, in which 
 they were faithful workers. 
 
 Joseph F. Gilpin learned the machinist's trade 
 when a young man, and followed it until he came 
 to the United States. In 1864 and 1865 he worked 
 in New York, and then coming to Ansonia worked 
 with the Ansonia Brass & Copper Co. as a ma- 
 chinist. He was faithful and industrious, possessed 
 of unusual executive force, and soon became fore- 
 man of a room. He continued to advance, and 
 presently became master mechainic and general su- 
 perintendent of the water and steam power work 
 of the four mills. Mr. Gilpin designed and built 
 the beautiful copper mill, one of the largest of all 
 the structures, and greatly admired by all who see 
 it. The works have continually increased in size, 
 and Mr. Gilpin directed the labor of one hundred 
 men. He was highly respected by all who knew 
 him, commanding the confidence of his employers 
 and the good will and friendship of those whose 
 work he directed. For twenty-five years he was 
 with the A. B. C. Company, and was one of the 
 oldest men in the shops of the city; all the latest 
 designing in machinery, and all the new and novel 
 designs of custom work were done by him, as he 
 was confessedly the best mechanic in the shop. He 
 died Jan. 11, 1892, at the age of fifty-four. 
 
 Mr. Gilpin was married in 1858 to Sarah Simp- 
 son, who was born in Oldham, England, one of the 
 six children of Samuel and Anna (Blackburn) 
 Simpson, and a granddaughter of James Simpson, 
 the latter a wholesale butcher in England, who 
 lived to be ninety-nine years old. Samuel Simpson 
 was a grocer, and died at Manchester, England, at 
 the early age of thirty-eight years. He married 
 
 63 
 
 Anna Blackburn, who was born in Oldham, Eng- 
 land, one of the fourteen children of Anna Tarren, 
 a native of Yorkshire. Of the six children born of 
 this marriage, there are yet living Mrs. Gilpin, who 
 is the oldest in the family; Ann Ogden, of Eng- 
 land; John, in Oldham, England; and Samuel, in 
 Southport, England. Mrs. .Anna (Blackburij). 
 Simpson died at the age of forty-four. Both she 
 and her husband were members of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 To Joseph F. and Sarah Gilpin were born six 
 children, of whom three are living-: (i) Charles- 
 J., a master mechanic in the A. B. C. Co., who mar- 
 ried Carrie Colling, and has three children, Fred- 
 erick J., Bertha and Charles J. (2) Emma L.. 
 married William Roberts, a tube drawer in the 
 Bridgeport Brass Co., and has two children, Clara 
 Louisa and Emma E. (3) Sarah married Edward 
 Harteniz, a cigarmaker in Ansonia, and is the 
 mother of two children, Lillian G. and Flora Louisa. 
 (4) Frederick had learned the trade of wire-draw- 
 ing, and was twenty-two years old at the time of 
 his death. (5) Clara died when seven years old. 
 (6) One died in infancy. 
 
 Mr. Gilpin was a jNIason, and held different po- 
 sitions in the local lodge ; was a working member 
 of the I. O. O. F., where he had passed the vari- 
 ous chairs ; and he also belonged to the Knights 
 of Pythias, in which he had filled several important 
 positions. In politics he was a Republican, and 
 was deeply interested in public affairs. He bought 
 the pretty home in which his widow is now living, 
 and found keen delight in its care and improvement. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Gilpin were both members of the- 
 Episcopal Church. They were highly respected and. 
 popular in the social circles in which they moved., 
 She is still a great reader, and is an intelligent 
 and thoug'htful lady, thoroughly familiar with her 
 fine library. 
 
 GEORGE COOK, an honored and venerable 
 resident of Yalesville, and one of the older settlers 
 of the town of Wallingford, was born in Plymouth 
 Hollow, Litchfield Co., Conn., Oct. 10, 1823, a son 
 of Sylvester Cook, who was a native of Litchfield 
 county, where his boyhood and youth were spent. 
 
 On reaching adult years Sylvester Cook became 
 a farmer in Plymouth Hollow, where he remained 
 until 1824, when he removed to Middlesex coun- 
 ty, and located in Middletown. There he continued 
 farming, and lived until his death in 1874, at the 
 ripe age of eighty-five years. His remains rest in 
 Westfield cemetery. He was a Democrat in poli- 
 tics, but had little love for the intricacies of party 
 machinery. In religion he was a Universalist, and 
 lived a clean and upright life. Mr. Cook was mar- 
 ried to Miss Marietta Hall, who was born in 
 Meriden, a daughter of David Hall, and died in 
 New Haven at the age of seventy-eight. Her re- 
 mains were buried in the New Haven cemetery. 
 To this union was born a family of eight children: 
 
994 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Elvah, who died young; Marvin; George; Lucy; 
 Ruth, who married George Higly ; Sarah, who mar- 
 ried C. Finkam, of New Haven ; Sylvester, a sol- 
 dier in the Civil war; Josephine, who became Mrs. 
 Lincoln. All these are dead except Sarah and the 
 gentleman whose career forms the subject of this 
 article. 
 
 George Cook was an infant when his parents 
 came to Middletown, and there he grew to man- 
 hood under the parental roof. A common-school 
 education was afforded him, and his was the life of 
 the farmer lads of his day. From a very early age 
 he worked at farm labor, and while still a young 
 man spent some seven years in the employ of 
 Comfort Hall, a farmer. For two years he worked 
 for William J. Ives, and then bought a small farm 
 in Prospect, which he afterward sold, and waS' then 
 for five years on a farm which he had' bought in 
 Westfield, Middlesex county. Selling this at the 
 expiration of that period, he came to Yalesville and 
 entered) the box shop of the Charles Parker Manu- 
 facturing Co., where he spent the ensuing forty 
 years of his life, the greater part of this time be- 
 ing assistant foreman and foreman of his depart- 
 inent. In 1898 he gave up active work and is now 
 living a retired life. To-day he is one of the best 
 known and most universally respected men of the 
 community. His long years of honorable labor, 
 his high character and his genial disposition com- 
 mand the confidence and retain the respect of the 
 people with whom he has lived a full generation of 
 years. 
 
 George Cook was married in 1846, in Westfield, 
 to Miss Cornelia P. Anthony, a daughter of Ab- 
 salom Anthony, and to this union have come eight 
 children: (i) George, a resident of Wallingford; 
 (2) Maryette, who married Charles Schrader; (3) 
 Lorenzo, a dry goods merchant in Wallingford ; 
 (4) Charles, foreman of the Hallenbeck shop at 
 Wallingford; (5) Frank, who lives in Indiana ; (6) 
 Lillie, who married Samuel Barnes, of Southing- 
 ton; (7) Cora, who married Charles Doolittle; (8) 
 William C, who is a bookkeeper for the Inter- 
 national Silver Co., of Meriden, and who married 
 Nellie L. Tyler, of Wallingford. Mrs. Cook died 
 in 1887, and was buried in Wallingford. She was 
 a good woman, a faithful member of the Methodist 
 Church, and had many warm and devoted friends. 
 Mr. Cook was selectman of the town for two years, 
 constable for ten years, justice of the peace for 
 many years, and served' as postmaster during Cleve- 
 land's first administration. A member of the 
 Board of Relief, and the Board of Education, he 
 has rendered his community lasting services. He Is 
 a Democrat in politics, and was once nominated 
 by his party for representative in the State Legis- 
 lature, but failed to be elected. One of the organ- 
 izers of the Methodist Church in Yalesville, his 
 name is as.sociated with the history of its growth 
 and progress ; he was one of its first trustees and 
 steward, and is still continued in the last named 
 
 position, chairman of the official board, class leader 
 and assistant superintendent of the Sunday-school. 
 From the time of his union with the church he has 
 been zealous in its behalf. Mr. Cook has many 
 friends, who admire not only his upright character, 
 his long and useful life, but also his warm and sym- 
 pathetic heart. 
 
 FITCH SMITH (deceased), through years of 
 his identification with Derby, enjoyed the highest 
 respect of his fellow townsmen by reason of his 
 strict integrity, true manhood and progressive spirit. 
 He was a gentleman of refinement and culture, a 
 sincere, honest man, true to his word, his friends 
 and his convictions. His devotion to the public 
 welfare made him a valued factor in public life, 
 and by his death the community was deprived of 
 one of her best citizens. 
 
 Mr. Smith was born in Derby Jan. 28, 1806, a 
 son of Abijah Smith, who came here from Norwalk, 
 Conn., where he was born. For some time he was 
 engaged in the coal business in Pennsylvania, and 
 is believed to have been the first in the United 
 States to mine coal. He married Eunice Chatfield, 
 a native of Derby, daughter of Ebenezer Chatfield, 
 and sister of Caleb Chatfield, who was killed in 
 the battle of Brandvwine, in 1777, during the Rev- 
 olutionary war. After their marriage they located 
 in Derby. Thirteen children blessed their union. 
 
 Fitch Smith was twelfth in the order of birth 
 in the family. When a young man he went to 
 Newark, N. J., where he married Miss Jane H. 
 Bouton, who was born in Salem, N. Y., a daughter 
 of John M. Bouton, of French ancestry. To this 
 union were born five children, Wilhelmina, Fitch 
 W., Wilson H., Estelle and Helen. Fitch W. is a 
 resident of New York; Wilson H. is deceased; and 
 the daughters reside in Derby in the old home left 
 them by their parents. 
 
 While a resident of Newark, Mr. Smith was a 
 member of the firm of Smith & Wright, extensive 
 leather manufacturers, doing business in the South, 
 and he spent his winters mostly in Charleston, S. 
 C. After several years devoted to the leather busi- 
 ness he retired in April, 1843, and returned to 
 Derby — Birmingham (now Derbv) being his place 
 of residence — where he was extensively interested 
 in real estate, owning the greater portion of the 
 small village, then in its earliest days. He was 
 president of the Naugatuck Transportation Co. dur- 
 ing its existence, a large owner in steamboats, was 
 possessor of many sloops, and did an extensive car- 
 rying business. He was also a stockholder in many 
 other enterprises, but shortly after the close of the 
 Civil war he retired from active business life, giving 
 his attention principally to his real estate interests. 
 He opened up streets in Derby, named them, and 
 made many other improvements in the property, 
 which is now covered with beautiful homes. Mr. 
 Smith was a man of high intelligence and a typical 
 gentleman of the old school. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 995 
 
 Mr. Smith died Jan. lo, 1894, his wife passing 
 away on the 1st of the same month. They were 
 active members of the Episcopal Church, and he 
 crave the land on which the rectory and other build- 
 ings of the church have been erected. He was first 
 a Whig and later a Republican, but took no active 
 part in political affairs. He was very generous, 
 extremely public-spirited, and took an active part in 
 everything pertaining to the upbuilding of Derby, 
 especially during its infancy, being a liberal con- 
 tributor to the enterprises which insured its prog- 
 ress. It is to such men that the community owes 
 its prosperity and advancement, and to them it 
 owes a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid. 
 
 MRS. ALMIRA E. TURNER, of Woodbridge, 
 is a worthy representative of an old and highly 
 esteemed family of New Haven county, which was 
 founded here by Richard Sperry, who came from 
 England about 1660. Her paternal grandfather, 
 Ebenezer Sperry, was a native of Woodbridge, born 
 July 27, 1773, on what is known as the Sperry 
 farm, and is still owned by the Sperry family. The 
 house standing thereon was built when he was a 
 child of five years. He wedded Mary Newton 
 Booth, also a native of Woodbridge and a daughter 
 of Walter and Mary (Newton) Booth. He died 
 Oct. 26, 1850, and she departed this life Feb. 2, 
 1865, at the age of eighty-two years. They had 
 two children, of whom Calvin, the father of our 
 subject, was the youngest. Eunice married Edward 
 Hine, of Woodbridge, and to them were born three 
 children : Catherine Mary, who married the late 
 Riley Peck, of Woodbridge, asnd died Nov. 5, 1901, 
 aged seventy-four years ; Sarah Antoinette, widow 
 of Birdsey Bradley, of Hamden ; and Velina, wife 
 of Lewis Hitchcock, of Woodbridge. 
 
 Calvin Sperry was born on the old homestead 
 Dec. II, 1807, and there spent his entire life engaged 
 in agricultural pursuits. In addition to general 
 farming, he was also engaged in the milk business 
 for a time, and in his undertakings met with fair 
 success. He was a stanch supporter of the Re- 
 publican party and its principles, and was a com- 
 sistent member of the Congregational Church of 
 Woodbridge. After an honorable and useful career 
 he died May 28, 1871, in his sixty-fourth year. 
 
 Mr. Sperry was married three times, his first 
 wife being Sarah A. Carrington, a daughter of 
 Liverus and Lowly Carrington. She died Jan. 23, 
 1853, at the age of forty-four years, and he next 
 married Cynthia Riggs, by whom he had one daugh- 
 ter, Eleanor, now deceased. The third wife was 
 Perentha Baldwin. There were three children by 
 the first marriage, namely: (i) Elizur L., born 
 Feb. S, 1 83 1, married Sarah L. Williams, and spent 
 the greater part of his latter years in Florida; he 
 died Aug. 16, 1901, aged seventy years. (2)_A1- 
 mira E., our subject, was born in Woodbridge 
 March 28, 1837, and has been twice married, her 
 first husband being Charles Baldwin, son of Newton 
 
 and Esther Baldwin. After his death she married 
 George Turner, son of Orib and Nancy (Com- 
 stock) Turner. She makes her home in Wood- 
 bridge and is highly respected by all who know her. 
 (3) Sarah Angeiine, born Aug. 28, 1839, died April 
 19, 184c). 
 
 CHARLES H. STOWE. The first account we 
 have of the Stowes was during the time of the 
 Norman invasion. Whether they were in England 
 before this time we are unable to ascertain. Several 
 of the name are now living in Germany. It is a 
 Saxon name meaning "place," and is written in- 
 differently with or without the final "e," more com- 
 monly with it. 
 
 About the year 1500 there was dwelling in St. 
 Michael's parish, London, Thomas Stowe, who is 
 the first known ancestor. His will is recorded 
 among the births in the London Register. His son, 
 Thomas Stowe, Jr., was the historian and annalist, 
 well known in history ; he was Duke of Devonshire 
 and Buckingham. From the Heralds' College it 
 appears that there is a coat of arms, with the title 
 of Duke, belonging to Thomas, Jr. Previous to 
 their emigration to America a number of Stowes 
 had lived in London, England, during several cen- 
 turies. Their principal residence was in Leadenhall' 
 street, and they owned the beautiful place now oc- 
 cupied by the Duke of Buckingham, and known as 
 "Stow Park." The name is also very common in 
 Scotland. 
 
 John Stowe, Jr., the first Stowe to arrive in 
 America, was born in England about 1595, and 
 landed at Boston April 12, 1635, coming over in 
 the ship "Elizabeth," Capt. Stagg, master. From 
 there he moved to Roxbury, Mass., and he gave 
 three acres of land for the grammar school of Rox- 
 bury. He died in September, 1663. From him 
 Charles H. Stowe traces his ancestry through 
 Thomas, Sr., Thomas, Jr., Samuel, Stephen, Jede- 
 diah, Sr., Jedediah, Jr., and Alvin. 
 
 Stephen Stowe, the tenth child of Deacon Sam- 
 uel, was born May 22, 1726. He married Free- 
 love Baldwin, of Milford, and the local Daughters 
 of the American Revolution have honored her mem- 
 ory by naming their chapter for her. During the 
 Revolutionary war a British ship had on board a 
 large number of American prisoners afflicted with a 
 contagious disease, whom they landed one cold win- 
 ter's night near the Stowe home. Fie kept them 
 during the night, and as no one could be found to 
 care for them he volunteered to do so. Feeling 
 that it meant to sacrifice his life, he made his will 
 the next morning. In two weeks, time he contracted 
 the disease and died. He is termed a martyr to his 
 country. 
 
 The Stowe family has been represented in the 
 State from pioneer times, and Jedediah Stowe, the 
 grandfather of Charles H., was born in New Ha- 
 ven county. For many years his occupation was 
 farming, and his death occurred in Milford. He 
 
996 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married Martha Camp, and they had eight children, 
 two of whom died in childhood. Jerry, a carpenter 
 by trade, resided in Alilford many years, but died 
 in Bridgeport. Alvin is mentioned more fully be- 
 low. Mary married Charles Baldwin, a grocer of 
 Milford. Caroline married Samuel B. Gunn. Har- 
 riet married Hezekiah Baldwin. Martha married 
 Isaac Woodruff, of Milford. 
 
 Alvin Stowe, our subject's father, was born in 
 Milford May 8, 1802, and died March 21, 1889. He 
 was a farmer by occupation, owning a farm of one 
 hundred acres. He was prominent in local affairs, 
 being one of the organizers of the Democratic party 
 •in the town, served several times as assessor, and 
 three years as selectman. As a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church he was active in religious work. 
 He married Sarah Peck, of Milford, and had four 
 children, namely: Urban C, born Nov. 2, 1838; 
 Treat P., born April 22, 1841, died April 22, 1842; 
 John N., born March 9, 1846, died Jan. 17, 1892; 
 Charles H., born Nov. 22, 1848. 
 
 Charles H. Stowe, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, a highly respected citizen of Milford, was 
 born Nov. 22, 1848. After securing a district and 
 high school education he learned the machinist's 
 trade. Later he entered the employ of Baldwin, 
 Rice & Read, as machinist, having charge of all 
 the machines used bv them in the manufacture of 
 straw hats. Although the personnel of the firm has 
 changed several times, he occupies the same posi- 
 tion. He owns a small farm, but does not give nis 
 personal attention to its cultivation. As a promi- 
 nent and influential member of the Democratic 
 party he has held several public offices, having 
 served two terms as assessor and four years as se- 
 lectman. He is a member of the Royal Arcanum 
 and of the Masonic fraternity. He and his family 
 are identified with the First Congregational Church 
 in Milford. 
 
 On Nov. 3, 1875, Mr. Stowe married Susan E. 
 Smith, of Orrington, Maine, and four children have 
 blessed their union: Mabel W., born Oct. 31, 
 1876, wife of Arthur Whitcomb, of Paterson, N. 
 J. ; Walter P., born Oct. 18, 1878, a graduate of the 
 New York College of Pharmacy, now located in 
 Brooklyn as a pharmacist; Stella L. C, born May 
 2, 1883 ; and Albert P., born Aug. 16, 1892. 
 
 DEACON SAMUEL HULL, one of the well- 
 known and much respected citizens of Wallingford, 
 is a deacon of the Baptist Church, and a leading 
 agriculturist of that town. Born Feb. 5, 1824, on 
 the Hull homestead in the North Farms District 
 of the town, he is a descendant of two of the oldest 
 and most prominent families in this part of the 
 State. Pie has led a long and useful life, acting 
 from high principles and seeking a noble ideal. 
 
 The Hull family came from Derbyshire, Eng- 
 land, and George Hull, its first representative in 
 America, settled at Windsor, Conn., in 1636. He 
 was a surveyor. He married Elizabeth Loomis. 
 
 Richard and Andrew Hull, whose relationship to 
 George is not known, were at New Haven the year 
 that gentleman was married, 1639. 
 
 Dr. John Hull, an ancestor of Deacon Hull,, 
 was admitted a planter in 1661. Seven years later 
 he removed to Derby, where he remained until 1687, 
 in that year coming to Wallingford to spend the ' 
 rest of his life. He died in 1711. Dr. Hull was the 
 first of the name in the town. He exchanged the- 
 Hull homestead at Stratford for the Benjamin' 
 Lewis property at Wallingford. On Oct. 17, 1671^ 
 he married, for his second wife, Mary Jones, and 
 after her death Rebecca Turner became his wife,. 
 Sept. 20, 1699. To him were born the following 
 children : John, born March 14, 1661 ; Samuel,, 
 born Feb. 4, 1663; Mar}', born Oct. 31, i666; Jo- 
 seph, born in. 1668 (married Mary Nichols, of Der- 
 by) ; Benjamin, M. D., born Oct. 7, 1672 (married; 
 Elizabeth Andrews) ; Ebenezer, born in 1673 (mar- 
 ried Lydia Mix) ; Richard, born in 1674; Dr. Jere- 
 miah, born in 1679; and Asher. 
 
 Dr. Jeremiah Hull was a physician of more 
 than ordinary skill and reputation, and was the pro- 
 prietor of a considerable tract of land in Walling- 
 ford, where he died May 14, 1736. On May 24,. 
 171 1, he married Hannah Cook, daughter of Sam- 
 uel and Hope Cook. She died Dec. 11, 1741. To 
 this union came the following children : John, born- 
 Nov. 13, 1712, who married Mary Andrews; Moses,, 
 born Dec. 21, 1714, who died June 3, 1736; Tabi- 
 tha, born March 3, 1717; Hannah, born March 18,. 
 1720; Anna; Jeremiah, JDorn Jan. 5, 1729, mentioned 
 below; Joseph, born March 24, 1733, who married" 
 Hannah Corbitt ; Patience, born Oct. 20, 1735; and 
 Keturah. 
 
 Jeremiah Hull, noted above, was a prominent' 
 farmer and land owner in Wallingford, where his- 
 life was spent. He died Aug. 24, 1790, and was 
 buried in Wallingford. On Jan. 18, 1753, he mar- 
 ried Mary Merriman, who died Aug. 22, 1774. They 
 had the following children : Caleb, born Dec. i, 
 1753; Jeremiah; Samuel; and Ann, who married' 
 Jacob Rice. To his second marriage were bom;- 
 Benjamin-; Levi; Hannah, who married a Mr. 
 Heath, of Wallingford; and Eunice, who married 
 a Mr. Pratt, of Essex, Connecticut. 
 
 Samuel Hull, son of Jeremiah, and grandfather 
 of Deacon Hull, served as a soldier throughout the 
 Revolutionary war. He was born in Wallingford, 
 married Lois Peck, and settled on the Hull home- 
 stead, on which he made extensive improvements, 
 being one of the most enterprising fanners of his 
 day in that section. He was a lifelong agriculturist, 
 and he and his wife died on the farm. Mrs. Hull' 
 was a woman of much character and cultivation. 
 Her father's home was in Deerfield, and when that 
 town was burned by the Indians, in 1704, Mrs. 
 Hull's mother or grandmother (with the lapse of 
 years some uncertainty has arisen), then a girl, 
 secreted herself, with the town records and Bible,, 
 in the cellar of the only house left standing. The- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 997 
 
 Bible is now in the possession of Deacon Samuel 
 Hull, our subject. Samuel and Lois (Peck) Hull 
 "had three children : William ; Sylvester, who mar- 
 lied Delilah, daughter of Benajah Morse; and 
 Lois, who married Miles Ives. 
 
 William Hull, the father of Deacon Hull, for the 
 most part educated himself, and was one of the 
 "best-known citizens of the town. He owned and 
 operated a tract of lOO acres in the North Farms 
 District of Wallingford, on which he made many 
 substantial improvements, and gave much attention 
 to stock raising. He did considerable business in 
 getting out staves and other timber, and was a 
 ■prosperous and fore-handed man. In politics he 
 was a Democrat, and in religion a member of the 
 Baptist Church. He died on his farm in 1849, 
 and was buried in the Center Street cemetery. 
 AVilliam LIull married Alma Hall, who was born on 
 the Wallingford farm now occupied by her son, 
 Col. Henry Hull. Her father, Reuben Hall, was 
 pne of the large land owners and farmers of Wall- 
 ingford. Her mother was a Miller, and thus our 
 subject is descended on the maternal side from 
 Benjamin Miller, of Middlefield, one of the first 
 settlers there. Benjamin Miller had several sons, 
 and our subject's wife, Mrs. Susan A. (Miller) 
 Hull, is descended from one of these on her father's 
 side, and from another on her mother's side. 
 Through a third son the line descends to our sub- 
 ject. The families were first united in the marriage 
 of Mr. and Mrs. William Hull, and with the union 
 of Samuel Hull and Susan A. Miller they are now 
 doubly united. To Mr. and Mrs. William Hull 
 came four children : ( i ) Col. Henry married El- 
 nora- Humiston. (2) Elizabeth first married Dr. 
 O. Doolittle, and later Horace Smith. (3) Samuel 
 is the subject proper of this article. (4) William 
 Dexter died at the age of seventeen years. 
 
 Deacon Samuel Hull attended the North Farms 
 schools, and also a select school at Meriden. He 
 remained at home with his parents until he reached 
 the age of twenty years, when he went West to 
 Illinois, then very largely a wilderness. After 
 spending two years in the West he then came back 
 to his Connecticut home, but soon returned to Illi- 
 nois, where 'he engaged in farming. The poor health 
 of his father very soon called him home again to 
 ■cultivate the family farm, which passed into his 
 possession after the death of his parents, and for 
 the past fifty years he has been engaged in cultivat- 
 ing this very desirable tract, which has been the 
 home of his father, grandfather and great-grand- 
 father. He was one of the first farmers to engage 
 in tobacco culture. Mr. Hull is now enjoying the 
 fruits of a long and useful life. 
 
 Mr. Hull was married Jan. 31, 1855, at Middle- 
 field, Conn., to Miss Susan A. Miller, who was born 
 there, daughter of Ira Miller, an old resident of 
 that community. Mrs. Hull was educated in the 
 public school of Middlefield and in a select school, 
 and was a very capable and successful teacher before 
 
 her marriage. To this union have come two chil- 
 dren: (i) Alida was educated in the district school, 
 a select school in Meriden, and the State Normal 
 at New Britain, and taught school in Wallingford 
 three terms ; she married Horace H. Williams, a 
 dairy farmer, of East Wallingford. (2) Anna, who 
 was educated at the district school and in the Gram- 
 mar School at Boston, married Julius Williams, a 
 farmer. 
 
 Deacon Hull is a Republican, but has no thirst 
 for office. He and his wife belong to the Baptist 
 Church, where for eight years he has officiated as 
 deacon. They are both hig-hly respected people, 
 and have many warm friends throughout the com- 
 munity. 
 
 The Miller Family, of Middlefield, is traced 
 to Thomas Miller, of Birmingham, England, who 
 came to Rowley, Mass., was made a freeman in 
 1639, ^'^'^ was a carpenter there in 1651, according 
 to the records. Thence he moved to Middletown, 
 Conn., where lands were recorded in his name in 
 1654, and where he was admitted to the church 
 through letter, from Rowley. He built the first 
 gristmill in that town, and it stood on Miller's 
 brook, where one of the factories of the Russell 
 Manufacturing Co. now stands, at the "Farms." 
 By his first wife, Isabel, he was the father of one 
 child, Ann, who married in 1653 Nathaniel Bacon. 
 His second marriage, at the age of fifty-six years, 
 was to Sarah Nettleton, daughter of Samuel Nettle- 
 ton, of Branford. To this union came eight chil- 
 dren, viz. : Thomas, born May 6, 1666, married 
 Elizabeth Turner, for his first wife, and for his sec- 
 ond spouse chose Mary Rowell ; Samuel, born April 
 I, 1668, married Mary Eggleston; Joseph, born 
 Aug. 21, 1670, married Rebecca Johnson, in 1701 ; 
 Benjamin, born July 20, 1672, married Mary John- 
 son, and (second) Mercy Bassett : John, born March 
 10, 1674, married Mary Bevin in 1700; Margaret 
 married Isaac Johnson ; Sarah ; Mehitabel, born 
 March 28, 1681, was married to George Hubbard. 
 Thomas Miller, the emigrant, father of this family, 
 died Aug. 14, 1680, and his widow passed away 
 March 20, 1727. 
 
 Benjamin Miller, the fourth of the above family, 
 was one of the first three settlers of Middlefield 
 town. He located in the southern part, on the east 
 side of the Coginchaug or West river, not far from 
 the Durham line. Tradition has it that the title of 
 "governor" was conferred upon him, partly because 
 of his influence with the Indians, partly on account 
 of his being a large land owner, and partly on ac- 
 count of his dominant disposition. He was not, 
 however, exempt from the action of the law, as will 
 be seen. He was greatly annoyed at the frequent 
 loss of his pigs, and suspected that they were de- 
 voured by bears ; he accordingly kept watch, and 
 one Sunday morning caught Bruin in the act, and 
 shot and killed the animal. For this he was arrested 
 on the charge of desecrating the Sabbath. 
 
 Benjamin Miller first married, Sept. 18, 1696, 
 
998 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mary Johnson, who was born in 1676, a daughter 
 of Nathaniel and Alary (Smith) Johnson. They 
 had eight children, namely : Rebecca married David 
 Robinson, of Durham ; Mary married a Spencer, ot 
 Haddam; Benjamin, born Oct. 2, 1700, married 
 Hannah, daughter of David Robinson; Sarah, born 
 Oct. 5, 1702, became the wife of Joseph Hickox, 
 of Durham; Hannah, born June i, 1704, was mar- 
 ried to Ephraim Coe ; Isaac, born May 2, 1706, died 
 unmarried; Mehitabel, born Feb. 5, 1707, was mar- 
 ried to A. Barnes; and Ichabod, born Dec. 15, 1709, 
 married Elizabeth Cromwell, daughter of Capt. Jo- 
 seph Cromwell. Mrs. Mary Miller, mother of the 
 above named children, died Dec. 15, 1709, and Ben- 
 jamin Miller, for his second wife, married Mercy 
 Bassett, who was born in New Haven in 1677. To 
 this union came seven children, namely : Lydia 
 married Eliakim Snow; Amos, born June i, I7i3' 
 married Abigail Cromwell ; Ebenezer, born Aug-. 
 20, 1714, died unmarried; Martha, born Dec. 8, 
 1715, married Thomas Atkins; Rhoda, born March 
 8, 1717, was married to Benjamin Bacon; David, 
 born Oct. 3, 1718, married Elizabeth Brainerd; 
 Thankful died unmarried. Benjamin Miller, the 
 father, who was a man of fine physique, and very 
 powerful, died Nov. 22, 1747, and Mercy, his widow, 
 died Feb. 9, 1756. The remains of both were in- 
 terred in the old cemetery at Middlefield. 
 
 Amos Miller, the second child born to the sec- 
 ond marriage of "Governor" Miller, was a farmer 
 in the East District of Middlefield. He married 
 Abigail, daughter of Joseph Cromwell, to which 
 union were born six children, namely: Ebenezei, 
 Amos, Abigail, Daniel, Elisha and Joseph. 
 
 Elisha Miller, fifth child of Amos, was largely 
 engaged in farming and fruit growing in the East 
 District of JMiddlefield, and sold much of his fruit 
 in Middletown ; but, being a liberal, kind-hearted 
 man, he gave a great deal of his fruit away, and 
 in fruit season was always followed about the 
 streets of Middletown by a crowd of small boys, 
 whom he supplied liberally with his luscious prod- 
 ucts. He married Elizabeth Miller, and to them 
 were born eleven children, viz. : Abel settled in Ohio, 
 where he married and passed the remainder of his 
 life ; Abigail also went to Ohio, where she was mar- 
 ried and where she died ; Elizabeth died unmarried, 
 in Middlefield ; Jerusha and Mary also died unmar- 
 ried, in Middlefield ; Esther went to Ohio, was mar- 
 ried to a Mr. Bingham, and died there ; Elisha mar- 
 ried Rhoda Parsons, of Durham ; Eunice died 
 young ; Ira became the father of Mrs. FIull ; George 
 R., a farmer, married Martina Rice ; Amos first mar- 
 ried Miranda Miller, and afterward Arabella Miller, 
 of Granville, Alass. (he was a colonel in the Staddle 
 Hill militia). 
 
 Ira Miller, the ninth of the above family, was 
 born July 21, 1792, on the farm now occupied by 
 Frank A. Coe, in Middlefield. He received a plain 
 district-school education, but was a very bright 
 scholar and for seventeen winters was a successful 
 
 school teacher in Middlefield and vicinity; in the 
 summer he worked for his father on the farm, which 
 he inherited. He went to Ohio, but remained a 
 short time only, and then returned home, and for a 
 time engaged in peddling Yankee notions through- 
 out Long Island and in the South. On his final 
 return home he followed fruit growing besides 
 farming, was the principal grower to mtroduce new 
 fruit varieties, and was quite successful in grafting. 
 In early life he was a Democrat, as was his father, 
 but later voted with the Republican party, and was 
 the only one of his family to do so. He never held 
 an office. Mr. Miller was a quiet, self-contained 
 man. He died Aug. i, 1867, respected by all who 
 knew him. 
 
 To the marriage of Ira Miller and Lecta Miller, 
 who was born July 3, 1796, daughter of Ichabod 
 and Sarah (Birdsey) Aliller, were born seven chil- 
 dren, namely : ( i ) Emma married Joseph Congdon, 
 lived for a time in Michigan, then in New York 
 State, and finally in Westfield, Conn., where she 
 died. (2) George W. (3) Marietta, the widow 
 of Rufus B. Sage, died in Cromwell March 23, 
 1900. (4) Margaret E. is the widow of Joseph E. 
 Tryon, of South Farms, and resides with her brother 
 George W. (5) Charles Ira married Delia Clark, 
 for his second wife Lydia F. Moulton, of Great 
 Falls, N. H., and for his third wife Mrs. Lucy Jane 
 (Miller) Hall, widow of Walter P- Hall. (6) Su- 
 san A. is the wife of Samuel Hull. (7) Amos H. 
 married Louisa Cooper, and for his second wife 
 Rose Parks, of Prince Edward Island. He is' a 
 wool waste manufacturer in Boston, Mass., and re- 
 sides in Brookline, an aristocratic suburb of the city. 
 Mrs. Lecta Miller, mother of the above family, 
 died Jan. 16, 1890, at the venerable age of ninety- 
 three. 
 
 ICHABOD E. ALLING, a well-known livery- 
 man and prominent citizen of Derby, Conn., who is 
 now representing the first ward in the city council, 
 was born in the town of Hamden, Oct. 17, 1826, a 
 son of Michael Ailing, a native of the same place. 
 There the grandfather, Ichabod Ailing, spent his 
 entire life as a farmer. In his family were six 
 children, namely: Lyman, who was a farmer and 
 butcher of Westville, and a man of prominence in 
 that locality ; Russell and Timothy, who were con- 
 tractors and builders in New Haven ; Michael, fa- 
 ther of our subject; Elizabeth, who died unmar- 
 ried ; and Ezra, who engaged in farming on the old 
 homestead throughout life. 
 
 Michael Ailing became a boss mason in New 
 Haven and continued to follow that occupation until 
 his death, which occurred in Seymour. He married 
 Miss Wealthy Sperry, of Bethany, a daughter of 
 Ezra Sperry, a farmer by occupation. She is also 
 deceased. To the parents of our subject were born 
 four children : Eliza, who married Henry Pomerov, 
 of Seymour, Conn., and moved West; Ichabod E., 
 who was next in order of birth ; Henry, who in 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 999 
 
 early life followed the machinist's trade, but later 
 conducted a store in Bath, N. Y., where he died 
 in 1898; and Fannie, widow of Capt. John Neil, of 
 Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 The early boyhood of Ichabod E. Ailing was 
 passed on the home farm, and from there he re- 
 moved with the family to the city of New Haven, 
 where he attended schtool, and later to Seymour, 
 this county. During his youth he learned the auger- 
 ipaker's trade, which he followed for about thirty 
 years in Seymour, Deep River, Troy, N. Y., and 
 other places, but has always considered Derby his 
 home. 
 
 Mr. Ailing was. united in marriage with Miss 
 Laura Smith, of Seymour, a daughter of Russell 
 Smith, a jobber and speculator of that place. By 
 this union was born a daughter, Emma, now the 
 widow of Charles Tracey, and a resident of Meri- 
 den. Conn. The wife and mother died in 1881, and 
 Mr. Ailing was again married, in 1882, his second 
 union being with Miss Sarah Jane Jacques, of 
 Providence, R. I., her family being an old one of 
 that State. 
 
 Mr. Alling's father and other relatives were sol- 
 diers of the war of 1812, and he manifested his 
 patriotism during the Civil war by enHsting in 1862 
 in Company H, 20th Conn. V. I. At the close of 
 the war, in 1865, he was honorably discharged and 
 returned to Derby, where he has since successfully 
 engaged in the livery business. Fraternally he is 
 a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and 
 politically is a Democrat, but at local elections en- 
 deavors, to vote for the man best qualified to fill the 
 .office, regardless of party affiliations. For a num- 
 ber of years he was a member of the police force 
 of Derby, and in December, 1898, was elected alder- 
 man from the first ward, which position he is now 
 filling in an able and satisfactory manner. 
 
 ELIZUR ZERAH CLINTON is one of the suc- 
 cessful and prominent fruit growers and dairy 
 farmers of Clintonville, near the line of North Ha- 
 ven, in the town of Wallingford. Mr. Clinton was. 
 born on the old Clinton homestead Sept. 18, 1847, 
 a son of Jesse (Jr.) and Rosanna (Bassett) CHn- 
 ton. [For genealogy of the Clinton family see 
 sketch of Edwin Jesse Clinton elsewhere.] 
 
 EHzur Z. Clinton was educated in the district 
 schools of Clintonville, and also attended North 
 Haven Academy, after which he engaged in work 
 for David Clinton & Son, in the Agricultural Man- 
 ufacturing Co., and when he had mastered the busi- 
 ness in all its branches he returned to the farm. 
 The homestead consisted of seventy-five acres, well 
 suited for general farming, dairying and fruit 
 growing, and, as he has so very successfully pur- 
 sued it, Mr. Clinton seems to have made a wise 
 choice when he resumed agricultural lines. His 
 peach orchards have been exceedingly productive 
 and profitable, and, as a side line, he has engaged 
 in the manufacture of a superior article of cider. 
 
 In 1869 Air. Clinton was married, in North 
 Haven, to Miss Julia A. Bishop, a native of North 
 Haven, born May i, 1850, a daughter of Erus and 
 Charlotte (Thorpe) Bishop. She died of con- 
 sumption soon after marriage. On Dec. 3, 1873, 
 Mr. Clinton wedded Ella J. Palmer, a daughter of 
 Timothy and Sybil (Barnes) Palmer, and five chil- 
 dren have been born of this union : Robert J., 
 Bessie E., Lovell E., Dora P. and Jennie F. 
 
 For a number of years our subject was a mem- 
 ber of the State militia; he was a justice of the 
 peace for several terms. He is past master of 
 North Haven Grange, and belongs to Corinthian 
 Lodge, No. 103, F. & A. M., of Northford, in 
 which he has been secretary and treasurer and 
 steward. In his political views he is a Democrat. 
 Mr. Clinton is one of the most esteemed and re- 
 spected citizens of his part of New Haven count)'. 
 
 EDSON L. BRYANT, deputy collector of in- 
 ternal revenue, was born Feb. 7, 1842, at Sheffield, 
 Alass. His father, Socrates Bryant, was a native 
 of Sheffield, where he spent the active life of a 
 farmer, taking also a prominent part in public af- 
 fairs. Air. Ijryant's ancestors were among the 
 earliest settlers at Plymouth, and at Plympton, 
 Alass., and of them are mentioned Lieut. John 
 Bryant, Stephen Bryant (the lineal ancestor of 
 William Cullen Bryant), John Shaw, and Augus- 
 tine Pearce ; the last named came to this country 
 in the ship "Confidence" in the year 1638. 
 
 On Nov. 9, 1826, Socrates Bryant married 
 Jerusha Terrell, of Naugatuck, Conn. She was a 
 descendant of Roger Terrell and Joseph Northrup, 
 early settlers at Milford, Conn. ; Francis Norton, of 
 Wethersfield, Conn. ; William Hoadley, of Bran- 
 ford, Conn. Josiah Terrell, the grandfather of 
 Jerusha Terrell, was a captain in the Revolutionary 
 army. Five children were born to Socrates Bryant : 
 Clark B., now of New Haven ; Alfred T., deceased ; 
 Ellen B., wife of Thomas Wallace, formerly of 
 Ansonia; Jane A., widow of Hiram Holabird; and 
 Edson L., the subject of this sketch. The parents 
 were devout members of the Congregational Church 
 and brought up their children in the same faith. 
 
 Edson L. Bryant was educated in the public 
 schools of Ansonia and Sheffield, and in the private 
 school of Prof. Phillips at Sheffield. At the age of 
 sixteen he came to Ansonia, making his home for 
 a time with his sister, Mrs. Wallace. He left the 
 high school at Ansonia to enter the employ of 
 Wallace & Sons, a large manufacturing concern. 
 In 1862 he enlisted in Company F, 23d Conn. V. I., 
 for service in the Civil war, and was made first 
 sergeant of that company. The military operations 
 of this regiment were mainly in the far Southwest, 
 forming part of the army under Gen. Banks. Mr. 
 Bryant was at Ship Island, New Orleans, and 
 Brashear City, now known as Morgan City. After 
 a year of service he returned home, being discharged 
 on account of the expiration of his term, and re- 
 
lOOO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sumed work with Wallace & Sons. He became su- 
 perintendent of the novelty department of the 
 works, and continued with this concern until the 
 sale of its plant to the Coe Brass Co. While so 
 engaged he secured several patents for new devices 
 and improvements. After leaving Wallace & Sons 
 Mr. Bryant spent several years in the insurance 
 ■business, and in June, 1898, he was appointed to his 
 present position, that of deputy collector of internal 
 revenue, with headquarters at New Haven. Mr. 
 Bryant is a Republican in politics, and has always 
 been an active worker in the interests of his party. 
 He served as a member of the board of burgesses, 
 xmder the old borough government of Ansonia; 
 also on the board of education. He is^ known as a 
 wide-awake, progressive citizen, and his influence 
 .and co-operation are always expected for every for- 
 ward movement. He is a member of the local post 
 •of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is junior 
 warden of Christ Church parish, where for thirty 
 years he has been a vestryman. 
 
 On June 14, 1866, Mr. Bryant married Miss 
 Mary Elizabeth Clark, daughter of ?\lerritt and 
 Mary (Hodge) Clark. The Clark history will be 
 found elsewhere, under the name of George B. 
 Clark. Mr. and Mrs. Bryant have had three chil- 
 dren, of whom two are now living ; ( i ) Annie E. 
 married Theodore W. Bassett, of Derby, secretary 
 ■of the Birmingham Iron Foundry. (2) George 
 ■Clark graduated at Yale College in 1895, and at 
 the Yale Law School in 1897. He was admitted 
 to the Bar in June, 1897, and from July of that 
 year until Oct. I, 1901, was associated with the 
 firm of Williams & Gager, in Derby. He is now 
 judge of the City Court in Ansonia, which office he 
 has held since July, 1899. In December, 1898, he 
 was married to Florence Adele Farrel, daughter 
 of Franklin Farrel, a sketch of whose life will be 
 found elsewhere. 
 
 MARCUS EBEXEZER COOKE, one of the 
 oldest and best-known citizens of Wallingford, 
 where he is engaged in farming, and has filled the 
 office of selectman for several years with credit to 
 himself and satisfaction to the community, is a de- 
 scendant of one of the earliest and most prominent 
 families of New Haven county. 
 
 The first of the name and familv in America 
 was Henry Cooke, a native of Kent, England, who 
 was at Plymouth, Mass., before 1640, and there 
 spent the remainder of his life. He was the father 
 of four sons : Isaac, who remained at Plymouth ; 
 John, who settled in Middletown ; and Henry and 
 Samuel, both of whom made their home in New 
 Haven county. 
 
 Sanuiel Cooke, the youngest of the above named 
 four sons, was born in Ph'mouth, ^lass., and in 1663 
 came to New Haven, where he married Hope Par- 
 ker, daughter of Edward Parker, May 2, 1666. In 
 1670 they came to \\'allingford, and were among 
 the first settlers of the town, locating in what is 
 
 now called Cooke Hill. He became the owner of 
 considerable land, and followed the trade of shoe- 
 maker and tanner. Filling many public ofiSces, he 
 left a name for honor and ability. He was active 
 in church affairs, and one of the organizers of the 
 First Church in Wallingford. He died in 1702, and 
 Marv (Roberts), his second wife, married Jeremiah 
 Howe April 9, 1705. ^Ir. Cooke was father to 
 the following children: Samuel, born March 3, 
 1667; John, bee. 3, 1669; Hannah, March 3, 1671 ; 
 Isaac, March 10, 1673 (died April 7, 1673) ; Mary, 
 April 23, 1675 (married Nathaniel Ives) ; Eliza- 
 beth, Aug. 22, 1677 (died young) ; Judith, Feb. 29, 
 1679 (married Jeremiah Howe, April 20, 1704, and 
 diecl the same day) : Isaac, Jan. 10, 1681 ; Joseph, 
 Feb. 25, 1683; Hope, Sept. 27, 1686 (married Jo- 
 seph Benham, Dec. 18, 1706, and died Jan. 30, 
 1731). These were born to the first marriage. By 
 his second wife ^Ir. Cooke was the father to the 
 following: Israel, born Mav 8, 1692; Mabel, June 
 30, 1694; Benjamin, April 8, 1697 (died in 1717) ; 
 Ephraim, April 19, 1699; Elizabeth, Sept. 10, 1701 
 (married Adam Mott Aug. 28, 1717). 
 
 Samuel Cooke (2), the eldest son of Samuel, 
 was born in New Haven, and moved with his par- 
 ents while still a child to Wallingford, where he 
 followed farming all his life. He died on his farm 
 Sept. 18, 1725, at the age of fifty-eight, and was 
 buried in Wallingford. Mr. Cooke was twice mar- 
 ried, first on March 3, 1692, by 'Squire John 
 AIoss, to Hannah Ives, daughter of William 
 Ives, Mrs. Cooke died Ala}' 29, 1714. Eliza- 
 beth Bedel, of Stratford, became his second wife, 
 and after his death she married Capt. Daniel Har- 
 ris, of Middletown, Conn. Mr. Cooke was a farmer 
 in the western part of the township, near the line 
 which now divides Cheshire from Wallingford, and 
 some of his descendants still occupy that land. 
 Samuel Cooke ( 2 ) was father to the following chil- 
 dren : By the first marriage — (i) Hannah, born 
 May 28, 1693, married Jeremiah Hull, and died Nov. 
 22, 1735; (2) Samuel was born March 5, 1695; 
 (3) Aaron was born Dec. 28, 1696; (4) Lydia, born 
 Jan. 13, 1699, married Oct. 12, 1738, Daniel Dutton; 
 
 (5) Aloses, born Jan. 4, 1700, died Dec. 25, 1711; 
 
 (6) Miriam, born Nov. 4, 1703, married Benjamin 
 Curtis Dec. 12, 1727: (7) Thankful, bom Dec. 24, 
 1705, died Aug. 19, 1714: (8) Esther, born March 
 8, 1707, married Abel Yale July 22, 1730; (9) Eu- 
 nice was born Feb. 25, 1709; (10) Susannah, born 
 Sept. 5, 171 1, married Joseph Cole Dec. i, 1735. 
 Bv the second marriage — (11) Moses was born 
 Nov. 6, 1716: (12) Thankful, born Nov. 14, 1718, 
 married Stephen Hotchkiss Dec. 31, 1742; (13)' 
 Asaph was born June 25, 1720; (14) Hannah, born 
 Nov. 4, 1 72 1, married Zephaniah Hull, of Cheshire; 
 (15) Hope died Sept. 18, 1728. 
 
 Aaron Cooke, noted in the foregoing paragraph, 
 ^\•as born on the Cooke Hill farm. He was a pros- 
 perous and highly respected farmer, and a land 
 holder in the southeastern part of Wallingford, 
 
/Jt^^a^.-.^^ &_S^^^\ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 lOOI 
 
 Korthford survey, where he settled; he died there 
 Oct. 14, 1756, aged sixty years, and is buried in 
 WalHngford. Three times married, Aaron Cooke 
 was father to a numerous progeny. On Nov. 14, 
 1723, he married. Sarah Benham, daughter of James 
 Benham. Sarah Hitchcock, his second wife, died 
 Aug. I'l, 1735. Ruth Burrage, of Stratford, became 
 his third wife, on Feb. 7, 1736. By his first mar- 
 riage Mr. Cooke was father to the following chil- 
 dren: Samuel, born Sept. 25, 1725; Stephen, Dec. 
 28, 1727; Titus, Feb. 25, 1730; Abel, Feb. 23, 1732. 
 To the second marriage came one child, Sarah, born 
 June 2, 1735. By his third marriage Mr. Cooke 
 was father to the following children : Lydia, born 
 in 1736, married Uriah Collins, and died Jan. 9, 
 1793; Ruth, born Sept. 7, 1738, married William 
 Collins, and died June 9, 1790; Esther was born 
 May 14, 1740; Elizabeth, born March 16, 1741, died 
 when ten years old; Aaron was born June 5, 1744; 
 ;\li,riam, born June 30, 1746, died Dec. i, 1750; 
 Lucy, born Sept. 20, 1748, died April 29, 1760; 
 Elizabeth, born June 7, 1751, died Oct. 19, 1762. 
 
 Abel Cooke, whose name appears fourth in the 
 above named list of children, was born on the Cooke 
 liomestead in the southeastern part of WalHngford, 
 where he grew to manhood. He was a farmer all 
 bis life, and died on his farm Aug. 10, 1776. This 
 homestead is still owned by a direct descendant, 
 Levi M. Cooke. On Xov. 16, 1757, Abel Cooke 
 married Mary Atwater, who was born in WalHng- 
 ford Dec. 30, 1735, and died Jan. 13, 1774; her 
 parents were Benjamin and Elizabeth P. Atwater. 
 Mr. Cooke was a soldier, a patriot of the first 
 water, and served with distinction in the war of 
 the Revolution. His children. were : Atwater, Ixirn 
 Nov. 3, 1758; Porter, July 27, 1760; Elizabeth, 
 March 13, 1763; Abel, March 27, 1765; Chester, 
 Aug. 13, 1767 (died young) ; David M., Feb. 16, 
 1770; Mary, April 2, 1773 (married Col. Eliakim 
 HuH, and died Dec. i, 1839) '< Chester (2), Oct. 
 
 ■6, 1775- 
 
 Chester Cooke, the grandfather of Marcus E. 
 Cooke, was born in WalHngford, on the Aaron 
 'Cooke homestead, and grew to manhood in that lo- 
 cality. In 1792 he purchased the homestead where 
 I\Iarcus E. Cooke now resides. He was a lifelong 
 farmer, and also a shoemaker. A leading Demo- 
 ■crat, he represented the town in the State Legisla- 
 ture, and was a highly respected and upright citizen. 
 He died Aug. 13, 1864. He was twice married, 
 first to Thankful Flail, daughter of Hezekiah and 
 Elizabeth (Merriman) Hall. Polly Norton was his 
 •second wife. Mr. Cooke was the father of three 
 children: Caroline, born Sept. 5, 1801, married 
 Orrin Andrews; Marilda, born Nov. 17, 1803, mar- 
 ried Sherlock Avery, of WalHngford; Hiram was 
 born April 23, 1805. 
 
 Hiram Cooke, the father of Marcus E., was born 
 on the farm now owned by that gentleman, and 
 made farming his life work. He was a man of 
 affairs, highly respected, and filled many public 
 
 ofHces, representing his town in the State Legisla- 
 ture, and was the first judge of the borough court 
 of WalHngford. An ardent Democrat, he was active 
 in the party organization. He was twice married. 
 His first wife, Anna M. Marks, was born June 27, 
 1808, and died September 30, 1855. She was a 
 daughter of Col. William Marks, a prominent citi- 
 zen, who was appointed delegate from WalHngford 
 to the State Constitutional Convention in 1818. He 
 was one of the first manufacturers of woolen cloth 
 in this country. On March 18, 1856, Mr. Cooke 
 married Margaret A. Todd, who was born Jan. r, 
 1833, and died Dec. 30, 1891. Mr. Cooke died 
 Nov. 7, 1873, and is buried in the Center Street cem- 
 etery. To the first marriage came the following 
 children: (i) Chester William, born Dec-. 14, 1830, 
 married Mary Merwin May 29, 1855. In 1859 
 they moved from Hardenburg, N. Y., to Momence, 
 111., later to Manteno, 111., and thence to Frankfort, 
 S. Dak., their present residence. They have six 
 children, Julia Anna, Marcus Eber, Urben Hiram, 
 Nelson Samuel, Harriet and Maude. (2) Hiram 
 D, was born Oct. 18, 1832. (3) Aurelius Baxtei, 
 born Oct. 21, 1834, died May 6, 1842. (4) Martin 
 Van Buren was born June 20, 1839. (5) Jane Anna 
 was born Nov. 4, 1843. (6) Marcus E.- was born 
 Nov. 2, 1849. The children of Hiram Cooke's sec- 
 ond marriage were: (7) Thankful Estella, born 
 Mav 10, 1857; and (8) Waldo D., born Dec. 31, 
 i860. 
 
 Marcus E. Cooke was born in Hardenburg, N. 
 Y., and in December, 1857, removed to the Cooke 
 homestead, in which he now resides. He received 
 his literary training in the district school, but his 
 education is very largely self-acquired, and to a 
 great extent he has made his own way in the world. 
 On the farm which has come into his possession 
 he has made many substantial improvements, and he 
 carries on a system of general farming, making a 
 specialty of dairy interests and peach growing. He 
 is a representative of one of the largest farm imple- 
 ment manufacturers in the county, and keeps on 
 hand a full line of implements. In 1879 he was 
 appointed overseer and builder of the town roads, 
 and held that position for several years. He has 
 invented and patented several valuable pieces of 
 road machinery. A public-spirited and progressive 
 man, he is always willing to lend a helping hand 
 to every worthy cause. He is president of the 
 WalHngford Agricultural Society, and was one of 
 the organizers of the WalHngford Grange, of which 
 he was master for two years. A leading Democrat, 
 he represented the town in the State Legislature in 
 1883, and has been selectman several terms. Mr. 
 Cooke is a director of the Dime Savings Bank of 
 WalHngford, one of the growing financial institu- 
 tions of the town, and is president of the WalHng- 
 ford Creamery Co. Our subject served nine years — 
 from 1 87 1 to 1880 — in the Connecticut National 
 Guard, as a member of Company K, 2d Regiment, 
 C. N. G., of WalHngford. 
 
I002 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mr. Cooke and Miss Clara E. Potts, of South 
 Egremont, Berkshire Co., Mass., were married 
 Feb. 12, 1884. She is a lady of culture and refine- 
 ment, and has made a good wife and mother. They 
 have had four children : Lillian A., born May 19, 
 1886, who died Oct. 6, 1888; Chester Herman, born 
 April 19, 1888; Mabel Anna, born March 30, 1892; 
 and Florence Marks, born Sept. 6, 1894. 
 
 HENRY BEADLE, a well-known and promi- 
 nent citizen of Cheshire, was for many years one 
 of the active and progressive business men of the 
 town, as well as one of its most reliable and hon- 
 ored citizens, and now, in his declining years, he is 
 enjoying a well-earned rest, free from the cares 
 and responsibilities of business life. Throughout 
 the county he is widely and favorably known. 
 
 The Beadle family is of French descent, and the 
 first to come to America settled in Salem, Mass., 
 but on account of religious persecution and the 
 burning of the witches they afterward came to 
 Connecticut, and their descendants are now num- 
 bered among its best citizens. (I) Nathaniel 
 Beadle, the first of the name in New Haven county, 
 removed to Wallingford early in the eighteenth 
 century and located on a farm on the west side of 
 the river near the Cheshire line, where he spent the 
 remainder of bis life in agricultural pursuits, and 
 where his death occurred about 1764. His wife, 
 Elizabeth, also died in Wallingford. Their children 
 were Nathaniel, born Dec. 15, 1703; Mary, born 
 Sept. 18, 1708; Josiah, born Aug. 3, 171 1; and 
 Samuel Sharp, who was graduated from Yale in 
 1757, and died Jan. 5, 1762. 
 
 (H) Nathaniel Beadle, son of Nathaniel, Sr., 
 was reared on the home farm, and throughout life 
 engaged in farming in Wallingford, of which town 
 he was a well-known and honored citizen. He was 
 also captain in the militia. He died Feb. 10, 1762, 
 two years before his father, and was buried in the 
 old cemetery. On Nov. 10, 1726, he married Eliz- 
 abeth Hitchcock, and to them were born eight chil- 
 dren, namely : Elizabeth and Susanna, twins, born 
 Sept. 17, 1727; John; Hannah; Sarah; Lois, wife 
 of John Hull ; Mehitable ; and Nathaniel, who died 
 March 4, 1763. 
 
 (HI) John Beadle, son of Nathaniel, Jr., was 
 born and reared on the old homestead in Walling- 
 ford, and spent his entire life in that town. He was 
 a member of the militia, and was captain of a com- 
 pany which he recruited, in the 5th Conn. Light 
 Horse, in the Continental army, during the Revolu- 
 tionary war. He married Miss Baker, daughter 
 of John Baker, of Wallingford, and in their family 
 were John, Henry, Joseph, Alfred and others, many 
 of whom removed to New York. 
 
 (IV) Alfred Beadle, son of John and grandfa- 
 ther of our subject, was born in Wallingford, where 
 he grew to manhood and learned wagon making 
 and general repairing. When a young man he came 
 to the town of Cheshire and established himself in 
 
 business, being one of the first wagonmakers of this 
 locality. Many of his wagons were used by the 
 peddlers in traveling and selling their wares through 
 the South. He bought a house on the site of our 
 subject's present home, and made many improve- 
 ments upon the place. He died in Cheshire at the 
 ripe old age of eighty-six years, and was buried in 
 the old cemetery. In politics he was a Democrat, 
 and in religious faith a Congregationalist. He mar- 
 ried Polly (or Mary) Donscomb, who died in 
 Cheshire and was buried in the same cemetery. 
 They had five children: Philander, Henry, Ben- 
 ajah, James and a daughter who died young. 
 
 (V) Benajah Beadle, father of our subject, was 
 born in Cheshire, and educated in its district school 
 and the Cheshire Episcopal Academy. With his 
 father he learned the wagonmaker's trade and made 
 that' business his life occupation, being in partner- 
 ship with his brother Philander for several years, 
 but finally the brother removed to Syracuse, N. Y., 
 and spent the remainder of his life in that city. 
 After tliat Benajah Beadle was alone in business, 
 and was very successful. He was one of the highly 
 respected and worthy citizens of Cheshire, where he 
 died Oct. 4. 1890, aged seventy-five years, and was 
 Ijuried in Cheshire cemetery. He was a member 
 of the Episcopal Church, in politics was first a 
 A\"hig ancl later a Republican, and served as select- 
 man of the town and held other local offices. He 
 married Julia Hitchcock, who was also born in 
 Cheshire of good old Revolutionary stock, and died 
 April 18, 1890, aged seventy-five years. She, too, 
 was a faithful member of the Episcopal Church. 
 In their family were three children : William, who 
 was a soldier of Company A, 20th Conn. V. I., dur- 
 ing the Civil war, and died from the effects of his 
 army life; Henry, our subject; and Edgar, also a 
 resident of Cheshire. 
 
 (VI) Henry Beadle was born on the present 
 site of the high school, at Cheshire Center, Jan. 
 22, 1844, and pursued his studies in the district 
 school and the Cheshire Episcopal Academy. In 
 early life he learned the wagonmaker's trade with 
 his father and remained with him until 1869, when 
 he went to Wallingford as foreman/ of the works 
 of the Carriage Wheel ^Manufacturing Co., with 
 which he was connected for five years. After his 
 return to Cheshire he was engaged in the painting 
 and paper hanging business until 1890, when ap- 
 pointed postmaster of Cheshire under President 
 Harrison's administration, and held that office until 
 the Democrats came into power in 1893. Since then 
 he has practically lived a retired life, spending his 
 winters in Florida, where he has an orange orchard 
 in which he takes a great interest. He has a beauti- 
 ful home, supplied with all modern conveniences, 
 which has been built upon the foundation of his 
 grandfather's old home. He has quite an interest- 
 ing collection of relics, which he has gathered dur- 
 ing his travels, and is, himself, somewhat of an 
 artist in the carving of animals from wood. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1003 
 
 In 1875, in New Haven, Mr. Beadle was married 
 to Miss Ella Hawes, a native of Walling-ford and 
 a daughter of Alonzo and Laura (Merriman) 
 Hawes. She is a lady of culture and refinement, 
 and is an active member of the Congregational 
 Church, and of Crescent Chapter, O. E. S. Julia 
 L., the only child born to our subject and his wife, 
 died in 1886, at the age of seven years. Socially 
 Mr. Beadle is a member of Temple Lodge, A. F. 
 & A. M., of Cheshire. For a quarter of a century 
 he has been prominently identified with public af- 
 fairs, and in 1884 represented Cheshire in the State 
 Legislature, where he served as clerk of the com- 
 mittee on claims. He was constable of the town 
 for over twenty years ; deputy sheriff seven years ; 
 postmaster three years ; justice of the peace several 
 years ; and chairman of the town committee of the 
 Republican party for twenty-five years. His public 
 and private life are alike above reproach, and he is 
 held in high regard by all who know him. 
 
 FRANK OBADIAH BADGER was born 
 March 4, 1841, in Burlington, Mass., a son of 
 Obadiah and Harriet (Cutler) Badger. Of the 
 seven children in this family, five are yet living. 
 
 Frank O. Badger was but seven years old when 
 his father died, and he was taken to the home of a 
 paternal aunt in Plymouth, Mass., where he lived 
 until he was twelve years old, receiving the school 
 privileges of that town. At that age he entered a 
 store in Lowell as a clerk, with the agreement that 
 he was to attend school a part of each year. He 
 remained in the store until he was seventeen years 
 .of age, when he went to California, where he had 
 a claim on the American river. Mr. Badger trav- 
 eled through California and Mexico quite exten- 
 sively, and after a residence of two years on the 
 Pacific coast returned to Boston, and was a clerk 
 in a store in that city for a few months. Return- 
 ing to Lowell he entered the Lowell Locomotive 
 works, and was engaged as a machinist for thirteen 
 months, and then transferred himself to the Spring- 
 field Armory, where he was put on government 
 work. For six years he was in the armory, and at 
 the expiration of this time went to New Britain 
 to do contract work, making bank locks with Fred- 
 erick North, in which he employed about twenty- 
 five men. For four years he worked in connection 
 with Mr. North, and' was then proprietor and man- 
 ager of the Union Hall Hotel at Hartford for a 
 year, after which he went to Kansas City,_ Mo., 
 where he was engaged in selling farming imple- 
 ments and in buying farm produce. The state of 
 hrs wife's health, however, compelled a quick re- 
 turn to the East, and he started a plant at Green- 
 port, Long Island, for the manufacture of wire 
 goods, in which he was quite successful. After the 
 lapse of four years he sold out, and coming to New 
 Britain, was made general manager of the National 
 Wire Mattress Co., a position he held for four years, 
 when he gave it up and went to New York City, 
 
 where he spent a year as general manager of the 
 mattress and spring bed departments for the Hall 
 & Stevens Co. Following this he was proprietor 
 and manager of a spring bed factory, in which he 
 employed some twenty men. After three quite suc- 
 cessful years of this work he sold out to the Brook- 
 lyn Spring Bed Co. For seven months Mr. Badger 
 was with the R. Hoe Printing Press Co., and then 
 he engaged with H. L. Judd & Co. as a contractor 
 in their brass bed department, and when the plant 
 was removed to Wallingford Mr. Badger came with 
 it, April 30, 1891. He still holds his contract with 
 the company, and is employing about fifteen hands. 
 
 Mr. Badger is a Mason, and is connected with 
 Keystone Chapter at Meriden. He is a Republican 
 in politics, but he has always been too busy to give 
 much attention to political affairs. With his family 
 he attends the First Congregational Church, where 
 they are members. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Badger was married to Miss Emma 
 A. Bailey, of Hartford, a daughter of Solomon 
 Bailey. To Mr. and Mrs. Badger were born the 
 following children: Ella May, born May 8, 1873, 
 married Walter Hill, superintendent of the New 
 York Insulated Wire Co., of Wallingford, and has 
 two children, May Elizabeth and Esther B. ; Robert 
 E., born June 27, 1874, married Mis'S Maude Miller, 
 of Mount Carmel, and is engaged in the stationery 
 and laundry business in Wallingford; Emma Eliza- 
 beth is at home ; Grace Alma is at home ; and Frank 
 died when seven years old. 
 
 ALBERT BEAUMONT was born in the Beau- 
 mont homestead June 19, 1844, a son of the late 
 John and Ann (Tyler) Beaumont. His education 
 was obtained in the district schools, and growing 
 up on the homestead, he was thoroughly trained in 
 the best agricultural methods of the time. When 
 his father died, young Albert and his brother 
 George operated the home farm until 1898, in which 
 year he sold out his interest in the home place, and 
 bought the Wooding Farm on East Main Street. 
 Here he made his home for about two years, but 
 he lately sold it, buying instead the Threadway 
 Farm, a place of thirty acres, but large enough for 
 market gardening, which he intends making his 
 business. Mr. Beaumont is a hard worker, and as 
 he carefully plans his labor, and seeks to accom- 
 plish something practical and timely, he is bound 
 to succeed. An honest and straightforward man, 
 his word is held good to any amount, and what he 
 says is accepted as the statement of a man of truth. 
 
 On Oct. 6, 1892, Mr. Beaumont was married, in 
 Wallingford, by the Rev. C. H. Dickerson, to Miss 
 Emily Scard, who was born in Newport, South 
 Wales, England, a daughter of George Scard, one 
 of the leading dairymen of Wallingford. To this 
 marriage has come one child, Albert John, born 
 May 31, 1898. Mr. Beaumont belongs to the 
 Wallingford Grange; and politically is a Republi- 
 can, but not an office seeker. In his church con- 
 
I004 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 nection he is a Con-gregationalist, and both he and 
 his wife are highly esteemed in the community, as 
 most excellent people, kind neighbors, and honest 
 and industrious in their daily lives. 
 
 GEORGE E. TERRY, a well-known citizen 
 ■of Prospect, New Haven Co., Conn., was born in 
 Sag Harbor, Long Island, Nov. i, 1856, a son of 
 Emanuel and Emma Terry, both of whom died, on 
 Long Island. During his boyhood our subject at- 
 tended the schools of New York City, and began 
 life for himself as a clerk in a dry goods store 
 there. After following that occupation for two 
 years, he became a sailor in the coasting trade and 
 s,pent the following three years in that manner, after 
 which he learned the cigar-maker's trade in Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y., and clerked in a cigar store for some 
 time. He was next employed as clerk in a hotel 
 at New London, Conn., and from there removed 
 to New Haven, where he was employed in dye 
 works for two years. In 1881 he went' to Water- 
 bury, where he worked in the watch factory until 
 coming to Prospect in 1892, when he took up his 
 residence on the John Svvartz farm, which is the 
 property of his wife. He is engaged through the 
 winter months at his trade in Waterbury. 
 
 In 1880, in Philadelphia, Penn., ]Mr. Terry mar- 
 ried Miss Emelie Adaline Kyser, a native of St. 
 Louis, Mo., and a daughter of the late Charles F. 
 Kyser, who was born in Germany and was a well- 
 known translator of the German, French and Latin 
 languages. To Mr. and Mr?. Terry were born 
 five children, namely : Lotta, Vera, Emily and 
 Harold, all living ; and Robert, who died in infancy. 
 Mr. Terry is a member of the K. of L., and is 
 identified with the Democratic party. 
 
 PERRY CHAUNCEY MORRIS, ex-first se- 
 lectman and ex-town treasurer of Waterbury, was 
 born Aug. 12, 1847, in that part of the town now 
 known as Waterville, a son of Miles Morris, who 
 was bom in the town of Canaan, Litchfield Co., 
 Conn., and is now living in Waterbury. 
 
 Russell Morris, father of Miles, was of English 
 extraction, and was born in Danbury, Conn. By 
 occupation he was a farmer. He married Harriet 
 Plolcomb, and settled on his farm in Canaan, where 
 he reared a family of twelve children, named, in 
 the order of their birth. Miles, Theodore, Samuel, 
 Edmund, Sidney, Chauncey, David, Amanda, Julia, 
 Susan, Elizabeth and Mary. Of this family, Miles, 
 the eldest, is the father of our subject; Theodore 
 was an employe of the Flousatonic Railway Co. at 
 Falls Village, and there met his death bv accident ; 
 Samuel, who was also a railroad man, died in Chi- 
 cago ; Edmund lives im the town of South Lee, 
 Mass., where he is employed on a railroad; Sidney 
 is a farmer in Falls Village; Chauncey lives in re- 
 tirement in Bridgeport; David died at the age of 
 eighteen years ; Amanda is deceased : Julia, de- 
 ceased, was the wife of Robert Ross; Su'san, who 
 
 was a school teacher, has also entered into rest; 
 Elizabeth has been twice married, first to a Mr. 
 Reed, and later to Charles Phillips, a railroad con- 
 ductor ; Mary is the wife of John Sturges, of Bridgt- 
 port. 
 
 Miles Morris came to Waterbury in 1840, and 
 has since been in the employ of the Waterville Knife 
 Co., and Brown & Bros. He married Jane M. For- 
 rest, who was born in Waterbury, a daughter of 
 Samuel Forrest, who came from Birmingham, Eng- 
 land. To this union were born two children : Perry 
 Chauncey and Frederick M., the latter born in 
 Bridgeport, and now a machinist in Waterbury. 
 The wife and mother passed away July 25, 1887, and 
 was buried in Waterville. 
 
 Perry Chauncey Morris was educated in the lo- 
 cal schools of Waterbury and Waterville, after leav- 
 ing which he entered the brass works of Brown & 
 Bros., with whom he remained about twenty-five 
 years. He then engaged in the grocery business on 
 the Watertown road, which he continued with much 
 success until his removal to Waterbury. Always 
 taking a keen interest in public affairs, he has been 
 active in the work of his chosen political party — the 
 Democratic — and was honored by election to the 
 office of town treasurer for the term of two years. 
 So satisfactorily did he fill the duties of the office 
 of treasurer that immediately after the expiration 
 of his term he was, in 1894, elected first selectman, 
 which ofBce occupied all his attention up to 1900. 
 Since that time he has been obliged to devote his 
 time to his personal affairs, his property interests 
 demanding considerable attention. He is popular 
 with all parties, and as People's candidate received 
 the support of both Democrats and Republicans, the 
 entire population having the most implicit confi- 
 dence in his unflinching honesty. 
 
 On Aug. 4, 1870, Mr. Morris married Aliss Ma- 
 tdda E. Slade, of Waterbury, daughter of George 
 and Matilda (Stevens) Slade, natives of England. 
 To this marriage has been, born one child, Frances 
 E. Fraternally Mr. Alorris is a member of Har- 
 mony Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. i\I., at Waterbury, 
 of the Knights Templars, and is also a Mystic Shrin- 
 er. In religious connection he belongs to Trinity 
 Episcopal Church. He is one of the most progres- 
 sive men of Waterbury, and is identified with every 
 project designed to promote the public interest. 
 
 JA;\[ES V\' CONE, one of tne leading druggists 
 of Waterbury, has a fine establishment and caters 
 to the best people of the city. 
 
 :\Ir. Cone was born May 30, 1848, in Winsted, 
 Conn., son of John Cone, who was born in Norfolk, 
 this State, in 1817. Deacon Samuel Cone, the 
 grandfather of James W., was born in Winchester, 
 Conn., a son of Daniel H. Cone, who was a soldier 
 m the Revolutionary war. Samuel was a scythe 
 maker, who followed that business in Norfolk; 
 there he married Clarissa Munger, of Norfolk, 
 Conn., and they reared a family of thirteen children, 
 
K^J'X-->-> — y' C-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1005, 
 
 all of whom are deceased but John, the father of 
 James W. 
 
 John Cone grew to manhood in Norfolk, where 
 he married Harriet A. Watson, a daughter of 
 Abijah and Margaret Watson, farming people of 
 Norfolk. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Cone 
 settled in the village of Winsted, Conn., where he 
 carried on his business, and where he is now living 
 retired, Mrs. Cone died May 20, 1880. Three 
 children were born to them : James, who died at 
 the age of five years ; James W. ; and Maria '£., 
 who died April 13, 1901. 
 
 James W. Cone grew up in Winsted, where he 
 attended the public school, and later was a student 
 in the Eastman Business College, at Poughkeepsie, 
 N. Y. As an apprentice to the druggist's business, 
 he spent four years with David Fuller, at Water- 
 buryj and for six years after leaving Mr. Fuller 
 was engaged in various places. During four years 
 of this time he was in business for himself at 
 Winsted. In 1884 he came back to Waterbury, 
 and purchased the drug store of Dr. J. J. Jacques, 
 at No. II West Main street, and continued for ten 
 years at the old location, moving in 1896 to his pres- 
 ent quarters, corner of West Main and Bank Streets. 
 Here he carries a fine stock, and appeals to the 
 most fastidious as well as to the great public, offer- 
 ing the best of goods at a modest price, and treating 
 all who come with equal courtesy and fairness. 
 
 Mr. Cone and Miss Caroline Woodward were 
 married Nov. 24, 1873. Mrs. Cone was a daughter 
 of Andrew Woodward, and a native of Thomaston, 
 Conn., where her father has been engaged in the 
 tannery business many years. She died Dec. 17, 
 1888, leaving three children : Emma L., who is the 
 wife of Dr. C. H. Rust, of Cleveland, Ohio; Jolm 
 S., who died July 26, 1899, at the age of twenty 
 years ; and Harriet A., a student in the Watefbury 
 schools. On Sept. 24, 1890, Mr. Cone married 
 Miss Minnie Manwaring, who was born in Water- 
 ford, Conn., daughter of Ansel Manwaring, for 
 many years town treasurer. She is a capable and 
 well educated lady, and was a school teacher be- 
 fore her marriage. Mr. Cone is a Republican and 
 a prominent Mason, having reached the Shrine. 
 .The family attend the Second Congregational 
 Church, of which they are all members. 
 
 RICHARD CHRISTOPHER WILCOX, se- 
 nior member of the widely known firm of R. C. 
 Wilcox & Sons, dairy farmers and stock raisers, 
 Guilford, is a native of Connecticut, born June 22, 
 1846, in the town of Guilford, New Haven county. 
 
 The Wilcox family are old settlers of the New 
 England States .and the name has been spelled in 
 various ways — Wilcox, Wilcocks, Wilcoxson and 
 Willcox. ( i) William Wilcox (or Wilcoxson), the 
 first of the name in Connecticut, was born in 1601 
 at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, whence in 
 1635 he came to America in the ship "Planter," 
 having a certificate from the minister of his native 
 
 city. Landing at Boston, he there became a freeman 
 in 1636; three years later (1639) he came to Con- 
 necticut, locating at Stratford, Fairfield county, 
 where he passed the rest of his days, dying in 1652. 
 In 1647 hs was a representative at Hartford. He 
 and his wife, Margaret, had six children, as fol- 
 lows: (i) John, born in 1633; (2) Joseph, who 
 died in 1703; (3) Samuel, deceased March 12,- 
 1713; (4) Sarah, Mrs. John Meigs, who died Nov. 
 24, 1691 ; (5) Obadiah, sketch of whom follows; 
 and (6) Timothy, deceased June 13, 1713. 
 
 (II) Obadiah Wilcox, son of (I) William, was 
 born in 1641 in the town of Stratford, Conn., 
 whence in early manhood he came to Guilford, set- 
 tling in the eastern part of the town, now known, 
 as Madison, and following farming. In 1672 he 
 was made a freeman. He died in 1713, and was 
 buried in Aladison. Mr. Wilcox was twice mar- 
 ried, and by his first wife, Mary, had thirteen chil- 
 dren, as follows: (i) Mary, born Dec. 11, 1676, 
 married Thomas Munson, of New Haven; (2) 
 Lydia, born Oct. 14, 1678, died Nov. 4, 1698; (3) 
 Obadiah was born Dec. 14, 1679 ; (4) Ebenezer was 
 born Sept. 20, 1682; (5) Ephraim ; (6) Mindwell 
 was married April 20, 1714, to Daniel Hill, and 
 died Feb. 3, 1770; (7) Timothy was born Nov. 15,. 
 1690; (8) Silence; (9) John, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows; (10) Joseph, born in 1694, married Hannah. 
 Goodale, and died July 15, 1770; (11) Isaac settled 
 in Middletown ; (12) Jemima was born Oct. 30,. 
 1699; (13) Experience. By his second wife. 
 Silence, Mr. Wilcox had one child, ( 14) Thankful,, 
 born April 4, 1702, who was married Sept. 6, 1722, 
 to Samuel Norton. 
 
 (III) John Wilcox, son of (II) Obadiah, was- 
 born Nov. 9, 1692, in East Guilford, where he 
 passed all his days in agricultural pursuits, dying' 
 May I, 1753. On Jan. 11, 1719, he married De- 
 borah Parmelee, born in 1699, who died in 1792. 
 Their children: (i) Obadiah, born April 15, 1720,. 
 married Lydia Wilcox, and died in 1771 ; (2) 
 Sarah was born Nov. 10, 1723 ; (3) John, born Aug. 
 17, 1726, married Martha Coe; (4) Ezra, sketch of 
 whom follows; (5) Mary, born Dec. i, 1731, mar- 
 ried in November, 1753, Enos French; and died 
 Sept. 28, 1777; (6) Asabel was born Dec. 9, 1735. 
 
 (IV) Ezra Wilcox, son of (HI) John, born- 
 Oct. 20, 1728, passed all his days in East Guilford, 
 dying there March 14, 1805. He married Nov. 9,- 
 1757, Esther Meigs, who was born March 19, 1734,. 
 a daughter of Janna and Elizabeth (Dudley) Meigs, 
 and died Sept. 8, 1809. Children as follows were- 
 born to them: (i) Lavinia, born July 17, 1758, 
 married Bela Dudley; (2) Ezra, born in 1762, mar- 
 ried Rebecca Brown, and died May i, 1836; (3) 
 Esther, married Jo'hn Williams; (4) Elzah, born 
 March 8, 1765, married Lois Field, and died Feb. 
 24, 1828; (s) Julius; (6) Elizabeth, married John- 
 Spencer; (7) Return, sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (V) Return Wilcox, son of (IV) Ezra, and the- 
 grandfather of Richard C. Wilcox, was born in- 
 
ioo6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 77 1, in what is now the town of Madison, New 
 Haven county, and died there Nov. 28, 1846. He 
 was a Hfelong farmer. By his wife, Abigail, born 
 May 23, 1780, died May 31, 1845, he had seven 
 children, as follows: (i) Alva Orrin, born Aug. 
 22, 1799, died July 10, 1887; (2) Polly Maria, born 
 Aug. 2, 1801, married Ebenezer Merrill, of Clinton, 
 Conn.; (3) Elizabeth, born Sept. 8, 1803, married 
 Sept. 4, 1828, Edward F. Kelsey, of Madison, and 
 died March 15, 1888; (4) Jerusha, born in July, 
 1806, married in August, 1824, Samuel K. Dowd, 
 and died June 3, 1841 ; (5) Almon Orrill, sketch 
 of whom follows; (6) Susan Abigail, born in 181 5, 
 married Sept. 19, 1838, Achilles Dowd, of Madi- 
 son; (7) Samuel Augustus, born July 19, 1819, died 
 Dec. 13, 1876. 
 
 (VI) Almon Orrill Wilcox, son of (V) Return, 
 and the father of Richard C, was bom April 24, 
 1808, in the town of Madison, New Haven count)', 
 there attended the district school, and worked on a 
 farm until he was twenty-five years old, when he 
 came to Guilford. Here his first employment was 
 as a farm laborer at $5 per month. Later he pur- 
 chased a small farm, where he continued agricul- 
 tural pursuits the rest of his life, dying Sept. 16, 
 1874; his remains were interred in Nut Plains 
 cemetery. Noted for his industry and honesty, he 
 was highly respected in the community in which 
 he lived, 'in politics he was first a AVhig, later a 
 Republican, and in religious faith he was a con- 
 sistent member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 In Guilford, Oct. 6, 1830, Almon O. Wilcox was 
 married to Ruth D. Kennedy, who was born May 
 3, 1812, and died Jan. 28, 1875. She was a daugh- 
 ter of Anson Kennedy, of Guilford. Their chil- 
 dren: (i) Sarah Dorcas, born Nov. 2, 1833, mar- 
 ried Jan. 13, 1855, Charles M. Wilcox, and died 
 March 26, 1857; (2) Charlotte Abigail, born Nov. 
 25, 1836, is the widow of Andrew Ward Foote, 
 late of Guilford (he was born April 27, 1833, and 
 died Dec. 16, 1880) ; (3) Helen Sophia, born July 
 21, 1844, died ^ilarch 14, 1865; (4) Richard Chris- 
 topher, a sketch of whom follows; (5) George 
 Howard, born March 21, 1849, married Mary E. 
 Bishop, and died Nov. 14, 1888; (6) Walter Wes- 
 ley, born Dec. 14, 1851, married Lucy M. Evarts. 
 
 (VII) Richard C. Wilcox, whose name opens 
 this memoir, received his education in part at the 
 district schools of Nut Plains, in part at Guilford 
 Academy, where he attended four terms. He 
 worked at home until of age, when with aid from 
 his father, he bought the farm on which he now 
 lives, known as "Cloverdale Dairy Farm," a tract 
 of fifty-six acres formerly owned by Juston Dudley, 
 and which was then a wilderness. Here he built 
 a home in 1870, and since then has erected barns, 
 outhouses' and a dairy ice house, etc., costing in 
 all over $12,000. His home and surroundings are 
 among the finest in Guilford. Until 1894 he carried 
 on general farming, and then embarked in dairying, 
 butter-making a specialty, and from time to time 
 
 has increased the capacitv of his business until he 
 now owns the largest dairy farm on the shore line. 
 He manufactures and sells over $1,700 worth of 
 butter per annum, and sells $1,600 worth of milk 
 and cream in the same period. Since his first pur- 
 chase of land he has bought another farm of 100 
 acres near the homestead, and has leased several 
 other farms. He has now (1901) a herd of thirty- 
 six Jersevs and grade Jersey cows, and a fine Jersey 
 bull of his own raising. The following sketch of 
 "Cloverdale Dairy Farm" appeared in the report of 
 the Dairy Commissioner for 1898: 
 
 "The' Cloverdale Dairy Farm originated about 
 six years ago with four cows. The cream from tlis 
 milk of those cows was sold to the Guilford Cream- 
 ery for about five months, when it was decided to 
 make butter in a small way. The butter for the 
 first vear was sold for two cents below the whole- 
 sale creamery price, because the grocers could not 
 pay the creamery prices. The last year nearly 
 the entire make has been sold to families at thirty 
 cents per pound the year around, and in fact, it has 
 been so the last four years. Mr. AVilcox is now 
 selling cream, new milk, skim milk and buttermilk, 
 one of his sons running a wagon daily in the town. 
 He uses a DeLaval cream separator, which enables 
 him to have sweet skim milk every day. His herd 
 consists of twenty-eight Jerseys and grade Jerseys, 
 feeding hav and dry food, not having a silo. Mr. 
 Wilcox manufactured over three tons of butter in 
 1897, which was nearly all disposed of at prices 
 above mentioned." 
 
 ]\Ir. AVilcox is a man of enterprise and progress, 
 and takes a leading part all things pertaining to 
 farming and dairying, and to the town in general. 
 He is one of the most active members of the State 
 Creamery Association and of the State Dairy Asso- 
 ciation. Being a well-read man, he is well posted 
 on all the leading events of the day, and has made 
 a success of life entirely by his own efforts, persever- 
 ance and good management. Though a stanch 
 Republican in politics, he is no party man ; in re- 
 ligious faith he is a member of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church. Socially he is affiliated with the 
 Royal Arcanum and New England Order of Pro- 
 tection. 
 
 In Branford, Conn., Oct. 5, 1870, Richard C. 
 Wilcox was married to Lucy Caroline Page, a native 
 of that town, and a daughter of Edgar and Jane G. 
 (Robinson) Page. Four children, all sons, have 
 blessed this union, their names and dates of birtli 
 being as follows: Lewis Cornelius, Feb. 6, 1872; 
 Elmer Ellsworth, Sept. 8, 1874; Edgar Almon, Aug. 
 18, 1877; and Richard Lester, April 28, 1879, 
 All are well educated, and all excepting Richard 
 L. are engaged in their father's dairying and stock- 
 raising business, proving themselves to be worthy 
 sons of worthy parents, as well as progressive and 
 advanced farmers. ]\Irs. Wilcox is a lady of re- 
 finement, a dfevoted helpmeet to her husband, a 
 loving mother, and kind, hospitable neighbor. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1007 
 
 JOSEPH P. COLWELL, one of the leading^ 
 business men of Derby, was born in Hartford, April 
 26, 184s, and grew to manhood there. His early 
 educational advantages were of a very limited sort, 
 necessity compelling him to begin work at an early 
 age. While yet a young boy he fomid employment 
 in the carpet factory, and the outbreak of the Civil 
 War found him- a servant in the household of Dr. 
 M. T. Newton. Being too young to enlist, yet de- 
 sirous of going to the front, he accompanied the 
 Doctor in the same capacity, and was thus able to 
 serve three years. On his return from the army he 
 went to work for the Colt Arms Co., with whom he 
 remained for about two years. In 1866 he removed 
 to Derby, which city, as has been said, is still his 
 home. Here, too, his life for many years was one 
 of hard and constant toil. In 1887 he entered the 
 employ of Mr. Thomas Finn, an undertaker, and in 
 1891 embarked in the same line of business for him- 
 self, having as a partner Peter Reilly, and the firm 
 name being Colwell & Reilly. The partnership 
 was dissolved after three years, and since 1894 Mr. 
 Colwell has carried on the business alone. Under 
 his judicious management it has prospered greatly, 
 and he is now reaping the well earned reward of a 
 life of patient industry and unfailing integrity. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Colwell was married to Miss Mary 
 Ann Kelledy, of Derby, whose father, Matthew 
 Kelledy, was born in Ireland. His married life 
 lasted but twelve years, Mrs. Colwell dying in 
 1885. Of their union there are three children liv- 
 ing. Henry, Joseph and Mary. Mr. Colwell is a 
 Democrat in politics, and in religious faith a Cath- 
 olic, being a communicant at St. Mary's Church. 
 For thirty years he has been a member of the 
 Storm Hose Company, of Derby, and has risen 
 from the ranks to hold the position of chief engin- 
 eer. He is of a genial, generous nature, and 
 social in his proclivities and mode of life, and is an 
 influential and honored member of various societies. 
 Among these organizations are the Knights of Col- 
 umbus (of which order he is a past master), the 
 Foresters of America, the Knights of Maccabees, 
 and the Catholic Benevolent Legion of America. 
 
 MRS. CLARA A. BOND, of Woodbridge, be- 
 'longs to an, old and honored New Haven county 
 family, which was founded here by one Richard 
 Sperry, who came from England about 1660. Her 
 paternal great-grandfather, Ebenezer Sperry, was a 
 native of Woodbridge, born July 27, 1773, on what 
 is known as the Sperry farm and is still owned by 
 the Sperry family. The house standing thereon 
 was built when he was. a child of five years. He 
 wedded Mary Newton Booth, also a native of 
 Woodbridge and a daughter of Walter a^d Mary 
 (Newton) Booth. He died Oct. 26, 1855, and she 
 departed this life Feb. 2, 1865, at the age of eighty- 
 two years. They had two children, of whom Cal- 
 vin, the grandfather of our subject, was the young- 
 est. Eunice married Edward Hine, of Woodbridge, 
 
 and to them were born three children: Catherine 
 Mary, who wedded the late Riley Peck, of New 
 Haven, and died Nov. 5, 1901, aged seventy-four 
 years; Sarah Antoinette, widow of Birdsey Brad- 
 ley, of Hamden ; and \'elina, wife of Lewis Hitch- 
 cock, of Woodbridge. 
 
 Calvin Sperry was born on the old homestead, 
 in December, 1807, and there spent his entire life 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits. In addition to 
 general farming he was also engaged in the milk 
 business for a time, and in his undertakings met 
 with fair success. He was a stanch supporter of the 
 Republican party and its principles, and was a con- 
 sistent member of the Congregational Church of 
 Woodbridge. After an honorable and useful career, 
 he died May 28, 1871, in his sixty-fourth year. He 
 was three times married, his first wife being Sarah 
 A. Carrington, daughter of Liverus and Lowly Car- 
 rington. She died Jan. 23, 1853, ^^ the ^S^ of forty- 
 four years, and he next married Cynthia Riggs, by 
 whom he had one daughter, Eleanor, now deceased. 
 The third wife was Parentha Baldwin. There were 
 three children by the first marriage, namely : Elizur 
 L., father of our subject; Almira E., now Mrs. 
 George Turner, of Woodbridge; and Sarah An- 
 geline, who died April 19, 1849, ^t the age of ten 
 years. 
 
 Elizur L. Sperry was born Feb. 5, 1831, on the 
 old homestead in the town of Woodbridge, where 
 Mrs. Bond now lives, and he was given the best edu- 
 cational advantages, being a graduate of Yale. On 
 Jan. 16, 1856, he was married in Dudley, Mass., 
 to Miss Sarah Loretta Williams, who was born 
 April ID, 1831, and soon after his marriage he 
 moved to Vandalia, 111., where he was engaged in 
 farming for several years — an occupation he thor- 
 oughly understood, having been trained to it on 
 the home farm. From Illinois, he returned to 
 Woodbridge, and here engaged in general farming. 
 In 1890 he visited a son in Florida, and being 
 pleased with the climate and State, he decided to 
 make it his winter home. Accordingly, the follow- 
 ing year he bought an orange grove of twenty-five 
 acres, and' spent the great part of the time in Florida 
 until his death Aug. 16, 1901, at the age of seventy 
 years. Politically he was a stanch Republican, and 
 as one of the prominent and influential men of his 
 community, he was called upon to flll many of the 
 town offices, such as selectman, member of the 
 school board, and for many years justice of the 
 peace. In his family were four children : ( i ) 
 William I., born June 16, 1857, died June 22, 1857. 
 (2) Clara A., our subject, is mentioned below. (3) 
 Calvin Waldo, born Oct. 20, 1863, married H. 
 Louie Keys, and they have three children: Sarah 
 L., born April 10, 1890; Marion K., born Aug. 28, 
 1892; and Carlton, born April 22, 1895. (4) 
 Sarah Adeline, born Mav 6, 1867, died Dec. 26, 
 1884. 
 
 Mrs. Bond was born Feb. 4, 1861, and was mar- 
 ried Aug. 15, 1883, to Charles Bond, a native of 
 
ioo8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Oxford, Mass., by whom she has two children : 
 Herbert L,, born Sept. 28, 1884; and Mabel Sperry, 
 born July 31, 1890. Mr. Bond is an extensive 
 and successful farmer of Woodbridge, cultivating 
 the flats long known as the Sperry farm, and also 
 operates- a cider and sawmill. He is a wide-awake, 
 energetic business man, of progressive ideas, and is 
 quite prominent in the community where he resides. 
 In politics he is a Republican. 
 
 Dr. EMELINE ROBERTS JONES, of_ New 
 Haven, has the distinction of being the pioneer 
 woman dentist — the first woman to open independ- 
 ently an office and offer her services to the public 
 as a competent dentist. 
 
 Dr. Jones was born July 26, 1836, in Winches- 
 ter, Conn., daughter of John Eno and Deborah 
 Hungerford (Blakeslee) Roberts, and is descended 
 in both paternal and maternal lines from honorable 
 New England ancestry. Samuel Roberts, her ear- 
 liest ancestor of that name on American soil, came 
 from England about 1636 and settled in New Haven. 
 His son, (H) Samuel Roberts, married Catherine 
 ■ . His son, (HI) Samuel Roberts, mar- 
 ried Sept. 22, 1691, Mary Blake. His son, (IV) 
 Samuel Roberts, married March 22, 1716-17, Ra- 
 chel Webb. His son, (V) Joel Roberts, married 
 Esther Loomis. His son, (VI) Judah Roberts, 
 married Mercy Eno. His son, (VII) John Eno 
 Roberts, married Deborah Hungerford Blakeslee, 
 and they were the parents of Dr. Emeline R. Jones. 
 
 (I) Samuel Blakeslee, Dr. Jones' first American 
 ancestor in the maternal line, came from England 
 in 1636. His son, (II) Samuel Blakeslee, married 
 Sarah Kimberly. His son, (III) Samuel Blakeslee, 
 married Eleanor Lane. His son, (IV) Deacon Sam- 
 uel Blakeslee, married Ruth . His son, 
 
 (V) Deacon Samuel Blakeslee, married Lydia 
 Woodford. His son, (VI) Deacon Samuel Blakes- 
 lee, married Silence Church. His daughter, (VII) 
 Deborah Hungerford, married John Eno Roberts, 
 and they became the parents of Dr. Emeline R. 
 Jones. The Doctor is descended from William the 
 Conqueror through the Plantagenets, in the Drake 
 line. Five of her ancestors fought on the American 
 side in the Revolution, and a number were promi- 
 nent in the trying times dating from the landing 
 of the Pilgrim Fathers through the Colonial period, 
 loyal and patriotic to the core. 
 
 In 1854 Emeline Roberts was united in marriage 
 with Dr. Daniel Albion Jones, born March 2, 1833, 
 in Barkhamsted, Litchfield Co., Conn., son of Orville 
 and Rhoda (Woodruff) Jones. He was descended 
 from William Jones, a lawyer of London, England, 
 who came to New England in 1660, in the same 
 .ship with Goffe and Whalley, the regicides, arriving 
 in Boston July 27. It is said that his father, David 
 Jones, was one of the judges executed by King 
 Charles II, and William Jones is reputed to have 
 secreted and fed the regicides a month in his house. 
 From Boston he came to New Haven, where he was 
 
 an important man throughout the remainder of his. 
 life. He was magistrate of New Haven Colony 
 from 1662 to 1664, and was re-elected annually 
 until 1692, when be was elected deputy governor,, 
 in which incumbency he was retained until his death, 
 in 1706. His son, (II) Nathaniel Jones, born in, 
 England, died in New Haven Aug. 21, 1691. On. 
 Oct. 7, 1684, he married Abigail Atwater. His son, 
 (III) Theophilus Jones, born March 18, 1690, mar- 
 ried Dec. 26, 171 1, Hannah Mix. His son, (IV) 
 Nathaniel Jones, born March 3, 1717, married June 
 8 1743, Sarah Merriam. His son, (V) Benjamin 
 Jones, born Feb. 5, 1757, at Wallingford, married 
 Esther AVoodruff. His son, (VI) Orville Jones, 
 married Rhoda Woodruff, and they were the par- 
 ents of (VII) Daniel Albion Jones, who married 
 Emeline Roberts. Dr. Daniel A. Jones was also^ 
 descended from William the Conqueror through the 
 Plantagenets, twice in the Drake line and once in 
 the Alsop line. 
 
 Dr. Daniel Albioni Jones was a dentist of excep- 
 tional skill, and a man of ability in various lines. 
 He was widely known and beloved outside his pro- 
 fession, especiallv as a philanthropist, and his un- 
 timely death, in '1864, deprived the profession of a 
 worthy member, the community of a citizen^ who 
 from early manhood had, in his large-hearted be- 
 nevolence, the good of his fellow men at heart, and 
 his family of a kind and loving father. Mrs. Jones 
 had commenced the study of dentistry with her hus- 
 band in 1855, and for a time received instruction 
 from Dr. R. B. Curtis, of Winsted, Conn. Her 
 husband had built up a large practice in Danielson- 
 ville (now Danielson), and, having assisted him' 
 until his death, she continued the establishment 
 there successfully until 1876, in which year she 
 moved to New Haven in order to give her son better 
 educational opportunities. She was no less success- 
 ful in her new field, and has taken high rank among 
 the ablest members of the dental profession in Con- 
 necticut; she is a member of the State Dental So- 
 ciety. 
 
 Inheriting independence of thought and action, 
 together with the New England virtues of thrift, 
 executive ability and thoroughness, Dr. Jones has- 
 been exceptionally successful in her business career. 
 The resolution she displayed in taking up the work 
 her husband began is a typical characteristic of this 
 noble woman, who has shown herself capable in 
 other fields besides that of her life work. As the 
 pioneer woman in her profession she enjoys a dis- 
 tinction not lightly reckoned in these days, when 
 women are receiving the recognition due them for 
 their achievements. Other women may have assist-- 
 ed in dental offices prior to 1855, but so far as known 
 she is the first to open an office on her own account. 
 To her natural mental acquisitiveness is added clear 
 and quick perception, and a corresponding fullness 
 of the reasoning faculties. Nor is she deficient in 
 such social graces and qualities of affection as are- 
 needed to constitute her the best of mothers and the- 
 
(77/2->-,^-€^U^^u^u^ 
 
 ^'S-^t'-xX^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1009 
 
 most serviceable of friends. Her active and wide- 
 reaching benevolence has been exercised quietly, and 
 many and timely have been her benefactions. Dr. 
 Jones is an honored member of Mary Clap Wooster 
 Chapter, D. A. R. 
 
 Two children were born to Daniel A. and Erne- 
 line (Roberts) Jones: Eveline, who was six years 
 of age at the time of her father's death ; and Daniel 
 Albion, who was three and a half years old at that 
 time. The daughter is now the wife of Frederick 
 B. Street, a prominent business man of New Haven, 
 and has two daughters, Emeline A., now (1901) 
 aged sixteen, who is attending Vassar; and Grace 
 H., aged eleven, who is a pupil in Mrs. Johnstone's 
 private school. Mrs. Sweet is a member of the 
 Daughters of the American Revolution, in the work 
 of which she has taken a very active part, and her 
 children belong to the Children of the American 
 Revolution, of which Emeline has served as regis- 
 trar. Like her mother, Mrs. Street is an energetic 
 woman, doing with a will whatever she undertakes, 
 and she has a kind and lovable disposition which 
 endears her to a large circle of friends. Well read 
 on a very large variety of subjects, keen and observ- 
 ing, with the quick perceptive faculties characteris- 
 tic of the family, and endowed with a ready wit, 
 she is a most interesting conversationalist and a 
 pleasant companion. She is also a fine musician, 
 having taken a course in music at the New England 
 Conservatory of Music. 
 
 Daniel Albion Jones graduated at the Yale Aca- 
 demic School in 1884, and studied dentistry three 
 years with his mother before entering the Harvard 
 Dental School, from which he received the degree 
 of D. D. S. in 1889. In 1890 he received the de- 
 gree of M. D. from Yale Medical School. At Yale 
 he was a member of the Glee Club arid for four 
 .years was on the base-ball team. He has been suc- 
 cessfully engaged in the practice of dentistry for 
 the past fourteen years, and is a prominent member 
 of the State Dental Society, of which he has now 
 been treasurer for ten years. Fraternally Dr. Jones 
 unites with the Masons, the Yale University Club 
 and other organizations. He is welcomed in social 
 circles irj the city for his many pleasing qualities, 
 notably his attainments as a musician ; he has re- 
 ceived fine musical training, and has a number of 
 pupils. Dr. Jones married Miss Emma Beadle, 
 daughter of Joseph Blakeslee Beadle, of Montclair, 
 New Jersey. 
 
 CHARLES A. DAVIS, one of the active, 
 prominent and enterprising citizens of the town 
 of Oxford, New Haven county, has, through- 
 out his entire business career, been identified 
 with the agricultural interests of that town. He 
 was born at Quaker Farms, this county, 
 June 13, 1858, a son of Anson R. and Mary 
 A. (Ailing) Davis. The father, who followed 
 farming throughout his life, was born in Seymour, 
 this county, and died in Oxford, May 5, 1885, at 
 
 64 
 
 the age of sixty-seven years. The mother, how- 
 ever, is still living, at the age of eighty-one years. 
 In their family were seven children, as follows: 
 Mary E., wife of W. T. Andrews, of Orange, 
 Conn.; Ellen L., wife of W. F. Osborne, of An- 
 sonia ; Laura B., wife of John M. Hubbard, of West 
 Haven ; Emma E. ; Charles A. ; Stella L., wife of 
 F. A. Bailey, of Springfield, Mass. ; and Eveline A. 
 
 Charles A. Davis was reared in much the usual 
 manner of farmer boys of his day, and early ac- 
 quired an excellent knowledge ' of all the duties 
 wliich fall to the lot of the agriculturist. He as- 
 sisted in the operation of the home farm until his 
 father's death. Mr. Davis now owns and resides 
 upon a place of 260 acres, known as the old Mallett 
 homestead, which he purchased in the spring of 
 1899, and is quite extensively engaged in the dairy 
 business and general farming. 
 
 On Oct. 20, 1886, Mr. Davis was united in 
 marriage with Mrs. Mary Lum, widow of H. A. 
 Lvim, and daughter of M. D. Northrop. To them 
 has been born one child, Ralph E. Politically Mr, 
 Davis is identified with the Republican party, and 
 religiously he is a member of the Episcopal Church, 
 He is one of the most enterprising and successful 
 dairymen and farmers of Oxford, and as a citizen 
 stands deservedly high in the esteem of his fellow 
 men. His strict integrity and honorable dealing in 
 business commend him to the confidence of all ; his 
 pleasant manner wins him friends, and he is one of 
 the popular and honored citizens of his community. 
 
 CHARLES O'CONNOR, prominent as a con- 
 tractor and builder in Waterbury, Conn., was born 
 in Ireland, Dec. 25, 1848, one of the two children of 
 Timothy and Mary (Lynch) O'Connor, the other 
 being Johanna, who died when a little girl in the old 
 country. The mother also died in Ireland. On: 
 coming to America the father married for his sec- 
 ond wife Johanna Kelleher, to which union were 
 born six children, viz. Thomas, who is a laborer 
 in Manchester, Conn. ; Daniel, a fireman on a rail- 
 road in Pittsburg, Penn. ; Michael, assistant pastor 
 of St. Mary's Church in New Britain, Conn. ; Timo- 
 thy, employed in a mill in Manchester, Conn. ; 
 Mary and Ellen, unmarried and residing in Man- 
 chester. Timothy, the father of this family, was- 
 educated for the priesthood in Ireland, but did not 
 follow the profession and came to America and 
 here passed the remainder of his days. 
 
 Charles O'Connor was but a child when brought 
 to America. His father located in Providence, R. 
 I., and there our subject attended school until 
 twelve years of age. He then worked on a famr 
 for one dollar per month and board and night 
 schooling for about three years, then returned tO' 
 Providence, where he began 'to learn the carpenter's 
 trade under George Brown. He worked for three 
 years for $90, or $30 per year, and had a hard 
 time of it. After finishing his apprenticeship he 
 worked as a journeyman for two years in Provi- 
 
lOIO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 dence, and then went to Boston, worked one year 
 then for nine months again in Providence, then one 
 year in Fall River, Mass., again two years in 
 Providence, and next for six months in Savannah, 
 (ja., in which city he shipped for six months as 
 carpenter on board the side wheel steamer "General 
 Barnes," running South. He then returned to the 
 North, and for two and a half years worked for 
 Cheney Bros., in Hartford. 
 
 In 1875 Mr. O'Connor began business for him- 
 self at contracting and building in Manchester, 
 Conn., where he remained about four and a half 
 years, and then went to Denver and other places in 
 Colorado, following his trade ^bout fourteen 
 months. Upon his return to Connecticut he settled 
 in Waterbury, and has since been one of the most 
 extensive and successful contractors and builders of 
 the city. Among some of the more conspicuous 
 buildings erected by him are the new almshouse at 
 a cost of $100,000, the new high school, $80,000, 
 Notre Dame $35,000, St. Mary's school, St. Mary's 
 convent, St. Patrick's Hall, St. Patrick's rectory, 
 St. Thomas' Church, and many imposing stores and 
 elegant dwellings. During all this time Mr. O'Con- 
 ner has been so straightforward and upright in h's 
 transactions that he has never yet been sued, nor has 
 he had occasion to sue any man. 
 
 Mr. O'Connor wedded Joanna O'Reiley, who 
 was born in Ireland, but reared in the United 
 States, and this marriage has been blessed with five 
 children, namely : Minnie, who is a teacher in the 
 Clay street school ; Julia, deceased ; Alice, who is 
 a teacher in Washington school ; Charles S., attend- 
 ing the high school ; and Margaret, also in high 
 school. In politics Mr. O'Connor is independent, 
 as, being unusually intelligent, he is fully capable of 
 judging for himself. Fraternally he is a member of 
 the Knights of Columbus and of the Independent 
 Order of Foresters. He and famil)' are devout 
 members of the Church of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception, to the support of which they are among 
 the most liberal contributors. 
 
 GEORGE HENRY FURMAN, superintend- 
 ent of the straw hat factory at Milford, was born 
 in that town Dec. 14, 1847, son of Henry Furman 
 and grandson of William Furman. 
 
 The family is of English origin, and our sub- 
 ject's great-grandfather was one of three brothers — 
 (ieorge, James and William — who came to America 
 at an early day. William Furman, our suljject's 
 grandfather, may have been born in England. Fie 
 became a farmer in Morris, Otsego Co., N. Y., 
 where he died. His wife Rhoda (Thorp) was a 
 native of North Haven, Conn., and their family 
 comprised nine children: Henry, our suljject's 
 father, is mentioned below ; James, a painter h\' 
 trade, died in Milford ; Charles, formerly a farmer, 
 is now a resident of Millington, Midi.; Chauncc}- 
 (deceased) ^vas a farmer in Micliigan; Lucinda 
 married John Soden ; Louisa married a }\Ir. W^an- 
 
 zer, of West Laurens, N. Y. ; Mary became the sec- 
 ond wife of John Soden ; Emeline married' Erie 
 Tucker, of West Laurens, N. Y. ; and Maria mar- 
 ried Harvey Wing, of Morris, New York. 
 
 Henry Furman, our subject's father, was born in 
 Morris, N. Y., Jan. 12, 1823, and removed to Mil- 
 ford when twenty-three years old. He married 
 Charlotte Glenne}', of Milford, who was born there 
 June 14, 1822, and is a descendant of one of the 
 oldest pioneer families in the State, her ancestors 
 coming originally from England. Her grandfather, 
 William Glenney, fought in the war of the Revolu- 
 tion. The homestead of her grandfather, Abraham 
 Clark, in the western part of the town, now known 
 as the "Wilson Home," though over two hundred 
 vears old, is habitable and in a good state of 
 preservation. The Glenneys were sea-faring men 
 for generations. William Glenney, her grand- 
 father, was a sea-captain and died at sea. His 
 sons were all sea captains, some of them in the 
 West India trade. Captain William Glenney, Mrs. 
 Furman's father, married Amy Clark, of Milford, 
 and they had the following children : William, a 
 shoemaker in Milford; Isaac D., employed in the 
 straw hat factory in iNIilford ; Daniel S., who died 
 in New Haven, where he was engaged in mer- 
 cantile business for many years ; Maria, wife of 
 Ralph Augur, of Pittsfield, Mass. ; Charlotte, our 
 subject's mother; Sarah, who married George 
 Beard, of St. Louis, Mo. ; and Susan, who married 
 Henry Tibballs, of Milford. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Furman were born four children : George Henry, 
 our subject; Mary F., wife of Samuel N. Oviatt, 
 of Milford; Susan G. (deceased), who married 
 Frank H. Woodruff, of Milford ; and Sarah, wife 
 of George. W. Smith, of Milford. The father diad 
 Jan. I, 1885, and the mother is still living. 
 
 George H. Furman was reared in his native 
 town, acquiring a common-school education, and at 
 the age of sixteen entered the straw hat factory 
 then known as the N. A. Baldwin & Co.'s works. 
 His ability soon won him promotion, and for many 
 years he has held the position of superintendent. 
 On May 21, 1868, he married Elizabeth Mitchell, 
 and two children have blessed the union: (i) 
 Henry I\I., born Alarch 5, 1872, married Oct. 26, 
 1892, Jessie S. Smith, who died July 15, 1895. In 
 November, 1898, he married Hannah Woodbury, of 
 Round Pond, Me. He is now a clerk with S. N. 
 Oviatt, of Milford. (2) Charlotte E., born June 
 24, 1879, is at home. The familv are much es- 
 teemed socially. They are identified with the Ply- 
 mouth Congregational Church, and Mr. Furman is 
 also a member of the Order of United Workmen, 
 Golden Hill Lodge, No. 35, A. O. U. W., of Bridge- 
 port, and the Ro>al Arcanum, \'olunteer Council, 
 No. 819, of Milford. In politics he is a Democrat. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Furman was born Feb. 19, 1845, 
 in Glasglow, Scotland, daughter of Rdbert and El- 
 len (A'ance) Mitchell, both natives and lifelong resi- 
 dents of Scotland. The family consisted of four 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 lOII 
 
 children, of whom Mrs. Furman was the youngest; 
 John died in Southbury, Mass. ; Robert is a baker 
 in Dubhn, Ireland ; and Maggie, who was married 
 in Scotland, died there in 1893. 
 
 ALPHONSE GENDRON was bom March 28, 
 1846, in Vergeres, Canada. Antoine Genclron, his 
 father, was a farmer in Canada for a number of 
 vears, and married Eliza Savaria, who bore him a 
 family of five boys and five girls, of whom Alphonse 
 is the only one now living. 
 
 Alphonse Gendron worked on the Canadian 
 farm until he was seventeen years of age, when he 
 came to Woonsocket, R. I., and secured a position 
 in a woolen mill, where he presently became fore- 
 man, remaining there altogether for about five years. 
 Quitting his place in Woonsocket he went to New 
 Bedford, Mass., and for the sake of an out-of-door 
 life, became a carpenter, working at the trade for 
 about three years. For about a year and a half, at 
 New Britain, Conn., he was in the employ of John 
 Pinches. At Meriden he was a grocer for thir- 
 teen years, and then, selling his store, he resumed 
 his trade, working for wages two years, and then 
 doing a contracting and building business for three 
 years. At the expiration of this time, Mr. Gendron 
 came to Wallingford, where, since October, 1896, 
 he has been extensively engaged in contracting and 
 building, and is well known as a man of industry 
 and integrity. Among his construction operations 
 are several fine residences, and it was his business 
 push and enterprise that opened up Randolph 
 Avenue, and Orchard Street south of Ward Street, 
 as well as Kelley Street. 
 
 Mr. Gendron is a member of Holy Trinity 
 Church in Wallingford. Independent in politics, 
 he seeks to bring the best men and the most de- 
 sirable measures together. Doing his own think- 
 ing, and well informed as to the political issues of 
 the day, he decides for himself as reason and good 
 sense may seem to dictate. 
 
 On July 29, 1872, Mr. Gendron was married 
 to Miss Louisa Pager, of Canada, and to them 
 were born the following children : Alicia Marie, 
 born June 15, 1880, in New Britain; Alveric, born 
 Sept. 4, 1886, in Meriden; Cora, born Jan. i, 1889, 
 in Meriden; and Umalda, born July 8, 1891, in 
 Meriden. Seven other children died when young. 
 Mr. Gendron built a fine home for his family on 
 South Orchard Street in 1898. 
 
 CHARLES BROOKSBY SANDERSON, pro- 
 prietor of the up-to-date meat and provision store 
 at the corner of North Main and Grove Streets, 
 Waterbury, was born in Ephratah, Fulton county, 
 N. Y., April 26, 1855. 
 
 John Sanderson, grandfather of Charles B., 
 was an Episcopal clergyman in England. By his 
 marriage he became the father of nine children, all 
 of whom were conspicuous in various professions. 
 
 George A. Sanderson, the father of subject. 
 
 was born at Darfield, England, Oct. q, 1809, and was 
 the only member of his family to come to America. 
 He had a good college education and was possessed 
 of considerable cash. He first located in Albany, 
 N. Y., where he conducted a hotel five years, and 
 then removed to Ephratah, where he operated a tan- 
 nery twenty years. He married Margaret Brooks- 
 by, who was born in Scotland, Nov. 5, 1825, and was 
 about ten years of age when brought to America 
 by her parents. Her father, James Brooksby, was 
 a nurseryman, and was associated with a Mr. Wil- 
 son, who introduced the famous Wilson strawberry 
 to the epicurean world. Of the nine children born 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Sanderson, eight reached, or nearly 
 reached, maturity, as follows : Jane married to D. 
 W. Duesler, of Ephratah; William died when six- 
 teen years old ; Aymour R. is a merchant in Provi- 
 dence, R. I.; Charles B. is the subject of this 
 sketch ; Wilson A. is a contractor in Ephratah ; 
 Luella M. married' to Peter I. Saltsman, of Water- 
 bury, Conn. ; Carrie W. is the wife of Charles L. 
 Rogers, also of Waterbury ; and Henry B. is the 
 proprietor of the Valley View Meat Market, Water- 
 bury. 
 
 Charles B. Sanderson attended school in Ephra- 
 tah until fifteen years of age, and then passed three 
 years with his grandmother in Hudson, N. Y. ; he 
 then returned to Ephratah, and remained until 
 twenty-one years old, when he went thence to 
 Woonsocket, R. I., and clerked in a gents' furnish- 
 ing store. In 1876 he came to Waterbury, Conn., 
 but in 1878 returned to Woonsocket, where in con- 
 nection with his brother, A. R., he bought the store 
 in which he had formerly clerked. Returning to 
 Waterbury, Mr. Sanderson opened his present meat 
 and provision store in 1881, and he is enjoying a 
 most lucrative trade in his line of business. 
 
 On Sept. 29, 1882, Mr. Sanderson was married 
 to Miss Nettie L. Bronson, a daughter of O. H. 
 Bronson, of Waterbury, and this marriage was 
 graced with two children, Harry B. and Nettie B. 
 Mr. Sanderson was bereft of his wife July 27, 1885. 
 On Nov. 23, 1893, he married Miss Rachel Bush 
 Wright, daughter of George A. and Nancy (Bush) 
 Wright, the former a native of Winsted, Conn., 
 where his ancestors have lived for several genera- 
 tions (the family is of English origin, and early 
 settled in Connecticut). Mrs. Nancy (Bush) 
 Wright traces her ancestry through her mother, 
 Cornelia (Depew) Bush (who was born in Falls- 
 burg, Sullivan Co., N. Y.) in a direct line to Gen. 
 Hardenburg, who was the owner of thousands of 
 acres of land, known as the Hardenburg Patent, 
 in Sullivan county, N. Y. This land was granted 
 him by Queen Anne for distinguished service in 
 her army. Gen. Hardenburg took possession of 
 this land in the early part of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, and his descendants still live there. 
 
 Mr. Sanderson is thoroughly Republican in his 
 political sentiments, but takes no part in party af- 
 fairs, and although he keeps his dues paid up as 
 
IOI2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a member of the I. O. O. F., the Red Men, the 
 Good Fellows, the Heptasophs and other fraterni- 
 ties, he does not attend their meetings. In business 
 he is a "hustler," and his interest in this, coupled 
 with his devotion to his family, constitutes the 
 chief joy of his life. 
 
 ROBERT McCORMACK, proprietor of a coal 
 and wood yard, Waterbury, is a native of Ireland, 
 born March 15, 1840, in County Longford. 
 
 James McCormack, father of our subject, was a 
 farmer in Iceland, where he passed his entire life, 
 dying in 1855 ; his wife Ann (Cook) also died there, 
 in 1892. They had a family of nine children : John 
 is a farmer in the town of Wolcott, New Haven 
 county ; William, deceased, was a farmer in Ire- 
 land ; Bessie is the widow of Thomas Elliot, a farm- 
 er in Ireland ; James, deceased, was a farmer in 
 Ireland ; Ann is the widow of John Hall, who was 
 a farmer in Ireland; Robert is the subject of this 
 sketch ; Jane is the deceased wife of John Gibson, 
 a minister in Minnesota ; Samuel is living retired 
 in Waterbury ; Mary married William Scott, and 
 they make their home in Ireland. 
 
 Robert McCormack received his education in 
 Ireland, at the same time assisting his parents on 
 the farm. At the age of eighteen years he emi- 
 grated from his native Erin to the United States, 
 landing at New York, in which city he made his 
 home some eight years, working in shipyards two 
 years, afterward for the American Tract Society 
 some six years, and then came to Waterbury, 
 where he has ever since resided. Here he first, 
 for a short time, worked for the Scovill Mfg. Co., 
 laier for Holmes, Booth & Haydens, after which he 
 returned to the Scovill Mfg. Co., for four years, 
 where he worked at Japanning, and then engaged 
 in the Japan business on North Main Street, in 
 which he remained until 1898, in that year em- 
 barking in his present coal and wood business. 
 
 On October 6, 1881, Mr. McCormack was mar- 
 ried to Fannie Bridgeman, who was born in 
 Cheshire, New Haven county, a daughter of Sam- 
 uel Butler, an old settler in Connecticut. Three 
 children have graced this tmion : Fannie, Grace 
 and Samuel. Mr. and Mrs. McCormack are mem- 
 bers of the M. E. Church ; in politics he is a Re- 
 publican. 
 
 ELMER F. CULA^ER. It is now more than a 
 hundred years since the family to which this well- 
 known citizen belongs became identified with New 
 Haven county, and its various members have won 
 for the name an enviable distinction by their in- 
 telligence and worth. This high reputation is in 
 no ways diminished in this generation, and our 
 subject, who is counted among the leading agri- 
 culturists of East Haven, displays in a marked de- 
 gree the admirable characteristics which the name 
 suggests. 
 
 Mr. Culver was born on the farm where he now 
 
 resides, Jan. 12, 1861, and is a descendant of Joshua 
 Culver, one of the first planters of Wallingford. 
 His son, Samuel Culver, the grandfather of om- 
 subject, was a native of that town. The father, 
 Isaac Culver, was born in North Haven, Jan. 23, 
 1820, and continued his residence there until 1854, 
 when he moved to the farm in New Haven where 
 our subject now resides. Here he was engaged in 
 the manufacture of bricks until 1866, and then fol- 
 lowed farming and fruit growing, meeting with 
 excellent success in all his undertakings. He was 
 an active member of the Congregational Church, 
 and a very strong Democrat in politics. He died 
 March 26, 1889, honored and respected by all who 
 knew him. On Oct. 28, 1853, he was united in 
 marriage with Miss Sarah A. Forbes, who was 
 born in East Haven, in 1828, and they had two 
 children: Elmer F., our subject; and one who died 
 in infancy. 
 
 Elmer F. Culver acquired a good practical ed- 
 ucation in the Woolsey Graded School and Hill- 
 house High School of New Haven, and graduated 
 from Yale Business College in 1879, and also grad- 
 uated from Coggswell School of Phonography in 
 1882. He obtained a thorough knowledge of every 
 department of farm work, and has never left the 
 parental roof. Since reaching manhood he has suc- 
 cessfully engaged in the dairy, fruit growing and 
 nursery business on the old homestead. For the last 
 two years Mr. Culver has been erecting houses on 
 the old farm, and has sold one houie and two build- 
 ing lots therefrom. With the trolley cars, city water 
 and gas mains passing the place, this land has rap- 
 idly risen in value. At one time Mr. Culver was 
 connected with the firm known as the Demme, Cul- 
 ver & Co., manufacturers of saddlery hardware, 
 but eleven years ago they sold out to the Suffolk 
 Co., of Boston, Mass. Socially he is a member of 
 the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. On Feb. 
 6, 1887, Mr. Culver was united in marriage with 
 Miss Alice J. Clark, a daughter of Capt. John 
 Clark, of Milford, Conn., and to them have been 
 born five children, namely : Harold ; Albert F. ; Roy 
 J., deceased ; Olive J. ; and Paul Elmer. 
 
 GEORGE A. BOUGHTON, retired factory su- 
 perintendent, and also a retired musician of the vol- 
 unteer and regular military service during the Civil 
 war, was born Nov. 7, 1835, in Waterbury, New 
 Haven county, and is still a resident of the town. 
 
 Jonas Boughton, his grandfather, came froiii 
 Norwalk. When a }oung man he was bound out 
 to a blacksmith, and learned the trade, which he 
 followed for a time, later in life changing his voca- 
 tion to that of a farmer. He married Lydia Hine, 
 from the town of Orange, New Haven county, and 
 the young couple at once settled on a farm where 
 Derby now stands, but later removed to one in the 
 western part of the town of Waterbury. To their 
 marriage were born nine children, two of whom 
 died young, the survivors being Charles, who was 
 
■JL^ 
 
 ■ CL 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1013 
 
 a farmer in MidcMebury ; Jonas, who went to Ohio 
 and there died; Isaac, of whom further mention 
 will t)e made; George, ^v'ho was also a farmer in 
 Ohio; John, who followed blacksmithing in Wood- 
 bury, Conn. ; Lydia, who married Lewis Smith, of 
 Milford; and Louisa, who wedded William Orton, 
 of Wallingford, and later moved West. 
 
 Isaac Boughton was born in Waterbury in 1808, 
 and died in 1891. He was reared to farming but for 
 years was employed in the Benedict & Burham but- 
 ton factory, and also for others ; however, the failure 
 of his health induced him to resume farming to 
 some extent. He married Caroline Upson, a daugh- 
 ter of Obed and Sibyl (Howe) Upson, of Water- 
 bury, and this union- was blessed with five children, 
 of whom George A., the subject of this sketch, is 
 the eldest ; Susan A. is the widow of Robert Pryor , 
 Henry I. is foreman on the road at Waterbury, 
 under the selectmen; Isabelle is the wife of H. S. 
 Peck, of Waterbury; Caroline E. is unmarried. 
 
 George A. Boughton was educated in the local 
 schools of Waterbury, after which he worked in 
 various factories with his father, commanding good 
 wages when seventeen years of age. He continued 
 thus until the breaking out of the Civil war, when 
 he enlisted, in the ist Conn. V. I., and went to the 
 front, taking part in the battle of Bull Run. He 
 was next detailed as musician, and at the expiration 
 of his first short term of service enlisted as musi- 
 cian in the 14th United States Regular Infantry, 
 was appointed sergeant of the band, and as such 
 served all through the war, and also after its termi- 
 nation, for about two and a half years on the Pa- 
 cific coast. Returning home, he served as chief of 
 police for six months, and next became superintend- 
 ent for Barnard, Son & Co., a position his executive 
 ability retained for him twelve years, since when he 
 has been living in retirement, looking after his real 
 estate. 
 
 In politics Mr. Boughton is a Republican, and is 
 now serving his sixth term as selectman, and he has 
 been a member of the board of public works. He 
 is a member of Wadhams Post, G. A. R., and the 
 Knights of Pythias. Religiously he was reared a 
 Congregationalist. Socially, as a genial, dharitable 
 gentleman, he is held in the highest esteem wherever 
 known. He is unmarried. 
 
 WILLIAM B. HALL was born May 13, 1854, 
 in the same house in which he is now living, in 
 Wallingford, son of Horace Hall, who was born 
 'May 25, 1804, in Wallingford, and was a jeweler 
 by trade. 
 
 For a number of years Horace Hall conducted 
 a store in that city, and the latter part of his life 
 was spent in farming. A Democrat, he never took 
 a particularly active interest in politics, though he 
 served as tax collector a number of years. He was 
 an Episcopalian in religion. A zealous Freemason, 
 and an energetic man, he was one of those who 
 were instrumental in reviving the Masonic fratern- 
 
 ity in Wallingford after it had been abandoned a 
 number of years. On Sept. 29, 1825, he married 
 Miss Euretta Johnson, and on July 2, 1848, he mar- 
 ried for his second wife Miss Ann L. Buell. A 
 daughter of Luther Buell, she was born July 31, 
 1816, and died Jan. 20, 1898. Horace Hall died June 
 18, 1877. To the first union were born the follow- 
 ing _ children : Horatio G. died March 14, 1874, 
 having been shot by an insane man. Emily J. mar- 
 ried Henry M. Jones, of Meriden. Lana O. mar- 
 ried O. B. Warner, of Meriden. Mary U. married 
 George H. Newton, and died Aug. 17, 1877. Ab- 
 bey E. married W. W. Pinks, of New Britain. Two 
 children died in infancy. To the second marriage 
 was born one child, William B., whose career forms 
 the subject of this writing. 
 
 Horatio Gates Hall, the grandfather of William 
 B., was born Jan. 17, 1778, in Wallingford, and was 
 married to Miss Polly Bvington, of Branford, in 
 1798. Mrs. Hall died April "12, 1852, Mr. Hall on 
 Oct. 30, 1819. Their children were: Augustus, 
 Lyman, Horace, Mary, Josiah H. and Abigail. 
 
 Caleb Hall, father of Horatio G., was born Aug. 
 29, 1731, and died Sept. 21, 1783. He married 
 Prudence Holt, and was the father of the following 
 children: Caleb, Jr., Augustus, Abigail, Eunice, 
 Benjamin H., Damaris, Horatio G. and George. 
 
 Caleb Hall, Sr., the father of Caleb Hall, Jr., 
 was born Sept. 14, 1697, and died July 27, 1749. 
 He married Damaris Atwater, and their children 
 were: Damaris, Stephen, Timothy, Ruth, Caleb, 
 Jeremiah and Lydia. 
 
 John Hall, father of Caleb, Sr., was born Dec. 
 23, 1670, and died April 29, 1730. He married 
 Mary Lyman, and their children were : John, Sam- 
 uel, Caleb, Eunice, Nancy, Benjamin, Sarah, 
 Eliakim and Elihu. 
 
 Samuel Hall, father 'of John, was born May 
 21, 1648, and died March 5, 1725. He married 
 Hannah Walker, and was the father of the follow- 
 ing children : John, Hannah, Sarah, Samuel, 
 Theophilus and Elizabeth. John Hall, his father, 
 was the emigrant ancestor of the family. 
 
 William B. Hall was born in Wallingford, and 
 grew up in his native village, securing his education 
 from the public schools, and at the Yale Business 
 College, New Haven. Leaving school at the age of 
 seventeen, he clerked for Philip J. Talcott, in his 
 dry-goods store, for a year or more, and was then 
 a clerk in the postofifice for several years. As 
 assistant postmaster, under L. M. Hubbard, he had 
 an extensive experience in the administration of pos- 
 tal affairs, which was put to good account when he 
 was appointed postmaster under the first administra- 
 tion of Grover Cleveland. Mr. Hall was postmaster 
 five years, and then went to Northampton, Mass., 
 where he was engaged for a time as a representa- 
 tive of the Quinnipiac Fertilizer Co. Coming back 
 to Wallingford, he secured a position with the R. 
 Wallace & Sons Manufacturing Co., where he was 
 bookkeeper for five years, in 1895 becoming their 
 
IOI4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 purchasing agent, which position he is holding at 
 the present time. 
 
 WilHam B. Hall is a Democrat, and has served 
 on the Democratic town committee for several 
 years, and was chairman for one year. He has 
 served as borough and town treasurer some three 
 years. A member of the Masonic fraternity, he 
 has taken much interest in the workings of that 
 society, and has been master of Compass Lodge, 
 No. 9, at Wallingford, for five years, holding that 
 office at present; he is also one of the trustees of 
 the lodge. As a member of the board of managers 
 of the Masonic home since its establishment, in 
 1894, he has rendered that institution vast service. 
 In religion he is associated with St. Paul's Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 Mr. Hall was married, Sept. 17, 1878, to Miss 
 Arabella Bates, who was born in New Haven, a 
 daughter of William Bates. On July 29, 1896, 
 Mr. Hall married for his second wife Miss Ella 
 M. Lacore, of Northampton, Mass., daughter of 
 Solomon Lacore. To the first marriage came three 
 children : Annie Bates, born June 25, 1879 ; Clara 
 Elizabeth, born Sept. 27, 1882 ; and Horace W., 
 born April 29, 1885. Mina Ella, born July 8, 1897, 
 is the only child of the second marriage. 
 
 WILLIAM L. WARD, prominent in the busi- 
 ness circles of Seymour, was born in the town of 
 Naugatuck, New Haven county, Oct. 31, 1858, and 
 comes of good old English ancestry. 
 
 The Arms of the Wards, Gorleston, County of 
 Suffolk, England, granted in 1593, were: Az., 
 a cross between four eagles, displayed Ar. Crest : 
 On a mount vert a hind couchant, Ar. Andrew 
 Ward, fifth son of Richard Ward, of Gorleston, 
 County of Suffolk, England, came to America about 
 1632. He was appointed by the General Court of 
 Massachusetts, with Roger Ludlow and six others, 
 to govern the Colony of Connecticut for one year. 
 He was one of the first judges in the first legisla- 
 tive body in Connecticut, which met at Hartford 
 April 26, 1636, soon after removing to New Haven, 
 and for several years was a member of the General 
 Court. He afterward settled in Fairfield, and was 
 one of the most influential men of that place. He 
 died in 1663, Esther Ward, his widow, in 1665. 
 Their children were : Edmund lived in West- 
 chester, N. Y. ; William (Dr.), born 1645, was 
 killed in the Narragansett war ; Mary married John 
 Burr, of Fairfield; Andrew, born in 1647, died in 
 Killingworth in 1691 ; Samuel, born in 1649, died 
 before 1693; Abigail; Anna married Caleb Nichols; 
 John ; Sarah married Nathaniel Burr. 
 
 Andrew Ward (2), son of Andrew and Esther 
 Ward, settled in Killingworth in 1668. He mar- 
 ried Trial Meigs, daughter of John Meigs, of Guil- 
 ford, and their children were: Andrew (3), born 
 in 1669 (died in August, 1756) ; John, March 16, 
 1671 ; Abigail, Sept. 15, 1672; Sarah, Nov. 15, 
 1674; Peter, (Jet. 14, 1676; William, Oct. 18, 1678 
 
 (died Dec. 14, 1769) : Samuel Sept. 24, 1680 (died 
 in 1681); Esther, May 2, 1684 (died the next 
 month) ; and Mary Ann (the youngest in the fam- 
 ily), who was an ancestor of Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 William Ward, son of Andrew (2) and Trial 
 Ward, married Lettis, daughter of John Beach, of 
 Wallingford, and resided in Wallingford. Their 
 children were: Mecock, born July 17, 1702; Will- 
 iam, Jan. 7, 1705; Mary (date unknown); Amy, 
 1707 ; Ambrose, March 6, 1709 ; Lettis, July 7, 1711 ; 
 John, 1714; Royal, June 20, 1716; Archibald, July 
 5, 1718; Zenas, Sept. 17, 1720 (settled in Wood- 
 bury) ; Titus, April 27, 1723. 
 
 John Ward, son of William and Lettis Ward, 
 married Elizabeth Abernathy May 11, 1736. He 
 was a druggist, and lived in Wallingford. Their 
 children were: Thilus, born April 24, 1737, en- 
 listed Nov. 14, 1 781, in Capt. Vial's Company of 
 Guards, stationed at Guilford for the defense of the 
 sea coast: Abel, born July i, 1740, lived in Wood- 
 bridge, and died Nov. 20, 1759; Titus was born 
 March 18, 1742; Martha was born July 17, 1746: 
 John, born May 24, 1748, died in infancy; and 
 John (2) was born Nov. 19, 1751- 
 
 Titus Ward, son of John and Elizabeth Ward^ 
 married Amy Smith Jan. 7, 1763. He died near 
 New York City, and his property was on a vessel 
 which was captured by the British in the Revolu- 
 tionarv war. His children were : Silva, born Aug. 
 8, 1764, married Isaac Plumb, of Milford; Abel 
 was born May 24, 1766: Titus, born March 30, 
 1768, married Sarah Smith, of Milford; Betsey, 
 born March 22, 1770, married Samuel Beach, of 
 Milford; Nancy was born June 10, 1773; John, 
 born May 13, 1774, died young; Sarah, born May 
 26, 1776, married Elijah Prindle; William, born 
 Jan. 5, 1780, died young; and Statica, born July 
 16, 1782, married Billions Wright. 
 
 AIdcI Ward, son of Titus and Amy Ward, mar- 
 ried Rachel Hotchkiss, of ^\'oodbridge, in what is 
 now Bethany. She died in 1787, and for his second 
 wife he married Anna Wheeler. He had two chil- 
 dren : Richard, born Sept. 21, 1787, died in Nau- 
 gatuck, March 2, 185 1 ; Rachel, born Jan. 23, 1792^ 
 married Jervis Sommers, and two of their children.. 
 Jervis and Mary, are now living in Southford. 
 
 Richard Ward, son of Abel and Rachel Ward,, 
 married Dec. 15, 1811, Roxanna, daughter of Cul- 
 pepper Hoadly (a soldier of the Revolution) and 
 his wife Molly Lewis, of Salem Bridge (now Nau- 
 gatuck). Mrs. Ward died Feb. 6, 1865. Their 
 children were: Lewis, born Sept. 27, 1812; 
 Lawren, born Dec. 27, 1814; Maria, born Feb. 11. 
 1819, who married Ralph Smith, of Bridgeport; 
 Mary, born Feb. 17, 1823, who married Ganan Pot- 
 ter, and died Aug. 2, 1842 : and William, born' 
 March 7, 1825, who married Elizabeth A. Hine, and 
 resided in Naugatuck. 
 
 Lewis Ward, son of Richard and Roxanna 
 Ward, was married April 9, 1835, to Mary Ann 
 Curtis, of Huntington, who was born April 13,.- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1015 
 
 1812, and died Dec. 12, 1895, aged eighty-three 
 years and seven months. Their son, James B., was 
 born Oct. 8, 1836, in Naugatuck, and was the 
 father of the subject proper of this sketch. 
 
 James B. Ward was a carpenter by trade. He 
 married Jane E. Hotchkiss, a daughter of Eber and 
 Thurza Hotchkiss, of Bethany, and had two chil- 
 dren, both sons : WilHam L., our subject ;' and 
 Elmer J., born Feb. 21, 1863, who is with the G. 
 I. R. Glove Co., at Naugatuck. The father of these 
 died in December, 1862, when a young man. He 
 was a Republican in politics. He attended the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 William L. Ward, whose name introduces this 
 sketch, received his education at the winter schools 
 of Naugatuck, and early in life commenced earn- 
 ing a livelihood, as he was but four years old when 
 his father died. His first employment was with 
 the G. L R. Glove Co., with which he remained 
 twelve years ; then for nine years he was in the 
 employ of F. W. Tolles, furniture dealer and un- 
 dertaker, also in Naugatuck. On Aug. i, 1898, he 
 removed to Seymour and bought out E. E. Bassett, 
 who had been in the furniture and undertaking busi- 
 ness there some forty-two years. Mr. Ward was 
 the prime mover in the establishment of the Valley 
 National Bank, of Seymour, which was organized 
 June 14, 1900, and of which he. has since been 
 president. Our subject is now serving as treasurer 
 of the town of Seymour. 
 
 On July 10, 1898, William L. Ward was united 
 in marriage with Lulu L. Tolles, daughter of Isaac 
 B. and Maria W. Tolles, the former of whom was 
 born in Bethany, the latter in Middlebury, Conn. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Ward attend the services of the Con- 
 gregational Church. Socially he is a member of the 
 F. & A. M., belonging to Morning Star Lodge, No. 
 47, Allerton Chapter, of Naugatuck, and the New 
 Haven Commandery. He is also affiliated with the 
 I. O. O. F., Mechanics Lodge, Seymour. Mr. 
 Ward's political support is given to the Republican 
 party. 
 
 JOHN J. McLARNEY. Among the self-made 
 business men whose intelligence and enterprise have 
 helped to develop the thriving little city of An- 
 sonia, the subject of this sketch holds a prominent 
 place, and the following brief account of his career 
 will be of interest. He was born in that city. May 
 17, 185 1, and is descended in both paternal and 
 maternal lines from the Irish race which has 
 furnished so many valued citizens to America. 
 
 John McLarney, his grandfather, passed his life 
 in Ireland as a farmer, dying at the age of eighty- 
 seven years, and his wife, Catherine Cook, also a 
 native of Ireland, attained the age of ninety-six 
 years. In religion they were devout Catholics, and 
 their descendants adhere to the same faith. They 
 had a large family of children, of whom but few 
 are now living. 
 
 Patrick McLarney, our subject's father, was 
 
 born and reared in Acklemore Parish, County 
 Cavan, Ireland, and learned the shoemaker's trade 
 in his youth. On coming to America he entered 
 the employ of Mr. McWilliams, a railroad con- 
 tractor for whom he made shoes and harness, and 
 in 1848 he went to Ansonia to work for Harvev 
 Reamer, for whom he made the first pair of 
 "pegged" boots ever finished in the town. Later 
 he was employed by A\'allace & Sons, and the A. B. 
 C. Co., but for a few years before his death, which 
 occurred at the age of seventy-six, he lived in re- 
 tirement. His wife, Mary Mclntyrc, also lived to 
 the age of seventy-six, was a native of Scotland, 
 and one of the two daughters of Thomas Mclntyre, 
 a farmer, who died aged seventy-six. Her mother, 
 whose maiden name was Alice Gillis, died aged 
 seventy-one. Our subject was one of a family of 
 seven children and is the oldest of the three now 
 living; Hugh resides in New Haven, and James 
 in Ansonia. 
 
 The early years of John J. McLarney were spent 
 within sight of Ansonia, and his education was se- 
 cured in the public schools of that city. Together 
 with his brothers he learned the trade of clock- 
 maker, which he followed for a number of years, 
 and he then learned the horseshoers' trade and 
 worked for a time as a journeyman in that busi- 
 ness. Later he joined in the firm of Terry & Mc- 
 Larney, and engaged in the manufacture of carts 
 and business wagons at the corner of Canal and 
 Bridge streets, making a specialty of heavy business 
 wagons. On retiring from this business in 1896, 
 our subject spent some time in repairing his houses, 
 of which he owns several, and then took a position 
 as a journeyman horseshoer. The death of his 
 brother, Thomas F., on May 22, 1898, led to his 
 taking charge of the undertaking establishment left 
 by the deceased, and in this venture he has met with 
 success, his knowledge of the business having been 
 first gained while working as a journeyman. He 
 graduated from the Alassachusetts College of Em- 
 balming in September, 1899. He also conducts a 
 livery stable at No. 30 Green Street, keeping a num- 
 ber of horses and a fine line of hacks, coaches and 
 carriages ready for any call. In politics he is a 
 Democrat, and he served as constable and grand 
 juror when the town included Derby. He is an 
 active member of the Young Men's Temperance 
 Association, having served as its vice-president, 
 treasurer and secretary, and he is also connected 
 with the Catholic Legion, in which he is now trus- 
 tee, the Mutual Reserve of New York City, an in- 
 surance association, and the Hartford Life Insur- 
 ance Co., of Hartford, and the Royal Arcanum. 
 
 On April 25, 1888, he married r\Iiss Ellen_ E. 
 Coleman, and four children have blessed this union, 
 of whom two are living : John J. and Alice E. 
 Mrs. McLarney is a native of Ansonia, and a 
 daughter of James and Bridget (Mulligan) Cole- 
 man. Her father, now deceased, was a well known 
 agriculturist and prominent citizen, whose influence 
 
ioi6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was recognized in church and township affairs. Mrs. 
 McLarne}- was educated in the public schools of 
 Derby, and is a graduate of the Derby High School. 
 On leaving the high school she began teaching, con- 
 tinuing fourteen years, and in this work she was 
 very successful ; for three years previous to her 
 marriage she was principal of the Factory street 
 school in Ansonia. Both Mr. and Mrs. McLarney 
 are highly esteemed socially, and are leading mem- 
 bers of the Catholic Church of Ansonia. 
 
 EDWARD WALTER LEETE. The Leete 
 family in Connecticut was established here more 
 than two hundred and fifty years ago bv Gov. Leete, 
 an old-time worthy and an important figure in early- 
 Colonial affairs, who came to America with the 
 Henry Whitfield expedition. 
 
 Gov. William Leete was born in 1612 in Dod- 
 dington, England. Thomas Leete, his grandfather, 
 married Maria Slade, and their son John Leete mar- 
 ried Ann Shute ; William Leete, who afterward 
 played such a prominent part in the Colonies, was 
 their son. William Leete was bred a lawyer, and 
 was clerk of the Bishops' Court at Cambridge, 
 where the oppression of the Puritans turned him 
 to a study of their tenets and finally led him to the 
 adoption of their faith. He arrived in Connecticut 
 July 10, 1639, and he was one of six selected to pur- 
 chase from the Lidians the land wanted for a new 
 settlement. A tract of 250 acres, three miles from 
 Guilford, now known as Leete's Island, came to him. 
 He took a leading part in the development of the 
 rising Colony and was one of its most trusted mem- 
 bers. In 1658 he was made deputy governor of 
 New Haven Colony, and in 1661 was made gov- 
 ernor, holding this office until its union with the 
 Colony of Connecticut. He was deputy governor 
 of Connecticut from 1669 to 1676, when he was 
 chosen governor, and served in that capacity until 
 his death, in 1683, i" Hartford. Gov. Leete was 
 married in England, in 1638, to Anna Paine, who 
 died Sept. i, 1668. On April 7, 1670, he married 
 Mrs. Sarah Rutherford, who died Feb. 10, 1673. 
 His third wife, jMary, had also been married twice 
 before, to Gov. Francis Newman and Rev. Nicholas 
 Street, respectively. She died in 1683. Gov. Leete 
 was the father of nine children. ' 
 
 John Leete, eldest son of the Governor, was born 
 in 1639, i"' Guilford, and is said to have been the 
 first white child born in that town. In 1670 he mar- 
 ried Mary, daughter of A\''illiam and Joanna 
 ( Sheaf e) Chittenden. To this union were born 
 eight children. Mrs. Leete was born in 1647, and 
 died March 9, 1712. John Leete died Nov. 25, 
 1692. 
 
 Pelatiah Leets, fifth child of John, was born 
 March 26, 1681, and on July i, 1705, married Abi- 
 gail, daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Bartlett) 
 Fowler. They became the parents of five children. 
 Mrs. Leete died Oct. 22, i7r)(;. Soon after their 
 marriage they moved to Leete's Island, which after- 
 
 ward became a flourishing settlement. Some of the 
 land allotted to Gov. Leete after the purchase of the 
 property from the Indians has never been held by 
 any but those of the family name. On these ances- 
 tral acres seven generations of Leetes have resided, 
 engaged as farmers. Deacon Peliatiah Leete was a 
 successful farmer, and did "not consider a hundred 
 bushels of shelled corn to the acre more than an 
 average yield." He had a hundred cattle. In 1705 
 he erected a large house, on a commanding spot 
 overlooking the Sound, in which he lived until his 
 death, Oct. 13, 1768. This house sheltered several 
 generations of the family. Pelatiah Leete was a 
 deacon in the . Fourth Church of Guilford. He 
 served as a representative of the town in the Gen- 
 eral Court. 
 
 Deacon Daniel Leete, eldest son of Deacon Pela- 
 tiah, was born Oct. 14, 1709, was a farmer and 
 stock raiser, and died on his farm Oct. i, 1772. He 
 was a deacon in the Fourth Church of Guilford. 
 On June 14, 1738, he married Rhoda Stone, who 
 was born Nov. 2, 1719, daughter of Caleb and 
 Sarah (Meigs) Stone, of Guilford, and died Dec. 
 2^, 1769. Both Mr. and i^Irs. Leete are buried in 
 the old cemetery on Guilford Green. They had five 
 children. Daniel Leete's home stood where Calvin 
 M. Leete's house now stands, and was noted during 
 the Revolution. 
 
 Deacon Ambrose Leete, the third son of Deacon 
 Daniel, was born Jan. 19, 1748. He was a deacon 
 in the Fourth Church, to which office he was chosen 
 in 1786, and also held the same office in the First 
 Church, having been chosen in 180 1. On Nov. 10, 
 1773, he married Miranda, a daughter of William 
 and Rachel (White) Chittenden, "and they became 
 the parents of five children, Ambrose Leete died 
 Feb, 14, 1809, His widow survived until Sept, 16, 
 1838, Mr, and Mrs. Leete were buried in the then 
 new cemetery at Leete's Island, 
 
 Miner Leete, the third child of Ambrose, was 
 born June 30, 1779, on the farm where he spent his 
 life, dying at the early age of forty-seven years, 
 Nov, 7, 1826, On Nov, 17, 1807, he married Lu- 
 cinda Norton, who was born Nov, 18, 1780, in Guil- 
 ford, a daughter of Col, Rufus and Hannah (Cook) 
 Norton, She died Aug, 28, 1848, and was buried 
 in the family cemetery. They had five children: 
 (i) Edward Lorenzo is mentioned below. (2) 
 Rufus Norton was the second of the family, (3) 
 Theodore Adgate, who died April 28, 1886, gradu- 
 ated from Yale College and the Theological Depart- 
 ment, He married ^Mary C, White, of Long- 
 meadow, Mass,, and had three children, Ella Louise, 
 Rev. William White and Theodore Woolsey, (4) 
 Calvin Miner married Lucy Maria Leete, (5) Lou- 
 isa Alaria died, unmarried, July 29, 1855, 
 
 Edward Lorenzo Leete was born June. 28, 1810, 
 at Leete's Island, in the town of Guilford, He at- 
 tended the district school but little, being largely 
 self-educated, and was an unusually well-informed 
 man. For more than thirty years he was accustomed 
 
'. W^^-^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1017 
 
 to teach school during the winter season, working 
 liis farm during the summer. Alwaj's deeply inter- 
 ested in educational matters, and public-spirited in 
 -every way, he was regarded in his time as one of the 
 most useful citizens of the town, awake to all matters 
 ■of local importance. In public life he was active and 
 conspicuous, both for his unswerving honor and 
 •conspicuous ability. In 1854 he represented the 
 town in the State Legislature, to which he was again 
 elected in 1865. In politics he was originally a 
 AVhig, later becoming a Republican. In church mat- 
 ters Mr. Leete was a leader, and on Nov. 14, 1852, 
 was elected a deacon of the First Congregational 
 Church, serving in that capacity for almost thirty- 
 two years. Mr. Leete built a substantial house on 
 the old Leete homestead, where he made many other 
 improvements. There he spent most of his life, dy- 
 ing May 3, 1884, and was buried in Leete's Island 
 -cemetery. He was especially interested in the prep- 
 aration of a genealogy of the Leete family, which 
 has been published since his death, and is now in the 
 libraries of the state. 
 
 Edward Lorenzo Leete was married, in North 
 ■Guilford, April 29, 1833, to Sylvia Fowler, daughter 
 of Daniel and Lucy (Chittenden) Fowler, and they 
 had two children : Edward Walter, mentioned be- 
 low ; and Lucy Louisa. The latter married Dwight 
 Rogers, of Cornwall, Conn., and became the mother 
 <Df five children: Dwight Leete, Nellie Lucretia, 
 Harriet Fowler, Miner Pratt and Sylvia Abbie. Mrs. 
 Sylvia Leete died on the home farm Nov. 13, 1895, 
 •and was buried in Leete's Island cemetery. She was 
 a member of the Congregational Church. Mr. Leete 
 was trustee for a number of years of the Guilford 
 Institute. 
 
 Edward Walter Leete was born on the home 
 place May 28, 1834, and attended the district school, 
 a private school in Windsor, Conn., and the Normal 
 School at New Britain. For six years he taught 
 school during the winter season in Guilford. As he 
 was the only son the care of the farm and the sup- 
 port of the aged parents naturally fell to him. Mr. 
 Leete is engaged in general farming and stock raiis- 
 ing. 
 
 On Oct. 10, 1861, our subject married Harriet 
 Rogers, of Cornwall, a daughter of Daniel Leete 
 and Harriet (Pratt) Rogers, and a granddaughter 
 of Noah and Lydia (Cornwall) Rogers and of 
 Miner Pratt. They are the parents of five children : 
 (i) Abbie Louisa, born Oct. 20, 1862, was married 
 June 10, 1896, becoming the second wife of Edward 
 E. Griswold, of Clapboard Hill, Guilford. They 
 have two children— Harriet Rogers, born Jan. 15, 
 1899, and John Leete, born April 30, 1901. (2) 
 Edward Rogers, born Dec. 17, 1864, was educated 
 ■in the district school, Guilford Institute and Yale 
 Business College, taught school, and was connected 
 with the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Hartford. He 
 died Dec. 6, 1891, and was buried m the Leete s 
 Island cemetery. (3) William Smith, born Oct 22 
 1867 married Angeline Brewer, daughter of Alvah 
 
 G. and H. Alice (Palmer) Brewer, of Guilford, and 
 is living on the family homestead. (4) Sarah Tal- 
 cott, born Oct. 25, 1871, died Oct. 25, 1891, and was 
 buried in Leete's Island cemetery. She was a gradu- 
 ate of the Guilford Institute. (5) Walter, born July 
 15, 1874, died in infancy. 
 
 Mr. Leete was elected deacon of the First Con- 
 gregational Church in Guilford, Nov. 25, 1883, and 
 is still acting in that capacity. From his youth be 
 has been connected in different capacities with the 
 Sunday-school of that church. In politics he is a 
 Republican. For twelve years or more he has been 
 a member of the school board, and he has also held 
 the offices of assessor, tax collector and justice of the 
 peace. In 1884 he was elected trustee of the Guil- 
 ford Institute. He is a trustee of the Guilford 
 Savings Bank, and a stockholder and director 
 of the National Bank, which he helped to organize. 
 Mr. Leete, as conservator, appraiser, or adminis- 
 trator, has been connected with numerous estates. 
 
 ELISAPH H. BUTLER, president of the Guil- 
 ford Savings Bank, and dealer in general hardware, 
 stoves, tinware, etc., Guilford, is a native of Con- 
 necticut, born June 27, 1848, in Norfolk, Litch- 
 field county. 
 
 Mr. Butler is a descendant of one of the old 
 settlers of Connecticut. Elisaph Butler, his grand- 
 father, was born in North Branford (known as 
 Northford), where he followed farming pursuits 
 and was a land owner of prominence. From there 
 he moved to Norfolk, Litchfield county, where he 
 passed the rest of his days. 
 
 Levi Butler, father of Elisaph H., was born in 
 1820, in Northford, town of Branford, moved with 
 his father to Norfolk, and there followed farming 
 until 1854, in which year he moved with his family 
 to Guilford, and bought a farm near Leete Island, 
 where he continued to live up to his death, in 
 1873. . In politics he was a Whig, later a Republi- 
 can" and he was a member of the Advent Church. 
 Levi Butler married (first) Clarissa Roberts, of 
 Colebrook, Conn. His second marriage was to 
 Clarinda E. Sanford, who was born in Sandisfield, 
 Berkshire Co., Mass., daughter of Lyman Sanford, 
 and six children were born to them: Elisaph H., 
 our subject; Frederick, a farmer of Leete Island, 
 Guilford, Conn. ; Clara, wife of Robert Bartholo- 
 mew, of Branford; Fanny, who died in young 
 womanhood ; Marv, deceased ; and Anna, deceased. 
 The mother of these children is yet living, and 
 in the enjovment of excellent health. 
 
 Elisaph 'H. Butler was a six-year-old lad when 
 he came to Guilford, and here, on Leete Island, 
 he attended the district school, and grew up on the 
 home farm, remaining there until he was twenty 
 years old, at which time he removed to Meriden. 
 In that city he worked in a screw factory for a 
 short time, and then, returning to Guilford, secured 
 a position in Griswold & Co.'s grocery store, where 
 he remained some eighteen months. In 1870 he 
 
ioi8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 arid S. Robinson bought out Chester Beckle3''s hard- 
 ware store, and conducted the same under the name 
 of S. Robinson & Co. In 1888 Mr. Butler bought 
 out the interest of Mr. Robinson, and has since 
 conducted the business alone, now having one of 
 the most complete stores in the county. Mr. Butler 
 is president of the Guilford Savings Bank, also a 
 director thereof, and is one of the stockholders in, 
 and directors of, the First National Bank of Guil- 
 ford. In politics he is a Republican, and has filled 
 the office of burgess of Guilford several terms, 
 serving also as justice of the peace. Socially he is 
 a member of the F & A. M., affiliating with St. 
 Alban's Lodge, No. 38, and with the Eastern Star, 
 of which he is past patron, and of which his wife 
 is a member. He belongs to Nenuncatuck Lodge, 
 No. 62, I. O. O. F., in which he is a member of the 
 board of trustees, a past grand, and has been 
 treasurer since July, 1884 ; he was also secretary one 
 term. He has served as delegate to the Grand 
 Lodge of the State. He and his wife are both 
 charter members of the Daughters of Rebekah, and 
 he is united with Hollis Encampment, No. 34. Mr. 
 Butler is a member of the N. E. O. P., of Guilford, 
 of which he has been chairman of the board of 
 trustees since its organization ; and was identified 
 with the Woodmen of the World. 
 
 On Oct. 20, 1870, in Guilford, Conn., Elisaph 
 H. Butler married Fanny E. Robinson, and nine 
 children have come to them: (i) William S., 
 born July 25, 1871, is head salesman in his father's 
 store ; he married Ida May Hill, daughter of Capt. 
 William P. Hill. (2) Frank died in infancy. (3) 
 Burton L. died at the age of four years. (4) 
 Jennie C, born Sept. 19, 1880, is the wife of Louis 
 C. Coulter, of Guilford. (5) Harriet M. ("Hattie") 
 was born July 14. 1882. (6) Robert was born 
 Aug. 31, 1885. (7) Arthur and (8) Ernest, twins, 
 died voung. (9) Paul Levi was born May 29, 
 1896. ' 
 
 The Robinson Fajitly, of whom Mrs. Elisaph 
 H. Butler is a member, were old settlers of Guil- 
 ford, and (I) Thomas Robinson, the first of the 
 name in New England, located first in Hartford, 
 Connecticut. In 1661 he moved to Guilford, where 
 he passed the remainder of his days, dying in 1689. 
 His wife Mary died in Guilford in 1668, and chil- 
 dren as follows were born to them: (i) Thomas, 
 born 1650, married Sarah Crittenden, and died July 
 2, 1712; (2) Ann, born 1652, married Joseph Dud- 
 ley; (3) Mary, born 1654, married John Latimer; 
 (4) Saint, born 1656, married B. Latimer; (5) 
 Jonathan, born 1659, died April, 1684; (6) David, 
 sketch of whom follows; (7) Elizabeth, born iftf)2, 
 married Benjamin Gould, and died September 30, 
 
 1745- 
 
 (II) David Robinson, born in Hartford in 
 1660, settled in Durham, Middlesex Co., Conn., and 
 died June I, 1747. He married iVbigail Kirby, 
 daughter of John Kirby, of Middletown ; she died in 
 i('i(j4. Mary, second wife of David Robinson, was 
 
 born 1663, died Oct. 17, 1746. Mr. Robinson's 
 children: (i) Abigail, born April 3, 1690, died 
 July 6, 177s, married Joseph Coe ; (2) Ann, bom 
 June 6, 1692; (3) David, sketch of whom follows: 
 
 (4) Thomas, born 1698, died March 4, 1774; (5) 
 Ebenezer, born 1701, died Oct. 10, 1789; (6) Ruth, 
 born 1703; (7) Mary married Timothy Parsons; 
 (8) Hamiah married Benjamin Miller. 
 
 (III) David Robinson, born in Durham, Conn., 
 in 1694, and died there Feb. 9, 1780, married Jan. 
 26, 1720, Rebecca Miller, born 1697, died Sept. 18. 
 1786. Children: (i) Ann, born Dec. 5, 1720, 
 and died in 1817, married Gideon Canfield;, (2) 
 David, born March 4, 1722, died Oct. 15, 1807; (3> 
 John, born June 22, 1723; (4) Dan, born May 2, 
 1725, and died 1810, married Abigail Curtis; (5) 
 Rebecca, born Dec. 5, 1726, and died Nov. 5, 1815, 
 married David Parson; (6) Timothy, born April 
 29, 1728, and died April I, 1805, married Catharine 
 Ross; (7) Phinnis, born July 24, 1729, died July 
 31, 1784, married Susannah Fenn ; (8) James, born 
 June 10, 1731, and died April 3, 1806, married Amy 
 Sellman; (9) Joel, born March 31, 1733, died 1750; 
 (10) Mary, born Dec. 7, 1734, married Reynold M. 
 Morse: (11) Noah, born Alay 17, 1736, and died 
 Aug. 12, 1800, married Hannah Parmelee ; (12) 
 Abigail, born March 9, 1738, married James Hin- 
 man ; (13) Asher, sketch of whom follows. 
 
 (IV) Asher Robinson, born May 4, 1740, in 
 Durham, Conn., died there in 1808. He married 
 (first) June 11, 1761, Mary Butcher, and for his 
 second wife wedded a ]\Iiss Hull. His children: 
 (i) Rachel, born April 16, 1762, married Seth 
 Strong, and died Feb. 10, 1850; (2) Stephen, 
 sketch of whom follows; (3) Asher, born Nov. 21, 
 1765, died young; (4) Seth, born June 23, 1768; 
 
 (5) Samuel, born July 29. 1770; (6) Mary; (7) 
 Sally married John White; (8) Betsey married 
 Henry Canfield; (9) Asher married Emily 
 Parmelee. 
 
 (V) Stephen Robinson, born in Durham, Conn., 
 Jan. 14, 1764, died there July 2, 1825. He married 
 Mary 'Tibbatt, who died in August, 1825. Children: 
 (i) Dennis, sketch of whom follows; (2) Hannah, 
 born 1793; (3) David; (4) Noah, born February, 
 1798, married Fanny Willard : (5 ) Phebe, born July 
 17, 1800, married B. Franklyn Browning; (6) 
 Polly married David Baldwin; (7) Stephen died 
 1840; (8) Giles, born 1804, married Emily 
 Wheden ; (9) Margaret Ann, born 1802, and died 
 1842, married David Howard. 
 
 (VI) Dennis Robinson, born in 1791, moved to 
 Guilford;, and there passed the rest of his days, 
 dying June 8, 1847. He married. May 3, 1815, 
 Fanny Stone, born Aug. 5, 1795, and died April 21, 
 1824. For his second wife he wedded May 4, 1825, 
 Elizabeth Wilkinson, born May 5, 1796, died Feb. 
 29, 1864. His children: (i) Jane Maria, born 
 July 2, 1816, married Selden Benton; (2) Mary 
 Ann, born Sept. 15, 1819. died July 31, 1820; (3) 
 Stephen, sketch of whom follows ; (4) George Bald- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1019 
 
 win married Rosalind D. Field, and died Dec. 5, 
 1861; (5) John, born October, 1828, died Oct. 18, 
 1829; (6) John AVilkinson, born Sept. 18, 1830; 
 (7) Fanny, born January, 1833, died February, 
 1833; (8) Franklin Browning, born Feb. 18, 1837, 
 died Nov. 16, 1853. 
 
 (VII) Stephen Robinson, father of Mrs. Elisaph 
 H. Butler, was born in Guilford 'March 23, 1824, 
 and passed his entire life there conducting a general 
 hardware store until 1888, after which he carried 
 on a truck farm. He married Ann Bartlett, daugh- 
 ter of Timothy Bartlett, and of the children born to 
 them three are livin,g as follows: Fanny E., wife 
 of E. H. Butler ; Mary, wife of George W. Dudley ; 
 and Ida, wife of Dwight W. Potter, all of Guilford. 
 
 CHARLES D. WARNER, superintendent of 
 the Ansonia Telephone Co., of Ansonia, is a leading 
 representative of the business interests of that local- 
 ity. His thoroughly American spirit, his sound 
 judgment and tmtiring energy have enabled him to 
 carry forward successfully a number of important 
 enterprises and the record of his life furnishes a 
 useful lesson. 
 
 Mr. Warner was born ]\Iarch 24, 1853, at 
 Chicopee Falls, Mass., and is descended from good 
 New England ancestry. His great-grandfather, 
 Eli Warner, was a resident of West Sufifield, Conn. 
 Eli Warner (2), our subject's grandfather, was 
 born in West Suffield, and passed his life there, 
 engaged in farming. His wife, Lydia (Taylor), 
 was also a native of Suffield, and their two sons 
 settled upon the old homestead, dividing it into two 
 separate farms. Both the grandparents were highly 
 respected in the community for their estimable 
 lives. 
 
 Henry F. Warner, our subject's father, was 
 born in West Suffield, and received a common- 
 school education. He died at the homestead March 
 25, 1900, at the age of seventy-four years. He mar- 
 ried Mary L. Munger, who died aged sixty-nine 
 years, was a native of Chicopee Falls, and a daugh- 
 ter of Hiram Munger, a well-known Adventist 
 preacher there. Her mother, whose maiden name 
 was Lucinda Hancock, was a direct descendant of 
 a brother of Gov. John Hancock, of Massachu- 
 setts. Mrs. Munger died at the age of eighty 
 years, leaving three children : Mary L., Mrs. 
 Warner; Alfred S., a resident of Ozone Park, 
 L. I. ; and Lucy, wife of J. H. Hendrick, of Spring- 
 field, Mass. Our subject is the eldest of a family 
 of three living children. One child died at an early 
 age. Eugene H. has taken up farming at the old 
 homestead. Jessie F. married T. C. Baum, of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 Charles D. Warner was educated in the common 
 schools of Suffield, and when sixteen years of age 
 began to learn the trade of watchmaker and jewel- 
 er. About 1872 he engaged in business in Wind- 
 sor, and in 1878 he removed to Ansonia, purchas- 
 ing from Charles Tucker a store in Main Street, 
 
 opposite the First National Bank. In 1887 he sold 
 the business to James B. Keene and joined in the 
 organization of a company for the manufacture of 
 standard electrical clocks, for which he owned the 
 patents. He became manager of the enterprise, and 
 later was made treasurer, the business being carried 
 on first in New Haven and then in Waterbury. 
 On Dec. 31, 1895, he retired from the company and 
 started in business in Ansonia as an electrical en- 
 gineer, and soon afterward, as a matter of personal 
 convenience, he organized a small telephone ex- 
 change, with less than fifty subscribers. This 
 proved a great success, and later he founded the 
 Ansonia Telephone Co. with Dana Bartholomew, 
 the stock being placed' at $15,000, which was in- 
 creased from time to time, to $25,000. Early in 
 1901 great pressure was brought on certain stock- 
 holders ( after the death of Dana Bartholomew ) to 
 sell out to the Bell Telephone interests, and this was 
 finally accomplished, in April, 1901. They had lines 
 to Seymour, Derby and Shelton. and connected sub- 
 scribers with points in Woodbury and surrounding 
 towns, doing a profitable business, three operators 
 being required to manipulate the "switch board." 
 Mr. Warner owns a number of electrical patents, 
 five being on clocks and clock systems, known as 
 the "Warner System," and the latter have increased 
 in value as time has proved their efficiency. They 
 were first tested in Ansonia in 1884, and then on 
 the Consolidated Railroad, where they still remain 
 in service, after fifteen years. Politically Mr. 
 Warner is independent and he has served one term 
 as burgess of the borough. He belongs to the New 
 England Order of Protection, and he and his fam- 
 ily are active workers in the Congregational Church 
 of Ansonia, in which he has held various offices, 
 including membership on the Society's committee 
 and the Prudential committee. He also served some 
 time as superintendent of the Sunday-school and 
 president of the Christian Endeavor Society. 
 
 In 1875 Mr. Warner married Miss Clara F. 
 Hodge, who was born in Suffield in 1856, daughter 
 of Buel D. Hodge, a prominent farmer there, and 
 for many years a leading member of the Congre- 
 gational Church of that locality. He and his wife, 
 Mariette (Cartter), had four children: Clara F. ; 
 Emma E., who married F. L. Ashley, of Windsor 
 Locks ; Nellie, who married E. S. Cook, of Hart- 
 ford ; Lucy B., wife of Lawrence Herns, of An- 
 sonia. Mr. and Mrs. Warner have two children : 
 (i) Albert F., born in 1876, was educated in the 
 public schools of Ansonia and the Maine State Col- 
 lege, at Orono, Maine, and completed a special 
 course in navigation in the Nautical School in New 
 York City. He is now in the employ of the South- 
 ern New England Telephone Co., and for some time 
 previous was doing valuable work for the Ansonia 
 Telephone Co., being an expert in electrical science. 
 (2) Edith Mariette was born in Ansonia Feb. 25, 
 1885, and is now taking a course in the High School 
 in Ansonia. 
 
II020 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 STEPHEX M. PECK, a leading citizen of 
 Woodbridge, Xew Haven county, has demonstrated 
 the true meaning of the word success as the full ac- 
 complishment of an honorable purpose. Energy, 
 close application, perseverance and good manage- 
 ment — these are the elements which have entered 
 into his business career and crowned his efforts 
 with prosperity. 
 
 Mr. Peck is' a representative of quite an old and 
 prominent family of Woodbridge, of which town 
 his paternal grandparents, Silas and Electa (Car- 
 rington) Peck, were both natives. There the former 
 owned seventy acres of land and successfully en- 
 gaged in farming. He lived to a ripe old age. He 
 was a man highly esteemed by all who knew him, 
 and was a Whig in politics, though not an active 
 worke'r in party affairs. His children, all now de- 
 ceased, were as follows : Ansel, a cooper by trade, 
 lived for many years in Vermont, and died in Beth- 
 any, Conn. ; Electa married Gilbert Thomas, of 
 Woodbridge, and died shortly after her marriage; 
 Almyra married Simeon Sperry, and died in Wood- 
 bridge; Lauren, a shoemaker by trade, lived in 
 Bethany, Conn., New York and Vermont, and died 
 in New York; Lewis, father of our subject, was 
 next in order of birth ; Garry was a farmer of Wood- 
 bridge ; Mary was the second wife of Gilbert 
 Thomas, of Woodbridge ; Seabury was a carpenter 
 and joiner of Westville, Conn. ; Amanda was the 
 wife of James Perkins, of Woodbridge ; Eunice 
 was the wife of Eli O. Clark, of Woodbridge ; and 
 Namon was a farmer of Seymour. 
 
 Lewis Peck, father of our subject, was born in 
 AVoodbridge, June 6, 1796, and died at the age of 
 :sixty-one years. I-Ie grew to manhood in his native 
 town, and had but limited educational advantages. 
 He became owner of the old homestead of seventy 
 .acres in the northeastern part of Woodbridge, and 
 also owned other land to the extent of seventy acres. 
 He was an active worker in the Whig party, was a 
 school officer, road surveyor, and filled other official 
 positions. In Woodbridge he married Elizabeth 
 Ann Beecher, a native of that town, daughter of 
 Ephraim and Sarah (Dorrance) Beecher, and grand- 
 daughter of Reuben and Sarah Beecher. Her father 
 .and grandfather were also born in Woodbridge, and 
 there the former died at the age of eight_v-six years. 
 His children were : Pattie, wife of Moses Gilbert, 
 •of Southington, Conn. ; Bela, who died unmarried in 
 Woodbridge; Reuben Minot, who was born May 31, 
 1791, wedded Mary Baldwin, and died April 4, 
 1874; Melinda, wife of Munson Spcrrv, of W^ood- 
 bridge ; Deman, who married Eunice Smith, and fol- 
 lowed farming in Milton, Conn. ; David, who cHied at 
 the age of twcntv-one years; Riley, who died when 
 a A'oung man; Sally, wife of Noyce Bradlev, who 
 lived in different places in Connecticut, but \vas born 
 in Woodbridge, and' is buried there; Lydia, who 
 married Freeman Plotchkiss, and subsequently be- 
 came the wife of Stephen Dickerman, of AA'estville, 
 where she died; and Elizabeth Ann, mother of our 
 
 subject. Mrs. Peck was born in^ 1802, and died in 
 Woodbridge at the ripe old age of eighty-two years. 
 She and her husband had seven children, namely: 
 Ephraim R., the eldest, is mentioned below; Eliza 
 Ann is the widow of John M. Merwin, of Wood- 
 bridge; Irven B., a carpenter and joiner of Califor- 
 nia, went West in 1855, and married Ann Crow; 
 Minerva P. is the wife of Isaac S. Dickerman, of 
 Westville, Conn. ; Silas E. married Emily Talmage, 
 of New York, and is now a homeopathic physician 
 of Pomona, Fla. ; Henry died in Woodbridge, Dec. 
 25, 1856, at the age of twenty-one years ; and Ste- 
 phen M., our subject, completes the family. Eph- 
 raim R. Peck, the eldest of this family, wedded 
 Mary C. Hine, and followed farming in Wood- 
 bridge, where he died Aug. 15, 1898 ; he left no chil- 
 dren. He received a common-school education, and 
 taking up farming, made a decided success in that 
 line, being also a fine judge of stock. With the ex- 
 ception of seven years, during which he was engaged 
 as a farm hand in one place, he always lived in 
 Woodbridge, where he was respected as one of the 
 most estimable self-made men of his day. He was 
 a Republican, but took no active part in politics, and 
 never held any office. 
 
 Stephen M. Peck was born in Woodbridge Sept. 
 18, 1837, and began his education in the district 
 school one mile from his boyhood home, while dur- 
 ing the winter of 1857-58 he attended the Connecti- 
 cut Literary Institute, under Prof. Pratt. At that 
 time the teacher of mathematics was Henry Smith, 
 who later became principal of the Institute. On at- 
 taining his majority Mr. Peck came into possession 
 of the old homestead and began farming for himself, 
 which occupation he has since followed, with marked 
 success. He resided there until 1897, when he re- 
 moved to his present farm, in the same town, a place 
 of 134 acres willed him by a deceased brother, and 
 he is now one of the most extensive farmers in 
 Woodbridge. He is interested in the dairy busi- 
 ness, keeping for that purpose from twent)r-five to 
 thirty cows, and raises fruit and vegetables on a 
 large scale, finding a splendid market for his produce 
 in New Haven, Ansonia and Seymour. In the fall 
 of 1899 he gathered 600 barrels of apples from his 
 orchards, from not more than one-half of the trees 
 that were formerly bearing. Mr. Peck is also en- 
 gaged in the milling business, owning and operating 
 saw, cider and grist mills, and grinding feed, bone 
 for fertiHzing, etc. Although he has always lived 
 in Woodbridge, he has not confined his business in- 
 terests to his native town. He is the owner of an 
 orange grove of fifty acres in Florida, which was 
 almost destroyed by the severe frosts, but with care 
 he hopes to build it up again. 
 
 On Dec. 10, 1868, in Bethany, Conn., Mr. Peck 
 married Ida Frances Neal, a daughter of Martin H. 
 and Martha M. (Hitchcock) Neal, of Southington, 
 Conn., where her father was engaged in the black- 
 smith and cooperage business. She was boni in 
 Plainville, Conn., Jan. 15, 1849, the second in order 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 102 1 
 
 of birth in a family of four children : ( i ) Eleanor 
 M. (deceased) became the wife of Henry Bucking- 
 ham, of Seymour, and they had six children, Ida 
 (deceased), Minnie, Albert, William, Roy and 
 Lewis. (3) Eva A., born July 26, 1853, is the wife 
 of Jesse Russell, and they have one son, Carlton 
 Martin, of Plainville. (4) Henry Martin, a physi- 
 cian of Upper Lehigh, Pa., married Ada Leisenring, 
 and has four children, Maylon, Cameron, Joseph 
 Hawley and Gertrude. Mr. and Mrs. Peck have 
 had four children: (i) Ermon N., born July 26, 
 1870, a civil engineer, resides in West Hartford, 
 where he is in^ the employ of the Hartford Water 
 Co. ; he graduated from the Connecticut Literary 
 Institute in 1891, and entered the Scientific Depart- 
 ment of Yale, but owing to ill health was unable to 
 continue his studies. He married Emma Newton, 
 of Westville, Conn., and they have one son, Ermon 
 Newton. (2) Irving B., born June 19, 1872, mar- 
 ried Hattie Clark, of Southington, and is now a 
 mechanic of Forestville. (3) Elizabeth I. and (4) 
 Lewis E., twins, were born May 27, 1875. Lewis 
 E. died Aug. 31, 1875. Elizabeth taught school for 
 one year in Bethany, Connecticut. 
 
 Politically Mr. Peck classes himself with the Re- 
 publicans, but believes that something should be 
 done to stop the liquor traffic. Although 'he has 
 never been an office seeker, 'he has accepted local 
 positions of honor and trust, serving as member of 
 the school board, grand juror, assessor, member of 
 the board of relief, etc. He is a member of the 
 Woodbridge Grange, of which he is treasurer, and 
 was worthy chief of the Good Templars Society 
 when that organization was in a flourishing condi- 
 tion. As a business man and citizen he is widely 
 and favorably known, and no one in the town is 
 more honored or highly respected. 
 
 WILLIS BRADLEY, a well-known citizen of 
 Branford, was born there Oct. 20, 1848, son of 
 Gurdon and Anna Maria (Spinks) Bradley. Tim- 
 othy Bradley, his paternal grandfather, married 
 Irene, a daughter of Capt. Alexander Gordon, of 
 Branford. The great-grandfather, Timothy Brad- 
 ley, an early settler of Branford, married Sarah 
 Goodsell. The maternal grandfather of Willis 
 Bradley was Samuel Spinks, of Branford, who mar- 
 ried Esther Tyler. 
 
 Willis Bradley passed his boyhood and youth 
 in Branford, where he attended the public school, 
 and when he was "older grown" served an ap- 
 prenticeship of three years to the blacksmith trade, 
 which he followed ten years in Branford and Meri- 
 den. In maturer life he was made superintendent 
 of the Cherry Hill farm of J. W. Nichols, and filled 
 that position four years in a perfectly satisfactory 
 manner to his employer. In 1883 Mr. Bradley be- 
 gan work as a carpenter for his brother Richard, 
 and this has been his occupation to the present time. 
 He has had some very extensive dealings m the 
 building line in the past years, and has established 
 
 an enviable character for business ability, fair deal- 
 ing and upright treatment of his patrons. 
 
 Willis Bradley was united in marriage Aug. 20,- 
 1872, with Isabelle Eliza, a daughter of Charles R. 
 and Frances Louise (Dudley) Lane, of Guilford- 
 Her paternal grandparents were Noah and Betsey 
 (Stevens) Lane, and her maternal grandparents 
 were Jonathan and Eliza (Holmes) Dudley, of 
 Guilford. Mr. and Mrs. Willis Bradley are the 
 parents of three daughters : Maria Louise ; Hattie 
 Isabel, who is deceased ; and Helen Elizabeth. Mr. 
 Bradley and his family are members of Trinity 
 Episcopal Church, where they are much respected 
 for their sterling worth and genuine character. Mr. 
 Bradley is a member of Widows' Sons Lodge, No.^ 
 66, F. & A. M., and of the New England Order of 
 Protection, where he is a welcome presence. In 
 politics he is a Democrat, and in all things an honor- 
 able and reliable citizen. 
 
 Mrs. Bradley has two brothers, Charles- Holmes 
 Lane, of Branford, and Herbert Eugene Lane, of 
 New Haven, both of whom stand well in their re- 
 spective communities, and are widely known as hon- 
 orable and trustworthy men in all their dealings. 
 
 GEORGE PREBBEL ROLF is ranked among 
 the successful and v^rell-established business citi- 
 zens of Guilford. Since 1881 he has conducted a 
 livery business in that locality, also dealing in 
 horses. 
 
 Mr. Rolf was born in Folster, County of Kent, 
 England, June 12, 1849, a son of Henry Rolf, who 
 was born in 1823 in Folster, which is eighty miles 
 from London. Henry Rolf married Sarah Jane 
 Cox, a native of Elhain, England, and they came 
 to this country with their family in the spring of 
 1850, landing in New York. From that city they 
 came to' New Haven, Conn., and thence by stage 
 coach to Madison, where they located for a time.. 
 Several years later they removed to Guilford, where- 
 Mr. Rolf still resides, highly respected by his friends 
 and neighbors in the community. He was a skilled 
 workman at his trade, that of mason, which he fol- 
 lowed until his retirement. 
 
 Our subject was scarcely one year old when he 
 was brought to this country, and he attended the 
 public schools of Madison. Adopting his father's 
 trade, he pursued that both in Madison and Guil- 
 ford, and in 1881 started in his present line, pur- 
 chasing the interest of George S. Davis, who, in 
 partnership with E. B. Redfield, conducted a livery 
 business. In 1891 our subject bought the interest 
 of Mr. Redfield, and since that time has most suc- 
 cessfully managed a constantly growing business. 
 He has secured the contract for the carrying of 
 the mails, greatly increasing his responsibilities. 
 Mr. Rolf knows a good horse when he sees it, and 
 is one of the largest dealers along the shore line, 
 having stables in New London as well as in Guil- 
 ford. Seeking to please his patrons, Mr. Rolf is 
 popular with every one, and is well and favorably 
 
I022 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 known to a large class of citizens. His honesty in 
 dealing has gained for him the confidence of those 
 who wish to purchase, and many excellent speci- 
 mens of the best breeds of horses have passed 
 through his hands to the public. 
 
 On March 21, 1872, Mr. Rolf married Mary 
 Storer, a daughter of William Storcr, and one child 
 has blessed this union, Fred, born in January, 1877, 
 who received his education in Guilford, and is one 
 of the progressing and rising young men of the 
 town. As a pioneer in the canning of corn and 
 tomatoes in Guilford young Mr. Rolf is the head of 
 what is known as the Sachem's Head Canning Co., 
 and also deals largely in feed, grain and fertilizers. 
 Both Mr. Rolf and his son are Republicans, and our 
 subject has served as warden of the borough three 
 years ; burgess several times ; selectman, one term ; 
 and chairman of the town committee. Frederick 
 Rolf is recognized as one of the progressive and ris- 
 ing young men of the community, and will prob- 
 ably make his mark in both commercial and po- 
 litical life. The family attend the Third Congrega- 
 tional Church. George P. Rolf is a member of the 
 L O. O. F., Mennuntuck Lodge, No. 62, Guilford, 
 and of the N. E. O. P., Sachem Lodge, Guilford. 
 
 JOHN WL\^FIELD NORTON, one of Wol- 
 cott's most prosperous and highly esteemed citizens, 
 was born in Wolcott Centre, March 27, 1854, and is 
 a worthy representative of one of the best and old- 
 est families of the State. In 1639, Thomas Norton 
 emigrated from Ockley, County of Surrey, England, 
 to the New World, and took up his residence in 
 Guilford, New Haven Co., Conn. About 1625 he 
 married Grace Wells, and to them were born the 
 following children: Anne, born in 1625, married 
 John Warner, of Saybrook, Conn. ; Grace, born in 
 1627, was married April 2, 1651, to William 
 Seward, of New Haven and Guilford, and died 
 j\Iay 29, 1687; Mary B., born in 1635, was married, 
 April 9, 1660, to Samuel Rockman, a son of William 
 Rockman, of Windsor, Conn.; John, born in i()4o, 
 is mentioned below ; Abigail, born in 1642, was mar- 
 ried, Aug. 6, 1667, to Anamas Tryon, of Killing- 
 worth; and Thomas, born in 1646, was married ]\Iay 
 8, 1671, to Elizabeth Mason. 
 
 John Norton, son of Thomas, spent his entire 
 life in Guilford, where he followed the miller's 
 trade, and died May 5, 1704. He first married 
 Hannah Stone, and for his second wife married 
 Elizabeth Hubbard. In his family were six chil- 
 dren : John, who was born Nov. 18, 1666,. and died 
 Jan. 10, 1667; John, who is mentioned below; 
 Susannah, who was born Oct. 4, ir)72; Thomas, 
 who was born Ma)- 4, 1675 ; Hannah, \vho was born 
 Feb. 4, 1677, and was married, Jan. 16, 1702, to 
 Ebenezer Stone ; and Mary, who was born in 1680. 
 
 John Norton (2nd), a son of John, was born 
 May 29, 1668, and was a land owner and farmer 
 of Guilford. He was married, Nov. 14, 1694, to 
 Hannah Buck, of Wethersfield, Conn., daughter of 
 
 Emanuel Buck, the first of that name in Wethers- 
 field. Mr. Norton died March 15, 171 1, his wife, 
 Oct. 22, 1739. Their children were Anna, who was 
 born Oct. 16, 1695, and died in October, 1721 ; 
 Mary, born Dec. 6, 1697; John, born Dec. 23, 1699; 
 Sarah, born Feb. 26, 1702; Joseph, born Oct. 10, 
 1704; Elizabeth, who was born Oct. 6, 1706, was 
 married, Aug. 8, 1728, to David Benton, and died 
 Aug. 25, 1756; and Hannah, who was born March 
 4, 1 710, and died in 1724. 
 
 Joseph Norton, son of John (2nd), spent his en- 
 tire life as a farmer in Guilford, where he died 
 May 9, 1 78 1. On April 11, 1728, he wedded M^ary 
 Champion, of Lyme, Conn., who lived for a time 
 in Wolcott, but died in Guilford, July 13, 1800, at 
 the extreme old age of no years. She was a good 
 Christian woman and the mother of the following 
 children : Simeon, born ^lay 3, 1729, died Dec. 22, 
 1772; David, born Oct. 21, 1730, is mentioned be- 
 low; William, born Jan. 22, 172,2, died June 17, 
 1760; Hannah, born Oct. I, 1734, died in 1736; 
 Philemon, born June 24, 1736, died in October of 
 the same year; Noah, born Jan. 2y, 1740, died May 
 31, 1763; and Beniah, born in 1742, died Nov. 10, 
 1843. 
 
 David Norton, son of Joseph, came to Wolcott 
 at an early day and purchased land near Wolcott 
 Centre, upon which he spent the remainder of his 
 life. He was a well-known citizen of that locality, 
 was a consistent Christian, and highly respected. 
 On Nov. II, 1752, he married Submit Benton, who 
 died in 1755, and for his second wife he married 
 Suza Bishop. He was the father of the following 
 children: Ozias, who was born Feb. 10, 1754, and 
 is mentioned below; Cyrus, who was born Jan. 14, 
 I7SS> married Jerusha Johnson, of Wolcott, and 
 lived in New York; Ziba, who was born in 1757, 
 and was married, Nov. 26, 1778, to Ruth Hopkins; 
 Suza, who was baptized June 12, 1759; Zebul, who 
 was baptized Sept. 22, 1761, and married Rhoda 
 Norton ; and Noah U., who was baptized July 3, 
 1764, was married April 18, 1784, to Rachel Gillet, 
 of Wolcott, and lived in New York. 
 
 Ozias Norton, son of David, made his home in 
 Wolcott, where he owned property and engaged in 
 farming until his death, which occurred Feb. 6,1840, 
 his remains being interred there. He married 
 Maria Frisbie, and to them were born nine children, 
 namely : David ; Keziah, wife of Daniel Lane, of 
 Wolcott ; Susan and Elizabeth, twins, the former 
 the wife of Daniel Byington, the latter the wife of 
 Thomas Cook, of Ohio ; ]vIoses Frisbie married 
 Percy Barber and lived in Ohio ; Jonathan Frisbie, 
 who married Polly Smith and died in Wolcott; 
 Ziba, grandfather of our subject; Jedediah Har- 
 mon, born May 11, 1788; and Simeon Newton, born 
 March 28, 1791. 
 
 Ziba Norton was born in ^^''olcott, and followed 
 the trade of shoemaker. About 1830 he removed 
 to Truxton, N. Y., where he died. He married 
 Abigail Atkins, of Wolcott, and the children born 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1023 
 
 to them were as follows : Ada, born June 23, 1803, 
 first married a Mr. Doolittle, and second George 
 W. Royce; Talcott, born Sept. 19, 1807, married 
 Belinda Hall, of Plymouth, Conn. ; Lenora, born 
 ;\Iarch 12, 1805, married Harley Downs ; Phoebe, 
 born in December, 1809, hiarried George W. 
 A¥inchell; Minerva, born in March, 1812, married 
 Everett Norton; Hendrick, born in December, 1817; 
 Rufus, father of our subject, was next in order of 
 birth; Manville, born June 8, 1821 ; and Rufinus, 
 born in September, 1824. 
 
 Rufus Norton was born Feb. 18, 1819, and re- 
 ceived a common school education, which was later 
 in life greatly supplemented by extensive reading, 
 giving particular attention to the study of the Bible, 
 Shakespeare, historical and political works. He 
 was a tanner and currier by trade, and followed 
 that occupation for a number of years, but later 
 engaged in farming first on the Hall farm, later on 
 the Beecher farm, and then, after operating several 
 different places in Wolcott, he returned to the 
 Beecher farm, where he passed the remainder of his 
 life, dying there Dec. i, 1897. His remains were 
 interred in the Wolcott Centre cemetery. He was 
 an excellent judge of horses and cattle, and in con- 
 nection with farming, also dealt in stock and wood. 
 He first married Harriet Smith, and for his second 
 wife wedded her half sister, Ellen Beecher, a 
 daughter of John and Vina Beecher. She is a most 
 estimable lady, a member of the Congregational 
 Church, and is still living on the old homestead. 
 In politics the father was first a Whig and later a 
 Democrat, and he took quite an active interest in 
 local affairs, filling several town offices, including 
 those of selectman and assessor, holding the latter 
 position for ten years. Although not a member of 
 any church, he endeavored to follow the Golden 
 Rule, and was widely and favorably known. 
 
 John W. Norton, whose name introduces this 
 review, received only a district school education, 
 and at the early age of fourteen years started out 
 in life for himself, working in the shops at Bristol, 
 Conn., for one year, at $1.50 per day. After that he 
 spent about two years on a farm in Bethany, and 
 then returned to Bristol, where he was employed for 
 two years at $1.75 per day. At the end of that time 
 he bought a tract of woodland and an ox team, and 
 commenced cutting the timber and selling the wood. 
 This he continued until locating on the old Leonard 
 Beecher homestead in Wolcott, where he is now 
 extensively engaged in general farming, the wood 
 and dairy business. He is one of the largest land 
 owners in the town, and besides his farm here, he 
 had property in Bristol and Southington, Conn., 
 •i&gregating 575 acres. 
 
 In Harwinton, Litchfield Co., Conn., Mr. \orton 
 married Miss Nettie M. Coy, of that place, a 
 daughter of Silas and Lorinda Coy. Of the two 
 children born to them, one died .in mfancy, and 
 John F. is at home. Politically he is a Renublican, 
 and since 1893 Mr. Norton has served as tax col- 
 
 lector of Wolcott, and he also filled the office of as- 
 sessor for two years. He is liberal in his religious 
 views. Since the age of fourteen years he has been 
 dependent upon his own resources, and to-day he 
 enjoys the reward of his painstaking and con- 
 scientious work. By his energy, perseverance and 
 fine business ability he has been enabled to secure 
 a handsome competence. Systematic and method- 
 ical, his sagacity, keen discrimination and sound 
 judgment have made him one of the most pros- 
 perous citizens of Wolcott. 
 
 FRANKLIN PIERCE SMITH, a representa- 
 tive farmer and highly esteemed citizen of Cheshire, 
 was born in that town Aug. 10, 185 1, and belongs 
 to an old and prominent Connecticut family. His 
 paternal great-grandparents, David and Abigail 
 (Lewis) Smith, were natives of Southington, Conn., 
 and the former was a son of David Smith, Sr., 
 and a grandson of Gideon Smith. Our subject's 
 grandparents, Gideon Lewis and Lois (Barnes) 
 Smith, were also natives^ of Southington, and in 
 1823 moved to Cheshire, where he followed farming 
 throughout the remainder of his life, dying there 
 in 1850. His wife died in 1846. Their children 
 were Elizabeth, wife of Sherman Hart, of Berlin, 
 Conn. ; Rhoda, wife of John Hall, of Kensington ; 
 Abigail, wife of Seth Pratt, of Southington ; Sylva, 
 wife of David Beach, of Southington ; Loyal, father 
 of our subject; Rollin, who died in Cheshire; Lois, 
 who married Asahel Warner, and died in Auburn, 
 N. Y. ; and Lola, wife of Burritt Parker, of South- 
 ington. 
 
 Loyal Smith, our subject's father, was born in 
 July, 1807, and was sixteen years of age when the 
 family removed to Cheshire, where he afterward 
 engaged in farming to the close of his life. He 
 was quite a prominent and influential citizen of his 
 community, and was a member of the State Legis- 
 lature from Cheshire in 1856 and again in 1867. 
 In that town he was married, Oct. 29, 1829, to Miss 
 Henrietta Dickerman, who was born in Hamden 
 Nov. 26, 1807, a daughter of Samuel and Lois 
 (Peck) Dickerman, also natives of Hamderi, where 
 her mother died. Her father died in Cheshire, in 
 1839. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born eight 
 children, as follows : Sereno D., a resident of 
 Meriden; Lois, who died at the age of six years; 
 Eliza, who died in Cheshire in 1848, at the age of 
 eleven years ; Lois Lucelia, widow of Edward Ives, 
 and a resident of Cheshire; Rhoda, wife of Amos 
 Ives, of Meriden ; Loyal Barnes, of Cheshire ; Sam- 
 uel D. ; and Franklin Pierce, our subject. 
 
 Franklin P. Smith was reared and educated in 
 much the usual manner of farmers' sons of his day, 
 attending the local schools and aiding in the labors 
 of the farm, and since attaining to man's estate has 
 successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 
 1882 he was united in marriage with Miss Emma E. 
 Miles, a native of Meriden, and a daughter of John 
 and Abigail (Sanderson) Miles, who were born in 
 
I024 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Cheshire. Her father died in 1894, her mother in 
 1890. J\Ir. and Mrs. Smith have one son, Eugene 
 C. The Democratic party finds in our subject a 
 stanch supporter of its principles, and he talces quite 
 an active interest in pubHc afifairs. He was one of 
 the selectmen of Cheshire in 1883, and has been a 
 member of the grand jury. 
 
 FREDERICK E. COLBURN, one of Ansonia's 
 leading citizens, is a worthy representative of an old 
 and 'honored pioneer family, being a descendant of 
 Daniel Colburn, who settled in Stafford and passed 
 his remaining years there as a farmer, dying at a 
 good old age. 
 
 Daniel Colburn, our subject's grandfather, was 
 a native of Stafford, and followed agricultural pur- 
 suits there for many years. His wife, Elizabeth 
 Moulton, who died at the age of seventy, was born 
 in Stafford, daughter of Bounds Moulton, a prom- 
 inent farmer. They had twelve children, none of 
 whom are now living, and of their nine grandchil- 
 dren only five are living. Among the deceased 
 grandchildren was Col. Colburn of the Union army. 
 
 Sylvester Colburn, our subject's father, was born 
 in Stafford Dec. 7, 1806, and was reared upon the 
 farm, obtaining his education in the district schools. 
 At sixteen he went to New Haven with his twin 
 brother, Sullivan M., to work in the store of an elder 
 brother, John Colburn, and later they started a 
 small foundry, which they operated a few years. 
 Their next venture was the fotmding of the Bassett 
 foundry, and on disposing of it, in 1847, they locat- 
 ed in Ansonia, our subject's father taking the pres- 
 ent homestead, at No. 121 Howard avenue. They 
 became interested to some extent in the Farrell 
 foundry and the Wallace factory, and operated a 
 cotton-mill in the building now occupied by Arthur 
 H. Bartholomew, while for some time they were 
 connected with Robert Bassett's enterprise in Derby. 
 They owned valuable real estate, and built two 
 houses on the lots adjoining the present homestead. 
 They also held stock in the Birmingham Pin Co., 
 which is retained by the family, and they purchased 
 the first improved machine used by that company 
 for the manufacture of pins. In fact, they were 
 more or less closely lidentified with every enterprise 
 started in tlieir locality, and both continued their 
 active interest in public affairs until their retirement 
 from business. All the shade trees in West An- 
 sonia were set out by them, and they assisted gen- 
 erously in building and maintaining Christ Church 
 in Ansonia, one-fourth of the running expenses hav- 
 ing been paid by them for many years. Sylvester 
 Colbum died July 23, 1870, aged sixty-four years, 
 and his brother Sullivan died May i, 1876, aged 
 seventy. Another brother. Dr. Josiah Colburn', who 
 was born in 1799, was closely associated with them 
 in business for some time. He practiced medicine 
 in Orange and Derby for a number of years, but re- 
 tired in 1852 and joined in the management of the 
 Bassett foundry, then known as the Birmingham 
 
 foundry. On selling his interest he located in An- 
 sonia and started an axe factory, but a few years, 
 later he sold this and invested in a foundry in 
 Bridgeport, continuing, however, to reside in An- 
 sonia, where he died iMarch 11, 1882, aged eighty- 
 three years. 
 
 Sylvester Colburn married Elizabeth Hull, a 
 native of New Haven, and a daughter of Thomas 
 Hull, one of the wealthiest citizens of Westville,. 
 where he owned a farm a mile square and had a resi- 
 dence upon one of the finest streets. For many 
 years he was interested in butchering and farming,, 
 and as a citizen he was much esteemed for bis ster- 
 ling qualities of character. His wife, Annah 
 (Thomas), who died in 1826, aged forty-six years,, 
 was born in West Haven, and they had six children,, 
 of whom none are living. Our subject's mother was 
 the last to pass away, dying Nov. 30, 1900, aged 
 ninety years. She was a devout Episcopalian, and 
 her family has been identified with that church for 
 generations. Of her tour children only one is liv- 
 ing, Frederick E. Another son, Arthur, with his 
 daughters Annette and Eda, the captain and one 
 sailor, were drowned by the upsetting of his yacht in 
 Long Island Sound, on July 18, 1901 ; his watch 
 stopped at three minutes past four. His daughter 
 Madaline and one sailor were saved by hanging on 
 to an overturned rowboat for two hours, and' were 
 picked up by a passing tugboat. 
 
 Frederick E. Colburn was born in Westville Sept. 
 6, 1832, and was 'educated in the district schools of 
 that section and in New Haven. For some years he 
 was interested in the manufacture of guano and 
 phosphates, but since 1884 his attention has been 
 devoted to real-estate business. Politically he affili- 
 ates with the Republican party, although he has re- 
 fused all offers of official positions, and he is one of 
 the prominent Masons of this section, having been a 
 member of George WasMngton Lodge, No. 82, of 
 Ansonia, for thirty-one years, and also belonging to 
 Mt. Vernon Chapter, Ansonia. In 1859 he married 
 Miss Flora A. Smith, and they have had five chil- 
 dren, of whom four are living, (i) Ruby W. mar- 
 ried Dr. Baldwin, now of Rome, Italy, and they 
 have six children, Frederick W., Henneth P. S., 
 John P., Charles L., Cornelia F. and Margaret. (2) 
 Fairchild S. married Miss Miinnie Bus'her, and set- 
 tled on his grandfather's farm in Ohio. (3) Eliza- 
 beth H. married Rev. E. T. Mathison, an Episcopal 
 clergyman, and has two children. Flora and Cather- 
 ine. (4) Sylvester G. married Miss Ruth Sperry,. 
 and has two children, Elizabeth and Frederick S. 
 
 Mrs. Flora A. Smith Colburn, whose "mental 
 gifts and culture make her a social leader, is a mem- 
 ber of the D. A. R., Sarah Hump'hrey Chapter, of 
 Derby, and is eligible to membership in the Society 
 of the Colonial Dames. She was born in Lake 
 county, Ohio, and is of good old Connecticut stock 
 in the paternal hne. Her maternal great-grand- 
 father, Joseph White, came from France and served 
 seven years in the Revolutionary army tmder Gen. 
 
^ff C- •^cTL'^'i*^'-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1025 
 
 LaFayette. Her great-great-grandfather, Giles 
 Smith, a native of South Norwalk, settled in Derby 
 at an early date, and Abraham Smith, her great- 
 grandfather, passed his life there as a farmer. Pros- 
 pect street now runs through the site of his old 
 homestead. Alsraham Smith married Sarah French, 
 granddaughter of Jo'hn Bowers, a graduate of 
 Harvard College and one of the preachers at Guil- 
 ford and Derby. James Smith, the grandfather of 
 Mrs. Colburn, was a native of Derby, and followed 
 farming at the homestead for some years in connec- 
 tion with the cooper's trade. Later he moved to 
 Waterbury, but his last years were spent in Derby, 
 his death occurring at the age of eighty years. He 
 married Molly Fairchild, daughter of Abial and 
 Zerviah Johnson, and they had three children. Mrs. 
 Smith died when her son, James F., was but three 
 weeks old. 
 
 James F. Smith, Mrs. Colburn's father, was 
 born in Waterbury, and in 1819 went to Ohio, the 
 journey, which was made with an ox-team, occupy- 
 ing one month. For one year he worked by the 
 month, saving his wages carefully, and as time 
 passed he became one of the wealthiest farmers 
 and fruit growers of that section, his farm com- 
 prising 600 acres of land. He lived to the advanced 
 age of ninety-three years. He married Caroline 
 White, who was born in Granville, N. Y., one of 
 the four children of John White, who died at the 
 age of one hundred and two, and his wife, Ruby 
 (Cleveland), who died aged sixty-seven. Mrs. 
 Caroline Smith died aged sixty-seven years, and of 
 her three children none are living except Mrs. Col- 
 burn, who was second in order of birth. James H. 
 died in 1896, and Mary Z. died in, 1870, aged nine- 
 teen years. The Smith family has also been con- 
 nected with the Episcopal Church for many years, 
 and Mrs. Colburn is among the active workers of 
 the church in Ansonia. 
 
 SAMUEL E, FRLSBIE, a prominent agricult- 
 urist and business man of the town of Milford, was 
 born in East Haven, Conn., April 7, 1856, son of 
 William H. and grandson of Samuel Frisbie. The 
 family is of pioneer stock. Samuel Fri;bie was born 
 in Branford, Conn., where he continued to reside, 
 and where he followed shoemaking all his life. His 
 wife, Sally Tyler, was born in Branford, and passed 
 her entire life there. Of their seven children, the 
 eldest, Obed T. (deceased),, was a shoemaker m 
 New Haven, Conn.; Roxana (deceased) married 
 Nelson Linsley, of New Haven ; Randolph R. was 
 a shoemaker and later a bookkeeper, but at present 
 is retired; William H., our subject's father, is men- 
 tioned below ; Mary E., a tailoress, died in Milford 
 unmarried; Lewis,'who died in Fair Haven, Conn., 
 was an iron and brass founder, and earlier m life 
 a shoemaker; and Sarah resides in Branford. 
 
 William FL Frisbie was born in Branford May 
 II, 1826, and became a shoemaker, but afterward 
 for some time followed the iron molder's trade. 
 
 65 
 
 In April, 1877, he settled uix)n a farm in Milford, 
 where he still resides. He married Eunice C. Dick- 
 inson, a native of Chester, Conn., and daughter of 
 Ely Dickinson, and they became the parents of one 
 child, Samuel E. 
 
 Samuel E. Frisbie first attended school in East 
 Haven, and when eight years, old went to Bran- 
 ford, where his studies were continued several years. 
 At thirteen he moved with his parents to New Ha- 
 ven, and after a short service in the finishing de- 
 partment of the New Haven Clock Co. became clerk 
 in a drug store to learn the business. During the 
 panic of 1877 he settled with his parents in Mil- 
 ford upon his present farm as a market gardener 
 and seed grower. For the last four years he has 
 been special agent for the Page Woven Wire Fence 
 Co., a most successful branch of his business, ne- 
 cessitating some traveling, and he also acts as gen- 
 eral agent and traveler for the Rogers & Hubbard 
 Co.'s fertilizers. He is thoroughly alive to up-to- 
 date machinery, and has been local agent for vari- 
 ous improved farm tools, etc., which he has in- 
 troduced. He has never married, but he and his 
 father have built a beautiful residence on a part 
 of the old farm, which contains about eighty acres 
 — the original farm when taken comprising about 
 164 acres. While he votes independently so far 
 as local affairs are concerned, he is a Republican, 
 and owing to his clear understanding of parlia- 
 mentary law has often been chairman of that party's 
 caucuses, as also of the annual and special meetings- 
 of the town. He has also served as grand juror^ 
 He was, a prominent candidate for the first judge 
 of the Milford Town Court upon its establishment 
 in 1901, being defeated in legislative caucus only 
 by a compromise candidate. While taking an active' 
 part in town affairs, he has sought to avoid and has, 
 refused public preferment. Mr. Frisbie belongs tO' 
 the Patrons of Husbandry, or Grange, and is a char- 
 ter member and organizer of the local Grange in his 
 town ; he is also president for the fourth consecutive 
 time of the local council of the National Provident 
 Union, and takes much interest in temperance af- 
 fairs. He is a member of Plymouth Congrega- 
 tional Church, and for three years was superin- 
 tendent of its Sunday-school. For two years he 
 was director of music in the First Congregational 
 Church, and he has taken much interest in musical 
 affairs generally, having been president and organ- 
 izer of the old Amphion Music Society, and sec- 
 retary of the more recent Choral Musical Union.- 
 
 CHARLES W. GRANNISS, an honored vet- 
 eran of the Civil war, and a representative citizen 
 of the town of East Haven, New Haven county, 
 was born Nov. 10, 1844, on the farm where he now 
 resides, and comes of good old Colonial stock. 
 
 The family was founded in the New World by 
 Edward Granniss, a native of England, who came 
 to this country in 1644 and first located in Hartford,. 
 Conn., where he followed farming about ten years> 
 
I026 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 About 1670 he removed to Hadley, Mass., and seven 
 years later came to North Haven. He married EHz- 
 abeth Andrews in 1654, and among their children 
 was Joseph Granniss, who was born in 1677. Isaac 
 Granniss, son of Joseph, was born in 1716, and was 
 the first of the family to locate in East Haven, mak- 
 ing his home on the farm where our subject now 
 lives. He purchased this land from the Indian 
 chief Foxen. His son, Jared Granniss, the grand- 
 father of our subject, was born in 1756, and lived 
 to the advanced age of ninety-one years. He was 
 one of the Revolutionary heroes, and was with 
 Gen. Putnam in the battle of Bunker Hill. 
 
 Frederick Granniss, father of our subject, was 
 born Feb. 2, 1813, and when sixteen years of age 
 was apprenticed to George Hoadley, of New Haven, 
 to learn the carriagemaker's trade, at which he con- 
 tinued to work for several years, spending part 
 of the time in Albany, N. Y. Returning to the old 
 homestead in East Haven, he followed dairy farm- 
 ing throughout the remainder of his life, and died 
 Ihere April 29, 1895. He was a consistent and 
 iaithful member of the Baptist Church, and took 
 :a very active part in its work. In early life he mar- 
 ried Miss Emily Bailey, a daughter of Thaddeus 
 Bailey, of Groton, Conn. She died Feb. 18, 1882. 
 In their family were three children, of whom our 
 subject is the youngest. George F., born Feb. 2, 
 1835, is a resident of Wallingford, this county; 
 and Andrew J., born Jan. 11, 1841, is a farmer of 
 East Haven. 
 
 Charles W. Granniss passed his boyhood and 
 youth on the old homestead where he continues 
 to reside, and was pursuing his studies in the local 
 schools when the Civil war broke out. Going to 
 New Haven, he enlisted Aug. 21, 1861, in Company 
 A, loth Conn. V. I., but his father, learning of his 
 enlistment through the school teacher, succeeded in 
 getting his release on account of his youth. Our 
 subject returned home, but after talking the matter 
 over with his father for a few days he was given a 
 written consent to his enlistment, and together they 
 returned to New Haven, where he re-enlisted in the 
 same company and regiment, joining his command 
 at that city. They were encamped at Hartford, 
 and thence went to Annapolis, Md., later joining 
 Burnside in his Roanoke expedition. Mr. Granniss' 
 first engagement, at Roanoke Island, N. C, was 
 followed by the battles of Newbern, Kinston and 
 Goldsboro, under the command of Gen. Burnside, 
 loth Army Corps. Later the regiment was assigned 
 to the 1 8th Army Corps, under Gens. Gilmore and 
 Butler, and was sent to Charleston, S. C, where they 
 helped dig the entrenchments and remained until the 
 surrender of Fort Wagner, after a siege of three 
 months. Going to St. Augustine, Fla., thev did 
 garrison duty until Dec. 31, 1863, and then re- 
 turned home on a thirty days' furlough. Mr. Gran- 
 niss re-enlisted and rejoined his regiment at Hart- 
 ford, where they were encamped on Trinitv College 
 grounds. Later they proceeded to Alexandria, Ys.. 
 
 They spent five weeks at Arlington Heights, near 
 A\'ashington, D. C, and then joined the army op- 
 posite York-town, under Gen. Butler. Later they 
 participated in the engagements at Bermuda Hun- 
 dred, Drury's' Blufif and the siege of Petersburg, 
 and then crossed the James river and took part in 
 the battle of Strawberry Plains, where Mr. Gran- 
 niss was wounded by a minie ball in the left shoul- 
 der, Aug. 16, 1864. He was first taken to the field 
 hospital and later to the hospital at Newmarket 
 Heights. On his recovery he participated in the 
 engagements at Laurel Hill, Newmarket, Derby- 
 town, Johnston's plantation, Hatchie's Run and Fort 
 Gregg. While storming the fort our subject was 
 again wounded by a revolver in the hands of a 
 Confederate officer not one hundred feet from him, 
 the bullet striking the first joint of the first finger 
 on the left hand and passing through all the finger 
 joints. He spent a few days in the hospital at 
 Point of Rocks, and a month at the hospital at 
 Hampton, Va., and then was discharged at New 
 Haven, Aug. 30, 1865, with the rank of sergeant. 
 
 Soon after his return home Mr. Granniss, in 
 company with his brother Andrew, went to Nor- 
 folk, Va., where he was employed in lumber and 
 wood yards for one year. At the end of that time 
 he came back to Connecticut, and has since suc- 
 cessfully engaged in market gardening and the dairy 
 business on the old homestead in East Haven. On 
 Feb. 24, 1874, he was united in marriage with Miss 
 Annie Irwin, of Baltimore, Md., and to them were 
 born three children : Irwin, a practicing physician 
 of New Haven, who was graduated from the Med- 
 ical Department of Yale College at the age of twen- 
 ty-one years ; Lincoln, who is now a member of 
 the Freshman class at Yale ; and Charles A., who 
 died in infancy. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Granniss is an honored member 
 of Delphi Lodge, No. 63, F. & A. M., of New 
 Haven ; Admiral Foote Post, No. 63, G. A. R. ; and 
 Foxen Grange, No. 89, East Haven, of which he is 
 now master. In politics he is an ardent Republican. 
 He was a member of the State Legislature in 1895 
 and again in 1899, and was chairman of the com- 
 mittee on Temperance during the last term; he 
 has been county auditor for two years. As a citi- 
 zen he has always been true and faithful to every 
 trust reposed in him, so that his loyalty is above 
 question, being manifest in days of peace as when 
 he followed the old flag to victory on Southern 
 battlefields. 
 
 FIENRY CHALMERS BALDWIN, whose 
 fame as a lawyer and orator extended far beyond 
 the confines of his native State, was born upon a 
 farm known as Pond Hill, in the town of Nauga- 
 tuck, Sept. 15, 1842. 
 
 ^ Lucius Baldwin, his father, who was a Meth- 
 odist minister, was born in Woodbridge. He mar- 
 ried a Miss Willard, of Massachusetts, and for 
 many years lived upon the farm where ten of his 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1027 
 
 fourteen children were born. He died in April, 
 1869. Of his farnily Henry C. was the ninth in or- 
 der of birth, the others being Jerusha Maria, Lucius 
 Monroe, Edwin Soule, Hervey Watson, Amelia 
 Anne, Louis Sherwood, Esther Sophia, Frances 
 Adelaide, Celia Josephine, Matilda Augusta, Albert 
 Warren, Charles Willard and Florence Eleanor. 
 Lucius Monroe is a farmer in Naugatuck. Louis 
 Sherwood and Albert Warren died in early man- 
 hood. Charles Willard is a practicing lawyer in 
 Florida. Five of the seven daughters are married, 
 Jerusha Maria to F. K. Small, of Cape Cod, Mass. ; 
 Esther Sophia to J. F. Brown, of Lynn, that State ; 
 Frances Adelaide to Judge Bingham, of Naugatuck ; 
 Celia Josephine to E. J. Whitehead, of New York ; 
 and Amelia Anne to George F. Walker, of Glou- 
 cester, England. Florence Eleanor has remained 
 unmarried. , Matilda Augusta died before reaching 
 womanhood. 
 
 Henry C. Baldwin passed his boyhood upon the 
 paternal farm, receiving his early education at the 
 schools of Naugatuck and New Britain. In Au- 
 gust, 1862, before he had reached the age of twenty, 
 he enlisted with a number of other young men of 
 Naugatuck, in Company H, 15th C. V. His ex- 
 perience as a soldier was eventful, and his record 
 one of distinction. He was once wounded and 
 was for two months a prisoner, and was mustered 
 out of service June 28, 1865. On his return to 
 Naugatuck he taught school for a time, and was 
 for two years connected with a concern engaged in 
 the manufacture of pocket cutlery, window fixtures, 
 etc. That pursuit, however, he did not find con- 
 genial, and in 1869 he matriculated in the Yale Law 
 School, from which he was graduated three years 
 later. He at once began practice at Naugatuck, 
 where his natural ability, sound learning and fidelity 
 to his clients soon won for him a large clientage. 
 In 1889 he opened an office in New York, spending 
 three days of each week in that city, and in 1895 
 he established a branch office in Waterbury, Conn., 
 the better to meet the demands of his constantly 
 growing practice. He died Jan. 15, 1897, at his 
 home in Carroll Court, the immediate cause of his 
 death being heart failure, the sequence to an ill- 
 ness extending over several weeks. His passing 
 away cast a gloom over the community in which he 
 had lived so long, and where he had many friends 
 and where he was tmiversally honored, even by 
 those who criticised what they sometimes desig- 
 nated his "erratic" course in politics. As a man 
 he was trusted implicitly by all who knew him; 
 as a friend he was sincere, charitable, faithful; as 
 a husband and father, loyal and devoted ; as a citi- 
 zen, progressive, public-spirited and liberal. En- 
 dowed with a singularly retentive memory and 
 sparkling wit, he was a brilliant conversationalist. 
 As a lawyer, his sympathies were always with the 
 cause which he believed to be right and just, and 
 his generosity toward those in distress was limited 
 
 only by his pecuniary ability, although ever guided 
 by a sound judgment. 
 
 Reference has been made in the preceding para- 
 graph to Mr. Baldwin's career as a politician. His 
 first vote was cast as a Democrat, and in 1872 he 
 took the stump for Horace Greeley. He was a con- 
 stant reader on theories and principles of govern- 
 ment and finance, and he early became imbued with 
 the creed of the Greenback-Labor party, in 1875 
 delivering the first speech ever made in its ad- 
 vocacy in Hartford. In 1880 he was a delegate 
 to the convention which nominated Gen. Weaver 
 for the presidency, and in one campaign he was the 
 Greenback candidate for Connecticut's chief ex- 
 ecutive chair. In 1886 he was elected town clerk 
 on that ticket. In 1896 he was an ardent supporter 
 of William J. Bryan, and made speeches in his be- 
 half in Connecticut and New Jersey. The follow- 
 ing is extracted from a paragraph which appeared 
 in the New York Sun at the time of his death : 
 "Mr. Baldwin had been identified with public af- 
 fairs for a long time. He had been a Greenbacker, 
 and was the Greenback candidate for governor of 
 his State at one time. He followed Blaine through 
 Maine the time the State elected a Greenback gov- 
 ernor, and to him more than to any other man was 
 due the victory of the party in that State. He was 
 an ardent Populist of late years, and took an active 
 part in the St. Louis convention. It was he who 
 got on his feet and asked the gathering to use their 
 brains instead of their mouths." As an orator Mr. 
 Baldwin was eloquent and fearless, and even his 
 opponents always heard him with interest and re- 
 spect. He was a frequent contributor to the press, 
 his writings always showing deep research and men- 
 tal qualities of a high order. At one time he was 
 connected with a Naugatuck weekly called the Agi- 
 tator, devoted to the interests of the working men, 
 and many leading papers throughout the land wel- 
 comed articles from his pen. 
 
 On May 29, 1875, Mr. Baldwin married Miss 
 Millicent, a daughter of Elijah W. Bingham, of 
 Middletown. She and their three children. May 
 E., Florence J. and Seth W., survive him. 
 
 FREDERICK LeGRAND JACKSON, a well- 
 known merchant at Stony Creek, has won more 
 than a local reputation for honest goods and fair 
 treatment, and by his plain and upright methods 
 of doing business has drawn to himself a very de- 
 sirable custom. Mr. Jackson was born in Durham, 
 Conn., March 2, i860, and is a son of Alfred and 
 Deborah Ann (Davis) Jackson, both natives of 
 Connecticut, the former of Guilford, and the latter 
 of Durham. 
 
 John Jackson, his paternal grandfather, was born 
 in Guilford, where he lived and died, having fol- 
 lowed ithe vocation of farming all his life. Levi 
 Davis, the maternal grandfather of Frederick L. 
 Jackson, was also a farmer in Durham, and in his 
 
I028 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 later life he removed to a location in Susquehanna 
 county, Penn., where he spent the rest of his life, 
 dying in that community. 
 
 Alfred Jackson, the father of Frederick L., is a 
 farmer, and has his home in Durham, Conn. There 
 are six children in his family: Lillia V. (who 
 married Henry Davis), Andrew, Frederick L., 
 Edith, Mary and John. 
 
 Frederick LeGrand Jackson spent his boyhood 
 days in Durham, and received his education in Dur- 
 ham Academy. Leaving home at the age of twenty 
 years, he became an employe in the general store 
 of his brother-in-law, Henry Davis, and remained 
 with him nine and a half years. Mr, Jackson began 
 business for himself in 1891, at Stony Creek, after 
 having managed the establishment of Strong, 
 Barnes & Hart, for about a year and a half. Pur- 
 chasing the stock and good will of his employers, 
 he solicited the patronage of the public in his own 
 behalf, and from the first made a decided success 
 in his business. 
 
 On June 8, 1892, Mr. Jackson was married to 
 Mary F., a daughter of Joseph A. and Adeline W. 
 (Webster) Terry, of Hartford. Mr. Jackson is a 
 member of the two fraternal societies the Knights 
 of Honor and the Knights of Pythias. In politics 
 he is a Democrat. 
 
 LYNDE ROWL.-\ND, a prominent citizen of 
 Branford, was born in Old Lyme, New London 
 Co., Conn., July 17, 1827, son of Lynde and Susan 
 Y. (Greenfield) Rowland, and grandson of Evi 
 and Caroline (Chadwick) Rowland. He comes of 
 good old Puritan stock, and is a worthy representa- 
 tive of the best ideals and principles of New Eng- 
 land. The maternal grandfather of Mr. Rowland, 
 James Greenfield, who was a shoe-maker of Old 
 Lyme, came of English and Gennan extraction. He 
 was a soldier in the war of 1812. Our subject's 
 father was a sea captain, and in the course of his 
 professional career visited all the great seaports of 
 the world. He died' Jan. 20, 1841, aged fifty-five 
 years, in the village of Old Lyme, shortly after the 
 death of his wife, who passed away Nov. 15, 1840, 
 aged forty-six years. Their family consisted of 
 four children, of whom the eldest, Edward, who 
 died several years ago, was a farmer and school 
 teacher by occupation ; he married Abigail Lay, and 
 had six children. Mary Ann died Dec. 20, 1832, 
 aged two years, six months. Abigail G. became the 
 wife of Andrew Ure, a farmer and merchant, and 
 had five children ; she died in 1899. 
 
 Lynde Rowland, whose name introduces this 
 sketch, was reared in the village of Old Lyme, 
 where he spent the first thirteen and a half years 
 of his life, at the end of which time he was bound 
 out to the carriagemaker's trade for seven years to 
 William F. Cables, of New London. Fie finished 
 his trade in Salem, and in 1846 removed to Leyden, 
 Lewis Co., N. Y., where he embarked in the manu- 
 facture of horse rakes, butter tubs, cheese boxes and 
 
 presses, wagons, turnings for builders, and other 
 wooden goods. For six years he continued in busi- 
 ness in that city, and in 1851 he came to Branford, 
 where he went into the wagon and carriage busi- 
 ness, in which with some intermissions he con- 
 tinued for nearly fifty years. In 1862 he became 
 the proprietor of a grocery store in Branford, which 
 remained on his hands for nearly a year, and later 
 he had another for about the same length of time. 
 For a time he was also interested in a carriage fac- 
 tory in the city of New York, where he had a feed 
 store and also a shoe shop. Mr. Rowland at the 
 present time is extensively interested in Branford 
 real estate, owning a number of tenements and busi- 
 ness buildings, nineteen in all. He has been an 
 active and progressive business man, and a consider- 
 able fortune attests his industry and thrifty manage- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Rowland was married, in 1862, to Amelia 
 M., daughter of William AUport, of Branford, and 
 is the father of two sons, Lynde W. andi Wallace 
 A. Lynde W. was born July 13, 1863, was married 
 May 2, 1888, to Minnie Harrison, and resides in 
 Naugatuck. Wallace A., born Feb. 20, 1870, was 
 married Aug. 21, 1899, to Alattie Parker, and has 
 two sons — ^Chester R., born Nov. 13, 1900; and 
 Lynde Parker, born Sept. 6, 1901. They make their 
 home in Branford. Politically Mr. Rowland was 
 a Whig in early life, but became a Republican on 
 the formation of that party. In his younger man- 
 hood he was a member of the Odd) Fellows in New 
 Haven. 
 
 Mrs. Rowlandi's father, A\'illiam Allport, was 
 born in Birmingham, England, and came to Amer- 
 ica at the age of twenty-two. In JNIiddletown he 
 married Julia Hudson, and they had six children. 
 Mr. Allport was a metal patternmaker by trade. 
 He died Nov. 16, 1889, his wife on Dec. i, 1891. 
 
 JOHN AUGUSTUS COOK was born June 5, 
 1859, o'^ Center street, Wallingford, a son of Sam- 
 uel Merriman Cook, and descends from the Cook 
 family of Herefordshire and County Kent, England. 
 The first of the name in America was Henry Cook, 
 who was at Plymouth, Mass., before 1640, and there 
 died. He had four sons ; John, who settled at Mid- 
 dletown ; Isaac, of Plymouth ; and Henry and Sam- 
 uel, who came to New Haven county. 
 
 Samuel Cook was born in Plymouth, and in 
 1663 came to New Haven, and married Hope Par- 
 ker, daughter of Edward Parker, Alay 2, i656. 
 They located in Wallingford in 1670, on what is 
 now known as Cook's Hill. Samuel was by trade 
 a shoemaker and tanner, and he owned considerable 
 land. He filled many public offices, and was promi- 
 nent in church affairs, being one of the organizers 
 of First Church of Wallingford. He died in 1702. 
 .\fter the death of his first wife, Hope, he married 
 Mary Roberts, who on April g, 1705, married Jere- 
 miah Howe. Samuel Cook was the father of the 
 following children : Samuel, mentioned below ; 
 
i^^!yy7i Ujl /7cr%ir^JU/hu!^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1029 
 
 John, born Dec. 3, 1669; Hannah, ]\Iarch 3, 1671 ; 
 Isaac, March 10, 1673 (died April 7, 1673) ; Mary, 
 April 23, 1675 (married Nathaniel Ives) : Eliza- 
 Toeth, Aug. 22, 1677 (died young) ; Judith, Feb. 29, 
 1679 (married Jeremiah Howe, April 20, 1704, 
 and died the same day) ; Isaac, Jan. 10, 1681 ; Jo- 
 seph, Feb. 25, 1683; Hope, Sept. 27, 1686 (mar- 
 ried Joseph Benham, and died Jan. 30, 1731). 
 These were all by the first marriage, and by the 
 second were born Israel, ;\Iay 8. 1692 ; Mabel, June 
 30, 1694; Benjamin, April 8, 1697 (died in 1717) ; 
 Ephraim, April 19, 1699; Elizabeth, Sept. 10, 1701 
 (married Adam Mott, Aug. 28, 1717). 
 
 Samuel Cook, son of Samuel Cook, was born 
 ^larch 3, 1667, in New Haven, Conn., and married 
 Hannah Ives March 3, 1692. She was a daughter 
 of William Ives, and died May 29, 1714. He mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Bedel, of Stratford, for his second 
 wife, and after a life devoted to farming, died Sept. 
 18, 1725. His children were (i) Hannah, born May 
 28, 1693, married Jeremiah Hull, and died Nov. 
 22, 1735; (2) Samuel, mentioned below; (3) Aaron, 
 Ijorn Dec. 28, 1696, died Oct. 14, 1756; (4) Lydia, 
 b)orn Jan. 13, 1699, married Oct. 12, 1738, Daniel 
 Dutton; (5) Moses, born Jan. 4, 1700, died Dec. 
 25, 1711; (6) Miriam, born Nov. 4, 1703, married 
 Benjamin Curtis, Dec. 12, 1727; (7) Thankful, born 
 Dec. 24, 1705, died Aug. 19, 1714; (8) Esther, 
 "born March 8, 1707, marriecl Abel Yale, July 22, 
 1730; (9) Eunice, born Feb. 25, 1709; (10) Sus- 
 annah, born Sept. 5, 1711, married Joseph Cole, 
 Dec. I, 1735; (11) Hope died Sept. 18, 1728. 
 These children were all born of the first marriage. 
 To the second came (12) Moses, born Nov. 6, 1716; 
 (13) Thankful, born Nov. 14, 1.718, married Ste- 
 phen Hotchkiss, Dec. 31, 1742; (14) Asaph, born 
 June 25, 1720; (15) Hannah, born Nov. 4, 1721, 
 married Zephaniah Hull, of Cheshire. 
 
 Samuel Cook, son of the foregoing Samuel, was 
 Ijorn March 5, 1695, became a wealthy shipping 
 merchant from New Haven, and died on Thanks- 
 giving Day, Nov. 7, 1745, leaving an estate of 
 $145,525, as recorded in the probate proceedings 
 of the time. He was buried at Cheshire, where a 
 fine altar tomb marks his resting place. His bene- 
 factions to the poor were remarkable for the time. 
 On Feb. 8, 1721, he married Hannah, daughter of 
 Ebenezer Lewis, of Wallingford, and they had the 
 following children: (i) Hannah, born Dec. 22, 
 1722, married Elnathan Beach, and died May 18, 
 1754; (2) Rhoda, born Oct. 22, 1724, married Ben- 
 jamin Hitchcock, of Cheshire, Feb. 7, 174S; (3) 
 T)emaris, born November, 1726, married Rev. Eben- 
 ezer Boone, Dec. 19, 1750, and removed to Ver- 
 mont; (4) Thaddeus is mentioned below; (5) Low- 
 ly, born May 15, 1730, married Andrew Hull, of 
 Cheshire, Oct. 17, 1750, and became the mother of 
 ■General Andrew Hull, of Cheshire, and the great- 
 grandmother of Rear-Admiral Andrew Hull Foote, 
 ■of the U. S. N. ; (6) Samuel, born Nov. 16, 1733 ; 
 <7) Eunice born June 29, 1735, married Samuel 
 
 Hull, of Cheshire, in 1765; (8) Levi, born Nov. 
 10, 1737; and (9) Aaron, born Nov. 30, 1739. 
 
 Col. Thaddeus Cook, son of Capt. Samuel and 
 Hannah (Lewis) Cook, born in Cheshire, Sept. 10, 
 1728, was a soldier in the Revolution under 
 Gen. Gates. He lived in Cheshire, where he was 
 highly respected, and where he died Feb. 27, 1800. 
 He was three times married. His first wife, Lois 
 Beach, was a daughter of Capt. Elnathan Beach, 
 and died April 4, 1753, at the age of twenty-one 
 years. For his second wife he married Sarah Hall, 
 who was born in Cheshire, and died Sept. 5, 1774. 
 His third wife, Abigail, survived him some years. 
 By his first marriage Col. Cook had one child, 
 Lois, born April i, 1753. Mrs. Sarah (Hall) Cook 
 was the mother of: (i) Sarah, born July 23, 1755, 
 married Dr. Gould Gift Norton, of Cheshire, and 
 died in September, 1818; (2) Samuel, born in 1758; 
 
 (3) Seneca, born Jan. 15, 1761, died Feb. 26, 1776; 
 
 (4) Lucy, born in 1762, married Amos Harrison 
 Ives in 1776, and died February, 1836; (5) Thad- 
 deus, born May 3, 1764, graduated from Yale in 
 1783, and died Oct. 3, 1789; (6) Sally married 
 Nathan Harrison, of North Branford; and (7) 
 Clarissa became Mrs. Hall, and had one daughter, 
 Sukey. 
 
 Samuel Cook, son of Col. Thaddeus, married 
 Mary Kirkland, a daughter of Constant Kirkland, 
 of Wallingford, and died Sept. 24, 1824, and his 
 widow passed away March 10, 1839, when eighty- 
 two years old. Their children were : ( i ) Russell, 
 born Sept. 8, 1778, married a Miss Hall, of Che- 
 shire. (2) Eunice, Aug. 24, 1780, married Elias 
 Ford, Esq., of Naugatuek. (3) Harriet, born May 
 17, 1785, married Ira Yale, of Wallingford. (4) 
 Turhand K., born in 1787, married Catherine Van 
 Bryan, of Catskill, N. Y. (5) Samuel, born Feb. 
 28, 1788, married Martha Culver, of Wallingford. 
 (6) Thaddeus, born April 3, 1791, married four 
 wives, Julia Cook (who had one daughter, Julia, 
 who married William Francis and had two sons, 
 William and John), Sylvia Hall (who had a daugh- 
 ter, Catherine, who married David Hall, and had 
 three sons), Thankful Hall, and Martha Hall (who 
 had four daughters : Caroline, who married Rev. 
 Mr. Paddock ; Sarah, wife of O. I. Martin ; Emma, 
 who married Edward Cook, and has two children; 
 and Frances, who died in infancy). (7) George, 
 born April 17, 1794, married Lavinia Culver, of 
 Wallingford. (8) Friend, born Nov. i, 1797, mar- 
 ried Emily Atwater, of Wallingford. (9) John, 
 mentioned below. 
 
 John Cook, son of Samuel and grandfather of 
 John Augustus, was born on Cook's Hill, Dec. 2, 
 1799, and was a lifelong farmer. In political mat- 
 ters he was a Democrat, and stood well in his own 
 community, holding at different times local offices 
 of trust and responsibility. Belonging to St. Paul's 
 Church, he was one of the most influential mem- 
 bers of the Episcopal communion in this region. 
 On June 25, 1823, he married Mary Munson, of 
 
I030 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Northford, now North Branford, who bore him 
 the following children : Samuel Merriman is men- 
 tioned below ; Mary Ann married Tilton E. Doo- 
 little, for a number of years State's Attorney at 
 New Haven, and both are now dead; Ellen Au- 
 gusta married Charles N. Jones, of Wallingford, 
 and is now deceased; and George Delos (deceased) 
 married Ella Belle Bullock, of Wallingford. John 
 Cook, the father of these, passed away Jan. i, 1858, 
 at the age of fifty-eight years. 
 
 Samuel Merriman Cook was born in Walling- 
 ford, Alay 5, 1825, on what is known as Cook's 
 Hill, named after the after the family some genera- 
 tions ago. On April 27, 1847, he married Sarah- 
 Ellen Bartholomew, daughter of Ira and Ernie 
 (Hall) Bartholomew. To this union were born 
 three children : Frank, born Jan. 25, 1854, died 
 July II, 1884 (he left a daughter, who married 
 H. L. Ingraham) ; John Augustus; and Abbey 
 Bartholomew, born Dec. 9, 1864, married Samuel 
 E. Hopkins, of Naugatuck. 
 
 John Augustus Cook was educated in the pub- 
 lic school of Wallingford, and at the age of fifteen 
 years began for himself a small express business. 
 This he has built up by close attention and fine 
 management until it has become one of the most 
 considerable establishments of the day, employing 
 ten men steadily, often more, and using about 
 twenty-five horses. He has every kind of a vehicle 
 needed in his business, and has one of the most 
 completely equipped stables in the State. Mr. Cook 
 has contracts for teaming and hauling with several 
 factories, and never lacks work. In 1897 Mr. Cook 
 put up one of the finest and most modern residences 
 in Wallingford. 
 
 On June 29, 1888, Mr. Cook was united in mar- 
 riage with A'liss Carrie Mae Chandler, of Galveston, 
 Texas, daughter of Charles Henry Chandler. To 
 this union was born Samuel John Cook, Nov. 28, 
 1889. The family have long been associated with 
 the Congregational Church, and take an active in- 
 terest in its work. Politically Mr. Cook is a Re- 
 publican, but devotes more time to his private af- 
 fairs than to partisan matters. He is highly es- 
 teemed in the community in which his family has 
 been represented so many years. 
 
 HENRY WILSON TYLER, a well-known mill 
 man and farmer of Wallingford, makes his home 
 at what is known as Tvler's Mills, where he was 
 born Feb. 18, 1848. 
 
 Mr. Tyler comes of a family notably concerned 
 with the affairs of New Haven county for many 
 years. John Tyler, his grandfather, was born in 
 the town of Branford, and when a young man was 
 a sailor. He was in Boston during the turbulent 
 years that ushered in the American Revolution, and 
 was one of the "Indians" who threw overboard 
 the tea in Boston harbor. During the bloody years 
 that followed he was very active, and was on the 
 vessel that brought over the treaty of peace. After 
 
 giving up his seafaring life Capt. Tyler removed to 
 That part of Wallingford near the line of the town 
 of Branford, and bought the mills now known as 
 Tyler's Mills, devoting himself to the mill business 
 with his son, Ezra. About the time of the marriage 
 of this son John T}'ler moved back to Branford and 
 took charge of a mill at Mill Plain. There he died, 
 and was buried in Mill Plain cemetery. He married 
 Ann Rogers, who after his death returned to 
 Wallingford, and lived with her son Ezra at the old 
 homestead, where she died. She was buried in 
 Branford, by the side of her husband. 
 
 Ezra Tyler, the son referred to, and the father 
 of Henry Wilson, was born in Branford in 1799, 
 and came to Tyler's Mills in company with his par- 
 ents in 1812. Here he grew up, and here his entire 
 life was spent, in the milling business. In connec- 
 tion with his gristmill he had a sawmill, and owned 
 and farmed a large tract of land. He was one of 
 the successful men of his day, and commanded the 
 hearty and unstinted respect and confidence of all 
 who knew him. A long and active life was his, and 
 it was not terminated until he reached the age of 
 eighty-four years. A member of the Episcopal 
 Church for many years, he served as vestryman and 
 warden. In his politics he was a Democrat, but did 
 not seek for office or gain, and was a good citizen 
 and a man of high character and aims. On Sept. 
 19, 1824, he married Jenette Bates (daughter of 
 Parker Bates), who was born April 27, 1806. She 
 was the mother of the following children: (i) 
 George, born June 20, 1825, lives in Woodbury; (2) 
 Harvey, born March 9, 1827, is now deceased; (3) 
 Elsie, born July 11, 1829, married Munson Rogers, 
 and both are deceased; (4) John, born Jan. 19, 
 1832, and (5) Ezra, born April 16, 1834, are de- 
 ceased; (6) Jenette, born May 13, 1836, has never 
 married; (7) Angenora, born Dec. 8, 1838, is de- 
 ceased; (8) Miss Lucretia was born July 31, 1841 p 
 (9) Amanda, born March 17, 1844, married L. 
 Lounsbury, of Southbury ; (10) Emeline, born 
 March 5, 1846, is unmarried; (11) Henry Wilson 
 is mentioned below; (12) Ada C, born Feb. 24, 
 1850, died in infancy. Mrs. Ezra Tyler died on 
 the farm, and was buried in Northford cemetery. 
 Mr. Tyler married for his second wife Mary Bates, 
 a sister of his first wife ; they had no children. 
 
 Henry Wilson Tyler was educated in the district 
 school, and worked on the farm and in the mill un- 
 til he attained his majority, when he learned the 
 trade of carpenter and joiner. For a number of 
 years that was his occupation, but later he came 
 to operate part of the farm and engaged in milling, 
 and has become one of the solid and prosperous, 
 men of the community. He has built a new house 
 on his place. He is still operating the mill, and in 
 all his business transactions is regarded as one of 
 the squarest men of the community. Mr. Tyler 
 was married, in 'New Preston, Conn., to Miss Hat- 
 tie M. Signor, a native of Roxbury, this State, and 
 a daughter of John Signor. Six children have come 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1031 
 
 to bless this union: Angenora, wlio married 
 Charles Woliver; Lydia ; David; John; Minnie; 
 and George. Mr. Tjder is a Democrat, and a good 
 citizen. 
 
 WILLIAM A. BARNES was born Nov. 18, 
 1850, at Roxbury, Conn., where his family is well 
 known. His great-grandfather, Jabez Barnes, who 
 was said to have been a native of Wales, was a sea- 
 faring man, and it is supposed died at sea. His 
 great-grandmother, Martha (Atkins), a native of 
 Middletown, Conn., lived to be nearly one hundred 
 years old. Ithamar Barnes, our subject's grand- 
 father, was born in Middletown, and settled in 1800 
 at Roxbury, engaging in business as a shoemaker 
 and saddler. He and his wife. Ana Thomas, both 
 lived to the age of seventy. She was born in either 
 Roxbury or Woodbury. Her father, Ebenezer 
 Thomas, is said to have been a captain in the Revo- 
 lutionary army; he is buried in Roxbury. 
 
 George Barnes, our subject's father, was born 
 Jan. 4, 1819, in Roxbury, where he has spent his 
 life. After receiving a common-school education 
 he engaged in farming, and for many years he has 
 been interested also in the cattle business. As a 
 citizen he is much respected. He married Julia 
 Ailing, who died aged seventy-three years. She was 
 born in Woodbridge, New Haven county, daughter 
 of Philo Ailing, a farmer, who attained the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty years ; her mother, Huldah 
 (Lines), died in early womanhood, leaving a large 
 family of children. George and Julia Barnes had 
 six children, of whom five are living, as follows : 
 Francis, George E., William A., Catherine A. (now 
 Mrs. Noble Davenport) and Susan (who married 
 Charles' B. Minor. In the maternal line our sub- 
 ject is descended from ancestors who took a promi- 
 nent part in the Revolutionary war and the war 
 of 1812, and Roger Ailing was the first treasurer of 
 the Colony of New Haven. 
 
 Our subject obtained a common-school education 
 in his native town, and when twenty years old left 
 home to learn the trade of carpenter and joiner with 
 Elliott P. Hine, of Southbury, this county. After 
 working as a journeyman in Bridgeport and Water- 
 bury for a time he went to Ansonia, in 1872, but 
 remained only two years. In 1876 he returned to 
 make his permanent home there, and' with the ex- 
 ception of one winter spent in Florida in- 1888 he 
 has since resided in that place. During the first 
 fifteen years he was in the contracting business 
 he had a partner, S. B. Bronson, and they speedily 
 acquired a large patronage in their line in the 
 town, putting up numerous dwelling houses and 
 other buildings. Since Mr. Bronson's retirement 
 our subject has continued alone in business. 
 
 In 1877 Mr. Barnes married Miss Martha Law- 
 ton, a native of England, and daughter of Lewis 
 and Rachel (Higginbotham) Lawton. Her father, 
 who was a spinner by trade, died in Ansonia at 
 the age of seventy-five; her mother lived to be 
 
 over seventy years old. They reared a large fam- 
 ily. Our subject has one son, George L., who is 
 attending school. 
 
 Politically Mr. Barnes is a Democrat, and he 
 has served two terms as assessor, two years as dep- 
 uty judge, and several terms as a grand juror. In 
 1896 he was appointed on the board of charities 
 by Mayor Webster, and after serving the term of 
 two years was reappointed by Mayor Burton, to 
 serve until 1901. In 1898 he was chosen president 
 of the board, to serve one year. He is a member of 
 Christ Church, Ansonia, of which he has been a 
 vestryman for a number of years. Fraternally he 
 is identified with George Washington Lodge, No. 
 78; Mt. Vernon Chapter, No. 34, R. A. M.; and 
 Naugatuck Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Ansonia, He 
 belongs to the Eagle Hose Compan)-. 
 
 GEORGE BLACKSTONE, wholesale oyster 
 dealer in New Haven, was born in Branford on 
 the farm where he now resides, Feb. 6, 1859, ^ son 
 of John Adam and Lucy (Booth) Blackstone. 
 James Blackstone, his paternal grandfather, was a 
 prominent farmer of Branford, in whose honor his 
 son, Timothy B. Blackstone, erected the Branford 
 Library, the finest in ^New England, at a cost of 
 $900,000, for the maintenance of which he provided 
 endowment funds of $300,000. 
 
 James Blackstone was born in Branford, where 
 George Blackstone is now living, in 1793, where he 
 died. He married Sarah Beach. The first ancestor 
 of this family in America was the Rev. William 
 Blackstone, a graduate in 1617 from Emanuel Col- 
 lege, Cambridge, England, who was thereafter 
 given Episcopal ordination in England. Not long 
 after his ordination he embraced the Puritan faith, 
 left his native country, and sought a home with 
 the first settlers of Boston, on account of his Non- 
 Conformist principles. He was the first settler of 
 Boston, and when the Pilgrims arrived he was al- 
 ready on the ground. The Colony records show 
 that he was the first person admitted as a freeman 
 of the new government, May 18, 1631. John (i), 
 his only son, married in 1692, and about 1713 moved 
 to Branford. John (2), son of John (i), died in 
 Branford Jan. 3, 1785, at the age of eighty-six. 
 John (3), son of John (2), was born in Bfanford 
 in 1 73 1, and died Aug. 10, 1816, aged eighty-five 
 years. Timothy, son of John (3), was born in 
 Branford in 1766, and died in 1849, at the age of 
 eighty-three ; he was the father of James Black- 
 stone, who was born in 1793, and died Feb. 4, i886> 
 Thus are outlinedi the five generations who have 
 lived and died on the homestead of George Black- 
 stone. 
 
 John A. Blackstone was born on the homestead 
 where he passed his life, engaged in farming, and 
 where he died in September, 1890, at the age of 
 sixty-five years. He man-ied Lucy Booth, who died 
 in November, 1880, and they had three children: 
 (i) Adelaide, who married Willis P. H'opson; (2) 
 
T032 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Emma, who married Horatio Pond, and has one 
 daughter, Ahce Blackstone ; and (3) George. The 
 father was a Republican, but mot active in politics. 
 
 George Blackstone was reared on the farm which 
 has been his lifelong home, and obtained his edu- 
 cation in the public schools. For fifteen years he 
 has been engaged in the wholesale oyster business, 
 proving a decided success in this line, his thorough 
 knowledge of the business and his honorable and 
 upright ways winning and retaining a good custom. 
 
 Mr. Blackstone was married, Dec. 27, 1899, to 
 Mrs. Xellie Valentine, a native of Branford, and 
 daughter of Alexander and Eliza J. (Tottem) Van 
 Wie. The father, who was born in Albany, N. Y., 
 died in 1898; he was a carriagemaker by trade, and 
 was for fifteen years superintendent of the Bran- 
 ford Lock Works. He was a Republican politically. 
 The mother is still living. They had a family of 
 six children: John, Nellie (Mrs. Blackstone), Jane 
 (deceased), Charles, Helena (deceased) and Frank. 
 By her former husband Mrs. Blackstone had two 
 children, \Mlliam J. and Ethel Lena. Mr. Black- 
 stone is connected with the Congregational Church, 
 and in politics is a Republican. Mrs. Blackstone 
 is a member of the Episcopal Church. They are 
 hoth highly respected members of the community, 
 and are much esteemed for their many good qual- 
 ities. 
 
 HEXRY J. SMITH, president of the Ansonia 
 Lumber Co., at Ansonia, is one of the representative 
 citizens of that town. The firm of which he is the 
 head is the oldest lumber company in this section, 
 and is the only one in Ansonia, their convenient 
 location near the railroad and admirable s\stem of 
 business enabling them to meet all the demands of 
 the large and growing trade in that locality. 
 
 Mr. Smith was born Oct. i, 1831, in Oxford, 
 this county, where his family has been prominent 
 from an early day. Isaac Smith, his grandfather, 
 also a native of the town, follinved the black- 
 smith's trade there throughout his life, and died at 
 the age of sixty _\ears. He married Sarah Beards- 
 ley, who died aged sixty-five years, and they had a 
 large family of children. 
 
 Philo Smith, our subject's father, was born in 
 Oxford, and spent his life chief!)' in the Xauga- 
 tuck \'alley. He was a fine mechanic, and followed 
 the trades of carpenter, millwright and bridge build- 
 er, being especially noted for his work in the latter 
 line. His death occurred at the advanced age of 
 €ighty-one years. Mr. Smith married nctsey Lum, 
 who was born on Great Hill, daughter of Deacon 
 Jonathan and Charity (I^razier) Lum, and died 
 aged fifty-eight years. She \vas one of a family of 
 eight children, none of whom are now living. Dea- 
 con Lum was a well-known man of his da\' in this 
 section, and made his home successivel}' at Derby 
 or Great Hill, Woodbury audi ( )xford, where he 
 fhed aged sixt}- years. ]\Irs. Lum lived to be over 
 -L-venty years i>l(l. ( )ur subject's parents were both 
 
 devout members of the Methodist Church, and were 
 much esteemed ini the community. They had two 
 children, but our subject was the only one that 
 lived to maturity. 
 
 Henry J. Smith's early years were spent upon a 
 farm, and after completing a course in the district 
 schools he attended the high school at Birmingham. 
 At the age of seventeen he began to serve an ap- 
 prenticeship at Birminglham as a carpenter and 
 joiner, but after the completion of his apprentice- 
 ship he went to New Haven to study architecture 
 with the late Henry Austin. For some years he 
 followed that profession successfully in New Haven, 
 and about 1861 he removed to Ansonia and entered 
 the employ of Capt. John Lindley, then postmaster, 
 as clerk in the post office and general store. In 1864 
 he was employed by Willis & Lewis Hotchkiss, lum- 
 ber dealers, as clerk and bookkeeper, this arrange- 
 ment continuing until the organization of the W. & 
 L, Hotchkiss Lumber Co., when he was made secre- 
 tary and treasurer. Ten years later the company 
 was merged into the Ansonia Lumber Co., and Mr. 
 Smith served as 'treasurer of that organization until 
 the death of the Hotchkiss brothers, when he be- 
 came president of the organization. He is also 
 identified prominently with other business interests 
 in the dt\ . and is now vice-president of the Ansonia 
 Flour & Grain Co., and president of the Savings 
 Bank of Ansonia. Politically he is a Republican, 
 and he served two years as town clerk before the 
 separation from Dei'by, and four years as selectman. 
 \\'hen the city was first organized he was elected 
 alderman from the Fifth ward, and he did effective 
 work as a member of the first board in, shaping 
 municipal affairs. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Smith married Miss Susan A. 
 WHieeler, who was born in the town of Monroe, 
 Fairfield county, one of the four children of Samuel 
 Wheeler and his second wife, Sabra ( Seeley). Her 
 father, who lived to the age of eighty-five years, 
 was a lifelong resident of ^lonroe, where he fol- 
 lowed the carpenter's trade in connection' with 
 farming. Mr. and ]\Irs. Smith have one son, Sam- 
 uel W., who is now the head of the firm of S. W. 
 Smith & Co., druggists of Ansonia. He married 
 Miss Mary Fessenden, and they have had four chil- 
 dren, of whom three are living: Pauline, Henry J. 
 and Gertrude. The family is prominent socially, 
 and is identified with Immanuel Church, West Side, 
 our subject being a vestryman. Fie is one of the 
 well-known Freemasons of this section, being" a 
 member of George Washington Lodge, F. & A. 
 ]\l. : i\lt. Vernon Chapter, R. A. M. ; and the X'eter- 
 an Masons' Association. 
 
 BENJAMIN L. BRONSON, a leading agri- 
 culturist of Wolcott, is a worthy descendant of an 
 old and honored New England family, which was 
 established in this country by John Bronson, an early 
 settler of Cambridge, Mass. In 1636 he came with 
 Rev. Mr. Hooker's colony to Hartford, Conn., and 
 
d:^^^/^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1033 
 
 the following year took part in the Pequot war. 
 He removed to what is now Farmington, Conn., 
 in 1641, and was one of the seven pillars of the 
 church, which was organized at that place in 1652. 
 He died Nov. 28, 1680. His children were Jacob, 
 born in January, 1641 ; John, born in January, 1644 ; 
 Isaac, born in November, 1645; Mary; Abraham, 
 a resident of Lyme, Conn. ; Dorcas, wife of Stephen 
 Hopkins; and Sarah. 
 
 John Bronson (2) was born in Hartford, and 
 removed with his parents to Farmington, but later 
 ■came to Mattatuck, now Waterbury, where he spent 
 the remainder of his life. He had seven children, 
 whose names and years of birth were as follows: 
 John (3), 1670; Sarah, 1672 :. Dorothy, 1675; Eben- 
 ezer, 1677; WilHam, 1682; Moses, 1686; and Grace, 
 1689. 
 
 John Bronson (3) was born in Waterbury, in 
 1670, and there grew to manhood, but subsequently 
 he removed to Southington, Conn., where he spent 
 the remainder of his life. In January, 1697, he 
 married Rachel Buck, of Wethersfield, Conn., and 
 to them were born the following children : John, 
 Nov. 21, 1698; David, Aug. 9, 1704; Jonathan, 
 May 14, 1706; Joseph, June 15, 1708; Rachel, July 
 6, 1710; Mary, Jan. 30, 1712; and James, Nov. 
 29, 1713. 
 
 Jonathan Bronson, son of John (3), spent his 
 entire life in Southington, dying there Aug. 20, 
 1 75 1. He was married. May 17, 1732, and had ten 
 ■children: Asahel; born Oct. 25, 1733; John, in 
 1735; Ann, March 30, 1737; Abigail, Feb. 18, 
 1739; Jonathan, Dec. 24, 1740; a son (who died 
 unnamed), Jan. 20, 1743; Zadac, Aug. 7, 1745; 
 Huldah, April 18, 1747; Lois, Jan. 6, 1749; and 
 Isaac, June 20, 1751. 
 
 John Bronson, son of Jonathan, was; born and 
 reared in Southington, and when a young man came 
 to Wolcott, where he owne'd a farm. He was a 
 hard working man and made farming his life occu- 
 pation. He died Nov. 10, 1838, at the age of 103 
 years, 3 months and 25 days, and was buried in 
 Wolcott. On March 30, 1758, he married Sarah 
 Barnes, who was born Sept. 27, 1732, and died 
 Dec. 17, 1804. For his second wife he married 
 ^Irs. Curtis Hall. He had six children : Joel, who 
 was born March 9, 1759, and lived in Burlington, 
 Conn. ; Isaac, born J"uly 19, 1761 ; Benjamin Barnes, 
 who was born Aug. 19, 1763, and lived in South- 
 ington; Philenor, who was baptized April 21, 1766; 
 Hannah; and John, tiorn Jan. 31, 1776. 
 
 John Bronson, the youngest of this family and 
 the grandfather of our subject, was a lifelong resi- 
 dent of Wolcott, and was one of its prominent and 
 influential citizens, taking an active part in town 
 and county aftairs and doing all in bis power to 
 promote the general welfare. He was a soldier of 
 the war of 18 12. Lie married Hannah Root, of 
 Farmington, Conn., who was born Feb. 14, 1781, 
 ■and died Feb. 24, 1853, while his death occurred 
 Nov. 25, 1866, and the remains of both were interred 
 
 at Wolcott. Their children were Jarvis Root, born 
 April 5, 1808; Sarah Ann, who was born April i, 
 
 1811, and married George W. Carter; Stillman, the 
 father of our subject; Pitkin, born May 2, 1815; 
 and Sarah Maria, who was born June 18, 1823, and 
 died Sept. 5, 1827. 
 
 Stillman Bronson, father of our subject, was 
 born on the old homestead in Wolcott Sept. 11, 
 
 1812, and was provided with a good district school 
 education. He followed farming on the place owned 
 b> R. Carter, a tract of 150 acres, upon which he 
 made many improvements, and he was also inter- 
 ested in stock raising. His political support was 
 first given the Whig party and later the Republican 
 party, and in his church relations he was a Con- 
 gregationalist. A man of industrious habits, up- 
 right and honorable in all his dealings, he com- 
 manded the respect and confidence of all with whom 
 he came in contact, and was held in high regard. 
 He died in 1891, and was laid to rest in Northeast 
 cemetery. He married Charlotte R. Lindsley, who 
 was born Dec. 21, 1816, a daughter of Lud and 
 Hannah (Gaylord) Lindsley, and granddaup^hter of 
 Benjamin and Keturah (Anger) Lindsley, of Bris- 
 tol. She is still living with our subject on the old 
 homestead, and is one of the oldest ladies of Wol- 
 cott. She is a good, consistent Ciristian, and pos- 
 sesses an excellent memory. Her children are as 
 follows: Emerson R., who was born March 21, 
 1841, and died Feb. 21, 1846; Lucy S., who was 
 born June 26, 1843, ^^^d was married, Oct. 31, 1867, 
 to Benjamin C. Lum, now of New Haven; Harriet 
 L., who was born Dec. 7, 1844, and died Nov. 10, 
 1869; E. Bruce, who was born Feb. 23, 1847, and 
 died Oct. 7, 1862; Benjamin L., our subject, who 
 was born July 16, 1849; Elliott, who w;)3 born 
 Mav 13, 1851; Esther L. M., who was born July 
 16, 1854, and died Oct. 25, 1869 ; and Edith M., who 
 was born Nov. i, i860, married Cornelius Tracy 
 
 .and resides in Waterbury. 
 
 During his boyhood Benjamin L. Bronson, our 
 subject, attended the district schools^, and, as soon 
 as large enough to be of any assistance, he began 
 to aid in the operation of the home farm, never 
 leaving the parental roof. Since his father's death 
 he has entire charge of the place, and is now suc- 
 cessfully engaged in dairy and general farming, 
 also stock raising. Enterprising and public-spirited, 
 he takes a deep interest in the public welfare, and 
 has most capably and satisfactorily filled' the of- 
 fices of selectman and member of the board of re- 
 lief. He is a deacon in the Congregational Church, 
 and merits and receives the respect and esteem of 
 all who know him. 
 
 WILLIAM E. CURTISS, a veteran of the Civil 
 war, is a leading wagon manufacturer of Ansonia, 
 who, of late years, has found it necessary to re- 
 strict his business to orders, his general trade ex- 
 ceeding his facilities. His ' shop is well equipped 
 for all kinds of work, and in addition to the man- 
 
I034 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ufacture of wagons he carries on a general busi- 
 ness a^ a horse shoer, being now the oldest black- 
 smith in the town. As a self-made man and a most 
 highh' esteemed citizen his biography will be of 
 special interest. 
 
 Mr. Curtiss was born May 28, 1850, in New- 
 town, Conn., where his ancestors were early set- 
 tlers. Ezra Curtiss, our subject's grandfather, was 
 a farmer in Newtown and lived to a good old age. 
 Wilham Curtiss, the father of our subject, was born 
 and reared at the old homestead in Newtown, and 
 learned the tinner's trade, which he followed for 
 some years. In 1862 he enlisted in Co. C, 17th 
 Conn. V. I., as a private, and he died in the service 
 at the age of fifty years. His wife, Sarah Fowler, 
 a native of Philadelphia, died aged forty-five years. 
 They had six children, of whom five are living, 
 as follows: Ellen, who married David Downs; 
 William E., who has been twice married; Georgia 
 F., deceased; Theodore D., immarried ; Katie 
 E., who married Clarence Blatchley ; and Sylvia 
 A., who became Mrs. Soliday. 
 
 The early education of William E. Curtiss was 
 secured in the common schools of Newtown. In 
 1864, at the age of fourteen, he enlisted as a private 
 in the Third Battery, and served until the close 
 of the war, much of the time having been spent on 
 the breast works at Petersburg. Upon his return 
 to the North in 1865, he learned the blacksmith's 
 trade in Oxford, New Haven county, serving an 
 apprenticeship of three years and eleven months 
 with Nicholas French. He then worked as a jour- 
 neyman for a short time for Wesley Cowan, in the 
 town of Trumbull, but later returned to Oxford 
 and worked two years for Mr. French, when the 
 "freshet" broke up the business. In 1875 he lo- 
 cated at Ansonia, and after working one year for 
 French & Mackey he engaged in business with Peter 
 B. Mackey, continuing two years. His next ven- 
 ture was the opening of the "Colburn Shop," which 
 he conducted three years, and he built his present 
 shop at the corner of Jackson and Holbrook streets. 
 
 Oct. 13, 1873, Mr. Curtiss married ]Miss Martha 
 Tuttle, a native of Huntington and daughter of 
 Marvin Tuttle, a well known farmer. She was 
 a consistent member of the Methodist Church for 
 some years previous to her death, which occurred 
 May 6, 1891, at the age of thirty-seven. On June 
 15, 1893, Mr. Curtiss married Miss Zenia E. Burr, 
 who was born in Southbury, a daughter of Erastus 
 Burr, a prominent citizen. Mr. Curtiss has two 
 children, both by the first marriage : Edward M., 
 now in business with his father, married', Oct. 12, 
 1899, Miss Evelyn T. Braley, daughter of Wesley 
 Braley, of Derby, Conn. ; and Nettie C. is at home. 
 Politically our subject is a stanch Republican, but 
 his only official service consisted of one year as 
 constable. In his religious views he is liberal, 
 and his wife belongs to the Episcopal Church. Mr. 
 Curtiss is actively identified with a nvmiber of fra- 
 ternal organizations, including the K. of P., the 
 
 A. O. U. W., and T. M. Redshaw Post, No. 75, G. 
 A. R., in which he now holds the office of com- 
 mander, and has held other positions in the past. 
 
 CORNELIUS W. MUNSON. Among the en- 
 ert^etic, enterprising and successful citizens of Bea- 
 con Falls, none stands higher in public esteem than 
 the subject of this sketch, who follows both car- 
 pentering and farming. A native of New Haven 
 county, he was born in Waterbury Sept. 14, 1846, 
 and is the only child of Cornelius and Polly (Wel- 
 ton) Munson, the former born in the town of 
 Oxford, the latter in Waterbury. In early life the 
 father followed the occupation of farming, but later 
 worked as a mechanic in Waterbury, where he died 
 six months before the birth of our subject. He was 
 a Whig in politics. The mother died Feb. 12, 1885, 
 at the age of seventy years. 
 
 When Cornelius W. Munson was five years old 
 his mother married again and removed from Water-' 
 bury to a farm in Wolcott, where he grew to man- 
 hood, his education being acquired in the schools 
 of the neighborhood. Returning to Waterbury, he 
 learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed 
 at that place for five years, and then came to what 
 is now the town of Beacon Falls, but which at that 
 time was known as Oxford, where he worked at his 
 trade for the same length of time. The following 
 year he operated his step-father's farm in Wolcott, 
 and then returned to Beacon Falls, where he has 
 since worked at his trade in connection with farm- 
 ing, owning and cultivating a valuable place of 135 
 acres, a mile and a half from the village of Beacon 
 Falls. 
 
 On Dec. 26, 1869, ^Ir. ^Munson was married 
 to Miss Jennie L. Osborn, a native of Bethany, this 
 county, and a daughter of George and Cynthia 
 (Brooks) Osborn, well known farming people. Fra- 
 ternally our subject is a member of Court High 
 Rock, Foresters of America, of Beacon Falls, and 
 religiously is a member of the Episcopal Church. 
 He affiliates with the Democratic party, and for the 
 past ten years has been a selectman, with the ex- 
 ception of a year or two, now serving as first se- 
 lectman. He is also a member of the school board, 
 has filled other local offices, and twice represented 
 his town in the State Legislature in a most credit- 
 able and acceptable m.anner. He is genial, courte- 
 ous, enterprising and progressive, of commendable 
 public spirit,, and reflects credit on the community 
 which has honored him with office. 
 
 JOHN E. LUNDIN, manager and treasurer of 
 the Naugatuck Co-Operative Co., is one of the lead- 
 ing and influential Swedish-American citizens of 
 Naugatuck. He was born in Lilla Hestra, Sweden, 
 May 17, 1859, and is a son of Peter and Gustavjaj 
 (Magnuson) Erickson, natives of the same place. 
 The father was a contractor and builder, and also 
 a farmer in the old country, where he has spent 
 his entire life. The mother died in January, 1881. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1035 
 
 The grandfather of our subject was an agricult- 
 urist, and the great-grandfather was a soldier. 
 
 John E. Lundin is the eldest in a family of seven 
 children, the others being Mary, who died in in- 
 fancy ; Joseph, a contractor and builder in Sweden ; 
 Mary (2d), wife of Alfred Magniuson, a blacksmith 
 of Lafayette, Ind. ; Annie, wife of M. Peterson, a 
 farmer of Sweden ; Selma, wife of August Fredell ; 
 and Nathnael, a contractor, builder and cabinet- 
 maker, who married Hulda Magnuson. 
 
 During his boyhood Mr. Lundin attended the 
 common schools of his native land, and when his 
 education was completed worked with his father at 
 the carpenter's trade. In the spring of 1880 he 
 bade good-by ■ to home and friend's, and came to 
 the United States, first locating in Pennsylvania, 
 where he worked as a laborer for a time. Removing 
 to Portland, Conn., he worked in a shipyard there 
 for one season ; was next employed in a clock shop 
 at Thomaston, this State, one winter; and for two 
 months again worked in the same shipyard at Port- 
 land. In 1 88 1 he came to Union City, this county, 
 and was in the employ of W. H. K. Godfrey, a man- 
 ufacturer of novelties, for a few months, at the end 
 of which time he secured a position in the Nauga- 
 tuck Malleable Iron Foundry, where he worked for 
 fourteen years. On the formation of the Naugatuck 
 Co-Operative Co. he became manager and treasurer, 
 and is still filling those offices to the entire satis- 
 faction of the company. He is an upright, reliable 
 business man, painstaking and energetic, as well as 
 progressive and enterprising, and to these _ char- 
 acteristics may be attributed his success in life. _ 
 
 Mr. Lundin was married, Dec. 24, 1881, to Miss 
 Ida C. Johnson, also a native of Sweden, and to 
 them have been born two children, Alice A., and 
 Ernest E. Our subject casts his ballot with the 
 Republican party, but takes no active part in pol- 
 itics, and when nominated burgess of Naugatuck 
 refused the honor, preferring to devote his undi- 
 vided attention to his business interests. He has 
 served as grand juror, however. He belongs to a 
 local Swedish society, and is a prominent member 
 of the Swedish Lutheran Church of Naugatuck, 
 which he was instrumental ini founding, and in 
 which he has since served as deacon and also or- 
 ganist (gratuitously) for many years. 
 
 CLARENCE WALES WILLIAMS, a progres- 
 sive and enterprising farmer of Cheshire, New Ha- 
 ven countv, was born in Manchester, Hartford Co., 
 Conn., March 19, 1842, and is of English descent, 
 being a lineal descendant in the eighth generation 
 of Robert Williams. His paternal grandfather, 
 William Williams, was a farmer of Lebanon, Conn., 
 where he was born Aug. 2, 1762. He was a soldaer 
 in both the Revolutionary war and the war of 1812. 
 His second wife, Lydia, was a daughter of Joseph 
 Loomis, a fanner of Lebanon. Their son, 
 
 William Chauncey Williams, father of Clarence 
 W., was born in Lebanon Oct. 23, 1800, and. was 
 
 reared and educated there. He became quite a 
 prominent physician and surgeon at Manchester, 
 Hartford county, where he continued in practice up 
 to the time of his death, which occurred Oct. 6, 
 1857.. In Ashford, Conn., he married Julia White 
 Cook, a native of that place, who died in Hart- 
 ford July 19, 1875, at the age of sixty-seven. To 
 them were born four children, namely: William 
 C, a physician, who died in Cheshire in 1895 ; Aaron 
 W. C., a resident of Hartford, who is connected 
 v/ith the Capewell Horse Nail Co. ; Julia Elizabeth, 
 who married H. C. Burgess, and died in Middle- 
 town, Conn. ; and Clarence Wales. Aaron Cook, 
 the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a 
 blacksmith of Ashford. He married Elizabeth 
 White, and to them were born two children, Julia 
 White and Aaron. 
 
 Clarence Wales Williams received his educa- 
 tion in the schools of Manchester, Hartford coun- 
 ty, passing his boyhood in that town. He has al- 
 ways followed farming, and for a time he also 
 worked for George S. Lincoln & Co., of the Phoenix 
 Iron Works at Hartford. Since 1864 he has made 
 his home in Cheshire, and has been actively identi- 
 fied with its agricultural interests. He is a stanch 
 supporter of the Republican party, and has most 
 efficiently served as district or school committeeman. 
 
 In 1864, in Cheshire, Mr. Williams married Miss 
 Sarah Elizabeth Booth, a native of that town, and 
 a daughter of Nathan and Sally (Ives) Booth, who 
 were also born there. The father, who was a civil 
 engineer, died in Cheshire in 1886, the mother in 
 June, 1876. In their family were four children: 
 Mary, who married Horace Brooks, and died in 
 New Haven ; Ann, who died unmarried ; Isaac, who 
 died young; and Sarah E., wife of our subject. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Williams have one child, Elizabeth 
 Booth, who was born in Cheshire July 13, 1865, 
 and is now the wife of Samuel L. Norton, of 
 Cheshire. They have two children — Birdsey, now 
 (1901) nine years of age; and Ruth, aged seven. 
 
 JOSEPH FREEBERG, a prominent and thor- 
 oughly representative Swedish citizen of Branford, 
 a moider by, trade, was born July 26, i860, in 
 Mossebo, Vestergatand, Sweden, son of Andreas 
 and Sarah (Peterson) Freeberg. 
 
 Mr. Freeberg was reared in his native town, re- 
 maining there until he reached, the age of fifteen 
 years, and received a somewhat limited education 
 in the local schools. He served an eight-year ap- 
 prenticeship at the trade of glass blowing in the 
 town of Mossebo, and in Stenenge, Halland, Swe- 
 den. When his apprenticeship was finished and his 
 trade was mastered Mr. Freeberg determined to 
 seek a new home in the United States, where so 
 m^any of his countrymen had tried their fortunes 
 with satisfactory results. Leaving his native coun- 
 try, he landed in due time in New York City May 
 22, 1880, and thence came directly to Connecticut. 
 For a time he followed various vocations, and 
 
1036 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 worked in different localities uritil 1881, when he 
 located in 3ileriden, working at the molder's trade 
 there for a number of years. This was his voca- 
 tion in Naugatuck and Bridgeport, Conn., and at 
 Wilmington, Del. In 1890 he came to Branford, 
 where he has resided to the present time. On his 
 arrival there he secured employment in the Malle- 
 able Iron Works, and has never sought another sit- 
 uation. 
 
 Air. Freeberg was married, March 29, 1884, to 
 Anna, daughter of Nels Peter Nelson, of Skone, 
 Sweden, and has one daughter, Josephine Amelia. 
 Mr. Freeberg is a member of the Swedish Lutheran 
 Church of Branford, and his upright character and 
 straightforward integrity are highly valued, not 
 onh" by his associates in the church, but by all who 
 have come to know him in the community. He 
 holds membership in Centennial Lodge, Xo. 100, 
 I. ( ). O. F., of Naugatuck ; the New England Or- 
 der of Protection ; and the Molders Union, No. 82, 
 of Branford. In politics he has from the first 
 espoused the cause of the Republican party. 
 
 WILLIA?.! PATRICK WILSON, M. D., was 
 born March 6, 1857, in, ^Montreal, Canada, a son 
 of John Wilson, who was born in the County of 
 Durham, England, and who married Miss Mary 
 Ann McCarthy in Alontreal, Canada. Coming to 
 this country, he enlisted in the Union army, and 
 was killed at the battle of Fort Fisher. John Wil- 
 son was a man of extensive military experience, 
 and had served in both the English army and navy. 
 At the time of his enlistment he was connected with 
 the AVatertown Arsenal. He was sergeant of a 
 company in the 12th Mass. \'olunteer Cavalry at 
 the time of his death, in 1864, two years after the 
 removal of his family tO' Boston from Montreal. 
 
 A\^illiam Patrick Wilson obtained his early edu- 
 cation in the Boston schools. At the age of seven- 
 teen he began the study of music, to which he de- 
 voted nearly seven years. When twenty-eight years 
 of age he took up in earnest the studv of medicine, 
 to which he had long been inclining, and! made it 
 his life work. For two years his brother, John 
 J. AVilson, a well-known physician of Bristol, was 
 his preceptor, and in 1887 he entered the College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons, at Baltimore, from which 
 he graduated with honor in March, i8go. After 
 three months' service in the Baltimore hospitals he 
 came to Wallingford to engage in his profession, 
 and in a surprisingly brief time had established him- 
 self in the confidence and respect of the community. 
 The success which attended him in several exceed- 
 ingly difficult operations did much to make him 
 k];ri\\n as a surgeon of high merit. 
 
 Dr. Wilson is a Democrat, was appointed health 
 officer in 1895, ^^ncl is now serving his second term. 
 In 1898 he wa? elected school visitor for three rears. 
 He is a member of the State and Courtv Medical 
 Societies, and is enrolled with the Hilsernians, 
 Knights of Columbus, Ancient Order of h'oresters 
 
 and T. A. B. In religion he is a member of the 
 Holy Trinity (Roman Catholic) Church. He is a 
 hard student, and is determined to keep up with 
 his profession if wide reading and close study can 
 avail. In youth he was a hard student, averaging 
 fifteen hours a day with his books. 
 
 Dr. Wilson was married, Oct. 9, 1895, to Miss 
 Elizabeth D. Flynn, of Hartford, daughter of Daniel 
 Flynn, one of the leading grocers of that city for 
 many years. Their union has been blessed with 
 the following children: William Norbert, born 
 July 21, 1896; Mary Elizabeth, Nov. 7, 1898; and 
 Rose Genevieve, April 29, 1900. 
 
 MRS. CLARA BEISIEGEL, nee Schwartz- 
 weller, is well known and highly respected through- 
 out the town of Woodhridge, New Haven county, 
 where she has made her home for almost half a 
 century. She was born July 17, 1830, in Bavaria, 
 Germany, and possesses manv of the admirable 
 characteristics of the Teutonic race which make 
 them so thrifty and contented a people. 
 
 Matthias Schwartzweller, the father of Mrs. 
 Beisiegel, was born in the Province of Bavaria in 
 1798, son of John and Margaret Schwartzweller, 
 who spent their entire lives there. The grandfather 
 of our subject was an extensive farmer and proper- 
 ty owner, and her father also followed agricultural 
 pursuits in his native province until called to his 
 final rest, in 1886. He married Christina Hans, 
 who was born in Bavaria in 1799, and died in 1857. 
 Mrs. Beisiegel is the eldest of their children, the 
 others being Jacob, Who remained in Germany; 
 Mary, wife of Frederick Schlechtweg, of Bristol, 
 Conn. ; Peter, who died in Bristol, Conn. ; Adam, 
 now deceased, who was a resident of New York 
 City ; Margaret, whoi married Matthias Glade, and 
 died in that city; and John, who also died in New 
 York. 
 
 Mrs. Beisiegel was reared and educated in her 
 native land, and in 1853 emigrated to the United 
 States, locating in Maine, where she secured em- 
 ployment. Being unable to give up thoughts of 
 the Fatherland, she soon returned to Germany, but 
 after visiting her old home she again crossed the 
 ocean, landing in New York. Not long afterward, 
 at the age of twenty-six, she was united in marriage 
 with Jacob Beisiegel, also a native of Germany, 
 who was born Dec. 25, 1827, in Hessen-Darmstadt, 
 son of Philip and Katherine ( Miller) Beisiegel, 
 who had thirteen children. Philip Beisiegel, father 
 of Jacob, was a farmer and property owner, and 
 was engaged in agriculture until his death, which 
 occurred before his son emigrated to this country. 
 Mrs. Katherine Beisiegel, mother of Jacob, came 
 to this country late in life with several of her chil- 
 dren, making her home in Buffalo, N. Y., until 
 she died, at the age of seventy-nine years. Coming 
 to America in 1854, Mr. Beisiegel found employ- 
 ment in Red Bank, N. J., for about six months, and 
 then came to Woodbridge, where he was employed 
 
(S^a^>-<>c^ C&-^-^>t^^f^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1037" 
 
 on a farm about twO' years. He next went to New 
 York City for a while, was married there in Jan- 
 uary, 1857, and with his wife came to Woodbridge, 
 w^here he rented a small farm. In i860 he bought 
 tlie farm situated in the northwestern part of the 
 town, near Milford meadow. In 1870 he also 
 bought the Giles Perkins farm, where he and his 
 wife spent the greater part of their lives, and where 
 his youngest son now lives. Mr. Beisiegel died 
 Jan. 28, 1894. He was a Republican in politics, 
 and always manifested a lively interest relative to 
 the welfare of the town. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Beisiegel were born children 
 as follows : Mary A. is the wife of Albert Liefeld, 
 of New Haven, and they have two children; Kate 
 is a trained nurse, having taken a course in the 
 Connecticut Training School for Nurses ; Jacob, a 
 promirient farmer of Woodbridge, is represented 
 elsewhere in this volume ; Clara is the wife of Ed- 
 win Buhles, of Meriden, now '-esiding in Pasadena, 
 Cal., and has one child ; Julia is the wife of Charles 
 Barker, a farmer of Woodbridge, and they have two 
 children; Amelia resides with her mother; John, 
 born July 19, 1867, died Feb. 24, 1876; Frank B. 
 married Grace Baldwin, of Woodbridge, and they 
 have three sons. 
 
 Mrs. Beisiegel at present owns a valuable farm 
 of seventy-six acres in the southern part of the 
 town, and she has displayed excellent business and 
 executive ability in its management. Although 
 seventy-one years of age, she is still an active 
 worker and devotes considerable time to her dairy 
 and to vegetable growing. Her family is one of 
 prominence in Woodbridge, and nearly all hold 
 membership in either the Calvary Baptist Church 
 of New Haven or the Congregational Church of 
 Woodbridge. 
 
 WILLIAM B. BLACKMAN, for many years a 
 successful business man of Ansonia, was born May 
 4, 1844, in Easton, Conn., son of Harvey and 
 Phcebe (Treadwell) Blackman. The Blackman 
 family has long been known as one of the oldest in 
 this section, and our subject traces his descent 
 through nine generations to Rev. Ad'am Blackman, 
 of whom Cotton Mather says : "He was a useful 
 preacher of the gospel, first in Leicestershire and 
 then in Derbyshire, England," and was the first 
 preacher at Stratford, settling there in 1639. Eb- 
 enezer Blackman, grandson of Rev. Adam Black- 
 man, was the ancestor of the Blackman families 
 of Newtown and Monroe. Jehiel Blackman, our 
 subject's grandfather, was a farmer in Monroe, 
 Conn., and died there. 
 
 Harvey Blackman, who was born and reared in 
 Monroe, learned the blacksmith's trade, afterward 
 following business pursuits in Connecticut, and 
 later farming in Michigan. He died in Battle 
 Creek, Mich, "in 1888, at the age of sixty-eight. In 
 religious faith he and his estimable wife were Meth- 
 odists, and both were much respected among their 
 
 associates. He married Phojbe Treadwell, who 
 was born in Weston, Conn., before the division of 
 the town. Her father, Daniel H. Treadwell, who 
 died at Easton in October, 1867, at the age of 
 eighty-seven, was well known in Fairfield county, 
 where he was engaged in business for many years 
 as a builder and wheelwright. Her mother, Han- 
 nah (Lyon) TreadKvell, was a native of Redding, 
 and died at Easton in July, 1861, aged seventy- 
 seven. Mrs. Phoebe Blackman died at Long Hill, 
 Trumbull, in November, 1844, at the age of twenty- 
 four, when our subject was but six months old. 
 She was the youngest in a family of four children. 
 The last survivor, Sarah, widow of Henry Piatt, 
 died in Bethel, Conn., June 4, 1901, aged eighty- 
 three. 
 
 William B. Blackman spent his early yeats in 
 Easton, and attended the common schools until he 
 reached the age of fifteen. Going to Ansonia, he 
 learned the plumber's and tinner's trade with Mar- 
 tin L. BlaclcTian, with whom he remained a little 
 more than six years. He then spent four years in 
 Derby and New Haven, and eighteen months at 
 various points in Michigan and Indiana. In the 
 fall of 1871 he returned to Connecticut, and for 
 several years worked as a journeyman and foreman 
 in Derby and Ansonia. In 1879 he started in busi- 
 ness independently, opening a shop in Main street, 
 Ansonia, where he remained seventeen years, until 
 1896, when he built a shop at No. 4 Crescent street. 
 For fourteen years of the seventeen his cousin, 
 Charles M. Piatt, son of Henry and Sarah Piatt, 
 before mentioned, was associated with him in busi- 
 ness, under the firm name of W. B. Blackman & 
 Co. He bought out Mr. Piatt's interest in 1897. 
 In connection with plumbing he carried on con- 
 tracting and jobbing, and while on Main street the 
 firm had a large store and dealt in stoves, crockery, 
 glassware, tinware and house furnishing goods. 
 With one exception Mr. Blackman was in business 
 longer in this line than any one else in the city. 
 In 1892 he built a house on the lot adjoining his 
 shop, and bis residence was built upon the same 
 lot in 1893. Recently, however, Mr. Blackman sold 
 his house and shop in Ansonia, and removed his 
 home and business to Torrington, Conn., where he 
 is associated with the E. A. Perkins Electric Co., 
 a joint-stock concern doing electrical work, plumb- 
 ing, heating, lighting, etc., and dealing in supplies. 
 Mr. Blackman is superintendent of the plumbing 
 department. 
 
 Politically Mr. Blackman has affiliated with the 
 Democratic party, but he believes in the principles 
 of prohibition. His advice has always been valued 
 in local affairs, and he was a member of the board 
 of relief to serve until 1900. Socially he is a mem- 
 ber of the Order of the Golden Cross, and a char- 
 ter member of the Knights of Honor and the A. 
 O. U. W., in both of which he has passed nearly 
 all the chairs. For years he and his wife have been 
 leading members of the Methodist Church, in which. 
 
I038 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 he is now trustee, and has served in nearly all of 
 the offices in the society at various times, including 
 those of secretary, librarian, superintendent and 
 treasurer of the Sunday-school. In 1866 JMr. Black- 
 man married Aiiss Ella J. Piatt, a native of Wash- 
 ington, Conn. Her father, John T. Piatt, a promi- 
 nent member of the Congregational Church at 
 Washington, is now eighty years of age. He is 
 well known in his section, where he has been en- 
 gaged in farming for many years and also con- 
 ducted a stage route for a time. Mrs. Blackman's 
 mother, Sarah (Hopkins) Piatt, a native of Mans- 
 field, died in Washington in November, 1894, aged 
 sevent3''-nine years, and of three children two are 
 living, Mrs. Blackman and a sister, Mrs. Fannie 
 E. Fenn, of Washington, Connecticut. 
 
 HENRY H. GRISWOLD, of North Guilford, 
 agriculturist, is a lineal descendant of (I) Michael 
 Griswold, iborn in 1610, the first of that name in 
 Wethersfield, Hartford Co., Conn., who emigrated 
 from England "in 1645. By his wife, Ann, he had 
 the following children: Thomas B., born Oct. 22, 
 1646; Hester, May 8, 1648; Michael, Feb. 14, 1652,' 
 died young; Abigail, June 8, 1655; Isaac, Sept. 30, 
 1658, married Elizabeth Bradley, who died June 13, 
 1727; Jacob, April 15, 1660, died July 28, 1737; 
 Sarah, Sept. 30, 1662 ; and Michael, Jan. 7, 1667. 
 
 ( II) Thomas B, Griswold, son of Michael, was 
 born in the town of Wethersfield, and died there. 
 He married Nov. 22, 1672, Mary (surname un- 
 known), and to them were born five children: 
 Thomas,, Jan. 11, 1674, married Sarah Bradley, of 
 Guilford, and died there Oct. 19, 1729 (he was the 
 first of the Griswold family in Guilford) ; Jacob, 
 Feb. 5, 1676, married Abigail Hand; Martha, Aug. 
 20, 1678; Michael, Jan. 28, 1681, married Mary 
 Gilbert ; and Samuel. 
 
 (III) Samuel Griswold, of the above mentioned 
 children, was born in Wethersfield. On March 11, 
 1707, he married Mary Francis, and came with 
 his wife and family to Guilford in 1724, passing the 
 rest of his days there, and dying in September, 1733. 
 Twelve children were born to them as follows : 
 Alary, born July 20, 1708, married Silas Crane; 
 Samuel, born Feb. 7, 17 10, married Hannah Alkins ; 
 Jared, Jan. 8, 1713; Lucy, Dec. 8, 1714; Nehemiah, 
 Aug. 12, 1716; Jeremiah, Feb. 8, 1718, married 
 Bashue Howe; Moses, Nov. 2, 1719, married Ann 
 Smithson, and died Sept. 30, 1770; John, June 23, 
 1721 ; Mary, June 23, 1723, married John Norton, 
 of Guilford; Manus, Sept. 4, 1727; Aaron, April 
 6, 1729; and Sarah, June 22, 1731. 
 
 (IV) Nehemiah Griswold, son of Samuel, was 
 born in Wethersfield, and in boyhood was brought 
 by his parents to Guilford, where he was reared. He 
 engaged in farming in North Guilford, and died 
 there Dec. 31, 1787. On Jan. 23, 1745, he married 
 Mary Graves, who was born in Guilford Sept. 6, 
 1716, and died Nov. 25, 1776, a daughter of Nathan- 
 iel and Elizabeth (Barnes) Graves, of Guilford. To 
 
 this marriage were born seven children: Ruth, 
 Sept. 23, 1745, died Sept. 29, 1748; Arubah, July i, 
 1747, died March 12, 1807; Noah, Oct. 24, 1749, 
 married Olive Bishop, and died in 1809; Nathan, 
 April 16, 1751; Joel, May i5..i753> died May 28, 
 1802; Zadoc; and Elizabeth, wife of John Dobill. 
 
 (V) Nathan Griswold, son of Nehemiah, was 
 born in North Guilford, and died Sept. 29, 1816. 
 He married June 21, 1781, Jerusha Stone, born Feb. 
 18, 1753, and died in North Guilford April 18, 
 1833, a daughter of Ebenezer and Sybil (Leet) 
 Stone. Five children were born to this union: 
 Jacob, March 30, .1782; Mary, Oct. 22, 1783, mar- 
 ried Noadiah Norton, and died May 8, 1858 ; Will- 
 iam, May 31, 1787, married first, Sophia Brown 
 (who died April 28, 1829) and second, September, 
 1833, Polly Kelsey (who died April 7, 1872), and 
 he died Feb. 28, 1865 ; Clarissa, June 24, 1879; died 
 Feb. 28, 181 1 ; and Betsey, in 1792, married James 
 Tyler, and settled in Cheshire, N. Y. 
 
 (VI) Jacob Griswold, grandfather of Henry 
 Hill Griswold, was born in North Guilford, and 
 died there Nov. 26, 1855. He married, in May, 
 1805, Obedience Potter, born in Branford, Conn., 
 Feb. 13, 1786, and died Feb. 27, 1872, a daughter 
 of Medad Potter, a soldier of the Revolutionary 
 war, and a blacksmith by occupation. Three chil- 
 dren were born to them : Russell Medad, sketch 
 of whom follows ; Clarissa Mehitabel, July 18, 1814, 
 married to Henry H. Hill ; and Janette Adelia, April 
 30, 1822, married to Martin C. Bishop. Of these, 
 
 (VII) Russell Medad Griswold, father of Henry 
 Hill Griswold, was born Fcb. 15, 1806, in North 
 Guilford, where he received a common school edu- 
 cation, and he also took a course at Guilford Acad- 
 emy. He was a lifelong farmer in that town, and 
 died there Aug. 31, 1865, his remains being interred 
 in North Guilford cemetery. He was a member of 
 the Episcopal Church, in politics a Democrat, and 
 was a man well-known and highly respected as a 
 good citizen, a loving father and kind husband. 
 
 Mr. Griswold was twice married, first time on 
 June 15, 1834, to Polly F. Hill, born Aug. 10, 1812, 
 and died Dec. 6, 1857, a daughter of Henry and 
 Lucy (Doolittle) Hill. Children born to this union : 
 Dorcas Augusta, May i, 1835, died Dec. 4, 1837; 
 Frances Dorcas, Sept. 19, 1838, married Jerome 
 Coan and died Feb. i, 1859; Ellen Frederica, May 
 24, 1843, died Dec. 25, 1845 ; Henry Hill, sketch 
 of whom follows. The mother of these died Dec. 
 6, 1857, and Nov. 24, 1859, Mr. Griswold married 
 Mrs. Emeline W. Parkhurst born July 19, 1816, and 
 died in St. Albans, Vt., July 31, 1872. 
 
 (VIII)- Henry Hill Griswold, whose name in- 
 troduces this sketch, was born Dec. 15, 1847, i'^ 
 North Guilford, and was educated in part at the 
 district schools of the locality, in part at the North 
 Guilford Academy, followed by one term, at the 
 Bryant & Stratton Business College, Hartford. 
 When his father died, our subject was eighteen years 
 old, and from that time he conducted the home 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1039 
 
 farm till 1891, since when he has occupied the 
 Dudley farm, on which has wife was born. 
 
 On Nov. 5, 1873, Henry H. Griswold married 
 Frances S. Dudley, who was torn May 14, 1848. 
 Jlr. and Mrs. Griswold are members of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and in politics he is independent. 
 Well known and highly respected, a man who lives 
 up to the "Golden Rule," Mr. Griswold has hosts 
 of friends whose esteem he justly merits. 
 
 Hill. The Hill family, intermarried with the 
 Griswolds, was early represented in Guilford, and 
 (i) John Hill, the first of the name in that town, 
 came to America from Northamptonshire, England, 
 settling in Guilford in 1654, and dying there June 
 8, 1689. His first wife, Frances, died in May, 1673, 
 and on Sept. 23, 1675, he wedded Catharine Chalk- 
 er, born Sept. 8, 1657, a daughter of Alexander 
 Chalker. Children born to John Hill: John, 
 James, Sarah, Elizabeth and Ann. 
 
 (II) John Hill married Thankful Stow, who 
 died Nov. 18, 171 1; he passed away May 8, 1690. 
 They became the parents of children as follows : 
 Mary, born May 8, 1671, died Aug. 24, 1671 ; John, 
 born July 18, 1672, married Hannah Highland, and 
 died Feb. 10, 1740; Elizabeth, born Feb. 20, 1674,* 
 married James Ford; Mary, born Feb. i, 1676, mar- 
 ried Josiah Rossiter, and died July 14, 1739; Hon. 
 Samuel, born Feb. 21, 1678, married Huldah Rug- 
 gles, and died May 28, 1752 ; Nathaniel, born April, 
 1680, died Oct. 16, 1714; and James, born April, 
 1682, married Mary Fry, and died March 25, 1715. 
 
 (III) James Hill, born April, 1682, married 
 Jan. 15, 1 710, Mary Fry, and died March 25, 
 1715. Three children were born to them: James, 
 Sept. 28, 1712; Lydia, Sept. 9, 1713; Mary, Dec. i, 
 1715, married Eliphalet Hall, and died May 27, 
 1762. 
 
 (IV) James Hill, maternal great-grandfather of 
 Henry Hill Griswold, died Oct. i, 1798. He mar- 
 ried April 15, 1744, Hannah Nettleton, who was 
 born in 1724, and died Nov. 26, 1821. Twelve chil- 
 dren were born to them : Hannah, born April 14, 
 
 1745, married Abner Hull; Sybil, born Oct. 10, 
 
 1746, married Ezra Parmelee ; Mercy, born Feb. 
 26, 1748, married Absalom Kelsey; James, born 
 Nov. 30, 1749, married Eleanor Hull; Noah, born 
 Oct. 22, 1751, married Caroline Parmelee; John, 
 born Feb. 4, 1754, died in the Revolutionary war, 
 Aug. 5, 1777; Thankful, born Feb. 9, 1756, married 
 Elias Parmelee, and died Oct. g, 1799; Selah, born 
 Feb. 3, 1758, married Sally Turner; Henry, born 
 July 27, 1 761 ; Joseph, born April 15, 1765, mar- 
 ried Hester Butler, and died Sept. 28, 1840; Ben- 
 jamin (twin brother of Joseph), died in 1849, mar- 
 ried Jennie Stannard ; and Molly, born Feb. 20, 
 1767. 
 
 (V) Henry Hill, maternal grandfather of Henry 
 H. Griswold, was born at Killingworth, Middlesex 
 Co., Conn., died March 28, 1834. He married 
 Lucy Doolittle, who died in 1845, and four chil- 
 dren were born to them: Henry Hall, May 21, 
 
 1810, and died March 18, 1886, married Clarissa M. 
 Griswold; Polly F., born Aug. 10, 1812, married 
 Russell Medad Griswold, and died Dec. 6, 1857; 
 John, July 18, 1814, died same year; John, March 
 12, 1816, and died FdD. i, 1881, married Polly S. 
 Willard. 
 
 Dudley. The Dudley family, with which Mrs. 
 Henry Hill Griswold is connected, ranks among 
 the old-time settlers of the town of Guilford. 
 
 Jared Dudley, son of Capt. William, grandson 
 of Joseph, and great-grandson of the first William 
 Dudley, was born Nov. 17, 1727, in the town of 
 Guilford, and like his ancestors was a lifelong far- 
 mer and prominent citizen. He married Dec. 25, 
 1754, Mary Chittenden, who died Nov. 18, 1821, at 
 tbe patriarchal age of ninety-two years, and their 
 children were as follows: Luther, born Sept. 16, 
 1755; Jared, June 29, 1757; Ruth, Jan. 23, 1762, 
 married March 6, 1783, John Tyler; Eunice, Sept. 
 3, 1764, married Dec. 5, 17S7, Jonathan Russell; 
 Mabel, March 10, 1767, married Davis Ford, of 
 North Branford, Conn. 
 
 Luther Dudley, great-grandfather of Mrs. Gris- 
 wold, and a farmer by occupation, was born in Guil- 
 ford Sept. 16, 1755, a son of Jared Dudley, and 
 died Sept. 14, 1810. He married Jan. 27, 1779, 
 Mary Chidsey, who died April 8, 1827, at the age 
 of seventy-eight years, and seven children were 
 born to them: Luther, born Sept. 6, 1779, died at 
 sea Oct. I, 1799; Loveman, born July 7, 1781 ; 
 Erastus, May 9, 1783 ; Nathan, 1785 ; Frederick, 
 1787, died Jan. 18, 1803, being crushed to death by 
 a cart wheel; Olive, 1790, settled in Alabama; Pros- 
 per, Aug. 10, 1793. 
 
 Erastus Dudley, grandfather of Mrs. Griswold, 
 was born in North Guilford, and there passed his 
 entire life in agricultural pursuits, dying June 11, 
 1872, and buried in North Guilford cemetery. He 
 married, July 2, 1806, Ruth Fowler, who died Dec. 
 23, 1863, and also buried in North Guilford. Their 
 children: Mary Louisa, born April 4, 1807, mar- 
 ried Oct. 9, 1845, William Norton, of North Guil- 
 ford; Fanny Elvira, born Sept. 23, 1808, married 
 Ira I. Fenn, of Lacon, 111. ; James Hervey, born 
 Nov. 4, 181 1 ; Lois Rossiter, born March 6, 1814, 
 married May 6, 1834, Joel Benton, of Mendon, 111. ; 
 Luther Frederick (twin of Lois, but born the day 
 after), March 7, 1814; Ruth Francis, born May 
 I, 1816, married David Bartlett, April 12, 1839; 
 Erastus Franklin (twin of Ruth F.) ; Ebenezer 
 Fowler, April 20, 1819 ; Nathan Chidsey, Feb. 23, 
 1821 ; Abbie Ann, March 22, 1823, married David 
 D. Chittenden, Aug. 22, 1844. Of these, 
 
 Erastus F. Dudley, father of Mrs. Griswold, all 
 his life followed agricultural pursuits on the farm 
 whereon our subject, Henry H. Griswold, has lived 
 since 189T, in which year Erastus died, his remains 
 being interred in North Guilford cemetery. On Jan. 
 5, 1842, in North Guilford, he married Parnel F. 
 Chittenden, daughter of Simon Chittenden, and chil- 
 dren as follows were born to them : Louis Frank- 
 
1040 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 lin, born Nov. 8, 1843, married Ellen Rowe ; Frances 
 Selina, born May 14, 1848, married Henry H. Gris- 
 wold Nov. 5, 1873; and Jane Louisa, born Jan. 29, 
 1855, died May 2, 1855. 
 
 CHARLES IVES PARMELEE was born in 
 Wallingford, Nov. i, 1854, a son of Samuel Blakes- 
 lee Parmelee, who was born on North Elm Street, 
 Wallingford, Aug. 9, 1824. For the last twenty- 
 one years before his death Samuel B. Parmelee was 
 a traveling salesman for Simpson, Hall, Miller & 
 Co., his territory being mostly in the W'est and 
 South. In politics he was a Republican, and un- 
 usually well posted on the topics of the da}r. Of a 
 genial and companionable nature he had man}' 
 friends among his patrons. Fraternally he was a 
 Mason ; in religious connection a member of the 
 First Congregational Church. On Oct. 18, 1846, he 
 married Miss Lavinia C. Cook, a daughter of George 
 Cook, a tavern keeper on the stage route between 
 New Haven and Hartford. Their children were : 
 Mary C, born April 15, 1849, <i'^^d. unmarried 
 March 3, 1893; Charles I.; and Carrie Belle, born 
 Feb. 7, i860, married O. H. D. Fowler. 
 
 Leander Parmelee, father of Samuel Blakeslee, 
 was born in Killingworth, where the Parmelee fam- 
 ily was settled from an early period in the history 
 of the Colony. He was a farmer, and a leading man 
 in his day. For twelve years he was high sheriff of 
 New Haven county, and spent the greater part of 
 his life in Wallingford. While he was sheriff it 
 was his official duty to hang four men. His funeral 
 is remembered as being one of the most largely at- 
 tended ever held in Wallingford. He was father 
 of the following children : Stephen Ives went to 
 California where he died when twenty-one years 
 old ; Charles died at the age of twenty-one years ; 
 Samuel B. is noted above; Elizabeth married Lo- 
 renzo Lewis, of Wallingford ; and Emily married 
 George Cooley, of Meriden. 
 
 Charles I. Parmelee received his education in the 
 schools of his native place, was a student for a year 
 in Cargill's business college, about the same time 
 in French's Private School at New Haven, and for 
 a year and a half he was student of Claverack Col- 
 lege (The Hudson River Institute). Mr. Parmelee 
 was now about twenty-one, and he came back to 
 Wallingford to take charge of his father's farm of 
 125 acres, and a tract of fifty-seven acres, which 
 he purchased for himself. He is a practical and suc- 
 cessful farmer, and on the side of his farm that 
 touches the town he is proving a very successful real 
 estate dealer, selling off a number of building lots 
 which have been improved by the erection of many 
 very elegant residences, and greatly increasing the 
 value of his entire property. For thirteen years 
 Mr. Parmelee conducted an extensive milk route 
 in Wallingford whicl. prcved very remunerative, 
 but which he was compelled to give up in 1896 on 
 account of ill health. 
 
 Mr. Parmelee is a member of the Grange, and 
 
 has been active in its work from the time of its or- 
 ganization. He is a member of the First Congre- 
 gational Church, while his wife is an Episcopalian, 
 in politics he is a Republican, but he has never been 
 much interested in partisan affairs. 
 
 On Dec. 31, 1878, Mr. Parmelee married Miss. 
 Eliza J. Ives, who was born June 18, 1857, daughter 
 of Othniel Ives, and died Oct. 14, 1890. Two chil- 
 dren came to this union: Mildred I., born Jan. 11, 
 1880, and Frances Cook, born Feb. 21, 1889. 
 Charles I. Parmelee was married Dec. 15, 1891, to 
 Miss Edna G. Wooding, a daughter of Henry Cal- 
 vin Wooding, of Wallingford. To this union were 
 born Hazel Marian, Oct. 10, 1895 ; and Samuel 
 Blakeslee, ]\Iarch 8, 1899. 
 
 PHILO BAILEY NORTON, the popular liv- 
 eryman at A\'aterbury, was born Feb. 17, 1834, in 
 Goshen, Litchfield county, this state, and descends 
 from one of three Norton brothers who came from 
 England prior to the Revolutionary war. 
 
 Mr. Norton's grandfather, great-grandfather 
 and great-great-grandfather all bore the Christian 
 jianie of Stephen, and his great-grandmother was 
 named Experience. In the great-grandfather's 
 family were four sons and one daughter : Jona- 
 than, Stephen, Ephraim, one son who was killed 
 in the Revolution (and it is thought that Jonathan 
 also served in that heroic struggle), and Clarissa. 
 The great-grandfather settled in Norfolk in 1769, 
 but his son Stephen was born in Bristol in I/Gf), 
 and died in Norfolk July 8, 1843. The latter, who 
 was the grandfather of our subject, married Hannah 
 McCoy, a native of Stonington, Conn., born Nov. 
 25, 1773, who died May 20, 1848. To this union 
 were born thirteen children, in the following order: 
 Anson, Sept. 5, 1789; Lavina, Feb. 8, 1791 ; Sarah,. 
 July 4, 1793: Experience, Aug. i, 1796; Amanda, 
 June 30, 1798; Marina, July 15, 1801 ; Keziah, 
 March 15, 1803; Charles L., Nov. 15, 1804; Clar- 
 issa, April 25, 1806; Alson, April 26, 1808; Riley. 
 Alarch 26, 1813; Uriel, Jan. 26, 1815 ; and Albert, 
 Nov. 16, 1818. 
 
 Charles L. Norton, father of our subject, grew 
 to manhood in Norfolk, where he married Ann 'M. 
 Bailey, who was born Feb. 23, 1806, daughter of 
 Philo Bailey. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
 Norton settled in Goshen, where their children were 
 born, in the following order: jNIarie E., May 12. 
 1827; Mary Ann, July 5, 1832: Philo B., the sub- 
 ject of this sketch; .AllDert C, Nov. i, 1838; Charles 
 L., April 26, 1840; and Remus A., Dec. 23, 1S44. 
 Of these, the first born, Marie E., is married to 
 Harvey Johnson, of Norfolk, Conn. ; Mary Ann is 
 the wife of Nelson D. Ford, of Winchester; Albert 
 C. is in Montville, Ohio, engaged in farming: 
 Charles L. is associated with Philo B. in the livery 
 business ; and Remus A., who formerly conducted 
 the old farm in Goshen, is now retired. The par- 
 ents of this family later in life retired to Winsted 
 to a farm, where Mrs. Norton died Feb. 17, 1888, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 04 1 
 
 and Mr. Norton on April 15, 1889. He was a 
 Democrat in politics, was a very prominent man in 
 his day, and) was first selectman of Goshen for many 
 years. 
 
 Philo B. Norton, the subject of this sketch, 
 grew to manhood on the home farm, on which he 
 remained until Dec. 12, 1859, when he came to 
 Waterbury and entered into his present business, 
 being now the oldest liveryman in the city and own- 
 ing the best equipped barns, as well as large blocks 
 of real estate, improved and unimproved. On Nov. 
 5, i860, he married Miss Nettie Cebelia Yale, a 
 daughter of Charles Elihu Yale, and a sister of 
 John B. Yale, whose biography will be found in 
 full elsewhere. One daughter came to 'bless this 
 union, Juliette S., now the wife of Joseph Graham, 
 who resides in New York City. In politics Mr. 
 Norton is a Republican, and in religion a Congrega- 
 tionalist, the family attending the Second Congrega- 
 tional Church. He is universally respected for his 
 uniform courtesy and his inflexible integrity in 
 business transactions. 
 
 GEORGE STILLMAN POND, the energetic 
 and capable superintendent of the supply depart- 
 ment of the Southern New England Telephone Co., 
 with his principal office at New Haven, was born in 
 Branford July 12, 1854, and is a son of Capt. Jo- 
 seph W. and Mary (Hall) Pond. The paternal 
 grandparents of George S. Pond were Harvey and 
 Betsy (Linsley) Pond, and his great-grandparents 
 were Elias and Martha (Howd) Pond. 
 
 On the Linsley side Mr. Pond is a descendant of 
 Ebenezer Linsley, who was a native of Branford, 
 and who married Betsy Cohan, of Guilford. He 
 was a son of Ebenezer Linsley, and a grandson of 
 Ebenezer Linsley, who was born in England and 
 was one of the pioneer settlers of Branford. The 
 family Bible which he brought from England is 
 still in the possession of Capt. J. W. Pond, who is 
 living at the time of this writing (1901) on the 
 old family homestead at Indian Neck, where he was 
 born July 6, 1820. 
 
 Harvey Pond, noted above, was a boatman and 
 coaster, and followed the water all his life. His 
 children were Russell, Joseph W., Harriet and Eliza 
 A. (who married Henry Nichols). 
 
 Capt. Joseph W. Pond was reared in Branford, 
 where he has always resided. For sixty-six seasons 
 he had charge of a pleasure boat on Long. Island 
 sound, and during the winter months was engaged 
 in the coasting trade. Capt. Pond was twice mar- 
 ried. In 1845 he wedded Elvira Averill, who died 
 in 185 1. In 1852 he married Mary E. Hall, of 
 the city of New York, who became the mother of 
 four children : George S. ; Jarvis A. ; Elvira, who 
 married George Rice; and Mary E., who is Mrs. 
 Frank Mackay. 
 
 George Stillman Pond was reared at Branford, 
 which has always been his home. He obtained his 
 education in the local schools, and began his busi- 
 es 
 
 ness career by assisting his father as a boatman. 
 For ten seasons he was captain of a pleasure boat 
 on Long Island Sound. On Sept. i, 1883, he re- 
 ceived his appointment to the position he now holds, 
 with the Southern New England Telephone Co., 
 and is regarded as one of the most capable and 
 trustworthy men on the company's staff. 
 
 Mr. Pond was married, Oct. 10, 1875, to Hattie 
 J., a daughter of James F. and Harriet (Plant) 
 Morris, of Branford. To this union have come 
 three children, IJarry J., Walter G. and Olive H. 
 Mr. Pond is a member of Widows Sons Lodge, 
 No. 66, F. & A. M. He is also a member of 
 Montowese Lodge, No. 184, New England Order 
 of Protection, of which he is warden. In his po- 
 litical relations Mr. Pond is a Republican. 
 
 CAPTAIN ALFRED J. WOLFF, foreman in 
 the machine department of the Scovill Mfg. Co., 
 Waterbury, was born March 11, 1856, in Vosges, 
 France. 
 
 Francis F. Wolff, father of our subject, was 
 born in the same locality, in 1817, and came to 
 the United States in 1865, making his first New- 
 World home in Bridgeport, Conn., where he found 
 employment as a blacksmith on the Naugatuck rail- 
 road. From there he removed to Waterbury, and 
 here worked for the Farrell Foundry Co. up to 
 about the time of his death in 1870. In his native 
 land he had married Celestine Wolff, a first cousin, 
 and of the same nativity, and three children were 
 born to them: Lucian, Adrian, and Alfred J. Of 
 these, Lucian is a machinist with the Scovill Mfg. 
 Co. ; and Adrian is foreman at the same works. The 
 mother passed from earth in 1898. 
 
 Alfred J. Wolff was ten years old when brought 
 by his parents to this country from his native land, 
 and received his education in part at Vosges, France, 
 in part at Bridgeport, Conn., for a few months, thert 
 in 1866, coming to Waterbury, where he finished his 
 schooling. Mr. Wolff now entered life in earnest, 
 commencing an apprenticeship to the tool-making 
 trade with the Scovill Mfg. Co., after which he 
 worked in New York two years. Then returning 
 to Waterbury, he was in the employ of the Steele 
 & Johnson Mfg. Co. In 1881 he took his present 
 position with the Scovill Mfg. Co. 
 
 On Nov. 4, 1878, Mr. Wolff was married to 
 Mary Thompson, of Waterbury, daughter of Rich- 
 ard Thompson, who came from Ireland, settling in 
 Waterbury. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Wolff 
 are : Alice, Alfred, Edward, Joseph, Sarah, Grace 
 and Armand, all of whom are living. The family 
 are members of the Roman Catholic Church, Sa- 
 cred Heart Parish. 
 
 On June 11, 1876, Mr. Wolff enlisted in Com- 
 pany G, 2nd Regiment, Connecticut National 
 Guard, in which he rose through the grades of 
 Corporal and Sergeant to Second Lieutenant, re- 
 ceiving his commission in July, 1884. On June 21, 
 1886, he was commissioned as Captain. At the br.eak- 
 
1042 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ing out of the war with Spain, Captain Wolff, in 
 accordance with orders from headquarters, made 
 all preparations for service with his command, hav- 
 ing recruited his company to 106 men, and, besides, 
 .having a nucleus of forty-five enlisted men in case 
 it became necessary to form an additional company. 
 In January, i8gg, Captain Wolff was, at his request, 
 placed on the retired list of the Conn. N. G. In 
 politics he is a Democrat, and served with much ac- 
 ceptability on the board of finance of the Center 
 School District, being chairman .thereof for' five 
 years. Socially he is affiliated with the Foresters 
 of America, the Royal Arcanum, the Woodmen of 
 the World, and the Knights of Columbus. 
 
 JOHN H. GUERNSEY, postmaster of Water- 
 bury, was iborn in Watertown, Litchfield Co., 
 Conn., January 26, 1848, and traces his ancestry 
 ;n America back anterior to the Revolution. The 
 first Guernsey, having come from the Isle of 
 Guernsey, England, settled in Old Milford, Conn., 
 in Colonial days. Many of the early Guernseys 
 'were farmers, but all were men of brains, pro- 
 'f ound thinkers, and of deep resources ; they were 
 ■patriotic to the core, and took part in all the early 
 rstruggles of the Colonists in preserving the in- 
 tegrity of the rights of the British crown, but when 
 the time came were especially conspicuous in the 
 struggle for the independence of the States. 
 
 John J. Guernsey, father of John H., was born 
 Dec. 30, 1814, in the same house in Watertown in 
 ■which his son was born. William Guernsey, fa- 
 ther of John J., was born in the same town, Jan. 
 25, 1784, a son of Abijah Guernsey, a native of 
 the same place. Joseph, the father of Abijah, was 
 born in Milford. 
 
 William Guernsey, grandfather of John H., sub- 
 ject of this sketch, grew to manhood in Water- 
 town. ' His mother, who bore 'the maiden name of 
 "Lucy Bellamy, was a daughter of Rev. Joseph 
 Bellamy, who graduated from Yale College in 1735, 
 was famous as an instructor and was the leading 
 ■divine of his day. William Guernsey married Han- 
 nah Parker, of Wallingford, settled in Watertown, 
 and there reared a family of five children, viz. : 
 John J., father of subject ; Philena, who was mar- 
 ried to S. A. Clock, of Litchfield, Conn. ; Nancy, 
 who was married to Chester Russell, of Waterbury ; 
 Sherman, who was a veneer sawyer, was a resident 
 of Terryville ; and a daughter, Rebecca, who died 
 at the age of twenty, unmarried. This family, with 
 the exception of John J., have all been called away, 
 the father having lived to be eighty-one. 
 
 John J. Guernsey was reared a farmer and grew 
 to manhood in Watertown. He married Mary J. 
 Schofield, of Stamford, Conn., a daughter of Will- 
 iam Schofield, one of the oldest residents of Fair- 
 field county. After marriage Mr. and Mrs. Guern- 
 sey continued to reside in Watertown for many 
 years, but finally removed to Cheshire. They be- 
 came the parents of eight children, as follows : 
 
 Sherman was a farmer and died in New Haven; 
 Lvman was a butcher and died in Cheshire; Re- 
 becca is the widow of R. C. Benjamin, of New 
 Haven ; Truman was a civil engineer and dry goods 
 merchant, and died in Crawfordsville, Ind., where 
 he was engaged in business ; John H. is mentioned 
 below; Almira, deceased, married Henry Hubbell, 
 of Cheshire; Lotta married John Phillips; and an 
 infant died unnamed. Of the aibove named chil- 
 dren, Sherman, Lyman and Truman were soldiers 
 during the Civil war, and two of them were taken 
 prisoners, but were subsequently exchanged, having 
 fully maintained the ancient reputation of the fam- 
 ily for military valor. In politics the father was 
 first a Whig, but is now a Republican; in religious 
 faith he is a Methodist. He and his wife are still 
 living at this writing, January, 1902. They cele- 
 brated their golden wedding June 27, ■1887. 
 
 John H. Guernsey lived on the home farm at 
 Waterbury until fifteen years of age, and for a 
 short time resided in the town of Prospect. His 
 education was acquired at the old district school, 
 and he was an ardent student, prolonging his stud- 
 ies far into the night. In 1871 he settled in Water- 
 bury, where he first entered a contractor's office, 
 and for four years kept books, drew plans, and 
 acted as time-keeper; he next fcecame a hardware 
 clerk for D. B. Wilson, with whom he remained 
 ten years. For the following eight years he con- 
 ducted a most prosperous hardware business on 
 his own account. He then sold out and devoted 
 his attention to life insurance until Feb. 14, 1899, 
 when he was appointed postmaster of Waterbury, 
 a position he fills in the most satisfactory manner 
 to the public and to the government. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Guernsey was united in matrimony 
 with Miss Alice E. Wooding, of Prospect, and a 
 daughter of Wales L. Wooding, who is a descend- 
 ant of one of the oldest families of the East. No 
 children have blessed this union. In politics Mr. 
 Guernsey is a sound Republican, and in religion he 
 is liberal. Fraternally he is a Freemason and an 
 Odd Fellow and a member of the Union League 
 of Connecticut. Socially, he is of a jovial, happy 
 disposition, with a kind word for everybody, and is 
 by everybody held in the highest possible esteem. 
 
 JAMES DYER PIOTCHKISS, Ansonia. Sam- 
 uel Hotchkiss, probably of Essex, England (the 
 traditional brother of John of Guilford, Conn.), 
 whose name was written, respectively, Hodgke, 
 Hodigkin, Hotchkiss, was at New Haven as 'early 
 as 1641. In August, 1642, he married Elizabeth 
 Cleverly, and he died Dec. 28, 1663, leaving six 
 children: John, Samuel, James, Joshua, Thomas 
 and Daniel. Of these, 
 
 Ensign- Joshua Hotchkiss, the fourth son, born 
 Sept. 16, 165 1, was a leading man at New Haven. 
 He was twice (at least) married, and had children 
 as follows: Mary, Stephen, Martha, Priscilla, 
 Abraham, Desire, Isaac and Jacob. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1043 
 
 Deacon Stephen Hotchkiss, second in Joshua's 
 family, married, at New Haven, Dec. 12, 1704, Eliz- 
 abeth, daughter of John Sperry, and their children 
 were: Joshua, Elizabeth, Mary, Hannah, Eliza- 
 beth (2), Gideon, Stephen, Silas, Hannah, Bath- 
 shua, Benjamin and Noah. Of these. 
 
 Deacon Gideon Hotchkiss, born Dec. 5, 1716, 
 married (first) June 18, 1737, Anna Brocket, who 
 died, and he married (second) Mabel, daughter of 
 Isaac Stiles, of Southbury. He settled in the south- 
 eastern part of the town of Waterbury about 1736, 
 and when the Society of Salem was organized he 
 was made a deacon of the church; was one of the 
 founders and active supporters of the church and 
 Society of Columbia (now Prospect) ; was a lead- 
 ing man of the town ; and served in both the French 
 and Revolutionary wars. He died Sept. 3, 1807, 
 having lived to see 105 grandchildren, 155 great- 
 grandchildren, and four of the fifth generation. His 
 children, nineteen in number, were as follows : 
 Jesse, David, Abraham, Abraham (2), Gideon, Hul- 
 dah, Anna, Amos, Submit, Titus, Eben, Asahel, 
 Benoni, Mabel, Phebe, Stiles, Olive, Mellicent and 
 Amzi. Of these, 
 
 Asahel Hotchkiss, born Feb. 15, 1760, married, 
 March 22, 1781, Sarah Williams, who died in 1794. 
 On June 7, 1794, he married Phebe Merriman, of 
 Cheshire. His children were as follows: Sally, 
 Curtis, Dyer, Esther, Temperance, Asahel, Mar- 
 cus and Phebe Maria. Of these, 
 
 Dyer Hotchkiss, born June 24, 1785, died Nov. 
 14, 1862. He married, June 12, 1809, Orra Pritch- 
 ard, born Oct. 26, 1783, who died Nov. 19, 1872. 
 Their children were: Charles, born Feb. 23, 181 1 ; 
 Henry, in September, 1812; Mary, Sept. 4, 1814; 
 Amos H., April 18, 1816; Sarah E., in June, 1820. 
 Of these, 
 
 Charles Hotchkiss married Electa Brace Jan. 3, 
 1833, and had children : Edward, Lucia, Henry, 
 Albert, Fidelia and Eugene, all married and resid- 
 ing in Torrington, Conn., except Lucia, who is de- 
 ceased, and Albert, in New York City. The father 
 died Nov. 14, 1897, the mother in September, 1884. 
 He was a deacon in the Congregational Church. 
 
 Henry Hotchkiss, second son of Dyer, married, 
 May 23, 1835, Rosetta Beacher, and died May 8, 
 1893; she passed away May 14, 1897, the mother 
 of children as follows: Franklin A., a farmer in 
 Cheshire ; Julius, who died in the army during the 
 Civil war; Ella, who married Charles Russell, and 
 lived in Plainville : Hattie ; Jennie, Mrs. Todd, of 
 East Farms; Libbie, wife of Hooker Hotchkiss, of 
 Nantucket;, and William, who married Julia Fen- 
 ton, and is living in New Haven. 
 
 Mary Hotchkiss, third child of Dyer, married, 
 Oct. 27, 1832, Zenas Potter, who died in 1856. 
 She now lives with her first child, Ellen, wife of 
 Fred Candee, in Baldwin avenue, Waterbury. She 
 had two other children — Samuel, who died young ; 
 and Amelia, married to Luther Wilmot, and resid- 
 
 ing in Baldwin avenue, Waterfjury (they have a 
 family). 
 
 Amos H. Hotchkiss, fourth child of Dyer, and 
 the father of our subject, is mentioned below. 
 
 Sarah E. Hotchkiss, fifth child of Dyer, married 
 Harmon Payne June 11, 1843, and they reside at 
 Bristol, Conn. They had three children: Martha 
 married Charles E. Russell, and lives in Bristol; 
 Maria married William Cook, and lives in Walling- 
 ford (she has one child) ; Orra died young. 
 
 Amos H. Hotchkiss, born April 18, 1816, mar- 
 ried Sally Maria Scott Aug. 29, 1837, and they had 
 children as follows: (i) Martha Ann, born June 
 
 10, 1838, died Jan. 13, 1839; (2) Mary Maria, born 
 April 18, 1841 ; (3) Orra Jane, born Sept. 22, 1843 ; 
 (4) -James Dyer, a sketch of whom follows; (5) 
 Alice Ruth, born in September, 1846; (6) Ann 
 Eliza, born Feb. 16, 1848; (7) Sarah Rosette, born 
 July 7, 1849, died Aug. 2, 1890; (8) Marcie Eliza- 
 beth, born May 30, 1851 ; (9) Esther Ellen, born 
 Oct. 21, 1852; and (10) Edward Amos, born June 
 
 11, 1854. Of these, 
 
 (2) Mary M. was married, April 7, 1861, to 
 David Morse, who died leaving tw6 children, Jane 
 and George B. Mrs. Morse lives with her daugh- 
 ter Jane, who is married to Thomas Williams, and 
 resides at Buck's Hill, north of Waterbury. (3) 
 Orra Jane married James Magin, a farmer of the 
 town of Bethany, and has two children — Lucia ' 
 married and living in Rhode Island; and William, 
 at home. (5) Alice Ruth married Frank Wedge, 
 of Naugatuck, where they reside. They have had 
 c!iildren — Allie, wife of Leander Wheeler (they 
 have three children, and reside in Waterbury) ; 
 Josie; Julia; Elmore; and Chester, who resides at 
 home. (6) Ann E. married Henry Dudley, and 
 they reside in Ansonia. They have had children as 
 follows — Amy, who married Russell Wheeler and 
 has one child (they live in Washington) ; Cora, 
 who married Charles Chadwick and has one child 
 (they live in Ansonia) ; Stephen, living in Brook- 
 lyn ; Edward, who married Alice Seymour, and lives 
 in Derby; and Charles, residing at home. (7) 
 Sarah R. married Stephen Johns, and died Aug. 
 2, 1890. (8) Marcie E. is unmarried, and lives in 
 Naugatuck. (9) Esther E. married Edmon Hoyt, 
 of Middlebury, where they have their home; they 
 have one son. Jay. ( 10) Edward A. married Jane 
 Schofield, and they live at the old home in Nauga- 
 tuck ; their children, all yet living at home, are : 
 Walter, George, Ida, Tracey and Sarah. Edward A. 
 is a past N. G. of Centennial Lodge, No. 100, I. O. 
 O. F., of Naugatuck, and at the head of Beacon Val- 
 ley Grange, in which he is an active worker. Amos 
 H. Hotchkiss, the father of the above enumerated 
 fam.ily of ten children, was a member of the G. A. 
 R. He served as wagoner in the 23d C. V. I. during 
 the Civil war, in which conflict the family was well 
 represented, his brother Henry Hotchkiss, now 
 of Torrington, having been a member of the band 
 
I044 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of the 1st C. H. A.; Franklin A., son of Henry, 
 was a wagoner in Company A, 20th C. V. I. ; 
 Julius, son of Henry, was a private in Company 
 A, 20th C. V. 1. ; Charles Russell, who married 
 Ella, eldest daughter of Henry, was in Company 
 A, 20th C. V. I. ; Charles E. Russell, who married 
 Martha Payne, daughter of Mrs. Sarah E. 
 (Hotchkiss) Payne, was in Company A, 20th C. 
 V. I. ; James D., whose name introduces these lines, 
 served in Company H, 8th C. V. I. ; James Magin, 
 his brother-in-law, also served in the 20th C. V I. ; 
 and Henry Dudley, another brother-in-law, served 
 in the Spth 111. V. I. 
 
 James Dyer Hotchkiss, fourth in the order of 
 birth of the ten children of Amos H. and Sally M. 
 (Scott) Hotchkiss, and the subject proper of this 
 sketch, was born Feb. 24, 1845, in Naugatuck, and 
 received a liberal education in the schools of the 
 district. On Sept. 8, 1872, he married Martha E. 
 Dougal, and afterward removed to Ansonia, in 
 1875. They had three children : William D. mar- 
 ried Agnes Mathews, of Waterbury, and has one 
 child, Reba May ; they live in Ansonia. Albert E. 
 died at the age of. five years. Amos L. lives at 
 home. 
 
 James D. Hotchkiss is a member of the F. & 
 A. M., Shepherd's Lodge, No. 78, of Naugatuck; 
 a P. C. of Ansonia Lodge, No. 24, K. of P. ; a P. 
 C. of Thomas M. Redshaw Post, No. 75 ; and past 
 captain of William B. Wooster Camp, No. 25, Sons 
 of Veteran^', located in Ansonia. 
 
 Isii '. 
 
 ERWIN J. CRAWFORD, an influential citi- 
 zen of West Haven, long prominently identified 
 with the real estate and insurance interests of the 
 town, was born Jan. 22, 1843, '^^ Johnson, Lamoille 
 Co., Vt., a son of Artemus and Aphia (Hadley) 
 Crawford. 
 
 Artemus Crawford was a native of Franklin, 
 N. H., and was reared upon a farm in that State, 
 thence removing to Vermont, where in later years 
 he became a silk merchant, driving to country 
 stores, carrying his goods with him. In 1849 he 
 was smitten with the "gold fever," and set out for 
 California, and, as he was never heard of after- 
 ward, it is believed he perished en route. On Jan 
 15, 1841, he married Aphia Hadley, daughter of 
 Joseph and Achsah (Wells) Hadley. The latter, 
 a native of Vermont, lived to the extraordinary 
 age of ninety years. Mr. Hadley was a member of 
 a family known among the early pioneers of Mor- 
 ristown, Vt., and passed his life there and in the 
 adjoining towns, following farming. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hadley had three children : Volney, Orson and 
 Aphia (our subject's mother). To Artemus and 
 Aphia Crawford were born two children : Ellen, 
 who married Flenry Whiting, at present a judge 
 of the city court in Cripple Creek, Colo. ; and E^r- 
 win J. The mother died Oct. 16, 1900. 
 
 Erwin J. Crawford came from Vermont to 
 Middlefield, Conn., when a youth of eighteen years. 
 
 There he worked for the Metropolitan Wringing 
 ^lachine Co. for a few years, and later engage'd 
 in the wood-turning business on his own account 
 in Middlefield, where for eight years he also en- 
 gaged in farming and small fruit raising. In 1896 
 he engaged in business as a real estate and in- 
 surance agent, in which line he has met with pro- 
 nounced success, representing various prominent 
 companies. He has erected several houses in West 
 Plalven. On May 11, ,1864, he was married to 
 Fanny S. Coe, only child of Alvin B. and Harriet 
 (Coe) Coe, of Middlefield. Mr. Coe was one of 
 the prominent citizens of that place, being a manu^ 
 facturer of buttons, a director in three banks and 
 a stock dealer. Both he and his wife are deceased, 
 he dying in 1886, at the age of seventy-five, and 
 she in 1888, in her seventy-first year. To Mr. and 
 Mrs. Crawford two children have been born : Maud,, 
 who died when six years old; and Daisy, who is- 
 at home. 
 
 In politics Mr. Crawford is a stanch Republi- 
 can, and has always taken an active interest in the 
 work of the party. While living in Middlefield he 
 was chairman of the town committee, and in i886" 
 was elected a representative of the Legislature. 
 In 1888 he removed to West Haven, where he soon 
 attained the prominence to which he is entitled, 
 alike through native ability and experience in pub- 
 lic life. In 1890 he was elected a member of the 
 board of wardens and burgesses, and in 1891 was 
 chosen warden. He was re-elected to the latter 
 office, annually, for five years, and since 1896 has 
 served the town as tax collector for a year. He 
 still retains his interest in his party organization^ 
 having served on his town committee. Socially 
 Mr. Crawford is a member of the Royal Arcanum. 
 He and his family are members of the M. E. 
 Church, of which he is a trustee; he formerly- 
 served as steward. 
 
 EDWIN HOBSON, a typical representative of 
 the industrial interests of Wallingford, where he- 
 has long been known as an industrious and trust- 
 worthy workman, has followed the trade of die- 
 sinking and mold^making many years in this com- 
 munity, and is highly respected both as a mechanic 
 and a citizen. He was born Oct. 28, 1821, in Shef- 
 field, England, where his father, John Hobson, was 
 also born. 
 
 John Hobson was also a diesinker. He spent 
 the greater part of his life in Birmingham, where 
 he died, and he is remembered as an upright and' 
 honorable man. He was a worthy member of the 
 Episcopal Church. Mr. Hobson married Mary 
 Whaley, also a native of Sheffield, England, who 
 came to this country after the death of her hus- 
 band, locating with her family in Meriden. There 
 she died, andi was buried in Wallingford. She was 
 the mother of six children : Edwin ; Emma, who 
 died young; Selina, who married John Hollier, of 
 England; Williami Henry, a resident of Walling- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1045 
 
 ford; Sarah Ann, who married Thomas Morton, 
 and is now dead; and Persella, who married Andrew 
 Bailey, and is now deceased. 
 
 Edwin Hobson received his education in the 
 schools of his native country, and it was mostly 
 ■acquired before he readhed the age of ten yearg, at 
 Avhich time his parents removed to Birmingham, 
 where young Edwin was set to learn diesinking, 
 modeling and designing with his father. He worked 
 with himi until he was of age, when he struck out 
 for himself, earning at that time about three pounds 
 a week. In 1866 he came to this country with 
 liis wife and family, embarking June 10, at Liver- 
 pool, in the steamship "Royal Standard." He se- 
 •curedi a position at his trade in Newark, N. J., and 
 the following year came to Wallingford to take a 
 position with Simpson, Hall & JMiller, in whose es- 
 tablishment he worked for more than a third of a 
 century as a diesinker, designer and moldmaker. 
 Through his unusual ability in his work, he won 
 for himself the respect of his associates and the con- 
 fidence of the firm, as well as the respect of the 
 community, and before he left he was superintend- 
 ent of his department. Mr. Hobson possesses much 
 more than the ordinary taste and sensibility, and 
 has artistic refinement to a marked degree. 'By his 
 friend's he is termed a born genius. In his leisure 
 hours he has made several violins whidh are noted 
 for their sweetness of tone and are highly prized 
 by their fortunate possessors. He has also made 
 several pianos, one of his make adorning the home 
 of Clarence C, Brown, of Wallingford. Mr. Hob- 
 son has always been a careful and painstaking man, 
 and, although past his eightieth year, still preserves 
 his lifelong habits of industry and activity. When 
 not engaged in diesinking, he may be found inhis 
 factory, engaged in either violin or piano making, 
 and in these labors his whole soul is inwrapped. 
 Mr. Hobson is a good violinist and plays with much 
 skill and expression. Affable in his manners, and 
 a good conversationalist, all who meet him are 
 charmed with his courtly and old-fashioned hos- 
 pitality. 
 
 Mr. Hobson was married, July 12, 1846, at Birm- 
 ingham, England, to Miss Sarah James, daughter 
 of Thomas and Mary (Mountford) James; her 
 father was a maker of silver candlesticks. To this 
 tmion were born six children: (i) Sarah married 
 William J. Hodgetts, a box manufacturer of Wall- 
 ingford. (2) Rosana married George W. Wood- 
 house, a painter, of Wallingford. (3) Mary Ellen 
 (Nellie) is unmarried, and is living at home. She 
 is an artist of acknowledged ability, was a student 
 for five years at the Yale Art School, and is now 
 teaching painting. (4) Mark Wallace is a die- 
 sinker with the Simpson, Hall & Miller Co., and 
 learned his trade under his father's instructions. He 
 married Elizabeth Valentine. (5) Arthur EdSvin 
 as a diesinker, and is superintendent in the factory 
 of the International Silver Co., at Meriden. He 
 married Miss Hattie Church, of Wallingford. (6) 
 
 Florence Elizabeth married Prof. Franze R. C. 
 Milcke, the noted violinist and instructor. Mrs. 
 Milcke is a vocalist of much ability, and a piano 
 teacher of reputation. She designed the beautiful 
 home which they occupy in Wallingford, and to 
 which they have given the name of "Craig Nyth." 
 . Mr. Hobson is a Mason, a member of Compass 
 Lodge, No. 9, F. & A. M. He was a member of 
 the I. O. O. F. In politics he is a Republican, but 
 largely reserves the right of independent action. 
 In religious connection he is a member of the Bap- 
 tist Church. He has led an industrious, useful life, 
 and has reared a family second to none in the com- 
 munity. For fifty-five years Mr. and Mrs. Hobson 
 have worked happily and harmoniously together; 
 she is a lady of innate refinement. 
 
 W. BURR HALL, a well-known resident of 
 Wallingford, was born Dec. 16, 1845, in Hamden, 
 New Haven county, son of William Day Hall. 
 
 Mr. Hall is a descendant of John Hall, who 
 died in 1676, aged seventy-one years. He married 
 Jane Woolen, and they had children : John, Rich- 
 ard, Samuel, Sarah, Thomas, Jonathan and David. 
 
 (II) Samuel Hall, son of John, born May 21, 
 1646, died March 5, 1725. He married Hannah 
 Walker, and their children were : John, Hannah, 
 barah, Samuel, Theophilus and Elizabeth. 
 
 (III) Samuel Hall (2), son of Samuel, horn 
 Dec. 10, 1680, died June 15, 1770. He married 
 Hannah Hall, and their children were : Theoph- 
 ilus, Samuel, Hannah, Sarah, Mehitable and Es- 
 ther. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Hall (3), son of Samuel (2), 
 was born June 8, 1709, and died Dec. 24, 1771. He 
 married Sarah Hull, and their children were: 
 Samuel, Hezekiah, Louisa, Sarah, Esther, Love, 
 Elizabeth, Damaris. 
 
 (V) Samuel Hall (4), son of Samuel (3), was 
 born Feb. 28, 1750, and died Feb. 27, 1821. He 
 married Elizabeth Parsons, and their children 
 were: Samuel, Hezekiah, George, Marilla, Rich- 
 ard and Jared. 
 
 (VI) Jared Hall, son of Samuel (4), and the 
 grandfather of W. Burr, was born Aug. 24, 1792, 
 in Wallingford, and died there April 24, 1861. He 
 married Rebecca Hall, and by her had four chil- 
 dren : Caroline, William Day, Charles D. and 
 Lucy H. By his second wife, Emily Austin, he 
 had three children: Jane, Rebecca and Henry L. 
 
 (VII) William Day Hall, our subject's father, 
 was born Dec. 6, 1821, in Wallingford, and died 
 there March 21, 1889, having returned to his na- 
 tive place a short time previous. He married Miss 
 Harriet Perkins, who was born May 24, 1821, 
 daughter of Amasa Perkins, of Wallingford, and 
 died March 4, 1887. William D. Hall was a man- 
 ufacturer of fertilizers, and a large dealer in hides 
 and tallow. When quite young he settled in Ham- 
 den, and for many years he was located in Fair- 
 port and Millenbeck, Va., where he had a large 
 
1046 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 force of men getting out lumtoer. At Millenbeck 
 he was also postmaster, and the proprietor and 
 manager of a large general store. He owned 1,200 
 acres of land-, and raised some very fine cattle. A 
 busy and hustling man, Mr. Hall pushed his en- 
 terprises to the utmost, and was widely known as 
 thoroughly honorable and reliable. Quiet and lA- 
 assuming in manner, he was never an aspirant for 
 political honors, though a stanch Republican in 
 politics. 
 
 W. Burr Hall attended school in North Haven, 
 and had one term at Claverack, N. Y. At the age 
 of si:^een his school days came to an end and he 
 worked on his father's farm until he engaged, as 
 his father had done before him, in the hide, tallow 
 and fertilizer business, becoming well acquainted 
 with the people of his town and county. In 1885 
 he moved to Wallingford. Since April, 1888, his 
 time has largely been devoted to the public service. 
 He has 'beeen a member of the court of burgesses, 
 and first selectman, for six terms. For one year 
 he was town clerk. On Jan. 16, 1890, he was ap- 
 pointed postmaster by President Harrison. In 1870 
 Mr. Hall joined the Governor's Horse Guard, in 
 which he became senior second lieutenant March 
 14, 1879; senior first lieutenant on Aug. 30, 1880; 
 was elected captain Aug. 29, 1887; and in Febru- 
 ary, 1890, he retired from the service, receiving an 
 honorable discharge. After retiring Mr. Hall was 
 unanimously elected by the members of the squad- 
 ron as major, and was appointed by the governor 
 as such, but, though fully appreciating the honor, 
 he declined. Mr. Hall is a member of the National 
 Band at Wallingford. He has always been a pub- 
 lic-spirited man, with a host of friends, and when 
 he has been a candidate for office he not only re- 
 ceived the full party vote, but also the ballots of 
 many Democrats. A genial and kind-hearted gen- 
 tleman, he is very popular with all who know him. 
 
 Mr. Hall was married, Dec. 14, 1868, to Miss 
 Ella M. Skinner, daughter of Edwin H. Skinner, 
 of Middlefield, and they have had one child, Maude, 
 born Aug. 26, 1877, who is at home. Mr. Hall has 
 a summer cottage at Madison, Conn., where his 
 hospitality is well known and highly appreciated 
 by his many friends. 
 
 WILLIS MILLER COOK, assistant superin- 
 tendent and general foreman of the Mt. Carmel 
 Axle Works, Mt. Carmel Centre, was born in that 
 place, April 9, 1858, and is a worthy representa- 
 tive of one of the oldest and most honored families 
 of New England. Many of the name are still resi- 
 dents of Litchfield county. Conn., includimg ex- 
 Gov. Cook, of this State. 
 
 Sylvester Cook, grandfather of our subject, 
 was born in Harwinton, Litchfield county, July 16, 
 1802, and there spent his entire life, engaged in 
 agricultural pursuits. He died Aug. 12, 1845, ho'"'- 
 ored and respected by all who knew him. In Har- 
 winton, he was married, April 6, 1832, to Miss 
 
 Mercia Francis, who was born June 29, 1807, and 
 died Dec. 21, 1886, being laid to rest by the side 
 of her husband in Harwinton cemetery. Both were 
 members of the Episcopal Church. Of their four 
 children, Henry Francis, father of our subject, was 
 the oldest; Mary Permelia, born Nov. 3, 1834, is 
 the wife of Daniel Fox, of Plainville, Conn. ; George 
 Allen, born Aug. 11, 1836, is a resident of Red- 
 lands, Cal. ; and Sarah Maria, born April 24, 1838, 
 is the widow of Albert Fox, of Plainville, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Henry Francis Cook was born in Harwinton, 
 Feb. 10, 1833, was reared upon a farm, and edu- 
 cated in the district schools. While in his teens 
 he secured employment on the New York, New 
 Haven & Hartford railroad, and remained with that 
 corporation for several years. He came to Ham- 
 den in the employ of the same company, and later 
 held a position in the axle works at Mt. Carmel. 
 He spent several years in Philadelphia, Penn., with 
 a similar company, and then returned to Mt. Car- 
 mel, where he passed the remainder of his life. 
 During the Civil war he was a member of Com- 
 pany I, 20th Conn. V. I., and served his country 
 faithfully and well in her hour of peril. He was 
 liberal in religious views, and politically, was a 
 stanch supporter of the Republican party, but 
 never a politician in the sense of office seeking. In 
 Hamden he married Miss Maria E. Miller, a na- 
 tive of Woodbridge, Conn., a daughter of Chauncey 
 M. Miller, and a sister of Willis E. Miller, presi- 
 dent of the Mt. Carmel Axle Works. She was a 
 consistent Christian woman, was a devoted wife and 
 mother, and a sincere friend. She died at her home 
 Nov. 20, 1872, in Hamden, and was buried in the 
 Mt. Carmel cemetery. Mr. Cook died Feb. 2, 1895, 
 Their children were Willis Miller, our subject; 
 Sereno T., who is mentioned below; and Mary, 
 wife of Willard Mathews, of Hamden. 
 
 Willis M. Cook was educated in district and 
 select schools of Hamden, and at a very early age 
 commenced work in the axle shop with his uncle, 
 having for the past thirty-one years been a faith- 
 ful and trusted employe of the company. Through 
 his own efforts he has risen to the position of fore- 
 man of the works, and has won for himself the 
 confidence of the company, and the respect of those 
 under him. His practical knowledge of all the 
 details of the business, as well as his acquaintance 
 with men, renders him a most valuable employe, a:s 
 is evidenced by his long continuance with the com- 
 pany. Formerly he was extensively engaged in 
 dairy farming, and he owns one of the finest homes 
 and farms in Mt. Carmel Centre. He also owns 
 considerable real estate in that vicinity, including 
 nearly all of Mt. Carmel, on the summit of which 
 he has a pleasant cottage. 
 
 On March 12, 1884, Mr. Cook married Miss 
 Nellie Morey, a native of Hadley, Mass., and a 
 daughter of Charles H. Morey. Twins were born 
 of this union, but both died in infancy. Mr. Cook 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1047 
 
 is a stanch supporter of the Repuibhcan party, but 
 has never sotnght poHtical preferment, though he 
 filled the office of justice of the peace eight years. 
 He and his wife are memibers of Hamden Grange, 
 of which he is past master and overseer, and in 
 social circles they are quite prominent. He is a 
 man noted for his high moral character, and his 
 genial, pleasant manner makes for him many 
 friends. 
 
 Sereno Thomas Cook, the younger son of 
 Henry F. Cook, and the well-known shipping clerk 
 .and assistant foreman of the Mt. Carmel Axle 
 Works, was born in the town of Hamden, June 8, 
 i860, and was reared in Mt. Carmel Centre, where 
 he attended the district and select schools. He be- 
 gan his business career as a clerk in a grocery store 
 in New Haven, where he was employed for a year 
 and a half, and then returned to Mt. Carmel Cen- 
 tre, where he was a clerk in a store and postoffice, 
 and also for the Adams Express Company for three 
 years. At the end of that time he accepted the po- 
 sition of shipping clerk with the Mt. Carmel Axle 
 Manufacturing Co., under his uncle, and for the 
 past twenty-one years has filled that responsible 
 position with credit to himself and to the general 
 satisfaction of the company. He is also assistant 
 foreman of the works. In Mt. Carmel, Nov. 16, 
 1881, he married Miss Louise M. Carroll, a native 
 of Cheshire, New Haven Co., and a daughter of 
 James Carroll, and to them has been born one 
 child, Jessie M. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cook hold 
 membership in Hamden Grange. As a Republican, 
 he takes quite an active and prominent part in local 
 politics, and has been a member of the central com- 
 mittee for many years. He has been an efficient 
 member of the school board for the past five years, 
 and in 1898 was elected selectman of the town of 
 Hamden, which office he filled in a most capable 
 and satisfactory manner. Like his brother, he is 
 very popular both in business and social circles and 
 has hosts of friends throughout the community. 
 
 HIRAM JESSE PECK is a leading and influ- 
 ential citizen of Cheshire, where he owns and op- 
 erates a fine farm of seventy-five acres, under a 
 high state of cultivation and well improved with 
 good and substantial buildings. A native of that 
 town, he was born Nov. 5, 1859, and is a worthy 
 representative of one of the most prominent early 
 families of Cheshire. His grandfather Peck was 
 a shoemaker by trade. He married Patty Iver, and 
 to them were born four children : Hiram A., father 
 of Hiram J. ; Sarah, Mrs. Hall, who died in Water- 
 bury ; Chauncey, who lived in New York, where his 
 death occurred; and one that died at the age of 
 four years. 
 
 Hiram A. Peck was born in Cheshire, Sept. 9, 
 1820, and was there reared and educated in much 
 the usual manner of farmer boys of his day. In 
 1848 he was married to Miss Mary Ann Peck, a 
 native of Cheshire, and a daughter of Capt. Will- 
 
 iam and Marianne (Atwater) Peck. Her father 
 was born in the same town, and made his home on 
 the farm now owned and occupied by our subject. 
 There his death occurred in April, 1884, at the age 
 of ninety-seven years, and his wife died in 1871, 
 aged seventy-nine years. In their family were 
 three children: Matilda, Mrs. Sanford, a resident 
 of New York ; William, who died in Cheshire in 
 May, 1899, at the age of eighty years; and Mary 
 Ann, mother of Hiram J. Peck. After his mar- 
 riage Mr. Peck located on the Waterbury road, at 
 the corner of Peck lane, where he followed farm- 
 ing, and also worked in a button shop in Cheshire, 
 and subsequently in a pin shop at Waterbury. His 
 wife died, leaving one child, Hiram J. For his 
 second wife he married Celia Roberts, who became 
 the mother of Clinton C, Clayton E. and Mary H. 
 He died in Cheshire, Aug. i, 1876. Mrs. Celia 
 (Roberts) Peck was a native of England, and a 
 daughter of Elijah and Sally Ann Roberts. 
 
 Hiram J. Peck received a practical education in 
 the public schools of his native town, and since 
 leaving the school room has devoted his energies 
 to agricultural pursuits. He is a thrifty and pro- 
 gressive farmer, and is meeting with well-merited 
 success in life. In his political views he is an 
 ardent Republican. Mr. Peck was married in^ 
 Meriden, in 1893, to Miss Mary Helena Brown, 
 who was born in Berlin, Hartford Co., Conn., a 
 daughter of Charles and Cornelia (Thrasher) 
 Brown. The father died in Meriden in 1891, but 
 the mother is still living, and now makes her home 
 in New Haven. Mr. and Mrs. Hiram J. Peck have 
 an adopted son, bom Oct. i, 1892, who was named 
 
 Frank Amos. 
 
 I. 
 
 HENRY F. SANFORD, for the past fifteen 
 years a faithful and competent employe of the 
 American Ring Co., Waterbury, is a native of that 
 city, born Dec. 16, 1843. 
 
 Ruel F. Sanford, his father, was born in the 
 town of Wolcott, Conn., and was a son of Truman 
 Sanford, who was also of Wolcott nativity, and 
 died in Waterbury, Nov. 26,' 1856. Henry San- 
 ford, grandfather of Truman, was born in Boston, 
 Mass., a son of Thomas Sanford, who came from 
 England, and was the father of four sons : Nathan^ 
 Archibald, Freeman and Henry. Of these, Nathan 
 settled in Plymouth, Archibald in Bethany, and 
 Freeman in Prospect, all in Connecticut, and they 
 were all farmers. Henry, Jr., married Rhoda Per- 
 kins, settled on a farm in Wolcott, reared the fol- 
 lowing named children : Jared, Truman, Joseph,. 
 Rhoda, Francis and Tryphena, and died Dec. 25,, 
 1830, aged seventy-eight years. 
 
 Truman Sanford, grandfather of our subject, 
 was born in 1782, and died Nov. 26, 1856, aged 
 seventy-four. He married Anna Curtis, who was 
 born in 1780, and died Aug. 24, 1862, aged eighty- 
 two. The following children were born to them: 
 Tryphena, Maria Ann, Abel Curtis, Rhoda, Marilla, 
 
1048 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Ruel F. and Rufus B. Of these, Tryphena married 
 Julius Buclvingliam, a farmer of Middlebury, 
 Conn. ; Maria Ann married David H. Buckingham, 
 a farmer of Middlebury, Conn.; Abel Curtis mar- 
 ried Elizabeth H. Judd, and was a farmer in South- 
 ington. Conn. ; Rhoda married Lambert Russell, 
 and they settled on a farm in Darlington, Wis. ; 
 Marilla was the wife of Lyman Smith, a mechanic 
 of Waterbury; Ruel F. was the father of our sub- 
 ject; Rufus B., a brass caster in Waterbury, mar- 
 ried (first) Elmira Russell, and (second) Ellen 
 Russell, who is yet living. 
 
 Ruel F. Sanford married Nancy H. Neal, who 
 was born in Southington, Conn., a daughter of 
 Timothv Neal, a fanner in Cheshire, Conn., and 
 who served in the war of 1812. The Neals were 
 an old settled family in this country. Timothy Neal 
 had three children: Nancy H., Lucinda and Den- 
 nis, and of these, Nancy H. was the mother of our 
 subject; and Lucinda married Thomas M. Payne, 
 a carpenter of WateAury ; but of Dennis there is 
 nothing now known. To Ruel F. Sanford and his 
 wife were born five children: Henry F., William 
 M., Ella A., Emma J., and Caroline A. Of these, 
 Henry F. is our subject; William M. is a brass 
 caster in Meriden, Conn.; Ella A. died at the age 
 of twenty-two years ; Emma J. is the wife of John 
 Jopson, of Meriden, Conn. ; Caroline A. is the wife 
 of Merle C. Coles, of Bridgeport, Conn. The 
 father of this family came to Waterbury when a 
 boy, and followed the trade of brass caster. In 
 politics he was a Whig, later a Republican, and in 
 religious faith he and his wife were Baptists. He 
 died June 3, 1878, at the age of fifty-eight, his wife 
 on April 3, 1897, when she was aged seventy-seven 
 years. 
 
 Henry F. Sanford, the subject proper of this 
 memoir, attended the schools of his native city, 
 Waterbury, until he was sixteen years of age, at 
 which time he commenced to learn the brass caster's 
 trade with his father. In August, 1862, he enlisted 
 in Company A, 23d Conn. V. I. ; served in the 
 Banks expedition ; was taken prisoner at Bayou 
 Boeuf, La. After being mustered out, Aug. 31, 
 1863, he returned to Waterbury, and learned the 
 machinist's trade and worked in various manufac- 
 tories, including that of the American Ring Co., 
 where he has been employed for the past fifteen 
 years. 
 
 On Dec. 23, 1868, Mr. Sanford married Agnes 
 L. Griffing-Speirs, a native of Scotland, and daugh- 
 ter of Robert and Agnes Speirs, also of the same 
 nativity, and five children were born to them: May 
 L., Bertha A., Elsie j\I., Henry F., Jr., and Grace 
 E. The mother died Sept. 2, 1899. She was a 
 Baptist in religious faith, member of the First 
 Church, as is also her husband, and he has been 
 connected with the same over thirty A'ears, and been 
 clerk for the past sixteen years. In politics he is 
 an acti^■e Republican; has been councilman of the 
 First ward two years, also alderman three years, 
 
 and served on the board of health two years^ So- 
 ciallv he is a member of the I O O F., Pacific 
 Lodge, of Meriden, Conn. ; of the K of P Speed- 
 well Lodge, Waterbury; and of the G. A. R., Wad- 
 hams Post, No. 49> Wateiibury. 
 
 SAMUEL HALPER, deceased. The story of 
 this gentleman's life is a record of early struggles 
 and hard work, crowned with the ultimate success 
 which is the fitting reward of patient industry, 
 earnest purpose and unwavering integrity. He was 
 of the Jewish race, a people which has given to 
 the world more than, its full quota of merchant 
 princes, financiers, statesmen and eminent men of 
 science and letters, and which, without a distinctive 
 country of its own, has preserved through centuries 
 its homogeneous national character and religious 
 faith. 
 
 Mr. Halper was born in Roumania March 25, 
 1841. His school days ended when he was twelve 
 years old, and at that early age he went into the 
 world to struggle alone against the vicissitudes and 
 temptations of life. For six years he worked at 
 the jewelry business, and at the age' of eighteen 
 engaged in the sale of linen on his own account. 
 After a year so spent he was made overseer of the 
 construction of some macadamized roads^ a position 
 which he filled for a considerable time, with credit 
 to himself and satisfaction to his employers. When 
 this employment came to an end he again embarked 
 in mercantile business. In 1867 'he resolved to emi- 
 grate to the United States. On reaching this coun- 
 try he invested his slender capital in a stock of small 
 wares, and for a few months carried a peddler's 
 pack upon his back, through Connecticut. Weary- 
 ing of this life, he went to New York City, where 
 he opened a small store in Spring street, for the 
 sale of millinery and fancy goods. This venture did 
 not prove financially as successful as he had hoped, 
 and in 1872 he removed to Seymour, New Haven 
 Co., Conn., where with a cash capital of but seventy 
 dollars, he embarked in similar business. He re- 
 mained in Seymour five years, and in March, 1877, 
 transferred his stock to Derby. His first store in 
 that city was in Main street, nearly opposite the 
 present location of the business, at No. 223, in that 
 thoroughfare. He moved into the latter premises 
 about 1880, and in 1891 purchased the property, 
 which he thoroughly remodeled and greatly im- 
 proved, putting in handsome fixtures, and fitting the 
 store up with such artistic taste and lavish ex- 
 penditure that it is to-day the handsomest and best 
 appointed of its class in the city of Derby. To an 
 extensive line of millinery he added cloaks, and 
 in both these specialties built up a large and re- 
 munerative trade. Besides attending to his mer- 
 cantile interests, Mr. Halper dealt quite extensively 
 in real estate, investing considerable capital in build- 
 ing and improving. At the time of his death he 
 was a member of the Derby Board of Trade of 
 which he was one of the organizers. Upright en- 
 
.^^-rUiiyr^a^^"'*-^^^'^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1049 
 
 terprising and public-spirited, he was one of Derby's 
 most highly esteemed citizens. He took a deep 
 interest in educational matters, as well as in the 
 advancement of every enterprise looking to the pub- 
 lic good, and shortly before his death subscribed 
 $100 toward the founding of a general hospital at 
 Derby, his name heading the list. Had he lived, 
 he would have doubtless brought the undertaking 
 to a successful completion, for he was as zealous and 
 careful in the prosecution of any work into which 
 he entered as he was in business matters. Political- 
 ly Mr. Halper was a Republican, but never sought 
 public office, though at his death he was a member 
 of the board of apportionment and taxation. Fra- 
 ternally he was an Odd Fellow, having become 
 connected with that order in Seymour, and he was 
 :also a member of a mutual benefit society in New 
 York. He passed away May 22, 1900. 
 
 Mr. Halper was twice married, first to Miss 
 Matilda Greenfield, a native of Germany, who died 
 in 1878, leaving one son, Charles J. On March 
 17, 1879, our subject was united in marriage with 
 Miss Jennie Gottlieb, of New York, and two chil- 
 dren were born to this union, Frances and Joseph 
 W., the former of whom is a graduate of Derby 
 high school. The beautiful home occupied by the 
 family, on the corner of Anson and Fifth streets, 
 is one of the finest in Derby. 
 
 Charles J. Halper, after finishing the course in 
 the public schools of Derby, entered Yale Business 
 College, from which he was graduated in 1888. 
 Later he took up the study of medicine, intending 
 to adopt the profession, but he abandoned same on 
 Tiis father's death, since which time he has assisted 
 his mother in the management of their extensive 
 interests. During the Spanish-American war he 
 served as a member of the Hospital Corps of the 
 3d Division, 4th Army Corps. 
 
 SYLVAXUS ARTHUR SCRANTON, a well- 
 known, prosperous and progressive citizen of the 
 town of Madison, is a native of the same, born 
 May 13, 1852. He is a member of one of the old- 
 est families of New Haven county, a sketch of 
 which, from the pioneer John down to our sub- 
 ject's great-grandfather Theophilus, will be fouiid 
 in the sketch of Ichabod Lee Scranton elsewhere. 
 
 Hubbard Scranton, grandfather of Sylvanus A., 
 was born May 4, 1788, in the town of Madison, a 
 son of Theophilus and Abigail (Lee) Scranton. 
 He was a lifelong farmer of Madison, and during 
 the war of the Rebellion furnished vegetables for 
 the War Department, and ran a coasting line from 
 Madison to Georgetown, D. C. He died in 1876, 
 and was interred in Madison cemetery. On April 
 2^, 1810, he married Elizabeth H. Auger, born Jan. 
 10, 1792, a daughter of Philemon Auger, of New 
 Haven. Their children : ( i ) Philemon Auger, born 
 Sept. 30, 1812, was a merchant at Augusta, Ga. ; 
 lie married Elizabeth Lee Starks, a native of Lyme, 
 Conn., and died June 5, 1878. (2) Abigail, born 
 
 Feb. 2, 181 5, married Austin Dowd, and died in 
 Feibruary, 1873. (3) Parmelia, born July 2, 1819, 
 married Richard E. Rice and died in March, 1893. 
 (4) Daniel Hubbard, a sketch of whom follows. 
 The mother of these was called from earth in De- 
 cember, 1 87 1. 
 
 Daniel Hubbard Scranton, father of Sylvanus 
 A., was born April 26, 1826, and received his edu- 
 cation at the schools of Guilford. All his life he 
 followed farming in the town of Madison, where 
 he was a land owner; he died there F^b. 28, 1897, 
 and was buried in Madison cemetery. In matters 
 of religion he was a member of the Congregational 
 Church, and in politics he was a stanch Whig and 
 Republican; fraternally he was affiliated with the 
 F. & A. M. lodge of Madison, and with the I. O. 
 O. F. 
 
 On Sept. 22, 1847, Daniel H. Scranton was 
 united in marriage with Phebe Ann Shelly, born in 
 Madison, Nov. 20, 1825, a daughter of Sylvanus 
 and Harriet (Loveland) Shelly, the latter of whom 
 was a granddaughter of John Loveland. Children : 
 (i) Rufus Henry, born Dec. 29, 1848, died Jan. 
 18, 1849; (-) Elbert Newton, born Sept. 16, 1850, 
 died Aug. i, 1866; (3) Sylvanus Arthur, sketch of 
 whom follows ; (4) Elizabeth Harriet, born Nov. 
 20, 1856, married William H. Golden, of Meriden, 
 Conn.; (5) Austin Dowd, born Feb. 9, 1859; (6) 
 Nellie Rice, born Feb. 12, 1862, married William 
 H. Demorest, of New York. 
 
 Sylvanus Arthur Scranton, the subject proper 
 of these lines, attended the district schools of Mad- 
 ison, also Lee's Academy, and at the age of four- 
 teen years commenced clerking in a wholesale and 
 retail grocery store, which position he filled a 
 couple of years. This was in New Haven, Conn., 
 and he then returned home and commenced in the 
 ice business, at first on a small scale, since when, a 
 period of over thirty years, he has been engaged 
 in that line of trade, both wholesale and retail, hav- 
 ing over 3,000 tons of ice stored each winter, and 
 supplying both Madison and East River. He is 
 also engaged in farming. In 1894 he purchased the 
 old Scranton homestead, which was built over forty 
 years ago, and is one of the oldest in Madison. 
 
 On Oct. 7, 1879, S. A. Scranton married Rose 
 R. Williams, daughter of Charles Williams, late 
 of ]\Iadison, and one child was born to their union, 
 Maude A., a student at Hand's Academy, Madison. 
 In politics Mr. Scranton is a Republican, and in 
 1898 was elected first selectman of Madison, an 
 office he has filled the past three years with credit 
 to himself and the satisfaction of the people. For 
 seven years he served as deputy sherifif, and for 
 eight vears was constable of Madison. In religious 
 faith he and his family attend the services of the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 CHARLES RANDELL LAMB, trustee of the 
 Yalesville M. E. Church, and constable for the 
 town of Wallingford, is one of Yalesville's best 
 
1050 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 known and highly respected citizens. Mr. Lamb 
 traces his ancestry to England, and belongs to one 
 of the old and substantial families of Connecticut. 
 
 William Lamb was a native of Mystic, and 
 throughout life was a seafaring man, following the 
 business of fishing, and he was one of the most 
 respected citizens of that old Connecticut town. 
 
 Sanford Lamb, son of William and father of 
 Charles R., was born in Mystic, Conn., where he 
 was educated in the branches then taught in the 
 district schools. He learned the trade of black- 
 smith and general iron worker. His life was an 
 exemplary one, honest and upright, and he enjoyed 
 the esteem of the community. He was liberal 
 minded in religious matters, and was noted for his 
 generosity and public spirit. In politics he was an 
 active member of the Whig party. Sanford Lamb 
 was married in Mystic, Conn., to Miss Julia Giant, 
 who died in Medfield, Mass., from heart failure, 
 and was buried at Norwich, Conn. A pious and 
 worthy woman, she was sincerely mourned not only 
 by her devoted family but toy a large circle of 
 friends who valued her for her lovely traits of char- 
 acter. Six children were born of this union : Eme- 
 line died at the age of fourteen; William A., a min- 
 ister in the Congregational Church in Los Angeles, 
 Cal., .married Mary Proctor, of Massachusetts; 
 Charles Randell ; John H., a shoe dealer on Wash- 
 ington street, in Boston, Mass., married Lillian 
 Mayel, of Massachusetts ; Minnie married John H. 
 School, of Medfield, Mass. ; and Hattie married 
 Dwight Sanford. 
 
 Charles R. Lamb was born in Mystic, Conn., 
 Sept. 28, 1847, and was given good school ad- 
 vantages, attending the higher grades in the schools 
 at Norwich, Conn., where he graduated when only 
 fourteen years old. One year later he removed to 
 Meriden, and immediately found employment in E. 
 Miller's brass works, where he remained for one 
 year. In 1866 he came to Yalesville and entered 
 the spoon factory of G. J. Mix & Co., and in the 
 employ of this firm he continued for twenty-six 
 years, receiving promotions until he became fore- 
 man of his department. 
 
 On account of health, jMr. Lamb decided to 
 make a change in his business, and with this end 
 in view, removed to Medfield, Mass., where he 
 opened up a provision and meat store, which he 
 conducted but a short time, and then came back 
 among his old friends in Yalesville and entered 
 the shipping room of the piano stool depart- 
 ment of the Charles Parker Co., and remained here 
 for eight years, resigning this position to engage in 
 the shoe business as a silent partner with his sons 
 at Leominster, Mass,, which business was con- 
 ducted under the firm name of Lamb Bros. 
 
 Charles R. Lamb was married in Yalesville, 
 Conn., to Miss Alice M. Jeralds, who was born in 
 Prospect, Conn., a daughter of Bennett Jeralds, one 
 of the best-known citizens of Yalesville. Eight 
 children have been born of this union : Eva J., who 
 
 married Wallace A. Shipton, of Newton, Mass.; 
 Wilbur R., who married Annie Farrell, of Hart- 
 ford, and has one child, Wilbur Raymond, Jr.; 
 Charles S., of the shoe firm of Lamb Bros., of Leo- 
 minster, Mass.; Clifton Jeralds, engaged in the 
 piano stool department of the Charles Parker Co. ; 
 Roscoe Edward, a bookkeeper; Dexter, in the 
 Parker factory in Yalesville; Mary, who attends 
 high school in Meriden ; and Alice. Both the young 
 ladies are at home, and with their estimable mother 
 are among the most cultivated and intellectual mem- 
 bers of social life in Yalesville. 
 
 Mr. Lamb has long been one of the most active 
 members of the Yalesville Methodist Church, .and 
 iOr a number of years has been a trustee and one 
 of the faithful stewards. He was a member of the 
 building committee of the new church, erected in 
 1899. Not only is Mr. Lamb prominent in church 
 matters, but he has been conspicuous in public af- 
 fairs, and has been selectman, grand juror, and for 
 twelve years has been the efficient and reliable con- 
 stable of Wallingford. In 1884 his popularity in 
 the Republican party was attested by his selection 
 as its candidate for the State Legislature. Soci- 
 ally he is connected with the Pilgrim's Harbor 
 ^ouhcil. No. 543, Royal Arcanum, of Meriden. 
 Mr. Lamb has succeeded in many lines of work, 
 and his ability as a mechanic has been developed in 
 his son, Charles, in the line of invention. An in- 
 genious invention of the latter, which has been 
 patented and has come into general use, is the auto- 
 matic self-closing window grip, and this is but one 
 of this talented young man's ideas. 
 
 The Jeralds family, of which Mrs. Lamb is a 
 member, is one well known throug'h this part of 
 Connecticut. Bennett Jeralds, the father of Mrs. 
 Lamb ,was born in \\'atertown, Conn., Oct. 10, 
 1 818, a son of Ransom Jeralds. a native of Cheshire, 
 Conn., whose father, a seafaring man, lost his life 
 on the water. 
 
 Ransom Jeralds grew up in Cheshire, and 
 throughout his life was a very successful farmer, 
 operating in "Wallingford, but the last years of his 
 life were spent in Yalesville, where he owned an 
 estate. His death, at the age of seventy-six years, 
 occurred in 1870, in Yalesville, where he was re- 
 spected by the communit}^ Mr. Jeralds, also, was 
 a man who held to his convictions of right; early 
 in life he embraced the principles of the Democratic 
 party, but was a free-soil man, and possessed anti- 
 slavery views, and later became a stanch Republi- 
 can. Temperate in all things, honest and upright 
 in life, he was one of the most consistent members 
 of the M. E. Church. He served as a soldier in the 
 war of 1812. Ransom Jeralds married Alma Judd, 
 of Bethany (then Woodbridge), a daughter of 
 Isaac Judd, and to this union ten children were 
 born, all of whom have passed away with the ex- 
 ception of four : Bennett ; Patience Juliet, widow 
 of Lewis W. Turner, of Yalesville ; Orrin, of New 
 York; and Edward, a manufacturer of Cheshire. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1051 
 
 The beloved mother died in Wallingford, at the age 
 of eighty-two years, after a life filled with good 
 deeds of charity and neighborly kindness. She was 
 formerly connected with the Episcopal Church, later 
 with the M. E. Church. 
 
 Isaac Judd worked in summer as a stone mason 
 and was a teacher during many winter terms, num- 
 bering his own children and grandchildren among 
 his pupils. In early life he held a lieutenant's com- 
 mission in the King's militia, and at the opening 
 of the Revolution organized a company of minute 
 men at what is now Naugatuck. He was almost 
 constantly in the service of the Colonies during that 
 struggle, although he was not enrolled in the regu- 
 lar service. He was also active in civil life, and 
 served many years as a magistrate, 'both before and 
 after the Revolution. 
 
 Bennett Jeralds received his schooling in Beth- 
 any and Prospect, Conn., but it was limited, as 
 at the age of thirteen he was hired out to work 
 during the summer months, and could only attend 
 school during the short winter sessions. Until he 
 was eighteen he worked at different places, and then 
 entered the employ of William Mix, at Prospect, 
 Conn., who was the first spoon manufacturer in the 
 United States, and with him he remained three 
 years. During these years of toil the fertile brain 
 of Mr. Jeralds was at work, and when he reached 
 his majority he began the manufacture of_ Britan- 
 nia spoons on his own account, in Yalesville, and 
 continued in this business until 1845, when he 
 formed a partnership with Eli Ives, of Meriden, 
 and the business was successfully continued until 
 1853. During that year Mr. Jeralds bought out 
 the interest of Mr. Ives and managed alone until 
 he sold the business to Charles Parker, of Meriden, 
 and immediately became the capaible superintend- 
 ent of the factory, which was removed to Walling- 
 ford in 1854, retaining the position until 1876, when 
 the contract system was inaugurated. At this time 
 Mr. Jeralds became a contractor in the establish- 
 ment, which position he filled until 1886,^ when he 
 retired from activity. Through the application of 
 sound business principles and individual. enterprise, 
 he has accumulated large means, and is personally 
 one of the most esteemed citizens of this locality. 
 
 Bennett Jeralds was married first in 1840, to 
 Lucy Mix, a daughter of William Mix, and to this 
 union three children were born : Laura, deceased, 
 who married Henry C. Wooding; Lucy, wife of 
 George S. Allen; and Cornelia, who married Ed- 
 win P. Smith. For his second wife Mr. Jeralds 
 wedded Arvilla Raymond, a daughter of Lincoln, 
 Raymond, and four children were the result of this 
 union: Alice M., who married Charles R. Lamb; 
 Ellen, wife of Frederick Wilcox ; Frank, who died 
 at the age of four ; and Fanny, who married Will- 
 iam Kingford. By his third wife, Mary M. Ad- 
 ams, Mr. Jeralds has a son, Arthur, who resides in 
 Wallingford. The fourth marriage of Mr. Jer- 
 alds was to Lucy Wilcox, widow of Oliver Wil- 
 
 cox, and his fifth wife was Mary B. Wilcox, widow 
 of Charles Sherman. 
 
 In politics Mr. Jeralds identified himself with 
 the Free Soil party, and was defeated as a candi- 
 date for the Legislature, in 185 1, by a very small 
 majority, although this party was greatly in the 
 minority ; in fact, one vote decided the contest 
 against him. Since the organization of the Re- 
 publican party he has been an active memher. For 
 years he was justice of the peace, and has always 
 been interested in educational matters, and has held 
 many offices of public trust. For thirty-three years 
 he has (been a warden in the Episcopal Church, at 
 Yalesville, and is fraternally connected with Com- 
 pass Lodge, A. F. & A. M., in Wallingford. 
 
 CHARLES ROBERTS, a well-known horse 
 dealer and the popular proprietor of the "Roberts 
 House," of Hamden, is a native of New Haven 
 county, born in the town of Wallingford, June 13, 
 1842. His father, Ephraim Roberts, was born 
 and reared in Meriden, Conn., and when a 
 young man removed to Wallingford, where he 
 engaged in the butcher business for many years, 
 selling his meat in the towns of Cheshire and Wall- 
 ingford. His political support was given the men 
 and measures of the Democratic party. He died 
 suddenly in Southington, in 1872, at the age of 
 seventy-two years. For his first wife he married 
 Susan' EUis, 'a sister of William Ellis, of_ New 
 Haven, and to them were born nine children, 
 namely: Amanda, wife of Zadock Morgan; Ho- 
 ratio, deceased; Harriet, deceased wife of James 
 Bell; Louise, deceased wife of Charles Pardee; 
 Emily, deceased wife of F. F. Bailey ; Ralph, a resi- 
 dent of Forestville, Conn. ; Nancy, deceased wife of 
 Frederick Minott; Charles, our subject; and Susan, 
 widow of R. L. Lake. The mother died in Wall- 
 ingford, and the father subsequently married Polly 
 Dunham, by whom he had two children: James, 
 deceased; and John, a resident of Meriden. 
 
 Charles Roberts acquired a limited education in 
 the district schools of Wallingford, and at the age 
 of nine years started out to make his own way in 
 the world by working as a farm hand, being thus 
 employed until he attained his fifteenth year, when 
 he learned the blacksmith's trade with John R. 
 Henshaw, of Middletown, with whom he spent two 
 years. The following year he worked at his trade 
 in Meriden. He was one of the first to oflfer his 
 services to his country at the opening of the Civil 
 war, enlisting in 1861, at Meriden, for three 
 months, in Company F, ist Conn. V. I., under Col. 
 R. Tyler and Capt. Byxibee. He participated in 
 the first battle of Bull Run, and was then detailed 
 for horse shoeing. 
 
 On the expiration of his term of enlistment, Mr. 
 Roberts returned home and followed his trade un- 
 til February, 1862, when he went to New York 
 City and entered the employ of the Sixth Avenue 
 Railroad Co., with which he was connected for two 
 
■IOs2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 3'ears. In 1864 he went to California, intending to 
 stop at Nicaragua, but on account of the hostiUty 
 ,of the natives proceeded to San Francisco, where 
 he remained only a short time, and then went south 
 to Santa Barbara and San Bernardino, where he 
 filled the position of station agent. He was also 
 ■connected with the mail service between Los An- 
 geles and San Diego for a time, but on account of 
 ill health he returned to San Francisco, where he 
 remained several months, and then came East. He 
 was conductor on the street railroad in New York 
 City until 1869, when he again came to New Haven 
 county, Conn., and purchased a farm in Cheshire, 
 M'hich he operated for two years. On selling out, 
 in 1 87 1, he embarked in the livery business in Ham- 
 den, and has since devoted much of his time to 
 dealing in horses, buying his stock principally in 
 the West and selling the same in Hamden and east- 
 ern markets. In 1889 he opened the "Roberts 
 House," which he has since conducted with marked 
 success, as rmder his able management it has be- 
 come one of the leading hotels of the locality. His 
 genial, pleasant manner makes him quite popular 
 with his guests, and wherever known he is held in 
 high regard. Socially he is a member of Day 
 Spring Lodge, No. 30, F. & A. M., of Hamden, 
 and politically he is identified with the Republican 
 party. The success that he has achieved in life 
 is due to his own well-directed and energetic efiforts, 
 and he may well be classed among the self-made 
 men of the county. 
 
 SAMUEL GRIFFING COOKE, a prominent 
 farmer and fruit grower of Branford, was born in 
 Honey Creek township, Adams Co., 111., Aug. 31, 
 1835, son of Increase W. and Harriet D. (Griffing) 
 Cooke, natives of North Guilford and Branford, 
 respectively. He is descended from Henry Cooke, 
 who came from the west of England, and was in 
 Plymouth, Mass., before 1640. His son, Samuel 
 Cooke, married Hope Parker. Their son, Samuel 
 Cooke, married Hannah Ives. Their son, Aaron 
 Cooke, married Ruth Burrage. Their son, Aaron 
 Cooke, the great-grandfather of our subject, mar- 
 ried Lucretia Dudley. Kilburn Cooke, grandfather 
 of Samuel G., was a native of Guilford, was reared 
 to farming and followed that occupation all his 
 ■days. He married Eunice Williams. 
 
 The maternal great-grandparents of Samuel 
 Griffing Cooke were Aaron and Elizabeth (Palmer) 
 €riffing. Aaron Griffing was a son of Samuel and 
 Martha (Vail) Griffing, grandson of Robert and 
 Susanna Griffing, and a great-grandson of Jasper 
 and Hannah Griffing. 
 
 Increase W. Cooke, whose name appears above 
 as the father of Samuel G., was born in North 
 (kiilford in December, 1807, and was married in 
 Branford in May, 1832, to Harriet D., daughter of 
 Capt. Samuel and Statira (Frisbie) Griffing. They 
 had three children who lived to maturity: (1) 
 Harriet A,, who married Samuel Beach; (2) Sam- 
 
 uel G. ; and (3) Sara E., who became Mrs. John 
 A. Leggett, and died in 1870. Mr. Cooke died in 
 1847. His widow, who subsequently married 
 Jehiel Norton, died in 1849. 
 
 Samuel Griffing Cooke was reared in Illinois 
 until he reached the age of twelve years, when the 
 mother and children returned to Branford, in 1848. 
 He received his education from the teachers of the 
 public schools, and early in life began his career as 
 an apprentice to the carpenter's trade in New 
 Haven. In the spring of 1855 he went West and 
 located in Adams county, 111., where he was engaged 
 in farming in the township of Honey Creek for s.ix 
 years. On Oct. 13, 1861, Mr. Cooke enlisted in 
 the United States service as a member of Company 
 A, 50th 111. V. I., soon became corporal, and in 
 February, 1862, was made sergeant. On Oct. 4, 
 1862, he and andther sergeant took nine prisoners, 
 seven privates, one first and one second lieutenant 
 of the 1st Arkansas Infantrv. He participated in 
 the battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson (where 
 he was slightly wounded), Shiloh, Corinth (Oct. 
 3-4, 1862), sieges of Corinth and Vicksburg, and 
 was on the Atlanta campaign under Gen. Sherman 
 in 1864. He was on detached duty three months. 
 On June 7, 1864, he was discharged that he might 
 be commissioned second lieutenant. In August of 
 the same year he was promoted to first lieutenant, 
 and transferred from the Department of the Ten- 
 nessee to the Department of the Cumberland, by 
 order of Gen. O. O. Howard, and given command 
 of Company I, 44th U. S. C. T. Lieut. Cooke was 
 captured by Gen. Hood Oct. 13, 1864, and was re- 
 leased on parole. This parole was not recognized 
 by the government, and he at once reported for 
 duty at Chattanooga, Tenn. He was in tlie battle 
 of Nashville, in December, 1864, and was Ihonorably 
 discharged at Chattanooga, May 25, 1865, though 
 he was not relieved from duty until well into 
 the following month. From the time of his en- 
 listment, Oct. 13, 1861, j\Ir. Cooke was active and 
 faithful in all the duties of a soldier, and made a 
 record admirably clean and good. 
 
 After the war Mr. Cooke was engaged in the 
 oil business for two years at Indian Neck, and has 
 since devoted himself to agricultural pursuits in 
 Branford. He bouglit his present place in 1872, 
 after leasing it for two years. The farm com- 
 prises 148 acres of fine land, highly cultivated, and 
 improved with substantial buildings. 
 
 The marriage of Mr. Cooke and Cornelia A. 
 Palmer occurred Oct. 20, 1868. Mrs. Cooke is a 
 daughter of Wilman and Susan C. (Bradley) 
 Palmer. They have become the parents of five chil- 
 dren : Charles W., Lizzie L., Susie B., Harry G. 
 and Addison T. 
 
 From 1856 to 1866 Mr. Cooke was a member 
 of the Congregational Church of Mendom, 111. 
 Since 1866 Mr. Cooke has been a member of the 
 Congregational Church at Branford, to which his 
 family also belong. Our subject has been superin- 
 
jS^ayyj^-^^^c^ ^ ^c>'-^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I05J. 
 
 tendent of fhe Sunday-school four years, and his 
 son, Charles W., is a deacon in the church. Mr. 
 Cooke is regarded as one of the upright and honor- 
 able men of th-e community. He belongs to Maison 
 Rogers Post, No. 7, G. A. R., of which he was 
 commander for two years, and is now senior vice- 
 commander. In politics he is a Republican. 
 
 HORATIO NELSON CLARKE, a leading 
 citizen and one of the most energetic, enterprising 
 and successful agriculturists of Prospect, New 
 Haven county, was born in that town, Nov. 14, 
 1841, and belongs to a family of English origin, 
 which was early founded in New England, and one 
 .of the first established in this county. 
 
 Amos Clarke, his grandfather, was born in Mil- 
 ford, now the town of Orange, albou't 1758, and 
 spent his entire life in that section, his time and 
 attention being devoted to farming. His wife, 
 Eunice, a woman of strong character, died Aug. 
 
 30, 1838, and he departed this life Nov. 14, 1841, 
 the remains of both being interred m Orange ceme- 
 tery. They had four children: Amos, born May 
 
 31, 1791, died in August, 1828; Ira Miles, born 
 June 15, 1793, died in September, 1850; Selah, fa- 
 ,ther of our subject, was next in order of birth; and 
 Lanson, born Sept. 4, 1797, died in May, 1876. 
 
 Selah Clarke, our subject's father, was born in 
 the town of Milford, now Orange, Feb. 14, 1795, 
 and there grew to manhood, remaining upon his 
 father's farm until 1823, when he came to Prospect 
 and located upon the Piatt farm — a tract of 115 
 acres in the southern part of the town — where he 
 spent the remainder of his life engaged in agri- 
 cultural pursuits. He was a man noted for his in- 
 austry, honor and honorable dealings, and though 
 he received only a limited education, he kept 
 abreast of the times and was well posted on all 
 leading events. He took a deep interest in town 
 affairs, and was a stanch supporter of the Demo- 
 cratic party, but never sought political honors. He 
 was an earnest Christian and a consistent member 
 of the Congregational Church. He died at his home 
 m Prospect, Aug. 29, 1880, and was laid to rest in 
 the Prospect cemetery. 
 
 In North Milford, April 25, 1821, Selah Clarke 
 married Miss Hannah Stone Smith, who was born 
 in Milford, Aug. 26, 1800, and died on the home 
 farm in Prospect, Sept. 30, 1877, her remains being 
 interred by the side of those of her husband in 
 Prospect cemetery. She was a good Christian wo- 
 man and a faithful wife and mother. She too, be- 
 longed to an old and honored family of New Eng- 
 land, being a descendant of Rev. Samuel Stone, the 
 first of the name in America, and from him she 
 traced her ancestry through the following: John 
 and Mary Stone; John and Susana (Newton) 
 Stone; Ezeitiel and Hannah (Merriman) Stone; 
 and Samuel and Damaris (Beach) Stone. She 
 was a daughter of Miles and Lucretia (Downs) 
 Smith, and a granddaughter of John and Hannah 
 
 (Stone) Downs. Horatio N. Clarke is the young- 
 est in a family of eight children, the others being, 
 as follows: (i) Smith Selah, born in Milford,. 
 Feb. 14, 1822, died Feb. 7, 1900. (2) Miles, born 
 in Prospect, June 8, 1825, resides in Naugatuck,. 
 Conn. (3) Harriette Eliza, born Sept. 25, 1828, is. 
 the wife of Lucius Russell, a son of Ransom Rus- 
 sell, and resides in New Haven. (4) Spencer* 
 Amos, born Feb. 20, 1833, is a contractor and, 
 builder of New Haven. (5) Charlotte Emily, born 
 iept. 20, 1835, married Julius Smith, deceased, who 
 was a needle manufacturer of New Haven. (6) 
 Lillian Adella, born April 14, 1837, is the wife of 
 ueorge De Forest Bissell, a retired citizen of Naug- 
 atuck. (7) Sarah De Ette, born July 7, 1839, was- 
 educated in a normal school and became a noted 
 teacher of languages and music ; she married Al- 
 phonse Charpiot, a master car builder for the- 
 Georgia Central railroad, and died in Macon,. 
 Georgia. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth Horatio N.- 
 Clarke attended the district schools of Prospect 
 Mills, a preparatory school of New Haven, and the 
 Naugatuck high school, where he acquired a good 
 practical education. He grew to manhood on the- 
 homestead and early acquired an excellent knowl- 
 edge of every department of farm work. At the 
 age of eighteen years he took charge of his father's, 
 business and cared for his parents during their de- 
 clining years. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1864, in Bethany, Conn., Mr. Clarke 
 was united in marriage with' Miss Laura De Ette 
 Perkins, who was born in the old hotel at that place,, 
 and is a representative of an old and highly re- 
 spected family of this county, being a daughter of 
 Guy and Laura (Doolittle) Perkins, and a grand- 
 daughter of Archibald and Sarah (French) Per- 
 kins. Her grandfather was a hotel keeper and 
 farmer of Bethany, where he died March 4, 1842, 
 his wife Sept. 27, 1846. His father was Azariah 
 Perkins, a native of New Haven county, and the 
 son of an Englishman. Mrs. Clarke's maternal 
 grandparents were Jesse and Betsey (Wooding) 
 Doolittle, the former a son of Caleb and Hannah 
 (Merriman) Doolittle, and the latter a daughter of 
 Edward and Ann (Peck) Wooding. To Mr. and 
 Mrs. Clarke have been born five children, viz. : 
 Maude Genevieve, born in Bethany, Oct. 8, 1868, 
 is at home; Walton Perkins, born Dec. 26, 1870, 
 was married July 12, 1898, to Nellie Maria Page,, 
 daughter of John M. Page, of Naugatuck, and is 
 employed in a rubber shop in Naugatuck; RoUin 
 i-'erkins, born June 14, 1880, is a graduate of the 
 high school of Naugatuck ; Laura Eloise, born Dec. 
 19, 1881, is possessed oi some musical and artistic 
 ability, and is at home; and Edith May, born April 
 12, 1883, died May 9, 1887. All have attended the 
 Naugatuck high school and are well educated. 
 
 After his marriage Mr. Clarke located on what 
 was known as the Hotchkiss farm, and upon that 
 place he still resides, having made extensive " im- 
 
I054 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 provements thereon which add greatly to its value 
 and attractive appearance. After the death of his 
 parents he bought the old homestead and other 
 lands owned by his father, and to-day he is one of 
 the largest landowners in Prospect, his possessions 
 aggregating 600 hundred acres in that town. In 
 connection with general farming, he is extensively 
 ■engaged in stock dealing and the dairy business, 
 and has upon his place some fine Jersey stock. He 
 also does a large business as a dealer in wood, for 
 which he finds a ready market in Waterbury. 
 
 Politically Mr. Clarke has been a life-long Dem- 
 ocrat, but at local elections votes for the men whom 
 he considers best qualified to fill the offices regard- 
 less of party lines. He is public-spirited and pro- 
 gressive, and gives his support to every enterprise 
 .which he Relieves calculated to prove of public 
 benefit. He has taken quite an active and promi- 
 nent part in town politics, and has served as as- 
 sessor five years; tax collector nine years; justice 
 of the peace; grand juror; member of the board of 
 relief; and member of the hoard of selectmen sev- 
 eral terms, being still connected with the last. He 
 has been instrumental in securing the rural free 
 delivery soon to be established in the town. Fra- 
 ternally, he is a member of Beacon Valley Grange, 
 and his wife and children are members of the 
 Episcopal Church. The record of Mr. Clarke is 
 that of a man who by his own well-directed efforts 
 has worked his way upward. His life has been one 
 of industry and perseverance, and the systematic 
 and honorable business methods he has followed' 
 have won him the respect and confidence of all. 
 
 ALFRED CARLSON. As an example of 
 what may be accomplished by honesty, energy and 
 perseverance, under most discouraging circum- 
 stances, the life of Alfred Carlson, the subject of 
 this sketch, offers a very interesting and instructive 
 narrative. 
 
 Mr. Carlson was born at Holmboe, Smoland, 
 Sweden, Sept. 5, 1842, a son of Carl and Katherina 
 (Scott) Carlson, the former of whom was a farmer, 
 and lived and died in the little village of his birth, 
 near the city of Guttenberg. The children born 
 to these worthy people were : Charlotte, widow of 
 Edwin Anderson, lives in Naugatuck, Conn. ; Caro- 
 line, widow of Andrew Monson, who was killed by 
 an accident in Canada ; Alfred ; and Gustavus, who 
 lives in Middletown, Connecticut. 
 
 Alfred Carlson received but a limited educa- 
 tion, as his father died when he was quite young, 
 and, being the oldest son, he naturally assumed the 
 responsibility of his own support. Facing the situ- 
 ation bravely, he left school and engaged as a 
 helper in a tannery, where he worked for a year 
 and one-half, but as this brought him only his 
 board and clothes, he tried to find something else. 
 For a short time he worked with a carpenter, and 
 by the time he was eighteen years old was working 
 as a farm hand, receiving board, clothes and $30 
 
 per year. For some time prior to 187 1 he found 
 employment as a coachman for a wealthy man in 
 Sweden, but America was the goal of his ambi- 
 tion, many of his friends and relatives having be- 
 come prosperous in this country. 
 
 When Mr. Carlson landed in New York his capi- 
 tal consisted of $20 in money and an unbounded 
 ambition, both of which he found very necessary 
 adjuncts for success in the situation which he 
 faced. Saybrook, Conn., was his first location, as 
 there was plenty of work there on the Connecticut 
 Valley R. R., then in the course of construction, 
 and for about eig'hteen months he worked on that 
 road between Saybrook and Hartford, later finding 
 employinent of the same kind at Tariffville, Conn., 
 on the New England R. R. At a still later date 
 he went to Portland, where many of his country- 
 men were working in the brown stone quarries, and 
 while there formed the acquaintance of Erastus 
 Brainerd, and was engaged by him as coachman, 
 remaining one of his trusted employes for nine 
 years. A part of his earnings were regularly sent 
 to his aged mother in Sweden, but by economy he 
 accumulated enough in these nine years to buy his 
 present farm in North Haven, it then being known 
 as the Harvey Sacket place, and consisted of 
 twenty-five acres. Hard work was required to clear 
 this land of stone and brush, but Mr. Carlson had 
 the energy and perseverance to accomplish much, 
 and ibravely set to work, transforming in a short 
 time this wilderness into a profitaible farm. Adding 
 more land as his means permitted, he has now an 
 estate of fifty-five acres, iipon which he carries on 
 market gardening and general farming in a very 
 satisfactory way. 
 
 In 1874, in Portland, Mr. Carlson was married 
 to Georgia Marie Olson, who was born March 10, 
 1857, in Sefiie, Sweden, daughter of Peter and 
 Eliza (Portstrom) Olson. The children born of 
 this union were : William, residing in New Haven, 
 a graduate of Upsaller College, Brooklyn, N, Y. ; 
 Franz Oscar, deceased ; Alfred Herbert ; Axel Har- 
 old; Hannah Amelia; Hilma Marie; Carl Henry; 
 and Helen Josephine. Mr. Carlson has made every 
 enaeavor to give his children good educational ad- 
 vantages, and, in his upright life, he has set them 
 a good example. Both he and his wife are valued 
 members of the Lutheran (Swedish) Church, in 
 New Haven. In politics Mr. Carlson is a Repub- 
 lican, and is socially connected with the Grange of 
 North Haven. A generous and progressive citi- 
 zen, and a kind and hospitable neighbor, Mr. Carl- 
 son has the esteem of the whole community. 
 
 D. WILLIAM FOWLER, a farmer and citizen 
 of East Haven, Conn., was born in Flemington, 
 N. J., Nov. 25, 1841, but is a representative of one 
 of the old and honored families of this State. 
 
 David Sullivan Fowler, his father,' was born in 
 North Guilford, Conn., March 5, 1807, a son of 
 Samuel Fowler, and was there reared upon a farm. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1055 
 
 When a young man he began teaching school, and 
 in that capacity came to East Haven. While thus 
 employed he boarded with Philemon Holt, and fell 
 in love with that gentleman's daughter. Miss Char- 
 lotte E. Holt, to whom he was married Jan. 20, 
 1832. She was iborn March 6, 1809, on the farm 
 where our subject now resides, and her father was 
 born just across the road. Shortly after his mar- 
 riage David S. Fowler removed to Flemington, 
 N. J., where he carried on a general country store 
 for a time, and then purchased a farm, to the cul- 
 tivation and improvement of which he devoted his 
 attention until 1846, when he returned to East 
 Haven, Conn., and located on the old Holt home-' 
 stead, and continued to make his liome there until 
 his death, in his fifty-eighth year. He was one of 
 the most prominent and influential men of East 
 Haven in his day, and in 1857 was elected high 
 sheriff of New Haven county for a term of three 
 years, and he had also served in the State Senate. 
 So efficiently and satisfactorily did he fill that office 
 that he was re-elected for another term, serving, in 
 all, six years. Politically he was identified with the 
 Democratic party, and fraternally affiliated with the 
 Masonic order. He was an active and prominent 
 member of St. James' Episcopal Church of Fair 
 Haven, to which his wife also belonged. To this 
 worthy couple were born nine children, namely: 
 Charles H., born March 17, 1833, is an attorney at 
 law of New Haven; Cornelia, born July 9, 1835, 
 died Jan. 10, 1885 ; Annie J., born Aug. 6, 1837, 
 married Joel A. Sperry, of New Haven, and died 
 July 20, 1895 ; Harriet, born Dec. 6, 1839, died 
 Fpb. 5, 1889; D. William, born Nov. 25, 1841 ; 
 Sarah A., born July 21, 1844, is the wife of James 
 R. Scott, of New York; George S., born Feb. 24, 
 1847, is engaged in the gents' furnishing business 
 in New York City; John H., born Dec. 9, 1849, is 
 in the wholesale lumber business at No. 87 Church 
 street, New Haven; and James B., born Nov. 17, 
 1850, is a salesman for Sperry & Barnes, of New 
 Haven. 
 
 D. William Fowler was educated in the public 
 schools of his native town, and grew to manhood 
 upon the home farm, of which he had complete 
 charge after his father's election to the office of 
 sheriff. On the latter's death, he purchased the 
 interest of the other heirs, and now has about 200 
 acres of land in East Haven, with good and sub- 
 stantial buildings, and has met with fair success in 
 his undertakings. He is a supporter of the Demo- 
 cratic party, and in his religious faith is a member 
 of St. James' Episcopal Church, Fair Haven. 
 
 E. ROWLAND DAVIS is an old and esteemed 
 citizen of Waterbury, and as the proprietor of the 
 Waterbury Steam Laundry, at No. 17 Canal street, 
 has made his name familiar to the people of a' 
 wide section of country. He has at this point a 
 fine plant fully equipped with modern and up-to- 
 date appliances, and does not only the regular work 
 
 of .a laundry, but carpet cleaning and steam dyeing 
 as .well. His trade extends throughout the city, 
 and agencies are maintained in many of the adjoin- 
 ing towns and villages. Mr. Davis also owns art 
 equally extensive establishment at Naugatuck. 
 His business in Waterbury gives steady employ- 
 ment to about thirty people. Mr. Davis was born 
 in Middletown, Conn., Feb. 14, 1847, a son of Evan 
 Davis, a native of Wales, who emigrated to this 
 country when about eight years of age. 
 
 David Davis, the father of Evan, came to New" 
 York City, and owned a farm where the old reser- 
 voir now stands on Forty-second street. To-day 
 that property iS' the rhiost valuable in the city. Mr. 
 Davis sold out, and bought a farm, which has sinc^ 
 become equally as valuable, located at the inter- 
 section of Fulton and Classin avenues. Mr. Davis 
 married a Miss Newand and reared a family of 
 five children : Evan, the father, of E. Rowland ; 
 John; Mary; Kate; and Hannah. John wore the 
 Union blue in the Civil war, and is now a resident 
 of New York City, where bis sister Mary also 
 lives. The other members of the family are dead, 
 and the father died in Brooklyn years ago. 
 
 Evan Dayis grew up in New York, and married 
 Miss Rachel Brooks, a daughter of Stephen Brooks, 
 of Steuben, N. Y., a man of more than ordinary 
 ability. After their marriage the young couple 
 went to Middletown, where Mr. Davis operated the 
 first ferry between that city and Portland. This 
 was his business for many years, but he finally sold 
 it because his religious convictions interfered with 
 a Sunday traffic. Mr. Davis was a deacon of the 
 Congregational Church at the time of his death, in' 
 1870, a man of strong convictions and high moral 
 worth. Mrs. Davis is still living. They were the 
 parents of six children: Stephen B., D. Newand, 
 Sarah, E. Rowland, Carroll and Catherine E. Ste- 
 phen served in the Civil war, and is Judge of Pro- 
 bate in Middletown ; D. Newand also served in 
 the Civil war, and he has been deputy sheriff in' 
 Middletown ; .Sarah married D. A. Brooks, and 
 has her home in Brooklyn ; Carroll died in infancy ; 
 and Catherine is the wife of William Murken, of 
 Brooklyn. 
 
 E. Rowland Davis grew to manhood under the 
 parental roof in Middletown, and had his educa- 
 tion in the local schools. As a young man he se- 
 cured a good position in the First National Bank, 
 which he held for three years. He theni went to 
 Florida, where he was in business three years, when' 
 be returned to Connecticut and secured a position 
 as a clerk in a book store, remaining seven years. 
 At the expiration of that period he opened up in 
 his present business, to which reference has already 
 been made, and in 1884 he came to Waterbury, and 
 engaged in a steam laundry. Success has crowned 
 his efforts from the beginning, and he is now the 
 proprietor of a laundry plant that is as complete and 
 perfect in all its appointments as may be found in 
 the State. 
 
1056 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 On Feb. 4, 1875, ^r. Davis was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Eliza Maney, of Portland, a daup^h- 
 ter of Morris Maney, who was of Irish extraction. 
 No dbildren have come to this union. Mr. Davis 
 is a Republican, and is recognized as a man of 
 solid worth and genuine character by all who know 
 him. He is a charter member of the I. O. R. M., 
 and is a colonel of the Uniformed Rank of the 
 Knights of Pythias. He is also a charter mem- 
 ber of the A. O. U. W., and of the Independent 
 Order of the Heptasophs. Mr. Davis is a loyal 
 member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 WILLIAM E. DAVIS is a leading representa- 
 tive of the business interests of Hamden, where he 
 is extensively engaged in the manufacture of brick. 
 A man of excellent business ability and broad re- 
 sources, he has attained a prominent place among 
 the substantial citizens of this part of the county, 
 and has won success by his well-directed, energetic 
 efforts, the prosperity that has come to him being 
 well deserved. 
 
 A native of Hamden, Mr. Davis was born Jan. 
 30, 1848, a son of Edward and tietsey M. (Augur) 
 Davis, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere. He 
 was reared upon the home farm, and was educated 
 in the common schools of Hamden and the private 
 schools of New Haven. He remained under the 
 parental roof until eighteen years of age, when, in 
 company with his brother, James A., he began 
 business as a contractor in New Haven, grading 
 streets, laying sewers, etc., for five years. Subse- 
 quently he was engaged in putting down concrete 
 siaewalks and roads for six years, and then pur- 
 chased land and established a brick yard. In the 
 spring of 1883 he opened another yard, and still 
 continues to operate both plants, giving employ- 
 ment to between eighty and ninety men. In 1896 
 over 10,000,000 brick were here manufactured, and 
 the product turned out being of a superior quality, 
 tinds a ready sale in the market. 
 
 On Dec. 21, 1874, Mr. Davis was united in 
 marriage with IMiss Sophia M. Tamblingson, a 
 native of England, who came to the United States 
 when in her teens to her older sister, Mrs. Howard 
 Sherman, and made her home at Whitneyville until 
 her marriage. The parents of Mrs. Davis died in 
 England previous to her coming to the United 
 States. To this union four children have been born, 
 namely : AVilliam E., Jr., is a member of the class I 
 of 1902 at Yale; Jessie has been educated at the 
 Orton and Nichols private school of New Haven, 
 and is now at home; Harold M. is at home; and 
 Howard S. died in infancy. The family occupy 
 one of the most beautiful homes in Hamden, where 
 Mr. Davis owns ten acres of land which he has im- 
 proved in a most artistic manner. He and his wife 
 are active and prominent members of the Congre- 
 gational Church, and they hold a high position in 
 the best social circles of the community. In politi- 
 cal sentiment our subject is a Republican, but has 
 
 been distinctively a business man, his interest io. 
 I party matters practically ending with the regular 
 • casting of his vote. In town affairs he invariably 
 selects, the best men, regardless of political affili- 
 ation. In State and national matters he is stanch in 
 the support of Republican principles. He is plain 
 and courteous, unassuming in manner, neither dis- 
 playing his virtues nor attempting to hide his 
 faults. His sympathy and kindness of heart have 
 frequently been shown always in a substantial man- 
 ner. Mr. Davis is progressive, and a warm friend 
 and patron of higher education. He is domestic in 
 his tastes, taking a keen interest in his home and 
 family. His career has been such as to commend 
 him to the confidence and respect of all with whom, 
 he has come in contact, and he has become one of 
 the most prominent business men of Hamden, per- 
 petuating an honored name in that town. 
 
 LEANDER E. RICHMOND, a progressive and 
 enterprising citizen of East Haven, New Haven 
 county, who is now successfully engaged in dairy 
 farming, wals born in 1825, in Madison, this State. 
 He is a son of Dwight F. Richmond ; grandson of 
 Vial Richmond, who was a soldier in the war of 
 1812; and a great-grandson of Thomas Richmond,, 
 a Revolutionary soldier. 
 
 Dwight F. Richmond was a shoemaker and 
 farmer by occupation. He married Lucy A. Field, 
 daughter of Harry and Polly (Leach) Field, and" 
 they had four children : Leander F., whose name 
 opens this sketch; Frances A., widow of Martin 
 Chalker, of Durham, Conn., who now lives in Bos- 
 ton; Cek&tia M., who is unmarried and lives with' 
 our subject; and Amstress E., who married Monroe 
 Burr, of Killingworth, Conn. Mrs. Richmond was 
 related to Cyrus Field and Rev David Dudley 
 Field. Her mother's brother, Leverett Leach, was 
 a merchant ; his two sons, Marsden and Oscar, both 
 now deceased, were residents of Durham, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Leander F. Richmond was reared upon a farm 
 in his native town, and there remained until eight- 
 een years of age, when he commenced work at the 
 butcher's trade in Middletown. From there he 
 went to Meriden, and four years later removed to 
 Guilford, where he conducted a meat market for 
 three years. At the end of that time he sold out 
 his business and went to Essex, Conn., where he 
 followed the same business one year. Coming to^ 
 East Haven, he was engaged in the wholesale 
 butcher business here until 1862. The following 
 two years he spent at Plainville, Conn., but at the 
 end of that time he returned to East Haven, where 
 he had purchased a farm before his removal to 
 Plainville, and he made his home there until 1892, 
 when he removed to his present place, in the same 
 town. He has been quite successful in his under- 
 takings, and is today one of the well-to-do and 
 substantial citizens of his community. He is also a- 
 man of considerable prominence in town affairs,. 
 

 ■^l^r 
 
 -'^I^^H 
 
 ^^B' /"V^ 
 
 ^^^^^^^Kk ^' __^i^^feE 
 
 ^ 1:. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1057 
 
 but has never cared for political honors. He af- 
 filiates with the Republican party, and gives his 
 support to those measures w^hich he believes calcu- 
 lated to prove of public benefit. In 1861 he joined 
 the Governor's Horse Guards, in which he served 
 until 1875. 
 
 On Dec. 5, 1854, Mr. Richmond was united in 
 marriage with Miss Delia A. Grannis, and to them 
 have been born three children, namely. Alice E., 
 who died im infancy; Bertha B., wife of Leroy 
 Kirkham (no children) ; and Cliff ordi Sherwood, 
 who died in 1871, at the age of two years and seven 
 months. 
 
 Thomas Grannis, the father of Mrs. Richmond, 
 was born Aug. 22, 1802, a son of Samuel Gran- 
 nis, and grandson of Joseph Grannis. Samuel 
 Grannis married a lady named Chidsey, and 
 Thomas was the youngest in a family of six chil- 
 dren, the others being: Joseph; Nancy, who mar- 
 ried Hezekiah Sheppard, and, for her second hus- 
 band, Thomas Landcraft ;, Betsey, wife of Stephen 
 Smith; Olive, wife of Justin Ludington; and Har- 
 riet, second wife of Justin Ludington. Thomas 
 Grannis and his brothers were among the first in 
 this locality to engage in the oyster business, and 
 in the interest of that trade used to make regular 
 trips to Albany, N. Y., by team. He also carried 
 on farming with marked success, and was one of 
 the highly respected citizens of East Haven. He 
 married Miss Almira Andrews, who was born Dec. 
 3, 1805, a daughter of Nathan and Mahitable 
 (Pardee) Andrews, the former a soldier in the 
 Revolution. Mrs. Grannis died Oct. 11, 1866, and 
 Mr. Grannis' death occurred July 4, i860. In the 
 family of this worthy couple were seven children, 
 as follows : Thomas, now a resident of Fair Hav- 
 en; Edwin, who was bofn March 6, 1828, and died 
 April 2, 1889; Miles, who died in infancy; William 
 Miles, a prominent farmer of East Haven, who 
 died Oct. 18, 1898; Delia A., wife of our subject; 
 Sarah, wife of S. D. Bradley, of Fair Haven; and 
 Mary A., wife of Charles Packard. 
 
 JOHN AVINGTON PHELPS, a noted citizen 
 of Guilford, was born March 21, 1842, in Hadlyme, 
 this State. He was one of the prime movers in the 
 establishment of a national bank in Guilford, of 
 which he is vice-president and a director. 
 
 Niles Phelps, his grandfather, was a native of 
 Connecticut, and a fa^rmer and extensive land owner 
 in Hadlyme, where he spent his life, and died at the 
 age of seventy-six years. Mrs. Esther Phelps, his 
 wife, died in March, 1825, at the age of fifty-five 
 years. 
 
 Alvan P. Phelps, the father of John A., was 
 born in Hadlyme, July 30, 1798, and learned the 
 trade of a clothier, at which he worked for a num- 
 ber of years. After a somewhat varied experience, 
 in which he was employed in Hadlyme, River Head, 
 Long Island and Killingworth, he soent the balance 
 of his life in the last named town, where he became 
 
 67 
 
 engaged in farming and stockraising. He died in 
 Killingworth July 31, 1875, and was buried in the 
 local cemetery in the Southwest district. He be- 
 longed to the Congregational Church. In his po- 
 litical relations he was originally a Whig, on 
 the dissolution of that party becoming a Repub- 
 lican. He filled several local offices, was frequently 
 before the public in a business capacity, and became 
 widely known as an upright and able business man, 
 as well as a good citizen. On May 21, 1823, Mr. 
 Phelps was married, in Hadlyme, Conn., to Azubah 
 Hungerford, who was born in Hadlyme April 7, 
 1797, a daughter of Elijah and Rhoda Hungerford, 
 and died in Killingworth Oct. 14, 1879; she was 
 buried in the local cemetery. She was the mother 
 of nine children: (i) Azubah J., born June 21, 
 1824, married, Dec. 20, 1844, Philander Harrison, 
 of Hadlyme. (2) Alvan C, born Feb. 15, 1826, 
 was a traveling tobacco salesman ; he was married 
 May 5, 1850, in Wethersfield, to Louisa L. Wood- 
 house. (3) Sylvester P., born Jan. 6, 1828, died 
 May 5, 1843. (4) Orris C, born Jan. 24, 1830, 
 married, Oct. 17, 1849, Stephen E. Wilcox, of 
 Killingworth, and died Oct. 17, 1899. (5) Fred- 
 erick O., born March 17, 1832, married Eudora 
 Eldridge, and died July 6, 1875, in Sag Harbor,. 
 L. I. (6) Charlotte M., born Aug. 7, 1834, mar- 
 ried G. C. Phelps. (7) Ulysses C, born July 10,. 
 1837, married Isabella H. Tiffany March 10, 1863, 
 (8) Elijah Hungerford, born Jan. 4, 1840, became 
 a teadier and was professor and principal of an 
 engineering college in Peoria, 111. He married Mary 
 A. Reed April 24, 1862. (9) John A. was born 
 March 21, 1842. 
 
 John A. Phelps was educated in the Killing- 
 worth district and select schools. Until the break- 
 ing out of the Civil war he lived at home. On 
 Sept. 7, 1861, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted 
 for service in the Civil war, as a member of Com- 
 pany K, 8th Conn. Volunteers, Col. Edward Har- 
 land commanding the regiment, and Capt. Charles 
 L. Upham the company. Mr. Phelps re-enlisted 
 Jan. 4, 1864, in Company H, 2d Connecticut Heavy 
 Artillery (Col. Elisha KeUogg being in command 
 of the regiment, and Capt. James M. Coe in com- 
 mand of the company), and served through the 
 war. He was promoted to corporal, and proved 
 himself a brave and capable soldier, participating' 
 in the various battles in which his regiment was 
 engaged, in the Army of the Potomac. He was 
 in the Grand Review at Washington. Returning 
 home, he resumed farming, at wliich he continued 
 until 1873, ill which year he was made foreman' 
 for Townsend Brothers, at East Haven, remaining' 
 with them one year. Coming back to Guilford, he 
 bought a farm of sixty acres from Samuel D. Crit- 
 tenden, on which he made many improvements. He' 
 was one of the pioneer peach and berry growers 
 in his town. Mr. Phelps was a general farmer 
 until 1881, when he became connected with the 
 Phelps Publishing Co., of Springfield, Mass. By 
 
1058 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the purchase of the Orange Judd Co., of Xew York, 
 he became a stockholder, and these two companies 
 are now'doing business with a capital stock of $700,- 
 000, publishing the leading agricultural papers in 
 the country. In this work Air. Phelps has been 
 very successful, during the twenty-one years he 
 has followed it, and during which time he has cov- 
 ered New England, New York and Long Island 
 in his canvass for subscriptions to the N civ Eng- 
 land Homestead, The Farm, and Home and the' 
 American Agriculturist. 
 
 3ilr. Phelps was married, Alarcb 23, 1865, in 
 Clinton, to Ellen Griswold Wright, a daughter of 
 Capt. Jeremiah and Laura Ann (Hurdi) Wright. 
 Pier father, who was a sea cantain, was a son of 
 AA'illiam Wright, of Westbrook. To this union 
 have com-e four children: (i) Albert H.. born 
 Nov. 7, 1866, is engaged with his father in the 
 paper business, and has his home in Clinton. He 
 married Edith I. Griswold, of Killingworth, a 
 ■daughter of Washington E. Griswold., of Guilford, 
 .and they had one child, Edith Griswold Phelps. 
 This wife died Dec. i, 1894, and jMr. Phelps mar- 
 ried Frances Burnham. (2) Oscar A., born Jan. 
 18, 1869, is a resident of Hartford, and is super- 
 intendent of the Waberton Chapel. He married 
 Edith C. Foster, a daughter of Ralph Foster, and 
 they have two children, Dorothy Foster and Alice 
 Buckland. (3) Emma L., born Aug. 29, 1874, 
 married George Walters, of Guilford, Oct. 11, 1899, 
 and died Feb. i, 1901. She was a teacher in the 
 public schools before her marriage. (4) Mary E., 
 born April 14, 1878, is a graduate of the Guilford 
 high school and is living at home. 
 
 Mr. Phelps is a stanch Republican, and is active 
 in public life, served as burgess of the borough of 
 Guilford, and also as tax collector, and justice of 
 the peace. He strongly opposes any form of ma- 
 chine politics. He is well posted on the events of 
 the day, and is acquainted throughout the Eastern 
 States. He and his wife belong to the First Con- 
 gregational Church, and he belongs to Parmelee 
 Post, No. 2, G. A. R., at Guilford; St. Albans 
 Lodge, No. 38, F. & A. M. ; and is a prominent 
 member of the Veteran Mason Association of Con- 
 necticut. He was raised to the third degree of 
 Masonry, Nov. 23, 1868, at Jeptha Lodge, No. 95, 
 Clinton, Conn., joining St. Albans Lodge by demit. 
 Airs. Phelps and daughter are charming and cul- 
 tured ladies. Since 1889 the family have lived in 
 Guilford,, where they occupy a pleasant and attrac- 
 tive home. 
 
 _ CAPT. JOHN B. ZIMMER, a retired sea cap- 
 tain and farmer in the town of Wallingford, was 
 born at Wallersangen, near Saaluis, in the Rhine 
 Province, Germany, April 25, 1843. 
 
 Jacob Zimmer, the father of Capt. John B., was 
 liorn in the same place, and was a sailor, rising to 
 the command of several important vessels on suc- 
 cessive voyages. He died in his native village, pass- 
 
 ing away in the communion of the Catholic Church. 
 Alary Ann Ramtoot, his wife, was the mother of the 
 following children : John B., whose name appears 
 above; Jacob, who is a farmer, as well as a con- 
 tractor and builder; Nicholas, an engineer in the 
 Imperial service in Germany; Anthone, a commis- 
 sion merchant in Chicago; John, deceased; Cori- 
 stantine; William, a godson of Wilhelm IV, King 
 of Germany; Frederick and Adolph, both deceased. 
 Captain Zimmer had a good education in Ger- 
 many, and also worked out for himself a mastery 
 of mathematics, so that when he went to sea with 
 his father, as he did at a very early age, he was 
 prepared to study the science of navigation with an 
 understanding mind. He remained with his father 
 until he reached the age of twenty years, and had 
 become second mate. During these years he had 
 learned the art of navigation in the Holland lan- 
 guage. Leaving his father, he secured a position 
 on the packet "Dunsburg," plying between Rotter- 
 dam and New York, where he was rated as an able 
 seaman and second mate. For a year and a half he 
 was first mate on board the Ainerican vessel 
 "Waverly." In 1870 he entered the United States 
 Navy as quartermaster on the U. S. Frigate "Colo- 
 rado," under command of 'Admiral John Rodgers, 
 with Capt. George H. Cooper as executive officer. 
 He took part in the expedition to Corea, and was 
 also engaged in that which went to Japan. The 
 "Colorado," with other United States vessels, was 
 sent to Manila to obtain the freedom of certain 
 Americans who had been unjustly incarcerated by 
 the Spanish Government. Needless to say, their 
 freedom was promptly conceded. After three years 
 in the United States service Quarter Master Zim- 
 mer was honorably discharged at New York, and 
 at once resumed his work in the mercantile marine. 
 He became sailing master of the three-master "A. 
 B. Perry," was also master of the three-master 
 "Mnyard" two years and then mate on board the 
 "Ruby," under command of Capt. Rice, and re- 
 tained this position for five years, and he then com- 
 manded the "Ruby" for two voyages. Mr. Zim- 
 mer was captain on board the brig "Pearl" for two 
 years in foreign voyages, and was in command of 
 the brigantine "Constance" for a year and a half, 
 engaging in the West Indies trade. In 1889 he be- 
 came half owner of the "William Graham," and in 
 this venture he met with disaster. The vessel was 
 overtaken by a severe storm, and though Capt. 
 Zimmer saved the ship, he lost all he had. The 
 ship, itself, was so greatly damaged, that he gave 
 it up, more especially as the failure of the Baring 
 Brothers had so greatly crippled the mercantile 
 service. The command of the brig "Cuba" was 
 given him, and after some time the bark "Tells- 
 man." This last vessel was owned. by W. P. Arm- 
 strong, of New Haven, and after fifteen months' 
 service at sea with her, Capt. Zimmer gave up a 
 sailor's life, and settled down on shore. He had 
 been on sea thirty-nine years after attaining his 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1059 
 
 majority, and was mate of seven vessels, and cap- 
 tain of eight. Owning a good farm in Walling- 
 ford, he came to the town to make it his home. 
 This land came into his possession in 1885, when 
 he bought it from Dr. Harrison. In 1894 he added 
 to his original purchase, and now has one of the 
 most attractive country homes in Wallingford. The 
 Captain gives special attention to the manufacture 
 of cider. Captain Zimmer is of a genial disposi- 
 tion, and a friendly spirit. For many years on the 
 ocean, he has visited nearly all the large seaport 
 towns and cities the world over, and possesses a 
 fund of valuaible information. A well-read man, 
 and a thorough mathematician, he is a man of 
 marked individuality, and would attract attention 
 as a capable and efficient character anywhere. 
 
 Capt. Zimmer was married in 1877 to Miss 
 Catherine 'Dona'hough, in Brooklyn. Mrs.. Zim- 
 mer was a woman of cheerful disposition, and was 
 known as a good and . faithful wife and mother. 
 She died June 7, 1889, and was buried in the Cath- 
 olic Cemetery at Wallingford. To this union were 
 torn three children: Mary, who resides in New 
 York. Elizabeth, at home:, and John B., also at 
 home. Capt. Zimmer was married to Miss Ellen 
 Connor in 1895. This lady was born in Kerry, 
 Ireland, and is a daug'hter of Patrick and Mary 
 (Cortney) Connor. Capt. Zimmer and all his fam- 
 ily are members of the Catholic church. In pol- 
 itics he is independent; whenever he comes to cast 
 his vote, he asks for the character and fitness of the 
 candidates for the positions to which they aspire. 
 
 J. FREDERICK PAYNE, for a number of 
 years foreman in the shoe department in the factory 
 of the Goodyear India Rubber Shoe Co., at Nauga- 
 tuck, was a native of this county, born in Pros- 
 pect Nov. 9, 1858, and was of English descent. The 
 family to which he belonged was founded in this 
 country during Colonial days, and his grandfather, 
 Silas Payne, also a native of Prospect, was a sol- 
 dier in the Revolutionary war. He was a farmer 
 by occupation, and spent his entire life in his native 
 town. He married Lois Farrell, who was born in 
 the town of Wolcott, this county, and they became 
 the parents of four children : J. F., a wheelwright, 
 who lived in Prospect, and died in Waterbury, 
 Conn. ; Esther, widow of Alonzo Grannis, superin- 
 tendent of a rollinig mill ; Jane, who married Will- 
 iam Woods, a painter, both now deceased ; and Ed- 
 ward, father of our subject. 
 
 Edward Payne was born and reared on a farm 
 in Prospect. In early life he was a carriage-spring 
 maker, but later was a rubber worker in Nauga- 
 tuck, where he died Fd). 10, 1889. He was a 
 Democrat in politics. He married Mary Mahoney, 
 a native of New York, who survives him, residing 
 in Aetna street, in the borough of Naugatuck. She 
 is a daughter of Jeremiah and Johanna (Murphy) 
 Mahoney, who were born in Ireland, and were 
 farming people. 
 
 Our subject, who was an only child, passed his 
 boyhood and youth in Naugatuck, and was in- 
 debted to its public schools for his educational 
 privileges. After leaving school he worked for 
 the Goodyear Metallic Rubber Shoe Co. for six 
 years, and on Sept. 9, 1881, entered the employ of 
 the Goodyear India Rubber Glove Co. He was 
 placed in charge of the boot room Aug. 4, 1882, and 
 on May 4, 1883, was made foreman of the shoe de- 
 partment, which important position he held until his 
 death, on Dec. 31, 1899. 
 
 Mr. Payne was married, June 4, 1890, to Miss 
 Grace Langdon, who was born in Canaan, Litch- 
 field Co., Conn., and he left one child. Hazel Gene- 
 vieve. The Democratic party found in our subject 
 a stanch supporter of its principles, and he was an 
 honored member of Shepherd Lodge, No. 78, F. & 
 A. M. ; and Allerton Chapter No. 39, R. A. M. He 
 attended the Congregational Church and Sabbath- 
 school. 
 
 MATTHIAS NEIDHARDT, general mechanic 
 of the M. I. F. Co., of Branford, is one of the lead- 
 ing German citizens of that community. He was 
 born in Flieden, Hessen-Cassel, Germany, Jan. 24, 
 1842, son of Joseph and Katrina (Ruppel) Neid- 
 hardt. The father was a miller and farmer, own- 
 ing a gristmill and farm in Flieden, where he lived 
 and died. He was a son of Nicholas Neidhardt, 
 who was engaged in the same business. The ma- 
 ternal grandfather of Mr. Neidhardt was a farmer 
 and innkeeper in Flieden. 
 
 Matthias Neidhardt was reared and educated 
 in his native country, and at the age of fifteen was 
 apprenticed to the roofer's trade in Frankfurt, Ger- 
 many, where he served three years. He then be- 
 came a journeyman roofer, and followed that trade 
 until 1866, when he came to the United States, lo- 
 cating in Branford. In Branford, with the ex- 
 ception of two years in which he worked on a farm, 
 he has been in the employ of the M. I. F. Co. up 
 to the present time. 
 
 In November, 1872, Mr. Neidhardt was married 
 to Margaret, daughter of Jeremiah and Joanna 
 (Monag'han) Sullivan, of Branford, natives of Ire- 
 land. To this union have been born six children, 
 four of whom are now living: Anna K., Joseph, 
 Julia and Frances. Mr. Neidhardt and his family 
 are members of the Catholic Church, and he be- 
 longs to the Woodland Lodge, No. 39, K. P., and 
 to the Harugari, Lodge No. 600. In politics he is 
 a Republican. He is a man of honor and reliabil- 
 ity, much respected by all who know him. 
 
 WILLIAM H. CGNKLIN, M. D., whose rep- 
 utation as a physician and surgeon of skill and ex- 
 perience is known far beyond the limits of An- 
 sonia, was born in Fairfield, Conn., a son of John 
 Conklin, whose earlier years were spent in Ireland. 
 
 Dr. Conklin spent his early life in Fairfield, 
 where his general literary education was received 
 
io6o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in the public schools. He was graduated from the 
 Medical Department of the University of New 
 York in 1882, and spent the following year in study 
 in Dublin and London. In 1883 he opened his ofHce 
 for the practice of his profession in Ansonia, and 
 has remained here continuously since that date, so 
 that with one exception he has been longer in prac- 
 tice here than any other member of his calling. 
 His genial manners and courteous ways with his 
 thorough knowledge of medicine have won him 
 many friends, and he is regarded as one of the 
 most successful physicians in this part of the state. 
 In 1888 Dr. Conl^lin was married to Mary A. J. 
 Walsh, a native of Ansonia, and a daughter of the 
 late Matthew Walsh, a business man of this city. 
 To this union were born seven children: Cor- 
 nelius, Judith, Henry, John, Paul, Mary, and 
 Genevieve. Dr. Conklin is a Democrat, and holds 
 to the gold-minority ideas of that party. Since 
 1889 he has been coroner's medical examiner for 
 the city. He is a member of the Library Board, 
 and a director of the Board of Trade. Dr. Conk- 
 lin belongs to the Knights of Columbus, and is 
 Past President of the State Councn, C. B. C. Pro- 
 fessionally he is a member of the Medical Asso- 
 ciation of New Haven County. The Doctor and 
 his family all belong to the Catholic Church. 
 
 CHARLES JOHNSON MINOR, a successful 
 farmer and popular citizen of Wolcott, was born 
 in that town Aug. 29, 1855, and is a representative 
 of one of its old and highly respected families. 
 
 Marvin Minor, his grandfather, a son of Jo- 
 seph and Elizabeth (Marvin) Minor, was born on 
 the old Minor homestead in Wolcott, in August, 
 1792, and throughout life engaged in farming in 
 that town, his death occurring there Nov. 7, 1864. 
 He was unwavering in his support of the Demo- 
 cratic party, and was a member of the State Legis- 
 lature several terms. He was an earnest member of 
 the Congregational Church. He married Amanda 
 Johnson, of Bristol, Conn., who died June 22, 1851, 
 and the remains of both are interred in Wolcott. 
 They had six children, as follows : Caroline, bora 
 Aoril 2g, 1819; Augustus, March 11, 1821 ; James 
 W., Feb. II, 1828; Elvira, July 28, 1831 ; Emo- 
 gene; and Emerett. 
 
 Augustus Minor, father of our subject, received 
 a district-school education in Wolcott, and in early 
 life learned the carpenter's and joiner's trade, 
 which he followed for a number of years. As a 
 contractor he erected many residences and other 
 buildings in Wolcott but later in life he settled 
 down to farming on a tract of 150 acres, upon 
 which he built a fine house, barn and other out- 
 buildings. He also dealt in wood. He was a man 
 of temperate habits, domestic in his tastes, and was 
 highly respected by all who knew him. Politically 
 he was an ardent Democrat, and most efficiently 
 served his fellow citizens as a member of the State 
 Legislature, assessor and tax collector of his town, 
 
 and in other local offices. He married Emogene 
 Frisbie, who was born Jan. 21, 1832, in Wolcott,. 
 on the Waterbury line, a daughter of Ira Frisbie. 
 She died Oct. 7, 1892, an earnest and consistent 
 member of the Congregational Church, and a lov- 
 ing wife and mother. The father died Oct. 6, 
 1896, and both were laid to rest in Wolcott Center 
 cemetery. 
 
 Charles J. Minor, the only child of this worthy 
 couple, was educated in the district schools of Wol- 
 cott. He began business life at an early age, de- 
 voting about twenty-five years to teaming, hauling 
 wood to Waterbury. He then took charge of the 
 home farm, to which he has since added eighty 
 acres, and now has a well-improved and highly 
 cultivated farm of 230 acres. He is principally 
 engaged in general farming and dairying and stock 
 raising, and in his labors is meeting with well-de- 
 served success. 
 
 In 1877 Mr. Minor was united in marriage with 
 Miss Carrie Palmer, of Wolcott, by whom he had 
 one child, Ina May, who was born May 8, 1879, 
 and is at home. On Oct. 27, 1897, Mr. Minor mar- 
 ried Miss Elisa Minerva Clark, who was born 
 June II, 1862, in Strongville, Ohio. Her parents, 
 Elias'N. and Minerva (Marks) Clark, were both 
 natives of Waterbury, Conn, the former a son of 
 Elias Clark. 
 
 Since attaining his majority 'Mr. Minor has 
 affiliated with the Democratic party, and in 1897 
 he was elected first selectman, in which office he 
 is now serving his fourth term. He was steward 
 of Mad River Grange. Wherever known he is 
 held in high regard, and he has a large circle of 
 friends and acquaintances in the community where 
 he has always made his home. 
 
 GOODELL LINES. When, after years of 
 long and earnest labor in some honorable field of 
 business, a man is able to put aside all cares to 
 spend his remaining years in the enjoyment of the 
 fruits of former toil, he has certainly a well-de- 
 served reward for his industry. 
 
 How blessed is he who crowns in 
 
 shades like these, 
 
 A youth of labor with an age of ease, 
 
 wrote the poet, and the world everywhere recog- 
 nizes the justice of a season of rest following an 
 active business life. Mr. Lines is now living re- 
 tired at his pleasant home in Naugatuck, and his 
 history shows the accomplishment of well-directed 
 labor. 
 
 A native of this county, he was born in 
 Bethany Aug. 21, 1827. His grandfather, Eber 
 Lines, was born probably in the same town, for 
 there he followed farming during the greater part 
 of his life, and there he died in 1844. He married 
 Hannah French, and they had two children : Eber, 
 Jr., father of our subject; and Hannah, w'bo mar- 
 ried a Mr. Terrell, a mason of Bethany, Con^ 
 necticut. 
 
^-^J-fj. (^Cz^ <^jU^^^-lj^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 io6r 
 
 ■ Eber Lines, Jr., was born, reared and educated 
 in Bethany, where in later years he followed farm- 
 ing and the 'butcher business. He married Miss 
 Mary Fatrell, a native of Westville, New Haven 
 county, whose father was a merchant of that place 
 and a combmaker by trade; his death occurred in 
 Newtown, Conn. The father of our subject died 
 in Bethany Oct. 2, 1836, and the mother departed 
 Ihis Hfe May 2, 1886, aged eighty-nine years. Both 
 were members of the Episcopal Church, and he was 
 & Democrat in politics. In the family of this 
 worthy couple were ten children, namely: Calvin 
 died in infancy; Minerva married Henry Bassett, 
 of New Haven, and died in Minnesota May 30, 
 1901, aged eighty-four years ; Rebecca married H. 
 S. Stevens, of Naugatuck, now deceased, and she 
 ■died Dec. i, 1874; Hannah married Edwin Scott, 
 of Naugatuck, and died April 18, 1880; Eliza mar- 
 ried Samuel Smith, of South Britain, and, for her 
 second husband, Charles Beardsley, and now lives 
 in Roxbury, Conn.; Goodell is our subject; Cor- 
 delia became the wife of S. C. Shumway, of 
 Bridgeport, Conn. ; Calvin was formerly a mer- 
 chant of Bridgeport, and is now engaged in farm- 
 ing in Woodbury; Eber is a rubber worker of 
 Middletown, Co^mi. ; Andrew is a resident of 
 Bridgeport, and is engaged in the livery busi- 
 ness. 
 
 The subject of this sketch was seven years old 
 when he accompanied the family on their removal 
 from Bethany to Woodbridge, and in the schools 
 ■of the latter place he acquired the greater part of 
 his education. He has since lived in various places. 
 In 1838 he spent a short time in Naugatuck, but 
 did not locate here permanently until 1843. I'"' 
 early life he learned the carpenter's trade, and for 
 many years was successfully engaged in contract- 
 ing and building, erecting more houses than any 
 other man in this locality, hut he is now living 
 retired, enjoying a well-earned rest. At one time 
 he also dealt quite extensively in real estate. 
 
 In 1855 Mr. Lines was united in marriage with 
 Miss Laura M. Whitney, a native of Washington, 
 Conn., and a daughter of Marshall Whitney, who 
 was a hatter by trade. To this union were born 
 three children : Charles F., a carpenter, married 
 Alice B. Crick, and they have had three children, 
 May, Carl and Alice ; Carrie E. married James P. 
 Hanaton, M. D., of Hoboken, N. J., and, for her 
 second husband, wedded Archibald Egan; Frank 
 'Goodell died in infancy. 
 
 Mr. Lines cast his first Presidential vote for 
 Zachary Taylor, and continued to suppo^rt the Whig 
 party until its dissolution, since which time he has 
 'been a stanch Republican. He and his family are 
 members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 with the exception of Charles' family, who attend 
 the Episcopal Church. They are highly respected 
 and esteemed in the community where they make 
 their home. 
 
 JAMES CARLISLE ROACH was born in 
 Wallingford, Aug. 19, 1853, a son of Patrick 
 Roach, a native of Ireland, who died June 17, 1874. 
 
 Patrick Roaoh was born March 17, 1827, in 
 the town of Fermoy, County Cork, Ireland. A 
 spoon maker by trade, he came to America in 1848, 
 and was employed by Hall, Elton & Co. the greater 
 part of his life. In 1861 he enlisted in Company 
 G, 15th Conn. V. L, and was discharged for disa- 
 bility at Philadelphia, where he had been long 
 treated in the hospital. From the effects of these 
 troubles he eventually came to his death. He was 
 a firm believer in the principles of the Democratic 
 party, hut was never an ofHceseeker; and he was 
 an honest and reliable, hard working business man. 
 In 185 1 'Mr. Roach married Miss Ellen Callahan, 
 who died May 10, 1887. They were the parents 
 of the following children : ( i ) Nellie R., wife 
 of John Downs, of WateHbury; (2) James C. ; (3) 
 John P., who is living in Wallingford, where he 
 holds the position of foreman in the assembly de- 
 partment in the factory of the H. L. Judd Com- 
 pany; (4) William F., an iron worker in the fac- 
 tory of the same company; (5) Edward M., in 
 business in Wallingford; (6) Timothy, in busi- 
 ness with his brother, Edward M. ; (7) David, who 
 is in the employ of the Simpson Nickle-Silver Co., 
 of Wallingford; and (8) Katie V., at home. 
 
 James Roach, the father of Patrick Roach, was 
 horn in Ireland, and when quite advanced in years, 
 came to Wallingford, to lead a retired life. By 
 occupation he was a farmer. He married Mar- 
 garet Callahan, and both died in Wallingford. Mrs. 
 Roach became an extensive property owner, and 
 long survived her husband, reachmg the age of 
 eighty years. Their children were: (i) John, a 
 farmer and merchant and quite prominent in local 
 matters, representing his town in the General As- 
 sembly of 1865, or 1866, and was also constable, 
 grand juror, memlber of the school board, etc. He 
 died in 1898, and his widow, Julia (Milen) Roach, 
 is now living in DeAy; they were the parents of 
 twenty-one children. (2) James is now living in 
 Meriden ; for over thirty years he was connected 
 with the Lyon & Billard Lumber Co. (3) Ed- 
 ward died when a young man in Wallingford. (4) 
 Michael died in Wallingford. (5) Kate married 
 John Kinney, and died in New Haven when over 
 eighty years old. (6) Mary married William 
 Quirk, and is now living in Meriden. (7) Patrick. 
 
 James C. Roach was born in Wallingford, and 
 received his education there in the public schools, 
 and private evening schools. At the age of eleven 
 years he entered the factory of Hall, Elton & Co., 
 where he later took his father's place as a spoon 
 maker, and had charge of the annealing depart- 
 ment for twenty-seven years. Here he had a long 
 and honorable career, and it was- terminated in 
 1893 by his resignation to take a position at Dep- 
 uty State i-'actory Inspector. On July 15, 1895, 
 
io62 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 his position in connection with the State govern- 
 ment having passed to tlie successor of Gov. Mor- 
 ris, he entered the postoffice under George T. 
 Jones, as assistant postmaster, and was continued 
 under his successor, C. Storrs Hall. He is still 
 serving in the postoffice. Air. Roach is a Demo- 
 crat, and represented his town in the General As- 
 sem'oly of 1893. " He was a member of the House 
 Committee on labor, and of the New Haven County 
 Legislative Committee. Since 1894 he has been 
 justice of the peace and has served as grand juror. 
 For five years he was a member of the Democratic 
 town committee, serving as chairman, and was also 
 chairman of the Second Congressional Democratic 
 committee, where he has served since 1892. Mr. 
 Roach is enrolled with the Foresters, the N. E. O. 
 P., the Knights of Columbus, and Royal Arcanum. 
 For three terms he was Grand Knight of Pinta 
 Council, Xo. 5, Knights of Columbus, and for six- 
 years he was Deputy Supreme Kmght of the Or- 
 der; and he is Chief Ranger of Court Wallace, No. 
 123, A. O. F. He was one of the organizers and 
 first president of the T. A. B. Society, and was on 
 the building committee under whose supervision 
 the T. A. B. hall was erected. During its exist- 
 ence he was president of the Young Men's Literary 
 Society. 
 
 On Feb. 27, 1878, Air. Roach was married to 
 Miss Bridget Elizabeth Foley, of Middletown, a 
 daughter of Morris Foky. The following chil- 
 dren have brightened their home: (i) Gertrude 
 E., who was graduated from the high school and 
 Pequod Business College, is now a stenographer 
 .for the Housatonic Company. (2) Grace E., who 
 was graduated from the State Normal School at 
 New Haven, is now a teacher in the Wallingford 
 public school. (3) Julia Josephine was graduated 
 from the Wallingford high school and from the 
 business college at Middletown. (4) Genevieve is 
 now attending the local high school. 
 
 CHARLES AMMI HOADLEY, one of Bran- 
 ford's most prominent merchants and influential 
 citizens, a member of the firm of Hoadley & Hutch- 
 inson, general merchants, is a native of that town, 
 born Dec. 9, 1856. He is of the seventh genera- 
 tion in descent from William Hoadley, the first of 
 the name in Connecticut, as follows: 
 
 (I) William Hoadley, born in England about 
 the year 1630, was a resident of Saybrook, Conn., in 
 1663, and in 1666 he bought property in Branford, 
 and engaged in merchandising. His name first ap- 
 pears on the new Plantation Covenant of Branford, 
 Jan. 20, 1667-68. He was propounded as a free- 
 man of the Colony at the May session of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, May 13, 1669, and was adinitted the 
 following October ; was one of the representatives 
 or deputies for Branford at the nine sessions of the 
 Assembly between 1678 and 1685, and one of the 
 patentees of the town, Feb. 16, 1685-86. Between 
 1673 and 1690 he was a selectman, and at a town 
 
 meeting held June 26, 1683, was chosen and ap- 
 pointed to keep the ordinary in Branford. He was 
 one of the grand jurors at a court of quarter sessions 
 held in New Haven in June, 1688, and' one of a 
 committee, appointed Oct. 11, 1686, to make appli- 
 cation to the General Court at Hartford for liberty 
 for the town to embody into a church estate. A 
 slave owner, he owned at his death a mulatto maid 
 and an Lidian boy, and left an estate of £1,116. 
 William Hoadley died in 1709, aged seventy-nine 
 years. 
 
 (H) Abraham Hoadley, sonv of the above, was. 
 sworn in as a freeman of Branford in 1702, died in 
 Branford, July 14, 1748, at an advanced age. He 
 was a farmer by occupation. His wife was Eliza- 
 beth Maltby, daughter of Capt. William Maltby. 
 
 {Ill) Abel Hoadley, son of Abraham and' Eliza- 
 beth (Maltby) Hoadley, was born in Branford Dec. 
 24, 1705-, and died in August, 1734. He was a. 
 farmer in the Damascus District. His wife's name 
 was Martha. 
 
 (lY) Isaac Hoadley, son of Abel and Martha 
 Hoadley, was born in Branford, Dec. 31, 1728, and 
 died Jan. 21, 1812. He married Eli'zabeth Black- 
 stone, daughter of Capt. John and Elizabeth 
 (Foote) Blackstone. He was a carpenter by trade, 
 inherited his father's farm, and was a well-to-do 
 farmer in the Damascus District. He was a prom- 
 inent member of Trinity Episcopal Church. 
 
 (V) Abel Hoadley, son of Isaac and Elizabeth 
 (Blackstone) Hoadley, was born in Branford Oct. 
 I, 1764, and died March 29, 1845. His wife was 
 Lucinda, daughter of Timothy and Sarah (Good- 
 sell) Bradley, of Branford. He was a farmer in 
 the Damascus District, and was selectman and con- 
 stable for many years. His children were : Martha 
 (Mrs. Deming Hoadley), Isaac, Samuel, Ralph,. 
 Sally S. (Mrs. James Harrison), Lucinda (Mrs. 
 Wyllys Blackstone), Harvey, Harriet (Mrs. John 
 Gordon) and Ammi. 
 
 (VI) Harvey Hoadley, son of Abel and Lucinda 
 (Bradley) Hoadley, and father of our subject, was 
 born in Branford June 10, 1804, and died: Jan. 28, 
 
 1897, in New Haven. He was twice married, on 
 Nov. 27, 1828, to Sally, daughter of Samuel and 
 Esther (Ives) Hobart. She died March 17, 1836, 
 leaving one child, Jane E. On May 2, 1844, he 
 married Eliza A., daughter of Timothy and Betsey 
 (Graves) Butler, of Branford, and she bore him 
 three children : William PL, Emma B. and Charles 
 A. Mrs. Eliza A. Hoadley passed away May 5, 
 
 1898. Harvey Hoadley followed the sea for many 
 years in the coasting trade. He was possessed of 
 a kind and genial nature, and was full of wit, and 
 humor. 
 
 ("YII) Charles Ammi Hoadley, whose name in- 
 troduces this biography, received a liberal education 
 in the public schools of Branford, and in 1879, at 
 the age of twenty-three, commenced his business 
 career as bookkeeper for John Hutchinson, a lead- 
 ing merchant of Branford. On Jan. i, 1887, he 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1063 
 
 was received into partnersliip, tlie firm name becom- 
 ing John Hutchinson & Co. Mr. Hutchinson died 
 Oct. 17, 1898, and our subject carried on the busi- 
 ness until Oct. I, 1 90 1, when he formed a partner- 
 ship with H. K. Hutchinson, under the firm name 
 of Hoad'ley & Hutchinson. They purchased the en- 
 tire stock of merchandise of J. Hutchinson & Co.,- 
 and continued to do business in the same Hue. 
 
 On June 21, 1882, Charles A. Hoadley was mar- 
 ried to Lizzie Gertrude, daug-hter of William and 
 Cornelia (Sherman) Crowe, of New Haven, and 
 two children have blessed this union, Charles B. and 
 Julia S. The family are all identified with the Con- 
 gregational Chitrch. In politics Mr. Hoadley is a 
 Republican, and has served in various offices of 
 honor and trust, such as auditor of town accounts ; 
 clerk of the probate court for Branford district; 
 and member of the board of education (for three 
 years). Socially he belongs to the Masonic fra- 
 ternity, holding membership in Widows Sons 
 Lodge, No. 66; in Franklin Chapter; and in New 
 Haven Commandery, K. T. On Dec. 4, 1901, he 
 was elected worthy master of Widows Sons Lodge 
 for the year 1902 and was installed as such Jan. i, 
 1902 ; this is his third year's service as master of 
 that lodge. 
 
 ROYAL HOLBROOK, proprietor of the An- 
 sonia quarries and of the Holbrook Granite 
 Quarries in Seymour, is one of the leading business 
 men in Ansonia. Besides attending to his other 
 interests he does a large business as a contractor 
 and builder, many of the most important structures 
 in the vicinity having been built under his direction. 
 
 Mr. Holbrook was born July 18, 1844, in the 
 town of Derby, now Seymour, where his family has 
 been prominent from pioneer times. Abel Hol- 
 brook was born in Milford, Conn., in 1653. John 
 Holbrook, his son, and our subject's great-great- 
 grandfather, was born in Derby in 1699, and was 
 one of the first settlers at Great Hill, where he 
 bought a large tract of land. His son, Capt. John 
 Holbrook, born in Derby, now Seymour, was one 
 of the executive committee to provide food and 
 clothing for the soldiers in the Revolutionary army, 
 and the family has always been noted for martial 
 spirit, three of our subject's nephews having served 
 as soldiers in Manila. Richard A. Holbrook, our 
 subject's grandfather, was also born in Derby, now 
 Seymour, and, like his father, passed his life as 
 farmer at the old homestead at Great Hill. He 
 married Grace Hawkins, and they had a large fam- 
 ily of children. 
 
 Capt. Philo Holbrook, our subject's father, was 
 born at Great Hill, March 12, 1802, son of Richard, 
 He engaged in farming in early manhood, but later 
 spent sixteen years on the sea, becoming captain 
 of a vessel. His last years were passed at the 
 farm, however, his death occurring in November, 
 1878. In politics he was a Democrat, and he served 
 one term in the Legislature and held other of- 
 
 fices. He was married three times, and by his sec- 
 ond wife, Emily Tomlinson, had ten children, of 
 whom four are living: Philo, Royal, Daniel and 
 Herman. By his third wife he had one son, George, 
 who fives in New Haven. Mrs. Emily (Tomlin- 
 son) Holbrook, who died in 1859, ^t the age of 
 forty-seven, was a native of Oxford, and a daughter 
 of Truman and Nancy (Perry) Tomlinson, who 
 had the following children: Harrison, Ransom, 
 John, Mary, Emily (our subject's' mother), Min- 
 erva (Mrs. Nichols, whose daug'hter, Mrs. Henry 
 Wirth resided in Ansonia), and Laura (Mrs. Ben- 
 jamin Bassett), none of whom are living. 
 
 Royal Holbrook received a common-school edu- 
 cation, and remained at home until he reached the 
 age of sixteen, when he began to learn the mason's 
 trade at Ansonia. After following the business for 
 some years as a journeyman in Ansonia, Derby, 
 Shelton, and New Haven, he became a contractor, 
 in 1890, succeeding his brother Frederick, who had 
 been carrying on that line of work extensively for 
 some years. Since taking charge Mr. Holbrook 
 has built the S. O. & C. Co.'s mill, the "Fountain 
 Flouse," the Farrell Foundry, boiler house and sand 
 shed, the building of the Ansonia Furniture Co. 
 and the Fowler Nail Factory, at Seymour, and 
 many other buildings, both stone and brick, while 
 he has also won a high reputation as a maker of 
 macadam roads by his excellent work in that line 
 in Seymour. The road constructed by him there is 
 considered one of the finest in the State. For about 
 eight years he has owned the quarry, enabling him 
 to furnish the material for his building contracts 
 and for curbing, paving and other uses, while the 
 product is much in demand by the building trade 
 generally. From his office at No. 53 Franklyn 
 street, Mr. Holbrook directs his business conven- 
 iently, and as the quarry is located only a short dis- 
 tance from the business center of Ansonia the stone 
 is easily shipped away, much of it going to Nauga- 
 tuck and Waterbury. The stone works are equipped 
 with modern machinery for drilling, hoisting and 
 crushing, and Mr. Holbrook usually employs about 
 forty men, although at times the business requires 
 sixty or seventy, his being the largest payroll in 
 the city. In politics Mr. Holbrook is a Democrat, 
 and in 1893 he served ably and acceptably on the 
 board of selectmen. He belongs to the local Board 
 of Trade, and socially is identified with the I. O. 
 O. F., Naugatuck Lodge, No. 63. He and his fam- 
 ily attend the Congregational Church, of which 
 Mrs. Holbrook is a member ; his parents were con- 
 nected with the Episcopal Church, and he was 
 reared in that faith. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Holbrook married Miss Augusta 
 Hull, and they have one daughter, Carolyn May, 
 a graduate of Fort Edward Collegiate Institute, 
 who was married Oct. 10, 1900, to Fowler W. 
 Adams, of Seymour, treasurer and manager of the 
 Ansonia Novelty Co., and they have a daughter, 
 Genevieve Holbrook Adams, born Sept. 11, 1901. 
 
1064 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mr. Adams was born at Croton Falls, N. Y., son 
 of Theodore D. and Sarah (Austin) Adams. Mrs. 
 Holbrook is a native of Oxford, and daughter of 
 John Hull, a lifelong resident of that town and a 
 well-known farmer, who died at the age of fifty- 
 four. Her mother, whose maiden name was Ann 
 M. Tomlinson, was born in Huntington, daughter 
 of Charles Tomlinson, and is still living. She is 
 one of a family of five children, as follows :■ Nel- 
 son, deceased ; William, a resident of Woodbridge ; 
 Ann M. ; Caroline, Mrs. Sherman, of New York 
 City; Emily, Mrs. Stone, of Kansas. John and 
 Ann M. Hull had four children, of whom three 
 survive, viz.: Augusta, Mrs. Holbrook; Albert E., 
 a resident of Ansonia; and Cyrus J. Mrs. Hol- 
 trook is a lady of culture and ability ; she was a 
 student at the Normal school at New Britain, and 
 at the age of sixteeai began teaching, which voca- 
 tion she continued to follow for twelve years with 
 marked success. For seven years she was first as- 
 sistant in the Derby high school, and she also taught 
 one year in Oxford, one summer at Quaker Farms, 
 and one term in Southbury. She and her daughter 
 are members of the D. A. R., by right of descent 
 from Capt. Agur Beach Tomlinson, of Revolution- 
 ary fame, and Mrs. Adams is also entitled to mem- 
 bership on the Holbrook side. 
 
 HENRY .LEE (deceased). The Lee family in 
 Guilford and Madison descends from two promi- 
 nent citizens of the old time, John and Henry Lee. 
 
 John Lee settled in Guilford, where, in 1686, 
 he married Elizabeth Cram^pton, who was born in 
 1664, and died June 23, 1746. They spent their 
 lives in Guilford, and 'both died on the same day. 
 They were the 'parents of mine children : ( i ) 
 John, born in 1688, married Rachel Bishop, and 
 died in 1719; (2) Joseph, born in 1690, married 
 Lois Pond, and died Dec. 21, 1753; (3) Elizabeth, 
 born in 1692, died in 1725 ; (4) Jonathan was born 
 in 1695; (5) Mary, born in 1697, married Samuel 
 Allis; (6) Daniel was born in 1699; (7) De- 
 borah, born in 1702, died in 1766; (8) Nathaniel, 
 born in 1704, married Temperance Bishop, and 
 died in 1753; (9) Rachel. 
 
 Jonathan Lee, mentioned above, married Hope 
 Murray in 1719, and died in 1750. Mrs. Hope 
 Lee was born in 1698, and died in 1787. For her 
 second husband she married Deacon William 
 Judd. To Jonathan and Hope Lee came : ( i ) 
 Ann, born in 1720, Who married Ebenezer Munger; 
 (2) Mary, born in 1722, who died dn infancy; (3) 
 May, born in 1723; (4) Jonathan, born in 1726; 
 (5) Hope, born in 1728, who married Timothy 
 Torrell; and (6) Selah, born in 1737, who died in 
 1757- 
 
 Jonathan Lee, born in 1726, died in 1803. He 
 was married June 27, 1751, to Mary Bartlett, who 
 was born in 1734, and died in 1825. Their chil- 
 dren were: (i) Submit, born in 1753, married 
 David Hatch; (2) Abigail, born in 1754, married j 
 
 Theophilus Scranton; (3) Ann, who was born in 
 1756, married Josiah Munger, and died in 1799; 
 (4) Mary., born in 1759, married Jacob Conkling, 
 and died in 1780; (5) Jonathan was born in 1762; 
 (6) Selah, born in 1765, married Sarah Didley, and 
 died in 1791 ; (7) Chloe, born in 1770, married 
 Dr. Jonathan Todd, and died in 1795. 
 
 Jonathan Lee, born in 1762, died in 1844. He 
 was a private sailor in the Revolutionary navy, en- 
 listing in 1781, and serving as coast guard at Guil- 
 ford. He married Mindwell Hill, who was born in 
 1769, and died in 1856. She was a daughter of 
 Deacon Timothy and Elizabeth (Stevens) Hill, the 
 former of whom graduated from Yale College in 
 1745. Their children were: (i) Julia, born in 
 1790, died in 1796. (2) Anna, born in 1791, mar- 
 ried Jonathan Judd, and died in 1867. (3) Selah, 
 born in 1794, married Electa A. Bushnell, and died 
 in 1874. (4) Julia (2), born in 1796, died in 1858. 
 (5) Mary, born in 1798, died in 1800. (6) Chloe, 
 born in 1801, married William K. Bishop, and died 
 in 1888. (7) Jonathan Trumbull (known as Trum- 
 bull), born in 1803, married Betsy D. Judd, and 
 died in 1887 ; he was deacon for many years of the 
 church in Madison. (8) Timothy Hill was born in 
 1805. (9) Henry, born in 1810, died in 1883. (10) 
 Alexander, born in 1813, died in 1835. (ii) Char- 
 lotte married Orlando Wilcox. 
 
 Henry Lee, who during his life was one of the 
 best-known citizens of Madison, was born Aug. 10, 
 1810, in Madison, where he spent his life. He was 
 educated in the local schools. He owned land in 
 Madison, on which he made many improvements 
 and built a fine dwelling house. Mr. Lee died on 
 his farm Dec. 13, 1883, at a ripe old age. His re- 
 mains were interred in the West cemetery in Madi- 
 son. Mr. Lee was a member of the Congregational 
 Church, and in politics a strong Republican. In 
 his personal character and habits he was beyond re- 
 proach, temperate, industrious, honest. He was a 
 good husband, a kind father, and an exemplary cit- 
 izen. 
 
 Mr. Lee was twice married, first time, Nov. 13, 
 1840, to Miss Rosaline Smith, w'ho was born May 
 28, 1816, daughter of Ezra S. and Martha (Stone) 
 Smith. To them came the following children: (i) 
 Munson C, born March i, 1842, married Emily J. 
 Isbell, and died Aug. 4, 1871 ; (2) William H., 
 born Sept. 23, 1843, died Dec. 25, 1873; (3) Rosa- 
 line C, born June 3, 1848, married Wellington T. 
 Coe, of New Haven, and is the mother of one child, 
 Harriet Lee. Mr. Lee was married Nov. 6, 1850, in 
 Madison, for his" second wife, to Abigail Dudley, 
 daughter of Timothy and Theodora (Lay) Dudley. 
 She is still living on the homestead, and enjoys re- 
 markable health. During the Civil war she took 
 an active part in caring for the soldiers in the 
 great struggle, and was president of the local 
 ladies' aid society. Henry and Abigail Lee had one 
 child, Timothy Jonathan, born June 19, 1853, who 
 has had a fine education, attending the Madison 
 
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1065 
 
 schools, Lee's Academy and Yale College, from 
 wtiich latter institution he was graduated in 1875. 
 Mr. Lee received the degree of B. D. from Yale Col- 
 lege in 1879, and is an ordained minister located 
 at Newark, N. J. He married Harriet Allen Tay- 
 lor, who was born in New Milford, and they have 
 one child, Charles Taylor. 
 
 The Dudley Family, of East Guilford, to which 
 Mrs. Lee belongs, is descended from Ebenezer Dud- 
 ley, son of John Dudley, the first settler of the line 
 in America. In 1704 Ebenezer Dudley married Abi- 
 gail Kelsey. who died in 1751. Mr. Dudley sub- 
 sequently married Elizabeth Graves, who died in 
 1761. He was father of the following children: 
 (i) Martha, born in 1706, died in infancy; (2) 
 John, born in 1707, married Abigail Steele, and died 
 in 1754; (3) Daniel, born in 1709, married Dinah 
 Munger; (4) Ebenezer was born in 1710; (5) Mary 
 was born in 1714; (6) Elizabeth, born in 1716, 
 married Luman Ward; (7) Abigail, born in 1719, 
 married Phineas Meigs; (8) Nathaniel, born in 
 1721, married Sybil Munger, and died in 1806; (9) 
 Sarah, born in 1723, married Riley Redfield. Of 
 these : 
 
 Ebenezer Dudley, in 1750, married Rebecca 
 Munger, who was born in 1731, and died in 1751, 
 leaving one daughter, Rebecca, who was born in 
 1751, married Jared Graves, and died in 1828. For 
 his second wife Mr. Dudley married Abigail Swats, 
 widow of Zuilah Dudley, and their children were: 
 (i) Ebenezer, born in 1752, married Elizaibeth Mun- 
 ger, and died in 1781 ; (2) Abigail, born in 1754, 
 married Josiah Stevens; (3) Jonathan, born in 1757, 
 was the grandfather of Mrs. Lee. 
 
 Jonathan Dudley was married in 1778 to Eliza- 
 beth Hill, who was born in 1756, a daughter of 
 Deacon Timothy and Elizabeth (Stevens) Hill, and 
 died in 1833. Mr. Dudley died in 1796. Their chil- 
 dren were: Abigail, born in 1780, married An- 
 son Steele; Ebenezer, Iborn in 1782, married Jo- 
 hanna Munger, and died in 1864; Eliza, born in 
 1784, died in 1836; Reuben, born in 1786, died in 
 1822; Timothy was born Oct. 14, 1789; Roxanna, 
 born in 1792, married Phineas Bradley, and died in 
 1824; Chloe, born in 1794, married Phineas Bradley, 
 her brother-in-law, and died in 1872. 
 
 Timothy Dudley, father of Mrs. Lee, was born 
 Oct. 14, 1789, and died Oct. 16, 1820. He married 
 Theodora Lay (daughter of Col. Asa Lay), who 
 was born June 3, 1789, and died Feb. 12, 1881. Her 
 father entered the Revolutionary army as a corporal, 
 and was promoted to a captaincy before its close. 
 He afterward attained high rank in the government 
 service. To Mr. and Mrs. Timothy Dudley came 
 the following children : ( i ) Harriet Newell, bom 
 in 1814, married George Hillard, and died in 1879. 
 (2) Abigail, born in 1816, married Henry Lee. (3) 
 Sarah M., born in 1818, married C. C. Woodford, 
 and died in 1887. (4) Benjamin Timothy, born 
 in 1821, died in 1888. He married Emily Hale, 
 and, for his second wife, Terrah P. Clark, of Had- 
 
 dam, Conn. She is now living with her daughter, 
 Theodora Woodford, who is a graduate of Welles- 
 ley College, and now the wife of Ralph H. Burr, of 
 Middletown, Connecticut. 
 
 i 
 WILLIAM F. BRONNEKE (deceased) was 
 for many years one of the highly respected and 
 honored citizens of Waterbury, his home being at 
 Spring Lake. Although born on the other side of 
 the Atlantic he was thoroughly American in thought 
 and feeling, and was patriotic and sincere in his 
 love for the stars and stripes. 
 
 A native of Germany, Mr. Bronneke was born 
 April 8, 1850, and received a good education in the 
 schools of that country. He also learned the har- 
 ness-maker's trade. In oppKDsition to his parents' 
 wishes he came to the United States at the age of 
 seventeen years, believing that the New World af- 
 forded better opportunities for advancement than 
 his own country. He landed in Boston, and from 
 there went to New York, where he worked at his 
 trade for a short time. He next went to Winsted, 
 Litchfield Co., Conn., where he worked several 
 years for a Mr. Andrews at farm labor. On the 
 death of his employer he came to Waterbury, and 
 worked at the carpenter's and joiner's trade with A. 
 B. Simons until he started in business for himself, 
 in partnership with A. A. Irion. They engaged in 
 contracting and building for several years, and on 
 discontinuing business Mr. Bronneke found em- 
 ployment with the Waterbury Lumber & Coal Co., 
 with whom he remained sixteen years, his labors 
 giving the utmost satisfaction. While engaged in 
 the manufacture of window frames and fancy 
 sashes he was accidentally struck in the right eye, 
 which injury caused him great pain, and, fearing 
 the loss of his sight, he became melancholy and 
 mentally unbalanced. He died June 8, 1897, and 
 his remains were interred in the Brockett cemetery, 
 Spring Lake. 
 
 On April 24, 1873, Mr. Bronneke married Miss 
 Juliet E. Potter, who was born Tune 24, 1838, at 
 Platts Mills, Waterbury, a daughter of Samuel and 
 Grace (Dudley) Potter, and granddaughter of Rev. 
 Samuel Potter and John E. Dudley. After their 
 marriage Mr. and Mrs. Bronneke located on her 
 father's old homestead, where she still continues to 
 live, having a pleasant residence, surrounded by 
 beautiful grounds. Two children were born of 
 their union, of whom Burton, the elder, died in in-, 
 fancy. Homer Samuel attended the Hopeville Dis- 
 trict school, the high school of Waterbury, and the 
 Harrington Business College, graduating from the 
 last named institution. He was employed for a 
 time in the shipping department of the factory of 
 Rogers & Hamilton, Waterbury, and on May 14, 
 1900, entered the factory of Benedict & Burnham, 
 where he is employed as a brass roller. He is prov- 
 ing himself to be a very competent workman in that 
 
 hne. 
 
 Industrious, temperate and reliable in all things, 
 
io66 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mr. Bronneke commanded the respect and con- 
 fidence of all with whom he came in contact, and 
 was well liked by those who knew him. He had a 
 good command of English, and was well informed 
 on the leading questions and issues of the day, as 
 well as topics of general interest. He was an earn- 
 est and faithful member of the Second Baptist 
 Church, of which he was one of the trustees, and 
 was also assistant superintendent of the Sunday- 
 school. Socially he was an active and prominent 
 member of Harmony Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. M. ; 
 and of Lodge No. 5, A. O. U. W., both of Water- 
 bury. 
 
 Mrs. Bronneke is an educated lady, having at- 
 tended the district schools, the Waterbury high 
 school, the State Normal School of New Britain, 
 and the Charlotteville Seminary. For a time she 
 successfully engaged in teaching in the town of 
 Waterbury. She, too, is an earnest member of 
 the Second Baptist Church of Waterbury, and takes 
 an active part in church and Sunday-school work. 
 She has been secretary and treasurer of the Sun- 
 day-school for twenty-five years and still holds the 
 offices, and is also secretary and treasurer of the 
 Women's Missionary Society. She is quite a tem- 
 perance advocate. 
 
 HAND FAMILY. John Hand, the first repre- 
 sentative of the Hand family on the American 
 shore, was born in 161 1, in England, and settled 
 in Southampton, L. L, when a young man. In 
 this country he married Alice Stanborough, and to 
 their union were born six children : Shumgar, Ben- 
 jamin, John, Steven, Joseph and James. 
 
 Joseph Hand, son of John, was born in 1639 at 
 Southampton, L. I., and when a young man came 
 to Guilford, where he spent the remainder of his 
 life, dying Jan. 17, 1724. He married, in 1664, 
 Jennie Wright, who was born in 1640, a daughter 
 of Benjamin Wright, of Guilford. She died in Jan- 
 uary, 1725. 
 
 Joseph Hand, eldest son of Joseph, was born in 
 Guilford, in that part known as East Guilford (now 
 Madison), April 2, 1671. In 1692 he was married 
 to Hester Wilcox, who was born in 1673, a daugh- 
 ter of John and Esther (Cornwall) Wilcox, and 
 died in 1696. 
 
 Janna Hand, son of Joseph, was born Feb. 17, 
 1693, and died Dec. 9, 1767. He was married Feb. 
 14, 1723, to Dorathy Griswold, who was born Sept. 
 23, 1692, and died Feb. 12, 1775. She was a daugh- 
 ter of John and Mary (Bevis) Griswold. 
 
 Capt. Daniel Hand, son of Janna, was born in 
 East Guilford, February, 1732, and died Oct. 16, 
 1816. His first wife was Siba Smith, whom he 
 married Oct. 28, 1759, in Killingworth ; she died 
 Sept. 20, 1772. Capt. Daniel Hand served in the 
 war of the Revolution in the regiment commanded 
 by Col. Talcott, receiving his appointment in 1776. 
 
 Daniel Hand, a son of Capt. Daniel Fland, was 
 born in East Guilford, April 24, 1762, and died Jan. 
 
 15, 1821. He married Artemisia Meigs, who was born 
 Feb. 25, 1770, and was a daughter of Daniel and 
 Chloe (Scranton) Meigs, and di^d Oct. 11, 1812. 
 
 Daniel Hand, son of Daniel and Artemisia 
 (Meigs) Hand, was born July 14, 1801, and died in 
 December, 1890; George Edward Hand, another 
 son of Daniel and Artemisia (Meigs) Hand, was 
 born Aug. 16, 1809, died Aug. 30, 1889. 
 
 DR. JAMES W. SWEET. Probably no one is 
 more ready to admit that mental characteristics are 
 inherited just as surely as physical ones, than our 
 subject. Dr. James W. Sweet, who comes from a 
 line of natural bone-setters. For several generations, 
 almost every family circle of his name pro- 
 duced several who most naturally followed that 
 profession. 
 
 Dr. James Sweet, the father of our subject, was 
 born in Guilford, Conn., June 15, 1828, a son of Dr. 
 Benoni Sweet, born in New Bedford, Mass., a son 
 of Dr. James, who descended from one of three 
 brother surgeons who came to America from Eng- 
 land, the sign used by the oldest. Dr. James, being 
 in the possession of our subject, reading, "Dr. 
 Sweet, Bone-setter." At the present time the fam- 
 ily is scattered through New England, and one Dr. 
 Sweet is located at Lebanon, Mass., another at 
 Hartford, Conn., and one can be found at Spring- 
 field, Mass., our subject enjoying a wide and ex- 
 tended practice up the Naugatuck \'alley, through 
 the State, and even to New York and Brooklyn. 
 
 Dr. Benoni Sweet, the grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, practiced bone-setting all his life in Guilford, 
 Conn., and of his three sons, Benoni, Gideon and 
 James, Gideon became a surgeon, or bone-setter, in 
 Midd'letown, Conn., where he died; and James 
 settled in Milford, Connecticut. 
 
 Dr. James Sweet practiced in Milford, Conn., 
 until his death in April, 1877. He married Cather- 
 ine E. Walker, who was born May 7, 1830, in Guil- 
 ford, and died June 17, 1853, daughter of Walter 
 Walkley, who met his death in the Indian war, about 
 1830. The Walkley family was of English descent 
 also. 
 
 The early life of Dr. James W. Sweet was that 
 of any healthy, high spirited boy of his time, play 
 and school alternating until he was placed under 
 stricter rules in an excellent private educational in- 
 stitution located in ^.lilford, leaving there to engage 
 in the study of surgery, or bone-setting, under the 
 capable instruction of his father. Upon the death 
 of this parent, in 1877, our subject took entire 
 charge of the extended practice, and since that time 
 has lived a very busy life, the fame of his wonderful 
 skill having gone far and wide, and he has patients 
 come to consult him from almost every State in the 
 Union. 
 
 On May 18, 1878, Dr. Sweet was married to 
 Miss Emmeline S. Barber, of Elkhart, Ind., a 
 daug-hter of James M. Barber, and three children 
 have been born of this union : James ^\' Jr., Grov- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1067 
 
 er C, and Minnie E., the last named dying at the 
 age of six years. Dr. Sweet is a Democrat in his 
 political affiliations, and is prominent in the various 
 fraternal organizations, being a Thirty-second De- 
 gree Mason ; Knight Templar ; a Shriner ; and a 
 Knight of Pythias. He is also a member of the 
 Order of Red Men; the Patriot Sons of America; 
 the Sons of Temperance ; the Knights of the Golden 
 Eagle ; and several other organizations. For many 
 years the family has been connected with the Epis- 
 copal Church, and Dr. Sweet is one of the most 
 generous supporters of the benevolent and charit- 
 able enterprises of that church. 
 
 MRS. MARTHA G. DOWNS, member of the 
 Woman's Club of Ansonia, Derby and Shelton, a 
 charter member of Elizabeth Clark Hull Chapter, 
 D. A. R., of Ansonia (having served as a member 
 of the Board of Managers since its organization, 
 and for two years its recording secretary), and an 
 active member of Christ's Episcopal Church, and 
 president of the Ladies' Aid Society, was born at 
 Great Hill, Seymour, then Derby, and belongs to a 
 well known pioneer family. 
 
 John Holbrook, her paternal great-great-grand- 
 father, was among the first settlers in the vicinity 
 of Seymour, then Derby, and owned a large tract 
 of land, upon which he built a dwelling house that 
 is still standing. He donated the land for the first 
 Episcopal Church and burying-ground in Derby, 
 and his death occurred in that village. 
 
 Capt. John Holbrook, great-grandfather of Mrs. 
 Downs, was born in Derby, and probably lived 
 at Great Hill, where a house built for him, in 1745, 
 is yet standing. He owned 1,000 acres of land 
 and devoted much attention to its cultivation, while 
 as a citizen ~he was active and influential, serving in 
 various town offices. For years he was an ofificer 
 in the local militia, and he had three sons, John, 
 Nathaniel and Abel, who fought in the Revolution- 
 ary army. 
 
 Richard Holbrook, grandfather of our subject, 
 was born in the house mentioned above, and there 
 lived and died. He became a farmer on a portion 
 of the homestead, and was prominent in local af- 
 fairs, holding various offices. He assisted in or- 
 ganizing the Episcopal Church at Seymour, of 
 which he was afterward a leading supporter. His 
 death occurred in 1823, at the age of forty-seven. 
 He was married three times, and had seven chil- 
 dren of whom none are now living. His first wife, 
 Sarah Lum, was born in Derby, the daughter of 
 Reuben Lum, a well known citizen. She died aged 
 twenty-two, leaving one son, Daniel L. 
 
 Col. Daniel L. Holbrook was born Nov._ 7, 1798, 
 in the old family residence, and passed his life at 
 the homestead. Politically he was a Democrat, and 
 he became a leader in local politics, serving as select- 
 man, and in other offices in the towns of Derby and 
 Seymour. His sound judgment and unusual execu- 
 tive ability were widely recognized, and few men 
 
 of his day commanded the respect accorded him by 
 those who knew him best. His title of colonel was 
 gained by able service in the Connecticut National 
 Guard, in which he held the rank of captain for 
 some time previous to his promotion. He was also 
 active in the work of the Episcopal Church, serving 
 as warden for a number of years. His wife, Lucy 
 Nichols, was one of the three children of Russell 
 Nichols and his wife, Nancy Riggs, the latter a 
 descendant of Edward Riggs, who settled in Derby 
 in 1645. Russell Nichols was a native of Quaker 
 Farms, and was for many years a leading citizen 
 of that locaHty, his death occurring at the age of 
 seventy-four. The Nichols family is of prominent 
 pioneer stock, tracing descent from Francis Nichols, 
 who purchased a large tract of land in Oxford in 
 1743, and made his permanent home there. A more 
 complete account of the family is given elsewhere 
 in this volume. Col. Daniel L. Holbrook died in 
 1858, and his wife in 1880, when she was aged 
 seventy-eight. They had three children, of whom 
 our subject was the youngest, (i) Sarah, de- 
 ceased, married Stephen Russell and had two chil- 
 dren : Lucy and Frank. Lucy Russell married 
 Gustavus Lewis, a farmer near Plainville, Conn., 
 now deceased, and had two children, Josephine 
 (who married W R. Sparks, of New Britain, and 
 had two children, Edith and William) and Jere- 
 miah. Frank Russell married Lillian Northrop and 
 has two children, Luella and Beulah. (2) Mary 
 A., sister of Mrs. Downs, married William Church, 
 deceased, and resides in New Haven ; she has three 
 children: George L., who married Jeannette 
 Styles, of Seymour; Daniel L., who married Anna 
 Hall, of New York, the latter now deceased; and 
 Addie L., wife of David Curry, of New Haven. 
 
 Mrs. Downs passed her early life in Seymour, 
 and on Oct. Q, 1870, was married there to the late 
 Thomas M. Downs, who was born in July, 1824, in 
 Southbury, the son of Henry and Sally (Botsford) 
 Downs. His father, who was a prominent agricul- 
 turist of Southbury, died in early manhood, and his 
 m.other, a native of Newtown, died aged eighty. 
 Of their eight children, five are still living. Mr. 
 Downs located in Ansonia about 1864, engaging in 
 general mercantile business, and his death occurred 
 there in 1874, at the age of fifty. Mrs. Downs has 
 resided in Ansonia since 1869, and in 1889 she 
 built her present dwelling house, at No. 119 South 
 Cliff street. There were then but few houses on the 
 street, and during her residence in the place she has 
 seen it develop from a population of 5,000 to 13,000. 
 
 PATRICK JAMES BRENNAN, a highly-re- 
 spected and honored citizen of the town of Nauga- 
 tuck, was born in County Kildare, Ireland, Oct. 
 10, 1848, a son of William and Mary (Lahey) 
 Brennan. In the spring of 1864 he sailed for the 
 United States, and on landing in this country took 
 up his residence in Naugatuck, New Haven Co., 
 Conn., where he soon found employment in the 
 
io68 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 molding department of the Tuttle & Whittemore 
 iron foundry. Later he was transferred to the an- 
 neaimg department, of which he has been the effi- 
 cient and popular foreman for several years. 
 
 On May 31, 1869, Mr. Brennan was united in 
 marriage with Miss Mary E. Martin, of Nauga- 
 tuck, and they have six children, namely : Nellie 
 A., who is a school teacher; William F., a grocer 
 ■of Naugatuck; Edward P., a druggist of the same 
 place; Mary, at home; Charles M., also a drug- 
 gist; and Irine R., who is attending school. The 
 family is one of considerable prominence in the 
 community, and the sons are now leading business 
 men of Naugatuck. They have a beautiful home 
 at No. 305 Church street. 
 
 In his political views Mr. Brennan is inde- 
 pendent. For several years he has been promi- 
 nently identified with public affairs ; has served as 
 selectman and justice of the peace; was a member 
 of the board of education fourteen years ; and iire 
 commissioner four years. He is an intelligent, 
 well-informed man, keeps well posted on the lead- 
 ing questions and issues of the day, and faithfully 
 discharge any duty that devolves upon him. He 
 is a member of St. Francis Catholic Church, and 
 of the Young Men's Catholic Institute of Nauga- 
 tuck. 
 
 WASHINGTON EDWARDS GRISWOLD. 
 There are in every community men whose broad 
 characters touch all vital interests, and who by 
 their capable and disinterested devotion to affairs 
 acquire, without apparent effort, a position of in- 
 fluence and importance to the communal life about 
 them. Washington E. Griswold has been a life- 
 long resident of Connecticut. In a business way his 
 career has been most fortunate and successful. The 
 capacity for business, which he has admirably dem- 
 onstrated, he has freely placed at the disposal of 
 his townsmen. Liberal and kind in disposition, with 
 the "Golden Rule" as his motto in life, he has kept 
 close to the people about him, and in every sense has 
 identified himself with causes for the common good. 
 
 Mr. Griswold is a descendant (in the seventh 
 generation) from (I) Edward Griswold, one of the 
 early settlers of New England. Edward Griswold 
 was torn in Warwickshire, England, in 1607, one 
 of a family of five brothers : Edward ; Thomas, 
 who remained in England ; Francis, who settled at 
 Cambridge, Mass. ; Michael, who settled at Wethers- 
 field, Conn. ; and Matthew, who settled at Windsor 
 and later at Lyme, Conn. Of these, Edward lo- 
 cated first in Massachusetts, and later at Windsor, 
 where he was one of the first settlers and a land 
 owner. Thence he removed to what is now Kil- 
 lingworth, Middlesex Co., Conn., where he spent the 
 remainder of his days. His first wife was named 
 Ann, and his second, Elizaibeth. His ten children 
 were as follows: Francis, born in 1629; Sarah, in 
 1630; George, in 16^2: John, in 1635; Ann, Aug. 
 19, 1642; Mary, Oct. 5, 1644; Deborah, June 28, 
 
 1646 (married Samuel Buel) ; Joseph, March 22, 
 1648; Samuel, Nov. 18, 1649; and John, Aug. i, 
 1652. The line of descent from the founder of the 
 Griswold family in America to our subject is as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 (II) John Griswold, youngest son of Edward, 
 born Aug. i, 1652, in Killingworth, Middlesex Co., 
 Conn., was a lifelong resident of that town. He died 
 Aug. 7, 1717, and was buried at Killingworth. He 
 was twice married, on Nov. 18, 1672, to Mary 
 Bavis, who died Dec. 29, 1679. For his second wife 
 he wedded Barshua North, daughter of Thomas 
 Gideon Walter Price. She died March 19, 1736. 
 The sixteen children of John Griswold were as fol- 
 lows : Mary, born Feb. 2, 1674; Margaret, Dec. 10, 
 1675; Hannah, Oct. 25, 1677; John, Sept. 22, 1679 
 (died Dec. 14, 1679) ; Dorothy, March 4, 1681 
 (died March, 1690) ; Bethshula, Dec. S, 1682 (mar- 
 ried Daniel Clark) ; John, Sept. 4, 1683 ; Samuel, 
 April 4, 1685 (married Sarah Wright, died Dec. 
 29, 1736) ; Lucy, July 21, 1686 (married Allen 
 Ball) ; Martha, June i, 1689 (died Nov. 17, 1690) ; 
 Joseph and Benjamin (twins), Sept. 20, 1690 (the 
 latter married Abigail Norton) ; Dorothy, Sept. 3, 
 1692; Martha, June 16, 1694 (married Samuel 
 Pratt) ; Daniel, Oct. 25, 1696 (died Sept. 10, 1737, 
 married Jerusha Stevens) ; Walter, March 7, 1700 
 (died Oct., 1745, married Sarah Wright). 
 
 (III) Joseph Griswold, son of John, born Sept. 
 20, 1690 (a twin of Benjamin), in Killingworth, 
 spent his life there. He was a land owner and far- 
 mer in Killingworth, and died there April 8, 1771. 
 On Dec. 29, 17 14, he married Temperance Lay, who 
 died Sept. 18, 1773. Their children were as follows: 
 John, was born Oct. 10, 171 5 : Joseph, born Oct. 22, 
 1716, married Rebecca Rutley, and died in June, 
 1771; Nathan, born April 28, 1719, married Sarah 
 liuU ; Giles, born June 3, 1723, married Mercy Chat- 
 field, and died April 2,^, 1804 ; John, born March 6, 
 1726, married Mary Ward; Daniel, born Aug. 10, 
 1728, married Lydia Hull; Jedidiah, born Deic. 13, 
 1730, married Patience Bates. 
 
 (IV) Nathan Griswold, the great-grandfather 
 of Washington E., was born in Killingworth April 
 28, 1719, son of Joseph. Like his father and grand- 
 father, he was a farmer and land owner and prom- 
 inent citizen of Killingworth, where he spent his 
 life, and where he died and is Iburied. He married 
 May 2, 1745, Sarah Hull, daughter of Peter Hull, 
 and their eight children were as follows : Nathan, 
 born Sept. 27, 1746, married Jemima Pierson. Tem- 
 perance was born Dec. 14, 1748. George, born Nov. 
 
 5, 1752, married Artemisia Stevens, and died Nov. 
 
 6, 1834. Joel was born May 21, 1757. Sarah, bom 
 April 10, 1760, died Oct. 5, 1765. Jared, born Aug. 
 ID, 1764, died Oct. 20, 1784. Sarah, born Feb. 20, 
 1766, died Oct. 26, 1784. Martha, born Feb. 14, 
 1770, died Oct. 5, 1784. 
 
 (V) Joel Griswold (grandfather of our sub- 
 ject), born on the old homestead in Killingworth 
 May 21, 1757, became a farmer and a large land 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1069 
 
 owner, and there spent his Hfe, dying April 12, 1834 ; 
 he was buried in the Killingworth cemetery. He 
 ivas a member of the Congregational Qiurch, and 
 in politics a Federalist. On Sept. i, 1796, he mar- 
 ried Sarah Kelsey, born Nov. 9, 1770, who died Feb. 
 25, 1842, and was buried in Killingworth cemetery. 
 She was a member of the Congregational Church. 
 The six children of Joel and Sarah Griswold were : 
 Martin Heman, (born Oct. 19, 1797, died Jan. 31, 
 1810 (he was accidentally scalded) ;, Nathan was 
 born July 3, 1799 ; Polly Minerva, born May 3, 1801, 
 married John Farnham, and died Dec. 31, 1872 ; Dr. 
 George Washington, bom July 26, 1804, graduated 
 from Yale College, went West and died Sept. 22, 
 1834; Sarah Louise, born Aug. 30, 1807, married 
 Henry Scanton, and died in February, 1884; and 
 Joel Pinckney, iborn March 4, 1809, died in 1865, 
 out West. Of these, 
 
 (VI) Nathan Griswold (father of our subject) 
 was born on the old homestead in Killingworth July 
 3, 1799. He attended the district schools of Killing- 
 worth, but was mainly a self-educated man. He 
 was a school teacher for several years, later settling 
 down to farming and stock raising, becoming onfe 
 of the largest land owners in the town of Killing- 
 worth, and a prominent citizen. He represented the 
 town in the State Legislature at New Haven and 
 at Hartford ; was selectman of the town ; and held 
 other local offices, being quite active in political life. 
 In political sentiment he was a stanch Jacksonian 
 Democrat ; in religious faith a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church. He died on his farm in Kil- 
 lingworth April 21, 1872, and was buried in the 
 family cemetery iij Killingworth. On Nov. 25, 1827, 
 he married Rachel Hull, daughter of John HuU.a 
 well-known citizen of Killingworth, and their chil- 
 dren were as follows: Alvira L., bom Oct. 27, 
 1828, married Isaac Kelsey, of Killingworth, who 
 died Aug. 10, 1901. Washington Edwards, our sub- 
 ject, sketch of whom follows. Sarah Mehitabel, 
 born Dec. 27, 1832, died May 26, 1893 ; she married 
 WilHam H. Stevens, of Killingworth. Sherman E., 
 born Aug. 7, 1835, married Adeline Parmelee, and 
 resides on the old homestead. Mabel R. married 
 Alfred Goodyear, of Hamden. Charles Nathan, 
 born in April, 1840, died Oct. 22, 1844. Harriet 
 Lemira, born Nov. 21, 1843, married Ralph Edward 
 Barnum, of Killingworth. The mother of these 
 died June 23, 1873, on the old homestead, aged sixty- 
 nine years, and was buried in the family cemetery. 
 She was a member of the Congregational Church, 
 and a woman of noble Christian character. 
 
 (VII) Washington E. Griswold, whose name in- 
 troduces this sketch, was born Dec. 24, 1830, and 
 was reared upon the old homestead. He attended 
 the district schools of his native town, later pursu- 
 ing his studies at the Madison high school, and at 
 the State Normal School, New Britain, Hartford 
 countv, and for some years he taught school during 
 the winter months, working on the farm m summer. 
 In Killingworth, he married, Oct. 4, 1854, Miss Cor- 
 
 delia Barnum, who was born there July 13, 1833, 
 daughter of Nathaniel E. and Juliett (Evarts) 
 Barnum, granddaughter of Luther and Mabel 
 (Stephens) Barnum, and great-granddaughter of 
 Capt. Aaron Stephens, who was an officer in the 
 Revolutionary war. After his marriage Mr. Gris- 
 wold obtained from his father a tract of land, and 
 there began his successful career as a farmer. From 
 time to time he made notable improvements, erected 
 a handsome dwelling and other buildings, the total 
 improvements costing more than $6,000. Through 
 his thrift and business aJbility he prospered, and fi- 
 nally acquired over 250 acres of fine farming land, 
 which he devoted to stock raising and general farm- 
 ing. 
 
 To our subject and wife two children were born ; 
 'Charles Edwards died in infancy. Edith I., born 
 Sept. 5, i860, graduated from the Morgan high 
 school in the English Classics, and for a number 
 of years taught school in Killingworth. She mar- 
 ried Albert H. Phelps, of Guilford, and lived in the 
 beautiful home in that town (purchased for her by 
 her father) until her death, Dec. 20, 1894, at the 
 birth of her daughter, Edith Griswold. She was a 
 member of the Congregational Church, a young lady 
 of beauty and many accomplishments, well-educated, 
 cultured and refined, a loving wife and affectionate 
 daughter. Her death was a sad blow to her parents,. 
 and a shock to her wide circle of friends. Between 
 parents and child the attachment was unusually 
 strong and close, and in their declining years her 
 sweet and winning personality is sadly missed. 
 
 In 1894, after the death of his daughter, Mr. 
 Griswold removed to Guilford, and sold most of 
 his farming lands, retaining only 100 acres. He stilt 
 manages his property, but since his residence at 
 Guilford he has practically lived a retired life. In 
 public life Mr. Griswold has been notably prominent. 
 He represented the town of Killingworth in the 
 State Legislature in 1866-67 ^'^d in 1885, serving 
 in the old State Houses at Hartford and New 
 Haven, and in the new State House at Hartford. In 
 politics he is a stanch Democrat, and he has held 
 nearly all the offices within the gift of his fellow 
 townsmen. For eight years he was judge of pro- 
 bate for the district of Killingworth. For fourteen 
 years he filled the office of selectman, serving as. 
 chairman of the board most of the time, and he held 
 that office during the Civil war, when the duties 
 were more exacting than they ever were before or 
 have been since. He has been assessor and tax col- 
 lector of Killingworth, served on the board of relief,, 
 and for twenty years was a justice of the peace. Mr. 
 Griswold has ever taken a deep interest in the pub- 
 lic schools, and has served as chairman of the school 
 board mofet of the time for twenty years. Since 
 his removal to Guilford he has declined many of- 
 fices, consenting, however, in 1897, to his nomina- 
 tion 'as first selectman, and serving the term. In 
 1899 he was elected a member of the school board,, 
 and is still serving. 
 
1070 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 In religious belief Mr. Griswold is a member 
 of the Church Society at Guilford and a liberal sup- 
 porter of same. A living exponent of the Golden 
 Rule, his' personal habits have always been above 
 reproach, and he is opposed to the use of strong 
 drink or tobacco in any form. Mrs. Griswold is a 
 member of the Congregational Church, a lady of 
 refinement, modesty and intelligence, devoted to her 
 husband and to her home. Both were members of 
 the Grange in Killingworth, and both are well in- 
 formed upon the leading events and subjects of the 
 day. They are most highly esteemed and respected 
 by' all who' know them, and now, in the afternoon of 
 their life, they are enjoying the fruits of their earlier 
 labor, and dispensing with generous and discrim- 
 inating care the material blessings which it is theirs 
 to command. 
 
 GEORGE BLAKESLEE FRANCIS, a well- 
 to-do and much respected farmer and stock raiser 
 in the North Farms district of the town of Walling- 
 ford, was born on the farm of his father, Feb. 13, 
 1841, a son of Lyman Francis, who was born on the 
 old Francis homestead in North Farms, March 21, 
 1806. Lyman Francis was a brother of the late 
 William Francis, and a son of Jacob and Content 
 (Hall) Francis. A student in the district school 
 of the North Farms, he grew up under the paternal 
 roof, and remained with his parents until his mar- 
 riage, when he settled on the Hall Farm, where 
 George Blakeslee now lives. Devoting much at- 
 tention to the advanced and progressive farming of 
 the day, he was one of the pioneers in that field that 
 has proved so profitable to Connecticut farmers, and 
 has made a record as a tobacco grower. His was 
 a busy but brief life, as he died when but forty- 
 three years old. In politics he was a Democrat, 
 but independent in his voting. Of domestic habits 
 he was a good and kind-hearted man, of whom 
 it is said that he lived very close to the Golden 
 Rule. On Oct. 10, 1832, Lyman Francis was mar- 
 ried to Mary Blakeslee, who was born in North 
 Farms, Sept. 6, 1803, a daughter of Joseph and 
 jNIary (Andrews) Blakeslee, and died April 19, 
 1875. Both Mr. and Mrs. Francis were buried in 
 Center Street Cemetery in Wallingford. To them 
 were born four children : Olive E., born Oct. 10, 
 1833, married Edwin Crocker, and is now deceased; 
 Lucretia E., born June 26, 1835, is now deceased; 
 George B., born July 31, 1838, died Aug. 26, 1839; 
 and George B. (2) born Feb. 13, 1841. The 
 mother was a member of the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 George Blakeslee Francis was only eight years 
 old when he lost his father. A district school edu- 
 cation was given him, and he remained' with his 
 mother as long as she lived, and after her death, 
 continued in the operation of the farm, which had 
 passed into his possession. It contains one hun- 
 dred acres, twenty-five acres being in the town of 
 Aleriden. Flere he carries on dairy farming, stock 
 
 raising and fruit culture, and is known as one of 
 the most successful farmers in all this region. 
 
 On Nov. 19, 1885, Mr. Francis was married to 
 Miss Emily J. Andrews, born in Cheshire, Conn., a 
 daughter of Horace and Esther R. (Johnson) An- 
 drews, both of whom have entered into rest. Mrs. 
 Andrews was the daughter of the Rev. Ransom 
 Johnson. Mr. and Mrs. George B. Francis have 
 had four children, whose names and dates of birth 
 are as follows : Howard A., March 23, 1887; Will- 
 iam L., March 15, 1890, died May 20, 1890; Clay- 
 ton H., July 23, 1891 ; and Joseph B., July 11, 1893. 
 
 Mr. Francis is liberal in his church views, and 
 is a stanch advocate of temperance. In politics he 
 is a Democrat, but has never been a candidate for 
 official honors. In religion Mrs. Francis is a mem- 
 ber of the Advent Church. Both our subject and 
 his wife are intelligent and cultured people, widely 
 read, and thoroughly posted on all the great ques- 
 tions of the day. He is a hard-working and honest 
 man, of whom the community speaks well. 
 
 C. WATSON BALDWIN. This well known 
 citizen of Milford was born in that town April 9, 
 1840, and is a descendant of pioneer stock, his an- 
 cestors having been early settlers at Hadley, Mass., 
 and later at Milford. Joseph Baldwin, of whom 
 further account is given elsewhere in this volume, 
 was born in Milford in 1640, and from his large 
 family of children numerous lines of descendants 
 are now traced. 
 
 Hezekiah Baldwin, our subject's grandfather, 
 was a native of Milford, and followed farming 
 there throughout his life. 
 
 Charles J. Baldwin, son of Hezekiah, was born 
 in Milford Sept. 30, 1812, and engaged in agri- 
 culture there. In religious faith he was a Congre- 
 gationalist. He was a leading Democrat of the 
 locality and was elected to various offices of the 
 town. He married Eunice Baldwin, a native of 
 Milford, and a daughter of Elnathan Baldwin, her 
 descent being traced to Joseph, the pioneer. Her 
 death occurred Feb. 25, 1876, at the age of sixty- 
 one years ana nine months. Our subject was the 
 first in a family of four children, the others being: 
 William H., who died aged seven years; Henry 
 E., a farmer at the old homestead; and George E., 
 now in the employ of the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. 
 R. Company. 
 
 During boyhood C. Watson Baldwin attended 
 public and private schools in his native town. As 
 a 5'oung man he engaged in farming, but in 1880 
 he entered the employ of the N. Y., N. H. & H. 
 R. R. Co., with whom he has continued. In politics 
 he is a Republican, but he was formerly prominent 
 as a Democrat, and was elected on that ticket to 
 different offices including those of assessor, mem- 
 ber of the board of relief, and member of the board 
 of education, in which he served twelve years. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1861, Mr. Baldwin married Miss 
 Mary A. Clute, of Bridgeport, who was born in 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 07 1 
 
 Schenectady, N. Y., the daughter of Frederick and 
 Helen Clute. Her parents were both natives of 
 Schenectady, but in later years resided in Bridge- 
 port. She died Aug. 21, 1889, leaving one daugh- 
 ter, Helen W., born Feb. 22, 1863, who was mar- 
 ried to William H. Hubbard, of Greenwich, and 
 has one daughter. Hazel W., born Sept. 28, 1885. 
 Socially the Baldwin family is prominent, and Mr. 
 Baldwin is a member of the Masonic fraternity, 
 being identified with Ansantawae Lodge, No. 89. 
 Both he and his wife were members of the Congre- 
 gational Church, in which he continues to take an 
 active interest. 
 
 ANTONIO LAZZARI, a prominent Italian 
 citizen of Branford, whose home is in Stony Creek, 
 was born in Milan, Italy, March i, 1852, son of 
 Francisco and Caroline (Macke) Lazzari. His pa- 
 ternal grandfather was Joseph Lazzari, and his ma- 
 ternal grandfather was George Macke. 
 
 Antonio Lazzari was reared to manhood in 
 Milan and vicinity, where he received a common- 
 school education. When he became a young man 
 he began for himself by serving an apprenticeship 
 of three years at watchmaking:, and this was his 
 occupation for seven years after he had learned 
 the trade. The first year he received twenty cents 
 a day; the second and third years his income had 
 increased' to sixty cents per day; and during 
 the last four years, he worked at the trade in 
 his native land he earned a daily stipend of 
 one dollar and twenty-five cents a day. In 1880 
 Mr. Lazzari came to America, landing at Castle 
 Garden Jan. 28th, and going at once to Bav 
 View, Mass., where he worked at his trade and in 
 a quarry, during the season, for two years. Mr. 
 Lazzari made his first important business venture 
 after this, opening a jevi^elry, candy and cigar store 
 in Boston. There he remained three years, and 
 then removed to Braggville, Mass., where he had 
 charge of a boarding house five years for the stone- 
 quarry firm of Norcross Brothers. In 1890 Mr. 
 Lazzari was employed by the same firm at Stony 
 Creek, where he has had a boarding house and 
 has served as watchman for their plant. 
 
 Mr. Lazzari was married, in 1877, to Caroline, 
 daughter of John and Antoinette (Colomba) Am- 
 brosoli, of 'Milan, Italy. This union has been 
 blessed with twelve children, five of whom are now 
 living: Amelia V., who is now Mrs. Alexander 
 Banca; Lena A.; Annie K.; Delena A.; and 
 Victor A. 
 
 Mr. Lazzari has been successful in his line, and 
 has accumulated a very handsome competency. He 
 and all his family are mem'bers of the Catholic 
 Church. Fraternally he is an Odd Fellow. In 
 politics he is a Repuiblican, and he has served as 
 constable of Branford seven years. His career is 
 interesting, as showing what has been demonstrated 
 over and over again, the possibilities of this coun- 
 try for the bright and capable ones who, shut out 
 
 from honor and fame by old world conditions, see 
 here a chance to accomplish something substantial 
 for themselves and their children. 
 
 WILLIA?^[ H. AIORRIS, a prominent resident 
 of Ansonia, was born May 25, 1840, in County 
 Dublin, Ireland, a son of William and Mary A. 
 (Blackburn) Morris. 
 
 The family is of English origin, and William 
 ]\Iorris, our subject's grandfather, was born in 
 England, but made his permanent home in Ire- 
 land. The great-grandfather, who was also named 
 William, was a man of means and a lifelong resi- 
 dent of England. William H. Morris, our sub- 
 ject's father, was born in Ireland, and remained at 
 the old home until, he reached the age of nineteen 
 years. During the Revolution of 1798 he was cap- 
 tured ancli compelled to serve twenty-one years in 
 the English navy, but his health broke down and 
 he was discharged. Later he was a captain in the 
 coast guard service, and his death occurred in 
 County Dublin, at the age of sixty-six. His wife, who 
 was also a native of Ireland, died aged thirty-six. 
 Both were devout members of the Catholic Church, 
 in which their children were reared. Of their large 
 family, six are still living, as follows : Michael ; 
 Isabella, widow of Stephen Murphy, of Seymour; 
 Eliza, who married Christopher Kelley, of Ansonia ; 
 Peressa, of Atlanta, Ga. ; Rdbecca; and William 
 H., of this sketch. 
 
 William H. Morris was but eight years old 
 when he came to America, and after a short stay 
 in New York the family resided for a time in New 
 Haven, Seymour and Woodbridge, but later re- 
 turned to Sej^mour. During the four years at 
 Woodbridge Mr. Morris attended the public 
 schools, but after his return to Seymour he found 
 work in the auger shop and a few years later, in 
 1861, he went to Hartford, where he spent three 
 years in the Colt revolver factory. The next two 
 years were spent in the armory at Yonkers, N. Y., 
 and for six months he was employed in the Win- 
 chester armory at Bridgeport. For four years he 
 was with Sargents, of New Haven, but in 1869 he 
 located in Ansonia^ being first employed as a piper 
 by Wallace & Sons. On leaving them in 1880, he 
 engaged in the grocery business, so continuing un- 
 til April, 1885, when he sold out to George Mc- 
 Cabe, and retired from business. In January, 1896, 
 he again entered business life, opening a gents' fur- 
 nishing store at 23 High street, and in addition to 
 a large and well selected stock of goods in that line, 
 he carries a stock of fancy goods. His career has 
 been successful, and he owns a block of real estate, 
 a large amusement hall, three residences, a grocery 
 store next door, and the store in which he is at 
 present located. 
 
 In 1863 Mr. Morris married Miss Jane Ma- 
 loney, a native of Ireland. Socially he and his 
 wife are much esteemed, and he is a member of 
 Ansonia Lodge, No. 24, Knights of Pythias, in 
 
1072 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 which he has frequentl)^ served as an official ; he 
 was, also, a charter member of the Lodge of Elks 
 located in Denby, Conn. On questions relating to 
 religion he takes a liberal view ; and while he in- 
 clines to the Democratic party in politics, he votes 
 independently on occasion. At times he has taken 
 an active interest in military affairs, and for five 
 )'ears he was private in Company C, 2nd Regiment 
 Conn. National Guards. 
 
 ELIJAH JAMES HOUGH was born in Wall- 
 ingford. New Haven county, July 28, 1829, a son of 
 James and Mary Tyler (Rice) Hough. 
 
 James Hough was born in 1799, and died April 
 25, 1855. He was married March 17, 1823, to 
 Mary Tyler Rice, who was born in Wallingford in 
 1799, daughter of Nehemiah Rice, a lifelong farm- 
 er, who occupied a part of the farm where our 
 subject now lives. Mr. Hough was a Whig and 
 in his later days a Republican. A member of the 
 Congregational Church, he was much devoted to the 
 Society, and earnestly interested in its welfare. To 
 James Hough and his wife came the following chil- 
 dren: Ellen, born Feb. i, 1825, married Ellison 
 Smith, a farmer of Northford, Conn. ; Mary R., 
 born March 28, 1827, died May 17, 1831 ; Elijah 
 James was born July 28, 1829; Mary E., born March 
 13, 1832, married Walstein Smith, of North Haven 
 (their daughter, Mrs. Charles E. Ewing, was sup- 
 posed to have been one of the victims of the uprising 
 in China in 1900, but has since returned) ; Sarah E., 
 born Nov. 21, 1834, married the late Philander W. 
 Hall, of Wallingford ; Nehemiah R., born Jan. 24, 
 1837, died June 4, 1865, at Vicksburg, Miss., from 
 disease contracted in the army; Henry T., born 
 April 28, 1841, died June 25, 1865, at Newbern, N. 
 C, where he was serving as a member of the 15th 
 Conn. V. L 
 
 Elijah James Hough received his early educa- 
 tion under the teachers of the public schools of his 
 native community, supplementing their instruction 
 with a year at the Wallingford Academy. Leaving 
 school, he found employment in the factory of 
 Charles Parker, where he remained about three 
 years. At the death of his father he returned to the 
 farm and assumed its management. He now has 
 175 acres of good land, in a high state of cultivation. 
 Mr. Hough is devoted to his work, and takes pride 
 in the evidences of the touch of a practiced hand 
 which every acre of his presents. At the present 
 time he has fine peach orchards growing, covering 
 thirty-five acres, and containing 4,375 trees in fruit- 
 bearing condition. His peaches are largely sold 
 in Springfield and Boston, and the business is prov- 
 ing very remunerative. 
 
 Mr. Hough has served on the board of selectmen, 
 to which he was first elected in 1887, and for five 
 years has been a member of the board of relief. He 
 is one of the best-known and most enterprising far- 
 mers in New Haven county, and is most highly re- 
 spected in the community. An enlightened and pa- 
 
 triotic citizen, he is a Democrat, because he is sure 
 that the best interests of the country lie in the old 
 path wherein Jefferson and Jackson walked. Mr. 
 Hough is connected with the Baptist Church, and is 
 one of its most generous supporters. Interested 
 in school matters, he has willingly served as a mem- 
 ber of the school board for several terms. He is 
 a charter member of the Wallingford Grange, and 
 one of its most faithful workers, for about ten years 
 serving as treasurer, but he declined a re-election in 
 1897. 
 
 On Oct. 4, 1856, Mr. Hough married Miss Ruth 
 Blakeslee, who was born Oct. 31, 1836, daughter of 
 Silas and Esther (Buel) Blakeslee, of Wallingford. 
 To this union have been born the following children ; 
 (i) Jennie Blakeslee, born Jan. 15, 1864, married 
 George D. Hall, a farmer of Wallingford, in 1885, 
 and is the mother of Lewis Cook, bom March 27, 
 1888; Almon Blakeslee, born Nov. 27, 1891 ; and 
 Mabel Hough, born March 7. 1898. (2) Hattie 
 Blakeslee, born Oct. 22, 1868, married James Nor- 
 ris Barnes, of Wallingford, Jan. 16, 1889, and is the 
 mother of four children — Norman Hough, bom 
 Nov. 18, 1-891 ; James PenniweU, born Dec. 6, 1893; 
 Blakeslee Hough, born July 14, 1895; and Russell 
 Elijah Hough, born Jan. 18, 1901. (3) George 
 Elijah, born Oct. 3, 1873, is interested in the farm 
 with his father. He married Nov. i, 1894, Miss 
 Jennie Day Paddock, who was born Nov. i, 1873, 
 at Wallingford, daughter of Joel H. and Delphine 
 (Hall) Paddock. They have one child, Ruth Delia, 
 born March 12, 1897. 
 
 Silas Blakeslee, father of Mrs. Hough, was born 
 in Wallingford Sept. 13, 1808, son of John Webb 
 and Ruth (Ives) Blakeslee. ' On Jan. 17, 1832, he 
 married Esther Buel, who was born Nov. 20, 1808, 
 daughter of Robert and Betsey (Peck) Buel. They 
 made their home on the old Blakeslee homestead in 
 Wallingford, and there they both died, he on June 
 6, 1893, and his wife on April 17, 1889. Their re- 
 mains were interred in "In Memoriam" cemetery. 
 Children, as follows, came to them : ( i ) Lois, born 
 Jan. 24, 1833, married Oct. 14, i860, Seth J. Hall, 
 who was born Sept. 4, 1829, in Middletown, West- 
 field Society, a son of Sylvester and Rosetta (John- 
 son) Hall; they removed to Meriden, Conn., in Jan- 
 uary, 1861. On Dec. 21, 1851, Lois Blakeslee (now 
 Mrs. Hall) was baptized by Rev. Charles Keyser, 
 and united with the Baptist Church in Wallingford. 
 (2) Ruth is Mrs. Elijah James Hough. (3) John^ 
 W6bb, born Oct. 22, 1840, married Oct. 22, 1861, 
 Emerett Atwater, of Cheshire, born Dec. 5, 1840. 
 They resided on the Blakeslee homestead until the 
 fall of igoo, when they removed to the borough of 
 Wallingford. (4) James Ellis, born Feb. 13, 1843, 
 died July 17, 1847. 
 
 CHARLES R. HOWARD (deceased) was for 
 many years one of Derby's leading merchants. He- 
 was a great-grandson of Josiah Ploward, who was- 
 born in Ipswich, Mass., Jan. 3, 1758, and died m. 
 
'^ 
 
 ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 107 J 
 
 Amherst, N. H., Feb. 6, 1833. He married Mary 
 Stanley, who was born Nov. 25, 1769, in Beverly, 
 Mass. Their son, Henry Howard, was born in 
 Amherst April 24, 1788, ana died there April 15, 
 1871. He was a farmer. In 1809 he married 
 Polly Odiell, who was born Oct. 13, 1789, and sur- 
 vived her husband until Nov. 6, 1875. They were 
 the parents of twelve children: George, Henry, 
 Mary, Herbert, Rodney, Mary Jane, Calvin, Abig- 
 ail, Maria, Susannah, Ediward and Edward S. 
 
 Rodney Howard, father of the late Charles R. 
 Howard, was also a farmer. He was born March 
 20, 1817, in Amherst, and married Nancy Jane 
 Parker, a native of the same town, born there in 
 February, 1825. Her father and grandfather were 
 both named Isaac, and were members of an old 
 English family which settled in Massachusetts be- 
 fore the Revolutionary war. Her mother's maiden 
 name was Nancy Dowse. To Rodney Howard and 
 his wife were born two children, Charles R. and 
 Ada, the younger dying at the age of two years. 
 Both parents are yet living. 
 
 Charles R. Howard was educated at the Apple- 
 ton Academy, Mount Vernon, and the Normal 
 School at Milford, N. H. After graduating from 
 the last named institution, in 1870, he entered a 
 dry-goods store in Milford as clerk, and when he 
 was twenty-two years old embarked in the same 
 line of trade for himself, having formed a partner- 
 ship with a Mr. Gray under the firm name of Gray 
 & Howard. At the end of four years the firm dis- 
 posed oi its business and dissolved, Mr. Howard 
 going West with the intention of engaging in busi- 
 ness in that section. Ill health, however, obliged 
 him to return to the East, and for some time he 
 was engaged in no active business. In 1884 he 
 settled at Birmingham, now called Derby, Conn., 
 and with George E. Barber as a partner again be- 
 gan business as a dry-goods merchant, the firm 
 being Howard & Barber. The business prospered 
 steadily, and the partnership continued until Mr. 
 Howard's death, which occurred June 17, 1898. 
 The premises occupied embraced two large stores, 
 and the establishment is the largest in its line in the 
 locality. 
 
 On Nov. 27, 1873, Mr. Howard married Miss 
 Emma F. Wallingford. They had no children. 
 He was a Republican in politics, and fraternally 
 was a member of the I. O. O. F., having con- 
 nected himself with the lodge of that order in Mil- 
 ford. Religiously he united with the Congrega- 
 tional Church of Derby. Mrs. Howard survives 
 him, living in a comfortable home on Elizabeth 
 street, in the city of Derby, whose appointments 
 speak of the ease and culture, as well as the native 
 refinement of the occupant. She is a daughter of 
 Rufus N. and Susan (Farlev) Wallingford, who 
 had four children: Eliza Ann, who died when 
 three years old; Charles R., who is married, and 
 lives in Old Town, Maine; Emma F. (Mrs. How- 
 ard) ; Horace A., who married Josephine Cofifrey, 
 
 68 
 
 and has two children, Floward and Mariam. The 
 father, who was a wholesale merchant in Boston, 
 died Aug. 24, 1900. 
 
 CHARLES S. CHAPAIAN was born in 
 Waterbury, New Haven county, Oct. 6, 1856, son 
 of George P. Chapman, who was born in Warwick, 
 R. I., March 30, 1830, and died Nov. 4, 1900, at 
 his home in Bridgeport, Conn. Sherman Chap- 
 man, the grandfather of Charles S., was a farmer 
 and a blacksmith at Tolland, Conn., where he 
 served the public as a justice of the peace for many 
 years. He was a son of Ezra Chapman, a farmer, 
 who served with distinction in the Revolutionary 
 war, and died in the service. 
 
 Sherman Chapman, grandfather of Charles S., 
 married Miss Sarah Leonard, of Coventry, Conn.,, 
 and located in Rhode Island. They reared a fam- 
 i ily of three children, George P., Ezra L. and Sarah.. 
 t Ezra L. was a farmer in early life, and later became 
 a blacksmith. Sarah is the widow of George A, 
 Morse, a Methodist minister. 
 
 George P. Chapman, father of Charles S., was 
 ; engaged as a blacksmith in New Haven and Water- 
 i bury. In 1855 he married Jane E. Brown, who 
 ' died in 1885. She was born in New Milford, Pa., 
 , daughter of Charles M. Brown, a millwright, who 
 \ was a native of Connecticut. Mr. and Mrs. Chap- 
 1 man were the parents of three children : Charles 
 S., our subject; George M., an electrician, at Water- 
 bury; and Frederick E., who also lives at Water- 
 bury. George P. Chapman was a Republican, and 
 was a conspicuous man in local matters. He was a 
 i memlber of the school board two terms, a council- 
 man three years, and president of the board two 
 years. While he lived in Bridgeport he served 
 in the city council two terms, and is well remem- 
 bered in that city as a public spirited and pro- 
 gressive man. 
 
 Charles S. Chapman was six years of age when 
 his parents moved to Hartford, Conn., where his 
 father was employed in Sharp's armory. After 
 living there some time they moved to Torrington, 
 Conn. Erie, Pa., was his home for a time, and he 
 last attended school at Troy, N. Y. The parents 
 ! moved from Troy to Albany, and there Charles S. 
 i entered a machine shop and worked a year or more. 
 In 1877 they came to Waterbury, Charles S. ac- 
 companying them, and here he has resided to the 
 present time. He obtained the position of book- 
 Keeper in the office of the Carrington Manufactur- 
 ing Co., and for five years was with that firm, in- 
 the spring of 1882 entering the service of the 
 Waterbury Watch Co., as bookkeeper; he has risen 
 step by step in positions of honor and trust until 
 he is now cashier of that famous institution. 
 
 Mr. Chapman and Miss Carrie E. Trowbridge 
 were married Oct. 24, 1884. Mrs. Chapman was 
 born in Roxbury, Conn., daughter of William E. 
 Trowbridge, a native of that town; her mother, 
 Nancy (Meramble), also came from Roxbury. To- 
 
I074 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Chapman have been born two chil- 
 dren, Howard E. and Alarjorie H. Air. Chap- 
 man has always been a Republican, and has been 
 ■called to many responsible and honorable positions 
 in public life. In 1885 he served as a member of 
 the Water'bury city council, and in 1892, 1893 and 
 1894 was a member of the center school district 
 finance committee. He is now a member of the 
 board of education for the city of Wateilbury, and 
 takes an active part in the promotion of school mat- 
 ters. Socially he is a member of the Sons of the 
 American Revolution, of Townsend Lodge, No. 89, 
 I. O. O. F., and of Toantic Tribe, No. 22, I. O. 
 R. M. He is very actively identified with the 
 IMethodist Church, having been a member for many 
 years, and being one of the trustees at the present 
 time. For fifteen years previous to 1898 he was 
 .superintendent of the Sunday-school, and for 
 twelve years was treasurer of the Connecticut Sun- 
 day-school Association. 
 
 EDWARD JOHNSON CHITTENDEN, a 
 progressive farmer and popular resident of the 
 town of Guilford, was born there, on the Chitten- 
 den homestead, Jan. 5, 1858, son of Henry D. 
 Chittenden, and comes of a lamily long and favor- 
 aoly known in that section. 
 
 Sergt. John Chittenden (son of William, one 
 of the first settlers of Guilford) was married Dec. 
 12, 1665, to Hannah Fletcher, daughter of John 
 Fletcher, of Milford, and died in Guilford in April, 
 1716, aged sevent)r-three years. Children: John, 
 Ijorn Oct. 17, 1666, married Sarah Clay; Elizabeth, 
 born Jan. 26, 1670, married Thomas Cruttenden ; 
 Joseph, sketch of whom follows ; Gideon, born 
 Sept. 23, 1678, died in 1679; Abel, born May 14, 
 1681, married Deborah Scranton ; Lydia, born 
 March 30, 1684, married William Hall. 
 
 Joseph Chittenden, born March 26, 1672, died 
 in Guilford Sept. 11, 1727. In 1692 he married 
 Mary Kiniberly, who was born in April, 1671, 
 daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Kimberly, of New 
 Haven, and died Jan. 14, 1742. Children: De- 
 borah, born Jan. 28, 1693, married John Spinning; 
 Patience, born Jan. 19, 1696, married John Hub- 
 bard ; Gideon, born Feb. 3, 1698, married Abigail 
 Bishop; Daniel, born March 15, 1700, married 
 Abigail Downs ; Joseph, sketch of whom follows ; 
 Thankful, born Jan. 27, 1704, married Thomas 
 Bartlett. 
 
 Joseph Chittenden, born Jan. 25, 1702, died 
 April 7, 1794, and is buried in Guilford. He was 
 a cooper by trade. On Nov. 14, 1726, he married 
 Patience Stone, born Nov. 12, 1703, daughter of 
 Benajah and Flannah (De'VVolfj Stone, of Guilford. 
 She died Nov. 6, 1767, and in April, 1770, he 
 married Ann Hall, born Nov. 13, 1724, daughter 
 of Ithamar and Judith (Seward) Hall. She died 
 ( )ct. 13, 1791, and is also buried in Guilford. 
 Children, all by first marriage : Joseph, born Nov. 
 4, 1727, married Sarah Norton; Nathan, sketch of 
 
 whom follows ; Lucy, born Oct. 18, 1736, married 
 Melzar Fowler ; Ambrose, born Dec. 29, 1744, 
 married Zillah Hall. 
 
 Nathan Chittenden, born July 20, 1730, died 
 June 6, 1819. On Sept. 23, 1756, he married Ruth 
 Norton (daughter of John and Mary (Morgan) 
 Norton), born in December, 1736, died Aug. 12, 
 1814. Children: Nathan, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows; Billie, born July 8, 1760, was drowned Jan. 
 18, 1784; Joel, born Feb. 7, 1766, died March 20, 
 1766; Ruth, born April 9, 1767, died March 26, 
 1775 : Huldah, born Feb. 24, 1773, died Jan. 6, 
 1776. 
 
 Nathan Chittenden, born Oct. 19, 1757, in Guil- 
 ford, died there Jan. 19, 1848, at the ripe age of 
 ninety years. His first wife, Sybil (Johnson), died 
 July 25, 1821, and he subsequently married Lucy 
 Hall Johnson, who was born June 20, 1772, and 
 died Oct. 23, 1851. Children, all by first marriage: 
 Ruth, born in 1781, married Andrew Norton; Jus- 
 tus Johnson, sketch of whom follows ; Nancy, born 
 Sept. 26, 1784, died Oct. 18, 1788; Amelia, born 
 Feb. 22, 1787, died June 20, 1801 ; Nancy, born 
 Feb. 27, 1789, died Sept. 9, 1810; Billie, born April 
 2y, lygi, married Eunice Fowler. 
 
 Justus Johnson Chittenden, born June 12, 1782, 
 in Guilford, was a lifelong farmer of that town, and 
 died there Aug. 8, 1865. He married Lucretia 
 Cruttenden, who was born July 2, 1784, in East 
 Guilford, daughter of Joseph and Lucretia (Ev- 
 erts) Cruttenden, and died May 24, 1857. Chil- 
 dren : Amelia, born July 4, 1805, married .William 
 Starr; Clarissa was born June 5, 1808; Denison, 
 sketch of whom follows ; Nancy Lucretia, born 
 March 19, 1813, married Bildad Bishop; Sarah, 
 born May 26, 1817, married Stephen Spencer. 
 
 Denison Chittenden, born Sept. 16, 1810, en- 
 gaged in farming all his life, making his home in 
 Guilford, where he died Dec. 29, 1899. On Sept. 
 29, 183 1, he married Annette A. Coan, who was 
 born Dec. 25, 181 1, daughter of Davis and Cath- 
 erine (Fowler) Coan, and died Jan. 11, 1897. 
 rhey had children: Catherine Fowler, born Dec. 
 2, 1833, died Aug. 10, 1837; Henry Denison, sketch 
 of whom follows; and Sarah Lucretia, born July 
 23, 1839, died June 18, i860. 
 
 Henry D. Chittenden, father of the gentleman 
 whose name introduces this article, was born Dec. 
 28, 1835, on the Chittenden homestead, where he 
 has passed his entire life, successfully engaged in 
 agricultural pursuits. He is one of the reliable citi- 
 zens of his town, where he is well known, and as 
 a prosperous farmer has considerable influence for 
 good in his locality, though he has never taken any 
 particular part in the public life of the community. 
 He is a Republican in political faith. On July i, 
 1856, Mr. Chittenden married Miss Mary Jane 
 Dowd, who was born Oct. 22, 1838, daughter of 
 Alfred G. and Harriet (Scranton) Dowd, and two 
 children have blessed their union: Edward John- 
 son, sketch of whom follows; and John Scranton, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1075 
 
 born July 15, i860, who died March 30, 1862. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Chittenden are good Christian people, and 
 highly esteemed by their neighbors and many 
 friends. 
 
 Edward Johnson Chittenden attended the 
 schools near his home in Guilford, and later the 
 high school. From boyhood he has been actively 
 engaged in farm work, and he and his father now 
 carry on the old homestead in partnership, giving 
 considerable attention to stock raising in addition 
 lo general farming. .Our subject has kept up the 
 reputation of his family for industry and sobriety, 
 and he is regarded as one of the intelligent, pro- 
 gressive farmers of his town. On Feb. 4, 1891, Mr. 
 Chittenden married Mrs. Emily Louise (Wilcox) 
 Landon, a native of Guilford, widow of Samuel 
 Wilmot Landon. One child has come to them, 
 Harry D., born Sept. 2, 1892. Fraternally Mr. 
 Chittenden holds membership in St. Alban's Lodge, 
 Xo. 38, F. & A. M., Guilford, of which he is now 
 serving as secretary. In religion he is a member 
 of the First Congregational Church. Like his fa- 
 ther, he is a Republican in political sentiment, but 
 not active in party affairs. 
 
 Wilcox. This family, to which Mrs. Edward 
 J. Chittenden belongs, is one of. the oldest in Con- 
 necticut. William Wilcox, the first of whom we 
 have record, was a resident of Stratford, Conn. 
 His son Obadiah had a son Joseph, who was born 
 in 1694 in East Guilford (now the town of Madi- 
 son), and spent his life there, dying July 15, 1770. 
 He married Hannah Goodale, by whom he had 
 children: Timothy, born May 7, 1724, married 
 Emma Pierson, and died Dec. 28, 17.81 ; Joseph, 
 sketch of whom follows; Elizabeth, born Sept. 17, 
 
 1728, married Jedediah Case ; Jemel, was born Jan. 
 12, 1731; Hannah, born Sept. 15, 1733, married 
 Ell Graves, and died June 8, 1805. 
 
 Joseph Wilcox, born in East Guilford, May 27, 
 1726, died there April 7, 1786. On Sept. 17, 1754, 
 he married Sarah Munger, who was born Feb. 10, 
 
 1729, and died in 1782. In 1784 he married Pru- 
 dence Dudley, who died April 14, 1804. Children, 
 all by first marriage: Mabel, born May 23, 1755, 
 married Christopher Foster; Abel, born in 1760, 
 died while serving in the Revolutionary war; Jo- 
 seph, sketch of whom follows; Sarah, born June 
 14, 1773, died Nov. 27, 1863. 
 
 Joseph Wilcox, born in 1763 in East Guilford, 
 died there Nov. 2, 1826. He married Olive Dowd, 
 born Jan. 3, 1757, died Nov. 9, 1835, and they had 
 children: Alvia married Abraham Cadwell, and 
 died in 1864 ; Anna married William Scranton, and 
 died in 1869; Prudence, born in 1783, married John 
 F. Mays, and died Feb. 23, 1872; Abel, sketch of 
 whom follows; Zenas was born in October, 1791 ; 
 Roxanna married Joel Post. 
 
 Abel Wilcox, born Feb. 12, 1788, in the town 
 of Madison, died there Dec. 26, 1841. On Nov. 
 21, 1814, he married Anna Field, born April 6, 
 1787, died Sept. 15, 1S61. Children: Joseph Ben- 
 
 jamin, born Sept. 19, 1815, married Ruth Eliza- 
 beth Scranton; Timothy Field, born March 27, 
 1817, married L. Almira Foster; Hiram Selden, 
 born Feb. 12, 1819, married F. Marilla Dowd; 
 Henry Beal, born Feb. i, 1821, married Lucretia 
 Woodruff; Alfred Nelson, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows; John Elliot, born June 29, 1825, died Dec. 13, 
 1886; Ann Elizabeth was born Feb. 28, 1828; Man- 
 ford August, born May 15, 1830, married Nancy S. 
 Smith ; Sarah Matilda, born June 5, 1832, married 
 Alphonso Snow and died April 25, 1871. 
 
 Alfred Nelson Wilcox, father of Mrs. Chitten- 
 den, was born May 14, 1823, and is one of the hon- 
 ored old residents of Guilford. He followed the 
 trade of carpenter and builder in New Haven, Fair 
 Haven and Guilford during his active years, and 
 besides making a good living for himself and fam- 
 ily established a high reputation as an industrious, 
 honest man, gaining the respect of all who knew 
 him. He is now living retired, and in feeble health. 
 On Nov. 5, 1845, Mr. Wilcox married Caroline A. 
 Munger, who was born April 25, 1826, and they 
 had children as follows : Caroline M., born Feb. 
 24, 1847, is the wife of Eli T. Dudley; Alice Eliza- 
 beth, born Aug. 26, 1853, married George W. Car- 
 ter; Emily Louise, born June 25, 1859, is the wife 
 of Edward J. Chittenden, whose name opens this 
 sketch. 
 
 Samuel Wilmot Landon belonged to an old 
 family of Long Island, and was a descendant of 
 Nathaniel Landon, one of the first settlers in the 
 vicinity of Southold. Judge Samuel Landon, son 
 of Nathaniel, born in 1699 in Southold, died there 
 June II, 1782. David Landon, son of Samuel, was 
 born Oct. 30, 1743, in Southold, and finally settled 
 in Guilford, Conn., where he ended his days Sept. 
 14, 1796. On Oct. 18, 1763, he married Rebecca 
 Ruggles, born Aug. 30, 1743, who died in June, 
 1823, and they had children: Jonathan was born 
 Oct. 19, 1764; Samuel, born Oct. 17, 1765, died 
 Aug. 23, 1793; David, born July 31, 176 — , died 
 Oct. 27, 1788; John, sketch of whom follows; Re- 
 becca, born Oct. 11, 1773, died Oct. 27, 1773; Will- 
 iam, born Dec. 9, 1774, died Jan. 18, 1830; Na- 
 thaniel Ruggles, born March 16, 1781, died in Sep- 
 tember, 1781 ; Nathaniel Ruggles (2), born June 
 28, 1784, died in December, 1857; George, born 
 Aug. 10, 1787, died Oct. 8, 1866 (married Ruth 
 Hart) ; four other sons died young. 
 
 John Landon, born Aug. 16, 1771, in Guilford, 
 died March 27, 1826. He married Mrs. Sally At- 
 water, who died July 15, 1851, and they had two 
 children : Samuel W., sketch of whom follows ; 
 and Sally, born April 9, 1798, who married W. 
 Nelson Wheeler, and died July 16, 1850. 
 
 Samuel W. Landon, born Dec. 4, 1795, in Guil- 
 ford, died there Dec. 17, 1886. His first wife was 
 Eliza Stone, his second Beulah Huston, and he had 
 children: Charles Wilmot, sketch of whom fol- 
 lows; Mary, born May i, 1823, married John 
 Graves, and died Dec. 8, 1861 ; John Elisha, born 
 
1076 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Nov. 15, 1827, married Alice Cahill ; Samuel, born 
 April 17, 1831, died Nov. 18, 1854; Hugh, born 
 Dec. 14, 1834, married Charlotte Tucker, and died 
 in December, 1884. 
 
 Charles Wilmot Landon, born July 17, 1819, 
 died July 19, 1877. On Nov. 5, 1844, he married 
 Mary E. Benton, born Aug. 31, 1819, and they had 
 children : Irene Elizabeth, born Sept. 6, 1845, died 
 May 15, 1867; Franklin H., born Aug. 2y, 1848, 
 married Florence Isabel Whitmore; Charles Ben- 
 ton, born Feb. 21, 1851, married Helen Brockett; 
 John Stone, born Oct. 6, 1853, married Edwin A. 
 Clark; Ann Mary, born June 3, 1856, died May 15, 
 1857; Samuel Wilmot, born June 19, 1859, is men- 
 tioned below. 
 
 Samuel Wilmot Landon received his education 
 in the district schools and high school of Guilford, 
 and commenced active life as clerk in the store of 
 Edward Griswold, in Guilford, remaining with him 
 until 1883. He then embarked in the grocery and 
 provision business in partnership with George S. 
 Davis, the firm name being Landon & Davis, con- 
 tinuing same, until his death, Oct. 13, 1890. His 
 remains lie in the West cemetery. Socially he was 
 a member of St. Alban's Lodge, F. & A. M., Guil- 
 ford, and the Order of the Eastern Star ; relig- 
 iously he was a member of the First Congregational 
 Church, and his political affiliation was with the 
 Democratic party. 
 
 On Oct. 5, 1881, Mr. Landon married Miss 
 Emily Louise Wilcox, a native of New Haven 
 county, and a daughter of Alfred N. Wilcox. ' Two 
 children were born to this union, Pearl Wilcox and 
 Burton Hill, the former of whom is attending 
 school ; the latter is at home. 
 
 JOHN FRANCIS HAYES, M. D., son of 
 Michael and Mary Ryan Hayes, was born in Water- 
 bury, Conn., Jan. 17, 1857, ^^'^ comes of good Irish 
 ancestry, of which he has always been proud. 
 
 His father was born in Stonepark, Glen of Aher- 
 low. County Tipperary, and his mother in Galbaly, 
 County Limerick. They were among the early Irish 
 settlers coming to Waterbury in 1846-48, and were 
 noted for their honesty and industry, and for their 
 frugal and temperate habits. The Doctor spent his 
 boyhood days in Waterbury, where he was educated 
 in the grammar and high schools, and also in what 
 was known as the Waterbury English and Classical 
 School, where many of the leading men of the city 
 of Waterbury at the present time, obtained their 
 education. His father had destined him to be a gro- 
 cer, but the young man's ideas did not run in that 
 direction, and he entered the Medical Department 
 of the University of New York, in September, 1877, 
 from which he graduated two years later (1879), 
 receiving the degree of M. D., cum laudc. when 
 twenty-two years of age. Soon after graduating he 
 successfully passed a competitive examination which 
 gave him a choice of service and a position as resi- 
 dent physician and surgeon of the Mt. Sinai Hos- 
 
 pital, New York. He remained there fourteen 
 months, and then went abroad and entered the Ro- 
 tunda Lying-in-Hospital, Dublin, Ireland, one of the 
 largest institutions of the kind in the world. He 
 completed the course of study prescribed there in 
 eight months and received the degree of Licentiate in 
 Midwifery. At Dublin he also took a special course 
 at St. Mark's Hospital in diseases of the Eye and 
 Ear. The year Dr. Hayes spent in Ireland is one 
 o'f th(^ "red letter" years in his life, as he had 
 longed to visit the birth places of his parents and 
 ancestors, and was gratified with the genial courtesy 
 and the kindly reception he met, wherever he turned 
 in that country. From Dublin he went to Edin- 
 burgh, and entered the Royal Infirmary where he 
 further devoted his time to general medicine and 
 surgery, and diseases of the Eye and Ear under 
 Prof. Bell and Drs. Robinson and Walker. After 
 three months in the old Scotch capital, Dr. Hayes 
 went to London and entered St. Bartholomew's Hos- 
 pital, where he had special opportunities for clinical 
 study; and he was also a student at the Royal Lon- 
 don Ophthalmic Hospital, where over 25,000 patients 
 are received annually, and here the doctor spent 
 about three months. Returning to Waterbury he 
 began his medical career in July, 1881, when he 
 opened an office in the Brown block. No. 22 East 
 Main street, and from the beginning, his success 
 has been pronounced. To-day he enjoys a large 
 general practice, and has by far the largest practice 
 in midwifery of any physician in the city, and no 
 physician has a higher or more honorable standing 
 in the city of his birth. 
 
 On Jan. 29, 1885, Dr. Hayes married Mary A. 
 Conran, a daughter of Patrick Conran, of Nauga- 
 tuck, Conn. Six children were born to them, all 
 but one of whom are now living : Michael Conran, 
 Julia Purcell, John Ryan, Louis Vincent, Joseph 
 (who died when three days old) , and Francis Irving. 
 Michael and Julia are in the Waterbury high school 
 taking the college course ; John in the eighth grade, 
 Crosby Grammar; Louis in the fourth, and Francis 
 in the first primary. In politics. Dr. Hayes has 
 always been a stanch Democrat, and is noted for 
 being frank, positive, ardent and outspoken in his 
 views, and loyal to his friends, and is generally re- 
 garded as one of the ablest leaders of his party. He 
 has taken more than ordinary interest in educational 
 matters, and with a desire to raise the standard of 
 education in our schools, but more especially in the 
 high school, that it might take a .place second to 
 none among the high schools of Connecticut, he 
 sought a place on the Board of Education, and was 
 elected in 1889, and has served the public in this 
 capacity with but a single break, up to the present 
 time. He has served as chairman of all the com- 
 mittees, and on Jan. 2, 1900, was elected chairman 
 of the Board by a unanimous vote. As a member of 
 the board his report for the year 1894 regarding 
 the condition of the schools is a model document, 
 and an intelligent and strong plea for a more thor- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1077 
 
 ough study of English in the high school. As a re- 
 sult of his labors the course in English to-day is 
 four years instead of two, which prevailed at that 
 time. It is a document which does credit to his 
 pen, and produced a profound impression at the 
 time it was issued. He has been untiring in his 
 efforts to promote the public good, and is the father 
 of the free text book system in Waterbury, which 
 -was introduced in this city in 1894. He also strongly 
 advocated and succeeded in establishing a training- 
 school for teachers in this city, which to-day is 
 being successfullly conducted. Dr. Hayes has re- 
 peatedly been offered other political honors, but has 
 always declined. He belongs to a number of fra- 
 ternal societies of which he is examining physician, 
 such as the United Workmen, New England Order 
 of Protection, Knights of Columbus, and Foresters 
 ■of America. As might be expected from a gentle- 
 man of his high professional standing. Dr. Hayes 
 belongs to the city, county, and State medical so- 
 •cieties, and the American Medical Association, and 
 is regarded as a gentleman in every way, a credit 
 to the noble calling in which he is engaged. At a 
 meeting of the American-Irish Historical Society 
 "held in New York in January, 1899, Dr. Hayes 
 was elected one of the vice-presidents for Connecti- 
 ■cut. Dr. Hayes has made many public addresses, 
 and is regarded as one of the most prominent rep- 
 resentatives of the Irish race in Waterbury. He 
 and his family are members of the Roman Catholic 
 ■Church, parish of the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 MRS. SARAH HULDA GORHAM, who is 
 successfully engaged in dressmaking business in 
 New Haven, belongs to an old and nonored family 
 ■of New Haven county. Her paternal grandfather, 
 Reuben Doolittle, was a life-long resident of the 
 town of Hamden and lived to an advanced age, but 
 his wife, who bore the maiden name of Rhoda 
 Wooding, died when comparatively voung. Their 
 -children were Alfred, deceased; Alma, deceased 
 wife of Enos Perkins ; Isaac, deceased ; Amy, who 
 died unmarried; Willis, who died Jan. 24, 1901, in 
 his ninety-first year; Seymour, deceased; Wealthy, 
 deceased wife of Alfred Cooper; Lucius and Ben- 
 nett, both deceased ; Hulda. deceased wife of Beech- 
 er Johnson; and Lauren, father of our subject. 
 
 Lauren Doolittle was born in Hamden, Conn., 
 June 19, 1820, grew to manhood in his native town, 
 •and on starting out in life for himself chose the oc- 
 cupation of farming. He died in Woodbridge, 
 Nov. I, 1895. His life was such as to gain him 
 the confidence and high regard of all with whom 
 Tie came in contact in business or social circles, and 
 in his death the community realized that it had lost 
 a valued and useful citizen. 
 
 On May 18, 1848, in Woodbridge, Mr. Doo- 
 little married Miss Ann Eliza Parker, the cere- 
 -mony being performed by Rev. Samuel H. Elliott, 
 a. Congregational minister. Her father, Ebenezer 
 Philo Parker, was born in Bethany, Conn., Oct. 3, 
 
 1796, and was left an orphan at the age of six 
 years. Owing to ill treatment by his step-father, he 
 ran away from home when 'only eight years old, 
 and, as will readily be seen, his advantages for se- 
 curing an education were extremely limited, but 
 nevertheless he became a man of considerable 
 Icnowledge, owing to his practice of observation and 
 reading in mature years. He was a farmer and car- 
 penter by occupation, was captain of a company of 
 militia, and a man of considerable prominence in his 
 comimunity. His political support was given the 
 men and measures of the Democratic party. He 
 was married in Woodbridge, in i8'2i, to Hulda 
 Sperry, a daughter of Jared and Esther (Sanford) 
 Sperry, and a descendant of Richard Sperry, who 
 housed and fed the Regicides. She was born in 
 Woodbridge, July 21, 1794, and died Feb. 16, 1867, 
 .while her husband died Aug. 12, 1867. In their 
 family were only two children : Esther, born April 
 24, 1822, married Lucius Doolittle, of Woodbridge, 
 a brother of our subject's father, and died Nov. 13, 
 1882. Ann Eliza, born Sept. 20, 1827, married 
 Lauren Doolittle, and died Jan. 30, 1901, a most 
 estimable lady and possessed of a remarkable 
 memory. 
 
 Mrs. Gorham, born in Woodbridge, Oct. 30, 
 1850, married Francis L. Gorham, and is the oldest 
 in a family of six children, the others being as 
 follows : Frank Lauren, born Nov. 2, 1852, mar- 
 ried Harriet Beecher, and they have one daughter, 
 Eva Anna, born Feb. 6, 1883 ; Grace Darling, born 
 Aug. 31, 185=;, is a resident of Hamden: Herbert 
 Edson, born Feb. 2, 1859, married Kate Hotchkiss, 
 of Bethany; George Reuben, born July 28, i860, 
 married Ida Hotchkiss ; and Willard Philo, born 
 Aug. 12, 1867, married Alta Rilla Austin, of Wood- 
 bridge, and they have one daughter, Mabel Edna, 
 born May 11, 1897. The members of this family 
 are quite prominent in the communities where they 
 reside, and their circle of friends and acquaintances 
 is extensive. 
 
 BYRON LUTHER MORSE is entitled to dis- 
 tinction as one of the most progressive and enter- 
 prising business men , of Prospect, New Haven 
 county. Upon the business activity of a community 
 depends its prosperity, and the men who are now 
 recognized as leading citizens are those who are at 
 the head of important and extensive business enter- 
 prises. Mr. Morse is a man of broad capabilities, 
 who carries forward to successful completion what- 
 ever he undertakes. 
 
 Mr. Morse was born June 9, 1859, in the town 
 where he still makes his home, and is a worthy 
 representative of one of the old and prominent 
 families of Connecticut. His father, Harry Morse, 
 was born in Prospect Centre in 181 5, a son of Lenf 
 Morse, a well-known citizen of that town. The 
 father received a district-school education, and 
 throughout his active business life engaged in agri- 
 cultural pursuits. After his marriage he located on 
 
I078 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the Thomas farm, and there s&ccessfully engaged in 
 general farming and stock raising until 1859, when 
 he suffered a stroke of paralysis from the effect of 
 which he never recovered, though he lived twenty 
 years afterward. He died June 13, 1879, and his 
 remains were interred in Prospect cemetery. He 
 was a supporter first of the Whig and later of the 
 Republican party, and was liberal in his religious 
 views. Wherever known he was held in high re- 
 gard. He married Miss Sarah Ann Gillette, who 
 was born in Prospect in 1824, a daughter of Garrett 
 and Nancy (Piatt) Gillette, and granddaughter of 
 Benjamin Gillette and Benjamin Piatt, a soldier in 
 tne Revolutionary war. Mrs. Morse is still living 
 with cur subject upon the old homestead. She is 
 a sincere Christian woman. Byron L. Morse is 
 fifth in. order of birth in a family of seven children, 
 the others being as follows : George, deceased ; 
 John, a blacksmith, who married Gertrude Clark ; 
 Harriet, wife of Friend Sanford : Walter, a resident 
 of Waterbury, who married Jane Boden ; Mary, 
 wife of Edward Ford, of New London ; and Alice, 
 wife of William Boden, of Waterbury. 
 
 In the district schools of his native town Byron 
 L. Morse obtained a good practical education, and 
 upon the home farm he early gained an excellent 
 knowledge of agricultural pursuits. On account 
 of his father's illness he took charge of the farm 
 at an early age, and in its operation has met with 
 marked' success. It comprises 150 acres of valuable 
 land, much of which is devoted to fruit, and in con- 
 nection with general farming, stock raismg and 
 dairying he is extensively engas:ed in fruit culture; 
 he buys and ships large quantities of apples annu- 
 ally and is also interested in the wood business. 
 As a business man he is energetic, progressive and 
 notably reliable, and the success that he has achieved 
 in life is due entirely to his own well-directed ef- 
 forts. Since attaining his majority he has been a 
 stanch advocate of Republican principles, and in 
 1889 represented his town in the State Legislature. 
 He is a prominent m.ember of Prospect Grange, 
 and served as treasurer thereof for three years. 
 
 JOHN MAXWELL AIcKENZIE, civil engin- 
 eer and surveyor of Wallingford, for some years 
 a popular and efficient member of the board of se- 
 lectmen, was born in Yalesville, New Haven Co., 
 Conn., Oct. 15, 1855, and comes of sturdy Scottish 
 ancestry. William McKenzie, the father of John 
 M., was born in Murravshire, son of William and 
 Margaret (Squire) McKenzie, who had three chil- 
 dren ; Margaret, who died unmarried ; Alexander, 
 a railroad contractor; and William, the father of 
 John M. The father of these, a stonemason by 
 trade, spent his life in his native country, where he 
 (lied at a good old age. He was a member of the 
 Presbyterian Church. 
 
 William McKenzie, our subject's father, learned 
 the stone mason's trade under his father's instruc- 
 tion. Wishing a wider field for his work, when 
 
 nineteen years of age he left his native country on 
 a sailing vessel bound for New York. He first 
 found employment on government fortification work 
 at Newport and Boston harbors, and later, in com- 
 pany with his brother Alexander, he engaged in the 
 business of railroad contracting. In 1840 he came 
 to Yalesville, where he located, and many of the 
 large railroad structures on the Hartford Division 
 of the New York, New Haven & Hartford rail- 
 road, notably the Skew arch bridge over the New- 
 Haven & Hartford turnpike, about one-half mile 
 above the village of Yalesxille, are monuments of 
 his thoroughness and skill. He also erected St. 
 Paul's Episcopal church, in Wallingford. The re- 
 mainder of his life was spent in Yalesville, where 
 he died in 1872. He was a member of the Baptist 
 Church, and a Republican in politics. William Mc- 
 Kenzie was twice married, his first wife being a 
 daughter of Andrus Hall, of Wallingford, and the 
 mother of the following children : William, a 
 storekeeper, who lives at Tracy ; Mary, who married 
 Andrew J. Brown ; James, who resides in Yales- 
 ville ; and Margaret, who died at the age of sixteen 
 years. Mr. McKenzie married for his second wife 
 Temperance Hall, a daughter of Adnah and Eliz- 
 abeth (Scott) Hall. To this union were born 
 four children : Theodore, a civil engineer of Soutlv 
 ington ; Homer, deceased ; John Maxwell ; and 
 George C, of Yalesville. Mrs. McKenzie was a 
 school teacher before her marriage, is a lady of 
 culture and refinement, and has a strong poetic 
 faculty. She is an earnest advocate and worker 
 for the cause of temperance. 
 
 John Maxwell McKenzie attended the public 
 schools of Yalesville, i\Ir. French's select school at 
 New Haven, and also studied at Amenia, N. Y., 
 where he took up civil engineering and surveying. 
 He has been engaged on many public works through- 
 out the State, among them the Southington, Nauga- 
 tuck and Wallingford water works, Meriden sewage 
 disposal, and the State highways in the towns of 
 Wallingford, Southington and Rocky Hill, as welt 
 as numerous railway projects. He has also spent 
 several years in the West, in the location and con- 
 struction of railroads for the Burlington system, in 
 the States of Nebraska, Dakota and Wyoming- 
 Mr. McKenzie has been engineer for the borough 
 of Wallingford for a number of years, and is still 
 filling that position. Many important municipal 
 improvements have been carried out under his su- 
 pervision. He is well known and highly respected 
 throughout the town. For four terms he was elected 
 second selectman of Wallingford, and is still filling 
 that office. As committee of the Third school dis- 
 trict he takes a deep interest in educational and 
 other matters pertaining to the welfare of his na- 
 tive village. Our subject belongs to the Baptist 
 Church, and in politics is a Republican. 
 
 In 1893 Mr. McKenzie was married, in South- 
 ington, to Miss Louise Schlayer, a daughter of 
 George and Caroline Schlayer, natives of Germany, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1079 
 
 and residents of Southington, where their daughter 
 Louise was born. They have three children, Mar- 
 guerite, Maxwell and Alcyone. Mrs. McKenzie 
 has many friends and is very popular and efficient 
 in church and social matters. 
 
 The Halls, from whom Mr. McKenzie descends 
 in the maternal line, are an old family of Walling- 
 ford. Jonathan Hall, son of Thomas and Grace 
 Hall, and grandson of the first John Hall, was born 
 in Wallingford July 25, 1672. On May 22, 1703, 
 he married Dinah Andrews, who died at the age 
 of seventy-nine years. He was eighty at the time 
 of his death. Of their ten children, Benjamin Hall, 
 born on the farm Oct. 20, 1725, was married Dec. 
 27, 1752, to Mary Ives. They had three children: 
 Benjamin, born Sept. 25, 17;^. who died young; 
 Eliab, born Feb. 17, 1755 ; and Benjamin (2), born 
 Nov. 3, 1755. Benjamin and Phebe Hall were mar- 
 ried April 28, 1757. They settled in Plymouth, 
 Conn., and to this union came a numerous family : 
 Mary, born Jan. 27, 1758; Andrew, born Aug. 15, 
 1759; Mary (2), born Aug. 6, 1761 ; Phebe, born 
 Aug. 20, 1763; Linus, born Sept. 25, 1765;, David 
 and Jonathan, twins, born Nov. 17, 1767; Erastus, 
 born Feb. 12, 1770; Adnah, born May 8, 1772; Sol- 
 omon, born in 1774; Eliab, born Dec. 11, 1776 (set- 
 tled in North Killingworth) ; Grace Denison, born 
 May 5, 1778; Asaph, born Oct. i, 1781. 
 
 Adnah Hall, a member of the above family, 
 spent his entire life in Wallingford, where he was 
 engaged in farming, and died June 17, 1838. He 
 married Elizabeth Scott, who died in 1840. To 
 them were born children as follows : ( i ) Volutia, 
 born March 29, 1811; (2) Wilfred, born July 25, 
 1815; (3) Temperance, born May 24, 1817 (mar- 
 ried William McKenzie); (4) Harvey S., born 
 Sept. 7, 1819; and (5) Ezekiel, born Jan. 23, 1822. 
 
 RICHARD BRADLEY, contractor and builder 
 of Branford, a progressive and prosperous citizen, 
 is a native of that place, born at the family home- 
 stead in West Main street June 30, 1850. 
 
 Timothy and' Sarah (Goodsell) Bradley, his pa- 
 ternal great-grandparents, lived in the house in 
 Branford now occupied by Seth Thomas Bradley. 
 Their son, Timothy Bradley, grandfather of Rich- 
 ard, was a farmer, sailor and vessel owner, for 
 many years coasting along the Atlantic shores, and 
 making his home in Branford. He married Irene 
 Gordon, daughter of Alexander and Irene Gordon, 
 of Branford, and children as follows were born to 
 them: James; Timothy; Irene, Mrs. William 
 Bryan; Nancy, who was thrice married, to, re- 
 spectively, Sylvester Harrison, Henry Linsley and 
 William Bryan; Lydia, who was twice married, 
 first to Allen Pardee, and second to Benjamin 
 Linsley; Sally, Mrs. James Waddell ; Mary, Mrs. 
 Elias Linsley; Major Seth; and Gurdon. 
 
 Gurdon Bradley, father of Richard, was born m 
 Branford Sept. 27, 1819, and as will be seen above 
 was the youngest in his father's family. He began 
 
 life as a farmer, also owned a vessel and followed 
 the coast for three winters, in addition to which 
 he for many years conducted a saw and grist mill, 
 and took contracts for the building of cellars, re- 
 moving of buildings, etc. ; for upward of twenty 
 years he was also engaged in the ice business. On 
 Jan. 29, 1843, he married Anna Maria, daughter 
 of Samuel and Esther (Tyler) Spinks, of Branford, 
 and to this union were born fourteen children, as 
 follows: Ebenezer T. (deceased) was a molder by 
 trade; he married Hannah Stedman, and had two 
 sons, Harry and Robert. One son died in infancy. 
 Esther M., Mrs. Sherman Holcomb, had two chil- 
 dren, Anna and Harry C. Bessie, Mrs. Charles N. 
 Holcomb, had one child, Fannie. Willis married 
 Isabel Lane, and had three children, Maria, Helen 
 and one deceased. Richard is our subject. Eliza 
 A., Mrs. Charles E. Bunnell, had two children, 
 Walter H. and Bessie. Albert C. is deceased. A. 
 Gurdon is deceased. F. Cline married Mary Jane 
 Foote, and has two children, Eugenia and Roberta. 
 Charles S. married Sarah Kerr, and had two chil- 
 dren. Fern and Gurdon. John H. married Emma 
 Hall. Lee A. and Robert L. are deceased. 
 
 Richard Bradley, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, was reared on the homestead, and received 
 a conimon-school education, afterward learning the 
 trade of carpenter. About the year 1874 he com- 
 menced business as a contractor and builder, and 
 has since followed that occupation with well-merited 
 success. Mr. Bradley is a director and trustee in 
 the Branford Savings Bank. Besides his fine home 
 he owns several houses in Branford, and also a cot- 
 tage at Haycock Point, on the Sound. 
 
 On April 30, 1873, Mr. Bradley married Mary 
 C. Smith, daughter of Leonard and Harriet E. 
 (Smith) Smith, of Branford, and three children 
 have been born to them, viz.: Frank S., Harriet 
 E. and Charles Richard, the last named deceased. 
 Frank S. married Nettie S. Page, of Branford, and 
 has two children, Francis and Richard. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bradley are members of the Episcopal Church. 
 In politics he is a Democrat, and in 1882-83 he 
 served as first selectman of Branford. He is now 
 chief of the Branford Fire Department. 
 
 HENRY M. BRADLEY, a prosperous florist 
 and vegetable grower of Derby, is a son of Lewis 
 Bradley and grandson of Lewis Bradley, both of 
 whom were born in New Haven county. Both were 
 farmers. 
 
 Lewis Bradley, the grandfather, was a resident 
 of Westville, where he married and died. He had 
 a fam.ily of seven children : Chauncey, Isaac, EHas, 
 Lewis, Ann, Wealthy and Lydia, all of whom have 
 passed away, as have also the parents. Chauncey 
 settled at Seymour, where he became an extensive 
 owner of real estate, and died a substantial citi- 
 zen. Elias was a machinist. Isaac was a black- 
 smith, and made his home in Westville. Ann mar- 
 ried Prof. Eaton, of Yale College. Wealthy and 
 
io8o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Lydia passed their lives in Westville, where they 
 died. 
 
 Lewis Bradley, fourth son of Lewis, and fa- 
 ther of Henry M., was born in Westville, and reared 
 upon his father's farm. Removing to Orange, he 
 there purchased 200 acres of land and engaged in 
 general farming and the raising of stock, besides 
 carrying on the meat business. He was a Repub- 
 lican, and actively interested in politics. He was 
 a strong Abolitionist, an ardent and vigorous friend 
 of temperance, and frequently and cogently de- 
 nounced the liquor traffic from the platform. In 
 religious faith he was an earnest and consistent 
 member of the Congregational Church, and he was 
 a liberal contributor to church work. Mr. Bradley 
 died in 1872, his widow in 1889. He married 
 Charlotte, daughter of Miles Smith, of Milford, 
 and a direct descendant of John Stone, of Guil- 
 ford; Rev. Mr. Hooker, the founder of Hartford; 
 Gov. William Leete; and John Downs, a gallant 
 officer of the Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley 
 had seven children who reached maturity, three 
 dying young. Of the two daughters, the elder, 
 Anna L., is unmarried, and resides in New Haven. 
 Lewis S. is a traveling salesman, and lives in New 
 Haven. Emily L. died in August, 1875. Elias E. 
 lived in Milford, where he held the offices of town 
 agent, selectman and judge; he and his wife per- 
 ished in the Peck's mill bridge disaster, Aug. 6, 
 1899. Henry M. is our subject. Otis B. succeeded 
 A. N. Allen & Co. in the wholesale butter busi- 
 ness, in New Haven ; he is a resident of Derby. 
 Charles E. is a bookkeeper for 'his brother. 
 
 Henry M. Bradley was born in Orange Nov. 
 24, 1847. He attended the public schools, and grew 
 to manhood on his father's farm. At the age of 
 twenty-three he became a conductor on the Derby 
 railroad, and continued to fill that position for 
 four years and three months. He then opened a 
 bird fancier's establishment in New Haven, which 
 he conducted for a year, and in 1876 he removed 
 to Derby, where he has made his home up to the 
 present time. For seven years he devoted himself 
 to the cultivation and sale of vegetables, and in 1883 
 he added to this business the propagation of and 
 dealing in flowers. From that time to the present 
 he has followed this vocation, in which he has met 
 with marked success, employing six men through- 
 out the entire year. He is a man of prominence in 
 the community and commands universal respect 
 alike because of his business ability and his high 
 moral character. Starting in life without money 
 or influence to aid him to rise, he has climbed step 
 by step from the position of railroad employe to 
 that of a prosperous, well-to-do business man 
 through his own honest effort and unwearied in- 
 dustry. The success of such a man may well be 
 a source of pardonable self-congratulation, as well 
 as a cause for legitimate pride on the part of his 
 children. Mr. Bradley is a Republican in politics, 
 and while not a professed mcmlicr of any religious 
 
 body, is an attendant upon the Congregational 
 Church, to the support of which he is a liberal con- 
 tributor. 
 
 On Dec. 31, 1868, Mr. Bradley married Miss 
 Maggie Croffut, who was born in Birmingham, a 
 daughter of David K. Crofifut, of Redding, Fair- 
 field county. Her mother, Harriet M. (Treat), was 
 a lineal descendant of Robert Treat, at one time 
 governor of Connecticut. The Croffuts are of 
 Welsh extraction, Mrs. Bradley's great-grandfather 
 having come from Wales to America at an early 
 day. Her great-grandfather on the paternal side 
 was named Samuel, and her grandfather Eri. The 
 latter was born in Redding, and was a manufacturer 
 of combs. Mrs. Bradley was one of two daughters ; 
 her sister Louise became the wife of Elbee Treat, 
 a farmer of Orange, who died in 1899. David K. 
 CrofTut died Jan. 17, 1899, at the age of eighty- 
 eight, his wife passing away Nov. 19, 1896. He 
 was a member of the Episcopal Church, a Repub- 
 lican, a strong temperance man, and a radical Abo- 
 litionist. 
 
 Five children have come to Mr. and Mrs. Brad- 
 ley : Charles C, born Nov. 3, 1869, who died Dec. 
 19, 1878; Matie Bell, born April 13, 1879, who died 
 Oct. 13, 1880; Henry M., Jr., born Nov. 24, 1882; 
 Charlotte, born Dec. 7, 1883; and Lewis H., born 
 April II, 1889. 
 
 ORRIN HALL (deceased), for many years a 
 highly esteemed and honored citizen of Wolcott, 
 belonged to one of the earliest families of New 
 Haven county. The first of the name to come 
 to America was John Hall, a native of England, 
 who located in New Haven as early as 1639, and 
 about 1670 removed to Wallingford, where he died 
 in 1676, at the age of seventy-one years. He mar- 
 ried Jane Woolen, and to them were born seven 
 children, namely: John, who was baptized Aug. 
 9, 1646, at New Haven; Sarah, who was baptized 
 at the same place, on the same date ; Richard, born 
 July II, 1645; Samuel, born May 21, 1646, who 
 died March 5, 1725 ; Thomas, born March 25, 1649; 
 Jonathan, born April 5, 1651 ; and David, bom 
 March 8, 1652, who died July 17, 1727. 
 
 John Hall (2), son of the progenitor of this 
 family in the New World, was married Dec. 6, 
 •1666, to Mary Parker, a daughter of Edward 
 Parker, of New Haven, and they located in Wall- 
 ingford with the first planters, in 1670. There he 
 died Sept. 2, 1721, aged eighty-six years, his wife 
 passing away Sept. 22, 1725. Their children were 
 as follows: Elizabeth, born Aug. 11, 1670; Dan- 
 iel, born July 26, 1672, who was married March 
 15, 1693, to Thankful Lyman ; Mary, born June 23, 
 1675 ; Nathaniel, born Feb. 8, 1677 ; John, born 
 March 14, 1681, who married Elizabeth Royce; 
 Lydia, born Jan. 21, 1683; Samuel, born Dec. 24, 
 1686, who died Nov. i, 1689; Esther, born Aug. 
 30, 1693; and Caleb, born Sept. 14, 1697. 
 
 Nathaniel Hall, son of John (2), spent his en- 
 
HEHAH W. HALL. 
 
■ COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 io8i 
 
 tire life in Wallingford, dying there Aug. i6, 1757. 
 In May, 1699, he married EUzabeth Curtis, who 
 •died Sept. 30, 1735, and he was married Sept. 15, 
 1736, to Lydia Johnson. His children were: 
 Amos, born Jan. 24, 1700, who married Ruth 
 Royce; Margaretta, born Dec. 21, 1701, who died 
 Oct. 30, 1707; Caleb, born Jan. 3, 1703, who died 
 TVEay 11, 1766; Moses, born June 6, 1706, who 
 •died Feb. 15, 1765; Mary, born Oct. 30, 1707; 
 Nathaniel, born April 17, 171 1, who died Dec. 18, 
 1727; James, born April 23, 1713; Elizabeth, born 
 -Sept. 22, 1715; Desire, born June 19, 1719; and 
 "Heman, born Oct. 17, 1720. 
 
 Heman Hall was born in Wallingford, but 
 •spent the greater part of his life in Wolcott, where 
 he owned land and engaged in farming. He was 
 known as Lieut. Hall, winning his title by service 
 in the militia. He was highly respected by the en- 
 tire community in which he lived. He died in 
 1769, and was buried in the Wolcott Center ceme- 
 tery. His widow, Elizabeth, married a Mr. Lee, 
 died in 1804, and was also laid to rest in the Wol- 
 -cott Center cemetery. Four children were born to 
 Heman and Elizabeth Hall, namely: Curtis, in 
 1746; Heman, in 1750; Phoebe, wife of Deacon 
 Joseph Atkin ; and Elizabeth, wife of Daniel Bying- 
 ton, Jr. 
 
 Capt. Heman Hall, son of Lieut. Heman, was 
 iDorn in Wallingford in 1750, and moved with his 
 parents to Wolcott, where he engaged in farming 
 throughout life, passing his later days in that part 
 of the town known as Woodtick. He was quite 
 a prominent and influential man in his community, 
 and was captain of the train band, the 9th Com- 
 pany, 15th Connecticut Militia. He died in June, 
 1795, and his remains were interred in the family 
 burying-ground. His wife, who bore the maiden 
 narne of Rebecca Finch, was born in 1746, and 
 died Jan. 3, 1805. Their children were: Sally, 
 who died young; Rebecca, who married Osee 
 Bronson, and moved to New York State;. Heman, 
 who is mentioned below; Levi, who was baptized 
 Sept. 18, 1778; Sally, baptized April 30, 1780; 
 Ursula, baptized Aug. 18, 1782, who married Noah 
 AValker, of Saybrook, Conn.; Sarah, born in 1780, 
 who married a Mr. Willing, and died July 19, 
 i860; and Lizzie E., who married Daniel Byington. 
 
 Heman Hall, son of Capt. Heman Hall, was 
 born on the old homestead in Wolcott in 1775, and 
 made his home in Woodtick, where he died Feb. 
 4, 1848. He was commissioned sergeant in the 
 militia at Farmington in 1797. He married Lydia 
 Hitchcock, who was born in Southington Aug._ 4, 
 1777, a daughter of David Hitchcock, and died 
 Feb. 9, 1856. Of their children, Orrin, subject of 
 this sketch, wa& the eldest ; Ephraim, born Sept. 5, 
 1799, was the next in order of birth; Polly, born 
 Aug; 17, 1801, was married Jan. i, 1822, to Will- 
 iam Plumb; Lydia, born June 21, 1804, was mar- 
 ried June 24, 1823, to William Frost, and lived in 
 East Farms, Waterbury; Rebecca F., born in Au- 
 
 gust, 1808, was married May 31, 1829, to William 
 H. Payne, and settled in Waterbury; and Roxanna, 
 born April i, 1816, was married Sept. 30, 1838, 
 to Laurin L. Stevens, and died Dec. 11, 1867. 
 
 Deacon Orrin Hall, whose name introduces this 
 sketch, was born in Woodtick, town of Wolcott, 
 Oct. II, 1797, and grew to manhood upon the 
 home farm, receiving his education in the district 
 schools of the neighborhood. For several years he 
 worked at the carpenter's and joiner's trade, but 
 later devoted his entire time and attention to the 
 operation of the old homestead, upon which he con- 
 tinued to make his home until called from this 
 life, Oct. ID, 1881. His remains were interred in 
 the old Wolcott cemetery. Politically he was first 
 a Whig and later a Repujjlican, and he always took 
 a deep and commendable interest in public affairs. 
 He was a devout member of the Congregational 
 Church, in which he served as deacon; was a 
 champion of every movement designed to promote 
 the general welfare; a supporter of every enter- 
 prise for the public good ; and materially aided in 
 the advancement of all social, industrial and moral 
 interests. 
 
 Mr. Hall married MisS Nancy Miner, a daugh- 
 ter of Joseph and Mary (Upson) Miner, the form- 
 er a soldier in the Revolutionary army. Mrs. Hall 
 was born July 12, 1798, and died Feb. 9, 1873. To 
 Deacon Hall and his wife came two children: (i) 
 Heman W., born June 11, 1824, died Nov. 5, 1867. 
 He married Betsey Ann Sperry, daughter of 
 Joseph N. Sperry, and they had three children — 
 Sarah Ursula, born April 17, 1847, was married 
 Oct. 20, 1866, to Charles M. Potter, and resides 
 in North Guilford ; Ransom B., born July 12, 1852, 
 is deceased (he is mentioned elsewhere) ; and 
 Hattie L., born Jan. 10, 1863, is the wife of L. E. 
 Hallock. Mrs. Heman W. Hall died Jan. 25, 1863, 
 aged thirty-six years. (2) Harriet Julina, the only 
 daughter of our subject, born Nov. 6, 1834, resides 
 on the old homestead, where she tenderly cared for 
 her parents during their declining years. She is a 
 lady of culture and refinement. 
 
 JAMES H. KENNEY, proprietor of one of 
 the leading meat markets of Naugatuck, New Ha- 
 ven county, was born in Hartford, Conn., Sept. 
 18, 1856. His father, John Kenney, was a native 
 of County Westmeath, Ireland, and a son of Michael 
 Kenney, a farmer, who spent his last days in Iowa. 
 The latter had a family of four children, namely: 
 John, father of our subject ; James, a carpenter 
 of Lytle City, Iowa; Patrick, a carpenter, who 
 died in New Haven, Conn. ; and Kate, wife of 
 Luke Fields, a gardener. 
 
 John Kenney, father of James H., was twelve 
 years of age when he crossed the Atlantic. He first 
 located in Iowa, but after' the death of his father 
 came to Hartford, Conn., where he made his home 
 for some years. He was a boot fitter, and ran the 
 first wax-end machine at that place. In early man- 
 
io82 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 hood he wedded Mary Adamson, who was also 
 born in Ireland, but came to the New World when 
 quite young. Children as follows were born to 
 them: James H., our subject; Mary, wife of Rich- 
 ard Ganley, of Waterbury; John, a mechanic of 
 New York; Frank, a carriage painter of Bridge- 
 port, Conn. ; Joseph, who is clerking in the meat 
 market of Dur subject; and Elizabeth, a resident 
 of New Haven. The father died in that city in 
 1896, the mother in August, 1895. Both were de- 
 vout members of the Roman Catholic Church, and" 
 he was a Democrat in politics. 
 
 The subject of this review was a child of four 
 years when the family removed from Hartford to 
 New Haven, where he grew to manhood and was 
 educated. He began his business career as clerk 
 in the grocery and meat market of Peter McHugh, 
 of that city, with whom he remained seven years, 
 and on Jan. 4, 1877, came to Naugatuck, where 
 he spent three years with Father Fagan. Return- 
 ing to New Haven, he was engaged in the meat and 
 grocery business there for some time, but in 1884 
 he again came to Naugatuck, where he worked for 
 the Carrington Co. one year. Subsequently he 
 was employed in a meat market at Union City, and 
 in 1891 opened a market of his own, which he has 
 since carried on, meeting with marked success in 
 the undertaking. 
 
 On June 14, 1882, Mr. Kenney married Miss 
 Agnes Campion, a, native of Naugatuck, and a 
 daughter of William and Catherine Campion, who 
 were of Irish extraction. They have a family of 
 five children : James, William, Raymond, Ed- 
 mund and Harold. Mr. Kenney and his family are 
 members of St. Francis Catholic Church, and he 
 is also a member of the Knights of Columbus, the 
 A. O. H. of A., and the Knights of the Macca- 
 bees. He gives his tmwavering support to the 
 Democratic party and its principles, and is a rec- 
 ognized leader in public aiTairs in his community. 
 He is now serving his fourth year as a member 
 of the board of burgesses of Naugatuck, and is 
 also a member of the board of relief. 
 
 MARCUS WILLARD MINOR, a thorough 
 and skillful farmer who is now carrying on his 
 chosen occupation with marked success in Cheshire, 
 is a native of New Haven county, born in Water- 
 bury July 29, 1853, and is a worthy representative 
 of one of the prominent early families of the town 
 of Wolcott, this county. 
 
 Marcus Minor, his paternal grandfather, was 
 born in Wolcott in 1794, a son of Joseph Minor, 
 from Lyme, Conn. He married Harriet Hotchkiss. 
 He engaged in farming in his native town, and 
 there his wife died, but his death occurred in Bris- 
 tol, in 1871. They had three children: Marshall, 
 father of Marcus Willard ; a twin of Marshall who 
 died in infancy ; and Maria, wife of Willard Downs, 
 who died in Wolcott. 
 
 Marshall Minor was born in 1825 in the town 
 
 of Wolcott, where he was reared and educated, and 
 where, throughout his active business life, he en- 
 gaged in farming. In politics he was a stanch sup- 
 porter of the Democratic party. He wedded Miss 
 Mary Downs, who was born in Waterbury in 1827, 
 and died in 1862, and he died in his native town 
 in 1866. In their family were four children, name- 
 ly : Marcus Willard ; George, a resident of Bristol, 
 Conn. ; Cornelia, wife of Bartlett Evans, of Bris- 
 tol ; and Henrietta, wife of Hubbard Frederick, of 
 Bristol. 
 
 The early life of our subject was passed in 
 Wolcott, Westville and Waterbury, and for nine 
 years after starting out in life for himself he con- 
 ducted a meat market in Meriden, Conn. In 1888 
 he carrie to Cheshire, where he now owns a well- 
 improved and valuable farm of eighty-six acres, 
 which he has placed under a high state of cultiva- 
 tion, and which he successfully operates. Like his 
 father, he is a stanch supporter of the Democratic 
 party and its principles, and in 1896 he was elected 
 third selectman on his party ticket. 
 
 In January, 1875, in Waterbury, Mr. Minor 
 was married to Miss Margaret Rogers, a native of 
 Cornwall, Conn., and a daughter of Frank and 
 Susan Rogers, early settlers of Connecticut, who 
 died on the farm in Cheshire where their daughter 
 now resides. To this union have been born five 
 children: Frank, a resident of Waterbury; Mary 
 A., wife of Arthur R. Barnes, of New York; Stella; 
 Earl ; and Elsie. 
 
 EDGAR THOMAS CLARK, a prominent resi- 
 dent of Milford, is a member of a well-known pio- 
 neer family which is now numerously represented 
 in that section, being a descendant of George Clark, 
 who came from England in 1639, and became one 
 of the first settlers of INIilford. 
 
 Elisha Clark, our subject's great-grandfather, 
 resided in the town of Milford, at Woodmont, and 
 died May 30, 1840, aged eighty-six years. Thomas 
 Clark, his son, was also a native of Woodmont, 
 born July 8, 1786, and died Dec. 15, 1854, aged 
 sixty-eight years. On Jan. 2, 1812, he married 
 Eunice Mallett, a native of Bridgeport, who died 
 Oct. I, 1867, aged eighty-one years. They made 
 their home upon a farm in Woodmont, and seven 
 children came to them, as follows : Lewis E., born 
 April 4, 18 13, was a painter by trade, and died in 
 Woodmont June 29, 1846; Lanson B., born June 
 19, 1815, became a Methodist minister, and died 
 March 5, 1866; Sarah A., born Dec. 30, 1817, mar- 
 ried John P. Hubbard, a farmer of the town of 
 Orange, and died Oct. 20, 1899, in Waterburv ; 
 Avis M., born Feb. 18, 1820, married Jonas Buck- 
 ingham, a shoemaker of Milford, and died Oct. 
 13, 1883, aged sixty-three years; Nehemiah T., 
 our subject's father, is mentioned below; Harriet 
 A., born July 3, 1825, married Willis A. Law, a 
 retired merchant of New Haven ; and Mary E., born 
 June II, 1829, died Oct. 7, "1830. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1083 
 
 Nehemiah T. Clark was born on the old home- 
 stead in Woodmont May 4, 1823, and died July 
 22, 1899. In early manhood he engaged in farming 
 there, but he also conducted a factory for many 
 years, making carriage spokes and hubs. He was 
 an excellent citizen, was a Republican in politics, 
 and a Congregationalist in religious faith. On 
 Dec. 23, 1858, he married Abigail P. Baldwin, 
 daughter of Samuel D. and Susan A. (Peck) Bald- 
 win, of Milford. She died March 12, 1891, leaving 
 three children, of whom (i) Edgar Thomas, our 
 subject, is the eldest. (2) Annie B., born Dec. 25, 
 i860, married George A. Elmer, then of Milford, 
 and now a resident of Stamford, Conn. (3) Bertha 
 A., born Sept. 26, 1868, is at home. 
 
 Edgar T. Clark was born Dec. 14, 1859, i" 
 Woodmont, where he grew to manhood, the schools 
 of the town affording him a practical education. 
 He never learned a trade, and on June 12, 1882, 
 he went to Milford to work in the shipping depart- 
 ment of the straw factory, where he remained eight 
 years. For some time afterward he was occupied 
 with the care of his father's property, and for four 
 years he conducted a grocery and bakery, but at 
 present he merely looks after his rents and invest- 
 ments. He takes a loyal interest in all that con- 
 cerns his town, and has for twelve years been a 
 member of the Milford fire department, the local 
 Grange, the Royal Arcanum, and the I. O, O. F. 
 On Nov. 6, 1900, he was elected on the Republican 
 ticket as representative of Milford for two years, 
 and for years he has served as chairman of the 
 board of assessors. 
 
 On Aug. 2, 1888, Mr. Clark married Anna L. 
 Botsford, daughter of Treat Botsford, of Milford. 
 She died Dec. 7, 1888, and on Oct. 30, 1895, he mar- 
 ried Miss Charlotte M. Clark, of Orange, Conn., 
 daughter of Henry M. Clark, of that town, and his 
 wife, Ida Merwin, a native of New Preston, Conn. 
 Mr. Clark is a member of the First Congregational 
 Church, is a member of the First Ecclesiastical 
 Society, and has been treasurer of same for the 
 past six years. 
 
 EDWARD B. BRADLEY, a conductor on the 
 New York & New Haven railroad, now residing 
 at No. 100 Cliff street, Ansonia, was born March 
 20, 1845, in Newtown, this State, where the family 
 had long been established. There his father, James 
 W. Bradley, and his grandfather, Abijah Bradley, 
 were born. The latter was in his early life a chair 
 manufacturer, and in his later years a farmer. He 
 reached the great age of ninety-one years. 
 
 James W. Bradley was reared on the farm, and 
 in his early life learned the trade of chairmaking. 
 For a number of years he was the proprietor and 
 manager of a lunch counter and eating bouse in 
 Newtown, and then moved to Derby, to take a po- 
 sition as stage driver between that city and Bridge- 
 port. He was later given a run between Wood- 
 bury and the Derby docks. He had a stage from 
 
 Woodbury to Seymour, in connection with the 
 Naugatuck railroad. Selling this stage route, he 
 bought a farm in Southbury, which he cultivated 
 for seven years and then sold, going into a hotel 
 at Seymour, which he conducted for a time. He 
 then again became a farmer for a time, and after- 
 ward had a restaurant in New Haven, which he 
 disposed of to take the "Madison House," and later 
 the "Tontine Hotel," both in New Haven. For 
 twenty-five years he was proprietor and manager 
 of the "Tontine," where he died at the age of 
 seventy-six years. He built up that hostelry until 
 it became one of the leading hotels of the State ; it 
 has been patronized by many thousand people. 
 James W. Bradley married Abigail Somers, who 
 was born in Newtown. She became the mother of 
 five sons, three of whom are still living : James 
 Monroe, now in Muskegon, Mich.; Albert H., re- 
 tired, and living in New Haven; and Edward B. 
 Mrs. Bradley died in 1890, at the age of seventy- 
 five. Both parents belonged to the First Methodist 
 Church, and were highly respected people in their 
 day. 
 
 Edward B. Bradley spent the earlier years of 
 his life under the parental roof, and obtained his 
 education in the public schools of the city. When 
 hf was eighteen years of age he left home and 
 secured a position as driver on a stage rvmning 
 between Seymour and New Haven. Very shortly 
 he bought this run, giving his note of $1,500 to his 
 father. This enterprise proved highly successful, 
 and the young man spent seven years on the line. 
 Mr. Bradley ran the first train on schedule time 
 on the New Haven & Derby railroad, Aug. 9, 1871. 
 There was not a platform along the line. Our 
 subject was new at the business; not a ticket was 
 sold, and he took all cash fares. He had a hard 
 time, but he persevered, and is now known as one 
 of the tried and capable conductors in the State. 
 During the years that have intervened Mr. Bradley 
 has witnessed a wonderful transformation, not only 
 in the road, but in the region through which he 
 passes. The road has become one of the best in 
 New England, and the cities have greatly prospered. 
 When Mr. Bradley began in this line two trains a 
 day were sufficient for all the needs of the business. 
 Now he goes over the line six times a day, and 
 there are twelve other trains. He has seen but 
 one wreck, and never has had a charge of any 
 kind preferred against him. His record as a train- 
 man is clean, and his showing as a man and citizen 
 is equally good. Mr. Bradley lived in Seymour un- 
 til 1881, when he moved to Ansonia. 
 
 Mr. Bradley was married, Nov. 29, 1866, to 
 Celestia A. Steele, daughter of John B. and Emeline 
 ( Stewart ) Steele, of Seymour, who had two chil- 
 dren, Mrs. Bradley being now -the only survivor. 
 Her mother died in 1881, at the age of sixty-two 
 years, and her father at the age of forty years. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Bradley have one child, Emma, who 
 married L. F Anschutz, and is the mother of three 
 
io84 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 children, Edward Bradley, Louise F. and Lora 
 .May. 
 
 ^Ir. Bradley is a Republican in politics. He is 
 a member of George Washington Lodge, F. & A.- 
 M,; Mount Vernon Chapter; New Haven Com- 
 mandery. Knights Templar; Mechanics Lodge, No. 
 72,. I. O. O. F., at Seymour; and is a charter mem- 
 ber of the local division of the Order of Railway 
 Conductors. He and his wife attend the First Con- 
 gregational Church of Ansonia. Mr. Bradley has 
 been remarkably successful throughout life, and 
 stands to-day on an enviable plane, where his talents, 
 business ability and upright and manlv character 
 alike command the respect and confidence of the 
 public. 
 
 DAVID SMITH, a man highly esteemed for 
 his many good qualities, was a direct descendant 
 of George Smith, one of the first settlers of New 
 Haven. He was born in West Haven Feb. lo, 
 1798, and died in that township at the age of seven- 
 ty years. Left fatherless at an early age, he was 
 reared by an uncle, and acquired such education as 
 the district schools afforded. He became a car- 
 penter by trade, and followed that calling in the 
 South, but later returned to his old home in West 
 Haven, where his declining years were spent. He 
 built the house now occupied by Mrs. Beardsley, 
 on the site of the first West Haven parsonage. In 
 all affairs of the town he took an active part, and 
 was ever in the van in any move that would ad- 
 vance the moral or material welfare of this com- 
 munity. Of the strictest integrity himself, he 
 looked to find the same honesty of purpose in others, 
 -and his presence, with its fearlessness' for the right, 
 inspired what was best in his associates. 
 
 On Aug. 10, 1854, Mr. Smith married Susan 
 Prudden, who was born in Orange, this county, 
 Aug. 25, 1819, a daughter of Samuel Prudden, 
 and a direct descendant of Rev. Peter Prudden, 
 the first pastor of the church at Milford. Of this 
 tmion was born Sept. 13, 1855, ^ son, David Prud- 
 den, who died Feb. 13, 1871. On Oct. 6, 1874, 
 Mrs. Smith married Dr. Lucius N. Beardsley, 
 whose life record may be found elsewhere in this 
 volume. 
 
 Rev. Peter Prudden was a prominent preacher 
 in England before emigrating to America. He 
 came to Connecticut from Boston with the New 
 Haven Colony and afterward led a branch colony 
 to ?iIilford. He married Joanna Boyse, daughter 
 of an English clergyman. Rev. Peter Prudden 
 was a college graduate, and a man of much natural 
 ability. He was greatly esteemed as a peacemaker 
 and as a wise counselor not only in his own com- 
 munity, but throughout the entire colony of New 
 Haven. Of him- Cotton Mather says, ''his death 
 was felt by the colony as the fall of a pillar, which 
 made the whole fabridc to shake." 
 
 Samuel Prudden, Mrs. Beardslev's father, was 
 ■the son of Samuel I'rudiden, of North Milford, now 
 
 called Orange, and Anna Clark, a representative of 
 another pioneer family of Milford. He was a suc- 
 cessful teacher as well as an intelligent and enter- 
 prising farmer. Like others of his family he was 
 identified with the Congregational Church. His 
 wife, Susanna Smith, was the daughter of Captain 
 Gould Smith, and through her mother was a de- 
 scendant of Rev. Thomas Hooker. 
 
 Since Dr. Beardsley's death Mrs. Beardsley has 
 resided in the home erected by Mr. Smith, as above 
 stated, and is wearing her eighty-two years of a 
 well-spent life with all the grace and dignity of a 
 noble woman. Among her benefactions' may be 
 mentioned a tablet in the Milford Church, in- 
 scribed to the memor}' of its first pastor, Rev. 
 Peter Prudden. 
 
 EDWARD T. ROOT was born in Waterbury 
 Feb. 12, 1840', and his lifelong career in that city 
 has been honorable and upright. George Root, his 
 father, was born in 1796 in New York City, where 
 he died at the age of ninety years. 
 
 Reuben Root, the father of George, was born in 
 Southington, Conn., and died in New York. He 
 was of English extraction. He worked in New 
 York as a ship carpenter during the war of the 
 Revolution. He married Hannah George, and they 
 had two children: George, the father of Edward 
 T. ; and Amos, who lived in New York, where he 
 was a merchant, and died when quite young. 
 
 George Root, the father of Edward T., spent 
 the first twenty-one years of his life in the city of 
 New York, where he acquired his education, and 
 where he learned the trade of cabinetmaker. When 
 a boy he helped to make the coffin of Robert Ful- 
 ton. In Waterbury he followed his trade as long 
 as he was able to work, Hving there about seventy 
 years. He married Temperance Bronson, who was 
 bom in Waterbury, a daughter of Samuel Bron- 
 son, and a granddaughter of Major Samuel Bron- 
 son, a soldier of the Revolution. George Root 
 and his wife were the parents of three children, 
 Jane A., Edward T. and Henry B. Jane married 
 Samuel Pemberton, of Newark, N. J. George 
 Root was a Whig, and in his later life a Repub- 
 lican. For many generations back the Roots were 
 identified with the Congregational Church. 
 
 Edward T. Root spent his boyhood days in 
 Waterbury, where he was reared. He attended the 
 public schools until he reached the age of sixteen, 
 when he became a clerk in the postoffice, holding 
 that position for a year. For a time he also clerked, 
 boy fashion, in his father's store, and in 1859 en- 
 tered the insurance office of Hall & Smith. After 
 a time Mr. Hall retired, and Mr. Smith continued 
 the business alone for some years. About 1885 
 the firm became Smith & Root, and in 1896 the firm 
 of Root & Boyd was formed. Thev write all kinds 
 of insurance, and have a fine list of clients. 
 
 In 1868 Mr. Root married Miss Julia M Rog- 
 ers, of Chester, Vt., daughter of Isaac Rogers 
 
DAYID SHITH. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1085 
 
 Mrs. Root died in 1886, and the only child of this 
 union, Frederick H., died in January, 1895. In 
 1888 Mr. Root married Miss Caroline B. Blake, 
 daughter of Dr. A. S. Blake, of Waterbury. Mr. 
 Root is a Republican, and has been councilman, 
 town assessor and representative of his town in 
 the State Legislature. Fraternally he is a thirty- 
 second-degree Mason, and is a charter member of 
 Continental Lodge, No. 76, F. & A. M., organized 
 in 1862; he has been a member since 1862 of 
 Nosahogan Lodge, No. 21, L O. O. F. As a mem- 
 ber of the Watei'bury Club he comes into contact 
 with the best and leading men of the city, and in 
 these circles his standing is unquestioned. With his 
 family he attends Trinity Episcopal Church. 
 
 Mr. Root enlisted in the Union army in 1862, 
 in Company A, 23d Conn. V. L, and was mustered 
 out at New Haven the following year. He was 
 taken prisoner and paroled, so that his experience 
 of active warfare was limited. 
 
 HERBERT LOUIS BENTON, a farmer and 
 dairyman in Guilford, was born April 16, 1843, and 
 is a native of that town. The first of the name in 
 Guilford was Edward Benton, a native of England, 
 who died in Guilford in 1680. His wife, Anna, died 
 in 1671. They had the following children: Ed- 
 ward ; Daniel ; Andrew, who married Elizabeth 
 Rolfe ; Hannah, who married Robert Ackerly ; 
 Mary, who married Samuel Thorp ; John, who died 
 young; Tabbitha, who married Simon Simpson; 
 Elizabeth ; Sarah, who married Thomas Wright ; 
 and Zacheus. 
 
 Daniel Benton, the second child in the family of 
 Edward, was born in 1638, and died June 10, 1672. 
 He was a farmer and land owner, and belonged to 
 the church. A man of character and standing, he 
 ranked well in his day. He married Rachel Good- 
 rich, who died in 1685, and they were the parents 
 of four children : Joanna, who married John Tur- 
 ner; Ebenezer, mentioned below; Beltzah; and Re- 
 becca, who married Joseph Halsey. 
 
 Ebenezer Benton was born in October, 1663, 
 in Guilford, where his entire life was spent, en- 
 gaged in farming. He was a prominent citizen, 
 especially in church matters. He died on his farm 
 June 22, 1758, and was buried in Guilford. His 
 wife, Abigail, was born March 6, 1670, and died 
 April 13, 1753 ; she was buried in the Guilford ceni- 
 etery. They were married June 14, 1694, and their 
 children were: Daniel; Elizabeth, who married 
 Samuel Buell ; Ebenezer, who married Esther Crit- 
 tenden; Abigail, who married Ebenezer Critten- 
 den; and Caleb, who married Sarah Stone. 
 
 Deacon Daniel Benton was born in Guilford 
 June I, 1695, and was a deacon of the Congrega- 
 tional Church. He died Aug. 25, 1756. In 1728 
 he married Elizabeth Stone, who was born Oct. 6, 
 1706, died in 1753, and was buried in Guilford. 
 For his second wife he married Mrs. Sarah Seward, 
 who died March 12, 1762. His family consisted of 
 
 the following children : Sarah ; Daniel ; Eli ; Sam- 
 uel ; Jared, who married Elizabeth Collins ; Silas,, 
 who married Abigail Lindsley; Nathan, who mar- 
 ried Rachel Chittenden ; Ann, who married Philip 
 Mann ; Elizabeth, who married Rufus Graves ; 
 Daniel James ; and one that died in infancy. 
 
 Silas Benton, who was born July 25, 1739, was 
 engaged in farming throughout life, and died March 
 19, 1828. On June 6, 1768, he married Abigail 
 Lindsley, who was born in 1743, in Branford, and 
 died in 181 1. About the close of the year 181 1 
 he .married for his second wife Widow Lois Plant. 
 He had the following children : Abigail ; Daniel, 
 who married Fannie Eliot ; Joseph ; Isaac, who mar- 
 ried Sarah Robinson; Dan Lindsley; Julin; and 
 Silas. 
 
 Dan Lindsley Benton, tne grandfather of Her- 
 bert L. Benton, was born in 1780, and was a life- 
 long farmer. He was a well-known citizen and a 
 member of the church. He died June 18, 1859, and 
 was buried in the West cemetery. On March 11,. 
 1805, he married Betsy Seward, who was born in 
 1788, and died Aug. 20, 1865. They had the fol- 
 lowing children : David Merrick ; Betsy Ann, whO' 
 married Eli Parmelee; Dan Lindsley; Harriet, who 
 married Samuel Davis ; Clarissa, who married Nel- 
 son Hotchkiss ; Lydia, who married Henry Rankin ; 
 Mary Elizabeth, who married Charles Landon ; 
 Ella Maria, who married Charles M. Stone ; Rich- 
 ard Henry, who married Charlotte E. Parens ; John, 
 who married Catherine L. Kelsey ; Martha Seward, 
 who married Deacon Edwin O. Davis, of Guilford ; 
 and David Merrick (2), who married Frances S. 
 Smith. 
 
 Dan Lindsley Benton, father of Herbert L., was 
 born March 5, 1810, on the Guilford farm, where 
 he received a good common-school education, and 
 was reared to farming, which was his life business.. 
 He owned a large tract of land at Sachem's Head, 
 on which he made extensive improvements. In 
 politics he was a Democrat. He died in 1894, and 
 was buried in the West cemetery in Guilford. In 
 1833 he married Martha M. Norton, who was 
 born Nov. 20, 1811, and died June 12, 1835. They 
 were the parents of one child, Darwin M. For his 
 second wife Mr. Benton was married, May 30, 1841, 
 to Elizabeth Blakeslee, who was born June 29, 1818, 
 in Northford, and is still living. To this union were 
 ' born three children : Herbert Louis ; Charles Linds- 
 ley, who resides on the homestead ; and Edward 
 W., also making his home on the homestead. 
 
 Herbert Louis Benton was born on the home- 
 stead April 16, 1845, attended the district school 
 and Guilford Academy, and remained on the farm 
 imtil after his marriage, when he began farming 
 on the place where he is now located. Mr. Benton 
 has also been a carpenter and a boatbuilder. He is 
 a hard worker, and is much respected for his indus- 
 try. In religious connection he is a member of the 
 Episcopal Church, where he officiates as a vestry- 
 man. His political affiliation is with the Democratic. 
 
io86 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 party ; he has never sought an office. Mr. Benton 
 was married, in Guilford, June 1 1, 1885, to Miss 
 Fannie M. Eliot, daughter of Louis R. and Fannie 
 (Griswold) Eliot, both of whom are deceased, and 
 is the father of two children: Eliot H., born Sept. 
 16, 1889; and Ruth E., born Oct. 15, 1892. 
 
 ELIAS W. DAVIS, M. D., Seymour, is a native 
 o^. Massachusetts, born in Paxton in 1855, a grand- 
 son of Deacon David Davis, also born in Paxton, 
 who married Patty Howe in 1780 or 1785, and had 
 a family of ten children. He was a captain of, a 
 militia company formed after tfte Revolutionary 
 war, which corps he drilled to such perfection that 
 it became known as one of the crack companies of 
 that day. Up to the time of his death he was a 
 deacon of the Congregational Church. 
 
 David G. Davis, father of our subject, is the 
 youngest of the ten children born to Deacon David 
 Davis, and at the present time is living in Worces- 
 ter, Mass., at the ripe old age of eighty-seven years. 
 Fie was engaged in farming, also in the manufacture 
 of boots and shoes and was prominent in business 
 enterprises till within a few years ago. For twenty- 
 five years he was a selectman, and at one time rep- 
 resented his town in the State Legislature of Mas- 
 sachusetts. He married Sarah Gilbert Earle, of 
 Paxton, Mass., and through her the family is traced 
 to old English ancestry, though the first Davis an- 
 cestor was a Welshman. Five children were born 
 of this union, all yet living, viz. : William P., 
 Eliza A., David, Elias W. and Gilbert G. Of these, 
 William P. is a physician in Reading, Mass. ; Eliza 
 A. married John Davis Hudson, a cabinetmaker of 
 Mason City, 111., and died in 1900; David, a boot 
 manufacturer in Wilkesbarre, Penn., married Mary 
 Sherman; Gilbert G., who carries on a printing and 
 blank-book manufacturing business in Worcester, 
 Mass., married Minnie Warren, of Worcester. 
 
 Elias W. Davis, the subject proper of this sketch, 
 lived in Paxton Hills, Mass., until he was fifteen 
 years of age, receiving his primary education at the 
 district schools, after which he prepared for Yale 
 College at the Leicester and Worcester (Mass.) 
 Academies, graduating in the class of 1880. He 
 then returned home and because of poor health 
 took up farming. In 1889, having in the meantime 
 married, he moved with his family to New Haven, 
 where he commenced the study of medicine in Yale 
 Medical College, graduating in June, 1892, from 
 the Medical School, after which he commenced the 
 practice of his profession in Seymour, Conn., where 
 he is meeting with eminent success. 
 
 On Nov. S, 1883, Dr. Elias W. Davis married 
 Eliza H. Dodd, a native of Paxton, Mass., and a 
 descendant of the celebrated Bigelow family of 
 that State. Two children, both daughters, have 
 been born to this union: Florence Marion, 1893; 
 and Gertrude Elizabeth, 1895. The parents are 
 members of the Gmgregational Church. Socially 
 the Doctor is affiliated with Alorning Star Lodge, 
 
 No. 47, F. & A. M., and with Evening Star Chapter, 
 No. 45, of Se3'mour. He is medical examiner for 
 the town of Seymour, and one of the medical di- 
 rectors of the State Masonic Home at Wallingford, 
 Conn. As a physician there is none more promi- 
 nent or popular in the county. In his office stands 
 an old-fashioned desk that has been handed down 
 in the family for some one hundred forty years, a 
 work of art which at once suggests the time honored 
 saying: "A thing of beauty is a joy forever." 
 
 FREDERICK W. HUBBELL, one of the 
 valiant defenders of the Union during the dark 
 days of the Civil war, and the present efficient su- 
 perintendent of the Oxford town farm, has made 
 his own way in the world without the aid of influ- 
 ence or wealth, and has arisen to a position of 
 prominence through his own well-directed efforts, 
 his native genius and acquired ability being the 
 stepping-stones on which he has mounted. He was 
 born in Oxford March 24, 1844, a son of Everett 
 and Jane E. (Sperry) Hubbell, natives of the same 
 place. In their family were nine children, eight 
 sons and one daughter, namely ; Samuel ; John 
 Henry; Frederick W. ; Wales, deceased; Lewis; 
 George; Charles and Henry W., both deceased; and 
 Elizabeth, deceased. 
 
 Frederick W. Hubbell was born and reared on 
 a farm, and received his education in the common 
 schools. At the tender age of seven years he be- 
 gan earning his own livelihood by working for his 
 board and clothes for Capt. Hull, with whom^ he re- 
 mained seven years, and then worked as a farm hand 
 for others until he entered the service of his coun-- 
 try during the Civil war. On June 7, 1862, he en- 
 listed as a private in Company B, 20th Conn. V. I.; 
 was mustered into the United States service at New 
 Haven ; from there was ordered to Washington, D. 
 C. ; and later to Alexandria, Va. His first engage- 
 ment was at Chancellorsville, and the second at 
 Cassville, where he was wounded in the left side by 
 a minie ball ; however, he was never absent from 
 duty one day. Later he participated in the battles 
 of Gettysburg and Savannah, and the siege of At- 
 lanta. After leaving the last named city he was 
 detailed as a scout, and while on a scouting expedi- 
 tion near Columbia, A'a., was captured, but soon 
 afterward he and two companions escaped, and he 
 was finally exchanged. Shortly after this Mr. Hub- 
 bell received a furlough and returned home, and 
 while here Lee surrendered, thus putting an end to 
 the war. Since then he has made his home in Ox- 
 ford with the exception of two years spent at 
 Naugatuck, Conn. In 1882 he was appointed su- 
 perintendent of the Oxford town farm, and ' has 
 most capably and satisfactorily filled that position 
 ever since. He also owns and operates a fine farm 
 of ninety acres in the same town, and in all his un- 
 dertakings has met with most excellent success. 
 
 In 1865 Air. Hubbell was united in marriage 
 with Miss Alice E. Gates, of Simsbury, Conn., and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1087 
 
 to them have been born three children : Burton E. ; 
 Arthur D. ; and one who died: in infancy. Fra- 
 ternally Mr. Hubbell is a member of Upson Post, 
 No. 40, G. A. R., of Seymour; and politically is 
 identified with the Republican party. His fellow 
 citizens, recognizing his worth and ability, have 
 called him to public office, and he has served as 
 constable thirty years and deputy sheriff for five 
 years, filling the latter position at the present time. 
 
 WILLIAM H. EVANS, an honored veteran 
 of the Civil war and a highly esteemed citizen of 
 Woodbridge, was born in Middletown, Middlesex 
 Co., Conn., April 5, 1840, a son of Chauncey and 
 Clarissa (Maynard) Evans, also natives, of that 
 place, where they made their home throughout life. 
 The father was engaged in farming near Middle- 
 town, now Cromwell, and there died at the age of 
 sixty years. Our subject's maternal grandfather, 
 Mr. Maynard, was a soldier of the Revolutionary 
 war and died in 1837. Our subject had an older 
 sister, Delia, who died young, and a half-brother, 
 Bissell Starks., who was a soldier of the Civil war 
 and was numbered among the missing. 
 
 Mr. Evans' advantages for securing an educa- 
 tion were limited to a brief period in the common 
 schools, for after his sixth year he was dependent 
 upon his own resources for a livelihood. In 1862 
 he enlisted in the 24th Conn. V. I., — a regiment 
 composed of Middletown volunteers. Though he 
 enlisted for only nine months, he was in the service 
 thirteen, and during that period took part in some 
 of the fiercest engagements of the war. During 
 the siege of Fort Hudson he was in the rifle pits 
 twenty-five consecutive days, and was so exhausted 
 from exposure that he had to be carried out on a 
 stretcher. He well remembers the landing of 
 Dewey and his companions irom their ill-fated 
 ship after it had been fired by the forts along the 
 river. From days of marching and fighting, and 
 nights of exposure in rains and dews, Mr. Evans 
 has never recovered, tnough he was able to work 
 for many years, but for the last two years he has 
 been compelled to give up his employment. 
 
 Soon after returning from the South he moved 
 to New Haven and secured employment on the street 
 railway, running on the Fair Haven route for one 
 year, and for nearly three years on the West Haven 
 route. He was afterward employed by J. Woodruff 
 (now deceased), revenue collector for this district, 
 from whom: he has. a letter of praise for faithful 
 service. For the following twenty-six years he was 
 with the West Haven Buckle Co., or until May, 
 1897, when he was forced to retire on account of 
 ill health, and rented property in Woodbridge, 
 where he is now living a quiet life, engaging in 
 market gardening in a small way. He has real es- 
 tate and two houses in West Haven which he rents. 
 
 In Middletown Mr. Evans was married, in i860, 
 to Susan Hampton, who died leaving- three chil- 
 dren, namely: George, born July 21, 1861, is now 
 
 a wealthy and influential man of the State of Wash- 
 ington, where he is extensively engaged in the lum- 
 ber business; Clarence, born Dec. 25, 1865, is in 
 the theatrical business; and Lilly, born Oct. 27, 
 1867, is the wife of James Henry, of New Haven. 
 In 1882 Mr. Evans was again married, his s.econd 
 union being with Martha Crosby, by whom he has 
 one daughter, Mabel, born Nov. 5, 1888. Mr. 
 Evans attends the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
 is an honored member of Admiral -Foote Post, No. 
 17, G. A. R., of New Haven, with which he has 
 been connected since 188.S. He affiliates with the 
 Republican party, and in the past took a somewhat 
 active part in politics, though he never aspired for 
 public favors. As a citizen, friend and neighbor 
 he is true to every duty and justly merits the es- 
 teem in which he is held. 
 
 LOTHAR ALEXANDER MORTIMER, BA- 
 RON VON GRAVE, was born at Birresborn, near 
 Gerolstein, Prussia, Sept. i, 1858, son of Friedrich 
 Wilhelm Mortimer, Baron von Grave, who was 
 born Oct. 18, 1824, and died Oct. 9, 1896. The 
 latter married Friederica Rosalia Knaff, who was 
 born April 15, 1833, and is still living, making her 
 home with her son Lothar. The father was a dis- 
 tinguished officer in his prime, and held the rank 
 of captain in the Prussian army. To him and his 
 wife were born: Lothar A. M., the subject proper 
 of these lines. Anna Louisa Cathinka, Baroness 
 von Grave, born Aug. 6, 1862, died Dec. 11, 1896; 
 she married Eugene Pezoldt, of Saxony, Germany. 
 Elsa Rosalie Alfredine, Baroness von Grave, born 
 June 4, 1875, married Alberto Jonas, the pianist 
 and director of the Michigan Conservatory of 
 Music, at Detroit, Mich. ; she is a gifted musician, 
 has pursued her studies under the instruction of 
 the most eminent professors of music in Europe, 
 and has made several highly successful tours of 
 foreign countries, winning golden encomiums every- 
 where. 
 
 Carl Friederioh Gustaph, Baron von Grave, the 
 grandfather of Lothar, was born Feb. 22, 1792, and 
 died April 29, 1876. He was a well-known and 
 highly honored general in the Prussian Cavalry. 
 He married Maria Hyacintha Anna Rietz, born in 
 1806, who died May 10, 1872. The great-grandfa- 
 ther of Lothar was Johann Hieronymus, Baron 
 von Grave, who was born Aug. 18, 1734, and died 
 May 16, 1798. He was secretary of war under 
 the Prussian government. Frederica Louise Chris- 
 tiane. Baroness von Hoffstedt, his wife, was born 
 Oct. 14, 1766, and died April i, 1847. N. Baron 
 von Grave, his father, was counselor and supreme 
 judge of the Duchy of Bremen. He was, born in 
 1680, and died in 1752. He married the Baroness 
 von Eberhorn. 
 
 Documents are in existence which mention the 
 von Graves as knights fighting under Thassilo, of 
 Bavaria, in the ninth century, later during the 
 Crusades. They settled in different parts of the 
 
io88 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 country, and held high offices at court. Joachim 
 
 11, Nestor and his successor, in their fight against 
 the rebellious nobility in 1537, destroyed their 
 castles "Weissenfels" and "Nimmersatt," but their 
 descendants were allowed by the King of Prussia 
 to return to their ancestral holdings in 1701. 
 
 On April 30, 1890, Lothar von Grave married 
 Mrs. Gabrielle (D'Alton) Sweet, who was, born 
 July 4, 1863, and died July 13, 1893. They adopted 
 one son, Frederick Sweet, who was born June i, 
 1884, in New York, and had one daughter, Elsa 
 Rosalia Valeska Ethel, who was born Nov. 23, 
 1891, at Ballardvale, Mass., where she died June 
 
 12, 1892. Mr. von Grave was married, Dec. 11, 
 189s, to Miss Deborah Waldo, at Mount Vernon, 
 N. Y., who was born in Hudson, N. Y., daughter 
 of Henry and Sarah (Heath) Waldo. Their home 
 is regarded as one of the most artistic, and as well 
 as one of the most highly cultured centers of re- 
 fined society in the State. It is situated in Academy 
 street, in Wallingford, and is the old home of Col. 
 A. H. Dutton, from whose daughter, Mis,s Emily 
 Dutton, it was purchased. On this ground many 
 years ago stood the first school in Connecticut, 
 called the "Academy." In February, 1897, the place 
 was named "Ellguth," after the old estate of Mr. 
 von Grave's family, "Gross Ellguth," in Prussian 
 Silesia, containing 1,624 acres, and now in the pos- 
 session of his cousin. Major Hugo von Grave. The 
 Wallingford property was in the possession of the' 
 Dutton family from 1664 until its recent sale. 
 
 Mrs. von Grave is descended from Deacon Cor- 
 nelius Waldo, the emigrant ancestor of the Waldo 
 family, who came from England, and settled in 
 Ipswich, Mass. He removed in 1657 to Chelms- 
 ford. Mrs. von Grave is also a direct descendant 
 of William Swain, who came to Watertown, Mass., 
 in 1635, and was one of a commission sent to su- 
 perintend the rising colony of Connecticut. J\Ir. 
 von Grave is president of the Alderidge Art Com- 
 pany, of Wallingford, and holds the same position 
 in the Wallingford Camera Club. He is vice-presi- 
 dent of the Wallingford Golf Club, in which recrea- 
 tion he and his wife are enthusiasts. 
 
 Mr. von Grave has had an eventful and varied 
 history. Born in Germany, he was educated in the 
 Latin andi Military schools. With the present Em- 
 peror, William II, he attended the university at 
 Bonn, taking a special course in the history of art, 
 archeology and history. In due time, entering the 
 Prussian army as a cadet, he was promoted to lieu- 
 tenant, and by permission of .the Emperor, William 
 I, took part in the Turko-Austrian war. Coming 
 home wounded, he retired from the service, and 
 devoted his entire time to a systematic study of 
 the fine arts, devoting special attention to art, arche- 
 ology and history. Graduating from the Royal 
 Academy of Fine Arts at Munich, where he had for 
 teachers Profs. Lindenschmidt, Piloty, and Kaul- 
 bach, Hans Makart, from Vienna, and Piglheim, 
 from Paris, he studied the specimens of ancient and 
 
 medieval art through Gei-many, Russia, Austria, 
 Hungary, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Asia Minor and 
 Eg3'pt, where he engaged in the excavation of the 
 Sakkareh pyramid. Returning to Munich, he- 
 opened a studio, and his first picture, "The Hunt- 
 ing Scene," purchased by Prince Regent Luitpold, 
 of Bavaria, now adorns the private Royal Gallery. 
 Coming to this country on a visit, Mr. von Grave 
 was so impressed with its possibilities that he de- 
 cided to remain here. Locating first in New York, 
 he opened a studio in the Knickerbocker building,, 
 where his time was fully occupied in making orig- 
 inal drawings for the well-known firm of J. Ott- 
 nmn, in the Puck building. Later he turned his at- 
 tention to architecture, carrying off several prizes 
 for designs for public buildings. He soon found! 
 himself wrapped up in industrial art, and was called 
 upon constantly for designs for silver, bronzes,, 
 keramics and interior decorations. Becoming head! 
 designer for the Craighead & Kmtz Co., he went tO' 
 Massachusetts to superintend work in that line. 
 When the head of that company retired Mr. vom 
 Grave accepted the offer of his present pos,ition, 
 from H. L. Judd & Co., at their Wallingford fac- 
 tory, where he has charge of the art department,, 
 an excellent force of modelers, chasers, pattern- 
 makers and casters, altogether about fifteen people 
 under his direction. 
 
 Mr. von Grave is a member of Compass Lodge, 
 F. & A. M., and of Ivy Lodge, K. P., where he is- 
 aide-de-camp on the brigadier general's stafif, with 
 the rank of major in the uniformed rank of the K. 
 P. His splendid education, extensive travels and 
 high social connections on both sides of the Atlantic 
 render Mr. von Grave one of the most cosmopolitan- 
 of men, while his liberal ideas and generous disposi- 
 tion win for him the steadfast triendship and de- 
 votion of those who have tasted the hos.pitality of 
 his cosy and artistic home. 
 
 BERKELEY S. HOTCHKISS, a retired gro- 
 cery merchant of Waterbury, was born in Pros- 
 pect, New Haven county, Sept. 21, 1826, and de- 
 scends from one of New England's very old Co- 
 lonial families, which may be traced to England,, 
 as follows : 
 
 David Miles Hotchkiss, father of Berkeley S.. 
 was also born in Prospect; Esquire Frederick, fa- 
 ther of David, was born in Waterbury (now Pros- 
 pect), and was a son of David, the elder, who- 
 was born in Waterbury, a son of Deacon Gideon,, 
 who served in the Revolutionary war; Deacon Ste- 
 phen, father of Gideon, was an early settler of 
 Cheshire, Conn., and was a son of Ensign Joshua, 
 whose father, Samuel Hotchkiss, came from Eng- 
 land, and founded the family in New Haven in 
 1641. 
 
 Esquire Frederick Hotchkiss, grandifather of 
 Berkeley S., was a farmer by vocation. He mar- 
 ried Rhoda Hopkins, daughter of Esquire John 
 Hopkins, and they reared a family of four chil- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1089 
 
 dren, viz. : Marilla, who married Libeus Sanf ord, 
 a farmer of Broome county, N. Y. ; Julia, who mar- 
 ried Jonah Woodruff, of Waterbury, and went 
 to Broome county, N. Y., where she passed the 
 remainder of her days'; David Miles, father of 
 Berkeley S. ; and Clarissa, who married Elisha Hall, 
 a farmer of Broome comity, N. Y. Esquire Fred- 
 erick Hotchkiss was the first initiated member of 
 Harmony Lodge, F. & A. M. 
 
 Hon. David Miles Hotchkiss was reared to 
 manhood in Prospect, where he engaged in farm- 
 ing and became an influential citizen. He married 
 Zeruah Stevens, of Naugatuck, daughter of Mar- 
 tin Stevens, a blacksmith, and they became the 
 parents of eight children: (i) Emily (deceased) 
 married B. B. Brown, of Broome county, N. Y., 
 and had two sons, of whom Frederick Hotchkiss 
 is now a prominent merchant of New Haven, 
 Conn. ; and Clarence H. is with Hall, Simpson & 
 Co., of Wallingford. (2) Laura married A. Sidr 
 ney Plumb, a farmer of Prospect, son of Major 
 Orrin Plumb, of Wolcott; both Mr. and Mrs. 
 Plumb are now deceased. (3) Hervey Dwight was 
 a prominent manufacturer, and lived and died in 
 Meriden, where his son Frederick is now a pros- 
 perous wholesale merchant. (4) Henry K., known 
 as Major Hotchkiss, lived in Bristol, and died in 
 Ansonia; his son, Wilham H., is a member of the 
 firm of J. N. Adam & Co., prominent merchants 
 of Buffalo, N. Y. (5) Frederick died when a 
 young man, in Virginia. (6) Berkeley S., sixth in 
 the order of birth, is the subject of this sketch. 
 (7) Edward is an insurance agent in Binghamton, 
 N. Y. (8) Richard was a merchant in Atlantic 
 City, N. J., where he died. After the death of his 
 first wife David M. Hotchkiss married Mrs. Han- 
 nah (Doolittle) Bristol, of Cheshire, and by this 
 union had two children: Julia E., who married 
 Frederick A. Sanford, formerly of Windsor, N. 
 Y., but now of Westfield, Mass.; and David B., 
 who resides on the old homestead in Prospect. 
 Hon. David Miles Hotchkiss was first a Whig in 
 politics, and then became an avowed Abolitionist. 
 He filled a number of local offices, had the town 
 set off and named Prospect in 1827, represented it 
 many times' in the State Legislature, and was rec- 
 ognized as the most progressive and prominent resi- 
 dent of the place. He passed away in the faith 
 of the Congregational Church, at the ripe old age of 
 eighty-one years. 
 
 Berkeley S. Hotchkiss grew to manhood on the 
 .farm in Prospect, and began life for himself by 
 teaching school in Cheshire in the winters several 
 years, and he also for a year and a half taught its 
 center public school winter and summer. He then 
 formed a partnership with Howard C. Ives and en- 
 gaged in the grocery business, in which they pros- 
 pered, continuing thus for two years. In 1861 
 Mr. Hotchkiss sought the broader field of Water- 
 bury, and opened up in the same line of trade, which 
 he most successfully followed for twenty-three 
 
 69 
 
 years, when he retired on a competence — the fruit 
 of his careful consideration of the needs of the 
 public and of his strict integrity in all transactions. 
 On April 12, 1851, Mr. Hotchkiss was happily 
 joined in marriage, by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 
 with Miss Catherine A. Harper, of Binghamton, 
 who was bom in Windsor, Broome Co., N. Y., 
 daughter of George and Sally (Butler) Harper. 
 Three children have blessed this union : Lillian 
 May, born Nov. 16, 1854, graduated from Vassar 
 College in the class of 1S77, and died Oct. 2, 
 1898 ; she united with the Second Congregational 
 Church May 3, 1868. Sara Catherine, born March 
 I, i860, married F. A. Drexel, of Detroit, Mich. 
 .William Berkeley, born Feb. 9, 1867, is a member 
 of the firm of Hotchkiss & Templeton, hardware 
 merchants in Waterbury. In politics Mr. Hotchkiss 
 is a stanch Republican. In religious belief he and 
 his family are Congregationalists, and in social cir- 
 cles none stand higher in Waterbury. 
 
 George Harper, father of Mrs. Hotchkiss, was- 
 born March i, 1793, in Windsor, N. Y., a son o£ 
 Judge George Harper, and died Nov. 8, 1859. By 
 occupation he was a farmer. On June 18, 1818, he- 
 married Sally Butler, who was born Dec. 10, 1802,. 
 in Deposit, Delaware Co., N. Y., daughter of Sam- 
 uel Butler, a representative of the Butlers of Brain- 
 tree, England, one of whom settled in Cambridge, 
 Mass., in 1632. Several male members of the 
 Butler family located ill Michigan and attained con- 
 siderable prominence. Mrs. Sally (Butler) Har- 
 per died June 14, 1878. In the family of Mr. 
 and Mrs. George Harper were the following chil- 
 dren : Ruth, Butler, Catherine A., Edgar, Will- 
 iam, Henry, John L. (a prominent banker of De- 
 troit, Mich.) and Mary (who married G. D. Crane, 
 a prominent resident of Cheshire, Connecticut). 
 
 MARION A. MORRIS holds a position as a 
 high-class mechanic that at once reflects honor upon 
 his character, and shows the worth of the man. 
 In the full prime of his manly powers, he commands 
 the confidence of those whose interests he so well 
 aonserves, and has long held the respect and good 
 will of the community. 
 
 Mr. Morris was born in the town of Waterbury, 
 Conn., June 3, 1852, a son of William F. Morris, 
 a native of Litchfield, Conn., where he first saw 
 the light Feb. 22, 1828. The grandfather of Ma- 
 rion A. was John N. Morris, who was a son of 
 Sheldon and Polly (Chatfield) Morris. John N- 
 was a cooper by trade, and died in Bridgeport. 
 William F. Morris grew up in Litchfield, and mar- 
 ried Miss Elizabeth A. Scott, a native of Water- 
 town, Conn. The young couple settled in Oakville, 
 Conn., where he was a foreman in the American 
 Mills. They were the parents of three children: 
 Marion A., Etta L. and Addie ,F. Etta L. mar- 
 ried William E. Crane, who is the mechanical en- 
 gineer of the New England Engineering Co., of 
 Waterbury. Addie F. is unmarried, and is. book- 
 
logo 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 keeper for the Benedict & Burnham jManufactur- 
 ing Co. William F. Morris died June 8, 1872, and 
 his widow is still living. The}' were both Epis- 
 copalians. Politically he was a Republican. 
 
 ]\Iarion A. Morris spent his boyhood and youth 
 in Waterbury, and received his education in the 
 local schools. When the time came for the young 
 man to make his own way he entered the Water- 
 bury Suspender Co., and was at work in their fac- 
 tory some two years. The period of his employ- 
 ment with Maltby, Hopson & Brooks, manufact- 
 urers, covered six years. For three months Mr. 
 Morris worked in Harrison's machine shop, at New 
 Haven, and fourteen months with the Excelsior 
 Needle Co. At the expiration of this time he came 
 back to Waterbury, and was. with the American 
 Mills Co. one year; with the Oakville Pin Co. eight 
 months ; and was then employed seven years by 
 the Plume & Atwood Co. Mr. Morris then entered 
 the employ of the Scovill Manufacturing Co., and 
 for the past nineteen years he has been in their 
 factory, now holding a position as foreman, and 
 he is one of their most trusted employes. 
 
 ;\Ir. Morris was married, Oct. 20, 1881, to Miss 
 Sarah J. Dodds, a native of Waterbury, and a 
 daughter of William and Harriet Dodds, both na- 
 tives of Scotland. William Dodds came to Water- 
 bury when about twenty-five years old, and married 
 here ; he was engineer for the Holmes, Booth & 
 Hardens Co., and' for the* Plume & Atwood Co. 
 about forty-five years. Mr. and Mrs. Dodds are 
 the parents of two children: Harriet E.. who mar- 
 ried Edgar S. Buckingham, of Shelton, Conn., and 
 died Jan. 4, 1897; and Sarah J. Mrs. Dodds died 
 Feb. 3, 1899, ^nd at present Mr. Dodds. is retired 
 from active business labors. Mr. Morris and his 
 wife have two children : William D., who died in 
 infancy; and Harriet D. Politically Mr. Morris is 
 a Republican; and fraternally is a Mason, having 
 his membership in Federal Lodge, No. 17, A. F. 
 & A. M. He also belongs to various protective or- 
 ders, such as the A. O. U. W., the R. A., and the 
 Woodmen of the World. The Morris family are all 
 affiliated with the Episcopal Church, with which oi3r 
 subject and bis wife are closely associated. 
 
 FREDERICK K. PERRY, who is now success- 
 fully engaged in the job printing business in Nauga- 
 tuck, was born in Sandisfield, Mass., in 1847, a son 
 of E. G. and Martha (White) Perry, the former 
 born in Oneida county, N. Y., the latter near Win- 
 sted, Litchfield Co., Conn., and both are now de- 
 ceased. The father was engaged in business both 
 in New York and this State as a contractor and 
 builder, which pursuit his father also followed. 
 They were active members of the Congregational 
 Church, and were highly respected by all who knew 
 them. Their children were Jennett, now deceased ; 
 Edwin R., who became a farmer in Iowa, and served 
 as a soldier in the Civil war, but is now deceased ; 
 Philo B., who engaged in mercantile business in 
 
 Texas, and on the outbreak of the Civil war es- 
 poused the Confederate cause, and died in 1865, 
 from disease contracted in the army ; Frederick K. ; 
 Lavinia W., who married George W. Ball, of 
 Chicopee, Mass., and died in Westfield, Mass. (Mr. 
 Ball has since married and now lives in Chicago, 
 111.) ; and Philinda M., who is now Mrs. Edwin 
 B. Alfred, of Harwinton, Connecticut. 
 
 Frederick K. Perry attended school in Winches- 
 ter, Conn., until sixteen years of age, and then en- 
 tered the Winsted Herald office as an apprentice 
 to the printer's trade, remaining there about three 
 years. Going to Hartford, he worked on various 
 papers in that city for four years, and was later for 
 seven years a compositor on the Springfield Re- 
 publican at Springfield, Mass. At the end of that 
 time he went to' Waterbury, Conn., where after 
 working on different newspapers he spent two years 
 in a job office. He continued to work at his trade 
 for others until 1891, when he purchase'd the busi- 
 ness of which he has since had control, and is now 
 doing a large job and general printing business. 
 He also conducted a paper called the Advocate for 
 some time, its object being to advocate the prin- 
 ciples of single tax. For years he has made a 
 thorough and careful study of that subject, and has 
 written many able articles and also lectured on the 
 same. His arguments are logical and convincing, 
 and he has become a recognized leader among the 
 advocates of the single tax in his section of the 
 State. In politics he is independent, and in his fra- 
 ternal relations is a member of the Grange and 
 the Knights of Pythias. 
 
 Mr. Perry has been twice married, his first wife 
 being Sarah M. Lane, of Winsted, who .died leav- 
 ing two children: Leslie E., a telegraph operator; 
 and Philo B., who is with his father in business. 
 For his second wife Mr. Perry married Jessie Davis, 
 by whom he has a son, Harold R. 
 
 JARED P. KING, an energetic and enterprising 
 contractor and builder of Waterbury, is one of the 
 workers of that busy city who stands out con- 
 spicuously by reason of his thorough work and sub- 
 stantial construction. What he does, stays; and be 
 is in every sense a straightforward and reliable 
 man. 
 
 Mr. King was born Sept. 13, 1848, in Spring- 
 field, Bradford Co., Pa., in which locality Edward 
 Kmg, his father, was a farmer. Edward King mar- 
 ried Anna Phillips, whose parents came from Eng- 
 land, and who died Sept. 24, 1853. Five children 
 came to them: Moletta, bom Aug. 23, 1844; 
 Loiza, born Oct. 15, 1846; Jared P., born Sept. 
 13, 1848 ; one child, born in 1850, who died in in- 
 fancy ; and Lewis E., born March 26, 1853. Both 
 the daughters reached maturity. One married, but 
 did not live many years afterward. The other died 
 when a young lady. Lewis was working at his trade 
 — printing — in New York when his health gave 
 way, and he went South, where he died in 1899. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 logi 
 
 He and his wife lived in New Jersey with her par- 
 ents, and they all preceded him to the grave. Ed- 
 ward King, the father, married again, and had 
 several children by his second wife. He went 
 West a number of years ago. 
 
 Jared P. King was bound out to an aunt when 
 he was about five years old, and was taken from his 
 home to Stamford, Conn., where he lived until ht 
 was ten years of age. In 1858 his aunt, who had 
 married, moved to Waterbury, and here Jared P. 
 finished his education, and began his life work. He 
 learned the trade of carpenter under the instruction 
 of A. C. Peck, and went to work for the Waterbury 
 Coal & Lumber Co., in their sash and blind fac- 
 tory, remaining with them some nine years. Mr. 
 King found employment on leaving that firm with 
 the People's Coal & Ice Co., where he remained 
 about one year. For three years he was with the 
 Mathew & Willard Manufacturing Co., and then 
 began business for himself as a contractor and 
 builder. Mr. King is still working on a modest 
 scale, but what he has done is of the very best 
 character, and the general public is coming to 
 know that no better work can be secured in the city 
 than what Mr. King has to ofifer. 
 
 On May 10, 1870, Mr. King married Miss Sarah 
 J. Piatt, daughter of Alfred LeGrand Piatt. A his- 
 tory of the Piatt family appears elsewhere. Mr. 
 and Mrs. King are the parents of two children: 
 LiHan A., who was born June 10, 1872, and died 
 the same year; and Rupert V., who was born Oct. 
 17, 1882, and is still living. 
 
 Mr. King is a Republican on general political 
 issues, but in local affairs seeks the best men for 
 the various positions. He is a Knight Templar, 
 and his connection with the Masonic fraternity dates 
 from 1876. Two years before that date he united 
 with the Odd Fellows, and is a member of Town- 
 send Lodge. He is also associated with several of 
 the smaller societies. With his family he attends 
 the Baptist Church. 
 
 HARVEY BEAL'MONT, one of the old and 
 popular residents of the town of Wallingford, is a 
 man whose high character merits the esteem in 
 which he is held. A son of John and Ann (Tyler) 
 Beaumont, he was born on the Beaumont home- 
 stead. May 5, 1840, and acquired his education in 
 the neighboring district school. Harvey Beaumont 
 remained on the family homestead, assisting his 
 father in his farming operations, until he reachei.l 
 the age of forty years. In 1880 he bought a farm 
 of seventy acres of Elijah Hungerford, and since 
 that time has been engaged in its cultivation. 
 While he is classed as a general farmer, he is work- 
 ing more and more into fruit culture. Since pur- 
 chasing his place he has made many substantial and 
 attractive improvements, building a house, barns 
 and other structures necessary to the economical 
 and profitable transaction of his business. 
 
 Mr. Beaumont was a soldier in the Civil war. 
 
 and donned the Union blue in 1862, when he en- 
 listed as a member of Company B, 27th Conn. Y . 1., 
 and spent nine months in the service. He par- 
 ticipated in the battles of Fredericksburg and Chan- 
 cellorsville, and was honorably discharged and 
 mustered out at New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Beaumont has been twice married, Melissa 
 Foster becoming his wife in 1881. Born at East 
 River, Madison, Conn., she was a daughter of Alan- 
 sen Foster, and died Dec. 10, 1882. Julia (Mix) 
 Bailey, his second wife, was born in Wallingford, 
 and was a daughter of Elihu and Polly (Hull) 
 Mix, and the widow of Henry Bailey, of Durham. 
 One child, Edmund Mix, born in June, 1890, has 
 blessed this union. Mr. Beaumont is a Republican, 
 but has never been an aspirant for office. A pio- 
 neer in the culture of tobacco, he has been very suc- 
 cessful in that line. Domestic in his habits and 
 quiet in his tastes, he is liberal in his church views 
 and upright in all his business dealings. 
 
 HON. CLIFFORD J. ATWATER, attorney 
 and counselor at law, is one of the orominent and 
 worthy citizens of Seymour. We will confine our- 
 selves to a brief sketch of his life, leaving it to the 
 readers individually to supply the spirit of court- 
 eousnes's, integrity and uprightness which has evet 
 characterized his dealings with his fellow men. 
 
 Clifford J. Atwater was born in Collinsville, 
 Conn., Nov. 8, 1858. He is of English descent, 
 and his ancestors were among the early settlers of 
 New Haven, in 1635. James Atwater, his father, 
 was also born in Collinsville, and his grandfather, 
 Stephen H. Atwater, was born in Russell, Mass., 
 a son of Benjamin Atwater, of that town. Stephen 
 H. Atwater was a farmer, and pursued that voca- 
 tion in Collinsville, to which town he removed 
 when a young man, there residing until his death, 
 at the age of seventy-eight years. He married 
 Azubah Barber, who was born in Canton, and lived 
 to be eighty years of age. Two children were born 
 of this marriage, James, the father of our sub- 
 ject, being the only son. Mr. and Mrs. Stephen H. 
 Atwater were members of the Congregational 
 Church in Collinsville. 
 
 James Atwater was reared on a farm, and re- 
 ceived his education in the Connecticut schools. 
 He took charge of the farm in Collinsville, and, at 
 the age of seventy-seven years, still resides in that 
 town. He married Mary G. Stewart, one of the 
 eight children .of James Stewart, a farmer of Bland- 
 ford, Mass., who resided in that town until his 
 death. Two children were born of this union, 
 namely: Clifford J., our subject; and Clayton W., 
 a prosperous nurseryman, residing in Collinsville. 
 Mr. and Mrs, James Atwater are members of the 
 Congregational Church, and beloved by their 
 friends and neighbors. 
 
 Clifford J. Atwater spent his early years on the 
 farm, was educated in the Connecticut schools, and 
 is a graduate of the Collinsville high school. At 
 
1092 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 twenty years of age he began teaching, and later 
 entered Bates College, at Lewiston, Maine, where 
 he remained until he graduated from the academic 
 course, in 1883. He then studied law with W. W. 
 Bidwell, of Collinsville, satisfactorily passed his 
 examination, and was admitted tO' the Bar in Hart- 
 ford in 1885, after which he took a short trip to 
 South Dakota. Returning to the East, he opened 
 an office in November, 1885, in Seymour, where 
 he has since followed his profession. He is the 
 only lawyer there, and commands a fine general 
 practice, coming in contact with all the older prac- 
 titioners in the lower end of the valley, and practic- 
 ing in all the courts. 
 
 In politics Mr. Atwater is a Republican, and he 
 has been a member of the Republican committee 
 for several years. He has satisfactorily served the 
 people in various capacities for a number of years. 
 In 1886 he was elected tax collector, and was re- 
 elected to succeed himself each year from 1888 
 to 1900, inclusive, his services covering a period of 
 fourteen years ; he has also been justice of the peace 
 since 1887, the same length of time. In 1898 he 
 was nominated and elected to the Legislature, to 
 serve two years. Mr. Atwater is a member of 
 Morning Star Lodge, F. & A. M., in which be has 
 passed all the chairs, and now is a past master of 
 the lodge ; he is also a member of the Order of 
 the Eastern Star ; the -Redmen ; and of Mechanics 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F. 
 
 In 1890 Mr. Atwater was united in marriage 
 with Miss Jennie C. Taylor, daughter of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Henry M. Taylor, of Seymour, who were 
 born in England, as were also their children. jNIr. 
 and Mrs. Taylor had removed to Seymour a num- 
 ber of years previous, and Mr. Taylor (now de- 
 ceased) successfully conducted a store which is now 
 owned by his widow. Their son, Ernest H., is a 
 draughtsman with the Coe Brass Co., of Ansonia. 
 He and Jennie C, Mrs. Atwater, were the only 
 children of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Clifford J. Atwater are devout 
 and active members of the Seymour Congregational 
 Church, and for the past twelve years he has been 
 treasurer of that church and society. He has been 
 superintendent of the Sunday-school for a number 
 of years, and renders valuable service to both church 
 and Sunday-school. 
 
 FREDERICK NEWTON BRADLEY is a 
 prominent manufacturer and citizen of Derby, 
 where he was born June 10, 1835. He comes of 
 zn old Connecticnt family. His first American 
 progenitor, William Bradley, came to this coun- 
 try from England about 1637, and settled in Say- 
 brook. Some of William's descendants settled in 
 West Haven, where they became owners of a large 
 tract of land. 
 
 Tracing down the family lineage to more recent 
 times, the genealogist reaches the name of Enos 
 Bradley, the great-grandfather of Frederick N., 
 
 a farmer, who lived and died in Derby. His son, 
 Abijah Bradley, was also born there. He was 
 a blacksmith by trade, and a citizen of prominence, 
 being commissioned a captain in the State militia, 
 as is shown by documentary evidence in the pos- 
 session of his grandson. He married Polly Bas- 
 sett, and they became the parents of eight chil- 
 dren : David (father of Frederick N.), Ira, Henry, 
 Abijah, Charles, George, Edward and Maria. Ira 
 and Henry were woolen manufacturers in South 
 Britain; Ira died Sept. 10, 1900. Abijah was a 
 grocer in New Haven. Charles was a farmer in 
 Seymour. George was at first an augermaker, and 
 later a woodworker. Edward was a carpenter and 
 builder in Derby. Maria married Dan Finn, a 
 prosperous farmer of Milford. 
 
 David Bradley was born and reared in Derby. 
 He learned the trade of a joiner, and was esteemed 
 one of the most skillful workmen of his time. 
 He formed a partnership with Agur Gilbert, in 
 connection with whom he established a sash and 
 blind factory, on the stream — Two Mile brook — 
 which forms the boundary line between the towns 
 of Orange and Derby. They began in a modest 
 way, their first structure covering an area of but 
 20 by 30 feet, and being only two stories high. 
 Theirs, however, was the only factory of its kind 
 outside of New Haven, and the second to be erected 
 in the county. It is no cause for surprise, there- 
 fore, that their business prospered and grew. Grad- 
 ually the plant was enlarged as the development of 
 business demanded, until it reached its present ex- 
 tensive proportions. In politics David Bradley was 
 originally an "Old-line" Whig, and later a Re- 
 publican. He married Susan C., daughter of Elias 
 Clark, a farmer of Oxford, and they had two chil- 
 dren, Frederick N., our subject, and Sarah Fran- 
 sania. Mr. Bradley died May 29, 1885 ; his widow 
 survived until June i, 1899, reaching the 
 venerable age of ninety years. She traced her de- 
 scent back to Thomas Hooker. 
 
 Frederick N. Bradley received his early educa- 
 tion at the Derby common schools and the Bir- 
 mingham high school. At the age of eighteen he 
 entered his father's sash and blind factory, with 
 a view of becoming thoroughly familiar with all 
 the details of the business, mechanical as well as 
 commercial. He has succeeded his father in its 
 management and control, and under his judicious 
 conduct of affairs the business has suffered no im- 
 pairment. Mr. Bradley, however, has a natural 
 fondness for the soil, and besides being a manu- 
 facture is a successful farmer. Originally 'he 
 cultivated fifteen acres, but his holdings have since 
 been enlarged to twenty-five acres. In one respect 
 his life may be said to present somewhat of an 
 anomaly: he has been an active politician and a 
 consistent Christian. He is an ardent Republican 
 and a zealous worker in the cause of his party, 
 having organized various clubs and in other ways 
 promoted Republican success. He is held in high 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1093 
 
 esteem in Derby, and is now for the fourth time 
 representing the Third ward of the city in the city 
 toard of aldermen, his present term commencing 
 Oct. I, 1901. He has also held a high place in the 
 counsels of the Congregational Church, and has 
 served on the committee of the Society of the First 
 Church for fourteeri years. 
 
 In May, 1873, Mr! Bradley married Miss Louise 
 G. Hooper, a daughter of Henry A. and Caroline 
 Hooper, of Ansonia. No children have been born 
 to them. , 
 
 It is of interest to note, incidentally, that Mr. 
 Bradley was a schoolmate and! boyhood *"chum" 
 of Gen. Wheeler, the dashing Confederate cavalry 
 leader and at present distinguished major general 
 in the United States army. 
 
 HENRY ELSWORTH BALDWIN, a leading 
 agriculturist of the town of Milford, was born Sept. 
 3, 1847, at his present homestead, son of Charles 
 J. Baldwin. 
 
 The Baldwins are of pioneer stock, members 
 of the family having settled in Hadley, Mass., at 
 an early day, and our subject is a descendant of 
 Joseph Baldwin, who was born in Milford in 1640. 
 Joshua Baldwin, our subject's great-grandfather, 
 was a resident of Milford, and among the inscrip- 
 tions in an old Bible is the following: "Joshua 
 Baldwin, His Bible, God give him grace therein to 
 look: Bought November the 3, 1756, on Wednes- 
 day. I was bom December 14th, in the year 1726, 
 on Wednesday morning. My honored mother, 
 Elizabeth Baldwin, departed this life November the 
 20 day about 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and in 
 the year 1753; which was the fifty second year of 
 her age." A pair of Jos'hua's shoes, used in his in- 
 fancy, are now in the possession of George E. Bald- 
 win, of Milford. 
 
 Hezekiah Baldwin, our subject's grandfather, 
 married Mary Ann Hine, and settled on the present 
 Tiomestead. He had ten children, as follows : Heze- 
 kiah, who was a farmer all his life; Charles J., 
 our subject's father; Elijah, a farmer in Milford; 
 Mary, who married Joseph Beard, a farmer of Mil- 
 ford ; Betsey, who married William Stowe, a farm- 
 er of Milford ; Abby, who married Lewis Smith, a 
 farmer in Milford; Martha, who married Rogers 
 Beard, a carpenter in Milford; Sally, who married 
 Charles Beardsley, a farmer in Stratford; Anna, 
 who married Addison Beard, a farmer ; and Cath- 
 erine, who married Nathan C. Tomlinson, of Mil- 
 ford. ^. ^ 
 
 Charles J. Baldwin, the father of our subject, 
 was born in Milford Sept. 30, 1812, and passed his 
 life in the town, locating at the present homestead 
 after his marriage. He died March 21, 1891. He 
 married Eunice Baldwin, who was born May 22, 
 1814, daughter of Elnathan Baldwin, a farmer m 
 Milford, and died Feb. 25, 1876. They had four 
 children: Charles Watson, born April 9, 1840, 
 resides in Milford; William H., born April 7, 1846, 
 
 died March 19, 1851 ; Henry Elsworth is mentioned 
 below; George Edwin, born Sept. 16, 1851, is em- 
 ployed by the New York, New Haven & Hart- 
 ford Railway Co. 
 
 Henry Elsworth Baldwin was eduucated in the 
 district schools near his home, and in a private 
 school in Milford village, and has been engaged in 
 general farming since early manhood. His farm 
 presents a most attractive appearance, the buildings 
 being tasteful and commodious, and everything 
 about the place suggesting business-like manage- 
 ment. In politics he is a Republican, and socially 
 he is identified with the I. O. O. F. at Milford. 
 
 On Nov. 18, 1875, Mr. Baldwin married Miss 
 Georgiana Lewis, who was born in Bridgeport Oct. 
 I, 185 1, daughter of Ed'win Lewis, and grandr 
 daughter of Everett and Julia A. (Knapp) Lewis. 
 The line of descent in the Knapp family has been 
 traced through several generations. Mrs. Julia A. 
 (Knapp) Lewis, who was born March 30, 1806, and 
 died Dec. 3, 1867, was a daughter of Ephraim 
 Knapp, born Nov. 25, 1779, and his wife, Sarah E., 
 born April 17, 1782, died Sept, 29, 1847. Edwin 
 Lewis, who was a tailor and cutter by trade, was 
 born in Stratford, Conn., in 1830, and died July 4, 
 1857. His wife, Emily Stow, was born in Mil- 
 ford Aug. 6, 1830, daughter of Capt. Elisha Hop- 
 kins Stow, and died Oct. 25, 1878. Capt. Stow, 
 born Jan. 9, 1798, son of Capt. Samuel Stow, fol- 
 lowed the sea, as did his father, and died July 12, 
 1879. He married Susan Davidson, who was born 
 Sept. 29, 1802, and died Jan. 20, 1879 ; she was the 
 daughter of Richard Treat and Mary Stow David- 
 son. 
 
 CHARLES SHUBEL BRADLEY, farmer, ice 
 dealer, etc., of Branford, one of the most popular 
 citizens of that locality, is native there, having 
 been born at the Bradley homestead on Cherry 
 Hill April 3, 1858. 
 
 Timothy and Sarah (Goodsell) Bradley, his pa- 
 ternal great-grandparents, lived in the house in 
 Branford now occupied by Seth Thomas Bradley. 
 Their son, Timothy Bradley, grandfather of Charles 
 S., was a farmer, sailor and vessel owner, for many 
 years coasting along the Atlantic shores. He made 
 his home in Branford. He married Irene Gordon, 
 daughter of Alexander and Irene Gordon, of Bran- 
 ford, and children as follows were born to them: 
 James; Irene, Mrs. William Bryan; Nancy, who 
 was thrice married, her husbands being, respect- 
 ively, Sylvester Harrison, Henry Linsley and Will- 
 iam Bryan; Lydia, who was- twice married, first 
 to Alden Pardee, and second to Benjamin Linsley; 
 Sally, Mrs. James Waddell ; Mary, Mrs. Elias Lins- 
 ley ; Major Seth; and Gurdon. 
 
 Gurdon Bradley, father of Charles S., was born 
 in Branford Sept. 27, i8ig, and as will be seen was 
 the youngest of the family. He began life as a 
 farmer, also owned a vessel and followed the coast 
 for three winters, in addition to which for many 
 
I094 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 years he conducted a saw and grist mill, and took 
 contracts for the building of cellars, removing of 
 buildings, etc., while for upward of twenty years he 
 was engaged in the ice business. On July 29, 1843, 
 he married Anna Maria, daughter of Samuel and. 
 Esther (Tyler) Spinks, of Branford, and to this 
 union were born fourteen children, as follows : 
 Ebenezer T., deceased; a son that died in infancy, 
 Esther M., Mrs. Sherman Holcomb; Betsy, Mrs. 
 Qiarles N. Holcomb; Willis; Richard; Eliza A., 
 Mrs. Charles E. Bunnell; Albert C, deceased; A. 
 Gurdon, deceased; F. CHne; Charles S.; John H. ; 
 Lee A., deceased; and Robert L., deceased. 
 
 Charles S. Bradley, our subject, was educated 
 in the public schools of Branford, and commenced 
 his business career as a farmer. Since 1882 he 
 has, in connection with his agricultural pursuits, 
 been extensively engaged in the ice business. He 
 has met with the prosperity his care and attention 
 deserve, and is looked upon as one of the county's 
 substantial citizens. 
 
 On Oct. 6, 1888, Mr. Bradley married Sarah 
 Kerr, daughter of Richard and Christiana (Kerr) 
 Kerr, of Branford, and they have two children. 
 Fern and Gurdon. The family attend the services 
 of the Episcopal Church. Socially our subject is 
 affiliated with the K. of P., Woodland Lodge, No. 
 39, and the Woodmen of the World, Sycamore 
 Gamp, No. 5. In politics he is a Democrat. In 
 1896 he was elected a representative to the State 
 Legislature, and was honored with re-election in 
 1898. In 1899 he was elected selectman of Bran- 
 ford. 
 
 CHARLES J. PIERPONT, city water in- 
 spector of Waterbury, was born Feb. 9, 1847, in 
 the town of Waterbury, on a farm, son of Charles 
 J. Pierpont, Sr., who is mentioned elsewhere. 
 
 Charles J. Pierpont passed his youth on the 
 home farm, attending the district school in winter 
 until sixteen years of age ; he subsequently attended 
 school in Cheshire, and later the Waterbury high 
 school, and taught three years prior to reaching his 
 majority. At the age of twenty he managed a 
 farm in the town of Watertown for one season, and 
 then went to live on the farm with his grandpar- 
 ents, in the town of Waterbury, for four years. 
 For the next fourteen years he had charge of the 
 outside department of Holmes, Booth & Hayden's 
 extensive concern, and then became bookkeeper and 
 timekeeper for Floyd B. Smith, contractor and 
 builder, with whom he remained four years. Sincii 
 then, for the past ten years, he has filled the office 
 of city water inspector. 
 
 On Feb. 23, 1873, Mr. Pierpont married Miss 
 Juliet- M. Bolster, a native of Waterbury, and a 
 daughter of Col. Levi and Mercia (Warner) Bol- 
 ster. She was a public-school teacher at the time 
 of her marriage. Col. Levi Bolster was born in 
 South Paris, Maine, and his wife in Waterbury, 
 Conn. She was a direct descendant of Rev. John 
 
 Southmayd, of Waterbury. The Bolsters were of 
 Welsh extraction, and many of the family were 
 deacons in the Presbyterian Church. Isaac Bolster, 
 father of Col. Levi, married Hannah Cushman. 
 The Cushmans were among the earliest of the Puri- 
 tans to arrive at Plymouth settlement. 
 
 In politics Mr. Pierpont is a Democrat, and 
 does his full share in promoting the interests of 
 his party. Fraternally he is a member of the 
 Ancient Order of United Workmen. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Pierpont and their child, Anna, are members 
 of the Episcopal Church, in the affairs of which 
 they are* all active and deeply interested. 
 
 ERNST HERRMANN, keeper of the light- 
 house on Faulkner's Island, is a native of Germany, 
 born Dec. 31, 1853, in Nieder Seifersdorf. 
 
 Aaron Chrenfried Herrmann, his father, is also 
 a native of that place, where he still resides, en- 
 gaged in farming. He married Mary Bartel, of the 
 same town, and five children were born to them: 
 Ernst, our subject; Louisa, widow of Ernest Ha- 
 mann; Carl, living at the old home; Paulina, Mrs. 
 Schmidt; and William, residing at the old home, 
 who is a game-keeper. The family are all mem- 
 bers of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 Ernst Herrmann acquired a good education in 
 the schools of his native land, meanwhile assisting 
 his father on the farm until fourteen years of age. 
 For the next three years he was engaged as ap- 
 prentice at blacksmithing, following with one year's 
 apprenticeship to the machinist's trade. In 1872, 
 believing that his ambition and enterprise would 
 find wider scope in America, he came to this coun- 
 try, going first to Liverpool, where he embarked on 
 the steamer "England," hound for New York. He 
 found employment at blacksmithing and locksmith- 
 ing, receiving $8 per week for his services, and was 
 thus engaged until 1875, when he returned to Ger- 
 many on a short visit to his parents. On his re- 
 turn to New York he embarked in the dry-goods 
 business, in partnership with a Mr. Mirschel, and 
 continued in that line, in New York and on Long 
 Island, until 1878, when he removed to Northport, 
 L. I. There he engaged in blacksmithing on his 
 own account for one year, and the following year 
 worked for Stehling & Co., at Lloyd's Neck, L. I., 
 thence returning to Northport, where for about ten 
 years he was employed at his trade by a Mr. Dela- 
 mater. In 1889, under President Harrison, he re-' 
 ceived the appointment of assistant keeper of the 
 lighthouse at Eton's Neck, a position he held for 
 fifteen months, at the end of that time receiving ap- 
 pointment to his present position, in which he has 
 since been continuously retained. He succeeded 
 Capt. Jones. Mr. Herrmann has given general 
 satisfaction in the discharge of his duties, and per- 
 sonally he has, by his genial disposition and obliging 
 manner, won the friendship and good-will of all 
 with whom he has come in contact. Visitors to the 
 island are always cordially received. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1095 
 
 On F«b. 22, 1883, Mr. Herrmann married, at 
 Eton's Neck, L. I., Miss Tillie J. Mason, who was 
 born at that place, only child of Richard and Mary 
 (Wilson) Mason, natives of Ireland, who are still 
 living at Eaton's Neck. They are members of the 
 Episcopal Church. Two children have been born 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Herrmann: Frederick Mason, 
 Aug. II, 1886; 'and Herbert William, July 26, 1889. 
 Both are attending school in Guilford. In political 
 sentiment our subject is a Republican. His relig- 
 ious connection is with the Lutheran Church, Mrs. 
 Herrmann holding membership in the Third Con- 
 gregational Church of Guilford. She is an intelli- 
 gent woman, and has proved an able helpmeet to 
 her husband, whose progressiveness and public 
 spirit entitle him to rank among the substantial, 
 valuable citizens of his adopted place. 
 
 HENRY BRISTOL CURTISS, one of the 
 leading citizens of Cheshire, whose time and at- 
 tention are devoted to market gardening and fruit 
 growing, was born in that town, Aug. 26, 1846, a 
 son of Orrin and Sally (Bristol) Curtiss, both of 
 English descent, and natives of New Haven county. 
 
 John C. Curtiss, father of Orrin Curtiss, was 
 born in Meriden, this county, a son of John C. Cur- 
 tiss, Sr., a native of England, and an early settler 
 of Meriden, where he followed farming through- 
 out life. In early manhood young John went to 
 Yalesville, and later removed to Wallingford, where 
 he died in 1846. By occupation he was a farmer. 
 His children were as follows: John C. (3) ; Mary, 
 wife of John Hitchcock; Orrin, mentioned below; 
 William; and Harvey. 
 
 Orrin Curtiss, son of John C, was born in 
 Wallingford in 1800, and was reared and educated 
 in his native town. Throughout his active life he 
 engaged in farming in Cheshire, where he owned 
 a good farm, and where he died Sept. 24, 1881. He 
 married Sally Bristol, who was born in Cheshire in 
 1803, and died Feb. 23, 1879. She was a daughter 
 of Thomas and Sarah (Parker) Bristol, who were 
 both born in Wallingford, but who spent the greater 
 part of their lives as farming people in Cheshire; 
 the father died Feb. 13, 1814, and the mother in 
 October, 1847. To Orrin Curtiss and his wife were 
 born the following children : Jerusha, now Mrs. 
 William Parker, of Wallingford; Elizabeth, who 
 died in Cheshire in May, 1849; Cornelia, wife of 
 Edwin Parker, who died in Wallingford; Julia, de- 
 ceased wife of James T. Harry, of Cheshire ; James 
 J., a resident of Meriden ; William O., of Walling- 
 ford; Henry B.; Edgar A., who died in Middle- 
 town, Conn. ; and Jane, wife of James Johnson, of 
 Cheshire. 
 
 Henry B. Curtiss is indebted to the schools of 
 Cheshire for his educational privileges, and since 
 starting out in life for himself has engaged in farm- 
 ing and gardening in that town, now owning what 
 is known as the Jinney Hill farm. At one time he 
 also worked in shops at Meriden, but now gives his 
 
 entire time to agricultural pursuits, making a speci- 
 alty of fruit growing and market gardening. He is 
 a wide-awake, energetic business man and thor- 
 oughly understands the occupation he has chosen .as 
 a life work. 
 
 In 1887, in Cheshire, Mr. Curtiss was united in 
 marriage with Miss Louisa Birkley, who died in 
 March, 1899, and in June, 1899, he was again mar- 
 ried, his second union being with Miss Katie Eliza 
 Williams, a native of Cheshire, and a daughter of 
 Thomas Williams, was born in Relubbus, Corn- 
 wall, England, and had been in America only three 
 years when he died, Sept. 16, 1869, aged thirty-one 
 years. Mrs. Curtiss was born in the home where 
 she now lives, and where her father died. Lucy 
 A. (Rice) Williams, mother of Mrs. Curtiss, is. 
 now the wife of William King, and resides in, 
 Cheshire; she is a native of the town, daughter of 
 Amos and Lucy (Beach) Rice, natives of Vermont 
 and Connecticut respectively. 
 
 RICHARD TENNANT, than whom Scotland- 
 has not contributed to this country a more reliable 
 and upright man, was born in West Linton, Scot- 
 land, Dec. 31, 1844, and received a broad and thor- 
 ough education along mechanical lines in his own, 
 country before ever setting foot on American soil. 
 Robert Tennant, his father, never came to this 
 country, but lived and died near West Linton, 
 where he was born, and where all his life he fol- 
 lowed farming, which was the occupation of the 
 Tennants for many generations back. 
 
 Richard Tennant spent his boyhood and youth 
 on the Scottish homestead, and availed himself of- 
 the opportunities of education presented by the local 
 schools. After attaining his majority he went to 
 Glasgow and served three years as an apprentice to 
 the machinist's trade, at the Neilson Locomotive 
 Works. Howden & Co., marine engineers, had the 
 young man in their employ for two years, and he 
 was then with the London-Glasgow Engineering 
 Co. one year. By this time Mr. Tennant had be- 
 come an experienced and thoroughly efficient ma- 
 chinist, and his services were in demand. King & 
 Co., a celebrated engineering house, counted hirn 
 among their ablest employes. Only the desire to 
 come to this country, where many of his compa- 
 triots had already reaped a rich reward for their 
 courage and enterprise, induced him to break away 
 from this firm. In 1871 Mr. Tennant came to the 
 United States, and located in Paterson, N. J., where 
 he was in the employ of the Rogers Locomotive 
 Works until the close of the year 1873, and in the 
 following spring he came to Connecticut, working 
 for three months in Ansonia, and then for a year 
 m Seymour, with the Swan Bit Co. Mr. Tennant 
 then returned to Ansonia and engaged with Wal- 
 lace & Sons until January, 1888, in which month 
 he came to Waterbury to take a position with the 
 Scovill Manufacturmg Co., where he is still at 
 work. For a year Mr. Tennant was master me- 
 
1096 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 chaiiic for the Aluminum Brass & Bronze Co., at 
 Bridgeport, and with that exception has been with 
 the Scovill Co. since coming to Waterbury. 
 
 On June 27, 1867, Mr. Tennant married Miss 
 Helen B. Duncan, who was born in Perth, Scot- 
 land, a daughter of Stewart Duncan, a merchant of 
 that city. Mr. and Mrs. Tennant are the parents of 
 four children : Mary D., Robert, George B., and 
 Agnes A. George graduated with the class of 1900 
 from the Academic Department of Yale College. 
 In political faith Mr. Tennant is a Republican. He 
 is a member of the Royal Arcanum, and of the Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER KELLEY, a well-known 
 citizen of Ansonia, now living in retirement, is a 
 worthy representative of the Irish race, from which 
 so many of the leading business men of the day 
 are descended. He was born April 9, 1828, in Dub- 
 lin, Ireland, son of Thomas Kelley, and grandson 
 of Thomas Kelley. Thomas Kelley, the father, 
 who was a farmer by occupation, died in Ireland 
 Aug. 15, 1832, aged forty years, and his wife, Julia 
 (Dane), a native of Dublin, died in Rhode Island 
 at the age of seventy. This worthy couple had but 
 one child, our subject. 
 
 Mr. Kelley was only four years old when his 
 father died, and at the age of twenty he came to 
 America with his young wife, leaving Dublin Nov. 
 22, 1848, a week after their marriage. The voyage 
 was made on a sailing vessel, and it was not until 
 Jan. 27, 1849, that they landed in New York. On 
 March 27 our subject entered the employ of Gen. 
 Clark Wooster, in the axe factory at Humphreys- 
 ville. New Haven Co., Conn., where he remained 
 about fifteen years. He then spent two years and 
 three months in Collinsville, and later was em- 
 ployed in Colt's Armory, in Hartford. He was 
 one of those chosen to carry Col. Colt to his grave. 
 For a time he worked in the Colburn axe factory 
 at Ansonia, remaining until the firm went out of 
 business, and after a short period with Wallace & 
 Sons he spent ten years in the clock shop. The 
 next seven years were spent with Wallace & Sons, 
 and in 1884 he retired, limiting his business in- 
 terests to the care of his real estate, his investments 
 in that line being numerous. His first purchase 
 was the Colburn house on High street, and later he 
 built his present residence, at No. 6 Franklin street, 
 and the house adjoining, while at various times he 
 has bought houses and stores in the town. Polit- 
 ically he is a Democrat, and he and his family are 
 members of the Catholic Church at Ansonia. 
 
 On Nov. 17, 1848, Mr. Kelley married Miss 
 Eliza Morriss, daughter of Capt. William Morriss 
 and granddaughter of William Morriss, a lifelong 
 resident of Ireland. Her father, who died aged 
 sixty-six years, was taken to sea during the re- 
 bellion of 1798, and after spending twenty-one years 
 on board a man-of-war became captain of a coast 
 guard. Her mother, Mrs. Mary A. (Blackburn) 
 
 Morriss, who died aged thirty-eight, was one of the 
 fourteen children of James and Mary Ann (Wah) 
 Blackburn, the former of whom was a well-known 
 resident of Dublin in his day, being an extensive 
 land owner and builder; for many years he was 
 janitor of the Temple there. Mr. Blackburn died 
 in 1832, aged sixty years. Capt. William Morriss 
 and his wife had thirteen children, "and their sons 
 were prominent shipbuilders. Of this family are 
 mentioned Isabella (deceased), who married Steven 
 Murphy; Eliza, Mrs. Kelley; Rebecca; Theresa, 
 who married Michael Kenny (deceased) ; Will- 
 iam ; and Michael, who went to Australia in 1845. 
 The parents were devout members of the Catholic 
 Church, and the children were reared in that faith. 
 Ten children have brightened our subject's 
 home, nine of whom are living : ( i ) Mary A. mar- 
 ried William McCarthy, a plumber in Ansonia, 
 and has had eleven children, of whom are living 
 William, Mary, Freddie, Sadie, Christopher, 
 Johnny, Albert, Lizzie, Rebecca and Agnes. Of 
 these, William married and has one son, Frederick, 
 so that our subject is a great-grandfather. (2) 
 Julia married Thomas Scallion, a machinist, and 
 has one child, Belle. (3) Lizzie married James 
 Beasley, of Rome, N. Y., and has three children, 
 William, James and Charlotte. (4) William, a 
 prominent physician in Flint, Mich., married Ella 
 Graham, of New York, now deceased. (5) Thom- 
 as is married and resides in Bridgeport. (6) 
 Christopher, Jr., is professor of Surgery and Clin- 
 ical Surgery in the Grand Rapidst Medical Cohege, 
 Grand Rapids, Mich. (7) Charles, a machinist, 
 in Ansonia, married Miss Annie McGee, and has 
 six children, Bessie, May, Charley, Christopher, 
 William and Winnifred. (8) Frederick M. is a 
 bookkeeper in Grand Rapids, Mich. (9) Rebecca 
 resides at home. 
 
 LUCIUS NICHOLS BEARDSLEY, M. D. 
 (deceased), was one of the most honored medical 
 practitioners of this section, and was in active prac- 
 tice for forty years. 
 
 Dr. Beardsley was bom Oct. 8, 18 14, in Mon- 
 roe, Fairfield Co., Conn., and was of English de- 
 scent. His father, Agur Beardsley, was a native 
 of Huntington, Conn., born June 12, 1791, and be- 
 came a farmer by occupation, much of his life hav- 
 ing been spent in Monroe. He died Nov. 18, 1872, 
 at Easton, Conn., aged eighty-one years and five 
 months. For many years he was a deacon in the 
 Congregational Church of Monroe. His wife, Lu- 
 cinda Nichols, was born Sept. 8, 1794, in Trum- 
 bull, Conn., and died in Bridgeport, Sept. 8, 1864. 
 
 Dr. Beardsley was reared in Monroe, and as a 
 young man taught school for some time. At twen- 
 ty-three he was graduated from Yale Medical Col- 
 lege, and began practice in Milford, where he con- 
 tinued till his health failed, and he died in West 
 Haven Nov. 22, 1880. He had treated three gen- 
 erations, and was regarded as a father by many 
 
LUCIUS HICHOLS BEARDSLEY. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1097 
 
 to whom his wise and kindly counsel had brought 
 relief at some critical moment. His advice was 
 often sought by his fellow practitioners, and when 
 he finally retired at the earnest solicitation of his 
 wife he was obliged to leave town in order to se- 
 cure complete rest. For the last few years of his 
 life he went to the Southern states, or the Bahama 
 Islands in winter, and found in their milder climate 
 some relief from the lung trouble which conquered 
 him at last. His influence in local politics was 
 marked, as he was one of the stanch Republicans 
 of the town, and for many years he was postmaster 
 in Milford. In religious work he also took great 
 interest as a member of the Plymouth Church, of 
 Milford. 
 
 Dr. Beardsley married ffirst) Miss Betsey Ann 
 Coley, who was born in New York City May 30, 
 1815, and died in Milford Nov. 24, 1869. She was 
 the daughter of Ebenezer and Amelia (Sanford) 
 Coley, who were married Oct. 10, 1810. Her fa- 
 ther, who was a school teacher in New York, was 
 born in Redding, Fairfield Co., Conn., May 17, 
 1781, and died April 5, 1816. By the Doctor's 
 first marriage he had two sons and one daugh- 
 ter: Maria Elizabeth, born May 25, 1842, died 
 of scarlet fever March 10, 1847: George Lucius, 
 born at Milford May 12, 1848, is now practicing 
 medicine in Derby; and William Edgar, born at 
 Milford Nov. 6, 1850, is a physician in Brooklyn, 
 N. Y. For his second wife Dr. Beardsley married 
 at West Haven, Oct. 6, 1874, Mrs. Susan (Prud- 
 den) Smith, whose record is given elsewhere in 
 this volume in the sketch of Mrs. David Smith, 
 of West Haven. 
 
 SIDNEY BARKER SMITH, a highly re- 
 spected citizen and successful market gardener of 
 East Haven, was born in North Haven, this county, 
 Aug. 20, 1844, and is a son of Charles and Sarah 
 (Atwater) Smith, natives of North Haven and 
 Hamden, New Haven county, respectively. 
 
 Sidney Smith, our subject's paternal grand- 
 father, was born in North Haven, and was a cooper 
 by trade. He was married to Ruth Parker, and 
 they had four children: Henry, Horace, Sidney 
 and Charles. The maternal grandfather of Sidney 
 B. Smith was Stephen Atwater, a native of Ham- 
 den, and by occupation a market gardener. He 
 married Sarah Barker. Charles Smith, who is 
 mentioned above, is a farmer and resides in North 
 Haven, where he has been very successful in his 
 business, and is now quite well-to-do. His family 
 consisted of three children : Sidney Barker ; 
 Stephen A.; and Elizabeth, who is now Mrs. Wal- 
 ter Bailey. 
 
 Sidney Barker Smith remained on the North 
 Haven homestead until he reached the age of six- 
 teen, meantime receiving a very fair common school 
 education. In i860 he went to live with his grand- 
 father at Hamden, to learn the practical work of 
 market gardening, remaining with him seven years. 
 
 For the last two years of that time he was a part- 
 ner with his grandfather, and when that gentleman 
 died he continued the business alone for twelve 
 years. In 1884 he removed to East Haven, to the 
 farm he now occupies, which he purchased in 1882, 
 and where he has done a most successful business 
 in market gardening. He has made all the im- 
 provements on the property, buildings and barns, 
 and to-day owns one of the choicest places of the 
 kind in this part of the State. 
 
 Mr. Smith was married April 4, 1867, to Char- 
 lotte J., daughter of Henry I. and Maryette 
 (Smith) Bradley, of East Haven. By this union 
 there is one son, Charles S., who married Carrie 
 Louise, daughter of Frank W. and Jessie (Hollis) 
 Willoughby, of East Haven, and has one son, 
 Charles Bates, born Nov. 25, 1900. 
 
 Mr. Smith is one of East haven's leading and 
 progressive citizens, extremely industrious and in- 
 flexibly honest. He is a Democrat, and has served 
 as selectman of the town. 
 
 GEORGE T. CLARK, a thorough and skillful 
 farmer, and a wide-awake, energetic business man 
 of Beacon Falls, is a native of New Haven county, 
 born in the town of Bethany, Nov. 11, 1859, and is 
 a worthy representative of one of its old and highly 
 esteemed families. 
 
 Sheldon Clark, his paternal grandfather, was 
 born in what is now Oxford, this county, Oct. 19, 
 1794, and died April 18, 1874. He married Miss 
 Anna Freeh, a native of Bethany, and they lo- 
 cated upon a farm in that town, where they reared 
 their family of four children, namely : David, born 
 bept. 28, 1819, was a farmer of Beacon Falls, where 
 he died Feb. i, 1877; Stiles, born March 16, 1821, 
 was also a farmer by occupation, and died March 
 7, 1873; Eliza Ann, born Sept. 21, 1823, died Nov. 
 13, 1851, unmarried; Charles F., father of our sub- 
 ject, was the youngest of the family. 
 
 Charles F. Clark was born in Bethany, July 8, 
 1829, and was reared on the home farm. In early 
 life he followed the teacher's profession and con- 
 ducted a select school in Bethany, but later engaged 
 in farming. He was a Republican in politics, and 
 held some local offices. He died in September, 
 1880, and his wife, who bore the maiden name of 
 Anna Perkins, and was a native of Litchfield, Conn., 
 died in August, 1882. Of the two children born 
 to them our subject was the younger. Sheldon, 
 born Sept. 21, 1855, followed farming in Beacon 
 Falls, and died Oct. 19, 1887. Religiously the par- 
 ents were Episcopalians. 
 
 When only two years of age George T. Clark 
 was taken by his parents to the town of Beacon 
 Falls, where he was reared upon a farm. He pur- 
 sued his early studies in the public schools, and con- 
 tinued his education at a select school in the town 
 of Redding, Fairfield Co., Conn. After leaving 
 school he returned to the farm, and has since de- 
 voted the greater part of his time and attention to 
 
1098 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 agricultural pursuits. He owns a well-improved 
 and valuable place of 150 acres in the village of 
 Beacon Falls, and in connection with its operation 
 is also engaged in the milk and ice business, and 
 does teaming to some extent. In business affairs 
 he is energetic, prompt and notably reliable, and 
 generally carries forward to successful completion 
 whatever he undertakes. 
 
 On March 24, 1886, Mr. Clark was united in 
 marriage with Miss Mary A. Reffelt, who was born 
 in South Coventry, Conn., June 8, 1866, a daugh- 
 ter of Frederick Reffelt, who was of German birth, 
 and was foreman of a woolen shop. To this union 
 five children have come, namely: Frank T., born 
 Jan. 9, 1887; Eva I., Sept. 14, 1892; George R., 
 July 18, 1894; Ethel M., Feb. 20, 1896; and Ros- 
 etta I., June 9, 1900. Mr. Clark and his family at- 
 tend the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he is a 
 member of the Grange. The Republican party finds 
 in him a stanch supporter of its principles. He has 
 served his fellow citizens on the school board and 
 as school visitor, and is now a member of the board 
 of selectmen. In all the relations of life he has 
 been found true to every trust reposed in him, and 
 he merits and receives the high regard of the en- 
 tire community in which he lives. 
 
 WILLIAM BARRON, a prominent farmer 
 and notable citizen of the town of Branford, whose 
 honorable and useful career well entitles him to 
 mention among the successful men of his com- 
 munity, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, April 4, 
 1844, a son of James and Alarv (Reed) Barron. 
 
 James Barron was born and bred a farmer, fol- 
 lowing that occupation all his life. He lived in 
 Aberdeen, where he died in 1886. His widow, 
 Mrs. Mary (Reed) Barron, is still living (1901), 
 and has reached the venerable age of eighty-four 
 years. The children born to them were : Jane, the 
 wife of James Mitchell ; William ; George ; Mary, 
 who married John Mason ; David ; John ; and Mari- 
 ette, who married Robert Armstrong. 
 
 William Barron was reared in Scotland, where 
 he had his education in the excellent public schools 
 of his native community. In 1869 he turned his 
 face towards the United States — that land of prom- 
 ise to so many of his compatriots — and, crossing 
 the ocean, located in the town of Branford, where 
 he has since been successfully engaged in farming. 
 Mr. Barron has always retained a warm spot for 
 his old home, and during his residence of thirty-one 
 years in Branford, has made three visits to his na- 
 tive land. 
 
 In 1878 Mr. Barron was married to Georgiana, 
 a daughter of John Mallroy, of New Haven, and 
 has become the father of four children bv this union : 
 Mary J. ; John W. ; Georgiana A. ; and Agnes F 
 Mrs. Georgiana Barron died in 1894, and the fol- 
 lowing year Mr. Barron was married to Mrs. 
 Catherine Ball, of New Haven. She is a lady of 
 more than the usual accomplishments, and is a de- 
 
 voted home maker. Mr. Barron is a member of 
 the Congregational Church, and his life of hon- 
 esty, integrity, industry and neighborly kindness 
 brings no discredit to his religious associations. In 
 politics Mr. Barron is a Republican, and socially 
 he is connected with Woodlawn Lodge, No. 39, K. 
 of P., where his manly qualities and genial dis- 
 position command respect and retain friendship. 
 
 ELNATHAN.A. CURTISS, a leading mer- 
 chant of Ansonia, is a representative of one of the 
 oldest families of Southbury, New Haven county, 
 where he was born Feb. 19, 1859. 
 
 Simeon Curtiss, his great-grandfather, was a 
 native of that town, and passed his life there. 
 Reuben Curtiss, our subject's grandfather, who 
 was also born there, became prominent as an edu- 
 cator, and for many years conducted a large school 
 at Southbury known as the Buck Hill Seminary, 
 where he fitted pupils for business or college. He 
 owned a large farm, took an active part in local 
 affairs, and was identified with religious work as 
 a member of the Congregational Church. For 
 forty years he served as deacon, and every Sunday 
 he collected his Sunday-school classes and took 
 them to church in a wagon which held thirty peo- 
 ple. He died at the age of eighty-seven, and his 
 wife, Minerva (McEwen), a native of Oxford, 
 died aged fifty-three. They had three children, 
 none of whom are now living. 
 
 Wales H. Curtiss, ' our subject's father, was 
 born and reared at the old homestead in Southbury, 
 and received a' district-school education. He fol- 
 lowed farming upon a portion of the homestead, 
 and was regarded as one of the substantial citizens 
 of the town. In politics he was a Republican, and 
 in religious faith he was a Congregationalist. His 
 death occurred in 1886, when he was aged fifty- 
 nine. He married Miss Mary Hanimill, a native of 
 Brooklyn, E. D., who is still living at the old home- 
 stead. Of their eleven children ten survive : Will- 
 iam conducts the homestead; James ]\I. is deceased; 
 Sarah iM. married Cornelius M. Hard, of South- 
 bury; Charles H. resides in Naugatuck; Elnathan 
 A. is the next in order of birth; Arthur E. resides 
 in Naugatuck; Miss Jessie H., a teacher, is at 
 home; J\Iiss Isabella is also a teacher; Miss 
 Estella, twin of Isabella, is a trained nurse; Bertha 
 married Charles Benjamin, of Bristol, Conn.; and 
 Nellie C. married C. Ellison, a station agent in 
 Ohio. 
 
 Our subject's education was begun in the com- 
 mon schools of his native town, and at the age of 
 ten years he left home to work for a neighboring 
 farmer. At sixteen he engaged in the milk busi- 
 ness in Seymour, where he had a wagon route for 
 three years, and he then spent three years in Water- 
 bur}- as bookkeeper for J. E. Gaylord, and one year 
 in Naugatuck as clerk in the grocery and meat 
 market of Tolles & Bennett. In 1884 he went to 
 Ansonia, and after five years with J. H. Steinman 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1099 
 
 formed a partnership with a brother and purchased 
 a meat market, at his present stand, which tliey 
 conducted together until 1891. In 1893 our subject 
 sold the business, and six months later he bought 
 the store of E. H. Wakelee. He carries a large 
 stock of dry goods, notions, groceries and provis- 
 ions (including a fine line of canned goods, jellies 
 and preserves), drugs, cigars, bicycles and every- 
 thing which one might expect to find in a metro- 
 politan department store. The establishment 
 boasts a complete modern set of fixtures, with 
 computing scales and cash register. The upper 
 story of the building is rented by a social organiza- 
 tion known as the West Side Club, of which our 
 subject is president. He also belongs to the Order 
 of Red Men and the New England Order of Pro- 
 tection, and politically he is a stanch Republican, 
 although he has declined to seek official honors. 
 For some time he was a member of the Ansonia 
 Board of Trade. While residing in Waterbury he 
 took an active part in the work of the Second Con- 
 gregational Church and Sunday-school; his wife is 
 a member of the Methodist Church in Ansonia. 
 
 In 1888 Mr. Curtiss married Miss Annie Has- 
 sard, who is one of the six children of Thomas 
 Hassard, now a well-known dealer in coal and wood 
 on North Main street, Ansonia. Three children 
 have brightened our subject's home: Mabel H.', 
 born April 15, 1889; Raymond H., born Oct. 27, 
 1893; and Chester G., born Jan. 26, 1898. 
 
 JOHN KIRSCHBAUM is a quiet and unob- 
 trusive gentleman, who has little to say unless di- 
 rectly appealed to, but he is known as one of the 
 most expert machinists and skilled workmen in 
 Waterbury, where he has lived for many years. 
 His genuine manhood and real worth have been 
 long recognized and appreciated at their true value. 
 
 Mr. Kirschbaum was born in Wurtemberg, 
 Germany, April 29, 1844. Michael Kirschbaum, 
 his father, was a farmer and a shepherd, shipping 
 sheep to all parts of Europe. Michael Kirschbaum, 
 his father, was also a shepherd, and this was the 
 business of the family for many generations. 
 Michael Kirschbaum, the father of John, married 
 Barbara Kromer, a native of the same community 
 in which he was born, and where she was born in 
 1S15. Michael Kromer, her father, was also a 
 shepherd, which business this family has also fol- 
 lowed for generations. Michael Kirschbaum died 
 in 1890, when about seventy-nine years old, his 
 wife in 1899. To them nine children were born: 
 ( I ) Samuel died in Waterbury, where he had been 
 employed in a brewery, and previously worked for 
 Valentine Bohl about eight years-; he was a man of 
 remarkable strength. In the old country he had 
 been trained to the work of a shepherd. (2) John 
 is our subject. (3) Michael is a butcher in the city 
 of New York. (4) Christian died at the age of 
 three years. (5) William lives in Germany, and is 
 a weaver. (6) Christian (2) died at the age of 
 
 three years. (7) Barbara is married and lives in 
 Germany. (8) George is a toolmaker in Water- 
 bury. (9) Carl is a surveyor in Germany. 
 
 John Kirschbaum received his early training in 
 Germany, and lived on the paternal homestead un- 
 til he was fifteen years of age, when he went into 
 a machine shop to learn the trade. Here he re- 
 mained five years, and was two years in a factory 
 devoted to heavy machinery. In July, 1866, Mr. 
 Kirschbaum came to New York City, and secured 
 work in the piano factory of the Steinway Co. He 
 spent two years in that city, and then went to 
 Naugatuck, Conn., where he worked for a time 
 in the Allerton Iron Works. In 1872, in company 
 with Thomas Fitzsimons, Mr. Putnam and Mr. 
 Blake, he formed the Novelty Manufacturing Co., 
 and with the exception of ten months, which he 
 spent in Newark, N. J., he has been continuously 
 identified with that concern, of which he is a stock- 
 holder. In the fall of 1896 he made his first ap- 
 pearance in Waterbury, and for nearly two years 
 was employed by the Steele & Johnson Manufac- 
 turing Co. 
 
 In 1869 Mr. Kirschbaum married Miss Eliza- 
 beth Brickel, who was born in the old country, and 
 was brought to this country in her mother's arms. 
 She died in 1885, and was the mother of seven 
 children: Elizabeth, John, William, Lillian B., 
 Carl, Joseph and Lewis. Miss Anna Brown, of 
 Waterbury, a daughter of John Brown, became the 
 second wife of John Kirschbaum, their marriage 
 taking place in 1886. They are the parents of two 
 children : Anna and Edward H. Mr. Kirschbaum 
 has been a Republican from his arrival in the coun- 
 try. He takes an active part in the Concordia Sing- 
 ing Society, and is a member of the K. of P- and 
 the New England Order of Protection. He is also 
 active in the old German Harmony Society. He 
 attends the Episcopal Church. 
 
 LEROY C. BEECHER, one of the most pro- 
 gressive, skillful and successful agriculturists of 
 Woodbridge, belongs to a prominent old family of 
 New Haven county. His great-grandfather, Enoch 
 Beecher, was born in this county, and lived for a 
 time on George street. New Haven, but the greater 
 part of his life was spent in Woodbridge, where he 
 owned at one time some 300 acres of land, and was 
 also a merchant, having a general store near the 
 center of the town. 
 
 Amos Beecher, the grandfather of our subject, 
 was reared in Woodbridge. He inherited a consid- 
 erable property, and followed farming extensively, 
 but discontinued the store. He died at the age of 
 eighty-five years. He was a member of an inde- 
 pendent military company and was very active on 
 "training day." In early manhood he married Abi- 
 gail Baldwin, and to them were born children as 
 follows : The eldest died in infancy ; Charles N., 
 father of our subject, was next in order of birth; 
 Abigail married Charles Baldwin, of New Haven; 
 
I lOO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Alonzo E. is a farmer of Woodbridge ; George E. 
 (deceased) was twice married, his second wife 
 being Martha Baldwin, and resided in Wood- 
 bridge; Franklin A. married Augusta Doolittle, 
 -and died in Milford; Elizabeth is deceased; and 
 Jane is the wife of Marcus M. Baldwin, of Wood- 
 iridge. 
 
 Charles N. Beecher, father of our subject, was 
 born in Woodbridge, Nov. 26, 1821, and died Aug. 
 ■9, 1897. He was a lifelong farmer, and though not 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits on a large scale 
 was very successful, owing to the fact that he paid 
 particular attention to small matters and aimed 
 always to reach the best results, was always anx- 
 ious to learn the methods of others in order to im- 
 prove his own, and attended town fairs and horti- 
 cultural gatherings for that purpose. He raised 
 principally small fruits and vegetables. Owing to 
 ill health he retired from active labor some years 
 prior to his death, and the management of affairs 
 fell upon our subject. In Mt. Carmel, New Haven 
 county, the father was united in marriage with 
 Miss Mary Angelina Warner, a native of that place, 
 -and a daughter of Zenith Warner. Our subject 
 was their only child. 
 
 Leroy C. Beecher was born June 4, 1859, in the 
 house where he now lives, and was educated in 
 public and private schools, one of his teachers being 
 William H. Warner, who is still a resident of 
 Woodbridge. Our subject began to provide for 
 liimself as a school teacher and continued to follow 
 that profession for five years, four in the Middle 
 School of Woodbridge and one in Hamden. Since 
 that time his energies have been devoted to agri- 
 cultural pursuits with marked success. 
 
 On July 26, 1885, Mr. Beecher married Miss 
 Gertrude A. Ladd, who was born in Straitsville, 
 New Haven county. May 5, 1861, a daughter of 
 Theodore S. and Sarah A. (J'ohnson) Ladd. They 
 have no children of their own, but Mrs. Beecher's 
 nephew lives with them and enjoys the same ad- 
 vantages as if he were their own child. They are 
 active and prominent members of the Congrega- 
 tional Church of Woodbridge, in which his father 
 collected the pew rents for sixteen years, and our 
 subject is now a member of the society committee. 
 The Republican party finds in him a stanch sup- 
 porter of its principles, and he has been a member 
 of the Republican township committee for the past 
 sixteen years, and has been delegate to several 
 itate conventions. He was also register of voters 
 thirteen years and town auditor several terms, and 
 is still filling the latter position. He is a member 
 of the school board, of which he was secretary five 
 years, and chairman an equal length of time. In 
 1890 and 1900 he took the census. Mr. Beecher 
 is one of the most popular citizens of his com- 
 munity, and, as has already been said, he takes a 
 very prominent aiid influential part in public affairs 
 and local politics. The advancement of agricultural 
 matters has also occupied a large share of his at- 
 
 tention and he is a correspondent of several papers, 
 furnishing the crop reports to the Department of 
 Agriculture. He and his wife are both members 
 of Woodbridge Grange, No. 108, P. O. H., of 
 which he was secretary for the first two years, and 
 his wife was lecturer. They are also members of 
 the New Haven County Pomona, No. 5, and of the 
 State Grange, as well as of the New England Order 
 of Protection, Charter Oak Lodge, No. 88, of New 
 Haven. 
 
 MICHAEL FLAHERTY, one of the solid citi- 
 zens of New Haven county, is essentially a self- 
 educated and self-made man, and yet without that 
 ever-present self-assertion so common among men 
 who have been the architects of their own fortunes. 
 Both by nationality and by lineage he comes of rug- 
 ged, hardy stock, and his life has reflected credit 
 alike upon his ancestry and the land of his birth. 
 
 Born in County Galway, Ireland, March 29, 
 1834, the son of a. tenant farmer, it may be imag- 
 ined that in the years of his boyhood Mr. Flaherty 
 underwent many privations. Yet it can scarcely be 
 doubted that this part of his life was for him a 
 fruitful school of experience, in which he learned 
 the rudiments of those qualities of industry, patience 
 and fortitude which have characterized him 
 throughout life. His parents, Hugh and Mary 
 (Farraher) Flaherty, were both natives of County 
 Galway, as were also his forefathers for many 
 generations. He was one of a family of three chil- 
 dren. His educational advantages were of the 
 most meager sort, and at the age of fourteen, see- 
 ing how impossible the practice of "absenteeism" 
 had made it for the hard-working Irish peasant to 
 do more than earn a bare subsistence, he resolved 
 to go into the world himself, breast its billows while 
 yet a boy, and conquer success through his own 
 resolute will. The tale of his struggles and tri- 
 umphs is told below. 
 
 Leaving Galway, he went to Wolverhampton, 
 England, where he found employment in an inferior 
 capacity with Richard Dean & Son, then a well 
 known firm of railroad builders and contractors. 
 A green Irish lad, with nothing to aid him but 
 a willingness to work and a firm resolve to do his 
 best, it would not have been surprising had he 
 found the road to advancement slow and toilsome. 
 But he was animated by a courage that laughed 
 at obstacles and a resolute purpose that could not 
 be discouraged. For seventeen vears he remained 
 in the employ of Richard Dean & Son, rising from 
 one position of trust to another. Yet he could see 
 scant chance for further advancement, and little 
 prospect for the fruition of his ambitious hopes. 
 His announcement of his intention to emigrate was 
 received with an outcry of dissent and protest on 
 the part of his employers. Every effort was made 
 to dissuade him ; pound notes were stitched into his 
 wearing apparel ; and, when it was perceived that 
 his determination was inflexible, a request to return 
 
cy^c^^:^CJ^ ^ife^^^w^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I lor 
 
 was accompanied by a promise that the position 
 which he was vacating would be open to him in 
 that event. It was in June, 1866, that he set sail 
 from English shores to seek a new home and better 
 fortune in the land where so many of his fellow 
 countr3fmen had become affluent, while not a few 
 had risen to posts of high honor in the service of 
 the State. After reaching America he first went to 
 Girardville, Pa., where he entered the employ of 
 James Connor, an extensive mine owner, as fore- 
 man. Here his previous experience stood him in 
 good stead, and he soon became one of the most 
 valued and trusted men about the mines. Yet he 
 did not find his surroundings wholly to his liking, 
 and after a short time he removed to Birmingham, 
 Conn., where he first found work in the Ailing mill, 
 and later in and about the building of the dam 
 across the Housatonic river, then in process of con- 
 struction. An opportunity presenting itself to en- 
 gage in the retail liquor business, Mr. Flaherty 
 embraced it, and was at once made local agent for 
 the Albany Brewing Co. and given control of all 
 the territory lying within the Housatonic Valley. 
 This agency he still holds, and the energetic, up- 
 right, business-like way in which he has discharged 
 the duties of the trust has rendered the same a 
 source of mutual profit to himself and the well- 
 known corporation which he represents. 
 
 Mr. Flaherty is a man of rare native intelligence, 
 sound business sense and tireless energy. Indus- 
 try, perseverance and honesty have raised him from 
 a contractor's employe to the position of a wealthy 
 land owner and the heaviest individual tax payer in 
 the locality in which he lives. His assessment is 
 $122,000 in Sheldon, Ansonia and Derby, the fifth 
 highest on the tax list. Generally speaking, his 
 policy has been to buy real estate and hold it, and 
 time has abundantly justified his judgment. Yet, 
 while watchfully caring for his own interests, he 
 has never for a moment forgotten his obligations 
 as a citizen. Broad-minded and public-spirited, he 
 has ever been quick to recognize the fact that public 
 and private interests, in the highest and truest sense, 
 must go hand in hand, and advance or retrograde 
 together. He has been intimately identified with the 
 building up of Derby, and no history of that city 
 would be complete which failed to chronicle his 
 early struggles and ultimate success. In politics 
 Mr. Flaherty is a Democrat. Yet, while acting with 
 his party on National and State issues, in local elec- 
 tions he is able to rise above partisanship, holding 
 the best interests of the community as higher than 
 any mere claim of political managers to blind party 
 fealty. His religious faith is that of his forefa- 
 thers, and he is a most generous contributor to St. 
 Mary's Catholic Church. 
 
 On Aug. 5, 1865, Mr. Flaherty was married, in 
 England, to Margaret Garrity, who, like her hus- 
 band, is a native of Ireland. Their union has been 
 blessed with seven children : Mary married George 
 H. Ennis, an attorney of Derby, and has four 
 
 children, George, Margaret, Madelina and Adri- 
 enne. William is deceased. Elizabeth is unmar- 
 ried, and lives at home. Michael, Jr., is a grad- 
 uate of Yale, and an attorney in Derby. Hugh F. 
 is attending school at Mount St. Mary's College, 
 Maryland. Margaret and John are deceased. 
 
 FRANK S. NICHOLS, a well-known grocer 
 and prominent citizen of Millville, is a native of 
 New Haven county, born in Naugatuck, Oct. 28, 
 1842, and is a representative of one of its old and 
 highly respected families. Isaac Nichols, Sr., his 
 grandfather, made his home throughout life in 
 Naugatuck, and followed the occupation of farm- 
 ing. He married Esther Sperry, a native of Beth- 
 any, Conn., and to them were born thirteen chil- 
 dren: Mary, Clara, Maria, Esther, Joseph, Will- 
 iam, Jerome, Horace, Isaac, Nathan, Joel, Noys 
 and George. The sons were either farmers or 
 mechanics, and all made their home in this State. 
 
 Isaac Nichols, Jr., father of our subject, was 
 born in Naugatuck, June 14, 1820, and in that town 
 grew to manhood Learning the joiner's and wheel- 
 wright's trades, he built many houses and water- 
 wheels in early life, and later erected the store 
 building now occupied by our subject, where he en- 
 gaged in the grocery business for six or eight years. 
 He served one year as a member of Company H, 
 23d Conn. V. I. He was a Republican in politics. 
 Isaac Nichols wedded Mary E. Hotchkiss, of Pros- 
 pect, Conn., a daughter of Avery Hotchkiss, who 
 was a farmer by occupation. Mr. Nichols died in 
 October, 1882, and his wife in 1888. In their fam- 
 ily were five children, namely: Frank S., our sub- 
 ject; Frederick O., agent for the Armour Beef Co. 
 at Troy, N. Y. ; Charles B., a traveling salesman 
 residing in Bridgeport, Conn. ; Deetle A., who mar- 
 ried George Myers, of Pennsylvania, and resides in 
 Naugatuck, where he is a master mechanic; and 
 Ida E., who married Henry Richards, and subse- 
 quently became the wife of Frederick Clark, of 
 Naugatuck. 
 
 Our subject passed his boyhood and youth in 
 his native town, and his education was received in 
 its public schools. He was one of the boys in blue 
 during the dark days of the Rebellion, serving 
 three years as a member of Company K, 6th Conn. 
 V. I., and taking part in thirteen pitched battles, 
 besides many skirmishes. He enlisted Sept. 12, 
 1861 and was discharged at New Haven, Sept; 16, 
 1864. On his return to Naugatuck he worked for 
 the Goodyear Glove Co. for six years, and then 
 went to Titusville, Pa., where he spent two years in 
 the oil regions. The following year he was em- 
 ployed at Miller Brothers cutlery establishment, in 
 Meriden, Conn., and was next a member of the 
 police force of that place for about two years. Re- 
 signing his position,; he returned to Naugatuck, 
 Sept. 19, 1877, and purchased the grocery store in 
 Millville which he has since successfully conducted, 
 receiving a liberal share of the public patronage. 
 
I I02 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 On Sept. 12, 1866, Mr. Nichols was united in 
 marriage with Miss Maria Camp, a native of Terry- 
 ville, Conn., and a daughter of Jerome Camp, who 
 was also born in that place. Our subject and his 
 wife have two children : Lewis F., superintendent 
 of the making department of the Goodyear Metal- 
 lic Shoe Co. ; and Emma J., wife of Walter Brown, 
 a meat dealer of Naugatuck. 
 
 Mr. Nicnols is a memher of the Board of Trade 
 and is quite prominent in business circles. Politi- 
 cally he affiliates with the Republican party, and has 
 been called upon to serve as assessor of his town 
 for five consecutive years and as a member of the 
 board of charities three years. He attends the 
 Episcopal Church, and is a prominent member of 
 the following societies: P. C. Isbell Post, No. 43, 
 G. A. R. ; Shephard Lodge, No. 78, F. & A. M. ; 
 AUerton Chapter, No. 39, R. A. M.; Evergreen 
 Chapter, No. 22, O. E. S.; Hancock Lodge, No. 
 28, L O. O. F.; Columbia R. D. Lodge, No. 30, 
 L O. O. F.; Mattatuck Tribe, No. 25, L O. R. M.; 
 and Salem Lodge, No. 36, A. O. U. W. 
 
 JOSEPH W. ZWIEBEL, the well-known and 
 popular proprietor of the Belleview Lake summer 
 resort of Waterbury, was born in Tapfheim, Ba- 
 varia, Germany, July 7, 1847, a son of John and 
 Walburga (Koettel) Zwiebel, also natives of Ba- 
 varia, where they continued to make their home 
 throughout life. Both were members of the Cath- 
 olic Church, and the father was a brewer by occu- 
 pation. In their family were nine children, namely : 
 Josepha, who is living at the old home in Germany ; 
 Victoria, deceased; John, a resident of New Eng- 
 land; George, of Germany; Joseph W., our sub-- 
 ject; Anthony, of Germany; Ulrich, of Germany; 
 John N., in London, England; and Kreszenz, at 
 home in Germany. 
 
 Joseph W. Zwiebel received a good education in 
 his native tongue, and in early life learned the ma- 
 chinist's trade, which he followed for several years. 
 He was married in Bavaria to Miss Kreszenz Dirr, 
 a native of the same county as her husband and a 
 daughter of Joseph Dirr. She is a well-educated 
 woman of good business ability. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Zwiebel were born seven children, as follows : 
 Adolph, at home; Otto, Walburga and Eugen, 
 who all died young; Grace and Otto (2), both at 
 home; and Joseph, who died young. 
 
 In 1 88 1 Mr. Zwiebel and his family emigrated 
 to America, sailing from Antwerp, and landing in 
 New York City. They first located in Torrington, 
 Conn., where he worked- at his trade. After spend- 
 ing two years and a half at that place, he came to 
 Waterbury and found employment in Benedict & 
 Burnham's factory, where he remained until 1893. 
 Having saved some money, he purchased the 
 grounds called Belleview Lake Grove, and has since 
 made extensive improvements upon the place. He 
 has erected a dance hall, built pleasure boats, and 
 added many other attractions, so that it is now one 
 
 of the most beautiful and popular summer resorts 
 of the locality. In carrying on this place Mr. Zwie- 
 bel has met with most -excellent success. He is of a 
 genial disposition, courteous and obliging, and 
 caters to the wants of his patrons. He is also in- 
 dustrious and possesses good business ability and 
 sound judgment. In his political views he is lib- 
 eral, and in religious faith he and his family are 
 Catholics. 
 
 MARTIN BURKE, one of Branford's well- 
 respected citizens, and foreman of the carpenter 
 department of the Branford Lock Works, Bran- 
 ford, is a native of that city, born July 12, 1855, a 
 son of John and Bridget (Gibbs) Burke, who were 
 natives of County Galway, Ireland. In 1847 
 John Burke came to America, and here in Con- 
 necticut, was employed for a time as a laborer on 
 the Shore Line railroad, and later found work as 
 a polisher in the Lock Works at Branford, where 
 he has since remained. He married Bridget Gibbs, 
 and thirteen children were born to them, seven of 
 whom grew to maturity: Mary (Mrs. William H. 
 Farrell), Bridget (Mrs. Richard O'Neil), Martin, 
 John (now deceased), Patrick, Michael, and Nel- 
 lie (now deceased). 
 
 Martin Burke, whose name introduces these 
 lines, received a limited education at the public 
 schools of Branford, and at the age of fourteen en- 
 tered the Branford Lock Works as a helper in the 
 japanning room. Later -he was promoted to the 
 spindle room, and since 1882 has been foreman of 
 the carpenter department. 
 
 Mr. Burke has been twice married, first time 
 in 1880, to Joanna Welch, who was a daughter of 
 John Welch, and died in 1 88 1, leaving one son 
 jonn P. In 1892 our subject wedded Kate Hurley, 
 who has borne him six children : Ellen, Martin, 
 Jr., Edward F., Thomas J., Mary and Catherine. 
 The family attend services at St. Mary's Catholic 
 Church of Branford ; socially Mr. Burke is affili- 
 ated with the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the. 
 Knights of Columbus ; in politics he is a stanch 
 Democrat, and he has been chairman of the Town 
 Democratic Committee nine years, and through his 
 push and energy the party has been victorious on 
 many close elections. In municipal affairs he has 
 served on the board of relief nine years, and as as- 
 sessor four years. He was captain of the Yale & 
 Towne fire department from its organization in 
 1898; and he organized the Branford fire depart- 
 ment in September, 1899, becoming its chief, and 
 served until January, 1901. 
 
 AMITY A. HOLSER, a dairy farmer and 
 fruit grower of the East Farms section of the town 
 of Wallingford, was born in New York City, Aug. 
 29, 1847. Ignate Holser, his father, was born in 
 Baden, Germany, son of Anthony Holser, a farmer, 
 whose entire life was spent in Baden. 
 
 Ignate Holser was educated in the German 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 103 
 
 schools, and learned the trade of shoemaking. 
 While still young he came to this Country, on 
 a sailing vessel, and landed in New York, poor in 
 everything save the strength and courage of youth. 
 Finding employment at his trade, he worked as a 
 journeyman for a time, and then started up a shop 
 of his own, doing custom work. In 1874 he left 
 New York and came to Wallingford, buying the 
 farm on which his son Amity now resides. It con- 
 tains 108 acres, and under his industrious labors 
 was greatly improved. Here Mr. Holser died in 
 1894, and he was buried in Westfield, Mass. In 
 politics he was a Democrat, and in religion a mem- 
 ber of the Catholic Church. Ignate Holser was 
 married in July, 1841, in the city of New York, to 
 Miss Susan Wolff, a native of Worms, Germany, 
 and daughter of John Wolff, a carpenter, who died 
 in Chicago. Mrs. Holser is still living with her 
 son. Amity A. To their union were born the fol- 
 lowing children: Onrine married John Snyder, of 
 Westfield, Mass., and is now deceased; Amity A. 
 is our subject; Martin is a resident of , Northford, 
 Conn. ; Emma married John Welsh ; Susan died 
 young; Susan (2) died unmarried; two children 
 died in infancy. 
 
 Amity A. Holser attended the public schools of 
 the city of New York and Westfield, Mass. Learn- 
 ing the trade of a carpenter, he worked at same for 
 nine years in New York, and then came to the farm 
 to help his father. After the death of the latter the 
 farm passed into his possession, and he has become 
 deeply interested in dairying and in peach culture. 
 A hard-working and industrious man, he has made 
 many substantial improvements in the farm and its 
 management, and has become quite prosperous. In 
 politics he is independent, and believes in a business 
 administration of local and general affairs. Domes- 
 tic in his habits, he devotes himself to a tender and 
 beautiful care for his mother in her old age. He 
 has never married. 
 
 WILLIAM G. HARD, a prominent merchant 
 and honored citizen of Naugatuck, was born in 
 Watertown, Litchfield Co., Conn., August 31, 1858. 
 He is a representative of old and highly respected 
 families of Connecticut, his ancestors for over 
 two hundred years having been residents of this 
 State. On the paternal side lie is a descendant in 
 the eighth generation of James Hard, who settled 
 in Derby about 1680, and married Elizabeth Tom- 
 linson, daughter of William Tomlinson, in 1693. 
 So far as is known no other progenitor by the name 
 of Hard ever came to this country until after 1800. 
 The descendants of James Hard are now legion; 
 besides the hundreds in this State there are a great 
 manv in northern Vermont, and as is the case with 
 the posterity of many of our early settlers, they are 
 now scattered throughout the United States. 
 
 Andrew C. Hard,' our subject's father, was also 
 a native of Litchfield county, born July 3, 1828, 
 and grew to manhood in Watertown. Before the 
 
 days of railroads he drove a stage from that place 
 to New Haven, and is still engaged in the trucking 
 business. His home is in Watertown. He mar- 
 ried I\Iiss Mary Ann Russell, who was born in 
 Waterbury June 30, 183 1, and they became the 
 parents of seven children, as follows : Charles G., 
 born Sept. 19, 1856, died Jan. 18, 1889; William 
 G., our subject, is next in order of birth; Myron 
 R., born Feb. 11, 1861, is a resident of Waterbury; 
 Lottie B., born Sept. 14, 1867, is assistant post- 
 master at Watertown; Andrew M., born March 
 7, 1869, Russell H., born Dec. 15, 1870, and John 
 M., born April 15, 1874, are all at home. 
 
 Chester Russell, the maternal grandfather of 
 our subject, was a native of Waterbury, and a 
 farmer by occupation. He died Dec. 5, 1841, at 
 the early age of thirty-one years. His father 
 Stephen Russell, was also a farmer and a resident 
 of Waterbury. The latter married Sabria Hotch- 
 kiss, who was born July 19, 1773, a daughter of 
 Amos and Abigail Hotchkiss; her father was the 
 sixth son of Gideon Hotchkiss, a very prominent 
 man of his time and a property owner in New 
 Haven county, who was born in Prospect Dec. 5, 
 1716, and died Sept. 3, 1807. Gideon Hotchkiss 
 was deacon of the church, and served as selectman 
 and representative from the town of Prospect (then 
 called Columbia) to the State Legislature. He 
 was a soldier of the French and Indian war, and 
 also aided the Colonies in achieving their in- 
 dependence as a soldier of the Revolution, and had 
 several sons in the latter conflict. He was the fa- 
 ther of nineteen children, by two marriages, his 
 second wife being Mabel Stiles, a daughter of Isaac 
 Stiles, of Southbury. To this union were born 
 most of his children. At his death two hundred 
 and sixty-five of his descendants were living around 
 him in New Haven county. He was the seventh 
 child of Stephen Hotchkiss, a native of New 
 Haven, who was born Aug. 12, 1681, and married 
 Elizabeth Sperry, daughter of John Sperry, of New 
 Haven. Stephen Hotchkiss was an extensive 
 farmer, and made his home in the parish of 
 Cheshire, in the town of Wallingford. His father, 
 Joshua Hotchkiss, was born in New Haven Sept. 
 16, 1651, and became a leading citizen of the place. 
 He was a son of Samuel Hotchkiss, a native of 
 Essex, England. 
 
 William G. Hard, whose name introduces this 
 sketch, passed his boyhood and youth in Water- 
 town, and received his education there. He began 
 his business career as clerk in a general store at 
 that place, working for his board and clothes, and 
 during the seven years that were thus passed thor- 
 oughly mastered the business in all its details. In 
 1880 he went to Waterbury, where he clerked for 
 two years, and then came to Naugatuck as head 
 clerk for the E. H. Carrington Co., with 
 Which he was connected for five years. In 1886 
 he opened a general store of his own in Nauga- 
 tuck, and now enjoys a large and lucrative trade. 
 
1 104 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 On Aug. 24, 1 881, Mr. Hard married Miss 
 Eudora E. Holt, of Waterbury, a daughter of Nel- 
 son Holt, who was a soldier of the Civil war and 
 died in one of the Southern prisons during that 
 struggle. To this union have 'been born four chil- 
 dren, namely: Frank N. ; Eva M., who died Jan. 
 12, 1893 ; Irma E. ; and Mildred H. 
 
 Politically Mr. Hard is independent, and so- 
 cially is a member of the Independent Order of 
 Odd Fellows; Ancient Order of United Workmen; 
 Knights of the Maccabees ; Modern Woodmen of 
 America ; United Order of the Golden Cross ; and 
 Independent Order Foresters. In nearly all these 
 societies he holds some responsible position of 
 trust. He is a prominent member of the Congre- 
 gational Church of Naugatuck, and is an active- 
 worker in the Christian Endeavor Society, in which 
 he has held all the offices. He was president of 
 tne Watertown Union for some time, and was in- 
 strumental in organizing the society at that place. 
 He was also one of the founders of the Young 
 Men's Christian Association at that place ; was a 
 member of its board of directors ; and has alvvays 
 taken an active interest in all church work. He 
 is a busy man, yet he is ever ready to pause in the 
 midst of his duties to listen to appeals and relieve 
 the needy. He is wholly worthy the respect which 
 is everywhere tendered him, for his name is' a syno- 
 nym with honorable dealing and with all that is 
 elevating to the individual and beneficial to the 
 city. 
 
 HARRY S. HOTCHKISS, late of Xaugatuck, 
 was one of the wealthiest and most popular citizens 
 of that town. He was born in New Haven in No- 
 vember, 1845. 
 
 Mark Hotchkiss, his grandfather, was a pros- 
 perous farmer of New Haven county and a suc- 
 cessful teacher. He married Polly Hotchkiss (no 
 relative), and five children were born to them: 
 George, Lucius E., Mary A., Grace and Rosette. 
 Lucius E., the second son, was the father of Harry 
 S. Hotchkiss, and was born in Prospect, Conn. He 
 was a mason and' contractor by occupation, con- 
 ducting business first in New Haven and afterward 
 in Naugatuck, where he died Jan. 6, 1877. He mar- 
 ried Harriet Cooper, and they had two children : 
 Mary, who died when four years old; and Harry S. 
 
 Harry S. Hotchkiss received his early educa- 
 tion in the schools of his native town and at 
 Hackettstown, N. J. He learned the trade of a 
 mason from his father, and followed same, in con- 
 nection with contracting, until his death, which 
 occurred Feb. i, 1899. He was successful beyond 
 expectation, being naturally endowed with brains, 
 pluck and perseverance, to which were joined stead- 
 fast industry and close attention. He was a man 
 of kindly disposition and generous impulses, and 
 noted for his probity. In his political creed Mr. 
 Hotchkiss was a Republican. He served as town 
 assessor, and also four years as selectman. He 
 
 was a thirty-second-degree Freemason and a mem- 
 ber of the -I. O. R. M. 
 
 Mr. Hotchkiss married, Feb. 16, 1872, Mrs. 
 Maria R. (Beach) Seymour, who by her first hus- 
 band had a daughter, Cora, now the wife of Harry 
 A. Bennett, of New York, who is connected with 
 the Title & Trust Guaranty Co. of that city. Mrs. 
 Hotchkiss was born in Winchester, Conn., of which 
 town her paternal grandfather, Caleb Beach, was 
 ari early settler, having removed there from Goshen, 
 this State. He erected a log cabin there about 1740, 
 and some time during the decade 1760-70 built the 
 first frame house ever put up in the town. It is 
 still standing, and one of its most notable features 
 is its huge stone chimney, 12x7 feet at the base. 
 Hezekiah Beach, son of Caleb, was the father of 
 Mrs. Hotchkiss. He, too, was born in Winchester, 
 where he married Caroline Clark, a daughter of 
 Jude Clark, a farmer of Burlington, Conn. Mrs. 
 Maria R. Hotchkiss was the fourth in the family 
 of ten children born to Hezekiah and Caroline 
 Beach, of whom three — Julius, Sarah J. and Charles 
 — died in infancy or earl}' childhood. Of those who 
 reached mature years, George, Frank and Harry 
 are farmers, the two first named in Winchester, and 
 the latter in Naugatuck. Ellen married John Baker, 
 a sash and door manufacturer of Pleasant Valley, 
 Conn., and is now deceased. Samuel is a mechanic, 
 and resides in Beacon Falls. Hezekiah Beach died 
 in September, 1872, and his wife passed away in 
 1854. He was a man of influence and was sin- 
 cerely beloved for his manly character and many 
 virtues. In early manhood he was a member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, but in later years 
 was a Second Adventist. In politics he was a Re- 
 publican. 
 
 HORACE G. FOSDICK, a well-known and 
 successful wholesale baker in Ansonia, was born in 
 Sandisfield, Berkshire Co., Mass., March 24, 1859, 
 son of Robbins Fosdick, who was born in the 
 same place. George Fosdick, his father, was born 
 in Wethersfield, Conn., and was a son of William 
 Fosdick, a sea captain, who was also born in Weth- 
 ersfield. 
 
 The Fosdicks settled early in New England, and 
 an ancestor of the family purchased land in Charles- 
 town as early as 1635. From that point he went to 
 New London. Horace G. Fosdick is in the ninth 
 generation of his family in this country. His 
 grandfather served in the war of 1812. He was a 
 saddler, and spent his life in Sandisfield, where he 
 died at the age of eighty-four years. He married 
 Rachel Parrot, who was born in Canaan, and her 
 father was a Quaker from Pennsylvania, though 
 she attended the Congregational Church with her 
 husband. They had a large family. Mrs. Fosdick 
 died at the age of eighty-two. 
 
 Robbins Fosdick, noted above as the father of 
 Horace G., was reared in Sandisfield, where he 
 received his education in the public schools. He 
 
7^/. /¥^y{'^^CA^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL. RECORD. 
 
 1 105 
 
 learnedl the trade of harnessmaking, remained at 
 home, and followed farming in connection with his 
 trade. He resided in Sandisfield up to 1884, when 
 he removed to Ansonia, Conn., and has since lived 
 with his son Horace G. Mr. Fosdick took an active 
 part in the "Know-Nothing" movement, and since 
 that curious uprising in politics has been a Repub- 
 lican, reading widely and being well posted on all 
 questions at issue. He married Lucinda Collins, 
 who was born in Tyringham, Mass., a daughter of 
 Chester Collins, a farmer at that place. They had 
 five children, three of whom are still living: 
 Amisinda married Alp'honso Merrell, of Westfield, 
 Mass.; Horace G. is the subject proper of these 
 lines ; George, who^ lives in Derby, is foreman of the 
 rolling stock of the electric railway. The mother 
 died in 1894, at the age of sixty-five years. She 
 was a member of the Baptist Church, and is re- 
 membered as a good wife and mother. James Fos- 
 dick, a brother of Robbins, served in the Civil war. 
 
 Horace G. Fosdick spent his earlier years under 
 the parental roof and was educated in the public 
 schools. At the age of fourteen years he went to 
 Derby, and drove team for a business man of that 
 place; he attended school during the winter for 
 ~ five seasons. After this he spent one year in a 
 grocery and meat market, and another year as clerk 
 in a confectionery establishment. In 1880 he came 
 to Ansonia and began business as a confectioner, 
 continuing in this line for eighteen months, and 
 selling out to Charles Blair. Mr. Fosdick was. not 
 long idle, and bought his present establishment from 
 a Mr. Trumpbour, who had done both a wholesale 
 and retail business in a small way. Under the en- 
 ergetic management of Mr. Fosdick the business has 
 steadily increased until now five wagons are in use, 
 and as many bakers are employed. Mr. Fosdick 
 undoubtedly commands the most extensive patron- 
 age of any man in his line in the city, and is known 
 as one of the oldest business men there, having been 
 engaged in his present place for more than twenty 
 years. His customers, both wholesale and retail, 
 are found in Seymour, Shelton and Derby, as well 
 as Ansonia, and as he turns out the best of goods 
 they are more than satisfied. Mr. Fosdick gives 
 close personal attention to all the details of his 
 business. In 1889 he purchased his present prop- 
 erty, on which he has made many and expensive 
 improvements. He also owns a small farm, where 
 he keeps cows to provide the milk for his baking 
 business. There are ten horses in his stables, and 
 they receive the best of care; he has not lost a 
 horse for sixteen years, and their fine appearance 
 sihows the touch of a kindly hand. 
 
 Mr. Fosdick was married, in 1887, to Miss Katy 
 Vandiercook, a daughter of William' Vandercook, 
 of Albany, N. Y., where she was born. Mrs. Fos- 
 dick is one of a family of four children. To her 
 union with our subject have come five children: 
 Horace G., Willard, Annie, Lottie and Charles H. 
 
 In political sentiment Mr. Fosdick is a Repub- 
 70 
 
 lican. He isi regarded as one of the leading citi- 
 zens of his community. He is a member of Nauga- 
 tuck Lodge, I. O. O. F., with which he has been 
 connected since he was twenty-one, was secretary 
 of the lodge three terms, and for several years was 
 an active worker in the Temple of Honor. In re- 
 ligious connection he unites with the Baptist 
 Church, where he has served as trustee and secre- 
 tary for three years. 
 
 EDWARD M. STANLEY, one of the many 
 renable and capable workmen of which the city of 
 Waterbury boasts, was born Feb. 24, 1859, in 
 Hopeville, town of Waterbury. 
 
 William Stanley, his father, was born in Bir- 
 mingham!, England, son of William Stanley, who 
 came from Birming'ham in 1829. The latter was 
 the grandfather of William J., J. L. and Frederick 
 E. Stanley, whose sketches appear elsewhere.. 
 William Stanley, father of Edward M., was brought 
 to Waterbury lay his parents when a lad of seven 
 years, and died there Sept. 30, 1875. When a boy 
 he entered the button shop of Mr. Benedict, and 
 when old enough he learned the trade of brass roll- 
 ing. Failing health drove him from the factory,, 
 and in 1848 he engaged in the carriage trimming, 
 business, catering to the trade. For some years he 
 was engaged in business in New York City and 
 Newark, N. J. In 1863 he came back to Water- 
 bury and helped to form the Carrington Manufac- 
 turing Co., of which he was treasurer for some- 
 time. Then, disposing of his interest in that firm^ 
 he helped form the Matthews & Stanley Manufac- 
 turing Co., of which he was treasurer until hiS' 
 death. He was a devoted friend, and earnest in hiS' 
 advocacy of every good cause. He was well known 
 in Masonic circles, and was recognized as a faith- 
 ful worker in the First Methodist Church. For his 
 first wife William Stanley marrieu Phoebe For- 
 rest, who died early in life. Betsey Miller, his sec- 
 ond wife, was born in Ancram, Columbia Co., 
 N. Y., daughter of Silas Miller, a farmer of that 
 region, who spent his later life at Salisbury, Conn., 
 wnere he died at the age of ninety years. William 
 Stanley and his wife Betsey were the parents of 
 three children: William, Perry and Edward M. 
 William died April ii, 1857, at the age of three 
 years, and Perry died Nov. 16, 1862, at the age of 
 five years. 
 
 Edward M. Stanley spent his boyhood days in 
 Hopeville, where he attended the local school. His 
 higiher education was obtained in the Waterbury 
 high school and a private school at Riverside, 
 where he spent three years. The young man be- 
 gan his life work in the shops of the Matthews & 
 Willard Manufacturing Co., where he became a 
 skilled burnisher and toolmaker, and where he 
 worked for seven years. In 1889 he entered the 
 factory of the Scovill Manufacturing Co., as a tool- 
 maker, and has remained with that well-known firm 
 to the present time. 
 
1 1 06 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 On Nov. I, 1893, Mr. Stanley married Miss 
 Helen M. Mosiiier, who was born in Waterbury, 
 [March 15, 1870, a daughter of Augustus and 
 Georgiana (Darling) Moshier. Her grandfather, 
 Charles Mosier, changed his name to Moshier. He 
 was of German extraction. In early life he was or- 
 dained an Episcopal minister, but in later years he 
 followed the trade of a wheel-wright. He died 
 Nov. 24, 1855. Augustus Moshier was born in the 
 city of New York, Feb. 7, 1841, and died Jan. 27, 
 I goo. He was a carpenter by trade, and carried on 
 the business of contractor and builder. His wife 
 Vv'as born in New York City, Dec. 25, 1850, and is 
 still living. They had six children: Helen M. 
 (Mrs. Stanley), Charles A., Sarah A., Georgiana, 
 Susan A. and Edith AI. Charles A. is a machinist 
 with the Scovill Manufacturing Co. Sarah A. mar- 
 ried George W. Morse, of Cheshire, Conn. Georgi- 
 ana married Edwin A. Jessell, of Waterbury. 
 Susan and Edith are still in school. 
 
 ^Ir. and Mrs. Stanley are the parents of two 
 children: Margaret M., born Sept. 26, 1899, died 
 Oct. 3, 1899; William A. was born June 24, 1901. 
 !Mr. Stanley is a Republican politicall}^ He be- 
 longs to Townsend Lodge, No. 8q. I. O. O. F.. 
 Comstock Lodge, No. 13, K. of P., and to Mizpah 
 Colony, No. 163, United Order of Pilgrim 
 Fathers. He attends St. John's Episcopal Church. 
 
 JOFIN PATRICK CALLAHAN, assistant su- 
 perintendent of the Branford Lock W'orks, Bran- 
 ford, is a native of Connecticut, born June 30, 1856, 
 in New Haven. 
 
 John P. Callahan, son of John Callaghan (for 
 so he spelled his name), was born in County Cork, 
 Ireland, and about the year 1845 came to this coun- 
 trv, landing at New York, where for a time he was 
 master workman at the carriage-spring making 
 trade. He made carriage springs that were ex- 
 hibited at the "Great Exhibition" (World's Ex- 
 position) held in London, England, at the "Crystal 
 Palace," in 1851. He married Ellen Collins in New 
 York City, then removed from there to Newark, 
 N. J., and thence, about the year 1850, to New 
 Haven, where he spent the remainder of his days, 
 dying in 1868. His children who grew to maturity 
 were : Ellen, Mother Basilia, of St. Patrick's 
 Academy, Chicago, 111. : Mary, Mother Philomena, 
 of St. Bernard's Convent, Nashville, Tenn. ; John 
 Patrick ; and William J. 
 
 John P. Callahan, our subject, was reared in his 
 native city. New Haven, and received his education 
 in part at the pubhc and parochial schools ; after 
 commencing work he attended night school. In 
 1868, when but twelve years old, he began work 
 in the lock works of Aiallory, Wheeler & Co., New 
 Haven, and in course of time learned the trade of 
 lock fitter, remaining in their emnloy ten years. In 
 iS/f; he removed to Branford, wliere he has since 
 been engaged with the Branford Lock Works. 
 
 •"Dn Jan. 7, 1880, Air. Callahan was united in 
 
 marriage with Alice T. Carney, daughter of James 
 and Margaret (Cusick) Carney, of Branford, form- 
 erly of Ireland, and six children, all yet living, 
 have been born to them : Margaret, B. T., John 
 L., lames P., William Vincent and Gerald. The 
 entire family are members of the Catholic Church. 
 Socially Mr. Callahan is a member of the Knights 
 of Columbus, and one of the organizers of Eldred 
 Council, No. 10, of Branford, of which he is 
 financial secretary ; is also a member of the N. E. O. 
 of P., and of the Y. & T. Mutual Benefit Society; 
 and a member of the Branford Agriculture and Hor- 
 ticultural Society, of which he is secretary. He has 
 held various public positions, having served as grand 
 juror, auditor and tax collector, and at present he 
 represents Branford in the State Legislature; he is 
 clerk of the coinmittee on Manual and Roll. 
 
 The Callaghans (for such is the usual spelling 
 of the name) are prominent people in Ireland. Pat- 
 rick Callaghan, an uncle of our subject, isi a large 
 land owner in County Cork, and enjoys the dis- 
 tinction of never having had trouble with his ten- 
 ants, something unusual on the "ould sod." One of 
 his sons is a bishop in the Catholic Church in Ire- 
 land, and altogether the family enjoy high standing. 
 
 AUSTIN B. PIERPONT. proprietor of a thriv- 
 ing meat market, milk depot, etc., in the city of 
 Waterbury, was born in that town Feb. 11, 1849, 
 on the same farm on which his father, Charles J. 
 Pierpont, wasi born. 
 
 Ezra Pierpont, great-grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, was also in all probability born in the town 
 of Waterbury. He was a farmer, served in the 
 war of the Revolution, and was quite prominent in 
 town affairs, serving long as a selectman, and also 
 filling several other offices. He reared several chil- 
 dren, among whom were Seabury, Luther, Austin 
 (grandfather of our subject). Stiles and Joseph. 
 All the sons became farmers and lived in the town 
 of Waterbury. Luther and Austin served in the 
 war of 1812. 
 
 Austin Pierpont, grandfather of Austin B., was 
 a prosperous farmer. He married Sally Beecher, 
 of Waterbury. Of the children born to them seven 
 reached maturity, viz. : Enos A., Ezra A., Minerva, 
 Charles J. (father of our subject), Jennette, Will- 
 iam S. and Ellen. Enos A. was a farmer and 
 butcher in Waterbury, where he died. Ezra A. 
 was also a farmer and oyster peddler in the same 
 town, and there ended his days. Minerva married 
 Amos Moss, a farmer, carpenter and sawmill and 
 cidermill proprietor of Cheshire. Jennette became 
 the wife of Amos J. Beers, a wholesale fruit dealer 
 in New Haven. William S. was a carpenter in 
 Waterbury. Ellen married Lorenzo Peck, a mer- 
 chant of New Haven. The father of this family 
 met an untimely fate by a stroke of lightning, 'but 
 not until he had rounded out a useful and bene- 
 ficent career. 
 
 Charles J. Pierpont, father of our subject, was 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 107 
 
 a farmer and butcher in Waterbury, where he 
 passed his entire Hfe. He married Mary A. Warn- 
 er, a native of the town, and a daughter of Jared 
 Warner, a farmer ; he was a soldier of the war of 
 1812. Justis Warner, father of Jared, was also a 
 farmer, and descended from one of the oldest 
 famihes in the county. After their marriage Mr. 
 and Mrs. Charles J. P.ierpont settled on the home 
 farm, where they reared their six childiren, viz. : 
 Charles J. is water inspector of Waterbury (he is 
 mentioned elsewhere) ; Austin B! is the subject 
 proper of this sketch ; Ellen C. married George W. 
 Conner, proprietor of an express line from Water- 
 bury to New Haven ; Wilson L. is a farmer and 
 milkdealer in Waterbury ; Merritt E. is a grocer in 
 the city; Mary Ann married Charles S. Miller, a 
 medhanic of Waterbury. In politics the father of 
 this family was a Democrat, and in their church 
 relationship the family are Episcopalians. 
 
 Austin B. Pierpont passed his boyhood on the 
 home farm, and was educated in the district school. 
 He then taught one season, and later attended the 
 Waterbury high school, after leaving which he 
 hired out to his uncle, Enos Pierpont, and worked 
 for him seventeen years in the meat business. At 
 the end of that time he bought him out, and has 
 ever since conducted a most prosperous trade in 
 meats, dairy products, etc. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Pierpont married Lucy A. Welton, 
 a daughter of Joseph Welton, of Waterville, and to 
 this union have been born three children : Arthur 
 J., born in 1876, is still on the farm; Herbert, born 
 in 1883, died at the age of five months; Morton E., 
 born in 1885, is now attending Storrs' Agricultural 
 College. 
 
 Mr. Pierpont is a Republican in politics, and has 
 twice represented New Haven county on the State 
 Board of Agriculture. He has been master of Mad 
 River Grange, Excelsior Pomona Grange, and has 
 always been actively interested in the promotion 
 of agricultural affairs, having served as vice-presi- 
 dent of the Woicott Agricultural Society, a position 
 he still fills ; he is also active in other affairs, and 
 lends a helpful hand in all. He is president of the 
 East Farms Cemetery Association, and a trustee of 
 Mill Plain Chapel Society, which he helped to estab- 
 lish. His influence is felt in many undertakings. 
 He is of a genial, benevolent and fraternal disposi- 
 tion, and is a prominent member of Nosahogan 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., Waterbury, in which he has 
 passed all the chairs, and of Ansantawae Encamp- 
 ment. Mr. Pierpont is a vestryman in Trinity 
 Episcopal Church. Socially he is very highly es- 
 teemed, and his family share with him the regard 
 of their neighbors and friends generally. 
 
 GEORGE SMITH DAVIS, member of the 
 firm of Landon & Davis, general merchants, Guil- 
 ford, is a native of the town of Guilford, born Dec. 
 20, 1854, of Welsh ancestry. 
 
 Joel Davis, his grandfather, was born in Kill- 
 
 ingworth, Middlesex Co.. Conn., whence after his 
 marriage he moved to Guilford, where he pur- 
 chased a farm, and where he passed the rest of his 
 days, dying in i860. Pie was a member of the 
 Episcopal Church, a Whig in politics, and was 
 progressive and prosperous. In Killingworth, 
 Conn., he married Achsah Davis, of that town, and 
 seven children were born to them : Henrv, Sarah, 
 George W. (deceased), George W. (2) (sketch of 
 whom follows), Harriet, Leonard and James. The 
 parents both died at the farm, and are buried in 
 the West Side cemetery. 
 
 George W. Davis, father of George S., was 
 born in 1822 in Guilford, and there passed his 
 entire life in agricuhural pursuits, dying in i8qo. 
 He attended the Episcopal Church, was a Demo- 
 crat in politics, and was a highly honored man. 
 In 1850, in Guilford, he married Cornelia Smith, 
 who was born in 1827, daughter of Tabor and 
 Myra (Hoadley) Smith, and three children were 
 born to them: Cornelia, deceased in infancy; 
 George S., sketch of whom follows; and Charles 
 W., who is engaged in business with his brother. 
 
 George S. Davis, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, attended the district school of Guilford, 
 also the high school, and at the age of sixteen 
 years went to Hartford, Conn., where he secured 
 employment as clerk in a dry-goods store. He 
 remained there eight years, in 1878 returning to 
 Guilford and becoming clerk in the postoffice. 
 Then, at the end of five years, in 1883, being pos- 
 sessed of a small capital, he and S. W. Landon 
 embarked in the grocery business in Guilford, un- 
 der the firm name of Landon & Davis. Mr. Lan- 
 don died in 1890, and Mr. Davis has since con- 
 tinued the business under the same name, and, 
 through courtesy, genial manners, and close atten- 
 tion to business, has built up an extensive trade. 
 
 Mr. Davis- is a Republican. In 1885 he was 
 elected town treasurer, and has since filled the 
 office with credit to himself and to the satisfaction 
 of the public ; has also for the past ten years filled 
 the office of borough and town treasurer with equal 
 acceptance. In 1889 he was elected to the State 
 Legislature, and served one term at Hartford, dur- 
 ing which time he was on the committee on New 
 Towns and Probate Districts. In 1891 he was re- 
 elected. He filled the office of burgess of the 
 borough one term, and in 1881 was appointed a 
 notary public by the governor. Socially he . is a 
 member of the F. & A. M., affiliating with St. 
 Alban's Lodge, No. 38. of which he is past master 
 and treasurer; he is a Knight Templar, connected 
 with New Haven Commandery, No. 2, and with 
 Halleck Chapter, also with the Eastern Star; is 
 also a member of the New England Order of Pro- 
 tection and the Royal Arcanum. In religious 
 faith he is a member of the Episcopal Church, of 
 which he has been warden for the past twelve years, 
 also treasurer. 
 
 On Dec. 16, 1885, in Guilford, George S. 
 
iio8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, 
 
 Davis was married to Annie G. Fowler, daughter 
 of Henry Fowler, and three children have been 
 born to them : Henry Fowler died in infancy ; 
 Elizabeth G. and Annie C. are both attending 
 school. 
 
 LEWIS MONROE PHELPS was born Aug. 
 22, 1841, in Northampton, Mass., where his father, 
 Spencer Phelps, was born in September, 1797, and 
 died in 1873. Spencer Phelps was a farmer, and 
 was also engaged in the butchering business. He 
 was a Whig in political faith, and became a Re- 
 publican on. the formation of the party. He at- 
 tended the First , Congregational Church. In- 1823 
 he married Miss Annie Harris, of Northampton, 
 who was born Dec. 21, 1801, in Norwich, and died 
 in 1873 in Northampton, Mass., where Mr. and Mrs. 
 Phelps were buried. Their family comprised the 
 following children: (i) George S. has a carriage 
 business at Northampton, Mass. (2) Anna Maria 
 married Enos Wright, of Northampton. (3) Ed- 
 ward died in infancy, (4) Edward H. is a re- 
 tired tinsmith of Northampton. (5) Martha mar- 
 ried Henry Cobb, of Saxton's River, Vt. (6) 
 Henry S. was a soldier in the Union army during 
 the Civil war, serving as a member of Company C, 
 nth L^nited States Regulars, was taken prisoner, 
 and died in Andersonville. (7) Charles W. died at 
 the age of eighteen years. (8) Lewis Monroe is 
 the gentleman whose name appears at the introduc- 
 tion of this article. 
 
 Ebenezer Phelps, father of Spencer, was born in 
 Northampton, and was in his lifetime a very prom- 
 inent farmer and large land owner. A large tract 
 of land which belonged to him is now the center 
 of the city of Northampton. He married Kezia 
 Parsons, and they had eight children. The Phelps 
 family descends from three brothers who came over 
 from England very early in the history of the 
 Colonies and -settled in Vermont, Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut, respectively. 
 
 Lewis M. Phelps spent his boyhood and youth 
 in Northampton, Mass., and obtained his educa- 
 tion under the shadow of Mt. Tom. At fourteen 
 he left school and went to work, on different farms, 
 three years later going to the West, and spending 
 two years in Illinois and Iowa. Returning to 
 Northampton, he set himself to the trade of car- 
 riagemaker, which he followed until he reached 
 the age of twenty-four. Mr. Phelps enlisted, in 
 August, 1862, as a member of Company C, 52d 
 Mass. V, L, and served until Aug. 14, 1863. He 
 was at Port Hudson, and. in many notable battles 
 of the war. 
 
 Mr, Phelps began a contracting business when 
 he was twenty-four years old, and followed same 
 for about one year. At Springfield he was em- 
 ployed for six years by the Wesson Manufacturing 
 Co., where he was foreman in charge of a gang 
 of men. He held a similar position in the shops 
 of the New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 
 Railway Co., and in 1875 he came to Wallingford 
 to open a tinning, plumbing, heating and stove busi- 
 ness, in which line he has accumulated a substantial 
 fortune. Twelve years ago he leased his present 
 store in the Wallace block, and purchased a half 
 interest therein. In 1898 he bought the other half 
 of the block, Mr. Phelps is largely interested in 
 real estate and owns several very desirable tene- 
 ment houses, which he has built in recent years. 
 Politically he is a Republican, and he is now serv- 
 ing as justice of the peace; since his location in 
 the city he has had charge of the department of 
 weights and measures ; for two years he was a 
 member of the court of burgesses ; in October, 1901, 
 he was appointed electrical commissioner, for three 
 years, 
 
 Mr. Phelps was married, June i, 1864, to Miss 
 Jennie M, Hastings, of . South Deerfield, Mass,, 
 daughter of Samuel Hastings. Mr. Phelps is a 
 member of Arthur Dutton Post, G. A. R., and 
 Compass Lodge, F. & A. M. He is also a promi- 
 nent Odd Fellow, has passed all the chairs of the 
 Subordinate Lodge, and for a number of years has 
 been a member of the Grand Lodge of the State. 
 He is also a member of the Encampment, Rebekah 
 and Canton branches of the order. He was a prime 
 mover in the organization of Accanant Lodge, and 
 was its first vice-grand; has served as treasurer 
 of Friendship Encampment, and is now a member 
 of the board of trustees. 
 
 GEORGE S. GILLETTE, a highly-esteemed 
 resident of the town of Milford, was born Jan. 14, 
 1850, in the house in which he resided until recently. 
 
 Benjamin Gillette, his great-grandfather, seryed 
 as a sbldier during the Revolutionary war, and 
 the family has long been noted for the qual- 
 ities that go to the making of good citizen- 
 ship. Garriet Gillette, our subject's grandfather, 
 was born in Milford, and became a farmer by 
 occupation. He married Nancy Piatt, and 
 had a large family of children, as follows: 
 John, a builder in Prospect, died in that town; 
 George died in Naugatuck; Garriet, a farmer, died 
 in Prospect ; Bennett, a carpenter, died at his home 
 in Prospect ; Rufus, a carpenter, is living in retire- 
 ment in Naugatuck; William, our subject's father, 
 is mentioned more fully below; Sarah A. married 
 Harry Morse, and resides in Prospect; Mary (de- 
 ceased) married Harry Smith, of Prospect; Abby 
 married Lucius Talmadge, of Prospect (both are 
 now deceased) ; two died in childhood. 
 
 William Gillette was born in 1822, in Prospect, 
 and died April 14, 1878. After his marriage he 
 located on a farm on Long Island Sound, in the 
 southern part of Milford, the old homestead of the 
 grandfather, where his remaining years were spent. 
 As a citizen he was much respected, and for years 
 he took an active interest in local affairs as a mem- 
 ber of the Republican party. He was also very ac- 
 tive in the church. He married Susan Bucking- 
 
'.ffi/uJ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 109 
 
 ham, daughter of John Buckingham, a native of 
 Milford. She died Oct. 4, 1879. Of their six chil- 
 dren, the eldest, Mary E., married N. Truman 
 Smith, a farmer in Milford; George S. is mentioned 
 "below ; Miss Martha N. resides in Milford ; Charles 
 W. conducts the old homestead; Miss Susan C. re- 
 sides in Milford; and Nettie died in infancy. 
 
 George S. Gillette was reared on the old home- 
 stead in Milford, and after completing a course in 
 the neighboring district school attended the Mil- 
 ford high school and a private school conducted by 
 Jonas French. At the age of twenty-two he went 
 to Kansas and worked on a farm for a year, and he 
 spent the next five years in Nevada, in various em- 
 ployments. In 1878 he returned to the homestead, 
 a farm of thirty-eight acres, and made a specialty 
 of raising garden seeds. Recently he came into 
 possession of the old Buckingham homestead, the 
 place where his mother was born, and has taken up 
 iiis home there. 
 
 On Dec. 13, 1893, Mr. Gillette married Miss 
 Flora Belle Hanscome, of Maine, daughter of Re-^. 
 Alva H. Hanscome, and a member of an old fam- 
 ily of that State. They have one child, William 
 Buckingham. Mr. Gillette is a Republican in poli- 
 tics, and has served many years as assessor and a 
 member of the board of relief. He and his wife 
 "belong to the Congregational Church, and he is also 
 an active worker in the Royal Arcanum and of the 
 I. O. O. F. at Milford. 
 
 NATHAN W. GREENMAN, a well-known 
 resident of Waterbury, is a native of Connecticut, 
 born April 12, 1840, in Bozrahville, New London 
 ■county. 
 
 Prior to the year 1800 three brothers by the 
 name of Greenman came to this country from Eng- 
 land, one settling in New York, one in the eastern 
 part of Connecticut, the third in New London coun- 
 ty. Conn., the last named being James Greenman, 
 the grandfather of Nathan W. ; he was a farmer 
 by occupation. 
 
 Nathan Greenman, father of Nathan W., was 
 born in 1815 in New London county, ^nd for years 
 was superintendent of the cotton mills there. He is 
 now living retired near New Haven. ^ At the early 
 age of seventeen years he married Julia A. Wilkin- 
 son, who was born in 181 5 in Stonington, Conn., a 
 daughter of Jonathan. Wilkinson, a farmer of that 
 locality. Mr. Wilkinson served in the war of 1812. 
 :He married Ann Cranston, also a native of Ston- 
 ington, and descended from ancestry who came to 
 America early in the seventeenth century. Grand- 
 father Wilkinson was one of the "frontiersmen,' 
 Tjut the Indians were very friendly to him and his 
 family, frequently abiding under their hospitable 
 Toof. The Wilkinsons took active part in all the 
 •early struggles of the country, including the French 
 and Indian troubles, the Revolution and the war of 
 1812, as well as. the Indian wars since that period. 
 
 After marriage Nathan Greenman and his wife 
 
 settled in New London county, at Bozrahville, and 
 there reared the following children : Anna E. (de- 
 ceased) was the wife of George Nettleton ; Jennie 
 E. (deceased) was the wife of Frederick A. Cook, 
 of Southington, Conn.; Nathan W. is our subject; 
 Ellen L. (deceased) was the wife of Samuel A. 
 Bayliss ; Charles A. died unmarried ; Imogene E. 
 is now the wife of Frederick A. Cook, mentioned 
 above. 
 
 In 1842, when two years old, Nathan W. Green- 
 man, our subject, was taken by his parents to Green- 
 ville, a suburb of Norwich, this state, and at the 
 public and high schools of that place received a 
 liberal education. On May 15, 1853, he came to 
 Waterbury, which has since been his home. Tak- 
 ing up the profession of dentistry, he in 1858 fol- 
 lowed same in Charleston, S. C, and while there 
 saw slaves sold by auction. During the year 1859 
 he for some time sold books throughout Michigan. 
 In 1862 he enlisted in the Union army, as will be 
 presently recorded; from 1865 to 1866 was a clerk 
 in the Waterbury postofifice, and then embarked in 
 the coal business, in which line he is actively en- 
 gaged at the present time. 
 
 In November, 1875, Mr. Greenman married 
 Edith G. Webster, a daughter of Chauncey B. 
 Webster, of Waterbury. No children have been 
 born to this union. Mr. and Mrs. Greenman are 
 members of the Congregational Church. In politics 
 he is a Republican, and he has served his adopted 
 city as tax collector, also on the board of relief. 
 Socially he is affiliated with the F. & A. M., I. O. 
 O. F., Concordia Society and G. A. R. 
 
 On Aug. II, 1862, Mr. Greenman enlisted in 
 the service of the United States in Company H, 
 20th Conn. V. I., for three years, or during the 
 war, and the following succinct war record, written 
 by himself, will be of interest : 
 
 "I was mustered as corporal at New Haven, 
 Conn., Sept. 8, 1862, left the State Sept. 11, 1862, 
 served in the defence of Washington, D. C. ; from 
 Oct. 2, 1862, 2d Brigade, ist Division, 12th Corps, 
 Army of the Potomac ; and Army of the Cumber- 
 land from June, 1863, ist Brigade, ist Division, 
 20th Corps ; from April, 1864, 2d Brigade, 3d Di- 
 vision, 20th Corps, Army of the Cumberland ; trans- 
 ferred to the 3d Brigade, 3d Division, Armies of 
 the -Cumberland and Georgia, May 29, 1864, re- 
 maining with last mentioned brigade, division aiid 
 corps, until the ending of the Civil war, April, 
 1865, holding the rank of sergeant until that event. 
 I was on duty with my regiment, in defence o£ 
 Washington, D. C, until Sept. 29, 1862; moved 
 to Sandy Hook, thence to Harper's Ferry, Mary- 
 land Heights, Loudon Heights, Keys and Manning 
 Fords, on the Shenandoah river, Va., then to Fair- 
 fax Station, Va. Advanced on Fredericksburg, 
 during the cold and severe rains of December, 1862, 
 when, from the depth of the mud, it was impossible 
 for men and trains to move more than four or five 
 miles a day. Not an article of apparel, outside or 
 
II lO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 inside of the knapsack, but was thoroug-lily soaked 
 with the ic)' rain. For ten consecutive days and 
 nights these conditions were the experiences of all 
 in the command. The cold, wet ground served for 
 a bed, and a wet knapsack for a pillow. With all 
 these discomforts the men appeared to be cheerful 
 and in good spirits and health. I was with my 
 command during the Confederate Gen. Stuart's 
 raid, from Dec. 27 to Dec. 31, 1862, and in other 
 operations against the enemy, until ordered into 
 winter quarters at Stafford Court House, Va., Jan. 
 19, 1863, there remaining until April 27, 1863. 
 During the latter part of the month of January, 
 1863, by order of Brig. Gen. Kane, commanding 
 our brigade, myself and a detail of six men from 
 my company (each with three days' rations) were 
 ordered to take .possession of and occupy Aquia 
 Creek church, some four or five miles distant from 
 our camp, to prevent its defilement by scouting or 
 other parties of soldiers. * * * We carried 
 into the church several cords of wood, built a fire 
 in the center of the floor with which we cooked our 
 rations, and kept warm (the weather being very 
 cold), remaining there nearly five days, the last 
 thirty-six hours, without food, headquarters having 
 forgotten or overlooked the fact that we were on 
 duty there. The church at that time was between 
 the lines, and we were liable to capture by the 
 enemy at any time during the period of our guard. 
 The waning of the fifth day brought to our ears 
 the sound of horses'' hoofs upon the frozen ground, 
 and from our outlook within the church there 
 came into a view a regiment of cavalry which 
 proved to be the 8th New York, which not only 
 relieved our apprehension and anxiety, but also our 
 hunger. Through the dispatch of an orderly to 
 Gen. Kane's headquarters, we were ordered to re- 
 turn to our camp. =•' * * On April 26, 1863, 
 came orders to break up camp and march to the 
 scenes of battle in the coming campaigns of the 
 spring and summer of 1863. Eight days' rations 
 and eighty rounds of ammunition is the order. A 
 forced march of three days brought the command 
 to Germania Ford on the Rapidan river. Order to 
 strip off all our clothing, put them in a roll, and 
 wade through the rapidly flowing stream, where we 
 found foothold difficult to maintain. Lined up to 
 roll-call on the opposite bank of the river, prepara- 
 tory to imminent battle at Chancellorsville. Virginia. 
 "This is to be ni)- first important engagement, 
 and c|uestions surge the mind, like the incoming 
 and receding waves, of the ocean, that are un- 
 answerable until the conflict end's. Killed, wound- 
 ed or unscathed, and will you perform all of the 
 duties of a soldier, bravely and unflinchingly in the 
 coming contest, whatever the result? My fate 
 proved capture, the third day of the battle, Sun- 
 day, May 3, 1863. This was the only time I was 
 made a prisoner of war during my three years' 
 service. I was confined in Libby Prison, and on 
 Belle Isle, in and opposite Richmond, \''a. Follow- 
 
 ing my confinement at Camp Parole, Annapolis, 
 Md., and my exchange during the month of Au- 
 gust', 1863, I joined my regiment and co.mpany at 
 Cowan, Tenn., and was promoted to the position 
 of sergeant April 22, 1864, performing duty along 
 the line of the Louisville & Nashville railroad and 
 Chattanooga line of communications until the open- 
 ing of the Atlanta campaign, May 4, 1864, partici- 
 pating in the following engagements : Buzzard 
 Roost Gap, May 8 and 9; holding Boyd's Trail, 
 May 10 and 11 ; battle of Resaca, Mav 13 and 1$; 
 Cassville, May 19; advance to Etowah, May 20. 
 and 23, 1864. iVt this date I was. detached for 
 duty in the Ambulance Corps, a duty I found to be 
 arduous, tedious and compassionate, constantly 
 drawing upon my sympathy, because of the mutil- 
 ation and suffering I witnessed during a series of 
 ensraeementS' that consumed one hundred consecu- 
 tive days of time when fighting in one contingent 
 or other of those armies took place. It has been 
 designated by some, of those who endured the cam- 
 •paign, the 'one hundred days' battle.' 
 
 "Entered Altanta, Ga., Sept. 3, 1864, and was 
 assigned to duty at the headquarters of Gen. H. W. 
 Slocum, commandant, in charge of ten of the am- 
 bulances used to convey the citizens of that city tO' 
 Rough and Ready (Confederate line), in accord- 
 ance with the order issued by Gen. Sherman, mak- 
 ing it imperative that all non-combatants should 
 be removed from within our lines. Citizens had 
 the option of going North or South, and from my 
 observation comparatively few went North. Sept. 
 20, 1864, was relieved from duty in the Ambulance 
 Corps., and ordered to join my regiment, then in- 
 camp on the outlying hills east of the city. Nov. 
 
 15, 1864, started and marched through the State 
 of Georgia with Gen. Sherman's army, which ar- 
 rived at Savannah, Ga., Dec. 10, 1864, serving with 
 my company and regiment during the siege of that 
 city, entering it with our victorious army Dec. 21,. 
 
 1864. I was on duty in that place until Jan. 3, 
 
 1865, crossed' the Savannah river Jan. 4, and 
 camped on the rice fields on South Carolina soil, 
 opposite the.city, for a week ; marched to Hardee- 
 ville, S. C, helped in the leveling of that place 
 with the ground ; remained there some ten days, 
 marched to Sisters Ferrv. on the Savannah river,, 
 then accompanied Gen. Sherman's army in its fam- 
 ous march through the Carolinas, from January 
 to April, 1865. I was in the skirmish near Law- 
 tonville, Feb. 2, 1865, with a reconnoissance to 
 Silver River, N. C, March 14-15; fought in the 
 battle of Averysboro, N. C. ; was in action, March 
 
 16, near Taylor's Hole creek, N. C. ; also in the 
 engagement at Bentonville, N. C, Alarch 19-20,. 
 1865; was with a detail of thirty men (Capt. Ezra 
 Sprague in command) who were foraging, when 
 lost amongst the pines of South Carolina, for three 
 days and nights, pursued by Gen. Joe Wheeler's 
 cavalry, when capture meant instant death, as no- 
 quarter was given, to our foragers, if taken prison- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 1 1 1 
 
 ers. The battle of Bentonville, N. C, was the last 
 fought 'by Gen. Sherman's army in the Civil war. 
 I was on duty at Goldsboro, N. C, from March 31 
 to April 10, 1865 ; at Raleigh, the State capital, 
 April 13-22; guarding supply trains to Jones' 
 Cross Roads, N. C, April 22-24; and at the sur- 
 render of Gen. Johnston's army to Gen. Sherman, 
 April 26, 1865. Then left my company and regi- 
 ment, by order of the regimental surgeon, Dr. 
 Jewett, proceeded by rail to Beaufort, N. C, thence 
 by steamer to Fort Schuyler, N. Y., there detailed 
 asi chief clerk in the muster-out department, by 
 Major Thieman of the United States Army, and 
 was honorably discharged from the United States 
 service July 6, 1865. I never was wounded, ex- 
 perienced but little sickness (none of a serious 
 nature), an inmate of the hospital one week, at 
 Parole Camp, Annapolis, Md., from hip injury that 
 proved slight, acted as assistant steward in that 
 •hospital after my recovery during the term of my 
 parole, returned to my citizenship July 8, 1865,, in 
 a better physical condition than when I joined the 
 service." 
 
 COL. JOHN B. DOHERTY was born at 
 Hard Ledge, Westmoreland Co., New Brunswick, 
 Sept. 10, 1853, a son of William A. and Matilda 
 G. Doherty. The mother died in 1895, aged sev- 
 enty-six years, and the father, who was bom in 
 England in 1820, died in Waterbury in June, 1900, 
 aged eighty years. James G. Doherty, the grand- 
 father of Col. John B., was born in Colerain, Ire- 
 land, and was a farmer. 
 
 William A. Doherty when a boy left England 
 with his parents, and went to New Brunswick, 
 where he engaged in shipbuilding after reaching 
 manhood. St. John's was for years his head- 
 quarters. He located for a time in Westmoreland 
 county. New Brunswick, engaged as a shipbuilder, 
 and then, returning to St. John's, was for a long 
 term of years superintendent in the shipyards of 
 Jewett & Scammel, a very large concern at that 
 time. About 1865 he came to Waterbury for a 
 time. He went back to New Brunswick, but his 
 home was in Waterbury after 1890. Mrs. Matilda 
 (Galiaway) Doherty was born in Colerain, Ireland, 
 a daughter of James Galiaway, who removed to 
 Thompsonville, Conn., when she was very young. 
 To Mr. and Mrs. William A. Doherty was born 
 a familv of ten children, seven of whom lived to 
 maturity: James G., William A., Eliza, John B., 
 Anna, Rebecca and Mary J. James G. lives in 
 Waterbury, and William A. in Green Bay, Wis. 
 Anna married Leonard Burr, and has her home in 
 Bridgeport, Conn. The other members of the fam- 
 ily live in Waterbury. 
 
 Col. John B. Doherty spent his boyhood days 
 in St. John's, New Brunswick, and attended school 
 there. In 1865 he came to Waterbury, where he 
 has continued to live up to the present time. He 
 commenced to learn the machinist's and toolmak- 
 
 er's trades, but did not finish his apprenticeshiD, 
 preferring to take a position as clerk in the jewelry 
 store of C. H. Perkins & Co. In 1872 young 
 Doherty became entry clerk for Benedict, Meriman 
 & Co., and remained with them until they went 
 out of business, in 1875, when he bought the gentle- 
 men's furnishing store at the corner of Bank street 
 and Exchange place, and conducted it until 1878. 
 That year he closed the store and began keeping 
 books for the A. Burrett Hardware Co., a concern 
 very extensively engaged in the manufacture of 
 gas and waterpipe fittings. Mr. Doherty became 
 secretary of the company, disposed of the retail 
 store, built new factories, and started out on a 
 very ambitious- career, but was caught by the panic 
 of 1884 and crowded to the wall. After the failure 
 of the Burrett Hardware Co. he secured a posi- 
 tion as corresponding clerk with the Holmes, Booth 
 & Hayden Manufacturing Co., which he held until 
 the reorganization of Brown & Brothers, when he 
 went with them as. chief bookkeeper, remaining 
 with them until they went into licjuidation. 
 
 Mr. Doherty was elected second selectman in 
 1885, and at that time was the only Republican 
 on the board. The next year he was made first 
 selectman, and on the meeting of the board be- 
 came its chairman. The Democrat who had held 
 the chairmanship was defeated by an adverse vote 
 of twelve hundred, and lost every ward in the city 
 to Mr. Doherty. In October, 1887, the same ticket 
 was renominated and elected. In 1888 Mr. Doherty 
 declined a renomination, and announced himself as 
 a candidate for the position of postmaster. He 
 was appointed to the postmastership in 1889 by 
 President Harrison, and officiated in that capacity 
 four years and four months. From time to time 
 other flattering political honors have been extended 
 to Mr. Doherty. In 1888 and again in 1892 he 
 was asked to take the nomination for Congress. 
 He has been requested to become candidate for 
 sheriff of the county, but his. business relations did 
 not admit of his acceptance. In 1890 he was of- 
 fered the nomination for the position of mayor of 
 Waterbury, but, much as he would like to serve 
 the people, his business relations again compelled 
 him to decline. 
 
 Mr. Doherty was chosen secretary of the Con- 
 necticut Indemnity Life Insurance Co. in February, 
 1893. This, company was not in good condition, 
 and its business had become very much run down, 
 but under the new management — of which Air. 
 Doherty was secretary and a director — it was in- 
 tended to change the basis of the company's busi- 
 ness from that of assessment to the legal reserve, 
 or so-called "old line." During his management the 
 business increased from four and a half million dol- 
 lars to more than twelve millions of insurance up 
 to July, 1898, when he resigned his office, and de- 
 voted himself to the real-estate, insurance and 
 brokerage business, with the same gratifying suc- 
 cess. 
 
1 I 12 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Col. Doherty has been associated with the State 
 National Guard for many years. He became a pri- 
 vate in Company A, 2d Regiment, C. N. G., in Feb- 
 ruary, 1872, and gradually rose from one position 
 to another until July i, 1892, when he was elected 
 colonel of the regiment. He served in that office 
 six years, and then asked to be placed on the retired 
 list. Col. Doherty is a Mason of high degree, be- 
 longing to the blue lodge, the chapter, the con- 
 sistory and the Temple. He takes an active part in 
 the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the 
 Red Men, and wherever he is encountered he is 
 always the same genial and polished gentleman. 
 The Colonel has always taken a leading part in the 
 affairs of the Republican party, arid his is a fa- 
 miliar presence at county and State Conventions. 
 He was acting alternate delegate at the Chicago 
 convention which nominated President Harrison, 
 and a regular alternate at the Minneapolis conven- 
 tion which renominated President Harrison. 
 
 Col. Doherty has been twice married. His first 
 marriage was to Miss Jennie M. Barton, of Win- 
 chester, Conn., in 1875. Mrs. Doherty had very 
 delicate health, and spent much of her married life 
 in the balmy South; she died in 1882. There were 
 no children by that union. In September, 1892, our 
 subject married Katherine Sedgwick Buel, of 
 Waterbury, daughter of Mrs. Cornelia A. Buel and 
 the late Theodore S. Buel, and niece of the late 
 Judge Norton J. Buel. To this union has come one 
 child, Cornelia Buel, born Aug. 15, if 
 
 FREDERICK A. LINES, secretary and treas- 
 urer of the Ansonia Lumber Co., at Ansonia, is one 
 of the leading business men of that town, and his 
 energy and sound judgment have been recognized 
 factors in carrying many enterprises to success. In 
 addition to attending to his lumber business he 
 served as president of the Ansonia Board of Trade, 
 vice-president of the Connecticut State Board of 
 Trade, and a director in the Ansonia Savings Bank 
 and the Ansonia Flour & Grain Co. As a citizen 
 he takes an active part in local affairs. 
 
 Mr. Lines was born Oct. 25, 1849, ^^ New Mil- 
 ford, Litchfield Co., Conn., where his family has 
 been prominent from pioneer times. Joseph Lines, 
 his great-grandfather, came from New Haven in 
 1750, and settled at New Milford, and Philo Lines, 
 his grandfather, was born there in 1769, and fol- 
 lowed farming in that vicinity throughout all his 
 life. 
 
 William A. Lines, our subject's father, was born 
 in New Milford in 1809, and died there in 1885. 
 He was a substantial farmer and respected citizen, 
 and he and his wife were devout members of the 
 Congregational Church. In politics he was a Dem- 
 ocrat. He married Betsy A. Sullivan, who was 
 born in New Milford, daughter of Henry Sulli- 
 van, and died aged forty-five years. They had 
 four children, of whom three are living : George, 
 who is in the lumber business in New Milford; 
 
 Frederick A., our subject; and Charles, who con- 
 ducts a flour and grain business in New Britain. 
 
 The common schools near his home afforded 
 our subject an education, and at eighteen he went 
 to South Norwalk to learn the carpenter's trade. 
 When twenty-one years old he located in Ansonia, 
 pnd after following his trade three years as a jour- 
 neyman began contracting, many of the best dwell- 
 ings and orher buildings in the town having been 
 built by him. In 1883 he became a member of the 
 Ansonia Lumber Co., and in February, 1888, when 
 Mr. Smith was chosen president, our subject was 
 made secretary and treasurer. The yard is the larg- 
 est in this section, and is the only one in the locality 
 having first-class railroad facilities, and carrying 
 a full stock of all kinds of rough and dressed lum- 
 ber. They order directly from the 'manufacturers, 
 ciiid have an extensive business in all lines. 
 
 Mr. Lines is a Republican in politics, and was 
 assessor and one of the burgesses of Ansonia for 
 a number of years. He was also president of the 
 first board of aldermen of the city of Ansonia, and 
 took an active part in organizing the first city gov- 
 ernment. Socially he and his family are prominent, 
 and he is a member of George Washington Lodge, 
 F. & A. M., of Ansonia; Mount Vernon Chapter, 
 R A. M. ; Union Council, of Derby ; New Haven 
 Commandery, Knights Templar, of New Haven; 
 Pyramid Temple, of the Nobles of the Mystic 
 Shrine, of Bridgeport; the Heptasophs, of Ansonia; 
 the A. O. U. W. ; and the New England Order of 
 Protection. 
 
 In 1874 Mr. Lines married Miss Lottie A. 
 Hotchkiss, and they have two children: Miss Bes- 
 sie A., a graduate of Fort Edward Collegiate In- 
 stitute, and later a teacher there ; and William H. 
 The family attend the Congregational Church, of 
 which Mrs. Lines and Miss Bessie are members. 
 Mrs. Lines was born in Ansonia, daughter of Lock- 
 wood and Augusta Hotchkiss, both of whom sur- 
 vive. Mr. Hotchkiss is a well-known hardware 
 dealer and capitalist of Ansonia. This worthy 
 couple had six children, of whom, five are living: 
 Lottie A. (Mrs. Lines), Albert, Nettie, Lockwood, 
 Jr., and Frederick D. Hotchkiss. 
 
 HERBERT M. ROSE, a well-known miller of 
 the town of Milford, is a native of North Branford, 
 this county, born May 9, 1842. His family has 
 been identified with North Branford for many 
 years, and his great-grandfather, Solomon Rose, 
 was among the first settlers in that locality. 
 
 David Rose, our subject's grandfather, was born 
 and reared in North Branford, and became a farm- 
 er there. He married Anna Russell, and they had 
 five children, as follows: Major (deceased), who 
 took charge of the homestead, never married; Re- 
 becca married Eloyda Harrison, a farmer in North 
 Branford; Joshua is mentioned more fully below; 
 Laura married a Mr. Loper, and subsequently be- 
 came the wife of Russell Rose, and resided in 
 
L 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1113 
 
 North Guilford, this county; Damaris (deceased) 
 never married. 
 
 Joshua Rose, our subject's father, was bom 
 Jan. 9, 1797, and was a Hfelong resident of North 
 Branford. In connection with farming he operated 
 a sawmill. As a citizen he was much esteemed, and, 
 while not active in politics, he affiliated with the 
 Democratic party. His death occurred at his farm 
 Oct. 8, 1878, when he was aged eighty-one. In 
 1838 Mr. Rose married Harriet W. Smith, who 
 died Feb. 4, 1883, at the age of seventy-five. She 
 was a native of West Haven, this county, and her 
 father, Laban Smith, was a wheelwright of that 
 town. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Rose, viz. : Russell M., who operates the home- 
 stead; Herbert M., our subject; George H., a mer- 
 chant in Douglas, Kans. ; Charles J., a farmer and 
 truckman in North Branford; and David S., who 
 -was in mercantile business in Douglas, Kans., at 
 the time of his death, in 1892. 
 
 Herbert M. Rose remained at the old homestead 
 until he reached the age of eighteen, and for one 
 year taught school in a country district. He then 
 learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed in 
 New Haven for some time, and has occasionally 
 engaged in it since, but his attention has been given 
 chiefly to the millwright's trade. His services were 
 in demand for setting up water-wheels and ma- 
 chinery in different places, and in 1868 he located 
 in the town of Milford, two and a half miles from 
 the village of that name. His homestead com- 
 prises twenty acres, and on settling there he put up 
 substantial buildings, including a saw and grist- 
 mill, which he conducts. He also owns and oper- 
 ates a gasoline launch, carrying about twenty-five, 
 people, and takes parties cruising down the Sound 
 and up the Hudson river. Politically our subject 
 is a stanch Republican, but he is not an office- 
 seeker. 
 
 On Nov. 16, 1869, Mr. Rose married Miss 
 Florence E. Treat, who was born in Woodmont, 
 this county, daughter of Richard Treat, a promi- 
 nent farmer and' a descendant of Gov. Robert Treat. 
 The only child of this union, Florence E., died 
 at the age of seventeen years. Mrs. Rose is a mem- 
 ber of the First Congregational Church of Mil- 
 ford. 
 
 HENRY FRANCIS WANNING, president 
 and general manager of the Birmingham Iron 
 Foundry of Derby, Conn., was born m Massa- 
 chusetts,' March 30, 1846. After receiving his 
 earlier education in the public schools of his na- 
 tive town, he entered the high school of Taunton, 
 Mass., where he graduated in 1862. 
 
 Soon after laying aside his text books Mr. 
 Wanning began work in the office of the woolen- 
 mills of Samuel Slater's Sons at Webster, Mass., 
 but after a time he removed to New York City, 
 where he entered the -employ of the New York 
 City Steel Works, and while there became ac- 
 
 quainted with the proprietors of the Birmingham 
 Iron Foundry, of Derby, Conn. Subsequently he 
 \vas induced by that company to accept the posi- 
 tion of bookkeeper for their establishment, and ever 
 since 1865 he has been identified with that firm in 
 different capacities. In 1879 he was elected their 
 secretary; in 1888 he became treasurer; and in 
 1 89 1 having acquired a larger interest in the cor- 
 poration, he succeeded Royal M. Bassett as its 
 president and general manager. He has served 
 as a director of the Birmingham National Bank 
 since 1888. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Wanning was married to Miss Har- 
 riet Wallace, eldest daughter of the late Nelson H. 
 Downs, of Shelton, Conn., a lady of marked re- 
 finement and charming personality. Since his mar- 
 riage Mr. Wanning has resided in Shelton, having 
 previously, from 1865, made his home in Derby. 
 He and his wife have three living children : Grace 
 Elizabeth, born in 1871, who was married in 1896, 
 to Julius G. Day; Francis Downs, secretary of the 
 Birmingham' Iron Foundry, born in 1873; and 
 Harriet Downs, born in 1879. Though not a mem- 
 ber, Mr. Wanning is interested in the Second Con- 
 gregational Church of Derby, of which be has 
 been a regular attendant and cheerful supporter 
 since settling at his present locality. 
 
 CHARLES CLIFFORD FENN, one of the 
 successful dairymen and fruit growers of Walling- 
 ford, was born in Waterbury, this county, Nov. 
 15, 1859, a son of Samuel Fenn, who came from 
 Middlebury to Waterbury, where he died. The 
 mother of our subject, Caroline (Smith) Fenn, was 
 a daughter of John Smith, of Bristol, Conn. Two 
 children were iDorn of this union: Frank, a dairy- 
 man of Middlebury, who married Emilv Clark; and 
 Charles C, our subject. Mr. Fenn died in i860, 
 and Mrs. Fenn subsequently married Alexander 
 Graham, of Bristol. She passed away in Ansonia, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Our subject was' but one year old when he was 
 deprived by death of his father. At the age of 
 eight years he was taken to the home of his uncle, 
 Warren Smith, in Ohio, where he was cared for 
 and sent to school, later removing to Iowa, where, 
 in attendance upon school and in farm work, he 
 passed several years. Returning then to Bristol, 
 Conn., he remained there until he was sixteen years 
 old. The opportunities of the West induced him 
 to return to Iowa, and around Des Moines he found 
 employment on farms for a year. He then went 
 to Erie county, Ohio, where he engaged in farm- 
 ing for three years. In 1881 Mr. Fenn came to 
 Wallingford, and engaged at farm work with 
 Robert Wallace, later entering the toolmaking 
 room of R. Wallace & Sons spoon factory, and 
 learning the trade, at which he continued for thir- 
 teen years. During that time he bought the pres- 
 ent farm, consisting of sixty-six acres of valuable 
 land in East Wallingford. For the past nine years 
 
1 1 14 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mr. Fenii has been giving his special attention to 
 dairy farming, making a great success. In addi- 
 tion to making constant improvements, building 
 barns, fences, etc., on this place, Mr. Fenn has. es- 
 tablished in Wallingford a machine repair shop, a 
 much needed convenience, which since 1900 has 
 been one of the busiest places in the town. 
 
 In 1881 Mr. Fenn married Nellie Bailey, daugh- 
 ter of Stephen Bailey, of Durham, and five chil- 
 dren have been born of this union : Carrie, Wilber, 
 Olive, Mable and Lottie, all living except Mable, 
 who died at the age of four years, leaving a blank 
 in the family circle which can never be filled. 
 
 The improvements made upon his place have 
 cost Mr. Fenn much money, his substantial barn 
 alone costing $2,500. The success which has at- 
 tended him is richly deserved, beine but the natural 
 result of the energy, frugality and industry which 
 he has displayed ever since he was thrown upon 
 the world to carve his own fortune. Although 
 not a member of church he accompanies, his wife in 
 attendance upon the M. E. Church, to the support 
 of which he is a liberal contributor, and he is 
 always ready to further any enterprise promising 
 good to the community. ^Ir. Fenn is most highly 
 respected, a good citizen, a Republican who is not 
 too closely tied by party lines, and one of the repre- 
 sentative citizens of New Haven county. 
 
 BENJAMIN LOUIS LOUDON was born 
 Dec. 29, 1854, in Greenwich, Conn., and is a son 
 of Allen Loudon, who was born in New York. 
 Thomas Loudon, the father of Allen, served in the 
 Revolutionary war, and is buried in Horse Neck. 
 
 Allen Loudon was a shoemaker and was in busi- 
 ness many years in Greenwich, where he died at the 
 age of sixty-three. He was a Democrat, and a 
 faithful and useful citizen. He married Elizabeth 
 Rouschart, who was of French descent, a native of 
 New York, and died at Port Chester, that State. 
 They had ten children : ( i ) Jackson is a stone- 
 mason and contractor at Greenwich. (2) John is 
 a mechanic in Port Chester, N. Y. (3) Sarah is a 
 widow, and resides in Greenwich. (4) David is a 
 carpenter in Greenwich. (5) Clara is living in 
 Bridgeport. (6) Benjamin Louis is our subject. 
 (7) Elloert is in the teaming business at Port Ches- 
 ter. (8) Hattie is married and living in Port 
 Chester. Two died young. The Loudons are of 
 Scottish descent. 
 
 Benjamin Louis Loudon received his schooling 
 in Greenwich, attending until he reached the age of 
 nine years, when he left home to shift for himself. 
 Going to Ridgefield, Conn., he was engaged in 
 farming seven years, and* part of his compensation 
 was the privilege of attending the school of the 
 district. At Cheshire he spent some months learn- 
 ing the tinsmith trade with George Keeler, and 
 then returned to farming, working for Almon Ives, 
 with whom he remained about two years. At Alid- 
 dletown he was employed four years as a silver- 
 
 plater in the factory of the Simmons & Miller Co., 
 and was three years with G. I. Mix & Co., at Yales- 
 ville. In 1879 Mr. Loudon came to Wallingford to 
 enter the employ oi Simpson, Hall, Miller & Co., 
 with whom he 'is still engaged. In 1892 he was 
 made general superintendent of the entire plant, 
 and has about three hundred men under his super- 
 vision. Mr. Loudon is a Free Mason. Politically 
 he is an active Republican, but has never been an 
 office seeker. 
 
 Mr. Loudon was married Jan. i, 1878, to Miss 
 Jennie Rhoda Emily Turner, a daughter of Lewis 
 W. Turner, the patentee of the Turner heater. To 
 their union have been born: Elsie Juliette; and 
 Clarence Turner, who is in business with his father. 
 
 JAY H. HART, for many years a prominent 
 figure in the manufacturing circles of Waterbury, 
 ,and widely known as a most capable and reliable 
 man, was born in Berkshire county, j\Iass., Dec. 11, 
 1847, and comes of a family long established in 
 ,New England. Alfred Hart, his father, was also 
 born in Berkshire county, Feb. 12, 1812, and died 
 in New Marlborough Feb. 19, 1864. Solomon 
 Hart, his father, was born at Cornwall, Conn., 
 May 8, 1766, and died June 26, 1861. He was the 
 first settler at Hartsville, Mass., which took his 
 name, was a lifelong farmer, and also conducted 
 a gristmill, to which he had a set of saws attached, 
 ,also doing sawmill work. Throughout his life he 
 was a busy and industrious m'an. Solomon Hart, 
 his father, born at Kensington, Conn., was the son 
 of Deacon John Hart, and grandson of Capt. John 
 Hart. John Hart, father of the last named, was 
 the son of Deacon Stephen Hart, who was born in 
 Braintree, county of Essex, England, came to Mas- 
 sachusetts Bay in 1632, and was one of the fifty- 
 four original settlers of Cambridge, ]\Iassachusetts. 
 
 Alfred Hart, father of Jay H., married Miss 
 Cynthia L. Nettleton, who was born in Cornwall, 
 Conn., in 1814, daughter of Jehiel and Annie Net- 
 tleton, and died Sept. 6, 1877. The Nettleton fam- 
 ily has long been identified with Cornwall. After 
 their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Hart settled in Harts- 
 ville, Mass., where he engaged in agricultural pur- 
 suits. To them were born four children : Alonzo 
 M., Lucus W., Amy J. and Jay H. Alonzo and 
 Amy died in childhood. Lucus W. is a resident of 
 Spring-field, Mass. Alfred Hant was originally a 
 Whig, and on the formation of the Republican party 
 associated himself therewith. He was a devout 
 member of the Methodist Church, and an honorable 
 and upright man. 
 
 Jay H. Hart was reared to farming at Harts- 
 ville, Mass., where he remained until he was fifteen 
 }ears of age. He was given a good education, at- 
 tending the local school at Hartsville, and later was 
 a pupil at the Berkshire Institute. As soon as his 
 school days had ended Mr. Hart secured a position 
 as a special agent of the Adams Express Co., and 
 for five years was engaged in traveling all over 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1115 
 
 New England, on both railroad and steamer lines. 
 In 1869 he came to Waterbury as freight master at 
 the depot, and held this position for a year and a 
 half. For the same length of time he was with the 
 Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Co., and in Au- 
 gust, 1872, entered the employ of A. Piatt & Sons. 
 When that concern became an incorporation, under 
 the name of Piatt Brothers & Co., in 1876, Mr. 
 Hart became one of its directors, and the secretary 
 of The Patent Button Co., one of its subsidiary en- 
 terprises. 
 
 Mr. Hart and Miss Bertha Piatt were united in 
 marriage May 20, 1873, ^iid they are the parents of 
 seven children, whose names and dates of birth are 
 as follows: Amy L., Oct. 4, 1874; Bertha M., Oct. 
 
 10, 1876; Lewis J., Aug. 21, 1878; Alfred L., Dec. 
 
 11, 1880; Ruth S., Sept. 22, 1882; Dorothy N., Feb. 
 27, 1889; and Howard P., Aug. 10, 1891. These 
 children are all living, and constitute a very bright 
 and charming circle of young people. Mrs. Hart 
 is a daughter of Clark M. Hart, whose sketch ap- 
 pears elsewhere, and is a lady of many charms and 
 graces. 
 
 Mr. Hart has always been a Republican, was a 
 member of the town Republican committee twelve 
 years, and acted several years as its chairman. He 
 has taken a prominent part in town affairs for many 
 years. For fifteen years he was a member of the 
 city council, was secretary of same for five years, 
 and president of the board three years. He was 
 receiver of taxes four years, and a member of the 
 board of fire commissioners ten years. For two 
 years he was on the board of safety. He was an 
 active member of the water committee that built 
 the n&w reservoir, spending three-quarters of a 
 million dollars in that great undertaking, and was 
 also a member of the sewerage disposal committee. 
 Mr. Hart is a member of several of the fraternities, 
 and is prominently associated with both the Free 
 Masons and the Odd Fellows, affiliating with Con- 
 tinental Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and Xosahogan 
 Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. F. He is especially adept 
 in Odd Fellowship, and has filled all the chairs in 
 the local lodge. Mr. Hart and his family attend 
 the Second Congregational Church, of which he is 
 a member. 
 
 ALFRED SAMUEL BENNETT. ^ Among 
 the representative business men of Cheshire, none 
 are more deserving of representation in this volume 
 than Alfred S. Bennett, who for many years has 
 been connected with the business interests of the 
 communitv, and who has, through his well-directed 
 efforts, gained a handsome competence that num- 
 bers him among the substantial citizens of the 
 town. Keen discrimination, unflagging industry 
 and resolute purpose are numbered among his 
 salient characteristics, and thus he has won that 
 prosperity which is the merited reward of honest 
 effort. 
 
 Mr. Bennett was born in Camborne, Cornwall, 
 
 England, May 25, 1858, and belongs to an old and 
 prominent family of that county, many of its rep- 
 resentatives holding high positions both in church 
 and State. They have a coat of arms and crest. 
 George Bennett, Jr., father of our subject, is also 
 a native of Camborne, and is a son of George Ben- 
 nett, Sr., a land owner and minister of the Gospel, 
 who spent his entire life in Cornwall. George Ben- 
 nett, Jr., was educated in the schools of his native 
 land, and v/as a land owner and farmer of Corn- 
 wall until 1882, when he came to America, and now 
 makes his home with his son in Cheshire. He mar- 
 ried Emma Edmonds, a native of the same place, 
 and a daughter of Richard and Mary (Lanyon) 
 Edmonds. By this union were born five children: 
 George, a Methodist Episcopal local preacher, 
 Glenbrook, Conn. ; Richard E., an Episcopal min- 
 ister of Cincinnati, Ohio; William L., a Wesleyan 
 Methodist minister of Sussex, England ; Alfred S., 
 our subject; and James, local preacher and meat 
 dealer of South Meriden, Conn. The mother, who 
 was a faithful and consistent member of the Wes- 
 leyan Methodist Church, died in her native land. 
 George, the oldest son of George, Jr., also has a 
 son called George, who is of the seventh genera- 
 tion bearing the name of George, all of whom have 
 been eldest sons and, with three exceptions, min- 
 isters of the gospel — a remarkable fact ; the second 
 of these was captain of the Dolcoath mine, of Cam- 
 borne, the richest tin mine in the world ; and the 
 fifth, George, Jr., father of Alfred S., has been a 
 local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 for many years, and is a true and earnest Christian. 
 Alfred Samuel Bennett grew to manhood on the 
 home farm, and was educated in public and private 
 schools of his native land. He remained at home 
 with his parents during his minority, and on May 
 25, 1879, when he reached the age of twenty-one, 
 he sailed for the New World with the hope of bet- 
 tering his financial condition. He was accom- 
 panied by his brother James. They landed in Hali- 
 fax, Nova Scotia, and from there went to Chatham,, 
 Ontario, but a year later came to Connecticut and 
 located on a small farm in Cheshire, where they 
 lived two years, during which time they embarked 
 in the butcher business. From the farm they re- 
 moved to Cheshire Center, where they continued to 
 engage in the meat business and deal in cattle until 
 1887, when the partnership was dissolved, James 
 going to South Meriden and Alfred retaining the 
 old stand. He is still engaged in that business, and 
 also deals in fertilizers, engages in farming in 
 Cheshire, and has acted as auctioneer since 1893, 
 and by his own well-directed efforts, untiring in- 
 dustry and strict attention to- business he has stead- 
 ily prospered, and is now quite well-to-do. 
 
 Mr. Bennett has visited his native land several 
 times, and on March 9, 1885, was married in St. 
 Mabyn, Cornwall, to Miss Annie Cleave, a native 
 of St. Kew, the same county, and a daughter of 
 Nicholas Thomas Cleave, of Lanow Barton, St. 
 
I ii6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Kew. They have three children : Jane, Evelyn and 
 Melville. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bennett belong to 
 the Grange, and in religious connection both are 
 members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. 
 Bennett takes a very active part in church work, 
 serving as class-leader, has been Sunday-school 
 superintendent sixteen years, Sunday-school 
 teacher, and at the present time is chairman of the 
 board of trustees. Socially he is a charter member 
 of L. A. Thomas Lodge, No. 9, I. O. O. F., of 
 Cheshire, and a member of Temple Lodge, A. F. 
 & A. M., of the same place. His political support 
 is given the men and measures of the Republican 
 party, and he takes a deep interest in the welfare of 
 his party and works earnestly for its success. For 
 eight years he has been a member of the board of 
 selectmen, and for the past three years has been first 
 selectman. He takes a commendable interest in 
 public affairs, and never withholds his support from 
 any enterprise calculated to advance the moral, edu- 
 cational or material weltare of his town and county. 
 He is therefore numbered among the most valued 
 and useful citizens of the community. 
 
 GEORGE C. MINOR has earned an enviable 
 reputation among the successful business men of 
 Waterbury by honorable methods, and has worked 
 his way upward with commendable success. Mr. 
 Minor was born in Woodbury, Conn., May 24, 1847, 
 this town being also the birthplace of his father,^ 
 l\athaniel D., and of his grandfather, Ephraim. 
 
 Bphraim Minor married Olive Judson and 
 reared a family of three children: George C, who 
 became a farmer and lived in Woodbury, where he 
 died while still a young man; Charles, who lived 
 and died on the old homestead ; and Nathaniel D. 
 
 Nathaniel D. was born May 25, 1817, and was 
 a farmer, at present having a farm in the 
 town of Waterbury. He . married Frances Arm- 
 strong, a native of Woodbury, and they are the 
 parents of two children : George C. ; and Mary, 
 Jane, who married Frank R. Baldwin and lives in 
 Jersey City, N. J. The father is a Republican, and 
 an upright and respected citizen. He and wife at- 
 tend the Congregational Church. 
 
 George C. Minor spent his boyhood and youth 
 ■on the farm in Woodbury, and gained his educa- 
 tion at the hands of the teachers of the district 
 school. He attended winter terms until he reached 
 the age of twenty, and when his parents moved to 
 AA'aterbury he remained on the old farm, and for 
 some eight years, was engaged in its cultivation. 
 Mr. Minor and Miss Ella Louise Waters were mar- 
 ried Jan. I, 1875. Mrs. Minor was born in New 
 Britain, Conn., and is a daughter of Dr. G. FL 
 Waters. After their marriage they left the farm, 
 and, coming to Waterbury, the young husband set 
 up a retail milk business, which he followed for 
 some twelve years. In 1885 the milk business was 
 sold to other management, and Mr. Minor went into 
 the boot and shoe business on South Main street. 
 
 It was a new business venture, but it proved highly 
 successful, and after seven years had attained such 
 proportions that more commodious quarters were 
 needed. These were found at No. 52 Bank street, 
 and here Mr. Minor has since remained. This is 
 a fine store, in the heart of the city, and the center 
 of a flattering trade. Mr. Minor is a Republican, 
 and with his wife attends the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 GEORGE TALCOTT BENTON, Branford. 
 The ancestor in this country of the branch of the 
 Benton family of which the gentleman whose name 
 here appears is a worthy member was (I) Edward 
 Benton, who was born in Wiltshire, England, in 
 1628, and died in Glastonbury, Conn., in 1698. 
 
 (I) Edward Benton first located in Guilford, 
 Conn., where he was admitted as a freeman in 
 1650. Previous to 1669, together with fifty other 
 families, he and his family moved to Wethersfield, 
 where he became the owner of 150 acres of land 
 by purchase from the Indians for the sum of three 
 shillings, three pence. In 1713 his widow, Mary 
 Benton, was granted by the town of Glastonbury 
 fifty acres of land at a cost of twenty-five pounds, 
 five shillings; and again, in 1723, she was granted 
 fifty-eight acres of land for fifty-six pounds; still 
 again, in 1743, Edward Benton's heirs were granted 
 twelve acres of land for fifty pounds. 
 
 (II) Edward Benton, Jr., son of the emigrant, 
 was born in Glastonbury, Conn., in 1674, and in 
 1702 married Mary Hale, of that town, who died 
 in 1713. 
 
 (III) Josiah Benton, son of Edward, Jr., was 
 born in Glastonbury in 1705, and died there in 1793. 
 In 1735 he married Hannah House, of the same 
 place. . At the beginning of the Revolutionary war 
 he took the oath of fidelity to the State and coun- 
 try, and also became a member of the First Ecclesi- 
 astical Society of Glastonbury. At the age of sev- 
 enty he enlisted in the Connecticut militia, went 
 from the town of Tolland, Conn., and served in the 
 first "Lexington Alarm," April 19, 1775. 
 
 (IV) Josiah Benton, Jr., son of Josiah, was born 
 in Glastonbury, Conn., in 1745, and died at his 
 Glastonbury home in 1826. In 1769 he married 
 Dorothy Smith. At the age of thirty he joined the 
 Continental army, going with his father as a pri- 
 vate in the Connecticut militia from Tolland, and 
 serving in the first "Lexington Alarm." On May 
 3, 1775, he enlisted in the 5th Company, 2d Regi- 
 ment, Connecticut Militia, Col. Spencer command- 
 ing. The next year he served as a private in Capt. 
 Abram Tyler's Company, 17th Regiment, Connecti- 
 cut Continental Infantry, Col. Jedidiah Hunting- 
 ton commanding, and was in the battle of Long 
 Island. 
 
 (V) Josiah Benton, third son of Josiah and 
 Dorothy (Smith) Benton, was born in Glastonbury 
 in 1 77 1, and in 1793 married Sarah Talcott, who 
 was also a native of that town, born of an old Con- 
 
^ 
 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 1 17 
 
 necticut family. In 1799, with his wife and fam- 
 ily, he removed to Greenport, Columbia Co., N. 
 Y., and he died at Hudson, N. Y., in 1853. His 
 farm, consisting of 125 acres, was always in a high 
 state of cultivation, and a solid stone house there- 
 on, erected in 1729, is still in good repair. 
 
 (VI) Orsmer Benton, son of above, was born 
 in, Glastonbury Aug. 21, 1709, and was reared in 
 Columbia county, N. Y. For about fourteen years 
 he was in the whaling and merchant service, and 
 for forty years was engaged in the grocery busi- 
 ness in New York City. On June 18, 1829, he 
 married Mary C. De Re Vere, daughter of Abra- 
 ham and Catherine (Van Wyck) De Re Vere, of 
 New York. She bore him five sons, Josiah H., 
 Walter De R., Orsmer H., George T. and Frank 
 W. Orsmer Benton died Sept. 5, 1879, ^^ Brook- 
 lyn. Of his sons, 
 
 (VII) Josiah H. Benton was born in New York 
 City June 14, 1830. In March, 1862, he enlisted 
 in the United States navy for service in the war of 
 the Rebellion, and received his commission as act- 
 ing assistant paymaster in the navy Sept. 11, 1862. 
 Being ordered to the Mississippi Squadron, he re- 
 ported to Rear-Admiral Charles H. Davis, com- 
 manding at Cairo, 111. He reported ait Helena, Ark., 
 Sept. 21, 1862, and was assigned for duty to the 
 United States ship "Cairo" (iron-clad) Oct. i, same 
 year. The "Cairo" was sunk by a torpedo in the 
 Yazoo river Dec. 12, 1862. On Dec. 15 of that 
 year he was ordered to the United States naval sta- 
 tion at Memphis, Tenn., which included the navy 
 yard and the United States hospital ship "Pinck- 
 ney." On Jan. 20, 1864, he was ordered to the 
 United States ship "Meteor" (a new iron-clad ves- 
 sel), at Cincinnati, Ohio, and was ordered to turn 
 that vessel over to Admiral D. G. Farragut, at 
 New Orleans, and reported to that ofHcer Feb. i, 
 
 1864. He next reported for duty at Alexandria, 
 La., March 21, 1864, on board the United States 
 monitor "Osage," which ship took an active part 
 in the Red river expedition. The "Osage" was 
 the second vessel to pass over the Red river dam at 
 Alexandria Falls on the morning of May 9, 1864; 
 also was the last vessel to leave the Red river, and 
 she was ordered to Cairo, 111., for repairs. She 
 grounded at the mouth of the St. Francis river, on 
 her way up the Mississippi river, May 22, 1864, 
 and remained there until the river rose and floated 
 her oS, Nov. 22, 1864, when she was ordered to 
 the West Gulf Squadron, and reported in January, 
 
 1865, at Mobile, where she was sunk by a torpedo 
 in the battle of Mobile. Paymaster Benton was at 
 the surrender of Spanish Fort and Fort Alexis, 
 April 8, 1865 ; also at the surrender of Mobile, April 
 12, 1865. He was next ordered to Washington to 
 settle his account, and was honoraoly discharged 
 Sept. 25, 1865. He died at Copake, N. Y., Sept. 
 4, 1895. He married Elizabeth Haws Edwards, of 
 Hudson, N. Y.; they had no children. 
 
 (VII) Walter De R. Benton, who was a con- 
 
 tractor, was born Dec. 30, 1831, and died in Pough- 
 keepsie, N. Y., Oct. 15, 1884. He married Rachel 
 Leonard, of Albany, N. Y., and had two children, 
 Sarah M. and Walter. 
 
 (VII) Orsmer H. Benton, son of Orsmer and 
 Mary C. (De Re Vere) Benton, was born in New 
 York City June 26, 1839. He settled in Memphis, 
 Tenn., where he married Susan M. Lamdin. He 
 entered the United States navy in the war of the 
 Rebellion as paymaster's clerk, in September, 1862, 
 was honorably discharged in 1863, and still resides 
 in Memphis. 
 
 (VII) George Talcott Benton, fourth son of 
 Orsmer and Mary C. (De Re Vere) Benton, was 
 born in New York City Oct. 13, 1846, and was 
 reared and educated in his native city. Since 1866 
 he has been a resident of Branford, where he has 
 been engaged in various occupations, though by 
 trade he is a bricklayer. On June 19, 1873, he mar- 
 ried Ellen Foote Stedman, daughter of Harry and 
 Betsy (Foote) Stedman, of Branford, and they 
 have one son, (VIII) Josiah H., born in Branford 
 Feb. 10, 1881, who is a student at Yale. 
 
 (VII) Frank W. Benton was born in New 
 York City Oct. 2, 1848, and is now a resident of 
 New Orleans. He married Annie Lovell, of that 
 city. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. George T. Benton are members 
 of the Episcopal Church. Socially he is affiliated 
 with the F. & A. M., Lodge No. 66. Politically 
 he is a Republican. He has in his possession a rare 
 collection of relics, handed down through the fam- 
 ily, all of which are catalogued, and too numerous 
 to mention here. Among those, however, that are 
 most interesting are the following: A set of 
 Lowestoft china, nineteen pieces, nine pieces of 
 glassware, and sixteen pieces of pewterware, which 
 have been in the Benton family since 1660; a large 
 collection of old books dating from 1771 to 1818, 
 which include an English primer of 1800, a gram- 
 mar, 1818, and arithmetic, 1809; Washington's 
 "Farewell address to the People," printed at Hud- 
 son, N. Y., in 1811, and a Latin book, printed in 
 1715; a pack of playing cards left by his grandfa- 
 ther, 1820; an old-fashioned shawl, 1830; piece of 
 Sandwich Island cloth made from bark ; piece of 
 tile from St. John's Church, Hampton, Va., 1630; 
 silver medal from King of Sweden ; besides other 
 interesting relics from fifty to two hundred years 
 old. 
 
 CHARLES F. BLUMENAUER, the present 
 keeper of the almshouse at Naugatuck, was born in 
 Ellenville, Ulster Co., N. Y., Oct. i, 1857, a son of 
 Paul and Caroline (Reitenauer) Blumenauer, both 
 natives of Germany. Our subject's paternal grand- 
 father, George Blumenauer, emigrated from^ that 
 country to America and spent his last 3'ears as a 
 farmer in Ellenville, N. Y., where his death oc- 
 curred. In early life the father came to the United 
 States, and was employed as a glassblower until 
 
iii8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 forty years of age, when he settled clown to farm- 
 ing in Ellenville. He and his wife still continue 
 to reside there. They are members of the German 
 Lutheran Church, and in political sentiment he is a 
 Republican. To this worthy couple were born four 
 children: Mary, now the wife of William Lotdell, 
 of Ehenville; Charles F., our subject; Peter, a 
 farmer of Ellenville, and Helen, wife of Henry 
 Misner, of Greenfield, New York. 
 
 Our subject grew to manhood upon the home 
 farm and obtained his education in the district 
 school of the neighborhood. On leaving the par- 
 ental roof, in 1880, at the age of twenty-three years, 
 he came to Naugatuck, where he has since made 
 his home. He first worked on the farm and in the 
 lumberyard of Samuel Piatt for twenty-seven 
 months and for the following eight months was in 
 the employ of Henry D. Hotchkiss, of Waterbury, 
 driving a team, farming, etc. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1884, Mr. Blumenauer wedded Miss 
 Mary J. Frear, who was also born in Ellenville, 
 N. Y., and is a daughter of Henry and Jane (Grant) 
 Frear, natives of Ulster and Sullivan counties, 
 N. Y., respectively. Her paternal grandfather, 
 John E. Frear, was born in New York, of French 
 ancestry, and her maternal grandfather, John 
 Grant, was a native of England. Her parents are 
 now deceased. They had a family of six children : 
 David A., a farmer of Ellenville, N. Y. ; Frank, 
 deceased; Rachel, a resident of Ellenville, N. Y. ; 
 Mary J., wife of our subject; John E., of Ellen- 
 ville, N. Y. ; and Cora B., deceased. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Blumenauer have one child, Henry P., aged twelve 
 years. 
 
 For twelve years after his marriage Mr. 
 Blumenauer was in the employ of the Goodyear 
 Metallic Rubber Shoe Co., and then, in 1896, was 
 appointed keeper of the almshouse, which position 
 he has since filled in a most commendable and 
 satisfactory manner. He is an upright, reliable 
 man, who conscientiously discharges every duty 
 that devolves upon him, and merits and receives the 
 confidence and respect of his fellow citizens. He is 
 a supporter of the Republican party, and fraternally 
 is a member of Centennial Lodge, No. 100, L O. 
 O. F., of Naugatuck; and Salem^ Lodge, No. 36, 
 A. O. U. W. His wife holds membership in the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 ARCHER J. SMITH was born in Waterbury, 
 Dec. 17, 1856, a son of Earl Smith, an old and 
 honored resident of this city, whose biography ap- 
 pears elsewhere. 
 
 Archer J. Smith spent his boyhood days under 
 his parental roof, and was educated in the public 
 schools and at Williston Seminary, a somewhat 
 celebrated institution of learning at East Hamp- 
 ton, Mass. Entering upon a career for himself, his 
 first work was found in the office of the Buckle 
 Company, and in 1881 he became secretary and 
 treasurer of the American Mills Co., and is still 
 
 acting in that capacity. He is also secretary and 
 treasurer of the New Haven Web Co., of New 
 Haven, Conn. 
 
 Mr. Smith married Miss Susan Maltby, a 
 daughter of Douglass F. Maltby, of Waterfcury. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM ALLDERIGE was born 
 in Birmingham, England, Sept. 5, 1854, and is a 
 son of William Allderige, who was born in 
 Fazeley, Staffordshire, England, April 15, 1829. 
 
 William Allderige obtained his early education 
 in a day school conducted by the local Episcopal 
 Church, and for about two years was a student in 
 a private school at Tamworth, England. On the 
 removal of his parents to Birmingham, he attended 
 the schools of that city for a time. There he did 
 his first work for himself, when about thirteen years 
 old, in the employ of Pickford & Co., at that time 
 the largest carrying company in England. This 
 firm had its headquarters at Burton, and here Will- 
 iam Allderige had charge of the shipping depart- 
 ment. The firm appreciated his services, and soon 
 promoted him to a more important work at Bir- 
 mingham. When he had reached the age of nine- 
 teen — still in the same employ — the company was 
 merged into the London & Northwestern Railway 
 Co. Mr. Allderige was offered a position with the 
 Midland Railway Co. as assistant cashier and in- 
 voice clerk, which he accepted, and remained with 
 them six years. Mr. Allderige then became asso- 
 ciated with the London & Northwestern Railway 
 Co. in its bookkeeping department. On March 28, 
 1856, he came to the United States, and located at 
 Northampton, Mass., where he made but a brief 
 stay, however, going on to New York City to learn 
 the art of making daguerreotypes. He was in New 
 York about a year, and then went back to North- 
 ampton, and from that point went on the road, 
 taking photographs. In this way he entered his 
 business career, in which he has been successful 
 in every way. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Allderige opened a photograph 
 studio in New Britain, where he was in business 
 until 1877, when his son took charge and carried 
 on the business until 1898. In November, 1859, 
 Mr. Allderige removed to Plainville, Conn., where 
 he has practically operated a studio for over forty 
 years, and where he has made his home to the 
 present time. In 1886 he opened a studio in Farm- 
 ington, Conn., which he has conducted to the pres- 
 ent time, making a specialty of fine work for the 
 students of Miss Porter's School. Mr. Allderige 
 is a Republican, and has served as grand juror and 
 as justice of the peace. Socially he is a Free Mason. 
 He 'belongs to the Baptist Church, and his wife is 
 president of the Ladies' Aid Society connected with 
 same. 
 
 On Nov. 14, 1848, Mr. Allderige married Sarah 
 Dawson, who died April 25, 1887. They had the 
 following children: (i) Annie, born Aug. 17, 
 1849, married Charles Neal, of Southington, and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1119 
 
 is now a widow. Frederick J., her son, was born 
 in 187s, married Rosa Amsden, of Chesterfield, 
 Conn. (2) Jennie, born in May, 1851, died in 
 1887. (3) Mary, born May 27, 1853, married 
 Smith D. Seeley, of New Haven, and they have 
 two children — Arthur Nelson, born in November, 
 1880; and Jennie Leola, born in October, 1882. 
 (4) John William was born Sept. 5, 1854. (5) 
 Frederick, born Feb. 23, 1857, married Emima 
 Woodford, of Plainville, and they have one child, 
 Florine, born Jan. 12, 1886. (6) Sarah Christiana, 
 born Jmie 23, 1859, married Charles Dean, of For- 
 estville, and is the mother of one child. Norma 
 Louise, born Dec. 21, 1896. Mr. Allderige was 
 married Sept. 12, 1889, to Fannie A. Stewart, who 
 was born in Farmington, and is a daughter of John 
 and Fannie (Reynolds) Stewart. 
 
 Thomas Allderige, father of William, was born 
 about 1802, and died in 1852. He was a calico 
 printer, and followed that business all his active 
 days. Throughout his life he was an exemplary 
 man. In 1827 he married Christiana Allderige, and 
 William' was their only child. 
 
 John William Allderige came to this country 
 with his parents when about two years old. He 
 attended the common schools of Plainville, and 
 commenced active life at the age of thirteen years, 
 learning the photographer's art under the instruc- 
 tion of his father. While engaged in his father's 
 studio he was also taking private instruction from 
 a retired Congregational minister. When about 
 twenty years old he went to Waterbury, where he 
 conducted the leading gallery for seventeen years, 
 at the end of that time selling out and going to 
 Kenosha, Wis., to continue in the same business. 
 He was there a year and a half, when he sold out 
 to Frank Brown, and spent six months in Chicago 
 operating for G. F Taylor. Coming back to Con- 
 necticut, he had a gallery in Thomaston for a year 
 or more, when he removed to Wallingford, and 
 here in a brief time he has huilt up a very fine busi- 
 ness. His start, in the building next to the post 
 office, was a modest one, but he aid painstaking 
 work, and with a desirable location his patronage 
 so increased that he was presently compelled to 
 look for larger quarters. His studio now occupies 
 two floors, completely furnished, and centrally lo- 
 cated, and its resources are already taxed to ac- 
 commodate his business. Recently he has formed 
 a Heliogravure Company, of which he is president 
 and superintendent. Mr. Allderige is a member of 
 the I. O. O. F. and the K. P., and has a host of 
 friends in both orders. He is a Republican, but 
 has never sought office. He is a member of the 
 Episcopal Church, has lived an honorable and up- 
 right life, and is greatly esteemed in the com- 
 munity. 
 
 Mr. Allderige was married Feb. 13, 1878, to 
 Ida Harriet Bailey, of Waterbury. Thomas Judd, 
 one of her remote ancestors, was one of the first 
 settlers of the county of New Haven. To Mr. and 
 
 Mrs. Allderige have come children as follows : ( i ) 
 Burton, born June 4, 1880, who died at the age of 
 two and a half vears ; (2) Norton John, born June 
 21, 1885; and (3,1) Clifford Bailey, born Aug. 9, 
 
 THOMAS KANE, a respected resident of 
 Waterbury and alderman from the Fifth ward, was 
 born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 1847, the eldest 
 of the five children that blessed the marriage of 
 John and Mary (Smith) Kane. The parents were 
 natives of the same county, and passed their lives 
 on a farm in Ireland, where they died in the Catho- 
 lic faith. Of their children, Michael is a farmer on 
 the old homestead in Ireland; Ann is the widow of 
 Peter Smith, and resides in Waterbury ; Mary mar- 
 ried Patrick Mulligan, of the same city, and is now 
 deceased ; Edward is a member of the Waterbury 
 fire department. 
 
 Thomas Kane was educated in the National 
 schools of Ireland and was reared to manhood on 
 the home farm. On May 19, 1869, he embarked 
 for America, and on landing came directly to Wa- 
 terbury. Here he found employment with the 
 clock-case company, with which he remained from 
 1869 until 1877, when he made a trip to Iowa for 
 three months, on a sort of prospecting tour. In 
 August, 1877, he returned to Waterbury and 
 opened a sample room which he still conducts. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Kane married Catherine Smith, 
 who was soon called away. He next married 
 Bridget Donohue, who bore him two children, 
 John and Thomas, the last named deceased, as is, 
 also the mother. For his third wife Mr. Kane 
 married Catherine Galligan. They have no chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Politically Mr. Kane is a Democrat, but he is 
 somewhat lenient in local affairs, voting for the 
 best man. In 1888 and i8go he was a m ember of 
 the board of councilmen, and he is now alderman 
 from the Fifth ward. Fraternally Mr. Kane is a 
 member of the Knights of Columbus, and has been 
 treasurer thereof twelve years ; is also a member of 
 the Foresters of America, and for twenty-five years 
 has belonged to the Ancient Order of Hibernians, 
 all in Waterbury. He is a Catholic, and holds 
 membership in the Immaculate Conceotion Church, 
 to the support of which he contributes quite freely. 
 He is genial of disposition, and has hosts of friends 
 within and without church circles. 
 
 PETER McGOVERN, a well-known liquor 
 dealer of Derby, Conn., was born in County Leit- 
 rim, Ireland, about fifty-eight years ago, a son of, 
 Patrick and Rose (Farrell) McGovern, natives of 
 the same place, who never came to America but 
 spent their entire lives as farming people in Ireland. 
 In their family were seven children, namely : 
 Michael, who was employed in the iron and steel 
 works at Derby, Conn., for some time, and died in 
 California; Thomas, who was a fireman on a steamer 
 
II20 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and died in New York; Peter, our subject; Patrick, 
 who was a miner and died in California; Alar)-, 
 who died unmarried; Rose, who first married Ber- 
 nard Kalagher, and after his death married John 
 Re_Ynolds, of Derby; and Catherine, who married 
 a Air. Trov, of Cahfornia, and died in that State. 
 
 During his boyhood Peter McGovern attended 
 the public schools of his native land, but at the age 
 of fourteen years he came to America arriving m 
 Birmingham, now Derby, Conn., in August, 1855. 
 Here he was employed in the Birmingham Iron and 
 Steel Works until the Civil war broke out. He was 
 one of the first to offer his services to the govern- 
 ment to help crush out the rebellion, enlisting in 
 April, 1861, in Company B, ist Conn. V. I. He 
 was sworn into the United States service at Hart- 
 ford, May 22, and for three long years was one of 
 the gallant defenders of the Union, heing discharged 
 at Petersburg, Va., May 23, 1864. He was under 
 the command of Gens. Scott and McClellan, and 
 participated in many engagements, in one of which 
 he was wounded by a piece of shell. 
 
 After being discharged Mr. McGovern returned 
 to Birmingham, where he worked for William 
 Tansey at the blacksmith's trade for four years, and 
 then embarked in the liquor business at his present 
 location. No. 2 Hawthorne avenue. In 1893 he 
 opened another saloon on Main street in partner- 
 ship with John Donovan, of Shelton, and they are 
 still associated in business, our subject having 
 charge of the saloon on Hawthorne avenue. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. McGovern married Miss Margaret 
 Coyle, a native of New York, whose father was 
 born in Ireland. She died, leaving three children : 
 Sarah ; Mamie ; and Catherine, wife of John Doyle, 
 of Shelton. Mr. McGovern is a stanch supporter 
 of the Democratic party, and has served as chief 
 of the fire department of Derby. He is a rhember, 
 of the Foresters of America and the Grand Army 
 of the Republic, and religiously is a communicant 
 of the Catholic Church. 
 
 GEORGE D. BUCK. Prominent among the 
 wide-awake, progressive and successful business 
 men of Naugatuck is the subject of this biography, 
 a leading hardware dealer of that place. His life 
 history most happily illustrates what may be at- 
 tained by faithful and continued effort in carrying 
 out an honest purpose. 
 
 A native of Connecticut, Mr. Buck was born in 
 Farmington, Hartford county, Feb. 20, 1842, and 
 is a grandson of Jesse Buck, who made his home 
 in Plymouth, Conn., and was probably a native of 
 this State. He had only two children, Daniel, the 
 father of our subject, and another son who died 
 young. Daniel Buck was born in Plymouth, Litch-, 
 field county, in 1810, and there grew to manhood. 
 In early life he learned the carriage maker's trade 
 at Burlington, Conn., and subsequently engaged in 
 that business at Farmington. In politics he was 
 first a Whig and later a Republican, and in religious 
 
 belief he was a Congregationalist. He died in i860, 
 honored and respected by all who knew him. His 
 wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary (or 
 Polly) Hicox, was a native of Waterbury, and a 
 member of an old and prominent family of that 
 town. She died in 1894, at the advanced age of 
 ninety-two years. Her children were Charles H., 
 who died in Farmington in 1894; and George D., 
 our subject. 
 
 George D. Buck was reared in Farmington, and. 
 acquired a good practical education in its common 
 schools. On starting out in life for himself he en- 
 tered the mercantile world, and conducted a general 
 store in Farmington. In 1861, at the opening of 
 the Civil war, he enlisted in Company K, 25th Conn. 
 V. I., for nine months, and was mustered out ii:i» 
 1862. During the battle of Irish Bend, La., he was 
 wounded in the leg. In 1879 he came to Nauga- 
 tuck and entered the employ of Johu M. Page, a 
 hardware dealer, for whom he worked five years,, 
 and at the end of that time became a member of the 
 firm, business being carried on under the name of 
 John M. Page & Co. They do a large and profit- 
 able business and our subject still continues his con- 
 nection with the company. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. Buck married Miss Eleanor Wood- 
 ford, of Farmington, a daughter of Franklin Wood- 
 ford. She died in 1890, leaving one child, Gertrude,, 
 now the wife of John Broderick, foreman for the 
 Goodyear India Rubber Co., at Naugatuck. Mr- 
 Buck was married, in 1894, to Mrs. Emily (Smith) 
 Hotchkiss, of Naugatuck, widow of D. M. Hotch- 
 kiss. Mr. Buck is a stanch supporter of the men 
 and measures of the Republican party, and has 
 capably filled several local offices. He is a member 
 of the Episcopal Church, and also of the Knights, 
 of Pythias, the Improved Order of Red Men, and 
 tne Grand Army of the Republic. His life has been 
 one of earnest endeavor, and due success has not 
 been denied him. 
 
 MARSHALL DENNISON STEVENS, now 
 retired from active life, was, during his business 
 career, ranked among the skillful mechanics of the 
 town of Guilford, his industrious habits and ini- 
 swerving integrity winning him a_ large circle of 
 friends and patrons, and securing for him the last- 
 ing respect and esteem of the community. Mr. 
 Stevens was born in Guilford Oct. 22, 1846, and 
 the family of which he is a worthy member has long 
 been known in Middlesex county. 
 
 Capt. David Stevens, his grandfather, was a 
 native of Saybrook, and spent his life in the com- 
 munity where he was born. By occupation a ship- 
 wright, he built a large number of vessels. He was^ 
 a captain in the militia. He died in Saybrook, 
 where he was buried. 
 
 Alexander Stevens, father of Marshall D., was 
 
 born. Aug. 17, 1808, in Saybrook, where he learned 
 
 the shipwright's trade, working with his father. 
 
 I He remained in his native place until 1838, when; 
 
Z.6-^^'^^-x^c-<7 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 II2I 
 
 he removed to Guilford, followinsr his trade there 
 with Mr. Graves and for several years with Mr. 
 Blatchley. Later he worked in other sections of 
 the country, and finally became a carpenter and 
 joiner, settling in Guilford, where he died Sept. 25, 
 1880. He was buried in the Guilford cemetery. 
 Mr. Stevens was a member of the M. E. Church, 
 and in politics a Democrat. An honorable and up- 
 right man, he was well regarded in the community 
 in which his honorable and useful life was 
 spent. 
 
 In 1832 Mr. Stevens was married, in West- 
 brook, to Rachel A. Dennison, who was born Aug. 
 8, 1815, at Silver Lake, Pa., a daughter of Edward 
 Dennison; the last named married the daughter of 
 a Revolutionary soldier, Cornelius Chittenden, who 
 died Dec. 24, 1858, aged ninety-four years. To Mr. 
 and Mrs. Stevens came seven children, viz. : ( i ) 
 Wellington S., bom in 1834, is deceased. (2) 
 Hart W., born in 1837, died at the age of seventeen. 
 (3) Marcellus, born in 1839, died in Havana in 
 1862, of yellow fever. (4) Eckford T., born Jan. 
 II, 1845, is a carpenter and builder in Guiliord. 
 (5) Marshall Dennison is mentioned below. (6) 
 Emma R., born Feb. 27, 1850, married Henry 
 Hart, of Guilford, and is deceased. (7) Ella C, 
 born Dec. 22, 1853, married Charles O. Hotchkiss, 
 of Higganum, Conn. Mrs. Alexander Stevens died 
 Oct. 18, 1891, and was buried in the Guilford cem- 
 etery. She was a member of the M. E. Church, a 
 lady of fine character and good Christian life. 
 
 Marshall Dennison Stevens attended the Guil- 
 ford schools, and struck out in life for himself at 
 the early age of eleven years, when he became a 
 cook on a sloop engaged in the coasting trade. For 
 eleven years he followed the sea, rising to the po- 
 sition of mate, and was engaged in the coast trade, 
 for the greater part of the eleven years on the 
 "Sarah L. Thompson" and the "Ann J. Russell," 
 and other well-known vessels of a former genera- 
 tion. When he gave up a sailor's life Mr. Stevens 
 returned to Guilford and became a carpenter and 
 joiner. He is still very active, although at the pres- 
 ent time not engaged" in business. He is known 
 as one of the crack shots in the county. 
 
 Mr. Stevens is a member of the Knightsi of 
 Pythias, and is a valued member of that organiza- 
 tion, where his genial ways and friendly spirit are 
 much appreciated. He is not a member of any 
 church, but his clean life has shown high moral 
 principk. He is a Democrat in political faith, and, 
 though no seeker after position, has been chairman 
 of the town committee and registrar of voters. 
 
 Mr. Stevens and Julia A. Splann, a native of 
 Ireland, were married in Portchester, N. Y. ; she 
 has proved a devoted wife, and is kind and neigh- 
 borly in her relations with all. 
 
 JOHN OLIVER ROWLAND was born Jan. 
 31, 1844, in New York, son of John Rogers Row- 
 land, a native of the same State. The father was a 
 house and ship carpenter, engaged in contractmg. 
 
 and did consideraible business in Branford, where 
 he died. He was a Whig, and held strong Abolition 
 sentiments ; he was a member of the Baptist Church. 
 In 1850 Mr. Rowland married Miss Mary Ann Lan- 
 fair, of Branford, who died in her native town, 
 where her father, Oliver Lanfair, had long lived. 
 To John Rogers Rowland and his wife Mary Ann 
 were born : ( i ) Louise, now living in New Haven, 
 married George Bradley. (2) Martha Jane mar- 
 ried George Calkins, and is now dead. (3) George 
 H. died in 1898, in New Haven, where he had been 
 engaged in the meat business. (4) John Oliver is 
 the subject of these lines, (.s) Mary Frances mar- 
 ried Dr. William Beebe, of Bridgeport. (6) Emma 
 O. married Henry Blackley, of Guilford. (7) 
 Charles F. is in the painting and paper business at 
 New Haven. (8) .Luther Lee is a dry-goods mer- 
 chant at Guilford. (9) Violetta married Edward 
 Florence, of Birmingham, Conn., and is now dead. 
 ( 10) Alvira G. is the widow of Seymour F. Benton, 
 of Guilford. Three children died in infancy. John 
 Rowland, the grandfather of John O., was. born in 
 Scotland at an early day, and removed to this coun- 
 try while still a young man. 
 
 John Oliver Rowland was born in New Dur- 
 ham, N. Y., and received his schooling in Branford 
 and North Haven, Conn. When he was fourteen 
 he worked on a farm in North Haven for about a 
 year, and then worked for F. Mansfield & Co., 
 oyster dealers at Fair Haven, for some six months. 
 At Rome, N. Y., he had charge of the shipping o£ 
 oysters for Thompson & Rowe, for about a year 
 and a half, and at the expiration of this period came 
 back to New Haven to take a position as conductor 
 on the street-car line. After a time he went back 
 to Rome to manage a new hotel which his old em- 
 ployers had put up during his absence, and for a 
 year or more was thus engaged. At Fair Haven 
 he became interested in a large grocery house and 
 was its general manager for some fourteen years, 
 and then became a member of the oyster-growing 
 firm of H. C. Rowe & Co., the largest oyster-grow- 
 ers in the world. This was in 1878, and in 1900 
 he left the firm on account of continued ill health 
 to take a position as manager and superintendent 
 of the Masonic Home of Connecticut. This insti- 
 tution is in a very picturesque locality, and is one 
 of the most admirably managed of its kind in the 
 world. All the comforts of. a home are provided 
 for the inmates, and Mr. Rowland and his estimable 
 wife are peculiarly fitted for the discharge of the 
 varied and onerous duties of such a place. 
 
 Mr. Rowland is a Mason of high degree, and his 
 affiliations are with Ad'elphi Lodge, No. 63, F. & 
 A. M. ; Pulaski Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M. ;, Craw- 
 ford Council, No. 19, R. & S. M. ; and New Haven 
 Commandery, No. 2, K. T. He is president of the 
 Past Masters Association of New Haven county,- 
 and is a member of the Masonic Veterans Associa- 
 tion of Connecticut. Mr. Rowland is past master 
 of his home lodge, past most excellent high priest 
 of the chapter, and past thrice illustrious master 
 
I 122 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of Crawford Council, No. 19, R. & S. M. At 
 present he is most worshipful grand master of the 
 Grand Lodge of Masons, mo^ excellent past grand 
 high priest of the Most Excellent Grand Royal 
 Arch Chapter of Connecticut, and P. M. P. G. M, 
 of the M. P. G. C. of Royal Select Grand! Masters 
 of the State. He is alsio enrolled with the A. O. 
 U. W. and the Heptasophs. Mr. Rowland has 
 served as a director of the Masonic Mutual Benefit 
 Association for nineteen years, and is a director of 
 the Fair Haven Union Cemetery Association. He 
 is a Republican, but would never become a candi- 
 date for any ofHce. In religion he is a member of 
 the Second Congregational Church, and has been 
 president of the Second Congregational Club. 
 
 Mr. Rowland was married. May 29, 1866, to 
 Miss Nancy Maria Russell, of East Haven, a daugh- 
 ter of John Russell. They have one daughter, 
 Mary Etta, who is at home; another daughter, 
 E)diith Maria, died at the age of sixteen years. 
 
 GUSTAVE ADOLPH RAAHRLAPPER 
 HAMRE, who occupies an important position in 
 the commercial world of Branford, as a paint con- 
 tractor and dealer in wall paper, was "born in Chris- 
 tiansand, Norway, April 29, 1856, and is a son of 
 G. A. and Christiana (Christiansen) Raahrlapper. 
 Like many other natives of Norway, Mr. Hamre 
 takes his surname from the town in which he was 
 born. 
 
 Mr. Hamre was reared in Norway and at the 
 age of fourteen was set to learn the painter's trade, 
 at which he was apprenticed for four years. His 
 cash income for these four years was ten dollars 
 annually, paid him in addition to his board. For 
 lour years he worked as a journeyman painter, and 
 in 1878 came to the United States. For a year and 
 a half following his arrival in this country he 
 worked in New York City for the Manhattan Ele- 
 vated Co. In 1880 he came to Branford, on ac- 
 count of ill health, and worked on a farm. After 
 about a year his health so improved that he was 
 able to take up his trade again, and in 1886 to em- 
 bark in business for himself as a painter contractor. 
 Here he has accomplished a large success, and in 
 1890, in addition to his painting trade, engaged in 
 paper hanging and dealing in supplies. To-day Mr. 
 Hamre has the cream of the trade in Branford, and 
 jn the surrounding regions as well. 
 
 Mr. Hamre was married Jan. i, 1884, to Estella 
 E., a daughter of John B. and Mary Elizabeth 
 (Richards) Beach, of Branford, and by her has 
 two children : Mary Christianna and John Raahr- 
 lapper. Mrs. Hamre's paternal grandfather, Tim- 
 othy Beach, was born Jan. 22, 1796, and mar- 
 ried Esther Cook. Timothv Beach was the son 
 of Andrew Beach, born in 1769, whose wife 
 was Elizabeth Bradley. Andrew Beach was a 
 son of Ephraim, born Jan. 13, 1742, who mar- 
 ried Sarah Str,ne, of Guilford. Ephraim Beach 
 was a son of Andrew Beach, born Nov. 14, 
 
 1713, the pioneer Beach of Branford. His wife 
 was Lucy Tully Smith, of Haddam. He was a son 
 of Ephraim Beach, who was born in 1687, a grand- 
 son of Nathaniel Beach, who was born in 1662, and 
 a great-grandson of John Beach, the Pilgrim, who 
 was in New England as early as 1643. 
 
 Mr. Hamre is a Lutheran in his religious views, 
 the church of his ancestral faith, and in politics he 
 is a Republican. He is a member of Widows Sons 
 Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., Woodlawn Lodge, No. 
 39, K. of P., and Putnam Lodge, No. 31, A. O. U. 
 W. He is foreman of the Branford Hook & Lad- 
 der Co., No. I, and is a popular character in this 
 city, where he has achieved such a substantial suc- 
 cess in life. 
 
 ERVIS ELGIN WRIGHT, a well-known paint 
 manufacturer and prominent business man of 
 Waterbury, is a native of this State, born in the 
 town of West Hartland, Hartford county, Jan. 19, 
 1 85 1. His parents, Henry and Rachel E. (French) 
 Wright, were also born in Hartland, and died in 
 Watgrbury. He is a descendant of Abel Wright, 
 one of the first settlers of Springfield, Mass^, and 
 a large land owner there. 
 
 On the maternal side our subject is descended 
 from an old Massachusetts family of English 
 origin. His great-grandfather, William French, 
 was born June 20, 1768, in Taunton, Bristol Co., 
 Mass., and there grew to manhood. On July 18, 
 1788, at Raynham, Mass., he was married, by Jo- 
 siah Dean, Esq., to Mary (or Rachel) Hewitt, who 
 was born March 27, 1769. In 1790 he removed to 
 Hartland, Hartford Co., Conn., and took up his 
 residence in the western part of the town, where 
 he purchased 120 acres of land from Samuel Beach 
 and spent the remainder of his life. He made many 
 miprovements upon the place, and successfully en- 
 gaged in general farming and stock raising. He 
 was a stanch Jefifersonian Democrat in j>olitics, and 
 an active worker in and prominent member of the 
 Alethodist Episcopal Church. He died at a ripe 
 old age, at the hotne of his daughter, Mrs. Elijah 
 Cannon, and was buried in Pleasant Valley ceme- 
 tery. In his family were twelve children, namely: 
 Sally, born Nov. 8, 1789, married Lyman Slaid; 
 Rachel, born Aug. 31, 1791, married Erastus Egel- 
 ,ston; Hannah, born July 6, 1793, married Asher 
 Tiffney ; Clarissa, born March 27, 1795, married 
 Joel Slaid; William was born Feb. 27, 1797; Rufus, 
 born March 20, 1799, is mentioned below; Julia, 
 born Nov. 29, 1800, married John Waird; Lydia, 
 born May 25, 1803, married Anson Tifi'ney; Lent 
 was born Feb. 17, 1805; Harriet, born March 25, 
 1806, married Samuel Banning; a daughter, born 
 Feb. 7, 1810, died in infancy; and Lucia, born June 
 24, 181 1, married Elijah Cannon. 
 
 Rufus French, the grandfather of our subject, 
 was born on a farm in West Hartland, and re- 
 ceived a limited education in the district schools of 
 the town, being almost wholly a self-educated man. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1123 
 
 He remained with his parents until reaching man- 
 hood, and' in early life engaged in the manufacture 
 of spinning-wheels, one of which is now in the pos- 
 session of our subject. Later in life Mr. French 
 turned his attention to farming, purchasing a tract 
 of 100 acres of land (near the homestead), which 
 at that time was all wild and unimproved. He 
 cleared away the timber and broke the land, erected 
 good buildings thereon, and devoted the remainder 
 of his life to general farming and stock raising. 
 He was very industrious and energetic, and became 
 one of the successful men of Hartland. In 1861 he 
 removed to Akron, Ohio, where he engaged in agri- 
 cultural pursuits for fifteen years, and then returned 
 to Connecticut, spending his last days with his 
 daughter, Mrs. Wright, in Waterbury, where he 
 died in 1885, at a ripe old age; his remains were 
 interred in Pleasant Valley cemetery. Originally 
 he was a Democrat in politics, but in 1856, on its 
 organization he joined the Republican party, and re- 
 mained one of its stanch supporters until his death. 
 He was an active member of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, in which he served as class-leader and 
 leader 'of the choir. On Feb. 29, 1820, he married 
 Qarissa Tiffney, who was born Feb. 11, 1799, and 
 they became the parents of five children : Watson 
 E., bom Dec. 7, 1821, was the eldest; Rachel E., 
 born Dec. i, 1823, was the mother of our subject; 
 Sarah, born Sept. 18, 1830, is the widow of 
 Eugene Gugon; Carl T. was born Oct. 5, 1832; 
 and Orton, born Oct. 29, 1837, is a resident of Hart- 
 land. 
 
 Henry Wright, father of our subject, was born 
 Aug. 14, 181 1, in Hartland, Conn., and died Jan. 
 30, 1892, in Waterbury. He was engaged in lumber 
 dealing and farming for over fifty years. He was 
 married April 18, 1841, to Rachel E. French, and 
 to them were born five children, whose names and 
 dates of birth are as follows : Lozien F., Nov. 6, 
 1842; Elsen E., March 26, 1848; Ervis Elgin, Jan. 
 19, 1851; Embert E., Nov. 16, 1853; and Eva E. 
 (widow of J. I. Byam), Jan. 26, 1856. 
 , Ervis E. Wright came from Hartland to Water- 
 bury in 1867, at the age of sixteen years, and en- 
 tered the employ of Lewis Beardsley, as bookkeeper, 
 remaining with him until 1880. He then started in 
 business for himself, manufacturing and applying 
 the Ideal Roof Paint, in which line he has continued 
 to the present time, giving his whole time and at- 
 tention strictly to business. Politically he is a Re- 
 publican, but he never sought for office. 
 
 On Nov. 26, 1885, Mr. Wright was united in 
 marriage with Miss Ella Frances Reed, who was 
 born Nov. 11, 1858.- They have one 'Son, Franklin 
 Ervis, born Nov. 22, 1886. Mrs. Wright is a re- 
 fined and cultured lady, of high literary attain- 
 ments, and possesses exceptional talent as an artist. 
 She is a prominent member of the Woman's Club 
 of Waterbury, and also of the Daughters of the 
 American Revolution. Mr. Wright is a member of 
 the Sons of the American Revolution, through his 
 
 greatgrandfather, Ephraim Wright, of Hartland. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wright have one of the most beau- 
 tiful homes in Waterbury. It is located on an emi- 
 nence commanding an entire view of the town, and 
 is fitted up with electric lights run by our subject's 
 own plant. He is a man of progressive ideas, en- 
 terprising, energetic, industrious and far-sighted, 
 and to these characteristics may be attributed his 
 excellent success in life. 
 
 Mrs. Wright also belongs to an old New Eng- 
 land family. John Reed, the first of the name in 
 Fairfield county. Conn., was born in Cornwall, 
 England, in 1633, and was a stanch supporter of 
 Oliver Cromwell, serving in his army from the age 
 of sixteen years until the . restoration of Charles II 
 to the throne of England. The followers of Crom- 
 well, known as Roundheads, then fled to all parts 
 of the world. John Reed came to America, and 
 first settled in Providence, R. I., where he married 
 a Miss Derby. In 1684 he moved to Rye, West- 
 chester Co., N. Y., where he remained thrfee years, 
 and then came to Norwalk, Fairfield Co., Conn., 
 locating on the Five Mile river, at a place called 
 Reed's farms, where he spent the remainder of his' 
 life. He died in 1730, in his ninety-eighth year, 
 and was buried on his farm. He was a man of high 
 moral character and unswerving integrity, and his 
 home was often used as a house of worship before, 
 the erection of a church in his community. His 
 children were John; Thomas; William; Mary, wife 
 of David Tuttle; and Abigail. 
 
 John Reed, Jr., son of John, was born in Nor- 
 walk, where he spent his entire life engaged as a 
 farmer. He married a Miss Tuttle, and they had 
 eight children: John, Daniel, Eleazer, Samuel, 
 William, Mary, Experience and Mehitable. 
 
 Daniel Reed, son of John, Jr., was born in 1697. 
 He erected a mansion on the old paternal estate in 
 Norwalk, where he always made his home, dying 
 there in 1775. He married Elizabeth Kellogg, and 
 they had ten children : Daniel, Abraham, Eliakim, 
 James, Benjamin, Ezra, Elijah (who settled in 
 Amenia, N. Y.), Elizabeth, Lydia and Joanna. 
 
 James Reed, son of Daniel, was born on the old 
 homestead in Norwalk, March 27, 1736, and died 
 July 20, 1814, in Amenia, Dutchess Co., N. Y., of 
 which place he was one of the most prominent and 
 distinguished business men, engaged in farming, 
 manufacturing and milling. The site of his home 
 is now occupied by the residence of James H. Swift. 
 In 1759 he was one of the Connecticut soldiers who 
 passed through Amenia on their way to Canada to 
 aid Gen. Wolfe in the conquest of Quebec. Receiv- 
 ing news of the capture of the city, they were or- 
 dered to return. Mr. Reed was so pleased with the 
 oblong valley through which they passed on their 
 leisurely return that he induced his father to pur- 
 chase 'some of the land, upon which he located and' 
 spent the remainder of his life. He became the 
 owner of a large estate in Dutchess county, and 
 was extensively engaged in business at Amenia,- 
 
II24 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 manufacturing iron and steel, and conducting a 
 store and mill at that place. He was also one of 
 the first to establish a religious society there. He 
 served as captain in the Revolutionary war, and 
 was one of the most influential men of his com- 
 munity. On April 17, 1760, he married Joanna 
 Castle, who was -born in 1743, a daughter of Dan- 
 iel Castle. To this union were born thirteen chil- 
 dren, whose names ,ind dates of birth are as fol- 
 lows: Daniel, April 15, 1761 ; Reuben, Sept. 2, 
 1763; Elijah, March 12, 1766; Jesse, July 16, 1768; 
 Stephen, Sept. 14, 1770; Amos, Dec. 28, 1772; Gil- 
 bert, Sept. 25, 1775; Jacob and Joanna, twins, Feb. 
 15, 1778; Betsey, April 21, 1780; Robert and 
 Rhoda, twins, June 27, 1784; and Phila, April 3, 
 1787. 
 
 Reuben Reed, son of Capt. James, died in 
 Amenia, N. Y., in 1846. He married Hannah Rose, 
 who was born in 1766, and died in 1839, and they 
 had five children : Leonard, Myron, Jesse, Lester 
 and Daniel. 
 
 Myron Reed, son of Reuben, and the grand- 
 father of Mrs. Wright, was born July 7, 1797, and 
 died June 2, 1849. O^' J''"- 3> 1826, he ma;rried 
 Belinda Swift, and to them came five children : 
 Maria, born Aug. 15, 1827, married John Smith; 
 Henry, born March 12, 1829, died in California; 
 James was born March 19, 1831 ; Isaac, born Aug. 
 27, 1833, is the father of Mrs. Wright ; and Frances, 
 born May 11, 1840, married Dewitt Crosby. 
 
 Isaac Reed was born in Amenia, N. Y., and 
 married Louise Clark, daughter of Richard Clark 
 (son of Daniel), of Sharon, Conn., a representative 
 of the Clark family of Milford, this State. To that 
 union were born two daughters. The elder, Cora 
 Belle, first married Franklin Phillips, of White 
 Plains, N. Y., and for her second husband married 
 Olin Dibble, of Seymour. Ella Frances, the 
 younger child, is the wife of Mr. Wright, whose 
 name introduces this sketch. 
 
 CHAUNCEY SEELEY, who was long at the 
 head of the Seeley & Upharm Building Co., of Wa- 
 terbury, was born in 1845, in Southbury, New Ha- 
 ven county. His father, George Seeley, and grand- 
 father, Elijah Seeley, were born in Wilton, Fairfield 
 county. Elijah Seeley was a farmer by calling, and 
 passed his life in Wilton. He was a patriot of the 
 war of 1812. 
 
 George Seeley was a ishoemaker in early life, 
 but later became a farmer. He married, in New 
 Milford, Conn., Phebe Ann Buckingham, a native 
 of that town, and their children were ten in num- 
 ber, viz. : Sarah Ann is deceased ; Levina is the 
 wife of John Squires, of Southbury, Conn. ; Eliza- 
 beth married George Robertson, a merchant of New 
 Milford; Harriet is the widow of William Oliver, 
 of Bethel, Conn. ; Chauncey is the subject of this 
 sketch ; John is a resident of Waterbury ; Charles 
 is deceased ; Henriette is now Airs. William Wor- 
 rington, of Watertown, Conn.;. Miss Georgiana is 
 
 a resident of New Haven; Frank is a farmer in 
 Southbury. Both parents arc deceased. 
 
 Chauncey Seeley grew to young manhood on 
 his father's farm, and until seventeen years of age 
 attended the district school and the high school at 
 South Britain. The Civil war having broken out, 
 he made affidavit that he wasi eighteen years of age, 
 and thus succeeded in enlisting, Sept. 11, 1862, at 
 Woodbury, in Company I, 19th Conn. V. I. He 
 served until mustered out, at Fort Ethan Allen, Va. 
 July 7, 1865, and during this period participated in 
 all the battles, skirmishes, sieges, engagements and 
 marchee in which the regiment took part. 
 
 At the termination of the war Mr. Seeley re- 
 turned to Southbury, where he learned the car- 
 penter'® trade, and remained until the spring of 
 1869, at which time he came to Waterbury. Here 
 he followed his trade as a journeyman until the 
 spring of 1888, when he engaged in contracting and 
 building on his own account for about five years, 
 after which he formed a co-partnership with George 
 A. Upham, under the style of Seeley & Upham. 
 This firm had an existence of about five years, at 
 the end of which period was formed a corporation 
 known as the Seeley & Upham Building Co., which 
 conducted a lumberyard, steam planingmill, etc., and 
 did a very extensive business in the building line. 
 Early in 1902 Mr. Seeley sold his interest and with- 
 drew from the presidency. 
 
 Mr. Seeley was married, in 1872, to Miss Sa- 
 mantha A. Nash, who died without issue May 15, 
 1875. In May, 1879, he married Sarah S. Osborn, 
 d'aughter of Noah Osborn, of Seymour, Conn., and 
 this union has been graced with three children, 
 Arthur O., Wilbur C. and Raymond C. Our sub- 
 ject and his family attend the First Congregational 
 Church and their social relations are with the nwst 
 refined residents of Waterbury. 
 
 In politics Mr. Seeley is a stanch Republican. 
 He has been elected to the city council several 
 times, and in that body served on the Law com- 
 mittee and the committee on Lamps and Gas. He 
 is a prominent member of the American Mechanics, 
 with whom he has been identified since 1875, and 
 in which body he is an ardent worker. He has also 
 been a member of the G. A. R. about twenty years, 
 and is now commander of Wadhams Post, No. 49. 
 Mr. Seeley fraternizes with several other societies, 
 in which he holds offices exalted and responsible, 
 such as treasurer, etc. As a business man he is 
 classed with the most progressive and enterpris- 
 ing in the city. His integrity has never been im- 
 peached, and his transactions have always been 
 characterized by perfect candor and openness. 
 
 REDFIELD B. WEST, -M. D., of Guilford, is 
 a native of that town, born Oct. 28, 1857, the only 
 son of Benjamin C. and Cornelia E. West, the 
 former of whom is a native of northern New York 
 Slate, but for many years- has resided in Guilford, 
 Connecticut. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 125 
 
 The Doctor's ancestors on the maternal side 
 were old residents of Guilford, and can be traced 
 as far back as his great-grandfather, Russell Fris- 
 bie, who was born near Branford, Conn., and mar- 
 ried Eunice Redfield, of Guilford. For many years 
 he resided in Georgetown, S. C., where he was a 
 successful merchant until the declining years of his 
 life, which were passed at his home on Fair street, 
 Guilford. His family consisted of one son, John, 
 and five daughters, Julia, Sarah, Amanda, Mary 
 Ann and Eunice. The last named died in infancy. 
 Sarah married George C. Bradley, of Guilford, and 
 their children were : Richard, who died when quite 
 young; and Cornelia Elizabeth, who married Benja- 
 min C. West. 
 
 Dr. West received his degree of Doctor of 
 ^ledicine from the University of the City of New 
 York, in February, 1879, after a thorough course of 
 study at that institution. He then for several years 
 practiced medicine at No. 7 Abingdon square. New 
 York City; later at No. 222 Shawmut avenue, Bos- 
 ton, Mass. ; and still later at No. 163 York street, 
 New Haven, Conn., from there removing, in 1892, 
 to his native town, Guilford, where he has since 
 continued in the practice of medicine. In 1894 Dr. 
 West was appointed, by Gov. Morris, State chem- 
 ist; reappointed by Gov. Coffin in 1896; again by 
 Gov. Cooke, in 1898; and by Gov. Lounsbury, in 
 1900. In 1897 he was appointed town health officer 
 for Guilford, and also medical examiner same year. 
 He has been successful in chemical researches, hav- 
 ing in 1899 and 1900 been granted letters patent 
 for improvements in photographic printing. 
 
 While a resident of Boston, Mass., Dr. Redfield 
 B. West was united in marriage with Edith May 
 Goudey, of that city, daughter of Henry T. and 
 Lois A. Goudey. 
 
 GEORGE ROBBINS, a gallant ex-soldier of 
 the Civil war and at present a well-known real- 
 estate and fire insurance agent in Waterbury, was 
 born Sept. 12, 1844, in the village of Plainville, 
 town of Farmington, Hartford Co., Conn. Jehiel 
 Robbins, his father, was born in Rocky Hill, same 
 county, and was baptized Aug. i, 1793. Zebulon 
 Robbins, father of Jehiel, was born in the same 
 place Oct. 14, 1744, and was a son of Zebulon, who 
 was also a native of Connecticut. 
 
 The name Robbins was originally — that is, prior 
 to 1600 — spelled Ro-Bynes, then was changed to 
 Robins, and finally to its present form, Robbins. 
 The progenitor of the family in America was_ John 
 Robbins, who came from England and settled in the 
 Connecticut valley about 1638. He married Mary 
 AVells, a daughter of Thomas Wells, governor of 
 the Colony, and from him the present Robbins fam- 
 ily are lineally descended. 
 
 Zebulon Robbins, grandfather of the subject of 
 this sketch, was a farmer. He married Hannah 
 Holmes, settled on a farm at Rocky Hill, and there 
 reared two children, Roderick and Jehiel. Roder- 
 
 ick became a physician, and practiced in Rocky Hill, 
 Glastonbury and Waterbury. 
 
 Jehiel Robbins, father of our subject, was 
 reared on the home farm in Rocky Hill. In early 
 manhood he was a school teacher, and then took up 
 farming permanently, in 1842 removing to Plain- 
 ville, where he died in 1873. He married Mrs. 
 Dorothy (Edgecombj Tucker, a widow, who was 
 born in South Glastonbury, daughter of Joshua and 
 Lydia (Hough) Williams, natives of the same 
 place. Joshua Williams was a ship carpenter. His 
 father, Joshua Williams, was born July 18, 1749, 
 enlisted in the patriot army May 8, 1775, and re- 
 enlisted, becoming corporal, in 1777. He was at 
 Danbury, Conn., was under Gen. Israel Putnam up 
 the Hudson river, served also in New Jersey, and 
 was promoted to sergeant in 1780. Robert Will- 
 iams, the founder of this family in America, was 
 born in England in 1593, and came from Yarmouth 
 to Roxbury, Mass., in 1635. He was a member of 
 the Ancient & Honorable Artillery of England, 
 and was also a member in America. The family 
 drifted into Connecticut, where its members became 
 quite prominent in social and religious afifairs. The 
 founder of Williams College, in Massachusetts, 
 was a descendant of Robert Williams, as was also 
 William Williams, a signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence, and Gen. Warren, of Bunker Hill 
 fame ; many others took part in the war of the 
 Revolution; many also were prominent in the 
 church, as bishop, preachers, etc. 
 
 After their marriage Jehiel Robbins and his 
 wife settled on a farm in Plainville, Conn., where 
 were born their two children, Lewis W. and 
 George, the latter the subject of this sketch. The 
 former is a plumber in Marshalltown, Iowa. The 
 father was a Republican in politics, but never an 
 office seeker. He was deacon in the Congregational 
 Church, in the faith of which he and his wife passed 
 away. 
 
 George Robbins, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, passed his youthful days on his father's 
 farm, and attended the district school until sixteen 
 vears of age, when he went to Hartford to learn 
 the machinist's trade. However, about this time 
 the Civil war broke out, and Mr. Robbins joined 
 the gallant boys in blue, enlisting Aug. 11, 1862, in 
 Company K, i6th Conn. V. I., and serving until 
 mustered out, June i, 1865. He took part in many 
 severely fought battles during his term of service, 
 including those of Antietam, Fredericksburg, two 
 engagements (including siege) at Suffolk, Va., and 
 several others of lesser note. At the siege of Ply-' 
 mouth, N. C, he was taken prisoner, and was con- 
 fined in the prisons at Andersonville, Ga., and Flor- 
 ence, S. C, about ten months. 
 
 After the close of the war Mr. Robbins took a 
 course in Bryant & Stratton's Business College, 
 at Hartford. Later he clerked two years in a hotel 
 in New York City, and then became bookkeeper for 
 the Plainville Manufacturing Co., with which he 
 
1 126 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 remained several years ; for the next three years he 
 was assistant superintendent for the Bristol Manu- 
 facturing Co., and then changed to Waterville, 
 where he was superintendent for the Welch Hosiery 
 Co. for a considerable length of time. In 1879 Mr. 
 Robbins came to Waterbury, and for four years was 
 in the employ of the Waterbury Clock Co. He then 
 engaged in the crockery, and glassware trade about 
 ten years, and in 1893 embarked in his present 
 business, real estate and fire insurance, in which he 
 has met with unqualified success. 
 
 Mr. Robbins was united in marriage, Nov. 10, 
 1869, with Miss Lucy J. Botsford, of Plainville, a 
 daughter of Orrin L. and Fannie L. Botsford. 
 This marriage has been graced with two children : 
 Catherine, now a teacher in New Britain ; and Ar- 
 thur W., in the employ of the Connecticut Light & 
 Power Co., of Waterbury. 
 
 Mr. Robbins is in politics a Republican. Fra- 
 ternally he is a Freemason and a member of the 
 Grand Army of the Republic, in which latter he 
 has served as commanaer of his post two years. 
 Socially he and his family mingle with the best 
 circles, and as a business man his name stands 
 without reproach. 
 
 DANIEL W. BURKE was born June 12, 1857^ 
 in New Haven, son of Daniel Burke, who was born 
 in Providence, R. I., and died in New Haven, where 
 he was engaged in the teaming business. Daniel 
 Burke married Catherine Hayes, who was born in 
 New Haven, daughter of Richard Hayes, and they 
 had three children : Anna, who married C. B, 
 Squires, a clerk in the railway mail service; Mar- 
 garet, who married Willis E. Piatt, of South Brit- 
 ain, now engaged in farming; and Daniel W. 
 
 Daniel W. Burke was reared in New Haven, 
 and attended school there until he was fourteen, 
 when he went to Southbury to spend the ensuing 
 three years on a farm, and also attended a select 
 school. While still in his teens he entered the em- 
 ploy of Bradley, Hoyt & Co., in the woolen mill, and 
 remained with them five years, at the end of which 
 time he bought out a general store ni company with 
 W. H. Summers, under the firm name of Summers 
 & Burke. Under the administration of President 
 Garfield Mr. Summers was made postmaster, and 
 Mr. Burke his assistant. At the expiration of the 
 term Mr. Burke sold out to Mr. Summers and re- 
 moved to Wallingford, taking a position as ship- 
 ping clerk with the Maltby, Stevens & Curtiss Co., 
 with whom he remained three years. At the ex- 
 piration of this period he was made assistant super- 
 intendent for G. M. Hallenbeck, in his German 
 silver flatware factory, and for ten years remained 
 with that gentleman, only giving up his connection 
 with the business when it was absorbed by the 
 "combine." In January, 1900, he was made super- 
 intendent of the borough water works, a position 
 with a three-years' tenure of office. 
 
 Mr. Burke belongs to Ivy Lodge, K. P., and is 
 
 a member of many Masonic bodies, including Com- 
 pass Lodge, Keystone Chapter, Hamilton Council, 
 St. Elmo Commandery, Scottish .Rite Consistory, 
 and the 32d degree. He is also a member of Court 
 Wallace, Foresters. Politically Mr. Burke is a 
 Republican, and has served as a member of the 
 town committee. 
 
 Daniel W. Burke was married, Oct. 21, 1885, 
 to Miss Harriet Lord Bryant, a daughter of Sidney 
 Bryant, and a sister of Judge Samuel J. Bryant, of 
 Orange. This union has been blessed with three 
 children : Bryant L., born Nov. 25, 1887 ; Edmund 
 S., born July 28, 1893; and Catherine, born Dec. 
 29, 1898. 
 
 ALFRED JOHN SHIPLEY is a native of 
 Waterbury, born Jan. i, 1840, and has spent the 
 greater part of his active life in that city, where he 
 has attained a high standing by industry, hard 
 work and the faithful performance of all the duties 
 that come to him. There is a certain heredity of 
 mechanical genius that has descended to hirn, but 
 his industry and reliability have made him what 
 he is. 
 
 Joseph Shipley, the father of Alfred J., was 
 born in Birmingham, England, May 7, 1814, and 
 died in Waterbury, Conn., Aug. 12, 1866. Ralph 
 Shipley, the grandfather of our subject, was also 
 born in Birmingham, Nov. 15, 1788, and died 
 March 22, 1835, in Paterson, N. J., where he was 
 engaged in the manufacture of small tools and ma- 
 chinery. He married Mary Rollinson, who was 
 born in Birmingham, England, and they had only 
 one child, Joseph, already mentioned as the father 
 of Alfred J. Ralph Shipley married for his second 
 wife Hannah Saunders, who was born March 19, 
 1795, and by her had eight children: Sarah, Mary, 
 Hannah, Amos, Percilla, Martha, Naomi ' and 
 Ruth. Amos was a silver-plater in Newark, N. J. 
 — where his sisters married and settled. 
 
 After the death of his father Jospeh Shipley re- 
 moved to Waterbury, where, with the exception of 
 a few years — between 1850 and 1857, when he was 
 engaged in the machine business in Newark, N. J., 
 he spent his active life. He became interested in 
 the invention and building of machinery for mak- 
 mg pins, hooks and eyes and other brass goods for 
 which Waterbury has been famous, and at the time 
 of his death he was engaged in building machinery 
 for the Scovill Manufacturing Co. Personally he 
 was of a retiring and diffident nature, but firm in 
 his convictions of right and justice. He was a 
 strong supporter of Republican institutions, and 
 early placed himself on record as opposed to human 
 slavery. On March 11, 1839, Mr. Shipley was 
 married, in AVaterbury, to Sarah James, who was 
 born Feb. 17, 1808, and died Aug. 8, 1882. Her 
 first husband, AVilliam Stanley, a native of Birming- 
 ham, England, was brought to this country as a. 
 skilled brass worker. To Mr. and Mrs. Stanley 
 were born three children, Ann AI., William and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 127 
 
 James, descendants of whom are now living in 
 Waterbury. To Mr. and Mrs. Shipley were born 
 two children : Alfred John, whose name introduces 
 these lines; and Ralph J., a resident of Milford, 
 this State, who is well known as a skillful mechanic. 
 
 Alfred J. Shipley spent his boyhood days in 
 Waterbury until he was nearly ten years of age, 
 when his parents moved to Newark, N. J., where 
 they remained nearly seven years. There he con- 
 tinued to attend the public schools, having already 
 begun his schooling in Waterbury. The family re- 
 turned to Waterbury in 1857. Alfred served an 
 apprenticeship at the machinist's bench under his 
 father's supervision, and when he had mastered the 
 trade went to work for Henry A. Matthews & Co., 
 continuing with that firm until 1862, in which year 
 he entered the employ of the Scovill Manufacturing 
 Co. He has now been with them nearly forty 
 years, for years holding the position of master me- 
 chanic in the button department. 
 
 Mr. Shipley and Miss Ann J. Robinson were 
 married Aug. 20, 1862. Mrs. Shipley was born 
 in Waterbury, daughter of Edward and Maria 
 (Baxter) Robinson, both natives of Birmingham, 
 England. Her parents were married in England, 
 and shortly afterward came to this country, lo- 
 cating first at Middletown, and very soon removing 
 to Waterbur\' Here -they lived and died, her fa- 
 ther's death occurring Jan. 12, 1881, and her 
 mother's May 12, 1867. They were the parents of 
 ten children, of whom six survived to reach ma- 
 turity, Edward A., Horace B., Ann J., Rose A., 
 George L. and Fannie E. Edward A. married 
 Harriet A. Waters, and is now deceased; Horace 
 B. is a retired mechanic in Waterbury; Ann J. is 
 the wife of our subject; Rose A. married Harry L. 
 Lott, of Vvaterbury, and is the mother of three chil- 
 dren, Willie, Lena and Etta. Mr. and Mrs. Ship- 
 ley have no children. In political sentiment Mr. 
 Shipley was originally a Whig, and is now a Re- 
 publican. He is a public- spirited man, and takes 
 much interest in all movements looking to the gen- 
 eral good. For a numher of years he served as an 
 alderman in the city council from the First ward 
 of Waterbury, and for two years was a member of 
 the board of education. 
 
 Mr. Shipley is deeply interested in the mystic 
 work of the Masonic fraternity, and is among the 
 most conspicuous Masons in the State. In 1864 
 he united with Harmony Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. 
 M., at Waterbury, and since that time has jour- 
 neyed far into the mysterious country. He has 
 been master of Harmony Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. 
 M., and high priest of Eureka Chapter, No. 22, 
 R. A. M., of Waterbury. He belongs to Water- 
 bury Council, No. 21, R. & S. M., at Waterbury; is 
 past commander of Clark Commandery, No. 7, K. 
 T., at Waterbury ; a charter member of Doric Lodge 
 of Perfection, fourteenth degree, at Waterbury; 
 member of Ionic Council, Princes of Jerusalem, six- 
 teenth degree; Waterbury ;M. W. and P. M. of Cor- 
 
 inthian Chapter, Rose Croix, eighteenth degree, at 
 Waterbury; member of LaFayette Consistory, S. P. 
 R. S., thirty-second degree, Bridgeport; Pyramid 
 Temple, A. A. O. N. j\l. S., Bridgeport; and P. P. 
 Naomi Chapter, No. 23, O. E. S., Waterbury. He 
 was the first president of the Masonic Club of Wat- 
 erbury. Mrs. Shipley is also much interested in so- 
 ciety work, and is now past matron of Naomi 
 Lodge, No. 23, O. E. S., and past R. M. of Ever- 
 green Court, No. 2, C. of A. She belongs to the 
 King's Daughters, and is, with -her husband, a mem- 
 ber of the First Baptist Church, of which he has 
 befen a deacon since 1871. He is a member of the 
 board of trustees of the Baptist State Convention, 
 and was vice-president of the Y. M. C. A. for years. 
 
 G. FRED BARNES, foreman of the flask de- 
 partment in the Waterbury Brass Co.'s factory, 
 Waterbury, is a native of the State of New York, 
 born in Harpursville, Broome county. 
 
 German Barnes, his grandfather, was born in 
 Plymouth Hollow (now Thomaston), Litchfield 
 Co., Conn., and lived there, until he was twenty- 
 one years old, when he married Roxy Painter. 
 They then moved to Harpursville, Broome Co., N. 
 Y., making the journey with an ox-team and sled. 
 There he purchased a large tract of land, engaging 
 ex;tensively in the lumber business, and later in 
 farming and cattle raising. He and his wife reared 
 a family of four children : George B., a sketch of 
 whom follows ; Laverett, who was a merchant in 
 Harpursville, N. Y., but died in Washington, D. 
 C, where he had a married daughter living; Har- 
 per, who farmed the old homestead, and died there; 
 and Burton, a carpenter and joiner in Harpursville, 
 New York. 
 
 George B. Barnes, father of G. Fred, was born 
 in Harpursville, N. Y., and passed his entire life 
 in that locality, engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
 He married lantha Perry, who was also born in 
 Harpursville, a daughter of Samuel Perry, who was 
 a farmer by occupation, and had served as a soldier 
 in the war of 1812. Three children were born to 
 this union: G. Fred is our subject; Levi H. lives 
 in Peekskill, N. Y., where he is in the employ of 
 the New York Central Railway Co. ; Sarah A. is 
 the wife of S. F. Main, of Thomaston, Conn. The 
 father of this family died Jan. 2, 1877, the mother 
 Nov. 19, 1872. Mr. Barnes was a Democrat in 
 politics. He served as a captain in the State militia. 
 
 G. Fred Barnes, our subject proper, attended 
 the district schools near Harpursville, and was 
 reared on the home farm. At the age of fourteen 
 he entered the employ of Howard D. Montgomery, 
 driving stage until he was twenty-one years old, 
 at which time he returned to the farm, and there 
 remained until the death of his father. After that 
 event he went to Milford, Conn., and entered the 
 employ of George B. Grinnell, working on his 
 large estate, and continuing there some three or 
 four years. On Oct. 9, 1880, he came to Water- 
 
II28 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 bury, and took a position witli tlie Plume & Atwood 
 Mfg. Co., with which firm he continued until the 
 following February; then was in the employ of the 
 Steele & Johnson Co. two ^ears : after which he 
 was with the ScoviM Alfg. Co. seven years ; with 
 the American Ring Co. two years ; and' at the end 
 of that time went to the Waterbury Brass Co., as 
 foreman of their flask department, and has been 
 with that firm twelve years. 
 
 On Oct. 9, 1889, Air. Barnes was married to 
 Miss Jennie E. Carter, daughter of Dan S. Carter, 
 of Thomaston; no children have been born to this 
 union. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes are members of St. 
 John's Episcopal Church-. They reside in their 
 elegant residence on the corner of Roseland avenue 
 and Columbia boulevard, built in 1899 by our sub- 
 ject. Socially Mr. Barnes is a member of Nosahog- 
 an Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. F., and of Ansantawae 
 Encampment, No. 20, and has passed all the chairs ; 
 he was grand patriarch of the State of Connecticut 
 for the term of 1889-90, and he was junior grand 
 representative of the Grand Encampment of the 
 Sovereign Grand Encampment that met in Rich- 
 mond, Va., in September, 1900. He is affiliated 
 with Speedwell Lodge, No. 10, K. of P., and Tunxis 
 Tribe, Lnproved Order of Red Men. In politics 
 Mr. Barnes is a Republican. He is held in the 
 highest esteem in the community in which he lives, 
 being among the most popular of Waterbury's 
 citizens. 
 
 THEODORE ELLIOTT BEACH, a success- 
 ful agriculturist of the town of Milford, was born 
 Feb. 24, 1841, at his present homestead in Wood- 
 mont. His ancestors were early settlers in the town 
 of Orange, this county, and he traces his ancestry 
 back to Thomas Beach, from whom he is descended 
 through John, Thomas (21) (who married Hannah 
 Atwater), Landa (who married Abigail Ann Bald- 
 win), Samuel and John. Our subject's grandfa- 
 ther, Samuel Beach, was born in Orange, and fol- 
 lowed farming as an occupation. He married Bet- 
 sey Ward, by whom he had two children: John, 
 our subject's father; and Betsey (deceased), who 
 married Lanson Piatt, a farmer in Milford. 
 
 John Beach was born and reared in Orange, but 
 settled at the present homestead after his marriage. 
 He married Frances Fenn, also a native of Orange, 
 daughter of John Fenn, a farmer of that town. 
 Our subject was one of a familv of eight children, 
 as follows: Mary (deceased) married Horace 
 Burwell, a carpenter of Milford; John F. was a 
 carriagemaker in Milford, and died in California; 
 Elliott, a carriagemaker, died in New Orleans; 
 Susan (deceased) married Hiram , Smith, a car- 
 penter of Orange, and later a policeman in New 
 Haven; Abigail died aged sixteen; Dennis, a ma- 
 chmist and engineer, died in New Haven ; Elmina 
 IS the widow of John H. Knapp, a machinist and en- 
 gmeer, and lives in New Haven ; Theodore Elliott 
 was the youngest. The father died June 21, i860, 
 
 and the mother did not long survive, passing away 
 Feb. 10, 1861. 
 
 Theodore Elliott Beach has always resided at 
 his present homestead, and since taking charge of 
 the place has made a specialty of seed growing. 
 The place contains fifty acres, with new buildings 
 and modern improvements, and his new residence 
 is one of the best in the vicinity of Woodmont. 
 In politics he is a Republican, and he and his fam- 
 ily are much esteemed socially. On May i, 1861, 
 Mr. Beach married Miss Emily P. Fenn, and five 
 children have blessed) the union. Elliott Fenn, born 
 Jan. 3, 1863, a machinist and railroad engineer, 
 married Miss Fannie Alice Gardner, and resides in 
 New Haven ; Frank J., born Aug. i, 1865, a farmer 
 on the homestead with our subject, married Miss 
 Eda Maud Rhodes ; Fannie Elizabeth, born May 
 4, 1866, and Ida Louise, bom Feb. 2, 1868, are 
 both teaching school ; and Harry Norton, born 
 Dec. 9, 1875, is a typewriter and stenographer in 
 New York. 
 
 The Fenn Family is well known in this county, 
 and Mrs. Beach was born in Orange, daughter of 
 Eliakim T. Fenn, of Orange, and granddaughter 
 of Col. William' Fenn. Her mother, whose maiden 
 name was Elizabeth Ann Piatt, was born in Mil- 
 ford, daughter of Capt. Joseph Piatt. Eliakim T. 
 Fenn and his wife had ten children, as follows: 
 Richard Treat, deceased; Richard, deceased; Sarah 
 Edwards, deceased ; Frances Ann ; Mary Elizabeth, 
 deceased; Elizabeth Gertrude; William Stone; 
 Emily Piatt; Mary, deceased; and Heman White, 
 deceased. 
 
 MRS. FRANK E. STEELE, a highly-esteemed 
 resident of Ansonia, is a member of a prominent 
 pioneer family of that town, and occupies a house 
 which was built by her maternal grandfather, Willis 
 Hotchkiss, over forty years ago. It is located at 
 the corner of State and Union streets, being one 
 of three houses erected by Mr. Hotchkiss in that 
 block, and is a substantial structure, suggesting 
 durability. Mrs. Steele, who was reared in An- 
 sonia, is the widow of the late Frank E. Steele, a 
 well-known citizen, and resides with their only son, 
 Frank Willis Steele. 
 
 Frank E. Steele was born Aug. 20, 1848, in 
 Seymour, this county, son of John B. and Emeline 
 (Stuart) Steele, both of whom are now deceased. 
 He was the younger of two children, and the elder, 
 Celestia, is the wife of E. B. Bradley, of Ansonia. 
 Mr. Steele was reared at the family homestead in 
 Seymour, a fine estate of 100 acres, and as he was 
 hut six vears old when his father died he took 
 charge of the place at an early age. For a number 
 of years he devoted special attention to raising 
 blooded horses. In 1885 he removed to Ansonia, 
 but he continued to superintend the farm until his 
 death, which occurred in Ansonia Sept. 10, 1898. 
 While he had received only a common-school edu- 
 cation he was well-informed on the issues of the day 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1129 
 
 and he took much interest in local affairs, being an 
 active worker in the Republican party. During- his 
 residence in Seymour he served several years as 
 ■selectman and at times held other offices. In relig- 
 ious faith he was a Congregationalist. 
 
 In 1881 Mr. Steele married Miss Lillie J. Chat- 
 field, daughter of Clark Chatfield, and a native of 
 New York City. Her grandfather, Joel Chatfield, 
 was born in Seymour, and for many years was a 
 fanner and merchant in that place, where he died at 
 the advanced age of ninety-two years. He married 
 Lucinda Hitchcock, who died in early womanhood. 
 Both were devout members of the Episcopal Church. 
 They had two children : Clark, father of Mrs. 
 Steele ; and Lucinda, now Mrs. Tuttle, of New 
 Haven. 
 
 Clark Chatfield was born in Seymour, and was 
 reared upon a farm, receiving a district-school ed- 
 ucation. When a young man he followed farming 
 for a short time, and then went to New York, where 
 he was employed as manager of a store. Later he 
 went to Iowa, and then to Kingston, N. Y., and 
 while there he held the office of city surveyor. He 
 also spent some time in Virginia, but finally re- 
 turned to Seymour, where he now resides upon his 
 farm, and in addition to the management of the 
 place he is in business as an architect. He mar- 
 ried Josephine Hotchkiss, who was born in An- 
 sonia, daughter of Willis and Mary (Kimberly) 
 Hotchkiss, and died at the age of twenty-two, leav- 
 ing only one child, Lillie J., Mrs. Steele. Mrs. 
 Chatfield was a most estimable woman, and a con- 
 sistent member of the Episcopal Church, with which 
 her family has long been identified. Willis Hotch- 
 kiss was a native of Westville, now New Haven, 
 and spent his life chiefly in Ansonia and Derby, 
 where he was engaged in business as a builder and 
 lumber dealer. He lived to the good old age^ of 
 •eighty-two and was regarded as one of the leading 
 men of the locality, his sterling qualities of char- 
 acter commanding the respect of all who knew him. 
 His widow, who died Feb. 9, 1900, aged nearly 
 eighty-eight years, resided with Mrs. Steele. Of 
 their children only one, Mrs. Chatfield, lived to 
 maturity. 
 
 BARLOW STEVENS HONCE, a prominent 
 farmer and a dealer in agricultural implements on 
 the Guilford turnpike in Branford, was born in 
 Matawan, Monmouth Co., N. J., July 13, 1855, son 
 of James and Mary Augusta Bonce. The father 
 was a native of New Jersey, and was born in Sep- 
 tember, 1814, a son of David and Phebe (Peacock) 
 Honce. The mother was a native of Phillips, Me., 
 and was born April 5, 1828, a daughter of Thomas 
 and Anna (Foster) Stevens. The maternal great- 
 grandfather of B. S. Honce, was Ephraim Stevens, 
 who fought in the Revolutionary war. He lived 
 at Phillips, Maine, and was married to Sybil Foster, 
 a daughter of David and Millicent (Howe) Foster. 
 
 James Honce was twice married, and his first 
 
 wife, Jane, was a daughter of John R. and Mar- 
 garet Schenck. They were married June 25, 1834, 
 and became the parents of two children : Mary E.; 
 the wife of Charles W. Palmer ; and Eliza Jane, the 
 wife of Pascal Hoadley. Mr. Honce was married, 
 June 25, 1854, to Mary Augusta, the daughter of 
 Thomas and Anna (Foster) Stevens, of Phillips, 
 Maine. To this marriage have come five children : 
 Barlow S. ; Clara, wife of Henry Goldsmith ; J. 
 Arthur ; Charles^ A. ; and Anna F., who married 
 Elmer G. Farnham. James Honce removed to 
 Branford in 1858, locating on the farm now occu- 
 pied by his son. Barlow S., and made his home there 
 tmtil his death, Aug. 16, 1873. 
 
 Barlow Stevens Honce was reared in Branford, 
 wjiere he spent his early life with the exception of 
 a brief period of one year which was spent in Wis- 
 consin. He received his education in the Branford 
 schools, and here his entire life has been spent as 
 a farmer. In 1893 Mr. Honce took an agency for 
 the sale of the goods of the McCormick Harvester 
 Machine Co., and has developed a considerable trade 
 in agricultural implements. 
 
 Mr. Honce was married, Oct. 20, 1881, to Alice, 
 daughter of Martin and Lydia (Hill) Cook, of 
 Guilford, and they have one son, Arthur L., born 
 March 12, 1884. Mr. Honce is a member of the N. 
 E. O. P. and the Woodmen of the World. In 
 Dolitics he is a Republican, and has served on the 
 Branford board of selectmen for thee years. 
 
 For fifteen years Mr. Honce was a member of 
 the Connecticut National Guard, enlisting Aug. 12, 
 1883, in the first Platoon, Battery A. He was pro- 
 moted to corporal Aug. i, 1884; became sergeant 
 May 17, 1886; second lieutenant, Feb. 27, 1888; 
 first lieutenant ; and captain of Battery A, Conn. 
 Nat. Guard, June, 1894. When the Spanish-Amer- 
 ican war broke out Capt. Honce obtained leave of 
 absence from the National Guard of the State, and 
 on May 4, 1898, was appointed captain of Battery 
 A, 1st Conn. Vol. Artillery, serving until Oct. 25, 
 1898, when he was mustered 6ut by both the State 
 and National authorities. Though ordered to Porto 
 Rico, the order was countermanded, and the battery 
 never left the State. J. Arthur Honce, his brother, 
 who was second lieutenant in the same battery, died 
 May 21, 1901. Charles A., another brother, also 
 served in the same battery. 
 
 PAUL SCHOLZ is one of the worthy citi- 
 zens of Woodbridge that Germany has furnished 
 to the New World. He was born in Schleswig, 
 Prussia, Nov. 21, 1856, a son of Charles and Mary 
 (Werner) Scholz, natives of Schlesien ; the former 
 died in,i85i, and the latter at the age of about 
 fifty years. In early life the father engaged in 
 farming, but being a man of considerable fore- 
 thought he decided to take up the manufacture of 
 starch, and in his native town he built a factory, 
 but just as his success was assured he died. He 
 was a cavalryman in the German army during the 
 
II 30 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 war of 1848-50, was a man of great popularity in 
 his' neighborhood, and was credited with good busi- 
 ness abihty and sound judgment. Both he and his 
 wife were members of the German Lutheran 
 Church. In their family were three childdren, of 
 whom our subject is the second in order of birth. 
 Annie, the eldest, married in Germany, where her 
 husband died, and later she came to the United 
 States, and died in New Haven, Conn., in 1896. 
 Robert, the youngest, was always a wanderer, trav- 
 eling throughout the West and South, and when 
 last heard from was in the Carolinas. 
 
 Paul Scholz received thorough instruction in the 
 German schools, and during his youth learned the 
 clock making trade, at which he worked four or 
 five years. From 1876 to 1879 he served in the 
 German army, being stationed at Berlin as one of 
 Emperor William's Light Guards. For the follow- 
 ing four years he was employed as a clockmaker in 
 his native town. In 1883 he emigrated to Amer- 
 ica, and sailing on the same ship was his future 
 wife. On landing in New York, Paul and Eliza- 
 beth Scholz were married, and at once proceeded 
 to Boston, jVIass., where Mr. Scholz secured employ- 
 ment in rubber boot and shoe factories. Later he 
 spent five years in New Haven as an employe in the 
 sewing machine shops, and also in the shops at 
 Westville, Conn. In October, 1893, he purchased 
 a farm of thirty-six acres in Woodbridge, to which 
 he added twenty- three acres, in i8q8, and is now 
 successfully engaged in agricultural pursuits, rais- 
 ing principally fruit and vegetables for the market. 
 He is also quite extensively engaged in the manu- 
 facture of butter, and keeps for that purpose a herd 
 of eight cows. Politically he is not identified with 
 any party, but votes for the man he believes will 
 help him most in his business. He once held mem- 
 bership with the Foresters, but at present is not 
 connected with any secret society. His success has 
 been worthily achieved as it is due entirely to his 
 own unaided efforts and good management. In his 
 family are four children, Annie, Willie, Paul and 
 Gustaf, all attending school. 
 
 _ CHARLES H. BARNES, for several years pro- 
 prietor of a well-known and popular livery and 
 boarding stable in Waterbury, which he sold in 
 1901, is a native of Connecticut, born May 13, 1857, 
 in Woodbury, Litchfield county, of a stalwart loyal 
 New England family. 
 
 Reuben Barnes, his father, was born in Rox- 
 bury. Conn., removing thence to Woodbury, where 
 he has ever since been engaged as a farmer. He 
 married Neoma Callender, who was born in Hud- 
 son, N. Y., and died in igoo, the mother of chil- 
 dren as follows : Charles H. is the subject of these 
 lines; Seraphena is the wife of Charles Barto, a 
 farmer of Hartford county ; Carlton is a farmer in 
 the town of Woodbury, Litchfield county; Lottie 
 and Nellie are deceased ; William is a farmer in 
 the town of Woodbury, Litchfield county. 
 
 Charles H. Barnes passed his boyhood days on 
 the farm, and received a good common-school edu- 
 cation. In 1872, at the age of fifteen, he moved 
 to Waterbury, and for some five years worked on 
 the Benedict farm, after which he engaged in vari- 
 ous kinds of business, such as working in the dif- 
 ferent shops, until 1891, in which year he embarked 
 in the livery business, conducting a livery and 
 boarding stable at No. 46 Spring street. On Aug. 
 I, 1901, he sold out, returning to his birthplace, 
 Woodbury, where he is now carrying on a hotel — 
 "The Barnes House" — and livery business on Main 
 street. 
 
 On May 30, 1882, Mr. Barnes married Anna 
 Kelly, who was born in Waterbury, a daughter of 
 James and Anastasia Kell}', and one child, Elsie, 
 born Dec. 14, 1885, graces this union. In politics 
 3ilr. Barnes is independent, casting his vote for the 
 candidate he considers best fitted for the office. So- 
 cially he is a member of the Independent Order of 
 Foresters, the Heptasophs, the Red Men and the 
 Haymakers. 
 
 FERDINAND DEMING, a citizen of Water- 
 bury, whose reputation as a mechanical expert is 
 far more than local, was born in Litchfield, Brad- 
 ford Co., Pa., Dec. 5, 1845, son of Abner Deming, 
 who was born in Woodbury, Litchfield Co., Conn., 
 Dec. 16, 1812. Abner Deming was a son of Abner 
 and Philinda (Stoddard) Deming, the latter a 
 daughter of Eli Stoddard, the first preacher in 
 Woodbury. This family was among the first to 
 settle in Litchfield. 
 
 John Deming, the emigrant, came from Eng- 
 land about 1630, as the records show that he was 
 in Wethersfield in 1635, and that he took part in 
 the Pequot war. John Deming, his son, lived and 
 died in Wethersfield, where his son, Hezekiah Dem- 
 ing, also lived and died. It was. in this generation 
 that Hartford became established. Hezekiah Dem- 
 ing, son of Hezekiah, lived and died in Canaan, 
 Conn. His son, Phineas Deming, was in Woodburv 
 in 1775, and took part in the siege of Ticonderoga. 
 Abner Deming, his son, and the grandfather of 
 Ferdinand, lived and died in Woodbury. He and 
 his wife had six children, all now deceased: Maria, 
 who married Solomon Bishop, a farmer in Wood- 
 bury ; Henry, a farmer, who died in Collinsville, 
 Conn. ; Horace, who worked in the Springfield 
 armory, later in the South, went West overland, and 
 died while en route, being buried in Illinois ; Sarah, 
 who never married; George, who died young; and 
 Abner. 
 
 Abner Deming married Miss Mary Wheaton, 
 who was born in Washington, Conn., daughter of 
 Calvin and Jessie (Phillips) Wheaton. This family 
 was of Welsh origin, and came to this country long 
 ago. Shortly after their marriage Abner Deming 
 and his wife went to Litchfield, where he was en- 
 gaged as a blacksmith, and some years later they 
 returned to Woodbury, where he died in 1883, Mrs. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1131 
 
 Deming in 1857. They were Methodists, and in 
 politics he was a Democrat. 
 
 Ferdinand Deming, whose name introduces this 
 article, spent his boyhood days in Woodbury, and 
 came to Waterbury in 1856, spending practically his • 
 entire life in that city, though he has for short 
 periods worked in other cities. When a boy he at- 
 tended public school in Woodbury, Waterbury and 
 Middlebury. Leaving the farm while still young, 
 he came to Waterbury and entered the shop of 
 Charles W. Johnson, to learn the machinist's trade, 
 which proved in every way so congenial that it has 
 been his business to the present time. He has devel- 
 oped engineeringgifts of a high order and is regard- 
 ed as an expert on difficuilt and abstruse mechanical 
 problems. He is not associated with the work of 
 amy one establishment, and it is his intention to go 
 abroad during the year 1901 and devote consider- 
 able time to mechanical research. 
 
 Mr. Deming and Miss Althea Minor were mar- 
 ried June 16, 1869. Mrs. Deming was born in 
 Stonington, Conn., daughter of James and Eliza 
 (Bennett) Minor, both natives of Stonington. The 
 Minor family comes of old English stock. Thomas 
 Minor, the first of the name to come to America, 
 was born in Somersetshire, England, and arrived 
 in 163 1 in the ship "Arabella." Mrs. Althea 
 (Minor) Deming died in 1892. She was the mother 
 of nine children, five of whom grew to maturity, 
 Ferdinand, Jr., Eliza, James C, Grace P. and Her- 
 bert (who died Dec. 28, 1899), all at home but 
 the last named. Mr. Deming is a strong Repub- 
 Hcan. He and his family attend the First Congre- 
 gational Church. 
 
 EDWIN LUZERN WILFORD, a prominent 
 farmer of the town of Branford, was born March 
 13, 1846, a descendant of John Wilford, a native 
 of England, who was among the first settlers of 
 Branford, where the family have been representative 
 citizens ever since. Edwin L. Wilford is a son of 
 Samuel and Susan (Cook) Wilford, and his pa- 
 ternal grandparents were John A. and Betsey (Fris- 
 bie) Wilford, all residents of the same town, and 
 his birth occurred in that part of the town which 
 is known as Indian Neck. He received a common- 
 school education, and began life as a farmer, which 
 vocation he has never forsaken, with the exception 
 of one year when he worked as a sailor along the 
 coast. On Aug. 22, 1862, he enlisted as a private 
 in Company B, 27th Conn. V. I., and was wounded 
 at the battle of Fredericksburg on Dec. 13, 1862, 
 and was taken to the College Hospital at George- 
 town, D. C. From that hospital he was transferred 
 to the hospital at New Haven, where after nine 
 months' service he received an honorable discharge 
 from the government. He is an active member of 
 Mason Rogers Post, G. A. R., of Branford, and 
 has held the offices of adjutant and junior vice-com- 
 mander, and was delegate to the National Encamp- 
 ment of the G. A. R. held in St. Paul, Minn., in 
 
 1896. He has traversed the United States from 
 ocean to ocean, having visited the World's Fair in 
 Chicago in 1893 and the Midwinter Fair in San 
 Francisco the following year. In politics he is a 
 Republican. 
 
 ALMON I. DEANE, the well-known and pop- 
 ular postmaster of Mt. Carmel Centre, and agent 
 for the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- 
 way Co., at that place, was born in Lyme, Conn., 
 June 7, 1857. His father, Daniel Deane, was also 
 a native of this State, and in early life followed the 
 occupation of farming for several vears. During 
 the Civil war he enlisted in the 26th Conn. V. I., 
 and participated in several engagements. After re- 
 ceiving his discharge he returned home and later 
 went to Long Island, where he engaged in fishing. 
 While following that pursuit he was accidentally 
 drowned in Long Island Sound, in 1865, but his 
 body was recovered and brought back to Lyme, 
 Conn., for interment. He married Sarah Eggles- 
 ton, a native of New London county, who died in 
 1866, and was buried in Niantic cemetery. In their 
 family were five children, of whom the eldest died 
 in infancy; Richard is now a steamboat engineer;' 
 Arthur is deceased; Almon I. is the next in order 
 of birth ; and Henry is residing on the Pacific coast. 
 
 Almon I. Deane was but eight years old when he 
 lost his parents, and was thrown upon the world to 
 make his own way at an early age. He first worked 
 on a farm for two years for his board and clothes 
 and the privilege of attending school through the 
 winter season in Lyme, Conn., this being the only 
 way he could obtain the education which he wished 
 so much to secure. On giving up farm work he 
 found employment in a silver plating shop at Lyme, 
 where he spent one year, and during that time man- 
 aged to save enough money out of his small wages 
 to enable him to study telegraphy with Mrs. Stan- 
 nard, of that town. After mastering the art he ob- 
 tained a position with the New York, New Haven 
 & Hartford Railway Co., as operator and agent at 
 Cobalt, Conn., where he spent two years. In 1883 
 he was appointed station agent at Mt. Carmel 
 Centre in the town of Hamden, New Haven coun- 
 ty, and for the past nineteen years he has faithfully 
 filled that position of trust and responsibility, giv- 
 ing general satisfaction to the public and the com- 
 pany. He is courteous and obliging, and his genial 
 disposition gains him many friends. His political 
 support is given to the men and measures of the 
 Republican party, and he takes quite an active inter- 
 est in educational affairs. In February, 1898, dur- 
 ing President McKinley's administration, he took 
 charge of the postoffice of Mt. Carmel Centre, which 
 office he is now filling with credit to himself and to 
 the entire satisfaction of all concerned. 
 
 On June 7, 1881, in New London, Mr. Deane 
 wedded Miss Mary Dodge, a daughter of Capt. 
 Daniel Dodge. The two children born of this union 
 died in infancy, and the wife and mother, who was a 
 
II32 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 consistent Christian, died in Mt. Carmel, and was 
 laid to rest in Hamden cemetery. Fot his second 
 wife Air. Deane married Miss Hattie Swain, a na- 
 tive of Hamden, and a daughter of William Swain. 
 They have two children: Inez Gertrude and Will- 
 iam Hudson. Mrs. Deane is a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and active in its work. They 
 make their home in the comfortable residence at 
 Mt. Carmel, erected by Mr. Deane in 1900. 
 
 AVALTER N. LOWELL has a position among 
 the skilled workers of this busy city of Waterbury 
 that could only be won and' held by genuine merit. 
 He knows bis work, is honest and reliable, and, pos- 
 sessing those qualities of directness and force that 
 are much in demand by those who would secure the 
 greatest results from their efforts, has risen to a 
 creditable and responsible place. Mr. Lowell was 
 born in. New Bedford, Mass., July 22, 1852, a son 
 of Harrison G. Lowell. The family came from 
 England and settled in Massachusetts years ago, 
 and the city of Lowell, Mass., bears its name from 
 some one of the early members of the family. 
 
 Jacob Lowell, the grandfather of Walter N., was 
 torn in Massachusetts, and married Eliza Nichols, 
 also a native of that State, and thev settled at New 
 Bedford, where they lived and died. This family 
 was numerously represented in the Revolutionary 
 war. 
 
 Harrison G. Lowell, son of Jacob and father of 
 Walter N., was born in New Bedford Aug. 23, 
 1827, and died there Aug. 9, 1865. He grew to 
 manhood in his native town, and became teller in 
 the old Marine Bank, in the service of which cor- 
 poration he passed his entire business life. Sarah 
 E. Blake, his wife, was the daughter of James H. 
 and Sarah (Pitts) Blake, and was born in Dighton, 
 Mass. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Harrison 
 Lowell settled in New Bedford, where they reared 
 a family of three children, of whom the eldest was 
 Walter N., whose name introduces this article ; the 
 others were Nellie, who married Clinton E. Stark, 
 M. D., of Norwich, Conn. ; and James Harrison, 
 the yoimgest son, is a sheep raiser at Roswell, Idaho. 
 The mother of the children died Nov. 23, 1865. 
 Harrison Lowell was a Republican in politics, and 
 a strong Universalist in religious belief. 
 
 Walter N. Lowell spent his boyhood days in 
 New Bedford, and was a pupil in the public schools 
 until he was seventeen years oi age. At that age 
 lie left school and went to Hartford, Conn., where 
 he began an apprenticeship to the machinist trade 
 that has proved the open door for an honorable and 
 useful life in which Mr. Lowell has achieved a very 
 conspicuous success. For ten years he followed his 
 trade in various shops in Connecticut, and: in 1868 
 came to Waterbury, working for the Peter's Lock 
 Co. for some time. \'ery soon, however, after com- 
 ing here he entered the employ of the Waterbury 
 Brass Co., and has been with them ever since, 
 with the exception of a short time when he was 
 
 absent from the city, his period of service covering 
 some seventeen years. Mr. Lowell began as an as- 
 sistant in the manufacturing department, and is now 
 superintendent of this department, taking the place 
 •of the late T. B. Martin. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1879, Mr. Lowell married Miss 
 Nellie L. Wood, who was born in New York City 
 Oct. 19, 1861, daughter of Robert and Fannie 
 (Welton) Wood. To this union two children were 
 born: Sarah F., born March 3 1885, died July 
 29, 1893 ; and Walter W., born Aug. 25, 1895. Mr. 
 Lowell is a Republican, and socially belongs to 
 Nosahogan Lodge, I. O. O. F., and the Improved 
 Order of Red Men. With his family he is an at- 
 tendant upon the services of the Episcopalian 
 Church. 
 
 DAVID B. WHEELER owns and operates a 
 valuable farm of 114 acres in Oxford, New Haven 
 county, the neat and thrifty appearance of which 
 well indicates his careful supervision. Substantial 
 improvements, well tilled fields, and all the acces- 
 sories and conveniences of a model farm are there 
 to be found. The residence, which is one of the 
 modern homes in the town, was erected by our 
 subject in 1897. 
 
 Mr. Wheeler was born March 13, 1844, in the 
 town of Bridgewater, Litchfield Co., Conn., son 
 of Joel B. and Mary (Warner) Wheeler. The 
 father was a native of Roxbury, Conn., and a son 
 of Nirom Wheeler, who was born in Newtown. 
 Our subject is third in the order of birth in a fam- 
 ily of seven children, the_ others being Mary A., 
 Laura J., Ellen A., Flora J., Sarah E. and Martha I. 
 
 When quite young Mr. Wheeler accompanied 
 his parents on their removal to Roxbury, where 
 he grew to manhood and acquired his education in 
 the common schools. In 1865 he came with the 
 family to Oxford, and he i-emained under the pa- 
 rental roof until twenty-five years of age. On 
 Nov. 18, 1869, he was married to Miss Sarah J. 
 Tyrrell, and to them have been born six children, 
 namely: Charles H., Jane M., Frank B., Frederick 
 L., Morris and Leslie. Charles H. married Jennie 
 Pope, daughter of John B. Pope, and they have 
 had three children, John D., Florence and one that 
 died in infancy. Frank B. married Etta Lockwood, 
 and has three children, Ernest W., Bessie and 
 Sadie B. 
 
 After his marriage ]\Ir. Wheeler located on a 
 farm adjoining his father's, and has since success- 
 fully engaged in its operation. In connection with 
 general farming he also works at the mason's and 
 carpenter's trades as a contractor. As a business 
 man he is enterprising, energetic and always abreast 
 of the times, and has been rewarded by a comfort- 
 able competence. In his political affiliations Mr. 
 Wheeler is a stanch Democrat. Though not a 
 member of any religious organization he contributes 
 toward the support of churches. He is public- 
 spirited and enterprising, and thoroughly inter- 
 
3cu>J ^ItLjJU. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 "33 
 
 ested in whatever tends to promote the moral, in- 
 tellectual or material welfare of his town and coun- 
 ty. Fraternally he is a member of the United 
 Workmen. 
 
 WILLIAM E. QUIGLEY was bom Sept. 29, 
 1847, in the town of Orange, not far from Water- 
 bury, and is a son of Patrick Quigley, who was 
 bom in King's County, Ireland, and whose father 
 never came to America, but lived and died a farmer 
 in Ireland. 
 
 Patrick Quigley came to the United States early 
 in life, and settled in the town, of Orange, where he 
 worked for John D. D^vis, a farmer in that region. 
 Later in life he became a farmer and butcher. His' 
 wife, Catherine Delaney, was born' in Queen's 
 County, Ireland. He was killed in Orange while 
 lifting a telegraph pole, helping in the construction 
 of a line from Derby to New Haven, for which he 
 had furnished all the poles. This was about forty- 
 six years ago, and twenty-six years later his wife 
 died. They were the parents of six children who 
 lived to attain maturity: James, Patrick J., Will- 
 iam E. (whose name appears above), Catherine, 
 Alice and Edward. James learned the pattern- 
 maker's trade in Derby, and when the Civil war 
 broke out enlisted, Aug. 9, 1862, in the 20th Conn. 
 V. I., came home in 1863, and died as a result of 
 his army experience. Patrick J., a farmer, enlisted 
 in the 15th Conn. V. I., serving until the close of 
 the war; he is living in Meriden, Conn. Catherine 
 married Owen Flannegan, and has her home in Mer- 
 iden, Conn. Alice married John B. Gardner, and 
 lives in New Britain. Edward lived in Waterbury ; 
 he was sun-struck in Bridgeport. 
 
 William E. Quigley left the parental home when 
 twelve years of age and worked for A. H. & C. 
 B. Ailing, in their yarn factory. When this exten- 
 sive concern was moved to Derby, Conn., the young 
 man went with it, spending altogether five and a 
 half years with the AUings, and he thoroughly mas- 
 tered the art of making stockings by machinery. 
 From there Mr. Quigley went to Ansonia, where 
 he was engaged in learning the blacksmith trade at 
 the beginning of the war of the Rebellion. Mr. 
 Quigley desired to enlist, and made several efforts, 
 but was rejected each time on account of his ex- 
 treme youth. On Aug. 9, 1862, he enlisted in the 
 20th Conn. V. I., but was turned back. On Sept. 
 8, 1862, he enlisted in the 25th Conn. V. I., after 
 an ineffectual application to the 15th Conn., and 
 was transferred to the 22d Conn. V. I. In order to 
 be accepted he had to make oath that he was eight- 
 een years of age, though in reality he was nearer 
 fifteen. Mr. Quigley was discharged July 13, 1863, 
 and at once returned to Ansonia, where he resumed 
 his apprenticeship at the blacksmith trade. When 
 he had finished his trade he went to Bristol, Conn., 
 and established himself in a blacksmithing business 
 which he carried on for about three years. At the 
 end of that time he sold out, and bought the Terrill 
 
 & Wilcox business, at Ansonia, where he remained 
 two and a half years. About 1869 he came to 
 Waterbury, and has been there ever since, for a time 
 having his shop on Jefferson street. 
 
 Mr. Quigley and Mary E. A. McNeil were mar- 
 ried Sept. 12, 1867. Mrs. Quigley is a daughter 
 of William McNeil, and was born in Waterbury, 
 Conn. She is the mother of one child, Charles V. 
 J., who is now an eminent physician in Chicago, and 
 a lecturer on medical topics in a university in that 
 city. 'Mr. Quigley was a Democrat until 1884, 
 when he voted the Republican ticket, and has since 
 cast his ballot for the men and measures of that 
 party. He is a member of Wadhams Post, G. A. R., 
 and of the Amiy and Navy Club. As commander 
 of Wadhams Post he has enjoyed an honor that 
 has so far fallen to no other man, that of re-election 
 to this position. He is also a member of Interna- 
 tional Lodge, No. 6, I. O. O. F., and is a charter 
 member of Lodge No. 265, B. P O. E., and in 
 the I. O. F. he is past high chief ranger of the high 
 court of Connecticut, and a memiber of the high 
 standing committee; his wife is also a member of 
 the high court. Mr. Quigley also belongs to the 
 Foresters of America and the New England Order 
 of Protection. He is in the 'Service Union, and 
 the Masonic Mutual Benefit Association, of New 
 Haven, the New England M. A. A. and the I. O. 
 H. He belongs to the Second Company, Gov- 
 ernor's Foot Guards, and also belongs to the vet- 
 erans' corps of the First Company of the Foot 
 Guards. In religious faith he is a Roman Catholic, 
 being a member of the Immaculate Conception 
 Parish, and has owned a pew there since the erec- 
 tion of the church building. Mr. Quigley has fre- 
 quently gone from Waterbury as a representative 
 to national conventions of the various orders with 
 which be is associated. 
 
 Mrs. Quigley is also prominent in social mat- 
 ters, and takes a prominent part in many good en- 
 deavors. 
 
 ADRIAN F. WOLFF, whose name is well 
 known in Waterbury a® that of a thoroughly hon- 
 orable and upright man, whose word needs no bond, 
 was born in France in 1853, son of Francis F. 
 Wolff, who was born in that country in 1818, and 
 who died in Waterbury Feb. i, 1870. The an- 
 cestors of this family left Switzerland sorne two 
 hundred and seventy years ago, and settled in Lor- 
 raine, France. They were a sturdy and upright 
 race, and many of them were ironsmiths by occupa- 
 tion. The grandfather of Adrian F. had a factory 
 in which be made all kinds of edge tools and agri- 
 cultural implements. This rugged representative of 
 the family was born in 1777, and died in France. 
 Adolph C. Wolff, a brother of Francis F Wolff, 
 came to this country in 1851, and died recently in 
 Bridgeport. 
 
 Francis F. Wolff, the father of Adrian F., 
 married Celestine Wolff, a cousin, and they reared 
 
II34 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a family of three children : Lucian F., who is a 
 machinist in the employ of the Scovill Manufactur- 
 ing Co. ; Adrian F., whose name introduces this 
 article ; and Alfred J., whose sketch appears else- 
 where. ^Irs. Celestine Wolff died in Waterbury in 
 
 Adrian F. Wolff was reared in France until he 
 reached the age of twelve years, and received such 
 schooling as was afforded the children at that time. 
 The father came to this country in 1861, and was 
 engaged as a blacksmith in Bridgeport and Water- 
 bury, Conn. At the close of the war he sent for his 
 wife and children, and they arrived in 1865. 
 Young Adrian F. . went to a private school in 
 Bridgeport for two months, and then attended 
 the public schools in Waterbury, where he com- 
 pleted his schooling. In 187 1 he entered the 
 factory of the Scovill Manufacturing Co. as 
 an apprentice at the toolmaker's trade, and be 
 has never changed his work. He is now fore- 
 man of the machine and tool department of that- 
 extensive plant. As a capable and energetic work- 
 man, and as a public-spirited and progressive citi- 
 zen, he ranks deservedly among the respected resi- 
 dents of his adopted city. 
 
 Mr. Wolff and Miss Elizabeth Lavin were mar- 
 ried Jan. 13, 1882. Mrs. Wolff was born in An- 
 sonia, this county, daughter of Terence Lavin, who 
 was born in Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Wolff have 
 two children, Adrian L. and Victor A. Mr. Wolff 
 is independent in politics, preferring to select the 
 best men at every election, and not to be bound by 
 party ties. As a member of the Royal Arcanum 
 and the Woodmen of the World he has secured 
 financial protection for his family in case of his sud- 
 den death ; and as a member of the Catholic Church 
 he is loyal to the faith in which he was reared. 
 
 CHARLES S. BUCKj an energetic and capable 
 machinist of Ansonia, who is also engaged in the 
 manufacture of emery wheels, was born in New 
 York, March 25, 1854. 
 
 William J. P. Buck, his father, was born in 
 Connecticut, and was early trained to the trade of 
 a blacksmith, to which his time was given until 
 1869, when he came to Ansonia, and bought a va- 
 riety store. This enterprise he conducted for sev- 
 eral years and then retired fromi business, to make 
 his home with his son, Charles S. Mr. Buck was 
 an honored veteran of the Civil war, and served in 
 both the 2d Heavy Artillery and the 19th Conn. 
 V. I., participating in many hard-fought battles, 
 hundreds of men being lost from his regimental ancl 
 company organizations ; he was a good soldier, and 
 made a fine record. He married Mary Collins, one 
 of the family of four children born to Henry and 
 Elizabeth (Cooper) Collins, the former of whom 
 studied medicine, and then became a clergyman, 
 preaching at many different points in New York, 
 where he died at the age of seventy years. Will- 
 iam J. P. Buck, though at the advanced age of 
 
 sevent3'-seven, is still living (1901), and is enjoying 
 the best of health. To Mr. and Mrs. William J. 
 P. Buck were born four children : William, who 
 is working in the foundry at Ansonia ; Anson, who 
 is in Kansas ; Charles S. ; and George, who is in 
 Milford. The mother died at the age of 'sixty-four 
 years. She and her husband belonged to the Meth- 
 odist Church, in which they were active workers. 
 Mr. Buck was a much respected member of the 
 Grand Army of the Republic. 
 
 Charles S. Buck spent his earlier years under 
 the parental roof, and secured his education in the 
 public schools and in Thomaston Academy. In 
 1869 he entered a 'Store at Ansonia. After spend- 
 ing some time in that position he took up factory 
 life, working in several shops. He was in the hat 
 factory at Bridgeport, and with the A. B. C. Co. at 
 Ansonia; and in 1872 became a roll grinder with 
 the Farrell Foundry, which pasition he holds to the 
 present time. Since be went into the trade Mr. Buck 
 has performed about every part of its work with 
 credit to himself and satisfaction to his employers. 
 When he entered the roll room there were only 
 twelve men employed in it'; now there are about 
 350. Of this number he i« the oldest, and is highly 
 esteemed as a workman throughout the city. Mr. 
 Buck makes the emery wheels which are used in 
 the roll department, and he began this line of work 
 in 1887. His wheels are especially adapted for 
 rolls made of chilled iron and steel, used in the 
 manufacture of paper and metal goods. Many of 
 his emery wheels go to remote parts of the world, 
 even into Europe and Australia. These wheels are 
 being constantly improved, and Mr. Buck has a 
 reputation in this line that is world-wide. 
 
 In 1880 Mr. Buck was married to Margaret 
 Jackson, who was born in England, one of the 
 eleven, children of John Jackson, a rollmaker and 
 turner, who spent many years in Derby following 
 his trade, and in 1857 came to Ansonia, where he 
 died at the age of sixty-four. Mr. Buck belongs to 
 the I. O. O. F., in which he has been an efficient- 
 worker, and has held several official positions-. He 
 is a member of the Golden Cross, and was a char-' 
 ter member of the Sons of A'eterans, of which order 
 he is chaplain. In his political relations he is a 
 Republican. He has dealt considerably in real es-- 
 tate, and built the home in which he lives in 1885. 
 He is junior warden in the Episcopal Church, which 
 position he has filled for eighteen years, and he 
 also served on the Building committee. He takes 
 much interest in the Sunday-school, and was acting' 
 superintendent for two years. Mrs. Buck is also' 
 an active worker in all church and society affairs, 
 and is known as one of the most reliEtble and earnest' 
 workers connected with that religious body. 
 
 PATRICK T. COOGAN, proprietor of a pros- 
 perous grocery store in Waterbury, is a native of Ire- 
 land, born July 16, 1847, in County Kilkenny. 
 
 Joseph Coogan, father of our subject, also a 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1135 
 
 native of that county, was a farmer there, as was 
 his father before him. John Coogan, an uncle of 
 our subject, was a physician in Ireland. Joseph 
 Coogan married Catherine Clancy, of the same na- 
 tivity, and five children were born to them: Mar- 
 garet, Thomas, Patrick T., Annie and Joseph. Of 
 these, Margaret, deceased, was the wife of John 
 Brennan, who lives in Ireland ; Thomas lives on the 
 homestead in Ireland ; Annie, deceased, was the wife 
 of John Lawlor, of Waterbury; Joseph is a ma- 
 chinist in Philadelphia. 
 
 Patrick T. Coogan received his edlucation in his 
 native land, and at an early age came to the United 
 States, first locating in Schuylkill county, Pa., where 
 he followed mining about fifteen years. At the end 
 of that time he came to Waterbury, Conn., and for 
 twelve years was employed in various departments 
 of the brass works, then engaging in his present 
 grocery and liquor business, at No. 34 Washington 
 street, in which he has met with the most desirable 
 success. In the city he has put up quite a few build- 
 ings, which he rents. 
 
 On May 9, 1865, Mr. Coogan married Mary A. 
 Burns, who was of Pennsylvanian birth, and thirteen 
 children were born to them, of whom the following 
 are living: Catherine, Patrick, Bridget, Margaret, 
 Annie, Nellie, Elizabeth, James J., Thomas, Joseph 
 and Loretta. Of this interesting family, Bridget is 
 highly accomplished in music, and is the leading or- 
 ganist in the church. The mother died Jan. 12, 
 1898. On Nov. 22, 1900, Mr. Coogan wedded 
 Mary Dahill, who was born in County Cork, Ire- 
 land, and they have one child, Cornelius. Our sub- 
 ject is affiliated with the Foresters 01 America;, in 
 religious faith he is a member of St. Francis Xavier 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 ROGER CONNOR, manager of the Water- 
 bury Base Ball Club, and a successful player of na- 
 tional reputation, resides in Waterbury, and is a 
 native of that city, born July i, 1857. 
 
 Mortimer Connor, father of our subject, was 
 born in County Kerry, Ireland, a son of Daniel 
 Connor, a native of the same county, and a weaver 
 by trade. He came to the United States, locating 
 first in Albany, N. Y., later in Waterbury, Conn., 
 where he died. Mortimer was a young man when 
 he came to America, settling in Waterbury, where 
 he followed the trade of blacksmithing up to his 
 death, which occurred about twenty-five years ago. 
 In that city he married Catherine Sullivan, also a 
 native of Ireland, daughter of Dennis Sullivan, who 
 was a butcher, followed his trade in the old coun- 
 try, and died there. To Mortimer Connor and hils 
 wife were born eleven children, as follows: Roger 
 is the subject of these lines ; Daniel is in the liquor 
 business in Waterbury; Dennis is a mechanic in 
 Waterbury ; Mathew's whereabouts are not known ; 
 Mortimer died in 1898; Joseph is a member of the 
 Bridgeport B. B. C. ; Hannah married Robert Wil- 
 son, and they live in New York; Mary married 
 
 Jeremiah Slattery, of WaterlDury ; Ellen is the wife 
 of Lawrence Rubanna, of New York ;, Julia ( i ) and 
 Julia (2) both died young. The mother of these 
 is yet living. 
 
 Roger Connor attended the local schools of 
 Waterbury until he was seventeen years old, and 
 then commenced learning the trade of blacksmith 
 with his father, working on Dix Island, Maine, 
 where the stone for the New York postoffice build- 
 ing was quarried. He was there some eighteen 
 months, and on his return home commenced "play- 
 ing ball" with the Monitor Base Ball Club, work- 
 ing in the factories in winter time. This was in 
 1875-76-77. In 1878 he went to New Bedford and 
 played with the club there ; was also with the Holy- 
 oke Nine, American Association, and was captain 
 of that team in 1879. In the following year he went 
 to Troy, N. Y., and played in the League three 
 seasons — 1880-81-82; then signed with the New 
 York Club, and remained with them until 1891. 
 In 1892 he went tO' Philadelphia, and played with 
 the club there in 1893 ; returned to New York and 
 played with the club there, 1894; fall of that year 
 went with the St. Louis team, and played with them 
 three seasonis, during the last year being their cap- 
 tain. In 1897 he went to Fall River, Mass., and 
 had charge of the team there that season, in the fol- 
 lowing year returning to Waterbury, where he has 
 since managed and played with the Waterbury Club. 
 
 On June 15, 1882, Mr. Connor married Angelina 
 Mayer, of Oneonta, N. Y., daughter of Jacob Mayer, 
 a native of Germany. Two children have been born 
 to this union, Cecelia and Mary; the last named 
 died at the age of one year. As was his father be- 
 fore him, Mr. Connor is a Democrat. 
 
 HARRY I. CRAMPTON, the well-known and 
 efficient assistant superintendent of the Goodyear 
 Metallic Rubber Shoe Co., of Naugatuck, was born 
 in Waterbury Feb. 12, i860, and belongs to an old 
 Connecticut family probably of English descent. 
 His grandfather, Jesse Crampton, was a native of 
 Madison, New Haven county, and was a tanner 
 and currier by trade. He filled the office of justice 
 of the peace and was quite a prominent man in his 
 community. He married Ruth Bradley, and con- 
 tinued to make his home in Madison. His children 
 were Jonathan, father of our subject; Samuel, who 
 is living retired in Madison ; Flenrietta, deceased 
 wife of Samuel Griswold,, of New Haven ; Will- 
 iam, a farmer and manufacturer of Madison, now 
 deceased; and George, a carpenter of Madison. 
 
 Jonathan R. Crampton was born in Madison in 
 1809, and in early life engaged in school teaching 
 in New York State and Ohio. Subsequently _ he 
 was employed as a bookkeeper in New York City, 
 and still later conducted a woolen mill in Water- 
 ville. Conn. He was also internal revenue collector 
 for some years, and was an ardent Republican in 
 politics. Honored and respected by all who knew 
 him, he passed away in Waterbury, in 1873. He 
 
1 1 36 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 married Susan Starkey, a native of Essex, Conn., 
 and a daughter of Richard Starkey, who was a 
 ship carpenter by trade. She is still living and 
 now makes her home in New Haven. 
 
 Harry I. Crampton is sixth in the order of birth 
 in a family of seven children, the others being as 
 follows : William, deceased, was employed by the 
 Goodyear India Rubber Glove Co., of Naugatuck; 
 Ella died in infancy; Charles is station agent at 
 Branford, Conn. ; Emma died in infancy ; George 
 is a machinist and engraver for the Goodyear Me- 
 tallic Rubber Shoe Co., of Naugatuck; and How- 
 ard is employed in the office of a ribbon manufactory 
 of New York. 
 
 The education of Harry I. Crampton was ob- 
 tained in the pu'blic schools of Waterbury, where 
 he pursued his studies until'thirteen years of age, 
 and then entered a real estate office in that place, 
 where he was employed for three years. He next 
 engaged in house and sign oainting until the fall 
 of 1880, when he came to Naugatuck and entered 
 tbe office of the Goodyear Metallic Rubber Shoe 
 Co., with which he has since been connected with 
 the exception of two years from 1886 to 1888. He 
 has worked bis way steadily upward from office boy 
 to his present responsible position, that of aissist- 
 ant superintendent. 
 
 Mr. Crampton was married, May 3, 1883, to 
 Miss Mary Schenck, of Waterbury, a daughter of 
 John Schenck, who came from New Jersey and was 
 of German extraction. They have one child, 
 Charles. Mr. Crampton was reared in the Congre- 
 gational Church, to which his ancestors all be- 
 longed. He i's a member of the Knights of Pythias 
 and the Improved Order of Red Men at Naugatuck, 
 and affiliates with the Republican party. For twen- 
 ty years he has been a resident of Naugatuck, and 
 is not only highly esteemed by his fellow citizens, 
 but has the confidence and respect of the company 
 with which he has long been connected, as is at- 
 tested by his frequent promotions and hils appoint- 
 ment to the important position which he is now so 
 creditably and satisfactorily filling. 
 
 FREDERICK M. STEVENS has in his influ- 
 ential and useful career aided materiallv in making 
 the enviable reputation which Waterbury enjoys. 
 He has mastered his businelss, and knows all its 
 details, and those for whom he works have every 
 confidence in his honesty and ability. Important 
 responsibilities are placed upon 'him, and never has 
 he failed to meet the expectations of ability and in- 
 tegrity. 
 
 Mr. Stevens was born in Danbury, Conn., son 
 of Charles T. Stevens, and passed his early days 
 in his native place, where he was a student in the 
 public school. The scene of his first labor when 
 he left school to care for himiself was the Pacific 
 Iron Works, at Bridgeport, this State. To prepare 
 himself adequately for a successful career in the in- 
 dustrial world the young man went to Cornell Uni- 
 
 versity, in the State of New York, where be studied 
 mechanical engineering for three years. In 1875, 
 Mr. Stevens came to Waterbury, and in company 
 with A. S. Upson for a time manufactured sewing 
 machine needles. After this the Waterbury Needle 
 Co. was formed, and Mr. Stevens became secretary 
 of the concern. When this house passed out of 
 business he associated himself with W. G. Creamer 
 & Co., and was superintendent of their factory in 
 Brooklyn. In the development and management 
 of several other enterprises Mr. Stevens was active- 
 ly interested until he came back to Waterbury, in 
 1890, in which year he was made suoerintendent of 
 the Mathews & Willard Manufacturing Co,, and is 
 still engaged in that capacity. 
 
 Mr. Stevens and Miss Cornelia M. Upson were 
 married June i, 1875. 'Mrs. Stevens was born in 
 Farmington, but has always lived in Waterbury. 
 Mr. Stevens is a Republican in political opinion. 
 Fraternally he belongs to Commonwealth Lodge, 
 No. 409, F. & A. M., of Brooklyn, and to Townsend 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., of Waterbury. He attends the 
 Second Congregational Church, to which his family 
 belong. 
 
 SAMUEL PARMELEE WILLIAMS, a prom- 
 inent real-estate and insurance man of Waterbury, 
 and doing an extensive loan business as well, sus- 
 tains a fine reputation for probity and ability. Mr. 
 Williams was born in Litchfield, Conn., Aug. 8, 
 1846, son of Robert Williams, who was born in 
 Watertown, Connecticut. 
 
 Samuel Williams, his great-grandfather, was 
 born in Berlin, Conn., and engaged in farming in 
 that locality, becoming an extensive land owner. 
 He was a representative of a family that had mi- 
 grated to Connecticut from Roxbury, Mass., many 
 members of whom have held high place and proven 
 themselves men of more than ordinary ability and 
 standing. 
 
 William Russell Williams, the grandfather of 
 Samuel P., was born in Berlin, Conn., and there 
 grew to manhood. He served as a private in the 
 war of 1812. By his marriage with Rebecca 
 Castle he had a family of eight children, as follows : 
 (i) Adeska, who married Allan Castle, a farmer 
 in Watertown; (2) Robert, the father of Samuel 
 P- ; ( 3 ) William, a farmer in the town of Litch- 
 field, Conn., where he died; (4) Betsey, who mar- 
 ried Sheldon Morris, of Bridgeporit; (5) Amelia, 
 who married Bennett Perry, an employe of the 
 Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co., at Bridge- 
 port; (6) Samuel, a merchant at Cincinnati, Ohio, 
 where he died; (7) Mary, who married James 
 Canfield, a wholesale grocer ; and (8) Abbie, who 
 married Henry Neal, a mechanic of Litchfield. Mr. 
 Williams was a farmer and cattle dealer. 
 
 Robert Williams, the father of Samuel P., was 
 born in 1810, and died in Litchfield, Conn., at the 
 age of eighty-one. He was a tailor for sixty years 
 in the latter place. At the time the "Astor House" 
 
'64/Z* 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1137 
 
 was being built in New York City, and its pro- 
 prietor, John Jacob Astor, was incurring consider- 
 able ridicule for building so far out of town, Mr. 
 Williams was in that city learning his trade. He 
 married Helen E. Trowbridge, who was born in 
 Litchfield, daughter of James Trowbridge. She 
 died in Waterbury. The Trowbridge family is of 
 English origin, and for many years has been lo- 
 cated in this State. Mr. and Mrs. Robert Will- 
 iams were the parents of four children : Helen, 
 who died at the early age of twenty-one ; William 
 R., connected with the Waterbury Brass Co. ; 
 Charles P., who died in 1873, an employe of the 
 Miller & Peck Dry Goods Co. for many years; 
 and Samuel P. 
 
 Samuel P. Williams spent the first nineteen 
 years of his life in Litchfield, and on leaving his 
 home secured a position with Cowles & Leete, 
 wholesale druggists at New Haven. For two years 
 he was with that firm, gaining a good knowledge 
 of the drug business, and then went back to Litch- 
 field to hold the chief clerkship in the postoffice 
 there. In 1868 Mr. Williams came to Waterbury 
 and entered the employ of the Apothecaries Hall 
 Co., where he was engaged until iSjcf. That year, 
 in company with William C. Hillard, he engaged 
 in the drug business under the firm name of Hillard 
 & Williams. The new firm did a good business, 
 and in 1875 Mr. Williams bought out his partner, 
 becoming sole proprietor of the establishment. For 
 some twelve years he continued in the business, 
 and in 1887 sold out his store, engaging in the 
 real-estate, loan and insurance business, which he 
 has followed to the present time. Mr. Williams is 
 a very extensive money loaner, and has probably 
 handled more money in this way than some of the 
 local banks, who are his customers. He made one 
 loan of $300,000, and another of $125,000. He is 
 president of the Tennessee River Navigation Co., 
 doing business on the Tennessee river from Kings- 
 ton, Tenn., to Decatur, Ala., about four hundred 
 miles, with headquarters at Chattanooga. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Williams married Ella S. Rice, 
 daughter of A. F. Rice, whose sketch appears else- 
 where. Three children were born to this union : 
 Helen T., Samuel P., Jr., and Dorothy E. Mr. 
 Williams is a Republican, and has been elected treas- 
 urer of the town. In local politics he has taken an 
 active part, and for many years has been a member 
 of the town committee, serving as its chairman for 
 about eight years. For nearly thirty-five years he 
 has attended the services of St. John's Church, and 
 has filled the position of vestryman in that body. 
 Mr. Williams has always identified himself with 
 all kinds of open-air athletics, and with William B. 
 Merriman has held the State championship in lawn 
 tennis. Socially he belongs to the Waterbury Club. 
 
 EDWIN HAMPSON WIRTEMBURG, a pro- 
 gressive and enterprising business man of Ansonia, 
 was born Aug. 29, 1857, in Bridgeport, Conn., son 
 
 72 
 
 of \"alton Wirtemburg, and grandson of Bartholo- 
 mew Wirtemburg. He is of German and English 
 extraction, and has held an honorable place for many 
 years. In the early history of South Germany that 
 coimtry was ruled by a number of large land own- 
 ers, who often took their names from their prop- 
 erty or from some achievement in their family his- 
 tory. The former was the case with the Wirtem- 
 burg family, who ruled over sl large tract of moun- 
 tainous country bordering on the Black Forest. The 
 name was originally Writt-um-berg, meaning 
 "lord of mountain," which afterward became a por- 
 tion of what is now South Germany, the state of 
 Wurtemberg. 
 
 Bartholomew Wirtemburg was an officer in that 
 part of the German army that saw service under 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, and he took part in the famous 
 Moscow campaign, serving fourteen years in the 
 army, and receiving a gold medal for his service. 
 He was a prominent citizen of Augmesingen, Wur- 
 temberg, Germany. After retiring from the army 
 he held the position of burgomaster of the city of 
 Augmesingen until his death, the office passing- 
 down to the eldest male child, next in line, living 
 in that country ; it is held at the present time by a 
 cousin of our subject. 
 
 Valton Wirtemburg, our subject's father, was 
 born in Augmesingen, Germany, Feb. 12, 1832, was- 
 gradliated from the theological seminary at Obern- 
 dorf, Germany, and came to America soon after- 
 ward, settling in New Milford, Conn. In 1861 he- 
 moved to Derby, Conn.-, where he had charge of the- 
 furniture factory of Summers & Lewis. In 1865 
 he formed a partnership with O. B. Coles, of New 
 Milford, for the manufacture of furniture, in 
 Bridgeport, Conn. In 1876 he moved back to Derby 
 and took a position with the Sterling Piano & 
 Organ Co., but finally located in Ansonia. In 1890 
 he retired from active business. Mr. Wirtemburg 
 was the first senior warden elected in Emmanuel 
 P. E. Church, and has held that position continu- 
 ously ever since ; he has been superintendent of the 
 Sunday-school from its incorporation. He is a 
 member of Housatonic Lodge, No. 6, I. O. O. F., 
 of Derby. He married Elizabeth Hampson Shaw, 
 who was, born in Ripenden, near Halifax, York- 
 shire, England, a daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth 
 Shaw, and granddaughter of Sir John Hampson, 
 of Hampson Court, Yorkshire. Pier father was an 
 officer in the British dragoons, and fought under 
 the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo. 
 He died at the age of eighty-nine years. Our sub- 
 ject's mother died in the year 1878, at the age of 
 forty-five years. She was the mother of seven chil- 
 dren, of whom four are living: Edwin Hampson, 
 our subject; Emma E., wife of David S. Miles, 
 superintendent of the Seymour Mfg. Co. ; George 
 H., foreman of the Mathews Mfg. Co., of Seymour ; 
 and Joseph B., chief engineer of the Seymour 
 Mfg. Co. 
 
 Our subject's early years were spent in Bridge- 
 
II38 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 port, Conn., where lie received a puiblic-scbool ed- 
 ucation. In 1874 he moved to Derb}' to take a po- 
 sition with the Sterling Piano & Organ Co., and on 
 leaving there, five )-ears later, he spent five years 
 engaged in the manufacture of cigars at Southing- 
 ton, Conn. In 1888 he located at Columbus, Ohio, 
 whence he removed to Ansonia. In 1894 he went 
 to California, where he took charge of the Eagle 
 Milling & Gold Mining Co., located at Placerville, 
 Eldorado county, as rnanager and part owner. Re- 
 turning later to Ansonia, he started the grocery 
 business, which was very successful. In the early 
 part of 1901 he retired from the grocery business 
 in Ansonia, and has since divided his time between 
 his property in Ansonia and at Cedar Beach, Mil- 
 ford, Conn. He is also interested in a large prop- 
 erty in Virginia. 
 
 On Jan. 10, 1877, Mr. Wirtemburg married 
 Miss Susan Jackson, a daughter of John and Eliza- 
 beth Jackson, and they had one daughter, Jessie 
 Norma Wirtemburg, who was married, April 20, 
 1897, to Jerome D. Perkins. She was a member of 
 the local musical circle, and organist of the Em- 
 manuel Church for several years,; she died Nov. 24, 
 1900. 
 
 Politically our subject is a Republican. He 
 also takes active interest in church work, having 
 been clerk of Emmanuel Church oarish since it was 
 incorporated, and took charge of the musical part 
 of the service for a number of years. Fraternally 
 he is a member of Eureka Lodge, No. 75, I. O. O. 
 F.-, of Plantsville, in which. he has held various of- 
 fices. He is one of the oldest living members of the 
 Plotchkiss Hose Company, of Derby, and a charter 
 member of the Southington Hook & Ladder Co., 
 No. I. 
 
 SAMUEL X. OVIATT, a leading merchant of 
 Milford, was boirn in that town Sept. 17, 1840, son 
 of Samuel and Abigail (Eord) Oviatt. 
 
 The Oviatt family is probably of Welsh origin, 
 and our subject traces nis descent from Thomas 
 Oviatt, one of the first settlers in Milford. Samuel 
 Oviatt ( I ) , his great-great-grandfather, and Sam- 
 uel Oviatt (2), his great-grandfather, were both 
 born in Milford. Abel Oviatt, our subject's grand- 
 father, was also a native of Milford, and for many 
 years followed the sea. While on his trips he made 
 a practice of purchasing molasses for his sons to 
 sell in Milford, and it may be said that their grocery 
 Ijusiness was established there in that way in 1820. 
 He died in 1850, aged eighty-one years. He and 
 his wife, whose maiden name was Margaret Mal- 
 lory, became the parents of two children : Samuel, 
 our isubject's father; and Curtis, who was in part- 
 nership in the grocery business with his brother for 
 a short time, and also' in a tannery and lumber yard, 
 and on selling his interest to his brother engaged 
 in teaching school. 
 
 Samuel Oviatt, our subject's father, was born 
 and reared in Milford, and died there Sept. 4, 
 
 1876. He was an independent in politics and a 
 Congregationalist in religion. He continued the 
 grocery business until 1850, when he retired to his 
 farm to spend his declining years. He married 
 Abigail Ford, of Milford, whose mother, Eunice 
 ( Treat) Ford, was a granddaughter of Gov. Treat. 
 Mrs. Oviatt died leaving a family of three children: 
 Juliette, wife of Charles Tuttle, a shoemaker and 
 tailor in Milford; Mary, wife of Lewis B. Malett, 
 a butcher of Stratford ; and Samuel N., our subject. 
 The father iserved for some time in the local gren- 
 adiers. 
 
 During bojdiood Samuel N. Oviatt attended the 
 schools of Milford, and later WilHston Seminary, 
 where he was graduated in 1867. He then entered 
 Yale College, but sickness compelled him- to give 
 up his course, although he afterward tutored for a 
 time and studied theology in Union Theological 
 Seminary, New York. While there he sang in one 
 of the churches, and was in W. H. Dana's orchestra, 
 playing the 'cello. In 1872 he engaged in his 
 present business, as a dealer in dry goods and gro- 
 ceries, feed, hardware and similar commodities, in 
 which he has been very successful, his store on 
 West Main istreet being well patronized. 
 
 On July 16, 1873, Mr. Oviatt married Miss 
 Mary Furman, of MViford, a daughter of Henry 
 Furman, of western New York. Two children 
 have blessed this union : Lorenzo Pratt and Abbie, 
 both at home. Lorenzo is now (1902) in his sec- 
 ond year as a student in the music department of 
 Yale, and is musical director for the Y. M. C. A. 
 of his county. His instrument is the organ. Mr. 
 Oviatt, like others of his family, is independent in 
 politics. He is connected with various organiza- 
 tions, including the National Provident Union and 
 the Masonic fraternity, in which latter he was made 
 master in 1866. As a member of the First Congre- 
 gational Church he has been active in religious 
 work, serving as superintendent of the Sunday- 
 school, and as deacon. 
 
 WILLIAM H. JOHNSTON, a leading agri- 
 culturist .and highly esteemed citizen of Waterbury, 
 New Haven county, residing on the Bradleyville 
 road, was born im Newark, N. J., Nov. 15, 1857, 
 and is of Scotch-Irish descent. 
 
 Archibald Johnston, his father, was born in 
 County Fermanagh, Ireland, and came to America 
 when a young man. He first located in Newark, 
 N. J., where for some years he served as foreman 
 for his father-in-law, William Beard, a contractor 
 and dealer in coal, and later had charge of his busi- 
 ness in Brooklyn, making his home there. There 
 he was united in marriage with Miss Eliza Ann 
 Beard, a native of Brooklyn, and to them were born 
 three children: Mary and Edith, who died young; 
 and William H., our subject. The parents both died 
 in Brooklyn, the .father in 1884, the mother in 1862, 
 and their remains were interred in Greenwood cem- 
 etery. They were members of the Episcopal Church 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 "39 
 
 and' were held in high regard by all who knew them. 
 In his political views the father was a Democrat. 
 For his second wife he married Delia Norton, who 
 died in Brooklyn in 1886, and was also buried in 
 Greenwood cemetery. By that union there was one 
 son, Charles Francis, w'ho is a resident of Water- 
 bury, Connecticut. 
 
 William H. Johnston attended the public schools 
 of Brooklyn, and also a polytechnic school, from 
 which he was graduated. He began his business life 
 in the office of J. P. and G. C. Robinson, of New- 
 York, with whom he remained seven years, and in 
 1878 came to Waterburv, New Haven Co., Conn., 
 and purchased the Wheaton farm of 108 acres, on 
 the Bradleyville road, upon whicli he has made 
 many useful and valuable improvements that add 
 greatly to its attractive appearance. As an agricult- 
 urist he has met with success, becoming quite well- 
 to-do. 
 
 On Aug. 3, 188 1, in Waterbury, Mr. Johnston 
 married Miss Fanny Tracy, a native of Morris, 
 Conn., and a sister of George Tracy, a contractor 
 of Wateribury, in whose sketch will be found a 
 history of her family. Mrs. Johnston received a 
 good high-school education, and for seventeen years 
 successfully engaged in teaching in Watertown, 
 Litchfield, Wolcott, Thomaston and Middlebury, 
 Conn. Mr. and Mrs. Johnston have four children, 
 whose names and dates of birth are as follows : 
 Daisy Edith, March 28, 1884; Bella M., July 31, 
 1886; WiUiam F., April 30, 1889; and Archibald 
 L., May 11, 1892. The family attend the Episcopal 
 Church, and are quite prominent socially in the 
 community where they reside. 
 
 Politically Mr. Johnston is not identified with 
 any particular party, but casts his ballot for the 
 men whom he believes best qualified to fill the of- 
 fices. Fraternally he is a member of the I. O. O. F. ; 
 the Knights of Pythias; the Benevolent and Pro- 
 tective Order of Elks ; the Independent Order of 
 Foresters; and the Improved Order of Red Men. 
 He has traveled extensively in Europe and Amer- 
 ica, and has become, as every traveler should, a 
 man of broad mind and liberal views. He is gen- 
 erous, progressive and charitable, and is very pop- 
 ular with a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. 
 
 TIMOTHY O'ROURKE, proprietor of a pop- 
 ular grocery and grain and feed business in. Water- 
 bufy, is a native of Ireland, born in 1850 in County 
 Kerry, son of John and Honora (McEllegott) 
 O'Rourke, both also natives of Oounty Kerry. 
 
 John O'Rourke came with his family to the 
 United States, settling in Waterbury, where he was 
 employed in a button shop; he died in 1895. Flis 
 wife passed away in 1898. They were the parents 
 of six children : Timothy is the eldest ; Joanna is 
 the wife of John McCarty, of Waterhury; Eliza- 
 beth, the wife of Eugene Lynch, died in Water- 
 bury; Honora is the wife of Michael Sheehan, of 
 Waterbury; John lives in Bridgeport, where he 
 
 follows the business of collector'; and William died 
 in New York. 
 
 Timothy O'Rourke received his education in his 
 native land, and at the age of seventeen came to 
 America, settling in Wateribury, where he has ever 
 since made his home. For a time he worked for 
 Brown Bros., also for Benedict & Burnham, and 
 later in the clock-case shops. In 1875 he embarked 
 in his present grocery and liquor business on Sco- 
 vill street, to which he in 1892 added grain and 
 feed, and has been most deservedly successful. He 
 is wholesale agent for the New England Brewing 
 Co. for the Naugatuck valley, and has been one 
 of the directors of same since April i, 1901. In 
 1878 he built a brick block on Scovill street, and 
 in 1888 another brick block on that street. He has 
 made all he possesses by hard work, coupled with 
 sound judgment and good management. 
 
 In 1871 Mr. O'Rourke married Ellen Allman, 
 a native of Ireland, and ten children have been born 
 to them, five of whom are yet living: James, 
 Norean, Timothy, Ellen and Josephine. The family 
 attend the services of the Church of the Immaculate 
 Conception, Waterbury. Socially Mr. O'Rourke is 
 a meniber of the Knights of Columbus, the Hepta- 
 sophs, the Foresters of America and the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians. In politics he is a Democrat, 
 and has served as councilman, also as ^alderman 
 of the Fifth ward, and at the present time is a mem- 
 ber of the town committee. 
 
 NICHOLAS JENKINS, former assistant su- 
 perintendent and designer for the Holmes, Booth 
 & Haydens Mfg. Co., Waterbury, was born on the 
 Atlantic ocean between the years 1835 and 1840, 
 while his parents were on their way to this country. 
 
 Richard Jenkins, his father, born in England, 
 was a blacksmith by trade, al,so a veterinary sur- 
 geon. On arriving in the United States, he came 
 to Buffalo, N. Y., and was there employed by the 
 Ohio Stage Co., and then went to Ontario to work 
 for the same company. He died about 1850, the 
 father of seven children : Mary, the eldest, is the 
 widow of Jacob Johnson, who was a tailor by trade, 
 and she lives in Hamilton, Ontario; Jane, Joseph 
 and William are deceased; two died in infancy; 
 Nicholas, our subject, is the youngest, and the 
 mother died about the time of his birth. 
 
 Nicholas Jenkins received his education in part 
 in Buffalo, N. Y., in part in Niagara Falls, N. Y., 
 and he also attended, school in Hamilton, Ont., 
 while with his sister. At the age of fifteen he com- 
 menced learning the cabinet-making trade, paint- 
 ing and decorating, etc., serving his apprenticeship 
 in Hamilton and Buffalo. For two years he fol- 
 lowed painting and decorating in Wattsburg, Pa., 
 and then returned to Buffalo, and after considerable 
 time passed in that city in his line of work he re- 
 moved to New York City, where he was similarly 
 employed for some time. He was also in Boston, 
 Mass., and New Haven, Conn., where he exhibited 
 
1 140 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a machine he had invented for sinking molds in 
 solid wood, for the making oi door panels. This 
 machine was known as the Jenkins Paneling Ma- 
 chine. He also invented tools to sink molds in 
 marble; and invented a substitute for whale bone, 
 which was made of braided wire. His paneling 
 machine was exhibited at the Centennial Exposi- 
 tion in 1876 at Philadelphia, but unfonunately for 
 Mr. Jenkins the invention did not prove a financial 
 success to him. In 1879, while in New Haven, 
 working at his inventions, the Holmes, Booth & 
 Haydens Mfg. Co., sought his services and the right 
 to manufacture his goods. Of the latter they made 
 a failure, but Mr. Jenkins remained ui their em- 
 ploy until January, 1901. 
 
 While living in Buffalo Mr. Jenkins married 
 Miss M. J. Tucker, who died in New York City. 
 Three children were born of this marriage, of whom 
 two died in infancy; the other, L. B., married H. 
 E. Brunt, had two children, and died in 1880. In 
 1870 Mr. Jenkins married Fannie C. Doane, of Bos- 
 ton, Mass. They attend the services of the Con- 
 gregational Church. Socially he is a member of 
 the Ancitnt Order of United Workmen, of the 
 New England Order of Protection, and other bene- 
 ficiary societies ; in politics he is independent. 
 
 JOHN MERRIAM PAGE comes of a family 
 of English descent. His grandfather, Benjamin 
 Page, was born in North Branford, New Haven 
 county, and was a fanner by occupation. His fam- 
 ily consisted of four children, Esther, Lois, Benja- 
 min (father of John M.) and Daniel. Esther mar- 
 ried Augustus Rogers, a young farmer of the town 
 in which she had been born and grown to woman- 
 hood, and after her death he married her sister 
 Lois. Daniel, whO' was also a farmer, died while 
 yet a young man. 
 
 Benjamin Page (2), the father of John M., was 
 also born in North Branford. He married Sarah E. 
 Merriam, of Meriden, and they became the parents 
 of five children: (i) John M. is mentioned below. 
 (2) Charles is a Congregational minister, residing 
 in North Branford, where he wields a strong po- 
 litical influence. (3) Benjamin is one o-t the promi- 
 nent and influential citizens of Meriden, where he 
 carries on an insurance business. He has been 
 mayor of the city, and has represented his district 
 in the Legislature. (4) Martha married T. A. 
 Smith, a successful merchant and farmer of North- 
 ford. (5) Robert, who has never married, live.- 
 in the old homestead. Benjamin Page (2), the 
 father, inherited the old homestead and engaged in 
 farming. He was a man who commanded re- 
 spect alike by the force of his intellect and the 
 sturdy integrity of his character. He was a Dem- 
 ocrat in politics, and for many years filled various 
 local offices, among them those of town clerk, town 
 treasurer and justice of the peace. 
 
 John M. Page was born Feb. 14, 1838, in North 
 Branford. Flis attendance at the district school 
 
 was supplemented by a year's training in Meriden, 
 and at the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to 
 the tinner's trade, at Northford. After becoming a 
 journeynian he worked there, as well as at Clin- 
 ton and at Newark, N. J. In 1874 he settled at 
 Naugatuck, where he purchased a general hardware 
 and tinware business. To its management he brought 
 keen perception and deep penetration, untiring in- 
 dustry and practical knowledge, a laudable ambition 
 and the faculty of giving close attention to every 
 detail. He has prospered greatly, his success being 
 the natural outcome of his own efforts. The busi- 
 ness, now conducted' by the firm of John M. Page & 
 Co., is located in the building in Church street, 
 and in addition to the general hardware business 
 they do plumbing, besides contracting for the in- 
 stallation of steam, hot-air and hot-water heating 
 apparatus and plants,. They also manufacture tin, 
 sheet iron, brass and copper ware. 
 
 Forty-one years ago Mr. Page married Miss 
 Carrie C. Cook, a daughter of Leverett Cook, of 
 Wallingford. The only child born of the union died 
 in infancy. After the death of his first wife Mr. 
 Page married Rebecca, daughter of Harry Will- 
 iams, also of Wallingford. They had four' daugh- 
 ters : Carrie C, who married Horace E. Baldwin, 
 of Naugatuck; Nellie M., who became the wife of 
 W. P. Clark, formerly of Prospect, but now of 
 Naugatuck; Leafie B., now Mrs. W. H. Miner, of 
 the same town ; and Mattie R., who was united to 
 Frank Squires, of Naugatuck. After the death of 
 Mrs. Rebecca Page our subject married Miss Sarah 
 C. Williams, of Meriden, whose father, Henry Will- 
 iams, was a citizen of Wallingford. 
 
 Mr. Page is a Democrat, and has been repeatedly 
 the successful candidate of his, party for various 
 important offices. For more than a decade he was 
 town treasurer, in i8g8 he was chosen a member of 
 the Legislature, to which he was re-elected in 1900. 
 For nearly twenty years he has been senior warden 
 of St. Michael's Episcopal parish. He is a thirty- 
 second-degree Mason, affiliating with Corinthian 
 Lodge, No. 103, A. F. & A. M. ; Allerton Chapter, 
 No. 39, R. A. M.; Waterbury Council, No. 21, R. 
 & S. M. ; Clark Commandery, No. 7, K. T. ; Doric 
 Lodge of- Perfection, No. 14, A. & A. S. R.'; Ionic 
 Council, No. 16, P. of J., A. & A. S. R. :. Lafayette 
 Sovereign Consistory (32d degree), A. & A. S. R. ; 
 Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. ; Evergreen 
 Chapter, No. 22, O. E. S. ; and Court No. 2, Or- 
 der of the Amaranth. 
 
 REV. FRANKLIN COUNTRYMAN. Only 
 the history of the good and great comes down to us 
 through the ages. The true religion has been the 
 strongest influence known to man through all time, 
 while the many false doctrines that have sprung up 
 have flourished only for a day and then vanished. 
 More potent at the present time than at any period 
 -in tile world's history are the work and influence 
 of Christianity, and among those who are devoting 
 
,^ du tl^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 141 
 
 their lives to its inculcation among- men is Mr. 
 Countryman, the honored pastor of the Congrega- 
 tional Church of North Branford. 
 
 The Coimtryman (or Landmann) family was 
 founded in America by three brothers, who emi- 
 grated from Germany in 1710 or 171 1, and took up 
 land in the Mohawk Valley, New York. From 
 Conrad, one of these brothers, our subject traces 
 liis descent. He secured a tract of land near that 
 •of his brothers, and while clearing the same for 
 farm purposes, he also engaged in hunting. His 
 •son, Jacob Countr3'man, born, probably, 1732, was 
 a soldier of the Revolutionary war in Col. Clyde's 
 regiment of the line, under the immediate command 
 of Capt. Diefendorf, and took part in various en- 
 gagements. The next in direct descent was Nich- 
 olas Countryman, who was born in 1762 or 1763, 
 and died in 1837. He first married Christina 
 Outhout, who died in 1824, aged sixty years. His 
 ■second wife, Charity Petten, survived him several 
 years. One son by the first union, Nicholas Coun- 
 tryman (2), was born in Stark, Herkimer Co., N. 
 Y., in 1800, and was the youngest of the family. 
 He resided in his native county for many years and 
 followed stone cutting or the mason's trade. He 
 died in Montgomery county, N. Y., in 1873. His 
 Avife, who bore the maiden name of Betsy Ann C. 
 Eckler, was also born in Stark, Herkimer Co., 
 X, Y., in 1799, and died in 1881. Her grandfa- 
 ther, Capt. Henry Eckler, served as a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary war, and attained considerable local 
 cHstinction as an Indian fighter. Her father, Jacob 
 Eckler, was once carried, away bv the red men, and 
 had his ears pierced by them. In Minden, N. Y., 
 he married a Miss Fetterly, and died in 1800, at 
 about the age of ninety-five years. The children 
 born to Nicholas and Betsy Ann (Eckler) Coun- 
 tryman were as follows: Jacob, deceased; Mary, 
 widow of Dewitt C. Richardson, of Michigan; 
 Lydia, who died at the age of twenty years; Caro- 
 line, who married John Cronkhite, deceased; Nich- 
 olas, father of our subject; Asa, a retired minister, 
 who has had charges in Massachusetts, Connecti- 
 cut, Iowa, Illinois and New Mexico ; Levi, who went 
 to California in the early 'fifties, and has not since 
 l^een heard from ; Alfred, a resident of Brooklyn, 
 N. Y. ; Paul, a resident of Michigan ; Elizabeth, who 
 married G. P- Cummings, and resides in Iowa ; and 
 Eliza, who married Alonzo Saunders. 
 
 Nicholas Countryman (3), the father of our 
 subject, was born in the town of Stark, Herkimer 
 Co., N. Y., Oct. 25, 1825, and is now a resident 
 of New Haven. Throughout his active business life 
 lie was a contractor and builder, and erected many 
 of the finest buildings in that city, including the city 
 liall, St. Thomas' Church, St. John's Roman Cath- 
 olic Church and the Church of the Sacred Heart. 
 He was also part owner of a planing mill for many 
 vears, but is now living retired from active labor, 
 in his political views he is a Democrat, and has 
 served as alderman from his ward and as a mem- 
 
 ber of the board of selectmen. For many years he 
 has been an active and prominent member of the 
 Howard Avenue Congregational Church, and is a 
 man highly respected by all who know him. In 
 1848 he was married, in this State, to Louisa Hine, 
 who was born May 30, 1825, a daughter of Heze- 
 kiah and Abigail (Talmadge) Hine. By this union 
 were born seven children, namely : Franklin, our 
 subject; W. A., who was employed on the Hartford 
 Evening Post, and was president of the board of 
 councilmen of that city, and now has a position in 
 the Census Bureau at Washington, D. C. ; Charles, 
 a carpenter and joiner of New Flaven; Edwin, who 
 is engaged in the same business in that city ; Louisa, 
 wife of E. FI. Wight, of New Rochelle, N. Y. ; 
 Robert E., also a carpenter of New Haven;, and 
 Stella, who died in infancy. 
 
 Franklin Countryman, whose name introduces 
 this review, was born in New Haven Sept. 23, 1849, 
 and between the ages of nine and thirteen years at- 
 tended the Lovell school of. that city, after which 
 he was a student in the Hopkins Grammar school 
 for four years. In 1866 he entered Yale University, 
 from which he was graduated in 1870. Among his 
 associates there who have attained particular prom- 
 inence may be named : J. G. K. McClure, formerly 
 president of Lake Forest University ; Roderick Ter- 
 ry, D. D., pastor of the Madison Avenue Reformed 
 Church, New York City ; E. S. Dana, a professor 
 at Yale ; and Dr. W. H. Welch, of Johns Hopkins 
 University. The year following his graduation Mr. 
 Countryman taught in the academy at Clinton, 
 Conn., and then entered the Yale Divinity School, 
 completing the course in 1874. His first charge 
 was at Prospect, Conn., where he remained three 
 years. The following two years were spent at 
 Georgetown, Conn., and in 1882 he became pastor 
 of the North Branford Congregational Church, with 
 which he is still connected. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Countryman wedded Miss Mary I. 
 Pickett, a daughter of Judge Pickett, of New Ha- 
 ven. She died in 1877, and in 1880 he married 
 Miss Ella S. Butricks, a daughter of G. H. But- 
 ricks, deceased, formerly a druggist of New Haven. 
 He has one child, Ella May, who was born Nov. 
 9, 1882, and has attended school in New Haven. 
 Although he is somewhat independent in his po- 
 litical views, Mr. Countryman usually supports the 
 Republican party. Fraternally he is a member of 
 the Grange (being at present chaplain of the State 
 Grange); the Sons of the American Revolution; 
 Corinthian Lodge, No. 103, F. & A. M., of North- 
 ford; Pulaski Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M., of Fair 
 Haven ; and Crawford Council, No. 19, R. & S. 
 M., also of Fair Haven. He is a director of the 
 Missionary Society of Connecticut. Broad in his 
 views and sympathies, a friend of the poor and op- 
 pressed, ever ready with helpful counsel for the 
 perplexed or sorrowful, he has a wide field of labor, 
 and well does he discharge its arduous and sacred 
 duties. 
 
I 142 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 GEORGE A. BASSETT is a prominent con- 
 tractor and builder of Hamden, of whose skill many 
 notable examples are to be seen in various parts of 
 the count}^. Thoroughly reliable in all things, the 
 quality of his work is a convincing test of his own 
 personal worth. He was born in the town of Ham- 
 den Sept. 21, 1843, and there he continued to re- 
 side until his marriage, when he removed to the 
 farm upon which he now lives. At the age of eight- 
 een he commenced working at the carpenter's trade, 
 but after following it for two years he turned his 
 attention to the dairy business, which occupied his 
 time for the following ten years. Since then he has 
 engaged in contracting and building, and has erect- 
 ed some of the best houses in East Haven, Wood- 
 bridge, North Haven, Hamden and other surround- 
 ing towns. He also owns and operates a good 
 farm of fifty acres, and in all his undertakings he 
 has been quite successful. 
 
 On' Oct. 12, 1865, Mr. Bassett was united in 
 marriage with Miss Evelena M. Goodyear, a daugh- 
 ter of Leverett F. Goodyear, of New Haven, and 
 to them have been born three children. Louis L., 
 a resident of Centerville, Hamden, Conn., who is 
 engaged in drilling and sinking artesian wells ; Dora 
 A., wife of W. Johnson, of New Haven, Conn. ; 
 and Charles J., who is engaged in contracting and 
 building with his father. The political support of 
 Mr. Bassett and also of his sons is always given the 
 men and measures of the Republican party, but he 
 has never sought nor desired official honors, pre- 
 ferring to devote his undivided attention to his 
 business interests. Fraternally he is a member of 
 Day Spring Lodge, No. 30, F. & A. M., of Ham- 
 den. He is a worthy representative of that class 
 of citizens who lead quiet, industrious, honest and. 
 useful lives, and constitute the best portion of a 
 community. 
 
 HENRY HULL TODD is prominently identi- 
 fied with the business interests, of New Haven, 
 Conn., as a manufacturer of custom-made corsets, 
 his business being located at Nos. 282 and 284 York 
 street, in this city, and is one of the larges.t and 
 most prosperous, in its line, in this locality. 
 
 The birth of Henry FL Todd occurred in Stam- 
 ford, Conn., Sept. 2, 1856, the family having been 
 a prominent one in Connecticut through several 
 generations. Rev. Ambrose S. Todd, the honored 
 grandfather of Henry H., was born in Cheshire, 
 Conn., and later in life became the rector of St. 
 John's Episcopal Church, in Stamford, Conn., where 
 for forty years he ministered to a devoted congre- 
 gation, and was one of the best known clergymen 
 in Fairfield county. 
 
 Charles Jarvis Todd, the son of Rev. Ambrose, 
 and the father of Henry H. Todd, was born in 
 Stamford, Conn., in 1833. During the Civil war 
 he filled the position of pay-master in the Union 
 navy, and was connected with the vessel of which 
 the gallant William B. Gushing was the captain. 
 
 After the close of the war Mr. Todd became con- 
 nected with a wholesale tea and coii'ee establish- 
 ment in New York, from 1884 to 1894, residing in 
 New Haven, Conn., although continuing his con- 
 nection with the same business in New York City. 
 He married Emily M., the estimable and much be- 
 loved daughter of William L. Holly, and she died in 
 1894. The three children born of this marriage 
 were: Henry H., Robert W. and Clara M. Mr. 
 Todd was identified with the Republican party, and 
 a leading and consistent member of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 Henry H. Todd spent his boyhood days in Stam- 
 ford, and attended the public schools and also the 
 Episcopal school connected with St. John's Church 
 in that city. He began his business career in con- 
 nection with the tea and coffee business of a whole- 
 sale house, in this line, in New York City, con- 
 tinuing with the same firm for five years, after 
 which he returned to Stamford, and for one year 
 was connected with the National Bank, of that citv. 
 Mr. Todd also engaged in hotel keeping, in Rock- 
 ford, 111., for a time, coming to New Haven in 
 1884. For three years he was connected with the 
 mechanical department of the N. Y., N. H. & H. 
 R. R., and then entered the employ of the Win- 
 chester Repeating Arms Co., remaining here for 
 the following nine years. In 1896 Mr. Todd em- 
 barked in his present enterprise, which is the man- 
 ufacturing of custom-made corsets, and into this 
 has put energy and business experience, with the 
 result that he has become a leader in this line. 
 
 On June 27, 1897, Mr. Todd wasi united in mar- 
 riage with Mrs. Jennie JM. Reed, a daughter of 
 R. R. Walker, of Morenci, Mich. In his political 
 sympathy j\Ir. Todd has been a life-long Repub- 
 lican. Fraternally he is prominent in the O. U. A. 
 M., Pioneer Council; Harmony Lodge, No. 5, I. 
 O. O. F. : Olive Branch, No. 84, F. & A. M.; 
 Pulaski Chapter, No. 26, Royal Arch Masons; 
 Crawford Council, No. ig. Royal Select Masters ; 
 New Haven Commandery, No. 2, Knights Templar - 
 and Pyramid Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, 
 of Bridgeport, being one of the best known men in 
 fraternal circles in this part of the State. For a 
 long period jMr. Todd has been a member of Trinity 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 _ ERWTN TURNBULL, for thirty years the ef- 
 ficient foreman of the rim-fire department of the 
 ^^■'inchester Repeating Arms Co., was born in New 
 Haven Dec. 18, 1858, a son of William C. Turn- 
 bull, who was born in Canada. 
 
 AV'illiam C. Turnbull was bound out verv early 
 in life to learn the carriage blacksmith trade in 
 Canada, and this was his occupation through life. 
 He ran away from home and came to Boston, when 
 he was yet^ too young to retain much knowledge of 
 his father's family or of his ancestral history. 
 After several years spent in , Boston he went to 
 Newark, N. J., where he met and married Jane J\L 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 143 
 
 Beach, born in Hanover, N. J., in 1832, a daughter 
 of Stephen and Jemima M. (Beach) Besfch, who 
 were cousins, and both natives of Hanover, the 
 former born in 1799, a son ot Peter Beach, and the 
 latter in 1802, a daughter of Noah Beach. Peter 
 and Noah Beach were sons of Stephen and grand- 
 sons of Noah Beach. Stephen Beach, father of 
 Mrs. TurnbuU, was a mason, but his progenitors 
 were all farmers as far back as the annals of the 
 family run. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
 William C. Turmbull came to New Haven, where 
 they lived until his death, Nov. 7, 1895, at the age 
 of seventy-five. His widow is still living. Ten 
 children were born of their union: William H., 
 Edwin (i), Emma L., Edwin (2), Erwin B., Anna 
 E., George R., Jennie H., Florence E. and Ida 
 (who died as an infant). In politics' Mr. Turnbull 
 was a Republican, and in religion a Congregation- 
 alist. 
 
 . Erwin B. Turnbull was reared to manhood in 
 New Haven, where he attended the Webster School 
 until he was thirteen years old. In 1872 he entered 
 the employ of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. 
 and was assigned to the rim-fire priming depart- 
 ment, where his natural aptitude and reliable char- 
 acter soon pushed him to the front. For thirty 
 years he has been foreman of that department, and 
 is regarded as one of the ablest and most reliable 
 employes of the company. 
 
 On Oct. II, 1882, Mr. Turnbull was married to 
 Mary J. Miller, a resident of New Haven, but a 
 native of Scotland, and a daughter of John Miller. 
 She died Dec. 24, 1891, the mother of one child, 
 Mary J., who died in infancv. Politically Mr. Turn- 
 bull is a Republican ; and fraternally he belongs 
 to Trumbull Lodge, No. 22, A. F. & A. M., the 
 American Mechanics and the A. O. U. W. He is 
 also a member of Excelsior Lodge, Winchester 
 Order of Good Fellows. 
 
 MRS. JOSEPHINE C. MIX is among the old 
 residents of West Haven, where she resides in the 
 Domkee homestead, at No. 240 Main street. She 
 is of German-American descent, her father, Martin 
 Domkee, having been born in Prussia, Germany, 
 and her mother, whose maiden name was Catherine 
 Bradley, in Middlebury, New Haven Co., Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Martin Domkee came to America when a boy, 
 and settled in West Haven, where he passed the 
 remainder of his life, dying in 1869. For many 
 years he worked as a stevedore, but in later life 
 was employed on his farm. His wife, a consistent 
 member of the Congregational Church, entered into 
 rest in April, 1864. Ihey were the parents of 
 twelve children, seven of whom are yet living in 
 West Haven: Charlotte, who married James Pit- 
 kin; Mary J., Mrs. Sherlock H. Bishop; Maria, 
 Mrs. George Wheeler; George R. ; Josephine C, 
 our subject; Sarah H., Mrs. Leonard Pardee; and 
 Anna, who married Albert Loomis. 
 
 On. Sept. 10, 1874, Josephine C. Domkee was 
 united in marriage to Edward Mix, who died June 
 16, 1892, at the age of seventy-six years. He was 
 for many years a prosperous grocer of New Haven, 
 but having, through industry, good management 
 and integrity, accumulated a competence, he retired 
 from active business and settled in West Haven, 
 where, in addition to his own residence, he erected 
 three houses on ]\Iartin street, which he owned 
 and rented up to the time of his death. He was 
 a man universally respected and beloved, and prom- 
 inent in town affairs. A man of sincere piety, for 
 many years he was an active member and a trustee 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church of West Haven, 
 whose house of worship he aided in building, and 
 toward its support contributed liberally, as well as 
 to all deserving charities. Mrs. Mix is a member of 
 the same church, earnest and devoted in promoting 
 its work ; she is president of the Ladies Aid Society 
 connected therewith. 
 
 ALBERT F. SCHROEDER, superintendent of 
 the F. L. Gajdord Co., of Ansonia, was born in 
 Germany June 22, 1857, a son of Bernhard Schroe- 
 der, who was also a native of Germany, where the 
 family has long been native to the soil. 
 
 Bernhard Schroeder was a shoemaker, and came 
 to America in 1868. He was quite successful in 
 his business dealings, and accumulated a very fair 
 fortune. His death occurred in 1887 when he 
 had reached his fifty-eighth year. He was inter- 
 ested in local politics, and belonged to several Ger- 
 man orders. Marie Karnbach, his wife, was born 
 in Germany, and became the mother of seven chil- 
 dren, three of whom are living : Albert F. ; Louise, 
 who married Joseph Kramp, of New Haven ; Bern- 
 hard, who is living in Ansonia. The mother died 
 in Germany at the age of forty years. Both par- 
 ents were members of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 Albert F. Schroeder spent the first twelve years 
 of his life hi Germany, and then accompanied his 
 father to this country. In the schools of his native 
 community he had the beginnings of a very fair ed- 
 ucation, which was increased by study and observa- 
 tion of life under the changed conditions of the 
 new world. When he was fourteen years of age 
 he began learning the trade of molding, which he 
 pursued until he became an expert workman in the 
 bouse where he is still employed. As a journeyman 
 molder he worked for houses in Brooklyn and in 
 New York, and then in Shelton for two years. 
 After this he came to Ansonia, to take a place as 
 a foreman in the present factory, and for twenty- 
 seven years has been connected with this company. 
 Mr. Schroeder has charge of the entire output of 
 this establishment, which includes all varieties of 
 brass castings. Fie hires the men, buys stock, and 
 receives all the orders from the trade. In the foun- 
 dry department of the factory are employed fifteen 
 men in the making of fine goods, silver plating and 
 filling a vast variety of orders from a custom trade 
 
1 144 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that is very widely extended. Air. Schroeder has 
 been married three times. In 1880 he married Miss 
 Anna Ullrich, who was born in Germany, a daugh- 
 ter of William and Caroline (IMueller) Ullrich. 
 William Ullrich came to America and located in 
 Ansonia, where he died at the age of fifty-eight 
 years; his wife, also a native of Germany, was one 
 of four children, and is still living. In their family 
 were three children, Oswald, Anna (Mrs. Schroe- 
 der) and Otto. Four children were born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Schroeder: William, Albert, Marie and Lou- 
 isa. ^Irs. Anna Schroeder died in 1892 at the early 
 age of thirty-five years. She was a member of the 
 Congregational Church, and is remembered as a 
 lady of more than the usual character and ability. 
 Miss Marie Schroeder is a fine musician, and dis- 
 plays wonderful talent in music; her education is 
 largely in the cultivation of this precious endow- 
 ment. For his second wife Mr. Schroeder wedded 
 Miss Anna Lenhard, who was born, in Germany, 
 a daughter of John Lenhard, a tailor who came to 
 Derby and followed his trade for many years, later 
 moving to Brooklyn, where he died. IMrs. Anna 
 (Lenhard) Schroeder died at the early age of 
 thirty-eight years. She was a faithful member of 
 the Episcopal Church. ]\Iiss Anna Neumann be- 
 came Mr. Schroeder's third wife. 
 
 Politically Mr. Schroeder is a Republican ; so- 
 cially he is a member of the Fraternal Order of 
 Connecticut, and of the German order, "Harugari," 
 where he has held all the offices in turn. He is 
 secretary and treasurer of the German Ulk Club, 
 of which he was at one time president ; and he is a 
 director of the German Hall Company. In religious 
 connection he attends the Episcopal Church. His 
 comfortable home was erected by him some time 
 
 THEODORE J. WARNER, a well-known citi- 
 zen of West Haven, residing at Savin Rock, was 
 born jMay 14, 1862, in Hamden, this county, and 
 belongs to one of the pioneer families of that town. 
 
 Miner Warner, his grandfather, was a native 
 of Hamden, became a prominent agriculturist there, 
 and died aged seventy years. His first wife, our 
 subject's grandmother, died in early womanhood, 
 leaving seven children, of whom five are still liv- 
 ing: Charles, our subject's father; Robert, who 
 resides at Pond Hill, Wallingford; Mariette, i\Irs. 
 Stone, of Holyoke, Alass. : Hulda, wife of Belson 
 Munson, of Hamden ; and Betsey, who married 
 Frederick Mix, of Flamden. 
 
 Charles Warner was born April 25, 1832, in 
 Hamden, where he was reared, receiving a common- 
 school education. He followed farming there for 
 a time, and later spent five years in farming at 
 Chicopee Falls, Mass., and five years at Pelham, 
 Mass. On selling his property at the latter place, 
 in 1873, he located in the town of ( )range, where 
 he still resides. In 1894 he purchased one hundred 
 acres of the Clark farm, on 03stcr river, for a 
 
 homestead. He married Miss Mary A. Oviatt, a 
 native of Watertown, and daughter of Joseph and 
 Charlotte (Johnson) Oviatt. Of their nine children 
 two are living, Theodore J. and Grace, the latter 
 residing at home. The mother died Jan. 21, 1890, 
 aged forty-eight. Mrs. Warner attended the Epis- 
 copal Church, and Mr. Warner attended the M. E. 
 Church. 
 
 Theodore J. Warner remained at home until he 
 reached the age of twenty-five, and while complet- 
 ing a district-school course learned lessons in busi- 
 ness management under his father's directions. At 
 the age of thirteen he began driving a milk wagon 
 in West Haven for his father, and he afterward en- 
 gaged in this business on his own account, having 
 purchased it Nov. 16, 1887. He carried it on until 
 Nov. I, 1899, when he sold the business. It was 
 the oldest milk business in that section, and during 
 the twenty-five years in which Mr. Warner was con- 
 nected with it the trade increased constantly, about 
 600 quarts of milk being handled daily, all of which 
 was purchased, although he formerly kept a num- 
 ber of cows. Our subject buys and sells wood, 
 hay and stone, and owned a quarry from which 
 he sold stone to contractors. He also does a gen- 
 eral contracting business. The wood, in which he 
 deals extensively, is shipped on the railroad to dif- 
 ferent points. 
 
 On Jan. 20, 1886, I\Ir. A\'arner married Miss 
 Julia Wilkinson, daughter of Henry and Mary Ann 
 (Betts) Wilkinson, of Cobalt, Conn. They have 
 had two children : Arthur, who survives ; and 
 George Clayton, who died aged six months. Po- 
 litically Mr. Warner is an independent, with Dem- 
 ocratic tendencies, and he does not aspire to official 
 honors, although his high standing a& a man of 
 sound judgment would make him a popular candi- 
 date. He was one of the first members of the A. 
 O. Ii. W. in West Haven, and is still actively inter- 
 ested in the work of that organization. 
 
 WILLIAM JOHN HODGETTS, a well-known 
 paper box manufacturer in Wallingford, has 
 achieved a good name in his line, and from a very 
 modest beginning has built up a fine business, es- 
 pecially in the line of plain and fancy boxes and 
 cases. Mr. Hodgetts cut his first boxes for local 
 patrons with a jackknife and a straight edge. To- 
 day his box factory, on Academy street, in the rear 
 of his very attractive residence, contains all the 
 modern steam-power machinery needed for the 
 economical and quick dispatch of his business, and 
 gives work to fifteen hands. Mr. Hodgetts may 
 well congratulate himself upon this wonderful prog- 
 ress. 
 
 ^Ir. Hodgetts was born June 17, 1846, in Bir- 
 mingham, England, where his father, John Hod- 
 getts, was also born and reared. Jolm Hodgetts 
 became a silversmith, and in 1876, emigrating to 
 the United States, found work at his' trade with 
 the Simpson, Hall & Miller Co. He married Eliz- 
 
Yi^/'a'^^^^ &\ /^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 II4S 
 
 abeth Winspur, who was born in Binningham, and 
 th€y had five children : William J. ; Joseph H., 
 a silversmith in Wallingf ord ; George, also a silver- 
 smith in Wallingford ; Samuel, a painter in New 
 York ; and Alice, wife of Charles Chaucer, of Meri- 
 den, Connecticut. 
 
 William J. Hodgetts acquired his education in 
 his native city, and early in life applied himself to 
 moldmaking. When he had mastered this trade 
 he turned to the .making of Britannia ware, in 
 which work he was engaged until coming to this 
 country, in 1866. He made his way directly to 
 Wallingford, and was given employment in the fac- 
 tory of the Simpson, Hall & Miller Co., with whom 
 he remained twenty-five 3'ears. He very soon rose 
 to the position of inspector of goods. In 1878 he 
 began the making of boxes, which was at first 
 managed by his wife, but the business grew to such 
 an extent that in 1891 Air. Hodgetts gave up his 
 position with the Simpson, Hall & Miller Co. and 
 has since given his entire attention to the box 
 factory. He is a man of genial disposition, and 
 has a host of friendis who admire his manly char- 
 acter and exemplary business methods. Temperate 
 in his habits, and upright in his dealings with the 
 world, he is much respected in his community, and 
 is regarded as one of the most valued citizens of 
 the borough. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Hodgetts married, at Newark, Miss 
 Sarah Hobson, who was born in Birmingham, Eng- 
 land, a daughter of Edwin Hobson, one of the 
 prominent men of Wallingford. To this union have 
 come six children : Harold William, a die sinker 
 and moldmaker ; Eva A., a forewoman in her fa- 
 ther's factory; Effie, a trained nurse; and Edwin, 
 Nellie and Bessie, who are in school. Mr. Hod- 
 getts is a Republican, and an active worker for tlie 
 party. He belongs to the Blue Lodge, Compass 
 Lodge, F. & A. M. He is a member of the Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 CHARLES EMIL SCHUXACK, one of the 
 rising young manufacturers^ of Meriden, was born 
 in the city of Spremberg, Germany, Nov. 15, 1859, 
 son of Gustav Schunack, a native of the same com- 
 munity, who was a manufacturer of woolen cloth. 
 In Spremberg Gustav Schunack married Louisa 
 Lange, by whom he had two children, Charles Emil 
 and Emmy. Gustav Schunack and his family left 
 the old country in 1873, and came to the United 
 States, locating at Webster, Mass., where he spent 
 a year ini the woolen trade. He then came to 
 Meriden, where the remainder of his life was spent, 
 and he died in 1889 and was buried in the West 
 cemetery, Meriden. In polities' he was a Repub- 
 lican, and in religion liberal and broad-minded in 
 his views. His widow is still living, and is cared 
 for in the home of her son Charles E. She is a 
 devout Christian woman, faithful and loving m her 
 duties as a wife and mother. 
 
 Charles Emil Schunack attended the schools of 
 
 his native town. He was thirteen years old when 
 he left Spremberg with his parents to make his home 
 in America, and at Webster, Mass., went into the 
 mills, so that he has had no schooling save that 
 of work and experience since his arrival in this 
 State. In 1874 he came to Meriden, and for some 
 five years worked in the bronze department of the 
 Meriden Malleable Iron Works. For the following 
 five years he was connected with the bronze de- 
 partment of the factory of Hart, Bliven & Mead,' 
 at Kensington, Conn., as a contractor. When this 
 period had /expired he came back to Meriden, and 
 took a place with the Charles Parker Co., in the 
 lamp department of its extensive factories. For 
 nineteen years he has had charge of this depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Schunack began business for himself as a 
 box manufacturer in 1891, locating on Randolph 
 avenue, and beginning in the most modest fashion. 
 He attended strictly to his trade, and it has steadily 
 increased, demanding enlarged facilities and im- 
 proved machinery, until he now has a plant that is 
 about as complete as any to be found anywhere in 
 the State. Here he makes a vast variety of paper 
 boxes, as well as plush, chamois and leather cases 
 for silverware, and employment is given to more 
 than seventy people, the products selling in remote 
 parts of the country, as well as at home. Our sub- 
 ject's only sister. Miss Emmy, has charge of this 
 branch of his business ; she is a lady of much busi- 
 ness ability, thoroughly understanding the work, 
 and very popular. Mr. Schunack is a progressive 
 and enterprising citizen, wide-awake and vigorous, 
 energetic with his work, and anxious to give per- 
 fect satisfaction to every customer. 
 
 Mr. Schunack belongs to the A. F. & A. M., 
 being controlled in Meridian Lodge, No. yy ; to Pil- 
 grim Harbor Council, Royal Arcanum ; and to the 
 Invincibles of Meriden. In politics he is a Repub- 
 lican, and has served as a member of the city council 
 in Meriden for two years. He and his wife find 
 their religious home at the Congregational Church. 
 Mr. Schunack was married in Kensington, Hart- 
 ford! Co., Conn., to Miss Rhoda Baldwin, a lady of 
 much refinement, and they have two children, Mil- 
 dred and Elsie. Our subject and his wife are ex- 
 cellent people and command the respect and con- 
 fidence of the community to a very marked degree. 
 
 MICHAEL D. RUSSELL, comptroller of the 
 city of Waterbury, was; born in County Tipperary, 
 Ireland, in 1865, and is a son of John and Catherine 
 (Dwyer) Russell, the former of whom is an ex- 
 tensive farmer and both of whom still have their 
 home in County Tipperary. To their marriage were 
 born twelve children, nine of whom are still living, 
 viz. : WilliaiTi, a doctor of medicine ; Helen, a 
 widow ; Thomas, farming the old homestead ; 
 Michael D., the subject of this sketch ; Katie, single ; 
 John, a Catholic clergyman in England; Mary, a 
 Sister of Mercy in Dublin ; Matthew, a physician 
 
1 146 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and surgeon in Dublin Hospital ; and James, a theo- 
 logical student. 
 
 Michael D. Russell is the only one of the above 
 named family to come to America. His boyhood 
 was passed on the home farm, and his preliminary 
 education was acquired at a National school, but 
 this was supplemented by a course of study in a 
 classical school and also at an academy, the original 
 design, being to prepare him for a profession; but 
 when he had attained his eighteenth year he was 
 seized with a desire to cross the ocean, and accord- 
 ingly, in the spring of 1883, he sailed for America, 
 and shortly afterward reached Waterbury, Conn., 
 where for a year and a half he worked in the fac- 
 tories and then engaged in business on Washington 
 street, which he continued with marked success un- 
 til 1899. 
 
 In 1889 IMr. Russell was united in, marriage with 
 Miss Catherine Hayden, a daughter of James Hay- 
 den, of Waterbury, and this union has been blessed 
 with four children, John, William, James and Eliz- 
 abeth, of whom three are living, James having died 
 when he attained the age of three years. The family 
 are all adherents of Immaculate Conception Cath- 
 olic Church. In politics Mr. Russell is a Democrat, 
 is very popular with his party and influential in its 
 councils. He has served as alderman from the 
 Fourth ward one full term and part of another 
 (filling out an unexpired term), in all three years. 
 He was elected a delegate to the State convention 
 which nominated Daniel L. Morgan for governor, 
 and took a very active part in the succeeding can- 
 vass. In October, 1899, he was elected comptroller 
 of the city of Waterbury, and re-elected in October, 
 1901. In his fraternal relations he has been treas- 
 urer of the Foresters of America since their or- 
 ganization, and he is also a member of the Knights 
 of Columbus. 
 
 Mr. Russell is deserving of great credit for the 
 masterly manner in which he has managed his busi- 
 ness affairs, and his great success is due solely to 
 his own shrewdness, and close attention to his af- 
 fairs. He has invested largely in real estate, and 
 is one of the heaviest tax payers in his ward, and 
 he counts his friends by the hundreds, all of whom 
 have been attracted to him through his many per- 
 sonal merits. 
 
 EDWARD A. IVES, an enterprising and suc- 
 cessful agriculturist of North Branford, belongs 
 to an^ old Colonial family which was founded in 
 America by William Ives, who sailed from England 
 on the "True Love" in 1635, at the age of twenty- 
 eight years, and landed in Boston. Later he came 
 to New Haven with the Davenport Colony im 1637- 
 38, and joined in the Civil Compact in 1639. He 
 died in New Haven about 1648, and his wife, 
 Hannah, afterward married a Mr. Bassett. Bv the 
 first union there were four children, namely: John, 
 Joseph, Phoebe and Daniel. Of these, John" Ives 
 was baptized Dec. 29, 1644, and moved to Walling- 
 
 ford. Conn., about 1670. He married Hannah Mer- 
 riman, and had one son, Joseph, from whom all 
 the Iveses in Wallingford have descended. 
 
 The Ives family in Hamden, Conn., trace their 
 ancestry back to Jonathan Ives, who was born 
 March 14, 1716, a son of Samuel and Ruth Ives. 
 He was married, Feb. 19, 1737, to Thankful Coop- 
 er, and they had eight children: Jeremiah, Joel, 
 Jonathan, Ruth, Mary, Thankful, Allen and Phoebe. 
 Of these, Jonathan Ives was born March 26, 1751, 
 and made his home in Mt. Carmel, Conn. He mar- 
 ried Sarah Bassett and had several children. 
 
 Mark Ives, the grandfather of our subject, was 
 born and reared in Hamden, where he later engaged 
 in general farming throughout life. He married 
 Saritta Dickerman, a native of the same town, who 
 diedi at the age of eighty years, and he died at 
 the age of eighty-two. Their children were George, 
 a resident of Morris Cove, Conn. ; Sarah, deceased 
 wife of Charles Dickerman ; Edgar, father of our 
 subject; and Albert, who was killed by a team. 
 
 Edgar Ives was a native of Hamden, where he 
 passed his boyhood and youth, and' after attaining 
 to man's estate he was employed in the shops of this 
 county. He entered the Union service during the 
 Civil war and was killed at Baton Rouge, La., in 
 1863. In his native town he was married, in 1857, 
 to Miss Ellen Cook, who was born in Cheshire, 
 Conn., and is now living in New Haven. They 
 had two children: Edward A., our subject; and 
 Franklin D., an employe in a rubber shop at New 
 Haven. 
 
 Edward A. Ives was born in Hamden Feb. 18, 
 i860, and was given the advantages of a district- 
 school education. When still quite young he went 
 to Southington, where during the summer months 
 he worked for neighboring farmers between the 
 ages of eleven and fourteen years, while he attended 
 school through the winter. Subsequently he was 
 employed in a shoe shop _for a short time. At 
 the age of twenty-two he removed to Wallingford, 
 and while there he learned the machinist's trade in 
 the railroad shops at New Haven, which occupation 
 he continued to follow in that city and Bridgeport, 
 Conn., for about sixteen years. In 1896, owing to 
 ill health, he located upon his father-in-law's farm 
 of eighty acres in North Branford, and has since 
 devoted his energies to agricultural pursuits. He 
 also engages in the milk business and keeps for 
 that purpose ten cows, besides young stock. He 
 is progressive and public-spirited, and gives his 
 support to the men and measures of the Repub- 
 lican party. Religiously he is an Episcopalian, and 
 socially is a member of the United Workmen Lodge, 
 No. 31, of New Haven. 
 
 In May, 1886, in Wallingford, Mr. Ives mar- 
 ried-Miss Carrie Ives, and they have one child, 
 iMabel Saritta, born July 4, 1887. Mrs. Ives' great- 
 grandparents were Ransom and Sarah Ives, the 
 former of whom died Sept. 22, 1844, aged sixty- 
 one years, the latter Feb. 15, 1844, aged sixtv-two. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 147 
 
 Their son, John Ives, the grandfather of our sub- 
 ject's wife, was born April 3, 1804, and died Dec. 
 20, 1886. He was married, Dec. 13, 1826, to Mari- 
 ette Austin, who was born Oct. 30, 1803, and died 
 June 8, 1883. In their family were two children: 
 Sarali, born Nov. 18, 1827, married Amos Dickin- 
 son, and died July 26, 1876; and Henderson, born 
 Jan. 2, 1831, now makes his home with our sub- 
 ject. He is a painter by trade, but is now living a 
 retired life. On Jan. 6, 1859, he married Miss Cor- 
 nelia Williams, who was born in Wallingford Oct. 
 18, 183^ and four children were born to tbem, 
 namely: Carrie, born Aug. 10, i860, is the wife of 
 our subject; George, born Feb. 14, 1863, is a butch- 
 er of Wallingford; Charles, born Feb. 25, 1873, is a 
 resident of New Haven; and Sarah, born Nov. 3, 
 1875, is the wife of Arthur Mansfield, of Lynn, 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 JAMES D. CARROLL is one of the leading 
 business citizens of New Haven, where, since 1887, 
 he has been connected with the browning depart- 
 ment in the Winchester Arms Co., as contractor, 
 occupying a most responsible position. 
 
 Mr. Carroll was born in Monterey, Berkshire 
 Co., Mass., Sept. 4, 1852, a son of Levi N. Carroll, 
 a native of Herkimer county. New York. 
 
 Levi N. Carroll acquired his education in Mas- 
 sachusetts, and for some years he was a resident of 
 Beartown, in that State. He married Mary Breck- 
 enridge, who was born in Massachusetts, where she 
 died at the age of thirty-six years. His death oc- 
 curred in Middlefield, Mass., at the age of sixty- 
 six years. Their children were: Frances, who 
 married William Ecker, and died in. Missouri ; and 
 James Dwight, of this sketch. 
 
 James Dwight Carroll spent his early school 
 days at Beartown, Mass., being obliged to walk 
 a distance of four miles each way. At the age of 
 eleven years he found himself obliged! to look after 
 himself, and went to work in Monterey for John D. 
 Bidwell, also having the privilege of going to school. 
 Then he went to live with his uncle, James Breck- 
 enridge, and worked in Jerusalem, Mass., for two 
 years for $65 and board, going to school during 
 the winters, and then went back to his father and 
 attended the old Stockbridge Academy. Mr. Car- 
 roll's next work was under Lucien Moore, who 
 drove the stage from Tyringham to Lee, but after 
 eight months our subject went to Strickland, 111., 
 where his sister lived, and accompanied them soon 
 after to the West in order to look up some govern- 
 ment land. James stopped at Walnut Creek, Iowa, 
 and went to work in a saw and grisi mill, where 
 be remained for one year, going then to Kenyon 
 Grove in the same State, and carried on a butcher- 
 ing business there for the succeeding year. Mr. 
 Carroll decided then to see something more of the 
 country, and with a team he made his way to the 
 Cherokee Nation, in Indian Territory, going from 
 there, with his team, to Arkansas, where he worked 
 
 on the railroad. In the following spring- he started 
 East, stopping in Page county, Iowa, where he 
 bought a forty-acre farm, which property he still 
 owns. 
 
 After his return to South Lee, Mass., he was 
 united in marriage to Miss Augusta Cordonnier, 
 of Chatham, N. Y., who was born in Paris, France. 
 After this event Mr. Carroll went to Ilion, N. Y., 
 where he entered into the employ of E. Remington 
 & Sons Co., and continued with them until March, 
 1875', when he moved to Frankfort, N. Y., buying 
 there four lots and building houses upon them. 
 Until 1886 he continued with the Remingtons as a 
 contractor. In 1887 Mr. Carroll came to New Ha- 
 ven, Conn., as a contractor in the browning depart- 
 ment of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., em- 
 ploying from ten to fifteen men. Mr. Carroll has 
 a secret process of browning that requires but four 
 men to do what it formerly needed ten to accom- 
 plish. Every time the weather changes Mr. Carroll 
 changes his chemicals, and thus his work is con- 
 stantly an experiment. Ever since he has been in 
 New Haven Mr. Carroll has resided on Henry 
 street. Fraternally he is connected with a number 
 of orders. While living at Frankfort he became a 
 member of the order of Knights of Pythias, joining 
 Mohawk Lodge, No. 226. He also belongs to Olive 
 Branch Lodge, No. 84, F & A. M., and Franklin 
 Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. One son has blessed 
 the home of Mr. and Mrs. Carroll, James Levi, 
 born Feb. 11, 1888. Mr. Carroll is a thorough busi- 
 ness man and possesses a knowledge of his special 
 line quite different from others' who engage in it. 
 His secret process has proved successful and may 
 lead to future improvements. 
 
 CAPT. EDGAR J. HARDY, of the steamship 
 "Chester W. Chapin," was born in Fair Haven, New 
 Haven county, Aug. 23, 1864. His father, John 
 A. Hardy, was born on Staten Island, and was a 
 son of John Hardy, also of Staten Island, where 
 the founder of the family located when he came 
 from England to America. The grandfather died 
 in Jersey City at the age of ninety-eight years, and 
 of the numerous children born him four are still 
 living, all residents of New Jersey with the excep- 
 tion of the father of our subject, who is living re- 
 tired in New Haven. The grandmother died when 
 comparatively a young woman. Both she and hus- 
 band were faithful members of the Episcopal 
 Church. 
 
 John A. Hardy, the father of our subject, was 
 reared on Staten Island, and while still a lad be- 
 gan making trips on an oyster sloop, gradually ris- 
 ing until he became captain of a Vessel that sailed 
 from New York to the West Indies, in the fruit 
 business. This was his occupation for forty-five 
 years, and he became well known in many ports and 
 was highly regarded in shipping circles. His life 
 is now one of ease, as he lives retired in New Ha- 
 ven. Mr. Hardy married Georgiana Hayden, who 
 
1 148 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was born in Westbrook, Conn., daughter of John 
 Hayden, a boat-builder there. She was one of five 
 children, viz. : Georgiana ; Edgar, deceased; Nellie, 
 deceased; Myrtie, who married Charles Hill, and 
 died in Clinton ; and Theodore, who died in Florida. 
 Four children were born to the parents of our sub- 
 ject, namely: Addie, who married John Brand, in 
 New Bedford; Aaron, who resides in New York; 
 Edgar J., our subject; and Georgia, who married 
 T. Sherman Foote, of Providence, R. I. The par- 
 ents are members of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Edgar J. Hardy spent his early years in Fair 
 Haven and attended the Woolsey school. His nat- 
 ^lral inclination was toward a life on the water, and 
 he began his career on a sailing vessel, the "C. T. 
 A'anname," of New Haven. In this position Jre 
 continued but a short time, being rapidly promoted 
 and soon became mate, and he coasted with his ves- 
 sel to the West Indies. In 1883 he entered the em- 
 ploy of the New Haven Steamboat Co., as watch- 
 man on the boats, and filled all the positions up 
 to captain, to which he was promoted Dec. i, 1893. 
 His first vessel was the steamer "C. H. Northam," 
 and later he took charge of the steamer "Richard 
 Peck," and subsequently of the steamer "Chester 
 AV. Chapin," which is one of the finest boats on 
 Long Island Sound. Capt. Hardy became very 
 popular among travelers, his skill, care and seaman- 
 ship being such as to inspire perfect confidence. 
 
 In 1897. Capt. Hardy was married to Miss Anna 
 Pearsall, who was born in New York City, a daugh- 
 ter of Charles Pearsall, a successful dealer in fruit, 
 and a granddaughter of John Pearsall, who was the 
 first dealer to obtain a load of fruit by sailing ves- 
 sel to New York. Mrs. Hardy's maternal grand- 
 father was the first hatter on Broadway, New York 
 City ; his store was located at the corner of Broad- 
 way and Canal street. One child has been born 
 to Capt. and Mrs. Hardy. Capt. Flardy is a meni- 
 iDcr of the Union League Club; the Pequot Club 
 and the Kings County (N. Y.) Club ; the American 
 Brotherhood of Pilots Association; and Hiram 
 Lodge, A. F. & A. iM. 
 
 WILLIAM EDWIN HUNTER comes of a 
 family of English origin, the first of whom to emi- 
 grate to this country was Ebenezer Hunter, from 
 whom the line of descent runs through Nathaniel, 
 AMlliani, Solomon and Jethro D. to the gentleman 
 whose name appears above. 
 
 Solomon Flunter, the grandfather of William 
 E., a native of Sharon, Conn., married Anna Fow- 
 ler, and four children were born to them, of whom 
 Jethro D. was the second; Sarah married L. D. 
 Benson; Ruby became j\lrs. Florace Reynolds; and 
 Mar)- married John AIcDonald. 
 
 Jethro D. Hunter was born in Sharon, Conn., 
 and passed his life in farming. In 1873 he removed 
 to Anienia Union, Dutchess Co., N. Y., where he 
 died in 1880. Politically he was a Democrat, and 
 in religion a communicant of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 He married Cynthia A., daughter of Lyman Chap- 
 man, a farmer' of Sharon, and they became the par- 
 ents' of eight children : William E., Sarah A., 
 Charles H., Ida A., Minnie, Horace R., Lorin B. 
 and Ira. Charles, Minnie and Ira are deceased. 
 Sarah married Frederick Morehouse, a liveryman 
 of Sharon. Horace married Carrie Ramsey, and 
 lives in Naugatuck. Lorin married Grace M. Odell, 
 and lives in Amenia Union, N. Y. Ida is unmar- 
 ried and lives at home. 
 
 "William E. Hunter was born m Sharon, Conn., 
 July 26, 1853. His boyhood was passed in hard 
 work upon the farm, alternated with attendance at 
 the district school winters, and he also had a private 
 tutor. He accompanied his father to the new home 
 in Dutchess county, and was for a time engaged in 
 farming there, after which he conducted a grocery 
 store in Winsted for a time, but in January, 1886, 
 he returned to Connecticut, and took up his resi- 
 dence in Naugatuck. There he has ever since made 
 ao-riculture his vocation, and he has met with signal 
 and well-merited success. Possessed of a fine 
 physique, his mental powers are also of no mean 
 order, and have been well trained, he having been 
 a teacher in both Connecticut and New York States. 
 i\Ir. Hunter owns a farm of 340 acres, and rents 
 225 additional acres. Both farms show the result 
 of his intelligent, constant supervision. On his 
 rented farm he cultivates hay, grain and other 
 crops. INIr. Hunter always brings to the manage- 
 ment of his affairs keen intelligence, quick percep- 
 tion, sound judgment and tireless industry. Old, 
 dilapidated buildings have been remodeled, and 
 new ones constructed after modern ideas, and Mr. 
 Hunter himself is abundantly qualified to prepare 
 the plans, estimate the cost and supervise the con- 
 struction. It is this happy union of brains and 
 brawn — a combination as valuable as rare — that 
 has mack him the man of substance he is to-day. 
 He has made a specialty of dairy farming, and 
 his daily sales of milk at retail average about seven 
 hundred quarts. He owns a large number of horses 
 and cows. His home farm is situated at the surn- 
 mit of what is known as "Hunter's Hill," an emi- 
 nence some five hundred feet above the level of 
 surrounding country. From this point of vantage 
 the view is one of surpassing loveliness. For miles 
 in every direction may be seen highly cultivated, 
 well improved farms, with the charming borough 
 of Naugatuck in the foreground, and the hustling 
 city of AA'aterbury only five miles distant. The 
 smoke of many factories rises lazily and floats away, 
 while the narrow stream of the river winds in and 
 out, a silver thread among green pastures and 
 board fields of nodding, golden grain. 
 
 Mr. Hunter is a member of the Second Advait 
 Church, and socially he is a member of the Grange 
 and of the Order of Heptasophs. He is independ- 
 ent in politics. He has been twice married, having 
 chosen a wife each time from among the maidens 
 of Dutchess county, N. Y., where he passed the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 "49' 
 
 years of his early manhood. His first bride was 
 AdeUa Thompson, to whom he was joined May 15, 
 1877. They had three children: Cora D., who 
 married George P. Young, of Naugatuck ; Herbert 
 E. ; and Katie W., deceased. On October 2, 1889, 
 Mr. Hunter married Miss Alice E. Sincerbox, 
 whose portrait accompanies his. This union has 
 been blessed with four children: Ethel A., Ray- 
 mond W., Hazel K. and Roy W. (deceased). 
 
 ELBERT W. CARTWRIGHT, a prominent 
 farmer of Centerville, Hamden, was born in Sharon, 
 this State, Jan. 12, 1857. His father, Watson 
 Cartwright, a son of Anson and Mary (Smith) 
 Cartwright, was also a native of Sharon, where he 
 grew to manhood and engaged in farmmg for some 
 years. There he married Miss Ammarillis Peck, a 
 native of that town and a daughter of George W. 
 Peck. In 1864 they removed to Cheshire, New Ha- 
 ven county, where the father engaged in farming 
 for a year and a half, and in 1866 came to Hamden, 
 where he purchased the Joseph A. Rogers farm 
 of seventy acres near Centerville, andi upon that 
 place he successfully engaged in general farming 
 and stock raising until his death. In politics he was 
 a stanch Democrat, but was never an office seeker. 
 He died March 25, 1891, and his wife departed this 
 life Feb. 28, 1899, the remains of both being in- 
 terred in the Whitneyville cemetery. 
 
 Elbert W. Cartwright, the only child of this 
 worthy couple, pursued his studies in the schools of 
 Sharon and Hamden, and when his education was 
 completed devoted his entire time and attention to 
 the operation of the home farm, which he now 
 owns. It is a valuable tract of seventy-five acres, 
 under excellent cultivation and well improved. He 
 is a thorough and systematic farmer, and has met 
 with well-deserved success in his labors. He holds 
 membership in the Mount Carmel Congregational 
 Church, and in politics supports the men and ineas- 
 ures of the Democratic party. 
 
 On Oct. 22, 1890, Mr. Cartwright was united in 
 marriage with Miss Hattie B. Leek, a native of 
 Hamden, and a daughter of Jeremiah B. and Cath- 
 erine (Sanford) Leek. Three children blessed this 
 union: Florence Peck, Ralph E. and Reba San- 
 ford. The wife and mother entered into rest March 
 27, 1901, aged forty-two years and six months, and 
 her remains were interred in the family lot in the 
 Whitneyville cemetery. She, too, held membership 
 in the Mount Carmel Congregational Church. 
 
 FREDERIC A. FINCH, the popular publisher 
 of The Branford Opinion, is a native of Connecti- 
 cut, born in Southington Jan. 25, 1868, a son of 
 Dennis Porter and Sarah (Lamkin) Fmch. In 
 September, 1877, his parents moved to New Haven,, 
 and in the public schools of that city he obtained 
 his education, graduating in J884. When he 
 started out in life for himself he began to learn 
 the printer's trade in May, 1884, with Hoggson 
 
 & Robinson. The work proved congenial to him, 
 and he rapidly mastered all the details. From 1888 
 until October, 1891, he was employed as pressman 
 with O. A. Dornian, and then went to Lyme, Conn., 
 where he was similarly employed on The Sound 
 Breeze. On Jan. 18, 1892, he came to Branford 
 and purchased The Branford Opinion on the 5th 
 of the folloiwing April. He has met with much 
 success in his chosen calling, and his paper has 
 steadily improved in general makeup, as well as in 
 its subscription lists. 
 
 On June 27, 1894, Mr. Finch was united in 
 marriage with Edith A. Knapp, and one son, Donald 
 Porter, born Aug. 8, 1899, has blessed this union. 
 Politically Mr. Finch is a Republican, and has 
 served as" registrar of voters in Branford, 1899 to- 
 1902. Socially he is a member of Woodland Lodge, 
 No. 39, K. of P., and Montowese Lodge, N. E. O. P 
 
 DR. EDWARD SEYMOUR MOULTON, a 
 physician of New Haven, was born April 26, 1868, 
 in New Bedford, Mass., but acquired his educa- 
 tion in the public schools at Oberlin, Ohio, and the- 
 Grand River Institute of Austinburg, Ohio. He- 
 was graduated from Oberlin College in 1891, re- 
 ceiving the degree of A. B., and from the Yale 
 Medical School in 1894, when the degree of A. M. 
 was conferred upon him by Oberlin. After hospital 
 service in New York and travel in California and 
 South America, he located at No. 223 York street, 
 New Haven. 
 
 Dr. Moulton's father. Rev. Tyler Calvin Moul- 
 ton, was born in Ascott, Canada, Jan. 26, 1826, a 
 son of Calvin Moulton, Jr., and Adaline Hudson, 
 the latter a daughter of Elisha Pludson, a soldier 
 in the Revolution. Calvin Moulton, Jr., was a son 
 of Calvin Moulton, Sr., and Ruth Blodgett, whose 
 father was a Revolutionary soldier, and was born 
 in Rutland, Vt., Nov. 11, 1797. Calvin Moulton, 
 Sr., was born in Monson, Mass., in 1774. Dr. 
 Moulton's paternal ancestors came to Massachusetts 
 previous to 1650. 
 
 Rev. Tyler Calvin Moulton was a Unitarian 
 clergyman, his pastorates having been at Austin- 
 burg and Franklin, Ohio, and New Bedford, Mass. 
 He served in the war of the Rebellion as chaplain 
 of the 3d Mass. Vol. Cav., and later became chap- 
 lain of the William Logan Rodman Post, No. i, 
 G. A. R., of New Bedford, Mass. Pie was known 
 as an able speaker and writer. His death occurred 
 Aug. 5, 1870. He married Susan A. Seymour, who 
 was born in Otsego county, N. Y., in 1834, a daugh- 
 ter of Deacon Hart Seymour, and his wife, Mercy 
 North, who was a daughter of Deacon Stephen 
 North, and descendant of John North, one of the 
 original proprietors of Farmington. Hart Sey- 
 mour was the son of Deacon Jonathan Seymour and 
 Abigail Hart, who were both born in New Britain, 
 Conn. Jonathan Seymour was a soldier of the Rev- 
 olution and a lieutenant in the Connecticut State 
 Militia. Lieut. Elisha Savage, of Berlin, Conn.,. 
 
1 150 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 another great-grandfather of Dr. Moulton, was a 
 Revolutionary soldier. The maternal ancestors of 
 Dr. Moulton were among the earliest settlers of 
 Connecticut, coming from Massachusetts to Hart- 
 ford in 1635, settling there and in Farmington ; the 
 names of eight of these ancestors, Richard Sey- 
 mour, Stephen Hart, Thomas Judd, John Steele, 
 Governor Thomas Welles, Elder John White, John 
 \\'ilcox and William Wadsworth, are recorded on 
 the "Founders' Monument of Hartford." 
 
 Dr. Moulton was assistant in the medical clinic 
 in Yale Medical School from 1895 to 1897, and in 
 Gynaecology from 1897 to 1899. He belongs to 
 the city, county and State Medical Societies (being 
 clerk of the County Society), and to the New Ha- 
 ven Grays, and also to the patriotic order of the 
 Sons of Veterans. He attends the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 On Feb. 28, 1898, Dr. Moulton was married to 
 Fanchon Wilson, who was born in California, only 
 daughter of James Thomas and Mary Stewart 
 Smith. One son, James Seymour, born Feb. 7, 
 1899, in Zaruma, Ecuador, S. A., has brightened 
 their home. 
 
 FION. DAVID WALTER PATTEN. The 
 town of North Haven has the distinction of having 
 within its borders some of the finest farms of New 
 Haven county, and among these the one which 
 bears the palm as a dairy farm is owned by D. 
 Walter Patten, and is located in the eastern part 
 of the town. This farm contains 225 acres, and has 
 been in the possession of the Patten family for 
 nearly forty years, being the original Pierrepont 
 farm! upon which the late Hon. Edwards Pierre- 
 pont, ex-minister to England, was born. David 
 Patten, the grandfather of our subject, was born 
 in Salem, New London county. Conn., .where he 
 became a farmer and a dealer in lumber for ship- 
 ping. 
 
 Daniel A. Patten, son of David Patten, was also 
 born in Salem, where he received a district-school 
 education. After teaching there a number of years, 
 in the meantime studying medicine, he went to New 
 York and was graduated from the College of Physi- 
 cians and Surgeons. He first located for practice 
 in Park Row, in that city, and latei he removed 
 to Baltimore, Md., where he enjoyed a large and 
 lucrative practice for a number of years, when fail- 
 ing health caused him to abandon the profession. 
 He returned to his boyhood home, in Salem, where 
 he remained until 1861, at that time coming to 
 North Haven, desiring the health-giving life on a 
 farm. Dr. Patten then purchased the farm now 
 owned by his son, and continued to operate it un- 
 til 1885, when he disposed of it to his son, and, 
 retirmg from active life, died in 1887. Dr. Patten 
 was an ardent Republican, and served the town o<' 
 Salem in the Legislature, even representing that 
 town shortly after his removal to North Haven, in 
 a special session. During 1869-70-73 he represented 
 
 North Haven in the Legislature, although the ofHce 
 was none of his seeking, his peculiar fitness for the 
 office causing his fellow citizens almost to thrust 
 it upon him. He also served the town for several 
 rears as first selectman, and for many years was 
 a member of the Society's committee of the North 
 Haven Congregational Church. His widow, Mary 
 Belcher Hyde, a native of Greenwich, Conn., is now 
 residing in North Haven. The children born to 
 this union were: Henr)-, a graduate of Yale, mar- 
 ried Rose M. Sloan, and resides in Philadelphia, 
 where he is instructor in the Central High School; 
 David Walter ; Lillian W. married George B. Todd, 
 and lives in North Haven ; and Marion is teaching 
 in the public school in South Norwalk. 
 
 David Walter Patten was born Feb. 7, 1862, 
 in the house which he now occupies, and received 
 his primary education in the district schools. After 
 a two-years' course at Bacon Academy, in Col- 
 chester, he prepared at Joseph Giles' private school 
 for the scientific department of Yale University. 
 Previous to entering Yale Mr. Patten was for two 
 years assistant instructor of mathematics in the 
 famous "Collegiate and Commercial Institute," of 
 which the late William H. Russell was president. 
 He was graduated from Yale Scientific School in 
 1887, and then returned to the farm which he had 
 purchased in 1885, end to which he has since added 
 by additional purchases and has made improvements 
 which have placed this farm in the front rank of 
 dairy farms in the State. For thirty years the 
 Clover Dairy Farm has practically supplied the 
 most fastidious patrons of the New Haven market. 
 Mr. Patten has introduced modern methods, ren- 
 dering his products the purest to be obtained any- 
 where, and the reputation of his produce has ex- 
 tended over a wide territory. He also has a peach 
 orchard of 1,500 trees. 
 
 On Oct. 16, 1889, Mr. Patten was married to 
 Erminie Ivison Emley, who was born in Moodus, 
 Aliddlesex county. Conn., a daughter of George I. 
 Emley, superintendent of the New York Net and 
 Twine Company's mills of that place. Three chil- 
 dren have been born to this union, Edna I., Mable 
 S. and Martha Alberta. Mr. Patten is a stanch Re- 
 publican, has been president of the North Haven 
 Republican Club for several years, and ably repre- 
 sented the town of North Haven in the General 
 Assembly during 1898-9, serving as clerk of the 
 committee on Incorporations. In 1900 he was 
 elected first selectman and re-elected in 1901. In 
 1901 he was elected by the General Assembly as a 
 member of the State Board of Agriculture for New 
 Haven county. Mr. Patten is an educated, intelli- 
 gent farmer who understands and enjoys his agri- 
 cultural experiments, and by the exercise of energy 
 has been able to show the country what intelligent 
 farming can accomplish. Fraternally he is con- 
 nected with Coriijthian Lodge, No. 36, A. F. & 
 A, ^I., of Northford, and is a charter member of 
 North Haven Grange, being one of its organizers. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1151 
 
 Prominently identified with all of the leading farm- 
 ing interests of the State,, he is connected with the 
 State Pomological Society, and is a life member of 
 the Connecticut Dairyman's Association. Although 
 occupied with both public affairs and private busi- 
 ness, Mr. Patten is a factor in the social life of the 
 comimunity, and entertains hospitably m his hand- 
 some home. Both he and his wife are valued and 
 consistent members of the Congregational Church 
 of North Haven. 
 
 REV. C. REINHOLD TAPPERT, the beloved 
 pastor of the Immanuel's Evangelical Lutheran 
 Church, on Cook avenue and Hanover street, in 
 Meriden, was born in Hameln, Hanover, Germany, 
 Dec. 13, 1866, a son of Charles Tappert, born at 
 Eisenach, Thueringen. Charles Tappert was an 
 architect and builder by occupation and a man of 
 education and influence. His death occurred while 
 still in the prime of life. His wife, Mrs. Alvina 
 (Hancke) Tappert, was a native of Luechow, Ger- 
 many, and after the death of her husband came to 
 America with her family, and now resides in New 
 York City. Of the ten children of the family 
 those who still survive are: Emma, a Lutheran 
 Deaconess ; C. Reinhold ; Mary ; Franz ; Gustave, a 
 clergyman of the Lutheran Church, in New York 
 City ; Charles ; Ernest August, a clergyman of the 
 Lutheran Church, at Washington Heights, New 
 York City; and Alwine. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Tappert attended the schools in his 
 native land, and was seven years old when the fam- 
 ily removed to Muender, where the father engaged 
 in a manufacturing business and our subject had 
 the advantages of excellent educational training. 
 At the age of sixteen he graduated from the Latin 
 school. His inclination being in the direction of 
 the ministrv, he entered then the Kropp Theo- 
 logical Sem'inary, and remained four years, until 
 he had finished 'his course in the spring of 1887. 
 When the call was', made by the Home Missions_ of 
 the General Council for young men for^ mission 
 work amlong their countrymen in America, Mr. 
 Tappert responded, and that same year came'to this 
 country and took charge of St. Peter's Church at 
 Greenport, L. I. Although not yet of age, he con- 
 tinued to administer to this congregation for fifteen 
 months. On Dec. 18, 1887, he was ordained by the 
 president of the first district of the Evangelical Lu- 
 theran Ministerium of New 'York, and in 1888 he 
 was called by the president of the Synod to take 
 charge of a mission in New York City, and eagerly 
 entered upon his Christian labors. Having rented 
 an unoccupied store on Tenth avenue, at a cost of 
 S48 per month, he started into school teaching, and 
 had 140 pupils who contributed one dollar a month. 
 He continued faithfully to perform his duties as 
 missionary and teacher until his health completely 
 failed him. In 1889 he received a call to Meriden 
 as successor to Rev. E. Wittman, as pastor of the 
 Immanuel's Evangelical Lutheran Church and also 
 
 of the First Evangelical Lutheran Church of South- 
 ington, and for the past twelve years has faithfully 
 attended to the spiritual needs of both congrega- 
 tions. Mr. Tappert has had much to encourage him. 
 During his pastorate the church and parsonage have 
 been built and his congregation numbers 500 mem- 
 bers. When he first came to Meriden he was 
 obliged to hold his services in the hall of the Y. 
 M. C. A. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Tappert married Magdelena Drach, in 
 her home in Greenport, L. I., a daughter of Peter 
 Drach, a lady of high character, and one who is 
 well fitted to be a helpmate for her worthy husband. 
 The children of this union number five : Johanna, 
 Ruth, Martha, Reinhold and Gustav. 
 
 FREDERICK WARD BROWN, D. D. S_., who 
 has been successfully engaged in the practice of 
 dentistry in New Haven since 1888, is a native of 
 that city, born July 14, 1863. The family have re- 
 sided there for several generations; the Doctor's 
 grandfather, Andrew L. Brojvn, was engaged in 
 business as a soap manufacturer in New Haven 
 with his brother Charles. Their factory was located 
 on Union street. He had three children : William 
 H., father of our subject; Robert A., who is sec- 
 retary and treasurer of the New Haven Savings 
 Bank, and also president of the New Haven Mfg. 
 Co.; and Mary, who married Henry HoU, of 
 Springfield, Mass. Mrs. Brown was a member of 
 the First Baptist Church. 
 
 William H. Brown was born in New Haven and 
 there reared, receiving his education in the com- 
 mon schools and in the Lancasterian school. He 
 was engaged in business as a dealer in cigars and 
 spirits, carrying on same up to the time of his death, 
 which occurred in 1888, when he was aged fifty- 
 one. Fle married Cornelia Camp, and they had four 
 children : William H. ; Frederick Ward, whose 
 name opens these lines ; and Albert R. and Andrew 
 L., both of whom are dentists in New York City, 
 where Mrs. Brown, the mother, also makes her 
 home. Mrs. Brown is a daughter of Horace Camp, 
 who died at the age of eighty-four, and his wife, 
 whose maiden name was White, and who lived to 
 the age of eighty-six. 
 
 Frederick W. Brown attended the public schools 
 of New Haven during his boyhood. His early 
 studies in dentistry were pursued with Drs. Austen 
 B. Fuller, Frank C. Swift and J. S. Cairoli, of 
 Bridgeport, and H. J. Stevens, of New Haven. He 
 then took a course at the University of Pennsvl- 
 vania, from which institution he was graduated in 
 1888, and he has since engaged in practice on his 
 own account. Dr. Brown commands a large pat- 
 ronage, which keeps himself and his assistants con- 
 stantly busv. His offices, which are finely fitted up 
 and completely equipped, are located at No. 112 
 Orange street. Dr. Brown has been quite active in 
 the social and fraternal life of the city, being a 
 member in good standing of Pyramid Lodge, A. O. 
 
us: 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 U. W. : Yale Lodge, Heptasophs'; and of the Ma- 
 sonic fraternity, in which he has attained the thirty- 
 second degree, belonging to Wooster Lodge, F. & 
 A. M. ; Franklin Chapter ; New Haven Com- 
 mandery ; Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., and 
 the Scottish Rite Masons. The Doctor's great 
 uncle, Charles Brown, was the first master O'f 
 Wooster Lodge. Dr. Brown is also a member of the 
 Second Company, Governor's Foot Guard, of which 
 he is commissar)' sergeant. Professionally he be- 
 longs to the New Haven Dental Club, and the State 
 Dental Society. His political allegiance is given to 
 the Republican party. 
 
 In 1892 Dr. Brown married Miss Jennie A. 
 Thomas, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Halsey C. 
 Thomas, of New Haven. Two children, Mildred 
 and Leonard, have blessed their home. The Doctor 
 and his wife are singers of note, and they have 
 sung at different times in the principal churches 
 of New Haven. 
 
 HARRISON B.' TOLLES. "Alan's sociality 
 of nature," says Carlyle, "'evinces itself, in spite 
 of all that can be said, with abundance of evidence 
 by this one fact, if there were no other — the un- 
 speakable delight he takes in biography," and in 
 the record of our successful business men and lead- 
 ers of thought there is much to interest and instruct 
 tKe reader. The subject of this sketch, a promi- 
 nent resident of Ansonia, is deserving of special 
 mention as a self-made man who has made the most 
 of his opportunities and achieved a substantial 
 success. 
 
 Mr. Tolles was born April 28, 1845, in Pine 
 Bridge, town of Seymour, this county, and belongs 
 to a well-known family of this section. Daniel 
 Tolles, his grandfather, followed farming in the 
 town of Bethany throughout a long life. Isaac 
 Tolles, our subject's father, was born and reared 
 in Bethany, and became a merchant in Naugatuck. 
 He continued business for forty-five years with 
 different partners, becoming regarded as one of the 
 substantial citizens of the town. Fie was an ardent 
 supporter of the anti-slavery cause, and later be- 
 came a stanch Republican, and for many years he 
 was active in municipal affairs, serving as ward 
 inspector and tax collector. His death occurred in 
 Naugatuck, when he was aged eighty-three years. 
 He married Maria W. Buckingham, a devout and 
 consistent member of the MethocHst Episcopal 
 Church, who is still living at the age_of seventy- 
 nine. She was born in Middlebury, one of the 
 eight children of Hezekiah Buckingham, now de- 
 ceased, who came from Ohio and made his per- 
 manent home upon a farm in Middlebury. His 
 wife, whose maiden name was Matilda Wooster, 
 lived to the age of seventy-two, while her mother 
 lived to be ninety-nine. Our subject was the first 
 of a family of eight children, the others being: 
 LHysses, deceased; Eliza, deceased; Fremont, now 
 in Naugatuck; Ralph, a resident of Plainfield, N. 
 
 J.; Lulu, who married Wiliiam Ward, of Seymour; 
 Arthur, a resident of Naugatuck; and Eliza (2), 
 wife of Ira Bennett, of Vermont. 
 
 During his boyhood our subject attended the 
 common schools of Naugatuck and the Wesleyan 
 Academy at Wilbraham, Mass., and when a young 
 man he engaged in butchering in Naugatuck. After 
 five years he removed to New Haven, where he 
 continued the business three years longer, in con- 
 nection with licensed groceries. He then spent a 
 year in Waterbury, in the bottling business, and a 
 year in Harrisburg, Pa., and in 1873 he returned to- 
 Ansonia and opened a bottling establishment in 
 company with S. W. Billam, under the firm name 
 of Billam & Tolles. He conducted same until Mav, 
 1897. At the time of selling out he was the second 
 oldest man in the business in the town, and for 
 years he did the largest bottling business between 
 Waterbury and Bridgeport, keeping a number of 
 men and teams, and sending goods to all the sur- 
 rounding towns and cities. In 1886 he built his 
 present beautiful residence at No. 19 William, 
 street, being the fourth to build on the street, and 
 he is interested in the real-estate business to some 
 extent. 
 
 In 1868 ]\Ir. Tolles married Miss Alice Tuttle, 
 daughter of Zopber Tuttle, a wood and charcoal 
 dealer of Naugatuck, who also conducted a watcb 
 factory there for a time. He died aged seventy- 
 four years, and his wife, Nancy (Sherman), died 
 at the age of sixty-two. Mrs. Tolles was born 
 in Naugatuck, and was one of a family of ten chil- 
 dren. Our subject has one son, Burton I., now 
 twenty years old, who graduated from the Ansonia 
 high school, pursued a course in the Applied" 
 Sciences at Yale College, graduating in the class 
 of 1901, and is now a student in Yale Medical 
 School. The family is identified with the Epis- 
 copal Church, Mrs. Tolles being a member, and 
 politically our subject affiliates with the Repub- 
 lican party. He belongs to the F. & A. M., hold- 
 ing membership in George Washington^ Lodge; 
 Mt. A^ernon Chapter, R. A. M. : New Haven Com- 
 mandery, at New Haven; and Pyramid Tanple, 
 Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Bridgeport. He- 
 is also an active worker in the Ansonia Club, the- 
 leading social club of the town. 
 
 MRS. EMMA J. .POWE, a highly respected- 
 resident of Ansonia, is prominent in the social life 
 of that locality, the influence of her active and cul- 
 tured mind and strong womanly character being- 
 recognized in various lines of work. She is a mem- 
 ber of the Bartholomew family, which has been 
 well known in this section from an early date, and' 
 two brothers and two sisters are represented else- 
 where. 
 
 William Powe (deceased), husband of our sub- 
 ject, was identified for many years with the manu- 
 facturing interests of the town, holding positions- 
 of unusual responsibility and trust. His death oc- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1153 
 
 curred in 1895, when he was aged forty-five. He 
 was born Dec. 6, 1850, in Derby, this county, son 
 of Lewis Powe, and grandson of Major Powe, an 
 EngHshman, who came to America as^ an expert 
 workman in the refining of copper, locating in Belle- 
 ville, N. J. Lewis Powe was trained to his father's 
 business in his youth, and after following it for a 
 time in Belleville, took a position in Derby, later go- 
 ing to Ansonia, where he was employed for years 
 by the A. B. C. Co., as foreman. In 1854 he went to 
 South America, and on his return was for some time 
 employed as an expert refiner by the Park Bros., of 
 Pittsburg, being manager and member of the firm, 
 and by the Duvall Co., of Brooklyn; his last wqrk, 
 however, was done for the A. B. C. Co., of An- 
 sonia. About the time of his retirement he became 
 interested lin orange culture in Florida, where he 
 died at the age of seventy-three. He was a man 
 of ability, and was much respected wherever he was 
 known. He married Harriet Blackman, a native of 
 Oxford, who died in 1854, aged thirty-six. They 
 had two children : Louise, professor of art in Wells 
 College ; and William. 
 
 William Powe was reared in Ansonia, and com- 
 pleted his education in the School of Mines, Co- 
 lumbia University, New York. He started busi- 
 ness life asi a bookkeeper for the Brass & Copper 
 Co. Possessing rare discrimination, his services 
 came into demand as a general buyer and utility 
 man with the Ansonia Brass & Copper Co., of An- 
 sonia, and after twenty-one year's of responsible 
 work there he became connected with the Alumi- 
 num, Brass & Bronze Co., of Bridgeport. Socially 
 he was connected with Washington Lodge, F. & 
 A. M., at Ansonia. 
 
 On Sept. 17, 1873, Mr. Powe married Miss 
 Emma J. Bartholomew, and they hadi two children : 
 (i) Harriet married Dr. F. G. Baldwin, a dentist 
 in Ansonia and has had one child, Lewis Powe. 
 (2) Fannie Louise died in 1889, aged ten years and 
 eleven months. Mr. Powe was a genial, hospitable 
 gentleman, and made many friends, among all 
 classes. He was a Republican in political sentiment, 
 but not active in party affairs, or for that matter in 
 public life of any sort, though he served twenty-one 
 years as foreman of the Hose Company. He sang 
 in the choir of the Congregational Church, but was 
 not united with any religious body. 
 
 Mrs. Powe was born in Ansonia, in the house 
 now occupied by her brother Arthur. Her father, 
 the late J. H. Bartholomew, was a prominent citi- 
 zen of Ansonia, and an account of his life appears 
 elsewhere. In 1833 he married Polly FI. Root, who 
 was born in 181 1 in Plymouth, Conn., and died in 
 1881. She was the daughter of Truman Root, a suc- 
 cessful farmer whose last years were spent in An- 
 sonia. He married Lewina Hemingway, of Plym- 
 outh, Conn., vvfho lived to the age of eighty, and they 
 had thirteen children, two of whom are living. Mrs. 
 Powe is one of a family of six children, of whom 
 four survive, namely: Mrs. P. T. Terry, Mrs. 
 73 
 
 Frances E. Bristol, Arthur and Mrs. Powe. Dana 
 died recently. All reside in Cliff street, Ansonia, 
 where the parents also resided, and Mrs. Powe's 
 home, at No. 134, is the center of a refined hos- 
 pitality. She is well read, especially in historical 
 lines, and extensive travel in the United States and 
 abroad has added to her store of information upon 
 general subjects. As recording secretary of the D. 
 A. R. she is influential in the local branch, and she 
 is also an active worker in the Congregational 
 Church, to which her parents belonged, and of 
 which her daughter and son-in-law are also mem- 
 bers. 
 
 WILLIAM C. KLEINECKE is one of those 
 hustling and energetic characters who give Water- 
 bury quite a distinctive character among cities of 
 its class in New England. Push and determination 
 mark all his actions, and he is widely known as an 
 honorable and upright man. 
 
 Mr. Kleinecke was born in Hartford, Conn.^ 
 Nov. 3, 1854, son of Henry Kleinecke, who was- 
 born in Brunswick, Germany, in 1812, and died in 
 1865. He married Johanna Kutscher, who was- 
 born in 1820 and died in 1886. She was a native' 
 of Prussia, where her father was a locksmith.- 
 Henry Kleinecke was a soldier in his native land, 
 and served in the Ducal army. Having partici- 
 pated in the German Revolutionary movements in 
 1848, he came to the United States the following 
 year, settling in Hartford, Conn., and learning the- 
 tailor trade. During the Civil war he made sol- 
 diers' overcoats, on a subcontract. He was the fa- 
 ther of five children : Hermine, Louise, Augusta, 
 William C. and Albert H. Augusta is deceased. 
 Albert H. is an assistant superintendent at Lincoln 
 Park, Chicago, and an ex-alderman of that city. 
 Flenry Kleinecke was a Democrat politically. He 
 and his family belonged to the Lutheran Church. 
 
 William C. Kleinecke spent the first eleven years 
 of his life in Hartford, where he received all his 
 schooling. For three years he worked on a farm 
 near Hartford, and then learned the trade of a 
 barber, which he followed until about three years 
 ago. Taking his fortunes into his own hands so 
 early in life, he had a rather limited education, and 
 as he grew older he felt a lack which he partially 
 corrected by attendance at night schools, and close 
 and systematic reading. On Aug. 10, 1877, Mr. 
 Kleinecke came to Waterbury, w'hich has since 
 been his home. For the last three years he has 
 been connected with the New York Life Insurance 
 Co. His name is enrolled among the members of 
 the A. O. U. W., the Woodmen of the World and 
 the Foresters of America, and he is now holding the 
 positipn of Grand Secretary of the Grand Court of 
 Connecticut, Foresters of America, a salaried posi- 
 tion, his work covering the State of Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Kleinecke and Miss Catherine E. Burke 
 were married in November, 1878, and tO' this union 
 have been born two children : August Edward,. 
 
II54 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ■who is at home ; and WilHam Frederick, deceased. 
 2\Irs. Kleinecke was born in Waterbury, and is a 
 •daughter of John Burke, of Queens County, Ire- 
 land. ;\Ir. Kleinecke is a Democrat, and has taken 
 an active part in political affairs. At the present 
 time he is a member of the board of public safety. 
 With all his family he attends the Catholic Church. 
 
 HOWARD P. TREAT is one of the popular, 
 public-spirited citizens of Orange, where he was 
 born Jan. 20, 1857. He is a descendant from the 
 first Colonial governor of Connecticut, and well 
 maintains the traditional reputation of the family 
 for courage, energy and probity. His grandfather 
 Vi'as named Isaac, and his father Isaac P. Some 
 uncertainty exists as to whether the town of Orange 
 or that of Milford was the birthplace of his grand- 
 father, but, however that mav be, he is known to 
 have been an early resident of the last named town, 
 and to have been an extensive land owner both there 
 and in Derby, presenting three of his sons with a 
 farm, and setting the fourth up in business in New 
 A^ork. He was a farmer, and a man of prominence 
 and influence in the community, dying at the age 
 of sixty-six years and six months. His wife, 
 IMartha Piatt, of Milford, survived him, passing 
 away in her seventy-fourth year. They were earn- 
 est members of the Congregational Church and two 
 of their seven children are yet living. 
 
 Isaac P. Treat, the father of Howard P. Treat, 
 was born in Orange, and passed his youth after the 
 fashion of most farmers' sons of his day. He en- 
 joyed such educational advantages as were afforded 
 by the district schools of the time, and on reaching 
 manhood established himself upon the farni given 
 him by his father. For many years he managed this 
 property with such skill that he was recognized as 
 one of the township's most successful farmers. As 
 he grew older, however, he abandoned active toil 
 and surrendered the control of his farm to his son 
 Howard, and retired to a home in Orange village, 
 where he still lives. He is a Republican in politics, 
 and has always taken an active part in public af- 
 fairs, having served as selectman and a member 
 of the school board, and for thirty years as. acting 
 school visitor. His religious creed is that of the 
 Congregational Church. He married Mary J., a 
 daughter of Capt. Merritt Barnes, who passed his 
 life of ninety-four years as a farmer in Water- 
 town, loved by his friends and respected by all who 
 knew him. He was noted for his untiring activity. 
 AVhether bound on an errand Of business or pleasure 
 he always drove two fleet horses. He was a man 
 of broad, enlightened public spirit, and inherited 
 a martial disposition from an ancestor, Jonathan 
 liarnes, who was a soldier in the war of the .Revo- 
 lution. He was for many years a captain in the 
 militia, and was always recognized as a capable, ef- 
 ficient officer. He was the father of eleven chil- 
 dren, of whom Mary J., the wife of Isaac P. Treat, 
 and the mother of the well-known citizen of Orange 
 
 whose life is under review, was the ninth. To 
 Isaac P and his wife three children were born, 
 all of whom are yet living : Emma married Henry 
 Beers, of New Haven ; Arthur is a prosperous ma- 
 son and builder, and a member of the firm of Sperry 
 & Treat; and Howard P. is our subject. The 
 mother of this family died before she was thirty 
 years of age, leaving her youngest born, Howard' 
 P., bereft of a mother's care when but ten days old. 
 After her death her husband married again, taking 
 for a second wife Sarah Booth, of Woodbury. She 
 bore him one child. Flora Bell, who married Well- 
 ington Andrew, of Orange, who owns and success- 
 fully manages a large farm. The second wife of 
 Mr. Isaac P. Treat is also deceased. 
 
 Howard P. Treat was a pupil in the common 
 schools and the Orange high school. At the age of 
 nineteen he went to the city of New York, intend- 
 ing to learn the trade of a plumber; not finding 
 that pursuit to his taste, he returned to the farm 
 within a few months, where he continued to remain 
 as his father's assistant and lieutenant for many 
 years. Since he has succeeded to its sole manage- 
 ment he has carried on general farming. 
 
 On Dec. 2, 1880, iVIr. Treat was married to 
 Isabelle Rogers, who was born in New Haven, an 
 adopted daughter of John Rogers, a Milford farmer. 
 Four daughters and two sons have blessed this 
 union: Lottie B., a high school graduate; Arthur 
 P., an electrician in Newark, N. J., in the employ 
 of the Crocker Wheeler Co. ; Laura, a pupil in the 
 high school; Howard B.; Helen, who died in in- 
 fancy ; and Alice. 
 
 Mr. Treat's disposition is genial, generous and 
 wholesouled ; yet his character does not partake of 
 frivolity. He wins friends readily through affa- 
 bility, and retains them through his moral force. 
 He is a consistent member of the Congregational 
 Church of Orange. Politically he is a Republican, 
 and though he can not be called an active partisan, 
 he has been honored by election to important local 
 offices through the suffrages of his fellow towns- 
 men. For three years he was registrar of voters, 
 and in 1896 was chosen selectman, to which office 
 he was re-elected in 1897 and 1898. He became a 
 mentber of Harmony Lodge, I. O. O. F., of New 
 Haven, in 1878, and of the Grange, as well as a 
 member of the Orange Agricultural Society. 
 
 GUSTAVE CORNELIS is one of the import- 
 ant factors in the business circles of Wolcott, and' 
 his life is an exemplification of the term "the dignity 
 of labor." He has utilized the possibilities that 
 America offers to her citizens, for coming to Amer- 
 ica in limited circumstances he has steadily and 
 perseveringly worked his way upward, leaving the 
 ranks of the many to stand among the successful 
 few. He is now engaged in the silver plating busi- 
 ness, and is also interested in the breeding of fine 
 trotting horses. 
 
 Mr. Cornells was born near Brussels, Belgium, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 "55 
 
 April 27, 1849, a son of Charles Louis and Celleta 
 (Poppe) Cornells, life-long residents of that coun- 
 try. The father, who was a merchant, died at the 
 age of forty-nine years. Only two of the eight 
 children reside in America, viz. : Gustave, our sub- 
 ject; and Clement, a merchant of Woodtick, town 
 of Wolcott, New Haven county. Religiously the 
 family were all members of the Catholic Church. 
 
 During his boyhood Gustave Cornelis attended 
 the schools of his native land, was quite a student, 
 and became an expert in arithmetic. After his fa- 
 ther's death, which occurred when he was quite 
 young, he was thrown upon his own resources, and 
 worked for an uncle for a time. At the age of 
 eleven he obtained a position as bookkeeper with a 
 grain dealer, and soon became quite proficient in 
 that line, although he had previously no knowledge 
 of the business. He went to Paris, France, at the 
 age of eighteen years, and found employment at a 
 railroad depot, where he remained until 1872. He 
 then resolved to try his fortune in America, where 
 he believed better opportunities were afforded am- 
 bitious and industrious young men. He sailed from 
 Liverpool, England, and landed in New York with- 
 out money or friends, but he possessed a stout heart, 
 willing hands and a determination to succeed. Go- 
 ing to Winchesiter, Conn., he found employment at 
 cutting wood and making charcoal, for which he re- 
 ceived $40 per month, and from there came to 
 Waterbury, where he learned the silver-plating busi- 
 ness. He continued to work for others until 1881, 
 when he embarked in the same business on his own 
 account at Woodtick, and in the undertaking has 
 met with well-deserved success, although his factory 
 was destroyed by fire in 1890. With characteristic 
 energy he at once rebuilt, and now has a fine plant. 
 He is also engaged in the breeding of horses and 
 owns some fine blooded stock, including a trotting 
 stallion, "True Roseman." His place is known as 
 the Applewood Stock Farm. 
 
 In 187s, in Waterbury, Mr. Cornelis married 
 Miss Julia Bernier, a native of Quebec, Canada, who 
 died in May, 1898, and was buried in St. Joseph's 
 cemetery, Waterbury. She was a member of the 
 Catholic Church. To that union were born two 
 daughters, Laura M. and Emily, young ladies of 
 culture and refinement ; they are still at home with 
 their father. Although Mr. Cornelis takes a deep 
 interest in local affairs he has never been an office 
 seeker and is not identified with any particular 
 party. He is strictly a business man, and the pros- 
 perity that has crowned his efforts is certainly 
 well merited, as it is due entirely to his own un- 
 aided efforts. 
 
 WILLIAM C. SHARPE, well known as an 
 historian and as publisher and editor of the Sey- 
 mour Record^ is one of the representative men of 
 Seymour, and a descendant of an old Connecticut 
 family, his line of descent bdng traced from 
 Thomas Sharpe, who was one of the original thir- 
 
 ty-eight grantees of the town of Newtown, in 1708. 
 Mr. Sharpe received a good education in the 
 public school's of Seymour, completing his studies 
 at Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Mas's. After 
 leaving school he engaged for some time in teach- 
 ing, his last experience being as principal of the 
 sdhool at East Derby. In 1868 he opened a print- 
 ing office in Seymour, and three years later esitab- 
 lished the Record, Which was enlarged in 1887 to 
 its present size — eight six-column pages — and is 
 one of the best weekly papers in the State. His 
 work as an historian has been crowned with suc- 
 cess. "The History of Seymour," in two volumes, 
 is from his untiring pen, as well as "The Annals of 
 the Seymour M. E. Church" and "South Britain 
 Records and Sketches," and 'he has also compiled 
 several genealogical works. In all the affairs of 
 tnc town Mr. Sharpe takes an active interest, especi- 
 ally in educational matters, and for nine years he 
 was a member of the board of education, during- 
 which time he served as secretary and as acting 
 school visitor. In religious connection he is a mem- 
 ber of the Congregational Church, of which he has 
 been clerk for about ten years. He is also a mem- 
 ber of New Haven Commandery, Knights Templar, 
 of the Connecticut Historical Society, and of the 
 following orders: Odd Fellows, Knights of Pyth- 
 ias, Red Men, New England Order of Protection 
 and the Temple of Honor. 
 
 FREDERICK J. WOOSTER, whose business 
 ability, mechanical skill, and executive force are at- 
 tested by the facts of his personal history well- 
 known to many of his Waterbury fellow towns- 
 men, was born in Naugatuck July 8, 1854, a son 
 of Horace B. Wooster, who was also born in that 
 town in 1827, and who died in Seymour, Conn., 
 in 1883. Albert Wooster, his father, a native of 
 Connecticut, married Miss Mitty Chatfield, and 
 reared a family of four children : Horace B. ; Let- 
 some T., Emma E. and William H. H. Letsome 
 T. is superintendent of the Seymour Mfg. Co.'s 
 brass and German silver mills, and is mentioned 
 elsewhere ; Emma E. is unmarried ; and William H. 
 H. is a member of the Seymbur Brass Co. Albert 
 Wooster was a farmer, and died many years ago. 
 His widow died April 24, 1898, at the age of ninety- 
 two years. 
 
 Horace B. Wooster, the father of Frederick J., 
 grew up in Naugatuck, and was a millwright lay 
 trade. For many years he filled the position of 
 superintendent of the Brass Works at Seymour. 
 Tlie brass mills there were built by him, and it was 
 in them that he was accidentally killed. Miss Nancy 
 E. Riggs, who became his wife, was born in Ox- 
 ford, Conn., a daughter of Stephen Riggs, a farm- 
 er. The death of this excellent lady left Frederick 
 J. motherless at the tender age of two and a half 
 years. To Mr. and Mrs. Horace B. Wooster were 
 born three children : Martha, Mary and Frederick 
 J. Martha married W. A. Church, of Derby, Conn., 
 
1 156 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and Mary became the wife of C. J. Wallace, of 
 Waterbury, Conn. Horace B. was a strong Re- 
 publican, and belonged to the Methodist Church. 
 
 Frederick J. Wooster spent the greater part of 
 his early youth in Waterbury, whither his parents 
 had come when he was. very young. In the public 
 schools oi this city he laid the foundations of his 
 education, and acc[uired a very good preparation 
 for practical life. As a young man he worked a 
 year on a farm, and then came back to Waterburv, 
 where he and his father were in the concrete busi- 
 ness, and the two worked together for some eight 
 years. Then Frederick J. betook himself to An- 
 sonia. Conn., where he learned the brass rolling 
 trade of his uncle, L. T. Wooster, of the Osborn'e- 
 Cheeseman Co. Having mastered this trade, he 
 joined his father in building the Seymour Com- 
 pany's plant, and remained in that enterprise about 
 two years. Air. Wooster learned much about the 
 business, and liked it so' well that after keeping 
 books for a year in a grocery in Waterbury he took 
 a position as roller for the Waterbury Brass Co. 
 His promotion was rapid, and he was soon put in 
 charge of the shipping department. The charge of 
 the mill was given him July 8, 1886, and he is now 
 general superintendent of the rolling, rod and wire 
 mills. 
 
 Mr. Wooster and Miss Carrie M. Buckland, a 
 daughter of A. J. Buckland, formerly of Springfield, 
 Mass., were married July 8, 1875. To this union 
 were born seven children: Mabel B. ; Henry M. ; 
 Edward H., deceased; Jennie M., now deceased; 
 Horace B. ; Frederick J., Jr. ; and Florence E. 
 Mabel B. married Dr. George A. Faber, and lives 
 in Waterbury. Mr. Wooster is a Republican, and 
 belongs to Xosahogan Lodge, I. O. O. F., and the 
 A. O. U. W. Mr. and Mrs. Wooster attend the 
 Methodist Church. 
 
 FREDERICK N. SPERRY, M. D. Among 
 the young professional men of the oiity of New 
 Haven none 'have brighter prospects of attaining an 
 exalted rank in medicine and surgery than Dr. Fred- 
 er'ick N. Sperry. 
 
 As far back as Mansfield Sperry, hi's great- 
 grandfather, we find an honorable family record of 
 industrious and energetic citizens bear'ing the fam- 
 ily name. Mansfield Sperry was a stone mason, a 
 trade which he had learned from his own father, 
 and passed on to kis' son Lewis, who was also born 
 in the family homestead, in Woodbridge, Conn. 
 Lewis Sperry reared a fam,ily of several children, 
 one of whom was Alfred, the father of our subject, 
 born in Westville, in 1843, who still survives, hav- 
 ing for twenty-five years been connected with a 
 large factory in New Haven, as a contractor. Dr. 
 Sperry 's mother, Lois E. (Ryerson) Sperry, who 
 was born in Abbington, Mass., was a daughter of 
 William and Rhoena (Whitmarsh) Ryerson, na- 
 tives of Sumner, Maine, and Dighton,' Mass.', re- 
 spectively. Mrs. Sperry still survives. She 'was 
 
 the mother of Alfred William, who is a civil engi- 
 neer in New Haven ; and Frederick N. 
 
 Dr. Frederick N. Sperry was born Dec. 29, 
 1872, and attended the public schools of his native- 
 city, graduating from the high school in 1891, and 
 from Yale Medical School in 1894. For the fol- 
 lowing year and a half he was an interne at the 
 New Haven General Hospital, and in October, 
 1895, began his career as a practitioner. Dr. Sperrv 
 has been well received by his brother physicians,, 
 and is a member of the city, county and State medi- 
 cal societies, and of the American Medical Asso- 
 ciation. In the Yale Medical School he has been 
 an assistant in the clinics, and at present operates- 
 in the ear and throat clinicsi, and is denionstrator of 
 anatomy. Dr. Sperry is a valued member of the- 
 Masonic fraternity, being a thirty-second-degree- 
 Mason, Knig'ht Templar, and a member of the 
 Mystic Shrine. Socially he is a member of the 
 Greek letter college society, D. E. I. ; and in his- 
 religious belief he isi a Congregationalist. On ac- 
 count of his pleasing personality, the Doctor is- 
 popular in New Haven, and ist successful in his- 
 chosen profession. 
 
 REV. JAMES LAWRENCE WILLARD, D. 
 D. (deceased), for over thirty-eight years the be- 
 loved pastor of the Westville Congregational 
 Church, needs no eulogy at our hands. His con- 
 secrated Christian life bore the evidences of higb 
 character, firm faith, unfaltering purpose, culti- 
 vated intelligence, knit and strengthened by a spirit 
 of tolerance and unmistakable kindliness of disposi- 
 tion which won him friends on every side, in every 
 walk of life. For a minister to occupy one pulpit 
 continuously and satisfactorily for over thirty- 
 eight years implies continued energy, as well as- 
 development and progress not possible to every 
 mind. That Dr. Willard possessed these traits in 
 large measure was apparent to all who came within 
 the sphere of his influence. 
 
 James L. Willard was born Oct. 11, 1825, in 
 Madison, Conn., where the family has long been 
 settled. His father, James Willard, was also bom 
 m Madison. The latter married Susan Chan- 
 nm'g, who was born at Newport, R. I., of Scottish 
 ancestry, and seven children blessed this union,, 
 namely: Sophia W. ; John A. ; William B. ; James 
 L., our subject; Capt. Samuel, who was killed in- 
 the Civil war, at the battle of Antietam; Amelia; 
 and Edward N., a former judge of the supreme- 
 court at Scranton, Pennsylvania. 
 
 In 1852 Dr. Willard married Miss Victorine E. 
 Hopson, who was born in Madison, Conn., daugh- 
 ter of Nathan W. and Lucy (Hand) Hopson, and' 
 their union was blessed with one child, Katharine,, 
 ■now the widow of-S. Arthur Marsden. Their only 
 child, Arthur W., born Sept. 16, 1880, is a law 
 student in Columbia College. 
 
 James L. Willard grew to manhood on the 
 paternal farm in Madison, and prepared for college- 
 
n^^M 
 
 ■o 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 1 57 
 
 in the local schools. Entering Yale College, he was 
 graduated from the Academic Department in 1849, 
 and immediately thereafter took his three years' 
 rtheological course at the Yale Seminary, complet- 
 ing same in 1852. His classmates included many 
 men who later became famous in the various pro- 
 fessions. He was in the seminary when Dr. Tay- 
 lor, though past his prime, was still the ruling 
 spirit, and the impress of that noble life was a last- 
 ing influence in the life of Dr. Willard. Our sub- 
 ject had gained renown as a preacher before his 
 ■preparatory days were over, and immediately after 
 their close he preached in the Congregational 
 Church at Seymour, Conn., remaining there nearly 
 tliree years. He then received a unanimous call 
 to the Congregational Church at Westville, where 
 he was ordained pastor on Oct. 17, 1855, and he 
 ■continued in that charge until his death, Jan. 7, 
 1894. Several times during the latter part of this 
 long pastorate, realizing that his strength was fail- 
 ing, he had thought of laying aside the heavy 
 burden of pastoral work, though reluctant to give 
 np the labors so dear to him, and he had decided 
 to hand in his resignation the verj Sunday on which 
 .the bond between him and his congregation was 
 severed by a higher power. As preacher, as pas- 
 tor, as friend, he ministered lovingly to the many 
 with whom he came in contact in all those years, 
 and though not an ostentatious man under any cir- 
 cumstances his influence for good was widespread 
 and deep, a quiet but potent force among a wide 
 ■circle of parishioners, friends and acquaintances. Dr. 
 Willard received several calls to fields wider and 
 affording greater opportunity for one of his am- 
 bitious nature, but he could never bring himself 
 to sunder relations which had become so dear to 
 Jiim., or to shirk responsibilities exacting, though 
 often self-imposed. The Doctor was sociable and 
 friendly to all ; kind and considerate to the bereaved 
 and distressed; benevolent to the needy; tolerant 
 to the weak; and possessed a tact in his relations 
 with everybody which made his presence an ever- 
 -welcome one. '' However, with all his desire to give 
 -offense to no man, he was positive in his convic- 
 tions of right, and never yielded an mch to ex- 
 pediency or popularity in defense of a righteous 
 ■cause or when attacking an evil. The Doctor was 
 an ardent patriot, and his political views were 
 those of the Republican party. He was public- 
 spirited to the last degree, and, believing that the 
 material, moral and intellectual welfare of a corn- 
 munity throve side by side, strove ever to uphold 
 advancement in one line with due reference to its 
 effect on the other. His love for literature was 
 among his most prominent intellectual traits, and 
 was manifested in his conversation and sermons. 
 The Doctor's degree, conferred upon him by Mary- 
 ville (Tenn.) College, was never more worthily 
 bestowed. Dr. Willard never neglected his pastor- 
 al duties to prepare himself for ornate pulpit ora- 
 tory he never indulged his tastes for literature at 
 
 the expense of the studies and research necessary 
 for his effective work as a preacher ; but he never- 
 theless succeeded in keeping fully abreast of the 
 times, both as theologian and a thinker on all up- 
 to-date subjects, and it is this fact which accounts 
 for his continued success, over so long a period, in 
 one pastorate, conditions which cause many an able- 
 bodied man to rust. That he never fell into a rut, 
 that he could appreciate and adopt the best in both 
 the old and new, without inconstancy to the one 
 or an eager desire for the other, was recognized 
 especially by his brethren in the ministry, all of 
 whom loved and revered him. Many a home and 
 many a friendly circle were sorely bereaved by his 
 death, and his remains were followed to their last 
 resting-place in Westville cemetery by a large con- 
 course of people besides those of his congregation. 
 The ministers of the various local churches of all 
 denominations vied with each other in tributes 
 of respect and love. 
 
 CHARLES YOUNG WOODRUFF, a well- 
 known resident of Ansonia, is one of the leading 
 contractors and builders of that locality, many of 
 the largest and most important buildings of the city 
 having been constructed by him. Among these we 
 may mention the Gardner block ; the Foresters Hall 
 block, occupied by the Foresters and Ansonia Fur- 
 niture Co. ; front on the Lindley block and Fellows 
 clothing store ; the Episcopal 'parsonage ; the addi- 
 tions to the Farrell foundry ; all the buildings of the 
 Schneller, Osborne & Cheeseman Co., one being 325 
 feet long and three stories high ; the Stillson House 
 blocks, across the river; and several additions for 
 the Ansonia Electrical Co., including one 40x90 
 feet, and 40 feet high, with an office forty feet 
 square. 
 
 Mr. Woodruff was born Feb. 22, 1859, in 
 Sharon, Conn., and comes of an excellent family 
 which has been identified with that section for many 
 years. Daniel S. Woodruff, our subject's father, 
 spent his life in Sharon, following the shoemaker's 
 trade, and his death occurred there at the age of 
 sixty-one. He and his wife, Harriet Benton, who 
 died at the age of seventy-eight, were devout and 
 consistent members of the Congregational church. 
 They had three children : Jane, who married Henry 
 S. Lindsey, of Ashley Falls, Mass. ; Charles Y., our 
 subject; and Gilbert H., a tinner, who died in 
 Sharon, age.d twenty-seven. 
 
 Charles Y. Woodruff was but eleven years old 
 when his father died, and he remained at home un- 
 til he reached the age of eighteen, receiving a com- 
 mon-school education. At fifteen he began to learn 
 the carpenter's trade in Sharon with L. Van Aletyne 
 and at eighteen he located in Ansonia, the first year 
 being spent in work under instruction for Charles 
 'H. Stillson, of the firm of Powe & Stillson. Later, 
 as a journeyman, he worked two years for this firm 
 and four years for F. A. Lines & Co., where he was 
 made foreman. In 1883 he formed a partnership 
 
II58 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 with W. R. Mott, and bought out the business of 
 Lines & Co., and they continued a general con- 
 tracting business until the death of Mr. Mott in 
 1895. They built up the largest business in their 
 line in that section, employing from ten to twenty- 
 five men, and under Mr. Woodruff's management 
 there has been no decrease of prosperity. He con- 
 tracts for brick, wood or stone work, and completes 
 the entire building from cellar to roof, and much 
 of his draughting is done by him. He has won 
 praise by his fine cabinet work in interiors, and in 
 many of the stores in town the fittings, as well as 
 the building, have been completed' under his su- 
 pervision. His office is located at No. 3 Mechanic 
 street, where he has a shop and improved machinerv, 
 and he also owns a house which he rents. He is a 
 charter member of the Ansonia Board of Trade, 
 and he is active in municipal affairs as a member of 
 the Republican party, having served as councilman 
 from his ward on the first board elected after An- 
 sonia became a city. For sixteen years he has been 
 a prominent worker in the I. O. O. F., in which he 
 has filled all the chairs, and he is a leading member 
 of Eagle Hose Co., in which he has held various 
 ofiices, including those of steward and second as- 
 sistant foreman. He attends the Congregational 
 Church, of which his wife is a member, and at pres- 
 ent he is a member of the Ecclesiastical Society. 
 
 In 1888 Mr. Woodruff married Miss Emma J. 
 Tiftany, who was' born in Ansonia, the only child 
 of Joseph Tiffany and his third wife, Margaret 
 Davidson. Her father, who was a weaver by occu- 
 pation, was an early settler in the town, and his 
 death occurred there in 1868. Her mother now 
 makes her home with our subject. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Woodruff have had three children, of whom two 
 are living, ]\Iargaret H. and Elsie T. 
 
 GEORGE BEAUMONT is a noteworthy de- 
 scendant of the Beaumont family, which is of 
 PVench origin remotely, during the days of William 
 tlie Conqueror entered England, and has long been 
 settled in Hartford county. 
 
 Deodate Beaumont, the grandfather of George, 
 was born in East Hartford, and was the first of 
 that name in Wallingford. He was a son of Ed- 
 mund Beaumont, who was a native of East Hart- 
 ford, and was a soldier in the French and Indian 
 war and *he Revolutionary war. He spent his life 
 in East Hartford. During the latter part of the 
 eighteenth century Deodate Beaumont left the fam- 
 ily homestead in East Hartford and established 
 himself in Wallingford, where he became the owner 
 of 200 acres of land. A mechanic in early life, he 
 was an active and energetic man, and amassed a 
 comfortable fortune. A member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, a veteran of the Revolutionary 'strug- 
 gle, he was a man well known and higthly esteemed. 
 Six children were born to him: Esther, Saphina. 
 Edmund, John, Elijah and Elizabeth. 
 
 John Beaumont, son of Deodate and father of 
 
 George, was born m Walling-ford, where he re- 
 ceived a common-school education. At a very early 
 age he went to sea as a cabin boy, and was a sailor 
 the greater part of his life, becoming mate of a 
 sealing vessel in the service of Jdhn Jacob Astor, 
 the great fur trader. In his later years he settled 
 on the farm owned by his son, consisting at that 
 time of 120 acres. Here he spent the remainder of 
 his life, a good and true man, who followed closely 
 the Golden Rule, and here he died in 1879, and was 
 buried in Center Street Cemetery. A Whig in early 
 life, he became a Republican on the formation of 
 that part}'. Mr. Beaumont married Ann Tyler, 
 whb was born in Branford, Conn., a daughter of 
 John Tyler, a soldier of the Revolution, a sketch of 
 whom appears in the biography of his grandson, 
 Henry W. Tyler. To this union came ten children : 
 Elizabeth; Edmund, who died in California in 1852; 
 Julius, now residing in New Haven ; Lvicina, who 
 died in 1890; Harvey; Francis, of North Haven; 
 Lewellyn ; Albert ; George ; Cynthia, who married 
 Palmer Townsend. Mrs. John Beaumont died at the 
 home of her son George, and was: buried in the 
 Center street ceme.tery. 
 
 George Beaumont attended the district schools 
 of Wallingford and grew up on the old homestead, 
 which has now become his property. He remained 
 with his father as long as he lived, and, in com- 
 pany with his brother Albert, bought out the other 
 heirs in 1 88 1. They farmed together a number of 
 years, engaging in general farming, fruit growing 
 and wine making until 1898, when George Beau- 
 mont bought out his brother, and is now the sole 
 proprietor of the place. Here he has a fine home, 
 an elegant dwelling house, ample barns and every 
 improvement necessary to conduct the place profit- 
 ably. Mr. Beaumont has good judgment and is 
 well read, being thoroughly posted on all current ■ 
 topics. He is a 'Strong Republican in his political 
 convictions. 
 
 On Sept. I, 1892, iNIr. Beaumont married Miss 
 Nettie M. Edell, who was born in Walhngford, a 
 aaug'hter of John Edell. They are (the parents of 
 three children : Esther, born July 30, 1893 ; George, 
 born June 29, 1897; and John, born Jan. 26, 1901. 
 The IBeaumonts are good people, highly respected 
 by all. 
 
 \yiLLIAAI H. BORCHARDT, one of Water- 
 bury's well-known and prosperous citizens, is a na- 
 tive of that city, born Oct. 10, 1858. He is a son 
 of William Borchardt, and a grandson of Gustav 
 Borchardt, who followed the trade of baker in Ber- 
 lin, Germany. ( 
 
 William Borchardt, father of William H., was 
 born in 1824, in Berlin, Germany, whence when a 
 young man he came to the United States, settling in 
 Waterbury. Here, in 1857, he married Charlotte 
 Giertz, also a native of Germanv, born at Rostock, 
 and children as follows were born to them : Will- 
 iam H. ; Florence, wife of Thomas Guest, of Water- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 "59 
 
 bury; and Jennie, wife of Walter French, of 
 Bridgeport, Conn. For some twenty years Mr. 
 Borchardt was a too'lmaker in the employ of the 
 Steele & Johnson Co., Waterbury. 
 
 William H. Borchardt, whose name introduces 
 these lines, received a liberal education at the local 
 schools of Watefbury, and at the age of sixteen 
 years entered the employ of the Plume & Atwood 
 Co., remaining wMi that firm about twelve years, 
 serving his time as toolmaker, and afterward mak- 
 ing good wages as journeyman. In 1884 he pur- 
 chased his present , bottling business, of which the 
 Hellmann Brewing Co. are the proprietors, and 
 he has met with well-merited success in the under- 
 taking. 
 
 In 1883 Mr. Borchardt married Agnes M. Kun- 
 kel, of Waterbury, daughter of Joseph Kunkel, a 
 native of Gennany, and formerly proprietor of the 
 "Germania Hotel," Waterbury. Six children, all 
 vet living, have blessed this union : Joseph, Will- 
 iam, John, Louisa, Louis and Margaret. In his po- 
 litical preferences Mr. Borchardt has always been a 
 Democrat ; for two terms he served as councilman 
 of the Third ward, and for one -year was on the 
 committee of Public Lands and Buildings. He is a 
 member of several societies, among which may be 
 mentioned the following: Frederick Wilhelm 
 Lodge, No. 47, K. of P., of which he was treasurer 
 ten years, and is now past chancellor ; Stephen J. 
 Meany Lodge, No. 37, Foresters of America; the 
 New England Order of Protection; the Improved 
 Order of Heptasophs, Silas Bronson Conclave ; the 
 Harmony Benevolent Association; Steuben Lodge, 
 No. 391, D. O. H. ; the Concordia Singing Society, 
 of w'hich he is a prominent mem'ber ; the Waterbury 
 Turnverein ; and the Schull-Verein. He is also a 
 member of the German Lutheran Church of Water- 
 bury, having been one of the prime movers in start- 
 ing a German Lutheran Church in the city. 
 
 JAMES E. SWEENEY, a well-known real- 
 estate and insurance agent of Naugatuck, is pre- 
 eminently a self-made man. Depending upon his 
 own resources, looking for no outside aid or sup- 
 port, he has risen to a place of prominence in the 
 business world, and his career illustTates in no un- 
 certain manner what it is possible to accomplish 
 when perseverance and determination form the key- 
 note of a man's life. 
 
 Mr. Siweeney was born in Naugatuck, Nov. 6, 
 1856, a son of Edward and Ann- (McKeon) 
 Sweeney, both natives of Ireland, the father born 
 in County Cavan. When a young man he came to 
 the United States, and shortly after his marriage, 
 which was celebrated in Tarrytown, N. Y., he came 
 to Natg-atuck, Conn., where he has since made his 
 home, and for forty years has been employed as 
 watchman bv the Goodyear Glove Co. In his fam- 
 ilv were eight children, namely : John M., a lawyer 
 of Naugatuck; James E., our subject: Mary, wife 
 of Daniel McCarty, of Naugatuck; Eliza A., prm- 
 
 cipal of the High street school of Naugatuck; Pat- 
 rick, who died in infancy; Teressa M., principal of 
 the Rubber street school; Winnifred, stenographer 
 lor our subject; and Frank J., who is clerking in 
 New Haven. 
 
 James E. Sweeney grew to manhood in Nauga- 
 tuck and there acquired the greater part of his edu- 
 cation, graduating from the high school at that 
 place. Subsequently he attended Cargill Commer- 
 cial Institute, New Haven, from which he was grad- 
 uated in April, 1878, and he engaged in school 
 teaching for two years thereafter in Na'Uigatuck,and 
 also one year in Litchfield, Conn. He was next em- 
 ployed as bookkeeper in a dry-goods store in Naug- 
 atuck, and later clerked in the office of Baldwin & 
 Sweeney, attorneys and insurance agents, of that 
 place. He had charge of their insurance business 
 until the fimi dissolved partnership, Feb. i, 1887, 
 when he purchased that branch of their business, 
 and has since carried it on in connection with the 
 real-estate business. He represents the leading in- 
 surance companies of America, England and Ger- 
 many, and also furnishes bonds, etc. He has set- 
 tled more estates than any other man of his age in 
 this section of the county, and is now doing a large 
 and profitable business. He occupies quite a fine 
 suite of offices. 
 
 In February, 1884, yir. Sweeney was united in 
 marriage with Miss Frank E. Piatt, a native of 
 Naugatuck, and the only child of Samuel Piatt, 
 who was bom in the town of Orange, this county, 
 of English extraction. Our subject and his wife 
 have three children : James Piatt, Arthur Lewis 
 and Emily Frances. 
 
 Religiously Mr. Sweeney is a member of St. 
 Francis Catholic Church, and politically he is a 
 Democrat, but not an aggressive partisan. On June 
 I, 1884, he was appointed deputy sheriff, which 
 office he has filled ever since ; has served as assist- 
 ant town clerk ; was tax col'lector of the LTnion Cen- 
 ter school district, of Naugatuck, and also of the 
 town taxes, from 1882 to 1888, and again in 1 891. 
 By strict attention to business, and by the conscien- 
 tious discharge of all duties imposed upon him, he 
 has been successful in life, and has won the respect 
 and esteem of all. 
 
 EDWIN P. PITMAN, M. D. Among the dis- 
 ciples of Esculapi'us in New Haven, Conn., one of 
 the leaders is Dr. Edwin P. Pitman, who, although 
 still a young man, has gained an enviable position 
 for himself in the profession. 
 
 Dr. Pitman was born in Boston, Mass., Sept. 
 26, 1863, a son of John W. and Anna R. (Kelley) 
 Pitman. The family is of English extraction, the 
 grandfather, Stephen Pitman, having come from 
 that country to America and married Olive B. 
 French, a native of New Hampshire. To them 
 were born four children: Wiiliam H., Oscar \'., 
 Charles J., and John W. William H. and Oscar V. 
 were merchants for many years in Concord, N. H. ; 
 
I i6o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Oh'arles J. was a carpenter and contractor ; and the 
 youngest, John W., the father of our subject, was 
 a noted Baptist clergyman. The latter removed to 
 Boston, MasiS., prior to the birth of our subject, but 
 later located in Concord, N. H. His wife was born 
 at St. Johns, N. B., and our subject was their only 
 child. 
 
 Dr. Pitman was taken by his parents, when but 
 three years of age, to Concord, N. H., where he ac- 
 quired his elementary education, graduating with 
 distinction from the Concord High School. He 
 then went to Dartmouth, and was graduated from 
 that institution in the class of 1886. The next step 
 in his upward progress was the acceptance of a 
 professorship in a Soldiers' Orphans School, at 
 Chester Springs, Pa., where he remained one year, 
 and then entered Martha Washington College at 
 Edington, \'a., as professor of French and Ger- 
 man and teacher of vocal music. Although very 
 ■successful, Dr. Pitman felt that his calling was tihat 
 of a physician, and he therefore began the study of 
 medicine. With this idea in view, he entered the 
 Medical Department of Dartmouth College, grad- 
 uating in the class of 1891 ; thence to the New York 
 Polyclinic for a post-graduate course. After this 
 labored preparation for his life work. Dr. Pitman 
 settled in Colchester, Conn., where he remained six 
 months, and in September, 1891, located in New 
 Haven, and has since built up one of the finest prac- 
 tices in this locality. 
 
 On Aug. 30, 1887, Dr. Pitman married Miss 
 Catherine Crowley, who was born in Maine, a 
 daughter of James and Mary Crowley, natives of 
 Ireland. Mr. Crowley was a railroad contractor 
 and a man of considerable prominence. In politics 
 Dr. Pitman is a Republican, and takes an active 
 part in the fraternal organizations of New Haven, 
 being a mernber of the I. O. O. F. ; New England 
 Order of Protection ; Woodmen of the World, and 
 also the Heptasophs of New Haven. In medical 
 circles Dr. Pitman has always borne a prominent 
 part, and is a member of the city, county and State 
 medical societies. Both he and Mrs. Pitman are 
 consistent members of the Baptist Ch'uirch, and are 
 highly respected not only among its congregation 
 but throughout the community. 
 
 AIARK WALLACE HOBSON, a die sinker 
 and molder of WalHngford, was born in Birming- 
 ham, England, April 3, 1856, a son of Edwin Hob- 
 son, one of the respected citizens of Wallingford. 
 
 Mr. Hobson was only ten years old when he 
 came to this country with his parents. His school- 
 ing, wihich began in his native town, was continued 
 in Newark, N. J. Coming to Wallingford with his 
 father, he mastered the art of die sinking under the 
 instruction of that gentleman in the factory of 
 Simpson, Hall & Miller. Here he began when only 
 fourteen years of age, and for more than thirty 
 years he has remained in the employ of that famous 
 firm. His close application, thorough knowledge of 
 
 his work, and his absolute trustworthiness have 
 commanded the respect and confidence of his em- 
 plovers to a marked degree. 
 
 In 1877, in Wallingford, Mr. Hobson and Eliza- 
 beith Folsom Valentine were united in marriage. 
 Mrs. Hobson was born in Alhany, N. Y., a daughter 
 of Edward Valentine, but was living with her par- 
 ents in Wallingford at the tinit of her marriage. 
 To this union were born two children: (1) Rich- 
 ard Thurston, now a student in the high school; 
 (2) Russell Valentine, also in school. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hobson belong to the Baptist Church. He is 
 affiliated with no lodges of any kind, and is re- 
 garded in the community where he is so well 
 known, as a man far above the average both in in- 
 telligence and character. 
 
 ZERAH PIERPONT BEACH, one of the 
 leading agriculturists and fruit growers of Wall- 
 ingford, was born on what is known locally as 
 Parkers Farm, in West Wallingford, Nov. 7, 1845. 
 Mr. Beach is a descendant of one of the oldest and 
 best families of New Haven county. 
 
 Stephen Beach, the great-grandfather of our 
 subject, was born in 1751 in this locality, where he 
 engaged in farming all his life, leaving his plow 
 to become a drumtner in Capt. Stanley's company 
 during the Revolutionary war. His death occurred 
 on Parkers Farm in 1821. In 1774 he married 
 Miriam Parker, who was born in 1753 ; the children 
 of their family were : Jason, Eleanor, Miriam, 
 Silvia, Chancey, Whiting, Stephen, Lyman and 
 Polly. 
 
 Jason Beach, the grandfather, was born on the 
 homestead, and was a farmer all his life, well 
 known and respected, being remembered especially 
 on account of his musical talent. In the church 
 he led the choir and played the bass viol, and was 
 a man of exceeding intelligence. He married 
 Susanna Hotchkiss, and the children of these 
 worthy people were : One that died in infancy, 
 William, Roger, Norman, Susan, Lucy, Nathan 
 and Eliza. 
 
 Nathan Beach, the father of our subject, was 
 born in 181 1, on the old homestead, where he grew 
 to manhood, receiving a common-school education, 
 and he lived near the old home all his life, engaged 
 in general farming, being one of the pioneers in 
 tobacco growing. In 1882 this worthy man was 
 prostrated, and many mourned his decease, as he 
 had been a good neighbor, and one whose example 
 was for the benefit of the community. On May i, 
 1834, he married Lucy Pierpont, who was born in 
 North Haven in 1814, a member of one of the old- 
 est and most distinguished families of New Haven, 
 being a daughter of Joel and Abigail (Cooper) 
 Pierpont, and granddaughter of Giles Pierpont. 
 This intelligent and lovely old lady is a member of 
 the family on the homestead, possessing a bright 
 mind and wonderful memory, but for several years 
 has not had the use of her limbs. INIr. and Mrs. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1161 
 
 Beach had children as follows: Joel, born in 1835; 
 
 Stephen E., born in 1837; Zerah P., our subject; 
 
 and Esther, born in 1850. 
 
 Zerah P. Beach was given the advantages of 
 
 the best schools of the locality, and was also sent 
 
 to the United States Business College, in New 
 Haven. Returning to the farm he took up the 
 
 business as a profession, and has been one of the 
 
 pioneers in the peach-growing business, having 
 
 now an orchard covering twenty-five acres, his trees 
 
 all in prosperous condition. 
 
 Mr. Beach was married, June 5, 1875, to Sarah 
 M. Beard, of Bethany, daughter of Allen and 
 
 Abigail (Smith) Beard. She was a woman of rare 
 Christian character, and a consistent member of 
 
 the Congregational Church, in which faith she died 
 Nov. 28, 1896 ; her remains rest in the Centre Street 
 
 cemetery, in Wallingford. The children bereft of 
 a devoted mother are: Lorenzo A., born in 1876; 
 Flora C, born in 1880; and Zerah N., born in 1885. 
 Mr. Beach has taken a prominent part in town and 
 county affairs, has served in the National Guards, 
 being corporal five years, sergeant twenty-three 
 years, and company treasurer for twenty years ; 
 bas been a justice of the peace whose judgments 
 bave been upheld by the higher courts ; and was 
 assessor. Fraternally he is connected with the I. 
 ■O. O. F. at Wallingford, and in 1885 he was the 
 first lecturer of the Grange of this place, was hi 
 1900 its master, and with some of his children still 
 lakes an active interest in that organization. His 
 associations with his fellow citizens are pleasant, 
 and he possesses the esteem and confidence of the 
 ■community, and is regarded as one of the sub- 
 stantial residents of Wallingford. 
 
 ANDREW JAMES COYLE, the leading ton- 
 sorial artist of Branford, was born in New Haven 
 Sept. 23, 1859, a son of John and Rose (Gallagan) 
 Coyle. The parents, who were natives of County 
 Cavan, Ireland, came to this country in 1850, locat- 
 ing in New Haven, where the father was employed 
 as a section boss on the New York, New Haven & 
 Hartford railroad until 1 871,, when he was made 
 track-walker, which position he filled until his 
 dea;th, in 1875. He was the father of ten children, 
 •eight of Whom lived to reach adult age : Mary A., 
 Mrs. Nicholas H. O'Brien; Andrew J., whose name 
 appears at the beginning of this article; Charles 
 H.; Rose, wife of Michael Fitzgerald; Maggie; 
 John; Lena, Mrs. John H. Tdby; and Nicholas. 
 
 Andrew James Coyle spent his early life m New 
 Haven and Branford, receiving his education m 
 the public schools, and early applying himself to 
 Avork, for his own support. In 1871 he came to 
 Branford, and when he was a little over eleven 
 years of age entered the Branford Lock Works, 
 wlhere he was steadily employed until 1897. Dur- 
 ing these years he had learned the barber s trade 
 with his brother, assisting him evenings,^ and in 
 January, 1898, he set up in the baAer business tor 
 
 himself, and to-day owns one of the best equipped 
 shops in Branford. 'He is capable and energetic, 
 and is much liked and esteemed for his many good 
 qualities. 
 
 Mr. Coyle was married, April 19, 1889, to 
 Frances Evelyn, a daughter of James and Eliza 
 (Regan) Clancy, of Branford. Mr. and Mrs. Coyle 
 are the happy parents of a bright and attractive 
 family of three children : Helena, William and 
 Francis. Mr. Coyle and his wife belong to St. 
 Mary's Cathoilic Church, and he is a member of the 
 T. A. B., the Foresters, the K. of C, the N. E. 
 O. P., the Emerald Social Club, and the Bran- 
 ford Fire Department. In politics be is a Demo- 
 crat. 
 
 GEORGE C. SUMMERS, a well-known busi- 
 ness man of Derby, New Haven county, was, born 
 in that town July 12, 1854, son of Stephen N. Sum- 
 mers, who was for almost half a century promi- 
 nently identified with the business interests of this 
 county. 
 
 Stephen N. Summers was a native of the town 
 of Trumbull, Fairfield Co., Conn. At the early age 
 of thirteen he began his business career, working 
 as a farm hand at $6 per month for one year. Hav- 
 ing saved $100, he went to New Haven, and there 
 learned the cabinetmaker's trade, wbich he subse- 
 quently followed in Stratford and Bridgeport, 
 Conn.,' for some time. At the age of twenty-three 
 ^-ears he came to Derby and opened a small furni- 
 ture 'Store in East Derby. While there he was mar- 
 ried, in 1835, to Miss Mary E. Phillips, who was 
 born in Fairfield, Conn., and he afterward located 
 in Birmingham, where he was engaged in the furni- 
 ture business on a limited scale for about a year. 
 He then erected a building on Minerva street, 
 Derby, w^hich he occupied for many years, doing an 
 extensive retail furniture business under the name 
 the Birmingham Furniture Co. He was in partner- 
 ship first with a Mr. Coe and later with a Mr. Lewis 
 and continued his connection with the furniture 
 trade for forty-nine years. He was also a director 
 in the Birmingham National Bank, and president 
 of the Birmingham Water Co. He belonged to that 
 class of men whom the world terms self-made, for, 
 starting out in life for iiimself empty-handed, he 
 conquered all obstacles in the path to success, and 
 not only secured for himself a handsome compe- 
 tence, but by his. eft'orts materially advanced the in- 
 terests of tlie community with which he was asso- 
 ciated. In political sentiment he was a Republican, 
 and in reHgious belief both he and his wife were 
 Methodists. He died Dec. 23, 1884, and she has 
 also passed away. To them were born seven chil- 
 dren, namely: Jennie M., Carrie, Sarah, Sadie, 
 Henry, George C. and Charles. All are deceased 
 with the exception of Jennie (a resident of Water- 
 bury) and our subject. 
 
 The early education of George C. Summers was 
 acquired in the public schools of Derby, and was 
 
1 162 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 supplemented by a course at Wilbraham, Mass. On 
 returning home he worked for his. father for a time, 
 and then went to New Haven, Conn., where he at- 
 tended the National College of Business. He then 
 acted as bookkeeper, coMector and general manager 
 in his father's furniture establishment, where an ex- 
 tensive wholesale and retail business was carried on, 
 employment being given to as many as seventy-five 
 men. Mr. Stimmers remained with his father until 
 the latter's death, and became thoroughly familiar 
 with every department of the business, including the 
 cabiinetmaking. For the past two years he has en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of extracts and essences, 
 for which he finds a ready sale, and has built up a 
 good trade in that line. A portion of his time is 
 also devoted to his property interests, as he owns 
 and rents many houses in Derby. 
 
 In 1892 Mr. Summers married Miss Jennette 
 Clapper, a native of Albany, N. Y., and a daughter 
 of William Clapper, who was also born in that city. 
 To this union 'have been born four children : Les- 
 ter E., Grace E., jMillicent L. and Alton B. Mr. 
 Summers and his family attend the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, and are quite prominent sociall}'. 
 Politically he is a stanch supporter of the Republi- 
 can party. 
 
 GEORGE W. LIVINGSTON, a brass caster 
 in Ansonia, was born in Canada, Sept. 2, 1843, a 
 son of Samuel Livingston, also a native-born 
 Canadian, who was a farmer ana spent his entire 
 life in Ontario, where he cleared a farm of 200 
 acres, and died at the age of sixty years. Anna 
 Gale, wife of Samuel, was born in Philadelphia, 
 but early made her home in Canada, and she died 
 at the age of eighty-nine. Both s'he and her hus- 
 band were faithful adherents and members of the 
 Baptist Church. 
 
 George Livingston spent 'bis early life in Can- 
 aaa, where he grew to manhood on the paternal 
 acres, and acquired his education in the public 
 schools. When he was twenty years old he left 
 home, and engaged in farming in Illinois, but after 
 a year he returned to his native country where he 
 was at work for three years. He spent five months 
 ■in Pennsylvania, and then came to Connecticut, 
 locating in Ansonia in 1866, where he took a place 
 with Wallace & Sons as a helper for a brass caster. 
 When he learned the trade, he became a brass 
 caster himself, working for eighteen years in the 
 same factory in which he began. He was connected 
 with Osborne, Cheeseman & Co., and later entered 
 the employe of the Birmingham Brass Co. \\"ith 
 the latter house he has been engaged fourteen 
 years, and he is the oldest caster in the factory, and 
 among the oldest in the neighborhood. 
 
 On Aug. 26, 1868, Mr. Livingston was married 
 to Martha Woodin, who was born in Waterbury, 
 a daughter of Aner F. Woodin, who was born I'n 
 Pines Bridge, Beacon Falls, a son of John A\'oodin, 
 also a native of Pines Bridge, where he spent his 
 
 life. Aner F. Woodin was a carpenter, and worked 
 at that trade many years in Waterbury. The latter 
 part of hi's life was spent in Michigan, where he 
 died at the age of seventy-five. His second wife. 
 Delight Bronson, daughter of Polly (Hotchkiss) 
 Bronson, was the m'other of Mrs. Livingston, and 
 to that marriage three children were born : Ella 
 J., who married Theodore Manville; Martha; and 
 Charles Woodin, in Texas. Mrs. Delight (Bron- 
 son) Woodin was born at Prospect, and died at the 
 age of forty-three years, and with her husband be- 
 longed to the Methodist Church. 
 
 Mr. Livingston is a member of Washington 
 Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and the Naugatuck Lodge, 
 I. O. O. F. Both he and his wife belong to the 
 Methodist Church, where they are active and in- 
 terested workers in every department of the church 
 and the Sunday-school. He is a trustee of the 
 church, and with his wife teaches in the S'unday- 
 school. Both are prominent people, much esteemed 
 for their good character, kmdly spirit, and un- 
 swerving integrity. 
 
 WILLIAM J. STANLEY is an expert ma- 
 chinist, and holds an honorable position in Water- 
 bury. The Scovill Manufacturing Co., that has 
 an eye for men of mechanical genius, early dis- 
 cerned the kind of a man he was and gave him 
 work, pushing him forward, until he now occupies 
 a responsible place in their factory. Mr. Stanley 
 was born in Bergen, Hudson Co., N. J., Sept. 2, 
 1858, and is a son of James A. Stanley, whose 
 biography and family history appears in connection 
 with the sketch of hisi son, F. E. Stanle}^ a sketch 
 of whom may be found elsewhere. 
 
 William J. Stanley came to Hopeville, near 
 Waterbury, when a child, and lived there until he 
 was five years old, when his parents moved into 
 the city, and here has been his home to the present 
 time. His education has been largely acquired at 
 odd moments, but it is surprisingly good, and 
 covers a much broader field than one would imag- 
 ine, considering the very limited schooling he 
 has had. He is a wide reader, and a close student 
 of the world about him. At the age of ten years 
 he became the second messenger boy for the West- 
 ern Union Telegraph Co., and at an early age he 
 entered the factory of the Carringiton Manufactur- 
 ing Co., and has made rapid progress in indus- 
 trial matters. Mr. Stanley was with the Matthews 
 & Stanley Co. from 1873 to 1875, and since that 
 time has been associated with the Scovill Manu- 
 facturing Co., where he has achieved a large suc- 
 cess as a tool maker. For fifteen years he has been 
 the foreman of a department, and has a thorough 
 mastery of every one of its details. 
 
 At^ the early age of ten Mr. Stanley manifested 
 a decided musical gift. In 1876 he became a 
 student of Prof. Baier, and studied with him for 
 several years, and in 1877 became the organist at 
 the Old Baptist Church, where he officiated until 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1163 
 
 1881. From 1881 to 1883 he played t'he organ 
 in the Th'omaston Congregational Church ; from 
 1883 to 1886, in the Waterfcury Baptist Church; 
 from 1886 to 1888, the Congregational Qiurch in 
 Watertown; from 1888 to 1899, the First Baptist 
 Church of WateAury. 
 
 On April 28, 1887, Mr. Stanley was united in 
 marriage with Miss Flora Brown, who was born 
 in Aslhland, Mass., a daughter of Benjamin G. and 
 Ella (Hudson) Brown, natives, of Ashland and 
 Framingham, Mass., respectively. Mr. Brown is 
 living, but his wife died Oct. 31, 1894. The Hud- 
 son family are of Scotch extraction, while ithe 
 Browns came frota England. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Stanley have been born two children : ( i ) Louise 
 and (2) Ada. In politics Mr. Stanley is a Repub- 
 lican. Socially he 'has been a member of Nosa- 
 hogan Lodge, No. 21, L O. O. F., for more than 
 twenty years, and is also affiliated with Waterbury 
 Lodge, No. 95, A. O. U. W. He is a Mason of 
 prominent standing, and belongs to Harmony 
 Lodge, No. 21, F. & A. M., Eureka Chapter, arid 
 Clark Commandery, No. 7, K. T. Mr. Stanley and 
 his family are all Baptists, and he has taken an 
 active and efficient part in the musical affairs of 
 that church. 
 
 EMMETT A. CARLEY, a well-known citizen 
 of Cheshire, who is successfully engaged in the 
 express business between Cheshire and New Haven, 
 was born in New Milford, Litchfield Co., Conn., 
 Aug. 28, 1846, a son of Eli A. and Laura (Hub- 
 bell) Carley, and grandson of Jamesi and Betsy 
 (Dawson) Carley. The grandfather was also a 
 native of Litchfield county, was a farmer by oc- 
 cupation, and was a great Hunter and trapper. He 
 died in Naugatuck, Conn., his wife in Danbury, 
 this State. To them were born three sons, John, 
 Eli A. and Hugh. 
 
 Eli A. Carley, father of our subject, was born 
 in Litchfield county April 9, 1809, and was reared 
 and educated in the town of Kent, that county. 
 He was a builder and millwriglTt by trade, and 
 continued to follow the latter occupation through- 
 out life. In 1855 he came to Oxford, New Haven 
 county, where he died Jan. 18, 1867. His wife 
 died in Shelton, Fairfield Co., Conn., in 1890. In 
 their family were nine children: James F., who 
 died young; James F. (2) ; Lucy Ann, wido^w of 
 julite W. Munson, of Wallingford, Conn.; Ellen 
 Sophia, Mrs. Curtis H. Dodge, of the same place ; 
 Horatio H., who died in Wolcott in 1889 ; Eli Al- 
 fred, superintendent of the Housatonic Water Co. 
 a)t Shelton; John, a resident of Waterbury; Em- 
 mett A., our subject; and Charles W., who died 
 in Oxford at t'he age of nine years. 
 
 The boyhood arid youth of Emmett A. Carley 
 were passed iri Oxford, where 'he attended school 
 and where he continued to make his home until 
 thirty years of age. In early life he drove a stage 
 in Connecticut and later in Pennsylvania, having 
 
 charge of a line running from ]Mauch Chunk, but 
 he was obliged to leave that State during the 
 troubles with the "Molly Maguires." For a time 
 he was engaged in the livery business in Bristol 
 and New haven, and in 1895 'he located on a fann 
 in Cheshire, and engaged in the milk business and 
 in dealmg in horses and cattle. He had a large 
 milk route in Waterbury. 
 
 In 1878, in Bristol, Mr. Carley married Miss 
 Frances Lane, a native of Wolcott, New Haven 
 county, and a daughter of Asahel and Harriet 
 (Mansfield) Lane, both of whom are deceased. To 
 this union have been born four children, three of 
 w'hom are now living, namely: Mabel F., Julius 
 M., and Russell Henry. Politically Mr. Carley is 
 a stanch Prohibitionist, and he is a member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church of Cheshire. He 
 served as constable of Oxford at one time, but has 
 never been an office seeker, though as a citizen he 
 is al'ways ready to discharge any duty that de- 
 volves upon him. 
 
 JOHN F. McGRAIL, well known to those 
 familiar with the operating force of the Winchester 
 Repeating Arms Co., at New Haven, as a man of 
 high character, unswerving integrity, and unwearied 
 industry, was born ait Mt. Carmel, Conn., May 22, 
 i860, son of John McGrail, who was born in 
 County Limerick, Ireland, Dec. 4, 1831. Ste- 
 phen McGrail, the grandfather of John F., was a 
 farmer in Ireland, came to the United States, and 
 died seven days after first setting foot on the Amer- 
 ican shore. 
 
 John McGrail came to this country in 1844, 
 landing in Boston, Mass. In 1856 he married 
 Eliza Rourke, an Irish compatriot. Two of the 
 five children born to them are living : John F. ; 
 and Annie M., who married James R. Mercer, of 
 New Haven. The father was engaged for twenty- 
 one, years in Mt. Carmel as an axle maker. 
 
 John F. McGrail spent his boyhood and youth 
 at Mt. Carmel, where he attended school, and very 
 early began the labor of his own support, going 
 into a bolt shop while still a lad of only eight years.. 
 In New 'Haven he attended public school three 
 years, and then secured a situation in the factory 
 of the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., where his 
 industrious habits, intelligent nature and. trust- 
 worthiness brought himi forward step by step; he 
 now holds a responsible and profitable connection 
 with the Company as a contractor in the bullet 
 room. 
 
 Mr. McGrail was married Oct. 22, 1S90, to 
 Elizabeth A. Shannon, of New Haven, a daughter 
 of James Shannon, a native of Ireland. To this 
 union were born a family of six children: Gert- 
 rude ; Estella ; Sylvester and Vincent, twins ; Ray- 
 mond ; and Clement. Mr. McGrail has always been 
 a Democrat, and has a very vivid comprehension 
 of the political issues of the hour. Socially he be- 
 longs to the N. E. O. P., and in religion is a mem- 
 
:i 164 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ber of St. Mary's Parish, Catholic Church. His 
 summer home, at Farview Beach is a very pleasant 
 spot, and while not as costly as some, it is in good 
 taste, and presents an inviting appearance. 
 
 DENNIS H. TIERNEY, one of the most 
 
 -prominent business men of Waterbury, at present 
 
 engaged in the real-estate, insurance and bond and 
 
 surety business, is a native of Ireland, born at 
 
 Abbeyleix, Queen's County, in the year 1846. 
 
 John Tierney, father of our subject, was also 
 •a native of Queen's County, born at Portarlington, 
 a son of Matthew Tierney, who carried on the sale 
 of timber and lumber at that place. John Tierney 
 -married Margaret McDonald, and six children 
 were born to them, ah of whom are now deceased 
 ■except our subject. One died in Ireland. Michael 
 died of fever in Mississippi, while serving in the 
 TJnited States regular army. Margaret passed 
 away at the age of seven years. In 1848 the par- 
 ents, with five children, emigrated to the United 
 States on a sailing vessel, the voyage— which, 
 owing to storms (the masts and rigging bemg 
 twice carried away), lasted fourteen weeks — bemg 
 made via Quebec. Fever having broken out 
 ■among the passengers, the ill-fated ship was quar- 
 antined at or near Quebec, and a large shed, pro- 
 vided with roof only, the sides and ends being open, 
 was utilized as a temporary hospital. Here the 
 father died shortly after landing, leaving a widow 
 -and five children, two of whom also diied at or near 
 Quebec. Mrs. Tierney journeyed to Waterbury, 
 Conn., where she had two brothers and one sister 
 living, but as their means were not sufficiently . 
 ample to afford much aid to their widowed sister 
 and her three children, she was confronted with 
 the vital necessity of providing some immediate 
 -means of support. So she bravely set her face to 
 the task, and, laundry work being the most avail- 
 able at the time, for six long years, day and night, 
 the brave woman industriously labored, washing 
 and ironing. At about the end of that time she se- 
 cured a position in the Hotchkiss & Merriman web 
 shop (now known as the American Mills), inspect- 
 'Ing and pressing webs. She died in Waterbury in 
 1888. 
 
 Dennis H. Tierney, the subject of this memoir, 
 was about eighteen months old when the family 
 •came to Waterbury, and here he received his ele- 
 Tnentary education, partly in the district schools and 
 partly, by the advice of his mother, at night school. 
 At the age of nine years he was employed in the 
 buckle factory, and afterward in many of the fac- 
 tories of Waterbury, becoming somewhat skilled 
 in the manipulating of metals. When about eight- 
 een }ears old he began work in the thimble depart- 
 ment of the Scovill Manufacturing Co., remaining 
 three years ; and while there, under the guidance of 
 Ti. S. Curtiss, of W'oodbury, Conn., he learned the 
 craft of toolmaking, also the machine business, in 
 a lin-iited wa^■, After three vears' service in Water- 
 
 bury, having decided that New York offered a more 
 extended field for advancement, he took his tool 
 chest and traveling bag into the big city, with high 
 hopes of learning something new, yet not without 
 grave fears and misgivings lest he should be un- 
 able to cope with the greater mechanics of the city, 
 which fears and misgivings were overcome only 
 after many sleepless nights. During the years 
 1867-68 he took a course of instruction in the 
 Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and 
 Art, particularly in the mechanical drawing depart- 
 ment. He divided his time between this and the 
 common evening school of New York City. At 
 the Cooper Union he graduated with the class of 
 1868, and took a first-class certificate for superior 
 ability. Afterward he had experience in various 
 machine shops, and in perfecting machinery for 
 Ketchum Brothers, McDougal & Co., New York, 
 for the making: of silver thimbles from a solid disk 
 of silver. He invented a bevel and tapering gauge, 
 a necktie fastener, and a lathe chuck by the use of 
 which work may be adjusted to the one-thousandth 
 part of an inch in the lathe. 
 
 After a residente of three years in New York 
 Mr. Tierney worked for a short time in Danbury, 
 Conn., in a sewing-machine factory ; then went to 
 Forestville, Hartford county, where he made dies 
 in the Bristol Brass & Clock Co., in the burner de- 
 partment ; and after ten years there he invented 
 what is known as "Tierney's Diamond Dust Hard- 
 ening Powder," for hardening steel, and which af- 
 terwards proved a great success. He also invented 
 a toy that gained considerable popularity. 
 
 Returning to Waterbury, Mr. Tierney in the 
 year 1881 opened the Naugatuck A'alley Patent 
 Agency, shortly afterward adding the real-estate, 
 general insurance, and bond and surety business. 
 His first office, a room about 4x9 feet, made from 
 a simall hallway, was at No. 59 Bank street ; he was 
 then on East Main street, and later moved to No. 
 167 Bank street, where he is now located. In addi- 
 tion to his regular business interests he was presi- 
 dent of the Globe Publishing Co., Waterbury (who 
 publish the Evening Globe), and a stockholder in 
 the Commercial Record, published in New Haven. 
 In 1893 he was chairman of the Central school dis- 
 trict financial committee. 
 
 Mr. Tierney has been three times married, first 
 time, Jan. 28, 187,'^, to Julia A. Smith, who was 
 born in County Westmeath, Ireland, whence she 
 came to Waterbury in childhood. She died in 1875, 
 the mother of one child, Henry S., who was in 
 Cuba, as chief engineer of the government steam 
 launch "Percy." In 1885 our subject married 
 Annie Fisher, of Danbury, who was born in the city 
 of Cork, Ireland, whence she came to this country 
 in childhood. She died June 20. 1887, without 
 issue. In 1880 Mr. Tiernev married 'Margaret E. 
 
 Cassidy, who was boin in Greenwood, N. Y., and 
 seven children came to this union : John D., 
 Mathew D., May M., Alark, JMadeline C, Ger- 
 
(^U^i^^^'^U'-'i^^^.^ >^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1165-, 
 
 aldine J., and Luke (deceased). The family are 
 identified with the Church of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception, and Mr. Tierney is very prominent in 
 Catholic circles, as well as in all matters of public 
 interest, irrespective of creed or politics. 
 
 Socially Mr. Tierney is a member of the 
 Knights of Columbus, and was grand knight of 
 Carrollton Council. He was president of the Sec- 
 ond Division, A. O. H., and was chairman of the 
 Reception committee, which had in charge the care 
 and feeding of thousands of Hibernians who came 
 from all parts of Connecticut, as well as other 
 States, to the centennial celebration on May 23, 
 1898. He is president of an association organized 
 for the purpose of erecting a monument to the 
 memory of James Reynolds, the Irish patriot, and 
 he was treasurer of tlie committee in raising funds 
 to send the remains of Stephen J. Meany (another 
 Irish patriot) to Ireland. He also belongs to the 
 American-Irish Historical Society. In 1880 he was 
 president of the Young Men's Catholic Institute, of 
 Naugatuck, Conn., and he was one of the fore- 
 most to advocate the use of its books to the public 
 without regard to color, creed, or nationality, and 
 the Institute so voted. In 1882 he organized a 
 Father Matthew Total Abstinence and Benevolent 
 Society, in Bristol, Conn., and was its first presi- 
 dent, and he has adhered to the principles of total 
 abstinence from that time to the present. Our 
 subject was one of the active workers, treasurer as 
 well as a member, of the "Manila Testimonial Coni- 
 mittee," representing the people of Waterbury in 
 showing their appreciation of her loyal citizens' by 
 presenting a highly embellished sword to a lieuten- 
 ant, and a gold watch and chain to a common sea- 
 man, both of whom were with Commodore Dewey 
 and took part in that memorable engagement in 
 Manila, May i, 1898; through the same committee 
 the town presented a solid silver medal to each and 
 every one of the Waterbury people who served their 
 country in the Spanish-American war. Mr. Tier- 
 ney has been active to aid the Boers in South Af- 
 rica. He was chairman of a mass meeting com- 
 posed of all classes of citizens, held at Waterbury 
 March 6, 1900, which adopted resolutions of sym- 
 pathy with the Boers in their struggles for liberty. 
 These resolutions were sent to many promment 
 men, including the President of the United States. 
 Our subject is intensely patriotic, and is loyal to 
 his native land. Like all true Irishmen, he is a 
 lover of liberty. In politics Mr. Tierney is a Demo- 
 crat, and as a man of refinement and sterling 
 qualities of character he is most highly esteemed. 
 
 JAMES CLIFFORD DOOLITTLE, an en- 
 ergetic and progressive farmer and lumber manu- 
 facturer of West Woods, Hamden, New Haven 
 county, was born there, on the Doolittle homestead, 
 Feb. 22, 1874, and is a worthy representative of one 
 of the honored old families of the county. His 
 great-grandfather, Daniel Doolittle, was born m 
 
 the town of Wallingford, but when a young man: 
 came to Hamden and purchased a farm, on which 
 he spent the remainder of his life, engaged in gen- 
 eral farming and stock raising. He married Miss. 
 Druce Chatterton, who also died in Hamden, and 
 both were laid to rest in the Mt. Carmel cemetery. 
 They were consistent members of the Congrega- 
 tional Church and most estimable people. In their 
 family were six children : Lura, who died unmar- 
 ried ; Julia, wife of William Ellis; Percy; Arilla;, 
 Heman and Morris. 
 
 Heman Doolittle, the grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, was born in Hamden, March 19, 1799, and 
 was educated in the district schools of the town. 
 He 'spent his entire life in Hamden, where he 
 owned and operated a large tract of land, was suc- 
 cessfully engaged in general farming, and also 
 dealt in wood quite extensively. He died upon his 
 farm, July 26, 1875, and was buried in Mt. Carmel' 
 cemetery. On Nov. 11, 1824, he married Julia 
 Allen, who was born in Wallingford, Dec. 24, 1802,. 
 a daughter of Ernest Allen, and died July 26, 1854. 
 She was an earnest member of the Baptist Church. 
 In their family were eight' children : Emily, borm 
 Sept. 2, 1S26, died Dec. 30, 1885 ; Amanda, born 
 May 18, 1828, was married, Sept. 8, 1852, to Anson 
 Doolittle; Oswin, the father of cur subject, was 
 next in order of birth; Julia A., born Oct. 9, 1832, 
 was married, Sept. 9, i860, to Lewis Joyce, of" 
 Hamden; Samuel D., born March 12, 1835, was 
 married, Nov. 28, 1861, to Cornelia A. Sanford; 
 Caroline, born April 20, 1836, died Sept. 19, 1836; 
 Ellen M., born March 30, 1840, died Oct. i, 1843; 
 and Sarah J., born Oct. 5, 1844, married: Jerome- 
 C. Munson. 
 
 Oswin Doolittle, father of our subject, was born 
 in West Woods, Hamden, July 30, 1830, was reared, 
 upon a farm, and educated in the district schools. 
 Throughout life he followed agricultural pursuits, 
 and owned and operated a fine farm of seventy-five 
 acres, upon which he made many useful and sub- 
 stantial improvements. He also owned a sawmill 
 and was engaged in the manufacture of lumber. He 
 was a stanch supporter of the Republican party, 
 but never a politician in the sense of office seeking. 
 On May 10, 1865, he married Sarah Josephine 
 Root, widow of Capt. Henry Gerrish, and to them 
 were 'born five children, namely : Howard, a resi- 
 dent of Torrington, Conn. ; Sherwood, of New 
 York State; Warren; Christina, wife of Edward 
 Haynes; and James C, our subject. The father 
 died in 1893, the mother in 1886, honored and re- 
 spected by all who knew them, and were laid to 
 rest in the Mt. Carmel cemetery. 
 
 James C. Doolittle obtained his education in the 
 district schools of Hamden, and a business college 
 of New Haven. During his youth he aided his 
 father in the labors of the farm and mill, and re- 
 sided upon the old homestead until 1896, when he 
 purchased the farm of 100 acres, in Hamden, upon 
 which he now resides. In connection with farm— 
 
ii66 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ing, he is also engaged in the dairy business and 
 carries on the mill once owned by his father. He 
 is one of the most enterprising and progressive 
 3-cung men of the town, is industrious and ener- 
 getic, and carries forward to successful completion 
 whatever he undertakes. In September, 1899, he 
 was married, in Hamden, to Miss Mabel Oilman, of 
 Glover, Vt., a daughter of Marshall Gilman. Po- 
 litically he is identified with the Republican party, 
 and religiously is an active and prominent member 
 of the Congregational Church, in which he serves 
 as a teacher in the Sunday school. 
 
 THOMAS F. McGRATH, proprietor of the 
 cigar manufactory at No. 119 South Main street, 
 A\'aterbury, was born in County Limerick, Ireland, 
 I\Iay I, 1856, son of Thomas and Margaret (Pow- 
 ell) McGrath, of whom mention in full is made 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Thomas F. McGrath was about five years of age 
 when brought by his parents to Waterbury, and 
 there he attended school until eleven years old, 
 when he went to work in the old woolen 'mill, well 
 known at that day. After laboring there for a 
 short time he started out on a tour of the country, 
 sight-seeing and working in various towns and 
 cities, and was gone about fifteen years, during 
 which period he was emiployed chiefly in silk fac- 
 tories. 
 
 On his return to Waterbury, in 1882, Mr. Mc- 
 Grath sold cigars for T. J. Jackson for a while, and 
 then handled beer and cigars together. In 1890 he 
 began the manufacture of cigars on his own ac- 
 count, and this has been his business ever since. He 
 employs ten or fifteen men, and his sales are made 
 largely in the neighboring towns, as well as at 
 home. He makes private brands a specialty, and 
 his product is principally of the higher grade, cigars 
 that retail at ten cents apiece. 
 
 In 1889 Mr. McGrath married Miss Margaret 
 E. Lynch, who was born in Wallingford, Conn., 
 daughter of John Lynch, a native of Wallingford. 
 Two children have blessed this union, Florence and 
 Irene, who are being reared in the faith of the 
 Catholic Church, of which the parents are mem- 
 bers. Mr. McGrath is a member of the Ancient 
 Order of United Workmen ; of the Catholic Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows, of Watefbury-; and 
 also of the Union club. In politics he is independ- 
 ent, and casts his franchise for the candidate he 
 deems best fitted for office. He is an industrious 
 and sagacious business' man, and is respected 
 wherever known. 
 
 JAMES G. CURTISS, the well-known livery- 
 man of Ansonia, is a representative of a prominent 
 family of the town of Woodbury, Litchfield Co., 
 Conn., where he was born Sept. 13, 1863. His an- 
 cestors located at Woodbury at an early dav, and 
 his grandfather, David H. Curtiss, was a native of 
 the locality and spent his entire life there, his home- 
 
 stead being located on the main road between 
 Woodbury and Southbury. This- worthy citizen 
 died at a g'ood, old age, the father of two children. 
 James G. Curtiss, Sr., our subject's father, was 
 born and reared at the old homestead in Wood- 
 bury, where he still resides at the age of sijtty-sev- 
 en, having followed farming all his life. He is re- 
 spected by all who know him for his intelligence, 
 culture and sound' judgment, and has taken an ac- 
 tive part in political affairs, being one of the leading 
 Republicans of the town. His fellow citizens have 
 frequently chosen him to office, and he has served 
 two terms as selectman and two as representative 
 in the Legislature. For many years he has been 
 an active worker in St. Paul's Eoiscopal Church, 
 Woodbury, in which he has held numerous offices, 
 including those of superintendent of the Sunday 
 school and teacher of a Bible class. In the ab- 
 sence of the rector he has read the service in the 
 Church for months at a time. His estimable wife, 
 Mary J. Styles, who died in 1894, was born in 
 Southbury, and was one of three sisters of whom 
 Nellie and Alice still reside at their old family 
 homestead. To James G. Curtiss, Sr., and his 
 wife seven children were born, of whom four are 
 living, namely: Henry S., Annie M. (Mrs. Som- 
 ers, of Woodbury), James G., Jr., and Flora P. 
 (Mrs. L. N. Carrington, of Woodbury). Nellie, 
 now deceased, married H. E. Barnes, of Water- 
 town. 
 
 The common schools of AVoodbury afforded 
 James G. Curtiss his early educational opportun- 
 ities, and at the age of seventeen he went to Water- 
 bury, where he was employed for three years by 
 Megg & Trott as a clerk in a bakery. He then 
 sipent a ^-ear in Iowa, after which he went to Chi- 
 cago, and then returned to the homestead, where 
 he was engaged in farming for two and a half 
 years. For two years he was employed as a clerk 
 in H. ^I. Heine's grocery and meat market in 
 Chicago, and on his return to Connecticut he 
 spent two years on a farm in Woodbury. In 
 1891 he settled in Ansonia, purchasing a trucking 
 business with a stable on Water street. Later he 
 bought his present stable. No. 26 Water street, and 
 in 1897 he leased a stable at No. 267 Main street, 
 and later bought his extensive business, requiring 
 offices at both. He has a fine line of livery teams, 
 fourteen horses being kept at the Water street 
 stable for that purpose, and there are usually twelve 
 boarders there. At the Alain street stable he keeps 
 about forty-five horses for trucking, and in this line 
 he does the largest business in the city, being reg- 
 ularh- employed by the principal firms, including 
 the S. O. & C. Co., the Union Fabric Co., the An- 
 sonia Lumber Co., the Ansonia O. & C. Co., the 
 Ansonia Novelty Co., the A. B. C. Co., the Coe 
 Brass Co., and the Farrell Foundry Co. He also 
 runs a line of express and freight teams to the dif- 
 ferent depots, and has the contract for watering the 
 streets, for which he keeps two carts especially con- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 1 67 
 
 structed. At one time he was a member of the 
 Board of Trade, and as a business man he is held 
 in high esteem. In politics he is a Republican, and 
 he is identified with the A. O. U. W., the Eagle 
 Hose Company of Ansonia, and King Hiram 
 Lodge, No. 12. He attends Emmanuel Episcopal 
 Church, of which his wife is a member, and both 
 are interested in the work of the society. 
 
 In 1890 Mr. Curtiss married Miss Alma M. 
 Bassett, daughter of William H. Bassett, a well 
 known agriculturist of Bethlehem, and they have 
 one son, James G. (3). 
 
 LOUIS A. MANSFIELD. Since 1855 the 
 business of which Louis A. Mansfield is the capable 
 and efficient owner and manager, has been one of 
 the most prosperous among the business circles of 
 New Haven. The original firm name was Gower 
 & Mansfield, the owners being George D. Gower 
 and Austin Mansfield, later becoming Austin Alans- 
 field & Son, and still later, Louis A. Mansfield, all 
 these years representing a policy of strict honesty 
 and unimpeachable integrity. 
 
 Louis A. Mansfield was born in New Haven, 
 Alarch II, 1863, a son of Austin and a grandson 
 of Jesse Merrick Mansfield. The latter was a 
 farmer in Hamden, Conn., where he married a 
 member of the Eaton family, and settled down on 
 a farm in that locality, where they reared three 
 children : Austin ; Ellen, who married George D. 
 Gower, of New Haven; and Susan, who, after the 
 death of her sister, married Mr. Gower. 
 
 Austin Mansfield was born in Hamden, Conn., 
 April 7, 1833, grew up on the farm andi attended 
 the district schools, in 1855 he removed to New 
 Haven and started a lumber business, in association 
 with George D. Gower, which continued until 1885. 
 when Mr. Gower died and the business continued 
 until 1890, when Mr. Mansfield associated his son 
 Louis with him, and the firm style became Austin 
 Mansfield & Son. In 1899, upon the death of his 
 father, Louis Mansfield assumed sole charge under 
 the name of Louis A. Mansfield, dealer in lumber 
 and coal, located at No. 505 Grand avenue. 
 
 On May 12, 1858, Austin Mansfield was mar- 
 ried to Emily A. Ford, who was born in Hamden, 
 Conn., a daughter of Merritt Ford, a farmer of 
 Hamden, and died Aug. 13, 1879. The only child 
 of this union was Louis A. Politically, Mr. Mans- 
 field was a Democrat, and both he and wife were 
 consistent and devoted members of the Episcopal 
 Church. In 1885, Mr. Austin Mansfield married 
 Charlotte E. Judson, of New Haven, who survives 
 him. 
 
 Louis A. Mansfield spent his early boyhood in 
 New Haven, and had exceptional educational ad- 
 vantages, attending private schools, and later pass- 
 ing through the Hopkins' Grammar school. He 
 entered Yale College, and graduated with the class 
 of 1885, immediately becoming associated with his 
 father in business. Since taking charge, Mr. Mans- 
 
 field has carried out the former policy of the house, 
 and enjoys all of the old patronage and a constant- 
 ly increasing one. 
 
 On August 14. 1890, Mr. Mansfield was mar- 
 ried to Miss Mary F. Hurd, of New Haven, a 
 daughter of PVances (Wheeler) Hurd, of South- 
 ford, Conn., a member of an old and honored fam- 
 ily of that locality. In politics, Mr. Mansfield is 
 in sympathy with the Democratic party, and is fra- 
 ternally connected with the D. K. E. College" so- 
 ciety ; the Graduate Club, and is a member of the 
 Chamber of Commerce, and the Builders' Ex- 
 change. Since 1892, he has been secretary of the 
 Lumber Dealers' Association of the State, in all 
 lines being one of the most progressive among the 
 younger business men of the icity. His church 
 connection is with the Episcopal Church, where 
 both he and wife are highly esteemed. 
 
 WILLIAM A. FABER, a progressive and en- 
 terprising citizen of Waterbury, who is successfully 
 engaged in dairy farming on Bucks Hill, was born 
 at that place April 27, 1858, son of George Faber, 
 one of the most highly respected citizens of Bucks 
 Hill. 
 
 Our subject attended the district schools near 
 his boyhood home, and also the Waterbury high 
 school. After his education was completed he 
 worked at general farming on his father's place 
 four years, and then learned the trade of a caster 
 with the Scovill Manufacturing Co., by whoan he 
 was employed three years. He then bought a milk 
 route and engaged in the dairy business three years, 
 after which he sold out and worked for the Bene- 
 dict & Burnham Manufacturing Co., as caster, for 
 the same length of time. He next turned his at- 
 tention to farming, near his father's place on Bucks 
 Hill, where he purchased a tract of 105 acres, and 
 in connection with its operation he carries on his 
 father's farm of seventy-five acres. He keeps thir- 
 ty cows, and is one of the largest dairy and vege- 
 table farmers in the town of Waterbury. He is 
 very industrious, enterprising and energetic, and 
 is meeting with well-deserved success in his labors. 
 
 Mr. Faber married Miss Harriet Scott, also a 
 native of Waterbury, and a daughter of Merritt E. 
 Scott, and they have four children: Lucy, Sarah, 
 Mabel and George. Politically Mr. Faber is a_ sup- 
 porter of the Democratic party and its principles, 
 but has never been an office seeker. However, he 
 has served since 1880 as secretary, treasurer or 
 member of the committee of the Bucks Hill school 
 district. He is a prominent member of St. John's 
 Episcopal Church of Waterbury, in which he is 
 serving as vestryman, and is a trustee of the Bucks 
 Hill Union Chapel, and also Sunday-school super- 
 intendent. He is a charter member of Mad River 
 Grange, of which he has been master and member 
 of the executive committee, and is now the trustee 
 of the Grange hall and property. He is quite pop- 
 ular with the members of that organization, and 
 
ii68 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 takes a deep interest in its affairs. He is secretary 
 and sexton of the Bucks Hill Cemetery Association. 
 Wherever known Mr. Faber is held in high regard, 
 and his friends are many. 
 
 GEORGE B. MUNGER, a member of the firm 
 of Munger & Son, and one of the leading business 
 men and prominent manufacturers of Madison, 
 was born May i8, 1854, in East River, New Haven 
 county, and is a descendant of one of the oldest 
 families of New England. 
 
 Nicholas Munger was the first of the name in 
 Guilford. Emigrating to America with William 
 Chittenden, he left his home at the age of sixteen 
 years. Locating in Guilford, he spent the re- 
 mainder of his life there, and died in 1668. He 
 was buried in Guilford. On June 2, 1639, he mar- 
 ried Sarah Hall, who, after his d/eath, married 
 Dinis Crampton. To her first marriage were born 
 two children, John and Samuel, of whom the last 
 named married Sarah Hand, and died March 5, 
 1717. 
 
 John Munger, son of Nicholas, was born in 
 Guilford April 26, 1640, and died there Nov. 3, 
 1732. On June 3, 1684, he married Mary Everts, 
 who was born May I, 1664, and died in June, 1734. 
 Their children were: (i) Mary, born June 16, 
 1685, died young; (2) 'John, born Aug. 19, 1687, 
 married Oct. 5, 1725, Deborah French; (3) Mary, 
 born Aug. 19, 1689, married Joshua Leete, and died 
 March 18, 1722; (4) Abigail, born Feb. 26, 1691, 
 married Jonathan Dudley, and died Oct. 23, 1766; 
 (5) Ebenezer was born July 4, 1693; (6) Caleb 
 was born May 16, 1695; (7) Jonathan, born April 
 14, 1697, married Sarah Graves; (8) Josiah, born 
 July 20, 169 — , married Elizabeth Hubbard, and 
 died Feb. 21, 1750; (9) Rachel was born in 1706. 
 
 Ebenezer Munger married, in Guilford, Annie 
 Scranton, who was born Dec. 22, 1693, and died 
 April 20, 1725. On July 7, 1726, Mr. Munger 
 married, for his second wife, Susanna Hubbard, 
 who married for her second husband Josiah Cramp- 
 ton, and died March 25, 1788. Ebenezer Munger 
 died June 29, 1729. His children were: (i) 
 Ebenezer, born Sept. 2, 1718, married Ann Lee, 
 who died June 20, 1793. (2) Caleb, bom Sept. 24, 
 1722, married Sarah Stanard, and died Feb. 15, 
 1797- (3) Reuben and (4) Simeon, twins, were 
 born March 28, 1725; the latter died May 11, 1725. 
 Reuben married Elizabeth Dudley. (5) Simeon 
 (2) was born in April, 1727. 
 
 Simeon Munger lived in Bergen, N. Y., where 
 he died March 16, 1815. On July 3, 1751, he mar- 
 ried Sarah Scranton, who was born Jan. 26, 1733, 
 and died Dec. 15, 1815. Their children were as 
 follows: (i) Simeon, born Dec. 7, 1752, died Oct. 
 18, 1833; he married Lois Lyon. (2) Josiah was 
 born Oct. 16, 1754. (3) Mary, born Nov. 3, 1756, 
 married Andrew L. Stone, and died in June, 1840. 
 (4) Willis, born Feb. 9, 1761, marriedi Esther 
 Hand, and died June 31, 1815. (5) Mabel, born 
 
 Dec. 17, 1762, married Timothy Graves, and died 
 Nov. 19, 1837. 
 
 Josiah Munger was born Oct. 16, 1754, in East 
 Guilford, and made his home in his native com- 
 munity, where he was engaged in farming. He 
 was a private in the Revolutionary war, and died 
 in August, 1838. His first wife was Anne Lee. 
 Hannah Coe, his second wife, died Jan. 14, 1837. 
 His children were : ( i ) George was born Feb. 
 17, 1781 ; (2) Sarah, born Feb. 10, 1784, died Jan. 
 30, 1816; (3) Anna, born March 4, 1792, married 
 Deacon Josiah Prudden, and died in January, 1820; 
 (4) Mabel, born Sept. 21, 1802, married George 
 Cram; (5) Josiah, born Nov. 3, 1804, married 
 Maria Fowler, and died Dec. 18, 1863. 
 
 George Munger, great-grandfather of George 
 B., was an artist, and also' taught school. He died 
 in Madison June 2, 1822. On Dec. 23, 1802, he 
 married Parnel Kelsey, who was born Jan. 21, 1781, 
 and died Oct. 25, i860. She married for her sec- 
 ond husband Minor Bradley. Mr. and Mrs. George 
 Plunger were the parents of the following children : 
 (i) George Nicholas, born Sept. 23, 1803, is men- 
 tioned below ; (2) Clarissa, born May 20, 1806, mar- 
 ried Rev. Milton Badger, and died Dec. 14, 1889; 
 (3) Caroline, born May 15, 1808, married' Horace 
 Washburn ; (4) Amanda Ann, born Nov. 9, 1813, 
 married Samuel C. Chittenden; (5) Susan, born 
 March 22, 1821, died July 19, 1826. 
 
 George N. Munger, grandfather of George B., 
 was born in Madison, grew to manhood under the 
 parental roof, and spent the greater part of his life 
 in New Haven, where his olcl age was passed. For 
 a number of years he was engaged in making 
 mathematical instruments, principally for college 
 use. He died Aug. i, 1882, in East River, while 
 on a visit to that place. He was an old-time Whig, 
 and a man of force and character. His first -wife 
 was Amy Merwin, whom he married June 2, 1825, 
 and his second wife was Mary Merwin. His chil- 
 dren were: (i) Caroline Amanda, born April 5, 
 1S26, married Alfred N. Wilcox; (2) George, bom 
 Nov. 27, 1827, is mentioned below; (3) Susan A., 
 born May 15, 1829, died Aug! 6, 1854; (4) Emily, 
 born April 10, 1831, died Sept. 2, 1879; (S) 'Edwin 
 Miles, born March 5, 1833, died March 10, 1898; 
 (6) Elizabeth was born Oct. 8, .1836. 
 
 George Munger, father of George B., was bom 
 in New Haven, where he attended the public school 
 and also the select school kept by John A. LovelL 
 After reaching manhood he went to East River and 
 took up the sash and blind business, in partner- 
 ship with his uncle, Samuel C. Chittenden. In 1859 
 Mr. Munger removed to New Haven, where he was 
 engaged in the manufacture of slates, globes and 
 school apparatus. In 1866 he located in East River 
 and built a plant for the manufacture of school 
 apparatus, in which important industry his time has 
 since been fully occupied. He has his son George B. 
 as a partner, and they constitute the firm of Mun- 
 ger & Son. Politically Mr. Munger is a Repub- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 1 69 
 
 lican. For years he has been deeply interested in 
 the cause of education, and is a member of the 
 board of education. Fraternally he belongs to the 
 Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He attends 
 the Congregational Church. He is one of the best 
 known and most highly respected men of Madison. 
 On Nov. 28, 1850, Mr. Munger was married 
 to Cornelia Ives Jacobs, daughter of William 
 Jacobs, of North Haven, and they have had two 
 children: Emma L., born April 5, 1852, married 
 William T. Foote, who is engaged in business with 
 his father; George Badger was born May 18, 1854. 
 Mrs. George Munger is a lady of refinement, and 
 has many warm friends. 
 
 George B. Munger was a student in the Madison 
 schools, in Lee's Academy and in a select school 
 in New Haven. Growing up in business with his 
 father, he has taken naturally to it, and is a sub- 
 stantial man in the school supply industry. A genial 
 manner and a winning way have made him many 
 friends, and contributed materially to his success. 
 Mr. Munger belongs to the Madison Lodge, F. 
 & A. M., of which he has been past master. In 
 politics he is a Republican. He has served on the 
 board of education, and represented the town of 
 Madison in the State Legislature in 1889, where 
 he served on the committee on Constitutional 
 Amendment. 
 
 Mr. Munger married Anna Bushnell, who was 
 born in Madison, daughter of William C. and 
 Cynthia (Griswold) Bushnell, both of whom were 
 natives of Madison. Mrs. Munger is a niece of the 
 well-known C. S. Bushnell, of "Monitor" fame. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Munger have had the following chil- 
 dren : George A. is deceased ; Alice Cornelia grad- 
 uated from the high school of Madison and is now 
 attending Anderson's Gymnasium and School of 
 Music, at New Haven:, Caroline Washburn is a 
 student in the local high school. 
 
 FREDERICK A. SMITH, the well-known and 
 popular superintendent of the United State& Re- 
 claiming Rubber plant at Naugatuck, isi a native of 
 this county, born in Southbury, April 21, 1863, a 
 son of James Smith, and a grandson of Horace W. 
 Smith. 
 
 Horace W. Smith was a native of Middlebury, 
 Conn., andi there engaged in farming. He was 
 twice married. His first wife, Nancy Tyler, bore 
 him the following children: James, William. L., 
 Monroe, Marcia and Nancy. After the death of 
 the mother of these children, Mr. Smith married 
 Emeline Thompson, and three children blessed this 
 union: Eli T., Thomas and Emeline Hall. 
 
 James Smith, father of our subject, was born 
 in Middlebury, grew to manhood in his native town, 
 and was educated at Yale. In early life he en- 
 gaged in merchandising in Middlebury, and later 
 followed' farming in Exeter, N. Y., and also in Mid- 
 dlebury and Southbury, Conn. He died in 1895. 
 His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary 
 74 
 
 Curtis, was born in Exeter, N. Y., and was a 
 daughter of Amos Curtis. By this union were 
 born nine children, namely: Floyd B., now a con- 
 tractor of Waterbury, Conn.; Mary E., Sarah D; 
 and Julia M., all unmarried; William H., foreman 
 with the Wales Goodyear Rubber Co. ; George, 
 who died at the age of one year ; Robert, who died 
 at the age of three years ; Edward C, a contractor 
 and builder of Waterbury; and Frederick A., of 
 this- review. 
 
 Frederick A. Smith was reared in Middlebury 
 until ten years of age, and then came to Nauga- 
 tuck, where he attended school. On the completion 
 of his education he worked one year for the Good- 
 year India Rubber Glove Co., and was then with 
 the Goodyear Metallic Rubber Shoe Co. until 1895, 
 when he accepted the position of foreman with the 
 United States Reclaiming Rubber Co., and has 
 since been promoted to superintendent of the plant. 
 He thoroughly understands the business in all its 
 details, and is therefore well qualified to fill that 
 important position. 
 
 In 1892, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with 
 Mrs. Sadie (Bristol) Phelps, a native of Nauga- 
 tuck and a daughter of B. H. Bristol, and to themi 
 has been born one child, Lucy. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Smith are both active and prominent members of 
 the Congregational Church, where his father served 
 as deacon for many years. He is a stanch sup- 
 porter of the Republican party. A public-spirited 
 and enterprising citizen, he never withholds his sup- 
 port from any object which he believes calculated 
 to advance the moral or material welfare of his. 
 town and county. 
 
 JOHN L. RICE, a representative agriculturist 
 of Beacon Falls, owns and operates a fine farm of 
 190 acres, pleasantlv located only a mile and a 
 quarter from the village of Beacon Falls. He 
 makes a specialty of dairy and fruit farming, and 
 his well-directed labors have been crowned with 
 success. 
 
 In the town where he still continues to reside 
 Mr. Rice was born Oct. 29, 1866, and comes of 
 good old Revolutionary stock, his great-great- 
 grandfather having served as a captain in the Con- 
 tinental army. His grandfather, Reuben Rice, was 
 a native of Barkhamsted, Litchfield Co., Conn., and 
 after his marriage located on a farm in Colebrook, 
 same county. There his only child, Anson B. Rice; 
 father of our subject, was born and reared. By 
 occupation he was a farmer, and he also dealt in 
 wood and lumber. He was married in Colebrook 
 to Miss Hannah Dayton, also a native of Litchfield 
 county, and the daughter of a farmer. Both were 
 active and consistent members of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, and in politics the father was a 
 Republican. In their family were nine children, 
 namely : Emma, Anson, Annie, Mary, Richard, 
 Albert, Harriet, Ida and John L. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth our subject at- 
 
1 170 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tended the public schools of Beacon Falls, and when 
 his school days were over entered the employ of the 
 Home Woolen Co., at that place. After the failure 
 of the firm he remained with its successors in the 
 same building for some time, and also worked in 
 the rubber shop at Xaugatuck at intervals for three 
 j'ears. On Jan. i, 1893, he purchased his present 
 farm, and has since devoted his energies to agri- 
 cultural pursuits, meeting with marked success in 
 the undertaking. He is extensively engaged in 
 general farming, dairying and fruit raising, and has 
 the finest herd of Jersey cattle in the town. 
 
 Mr. Rice was married Feb. 28, 1893, to Miss 
 Hortense D. Bradley, a native of Kentucky, and 
 a daughter of Saul C. Bradley, who was a member 
 of the Union army during the Civil war. To them 
 have been born two children, John W. and Ruth M. 
 In his political views Mr. Rice is an ardent Re- 
 publican, and he is now serving bis third year as se- 
 lectman. He was once the candidate of his party 
 for representative to the State Legislature, and al- 
 though the town is strongly Democratic was de- 
 feated by only five votes, a fact which plainly in- 
 dicates his personal popularity. He is a promi- 
 nent member of the Patrons of Husbandry, and has 
 served as treasurer of the local organization. 
 
 JA?\IES A. McENERNEY. Few young men 
 in this section have displayed the enterprise and 
 business acumen which have marked the career of 
 the subject of this sketch, a leading druggist of An- 
 sonia, and the story of his life will furnish a useful 
 object lesson to an ambitious youth. 
 
 Mr. McEnerney was born Nov. 27, 1868, in 
 Derby, this county, and like many of our success- 
 ful citizens, has Irish blood in his veins. His 
 father, Patrick McEnerney, was bom in Ireland and 
 came to America in early manhood, locating in 
 Derby, where he established a g-rocery in 1850. He 
 continued this business successfully until his death 
 in 1882, and although only forty-five years of age, 
 he was then one of the oldest merchants in the 
 locality. As an intelligent and public-spirited citi- 
 zen he took an active part in local affairs, serving 
 for a number of years as selectman and for a time 
 as first selectman. He married Ellen Maguire, a 
 native of New York, who is still living. They had 
 eight children of whom seven survive : John is 
 commissioner of the poor in Derby, where he and 
 his brother, Edward, now conduct their father's 
 business ; Edward was the next in order of birth ; 
 James A., is the subject proper of this sketch ; Will- 
 iam is connected with the General Electric Co., of 
 Schenectady ; and Anna, Mary and Frank all re- 
 side in Derby. 
 
 As a boy James A. McEnerney attended the 
 public schools of Derby, and on leaving the high 
 school he took a course in the Yale Business Col- 
 lege. In 7895 he engaged in the drug business in 
 Derby, but during the following year he sold out 
 and established another store on Main Street, 
 
 where he remained two years. He then lo- 
 cated at No. 45 Bridge street, where he has a store 
 40 feet deep by 25 feet in width, and carries: a full 
 line of drugs and chemicals, patent medicines, toilet 
 articles and perfumery. 
 
 In 1896 Mr. McEnerney married Miss Ella 
 Stuart, who was born in Ansonia, one of the five 
 children of Jamesi Stuart, a well known clock 
 maker of that place, and they have two children, 
 Edward and Stuart. Both Mr. McEnerney and 
 his wife are leading members of the Catholic 
 Church in Ansonia, and are popular in social life. 
 Fraternally he is connected with the Kinghts of St. 
 Patrick of New Haven ; the Catholic Benevolent 
 Legion; the American Order of Foresters and the 
 Independent Order of Foresters, of which he is 
 treasurer; the Welcome Wheel Club, of Ansonia; 
 the Derby Driving Club, of which he was treasurer 
 at one time ; and the Derby Lodge, B. P. O. E. He 
 is an active member of Webster Hose Co., of An- 
 sonia, and was formerl)' a member of the Board 
 of Trade. He has also taken a prominent part in 
 local politics, being an ardent Democrat as was his 
 father. For two years he served as tax collector in 
 Derby under appointment from Mayor Sullivan, 
 and in 1897 he was elected councilman from his 
 ward to serve until li 
 
 DAVID H. BEATTIE, one of the prominent 
 residents of Leete Island, New Haven county, was 
 born Aug. 11, 1865, in Newport, R. I., a son of John 
 and Mary (Harrington) Beatti-e. His father, who 
 for years was one of the best-known business men 
 in this section, is mentioned fully elsewhere in this 
 volume. 
 
 Our subject received his education in the public 
 schools, and at the age of sixteen he commenced 
 to learn the quarry business in his father's quarries, 
 where for the past fourteen years he has been fore- 
 man stone cutter and foreman quarryman, noted 
 for his industry and good management. 
 
 In 1884, at St. Mary's Church, New Haven, 
 David H. Beattie was married to Miss Julia De- 
 lany, who was born at Kilkenny, Ireland, a daugh- 
 ter of Dr. Barry Delany, and niece of the late 
 Bishop Delany, of Cork, Ireland. To diis union 
 have been born ten children, named as follows: 
 Helen Regina, John Bagwell, Margaret Mary, 
 David (deceased in infancy), Irene Elizabeth, Jo- 
 sephine, Katharine Ursuila (deceased in infancy), 
 David Bagwell, Edwin Ignatius (deceased in in- 
 fancy) and George Dewey. Mr. and Mrs. Beattie 
 and family are all members of the Catholic Church. 
 Politically he is liberal in his views ; socially he is 
 affiliated with the K. of C. of Branford. 
 
 EMERY L. TERRELL, a well-known mer- 
 chant of Beacon Falls, where he is also postmaster, 
 is a man whose sound common sense and vigorous, 
 able management of his afi'airs have been import- 
 ant factors in his success, and, with his undoubted 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1171 
 
 integrity of character, have gained 'him an honor- 
 able position among his fellow men. 
 
 Mr. Terrell was 'born in Cole'brook, Litchfield 
 •Co., Conn., May 9, 1866, a son of Henry Terrell, 
 a native of the same county. There the grandfa- 
 ther, Josiah Terrell, followed farming throughout 
 life, and the father was also an agriculturist. Hen- 
 ry Terrell was one of the prominent Democrats of 
 Jiis community, representing the town of Colebrook 
 in the State Legislature in 1876. He married Miss 
 'Emeline Whiting, a native of that town and a daugh- 
 ter of Seth Whiting, and two children were born to 
 them: Henry S. and Emery L. The elder has 
 been a member of the State militia for fifteen 
 years ; served as captain in the Cuban army on the 
 Island of Cuba, during the recent war with Spain, 
 and rendered good service against the Spaniards; 
 later he became second lieutenant in the United 
 States army, in which he served in the Philippines. 
 The father died June 22, 1879, in Colebrook, and 
 the mother passed away May 26, 1866. Both were 
 consistent members of the Congregational Church, 
 and were highly respected by all who knew them. 
 
 Reared in Colebrook, Emery L. Terrell obtained 
 his early education in the schools of that town, 
 and later attended bigh schdol in Winsted, Conn., 
 for a time. In 1883 he came to Beacon Falls, where 
 he clerked in the general store of Terrell & Bacon 
 for four years and then purchased an interest in 
 the business, as a partner of E. J. Terrell, under 
 the firm name of E. J. Terrell & Co. On the death 
 of the senior memlber in June, 1896, our subject 
 purchased his interest, and has since been alone in 
 the business, which he has successfully conducted 
 under the name of E. L. Terrell. He carries a 
 well selected stock of merchandise, and by fair and 
 honorable dealing receives a liberal share of the 
 public patronage. The store is located on Main 
 street, opposite Beacon Falls Rubber Shoe Co.'s 
 office. 
 
 Mr. Terrell is an ardent supporter of the Demo- 
 cratic party, and in 1895 he represented his town 
 in the State Legislature, being one of the youngest 
 members of that body. He served as town clerk in 
 1889 and 1890, and from 1896 to 1900; is filling 
 the offices of town treasurer and postmaster at 
 Beacon Falls, having been appointed to the latter 
 position in 1896. He has been a member of the 
 iDoard of relief and the scbool board, and was tax 
 collector for three years. Mr. Terrell is one of 
 the most prominent young men of the town, is 
 deeply interested in public affairs and the good of 
 the community in which he resides, and he is pop- 
 ular in business, social and political circles. 
 
 C. FRED LANE. The Lane family, of whom 
 C. Fred Lane, of Wallingford, is one of the present 
 representatives, is an old and honored one in Con- 
 necticut. Robert Lane, the first of that name in 
 New England, was born in Derbyshire, England, 
 about 1635, and came to the Colonies when a young 
 
 man. He located first in Stratford, where he be- 
 came a leading member of the community. He 
 went to the General Court from 1699 to 1715; in 
 1686 he was Deputy, County Court of Elections. 
 In 1695 he removed to Killingworth, Middlesex 
 county, where he died April 2, 1718. On Dec. 19, 
 1665, he married Sarah Picketts, daughter of John 
 Picketts. The following children were born to 
 them: Hannah, born Dec. 26, 1668, married 
 Nathaniel Wilcox in 1695 ; Daniel, born July 27, 
 1671, died in infancy; Robert, born in 1672, died 
 March 17, 1673; John; Elizabeth, born Jan. 31, 
 1677, married Thomas Fitch; Margaret; Rebecca, 
 born March 7, 1682 ; Jonathan, born Oct. 16, 1685, 
 married Mere Wellman, and after her death wed- 
 ded Patience Strong; Mary, born Sept. 23, 1688. 
 
 John Lane, son of Robert, the emigrant, was 
 born in Stratford, July 12, 1674, and removed to 
 South Killingworth with his parents. There he, 
 married Lydia Kelsey, daughter of Lieut. John 
 Kelsey, Dec. 31, 1700, and for his second wife, 
 Hannah Parks, Jan. 16, 171 1. He was Deputy to 
 the General Court for twenty years, and was justice 
 of the peace for many years. He was Deacon of 
 the Church, and an accomplished man, his ability as 
 a penman being especially noteworthy. He died 
 Oct. 2, 1759, and was buried in Killingworth. The 
 children born of the first marriage were: Sarah, 
 born Sept. 17, 1701 ; Robert, July i, 1704, died 
 April 7, 1709; Lydia, born June 9, 1706; John, 
 born April 20, 1708, married Experience Edgerton, 
 March 9, 1732, and died in 1755 ; Daniel. By the 
 second union were born: Hannah, Oct. 14, 171 1, 
 married Obadiah Platts in 1737; Robert, born 
 November, 1713, married Mary Thatcher; Joseph, 
 born Feb. 11, 1716, died March 25, 1718; Stephen, 
 born Aug. i, 1719, married Rhoda, daughter of 
 John Hull; and Joseph, born May 8, 1723, married 
 Rachel Pond, and after her death, Lydia Kirkland. 
 
 Daniel Lane, son of John, was born in Killing- 
 worth, Sept. II, 1710. He married Jemima Crane, 
 Jan. 8, 1736, and removed to Wolcott, New Haven 
 county, in 1773, where he and his wife were en- 
 rolled church members. He died there in 1794, 
 and was buried in Wolcott cemetery. He was the 
 father of the following children : Daniel ;, Mary, 
 born Sept. 5, 1740, married Sarah Dudley, Aug. 25, 
 1766; Sarah, born Nov. 12, 1742; Jemima, born 
 July 12, 1744; Hannah, born Feb. 25, 1747, mar- 
 ried Enoch Smith; Eliza, born Jan. 23, 1750, died 
 young; Joel, Oct. 18, 1751 ; Elijah, baptized Sept. 
 12, 1754, married Mary Scannell, April 19, 1779; 
 and Margaret, baptized Sept. i, 1759. 
 
 Joel Lane, son of Daniel, was born in Killing- 
 worth, and removed with his parents to Wolcott, 
 Conn., where he spent the remainder of his life as 
 a land owner and farmer. A soldier of the Amer- 
 ican army under Col. Joseph Spencer, during the 
 Revolution, he did valiant service for the relief of 
 Boston. In 1777 he served under General Put- 
 nam; and he was at the storming of Stony Point, 
 
1 172 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and participated in many of the most memorable 
 scenes and incidents of that great struggle. He 
 was married May 22, 1776, to Elizabeth Atkins, 
 daughter of Joseph and Mary (Wheeler) Atkins, 
 and died Aug. 18, 1806, in Wolcott, where he wasi 
 buried. To him were born the following children : 
 Josiah, 1778; Mark, born July 16, 1784, married 
 Rhoda Shepherd; Richard, born Sept. 29, 1786; 
 Elizabeth, born in 1793, died in 1809; Ada, married 
 Sela A. Barns. 
 
 Josiah Lane, son of Joel, was born in Wolcott, 
 where he spent his entire life as a cabinet maker, 
 and died Nov. 30, 1812. He married Mehitable 
 Woodruff, who was born in Southington, Conn., 
 and died in Wallingford, in 1855. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Lane were parents to the following children : 
 George, born in 1803; Betsy, who died in July, 
 1S16, at the age of eleven years ; and Harriet, who 
 died April 19, 1829, when twenty-one years old. 
 
 George Lane, son of Josiah, the grandfather of 
 C. Fred Lane, wasi born in Wolcott, where he grew 
 to manhood. When a young man he came to 
 Wallingford, where he engaged in the manufacture 
 of razor strops in company with Asahel Andrews. 
 He died in middle life in Wallingford, July 18, 
 185 1, and was buried in Center Street Cemetery. 
 He was an Old-line Whig, and a devout member of 
 the Episcopal Church. He was married in Walling- 
 ford in 1829, by Rev. Mr. Noyes, to> Miss Jan- 
 nette Atkins, daughter of Thomas and Lucy 
 (Button) Atkins, of Wallingford. Her father was 
 a prominent sea captain. Their children were as 
 follows : George Button, born Oct. 28, 1830, mar- 
 ried Ellen F. Carrington ; Harriet Cornelia, born in 
 1832, graduated from the Munich Art School in 
 Bavaria under Prof. Siltz, and is now an artist in 
 Wallingford; Charles Nelson, born April 16, 1834; 
 Josiah Woodruff, born March 18, 1838, married 
 Mary Elizabeth Pomeroy ; Oscar Burton, born June 
 II, 1843, married ]\fary Wilcoxson ; Theodore F., 
 born March 26, 1844, married Julia R. Yale, daugh- 
 ter of Henry and Charlotte (Hunter) Yale ; and 
 William F., born April 7, 1847, married Augusta 
 J. Smith. 
 
 Charles Nelson Lane was born in Wallingford, 
 and received his education in the district school, 
 which on account of the death of his father, he was 
 compelled to leave at the age of sixteen years, and 
 go to work to help support the family. In early 
 life he was a clerk for Lorenzo Lewis, of Walling- 
 ford, and then worked in a buttcn shop, b;ing in 
 the employ of E. M. Pomeroy until 1857, when he 
 worked for Flail, Elton & Co., and later in the but- 
 ton shop of Flail & Miller. In 1861 he enlisted and 
 spent a year at the front, when he returned home. 
 In 1865 he again enlisted, being commissioned Sec- 
 ond Lieutenant under Col. George N. Lewis and 
 Capt. James E. Smith, serving until the end of the 
 war. Fie participated in the Grand Review at 
 Washington, and was honorably discharged at 
 Hartford. Mr. Lane resumed hisi position with 
 
 Hall & Miller, and in 1866, when the firm became 
 Simpson, Hall & Miller, he was made its machinist,, 
 which position he has held for thirty-four years. A 
 part of this time he has also been in partner&hip^ 
 with his son, C. Fred. He is still quite active and 
 energetic, and is a kind and genial gentleman. 
 
 Charles Nelson Lane was married to Elizabeth 
 Morse, who was born in Betroit, Mich., a daughter 
 of Eldridge and Augusta (Smith) Morse, a grand- 
 daughter of Capt. Benajah and Lois (Hall) Morse, 
 a granddaughter of Judge Solomon Smith, who 
 was a Major in the Revolutionary army, and a. 
 great-granddaughter of Levi and Martha (Fenn) 
 Morse. To this union were born three children: 
 (i) Edward C, born in Wallingford, May 25, 
 i860, is now a resident of that city, where he mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Bunn, a daughter of Thomas Bunn. 
 He is the father of five children : Emma Gertrude, 
 Florence, Maria Alma, Charles " R. and Borathe- 
 Sybill. (2) C. Fred. (3) Fanny Elizabeth, born 
 Sept. II, 1876, married Arthur H. Whiton, of 
 Wallingford, and is the mother of one child, Grace- 
 Isabelle. Mrs. Charles Nelson Lane was educated' 
 in Wallingford, and taught school at North Farms. 
 Mr. Lane belongs to the Arthur A. Button Post, 
 G. A. R., at Wallingford, and for a number of years, 
 has been a member of the Wallingford band. In 
 his political views he is a Republican, and in hia re- 
 ligious belief an Episcopalian. 
 
 C. Fred Lane was born in Wallingford Oct. 
 27, 1867, and acquired his education in the public 
 school. He learned the machinist trade in the fac- 
 tory of Simpson, Hall & Miller, and was three 
 years in their employ. In 1^87 he started in the 
 book and news business on Main street in company 
 with 'his father, and was quite prosperousi. In 1894. 
 he sold out and' removed to the Kirkman farm of 
 seven acres, near the town, and for the last six years, 
 has been extensively engaged in the poultry busi- 
 ness, breeding different varieties and has developed 
 a very successful industry. He has extensively 
 miproved the farm, and adapted its equipment tO' 
 his business, and is known as the largest poultrv 
 raiser in Wallingford. A Republican, he is no. 
 office seeker, and works for the benefit of the com- 
 munity. He belongs to several societies, and is a. 
 member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 In 1892 Mr. Lane married in Wallingford, Miss 
 Carohne Y Moore, who was born in Cleveland, 
 .Oliio, a daughter of J. Willard and Etta (Butler) 
 Moore. 
 
 JOHN JAMES A'ANBERFOOL CUNING- 
 HAM, bookkeeper and paymaster for the Bran- 
 ford Lock Works (Yale & Towne Mfg. Co.), was- 
 born Jan. 19, 1865, in the city of Cork, Ireland, 
 ajon of Edward Harte and Isabella Charlotte 
 (Shine) Cuningham. 
 
 On the paternal side Mr. Cuningham descend- 
 ed from the old Conynghame family, the branch 
 that were natives of Lincolnshire, England, in the- 
 
(/^ yr-^^c^^^^-c^^-^z^.^^^.^. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 "73 
 
 iourteenith century, and who later removed to 
 Ayrshire, Scotland ; in the transition of the fam- 
 ily, and during the period of the Middle English, 
 w|ith the Stuart or Lowland Scotch, the family 
 separated, one portion going to the County of 
 Edinburgh, Scotland, and changing the name to 
 Cuningham from Conynghame, which former 
 spelling has been retained by the above to the pres- 
 ent time. The latter branch is still extant, and 
 .belongs to the Scottish peerage, the present Mar- 
 quis De Conynghame representing the family in 
 England. 
 
 On the maternal side the subject of this sketch 
 ■claims, as his; great-granduncle, Rear-Admiral 
 James Nott, commanding the British East India 
 Station for the Crown during the latter part of 
 the eighteenth cetjtury. This family was also part 
 of and identified with the Blenner-Hassett and 
 Floyd families of Ireland and the West Midland 
 counties of England, in the early part of the nine- 
 teentli century. 
 
 Uncles and great-uncles of our 'subject have 
 served 'in the Britisih army and navy, and two of 
 his paternal uncles — William Woods Cuningham 
 and John Harte Cuningham — have been identified 
 with service in the Crimean war, and in India 
 with the Sepoy Rebellion, including the siege of 
 Eucknow. William Woods Cunningham spent 
 nearly a score of years in the British service, and 
 lost nearly all his family (two wives and four 
 children) in British India. He is now and has 
 been for upward of fifteen years a citizen of Liver- 
 pool, England. 
 
 ' John Woods Cuningham, the paternal grand- 
 father of our subject, was a native of Edinburgh, 
 Scodand, born in 1792, and died in 1842. He was 
 a shipbuilder and coppersmith by occupation, and 
 spent most of his I'ife lin Scotland. He married 
 Charlotte Matilda Harte, who was born in 1797, 
 in the North of Ireland, and died in 1885. Their 
 children were: (i) John Harte, born June 29, 
 1819, in Scotland, died in May, 1875. He was a 
 shipwright and coppersmith, and for a time was 
 engaged on the Clyde. (2) Letitia, born in Oc- 
 tober, 1820, married in England and died there. 
 (3) William Woods, born in January, 1822, 
 served in India. (4) Catherine Caroline, born m 
 February, 1823, never married, (s) Dora W. 
 died in infancy. (6) James Harte, born 'in 1826, 
 ■came to America in 1859, and died in Syracuse, 
 X. Y., about 1879 or 1880. (7) Dora Matilda, 
 twin of James H., married Thomas Hornidge, m 
 Kildare, Ireland. (8) Charlotte died young. (9) 
 Elizabeth, born in 1828, married, first, Christopher 
 Warren, and after his death married an English- 
 man, Edward Hawkins. (10) Ann, born about 
 1830, married John Thomas Brereton, and is de- 
 ceased. (11) Edward Harte, our subject's father, 
 is next in order of birth. (12) Thoma's Woods 
 born in 1834, when young served m the English 
 navy. After coming to America he was captalm 
 
 of a coasting vessel. He died about 1880-81. (13) 
 Charlotte (2), born about 1837-38, married John 
 Hornidge, and died in Manchester, England, 
 about 1875. 
 
 James Shine, our subject's maternal grand- 
 father, was a native of the North of Ireland, born 
 about 1796, and died 'in Ireland in 1858. His wife 
 Margaret (Nott) was born in 1794 in Shrews- 
 bury, Shropshire, England, and died in the United 
 States in 1866, in Virginia. Their children were : 
 ( I ) Frances married J ohn Harrold, of Richmond, 
 Va. (2) Ann married J. Hayes, of London, Eng- 
 land. (3) William was a physician in Ireland, 
 and postmaster of the town of Bandon, County 
 Cork. (4) James came to America, settled in 
 Virginia, and fought in. the Confederate ranks 
 during the Rebellion. (5) John Nott married and 
 went to England, later to India, where he was con- 
 nected with the anny. (6) Elizabeth married 
 Paul Wood, a schoolmaster in Ireland. They came 
 to America in 1866, living in New York for a time, 
 and later moved to Branford, Conn., where she died 
 in 1 88 1, he in 1879. (7) Alexander died when 
 eleven years old, his death being caused by an acci- 
 dent. (8) Charlotte died when four years old. (9) 
 Isabella Charlotte became the mother of our sub- 
 ject. (10) Mary Jane was married in 1870 to Ed- 
 ward B. Knowles, of Branford, Conn., where she 
 resides. The father of this family for some years 
 conducted a bakery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, later 
 returning to Ireland, where he embarked in the 
 same business. He was a thirty-third-degree Free- 
 mason, taking his thirty-third degree in London. 
 
 Edward Harte Cuningham, father of John J. 
 v., was bom in Kildare, Ireland, May 27, 1832. 
 He was a coppersmith by trade, and a master me- 
 chanic, worked at same in England and Scotland, 
 and for several years before coming to America was 
 in Cork, Ireland, as manager of the Woods & Cun- 
 ingham Cooper Manufactory. In 188 1, after the 
 death of his uncle, he came to America with his 
 family, landing in New York City, whence, jn 1882, 
 he came to New Haven county, Conn., locating in 
 Branford- Here he was employed in the Branford 
 Lock Works as a bronze finisher, serving in that 
 capacity until his death, which occurred Aug. 4, 
 1883, after but two da)''s' illness. On Jan. 5, 1864, 
 Edward Harte Cuningham married Isabella Char- 
 lotte Shine, and children as follows were born to 
 them: John J. V., sketch of whom follows; Mar- 
 garet Jane Elizabeth, Mrs. John George Pool, of 
 Lynn, Mass., who has three children, George Ed- 
 ward, Harold J. and Bertha M. ; and Charlotte Isa- 
 bella, who died in Branford, Aug. 21, 1883, aged 
 eleven years. In Ireland Edward H. Cuningham 
 was an active worker in the Wesleyan Methodist 
 Church, but after settling in Branford he was iden- 
 tified with Trinity Episcopal Church. Mrs. Cun- 
 ingham belongs to the Church of England. 
 
 John J. V. Cuningham, the subject proper of 
 this sketch, was reared in Cork, Ireland, and is a 
 
II74 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 graduate of the public schools of that city. In 1881 
 he came to America with his parents, and at once 
 located in Branford, where since Jan. i, 1882, he 
 has been in the employ of the Branford Lock 
 Works (Yale & Towne Mfg. Co.) in various ca- 
 pacities, occupying his present position since 1889. 
 
 On Oct. 17, 1895, Mr. Cuninghani was mar- 
 ried to Alary Wilson, daughter of Stephen Wilson 
 and Augusta (Lacey) Buck, of Leraysville, Brad- 
 lord Co., Pa., and one son, Edward Wilson Buck, 
 came of this union. He was born Dec. 21, 1896, 
 and died May 15, 1897, at Branford. Mrs. Cun- 
 ingham on the paternal side is a direct descendant 
 of James Wilson, of Pennsylvan'ia, one of the sign- 
 ers of the Declaration of Independence, and also 
 of Lieut. John Waterman, who was with Gen. 
 ^A^ashington's army at \'alley Forge during that 
 famous winter campaign in i777'^77^- He there 
 fell a victim to the American cause, April 23, 1778. 
 and his was the only marked grave in Valley Forge 
 of all the men who died there during that campaign. 
 A monument was erected and dedicated, in the fall 
 of 1 90 1, on the spot which marked his grave, to the 
 memory of Lieut. John Waterman and the other 
 three thousand soldiers who gave their lives for the 
 cause of American independence. !Mrs. Cuning- 
 ham's ancestors on both sides are of New England 
 origin. She is eligible for membership in the 
 D. A. R. 
 
 Mr. Cuningham and liig wife are active mem- 
 bers of the First Congregational Church of Bran- 
 ford, of which he is clerk and treasurer, and of 
 which he was elected a deacon Feb. 15, 1895. So- 
 cially he is a charter member and present worthy 
 patriarch of Branford Division, No. 16, Sons of 
 Temperance, which he joined in 1885 ; is a charter 
 member and noble commander of Fidelity Com- 
 mandery. No. 343, United Order of the Golden 
 Cross, which he joined in 1887; and is a member 
 of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Widows 
 Sons Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., of Branford; to 
 Pula'ski Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M., Crawford Coun- 
 cil, No. 19, R. & S. M., and New Haven Command- 
 ery, No. 2, K. T., all of New Haven. He is a char- 
 ter member of Georgia Chapter, No. 48, O. E. S., 
 organized Jan. 15, 1899, and to which Mrs. Cun- 
 ingham also belongs. A Republican in politics, 
 Mr. Cuningham has been a member of the Bran- 
 ford school board since 1891, and secretary of same 
 since 1893. Since 1891 be had been town auditor, 
 and also bank auditor. 
 
 ANDREW C. BRENNAN, a representative 
 and prominent business man of Naugatuck, was 
 born in Union City, this county, Nov. 7, 1863, and 
 is a son of Andrew Brennan, a well-known coal 
 dealer of Naugatuck, whose sketch mav be found 
 on another page of this volume. 
 
 Our subject attended the public schools of 
 Naugatuck until about iifteen years of age, and 
 -during the following five years was employed in 
 
 the Naugatuck Malleable Iron Works, then known 
 as the Tuttle & Whitemore foundry. Subsequently 
 he worked in his father's coal office as bookkeeper 
 for a year and a half, and at the end of that time 
 fonned a co-partnership with N. J. McGrath, in the 
 bottling business, under the firm name of Bren- 
 nan & McGrath. They began business Aug. 10, 
 1885, and continued together for a year and a half,, 
 when Mr. Brennan purchased his partner's inter- 
 est, and has since been alone. He has also bought 
 out other competitors, and is now doing a fine busi- 
 ness, bottling all kinds of carbonated beverages. 
 His trade is in Naugatuck and Beacon Falls. After 
 the death of his brother William, Aug. 16, 1900, 
 our subject became manager, treasurer and stock- 
 holder in the Union City Coal Co., and his brother 
 Francis took the management of the bottling works 
 in Naugatuck. 
 
 On June 10, 1885, Air. Brennan was united in 
 marriage with Miss Nellie E. Mooney, of Nauga- 
 tuck, a daughter of John Alooney, who was born 
 in Ireland, and died "in New Haven. Mrs. Bren- 
 nan died Jan. 21, 1898, leaving four children: 
 Mary, Andrew, Carleton and Nellie. Another 
 child, Teressa, died young. 
 
 Air. Brennan affiliates with the Democratic 
 party ; has been a member of the board of chari- 
 ties ;' and in 1895 was elected to the board of 
 burgesses from the Third ward. He was quite a 
 popular and capable official. Religiously he is a 
 member of St. Francis Catholic Church, and so- 
 cially belongs to the Foresters, the Hibernians and 
 Salem Club. 
 
 JAMES THOMAS KANE, a prominent gro- 
 cer of Branford, was born in New Haven, Conn., 
 June 16, 1863, a son of James and Ellen (Con- 
 nolly) Kane, natives of County Cork, Ireland, who 
 came to this country in 1852, and located in New 
 Haven, where the father was employed by the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford Railway Co., until 
 1865. That year he made a visit to his native Ire- 
 land, and while there was taken sick, and died. 
 
 James Thomas Kane, the only child of his par- 
 ents, was reared in the city of New York, where 
 his mother located when he was less than three 
 3'ears old. He acquired his education in the pub- 
 lic schools of that city, and in Cargill Business 
 College in New Haven. In 1881 he came to Bran- 
 ford, and for fifteen years, was employed as clerk 
 in the grocery store of M. P. Harding. Affable 
 and accommodating, he made many friends, and 
 when he purchased the establishment in 1895, it 
 was to enter at once upon a large and satisfactory 
 trade with a host of customers who were already 
 his personal friends, and who were prepared to- 
 take an active interest in extending his custom. 
 To-day it is not too much to sav that Mr. Kane is 
 one of the most popular grocers in this p.-^rt of the 
 county. He carries good goods, is contented with 
 reasonable profits, and is anxious to make of every 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1175 
 
 customer a friend, if honest dealing and courteous 
 treatment can accomplish it. 
 
 Mr. Kane i& a faithful memiber of the Catholic 
 Church, and socially belongs to the Knights of Co- 
 lumbus and the Emerald Social Club of Branford, 
 and is active and reliable in these various connec- 
 tions. In politics he is a Democrat, but gives little 
 attention to party manipulations. 
 
 JOHN AUGUSTUS jNIARTIN, Judge of the 
 Probate Court, District of Wallingford, was born 
 in that town, Aug. 4, 1863, a son of Henry Martin. 
 This branch of the Martin family was first repre- 
 sented in America by Samuel Martin, the great- 
 grandfather of John Augustus. He was born in 
 Fair Haven, England, was a sea captain by occu- 
 pation, and died while in command of a vessel in 
 the West Indies. 
 
 Wooster Martin, son of Capt. Samuel Martin, 
 was born in Prospect, Conn. In his early days 
 he was a wagon maker, and from 1832 onward con- 
 ducted a wagon shop at North Farms, Walling- 
 ford. In the later years of his life he lived in Wall- 
 ingford, and died in 1862, aged seventy-two years. 
 He was thrice married. Alethea Hall, the daughter 
 of David Flail, of Wallingford, became his first wife, 
 and bore him the following children : ( i ) Aimer 
 died at the age of ten years in Meriden. (2) Cor- 
 nelia died when nineteen years old. (3) Othniel 
 Ives died Nov. i, 1900, and left a reputation as 
 one of the most capable officials of Wallingford. 
 In 1872 he was elected town clerk, and at the next 
 election Judge of Probate. At the time of his death 
 he was regarded as the oldest town clerk in the 
 State in point of continuous service. From '1872 
 to 1892 he held the office of Judge of Probate, and 
 only the bar of age prevented his continued re-elec- 
 tion. In 1 86 1 he was a representative from Walling- 
 ford in the State Legislature. He was one of the in- 
 corporatdrs of the Dime Savings Bank. Fraternally 
 he was a Mason, and religiously a member of the 
 Congregational Church. Mr. Martin was twice 
 married, first to Elizabeth Hall, daughter of Judge 
 Augustus Flail, and then to Sarah A. Cook, daugh- 
 ter of Thaddeus Cook, who served in the war of 
 1812, and whose father. Col. Tliaddeus Cook, was 
 an officer in the Continental army. (4) Wooster 
 died at the age of ten years. (5) Henry is men- 
 tioned below. (6) William died in Wallingford 
 at the age of two years. For his second wife 
 Wooster Martin married Mrs. Delilah (Morse) 
 Hull, the widow of Sylvester Hull, and the daugh- 
 ter of Capt. Benajah Morse. To this union was 
 born one daughter, Delilah C, who has never mar- 
 ried, and is still living in Wallingford. Wooster 
 Martin married for his third wife Laura Payne, of 
 Prospect. 
 
 Henry Martin, son of Wooster Martin, was 
 born in Meriden, Feb. 14, 1829, and acquired his 
 preliminary education in that town, after which 
 he was for three years a student in the Suffield 
 
 Institute. He left school at the age of twenty, and 
 went to California by the Isthmus Route. After 
 spending two years in the mines, he went to San 
 Francisco to set up in the auction business in com- 
 pany with A. I. Hall, and the two presently joined 
 with themselves H. M. Newhall. The three con- 
 tinued in business until July, 1851, when Mr. Mar- 
 tin sold out, returned to Wallingford, where he 
 became a stockholder in the New England Cutlery 
 Co. In 1855 and 1856 he served as Bank Com- 
 missioner of the State. Mr. Martin is a Mason, be- 
 ing affiliated with Compass Lodge, of Wallingford, 
 of which he was Master fourteen years, and he 
 also belongs to Keystone Chapter, of Meriden. 
 With his family he belongs to the Congregational 
 Church of Wallingford. He has always been a 
 stanch Republican, but has never sought office. 
 On May 24, 1853, Henry Martin and Julia A. Hall, 
 daughter of Joel Hall, were united in marriage. 
 Mrs. Martin died May 5, 1898, the mother of the 
 following children : Charles W., a grain merchant 
 in Grand Meadow, Minn., who married Alba Pad- 
 dock, a daughter of Selden Yale Paddock; Harry 
 H., who married Martha L. Judd, and died Feb. 
 26, 1896, leaving two children ; Cornelia J., who 
 married George M. Judd, and is living at Walling- 
 ford; John Augustus; Aimer I., mentioned below; 
 Mary Alice, Jessie Beach, and Mabel Hitchcock 
 are all at home. 
 
 Aimer Ives Martin, son of Henry Martin, was 
 born Aug. 28, 1865, and received his education in 
 the schools of Wallingford, his native village. 
 Leaving school when sixteen years old he entered 
 the employ of Simpson, Hall & Miller Co., to learn 
 the trade of a solderer. Remaining there three 
 years, at the expiration of that time he bought out, 
 in company with his brother John A., the grocery 
 and grain business of C. N. Jones. The firm of 
 Martin Brothers continued until 1889, v/hen Aimer 
 Ives boug'ht out the business. Socially he is a 
 member of the I. O. O. F. ; and politically he is 
 a Republican, but has never sought office. He is 
 an attendant at the Congregational Church. On 
 Nov. II, 1891, Aimer Ives Martin married Miss 
 Caroline R. Cook, of Wallingford, a daughter of 
 Edward F. and Emeline (Cook) Cook. 
 
 John Augustus Martin, the subject proper of 
 this review, was born in Wallingford, where he 
 acquired his education. At the age of sixteen 
 years he became a clerk in the store of Charles N. 
 Jones, which later he and Aimer I. purchased. 
 After remaining there a few months the young man 
 was taken into the office of Simpson, Hall, Miller 
 & Co., with which celebrated concern he remained 
 for seven years, and there received a good business 
 training. In 1885 he purchased an interest in the 
 store of C. N. Jones, in company with his brother 
 Aimer I., as noted above, retaining, however, his 
 position in the office of Simpson, Hall, Miller & 
 Co. for two years. Ill health, however, compelled 
 him to give up his office position, and after sev- 
 
II76 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 eral months in the store he had to abandon that 
 work. Devoting his time to the restoration of his 
 health, he spent his winters in Georgia, and his 
 summers in Colorado and Nebraska, engaged in 
 the real estate business in company with his father 
 and brothers. In 1893 he returned to Wallingford, 
 and boug'ht out the real estate and fire insurance 
 business of E. B. Camp, which he bas since con- 
 ducted. He has been active m the work of the 
 Republican party, and in 1894 he was elected 
 Judge of Probate and in 1897 clerk of the town of 
 Wallingford. 
 
 On Dec. 10, 1901, Judge Martin was married to 
 Miss Genevieve Louise Persiani, of Wallingford. 
 They attend the Congregational Church. i\Ir. 
 Martin has risen to high rank in the Masonic fra- 
 ternity, and has received the thirty-second degree 
 and lie is also a member of the Pyramid Temple, 
 Shriners of Bridgeport. Socially he is a member 
 of the I. O. O. F. ; the O. U. A. M., of which he 
 has been trustee; the K. of P.. being identified 
 with Ivv Lodge, Xo. 43, in which he has been a 
 trustee and keeper of records and seals, and of 
 which he is also a past chancellor. He also be- 
 longs to the Foresters- of America. 
 
 GEORGE FRANCIS HUCKINS, who is suc- 
 cessfully engaged in market gardening on the old 
 Daniel Hitchcock farm of twenty-six acres in the 
 town of Cheshire, was born in Derby, this county, 
 Feb. 7, 1867. His parents, David and Catherine 
 (Layj Huckins, were natives of Oxfordshire, Eng- 
 land, where they were reared, educated and mar- 
 ried. In 1858 they crossed the broad Atlantic and 
 took up their residence in Derby, where the father 
 was employed in the iron and steel works for a 
 period of twenty-four years. During the Civil war 
 he enlisted at Derby, in Company D, 23d Conn. V. 
 I., for three years, had previously been in the nine 
 months service, and remained at the front until hos^ 
 tilities ceased. Returning home, he worked some 
 years in an iron axle factory in Derby. He died at 
 Shelton, this state, in 1877, and his widow now 
 lives with our subject. They had five children, 
 namely : ^Vcldie, born in England, and who is now 
 Mrs. Joseph Lyons, of Cheshire; Frank, born in 
 Derby, who died when three yeara old ; David, a 
 resident of Shelton ; Walter, of Mixville, town of 
 Cheshire ; and George Francis. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth George Francis 
 Huckins attended school in Derby and also in 
 Cheshire, and in early life worked at drawing brass 
 and copper wire in the former place for five years. 
 Since then he has engaged in agricultural pursuits, 
 raising principally fruits and vegetables, in which 
 undertaking he has steadily prospered. In Pros- 
 pect, in 1894, Mr. Huckins married IMiss Emma 
 Blackman, a native of Derby, and a daughter of 
 Miner and Hattie (Johnson) Blackman, now resi- 
 dents of Prospect. Mrs. Fluckins died Jan. 7, 1895, 
 leaving one child, Raymond. On July 3, 1900, Mr. 
 
 Huckins married Dora Jane Brooks, a native of 
 Cheshire, and daughter of Simeon and Julia 
 (Bottsford) Brooks, natives of Cheshire and New- 
 town, respectively. 
 
 In his political views our subject is a Repub- 
 lican. He is a member of L. A. Thomas Lodge, 
 No. 9, I. O. O. F., and of the Patrons of Hus- 
 bandry-, Grange No. 23, in which he has served as 
 steward and assistant steward. 
 
 MRS. JANE (REILLY) ^^IcDONNELL is a 
 daughter- of Farrell and Bridget (Reynolds) Reilly, 
 who were both born in the same county in Ireland, 
 and were residents of Derby, New Haven county, 
 for many years. 
 
 FarreHReilly was one of the first of his race to 
 settle in that city, with whose growth and develop- 
 ment he was long identified. He was a citizen who 
 took a deep and lasting interest in all measures cal- 
 culated to promote the public welfare, and a liberal 
 supporter of every good work. Poss-eissed of keen 
 intelligence and sound business sense, he accumu- 
 lated a handsome competence. Shrewd and far- 
 seding, his advice was constantly sought in both 
 public and private affairs. His generosity and 
 genial disposition won for him numerous friends, 
 while his sterling character and blameless life earn- 
 ed the universal respect of his neighbors and fellow 
 townsmen. He was a Democrat in- politics, and in 
 religion a devout Catholic, one who attested the 
 vitality of his faith in his daily dealings with the 
 world. He was a liberal contributor to -the w-ork of 
 the church, aiding in the erection of its house of 
 worship by generous gifts and purchasing and do- 
 nating the ground for a cemetery. He died June 6, 
 1861, his widow passing away May 23, 1881. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Reilly were married in Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 and were tne parents of six children : James, Ber- 
 nard, Bridget, Jane, John and Farrell. James and 
 Farrell died in young manhood. Bridget -died un- 
 married. John and Bernard are residents of Derby. 
 Jane, the fourth of this family in order of birth, is 
 the widow of Charles McDonnell. 1 
 
 Charles McDonnell was for a quarter of a 
 century actively and honorably identified with the 
 police force of New York City. His father, Peter 
 McDonnell, was a native of Ireland, where he mar- 
 ried. He emigrated to America, landing at New 
 York, in which city he made his home and where 
 he reared his family of five children, all of whom 
 are deceased. Charles, the third in the family, was 
 born in the historic Sixth ward of the metropolis, 
 where he grew to manhood. He learned the trade 
 of a cooper, and followed same until his appoint- 
 ment on the police force, Jan. 25, 1863. He proved 
 himself a capable, fearless and incorruptible offi- 
 cer, and was promoted, step by step, until he reached 
 the rank of captain. He was fond of Derby, its 
 people and its ways, and for eight years annually 
 spent three months in that city. He built the beau- 
 tiful home on Flawthorne avenue which his widow 
 
CHARLES HcDOEFHELL. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1177 
 
 now occupies, and took an interest in public affairs, 
 being a member of the Derby "Storm Hose Com- 
 pany" for several years. He died in the city of New 
 York Aug. 14, 1888. Capt. McDonnell was con- 
 sidered one of the most etficient officers in the de- 
 partment of which he was so long an honored mem- 
 ber. As a disciplinarian he was strict, yet just ; as 
 an officer, brave and efficient ; as a citizen, progress- 
 ive and public-spirited ; as a friend, generous and 
 true ; as a man, courageous and upright. 
 
 Capt. McDonnell married Miss Jane Reilly Feb. 
 17, 1870, and their union was blessed with three 
 children, all of whom died in childhood. The Cap- 
 tain was a member of the Catholic Church, as is 
 .also his widow. 
 
 WILSON F. CLARK, who is now successfully 
 •engaged in the trucking business in Naugatuck, 
 was born in that town, Jan. 3, 1862. 
 
 Hezekiah Clark, his grandfather, was born near 
 Schenectady, N. Y., and from there removed to 
 Millville, this county, following the occupation of 
 fanning at both places. He was a soldier of the 
 ^var of 1812, and died in Naugutuck, in 1872. In 
 his family were, three children : Francis, the fa- 
 ther of our subject; Eliza, deceased wife of Ed- 
 ward Marks, a farmer of Naugatuck; and Amos, a 
 farmer, who died at about the age of thirty years. 
 
 Francis Clark was born in Millville, in 1830, 
 and reared in that town. On starting out in life 
 for himself he engaged in farming, but he after- 
 Vv^ard turned his attention to the livery business, 
 and still later was employed in the rubber factory 
 at Naugatuck. He married Miss Mary O'Donnell, 
 a native of Londonderry, Ireland, and both died 
 in Naugatuck, in 1884, honored and respected by 
 all who knew them. They had three children: 
 Wilbur, who was drowned at the age of three years 
 and nine months; Wilson F., our subject; and 
 Frank, who resides at Naugatuck, and is in the 
 employ of our subject. 
 
 During his boyhood Wilson F. Clark pursued 
 his studies in the pubhc schools of Naugatuck, 
 and after the completion of his education he worked 
 for the Goodyear India Rubber Glove Co. five years, 
 after which he went to Cambridge, Mass., and 
 spent one year in the employ of the American Rub- 
 ber Co. Returning to his native town, he was 
 with the Goodyear Shoe Co. for nine months, and 
 then went to Framingham, Mass., to take charge 
 of a department for the Para Rubber Co., remain- 
 ing with them until 1887. During that year he 
 again came to Naugatuck and superintended the 
 placing of the machinery in factory No. 2 of the 
 Goodyear India Rubber Shoe Co., and was in then- 
 employ until November, 1889. On Dec. i, 1889, 
 he embarked in the trucking business, which he 
 has since successfully carried on, and though he 
 started with but one horse, he now has ten, and 
 is doing a large and profitable business. In 1891 
 J\Ir. Clark went to Helsingborg, Sweden, to set up 
 
 the machinery in a rubher factory, and remained 
 there eleven months, showing how to operate the 
 same. During this time he was still interested in 
 the trucking business in Naugatuck, and so rapidly 
 has his btisinesis grown that he now furnishes 
 employment to eight men. He attributes his success 
 to hard work and strict attention to business. 
 
 In 1887, Mr. Clark married Miss Susan Burns, 
 of Milford, Mass., who died in 1890, leaving two 
 children, May and Gertrude. He was again mar- 
 ried in June, 1892, his second union being with 
 Bridget Dalton, of Framingham, Mass., by whom 
 he has three children, namely: Wilson, John and 
 Frank. Mr. Clark is independent in politics. He 
 is a member of the Foresters of America, and the 
 Naugatuck Fire Department. In his religious con- 
 nection he belongs to St. Francis Catholic Church. 
 Widely and favorably known, he has a host of 
 warm friends in the community where he resides. 
 
 WILLIAM SEYMOUR STRONG, a leading 
 dairy farmer and progressive and enterprising citi- 
 zen of Prospect, is a native of New Haven county, 
 born in the town of Wallingford April 27, 1865, 
 son of William Henry and Rhoda M. (Hotchkiss) 
 Strong. 
 
 The Strong family was originally located in 
 Shropshire, England. One of its members married 
 the heiress of Griffith, in Caernarvonshire, Wales, 
 whither he removed in 1545. Richard Strong, ac- 
 cording to tradition a Roman Catholic, was of this 
 branch of the family, and was born in Caernarvon- 
 shire in 1 561. In 1590 he removed to Taunton, 
 Somersetshire, England, where he died in 1613, 
 leaving one son, John, then eight years of age, and 
 one daughter, Eleanor. 
 
 John Strong, born in Taunton, England, in 
 1605, removed to London, thence tO' Plymouth, 
 England, and in 1630 formed one of the Warham 
 company, which settled in Dorchester, Mass. On 
 his emigration to the New World he was accom- 
 panied by his sister Eleanor, who married Walter 
 Deane, tanner, of Taunton, England. In 1630 
 John Strong married (second) Abigail, daughter 
 of John Ford. In 1635 he was at Hingham, 
 Mass., and became a freeman of Boston March 9, 
 1636. In December, 1638, he was an inhabitant 
 of Taunton, Mass., and a freeman of Plymouth 
 Colony. He represented the town of Taunton in 
 the General Assembly in 1641-43-44; removed) to 
 Windsor, Conn., and from there, in 1659, to North- 
 ampton, where he became the first ruling elder of 
 the church. He was a leading man in church and 
 town affairs. By occupation he was a tanner, and 
 he owned at different times some 200 acres of land. 
 He died at Northampton, April 14, 1699; his wife, 
 Abigail, died in Windsor April 28, 1663. His chil- 
 dren were: John, born in England in 1626, died 
 at Windsor Feb. 20, 1698; one died in infancy in 
 Dorchester, in 1630; Thomas, born in 1633, died 
 Oct. 3, 1689; Jedediah, born May 7, 1637, died May 
 
II78 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 22, 1733; Jacob was born in 1639; Rebecca, born 
 in 1641, died in April, 1726; Elder Ebenezer, born 
 in 1643, died Feb. 11, 1729; Abigail, born in 1645, 
 married Rev. Nathaniel Chauncey, of Hatfield ; 
 Elizabeth, born Feb. 24, 1647, married Joseph Par- 
 sons, and died May 12, 1736; Experience, born 
 Aug. 4, 1650, married Zerubbabel Filer, of Wind- 
 sor; Samuel, born Aug. 5, 1652, died Oct. 29, 1732; 
 Joseph, twin of Samuel, died young; Mary, born 
 Oct. 26, 1654, married Deacon John Clark, of 
 Northampton, and died Dec. 26, 1738; Sarah, born 
 in 1656, married Joseph Barnard, of Hadley, Mass., 
 and died Feb. 10, 1733 ; Hannah, born May 30, 
 1659, married William Clark, of Northampton, and 
 died Jan. 31, 1693; Hester, born June 7, 1661, mar- 
 ried Thomas Bessell, of Windsor, and died March 
 4, 1726; Thankful, born July 25, 1663, married 
 William Baldwin, of Milford ; Jerizah, born Dec. 
 12, 1665, died April 24, 1754. 
 
 Thomas Strong, son of John, born in 1633, 
 was a trooper in 1658, in Windsor, under Major 
 Mason. In 1659 he removed to Northampton, 
 Mass., with his father. On Dec. 5, 1660, he mar- 
 ried Mary Herritt, daughter of Rev. Ephraim Her- 
 ritt, of Windsor. She died Feb. 20, 1670, and 
 Oct. 10, 1671, he married Rachel Hilton, daughter 
 of Deacon William Hilton, of Northampton, Mass. 
 Thomas Strong died Oct. 3, 1689, and his widow 
 married, May 16, 1698, Nathan Bradley, of East 
 Guilford, now Madison. Children of Thomas 
 Strong b}^ first marriage : Thomas, born Nov. 16, 
 1661, died at Durham, Conn.; Maria, born Aug. 
 31, 1663, married Samuel Judd, of Northampton, 
 and died May 18, 1751 ; John, born ]\Iarch 9, 1665, 
 died at Deerfield, Mass., May 21, 1699; Herritt, 
 born Dec. 2, 1666, was one of the first settlers of 
 Durham, Conn., and died Sept. 29, 1689; Ashel, 
 born Nov. 14, 1668, died at Farmington, Conn., 
 Oct. 8, 1739. By second marriage: Joseph, born 
 Dec. 2, 1672, is mentioned below; Benjamin, born 
 in 1674, died Aug. 27, 1755, at East Guilford, 
 Conn. ; Adam, born Jan. 25, 1676, died at Wood- 
 bury, Conn., Dec. 31, 1749; Waitstill, born in 1677, 
 died at Northampton Dec. 13, 1762; Rachel, born 
 July 15, 1679, married Miles Dudley, of Guilford, 
 Jan. 23, 1705; Selah, born Dec. 23, 1680, died at 
 Brookhaven April 8, 1732; Bena'jah, born Sept. 
 24, 1682, died in 1714; Ephraim, born Jan. 4, 1685, 
 died at Milford, Conn. ; Elnathan, born Aug. 20, 
 1686, died at Woodbury May 22, 1727; Ruth, born 
 Feb. 4, 1688, married Deacon William Dudley, of 
 North Guilford; Submit was born Feb. 28, 1690. 
 
 Joseph Strong, son of Thomas, born Dec. 2, 
 1672, at Northampton, married, in 1694, Sarah 
 Allen, who was born Aug. 22, 1672, daughter of 
 Nehemiah Allen, of Northampton. He was known 
 as "Justice Joseph," and was quite a prominent 
 man. In 1716 he removed to Coventry, Conn., 
 where he was among the first settlers. In 1721 he 
 represented the people in the General Assemblv, 
 the Colonial Legislature, being the first to represent 
 
 that town, and he continued to serve for fifty-two 
 sessions. He was justice of the peace for many 
 years, also selectman and town treasurer, and held 
 other local offices. By occupation he was a farmer, 
 and he was a large land owner in Coventry, where 
 he died Dec. 3, 1763. Children: Sarah, born in 
 1699 (married Ebenezer Root) ; Capt. Joseph, July 
 25, 1701 ; Rachel, Aug. 13, 1703 (died young); 
 Phinehas, 1704; Simeon, Oct. 17, 1705; Jemima, 
 Dec. I, 1709 (married in 1727 Noah Rush) ; Rachel, 
 June 30, 171 1 (married Aaron Strong) ; Elizabeth, 
 July 16, 1713. 
 
 Deacon Phinehas Strong, born in Coventry in 
 1704, married, Nov. 5, 1724, Mary Parker, daugh- 
 ter of Deacon Thomas Parker, of Coventry. He 
 was a member of the General Assembly fifty-three 
 sessions,, including extra sessions, having been thir- 
 ty-eight times elected for the Legislature; was 
 selectman six years ; justice of the peace many years, 
 and was deacon of the church many years. Hisi 
 wife died April 13, 1767. Children: Phinehas, 
 born Nov. 9, 1725; Mary, March 11, 1727; Sarah, 
 April 2, 1729; Azubah, Oct. 11,1731 (married James 
 Pinneo) ; Iranah, Jan. 27, 1741 (died March 11, 
 1773); Elijah and Elisha, twins, Aug. 15, 1743; 
 Beulah, March 7, 1746 (died Aug. 22, 1750) ; Han- 
 nah, March 16, 1748 (died April 24, 1767). 
 
 Elijah Strong, born Aug. 15, 1743, in Coventry, 
 married Anna Pinneo, who was born in 1746, 
 daughter of Deacon James and Priscilla (New- 
 comb) Pinneo, of Lebanon, Conn. Mr. Strong 
 was a farmer in Coventry and Sharon, Conn., and 
 later, in 1785, removed to Ashland, Greene Co., N. 
 Y., where he owned a tract of land and where he 
 died April 13, 1805, his death being caused by the 
 kick of a horse. His wife died Nov. 18, 1818, at 
 Ashland, N. Y. Children : Azubah, born in 1769, 
 married Deacon Augustus White, of Ashland, and 
 died March 9, 1838; James, born in 1772, died at 
 Detroit, Mich., March 16, 1865; Hon. Jairus B., 
 born May 4, 1774, died June 12, 1838; Deacon 
 Elijah, born in 1776, is mentioned below; Sylvia, 
 born in 1779, married Noah Rockwell, and died 
 Sept. 6, 1840, in Delaware county, N. Y. ; Elisha, 
 born in 1782, died at Friendship, N. Y., in Jan- 
 uary, 1841 ; Anna, born in 1784, married James 
 Chase, of New York, and died Dec. 24, 1848; Bet- 
 sey, born Oct. 19, 1787, married Jacob Raynolds, 
 and died March 7, 1832. 
 
 Elijah Strong, Jr., was born in 1776. On Jan. 
 7, 1798, he married Betsey Sadd, born in 1779, 
 daughter of Noah and Delight (Warner) Sadd, 
 of South Windsor. She died March 14, 1821, and 
 he married July 18, 182 1, Lavina Barber, born Sept. 
 25.. 1787. who died in Hudson, Ohio, April 2, 185s. 
 Elijah Strong, Jr., was a carpenter and tanner of 
 New Hartford, Conn., and also taught music. He 
 died Sept. i, 1850. Children: Irene, born March 
 25, 1799, married in September, 1820, Ira Hubbell, 
 of Rocky Hill, and died Feb. 10, 1841, in Hartford; 
 Ebenezer Warner, born Jan, 10, 1802, died Aug. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 "79 
 
 31, 1802 ;, Edward Warner, born May 18, 1804, mar- 
 ried Sally Shepard, of Highgate, Vt. ; Thomas 
 Parker, born Sept. 11, 1806, is mentioned below; 
 Elizabeth Woodbridge, born April 11, 1809, mar- 
 ried Nathan Strong, a hatter of Hudson, Ohio; 
 Mary Lyman, born April 20, 181 1, married April 
 6, 1836, Samuel Eleazer Judd, of Hudson, Ohio ; 
 Julia, born June 5, 1814, married Jehiel Hart, of 
 Hartford. 
 
 Thomas Parker Strong, grandfather of the 
 gentleman whose name introduces these lines, was 
 born in New Hartford, Conn., Sept. 11, 1806. He 
 married a Miss Gear, and their children were: 
 Louise died young; Edwin, now deceased, resided 
 in West Haven ; William Henry was the father of 
 our subject. Thomas P. Strong was reared in 
 New York State, where' he died. 
 
 William Henry Strong, born in New York State 
 Oct. 7, 1840, came while still young to New Hart- 
 ford, Conn., where he grew to manhood. He en- 
 listed during the Civil war in Company D, 15th 
 Conn. V. L, served five months, and then enlisted 
 a second time in the same command, at West Ha- 
 ven, becoming sergeant. He was mustered) out 
 of the service in 1864 on account of disability, and 
 received an honorable discharge. He had been sta- 
 tioned at New Orleans, where he was deputy sher- 
 iff. After his return from the army Mr. Strong 
 located at Wahingford, where he worked as a rna- 
 chinist and caster, and from there he went to Win- 
 sted. Conn., where he worked at the same trade. 
 On account of ill health, however, he had to give 
 up, and went to farming in New Hartford, where 
 he remained a year, coming thence to New Haven 
 county, and locating at Prospect in 1870. There 
 he spent the remainder of his life on the farm now 
 owned by his son William' S. He died April 29, 
 1882, and was buriedj in Prospect cemetery. Mr. 
 Strong was a member of the Adventist Church ; he 
 was a Republican in politics. On July 3, 1864, he 
 married, in Wallingford, Rhoda M. Hbtchkiss, who 
 was born in Cheshire, daughter of Sheldon and 
 Sarah (Blakslee) Hotchkiss, and granddaughter 
 of Isaac and Rhoda (Atwater) Hotchkiss. Three 
 children, blessed this union: William S., who is 
 mentioned below ; Frank E., a salesman in Water- 
 bury; and Harry A., who died at the age of sixteen 
 years. Mrs. Strong married for her second hus- 
 band, in 1897, Thomas Fitzsimmons, of Waterbury, 
 president of the Novelty Mfg. Co., of that city. 
 
 Our subject grew to manhood in the town of 
 Prospect, and is indebted to its district schools 
 for his educational advantages. He began his busi- 
 ness career as an agriculturist, and engaged in the 
 dairy business on a small scale, at the same time 
 having charge of the Waterbury reservoir. Bemg 
 industrious, energetic and enterprising, he pros- 
 pered in his labors, and is to-day the largest dairy 
 farmer in Prospect, where he owns and operates a 
 valuable tract of sixty-five acres, upon which _ he 
 has made many excellent improvements, including 
 
 the erection — in 1895, — of a beautiful residence, one 
 of the finest in town. He has upon the place a fine 
 grade of thoroughbred stock, and the products of 
 his farm, owing to their excellence, find a ready 
 sale at the highest market price. 
 
 In 1887 Mr. Strong married Miss Hattie R. 
 Hotchkiss, a native of Waterbury, and a daughter 
 of Deacon Gilbert Hotchkiss. To this union has 
 been born one child, Emma, who is now attending 
 school. Mr. Strong affiliates with the Republican 
 party, and is a member of the Grange and the Ad- 
 ventist Church. Upright and honorable in all his 
 dealings, he has won the confidence of all with 
 whom he has come in contact, and his friends are 
 mauj-' throughout the county. 
 
 JOHN J. GORMAN is one of the best known 
 and most highly esteemed citizens, of Naugatuck, 
 and the respect paid him is neither lacking in sin- 
 cerity nor destitute of foundation. A bright mind 
 and a keen moral sense have commanded admira- 
 tion and won confidence. Of Irish parentage, he is 
 of American nativity, born in Naugatuck, Oct. i,. 
 i860. 
 
 Thomas Gorman, his father, was born in Ire- 
 land and reared in England. By trade he was a 
 blacksmith. He emigrated to this country while yet 
 a young man, making his home at Litchfield, Conn.,, 
 and there married an Irish maiden, Margaret Mc- 
 Carty. Not long afterward the young couple re- 
 moved to Naugatuck, where he worked as a laborer 
 for the India Rubber Co., and there he died in 
 1887; his wife died twenty-one years previously. 
 A Democrat in politics, Mr. Gorman was a Catholic 
 in religious faith, and he and hia faithful wife reared 
 their five children in that communion. Of their 
 family, John J. was third in order of birth, and the 
 eldest son. The first-born died in infancy. The 
 others were Mary E., who married John Dermody, 
 a native of Pennsylvania, and now a resident of 
 Naugatuck; Dennis, a liquor dealer in that town; 
 and James, a contractor at Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl- 
 vania. 
 
 John J. Gorman was educated in the schools of 
 his birthplace, and after his school days were over 
 learned the trade of carpenter from Michael Shana- 
 han. His apprenticeship completed, he worked for 
 some years as a journeyman. But he possessed en- 
 ergy and ambition which would not permit him to 
 pass through life in a subordinate position, and in 
 1889 he began taking contracts in his own name. 
 He is still engaged in that business, in which his 
 capacity, industry and integrity have brought him 
 success. 
 
 Mr. Gorman was married, July 20, 1887, to Miss 
 Lillian Casey, of Waterbury, whose parents, Chris- 
 topher and Margaret (Conlon) Casey, were born in 
 Ireland. To the union have been born eight chil- 
 dren, namely: Thomas, John, Margaret, Henry, 
 Joseph (deceased), Francis, George and Genevieve. 
 
 The respect in which Mr. Gorman is held by the 
 
,1 1 80 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 citizens of the town in whicli he was born and 
 where he has passed a life of hard work and hon- 
 esty is attested by his repeated elevation to offices 
 of high trust and serious responsibility. During 
 1892-93 he served as town clerk. In 1893 he was 
 elected selectman, and in 1894 first selectman. Two 
 years later he was chosen warden of Naugatuck, 
 and in 1898 represented his town in the Legislature, 
 a position which he filled with singular ability. He 
 is a Democrat in politics, and fraternally is a mem- 
 ber of the Foresters of America. He and his fam- 
 ily are devout Catholics. 
 
 FREDERIC N. PERRY, proprietor of the 
 ^\'aterbury Steam Carpet Beating Co. and the City 
 Steam Laundry & Dye Works, Waterbury, is a na- 
 tive of that city, born Nov. 16, 1857. 
 
 George F. Perry, his father, was born in New 
 Milford, Conn., a son of Nathaniel Perry, a native 
 ■ of Litchfield county. Conn., and a lawyer by pro- 
 fession, who died in New Milford. When ten years 
 of age George F. removed to Watertown, Conn., 
 and there worked for some time in the shops of the 
 place. For a few years he was station agent at Oak- 
 ville, Conn., eventually removing to Waterbury, 
 wnere for several years 'he was superintendent of 
 the American Suspender Co. He married Aurelia 
 M. Sprague, who was born in Waterville, Conn., 
 daughter of David Sprague, and two children 
 blessed their union: Frederic N., our subject; and 
 Sarah A., deceased at the age of twenty-two years. 
 The mother of these died in 1862, at 'the age of 
 twenty-six. In church connection she was a Con- 
 gregationalist. The father passed away in Water- 
 bury in 1890, aged sixty years. In politics he was 
 a Republican, and he served as county commissioner 
 and selectman. In religious faith he was an Episco- 
 palian. 
 
 Frederic N. Perry attended the public schools 
 ■of \^'at'erbury until the age of fourteen, at which 
 time, his father being station agent at Oakville, 
 Conn., he did the work in the office for three years, 
 also attending during two seasons of the time the 
 National Busintsis College of New Haven. At the 
 end of that time he entered the employ of the Elton 
 Banking Co., Waterbury, and remained with that 
 firm until they ceased 'to do business. He then be- 
 came bookkeeper for the Novelty Manufacturing 
 Co., with whom he remained some ten years, re- 
 signing in order to organize, J\Iarch I, 1886, the 
 Waterbury Steam Carpet Beating Co., of which he 
 is sole proprietor. On Jan. I, 1896, he added the 
 laundry and dyeing business, under the style of 
 City Steam Laundry & Dye Works. The works 
 were located at first on Mill street, but in 1890 he 
 built his brick plant at No. 43 Jefiferson 'Street. 
 
 On Dec. 9, 1880, Mr. Perry married Lucy M. 
 Hickox, who was born dn Waterbury, a daughter 
 of Sherman Hickox, of the same city. The Flickox 
 family have resided for generations in Waterbury. 
 Five children have come to this union : Willfred 
 
 S., born Oct. 25, 1883; Sarah A. and Lucy H., 
 twins, born Nov. 10, 1884; Sherman H., bom July 
 28, 1886; and George F., born Dec. 26, 1887, who 
 died Oct. 20, 1891. The family attend the services 
 of the Episcopal Church. In politics Mr. Perry is 
 a Republican; socially he is a member of Nosa- 
 hog-an Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. F., of Waterburv. 
 
 RICHARD LIENRY MORGAN is a leading 
 market gardener of Cheshire, ^v'here he has ten 
 acres of his twenty-acre farm devoted to garden 
 produce. A portion of the plat is covered with hot 
 houses, containing some 10,000 square feet of glass. 
 During the busy season he gives employment to 
 six men. He thoroughly understands the occupa- 
 tion he has chosen as a life work, and is a 'business 
 man of more than ordinary ability. 
 
 Mr. Morgan was born in the town of Colchester, 
 New London Co., Conn., Oct. 29, 1866, a son of 
 Edward Payson and Emmia M. (Loomis) Mor- 
 gan, and grandson of Frederick and Caroline 
 (Watrous) Morgan, also natives of Connecticut. 
 The progenitor of the family in America was James 
 Morgan, who was born in Wales in 1607. In 
 March, 1636, with two younger brothers, John and 
 Miles, he sailed from Bristol, England, and ar- 
 rived in Boston the following month. He was a 
 freeman at Roxbii.ry, May 10, 1643 ; and in that 
 town, Aug. 6, 1640, married Margery Hill. In 
 1650 he removed to New London, and soon after 
 settled in what is now Groton. He was ten 'times a 
 delegate to the General Court, and was the third 
 largest taxpayer in New London. He died in 1685. 
 His homestead descended through an unbroken line 
 of James Morgans for six generations. 
 
 Capt. James Morgan, eldest son of James, was 
 born March 3, 1644, and in November, 1666, mar- 
 ried Mary Vine. 
 
 Deacon William Morgan, second son of Capt. 
 James and Mary (Vine) Morgan, was born March 
 4, 1669, and on July 17, 1696, married Margaret 
 Avery, by whom he had nine children. 
 
 Deacon Solomon Morgan, seventh in the family 
 of Deacon William, was born Oct. 5, 1708, and mar- 
 ried Mary Walworth, July I, 1742. Eight children 
 blessed this union. 
 
 Dr. Elisha Morgan, youngest in the family of 
 Deacon Solomon, was born March 7, 1762, and was 
 married in October, 1790, to Abigail Morgan. Two 
 sons and one daughter came to gladden their home. 
 
 Dr. Frederick Morgan, son of Dr. Elisha, was 
 born Sept. 6, 1791, and died June 18, 1877. Like 
 his father before him, he entered the medical pro- 
 fession, and engaged in practice in Colchester. He 
 was married May 20, 1823, to Caroline Watrous, 
 who was 'born in Colchester, June 30, 1797, and died 
 in New London, July 25, 1889. She was a daugh- 
 ter of Dr. John R. Watrous, a prominent citizen of 
 Colchester. Eight children were born of this union, 
 of whom Edward Payson was fifth in order of 
 birth. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 rrsi' 
 
 Edward Payson Morgan was born in Col- 
 chester, Feb. 21, 1834, and wa,s reared and educated 
 in New London county. In early life he learned the 
 carpenter's trade, and in 1854 he went to Califor- 
 nia, where he worked' at his trade for a time, on his 
 return East locating in Colchester, where he re- 
 mained until coming to Cheshire. His home is now 
 in Cheshire Centre. He married Emma M. Loomis, 
 who died in Colchester, Nov. 23, 1867, aged twenty- 
 four years, leaving one child, Richard Henry. Mr. 
 Morgan was married Oct. 2, 1880, to Miss Olivia 
 Laing, who died in 1883, leaving no children. On 
 May 21, 1884, he married Mahala Hewitt, of Pres- 
 ton, Conn., who is still his companion and helpmeet. 
 Edward Payson Morgan enlisted Aug. 25, 1862, in 
 Company C, 24th Conn. V. I., and served until Sep- 
 tember, 1863, under Gen. Banks, participating in the 
 siege of Port Hudson, where he received a slight 
 wound. 
 
 Richard Henry Morgan passed the first ten years 
 of his life in his native town, and then accompanied 
 his father to Santa Rosa, Cal., where he lived two 
 years. In the fall of 1878 he went to Grinnell, 
 Iowa, to attend school, remaining until July, 1879, 
 when he returned East, locating in Newton, Mass. ; 
 there he pursued his studies until coming to Ches- 
 hire, in 1881. During his entire residence here he 
 has engaged in gardening, and since 1884 has fol- 
 lowed that pursuit in his own interest, meeting with 
 marked success in the undertaking. He was a resi- 
 dent of Meriden from 1889 to 1892, and subse- 
 quently lived two years in Waterbury, Conn., since 
 which time he has made his home uninterruptedly 
 in Cheshire. 
 
 On Nov. 23, 1887, in Meriden, Conn., Mr. Mor- 
 gan was united in marriage with Miss Mary Mc- 
 Elroy, a native of that city, and a daughter of Theo- 
 dore and Mary (Turner) McElroy, the former a 
 native of Orange county, N. Y., whence he removed 
 to Meriden ; he now makes his home with Mr. Mor- 
 gan, in Cheshire, the mother having died in 1889, 
 To Mr. Morgan and his wife have been born three 
 children: Bessie Loomis, Ethel May and Edward 
 Payson. Mr. Morgan is an active, public-spirited 
 citizen, who commands the confidence and respect 
 of all with whom he comes in contact, either in busi- 
 ness or in social life. Politically he is independent, 
 and fraternally he is a member of Hancock Lodge, 
 No. 28, I. O. O. F,, of South Meriden, and Lee 
 Lodge, No. 81, A. O. U. W. 
 
 FREDERICK E. WARNER, one of the most 
 capable and trustworthy machinists of Waterbury, 
 descends from an old and historic Connecticut fam- 
 ily, established in the Colony long before the Revo- 
 lution, and its various generations have given the 
 public many prominent and useful citizens. The 
 gentleman whose name appears above worthily 
 maintains the family name, and is, himself, an hon- 
 orable and capable man. He was born Oct. 23, 
 1865, at Roxbury, Conn., which was also the birth- 
 
 place of his father, Charles E. Warner, born JMay 
 I, 1844, and of his grandfather, Ezra Tilden War- 
 ner. 
 
 Ezra Tilden Warner was a direct descendant of 
 Seth Warner, of Revolutionary fame, who won an. 
 enduring place in the annals of that great struggle 
 as colonel of a regiment of the famous "Green- 
 Mountain Boys." Ezra T. Warner followed farm- 
 ing as an occupation, in Roxbury. and died there- 
 at the age of seventy-nine. He married Betsy Ann 
 Pulford, who was born in Milton, Conn., a daugh- 
 ter of David Pulford, and died in Oakville, Conn.,, 
 at the age of seventy-one. This union was blessed 
 with six children : Sarah M., deceased ; Mary, de- 
 ceased; Fannie C, unmarried and living in New 
 Milford, Conn. ; Emily, deceased ; Henry, a con- 
 tractor and builder in Oakville ; and Charles E., 
 the father of Frederick E. 
 
 Charles E. Warner was married on Sept. 14, 
 1864, to Miss Julia F. Capewell, who was born in 
 Woodbury, Conn., May 23, 1844, a daughter of 
 Joseph T. Capewell, who came from Birmingham, 
 England to Woodbury, Conn., in 1840, and there 
 engaged in the manufacture of shot belts, powder 
 flasks and pouches until in 1876, when he removed 
 the works to Oakville ; he died there, July 19, 1882, 
 at the age of sixty-four years. Sarah (Pitt) Cape- 
 well, mother of Mrs. Warner, died in Oakville, May 
 30, 1882, at the age of sixty-two. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Charles E. Warner were born six children : Fred- 
 erick E., born Oct. 23, 1865 ; William N., born July 
 3, 1867; Charles L., born April 28, 1874; Berton C.,. 
 born Nov. 11, 1877; Edwin F., born Jan. 5, 1883;, 
 and Kenneth L., who died in infancy. Of these,. 
 William N. is a merchant in Oakville ; Charles is 
 a mechanic in the same place, and associated with 
 the Baird Machine Co. ; Berton C. is a machinist 
 with the Baird Machine Co. ; and Edwin F. re- 
 mains on the home farm, where the father of this, 
 family has made his residence since April 16, 1866. 
 Frederick E. Warner spent the earlier years of 
 his life on the farm in Oakville, attending the dis- 
 trict school until about the age of fifteen, at which 
 time he entered the employ of the Oakville Pin Co., 
 and learned the trade of pin making. At the age of 
 eighteen he entered his father's store in Oakville, 
 and became ciuite an efficient clerk. His taste, how- 
 ever, was for mechanics rather than merchandise, 
 and, leaving the store, he entered the employ of the 
 Waterbury Machine Co., then located in Oakville. 
 Mr. Warner became an expert machinist under the 
 instruction of the principal owner and manager, 
 J. H. Baird, in whose interest he for a time had 
 cnarge of the shop, remaining until Mr. Baird re- 
 linquished his holdings in 1889. Mr. Warner re- 
 mained under the new management for a short 
 time, leaving to enter the employ of the Holmes, 
 Booth & Haydens Co., of Waterbury, Conn., where 
 he remained for a period of two and one-half 
 years. Mr. Warner had by this time become quite 
 widely known as an expert and capable machinist,. 
 
ii8: 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 with modern ideas and progressive methods, and in 
 i8y2 Mr. Baird, his former employer, entered into 
 partnership with him. They engaged in business in 
 W'aterbury, under the firm name of Baird & War- 
 ner, for the manufacture of automatic wire and 
 metal forming machinery. After doing business 
 for a year in Waterbury they removed to Oakville 
 and the business was continued in the old Cape- 
 well plant. This partnership existed for about three 
 3'ears, and in 1894 a joint-stock company was 
 formed under the name of the Baird Machine Co. 
 Mr. Warner remained with the new company for 
 about six months after disposing of his interests in 
 the concern, and then re-entered the employ of the 
 Waterbury Machine Co. in Waterbury, only to 
 sever his connection with this concern one year 
 later and assume a position with the Plume & At- 
 wood Mfg. Co. With them he spent a year in tool- 
 making and subsequently for two years had charge 
 of the machine department of the Anglo-American 
 Cycle Fittings Co. For the third time Mr. Warner 
 has entered the employ of the Waterbury Machine 
 Co., as foreman of the automatic machine depart- 
 men for the building of automatic wire and metal 
 forming machinery and the making of tools for the 
 same. It is a responsible and delicate position, de- 
 manding unusual qualifications, and he is meeting 
 all its requirements to the satisfaction of the man- 
 agement. 
 
 On Oct. 23, 1887, Frederick E. Warner was 
 married to Miss Etta F. Smith, of Norwich, 
 Conn., a daughter of Charles F. and Lydia (Chap- 
 man) Smith, residents of Norwich and descendants 
 of good old English stock. Mr. and Mrs. Warner 
 have one son, Kenneth J. B., born at Oakville, 
 Conn., Oct. 3, 1890. Politically Mr. Warner is a 
 Democrat, and socially is a member of Speedwell 
 Lodge, No. 10, Knights of Pythias. The family 
 are all attendants at the Second Congregational 
 Church in Waterbur}-. 
 
 COL. ISAAC M. ULLMAN was bom in the 
 city of New Flaven, Aug. 29, 1863, a son of Morris 
 and Mina Ullman, both now deceased. The par- 
 ents, who were natives of Germany, lived for many 
 years' prior to their deaths in New liaven. Mr. 
 Ullman's education was obtained in the public 
 grammar schools of New Haven and in the New 
 liaven high school, which he attended for a short 
 period of time, having entered the latter institution 
 at the early age of twelve years. It was Col. Ull- 
 man's hope and ambition to secure a good, liberal 
 education, but the death of his father, leaving a 
 widow and five small children, made it necessary 
 for him to put an end to his school days and go to 
 v/ork to earn money with which to help his mother 
 support the family. Lie entered the employ of 
 Mayer, Strouse & Co., the well-known large corset 
 concern of New Haven, now Strouse, Adler & Co., 
 as an office boy, but it was not long before the 
 natural ability of the young man became so manifest 
 
 that he was rapidly promoted from one position to 
 another, eventually becoming superintendent of the 
 whole establishment. In December, 1899, the firm 
 of Mayer, Strouse & Co. was reorganized, and Col. 
 Ullman was at the time admitted to the co-partner- 
 ship, retaining, however, his former position of 
 superintendent. 
 
 Even before he had obtained his majority Col. 
 Ullman took a strong and active interest in all mat- 
 ters of a public nature, which interest he has con- 
 tinued to the present time. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican, and one of the prominent men of his party 
 in New Haven county and throughout the State. 
 Of a strong and vigorous personality, and of great 
 executive ability, he is easily a leader among men 
 and the affairs in the community in which he re- 
 sides. While always manifesting this strong inter- 
 est in public affairs. Col. Ullman has never sought 
 political office for himself, the only position of a 
 public nature he has held being that of an aide on 
 the staff of Gov. Lounsbury during the two years in 
 which the latter occupied the office of chief magis- 
 trate of the State. Col. Ullman is a member of the 
 Union League, the Young Men's Republican Club, 
 and the Hannonie Club in New Haven, and a 
 number of fraternal organizations. 
 
 On Feb. 2, 1892, the Colonel married Flora A. 
 Adler, a daughter of Max Adler, of New Haven, 
 and they have one child, a daughter, Marion B. 
 
 FREDERICK EUGENE PRENTICE. The 
 fine pasture and fertile farm land of North Haven 
 town, in New Haven county, is well known to all 
 residents of southeastern Connecticut, and the dairy- 
 ing interests are among the most flourishing indus- 
 tries. Among those who have very successfully 
 pursued this line here is Frederick Eugene Prentice, 
 the subject of this sketch. 
 
 Mr. Prentice was born on Nov. 15, 1865, near 
 Binghamton, Broome Co., N. Y., a son of Luther 
 and Katherine (Darling) Prentice, the latter still 
 residing there. The other children in this family 
 are: Frank, Charles, Walter, Burt, Grace and 
 Alice. In the district schools of his native town 
 our subject obtained his education, and he worked 
 on his father's farm until 1886, when he came to 
 Connecticut, resolving to make his own way in the 
 world. Stopping at Goshen, he was there em- 
 ployed by Shemian Kimberly, remaining with him 
 for some time. He then came on to Hamden, where 
 he found congenial work on the large dairy farm 
 of Robert Dickerman. Later he engaged in the 
 ice business, under a brother of his former em- 
 ployer, continuing with him four seasons, when he 
 went to New Haven, where the firm of S. E. Mer- 
 win & Son engaged him to drive a delivery wagon 
 for them, which he continued to do for the follow- 
 mg three years. 
 
 Locating in Woodbridge on the Bradley farm, 
 he entered the milk business, having a milk route 
 in New Haven, which he followed two years, and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1183 
 
 ;N'ov. I, 1898, became the purchaser of the Bradley 
 place in North Haven. J"his comprises seventy-five 
 acres, on which Mr. Prentice carries on general 
 farming and dairying, having a great nuniher of 
 cows, and possessing every convenience for the most 
 modern way of conducting the business. During 
 1899 he ran a milk wagon in New Haven, but since 
 that time disposes of his milk to dealers, its superior 
 quality causing a great demand. Mr. Prentice is 
 a very practical farmer, is energetic and industrious, 
 and the time is not far distant when his farm will 
 be one of the most valuable in the county. 
 
 , Mr. Prentice was married Oct. 7, 1896, to Jessie 
 Wooding, who was born May 7, 1864, in Wood- 
 bridge, a daughter of Dennis M. and Elizabeth S. 
 (Munson) Wooding. Two_sons, Clifford D. and 
 Frank L., were born of this union, Dec. 20, 1897, 
 Dec. 12, 1900, respectively. In politics Mr. Prentice 
 is' a stanch Republican, although he desires no party 
 recognition. Fraternally he is connected with Olive 
 Branch Lodge, No. 84, A. F. & A. M., of West- 
 ville. In the Congregational Church both Mr. and 
 Mrs. Prentice are highly valued, the latter being 
 a member ; and throughout the community they are 
 highly respected and esteemed. 
 
 DR. CHARLES HOWE PORTER, the lead- 
 ing and most successful dentist of Branford, was 
 born in the city of Bridgeport, Conn., Aug. 23, 
 1871. Dr. Porter's paternal grandfather was Dr. 
 Daniel H. Porter, a native of New Haven, and for 
 many years a resident of Bridgeport, where he was 
 it leading dentist, also a manufacturer of porcelain 
 teeth. 
 
 Dr. Porter received his education in the public 
 schools of Bridgeport. In 1888 he began the study 
 of dentistry in the office of Dr. J. S. Cairoli, and for 
 eight years was a student and assistant in the office 
 of that distinguished practitioner of dentistry. Dr. 
 Porter was licensed to practice in 1893, and three 
 years later came to Branford to manage a dental 
 office for Dr.D.W. Johnston. This position he filled 
 until Jan. 27, 1900, when he opened an office for 
 himself in the Griswold block, where he succeeded 
 in winning the favor of the public to a marked de- 
 gree. He is up-to-date in everything that pertains 
 to his profession and is regarded as one of the most 
 trustworthy dentists of the day. 
 
 THOMAS A. BASSETT. Prominent among 
 the citizens of New Haven, both in business circles 
 and social life, is Thomas A. Bassett, proprietor of 
 Thomas Phillips & Son, manufacturers of fine mon- 
 umental work. Mr. Bassett was born Oct. 17, 1869, 
 a son of Samuel A. Bassett, a native of what is now 
 Seymour, Conn., and the efficient vice-president of 
 the New Haven Shoe Co. During his boyhood our 
 subject attended the excellent schools of New Ha- 
 ven, including the high school, and then entered the 
 office of L. W. Robinson for a course of study. In 
 1887 he became identified with the Thomas Phillips 
 
 & Son's maAle and granite works, becoming a 
 member of the firm in 1894. Upon the death of Mr. 
 John Humphrey Phillips, his uncle, Sept. 7, 1900, 
 Mr. Bassett assumed complete control, and has most 
 successfully managed the great business since that 
 time. He is of the third generation to engage in 
 business in the same location. No. 143 High street. 
 On Oct. 30, 1895, Mr. Bassett wedded Miss 
 Natalie Wilson, of Bridgeport, and one child has 
 been born to them, John Humphrey Phillips, born 
 July 28, 1896. Politically Mr. Bassett is a stanch 
 Republican and a member of the Young Men's Re- 
 publican Club. In his fraternal relations he is a 
 Mason, being connected with Wooster Lodge, No. 
 79, F. '& A. M., and Franklin Chapter, No. 2, R. 
 A. M. ; he also belongs to Hillhouse Council, Royal 
 Arcanum, and Pyramid Lodge, Ancient Order of 
 United Workmen. He is an expert golf player on 
 the local field, and belongs to the New Haven Golf 
 Club ; and also is a member and governor of the 
 Quinnipiac Club, of which his uncle was one of the 
 founders. Mr. Bassett is an ex-sergeant of the 
 New Haven Grays. In his religious connections he 
 is a regular attendant upon the services of the Epis- 
 copal Church, to which both he and his wife belong. 
 Mr. Bassett is a true representative of the progress- 
 ive and successful young men who will leave an im- 
 press upon the 20th century. While a thorough 
 lousiness man, showing decided enterprise and pub- 
 lic spirit, he permits himself the relaxation to be 
 found in athletics and social functions, these round- 
 ing out the character and making a representative 
 of a class destined to produce its effect in the so- 
 ciety and in the business world of the future. 
 
 HENRY H. WILSON, head bookkeeper for 
 the Ansonia Brass & Copper Co., Ansonia, was born 
 in Norwalk, Conn., Feb. 25, 1868. 
 
 Joseph W. Wilson, his father, was born in 
 Natick, Mass., a son of Robert G. and Rebecca 
 (Conant) Wilson. He studied law at Yale Col- 
 lege, and for twenty-five years practiced his pro- 
 fession in Norwalk, Conn., where he died in 1886. 
 He was a justice of the peace and notary public for 
 many years, also member of the school board. In 
 politics he was a Whig and Republican. He mar- 
 ried Julia V. Phelps, a native of New Haven, and 
 daughter of Erastus R. Phelps, who was born in 
 Hebron, Conn., and was a mason by occupation, 
 following his trade in Hebron, New Haven and 
 Norwalk, in which latter city he died at the age of 
 seventy-eight. Mr. Phelps married Nancy Wilmot, 
 of Milford, and by her had two children, but Julia 
 V. was the only one to reach maturity. To Joseph 
 W. and Julia V. Wilson were born four children, 
 two of whom are yet living: Robert G., who is 
 with the New York Condensed Milk Co. ; and 
 Henry H., our subject. The widowed mother is 
 now living in Norwalk; she is a member of the 
 Congregational Church, as was also her husband. 
 
 Henry H. Wilson attended the common and 
 
1 1 84 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 high schools of Norwalk, graduating from the lat- 
 ter, after which he entered the National Bank of 
 Xorwalk as bookkeeper. He remained in that po- 
 sition three years, at the end of which time, in i8«8, 
 he came to Ansonia and entered the employ of the 
 A. B. & C. Co., with whom he has since remained, 
 being now one of the oldest, in point of service, in 
 the office. 
 
 In March, 1891, Henry H. Wilson married Car- 
 rie L. Miles, daughter of H. C. Miles, an extensive 
 real-estate dealer in Ansonia, where she was born, 
 the eldest of three children. To Mr. and Mrs. Wil- 
 son have been born two children, Warren and Ger- 
 trude. 
 
 In politics our subject is a Republican. In 1897 
 he was elected to the common council, and was 
 re-elected in 1899, to serve till 1901, acting as presi- 
 dent of the board the secpnd term. Socially he is 
 affiliated with the N. E. O. P. and with the Ansonia 
 Club. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are members of the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 THOMAS S. ELLIS, Chief of Police of the 
 city of Ansonia, and railroad police for the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford Railway Co., was 
 born in Croghan, N. Y., Feb. 16, 1848, a son of 
 Benjamin R. Ellis, who was born in New Bedford, 
 Mass., and whose father had long been ^settled in 
 Fairhaven, that State. 
 
 Benjamin R. Ellis was reared on a farm, but 
 in his adult years became a ship carpenter at New 
 Bedford and at Fairhaven, where he worked for 
 many years. Later in life be moved to Nantucket, 
 Mass., to work at his trade. There he received an 
 injury that obliged him to lead a more quiet life, 
 and lie went into a notion store. His last years were 
 spent on a farm in Lewis county, N. Y., where he 
 died at the age of sixty-five. The EUises were one 
 of forty-nine families who came into Lewis county, 
 N. Y., in 183s, and Mr. Ellis there purchased a 
 farm of 122 acres, which when it came into his pos- 
 session was wooded land. He married Elizabeth 
 Hussey, who was the only daughter in a family of 
 thirteen children, all born at Nantucket, Mass. 
 Eleven of her brothers followed whaling, and the 
 one who remained ashore became a preacher. Ben- 
 jamin and Elizabeth Ellis had eleven children, eight 
 of whom are still living: (i) Benjamin R. is in 
 Minneapolis, Minn. (2) Elizabeth married Myron 
 Spear, and lives in St. Lawrence county, N. Y. 
 
 (3) William S. is a farmer at Philadelphia, N. Y. 
 
 (4) Emily W. married Sylvester A. Jones, and lives 
 at Potsdam, N. Y. (5) Deborah married Thomas 
 Starks, of Potsdam. (6) Naomi E. (deceased) 
 married Ransom H. Green, of New Bremen, N. Y. 
 (7) Albert H. was killed at Petersburg, while in 
 the Union service as a member of the i86th N. Y. 
 V. I. (8) Harvev, who is also deceased, was a 
 member of the same regiment as his brother. He 
 taught school after the war, was married, and lived 
 at Bethlehem, Conn. He died in Virginia. (9) 
 
 Thomas S. is our subject. (10) Sarah C. married 
 Samuel Simons, of Canada, (n) James is mar- 
 ried and lives in Jefferson county, N. Y. The 
 mother died at the age of fifty-eight years. The 
 father took an active part in politics, and m his. 
 early life was a Democrat, but later became a Re- 
 publican. For years be was justice of the peace and 
 school commissioner. In religion he was a man of 
 liberal ideas, and inclined to Jniversalism. 
 
 Thomas S. Ellis spent bis early hfe m Lewis 
 county, N. Y., on the farm, and neoeived his edu- 
 cation in the public schools. When he was twenty 
 years old he left his home and went out into the 
 world to care for himself, beginning as a farm hand 
 on monthly wages. In 1872 be came to Ansonia 
 to work as a carpenter, and was thus occupied for 
 several years. He served six years as a police offi- 
 cer prior to 1881, when be was made chief of police 
 of the borough of Ansonia, ana held that office for 
 eighteen months. He then worked at his trade 
 again one year, when he was reappointed, and he 
 lias been retained in this incumbency ever since. 
 Thus it will be seen that be bas o^een in active serv- 
 ice over twenty-six years, and during twelve years 
 of this period he 'has been constable, having been 
 first elected to that office in 1881, in the town of 
 Derby, and later in the town of Ansonia, which was 
 set off from Derby. Air. Ellis was repeatedly 
 elected bailiff. His first appointment to his pres- 
 ent important office came from the mayor, when the 
 city was chartered, and be now holds bis position 
 as 'chief for life, subject to good behavior. Since 
 1886 Mr. Ellis nas spent all his time at the vvork of 
 his position, and he is recognized as a most efficient 
 and capable officer. Mr. Ellis is known throughout 
 tue State. He has made many important arre>sts 
 during his career, and some of the most notorious 
 criminals of the State have been his prisoners. He 
 has never shot a man, and has never had a charge 
 preferred against him. In all 'his career he has 
 never had occasion to strike but two mai on the 
 head, and has never bad to shoot at any one. He 
 has broken up many "gangs" of law breakers, and 
 Ansonia has the name of a model town so far as its 
 police is concerned. Chief Ellis has seen the 
 growth of Ansonia from a modest farming com- 
 munity to an extensive manufacturing city, and has. 
 done bis part in keeping it orderly and law abiding. 
 
 Mr. Ellis was married Jan. 1,1879, to Mrs. Alice 
 L. (Sperry) Isbell, a native of Bethany, Conn., who 
 had two sons by her first marriage : Milton, a law- 
 yer of Ansonia; and John A., a draftsman, who 
 served in the Spaiiisb-American war as a memberof 
 the Connecticut Naval Reserve. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Ellis was born one son, Harry T., who died aged 
 three years and five months. Mrs. Ellis has long 
 been a member of Christ Church in Ansonia, and 
 is a lady of many attainments and fine character. 
 She was born in Bethany, New Haven county, 
 daughter of Ezra and Louisa (Terrell) Ellis, of 
 Bethany, and bad several brothers and one sister. 
 
c^. 
 
 ^r^^O^a.-^ 
 
 SJ Sy^/i^L^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1185 
 
 Her eldest brother, Ho'bart Sperry, now deceased, 
 was for many years a leading grocer in Ansonia, 
 and another brother, E. Frank, waa also engaged in 
 mercantile business there for some years, and later 
 in the manufacturing business ; he finally went to 
 Orlando, Florida. 
 
 Mr. Ellis belongs to Naugatuck Lodge, I. O. 
 0. F., in which he has held the position of warden 
 for one year ; to Hope Encampment ; and to the Red 
 Men, being a charter member of that local organi- 
 zation. 
 
 TERENCE S. ALLIS is of English descent, his 
 ancestors having come from Old to New England 
 in the early days of Colonial history. He was born 
 in Vermont, as were also his father and grandfather. 
 The latter was a farmer and died in the county of 
 his birth. His family consisted of seven children : 
 Andrew S., now deceased, who was a farmer in 
 Orange county, Vt. ; Egbert, a physician, who was 
 commissioned a surgeon in the United States Navy 
 during the Civil war, and was lost on the "Bain- 
 bridge;" Obadiah D., the father of Terence S., 
 of whom more particular mention is made in the 
 succeeding paragraph ; Elisha, a farmer and teacher, 
 now deceased ; Ellen, wife of D. S. Brown, a farmer 
 of Williamstown, Vt. ; Mary, who survived her 
 nusband. Dr. Horace Smith, of the same place, and 
 died in 1900; and Harriet, who became the wife of 
 A. Folansbie, a machinist, and is dead. 
 
 Obadiah D. Allis was bom in Brookfield, Or- 
 ange Co., Vt. He was both a clergyman and 
 teacher, filling the dual position of principal of the 
 Chelsea Academy and pastor of the Congregational 
 Church at Randolph. He married Ann E., a daugh- 
 ter of Daniel Colt, a farmer of Brookfield. Mr. 
 Allis died in 1865, and his widow followed him to 
 the grave in 1869. Four children were born to 
 them, of whom Terence S. was third in the order 
 of birth. The others were named Fortis H., Wat- 
 son C. and Mi.y E. The eldest son is a successful 
 clothier in New Britain. Watson C. is with the 
 North American Comm'ercial Co., Alaska. May, 
 the only daughter, is deceased. 
 
 Terence S. Allis was born in Randolph, Vt., 
 May 28, 1861, and after the death of his mother 
 went to live with H. M. Hayden, a farmer. Like 
 most country boys in the rural districts of New 
 England, he received his rudimentary training in 
 the district schools. This was supplemented by a 
 course at the State Normal School, from which 
 institution he graduated in 1878. During the next 
 year he taught school in his native town, and for 
 another twelve months at Guilford, Vt. The con- 
 finement of the school room, however, proved irk- 
 some, and the young man's ambition covered a 
 wider field. Accordingly he went to Bridgeport, 
 Conn., where he began his business career as a 
 clerk in the clothing store of Foster, Besse & Co. 
 From Bridgeport he removed to Ansonia, where he 
 entered the employ of the clothing house of V. A. 
 75 
 
 Page. In 1881 he came to Derby, where he has 
 since resided. At first he formed a co-partnership 
 with J. G. Redshaw, of Ansonia, under the firm 
 name of Allis & Redshaw, and for ten years the 
 concern did a profitable business as clothiers, suc- 
 ceeding the house of J. W. Mercer & Co. In 1891 
 Mr. Allis purchased his partner's interest, and has 
 since then conducted the business alone, at No. 231 
 Main street. In addition to his. establishment at 
 Derby Mr. Allis is interested in other concerns in 
 the same line of trade — the firm of A. F. Ould & 
 Co., of Shelton ; and Colt & Co., of Winsted. 
 
 From what has been said it may be seen that Mr. 
 Allis is a man of quick and keen perception and. 
 sound business sense. Beginning on one of the 
 lower rotmds of life's ladder, he has mounted stead- 
 ily and rapidly, the secret of his success lying in 
 well-directed, intelligent effort, aided by imtiring; 
 industry and dauntless courage. In private life he 
 is genial, hospitable and generous, faithful to his- 
 friends, and charitable to those who differ from him. 
 Brought up in the Congregational faith, he has not 
 departed from the creed of his fathers, being an ac- 
 tive and consistent member of that communion and- 
 a liberal .tiupporter of religious work. In politics he 
 is a Republican, and though a member of the politi- 
 cal minority in Derby, he enjoys a popularity and 
 esteem second to that of no man in the community. 
 He stands high in the councils of both the Masons- 
 and the Odd Fellows. In the first named fraternity 
 he has atta'ned the thirty-second degree, and is- 
 affiliated with King Hiram Lodge, No. 12, Solomoa 
 Chapter, No, 3, Union Council, No. 6, Hamilton. 
 Commandery, and Pyramid Temple. He is also a. 
 member of Ousatonic Lodge, I. O. O. F., and of 
 the Royal Arcanum. In the business world his 
 standing is high. He is a member of the local 
 -Board of Trade, and "his word is equal to his 
 bond." 
 
 On Aug. 28, 1886, Mr. Allis married Miss Lottie 
 E. Smith, a daughter of Benjamin and Jane Smith, 
 of Derby, and two children have come to this union, 
 Clarence H. and May E. 
 
 ARTHUR W. SMITH, a well-known citizen of 
 Naugatuck, New Haven county, and several years 
 foreman of the fire department, was born in the 
 Millville District of that town, Jan. 17, 1861, and 
 belongs to one of the old families of this county. 
 His paternal grandfather, Philemon Smith, made 
 his home in the town of Oxford, and followed the 
 occupations of a farmer and butcher. 
 
 David Smith, father of Arthur W., was born in 
 1824 in Oxford, where ne was reared and educated,, 
 but spent much of his life in Naugatuck; he died 
 in Millville, Dec. 15, 1898. He was a butcher and 
 wheelwright by trade. His wife, who died Jan. 9, 
 1899, bore the maiden name of Grace P. Wheeler, 
 and was born in the town of Huntington, Fairfield 
 Co., Conn., a daughter of Ezra Wheeler. She spent 
 the greater part of her life in Naugatuck. They had. 
 
1 1 86 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 only two children, the elder of whom, Sylvester, 
 died in infancy. 
 
 Arthur W. Smith, the younger son, born Jan. 
 ly, 1861, grew to manhood in Millville, and was 
 educated in Naugatuck, graduating from the high 
 school of that place. During his entire business 
 career he has been in the employ of the Goodyear 
 -India Rubber Glove Co. As a Democrat he takes 
 quite an active and influential part in local politics, 
 and in 1895 was elected selectman of Naugatuck. 
 So acceptably did he fill the office that he has been 
 continuously re-elected, and is the present incum- 
 bent. He has also been a prominent member of the 
 Naugatuck fire department almost since its organi- 
 zation ; has served as second assistant foreman, first 
 assistant foreman and foreman for five years, de- 
 clining further re-election. He is one of the lead- 
 ing members of Centennial Lodge, No. 100, I. O. 
 O. F., of Naugatuck, of which he is a past grand, 
 and also belongs to the Grand Lodge of the State, 
 and the Daughters of Rebekah, havmg been instru- 
 mental in organizing the branch of the latter in 
 Naugatuck. He is also a member of Gavel Lodge, 
 No. 18, Iv. P., and the Rathbone Sisters, K. of P 
 
 JOHN J. CARROLL, M. D., a prominent rep- 
 resentative of the medical fraternitv at Naugatuck, 
 New Haven county, was born in Torrington, this 
 State, March 2, i860. 
 
 Patrick and Ellen (O'Malley) Carroll, his par- 
 ents, were both natives of Ireland, the former born 
 in County Tipperary, the latter in County Kilkenny. 
 The paternal grandfather of our subject spent his 
 entire life as a farmer in the old country. In 1847 
 the father crossed the broad Atlantic and took up 
 his residence in the town of Winchester, Conn., 
 where he followed farming for a time. Later he 
 became a scythe maker, and was engaged in that 
 business at Winsted, Conn., for twenty-eight j'ears, 
 since which time he has lived a retired life, enjoying 
 the fruits of former toil. The Doctor is the eldest 
 of his eight children, the others being Mary A., wife 
 of Joseph Grant, a mechanic of Winsted ; Richard 
 J., a Catholic priest at South Coventry, Conn. ; 
 Patrick C, who conducts a store and bakery in 
 Winsted ; Edward, who died at the age of three 
 weeks ; Catherine, a bookkeeper for her brother 
 Patrick ; Joseph, a hardware merchant of Winsted ; 
 and Isaiah, a Lnited States postal clerk. 
 
 Dr. Carroll was reared in Winsted, and acquired 
 his early education in the public and parochial 
 schools of that place. He subsequently attended St. 
 Anthony's Seminary, Winsted, the L^niversity of 
 New York, and Dartmouth Medical College, from 
 which latter he was graduated in 1897, with the de- 
 gree of M. D. He immediately opened an office in 
 Naugatuck, and has already gained quite a reputa- 
 tion as a skilled practitioner. From the start he has 
 met with most excellent success, and now has an 
 excellent practice. He is an active member of the 
 Medical Society of Naugatuck, and socially belongs 
 
 to the Hibernians, the Foresters of America and the 
 Salem Social Club. Religiously he is a member of 
 St. Francis Catholic Church, and in political senti- 
 ment is a Democrat. 
 
 FRANK P. WELTON was born Aug. 25, 
 1865, in Northfield, Litchfield Co., Conn., son of 
 Herschel O. Welton, who was born in Wolcott, 
 New Haven Co., Conn., in 1841, and died Jan. 2, 
 1894, at the age of fifty-three years. 
 
 Herschel Welton, father of Herschel O., was 
 born in the same place, and died at the age of forty- 
 two. He married Eunice Prindle, who was born in 
 Waterbury, Conn., and they became the parents of 
 six children, who were born on the farm at Chest- 
 nut Hill: (i) David T. went to Iowa, where he 
 located and engage.d in farming. He is still living 
 and is more than eighty years old. (2) Sherman 
 S. was a brass caster in Waterbury. He went to 
 Cheshire with his brother Rensselaer N., remained 
 there a number of years, and returning to Water- 
 bury, entered the employ of the Benedict & Burn- 
 ham Mfg. Co. He died less than a year after, aged 
 fifty-four. (3) Rensselaer N. went to Cheshire, 
 where he was superintendent of the Cheshire Brass 
 Co. at the time of hisi death. (4) Hector was a 
 mechanic in Waterbury, where he died at the early 
 age of twenty-eight. (5) Hannah A. married Ed- 
 ward L. Frisbie, Sr., of Waterbur_y, whose sketch 
 appears elsewhere. (6) Herschel O. is mentioned 
 below. 
 
 Herschel O. Welton grew up in Waterbury, and 
 at the age of eighteen entered the factory of Brown 
 Brothers' Manufacturing Co., where he learned the 
 casting trade. He followed same throughout life, 
 working for the Holmes, Booth & Hayd-en Manu- 
 facturing Co., and then for the Benedict & Burn- 
 ham Co., where he was employed, and stood at the 
 head of his trade, at -the time of his death. He 
 married Julia Pritchard, a daughter of Leonard 
 Pritchard, of Waterbury. She died in 1874. Mr. 
 and INIrs. Welton were the parents of six children: 
 Frank P., Elizabeth E., Irving N., Mary F., Charles 
 E. and one that died in infancy. Mr. Welton was 
 a Democrat, and in religious connection belonged 
 to the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Frank P. Welton spent his boyhood at Bunker 
 Hill, near W^aterbury, where he attended the dis- 
 trict school until he was thirteen years old, and was 
 a pupil at the Waterbury high school for the en- 
 suing three years. He worked on a farm two years, 
 and then entered the employ of the Benedict & 
 Burnham Manufacturing Co., where he learned the 
 trade of brass and German silver casting. In this 
 work he is still employed as foreman, and ranks 
 among the most efficient workers in his line. 
 
 On Oct. 23, 1889, Mr. Welton married Miss 
 Julia E. IJpson, of Winsted, Conn., who was born 
 in Water-bury, daughter of Israel Lee LTpson. They 
 have had four children : Leonard H., Myriel Lee 
 and Gertrude S., living; one daughter, Helen M., 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 1 87 
 
 died in infancy. Mr. Welton is a Republican politi- 
 cally; he belongs to Harmony Lodge, No. 42, F. 
 & A. M., and is also a member of Nosahogan Lodge, 
 No. 21, L O. O. F. He and his family are members 
 of Trinity Episcopal Church, and he is a member 
 of the vestry. 
 
 HENRY WEYAND, a well-known business 
 man of Waterbxiry, is a native of Germany, born 
 jMarch 9, 1865, in Staudernheim, near Bingen, on 
 the Rhine. 
 
 Charles Weyand, father of our subject, was of 
 the same nativity, born in 1824, and died when his 
 son Henry was fcut one year old. Like his father 
 before him, Charles Weyand was a farmer. He 
 married Kate Dietz, also a native of Staudernheim, 
 and four children came to their union : Kate mar- 
 ried John Dick, and they make their home in New 
 York; Charles is in the tin and sheet-iron business 
 in Germany ; Elizabeth is the wife of Peter Conrad, 
 a farmer of Staudernheim; Henry is our subject. 
 
 Henry Weyand received his education in his na- 
 tive land, passing his boyhood on a farm at Staud- 
 ernheim, near Bingen. He learned the tin and 
 sheet-iron business in Neustadt-on-der-Hard, serv- 
 ing a three-years apprenticeship. At the age of sev- 
 enteen he sailed for the United States, landing at 
 New York, March 10, 1882, and there followed his 
 trade about three years, thence removing to Bridge- 
 port, Conn., where he was in the same line of busi- 
 ness until 1889, the year of his removal to Water- 
 bury. Here he formed a partnership with William 
 T. Disley, under the firm name of Disley & Wey- 
 and, which continued until March, 1899, since 
 when Mr. Weyand has continued the business 
 alone. In 1895 he built his handsome double brick 
 block, three stories high, at Nos. 16 to 24 Jefferson 
 street, which is embellished with a beautiful me- 
 tallic front, making it one of the most imposing and 
 attractive buildings in the business part of the city. 
 Among the specialties which he manufactures may 
 be mentioned metal cornices, skylights, ventilators, 
 corrugated galvanized iron or copper conductor 
 pipe, eave troughs, metal clapboards, stove and fur- 
 nace pipe elbows, etc. ; in fact, anything of that de- 
 scription that can be made of sheet metal. He also 
 does plumlbing, tinning and heating. 
 
 In October, 1892, Mr. Weyand married Fannie 
 AVyant, of Seymour, this county, a daughter of 
 Leonard Wyant, a native of Germany. Three chil- 
 dren have graced this union : Carl, Harold and 
 Leonard. Socially Mr. Weyand is a member of the 
 Turnverein, the Concordia Singing Society and the 
 Home Circle. Politically he is a Republican. He 
 has made his own way in the world 'unaided, and 
 justly merits the success accorded him. 
 
 THOMAS FRANCIS FENN, a general mer- 
 chant and druggist in Yalesville, where he has made 
 for himself an enviable place in the business and 
 social world, was born July 9, 1864, on Staten 
 
 Island, N. Y., son of James Fenn, who was born 
 in New York. George Fenn, the grandfather of 
 Thomas F., was born in New York, where he died, 
 though he lived for a time in Rhode Island. He 
 v/as extensively interested in the boating trade of 
 the coast. 
 
 James Fenn was in his younger days interested 
 in the cab business, as was his father before him. 
 Afterward he was engaged as second officer on the 
 line of boats plying between New York and the city 
 of New Orleans, and thus spent more than fifteen 
 years. He died in Sharon, Conn., in 1897, and was 
 buried there. In early life he was a Democrat in 
 political sentiment, but he voted for Gen. Grant, 
 and continued to support the Republican ticket 
 thereafter. He married EHen James, who was born 
 in New York, daughter of Edward James, and five 
 children came to this union : Richard, of Middle- 
 town, N. Y. ; Edward, of Pittsfield, Mass. ; Thomas 
 Francis ; Frank, a farmer of Sharon, Conn. ; and 
 Ella M., who married William H. Brem, of Corn- 
 wall Bridge. 
 
 Thomas Francis Fenn attended the public 
 schools of Sharon and Cornwall, Conn., and secured 
 a business education. The work to which he ad- 
 dressed himself was one suited to his nature and 
 gifts, and by it the whole bent of his life was de- 
 termined. He obtained a position as clerk in a 
 grocery store, and when he went to Cornwall, 
 it was to take a place in a grocery, which he held 
 for eighteen years. Mr. Fenn came to Yalesville 
 in 1889 and opened a store for himself, and in this 
 enterprise has met with rich reward. He has re- 
 ceived a good patronage, and is well liked and 
 highly respected. A thorough business man, and 
 progressive, he stands in the front rank of the 
 mercantile world of Yalesville and Wallingford. 
 
 Mr. Fenn was married in 1886, in Cornwall, 
 Conn., to Miss Carrie L. Vollmiller, who was born 
 in West Cornwall, daughter of George and Mar- 
 garet Vollmiller, both of whom were natives of 
 Germany ; her father was a shear manufacturer in 
 West Cornwall, Conn. Mr. and Mrs. Fenn were 
 the parents of one child, Violet Winifred, who is 
 attending school at Bridgeport. Mrs. Fenn died in 
 Yalesville, March 10, 1897, and was buried in 
 Cornwall cemetery. She was a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and a woman of fine character 
 and spirit. Mr. Fenn belongs to the I. O. O. F.. 
 to Friendship Encampment, No. 11, of Walling- 
 ford, and to Anchor Lodge, D. of R., at South 
 Meriden. In politics he is a Republican. 
 
 FRANK ELMER BRAINERD, a prominent 
 and successful merchant of Stony Creek, is a native 
 of Connecticut, born July 4, 1861, at Haddam, Mid- 
 dlesex county. 
 
 Daniel Brainerd, the founder of the family in 
 Connecticut, was brought from England, when 
 eight years of age, to Hartford, Conn., and here 
 nmde his home with the Wyllys family tmtil reach- 
 
ii88 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ing manhood. In 1662 he became a proprietor and 
 settler of Haddam, and was a prosperous and influ- 
 ential citizen, a justice of the peace, deacon of the 
 church, and held various other offices. 
 
 Sylvester Brainerd, great-grandfather of Frank 
 Elmer, married Hannah Hu'bbard, daughter of Job 
 Hubbard. He was a son of Oliver and Sally (Ar- 
 nold) Brainerd, the former of whom was born Aug. 
 21, 1757, a son of Eliakim and Lucy (Smith) Brain- 
 erd; he a son of Gideon and Sarah (Selders) 
 Brainerd; he a son of Deacon James and Hannah 
 (Spencer) Brainerd, the latter of whom was a 
 daughter of Jerrod Spencer, of Lynn, Massachu- 
 setts. 
 
 Drantheum H. Brainerd, grandfather of Frank 
 Elmer, was born at Haddajn, Conn., became a ship 
 carpenter, and built several large vessels and reve- 
 nue cutters for the United States Government. He 
 married, Sept. 30, 1829, Maria Dickinson, daughter 
 of Darius Dickinson, and their children who grew 
 to maturity were as follows: Wilson, Ann (Mrs. 
 George Wallace), John W., Sylvester, Clorinda 
 (Mrs. Edward Wallace), Rosabel (Mrs. William 
 Page), Marvin N. and Charles. Of these, 
 
 John Whittlesey Brainerd, father of our sub- 
 ject, was born in Haddam, Conn., and was a ship 
 carpenter by trade. In 1866 he settled in Stony 
 Creek, where he has since successfully conducted 
 the "Brainerd House," a well-known and popular 
 hostelry. He married Esther L. Bailey, daughter 
 of Smith and Elizabeth Bailey, of Middlesex coun- 
 ty. Conn., and three children were born to them, 
 viz. : Frank Elmer, Harvey B. and Alvin S. 
 
 Frank E. Brainerd, whose name appears at the 
 opening of this sketch, was eight years old when 
 taken by his parents to New Haven, and there, at 
 the common and graded schools, he received his ed- 
 ucation. In 1884 he commenced his 'business career 
 in a small way as a grocer, gradually expanding 
 his trade from year to year, until he now has one 
 of the largest department stores in the county. 
 
 In December, 1883, Mr. Brainerd married Anna 
 A., daughter of Morris and Mary E. (Jackson) 
 Brown, of South Orange, N. J., and they have had 
 two children : Florence A., born March 29, 1885 ; 
 and John Elmer, born July 8, 1901. The family at- 
 tend the Stony Creek Congregational Church, of 
 which Mr. Brainerd is a trustee ; socially he is a 
 member of .Seaside Lodge, No. 4, I. O. O. F., and 
 George B. Shaw Lodge, No. 57, Knights of Pyth- 
 ias. In politics he is a Republican. 
 
 FREDERICK L. TIBBALS, one of Milford's 
 leading citizens, a man esteemed by all his towns- 
 men, regardless of political affiliations, is a worthy 
 successor of honored ancestry. He fills a promi- 
 nent place in the public eye, owing to his official 
 position and to his long connection with the George 
 H. Ford Co., of New Haven, importers and jewel- 
 ers, one of the leading houses of the kind in New 
 England. He i's one of the most popular men of his 
 
 town, despite the fact that he is one of the most 
 aggressive in measures of importance to its growth, 
 welfare and prosperity, firm and outspoken in his 
 convictions on public matters, and fearless of op- 
 position in any cause he considers essential to the 
 public weal. He is recognized by all as genial and 
 loyal to his friends, thoroughly public-spirited, in- 
 dependent in thought and action, and a reliable pub- 
 lic leader, ever abreast of the times. 
 
 Mr. Tibbals' family is of Puritan stock, and he 
 traces his descent from Capt. Thomas Tibbals, who- 
 was born in England in 161 5, and came to America 
 in the ship "True Love" in 1635, landing at Ply- 
 mouth, Mass. Capt. Thomas Tibbals served in the 
 Pecjuot war under Capt. John Mason, and while 
 engaged' in pursuing the Indians to Fairfield Swamp,, 
 in 1638, discovered the Wepawaug river. The fol- 
 lowing year he led the forty-two settlers from New 
 Haven to Mil ford, where they settled in 1639. 
 Reference to Thomas Tibbals is made in Atwater's 
 "History of New Haven Colony," and on the east 
 end of the Memorial Bridge at Milford there is a 
 finishing stone with inscription taken from Milford 
 Land Records, the original records being in the 
 town clerk's office in Milford. The line of descent 
 to our subject is through Capt. Thomas Tibbals,. 
 born in 161 5, died in 1682; Josiah (i), son of Capt. 
 Thomas; Josiah (2), son of Josiah (i), born in 
 1682; Josiah (3), son of Josiah (2), born in 1708; 
 Lemuel, son of Josiah (3), born in 1740; Lemuel 
 (2), son of Lemuel, who died in 1849. 
 
 Lemuel Tibbals (2), son of Lemuel, was a 
 farmer in Milford. He married Sally Baldwin, 
 who was born in 1783, and died in 1864. Of their 
 four children, George L. was our subject's father;. 
 Sarah married Rev. C. B. Ford, a Methodist min- 
 ister, now located in Watertown, Conn. ; Harriet S. 
 married Merritt Ford, of Milford, father of Gen.. 
 George H. Ford; and Mary (now deceased) be- 
 came the wife of Rogers Clark, of Milford. 
 
 George L. Tibbals, son of Lemuel (2), was bom 
 Jan. II, 1818, and died in Milford, Dec. 6, 1882. 
 He was reared in Milford, but when a young man 
 located in New Britain, Conn., engaging as a con- 
 tractor and builder. Soon after his marriage he re- 
 turned to Milford, where he erected many of the 
 most important buildings in' the town, including the 
 town hall, public school building and various fac- 
 tories. He also remodeled and enlarged Plymouth 
 church. In politics he was a Republican, and in re- 
 ligion a Congregationalist. His wife, Mary Ann 
 (Hurlburt), who died in 1882, was born in Weth- 
 ersfield. Conn., daughter of Wealthy Hurlburt. 
 Four children were born of this marriage, of whom 
 Frederick L. is the youngest; James H. is a car- 
 penter and builder in Milford; Kate S. resides in- 
 Milford; Fannie is the wife of Prof. Henry D., 
 Simonds, principal of the Bridgeport (Conn.) 
 high school. 
 
 Frederick L. Tibbals received his early educa- 
 tion in the public schools of Milford, and in Yale 
 
/f^M4y 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 1 89 
 
 Business College, graduating from the latter insti- 
 tution at the age of nineteen years. Two years later 
 he spent a short time in Waterbury as clerk in the 
 clothing store of Upson & Singleton. In 1883 he 
 accepted a position as bookkeeper with Gen. George 
 H. Ford, the leading jeweler of New Haven. In 
 1 89 1 these gentlemen formed a joint-stock com- 
 pany, known as the George H. Ford Co., of which 
 Mr. Tibbals became secretary and treasurer, hold- 
 ing the latter office at the present time. He is also 
 interested in various other business aiterprises, and 
 his advice and co-operation are prized among his 
 ■associates in the commercial world. He is a mem- 
 ber of the Chamber of Commerce of New Haven, 
 and a director of the Milford Savings Bank. He 
 was one of the incorporators of the Milford Street 
 Railroad Co., and it was largely through his energy 
 and discretion that the charter for the company was 
 •obtained in the Legislature. 
 
 Politically Mr. Tibbals gives his allegiance to 
 the Republican party, and to his work is due much 
 of the change in the political aspect of the town. 
 For several years he was an active worker on the 
 town committee, and for two years was president 
 of the local Republican League. In 1895 he rep- 
 resented his town in the General Assembly, and he 
 was largely instrumental in securing the passage of 
 the law known as the "Gold and Silver Bill," which 
 prohibits the manufacturers and dealers in those 
 metals from selling or having in possession for sale 
 an\- article upon wliich the grade of purity is not 
 stamped. The law is recognized as of great im- 
 portance to the trade and meets a long-felt want, 
 placing Connecticut in line with New York and 
 other States in this respect. In 1899 Mr.^ Tibbals 
 was appointed postmaster at Milford, which posi- 
 -tion he still holds and fills to the satisfaction of the 
 people. 
 
 In 1897 Mr. Tibbals was united in marriage with 
 i\Irs. Grace A. Dillon, of Yonkers, N. Y., daughter 
 of Gideon Coggswell and Mary Elizabeth (Rey- 
 nolds) Lawrence, of Fordham, that State. Mrs. 
 Tibbals traces her descent on her mother's side 
 through Benjamin Underbill, of Westchester coun- 
 ty, N. Y., to the original Holland-Dutch, the first 
 settlers of New York, about 1620. [History of 
 AVestchester county.] Socially Mr. Tibbalsl is a 
 member of the Society of Colonial Wars of the 
 State of Connecticut. 
 
 WILLIAM P. BACON, a well-known and 
 popular traveling salesman for the firm of Rad- 
 cliffe Brothers, manufacturers of knit goods, has 
 made his home in Derby for the past fifteen years. _ 
 He is a native of Connecticut, born in Woodbury, 
 March 19, 1869, and belongs to quite a promment 
 and distinguished family, tracing his ancestry back 
 to Jabez Bacon, a shrewd, enterprising and success- 
 ful business man, who became very wealthy, at one 
 time owning 10,000 acres of land in the Adirondack 
 Mountains, N. Y. He was also extensively en- 
 
 gaged in the provision business in New York City. 
 Daniel Bacon, son of Jabez, spent his entire life 
 as a farmer in Woodbury, Conn. He married Re- 
 becca Thompson, a native of the same place, and to 
 them were born eight children : Lydia, who 'mar- 
 ried Charles C. Thompson ; Rebecca and Fannie, 
 who died unmarried ; Maria, who married Gen. 
 Chauncey Crafts; Julia, who married John Moore; 
 John, a cripple, who married Augusta Walker and 
 spent his life in Woodbury ; William T., grand- 
 father of our subject; and Daniel, who married 
 Jane Green, of Woodbury, and lived in New Haven. 
 William T. Bacon, grandfather of our subject, 
 was also born in Woodbury and was educated at 
 Yale, from which institution he was graduated in 
 1837. He attended the Divinity School, and for a 
 few years engaged in preaching in Trumbull, Fair- 
 field Co., Conn., but the greater part of his life was 
 devoted to the printing business. He married Eliza- 
 beth Ann Knight, a daughter of Dr. Jonathan 
 Knight, of New Haven, and after his marriage lo- 
 cated in New Haven, but later returned to Wood- 
 bury. In 1866 he came to Derby, where he died in 
 1880, his wife in 1887. Of their nine children, 
 Jonathan K. was a physician of New Milford, 
 Conn., where he died in 1898; William Thompson 
 was the father of our subject; Frederick A. is a 
 mechanic, living in the West ; Walter C. is a promi- 
 nent real-estate dealer of Kansas City, Mo. ; Daniel 
 H. is engaged in the printing business in Derby; 
 James F. died young ; Rebecca T. is unmarried ; 
 Annie F. is the wife of Hanford L. Shaw, of Mid- 
 dletown, N. Y. ; Bessie died in infancy. 
 
 William Thompson Bacon, father of our sub- 
 ject, was born in New Haven, but was reared in 
 Woodbury, where he engaged in mercantile busi- 
 ness when a young man. There he married Miss 
 Elizabeth T. Parker, of Woodbury, and to them 
 were born three children: William P., our subject; 
 Harriet, wife of Dr. Wilham B. Bissell, of Lake- 
 ville, Litchfield Co., Conn., a graduate of Yale; and 
 Annie. For some years the father was engaged in 
 the newspaper business with his brother, Daniel H., 
 m Derby, where he died June i, 1885. In politics 
 he was a Republican. 
 
 The first sixteen years of his life our subject 
 passed in Woodbury, and then came to Derby, Ob- 
 taining his education in the schools of bodi places. 
 On leaving school he entered the employ of A. H. 
 & C. B. Ailing, manufacturers of knit underwear 
 and hosiery, as a traveling salesman, and in 1894 
 accepted his present position, that of traveling sales- 
 man for the firm of Radcliffe Brothers, manufac- 
 turers of knit underwear and hosiery. Genial and 
 pleasant in manner, and a man of good business and 
 executive ability, he has met with excellent success 
 as a salesman, is reputed to be well up in the 
 hosiery trade, and is very popular with his cus- 
 tomers. 
 
 Mr. Bacon was married, June 9, 1892, to Miss 
 Clara Dalton Thrasher,, of Somerville, Mass., who 
 
1 1 90 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was born in Portland, Maine, of English ancestry, 
 and is a daughter of Charles F. Thrasher, a native 
 of the same place. Mr. Bacon is a member of the 
 Board of Trade. Politically he affiliates with the 
 Republican party. 
 
 FREDERICK G. GRAVES, M. D., is still a 
 young- man, but in a surprisingly brief time he has 
 built up a practice in Waterbury that, for the qual- 
 ity of the families he numbers among his patrons, 
 and their confidence in his medical skill, will stand 
 comparison with that of any physician in the State. 
 He was born April 15, 1869, in Danbury, Conn., a 
 son of George W. Graves, a grandson of Jedediah 
 Graves, and a great-grandson of Ezra Graves. The 
 latter was very active in political life, serving in the 
 State Legislature, etc. 
 
 Jedediah Graves served as judge in the county 
 courts for over twenty years. He was a stock- 
 man and farmer in Sherman, Conn., where he had 
 a very extensive establishment. He married Sarah 
 Northrop, and became the father of fourteen chil- 
 dren, of whom eleven grew to maturity. Judge 
 henry B. Graves, of Litchfield, one of this family, 
 became eminent as a leading lawj'er and member of 
 the Democratic party, and served in the State Legis- 
 lature, winning a name known all over the State. 
 
 George W. Graves was born in Sherman, Conn., 
 in 1825. He became an extensive dealer in tobacco, 
 buying directly from the farmers and shipping to 
 various trade centers. Hannah Brush, his wife, 
 was born in New Fairfield, Conn., daughter of Eli 
 Brush, a large land owner of that town. She died 
 in 1881, at the age of fifty-one. Seven children 
 were born of this marriage, of whom Emma died at 
 the age of seventeen ; Georgia married George 
 Mead, and died at the age of twenty-seven'; Cora 
 married Elbert Reynolds, of Greenwich, and is now 
 deceased ; Hubert died at the age of twenty-seven. 
 Of the three survivors, Anna is unmarried ; Alex- 
 ander is in Danbury, Conn. ; and Frederick G. is 
 our subject. 
 
 Frederick G. Graves passed his boyhood in Dan- 
 bury, and there obtained his elementary and general 
 English education, graduating from the City High 
 School in 1888. He had long had a medical career 
 in view and had begun reading medicine while still 
 in the public school. He continued his studies for 
 a year in the office of Dr. Scott, and in the fall of 
 1889 entered Yale Medical School, from which he 
 was graduated with honor in 1892. The Doctor, in 
 competitive examination, received appointment on 
 the New Haven Hospital Staff, but did not accept 
 it, preferring to go West and enter upon another 
 work offered him by the Missouri Mining & Lum- 
 ber Co. In this position, as surgeon of the com- 
 pany on the ground of its operation, in Grandin, 
 Mo., the Doctor remained for nearly three years, 
 finding in the field an excellent opportunity for the 
 practical experience so essential to the young prac- 
 titioner. In the spring of 1895 he came to Water- 
 
 bury, and upon opening an office for the practice of 
 his profession met with marked and irnmediate suc- 
 cess. Dr. Graves was assistant surgeon for the 2d 
 Regiment nearly four years, and is examining sur- 
 geon for recruits to the United States army. He 
 IS a member of the American, State, County and 
 local medical societies. Fraternally he belongs to- 
 the Freemasons and to Nosahogan Lodge, I. O. 0. 
 F. In religious views he is a Congregationalist. 
 The Doctor has never married. 
 
 DENNIS J. GORMAN, a well-known and 
 prominent business man of Naugatuck, was born 
 in that place March 30, 1864, a son of Thomas 
 Gorman, of whom more extended mention is made 
 in the sketch of John J. Gorman elsewhere. 
 
 Our subject attended the public schools of 
 Naug-atuck until fourteen years of age, and then 
 entered the employ of the Dunham Hosiery Co.,. 
 with which he remained for three years. He next 
 worked for the Goodyear India Rubber Glove Co., 
 until 1 88 1, when he became connected with the 
 Goodyear India Rubber Shoe Co., and was in their 
 employ eleven years. At the end of that period he 
 emlDarkcd in the licjuor business, in Scott street, and 
 in 1899 he erected the fine three-story block at the 
 corner of Scott and Cherry streets, which he now 
 occupies. Here he now has one of the finest saloons 
 in the place, while the apartments above are divided 
 into five tenements. He is a wide-awake, energetic 
 business man, whose success is due to his own in- 
 dustry and good management. 
 
 Mr. Gorman was married, Sept. 16, 1886, to 
 Miss Annie Hallisey, a native of Wales, and a 
 daughter of Michael Hallisey, who was of Irish 
 descent. They are members of St. Francis Catholic 
 Church, and Mr. Gorman also belongs to the Salem 
 Social Club; Division No. 2, A. O. H., of Nauga- 
 tuck ; Court Goodyear, A. O. F. ; and the Foresters 
 of America, Court No. 4. In his political affilia- 
 tions he is a Democrat. 
 
 FREDERICK E. STANLEY is one of the 
 skilled workmen who have given Waterbury her 
 world-wide reputation. His personal standing is 
 high, and he is known as a reliable man, an upright 
 and conscientious citizen, and a master of his chos- 
 en craft. 
 
 Mr. Stanley was born in Waterbury, Aug. 25, 
 1 861, son of James Stanley, a native of Birming- 
 ham, England, who died in Waterbury, June 29,, 
 1875. William Stanley, the grandfather of Fred- 
 erick E., was one of the first brass rollers in this 
 country. He was brought here by Israel Holmes in 
 1829, and began rolling brass with the Benedict & 
 Burnham Mfg. Co. James Stanley, noted above, 
 was brought here by his parents in 1833, when he 
 was eight months old, and grew up in this country. 
 He was endowed with unusual mechanical gifts, and 
 as he entered manhood became a master of first one 
 trade and then another until he had several at his. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 191 
 
 fingers' ends. For some years he worked with Al- 
 fred J. Shipley, in Newark, N. J. (a sketch of that 
 gentleman may be found elsewhere). He married 
 barah J. Clark, who was born in Wolcott, New 
 Haven county, in 1832, daughter of John Clark, a 
 farmer in that town. To Mr. and Mrs. James. Stan- 
 ley were born eight children : Charlotte, who mar- 
 ried Alexander J. Buchanan, a mechanic in Water- 
 bury ; Charles, who died in infancy ; George I., a 
 farmer in Oakville, Conn. ; William J., foreman of 
 the cutting department of the Scovill Mfg. Co. ; 
 Frederick E. ; Ida, who married Frank King, and 
 lives in Colorado, where her husband is engaged as 
 a mechanic ; Joseph L., a toolmaker in Waterbury ; 
 and Jennie, who died at the age of three years and 
 nine months. James Stanley was a Republican, 
 and with his family attended the Baptist Church. 
 
 Frederick E. Stanley was reared to manhood in 
 Waterbury under the parental roof, and was a pupil 
 in the public schools until he was twelve years of 
 age, when he went into the factory of the Scovill 
 Manufacturing Co., receiving at first but fifty cents 
 a day. The next six years of his life were spent in 
 that factory, and at eighteen he apprenticed himself 
 to the Farrel Foundry Co. for the purpose of learn- 
 ing the machinist's trade. There he served his 
 time, and worked six months as a journeyman, at 
 the end of that time securing a position as a tool- 
 maker with the Scovill Manufacturing Co. Here 
 he has worked his way up until he now holds the 
 foremanship of the automatic machinery depart- 
 ment. Since he has been with this house he has 
 had committed to his hands the execution of a num- 
 ber of delicate and complicated orders, the most 
 noticeable perhaps being the 24,000 Columbian 
 bronze medals for the World's Columbian Exposi- 
 tion held at Chicago. Mr. Stanley' is an inventor 
 of no little merit, having invented several automatic 
 machines that found a warm welcome in the in- 
 dustrial world, among them machines, for attach- 
 ing buttons to clothing. 
 
 Mr. Stanley and Miss Frances J. Pickett were 
 married Dec. 21, 1882, and they are the parents of 
 two children: May L., born Nov. 24, 1885; and 
 Alfred J., born Aug. 5, 1892. May L. has de- 
 veloped a decided genius as a violinist and is a 
 pupil of the musical department of Yale College. 
 Mrs. Stanley was born at North East, Pa., Oct. 26, 
 1862, daughter of John Pickett, and is a lineal de- 
 scendant on her mother's side of Amos Hikcox, who 
 served his country in the Continental army and 
 fought in the battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. Mr. 
 Stanley is a Republican in political faith. He was 
 elected alderman in 1901. He has passed through 
 the various chairs of the Masonic fraternity by 
 good service to the craft, now having the honor to 
 be past master of Harmony Lodge, No. 42, F & 
 A. M.: past thrice illustrious of Waterbury Coun- 
 cil, No. 21 ; past patron of Naomi Chapter, No. 23, 
 O. E. S. ; and generalissimo of Clark Commandery, 
 No. 7, Knights Templar. For the past five years 
 
 he has been a member of Company A, of the local 
 State militia. He and his family are identified with 
 the Baptist Church. 
 
 JOHN J. SIEBERT is an alert and active man, 
 and though still young in years has won a good 
 position in the industrial circles of Waterbury, 
 where he is widely known as an honorable and up- 
 right gentlerhan, and a thorough master of his 
 craft. 
 
 Mr. Siebert was born Sept. 11, 1862, in Water- 
 bury, and is a son of Frederick Siebert, who was 
 born in Germany, and was the only one of his fam- 
 ily to come to this country. Frederick Siebert was 
 a harnessmaker in Germany, and was born and 
 reared in the kingdom of Hassen-Cassel. After his 
 arrival in this country he followed harnessmaking 
 and did carriage trimming as well. He married 
 Dorathea Kleinschmidt, who was toorn and reared 
 in Germany, and died in Waterbury about 1867. 
 The husband and father died in Waterbury Nov. 
 16, 1898. They came to New Haven in 1856, 
 moving to Waterbury in 1850. They were the 
 parents of ten children, as follows : Christopher, 
 manager of the Singer Sewing Machine Co.'s 
 business here for many years ; Henry, who died in 
 1894 in New Haven, where he had been in the 
 upholstery business ; Charles, who died at the age 
 of seventeen ; Frederick, a constable in New Haven ; 
 William M., a hotel-keeper in Brooklyn ; Lawrence, 
 who is in the Singer Sewing Machine works at 
 Waterbury; John J., our subject; one unnamed; 
 Leonard, who owns, an opera house and a bakery 
 in East Hampton, Conn. ; and Louis, a plater in 
 Waterbury. A notable event in the history of the 
 family was the gathering, on Frederick Siebert's 
 seventieth birthday, of his seven sons, on which oc- 
 casion they sat down with him to a bountiful spread 
 laid in his honor. It would have been difficult in- 
 deed to have found a prouder father, so great was 
 hisi pleasure in beholding his seven sons, all healthy 
 and rugged, and a credit to him in every way. 
 When all were seen walking together the common 
 remark was, "Flere comes the Siebert nine." Fred- 
 erick Siebert was the first patient at the Waterbury 
 Hospital. 
 
 John J. Siebert spent his boyhood days in Wa- 
 terbury, where he attended the public schools, se- 
 curing a good education. He entered the works of 
 the Waterbury Button Co. when his schooling was 
 ended, and spent the ensuing five years in learning 
 the plating business, becoming a capable workman. 
 For four years he was with the Gifford Manufact- 
 uring Co., at Union City, and then entered the em- 
 ploy of the Scovill Manufacturing Co., remaining 
 with that establishment five years. In the month 
 of November, 1888, Mr. SielDcrt secured a position 
 with the American Ring Co., which he still retains. 
 He is foreman of the plating and dipping depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Siebert andi Miss Anna R. iMiller were mar- 
 
1 192 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ried June 19, 1893. Mrs. Siebert was, born in 
 Waterbury, daughter of Christopher Miller, a na- 
 tive of Germany, who resided in Waterbury many 
 years, and died May 29, 1897. Mrs. Miller, who 
 died Aug. 20, 1901, was a resident of Waterbury 
 for over forty years. To Mr. and Mrs. Siebert 
 two children have been born, Edward L. and 
 Martha J. Politically Mr. Siebert is a Republican. 
 He is a past grand of Nosahogan Lodge, No. 21, 
 
 I. O. O. F. ; past chancellor of Speedwell Lodge, 
 No. 10, K. of P. ;. was first lieutenant of E. F. 
 Durant Co., U. R., K. of P.; is, a past officer of 
 White Oak Camp, W. of W. ; 'belongs to Excelsior 
 Council, No. 2, O. U. A. M. ; and was president of 
 the Harmonia Benevolent Society for two years, 
 filling a similar position in a benefit association 
 among the employes of the American Ring Co. for 
 some time. Mr. Siebert is also a member of the 
 Union Club. 
 
 PATRICK HENRY DUNN, a master plumber 
 of Branford, is a son of Peter and Ann (McDer- 
 mott) Dunn, nativesi of Ireland, who came to this 
 country prior to i860. They located in Branford, 
 where the father, a brass molder bv trade, was em- 
 ployed by the M. I. F. Co. Later in life he was 
 taken into the service of fhe Branford Lock Works, 
 where he is still engaged. To Mr. and Mrs. Dunn 
 were born seven children: Thomas F., James (de- 
 ceased), Peter S., Lizzie, Patrick Henry, John B. 
 and Annie T. 
 
 Patrick Henry Dunn was, born in Branford Jan. 
 
 II, 1870, and obtained his education in the com- 
 mon schools of the borough. At the age of fifteen 
 he commenced to learn the plumber's trade, serving 
 four years with W. T. Corcoran, of _ Branford. 
 Thoroughly mastering this important trade, he fol- 
 lowed it for seven years as a journeyman, gaining 
 practical experience of every detail. Mr. Dunn em- 
 barked in business for himself as a master plumber 
 in 1896, and at once met with an imrrjediate and 
 marked success. He has continued in this line to 
 the present time, and he has an army of patrons 
 who do not hesitate to speak of his work and his 
 business methods in the most complimentary terms. 
 
 Mr. Dunn was married, Oct. 21, 1896, to Mary, 
 daughtir of Owen and Mary McCaffery, of New 
 Haven, formerly of Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Dunn 
 are members of St. Mary's Catholic Church of 
 Branford, and he belongs to the Modern Woodmen, 
 and to St. Mary's T. A. and B. Society. In busi- 
 ness connections he is a member of the National 
 Plumbers' Association. In politics he is a Dem- 
 ocrat. Mr. Dunn is foreman of the Martin Burk 
 Hook and Ladder Co., No. i, and a member of the 
 Volunteer Association. 
 
 GEORGE ADAM FABER, AI. D., a prominent 
 and successful physician and surgeon of Waterbury, 
 is a native of that town, born on Bucks Hill Dec. 
 ID, 1866, son of Adam and Christina Faber. 
 
 Our subject acquired his primary education in 
 the district schools, and supplemented same by a 
 course in the Waterbury English and , Classical 
 school. During boyhood he took a deep interest in 
 railroading, his ambition being to become a railroad 
 man, but, complying with the wishes of his parents, 
 he took up the medical profession. He began study 
 along that line in 1883, and at the age of eighteen 
 years entered the Georgia College of Eclectic Med- 
 icine and Surgery at Atlanta, where he was a stu- 
 dent in 1885 and 1886. Later he attended the Ben- 
 nett Medical College, of Chicago, from which he 
 was graduated in 1888. Returning to Waterbury, 
 he formed a partnership with Dr. S. B. Munn, one 
 of the oldest practitioners in the county, and was 
 associated with him in practice for two years. In 
 June, 1890, he opened an office of his own in 
 Waterbury, and has since met with most excellent 
 success in the prosecution of his profession. 
 
 On Nov. 29, 1899, in Waterbury, Dr. Faber was 
 united in marriage with Miss Mabel Buckland 
 Wooster, also a native of that town, and a daugh- 
 ter of Frederick J. and Carrie M. (Buckland) 
 Wooster, representatives of some of the oldest fam- 
 ilies of New England. Mrs. Faber is a ladiy of 
 culture and refinement. She was educated at the 
 public and high schools of Waterbury, the D. L. 
 Moody school at Northfield, Mass., and St. Mar- 
 garet's Young Ladies Seminary, of Waterbury. As 
 an elocutionist she possesses exceptional talent, and 
 has often read in public. 
 
 Dr. Faber is quite a prominent member of the 
 Connecticut Eclectic Medical Association, of which 
 he is secretary, and is also a member and secretary 
 of the examining board of the Eclectic Medical 
 School for the_, State of Connecticut. He served as 
 town physician in 1888, 1890, 1892 and 1895. The 
 Doctor is a man of deep research and careful in- 
 vestigation, and his skill and ability have won him 
 a liberal patronage. Prominence in his profession 
 comes through merit alone, and the high position 
 which he has attained attests his superiority. So- 
 cially he is a Knight Templar Mason, a member 
 of Harmony Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. M., and East- 
 ern Star Chapter; and also belongs to the Inde- 
 pendent Order t)f Odd Fellows ; the Improved Or- 
 der of Red Men; the Ancient Order of United 
 Worl<men ; Mad River Grange ; and the New Eng- 
 land Order of Protection, Mattatuck Lodge, of 
 which he is treasurer and medical examiner. His 
 wife is also a memter and past warden of the last 
 named order. 
 
 JOHN REID MURRAY, proprietor of the 
 Boston Store, corner of Main and Bridge streets, 
 Ansonia, is one of the substantial citizens of that 
 place, and the following brief record shows that he 
 possesses the qualities of character which would 
 have won him success in any line of effort. 
 
 Mr. Murray was born Oct. 5, 1844, in Glasgow, 
 Scotland, son of Dr. John and Agnes (Reid) Mur- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1193 
 
 ray. His grandfather, John Murray, was a native 
 •of New Brunswick, but went to Glasgow with his 
 father, who was a soldier, and remained there, 
 dying at a good old age. The Doctor, who was an 
 ■only ison, was born in Glasgow, and graduated from 
 Glasgow College and the Royal College of Sur- 
 geons, and for a number of years was police sur- 
 geon in that city. Aside from extensive travel his 
 life was spent there, but he served some time in the 
 navy and circumnavigated the globe four times. He 
 ■died at the age of fifty-five years, and his wife, who 
 was born at Edinburgh, died aged sixty-three years. 
 
 Our subject's early life was spent in Glasgow, 
 and he obtained his education in a private school. 
 For a time he was employed in a dry-goods store 
 as a boy, and when twenty-three years old he 
 <ame to America, locating first in Providence, R. I., 
 -where he was in the dry-goods business for nine 
 years. In 1879 he settled in Ansonia, and in part- 
 nership with John H. Shaw, a native of Airdrie, 
 near Glasgow, he founded his present store, be- 
 ginning in half of the store building known as 
 "Alilitary Hall," formerly the Methodist Episcopal 
 church, whic'h they rented. The partnership con- 
 tinued up to 1890, when Mr. Murray bought his 
 partner's interest, and several years afterward he 
 became owner of the store premises. The business 
 has steadily grown since its foundation. Some nine 
 years ago the addition of a second floor was found 
 ■necessary to meet its demands. The floors are 50 
 ieet square, and the entire store has recently been 
 renovated and painted in a most attractive manner. 
 Twenty clerks are employed, and in the various de- 
 partments everything is kept which is to be found 
 in metropolitan stores. Mr. Murray is now one of 
 the oldest in the dry-goods business in any of the 
 four towns of Seymour, Ansonia, Derby or Shelton. 
 
 Mr. Murray married Janet Shaw, in America, 
 and has one son, Walter J., who is attending the 
 Cheshire Military Academy, and next year expects 
 to enter Yale College. Mr. Murray is a member of 
 the United Presbyterian Church, his wife of the 
 Episcopal Church. The family is much esteemed 
 socially, and our subject is one of the oldest mem- 
 bers of the F. & A. M. in Ansonia, having united 
 originally with St. Mary's Lodge, of Glasgow. Be- 
 fore coming to the United States he was a sergeant 
 in the Seventh Royal Lanarkshire Artillery of Scot- 
 land, in which he served some years, and in 1876 
 he enlisted in the Rhode Island militia. He has 
 crossed the Atlantic four times, having visited sev- 
 eral parts of Europe, and having journeyed as far 
 north as the North Cape, and has beheld the mid- 
 night sun. 
 
 FREDERICK WILLIAM CHESSON, secre- 
 tary and general manager of the American Ring 
 Co., Waterbury, is an Englishman by birth, having 
 been born June 7, 1864, in the city of London. 
 
 Frederick William Chesson, father of our sub- 
 ject was of the same nativity, born in 1832, and 
 
 died in London in 1888. He was employed on the 
 editorial stafiE of the London Times and London 
 News, as a "specialist." He married Amelia 
 Thompson, daughter of George Thompson, who, 
 in concert with William Lloyd Garrison, was a 
 strong anti-slavery advocate. The following named 
 children born to our subject's parents are still liv- 
 ing: E. May, Constance, Julia, Frederick Will- 
 iam, Harold, Hugh and George. Of these, Harold 
 lives in Florence, Mass., and George in Springfield, 
 Mass. The mother of this family is yet living in 
 London. 
 
 Frederick W. Chesson, our subject, attended 
 school in his native city. In May, 1880, when six- 
 teen years of age, he came to the United States, 
 first locating in Boston, Mass., where he entered the 
 employ of the Plume & Atwood Co., manufacturers 
 of brass goods, remaining there until May, 1883, 
 at which time he came to Waterbury to accept a 
 position with the American Ring Co., with which 
 he has ever since been connected. Commencing 
 as office boy, he rose by sheer native ability, per- 
 severance and thorough attention to business, un- 
 accompanied by any influence, to the position of 
 superintendent, which he held seven years, or until 
 1899, when he was appointed secretary and general 
 manager of the concern, his present incumbency. 
 The firm when Mr. Chesson came to it employed 
 about one hundred and twenty-five hands, and now 
 some seven hundred are engaged in the works. 
 
 In 1887 our subject was married to Clara W. 
 Cooke, of Waterbury, daughter of Walter H. 
 Cooke, a sketch of whom follows. Four children 
 have graced this union : Frederick William, Wal- 
 ter, Robert and Sterling. In church connection 
 Mr. and Mrs. Chesson are Episcopalians. Polit- 
 ically he is a Republican, and is now serving as 
 alderman of the Third ward, having been elected 
 to that office in 1899; he is also a member of the 
 board of public works. Socially he is a Freema- 
 son, also a member of the I. O. O. F. and' K. of P. 
 He owes his enviable position, as already intimated, 
 to his own exertions, and his example is one which 
 young men of the present day would do well to 
 follow. His character is above reproach, and no 
 resident of Waterbury holds a higher place in the 
 esteem of his fellow men. 
 
 WALTER H. COOKE, father of Mrs. Fred- 
 erick W. Chesson, is a native of Connecticut, born 
 Sept. 30, 1835, in Reynolds Bridge, Litchfield coun- 
 ty, and comes of an old New England, family. 
 
 (I) Henry Cook (for so the name was orig- 
 inally spelled, the "e" having been added by a mem- 
 ber of the family later on), great-great-great-great- 
 great-grandfather of our subject, was married in 
 Plymouth, Mass., in 1639, and died Dec. 25, 1661. 
 (II) Samuel Cook, his son, was born in 1641, and 
 died in 1702. (Ill) Samuel Cook, Jr., son of Sam- 
 uel, was born March 3, 1668, and died in Septem- 
 ber, 1725. (IV) Moses Cook, son of Samuel, Jr., 
 
1194 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was born in Wallingford, Conn., Nov. 6, 1716, and 
 died Dec. 12, 1771. (V) Moses Cook, Jr., his son, 
 was born May 30, 1744, and died, probably in 
 Wallingford, in 1831. He was a drummer in the 
 war for independence. 
 
 (VI) Joseph Cook, son of Moses, Jr., and the 
 grandfather of our subject, was born in Water- 
 bury Nov. 4, 1767, and died there March 26, 1855. 
 In early life he .was a tanner and shoemaker, later 
 taking up farming in Waterbury ; was also a sur- 
 veyor, and collector of taxes for years. He mar- 
 ried Anna Bronson, a native of Waterbury, and a 
 daughter of Ezra Bronson, who was a commissary 
 during the Revolutionary war ; his son Michael 
 was a lieutenant in the same struggle. Joseph 
 Cook was a soldier in the war of 1812. After mar- 
 riage our subject's grandparents settled in Water- 
 bury, where were born to them eight children : Ed- 
 ward B., Samuel, Susanna, Sally, Nancy, Nathan, 
 George and George W. Of these, Edward B. died 
 in Waterbury, where he followed the trade of me- 
 chanic, and later was the originator of the Water- 
 bury American, Samuel was also a mechanic in 
 Waterbury, and died there ; Susanna married Mark 
 Leavenworth, of Waterbury ; Sally married; Solo- 
 mon Curtis, of Southington, Conn. ; Nancy married 
 William Scovill, a cabinetmaker by trade; George 
 died at the age of nine years; George W., who b}- 
 trade was a silver plater, died in Waterbury. 
 
 (VII) Nathan Cooke, father of our subject, 
 was born Jan. 8, 1804, and died Oct. 26, 1892. He 
 was a clockmaker by trade, and followed same in 
 Waterbury and Reynolds Bridge, Conn. ; in fact, he 
 may be said to have been a lifelong "clock man," 
 as at the early age of sixteen years he traveled 
 through the South selling clocks from a wagon, 
 and setting them up for customers. He married 
 Clarissa Reynolds, who was born July 4, 1806, at 
 Reynolds Bridge, a daughter of Russell Reynolds, 
 a farmer of that locality, and whose ancestry were 
 English. Walter H., our subject, was their only 
 child. The mother died in Waterbury Oct. 22, 
 1892. The father was a Whig in politics, later a 
 Republican, and in religious faith he was a Con- 
 gregationalist. 
 
 Walter H. Cooke, our subject, was about eight 
 years of age when he came from Reynolds Bridge 
 to Waterbury, and attended school at both places, 
 including the high school and an academy in the 
 latter city ; also for a time was at a school in 
 Watertown, Conn. After finishing his education he 
 clerked in a dry-goods store about a year ; then for 
 three and one-half years was in the employ of the 
 American Pin Co. Taking a six months' rest after 
 this, Mr. Cooke entered' Hall & Smith's insurance 
 office, remained a year there, and then clerked in a 
 dry-goods store for several years. Subsequently he 
 was in the photographing business some four or five 
 years in Torrington, Conn. : conducted a grocery 
 business in the same town ; and was engaged for a 
 time in a factory, having charge of a room. Re- 
 
 turning to Waterbury, he was for sixteen years 
 bookkeeper for the American Ring Co., and for four 
 years was in the coal business, but of late years he 
 has been living retired. 
 
 On Sept. 27, 1862, Mr. Cooke married Jane D. 
 McClintock, who was born in New York, a daugh- 
 ter of John McClintock, a native of Ireland, and of 
 Scottish extraction. Two children have come to 
 this union : Clara W., wife of Frederick W. Ches- 
 son ; and Frederick S. The family attend the serv- 
 ices 'of the Congregational Church. In politics Mr. 
 Cooke is a Republican; socially he has been affil- 
 iated with the I. O. O. F. for many years, and for 
 five years he has been president of the Naturalist 
 Club of Waterbury. 
 
 PETER WILKINS, foreman of the brass roll- 
 ing and casting departments of the A. B. C. Co., of 
 Ansonia, was born April 15, 1862, in Gloucester, 
 England, a son of Daniel and grandson of William 
 Wilkins. 
 
 For many years the family was identified with 
 Elkstone, England, and William Wilkins was born 
 there and passed his life in farming in that locality. 
 He was a member of the Church of England and a 
 man of most excellent qualities of character. He 
 lived to the advanced age of loi years, and his 
 wife, Anna, lived to the age of eighty. Of their 
 fourteen children, four are still living in England. 
 
 Daniel Wilkins, our subject's father, was born 
 at Elkstone, England, in 1819, and settled .at Glou- 
 cester in early manhood. For forty years he was in 
 the employ of the Midland railroad, and he died in 
 the service at the age of sixty-six years. He mar- 
 ried Sarah Jeynes, who is still living in England, 
 and they had fourteen children, of whom seven are 
 living. Thomas, a brass annealer with the A. B. C. 
 Co., was the only one besides our subject to come 
 to America; Jane married John jMerchant, of Glou- 
 cester, England ; Emmanuel is a locomotive engin- 
 eer in Manchester, England ; Sarah A. married 
 Thomas Vallender, who has charge of a round 
 house in Australia ; Alfred is a locomotive engineer 
 in Derby, England ; Peter was the next in order of 
 birth ; Albert is a locoinotive engineer in Glouces- 
 ter, England. It will be noted that three of the 
 sons are engineers, all being in the employ of the 
 Midland Railway Co. Mrs. Sarah (Jeynes) Wil- 
 kins was born in Gloucester, a daughter of Thomas 
 and Sarah Je3mes, also natives of that city, and the 
 former a farmer by occupation. Both were mem- 
 bers of the Episcopal Church, and the mother (our 
 subject's grandhiother) died aged sixty years, leav- 
 ing two children. 
 
 Peter Wilkins received a common-school edu- 
 cation in his native city, and when thirteen years 
 old went to Birmingham to learn the brass rolling 
 trade. At twenty his apprenticeship ended, and he 
 came to the United Slates, locating first in New 
 York City, where he was employed for some years 
 by the Manhattan Brass Co., at ist avenue and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1195 
 
 28th street. He rose to the position of foreman of 
 the brass rolling and casting department, and on 
 July I, 1889, went to Ansonia to take a similar posi- 
 tion with the A. B. C. Co., the first six months, how- 
 ever, having been spent in general work as a roller. 
 He has 150 men under his direction and has been 
 notably successful as a manager. In 1893 he tuilt 
 a large double house on Forest avenue, where he 
 now resides. He was married March 15, 1892, to 
 Sarah Maybury, and they have had four children, 
 of whom three are living: Daniel R., Frederick 
 W. and Peter E. Mrs. Wilkins was born in Wol- 
 verhampton, England, the daughter of Samuel and 
 Sarah Maybury, both of whom were devout mem- 
 bers of the Methodist Church. Her mother died in 
 Shelton, Conn., at the age of seventy-nine, but 
 her father, who was an iron worker at Wolver- 
 hampton, died at forty-eight. He had twenty-one 
 children, of whom three are living: Annie, wife 
 of Frederick Frost, of Shelton; Mary Jane, who 
 married Charles Shedd, of Providence, R. I.; and 
 Mrs. Wilkins. 
 
 Few men in Ansonia are so popular as our 
 subject, whose genial disposition and high character 
 make him a general favorite. Politically he is a 
 Republican, and his party ha.s kept him prominent 
 in municipal affairs of late years ; he was elected m 
 189s to the city council, and in 1897 and 1899 to 
 the board of aldermen, his present term expiring in 
 1901. The family is prominent in social life and 
 Mr. Wilkins belongs to the order of United Friends, 
 the Eagle Hook and Ladder Co., of Ansonia, and 
 the Knights of Pythias: the A. O. U. W. ; the 
 Sons of St. George, and has passed through all 
 the chairs in the last society. While in New York 
 he became a member of the Pastime Athletic Club 
 and the Y. M. C. A. In his religious connection 
 he belongs to Dr. Crosby's Church. The family, 
 however, attend the Methodist Church of Ansonia. 
 
 H. WALTER MURLLESS, M. D., has, though 
 still young, gained a substantial place for himself 
 among the medical fraternity in New Haven county, 
 where he has built up an enviable practice and ac- 
 quired a well-deserved reputation for skill and thor- 
 ough knowledge in his chosen calling. 
 
 Dr. Murlless was born Aug. 10, 1868, in Wind- 
 sor Locks, Hartford Co., Conn., son of F. T. and 
 Mary E. (Perrin) Murlless, the former a dentist 
 of Windsor Locks. He received his early education 
 in the common schools of his native place, later 
 attending the high school, and the Connecticut Lit- 
 erary Institute, at Suffield, Conn., from which latter 
 he was graduated. Subsequently, for several terms, 
 he was engaged in teaching in^Windsor and East 
 Hartford, during that time" taking uo. the study r 
 medicine under Dr. S. R. Burnap. In 1890 he en- 
 tered the Louisville (Ky.) Medical College, from 
 which he was graduated in the class of 1893, and 
 on his return to Connecticut he began practice at 
 Hartford, where he spent four years. After the 
 
 death of Dr. G. P. Reynolds, in 1897, at Guilford, 
 Dr. Murlless came hither, and he has followed his 
 profession here with flattering and unusual success, 
 his kind disposition and winning personality aiding 
 him quite as effectively as his studies in gaining 
 the confidence and good wishes of all with whom 
 he has come in contact. He is popular and highly 
 respected, and has' already made a place for himself 
 among the useful citizens of his adopted town. The 
 Doctor belongs to the City Medical Society, the 
 Hartford County Medical Society, and the Con- 
 necticut State Medical Society, and fraternally holds 
 membership in Euclid Lodge, No. 109, A. F. & A. 
 M., Windsor Locks; Pythagoras Chapter, R. A. 
 M., Hartford; Wilcott Council, R. & S. M. ; and 
 Mennacatuck Lodge, I. O. O. F., Guilford. 
 
 GEORGE C. HAM, senior member of the well- 
 known firm of Ham & Tuttle, surveyors of Nauga- 
 tuck. Conn., was born in Washington Hollow, 
 Dutchess Co., N. Y., April 11, 1S67, and is a 
 worthy representative of one of the old and hon- 
 ored families of that county. The first to locate 
 there was Conrad Ham, who came from the Rhine 
 Valley, and was probably of German descent. His 
 son, Frederick Ham, was the great-grandfather of 
 our subject ; the grandfather was Conrad Ham ; and 
 the father was Milton Ham. All were natives of 
 Washington Hollow, Dutchess Co., N. Y., where 
 they spent their entire lives ; were farmers by oc- 
 cupation; and members of the Dutch Reformed 
 Church.' Milton Ham married Phcebe Ferris, a na- 
 tive of the town of Pawling, Dutchess county, and 
 to them were born three children : John, a farmer 
 of Washington Hollow ; Sarah ; and George C. 
 
 George C. Ham was reared upon the home farm, 
 and was educated in private schools at Millbrook 
 and Pine Plains, Dutchess county ; Andover, Mass. ; 
 and the Yale Scientific School, being a graduate of 
 the last three. For a short time after leaving 
 sdhool he engaged in surveying in his native coun- 
 ty, and in 1888 came to Naugatuck, Conn., where 
 he did the surveying for the Naugatuck water 
 works ; in 1889 was constructing engineer of the 
 Litchfield water works, and subsequently with Mr. 
 T. H. McKenzie, C. E., of Southington, was em- 
 ployed on various hydraulic and sanitary works. 
 Returning to Naugatuck in 1891, he built the 
 storage reservoir for the Naugatuck Water Com- 
 pany, and after other engagements outside the State 
 in 1893 he opened an office here on Church street, 
 whiOh has since been his headquarters, though his 
 business calls him to other parts of Connecticut and 
 New York State. He formed a partnership with 
 Howard B. Tuttle, M. E., and under the firm name 
 of Ham &■ Tuttle they carry on an extensive busi- 
 ness as civil engineers and surveyors. 
 
 In 1892 Mr. Ham married Miss Grace Seymour, 
 a daughter of Zera Seymour, of Naugatuck, and to 
 them has been born one child, Conrad C. Polit- 
 ically Mr. Ham is what may be termed an inde- 
 
1 196 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 pendent. Since the organization of the borough 
 he has served as engineer of Naugatuck, and is also 
 secretary and treasurer of the Naugatuck Board of 
 Trade, and is a director of the Naugatuck Water 
 Co. A man well known in his section of the coun- 
 ty, he is highly esteemed by all, and while giving 
 strict attention to his business interests has yet man- 
 ifested an interest in public affairs, and has ever 
 shown his desire to promote the welfare of his 
 adopted county and State. 
 
 LIEUT. COL. JAMES GEDDES, toolmaker in 
 .the employ of the Scovill Mfg. Co., Waterbury, is 
 a native of that city, born Oct. 28, 1865. and is the 
 eldest son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Henderson) 
 Geddes. The remainder of the family consists of 
 Elizabeth, Margaret, John H. and Mary. 
 
 James Geddes attended the public schools _ of 
 Waterbury, and then worked in sundry factories, 
 in 1892 entering the employ of the Scovill Mfg. 
 ■Co. as toolmSker, and there he has since remained. 
 On Nov. 24, 1898, he was married, and has a son, 
 James, Jr. A Republican in politics, our subject 
 was one of the assessors of Waterbury during the 
 years of 1897-98-99. Socially he is a member of 
 Comstock Lodge, No. 13, K. of P. ; of Townsend 
 Lodge, No. 89, L O. O. F. ; and is a charter mem- 
 ber of Winona Lodge, No. 8, Order of Rebekah. 
 The record of Lieut. Col. Geddes' military career is 
 as follows : P|rivate Company A, 2d Regiment 
 National Guard, June 6, 1887 ; corporal, April 3, 
 1889; sergeant, March 16, 1891 ; second lieutenant, 
 Nov. 23, 1891 ; first lieutenant, Jan. 2, 1893; cap- 
 tain, March 15, 1893; major, Dec. 5, 1899; lieu- 
 tenant colonel, Jan. 10, 1901. 
 
 SAMUEL AUGUSTUS HALE, a prominent 
 agriculturist of Cheshire, was born in Scipio,. N. 
 Y., March 30, 1862, but is a representative of an 
 lionored pioneer family of Cheshire. His great- 
 grandfather, Ebenezer Hale, was a native of this 
 county, and a very prominent early settler of Mix- 
 ville, where he followed farming throughout life. 
 The grandfather, Ebenezer Hale, Jr., was born in 
 Mixville, in 1793, and for a cjuarter of a century 
 made his home in Cheshire, in the meantime learn- 
 ing the trade of tanner and currier in Wolcott, New 
 Haven county. At the age of tweniy-five years 
 he went to Wolcott, N. Y., where he worked at 
 his trade for a time, and then removed to Scipio, 
 that State. In New York he married Miss Maria 
 Johnson, a native of Chenango county, who died in 
 1888, at the advanced age of ninety years. He died 
 in Scipio in i860. Of their eight children, only 
 four reached years of maturity, namely: Titus 
 Johnson, a resident of Auburn, N. Y., and the only 
 one of thei family now living; Lucius, father of 
 Samuel A. ; Thomas ; and Mary Augusta. 
 
 Lucius Hale was born in Scipio. N. Y., April 
 9, 1824, and there he was reared and educated. 
 Throughout his active business life he followed the 
 
 occupation of a farmer, while making his home in 
 Chenango county. He wedded Miss Mary Bush, 
 also a native of New York, and both died in Che- 
 nango county, the former in 1882, the latter in 1891. 
 To them were born three children : Rosabelle, who 
 died at the age of ten years ; Samuel A. ; and one 
 who died in infancy. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth Samuel A. Hale 
 pursued his studies in the schools of Cayuga and 
 Chenango counties, N. Y., and upon the home farm 
 acquired an excellent knowledge of agricultural 
 pursuits, which he has followed as a life work. 
 Coming to Cheshire, New Haven county, in 1893, 
 he purchased the Hotchkiss farm, upon which was 
 then standing an historic apple tree, the age of 
 which was variously estimated from 200 to 250 
 years, but it has recently been blown down. 
 
 On Oct. 13, 1886, in Chenango county, N. Y., 
 Mr. Hale was united in marriage with Miss Mary 
 Shoales, a native of Syracuse, N. Y., and an adopted 
 daughter of Trowbridge Shoales. Her father, 
 James Morgan, was a soldier of the Civil war from 
 New York. By this union have been born four 
 children, namely: Lucius Johnson, Alta Maria, 
 Adaline Ruth arid Eben Augustus. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hale are members of the Congregational Church 
 of Cheshire Centre, and both are held in high re- 
 gard by all who know them. 
 
 WILLIAM S. RANDALL, M. D., though a 
 comparatively young man, has by loyal devotion to 
 the practice of his profession placed himself among 
 the foremost physicians in the field of his labor in 
 this part of Connecticut. 
 
 Born in Brookfield, this State, Aug. 5, 1861, a 
 son of the late Charles W. and Elizabeth (Ruggles) 
 Randall, the former a successful business man of 
 Shelton and Derby, he at an early age went to re- 
 side in Southbury, and afterward in Huntington. 
 He received his preparatory education in the public 
 schools of that town and those of Derby, Conn., and 
 then began a course of instruction at Yale College, 
 graduating from the Scientific Department of that 
 university in the class of 1883. Immediately there- 
 after he entered the Medical School connected with 
 that institution, where he pursued the study of med- 
 icine for a period of one year. He completed his 
 professional course in the College of Physicians 
 and Surgeons, Columbia College, N. Y., graduating 
 therefrom in 1885. Soon after, having been ap- 
 pointed on the staff of physicians at the New Haven 
 Hospital, he held the position of house physician 
 and surgeon therein from December, 1885, to No- 
 vember, 1886. Thus fully ecpiipped, with his scien- 
 tific and medical training at the colleges supple- 
 mented by practical experience in hospital service, 
 he located in Derby, in 1886, and began the practice 
 of his profession, which he has steadily increased 
 until it extends over a large field, including the 
 cities of Derby and rtusonia, the town of Hunting- 
 ton and neighboring localities. During- the earlier 
 
>^;^^g.^AZ^. ^v^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1197 
 
 years of his professional career he resided in Derby, 
 but in 1 89 1 he purchased the Ruggles homestead in 
 Shelton and took up his residence in tliat borough. 
 He has since maintained two offices, the one in 
 Derby, the other in Slielton, being prominently 
 identified with both municipalities. He is a mem- 
 ber of the Fairfield County Medical Society, the 
 Connecticut State Medical Society and the Ameri- 
 can Medical Association. The marked professional 
 success and high social position which Dr. Randall 
 has attained come only to one who, possessed of 
 good natural ability, supplemented by excellent 
 preparatory training, pursues his life work with 
 unselfish and indefatigable devotion. Though now 
 reaping the harvest of years oi patient toil and 
 study, he is not content to rest on present acquisi- 
 tions, but is ever on the alert to bring into his serv- 
 ice the most approved methods and the latest con- 
 tributions of science to the theory and practice of 
 medicine. While having thus gained an enviable 
 reputation as a skillful physician and surgeon in 
 the field of general practice, he has been remarkably 
 successful in the treatment of diseases of the nose, 
 throat and ear, having been connected as an assist- 
 ant with the Manhattan Eye and Ear Infirmary of 
 New York City. Many insurance companies and 
 organizations have cnosen him as medical examiner, 
 thus testifying to their confidence in him both as a 
 physician and a man of integrity. 
 
 Though not a politician, in the sense of an 
 oflfice-seeker, Doctor Randall's political friends have 
 wisely recognized in him a strong leader, and when- 
 ever nominated to any office — ^as a candidate of the 
 Democratic party, with which he has been identi- 
 fied — he has received the hearty support of his fel- 
 low citizens, drawing to himself more than the 
 party vote. Among local incumbencies which he 
 has filled are those of chairman of the committee of 
 the Ferry school district, which he held for a period 
 of two years, and health officer of the town of 
 Huntington, a position which he has held contin- 
 uously since 1893. He is an active member of the 
 New Haven County Public Health Association, and 
 takes a deep interest in all matters relating to the 
 public health, especially those of a sanitary nature. 
 In 1892 he was elected to the General Assembly as 
 representative from the town of Huntington, de- 
 feating in his campaign for that office the Hon. 
 Allan W. Paige, the Republican candidate, and at 
 the time Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
 While in the Legislature Dr. Randall was a mem- 
 ber of the School Fund committee, also clerk of the 
 committee on Public Health. Only his loyalty to 
 his chosen profession has prevented him from ap- 
 pearing more conspicuously in positions of trust 
 and responsibility in the administration of public 
 affairs. Among the laws whicn are largely attrib- 
 utable to his legislative work are the Medical Prac- 
 tice Act, and an act concerning county and town 
 health officers, for which his professional brethren 
 will do him grateful Honor. 
 
 Dr. Randall is a member of King Hiram Lodge 
 and of many of the higher Masonic bodies, includ- 
 ing Hamilton Commandery, Knights Templar, and 
 Pyramid Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine. Yet 
 with all his varied interests ;in the business world, 
 and in active practice, he still finds time for the cul- 
 tivation of the higher educational and religious life 
 of the community, being a director of the Plumb 
 Memorial Library, and a cheerful supporter of the 
 Church of the Good Shepherd. 
 
 Dr. Randall was married, Sept. 7, 1887, to Miss ■ 
 Hattie L. Beers, a charming lady, of culture and 
 refinement, daughter of the late Daniel G. Beers, 
 of Brookfield, Conn., and two bright children give 
 the joy of childhood to their pleasant home: Har- 
 old Beers Randall, born March 12, 1889; and Helen 
 Starr Randall, born Dec. 30, 1892. 
 
 JOHN D. FRENEY, M. D., one of the best ap- 
 pointed and most thoroughly equipped representa- 
 tives of the medical profession in Waterbury, was 
 born in thatvcity Oct. 29, 1870. His father, James- 
 Freney, was born in Greenfield, Mass., in 1842,. 
 and died in 1877. James Freney, his grandfather,, 
 was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, emigrated 
 to this country, and engaged in farming near Green- 
 field, Mass. He died m that State. 
 
 James Freney, the Doctor's father, was a con- 
 ductor on a railroad in his earlier life, and later" 
 engaged as a grocer in Waterbury. He married 
 Mary Allman, who was born in County Kerry, Ire- 
 land, and is still living. They were the parents of^ 
 four children: Thomas, James, John D. and Cath- 
 erine. Thomas is an architect in Waterbury. James 
 is a clerk in a store in Hartford. Catherine is un-- 
 married. James Freney was a Democrat, and in re- 
 ligion a devout member of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Dr. Freney was reared to manhood in Water- 
 bury, and obtained his education in the local schools. 
 Graduating from the city high school at fifteen, he ■ 
 completed his literary education in Niagara Uni- 
 versity, from which he was graduated in 1890. He- 
 attended Long Island Hospital College, New York 
 City, and was graduated there in 1893. He se- 
 lected the city of Waterbury as the most fitting place ■ 
 for his professional career, and in the year of his 
 graduation commenced his practice there. As an- 
 all-round and well prepared physician, adapted to- 
 his work not only by special study and thorough 
 preparation, but by natural inclination and high 
 moral standards. Dr. Freney has won a very en- 
 viable position during the last eight years. He 
 makes a specialty of diseases of the nose, throat and' 
 ear, and is attaining eminence in this line. He is an 
 assistant surgeon at the Metropolitan Throat Hos- 
 pital, New York City, and also at Bellevue Dis- 
 pensary, nose and throat department, being a week- 
 ly attendant at both institutions. Politically the 
 Doctor is a Democrat. Dr. Freney is quite active 
 in fraternarcircles, being a member of the Knights 
 of Columbus, Foresters of America, Modern Wood- 
 
I If 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 men, and the Acme and Union Clubs, of Water- 
 bury; he is a charter member of the last named 
 organization. In the various city, county and State 
 medical societies he is a prominent figure and takes 
 an active part in their work. Dr. Freney is a Cath- 
 olic, a member of the Immaculate Conception 
 Parish. For four years he was a member of the 
 board of education, and for three months was act- 
 ing superintendent of schools. His interest in the 
 cause of education is pronounced, and his work for 
 the improvement of the public schools decidedly 
 helpful. 
 
 CORNELIUS GRANGER has an assured po- 
 sition in Warterbury, where he is widely known as 
 an expert machinist, and where his services are in 
 much demand, for he is regarded as a trustworthy 
 and reliable man, painstaking and watchful of the 
 interests of his employers. 
 
 Mr. Granger was born in Birmingham, Eng- 
 land, July 17, 1862. William Granger, his father, 
 was born in London, England, where his father 
 was, a shoe merchant. The latter died in London 
 when Cornelius was a small boy. William Granger 
 is now a commission merchant in New Haven, 
 Conn., buying fruit in the city of Ntiw York in 
 large quantities, and disposing of it to local dealers. 
 He married Mary Oakes, who was born in Bir- 
 mingham, England, and is still living. Her father 
 never came to this country, and died in England. 
 William Granger and his wife lived for some years 
 in England, where some of their children were born, 
 and where he followed his trade of a boltsmith. 
 They have had twelve dhildren : Cornelius (whose 
 name appears at the beginning of this article), John 
 W., George, Samuel, Mary A., Annie, Emma, Clara, 
 Hattie and three who died young. John is super- 
 intendent of the Long Hook & Eye factory in Phil- 
 adelphia. 'George is a machinist and a waterman. 
 Samuel is a farmer in Stratford, Connecticut. 
 
 Cornelius Granger was eleven years old when 
 he came to this country with his parents. He at- 
 tended school at Newark, N. J., where his father 
 had found 'work in a bolt factory, and when his 
 school days had ended went to Birmingham, Conn., 
 and served three and a half years in the Birming- 
 ham Iron Foundry, thoroughly learning the ma- 
 chinist trade. From there Mr. Granger went into 
 a rolling-mill, where he made bolts and similar 
 goods for three and a half years. In 1886 he came 
 to Waterbury, and worked for Blake & Johnson 
 six months, and was then employed by the E. J. 
 i\Ianville Co. three years. Leaving that firm he 
 returned to Blake & Johnson, dnd for ten years 
 ^vas foreman in the machine department. For 
 some time he has been with the Waterbur\' Farrell 
 Foundry & Alachine Co., and at the present time 
 is foreman of their machine department. 
 
 Mr. Granger and Miss Ellen Enright, of Derby, 
 Conn., were married ( )ct. 18, i88t, and to this union 
 have been born two children, Charles and Harold 
 
 J., both of whom are living. Mr. Granger is a 
 Republican, and fraternally he is an active mem- 
 ber of Comstock Lodge, K. of P., and of the A. 0. 
 U. AV. In religion he is a devout adherent of the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 WILLIAM T. DAVIS, who is now successfully 
 eno-aged in the grocery business on Main street, 
 Naugatuck, was born at Mount Sinai, Long Island, 
 N. Y., May 17, 1867, son of George E. Davis, a 
 native of the same place. The grandfather, Isaac 
 Davis, was engaged in farming on Long Island and 
 there 'died. He reared a family of seven children, 
 namely: Lorenzo and Charles, both farmers of 
 Mount Sinai; John, a farmer of Setauket, Long 
 Island; George E., father of our subj€ct; James, a 
 farmer, now deceased ; Mary, who first married 
 Capt. Haven Jones, of Port Jefferson, and second 
 Capt. Woodell, also now deceased ; and Helen, wife 
 of Victor Smith, a farmer of Smithtown, Long 
 Island. 
 
 George E. Davis, our subject's father, was 
 reared upon a farm, but throughout his active busi- 
 ness life he engaged in contracting and building. 
 He is now living retired. He married OpheUa 
 Tooker, also a native of Mount Sinai, and' a daugh- 
 ter of Brewster Tooker, who was a farmer by oc- 
 cupation, and a representative of one of the old 
 Long Island families. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have 
 four sons : Edwin, a carpenter of Miller's Place, 
 Long Island; Charles, who is a mem'ber of the 
 Grant Grocery Co., of Naugatuck; William T., our 
 suhject; and Mark, who is clerking in a grocery 
 store on Long Island. The parents are both faith- 
 ful members of the Congregational Church. The 
 father is a supporter of the Democratic party, and 
 has been honored with many town offices. 
 
 William T. Davis spent the first sixteen years 
 of his life in Mount Sinai, and acquired his literary 
 education in its public schools. On leaving home 
 he went to Port Jefferson, N. Y., where he clerked 
 in a grocery store for one year, and in the fall of 
 1882 came to Naugatuck, where he was similarly 
 employed by J. H. Bilson for six years. Subse- 
 quently he clerked for Barron & Davis about eight 
 years, and for H. H. Schofield one year. In April, 
 i8g8, he emibarked in the grocery business on his 
 own account, and is now enjoj'ing a fine trade. He 
 carries a large and well-selected stock of staple and 
 fancy groceries, and by fair and honorable dealing 
 has secured a liberal share of the public pat- 
 ronage. 
 
 Mr. Davis was united in marriage with Miss 
 Emma Noble, of Naugatuck, a daughter of John 
 Noble, a native of England. She is deceased, as 
 is also their only child, Batena. Mr. Davis was 
 again married, in 1896, his second union being with 
 Aliss Minnie Noble, a sister of his former wife, 
 and by her he has one child, Wilfred. He and his 
 family attend the Congregational Church, and he 
 affiliates with the Democratic party. As a business. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 199 
 
 man and citizen he stands high in the community 
 where lie makes his home, and He has many friends 
 throughout the county. 
 
 PRANK P. CLOUGH, a well-known general 
 farmer and dairyman of Bunker Hill, town of 
 Waterbury, was born in Springfield, Mass., May 
 24, 1862. 
 
 Ira E. Clough, his father, was a native of New 
 Hampshire, born in Landaff, Grafton county, March 
 
 2, 1831, son of Jeremiah and Fanny (Abbot) 
 Clough, also natives' of the okl Granite State. Ira 
 E. Clough attended the common schools of Landaff, 
 and was nineteen years of age when he left his 
 birthplace and moved to Springfield, Mass. For 
 some time he was employed as fireman on the 
 New Haven & Hartford railroad, and as brakeman 
 on the Boston & Albany railroad, during which 
 period he was in several wrecks. Later he worked 
 in the railroad shops at Hartford, and as stationary 
 engineer in the papermills at Windsor Locks for 
 two years. During the early part of the Civil war 
 he was employed in the armory at Springfield, 
 ilass., and on Fe'b. 22, 1864, he enlisted, in Com- 
 pany E, 6th Conn. V. I., under Capt. John P. Cor- 
 nell and Col. Rockwell. He remained in the service 
 until hostilities ceased, being mustered out Aug. 
 2J, 1865, as quartermaster, sergeant. He partici- 
 pated in several engagements, including the battle 
 of Fort Fisher. 
 
 After the war Mr. Clough came to Waterbury, 
 Conn., and was employed as caster by the Water- 
 bury Brass Co. until April, 1879, when he removed 
 to Seymour, Conn., working for the Seymour Brass 
 Manufacturing Co. two years. On disposing of 
 his interests at that place he came to Bunker Hill, 
 Waterbury, and bought the Eli Baldwin farm of 
 100 acres, upon which he made many improvements. 
 There he continued to successfully engage in agri- 
 cultural pursuits until his death, which occurred Jan. 
 
 3, 1894. His reiTiains were interred in Riverside 
 cemetery. Fraternally he was an honored mem- 
 ber of Wadhams Post, G. A. R., of Waterbury; 
 Harmony Lodge, F. & A. M. ; and Eureka Chapter, 
 R. A. M. He was a member of the Waterbury 
 Fire Engine Company seven years. In his polit- 
 ical affiliations he was a Republican. Mr. Clough 
 always manifested a commendable interest in any 
 enterprise calculated to advance the welfare of his 
 town or county, and was therefore numbered among 
 the valued, as well as the highly respected, citizens 
 of his community. On July 19, i860, in Spring- 
 field, Mass., he married Miss Jane Putnam, a na- 
 tive of that place, and a daughter of Horace and 
 Clarinda (Boice) Putnam. Her father died in 
 Springfield in 1899, at the advanced age of ninety 
 years. He was a son of Cyrus Putnam. Mrs. 
 Clough, a lady of marked intelligence and culture, 
 is still Hving on the home farm on Bunker Flill. 
 
 Frank P. Clough, subject proper of these lines, 
 is indebted to the public and high schools of Water- 
 
 bury for his educational advantages. He worked 
 in the brass mills until the family located upon the 
 farm, and then, in partnership with his father, en- 
 gaged in the dairy business. After the latter's 
 death he assumed entire charge of the land, and has 
 met with most gratifying success in its operation. 
 He carries on dairying jjuite extensively, keeping 
 twenty-eight cows for that purpose. Enterprising, 
 progressive and industrious, he will no doubt 
 achieve far greater success in the future. Fra- 
 ternally he is a member of the Odd Fellows Lodge 
 at Waterbury, and Mad River Grange, of Mill 
 Plain. In politics he is independent, and in re- 
 ligious views is liberal. In 1890 Mr. Clough mar- 
 ried Miss Cora, daughter of Almon and Barbara 
 For<bes, of Brooks, Maine, and to them has been 
 born one child, Inez Louise. 
 
 HON. PRANK P. BRETT, clerk of the town 
 of Waterbury, and prominent as an attorney at 
 law, was born in that town Dec. 13, 1869, of Irish 
 descent. 
 
 Patrick Brett, his father, was boin in County 
 Sligo, Ireland, about 1830, a son of a county sur- 
 veyor in that county, who was a landed proprietor, 
 and the father of several children, of whom one 
 was a Fleet surgeon, another a county surveyor, 
 and another a Queen's counsel. Patrick Brett came 
 to America about 1850, and located in Newark, N. 
 J., where he was employed as a bookkeeper until 
 called to Waterbury to take charge of the accounts 
 of the Waterbury Buckle Co. He was an expert 
 accountant and straightened out many sets of hooks 
 in the city. In a short time he became a stock- 
 holder in the Buckle company and was elected its 
 secretary and treasurer, a position he filled until his 
 death, which took place in April, 1871. Mr. Brett 
 married (first) Elizabeth Henry, by whom he had 
 several children. After her death he wedded Eliza- 
 beth Slater, of Massachusetts, a native of Vermont, 
 and a daughter of John Slater, who was born in 
 Ireland. This marriage was blessed with two chil- 
 dren, viz.: William H., who died in 1894; and 
 Frank P., the subject of this sketch. The mother 
 passed away in 1895. 
 
 Frank P. Brett was educated in the local and 
 high schools of Waterbury^ graduating from the 
 latter in 1888. Having determ'ined to enter the 
 legal profession, he read law in the office oT Charles, 
 A. Colley for two years, and then entered Yale 
 Law School, graduating with the class of 1892. 
 He was admitted to practice in June of the same 
 year, and came at once to Waterbury, where he 
 has been very successful, both as a lawyer and poli- 
 tician. A stanch Democrat, as was also his father, 
 he has held a number of offices, among them being 
 a member of the board of school visitors for six 
 years; in 1899 representative in the State Legisla- 
 ture, and in the fall of the same year he was elected 
 clerk of the town of Waterbury, in which office he 
 is still serving. He has never married. Mr. Brett 
 
I200 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 is a member of the Knights of Columbus, the For- 
 esters of America, the Ancient Order of Hibernians 
 and the Connecticut National Guards. An ardent 
 Catholic, he is a member of St. Patrick's Church, 
 and freely contributes to the maintenance of its 
 sodalities. He is popular with men of all parties 
 and creeds through his intrinsic personal merits. 
 John Slater, maternal grandfather of Hon. 
 Frank P. Brett, was born in County Sligo, Ire- 
 land, and about 1832 located in Quebec, Canada, 
 where he was employed as supervisor of public 
 works. At that time, however, there occurred an 
 epidemic of cholera in the country, and Mr. Slater 
 resigned his office and came to the United States. 
 He lived in Vermont for some time, thence moved 
 to western Massachusetts, where he followed farm- 
 ing, and was one of the pioneer Catholics of that 
 section. There was no priest stationed nearer than 
 Boston, but wherever Mr. Slater located some good 
 clergyman would travel on horseback to his house, 
 to say mass to the assembled neighbors of the faith. 
 When Mr. Slater later moved to Amherst he be- 
 came a leader among the Catholics for a radius of 
 fifty miles; and here, also, he would gather the 
 faithful together, and have the priest come to min- 
 ister to them. Mr. Slater reared a family of six 
 daughters and one son. All the daugihters were 
 school teachers; five of them came to Waterbury 
 and taught in the first parochial school under public 
 school management, in Connecticut, remaining a 
 number of years. Mrs. Elizabeth (Slater) Brett, 
 mother of Hon. Frank P. Brett, taught in Newark, 
 N. J., and in Wooster, Mass., and was universally 
 recognized as a lady of unusual accomplishments 
 and rare intelligence. 
 
 JAMiRS REGAN, a trusted employe of the 
 Derby Gas Co. and a prominent alderman of Derby, 
 who is efficiently representing the Second Ward in 
 the city council, was born in County Limerick, 
 Ireland, June 16, 1864, a son of David and Ellen 
 (Carroll) Regan, both natives of County Tipperary, 
 who are still living in Ireland engaged in farming. 
 As a fKDlitician the father took quite an active part 
 in the land troubles of that country. Our subject's 
 paternal grandfather was David Regan, Sr., who 
 was a carpenter and joiner by trade, and in con- 
 nection with that work he also operated' a sawmill. 
 The maternal grandfather, James Carroll, was a 
 farmer. Our subject is the second in order of birth 
 in a family of eight children, the others being David, 
 who is connected with the electric light company 
 of Ansonia, Conn. ; Margaret, who is, a Sister of 
 Mercy in a convent at Meriden, Conn. ; Honora, 
 wife O'f William O'Brien, of Ireland; Michael, a 
 farmer of that country; John, who died young; 
 Mary, a resident of Ireland; and Kate, wife of 
 Patrick Fitzgerald, of Ireland. 
 
 In his native land James Regan grew to man- 
 hood, and after completing his education in its pub- 
 lic schools he was employed in his uncle's sawmill. 
 
 In 1882 he came to the New World and located in 
 Ansonia, Conn., where he obtained' a position in 
 the brass and copper works of Wallace & Sons, re- 
 maining with them until he entered the employ of 
 the Derby Gas Co., with which he has now been 
 connected for four years. 
 
 Mr. Regan was married, July 11, 1886, to Miss. 
 Julia McCarty, a native of County Kerry, Ireland, 
 and a daug^hter of John McCarty. The children 
 born of this union were Mary, deceased ; Nellie ;. 
 David C. ; John, deceased ; Maggie ; and James E. 
 The parents and children are connecie^ with the 
 Roman Catholic Church, and Mr. Regan is also a 
 member of the Knights of Columbus, Foresters of 
 America, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Hibernian 
 Rifles and the Celtic Literary Association. He is 
 a stanch supporter of the Democratic party and its- 
 principles, and in the fall of 1898 was elected alder- 
 man of Derby from the Second Ward, which office- 
 he is now most creditably and acceptably filling. 
 
 FRANK WILCOX, ex-collector of taxes for 
 the town of Orange, and proprietor of the "Pier'' 
 restaurant, at Savin Rock, was born Sept. 22, 1849,, 
 in Milford, this county. 
 
 Charles H. Wilcox, his father, was born March 
 18, 1823, in Westville, and for a number of years- 
 m early manhood traveled through this section as 
 a tin merchant. Since 1896 he has made his home- 
 in West Haven with our subject. He united with 
 the Masonic Lodge at ^Milford, and was also an 
 active worker in the M. E. Church, where he played, 
 the bas's viol for a number of years. He married 
 Sarah M. Lum, who was born Sept. 16, 1823, in 
 Southbury, and died April 15, 1901. Of their five 
 children, three are yet living, viz. : Charles H., who- 
 resides in Milford; Frank, our subject; and Nathan 
 E., of West Haven. 
 
 Until he reached the age of fifteen our 'subject 
 remained at home. His education was secured in, 
 tne district schools. For a few years he was em- 
 ployed on farms; in his own and neighboring towns. 
 From 1866 to 1869 he served an apprenticeship to- 
 the blacksmith's trade in West Haven, and fol- 
 lowed same for five years. Later he conducted a 
 milk route, and since selling that business he has 
 been interested in different enterprises in West 
 Haven and vicinity. In 1896 he took a lease of 
 Savin Rock Grove, with all its attractions and privi- 
 leges, for a term of three years. In 1899 he pur- 
 chased the Skeele's Restaurant and dwelling house- 
 and the long pier with its established reputation as 
 a pleasure seekers' resort, and the business bids fair 
 to increase under his management. The restaurant 
 is situated at the foot of Summer street. Mr. Wil- 
 cox has two houses, rooming about twenty-five 
 guests. He makes a specialty of "shore dinners," 
 which are highly praised and have aWracted manv 
 patrons. 
 
 On June 7, 1876, Mr. Wilcox married Fannie 
 M. Bishop, and they have one daughter, Ora Lee,. 
 
J/uO^wl^, LXJjJlUriL 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I20I 
 
 born Feb. 7, 1881. Mrs. Wilcox was born Oct. 23, 
 1845, in Birming-ham. She was the daughter of 
 Sherlock H. Bishop, of North Haven, who resided 
 for some years in New Haven and Birmingham, 
 and died in West Haven at the age of eighty-three. 
 ay his second wife, Mary J. (Domkee), he had 
 four children, as follows : Mary Iv., wife of Ed- 
 ward W. Russell, of Orange, Conn. ; Fannie M. ; 
 Lee B., of West Haven ; and Yale D., who also re- 
 sides in West Haven. 
 
 Mr. Wilcox is popular among his fellow towns- 
 men, and has been frequently elected to office on the 
 Democratic ticket. For three years, he served as 
 grand juror in the town of Orange; he was elected 
 tax collector of the borough in 1894, and re-elected 
 in 1895 ; and was elected collector of the borough 
 and town in 1897 and 1898. In 1899 h^ served as 
 justice of the peace in addition to his other public 
 offices. In March, 1874, he united with Annawan 
 Lodge, No. 115, F. & A. M., of which he was mas- 
 ter in 1896, and he 'has been an active worker in 
 the fraternity, holding all the offices at different 
 times. He joined Pulaski Chapter in New Haven ; 
 was a charter member of Joseph Andrew Chapter, 
 No. 46, R. A. M., and was its first king; was 
 knighted in 1897 in New Haven Commandery, K. 
 T., in which he held the office of standard bearer 
 in 1898; is a member of LaFayette Consistory, and 
 Pyramid Temple, Order of the Mystic Shrine, at 
 Bridgeport. He has attained the thirty-second de- 
 gree, passing through the Scottish Rite. Mr. Wil- 
 cox was a charter member of the I. O. R. M. in 
 New Haven, asd is a member of the Second Com- 
 pany, Governor's Foot Guard, of New Haven. 
 
 NELSON ASA POMEROY, M. D., was born 
 in Suffield, Hartford Co., Conn., Aug. 22, 1868, and 
 is a son of George L. Pomeroy, who was born in 
 Suffield in 1843 and died in 1875. Asa E. Pomeroy, 
 the latter's father, was 'born in 1803 and died in 
 1871. He was also a native of Suffield, where he 
 was a large land owner and a farmer by occupa- 
 tion. Harriet Kent, his wife, born in 1808, died 
 in 1862. They had three children, Charles E., 
 George L. and Louisa. The Doctor's great-great- 
 grandfather was one of the first settlers in Suffield 
 •and one of the company that marched to Lexington 
 at the time of the "Lexington Alarm," in 1775. 
 • George L. Pomeroy lived and died in Suffield, 
 where he followed the occupation of farmer and 
 wholesale dealer in leaf tobacco. He married Mary 
 L. Nelson, who was born in Suffield in 1846, and 
 died in 1885. Horatio K. Nelson, her father, born 
 in Suffield in 1808, died in 1893 ; he was a farmer 
 and a prominent man of affairs, holding many of- 
 fices of trust, and twice representing his town in 
 the State Legislature. He was a lineal descendant 
 of Thomas Nelson, who came to this country from 
 Yorkshire, England, in 1638, with Rev. Ezekiel 
 Rogers' company, and settled in Rowley, Mass. 
 His oldest son, Philip, was a graduate of Harvard 
 
 76 
 
 College in 1654, and a Captain in King Philip's 
 war, 1676. His great-grandson, also named Philip, 
 was born in Rowley in March, 1690, and in 1732 
 moved to Suffield, where, in 1733, he married Sarah, 
 granddaughter of Rev. John Younglove. He was 
 a physician, and the founder of the Nelson family 
 in Suffield. Horatio K. Nelson married Mary 
 Owen, who was born in 1813, and died in 1847, 
 and they had three children, Clinton H., Helen J. 
 and Mary L. To Mr. and Mrs. Pomeroy were 
 born two children. Dr. Nelson A. and Herbert; the 
 latter died young. George L. Pomeroy was a Dem- 
 ocrat. He and his wife belonged to the Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 Dr. Nelson A. Pomeroy spent his boyhood days 
 in Suffield, and attended the common schools and 
 the Connecticut Literary Institution until he was 
 eighteen years of age. In 1886 he came to Water- 
 bury, and for six years was interested in the drug 
 business, the last three years of that period as a 
 member of the firm of Lake & Pomeroy. After the 
 expiration of this time he went to New York to 
 study medicine, and graduated from the College of 
 Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, in 
 the class of 1896. He won an appointment tO' 
 Bellevue Hospital, an3 was house surgeon there 
 for two and a half years, and served in other in- 
 stitutions of the kind till January, 1900, when he^ 
 returned to Waterbury and opened an office for the 
 practice of his profession. Dr. Pomeroy is medical 
 examiner for the New York Mutual Insurance Co. 
 He belongs to Harmony Lodge, No. 10, F. & A. 
 M. He is a mamher of the Bellevue Hospital: 
 Alumni Society, the New York State Medical As- 
 sociation, the Waterbury Medical and the New 
 Haven County Medical Societies. Dr. Pomeroy 
 is a Republican. In religious connection he is. 
 a member of the Baptist Church. 
 
 GEORGE C. BRADLEY, an energetic and 
 successful farmer of East Haven, was born Dec. 
 3, 1862, where he now resides, the house having 
 been built by John Davenport in 1795. J. Chester 
 Bradley, father of George C, was also born in the 
 same house in 1832, as was also his father, Dana 
 Bradley, the son of Edmund Bradley. The father 
 of our subject was one of a family of six chil- 
 dren, the others being Dana ; Lydia, wife of Willet 
 Hemingiway; Jennette, wife of Edward Parmalee, 
 of Syracuse, N- Y. ; Stephen D., who lives on 
 Grand avenue. New Haven ; and Warren, deceased. 
 
 J. Chester Bradley devoted his entire life to ag- 
 ricultural pursuits upon the old homestead, and 
 most efficiently and acceptably served as selectman 
 of East Haven for three terms. He was an ardent 
 Republican in politics, and a faithful member of 
 the Second Congregational Church of Fair Haven. 
 He died very suddenly of heart disease Aug. 9, 
 1888. In early manhood he married Miss Cornelia 
 Dorman, of Hamden, New Haven county, a daugh- 
 ter of George Dorman. She was born in 1836, and 
 
I202 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 died Alarch 22, 1899. She, too, was an earnest and 
 tonsistent member of the Second Congregational 
 Church of Fair Haven, and a most estimable lady. 
 
 George C. Bradley, the only child of J. Chester' 
 and Cornelia (Dorman) Bradley, was educated in 
 private and public schools, and pursued a com- 
 mercial course at the Yale Business Cohege. At 
 the age of twenty years he accepted the position 
 of -bookkeeper for the firm of Peck & Bishop, of 
 'New Haven, and later was employed in the same 
 capacity by the Fair Haven Key Co. — in all about 
 five years. After his father's death he returned 
 home and took charge of the farm, comprising thir- 
 ty acres on Easton and Essex streets, East Haven, 
 and he has since successfully engaged in dairy farm- 
 ing, to which branch of agriculture his father also 
 devoted his attention. Our subject also deals in 
 farm machinery. 
 
 On Jan. 2, 1893, George C. Bradley was united 
 in marriage with Miss Alice Wheeler, of New Ha- 
 ven, a daughter of Parsons and Mary (Chase) 
 Wheeler, of Rochester, N. Y., now deceased. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Bradley are both active memhers of the 
 Second Congregational Church, of Fair Haven, 
 and are quite prominent in social affairs in the 
 community where they reside. In political senti- 
 ment he is a Republican. 
 
 JOSEPH MARTIN, one of the most enterpris- 
 ing and progressive business men of a city noted 
 for enterprise and progress, holds a prominent place 
 in WaterfDury, where he is interested in various un- 
 dertakings involving large labor and giving em- 
 ployment to many men. 
 
 Mr. Martin was born in Hamilton, R. I., Dec. 
 7, 1865, son of Edward Martin, a native of St. 
 John's, Canada, who is now living in Waterbury, 
 where he is engaged as a mason. The grandfather 
 was born in Canada, where he was a farmer all his 
 life. The father came to Rhode Island when he 
 was a young man seventeen years of age ; he had 
 just returned from a whaling voyage of four years. 
 He married Josephine Alcnard, a native of his 
 birthplace, who is still living. ^Ir. Martin learned 
 the mason's trade in Rhode Island, where, he fol- 
 lowed it for a time. They lived fourteen years in 
 Fall River, and there Mr. Martin did a contract- 
 ing business for eight years. For three years they 
 lived in W'illimantic, where Mr. Martin worked at 
 his trade. In 1882 they moved tQ \\'aterburv, in 
 which place he has worked at his trade up to the 
 present time, and is still hale and hearty. Of his 
 eleven children, five are now living: Joseph, Miss 
 Mary, Edmund (a mason), Lora and Fred (a ma- 
 son ) . 
 
 Joseph jNIartin spent his boyhood in various 
 places, and received the principal part of his school- 
 ing in Fall River, Mass. At the age of seventeen 
 he came to AA'aterbury, learned his trade of \\^ 
 Gaffney, and actively followed it until he entered 
 into partnership with James F. Gaffney, in the 
 spring of 1892. The firm, Gaffney & Martin, have 
 
 had from the beginning a flattering business. From 
 fifty to sixty men are employed by them the year 
 around, and on occasion many more. More than 
 half of their work is done out of the city, and the 
 firm is known throughout the State as thoroughly 
 honorable and reliable. 
 
 In August, 1888, Mr. Martin married Miss 
 Exerine Rock, a daughter of Stanish L. Rock, and 
 a native of Canada ; her people were of French ex- 
 traction. Mr. and iMrs. Martin are the parents of 
 five children, Edward, Willfred, George, Irving 
 and Joseph, Jr. 
 
 PORTER L. WOOD, attorney at law, Water- 
 bury, who has been prominently and professionally 
 identified with educational interests, is a native of 
 Pittsfield, Mass., where he was born Feb. 19, 1852. 
 
 Richard A. Wood, father of our subject, was 
 born in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England, Nov. 
 30, 1828. He was the second son of Richard Wood, 
 who was employed in the manufacture of woolen 
 goods, principally broadcloths, in England, and 
 passed all his days there. Richard A. when about 
 sixteen years of age came to the United States, mak- 
 ing his first New World home at Great Barring- 
 ton, Mass., where he had a cousin by the name of 
 Richard Wood. There he followed the woolen busi- 
 ness until 1850, when he removed toi Pittsfield. 
 Until 1856 he was foreman in the woolen mills of 
 Barker Brothers, at West Pittsfield. He then went 
 West, to Illinois, where for three years he fol- 
 lowed farming at Galva. In 185Q he returned to 
 Massachusetts, and in Hinsdale took charge of the 
 woolen mills of Frank Hinsdale until 1863, in Au- 
 gust of which year he went to Waterbury to take 
 charge as superintendent of the Great Brook Man- 
 ufacturing Company's mills, and continued in that 
 position until his death, on Aug. 19, 1867. In 
 politics he was a Republican, and at one time served 
 as an alderman of the First ward in Waterbury. 
 
 In 1851 Richard A. Wood married Mary E. 
 Johnson, a descendant of a well-known New Eng- 
 land Puritan family by the name of Baker, and a 
 daughter of John and Wealthy (Baker) Johnson. 
 Mr. Johnson was an Englishman, and served at the 
 battle of Waterloo as an officer under the "Iron 
 Duke," Wellington. Mrs. Mary E. Wood died 
 June 20, 1876. She was a member of the First 
 Baptist Church of Waterbury, as was her husband 
 also. To Richard A. Wood and his wife were 
 born eight children, as follows: (i) Porter L., our 
 subject; (2) Frederick J., who is engaged in the 
 coal, wood, hay and grain business in Waterbury; 
 (3) Jessie, who died at the age of five vears ; (4) 
 \A'illiam R., a coal dealer in Meriden, Conn.; (5) 
 Mary E. Parker, widow of Charles H. Camp, re- 
 siding in Waterbury; (6) Frank H., who is con- 
 nected with the Standard Oil Co., with residence 
 in Waterbury; (7) Charles H., formerly superin- 
 tendent of the Pope Tool Works, at Hartford, 
 Conn., now of Detroit, Mich.; and (8) Richard, 
 who died in infancy. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1203 
 
 Porter L. Wood, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, received his early education in Waterbury, 
 and was fifteen years old when his father died. 
 Being the eldest of the children he had to com- 
 mence work at that age, his first experience being 
 in the shops of which his father had been super- 
 intendent, where he worked two years. The year 
 following he was employed in the Waterbury post- 
 office, under Dr. J. J. Jacques as postmaster. He 
 then went to Lowville, N. Y., where he attended 
 school at the academy under Prof. A. J. Barrett 
 for two years. His studies were continued at the 
 Connecticut Literary Institute, in Suffield, under 
 the instruction of Prof. E. Benjamin Andrews, and 
 he graduated with the class of 1872, taking first 
 prize in public debates. He entered Brown Uni- 
 versity in the class of 1876, but in the summer of 
 1874, owing to a serious illness, he was obliged 
 to abandon his studies at Brown. Before he had 
 recovered his health sufficiently to return to college 
 his mother died and the charge of the younger 
 members of the family fell upon him. In the fall 
 of 1875 he took up the profession of teaching and 
 for a year taught the Town Plot district school in 
 Waterbury. From 1876 to 1879 he was principal of 
 the schools at Union City, in the town of Nauga- 
 tuck. From there he went to New Milford, where 
 he was principal of the public schools and taught 
 high school. Next he was principal of the schools 
 of the first district in Bristol, Conn., where he also 
 taught high school for three years. Mr. Wood 
 then began the study of law in the office of Judge 
 Robert A. Lowe, Waterbury, remaining there until 
 the fall of 1886, at which time, having been admitted 
 to the Bar, he opened his present law office in 
 that city. 
 
 On Aug. 12, 1879, Mr. Wood married Jennie 
 S. Gridley, a graduate of the New Britain Normal 
 School, class of 1875, who had taught with him 
 for three years at Union City. Miss Gridley was 
 the second daughter of Senator Silas R. Gridley, 
 of Bristol, Conn. Four children were born to Mr. 
 and Mrs. Wood: Lena Emily, Ethel Cynthia and 
 Richard Porter, who are living; and Amy, who 
 died in infancy. The devoted wife, mother and 
 friend was called from earth to heaven Nov. 28, 
 1899. "None knew her but to love her." She was 
 a member of the First Baptist Church, as is also 
 her husband. In politics Mr. Wood is a Republican 
 and has served as memlDer of the board of school 
 visitors. Socially he is identified with the New 
 England Order of Protection, the United Order of 
 the Golden Cross, and the Sons of Temperance. 
 As a lawyer he is engaged in general practice, and 
 is widely known and respected. 
 
 LOUIS De GONZAGUE La BONTE, M. D. 
 (deceased), attained that measure of distinction 
 and success which can be commanded only by in- 
 horn talent, when developed and sustained by scien- 
 tific training, though at the time of his death he was. 
 
 comparatively speaking, only on the threshold of the 
 great humanitarian profession which he had chosen 
 for his life work. He was born Aug. 3, 1870, and, 
 as may be inferred from his name, he was of French 
 descent. Both his father and grandfather were 
 born in the New World, being natives of Canada. 
 The father, Godfrey La Bonte, was a successful 
 merchant, engaged in the sale of boots and shoes 
 in Manchester, N. H., to which city he removed 
 after his marriage. He also conducted a store at 
 Stafford Springs, Conn., and through integrity, ap- 
 plication to business and hard work he achieved 
 moderate success.. He married an American-born 
 girl, of French descent. Miss Elizabeth Metro, of 
 Benson, Vt., but born in New York State. God- 
 fre)' La Bonte died in 1878, his widow Aug. 13, 
 1900. Three children were born to them: Francis, 
 who has received priest's orders in the Catholic 
 church, and is stationed at New Haven, Ind. ; Louis 
 D., our subject; and Mary, who was married Aug. 
 13, 1900,- to Edward Gladieux, of Zulu, Indiana. 
 
 Like his brother Francis, Louis D. La Bonte 
 v/as anxious for a higher education, yet unlike him, 
 he felt no vocation for the priesthood. His boyhood 
 was passed at Stafford Springs, where he attended 
 the parochial schools. From 1884 to 1889 he was 
 a student at the College de L' Assumption, at Mon- 
 treal, Canada, where he took an academic course. 
 After his graduation from the college, in 1889, he 
 accepted an offer of a clerical position in a drug 
 store. However he felt no special fondness for the 
 pursuit, and in 1890 he matriculated at Bellevue 
 Hospital Medical College, New York. After one 
 year spent at that institution he concluded to prose- 
 cute his studies at the College of Physicians and 
 Surgeons, in Baltimore, Md., and completed his 
 four-years' professional course there, receiving his 
 degree in 1894. After graduation he located at 
 Shelton, but very soon removed to Derby, in which 
 city he afterward engaged in active and successful 
 practice. Dr. La Bonte was a man of kindly 
 impulse and genial temperament, popular and re- 
 spected, beloved by his friends, and constantly grew 
 in public favor. His professional standing was of 
 the highest, and his character as a man without re- 
 proach. He was city health officer for four years, 
 a member of the board of education, and surgeon 
 for the Hook and Ladder Company. He was a 
 Democrat in politics, and in religion a devout, prac- 
 tical Catholic. He belonged to various societies, 
 which, recognizing his distinguished professional 
 attainments, made him examiner as to the physical 
 qualifications of applicants for membership. Among 
 these were the A. O. U. W., the Foresters of Amer- 
 ica, the Catholic Benevolent Legion, the Knights of 
 Columbus and the St. Louis French Society. 
 
 On June 12, 1895, Dr. La Bonte was married 
 to Miss Cora I. Goodwin, of Yonkers, N. Y., for- 
 merly of Ansonia, Conn., a daughter of L. P. Good- 
 win, Esq., of Bristol. The Goodwins are an old 
 family, of English stock, well known and univer- 
 
I204 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sally esteemed. Dr. and Mrs. La Bonte became the 
 parents of one child, a daughter, Lucile E. After 
 an ihness of but two weeks Dr. La Bonte entered 
 into rest Oct. 21, 1901. The Daily Nczvs of that 
 date says of him : 
 
 No death in Dsrby except that of Dr. O'SuUivan has 
 called out such universal expressions of grief and sorrow as 
 that of Dr. La Bonte. His bearing in his fatal afiiiction 
 has challenged admiration and inspired faith in the greatness 
 of human nature. During all his painful illness the example 
 □f his patience, his meekness, his fortitude, and above all of 
 the tenderness and sweetness of his domestic relations has 
 moved his many friends to tears. His devoted wife and sor- 
 rowing friends can have but one thouglit to-day, and that is of 
 the cruelty of his taking off, and the loss they have sustained, 
 a loss unmitigable only by the consolation that comes from 
 above. 
 
 GEORGE A. EDWARDS, one of the 'ener- 
 getic and enterprising worlters in Waterbury, to 
 ■whom that city is largely indebted for industrial 
 supremacy, was born in New Preston, Litchfield 
 Co., Conn., Feb. g, i860, son of Jerome S. Ed- 
 wards, a native of the same county. Abel Ed- 
 wards, the grandfather of George A., was born in 
 Fairfield, Conn., and was a shoemaker by trade. 
 The Edwards are an old English family. 
 
 Jerome S. Edwards grew up in New Preston, 
 and was a carriage painter a number of years. For 
 the last thirty-seven years he has lived in Hart- 
 ford county. Conn. He married Louisa M. Holt, 
 who was born in New Preston, daughter of Syl- 
 vester G. Holt, a native of Waterbury. The first 
 few years of their married life were spent in New 
 Preston, where George A. was born. They then 
 moved to Burlington, Hartford county, where their 
 second son, Milton H. was born ; he is at present 
 engaged in the dairy and gardening business. 
 Jerome S. Edwards is a Republican, changing from 
 his original political affiliation, which was with the 
 old Democracy. The family are all associated with 
 the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Geor,ge A. Edwards spent the first twelve years 
 of his life in New Preston, where he received his 
 schooling, and was graduated from the Whittlesey 
 Academy. As a teacher he was engaged about five 
 years in Litchfield county, and then came to Water- 
 bury to serve his apprenticeship at the machinist 
 trade with the Farrel Foundry Co. With that in- 
 stitution he worked some ten years, and was a fore- 
 man in one of their departments for three years. 
 At the expiration of his connection with the Far- 
 rel foundry Mr. Edwards, in company with four 
 other gentlemen, started what is now known as the 
 Waterbury Machine Co., and has been connected 
 therewith to the present time. His astiociates have 
 made him superintendent of the enterprise, which 
 is in a flourishing condition. 
 
 Mr, Edwards and Miss Addie M. Elton were 
 married Oct. 30, 1882, and of the four children born 
 to them Harriet L. and George E. are living ; Leo 
 and Charles S. died in earlv childhood. Mrs. Ed- 
 wards was born Jan. 22, 1862, in ^\''est Burlington, 
 
 Pa., where she lived until she was twelve years of 
 age. Her father, James Elton, then returned- to 
 Burlington, Conn., his native town. 
 
 In national politics Mr. Edwards is a Repub- 
 lican, but he supports the men best qualified for the 
 office in all local affairs 
 
 LIUGH HEARNS, the present efficient' and 
 popular town clerk of Naugatuck, was born in that 
 town April 4, 1867. His paternal grandfather was 
 James Hearns, a native of County Kilkenny, Ire- 
 land, who died in Naugatuck ; his wife, who bore 
 the maiden name of Julia Glendon, died in Bristol, 
 Conn. They had four children : John, the father 
 of our subject; Michael, a laborer, who died in 
 Bristol ; Alary, widow of David Wise and a resident 
 of Bristol ; and one who died young. John Hearns, 
 our subject's father, was born in County Kilkenny, 
 Ireland, is a rubber worker by trade, and makes 
 his home in Naugatuck. When a young man he 
 married Catherine Murray, who was born in Countjr 
 Louth, Ireland, and died in Naugatuck Jan. 17, 
 1899. To them were born eight children : James, 
 a rubber shoe maker of Naugatuck ; Hugh, our sub- 
 ject; Michael, who died young; John M., a rubber 
 shoe worker ; and Catherine, Julia, Mary and Mar- 
 garet, all at home with their father. In politics he 
 is a Democrat. 
 
 Hugh Hearns grew to manhood in Naugatuck, 
 and attended the local schools until fourteen years- 
 of age, when he entered the employ of the Goodyear 
 Metallic Rubber Shoe Co., and remained with them 
 for twelve years. In the fall of 1893 he was elected 
 town clerk, and has since most faithfully and ac- 
 ceptably discharged the duties of that office. In- 
 January, 1895, he was also appointed clerk of the 
 probate court for the district of Naugatuck under 
 Judge Thomas H. Benton, and filled that position 
 in a most satisfactory manner. In fact, he has al- 
 ways been found true to every trust reposed in him, 
 and merits and receives the confidence and respect 
 of the entire community. 
 
 On Sept. 15, 1898, Mr. Hearns was married to 
 Aliss Mary A\'alsh, of Naugatuck, daughter of 
 Michael and Johanna (Burke) Walsh, natives of 
 Ireland. He is a charter member of Division No. 
 2, A. O. H., and was its first treasurer. He is also 
 a member of Ojeda Council, No. 33, K. of C, and' 
 St. Francis Catholic Church, in which he is serving 
 as pew collector at the present time, and is one- 
 of the incorporators of St. Francis Cemetery As- 
 sociation. 
 
 FRED ;\I. SAIITH, one of the prosperous, and 
 well-known citizens of -New Haven, who carries on- 
 a large retail feed business in Congress avenue, is 
 the oldest merchant in his line in that city, where 
 he has led an honorable and successful mercantile 
 career for over a quarter of a century. 
 
 Mr. Smith was born in that city April 9, 1846- 
 Samuel M. Smith, his father, was a native of Mil- 
 
cc^X't.^^/W yQ.x,,..4.jUy'tz^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1205 
 
 ford, Conn., born in 1808, and died in New Haven 
 in 1893. When a young man he came -to New 
 Haven, and conducted a cabinetmaking and under- 
 taking business for a number of years. He was a 
 highly respected citizen, a Republican in politics, 
 and a consiistent member of the Baptist Church. 
 He married Miss Mary Main, of Wellington, Conn., 
 who became the mother of six children : Edward 
 A., S. Miles, Jennie P., Fred M., Dryden P. and 
 Elias M. The three last named are living. 
 
 Fred M. Smith grew up m the city of New 
 'Haven and attended school until he was thirteen 
 years old, when he engaged as clerk for A. J. Beers 
 in a fruit store, remaining there until he was six- 
 teen. He then enlisted for service in the Civil war, 
 in spite of his youth, entering Company I, 27th 
 Conn. V. I., and faithfully served nine months. 
 After he was honorably discharged he returned to 
 New Haven, and later went into business in Hart- 
 ford, where for some years he was engaged on his 
 •own account in contracting. In 1876 he returned to 
 his native city and opened up a retail feed business, 
 locating on Coneress avenue, and since that time 
 lias been one of the leading men in his line in the 
 city. When he first entered the feed business it was 
 as a member of the firm of Allen & Smith, which 
 later became Smith & Fowler, after which Mr. 
 Smith continued alone. Mr. Smith built his home 
 on Howard avenue as well as his business block on 
 Congress avenue. He is a substantial citizen, mod- 
 •est, has fought his own way in the world, and has 
 acquired a comfortable competence and an excel- 
 lent name as a straightforward business man, up- 
 right in his dealings. He is thoroughly progress- 
 ive, and, all in all, a valuable citizen. He enjoys life 
 tiiorougWy, and, being a courteous gentleman, has 
 the unqualified esteem of a large circle of friends. 
 
 Mr. Smith was married Oct. 23, 1883, to Lizzie 
 A. Maltby, of New Haven, a daughter of George 
 Maltby, and three children have been born to this 
 union, of whom two are livling: Percy M., born 
 Oct. 7, 1885 ; and Florence M., born Sept. 5, 1888. 
 In politics Mr. Smith has always upheld the prin- 
 ciples of the Republican party, and has taken a deep 
 interest in its success. However, he has declined 
 to engage actively in politics beyond voting regu- 
 larly and taking an interest in supporting good 
 issues and men. The relligious connection of the 
 family is with the Congregational Church, in which 
 they are highly esteemed. 
 
 MICHAEL J. RYAN, city clerk of Waterbury, 
 Conn., is a native of this city and was born March 
 28, 1874, a son of Michael and Catherine (Moran) 
 Ryan, who were both born in 'County Queens, 
 Ireland, but married in Waterbury. 
 
 Michael Ryan, the father, came to Waterbury 
 about the year i860, and entered the service of 
 Brown & Brothers, now known as the firm of 
 Randolph & Clowes, remaining forty years. In 
 this city be met and married Miss Moran, who. 
 
 although born in Ireland, had been reared in Eng- 
 land, and v/as a daughter of Michael and Ann 
 Moran, and a sister of Thomas Moran, keeper of 
 the almshouse, whose life sketch may be found on 
 nnother page of this volume. Three children came 
 to bless the marriage of Michael Ryan and wife, 
 but two of these, Catherine and Thomas, died 
 young, leaving Michael J., our subject, as the only 
 survivor of the family. The father died in 1900, 
 and the mother passed away Nov. 26, 1897. 
 
 Michael J. Ryan attended the public schools of 
 Waterbury in Ijis boyhood, also the Mattoon Busi- 
 ness College, of the same city. After quitting 
 school he was employed by the White & Wells Co., 
 as stenographer and clerk for about seven years, 
 and then became a reporter for the Evening Dem- 
 ocrat, acting in this capacity for two years. In 
 October, 1899, he was elected on the Democratic 
 ticket as city clerk of Waterbury, taking his office 
 Jan. I, 1900. 
 
 In his societary connections Mr. Ryan is a mem- 
 ber of the Union Club of Waterbury, also of the 
 Concordia Singing Society, and of the Foresters 
 of America. He is a faithful member of the Sacred 
 Heart Catholic Church, and contributes liberally 
 of his means to its support. He is genial in his 
 manners, pleasant in disposition, and has made 
 many warm friends. He is unmarried. 
 
 RICHARD F. CUDDIHY is one of the pros- 
 perous and rising young business men of Derby, in 
 'which city he was born. He comes of strong, sturdy 
 'Irish stock, and throughout his life of forty-four 
 'years has manifested that courage, industry, reso- 
 'luteness of purpose, and fidelity to duty, for which 
 'his race has long been pre-eminently conspicuous. 
 'His father, Michael, was born in County Water- 
 ford, Ireland., where his ancestors, for many genera- 
 tions, lived and died. His mother, before marriage, 
 'was Hannah Gallagher, and both parents came to 
 'America in 1847. Michael Cuddihy was a skill- 
 'ful machinist, and settled first in Boston. From 
 that city he removed, first to Lowell, Mass., and 
 afterward (in 1853) to Derby, Conn., following 
 his trade at all three points, until he gave up active 
 toil to enjoy the rest earned by a well spent, useful 
 life. He and his wife, both of whom are still liv- 
 ing, have been the parents of eleven children, of 
 'whom six have died. Those who survive are Rich- 
 'ard F., Anna, Mary, John and Agnes. Anna has 
 remained single; Mary became the wife of W. A. 
 Dibbell, who was born in West Brook, Conn., but 
 ■afterward moved to Brooklyn, N. Y. ; John is em- 
 ployed in Derby ; and Agnes, the youngest, married 
 James Funis, of Ansonia, Connecticut. 
 
 At the age of fourteen Richard F. Cuddihy's 
 school days ended, and during the next three years 
 he worked in various shops in Ansonia and Derby. 
 'When he was seventeen years oU he followed the 
 'advice of Horace Greeley to "go West;" but not 
 'meeting with the success which he had anticipated 
 
I206 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in that section, after seven }'ears he returned to 
 'Connecticut, and for the three years following found 
 'desultory employment in Der'by and Ansonia. His 
 next situation, which was more permanent in dura- 
 tion, and its character really moulded the whole 
 future course of his life. This was in the bakery 
 of J. H. Wise, of Der'by, in whose employ he 
 'remained for three years and eight months. He 
 ^vas industrious, temperate and economical, and al- 
 'though his earnings were small he found himself, 
 in 1892, possessed of sufihcient capital to enable him 
 to embark in modest business of his own as a dealer 
 in confectioner}' and school supplies. It was not 
 long before he opened a grocery, which he still 
 'conducts, at the corner of Anson and Sixth streets. 
 'Under his personal supervision the business has 
 'greatly flourished. His enterprise and integrity 
 have built up a remunerative trade, and his repu- 
 'tation in business circles is such that for several 
 years he has been the treasurer of the Retail Mer- 
 chants' Association. His career is an interesting 
 and instructive one. Born on July 9, 1856, he is 
 yet in the prime of life, and enjoys the gratifying 
 reflection that the success which he has achieved 
 he owes to no adventitious aid. He is a Democrat 
 in politics ; and in religious connection both he and 
 his family are earnest members of St. Mary's Cath- 
 olic Church. In the community at large he is both 
 popular'and respected. He is a member of Court 
 'Housatonic, of the Foresters of America, the 
 Knights of the ^Maccabees, and the A. O. U. W. 
 
 On April 22, 1889, Mr. Cuddihy was united in 
 marriage to Miss Margaret Fanning, of Derby, 
 whose father, Alichael Fanning, was a native of 
 Ireland. Two children — Edward and Alice — have 
 blessed their union. 
 
 ALFRED G. NADLER, M. D. The medical 
 profession is well represented in the city of New 
 Haven, some of the most skillful and successful 
 practitioners of the State having residence in this 
 intellectual center, and among those who have won 
 the esteem of the communitv, in late years, is Dr. 
 Alfred G. Nadler. 
 
 Dr. Nadler is a native of New Haven, born Nov. 
 ig, 1873, a son of Isaac H. and Lena (Goldstein) 
 Nadler, the former a native of Tacha, Bohemia, 
 the latter of VVilhelmsdorf, Bavaria, although they 
 were married in New York City. Mr. Nadler died 
 in New Haven in July, 189 J. When a young man 
 he had come to New York, and during the progress 
 of the Civil war he was engaged in the mercantile 
 business in Columbus, Ga., and conducted a cloth- 
 ing store after removal to New Haven. Mrs. Nad- 
 ler is still surviving, as are also seven of her fam- 
 ily of twelve children, our subject being the young- 
 est. The others are : Hugo, a citizen of New Ha- 
 ven ; Rachel ; Julia and Molly, teachers in New Ha- 
 ven ; Dora, a bookkeeper in New Haven ; and Han- 
 nah, now Mrs. Nathan C. Myers, of New Haven. 
 
 Dr. Alfred G. Nadler spent his boyhood days 
 in his native city, was an apt pupil in the public 
 
 schools, and a graduate of the academic department 
 of Yale as early as 1893, and three years later was 
 a graduate from the Yale Medical school, having, 
 with most commendable energy, worked his way 
 through school. The succeeding year and one- 
 half was occupied in gaining valuable experience 
 in the New Haven Hospital, but since November, 
 1897, he has been actively engaged in practice, and 
 has a large and increasing territory to cover, his 
 thorough knowledge and pleasing personality mak- 
 ing him deservedly successful. 
 
 Although his father was a Democrat in his po- 
 litical belief, Dr. Nadler has become a stanch Re- 
 publican. Socially he is connected with Quinnipiac 
 Lodge, No. I, I. O. O. F., as was also his father,and 
 the Doctor is also a member of the I. O. H. ; the 
 Woodmen of the World ; and Horeb Lodge, I. O. 
 B. B., being medical examiner for all these orders. 
 During his college life he became identified with 
 the D. E. I. Greek letter fraternity, and since be- 
 ginning practice has become associated with many 
 medical societies. Not only is he a valued mem- 
 ber of the New Haven County Afcdical Associa- 
 tion, but also of the City [Medical Association, of 
 which he is secretary and treasurer, and is one of 
 the medical inspectors of the schools, and he is as- 
 sistant in the pathological laboratory of the Aled- 
 ical Department of Yale L^niversity. Aside from 
 his professional work, Dr. Nadler has taken a great 
 interest in the progress of the affairs of the city,, 
 and has served in the city council from the Sixth 
 ward. In his religious belief he follows the faith 
 of his parents and belongs to the Jewish Church. 
 Dr. Nadler represents some of the most modern 
 and progressive circles of his profession, and has 
 been so successful that his friends do not hesitate 
 to predict for him a very conspicuous place in his 
 chosen work. 
 
 ADOLPH A. ZWIEBEL, one of the wealthier 
 men of Waterbury, and the proprietor of a very 
 popular summer resort near the citv limits, was 
 born in Alunich, Bavaria, Aug. 27, 1872, a son of 
 Joseph W. Zwiebel, who was born in Taffheim, 
 Bavaria. In Augsburg Joseph W. learned the ma- 
 chinist trade, and followed it for some years, and 
 in 1881 came to Torrington, Conn. Two years 
 later he moved to Waterbury, where he has fol- 
 lowed his trade until late years. In 1893 he bought 
 in company with his son Adolph A. a summer resort 
 of thirty-five acres near the city limits, in the north- 
 ern part of Waterbury, an 'investment which has 
 proved vastly remunerative. Joseph W. Zwiebel 
 married Miss Kreszenz Dirr, a native of Munich, 
 and to them were born seven children, four of 
 whom are now dead. Those living are Adolph A., 
 Kreszenz and Otto, all of whom are unmarried. 
 
 Adolph A. Zwiebel spent his youth in the old Ba- 
 varian home until he reached the age of nme years, 
 when he was brought by his parents to Torring- 
 ton, where he attended the public school and studied 
 music. Wh.n the family moved to Waterbury in 
 
:OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1207 
 
 1883 young Adolph came along and continued his 
 studies in the public school until he was old enough 
 to take a place in the Plume & Atwood factory as a 
 plater. This position he held for two years, and 
 then resumed his musical studies under the direc- 
 tion of Prof. Juhus Baier, and for three years was 
 under the instruction of that excellent teacher. For 
 about two years the young man was a clerk in the 
 drug store of R. C. Partree, and then with his fa- 
 ther he entered upon his present business, which 
 has grown beyond their utmost expectations. They 
 conduct the "Belleview Lake Grove," a summer re- 
 sort, on a beautiful lake, and -fitted up with all 
 kinds of amusements. He is a Democrat, and in 
 i8gg was nominated for alderman, but lost the elec- 
 tion by a small vote. Mr. Zwiebel is a member of 
 the Concordia Singing Society, and Turn Verein 
 Vorwaerts, and is much interested in musical 
 matters. 
 
 CHARLES L. CARLSON. No foreign ele- 
 ment has become a more important part of Ameri- 
 can citizenship than that furnished by Sweden. 
 The emigrants from that land have brought with 
 them to the New World the stability, enterprise 
 and perseverance characteristic of their people, and 
 have fused these qualities with the progressiveness 
 and indomitable spirit of the West. 
 
 Mr. Carlson, now a prominent citizen of Nauga- 
 tuck, is a worthy representative of this class. He 
 was born in Stockholm, Sweden, March 14, 1866, 
 the only child of Carl E. and Sophia (Anderson) 
 Carlson, who spent their entire lives in that coun- 
 try, the former dying about 1873, the latter in 1881. 
 They were engaged in the hotel business. Our sub- 
 ject was reared in his native land and there pre- 
 pared for college, obtaining a good practical educa- 
 tion. After leaving school he learned the trade of 
 house painting, completing his apprenticeship at 
 Naugatuck, after his emigration to America, in 
 1882. In November, 1882, he went to Chicago, III, 
 where he spent six months, and later was engaged 
 in farming at Marengo, 111., for four years, and also 
 near Minneapolis, Minn., for one season. Return- 
 ing to Naugatuck in 1886, he entered the employ 
 of the Naugatuck Malleable Iron Co., and was with 
 them for two years, after which he worked four 
 years for Luther Baldwin, a painter. Since then he 
 has been in the employ of the Goodyear Metallic 
 Rubber Co. 
 
 On May 6, 1887, Mr. Carlson was united in 
 marriage with Miss Christina Anderson, a native of 
 southern Sweden, and to them has been born one 
 child, Edith Hildur. They have a beautiful home 
 on Salem street, erected by our subject in 1893. 
 
 Mr. Carlson is a recognized leader of the Re- 
 publican party in his community, and has been three 
 3'ears president of the Swedish-American Republi- 
 can Club, which he organized. He is an untiring 
 worker in the interests of his party, and has done 
 much to insure its success in Naugatuck. He has 
 
 efficiently served as selectman of that town for two 
 years, on the town committee for four years, and 
 was recently appointed deputy sheriff of the county, 
 which honor he declined. Religiously he is a mem- 
 ber of the Swedish Lutheran Church of Naugatuck, 
 and socially he is connected with the Ancient Order 
 of United Workmen. 
 
 FREDERICK L. FABER, a well-known caster 
 in the employ of the Scovill Manufacturing Co., 
 of Waterbury, was born on Bucks Hill, that town, 
 Feb._ 20, 1862, son of George Faber, one of the 
 hading citizens of Waterbury. 
 
 Our subject was educated in the district schools 
 of Bucks Hill and the Waterburv high school, and 
 ■ on laying aside his text-books entered the employ 
 of Brown Brothers, manufacturers of Waterbury, 
 where he learned the trade of a caster, remaining 
 with them fifteen years. He was next in the em- 
 ploy of the Shelton Co., and was with the Osborne 
 Cheeseman Co. as caster and contractor for a time. 
 Going to New York, he was a contractor for the 
 Manhattan Brass Co. two years, but at the end of 
 that time returned to Waterbury, and entered the 
 employ of the Benedict & Burnham Alanufacturing 
 Co. as tube caster, remaining with them nine years. 
 While there he was the first person in the United 
 States to cast a solid brass tube. Since 1897 he 
 has been employed as caster by the Scovill Man- 
 ufacturing Co., and has the entire confidence and 
 respect of his employers. 
 
 At Port Chester, N. Y., Mr. Faber was united 
 in marriage with Miss Emma S. Robe, also a na- 
 tive of Waterbury, and a daughter of Alonzo and 
 Harriet (Limburner) Robe, the latter a sister of 
 Robert Limburner, a prominent citizen of Oxford, 
 Conn. Mrs. Faber's father was a carpenter of 
 Waterbury and the first policeman of that place ; 
 his death occurred there. Our subject and his wife 
 have a family of six children : Isabelle, a beautiful 
 and well-educated young lady; Harriet (Hattie), 
 who is attending school ; Frederick G. ; John ; Anna ; 
 and Clifford. The family reside on the old Piatt 
 farm on Bucks Hill, where they have a pleasant 
 home — the abode of hospitality. 
 
 Mr. Faber is independent in politics, especially 
 at local elections, but usually votes the Democratic 
 ticket in National affairs. Fraternally he is a mem- 
 ber of Harmony Lodge, F. & A. M., of Waterbury* 
 and religiously he and his family are members of 
 the Episcopal Church. 
 
 W. FI. RICHMOND, proprietor of a flourish- 
 ing harness business in Waterbury, is a native of 
 Connecticut, born Nov. 29, i860, in Thompsonville, 
 Hartford county. 
 
 James Richmond, grandfather of our subject, 
 was torn and married in Scotland, coming thence 
 to this country. Fie had a family of eight children, 
 viz.: William L., sketch of whom follows; Archi- 
 bald M. is yet living (his sons are in the real-estate 
 
I208 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and button-making business in New Yorl< City and 
 Hioboken, X. J.) ; Alexander is a machinist at In- 
 dian Orchard ; John Hves in Hartford, Conn. ; Alary 
 is the wife of Joseph Thompson, of New Britain, 
 Conn. ; three are deceased. 
 
 Wilham L. Richmond, father of our subject, 
 was born in Simsbury, Conn., Aug. 20, 1834, and 
 died March 23, 1899, in East Hampton, IVIass., 
 where for twenty-five years he was in the harness 
 business. He married Elizabeth Chalmers, a native 
 of Scotland, and two children were born to them : 
 William H., a sketch of whom follows ; and George 
 C, who is a Congregational minister at Somerville, 
 Conn. Their mother is yet living. 
 
 William H. Richmond received his education at 
 the schools of Thompsonville, Conn., and East 
 Hampton and Springfield, Mass. At the age of sev- 
 €nteen years he commenced learning the harness 
 business with his father at East Hampton, and at 
 the end of six years, on Feb. 11, 1884, he came to 
 Waterbury, and' worked for J. G. Cutler seven years. 
 During the succeeding eight years he was in part- 
 nership with Mr. Cutler, and, March 16, 1899, he 
 bought out Eugene Martin's harness establishment 
 at No. 67 East Alain street, Waterbury, where he 
 has since continued, doing a good business, and 
 employing four men. 
 
 On Nov. 9, 1887, Mr. Richmond was united in 
 marriage with Florine Purple, who was born in 
 Gill, Afass., a daughter of Proctor P. Purple, of the 
 same place. They have no children. In his political 
 preferences our subject is independent, always 
 using his unbiased judgment when casting his 
 ballol. 
 
 IRVING N. AA'ELTON was born at Bunker 
 Hill, near the citv of Waterbury, Sept. 28, 1868, a 
 son of Herschel Welton and Julia (Pritchard) Wel- 
 ton. [See sketch of Frank P. Welton elsewhere in 
 this volume]. Herschel Welton was a caster, and 
 worked in the brass foundry at Waterbury. He 
 was connected with the Brown Alanufacturing Co. 
 and the Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Co., at 
 Thomaston, Conn., and was employed in Benedict 
 & Burnham's Alanufacturing Co. in Waterbury. 
 Mrs. Julia (Pritchard) Welton was the daughter 
 of Leonard Pritchard, a button manufacturer in 
 Waterbury ; she was the mother of six children : 
 Frank P., cashier in Benedict & Burnham's Manu- 
 facturing Co. in Waterbury; Eunice E., unmar- 
 ried ; Irving N. ; Alary F., wife of Robert Somers, 
 of Waterbury; Charles, a caster in the brass busi- 
 ness ; and an infant. 
 
 Irving N. W^elton passed his boyhood days in 
 his country home, and attended district school, pre- 
 paring himself for a busy life. He was trained in 
 the caster's trade by his father, learning this work 
 at the factory of the Benedict & Burnham Manu- 
 facturing Co., and has been with that firm ahout 
 fifteen years. He is a capahle and reliable working- 
 man, and has a thorough mastery of his trade. 
 
 On June 4, 1890, Irving N. Welton married 
 Aliss Mary Sperry, a daughter of Henry T. Sperry, 
 of Waterbury, where she was born. To this union 
 were born three children : Marie A., A^adeline E. 
 and Louise A., all of whom are living. Mr. Wel- 
 ton is a Republican, and fraternally belongs to Con- 
 tinental Lodge, No. '76, F. & A. M. In church 
 afllairs he and his family belong to the Trinity 
 Episcopal Church. 
 
 GEORGE JUDSON SMITH, a prominent 
 business man of Alilford, was born in that town 
 Feb. 23, 1863, and is a descendant of several of the 
 pioneer famihes of the locahty. Among his an- 
 cestors may be mentioned Rev. Peter Prudden (first 
 pastor of the First Church), Deacon Richard Piatt, 
 Widow Martha Beard, Joseph Judson (who was 
 killed in King Philip's war in 1690), and others. 
 The family originated in England, and the first of 
 the name to come to the New World was George 
 
 .Smith, who settled in New Haven lin 1638. Sub- 
 sequently the family removed to Milford, and Dea- 
 con John Smith, a great-grandson of George Smith, 
 the emigrant, married Mary Beard, the great- 
 granddaughter of Widow Martha Beard. At the 
 time of the settlement of Alilford, in 1639, Widow 
 Alartha Beard, whose husband had died on the 
 passage from England, was granted an equal por- 
 tion of land with the other settlers, and the land on 
 which her house was built has been handed down in 
 direct line of inheritance to our subject, who occu- 
 pies ithe third house which has been erected on that 
 site. With the marriage of Alary Beard and Dea- 
 con John Smith the name of the line changed from 
 Beard to Smith. 
 
 Thaddeus Smith, a great-grandson of Deacon 
 John Smith, was born at the homestead, Oct. 5, 
 1816, and was one of twelve children. To his en- 
 terprise is due the present house on the place, which 
 he built for his home. He lived in it fifty-seven 
 years, his death occurring there June 23, 1898. 
 Early in life he learned the shoemaker's trade. 
 Like all of his family he took a prominent part in 
 public affairs, and was frequently chosen to office 
 by the Democratic party, with w/hich he was always 
 idenitified. He married Sarah A. Smith, daughter 
 of David C. Sm'ith, of Alilford, and she died Feb. 
 15, 1900. They became the parents of five children, 
 of whom George Judson is the youngest. Of the 
 others, Saralh died at the age of twenty-one, un- 
 married ; Thaddeus and Ida both died in infancy; 
 Alice married Charles C. Judd, a merchant of Ca- 
 manche, Iowa. 
 
 George Judson Smiith received his education in 
 the schools of his native town, and when he had 
 attained the age of sixteen he began to learn slioe- 
 cutting in the Baldwin & Lamkin factory. This 
 trade he followed for several years, but since 1896 
 has engaged in an undertaking and plumbing busi- 
 ness, conducting a fine store on River street, in a 
 building owned by himself. He is a very public- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1209 
 
 spirited man, and takes a keen interest in the de- 
 velopment of the itown, being secretary of the Busi- 
 ness Men's Association ; he is a leading worker in 
 the Democratic party, having held a number of local 
 offices. 
 
 On. Sept. 12, 1889, Mr. Smith was united in 
 marriage with Miss Ellen R. Clark, daug^hter of 
 Charles Alvin Clark, of Orange, New Haven coun- 
 ty, and three children have blessed their union, 
 George Judson, Jr., Alviin Clark and Helen May. 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Smith are much esteemed so- 
 cially, and are active in ithe work of the First Con- 
 gregational Church of Milford. 
 
 HARRY H. SCHOFIELD, a well-known gro- 
 cer, is one of the leading business men of Nauiga- 
 tuck, New Haven county. Although comparatively 
 a young man, he has already shown in his success- 
 ful career that he has the ability to plan wisely and 
 ■execute with energy, a comhination which, when 
 possessed by men in any walk of life, never fails 
 to effect notable results. 
 
 Mr. Schofield was born in New Britain, Conn., 
 Feb. 7, 1868, and is a son of Joseph Schofield, 
 whose birth occurred in Sheffiela, England, Aug. 
 10, 1830. The grandfather, Edward Schofield, was 
 a native of the same place, and throughout life 
 worked at the cutlery business. He died in Shel- 
 burne Falls, Mass. The father of our subject was 
 also a cutlery manufacturer, his specialty being 
 pocket knives. He came to America in 1861, and 
 followed his trade in Shelburne Falls, Mass. ; New 
 Britain, Conn. ; Bronxville and Walden, N. Y. ; and 
 Naugatuck, Conn., coming to the last named place 
 in 1874, and remaining here until 1880, when he 
 spent another year at Shelburne Falls. In 1887 he 
 bought out the Naugatuck Cutlery Co., and con- 
 tinued to successfully engage in business at that 
 place until his death, which occurred April 12, 1891. 
 He was highly respected and esteemed by all who 
 knew him. In politics he was a Democrat, and he 
 served as assessor and member of the board of re- 
 hef. Before leaving England he married Hannah 
 Hampshire, a native of thait country, and a daugh- 
 ter of Charles Hampshire, and there five children 
 were born to them. In this country the family circle 
 was increased by the birth of five others who lived 
 to reach maturity. Three died young. Those who 
 grew up were Elizabeth, wife of Alfred Shirtclifif, 
 of Shelburne Falls, Mass. ; Alice, wife of Eli Trick- 
 ett, of Walden, N. Y. ; Joseph, a veterinary surgeon 
 of Greenwich, Conn. ; Jane, wife of E. A. Hotch- 
 kiss, a contractor and builder of Naugatuck; 
 George, who is engaged in the cutlery business in 
 Southington, Conn. ; Fairwell, who died at the_ age 
 of twenty-seven years; Harry H., our subject; 
 Ralph, Alfred E. and Frank E., all rubber workers 
 of Naugatuck. 
 
 During his boyhood Harry H. Schofield pursued 
 his studies in the public schools of Naugatuck until 
 fourteen years of age, and then worked at the cut- , 
 
 lery business for three years. From 1884 to i 
 he clerked for V. H. McEwen, of Seymour, Conn., 
 at his grocery store on Water street, Naugatuck, and 
 subsequently worked for his father for a time. On 
 Sept. 15, 1889, he embarked in the grocery business 
 for himself on Water street, Naugatuck, having 
 purchased the stock of his old employer, Mr. Mc- 
 Ewen, and he continued in business there until May 
 I, 1892, when he moved to the corner of Church 
 street and Rubber avenue, remaining there until 
 selling out his store to F. K. Grant, June 13, 1895. 
 On the 19th of the following October he purchased 
 property at No. 78 Maple street, and erected the 
 building he has since occupied, one of the finest and 
 best arranged stores in Naugatuck, lighted by elec- 
 tricity and supplied with all modern conveniences 
 needed in the business. On Jan. i, 1897, he pur- 
 chased the Barron Grocery Co.'s store, on Main 
 street, which he also conducted until April i, 1898, 
 when he sold it. He carries a large and well- 
 selected stock of staple and fancy groceries, flour, 
 feed, grain, hay, butter, eggs, etc., and has built up 
 an excellent trade, which is constantly increasing. 
 Mr. Schofield was married, Feb. 4, 1891, to 
 Miss Alice E. Tyler, a native of Maryborough, 
 Australia, and a daughter of William Tyler, who 
 was from England. Three children have been born 
 of this union, namely : William T., Ericsson B. 
 and Harold C. In his political affiliations Mr. Scho- 
 field is a Republican. He filled the office of town 
 clerk during the year 1891. He is an honored mem- 
 ber of Centennial Lodge, No. 100, I. O. O. F., of 
 Naugatuck; Gavel Lodge, No. 18, K. P.; Matta- 
 tuck Tribe, No. 25, I. O. R. M. ; and Sons of Lib- 
 erty, No. 214, Sons of St. George. In religious 
 faith he is an Episcopalian. He is public-spirited 
 and progressive, giving his support to all measures 
 which he believes calculated to advance the general 
 welfare! 
 
 ACLY W. CASTLE, an extensive retail meat 
 dealer, located at the corner of South Main and 
 Union streets, Waterbury, was born in that city, 
 Aug. 24. 1868. 
 
 John S. Castle, his father, was born in Water- 
 town, Conn., son of Joel Allen Castle, a native of 
 the same place, and a farmer by vocation. John S. 
 Castle married Amelia M. Parsons, also a native of 
 Watertown, and a daughter of Charles Parsons, a 
 carriage and wagon manufacturer of considerable 
 repute. To this union were born six children, three 
 of whom died in infancy, the survivors being Acly 
 W., our subject; John S., who is chief engineer for 
 the Benedict & Burnham Manufacturing Co. ; and 
 Martha A., wife of C. A. Templeton, of the firm 
 of Hotchkiss & Templeton, of Waterbury. John 
 S. Castle, the father, was a grocer and also a bottler 
 of soft drinks in Waterbury, and did a thriving 
 trade. In his later years he was secretary of the 
 City Ice Co. He was a very popular member of the 
 Democratic party, and was a member of the first 
 
I2IO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 board of councilmen that sat in the new city hall, 
 an alderman, and for three years tax collector. He 
 was called away Nov. II, 1896, leaving his widow 
 and the three children named above to mourn his 
 loss. 
 
 Acly W. Castle, the subject proper of this biog- 
 raphy, attended the Waterbury schools until sixteen 
 years of age, and tnen entered the employ of Pier- 
 pont Bros., wholesale meat dealers, with whom he 
 remained nine years, thoroughly familiarizing him- 
 self with the details of the trade. In 1892 he em- 
 barked in the retail meat business on his own ac- 
 count, at his present stand, and is now conducting 
 one of the largest cash retail meat markets in the 
 city. He has six men steadily in his employ. 
 
 On Jan. 6, 1892, Air. Castle was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Hermina J. Wendehack, of Water- 
 bury, a daughter of August Wendehack, a native 
 of Germany. In politics ]\Ir. Castle is a Democrat, 
 but he has never been desirous of holding public 
 office, inasmuch as the oversight of his business re- 
 quires all his available time. His fraternal connec- 
 tions also claim a great deal of his attention, as he 
 is a thirty-second-degree ]\Iason, a Red Man and a 
 Knight of Pythias. He is what is known in the 
 business world as a self-made man, and in commer- 
 cial circles his integrity has never been impugned. 
 
 ANDREW J. COONEY, the proprietor of the 
 Home Steam Laundry, a well-known establishment 
 at No. 277 Bank street, has built up one of the most 
 successful enterprises ot the kind in the State. He 
 has a verv completely appointed plant, with all the 
 modern appliances, and gives employment to twelve 
 laundresses and workmen. Linens are laundered 
 without the use of chemicals, and if desired, are 
 ironed by hand. The house has twelve agencies 
 throughout the city, necessitating two wagons for 
 delivery purposes. Mr. Cooney has the leading ho- 
 tels and many of the more prominent families for 
 his patrons, and is in a way to achieve a still more 
 flattering success. 
 
 Andrew J. Cooney was born in Seneca Falls, 
 N. Y., Sept. 2^, 1871, and is a son of Andrew J. 
 Cooney, Sr., a native of Leeds, England. The elder 
 Cooney died in Waterbury, Conn., in February, 
 1885, and was a son of Andrew J. Cooney, a native 
 of County Cork, Ireland, and an emigrant to this 
 country in the earlier part of last century, who 
 died in Pittsfield, Mass. Andrew J. Cooney, Sr., 
 came to Woonsocket, Mass., when a young man, 
 where he married Mary Dugan. Airs. Cooney was 
 born in Woonsocket, Mass., a daughter of William 
 Dugan, a native of England. Mr. Cooney was a 
 woolen weaver and designer in a woolen mill at 
 Pittsfield for years, and removed to Waterbury 
 March 15, 1884. Pie died here in 1885. His wife 
 died in Pittsfield, Alass., in 1876. They were the 
 parents of a family of six children : "William ; 
 Daniel J.; Esther; Andrew J., whose name a|ipcars 
 at the opening of this article; Charles and Marv. 
 
 Of these, William died in Waterbury, and Daniel 
 J, andl Charles in Pittsfield, Mass. ; Esther married 
 Henrv F. Baker, of Waterbury; and Mary is single. 
 
 Andrew J. Cooney, our subject, passed his 
 earliest childhood in Seneca Falls, where his fa- 
 ther was superintendent of a mill, and he was still 
 a child when his parents moved to Pittsfield, Mass. 
 In that town he began attendance upon the public 
 school, acciuiring a good practical education. The 
 father died in Waterbury in 1885, and here young 
 Andrew began as a messenger boy, and ran errands 
 for two years. For two years more he drove a 
 laundry wagon for E. R. Davis, and then traveled 
 for a year with the Barnum & Bailey show, serv- 
 ing them as a coachman. The young man loved 
 horses, and seemed to understand them so that 
 for some time he handled race horses very suc- 
 cessfully on the track. Coming back to Water- 
 bury, Air. Cooney resumed work with E. R. Davis, 
 and was in his employ for three and a half years 
 when he bought the Waterbury Home Laundry, 
 and changed the name to the Home Steam Laun- 
 dry. This business has been in his hands since 
 July I, 1895. At the beginning of the enterprise 
 Henry J. Baker was associated with 'him, and the 
 business of the firm was conducted under the name 
 of Cooney & Baker. Mr. Baker retired in April, 
 1897, and since that time the entire management 
 has been in the hands of Mr. Cooney. Since the. 
 business has been under the charge of its present 
 proprietor it has increased at least three times, and 
 is still expanding. 
 
 Mr. Cooney has never married, and is a great 
 society man, having membership in Magnolia 
 Lodge, No. 165, K. of P., Lodge No. 265, B. P. 
 O. Elks, and the Foresters of America. He is an 
 active worker in the Concordia Singing Society, 
 and is a member of the Y. M. C. A. Flis parents 
 were Roman Catholics. 
 
 LORENZO W. HOUSEL, one of the leading 
 young attorneys of New Haven, and the present 
 representative of the city of New Haven in the 
 Connecticut Legislature, was born in Snow Shoe, 
 Pa., Dec. 30, 1873. 
 
 John C. Housel, his paternal grandfather, was 
 a_ native of Lewisburg, Pa., where he remained all 
 his life, following his trade of tailor. He married 
 Alargaret Giles, who was also born in tlTat locality, 
 and attained the age of eighty years. Mr. Housel 
 died when seventy. They reared a large family of 
 children. The maternal great-grandfather, Samuel 
 Clements, emigrated about 1795 from New Hamp- 
 shire to Maine. 
 
 William Housel, the father of our subject, was 
 born in Lewisburg, Pa., spent his boyhood and 
 young manhood in that locality, but later removed 
 to Tioga county, N. Y.. near Nichols, where he still 
 resides. During the Civil war William, enlisted as 
 a private in Company C, 52d Pa. V I., but was pro- 
 moted to sergeant, and served bravely for three 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I2II 
 
 years. He married Josephine Fenderson, who was 
 born in Pennsylvania. To Mr. and Mrs. William 
 Housel five children were born, only two of whom 
 are now living: Lorenzo W. and Robert C. 
 
 John Fenderson, father of Mrs. William Housel, 
 was in business near Bangor, Maine, and his wife, 
 Lucy, was a school teacher. Later, about 1830, they 
 removed to Tioga county, N. Y., where Mr. Fender- 
 son engaged in the lumber business, thence to Penn- 
 sylvania, finaUv returning to Tioga county. New 
 York. 
 
 The primary education of Lorenzo W. Housel 
 was obtained at home attending the common schools, 
 but as soon as prepared he entered Oweeo Academy 
 and later Yale University, from which he was grad- 
 uated with degree of A. B. in 1897. The expenses 
 of the course were paid with money earned by the 
 ambitious young fellow by working on the Journal 
 and Courier, and the New York oapers. Later he 
 took a course at the Yale Law school, from which 
 he was graduated with degree of LL. B. in 1900. 
 After, being admitted to the Bar Mr. Housel estab- 
 lished himself in offices at No. 318 Washington 
 building, New Haven, where he has since remained, 
 building up a fine practice, and proving himself an 
 excellent lawyer, clear and concise in argument, 
 and thoroughly acquainted with every intricate de- 
 tail of his profession. 
 
 A Democrat in politics, Mr. Housel has always 
 taken a deep interest in the working of his party, 
 and in 1900 was chosen to represent it in the State 
 Legislature, receiving the largest vote of any mem- 
 ber of the House of 1901 — 11,481 — and a majority 
 of 990. His thorough understanding of matters 
 of moment being recognized, he was placed upon 
 important committees, and served on the committee 
 on Revision of Statutes, the House committee on 
 Constitutional Amendments, and the Special Joint 
 Committee on Constitutional Amendments. Fra- 
 ternally he is connected with the Hiram Lodge, 
 No. I, A. F. & A. M., Pulaski Chapter, R. A. 
 M., and the New Haven Grays, Conn. N. G., and is 
 one of the two county auditors of New Haven coun- 
 ty. Pleasing in manner, possessing many friends, 
 regarded as a very able attorney, the future before 
 Mr. Housel is very promising, his past record but 
 faintly outlining what is to come to himi socially, 
 professionally and politically. 
 
 HENRY B. SANDERSON was born in the 
 State of New York May 4, 1865, the youngest of 
 the eight surviving children of the twelve born to 
 George A. and Margaret (Brooksby) Sanderson, 
 who are mentioned elsewhere. 
 
 Our subject was educated in the common schools 
 and assisted on the homestead until he was eight- 
 een years of age, also learning the joiner's trade. At 
 the age mentioned he came to Waterbury, Conn., 
 and clerked for his brother Charles B. in the meat 
 business until 1893, when he opened a meat market 
 of his own, beginning business in a small way, 
 in a basemen!: on Vine street. He successfully con- 
 
 ducted that place a year and a half, and then opened 
 his splendidly equipped establishment on West Main 
 street, facing also on North Willow street. In 
 other words, his shop runs through the block, from 
 street to street. Besides a choice selection of meats 
 usually found in the best markets, Mr. Sanderson 
 carries canned goods and other delicacies, and 
 caters to a select class of patrons, such as bankers, 
 mmisters, lawyers, etc.; he has indeed a market for 
 those who demand the best. Although Mr. Sander- 
 son started without a penny, and had many ob- 
 stacles to contend with, he has by his gentlemanly 
 demeanor and inflexible determination reached' the 
 summit of success, and now has capital sufficient 
 to meet all contingencies. 
 
 On Sept. I, 1890, Mr. Sanderson married Miss 
 May ]\L Bailev, who was born in Brewsters, N. Y., 
 daughter of Starr Bailey, a joiner by trade. To 
 this marriage has been born one child, Brooksby 
 R., but the parents were bereft of this beloved one 
 when he was but four years and four- days old. 
 
 Mr. Sanderson is a Republican in his political 
 views, but not strongly partisan. Fraternally he is 
 a member of the I. O. O. F., of Waterfbury, the 
 New England Order of Protection and the Mer- 
 chants' Association. Lie is highly esteemed social- 
 ly by hosts of friends. 
 
 GARDINER G. RIGGS is a man who has 
 largely made his own way in the world. Moved 
 by lofty ambitions he has worked hard, studied 
 deeply into the elements of the business he had 
 in hand, and has achieved a most commendable 
 success. He is one of the younger men of the 
 town, and what he has done may be taken as an 
 indication of a prosperous career opening before 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Riggs was born in La Porte, Sullivan Co., 
 Pa., Jan. 8, 1871, a son of Francis T. Maltby, who 
 was a native of Bristol, Conn. When a young 
 boy he was legally adopted, and assumed the name 
 "Riggs." Ephraim Maltby, the father of Francis 
 T., was a native of Bristol, a lifelong farmer, and 
 a descendant of an old and honored New England 
 family. Francis T. Maltby married Sarah Lee, 
 who was born in Farmington, Conn., a daughter 
 of John Lee, of English extraction, and a repre- 
 sentative of one of the oldest families in Connecti- 
 cut. Shortly after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
 Maltby removed to Pennsylvania, where he en- 
 gaged in the newspaper and job-printing business. 
 A family of two children was born to them : Lewis 
 F., w'ho learned the blacksmith trade, and becoming 
 an efiicient workman, holds a foreman's position in 
 a shop in Waterbuiry; and Gardiner G., whose 
 name appears at the opening of this article. The 
 mother died in Wallingford in 1875, and the father 
 now resides in the South. 
 
 Gardiner G. Riggs spent his boyhood days with 
 his adopted parents in North Haven, Conn., and 
 was reared on a farm. A good education in the 
 
■I 2 I 2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 public schools was afforded him, and when he had 
 reached early manhood a place in the Winchester 
 Armory was given him. This position he held for 
 .about a year, and then entered! the employ of S. F. 
 Linsley, of Xew Haven, and under his instructions 
 learned the carpenter trade. This trade once mas- 
 tered, the young mechanic formed a copartnership 
 with J. E. Lane, and worked at the trade for a 
 time. In 1893 ^r. Riggs went into his present 
 business, that of artificial stone making, Mr. Lane 
 being associated with him a year, but then retired, 
 and in 1894 Mr. Riggs moved his business to Wa- 
 terbury. Since that time this city has been the lo- 
 cation of his extensive and growing business. He 
 has a wide patronage, is building up a lasting trade, 
 and has from twenty to thirty men constantly en- 
 gaged in his various departments of labor. It is 
 a flattering success for so young a man, and, as 
 Mr. Riggs says, has been brought about by his 
 own efforts. At the age of thirteen he worked all 
 day and studied nights, and this habit he still main- 
 tains. He believes in doing his work scientifically, 
 and wants to keep in touch with the latest knowl- 
 •edge on all mechanical subjects. 
 
 ^Ir. Riggs and Miss Julia Bannell were mar- 
 ried June 24, 1 89 1. She was born in Chicago, and 
 was a daughter of Samuel Bannell, a farmer of 
 jMountainville, N. Y., who is now engaged in the 
 brick business at North Haven. Four children were 
 born to Mr. Riggs and his wife : Sterling, Bessie, 
 Mildred and Laura. Mr. Riggs is a Republican as 
 far as national and state politics are concerned, 
 but believes in a business administration of local 
 .affairs. On the roll of membership of the I. O. 
 O. F. fraternity his name appears as that of a re- 
 liable and esteemed member. At the Episcopal 
 church he is also known as a conscientious attend- 
 ant. As a business man and a good citizen he has 
 made a record worthy of all commendation. He is 
 energetic and pushing, knows how to hustle for 
 business, and means to keep abreast of the day in 
 every respect. 
 
 THOMAS DENNIS WILLIAMS, the pro- 
 prietor of the Williams' Cafe, a popular resort in 
 Branford, was born here May 31, 1875, a son of 
 John and Ellen (Gallabue) WilMams. 
 
 Jdhn Williams was a native of County Tipper- 
 ary, Ireland, a son of Edward and Margaret 
 (Casey) Williams, both born in County Tipper- 
 ary, Ireland. He emigrated to this country in 
 1867, locating the same year in Branford, where 
 be died May 5, 1883. He married Ellen Gallahue, 
 a daughter of Patrick and Mary (Kiely) Gallahue, 
 ■of County Limerick, Ireland. Thomas D. Will- 
 iams was reared in Branford, and had his educa- 
 tion in the excellent public schools of his native 
 place. All his ancestors were thorough Irish, and 
 he inherits and exbibits many of the best character- 
 istics of his gifted and versatile race. In 1897 
 lie embarked in business for himself, opening his 
 
 present cafe. This enterprise he has conducted 
 from the beginning, and displayed in its business 
 management such admirable qualities that to-day 
 he has a host of friends in the community, who 
 are always ready and willing to bespeak trade and 
 business for him. 
 
 On Nov. 23, 1896, Mr. Williams was married 
 to Miss Anna L. McKeon, daughter of Frank and 
 Mary (Reiley) McKeon, of Branford, and a young 
 lady of many charming characteristics. To this 
 union have come two children: John and Mary, 
 both bright and winsome little people. Mr. Will- 
 iamls belongs to the Catholic Church, and socially 
 to the A. O. H. He was instrumental in the or- 
 ganization of the Catholic Club, and was elected 
 its first president in 1899. In politics he is a Demo- 
 crat. 
 
 CHARLES H. BROWN, M. D., belongs to 
 that younger race of physicians whose scientific ac- 
 quirements are infused with a love of the great 
 profession and touched wlith a fire of devotfon to 
 suffering humanity. Alen like him are doing a 
 wonderful work in the redemption of the healing 
 art from the sway of commercialism, and in build- 
 ing it up for its own 'sake. Dr. Brown is one of the 
 must popular and successful voung physicians in 
 his part of New Haven county, and he has a wide 
 patronage in Waterbury and f'hroug'h the adjoining 
 sections, Where his professional ability, which is of 
 the verv highest grade, and his personal modesty, 
 which is as rare as it is commendable, have alike 
 won him a host of friends. 
 
 Dr. Brown was born in Bnidgewater, N. Y., Oct. 
 26, 1866, son of William H. Brown, and a grand- 
 son of William L. Brown, both of whom were born 
 in Otsego county, N. Y. AA'illiam L. Brown mar- 
 ried a Miss Wood, a descendant of the MacFarlane 
 cl'an, and became the father of three children : Will- 
 iam H., Alonzo and Mary. As will be seen, the 
 Doctor is descended through his grandmother from 
 "the wild MacFarlane's plaided clan," which occu- 
 pied the land forming the western s'hore of Loch 
 Lomond from Tarbet upward. From Loch Sloy 
 they took their battle cry, "Loch Sluda." Sir John 
 AlacFarlane was knighted by the King the night 
 before the battle of Flodden, and was slain in that 
 battle. Walter AlacFarlane, of that clan, was born 
 in 1734, and died in 1804. He was the author of 
 several historical works, and one of the most learned 
 antiquaries of the last century, and bis portrait, 
 presented by his son A-N^alter in 1794, hangs on the 
 wall of the Anticiuarian Society of Scotland. 
 Another of the clan. Major Gen. MacFarlane, un- 
 der fire of the guns of FI. ;\I. Ships "AA'arrior" and 
 ■'Success," in 1809, led the British troops with dis- 
 tinguished bra\'er}- at the stomi and capture of the 
 Island of Isdhia, in the Bay of Naples, and after- 
 ward at the capture of Procida. 
 
 Wiliiam H. Brown, the father of the Doctor, 
 married Miss Hannab Pennv, and four children 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1213, 
 
 were born of this union : Dr. Charles H. ; Myron 
 P. and Mary, twins; and Grace. William H. 
 Brown is a Republican. He has served as justice 
 of the peace in his own community. Farming has 
 been his life work. In religion he has always been 
 associated wlith the Congregational Church. Mrs. 
 Hannah (Penny) Brown w'as born in Otsego coun- 
 ty, N. Y., a daughter of Alva and Eliza Penny, 
 farming people of that section. On her mother's 
 side she is an Allen, and related to Ethan Allen, the 
 hero of Ticonderoga. The Aliens have left many 
 names famous besides that of Ethan Allen, par- 
 ticularly in literary and sdientific fields. The 
 Pennys are of English origin. Thomas Penny 
 came to America in 1633 with the Massachusetts 
 Lolony, and 'settled at Newbury Neck, Mass. His 
 wife's name was Judith. He was a direct descend- 
 ant of Thomas, of Woodstock, who was the young- 
 est son of Edward the HI. Richard, son of Ed- 
 ward IV, caused Thomas of Woodstock to be be- 
 headed, because he feared h'is influence, he being 
 next heir to the throne. The descendants of Thomas 
 of Woodstock renounced their title and estates, 
 fearing the same fate. William Penn was a mem- 
 ber of the same family, the name being spelled in 
 several ways, Penn, Penne, Penny and Penney. 
 
 Dr. Brown passed 'his boyhood days in Bridge- 
 water, where he aittended the local schools, and was 
 a pupil in West Winfield Academy and the Caze- 
 novia Seminary, two institutions of high grade, and 
 of more than local reputation a generation ago. 
 His predilection for medical studies early mani- 
 fested itself, and after leaving the academy at Caze- 
 novia he passed three and a half years in a drug 
 store in Bridgewater. Then attending the College 
 of Pharmacy in New York, he graduated from that 
 celebrated school. The young student, ambitious of 
 learning, took a summer course in analytical chem- 
 istry in the same school, and pursuing his studies 
 farther became a student of the Medical Depart- 
 ment of the University the same year. The grad- 
 uating class of 1893 sent forth from that widely- 
 .known school numbered Dr. Charles H. Brown 
 among its most conspicuous members. Dr. Brown 
 located at W'ateitiury, Conn., and began the practice 
 01 medicine in that dity, Where his success was im- 
 mediate and flattering in the highest degree. Dr. 
 Brown enjoys a very fine practice, and is counted 
 one of the most successful p'hysicians in the city. 
 A student of the newest ideas in medicine, he keeps 
 abreast of the times, and is often seen in the class- 
 rooms of the New York medical scnools, engaged in 
 special investigations. His library is filled with the 
 latest and most reliable publications in the medical 
 world, and his medical apparatus includes the most 
 modern appliances. The Doctor is a Republican 
 pohtically, and in religion he is associated with the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 Dr. Brown and' Emily S. Rich, a native of 
 Mount Vernon, N. Y., were married July 17, 1894. 
 
 To this union have been born two children, Charles- 
 Alfred and Eleanor. The family residence on 
 Columbia Boulevard is one of the finest in the city. 
 
 HENRY DOWNS SAWYER, a citizen o£ 
 Derby, New Haven county, was born there May 3, 
 
 1873- 
 
 Henry S.' Sawyer, his grandfather, was born in 
 Windsor, and removed to Derby, where he en- 
 gaged in the milling business, carrying it on until 
 his death. He married a Miss Nooner, and they 
 had five children, of these the first-born, Warren 
 H., was the father of Henry D. Sawyer; Jennie 
 is the wife of Cyrus Whitcomb, of Brooklyn, N. 
 Y., formerly a clergyman, but now engaged in 
 the practice of law; Helen (deceased) became the 
 wife of William Downs, of Boston, who is art 
 critic on the staff of one of the leading journals 
 of that city ; Charles S., the youngest of the fam- 
 ily, resides in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
 Warren H. Sawyer was born in Hartford, and 
 was a shoe dealer there, but after the death of his. 
 father he removed to Derby, where he carried on 
 the latter's business. He married Jennie Bassett^ 
 a daughter of Robert N. Bassett, and a grand- 
 daughter of David Bassett, and a member of one 
 of the influential families of New Haven county. 
 I'liree children were born to Mr. and Mrs. War- 
 ren H. Sawyer: Robert B., Helen E. and Henry 
 Downs. Robert B. is connected with the Robert. 
 N. Bassett Co., of New York and Derby. Helen 
 E. is married to Frederick S. Martyn, of Brooklyn^ 
 N. Y. The parents are both deceased. 
 
 Henry Downs Sawyer was educated in the 
 schools of Derby and at the Military Academy in 
 Sing Sing, N. Y. Leaving school at the age of 
 seventeen, he spent the years 1890 and 1891 as a 
 clerk with Howard & Barber, dry-goods merchants,, 
 and in 1891 became bookkeeper for his grandfather, 
 the late Robert N. Bassett. Mr. Bassett was a 
 manufacturer of corset manufacturers' supplies,, 
 and was the first to cover wire with cloth for use 
 in garments of that description. He died in De- 
 cember, 1892, and the charge and management of 
 the business thereupon devolved upon Mr. Sawyer. 
 The responsibility was a grave one for so young a 
 man, but he met it with the intelligence, energy 
 and fidelity to duty which have distinguished him 
 throughout life. In May, 1895, it was decided that 
 the manufactory and the disposition of its output 
 should be placed in the hands of a corporation, and 
 the Robert N. Bassett Co. was organized. Mr. 
 Sawyer was made secretary and treasurer, a dual 
 office, the arduous and responsible duties of which 
 he continued to discharge until May, 1901; when 
 he severed his connection with the R. N. Bassett 
 Co. and bought out the Derby Trucking Co., of 
 Derby, and the Harris Express, of Shelton. 
 
 Mr. Sawyer was married Sept. 12, 1893, to 
 IS'liss Grace Carleton, a daughter of Edward H. 
 
I2I4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and Mary P. Carleton, of Brooklyn, N. Y. They 
 have had no children. ]\Ir. Sawyer is a Republi- 
 can in politics, and in religious faith is a Congre- 
 gationalist. He is genial, whole-souled and hos- 
 pitable, and fond of the legitimate pleasures of life. 
 He loves driving, and owns some of the finest trot- 
 ting stock in Derby. 
 
 WALTER J. WARRICK, one of the intelligent 
 and progressive skilled workers of W'aterbury, and 
 a man of fine character and honest spirit, was born 
 in Cayuga, Cayuga Co., X. Y., Sept. 5, 1862, son 
 of John Warrick, a native of New Jersey. 
 
 William Warrick, the father of John, was also 
 born in New Jersey, in 1794, and was a life long 
 farmer. His wife, the mother of John, was born in 
 New Jersey in 1802, and died in 1876. With his 
 family William Warrick moved into Cayuga coun- 
 ty, N. Y., secured a farm, and devoted himself to 
 its cultivation. He died at the age of eighty-six. 
 All his life he had been a remarkably sound and 
 healthy man, and it is a family tradition that until 
 his last illness he never knew from his own experi- 
 ence the meaning of sickness. The father of Will- 
 iam Warrick was one of three brothers who left 
 England and settled in New Jersey. 
 
 John Warrick, the father of Walter J., was a 
 farmer during his active life except for about twelve 
 years, which he spent in Waterbury. He is now re- 
 tired, and living in Cayuga, N. Y. He married 
 Sarah E. Howell, who was born in Union Springs, 
 N. Y., in 1837, and died in 1883. Her father, Brit- 
 on Howell, was a carpenter, andi died about i860 ; 
 his wife died in 1878. After their marriage John 
 Warrick and his wife settled in Cayuga county, N. 
 Y. They had a family of three children : Walter 
 J., our subject; Josephine, who died unmarried in 
 Cayuga, N. Y. ; and Grace N., who is unmarried, 
 and living at home with her father, who re^narried 
 in 1884. John Warrick is a Democrat, and has held 
 various local offices in the years past. His religious 
 connection has been with the Alethodist Church, and 
 he has been one of the earnest workers of that de- 
 nomination. 
 
 Walter J. Warrick grew to manhood under the 
 fostering care of his parents, and attended school 
 at Cayuga, Seneca Falls and Auburn, N. Y. When 
 he was eighteen years of age his school davs ended, 
 and he began his career in business by clerking in 
 a store at Ca^'uga, N. Y., where he worked three 
 }-ears. In 1882 he came to Waterbury and clerked 
 in a grocery store for a few months, and then en- 
 tered the Waterbury watch factory for a few 
 month?. j\Ir. Warrick began work for his present 
 emplo}ers, the Piatt Brothers Co., in 1882, as a 
 helper in the packing department. Here his ser- 
 vices have been so valuable, and his appreciation of 
 the work of the department so quick and ready, that 
 for several years he has had full charge of the 
 work, and is one of the most valued foreman of that 
 •large concern. 
 
 On Sept. I, 1885, Mr. Warrick married Minnie 
 J. Poulter, who was born in Waterbury, daughter 
 of Henry and Margaret Poulter, natives of Eng- 
 land. To this union have been born five children: 
 Josie May, W. Merwin, Gladys H., Ernest (who 
 died in infanc)-) and Marian R. These children 
 are a bright and entertaining set of young people. 
 Mr. Warrick is a Republican, and takes an intelli- 
 gent interest in political affairs. He is a member 
 of the A. O. U. W., and with his family attends 
 the Second Congregational Church. 
 
 PATRICK J. COOGAN, who is engaged in 
 the drug business in Waterbury, is a native of 
 Pennsylvania, born March 23, 1868, in Upper Le- 
 high, Luzerne county. 
 
 Patrick T. Coogan, his father, was born in 
 County Kilkenny, Ireland, coming thence over 
 thirty }ears ago to the United States, and settling 
 in Penns}-lvania, where he was employed as a coal 
 miner. In 1877 he came to Waterbury with his 
 tamily, and about the }'ear 1886 established his 
 present grocery business on ^Vashington street, 
 which he still conducts. While in Pennsylvania 
 he married Mary A. Burns, who was born in Heck- 
 scherville, Schuylkill Co., Pa., daughter of James 
 Burns, a native of Ireland. She died Jan. 11, 1898, 
 at the age of forty-eight years. To this union were 
 born thirteen children, two of whom are deceased, 
 the names of tne others being: Catherine, Patrick 
 J., Bridget, Maggie, Annie, Mary E., James, 
 Thomas, Joseph, Loretta and Elizabeth. Catherine 
 married Michael Ryan, of Waterbury, who was 
 born in Pennsj-lvania. Bridget is the wife of 
 George A. Gibson, of Waterbury, a sketch of 
 whom appears elsewhere. Maggie married Fran- 
 cis Grimes, of Waterbury. Annie married L. 
 O'Laughhn, a Philadelphia merchant. 
 
 Patrick J. Coogan, our subject, was about eight 
 years old when the family came to Waterbury, and 
 here he received his education, at the age of twelve 
 years commencing to work in factories. In that 
 line he continued until he was twenty-one years 
 of age, when he engaged in the grocery and liquor 
 business on Washington street, whence, some three 
 or four years ago, he removed to his present loca- 
 tion. No. 839 Baldwin street. On July 5, 1901, 
 lie changed his line, engaging in the drug business. 
 He has been remarkably prosperous, and although 
 yet a young man has accumulated considerable 
 property in Waterbury. In 1896 he erected his 
 store, in 1898 three tenement buildings, and in 
 1899 one, having altogether as many as seventeen 
 tenements. 
 
 On Oct. 23, 1893, Patrick J. Coogan married 
 Sarah Dunn, who was born in Ireland, a daughter 
 of Michael and Susan Dunn. She died in 1895, 
 leaving no children. On Sept. 23, 1896, Mr. 
 Coogan married Mrs. Mary Russell, daughter of 
 Anthony White, and widow of Michael Ru'ssell, 
 and two children, James and Eileen, have been 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1215 
 
 born to this union. By 'her first husband Mrs. 
 Coogan had one son, Roy. Our subject and his 
 wife attend the services of Francis Xavier Catholic 
 Church, of Waterbury. He is a Democrat in pol- 
 itics, but in local affairs always casts his ballot for 
 the best man regardless of party lines. Socially he 
 is a member of the Knights of Columbus and the 
 Foresters of America, and no one in Waterbury 
 is more highly honored or respected. 
 
 ALFRED F. HOWE is one of the most intel- 
 lectual and energetic young men of Derby, where 
 he was bom April 25, 1873. His ancestors were 
 distinguished for business sagacity, pluck and vim. 
 Both his grandfather, William Howe, and his fa- 
 ther, Isaac P. Howe, were prominent in business 
 life, and our subject is not inferior to them in 
 pertinacity of purpose and souna sense. 
 
 William Howe, the grandfather, was born in 
 New York City, and was a brother of Dr. John I. 
 Howe, who was the organizer of the Howe Manu- 
 facturing Co., a concern whose fame is world- 
 wide as owning and conducting the first establish- 
 ment in the United States to manufacture pins. 
 William Howe was one of the most successful 
 showmen and farmers of his, dav, and accumulated 
 a handsome fortune, most of which he invested for 
 the benefit of his children. Hie was one of tlie 
 original stockholders in the "Shelton Company," 
 and was identified with the management of various 
 other enterprises. He represented Ridgefield in the 
 State Legislature. His death occurred in Ridge- 
 field. 
 
 Isaac P. Howe, son of William and father of 
 Alfred F., was also born in New York City, on 
 Sept. 12, 1843. While a young man he married 
 Miss Emma Fraser, who was of Scottish descent, 
 daughter of Alfred A. Fraser, who was for thirty 
 ' years cashier and president of the Seventh Ward 
 National Bank of New York City. In 1869, short- 
 ly after their marriage, Mr. Howe brought his 
 young wife to Derby, and he has never lost his iri- 
 terest in the town of his adoption. His first busi- 
 ness venture there was as a member of the manu- 
 facturing firm of Somers & Howe, with which he 
 was connected for three years. In 1875 he entered 
 into partnership with Darius Wilcox, the style of 
 the co-partnership being Wilcox & Howe, and the 
 business being the manufacture of carriage hard- 
 ware; the works were located at Shelton. In 1891 
 the business was re-organized and a stock com- 
 pany formed, Mr. Howe becoming secretary, treas- 
 urer and manager, which position he held until 
 the concern went out of business, in 1899. Four 
 children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Isaac 
 P. Howe: Adalina R., William, Alfred F. and 
 Lillian. 
 
 Alfred F. Howe was educated in the common 
 schools of Derby and was at Yale University for 
 one term. On leaving college he entered the em- 
 ploy of his father as a traveling salesman, a po- 
 
 sition which he filled with distinguished success. 
 For two years and during the World's Fair his 
 headquarters were in Chicago. He invented and 
 copyrighted a game to which he gave the name 
 "Cities of Our Country,' and which proved im- 
 mensely popular. The "Youth's Companion" 
 bought five thousand copies, and the venture netted 
 him several thousand dollars. On his return to 
 Derby Mr. Howe permitted himself to be controlled 
 by his inborn proclivity toward the journalistic 
 field. For a time he was engaged on the Farmer 
 and Standard of Bridgeport,, and was editorial 
 writer and reporter on the staii of the New Haven 
 Union. In 1898 he became city editor of the Daily 
 News, which position he still holds. Mr. Howe 
 has been a special correspondent for many years 
 for the New York Herald, Tribune, Journal and 
 Press, and was a correspondent of the Associated 
 Press for several years. ; 
 
 As a man and a citizen Mr. Howe's reputation 
 is unassailable. Generous and genial, he com- 
 mands popularity. Public-spirited and philan- 
 thropic, the community holds him in high esteem. 
 As a striking illustration of the regard in which 
 his fellow townsmen hold him, it may be pointed 
 out that at the age of twenty-three he was chosen 
 a member of the board of aldermen, and held that 
 office four years, through re-election, serving two 
 terms as president of that body. In 1900 Mr. Howe 
 was nominated on the Democratic ticket for the 
 Legislature. Although Derby went Republican, 
 Mr. Howe was elected representative by the larg- 
 est majority ever given a candidate for that office 
 in Derby. While in the Legislature he was chair- 
 man of the committee on Federal Relations. He 
 worked hard for the New Haven-Derby trolley, 
 introduced several measures in the interest of the 
 volunteer firemen, had a law passed to preserve bass 
 in the Housatonic river, introduced a bill providing 
 home rule for cities, and labored hard but' unsuc- 
 cessfully against amendments to the charter of 
 Derby which the people did not want. He has a 
 mind of no common order, and his naturally keen 
 intellect has been well trained. 
 
 Mr. Howe has been financial secretary of the 
 Derby Lodge of Elks since its formation, is a 
 member of the executive board of the State Asso- 
 ciation of Elks, and is regent of Ansonia Council, 
 Royal Arcanum. He also belongs to the Ancient 
 Order of the Essenie, and is a member of the Press 
 Club of New Haven. In religious faith he is an 
 Episcopalian, being a member of St. James Church. 
 Mr. Howe is unmarried. He is the only member 
 of the Howe family now residing in Derby, his 
 parents having removed to New York. 
 
 ALBERT BLEY, proprietor of the popular 
 meat market at No. 420 North Main street, Water- 
 burg, was born in Kirchberg, Saxony, Germany, 
 Nov. 18, 1866. He is the eldest of the five chil- 
 dren born to Herman and Alvina (Groman) Bley,_ 
 
I2l6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the others being" Alban, a resident of Waterbury ; 
 Albin, now a soldier in the PhiHppine Islands ; and 
 Anna and Hiiaagrath, who still have their residence 
 in Germany. I'he father of this family, Herman 
 Bley, was a merchant by vocation, passed all his 
 life in his native land, and is now deceased. The 
 mother has her residence in Leipsig, and is still in 
 the enjoyment of excellent health. 
 
 Albert Bley was educated in the excellent public 
 schools of his native city, and afterward learned 
 the butcher's trade, wdiich he followed at home until 
 his coming to America, at the age of seventeen 
 years. He reached Waterbury in 1883, and here 
 found employment with V. Bohl, with whom he 
 worked about six years. He then worked for Louis 
 Meyer about one year, and then for a time with 
 ^^'illiam Riether, in each shop becoming a favorite 
 with the patrons and adding to his reputation as 
 a salesman. On March 7, 1898, he engaged in 
 business on his own account at the street and num- 
 ber already given. His market is the finest in town, 
 and he has several assistants. 
 
 On Aug. IS, 1888, Mr. Bley married Miss Fan- 
 nie L. Vogel, a native of Waterbury, and a daugh- 
 ter of Frederick E. and Louisa (Blackburn) Vogel. 
 Mr, Vogel was born in Ruhla, Germany, was a die- 
 sinker and engraver by trade, and died in Water- 
 bury March 7, 1890. His wife is a native of Ire- 
 land. To their marriage were born two children, 
 Fannie L. (Mrs. Bley) and Louisa, the latter dy- 
 ing when eighteen months old. Two children have 
 been born to Mr. and Mrs. Bley, Edmund V and 
 Viola A. The family attend Trinity Church. In 
 politics Mr. Bley is a Republican. Fraternally he 
 is a member of Waterbury Lodge, K. of P. 
 
 CHARLES FENN WOODING, one of the 
 youngest but busiest contractors and builders of 
 New Haven county, was born in Wallingford, Nov. 
 21, 1869, a son of the late Newton Calvin Wood- 
 ing, also a native of that town. 
 
 Newton Calvin Wooding was born in the west- 
 ern part of Wallingford, May 19, 183 1, son of Da- 
 vid A. and Flora Wooding, grandson of David 
 Wooding, and great-grandson of John Wooding. 
 He was educated in the public schools, after which 
 he worked for Fenn & Gladwin making planes in 
 a shop on Center street, until Mr. Gladwin sold out 
 to Mr. Fenn, who'moved up to the mill then known 
 as the "Sawheag Works." There Mr. \\'ooding 
 worked until the mill was closed. He then learned 
 the carpenter's trade from Calvin Harrison, after 
 which he went to work for Deacon Harvey Hall, 
 making wagon parts. At this time he lived in the 
 eastern part ot Wallingford, where he remained un- 
 til his deat'h. About the year 1867 he started in the 
 carpenter business, with Hubbard Fenn, with whom 
 he continued until the latter's death, in 1884, when 
 he went into the building and construction business 
 lor himself, so continuing until he died. May 12, 
 1891, at the age of sixty years. Among the many 
 
 buildHngs he erected may be mentioned the Simp- 
 son block. Politically he was a Republican, and he 
 was an honorable and upright citizen. Socially he 
 was a member of Accanant Lodge, No. 71, I. 0. 
 O. F., and also of the Encampment. An active and 
 devout member of the Baptist Church, hi's manly 
 and straig-'htforward life reflected no discredit on 
 his relig-lious connections. For fifteen years he was 
 a trustee and for many more an efficient worker in 
 the church. 
 
 On Nov. 28, 1856, at the residence of Nathan 
 Gunn, in Milford, Conn., Newton C. Wooding was 
 married, by Rev. W. H. Boole, to Miss Julia 
 Frances Fenn, who was born in Orange, May 12, 
 1839, a daughter of John and Susan (Daly) Fenn. 
 She died Oct. 26, 1892, the mother of the following 
 children: (i) John N., born Dec. 14, 1857, was 
 married Oct. 30, 1884, at Center Brook, Conn., to 
 Gertrude M. Bushnell. (2) Fannie Julia, born 
 March 4, 1861, died Aug. 3, 1893. (3) Nellie E., 
 born Oct. 22, 1863, was married Nov. 25, 1891, at 
 Wallingford, by Rev. F. E. Marble, to Harry B. 
 Dudley, of Guilford. (4) Unarles F. is mentioned 
 below. (5) Mary E., torn Dec. 14, 1873, was a 
 teacher in the public sdhools of Hartford, and was 
 married Jan. 8, 1901, to William Henry Franchum, 
 Jr., of Montreal, Canada. (6) Benjamin Harrison, 
 born July 29, 1875, was -married in Smith's Cove, 
 Digby Co., N. S., Jan. 24, 1898, by Rev. J. T. Eaton, 
 to Carrie T. Bryant, of Nova Scotia, and is the 
 father of one child, Frances Thornton, born July 11, 
 1899. 
 
 Charles Fenn Wooding was reared in Walling- 
 ford, and, with the exception of one term at Ho- 
 garth Academy, New Haven, received his educa- 
 tion there. For three years he was employed by 
 Marcus E. Cooke, and then worked with his father 
 at the carpenter's trade. Upon the latter's death, in 
 1 89 1, the young man assumed control of the busi- ' 
 ness, which he inherited, and has retained the un- 
 sullied reputation his father won. Among his more 
 substantial undertakings may ibe mentioned the 
 homes of F. A. Wallace, D. W. Burke, Prof. Franze 
 Milcke, and his own handsome and commodious 
 structure, which he put up in 1897. The very at- 
 tractive residence of Mrs. Potter, on South Main 
 street, in Wallingford, was one of his most (Satis- 
 factory and creditable erections, as is also the Free 
 Public Library buildings in Southington. One of 
 his largest contracts was for the H. L. Judd & Co.'s 
 buildings, amounting to over $40,000. He keeps 
 from twenty-five to thirty men at work continu- 
 ously, and is a popular and successful business man. 
 On Dec. 13, 1900, i\Ir. Wooding formed a corpora- 
 tion under the title of The C. F. Wooding Co., 
 which includes the business of C. F. Wooding. The 
 officers are C. F. Wooding, president and treas- 
 urer; B. H. Wooding, secretary. 
 
 Mr. Wooding is a member of Compass Lodge, 
 No. 9, A. F. & A. M., and oi Accanant Lodge, No. 
 71, I- O. O. F., of Wallingford, also of the En- 
 
^^yvl..jeyZ'<J^^ ^ /tyiif-g!'^>^>^>2;^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1217 
 
 campment ; he is highly esteemed as, a faithful and 
 efficient worker in these two great organizations. 
 Politically he is a Republican, but he has been much 
 too busy to devote much time to practical politics. 
 For three years he has been a trustee of the Baptist 
 Church, of which he is a consi'stent member. 
 
 On Feb. 24, 1892, Mr. Wooding was married, 
 by Rev. C. H. Dickinson, of Wallingford, to Miss 
 Elizabeth IMarsihall Gooding, and to their union 
 have come the following children : Herbert Mar- 
 shall, born F^b. 5, 1893 '' Raymond Fenn, born 
 April 22, 1895 ; and Newton William, bom Aug. 14, 
 1900. Mrs. Elizabeth M. (Gooding) Wooding is 
 a daugiiter of William James and Abby Taylor 
 (Dearth) Gooding, the former of whom was born 
 in Bristol, R. I., July 24, 1842, son of James Madi- 
 son and Charity (Sprague) Gooding. 
 
 Mr. Wooding is an energetic and progressive 
 young man, and his genial manners and high char- 
 acter have made him very popular wherever he is 
 known. 
 
 CHARLES VICTOR ALEXANDER DEX- 
 TER, collector of city taxes in Meriden, is a man 
 whose personal character and business abilities rec- 
 ommend him to the favorable consideration of the 
 public. 
 
 Mr. Dexter was born Jan. 12, 1851, in Xord- 
 hausen, a town of Prussian Saxony, Germany, son 
 of Charles Dexter, a native of the same town, who 
 passed most of his business life in Wittenberg, 
 where he died! at the age of seventy-nine years. 
 Charles Dexter was a manufacturer of furniture 
 and a very successful man. He was broad spirited 
 and progressive, liberal in his church views, a mem- 
 ber of the Masonic fraternity and a kind frierud and 
 neighbor. Mrs. Dexter died in Berlin at the age 
 of seventy-seven years. Four children were born 
 to them : Oscar, who died in Nordhausen ; Charles 
 \L A. ; Olga, widow of Herman Von Hoff ; and one 
 that died in infancy. 
 
 Charles Victor Alexander Dexter obtained his 
 education in the home school and in Goerlitz Col- 
 lege, from which he graduated at the age of nine- 
 teen years. During the Franco-Prussian war he 
 served bravely and loyally as a soldier. Beginning 
 as a volunteer private, he was raised to the rank 
 of first lieutenant, and was in the service ten years 
 before he resigned- Leaving the army in 1880 he 
 spent some time in visiting his parents at Witten- 
 berg, and was for a time at Hull and Liverpool, 
 England. The following year he came to the United 
 States, remaining a short time in New York, and 
 then making his appearance in Meriden, where he 
 secured employment with the Bradley & Hubbard 
 Mfg. Co. This- position he held two years, jind in 
 1883 became attached to the Meriden Britannia Co., 
 in whose employ he remained seventeen years. In 
 1892 he was made translator of foreign corre- 
 spondence for that concern, as he is an accomplished 
 linguist and has ready command of several modern 
 77 
 
 languages, German, French, Spanish and others. 
 In June, 1900, Mr. Dexter was elected city tax 
 collector. He was time keeper of the sewer depart- 
 ment in 1896 and 1897 ! has been deputy registrar 
 of voters for the Fourth W'ard for five years ; and 
 was city sheriff for one term, elected in 1898. Mr. 
 Dexter is a Republican in his political principles and 
 is a stanch supporter of the party. 
 
 Mr. Dexter and Miss Louisa Schneider, a na- 
 tive of Germany, were married in Yalesville in 1892,. 
 and they have one child, Carlos. Mrs. Dexter is an 
 accomplished and genial lady and has many friends 
 w'ho appreciate her womanly and housewifely char- 
 acter. Mr. Dexter belongs to the Foresters of 
 America and to Meridian Lodge, No. yy, A. F. & 
 A. M. He is a member of the Baptist Church,, 
 where he organized the choir upon a high plane 
 eighteen years ago, and during this time has been the 
 organist and leader of the church music. As a mu- 
 sician he attracts admiration, even among his music- 
 loving race. For four years he was secretary of 
 the Sunday-school. He is widely known as a gen- 
 tleman of unusual educational attainments and is- 
 regarded as a learned man by those who are them- 
 selves deeply versed in literature and science. His. 
 culture and refinement are the more noticeable be- 
 cause of his modest and unassuming character. He 
 is well acquainted in Meriden and is the fortunate 
 possessor of a host of friends. 
 
 ANDREW G. PARKER belongs to the num- 
 ber of gifted mechanics and forceful characters that 
 the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. has called intoi 
 its service to help make it the great and widely 
 known institution it is. Its employes are the pick 
 of the industrial world, and to be a workman in the- 
 Winchester factory is a certificate of mechanical 
 ability. Mr. Parker was born in Naugatuck, Conn.,, 
 Aug. 25, 1850, son of Giles Parker, a native of 
 Woodbury, Conn-, and a tailor by trade; he pos- 
 sessed a rare musical ability, and at Waterbury lead 
 the band. He worked at his trade in Naugatuck and 
 at Bridgeport, dying in the latter city in 1856. Sa- 
 rah J. Alaby, his wife, was born in Stratford, Conn., 
 a daughter of Daniel R. Alaby, a native of New- 
 town, and of English extraction. Charles Parker,, 
 the father of Giles, was a son of that Parker who 
 came to this country from England at a very early 
 day ; he was the first man in Connecticut to perfect 
 a pump that would draw water. To Giles and Sa- 
 rah Parker were born three children: Andrew G., 
 whose name appears above ; Charles X. ; and Sarah 
 J. Charles N- is a mechanic in New Haven ; and 
 Sarah J. died at the age of twenty-six, unmarried: 
 The father was a Whig, and in religion both he and 
 his wife were devoted Baptists. 
 
 Andrew G. Parker spent his early years in 
 Bridgeport, where he attended school. When he 
 was nine years of age his parents removed to Ham- 
 den, Conn., and there he continued his school at- 
 tendance until he reached the age of thirteen. His- 
 
I2l8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 first work was done in Mount Carmel, Conn., where 
 he found employment in a bolt factor}^ remaining 
 there for about four and a half years. His next 
 engagement was with George T. Newhall as a car- 
 riage blacksmith, serving a five years' apprentice- 
 ship with him and following that trade two years in 
 the city. For two years he was a driver on the 
 horse cars ; condiuctor three years ; and was driver 
 and conductor of the State street line two years. 
 Mr. Parker entered the employ of the Winchester 
 Repeating Arms Co. in March, 1879, and has 
 proved himself one of the most reliable and trust- 
 worthy men connected with that great corporation. 
 Entering as a common laborer, he has steadily ad- 
 vanced, until now he is foreman of the gun barrel 
 department and is inspector of that room, a most 
 delicate and responsible position. 
 
 Mr. Parker was married Sept. 2, 1873, to Hul- 
 dah M. Cooper, a native of New Haven, and a 
 daughter of Horace W. Cooper (who was born in 
 Pair Plaven), and his wife, Matilda F. Dornian- 
 To this marriage have been born six children : 
 .Stella M., Arthur C, Harry E., Andrew G., Jr., 
 and Rean O., living; one child, Eva M., died young. 
 Mr. Parker belongs to the Republican party and is 
 a member of the Montowese Lodge, No. 15, L O. 
 O. P., the Golden Rule Encampment, No. 24, Olive 
 Branch Lodge, No. 84, P. & A. M., the N. E. O. 
 P., and the Winchester Lodge of the Order of 
 Good Fellows. 
 
 Commodore Perry was the great uncle of the 
 mother of Matilda F. (Dorman) Cooper. 
 
 JOHN A. RYAN, architect, contractor and 
 builder, of Waterbury, was born in Newport, R. 
 I., June 14, 1858. His father, James Ryan, a na- 
 tive of Limerick, Ireland, came to the United States 
 in 1849 and worked in various towns in the East. 
 In Newport, R. I., he married Johanna Sullivan, 
 who was also a native of Limerick, and they had 
 ten children, seven of whom died young. The three 
 surviving are Dennis, who is a carpenter ; Daniel, 
 a butcher, both living in Newport ; and John K., 
 the subject of this biographical notice. 
 
 John A. Ryan was educated in the parochial 
 schools of Newport. In early life he passed six 
 years on the stage, or in the ring, as a general per- 
 former, arid also spent some time at sea. He then 
 served an apprenticeshio of four years at the car- 
 penter's trade with P. E. Reed, of New York City, 
 and afterward worked eleven years at that trade 
 with :Morton & Chesley (later AV. P. Chesley & Co.), 
 of New York City. In 1895 he came to Waterbury 
 and at once engaged in contracting and building on 
 his own account, all his structures being froni his 
 own designs. One of his many edifices in Water- 
 bury is the house of J. H. Mulville on East Main 
 street ; he also designed and executed the grill work 
 and furnishings of the J. PI. Mulville undertaking 
 establishment, and numerous cottages give evi- 
 dence of his taste and skill. 
 
 In 1885 Mr. Ryan was joined in matrimony 
 with Mary Kennedy, a native of Ireland, and this 
 union has been blessed with four children, James 
 J., Mamie, John A. and Christopher. 
 
 Mr. Ryan is independent in politics. He is a 
 jovial, genial gentleman and fraternally is an es- 
 teemed member of the B. P. O. E. and of the Hep- 
 tasophs. He is a devout Catholic in religion. As a 
 business man he is what is known as a "hustler," 
 having through bis industry and skill realized a 
 competence which has been augmented by the in- 
 heritance of a valuable property- He and his family 
 stand very high socially, being respected by all 
 classes within and without the pale of their church. 
 
 GEORGE LEWIS DICKERMAN, of New 
 Haven, a prominent member of the New Haven 
 County Bar, is a son of the late Charles Dickerman, 
 of New Haven, who descended from that branch of 
 the Dickerman family which has been identified 
 with New Haven from- Colonial times. 
 
 Thomas Dickerman, the emigrant ancestor of 
 the family, and his wife, Ellen, came about 1635, to 
 New England and to Dorchester, Mass-, where he 
 died in 1657. Our subject is a descendant of this 
 settler in the seventh generation, his line being 
 through Abraham, Isaac, Stephen, Elisha and 
 Charles. 
 
 Abraham Dickerman, son of Thomas, the set- 
 tler, was born in 1634, and was married in 1659, to 
 Mary Cooper, who was born about 1636, daughter 
 of John Cooper, of New Haven. It is supposed she 
 was born in England. They lived in New Haven. 
 Mr. Dickerman died in 171 1, and his wife in 1706. 
 
 Isaac Dickerman, the son of Abraham, born in 
 1677, in 1709 married Mary Atwater, who was born 
 in 1686, daughter of Jonathan and Ruth (Peck) 
 Atwater. 
 
 Stephen Dickerman, son of Isaac, was bom in 
 1 72 1, and in 1752 married Eunice Tuttle, who was 
 born in 1733, daughter of Andrew and Eunice 
 (Sherm_an) Tuttle. They lived in New Haven. 
 He died in 1779, his wife passing away the same 
 year. 
 
 Elisha Dickerman, son of Stephen, was born 
 March 5, 1769, and was married Dec. 27, 1794, to 
 Anna Scott, who was born about 1770, daughter of 
 William and Mary Scott. She died March 6, 1798. 
 His second marriage occurred Jan. 20, 1800, at 
 Branford, when Pamelia Goodrich became his wife. 
 She was born in December, 1774, daughter of Bar- 
 tholomew and Hannah (Baldwin) Goodrich. Mr. 
 Dickerman died July -6, 1855, in the eighty-seventh 
 year of his age, his widow survived until June 11, 
 1861, also reaching the age of eighty-seven. 
 
 _ Charles Dickerman, son of Elisha, was born 
 Sept. 10, 1816, and was married in Branford. this 
 county, Feb- 22, 1848, to Jane Foote, who was born 
 Oct. 24, 1826, daughter of Merritt and Betsy (Pal- 
 mer) Foote. Her father, who was born in 1795, 
 was married June 18, 1818, to Betsy Palmer, and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1219 
 
 died March 4, 1876. Mrs. Fo-ote was born May 6, 
 1794, and died April 25, 1837. Along in the mid- 
 dle thirties, Charles Dickerman, accompanied by two 
 of his brothers, Edmund and William, went South, 
 establishing themselves in mercantile business at 
 Natchez, Miss. After some ten successful years 
 William Dickerman returned to New Haven, while 
 Charles and Edmund Dickerman went to the city of 
 Milwaukee, Wis., where they made paying invest- 
 ments of real estate. About 1850 Charles Dicker- 
 man returned to his old home in New Haven, where 
 he passed the remainder of hi.s life. Here he and 
 William' associated themselves together and engaged 
 in the manufacture of carriages, continuing in that 
 line until the breaking out of the Civil war made it 
 improfitable- 
 
 Charles Dickerman gave much attention to fruit 
 culture, and became an expert in pomology. He 
 fruited nearly 300 varieties of pears, besides other 
 fruit, and received a number of medals for exhibits 
 on various occasions, among them the Wilder medal 
 of 1873. He took great delight and pleasure in 
 giving to others grafts from his trees, and thus en- 
 couraged an important industry. He was quite an 
 antiquarian and took delight in preserving memor- 
 ials of early days. Mr. Dickerman passed away 
 May 6, 1897, when past eighty. His wife died in 
 1875; she was a member of Centre Church. He 
 was a member of the Republican party. To the 
 marriage of Charles and Jane Dickerman came three 
 children: Ellen Palmer Dickerman, born Nov. 12, 
 1848, was married in 1870 to Charles W- Bardeen, 
 of Fitchburg, Mass., now a resident of Syracuse. 
 George Lewis Dickerman is mentioned below. 
 Caroline Ives Dickerman, born Sept. 23, 1856, lives 
 in New Haven. 
 
 George Lewis Dickerman was born April 12, 
 1852, in New Haven, where he was prepared for col- 
 lege at the Hopkins Grammar School and was grad- 
 uated from the Academical Department of Yale 
 College in 1874, completing the course of the Colum- 
 bia Law School, New York, in 1876. His studies 
 in law were pursued under Hon. Benjamin D. Sill- 
 iman, of New York City, and he was admitted to 
 the Bar in New Haven May 17, 1878, since which 
 time he has been actively and successfully engaged 
 in the practice of law in that city- For four years 
 he served most efficiently as an alderman. 
 
 Mr. Dickerman was married Oct. 14, 1885, at 
 Wilkesbarre, Pa., to Elizabeth Shoemaker, who 
 was born Feb. 11, 1856, daughter of L. D. and Es- 
 ther (Wadhams) Shoemaker, of Wilkesbarre. 
 
 HON. JAMES P. BREE, lawyer of New Ha- 
 ven, who at this writing is State senator from the 
 Eighth District, has taken high rank in his pro- 
 fession and in the councils of the Democratic party 
 in Connecticut to-day, and is one of the most prom- 
 ising of the young men of New Haven county. 
 
 Senator Bree was born Dec. 16, 1864, in New 
 Haven, a son of Patrick and Mary (Hart) Bree, 
 
 and received his preliminary education in the city's 
 public schools and the Hillhouse high school. Early 
 in his life career he learned the printer's trade and 
 wrote some for local newspapers. Having decided 
 upon the law as a life work, after some reading, he 
 eniered the Yale law school, completed the course 
 and was graduated therefrom in 1890, being ad- 
 mitted to the Bar the same year, and began the 
 practice of his profession in his native city, where 
 now, after more than a decade of study and earnest 
 effort, he has become established in a good and 
 growing practice. 
 
 Mr. Bree has given considerable attention to city 
 affairs and to the interests of charitable organiza- 
 tions, being a director for some years and at present, 
 of the St. Francis Orphan Asylum Corporation, 
 and of the St. Lawrence Cemetery Association, and 
 director of Organized Charities, as well as being ac- 
 tively identified with temperance work in New Ha- 
 ven, both city and county, as well as Connecticut. 
 Mr. Bree has the distinction of being the last town 
 auditor in New Haven, remaining in that position 
 until the office was abolished by an act consolidating 
 the city and town governments. From boyhood he 
 has been a total abstainer and has held office in 
 various temperance organizations, for two terms 
 being the president of the Catholic Total Abstinence 
 Union, of Connecticut. He has been seen and heard 
 on the temperance platforms in many towns of this 
 and other States, and has also held office in the An- 
 cient Order of Hibernians, and is at this writing 
 the national secretary of this order in America. 
 He holds membership in the Knights of Columbus, 
 and in the American-Irish Historical Society. 
 
 Shortly after casting his first vote Mr. Bree was 
 elected a member of the common council, following 
 which he was for some years am auditor of town ac- 
 counts for New Haven. His political affiliations 
 have always been with the Democratic party, al- 
 though he has many ardent admirers and friends 
 among the Republicans, which his consistency as 
 a Democrat, his high character and conspicuous 
 ability have won for him. In 1899 he was elected 
 a member of the Legislature, and in that body made 
 many friends, earning a reputation as an indus- 
 trious and hardworking member- During the ses- 
 sion of 1899 Mr. Bree was heard from in debate 
 a number of times, and was always listened to with 
 interest and respect. Among other bills he advo- 
 cated the one for one-half fare for school children 
 on the street cars, and also offered an amendment m 
 that session to the report of the Committee on Rail- 
 roads, which was adopted by practically a unanimous 
 vote. He secured an amendment to the charter of 
 the city of New Haven, requiring that all the streets 
 be sprinkled by the municipality, at general ex- 
 pense, a practice which has proved to be of much 
 convenience and benefit. Being a ready and pleas- 
 ing speaker he often rises to a high plane of genuine 
 eloquence. In his style of speaking he has an in- 
 dividuality that is effective. His diction is pure and 
 
I220 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 graceful and his voice is of a pleasing quality and 
 wide compass. Mr. Bree was elected to the State 
 Senate for the session of 1901 and was also elected 
 auditor for the State in that session. During this 
 session he introducedi the Bree bill, providing for 
 the establishment of hospitals for consumptives, 
 which, in a modified form, haS' becoine a law. The 
 Ei'cuing Leader of Jan- 17, 1901, editorially speaks 
 of Senator Bree as follows : 
 
 "The Senator two years ago was one of the 
 brightest and most active members of the House, 
 and the start he has made in the Senate this year 
 justifies predictions that no district will be better 
 represented than this of New Haven, which has the 
 biggest population of any district in the State."' 
 
 Senator Bree has been twice married, first in 
 1890 to Nellie A. Leddy, of New Haven, who died 
 in March, 1894, leaving one son, A^incent ; and sec- 
 ond, in December, 1898, to Annie E. Gray, of Forest- 
 ville, a most charming lady, by whom he has had 
 one child, a bright little fellow named Paul. 
 
 LOUIS CONRAD PFAFF. Among the prom- 
 inent, highly esteemed and substantial citizens of 
 New Haven, Conn., is Louis Conrad Pfaff, who is 
 the owner of one of the largest business enterprises 
 in this city. 
 
 The story of the life of Air. Pfaff reads almost 
 like a romance, although, when it is calmly consid- 
 ered, his career shows that his remarkable success 
 is but the natural result of honesty, energy, cour- 
 age and industry. The birth of Mr. Pfaff was in 
 Harthausen an Schr. ; Hohenzollem, Segmaringen, 
 Germany, Xov. 26, 1830, and he was a son of Ig- 
 natz and Francisca (Knaus) Pfaff, the former of 
 whom was a mason and contractor, like his father, 
 and followed this trade in his own land all his life. 
 Three children were born to the worthy parents of 
 Mr. Pfaff' : Katherine, who married Sebastian 
 Pfister, died in Germany ; Cecelia, who married 
 Hubert Gauggell, and lives in Hartford; and Louis 
 Conrad, of New Haven. Until he was fourteen 
 years old Louis Conrad Pfaff attended the village 
 schools and then went to a neighboring city where 
 he thoroughly learned the butcher business, serving 
 a long apprenticeship, as is the custom in that coun- 
 try, where each workman must lea_rn every detail 
 of a business before he is considered' ready to offer 
 his services to the public. Until 185 1 the young 
 man worked in various cities at his trade and then 
 served in the army for three years. 
 
 When Mr. Pfaff left the ranks and was pre- 
 pared to return to private life again he decided to 
 seek his fortune in America, and July 9, 1854, he 
 reached New Plaven. It required almost as much 
 courage as it did to face the guns of the enemy for 
 the young German to come to a strange country 
 with its unknown laws and unrecognizable speech, 
 and there to attempt to carve out a successful career 
 without either monev or friends. Allhuugji he was 
 not able to speak a word of English, Mr. Pfaff had 
 
 a genial and pleasant manner, found his way to 
 New Haven and soon secured employment in a 
 slaughter house owned by Alois Young in Fair Ha- 
 ven, where he remained for one year, coming then 
 to New Haven where he entered into the employ of 
 Richard Piatt in the same business. This firm was 
 located on the corner of George and Church streets, 
 and with energy Mr. Pfaff began his labors here, 
 determined to do his whole duty, and satisfying his 
 employers so well that he continued with them for 
 five years. 
 
 Mr. Pfaff relates that one day he was in the 
 neighborhood of the business house of his former 
 employer, Richard Piatt, and was trying to see his 
 way clear to renting this business, when he was 
 accosted by a financier of New Haven who had 
 watched his honest efforts. The wealthy friend 
 questioned him as to his prospects and desires, and 
 then showed his confidence in his integrity by say- 
 ing: "Buy the business and I will back you." In 
 1859 ^^- Pfaff embarked in the retail meat business 
 for himself on Congress avenue, where he pros- 
 pered for two and one-half years. It is needless 
 to say the capitalist never had cause to repent of 
 his generous act. The close confinement told so 
 seriously on Mr. Pfaff's health that he was obliged 
 to sell out and prepare to take a rest. Somewhat 
 homesick he decided to build up his health in his 
 old home, and the next four and one-half years 
 were spent in Germany, but the attractions of his 
 adopted land proved too strong to keep him in the 
 old country and he returned to New Haven with 
 health restored, but not yet in very prosperous finan- 
 cial condition. 
 
 Since that time Mr. Pfaff has shown what indus- 
 try and economy can accomplish, now owning some 
 of the most valuable real estate in New Haven, con- 
 ducting a double store on the leading business street 
 of New Haven and operating a large and constantly 
 increasing business which enjoys the patronage of 
 the most desirable residents of this community. It 
 is but just to ascribe Mr. Pfaff's unusual success 
 to his own efforts, and his prosperity surely shows 
 what may be accomplished when a young man puts 
 energy and honesty at the helm of his life boat. 
 
 In 1857 Mr. Pfaff was married to an old school 
 mate. Miss Elizabeth Wern, who was born in the 
 same village as himself. Of the children born to 
 the marriage, four lived to maturity : George H., 
 Louis, Charles and Elizabeth, all of whom have 
 been afforded excellent business advantages. The 
 eldest son, a very capable young man, has been his 
 father's business partner since 1883, the firm style 
 being Louis Pfaff & Son. George H. Pfaff married 
 Alary A. McCheane, of New Haven, and they have 
 had two children : Florence E., born Oct. 17, 1887; 
 and George H., Jr., born Oct. 27, i8qi. 
 
 In his political sympathy Air. Pfaff has remained 
 independent, voting as his judgment decides, and 
 being boj.md by no party tie. "With his wife and 
 children he belongs to the German Catholic Church, 
 
:OMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I22I 
 
 .of which he is one of the liberal supporters. So- 
 cially Mr. Pfafif belong's to the Germania Lodge 
 and the I. O. O. F. and the Encampment, taking an 
 active interest in these organizations and being de- 
 servedly popular in both. Mr. Pfafif is called upon 
 to pay a heavy property tax in this city, his hold- 
 ing being of much value. He is a good citizen and 
 his assistance may always be relied upon in the fur- 
 therance of public spirited enterprises. Few men 
 in New Haven have so successfully conquered ad- 
 verse circumstances, and he enjoys the esteem and 
 confidence of his whole circle of acquaintance. Mr. 
 Pfaff has never used tobacco in any form and is 
 legular in his habits, which accounts for his fine 
 physical condition at the present time. 
 
 WILLIAM C. KEEXAN, one of the leading 
 factory men of Waterbury, and for many years a 
 worker in the industrial world of that city, a man 
 whose name and character are beyond question, was 
 "born there Jan. i, 1852, son of Patrick Keenan. 
 
 Our subject's father was born in Queen's County, 
 Ireland, son of Patrick Keenan, a farmer in Ire- 
 land, who never came to this country. Patrick Kee- 
 nan, father of William C, married jMary Keenan, 
 also a native of Queen's county, Ireland, and both 
 ■died in 1867. The following named children were 
 born to them: Dennis, William C. (whose name 
 .appears above), Dennis (2), ]\Iary A., Annie and 
 Mary A. (2). All died young, excepting our sub- 
 ject, and ;\Iary A. (2), who married William C. 
 Kelly, of Waterbury, and died in 1892. - Patrick 
 Keenan was . a gardener and followed that occupa- 
 tion throughout life. 
 
 William C. Keenan oas&edi his boyhood and 
 youth in Waterbury, attended the public schools 
 and was thrown upon his own resources at the age 
 of fifteen years by the sudden, death of his parents. 
 A place as errand boy in Booth & Haydens was 
 given him, and, demonstrating at once his reliability 
 and efficiency, he rose step by step until at present 
 he is the head time-keeper for that concern. It is a 
 record of a long and faithful service, and one that 
 should have its lesson for a restless and uneasy gen- 
 eration. 
 
 On Nov. 27, 1873, ^r- Keenan was married to 
 Miss Mary E. Kelly, a native of Waterbury, and 
 a daughter of Patrick and Mary E. (Moore) Kelly, 
 natives of King's County and Queen's County, Ire- 
 land, respectively. Both dlied in Waterbury. To 
 Mr. and Mrs. Keenan have been born a family of 
 twelve children, eight of whom, are living, viz : 
 Mary E. ; Anna R. ; Patrick D., deceased ; William, 
 deceased; Margaret M.; John J., deceased; Sara; 
 Lauretta C, deceased ; William C. ; Emiline ; Rosita ; 
 •and Ruth. Margaret is a graduate of the New 
 Britain Normal School. Mary and Anna are teach- 
 ers in Waterbury. 
 
 Mr. Keenan has. always been a Democrat and 
 lias taken an active part in political affairs. For 
 four years he was alderman from the Fourth Ward, 
 
 for nine years was city treasurer, and for the same 
 length of time was treasurer of the Center school 
 district. As chairman of the committee that insti- 
 tuted the present electric light system his work was 
 important and valuable- Mr. Keenan belongs to 
 several societies and social organizations, in all of 
 which he is active and influential. He belongs to 
 the W. R., C. T. A. and B. Society, the Catholic 
 Literary Society, the Foresters of America, the 
 Knights of Columbus, the A. O. U. W., the Mu- 
 tual Benevolent Society, the St. Vincent De Paul 
 Society, and is a member of the Immaculate Concep- 
 tion Catholic Church. Mr. Keenan has been presi- 
 dent of the National Land League many years. 
 Air. Keenan is a man of broad views, sound infor- 
 mation and good judgment. Thrown upon the 
 world by the loss of his parents, he continued his 
 studies in the night schools and has for many years 
 been a deep readier. 
 
 FREDERICK L. A\'ERILL, clerk of the 
 Court of Common Pleas, was born in Branford, 
 Conn., July 15, 1865, a son of George and Harriet 
 E. (Babcock) Averill, the former of whom has 
 been a captain in the coasting trade nearly all his 
 life and who still resides at Branford, Connecticut. 
 John Averill, the grandfather, was a resident of 
 Branford all his life and was a man highly respected 
 in the community, where he was so well known- 
 Frederick L. Averill spent his early school days 
 in Branford, but removed to New Haven when nine- 
 teen, engaging with Smith Bros., oyster merchants. 
 Later he became bookkeeper for Peck Furniture 
 Co., and while thus employed attended Yale law 
 school, being graduated therefrom in 1895, at which 
 time he was elected clerk of the Court of Common 
 Pleas. Mr. Averill was the Republican General 
 Register of voters for several years, and in 1896 was 
 elected to the General Assembly, serving on the 
 distinguished Judiciary committee of that year. 
 When the Connecticut Naval Battalion, Naval Mi- 
 litia, was organized June 30, 1894, Mr. Averill en- 
 listed as a seaman, and he has passed thrcugh vari- 
 ous promotions in that body until he is now Com- 
 mander of the Battalion. On July 11, 1898, he was 
 made a paymaster in the United States navy. Re- 
 cently he was elected a companion of the Naval Or- 
 der of the L^nited States, o.f which Admiral Dewey 
 is co-mmander- 
 
 Since his admission to the Bar in 1895, Mr. 
 Averill has practiced his profession and is regarded 
 as one of the rising young attorneys of New Ha- 
 ven. His political influence is wide, and many 
 higher things are spoken of for him by his asso- 
 ciates who recognize his ability and popularity. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Averill is connected with various 
 fraternal organizations, among which are Wooster 
 Lodge, A. F. & A. M., Harmony Council, Franklin 
 Chapter, Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine, and New 
 Haven Commandery, K. of T. ; City Lodge, I. O. O. 
 F. ; Sheffield Lodge, K. of P. ; Yale Conclave Hep- 
 
1222 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tasophs ; Washington Council O. U. A. J\L : Roger 
 Sherman Lodge, Knights of Honor ; Sterling Lodge, 
 A. O. U. W. ; Pequoit Camp, Woodmen of the 
 AVorld. Mr. Averill is also a member of several 
 clubs, among which are : Country, Quinnipiac, An- 
 santawae, Union League and Young Men's. 
 
 On Dec. i8, 1890, Mr. Averill was married in 
 New Haven to Emma E. Button, of this cit}', a 
 daughter of John M. Button, and to them has been 
 born one child, Helen, April i, 1894. Mr. Averill 
 is one of the most progressive young men of New 
 Haven and commands the respect as well as admir- 
 ation of a large circle of friends. 
 
 WALTER S. CROSBY, proprietor of the 
 Cedarhurst Poultry Yards and Jersey Milk Dairy, 
 at West Haven, was born Oct. i, 1854, in Charle- 
 mont, Mass., a son of Joshua and Nancy (Smead) 
 Crosby. 
 
 Joshua Crosby was a native of Hawley and fol- 
 lowed farming there for some time in connection 
 with an extensive lumber business and a stage line 
 from Northampton to Greenfield. Later he re- 
 moved to> Saratoga Springs, N. Y., and conducted a 
 large truck farm until bis retirement from active 
 business, his death occurring there at the age of 
 seventy-seven. In politics he was a stanch Republi- 
 can and he held office of selectman in Hawley, and 
 later was prominent in local affairs at Saratoga 
 Springs. Through the war times he was one of 
 the leaders in building a colored Church in that sec- 
 tion, as his sympathies were warmly enlisted in 
 behalf of that race, and he assisted materially in 
 other ways in the Abolition movement. He was a 
 Congregationalist in religious belief and was deacon 
 and superintendent of Sunday-school for many 
 years. As a citizen he was highly respected by all, 
 his sound jud'gment making his opinion of value, 
 and his rtjemory is revered in the community where 
 he resided so long- The mother, Nancy Smead, was 
 born in Charlemont, Mass., one of eleven children 
 of Elihu Smead and his wife, Maria Hatch, who 
 died aged eighty-six years. Mrs. Nancy (Smead) 
 Crosby is living and makes her home with her three 
 children, of whom our subject is the eldest, the 
 others being, Arthur S., who resides in Orange; 
 and Kate, who is a dressmaker in New Haven. 
 
 Elihu Smead, our subject's grandfather in the 
 maternal line, was a farmer at Charlemont, where 
 he lived to the good old age of eighty-eight. He 
 was a descendant of John Turner, a governor of 
 Massachusetts, and his ancestors in this line came 
 over in the "Mayflower." 
 
 The early life of Walter S. Crosby was spent 
 with his parents, and after attending the common 
 schools for a time he entered Saratoga Academy, 
 but illness compelled him to leave before the end of 
 his course. For a number of years he was a market 
 gardener and also bought, sold and trained! horses 
 to some extent. In 1882 he removed to New Haven 
 as traveling salesman for a wholesale fruit house. 
 
 and later the firm of Crosby & Seward was formed, 
 continuing four years. His next venture was the 
 purchase of a bakery, and) on selling this two years 
 later he went on the road for a decorating firm, five 
 years being spent in traveling through all parts of 
 the United States, Canada and Cuba- On his re- 
 turn to West Haven in 1893 he purchased his pres- 
 ent homestead and engaged in the poultry and milk 
 business. He keeps about twenty-two head of Jer- 
 sey cattle and conducts a retail milk route in West 
 Haven, while his poultry business is carried! on ac- 
 cording to modern methods, with an incubator of 
 500 tgg capacity. At times the yards contain as 
 many as eight hundred) fowls, including his special 
 breeds of Barred Plymouth Rocks, Langshans, Buff 
 Leghorns and Gold and White Wyandottes, and 
 his market for this line of business is in New Ha- 
 ven. 
 
 In 1870 Mr. Crosby married Miss Carrie N. Es- 
 mond, daughter of John W. Esmond, a native of 
 Saratoga, and a farmer there throughout his life. 
 Her mother, whose maiden name was Kathrine Nor- 
 ton, is still living. Mrs. Crosby is the eldest of a 
 family of three children, the others being Jennie, 
 wife of Ferdinand W. Potter; and Wesley J., all 
 residents of Saratoga- Our subject and his wife 
 have had three children: Gertrude P.. a graduate 
 of the local schools ; Lena ; and Jennie. The family 
 is prominent ini social life and is connected with the 
 Congregational Church. 'Politically Mr. Crosby is 
 a Republican and for some years has been consta- 
 ble of West Haven, where he has also been nomi- 
 nated for other offices. For five years, he served in 
 the Twenty-second N. Y. N. G. at Saratoga, and 
 fraternally he is identified with the A. O. U- W. 
 and the K. of P., having passed through all the 
 chairs in the latter and attained the Uniform Rank. 
 He is a member of the West Haven Engine & Hose 
 Co., of w^hich he has been first lieutenant for some 
 time. 
 
 JAMES E. TODD. One of the prominent and 
 representative business citizens of New Haven, 
 Conn., is James E. Todd, whose steam planing mill 
 and offices are located at No- 546 State street in 
 this city. Mr. Todd is a native of North Haven, 
 where he was born Oct. 7, 1857. The family is an 
 old and respected one in this State, and his grand- 
 father, Capt. William Todd, was a native and life- 
 long resident of Wallingford. 
 
 James R. Todd, the son of Capt. William Todd, 
 and the father of James E. Todd, was born in Wall- 
 ingford, Conn., July 12, 1823, and died in New 
 Haven, Conn., March 17, 1899- For many years- 
 he was a builder, like his father, his operations be- 
 ing both in New Haven and in North Haven. He 
 married Lucretia G. Willey, of Tolland, Conn., a 
 daughter of Hon. Calvin Willey, a lawyer of ability,, 
 who honorably represented his district in the United 
 States Senate. After marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Todd 
 settled in New Haven, where they reared their two 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1223 
 
 children : Frank E. and James E. In politics Mr. 
 Todd was a stanch Republican, and both he and his 
 wife were most worthy members of the Baptist 
 Church- The death ot Mrs. Todd took place in 
 March, 1874. 
 
 The educational advantages enjoyed by James 
 E. Todd in boyhood and youth were the best af- 
 forded by the Eaton and) the Webster schools, this 
 instruction being supplemented by that of Peck's 
 private school, and later that of the F. A. Cargill 
 Business College. Inheriting a love of tools and of 
 work in wood, Mr. Todd early turned his attention 
 to carpentering, receiving instruction from his 
 father, and remaining with him^ for some years. In 
 1879 he embarked in the business of building and 
 contracting on his own account, and through energy 
 and perseverance has built up a very large and im- 
 portant business industry. Many of the largest and 
 most important business buildings and residences of 
 New Haven were erected by Mr. Todd, prominent 
 among which are Young Men's Christian Associat'n 
 building; Washington building; Tuttle, Moorehouse 
 & TayloT building; palatial residence "Kenmore" 
 for N. W. Kendall ; marble bouse of H- F. English ; 
 T. G. Bennett mansion ; Yale University building ; 
 "Pierson Hall"; "York Hall"; "The Colony"; and 
 many others. Adopting modern methods and ma- 
 chinery, Mr. Todd has been able to compete with 
 much older establishments, his work now having a 
 recognized value in the market and continually 
 growing in demand. His steam planing mill is kept 
 running, full time and be gives employment to a 
 large and skilled force. 
 
 In April, 1899, Mr. Todid was married to Miss 
 Katberine H. Banks, of Washington, D. C, a daugh- 
 ter of Mrs. Julia B. Banks, of that city. One son, 
 James W., was born of a former marriage. In poli- 
 tics Mr. Todd is an active Republican, without be- 
 ing in any way a politician, his business and social 
 connections leaving bim little time to manage pub- 
 lic affairs. Fraternally he is connected with, and 
 is popular in the Quinnipiac Lodge ; I. O. O- F. ; 
 Chamber of Commerce ; and the Pequot and Union 
 League clubs. As a business man and as a rep- 
 resentative and public-spirited citizen Mr. Todd is 
 held in high esteem in New Haven. 
 
 ROBERT P. JOHNSTONE, a well-known flor- 
 ist and representative citizen of Hamden, respected 
 alike for his industry and integrity, may properly 
 be called among the self-made men of New Haven 
 county, as he came to this country with no capital 
 and through his own unaided efforts has achieved 
 success. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, March 
 6, 1857, son of Robert P. andl Sarah (Parker) 
 Johnstone, and at the age of thirteen years began 
 work as a gardener. He soon mastered the business 
 in all its branches, becoming a practical landscape 
 gardener of excellent ability. He continued to work 
 at his chosen occupation in his native land until the 
 spring of 1876 when he crossed the broad Atlantic 
 
 and first located in Jersey City, N. J. Suljscquently 
 he went to New Brunswick, that State, and from 
 there to Chicago, 111., where he was private gardener 
 for Potter Palmer for three years. During the 
 following four years he was similarly employed by 
 James B. Colgate, of Yonkers, N. Y., and then was 
 employed at the summer home of J. P. Robinson, 
 near Narragansett, R. I., for three years. Coming 
 to New Haven in 1890 he was private gardener for 
 Dr. Crane at his beautiful home called "Ivy Nook," 
 on Whitney avenue, until 1896, when he embarked 
 in his present business at Whitneyville. Here he 
 owns three acres of land and has over 8,000 square 
 feet of glass in his green houses. He has a general 
 assortment of potted plants and deals extensively 
 in cut flowers, raising all kinds of carnations, roses 
 and violets. He is a man of artistic taste and he 
 thoroughly understands the business he pursues. 
 In Yonkers, N. Y., in 1881, Mr. Johnstone was 
 united in rdarriage with Miss Margaret Luke, who 
 is also of Scottish birth, born in Dollar, near Stirl- 
 ing, Scotland, and they now have a family of six 
 children, namely : Eldred J., Robert P., Jr., Edith, 
 Arthur D., Frederick L. and Bruce D. Mr. John- 
 stone is a Republican in his political views, and is 
 a member of the Congregational Church. Fratern- 
 ally he belongs to Day Spring Lodge, No- ."^o, F. & 
 A. M., and is also a member of New Haven Horti- 
 cultural Society, being member of the board of man- 
 agers of the latter organization. 
 
 FERDINAND PFLEGHAR, an honored vet- 
 eran of the Civil war and a skilled iron worker, is 
 a resident of New Haven, where his industry and 
 straightforward character have made him many 
 friends and won him' the confidence and esteem of 
 those with whom he is most intimately associated. 
 He was born in Wurtemberg, Germany, Oct. 20, 
 1845, a son of Frank Pfleghar, also a native-born 
 German, who came to New Haven, where he died 
 in 1875. His father was a millwright and died in 
 France. Frank Pfleghar followed his father's trade, 
 and married in Germany, Anna, his wife, being a 
 native of the same country with her husband. To 
 them were born six children : Frank P. is a ma- 
 chinist on Crown stre'et, New Flaven; Frances never 
 married, but retired to a convent ; Ferdinand ; Bar- 
 ney is a resident in New Haven ; two others died 
 young. 
 
 Ferdinand Pfleghar spent the first fourteen years 
 of bis life in Germany and attended school after 
 the old country fashion. In 1859 h'^ came to New 
 Haven and secured work in Whitney's gun fac- 
 tory, at Whitneyville, where he remained until bis 
 enlistment in Company K, 27tb Conn. V. I., in 1862, 
 for a term of nine months. When that time exoired 
 he promptly re-enlisted in ist Conn. Heavy Artillery, 
 and served until the close of the war. Fie saw much 
 hard fighting and was in many bloody conflicts but 
 escaped unhurt. 
 
 When the war was over Mr. Pfleghar came back 
 
1224 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 to Xcw Haven and resumed his wurk at W'hitnc)'- 
 ville. For three }-ears he continued there and then 
 went to W'atertown, X. Y-, to take a place in a gun 
 factory in that city, where lie remained a year. Mr. 
 Pfleghar next came back to New Haven to help his 
 brother as a machinist, and for three years worked 
 in different factories in Bridgeport, In New ]\Iil- 
 ford, Conn., he was the foreman of the Bostwick 
 Brothers button factory. Leaving Bostwick 
 Brothers he again entered the employment of his 
 brother, and about 1885 became an employe of the 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Co, and has risen to 
 become the foreman of the loading department of 
 that important and world-known concern. 
 
 iMr. Pfleghar was married in 1867 to Miss Ha- 
 gar, German born and bred. She died in 1888. leav- 
 ing j\Ir. Pfleghar with three children: Frank H-, 
 Ferdinand' C. and Alinnie. Charles F. is deceased. 
 M'r. Pfleghar was married to his present wife, 
 Hedweg Brelowski, in 1892. She, too, was 
 born in Germany. Mr. Pfleghar is a Republican, 
 and in his fraternal affiliations belongs to St- Peter's 
 Lodge, A. .F & A. iM., and the Chapter, No. 33, R. 
 A. M., of New Alilford. He also belongs to Good 
 Shepherd Lodge. No. 65, I. O. (). F., of New Mil- 
 ford, the A. O. U. W. and the N. E. O. P. From 
 his long and honorable career in the Union army it 
 is not to be expected that Air- Pfleghar should stand 
 outside the fraternities of the old soldiers, and he 
 is found a faithful member of the ^Vdmiral Foote 
 Post, G. A. R. :\Ir. Pfleghar, loyal to the faith of 
 his fathers, is a communicant of the Roman Catho- 
 lic faith. 
 
 HENRY SUTTON, whose death occurred at 
 his handsome home, the Ward place, in West Ha- 
 ven, Nov. 8, 1896, was for years one of N'ew Ha- 
 ven and vicinity's most active and energetic business 
 men and substantial citizens, interested in its wel- 
 fare, and a promoter of measures looking to its ad- 
 vancement and progress. 
 
 Harry Sutton, his father, was born, reared and 
 educated in New York State, but moved to Oxford, 
 Conn., and was engaged in business there as a car- 
 penter, builder and contractor for many years, his 
 death occurring at the age of seventy-eight. He 
 was one of the substantial citizens of the place and 
 took a prominent part in religious work as a mem- 
 ber of St. Peter's Church, holding office in the 
 church and Sunday-school. Politically he affili- 
 ated with the Democratic party, being a valued 
 worker in the local organization. His wife, Mary 
 A. Smith, a native of Oxford, died at the age of 
 seventy-four. Of their five children, Frederick K. 
 resides in Fair Haven ; and Nancy J. married Louis 
 Tucker, of Plainville, Conn. Harry Sutton was 
 a son of John Sutton, who died in early manhood. 
 In the maternal line Mr. Sutton was a great-grand- 
 son of the Rev. Chauncey Prindle, a "graduate of 
 Yale Cnllege, who died Aug. 25, 1833, after more 
 than fifty ^-ears of service in the ministry; during 
 
 his active pastorate he had charge of churches in 
 Salem, ( )xford, Waterbury, and his last woirk was 
 done at St. Peter's Church, Plymouth. His daugh- 
 ter, Hannah, was the mother of Mr. Sutton's mother. 
 
 Born May 3, 1843, in the town of Oxford, 
 Conn., Flenry Sutton was a son of Harry and Mary 
 A. (Smith) Sutton, of Oxford, Conn. He was 
 reared on a farm in Oxford and received a com.mon 
 school education. In early life he learned the trade 
 of a carriage trimmer in Naugatuck and followed 
 that trade tliere and in Canada until his coming to 
 New Haven in 1865. He followed that occupation 
 for some years with the Henry Manville & Co. Car- 
 riage Works. In 1870 he began the grocery busi- 
 ness on Chapel street. Some years later, 1872, the 
 business was removed to the corner of Chapel and 
 Franklin streets, and in addition to the stock of gro- 
 ceries he handled a ship chandlery business, the lat- 
 ter of which grew to such an extent that it became 
 his sole business. Some half dozen years subse- 
 quently he removed to State street. 
 
 Air. Sutton was active and prominent in ship 
 building for a period beginning in the middle sev- 
 enties. He built and owned in his time a fleet of 
 vessels. Among the fifteen or more vessels he con- 
 structed were some of the best schooners afloat. Of 
 all he was part owner and manager, and three of 
 them he owned individually. Mr. Sutton was one 
 of the men instrumental in bringing to West Haven 
 the Connecticut building from the World's Fair at 
 Chicago, and erecting it in Colonial Park,' West Ha- 
 ^en Shore, and was the manager of the building 
 after its establishment here. In 1895 he turned his 
 attention to electric roads and became stockholder, 
 secretary and director in the West Shore road 
 running from New Haven to Woodmont. The de- 
 ceased was widely known and had hosts of friends. 
 He was a member of Wooster Lodge, F. & A. M., 
 and a Mason of Thirty-second degree. Politically 
 he was a Republican and belonged to the Republi- 
 can League. He was an attendant of the West Ha- 
 ven Congregational Church. 
 
 Mrs. Sutton, whose maiden name was Lucinda 
 Doney, was born in Napanee, Ontario, where Mr. 
 Sutton met and married her. She is one of the 
 social leaders of West Haven and her beautiful 
 home on the corner of Campbell avenue and Elm 
 street is the center of a refined and gracious hos- 
 pitality. Mr. and Mrs. Sutton have had one child, 
 Harry D., who married Miss Addie D. Somers, of 
 A\'est Haven, Conn., and has one child, Gladys; he 
 was educated in the common schools of New Ha- 
 ven and Russell's Military school, of New Haven, 
 and since his marriage resides in a separate home 
 near his mother's. For some years he was success- 
 fully engaged in the furniture business with the 
 Bowditch Furniture Co., but later took the manage- 
 ment of vessels and has added a number to his 
 fleet. 
 
 Mrs. Sutton was a daughter of Solomon Donev, 
 who was born in Middleburg, Schoharie Co., N. Y., 
 
icrt^x^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1225 
 
 March 12, 1810, the seventh son of WilHani' and 
 Kebecca (Seeley) Doner, the former of whom was 
 an officer in the Revohitionary war and hved to be 
 more than a hundred years of age. Solomon Doney 
 was a shoemaker by trade and d'eaU largely m 
 leather. He married Mary Scott, of Napanee, On- 
 tario, who died at the age of forty-five ; he died aged 
 eighty-seven years. Both parents were devout mem- 
 bers of the Congregational Church. Of their 
 eleven children, six are living, as follows : Mar- 
 garet, who married George Baldwin, of Canada ; 
 Homer, residing in Clayton, New York ; Mrs. Sut- 
 ton; Marie, who married Albert Hartman, of Utica, 
 N. Y. ; Lisle, who married Capt. H. A. Obrien, of 
 Thomaston, Maine; and Alzadia, widow of E. P. 
 Sherwood, and residing in Copenhagen, New York. 
 
 EDGAR C. SLOANE, foreman of the piano 
 stool department of the Charles Parker Co.'s works 
 at Meriden, was born in Thompsonville, Hartford 
 Co-, Conn., Aug. 29, 1854, a son of the late Andrew 
 Sloane, and a brother of James R. Sloane, of Meri- 
 den. 
 
 Mr. Sloane received all his schooling in the local 
 schools before he was twelve years of age, at which 
 time he became a clerk, at small wages, in a gro- 
 cery store at Thompsonville, which was conducted 
 by Henry Warner. Later he worked at the same 
 business in the store of D. F. Hayes, where he re- 
 mained until 1871. In that year he went to Hart- 
 ford and took a position with A. H. Tillinghast, 
 where he was a clerk, receiving for compensation for 
 one year of work, $480, or forty dollars a month. 
 Returning to Thompsonville he resumed his posi- 
 tion with Hayes, but after a year with him again 
 went to Hartford to enter the employ of J- D. Burn- 
 ham & Co., wholesale tobacco dealers, with whom 
 he remained eight years. At the expiration of that 
 periodi he took a position with Allen & Blanchard, 
 remaining with them until 1881, when, in company 
 with his brothers, James R. and Frederick D. 
 Sloane, he entered into the grocery business in 
 Thompsonville. This firm soon went out of busi- 
 ness, and in 1883 Mr. Sloane came to Meriden, se- 
 curing a position in the freight department of the 
 New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, where 
 he spent nine years, the last six of that time being 
 head clerk. This position he resigned in 1892 to 
 accept a position as bookkeeper in the office of the 
 Charles Parker Co. At the end of a year he be- 
 came foreman of the piano stool department of that 
 firm, a position he has filled for the last nine years 
 with credit to himself and satisfaction to his em- 
 ployers. In his work he is much interested, and 
 m the years which he has spent in Meriden, he has 
 become one of the leading citizens of the place. 
 
 Mr. Sloane was married in October, 1884, in 
 Marlborough, Windham Co., Vt., to Betsie (Bes- 
 sie) Houghton, who was born in Vermont, a daugh- 
 ter of Rufus A.'and Sarah A. (Winchester) Hough- 
 ton. Mrs. Sloane was educated in Marlborough and 
 
 taught school for several years. She is a lady of 
 high attainments and a devoted wife and mother. 
 Their only child, Sarah Alice, is a student in the 
 Meriden high school and is a bright and intelligent 
 girl. Mr. Sloane belongs to the Hancock Lodge, 
 No- 28, I. O. O. F., of South Meriden, and is also 
 a member of Pilgrims' Harbor Council, No. 543, 
 R. A., at Meriden; Washington Camp, P. O. S. 
 of A., and both himself and wife belong to the P. 
 O. of A., and both also belong to Rachel Rebekah 
 Lodge, No- 2. He is a Republican, but in no sense 
 an active politician. He and his family belong to 
 the Universalist Church. In the communitv he is 
 very much respected and is known as a good man. 
 
 The Ho-ughton family, to which Mrs. Sloane be- 
 longs, was long settled in Vermont, and comes of 
 English origin. Bradley Houghton, the grandfather 
 of Mrs. Sloane, was a native of Marlborough, 
 where he spent his life and where he owned a large 
 amount of land. He was a member of the Congre- 
 gational Church. For his first wife he married 
 Lucy Adams, a native of Marlborough, \t., and a 
 daughter of Capt. Simeon Adiams, an officer of the 
 State militia. She died at the age of thirty-two. 
 For his second wife Bradley Houghton married 
 Eliza Rutter, a native of Townshend, Vt., and' for 
 his third wife, Samantha, a sister of Eliza Rutter. 
 To the first marriage were born : Triplets, all dying 
 in infancy ; George, who died at the age of twenty- 
 two years ; Sarah, who married James P. Mather ; 
 Elizabeth, who married Asa Winchester ; Rufus A. ; 
 and Bradley, who is still living in Marlborough. 
 To the second Mrs. Floughton were born, twins, 
 who died in infancy; Charles, who died in the Civil 
 war ; Susan, who died unmarried ; and Sydney, who 
 died young. 
 
 Rufus A. Houghton, the father of jNIrs. Sloane, 
 was born April i, 1834, in Marlborough, Vt., on 
 the homestead farm, where he grew to manhood. 
 In his early manhood he removed to Brattleboro, 
 wfhere he spent seventeen years as a professional 
 nurse, when he went to Boston, going from there to 
 Meriden to take a place in the piano stool department 
 of Charles Parker .Company. Here he continued 
 until his death, Dec. 27, 1901, and his remains were 
 carried back to Brattleboro, Vt. His handsome and 
 well appointed! home was on Curtis street. In poli- 
 tics he was a Democrat, and in his native town he 
 filled the office of selectman. Religiously he was 
 a Universalist. Domestic in character and temper- 
 ate in his habits, he held an assured position of re- 
 spectability where be lived and is remembered as 
 a good and true man. 
 
 Mr. Houghton was married to Sarah Alice Win- 
 chester, who was born in Marlborough, Vt., a 
 daughter of Antipas and Loisi (Kelsev) Winches- 
 ter, and a granddaughter of Luther Winchester and 
 of Se^onour Kelsey, of whom, the last named was 
 born in Middlesex county, Vt., and was a soldier 
 in the Revolutionary war ; be married Sarah Augur, 
 also a native of Winchester county, Vt. To Mr. 
 
1226 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and Airs. Houghton were born the foHowing fam- 
 ily : Romanzo, who died at the age of forty-seven ; 
 Maverett, who married Samuel H. Holcomb, of 
 Thompsonville, Conn.; Betsie (Bessie), who mar- 
 ried Edgar C- Sloane ; Mary, residing in Boston ; 
 Sarah Lucy, who married Fred F. Loy, of Spring- 
 field, Mass. ; and! Hannah Lois, of Boston. Four 
 members of this family died in infancy. Mrs. Hough- 
 ton makes her home on Curtis street, Meriden. 
 She is a member of the Uniyersalist Church and is 
 a lady of refinement and learning. 
 
 COL. THEODORE H. SUCHER, who for a 
 period of twenty years and more has been prominent 
 in the business and social life of New Haven, and 
 whose military career covers that period, is one 
 of the most widely known of the younger men in 
 Connecticut, his long service in the National Guard 
 of the State, as an officer in the 2d Regiment, giving 
 him an extended acquaintance and a deserved pop- 
 ularity. 
 
 August Sucher, the father of our subject, was 
 born at Brostau, Province of Silesia, Prussia, in 
 1808, his death occurring in New Haven July 12, 
 1891. In 1850 he came from his home to New 
 York, going from there to California where he re- 
 mained until 1858, when he located in New Haven, 
 Conn., and thereafter lived a retired life. He mar- 
 ried Alvina Meyer, a native of Saxony, Germany, 
 who came to the United States, where she first met 
 her husband. A family of three children were born 
 to this union : Col. Theodore H., our subject ; Anna, 
 who married Richard Gubitz and resides in Hart- 
 ford ; and Gustave, a resident of California- 
 Col. Sucher was born on Feb. 26, 1859, in New 
 Haven, and attended the public schools, after his 
 school days were over entering a business career in 
 the avocation of brass and metal worker in the em- 
 ploy of Peck Brothers, remaining with that firm 
 for seventeen years, pursuing it with fidelity and 
 success. Following this period he became engaged 
 in New Haven in the business of gentlemen's fur- 
 nishings, at which he continued with success until 
 1897, since which time he has had the management 
 of Springside Home, an institution for the homeless 
 and afflicted, located some four miles from the cen- 
 ter of the city, near West Rock Park, and, includ- 
 ing the Park property, comprises 385 acres of land. 
 A stanch Republican in politics. Col. Sucher has 
 been actively interested in party and public affairs 
 and, a born leader, his influence has been felt in 
 municipal andl county affairs, especially in military 
 lines. As a member of the common council he has 
 efficiently served, and' also as selectman of the town. 
 Early in his career he evinced a taste and liking for 
 military affairs, and in manner and presence was 
 adapted to such service. On j\lay 7, 1877, he en- 
 listed in Co. E, 2d Regiment, National Guard of 
 Connecticut, and irom that day to this he has been 
 most activeh- interested in tliat organization, and in 
 the National Guard of the State in general. His 
 
 career in the Second Regiment has been one useful to 
 his city and State, as well as most creditable to him- 
 self and friends. Rising from the ranks he has ac- 
 ceptably filled the positions and was made colonel 
 of the regiment in January, 1901, his first pro- 
 motion being May i, 1879, made captain Dec. 15, 
 1884, and to his credit, along with others, his com- 
 pany, Co. E, was made to rank among the first in 
 the National Guard 0/ the State. On June 16, 1891, 
 Capt. Sucher resigned his commission but again 
 assumed command Jan. 16, 1892 ; was elected major 
 July II, 1895; lieutenant-colonel Aug. 3, 1900; and 
 colonel Jan. 11, 1901. 
 
 On June 5, 1883, Col. Sucher was married to 
 Bertha Hax,. of New Haven, who was born in New 
 Jersey, a daughter of Daniel Hax, a veteran of the 
 Mexican and Civil wars, who, with his wife, was 
 born in Germany. To Col. and Mrs. Sucher have 
 been born: Theodore, Clara, Carl and Alfred; the 
 last named died when seventeen months old. Col. 
 Sucher is a genial, social man and has hosts of 
 friends. Progressive and liberal, he believes in the 
 motto, "live and let live" ;. is a member of many so- 
 cieties and served officially in them. Among tliese 
 are the Knights of Honor; Knights of the Golden 
 Eagle ; A. O. U. W. ; Arctic Coterie Benefit Associa- 
 tion ; Peck Brothers & Co. Mutual Aid Association; 
 German Funeral Aid Association; the German Aid 
 Society :, and Connecticut Rock Lodge, No. 92, F. 
 & A. M. Col. Sucher and his wife are members 
 of Trinity German Lutheran Church, of New Ha- 
 ven, and are popular and highly esteemed people. 
 
 SIDNEY S. KELSEY, foreman of the sole cut- 
 ting department of the Candee Rubber Co., and a 
 rising business man of New Haven, was born in 
 Clinton, Conn., Nov. 8, 1854, being a son of Lyman 
 and Eunice (Carter) Kelsey. 
 
 The Kelsey family is an old one in the history 
 of New England, the originator of it in the New 
 \A^orld coming from England. Lyman Kelsey was 
 born in Clinton and there passed his life and died. 
 He was a carpenter and joiner by trade. In his na- 
 tive town he wedded Eunice Carter, who still sur- 
 vives. Eight children were born of this union : Al- 
 bert, a farmer of Clinton ; Ogilvie, who died at the 
 age of thirty ; Henry, foreman in the Candee Rubber 
 Co., of New Haven ; George, who died at the age 
 of twenty-one ; Susan, deceased wife of John Whip- 
 ple, of New London; Leander, a farmer of Clinton; 
 Sidney S. ; Elizabeth, who married William Meigs 
 and lives in Madison, Connecticut- 
 
 The father dying when Sidney was but eight 
 years of age, the latter's opportunities for attend- 
 ing school were limited, and when twelve he be- 
 gan to work for neighboring farmers, continuing 
 in this line until sixteen, but whenever he could, he 
 availed hinTself of the advantages offered by the 
 district schools. For two years he Mforked for the 
 Clinton Manufacturing Co., and in 1874 came to 
 New Haven and entered the employ of the Candee 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1227 
 
 Rubber Co. By faithful performance of duty, care- 
 ful work and earnest endteavor to learn all the de- 
 tails of his work, Mr. Kelsey finally attained to his 
 present excellent position as foreman of the sole 
 cutting department. 
 
 On April 22, 1880, Mr. Kelsey was married to. 
 Blanche Mills, a native of New Brunswick, N. J., 
 and a daughter of Stephen A. Mills, the latter hav- 
 ing been born in the town of East Haven. A fam- 
 ily of three children have been torn to Mr. and Mrs- 
 Kelsey: Arthur, Eunice L. and Amie Elise, of 
 whom Eunice L. died when but thirteen months 
 old. In political matters Mr. Kelsey is a Democrat, 
 and has ably represented the Fifteenth Ward as 
 alderman for four years, being the first elected from 
 that ward, and has also acted as first assistant chief 
 of the Annex Fire Department. Fraternally Mr. 
 Kelsey is an active member of the K. of P. and has 
 filled ah the chairs in that order; is' a member of 
 the A. F. & A- M., Hiram^ Lodge, No. i ; the New 
 England Order of Protection ; and of the Woodmen 
 of the World. 
 
 JOSEPH BUCKHOLZ, a well known dairyman 
 and general farmer of the town of Orange, who by 
 his own individual efforts has achieved his present 
 prosperity, is a native of Germany, born in Baden 
 April 23, 1849. 
 
 Andrew Buckholz, his father, was a fanner in 
 the Fatherland and passed! all his life there. There 
 were only two children in the family, Joseph, of 
 whom' we write, and Amanda, who died young. 
 
 Joseph Buckholz received his education in the 
 schools of his native place and assisted his father 
 on the farm. During the Franco-German war of 
 1871-72 he served in the Prussian army some eight- 
 een months and saw considerable service. In 1873 
 he came to America, landing at New York, from that 
 city proceeding direct to Milford, New Haven Co., 
 Conn., where he worked on various farms for a 
 time. Later he found employment on the George 
 Clark farm at ten dollars per month, and so con- 
 tinued until 1877, in whidb year he came to the 
 town of Orange and rented Mr. Lane's farm of 
 fifty-six acres. Thereon he spent about nine years 
 engaged in general agriculture and dairying, after 
 which he bought the Lamhert farm of eighty-five 
 acres, his present property. On this he has made 
 many improvements, including the building of a 
 fine, commodious barn ; he does a large dairy busi- 
 ness, having over twenty milch cows and delivers 
 milk to customers ini New Haven. 
 
 In 1873, in Baden, Germany, Mr. Buckholz mar- 
 ried Helen Fulmer, a native of that city, and a 
 daugihter of Kinsley Fulmer, and the day after the 
 wedding they came to the United States. Seven 
 children have graced this union, viz. : Otto M., a 
 farmer and dairyman, married to Anna Ziegler (he 
 is a member of the Governor's Horse Guards) ■, 
 Fanny, deceased wife of Henry Chindler (they had 
 one child, Otto) ; Joseph, at home; Charles Casper; 
 
 Helen; Carrie, attending school; and Ernest. The 
 entire family are members of the Catholic Church, 
 which they attend at New Haven, and the parents 
 are widely and favorably known for their many 
 deeds of charity. Mrs. Buckholz is a woman of 
 sound common sense, a great help to her husband, 
 and a good mother, besides being a devoted wife. 
 He, himself, is a hardworking, upright, honest citi- 
 zen, attending strictly to his business affairs — ^^hence 
 his success in life. 
 
 JAMES BEN'NETT, one of the leading meat 
 dealers of Meriden and a man who is highly es- 
 teemed by the community for his good life and 
 manly character, was born in Camborne, Cornwall, 
 England, March 31, i860, and is a good representa- 
 tive of the modern, sturdy and upright Englishman 
 with his robust nature and virile spirit, trans- 
 planted to the soil of America, making a broad- 
 minded and progressive citizen of the great Re- 
 public. 
 
 James Bennett received his education in the pub- 
 lic schools of his native community, which was cut 
 short by his beginning work with his father on the 
 farm. In 1878, when he left home for the western 
 world, he was but eighteen years old. Sailing from 
 Liverpool he landed at Quebec and for a number of 
 ye?.rs was employed in lumbering and farming in 
 Ouvry, Ontario, where a year later he was joined 
 by his brother. There he remained until December, 
 1880, when he came to the United States and lo- 
 cated at Cheshire, Conn., where he farmed until 
 1882, when he formed a partnership with his 
 brother, A. S. Bennett, of Cheshire, and engaged 
 in the meat business under the firm name of Ben- 
 nett Bros. They had a branch route in South Meri- 
 den where they established a market the following 
 year under the management of James Bennett. In 
 1884 the firm was dissolved and the South Meri- 
 den market remained in the hands of its manager, 
 A. S. Bennett taking the business at Cheshire. 
 James Bennett has been engaged in a good business 
 for seventeen years and has a flattering patronage. 
 He has bought a good farm and deals very largely 
 in high grade stock and also conducts an extensive 
 trade in fertilizers- 
 Mr. Bennett is a bard working and most indus- 
 trious man and has won his present creditable stand- 
 ing in the world by hard work and most patient ap- 
 plication. At the present time he is running several 
 delivery wagons to Yalesville, Tracy and Meriden. 
 In 1884 Mr. Bennett was married) to Miss Julia 
 C. Andrewsi, of Cheshire, a daughter of the late 
 Horace E. and Esther (Johnson) Andrews. Mrs. 
 Bennett is a sister of Mrs. George Francis, of North 
 Farms, Wallingford, and is the mother of five chil- 
 dren : Milton L., who attends the high school; 
 Emma Esther; }iIarion Edmonds; Amy Julia; and 
 James Stanley. Mr- Bennett is connected with the 
 local lodges of the I. O. O. F., being for seventeen 
 years identifiedi with Hancock Lodge, No. 28. He 
 
1228 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 belongs to the Alethodist Church, in which he is a 
 local preacher and has served as superintendent of 
 the Sunday-school several years, and for seventeen 
 years has been a trustee of the church. In politi- 
 cal affairs he is a Republican, and while no office- 
 seeker, takes an intelligent interest in public affairs. 
 He is a companionable and whole-souled gentle- 
 man, very popular in the community and very pros- 
 perous in his business. 
 
 ALBERT EDWARD PLANT, one of the best 
 horticulturists in New England, was born Xov. 6, 
 1841, on the farm where he now resides, son ol 
 William and Polly (Beach) Plant, both natives of 
 Branford. 
 
 Elias Plant, the father of William, was born in 
 Branford July 9, 1774. son of Benjamin and Loam 
 (Beckwith) Plant. Benjamin Plant was born in 
 Branford about 1732 and died there Aug. 11, 1808. 
 He was a son of John Plant, born in T.ranford in 
 1678, who died Feb. 10, 1752; he married Hannah, 
 daughter of Thomas and Hannah (Barns) Whea- 
 don. He was a son of John Plant, the progenitor 
 of the family in Connecticut, who died in 1691. Elias 
 Plant married Ruhamah Hall, and they reared a 
 family of ten children : AA'illiam ; Mary ; Thomas, 
 who married Lucretia Chidsey ; Edward, who mar- 
 ried Harriet J. Street ; Jane ; James ; Harriet, who 
 married James jMorris ; Julia Ann, who married 
 James T. Leet ; Elias, who married Delia Beach ; 
 and Jane AI. 
 
 William Plant, the father of Albert E., was born 
 in Branford Jan. 4, 1800. He was a farmer and a 
 surveyor, and for manv years filled the office of 
 county surveyor in his home countv. In June, 1831, 
 he married Polly, daughter of Asher and Statira 
 (Baldwin) Beach, of Branford, and they had six 
 children: Louisa B., now the wife of James B. 
 Evens ; Alonzo A., who married ^lary E. Hough ; 
 Edwin E., who married Amelia E. Finch ; Luzerne 
 W., who married Elizabeth Lambert; Albert E. ; 
 and William PL 
 
 Albert Edward Plant was reared' on the home 
 farm, and since the Civil war has been prominentlv 
 engaged in fruit growing and horticulture. His 
 extensive operations frequentlv demand the services 
 of twelve or fifteen men, and some seasons more than 
 that number are employed. Tie is active in promot- 
 ing the. best interests of his particular line, and is 
 a member of the Pomological Society of Connecticut 
 and a regular attendant at the meetings of the State 
 Eoardi of Agriculture. He was one of the State's 
 exhibitors, of various kinds of fruit, at the recent 
 Pan-American Exposition. 
 
 j\Ir. Plant dbnned the Union blue Aug. 7, iSdj, 
 as a member of Company B, 15th Conn. A' I., Capt. 
 Theodore R. Davis, and his army experiences cov- 
 ered many of the most exciting scenes and incidents 
 of that great struggle. The command was attached 
 to Gen. Gettvs' Division of the 9th Arniv Corps, 
 imder Gen. Burnside, and our subject's regiment, 
 
 which was commanded by Col. Dexter R. Wright 
 and Col. Charles L. L'pham, in turn, was under Gen. 
 Sumner at Fredericksburg. After this engagement 
 they went to Newport News, thence to Suffolk, \'a., 
 where they were under Gen. Peck, and took part in 
 the siege. Subsequently they were at Kinston, X. 
 C, where Air. Plant was taken prisoner March 8, 
 1865; he was sent to Libby prison, detained there 
 three days, and then sent to Annapolis on parole. 
 He went home on a furlough and rejoined his regi- 
 ment at Kinston. He was discharged and mustered 
 out of the service at Newbern, June 27, 1865, and 
 arrived home Julv 4, 1865, the survivor of many 
 perils and narrow escapes. During his long ser- 
 vice he was never in hospital. 
 
 Mr. Plant was married Sept. 20, 1871, to Bessie 
 W., a daugjiter of Julius and Mabel (Andrews) 
 Upson, of East Haven, and thev have had four chil- 
 dren : (i ) Albert B., born Oct. 14, 1872, was edu- 
 cated in the common schools and at the business 
 college in New Haven:, he is still at home. (2) 
 Alabel U., born Aug. 10, 1875, died June 9, 1883. 
 (3) Alary Eliza was born June 5, 1887. (4) Ray 
 I'pson was born Feb. 26, 1890. Airs. Plant belongs 
 to the First Congregational Church of Branford, of 
 which her husband is an attendant and supporter. 
 
 Air. Plant is a member of Widows' Sons' Lodfe, 
 F. & A. Al., and of Mason Rogers Post, No. 7, G. 
 A. R. In politics he is a Republican. He is one 
 of the live, public-spirited citizens of the town, and 
 always ready to lend' a helping hand to any forward 
 movement. 
 
 CHARLES ZINA AIURDOCK, whose name 
 is familiar to those acquainted in the city of Aleri- 
 den, as that of a much respected citizen andi a very 
 successful farmer and stock raiser, in Paddock ave- 
 nue, was born in the Hanover District, Aleriden, 
 Alay I, 1850. His father, the late Zina K. Mur- 
 doch, formerly a leading farmer in Aleriden, is 
 mentioned elsewhere. 
 
 Charles Zina Alurdock obtained his education 
 in the public schools, in Aleriden Academy, and also 
 at Russell's Alilitarv Academy, New Haven. After 
 the completion of his schooling he adopted farming 
 as his life work, for which he was already well pre- 
 pared bv a bo}hood and youth spent on his father's 
 farm. Until 1888 he remained on his father's farm 
 engaged in general agriculture and in dairying in 
 company with his brother, George- In that year 
 he located on his present farm, a tract of 100 acres, 
 part of the paternal estate, which is admirably sit- 
 uated in Paddock avenue, not far from the city. 
 Here for the past thirteen years he has been engaged 
 in farming and dairying with fine results. Mr. Mur- 
 clock is fond of good horses and cattle, does a good 
 business in stock raising, and takes great pleasure 
 in his outdoor life. On his farnT he has just com- 
 pleted the building of one of the finest dwelling 
 houses to be foundl in the town, outside the city of 
 Aleriden, fitted with all the modern appliances ; it 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1229 
 
 was erected under his close supervision. The 
 grounds are attractive and the outlook upon the sur- 
 rounding country is magnificent. "Sir. ^lurdock is 
 a modest man, genial in manner and possessing a 
 whole-souled friendliness of spirit which wins and 
 retains a host of friends. While taking an active 
 interest in politics, he calls himself an independent 
 Democrat. In his religious ideas he is broad and 
 liberal and would rejoice to live in a world that had 
 for its great central theological principle the Gol- 
 den Rule. 
 
 On March 6, 1889, 'Sir. ^lurdock was married at 
 Port Monmouth, X. J., to IMiss Alice C. Carter, who 
 died April 25, 1891, and was buried in the West 
 Cemetery at Meriden. She is remembered as a lady 
 of marked beauty, with a warm and generous heart, 
 a cultivated mind and' a keen appreciation of the 
 highest and noblest in daily life. She was a mem- 
 ber of the Baptist Church. At her death she left 
 one son. Carter Z., born Feb. 12, 1891. Mr. Mur- 
 dock is a member of the Meriden Grange, but be- 
 longs to no other socieU". He is domestic in his 
 tastes, well-read, and in every way an estimable 
 man. 
 
 WALTER E. S:\IITH, a respresentative far- 
 mer and highly esteemed citizen of North Bran- 
 ford, Xew Haven county, was born in that town 
 Dec. 23, 1856, and belongs to an honored old fam- 
 ily. James Smith, his paternal great-great-grand- 
 father, married Lydia Todd, ^larch 26, 1747. Their 
 children were: ]^Iary, born Dec. 22, 1747, mar- 
 ried Jam^es Pardee ; James, born Aug. 30, 1750 ; Ben- 
 jamin, born in 1753; John, born June 14, 1756; 
 Thomas, born Oct. 10, 1761 ; Eli; Mabel, born Jan. 
 20, 1769, married Alerriam Alunson. 
 
 Thomas Smith, son of James, was born Oct. 10, 
 1761, and died Feb. 20, 1815- He married, first, 
 Sarah Frost, and had two sons and' one daughter : 
 Thomas, John and Sarah. On April 22, 1801, he 
 married! Rosanna Hull, who died Feb. 3, 1846. In 
 their family were the following children, namely: 
 Ebenezer, born March 17, 1802, who wedded Mary 
 Ann Rogers ; Rosanna, baptized June 21, 1812 ; Mar- 
 tha, who married George L. Thorpe ; Hiram, who 
 was baptized Alay 6, 1810; Thomas ; and James. 
 
 Deacon Thomas Smith was born in North Ha- 
 ven Sept. 20, 1798. For over thirty years he was 
 deacon in the Congregational Church. On Jan. 24, 
 1819, he married Hannah Tuttle, daughter of Jude 
 Tuttle. To them came the following childrep : ( i ) 
 Julius, born Dec- 6, 1819, wedded :Mary Frost; he 
 was engaged in the butcher business in Fair Haven 
 and Hartford. (2) George R., born Jan. 18, 1821, 
 married Emeline ]Munson and followed farrrting 
 near the old homestead. (3) Sarah L., born April 
 20, 1824, died young. (4) Thomas Andrew, born 
 Jan. 9, 1827, is' a farmer of North Branford. (s) 
 James Franklin, born Dec. 31, 1830, was the father 
 of our subject. (6) Jane F., twin sister of James, 
 is the widow of William S- :\Iunson, of Wallmg- 
 
 ford. (7) John W., born Jan. 14, 1835, first mar- 
 ried Anna Fowler and second Ida Bradley; he is 
 engaged in farming in Seymour, Conn. (8) Julia 
 A., born Aug. 20, 1844, married Henry Harrison, 
 of Northfordi; she survived him, dying April 2, 
 1901, in West Haven. Those living are Thomas A., 
 Jane and John W. 
 
 James F. Smith, father of our subject, was born 
 in North Branford and there he engaged in agricul- 
 tural pursuits throughout the greater part of his 
 life. In New York City he was married, Feb- 17, 
 1852, to Miss Frances Elizabeth Brockett, who was 
 born in Cheshire Alay 24, 1833, a daughter of 
 George and Abigail (Sanford) Brockett. She had 
 one brother, Nelson Brockett, who married Marga- 
 ret !\IcElroy and resided in Meriden, Conn., where 
 he died in 1896. Her paternal grandparents were 
 David and Damerus (Beach) Brockett, andi her 
 maternal grandparents were David and ^Millicent 
 (Hotchkiss) Sanford, the latter a daughter of 
 Deacon Gidteon Hotchkiss. To James F. and Fran- 
 ces E. (Brockett) Smith were born two children, of 
 whom our subject is the older. The younger, Emma 
 Brockett, was born May 25, 1858, was given good 
 school privileges and now resides on the old home- 
 stead in Northford, town of North Branford, with 
 her mother and brother ; sihe married William E. 
 Riker and has two children : ]\Iaud F., who was 
 born Aug. 25, 1886, and is now attending the high 
 school of A'leriden ; and Wilhelmina Evans, who 
 was born Nov- 4, 1889. 
 
 Walter E. Smith was reared on the home farm 
 and acquired his literary education in the common 
 and private schools of that locality. In early life 
 he learned the printer's trade and followed that oc- 
 cupation in New Haven and Wallingford for five 
 or six years. In 1894 he returned to the old home- 
 stead, comprising fifty-five acres of land, and has 
 since devoted his energies to its cultivation and im- 
 provement. He is a thorough and systematic far- 
 mer and has met with well-deserved- success in his 
 labors. Religiously he is a member of St. John's 
 Episcopal Church, of North Haven, andi a church 
 society known as the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, 
 while his mother and sister are Congregationalists. 
 At one time he also held membership in the Knights 
 of the Golden Eagle. Politically he is a stanch Re- 
 publican and takes a deep interest in everything 
 pertaining to the general welfare, withholding his 
 support from no enterprise calculated to prove of 
 public benefit. 
 
 JOHN ALFRED OLSON. One of the most 
 fertile and well-kept farms in the southeastern part 
 of the town of North Haven is that owned by John 
 Alfred Olson, one of the energetic, thrifty and very 
 prosperous farmer citizens. 
 
 Mr. Olson is a native of Sweden, where his an- 
 cestors have for many generations been honorable 
 and wealthy people. His father, Peter Olson, was 
 born in that country, where he remained until mid- 
 
I230 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 die age, when curiosity and a desire for better op- 
 portunities for liis children caused him to emigrate 
 to the United States, taking his two oldest sons, P. 
 A. and John Alfred. In 1870 he left Seffle, Sweden, 
 and landed in New York after a voyage of about 
 two weeks. Three years later he sent for his wife, 
 two daughters and j'oungest son- His occupation 
 had been that of farming, and with the intention of 
 still pursuing that industry he first located in New 
 Jersey, but later removed to Portland, Conn., reach- 
 ing there at the time when the quarries were be- 
 ing extensively worked for the well-known brown 
 stone of commerce. For some time Peter Olson 
 worked in these quarries and later he, in connection 
 with our subject, went to Bolivar, Tenn., where 
 they took the contract for the building of a water- 
 way. This consumed about six months, during 
 some of which time a number of men were kept 
 employed, andl later a similar job was taken in hand 
 at Memphis, Tenn., work also being done in St. 
 Louis and Chicago. From the latter city Mr. Ol- 
 son and his son went to Lansing, Mich., where they 
 were engaged) in construction work on a railroad 
 between Detroit and Lansing, remaining nearly a 
 year in this vicinity ; but their health gave out and 
 they resigned their positions and went to New 
 York, where they both entered the Emigrant Hos- 
 pital on Ward's Island. 
 
 Upon discharge from the hospital the father and 
 son went to Saybrook, Conn., and were there em- 
 ployed in the construction of the Connecticut Val- 
 ley R. R., later returning to Portland, where he 
 sent for the rest of his family and where the be- 
 loved father died, in 1876, at the age of fifty-nine 
 years. Peter Olson married Eliza Portstrom, who 
 now lives in North Haven with her children. All 
 of the children were born in Sweden, and all re- 
 side in America. They are as follows : Per A. ; 
 John Alfred ; Axel, who lives in California ; Georgia, 
 who married Alfred Carlson, of North Haven ; and 
 Hilma, wife of Jacob Lundgren, both being now 
 deceased. 
 
 John A. Olson was born June 24, 1854, in Seffle, 
 Sweden. His education was obtained in the schools 
 of his native village, including the high school, and 
 after coming to New York he atended the Swedish 
 Lutheran parochial school and was confirmed in that 
 faith. As above stated, he accompanied his father 
 to the various localities where they both engaged in 
 remunerative work. After the return from the 
 Northwest Mr. Olson worked as brakeman on a 
 train for the Connecticut Vallev R. R-, and then 
 went to Portland where he was employed in the 
 quarries of Erastus Brainerd, and later was coach- 
 man for him, remaining some two ^•ears, when he 
 went to New London, Conn. Mr. Olson was fond 
 of horses and in the position of coachman he had 
 many fine specimens under his care. In New York 
 be again became a coachman for two years, and the 
 following six years were spent in the employ of the 
 great Arbuckle coffee firm, and later he went to 
 
 Southport, Conn., where he remained as the trusted 
 coachman of Frederick Marquand, the millionaire, 
 until the latter's death in 1882. Elbert B. Monroe, 
 a son-in-law of Mr. Marquand, was Mr. Olson's 
 next employer, and with him he remained until 1892, 
 when he came to his farm in North Haven that he 
 had purchased several years before, part of it from 
 Mrs. Fitch and the rest from Mr. Hoadley- He 
 erected in 1893 his modern home, and during his 
 residence here he has made many improvements 
 upon the farm which, in the beginning, was prin- 
 cipally covered with underbrush and used as pas- 
 ture. Now the appearance of the place testifies to 
 the attention which Mr. Olson has given it, and he 
 carries on general farming and dairying. He has 
 a good milk route in the city of New Haven, which 
 he established in 1894. 
 
 In 1880 Mr. Olson was married in Southport, 
 Conn., to Josephine Osterberg, a native of Gottland, 
 Sweden, who has proved a worthy helpmate. The 
 children born of this union are asi follows : Edwin 
 Alfred, who is a graduate of Moody's school at Mt. 
 Hermon, Mass., and of Childs' Business College, 
 New Haven ; Oliver ; Esther ; Josephine ; and John 
 Albert- Politically Mr. Olson is a Republican and 
 has been a member of the school committee. He 
 belongs to the N. E.'O. P. and is a stockholder and 
 director in the New Haven Provision Co. All of the 
 family are consistent members of the St. John's 
 Street Lutheran Church, of New Haven. Mr. Ol- 
 son has honorably won his way in life, has become 
 a keen, careful man of business and is considered 
 one of the substantial residents' of North Haven. 
 
 WILLIAM K. WRIGHT, who enjoys more 
 than a local reputation as a mechanic, was born in 
 Westhampton, Mass-, March 5, 1849, a son of 
 Thaddeus K. Wright, also born in Westhampton. 
 
 Thaddeus K. Wright was a farmer and wood 
 turner, but his death occurred suddenly while he 
 was still in the prime of life, at the age of forty-seven 
 years. He had) raised a company for the Civil war 
 and was engaged in drilling it when he was sud- 
 denly stricken. A man of intelligence and charac- 
 ter, his worth was appreciated by the people with 
 whom he lived and who called upon him to act as a 
 selectman and serve on the school board. Nancy E. 
 Lyman, his wife, was the daughter of Elihu Lyman, 
 a resident of the town of Williamsburg, where she 
 was born. She was the mother of five children: 
 Francis H., Harriet D., Charles L., William K- and 
 Mary J- Of these, Francis H. died in battle dur- 
 ing the Civil war, having become a member of the 
 37th Mass. V. I. ; Harriet married Henry L. Nich- 
 ols, of New Haven ; Mary married James B. Mo- 
 ran, of New Haven; and Charles L. is the subject 
 of a sketch found on another page- Mr. and Mrs. 
 Wright were Congregationalists and he was a 
 leader in the formation of the Republican party in 
 Connecticut in 1856, having been a stanch Whig 
 prior to that time. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1231 
 
 For the first ten years of his life William K. 
 Wright lived in Westbampton where he attended 
 school; the ensuing five years he passed in East- 
 hampton, where he also attended school. When he 
 was fifteen he went to New Britain, Conn., and 
 there secured a position in a cutlery shop, and for 
 some six years was engaged in finislaing knives and 
 forks. At Beaver Falls, Pa., he was a forenian in 
 the same line of work and had charge of the scale 
 sawing room for about four years. Then be re- 
 turned to Massachusetts and for two years was em- 
 ployed at Leeds, and for seven years was superin- 
 tendent of a bracket factory at Ivorytown, Conn., 
 but since that time has lived in New Haven, where 
 for some ten years be was in the employ of the Sar- 
 gent Manufacturing Co., being a contractor in their 
 forging department. For two years he was a fore- 
 man with O. B. North & Co., and for the last 
 three years has been the general superintendent of 
 the entire plant. His mechanical and executive abil- 
 ities are of a very high order and Mr. Wright stands 
 among the very first mechanics of the State. 
 
 On Sept. 21, 1877, Mr. Wright was married to 
 Miss Emma L. Davis, of New Haven, a daughter of 
 Daniel Davis, also a resident of New Haven, though 
 not born there. To this union has come one daugh- 
 ter, Ida M., who is living at home, unmarried. Mr. 
 Wright is a Republican, and fraternally he belongs 
 to Hiram Lodge, No- i, F. & A. M. ; Polar Star 
 Lodge, No. 77, 1. O. O. F. ; Davenport Council, 
 Royal Arcanum, and the N. E. O. P. In religion 
 he and bis family are devoted Methodists and are 
 very highly esteemed in the community for their use- 
 ful lives, good character and kindly disposition. 
 
 JOHN WILKINSON, a well known manufac- 
 turer of specialties in confectionery at No. 277 
 Main street. West Haven, was born Dec- 19, 1856, 
 in New Haven, son of John and Elizabeth (Moffatt) 
 Wilkinson. 
 
 John Wilkinson, the father, was born in England 
 and at the early age of nine years began a seafaring 
 fife, which he continued until his marriage. He then 
 located in New Haven, where he was employed by 
 the Trowbridges as "ship keeper," and later by 
 Swift, Courtney & Beacher, who now conduct the 
 Diamond Match Factory. He was a member of the 
 I. O. O. F. and of Olive Branch Lodge, F. & A. 
 U., of Westville, in Which he was an especially en- 
 thusiastic worker, being a thorough student of the 
 books. He and his wife were both active members 
 of the Howard Avenue Congregational Church, of 
 New Haven, and he was also interested in local af- 
 fairs in affiliation with the Republican party- He 
 died at the age of fifty-nine years, and his wife, 
 Elizabeth (Moffatt), died aged sixty. They had 
 six children, of whom four are living: William M., 
 who is with our subject; John, who is second in 
 order of birth; Elizabeth, who resides with our 
 subject; and Andrew B., a plumber in West Ha- 
 ven and a prominent citizen, who has held various 
 
 offices, including that of chief of the fire department. 
 Fanny (Mrs. C. W. Bissell) and Sarah (Mrs. 
 George Mason) are deceased. 
 
 Our subject's early life was spent in New Ha- 
 ven where he was educated in the common schools 
 and the preparatory school known as the "Lancas- 
 terian school." At sixteen be began to learn the; 
 confectioner's trade, beginning as errand boy with 
 H. H. Snow, one of the leading confectioners of the 
 LTnited States, who employed over one hundred 
 workmen. On completing his term he took a position 
 with them as shipping clerk, remaining six years 
 in all in New Haven. For a short time he con- 
 ducted a messenger express business between New 
 York and New Haven, and he spent a few months 
 with Mr. Snow's brother, Samuel M., in New Ha- 
 ven. He then became a traveling salesman for Ed- 
 ward Smith, of New York, with whomi he remained 
 until 1892, his route extending through Connecti- 
 cut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. 
 In 1 891 he made his home in West Haven, and in 
 the following year the present business was started 
 and his shop and residence built. The shop is a 
 two-story building with basement, ^specially de- 
 signed foT his work. He makes a specialty of 
 chocolates, being the only one in the State making a 
 fine grade. He also manufactures a cough drop, 
 "King over all," which has a great reputation. 
 Much of his success is due to the attractive designs 
 which he employs in great numbers. His trade ex- 
 tends throughout the New England States and New 
 York State, including the metropolis. 
 
 On Nov. 27, 1878, Mr. Wilkinson married Miss 
 Ella J. Smith, a native of Orange, and daughter of 
 Edward J. Smith, a carriage maker in New Haven, 
 now deceased. They have one daughter, Mae Ella, 
 who is a graduate of the West Haven high school. 
 
 Politically Mr. Wilkinson is a Republican and 
 a member of the Young Men's Republican Club, of 
 New Haven- He has served three consecutive terms 
 as grand juror and two years as a member of the 
 board of burgesses. In December, 1899, he was 
 elected tax collector, serving one term ; in April, 
 1900, he was elected deputy judge and clerk of the 
 West Haven court. For years he has been an active 
 worker in Annawan Lodge, No. 115, F. & A. M., in 
 which he has held all the offices, now serving as 
 secretary ; is a past master of Olive Branch Lodge 
 F. & A. M., Westville; and secretary and past high 
 priest of Joseph Andrews Chapter, No- 46, R. A. 
 Yl., West Haven, in which be has held all the offices. 
 He is an honorary member of the James Graham 
 Flook & Ladder Co. His family are identified with 
 the Congregational Church, of West Haven, and 
 in all the varied activities of social life they hold a 
 leading place. 
 
 HARVEY COURTLAND VOORHEES, one 
 of Meriden's leading photographers, was born near 
 Dwight, 111., Nov. 20, 1867, and is a descendant of 
 one of the old Dutch families of New Jersey. The 
 
1232 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 foundfer of the Voorhees family in America was 
 Minne Lucasse \'an Voorhees, a native of Holland, 
 who settled in Somerset county, New Jersey, and 
 there established a family which has become well 
 known in many States of the Union. 
 
 Abraham C. Voorhees, the father of our sub- 
 ject, was a native of Somerset county, where he 
 was born April 9, 1840. When the Civil war broke 
 out he became a member of Co. E, 35tli N. J. V. I., 
 participated in many serious engagements, and was 
 under Gen. Sherman in the famous March to the 
 Sea. At Atlanta he was taken seriously sick, and 
 being confined in a hospital, was prevented from the 
 tinal successful entry into the captured' city. After 
 the close of the war Mr. Voorhees located near 
 Dwight, 111., where he became engaged in farming 
 and where he spent six busy years and then returned 
 to New Jersey where he has since made hisi home 
 and has there reared his family. In politics he is a 
 stanch Republican and lives a moral life, respected 
 and esteemed by the community- He married Miss 
 Delia Howell, a native of Morris county, N. J., 
 whose death occurred in 1896. She was the devoted 
 mother of five children: John Wesley, a resident of 
 Washington, N. J. ; Emma Jane, who married 
 George W. Aber, of Long Island; Harvey C. ; Will- 
 iam ; and Daniel, who died young. 
 
 Harvey C. \'oorhees was but a child of six years 
 when he left his western home and returned with 
 the family to New Jersey. After finishing his 
 school course at the age of sixteen, he decided to 
 take up photography and, with a view of mastering 
 the art he went to Hackettstown, N. J-, where he 
 learned' all of the various details of this fascinating 
 work under C. C. Kenney, and then made his way 
 to Hartford, Conn. There, for three years, he was 
 employed; in the establishments of Lloyd andi Olsen, 
 thence going to Washington, D. C, where he had 
 charge of the well-known Davis studio, opposite the 
 patent office. Mr. A^oorhees remained in Washing- 
 ton for two years, gaining a wide experience, but in 
 1890, he came to Meriden, buying out the interest 
 of C. C. Kenney, and here, during the past eleven 
 successful years, bis business has grown tO' great 
 proportions. Mr. Voorhees is an artist in his work, 
 and bis thorough understanding of it and of its 
 possibilities, in connection with his pleasant and 
 affable manner, have won for him a flattering pat- 
 ronage. 
 
 Mr. Voorhees selected a Connecticut lady for his 
 wife, Miss Margaret, the daughter of William 
 Davidson, becoming bis bride Jan. i, 1890. In his 
 political choice he is a Republican and was appointed 
 clerk of the probate court by Judge Thayer, four 
 years since, continuing in office. His fraternal con- 
 nections are with the Masons' and the Odd Fellows, 
 belonging to Meridian Lodge, No. yy, in the for- 
 mer, and Pacific Lodge, No. 87, in the latter, of 
 which he is past grand. Also he is past master in 
 Silver City Lodge, No. 3, A. O- U. W. ; past patron 
 in ^Meridian Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star 
 
 and is one of the valued members and vice-president 
 of the social organization known as the Amaranth 
 Club. Air. Voorhees is very popular in Meriden 
 and enjoys the respect and esteem of the whole com- 
 munity. 
 
 LEWELLYN LUTHER STODDARD, the 
 leading retail cigar and tobacco merchant of New 
 Haven, and a man well known and popular, not only 
 with his fellow townsmen, but also with Yale stu- 
 dents, whose trade he has controlled for years, was 
 born in Springfield, Mass., Dec. 19, 1840, a son of 
 William Arnold and Phoebe (Brockway) Stoddard. 
 The ancestor who founded the family in Amer- 
 ica, Col. John Stoddard, was a very prominent man 
 of his period, and held a commission in the British 
 ami}'. Being detailed by the Massachusetts Bay 
 Colony, he built the line of forts in what was then 
 Northfield, extending from Northampton to Bellows 
 Falls, and organized troops to protect the colonists 
 from the Indians, about 1656. The next ancestor 
 of whom mention can be found in the records of 
 New England was Capt. David Stoddard, captain 
 of a company from Chesterfield, N. H., who par- 
 ticipated in the battles of Bunker Hill and Lexing- 
 ton, and was a brave officer. The son of Capt. 
 David Stoddard, Lemuel, was also a soldier of the 
 Revolution, and the father of his wife, Mary 
 Thomas, was in the company of Capt. David Stod- 
 dard. 
 
 Luther Stoddard, son of Lemuel, was also a 
 soldier, participating in the war of 1812. He mar- 
 ried Rachel Chase, whose grandfather, Capt. James 
 Chase, had charge of the fortifications in Narragan- 
 sett Bay, near Warren, R. I., during the Revolution- 
 ary war. 
 
 William Arnold Stoddard, son of Luther, and 
 father of Lewellyn Luther Stoddard, our subject, 
 was born in Dummerston, A't., while his wife, 
 Phoebe S. Brockway, was a native of Plartford, 
 Conn., a daughter of Lurie Brockway, a farmer and 
 old resident of Hartford, of Scottish extraction. 
 Mr. Stoddard was first a Whig and later a Repub- 
 lican in political matters, while be and bis family 
 Avere members of the Metbodist Church. During- 
 his life be was a member of the Governor's Foot 
 Guards, and also captain of the Hartford Light 
 Guards. On May 21, 1878, this good man passed 
 away ; his wife survived until June, 1896. 
 
 Lewelh'U Luther Stoddard was born in Spring- 
 field, Mass., where he received a common-school 
 education, graduating from the high school, after 
 which be attended the Wesleyan Academy, at Wil- 
 braham, Mass. Later be commenced bis business 
 career in the store of bis father, which was located 
 on Main street, in Springfield, Mass. His next ven- 
 ture was at Peoria, 111., where be remained two 
 years, engaged in the grocery trade. When the war 
 of the Rebellion broke out he returned to the East, 
 and enlisted in the United States navy, serving his 
 country three years, on the U. S. Steamer "Ossip- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1233 
 
 pee," until his discharge at New Orleans, in 1864. 
 Returning to Springfield, ]\Iass., Air. Stoddard 
 formed a partnership with his father, and they con- 
 ducted a large wholesale fruit and candy business. 
 In 1868 the concern was sold to Gunn & Merrill, 
 and Mr. Stoddard removed to New Haven, where 
 he bought the store of John ]\Iandeville, on the cor- 
 ner of Church and Chapel streets, in the old Globe 
 building. 'Here Mr. Stoddard conducted a whole- 
 sale and retail fruit and candy store, making it the 
 largest enterprise of its kind in the State, but after 
 twelve years he opened his present business, and has 
 successfully conducted it for sixteen years, building 
 it up from its original limited dimensions to the 
 present large proportions ; he controls the largest 
 trade of any cigar establishment in Connecticut en- 
 gaged in the retail line. Among his other specialties 
 Mr. Stoddard is the owner of the famous "Hand- 
 some Dan" smoking tobacco, a great favorite with 
 the Yale students, who almost exclusively patronize 
 Mr. Stoddard for their cigars, tobacco and other 
 smoking materials, -recognizing the superiority of 
 his goods. Mr. Stoddard's trade, however, is not 
 confined to the University, but he numbers patrons 
 throughout the State, and all unite in appreciation 
 of his strictly honorable business methods, the ex- 
 cellence of his goods and almost unlimited choice 
 offered in his handsomely equipped establishment. 
 In politics Mr. Stoddard supports the Demo- 
 cratic candidate in National affairs, but gives his 
 support to the best man upon local questions. Fra- 
 ternally he is a thirty-second-degree Mason, con- 
 nected with Hiram Lodge, No. i ; Franklin Chapter, 
 No. 2 ; Harmony Council, No. 8 ; New Haven Com- 
 mandery, No. 2 ; Bridgeport Consistory, 32d degree ; 
 and Pyramid Shrine, of Bridgeport. Both on ac- 
 count of his business ability and pleasing personal- 
 ity he commands the respect of all who know him, 
 and the friendship of a wide circle of the leading 
 people of New Haven and the surrounding district. 
 
 ANDREW DWIGHT CLINTON is one of the 
 well known citizens of North Haven, and a de- 
 scendant of an old family, whose records reach as 
 far back as 1675. The family is of Scotch descent, 
 and the first of the family to locate in North Haven, 
 Conn., was a Lawrence Clinton, who was born about 
 1679, and whose will was probated in 1758. 
 
 Lawrence Clinton (2), son of Lawrence, was 
 made a freeman in 1761, appointed ensign in 1776, 
 a lieutenant still later, becoming a captain of the 
 train band in 1781. He was in good circumstances. 
 His reputation was most excellent and he was one 
 of the six owners oi clocks in the town, and part 
 owner of Sabbath Day House in 1786. The rec- 
 ords show himi to have been of most excellent repu- 
 tation. He married Elizabeth Todd- 
 
 Jesse Clinton, son of Lawrence (2), was born 
 in 1762. He married and became the father of a 
 numerous family. 
 
 Jesse Clinton (2), son of Jesse, was born in 
 
 78 
 
 the town of Wallingford in 1805 and died there Feb. 
 20, 1875. On ^OY. 16, 1825, he married Rosannah 
 Bassett, who died in May, 1886. Their children 
 were as follows : Merritt, who married " Emily 
 Blakeslee; George, who married Frances Allen; 
 Isaac, who inarried) Grace Allen ; John ; Edwin 
 Jesse, the father of Andrew D. ; and Elizur, who 
 first married Julia A. Bishop, second, Ella G. Pal- 
 mer. 
 
 Edwin Jesse Clinton was born Sept. 4, 1836, in 
 Wallingford, on the farm where he now lives- His 
 biography will be found on another page. On 
 April II, 1859, he wedded! Cornelia Tuttle, daughter 
 of Amos Tuttle, and by this marriage became the 
 father of two children, Andrew D. ; and Ida, who 
 was born in 1871, and married Heinrich Vollhardt, 
 of New York. The mother died March 24, 1885. 
 
 Andrew D. Clinton was born Sept. 7, 1862, in 
 the house located just over the line from North 
 Haven, where his father resides. His primary edu- 
 cation was obtained in the district schools, and later, 
 he was sent to a North Haven private school, then 
 conducted by Miss Mary A. Livermore, where he 
 received substantial training. After leaving school 
 he went into his father's shop, where he was em- 
 ployed for about ten years, being then taken into 
 partnership, the firm name becoming E. J. Clinton 
 & Son. 
 
 On May 21, 1885, Andrew D. Clinton married 
 Lucy Bishop, who was born July 10, 1861, a daugh- 
 ter of Erus B. and Charlotte (Thorpe) Bishop, 
 mentioned elsewhere in this volume. One son,. 
 Charles Bishop, born March 15, 1901, has blessed, 
 this union. Both Mr. and Mrs. Clinton are valued, 
 attendants of the Congregational Church, in which 
 Airs. Clinton holds a membership. In poHtics, Mr, 
 Clinton advocates the principles of the Democratic 
 party, and in 1898 he was elected town auditor which 
 responsible office he held two years. Socially he is 
 connected with North Haven Grange, and is con- 
 sidered one of the substantial and prominent citizens 
 of the town. 
 
 CURTIS B. TILEY, D. D. S., was born in East 
 Haddam, Conn., March 18, 1864, son of Stillman J. 
 Tiley, who was born in 1830 in Essex, Conn., where 
 he still resides. Charles Tiley, the grandfather of 
 Curtis B., was born in 1787, in Essex, where he 
 died in 1841. He was a master shipbuilder. He 
 married Mehitable Dimock Stillman, by whom he 
 had four children: Stillman J., Louisa, Emily and 
 Rebecca. The father of Mrs. Charles Tiley (grand- 
 mother of Curtis B.) was a soldier in the Revolu- 
 tionary war. Charles Tiley, the great-grandfather 
 of Curtis B., was born in Essex in 1750, and in 
 middle life he went to the West, where he disap- 
 peared, his family hearing no further tidings of 
 him. 
 
 Stillman J. Tiley is a manufacturer of novelties, 
 and is also engaged in making bicycle spokes. He 
 married Orphelia Bates, who was born in East Had- 
 
1234 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 dam, daughter of Aneon and Sabria (Ely) Bates, 
 and is still living. Mr. and Airs. Tiley have had 
 nine children : Emily and Georgia, both unmar- 
 ried ; Charles, who died young ; Richard, who is in 
 Essex, \vhere he is engaged in the manufacturing 
 business; Charles (2j, a dentist in Derby, Conn.; 
 Dr. Curtis B. ; Frederick, who died in infancy; 
 Stillman, a manufacturer in Essex ; and Hettie L., 
 wife of Dr. Linderoth, a practicing physician in 
 Brooklyn. Mr. Tiley was originally a Whig, and 
 is now a Republican, and he has held all the promi- 
 nent local offices of the town at different times. 
 Both he and his wife are members of the Congre- 
 gational Church. 
 
 Dr. Tiley was one year old when his parents 
 moved to Essex, where he attended the local schools 
 and graduated from Hill's Academy. He engaged 
 m tutoring, and worked on the farm and in the 
 factory, studying with high ambitions, and saved 
 his money. When he was nineteen years old he 
 entered the dental office of F. A. Shailer, of Essex, 
 with whom he spent the greater part of the ensuing 
 two )'ears. In 1886 he was graduated from the 
 Philadelphia Dental College. In 1885 he had opened 
 an office in Torrington, Conn., where he continued 
 to follow his profession until 1890, in which year 
 he removed to New Haven. He has since been lo- 
 cated at No. 225 Crown street, and he has already 
 built up a very select and purely operative practice. 
 He belongs to the Northeastern Dental Association, 
 and to the Connecticut State Dental Association. 
 
 Dr. Tiley was married Aug. 20, 1885, to Miss 
 Isabella E. Goslee, who was born in Glastonbury, 
 Conn., a daughter of John Hudson and Eliza 
 (House) Goslee. Dr. Tiley is a Republican, and 
 belongs to the Union League. 
 
 PAUL T. SALESKI, wholesale dealer in fruit 
 and produce at Nos. 37-39 'South Colony street, 
 Meriden, ranks among those who have contributed 
 materially to the business activity of that city, and 
 is an energetic and successful business man. Vir- 
 tually be is a Meriden product, for here he has built 
 up his prosperous business and made his commercial 
 reputation, which is known to the trade all over the 
 country, but his birth occurred in Schlochau, West 
 Prussia, Germany, Sept. 22, 1866. 
 
 Charles Wilhelm Saleski, the father of Paul T., 
 Vv-as born in 1824, in the same place, where he se- 
 cured an excellent education and became a well- 
 known manufacturer of pottery , and earthenware. 
 Plere he married Mary Lietz, a native of the same 
 locality, who still survives and resides in Meriden. 
 Fourteen children were bori:i of this marriage, nine 
 of whom are still living, namely : Gustav W. ;Charles 
 M., a carpenter and joiner of Meriden; Frank, a 
 prominent dairy farmer of Wallingford ; August B., 
 a meat dealer, at No. 9 Perkins street, Aleriden; 
 Paul T., subject of this biography; Anton A., of 
 the Wilcox & White Organ Co., Meriden; Cecelia 
 L, widow of Samuel H. W. Yale, of Meriden; 
 
 iVnna A., wife of John Velz, of Meriden; and Ida 
 M., wife of Joseph Dumackowski. Charles W. 
 Saleski, wishing to give his children better oppor- 
 tunities than their native land afforded in a business 
 way, left the Fatherland for the Western World 
 in 1878, and immediately came to Meriden, where 
 he has lived ever since, both he and his estimable 
 wife taking great comfort in their children, who 
 have grown into intelligent and respected men and 
 women. The parents are consistent meinbers of St. 
 Mary's German Catholic Church, and are good and 
 \vorthy people. 
 
 Paul T. Saleski attended the public schools in 
 his native land. He was only eleven years old when 
 his parents emigrated to America, and in Meriden 
 he became an apt pupil in the public schools, also 
 studying in St. Rose's parochial schools, thus early 
 demonstrating his energy and determination. While 
 still a mere youth he started out to carve his own 
 fortune, beginning as clerk in the grocery store of 
 Martin Booth, at a salary of seventy-five cents a 
 day. He continued there for. several years, thor- 
 oughly mastering the details of this business. In 
 1890 Mr. Saleski entered into partnership with J. I. 
 Parker in the fruit and produce business, which 
 was conducted under the firm name of J. I. Parker 
 & Co. for two years. At the expiration of this time 
 he bought his partner's interest and conducted the 
 business under the firm name of P. T. Saleski & 
 Co., until 1892, at which date he retired from busi- 
 ness, in order to take a rest. Going to Europe, 
 Mr. Saleski spent some time in travel, visiting the 
 principal cities and places of interest in the Old 
 World. Upon his return to America he again en- 
 tered the fruit and produce business with Mr. Par- 
 ker. This partnership lasted until 1895, when he 
 again bought out the latter's interest, and became 
 the only importer of fruit between New Haven and 
 Hartford. Through his energy, push and strict at- 
 tention to business, he not only gained the confidence 
 of the commercial world, but the patronage of a 
 wide extent of country, and since the spring of 
 1901 his business has been one of astonishing pro- 
 portions. At that time removal was made to his 
 present commodious quarters on South Colony 
 street, and after making improvements which have 
 cost over $4,000, he now has two stores with cold- 
 storage accommodations, and every modern conveni- 
 ence for the preservation and care of his commodi- 
 ties. Mr. Saleski began as a poor boy, and it has 
 been hard work and close attention to detail that 
 has changed his condition, until now he is reckoned 
 with the substantial men of his locality, his property 
 holdings and other interests being of considerable 
 value. With it all he is held in high esteem as a 
 man of probity, and is one of Meriden's repre- 
 sentative citizens. 
 
 On Sept. 28, 1897, was celebrated the marriage 
 of Paul T. Saleski to Miss Anne Reichardt, a na- 
 tive of Buffalo, N. Y. She is a lady of culture and 
 takes great pride in her housewifery. Two chil- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1235 
 
 dren have been born of this union : Henrietta and 
 one that died in infancy. Fraternally Mr. Saleski 
 ■is connected with the K. of C, in which he is past 
 grand knight; the A. O. U. AY., of Meriden; and 
 St. Boniface Society. The religious connection of 
 the family is with St. Mary's Roman Catholic 
 Church, in which he is a trustee and a member of 
 the building committee. Mr. Saleski is a Democrat, 
 but although highly regarded by his party he has 
 never consented to accept office, his business, social 
 and reUgious interests sufficiently filling his time. 
 
 ARTHUR H. TYRRELL, treasurer and gen- 
 eral manager of the Waterbury Blank Book Mfg. 
 Co., Waterbury, is a native of Connecticut, born 
 Nov. 7, i860, in Roxbury, of old' New England 
 stock. 
 
 The first of the family in this country was Roger 
 Tyrrell, great-great-great-great-grandfather of our 
 subject, who came from London, England, about the 
 year 1637, with a company under Eaton and Daven- 
 port, and was one of the original settlers of Jililford, 
 Conn. In 1639, he married Abigail, daughter of 
 Thomas and Isabel Ulford, who ''came over" in the 
 ship "Lyon" in 1632, first locating in Roxbury, 
 Mass., then in Springfield, in 1635, and finally in 
 Milford, Connecticut. 
 
 John Tyrrell, son of the above, was born in Mil- 
 ford, Conn., in August, 1644. 
 
 Nathan Tyrrell, son of John, was born in j\Iil- 
 ford, Conn., Oct. 23, 1693, and settled in New Mil- 
 ford, Conn., about the year 1720. He married Ruth 
 Buck. 
 
 Nathan Tyrrell (2), son of the above, was born 
 Feb. 26, 1737, in New Milford, and married Dor- 
 orthy Phelps. 
 
 Hiram Tyrrell, son of the above,' and the grand- 
 father of our subject, was born in Roxbury, Conn., 
 July 9, 1800, andi died there in 1883. He was a 
 millwright and carpenter and joiner by trade. He 
 married Laura Thomas, and they became the parents 
 of eight children : Harriet, Charles, Oliver S., 
 Fannie, Orrie and Laurie (twins), Lydia and 
 Stephen. 
 
 Oliver S. Tyrrell, father of our subject, was 
 born in Roxbury, Conn., Sept. 23, 1830, and died 
 there April 27, 1899. He was educated in Rox- 
 bury, followed the trade of carpenter and joiner, 
 also conducted a grocery store with John Goad, un- 
 der the firm name of Goad & Tyrrell, the latter be- 
 ing afterward associated with his son Arthur H., in 
 a general store business. Oliver S. Tyrrell mar- 
 ried Rachel S. Glover, who was born Dec. 11, 1836, 
 in Roxbury, Conn., on the home farm, a daughter of 
 Charles Glover, who was a farmer and mechanic 
 as well as an inventor of no small note in Litchfield 
 county. Three children were born to Mr. and ]\Irs. 
 Tyrrell, viz.: Walter S. resides in Waterbury, 
 Conn.; Arthur H. is our subject; Cora S. is the wife 
 of Edward Swift, of Cornwall Bridge. The mother 
 of this family was called from earth Aug. 12, 1867, 
 
 and the father subsequently wedded Josephine Cogs- 
 well, who was born in New Preston, Conn. Three 
 children came of this marriage, viz. : Earnest R. 
 is in Woodbury, Conn.; Lena is single; Oliver A. 
 resides in Bridgeport. Oliver S. Tyrrell was a 
 Democrat in politics, and an Episcopalian in relig- 
 ious faith. 
 
 Arthur PL Tyrrell, the subject proper of these 
 lines, was seven years old when his mother died, 
 and he then went to live with an uncle on a farm in 
 New Alilfo'rd, attending during the winter seasons 
 the chstrict schools of the locality, later taking a 
 term at a private school in Roxbury. At the age 
 of twelve years he met with a serious accident by 
 being throwii from^ a mowing machine, and from 
 this injury he will never fully recover. At the age 
 of fourteen he commenced clerking in the general 
 store of J. B. Leavenworth at Roxbury Station, then 
 at the end of about two years he engaged in general 
 mercantile business with his father under the firm 
 name of O. S. Tyrrell & Son, in the same place. 
 This arrangement terminatedi after some tliree j^ears, 
 our ^ubject then traveling for the Oriental Spice 
 Co., of New York, and at the close of one year with 
 that firm he entered the employ of C. W. Michaels, 
 general merchant, Yalesville, Conn., and for about 
 two years served! in the capacity of head clerk and 
 bookkeeper, resigning bis position on account of 
 his health. In 1882 Mr. Tyrrell came to Water- 
 bury, and for a year was in the employ of W. O. 
 Guilford, stationer and bookbinder, at the end of 
 that time becoming associated with him in business 
 under the firm name of W. O. Guilford & Co. At 
 the expiry of some five years, this co-partnership 
 was dissolved, and Oct. 12, 1887, Mr. Tyrrell organ- 
 ized the Waterbury Blank Book Mfg. Co., of which 
 he was elected treasurer and general manager, 
 which position he still holds. Under his able man- 
 agement the business has grown to be one of the 
 largest in the State, selling their blank books in 
 every State in the Union, and employing thirty to 
 thirty-five hand^s. 
 
 In 1884 Arthur H. Tyrrell was united in mar- 
 riage with Eva L. Lowe, of Providence, daughter of 
 John Lowe, at that time president of the Rhode 
 Island Metal Co. She and her first-born both died 
 in September, 1885. In May, 1889, Mr. Tyrrell 
 wedded Augusta M. Smith, of Waterbury, daugh- 
 ter of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Smith. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Tyrrell are members of the Catholic Apostolic 
 Church. In politics he is a Democrat, and has 
 served in various offices of trust in his adopted city. 
 For four years he was a member of the board of 
 school visitors, during which time he was clerk of 
 the board for one year; in 1899 he was elected alder- 
 man of the First ward, being the second Democratic 
 alderman ever elected from that ward, which has 
 always been strong:ly Republican. In fraternal 
 matters he is prominent as a member of the follow- 
 ing organizations: Free and Accepted Masons, In- 
 dependent Order of Odd Fellows, Independent Or- 
 
1236 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 der of Foresters, Foresters of America, Woodmen 
 of the World, and Golden Cross. He is one of 
 the useful progressive citizens of Waterbury, and 
 enjoys the respect and esteem of the entire com- 
 munity. 
 
 ERNEST COOK WORSE was born Jan, 28, 
 i860, in Walling'ford, New Haven county, son of 
 Emery Morse, who was born in Yalesville, town of 
 A\'allingford, July 16, 1832. The father has been 
 engaged the greater part of his life in the real es- 
 tate business, althoug'h in his earlier years in the 
 meat business. In his political views, he is a Demo- 
 crat, but has never been willing to take official posi- 
 tion. He is a member of the Episcopal. Church. In 
 1855 he was married to ^liss Francesi Augusta 
 Cook, a daughter of George and Lavina Cook, of 
 Wallingford. She died March 26, 1888, the mother 
 of the following children : ( I ) George Willard 
 is in the hair felt business in Pittsburg. (2) Frank 
 Harley is a baker in Wallingford. (3) Ernest C. 
 is our subject. (4) Clifton Jackson is a real estate 
 dealer in Wallingford. Harley Morse, the grand- 
 father of Ernest C, was born in Yalesville, where 
 he followed farming. He married Harriet Morse. 
 
 Ernest Cook Morse was educated in the local 
 schools of his birthplace, in a boarding school at 
 Clinton, Conn., and in the Business College at New 
 Haven. At the age of eighteen he left school, and" 
 entered into business by purchasing the Byron 
 Johnson Bakery, conducting same until October, 
 1900, when he sold out to the wife of his brother, 
 who is now carrying on the business. In 1895 Mr. 
 Morse started the harness and wagon business, 
 which has increased so greatly that he is now de- 
 voting his entire time to it. Socially Mr. Morse 
 is a member of Accanant Lodge, I. O. O. F., and 
 with his family he belongs to St. Paul's Episcopal 
 Church. Politically he is a Democrat^ and is an 
 honorable and upright citizen. 
 
 Mr. Alorse was married May 29, 1888, to Miss 
 Elizabeth Yale Bullard, a daughter of John Bullard, 
 of Aliddletown, Conn. To this union have come : 
 Emery Yale, born Feb. 25, 1890; Carleton Ernest, 
 born Oct. 29, 1892:, and Gladys Elizabeth, born 
 Oct. 8, 1896. In 1897 Mr. ^lorse built for himself 
 one of the most pleasant and thoroughly modern 
 houses in Wallingford. He and his family are 
 counted among the most genial and hospitable peo- 
 ple of the town. 
 
 ^ LEROY JOHN GAINES, who has for the past 
 thirt}' years been connected with the Charles Parker 
 Co., is a well-known and' respected citizen of Meri- 
 den. He was born in the town of Granb\-, Hartford 
 Co., Conn., Sept. 17. 1846, and is descended from an 
 old and substantial famih- of England. 
 
 John Gaines, the grandfather of Leroy J., re- 
 sided in the town of Granby, where he was engaged 
 in agricultural pursuits, and was a respected citi- 
 zen. His death occurred May 23, 1851, and he was 
 
 buried in the North Granby cemetery. He was 
 married, first, in November, 1802, to Martha Hitch- 
 cock, who was born April 14, 1780, and died June 
 z'i, 1829; she was also buried in the old cemetery in 
 that town. She was a daughter of Capt. Luther 
 and Beulah (Chapman) Hitchcock, the former ,1 
 Revolutionary hero, who took part in the engage- 
 ments at Ticonderoga and New London ; Capt. 
 Hitchcock died at Springfield, Mass., Nov. i, 1806. 
 To John and Alartha (Hitchcock) Gaines came 
 nine children : One son, born Dec. 19, 1803, who 
 died Dec. 25, 1803 ; Evaline, born Feb. 9, 1805 ; Will- 
 iam, born Oct. 19, 1806, who died in the West; Har- 
 vey, born Jan. 3, 1809; Theodore, born July 22, 
 1810; John Richard, born June 19, 1812; Martha, 
 born Dec. 12, 181 5, who died May 29, 1819; Mar- 
 tha (2),- born Feb. 12, 1819, who married Milo 
 Dyke; and Maria, born IMarch 26, 1821, who died 
 Aug. 2, 182 1. For his second wife, John Gaines 
 married Abbie Cossett, who lived and died in 
 Granby. 
 
 John Richard Gaines, son of John, and father of 
 Leruy J., of Meriden, was born in North Granby, 
 Conn., June 19, 1812. His educational advantages 
 were confined to the district schools of his native 
 town. At an early age he learned the trade of mill- 
 wright, which business he followed throug'h most of 
 liis life in various sections of the States of Massa- 
 chusetts and Connecticut. Air. Gaines was noted for 
 his industry and uprightness of character. His de- 
 clining years were spent with his children, his death 
 taking place, Sept. 21, 1893, at the home of his 
 daughter i\Irs. Warner; his remains were laid in 
 the family lot on Granby street. In political sym- 
 pathy ]\Ir. Gaines was a life-long Democrat. On 
 May 13, 1835, John Richard Gaines was united in 
 marriage with Sarah AI. Bennett, of Belchertown, 
 Alass., where she was born July 10, 1814. Mrs. 
 Gaines passed away Nov. 7, 1866, in Granby, Conn. 
 For many years she was a most worthy member 
 of the Congregational Church, esteemed and beloved 
 as a faithful Christian wife and mother. Six chil- 
 dren were born to Mr. and Mrs. Gaines : Alonzo, 
 born j\Iarch 5, 1837, died in Hartland, Conn., in 
 1891 ; Marshall R. is president of the Tillotson Col- 
 lege for colored people, in Austin, Texas; Mary A., 
 born Sept. 16, 1844, married James Warner, and 
 now resides in Winsted, Conn. ; Leroy J. was born 
 Sept. 17, 1846; Robert J., born March 26, 1854, died 
 in Wallingford, Conn., in June, 1899; and Wilbur 
 H., born April 4, 1859, resides in New Jersey. 
 
 Leroy John Gaines, who is now a valued member 
 of the business and commercial circles of Meriden, 
 h a native of North Granby, Conn., where he passed 
 his boyhood, attending the public schools and later 
 becoming a student in the Granby Academy, which 
 at that time was in the charge of a well-known edu- 
 cator, Rev. William Page. As early as the age of 
 nine years Mr, Gaines began his business career, 
 working for Henry J. Dewey, a well-known agri- 
 culturist of that section, while attending school. De- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1237 
 
 termined to obtain an education, :AIr. Gaines took 
 advantage of every opportunity. In 1862 lie be- 
 came a clerk in a store in East Granby, kept by 
 James R. Viets, and there he remained until 1866, 
 at which time he came to Meriden. Two years later 
 he removed to Springfield, and was clerk and later 
 traveling salesman for Kibbe Bros. & Co., whole- 
 sale confectioners, remaining with that house for 
 two years. It was in 1870 that Mr. Gaines returned 
 to Meriden to accept a position with the Charles 
 Parker Co., as clerk in the gun department. An 
 association of thirty-one years with this house testi- 
 fies to his efficiency. In a marked degree, Mr. Gaines 
 possesses those attributes which contribute to suc- 
 cess in any line, and he is not only esteemed' by his 
 employers, but is respected by those with whom he 
 is daily associated. 
 
 On March 14, 1869, was celebrated the mar- 
 riage of Leroy J. Gaines to Aliss Ann Ousterman 
 Loweree, who was born at Flushing, Long Island, 
 a daughter of Andrew G.' and ^Martha (Wolcott.) 
 Loweree. Mr. Loweree passed his last days in 
 Meriden, and his remains lie in Walnut Grove ceme- 
 tery. The mother of Airs. Gaines died in Branford, 
 and she also sleeps in the beautiful Walnut Grove 
 cemetery. A family of four children has been born 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Gaines : Annie Al. Oliver Wol- 
 cott, a graduate of the city's high school, is now 
 a bookkeeper in the service of the Charles Parker 
 Co.; he married Margaret Brown, of Yalesville, a 
 daughter of Andrew J. Brown, of that place, and 
 one daug'hter has been born to this union, Mar- 
 garet Wolcott. George Loweree, a high-school at- 
 tendant, is a clerk in the Parker clock departmenr. 
 Leroy John, Jr., died at the age of five years. In 
 politics Mr. Gaines is a Republican, and he has taken 
 an active part in civic affairs, on two occasions serv- 
 ing as selectman, for two years as a member of the 
 city council, and for six years as a member of the 
 board of aldermen. During his term of service he 
 was the chairman of the committees on Streets, 
 Water, Lamps and Claims, many changes and im- 
 provements being made in the public service during 
 his tenure of ofifice. Mrs. Gaines and the family are 
 members of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. 
 
 JOSEPH C. KELLY. Among the leading and 
 substantial citizens of New Haven, Joseph C. Kelly 
 ■occupies a prominent position. Mr. Kelly came from 
 an agricultural family of Ireland ; his father, James 
 Kelly, a native of County Cavan, spent his life^ on 
 ■a farm in that country. The mother of our subject 
 was Sarah (Carson) Kelly, a daughter of Dr. Jo- 
 seph Carson, of Longford, Ireland, and she still sur- 
 vives. The family born to James Kelly and wife 
 numbered eight children, all of whom survive, with 
 the exception of George, the second child, the others 
 being: Lizzie, who married John McCune, and 
 resides in Burlington, Vt. ; Rose, who married Dan- 
 iel Miles, and resides in New Haven: Joseph C. ; 
 James, who is. a member of the New Zealand Par- 
 
 liament, in Australasia : Margaret, who married 
 William McClure, resides in New Haven ; Sarah, 
 who is single ; and Emma, who married Betie Kerr, 
 and lives in Ireland. 
 
 Joseph C. Kelly was born in County Longford, 
 Ireland, Oct. 8, 1853, and until he was fourteen 
 years old remained on his father's farm. His edu- 
 cation was acquired in the old district school, and 
 also in the parochial school, but in 1868, he emi- 
 grated to Canada, and settled in Canada West, on 
 a farm. This, however, was not an active enough 
 life for Mr. Kelly, and in 1871, he made his way to 
 New Haven and took up the machinist's trade, and 
 later went to work for the Winchester Repeating 
 Arms Co., and it is somewhat remarkable, that with 
 the exception of three years, he has been with the 
 same company, for the past twenty-nine years, being 
 a contractor in the concern over eighteen years. His 
 energy and business capacity have made him a most 
 valuable and desirable employe of this company. 
 'Sir. Kell}' has accumulated large means during his 
 long residence in this city, and owns much improved 
 property, three of the beautiful houses on Shelton 
 avenue belonging to him, while other houses in the 
 city also bring him satisfactory returns. For sev- 
 eral years following his marriage, he resided in the 
 country, in the town of Bethany, but drove daily 
 into the city, from his farm. A prominent and ar- 
 dent Republican, Mr. Kelly has been called upon to 
 fill many offices, has, in turn been a most acceptable 
 alderman, councilman and selectman, from the 
 Ninth ward, and at the last municipal election was 
 so strongly urged to accept the nomination for 
 mayor, that he received the most votes on the first 
 ballot, but he withdrew in favor of John B. Studley, 
 who was elected. At present Mr. Kelly is serving 
 as one of the police commissioners. 
 
 On Feb. 11, 1888, Mr. Kellv was married to Aliss 
 Addie M. Todd, a native of Bethany, a daughter of 
 Streat B. Todd, a prominent farmer and cattle 
 dealer. The Todd famih- is one of the old and hon- 
 ored ones of New England'. Three children have 
 been born to Mr. and Mrs. Kelly : Frank J., George 
 W., and Arthur J., all of them attending school in 
 New Haven. Mr. Kelly is as prominent fraternally 
 as he is politically, being a thirty-second-degree 
 Mason, affiliated with Olive Branch, No. 84; Frank- 
 lin Chapter, No. 2 : Harmony Council ; New Haven 
 Commandery : La Fayette Consistory ; and Pyramid 
 Temple, Mystic Shrine, of Bridgeport. The relig- 
 ious connection of the family is with the Episcopal 
 Church, where they are highly esteemed. 
 
 HENRY RUSS, one of the leading German- 
 American citizens of West Haven, was born Aug. 
 18, '1855, in Munich, Germany, and is the only mem- 
 ber of his family in this country. 
 
 Plis father, George Russ, was a native of Lan- 
 dau, Germany, and followed the business of cigar 
 m'anufacturing in the Fatherland throughout his 
 life. He lived to the age of seventy years, and his 
 
1238 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 wife, Mary Moser, a native of Munich, Germany, 
 attained the same age. This worthy couple had five 
 children : Bertha ; Henry ; Herman, who conducts 
 his father's old business in Germany ; Anna and 
 Augusta. 
 
 Henry Russ was educated in his native land, and 
 in May, 1873, came to this country, a clever, ambi- 
 tious lad of eighteen. He land'ed in New York and 
 was employed for short periods in the Havemeyer 
 sugar factory and Goodwin's wholesale importing 
 house on Water street, and later on Eighty-first 
 street in various lines of work. In 1876 he located 
 in the town of Orange, this county, being employed 
 as a farm hand, and he once owned a fifty-acre farm 
 in Milford. In 1889 he removed to West Haven, 
 engaging in a general teaming business. He also 
 carried on the ice business for six years, and since 
 selling out has given his attention to the trucking 
 business, keeping a number of horses. He has also 
 made some successful real estate deals and at one 
 time bought a tract of land, and opened up the street 
 now known as Court street. He built four houses 
 on the tract and still owns three, his own residence 
 being one of the handsomest on the street. It was. 
 built in 1899, and has a fine location at the corner of 
 Court street and Savin avenue. He has taken an 
 active interest in promoting public movements of 
 a beneficial nature, and he donated the lot for the 
 Episcopal rectory at West Haven, he and his family 
 being members of that Church. In 1888 he mar- 
 ried Mrs. Anna Fisher, a native of Norway, who 
 came to this country with her parents in 1866. Her 
 father died in New Haven in 187 1. Five children 
 brighten our subject's home: Clara, Annie, George, 
 Celia and Albert. Mrs. Russ' former marriage, 
 which occurred in 1877, was blessed with two chil- 
 dren, Josephine and Mary. 
 
 Politically Mr. Russ is a Democrat, but he votes 
 for the best man in local affairs. Although the 
 towU' is Republican his popularity won him an 
 election to the boardi of wardens and burgesses in 
 1893, 1894 and 1895, and when nominated for select- 
 man he ran ahead of his ticket, although defeated. 
 He is a member of the fire department. Engine No. 
 I, and socially is identified with Annawan . Lodge 
 No. 15, F. & A. M., in which he has held office ; the 
 Order of United Workmen in West Haven ; the 
 Heptasophs and the Harugari, a German order ; and 
 at one time he was a member of the K. of P., at New 
 Haven. He has taken special interest in the Haru- 
 gari, being a charter member, and has held all the 
 offices in the society including those of secretarv and 
 treasurer. 
 
 DEXTER LEETE BISHOP, of the Dexter L. 
 Bishop Co., dealers in pure ice and native lumber, 
 at Meriden, is a man of character and standing in 
 the city where his business career has been so credit- 
 able and successful. 
 
 Mr. Bisho.p was born in the town of Oran^sje, 
 New Haven county, Aug. 8, 1865, son of Walter 
 
 G. Bishop, one of the most prominent farmers of 
 Guilford, a sketch of whom is to be found else- 
 where. Dexter L. Bishop removed to the town of 
 Guilford with his parents when quite young and 
 secured bis education in the public schools and in 
 Guilford Academy, from which he was graduated in 
 1884. Growing up on the farm, he was inured to 
 hard work. He remained at home until of age, 
 when he came to Meriden, in 1886, to take a position 
 as clerk with the firm of Little, Somers & Hyatt. 
 For eight years he remained with this house, giving 
 general satisfaction by his faithful performance of 
 every duty devolving upon him and his genial and 
 courteous treatment of the patrons of the firm. At 
 the end of this time, Jan. i, 1895, he resolved! to 
 enter business for himself and purchased an inter- 
 est in the firm of Foster Brothers. Two years later 
 he purchased the business, and in January, 1898, 
 organized the Dexter L. Bishop Co., he being secre- 
 tary, treasurer and general manager. The business 
 to which this corporatio'n addresses itself is quite 
 comprehensive, including among its principal objects 
 the operation of saw and feed mills. They deal in 
 every form of domestic lumber, from tool handles to 
 piling. Recently the Dexter L. Bishop Co. have ac- 
 quired the ice business of Dayton & Sherman and 
 the Meriden Ice Co., which gives- them the control 
 of two-thirds of the ice business of Meriden. Mr. 
 Bishop has built up a large patronage and has a fine 
 outlook for the future. In his career he has dis- 
 played good judgment, honorable dealing and strict 
 integrity. What he is he has made himself by hard , 
 work and unflagging industry. 
 
 ]Mr. Bishop was married in Meriden in 1891 to 
 Esther C. Johnson, who was born in that city, 
 daughter of the late Chauncey G. Johnson, a well- 
 known real estate man, who died in 1893. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Bishop have three children: Ethel Johnson, 
 Herbert Leete and Wilford Merriman. Mr. Bishop 
 is Knight Templar, a Royal Arch Mason, and is 
 enrolled in Centre Lodge, No. 97, and Keystone 
 Chapter, No. 27, and St. Elmo Commandery No. 9, 
 of Meriden. He is a member of the Congregational 
 Church, and in politics a Republican, though taking 
 an independent attitude. In 1899 he was elected 
 alderman, representing the Fifth ward in the city 
 council, where he has acquitted himself most credit- 
 ably. A goodi citizen, an upright man, he is person- 
 ally very popular with a wide circle of friends. 
 
 WILLIAiM WOOSTER BUCKINGHAM is 
 one of the younger business men to whom advance- 
 ment came early. He is now treasurer and manager 
 of the well-known Buckingham Hardware Co., of 
 New Haven, wholesale hardware dealers. 
 
 Nathan Lewis Buckingham, grandfather of Will- 
 iami Wooster, was a son of Nathan and Silena 
 (Lewis) Buckingham, and was born about 1792. 
 He married Clarissa Wooster, and became the fa- 
 ther of six children, of whom one died young. The 
 others were : Mark, who married Martha Bristol ; 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1239 
 
 Martha, who married Styles French;, Henry., men- 
 tionecli below; Joel, who was among the "missing" 
 at Chancellorsville, in the war of the Rebellion, 
 when he was about twenty-three years old; and 
 Henriette, of Pasadena, California. 
 
 Henry Buckingham was born Feb. 29, 1828, in 
 Oxford, Conn., audi there in the public schools he 
 received his early training. At the age of seventeen 
 he came to New Haven, and for a number of years 
 was in the emplov of D. W. Buckingham, and later 
 of Jeremiah Atwater. He then went bo Derby, 
 Conn., where he engaged in the retail butcher busi- 
 ness, but soon returned to New Haven, where he 
 started a grocery on Chapel street. The outbreak 
 of the Civil war diverted his thoughts into other 
 channels, and in company with Charles King, he 
 went South as a sutler with a Rhode Island regi- 
 ment. After he returned from the war, he engaged 
 in the real estate business in New Haven, having 
 offices in the Hoadley building for about twenty- 
 five years. He spent over forty years of his life in 
 New Haven, but the last six years he retired from 
 active business. His death occurred Nov. 7, 1893. 
 His wife was formerly Abbie Ogden (Phillips) 
 Curtis, widow of Reuben Curtis. She was born in 
 Fairfield, Conn., July 16, 1830, and died in Boston, 
 while on a visit, Jan. 28, 1901. The children born 
 of this marriage are as follows : Nathan Lewis, 
 born June 25, 1855, married Emma Anderson, and 
 resides in Boston ; Charles Curtis, born Sept. 5, 1856, 
 married Louella Broderick, and lives in New Haven ; 
 William Wooster ; Alfred Whitney, born in Septem- 
 ber, 1864, resides in New York City. 
 
 William Wooster Buckingham was born in New 
 Haven, April 4, 1863. His education was obtained 
 in the public schools. His early business ventures 
 were along the line of mining, and for two years 
 he was near Cartersville, Ga., engaged in man- 
 ganese mining. He then returned to New Ha- 
 ven, and entered the employ of F. S. Brad- 
 ley & Co., wholesale hardware, the firm being 
 composed of F. S. Bradley and Oscar Dikenian, 
 the latter now of New York City. In. 1890 the 
 firm became Buckingham, Clark & Jackson, who 
 May I, 1900, were succeeded by the Buckingham 
 Hardware Co., Mr. Buckineham being the only one 
 who retained connection with it. He is now serving 
 as treasurer and general manager, while Mr. Brad- 
 ley is nresident. Mr. Buckingham gives to the busi- 
 ness the same careful attention to detail that char- 
 acterized him when he became an employe of the 
 company in 1880 — an attention that has won him a 
 large interest in the business, and a high place in the 
 business world. 
 
 In 1885 Mr. Buckingham enlisted in the "New 
 Haven Grays," becoming a member of Co. F, 2d 
 Conn. N. G., serving his five years term of enlist- 
 ment. He also served seven years in the Second 
 Company, Governor's Foot Guards, being mustered 
 out of service in June, 1900. 
 
 On Sept. 24, 1888, Mr. Buckingham was united 
 
 in marriage with Laura Stevens Morey, of Mayville, 
 N. Y. Four children, two of whom are living, have 
 blessed their happy home: Louella Beatrice, born 
 June 19, 1890, died Nov. 28, 1892 ; William Root, 
 bom March 30, 1892, died April 27, 1892 ; Lenora 
 Bishop, born June 29, 1893 ; and Charles Wooster, 
 born Jan. 21, iSq^. 
 
 ANDREW OEFINGFR, proprietor of the 
 Oefinger Cafe, on West Main street, jMeriden, is a 
 prominent citizen and valued business man of that 
 place. His birth occurred March 6, i860, in Tros- 
 singen, Wurtemberg, Germany, and his father, John 
 Oefinger, was a native of the same locality. 
 In early life the latter was engaged in the bakery 
 business, but later adopted the trade of box maker, 
 establishing a large factory of his own where this 
 business was carried on extensively. He died in his 
 native land in 1897, a consistent member of the 
 Lutheran Church. The mother of our subject, 
 Anna (Neipp) Oefinger, was also a native of Tros- 
 singen, where she died in 1862, mourned b}' a large 
 family. She was the mother of eighteen children, 
 but several died in infancy, those who reached ma- 
 turity being: Jacob, who resides in Meriden; Elias, 
 also of Meriden; Martin, who lives at home; An- 
 drew ; Michael, who was accidentally killed by a 
 horse in Meriden ; John, who was killed by the cars 
 in Meriden ; Christian, who died in Massachusetts ; 
 and Mathew, who died in Bridgeport. 
 
 Andrew Oefinger received an excellent educa- 
 tion in his home schools, and until 1876 worked with 
 his father in the box. factory. Deciding at that time 
 to follow a brother to the United States, he landed 
 in New. York at the age of sixteen years. His 
 brother Jacob was located at Shelburne Falls, Mass., 
 engaged in the manufacture of harmonicas, and with 
 him- Andrew worked for one year, coming to Meri- 
 den in 1877. Here he secured employment in the 
 cutlery factory of the Miller Bros. Cutlery Co., re- 
 maining with that house from 1877 to 1886, during 
 which time he was a contractor for four years. In 
 the latter year he entered the Wilcox Silver Plate 
 Co.'s factory, and there learned the trade of ens- 
 graver. He then became connected with the Meri- 
 den Silver Plate Co. as engraver, remaining imtil 
 1894, when he bought an interest in the Turner Hall 
 Cafe. He conducted the business at the old stand 
 for a year and a half, changing then tO' No. 250 
 Pratt street, where he continued the business for the 
 succeeding two years, selling out to remove to his - 
 present location. Here he managed the business for 
 his brother until 1900, when he purchased his inter- 
 est and since that time has ably conducted it for 
 himself. Mr. Oefinger is very popular, and possesses 
 the business qualifications necessary to success. 
 
 In 1882 Mr. Oefinger was married to Miss Ida 
 Graebin, a lady of Prussian birth, daughter of Fred 
 Graebin, of Providence, and four children have been 
 born to this union: Robert, Max, Frances and 
 Arthur. Mr. Oefinger is an active member of Teu 
 
I240 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tonic Lodge, Xo. 95, I. O. O. F., has filled all the 
 chairs and has been a delegate to the Grand Lodge. 
 For twenty-five \ears he has been a member of the 
 Turnverein, and for a number of years of the Saen- 
 gerbund of Aleriden. He is also a member of the 
 German American School Association, the Work- 
 men's Sick and Death Benefit Society and the ^leri- 
 den Rifle Club. His religious- belief he sums up in 
 the Golden Rule, andl is living up to it. He finds 
 his political ideas best satisfied when he keeps free 
 from all parties and votes independently. Mr. 
 Oefinger has many friends in Meriden, where he is 
 ranked among the good, reliable and substantial 
 citizens. 
 
 SHER]\L\X H. BALDWIN, a well-known resi- 
 dent of Alilford, was born in that town April 4, 
 1855, son of Charles R., and grandson of Elnathan 
 Baldwin. 
 
 For several generations the familv has been 
 identified with the town, and Elnathan Baldwin 
 was born there and became a leading farmer of the 
 town. He married Sarah Stowe, of Milford, and 
 had a large family of children, of whom several 
 died in childihood. The others were : Elnathan, 
 deceased, was a farmer in Milford ; William, de- 
 ceased, was engaged in the hat business in New 
 Haven; Charles R., deceased, is mentioned below; 
 Eunice, deceased, married Charles J. Baldwin, of 
 Milford: Sarah is the wife of Charles W. Beardsley, 
 of Milford: Esther, died unmarried: James is a 
 farmer in Milfordl; andi Phineas is a farmer. 
 
 Charles R. Baldwin was born in Alilford, April 
 12, 1823, and was engaged in farming all his life. 
 Soon after his marriage he settled upon a farm in 
 West Milford. He married Miss Mary A. Beards- 
 ley, daughter of Sarah Beardsley, of Stratford, and 
 she survives him. Our subject was the youngest of 
 a family of five children, and of the others the first 
 died in infancy, unnamed; Edgar C. died at the age 
 of fifteen : George H., also died at fifteen ; and Will- 
 iam died in infancy. 
 
 Sherman H. Baldwin was educated in the schools 
 of Milford, and when seventeen years old went to 
 Bridgeport to learn the carpenter's trade, but after 
 a vear he returned to ]\Iilford, and entered the em- 
 plov of his uncle, H. B. Beardsley. Later he re- 
 sumed the work in Bridigeport, and in 1888 he be- 
 gan in contracting there, and his time is now chiefly 
 devoted to building, although he has, as well, a farm 
 of sixty-five acres to manage. While in Bridgeport 
 he was a member of the Board of Trade. Li 1879 he 
 married Miss Lottie FT. Warner, daughter of Noah- 
 diah Warner, of Southbury, Conn., and she died 
 March 19, 1889. On Jan. 30, 1895, Mr. Baldwin 
 married Miss ]\Iary Blakeman, daughter of Ezra 
 Blakeman, a farmer of Huntington, Fairfield county. 
 Conn. ^Tr. Baldwin has one son by his first mar- 
 riage, Clifford S., aged nineteen. As a member of 
 Congregational Church of ^lilford, Mr. Baldwin has 
 been active in religious work for many years, and 
 
 he also belongs to the Grange and the L O. 0. F. 
 Politically he is a Republican, andi as a citizen he is 
 held in high esteem. 
 
 G. CLIFFORD FOOTE, who is a member of 
 the well-known firm of H. C. Rowe & Co., oyster 
 growers, and one of the public spirited and influ- 
 ential business men of New Haven, was born in 
 Fair Haven, Oct. 17, 1869, a son of George L. and 
 Lucretia (Way) Foote, and a grandson of Augustus 
 and' Statira (Whitney) Foote. The grandfather 
 was a farmer of Northford, and there reared a fam- 
 ily of six children, Alary, Sarah, Emily, Sam- 
 uel, Henry and George L., of whom- only the latter 
 two survive, Henry, of North Haven, and George 
 L., father of our subject. 
 
 George L. Foote was born in Northford, July 
 18, 1835. He married Lucretia Way, a native of 
 Yalesville, and a daughter of David Way. Three 
 children were born of this union, namely : Fred- 
 erick W., an oyster dealer in New Haven; Leah S., 
 wife of Herbert Kanahan, of New Haven ; and G. 
 Clififord. 
 
 G. Clifford' Foote was reared in Fair Haven. He 
 attended the Woolsey school and also the Hillhouse 
 High School, supplementing his public school edu- 
 cation with a course in a business college. He be- 
 gan his business career in 1887, at the age of eight- 
 een years, as stenographer for H. C. Rowe & Co., 
 oyster growers. Mr. Foote's faithful and conscien- 
 tious "discharge of his business duties immediately 
 won the confidence of his employer, which has con- 
 tinued and increased during the fifteen years' con- 
 nection, which has ensued. His salary was raised 
 repeatedly and voluntarily by the firm, and he has 
 recently acquired a junior interest in the great and 
 successful business enterprise conducted by this 
 well-known house. 
 
 Mr. Foote married, ]\Iay 29, 1893, Alatild? A. 
 Bostwick, of New Haven, daughter of Rev. Will- 
 iam L. and Susan AL (Smith) Bostwick. Her fa- 
 ther was a clerg^TTian of the Episcopal Church, hav- 
 ing held the rectorship of several Parishes in Illinois 
 and Connecticut. To G. Clififord and Matilda Foote 
 have been born four children, Ruth B., Bernice G, 
 Marion I. and Dorothy j\L Both Mr. and Mrs. 
 Foote are active members of St. James Episcopal 
 Parish, of which he is clerk. In politics Mr. Foote 
 is a Republican, and in 1900 he was elected council- 
 man from the Fourteenth Ward, and in 1901 was 
 elected, for a term of two years, to the Aldermanic 
 r.oard of the Court of Common Council of the City 
 of New Haven. 
 
 RICHARD HENRY WOODRUFF, first select- 
 man of the town of Guilford, where he is engaged in 
 fruit farming and dairying, was born in that town 
 Aug. 13, 1856, and comes from one of the most 
 reputable families of New England. He is in the 
 eighth generation from Matthew Woodruff, the 
 first progenitor in America of this branch of the 
 

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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1241 
 
 WoodTuff family, the line of his descent being 
 through Samuel, Daniel, Daniel (2), Dr. Eleazer, 
 Alonzo and Eleazer. 
 
 (I) Matthew Woodruff was one of the original 
 proprietors of Farmington, in 1672, coming thither 
 from Hartford in 1640, and was admitted a free- 
 man in 1667. His wife was admitted to the church 
 in Farmington in 1654. He died at an advanced 
 age in 1682. 
 
 (H) Samuel Woodruff, son of Matthew, was 
 born in Farmington, in 1661, and was married in 
 1686 to Rebecca, daughter of John Clark. In 1698 
 he moved to what is now the town of Southington, 
 and lias a place in history as its first white settler. 
 He died in 1742, his wife in 1737. 
 
 (HI) Daniel Woodruff, son of Samuel, was 
 •born in 1696 in Farmington, and married Lydia, 
 daughter of Ephraim and Rachel (Cole) Smith. 
 He died in 1785. 
 
 (IV) Daniel Woodruff (2), son of Daniel, was 
 born in 1728, and was married in 1750 to Lydia 
 Porter, who died in 1796. He lived on what is 
 known as the Edwin Woodruff place. 
 
 (V) Dr. Eleazer Woodruff, son of Daniel (2), 
 and great-grandfather of Richard H., was born in 
 Southington, Conn., and baptized Sept. 24, 1732. 
 He was a physician and located at Haddam, where 
 he followed his profession. During the Revolution- 
 ary war he served as surgeon and supplied the medi- 
 cine he prescribed. He married Sophronia Porter, 
 a daughter of Dr. Porter, of Southington. A letter 
 from Dr. Woodruff, written to Dr. Pierson, while 
 he was serving with his regiment, is preserved 
 among the choice heirlooms of the family ; it reads 
 as follows : 
 
 Respected Sir: 
 
 It is common for a person uppon the reception of a letter 
 tobe well pleased but truly Sir you will be greatly disap- 
 pointed upon opening this for I have nothing very special 
 to acquaint you with. Theirfore, I shall only give you a 
 short sketch of our encampment. Our circumstances are as 
 favorable as can be expected. We are encamped on York 
 Island about eighty rods east from Mount Washington in 
 the woods. The place is universally liked. Would not 
 exchange places with any regiment on the island. We 
 have good tents to live in, straw to sleep on; salt pork and 
 beef; good bread plenty, and sometimes a few potatoes. 
 Cider at seven coppers a quart and who can wish to live 
 better than that? 
 
 As for news I shall not ^pretend to write much, tor 
 probably there is more with you than us. However last 
 Wednesday three ships sailed up North nver, and as they 
 passed the fort thev fired some guns, but no damage was 
 done. Our people fired from the Jersey side, but did little 
 or no execution. The ships still continued up the river, it 
 is said they have taken two of our neiv gallies and one 
 vessel comemg down the river. 
 
 [Signed] Eleazer Woodruff. 
 
 (VI) Alonzo Woodruff, son of Dr. Eleazer and 
 the grandfather of Richard H., was born in Haddam, 
 and removed to Killingworth, where he followed 
 the blacksmith's trade, and where he died m the 
 prime of life. He was buried there but his remains 
 were afterward removed to Guilford by his son. 
 
 the father of Richard H., and interred in the family 
 plat. During the war of 1812 he served as a sol- 
 dier for a short time. Hannah Davis, his wife, was 
 born in Killingworth, and was the daughter of a 
 Revolutionary soldier. Their children were : ( i ) 
 Eleazer was the father of Richard H. (2) Adelia 
 married Aden Parmelee, of Killingworth, and had 
 one daughter Clementine, who became Mrs. War- 
 ren Tucker. Mr. Parmelee died in Newark, N. J. 
 (3) Harriet married Justin Dudley, of Killing- 
 worth. (4) Orvill died in Killingworth. (5) Or- 
 vill (2), married Angeline Parmelee; he died in 
 Killingworth. 
 
 (VII) Eleazer Woodruff, father of our sub- 
 ject, was born July 3, 1819, and lost his father while 
 still a young boy. He attended school only a few 
 terms, for at the age of nine years he was bound 
 out to a farmer, with whom he remained until he 
 was sixteen years old, when he entered a grist mill 
 at Cornwall. There he was employed two years-, 
 and next spent two years in a tanyard at Guilford, 
 working there in the summer and in the winter fol- 
 lowing shoemaking, a trade he had already acquired. 
 Leaving his wages in his emplovers hands, by the 
 failure of that gentleman he was made penniless, but 
 with stout and brave heart, he went to work again, 
 as a farm hand. In 1840 he came to Guilford and 
 found work in the mill of the town, and became its 
 keeper and operator for twenty-three years. Dur- 
 ing a part of this time he had as a helper the after- 
 ward- well-known Prof. Loper, of Middletown, 
 Conn. In 1863 he bought a tract of land in Hun- 
 gary Hill, in the town of Guilford, which was then 
 a wilderness. When he entered into possession of 
 this tract of land, it was encumbered to the extent 
 of $2,700, but by hard work he paid oft" the indebted- 
 ness, and was able subsequently to make numerous 
 improvements. He was an extensive grower of to- 
 bacco and a pioneer in that field. On account of 
 old age j\Ir. Woodruff has now given up active farm 
 work, and his son, Richard H., has charge of the 
 family interests. However, he is quite active, and 
 still retains comtaand of all his faculties, being 
 noted for his clear and active mind. He has always 
 been strictly temperate, and has never used tobacco 
 in any form. In early manhood he had a strong 
 ambition for an education, and attended school at 
 Killingworth, where be acquired at least a work- 
 ing education. Mr. Woodruff is the oldest member 
 of St. Alban's Lodge, No. 38, F. & A. M., in Guil- 
 ford. William Henry Harrison, Whig candidate 
 for president, received his first vote, and William 
 McKinlev his last. He belongs to the Third Con- 
 gregational Church. He has ever been known as 
 an active, industrious man, and is highly respected 
 in every walk of life. 
 
 Mr. Woodruff was married in Guilford to Har- 
 riet A. Davis, who was born in Guilford, a daugh- 
 ter of Christopher B. Davis. She died on the farm 
 Dec 14, 1890, and was buried in the family ceme- 
 
1242 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 tery, leaving precious memories as a wife and 
 mother. Five cliildren were born to them : ( i ) 
 Ellen, born Jan. 5, 1850, died in 1853. (2) Edwin 
 C, born Jan. 25, 1852, graduated from Yale in 
 1872; he was elected town clerk and probate judge 
 of Guilford, acting in that capacity at the time of 
 his death, which occurred May 17, 1886. He was 
 married July 15, 1884, to Charlotte Simes, of Yon- 
 kers, N. Y. (3) Richard H. is mentioned below. 
 
 (4) John, born Jan. 27, 1859, died June 16, 1862. 
 
 (5) Lucy, born March 20, 1862, married Frank 
 Griswold. 
 
 Richard H. Woodruff attended the Guilford 
 schools and grew up on the home farm, where he 
 has always remained. Since his father retired from 
 active woi-k, he has carried on the extensive farm of 
 over 200 acres, largely devoting himself to dairy- 
 ing, having fifty head of Jersey cattle. He is giv- 
 ing much attention to peach culture, and has over 
 a thousand trees growing. A man of enterprising 
 and active spirit, he is much respected for his busi- 
 ness ability. In 1880 he built a fine house and barn, 
 which latter, in 1895, together with seventy-five tons 
 of hay, two horses and all his farm implements, 
 was destroyed by fire, Mr. Woodruff losing in all 
 $3,000. The bam with which he has replaced the 
 one he has lost, is about the finest in the town ; some 
 of the stones in its foundation weigh over five tons. 
 It holds one hundred tons of hay, and has ample 
 accommodation for stock and machinery. 
 
 Mr. Woddruff was married Nov. i, 1882, to 
 Isabelle Parmelee, a native of Madison, and a 
 daughter of Flenry Parmelee. She died April 27, 
 1885, at the age of twenty-si.x years, leaving one 
 son, Henrv Edwin, born March 8, 1885, who is now 
 living in Madison with his grandparents. Air. 
 Woodruff married for his second wife, Nellie R. 
 Brewer, who was born in Guilford, daughter of Alva 
 G. Brewer. To this union have come three chil- 
 dren : Hattie, born May 29, 1889; Alva, born 
 March 2Q, 1891 ; and Raymond, born Dec. 17, 1893 ; 
 all are attending school. Mr. Woodruff was elected 
 selectman of Guilford in 1898, in 1899, and again 
 in 1900, and is chairman of the town board. He is 
 a stanch Republican. For many years he has been 
 president and director of the Guilford Agricultural 
 Society. He belongs to the Third Congregational 
 Church, and fraternally is a Mason, affiliating with 
 St. Alban's Lodge, No. 38, Guilford. 
 
 Alva Goldsmith Brewer, the father of Mrs. 
 Woodruff, was born in Port Chester, N. Y., June 7, 
 1838, son of Thomas Brewer, a native of Devon- 
 shire, England, who came to New York. For some 
 years he worked as a carpenter and joiner, and in 
 his later life located with his family at Moose Hill, 
 New Haven county, where he bought a farm. Fie 
 -was a member of the Baptist Church. ITe married 
 Phebe Conklin, of Long Island, and they had two 
 children: Lydia ;\nn (who married .-\lbert Conk- 
 lin) and Alva G. Alva G. Brewer was three years 
 old when he came to Guilford with his parents. He 
 
 was educated in the public schools, became a farmer, 
 and also dealt in railroad ties and ship timber. He 
 died Alay 13, 1887, and was buried in the West 
 cemetery. He was a Congregationalist in religious 
 connection, and was well known and highly re- 
 garded. In 1861 he was married, in Branford, to 
 Harriet Alice Palmer, a daughter of Wilmot and 
 Susan C. (Bradley) Palmer, and by her became the 
 father of eight children : Nellie R. married Rich- 
 ard H. Woodruff; Albert C. married Fannie Fow- 
 ler ; Fannie married Lovell Stone, of Florida ; Eliza- 
 beth married William Blatchley; Angeline married 
 William Leete, of Leete Island; Harry is living at 
 home; Mary; Hattie is at school. 
 
 HENRY DRYHURST, postmaster of the city 
 of Meriden, and a well known attorney, is one of the 
 leading citizens of that community, and has long 
 been connected with public affairs there. He came 
 to INIcriden from Massachusetts in March, 1865. 
 
 Henry Dryhurst, the father of our subject, 
 learned the trade of silversmith in his native place, 
 Birmingham, England, and came to America to 
 pursue it while still a young- man, locating in Provi- 
 dence, R. I. In that city he followed bis trade a 
 short time, then removed to Taunton, Mass., in 
 1864 coming to Meriden, where he entered the em- 
 ploy of the Meriden Britannia Co., with whom he 
 remained for many years. Mr. Dryburst's fame as 
 a skillful workman was known all over England and 
 the United States wherever the best class of silver- 
 plate was manufactured. His wife, formerly Elea- 
 nor Lewis, died in Meriden, Oct. 2, 1881. Our sub- 
 ject's brothers and sisters are all living at this writ- 
 ing : Rowland L., in Rockford, 111. ; Hugh, in Hart- 
 ford, Conn.; Louisa E. (wife of Montgomery R. 
 Budd), Eleanor and Laura A., all of Meriden; and 
 Emma, wife of Edwin W Hall, of Wallingford, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Henry Dryhurst, the subject proper of this bio- 
 graphy, received his education in the district school, 
 leaving his books early to engage in work in a saw- 
 mill in Meriden. A short time afterward be entered 
 the employ of George R. Wilmot, and remained with 
 him for a number of years. Ambitious and energetic 
 the youth resolved to supplement the knowledge he 
 already possessed by attendance at night school, and 
 as a most excellent one was conducted by Rev. John 
 T. and Mrs. Pettee, he was-enabled to continue his 
 studies. In 1877 he entered the postal service un- 
 der postmaster Erwin D. Hall, with whom he con- 
 tinued for nine years. The law was the profession 
 he had in view, and in the course of time he was 
 able to enter upon its study under Hon. Ratcliffe 
 Hicks, then city attorney. Still later be studied with 
 Hon. O. H. Piatt, and finished his course under the 
 wise direction of Hon. George A. Fay. In January, 
 1884, he was adtaitted to the New Haven County 
 Bar and entered into practice, immediately coming 
 to the front in politics. For eight years he was 
 chairman of the Republican town committee and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1243 
 
 efficiently filled the office through the Presidential 
 campaigns of 1888. and 1896. In 1890 he was ap- 
 pointed postmaster at Meriden by President Harri- 
 son. At the expiration of his term in 1894, he re- 
 sumed the practice of law, and held the position of 
 assistant city attorney. In 1898 he was re-appointed 
 postmaster, and the general consensus of opinion is 
 that this city has never enjoyed better postal facili- 
 ties than under his administration. His care and 
 evident desire to facilitate all of the work of the 
 office in such a way as to best accommodate the 
 public, has won him well-deserved popularity with 
 all classes. During his first term- he brought about 
 the promotion of the Meriden office from the second 
 to the first-class, and succeeded in having the carrier 
 force increased from eight to thirteen men. During 
 his second term he induced the department to aban- 
 don the old quarters on the west side of Colony 
 street, and to lease the large and commodious office 
 now occupied, in the Byxbee block, and to increase 
 the carrier force to seventeen men. 
 
 Mr. Dryhurst married Miss Margaret C. Dut- 
 cher, who was born in Sag Harbor, L. I., and chil- 
 dren as follows have been born to them: Jennie E., 
 who graduated from the Meriden high school, and 
 married Guy A. Palmer, of Meriden ; Henry, Jr., a 
 student in the Meriden high school ; and Orville J. 
 Mr. Dryhurst is a man of domestic habits. He is a 
 member of no secret societies., but has long been 
 connected with the First Baptist Church, and with 
 the Home Club. 
 
 EDWARD N. WARNER, a thorough and 
 skillful farmer living on Munson street, Hamden, 
 was born on the farm^ where he now lives. May 11, 
 1852, and is a representative of one of the old and 
 honored families of the town. His grandfather, 
 Elam Warner, a son of Hezekiah Warner, was born 
 on the same farm and married Betsey Merriman, 
 by whom he had four children: Orchard; Horace; 
 John., father of our subject; and Catherine, wife 
 of Merrick Mansfield. All are now deceased. 
 
 John Warner, father of our subject, was also 
 born on the old homestead in Hamden, in 1822, and 
 continued his residence there throughout life, his 
 time and attention being devoted to farming. He 
 married Miss Sarah J. Riggs, a native of Oxford, 
 Conn., and to them, were born four children: Ed- 
 ward N., our subject; Bernard A., a farmer of Ham- 
 den; and Richard L. and George W., both carpen- 
 ters of that town. The father died in 1869 and the 
 mother departed this life Jan. 12, 1898, at the age 
 of sixty-five years. They were highly respected and 
 esteemed by all who knew them. 
 
 The boyhood of Edward N. Warner was passed 
 upon the home farm and his early education was 
 obtained in the common schools of the neighborhood. 
 At the age of sixteen years he went to Michigan, 
 where he attended school for two years, and on his 
 return home took charge of the farm, as his father 
 had died in the meantime. He now owns fifty acres 
 
 of rich and arable land, which he has placed under 
 a high state of cultivation, and upon which he is 
 successfully engaged in general farming and dairy- 
 ing. Politically he is not identified with any party 
 but votes for the men whom he considers best qual- 
 ified to fill the offices, and fraternally he is a mem- 
 ber of the Order of United American Mechanics. 
 
 Mr. Warner was married Dec. 31, 1888, to Miss 
 Ella Warner, and they now have two children : 
 Freda E., born June 12, 1894; and Earl, born Dec. 
 9, 1897. The family are prominent in the com- 
 munity where they reside. 
 
 CHARLES W. HOFFMANN, a highly pros- 
 perous farmer and butcher, and one of the substan- 
 tial citizens of the town of Orange, is a native of 
 New Haven countv, born Sept. 22, 1864. 
 
 John W. Hoffmann, his father, was a native of 
 Germany, born July 8, 1827, in Saxe-Coburg, a 
 son of Peter and Catherine Hoffmann, the former 
 of whom was a butcher, successful business man of 
 the above named Duchy. John W. Hoffmann re- 
 ceived a liberal education in his native land and 
 learned the butchering business with his father ; 
 but inclining his ear to* the bright promises ex- 
 tended by the New World, he concluded to try his 
 fortune on these shores. Accordingly, in 1853, he 
 set sail, and after a passage of seventy days in a 
 sailing vessel, landed at New York, soon afterward 
 finding employment with Gen. Blanket, of New 
 Jersey. Here he remained a couple of years and 
 then, having married in the meantime, he opened a 
 boardiing house in New York and conducted it for 
 a time, after which he removed to New Haven, 
 where he operated the Miller Garden. Not mak- 
 ing a success of this, however, he moved' to the 
 Bassett farm in the town of Hamden, and in 1858 
 rented the Captain White farm. For three years 
 he engaged in general agriculture, dairying, etc. 
 His next venture was in the butchering business on 
 Congresis avenue, New Haven, in which he con- 
 tinued until 1876, in that year removing to the town 
 of Orange and locating on the Milford pike, where 
 he bought a tract of land known as the Gen. Ives 
 farm. This he carried on, in connection with the 
 butchering business, working hard and making 
 many improvements on the property. There he 
 passed) the rest of his industrious life, and his death 
 occurred in 1880, and his remains were interred in 
 Evergreen Cemetery, New Haven. 
 
 In 1856, in New York City, John W. Hoffmann 
 was married to Barbara Lutz, who was born in 
 Wurtemberg, Germany, a daughter of Philip and 
 Elizabeth (Bender) Lutz, and four children came 
 of this union: Minnie, deceased at the age of six 
 years; Charles W., our subject; Augusta, wife of 
 Charles Fravlich, of New Haven ;, and Lydia, wife 
 of Robert Pastorrus. The mother of these is now 
 living with her son, Charles W. The father was 
 a corporal in Company B, 2d Regiment National 
 Guard; in religious faith he was a member of the 
 
1244 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ■German Baptist Church. He was much respected 
 for his industrious and upright life and was known 
 far and wide as a loving husband, an indulgent 
 father and a useful, loyal citizen. 
 
 Charles W. Hoffmann, whose name introduce.? 
 this sketch, received a good education at the district 
 schools of his native town and learned the butcher- 
 ing business under his father's instruction. On the 
 death of the latter the son, although but sixteen 
 years of age at the time, at once took hold of the 
 business and has well and successfully- conducted it; 
 moreover he farms over forty acres of land and con- 
 ducts a thriving dairy. In addition to his prop- 
 erty in the town of Orange he owns town lots in 
 West Haven. 
 
 In 1888, in the town of Orange, Charles W. 
 Hoffmann was united in, marriage with ]\Iartha 
 Spiesecke, born in Germany, a daughter of Fred- 
 erick Spiesecke, and two children were born to 
 them: Lydia Barbara and Walter C. The family 
 attend the services of the German Baptist Church, 
 and Mr. Hoft'mann is treasurer of the .Sunday- 
 school. In politics he is a Republican, is a mem- 
 ber of the town committee, treasurer of the school 
 board, etc., while socially he is affiliatedi with the 
 Grange in the town of Orange. Since 1884 he has 
 been a member of the Governor's Horse Guard, and 
 in 1898 was appointed by the Governor of Connecti- 
 cut lieutenant of his company. Successful in busi- 
 ness, honest in all his dealings, there is no citizen of 
 the town of Orange held in higher esteem and re- 
 gardi than Charles W. Hoffmann. 
 
 FREDERICK BURTON STREET, a descend- 
 ant of the noted family of Streets of East Haven, 
 whose reputation for sterling integrity ranks in the 
 highest degree among the early settlers of the town, 
 in Church and State, as the records abundantly tes- 
 tify, is one of the prominent and successful business 
 men of New Haven. He was born in East Haven 
 Sept. 29, 1853, a son of Thaddeus and Elizabeth 
 AmeHa (Hotchkiss) Street. He is of the eighth 
 generation from Rev. Nicholas Street, the founder 
 of the family in America. The line of descent is 
 as follows : 
 
 (I) Rev. Nicholas Street, born at Bridgewater, 
 England, in 1603, son of Nicholas and grandson of 
 Richard of Atogumba, Somersetshire, England, re- 
 ceived the degree of B. A. at Oxford in 1624-5, 
 and came to New England sometime between 1630 
 and 1638. He was first known as a colleague of 
 Mr. Hooker in Taunton, Alass., where their joint 
 pastorate continued for seven vears. ^]t. Hooker 
 was then called to New Haven, Conn., as colleague 
 of !\Ir. Davenport, Air. Street continuing as sole 
 pastor for fifteen years. He followed J\lr. Flooker 
 to New Haven where he took the latter's place as 
 colleague of Rev. Davenport in 1659, and from 1667, 
 until his own death in 1674, had sole charge of the 
 First Church, now Center Church. A tablet has 
 since been placed in that church in his memory. 
 
 Rev. Street lived in College street, on the site where 
 now stands College Hall. He was associated with 
 William Jones and John Davenport, in giving aid 
 to the regicides, Goffe and W'halley. His. second 
 wife was Mrs. Mary Newman, widow of Gov. Fran- 
 cis Newman, of New Haven. After Mr. Street's 
 death, she became the third wife of Gov. Leete. 
 
 (II) Rev. Samuel Street, son of Nicholas, born 
 163s, married in New Haven in 1664, Anna, daugh- 
 ter of Richard and Katherine (Constable) Miles. 
 Mr. Street was graduated from Harvard in 1664. 
 He hved in New Haven and taught in the school 
 Davenport had founded. He was installed in 1674, 
 the first settled clergyman at Wallingford, Conn., 
 and remained pastor forty-five years. ^ His death 
 occurred in J717, and that of his wife in 1730. 
 
 (HI) Lieut. Samuel Street (2), son of Rev. 
 Samuel, born in New Haven in 1667, married (first) 
 in 1690, Hannah Glover, born in 1672, daughter of 
 John Glover, of New Hiaven. She died in 1715, 
 and he married (second) in 1716, Mrs. Elizabeth 
 (Brown) Todd, daughter of Eleazer and Sarah 
 (Eulkley) Brown, and widow of Michael Todd, by 
 whom she had nine children. 
 
 (R) Capt. Elnathan Street, son of Lieut. Sam- 
 uel, born in 1695, married in 1722, Damariss Hull, 
 daughter of Dr. Benjamin and Elizabeth (Andrews) 
 Hull, of Wallingford, Conn., born in 1700. Mr. 
 Street was ensign and later captain of the train- 
 band of \'Vallingford. Both Mr. and Mrs. Street 
 died in 1787. 
 
 (\') Rev. Nicholas Street (2), son of Capt. 
 Elnathan, born in 1730, graduated from Yale. He 
 married (first) in 1758, Desire Thompson, born in 
 1745, and died in 1765, daughter of Moses and De- 
 sire (Hemdngway) Thompson, of East Haven. Mr. 
 Street married (second) in 1766, Hannah Austin, 
 born in 1741, daughter of David, Jr., and Hannah 
 (Punderson) Austin. She died in 1802. IMr. 
 Street was ordained in 1755 and became the second 
 pastor of the Congregational Church in East Ha- 
 ven, and early in his pastorate the Stone Church was 
 built and still stands a monument to his memory. 
 He continued in the ministry fift}'-one years, or until 
 his death, which occurred on the anniversary of his 
 ordination Oct. 8th. During the Revolution he was 
 in ardent sympathy with the American cause and 
 did much to kindle and encourage the spirit of patri- 
 otism. In theology he was conservative and Cal- 
 vinistic. 
 
 (\'I) Elnathan Street (2), son of Rev. Nicho- 
 las (2), born in 1774, married in 1802, Clarissa 
 ^lorris, born in 1783, daughter of Amos and Bet- 
 sey (Woodward) Morris, and resided in East Ha- 
 ven a farmer. Mr. Street died Nov. 13, 1849. ^^'"S- 
 Betscv (Woodward) Morris descended from the 
 ITuguenots through the De Luce line. , 
 
 {Vll) Thaddeus Street, son of Elnathan (2), 
 born April 22, 1821, married Jan. 9, 1850, Eliza- 
 beth Auiielia Hotchkiss, born Oct. 26, 1826, and re- 
 sided in East Flaven, a farmer. He died Jan. 16, 
 
d^yCcCx^H. 
 
 ^4/^.S. 
 
 f/Cj:zViT 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1245 
 
 1882. Their children were : Samuel Hotchkiss, 
 Frederick Burton (the subject of this sketch), and 
 Clifford Herbert. Samuel Hotchkiss Street was 
 born Nov. 14, 1850, married Sept. 22, 1880, Alice 
 ]\lay, daughter of Samuel Peck Newton, and their 
 children are, Ruby Elizabeth, born July 14, 1881 ; 
 Bertha j\Iay, born Aug. 16, 1884; ]\Iildred Dorothy, 
 born Aug. 12, 1888; and Newton Herbert, born 
 March 16, 1895. Clifford Herbert was born Feb. 
 I, 1861, and on Oct. 27, 1887, married Elizabeth .A.. 
 Forbes, daughter of Albert and Harriett (Heming- 
 way) Forbes; their children are: Albert Burton, 
 born Jan. 8, 1894; and Helen Madolyn, born Feb. 
 25, 1901. 
 
 (Vni) Frederick Burton Street, born Sept. 29, 
 1853, married Sept. 20, 1882, Eveline Jane Jones, 
 bom j\Iay 18,' 1858, daughter of Daniel A. and 
 Emeline (Roberts) Jones, of Danielsonville, Conn., 
 and their two children are : Emeline Amelia, born 
 Sept. 13, 1884, entered Vassar College in 1901 ; 
 Grace Hotchkiss, bom Sept. 10, 1890. 
 
 Mr. Street spent his boyhood days on the home- 
 stead farm in East Haven, attending the neighbor- 
 ing schools, and he finished his education at the 
 New Milford Institute. He returned to the farm 
 where he remained some years, then with his 
 brother, Samuel H., he engaged in the cereal and 
 flour business, continuing successfully for about 
 fifteen years. In 1896 Mr. Street associated himself 
 with Lieut. 'Governor J. D. Dewell, as sole partner 
 in the wholesale grocery business of J. D. Dewell 
 & Co., with whom' he has since been actively asso- 
 ciated. True to the religious spirit of his ancestors, 
 Air. Street has been active in church work through- 
 out the years of his manhood. He is a member of 
 the Congregational Church, and has been a deacon 
 of the church for more than twenty years. He is 
 also superintendent of the Sunday-school, a posi- 
 tion which he has filled for more than a quarter of 
 a century. In politics he is a Republican. He is a 
 member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
 the New England Order of Protection, the Sons of 
 the American Revolution and the Founders and 
 Patriots. 
 
 WILBUR BIRDSEY HALL, an able and ener- 
 getic business man of Aleriden, engaged in the man- 
 ufacture of hard white metal and electro-plated ware, 
 is an enterprising young man, native to that town, 
 born Feb. i, i860, a descendant of one of the oldest 
 families in New England. 
 
 The emigrant ancestor of the Halls of New Ha- 
 ven and Wallingford, was John Hall, who was born 
 in England in 1605 and died in Wallingford in 1676, 
 aged seventy-one years. In 1641 he married Jane 
 Wollen, who was born in England and died before 
 Nov. 14, 1690. The records show the followmg 
 concerning their children : (i) Richard, born July 
 II, 1645, married, 1699, Hannah Allies, daughter 
 of John and Marv (Alsoo) Miles, and died m New 
 Haven in 1726. '(2) John, baptized Aug. 9, 1646, 
 
 married Dec. 6, 1666, Alary Parker, daughter of 
 Edward and Elizabeth (Potter) Parker, and died 
 Sept. 2, 1721. (3) Sarah, twin to John, married 
 in December, 1664, William Johnson, son of Thomas 
 Johnson, of New Haven. (4) Daniel, born in 1647, 
 married, 1670, Alary Rutherford, daughter of Henry 
 Rutherford, and died at Barbadoes, West Indies, in 
 1675. (5) Samuel, born Alay 21, 1648, married 
 Hannah, daughter of John Walker, and died March 
 5, 1725. (6) Thomas, born March 25, 1649, mar- 
 ried Grace Watson and died Sept. 17, 1731. (7) 
 Jonathan, born April 5, 1651. (8) David, born 
 March 18, 1652, married Sarah Rockwell, and died 
 July 7, 1727. (9) Alary, born in 1653, married 
 Henry Cook, and died Oct. 31, 1718. 
 
 Thomas Hall, sixth in the above named family, 
 removed from his native New Haven to Walling- 
 ford with his two brothers, John and Samuel, and 
 was one of the signers of the Plantation Covenant 
 in 1669-70. He spent the remainder of his life in 
 Wallingford, where be was a land holder and where 
 he died Sept. 17, 1731. He married on June 5, 
 1673, Grace Watson, who was born in 1653, a 
 daughter of Edward and Grace (Walker) Watson. 
 This was the first marriage on record in Walling- 
 ford. 'Grace (Watson) Hall died May i, 1731. Her 
 children were: Abigail, born Jan. 7, 1674, married 
 John Tyler; Thomas, born July 17, 1676, married 
 Abigail Atwater, daughter of John Atwater ; Mary, 
 born Nov. 22, 1677; Jonathan, born July 25, 1679, 
 married Dinah Andrews A'lay 12, 1703 ; Joseph, born 
 July 8, 1681 ; Esther, born Feb. 23, 1683, married 
 Benoni Atkins ; Benjamin, born April 19, 1684, mar- 
 ried Mary Ives ; Peter, boi-n Dec. 28, 1686, married 
 Rebecca Bartholomew; Daniel, born Jan. 27, 1689; 
 Rebecca, born Jan. 6, 1691, married Daniel Holt; 
 and Israel, born Oct. 8, 1696, married Abigail 
 Powel. 
 
 Joseph Hall, son of Thomas, was born in the 
 town of Wallingford July 8, 16&1, and passed his 
 life in his native town, dying there Nov. 3, 1748. 
 His wife, Bethiah Terrell, whom he married Nov. 
 13, 1706, died Dec. 28, 1753. Three children were 
 born of this union: Temperance, July 15, 1714, 
 died Dec. 7, 1716; Joseph, Sept. 23, 1718, died Sept. 
 6, 1737; and Ephraim, April 25, 1723. 
 
 Ephraim H&ll, son of Joseph, was a farmer and 
 land owner. He was twice married. His first wife, 
 Eunice, died Alay 9, 1763, and on Oct. 13, following, 
 he married Chloe Moss, daughter of Daniel and 
 Mindwell (Doohttle) AIoss. Their children were: 
 Temperance, born Aug. lo-, 1764; Joseph, Alarch 27, 
 1766; Ephraim, Oct. 5, 1768; Chloe, Nov. 13, 1770: 
 Comfort, Feb. 25, 1773, settled in Aliddletown ; 
 Reuben, born Alay 19, 1775 ; David Moss, Oct. 24, 
 1777; Content, Alarch 15, 1780; and Bethiah, Alarch 
 29, 1782. Two children were born to Ephraim Hall 
 by his first marriage, namely: Temperance, Oct. 
 II, 1748, died Oct. 28, 1750; and Thankful, who 
 married John Darrow Sept. 29, 1774. 
 
 David AIoss Hall was born in Wallingford Oct.- 
 
1246 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 24, 1777, and upon attaining man's estate, married 
 Mindwell Beach. He removed to Torrington, 
 Litchfield count)', where he died Feb. 4, 1842. 
 
 Asher Hall, son of David Moss Hall, was born 
 in Litchfield county and moved to Wallingford, 
 whence he went to California in 1849, returning 
 after four years to Connecticut, tlis death occurred 
 in 1878 in Meriden, where he came to live imme- 
 diately after coming from California. He married 
 Delia Hall, a daughter of John Hall, of Wallingford, 
 Conn. Asher Hall was a farmer and land owner 
 and was an honored and highly respected citizen. 
 
 Lewis Hall, son of Asher and father of Wilbur 
 B., was born on a farm in Wallingford Feb. I, 1836. 
 He received only a district school education, but 
 was self-educatedi, being an omnivorous reader. Fie 
 started in life in the Britannia shops in ]\Ieriden, 
 which business he thoroughly learned. He spent 
 a number of years with Parker, Casper & Co. and 
 then went to the Wilcox Silver Plate Co., where he 
 was a stockholder and where he remained until the 
 formation of the International Silver Co. He had 
 for over thirty years been superintendent of the 
 Wilcox Silver Plate Factory, and continued there 
 up to the time of his death, July 5, 1900. He was a 
 man well known and very highly respected. In re- 
 ligious connection he was a member of the First 
 Baptist Church. Though a Democrat in principle, 
 he voted independently at local elections. 
 
 On Oct. 4, 1857, in Meriden, Conn., Lewis Hall 
 was united in marriage with Lucy M. Birdsey, who 
 was born on the Birdsey homestead, a daughter of 
 Edwin Birdsey, and two children were born of this 
 union : Lewis Burton, who resides in New York, 
 where he represents the International Silver Co. ; 
 and Wilbur Birdsey. Mrs. Hall is still living at her 
 home in Meriden where she is greatly beloved for 
 her kindly sympathy and broad charity. 
 
 Wilbur Birdsey Hall received his education in 
 the district schools of Meriden and at an early age 
 he entered the Wilcox Silver Plate factory where 
 he worked for five years. Being a young man of 
 enterprise and progressive ideas he started in the 
 silver plating business for himself in 1882, beginning 
 first in a small factory. Through strict attention to 
 business he was enabled in 1885 to build his pres- 
 ent factory where for the past sixteen years he has 
 been engaged in the White Metal business, building 
 up a successful trade. He employs over thirty 
 hands, but attends to all the details of the business 
 himself. 
 
 In politics Mr. Hall is independent and has 
 efiiciently served in the city council two years, repre- 
 senting the Fifth Ward, and also served as police 
 commissioner under Mayors Tracy and Wilson. He 
 is a member of the First Baptist Church, in which 
 he is serving as trustee. Fraternally he is a mem- 
 ber of Centre Lodge, No. 97, A. F & A. M., i\Ieri- 
 den ; Kevstone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; Hamilton 
 Council,' No. 22, R. & S. M., Meriden; St. Elmo 
 Commandery, No. 9, K. T., iMeriden ; E. G. Storer 
 
 Lodge of Perfection, A. A. S. R., New Haven; 
 Elm City Council, Princes of Jerusalem, New Ha- 
 ven; New Haven Chapter Rose Croix, New Ha- 
 ven ; LaFavette Sovereign Consistory, S. P. R. S. ; 
 Pyramid Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., Bridgeport. 
 In 1880 Mr. Hall was united in marriage with 
 Lillie E. Beckley, who was born in Clinton, Conn., 
 a daughter of George Beckley, and one child has 
 blessed this union : Lewis George, who was edu- 
 cated in Meriden and in a business college at Hart- 
 ford, and is now assistant to his father. 
 
 \\TLLIA?>I G. S:^IITH, contractor with the 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Co., New Haven, is a 
 native of Brooklyn, N. Y., born Jan. 29, 1856, son 
 of William Smith and grandson of Jotham Smith. 
 The last named was born on Long Island and fol- 
 lowed farming there until his removal to New 
 Haven. 
 
 AWlliam Smith was born on Long Island June 
 17, 1823, and grew to manhood on the farm there. 
 In 1863 he came to New Haven where he passed 
 the rest of his life engaged at his trades of carpen- 
 ter and millwright. His death occurred Oct. 29, 
 1890. In Brooklyn, N. Y., he married Miss Fannie 
 Brewer, a native of England, and six children 
 blessed this union, namely : Frances, who died at 
 the age of twenty months ; Elvira, who married 
 Frederick E. Baldwin, of New Haven ; Ida, who 
 married Andrew J. Warner and subsequently Ed- 
 ward Aldrich, and lives in New Haven ; William 
 G., the subject proper of these lines; Isabelle, who 
 first married F. B. Clemens, and is now the wife of 
 Arthur FI. Sadd, a farmer of AA^apping, Conn.; and 
 Josephine, who died at the age of seven. The par- 
 ents were Congregationalists in religious connection, 
 and Mr. Smith was a Republican politically. John 
 Brewer, IMrs. Smith's father, was a sawyer in the 
 dockyards in England ;, he died' in Brooklyn. 
 
 William G. Smith was reared in New Haven 
 and received his education in the public schools of 
 the city, attending the Cedar street school and the 
 AA'asbington school in Howard avenue. After com- 
 mencing work he had employment four years with 
 the Candee Rubber Co. and then learned the ma- 
 chinist's trade in the establishment of the New 
 Haven Manufacturing Co., with which he also re- 
 mained about four years. In 1886 he entered the 
 employ of the company with which he has since 
 been connected, the Winchester Repeating Arms 
 Co. For the past ten years he has been a contrac- 
 tor. Mr. Smith has made his way in the world by 
 industr)- and fidelity to every trust, and he has 
 gained the confidence of his employers and the 
 thorough respect of all associated with him, whether 
 in business or in private life. 
 
 On .Vpril 21, 1880, Mr. Smith was united in 
 marriage with Miss Minnie L. Roberts, of New 
 Haven, daughter of A, P. Roberts, who was born 
 in Morris, Litchfield Co., Conn. On her mother's 
 side ^Irs. Smith is a granddaughter of John H. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1247 
 
 Phoebus, for many years a teacher of music in Xew 
 Haven. Seven children have been born to Mr. and 
 J\lrs. Smith, only three of whom survive: Roland 
 A., William G., Francis R. and Frederick E., all 
 deceased; Dwight E., Warren P. and Fannie B. 
 They attend the Howard Avenue Congregational 
 Church. Socially Mr. Smith unites with City 
 Lodge, No. 36, I. O. O. F. ; Pioneer Council, No. 
 I, O. U. A. M. ; the local order among his fellow 
 v,'orkmen., called the Good Fellows ; and the Win- 
 chester Mutual Aid Society. His political support 
 is given to the Republican party. 
 
 RICHARD LLOYD. One of the successful far- 
 mers and poultry raisers of North Haven, Conn., 
 who has accumulated a fine farm^ and surroundings 
 bv the exercise of energy and industry, is. Richard 
 Lloyd, the subject of this sketch. Mr. Lloyd is a 
 native of Wales, born in Moughtre, Montgomery- 
 shire, North Wales, Feb. 11, 1848, a son of Thomas 
 and' Ann (Evans) Lloyd. The other children in 
 the family were : David, who married Ellen Dono- 
 gan, and lived and died in Northford, Conn. ; and 
 Alarv Ann, who married Edward Edwards, and re- 
 mained in Wales. 
 
 Richard Lloyd had but limited schooling, as his 
 health was poor in youth, and he was principally 
 occupied in agricultural labor on his father's farm 
 until he was married. After renting a farm there 
 some years he came to America in May, 1889. Da- 
 vid Lloyd, his brother, had already located in North 
 Haven, and Richard also came here, securing work 
 at once with Mr. E. C. Warner, and so satisfactory 
 were his services that he remained seven years in 
 that place. Mr. Lloyd was economical and indus- 
 trious, and at the end of this time he had accumu- 
 lated enough to purchase his present farm, the land 
 then being owned by John Wiley. Since that time 
 he has been very successfully engaged in general 
 farming and the raising of poultry, the latter branch 
 of the business being managed with great success 
 by ilrs. Lloyd, who takes great care in the breed- 
 ing of many excellent varieties suitable for the 
 market. 
 
 Iti September, 1874, Mr. Lloyd was married to 
 Jane Brown, a most estimable lady, born in Mont- 
 gomeryshire, Wales, the only daughter in the fam- 
 ily of four children born to Samuel and Jane 
 (Evans) Brown, the sons being, William, John and 
 Samuel, Jr. Samuel Brown, Jr., married Elizabeth 
 Lewis and is engaged in business in Liverpool ; Will- 
 iam Brown is deceased. The children born to Mr. 
 Lloyd and his wife were: Richard, born Sept. 19, 
 1875, in Wales, came to Connecticut with his wife 
 in May, 1901 ; and Mary Jane, born July 22, 1878, 
 in Wales, came with her parents to America. She 
 is a graduate of the Moody school at Northfield, 
 Mass., and after teaching four years at Woodbridge, 
 Conn., is now teaching in North Haven. In 1896 
 Mr. Lloyd and family returned to Wales and spent 
 a delightful winter among their old friends and rel- 
 
 atives. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd are energetic and 
 thrifty people and have deserved the success which 
 has attended them. They have never had cause to 
 regret their settlement in Connecticut, and are 
 among the most esteemed residents of North Ha- 
 ven. Their religious connection is with the Epis- 
 copal Church, in which faith both were reared. 
 
 JULIUS KUNTZE, a well known successful 
 dealer in tobacco and a manufacturer of cigars, 
 whose place of business is on East Main street, Mer- 
 iden, was born in Wansen, Prussian Silesia, Ger- 
 many, Feb. 14, 1858. 
 
 Carl Kuntze, father of Julius, was a native of 
 the same town, where he was engaged all his life 
 in the manufacturing of cigars and. died in 1869. 
 He is remembered as an upright and honorable man. 
 Theresa \\'eiss, his wife, was a native of the same 
 place. Of their children, all are now dead except 
 Herman, who carries on business at the old stand 
 of his father ; and Julius, of Meriden. 
 
 Julius Kuntze received a good education in his 
 home town and learned his father's business in the 
 most complete and perfect manner. After the 
 death of his father he and his brother, Herman, con- 
 ducted the business for their mother. In 1881 
 Julius Kuntze crossed the ocean on the steamer 
 "\''andalia," sailing from Hamburg- and landing at 
 New York, in which city he remained six years, do- 
 ing a good business as a cigar maker. At the end 
 of that period he went to the East, stopping at New 
 Haven, where he was located five years. He then 
 spent several months in his native land. In 1893 
 Mr. Kuntze came to Meriden and established his 
 present business, which has grown to very large 
 proportions. Sixteen hands are now employed and 
 his factory is the most extensive between New Ha- 
 ven and Hartford. Mr. Kuntze is an enterprising 
 and progressive young man. He is strictly honora- 
 ble in his dealings, kindly and accommodating in 
 disposition and has built up a business which would 
 be creditable to any management. 
 
 Mr. Kuntze was married in New Haven to 
 Elizabeth Schwab, a native of Darmstadt, Hessen- 
 Darmstadt, Germany, and their union was blessed 
 with the following children : George ; Ludwig and 
 Helen, both of whom died young; August; Eliza 
 and Carl. Mr. Kuntze belongs to the Meriden 
 Saengerbund and the Turnverein, is a member of 
 the A. O. U. W. and of Court Silver City, Inde- 
 pendent Order of Foresters. He stands high in the 
 estimation of the community and his neighbors and 
 patrons have learned to know and appreciate his 
 many excellent qualities. 
 
 J. EDWARD BRAINARD, for some years su- 
 perintendent of the city streets of Meriden, is one 
 of the best known and highly respected citizens, and 
 was born in Meriden Aug. 27, 1858, a descendant 
 of one of the oldest families of Connecticut. 
 
 In the records of Haddam and East Haddam the 
 
1248 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 family name is spelled Brainerd, but later genera- 
 tions have changed it to Llrainard. Daniel Brain- 
 ard, when eight years old, is recorded as living at 
 Hartford in the family of Gov. George AVylh's, and 
 in 1662, when twenty-one years old, became one of 
 the twenty-eight original proprietors of the old 
 town of Haddam, Conn. ; he married Hannah Spen- 
 cer, and Nov. 29, 1698, took for a second wife, 
 widow Hannah Saxton, and there is a tradition that 
 her entire maiden name was the same as that of his 
 first wife, who was a daughter of Gerrard Spencer, 
 of Lynn, Mass. Daniel Brainard died in 1715, leav- 
 ing seven sons and one daughter. Rev. Dr. David 
 D. Field, in his Genealogy of the Brainerd Family 
 (1857), speaks of Daniel as a prosperous, influen- 
 tial and very respectable man, a deacon in the 
 church, a justice of the peace and largest land hold- 
 er in this town. This Daniel Brainard is said to 
 have been the common ancestor of the Brainards 
 of this country. The family became very numerous 
 and has ever ranked among the first in wealth and 
 influence. 
 
 Oliver Brainard, grandfather of our subject, was 
 a resident of Glastonbury for many years and was 
 one of the best known citizens of that section. For 
 nearly thirty-two years he was postmaster of the 
 town of Glastonbury, appointed June 15, 1829, and 
 serving continuously until his death, April 10, 1861. 
 His son, Edwin W Brainard, father of J. Edwin, 
 was born in Glastonbury, where he received his pri- 
 mary education, later attending Wilbraham Acad- 
 emy in Massachusetts and Trinity College in Hart- 
 ford, where he graduated in 1842 at the age of 
 twenty, with the degree of B. A. For ten years he 
 was a successful teacher, both in the South and 
 also in Connecticut ; and later he took up the study 
 of medicine in the College of Physicians and Sur- 
 geons in New York, where he graduated. He 
 practiced his profession in Naugatuck, East Haven 
 and later in Branford, where he continued in prac- 
 tice until the time of his death. This occurred in 
 January, 1881, and was the result of a melancholy 
 accident. In answering a sick call he was driving 
 across the railroad in the town of Branford, was 
 struck by a train, andl died a martyr to the call of 
 duty. Dr. Brainard was one of the best known phy- 
 sicians in the State, a man of character and refine- 
 ment, highly educated and' prominent in all educa- 
 tional and progressive movements in Branford, 
 where he was a member of the school board and 
 one of the promoters of the high school. In re- 
 ligious views Dr. Brainard was liberal, following 
 the Golden Rule to the best of his ability. Always 
 a Democrat, he was stanch in the support of his 
 party ; was a lover of music and was the organist of 
 St. Thomas' Church in New York, while he at- 
 tended college. In New York City Dr. Brainard 
 married ^ladaline S. Smith, who was born in Chel- 
 sea, ]\Iass., a daughter of Prof. D. D. Smith, who 
 was one of the faculty of the Flomeopathic Medi- 
 cal College in New York City. The children of 
 
 this marriage were: J. Edwin, our subject; Mada- 
 line Clara, who married) Frank B. Forbes; Gertrude, 
 who married George Bradley, of East Haven, a 
 soldier in the U. S. army; who died of wounds re- 
 ceived at Santiago, Cuba, in 1898, in the war with 
 Spain. The widow of Dr. Brainard still survives,, 
 a lady of refinement and culture, and a valued and 
 consistent member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 J. Edwin Brainard was born in the old Tuttle 
 homestead on Colony street. When five years of 
 age his parents moved tO' Branford where his boy- 
 hood was spent. He attended the district schools, 
 was graduated in 1876 from the Hopkins Grammar 
 School in New Haven, and he delivered the salu- 
 tatory at his graduation from the high school. His 
 ambition was to become a professional man, and as 
 a preliminary step he spent five years mastering drug 
 business and materia medica, after returning to 
 Branford to take up the study of medicine with his 
 father. This career was interrupted by the sudden 
 death of the latter, and in 1880 he came to Meriden 
 and entered the employ of the Meriden Malleable 
 Iron Co., where he held an important position up 
 to 1891, then resigning to go into the bicycle bus- 
 iness on Church street. Mr. Brainard formed a 
 partnership with Irving Wilcox, under the name 
 of Brainard & AA'ilcox, which continued until 1897, 
 at which time he sold out to his partner and entered 
 the employ of the Pope Mfg. Co. ; subsequently ac- 
 cepting a position with the firm of Ives, Upham & 
 Rand, in charge of their bicycle department. He 
 continued there until Feb. I, 1898, when he was ap- 
 pointed street superintendent by the board of pub- 
 lic works, under Ma3ror Ives, which position he 
 filled to the satisfaction of the public until ]\Iay 
 18, 1901, at which date he resigned to enter the 
 employ of the H. Wales Lines Company. 
 
 ^Ir. Brainard was one of the charter members 
 of the ^leriden Wheel Club when it was organized 
 in 1882. During the oast fifteen years he has taken 
 an active interest in every movement which would 
 further the interests of Aleriden cyclists, being the 
 promoter and builder of the first cycle path in the 
 State, from Meriden to North Haven, and was the 
 instigator of the Connecticut Federation of Cyclists, 
 which was organized in this city, and which now 
 has many thousandi members, and has shown its 
 power in Connecticut legislation. This organization- 
 is recognized as a powerful factor in the good roads 
 movement, and is responsible for the enactment of 
 the first andl only distinctly bicycle laws that were 
 ever passed by a Connecticut legislature. Mr. Brain- 
 ard is president of the Federation and his popularity 
 in local wheeling circles has been fully attested. 
 For four years he was treasurer of the Meriden 
 Wheel Club, and has been its efficient president for 
 the last eight years. Conducting to a successful 
 issue, as chairman of the Race jMeet Committee, the 
 three national circuit race meets of '95-96-97, ?ilr. 
 Brainard personally supervised and constructed the 
 track for these events upon original lines, the re- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1249 
 
 suit being the lowering of many records and a rep- 
 utation to Meriden of the fastest half mile track in 
 the country. 
 
 In 1881 Mr. Brainard was married to Miss Liz- 
 zie C. Bartholomew, a daughter of Rodolphus and 
 Elizabeth (Griffin) Bartholomew, of Branford, and 
 three children have been born to this union : Hal- 
 sted, a student in the Meriden high school ; Norman, 
 also in high school ; and Spencer. Mr. Brainard has 
 been very active in politics, having toured the State 
 on the good roads and wheelman's rights move- 
 ment ; he has been the choice of the Fifth Ward for 
 alderman, and served two years as chairman of the 
 street committee. Upon his resignation as street 
 superintendent he was presented with resolutions 
 by the board of public works attesting his efficiency, 
 and with an elegant gold chain and diamond studded 
 locket as a token of esteem by the city teamsters. 
 He is liberal in his views and is one of the most 
 popular citizens of Meriden, where he has passed 
 so many years of his life. 
 
 ALEXANDER R. AMOS, a member of the 
 Sperry & Amos Co., of New Haven, was born in 
 Edinburgh, Scotland, May 12, 1863, but has lived 
 in the United States long enoug'h to have become 
 an American citizen of whom the country is proud. 
 His father, also Alexander, was born within nine 
 miles of the city of Edinburgh, where he graduated 
 from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons ; 
 he practiced in his native land all his life. Alexander 
 Amos, Sr., married Miss Helen Donaldson, who 
 was born in the same parish, where her ancestors for 
 two centuries had resided. A family of seven chil- 
 dren were born to them : John, Margaret, Helen, 
 Annie, Jane, James and Alexander R., and all, with 
 the exception of James, survive. 
 
 Alexander R. Amos was the only one of the 
 family to come to the United States. He spent his 
 boyhood days in his native place and was reared 
 carefully by an admirable mother, as he was but 
 four years old when his father died. The family 
 was left in straitened circumstances, and at the 
 age of nine years our subject went to work to take 
 care of himself, at the age of thirteen entering as 
 an apprentice to the cabinet making trade. His 
 educational advantages had been meager, but the 
 spirit of ambition filled the lad, and after his day 
 of labor in the shop, for four years he studied archi- 
 tectural and freehand drawing, graduating in these 
 at the Royal Academv of Science and Art. By the 
 time he had reached his eighteenth year he had fin- 
 ished his apprenticeshio and a short time later went 
 to London where he remained some six months en- 
 gaged in work at his trade, and in February, 1882, 
 came to America, reaching this country poor and un- 
 known. 
 
 That such was his condition reflects the greatest 
 credit on Mr. Amos, contrasting as it does with his 
 present honorable and prosperous condition, changed 
 79 
 
 in so short a time. Flis first location was in Wor- 
 cester, Mass., where he followed his trade for 
 eighteen months and then started out on a trip of 
 sight-seeing through the West, working his way, 
 through his trade, and closely observing and apply- 
 ing his knowledge as to the ideas of the American 
 people on architectural subjects, returning after 
 two years and locating for more than one year at 
 Boston, Mass. Wherever he went Mr. Amos was 
 a student, and in this, perhaps, lies a part of his 
 success. Upon his return to Worcester he was made 
 overseer of the cabinet department of Cutting & 
 Bishop, contractors and builders, and remained with 
 that firm for three years, coming to New Haven in 
 July, 1891, at the request of J. Gibb Smith, to be- 
 come the superintendent of the cabinet and shop 
 departments of that company. In 1899, in associa- 
 tion with Frank W. Sperry and Edward J. Scannell, 
 the formed the corooration of the The Sperry & 
 Amos Co. for the manufacture of mouldings, 
 turned work, inside and outside trim, cabinet work, 
 office and store fixtures, veneered doors, etc. Their 
 business, now extending all over New England and 
 the Middle West, has proved a great success, and 
 reflects nothing but credit upon its energetic mem- 
 bers. 
 
 On Aug. 10, 1887, ^Ir. Amos was married to 
 Miss Minnie McFarland, who was born in Gardner,. 
 Mass., a daughter of Daniel McFarland, of Scotch 
 extraction, and three children have been born tc^ 
 this union, but one, however, surviving, Alexander 
 R., Jr. An independent in politics, Mr. Amos votes 
 for the best man, and like his ancestors, he belongs to 
 the Presbyterian Church, in which he enjoys high 
 esteem. 
 
 CHRIS STROBEL, proprietor of a first class 
 jewelry establishment in Waterbm-y, is a native of 
 Germany, born Dec. 25, 1866, in Wittenberg. 
 
 John G. Strobel, father of our subject, was of the 
 same nativity, and in 1867 left the Fatherland for 
 the New World, settling in Waterbury, where he 
 was employed in factories. He was one of the first 
 settlers of the place and lived there about a quarter 
 of a century, dying Oct. 5, 1893. In Germany he 
 married Lucy Schlegel, and three children graced 
 this union: George J., who is in the employ of his 
 brother; Chris, the subject of this sketch; and 
 Emma. The mother died March 22, 1900. 
 
 Chris Strobel was about one year old when his 
 parents came to Connecticut. He received his ear- 
 lier education at the district schools of Waterbury, 
 later attending night school, also a day school for 
 three months in the vear. At the age of fourteen 
 he commenced to work with the Benedict & Burn- 
 ham Mfg. Co., remaining with them three years ; 
 then was in the employ of the Waterbury Watch 
 Co. some three years ; after which he entered the 
 store of D. C. Callender & Co. in order to learn the 
 jewelry business. On Oct. 9, 1889, he purchased the 
 
1250 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 interest of D. C. Callender, the firm becoming Lake, 
 Strobel & Co., Mr. Lake having been one of the 
 "Co." previously. Li 1895 Mr. Strobel and Mr. 
 Lake purchased the "Co." part of the firm, and the 
 style became Lake & Strobel. On Oct. 15, 1897, 
 ^Ir. Strobel purchased the interest of Mr. Lake and 
 has since conducted the business alone at Nos. 1 
 and 3 Exchange place. He has a remarkably fine 
 store, fully stocked with everything in the jewelry 
 line and conceded to be one of the finest in the 
 State. In 1899 he refitted it at a cost of $6,000. 
 
 In politics our subject is a Democrat ; socially he 
 is a member of the B. P. O. E., affiliating with 
 Lodge No. 265, Waterbury, of which he is past 
 exalted ruler. Mr. Strobel has not vet joined the 
 "noble army of benedicts." A public spirited citi- 
 zen and a man of broad and progressive views, the 
 bests interests of the community find in him a friend, 
 and all who know him esteem him for his sterling 
 worth. 
 
 ERANCIS G. DANIELL, the electrical en- 
 •gineer and superintendent of the electrical and me- 
 'Chanical department of the Eair Haven and West- 
 ville Railroad, was born in Dedham, Mass., April 
 4, 1868, a son of Ellery Daniell, and a grandson of 
 Jesse Daniell. His remote ancestor, Robert Daniell, 
 settled in Watertown as early as 1636, where he 
 died in 1655. Erom him to Erancis G. Daniell, th^:; 
 family line is as follows: Samuel, Joseph, Joseph 
 (2), Joseph (3), Jesse and Ellery. 
 
 Ellery Daniell was born in Dedham, Ma--?., in 
 1829, and his father, Jesse, in the same place in 
 1786, where he died Aug. 29, 1832. Joseph Daniell, 
 his father, was a sergeant in the Revolutionary 
 forces, serving in Capt. Aaron Smith's Company, 
 under the command of Col. William Heath. He 
 was a deacon in the West Parish, of Dedham, and 
 was prominent in the affairs of that community. 
 
 Ellery Daniell was reared in Dedham, where 
 he received his education in the local schools. When 
 he had attained his majority he entered into the 
 banking business, in which he was engaged until 
 his death at the age of fifty. He married Olive C. 
 Guild, one of the ten children of Erancis Guild, and 
 a granddaughter of Calvin and Lendamine (Dra- 
 per ) Guild. Her great-grandfather, Joseph Guild, 
 was a captain in the Revolutionary army and fought 
 at Lexington and at Tioonderoga, as well as at 
 other important places. Francis Guild was a tax 
 collector in Dedham many years, and his brother 
 was long the president of the Dedham Institute for 
 Savings. To Ellery and Olive C. Daniell were 
 born four children, three of whom are still living: 
 Caroline is in Boston; Francis is the subject of this 
 writing; and Jennie is a resident of Boston. The 
 mother is still living in Dedham. She is a member 
 of the Congregational Church, as was also her hus- 
 band, arid both were highly respected in the com- 
 munitv where their useful and active j'ears were 
 passed. 
 
 Erancis G. Daniell spent his early years in Ded- 
 ham, where he attended the public schools. When 
 quite young he took up the active duties of life and 
 was received into the machine shop of the local mills. 
 The machinist trade was thoroughly learned by him 
 when he connected himself with the American Tool 
 Machine Company at Hyde Park, where he remained 
 a year. With the Thompson-Houston Electrical 
 Company's factory, at Lynn, he was connected some 
 two years, and was then associated with the Street 
 Railway Co. in Minneapolis some two years, and 
 while there put two roads .in running order. The 
 Newburgh line in Cleveland was built by him, and 
 also a line in Lincoln, Neb. He was connected with 
 the Evansville street car line for about a year and 
 April, 1893, he came to New Haven to take a posi- 
 tion with the local street car company, which he 
 held for a year or more. Since that time he has 
 been connected with the Fair Haven and Westville 
 Railroad, having charge of the cars, wiring and 
 poles of a hundred miles of track and three hundred 
 cars. One hundred and twenty men are employed 
 by the company and are under his general direction. 
 The entire construction of the line was put in his 
 charge and the fine condition of the road and its 
 perfect operation attest his mechanical ability, as 
 well as liis administrative genius. 
 
 ;\Ir. Daniell was married in 1900 to Miss Maude 
 Mazeine, one of two children, born in New Haven, 
 to William Mazeine, an old and prominent business 
 man of this city. Ra3'mond Mazeine is her brother. 
 Mr. Daniell is a member of the Wooster Lodge, A. 
 E. & A. M., and the Governor's Foot Guard, of New 
 Haven. 
 
 JAMES J. FLANAGAN, D. D. S. Promi- 
 nent among the professional men of Meriden was 
 Dr. James J. Flanagan, the well known and success- 
 ful dentist and useful and esteemed citizen. He 
 was born in Newington, Conn., March i, 1863, a 
 son of Owen E. Flanagan, a highly respected resi- 
 dent. 
 
 Dr. Flanagan's education was begun in his na- 
 tive place, but at the age of eleven years, with his 
 parents, he removed to Saugus, Mass., where he 
 entered the public schools, becoming well grounded 
 in the primary branches. When he changed his 
 residence to Rockville he entered a factory in that 
 city and for the succeeding four years was a faith- 
 ful and valued employe there, later removing to 
 ;\Ieriden. Here he also was employed in a factory 
 but, from childhood, his tastes and ambition had 
 been in the direction of the science of dentistry. 
 All obstacles being overcome, in 1889 he went to 
 New York andl there completed a course in the 
 New York Dental College, an institution second 
 to none in the country. After his graduation, in 
 1891, he returned to Meriden, where he had many 
 friends, and opened up a practice which at the time 
 of his death was one of the best in the city. 
 
 For ten years Dr. Flanagan was faithful to his 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1251 
 
 patients, giving universal satisfaction. A skilled 
 practitioner, he also worked with love for his pro- 
 fession and succeeded where others who look upon 
 dentistry entirely from a sordid view, would prob- 
 ably fail. Not only was he a close student, but his 
 comfortable apartments were supplied with all mod^ 
 ern appliances known in the profession. Absorbed 
 in it he took very little interest in politics and voted 
 independently, as his judgment dictated. 
 
 Dr. Flanagan was married to Miss Catherine 
 Mahan, a daughter of Thomas P. Mahan, one of 
 the respected citizens of Meriden, and both he and 
 his estimable wife were consistent members of the 
 Catbohc Church. Fraternally Dr. Flanagan was 
 a member of the T. A. B. Society and the Royal 
 Arcanum, while professionally he belonged to the 
 State Dental Society. He enjoyed the esteem and 
 confidence of the people of this community, and his 
 death at the early age of thirty-eight years was 
 deeply lamented. 
 
 FREDERICK BYRON HILL, associate of the 
 American College of Musicians, and organist of the 
 First Congregational Church, of Meriden, as well 
 as a successful composer of music, is one of the best 
 known young men of Meridten and a representative 
 of one of the oldest families in New Haven county. 
 He was born in the town of WaUingford, Conn., in 
 187 1, a son of Byron and Emma Augusta (Howd) 
 Hill. 
 
 Byron Hill was born in 1841, a son of William 
 Hill (born 1796) and Susan (Hull) Hill (born 
 abouf 1810). With his father he operated a farm 
 and also a shop for woodturning, but later retired 
 to his farm, where he now resides. His wife was 
 born in 1852 in WaUingford and was a daughter of 
 William and Lucinda (Tuttle) Howd. Three chil- 
 dren were born of this union : Frederick B. ; Elmer, 
 born in 1873, died when young ; and Linus Atwater, 
 born in 1875, is a successful jeweler of WaUingford, 
 and by his wife, Ethel (Lucas), has one child, Ivan 
 Lucas. 
 
 Frederick B. Hill was born in the Hill home- 
 stead in North Farms, near WaUingford, Nov. 27, 
 1871. His primary education was secured in the 
 public schools of WaUingford, and he early com- 
 menced the study of music, at first under the direc- 
 tion of Miss NeUie Hall, of WaUingford, and Prof. 
 James Prescott, of Meriden. Later (1894) he be- 
 came the pupil of E. M. Bowman, of Steinway Hall, 
 New York, devoting himself to piano and theory. 
 In April, 1892, Mr. Hill secured his first appoint- 
 ment as organist, in WaUingford, began teachmg 
 the piano and played first violin in an orches- 
 tra, which he himself led. He received the 
 appointment as organist and choir director m 
 the First Congregational Church, Meriden, m 
 April, 1895. In 1896 Mr. Hill successfully passed 
 an examination in piano and theory before the ex- 
 aminers for the American College of Musicians, m 
 New York, and also covered the organ examination. 
 
 having pursued his studies in that branch with 
 S. P. Warren. Mr. Hill's touch is extremely versa- 
 tile ; he has studied Bach thoroughly and can prop- 
 erly interpret Beethoven and Chopin, and he has 
 received the most favorable press notices, as well 
 as the highest encomiums on his touch and rendi- 
 tion from brother artists. 
 
 At the First Congregational Church of Meriden 
 Mr. Hill has developed an excellent choir, and has 
 given several series of recitals, which have been 
 among the most popular Meriden has ever known. 
 His large class of pupils — piano, organ and theory — ■ 
 is steadily increasing, and he has secured a substan- 
 tial place in the respect of the people of Meriden, as 
 well as in the musical world generally. Mr. Hill has 
 composed for the voice, piano and orchestra, music 
 which has met with a very flattering reception. 
 
 On June 2, 1897, Mr. Hill was married, in Meri- 
 den, to Miss Bertha Hotchkiss Camp, a daughter of 
 Nelson Hinman and Mary (Butler) Camp. Mrs. 
 Hill is a lady of refinement, highly educated and 
 deeply sympathetic with her husband's work. The 
 home life of Mr. and Mrs. Hill is ideal, and they 
 gather about them a most congenial circle of friends. 
 Mr. Hill is deeply interested in the Y. M. C. A., of 
 which he is librarian, and presents to his associates 
 a rare example of Christian manhood. 
 
 DR. "FRANK G. ATWOOD is, though one of 
 the youngest busin.ess men of New Haven, by no 
 means one of the least known, for as proprietor of 
 the largest veterinary hospital in the State and of 
 the Metropolitan Stables, at No. 127 Meadow street, 
 he has at an unusually early age gained a firm foot- 
 hold among the enterprising citizens of his adopted 
 place. If heredity counts for anything he was born 
 to his chosen calling, for his father has also been 
 a most successful veterinary surgeon, though he 
 has not devoted himself entirely to practice. 
 
 The Atwood family is one of the oldest in Wood- 
 bury, Litchfield Co., this State, where our subject's 
 grandfather, Wilham R. Atwood, was born. He 
 was well educated and taught in both public and 
 private schools, and he also followed the vocation 
 of farming. William R. Atwood was one of the 
 well known residents of Woodbury in his day and 
 was regarded by his fellow citizens as a man of 
 . exceptionallv good judgment and uprightness of 
 character. He and his wife were devout members 
 of the M. E. Church, in the work of which he took 
 an active part, being especially interested in the 
 Sunday-school, in which he taught, and of which 
 he served as superintendent. He died at the age of 
 forty-five years, his wife, Roxey, who like himself 
 was a native of Woodbury, living: to the age of sixty- 
 seven. They had a family of six children, four of 
 w'hom survive : Vestina, who married Dr. Elisha 
 Munger, of New London ; Orvesta, who married 
 Orion Morehouse and resides near New Preston, 
 Conn.; Frank J., our subject's father; and William 
 R., a farmer of Thomaston, Connecticut. 
 
1252 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Frank J. Atwood was born in Woodbury and 
 has passed all his life on the place of his birth. He 
 took up the study of veterinary medicine and sur- 
 gery, which he has continued to practice in connec- 
 tion with farming, and has been cjuite successful. 
 He has served as selectman and in other local offices 
 and is 'highly respected in his locality. Frank J. 
 Atwood married Aliss Ellen Capewell, of West 
 Woodbury, and they have had eight chidren, six 
 -of whom are still living: Edna R. ; Frank G., whose 
 name opens this sketch; Ellsworth, a resident of 
 Middlebury ; ^Varren S., who is a butcher in Wood- 
 bury; and Margaret B. and Grover C., who are still 
 under the home roof. The parents attend the M. 
 E. Church. Mrs. Atwood's father, Joseph Cape- 
 well, was a prominent man in the business circles of 
 West Side and later Oakville, in Litchfield county, 
 where he was engaged as a manufacturer of am- 
 munition supplies and also conducted a machine 
 shop. He died at the age of sixty-three, his wife, 
 whose maiden name was Pitts, at the age of sixty- 
 four. They were identified with the M. E. Church. 
 
 Frank G. Atwood was born Feb. 24, 1875, iii 
 Woodbury, where he remained with his parents up 
 to the age of twelve, after which he lived with his 
 father's uncle, Chauncey Atwood, until he was nine- 
 teen. His literary education was acquired in the 
 common schools of Woodbury and the Storrs Agri- 
 cultural College. He pursued his professional stud- 
 ies in the Toronto College of Veterinary Medicine 
 and Surgery, graduating from Veterinary Depart- 
 ment in 1896, in which year he commenced prac- 
 tice. His first work was as State A'eterinarian on 
 Tuberculosis, in 1896-97, and he has since been in 
 general practice in New Haven except during the 
 time he served in the Spanish-American war and 
 the various periods he has spent in post-graduate 
 work in his line. No better evidence of his devo- 
 tion to the science and earnest desire to thoroughly 
 master it in every detail is needed than a record of 
 his faithful and persistent study. His post-gradu- 
 ate courses have been pursued at Yale and the 
 Johns Hopkins University, Department of Medicine, 
 which latter institution he attended in 1897, 1898 
 and 1899, taking post-graduate work in general 
 medicine and surgery. He was in the United States 
 service nine months, beginning with February, 1898, 
 as a specialist, being engaged on microscopical and 
 X-ray work in the Army Medical Museum, at Wash- 
 ington, D. C, under the surgeon general. 
 
 In November, 1899, Dr. Atwood became a part- 
 ner of John E. Cook in the Metropolitan Stables, No. 
 127 Meadow street, and shortly afterward bought 
 out that gentleman. He has since been sole pro- 
 prietor of this well equipped livery establishment, 
 where about thirty high grade horses are kept, and 
 he enjoys a fine patronage. Dr. Atwood leaves the 
 care of this business, however, to his manager, 
 George FI. Robinson, his attention being given to 
 the management of his veterinary hospital, No. 129 
 Meadow street and Nos. 43 to 45 Front street, 
 
 where he has accommodation for fifty-five horses, 
 Man)- successful operations have been performed 
 there and the hospital has grown to its present pro- 
 portions through the reputation which the Doctor 
 has earned for reliability, efficiency and absolute 
 trustworthiness. That a man should gain so great 
 a success in so brief a period is astonishing, and the 
 heights he has reached thus early in life hold prom- 
 ises of even wider fields of usefulness in the future. 
 Within the past few years the profession which our 
 subject has adopted has come to be regarded with 
 a due sense of its imoortance, and golden oppor- 
 tunities lie before those who are not afraid to be 
 the pioneers in its development along broader lines. 
 On Oct. 17, 1900, Dr. Atwood was united in 
 marriage with Miss Mai A. Lockwood, daughter of 
 Samuel G. Lockwood, of Wilton, Conn., where he 
 owns a large farm. jMr. Lockwood is also interested 
 in New York real estate. His family consisted of 
 two children, Charles and Mai A. Dr. and Mrs. At- 
 wood are members of Trinity M. E. Church. He 
 is a Republican in political sentiment, and a mem- 
 ber of the Young Alen's Republican Club. Though 
 no office-seeker, he believes that every citizen should 
 serve his community when he possesses special fit- 
 ness for duty, and he is at present acting as humane 
 agent for the State of Connecticut. The Doctor 
 and his wife reside at No, 158 Whalley avenue, 
 Vi'hich piece of property was recently purchased of 
 William E, Roberts. 
 
 CHARLES AUGUSTUS BLACKSTONE, a 
 prominent farmer of Branford, is a descendant of 
 Rev. William Blackstone, the first of the family in 
 America, who settled in Boston in 1623 or 1625. 
 
 William Blackstone was the first white settler 
 and owner of the territory on which Boston is built. 
 The name Blackstone is a famous one for various 
 reasons. Sir William Blackstone, the eminent En- 
 glish jurist, whose commentaries are the first books 
 put into the hands of every law student, was a 
 posthumous child, and his mother also died before he 
 was twelve years of age. He was bom in London 
 July 10, 1723, was educated by friends, and by his 
 literary labors has kept the name in great honor to 
 this day. 
 
 The William Blackstone who first built at Boston 
 is supposed to have come to this country from Eng- 
 land in 1623 with Capt, Robert Gorges, He may 
 have obtained' possession of Shawmut, which was 
 then the name of that locality, by lease or purchase 
 from Gorges, He was not diriven off h\ the later 
 settlers, because of his kind offices to them and his 
 carefulness not to be obnoxious to them. He is 
 believed to have graduated from Emmanuel College, 
 Cambridge, in 161 7, and was a clergyman of the 
 Church of England. He had "left England because 
 of his dislike of the Lord Bishops." He had built a 
 house in which he lived near a fine spring of water, 
 that good authorities believe was at the northern 
 terminus of Leveret street, and near the depot of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I2S3 
 
 the Lowell railroad.. The improvements he had 
 made showed he must have been there seven or 
 •eight years before any others came. He seemed to 
 prefer solitude. Winthrop and his company, having 
 located on the other side of the Charles river, at 
 jCharlestown, were having much sickness and dis- 
 tress. Mr. Blackstone, becoming acquainted with 
 their condition, went over and invited them to re- 
 move to his place. His advice and invitation were 
 accepted, and before August roost of them moved 
 over. Some years later Blackstone, becoming dis- 
 satisfied with his new neighbors, sold out most of 
 his' property and removed to the borders of Rhode 
 Island. Lechford says that he was induced to re- 
 move because he would not join the church. The 
 •saying is, he left England because of his dislike of 
 the Lord Bishops, but now he did not like the lord 
 "brethren. He was paid a small sum by each of the 
 new settlers. Purchasing cows with his money, 
 he went to a place about six miles north of Provi- 
 dence, at Attleborough 'Gore, on the Blackstone 
 river. He called it Study Hill, a name which still 
 clings to it. As at Shawmut, he had fine gardens, or- 
 chards and meadows in his new locality. There, as 
 in the former settlement, his were the first apples 
 produced in the place. In 1765 several of his apple 
 trees remained and bore fruit. In 1836 three trees 
 were standing, in appearance very old, and probably 
 grew from the sprouts of those planted by Black- 
 stone. These facts are found by Drake in Mr. 
 Bliss' History of Rehoboth, and in Daggett's His- 
 tory of Attleborough. On July 4, 1659, Rev. Will- 
 iam Blackstone married Mary Stevenson, widow of 
 John Stevenson, of Boston. When Williams and his 
 associates came to Providence Blackstone occasion- 
 ally preached for them. He died a month before 
 the breaking out of King Philip's war. The Indians 
 ravaged his plantation and burnt up his buildings 
 and his valuable library. Mr. Blackstone is known 
 to have left one son, whose posterity are somewhat 
 -numerous. Drake thinks that Blackstone should 
 be the name of the principal street of Boston. His 
 name does survive there in the park or "square," 
 and in several other things and places. The town 
 of Blackstone and the river Blackstone also perpet- 
 uate his memory. 
 
 Soon after 1700 a John Blackstone appeared in 
 Branford, Conn. He was a mariner, and came from 
 Rhode Island with his wife Rebecca. He purchased 
 considerable land from time to time. As Branford 
 in those days was quite a port of foreign com- 
 merce, it was natural lie should find it and choose 
 it as a 'home for his family. He was probably the 
 grandson of Rev. William Blackstone, of Study Hill. 
 Tradition relates that bis marriage was not agreea- 
 ble to his friends or his wife's friends, so the young 
 people resolved to make a new home for themselves 
 in Connecticut. This John Blackstone began to buy 
 land near the present "Blackstoneville," in Branford, 
 and continued from year to year until he was one 
 of the largest landholders in the place. Much of 
 
 the land is still owned by the Blackstone families 
 of to-day. 
 
 Capt. John Blackstone, great-grandson of Will- 
 iam, and son of Jdhn, was born Jan. 28, 1699. On 
 April 2, 1727, he married Elizabeth Foote, who died 
 May 14, 1733. On Nov. 25, 1736, Capt. Blackstone 
 married Rebecca Harrison, of the same town, who 
 died Oct. 8, 1765. He passed away Jan. 13, 1785. 
 His children, all by the first marriage, were : Abi- 
 gail, born April 20, 1728, was married Dec. 17, 
 1750, to Abraham Hoadley, of Branford, and died 
 Sept. 15, 1810. Stephen was born Feb. 15, 1730. 
 Elizabeth, born Dec. 18, 1731, married Isaac Hoad- 
 ley. John was born May 7, 1733. 
 
 John Blackstone, son of Capt. John, was mar- 
 ried May 19, 1754, to Rebecca Baldwin, and their 
 children were: Ann, born Oct. 14, 1759; John, 
 April 24, 1763; Timothy, Nov. 7, 1765; Abigail, 
 July 10, 1768; Edward, Sept. 2, 1770; Stephen 
 Foote, Dec. 3, 1772; Ebenezer, June 25, 1775; 
 Ralph, July 5, 1778. 
 
 John Blackstone, son of John and Rebecca 
 (Baldwin) Blackstone, was married Nov. 17, 1788, 
 to Rebecca Foote, and they bad children : Ransom, 
 boTn April 17, 1790, never married, and died Dec^ 
 14, 1859. Lucy, born July 23, 1792, was married 
 Nov. 26, 1815, to John Tyler, and died Nov. 5, 
 1825. Augustus was born July 24, 1800. The 
 father of this family was a soldier in the war of 
 1 81 2, and several Bllackstones served as minute 
 men from 1776 to 1779. 
 
 Augustus Blackstone married Esther Linsley 
 Nov. 27, 1822. She died Jan. 19, 1866, aged sev- 
 enty. On Dec. 16, 1866, Augustus Blackstone mar- 
 ried, for his second wife, Mrs. Ruel Andrews, of 
 East Haven, who was born March 28, 1801, and 
 died Dec. 9, 1891. Augustus Blackstone died Feb, 
 18, 1878. He and his first wife had two sons born 
 to them, John Augustus and James Linsley. James 
 Linsley was born Aug. 24, 1832, and on Aug. 20, 
 1857, married Isabella Lee, of Madison, Conn., who 
 was born Dec. 2, 1835. Two children came to them : 
 Lee, born April 16, 1861 ; and Catherine Lee, born 
 Jan. 23, 1866. This entire family died March 29, 
 1869. 
 
 John Augustus Blackstone was born June 28, 
 1829, in Branford, where he was reared and received 
 a common-school education. He became a prosper- 
 ous and successful farmer there. Mr. Blackstone 
 was married Nov. 7, 1855, to H. Minerva, daughter 
 of Ruel and Olive (Foot) Andrews, of East Haven, 
 and they had two sons, Charles Augustus and Rue), 
 Andrews. Mr. Blackstone was selectman of Bran- 
 ford ten years, and also held the oiiices of assessor 
 and constable, and was sheriff of the county. He 
 died Oct. 2, 1893, leaving memories of an honorable 
 and useful life. 
 
 Charles Augustus Blackstone was born Sept. 26, 
 1856, in East Haven, Conn., and grew to manhood 
 in Branford, where he attended the public school. 
 Bred to farming, he has made that his life work. 
 
1254 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and is now living on a part of the old Blackstone 
 property. Mr. Blackstone was married Oct. 29, 
 1879, to Hattie M., daughter of Capt. John Hamil- 
 ton and Lucy Kelsey (Bishop) Spencer, of Madi- 
 son, Conn. Tlhey have one daughter, Pearl Esther, 
 bom Oct. 23, 1894. Mrs. Blackstone's paternal 
 grandparents were Elias and Rebinah (Stevens) 
 Spencer, and her maternal grandparents were Levi 
 and Polly (Coe) Bishop. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Blackstone are members of the 
 Congregational Church, and he is enrolled in Wid- 
 ows' Sons' Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., of which 
 he is senior warden; Israel Putnam Lodge, No. 31, 
 A. O. U. W. ; Montowese Lodge, No.- 184, N. E. 
 O. P., the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, and the Su- 
 preme Lodge at Boston ; the Knights of Honor ; and 
 the Branford Agricultural Society. At the meeting 
 of the Grand Lodge of Connecticut, N. E. O. P., 
 held in New Haven April 11, 1900, Mr. Blackstone 
 was elected representative to the Supreme Lodge 
 for two years. Airs. Blackstone is a member of 
 Princess Lodge, No. 29, N. E. O. P., the Grand 
 Lodge of Connecticut, and the Supreme Lodge at 
 Boston. In sentiment Mr. Blackstone is a Repub- 
 lican, but he is no politician. He is fond of the 
 hunt, and! his home is full of fine trophies which tes- 
 tify to his superior marksmanship. 
 
 WILLIAM A. RUSSELL, a well-known black- 
 smith of West Haven, was born in Bethany, Conn., 
 June 6, 1845, the son of Styles A. and Susan An- 
 drew Russell. 
 
 His family became identEfied with Bethany at an 
 early day and his grandfather Daniel Russell, was 
 a farmer there. Styles A. Russell, our subject's 
 father, was born and' reared in Bethany and be- 
 came a wheelwright by trade, many wheels having 
 been put in place by him in different places in his 
 section. [He died) in Bethany aged forty-one years. 
 His wife, Susan Andrew, who now resides in Derby 
 with one of her sons, is a devout Methodist. She 
 was born in Bethany and is a descendant of Rev. 
 William Andrew, who settled in Massachusetts in 
 1637, and was one of the twelve founders of Yale 
 College. Her father William Andrew, died in 1857 
 and her mother Temperance Hotchkiss, in 1887. 
 She was one of a family of seven children and had 
 ten chJildren, of whom six are living. Mary mar- 
 ried Ransom Hitchcock and settled at the old home 
 in Bethany; Catherine married Gilbert Doan; Ellen 
 (Mrs. Newell) resides in West Haven; Elvira V. 
 married Thomas Horsfall ; William A. was the next 
 in order of birth; Dwight S. is a resident of An- 
 sonia; Ann E. (Mrs. H. D. Seldon), resides in 
 Chester ; and Wallace A. lives in Derby. 
 
 William A. Russell was but eight years old when 
 his father died, and at the age of ten years he made 
 his home in Orange, where he remained until eight- 
 een years old. He secured a common-school edu- 
 cation and after learning bis trade in Woodbridge he 
 followed it as a journeyman in Orange two years; 
 
 Meriden one year ; and again in Orange for a year. 
 In 1869 he settled in West Haven, and in 1870 start- 
 ed in business for himself which he has continued 
 with one exception from 1884 to 1887 when he was 
 engaged in the manufacture of adjustable poles, in 
 Mt. Carmel. His shop at West Haven was burned 
 in 1895 and he then built the present shop on Union 
 street where he carries on a general blacksmith busi- 
 ness. In 1869 he married Jane I. Bradley, a na- 
 tive of Hamden, this county, and thev have two 
 sons : Ered A., born in 1874, is an electrician, and 
 resides with our subject; and Elford B., born in 
 1876, is a carpenter in New Haven. Our subject is 
 a Democrat in politics and was elected to the board 
 of selectmen in 1897 and re-elected in 1898, 1899 
 and 1901. He has been connected with the i\Ia- 
 sonic order for twenty-five years and is a member 
 of Annawan Lodge, No. 115, F. & A. M., in which 
 he has held nearly all the offices and is a past master. 
 He is also a member of Joseph Andrews Chapter 
 No. 46, being High Priest at the present time, and 
 of Crawford Council of Fair Haven and New Ha- 
 ven Commandery, K. T. He is an active worker 
 in the I. O. O. F., Harmonv Lodge, No. 5, and the 
 Encampment, and is a charter member of the order 
 of American Mechanics in which he is a past officer. 
 He and his family are much esteemed socially and 
 his wife is a member of the Congregational Church 
 at West Haven. 
 
 CHRISTIAN THOGERSON, the proprietor 
 and successful manager of a retail meat market at 
 No. 290 Main street, Ansonia, was born in Den- 
 mark, Jan. 7, 1847, where his ancestors had long 
 been native to the soil. There his father, Christian 
 Thogerson, Sr., was born and reared, and there his 
 grandfather spent his entire life engaged in the work 
 of a farmer. The father died at seventy-five years- 
 of age, and the grandfather when past ninety years. 
 Elsie Christenson, the wife of Christian Thogerson, 
 Sr., was born in Denmark, and reared a family of 
 four children. Two of her children, Christenson 
 and Christian, are living, and two are dead. She 
 died at the age of forty-five. 
 
 Christian Thogerson spent the earlier years of 
 his life in Denmark, where he had such educational 
 advantages as were afforded the children of his day, 
 and became a farmer, in which occupation he was- 
 engaged until he reached the age of thirty-four 
 years. At that age he determined to find a home 
 in the western world, and crossing the ocean, located 
 in Ansonia, Conn., where he worked In the shops 
 v/hile mastering the mysteries of the English speech. 
 After a time he went into the confectionery business, 
 in which he was' engaged some ten years. Disposing 
 of that interest, he opened a retail meat market, and 
 in this enterprise has met with remarkable success. 
 His is now the largest market in the city, and de- 
 mands the services of four clerks as well as of a 
 cashier, besides three wagons, and the business 
 calls are of a high grade. Mr. Thogerson carries 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1255 
 
 everything in meats and provisions that the best 
 trade demands. He is now among the oldest and 
 most popular merchants on the street. 
 
 Mr. Thogerson was married when he was twen- 
 ty-four years of age to Catherine Madsor, of Den- 
 mark. Fraternally he belongs to Washington 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., and the Foresters of America. 
 In both these organizations, and in the social walks 
 of life he is regarded as a genial and pleasant gen- 
 tleman, thoroughly reliable, and honest and upright 
 to the last degree. He attends the Episcopal 
 Church, though both he and his wife were reared in 
 the Lutheran fold. 
 
 ALBERT KENNEDY, a prominent citizen of 
 Derby, New Haven county, was born in Scotland, 
 Aug. 6, 1865, but accompanied his parents to this 
 country while a mere child. He traces his lineage 
 back to the Scottish Covenanters of the seventeenth 
 century, who attested the sincerity of their con- 
 victions by the willing sacrifice of their lives in the 
 struggle for religious freedom. His father was 
 James Kennedy, who married Elizabeth Gegie, a 
 native of Edinburgh. The elder Kennedy, on com- 
 ing to America, took up his residence in Chicago, 
 where he died in 1871. His widow still survives 
 him. Albert was one of a family of seven children, 
 whose names, in the order of their birth, are as fol- 
 lows: John -P., James S., Albert, Miary, Bessie, 
 Charles and Jennie. John, the eldest, is a clothier 
 in Birmingham, England ; he takes an active interest 
 in politics and has been a member of the city council. 
 James and Charles are residents o^f Philadelphia, 
 the first named being connected with a house dealing 
 in optical goods. May, now Mrs. Cofifman, lives 
 in England. Bessie and Jennie are still unmarried. 
 
 Albert Kennedy received his scholastic training 
 in Philadelphia, but his broader and higher educa- 
 tion has been self accjuired during his contact with 
 the world and the men who live in it. While yet 
 a youth he went from Philadelphia to Derby, where 
 he found employment with the corset manufacturing 
 concern known as the Leopold Kraus Company. 
 Not finding his situation congenial, he left to enter 
 the law office of Senator Frederick W. Holden, with 
 whom he remained for two years. At the end of 
 that time he embarked in journalism, organizing the 
 Transcript Company, of which he was secretary and 
 treasurer, besides having editorial management of 
 the paper. The venture did not prove a financial 
 success, and after seven years the company went into 
 insolvency, and Mr. Kennedy went into business as 
 a job printer. 
 
 Mr. Kennedy is an ardent Democrat, and has al- 
 ways taken an active interest in politics. He is a 
 man of extraordinary native intellectual power, pos- 
 sessing a well regulated, well stored mind, and en- 
 dowed with remarkable fertility of resource. It is 
 not surprising, therefore, that he should have been 
 successful in public life. Nor, on the other hand, 
 is it cause for wonder that his fellow citizens, recog- 
 
 nizing at once his mental and moral worth, should 
 have delighted to do him honor. For three )'ears 
 he served as clerk of the board of Burgesses of 
 Derby, and was for two years a member of the 
 board of Aldermen. He served in the General As- 
 sem'bly during two terms, and for four years sat 
 in the State Senate. He has a rich, well-modu- 
 lated voice, easy grace of diction, and keen argu- 
 mentative power. He is a fluent speaker, often 
 heard in the legislative chambers and always com- 
 manding attentive and respectful hearing. 
 
 jMr. Kennedy is a member of various societies, 
 being connected with the Poototuck Tribe of Red 
 Men ; the Court of Indian Well, F. of A. ; and the 
 Knights of the Golden Cross. He is also a member 
 of the Hotchkiss Flose Compan}-, of Derby. 
 
 GEORGE ERNEST MYERS, M. D., a leading 
 physician and prominent citizen of Cheshire, was- 
 born in Newington, Conn., Feb. 10, 1867, and is a 
 son of George W. and Anna A. (Huntley) Myers, 
 both of whom survive, and make their home in 
 Hartford. The Doctor acquired his literary educa- 
 tion in the public schools of his native town and 
 those of Hartford, and began the study of medicine 
 with Dr. Howe of that city. Subsequently he at- 
 tended lectures at the New York University and 
 the medical college of Burlington, Vt., and was grad- 
 uated from the latter institution with the degree of 
 ;\L D., in 1896. Immediately afterward he came 
 to Cheshire and opened an office, and for the past 
 five years has successfully engaged in the practice of 
 his chosen profession at this place. Since the death 
 of Dr. Cornwall, he is the senior practitioner of the 
 town, and he is now serving as health officer. He 
 enjoys a large practice which extends throughout 
 the towns of Prospect, Wolcott, Bethany and 
 Cheshire. 
 
 In 1894, in Hartford, Dr. Myers was married 
 to Mrs. Elizabeth Deane, daughter of Edward John- 
 son, and widow of John Deane. Politically the 
 Doctor is a stanch supporter of the men and meas- 
 ures of the Republican party, and fraternally is a 
 Royal Arch Mason, a member of Hartford Lodge 
 and Pythagoras Chapter at Hartford, and also a 
 member of Charter Oak Lodge, I. O. O. F. In 
 social as well as professional circles he stands high 
 in the esteem of his fellow citizens, for he is a pleas- 
 ant, genial gentleman, and makes friends of all with 
 whom he comes in contact. He is a skilled physi- 
 cian and surgeon, and is meeting with well de- 
 served success in his chosen calling. 
 
 HOBART W. CURTIS, conspicuous among- 
 the skilled workers who have made Waterbury 
 known the world over, was born in Bridgeport, 
 Conn., Dec. 28, 1850, a son of Hdbart Curtis, and 
 a grandson of Phillip Curtis. 
 
 Phillip Curtis was born in 1783, probably at 
 Stratford, Conn., and died May 24, 1857. He wed- 
 ded Lucy lyTkrland, and after their marriage, they 
 
1256 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 settled in New Haven, Conn., where he followed 
 the saddle-maker's trade. They had a family of 
 ten children: Clarence \\^, Teressa, Hobart (the 
 father of Hobart W.J, John, Thomas P., Lucy, 
 Mary E., Jane, Lucy and Henry. All the chil- 
 dren with the exception of HolDart, lived in New 
 Haven. 
 
 Hobart Curtis was born in New Haven Sept. 
 14, 1815, and died in Derby, Conn., Sept. 14, 1869. 
 He married Miss Emma Francis, of Durham, Conn., 
 a daug'hter of Friend W. Francis. The ancestor 
 of the American branch of the Francis family came 
 from England in 165 1, and settled first at Wethers- 
 field, later moving to Durham. Mrs. Emma Curtis 
 died Oct. 7, 1887. jNIr. Curtis was a Democrat, and 
 in religion a mem'ber of the Episcopal Church. 
 They had a family of seven children : Thomas P. 
 is a printer in Bridgeport; Edward W., a sash and 
 blind maker in Derby, died in 1878; Hobart W. ; 
 Frank H. died in 1885 ; John B. and Mary E. both 
 died young; and Charles B. is a draughtsman, and 
 is now living in New York City. 
 
 Hobart W Curtis was but a boy when his par- 
 ents moved from Bridgeport to Litchfield, and he 
 also lived for a time at Waterbury, and then 
 at Derby. He attended school wherever his 
 people were living, but in 1870, he came to 
 Waterbury to serve an apprenticeship as a pat- 
 tern maker in the shops of the Farrell Found- 
 ry Co. In this work he developed marked abilitv, 
 and the house has kept him with them to the pres- 
 ent time. Six months before completing his ap- 
 prenticeship, he was put in charge of the pattern 
 department, and has been its foreman many years. 
 He is now a director and a stockholder in the Com- 
 pany, and for twenty years he has been financially 
 interested in its prosperity. 
 
 On Sept. 18, 187.-^, Air. Curtis was married to 
 Miss Julia Drake, of Cheshire, Conn., a daughter 
 of James S. Drake, who was one of the first busi- 
 ness men of Waterbury, a generation ago. To this 
 union were born three children : Charles D.. a suc- 
 cessful civil engineer ; Elizabeth ; and Laura. Mr. 
 Curtis is a Democrat, and a reliable and patriotic 
 citizen. With the Odd Fellow fraternity his relations 
 are close and intimate, and he has been an active 
 worker in Townsend Lodge, No. 89, L O. O. F. 
 for some years, and has passed through all the 
 chairs. Mr. Curtis and his family attend the Trin- 
 ity Episcopal Church, and he is a member of the 
 Waterbury Scientific Society. 
 
 GEORGE SIMEON SEELEY, widely known 
 in Meriden, where he is serving his fourth term as 
 a member of the board of selectmen of the town, 
 and is now the popular mayor, was born in Water- 
 bury Feb. 2, 1846, son of Charles and Amy (Pritch- 
 ard) Seeley. Both the parents were born in Water- 
 bury. The paternal grandparents were William 
 and Patty Seeley, who reared a large family. 
 
 Roger Pritchard, the maternal grandfather of 
 
 Mr. Seeley, served as a soldier in the war of 1812, 
 and his father was a soldier in the war of the 
 Revolution. Roger Pritchard lived in the town of 
 Waterbury, wlhere he was engaged in farming. He 
 married Chloe Nichols. George S. Seeley and his 
 mother were both born on the old Pritchard home- 
 stead. 
 
 Charles Seeley, father of George S., was a farm- 
 er in his earlier years, but later became a con- 
 tractor for stonemason work, locating in Meriden 
 as early as 1858. He died Nov. 25, 1890, at the 
 age of sixty-nine years. He was the father of six 
 children, of whom five lived to reach maturity: 
 CMoe J., who became the wife of William Remingt 
 ton; George Simeon; Charles B., who died in Meri- 
 den in 1871 ; Grace A., wife of Henry Hurlburt; 
 and Polly, Mrs. Joseph Fredericks, the last three 
 deceased. 
 
 George Simeon Seeley was reared in Waterbury, 
 and accompanied his parents to Meriden when he 
 was twelve years old. His education was received 
 in the common schools, and at the age of nineteen 
 he began an apprenticeship to' the metal turner's 
 trade, at which he was engaged for twenty-five 
 years. At tihe expiration of that long period he 
 went into his present business, conducting a real- 
 estate and rent collection agency, in which he has 
 achieved a decided success. 
 
 Mr. Seeley was married Nov. 24, 1867, to Anna 
 G., daughter of Melvin C. and Esther (Guy) Lee, 
 of Meriden. To this marriage have come three 
 children: Frank Guy; Candora Anna, Mrs. James 
 H. Guernsey ; and Arthur Deshon. Mr. Seeley and 
 his family are members of St. Andrew's Episcopal 
 Church, of wlhdch he has been a vestryman for four- 
 teen years and treasurer since April 4, 1899, and he 
 is highly esteemed by his associates in that body. 
 He belongs to several fraternal orders, holding 
 membership in Meriden Center Lodge, No. 68, I. O. 
 O. F., of which he has been treasurer since March 
 17, 1888; and Silver City Lodge, No. 3, A. O. U. 
 W. In politics Mr. Seeley is a Republican, and he 
 is one of the workers in his city. He ihas been 
 chairman of the Republican town committee since 
 May, 1900, and has served as alderman and coun- 
 cilman from- the Third ward. In Decanber, 1901, 
 he was elected mayor, was installed in that office 
 in January, 1902, and is now efficiently performing 
 the duties appertaining to the incumbency. 
 
 HORACE WARNER KIBBE, superintendent 
 of the farm for the Connecticut School for Boys, at 
 Meriden, was born April 27, 1857, in Ellington, 
 Tolland Co., Conn., a son of Julius A. and Ellen 
 (Warner) Kibbe. 
 
 The Kibbe family which is the most numerous 
 in the northern part of Tolland countv traces its 
 history back to Edward Kibbe and Deborah, his 
 wife, who were residents of Exeter, England, in 
 161 1. In May of that year his son, Edward Kibbe, 
 was born; he married Mary Partridge, of Exeter, 
 
^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1257 
 
 and came lo New England in 1639, and owned and 
 conducted a sawmill at Brookline, Mass., in 1640. 
 
 Elisha Kibbe, son of Edward, was born in Bos- 
 ton, Feb. 20, 1643, and came to Enfield, Conn., 
 from Brookline, in 1682, accompanied by his wife, 
 Rachel Cook, whom he married May 7, 1667, and 
 who died Sept. 10, 1740, aged ninety-six years, ten 
 months ; he died in Enfield, April 3, 1735, aged 
 ninety-two years. According to the records, his three 
 sons, Edward, Elisha and James, went to what is 
 now known as Somers, Conn., in 1713, and from 
 these ancestors, the Somers and Ellington branches 
 •of the Kibbe family have descended. 
 
 The children of James Kibbe were : Jane, 
 Stephen, Daniel, Jacob, Israel, Moses, Aaron, Rach- 
 el and Miriam. 
 
 Daniel Kibbe, son of James, was born in North 
 Somers, where he owned much land and carried on 
 a saw and gristmill, on a branch of the Scantic river, 
 on the site of the present North Somers batting 
 mill. Successful in farming, he became one of the 
 most prominent men of the town, and his life ex- 
 tended to the age of ninety years. From Tolland 
 county he went into the Revolutionary army, and 
 served in Capt. Wilis' company, in Col. Spencer's 
 regiment, and was engaged eight months, partici- 
 pating in many severe engagements, and taking part 
 in the battle of Bunker Hill. Daniel Kibbe married 
 Mary Pratt, in 1 74 1, became a landowner and 
 farmer, in North Somers, and had these children: 
 Amariah, Daniel, Abner, Lemuel, Frederick, Molly, 
 Sarah and Jerusha. 
 
 Amariah Kibbe, son of Daniel, was born in 1747, 
 in Somers, Conn., and became a wheelwright and 
 joiner, in his early manhood. His home continued 
 to be in Somers, where be owned much property 
 and where he made many improvements, one of 
 these being the building of the Somers hotel. A 
 gristmill was one of his sources of revenue, and he 
 became wealthy and influential. In his politics, he 
 was a Democrat and held many of the town offices. 
 His death occurred in 1829, after a long life of use- 
 fulness, crowned with the esteem'of all who had 
 known him. 
 
 On Nov. 19, 1778, Amariah Kibbe was married 
 to Hannah Kibbe, the latter being born in 1760, a 
 daughter of Zerah Kibbe, and a granddaughter of 
 Elisha Kibbe. To this union were born: (i) 
 Amariah, born Feb. 15, 1780, married Charlotte 
 McKinnev, and died in 1840, more extended men- 
 tion being found elsewhere. (2) Walter R., born 
 Sept. 8, 1 78 1, married first a Miss Paine, second 
 Mrs. Sabina Norton, third Mrs. Hannah (Warner) 
 Brown, and fourth Flenda Reed ; Walter R. Kibbe 
 was a graduate of Yale College, became a lawyer of 
 Somers where he died on April 22, 1864. (3) 
 Rudolphus, born April 8, 1783, marrifed Sybil Pease, 
 and was a farmer in North Somers, where he died, 
 in 1810. (4) Pegg}', born June 24, 1785, married 
 Daniel Grover, lived in Tolland, and died there m 
 1834, on their farm. (5) Horatio, born June 22, 
 
 1787, was a farmer in Somers, married Control 
 Gowdy, and died in 1827. (6) Valirus, born June 
 2, 1789, was the grandfather of Horace W. Kibbe, 
 of Meriden. (7) Sophia, born in 1791, married 
 Stedman Nash, and died in Ellington, where he had 
 followed the trade of mason. (8) Harriet, born 
 April 26, 1793, married Emory Pease, a merchant 
 in Somers, where both died. (9) Hannah, born 
 Nov. 21, 1795, married Jonah Griswold, lived first 
 in Sturbridge, Mass., later in Springfield, where the 
 latter died ; she lived to be nearly one hundred years 
 old. (10) Jairus, born June 25, 1798, married 
 Clarissa Billings, became a merchant at Somers, and 
 in his later years moved to Jacksonville, 111., where 
 he died. After the death of the mother of these 
 children, Amariah Kibbe was married on May 4, 
 1825, to Maria Grover, of Tolland, who survived 
 him. Their children were: Julia, born in 1826, 
 married Loren Percival, and died in Somers ; and 
 James P., born in 1828, married a Mrs. Brown, 
 and died in New York city. 
 
 Valirus Kibbe, son of Amariah, was born at the 
 Center, in Somers, Conn., secured his education at 
 the district school, and while still a lad, was em- 
 ployed in his father's gristmill. His residence was 
 at home until his marriage, when he assumed the 
 support and care of his wife's parents, for some 
 years, taking charge of the estate after their death. 
 In 1835, this place was sold, and a farm was pur- 
 chased, in Ellington, April I, 1838, known locally 
 as the "Ellis Wallace farm," consisting of over 200 
 acres. Here Mr. Kibbe was engaged in farming 
 and stockraising and here he lived until his death, 
 on Nov. 30, 1866. As a breeder of fine horses and 
 cattle, he had a great reputation, and his stock was 
 always in demand. In politics he was a Democrat. 
 
 On April 27, 1809, Valirus Kibbe was married 
 to Eunice Cushman, a native of Somers, and a 
 daughter of Allerton and Anna (Clark) Cushman, 
 and a direct descendant of Mary Allerton, who came 
 over in the "Mayflower" and also of Gov. Bradford. 
 Her parents were farming people of Somers, where 
 both died. Mrs. Kibbe was born in 1791 and died 
 on March 30, 1885, lacking but a few days of being 
 ninety-four years of age. To this union were born 
 Eunice Leonora, June 30, 1810, married John 
 Payne, a miller, and died in Vernon ; Ethelinda 
 Lidora, Nov. 17, 181 1, married Luman S. Allen, a 
 farmer, and died in East Windsor ; A^alirus, Oct. 3, 
 1813, married Laura Wood, and is living at Somers ; 
 Carlos E., Nov. 30, 1S15, married Elizabeth Jen- 
 nings, of Becket, Mass., and second Louisa Collins, 
 and was a successful farmer, but is now leading a 
 retired life, in Ellington; Hancy Ann, April 14, 
 1817, the widow of Roland Sellew, resides in Long 
 Meadow, Mass.; Rodolphus, April 5, 1819, died in 
 young manhood ; Abigail Matilda, Dec. 20, 1820, 
 married William Brainard, lives in Windsor, Conn., 
 where he is a retired farmer; Julius A., of whom 
 mention will be made later ; Daniel Cushman, Feb. 
 II, 1825, married Hester Hall, was a farmer and 
 
1258 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 died in South Windsor, Conn. ; Horatio, Nov. i6, 
 1826, married Alice Phelps, and is a retired farmer 
 of Ellington; Marcus, Nov. 7, 1828, married Jane 
 Bradley, was a farmer and died in Somers ; Helen 
 Cornelia, May 23, 1830, married Nelson Warner, 
 and died in Ellington, where he was a farmer; 
 Jairus Rodolphus, July 22, 1833, first married Ida 
 Endicott, and second Abigail Pease, and is a farmer 
 in Long Meadow, Mass. 
 
 Julius A. Kibbe, son of Valirus Kibbe and the 
 father of Horace W. Kibbe, of Meriden, was born 
 May 7, 1823, and was fourteen years old when his 
 parents moved from his birthplace, Somers, Conn., 
 to Ellington, obtaining his education at the district 
 sc'hool, supplernented by a term each at the Glaston- 
 bury and Ellington Academies, the latter being un- 
 der'the care of Rust & ^Merrill at that time. After 
 leaving school, Julius A. Kibbe was engaged during 
 the summer season, for a time, in peddling Yankee 
 notions, through rural Connecticut, with a horse and 
 wagon. In 1850, he spent a season in Delaware 
 City, Del., where he engaged in raising tobacco, 
 raising the first tobacco raised in that State. In 
 185 1, Mr. Kibbe returned to his native place and 
 bought at auction his present farm, locally known 
 at that time as the "Col. Belcher place,"_ and in 
 1865 he began improving and remodeling his prem- 
 ises, moving the farm barns from across the street 
 to their present location, and adding to their num- 
 ber and appearance. This was followed by other 
 improvements and in 1872 he built his present com- 
 fortable and attractive home. Here Mr. Kibbe has 
 successfully engaged in general farming, giving also 
 considerable attention to tobacco culture and dairy- 
 ing. His farm consists of 200 acres, and the con- 
 dition in which it is at the present time shows con- 
 clusively that Mr. Kibbe is a practical and com- 
 petent farmer. At the time of his purchase of this 
 estate the land had been neglected and required 
 careful management, drainage and fertilization, but 
 now it compares favorably with any place of its size 
 in Tolland county. Of late years, Mr. Kibbe has 
 lived retired from active operations, and has passed 
 the management of the farm to his efficient son, 
 William H. For a long period Mr. Kibbe dealt 
 largely in cattle and was a successful handler of 
 oxen for the local market. 
 
 On Jan. 21, 1851, Julius A. Kibbe was married 
 to Ellen 'Warner, who was born Aug. 30, 1830, in 
 Ellington, Conn., a daughter of Horace and Matilda 
 (Martin) Warner. These children were born to 
 this union : ( I ) Edwin Brainard, born July 17, 1854, 
 was for a time engaged in farming, in Ellington, and 
 while residing there, was town clerk for several 
 years, and for four years was county sheriff. At 
 present he is the General Agent for Connecticut of 
 the Russia Cement Company, of Gloucester, Mass., 
 with his residence in Hartford ; on Sept. 24, 1878, 
 he married Anise Warner, and they have had these 
 children: Ellen ]\Iaude (born July 19, 1879, mar- 
 ried V\'infred E. Chapin, and has one son, W. Ern- 
 
 est, born April 5, 1901), Edna L. (born Nov. 4, 
 1880), Lucius Warner (born April 16, 1883, died 
 March 29, 1897) and Henrietta E. (born March 15, 
 1891). (2) Horace W., of Meriden. (3) Mary E., 
 born March 16, 1859, died Oct. 3, 1870. (4) 
 George F., born April 17, 1861, married Ida Ra}-- 
 mond, of Hebron, Conn., and is engaged in a hotel 
 and livery business, in Brimfield, Mass. ; they have 
 one child, Ida Rae. (5) Jessie Ella, born March 
 2, 1865, died Sept. 11, 1867. (6) William H., 
 born^Aug. 19, 1869, married Estella F. Yost, and is 
 engaged in the cultivation of the family estate. Mr. 
 Kibbe is a Democrat and served as a member of the 
 General Assembly, in 1856, being a member of the 
 committee on Claims. For four years he has been 
 selectman, and chairman of the board for three 
 vears, and for several years he has acted as con- 
 stable, for one year as tax collector and for twenty 
 years prior to his resignation of the office, was regis- 
 trar of voters. Mr. and Mrs. Kibbe are members 
 of the Ellington Congregational Church, in which 
 Mr. Kibbe has held a number of the official posi- 
 tions, and he is a man much respected in this com- 
 munity where his sterling worth is known. Mrs. 
 Kibbe belongs to the Warner family, which is an 
 old and familiar name in the annals of Tolland 
 county. At one time it had many local representa- 
 tives, but at present the family is almost extinct. 
 
 Daniel Warner was the first of the family to 
 come to Ellington, about 1760, from Stafford, Conn. 
 By trade he was a weaver, but with the hope of 
 providing better for his family, he decided to be- 
 come a farmer and purchased an estate in Ellington, 
 Conn., which remained in the family for five genera- 
 tions and recently passed into the possession of a 
 native of Switzerland. From the marriage of Dan- 
 iel Warner to Hannah Russell, these children 
 sprang : Horace, who died in infancy ; Daniel, who 
 also died in infancy; Horace (2), who died young; 
 Lemuel, who married Hannah Darby ; Nathaniel ; 
 Ebenezer, who married Ruby Herrick, a singer of 
 ability, and an astronomer; Daniel, who married 
 Arzuba Clark, and spent his life in South Hadley, 
 Mass., engaged in the mercantile line; and Hannah, 
 who m-arried Stephen Gifford, and removed to Wat- 
 ertown, N. Y. 
 
 Nathaniel Warner, son of Daniel, was a farmer 
 on the family homestead, and married Martha Gif- 
 ford, in 1796, who was born in 1774, and died in 
 1814, his second marriage being to Martha Newell. 
 His children were : ( i ) Martha, born in 1797, died 
 Dec. 2, 1891, the wife of David S. Pember. (2) 
 Horace, born in 1799, married jMatilda Martin and 
 they had these children : Nelson, who married Helen 
 Kibbe; Charles, who married Mariette E. Dimock; 
 Ellen, who married Julius A. Kibbe; Treat M., who 
 first married Lucina Lawrence, of Warsaw, Wis., 
 and second Mrs. Sarah Richmond ; and Horace, who 
 first married Ella Hayden, and second, Emily 
 (name not given). The father of these children died 
 Aug. 28, 1870. (3) Betsey, born April 22, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 [259, 
 
 1802, married Eleazer Whiton and died Nov. 10, 
 1828. (4) Mary (Polly), born Aug. 13, 1804, was 
 married April 24, 1828, to John Wads worth of El- 
 lington, and died Aug. 25, 1897. (5) Nelson, born 
 Aug. 2, 1806, was drowned July 18, 1812, in a small 
 stream near his home. (6) Lora, born May 13, 
 1808, married Samuel M. Bliss, and made her 
 home in Wilbraham, Mass., where she died June 2, 
 1859- (7) Sophronia, born July 5, 181 1, married 
 Edwin, the son of Rev. Diadate Brockway, of El- 
 lington, and died Nov. 27, 1841. The one child 
 of the second marriage of Nathaniel Warner was 
 Abigail, 'born Sept. 5, 1818, now the widow of 
 Aaron Charter, of Ellington. 
 
 Horace W. Kibbe, of Meriden, attended the pub- 
 lic school in Ellington and grew up on his father's 
 farm, where he remained until his marriage. His 
 education was completed at a private boarding- 
 school conducted by Edward Halls. At the age of 
 twenty-five years he began farming for himself. 
 His tobacco farming and dairying was successfully 
 carried on on a tract of forty acres of land in the 
 locality of his birth, until in 1897, when he gave up 
 private operations in order to accept the position as 
 superintendent of the Connecticut Boys' School 
 farm, an office which carried with it grave responsi- 
 bilities. For the past five years, however, Mr. Kibbe 
 has most successfully prosecuted the work here, has 
 made innumerable improvements in the methods of 
 cultivation, and has placed the 200 acres of this es- 
 tate on a par with any other tract, under like con- 
 ditions, in the State. 
 
 On Dec. 20, 1882, Horace W. Kibbe was mar- 
 ried in Ellington, Conn., to Miss Henrietta E. Tal- 
 cott, who was the only child of James M. and 
 Amanda (Stoughton) Talcott. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
 Kibbe belong to the Congregational Church of El- 
 lington. For a period of fifteen years he was chor- 
 ister of his home church, and he is now secretary 
 of the Meriden Choral Club. For several years he 
 was librarian of the Sunday school. Mr. Kibbe is 
 socially connected with the Patrons of Husbandry, 
 in Ellington, having been master of P. of H., No. 
 46, for two years, and was one of the charter mem- 
 bers. He is also a Mason of high degree, belong- 
 ing to Meridian Lodge, Hamilton Council, Keystone 
 Chapter and St. Elmo Commandery, all of Meriden. 
 He enjoys the esteem of a wide circle of sincere 
 friends. 
 
 CHRISTIAN FREDERICK FOX, one of the 
 best known and most successful business men of 
 Meriden, located in East Main street, manages one 
 of the best stores in the delicatessen line in th? city, 
 and is engaged in the manufacture of all kinds of 
 bologna sausages, pressed ham, frankfurts and Ger- 
 man sausages. 
 
 Mr. Fox was born in Koenigsbrunn, Germany, 
 Dec. 14, 1861, a son of Frederick and Rosa (Fuchs) 
 Fox. The parents were also natives of Germany, 
 where the father engaged in the manufacture of 
 
 lumber, owning a sawmill, and there spent his whole 
 life. He was a good and worthy man, and reared 
 his family in the tenets of the Lutheran Church. 
 After his death Mrs. Fox married Gottlieb Schwarz, 
 with whom she came to America. They located in 
 New York City, where she still resides, in the home 
 of her son, John, a good. Christian woman, and a 
 conscientious memlber of the Lutheran Church. To 
 Mr. and Mrs. Fox were born five children : Chris- 
 tian F., our subject; Gottlieb, Frederick and John, 
 all three in Greater New York ; and EHzabeth, who 
 died when a child. 
 
 Christian F. Fox received a good common- 
 school education in his native land, and was four- 
 teen years old when the family removed to Amer- 
 ica. Selecting the manufacture of choice sausages 
 as his line of work, our subject thoroughly learned 
 the business, following it eight years in New York, 
 and then going to Worcester, Mass., where he lived 
 four years. There he married, on Dec. 24, 1883, 
 Emma R. Dason, a native of that town, and daugh- 
 ter of Andrew and Minnie Dason, natives of Ger- 
 many, the former of whom is deceased, the latter 
 still surviving. 
 
 In 1885 Mr. Fox and his wife removed to Nor- 
 wich, Conn., where be started in- the business of 
 sausage manufacture, in partnership with Fred Wie- 
 gert, the firm style being Fox & Wiegert. They 
 continued thus for three years, at the end of which 
 time 'Mr. Fox came to Meriden and started in the 
 same business, the partnership continuing, he be- 
 ing the manager of the Meriden branch, while Mr. 
 Wiegert managed the Norwich branch. This state 
 of affairs continued until 1890, when the former 
 bought the interest of his partner, and for the past 
 eleven years he has most successfully conducted the 
 business alone, establishing his factory in East Main 
 street, and also conducting a branch in West Main 
 street. By 1900 he found that the increasing vol- 
 ume of business required all his attention, and the 
 latter branch was closed. Mr. Fox has been a very 
 successful business man, and the causes are not 
 difficult to discover, for he is noted for his industry, 
 honesty andi fair dealing, which traits have won 
 for him the confidence of the public. He generous- 
 ly contributes much of his success to his most estim- 
 able wife, who has so ably assisted him, and both 
 possess the highest regard of the community. 
 
 To the marriage of our subject and wife three 
 children have been born : Andrew F. ; Minnie, 
 who died at the age of nine years; Christian, who 
 lived to be only five years old, his death occurring 
 within a few weeks of his sister's. Andrew F. 
 Fox, the only surviving child, attended the public 
 schools of Meriden and graduated from the Pequod 
 Business College, of that city, before he was six- 
 teen years old ; although yet a youth, be shows a 
 very remarkable instinct for business. During 
 1900 Mr. Fox and his wife took a well-earned holi- 
 day and together visited all the principal cities of 
 Europe, including Paris, where they attended the 
 
I26o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 great Exposition. During his absence, )'Oung An- 
 drew was tlie efficient manager, liis father finding 
 his affairs in perfect condition upon his return. In 
 rehgious affairs! J\ir. Fox is very hberal, consider- 
 ing any creed which does not insist upon the fol- 
 lowing out of the Golden Rule of little value, no 
 matter what its name may be, and endeavors to live 
 up to his professions. He is connected with Meri- 
 dian Lodge, No. jy, A. F. & A. M. ; Court Schiller, 
 No. 117, A. O. F. ; and the Aleriden Turnverein and 
 the Saengerbund', where he is ver}- popular on ac- 
 count of his pleasant genial disposition. 
 
 HARRY J. DUGAN, D. D. S., whose office is 
 at No. 46 Alain street, Ansonia, was born in 
 New London, July i, i868, a son of Harry Dugan, 
 who was born in New York. The senior Dugan 
 served as a steward for many years on the boats 
 running between New London and New York. He 
 began in a minor capacity when ver) young, and 
 worked his way up to a profitable and responsible 
 position. When he was thirty-one years of age he 
 was drowned on a voyage, while off Allen's Point. 
 The boat took fire and burned to the water's edge. 
 Mary McDonald, his wife, was born in New Lon- 
 don, and her father, Morris McDonald, a native 
 of South Carolina, came to New London, very early 
 in his life. He was a church sexton, and lived 
 to be eighty-seven years of age. His wife, Cath- 
 erine O'Connor, was born in Ireland. She died in 
 1898 at the age of ninety-three years. Mary (AIc- 
 Donald) Dugan was one of a family of ten children, 
 and of her three children Dr. Dugan is the only one 
 now living. Steward Dugan was well known 
 by the patrons of the New London boats, and was 
 a popular man. With his wife he was connected 
 with the Catholic Church. 
 
 Harry J. Dugan spent his early years in New 
 London, where he attended the city schools, and 
 was graduated from the high school in 1886. He 
 immediately took up the study of dentistry with Dr. 
 Keeney, spending two years in his office. He was 
 then a pupil of Dr. R. W. Brown, who is now the 
 Dental Commissioner of the State, spending some 
 time in the office of that gentleman in New London. 
 Dr. Dugan spent a year in New York, and was 
 three years in Bridgeport. On March i, 1893, he 
 came to Ansonia, and opened an office. With one 
 exception he has practiced his profession longer 
 than any other dentist in the city. For sixteen 
 years he has been steadily engaged in its various 
 departments, and is regarded as one of the most 
 progressive and thoroughly scientific young men of 
 his calling. All branches of mechanical dentistry 
 are familiar to him, and he is especially adept at ex- 
 tracting teeth with gas. His friends think it not 
 too much to anticipate for him a brilliant and suc- 
 cessful future. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1896, Dr. Dugan was married to 
 Aliss Effie AI. Hitz, a native of Nova Scotia, but a 
 resident of Bridgeport since childhood. Her father, 
 
 Alexander Hitz, was a sea-faring man, and her 
 mother, Mary J. (McKenzie) Hitz, was of Scotch 
 descent. Alexander Hitz and his wife had thirteen 
 children, seven of whom are still living. Dr. Du- 
 gan and his wife have had three children, two of 
 whom, Natalie Ruth and Lorna Elizabeth, are still 
 living. FI. J., Jr., died when two months and sev- 
 enteen days old. 
 
 Socially Dr. Dugan belongs to Naugatuck 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., in which he is past noble grand, 
 and present treasurer ; to the Encampment, in which 
 he is past chief oatriarch and district deputy grand 
 patriarch; and to the Order of Rebekah. He is 
 also past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias. In 
 these various fraternities he takes an active in- 
 terest. He is one of the most popular and thor- 
 oughly successful young men of the city. He is a 
 Republican, but votes for the interests of the city 
 without regard for the party. 
 
 EDWARD LEE LIXSLEY (deceased). Since 
 the time of Demosthenes the power to rule and 
 sway the public by oratorical powers has been the 
 aim of every man 'in public life. The silver tongue 
 does more, both in public and in private life, than 
 does the golden purse. In the village of North 
 Haven, New Haven Co., Conn., was born Edward 
 Lee Linsley, whose name and fame have gone be- 
 yond the limits of his own State, because of the 
 gifts of mind and tongue which madte him one of 
 the wittiest and most popular public speakers known 
 in Connecticut's political, legal and fraternal circles. 
 Not only was he a distiniguished man himself, but 
 (he came from a long line of honest ancestry, who 
 in their day and generation were not unknown to 
 fame. 
 
 The first records of the establishment of the Lins- 
 ley family in America show that two brothers, 
 John and Francis Linsley, came to America from 
 England and settled in Totoket, Conn., John being 
 one of the original purchasers in 1643. He was 
 twice married. It is probable that his first mar- 
 riage took place in England, and his wife, Ellen, 
 died April 6, 1654. On July 6, 1655, he married 
 Sarah Pond. He died in 1698, the father of five 
 children: Jonathan, John, Mary (born Feb. 2, 
 1652), Ellen and Hannah (born April i, 1654). 
 
 (II) John Linsley, son of John the emigrant, 
 died in 1684. Of the children born to him and his 
 wife, Hannah, two, John and Jonathan, were bap- 
 tized in 1688. 
 
 (III) John Linsley, the tlhird to bear the name, 
 was known as Ensign John Linsley. In 1699 he 
 married Mary, daughter of Thomas Harrison, an 
 early settler of Totoket, and they became the par- 
 ents of four children: Mary, born June i, 1701 ; 
 John, Feb. 20, 1703; Elizabeth, Jan. 20, 1705; and 
 Joseph, born Nov. 28, 1707. 
 
 (IV) John Linsley, son of Ensign John, married 
 Mary Frisbee, and died in 1787. His children were 
 John, Isaac and Edward. 
 
ZL^^^i 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1201 
 
 (V) Isaac Linsley, son of John, became a farmer 
 in North' Branford, Conn. The house in which he 
 was born was still standing in 1899. He was mar- 
 ried three times, first to a Miss Beach, second to a 
 Miss MunsOn, and third to Mrs. Russell. His chil- 
 dren were Munson, Isaac and Lydia. 
 
 (VI) Munson Linsley was born in 1769, and 
 engaged in farming in Northford, Conn. On Jan. 
 I, 1794, he miarried Anna Foote, who was born in 
 1770, and died Feb. 11, 1842. He died June 13, 
 1845. Active in religious affairs, he served as dea- 
 con in the Congregational Church in Northford, 
 and also in Wallingford and in North Branford, 
 He and his wife had children as follows : Samuel, 
 baptized May 20, 1799, died unmarried in early man- 
 hood; Esther Louise, baptized May 20, 1799, mar- 
 ried Benjamin Hall, a butcher and farmer in Wall- 
 ingford; Angelina, also baptized May 20, 1799, mar- 
 ried Benajah Smith, a farmer -in Northford, Conn.; 
 Cleora, baptized Dec. i, 1799, married Bayard 
 Barnes, and became the mother of Mr. Barnes, of 
 the firm of Sperry & Barnes, New Haven ; Marcus, 
 born June 20, 1801, is mentioned elsewhere in the 
 sketch of Solomon F. Linsley ; Alfred is mentioned 
 below; Mary, born March 30, 1805, married Gilbert 
 Page, a prominent paper manufacturer of Chapman 
 and Plymouth, Conn. ; and Lucy Ann was born 
 Feb. 28, 1813. 
 
 (VII) Alfred Linsley was born July 3, 1803, in 
 Northford, Conn., where he spent Ihds boyhood and 
 received the usual advantages of the district school. 
 His occupation was that of farming; and he also 
 bought and sold a great deal of timber, cutting 
 it for the market, and becoming the largest dealer 
 of the time in his vicinity. He died suddenly, from 
 a stroke of apoplexy, while engaged in digging 
 clams on Governor's Island, Conn., July i, 1884. 
 A man of fine personal presence, his mind and 
 character were well fitted to inlhabit such a frame, 
 and his memory is still held in respect. He married 
 Polly Frisbie, who was born Jan. 24, 181 1, and died 
 in April, 1892 ; she was a daughter of Jacob and 
 Polly Frisbie, the former a prominent farmer and 
 justice of the peace of his neighborhood. The chil- 
 dren born of this union were: Romanta L., born 
 Dec. 17, 1832, is mentioned on another page. Mary 
 F., born July 20, 1835, was a school teacher in 
 Bristol, Wis., and died Sept. 25, 1867. Eunice, born 
 May 30, 1837, married Jan. 20, 1874, Arthur Dan- 
 .iels, and resided in Bloomington, 111. Samuel Mun- 
 son, born Sept. 12, 1839, dlied at Fairfax Seminary, 
 Va., Nov. 19, 1862, a member of Company K, 15th 
 Conn. V. I. Anna F., born Aug. 26, 1841, died 
 Oct. 22, 1852. Delia, born April 18, 1844, married 
 Jacob Viles, a grocer and banker in Boston. Jacob, 
 born June 20, 1846, enlisted in the Union army, 
 first in the ist Heavy Artillerv, from which he was 
 discharged on account of illness, and second in 
 Company K, 15th Conn. V. I., and died in Washing- 
 ton March i, 1863. Alfred O., born Dec. 15, 1848, 
 
 resided in St. Paul, Minn., where he engaged in 
 various lines of business ; later he became manager 
 of a hotel at Billings, Mont., and he was drowned 
 in the rapids in the Yellowstone river, April 24, 
 1885, w'hile on a fishing excursion, his body being 
 fotmd 300 miles from where the accident occurred ; 
 his wife was Mary Chandler, of St. Paul. Olivia, 
 born March 16, 1852, married Julius Heaton, a 
 bookkeeper for the New Haven Window Shade Co. 
 Edward Lee is our subject. 
 
 Edward Lee Linsley was born March 21, 1858^ 
 in the house in North Haven where he always 
 lived. Passing from the schools of his native town, 
 he entered and was graduated at the age of sixteen 
 years from the high school of New Haven, in the 
 class of 1874, this being preparatory to a scientific 
 .course examination for Yale College, which he 
 passed successfully. At the age of seventeen years 
 (having been refused admission earlier, on account 
 of his youth) he entered Yale Law School, receiv- 
 ing the degree of A. B. at the age of nineteen, and 
 taking one of tihe honors of the class under examina- 
 tion, in 1878 he graduated and was made LL. B., 
 in this class being an associate of the widely known 
 Judge William K. Thomas, and on Sept. 17, of the 
 same year, he was admitted to the Bar, holding the 
 record as the youngest man who ever received such 
 an honor in the State. 
 
 Locating in New Haven, Mr. Linsley soon built 
 up a practice, and his interest in politics and his 
 ability were speedily recognized by his appointment, 
 as early as 1883, to tlhe office of assistant clerk of 
 the county court, holding this position for more 
 than ten years, or until a change of administration 
 put a Democrat in his place ; but he was prominently 
 connected with all the public offices and work from 
 that time ; served on the school board in North 
 Haven from 1880 to 1886; as town clerk, 1880 to 
 1885 ; and was justice of the peace from 1882 until 
 his death, and tried almost all of the town cases, 
 'having been town counsel for nearly twenty years, 
 and at the time of his death represented eleven 
 towns as prosecuting agent for violations of the; 
 liquor laws. Though of slight frame, he was am- 
 bitious, and performed a great amount of hard work 
 in his short life. 
 
 An ardent Republican, Mr. Linsley was a mem- 
 ber of the New Haven Republican Club, and served 
 as chairman of the North Haven Republican Com- 
 mittee ; was a member of the Republican State Com- 
 mittee from 1888 to 1890; was president of the 
 Connecticut Young Men's Republican League from 
 1890 to 1894; and a member of the executive Re- 
 publican committee from 1890 to 1895, serving in all 
 these positions with unswerving fidelity to his party 
 and possessing the confidence of the most promi- 
 nent of the leaders all over the country. When it 
 was dtesirable to particularly interest any section in 
 any issue before the public, Mr. Linsley for many 
 years was called upon to present the same to the 
 
1262 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 people, visiting many States in the Union, and going 
 as far west as Denver, his glowing gift of oratory 
 peculiarly fitting him for the task. 
 
 On Aug. i8, 1881, J\Ir. Linsley was married to 
 Miss Grace Fitch, a native of Nortlh Haven, daugh- 
 ter of Justus and Lucy (Huntley) Fitch, a lady who 
 presided gracefully over his hospitable home. With 
 the exception of a short residence in New Flaven, 
 Mr. Linsley made his home in the old homestead 
 where he was born, one of the most attractive places 
 in the town, which he remodeled and modernized. 
 From this residence all of the deceased brothers, as 
 also the venerable parents, have been borne to their 
 last resting-places. Here he passed away Oct. 18, 
 1900, his death being the direct result of typhoid 
 fever, which was probably brougiht on by overwork. 
 
 In fraternal circles Mr. Linsley was widely 
 known, being connected with Adelphi Lodge, No. 
 63, A. F. & A. M., of New Haven, of which he was 
 senior warden at the time of his decease; Pulaski 
 Chapter, No. 26, R. A. M., of New Haven, of which 
 he was high priest ; Crawford Council, No. 19, R. & 
 S. M. ; New Haven Commandery, No. 2, K. T. ; E. 
 G. Storer Lodge of Perfection; Elm City Council, 
 Princes of Jerusalem; New Haven Chapter, Rose 
 Croix ; Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine ; Lodge No. 
 36, L O. O. F., where he made the semi-centennial 
 address in 1896; American Lodge, No. 52, K. of P. ; 
 Davenport Council, No. 700, Royal Arcanumi (he 
 held the office of grand trustee of the Grand Council 
 of the State for eight years, visiting almost every 
 lodge in the State during that time) ; Ouinnipiac 
 Lodge, No. 27, O. U. A. J\L; and North Haven 
 Lodge, No. 61, A. O. U. W. 
 
 Both Mr. and Mrs. Linsley were valued and con- 
 sistent members of the Congregational Church, in 
 which she is still active, and were socially among 
 the prominent citizens of North Haven, Mr. Linsley 
 numbering among , his friends and acquaintances 
 many of the most distinguished people of the 
 cxDuntry. 
 
 E. T. SHARPE, M. D., a promdnent voung 
 physician of Derby, Conn., is a native of New Ha- 
 ven county, born in Seymour, Dec. 18, 1871, and is 
 a representative of an old and honored Connecticut 
 family. His great-grandfather was a soldier of the 
 Revolutionary war. The grandfather, Legrand 
 Sharpe, was a native of Southburv and a shoe- 
 maker by trade. Thomas Sharpe, father of Elmer 
 T., was also born in Southbury, in 183 1, and when 
 a young man removed to Seymour, where he is now 
 successfully engaged in contracting and building, 
 having learned the carpenter's trade in earlv life. 
 He is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, 
 and has most creditably filled the office of justice of 
 the peace. In Seymour he married Miss Charlotte 
 McLane, who was born in Waterville, Conn., of 
 Scotch parentage, and who died Dec. 30, 1898. Our 
 subject was the only child born of this union. 
 
 Dr. Sharpe passed his boyhood in Seymour and 
 
 his primary education was secured in the local 
 schools. Later he attended the Bordentown Mili- 
 tary Academy, of Bordentown, N. J., for two years 
 and was a student at the Davis Military College in 
 Winston, S. C, for the same length of time. The 
 following year he attended lectures at the Yale 
 Medical College, and then entered the University of 
 the City of New York, from which he was grad- 
 uated with the class of 1894. He took a post- 
 graduate course at the New York Polyclinic Hospi- 
 tal, and spent one year in the Bellevue Hospital. 
 Thus well equipped by education and practical ex- 
 perience for his chosen profession, he opened an 
 office in Derby and has already secured a good prac- 
 tice, his skill and ability being widely recognized. 
 On Nov. 9, 1898, Dr. Sharpe was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Emily Jenkins, of Ansonia, a 
 daughter of David Jenkins, of that place. The 
 Doctor is a member of the Board of Trade, and also 
 of Morning Star Lodge, No. 49, F. & A. M., of 
 Seym.our ; and Mt. Vernon Chapter, R. A. M. In 
 his political views he is a Republican. His an- 
 cestors have been members of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church, but he holds membership with no re- 
 ligious denomination. As a professional man he 
 stands high, and socially he is very jxjpular with 
 his fellow citizens. 
 
 RUFUS RAYMOND FANCHER, chief of the 
 Fire Department of the city of New Haven, is one 
 of the reliable citizens, who has won his way to 
 his present position by faithful attention to duty, 
 and he is highly esteemed by the whole community. 
 
 Mr. Fancher was born at Lewisboro, West- 
 chester Co., N. Y., on Jan. 10, 1861, a son of Cyrus 
 and Elizabeth (Raymond) Fancher, the latter a 
 native of Columbus, Penn. Cyrus Fancher was a 
 blacksmith by trade, but his health failed, and he 
 estabHshed a store in Ridgefield, Conn., continuing 
 in mercantile business until his death in 1878. Ru- 
 fus Fancher, the grandfather, was a resident of 
 Ridgefield, a farmer by occupation, and lived to the 
 age of eighty-three years. 
 
 Rufus Raymond Fancher spent his early school 
 days in Ridgefield, and served an apprenticeship in 
 the tinner trade with Samuel J. Barlow, and when 
 he was nineteen years old, went to Ansonia to accept 
 employment with T. P. Terry & Son, with which 
 firm he remained two years. Upon coming about 
 1880, to New Haven, Mr. Fancher was employed 
 for a time by I. W. Lounsbury, in the tinsmith 
 business, but in 1882, he returned to Ridgefield and 
 spent one summer engaged in the butcher business. ' 
 In 1883, he returned to New Haven, and entered the 
 employ of W. A. T. Smith, in the tinsmith busi- 
 ness. When Mr. Fancher first came to New Haven, 
 he became a member of the fire department, and 
 in 1885 he was promoted to the position of call 
 man, in 1887 was made permanent hoseman of 
 Company No. 2, and on Jan. 2, 1889, was promoted 
 to b^ captain of Hook & Ladder Company, No. i. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1263 
 
 So faithfully did Mr. Fancher perform the duties 
 of this position, that his appointment as assistant- 
 chief, in February, 1897, was no surprise to his 
 friends. Later promotions rapidly followed, as on 
 Sept. 4, 1897, he became fire marshal, and chief of 
 the department, Sept. i, 1898. 
 
 Air. Fancher was married May 2, 1882, to Miss 
 Mary C. Baldwin, a daughter of Georsfe B. Bald- 
 win, of New Haven, and this union has been blessed 
 with two children : Alice Louise, who died on May 
 8, 1898, at the age of fourteen years ; and Edward 
 K., born Feb. 8, 1889. Fraternally, Mr. Fancher 
 is a member of Hiram Lodge, Ko. i, F. & A. M.; 
 Rathbone Lodge, K. of P. ; Pyramid Lodge A. O. 
 U. W. ; New Haven Conclave, No. 323 ; the Hepta- 
 sophs; Harmony Division of Sons of Temperance. 
 He is also a member of the Connecticut State Fire- 
 men's Association, and of the International Asso- 
 ciation of Fire Engineers. Mr. Fancher has insti- 
 tuted many reforms in the department, and the safe- 
 ty of the city is well placed in his hands. Although 
 a strict disciplinarian, he has won the admiration 
 and respect of his subordinates by his bravery and 
 personal courage, and his comprehension of his ar- 
 duous work. 
 
 BENJAMIN W. PORTER. While the home 
 of this popular and successful young business man 
 is at Newton Centre, Mass., the town of Derby 
 loves to claim him as one of its citizens, inasmuch 
 as he is prominently identified with some of its 
 most important commercial enterprises. Fie is yet 
 in the prime of manhood, having been born at Free- 
 port. III, June 3, 1865. He comes of Green Moun- 
 tain ancestry, both his father and grandfather hav- 
 ing been natives of \^ermont. His grandfather — 
 Henry — ^conducted a drug store at Rutland, in that 
 State, and died there at the age of eighty years. 
 His father, whose baptismal name was Benjamin 
 was born in that town, but laid to heart the advice 
 of the sage of Chautauqua and "went West." Fie 
 setttled at Freeport, III, where he engaged exten- 
 sively in handling grain. In this enterprise he was 
 successful, but death put an end to his business 
 schemes in 1871, when Benjamin W. Porter was 
 but six years old. The older Benjamin married 
 Sarah, a daughter of Warren Clark, whose family 
 were among the early pioneers of Stephenson coun- 
 ty, 111., removing thither from New York. After 
 coming West Mr. Clark devoted himself to business 
 as an insurance agent, but so thoroughly command- 
 ed the esteem and confidence of his fellow citizens 
 that for several years he was chosen to fill the 
 office of city clerk. His wife's maiden name was 
 Emily Everett, and the issue of their marriage was 
 two children, both of whomi are yet living, as also 
 is Mrs. Clark herself, the latter at the age of eighty 
 years. Mr. Porter's mother is also living, at Free- 
 port. She is a communicant in the Episcopal 
 Church, as wasi her husband. 
 
 Benjamin W. Porter was his parents' only child. 
 
 and after the death of his father he was reared by 
 an uncle, who educated him at the common and 
 high schools of his native town. He began his 
 business career in the wholly unostentatious role of 
 office boy for a firm of carriage manufacturers, but 
 gradually worked himself up to the position of 
 bookkeeper, holding that until 1884. It is not diffi- 
 cult for those who have known him in later years 
 and who appreciate his naturally keen intellect and 
 his capacity for business affairs to understand the 
 causes for his advancement. Freeport proved to 
 him, however, a sort of "pentup Utica." He had 
 learned both the science and art of surveyor, and he 
 found a field for practice in the employ of the Free- 
 port and St. Paul Railroad Company. One year 
 of this life satisfied his scientific aspirations ; and at 
 its conclusion he returned to office work entering 
 the employ of the Henry Buggy Company, at that 
 time one of the most important and flourishing con- 
 cerns in the West, in its own line of trade. He was 
 commissioned city clerk of Freeport for two years, 
 but tired of the office within nine months and ten- 
 dered his resignation. Thereupon, he reversed the 
 idea of Mr. Greeley and went East, making no pause 
 until he reached the town of Derby, Conn. His 
 means were comparatively small, and he willingly 
 began work as a bookkeeper for the Derby Street 
 Railway and the Naugatuck Steamboat Companies, 
 both concerns being under one management. Here 
 he manifested such aptitude, sagacity, quick percep- 
 tion and his ready grasp of affairs, that in August, 
 1897, he was tendtered the office of general manager. 
 This he accepted and has ever since continued to 
 discharge the grave duties of that responsible post 
 with that cool judgment, genuine common sensv 
 and unswerving integrity, which have character- 
 ized him throughout life. Meanwhile — from 1892 to 
 1897 — he had served as secretary of the National 
 Box Company, of Derby, of which concern, in 1897, 
 he was made general manager, and in 1898 vice- 
 president. The output of the company is enor- 
 mous, and perhaps it is not too much to say that it 
 is one of the largest concerns, if not the largest, 
 of its sort in the world, owning large .well equipped 
 manufacturing plants at Baldwinville and Orange, 
 Mass., as well as at Manchester and Ashuelot, N. 
 H. The Dert)y Street Railway Company, of which 
 Mr. Porter is at present general manager and as- 
 sistant treasurer, was probably the first local traiis- 
 portation comlpany in the New England States to 
 employ electricity as a motive power, starting the 
 first car over its lines on May i, 1888, and it was 
 the first to use air brakes. The line is well equipped 
 and its service is of the best, and the management 
 has opened a charming park, on the Housatonic, 
 where attractive concerts and exhibitions are given 
 throughout the summer season, free of charge to 
 the patrons of the road, A fine ball field adjoins the 
 park, which is much used during the seasonable 
 months. It is not surprising that under such wise 
 and liberal management the line has become one of 
 
1264 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the most profitable in the State, paying large divi- 
 dends to its stockholders. The road is but three 
 and a half miles in length running between An- 
 sonia, Derby and Housatonic Park, but has an 
 equipment of twenty-five cars, while the number of 
 employes is sixty. The selection of these is a mat- 
 ter of great concern with JMr. Porter, who has 
 raised the personnel of his subordinates to an excep- 
 tionally high standard. He is much esteemed by 
 his men, who as well as the public, look upon him 
 as a model manager. His rare executive capacity 
 has been also shown in his conduct of the affairs of 
 the Box Company. When he assumed its superin- 
 tendency there were seventy-five hands employed, 
 and but one mill was in operation. At present 
 (1900) four mills are constantly running, giving 
 work to five hundred employes. In 1897 he was 
 chosen a director in and general manager of the 
 Saratoga Traction Company, but resigned both po- 
 sitions within a year. He has other important busi- 
 ness interests as well, being a member of the rail- 
 way engineering firm C. H. Davis, of New York. 
 He was for a time confidential secretary for Mr. 
 \\"ood, president of the Derby Street Railwav Co., 
 and is secretary and a member of the executive com- 
 mittee of the Connecticut Street Railway Associa- 
 tion. He is also chairman of the house committee 
 of the Derby Board of Trade. In politics he has 
 always been a Democrat, and in 1896 was a member 
 of the State Central Committee of the "gold" wing 
 of his party. For a year he served as borough 
 treasurer of Derby, and for a like period as police 
 commissioner. He is a communicant in the Epis- 
 copal Church, and was for many years a vestryman. 
 In 1890 he was married to Miss Harriet Downs, a 
 daughter of D. J. Downs, a sketch of whose life 
 may be found elsewhere. 
 
 Personally Mr. Porter is exceedingly popular, 
 his warm heart and frank, genial manners win- 
 ning for him hosts of friends. He is a member of 
 the Royal Arcanum, and also belongs to Housatonic 
 Lodge, No. 6, I. O. O. F. In 1898 he removed his 
 residence to Newton Centre, Mass., but he still 
 claims Derby as his home. 
 
 IRA W. BEERS. The world instinctively pays 
 deference to the man whose success has been worth- 
 ily achieved and who has overcome the obstacles in 
 his path and reached a high position in the business 
 world. This is a progressive age, and he who does 
 not advance is soon left far behind. Mr. Beers, by 
 the improvement of the opportunities with which all 
 are surrounded, has steadily and honorably worked 
 his way upward and is now at the head of a profit- 
 able business as a dealer in flour, grain, feed and hav, 
 and proprietor of the Excelsior and Central Mills, 
 of Hamden. 
 
 Mr. Beers is a native of that town, born in Cen- 
 terville June 18, 1862, and belongs to one of the old- 
 est and best families of Connecticut. His father, 
 Philo S. Beers, was born, reared and educated in 
 
 Trumbull, Fairfield county, and began his business 
 career as a workman in the woolen mills at that 
 place. Later he was similarly employed at Nauga- 
 tuck, Conn., and while there invented a spoke ma- 
 chine, which he patented. Coming to Hamden he 
 erected the first flourmill at Centerville, where he 
 successfully engaged in the manufacture of flour 
 and feed up to the time of his death, in September, 
 1875. His remains were interred in the cemetery 
 at that place. He was a man of good business and 
 methanical ability, noted for his industry, honesty 
 and fair dealing, and was well-known and highly 
 respected. He was a worthy member of the Epis- 
 copal Church of Hamden, and in politics was first 
 a Whig and later a Republican. Philo S. Beers 
 married Miss Alarietta Fenn, a native of Middle- 
 bury, Conn., and a daughter of John and Sarah 
 Fenn. She was a woman of many noble qualities, 
 and like her husband was a consistent member of 
 the Episcopal Church. 'She died in Centerville 
 Jan. 21, 1898, and was laid to rest in the cemetery 
 there. In the family were four children : John and 
 George, both residents of Hamdfen; Mary L., wife 
 of George Dickerman, of the same place; and Ira 
 W., our subject. 
 
 Ira W. Beers attended the Centerville district 
 schools during his boyhood, and after the death of 
 his father, which occurred when he was thirteen 
 years old, he commenced work in the shop of J. T. 
 Henry, a manufacturer of pruning shears at Center- 
 ville, where he was employed eight years. In 1883 
 he leased the mill which had formerly belonged to 
 his father (and later purchased it) and embarked in 
 business for himself as a manufacturer o.f flour. 
 Meeting with success in this undertaking, he subse- 
 quently built another mill, for the grinding of feeds, 
 and in connection with the operation of both mills 
 he also deals in grain, hay, etc., doing quite an ex- 
 tensive and profitable business along that line; he 
 also conducts a branch store at iMt. Carmel. Mr. 
 Beers made many improvements in his property, and 
 now has a well equipped plant. Early in 1901 he 
 took possession of the Algona Milling & Grain Co.'s 
 business, at Algona, Iowa, of which he is sole owner, 
 and in connection with same he deals in coal and 
 runs a grain elevator, having, altogether, quite an 
 extensive business, which will no doubt under his 
 management take on the same degree of prosperity 
 that has marked his connection with other enter- 
 prises. All in all Mr. Beers has shown himself to 
 be a man of unusual ability, prompt and notably re- 
 liable. His dealings are all characterized by the 
 strictest honesty, without which be could never 
 have gained the reputation he enjoys, his name being 
 second to no other in his town for fairness and up- 
 rightness. As his standing in commercial circles, 
 so is his standing socially and as a citizen, and he 
 is quite popular, having won many friends by his 
 gemai disposition. 
 
 On June 21, 1893, Mr. Beers was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Florence A. Mead, a native of Win- 
 
'-'''5>'E>t'^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1265 
 
 sted, Conn., and a daug:hter of Charles and Jane A. 
 (Burr) Mead, both representatives of old New Eng- 
 land families. Mrs. Beers is a lady of culture and 
 refinement, is an accomplished musician, and has 
 served as organist of churches in Winsted and for 
 eight years as organist in the Central Presbyterian 
 Church of Auburn, N. Y. Her frequent appear- 
 ances in public have been attended with unvarying 
 success. She and her husband belong to the Epis- 
 copal Church, of which he is clerk and treasurer, 
 and one of the vestrymen. They are also members 
 of Hamden Grange, of which he has served as 
 master and is at present treasurer, and in social cir- 
 cles they occupy an enviable position. Mr. Beers is 
 identified with the Republican party, but he has 
 never desired political notoriety. Fraternally he 
 affiliates with Day Spring Lodge, No. 30, F. & A. 
 M., of Centerville ; and with Montowese Lodge, L 
 0. O. F., and Golden Rule Encampment, both of 
 New Haven. 
 
 PHINEAS TRUMAN IVES, who enjoys the 
 distinction of holding a leading position as jeweler 
 in Meriden, was born in Yalesville, in the town of 
 Wal'lingford, and is a descendant of the oldest fam- 
 ilies of New Haven. John Ives, the first of that 
 name in Wallingford, was a son of William Ives, 
 who came from England during the old days, and 
 was the first of the name in America. John Ives 
 was a farmer and land owner in what is now 
 Meriden town, and had a family of eight children. 
 
 Joseph Ives, second son of John, was born in 
 Meriden Oct. 14, 1674, and was married to Esther 
 Benedict May 11, 1697. For his second wife he 
 married Minnie Munson, who was born June 13, 
 1733. He was a farmer and land owner in the 
 southwest part of Wallingford, where he held the 
 position of Deacon in the Church, and died March 
 18, 1775, when much advanced in years. His chil- 
 dren were ten in number. 
 
 Ephraim Ives, youngest child of Joseph, was 
 born Jan. 4, 171 7. Elizabeth Atwater became his 
 wife March 12, 1741, and they made their home in 
 Plymouth. He was a soldier in the French and In- 
 dian war, and died at Crown Point, from sickness, 
 his remains being interred at that place. To him 
 and his wife were born: (i) Sarah, born Nov. 19, 
 1741, married a Mr. Baldwin, of Waterbury; (2) 
 Ephraim, born Jan. 7, 1744; (3) Phineas, born 
 June 12, 1746; (4) Elnathan, born Dec. 21, 1751 ; 
 (5) Eunice, born Feb. 19, 1755, married Capt. 
 Bradley, a noted sea-faring man in his day ; and (6) 
 Ichabod, who was born after the death of 'his father, 
 served in the Revolution, although young, and drew 
 a pension of eighty dollars a year. 
 
 Phineas Ives, born June 12, 1746, lived _ in 
 Plymouth, Mass. Later he removed to Cheshire, 
 where he engaged in farming. During the Revolu- 
 tion, with two of his brothers, he served in the 
 Continental army. His life was spent in Cheshire, 
 where he died, and his remains were buried in the 
 
 80 
 
 Episcopal churchyard at Cheshire Centre. He was- 
 married Dec. i, 1774, in Cheshire, to Martha Moss, 
 who was born in 1745, a daughter of Benjamin and 
 Abigail Moss, and by her had eight children: (i) 
 Nehemiah Rice, born in August, 1776; (2) Loyal, 
 born in 1778, a farmer, who died at Crown Point, 
 N. Y., in 1802; (3) Phineas Truman, born Oct. 5, 
 1781; (4) Noble died at Ticonderoga, N. Y. ; (5) 
 Justus died at Russell, N. Y. ; (6) Martha; (7) 
 Hannah died young; (8) Samuel died Jan. 26, 1851. 
 
 Phineas Truman Ives, the grandfather of Phin- 
 eas T. Ives, was born at Cheshire Oct. 5, 1781, and 
 was engaged in farming and sawmilling, owning a 
 part of a sawmill. He died in the south part of 
 Meriden, near the Cheshire line, April 19, 1870. 
 His remains were also placed to rest in the Cheshire 
 Street cemetery. In his younger days he was a 
 member of the Episcopal Church, but in his later 
 years became a supporter of the Universalist faith. 
 In politics he was a Democrat, and heartily sup- 
 ported Jeffersonian doctrines, but was no office 
 seeker. Phineas T. Ives was married in Cheshire 
 to Salome Rice, who was born in Cheshire, a daugh- 
 ter of Col. Reuben Rice. To this union were bom 
 four children: (i) Martha M., born Jan. 3, 1813, 
 died March 10, 1879. (2) Augusta Ann, born Oct. 
 18, 1814, married Rev. Anson A. Beach, a Meth- 
 odist clergyman, who was born Oct. i, 1837; 
 she died April 10, 1898. (3) Lois Louise, born 
 Aug. 9, 1816, married Rev. Hart F. Pease, of the 
 Methodist Church; she died at Norwalk, Conn. (4) 
 Nehemiah Rice, born Feb. 17, 1819, died at Troy, 
 N. Y. The mother of these children died Dec. 15, 
 1820, and Mr. Ives married for his second wife 
 Fannie Baldwin, of Cheshire, Conn., and to thi& 
 union were born two children : ( i ) Phineas Tru- 
 man, who was born Feb. 15, 1822, and) died Aug, 
 23, 1895, married Julia Doolittle, of Wallingford, 
 Conn., and to them were born two children — Fran- 
 ces Salome (who died in April, 1848) and Friend 
 Augustus (born April 19, 1848). He twice repre- 
 sented the town of Wallingford in the Legislature, 
 and he was a director in the Savings Bank. (2) 
 Amasa B., born Sept. 29, 1823, died in Meridem 
 Jan. 26, 1901. Mrs. Ives died Sept. 17, 1824, at 
 the age of forty years, and Mr. Ives married, for 
 his third wife, Julia A., daughter of Ichabod Ives. 
 She was born April 6, 1793, and died April 19, 
 1874. In her early years she was a member of the 
 Baptist Church, but later became associated with 
 the Universalist Church. She was the mother of 
 four children: Isaac S., who is still living, was born 
 Aug. 5, 1828; John Augustus, born Dec. 12, 1829, 
 died May 3, 1836; Ebenezer Clark, born Feb. 16, 
 1832, died June 28, 1872 ; James Ichabod, born Ma^ 
 13, 1834, died March 3, 1848. 
 
 Ebenezer Clark Ives, father of Phineas Tru- 
 man, was educated in the district schools. He was 
 reared on a farm, but after reaching manhood en- 
 ,;aged in the grocery business at Yalesville, Conn. 
 He died there June 28, 1872, and his remains rest in- 
 
1266 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the Cbesliire Street cemetery. In politics lie was a 
 Democrat, an''' in all h^s intercourse with the world 
 around hiin lived very close to the Golden Rule. 
 He was married Aug. 5, 1854, to Mary J. Potter, 
 who was born in New Haven, a daughter of Syl- 
 vester and Mary E. (Campbell) Potter. Her 
 mother was of Sco'ttish descent, and her father of 
 English. To them were born four children : Julia, 
 who di^d young; Jennie M.; Hattie C. ; and Phin- 
 eas Truman, whose name introduces this article. 
 The mother died Jan. 31, 1879, and her remains re- 
 pose in the Cheshire Street cemetery. 
 
 Phineas Truman Ives removed with his mother 
 from Yalesville, where he attended the public 
 school, and entered the Cheshire Episcopal Acad- 
 emy. In September, 1890, he opened a jewelry 
 store in a modest way on West Main street, and 
 in 1895 he removed to the Aleriden House Block, 
 where he has since won recognition as the leading 
 jeweler of the city. In 1897 he opened a branch 
 store in AVallingford, Conn. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican, but he is no politician. Socially he is a 
 member of the A. F. & A. M., Meridian Lodge, No. 
 77; Chapter No. 27, R. A. M.; Hamilton Council, 
 No. 22, R. & S. :\I. ; St. Elmo Commandery, K. T. ; 
 and of Pilgrim Harbor Council, No. 543, Royal 
 Arcanum. In religious matters he is a member of 
 the Methodist Church, and belongs to the Y. M. 
 C. A. 
 
 LEONARD BURTON WOODING is a repre- 
 sentative young farmer, and a descendant of an old 
 and prominent family in Bethany, Conn., being a 
 grandson of Silas Wooding, who can still be re- 
 called in that neighborhood. Silas Wooding mar- 
 ried Mary Sperry, and their family included: Den- 
 nis M., the father of our subject; Burton, who died 
 young; Edwin, who died in July, 1881, in Westville ; 
 and Guy, who is a mechanic. 
 
 Dennis M. Wooding was born in Bethany, where 
 he grew up, later removing to Woodbridge, where 
 he engaged in the butcher business, dealing in a 
 wholesale way in New Haven, and managing a 
 wagon that went through the town of Woodbridge, 
 much to the accommodation of the residents. His 
 death occurred in July, 1881, in Woodbridge, and 
 his burial took place in Westville, Conn. He mar- 
 ried Elizabeth S., a daughter of Alva Munson, a 
 native of H,amden, and the children born to this 
 union were : Nellie A. ; Jessie, the wife of Freder- 
 ick Prentice; Leonard B., our subject; and John T., 
 •who died young. 
 
 Leonard Burton Wooding was born Nov. 27, 
 1866, in Woodbridge, where he went to school until 
 the death of his father, which occurred before he 
 "had completed more than a primary course. Thrown 
 upon his own resources, he engaged in any labor 
 that would bring returns, and followed many kinds 
 of occupation, being of an energetic nature. In 
 1898 he settled in Xorth Haven and bought the 
 farm he now occupies, consisting of eigb.tv-four 
 
 acres formerly belonging to Franklin Shepherd, and 
 upon this he carries on general and dairy farming, 
 succeeding beyond his expectations. 
 
 Mr, Wooding was married in 1890 to Lizzie A. 
 Judge, a native of Woodbridge, a daughter of Ed- 
 win W. Judge, a farmer of that locality, and to this 
 union five children have been born: Edwin M.; 
 Leonard B., who died in infancy; Henry W. ; 
 Franklin W. ; and Nellie Angeline. 
 
 In poHtical affiliations Mr. Wooding is a Repub- 
 lican; he has never accepted any office. Socially 
 he is connected with North Haven Lodge, No. 61, 
 A. O. U. W. ; and Olive Branch Lodge, No. 84, A. 
 F. & A. M., of Westville. Of an earnest and up- 
 right nature, Mr. Wooding has made many friends. 
 He is a valued member of the Congregational 
 Church in Woodbridge, and Mrs. Wooding belongs 
 to the M. E. Church of Westville. 
 
 JOHN C. PETTIBONE, a manufacturer of 
 brass goods in Ansonia, was born in Burlington 
 April 12, 1859, a son of DeForest Pettibone, who 
 was born in Canton, Conn., the birthplace also of his 
 father, Oliver Pettibone. His parents came from 
 England, and settled in Canton at an early date in 
 the history of the Colony. They were farmers, and 
 spent their lives in the cultivation of the soil. They 
 died in Burlington. The grandmother, Harriet Pet- 
 tibone, was the mother of eight children, all of 
 whom are living, and we have record of the follow- 
 ing: Stephen, in Iowa; Gordon, in Des Moines, 
 Iowa ; De Forest ; William and Oliver, both in the 
 West ; Edwin, in the State of California ; Catherine, 
 married and in the West. Both Oliver Pettibone 
 and his wife were members of the Methodist 
 Church. 
 
 DeForest Pettibone spent his early life in Bur- 
 lington, where he learned the carpenter trade, and 
 became a carpenter and contractor, which business 
 he followed all his life, until the failure of his 
 health, in 1897, compelled a retirement from active 
 labor. Aurelia Pond, his wife, was born in West 
 Hartford. Philena (Crandiall) Pond, her mother, 
 is still living, and has reached the venerable age of 
 eighty-five. Aurelia (Pond) Pettibone was the 
 mother of five children, three of whom are living: 
 Fred R. ; John C. ; and Myrtie, who married M. I. 
 Ryder, of Plainville, Conn. The parents were both 
 members of the Methodist Church, and the father 
 was a man of affairs in the town, where he was 
 elected to several offices. 
 
 John C. Pettibone spent the first fourteen years 
 of his life under the parental roof, and was engaged 
 in the acquisition of an education. He entered a 
 clock factory at Forestville when he was fourteen, 
 and began the clock maker's trade, which became 
 his business ,n life up to 1881. That year he came 
 to Ansonia and entered the employ of the Ansonia 
 Electric Company, remaining with that corporation 
 three years. "Prom that institution he passed to the 
 Ansonia Brass Casting Co., and was in their ser- 
 vice until 1894, when he began the manufacture 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1267 
 
 of his present line of 'brass specialties. He is mak- 
 ing a large variety of these goods, and as he has 
 thoroughly mastered every line of his trade, his suc- 
 cess was assured from the start. 
 
 Mr. Pettibone was married in 1889 to Carrie B. 
 Crane, a daughter of Thomas Crane, and she is the 
 happy mother of two children, Clarence E. and Edna 
 Marion. Mr. Pettibone is a Democrat in his poli- 
 tics, and at different times has appeared on the 
 ticket of that party as a candidate for various official 
 positions. 'He is a member of the A. O. U. W., and 
 was formerly associated with the Red Men, in 
 which he was an active and popular member, being 
 honored by election to all the chairs. He is a 
 charter member of the Workmen, and belongs to 
 the Eagle Hose Company, No. 6. Mrs. Pettibone 
 belongs to the Congregational Church. 
 
 ARTHUR SHERMAN LANE, a m^ember of 
 the firm of J. S. Lane & Son, a well-known business 
 house of Meriden, Conn., was born in Kent, Litch- 
 field county. Conn., Oct. 27, 1864, and is the eldest 
 son of John Sherman Lane (see biography on an- 
 other page). His education was acquired at a 
 select school at Lime Rock, in his native county, 
 and after comtpleting the course he entered the em- 
 ploy of the Housatonic Railroad Company, as 
 freight agent at West Stockbridge, Mass., and was 
 afterward located at Bridgeoort in a clerical capacity 
 with the same company. After one year at this 
 point, he was made freight cashier of the New 
 York, New Haven & Hartford road at the Harlem 
 River terminal, N. Y., and for ten years Mr. Lane 
 ably filled the important duties connected with this 
 position. In 1891 he resigned in order to become 
 a partner with his father in the stone business, and 
 for eleven years his energies have 'been devoted to 
 the Meriden and Westfield works of the firm, where 
 he is not only respected for bis excellent business 
 and executive ability, but also for an energy that 
 prompts him personally to give assistance in any 
 case where it may be demanded by the exigencies of 
 the occasion. His example is an excellent one, and 
 he is held in the highest esteem by his employes. 
 Although his business cares are engrossing, Mr. 
 Lane is a public spirited man, and has taken an 
 active interest in the development of Meriden along 
 all lines of improvement. During his term of 
 office as alderman from the First ward, he made the 
 committee on Streets and Parks, of which he was 
 the chairman, among the most important of all. In 
 1897 Mr. Lane was nominated by his Republican 
 fellow-citizens as their candidate for Mayor, but 
 was defeated, that being the year which was noted 
 for the "land-slide" for the Democratic party. 
 
 In 1884 Mr. Lane was married in New York, to 
 Miss Carrie E. Shove, a native of that city and a 
 daughter of Oliver P. Shove. She is noted for her 
 many winning traits of character. The three chil- 
 dren born to this marriage are : Gertrude E. and 
 Grace L., charming twin daughters; and one son, 
 
 Samuel Virgin. The beautiful family home is lo- 
 cated on North Colony street and is one where taste 
 and refinement make it one of the social centers 
 of the city. Fraternally Mr. Lane belongs to Alfred 
 Hall Council, No. 1423, of which he was the first 
 charter member ; and he is active in the social afifairs 
 of the Home Club. Both Mr. and Mrs. Lane belong 
 to the First Congregational Church, in which Mr. 
 Lane has been an official member and a most liberal 
 supporter and where Mrs. Lane is well known for 
 her interest in all good work. Both in public and 
 private life Mr. Lane is a popular and representative 
 citizen of Meriden. 
 
 GEORGE D. MOSHER. Mr. Mosher's im- 
 m.ediate ancestors were residents of the "Pine Tree 
 State." Both his grandfather and father were 
 born in Maine, where his English progenitors first 
 made their home. Both were tillers of the soil and 
 his father, Careb Mosher, whose birthplace was 
 Mercer, Maine, is still living at the age of ninety 
 years after a life spent in farming. Careb married 
 Johanna Hancock, whose father was one of the far- 
 mer-patriots who lost his life in the war of 1812. 
 George D. Mosher was one of a family of thirteen 
 children, the youngest of whom! died in infancy. 
 The names of the others were Ruth, Reuben, 
 Stephen, Caroline, Susan, Emily, Adelia, Adriana, 
 Wheelock, George D., Milton and Ellen. Of these, 
 Reuben is a farmer and' still lives in Maine. Ste- 
 phen was a resident of Pittsfield, Maine, until his 
 death, which occurred in 1895 ; he was a man of 
 prominence in his neighborhood, took an active 
 interest in public afifairs and accumulated what in 
 his time was considered a comfortable competence. 
 Wheelock is still a Maine farmer. Milton is in the 
 employ of his brother, George D. Careb Mosher is 
 a Republican in political faith and a Baptist in re- 
 ligious conviction. 
 
 George D. Mosher was born in Rome, Maine, 
 April ID, 1851. Until he reached the age of seven- 
 teen years he lived and worked upon his father's 
 farm, attending the district school as necessity per- 
 mitted and opportunity afforded. The natural bent 
 of his mind was turned to mechanical pursuits, and 
 at the age of seventeen he began his active business 
 life as an employe in a scythe factory in Maine. In 
 1869 he ventured to go West as far as New Hart- 
 ford, Conn., where he spent two years more as a 
 hand in a scythe factory. Some men might have re- 
 garded at least a portion of this time as wasted. 
 Not so Mr. Mosher. He had learned just enough 
 of mechanical work to stimulate his desire to fur- 
 ther knowledge, while at the same time laying a 
 foundation for future success in what was to be the 
 business of his life. Going from New Hartford to 
 New Britain he entered the employ of the Stanley 
 Rule and Level Company where he learned the 
 manufacture of planes. After remaining five years 
 with this concern he returned to New Hartford, 
 where he entered into business for himself as a 
 
1268 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 manufacturer of harness snaps. His partners 
 changed from time to time and in 1880 he removed 
 to Shelton where he carried on the manufacture of 
 harness trimmings alone, his specialty being snaps, 
 in which he has patented a new device. Not long 
 afterward he invented a new description of plane, 
 and in 1885 organized a stock company for the 
 manufacture and sale of the same, as well as of 
 other hardware. The concern in which Afr. Alosher 
 was the principal stockholder was at first called 
 the Birmingham Plane Manufacturing Co., but in 
 1 89 1 the name was changed to the Derby Plane Co. 
 Some three years ago Mr. Mosher bought the re- 
 mainder of the stock and is now sole owner of the 
 business. In addition to planes, various specialties 
 are made at the works, among them being pat- 
 ented combination spoke shaves with champfering 
 gauges attachment. Mr. Mosher is pre-eminently 
 a practical man ; there is not a detail of the process 
 of manufacture with which he is not familiar, and 
 dressed in old clothes he goes about here and there 
 among his men working with them and keeping his 
 experienced watchful eye ever open and his active 
 busy brain ever at work. The supervision of the 
 work O'f the office he entrusts to his oldest son. Both 
 his factories are located at Shelton and both are 
 kept constantly at work to their full capacity. His 
 business is large and constantly growing and as 
 he looks through his works and examines his books 
 of accounts he has the proud satisfaction of know- 
 ing that he laid the foundation of his own prosperity 
 and that from an underpaid apprentice in a scythe 
 factory in Maine he has risen to be owner and head 
 of a great manufacturing industry through his own 
 hard work, sound sense, patience and probity. In 
 addition to his business as a manufacturer he owns 
 and conducts a large stock farm at Milford, where 
 he resides. In politics he is a Republican. 
 
 In 1871 Mr. Mosher was married to Miss Alice 
 Rust, of New Hartford. They are the parents of 
 two sons — Durwood and Bertram. Durwood, as 
 has been already said, takes charge of his father's 
 office and Bertram is yet at school. 
 
 GERSON STRAUSS, M. D., one of the lead- 
 ing physicians of New Haven, and one whose skill 
 is unquestioned, is a native of Bavaria, Germanv, 
 where he was born July 3, 1866, a son of Isaac and 
 Amelia (Kahn) Strauss. 
 
 The paternal grandfather, also Gerson Strauss, 
 was a successful grocer and merchant in his native 
 land, and died respected by a large circle of friends 
 and business associates. 
 
 Isaac Strauss, the father of our subject, was 
 also a merchant, but never came to America, dying 
 in Bavaria, about twenty years ago. The honored 
 mother passed away about the same date, having 
 borne her husband a family of five children : Leo, 
 Clara, Fannie, Joseph and our subject. 
 
 Dr. Gerson Strauss, the subject of this article, 
 spent his boyhood days in Bavaria, but when onlv 
 
 twelve, after having attended the public schools at 
 Bruckenau, he came to America, settling at Fred- 
 erick, Md. Being anxious to improve every oppor- 
 tunity, he then attended school at Frederick for one 
 }'ear, after which he clerked for four years. The 
 next change was made to Cleveland, Ohio, and here 
 the ambitious young man was connected with a 
 clothing store. Through all these years, however, 
 his great desire had been to enter the medical pro- 
 fession, and as a preliminary step, be finally came 
 to New Haven, Conn., entering the drug store of 
 Mr. Fleishner. Saving the money he so indus- 
 triousl)' earned, and carefully storing his mind, Dr. 
 Strauss, in 1891, entered the medical department of 
 the Baltimore University, from which he graduated 
 with high honors in 1805. Having completed his 
 course. Dr. Strauss returned to New Haven, and 
 has since remained in this community, building up 
 a fine and constantly increasing practice. 
 
 In 1894, Dr. Strauss married Miss Anna ]\Iorris, 
 a native of Prussia, and two interesting children 
 have been added to their family. Both the Doctor 
 and Mrs. Strauss are members of Orange Street 
 Temple of Mishkan Israel. By their many kind 
 actions and excellent qualities, they have endeared 
 themselves to all who know them. 
 
 HENRY W. SANFORD, of New Haven, is a 
 worthy and representative member of the Sanford 
 family, which has possessed, in combination with 
 talent of a high order, an energy and capacity for 
 work that has given it prominence through genera- 
 tions. 
 
 Joseph Sanford, grandfather of Henry AV., was 
 a native of East Granville, Mass., where he ac- 
 quired a knowledge of the tanner's trade and carried 
 on what was an extensive business, becoming 
 quite prominent and successful. During the 
 war of 1812 he secured the contract for sup- 
 plying the government with leather and purchased 
 a large number of hides. At that time the process 
 of tanning was necessarily slovv and before the 
 leather was ready for use the war closed and the 
 contract was never filled. The latter years of Mr. 
 Sanford's life were spent upon a farm in Bloomfield, 
 Conn.; purchased for him by his son, George W. 
 Joseph Sanford^ was a member of the Congregational 
 Church and a good and worthy man. He married 
 in Northfield, Hope Wilmot, a native of that town, 
 and to them were born: George W., who is men- 
 tioned below ; Hope, who married a ]\Ir. Trumbell, 
 and removed to Ohio ; Haimah, who married Henry 
 Neil, of Siherborn, Mass.; Roena, who married 
 Reuben Barker and removed to Michigan; Joseph 
 D., who died in infancy; Joseph D. (2), who mar- 
 ried M-ary Smith, and was at one time a merchant 
 in Tariffville, later residing in Granby ; and another 
 daughter, Mrs. Botham. Joseph Saniford, the father 
 of these children, died in 1846 and is buried at Tar- 
 iffville. 
 
 Dr. George W. Sanford, the father of Henrv 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1269 
 
 W., was born in Litchfield, Conn., Dec. 20, 1807, 
 and received a good education, completing a course 
 at Dr. Corley's Classical School, East Granville, 
 Mass., in 1827. After this he studied medicine and 
 several years later commenced practice in Granville, 
 Mass. In 1836 he graduated from the Medical De- 
 partment of Williams College. Shortly before 1830 
 he located at Tarififville, where he continued in ac- 
 tive practice for over sixty years. While on his 
 way to Tariffville he went over the toll bridge at 
 North Bloomfield without paying toll. As he 
 passed on a }'ioung lady who was attending to the 
 toll gate rushed after him and threatened to prose- 
 cute the physician if he did not make the legal pay- 
 ment. The Doctor related the incident to a friend 
 whom he met a little later on his trip, expressing 
 his admiration of the courage of the girl and said 
 he intended to make her acquaintance. Following 
 lip this intention Dr. Sanford found out that she 
 was Miss Jane Elizabeth Adams, who was born in 
 Bloomfield, Conn., Sept. 11, 1813, a daughter of 
 Ambrose and Catherine (Eno) Adams, and upon 
 Feb. 4, 1830, the young lady became Mrs. Sanford. 
 In Ms extensive practice at Tariffville Dr. San- 
 ford was eminently successful and he soon became 
 one oif the leading citizens of the town. In 1835 he 
 became a member of the Hartford County Medical 
 Society and at the time of his death was its oldest 
 member. In 1874 he was elected president of the 
 society and again in 1881 the honor was conferred 
 ■upon him. Dr. Sanford was also a member of the 
 State Medical Society; the American Medical So- 
 ciety; and the Lyceum of Natural History of the 
 Berkshire Medical Institute. His usefulness, how- 
 ever, was not limited to his profession, for he was 
 a prominent member of society and as a public- 
 spirited citizen accomplished much good. 
 
 The declining years of Dr. Sanford's life were 
 burdened by a misfortune which, however, he did 
 not allow to deter him from continuing his practice. 
 In 1885 he became totally blind as a result of two 
 accidents, he having been thrown from his carriage 
 Feb. 21, 1883, and again on May 3, of the same 
 year. These successive shocks caused a congestion 
 of the nerve of the eye which produced blindness, 
 yet he continued to practice. His patients visited 
 Tiim' preferring him, with his wonderful skill, to 
 strangers. His faculties were unimpaired to the 
 last and he retained through life the kind regard 
 and respect of the people whom he had known and 
 served for over sixty years. Dr. Sanford died at 
 Tarififville Sept. 23, i8q2, aged eighty-five, and in 
 "his death the town lost one of its most valued citi- 
 zens. 
 
 For many years the Doctor was a prominent 
 member of the Baptist Church and often when the 
 .church was in debt and in urgent need of funds he 
 at his own expense and inconvenience made trips 
 among the members and solicited the necessary 
 money. In politics he was a Whig and later a Re- 
 publican and for many years served as justice of the 
 
 peace. During the administration of Harrison and 
 Tyler he was postmaster; for fifty years he was 
 school visitor; and for several years was keeper of 
 the town poor. In 1845, 1871 and 1875 Dr. Sanford 
 served ni the House of Representatives and during 
 his first term.served most acceptably on' the commit- 
 tee on Banks ; during his other two terms he served 
 on the committee on Humane Institutions. Not 
 only in his immediate vicinity but throughout the 
 surrounding country he was widely known and 
 numbered among his friends many prominent men. 
 Fraternally he was a Mason. 
 
 Dr. Sanford and his wife had children, as fol- 
 lows : Jane Geraldine, born June 16, 1831, married 
 Charles L. Roberts; both are deceased. George 
 Amibrose, born Nov. 26, 1832, died Feb. 5, 1851. 
 Joseph Willis, born Sept. i, 1835, of the Scovili 
 Mfg. Co., of Waterbury, Conn., married Emma 
 Woodward, by whom he had one son, Frank Willis, 
 v/ho married Susan Goodman, and they have one 
 child, Mary Ellen. Marvin H., born Sept. 20, 1837, 
 died Dec. 8, 1896. James Honor, born Mav 8, 1840, 
 died March 25, 1892, at Meriden, where for many 
 years he was connected with the street department. 
 Ophelia, born April 15, 1842, died Sept. 16, i860. 
 Morton, born July 6, 1844, is keeper of the State 
 poor; his sketch appeared in the history of Hart- 
 ford county. Mary, born July 11, 1846, died Feb. 
 8, 1847. Mary Alice, born Nov. 27, 1847, died 
 July 8, 1848. Henry W. is mentioned below. George 
 Ambrose, born Aug. 15, 1852, resides in Winsted, 
 Conn. Ellen B., born Oct. 28, 1855, died Aug. 19, 
 1870. The mother of this family died March 9, 
 1872, and Dr. Sanford married Ada L. Eno, who 
 now resides in New Britain, Connecticut. 
 
 Henry W. Sanford spent his early school days 
 in the public schools of Tariffville and latter at- 
 tended the Connecticut Literary Institute at Suffield 
 for two years, after which he joined his brother in 
 caring for the State poor. After four years he went 
 to Saunders county. Neb., on the Platte river, where 
 for three years he was in the cattle business. At 
 the expiration of this time he returned to Tarifif- 
 ville and for two yearsi more was in business with 
 his brother, M. H. On March i, 1878, he came to 
 New Haven as superintendent of the New Haven 
 Alms House, and for twelve years had charge of 
 that institution, then located on the western end of 
 Martin street. He was in charge when its four 
 hundred inmates were removed to Springside Home, 
 near Evergreen Lake, which is one of the best ap- 
 pointed institutions of the kind in New England. 
 In the building and arrangement of this new home 
 Mr. Sanford took a keen interest and worked hard 
 to include in its arrangement plans and conveniences 
 that his experience bad taught him were needed. 
 Ill that line of work (Almshouse-keeper) he was 
 one of the well-known men in New England. He 
 labored constantly for improvements and it .was en- 
 tirely through his labors and untiring efiforts that 
 in 1885 ani ambulance wagon became part of the 
 
I270 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 institution. This was tlie first ambulance wagon 
 in New Haven and a feature that was soon copied 
 by the poHce department there. Few people have 
 any idea of the care and responsibility incident to 
 such a position. Mr. Sanford took a deep interest 
 in the work and it was with considerable regret that 
 his resignation was received in 1895 when he be- 
 came manager of the New Haven Ice Co., which 
 position he still holds. 
 
 On May 17, 1877, Mr. Sanford was married in 
 Avon, Conn., to Helen E., daughter of Newton Mil- 
 ler, and one son has come to this union, Newton 
 Waldo, born in New Haven Nov. 27, 1891. Fra- 
 ternally Mr. Sanford is a thirty-second degree 
 Mason, a member of New Haven Commandtery, K. 
 T. ; the Red Men ; the Heiptasophs ; the A. O. U. 
 W. ; and the Knights of Honor. 
 
 JEREAHAH FRANCIS DONOVAN. Promi- 
 nent among the young professional citizens of New 
 Haven is Jeremiah Francis Donovan, a well-known 
 lawyer, a prominent Democrat and senior represent- 
 ative of the city of New Haven in the General As- 
 sembly, having been elected to that honorable posi- 
 tion in November, 1900. The paternal ancestors of 
 Representative Donovan were prosperous farmers 
 in Ireland and there at Castle Donovan, County 
 Cork, was the ancestral domicile for over five gen- 
 erations. ' 
 
 Jeremiah C. Donovan, his father, located when 
 a young man in New Haven and has since resided 
 there, being one of the oldest Irish residents of the 
 city. He was by trade a silver-plater and for many 
 years he was engaged in the grocery business but 
 has now retired. In 1856 he was married in New 
 Hiaven to 'Miss Ellen Collins, of Skibbereen, County 
 Cork, Ireland, and of their marriage were born 
 eight children. 
 
 Jeremiah F. Donovan was born in New Haven 
 Feb. I, 1872, and was educated in the public schools 
 and the high school of his native city. After leav- 
 ing school he engaged) in business for two years 
 and entered Yale University Law School in 1892, 
 graduating in June, 1894, at which time he was 
 admitted to the New Haven county Bar. He has 
 since practiced his profession in New Haven. Mr. 
 Donovan has always taken an interest in public 
 questions and his city's welfare, by reason of which 
 fact he was elected at the comparatively youthful 
 age of twenty-eight years as representative to the 
 General Assembly by the largest constituency in the 
 State of Connecticut. His record as a legislator of 
 ability and integrity has been unsurpassed by any 
 young man in the General Assembly. Mr. Dono- 
 van was active in debate and in the councils of his 
 party and was a champion of the cause of Constitu- 
 tional Reform. He is one of the few men of the 
 General Assembly having the honor to serve on 
 three committees, each of which was important : 
 Contested Election committee. Joint Constitutional 
 Amendment committee and Revision of Statutes 
 committee, all of them requiring close attention and 
 
 involving complicated legal questions. His record 
 argues for further political consideration and ad- 
 vancement at the hands of his fellow citizens. 
 
 On Oct. 12, 1898, at St. John's Roman Catholic 
 Church Mr. Donovan' was married to Miss Mary 
 E., daughter of Mrs. Margaret J. Fahy, and two 
 children have been born of this union : Jerome 
 F., born in August, 1899, and Mary E., born in 
 November, 1900. During his college days Mr. 
 Donovan was prominent in athletics and was also 
 one of New Haven's amateur actors. He is a prom- 
 inent member of many societies and clubs and is in- 
 terested in the National Guard of the State of Con- 
 necticut, holding a commission as captain of the 
 Sarsfield Guard of New Haven. 
 
 JOSEPH ANSELL, one of the prominent and 
 successful business citizens of Meriden, Conn., who 
 conducts a business in meats, poultry and green 
 groceries on West Main street in Meriden, is rapidly 
 coming to the front as one of the substantial as well 
 as one of the most reliable merchants in the city. 
 
 Mr. Ansell was born in Birmingham, England, 
 Feb. 4, 1870, coming from an old family of that 
 city, his forefathers having successfully engaged irt 
 business pursuits there for a great inany years — 
 good, honest men and devoted members of the 
 Church of England. Joseph Ansell, Sr., the father 
 of our subject, was born in Birmingham, England, 
 July 25, 1838, and there he grew to manhood and 
 opened up a larg-e trade in fruits and vegetables, 
 at which business he continued until the time of 
 his death, in 1876. On Jan. I, 1859, at All Saint's 
 Church, Birmingham, he was united in marriage 
 with Sarah Butwill, a native of the same place, and 
 she still resides in Birmingham. Seven children 
 were born to this marriage, of whom two are de- 
 ceased: Elizabeth, who married Benjamin Davis, 
 of New York City ; John, who resides in Norwich, 
 Conn., where he is foreman of the Crescent Arms 
 Co. and a prominent member of the Masonic fra- 
 ternity ; Sarah Ann, who married Charles Madley, 
 a prominent railroad contractor, of Crudington, 
 Wales ; Joseph ; and Charles, who is foreman in the 
 glass works of L. Strauss & Son, in New York. 
 
 Joseph Ansell, our subject, was but six years of 
 age when his father was removed by death and his- 
 mother was left to care for the familv. Thus Jos- 
 eph had few educational advantages beyond those 
 offered by the common schools and he started out 
 while yet a youth to earn his own living. Being a 
 bright and prepossessing youth he easily secured 
 employment with the wholesale grocery firm of 
 Henry Clay & Co., where he continued until he had 
 saved enough money to gratify his ambition and 
 start for America, an older brother having become 
 a resident of New York City, and to him "the four- 
 teen year old traveler made his way. After a short 
 visit with his brother, John, he came to Meriden, and 
 soon secured employment with the Meriden Britan- 
 nia Co., and with wages at fifty cents per day, re- 
 mained with them for a year, leaving to take a posi- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1271 
 
 tion in the chandelier department of the Bradley 
 Sr Hubbard Manufacturing Co., and for thirteen 
 years was one of its most trusted and valued em- 
 ployes. 
 
 During this period Mr. Ansell had worked his 
 way up to a responsible position in this house and 
 left it only to take a more lucrative one with the 
 American Pin Co., of Waterbury. Through 1895 
 he sold the goods of this latter firm through all the 
 New England States and also handled goods for 
 the Excelsior Faucet Co., of New York, and local 
 firms of Meriden. Our subject is still the agent 
 for the American Pin 'Co., Waterbury, in connection 
 with his other line of business. In May, 1897, he 
 opened up his present line in meats, poultry and 
 green goods on West Main street, in this city, and 
 immediately received encouragement from the citi- 
 zens, his strict attention to business, with his hon- 
 esty in dealing, gaining for him the confidence of 
 the public. 
 
 Joseph Ansell was married in 1891, in this 
 city, to Miss Frances Kibner, who was born 
 in Glens Falls, N. Y., a daughter of John Kib- 
 ner, of that place, but was born in Cham- 
 bly, Canada. John Kibner married Susan Paro, a 
 native of Vermont, and they had nine children, two 
 sons and seven daughters. Four children have 
 been born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ansell : Joseph 
 Wilbur, who died in infancy ; Victoria Stella, born 
 on the birthday of the late lamented Queen of Eng- 
 land, May 24, 1895 ; Henry William, born Aug. 7, 
 1897; and Steward, born Dec. 9, 1899. 
 
 Of a pleasing personality and genial nature Mr. 
 Ansell has connected himself with a number of or- 
 ganizations for social and educational purposes, in 
 all of them being very popular : and he is active in 
 the management of the fairs and bazaars, which 
 form a pleasant feature of their entertainments. In 
 April, 1890, he joined Court Excelsior, No. 6, For- 
 esters of America, and the following year was 
 elected to the office of Chief Ranger, filling the du- 
 ties of the position for more than a year, and in 
 1893 was elected the Court delegate to the Grand 
 Court in Danbury. In 1892 he joined Charles 
 Dickens Lodge, No. 89, Sons of St. George, and in 
 1895 was made its president and in 1896 took his 
 Grand Lodge degree at Stamford, Conn., and was 
 the District Deputy Grand President for both Mer- 
 iden and Wallingford. Mr. Ansell is also a charter 
 member of I. C. Lewis Lodge, Knights and Ladies 
 of Honor, which was organized in 1895 and is an 
 active member of the Friendly Circle Companions. 
 In politics he votes independently. He is a member 
 of All Saints Memorial Episcopal Church. 
 
 LOUIS F. GARDNER, member of the well- 
 known firm of John B. Gardner's Sons, manufac- 
 turers of clock trimmings, nickle plating and brass 
 finishing, Ansonia, is a native of that city, born 
 Aug. 18, 1859. J'ohn B. Gardner, his father, was 
 born in Germany whence, when about fourteen 
 
 years old he came to America in the employ of the 
 Jerome Clock- Co., Ansonia, and subsequently car- 
 ried on for his own account the clock trimming 
 business, in which he remained until his death, Jan. 
 25, 1891. By his. wife, Mary Jane (Gregory), he 
 had a family of children as follows : Horace, who 
 died young; Sturgis G. ; Louis F., our subject; 
 Annie L., wife of Emile Schultz, a lawyer in New 
 York; John, who died at the age of fifteen; Mary 
 C. and Charlotte G., both single. The mother 
 passed away Aug. 27, 1890. The father was a Re- 
 publican in politics, served as warden in Ansonia 
 for many years and was a justice of the peace and 
 deputy judge there. 
 
 Louis F. Gardner, whose name introduces these 
 lines, received his education in part at the local 
 schools of Ansonia, in part at boarding schools and 
 then commenced business life along with his father. 
 On the latter's death Louis became a member of the 
 firm, the name thereof being now John B. Gardner 3 
 Sons. 
 
 On Oct. 27, 1898, Mr. Gardner married Cecile 
 Banks, born in Easton, Conn., a daughter of JMoses 
 E. and Amelia (Collins) Banks, of Bridgeport, 
 Conn. Mr. Banks was bom June 15, 1835, in the 
 town of Easton (at that time known as Weston), 
 a son of William Banks, who was born in Weston, 
 in 1808, and followed agricultural pursuits all his 
 life. By his wife, Ellen (Burr), he had two chil- 
 dren, Moses E. and Eliza M. (Mrs. Tuttle, of 
 Bridgeport). Mpses E. has for many years been 
 connected with a book publishing business in New 
 York and is also owner of a fine farm in the town 
 of Easton. On Dec. 24, 1853, he married Amelia 
 Collins, of New York, and four children were born 
 to them, viz. : Cecile, Mrs. Louis Gardner ; Jane E., 
 wife of Major J. Taylor Amiss, of Asheville, N. 
 C. ; Mildred, widow of James H. Torry, late of 
 Bridgeport; and C. Lincoln, a medical practitioner 
 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. 
 
 In politics Mr. Gardner is a Republican, and 
 although not a fraternity man in the strict sense of 
 the term, he belongs to several clubs ; is a member 
 of the Board of Trade, of the Knickerbocker, Hol- 
 land and Imperial Clubs and an honorary member 
 of several other clubs. He has a fine residence in 
 Derby, though all his business interesis are in 
 Ansonia, and he and his wife enjoy the esteem and 
 regard of a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. 
 
 THEODORE E. BEARD, M. D., a successful 
 young physician of New Haven, was born in Hunt- 
 ington, Fairfield Co., Conn., Feb. 7, 1866, son of 
 Theodore E. Beard, Sr., a prominent lumber dealer 
 of Huntington township and a worthy representa- 
 tive of a family which has long been held in high es- 
 teem in that section. 
 
 Among the first settlers of Milford, Conn., in 
 the year 1639, were Widow Martha Beard with 
 three sons and three daughters. Her husband, 
 James Beard, died on the passage from England to 
 
1272 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 America. The names of the sons are James, John 
 and Jeremy (or Jeremiah). James, who was the 
 eldest, died in 1642, unmarried, and his estate was 
 the first ever settled in Milford. The name of 
 Jeremiah is not conspicuous on the records of the 
 town. He was propounded for freeman by the Gen- 
 eral Court at Hartford, May 11, 1671. Capt. John 
 Beard, the ancestor of those bearing the name in 
 this region, was a prominent citizen of the town. 
 He was married about 1653 to Hannah, the di- 
 vorced wife of John Oviatt. They had eight chil- 
 dren, whose names with dates of birth, arc as fol- 
 lows : John, June 27, 1654 (old style) ; Mary, Nov. 
 12, 1658; James, Dec. 4, 1661 : Joseph, July 20, 
 1666; Samuel, Feb. 4. 1669; Jeremiah and Ebe- 
 nezer, twins, April 16, 1672; and Sarah, July 22, 
 1675. John was appointed captain of a military 
 company Jan. 17, 1675. He was deputy from Mil- 
 ford to the General Court for October, 1677, term, 
 and was re-elected continuously for the next thir- 
 teen years, with two exceptions. He was frequently 
 appointed by the General Court commissioner to 
 settle boundaries, etc. His name appears frequently 
 in the Colonial records. 
 
 Samuel Beard, son of Capt. John, was born Feb. 
 4, 1669. 
 
 James Beard, son of Samuel, was born in 1702. 
 
 Samuel Beard, son of James, was born in 1734 
 and served in the Revolutionary war. He married 
 Elizabeth Wheeler and had children as follows : 
 Lavinia, Relbecca, Joel, James, Elizabeth, Sarah, 
 Joanna, Samuel and Polly. 
 
 Joel Beard, son of Samuel, was born Aug. 16, 
 1765, and was a resident of Huntington. He mar- 
 ried Nancy Blackman and had children as follows : 
 EH, Sally, Nancy, Laura, Lucy, Caty, Polly, Annie 
 and Joel. 
 
 Joel Beard, son of Joel, was born in July, 1805, 
 in Huntington and was a lifelong resident of that 
 town, where he followed farming. He married Ma- 
 ria Chatfield and had the following children : Will- 
 iam T., Theodore E., James H. and Oliver G. 
 
 Theodore E. Beard, Sr., was born Dec. 21, 1833, 
 at the old homestead in Huntington and received a 
 common school and academic education during his 
 boyhood. As the son of a busy farmer he had a 
 practical training in agricultural work and at an 
 early age he began to display marked business abil- 
 ity. In 1854, when only twenty-one years old, he 
 engaged in the manufacture of straw paper in part- 
 nership with his brother, William T. Beard, build- 
 ing a mill about three and a half miles from Derbv. 
 They continued the partnership for a quarter of a 
 century then, in 1880, Theodore E. purchased his 
 brother's interest. After that time he carried on a 
 gristmill and sawmill business, his son, Frederick 
 W., being associated with him. They enjoyed a 
 large trade, keeping about twelve men employed all 
 the year round. They purchased extensive tracts 
 of land from which they cleared the timlber, but they 
 did not attempt to bring the property under culti- 
 
 vation. Mr. Beard died Dec. 9, 1901. In politics 
 he was a Democrat and his sound judgment and up- 
 right character have caused him to be chosen to 
 different offices in his town, including those of , se- 
 lectman, assessor and justice of the peace. He was 
 a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in which 
 he had been senior warden. 
 
 On Nov. 10, 1857, Theodore E. Beard, Sr., mar- 
 iied Miss Julia Ann Wheeler, daughter of Augur 
 Wheeler, a well-known citizen of the same town. 
 Six children have blessed this union : Joel A., who 
 married Miss Grace Morse, of Huntington, resides 
 in South Britain, Conn., where he is engaged in 
 business as a grain dealer and lumberman, and 
 also operates a gristmill ; Frederick W. was in bus- 
 iness with his father; Zina C, who married Miss 
 May Turney, of Easton, is- a grocer in Shelton; 
 Theodore E., our subject; Lavinia M., at home; 
 and Anna S., a stenographer and typewriter in 
 New Haven. 
 
 Dr. Theodore E. Beard's early education was 
 acquired in Huntington, where he attended the pub- 
 lic schools until he was sixteen vears of age. He 
 then entered Staples Academy in Easton, Conn., 
 and after completing the course there was employed 
 three years in the Derby paper mills. The failure 
 of his' eyesight had compelled him to give up his 
 studies temporarily and at the age of twenty-five 
 he entered Yale College and was graduated from 
 the Medical Department of that institution with 
 the class of 1897. He had, however, begun prac- 
 tice the year previously in New Haven on a State 
 license and he has been successfully engaged in 
 the active duties of his profession ever since, his 
 office being at No. 163 Wooster street. He is a 
 member of the City, County and State Medical So- 
 cieties, and fraternally, of Hiram Lodge, No. i, 
 A. F. & A. M., and of the English Order of Odd 
 Fellows, Manchester Uriity. He is medical exam- 
 iner for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Companv. 
 
 In May, 1893, Dr. Beard was married at St. 
 Paul's Church to Miss May Carroll, a native of 
 Northampton, Mass., and a daughter of William 
 and Elizabeth (Cook) Carroll, the latter born in 
 Colerain, Mass. Mr. Carroll was born in Vermont 
 and was an officer in the Civil war. 
 
 EDWARD WIER SMITH, M. D., a prominent 
 physician of Meriden, was born in that city Oct. 
 17, 1854, son of David and Fidelia (Parker) Smith, 
 and comes of sterling ancestry. Both the Smiths 
 and Parkers bore "by no means an inconspicuous 
 part in the American Revolution. The first known 
 ancestor of Dr. Smith in this country was James 
 Smith, one of three brothers who came from Eng- 
 land to the Massachusetts Colony. He settled at 
 Taunton in 1636, with his wife, Johanna. 
 
 (II) Nathaniel Smith, son of James, was born 
 at Taunton, Where he and his wife. Experience, 
 passed their lives. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel Smith (2), son of Nathaniel, 
 
4 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1273 
 
 lorn in Taunton, moved to Hartford and was one 
 of the first settlers at Litchfield, where he died. His 
 wife was Anna Hoskins. 
 
 (IV) Jacob Smith, son of Nathaniel (2), lived 
 at Litchfield and died April 14, 1807, at the age of 
 sixtv-nine years. He was a lieutenant in the Revo- 
 lutionary army. His wife, Mary, daughter of Ger- 
 shom Lewis, of Cape Cod, died Dec. 30, 1833, aged 
 •eighty-one years. Upon his tom'bstone in Northfield 
 cemetery, Litchfield, is inscribed : 
 
 "Oh! Thou Great Arbiter of Life and Death! 
 Thy call I follow to the Land Unknown. 
 I trust in Thee and know in Whom I trust." 
 
 (V) David Smith, son of Jacob, was born on 
 the homestead farm in Litchfield and was a far- 
 mer all his life. He married Anna, daughter of 
 Benjamin and 'Mary (Spencer) Bartholomew, and 
 thev became the parents of ten children, namely : 
 Hiram, Charles, Truman, Mary, Benjamin, Sam- 
 uel, Edward, David, James and Anna. The last 
 named became the wife of Merritt Clark and lives in 
 St. Paul, Minnesota. 
 
 (VL) David Smith, son of David, was born 
 April 6, 1822, in Litchfield, where he grew up and 
 acquired the trade of stonemason. At the age of 
 thirty years, in 1852, he became a resident of Meri- 
 den, where he has since continued to make his 
 home, and where he has been active in building 
 operations as a contractor. His home is on West 
 Main street. An advocate of temperance, his life 
 has afforded a worthy example to all. Since the 
 advent of the Republican party in National politics 
 he has been among its adherents and religiously he 
 is identified with the First Congregational Church, 
 of Meriden. In 1848 Mr. Smith married Miss Fi- 
 delia Parker, a daughter of Daniel and 'Ruth (Hull) 
 Parker, of Meriden, the latter a daughter of Jesse 
 Hull, a Revolutionary soldier whose wife, Hannah, 
 was a daughter of Jehiel Preston, a sergeant in the 
 Revolutionary army. On Nov. 22, 1898, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Smlith celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of 
 their wedding, surrounded by their surviving, chil- 
 dren, and received the congratulations of many 
 friends. The youngest of their six children, Fran- 
 ces Eva, whose numerous paintings show much ar- 
 tistic ability, died Oct. 27, 1898. The others are : 
 Nettie, wife of Julius Augur, of Meriden; Frank 
 D., of that city; Edward W., one of the most suc- 
 cessful physicians of his native place ; and Ella Isa- 
 bel and Jennie S., leading members of Susan Car- 
 rington Clark Chapter, Daughters of the American 
 Revolution. 
 
 Daniel Parker, the maternal grandfather of Dr. 
 Smith, was- a son of a Revolutionary soldier, and 
 his mother's maternal grandfather also participated 
 in that war, as related in the foregoing. These hon- 
 orable and gallant gentlanen did their countrygood 
 service in its early days and the Doctor is justly 
 proud of his ancestry. , 1 ■ 1 
 
 Dr. Smith was reared in Meriden and obtained 
 
 his academic education in the public schools of that 
 city, the Hopkins Grammar School, in New Ha- 
 ven and Yale College, from which institution he 
 was graduated in 1878. During his college course 
 he took considerable interest in athletics and played 
 on the Yale University baseball team, taking part in 
 contests with Harvard, Princeton and others. Be- 
 ginning the study of medicine in the Medical De- 
 partment of Yale his course was interrupted after a 
 year of work by a year of teaching, and was re- 
 sumed in 1880 at Montreal, Canada, where he was 
 graduated from the McGill Medical School in 1882. 
 In that year he located at Meriden, where he has 
 since been engaged in the active and successful prac- 
 tice of his profession. lui 1892 he took a course in 
 the Post Graduate Medical College,_of New York. 
 Dr. Smith was married Oct. 14, 1885, to Helen 
 B., daughter of Oliver and Afclbie C. (Caldwell) 
 Rice, of Meriden, and to this union have been born 
 two children, Marion R. and David Parker. Dr. 
 Smith is a member oi the First Congregational 
 Church. He enjoys a prominent place as a citizen 
 as well as in his profession. He holds membership 
 in various Medical associations, belonging to the 
 State Medical Societv, the National Medical Society 
 and the American Academy of Medicine. He is 
 on the staff of the Meriden Hospital and is much 
 respected and esteemed wherever known. 
 
 JOSEPH GILLET NOYES, late secretary and 
 general manager of the National Electrical Manu- 
 facturing Co., of Milford, was bom Aug. '6, 1861, 
 in New York City, a son of Oliver H. P. and 
 Louisa (Boyd) Noyes. His family is of English 
 origin and at an earlv date his ancestors settled in 
 Maine but later generations moved southward, lo- 
 cating in Maryland. 
 
 Oliver H. P. Noyes, our subject's father, an 
 able and successful business man, was born in Bal- 
 timore and became one of the first tea merchants 
 there. He also engaged in the same business in 
 New York City for a number of vears, his trade be- 
 ing extensive for that day. Politically he was a 
 stanch Republican. His death occurred in 1888. 
 His wife, Louisa Boyd, was probably a native of 
 Baltimore. Joseph Gillet was the T,'oungest of a 
 family 'of four children, the others being: Louise 
 O., who died in May, 1899, unmarried; Miss Adele; 
 and Oliver H. P., manager of the tea department 
 of John D. Matherson, in Japan. 
 
 Joseph Gillet Noyes grew to manhood in his 
 native city, attending the public and private schools 
 and the college of the City of New York. On ac- 
 count of illness he left the latter institution before 
 graduation and on his recovery he entered the New 
 York office of the New Haven Clock Co., where 
 he remained nine years. His capabilities were rec- 
 ognized, promotion rewarding his efforts from time 
 to time,' and during the last four vears he held the 
 position of manager. He then started an electrical 
 department in connection with the clock company 
 
1274 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and) the business increased so rapidly tliat after 
 three years a new company was formed, called the 
 National Electrical Manufacturing Co. This was 
 organized in 1890, and in the following year the 
 business was removed to Milford, Mr. Noyes con- 
 tinuing the management without interruption until 
 his death. At present the company occupies a large 
 brick building and employs many skilled workmen. 
 Mr. Noyes took a loyal interest in the development 
 of the town where he made his home and was one 
 of the incorporators of the Milford Savings Bank. 
 On Jan. 10, 1883, Mr. Noyes married Miss Edith 
 Wetmore, daughter of Henry Wetmore, of New 
 York City, and three children brightened their 
 home: Joseph G., Jr. (now deceased), Edith I. 
 and Louisa W. In politics he was a Republican 
 and in religion a leading member of the Episcopal 
 Church, of Milford, with which his family also 
 unite. Mr. Noyes was at one time vestryman and 
 at the time of his death, which occurred in January, 
 1901, had served as junior warden for four years. 
 
 STURGIS G. GARDNER, a leading business 
 man of Ansonia and one of the solid and influential 
 citizens of the town, was born in New Haven April 
 15, 1859, a son of John Gardner, who was born in 
 Munich, Germany, and was a son of John Gardner, 
 who lived and died in Germany. 
 
 John Gardner, the father of Sturgis G., came to 
 Ansonia at the age of twelve years and learned the 
 clock maker's trade of the celebrated Jerome, of 
 New Haven, remaining in that famous establish- 
 ment until he was twenty-eight years of age. At 
 that time he came to Ansonia and in 1857 began 
 business in a small way. By close application he 
 built his business into large proportions, and at his 
 death in 1 89 1 it was in a most prosperous condition 
 and it is continually increasing. John Gardner was 
 a member of Bristol Lodge. He owned considerable 
 real estate and built several houses. He was one 
 of the representative and successful men of the day. 
 He was married to Mary Gregory and they had 
 seven children, five of whom are living : Sturgis 
 G. ; Louis F., with his brother, Sturgis ; Anna Lou- 
 ise, who married Emil Schultze ; Christine ; and 
 Gertrude. The mother died when fifty-three years 
 old. The parents were members of Christ Church, 
 of Ansonia, and the father was vestryman. He was 
 a Republican and took much interest in the public 
 affairs of the town and State. In his last years Mr. 
 Gardner was a judge of the District Court. 
 
 Sturgis G. Gardner spent his early years in 
 Ansonia and acquired his education in the public 
 schools and St. Paul's Academy. In 1878, when 
 less than twenty years old, he was taken into the 
 firm with his father and the very rapid progress 
 that the business has made in the last twenty years 
 may be in good part attributed to his push and go. 
 The firm is still active and aggressive, and their 
 goods reach every part of the world. They employ 
 about seventy hands and such is the demand upon 
 
 them' that for much of the time since 1899 they 
 have worked night and da". They are using im- 
 proved machinery and are thoroughly up-to-date in 
 every particular. The fine reputation of the father 
 for integrity and unswerving honesty has been their 
 principal capital in business and the firm by follow- 
 ing along the lines of honesty and candor which 
 the father followed have retained the respect and 
 confidence of the tradfe. 
 
 Mr. Gardner is a public-spirited citizen and 
 at the request of his friends and neighbors he ac- 
 cepted the nomination of the Republican convention 
 for the State Assembly, to which he was elected in 
 1898; he was a member of the committee on Appro- 
 priations and on Banks. He was a faithful and 
 conscientious legislator and made many friends 
 throughout the State. Mr. Gardner belongs to 
 George Washington Lodge, No. 82, F. & A. M., 
 Mt. Vernon Chapter, Union Council and New Ha- 
 ven Commandery. 
 
 Mr. Gardner was married in 1880 to Anna Wolf, 
 the daughter of John Wolf. She was born in 
 Broadbrook, Conn., where her father was engaged 
 in business as a woolen manufacturer. To this mar- 
 riage have come four children : Anita, Helen, Lou- 
 ise and John. 
 
 WARREN DOOLITTLE, an enterprising and 
 progressive young farmer of Cheshire, New Ha- 
 ven county, was born in that town March 12, 1871, 
 and belongs to a prominent early family of the 
 county, his parents being Amos and Mary (Reyn- 
 olds) Doolittle. The father was born in Cheshire 
 March 29, 1838, and was a son of Joel and Narcissa 
 (Ives) Doolittle, the former a native of Walling- 
 ford, New Haven county, and a son of Solomon 
 Doolittle. 
 
 Joel Doolittle was reared and married in his 
 native town, but at quite an early day came to Che- 
 shire and located on the farm where our subject now 
 resides. There he continued to make his home until 
 he was called from this life. His wife, who was 
 also born in Connecticut, of English ancestry, died 
 in Cheshire some years after her husband's death. 
 Their children were Amos, father of Warren ; and 
 Leverett, now a resident of New Haven. 
 
 Amos Doolittle attended the common schools of 
 Cheshire and on reaching man's estate was mar- 
 ried in his native town to Miss Mary Reynolds, 
 who was born in Ireland, and they had four chil- 
 dren : Elizur H., who lives on the old homestead; 
 Mary E. ; Warren; and Alice S., all at home. The 
 father was again married in Cheshire in 1880 to 
 Miss Mary J. Doolittle (a cousin), a native of Mad- 
 ison, Conn., who also resides on the home farm. 
 There Mr. Doolittle died May 5, 1882, honored and 
 respected by all who knew him. 
 
 During his boyhoodi and youth Warren Doo- 
 little pursued his studies in the schools of Cheshire, 
 and since completing his education has engaged in 
 farming, he and his brother successfully operating 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1275 
 
 the home place, which comprises 250 acres of valu- 
 able and productive land under a his:h state of cul- 
 tivation and well improved. As a business man he 
 is thrifty, reliable and energetic and commands the 
 confidence and respect of all with whom he comes 
 in contact. In political sentiment he is an ardent 
 Republican. 
 
 JAMES A. PERRY, senior member of the firm 
 of Perry & Perry, well-known grocers of Milford, 
 was born in Westport, Conn., Nov. i, 1855. a son 
 of Alfred and a grandson of Thaddeus Perry. The 
 family has been identified with this State from an 
 early day. 
 
 Thaddeus Perry was born in the town of Red- 
 ding, Fairfield county, and became a farmer there. 
 He married Mary Cable and had a large family of 
 children, as follows : Gershom was a stone mason 
 in Westport; Thaddeus is a blacksmith in South- 
 port; Ward was a farmer and married Esther Bulk- 
 ley ; Monson was a shoemaker in Westport ; Curtis 
 is mentioned more fully below ; Alfred, our sub- 
 ject's father, was the next in order of 'birth ; Charles 
 married Susan 'Howard'; Grace married Horace 
 Downs, a shoemaker in Westport; and Mary is the 
 widow of James Banks, who died in Savannah, 
 Georgia. 
 
 Alfred Perr)'-, father of our subject, was born 
 in 1824 in the town of Redding, Fairfield county, 
 and is now a resident of Bridgeport. In early man- 
 hood he went to Weston to learn the shoemaker's 
 trade, which he followed for many years. His 
 wife, Martha Holden, was born in Manchester, 
 England, the daughter of Robert Holden, who set- 
 tled in Weston, Conn., as a millwright. Our sub- 
 ject was the second child of a family of three chil- 
 dren, the others being Emma, who died aged twenty 
 years; and Louisa, who died at the age of three 
 years. 
 
 James A. Perry was reared in Wesport where 
 he attended school until he reached the age of sev- 
 enteen. He then went to Bridgeport and after 
 working two years in a tap and die factory he 
 learned the shoe cutter's trade, which he followed 
 twenty-one years there and in Milford. He lo- 
 cated in Milford in 1886 and in 1895 purchased a 
 grocery, but he conducted it only two years, as he 
 became associated with John A. Birge in the coal 
 business in Shelton, Conn. After two months 
 there he returned to Milford to take charge of the 
 branch business, which he carried on four months, 
 and in 1897 he and his cousin, Stephen O. Perry, en- 
 gaged in the grocery business under the firm name 
 of Perry & Perry. Mr. James A. Perrv married 
 Miss Mary A. Fletcher, of Bridgeport, a daughter 
 of Thomas Fletcher, of Birmins-ham, Ensrland. He 
 is a member of the Royal Arcanum, the Order of 
 United American Mechanics and the United Work- 
 men and politically both he and his partner are Re- 
 publicans. 
 
 Stephen O. Perry was born in Westport, 
 
 Conn., May 30, 1856, the son of Curtis Perry and 
 grandson of 'Thad'deus Perry, mentioned above. 
 Curtis Perry grew to manhood in Westport and 
 followed shoemaking and farming there and in Fair- 
 field. He died in Fairfield in 1888. His wife, Har- 
 riet Sherwood, who died in 1891, was a native of 
 Westport and a daughter of Moses Sherwood. Of 
 their six children, Ellen B. married Arthur Ben- 
 nett, of Fairfield ; Celestia C. married C. B. Dake, 
 of Norwalk, Conn. ; Curtis G. is a rubber cutter iu 
 Fairfield ; Sarah married William H. Fox, of 
 Bridgeport ; Stephen O. is mentioned below ; and 
 Arthur W. is a traveling salesman. 
 
 As a boy Mr. Stephen O. Perry attended the 
 schools of Westport and when seventeen years old 
 he went to Bridgeport to learn the trade of shoe cut- 
 ter. In 1878 he removed to Milford where he fol- 
 lowed his trade until 1896, making twenty years in 
 all, and he then engaged in the undertaking and 
 plumbing business with Noyes Bailey, under the 
 firm name of Bailey & Perry. Two vears. later he 
 turned his attention to the grocery business, in 
 partnership with Orlando N. Clark, under the firm 
 name of Perry & Clark, but after six months he 
 purchased his partner's interest, the business be- 
 ing continued by him under the name of S. O. 
 Perry for some time before he formed his present 
 partnership with his cousin. He is a member of 
 the Royal Arcanum and the Congregational 
 Church, and like all of the family has shown loyal 
 interest in public movements of a beneficial kind. 
 In 1881 he married Miss Sophia Cornwall, a native 
 of Milford, and daughter of Josiah Cornwall, a 
 well-known citizen. Thev have had three children : 
 Dorothy, Arthur and Carleton. 
 
 DAVID H. CARTER is an influential business 
 man of Derby, whose fellow citizens respect him 
 alike for his native ability and his moral worth. His 
 grandfather Carter removed to Connecticut from 
 Berkshire county, Mass. 
 
 Joel Carter, father of David H., settled in the 
 town of Redding, Fairfield county, in early man- 
 hood and died there highly respected in 1889. He 
 was a native of Massachusetts and a farmer by oc- 
 cupation. Active in political affairs he affiliated 
 with the Republican party and represented his town 
 in the legislature. Joel Carter married Sarah A. 
 Miller, of Pound Ridge, Conn., a daughter of Ep- 
 enetus Miller, who was born there and passed his 
 life in farming. Her mother's name was Water- 
 bury and more than one of her maternal ancestors 
 did gallant service in the struggle for American 
 independence. 
 
 David H. Carter was born in 1841 upon the 
 farm in Redding where his parents passed their 
 days. He was the youngest of a family of four 
 children, his three sisters being named Catherine, 
 Ad'ele and Minnie. Catherine married Luzon' Hub- 
 bell, of Stepney, Fairfield county ; Adele became the 
 wife of William E. Crofut, of Stepney; and Minnie 
 
12/6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 is now ]Mrs. John Carson, of that town. David H. 
 Carter, himself, improved to the utmost the rather 
 Lmited educational advantages which the times and 
 the locality afforded; and after quitting school, at 
 the age of fifteen, he passed two years in alternately 
 working upon the farm and teaching young minds 
 to germinate in the district school. He remained 
 in the town of his birth until he was twenty-eight 
 years old, when going to Derby, he entered the em.- 
 ploy of the Derby Lumber Company. For nearly a 
 quarter of a century he was with that concern, de- 
 voting to its service the physical strength of early 
 manhood and the mature judgment of middle life. 
 Leaving the Derby Company he worked for a time 
 for a lumber firm in New Haven and in March, 
 1896, engaged in business on his own account, in 
 co-partnership with Mr. H. M. Hubbell, under the 
 firm name of Carter & LIubbell and they have ever 
 since successfully continued a prosperous and con- 
 stantly increasing trade. They deal in finished 
 products, such as doors, windows, blinds, mantels 
 and mouldings, as well as in raw material. To 
 ascribe the success of the enterprise wholl)' to the 
 knowledge and efforts of Mr. Carter would be to 
 accord to him an undue meed of praise. Yet the 
 fact remains that to the management of the business 
 he brought a mind of no ordinary caliber, well cul- 
 tivated, and a judgment ripened by the experience 
 of nearly thirty years. 
 
 Mr. Carter is a man of broad and generous pub- 
 lic spirit and takes especial interest in the cause of 
 popular education, having been for many years 
 chairman of the school board of Derby. He is a 
 member of King Hiram Lodge, No. 12, of Derbv, 
 having been first initiated into the Masonic order at 
 Bethel. He was married, when he reached the age 
 of about thirty years, to Miss Julia E., a daughter of 
 Burr Edwards, of Bethel, Fairfield county. Three 
 children have been born of this marriage : Harriet 
 E., Adelaide and Ruby J. The eldest daughter, 
 Harriet, married Mr. Hubbell, her father's business 
 partner. The others are both dead; Adelaide dying 
 when but four years old and Ruby passing away 
 when a girl of fourteen. 
 
 JAMES E. NICHOLS, a worthy representative 
 of the agricultural interests of West Cheshire, New 
 Haven county, is a native of this State, born in the 
 town of Plymouth, Litchfield county, June 20, 1850, 
 but belongs to a family originally from this countv, 
 his grandfather, James Nichols, having been a far- 
 mer of Waterbury. 
 
 Henry Nichols, our subject's father, was born 
 and reared on his father's farm in Waterbury, and 
 when a young man removed to Plymouth, where 
 he also followed farming in early life, but later filled 
 the position of sexton of the Episcopal Church, with 
 which he was connected. He was a Democrat in 
 politics and was highly respected and esteemed by 
 all who knew him. He died in Plymouth March 6, 
 1888, and was buried in the cemetery there. For 
 
 his first wife he married Levia Blakeslee, of North- 
 field, and to them were born two children : Ora 
 Ann, wife of Addison Bunnell, of Plymouth; and 
 Levia, wife of James T. Clark, of Fair Haven, 
 Conn. His second wife was in her maidenhood 
 Julia Maria Judd, a native of Northfield, and a 
 daughter of Elisha Judd, and the only child born of 
 this union was James E., our subject. The mother 
 is still living and makes her home with her son in 
 West Cheshire. 
 
 James E. Nichols received only a district school 
 education. He remained at home with his parents, 
 in Plymouth, until eighteen years of age and then 
 went to New Britain, where he was employed until 
 coming to Cheshire in 1886. For six years he en- 
 gaged in teaming for H. J. Moss and since then has 
 followed farming and market gardening in West 
 Cheshire, where he purchased the Orin Fields farm 
 of forty acres. He is now meeting with well-de- 
 served success in his labors and is recognized as a 
 valued and useful citizen of the community. He 
 was married in New York City to Miss Elizabeth 
 Dinwoody, a native of England, who has proved 
 a faithful helpmeet to him. They have no children 
 of their own, but have reared Mrs. Nichols' nephew, 
 Eric D. Finlayson, who is now a student at the 
 Episcopal Academy. Both are members of the Epis- 
 copal Church, in which Mr. Nichols is now serv- 
 ing as vestryman and he also belongs to L. A. 
 Thomas Lodge, No. 9, L O. O. F., of Cheshire, in 
 which he has passed the chairs. He is rather inde- 
 pendent in politics, but usually suoports the men 
 and measures of the Republican party and is ready 
 to aid every movement for the public good. 
 
 HON. S. HART CULVER, insurance agent, 
 town clerk and representative from Seymour in the 
 General Assembly of the State, is one of the self- 
 made men of his town, where he has figured in 
 public life from boyhood. 
 
 Born Feb. 3, 1851, in Seymour, Mr. Culver is 
 a son of the late Stephen Hopkins Culver, grand- 
 son of Stephen Culver, and great-grandson of 
 Amos Culver, and is of an historic and distinguished 
 ancestry, descending in one and likely two lines 
 from the Pilgrims of the "Mayflower," 1620. 
 
 Amos Culver, the great-grandfather of S. Hart, 
 was a patriot of the Revolution, serving in Capt. 
 Gallup's Company. In 1770 he married Sarah Hop- 
 kins, who was born Oct. i, 1750. Their son, Stephen 
 Culver, born in 1773, married, Nov. 7, T793, Anna 
 Francis, and their son, Stephen Hopkins Culver, 
 born Dec. 20, 1810, was married March 7, 1847, to 
 Sarah J. Adve. They were the parents of S. Hart 
 Culver, of this sketch. These Culvers figured in 
 Waterbury and towns formed from it in the Nauga- 
 tuck valley. Stephen Hopkins Culver was a farmer 
 of Seymour, one of the town's substantial men and 
 useful citizens, serving his fellow townsmen as 
 selectman in 1866 and 1867, and commanded the 
 esteem and respect of the community in which he 
 
^. /T4s2.^v^yl.^:^,^..i.<^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1277 
 
 lived. He and his wife were members of the M. 
 E. Church. His death occurred Oct. 7, 1889, and 
 she passed away March 7, 1862. 
 
 Through his great-grandmother, Sarah (Hop- 
 kins) Culver, S. Hart Culver is a descendant in the 
 ninth generation from John Hopkins, of Cambridge, 
 Mass., 1634 (or earlier), and an original proprietor 
 of Hartford, 1639 (there in 1636). The Christian 
 name of his wife was Jane. This John Hopkins, 
 of Hartford, was possibly a son of Stephen Hop- 
 kins, of the "Mayflower." Says Anne Arnoux 
 Haxtum, in her "Signers of the Mayflower Com- 
 pact" (1896), "No signer of Mayflower Compact, 
 1620, opens more historical possibilities in his story 
 than Mr. Stephen Hopkins. To secure what I have 
 so eagerly sought for 1 will write of him in many 
 aspects, bringing all possible circumstantial evi- 
 dence to bear upon a kinship I so earnestly desire 
 and hope to prove — that he was the father of John 
 Hopkins, of Hartford, Conn." From this John 
 Hopkins, of Hartford, S. Hart Culver's lineage is 
 through Stephen, John (2), Stephen (2;, John (3), 
 Sarah Hopkins and Amos Culver, Stephen Culver 
 and Stephen Hopkins Culver. 
 
 (H) Stephen Hopkins, son of John, of Hart- 
 ford, born about 1634, married Dorcas Bronson. He 
 died in 1689, and she passed away in 1697. 
 
 (HI) John Hopkins (2), son of Stephen, mar- 
 ried, in 1683, and settled in Waterbury. He died 
 in 1732, and his wife, Hannah, passed away in 1730. 
 
 (IV) Stephen Hopkins (2), son of John (2), 
 born in 1689, married in 171 7 Susan Peck, and 
 lived in Waterbury. He died in 1769, and she 
 passed away in 1755. 
 
 (V) John Hopkins (3), son of Stephen (2), 
 born in 1 718- 19, married in 1749 Sarah, born in 
 1729, daughter of Benajah Johnson and his wife 
 Sarah, who was formerly Mrs. (Brewster) Haw- 
 kins, a granddaughter of Rev. isTathaniel Brews- 
 ter, of Long Island, a great-granddaughter of Jona- 
 than Brewster, and great-great-granddaughter of 
 William Brewster, of the "Mayflower," 1620. 
 
 Several branches of this Hopkins family became 
 distinguished in the professions in which they en- 
 gaged. Confining ourselves to those of the locality 
 of Waterbury and vicinity, descendants of Stephen 
 (2), and where the name is one of the most honor- 
 able, we mention such men as Samuel Miles Hop- 
 kins, LL. D., Samuel Miles, Jr., D. D., and Dr. 
 Lemuel Hopkins, the latter one of the most dis- 
 tinguished physicians in the State. 
 
 (VI) Sarah Hopkins, daughter of John (3), 
 married Amos Culver. 
 
 (VII) Stephen Culver, son of Amos, married 
 Anna Francis. 
 
 (VIII) Stephen Hopkins Culver, son of 
 Stephen, married Sarah J. Adye. 
 
 The Johnson Family, too, was an early as well 
 as a prominent Connecticut family of the Colonial 
 period. Benajah Johnson, who married Sarah 
 (Brewster) Hawkins, referred to in the foregoing. 
 
 was born in New Haven July 24, 1704, son of 
 Jeremiah Johnson (2) and his wife Elizabeth (eld- 
 est daughter of Col. Ebenezer Johnson), and -grand- 
 son of Jeremiah Johnson, of New Haven, who is 
 likely the Jeremiah Johnson given by Savage as of 
 New Haven, 1662. Jeremiah Johnson received a 
 grant of land on Sentinel Hill, in Derby, Conn., 
 March 2, 1672. He married Sarah Hotchkiss, and. 
 their son Jeremiah (2), born April 25, 1664, mar- 
 ried as above stated; and Benajah Johnson, son of 
 Jeremiah (2), settled in what is now Beacon Falls, 
 and died April 13, 1763; his wife, Mrs. Sarah 
 Brewster (Hawkins) Johnson, passed away Alay 7, 
 
 1773- 
 
 S. Hart Culver received a common-school educa- 
 tion in his native town, and at sixteen years of age, 
 in 1867, began his btisiness education in the drug 
 store of the late S. H. Canfield, who was also the 
 village postmaster, and continued with that gentle- 
 man for thirty years — until Mr. Canfield's death, 
 in 1898. Much of this time Mr. Canfield's store 
 was not only the post office, but the telegraph office 
 as well, so from his very boyhood Mr. Culver has 
 been, as it were, a public servant. For a decade 
 before Mr. Canfield's death, owing to his feeble 
 health, the duties and responsibilities of the office 
 and business devolved upon Mr. Culver, and so 
 well did he dispatch them, and so entirely had he 
 gained the confidence of his fellow townsmen, that 
 he was honored by election in 1890 as town clerk, 
 to which position he was thereafter re-elected an- 
 nually until a change was made to a two-years 
 term, and since then he has been chosen every sec- 
 ond year until the present time, his term not expir- 
 ing until Jan. 4, 1904. A Repubhcan by birth, his 
 father before him being of that political faith, Mr. 
 Culver has taken a deep interest in his party's wel- 
 fare, and from his fitness for legislative duties he 
 was nominated for the town's representative in the 
 General Assembly of the State in 1900. His nom- 
 ination was endorsed in the election that followed 
 by a majority of 346, he receiving 564 votes against 
 his competitor's 218. He was present at every ses- 
 sion during his term, and served as a member of 
 the committee on Insurance, a subject that long 
 years of experience has made him master of. Mr. 
 Culver was also chosen as county auditor for a 
 term of two years. 
 
 Since 1881 Mr. Culver has been engaged con- 
 tinuously in the insurance business, which he has 
 carried on for years in connection with his other 
 duties in the store of Mr. Canfield, and on the death 
 of the latter established himself more extensively 
 therein in an office of his own. He represents the 
 Continental Insurance Co. of New York ; the New 
 York, Greenwich, Hanover and United States, all 
 of New York; the Boston, of Boston; the Phcenix, 
 of London ; the ?\Ianchester, of Manchester, Eng- 
 land, and the Middlesex, of Middletown, Conn. 
 He now carries more than one-half of the insur- 
 ance on dwellings in Seymour in the last named 
 
1278 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 company. He also represents the Fidelity & Casualty, 
 a plate-glass and burglary company. Mr. Culver is 
 a charter member of Castle Rock Lodge, No. 6, A. 
 O. U. W., of Se}'mour, and he and his wife and 
 family are attendants of the Congregational Church, 
 to the support of which he is a contributor. 
 
 On Aug. 10, 1873, Ml"- Culver was married to 
 Helen A. Downs, born April 25, 1853, in Bethlehem, 
 Conn., a daughter of Albert Z. and Sarah Pritchard 
 Downs, and to them has come one daughter, Helena 
 A., who is now the wife of O. M. Williams, of 
 Seymour; they have one son, Stephen Culver 
 Williams. 
 
 WILLIAM' HASSETT was 'born March 15, 
 1850, in County Tipperary, Ireland, and is a son 
 of Thomas Hassett, who was born in the same com- 
 munity, where he died in 1852 when he was about 
 thirty-five years of age. He was a farmer by oc- 
 cupation. Hannah Cummings, his wife, died in 
 New Haven, Conn., and was the mother of the fol- 
 lowing children : ( I ) Bridget died at the age of 
 thirty-five years at Jersey City, N. J. (2) John died 
 in the same city at the age of forty-five years. (3) 
 Patrick, a blacksmith by trade, is still living in 
 Jersey City. (4) William. (5) Thomas is in the 
 grocery business at Wallingford. John Hassett, the 
 grandfather of William, was a farmer in Ireland 
 and did a large contracting business. 
 
 William Hassett was bom in Ireland, where he 
 received his somewhat limited schooling. When 
 thirteen years old he came with his mother to this 
 country and settled in Jersey City, where for a num- 
 ber of years he was engaged in various capacities, 
 clerking in a grocery store, and in 1870 be became 
 associated with the Judd Manufacturing Co., and 
 for fifteen years was in the iron finishing room of 
 their factory at New Haven. When their plant was 
 removed to Wallingford he came with them to do 
 contracting work in the brass department. In 1888 
 he was made assistant superintendent of the factory, 
 and in 1894 he became superintendent of the factory, 
 having charge of an industrial army of 550 men. A 
 few years ago Mr. Hassett bought out the coal busi- 
 ness of the late John Kendrick, which he has since 
 conducted, building up the largest business in this 
 line in the town. His yards have a capacity of 2,000 
 tons and are taxed to their utmost. Mr. Hassett 
 has never hesitated to meet the responsibilities of 
 citizenship, and his services on the School Dis- 
 trict committee have been conspicuously valuable. 
 A stanch Democrat, for the third time he has been 
 elected by a large and flattering vote to the Court of 
 Burgesses. He has also served on the board of 
 relief. 
 
 Mr. Hassett is a member of the Court Winde- 
 mere, Foresters of America, and his name is on 
 the rolls of the Knights of Columbus and the Hepta- 
 sophs, where he is an active worker. Mr. Hassett 
 and his famil}^ are members of the Holy Trinity 
 Church, of Wallingford. 
 
 Mr. Hassett was married May 18, 1880, to Miss 
 Helen M. Hoey, one of the brightest young women 
 of Wallingford, and a daughter of Lawrence Hoey. 
 This union has been blessed with the birth of the 
 following children : Thomas, Esther, Mary, Robert, 
 Ellen, Ethel, George, Florence, Ruth, William H. 
 and Charles. In 1889 Mr. Hassett built one of the 
 most charming homes on South Whittlesey ave- 
 nue, in Wallingford. 
 
 GEORGE THOMISON, who is now success- 
 fully engaged in the dry goods and notion business 
 at No. 49 Sixth street, Derby, was born in Shelton, 
 Conn., Sept. 19, 1863, and is of Scotch descent, his 
 paternal grandfather being a lifelong resident of 
 Scotland. The father, John Thomson, is a native 
 of Galashiels, Scotland, and in that country he fol- 
 lowed the trade of a woolen spinner. When a young 
 man he came to America and located in Shelton. 
 Conn. He followed his trade in Derby for some 
 years, but is now living retired at that place, en- 
 joying a well-earned rest. He married Miss Eliza- 
 beth Watson, who was born in Glasgow, Scotland, 
 and was reared in that country. She died in 1897. 
 Of the nine children born to this worthy couple our 
 subject is the eldest. Thomas is engaged in farm- 
 ing in the town of Derby ; John is a machinist liv- 
 ing in the West ; William is a die sinker in Platts- 
 ville. Conn. ; James is a mechanic of Bridgeport, 
 Conn. ; Albert is a piano tuner of Derby ; Annie is 
 the wife of Thomas Morgan, of Waterbury; and 
 Jessie and Grace are at home with their father. 
 
 In early childhood George Thomson removed 
 with his parents to Mount Holly, N. J., where he 
 was reared and educated, but at the age of sixteen 
 years he returned to Bridgeport, Conn., where he 
 worked for the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing 
 Co. for two years. At the end of that time he came 
 to Derby and entered the employ of the Star Pin 
 Company, with which he remained for about four 
 years. Having learned the molder's trade he 
 worked in the Birmingham Iron Foundry for about 
 eight years and also in other foundries, including 
 one at Ansonia for three years. 
 
 Mr. Thomson married Miss Bell Ruthford, a 
 native of Ireland, and a daughter of Frederick 
 Ruthford, who is a shoemaker by trade and now re- 
 sides in Derby, Conn. Our subject and his wife 
 have one child, Leslie. In 1893 Mr. Thomson 
 started his present store, and while away his wife 
 attends to the business. With her assistance he has 
 steadily prospered and is now the owner of two 
 large brick store buildings and has built up an ex- 
 cellent trade. They are highly respected and es- 
 teemed by all who know them. 
 
 EDWARD I. ATWATER, one of the leading 
 young business men of New Haven, is a son of 
 William J. Atwater, for many years identified with 
 the real estate interests of this city and a man well- 
 known throughout the vicinity. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1279 
 
 Edward I. Atwater was born April 27, 1864, 
 and spent his boyhood days in New Hiaven, his na- 
 tive place, attending school, both public and private. 
 Among which institutions was the well-known Jo- 
 seph Giles School, where he remained two years, and 
 the Yale Business College. After completing his 
 business course Mr. Atwater entered the employ 
 of McAllister & Warren, insurance and loans, re- 
 maining with this firm for four years, when he 
 joined his father, at a time when the latter was en- 
 gaged in contracting for the construction of sewers 
 and cellars, and gave employment to many men. 
 Edward Atwater took charge of this branch of the 
 business and rendered very effective service. Three 
 years later the wholesale and retail paper, twine and 
 stationery business was established under the firm 
 name of. W. J. Atwater & Co., of which Edward I. 
 became manager, and he remained in that capacity 
 for -twelve years. Believing the time to be propiti- 
 •ous for the real-estate business, Mr. Atwater entered 
 that field in 1901, and expects to meet with well- 
 merited success, his knowledge of this line being 
 •extensive and comprehensive. In 1901 W. J. At- 
 water & Co. discontinued the paper business and 
 ■engaged in the building material and mason supply 
 business, in the location occupied for more than 
 thirty years by H. S. Clark & Co. 
 
 On Sept. 19, 1888, Mr. Atwater was married to 
 Miss Lila Mather Brooks, of Cheshire, Conn., a 
 •daughter of Samuel H. and Mary (Mather) 
 Brooks, of Cheshire, Conn., and Troy, N. Y., re- 
 :spectively. The father of Samuel H. Brooks was 
 David Brooks, and the Mathers trace back directly 
 to the celebrated Cotton Mather family. Two chil- 
 dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Atwater, Mar- 
 garet Brooks and William Irving. Politically Mr. 
 Atwater is a strong Republican, and has been hon- 
 ored by his fellow townsmen with various offices of 
 prominence, he having served for a year in the coun- 
 cil and for two years on the board of aldermen. So- 
 cially Mr. Atwater is a member of the A. O. U. W., 
 and of the Red Men; he is also a member of the 
 Union League ; the Young Men's Republican Club ; 
 and president (elected March, 1901, re-elected in 
 March, 1902) of the Business Men's Association, 
 ■of which he has been director for eight years; he 
 has also served five years as a member of the Gov- 
 ernor's Foot Guards, 2d Co. In religious matters 
 "both Mr. and Mrs. Atwater are members of the Con- 
 .gregational Church and earnest workers in that or- 
 ganization. Genial in manner, possessed in marked 
 ■degree of the qualities requisite to success in both 
 iDUsiness and social life, Mr. Atwater stands high in 
 the community and numbers his friends by legions. 
 
 JENS NIELSON, who has charge of the ex- 
 tensive business of Hotchkiss & Sons, at Ansonia, 
 was born in Denmark Feb. 16, 1852, a son of 
 TSIielse Nielson. 
 
 His father was a native of Denmark, and, a 
 farmer, passed his life in that country. In religious 
 
 faith he was a Lutheran. He died in early manhood, 
 and his wife, Maren Olsen, also a native of Den- 
 mark, died aged sixty-eight years. She was a 
 daughter of Ole Neilson, who was born in the town 
 of Jegindo, Denmark, and was engaged in farming 
 there throughout his life. Hie died at the age of 
 ninety-nine years, after seventy-five years of mar- 
 ried life. His wife, Anna, reached the advanced 
 age of one hundred years, and after she attained the 
 age of eighty sometimes walked four miles at a 
 time. Of their nine children three are living: 
 Christian Olsen, Anna Marie and Marianna, all 
 residents of Denmark. Our subject was the 
 younger of two children, and his elder brother, 
 Ole, is now a farmer in Oxford, Connecticut. 
 
 Jens Nielson remained in his native land until 
 he reached the age of eighteen, receiving a com- 
 mon-school education, and on coming to this coun- 
 try he located upon a farm in Oxford. During the 
 years spent there he learned butchering and has 
 since been in the employ of Hotchkiss & Sons, 
 making twenty-three years in all with that firm. 
 For fifteen years he has acted as manager for the 
 Ansonia branch of their business, doing all the buy- 
 ing and selling for their enormous establishment, 
 where the output is sometimes 50,000 barrels per 
 week. He is now the oldest man in active business 
 in the town and has always been one of the most 
 progressive. He has built two handsome houses on 
 Cliff street, the finest residence street of the city, 
 and in addition to the duties of his position with 
 the firm mentioned he has always had some retail 
 business. At one time he engaged in the candy 
 business and for a time he carried on markets in 
 Seymour and Naugatuck. At present he conducts a 
 retail meat market in Ansonia known as the West 
 Side Market, which is exceptionally well-arranged, 
 and he employs three clerks and two wagons in con- 
 nection with the business. 
 
 In 1877 Mr. Nielson married Miss Sophia Iver- 
 son, a native of Denmark. He attends the Episco- 
 pal Church, and is identified with Morning Star 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., of Seymour, and the Danish 
 Brotherhood at Ansonia. Politically he is a Repub- 
 lican, and in 1899 he was elected to the common 
 council, to serve until 1901. 
 
 WESLEY BENNETT ALLEN, a bright and 
 hustling young business man of New Haven, was 
 born in North Haven Dec. 24, 1868, and is a son 
 of Delof Allen, who was born in Waterbury, Conn., 
 Dec. 10, 1820, and died Jan. 7, 1889. 
 
 Delos Allen was descended from one of the old- 
 est Allen families on record, and one of his 
 forefathers was among the earliest slaveholders in 
 the South. Delos Allen livedi in various places in 
 Connecticut and followed an agricultural career. 
 Esther Bennett, his wife, was born Jan. 11, 1831, 
 and died Jan. 10, 1878. To their union were born 
 five children: Frank E., Martha L., Merritt L., 
 Weslev Bennett and Burton E. Merritt is an in- 
 
i28o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 spector in the Winchester Repeating Arms Com- 
 pany, and Frank and Burton are employes of Wes- 
 ley B. 
 
 Wesley B. Allen was born in North Haven, but 
 was reared to manhood in New Haven, where he 
 attended the local schools. When he became old 
 enough he was received as an employe into the 
 factory of the Winchester Repeating Arms Com- 
 pany, where at first he worked in the summer and 
 still attended school during the winter season. His 
 entire business life has been spent with this com- 
 pany, and he has worked himself up step by step un- 
 til now he is a contractor in the box department. 
 The details of the business are thoroughly under- 
 stood by him, and as an all-round mechanic his 
 reputation is very 'high. 
 
 On April lo, 1900, Mr. Allen was married to 
 Alargaret H. Jaenicke, the eighteen-year-old daugh- 
 ter of Franz Jaenicke. One child, Russell, born 
 May 23, 1901, has blessed this union. 
 
 Mr. Allen is a Republican, and belongs to Har- 
 mony Lodge, No. 5, I. O. O. F. ; he is also a mem- 
 ber of the Equitable Life Assurance of the United 
 States, the Golden Rule Encampment and the New 
 England Order of Protection. He attends the First 
 Methodist Church. Personally he is a man of fine 
 character, and has a host of friends in the commu- 
 nity who wish him all prosperity. 
 
 JOEL RICE HOUGH. The Hough family of 
 Wallingford is one of the oldest and most re- 
 spected families of New England, the first of that 
 name in Wallingford being Samuel Hough, who 
 was a native of New London, Conn. By trade he 
 was a millwright. He was a son of William Hough, 
 and a grandson of Edward Hough, whose home 
 was in Cheshire, England. 
 
 William Hough settled in New London, and 
 from there came Samuel, intending to build a mill 
 and then return, but the beauty of the surround- 
 ings and the fertility of the land caused him to re- 
 main, and in Wallingford his life ended, March 14, 
 1714. The first marriage of Samuel Hough was 
 to a native of his own locality; she died in 1684, 
 and on Aug. 18, 1685, he married Mary Bates, a 
 daughter of John Bates, of Haddam. Three chil- 
 dren were born of each marriage. 
 
 William Hough, the eldest son of Samuel, was 
 born in 1680, and was a farmer of Wallingford, 
 where he spent his entire life. The children of his 
 two marriages were : Mary, Samuel, William and 
 Mehitable (twins), Deborah, Ann, Joseph, Abia, 
 Nathaniel and Simeon. Of this family, Joseph 
 Hough was born in 1719, and lived out his ninety- 
 two years in the town of Wallingford. On Jan. 27, 
 1745, he married Catherine Yale, a daughter of 
 Capt. Theophilus and Sarah (Street) Yale, and who 
 died Oct. 5, 1767. The children of this mar- 
 riage were: Joseph, born in 1745; Mary, in 1746; 
 Lois, in 1747; Lent, in 1751 ; Lo's, in 1752; David, 
 m 1754; Joel, in 1757; James, in 1762 ; Catherine, 
 
 who married Edmund Smith ; and Sarah, who mar- 
 ried and settled in Homer, New York. 
 
 James Hough, the grandfather of Joel Hough,, 
 of this sketch, was an extensive farmer and owned 
 much land in North Farms, in Wallingford. He 
 was a man who had the respect of the whole com- 
 munity. His family of children consisted of twO' 
 sons and three daughters : James, who married 
 Alary Rice, a daughter of Nehemiah Rice; Joel,. 
 who became the father of Joel R. and of Miss 
 Alice L. Hough, of North Farms ; Mary, who al- 
 ways lived at the old homestead, and died in 1880, 
 aged eig'hty-two ; Lucy, who married Hezekiah Root,, 
 of Meriden, and died leaving no children ; Emeline,. 
 who married William Bunce, a tailor and farmer of 
 Kensington, by whom she had four sons, William 
 (deceased), George (a farmer in Berlin, married 
 and has four sons), James (a successful dry-goods 
 merchant in Middletown, has two sons and two 
 daughters, of whom the eldest daughter married 
 and moved West, and the younger wedded a captain 
 in the regular army, who served with his regiment 
 in Cuba in the Spanish-American war) and Leander 
 (who remained on the old farm until his retirement 
 a few years ago and he now lives in New Britain). 
 Joel Plough received but a common-school edu- 
 cation, and grew up an honest, capable and pro- 
 gressive farmer, following that occupation through 
 life. After buying the homestead he made many im- 
 provements and introduced into the neighborhood 
 much fine stock, becoming one of the most suc- 
 cessful and reliable raisers of stock in the coun- 
 ty. As an upright and honorable man, he is remem- 
 bered through Wallingford, where his influence was- 
 felt in the direction of temperance and morality. An 
 3ld-line Whig, he naturally embraced the principles 
 of the Republican party. His death occurred on his 
 farm, in Wallingford, Oct. i, 1886. Joel Hough 
 was married, in Meriden, to Mary Rice, who was. 
 born March 9, 1809, daughter of Silas and Re- 
 becca (Hubbard) Rice, who died May 21, 1875, be- 
 loved and mourned not only by her immediate fam- 
 ily, but by a large circle of friends. Through life 
 she displayed the traits of a beautiful Christian char- 
 acter, and was a consistent member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church. The children born of this marriage 
 were: Lucy, who died at the age of eighteen ,- 
 Cornelia, the widow of Edward C. Hall, of Meri- 
 den; Joel Rice; Susan E., who resides at Berlin; 
 Albert P., who farms the old homestead ; James, a 
 resident of New H,aven, employed in the Winches- 
 ter Arms Co. ; Alice L. ; and Rose, at home. 
 
 Joel Rice Hough grew up on the old homestead 
 in North Farms, and attended the district school, 
 remaining at home until the breaking out of the 
 Civil war, when he determined to become a soldier 
 m defense of his country. On Aug. 6, 1862, he en- 
 listed in Co. K, 15th Conn. V. L, undler Col. Wright 
 and Capt. Stiles, of New Haven, and participated in 
 the^battles of Fredericksburg and Suffolk, Va. Al- 
 though suffering from chills and fever, Mr Hough 
 
%h 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 128* 
 
 remained in the service until in July, 1863, when he 
 received his honorable discharge at Newbern, N. C, 
 after which he returned home and resumed farm- 
 ing on the old homestead for the following two 
 years. 
 
 In 1866, Mr. Hough bought a tract of land in 
 North Farms, consisting of forty acres, locally 
 known as the Lowery farm, and since that time he 
 has added thirty acres, and is now operating seventy 
 acres of as fine land as can be found in the State 
 of Connecticut. Mr. Hough coriducts a successful 
 dairy and is one of the largest stockraisers in the lo- 
 cality. Much hard work, energy and good manage- 
 ment have been required to bring this estate to its 
 present valuable condition, and all the credit is due 
 Mr. Hough, who is conceded to be, not only one of 
 the most worthy citizens of Wallingford, but also 
 one of the best farmers. 
 
 In 1868, in Berlin, Conn., Joel R. Hough was 
 married to Mary, a daughter of Edward Edwards. 
 No children were born to this union, and she died 
 in 1874, and was buried in Wallingford cemetery. 
 On May 30, 1877, he married Lucy Bassett, a native 
 of Litchfield, and to this union one child was born. 
 Flora E., a graduate of the Meriden high school. 
 Both Mrs. Hough and her daughter are ladies of 
 culture and high attainments, and are leaders in the 
 social life of Wallingford. 
 
 In public lifei Mr. Hough has taken much in- 
 terest, and he has been identified with much of the 
 progress of this locality. As an ardent Republican, 
 he was selected by the party as their standard bearer 
 in the State Legislature, in 1895, where he most ef- 
 ficiently served on the committee on Agriculture. On 
 the board of Relief he has done much for his local- 
 ity, and since 1894 he has served on the board of 
 Assessors. Socially, Mr. Hough is a member of 
 Arthur Button Post, No. 36, G. A. R., of Walling- 
 ford ; is a member of Wallingford Grange, of which 
 he was Master for two years. He is financially in- 
 terested in the Wallingford Creamery, and is vice- 
 president of the WalHngford Agricultural society. 
 The religious connection of the family is with the 
 Congregational Church, where he is a generous and 
 cheerful giver, to all benevolent and charitable en- 
 terprises. 
 
 Albert Pierson Hough, a brother of Joel Rice 
 Hough, was born on the old homestead May 6, 1846. 
 Since his father's death, he has operated the fann 
 of 125 acres, very successfully. With him reside 
 his sisters, ladies who are of the highest intelligence 
 and social position. Although no office-seeker, Al- 
 bert P. Hough has always supported the Republican 
 party. For many years he has been connected with 
 the Congregational Church, and is a man who en- 
 joys the esteem of the community. 
 
 Miss Alice L. Hough, the talented principal of 
 the Yalesville High school, was born in the old 
 home in North Farms. Her early education was 
 pursued in the district schools in Wallingford, 
 which was supplemented by private instruction, and 
 
 8 1 
 
 in 1873, she graduated from the Normal school, at 
 New Britain. For the past twenty-five years, she 
 has been one of the most successful educators of the 
 county, and for a number of years has held the im- 
 portant position of Principal of the Yalesville High 
 school, which is one requiring extensive learning as- 
 well as capacity for government, both of these at- 
 tributes being possessed by Miss Hough, in the 
 highest degree. Not only does she command the 
 respect of her pupils, but also is dearly beloved by 
 them. 
 
 Rice. The Rice family, to which Mrs. Joel 
 Hough belonged, is one of the oldest in Connecticut. 
 The original spelling of the name was Royce, aind 
 the founder of the family in America was Robert 
 Royce, who came from England, and was in Staf- 
 ford in 1644. In 1671 Isaac and Nehemiah Royce 
 settled in Wallingford, and later Nathaniel, Samuel^ 
 Joseph and Robert Royce, all supposed to be sons- 
 of the (I) Robert, settled there. 
 
 (II) Deacon Samuel Royce settled in Walling- 
 ford in 1672. He married Sarah Baldwin, and for 
 his second wife, he married, Dec. 12, 1695, Hannah 
 Benedict, who died Jan. 12, 1761. He died May 
 14, 1757, in Meriden. His children were: Abigail,, 
 born Nov. 24, 1677, married Joseph Cole; Prudence 
 was born July 26, 1680; Deborah, born Sept. 8, 
 1683, married Thomas Mix; Isaac was born March 
 ID, 1688; Ebenezer was born Sept. 25, 1690; Na- 
 thaniel was born Oct. 21, 1692; John was born 
 April 25, 1694; Mary was born Feb. 17, 1695; 
 Jacob, born April ii', 1697, married Thankful, a 
 daughter of Moses Beach; Hannah, born Feb. 19, 
 1699, married John Ives ; Ezekiel married Anna 
 Merwin ; Samuel married Martha Moss, and settled 
 in Cheshire; Abel was born Jan. 10, 1700; Ben- 
 jamin, born May 23, 1705; Mehitable; and Eben- 
 ezer, who died Oct. 18, 1752, in Meriden. 
 
 (III) Benjamin Rice, son of Deacon Samuel, 
 was born May 23, 1705, in Wallingford, was clerk 
 in the mines, and spent his life in that locality, 
 dying Jan. 30, 1758. To his marriage with Mind- 
 well Royce (or Rice), a relative, on April 10, 1729, 
 came two children, Benjamin and Solomon, the 
 latter born Jan. 31, 1740. The mother died May 13, 
 1776, in her seventy-third year. 
 
 (IV) Benjamin Rice, son of Benjamin, was 
 born April i, 1730, and married Phdbe Halsey, of 
 Long Island. She died June 13, 1776, and he passed 
 away in February, 1777. Their children were: 
 Phebe, born Oct. 18, 1757, who died Nov. 25, 1757; 
 Benjamin, born Feb. 2, 1759; Halsey, born Jan. 
 ID, 1761, who died June 13, 1764; Isaac, born Oct. 
 10, 1762; Halsey (2), born Oct. 29, 1764 (died in 
 Middletown) ; Elizabeth, born Oct. 10, 1766 (mar- 
 ried Nathaniel Stevens, of Norfolk) ; Silas ; and 
 Levi, born Oct. 14, 1775. Benjamin Rice served as 
 a private at the Lexington Alarm, under Capt. John 
 Couch. 
 
 (V) Silas Rice, the father of Mrs. Hough, was 
 born Oct. 19, 1770. He was a farmer all his life, 
 
1282 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and in 1796 bought the farm now owned by the 
 family of Benjamin Rice, on Murdock avenue, Mer- 
 iden, and there he died in 1852 ; he was buried in 
 the East cemetery. Silas Rice was a deacon in the 
 Congreg-ational Church and a member of the Wash- 
 ington Benevolent Society. In his political vie\vs 
 he was a stanch Whig. His first marriage, Aug. 4, 
 
 1796, was to Ruth Curtis, who was iborn in Meriden, 
 and was a sister of Alfred Curtis, of Meriden. The 
 children of this union were : Almira, born May 24, 
 
 1797, married Avery Hough; Phebe, 'born Feb. 3, 
 1799, died Aug. 13, 1799. The mother died March 
 31, 1801. On March 8, 1803, in Meriden, Mr. Rice 
 married Rebecca Hubbard, who was born Nov. 25, 
 1783, a daughter of Isaac and Jane Hubbard, and 
 died in February, 1855. The children of this mar- 
 riage were : Ruth Curtis, born Oct. 14, 1803, mar- 
 ried, on Oct. 25, 1825, Lyman Hough. Jane, born 
 July I, 1805, died Feb. 13, 1824. Silas born June 
 29, 1807, died the same day. Mary, born March 9, 
 1809, married Joel Hough, of Wallingford. Silas 
 Hubbard, born April 5, 181 1, married Fanny 
 Brooks, of Chatham county, N. C, and they had 
 three children — Levi Woodley, born July 2, 1837 ; 
 Mary Ameret, born Sept. 23, 1841 ; and John Willis, 
 born March 8, 1844. Phebe Rebecca, born Sept. 9, 
 1812, died July 30, 1814. Henry, born Nov. 20, 
 1814, married Emily Lane. Joseph, born March 
 29, 1817, died March 30, 1817. Benjamin Halsey, 
 born June 20, 1818, died June 25, 1898; he married 
 .Mary Ann Bradley, and, for his second wife, Mrs. 
 Abigail C. Smith, a native of Durham, and a daugh- 
 ter of Asahel Harvey ; she is living with her fam- 
 ily on the farm. Emily Rebecca, born Sept. 16, 
 1820, married Samuel A. Tuttle, of Cheshire. Hins- 
 dale Silliman, born April 11, 1823, first married 
 Nancy Munson, of Southington, Conn., and second 
 Sarah Gaylord, now a resident of Meriden, and an 
 aunt of Dr. Gaylord of Branford. Elizabeth Jane, 
 born Aug. 31, 1825, died April 13, 1842. Samuel 
 Atwater, born Jan. 26, 1828, married Mary L. 
 Wetherell, of Canaan. 
 
 HENRY FORBES (deceased) was for many 
 years an honored and highly respected citizen of 
 East Haven, New Haven county, and was actively 
 identified with its agriciiltural linterests. He was 
 born in that town on the farm now occupied by 
 Winchester Andrews, in 1803, a son of Isaac 
 Foribes, Jr., and grandson of Isaac Forbes, Sr., also 
 natives of East Haven. Throughout his active 
 bu£lin€ss career he engaged in ap'r'icultural pursuits 
 and met with well-deserved success in his chosen 
 occupation. When a small boy he accompanied his 
 parents on the removal to the farm now occupied 
 by John Lancey, and upon that place he spent the 
 remainder of his life, dying there April 22, 1875. 
 He was a Republican in politics and was quite a 
 prominent and influential man in his community — 
 one who commanded the respect and confidence of 
 all with whom he came in contact either in busi- 
 
 ness or social life. He married Miss Almira 
 Forbes, who died Nov. 9, 1891, at the age of eighty- 
 three years. To them were born two children: 
 Willet B., whose sketch appears on another page 
 of this volume; and Jane E., mentioned below. 
 
 On Sept. 23, 1859, Miss Jane E. Forbes was 
 united in marriage with Daniel Bradley, who was 
 born in East Haven', in^ 1829, and was reared to 
 the occupation of farming, which he made his life 
 work. He was a son of John Bradley. His death 
 occurred in 1873. To Mr. and Mrs. Bradley were 
 , born three children : John H. and Daniel, both 
 of whom died in infancy ; and Eveline, who mar- 
 rlied Lewis Smith and lives with her mother in 
 East Haven ; she has one child, Raymond. Since 
 the death of her husband Mrs. Bradley has dis- 
 played excellent business and executive ability in 
 the management of her farm, and in 1892 she 
 erected thereon a beautiful home, whose hospitable 
 doors are ever opened for the reception of her many 
 friends. She is an active member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and is held in high regard by all 
 who know her. 
 
 GEORGE FELLOWS PETERS. In the re- 
 spect that is accorded to men who have' fought 
 their way to success through unfavorable environ- 
 ments we find an unconscious recognition of the 
 intrinsic worth of a character which cannot only 
 endure so rough a test, but gain new strength 
 through the discipline. The following history sets 
 forth briefly the steps by which our subject, now 
 one of the substantial agriculturists of Hamden, 
 New Haven county overcame the disadvantages of 
 his early life. 
 
 'Mr. Peters was born in Highmarket, Lewis Co., 
 N. Y., March 23, 1848, a son of John and Margaret 
 (Legal) Peters, natives of Germany, who came to 
 this country when young, sailing from Havre, and 
 were married in the United States. In their family 
 were six children : George F. ; John, of Lewis coun- 
 ty, N. Y. ; Louise, 'Mrs. Christopher Warren, of 
 New York ; Jacob, of Booneville, N. Y. ; James, of 
 Burlington, Kans. ; and William, of Lowville, New 
 York. JNIr. Peters was bom Sept. 12, 1820, died 
 May 2, 1885, at Locust Grove, Lewis Co., N. Y. 
 Mrs. Peters was born March 16, 1816, and died 
 April II, 1877, at Locust Grove. He was a farmer, 
 and also worked at the joiner's trade. 
 
 Our subject acquired his education in the com- 
 mon, schools of his native State. He was twenty- 
 one years of age on coming to Hamden, where be 
 found employment on the farm of Perry Rock- 
 well, and later he worked on the farm of Robert 
 Dickerman, in the same town, spending almost 
 six years in these places. At the end of that time 
 he bought a milk route and engaged in the retail 
 milk business in New Haven for sixteen years, 
 since which- time he has carried on dairy farming 
 and sold his milk at wholesale. He is one of the most 
 prominent and successful dairy farmers of Ham- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1283 
 
 den, where he owns over ninety-two acres of land 
 iii different tracts. In June, 1875, Mr. Peters 
 bought the old Johnson place, on^ Circular avenue, 
 and has -lived there ever since. He built the ex- 
 cellent home thereon — which was completed in 
 February, 1876, — and has made about all the other 
 improvements ; the place is one of the best improved 
 and most desirable farm-s of its size in the neigh- 
 borhood. His holding's of farm land comprise sev- 
 eral tracts in Hamden and some real estate in New 
 Haven. 
 
 In Westville, Conn., Nov. 17, 1875, ^^- Peters 
 married Miss Dency Harriet Dickerman, who was 
 born Nov. 8, 1845, iii Bethany, Conn., daughter of 
 Lebbeus and Amanda (Doolittle) -Dickerman, she 
 being their youngest daughter and fourth child. 
 She was almost eight years old when her parents 
 removed to Hamden;, where she has lived ever 
 since except a few years spent in Westville, where 
 she was residing at the time of her marriage. Mrs. 
 Peters' grandparents were Enos and Mary (Todd) 
 Dickerman, the former born Jan. 15, 1775, son of 
 Enos Dickernian. The family has been identified 
 with the history of New Haven county from the 
 earliest period. Mr. and Mrs. Peters have one 
 child, Henry Dickerman, born Oct. 4, 1885, who 
 is the onily representative of the Dickerman family 
 descended from his grandfather Lebbeus Dicker- 
 man. 
 
 Mr. Peters casts his ballot with the Republi- 
 can party and is now filling the office of school 
 trustee. Religiously he is a memiber of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, to which his wife also be- 
 longs. For the success that he has achieved in 
 life he deserves great credit, and his course has 
 been such as to command the respect and confi- 
 dence of all. with whom' he has come in contact. 
 
 EMORY SABINE COGGINS, superintendent 
 for the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., 
 and a well-known citizen of Meriden, was born 
 in Lubec, Washington Co., Maine, Sept. 8, 1857, 
 the twelfth child of John and Lucinda (Guptili) 
 Coggins. The Coggins family is of Scotch de- 
 scent; but the grandfather of the subject of our 
 sketch came from Briar Island, Canada, to Lubec, 
 in Maine, where ihe located, reared his children, 
 and remained until gathered to his fathers. 
 
 John Coggins, father of Emory, was born in 
 Lubec, as indicated, went to school there, and there 
 learned and followed his trade of carpenter and 
 joiner. He married Lucinda, daughter of Robert 
 (a farmer and fisherman of Lubec) and Ann 
 (Small) Guptili, who bore him twelve children. 
 These were as follows, the order being that of birth : 
 (i) Esther Ann is now the w'idow of Robert Watt, 
 a native of Nova Scotia, who died in September, 
 1892. Mrs. Watt bore her .husband three children : 
 Robert died in infancy ; Maude Minola, who mar- 
 ried Albert Morris, and has one child, Myra ; Myra 
 Mahlman, who married Arthur F. Glaessner, a 
 
 traveling salesman, and with whom Mrs. Watt 
 now makes her home. (2) Lottie is the wife of 
 George Christopher, of Eastport, Maine. (3) 
 Ezra died young. (4) Emerson died at the age of 
 fourteen. (5) John, now deceased, lived till man- 
 hood. (6) Daniel, a contractor for the Bradley & 
 Hubbard Company, married Emma Reynolds. (7) 
 Sanford, a resident of Meriden, married first, 
 Nellie Harriman, and second, Annie Tryon. (8) 
 Horace died young. (9) Barbara married Jared 
 Lewis, and now resides in Meriden. (10) Ches- 
 ter is now a resident of New Haven. (11) Emma 
 died the wife of Edward Lee. (12) Emory Sa- 
 bine is our subject. The father of this round dozen 
 of children came to Connecticut with his family in 
 1869 and took employment with the New Haven 
 Car Co., in the city of New Haven, where he con- 
 tinued until his death in October, 1870. His re- 
 mains were taken for interment to his native town 
 of Lubec. In his faith he was a mem'ber of the 
 Christian Church ; and his political creed was Dem- 
 ocratic. His widow still lives in Lubec at the ripe 
 age of eighty-eight years, a member of the Chris- 
 tian Church there, a good woman, well known and 
 highly respected. 
 
 Emory S. Coggins attended the district schools 
 of Lubec until his twelfth year, when he went to 
 Eastport, Maine, and began work at the trade of 
 carpenter and joiner. After a year of this he con- 
 cluded that something else would suit him better, 
 and in 1870 he came to Meriden. and went to work, 
 for the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., 
 where he is today, but in a somewhat different ca- 
 pacity. Then his duties were sweeping the floors, 
 "polishing up the handle of the big front door," 
 and the like, for the magnificent salary of three 
 dollars and fifty cents a week. After a year of 
 these labors he was put at assembling or putting 
 together kerosene chandeliers, at which he contin- 
 ued for six years. Thereafter he was brought into 
 the office, and given the work of figuring the cost 
 of goods, and more of similar character and im- 
 portance. Later be was appdinted assistant super- 
 intendent to Mr. C. F. Linsley, whom, in 1891, he 
 succeeded in the position which he now holds, and 
 fills through his ability with signal credit to him- 
 self and satisfaction to all concerned, winning the 
 respect and esteem of employers and subordinates 
 alike. 
 
 Mr. Coggins is a member of Alfred H. Hall 
 ■ Council, No. 1423, Royal Arcanumi; and of Myrtle 
 Lodge, No. 4, K. of P., of which he is Past Chan- 
 cellor. He is known as a general all around "good 
 fellow." His politics are Republican, and his re- 
 ligion the Golden Rule. 
 
 Mr. Coggins has been twice married. His first 
 wife, who died in 1880, was Lavinia Schleiter, a 
 daughter of Capt. Henry L. and Adelia (Potter) 
 Schleiter. Of this union were born tWins, both of 
 whom' died in infancy. On May 17, 1882, Mr. 
 Coggins was united in marriage with Edna Snow, 
 
1284 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 who was born in Norwich, New London county, 
 daughter of Augustus and Hannah (Pierce) Snow. 
 One child. Vera Irene, has blessed their home. 
 Mrs. Coggins is a member of Susan Carrington 
 Clark Chapter, D. A. R. She was educated in 
 Willimantic, and acquired her musical education 
 under Miss Black, of New London, later stud-ying 
 under Prof. F. H. Rolleston, and she was gradu- 
 ated from the New England Conservatory of Mu- 
 sic, Boston, in 1880. For some time she taught 
 musiic in Willimantic, where, also, she was organist 
 in the M. E. Church. 
 
 LETSOME TERRELL WOOSTER. One of 
 the most influential men of the Naugatuck Valley is 
 Letsome Terrell Wooster, whose face is familiar in 
 business, church and educational circles through- 
 out the State. Mr. Wooster was born in Water- 
 bury. He is the seventh in descent from Edward 
 Wooster, who came across the water from England 
 in 1630 and founded the family home in the green 
 hills of Connecticut, whence this branch of the fam- 
 ily has not migrated for over two and one-half cen- 
 turies. 
 
 The Colonial hero, a man of great courage, 
 deep piety and abiding patriotism, uprooted him- 
 self for religion's sake from the haunts of his 
 ancestors and, with a handful of brave compatriots 
 of like convictions, established the first traces of 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization along the shores of the 
 Housatonic, the two towns which are glad to do 
 him honor beine Milford and Derby. It is not sur- 
 prising that the descendants of Edward Wooster 
 were earlv drawn into the Revolutionary movement 
 and that we' find them everywhere connected with 
 the wars of that period. Thus it is that the sub- 
 ject of this sketch points to an ancestry of six il- 
 lustrious Revolutionary commissioned officers, 
 among them Gen. David Wooster and the great 
 lieutenant of French and Indian war fame, Gideon 
 Hotchkiss. 
 
 Letsome T. Wooster is likewise sixth in descent 
 from- Rev. John Bower, a graduate of Harvard Col- 
 lege in the class of 1649 who became, in 1652, the 
 first instructor in the classics in the school which 
 eventually grew into Yale Lniversity, and who 
 later, in 1672, became the first minister in Derby, 
 where he performed the multifarious duties which 
 fell to the lot of such a Colonial dignitary until his 
 death, in 1688. 
 
 The two and one-half centuries which have inter- 
 vened since the stirring Colonial days have served 
 but to transfer, as through a single generation, the 
 sterling characteristics of these early heroes to their 
 lineal descendant, Letsome Terrell Wooster. The 
 sympathy and interest in the welfare of the com- 
 munity that '^Ir. Wooster feels and substantially 
 shows in his many benevolences are the outcome of 
 generations of patriotic forbears who have devoted 
 themselves to the cause of church and State in this 
 locality since 1630. He has been from early man- 
 
 hood closely identified with educational matters and 
 is at the present time a trustee of Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity. His interest in the cause of religion is one 
 of the strong traits of his character and he has al- 
 ways given munificently to churches throughout the 
 
 Valley. 1 , , , , 
 
 Mr. Wooster is the oldest and best known brass 
 manufacturer in the United States. He is the 
 founder and principal stockholder of the Seymour 
 J^Ianufacturing Company, a prosperous concern 
 brought to its present degree of success by Mr. 
 Wooster's executive ability, inventive genius and 
 rare knowledge of metals. He is a metallurgist of 
 admitted power, using many of his own secret 
 formulas, notably one for German silver, which 
 make the product from his manufactory especially 
 in demand by concerns requiring delicacy and pli- 
 Etbility, as well as strength and durability, in their 
 metals. His molds for casting brass have revolu- 
 tionized that feature of this great manufacturing in- 
 dustry, and innumerable devices of his own invention 
 for saving time and labor have made the Seymour 
 Alanufacturing Company a model of modern meth- 
 ods in its unsurpassed capacity for business. 
 
 Mr. Wooster's pre-eminence in the business af- 
 fairs of the Naugatuck Valley is recognized. Early 
 in life he was prevailed upon by the president of the 
 Waterbury Brass Company to abandon his chosen 
 career of mechanical engineer and engage in the 
 manufacture of brass. This was in 1852. He sub- 
 sequently went to Torrington with Hon. Lyman W> 
 Coe, and with him organized the Coe Brass Com- 
 pany, remaining as manager for eight years. For 
 the last twenty years he has been associated with 
 his brother in Seymour, and is officially connected 
 with the following concerns in that town: The 
 Seymour Manufacturing Company, the Se}'mour 
 Electric Light Company, the H. A. Mathews Com- 
 pany and the Rimmon Manufacturing Company^ 
 
 EDWARD A. TODD was bom in New Haven, 
 Conn., his present home, July 17, 1856, a worthy 
 descendant of a most honorable family. His an- 
 cestral line is traced from Christopher Todd, air 
 early settler. 
 
 Christopher Todd was born in England, and 
 being one of the original settlers of New Haven 
 he was, without doubt, a member of the Rev. John 
 Davenport's company, which arrived at Boston,. 
 Mass., July 21, 1637. By occupation he was farm- 
 er, miller and baker, and after a most useful life 
 he died April 23, 1686. 
 
 Capt. Samuel Todd, son of Christopher, was 
 born April 20, 1645, followed his father's trade of 
 miller, and died in 1714. 
 
 Samuel Todd, son of Capt. Samuel, was born 
 July I, 1672, and died in 1741. He had several 
 sons, one of whom was Deacon Samuel Todd, of 
 Xorthbury, now Plymouth. 
 
 Stephen Todd, son of Samuel, was born Dec. 
 4, 1702, settled in V'allingford, and died in 1772. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1285 
 
 Jonali Todd, son of Stephen, settled in Bethany, 
 
 Conn., where he had a sawmill, and died in 1803. 
 
 Charles Todd, son of Jonah, was born Aug. 28, 
 
 1752- 
 
 Albert Todd, son of Charles, was the grandfa- 
 ther of the subject of this sketch, and he was born 
 May 2, 1783, and died July 24, 1843. He mar- 
 ried Hannah Foote, and he settled on a farm in 
 North ford, Conn. They reared a family of four 
 children, namely: Charles; Alfred, the father of 
 our subject; Lydia; and Ambrose. 
 
 Alfred Todd was born in Northford, Conn., 
 March 22, 1814, and died March 29, 1882. He 
 married Hannah V. Harrison, who was born in 
 Northford, Conn., June 12, 1819, and who died on 
 Jan. II, 1896. Her parents were Jacob and Han- 
 nah Harrison, the former of whom was a shoe- 
 maker in Northford. Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Todd 
 ::ame to New Haven about 1848, and there they 
 lived until the time of their death. Mr. Todd was 
 engaged in the butchering and pork packing indus- 
 try, and was well known and highly esteemed. In 
 politics he was a Republican, and the family be- 
 longed to the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Edward A. Todd, subject of this biography, 
 spent his boyhood days in New Haven, and was 
 most liberally educated, having advantages in the 
 Cheshire Academy, and later in Gen. Russell's 
 Military Academy in New Haven. After finishing 
 school, Mr. Todd entered into a business life, be- 
 ing employed by Frank S. Andrew & Co., in the 
 pork packing business for some three years, later 
 becoming interested in the business of manufac- 
 turing corsets. In 1887 Mr. Todd became book- 
 keeper for L. C. Bates, in the produce and commis- 
 sion business, and in 1894 a corporation was 
 formed under the firm style of "The L. C. Bates 
 Co.," and our subject became a member of this 
 firm, having previously represented it on the road. 
 Since that time the business has grown to large 
 proportions, and is known over a wide extent of 
 country. 
 
 On Oct. II, 1876, Mr. Todd was married to 
 Miss Ida L. Oviatt, who was born in New Haven, 
 a daughter of Henry and Louise (Hull) Oviatt, 
 the former of whom was born in Milford, Conn., 
 and the laitter in New Haven. Their children were : 
 Nelson F., who died young; Ida L., who is Mrs. 
 Todd ; Walter C. ; and Clarence E. Walter resides 
 in New Haven, and Clarence died in youth. Mr. 
 Oviatt was by profession a bookkeeper, and he 
 was a son of Curtis Oviatt, who was born in Mil- 
 ford, Conn., and married Tenty Carrington. On 
 the maternal side, the grandfather of Mrs. Todd 
 was Elam Hull, who by trade was a maker of tal- 
 low candles, and, starting out in life with Hmited 
 means, ty successful methods, later became wealthy 
 and well known. After marriage our subject and 
 wife made their home in New Haven, and their 
 two children are, Louise Hull, and Venelia Har- 
 rison. In his political sympathies, Mr. Todd has 
 
 always been connected with the Republican party, 
 and socially he has membership with the A. O. U. 
 W., and the Royal Arcanum ; he is also a member 
 of the second company of Governor's Foot Guards. 
 The family are consistent and valued members of 
 the Episcopal Church, T\Ir. Todd being one of the 
 vestrymen at Christ Church. 
 
 M. M. RUSSELL, a well-known citizen and 
 skillful farmer of East Haven, is a native of New 
 Haven county, born in the town of North Branford, 
 July 26, 1841, and is the son of Samjuel F. Russell, 
 whose birth occurred in the same town, Oct. 7, 
 1802. The grandfather, David Russell, was also 
 a native of North Branford; his wife, who bore 
 the maiden name of Betsey Monroe, departed this 
 life at the ripe old age of eighty-five years. The 
 father of our subject was twice married, his first 
 wife being Ann Chidsey, by whom he had one 
 child, Annie, now the wife of Benjamin S. Wood- 
 ward, of Lyons, Iowa. After her death he married 
 her sister, Almira Chidseyj and our subject was 
 the only child born of this union. The father was 
 a carpenter by trade, and followed that occupa- 
 tion until 1852, and then engaged in farming, re- 
 moving to the farm where our subject now reside* 
 in the spring of 1869. There his death occurred 
 Jan. 7, 1888. He was a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church and was held in. high regard by all 
 who knew him. Our subject's mother died Feb. 
 21, 1875. 
 ■ During his boyhood and youth Mr. Russell, 
 of this review, attended the Guilford Institution 
 and Eastman's Business College, where he acquired 
 a good practical education. He assisted his father 
 in the labors of the farmi and on the latter's death 
 came into possession of the place, which he is still 
 carrying on, being successfully engaged in general 
 farming. 
 
 Mr. RusseU was married, Jan. 27, 1867, to Miss 
 Nellie Luddington, who died in; December, 1879. 
 Four children were born of that union, namely: 
 Henry, who died in infancy; Samuel C, a resi- 
 dent of New Haven ; Myra A., of Iowa ; and Lewis, 
 who died at the age of two years. Om June 10, 
 1881, Mr. Russell was again married, his second 
 union being with Mrs. E. Augusta (Hill) Averill, 
 widow of Jarvis Averill. In his political affiliations 
 Mr. Russell is a Republican, and in his church re- 
 'lations is a Congregationahst. He has a large 
 circle of friends in East Haven, and is highly re- 
 spected and esteemed wherever known. 
 
 WILLIAM GARLICK, contractor, and presi- 
 dent of the Beaver Lake Ice Co., is one of the self- 
 made men of Meriden and one of the leading citi- 
 zens of South Meriden, where he has long been 
 actively engaged in business. He is a native of 
 England, born Aug. 19, 1847, in Sheffield, West 
 Yorkshire. 
 
 William GarHck, Sr., his father, was also born 
 
1286 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in Sheffield, and there his youth was passed. He 
 became skilled in the art' of making cutlery, and 
 becoming convinced that he would find larger op- 
 portunities for himself and his children in Amer- 
 ica, he set sail in 1850, acoom'panied by his family, 
 for these hospitable shores. After a voyage of sev- 
 eral weeks on a sailing vessel, they landed in New 
 York, whence they soon found their way to Meri- 
 den, which town was then establishing the fact 
 that Americans could make a good article of cut- 
 lery. Mr. Garlick at once obtained employm;ent in 
 the grinding department of the Meriden Cutlery- 
 Co., and continued faithfully in this service until 
 1874. Having put aside some of bis earnings, he 
 was now able to embark in business for himself, 
 and estabHshed a nursery, and also engaged in the 
 ice business, being one of the pioneers in that hne 
 in bis section. At the end of four years he sold 
 out his ice business to his son, but continued the 
 nursery business until the time of his death. This 
 occurred at his home in South Aleriden in 1880, 
 and his body was laid to rest in West cemetery. 
 In his native home he was identified with the Es- 
 tablished Church, but worshipped with the Meth- 
 odist organization in this country. After becom- 
 ifig a citizen of the United States he was loyal to 
 its government and acted with the Republican 
 party, in political contests. His widow, Harriet 
 Davidson, who was born in Sheffield of Scotch 
 lineage, survived him until April, 1882, and was 
 buried beside him' in West cemetery. She was a 
 faithful member of the j\l. E. Church, a true wife 
 and kind mother. All of their seven children were 
 born in Sheffield, and three died in infancy ; Walter, 
 who died in middle age, married Virginia Daly, and 
 had two daughters, Lillian and Emma, who now 
 reside in Baltimore, Md. ; Mary is the wife of 
 Henry W. Longden, of South Aleriden ; Emma 
 married John H. Daly; and William, the subject 
 of this sketch, is the youngest of the family. 
 
 William Garlick was only three years of age 
 when he accompanied his parents to this country. 
 He was reared in South Meriden and received his 
 schooling in the district school of that section. 
 When he was fifteen years old he entered the em- 
 ploy of the Meriden Cutlery Co., in the same de- 
 partment in which his father was engaged, and con- 
 tinued there until he attained his majority. He 
 was then employed for a period of three years in 
 the responsible position of inspector at the Aetna 
 Cutlery Works, in New Britain, and returned 
 thence to take a position as contractor in the shops 
 at South Meriden, where he was formerly en- 
 gaged. This connection has continued for the past 
 thirty-one years, which fact clearly demonstrates 
 his executive ability and integrity. In 1878 he pur- 
 chased the ice business of his father, which he im- 
 mediately began to extend. In his first season he 
 put up 1,600 tons of winter's product, and his 
 harvest now exceeds nine thousand tons, which he 
 disposes of at both wholesale and retail. He has 
 
 one ice house in the northern part of the town, on 
 the main line of the Consolidated Railroad, and 
 one in the western part of the town, on the Water- 
 town line. In 1889 he consolidated his business 
 with the i\Ieriden Ice Co., of which he was five 
 years president. In 1894 he withdrew from this 
 connection and formed the Beaver Lake Ice Co., 
 of which he is now sole owner, and which he has 
 ever since conducted successfully. In 1898 he 
 joined a party on a trip to Alaska, and was gone 
 one and one-half years, which greatly benefited his 
 health. Being industrious and enterprising, his af- 
 fairs are conducted along progressive and modern 
 lines, and his rewards have been truly earned. 
 They have not come to him through chance, but as 
 the just and certain result of persistent attention to 
 business and the exercise of wise forethought. His 
 genial nature and pleasant manners make it a pleas- 
 ure to do business with him/, and he is everywhere 
 regarded as a good citizen. In 1874 he built his 
 present home on Hanover avenue, one of the finest 
 in that section, where a cheerful hospitality and 
 good cheer are ever found. 
 
 Mr. Garlick was married in 1875, at South 
 Meriden, to Aliss Nellie Stevens, who was born in 
 South jNIeriden, daughter of Philander and Eunice 
 Stevens. Mrs. Garlick is devoted to her home, 
 husband and family, a good Christian woman and 
 consistent member of the First Congregational 
 Church. Of the two children in the family Arthur 
 is employed at Hartford, and is a useful member 
 of jMeridian Lodge, No. yy, A. F. & A. M., of 
 Meriden ; and Mabel, the daughter, was educated 
 in the schools of South Meriden and was gradu- 
 ated from the ]\Ieriden HigJi School. Miss Mabel 
 is a lady of much intelligence and good sense, and 
 as her father's confidential clerk, has fully demon- 
 strated her business ability, and she is a valued 
 member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 The social and benevolent character of Mr. 
 Garlick is indicated by his associations. He is a 
 steadfast member of Hancock Lodge, No. 28, I. 
 O. O. F., of South Meriden; of Pilgrims' Harbor 
 Council, No. 543, Royal Arcanum, of Meriden ; and 
 the Home Club. He is also a faithful member of 
 the Methodist Church, making the Golden Rule the 
 test of his actions. As a Republican, he performs 
 the duty of every good citizen, in voting for his 
 convictions, but has never sought any political pre- 
 ferment. His domestic nature finds pleasure in the 
 companionship of his family, and friends, and his 
 true worth is best known to his intimates. 
 
 JOHN T. HOLIAN, proprietor of "Holian's 
 Inn," Derby, is one of the most genial, obliging and 
 popular landlords, and his hotel is a favorite resort 
 for pleasure parties of all kinds. He was born in 
 Granville, Mass., April 3, 1857, a son of Jeremiah 
 and Catherine (Hurhhey) Holian, both natives of 
 Ireland, the former born in County Kerry. Our 
 subject's paternal grandfather never came to Amer- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1287 
 
 \a. but followed farming in Ireland throughout life. 
 After his death his wife came to the New World, 
 and died in Granville, Mass., at the advanced age 
 O'f ninety-two years. In their family were four 
 children: Timothy, who engaged in farming in 
 Granville until his death ; John, who still carries on 
 farming there; Jeremiah, father of our subject; 
 and Nancy, deceased wife of James Foley. Jere- 
 miah Holian was a farmer and wood turner by occu- 
 pation. He died in Springfield, Mass., in 1897, but 
 his wife is still living. In their family were eight 
 children, namely : Timothy, who was a blacksmith 
 of Granville, where he died in 1895 ; John T., our 
 subject; Annie, wife of Joseph O'Neil, a wire 
 weaver of Springfield, Mass. ; Mary ; William, who 
 died in 1891 ; Catherine; Jeremiah, who died at the 
 age of eight years ; and Julia. 
 
 John T. Holian was reared on a farm in Gran- 
 ville, Mass., until seventeen years of age, and then 
 learned the cigar maker's trade, which he followed 
 until he was twenty-two. The following two years 
 he was employed as a traveling salesman, and then 
 managed the "Westfield House," at Westfield, 
 Mass., for the same length of time. In 1881 he came 
 to Derby, New Haven county, where he clerked in a 
 shoe store for four years, and on resigning that 
 position he bought the "Birmingham Hotel," which 
 he successfully conducted, though otheirs had failed 
 in the ^enterprise. In 1891 he also embarked in the 
 Hvery business, which he still carries on in connec- 
 tion with his hotel, owning a fine stable, well 
 equipped with an elegant line of carriages and good 
 trotting horses. In June, 1897, he purchased the 
 property on Elizabeth street, which he has remod- 
 eled and to which he has given the name of "Hol- 
 ian's Inn." It is recognized as headquarters for 
 parties of all kinds, such as bicycle clubs from the 
 surrounding cities, and he also entertains the Ma- 
 sons, Odd Fellows and other lodges, feeding seven 
 hundred during the reunion of the Connecticut De- 
 partment of the Grand Army of the Republic. 
 Kind-hearted and generous, he is always willing to 
 lend a helping hand to those in distress, and his 
 name has become a synonym for honesty, upright- 
 ness and generosity. 
 
 Mr. Holian married Miss Isabelle V. Healey, the 
 only daughter of Capt. Healey, a native of County 
 Clare, Ireland, who was born Dec. 24, 1832, and 
 died Aug. 12, 1872. 
 
 Jamesi Healey, grandfather of Mrs. Holian, was 
 a well-to-do farmer of Ireland, where he spent his 
 entire life. The son was educated for the priest- 
 hood, but never entered the Church. At the age 
 of twenty-one he emigrated to America and located 
 in Derby, Conn., where he worked as a laborer until 
 going to California during the gold excitement, and 
 there successfully engaged in mining for some 
 time. On his return to Derby he embarked in the 
 grocery and liquor business, which he carried on 
 until after the Civil war broke out. For three years 
 he was a soldier of the Union army, and for bravery 
 
 on the field of battle was promoted to the rank of 
 captain. After the war he engaged in the liquor 
 business up to the time of his death. He was a 
 supporter of the Democratic party and a devoted 
 member of several societies, being a Knight Tem- 
 plar Mason and prominent member of the Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of 
 Pythias, Sons of Erin, Hibernians and Derby 
 Pequots. He wedded iMiss Mary Monaghan,' 
 who was born in County Cavan, Ireland, in 
 1832, and died May 27, 1898. She was a mo^t 
 estimable lady, charitable and highly respected; in. 
 fact, the Healey family is one of the most prominent- 
 in Derby. Her father was Patrick Monaghan, one 
 of the early settlers of Derby, who died in Cali- 
 fornia. Mrs. Hohan is the eldest in a family of 
 three children, the others being James T., a resi- 
 dent of Derby; and Thomais F., a physician of 
 Bridgeport, Connecticut. 
 
 GEORGE I. PLATT, an enterprising and suc- 
 cessful business man of Milford village, was born 
 in the town of Milford Oct. 20, 1863, a son of David- 
 B. and Mary M. Camp Piatt. 
 
 The Piatt family has: been identified with the 
 town from an early day, and Richard Piatt, our sub- 
 ject's grandfather, was born there, and spent many 
 years in farming in the locality. His death occurred 
 in West Haven, but his remains were taken back 
 to Milford for interment. He married a Miss Al- 
 len, and they had four children, viz. : Richard, a 
 farmer in Milford, now deceased; David B., our 
 subject's father; James H., a business man in New 
 Haven, who died in the spring of 1899; and Caro- 
 line, who married Richard Piatt, a butcher in New 
 Haven. 
 
 David B. Piatt was born in the town of Milford 
 in 1822, and died there Jan. 17, 1898. He was an 
 excellent citizen, an active worker in the local Re- 
 publican organization, and was frequently chosen 
 to fill town ofSces. His wife, Mary M. Camp, who 
 died Feb. 16, 1893, aged sixty-six years, was a 
 daughter of Elias Camp, a well-known farmer of 
 Milford. Of their six children Henry died in in- 
 fancy; Ella J. married F. H. Woodruff, a farmer 
 of Milford; Charles W. is a farmer and meat dealer 
 in Milford; David E. is a bookkeeper in Bridge- 
 port; George I., our subject, is mentioned more 
 fully below; and Minnie L. married George A. 
 Law, of New Haven. 
 
 The district schools of Milford afforded George 
 I. Piatt a practical education,. and the work of the 
 homestead trained him to habits of industry. As a 
 young man he engaged in the milk business, con- 
 tinuing about ten years, and in 1895 he became in- 
 terested in the ice business, which he has since car- 
 ried on. In 1898 he engaged in the coal and wood 
 business also, and for some time he has carried on 
 teaming and contracting, in addition to his other in- 
 terests. He is a Republican, and takes an active part 
 in town affairs, andi is a member of the fire depart-. 
 
1288 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 jnent. Socially he is connected wibli the I. O. O. F., 
 and the Royal Arcanum. 
 
 On Oct. 6, 1892, Mr. Piatt married Miss Alice 
 G. Stowe, daughter of Frederick A. Stowe, a na- 
 tive and resident of M'ilford, and two children have 
 blessed the union: Lizzie M. and Clarence I. 
 
 A. CLARK PLATT, a well-known agriculturist 
 •of the town of Milford, was born in that town Nov. 
 19. 1837, son of Newton Piatt, and grandson of 
 Fisk Piatt. 
 
 The family has been prominent in the locality for 
 .many years, and Fisk Piatt was a farmer there 
 throughout hlis life. He married Sarah Newton, 
 who was born in Milford, a daughter of Capt. Jonah 
 Newton, and they had seven children, as follows : 
 Newton, our subject's father; Sarah, who married 
 Jeremiah Treat, a farmer in the town of Orange ; 
 Richard, a farmer in Milford; Catherine, deceased, 
 who never married ; Susan, who married Dr. Hull 
 Allen, of Milford ; Jonah, a farmer in Milford ; and 
 Maria, who married Samuel Miles, a carriagemaker 
 in the South and later in Milford, where he died 
 5ome years ago. 
 
 Newton Piatt was born in Milford in 1792, and 
 died in 1863. During his active years he was en- 
 gaged in farming, and he took an intelligent and 
 loyal interest in local affairs as a member of the 
 First Congregational Church, and as a worker in 
 the Republican party. He married Anna Clark, 
 who was born in the town, and whose father, Abram 
 Clark, was a respected farmer. She died in 1863, 
 and of their nine children only isix are now living : 
 Sarah N. married Enoch Clark, a farmer in the 
 town of Orange ; Adelia C, deceased, married John 
 E. Merwin, of Orange; Chariotte, deceased, mar- 
 lied David N. Clark, of Milford; Susan married 
 William B. Smith, a farmer in Milford, both now 
 ■deceased; Henry N., a retiired farmer, resides in 
 New Haven ; Jonah C., a carpenter, is living in re- 
 tirement in Derby ; George F. is a dentist in Cham- 
 tersburg, Pa. ; A. Clark, our subject, was the next 
 in order of birth ; Lenora married David N. Clark, 
 mentioned above. 
 
 A. Clark Piatt has spent his entire life in Mil- 
 ford, and from early manhood his attention has been 
 given to general farming. His farm-, which con- 
 tains about 160 acres, is' situated three and a half 
 miles northwest of Milford village, and under his 
 able management is one of the best homesteads lin 
 his neighborhood. On Dec. 22, 1863, (he married 
 Miss Mary Gilbert, daughter of Agar Gilbert, a car- 
 penter in Derby. Four children have brightened 
 their home : Emma L., now the wife of Fred D. 
 Clark, a farmer, seed grower and cattle dealer in 
 Milford; Lottie G., who married Herbert B. Clark, 
 a farmer and seed grower in Orange; Annie C, 
 wife of Fred M. Clark a farmer and seed grower in 
 Orange; and Miss Bertha M., at home. The fam- 
 ily is prominently identified with the First Congre- 
 gational Church, and Mr. Piatt is also an influential 
 
 member of the local Republican organization. At 
 present he is a selectman, and he has served many 
 years as assessor, and for nine years as school 
 visitor, and at one time was a member of the board 
 of relief. 
 
 ANDREW HAFNER. Many of the most 
 prominent and influential citizens of Derby are of 
 forelign birth, but have become true and loyal Amer- 
 ican citizens who take a deep interest in public af- 
 fairs and do all within their power to advance the 
 welfare of their adopted country. A worthy repre- 
 sentative of this class is Andrew Hafner, who was 
 born in Cassel, Germany, June 16, 1870, a son of 
 S. August and Regina E. (Rothamel) Hafner, also 
 natlives of that place. The grandfather, Andrew 
 Hafner, was a traveling merchant of Germany and 
 never caine to America. The father followed the 
 same businessi in his native land until 1883, when 
 he emigrated to the United States, and after about 
 a month spent in Derby, Conn., proceeded to Cali- 
 fornia, since which time nothing has been heard of 
 Mm. In his family were seven children : Andrew, 
 our subject; Minnie, now the wife of Alfred Mat- 
 terfis, of New York; Carrie, wife of Frank Kabish, 
 of Derby; Louise, unmarried; and three who died 
 in infancy. 
 
 Andrew Hafner spent the first thirteen years of 
 his life in Germany and attended the schools of his 
 natiive land. On coming with the family to Derby, 
 Conn., he entered the employ of, Dickerman & Bas- 
 sett, bolt manufacturers, with whom' he remained 
 about nine months, and then was employed by other 
 concerns for some time. He spent two years with 
 A. H. & C. B. Ailing, hosiery manufacturers, and 
 in February, 1887, entered the employ of the 
 Sterling Company, manufacturers of pianos and or- 
 gans, with which he has since been connected. 
 
 Mr. Hafner is a memiber of the German singtng 
 society, and of the Lutheran Church, to which his 
 ancestors also belonged. Politically he affiliates 
 with the Republican, party, and in 1896 was elected 
 alderman from the First ward of Derby. So credit- 
 ably and satisfactorily did he fill the office that he 
 was re-elected in 1898, and is the present incumbent. 
 
 FREDERICK C. GOLDSTEIN, M. D., an able 
 and talented physician of Ansonia, has won deserved 
 prominence in professional circles by his successful 
 treatment of disease. He was born May 22, 1869, 
 in Ansonia, and is a descendant of an old and hon- 
 ored German family which is still numerously rep- 
 resented in the Fatherland. 
 
 Frederick Goldstein, our subject's father, was 
 born in Germany, and came to America in early 
 manhood, locatmg first in Connecticut, and finding 
 employment with the Goodyear Rubber Co., as an 
 expert turner. He worked in Naugatuck for 
 a time and then went south, but there be had the 
 misfortune to get "stranded." On returning to 
 Connecticut he spent some time lin Birmingham and 
 
a. G^OA/l !&^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1289 
 
 Waterbury, being employed in different branches 
 of the plating business, and then went to Ansonia 
 to take a position with Holland & Sons. After a 
 time he engaged in the grocery business on- Main 
 street, and on xetiring he again took up his former 
 work as a turner. Deciding to engage in the nickel 
 plating and buffing business on his own account, he 
 formed a partnership with a son-in-law, who after- 
 ward purchased his interest, Mr. Goldstein remov- 
 ing to Shelton to take charge of the dipping and 
 plating rooms in the Cheeseman factory. At present 
 he is connected with the japanning department of 
 the Schneller factory. He is a memlDer of the 
 Episcopal Church, and socially of the German Or- 
 der Harugari, while politically he is identified with 
 the RepubHcan party. His wife, Sophia (Hilde- 
 brandt) was bom in hisi native town. They have 
 had six children, of whom five are I'iving, viz. : 
 Minnie, wife of Carle Schenck, of Ansonia; Will- 
 iam and Sarah, residents of Ansonia ; Frederick C, 
 our subject; and Carl, also residing in Ansonia. 
 
 The Doctor's education was begun in the com- 
 mon schools of Ansonia, and his professional edu- 
 cation was secured in the Medical Department of 
 Yale College and at Berlin, Germany, where he 
 spent a year taking special courses. Since his re- 
 turn he has been continuously engaged in general 
 practice in Ansonia, and he is also medical ex- 
 aminer for a number of insurance companies. He 
 and his wife are prominent socially, and both are 
 active workers in the Episcopal Church, having been 
 in the choir for a number of years. The Doctor is 
 also connected with George Washington Lodge, F. 
 & A. M., at New Haven, the Knights of the Golden 
 Cross, the order of Heptasophs, and with the State 
 and County Medical Societies. 
 
 In November, 1897, Dr. Goldstein married Miss 
 Martha L. Johnson, and they have one son, Fred- 
 erick E. Mrs. Goldstein graduated in 1892 from' the 
 normal school at Westfield, and prior to her mar- 
 riage taught successfully in Massachusetts, and was 
 employed two years in the r chools of Ansonia. She 
 lis descended from good Colonial stock, and her an- 
 cestors in the paternal line were early settlers at 
 Ellington, Conn., but removed to Hadley, Mass. 
 Stephen Johnson, Mrs. Goldstein's great-grandfa- 
 ther, born at Hadley, followed farming there 
 throughout his life, and a house which he built on 
 his homestead in 1792 is still kept in good repair. 
 Her grandfather, Stephen Johnson (2), and father, 
 Elliot Johnson, were both born in this house, which 
 stands in that part of Hadley now known as Hock- 
 anum. Elliot Johnson is a prominent citizen, hav- 
 ing held various official positions in the tO'Wn, 
 and he and Ms wife are leading members of the 
 Congregational Church. They have three children, 
 Martha L., George and Jennie. The mother, whose 
 maiden name was Harriet E. Allen, was bom in 
 Hadley, the daughter of George Allen, a native of 
 Enfield, Conn., who settled at Hadley in early man- 
 hood, and became a well-known citizen. 
 
 -Mrs. 
 
 Goldstein's grandmother, Thcodocia Smith, attained 
 the advanced age of eighty years, and reared a large 
 family of children. 
 
 CHARLES ELLIOTT' PICKETT was born in 
 Seymour, Conn., Sept. 3, 1871, a son of Charles 
 Howard Pickett, who was bom- at Danbury, Conn., 
 April 8, 1844. Warner Pickett, the grandfather of 
 Charles E., was a resident of Naugatuck, and his 
 father, Mason Pickett, married Eunice, a daugh- 
 ter of Reuben Warner, and a descendant of Eben 
 Warner, who wafe born in Scotland. 
 
 Warner Pickett married Mary Jane Taylor, who 
 was born in Bristol, Conn., lived the -most of his 
 life in Naugatuck, where he taught -school, and in 
 his later years was engaged in the manufacture of 
 knives. 
 
 Charles Howard Pickett was. reared in Nauga- 
 tuck, and in early manhood settled at Seymour, 
 where he was long engaged in tool making. His 
 wife, Annie Eliza Culver, a daughter of Aretus 
 and Betsy (Reed) (Bailey) Culver, was a grand- 
 daughter of Rhoda Yale, and a great-granddaugh- 
 ter of Eli Yale. He died in Seymour Aug. 29, 1901, 
 and his widow, Mrs. Pickett, is still living in Sey- 
 mour. Mr. and Mrs. Charles How-ard Pickett were 
 the parents of three children: Harold Warner, 
 born Sept. 6, 1869, is a bookkeeper in the New Ha- 
 ven Copper Co., of Seymour; Charles Elliott; and 
 Sarah Burton, born Sept. 3, 1876. 
 
 Charles Elliott Pickett spent his early school 
 days at home, and was thoroughly prepared for the 
 legal profession, in which he has already become 
 prominent. In 1894 he was graduated fromi the 
 University of Pennsylvania, where he was connected 
 with the Philomathean Society; and in 1896 from 
 the Law Department of Yale, where he was- asso- 
 ciated with the Book and Gavel fraternity. On 
 finishing his school he went into the law office of 
 Watrous & Townsend, where he soon displayed such 
 intimate acquaintance with legal procedure and the 
 forms of law that he was -appointed assistant clerk 
 of the United States Circuit and District Courts in 
 1898. His friends anticipate for him a brilliant ca- 
 reer before the Bar if no untoward events interfere. 
 
 Mr. Pickett was married in Triinity Church, New 
 Haven, Dec. 11, 1900, to Henriette G., the daughter 
 of Edward F. Mansfield, of New Haven, Conn. A 
 daughter, Dorothy Mansfield Pickett, born Dec. 6, 
 1901, at New Haven, has blessed this union. 
 
 PAUL B. KENNEDY, M. D., is one of the 
 bright, progressive young physicians of Derby, be- 
 fore whom lies a future full of promise. He is of 
 Irish descent, both his father, John, and his grand- 
 father, Bernard, having been born in County West- 
 meath, Ireland. Bernard Kennedy brought his fam- 
 ily to America when his son John was a boy of but 
 five or six years. He settled on a farm in S-outh- 
 ington. Conn., where he passed the remainder of 
 his life. 
 
I290 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 John Kennedy grew up in that town, and learned 
 the trade of a die sinker. He married Miss Catli- 
 erine McAlenny, who was also a native of Ireland. 
 After marriage he removed to Plainville, Hartford 
 county, where he worked at his trade, which he still 
 follows. He is the father of ten children, all en- 
 dowed with intelligence of a high order and whose 
 education either has been, or is being, carefully 
 cared for by their parents. Dr. Kennedy is the 
 eldest; the second son, John, is studying for the 
 Catholic priesthood; Sylvester, the next in order 
 of birth is acquiring the profession of a mechanical 
 engineer; and Edward, the fourth son, is a ma- 
 chinlist. None of these young men are married. 
 The younger children — William, Peter, Mary, Cath- 
 erine, Margaret and Josephine — ^are still attending 
 school. Both John Kennedy and his wife, as well 
 as their children, are devout members of the Cath- 
 olic Church. 
 
 Dr. Paul B. Kennedy was born in Plainville 
 Oct. 28, 1871. He attended school there while a 
 child, and in 1881 was sent by his parents to Derby, 
 where he completed his common-school education. 
 For two years he was a clerk in the post office, and 
 ■spent three years in the works of the Birming- 
 ham Brass Co. For a year he was a bookkeeper 
 in the store of D. H. Kelly, but his inclination was 
 toward a professional career, and the trend of his 
 mSnd led him to choose the practice of medicine as 
 his life work. He began his studies' by reading at 
 home, and in 1893 entered Bellevue Hospital Med- 
 ical College, New York, graduating in 1896. After 
 taking a supplementary course in the- New York 
 Post-Graduate College he went to Bridgeport, 
 where he remained from December, 1897, until 
 May, 1898. In that month he removed to Derby, 
 where he has since been engaged lin practice. He 
 i'i an enthusiast in his profession and a close stu- 
 dent, keeping fully abreast of the rapid advance 
 constantly going forward in medical science. He is 
 of a generous, kindly disposition and urbane man- 
 ners, and is deservedly popular and highly respected. 
 He is a member of Indian Well Court, Foresters of 
 America, and of St. Aloysius Catholic T. A. B. 
 Society. In politics he is a Democrat. 
 
 FRANK ELBERT SANDS, treasurer of the 
 Journal Publishing Co., was born in New Falirfield, 
 Fairfield Co., Conn., July 17, 1863, a son of Jesse 
 and Mary Melvina (Turner) Sands, the former a 
 native of England. 
 
 During his early years Frank E. Sands attended 
 school in Danbury, Conn., later pursuing his studies 
 in New Fairfield. In 1879 he went to New Haven, 
 where his father had engaged in business. After 
 preparation under private tutors, he entered the 
 Scientific Department of Yale University, and was 
 graduated therefrom^ as a civil engineer in the class 
 of 1885, with degree of Ph. B. While waiting for 
 the consummatlion of plans by certain capitalists 
 through which he was to take up the practice of 
 
 his profession, he was for a time engaged in the 
 wholesale produce business, later entering news- 
 paper work. In 1886, his attention having been at- 
 tracted to Meriden, he became one of the four men 
 who formed The Journal Publishing Co., established 
 the Meriden Daily Journal, and founded the present 
 extensive publishing business of that very success- 
 ful corporation. Mr. Sands has since held the office 
 of treasurer, as well as that of business manager, of 
 the Daily Journal, and tiie other periodical publica- 
 tions of the company. 
 
 On April 26, 1888, Mr. Sandsi married Alice 
 Louise Brasee, daughter of Judge John Schofield 
 Brasee, of Lancaster, Ohio, the compiler of Ohio's 
 code of laws, and one of the most emment jurists of 
 that State. Two children were born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Sands: Anna Brasee, born Dec. 10, 1889; and 
 Trafiford Turner, who died in infancy. 
 
 In maternal lines, Mr. Sands is connected with 
 the Wakeman family, whose history is very inter- 
 esting. John Wakeman, the emigrant ancestor, was 
 bom about 1598-99, at Bewdley, Worcestershire, 
 England, and baptized there March 29, 1601, a son 
 of Francis and Anne (Goode) Wakeman. On 
 Jan. 28, 1628-29, he was married at Bewdley, Eng- 
 land, to Elizabeth Hopkins, daughter of William 
 and Helen (Vickaris) Hopkins, who were married 
 Oct. 30, 1609. Elizabeth was baptized Oct. 7, 1610, 
 in Riibbesford Church, England, and she died in 
 1658, at New Haven, Conn. John Wakeman died 
 in 1661, at Hartford, Conn. He emigrated to New 
 Haven, Conn., in 1640-41, living there until within 
 a few months of his death. He held many important 
 offices, among them' thatt of deputy to General Court 
 from 1641 to 1661, and he was the first treasurer of 
 New Haven Colony, serving until his death. He 
 was active in rehgious affairs, and served as deacon 
 of the First Church. Of his four children, all born 
 and baptized in Bewdley, England, one died there 
 while young, but the other three accompanied the 
 parents to New England. They were as follows: 
 (i) John, baptized July 25, 1630, died Jan. 19, 1636. 
 (2) Helena, baptized Dec. 23, 1632, married Oct. 29, 
 1650, Lieut. Col. John Talcott, of Hartford, Conn., 
 and died June 22, 1674. On Nov. 9, 1676, Lieut. 
 Col. Talcott married :\Iary Cook, daughter of Rev. 
 John Cook, of New Haven, and he died July 23, 
 1688. (3) Samuel, baptized June 7, 1635, died at 
 Fairfield, Conn., March 8, 1692. (4) Elizabeth, bap- 
 tized Sept. 16, 1638, married Samuel Kitchell, of 
 Newark, N. J. (born in 1633, died April 20, 1690), 
 Alarch II, 1656-57. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Wakeman, son of John, the emi- 
 grant, was educated at Harvard College, which he 
 left in 1655. He settled at Fairfield, Conn., where 
 on Sept. 30, 1665, he was ordalined, becoming the 
 second pastor in tlliat town. His death occurred 
 there March 8, 1692. On Oct. 29, 1656, he mar- 
 ried Hannah Goodyear, daughter of Gov. Stephen 
 Goodyear, of New Haven. Their eight children 
 were: Samuel, born Oct. 12, 1657, died in 169.1; 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1291 
 
 John, born, in 1659, died Feb. 15, 1709; Ebenezer, 
 born in 1668, died in 1690; Joseph, born in 1670, 
 died Dec. 5, 1726; Jabez, born in 1678, died Oct. 8, 
 1704 ; Mary, who married Michael Clugstone ; Ann, 
 who married Abraham Howell, a major of a regi- 
 ment in Suffolk county, L. I., in 1700; and Eliza- 
 beth, wife of Albert Denny. After the death of Rev. 
 Wakeman, his widow married Nathaniel Burr, and 
 she died in 1721. 
 
 Capt. John Wakeman, son of Rev. Samuel, born 
 in 1659, was a prominent man in the Colony of 
 Connecticut, and was appointed deputy to the Gen- 
 eral Court from Fairfield, serving twenty-three 
 sessions^ — 1690-1706. He was appointed commis- 
 sioner in 1695, 1696 and 1697, also justice of Fair- 
 field in 1698, and many times thereafter. In May, 
 1697, he was appointed lieutenant, and in May, 
 1704 and 1705, was appointed captain. On April 
 24, 1687, he married Martha Hubbell, daughter of 
 Richard and Elizabeth Huibbell. Martha Wakeman 
 died June 5, 1710, and her husband died Feb. 5, 
 1709, leaving an estate of 1,000 pounds. Their 
 children, all born in Fairfield, were: Helena, born 
 Aug. 24, 1689, died Feb. 12, 1710-11; Ann, born 
 March 24, 1692; Samuel, born Feb. 24, 1693, died 
 Oct. 19, 1771 ; Elizabeth, born June i, 1695, died in 
 1737; Martha, born Sept. 24, 1700, married Israel 
 Chauncey, son of Rev. Charles Chauncey, Feb. 2, 
 1 720- 1 ; Stephen, born Oct. 15, 1702, died in 1761- 
 2; and John, born Aug. 27, 1705, died in 1789-90.. 
 
 Stephen Wakeman, son of Capt. John Wake- 
 man, was married in Fairfield, Conn., April 28, 1727, 
 to Rebecca Morehouse, a daughter of Daniel More- 
 house. She was baptized Feb. 24, 1712, and 
 died in 1762. Stephen Wakeman died in 1801. 
 Their children, all born in Fairfield, were : 
 Sarah, born March 15, 1728, died June 11, 1728; 
 David, baptized Jan. 11, 1730, died in 1813-14; 
 Daniel, born April 6, 1732; Eunice, born Jan. 31, 
 173s, died Jan. 29, 1765, married Nathan Hill, July 
 3. 1735. the latter born Oct. 9, 1731, a son of John 
 and Esther (Bradley) Hill; Squier, born June 29, 
 1738; Stephen, born Nov. 19, 1740, died May 7, 
 1744; Jamies, born Mardh 19, 1743, died about April 
 1768; Stephen (2), born Oct. 23, 1745, died about 
 April, 1768; Sarah, born Jan. 26, 1748, died April 
 26, 1779, rnarried, Nov. 11, 1772, John Alvord (he 
 was bom July 11, 1750, and died July 3, 1845 ) ; and 
 Noah, born Nov. 28, 1751, died Nov. 5, 1777. 
 
 David Wakeman, son of Stephen Wakeman, 
 was born in Fairfield, and until 1757-58, he re- 
 mained in his native town, and then removed to 
 New Fairfield, and there settled on land inherited 
 from his father and grandfather. On May 9, 1775, 
 he enlisted in the Colonial army, in Capt. Beards- 
 ley's company, of New Fairfield, Conn., under Major 
 Tafford of the 5th regiment. He was discharged in 
 October, 1775, after a term of service chiefly along 
 the upper Hudson. When he and John Hendrick 
 returned from the war, they first stopped at the 
 
 home of the latter, but finding no one there, went 
 across lots to the Wakeman homestead. There 
 they found a pleasant party, Mrs. Hendrick helping 
 Mrs. Wakeman spin yarn, and the young people in 
 the field with Jeremiah Wakeman "harvesting buck- 
 wheat. Prior to enlisting in the spring, David had 
 prepared a number of his fields for corn, but Jere- 
 miah, knowing it would be impossible to cultivate 
 so much land in that cereal, placed part of it in buck- 
 wheat. Although David did not literally leave his 
 plow in the furrow to answer to the call of duty, 
 he left his fields unplanted and his farm neglected. 
 During the bitter struggle which followed, the two 
 families (Wakeman and Hendrick) helped each 
 other, the girls working in the fields as well as the 
 boys, while the men were away on the field of battle. 
 On Feb. 17, 1754,- in Fairfield, David Wakeman 
 married Mary E. Jennings, a daughter of Jeremiah 
 and Elizabeth (Coley) Jennings, of Fairfield, Conn. 
 The children born of this union were : Twins born 
 in Fairfield in April, 1756, of whom Jeremiah died 
 in New Fairfield in the spring of 1801 ; Mary, bap- 
 tized Sept. 5, 1762, married David Gilbert, of Ridge- 
 field, Conn.; Sarah, born about 1774, in New Fair- 
 field, married in 1793, Thomas Ludington, of 
 Dutchess Co., N. Y. ; David ; Eunice, born about 
 1778, married John Treadwell, of Danbury, Conn. 
 David Wakeman, the father, died in 1813-14. 
 
 Jeremiah Wakeman, son of David Wakeman, 
 served in the Revolutionary war as a private in 
 Capt. Hickox's company, Tliird Regiment, Conn. 
 Light Horse, under Major Starr, enlisting at Dan- 
 bury, Aug. 20, 1780, and was honorably discharged 
 Jan. I, 1781.' His regiment was one of the four 
 organized in May, 1776, from the twenty-four 
 troops of Light Horse then in existence. When his 
 father, David Wakeman, returned from service, he 
 was too exhausted to assist in gathering the crops, 
 and at first was not willing that the young man 
 should enter the service, fearing the effect of the 
 hardships upon him. Still, when he realized the 
 need for good, brave men, he consented, and lived 
 to see Jeremiah become a gallant soldier, and give 
 longer service to his country than he himself had 
 been able to give. In 1781-83 Jeremiah married 
 Phoebe Hendrick, daughter of John Hendrick, of 
 New Fairfield, Conn., fonnerly of Fairfield. Phoebe 
 was born Nov. 14, 1754, and died April 3, 1836, in 
 Ridgefield, Conn. After her husiband's death she 
 married, in 1820, Nehemiah Keeler, of Ridgefield. 
 The children of Jeremiah Wakeman were : Eunice 
 married Aaron Piatt, of Weston, Conn., March 27, 
 1819-; Martha, born in 1793, married in the fall of 
 181 1, Hezekiah Wellman, of New Fairfield, Conn., 
 and died Feb. 22, 1819 (he was born March 26, 
 1789, and died Sept. 15, 1865) ; Mary died June 
 13, 1813. 
 
 Martha (Wakeman) Wellman had a daugh- 
 ter, Phoebe, born June 17, 1817, who married in 
 March, 1834, in New Fairfield, Napoleon Bonaparte 
 
1292 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Turner, of Ridgebury and Danbury, Conn., and died 
 Feb. 20, 1843. Mr. Turner was born June i, 1816, 
 and died Sept. 26, 1852'. 
 
 Phoebe (WeUman) Turner became the mother 
 of the following children: Fannie Augusta, born 
 Aug. 16, 1836, died July, 1864, married Elbert C. 
 Howes, of Brewster, N. Y. ; Mary Melvina, born 
 Sept. 13, 1839, died March 21, 1865, married on 
 Nov. 21, i860, Jesse Sands, of New York city, now 
 of Meriden, and they had two children, Clara 
 Louise, and Frank Elbert. 
 
 Frank Elbert Sands is one of the leading young 
 men of Meriden, and takes* a deep and public- 
 spirited interest in all measures calculated to prove 
 of benefit to the community. Broad-minded, cul- 
 tured, thoroughly conversant with all the details 
 of his chosen calling, he exerts a substantial in- 
 fluence through the medium of his well conducted 
 and enterprising periodical. 
 
 REV. JOHN TYLER axd MRS. MARIETTE 
 R. PETTEE, who are now passing the evening of 
 life in Meriden, where they have long resided and 
 been prominent in the various activities of citizen- 
 ship, are among that city's refined and cultured peo- 
 ple, and have a host of warm friends and admirers. 
 They are descended from a sturdy New England 
 ancestry. 
 
 Born Sept. 5, 1822, in the town of Sharon, Nor- 
 folk Co., Mass., John Tyler Pettee is the son of Ty- 
 ler and Esther M. (Hewes) Pettee, the former a 
 son of Hezekiah and Chloe (Ware) Pettee, of Fox- 
 boro, Mass., and the latter a daughter of John 
 Hewes, of Foxboro, and Esther Martn, of Wrent- 
 ham, Mass.; both belonged to families of intelli- 
 gence and worth in their respective communities. 
 John T. Pettee attended the district school of the 
 locality of his earlv youth; Rice's Academy, New- 
 ton; and the Holliston and Lowell higli schools. 
 In the summer of 1839 he came to Meriden, Conn., 
 and immediately entered the Wesleyan University, 
 at Aliddletown, where he was graduated in 1843, 
 later receiving therefrom the degree of A. M. He 
 entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, and for a quarter of a century was in the 
 itinerancy of that denomination in the eastern part 
 of Massachusetts, preaching in the towns of Win- 
 chendon, Templeton, Millbury, Leicester, Walpole, 
 Fnamingham, Hopkinton, Dorchester and Boston.' 
 Following ihis, in 1866, began another epoch in his 
 life. Settling in Meriden in that year, he was en- 
 gaged for the next seven years in teaching, serving 
 also as a "spare hand" in the ministry, and somt 
 years preaching as often as the regular'pastors. In 
 1892 Mr. and Mrs. Pettee gave five thousand dollars 
 for a parsonage for the First Methodist Church of 
 Meriden, on condition that the debt of twenty thou- 
 sand dollars resting upon the church property be 
 cleared off, and this was accomplished. 
 
 During the last decade and a half Mr. Pettee 
 has given much of his time to scientific matters. 
 
 Since its organization, in 1880, he has been an active 
 memiber of the Meriden Scientific Association, the 
 secretary of its astronomical section, its vice-presi- 
 dent, and for several years its president. Several 
 of his annual addresses have been published, and 
 met with great favor. He is also a member of the 
 American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
 ence, and an associate member of the Victoria Insti- 
 tute, or Philosophical Society, of Great Britain. His 
 interest in astronomy has led him to making tele- 
 scopes, and the citizens of Meriden will not soon 
 forget the 6th of December, 1882, when two thou- 
 sand of them assembled on his lawn to witness the 
 transit of Venus. Mr. Pettee had mounted that 
 day seven reflecting telescopes, all of his own con- 
 struction, each of which gave as good a view as was 
 obtained at any of the colleges, and gave the citizens 
 of Meriden such an opportunity to witness that 
 great phenomenon as was enjoyed by no other city 
 in the country. 
 
 In his political views Mr. Pettee is a Democrat, 
 having left the Republican party in the Greeley cam- 
 paign of 1872. In 1876 he wis elected judge of pro- 
 iDate, and served one term. For twenty-five or more 
 years he was a member of the Meriden school board, 
 and for seven years was principal of the Corner, 
 Center and West district schools. For a decade and 
 more he was acting school visitor or superintendent. 
 He is an enthusiastic and earnest Odd Fellow and a 
 Free and Accepted Mason. When he vacated the 
 chair of Prelate in St. Elmo Commandery, which he 
 held for twenty-one years, the Sir Knights gathered 
 at his hearth and presented him with an elegant and 
 costly "jewel." When the Grand Commandery of 
 Connecticut celebrated its Centennial Anniversary, 
 July ID, 1889, Mr. Pettee was honored with the 
 office of "Centennial Poet," and his poem was pub- 
 lished in the history of that great anniversary. In 
 the last twenty-five years Mr. Pettee has appeared 
 in such occasional exercises perhaps oftener than 
 any man in the State. 
 
 On Oct. 26, 1843, Rev. Pettee was married to 
 JMariette Roxanna, daug-hter of Hon. Jonathan Y. 
 and Roxanna (Yale) Clark, of Pittsfield, Mass., and 
 to them was iborn a daughter, Emily Parker Pettee, 
 who is now deceased. 
 
 Mrs. Pettee was born Nov. 22, 1826, in Pitts- 
 field, Mass., and comes of a distinguished ancestry. 
 Her father was one of the leading men of Pittsfield 
 and one of the most active politicians in Berkshire 
 county. He was a member of the Constitutional 
 Convention which revised the Constitution of Mas- 
 sachusetts in 1820, and his house was always the 
 headquarters of the leading members of his party. 
 Mr. Clark's parents were Jaleel and Esther (Law) 
 Clark, the latter a lineal descendant of Jonathan. 
 Law, who from 1742 to 1751 was governor of Con- 
 necticut. Jaleel Clark, of Lanesboro, and his eldest 
 son participated in the battle of Bennington, and 
 Mrs. Clark was accustomed to tell, in after years, 
 with what emotions she heard the guns of that bat- 
 
^' 
 
 ^ 
 
 iV 
 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1293 
 
 tie at Lanesboro, where, with her younger sons, she 
 was gathering the wheat harvest, a duty which de- 
 volved ufXDn many a mother during the Revolution. 
 On her mother's side Mrs. Pettee is a descend- 
 ant in the eighth generation from Thomas Yale, 
 who came to New Haven in 1637 with his mother 
 and step-father, Theophilus Eaton, who soon be- 
 came governor of the Colony of Connecticut. 
 Thomas Yale was born in about 1616 in England or 
 Wales, son of David Yale and Ann Morton, David 
 descending from an ancient family of Wales. Da- 
 vid Yale died in 1617, and in 1618 his widow mar- 
 ried Theophilus Eaton, an opulent merchant of Lon- 
 don, and with him and her children (by Mr. Yale) 
 and a company came to America in the ship ''Hec- 
 tor," arriving at Boston in 1637, and at New Haven, 
 then Quinnipiac, in 1638. Thomas Yale settled as 
 a merchant in New Haven. As early as 1660 he lo- 
 cated on lands he purchased in North Haven." He 
 was one of the principal men in the Colony, was a 
 signer of the Plantation Covenant of New Haven, 
 and filled with honor many offices of public trust. 
 He married in 1645 Mary, daughter of Capt. Na- 
 thaniel Turner, of New Haven, formerly of Lynn, 
 Mass. She died in 1704, and ]\Ir. Yale in 1683. 
 From this Thomas Yale, the settler, Mrs. Pettee's 
 line is through Thomas (2), Theophilus, Samuel, 
 Street, Samuel (2), and Roxanna Yale. 
 
 (H) Thomas Yale (2), son of Thomas the set- 
 tler, born about 1647 in New Haven, married (first) 
 in 1667 Rebecca, daughter of William Gibbards. 
 Mr. Yale removed in 1670 to Wallingford, as one 
 of the first planters of the town, and was one of the 
 most active and energetic men among them. He 
 was a justice of the peace, surveyor of land, captain 
 of trainband, etc., and assisted in the formation of 
 the church there. His death occurred in 1736. His 
 first wife, who was the mother of all his children, 
 was born in New Haven in 1650, and died in Wal- 
 lingford. 
 
 (HI) Theophilus Yale, son of Thomas (2), born 
 in 167s, married Sarah, daughter of Rev. Samuel 
 and Anna Street, of Wallingford. Mr. Yale served 
 as a magistrate from about 1724 to the time of his 
 death, in 1760. His widow died in 1785. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Yale, son of Theophilus, born m 
 171 1, married in 1736 Susannah Abernethy, of Wal- 
 lingford. Mr. Yale was a farmer in what is now 
 Yalesville. He died in 1754, leaving a large estate, 
 and his wife Susannah died May 30, 1770. 
 
 (V) Street Yale, son of Samuel, of whom little 
 is known, Hved in Wallingford. The names of his 
 children, with dates of birth, etc., and that Mary, 
 his widow, died in Balston, N. Y., are all that the 
 records reveal. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Yale (2), son of Street, born Aug. 
 18. 1763, in Wallingford, resided in Meriden. He 
 married (first) Eunice Paine, of the same town, and 
 (second)' Meliitabel Rice, of Wallingford. Mr. 
 Yale is said to have been the first manufacturer m 
 the town of Meriden. In 1791 he commenced the 
 
 manufacture of cut nails, and in 1794 the manufac- 
 ture of pewter buttons. He was successful, and ac- 
 cumulated a handsome estate. He died Sept. 18, 
 1810, and his wife Eunice Aug. 18, 1804. Mrs. 
 Alehitabel Yale died Sept. 17, 1808. 
 
 (VII) Roxanna Yale, daughter of Samuel (2), 
 born to the first marriage, married Jonathan Y. 
 Clark, and removed to Pittsfield, Mass. Mrs. Clark 
 died Sept. 6, 1828, aged forty-one years. 
 
 Mrs. Alariette R. Pettee came to Meriden when 
 she was but fourteen years old, attended school at 
 Post's Academy, and Oct. 26, 1843, married Rev. 
 John T. Pettee, who had just graduated from the 
 Wesleyan University. With him she shared the ups 
 and downs of ministerial life till 1866, when, finding 
 the east winds of the Massachusetts coast too brac- 
 ing for her, Mr. Pettee brought her back to Aleri- 
 den. Since her return to Meriden Mrs. Pettee has 
 been recognized as a woman of exceptional execu- 
 tive and constructive ability, and in consequence has 
 often been called upon to organize and preside. She 
 assisted in organizing the first Eastern Star Chap- 
 ter, and presided over it for three years. In 1873 
 she was appointed by Gov. Ingersoll to the State 
 Board of Charities, an office which she held until 
 family cares and failing health forced her to resign. 
 Wheri L. C. Curtis founded the Curtis Home, at his 
 request she was appointed president of its first 
 Board of JManagers ; she may also be said to have 
 organized the board, as Mr. Curtis_ took no step 
 without consulting her. She was also chosen first 
 president of the Political Equality Club, though she 
 did not accept the office. She does not expect so 
 much from female suffrage as many women, but 
 claims it as a right and exercises it when possible. 
 
 j\Irs. Pettee is a prominent Methodist, exceed- 
 ingly liberal, and is one of the few survivors of the 
 first Methodist class formed in the "Old Bethel," in 
 this city. Although making no pretensions as a 
 speaker, Mrs. Pettee has within the past_ dozen 
 years spoken as often, and on occasions as import- 
 ant, as any woman in Meriden; and on more than 
 one occasion has taken the place of professional 
 speakers who failed to keep their engagements with 
 Meriden audiences. 
 
 H. WALES LINES, a leading business man of 
 Meriden, carries in his veinjs the blood of several 
 RevoJuti'onarj' sires, and partakes of the sturdy 
 character which has made New England pre-emi- 
 nent in the business, the social and the political 
 world. He was born June 3, 1838, in Naugatuck, 
 Conn., a son of Henry Willys and Harriet (Bun- 
 nell) Lines. The father was a son of Calvin and 
 Sallie (Booth) Lines. The descent is traced from 
 Elder Brewster, of the "Mayflower" Colony, and 
 Rev. Thomas Hooker, founder of the Connecticut 
 Colony. Among other conspicuous forebears of Mr. 
 Lines may be mentioned : John Hopkins, of Hart- 
 ford ; Capt. Nathaniel White, one of the fiilst settlers 
 of Middletown, Conn. ; John Coit, one of the first 
 
1294 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 settlers of New London, Conn. ; Hon. Benjamin 
 Fenn, of Alilford, deputy governor of Connecticut; 
 Rev. Timothy Stevens, first Congregational minister 
 in Glastonbury, Conn. ; and Capt. Samuel Newton, 
 who commanded a company in King Philip's war. 
 Walter Booth, father of Mr. Lines' paternal 
 grandmother, was a soldier from Woodbridge, 
 Conn., in the Revolution, in the Fifth Battalion, 
 W'ads'worth Brigade, Col. Douglaiss' Regiment, 
 Capt. Peck's Company. He was present at the bat- 
 tles of Long Island, White Plains and Kip's Bay. 
 Later he was in Cal. Samuel B. Webb's Regiment, 
 and participated in the battles of Rhode Island, 
 and Springfield, N. J. His two terms of iservice 
 covered a period of six years. 
 
 Another great-grandfather of Air. Lines, an- 
 cestor of Harriet Bunnell, was Enos Bunnell, of 
 Cheshire, Conn., who enlisted in 1775 in the First 
 Regiment, Col. David Wooster, Ninth Company, 
 Capt. James Arnold, and was present at the capture 
 of St. John's and the siege of Montreal. In 1776 
 he was in Capt. Stephen R. Bradley's Company. In 
 July, 1779, he responded to the alarm to assist in 
 driving the British from New Haven. 
 
 Elisha Stevens, also a great-grandfather of Mr. 
 Lines, enlisted from Glastonbury, Conn., in Col. 
 Era&tus Woloott's- Regiment, Capt. Jonathan Hale's 
 Company, serving during the siege of Boston, 1776; 
 the next year found him in a regiment of artificers 
 commanded by Col. Jeduthan Baldwin, Capt. Clark's 
 Company, and he subsequently wintered at Valley 
 Forge and participated in the battles of Brandy- 
 wine, Germantown, Monmouth, Camden, siege oi 
 Yorktown and surrender of Cornwallis, his service 
 covering a period of seven years. He was one of 
 seven brothers all of whom were in the milhary ser- 
 vice of their country. 
 
 Lieut. Samuel Newton, of Woodbridge, Conn., 
 a great-great-grandfather of Mr. Lines, wias a mem- 
 ber in 1776 of the Tenth Companv, or train-band. 
 Second Regiment of Connecticut, and served at the 
 battle of Long Island ; the next year he was attached 
 to Capt. Samuel Camp's^ Company, Col. Noadiah 
 Hooker's Regiment. 
 
 H. Walesi Lines was graduated from the Nauga- 
 tuck high school, after which he mastered the trade 
 of mason. He became a resident of Meriden in 
 1862, and has ever since been a factor in the mate- 
 rial and moral development of the town. On May 
 23, 1864, he associated with himself Charles Perkins, 
 under the firm name of Perkins & Lines, to con- 
 tract for all kinds of building work, and to deal in 
 all kinds of building materials. This arrangement 
 continued harmoniously and successfully until 1878, 
 when Mr. Perkinsi withdrew from the firm, and was 
 succeeded by Henry E. Fairchild. For ten years the 
 firm was known as H. Wales Lines & Co., and in 
 1888 it was incorporated as The H. Waleig Lines 
 Company, younger men coming in who had grown 
 up with the business. The present officers are H. 
 Wales Lines, president and treasurer; Henry E. 
 
 Fairchild, vice-president; Lewis A. Miller, secretary. 
 For years this has been one of the most favorably 
 known contracting and building establishments in 
 New England, widely known, and doing its most 
 extensive business, outside of its home city. From 
 the beginning it has' dealt both wholesale and re- 
 tail, in building materials and Isiupplies, and is now 
 the largest in this line in the State. The home plant 
 is commodious and equipped with every facility for 
 convenience and the rapid dispatch of business. 
 Nine-tenths of the factories of Meriden have' been 
 erected by this concern', including the extensive 
 plamtig of the Meriden Britannia Co., the Bradley 
 & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., and the Edward 
 Miller Co. Its handiwork may also be found in 
 great profusion among the c'hurches, schools, busi- 
 ness blocks and fine residences' of the city. Some 
 of these are the residence of Hon. Charleisi Parker, 
 First Congregational church, Meriden high school^ 
 Y. M. C. A. building, Sitate School for Boys, and 
 "Winthrop Hotel." Outside of Meriden some of 
 the more important structures erected by this com- 
 pany are: Wallingford— factories of the H. L. 
 Judd Co.; New Haven— Snake & Book Society 
 buildmg, Yale College; Branford— St. Mary's 
 Roman Catholic church, and factory additions of the 
 Malleable Iron Fittings Co.; Shelton— Silk mills 
 of A. & S. Blumenthal ; Willimantic — State Normal 
 School ; Hartford — Steadman block ; New Britain^ 
 Russell & Erwin Co.'s factory additions; Torring- 
 ton — library building. Excelsior Needle Co.'s fac- 
 tory and portion of the works of the Coe Brass 
 Manufacturing Co.; Naugatuck— First Congrega- 
 tional church, Salem school, residence of J. H. 
 Whittemcire, and factories of the United States Rub- 
 ber Co.; Bridgeport — factory additionfe of Union 
 Metallic Cartridge Co.; Stamford^ — factory addi- 
 tions of the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.; 
 Middletown— State Industrial School; New Roch- 
 elle, N. Y.— residence of C. OHver Islin; Princeton 
 Universit}— \\'hig & Clio Halls; Garwood, N. J.— 
 factories of the Aeolian Co. ; Hackettstown, N. J.— 
 Centenary Collegiate Institute; Bedford, N. Y.— 
 Montefiore Home for Chrowic Invalids; Mt. Har- 
 mon, Mass.— Overton Hall, Moody's School. 
 
 Since 1891 Mr. Lines hais been president of the 
 New England Brown Stone Co., and a director of 
 the C. F. Alonroe Co. He is a director of the Meri- 
 den Savings Bank, treasurer of the New Haven In- 
 vestment Co., director of the H. Chapin's Sons Co., 
 of New Hartford, and president of The Pacific Real 
 Estate Co., of Meriden. His political affiliations 
 have been with the Republican party, and it is nat- 
 ural that his conspicuous business abilTt)- and integ- 
 rity lead his fellow citizens to select him in the ad- 
 ministration of public affairs. He served two terms 
 as a member of the board of school visitors of Meri- 
 den, and in 1872 was elected a member of the lower 
 branch of the State Legislature. For the years 
 1878-79 he was a member of the State Senate, and 
 served in that body as chairman of the committee 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1295 
 
 on Cities and Boroughs, Contested Elections and 
 Capitol Buildings, Furniture and Grounds. He 
 served as mayor of the city of Meriden for three 
 consecutive terms, 1877 to 1879, and during his 
 adminilstration a complete revision of the city char- 
 ter was 'made, also a thorough reformation ini the 
 methods' of conducting the various departments, 
 and in the system' of keeping accounts. At 
 the third election he received two-thirds of 'all the 
 votes cast, and was unanimously nominated for the 
 fourth term, but declined to accept the office fur- 
 ther. In 1888 Mr. Lines was the candidate of his 
 party for m'ember of Congress, but it was a Demo- 
 cratic year, and, though he ran largely ahead of his 
 ticket, he shared the defeat of the party. On Nov. 
 5, 1901, he was elected delegate to the Constitu- 
 tional Convention of 1902, to revise the constitution 
 of Connecticut. In all that pertains to the welfare 
 of his community Mr. Lines has taken a zealous 
 interas't. Every plan for advancing the material de- 
 velopment and progress of the city finds in him a 
 ready helper, and to many of its important improve- 
 ments he has contributed valuable assistance. 
 
 In June, 1861, Mr. Lines was married to Sarah 
 C, daughter of 'Rev. Washington) Munger, a Bap- 
 tist clergyman of Waterford, Conn. Mrs. Linesi is 
 a Daughter of the American Revolution, connected 
 with Susan Carrington Clarke Chapter, of Meri- 
 den, of which s'he has been several years vice-re- 
 gent. The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Lines has 
 been blessed with four daughters, all of whom are 
 married and settled in or near their native State. 
 The fimt, Harriet, is the wife of Robert L. Peck, of 
 Berlin; Sarah is Mrs. Frank L. Hamilton, of Meri- 
 den; Clara, wife of Roger B. deBussy, resides in 
 Winchester, Mass. ; ElMe, Mrs. Frank 'M. Chapin, is 
 residing in New Hartford. One son, Henry Wash- 
 ington, died in infancy. Mr. Lines' is a member of 
 the Connecticut Society, Sons of the American 
 Revolution, and has been several years a member of 
 its board of managers, and is president of the local 
 branch (Capt. John Coudh) of the same organiza- 
 tion. He is identified with the Independent Order 
 of Odd Fellows, and is president of the Pacific Real 
 Estate Co., which owns the Odd Fellows Temple in 
 Meriden. He belongs to Pilgrim Harbor Council, 
 of the Royal Arcanum, and Wilson Lodge,- Knights 
 of Honor. He is a thirty-third-degree Mason, and 
 is a Past Master of Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. 
 & A. M., of Meriden ; Past Commander and present 
 Treasurer of St. Elmo Commandery, No. 9, K. T. ; 
 Past Grand Commander of the Grand Command- 
 ery of Connecticut; and for the past sixteen yeans 
 has been Treasurer of the Grand Encampment, 
 Knights Templar, U. S. A. He is president of the 
 board of visitors of the Masonic Charity Founda- 
 tion of Connecticut, which maintains a Masonic 
 Home at Wallingford, and enjoys the distinction 
 of belonging to the Royal Order of Scotland in 
 "America, which iisi limited to three hundred and 
 fifty members. 
 
 HON. HENRY CHARLES GRIGGS, who 
 died at his home in Waterbury, April 17,, 1886, after 
 a period of more than a quarter of a century of an 
 active and useful life, was born Dec. 18, 1834, in 
 Tolland, Connecticut. 
 
 Charles Griggs, of Tolland and Windsor, Conn., 
 father of our subject, was in the seventh generation 
 from Thomas Griggs, who came to Boston in 1635, 
 and whose great-grandson Ichabod Griggs, settled 
 in 1744 in Tolland, where he was a man of prom- 
 inence for many years, being chosen the moderator 
 of the "first town meeting touching the difficulties 
 between the colonies and England," held Sept. 5, 
 1774. Ichabod Griggs was a deacon in the Church, 
 and was representative from the town to the Gen- 
 eral Court, from 1773 to 1788. Two of his sons 
 (one the ancestor of Charles Griggs) served in the 
 army of the Revolution. 
 
 Frances Catherine (Drake) Griggs, the mother 
 of our subject, was a daughter of Francis and Lucy 
 (Wolcott) Drake, he in the sixth generation from 
 John Drake, his first American ancestor, who. came 
 to Boston in 1630, and finally to Windsor, Conn., 
 in 1639. The line of Francis Drake's descent is 
 through John. Drake (2), Capt. Joseph Drake, 
 Thomas Drake and Amasa Drake. 
 
 Lucy (Wolcott) Drake, the g-andmother of our 
 subject, was a daughter of Dr. Simon Wolcott, who 
 was in the fifth generation from his first American 
 ancestor, Henry Wolcott, who came to Boston from 
 Tolland, Somersetshire, England, in 1630, and re- 
 moved to Windsor, Conn., in 1635. The line of Dr. 
 Simon Wolcott's descent was through Simon Wol- 
 cott, Gov. Roger Wolcott (a major general at the 
 capture of Louisburg in 1745, and the fifth colonial 
 governor — from 1750 to 1754 — of Connecticut) and 
 Dr. Alexander Wolcott. 
 
 Henry Charles Griggs came to Waterbury with 
 his parents in 1845, and for a time attended the pub- 
 lic schools and academy. He then clerked in the 
 store of Elisha Turner. At twenty years of age he 
 held a responsible position in the Waterbury Hook 
 & Eye Co., and for several years following 1861 
 he was connected with the Waterbury Button Co. 
 In 1864 Mr. John E. Smith and Mr. Griggs, as 
 partners, established the business which eventually 
 became the Smith & Griggs Co. Some time after 
 the foundation of the firm of Smith & Griggs (in 
 1864) the firm of Holmes, Grig-gs & Smith, in New 
 York City, bought out the Smith & Griggs business 
 in Waterbury, and also a brass mill in New York. 
 Their management also covered a mill operated at 
 Hopeville, Conn. In 1869 the firm of Holmes, 
 Griggs & Smith was dissolved, and from it two new 
 companies were organized, one the Holmes & Griggs 
 Manufacturing Co., of New York, and the other the 
 Smith & Griggs Manufacturing Co., of Waterbury. 
 Of the latter Mr. Griggs was chosen secretary and 
 treasurer, a position he retained until 1873. Later 
 on he also established a button factory in Water- 
 bury. He became a large land owner, and in 1884 
 
I 2 90 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 built the business block on Bank street, which bears 
 his name. Air. Griggs held a number of offices of 
 trust and responsibility, among them those of road 
 commissioner, water commissioiitr. alderman, while 
 at one time he was nominee of his party for mayor. 
 He represented the town in the Legislature in 1882 
 and 1886. He was president of the Dime Savings 
 Bank, a director in the Waterbury National Bank^ 
 an incorporator of the Waterbury Hospital, and a 
 tiustee in the Riverside Cemetery Association. 
 
 The writer of Mr. Griggs' obituary notice, which 
 appeared in the Waterbury American, referred to 
 his life as follows : 
 
 With the late John E. Smith he formed the Smith & 
 Griggs Manufacturing Company, of Waterbury, and later 
 engaged in business alone, which he conducted up to the 
 time of his death, yet still retained his other mterests, keep- 
 up a close connection with their management. He had 
 for many years been prominently identified with the manu- 
 facturing interests of Waterbury, and his j'-idgment in regard 
 to the business of the concerns in which he was interested 
 was held in high estimation. He was considerate, candid 
 and liberal in his views, and wise in their application. His 
 manner was such as to command universal respect, and it 
 may be said that no one in his community better deserved 
 the esteem in which he was held by all with whom he was 
 associated. He had in charge several important trusts, and 
 fully justififd the confidence of those for whom he acted. 
 His unquestionable integrity, coupled with his intelligence 
 and good business methods, gave him an influence to be 
 used with great discretion and always to good results to 
 matters of both public and private concerns. No one was 
 better fitted to conciliate opposing aims, to lead to the 
 adoption of what could command general co-operation. 
 
 Mr. Griggs had been called to several positions in public 
 life, in connection with local affairs in city and town, and 
 had twice been the representative of the town in the Gen- 
 eral Assembly, in which capacity he showed himself to be 
 a most useful and prudent legislator. He was a director in 
 the Waterbury Buckle Co., the Smith & Griggs Manu- 
 facturing Company, the American Mills Company, was 
 president of the Dime Savings Bank, a director in the Wat- 
 erbury National Bank, an incorporator of the proposed hos- 
 pital and a trustee of the Riverside Cemetery Association, 
 and in them all his advice and character were held in much 
 respect. 
 
 At the time of his death, the Waterbury Amer- 
 ican said editorially : 
 
 The sudden death of Henry C. Griggs has cast a shadow 
 over the whole community. Mr. Griggs was a man who 
 commanded the universal respect of the people of the city. 
 By his sterling qualities he had earned an enviable reputa- 
 tion, and the vacancy occasioned by his death will not be 
 easily filled. He had been largely identified for more than 
 a quarter of a century with all interests which have tended 
 to promote the welfare and prosperity of Waterbury. He 
 was an officer in many of the private and public institutions 
 of a business, social and philanthropic nature, has twice 
 represented the town in the legislature, besides holding 
 many private trusts, and in all these varied positions has 
 shown remarkably well-balanced mind and sound judgiiient. 
 His quiet and unobtrusive manner had won for him a large 
 circle of friends, who feel his taking away to be a personal 
 loss. 
 
 On Oct. 9, 1862, Air. Grigc;s was married to 
 Mary Bassett, daughter of Tared Foote, a lineal de- 
 scendant of Nathaniel Foote, who came from Eng- 
 land, and was one of the early settlers of Wethers- 
 
 field, Conn. The following are tiie surviving chil- 
 dren of Mr. Griggs : Charles J., Wilfred E., Rob- 
 ert F. and David C. 
 
 JOSEPH TUTTLE BENHAM. In the death 
 of Joseph Tuttle Benham, which occurred Sept. 6, 
 1899, ^t his home. No. 85 Bristol street, the city of 
 New Haven lost one of its substantial citizens and 
 business men, one who commanded the respect of 
 his fellow citizens. 
 
 Born June 9, 1850, in the town of Hamden, New 
 Haven Co., Conn., son of Sackett G. and Mary Ann 
 (Tuttle) Benham, Air. Benham was descended from 
 early and prominent New England ancestry. The 
 forerunner and progenitor of many of the Connecti- 
 cut Benhams was John Benham, who, Savage says, 
 came probably in the ship "Mary and John," in 
 1630. For a time he stopped in Dorchester, Mass., 
 and removed to New Haven in 1640. His name 
 appears on a list of the planters of New Haven in 
 1643. From this emigrant ancestor the Benhams 
 of Hamden descended. 
 
 On his mother's side our subject was in the sev- 
 enth generation from William Tuttle, who, with his 
 wife Elizabeth, and three children, John, Ann and 
 Thomas, sailed from London, England, in the ship 
 "Planter," to Boston, in 1635. Mr. Tuttle was 
 listed as a husbandman, and became one of the 
 Colony to settle Ouinnipiac, or New Haven, in 1638. 
 His name is of record in 1639. The death of Will- 
 iam Tuttle occurred in 1673, and his wife Elizabeth 
 passed away in 1684. From this William Tuttle 
 our subject's line' of descent is through Nathaniel, 
 Ephraim, Caleb, Amasa and Alary A. (Tuttle) Ben- 
 ham. 
 
 Nathaniel Tuttle, son of William, born about 
 1652 in New Haven, married in 1682 Sarah Howe, 
 and probably lived for some time in Wallingford, 
 but later removed to Woodbury, where he united 
 with the church in 1695. 
 
 Ephraim Tuttle, son of Nathaniel, born in 1684, 
 married in 1707 Dinah, daughter of John Wheeler, 
 of Stratford, one of the signers of the town of 
 Woodbury. Mr. Tuttle probably resided in Wall- 
 ingford prior to settling in Woodbury, and united 
 with the church in Woodbury in 1718; his death oc- 
 curred in 1753. 
 
 Caleb Tuttle, son of Ephraim, born in 1721, mar- 
 ried Alary Terrill, who died in 1814. Mr. Tuttle 
 died in 1790. ' 
 
 Amasa Tuttle, son of Caleb, born in 1765, mar- 
 ried S>'ibil Wooster, and removed from Woodbury 
 to Derby, thence to Hamden, where he died in 
 1841, his wife surviving two vears. 
 
 Mary A. Tuttle, daughter of Amasa, born Oct. 
 8, 1806, married Sackett G. Benham, who was one 
 of the leading members of the Methodist Church 
 in Hamden, and there held many local offices, al- 
 ways winning the esteem of those with whom he 
 came in contact. 
 
 Joseph Tuttle Benham, our subject proper, at- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1297 
 
 tended the public schools of Hamden, and also those 
 of New Haven, the family having moved to that 
 city in 1861. After his school days were over he 
 was, for some years, engaged as clerk in various 
 business houses in New Haven. When twenty-one 
 years oi age, in 1871, he began a business career 
 on his own account, retailing, in a small way, hay, 
 grain and feed, at No. 27 Broadway, and, by his 
 energy, careful attention to business and good man- 
 agement, he developed his trade to large proportions 
 and prospered. At the time of his death his trade 
 was almost entirely wholesale, although he also con- 
 tinued a retail department. 
 
 As stated above, Mr. Benham's success was at- 
 tained by careful business methods and industry, 
 and to these qualities should -be added that of strict 
 integrity. A good financier, he invested his ac- 
 cumulations judiciously. During his twenty-eight 
 years of business life he held the full confidence of 
 his fellow citizens. He was courteous, kind and 
 generous, which traits of character made for him 
 hosts of friends. 
 
 Mr. Benham's political affiliations were with 
 the Republican party, the principles of which he 
 firmly adhered to and strongly advocated. Through 
 one term he served thfe city as alderman from the 
 Ninth ward, but declined a re-nomination. Mr. 
 Benham was a member of the Union League Club ; 
 Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M. ; Phoenix Lodge, A. O. U. 
 W. ; the Red Men; and the Royal Arcanum. In 
 November, 1888, he was elected a member of the 
 Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 On April 7, 1874, Mr. Benham married Miss 
 Lizzie Thompson, a daughter of Capt. W. B. and 
 Louise B. (Cobb) Thompson, of Nantucket, Mass., 
 where she was born. One child of this marriage, 
 Elliott T., died in infancy, and the relatives who 
 still survive Mr. Benham are his widow and one son, 
 Ralph Thompson, born July 27, 1885 ; a brother, 
 Gilbert S. Benham, postmaster of Hamden; and 
 three sisters, Mrs. Antoinette B. Hubbell and Mrs. 
 S. D. Miller, both of New Haven ; and Mrs. Charles 
 H. Jorey, of Seymour, Conii. Another sister, Mrs. 
 W. H. Cox, died several years ago. 
 
 CAPT. EDWIN CLINTON DOW, a dis- 
 tinguished member of the legal profession, now as- 
 sociate judge of the New Haven City Court, is a 
 veteran of the Civil war, and comes of good old 
 Revolutionary stock. . 
 
 Capt. Dow was born Aug. 22, 1835, m Pans, 
 Maine, a son of the Rev. Huse Dow, a noted clergy- 
 man of the Methodist Church, and his wife Zi pha 
 (Drake), both representatives of old New England 
 families. Paris is historic as the birthplace of 
 Maine's greatest statesman, the Hon. Hannibal 
 H'amlin, the vice-president of the United States dur- 
 ing the first administration of President Lincoln; 
 in Paris was also born William Deering whose 
 name is known far and wide as the head of the 
 Deering Harvester Company, of Chicago. On his 
 
 82 
 
 father's side Capt. Dow is descended from Jonathan 
 Dow, an early settler of Exeter, New Hampshire. 
 
 Benajah Dow, the Captain's grandfather, was 
 born July 25, 1770, in Exeter, where he married 
 Joanna Mitchell, who was born April 5, 1777. They 
 moved to Woodstock and there died, he in 1852, and 
 she in 1859. Of their seven children Huse Dow 
 was born in January, 1801. He married Zilpha 
 Drake, who was born March 6, 1805, a daughter of 
 Alpheus and Sybil (Fairbanks) E)rake, Oct. 9, 
 1824. Mr. Dow became an eloquent and successful 
 minister in the Methodist Church, and died May 25, 
 1842, in Jay, Maine, his widow surviving until 
 April 28, 1888, when she passed away at Gray, 
 Maine. To this couple were born children as fol- 
 lows : (i) Lorenzo, born in 1825, married for his 
 first wife Elizabeth Penfield, of Middletown, Conn., 
 and for his second wife Sabrina, the daughter of 
 Rev. James Smith, of Fayette, Maine. He went 
 west and became the first mayor of Topeka, Kan- 
 sas, playing a prominent part in the stormy politics 
 of the days before the war in that State, and was 
 chosen as one of the judges of the Supreme Court 
 under the Leavenworth Constitution. Later he was 
 a resident of the city of New York, where he died in 
 1900. (2) WilHam M., born in 1827 (died at Gray, 
 Maine, Feb. 24, 1902), was married in 1854 to Me- 
 hitable T. Libby, of Gray, Mafne. (3) Simon, born 
 in 1829, is a resident of Malta Bend, Mo. (4) Ed- 
 win Clinton. 
 
 On his mother's side Capt. Dow is a descendant 
 in the eighth generation from Thomas Drake, who 
 was born in Colyton, Devonshire, England, about 
 1635, was a son of William, and a follower of his 
 relative, John Drake, of Taunton, Mass., andi Wind- 
 sor, Conn., to New England about 1653. Settling 
 in Weymouth, Mass.,. he took an active part in King 
 Philip's war. His first wife, Jane, was a daughter 
 of Thomas Holbrook, of Weymouth. Mr. Drake 
 died in 1691. 
 
 From this emigrant ancestor, Thomas Drake, 
 Capt. Dow's line of descent is as follows: John, 
 Joseph, John (2), Ebenezer, Alpheus and Zilpha 
 (Drake) Dow. 
 
 John Drake, the son of Thomas, born in 1659, 
 married Sarah King, daughter of Samuel King, of 
 Weymouth, in 1687. They settled in Easton, where 
 he died in 171 7, and she in 1727. 
 
 Joseph Drake, son of John, born in Easton, mar- 
 ried Mercy, a daughter of Samuel Smith, of Taun- 
 ton, and was a soldier in the French and Indian 
 War, marching to the relief of Fort William Henry, 
 in 1757, in a company under command of Capt. 
 Ebenezer Dean. He died in 1780, and his wife in 
 
 1759- 
 
 John Drake (2), son of Joseph Drake, was born 
 
 in 1723, andi was married in 1750 to H&nnah, a 
 
 daughter of William Hayward. Mr. Drake died in 
 
 1759, and she in 1756. 
 
 Ebenezer Drake, son of John (2), was born m 
 
 1754, in Easton, and was married to his first wife. 
 
I2C 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Susannah Leavitt, in 1772, and to his second wife, 
 Martha Gurney, of Bridgewater, in 1782. Mr. 
 Drake settled in the town of Hebron, Maine, and 
 served throughout the Revolutionary war, and his 
 service in a number of organizations is a matter of 
 record. At different times he was in Capt. John 
 Porter's Company ; Capt. Jojiah Hayden's Com- 
 pany, of Col. John Thomas' regiment ; and Col. John 
 Porter's Light Infantry, in which he enlisted in 
 ,1777 for three years. Mr. Drake was at A'alley 
 Forge, and at the famous crossing of the Delaware 
 river, in which 'he crossed in the same boat with 
 Gen. Washington. He died at Sumner, Maine, in 
 1829. 
 
 Alpheus Drake, son of Ebenezer, was born in 
 Portland, Maine, Oct. 22, 1782, and was married 
 in 1804 to Sybil, daughter of Joseph and Sybil 
 (Grover) Fairbanks. Mr. Drake died in Portland 
 in 1854, and his widow passed away in Winthrop. 
 
 Edwin Clinton Dow received a common-school 
 ■education at Middletown, Conn., where he attended 
 Daniel H. Chase's ^Military school. After leaving 
 "there he went to Oxford, Conn., where he was first 
 ■employed as a mechanic. On the breaking out of 
 the Civil war he enlisted, May 23, 1861, in Company 
 F, 4th Conn. V. I., which later became Company F, 
 ist Conn. Heavy Artillery. He was mustered into 
 service as first lieutenant of the company. The regi- 
 ment was early commanded by Levi Woodhouse, 
 who was succeeded by Robert O. Tyler, of Hart- 
 ford, who became a brigadier general, and still later 
 a major-general. Under his thorough discipline and 
 even hand, the regiment became a model one, and 
 its record throughout the war in the Army of the 
 East is most creditable. The regiment, either as a 
 whole or in part, was present and participated, in 
 the following important events : the siege of York- 
 town ; the battles of Hanover Court House, Gaines' 
 Mills, Chickahominy, Golden Hill, Malvern Hill; 
 the siege of Fredericksburg, in 1862, and the battles 
 before that city the following spring and early sum- 
 mer ; Kelly's Ford, Orange Court House ; siege of 
 jPetersburg and Richmond ; Fort Fisher, N. C. ; and 
 ■the closing scenes of the great war. Gen. Barry, 
 chief of artillery, paid a high compliment to the 
 command in placing it in point of "intelligence and 
 the requirements and services of this special arm as 
 ninrivalled in the armies of the United States." 
 'Lieut. Dow was made captain of his company Nov. 
 '6, 1861, and throughout his long period of service, 
 ■closing Oct. 26, 1864, bore an honorable part in the 
 -fortunes of his regiment. Returning after his dis- 
 ■charge from the service, he took up the duties of 
 ■civil life at New Haven, where he has since proved 
 himself one of the honored and useful citizens of 
 that important center of the political, social and busi- 
 ness activities of the State. Studying law undfer the 
 instruction of E. P. Arvine, of New Haven, he was 
 admitted to the Bar in that city March 17, 1878. 
 From April, 1887, to September, 1892, Capt. Dow 
 -was assistant city attorney; from September, 1892, 
 
 to April, 1893, was city attorney, and for years has 
 ably and efficiently served the city as associate judge 
 of the city court. He has served two terms in the 
 city council. His religious affiliations are with the 
 First Methodist Church of New Haven. Frater- 
 nally he belongs to the Masons, affiliating with New 
 Haven Commandery, No. 2, K. T., and he is also a 
 member of the L O. O. F. As an active Repub- 
 lican, he belongs to the Young Men's Republican 
 League, and the L^nion League Club, of which latter 
 he has been vice-president. 
 
 Judge Dow was married Jan. 13, 1857, to Miss 
 Hester D., daughter of Zirah and Abigail (Downs) 
 Barnes, and to them were born the following chil- 
 dren : (i) Edwin Z., who has been for many years 
 in charge of a department in the 'Winchester Re- 
 peating Arms Co., married Grace French, and is the 
 father of three children, William (of New Haven), 
 Arthur, and Gardner. (2) Harry B. is general 
 traffic manager of the Winchester Repeating Arms 
 Co.; he married Alice Chatfield. (3) Mae B. mar- 
 ried Elbert E. Alunsell, agent of the Central States 
 Dispatch Co., at New Haven, and they have one 
 child, Dorothy W. 
 
 Captain Dow belongs to Admiral Foote Post, 
 No. 17, G. A. R., where he has filled all the local 
 offices ; for two terms he was Judge Advocate in 
 the State organization. A just and upright judge, 
 an honorable man, on whose name there is no stain, 
 he is a genial and popular gentleman, and both as a 
 citizen and as a man is highly regarded in New 
 Haven. 
 
 HENRY M. STATES, of New Haven, Conn., 
 well known in railroad circles, is a native of Con- 
 necticut, born in Stonington, April 8, 1848, a son 
 of Benjamin F. States, and a brother of James N. 
 States, mentioned elsewhere in this volume. 
 
 Henry M. States passed his early years in his na- 
 tive town, and acquired his literary training in the 
 public and private schools. When he took up life's 
 burden for himself, he went to New York City, and 
 there entered the employ of the Continental Fire 
 Insurance Co., with v/hom he remained about five 
 years. For several years he was engaged in travel- 
 ing through the South, and he then returned to New 
 York where he was connected with the street clean- 
 ing department in the capacity of foreman. This 
 was followed by three years as special agent for the 
 Pullman Palace Car Co., with headquarters at Jer- 
 sey City. The railroad service possesses a fascina- 
 tion that to many is almost irresistible and after 
 Mr. 'States had severed his connection with the 
 Pullman Company, he passed several years on the 
 road in various positions, serving as conductor, 
 baggage man, etc., until four years since, when he 
 located in New Haven, and entered the offices of 
 the New York, New Haven and Hartford road. 
 
 In June, 1870, Mr. States was united in mar- 
 riage with Mrs. Fannie L. Ober, of Brooklyn, a 
 daughter of John Hufif, of New York. This union 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1299 
 
 Has been blessed with one child. In his political 
 faith Mr. States is a Democrat, and for two years 
 served most acceptably as a member of the board of 
 public works. His religious connection is with the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 
 FREDERICK AARON HIGBY, foreman of 
 the castor department of Foster, Merriam & Co., 
 Meriden, was born Nov. 23, 1833, in Turin, Lewis 
 Co., N. Y., and is a descendant of Edward Higby, 
 the first of the name in Connecticut. 
 
 (I) Edward Highby, Hrgbie or Higfhbee, was 
 ast New Lonidon as early as 1648, and sold his house 
 there 'the next year. He was an innkeeper at Mid- 
 dietown. Conn., in 1674, and soon thereafter went 
 to Jamaica, Long Island. He was probably at 
 Huntington, Long Island, in 1683, and resided there 
 as late as 1701. His wife, Lydia, joined the Church 
 in Middiletown, Conn., in 1674, coming from First 
 Church at Hartford, and was dismissed on Oct. 14, 
 1677, with six children, to join the Church at Ja- 
 maica, Long Island. 
 
 (II) John Highby, born about 1656, died in 
 1688. He married Rebecca Treadwell, of Fairfield, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 (III) Edward Highby, baptized at Middletown, 
 Conn., Aug. 24, 1684, married Nov. 29, 1706, Re- 
 becca Wheeler, of Stratfield (now Bridgeport), 
 Conn. Mr. Highby and his wife united with the 
 Middletown Church April 26, 1713, and he was 
 dismissed Dec. 19, 1773, to form a new Church at 
 Westfield, Conn., where he died Nov. 21, 1775, in 
 the ninety-second year of his age.. His wife died 
 Oct. 22, 1771. From this branch of the Highby or 
 Higby family, Frederick A. Higby is descended. 
 
 Daniel Higby, Jr., the grandfather of our sub- 
 ject, was a native of Westfield, Middlesex Co., 
 Conn., born at the foot of Higby Mountain. His fa- 
 ther, Daniel Higby, Sr., removed from Westfield to 
 Constableville, Lewis Co., N. Y., with his family, 
 and became a farmer and landowner there, and con- 
 tinued to reside and was buried there. Daniel Higby, 
 Jr., went with his parents to Constableville, where 
 he followed farming and became a landed proprietor, 
 He married Margaret Cone, who wais a native of 
 Middlesex County, Conn., and both died and were 
 buried at Constableville, N. Y. They were the par- 
 ents of ten children: Daniel, the eldest, died in 
 Constableville; Sarah married Enoch Daniels, a 
 farmer of that place; Aaron; John, died in Mich- 
 igan; Asahel and William died in Constableville; 
 Olive married Philetus Hough; Silasi died in 
 Oneida Co., -N. Y.; Sophronia died young; and 
 Lucy was the wife of William Snyder, of Con- 
 stableville. 
 
 Aaron Higbv, son of Daniel and Margaret 
 (Cone) Higby, 'was born in Constableville, where 
 he grew to manhood on the farm. Before he was 
 twenty years old he came to Meriden and worked 
 for Frederick White in the manufacture of coffee 
 mills. He subsequently spent a short time in Wal- 
 
 lingford. On June i, 1829, he married Julia Brad- 
 ley, of. East Haven, a siister of the late Mrs. Ed- 
 mund Parker, of Meriden. In response to the wish 
 of 'his parents, he returned to his native place to 
 care for them' in their declining years, and to till the 
 home farm. Here he remained nine years, and after 
 the death of his parents returned to Meriden. 
 About 1840, he settled on a farm formerly owned by 
 Gen. Walter Booth, on North Colony street, includ- 
 ing the present site of the State School for BoyH, 
 and here tilled a large tract for several years. He 
 subsequently purchased the Liberty Perkins place, 
 on Ann street, now the property of 'his daughter, 
 Mrs. John C. Knight. He continued for many years 
 to work in the coffee mill department of the Charles 
 Parker Company. He passed away Jan. 13, 1880, 
 at the ripe age of iseventy-eight years, and was in- 
 terred in East Cemetery. He was a Democrat in 
 early life, but espoused the principles of the Re- 
 publican' party when the Civil war began, and ever 
 after continued that affiliation. Of quiet nature and 
 'Strictly tem'perate habits, he was an ihonored mem'ber 
 of the Methodist Church. He was a charter mem- 
 ber of Hancock Lodge, No. 28, I. O. O. F., of 
 Meriden. His wife survived him until Dec. 3, 1891, 
 dying in the eighty-third year of her age, and was 
 interred in East Cemetery. She was a' member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, a true Christian, 
 and a devoted wife and mother. Eight children 
 blessed the union of Aaron 'and Julia Higby, as fol- 
 lows : ( I ) Grace Ann, born March 23, 1830, married 
 Edward Benham, .of Cheshire. (2) Caroline, born 
 Nov. 25, 1831, died Feb. 10, 1867; she married 
 James William's, and had one child, Frederick, who 
 died in childhood. (3) Frederick Aaron is the sub- 
 ject of thisi notice. (4) Jasper L., born June 10, 
 1836, married (first) Celia Hull of North Haven, 
 and (second) Gertrude Buckley. He died at the 
 home of Musi. Knight, in Meriden, Aug. 11, 1901, 
 and was buried in East Cemetery ; he left a son, 
 Howard E., a resident of Pittsburg, Penn. (5) 
 Julia, born Nov. 10, 1837, died in 1840. (6) Julia 
 (2), born July 15, 1840, married, Dec. 3, 1867, John 
 C. Knight, whose biography appears in this volume. 
 
 (7) Louisa, born Jan. 24, 1844, died the same year. 
 
 (8) Geneva, born Sept. 15, 1847^ died Oct. 8, 1849. 
 During the gold excitement of 1849, ^^- Higby 
 
 made the trip to California, with several of his ac- 
 quaintances, including Capt. Woodruff, N. F. Gris- 
 wold and Charles Coe. Of all 'his companions, only 
 N. F. Griswold, of Meriden, is now living. They 
 went on a schooner, via Cape Horn, and returned 
 by steamer at the end of three years. 
 
 Frederick Aaron Higby was but seven years old 
 w'hen he came to '-Meriden with his parents, and here 
 attended the district schools.' Among his teachers 
 were a Miss Betsey Foster, and the venerable 
 Charles Hinsdale Collins, the well-known grocer of 
 Meriden. At an early age, Mr. Higby struck out 
 to do something for himiself, and was employed on 
 the farm of Ashbel Griswold during the summer, 
 
1300 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 attending ;school again in the winter. When six- 
 teen years old he went to work in the coffee mill de- 
 partment of the Charles Parker Co., receiving as 
 compensation six dollars per month and board, mak- 
 ing his home for a time in Mr. Parker's family, 
 and he remained in the shop until he attained his 
 majority. In 1854 he entered the service of Foster, 
 Merriam & Co., and has continued this connection 
 almost half a century, with the exception of three 
 yearist spent in defense of the Union. For a number 
 of years he has been foreman of the costor depart- 
 ment of that well-known estabKshment, and through 
 strict attention to business, has won the respect and 
 confidence of his employers, and the esteem of those 
 under his' direction. 
 
 On Aug. II, 1862, Mr. Higby enlisted in Mer- 
 iden in Co. F, 15th Conn. V I., under Capt. 
 A. L. Harvey and Col. Dexter R. Wright. 
 He continued' in the service until the close 
 of the war, and was in the Ninth Army Corps, un- 
 der Gen. Burnside. Receiving a furlough of thirty 
 days he came home, and at the close of his furlough, 
 was detailed in the commissary department at New 
 Haven, having charge of the local department un- 
 der Capt. Hart, of New York, who was Commis- 
 sary General at New Haven. 
 
 Air. Higby's first marriage occurred in jMeriden 
 May 6, 1856, the bride being Miss Mary Ann, 
 daughter of the late John Sutlif^, mention of whom 
 is made elsewhere. She was born March 23, 1832, 
 and died Feb. 22, 1859, leaving two children: Ida 
 M., born July 12, 1857, and William" F., Dec. 8, 
 i860, now a resident of Meriden." Mr. Higby was 
 married (second) Oct. 2, 1866, at Ansonia, Conn., 
 to Martha M. Joy, who was born at Newmarket, N. 
 H., a daughter of Eben and Mehitabel (Doe) Joy, 
 of that place. Three children came to this union: 
 (i) Harry, born Oct. 19, 1871, died in 1893. (2) 
 Edward Joy, born Sept. 17, 1873, is manager of the 
 F. Hallock hardware store at Derby, Conn. ; he mar- 
 ried Louisa Peck, of Anisonia. (3) Mary Caroline, 
 the third, is the wife of William R. Bannister, of 
 Meridcn, and hasi two children, Grace Esther and 
 Rowland Higby. Mr. Higby is an active member of 
 Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R., of Meriden, of 
 which he is Past Commander, and of Pilgrims' 
 Harbor Council, No. 543, Royal Arcanum. Mrs. 
 Higby is active in the work of the Womans Relief 
 Corps, being identified with the local corps, in which 
 she has served as president and chaplain. The fam- 
 ily attend the Congregational Church. Mr. Higby 
 endeavorsi to live up to the requirements of the 
 golden rule, and is regarded as a good citizen by 
 those privileged to know him. Attached to his 
 home, family and friends, he does not seek the hon- 
 ors or emoluments of official station, but acts the 
 part of a true patriot by voting for bis convictions, 
 ulsually acting with the Republican party. 
 
 Timothy M. Joy, grandfather of Mrs. Higby, 
 was born July 16, 1789, at Durham, N. H., and after 
 a life passed in agricultural pursuits, died there 
 
 June 18, 1813, from exposure while serving in the 
 war of 1812. On Sept. 13, 1807, at Lee, N. H., Mr. 
 Joy was married by Rev. John Osborn, to Miss Mary 
 French, who wais born at Stratham, Vt., Feb. 13, 
 1790, and died at New Market, N. H., Feb. 18, 
 1867. Their children were: Alfred T., born in 
 Durham, Sept. 5, 1808; Mary S., born at Middleton, 
 N. H., Jan. 22, 1810, married William Badger, Jan. 
 18, 1827; and Eben J., born at New Market, Nov. 
 30, 1812. Timothy M. Joy was a descendant in the 
 sixth generation from- Thomas Joy, who came from 
 England in 1757, and settled at Boston; he was an 
 architect, and built the first town bouse there. 
 
 Eben J. Joy, son of Timothy, passed bis life in 
 his native town, and followed tanning and farming. 
 On Feb. 28, 1833, he married Mehitabel M. Doe, 
 who was born at Durham, Sept. 13, 1813, and now 
 re'siides/ in New Market. Three of the twelve chil- 
 dren born of this union, died in infancy. The others 
 were: Sarah M., born Sept. 20, 1836, married 
 Charles A. Dearborn, of New Market, in i860; 
 William W., born March 20, 1838, died June 3, 
 1900; Mary L., born Feb. 27, 1840, married in 1858, 
 D. K. Foster, of New Market, and died February, 
 1868; Martha M., born April 12, 1842, married 
 Frederick A. Higby; Timothy M., born May 5, 
 1846; Ida E., born July 18, 1848, married in 1879, 
 Henry H. Murray, of Burlington, Kans. ; George 
 E., born Dec. 15, 1850; Edward H., born March i, 
 1853 ; Charles F., born Jan. 26, 1856. 
 
 JOHN ROBERT STREAT TODD, one of 
 Wolcott's prosperous fruit growers and farmers, 
 was born March 7, 1846, on the Todd homestead in 
 that town, and is a representative of an old and 
 highly esteemed family of New Haven county. The 
 first to locate here was Christop'her Todd, son of 
 William, of Pontefract, Yorkshire, England. He 
 married Grace Middlebrook, a daughter of Michael 
 Middlebrook, of Hold Mills, same county, and later 
 came to America, becoming one of the first settlers 
 of Davenport, in the New Haven Colony, in 1637. 
 He owned a large tract of land, and was engaged in 
 farming, milling and baking. His children were 
 John, Samuel, Mercy, Grace, Michael and Nancy. 
 
 Samuel Todd, son of Christopher, was born in 
 New Haven in 1645, ^"d succeeded his father in 
 business. On Nov. 26, 1668, he wedded Mary 
 Bradley, a daughter of William Bradley, and died 
 in 1714. In his family were eleven children: Sam- 
 uel, Joseph, Mary, Sarah, Joseph, Hannah, Joiiah, 
 Daniel, Abigail, Mercy and James. 
 
 Samuel Todd (2), born July i, 1672, was a 
 farmer and land owner of North Haven, and served 
 as deacon of the church. He died in December, 
 1 741. In September, i6g8, he married Susannah 
 Tuttle, and for his second wife he married Esther 
 Maltby. His children were Lydia, wife of Rev. 
 Benjamin Doolittle, of Northfield, Mass. ; Caleb ; 
 Stephen, also a resident of Northfieldi;, Mehitable ; 
 Christopher; Samuel, the first pastor in the North 
 
r 
 
^^^^^^^^^T'^^V^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1301 
 
 parish of Waterbury, Conn. ; Susannah, wife of 
 Rev. Caleb Humiston; and Elizabeth, wife of Dea- 
 con Samuel Sackett. 
 
 Caleb Todd, son of Samuel (2), was born Feb. 
 2, 1700, and became a farmer and land owner in 
 North Haven, where he died July 5, 1737. On 
 Dec. 15, 1725, he wedded Mary Ives, a daughter 
 of Samuel Ives, and tO' them^ were born three chil- 
 dren : Phoebe, wife of David Blakeslee ; Hezekiah ; 
 and Bethia, wife of Mathew Gilbert. 
 
 Hezekiah Todd, son of Caleb, was born May 
 2, 1728, was reared on a farm in North Haven, and 
 lived there all his life. He was married in North 
 Haven, Jan. 17, 1753, to Lydia Frost, a daughter of 
 Ebenezer Frost. Their children were Caleb; Heze- 
 kiah ; Bethuel ; Lydia, wife of Joel Sackett, of North 
 Hiaven ; Moses ; Oliver ; Joel ; and Phabe, who 
 married Parker Bates, and died in Southington. 
 
 Hezekiah Todd (2) was born- Nov. 5, 1755, 
 moved from North Haven to Cheshire in 1783, and 
 passed the remainder of his life on a farm near 
 Judd's Hill, in Wolcott. The place has always been 
 kept in the family, and is now owned and occupied 
 by Edwin A. Todd, his great-grandson. Hezekiah 
 Todd (2) died there May 18, 1836. In January, 
 1783, he married Mercy Holt, a daughter of Joseph 
 and Hannah (Blakeslee) Holt. She died Sept. 12, 
 1819. Children were bom to them as follows: 
 Hannah, born April 13, 1784, married Freeman 
 Upson; Jerry was born Dec. 3, 1785; Lydia, born 
 Dec. 7, 1789, married Joseph Holt, of Waterbury, 
 ard died in Wisconsin; Streat, the grandfather of 
 our subject, was next in the order of birth ; Mercy 
 Meli'nda, born June 11, 1794, died unmarried Jan. 
 22, 1822; Lucina, born March 7, 1796, was mar- 
 ried May 2, 1822, to Samuel J. Holmes, of Water- 
 bury; and Polly Ann, born May 12, 1800, was mar- 
 ried, in December, 1824, to Timothy Porter, of 
 Waterbury. 
 
 Streat' Todd was born Aug. 27, 1792, in Che- 
 shire, and followed farming and butchering, fur- 
 nishing Waterbury with meat almost entirely for 
 fourteen years, doing the butchering on his farm 
 in Wokott, and carrying the meat to Waterbury 
 every day to supply customers. In 1836 he left the 
 business to his son Ransom, who continued it until 
 his death, in 1857. Streat Todd was a self-edu- 
 cated as well as a self-made man, was industrious, 
 upright and honorable, and a consistent m.ember of 
 the Congregational Church. He died Oct. 25, i860, 
 on the farm in Cheshire now owned and occupied 
 by Ed-win A. Todds and was laid to rest in the 
 family burying ground at Woodtick. On Feb. 16, 
 181 s he married Ruth W. Welton, a native of 
 Wolcott, who died April 2, 1879, in Waterbury, 
 aged eighty-six. In their family were the follow- 
 ing children : Ransom S. born Jan. 1-8, 1816; 
 Jenette, born Aug. 17, i8i7. who married Harry 
 Thomas, and died May 19, 1836; Robert C. born 
 April 21, 1820; Edwin, iborn Jan. 30, 1823 ; James, 
 bom^ Oct. 18, 1825; William S. audi Wilhs H., 
 
 twins, who were born Jan. 19, 1828, the former dy- 
 ing Dec. 12, 1833, the latter Nov. 9, 1871 ; Franklin, 
 who was born Nov. 24, 1832, married Adaline 
 Thomas, and removed to Ohio, now living in York, 
 Medina county ; Eveline, who was born July 29, 
 1834, and is the widow of Nelson Morris, of Water- 
 bury; Jane; and William S., born May 20, 1838, 
 now of Waterbury, who was married Nov. 28, 1862, 
 to Emogene Miner. 
 
 Robert C. Todd was born April 21, 1820, and ob- 
 tained a good practical education in the district 
 schools of Wolcott. He followed farming upon 
 the place now occupied by the subject of this sketch, 
 and at one time owned 300 acres of land. Politically 
 he was a stanch supporter of the Democratic party. 
 He was highly respected and esteemed by all who 
 knew him. He died Oct. 19, 1895, and was buried 
 in the Woodtick cemetery. On April 2, 1843, he 
 married Miss Louisa Barnes, of Cheshire, who 
 found a pleasant home with our subject, and died 
 June 30, 1901, at the ripe old age of seventy-eight 
 years. Five children were born to them, namely : 
 Ellen E., born April 2, 1844, died June 11, 1865; 
 John R. S., our subject, is next in thf order of 
 hnth ; Emily J., born Feb. 26, 1848, died Oct. 14, 
 1856; James Augustine, born Oct. 29, 1851, is men- 
 tioned more fully below ; and Edwin A., born Jan. 
 21, 1854, is a resident of Cheshire. 
 
 James A. Todd received a district-school edu- 
 cation and was reared upon the home farm. At the 
 age of seventeen years he started out in life for 
 himself, finding employment in the silverware fac- 
 tory of Rogers Brothers, as an assistant in the 
 office, where he remained two years, and later was 
 a traveling salesman for the same firm for twelve 
 years. He then went to Newburyport, Mass., and 
 became connected with the solid silver works of the 
 Towle Manufacturing Co., as secretary. In 1888 he 
 removed to Chicago, III, to take charge of their 
 business in that city, where he still remains. He is 
 now vice-president of the company. He has been 
 twice married, his first wife being Lucella Upson, 
 daughter of Lucian Upson, and his second Han- 
 nah Leek Holley, of Nev^^ York. 
 
 The early education of John R. S. Todd, which 
 was obtained in the district schools, was supple- 
 mented by a course at a business college, and for a 
 time he 'successfully engaged in teaching school 
 during the winter months, while he aided in the 
 work of the farm during the summer season. He 
 has always remained on the old homestead, en- 
 gaged in agricultural pursuits. He has planted a 
 fine peach orchard, being extensively engaged in 
 fruit growing, also follows dairying and general 
 farming, and is interested in stock raising. 
 
 On Nov. 19, 1889, Mr. Todd was united in mar- 
 riag-e with Miss Edith Williams, a lady of culture 
 and refinement, who was graduated from the New 
 Haven high school, and for a time successfully en- 
 gaged, in teaching school in Wolcott. They have 
 two children: Ruth Irene, born Nov. 10, 1890; and 
 
I302 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Oscar Bai-num, born Aug. 3, 1892. Mrs. Todid' is 
 a native of Betliel, Fairfield Co., Conn., a daughter 
 of Jerome B. and Mary (Barnum) Williams, na- 
 tives of Bethel and Easton, respectively. Mr. Todd 
 is a member of the Agricultural Society and a 
 charter member of JXIad River Grange, to which 
 his wife also belongs. He has been quite promi- 
 nently identified with local politics; has filled the 
 oifice of selectman for fifteen years ; and has also 
 ser^•ed as assessor, tax collector and justice of the 
 peace. His public service has been most exemplary, 
 and his private life has been marked by the utmost 
 fidelity to duty. He is therefore numbered among 
 the most valued and highly esteemed citizens of his 
 native town. 
 
 EDWIN A. TODD. Prominent among the 
 successful farmers and fruit growers of New Ha- 
 ven county may be named Edwin A. Todd, whose 
 home is in Cheshire, and who, by his enterprise and 
 energy in the direction of his chosen industry, has 
 given to his work a significance and beauty of which 
 few deemed it capable. 
 
 A native of New Haven county, Mr. Todd was 
 born in Wolcott, Jan. 21, 1854, and on the paternal 
 side is of English descent, being a grandson of 
 Streat and Ruth W. (Walton) Todd. His father, 
 Robert C. Todd, was born in April, 1820, in Wol- 
 cott, where he continued to make his home until 
 he came with his father to Cheshire, where be fol- 
 lowed farming for a time. After 'his marriage he 
 returned to Wolcott, where his death occurred Oct. 
 ig, 1895. In 1843, in Cheshire, he married Miss 
 Louisa Barnes, a native of that town, and a daugh- 
 ter of John and Roxana (Peck) Barnes, who were 
 also born in Cheshire. Mrs. TTodd died June 30, 
 1901, in Wolcott, aged seventy-eight years. She 
 was the mother of five children : Ellen E., who 
 died at the age of twenty-one years ; John R. S., a 
 resident of Wolcott ; Emily, who died at the age of 
 eight years ; James A., a resident of La Grange and 
 business man of Chicago, 111. ; and Edwin A. 
 
 Ed^vin A. Todd grew to manhood on the home 
 farm and acquired his literary education in the 
 schools of Wolcott. On laying aside his text- 
 books and starting out in life for himself he en- 
 gaged in farming, andi in 1885 located upon the old 
 homestead in Cheshire, where Hezekiah Todd, his 
 great-grandfather, settled over a century ago, mak- 
 ing it his home until his death. Mr. Todd has made 
 many improvements upon the place, which com- 
 prises 150 acres , of land, and now gives special at- 
 tention to fruit culture, having a fine plum and 
 peach orchard from which he derives a good in- 
 come. His handsome and commodious residence 
 was erected in 1896. 
 
 On March 5, 1889, in Cheshire, Mr. Todd was 
 united in marriage with Miss Jennie B. Hotchkiss, 
 a native of that town, and a daughter of Henry and 
 Rosetta (Beecher) Hotchkiss, the former of whom 
 was born in Naugatuck, Conn., and died in Chesh- 
 
 ire, Alay 8, 1893. The mother was born Sept. i, 
 1816, in Litchfield, Conn., and died May 13, 1897, 
 in Naugatuck. Mr. Todd and his wife have one 
 child, Louise Beecher. In his political views Mr. 
 Todd is independent, and supports the men whom 
 he believes best qualified to fill public offices, regard- 
 less of party lines. He is a member of St. Peter's 
 Episcopal Church, as is also his wife, and of the 
 Grange in Cheshire. He has always the good of 
 the community at heart, and is justly regarded as 
 one of the most progressive citizens of his town. 
 
 ISRAEL A. KELSEY, capitalist, financier and 
 promoter, who died Sept. 4, 1900, was one of the 
 most enterprising and successful business men in 
 New Haven county, if not in the State of Connecti- 
 cut, his name in connection with the development of 
 mines, electric street railroads and other enterprises 
 of magnitude being "familiar as household words." 
 
 Mr. Kelsey was a native of Connecticut, and a 
 son of George R. and Virginia (Wright) Kelsey, 
 and was born May 6, 1859, in West Haven, 
 New Haven county, near the elegant home still 
 occupied by his family. He received his earlier 
 education at the common schools of the dis- 
 trict, subsequently attended for a time Gen. Rus- 
 sell's military school, in New Haven city. Dur- 
 ing his vacations he clerked on a steamboat, 
 and at the age of sixteen years accompanied 
 by his father, he made a trip to Jacksonville, Fla., 
 as manager of his father's steamboat "Pastime," 
 commanded by Capt. Robert Eldridge, of Fair Ha- 
 ven. His father sent this boat originally to St. 
 Augustine, used it one winter in the passenger ser- 
 vice, and the next year took a government contract 
 for carrying the mail. When Israel A. went to 
 Florida the "Pastime" was running on the St. John 
 river from Jacksonville past Palatka, and as far up 
 the river as Enterprise. The father took his son 
 to the Ambler Bank, in Jacksonville, and said to 
 the president: "This is my son Israel A. Kelsey; 
 he isn't of age, but he has the management of the 
 steamboat on St. John's river. Whenever he wants 
 any money or any financial assistance let him have 
 it, and I will be responsible." The official assented 
 readily, and young Kelsey was thus launched upon 
 a business career which was uniformly successful 
 to the close of his life. His training had been thor- 
 ough and practical, having been carried on in the 
 school of actual experience, and its value was amply 
 proved. Father and son corresponded daily. Shortly 
 after the latter's location in Jacksonville, Capt. 
 Eldridge returned to Fair Haven sick with con- 
 sumption, leaving our subject in entire charge of 
 affairs. His father built and sent down other boats, 
 the "Georgia," "G. R. Kelsey," and "Spitfire," 
 which ran on the St. John and its tributaries, and 
 the son was manager of the line, having the super- 
 vision of no less than seven boats ; he became the 
 owner of stock in this line. During his four years' 
 experience in Florida, as captain of the "Pastime," 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1303 
 
 general manager of the business, keeping all the 
 accounts and seeing to the carrying of the mails, he 
 developed rare business ability, seldom equaled by 
 on€ of his age. 
 
 In 1880, having sold the "Pastime" and the 
 "Georgia," Mr. Kelsey returned North and settled 
 in West Haven, where he embarked in the manu- 
 facture of suspenders, soon afterward, however, 
 selling out and engaging for a time in the making 
 of shot and shell cartridges, first in New Haven, 
 and later in West Haven. In 1883 when the Amer- 
 ican Buckle & Cartridge Co. was established, he be- 
 came president and treasurer of the corporation. In 
 1885 he was elected secretary of the New Haven & 
 West Haven Horse Railway Co., to which position 
 he gave considerable attention. In 1889, after the 
 death of his father, he was elected president of the 
 company, and continued as such until it was sold to 
 a Boston syndicate, when A. C. Pond became presi- 
 dent, and Mr. Kelsey vice-president. In 1892 he 
 became general manager of the Winchester Avenue 
 Road, of which he was a large stockholder until a 
 few weeks before his decease, and with which the 
 New Haven & West Haven Electric Railway was 
 consolidated. He was made vice-president, secre- 
 tary and treasurer thereof, and these incumbencies 
 he filled with the utmost satisfaction to all con- 
 cerned until 1898, when he resigned the offices of 
 secretary and treasurer, and continued in that of 
 vice-president until July, 1899. Under the manage- 
 ment the West Haven railroad receipts increased 
 from $S,ooo to $27,000 per annum. Mr. Kelsey 
 was a pioneer in the successful use of electricity as 
 a motive power for street cars, and a prominent 
 promoter of electric street railways. During the 
 last ten years of his life he acquired and equipped 
 in Connecticut, putting in • electricity, the Middle- 
 town Electric road (of which he was president), 
 extending it to the limits of Portland ; the Portland 
 street road; the Enfield & Long Meadow & West 
 Shore road to Woodmont, via Savin Rock; the 
 Corning street road; the New London street road 
 (which he bought but retained only a few months) ; 
 and the Ohio Central Traction road (of which he 
 was president). At the time of his death he was a. 
 director of a road in Bangor, Maine ; one in Dan- 
 bury, Conn.; the Milford, Holliston & Framing- 
 ham Street Railroad Co.; the Middletown Street 
 Railroad Co. ; the Enfield & Long Meadow Tram- 
 way Co.; the Puerto-Principe Tramway Co.; and 
 the Puerto-Principe Electric Co. While connected 
 with the New Haven road he had it double tracked, 
 from end to end, and, taken all in all, it may be 
 truthfully said of him that he built and super- 
 intended more street railroads than any other man 
 in the United States. In addition, Mr. Kelsey was 
 one of the organizers and treasurer of the Bingham 
 & Eastern Copper Mining Co., at No. 42 Church 
 street. New Haven, where he had his office; was a 
 stockholder in the West Haven Buckle Co. ; presi- 
 dent of the West Haven Water Co. ; and vice-presi- 
 
 dent and' a director of the New Haven Evening 
 Leader Co. He was also a large stockholder in 
 various other enterprises. In real estate he dealt 
 extensively, and owned considerable. He developed 
 much of West Haven, andi built as many as twenty 
 houses there, his own residence being one of the 
 largest and handsomest in the village. On March 
 20, 1892, Mr. Kelsey was elected a member of the 
 Chamber of Commerce. He was endowed with 
 wonderful executive ability, was progressive and 
 enterprising, a close student of public affairs, broadi- 
 minded on all questions, and had the highest repu- 
 tation for strict honesty and sterling integrity. His 
 influence was always exerted for good. 
 
 In politics Mr. Kelsey was a Republican, and 
 served on the town and State committees, as chair- 
 man of the former, and as a delegate to several 
 conventions. He held various offices of responsi- 
 bility and trust, such as burgess several years. In 
 1893 he represented Orange in the State Legisla- 
 ture, and was chairman of the Finance committee 
 and also of the Library committee; he introduced 
 and carried several measures in the interest of his 
 town, including a system of concrete sidewalks all 
 over the village of West Haven, thereby making it 
 one of the finest of its size in the State, which 
 measure was put through by him in the face of 
 great opposition, the "fight" lasting some six 
 months. Fraternally Mr. Kelsey was a member of 
 the F. & A. M., Annawan Lod'ge, No. 115; of the 
 R. A. M., Franklin Chapter; Harmony Council; 
 and of the Commandery — all of New Haven; and 
 of Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine, Bridgeport. 
 He was a charter member of Samoset Club, of 
 which he was vice-president, having declined the 
 presidency. While in Florida he was a member of . 
 the 1st Florida Light Artillery. 
 
 On Nov. II, 1879, in Palatka, Fla., Israel A. 
 Kelsey married Miss Elizabeth Lyle Fairbrother, 
 who was born in New York, eldest child of Albert 
 C. Fairbrother, who for some years was in business 
 at Mystic, Conn. Three children were bom to this 
 union: George R. and Alberta (twins), and Vir- 
 ginia W. The family home is at No. 124 Center 
 street. West Haven. 
 
 Mr. Kelsey had hosts of friends, among whom 
 he was highly popular, always affable and polite, 
 and ever ready to assist any enterprise tending to 
 the public convenience or welfare. An enthusiastic 
 yachtsman, he was the owner of a fine yacht, and, 
 withal, he was a royal entertainer and a generous- 
 hearted man. 
 
 SEYMOUR GILBERT LINSLEY, one of the 
 popular citizenisi of Branford, is a capable and ener- 
 getic business man, with every indication of a rosy 
 future. He was born in Branford, Nov. 10, 1865, a 
 son of Gilbert and Maria (Hill) Linsley. 
 
 Malacbi Linsley, his paternal grandfather, was 
 a native of Branford. He made his home at what 
 was known as Double Beach, and was engaged in 
 
1304 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 farming all his life. Hig children were as follows : 
 William ; Franklin ; Ellen, who became the wife 
 of John Bradley ; Gilbert ; Charles ; Mariette, who 
 married C. O. Russell; Edgar; and George. 
 
 Gilbert Linsley, the father of Seymour G., was 
 reared to manhood in Branford, and In early life 
 became a farmer. From 1865 to 1874 he held the 
 position of a sleeping car conductor on the N. Y., 
 N. H. & H. R. R., between New York and Boston. 
 In 1876 he took charge of a hotel at Branford, and 
 for sixteen years was fhe popular and successful 
 landlord of the Linsley House. He died Jan. 23, 
 1893, at the age of sixty-two years, mourned by a 
 host of friends, and greatly missed by the traveling 
 public. His wife was Maria Hill, a daughter of 
 Philip and Anna (Cross) Hill, the former a tailor 
 of Wastbrook. Their children were as follows: 
 Russell L. ; Seymour G. and Dora (twins) of whom 
 the latter married Daniel E. Linsley; Ellen M., who 
 married Thomias Alatczynski ; Sarah E., wife of 
 Sedgwick Allen ; and Malachi H. 
 
 Seymour Gilbert Linsley was reared in Bran- 
 ford, where he attended the public schools, and foj 
 twelve years assisted hi'si father in the hotel business. 
 For some three and a half years he had the entire 
 management of the hotel, and in 1896 became the 
 proprietor of a cafe and buffet, in which he still 
 continues. 
 
 On May 16, 1893, Mr. Linsley was married to 
 Margaret, a daughter of Daniel and Ellen Gorman, 
 of Ansontia, Conn., and one son, Herbert Seymour, 
 has blessed their union. In hisi religious connections 
 Mr. Linsley belongs to the Episcopal Church. So- 
 cially he is a member of Totoket Lodge, No. 22, 
 Foresters of America, at Branford, and Lodge No! 
 25, B. P. O. of E. at New Haven. In politics he is 
 a Democrat. 
 
 _ SHERWOOD S. THOMPSON, whose standi 
 mg m the social and commercial world of New Ha- 
 ven IS without a blemish, is one of the progressive 
 and honorable business men of the city whom all 
 good citizens are delighted to honor. 
 
 The name of Thompson has been handed down 
 in the annals of New England from the time of 
 Anthony Thompson, who emigrated from England, 
 and settled in New Haven in 1639. He signed the 
 Colony Constitution the same year, and took the 
 oath of allegiance in 1644. He was mentioned in 
 the first and second divisions of land, and as having 
 an estate of £150. Four persons were mentioned 
 m his family, himself and three children. Nothino- 
 IS known of his first wife. After his death which 
 occurred in the latter part of March, 1648, his sec- 
 ond wife, Katherine. married Nicholas Camp of 
 Miliord, Conn. Anthony Thompson in his will 
 mentions bis sons John and Anthony and his. daugh- 
 ter Bridgett, by his first wife, his two younger 
 daughters, and his brothers John and William. 
 His son Ebenezer was born after his death. 
 
 (II) John Thompson, a mariner, son of the 
 
 emigrant, was born about 1632 in England. He 
 and his wife Ellen had the following children: John, 
 Joseph, Mary, Samuel and Sarah L. 
 
 (III) Joseph Thompson, son of John, was born 
 April 8, 1664, and died Dec. 14, 1711. He married 
 Elizabeth Smith, and they had the following chil- 
 dren : Anna, Joseph, Stephen, Jonathan and Eben- 
 ezer. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Thompson, son of Joseph, was 
 born March 5, 1703, and died July 5, 1745. He 
 married Hannah Smith, and their children were: 
 Mabel, Esther, Jeduthan and Mary. 
 
 (V) Jeduthan Thompson, son of Joseph, was 
 killed by the British where the Webster school now 
 stands, at the corner of York and George streets. 
 ["Connecticut Men in the Revolution."] He mar- 
 ried Thankful Beardsley, and became the father of 
 Thankful, Eunice and Joseph. 
 
 (\T) Joseph Thompson, son of Jeduthan-, died 
 July 23, 1856. He married Mary Ann Sharp, and 
 they had the following children: Fanny, Cynthia, 
 Louisa, Jeduthan (father of our subject), Charles^ 
 George, Lucinda, Joseph and Jane. 
 
 (VII) Jeduthan Thompson was born Feb. 8, 
 1809, and died Dec. 19, 1850. He married Amanda 
 C. Hockin, who was born in New Haven in 1814 
 and died Jan. 24, 1889. She was a daughter of 
 Charles and Clarinda Hockin, and granddaughter 
 of Joseph Hockin, who came from Massachusetts. 
 Joseph Hockin and his son Charles were merchants 
 on Broadway, in New Haven. To Jeduthan and 
 Amanda C. Thompson were born four children, as 
 follows: EHas, Horace, Susie and Sherwood 
 Stratton. 
 
 ^ (VIII) Sherwood Stratton Thompson was born 
 m New Haven Nov. 14, 1844, and attended the 
 Webster school. He 'was only six years of age 
 when his father died, and was obliged to go to work 
 at the age of fifteen, when he entered the dry-goods 
 store of S. L. Smith, as clerk; he slept on the 
 counter nights. Here he continued for a period of 
 about two years, when the Civil war broke out, and 
 at the age of seventeen, in 1862, he enlisted in Com- 
 pany A, 27th C. V. During his service he was pro- 
 moted to corporal. When his term of enlistment 
 expired, at the end of nine months, he returned to 
 New Haven and engaged in the baking business 
 with S. S. Twitchell, under the firm name of 
 Twitchell & Thompson, on York street, where he is 
 now locatedi. It was an old business, established in 
 1829. Upon the death of Mr. Twitchell, in 1874, 
 Mr. Thompson assumed entire control, under the 
 firm name of S. S. Thompson & Co., which is the 
 style of the firm to-day; Mr. Thompson is sole 
 owner. The business has grown until it is now the 
 finest bakery in New England. He has built a large 
 brick factory, well equipped with all modern 
 machinery, and does a wholesale business exclu- 
 sively. 
 
 For his first wife Mr. Thompson married Mary 
 J. blair, by whom he had one daughter, NelKe B., 
 
O) h.£yi.<yi/-o-vr:jL-. ^) 4>^^-r-7i-t^/i^<^:-t»-f-t- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1305 
 
 who married Henry L. Pardee, of New Haven. On 
 Dec. 24, 1878, he married Ellen Louise Sanford, 
 who was born in Newtown, Conn., Jan. 22, 1850, 
 daughter of Capt. Julius and Mary Elizabeth ( Par- 
 sons) Sanford. Mr. Sanford was born Aug. 27, 
 1819, and died Nov. i, 1879. His father, Josiah, 
 traced his line back through Samuel (4), Samuel 
 (3), Samuel (2), and Samuel (i), to Thomas San- 
 ford, the settler. Mary Elizabeth Parsons traced 
 her line back through her father, Moses Parsons, 
 of Newtown, William, Nathaniel and Phillip (2), 
 to Phillip Pa-rsons. Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood S. 
 Thompson have one son, Paul Sanford, born Sept. 
 10, 1882. Politically Mr. Thompson is a Republi- 
 can, and he has always taken a live interest in his 
 city, politically, socially and religiously. He served 
 as councilman, two years ; alderman and acting 
 mayor ; park commissioner, two years ; member of 
 the board of education, one year ; and is now police 
 commissioi?er. H>; is a member of Admiral Foote 
 Post, G. A. R. ; the Army and Navy Club ; Union 
 League ; Young Men's Republican Club ; New Ha- 
 ven Colony Historical Society ; Sons of the Ameri- 
 can Revolution ; Waltonian Club ; Chamber of Com- 
 merce ; and is a member of the Founders and Patri- 
 ots Association. Fraternally he has been identified 
 with Harmony Lodge, L O. O. F., since Jan. 2, 
 1867; Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. F. & A. M., since 
 Nov. 22, 1866; Franklin Chapter, R. A. M., since 
 Nov. 7, 1871 ; Harmony Council, R. & S. M. ; New 
 Haven Commandery, Knights Templar, since Dec. 
 15, 1871 ; the Mystic Shrine, since December, 1899; 
 and Israel Putnam Lodge, A. O. U. W., since 
 March 8, 1888. In religious faith he is an Episco- 
 palian, and he is a vestryman of Trinity Church. 
 
 The following appeared in the New Haven 
 Leader of April 29, 1893, under the caption "A 
 Gifted Soprano :" 
 
 "Mrs. Thompson has long been a favorite with 
 all who appreciate the worth of the human voice. 
 Even those whose musical talents are almost wholly 
 undeveloped have never failed to be charmed with 
 the singing of Mrs. Thompson. She has long been 
 a favorite with the New Haven public and audi- 
 ences in other cities, where the highest praise has 
 been accorded her. Mrs. Thompson is a daughter 
 of Capt. Julius Sanford, of Newtown, Conn., and 
 was born in New Haven, Conn. She began sing- 
 ing almost before she could talk, .and at the age of 
 nine vears began singing in the historical Trinity 
 Church of Newtown, continuing to delight all who 
 heard her, during which time her mother played the 
 church organ. When Mrs. Thompson was sixteen 
 years old her father returned from, the war; he 
 found his health impaired, and he determined to 
 sell his little house in Newtown and moved to New 
 Haven ; hence Mrs. Thompson, then Miss Sanford, 
 became a resident of the city. She had resided m 
 the city but a little while when her remarkable 
 ability and splendid voice attracted the attention of 
 the leading musical people. In July, 1867, at the 
 
 age of seventeen, she became a member of the Cen- 
 ter Church choir. It was then thought that her 
 voice was too weak for church work and only good 
 for concerts, and she was sent as a substitute to the 
 old Third Church, and was so successful that she 
 received more encouragement. 
 
 "In April, 1868, she became a soprano singer in 
 the quartet choir in Trinity Church at Bridgeport. 
 She remained there two years, and then returned to 
 the Center Church, as soloist, receiving a very 
 much larger salary than had ever been paid her at 
 Bridgeport. Her voice had grown much stronger, 
 and she was considered by far the "best soprano 
 singer in the State. She made her debut in concert 
 music in old Music Hall, April 8, 1869. She re- 
 ceived most extravagant applause and merited it. 
 It was during June of 1869 that the Peace Jubilee 
 was given in Boston. There was a chorus of 160 
 voices from New Haven, and the morning the sing- 
 ers departed a concert was given at which Mrs. 
 Thompson sang the Tnflammatus,' which was 
 thought to be one of the most remarkable perform- 
 ances of the period, for her success was complete, 
 and she was then only nineteen years of age. She 
 sang in the second Peace Jubilee in 1872, in Boston, 
 being a member of the 'Bouquet of Artists.' Dur- 
 ing several of the following years she sang fre- 
 quently, two or three times a week in concerts in 
 different cities, besides teaching a large class of pu- 
 pils. As a teacher she was always successful. She 
 remained in Center Church until 1874. She then 
 accepted a position in the College Street Congrega- 
 tional Church for two years, returning to Center 
 Church at the end of that time at a salary of one 
 thousand dollars. She sang solo parts in the follow- 
 ing oratorios given by the New Haven Oratorio 
 Society: "The Prodigal Son," "The Woman of 
 Samaria," "Naaman" and "Elijah." 
 
 "In 1885 she sang with success in Congress 
 Park, Saratoga, the large and critical audiences 
 there according her applause and attentions that 
 were of the most flattering character — singers and 
 artists of world-wide reputation complimented her 
 highly on the excellence of her performances and 
 the rich, delightful quality of her voice. In 1891 
 she became soprano in the Church of the Redeemer ; 
 in 1892 she sang 'Elijah' at the State Musical Con- 
 vention at Hartford. New Haven has long been 
 proud of Mrs. Thompson, and that pride is entirely 
 justifiable. She is not only a charming lady, but 
 she has talent that renders her capable of entertain- 
 ing the most critical audiences that the world can 
 produce." Since that time Mrs. Thompson has 
 been ten years at the Church of the Redeemer. 
 Upon her resignation, the society's committee of 
 that church presented her with a most beautiful 
 book of resolutions and thanks. 
 
 HON. JACOB DANIEL WALTER, of Chesh- 
 ire, who is now serving" on his second four-years' 
 term as county commissioner of New Haven county, 
 
i3o6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and who for years has been prominent in the local 
 councils of his party — the Republican — is one of the 
 substantial men and leading citizens of the com- 
 munity in which he lives. 
 
 Commissioner Walter was born Feb. 21, 1856, 
 in the town of Hamden, Conn., a son of John Jacob 
 and Julia M. (Ford) Walter, and a descendant 
 from ancestors of the Colonial period of the State's 
 history. The Ford family of Hamd'en. sprang from 
 the old family of that name in Devonshire, Eng- 
 land, where it was prominent at the time, and before, 
 New England began to be settled'. The Devon- 
 shire family was connected with the Drakes, of 
 Ashe, who engaged actively in the emigration to 
 the New England colonies. Sir Henry Ford, born 
 about 1620, the only son of John and Catherine 
 (Drake) Ford (he of Bagtor, and she a daughter of 
 George Drake, of Sprattsbays, a lieutenant-colonel 
 under his kinsman Sir John Drake, of Ashe), was 
 twice principal Secretary of State to Charles II in 
 Ireland. Timothy Ford, from the Devonshire 
 Fords, appeared at Charlestown in 1637, removed 
 to New Haven, Conn., in 1639, where his death oc- 
 curred in 1684, and his widow, whose Christian 
 and maiden names were unknown, says- Savage, 
 died in 1681. Of their four children, two were 
 sons, Samuel and: Matthew, from one of whom came 
 the Hamden Fords. 
 
 Jacob D. Walter received his education in the 
 public schools of New Haven, Conn., and in similar 
 schools in the State of New York. He began his 
 business career as a clerk in a store in Port Jervis, 
 N. Y., andi later engaged in general merchandising 
 for himself in Cheshire, Conn'. He was thus occu- 
 pied for several years, and then engaged in farm- 
 ing, which has since been his chief occupation, and 
 in which he has been successful. Mr. Walter has 
 managed his own business affairs in sucli a manner 
 that his fellow citizens have a number of times 
 called him to positions of trust, responsibility and 
 honor in the public affairs of the town and county. 
 He served one year as town assessor and was for 
 eight years a member of the Republican town com- 
 mittee. In 1894 he was elected a member of the 
 State Legislature for that session, from the town of 
 Cheshire, and served in that, body on the committee 
 on Roads and Bridges. He was dected a county 
 commissioner for New Haven county in 1895, for 
 a term of four years, and re-elected for a second 
 term in 1899, and is now serving as chairman of the 
 board. In 1901 he was chosen first selectman. All 
 of the duties of these important trusts he has per- 
 formed to the satisfaction of his constituents, and 
 with credit to himself. He is a member of the 
 Union League Club, of the Young Men's Repub- 
 lican Club of New Haven, of the Masonic Frater- 
 nity, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
 
 On Oct. 24, 1883, Mr. Walter was married to 
 Miss Abbie L. Atwater, of Cheshire, a descendant 
 of one of the first planters of the Colony of New 
 Haven. One daughter, Nellie B., was born of this 
 
 union. Mr. Walter is a member of the First Con- 
 gregational Church of Cheshire, and for the last six 
 years has been chairman of the Society's committee, 
 the First Ecclesiastical Society of Cheshire. 
 
 MAJOR BENJAMIN E. BROWN, city con- 
 troller and late city auditor. New Haven, is one of 
 the well-known military men of Connecticut, and a 
 man whose fidelity to official trusts and responsi- 
 bility has won for him the confidence and esteem of 
 his fellow citizens. 
 
 Born in 1845, i^ Somersetshire, England, Ben- 
 jamin E. Brown was brouglit to this country by his 
 parents when eight years of age, and nine years 
 later, when but seventeen, fired by the stirring scenes 
 of the times, he enlisted, in the suramer of 1862, as 
 a drummer toy in Company E, 27th Conn. V. I., 
 and was mustered into the United States service 
 with his company not long thereafter. He bore an 
 'honorable part in the regiment's history'in the Civil 
 war, participating in its several great battles and 
 otherwise sharing its fortunes in camp and on the 
 march. 
 
 The term of service of the 27th Regiment, 
 though not an extended one, was active and thrill- 
 ing. For a short period the regiment was in a di- 
 vision under Gen. Abercrombie, of the Army for the' 
 defense of Washington, but later it was a part of 
 the Second Brigade, First Division (under Gen. 
 Hancock), Second Army Corps, and formed a part 
 of the Right Grand Division of the Army of the 
 Potomac under Gen. Sumner. At the battle of 
 Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862, that portion of 
 the regiment not detached for picket duty along the 
 Rappahannock, was in line of battle on the open 
 plain between the city and Mary's Heights, where 
 they were exposed to a terrible fire from' the enemy's 
 batteries, and when night 'set in, one-third of the 
 regiment engaged lay dead of wounded on the field 
 or in the hospital. In the change that soon after 
 took place, when Hooker succeeded Burnside, the 
 27th Connecticut was transferred to the Fourth 
 Brigade under Col. John K. Brooke, and after com- 
 ing out of winter quarters in April, 1863, moved 
 forward and was active in preliminary movements 
 toward Chancellofsville. From the beginning of the 
 second day's fight there on M^ay lat, till midday of 
 the 3d, the men had little time'for sleeping or eat- 
 ing._ The regiment, which, on Sunday morning, oc- 
 cupied the entrenchments which it had thrown up 
 the previous Friday evening and which at the time 
 of occupation formed a part of the picket line of the 
 army, held an important position, and subjected to 
 terrible fire, soon found themselves surrounded and 
 captured. Companies D and F of the 27th Con- 
 necticut, however, escaped the fate of the remainder 
 of the regiment, havinig been previously detached 
 for other duty. The 27th continued to remain a part 
 of the Army of the Potomac until the battle of 
 Gettysburg was fought and v/on. It reached Gettys- 
 burg July 2d, moved forward to take the line of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1307 
 
 battle, and was stationed some mile and a half south 
 of Cemetery Hill in the line occupied by the Second 
 Corps, and vvas hurried forward to the support of 
 the Third corps, which in the afternoon-, having 
 marched toward the Emmitsburg road, was en- 
 gaged. The 27th regiment, with others of the 
 Fourth Brigade entered the wheatfield as the 
 troken and disordered columns of the Third corps 
 were slowly retiring to the rear, closely followed 
 by the enemy. They moved toward the advancing 
 foe which was now within close range, and the men 
 became exposed to a sweeping fire, in which Lieut. 
 Col. Merwin fell mortally wounded while leading 
 the command with all his accustomed bravery. 
 The line passed forward forcing the enemy from 
 'the wheatfield and into the woods beyond. The 
 27th went into action with seventy-five men, all that 
 could be mustered for duty after an active service of 
 not quite nine months, and at dark, eleven had been 
 killed and twentynseven wounded. The position of 
 tlie 27th on July 3d was in the main line and a few 
 yards to the left of the point attacked by the Con- 
 federates in the last charge made by them in that 
 great 'battle. From Gettysburg the 27th moved to 
 Falling Waters, a short distance from Williamsport, 
 arriving in time to participate in the closing scenes 
 of that engagement. Thence it went to Harper's 
 Ferry, and from there, home, arid vras mustered 
 out July 27, 1863. 
 
 On his return home after the expiration of his 
 term of service, Mr. Brown, in 1866, joined the New 
 Haven Grays, Company F, Second Regiment, and 
 continued in it for seven and a half years, serving 
 as a private, corporal, sergeant and captain, receiv- 
 ing command Jan. 9, 1889. He was the command- 
 ing officer of the company for four and a half years 
 during which period the company was recruited 
 from forty-five members to its full maximum 
 strength of sixty-eight, with men on the waiting 
 list for active memibership. Capt. Brown was one 
 of the re-organizers of the Second Company Gov- 
 ernor's Foot Guard, and is now the commanding 
 officer of that organization. Under his adminis- 
 tration this old-time company, organized in 1775, 
 has from forty-five members (when he was elected 
 to its command) reached its maximum strength of 
 118, with fifty applicants on the waiting list, its 
 membership being composed of old soldiers of the 
 War of the Rebellion and of the National Guard. 
 
 Major Brown has served in former years two 
 terms as councilman and one term as alderman and 
 during the four years of service in the two bodies 
 was on important committees and was largely^ in- 
 strumental in securing for the city the present iron 
 bridge at the steamboat landing, known as Tomlin- 
 son Bridge, and replacing the former dilapidated 
 wooden structure. In January, 1895, he was elected 
 city auditor, holding office for two years, and \yas 
 re-elected for a second term by a large majority, 
 when by virtue of a change of charter he became 
 controller of the city. 
 
 Major Brown was married to Irene E. Hall, . 
 who was boTn in Guilford, a daughter of James H, 
 Hall. They have one child, Harriet B., who is now 
 living in New Haven. Major Brown was one of the 
 first members of the Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R., 
 and is a prominent Mason, having risen to the 
 Knight Templar degree. The Major is also con- 
 nected with several other organizations, bemg a 
 member of the Odd Fellows, the A. O. U. W., and 
 the Heptasophs as well as the Young Men's League. 
 
 WASHINGTON MORTIMER ROWLAND, 
 who for many years has been prominently identified; 
 with the oyster growing industry in New Haven, 
 and who is one of the city's substantial and esteemed 
 citizens, was born at Patchogue, Long Island, Jan. 
 9, 1848. 
 
 John Rowland, the father of Washington M. 
 Rowland, was also born in Patchogue, this having 
 been the family home for several generations. John 
 Rowland has been a sea-faring man, and is still 
 actively interested in the oyster business in his lo- 
 cality. He married Adeline Mott, a native of the 
 same place, daughter of Martin Mott, who, at the 
 time of his death, was one of the largest wholesale 
 oyster dealers on Long Island. Both parents still 
 reside in the old Long Island home. They had a 
 family of five children, two of whom died in infancy, 
 the survivors being : Washington M., of this 
 sketch; Retta, who married Fremont Hammond, of 
 Patchogue, L. I.; and Fannie, who is unmarried. 
 In politics, John Rowland has affiliated with the 
 Democratic party, and at one time he had charge of 
 one of the Government houses at Patchogue, now 
 known as Life Saving Stations. All of the maternal 
 ancestors of our subject's family have been con- 
 nected with the Methodist Church. 
 
 Washington M. Rowland remained in his native 
 place until twenty years of age, with the exception 
 of the time spent at Northville Seminary, Long Isl- 
 and, his instruction there succeeding his common 
 school course in Patchogue. Growing up sur- 
 rounded by sea-faring people, he naturally imbibed 
 a love for the water, and after leaving school, en- 
 gaged for a time in the coasting trade, subsequent- 
 ly buying shares in a schooner, and managing it 
 for one year. Shortly after the close of the Civil 
 war, Mr. Rowland came to New Haven and became 
 interested in the oyster growing business. With the 
 exception of two years' resiaence in Norwalk, Conn., 
 where he was also interested' in the oyster trade, 
 Mr. Rowland engaged in the oyster planting and 
 growing business until Sept. 10, 1900, continuously 
 from his first location in this city. His knowledge 
 of the business, and his honest and upright meth- 
 ods of dealing with the public, combined to bring 
 him great success, and Mr. Rowland is now re- 
 garded as one of the substantial men of New Haven. 
 His ownership of city property is large, and his 
 efforts have been directed to the improvement of the 
 localities in which it is situated. He has just com- 
 
1308 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 pleted one of the raost beautiful homes on Howard 
 avenue, which has been fitted with all modern im- 
 provements, making it a comfortable residence and 
 one of the most attractive structures in that vicinity. 
 In 1868 Mr. Rowland was married to Arietta S. 
 Fordham, born on Long Island, daughter of Capt. 
 Samuel Fordham, a sea-faring man, and a family of 
 four children have come to our subject and wife: 
 Addie, who married Rolin Palmer, of New Haven ; 
 Jessie ; Hazel, who died aged four years ; and 
 Charles, who died in infancy. In politics, Mr. Row- 
 land supports the Republican party, and is a mem- 
 ber of the Young Men's Republican Club, and the 
 Union League Club. He is well known and enjoys 
 a wide acquaintance with the trade as well as with 
 the general public. Since retiring from activity, he 
 has been engaged in looking after his property, and 
 in enjoying the ease won by long years of close at- 
 tention to business. 
 
 PATRICK HOLOHAN, well and favorably 
 known in real-estate circles in New Haven county, 
 is a native of County Kilkenny, Ireland, born June 
 I, 1837, and has been a resident of Waterbury 
 about half a century. 
 
 Maurice Holohan, his father, passed all his life 
 in Ireland, where in his younger days he was clerk 
 in a bank, and later followed farming. His wife 
 also died in Ireland. They had a family of seven 
 children : Francis, Joseph, John, Bridget T., Ann, 
 Patrick and Elizabeth. The two last named reside 
 in Waterbury, and are the only survivors. 
 
 Patrick Holohan, at the age of twelve years, 
 came to America, first making his home in Pater- 
 son, N. J., from there coming to Waterbury about 
 fifty years ago. For a time he worked as a laborer, 
 but in 1865 he engaged in the grocery business, and 
 carried on same some twenty-six years, amassing 
 a comfortable competence by care and diligence, in 
 conjunction with strict temperance in his habits. 
 After retiring from the grocery, he put up some 
 business blocks on South Main street, and he now 
 occupies his time chiefly in looking after his rents, 
 and conducting a real-estate business. 
 
 In 1867 Air. Holohan married Catherine Galvin, 
 who was born, in Waterbury, Conn., a daughter of 
 John Galvin, a native of County Kerry, Ireland, 
 and six children were born to this union, as follows : 
 John F., Alary A., Thomas J., Elizabeth G., Theresa 
 L. and Joseph, Of these, Mary A. married C. A. 
 Jackson, of Waterbury ; Thomas J. died when 
 twenty-two years of age; Elizabeth and Theresa 
 are smgle ; and Joseph died in infancy. 
 
 John F. Holohan, the eldest son, graduated from 
 the Waterbury high school, class of 1885, and then 
 entered the law office of Gillette & Webster, where 
 he remained four years, at the end of which time 
 he was appointed court messenger, an incumbency 
 he held three years, resigning to enter Yale Law 
 School in 1889, where he graduated with the class 
 of 1892. After graduation he found clerical work 
 
 in the office of D. F. Webster ; but this lasted for 
 one year only, as in July, 1893, he was appointed 
 prosecuting agent, which office he held until Octo- 
 ber, 189s, when he formed a partnership with H. J. 
 Durant, for the practice of law. At the end of a 
 year Mr. Durant retired, and Air. Holohan has 
 since conducted the business alone, his office being 
 on South Main street. In politics he is a Demo- 
 crat. Socially he is a member of the B. P. O. Elks. 
 Patrick Holohan, our subject, is also a Demo- 
 crat, has. served as councilman many terms, and 
 during the year 1898-99 was an alderman. In 1898 
 he was appointed, by the Republican party, a mem- 
 ber of the board- of public safety, which is a fair 
 indication of his popularity, irrespective of party 
 lines. Ini religious faith he is a Roman Catholic, 
 belonging to Immaculate Conception Parish, of 
 Waterbury. 
 
 JAAIES RUSSELL SLOANE, bookkeeper and 
 confidential clerk for the Charles Parker Co., Meri- 
 den, is one of that city's most respected residents. 
 He was born in Thompsonville, Hartford Co., Conn., 
 Jan. I, 1847. 
 
 John Sloane, grandfather of James R., was' a 
 native of Scotland, born in Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, 
 which is noted for its carpet and woolen manufac- 
 turers. Here he grew to manhood and learned the 
 trade of carpet weaver, which he followed in his 
 native home. He there married Mary Lamie, and 
 they had five children, viz : William, who for many 
 years was the head of the well known firm of W. 
 & J. Sloane, carpet dealers. New York ; John, who 
 was the junior member of W. & J. Sloane, and 
 whose sons now conduct the business in New York; 
 James, who was a rug manufacturer in West Farms, 
 N. Y. ; Andrew, father of James R. ; and Margaret, 
 who married Thomas Watson, and died in Oak- 
 land, Cal. After his sons came to America, John 
 Sloane, with his wife and the remainder of his fam- 
 ily, came to the New World, locating at Thompson- 
 ville, where he found employment in the Thomp- 
 sonville Carpet Works. He spent the remainder of 
 hislife in that town, and died at a ripe age; his re- 
 mains were interred in Thompsonville cemetery, 
 as were also those of his loving and devoted wife. 
 They were both faithful members of the Presbyter- 
 ian Church, and good Christian people, honest and 
 upright in all their dealings. 
 
 Andrew Sloane was born in Kilmarnock, the 
 home of his father, and there obtained a plain but 
 useful education. He began life by working in a 
 factory at an early age, learning the carpet business, 
 as did also his brothers. After his older brothers 
 came to America and met with some success, he, 
 top, wishing to better his condition and to gain a 
 wider experience, resolved to trv his fortune in the 
 Western World. He landed in New York after a 
 voyage of seven weeks in a sailing vessel and after 
 remaining but a short time in that city came to 
 Thompsonville, where he found employment at his 
 
<^^^4) ^^o^:^^...^.^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1309 
 
 trade as a weaver in the employ of Orrin Thomp- 
 son & Co., now .the Hartford Carpet Co., workmg 
 at Brussels carpet making. He also worked for a 
 short time in Rahway, N. J., but returned to Thomp- 
 ville. Through his strict attention to business, and 
 his painstaking efforts, he was soon promoted to the 
 position of foreman of the ingrain department, 
 which he held to within ten years of his death, when 
 he resigned. He passed the remaining years of his 
 life in retirement, dying at the ripe old age of eighty- 
 two year's, and his remains were buried in the family 
 lot in Thompsonville cemetery. He was 5 consist- 
 ent member of the Presbyterian Church, a good 
 Christian man, devoted to his wife and family, and 
 temperate in all his habits. In politics he was a 
 Republican, but never sought office or honors. 
 
 In New York City Andrew Sloane married Han- 
 nah Robinson, who was a member of an old and re- 
 spected family of Danbury, Conn., and eleven chil- 
 dren blessed this union : William, who is ^post- 
 master at Conway, N. H. ; George, who is a me- 
 chanic, residing at Auburn, N. Y. ; John, a book- 
 keeper, in Hartford ; Miss Mary ; James Russell ; 
 Frederick D., with the H. Wales Lines Co., Meri- 
 den; Edgar C, foreman with the Charles Parker 
 Co., in Meriden; Joseph H., who resides m Hart- 
 ford; Ellen (better known as Nellie), who- married 
 Frederick Parsons, and resides in Tbompisonville ; 
 Hattie; and Annie, who died in infancy. 
 
 James Russell Sloane received but a district- 
 school education, attending in the town of Enfield. 
 Being imbued with that noble trait for which the 
 Scotch are noted, self-reliance, he started out to 
 make his own way at a very early age, and when 
 but twelve years old was working as a farmer boy 
 in Enfield. This work was not congenial to him, 
 and he soon gave it up for something more ad- 
 vanta;geous. He started in the early sixties, as a 
 newsboy on the New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 Railroad, at which work he spent a year, when he 
 left home and came to Yalesville to enter the employ 
 of Garry I. Mix, working one year in the press de- 
 partment. From there he went to Edward Miller 
 & Co., engaging at the same kind of work, and com- 
 manding at the age of fifteen years twelve dollars 
 per week. He spent one year with the latter firm, 
 and then accepted a position in the spectacle works 
 of Charles Parker, where he spent nine months. 
 
 Fired with the patriotic desire to defend his 
 country, Mr. Sloane enlisted in 1863 in Company 
 C, 1st Conn. Heavy Artillery, under Col. Henry L. 
 Abbott, and-Capt. Henry H. Pierce, of Hartford, 
 and remained in the service until the close of the 
 war. He participated in all of Grant's last cam- 
 paign. He was mustered out and discharged from 
 the service Sept. 25, 1865, af Hartford. Desiring to 
 improve his education, he attended a business col- 
 lege for six months, and soon fitted himself for 
 bookkeeping. For two and a half years he was 
 bookkeeper in a grocery store in Hartford, after 
 which he accepted a position with Smith, Northam 
 
 & Robinson, grain dealers of Hartford, as entry 
 clerk, where he worked eighteen months. He next 
 entered the employ of J. D. Burnham & Co., whole- 
 sale tobacco dealers, in Hartford, as bookkeeper, 
 and faithfully performed the duties of that position 
 for twelve years. Having saved some money he 
 returned to the home of his birth, and embarked in 
 the grocery business, conducting same for some 
 years, but as it did not prove a financial success he 
 gave it up in 1881, and came to Meriden, where he 
 accepted a position as bookkeeper with the Meriden 
 Malleable Iron Co., where he spent three years. In 
 1890 he secured his present position, that of head 
 bookkeeper and confidential clerk with the Charles 
 Parker Co., filling same with credit to himself, and 
 meriting the high esteem of his employers. He is a 
 modest man, genial in his manner, and honest and 
 exact in his dealings. 
 
 In 1869 Mr. Sloane was married, in Hartford, 
 to Sarah Hills, daughter of David and Salome 
 (Strickland)' Hills; the former is now deceased, 
 while the latter makes her home with Mr. Sloane, 
 who is caring for her during old age. Mrs. Sloane 
 died March 11, 1899, at her home on Main street, 
 Meriden, and was laid to rest in Walnut Grove 
 Cemetery. She attended the Universalist Church. 
 Six children were born to them: (i) Eva H., born 
 in Hartford, was educated in the Thompsonville 
 and Meriden schools, graduating from the latter, 
 and is now engaged in teaching in the Franklin 
 street school, Meriden. (2) Lillian E. married B. 
 E. Carpenter, and has two children, Bessie and Rus- 
 sell. (3) Amy B., married to and divorced from 
 Samuel B. Maguire, is residing at home with her 
 daughter, Edith Maguire. (4) Charles H., who is 
 with the Charles Parker Co., married Bessie Kerr, 
 and has one child, Muriel. (5) Mabel married 
 James Noble, and has one child, Dorothy. (6) Edna 
 H. is a student at the High school. Mr. Sloane is a 
 Republican, and represented the Fourth Ward in 
 the city council for four years ; has been an alder- 
 man two years ; and was chairman of the Police 
 committee of the board of aldermen. He is no 
 politician, but is a stanch supporter of his party. In 
 religious views he is broad minded and liberal. Fra- 
 ternally he belongs to Meriden Post, No. 8, G. A. R., 
 of Meriden; he was one of the organizersi and is 
 past commander of Nathaniel Lyon Post, Hartford. 
 He also belongs to Charter Oak Lodge, I. O. O. F., 
 Hartford, is a past noble grand and a member of 
 the Grand Lodge ; and he is a member of Silver City 
 Lodge, No. 3, A. O. U. W., Meriden, in which he 
 has passed all the chairs, and is now grand receiver 
 of the .State. Mr. Sloane is deservedly popular, and 
 few men can point to records as stainless as his. 
 
 FREDERICK HEMINGWAY WALDRON 
 has become widely known in New Haven in various 
 connections, and his activity in Masonic circles has 
 brought him into prominence all over the State. 
 
 Mr. Waldron traces his ancestry back to about 
 
I31Q 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 
 
 1 100, to Baron Rudolph Von Waldron, who won his 
 coat of arms fighting against the Turks on the plains 
 of Palestine, and in 1156 Richard, son of Rudolph, 
 won his coat of arms for valiant services in the 
 field under Henry II, who was the first Plantagenet 
 on the throne of England, and who united the Nor- 
 man and Saxon races. Copies of these coats of arms 
 have been handed down through the several genera- 
 tions to the present time, and copiesi are in Mr. 
 Waldron's possession. 
 
 Mr. Waldron comes from sturdy Dutch stock, 
 and in this country traces his ancestry back to about 
 1646. The first of whom we have record. Baron 
 Resolve Waldron, son of Count Johannas Von Wal- 
 dron, was born in 1610, in Amsterdam, Holland. 
 He was well educated in Latin, French and Eng- 
 lish, and was an extensive traveler in Europe and 
 South America, spending some time in Brazil. He 
 returned to his native land in 1645, became ac- 
 quainted with Lady Tanka Neigle, daughter of 
 Baron Von Neigle, whom he married March 10, 
 1646. Baron Resolve Waldron joined the staff of 
 Governor Peter Stuyvesant in May, 1647, and he 
 continued to serve the Dutch Government during 
 Stuyvesant's administration until James, Duke of 
 York, sent four ships of war here during a time of 
 peace, 1664, and robbed the Dutch of all their pos- 
 sessions in America. The Baron acted as ambassa- 
 dor to all the petty English Courts in Ni;w Eng- 
 land,. Virginia and Baltimore. He obtained the 
 first grant from Gov. Stuyvesant for New Harlem 
 in 1645, and established the first ferry and erected 
 the first Dutch Church in that town. He also built 
 for himself a stone mansion on East River (called 
 by the Dutch "Helengat," or Roaring Water, and by 
 the Indians "Sevandican," or Mad Water, while the 
 Indian name for the land, or Bowery, was called 
 "Rrhawainus," or Crooked Land). This Bowery 
 or Plantation was about a mile along the water, and 
 here the Baron lived a number of years, or until his 
 sons grew up and married, and then as chief magis- 
 trate he removed to near King's bridge. The old 
 stone mansion at Horn Hook was erected in 1660, 
 and was kept in good repair until 1870— two hun- 
 dred and ten years. The old Baron departed this 
 life about 1706, when he was ninetv-six years of 
 age, and he was buried in "God's acre" beside the 
 httle church on the banks of the Harlem river 
 
 William Waldron, the eldest son of the Baron 
 was born m old Amsterdam, Holland, Feb i 1647' 
 and was brought to New Amsterdam (now New 
 York City) m his nurse's arms when three months 
 old This William married Engelse Stautenburgh, 
 Feb. 10, 1671, daughter of Peter Stautenburgh Bur- 
 gomaster of New Amsterdam. They had seven chil- 
 dren, among whom was Peter, the next in line of 
 descent. 
 
 Peter Waldron, son of William, was born Tune 
 25. 167s, in Harlem, New York. He married 
 Frynty Vandenburgh, Sept. 9, 1696, and they had 
 ten children, among whom was Cornelias Waldron 
 
 Cornelias Waldron, son of Peter, was born Nov. 
 18, 1705. He married Jennette Van Ness, Sept. 26, 
 1732, and was k»led by a Hessian', May 11, 1756, 
 leaving six children. 
 
 Garret Waldron, son of Cornelias, was born 
 June 4, 1738. He married Catherine Vandenburg, 
 Nov. 2, 1761. They had four children, among 
 whom was Gilbert Waldron, grandfather of the 
 gentleman whose name introduces these lines. 
 
 Gilbert \^'aldron, son of Garret, was born Feb. 
 II, 1778, and died May 6, 1830, at Honesdale, Pa.,' 
 where he had large contracts on the Delaware and 
 Hudson cknal, then in process of construction. He 
 married, in 1802, Margaret Grawberger, who was 
 born May 6, 1782, and died in the autumn of 1848. 
 They moved in 181 1 to Jonesburg, N. Y., and about 
 1820 to Fort Edward, thence to Milford, Pa., and 
 finally to Honesdale. They left ten children, among 
 whom was Abram G., father of Frederick H. 
 
 Abram G. Waldron, son of Gilbert, was born 
 Jan. 8, 1803, in Batavia, N. Y. He was an account- 
 ant by profession. He resided in Buffalo, N. Y, 
 from 1838 to 1848, when he came to Connecticut,' 
 locating in Bridgeport, but in a short time removed 
 to New Haven, where he passed the remainder of 
 his life, dying in 1872, at the age of seventy. He 
 was actively engaged in his chosen line up to the 
 time of his death, keeping books for the N. Y., N. 
 H., & H. R. R. Co. Mr. Waldron was an Odd Fel- 
 low and a Mason, holding membership in the Lodge, 
 Chapter and Council, and was buried with Masonic 
 honors. On April 11, 1836, Abram G. Waldron 
 married Jennette Remer, who was; born in Derby, 
 Conn., June 11, 1815, and who died in New Haven 
 in 1853. Four children blessed this union, of whom 
 our subject is the eldest; Henry and Samuel are 
 residents of Providence, R. I.; and Frances is a 
 widow, living in Kansas. The mother attended St. 
 Thomas Church, of which Mr. Waldron was a 
 meniber at one time, but had previously united with 
 St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and finally became a 
 member of the Third Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 retaining his membership at the time of his death. 
 Through his mother Frederick H. Waldron is 
 descended from several families long held in the 
 highest esteem in this State. Henry Whitney was 
 born in En,gland in 1620, came to America and was 
 associated with others in buying lands in Southold, 
 L. 1 in 1649. He afterward settled in Hunting- 
 ton, L. I., where he was selectman, and about 1665 
 he came to Norwalk, Conn., where he died about 
 1673. 
 
 John Whitney, son of Henry, was probably 
 born before his father had gone to Southold, 
 as he was full age before Jan. 20, 1665-66. He 
 settled with his father in Norwalk, following his 
 business of millwright and miller, and succeeding 
 him in the possession of the mill and homestead. 
 He there niarried March 17, 1674-75, Elizabeth 
 Smith, daughter of Richard Smith. 
 
 Josiah Whitney, son of John, born at Norwalk, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1311 
 
 Conn, (date unknown), married Oct. 20, 1729, at 
 Norwalk, Eunice Hanford, daughter of Elezur Han- 
 ford and his wife Hannah. They lived in Nor- 
 walk, where he died early in 1750. 
 
 Henry Whitney, son of Josiah, was married in 
 1761, at Dertiy, to Eunice Clark, daughter of Will- 
 iam and Hannah Clark, of Derby, where she was 
 born April 15, 1746. They settled in Derby. An 
 obituary notice of him quaintly says : "He was the 
 founder of King Hiram Lodge, No. 12, in Derby 
 (was its first treasurer, 1783). He squared his life 
 by the rules of Masonry, and, directed by the in- 
 variable compass of rectitude, he entered the harbor 
 of rest. His Masonic brethren honored his inter- 
 ment with the sprig of evergreen, emblem of that 
 eternal life, the donation of the Grand Architect who 
 will hail with the voice of brotherly love every free 
 and well accepted Mason unto the Grand Lodge 
 above." He was for many yearsi an active and use- 
 ful inhabitant of the town, and he died much la- 
 mented and respected by his relations and acquaint- 
 ances. He was a member and a communicant of the 
 Episcopal Church, and was buried 'according to the 
 rites and ceremonies of that church. He was a sol- 
 dier of the Revolution, and held the rank of captain. 
 William Clark, father of Eunice (Clark) Whit- 
 ney, is said (see Clark's Descendants of R. Hull, p. 
 5.) to have gone from Lyme to Derby in 1733, and 
 to have been a descendant of Thomas Clark, who is 
 thought to have been mate of the "Mayflower" in 
 1620. Hannah, wife of William Clark, died in 1801, 
 aged ninety-one, leaving descendants to the number 
 of 333. Eliza, daughter of William and Hannah, 
 married Joseph Hull, of Derby, in 1749. and became 
 the mother of Gen. William Hull, and grandmother 
 of Commodore Isaac Hull. 
 
 Josiah Whitney, son of Henry, was born in 
 Derby, in 1764, and becan-*c a master mariner. In 
 1784 he married, in Derby, Hannah Riggs, daugh- 
 ter of Capt. Joseph and Rachel (Chatfield) Riggs, 
 of Derby, where she was born March 6, 1767. He 
 dwelt in Derby, and was a member of the Congre- 
 gational Church in that place. He was commander 
 of a vessel in the South American trade and was cast 
 away in 1794, dying in Demerara in August of that 
 year, in consequence of his sufferings and exposure 
 in the shipwreck. His widow joined the Congre- 
 gational Church in Derby, Nov. 13, 1808. 
 
 Hannah (Whitney) Remer, daughter of Josiah 
 Whitney, was born at Derby, Conn., June 20, 1785. 
 On Aug. 20, 1805, she was married at Derby to 
 Abram Remer, who was born at Carlisle, Pa., June 
 7, 1783, son of Lewis Remer (a Revolutionary sol- 
 dier, who served in Capt. Jacob Ten Eyck's Com- 
 pany, First Battalion, Somerset County, New Jer- 
 sey, Militia) and Rebecca (Runion) Remer. They 
 dwelt in Derby, where he carried on a large business, 
 employing many men in the manufacture of shoes, 
 till May, 1827, when he removed to Seneca Falls, 
 N. Y., and after ten years to Montezuma, N. Y., 
 where he kept a tavern and grocery for more than 
 
 twenty years. They then dwelt with their son, Sam- 
 uel Whitney Remer, at Davenport, Iowa, for three 
 years, and with their daughter, Mrs. Henrietta 
 Downs, at Downey Station, Iowa, till 1863, when he 
 returned to Bridgeport. She died tliere Sept. 30, 
 1864, and he passed away in New York City March 
 20, 1866. Both were buried in Mountain Grove 
 cemetery, Bridgeport, Connecticut. 
 
 Jennette (Remer) Waldron, daughter of Han- 
 nah (Whitney) Remer, was born in Derby, Conn., 
 June II, 1815, and died Aug. 23, 1853. On April 
 II, 1836, she married Abram G. Waldron, and, as 
 is stated above, four children blessed this union. 
 
 Frederick H. Waldron was born in Buffalo, N. 
 Y., March 14, 1840, and was a boy when brought by 
 his parents to Bridgeport, Conn., and after two 
 years moved to New Haven, Conn., where practic- 
 ally all of his life has been passed. During his 
 early boyhood he attended the public schools of the 
 city, later being a student at a boarding school in 
 Oxford and at Wheeler's Academy, in Norwalk. 
 At the age of seventeen he went to Davenport, Iowa, 
 and until 1859 was in the employ of the Mississippi 
 & Missouri Railway Co., being in the shops with his 
 uncle, Samuel W. Remer, who was the superintend- 
 ent of motive power. On his return to New Haven 
 he was in the employ of the New York, New Ha- 
 ven & Hartford Railway Co., for a year prior to his 
 enlistment in Co. F, 4th Conn. V. I. This regiment 
 was afterward changed to the ist Conn. Artillery. 
 Mr. Waldron served three full years with his regi- 
 ment, and was honorably discharged at the expira- 
 tion of his; term of service as Corporal of artillery. 
 He participated in a number of hard foueht battles, 
 among which was the siege of Yorktown (the 
 heaviest siege of the war), Hanover Court House, 
 Old Church, Mechanicsville, Gaines Mills, Golden 
 Farms, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, and But- 
 ler's campaign about Petersburg, where for eleven 
 months this regiment fought in the trenches and 
 where its services were most conspicuous and hon- 
 orable, exposed to constant artillery and musket fire. 
 One of the 13-inch mortars used before Petersburg 
 by this regiment is to be placed on a monument to 
 be erected in the Capitol groundsi at Hartford in 
 Sept., 1902. This regiment was the first to volun- 
 teer for three years, and was attached to several 
 different army corps. 
 
 After his return from the service, Mr. Waldron 
 followed the trade of carpenter and pattern maker 
 until 1870, when he was appointed clerk of the board 
 of Public Works. He continued to hold office by 
 appointment for three-year terms until 1892, regard- 
 less of the political complexion of the board, and 
 the length of time of his service is sufficient testi- 
 mony of its quality. Since his retirement from pub- 
 lic office Mr. Waldron had devoted much time to 
 ■Masonic work, and a record of his career in the 
 fraternity, on account of his activity and zeal for 
 the institution, is extremely interesting. 
 
 Mr. Waldron was made a Master Mason in 
 
I3I2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Wooster Lodge, No. 79, of New Haven, while home 
 on a furlough from the army, March 13, i«03 ; a 
 Royal Arch Mason and Royal and Select Master m 
 Washington, D. C, in April, 1864, afterward affiliat- 
 ing with the Chapter and Council in New Haven; 
 was made a Knight Templar in New Haven Com- 
 mandery, No. 2, in 1869, and in all of these bodies 
 he still holds an active membership. He was wor- 
 shipful Master of his lodge during 1871 and 1872, 
 regularly passed through the chairs of Harmony 
 Council, R. & S. M., serving as Thrice Illustrious 
 Master for two years, 1871-72. During 1871-72 he 
 was on the committee for the erection of the new 
 ^yfasonic Temple in New Haven, and on its erection 
 and completion he conferred the first degrees in the 
 building, in the presence of a large assembly of 
 Masons. Passing through the several chairs, he 
 was elected Eminent Commander of New Haven 
 Commandery, and served two years, 1881-82. He 
 has been actively connected with all the Grand 
 bodies of the State, passing through the several 
 chairs, serving as Alost Puissant Grand Master of 
 the Grand Council during 1875; Grand Master of 
 Masons in 1883; Grand Commander of Knights 
 Templar during 1886; and Trustee for the Grand 
 Chapter for a number of years. He is a charter 
 member of all the bodies of the A. & A. S. R. in 
 New Haven, and has been elected as presiding 
 officer of all the bodies of the Rite in the city, and 
 he has served as Second Lieutenant Commander of 
 Lafayette Consistory, and for a long term of years 
 served as Secretary and Treasurer of the Council 
 of Deliberation for Connecticut. He received the 
 thirty-third degree of this Rite in Sept, 1883, and 
 is an honorary member of the Supreme Council, 
 Northern Jurisdiction, and also a member of the 
 Grand Encampment, Knights Templar, of the Uni- 
 ted States. He organized the Masonic Mutual Bene- 
 fit Association of New Haven, and was its Secretary 
 for twenty-three years, dispensing to the widows 
 and orphans of Masons during that time over $1,- 
 400,000, and leaving the association in a prosperous 
 condition. 
 
 Mr. Waldron has also been a zealous and earnest 
 member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and he 
 is Past Commander of Admiral Foote Post, No. 17, 
 to which with others he rendered special service in 
 financial lines'. He consented to serve the Post of- 
 ficially in 1881. The Post at this time, so to speak, 
 was below par, with a membership of but 104, and 
 an indebtedness of over $1,400; under the new re- 
 gime within two years the Post numbered over 500 
 members, with over $2,550 in the Treasury, and in 
 1887 the Post numbered over 900, with over $12,000. 
 Mr. Waldron was appointed an aid on the staff of 
 the Commander-in-chief in 1882. 
 
 Mr. Waldron still maintains an active interest 
 in all the bodies of which he is a member, and in 
 whatever position he is placed he never ceases to 
 labor for the interests of others, nor fails to show 
 his love and devotion for his friends, and, as has 
 
 been said by another, "He is courteous in manner, 
 quick in preception, voice well-modulated, delivery 
 graceful, and in general is gifted with those talents 
 which constitute a successful presiding officer." In 
 his household hospitality is a marked feature, and 
 those who know him best can testify to his liber- 
 ality, courtesy and attention to his guests. He dis- 
 charges well the duties of domestic life, and is faith- 
 ful to the trust which rests on the husband and 
 father. He is one who is noble minded, generous 
 to a fault, genial and kindhearted, earnest in his 
 convictions, and never hesitating to express opinions 
 freely ; his intimacies are not hastily formed, but 
 when once made are never sundered, following well 
 the motto on the Coat of Arms: Nee BeneHcii— 
 Nee injuriae — Immemor. 
 
 On Sept. 26, 1871, Mr. Waldron married Miss 
 Alice Bottomley, who was born in Bridgeport, 
 Conn., March 9,- 1847, daughter of Thomas and 
 Mary (Piatt) Bottomley, who were from Delph, 
 England. She was baptized in September, 1874, 
 by Rev. Thomas W. Coit, D. D., at St. John's Epis- 
 copal Church, and she died in New Haven Jan. 7, 
 1898, a faithful member of St. Thomas Episcopal 
 Church. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Waldron, viz : George R., born Dec. 2, 1874, is an 
 accountant ; he married Phoebe Rice, now deceased, 
 and had one child, Phoebe May. Alice May was 
 born May i, 1878, Charles W. was born Nov. 25, 
 1881. Fred H., Jr., was born Aug. 10, 1883. 
 Harry P. was born March 29, 1885. 
 
 HORACE D. JOHNSON, one of the thrifty 
 and substantial residents of Hamden, is one of the 
 prominent citizens of that town, where he is ex- 
 tensively and successfully engaged in the dairy and 
 general trucking business. Mr. Johnson comes 
 from one of the very oldest families of New Haven 
 county, one whose members have been prominent 
 and influential, and in types of citizenship wherein 
 patriotism ,and public spirit have never been lack- 
 ing. His great-grandfather, Hiezekiah Johnson, 
 took a prominent part in the Revolutionary war. 
 Another ancestor, William Johnson, v/as one of the 
 original proprietors of Wallingford. Through 
 marriage the family is connected with many of the 
 old and prominent families. The Johnson family 
 in Hamden dates back to about 1809, when Heze- 
 kiah Johnson, grandfather of our subject, removed 
 from Wallingford and) settled on what is now the 
 northeast corner of Circular and Gilbert avenues, 
 in Hamden. 
 
 The family in America descends from Thomas 
 Johnson, of New Haven, our subject being a rep- 
 resentative of the eighth generation, his line being 
 from Thomas through William, Jacob, Capt. Ab- 
 ner, Capt. Hezekiah, Hezekiah and Alfonso. Thom- 
 as' Johnson, of New Haven, came from Kingston- 
 upon-Hull, Yorkshire, England, 1638. He was 
 drowned in New Hiaven harbor in 1640, and left 
 four sons, Thomas, Daniel, Jeremiah and William. 
 
r< 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 13 1 3^- 
 
 His widow Helena, married Arthur Bostwick, of 
 Stratford, Connecticut. 
 
 (II) William Johnson was deputy from New 
 Haven to the General Assembly several times. He 
 was one of the original proprietors of Wallingford, 
 founded in 1670. He was married, in December, 
 1664, to Sarah Hall, daughter of John and Jane 
 Hall. Sarah Hall was baptized Aug. 19, 1646, by 
 Rev. Mr. Davenport. 
 
 (III) Jacob Johnson, born Sept. 25, 1674, in 
 Wallingford, died there July 17, 1749. He was a 
 prominent man in that town, and was deputy from 
 Wallingford to the General Assembly in 1736. He 
 was married Dec. 14, 1693, to Abigail HUtchcock, 
 who was born April 10, 1674, a daughter of John 
 and Abigail (Merriman) Hitchcock. 
 
 (IV) Capt. Abner Johnson, born in August, 
 1702, in Wallingford, passed his entire life there, 
 and died there Sept. 28, 1754. In November, 1749, 
 he was chosen deputy of the first train band of Wall- 
 ingford. On Dec. 14, 1726, he married Charity Day- 
 ton, a daughter of Israel Dayton. 
 
 (V) Capt. Hezekiah Johnson, born March 12^ 
 1732, in Wallingford, died Feb. 21, 1810, in Ham- 
 den, where he and his wife were living with their 
 son Hezekiah. Capt. Hezekiah Johnson married, 
 in November, 1758, Ruth Merriman, born Nov. i. 
 1741, daughter of Caleb and great-granddaughter 
 of Lieut. Nathaniel Merriman, one of the original 
 proprietors of Wallingford. Capt. Hezekiah John- 
 son was at one time in life a man of considerable 
 wealth for his day, and he was a citizen of influ- 
 ence in Wallingford. His fortune became reduced 
 during the latter years of his life. He took a prom- 
 inent part in the Revolutionary war, his name ap- 
 pearing in the list of men who marched from the 
 Connecticut towns for the relief of Boston, at the 
 Lexington alarm, April, 1775. He enlisted from 
 Wallingford, in Capt. Nathaniel Johnson's Com- 
 pany, Col. Douglass' regiment. He wa& among the 
 troops sent from Connecticut, in June, 1776, to rein- 
 force Washington's army at New York, saw service 
 in that city and on the Brooklyn front, being at the 
 right of the line of works during the battle of Long 
 Island, Aug. 29, 1776. He was in the retreat to 
 New York, and took part in the battle of White 
 Plains. During his service he was under Washing- 
 ton; under'Gen. Gates; was at Saratoga; and at the 
 surrender of Burgoyne. He wias captain of Che 
 troops that went from Wallingford, to the rehef of 
 New London in 1781, and was in the engagement 
 at that place. Capt. Hezekiah Johnson's children : 
 Caleb, George, Belcher, Lucinda, Ruth, Diantha, 
 Sophia and Hezekiah. Of the sons who lived to 
 adult- age, Caleb graduated from Yale in 1785, be- 
 came a Congregational clergvman, went South and 
 was a prominent divine in his church. Belcher set- 
 tled at Salisbury, New York. 
 
 Hezekiah Johnson, grandfather of our subject, 
 was born Dec. 25, 1780, in Wallingford. About 
 1809 he settled in Hamden, on what is now the 
 
 83 
 
 northeast corner of Gilbert and Circular avenues.. 
 He was a farmer and brick maker, and was one of 
 the pioneer brick makers of that part of the town. 
 He was a successful man, and accumulated a very 
 handsome competence for those days. He was a 
 prominent member of the Congregational Church, 
 and took an active part in its work. He was the 
 leader of the choir for a number of years, having 
 been a musician of ability, both vocal and instru- 
 mental. In his family were a number of musi- 
 cians, nearly every member being able to play one 
 or more musical instruments. While not a public 
 man he took an interest in affairs of the town, and 
 held various minor offices. Politically he was once 
 a Democrat, later a Whig. He first married Eliza- 
 beth Tuttle, of Bethany, who was the mother of his 
 children. Her death occurred Jan. 27, 1845. He- 
 later married Roxana Judd, by which union there 
 were no children. His children were as follows : 
 (i) Edwin H., born Jan. 15, 1810, died May S, 
 " 1874, unmarried. As the result of an attack of scar- 
 let fever, in childhood, he was left an invalid. (2) 
 Charles E., born July 25, 1811, was a contractor and- 
 builder. He went South where he died. (3) Syl- 
 vanus, born Nov. 12, 1813, was a pioneer of Iowa 
 City, Iowa, whither he went when the town con- 
 sisted of but two log cabins. He 'bought land which 
 later became very valuable, and on which consid- 
 erable of that city is built. He was a brick manu- 
 facturer, became quite wealthy and now lives re- 
 tired. He married Emily Bradley, of Hamden. (4) 
 Sjdvester, born July 17, 1816, died April 7, 1836. 
 (S) Elizabeth died in infancy. (6) Alfonso, borrt 
 Feb. 6, 1821, is mentioned below. (7) Lorenzo A.,. 
 born May 22, 1823, died April 18, 1851, unmarried. 
 He located at Chester, 111., when a 3'oung man, and" 
 practiced his profession, that of attorney. (8) Nor- 
 ris M., born June 23, 1825, is mentioned elsewhere. 
 (9) Frances E., born June 18, 1828, is the widow 
 of Hon. Ezra Stiles, of North Haven, where she 
 now lives. 
 
 Alfonso Johnson, the father of our subject, was 
 born Feb. 6, 1821, on the farm where his father 
 settled. Be had such opportunities as the schools 
 of his town afforded, was reared' on the farm, and 
 under his father received good training to agricul- 
 tural pursuits. For some years he carried on the 
 business of brick making, in which he was success- 
 ful. Later he took up the business of a market 
 gardener, on an extensive scale, and success at- 
 tended his efforts in that line also. He was system- 
 atic in his management, and invariably secured the 
 best results. A hard worker, full of energy and' 
 activity, he always set an example to those work- 
 ing with him. He was of the progressive type of 
 farmers, and was classed with the intelligent agri- 
 culturists of his day. Somewhat retiring in his dis- 
 position, he never hesitated about advocating a 
 good, or opposing a bad cause. He took the interest 
 of a good citizen in the town. In politics he sup- 
 ported the best men, no matter which party they be- 
 
I3I4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 longed to, especially wheiT he had personal knowl- 
 edge of the candidates or issue, but in State and 
 National matters his sympathy was more often with 
 the Democratic party. He held office in his town, 
 but was by no means an office seeker. He vvas a 
 member of Calvary Baptist Church. About i860 
 Mr. Johnson built the brick dwelHng, where our 
 subject now resides, and there made his home ever 
 afterward. He left a good name and a very com- 
 fortable competence. His death occurred Nov. 22, 
 1883, and he was buried on Hamden Plains ceme- 
 tery, by the side of his wife, who preceded him to 
 the grave some years. There is an elegant shaft on 
 the family lot. 
 
 Mr. Johnson married Charlotte M. Beecher, 
 who was born Dec. 3, .1830, and died April 15, 1874. 
 Their children were as follows : Minnie is now 
 Mrs. Henry B. Harrison, of New Haven. Elton A., 
 born May 29, 1859, died Dec. i, 1881. Horace D. 
 was born June 8, 1861. Frances A., born Sept. 21, 
 1869, married, April 18, 1890, A. E. Hay ward, and 
 lives in Hamden ; she is a member of Mary Clapp 
 Wooster Chapter, Daughters American Revolution. 
 
 Horace D. Johnson was born in the same house 
 ■where he lives, June 8, 1861. He was reared as all 
 iarmer boys of his time, and received a good com- 
 mon-school education. When quite young he 
 showed natural business tact, taking much more 
 than a boy's interest in nis father's business of w'hich 
 he early acquired practical knowledge. When little 
 more than past his 'teens he went into business for 
 himself, first on a tract of twenty acres, that his 
 father gave him, and engaging as a market gar- 
 dener, he met with marked success, the beginning 
 of an unusually successful career in various lines. 
 He followed market gardening a few years, and 
 ihen added the business of retailing milk. For soro° 
 years previous to his father's death, he had taken a 
 prominent part in the business of his father's farm 
 as well, so when the father died he had additional 
 responsibilities. Although a young man he proved 
 his ability to successfully handle the business which 
 fell upon him. Soon afterward he went into the 
 dairy business as a producer, and he has continued 
 in that line ever since, with more than ordinary 
 success, being one of the best-known men in this 
 business, supplying New Haven consumers. He 
 has twenty cows. 
 
 Of late years Mr. Johnson has branched out 
 into other lines, prominent among which is the cut- 
 ting and marketing of timber, consisting of cord 
 wood, ties, piles, etc. This line he carries on exten- 
 sively, marketing as many as fifteen hundred cords 
 of wood alone, in a season, to say nothing of the 
 other timber he handles. In this branch of his 
 business he employs a number of men, and from 
 fifteen to twenty teams are required in his opera- 
 tions. He owns large tracts of timber land, in ad- 
 joining towns, cutting his timber from these tracts. 
 His business also includes contractimg and trucking, 
 which he has found profitable, and he formerlv did 
 
 considerable grading. Mr. Johnson still carries on 
 these various lines, in addition to dairying, on an 
 extensive and remunerative scale, and his manage- 
 ment gives evidence of much more than ordinary 
 business ability and energy. Like his father 'he is 
 systematic in all his transactions. His property 
 holdings have increased from time to time, as the 
 demand's of his busines required, until now he owns 
 over 300 acres of land in Hamden, Bethany and 
 Woodbridge, and real estate in New Haven as 
 well. 
 
 In affairs involving the welfare of his town, Mr. 
 Johnson tiakes an active and prominent part. A 
 stanch and influential member of the Republican 
 party, he is also one of its advisers and counselors 
 in Hamden. He was elected selectman in 1893, and 
 served until 1899, except for two years. In 1898 he 
 was elected first selectman. His service in this 
 incumbency was marked by the same business-like 
 discharge of 'his duties that characterizes his man- 
 agement of his private enterprises. He has shown 
 great interest and gives his valuable support to all 
 movements of benefit to his town, and he 'has as vig- 
 orously opposed those having any other object. In 
 town afifairs his opposition or support is keenly felt. 
 Socially he is a prominent member of the Masonic 
 fraternity and the I. O. O. F., affiliating with Day 
 Spring Lodge, No. 30, A. F. & A. M., of Hamden ; 
 Pulaski Chapter, of Fair Haven; New Haven Com- 
 mandery, K. T. ; and Pyramid Temple, Mvstic 
 Shrine, of Bridgeport. In the I. O. O. F. he is a 
 mem'ber of Montowese Lodge, and Golden Rule 
 Encampment. He also holds membership in Cru- 
 sade Castle, Knights of the Golden Eagle; and is 
 a charter member of Hamden Grange. He is eligi- 
 ble to membership in the Sons of the American 
 Revolution. 
 
 Mr. Johnson has v/on his success by thrift, not 
 by denying himself, takes considerable pleasure in 
 life, and indulging in such luxuries as his tastes 
 incline him to. He has shown in a substantial way 
 his willingness to help a friend or the needy, but he 
 never parades such acts of kindness or generosity. 
 In all his undertakings, though he 'has steadily 
 prospered, his methods have been such as to up- 
 hold the ho'norable name he bears. Mr. Johnson is 
 not married. 
 
 JOHN GO'ODRICH NORTH (deceased) was 
 born in Berlin, Conn., Feb. 22, 1823, and died 
 March 9, 1892, at Milford, Connecticut. 
 
 The history of the North family in America be- 
 gins with John North, who, was born in England 
 in 1615, and sailed from London in April, 1635, on 
 the "Susan and Ellen," E. Payne, master, in com- 
 pany with Sir Richard Saltonstall, Rev. Peter Bulk- 
 ley, and ninety others [see Gov. Thomas Welles, p. 
 10]. There is no record that he previously resided 
 in Hartford, like most of the first settlers of Farm- 
 ington. His land in Farmington was entered to 
 him in 1653, during which year he had a daughter 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1315 
 
 baptized there. He and his sons John and Samuel 
 iwere among the eigfhty-four proprietors among 
 whom the unoccupied lands of the ancient town 
 were divided in 1672. John North diejd in 1691. In 
 the "Lists of names of persons of quality emigrating 
 from England to America 1600-1700" his name is 
 given, aged twenty. He married Hannah Bird, of 
 Farmington, and his first child, John, was born in 
 1641. 
 
 Thomas North, fifth son of John, was born in 
 Farmington, about 1649, and died in 1712. He 
 married Hannah Newell, who was born 1658. He 
 was a soldier in the Indian wars, had a soldier's 
 grant of land, and was one of the pioneers in the 
 settlement of Worthington, now Avon, living on the 
 cast of the river, near Marshall's tavern, under the 
 mountain, and north of the Hartford and Albany 
 turnpike. 
 
 Thomas North (2), son of Thomas, married 
 Martha Royce in December, 1698, and died in 1725. 
 Martha (Royce) North was born in 1679. 
 
 Isaac North, of Wethersfield and Berlin, son of 
 Thomas (2), was born in 1702, and died in 1788. 
 He married Mary Woodford, who was born in 1709. 
 He was the first enrolled member and 'the first dea- 
 con of what is now the Second Congregational 
 Church, Berlin, Conn. This church was organized 
 Feb. 9, 1775. Mary Woodford North, wife of 
 Isaac, joined the same church Feb. 22, 1775. Isaac 
 served as Second lieutenant of Capt. Wells' com- 
 pany. Brig. Gen. Wolcott's Brigade, Militia, April 
 10-22, 1777, in the Revolutionary war. 
 
 Jedediah North, also of Wethersfield and Ber- 
 lin, was born in 1734, and died Dec. 16, 1816. In 
 1757 he married Sarah Wilcox, who was born in 
 in 1739, and died Oct. 5, 1775. 
 
 David North, son of Jedediah, was iborn in 1761, 
 and lived in Berlin. In 1781 he married Salome 
 Wilcox, and died in 183 1. His wife, who was born 
 in 1761, died March 15, 1807. 
 
 Lemuel North, of Berlin, father of John Good- 
 rich North, was born May 6, 1786, and was a typical 
 New Englander of his day. He was one of twelve 
 children. When he was a little boy his father moved 
 to Meredith, N. Y., where he built a house and 
 cleared up land. They had to send two miles to get 
 flour, and to have meal ground. Lemuel, then a 
 boy about eight years old, was sent with the grist, 
 on horseback, a bag with corn on one iside, and rye 
 on the other. He was afraid, for the road^ was 
 through the woods. At night they went upstairs to 
 sleep, pulling the ladder by which they climbed up, 
 after them, for fear of wolves. "Aunt Lucy," Lem- 
 uel's sister, said she often drove the wolves away 
 from the door. Lemuel returned to Berlin to live 
 with his grandfather, Jedediah North. He had no 
 opportunity for education. At the death of the 
 grandfather, the property was divided among the 
 children; each one had a strip of land running up 
 over the hill, "the Ledge," as they used to call it. 
 Lemuel bought up all the shares and owned the 
 
 whole farm, besides buying m.ore of the Dunhams. 
 He carried on an industry (besides caring for his 
 farm) now entirely superseded. He had a ismall 
 tin-shop near his house, where he put in the little 
 tubes in the whale-oil lamps then in general use, and 
 also made small tin boxes, and other things of the 
 kind. Such shops as his, scattered up and down the 
 hills and valleys of Connecticut, especially near 
 water-courses, and numerous small industries hke 
 his, made Connecticut the "'land of Yankee notions." 
 Such work is now done by isteam power or electric- 
 ity in great manufacturing centers. Lemuel North 
 was a very industrious man. The clip-clip of his 
 tinsmith's hammer was heard "the last thing at 
 night, sometimes till one o'clock, and the first thing 
 in the morning." His daughter says, "When he got 
 one day's work done, he began on the next day's, 
 to see how it was going." He was a kindly man, 
 very fond of all children, and always carried pepper- 
 mints in his pockets to give to them. He married 
 Rebecca Goodrich, who was born June 26, 1783, 
 and died July 5, 1857. He died Aug. 25, 1845. 
 
 John Goodrich North, son of Lemuel, grew up 
 on his father's farm, with only isuch educational 
 advantages as the district school furnished, and 
 little if any of those after he was fourteen. But he 
 showed his Goodrich characteristics in that he made 
 the most of what little opportunity he had. He had 
 a fine mind, and a retentive memory. A lawyer 
 who knew him in his later life said he would have 
 made a fine lawyer, for he had remarkable power to 
 seize upon the salient points of a subject, and most 
 excellent powers of reasoning. His active life did 
 not give him much time for reading, but he was al- 
 ways interested in Connecticut history and tradi- 
 tion, and he kept himself well informed on the 
 events of the day. At the age of eighteen he went 
 to New Haven, Conn., entering Durand & Mygatt's 
 dry-goods store as clerk, and before he was twenty- 
 five was partner. He was always very quick in his 
 motions, and was called by his fellow clerks, "Step- 
 and-fetch-it." In 1843 he entered the insurance 
 businesiS', in which he was very successful, and in 
 which he continued until his death, and he was re- 
 garded as one of the best posted and most success- 
 ful men in that line in his section of his State. He 
 was agent for the ^tna Life of Hartford for forty- 
 two years, and for the Connecticut Mutual for 
 forty-five years. In 1865 was formed the firm of 
 North & Blakeslee, which was dissolved in 1874. 
 In 1878 he took his son John into partnership, under 
 the title of John G. & John C. North. 
 
 Mr. North was closely identified with the phil- 
 anthropic and religious life of New Haven. In his 
 younger days he was very active in Sunday- 
 school and temperance work throughout the State 
 of Connecticut, being a prominent officer in the 
 Sons of Temperance. For many years he was 
 superintendent of Mission Sunday-schools, notably 
 that of "Scattergood," which did a unique and suc- 
 cessful work for neglected street children. He was 
 
I3i6. 
 
 COMMEMORA TIVR . BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a friend of, and welcome visitor at the New Haven 
 Orphan Asylum. Children everywhere delighted to 
 have him address them. He gave the colored people 
 of New Haven, as trustees of their church, valuable 
 assistance and counsel. He was active in the Aboli- 
 tion movement before the Civil war. and most pa- 
 triotic in all the trying events of that time. During 
 the last years of his life he was lay chaplain at the 
 New Haven jail, where he helped many men to a 
 better life. He was made trial justice in Milford, 
 and waged a vigorous war against vice in every 
 form. Mr. North was an officer in the Governor's 
 Horse Guards. In politics he was^ a Whig and Re- 
 publican. 
 
 Mr. North was married May 31, 1843, to Eliza- 
 beth Dickinson, who was born in New Haven, Dec. 
 8, 1821, a daughter of Raphael Dickinson (who was 
 born Feb. 6, 1781, and died Feb. 26, 1837) and his 
 wife, Nancy McNeil (who was born June 4, 1783, 
 and died Feb.. 9, 1833). Mrs. Nancy (McNeil) 
 Dickinson was a daughter of William McNeil, who 
 graduated from Yale and became a civil engineer, 
 but spent his later years as a sailor and sea captain. 
 To Mr. and Mrs. John G. North were born five chil- 
 dren: Mary Goodrich, John Curtis, Sarah Eliza- 
 beth, Edward Collins and Cornelia Chatterton. Of 
 these, John C. is in the insurance business in New 
 Haven; he married Jessie Brinkerhofif, of Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y. Edward C. is in the same line in Bos- 
 ton; he married Marion Tilton. Sarah E. married 
 Stanley P. Warren, M. D., a graduate of Yale, and 
 they now live in Portland, Maine. Mary G. married 
 Rev. Erastus Blakeslee, a graduate of Yale, and 
 lives in Brookline, Mass.; Rev. Mr. Blakeslee was 
 a soldier in the Civil war, colonel of the 1st Con- 
 necticut Cavalry, and brevet brigadier general of 
 volunteers. Cornelia C. married Prof. Samuel T. 
 Dutton, of Columbia University, who at one time 
 was superintendent of schools in New Haven and 
 m Brookline. In religion all the family have long 
 been associated with the Congregational Church. 
 In 1887 Mr. North moved to Milford, Conn., 
 where he had a beautiful home, which was a great 
 delight to him, for he was always fond of the beauti- 
 ful m nature. He died very suddenly from apo- 
 plexy at his home, March 9, 1892. Mr. North was 
 never so happy as when doing a kindness, or help- 
 mg some one out of difficulty. This spirit was 
 shown most abundantly in his own home. His chil- 
 dren grew up in an atmosphere of generous love. 
 He used often to say, "I want to give my children 
 a happy childhood." Their memories of him and 
 their early home will always be most precious to 
 them. It was always a place to which they were 
 most cordially welcomed after they had left it for 
 homes of their own. In all their trials he was most 
 ready to listen with sympathetic ear, and, if possible, 
 with ready aid. The homfe was also one of Christian 
 nurture. As one who knew him well in his home 
 wrote at the time of his death, "What a home for 
 
 those children to go out from, an inspiration for 
 their homes and lives, stronger than precept. A 
 blessing on children and children's children must 
 certainly rest and follow them all their lives." 
 
 The Dickinson Family, to which Mrs. John 
 G. North belongs, has an authentic history that runs 
 back in England to a period beyond 1475, Thomas 
 Dickinson, who was a native of Abingdon, Eng- 
 land, went about 1670, to Ayrshire, Scotland, where 
 he had three sons, Thomas, Josiah and Moses. 
 
 Moses Dickinson, born in Ayrshire, came to^ 
 Boston, from which point he went to Deerfield, 
 Mass., about 1690. 
 
 David Ebenezer Dickinson, son of Moses, mar- 
 ried Sarah Winslow, the great-granddaughter of 
 Gov. Winslow. 
 
 Oliver Dickinson, son of David Ebenezer, grew 
 to manhood, and married Mary Parmalee. 
 
 Oliver Dickinson, son of Oliver, was born July 
 10, 1757, in Litchfield, Conn., and died March 23^ 
 1847. On June 11, 1778, he married Anna Landon. 
 He served in the Revolutionary army, in which he 
 made a noble record as a gallant soldier and a pa- 
 triotic citizen. He was in the army from 1776 to 
 1781. 
 
 Raphael Dickinson, second son of Oliver, was 
 born Feb. 6, 1781, and died Feb. 26, 1837. He mar- 
 ried Nancy McNeil Feb. 25, 1805, and their daugh- 
 ter Elizabeth was married to John G. North, as 
 noted above. He was a master builder, and did'ex- 
 cellent work. In 1808, he climbed to the top of Trin- 
 ity church, and blackened the crown on the weather- 
 vane, which had just been re-gilded, in opposition 
 to the wishes of American citizens who thought the 
 crown no longer appropriate, since we were no 
 longer under English rule. 
 
 Leonard A. Dickinson, a son of Raphael, and a 
 brother of Mrs. Elizabeth North, became one of the 
 noted citizens of New Haven. In 1861 he enlisted 
 in the I2th Conn. V. I., and the same year was 
 made captain of Company C, of that regiment. He 
 served throughout the war, and returning to Hart- 
 ford was made local agent of the .^tna Fire In- 
 surance Company, in which capacity he served 
 thirty-two years. For three years he was quarter- 
 master on the staff of Gov. Jewell, and for four 
 years he was postmaster at Hartford. Fraternally 
 he was active in Masonry; in the Grand Army he 
 was past commander of the Department of Con- 
 necticut, and treasurer of the Soldiers Home at 
 Noroton, Connecticut. 
 
 Leonard A. Dickinson died Jan. 27, 1901, and 
 his funeral services were very largely attended, by 
 the public generally as well as by the Grand Army 
 of the Republic and the insurance agencies with 
 which he had been so Ion?- and intimately associ- 
 ated. Seldom has a man passed into the Great Be- 
 yond whoseloss has been so deeply and generally- 
 felt. Of high character, unimpeachable integrity 
 and a winning personality, he had a host of friends 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 3 17 
 
 who knew him as a man of honor and of business 
 lability beyond the average, whose useful life and 
 many virtues shed honor upon the State. 
 
 The McNeil Family, of which the mother of 
 Mrs. North was a member, has a history in Con- 
 necticut that begins with the purchase of land by 
 Archibald McNeil at Branford, about 1735. At 
 the same time he married Mary, a daughter of 
 Samuel Russell, and the widow of Benjamin Fenn. 
 He died about 1753, leaving three sons, John, Sam- 
 uel and Archibald. 
 
 Archibald McNeil was born Sept. 20, 1736, at 
 Branford, and May 2, 1758, married Sarah Clark, 
 of Derby. They had a son, William, born May 13, 
 1759, in New Haven, who was graduated from Yale 
 in 1777. He was a gunner on the privateer "Mar- 
 quis De Lafayette'' from Jan. 30, 1782, to Aug. 13, 
 1783. On Sept. 25, 1779, he married Huldah Au- 
 gur in New Haven, and they had six children: 
 William, John, Henry, Maria, Nancy and Abra- 
 ham Archibald. Of these, Nancy married Raphael 
 Dickinson, as noted above. 
 
 HICKOX. The Hickox family of Durham, 
 Conn., where lived for generations the ancestors 
 of William A. Hickox, a substantial citizen and 
 business man of Meriden, where for years he has 
 been superintendent of the advertising department 
 of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., is 
 one of the old Colonial families of Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Hickox is a descendant in the eighth gen- 
 eration from W^illiam Hickok Hickoks, or Hickox, 
 an early settler and original proprietor of Farm- 
 ington, Conn., Ms lineage being through Sergeant 
 Samuel, Joseph, Joseph (2), Joseph (3), Daniel 
 and Charles Hickox. 
 
 (H) Sergeant Samuel Hickox, son of William 
 of Farmington, was early in that town, his name 
 appearing on the list of proprietors of the town in 
 1672. He was one of the original thirty, and is be- 
 lieved to have been one of the first company of men 
 that went to Waterbury. He early laid out five 
 acres of land along the stream named for him, 
 "Hickox Brook." His wife was Hannah, and, ac- 
 cording to an inventory taken Feb. 28, 1694-95, his 
 children were: Samuel, aged twenty-six; Hannah, 
 twenty-four; William, twenty-two; Thomas, twen- 
 ty; Joseph, seventeen; Mary, fourteen; Elizabeth, 
 twelve; Stephen, eleven; Benjamin, nine; Mercy, 
 six; and Ebenezer, two. Sergeant Hickox held a 
 number of town offices and was one of the leading 
 men of the settlement. 
 
 (HI) Joseph Hickox, son of Sergeant Samuel, 
 born in 1678, married Feb. 8, 1699, or 1700, Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of Joseph Gaylord, Sr. He was ac- 
 cepted as a bachelor proprietor of Waterbury in 
 1699, was chimney viewer in 1701 and 1703. He 
 removed, after the births of two of his children, 
 Joseph and Hannah, at Waterbury, with the Gay- 
 lords to Durham, Conn. He was a carpenter by 
 occupation, was one of the original proprietors of 
 
 Durham in 1708, and on the organization of the 
 town government in 1706, he became the first town 
 clerk. He died in 1725. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Hickox (2), son of Joseph, born 
 ii,' Waterbury, about 1701, married about 1722, 
 Sarah (surname not given), and among their chil- 
 dren were: Jerusha, baptized in 1723; Elizabeth, 
 baptized in 1725; Joseph, baptized in 1729; Sarah, 
 baptized in 1731 ; James, baptized in 1733; and 
 Hannah, baptized in 1738. 
 
 (V) Joseph Hickox (3), son of Joseph (2), 
 baptized in Durham, April 6, 1729, married Dec. 
 8, 1748, Martha Wilcox, and their children were: 
 Martha, baptized May 27, 1750; James, baptized in 
 1 751; William, baptized Aug. 21, 1753; Rhoda, 
 baptized in September, 1755; Joseph, baptized July 
 15, 1757; Darius, baptized March 11, 1759; Reuben, 
 baptized Dec. 28, 1760; Catherine, baptized July 19, 
 1763; Giles, baptized April 28, 1765; Daniel, bap- 
 tized July 10, 1768; Rachel, baptized July 13, 1768; 
 and Asa, baptized April i, 1773. It is a family 
 tradition that Joseph Hickox (3) made fire arms 
 for service in the Revolution, and that he himself 
 was out in the service, and that some of the guns 
 were among those deposited in the Atheneum at 
 Hartford. 
 
 (VI) Daniel Hickox, son of Joseph (3), bap- 
 tized July 10, 1768, married Jerusha Camp, and 
 Joy, Charles, Leander, Sophronia and Charlotte, 
 among their children were : Henry, Daniel, Reuben, 
 Daniel Hickox was a farmer of Durham. A Capt. 
 Daniel Hickock was in command of a company of 
 Connecticut Militia, Horse Travel, i6th regiment, 
 under Col. Nehemiah Beardsley, that went on an 
 expedition to Fairfield and Danbury July 9, 1779, 
 and his name is on the pay-roll for services in the 
 main army at, or near, Peekskill. A James and 
 Dr. Nathaniel Hickock were members of Capt. 
 Samuel Camp's Company, Horse Travel, Col. Cook's 
 regiment, called for the relief of New Haven and 
 Fairfield July 5 and 8, 1779. Silas Hicck's name 
 appears on the pay roll of Capt. Bull's Company of 
 Light Horse, under Maj. Sheldon, when it was or- 
 dered to New York in July, 1776. 
 
 (VII) Charles Hickox, son of Daniel, born in 
 Durham, in 1800, married in 1842, Hannah, daugh- 
 ter of James Fowler, of North Guilford, Conn. — a 
 sketch of whose family appears elsewhere — and four 
 children were born to them, namely : John, who 
 died in infancy; Anna H., who is now the widow 
 of the late Albert M. Cooley, of Middlefield, Conn. ; 
 Charles A., who married Sarah, daughter of Charles 
 Warner and is a resident of Hartford ; and William 
 A., of Meriden. Charles Hickox, the father of this 
 family, was by occupation in his early life, a shoe- 
 rnaker and farmer, working at the bench through 
 the winter season. Later in life he followed paint- 
 ing in connection with farming. He was well in- 
 formed and held a number of public trusts in his 
 town, among them the office of justice of the peace. 
 He was for years a member of the M. E. Church 
 
i3'8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and its choirmaster. He was a useful citizen, and 
 commanded the respect and esteem of the com_r 
 munity. His political affiliations were with the Re- 
 publican party. He died in Durham, Oct. 28, 1890, 
 and his wife passed away Oct. 5, 1891. She, too, 
 was identified with the M. E. Church at Durham. 
 
 (VIII) William A. Hickox, son of Charles, 
 born Jan. 14, 1855, married in Durham, Conn., June 
 22,, i88r, Sarah Louise Newton, and their only 
 child, Frederick Arthur, born Feb. 25, 1882, died in 
 Durham Sept. 4, 1883. 
 
 Mr. Hickox received his elementary education 
 in the public schools of Durham, then began a busi- 
 ness career at employment in a meat market, thence 
 after a year entering the grocery store of L. M. and 
 O. Leach at Durham. Here he continued for a 
 period of eight years. Following this experience, 
 he went in 1879 to Aleriden, and there was em- 
 ployed in the dry-goods house of Ives, Upham & 
 Rand. Two years later he left these gentlemen, 
 and entered the employ of the Bradley & Hubbard 
 Manufacturing Co., which establishment has since 
 been his business home, and where he has charge 
 of the advertising department. 
 
 Fraternally, Mr. Hickox is a member of Merid- 
 ian Lodge, No. yy, F. & A. M.; of Keystone Chap- 
 ter, No. 27, R. A. M.; and Alfred Hall Council, 
 No. 1423, Royal Arcanum. He is a Republican in 
 political views, and he and his wife attend the 
 Congregational Church. Mrs. Hickox is a mem- 
 ber of Ruth Hart Chapter, Daughters of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution. 
 
 Newton. Mrs. Sarah Louise (Newton) Hick- 
 ox is a descendant in the eighth generation from 
 Rev. Roger Newton, of Farmington, and- Milford, 
 Conn., her lineage being through^ — ,Abner, Burwell, 
 Abner (2), Elisha and Israel C. Newton. 
 
 (I) Rev. Roger Newton the first minister of 
 the Church at Farmington, Conn., and a member at 
 its organization, Oct. 15, 1652. He was married at 
 Hartford to Mary, eldest daughter of Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker, who died Feb. 4, 1676. Rev. Newton was 
 dismissed from the church in 1657, went to Boston 
 and sailed for England. On his return he was 
 installed pastor of the church at Milford, Conn., 
 Aug. 22, 1660, and died June 7, 1683. In his will 
 he mentioned children as follows : Roger, Susanna, 
 John, Ezekiel, Sarah, Alice and ]\Iarv. He had a 
 son Daniel, who was bom in 1646. Rev. Roger 
 Newton was the second pastor of the Milford 
 Church, following Rev. Peter Prudden, and served 
 it for twenty-two years 
 
 ill) \ . 
 
 (Ill) Abner Newton, grandson of Rev. Roger 
 of Farmington and Milford, became one of the early 
 settlers of Durham, Conn., where were baptized 
 several of his children, namely: Abner and John 
 m 1726; Burwell in 1729; Samuel in 1732; and 
 Roger in 1737. His wife's name was Mary. Of 
 the children Rev. Roger, D. D,, was liberally edu- 
 cated at Yale College (class of 1758), and for up- 
 
 wards of fifty years was pastor of the Congrega- 
 tional Church in Greenfield, Mass., and his son 
 Roger was graduated from Yale College in 1785. 
 
 (IV) Burwell Newton, son of Abner and Mary, 
 baptized in 1729, married Eunice (surname not 
 given), and their children baptized in Durham 
 were: Abiather, in 1754; Burwell, in 1756; Mary, 
 in 1759; Submit, in 1762; Abner and Roger (twins) 
 in 1765; Roger (again) in 1768; and Isaac in 1770. 
 A Burwell Newton, and the only one bearing that 
 Christian name in a Connecticut regiment so far as 
 known to us, is on the roll of Capt. Norton's com- 
 pany, Horse Travel, Thaddeus Cook's regiment. 
 Tenth Connecticut Militia, which went on the call 
 for relief to New Haven July 5, 1779, and Fairfield 
 July 8, of that same year, and it is likely that it was 
 the father or son of this family. 
 
 (V) Abner Newton, son of Burwell, born Dec. 
 27, 1764, married and had children: Elisha, Ab- 
 ner, Horace, Gaylord, R. Watson, Content and 
 Parnell (An Abner Newton, of Durham, Conn., 
 was a soldier in the War of 1812, a member of a 
 cavalry company). 
 
 (VI) Elisha Newton, son of Abner, married 
 Sally Camp. 
 
 (Vri) Israel C. Newton, son of Elisha, born 
 March 23, 1822, in Durham, married April 18, 1849, 
 Clarissa T. Sill, daughter of Micah Sill, of Hart- 
 ford and Wethersfield, and their children were: 
 William Camp; Frederick Sill, of Durham, Conn. ; 
 Frank Bowman, of Middlefield, Conn.; Sarah 
 Louise, of Meriden, Conn., the wife of William A. 
 Hickox; Isaac, who died in infancy; and Harriet 
 Tucker, who died in childhood. Israel C. Newton, 
 the father of this family, passed a life of useful citi- 
 zenship in his native town where he bore the respect 
 and esteem of his fellow citizens. He died June 
 I, 1890. 
 
 HON. GEORGE BRICKELL SPENCER, 
 manufacturer of Guilford, and a man of high stand- 
 ing in that community, where his ancestors have 
 lived for over two hundred years, closely identified 
 with the town's interests, is descended from one of 
 the old Colonial families of New England. 
 
 This Spencer family was first represented in 
 America by five brothers, who came from England, 
 namely : William, who located in Newtown, Con- 
 cord and Hartford; Sergt. Thomas (ancestor of 
 George B.), who located in Newtown (Cambridge) 
 and Hartford; Gerard, who settled at Haddam; 
 Michael, who located at Lynn ; and John, who died 
 without heirs. Of these brothers, Michael is shown 
 by will to have been a legatee" of Richard Spencer, 
 of London, England. 
 
 (I) Sergt. Thomas Spencer, was at Cambridge 
 m 1633, andi in 1637, removed to Hartford, where 
 'he was one of the original proprietors in 1639. He 
 was one of the prominent public men of the place, 
 and held various public offices, among them those of 
 constable, surveyor of highways and sergeant of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1319 
 
 the train band. He married (second) Sarah, only 
 child of Nathaniel Bearding, of Hartford. He died 
 Sept. II, 1687. Of his fourteen children we have 
 mention of (2) Sarah (Mrs. Brading), (6) Oba- 
 diah, (7) Thomas, (8) Samuel, (9) Jared, (10) 
 Sarah (who married Thomas Huxley), (11) Eliza- 
 beth (who married Samuel Andrews), (12) Han- 
 nah, (13) Mercy, and (14) Martha (who married 
 Samuel Benton.) 
 
 (II) Obadiah Spencer, son of Sergt. Thomas, 
 the emigrant, married Mary, daughter of Nicholas 
 Desborough, of Hartford, and died in 1712. Their 
 children were : Obadiah was the next in line of 
 descent to George B. ; Thomas married Esther An- 
 drews ; Samuel married Deborah Beckley ; Eben- 
 ezer married Mary Booth ; John married Mary 
 Smith; Desborough married Abigail Elmer; Mary 
 married a Mr. King. 
 
 (III) Obadiah Spencer, of Hartford, born there 
 in 1666, died Aug. 22, 1741. He and his wife Ruth 
 had children: Obadiah, born June 29, 1699; Ste- 
 phen, who is mentioned below ; Jonathan, born 
 March 15, 1704; Daniel, born June 10, 1705 ; Eben- 
 ezer ; Mehitabel, who married Samuel Bishop ; and 
 Caleb, born April 26, 1709. 
 
 (IV) Stephen Spencer, son of Obadiah (2), 
 was born March 16, 1702, in Hartford, and died 
 Sept. 6, 1760. When quite young he ran away from 
 home, and went to Guilford, where his sister Mehit- 
 abel lived. On Nov. 5, 1725, he married Obedience 
 Bradley, who was born Dec. 9, 1705, and died Aug. 
 13, 1759. Their children; Obedience married J. 
 Parmelee, and died June 9, 1750; Ruth married 
 Timothy Luddington ; Hannah, born Sept. 25, 1728, 
 died Oct. 24, 1736; Stephen, born Jan. 22, 1731, 
 d-ied Nov. 11, 1756; Obadiah, born June 12, 1733, 
 died Oct. 25, 1736; Mark, born April 12, 1738, mar- 
 ried Merrit Stone; Catherine, born in 1740, married 
 Miles Stone; Hannah (2), born Aug. 28, 1743, 
 married Darius Collins, and died Oct. 30, 1799; 
 Obadiah (2), born Oct. 16, 1745, married Mindwell 
 Grififing, and died in 1789; Christopher was the 
 great-grandfather of George B. Spencer. 
 
 (V) Christopher Spencer, born March 6, 1748, 
 died March 26, 1796. On May 8, 1767, he married 
 Olive Stowe, who was born Sept. i, 1746, and died 
 Oct. 3, 1783. His second marriage was to Widow 
 Mary Stowe. Children : Nancy, born Sept. 16, 
 1768, died Sept. 15, 1769; Uriah, bom March 4, 
 1770, married Deborah Elliott; Nancy (2), born 
 March 31, 1772, married Joseph Wells, and died 
 Aug. 8, 1854; Christopher, born Feb. 6, 1774, mar- 
 ried Temperance Tuttle ; Samuel is mentioned be- 
 low; Olive, born in 1778, died Aprd 6' 1798; Ach- 
 sah, born in 1780, died May 11, 1808; Stephen was 
 born June 28, 1785 ; Alanson, born March 28, 1787, 
 married Ann Rose; Harvey, born Feb. 6, 1793, died 
 Sept. 15, 1793; Harvey (2), born April 6, 1795, 
 married Fanny Sharpe, Nov. 15, 1838. 
 
 (VI) Samuel Spencer, son of Christopher, born 
 June 10, 1775, died March 16, 1871, in Guilford. 
 
 On Oct. 5, 1801, he married Elizabeth Tuttle, who 
 was born June 13, 1781, daughter of Daniel Tuttle, 
 and died Oct. 17, 1873. Children: Isaac Stowe, 
 the father of George B., is mentioned below ; Sam- 
 uel Christopher, born May i, 1806, married Jane 
 Loomis; James, born Dec. i, 1808, married Emeline 
 Butler, and died May 28, 1874; Olive, born Feb. 27, 
 1810, married Samuel C. Johnson; Eliza, born 
 March 23, 1812, married George A. Foote ; Daniel, 
 born March 12, 1814, married Louisa Mix, and died 
 April 27, 1881 ; Nancy, born Dec. 21, 1815, married 
 U. N. Parmelee, and died June 28, 1881 ; Henry, 
 born Sept. 2, 1820, married Sara A. Elliott. 
 
 (VII) Isaac Stowe Spencer, son of Samuel, and 
 the father of Georee B., of Guilford, was born 
 April 17, 1804., in Guilford, and died Oct. 22, 1866. 
 He married Charlotte Brickell, daughter of George 
 and Rachel Brickell, of Clarkstown, Rockland Co., 
 N. Y. She was born in 1802, and died April 20, 
 1885. They had children as follows: Elizabeth 
 was born Aug. 10, 1830. Christopher, born Oct. 
 II, 1831, is in business with his brother, George B., 
 in Guilford ; he married Jane Collins. James Ed- 
 win, born Sept. 20, 1836, is a manufacturer of 
 spectacles in New York City, his headquarters be- 
 ing at No. 16 Maiden Lane; he married Angeline 
 Fenn. Caroline Brickell and Emeline Butler, twins, 
 were born Sept. 13, 1838; the former marri'ed Enos 
 
 A. Hale, and the latter Edwin A. Fowler. George 
 
 B. was born June 20, 1841. John Stowe, born April 
 6, 1845, is engaged in the manufacture of spectacles 
 in connection with his brother James E., in New 
 York City ; his wife's name was Anna. 
 
 Mrs. Charlotte (Brickell) Spencer was of Dutch 
 extraction. Her great-grandfather, Hardenburg, 
 came to the United States from Holland. His 
 daughter Catherine Hardenburg, married James 
 Linkletter, and they had two daughters, Rachel and 
 Sally. Rachel Linkletter married George Brickell, 
 and they had six children : Caroline, who married 
 Joseph Peterson; Margaret, who married James 
 Blauvelt, and after his death became the wife of 
 Levi Abrams ; Charlotte, the wife of Isaac S. Spen- 
 cer; John; Thomas; and James. Sally Linkletter 
 married Benjamin Tuttle, and six children were 
 born to them: Mary Ann (Gager), Feb. 10, 1807; 
 Temperance (Tuttle), Aug. 4, 1813; Samuel, March 
 3, 1815 ; Charlotte (Wheeler), Aug. 5, 1817; Caro- 
 line (Munger), April i, 1819; Daniel, Oct. 29, 1821. 
 
 Soon after 1851 what was then the Nausup 
 Foundry and machine shop, the outgrowth of a 
 foundry established at Guilford in 1847, by Oliver 
 B. Fowler, was purchased by Isaac Stowe Spencer, 
 and his son Christopher. Subsequently another son, 
 George B. Spencer, was added to the firm, which 
 has been known as I. S. Spencer's Sons since the 
 death of the father in 1866. In 1869 the Spencer 
 brothers erected a brick foundry 60X100 feet, in 
 which was a five- ton cupola ; in 1880 they enlarged 
 the works' and put in a seven-ton cupola; and 
 again, in 1883, the addition of a brass foundry was 
 
I320 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 made. Steam power was first applied in the plant 
 in 1872. There is manufactured at these works a 
 complete line of grey iron castings, such as legs 
 for school desks, pedestals for lamps, parts of lock 
 castings, and light castings. In addition the Spen- 
 cers produce a large number of their celebrated 
 family scales, and do a large business in brass cast- 
 ings. The establishment has long been prosperous, 
 and affords remunerative employment to over one 
 hundred of the citizens of the town. The Messrs. 
 Spencer have carried on the business with great 
 prudence and energy, and to the great advantage 
 of the town. These gentlemen have been promi- 
 nently identified with the growth and improvement 
 of Guilford! from their very boyhood. Christopher 
 was one of the founders and first president of the 
 Guilford Enterprise Co., a manufacturing concern 
 of considerable size and importance to Guilford 
 along in the 'seventies and 'eighties, while George 
 B. has been before the public in various connec- 
 tions for many years. Both brothers are useful 
 citizens. 
 
 George B. .Spencer received his elementary ed- 
 ucation in the common schools of Guilford, and 
 when sixteen years of age began work in the foun- 
 dry, thoroughly learning the business step by step. 
 On his father's death, as set forth in the foregoing, 
 he became a partner in the business. Mr. Spencer 
 is president of the Guilford National Bank. He has 
 been prominently identified with the municipal ad- 
 ministration and local progress in public matters 
 generally. In 1877 he was treasurer of the Agri- 
 cultural Societ}'. He is at present a member of 
 the school committee ; has served several years as 
 selectman and burgess ; was warden of the borough, 
 1871-75 ; was elected to the State Legislature in 
 1874; and in 1894 served on the building committee 
 which superintended the erection of the town house. 
 His political support is given to the Democratic 
 party. ^ Mr. Spencer's religious connection is with 
 the Episcopal Church, of which he has been a com- 
 municant since ten years of age. Since April i, 
 1872, he has been a warden of Christ Church. Fra- 
 ternally he is a Freemason. 
 
 In September, 1869, Mr. Spencer married Emma 
 Frances Beckley, who was born Jan. 24, 1850 
 daughter of Chester and Mary A. (Redfield) Beck- 
 ley, of Clinton; their ancestors were among the 
 old families of the town. Two children have blessed 
 this marriage, namely: Samuel, born Oct. 20, 
 1871, is connected with the business of his father; 
 Chester Stowe, born Sept. 27, 1873, is a civil en- 
 gineer in the employ of the New York, New Haven 
 & Hartford Railway Company. 
 
 COL. CHARLES WHITTLESEY PICKETT, 
 born in Waterbury, June 13, 1858, is a son of 
 John Mason and Eliza"beth Lucy (Cogswell) Pick- 
 ett. On the maternal side he is a direct descendant 
 of the famous Cogswell and Whittlesey families, 
 and on the paternal side of the Roger Sherman fam- 
 
 ily. He was educated in the common schools, at 
 Waramaug Academy, and at Yale University. 
 
 The early life of Col. Picketlt was spent on the 
 farm in Sherman, Conn., where his father engaged 
 in agriculture after returning from the business of 
 contractor and builder in Waterbury. In 1884 he 
 was associated with Hon. Lynda Harrison, then 
 chairman of the Republican State Central Com- 
 mittee, and in 1885 became a member of the Palla- 
 dium editorial sitaff. In 1888 he was made financial 
 clerk of the town of New Haven, and in 1889 be- 
 came deputy collector of internal revenue. In 1892 
 he organized the Evening Leader Company, and 
 assumed his present responsibility as part owner 
 and editor of that paper. In 1896 he was appointed 
 aide on the staff of Governor L. A. Cooke. Other 
 political offices held by him include that of council- 
 man and alderman of the city of New Haven and 
 chairman of the Court of Common Council, in 
 which latter capacity he served on the committee 
 which gave New Haven the charter from which 
 other cities have copied extensively. He is a mem- 
 ber of the Connecticut Society of Sons of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution, of the Union League, Young Men's 
 Republican, Congregational and Civil Service Re- 
 form Clubs, and he is fraternally associated with 
 Hiram Lodge, No. i, F. & A. M. ; and also with the 
 Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and the Royal 
 Arcanum. He served five years in the Conn. N. 
 G., enlisting in Company F (the Grays), Second 
 Regiment, and he has been identified with miHtary 
 life in several capacities. 
 
 JOSEPH GERARD, A. M., principal of the 
 Church street school, of Meriden, is one of the best 
 known educators in this' section of Connecticut, a 
 man of scholarly attainments, intellectual strength 
 and pleasing personality. 
 
 The birth of Prof. Gerard occurred at Mount 
 Bethel, N. J., his ancestral tree having had its origin 
 in France. His parents were William and Susan 
 (Anthony) Gerard, natives of New Jersey, and the 
 latter is still surviving. 
 
 Prof. Gerard was one in a family of six children 
 born to his parents, and his early life was passed 
 on a farm. Until the age of nine years his educa- 
 tional opportunities were limited to the district 
 schools in his vicinity, but his parents soon rec- 
 ognized that better advantages must be provided 
 for one of his quick intelligence. Entering the 
 Centenary Collegiate Institute, at Hackettstown, N. 
 J., he graduated at that institution in 1877, and 
 then entered the Wesleyan University, -at Middle- 
 town, Conn. Fulfilling every promise of his youth, 
 Mr. Gerard graduated from this learned institu- 
 tion in 1882, with the well-won degree of A. B., 
 soon after adopting the profession of teaching. His 
 first year was spent in East Hartford, Conn., and 
 from there his labors were transferred to the public 
 schools of Southington, Conn., where he continued 
 until 1884, at which time he came to Meriden. He 
 
Q^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1321 
 
 was appointed to take charge of the Old Road 
 school, where he spent ten useful years, and estab- 
 lished a reputation as an educator which has never 
 been lost. Having been tendered a position in 
 the United States Custom House, in New York, 
 he resigned his position as a teacher and accepted 
 the new^ opening, passing the civil service ex- 
 amination and remained in the Government service 
 for some two years. 
 
 However, the claims of the old profession out- 
 weighed the advantages of this office, and Prof. 
 Gerard decided to return to the educational field. 
 After resigning he was tendered a position in the 
 schools of New York, but the memory of the good 
 people of Meriden was still with him, and hither he 
 returned. Soon after he resumed his old place as 
 principal of the Old Road school, but when the 
 schools were consolidated he succeeded C. M. Will- 
 iams, who was appointed superintendent, and re- 
 mained at the West Main Street school two years. 
 When Prof. A. B. Mather became school super- 
 intendent he appointed Prof. Gerard principal of 
 the Church Street school. Here he is ably assisted 
 by fourteen other teachers, the school roll number- 
 ing over 600 pupils. Besides the Church Street 
 school he has partial supervision over four annexes, 
 from which he receives classes yearly, and which 
 register in all over 1,800 pupils. 
 
 Prof. Gerard was married in Middletown, Conn., 
 to MisS' Martha J. Chapman, who was born in Port- 
 land, Conn., a daughter of Owen Chapman, the two 
 children born to this marriage being: Ruth Wil- 
 helmina, who died in infancy ; and Owen Stephen, 
 who is now a student in the Meriden high school. 
 Fraternally Prof. Gerard is a Royal Arch Mason, 
 and is a member of A. O. U. W., Silver City Lodge, 
 of Meriden. Socially he belongs to the Home Club, 
 State Teachers Association and the Schoolmasters 
 Club. Politically he is an Independent. Reared 
 in the Methodist Church, of which his mother is a 
 consistent member, he retains his connection with 
 it, and liberally supports its enterprises. In Mrs. 
 Gerard he finds an intellectual companion, and both 
 are prominent in the social life of this city. 
 
 HENRY PAINTER MITCHELL, a prosper- 
 ous and successful farmer of Southbury, has 
 throughout his entire life lived in that town. He 
 is one of the substantial and highly esteemed agri- 
 culturists, who wield a wide influence throughout 
 the com_munitv bv the exercise of sterling and 
 lofty principles. Mr. Mitchell was born in South- 
 bury, Jan. 24, 1843, a son of Amos and Thalia M. 
 (Painter) Mitchell, and the third child in a family 
 of six children, namely: Josephine, the wife of 
 Herman Perry, a farmer of Southbury; William, 
 who died in infancy; Henry Painter, our subject; 
 George W., a merchant in South Britain ; William 
 -E., a farmer of South Britain ; and Julia, wife of 
 Samuel Averill, a farmer of Southbury. 
 
 Henry P. Mitchell was reared on a farm m 
 
 Southbury, receiving an excellent education in the 
 common schools and in the private schools at Wood- 
 bury, and also in Patterson, N. Y. He assisted 
 during his youth in the work of the farm, and re- 
 mained on the home place with his father until he 
 attained his majority. 
 
 On Nov. 14, 1865, Mr. Mitchell was married 
 to Miss Phoebe Stoddard, daughter of Samuel J. 
 Stoddard. He moved to a farm adjoining the 
 homestead, and there began for himself his long 
 and prosperous career as a farmer, and, in Novem- 
 ber, 1874, he located on the farm which he now oc- 
 cupies. There he has made all the improvements 
 and now owns and cultivates a splendid farm of 
 400 acres, carrying on general farming and a large 
 dairy business. To Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell have 
 been born seven children, namely : Thalia, wife of 
 Robert C. Mitchell, one of the prominent young 
 business men of Southbury; Martha, wife of Will- 
 iam H. Wakelee, a farmer of Southbury; Amos P., 
 .of Stamford; Samuel J. and Harry, both deceased; 
 Bessie, at home ; and Philip, in Yale University. 
 In politics Mr. Mitchell is a Republican. Himself 
 and family are prominent members of the South 
 Britain Congregational Church. 
 
 FRANKLIN E. FOWLER, one of the well- 
 known citizens and real-estate men of Meriden, re- 
 sides at his fine and comfortable home in Cook 
 avenue, that city. Mr. Fowler was born in the town 
 of Guilford, New Haven Co., Conn., Nov. 24, 1845, 
 son of Dennis and Hannah Maria (Coe) Fowler. 
 
 The patronymic, Fowler, at once suggests the 
 idea of a race of hunters, or sportsmen. The Con- 
 necticut family of this name is one of the oldest 
 and most distinguished in New England. William 
 Fowler, the American progenitor of the family, 
 crossed the sea from England in 1637, landing in 
 Boston. He subsequently joined the New Haven 
 Colony, and was one of the four pioneers to whom 
 was given, in 1639, a deed of the land which now 
 constitutes the town of Milford, the consideration 
 named in the conveyance being six coats, ten 
 blankets, one kettle, together with a number of 
 knives, hoes, hatchets and mirrors. This William 
 Fowler became an extensive landed proprietor. He 
 appears to have been a man of keen, ready sense 
 and quick perception. Seeing that a -saw and grist 
 mill was one of the coming necessities of a new 
 settlement, he secured from the authorities the grant 
 of thirty acres and the full control of a stream, upon 
 the condition of his erecting a mill. This was the 
 first mill to be built in New Haven county, and 
 is yet owned by his descendants. The site is one 
 of historic interest, and in 1889 a memorial bridge 
 and tower were built near the location of the old 
 structure, the first mill there being given a con- 
 spicuous place. William Fowler was a successful 
 business man, magistrate, and a pillar of the church, 
 shrewd yet upright, influential, public-spirited and 
 wholesouled. His son, Ambrose, removed to West- 
 
1322 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 field, Mass., and his grandson John (son of Am- 
 brose) married Mary Hubbard, and settled in 
 Guilford, in 1649. He was a man of substance, 
 prominence and influence, being a deacon in the 
 church, and a deputy in the General Assembly for 
 many years. In recognition of his many services 
 he was given 100 acres of land in Coginchaug, now 
 the town of Durham. He died in 1676, and the 
 records show his estate to have been appraised at 
 £612, 2s, lod. Of his six children, Abraham was 
 next in line of descent to Franklin E. Fowler. 
 
 Abraham Fowler was an influential and wealthy 
 citizen in the early days. He sat in the General 
 Court at Hartford, as a deputy, and was for many 
 years a justice of the peace, as well as judge; of the 
 county and higher courts. The appraisement of 
 his. estate, after his death, showed him to have 
 died worth i7, 421, i8s and gd. Popular gossip, as 
 evidenced by legendary report, called him the most 
 interesting man in town. He married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Deacon George Bartlett, and became 
 the father' of eight children. During King Philip's 
 war he 'served as a sergeant, and was wounded in 
 the fight at Narragansett Swamp, in consideration 
 of which, he was presented with the munificent sum 
 of £4 from the public purse. His son, Joshua, mar- 
 ried Hannah Bald, and removed to Durham. Prof. 
 William Chauncey Fowler, of that town, is one of 
 his descendants. Another son of Abraham, Eben- 
 ezer Fowler (2), the ancestor of Franklin E. 
 Fowler, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. 
 He married Desire Bristol, and settled in North 
 Guilford. Eleven children were born to him : De- 
 sire, Beulah, Ebenezer (who married a Rossiter), 
 William, Nathan, Thomas, Ruth (the' wife of 
 Erastus Dudley), Isaac, Caleb, James and Oliver. 
 Of these Nathan Fowler was the great-grandfather 
 of the subject of this -sketch. He married and had 
 five sons and two daughters, named as follows: 
 James, Asa, Augustus, Nathan, Robert, Polly and 
 Sally. Nathan married Chloe Davis, and became 
 the father of eight children, the fifth of whom, 
 Rachel, married Bishop Atwell, and was the mother 
 of Waldo P. Atwell, a well-known and highly es- 
 teemed merchant of Durham. 
 
 James Fowler, the eldest son of Nathan Fowler, 
 was born in Guilford, March 18, 1774. The old 
 house in North Guilford in which he passed the 
 latter years of his life stood on the Middletown and 
 Guilford turnpike, half way between the two points, 
 and had been formerly used as a hotel. In those 
 days it was owned by Col. Baldwin, and was known 
 as "Baldwin's Inn." Mr. Fowler died there May 
 6, 1854. He was a farmer, and in addition to agri- 
 culture carried on the manufacture of the "Fowler 
 whip lash," well known in its day, which found a 
 ready and extensive sale through New England and 
 the State of New York. The lash was made from 
 leather tanned by himself, and was honestly manu- 
 factured, his children working at braiding the long 
 thongs during the winter evenings. It was used 
 
 chiefly in driving oxen, and the business was fairlv 
 prosperous. Mr. Fowler was noted for his sound 
 judgment, but chiefly for his absolutely incorruptible 
 integrity. He was commonly called "Honest 
 James," and was repeatedly called upon to appraise 
 estates. In his home he was a strict disciplinarian, 
 but just and kind. He was a firm believer in the 
 teachings of Thomas Jefferson, and always deeply 
 interested in the success of the Democratic party, 
 holding, from time to time, various^ town offices. 
 He was a capital shot and an enthusiastic sports- 
 man, and in his younger days devoted not a little 
 time to the pleasures of the hunt. On Sept. 13, 
 1804, he married Anna Johnson, a grandniece of 
 David Brainerd, the famous missionary to the In- 
 dians. She was born in New York, May 17, 1778, 
 and died Nov. 16, 1861. Their children were ten 
 in number, and their numerous descendants have 
 formed an organization known as the "Descendants 
 of James Fowler," whose annual meetings are large- 
 ly attended by representatives from the towns of 
 Guilford, Durham, Middletown and Middlefield. 
 Of the children of James and Anna (Johnson) 
 Fowler, (i) Eunice, born June 26, 1805, married 
 Isaac Page, a farmer of Durham, where she passed 
 her life. She was the mother of Henry Page of 
 that town. (2) Austin, born Jan. 22, 1807, mar- 
 ried Merah Chittenden. He was a' prosperous 
 farmer in North Guilford. (3) Ruth Ann, born 
 Sept. 5, 1808, died in early womanhood on the farm 
 of her husband, Russel Scranton, in North Guil- 
 ford. (4) Isaac H., born July 24, 1810, married 
 the sister of his brother Austin's wife, whose bap- 
 tismal name was Harriet, and passed his life upon 
 the farm in North Guilford. (5) Asa, born June 
 6, 1812, married Laura L. Camp. He, too, was a 
 North Guilford farmer, and is deceased. His wid- 
 ow lives with her son, Silas W. Fowler, who is 
 one of the prominent citizens of Durham. (6) 
 Hannah, born July 28, 1814, married Charles 
 Hickox, a shoemaker of Durham, in which town 
 they both died and are buried. (7) Sophronia and 
 (8) Cynthia (twins) were born Nov. 2, 1816. 
 Sophronia died Sept. 14, 1818. Cynthia grew to 
 womanhood, and was united in marriage to Edwin 
 Hall, a North Guilford farmer. Both 'she and her 
 husband have passed awav. (q) Sophronia (2), 
 was born Dec. 4, 1818, and became the wife of 
 Noyes H. Griswold, a farmer of Killingworth ; 
 both are interred in the graveyard there. (10) 
 Dennis, the youngest of the family, was the father 
 of Franklin E. Fowler. 
 
 Dennis Fowler's birthplace was the farm of his 
 father in Guilford, the date of his birth being Jan. 
 14, 1821. He was reared a farmer's boy. and his 
 life was passed in the same pursuits as had been 
 those of his ancestors, for many antecedent gener- 
 ations. After his marriage to Hannah Maria Coe, 
 Sept. 19, 1844, he removed to North Guilford, but 
 withm a few years bought a farm in Middlefield, 
 which is now owned and cultivated by Luther W. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1323 
 
 Fowler. In addition to general farming he was 
 largely interested in stock-raising, devoting much 
 attention to the breeding of horses and cattle of fine 
 blood. He was successful in a financial way, 2-nd 
 left a handsome estate; was prominent in public 
 affairs, serving the town as selectman for several 
 years, besides holding various minor offices. He 
 was bitterly opposed to the tolerance of slavery, and 
 was for many years affiliated with the Republican 
 party. Later becoming more and more deeply 
 impressed with a sense of the evils attendant upon 
 the vice of intemperance, he espoused the po'litical 
 tenets of the Prohibition party, and acted with that 
 party during the latter years of his life. In re- 
 ligious faith he was an earnest and devout Meth- 
 odist. Of the church of that denomination in Mid- 
 dlefield, he was an active member and liberal sup- 
 porter, contributing generously toward the erection 
 of a new edifice, not only in money, but also in the 
 use of teams for the purpose of excavation and haul- 
 ing. He was a man of great physical strength, 
 indefatigable energy and tireless industry, and im- 
 pressed traits of industry upon his sons by both ex- 
 ample and precept. His complexion was both ruddy 
 and clear, his eye bright, and his tread at once firm 
 and elastic. His blameless and exemplary life 
 came to a dose Sept. 5, 1893. His wife was born 
 in Middlefield, June 15, 1824, daughter of Elias and 
 Hannah M. (Lyon) Coe, of South Farms. The 
 ohildrein of Dennis and Hannah Maria (Coe) 
 Fowler were christened: Franklin E., Hannah E., 
 Harriet A., Alvin C, Amy S., Luther Wilbur, 
 Arthur D. and Rosa M. Franklin E. is mentioned 
 below. Hannah E. is the wife of Andrew Horton, 
 a butcher in Meriden. Harriet A. became the wife 
 of Charles D. Edwards, a contractor in Meriden, 
 and died there. Alvin C. is a builder and meat 
 dealer in Middlefield; he married Alta M. Nettle- 
 ton. Amy S. has been twice married; her first 
 husband, William Hall, lost his life in a railroad 
 accident; after his death she mimed Alonzo 
 Dormer, a clerk and bookkeeper in Meriden. Luther 
 W., who resides at the homestead, married Edith 
 M. Pendleton, and they have had seven children, 
 Franklin Henry, Frederick Luther, Ethel May, 
 Leon Wilbur, Ruth Esther, Percy Merritt and Les- 
 ter Dennis. Arthur D. married Leonora Benedict, 
 and he, too, is one of Meriden's well-to-do butchers. 
 Rosa M. became Mrs. William Venter, and they 
 resided at Trenton, N. J., where she died; she was 
 a woman of strong Christian faith and earnest piety, 
 and her husband was for many years secretary ot 
 the Trenton Y. M. C. A. 
 
 Franklin E. Fowler grew up on the home farm, 
 and attended the district school, later the Durham 
 and Meriden academies. He worked on the farm 
 with his father until twenty-one years old, when he 
 •started out for himself, going to Middletown. He 
 engaged in the butcher business, working for S. & 
 I. C. Coe & Co., with whom he spent one year, at 
 the end of which time he started for himself m the 
 
 ,same line in Middlefield. After two years he re- 
 turned to Middletown, and became a partner of Coe 
 & Newell, who carried on a meat business. The 
 firm later became Newell & Fowler, who were en- 
 gaged in business in Middletown for twelve years. 
 In 1883 Mr. Fowler came to Meriden, where he 
 stated in business with Horton & Eaton, under the 
 firm name of Horton, Eaton & Fowler, as meat 
 dealers in the Colony street market. At the end of 
 seven years he withdrew from the business, and has 
 since been engaged in real estate dealing; in this 
 connection he has built over seventeen houses in 
 Meriden. He has also been engaged in the raising 
 of high-grade poultry, the finest in the State, in 
 which he takes great pride, having taken many 
 prizes at poultry shows in Connecticut and Massa- 
 chusetts. He is a noted breeder of poultry, and 
 gives special attention to that branch of his business. 
 
 Mr. Fowler's home on Cook avenue is one of 
 the finest in that street. The interior is fitted up 
 with all modern improvements, and Mrs. Fowler, 
 who is a lady of artistic tastes, and one of the finest 
 taxidermists in Meriden, has one of the best collec- 
 tions of stuffed birds in the city. She is a model 
 housewife, and has been a helpmate to her husband 
 in every sense of the word. Their devotion to one 
 another is sincere and marked. Mr. Fowler was 
 married in 1873, in Middletown, to Sabina A. 
 Nettleton, who was born Oct. 15, 1849, in Durham, 
 daughter of Henry E. and Cornelia M. (Camp) 
 Nettleton. They have had no children. ' Mr. Fowler 
 is a member of St. John's Lodge, A. F. & A. M., 
 of Middletown; Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. 
 M. ; and Hamilton Council, No. 9, R. & S. M., of 
 Meriden. Politically he is a Republican. He was 
 elected to the city council from the Third ward and 
 served two terms, also two years as alderman. He 
 was a miember of the committees on Streets, Bylaws 
 and Parks ; he served five years on each the Street 
 and Fire committees, for a year being their chair- 
 man. He was elected a member of the board of 
 relief in October, 1901, and is chairman of the 
 board. On Feb. 27, 1902, he was appointed by 
 Mayor Seeley and the board of Public Works, Sup- 
 erintendent of Streets of Meriden, succeeding Ed- 
 ward H. Higgin.son. In religious connection he is 
 a member of the M. E. Church. He has proved 
 himself a good citizen, honored and respected in 
 all his relations, and industrious and enterprising in 
 everything he undertakes. 
 
 The Nettleton Family, to which Mrs. Fowler 
 belongs, is one of the oldest and best known in 
 Connecticut. Samuel Nettleton, the founder of the 
 family in America, was one of the men who bought 
 Totoket (Branford) for a settlement. They came 
 to occupy their purchase in 1664. Samuel Nettle- 
 ton died in Fairfield. His wife's name was Maria. 
 Their descendants are numerous in Killingworth, 
 Durham, Madison and Guilford. It is from the 
 Killingworth branch of the family that Mrs. Fowler 
 descends. Her grandfather, Eliphas Nettleton, was 
 
1324 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born about 1760, in Killingworth. When a young 
 man he went to Durham, locating on a farm, and 
 followed agricultural pursuits during the rest of 
 his life. His wife, Lydia, was born about 1768, 
 and died Oct. 28, i860. Eliphas Nettleton was one 
 of the pillars of the Methodist Church in Durham, 
 and was very active in church work. His eight chil- 
 dren were as follows: .(i) Joseph, a farmer in 
 Durham, married Esther Bailey, of Haddam. (2) 
 Maria, married (first) Stephen Buckley, and later 
 Jeremiah Bailey. She lived in Durham, where she 
 died. (3) Polly married Selden Stephens, and died 
 in Orange, Conn. (4) Harriet and (5) Henry 
 (twins). Harriet married Osmar Fowler, and 
 lived in Durham. Henry E., was the father of 
 Mrs. Fowler. (6) James, married a Miss Dunham, 
 lived in Durham for a time, and later moved West. 
 (7) Isaiah died when a young man. (8) Amanda, 
 married Edward Hawley, a farmer, and lived in 
 the southern part of Durham, near the Guilford 
 town line. 
 
 Henry E. Nettleton, the father of Mrs. Fowler, 
 was born March 25, 1807, in the southern part of 
 Durham. He received his education in the district 
 schools, and lived on the home farm until he was 
 twenty-one years old. He then hired out as a farm 
 hand to Capt. Richard Robinson, a farmer in Dur- 
 ham, receiving very good wages for those times, for 
 he was a hard working young man, and thoroughly 
 understood farming. One day he threshed by hand 
 eighteen bushels of rye. He remained with Capt. 
 Robinson for a year, then hired out to a Capt. Allen, 
 becoming foreman in the latter's marble quarry at 
 Marbledale, Conn. Capt. Allen also owned a quarry 
 at Dover, Dutchess Co., N. Y., which Mr. Nettleton 
 operated for a year and one-half. He was there 
 joined by his brother, Isaiah, who was al'so employed 
 in the quarry, and they both, sent money home to 
 their father from their wages. Henry E. worked 
 for Capt. Allen about ten years. He returned home 
 at the time of his father's death, to look after the 
 farm. Later he purchased the interest of the other 
 heirs in the farm, and took charge of the same, car- 
 ing also for his mother. He resided on the home 
 place until a few years after his marriage, when 
 he purchased the property now occupied by his son 
 Henry I., then known as the "Crane Farm," going 
 into debt for it. The home farm he rented. To 
 his new possessions he added in acreage, built many 
 buildings, and carried on in addition to general 
 farming the fattening of cattle. He also burned a 
 great deal of charcoal. He so improved the land 
 that at one time his farm was considered one of 
 the best in Durham. Later he moved to the home 
 farm near by. He and Henry I. then ran both 
 farms together, Henry and the eldest daughter. 
 Rose C, now the wife of C. O. Stone, of Middle- 
 town, occupying the Crane farm. The father later 
 removed to Clinton, Conn., where he lived retired, 
 until his death, Jan. lo, 1886. He is buried in Dur- 
 ham. Henry E. Nettleton was a hard working 
 
 man, of robust constitution, and more than ordinary 
 physical strength. He was a Democrat in politics, 
 and held the office of first selectman for many 
 terms, the affairs of the town under his management 
 being conducted on an economical basis. He was 
 careful and thrifty, and as a farmer and business 
 man was eminently successful. He was plain and 
 outspoken, and somewhat stern in manner. He was 
 an attendant of the Methodist Church, of which his 
 wife was a member; and was a contributor to its 
 support, also giving liberally to the building of the 
 Episcopal Church, in Durham. He married June 
 6, 1839, Cornelia M. Camp, who waS' born March 
 27, 1806, in Durham, daughter of Fairchild and 
 Melicent (Coe) Camp. Mrs. Nettleton was a 
 school teacher for many years before her marriage, 
 and was a bright intelligent woman. Fairchild 
 Camp, her father, was a blacksmith and farmer in 
 Durham. Mrs. Cornelia M. (Camp) Nettleton died 
 Sept. 29, 1856. To Henry E. and Cornelia M. 
 Nettleton were born the following named children: 
 (i) Rose C, born Aug. 15, 1840, married C. O. 
 Stone, of Middletown; (2) Frances M., born July 
 29, 1844, married Denison D. Hurd, of Clinton, who 
 died Oct. 21, 1900; (3) Henry Isaiah, born Dec. 12, 
 1845, rnarried Rosetta E. Miller; (4) Sabina A., 
 born Oct. 15, 1849, married Franklin E. Fowler. 
 
 JOHN HALL FRANCIS is a prominent rep- 
 resentative of an old New England family in Wall- 
 ingford, whose emigrant ancestor was Robert Joan 
 Francis, born in England, and settled in Wethers- 
 field, Conn., in 1651. There he spent his life, and 
 died Jan. 2, 1712. Has wife passed away seven 
 years previous to this. Following is a list of the 
 names and dates of birth of their children : Susana, 
 Nov. 6, 1651; Robert, Nov. 6, 1653; Alary, Oct. 
 
 11, 1656; John, Sept. 4. 1658"; Abigail, Feb. 14, 
 1660; James, iVIarch, 1662, died Feb. 14, 1664; 
 Sarah, Aug. 5, 1664. 
 
 John Frantis, noted above, was born in Weth^ 
 ersfield, where he lived and died. He was a farmer 
 and a land owner. He married Mary Chittenden 
 Jan. 16, 1683, and died Dec. 28, 171 1. She was 
 born in 1662, and died in 1745. Of their children 
 we have the following record: John, born Oct. 
 
 12, 1684, died Sept. 29, 1749; Tiberance, 1687; 
 Mary, 1689; Thomas, 1690; Abigail, 1695; Rohab, 
 1697', died in 1717; Joseph, 1698; Daniel, 1700; 
 Hannah, 1703; Sarah, 1705; Prudence, 1708; and 
 Mercy, 1710. 
 
 Joseph Francis, son of John and Mary (Chit- 
 tenden) Francis, was born in Wethersfield. When 
 'he grew to manhood he removed to Wallingford, 
 and bought a tract of land in North Fanns, where 
 he spent his life. He married Sarah Hubbard, 
 June 8, 1725, and became the father of the follow- 
 ing children: Martha, born April 3, 1727, mar- 
 ried James Adkins ; Joseph, born June 11, 1728; 
 Samuel, born Aug. 18, 1729; Jacob, born Dec. 2, 
 1732; Sarah, born Sept. 4, 1734, married Enos 
 

 
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 ^KS^m',^'-'-''"*' 
 
 
 
 _^K^^ 
 
 
 
 f^plR 
 
 "'^tIEiim^^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 Wt^- 
 
 f^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1325; 
 
 Tuttle; Amos, born March 23, 1736; Asa, born 
 June 4, 1739; Ruth, born Jan. 8, 1741, married 
 Deacon David Hall; Mary, born March 18, 1743, 
 married Steven Hubbard; Josiah, Sept. 10, 1845. 
 
 Jacob Francis, son of the foregoing, w^as born 
 in North Farms, virhere his entire life was spent in 
 farming. He died on his farm, and was buried 
 in Wallingford. He was married Jan. 20, 1763, to 
 Martha Mix, and they were .parents of the follow- 
 ing children: Ruth, born March 16, 1766; Sarah, 
 born May i, 1767; Lucy, born March i, 1770; 
 mailried John Hall; Jacob, born Jan. i, 1772; 
 Samuel, born March 30, 1774; Martha, born April 
 30, 1776, m.arried Jonathan Hall ; and Anna, born 
 Jan. 9, 1779, married Joseph Hall. 
 
 Jacob Francis, noted above, was born on the 
 Francis homestead, and passed his life as a farmer, 
 being in partnership with his brother Samuel, and 
 he died on his farm in 1829. He was a member . 
 of the Baptist Church. In politics he was a Dem- 
 ocrat, and held position as a constable. He mar- 
 ried Content Hall Oct. 7, 1795, who was born in 
 Wallingford, a daughter of Hezekiah Hall. Their 
 children: Olive, born July 7, 1796, married James 
 Rice; Harley, born Dec. 25, 1801, married Lois 
 Blakeslee; William, born March 4, 1804; Lyman, 
 born March 21, 1806; and Emily, born Sept. 8, 
 181 1, married John Hall. 
 
 William Francis, noted above, was born on his 
 father's farm, where he grew to manhood. After 
 his marriage he removed to the farm now occupied 
 by his son, John H. He owned 150 acres, on 
 which he made many improvements, and here his 
 entire married life .was spent. He was a farmer and 
 a stock raiser, a hard-working man, domestic _ in 
 his habits, and much respected in the _ community. 
 A Democrat, he represented his town in the State 
 Legislature in 1850. He was tax collector for fif- 
 teen years. He was twice married. On March 30, 
 1831,' he wedded Emily Blakeslee, who was born 
 in Wallingford, a daughter of John W. Blakeslee. 
 To this union were born two children: William 
 J., born Oct. 11, 1832, became the father of Ly- 
 man H. Francis ; and Emory, born Feb.- 10, 1837, 
 died July 14, 1857. E'er his second wife William 
 Francis married Julia Cook, a daughter of Col. 
 Thaddeus and Julia (Cook) Cook, the widow of 
 Lewis Tuttle, of Hamden. She is still living at 
 the ripe old age of eighty-two years, a good Chris- 
 tian woman, a kmd neighbor, and a devoted wife 
 and mother. Two children blessed this union: 
 Henry, born Dec. 18, 1842, and died Feb. 22, 1843 ; 
 and John Hall, whose name introduces this article. 
 Mrs. Francis had one child by her first marriage, 
 who died in infancv. Mr. Francis died on his farm 
 April 14, 1879, and was- buried in Center Street 
 cemetery at Wallingford. 
 
 John Hall Francis, farmer and stock raiser, was 
 born on the old! homestead, and attended the dis- 
 trict school. He continued his studies at the Meri- 
 den high school, and finished at the Yale Business 
 
 College. He was graduated in 1876, and after his . 
 return from school he worked on the farm. His 
 father died the following year, and Mr. Francis 
 took charge of the farm, and since that time has 
 been engaged in farming. To-day he is one of the 
 best known agriculturists of New Haven county, 
 and is a type of the honorable and upright farmer, 
 successful in his business enterprises, and thorough- 
 ly independent in his relation to the world. In poli- 
 tics he is an independent Democrat, but has never 
 given thought or time to office seeking. He is a 
 member of Meriden Grange, and in this organiza- 
 tion he has been an esteemed and useful member, 
 filling all the chairs, and being past master at the 
 present time. He is a member of the Episcopal 
 Church, where he has been vestryman for the past 
 eighteen years. 
 
 On Oct. 10, 1883, Mr. Francis married Carrie 
 P. Wooding, a daughter of Myron Wooding, and 
 she died Dec. 18, 1887. She was a member of 
 the Episcopal Church. Mr. Francis was married 
 Feb. 21, 1889, to Mabel A. Wooding, who wias 
 born in Yalesville, and a daughter of Henry C. 
 and Ellen (Jeralds) Wooding. To this union were 
 born four children : Isabel Alice, born Oct. 4, 1890 ; 
 Caroline Mabel, born Nov. 25, 1891 ; William 
 Henry, born Feb. 17, 1895 ; and Edward Raymond, 
 born Sept. 5, 1896. Mrs. Francis is a lady of re- 
 finement and culture. 
 
 The Cook family, of whom Mrs. William Fran- 
 cis, the mother of John Francis, was a descendant, 
 is fully treated in the history of Marcus E. Cooke, 
 which will be found elsewhere. Col. Thaddeus 
 Cook, father of Mrs. Francis, was born in Walling- 
 ford, and was' a son of Samuel Cook, and a grand- 
 son of Col. Thaddeus Cook. That early pioneer 
 of this part of the State married Lois Beach, and 
 later Sarah Hall. His second wife became the 
 mother of nine children. Samuel, the son of Col. 
 Thaddeus Cook, was born in 1758, was a farmer and 
 land owner, and died in 1824. Col. Thaddeus 
 Cook, his son, was born on Cook Hill, followed 
 farming all his life, and was a highly respected 
 man, very influential in home affairs. Julia Cook, 
 his first wife, was a daughter of Stephen Cook, of 
 Cheshire, and they had one child, Julia, Mrs. Cook. 
 Col. Cook married for his second wife Sylvia Hall, 
 and they had one child, Catherine, Mrs. David M. 
 Hall. His third marriage was to Thankful Hall, 
 and his fourth to Martha Hall (sister of David M.), 
 by whom he had the following children: Caroline 
 married Rev. Benjamin Paddock, of Detroit, Mich. ; 
 Sarah married Judge O. Ives Martin, of Walling- 
 ford; Emma married Edwin F. Cook; and Fran- 
 celia, born Oct. 12, 1825, died Feb. 25, 1836. 
 
 JOSEPH H. C. BACHELDER, engineer at the 
 Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co.'s plant, a 
 soldier of the Civil war, was born Dec. i, 1837, at 
 Windsor, Kennebec Co., Maine. His grandfather, 
 Thomas Bachelder, was a native of Loudon, Merri- 
 
1326 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 mack Co., N. H, where he followed the trade of 
 cooper, and where he married and reared a family. 
 About 1822 he removed to Maine, and continued to 
 work at his trade several years, but spent his closing 
 days at Loudon, where he was buried. 
 
 Joseph Clark Bachelder, son of Thomas, was 
 born in Loudon, in 1794. He grew up there and 
 acquired the cooper's trade under his father's in- 
 structions, and removed with the latter to Maine. 
 He settled on a farm in the town of Windsor, and 
 tilled the land in season, putting in the time in win- 
 ter at work at his trade. Here he spent the balance 
 of his days, and died in 1873, having reached the 
 age of seventy-nine years ; his remlains were buried 
 in Windsor Cemetery. He was a member of the 
 M. E. Church. In politics he wa.s first an old line 
 Whig, and in his latter years, a Republican. He 
 was married in Loudon, N. H., to Mary Clark, a 
 native of Salem, Mass. She died in Windsor, Me., 
 in 1861, and was buried there. She was a faithful 
 member of the M. E. Church, a loving wife and kind 
 mother. Two sons and two daughters comprised 
 their family: Isaac Chandler, born in Loudon, N. 
 H., was a millwright, and died in Windsor, Me. ; 
 Hannah and Abra reside in Winsted, Conn., the 
 former being the widow of G. R. L. Penney, and 
 the latter the wife of John H. Dearborn; and Joseph 
 H. C. is our subject. 
 
 Joseph H. C. Bachelder, youngest son of Joseph 
 C. and Mary Bachelder, was reared on a farm in 
 Windsor, Me., attending the district school of his 
 neighborhood. At the age of eighteen years he 
 started out to fight life's battles for himself. For 
 a period of four years he worked as a mill hand 
 in the lumber country of Quebec, Canada. In 1859 
 he became a resident of Connecticut, locating at 
 Winsted, and spent eighteen months in the factory 
 of Cook Axle Co. He then entered the employ of 
 the Winsted Manufacturing Co., where be was 
 when the Civil war began. 
 
 On Sept. 15, 1862, he enlisted for nine months' 
 service, in Co. F, 28th Conn. V. I., under Col. 
 Samuel P. Ferris and Capt. Lewis B. Wheelock. 
 With this command, Mr. Bachelder served in the 
 Nineteenth Army Corps, Department of the Gulf, 
 taking part in the siege of Port Hudson, and he 
 was discharged at New Haven, Aug. 28, 1863. Re- 
 turning to Winsted, he resumed his employment 
 with the Winsted Alanufacturing Co., where he 
 continued until 1868. The next nine years passed 
 in the service of the Beardsley Scythe Co., of the 
 same place, where he was foreman of the machine 
 department after the first year. Removing to Mil- 
 ford, he was employed to operate a steam engine 
 in the fertilizer factory of George W. Miles & Co. 
 In 1882 he came to Aleriden and accepted the posi- 
 tion of engineer with the Bradley & Hubbard 
 Manufacturing Co., the duties of which position he 
 has fulfilled for the past twenty years. This lone 
 period of continuous service is sufficient testimony 
 to his ability and integrity. Mr. Bachelder is not 
 
 only a practical engineer, but something of an in- 
 ventor as well. In 1868 he perfected and patented 
 a rolling mill for rolling scythes, and in 1869, at 
 Winsted, he designed and patented a horse hay fork. 
 Another useful invention of Mr. Bachelder is a 
 steam engine indicator, which he perfected in 1887, 
 at Meriden. All these practical inventions proved 
 highly useful and are now widely used by manu- 
 facturers and farmers throughout the country. 
 
 Mr. Bachelder is a member of the National As- 
 sociation of Stationary Engineers, of which he was 
 president two years, and has served as secretary. 
 He is identified with St. Andrew's Lodge, A. F. & 
 A. M., of Winsted, and Merriam Post, No. 8, G. 
 A. R., of Meriden. Entertaining broad views on 
 religious and political matters, he is not a member 
 of any church organization, but endeavors to shape 
 his life by the highest Christian standards, and sus- 
 tains with voice and vote the principles of the 
 Republican party. 
 
 In 1861, at Ansonia, Conn., Mr. Bachelder 
 was married to Margaret Baker, who was born in 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, and who died in Meriden in Jan- 
 uary, 1889; her remains were interred in Walnut 
 Grove Cemetery. She was a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church. In December, 1890, he married 
 (_ second) Mary Pamelia Duquette, who was born 
 in Chateauguay, Quebec, daughter of Francis and 
 Sophia (Nonaville) Duquette, of French extrac- 
 ficm, the former of whom died in Canada, and the 
 latter in Worcester, Mass., at the advanced age of 
 eighty-six years. l\Irs. Bachelder's first husband was 
 Moses Boulanger, who was killed by the bursting 
 of a grindstone in a scythe factory at Winsted. 
 Neither Mr. Bachelder nor his wife have had chil- 
 dren, but both have reared adopted children. Mrs. 
 Bachelder is a woman of the most kind and gen- 
 erous disposition, and is much devoted to her home 
 and husband. She is a member of the Woman's 
 Relief Corps, and of the French Catholic Church 
 (St. Laurent's). 
 
 PATRICK DOYLE (deceased). Ireland has 
 contributed some of our most public-spirited citi- 
 zens, and the subject of this sketch was, in his 
 lifetime, a no unimportant factor in public affairs in 
 New Haven. He was born in County Galway, Ire- 
 land, Feb. 17, 1844, and in i860 came to the United 
 States, locating in New Haven. Here he entered 
 the employ of Mr. Dibble, learning the brick laying 
 trade, and at the end of five years began business for 
 himself in partnership with William M. Townsend, 
 under the firm name of Doyle & Townsend. In 
 1878, this firm was dissolved, and Mr. Doyle re- 
 ceived the appointment of Superintendent of Streets, 
 an office to which he was most justly appointed 
 by the board of Public Works. He was a member 
 of the board of Public Works, himself, in 1875 and 
 1876, having been appointed thereto by Mayor 
 Lewis. 
 
 On Jan. 16, 1877, Mr. Doyle married Mary 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1327 
 
 E. Connor, daughter of Richard Connor, and by 
 this union became the father of five children : Ellen 
 Connor, who married George A. Hubbard, of New 
 Haven, and has one son, George ; Richard L., book- 
 keeper for the National Casket Company; Walter 
 S.; Francis E. and Alfred, in school. By a former 
 marriage Mr. Doyle had a daughter, Elizabeth, who 
 married John J. Sullivan, a postal clerk in New 
 Haven. Mr. Doyle was a Democrat in his political 
 belief, and always took an active interest in the 
 party. In his religious faith he was a communicant 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, and was prominent- 
 ly identified with several Catholic societies, being 
 president of the Knights of St. Patrick. He also 
 belonged to the Loyal Council, Knights of Colum- 
 bus, and to Roger Sherman Lodge, Knights of 
 Honor. His death on March 18, 1895, robbed the 
 community of a faithful public servant, and his fam- 
 ily of a devoted husband and father. 
 
 Richard Connor, father of Mrs. Doyle, was born 
 in County Kilkenny, Ireland, and came early to 
 America, locating first in Massachusetts, and in 185 1 
 coming to New Haven. He engaged in the quarry 
 business in East Haven, Conn., and so continued 
 until his death on Sept. 20, 1888. In 1846, in 
 Springfield, Mass., he married Ellen Maloney, a 
 native of County Tipperary, Ireland, who now re- 
 sides in New Haven, at the advanced age of four 
 score years. The children born of this union were 
 as follows : Patrick, who resides in St. Joseph, 
 Mo. ; one that died unnamed ; Mary, who died in 
 infancy ; Mary E. ; Margaret, who died in Hartford, 
 in April, 1877; John H., who died in 1875; Ellen, 
 who died in September, 1876, at the age of sixteen; 
 and Walter J. 
 
 Walter J. Connor, brother of Mrs. Doyle, and 
 the efficient inspector of the water sheds of the 
 New Haven Water Company, was born in Hamden, 
 Conn., Feb. 23, 1863, and was graduated from Yale 
 in 1890. In his Junior year he was elected coun- 
 cilman, and served two years, and later served four 
 years as alderman, being president of both branches. 
 He was also a member of the board of Education, 
 serving two terms, and has been prominently iden- 
 tified with the city government for fourteen years. 
 While chairman of the committee on Buildings, of 
 the board of Education, some of the finest school 
 buildings in the city were built. During his college 
 course he was President of the First Catholic Club 
 ever formed at Yale College. 
 
 RICHARD BENJAMIN WOOD, engineer at 
 The Parker Bros. Gun Works, and one of Meriden's 
 representative English-American citizens, was born 
 in the parish of Throughley, County of Kent, Eng- 
 land, Feb. 5, 1842. 
 
 Richard Wood, the grandfather of Richard Ben- 
 jamin Wood, of Meriden, was born on the bank 
 of the Thames, in Kent county, where he grew to 
 manhood and followed the occupation of farming. 
 He married Mary Knowles of the same place, and 
 
 to them were born six children, namely : John, who 
 came to America and died in Bloomfield, Hartford 
 Co., Conn. ; George, the father of Mr. Wood of 
 Meriden; Catherine and Mary, both of whom died 
 in England; Richard, who died in Somers, Conn.; 
 and James, who is a prosperous tobacco farmer of 
 West SuffieM, Connecticut. 
 
 George Wood, son of Richard, was born in 
 Coimty of Kent, England, and, as his parents were 
 in limited circumstances, he early was taught the 
 labor on the farm. He married in his native home, 
 Sarah Ann Moore, who was a native of East Kent, 
 and a daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Foster) 
 Moore. To this union were born these children : 
 Richard B. ; Mary Ann, who married Roderick 
 King, of West Suffield; George, v/ho is a resi- 
 dent of Ashley Falls, Mass.; and Nellie A., who 
 married Stephen Nash and lives in Southwick, 
 Mass. The father of these children regarded their 
 future with concern, and seeing little prospect for 
 their advancement in their native land, in 185 1 he 
 brought them to America. Landing at New York 
 City, he went at once to Suffield, Conn., where he 
 located on a farm, and engaged in agricultural pur- 
 suits for several years. Later he removed to South- 
 wick, Mass., where he spent his declining years, 
 residing at this place for a period of twenty years, 
 his death occurring in December, 1896; his remains 
 repose in the Southwick cemetery. In his early 
 citizenship he became identified with the Democratic 
 party, but later embraced Republican principles, al- 
 though he never sought or accepted office of a po- 
 litical nature. His early rearing was in the Church 
 of England, but during his residence in Suffield 
 and Southwick, he attended the Baptist Church. 
 His wife also died in Southwick, where she was in- 
 terred. 
 
 Richard B. Wood was but nine years old when 
 he left his native home with his parents and came to 
 America. His education was obtained in the schools 
 in Suffield, and he grew up on a farm. After com- 
 pleting the common school course of study, Mr. 
 Wood engaged in school teaching, continuing 
 through three winters, the summers being occupied 
 with agricultural duties. At the_ age of twenty 
 years he took up carpenter and joiner work, with 
 George Crane, and continued to work at that trade 
 in Suffield and Southwick, until 1867, at which 
 time he came to Meriden. Four years later he went 
 to New Haven, where he remained four years. In 
 1878 he entered the Parker gun shop as a carpenter. 
 This continued until 1884, when he was appointed 
 engineer, a position which he has held with great 
 efficiency for the past eighteen years. 
 
 On Feb. 8, 1869, Mr. Wood was married in 
 Meriden, to Frances Jane Miller, who was born in 
 Tolland, Dec. 3, 1843, daughter of Joseph Coe 
 Miller, and widow of Lewis Osborn, to whom she 
 was married Jan. 2, 1865 (he was born July 12, 
 1842, and died Feb. 12, 1868; he was a soldier in 
 Co. D, 46th Mass. V. I.). Mrs. Wood had no chil- 
 
1^,2 8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 dren born to her first marriage, but the children of 
 the second union were as follows: Jennie Dear- 
 born born ^larch 14, 1870; Charles Seymour, born 
 Dec '4 1871; Richard Joseph, born Jan. 10, i»74, 
 died Sept. 28, 1888; Burton Samuel, born Dec. 12 
 187s • Frances Louisa, born Feb. 23, 1878; and 
 Lewis Edward, born Aug. 15, 1880. Of these,^ 
 
 Jennie Dearborn Wood was educated in Merideii, 
 where she graduated from the high school, m 1888, 
 from the State Normal School, in 1889, and for the 
 past thirteen years has been one of the most highly 
 valued and deeply appreciated teachers in Menden 
 For the past eleven years she has been connected 
 as an educator with the West Main Street school, 
 in jNIeriden, and is a lady with attainments which 
 befit her for the responsible position which she has 
 so long held, with dignity and efficiency. She is a 
 member of Susan Carrington Clarke Chapter D. A. 
 R and is recording secretary of the Menden 
 Scientific Association. Miss Wood is a consistent 
 member of the Baptist Church, and has taught in 
 its Sunday-school. 
 
 Charles S. Wood is a young man of excellent 
 character, who graduated from the Meriden high 
 school in 1888, and later became a machinist. He 
 is a prominent member of the O. U. A. M. and I. 
 O. R. M., and has held positions of trust in the 
 Baptist Church, having for years been pianist in 
 the Sunday-school and held different offices m the 
 Christian Endeavor Society. He is identified with 
 the Y. M. C. A., and fills the position of secretary 
 in that notable organization. 
 
 Burton S. Wood graduated from the Meriden 
 high school in 1895, and occupies a position with 
 the Charles Parker Co., as clerk and timekeeper. 
 He belongs to the O. U. A. 'M., also is a member 
 of the Y. M. C. A. and Christian Endeavor, holding 
 office in all three. He is a young man of exemplary 
 character. 
 
 Frances Louisa Wood attended the Meriden high 
 school and graduated from the New Britain Normal 
 school in 1898. She taught school in the family 
 country home, at Warehouse Point, and also at 
 Boonton, N. J., and is now one of the capable and 
 popular teachers- of J\Ieriden. She was registrar 
 of the children's branch of the D. A. R., and now 
 belongs to Suson Carrington Clarke Chapter, 
 D. A. R. 
 
 Lewis Edward Wood, the youngest, is a tool- 
 maker. He is an enthusiastic member of the L 
 O. O. F. 
 
 It will be seen that jNIr. Wood has been par- 
 ticularly happy in his family, all of his children 
 displaying unusual talents and being welcome addi- 
 tions to Meriden's highest social circles. Mr. Wood 
 is a whole-souled man, one on whom his friends and 
 fellow-citizens can always rely, and as such he holds 
 their highest esteem. In politics he is a Republican, 
 and religiously is a leading member of the Baptist 
 Church. 
 
 The Miller Family of which Mrs. Wood is a 
 
 descendant, was one of those which early settled in 
 Connecticut. An extended history of his honored 
 family will be found in another portion of this vol- 
 ume. Joseph Coe Miller, son of Samuel and Mary 
 (Gilbert) Miller, was born July 26, 1822, and in 1841 
 married Mary Dousick, who was born June 17, 
 1820, and died Oct. 23, 1898, in New Haven, a 
 daughter of Gasper and Lucy (Judd) D.ousick. 
 Mr. Miller died Dec. 10, 1893, also in New Haven. 
 Their children were: Helena A., born June 18, 
 1842, married Seymour S. Thompson; Frances 
 Jane, born Dec. 3, 1843, married Richard B. Wood; 
 Richard H., born Jan. 4, 1847, died Feb. 2, 1848; 
 Charles H., born Feb. 9, 1850; Josephine A., born 
 Feb. 7, 1853; Lizzie Maria, born March 13, 1862; 
 and Mary Louise, born Dec. 5, 1864. 
 
 NORTON ROYCE HOTCHKISS, M. D., who 
 has been engaged in the practice of his profession 
 for the past ten years in New Haven, is descended 
 from several of the oldest families' of this section 
 of New England, and, both by reason of his hon- 
 orable ancestry and a career which has proved him 
 a worthy sire of such sturdy stock, is entitled to a 
 position among the best residents of that city. 
 
 (I) Samuel Hotchkiss, the first of the line in 
 America, is supposed to have come from Essex, 
 England, and was in New Haven in 1641. In 
 1642 he married Elizabeth Cloverly, who died in 
 1681. He died Dec. 28, 1653. 
 
 (II) Capt. John Hotchkiss, son of Samuel, born 
 in 1643, married Dec. 4, 1672, Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Henry Peck. He remained in New Haven, and 
 died in 1689. 
 
 (III) Josiah Hotchkiss, son of Capt. John, was 
 born July 24, 1680. He settled in Cheshire, and 
 was the Josiah Hotchkiss mentioned in the old 
 Wallingford records, who, with his wife, Abigail 
 Parker, died in Cheshire, in 1732, of smallpox. In 
 the "History of Cheshire" we find the following: 
 "Near the residence of jNIrs. A. M. Beecher a tavern 
 was kept in 1732 by Josiah Hotchkiss. It was evi- 
 dently at this place that the smallpox broke out in 
 the spring of the year, at which time Mr. Hotchkiss 
 and his wife died of that dread disease. At this 
 place much public business was done in the interests 
 of the new settlement." It is certain that he was 
 the ancestor of Dr. Norton Royce Hotchkiss. 
 
 (IV) Josiah Hotchkiss, son of Josiah, mentioned 
 in the preceding paragraph, was born April 3, 1720. 
 According to the "Bartholomew Genealogy," Abi- 
 gail Bartholomew, born Jan. 23, 1724-25, was mar- 
 ried Dec. 8, 1 74 1, to Josiah Hotchkiss, and they 
 were living in Cheshire in 1791. She was a daugh- 
 ter of William and Abigail (Brown) Bartholomew, 
 the latter a daughter of Gershom' Brown, of New 
 Haven, ^\^illiam Bartholomew lived in Northford, 
 Conn., where he was engaged in farming. He was 
 a descendant of William Bartholomew (who ar- 
 rived in Boston from England Sept. 18, 1634, in the 
 ship "Griffin"), through William, William and An- 
 
2lin^ 'J, J'P^eu:^^. ^.- 4 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1329 
 
 drew. William Bartholomew, son of the emigrant, 
 married in 1663 Mary, a daughter of Capt. Isaac 
 Johnson (who was a captain in the Colonial wars, 
 and was killed Dec. 19, 1675, in the Narrangansett 
 Fort fight), and granddaughter of Capt. John John- 
 son (who also served in the; Colonial wars, and was 
 surveyor of all the King's armies in America). 
 Andrew Bartholomew, son of William, father of 
 William, and grandfather of Mrs. Abigail (Bar- 
 tholomew) Hotchkiss, served in the Colonial wars. 
 He was a prominent man in Branford and Wall- 
 ingford, where he managed his father's mills after 
 the latter's removal to Woodstock, and after the 
 father's death he and his brother Benjamin owned 
 and operated the mills in partnership. Later An- 
 drew devoted his attention principally to farming, 
 purchasing large tracts of land in Branford, .Wall- 
 ingford and adjoining towns. Before 1729 he re- 
 mo.ved to Wallingford, where be passed the re- 
 mainder of his life. He was frequently called upon 
 to fill positions of public trust in Branford. He 
 died in 1752. 
 
 (V) Josiah Hotchkiss, son of Josiah and Abi- 
 gail, was born Dec. 26, 1742, and died in June, 1812. 
 He served in the Revolutionary war. The record 
 shows as follows: 
 
 Hartford, Conn., March, 1899. 
 This is to certify that Josiah Hotchkiss served in the 
 war of the Revolution, and the following is his service, 
 according to the records of this office. On page 61, "Con- 
 necticut Men in the War of the Revolution," appears the 
 following: Josiah Hotchkiss, private in Captain John Wat- 
 son's Company, Colonel Benjamin Hinman's Regiment. 
 Discharged in Northern Department November 20, 177.''. 
 In witness whereof we have affixed hereto the seal of this 
 office. 
 
 Wm. C. T. Landus. 
 
 Asst. Adjt. General. 
 
 (VI) Israel Hotchkiss, son of Josiah and Sarah, 
 born in Cheshire May 30, 1767, spent his life in 
 that town, and was a farmer by occupation. He 
 lived to the age of seventy-three, dying Feb. 21, 
 1840. He married Martha Royce, who was born 
 March 7, 1765, daughter of Nathaniel Royce, and 
 lived to the advanced age of seventy-five years, 
 dying March 15, 1840, and they had a family of 
 nine children, all of whom are now deceased. 
 Israel Hotchkiss served in the Revolutionary war, 
 and the following is his record : 
 
 Hartford, Conn., March, 1899. 
 Adjutant Oeneral'a Office: 
 
 This is to certify that Israel Hotchkiss served in the 
 war of the Revolution and the following is his service, 
 according to the records of this office: On Page 191, "Con- 
 necticut Men in the War of the Revolution," Appears the 
 following: " Levies who served in the 4th Connecticut Regi- 
 ment, Colonel John Durkies for the year 1780," Israel Hotch- 
 kiss— enlisted July 9, 1780 discharged Dec. 14, 1780. In wit- 
 ness whereof we have affixed hereto the seal of this state. 
 
 Wm. C. T. Landus, 
 
 Asst. Adjt. General. 
 
 Mrs. Martha (Royce) Hotchkiss and the Doc- 
 tor through her descended also from the Ives and 
 
 84 
 
 Andrews families. She came of stock prominent 
 during the Revolutionary period and early Colonial 
 times. Among the first planters of Wallingford 
 were (I) Isaac and (II) Nehemiah Royce, who 
 made their appearance in the place in 1671. Na- 
 thaniel, Samuel, Joseph and Robert Royce were 
 there soon after. All had families, and were be- 
 lieved to be the sons of Robert Royce, who was 
 the first of the name in America. 
 
 Ensign Nathaniel Royce, father of Mrs. Hotch- 
 kiss, was born May 20, 1734. He served in the 
 war of the Revolution. In Vols. I and II, "Records 
 of the State of Connecticut," appears the record of 
 Ensign Nathaniel Royce's Revolutionary service in 
 the 15th Company, loth Regiment. On Dec. 3, 
 1761, he married Lois (Hulls) Doolittle, a de- 
 scendant of the Hulls, who were the earliest physi- 
 cians in that part of Connecticut. Fler father, 
 John Hulls, was a son of Benjamin Hulls, and a 
 grandson of John Hulls, who served in King Phil- 
 ip's war. 
 
 (VII) Seth Hotchkiss, son of Israel, and fa- 
 ther of the Doctor, was born Sept. 18, 1808, in 
 Cheshire, was reared on a farm in that town, and 
 received his education in the common schools. In 
 1829 he went South and' married Olivia Davidson, 
 locating in Lancaster, S. C, where he engaged in 
 the business of carriage building for a number of 
 years. Later he became a resident of Fort Mill, 
 that State, where he continued at his trade for a 
 time, finally entering the mercantile business, in 
 which he was occupied until his death. He served 
 fourteen years as postmaster at Fort Mill, where 
 he was one of the first settlers, and took an active 
 part in the affairs of that place. For many years 
 he kept the only boarding house in the town. Mr. 
 Hotciikiss was twice married. By his first wife, 
 Olivia Davidson, he had four children : Caroline, 
 James D., John D. and Seth A. For his second 
 wife he married Mrs. Rebecca L. (Blunt) Steele, 
 who had three children by her first union. To her 
 marriage with Mr. Hotchkiss were born four chil- 
 dren, two of whom died in infancy ; Martha Emma 
 became the wife of William Sinclair Steward (now 
 deceased), a prominent business man of Charlotte, 
 N. C. Mrs. Hotchkiss, now aged seventy years, 
 survives the father, who passed away Nov. 8, 1886, 
 at the age of seventy-eight. He was a member 
 of the Presbyterian Church, while the mother is a 
 Methodist. 
 
 (VIII) Norton Royce Hotchkiss was born Aug. 
 23, 1870, in Fort Mill, S. S., where he was reared 
 and acquired his early education. He was a stu- 
 dent for some time at the Fort Mill Academy, and 
 at the age of eighteen years began his medical 
 studies under Samuel A. Kell, M. D. He was 
 also under the instruction of Dr. Alexander Mack, 
 and attended lectures at the South Carolina Med- 
 ical College and the University of Maryland, at 
 Baltimore, graduating from the latter in 1891. One 
 year before his graduation he received the appoint- 
 
1330 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ment of hospital interne, the duties of which po- 
 sition he filled throughout his last year at college. 
 Graduating in the class of 1891, of which he was 
 elected as chairman, he commenced practice in New 
 Haven on June 8th, of that year, his first location 
 being at No. 164 Thompson street. In 1893 he re- 
 moved to his present residence, No. 150 Shelton 
 avenue, and in September, 1900, he optoed a sec- 
 ond office, at No. 237 York street. Though a gen- 
 eral practitioner, he has gained special note as a 
 gynecologist and obstetrician, and- he stands well 
 among his professional brethren, as well as among 
 his patrons. He is a member of the City, County 
 and State .Medical Societies, and of the American 
 Medical Association. Fraternally and socially he 
 holds membership in numerous organizations, be- 
 longing to the A. O. U. \V. ; Hammonassett Tribe, 
 Independent Order of Red Men; the D. of H. ; 
 Charter Oak Lodge, N. E. O. P., of which he 
 was one of the organizers ; the National Fraternal 
 League ; the W^oodmen of the World ; the Pequot 
 Club ; the New Haven Gun Club ; the Graduates 
 Club ; the Knights Templars Club : and the Masonic 
 fraternity, in which he has attained the thirty-sec- 
 ond degree, affiliating with Trumbull Lodge, F. & 
 A. M. ; Franklin Chapter; Harmony Council; New 
 Haven Commandery ; the Scottish Rite ]\Iasons ; 
 and Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine. In this con- 
 nection it may be mentioned that he is examining 
 physician for the D. of H., the N. E. O. P., the 
 National Fraternal League, and the Woodmen of 
 the World ; medical director of the Masonic Pro- 
 tective Society, and medical examiner for the Mas- 
 sachusetts Life and Berkshire Life Insurance Cos., 
 and the Washington Life of New York. He is 
 also a member of the Second Companj^, Governor's 
 Foot Guards, and surgeon on the staff of Major 
 Clark, formerly serving in that incumbency under 
 Major Brown, The Doctor belongs to the Kappa 
 Sigma college fraternity, and the Alumni Associa- 
 tion of the University of Maryland. 
 
 In October, 1893, l^^"- Hotchkiss married Miss 
 Lucy E. Belk, a native of Fort Mill, S. C, and 
 they have had two children, Elizabeth M. and 
 Norton Royce. They attend the Summerfield M. 
 E. Church, of which the Doctor is a member, and in 
 which he has held official position. 
 
 ISAAC JOCELYN WILD, who was for many 
 years connected with the New Haven Gas Light 
 Co., is a native of Stockport, Columbia Co., New 
 York, having been born in that State Aug. 25, 1842, 
 a son of Joseph and Sarah A. (Jocelyn) Wild, 
 
 The paternal grandfather, James Wild, was 
 born in England, and came to America when a 
 young man, building the first cotton mill in the State 
 of New York, at Stockport, Columbia Co,, where 
 he had settled, and he manufactured the first 
 uTOUsseHne-delaine in this country. 
 
 Joseph Wild, the father of our subject, was also 
 a manufacturer of various cotton goods. He came 
 
 to New Haven in 1882, where he still resides, re- 
 tired from active life. The mother of our subject 
 was born in New Haven, being a daughter of 
 Nathaniel Jocelyn, a native of New Haven, and a 
 noted portrait painter, as well as the founder of the 
 National Bank Note Company, of New York. Four 
 children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Wild: 
 Isaac J., our subject; Margaret J„ who died in 
 1859, unmarried; Sarah H. ; Josephine, who died 
 in 1869, also unmarried, Mrs, Wild died in 1868, 
 Mr, Joseph Wild has always taken an active interest 
 in politics, affiliating with the Republican party, 
 Isaac J, Wild, the subject of this review, re- 
 ceived his early education in the public schools of 
 New Haven, and later attended Hopkins' Grammar 
 School, finally graduating from Yale in 1867, Af- 
 ter finishing his scholastic course, Mr, Wild accepted 
 a position as cashier in a large wholesale and retail 
 establishment in New York City; in i868-69-;7o, 
 he was connected with C. S. Maltby Oyster House 
 in Baltimore, and in 1872 came to New Haven, 
 where he has since remained. Upon locating here, 
 Mr, Wild became a clerk in the New Haven Gas 
 Light Co., and was elected treasurer of that organ- 
 ization in 1887, which office he occupied until the 
 summer of 1901, when he resigned on account of 
 ill health. 
 
 On July 3, 1878, Mr, Wild was united in mar- 
 riage to Miss Sarah E, Goodyear, of Hamden, 
 Conn,, a daughter of Willis and Emily Goodyear, 
 also of Hamden. Two children were born of this 
 union: Joseph Goodyear, born May 17, 1879, and 
 Jocelyn Plant, born Sept. 28, 1882. On Oct. 11, 
 1882, occurred the death of Mrs, Wild, Politically, 
 Mr, Wild is a strong Republican; and religiously, 
 is a Congregationalist, 
 
 SAMUEL CLARK PADDOCK writes: Ac- 
 cording to the record in the old family Bible, I 
 was born Aug, 31, 1816, in the South East School 
 District of the city of Meriden, county of New 
 Haven, State of Connecticut, The family traditions 
 trace back to Zachariah Paddock, who came from 
 Wales, Great Britain, and landed in Rhode Island, 
 He afterwards settled in Middletown, Conn., and 
 died May 13, 1800, in the seventy-third year of his 
 age. His son, Samuel, had a son, Samuel (2), who 
 was my father. 
 
 -My first recollections are of being in the front 
 yard and a friend telling me I was four years old. 
 
 My mother, Polly (Sears) Paddock, died when 
 I was six years of age. She was an excellent and 
 faithful Christian woman. I remember my mother 
 saying when her last hour had come, "The Lord 
 will take care of him," My father married Char- 
 lotte Yale Jan. 22, 1823, and she was a good 
 Christian and had a good influence over me for 
 several years. I learned to milk, drive the cows 
 to pasture, bring home the working oxen, pick up 
 apples, help the girls wipe dishes and do other light 
 work. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1331 
 
 Father had a large farm in East Meriden with 
 many apple trees thereon. One abundant season 
 of apples father let a neighbor, Titus Ives, pick up, 
 grind, and make cider on shares. He gathered 
 that season sufficient fruit to make four hundred 
 barrels of cider, thirty-two gallons to the barrel. 
 Mr. Ives sold the most of his cider to men in 
 Middletown at fifty cents a barrel. They shipped 
 it to the West Indies. Father had his carried to 
 Deacon Ives' still. Father received about seven 
 barrels of brandy, worth about eight cents a quart. 
 It was then proper and nothing unusual for any 
 man to run a still. It was proper for pastors, dea- 
 cons, and all people to drink distilled liquors. There 
 was a temperance movement in 1835, and many 
 people who had orchards cut down nearly all their 
 cider apple trees, reserving only winter apples. 
 Most of the inhabitants discarded using intoxicating 
 drinks. From that influence our present business 
 men started up in life. 
 
 When I was about ten years old I had the care 
 of the young stock, especially colts. On one occa- 
 sion father was preparing for his men to go in the 
 field. The men boarded with us, and, just as they 
 were ready, a Mr. Coy, a neighbor, came to eoc- 
 change a young horse for another, which was a 
 "Path Finder." Father said, "Samuel, you go with 
 Mr. Coy, and exchange, and I will go with the 
 men." I went with Mr. Coy and showed him a 
 very good-looking animal with which he was satis- 
 fied, at a twenty dollar difference in our favor, and 
 we made the exchange. Father asked whether we 
 traded. I said, "We did." He said, "That is all 
 right," w'hich pleased me and encouraged me to 
 think I knew something about the stock of "Path- 
 finders." 
 
 On another occasion a Mr. Brock, of Middle- 
 town, came by our house and inquired if father was 
 home. I said he went to Middletown this morn- 
 ing. Mr. Brock said he was sorry, as he wished 
 to exchange oxen with him. I said, "I can ex- 
 change as well as father." "Will your father admit 
 your doing it?" I said, "Surely." Ours was a 
 handsome pair, well-mated, but slower than mo- 
 lasses in winter. His appeared to be lively and 
 were larger than ours. He said he would give ten 
 dollars difference. I said, "You can take them home 
 with you, and call it a trade." Father came home 
 and looked at the new oxen. He said "You must 
 have paid some to boot," w'hich did not displease 
 me. 
 
 I was now about twelve years old. Father sent 
 me over to town with a load of oats for the stable 
 at the hotel, requesting me to collect the pay. I 
 delivered the oats, went to the office and handed the 
 bill to the clerk. He threw down the moriey on 
 the counter and said, rather crossly, he did not 
 want to be bothered with boys. I counted the 
 money, found it half a dollar too much, and said, 
 "You have made a mistake." He thought he knew 
 how to count. "Well, please count it." "Oh yes, 
 
 there is too much," and quickly picked up the money. 
 It was a principle of father's to always do as you 
 agreed, and rectify any mistakes. 
 
 William J. Ives and myself started to go over 
 to Harbor Brook, West jNIeriden, to have a bath, 
 and as we went by where Mr. Lawrence was build- 
 ing the Congregational Church the tables for enter- 
 tainment of those who were helping raise the build- 
 ing were spread with a bountiful supply of all 
 kinds of rum, brandy, etc., and we concluded as we 
 were going by we would step up, as it was all free, 
 and take a nip. We went on to the brook and had 
 our swim. Coming back we wanted to protect our- 
 selves from chills, so we took another nip. It 'being 
 a common usage, we felt at perfect liberty to do so. 
 
 Mr. Reed, from Durham, or Reed's Gap, came 
 to Meriden to buy a yoke of oxen. I was driving 
 two pair for the men plowing in the field. He 
 stopped at the house and father told him where I 
 was driving them so that he could go and see them. 
 He asked the price. I hardly knew the proper price, 
 but told him he might have his choice for a certain 
 price named. He inquired if father would like me 
 to sell them. At that time of life I felt at liberty 
 to transact any business of importance, being about 
 twelve years of age. He paid me the amount asked 
 and took his choice. 
 
 When I was fourteen years old I remember Gen, 
 Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren coming 
 through Meriden. As there were no railroads they 
 traveled by stage. We had but twd carriages in 
 Meriden that were considered fit for riding. Parties 
 went down the turnpike as far as the gate, took 
 them from the stage and brought them up to town. 
 Walter Booth stepped in front of the carriage and 
 introduced them to the citizens. This was the in- 
 troduction: "Citizens of Meriden, I introduce to 
 you Gen. Andrew Jackson, President of the United 
 States and the people's president, and Vice Presi- 
 dent Martin Van Buren." 
 
 I continued working on the farm and brick 
 yard until about fifteen years old. I went to school 
 in winter and helped father in the summer. 
 
 When about sixteen years of age, our work on 
 the farm and brickyard being nearly finished 
 for the season, said I to father, "I don't care 
 to go to school this coming winter, I'd rather 
 earn a little something for myself." A Mr. Martin 
 had a horse and wagon for the business of peddling 
 tin. I saw Mr. Martm and made an engagement 
 with him to take a team and he furnished tin at the 
 ,old established "six-pound price." He promised 
 me fifteen dollars per month, and half I could 
 make over. When we settled in the spring he 
 counted and made out that he owed me twenty- 
 five dollars per month, which was very satisfactory 
 to me and, I presume, to him. 
 
 The next summer I worked at home on the farm 
 and brickyard. In the fall Mr. Martin offered me 
 thirty dollars, for a month, to sell a new kind of 
 ibrass kettles that he had. William J. Ives, an old 
 
1332 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 chum of mine, had engaged to take a load of the 
 same style of goods for Noah Pomeroy. We 
 started together with the loads and went directly to 
 Cape Coa. We traveled together, as there was 
 but one direct road on Cape Cod. He sold at one 
 house, I taking the next, and, as we traveled on, 
 we sold our entire loads for cash. On my return 
 home J\Ir. Julius Pratt asked me to take second 
 quality ivory combs and go to Ohio to sell them. 
 1 considered it too far, and stayed at home. 
 
 I proposed to father that 1 would like to make 
 brick on my own account. He said, "It would take 
 too much money for you to start the business, as you 
 will have to furnish wood and hire help, at least 
 three men, through the summer, before you could 
 get any returns. It will take at least tv/o thousand 
 dollars before you can get anything back.'' I asked 
 him if he thought Uncle Robert Paddock, in Middle- 
 town, would loan me the money. He said, "You 
 cannot give a note, you are not old enough yet." 
 I thought I would try, so walked into Middletown, 
 met the old gentleman, and after inquiring regard- 
 ing our people, I said, "I would like to make brick," 
 and spoke of borrowing money of him. He said, 
 "You are not old enough to give a note," but he had 
 been down to Meriden frequently and seen me work- 
 ing in the yard, so he said, "I think I will let you 
 have the money." I found a good place on one 
 end of Noah Pomeroy's land and bought a piece 
 sufficient for a yard, and made preparations for 
 working. I hired three men and bought wood 
 ready for burning. The second year, 1836, there 
 was a great panic over the country, and the banks 
 could not redeem their bills. We could not get 
 silver from any bank in the United States for bank 
 bills. All that time I still continued making brick. 
 
 In the spring of 1837 I prepared to marry Mr. 
 Casper Hall's daughter. In asking the gift of my 
 intended, he spoke of having "a cage for the bird 
 before getting it." A neighbor of ours, Mr. Coy, 
 ofifered to sell his home. I saw Mr. Coy and pro- 
 posed buying the same, a lot and a fine peach or- 
 chard. I got his lowest price, five hundred fifty 
 dollars, for the place. I proposed giving him my 
 note, which he readily accepted, although I was not 
 of age at that time. As I had bought "the cage," 
 that settled the matter of engagement and we were 
 married that spring, 1837, a little before I became 
 responsible for my notes. My wife was Janette 
 Hall, daughter of Casper Hall, granddaughter of 
 Brenton Hall (first representative of Meriden in 
 the General Assembly of Connecticut in 1806), and 
 great-granddaughter of Rev. Samuel Hall, who was 
 the first preacher of the Gospel in the town of 
 Cheshire, Connecticut. 
 
 I was determined that my notes should be paid 
 in full, though the times were so bad. Mr. Eli 
 Ives and Henry J. Tenant formed a co-partnership 
 and hired my old friend, William J. Ives, and my- 
 self to go South with them and sell tinware, paying 
 fifty-two and one-half dollars per month for nine 
 
 months, they bearing all expenses. There were 
 fourteen men and eight teams in the party. We 
 were to start Sept. 10 for Alabama, by land. We 
 went by the way of Middletown to New York, by 
 water acros.s to New Jersey, then by land to Wash- 
 ington, from Washington by water down the bay 
 some hundred miles or more ; the rest of the way we 
 went by land, all including about fourteen hundred 
 miles. I furnished my own horses, which I had 
 purchased whale in the brick business. One 
 of the horses cost me forty dollars and the other one 
 forty-five dollars; they happened to be as good a 
 team as there was on the road. I suppose it was 
 something in driving and caring for them. After 
 we had made about thirty-five miles each day, it 
 was the custom of Mr. Tenant to ride with me, 
 because my team seemed to be the freshest, and go 
 ahead and provide for the night. He usually 
 sought the lowest-priced house. Mr. Tenant would 
 say to the proprietor, "Now, if you will throw in 
 the beer free, we will stop." Rum, brandy and 
 peach brandy would be set free before us when we 
 wanted it. This liberality induced the boys, myself 
 and Mr. Stowe included, to take a little in a bottle 
 to use through the day. After we reached North 
 Carolina I said to Mr. Stowe, "We are taking that 
 a little too often ; perhaps we had better not have 
 it along," and he agreed. I picked up the bottle 
 and tossed it over into the bushes.. 
 
 When we arrived at the end of the journey my 
 horses and William Ives' team were the freshest 
 teams and the best able to continue. As the Ala- 
 bama river was so low, we could not get the goods 
 up the river, nor tools for the workmen to use. 
 Mr. Ives proposed to me that we take our teams and 
 go down to the bay at this side of Mobile and bring 
 two loads. Our teams were still well enough to 
 continue work, after a few days' rest. The river 
 began to rise, so the remainder of the goods were 
 brought tip by steamer. We soon started out. Mr. 
 Ives and myself with our loads started north as far 
 as Talladega. I met a man there from South 
 Carolina who asked me if I would exchange my 
 team for his carriage horses. I said, "Yes, if I 
 could make it better for myself." I proposed the 
 exchange for twenty-five dollars. He said he would 
 give me twenty dollars, which I accepted. I drove 
 up to a hotel at the old mound where Jackson 
 fought and was surrounded by Indians, and was 
 obliged to send a scout to Georgia and bring re- 
 cruits, to drive the Indians away from the fort. I 
 traveled in the South nine months, and settled seem- 
 ingly to the satisfaction of the parties for whom I 
 worked. I was planning to go North with the 
 horses which I had at that time. A gentle 
 man from Montgomery came to where we were 
 located, and said he would like to exchange a saddle 
 horse for my horses, as a man in Montgomery 
 wanted just such a pair. The exchange was made, 
 and I received $137.50 to boot, besides horse, bridle 
 and saddle. Having now only one horse, and there 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1333 
 
 being no railroads, I rode on horseback, in company 
 with two others, starting for Illinois to see the 
 country. We stopped at one of the banks at Hunts- 
 ville, Ala., and exchanged our paper money for 
 silv.er, with which to buy western lands. We had 
 to pay twenty-four per cent, on our bank bills to get 
 silver, as the government would not take any money 
 unless it was gold or silver. The bank bills were 
 State bank bills, as good as any in the country, ex- 
 cept South Carolina bills. I had my wages and the 
 difference in horse trading, five hundred dollars, 
 and paid about one hundred dollars exchange. I 
 put four hundred dollars in silver into a pair of 
 old stockings and placed it in my saddle bags, which 
 made it quite inconvenient for riding on the saddle. 
 We continued traveling North through Tennessee 
 and Kentucky, crossed the Ohio river at Cavern 
 Rock, afterward going through what was then called 
 Egypt in Illinois. It was timber land, and the 
 water was very poor. We came to Vandalia, the 
 former seat of government, which had been re- 
 moved to Springfield about this time. We found 
 the land improving as ;soon as we came to the 
 prairies and the country grew better, and as my 
 friends were so well pleased with the country there 
 they took up land at government prices. I con- 
 tinued mv journey on toward Springfield, going by 
 way of Hillsboro. The country grew better for 
 farming purposes. The land on the Sangamon 
 river appeared the best I ever saw for farming, but 
 I found that the people there were suffering with 
 chills and fever, generally looking- more like cakes 
 of tallow than human beings. They were moving 
 across the Mississippi river to get a better climate, 
 therefore I concluded to return' to my home in Con- 
 necticut, and went by the way of Chicago. I '■rav- 
 eled by land to Toledo, then by boat to Buffalo, 
 and continued by land till I reached my home. 
 I m€t William Hale a few davs after arriving. He 
 proposed to buy my saddle horse. I sold him for 
 $132.50. All the parties were satisfied and pleased 
 with their exchanges, and I think my luck ought to 
 be satisfactory to me. 
 
 I continued in the employ of other parties a few 
 years, first with E. A. & G. Coles, selling dry goods. 
 I was one year with Parker & White, selling dry 
 goods, and had the pleasure of hearing them say, 
 when I settled in the spring, that I had given them 
 satisfaction. They paid me about eighty dollars 
 per month, and thereby I was able to pay Uncle 
 Robert Paddock, and I think I settled my note with 
 Mr. Coy with brick, which he transferred to Samuel 
 Yale. 
 
 I then went to New York and purchased goods 
 for myself, having no one to recommend my credit 
 I went to one store where Major Cowles and his 
 son-in-law, Mr. Churchill, were sitting, and Major 
 Cowles said to me, "Mr. Paddock, what are you 
 doing here in New York?" "I came down to buy 
 some goods to take to Alatema, if they will sell 
 them on time." Major Cowles said to Mr. Church- 
 
 ill, the merchant, "If he buys goods, he will pay for 
 them ; he will want time." Knowing the condition 
 of the Southern trade, that the people there wanted 
 time, as they sold their cotton in the spring, and 
 were buying their goods on four months, I wanted 
 four months on my purchases. Mr. Churchill told 
 one of the clerks to wait on me, and I selected what 
 I wanted. On leaving the store I said, "I wanted 
 about five hundred dollars worth of silks," and they 
 proposed introducing me to the importers. I bought 
 what silks I wanted on the same time, four months. 
 I then took courage and bought hardware. The 
 hardware firm inquired where I was buying my 
 goods, and I told them of Churchill & Co., and 
 Alfred Edwards & Co. They said it was all right, 
 and sold me the hardware. Then I went to a shoe 
 establishment and bought on time, and I had no 
 difficulty in getting all or any kind of goods I 
 wanted. 
 
 I proposed to Mrs. Paddock that she go with 
 me and take our two children. I had a pair of 
 horses and a convenient top wagon. We put a 
 feather bed in the back of it and a trunk forward to 
 sit on. We buckled the curtains down when we 
 traveled and put the children over back, so that 
 they could play or lie down. We took the Western 
 route, through Virginia by the way of Harper's 
 Ferry, and followed the National road through to 
 Georgia, then down the Alabama river as far as 
 Lowndes county. There we received our goods 
 from the river, and hired a house. The owner 
 was a single man, with no family excepting negroes. 
 We had rather rough board, including plenty of 
 cabbage and turnip greens, with bacon and coarse 
 corn bread. We stood it for a few months, then 
 moved about four miles down to the river to a Mr. 
 Archa Howard's. We had fine board and enjoyed 
 it very much. We rented a store there, and in the 
 spring our youngest, George Byron, was teething 
 and appeared quite feeble. Our eldest babe, Mary, 
 was well, but we concluded it would be safer for 
 the sickly babe to come North. We went as far as 
 Savannah, then took a sailing vessel for New York. 
 We were thirteen days on the water, which was 
 very favorable for Byron. The child had overcome 
 his trouble and become well again, after our return. 
 We cleared at least fifteen hundred dollars in the 
 winter's work. 
 
 We spent the summer at home and purchased 
 more goods and hired John Lucky Ives to go with 
 us. I stayed in the store and Mr. Ives did the 
 traveling. We did very well through the winter, 
 and closed up our business for the season. In re- 
 turning I had an interesting trip. Mr. Ives came 
 with us. The railroad between Montgomery and 
 Columbus, Ga., was built, but from Columbus we 
 took a stage. I did not like the driver's actions, 
 therefore I became a little anxious about traveling 
 in the night. In the night about midnight the stage 
 stopped. The driver seemed to be fixing the car- 
 riage, and I supposed everything was all rig'ht. 
 
1334 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 About two o'clock in the morning the driver stopped 
 to change horses, which they did every ten miles. 
 I got out and put my hand back to see if my trunks 
 were all right, then got back in the stage and rode 
 on to the next stop. Just at the break of day the 
 driver got oil his seat and came to the back of the 
 stage and said, "The stage has been robbed.'' I 
 got out and saw that my trunk was gone, in which 
 were valuable papers, about eighty dollars that men 
 South had given me to purchase goods for them, 
 and six or seven thousand dollars worth of accounts 
 and bills. I said to the stage driver, "Drive on, and 
 I will go back and find my trunk, if possible." The 
 driver said there was no use. I instructed my wife 
 to go on with Mr. Ives to the end of the stage route. 
 I engaged two horses and a man to go back with 
 me. The servants had been tracking over the road, 
 but inspiration seemed to direct me, after I had 
 gone nearly ten miles, to what seemed to be a 
 suspicious track. I got off my horse, found a stick 
 and measured the track, both length and breadth, 
 then put the stick in my pocket. We rode back to 
 the stage stand and I ordered breakfast for myself 
 and servant. I engaged four or five men to go 
 back and hunt for the trunk. We went back to the 
 track, and, supposing it to turn to the left, looked 
 the ground over and over and over again. I seemed 
 to be impressed that that side of the road would be 
 the one. We looked until dinner time, went up to 
 the house, ate our dinner, and going back I saw the 
 same track and it was going across the road. All 
 hands went on the other side of the road and hunted 
 for an hour or two in the woods and bushes. By 
 the middle of the afternoon one of the men gave 
 a loud shout, a regular Southern yell, and we sup- 
 pose^d he had come across the trunk. All hands 
 went to where he was, and found the trunk. It was 
 in a nest of leaves and had been opened, all the 
 silver being gone, as well as tobacco and some 
 essence. All my stockings had been opened to see 
 if they could find something. The papers remained. 
 I had it carried to a blacksmith and the lid fixed and 
 ready to go on the next stage. The stage being 
 filled, I was compelled to put my trunk on the top 
 and get up there myself. I found my wife 'and 
 Mr. Ives at the end of the route. From Savannah 
 we had no trouble and reached home safely, all 
 standing it very well. 
 
 I continued in the South for several winters, 
 with my family, and returned in summer. Having 
 spent so much time among the plantations, which in 
 Lowndes county were large, I had an opportunity 
 of seeing the working of the institutions, and saw 
 scenes which surpassed "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in 
 showing the cruelties of slavery. 
 
 The question of slavery or Free-soil in the new 
 territories impressed me as a great one, and my 
 vote being in Meriden I decided to cast it for Free- 
 soil and John C. Fremont. I was told by Mr. Yale, 
 the postmaster at Meriden, "If you cast that vote it 
 will raise the devil with vour business." Siill I 
 
 voted, and my partner, Mr. R. D. Twombly, in Ala- 
 bama, wrote me that he understood I had voted for 
 Fremont, "That being the case, you cannot sell 
 goods here." I wrote him, and did not deny that I 
 voted for Free-soil. He wrote, "It will not be safe 
 for you to come to Alabama," and I took his advice 
 and remained at home. I stayed at home fifteen 
 months. My business indebtedness in New York, 
 with new extensions, amounted to eighteen thousand 
 dollars. Matters seemed to be coming to a crisis. 
 I said to my wife, "I am going to Alabama to see 
 to my business." I went there the day before 
 Christmas, Friday, and on Saturday morning I 
 found that the Vigilance committee had been noti- 
 fied and came there to the store. I saw them ride 
 by and come to the post office, which was in my 
 store. They came in one by one and inquired for a 
 letter. I said, "Good morning," to each. Col. 
 Moore, who was appointed the head of the Vigilance 
 committee, said to Mr. Twombly, who was in the 
 store, "They have appointed one o'clock to take Pad- 
 dock out. I would advise you to tell Mr. Paddock 
 he had better retire, for they may commit some vio- 
 lence." This meant business for me. Mr. Twombly 
 said, "You know me well enough to know I would 
 not stand by and see you abused without resenting 
 it," and in that case some one would probably get 
 badly hurt. I said, "That would be useless," and he 
 said "Col. Moore things you had better retire." I 
 took the advice and went into the woods a half a 
 mile or more, where I spent the remainder of the 
 day. Some negroes came out from a plantation 
 and said, "]\Iassa, you had better look out for them 
 fellows, they mean business." "You had better go 
 and not be found here," said I. "I would not want 
 you hurt on my account." i stayed there until sun- 
 set, then walked up toward the place. I went in 
 and kept myself quiet and waited until the crowd of 
 fellows, who were rather filled up, were going back. 
 The servant girl prepared the supper. After sup- 
 per I retired for the night, and no other person be- 
 ing there it was rather lonesome. I fastened the 
 doors and windows, then lay down, and it seemed 
 as though the Lord inspired a plan, which I said in 
 my mind I would adopt, and then went to sleep. In 
 the morning I had my plan clearly in mind and said 
 to Mr. Twombly, "It being Sunday we will go to 
 Hayneville," the county seat, about twenty miles 
 distant, "and will employ a lawyer to draw up a 
 bill of sale that I propose to make. It will include 
 my personal property, notes, accounts, indebtedness 
 from everyone, goods, and everything pertaining 
 thereto, and also I want you to have the rights of 
 the store and all real estate, the little plantation of 
 i6o acres." This was done, and I took the deed with 
 me for my wife to sign, and proceeding from Hayne- 
 ville about three miles to a railroad station, boarded 
 the train and started for home. 
 
 From time to time Mr. Twombly wrote me re- 
 garding his payments in New York. He had paid 
 all I owedi — at least, eighteen thousand dollars. He 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1335 
 
 had collected some money, and sometimes, in- 
 directly, I ordered a few goods for him. He paid 
 all ; and finally, when secession broke out, wrote me 
 a letter saying, this will be the last letter I can 
 write,. as the post office will be broken up and we 
 cannot send letters from the South to the North. 
 
 I went on a little farm in Meriden, and paid 
 three thousand dollars for it. My family had in- 
 creased to four, after losing one little boy three 
 years of age. We lived on the farm and managed 
 to make a very comfortable living. As the war 
 progressed, some of the people became alarmed in 
 regard to the money of the United States, which 
 they thought would be worthless. Mr. Hinsdale, a 
 formier pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Meri- 
 den, came from' Massachusetts and inquired for a 
 farm he .might buy, as he was afraid that the money 
 of the United States banks would not be good, and 
 they directed him to my house. He came in the 
 morning and I greeted him as an old resident, and 
 he inquired if I would sell my farmt I said "Yes." 
 "How much ?" "The price is six thousand dollars." 
 He wanted the refusal of it for a few days, and I 
 gave him only till sundown. He came over before 
 that time and said, "I will take it." I don't sup- 
 pose all the talking about it took over thirty min- 
 utes. We were both ready for a trade. He took 
 most of my farm tools, horses and cattle, which 
 added more to the income. By that means I had 
 a few dollars to invest. 
 
 The next place I bought was standing where the 
 First Methodist parsonage stands, which I pur- 
 chased for seventeen hundred dollars. The next 
 place was where I now (1901) live, and with that 
 I secured a tract of land in the south of Meriden, 
 one mile from the depot — twenty-five acres for fif- 
 teen hundred dollars. This was heavily timbered, 
 and after cutting off the wood I laid it out in lots 
 and streets for building purposes. As the railroad 
 Was then using wood for fuel, I had no difficulty .in 
 selling it at a good price. I employed men to chop, 
 cord and cart it, and after paying all expenses 
 cleared about eighteen hundred dollars. 
 
 After the war had ceased Mr. Twombly wrote 
 me that the negroes were all free, and they did not 
 know what to do. He was going to hire some of 
 his former slaves and others to work for him^ to 
 see if he could make a crop of cotton, and if he 
 could he would divide it with me, although every- 
 thing he had had been confiscated. In the fall of 
 the year he wrote that his cotton was all picked and 
 being packed. He was going to Mobile to sell it. 
 I had a letter from the commission merchants of 
 Mobile, saying Mr. Twombly had sold his cotton 
 and requested them to send a portion of the pro- 
 ceeds to me. They enclosed a draft for seven hun- 
 dred dollars. When Mr. Twombly went down the 
 river to Mobile he was quite ill, and the next night 
 he grew worse and died. This is the winding up of 
 my plantation store. All interest and debts were 
 paid in New York. 
 
 I started a meat and vegetable market in Meri- 
 den, in the brick block on the corner where Seth 
 Hall's store now stands. A fire swept everything 
 clean and I had to remove to a new location. I 
 bought the place where the corner tea store now 
 stands. It being an open brook bank on either side, 
 I brought timber from the wood lot and laid it from 
 bank to bank, covered with planks and built thereon. 
 A bridge was built by the town, but the contract 
 was to build only in the traveled road, and I paid for 
 the building of the bridge as far as my land. The 
 parties on the south side did the same for their 
 sidewalk. I continued business about fifteen years, 
 and found myself pretty well worn ou^. I sold out 
 my business, and finding nothing particular to do 
 soon had a gun and dog, and got into the habit of 
 enjoying hunting during the fall season. I went 
 to Aliinnesota with other parties, and spent the fall 
 there for ten years. 
 
 Mr. PaddocTv is by religious profession a Bap- 
 tist, and a worthy and beloved member of the 
 church at whose communion table he sits, but no 
 man except himself has formulated his religious 
 creed. He has been a close student of the scrip- 
 tures, and bases his belief upon the direct study of 
 them. While charitable in spirit, and tolerant of 
 others' views, he is not the less firm and positive of 
 his own. When a young man he could not read "fire 
 and brimstone" either out of or into the gospel of 
 Christ, nor could the church committee convince 
 him that the parable of the rich man and Lazarus 
 is a picture of the realities in the next world, but 
 rather in this. In his view God is empha'tically one, 
 and the terms of the old theology describing him as 
 three persons are to be interpreted, to make them 
 correct, as manifestations of him. So, too, Christ 
 was the human personality in whomi God chose to 
 manifest himself wondrously, the manifestation, 
 however, being not different in kind from that in 
 other persons, but only in degree ; and the work of 
 Christ operated for man not as vicarious suffering 
 for his sin, but as a powerful exhibition of divine 
 love for him, teaching him how to live. He re- 
 gards the judgment day as running parallel with 
 human earthly life, and as being coterminous with 
 it, both at the beginning and at the end, and not a 
 stupendous assize at the end of all things temporal. 
 To him also the second coming of Christ is a re- 
 peated event of divine mercy or wrath appearing in 
 the striking providences which happen to persons 
 or nations, such as the fall of Jerusalem or the san- 
 guinary war which ended American slavery; and 
 death is the dissolution of the unjust into non- 
 existence, but for believers in Christ, by virtue of 
 their life in him, it is their transference to the 
 eternal world, where all that is temporal and ma- 
 terial has dropped away from them forever, in the 
 event of dying. Mr. Paddock deems these reforms 
 of doctrine suggested in his creed essential to the 
 
1.336 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 full power of the Gospel in the world, and attrib- 
 utes the greater part of the current skepticism of 
 the age to the false teachings so prevalent concern- 
 ing these great Biblical truths. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Paddock lived together for fifty- 
 seven years, sharing the burdens and reaping the 
 rewards of industry. Five children were born to 
 them, of whom two died : Samuel Archer Paddock, 
 born Oct. lo, 1847, died Nov. 29, 1850; and Adella 
 Paddock, born March 16, 1854, died Jan. 17, 1876. 
 The children now living are : George Byron Pad- 
 dock, of Jackson, Alinn. ; Mary Ann, wife of Frank 
 M. Hall, of West Haven, Conn.; and Aland B. 
 Paddock, of Rialto, Cal. Mrs. Janette Hall Pad- 
 dock died July 22, 1894, aged seventy-six years, 
 four months, and was buried in Walnut Grove Cem- 
 etery, Meriden. She was a member of the Baptist 
 Church, and was greatly beloved for her many ex- 
 cellent Christian graces. 
 
 On Oct. 10, 1895, Mr. Paddock married, in 
 Bridgeport, Conn., for his second wife, Sophia H. 
 Manwaring, in whomi he has found a true help- 
 meet. She was born in New London, Conn., 
 daughter of Adam and Susan (Harding) Manwar- 
 ing, of that place. Mrs. Paddock is thoroughly edu- 
 cated, cultured' and refined, and was formerly a 
 successful teacher in the public schools of New 
 London. She is a woman of fine Christian char- 
 acter. Mr. and Mrs. Paddock, .surrounded by a 
 large circle of friends, enjoy together their ample 
 fortune. He has lived to see the dawn of the twen- 
 tieth century, and is enjoying as good health as 
 could be expected at the age of eighty-five. 
 
 HARRY STEVENSON BRADFORD, super- 
 intendent of the pen-manufacturing department of 
 the Miller Brothers Cutlery Co., Meriden, is a 
 popular young man, of inherited talent and ability, 
 succeeding both his father and his father's father 
 as a penmaker. He was born in Mount Vernon, N. 
 Y., on the last day of the year 1874. His father, 
 George Bradford, was a native of Birmingham, 
 Eng-land, born in 1830, one of ten children born to 
 George and Martha (Morgan) Bradford, both also 
 natives of Birminghami, where George Bradford 
 (i) followed the business of penmaking until his' 
 death. 
 
 George Bradford (2), father of Harry S., at- 
 tended school in his native city and learned the trade 
 of penmaking in the factorv of his father. With 
 four others he came to America when a young man, 
 intending to start the pen business here. Coming 
 first to New York, he went thence to Newark, N. 
 J., and worked a s'hort time there at toolmaking, 
 after which he formed a partnership with George 
 Harrison and engaged in the manufacture of pens 
 under the firm name of Harrison & Bradford. Later 
 he moved to Mount Vernon, N. Y., where he con- 
 tinued to manfacture pens until the year 1880, when 
 the Miller Brothers Cutlery Co. instituted a pen- 
 manufacturing department in their works at Meri- 
 
 den and called Mr. Bradford to its superintendency. 
 Here he spent the last fifteen years of his life, giv- 
 ing general satisfaction. He died at his Meriden 
 home July 24, 1895, and is buried in Walnut Grove 
 cemetery. Air. Bradford was a member of the M. 
 E: Church, a Republican in politics, but never an 
 office seeker, a member of a New York City Lodge 
 of Free and Accepted Masons, and of the Pilgrim 
 Society, of Plymouth, Mass., which latter he joined 
 Jan. I, 1870, as a descendant of the Pilgrim Gov- 
 ernor Bradford. On Oct. 14, 1856, he was married 
 in Newark, N. J., to Sarah Ann Lavender, a native 
 of his own town of Birmingham. She was a daugh- 
 ter of John and Mary Ann Lavender, who brought 
 their family to this country while young and settled 
 in Newark, N. J., where the father engaged in mak- 
 ing siteel buttons, etc. He died in Mount Vernon, 
 N. Y., and is buried there. After 'his death his 
 widow came to Meriden and made her home with 
 her daughter. Here she died, and is buried in the 
 West cemetery, Meriden. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
 Lavender were members of the Episcopal Church. 
 To Mr. and Mrs. George Bradford eight chil- 
 dren were born : ( i ) Annie died at the age of six 
 months; (2) Florence married M. D. Brown, and 
 resides in Chicago; (3) George went West;' (_4) 
 William died in boyhood; (5) Martha Louise mar- 
 ried Edgar Chambers and has one child, George 
 E., born in 1890; (6) Lillian married Edward Mol- 
 loy, of Meriden, and died leaving one son, Harry; 
 (7) Harry Stevenson is mentioned below; (8) 
 Clarice Adele married Alfred J. Batten of Meri- 
 den. Mrs. Bradford married, for ' her sec- 
 ond husband, George Lowe, a native of Coventry, 
 England, who died in November, 1900, and is 
 buried in Walnut Grove cemetery. Mrs. Lowe is'a 
 member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 _ Harry Stevenson Bradford came to Meriden 
 with his parents. He attended the public and high 
 schools there until 1889, when, at the age of fif- 
 teen years, he commenced to learn the trade of 
 penmaking, under the guidance of his father, who 
 taught mm every branch of the business and then 
 made him his assistant. Harry S. was still in his 
 minority when his father died, but his ability was 
 so marked that his employers aopointed him to 
 succeed m the superintendency. He has now been 
 seven 3'ears in that position, and by his faithfulness 
 and ability has given the most complete satisfac- 
 tion to every one concerned. His honorable char- 
 acter, thorough mastership of his calling, and gen- 
 eral capacity, joined to attractive social qualities 
 tave earned him the regard of all who know him. 
 He is domestic in his tastes, a member of the Cen- 
 ter Congregational Church, and a Republican in 
 politics, but not an active participant in public af- 
 fairs. His musical talents are worthy of note. 
 At the age of sixteen years he played first vioHn, 
 and led an orchestra df fifteen pieces. He plays 
 the saxophone, the violin and the viola; has been 
 a member of the City Band ; is secretary and treas- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1337 
 
 urer of the Brotherhood of Orchestra, in which he 
 plays first viohn ; is a charter member of the Meri- 
 den Orchestral Club; a member of the Association 
 of Wheelmen, and of Meriden's Cycle Club. He 
 has taken part in numerous musical entertainments, 
 and has played the violin and viola in several 
 churches, and in all the prominent concerts given 
 in the town during the last ten years. He is now 
 the leader of Bradford's Orchestra, which plays 
 only concert music and performs at special social 
 and fraternal functions. 
 
 Harry S. Bradford married May Elizabeth Quig- 
 ' ley, who was born in Meriden, daughter of Patrick 
 J. and Elizabeth Greer Quigley. She is a woman 
 of education and refinement, a cultivated musician, 
 too, and was a teacher of music. She presides with 
 easy grace over her happy and hospitable home,_ 
 wherein melody and harmony reign. She is a mem- 
 ber of St. Joseph's Catholic Church. 
 
 SHELDEN CHURCH, of Seymour, was a na- 
 tive of the town of Oxford, where he was exten- 
 sively engaged in the timber business, getting out 
 vessel frames and taking them to Nev/ York. He 
 was obliged to cart the timber as far as Derby, and 
 there load it on vessels, that being the only method 
 of transportation in those days. When Ansonia 
 was built he furnished the frames for many of the 
 buildings, factories and residences from chestnut 
 timber, cut on his own land, and sawed at his own 
 mills (which were run by water pov/er) with the 
 old-fashioned "up and down" saws. Mr. Church 
 was an extensive land owner, and carried on farm^ 
 ing on a large scale. When some fifty years of age 
 be moved into Seymour, and retired from active 
 participation in business affairs. 
 
 Shelden Church married Laura Lines, of Beth- 
 any, and of this union were born five sons and one 
 daughter — Henry, William, John, Charles, Noyes 
 and Alice — all of whom survived their parents. 
 But one son, Charles (who lives in Cincinnati), and 
 the daughter, Alice (who married Frederick 
 Beecher, of Seymour), are now living (1902). 
 Although not an active politician, Mr. Church was 
 an unfaltering Democrat, and decided in his views ; 
 he held a number of offices of trust in connection 
 with town affairs. He died highly respected and 
 esteemed in 1874; his wife passed away in 1871. 
 
 William Church, father of Shelden, was a con- 
 tractor and road builder, and operated chiefly in 
 New York and New Jergey. 
 
 John Church, third son of Sheldon Church, 
 was born in Oxford June 30, J830. His home was 
 in his native town, but so near the Seymour hne 
 that he was well known in that town, and virtually 
 a part of it. Like his father he was a large land 
 owner, and engaged extensively in the timber and 
 wood business. Of a retiring disposition, he took 
 only such part in public affairs as he regarded the 
 duty of each citizen. His death occurred Aug. 2, 
 1888. 
 
 In 1 861 John Church was united in marriage 
 with Sarah ;\[., daughter of 'William S. Whiting, 
 and two sons blessed their home: (i) Lewis 
 Whiting, born in Oxford, in June, 1862, has charge 
 of the landed estate left by his father, and assists his 
 brother in his business. He is an earnest church- 
 man, serving at present as junior warden of Trin- 
 ity Episcopal Church in Seymour. (2) Stephen 
 Betts, born in August, 1866, is extensively engaged 
 in erecting suburban water works, the sale of gaso- 
 line engines and agricultural machinery ; he has a 
 large store house in Seymour, and one at his home 
 in Oxford; his offices are in Seymour and^Boston. 
 His business is conducted on so large a scale as to 
 necessitate agents throughout New England and 
 the employment of a large force the year round. 
 Both sons are unmarried, and make their home with 
 their mother on the old homestead. 
 
 WILLIAM S. WHITING, well known in his 
 day in New Haven and Seymour, v/as born in Great 
 Barrington, Mass., March 28, 1803, a son of Sam- 
 uel Whiting, and traced his line direct to Gov. Brad- 
 ford, of the "Mayflower," whost great-granddaugh- 
 ter, Elizabeth Adams, married Samuel Whiting. 
 When William S. was but a few years old his father 
 m.oved to Redding Ridge, Conn. About 1840 he 
 removed to New Haven, where he resided until 
 1856, when he determined to accompany his eldest 
 son on the latter's removal to Ohio. After two 
 years, however, Mr. Whiting returned to Connecti- 
 cut, locating in Bethany, whence after a short time 
 he removed to New Haven, remaining there until 
 1861, When he went to Camden, N. J. The charms 
 of the Garden State, however, did not overcome the 
 love of home, and when his health failed he again 
 turned his face toward Connecticut, and this time 
 located! on a farm in Oxford, near Seymour. Here 
 he resided until his death, whidh occurred in his 
 seventy-ninth year, while on a visit to his son, Will- 
 iam Samuel, in Waterbury. 
 
 In 1832 William S. Whiting was united in mar- 
 riage with Aurelia Sherman, and of this union were 
 born five children, as follows : ( i ) Stephen Betts 
 is mentioned below. (2) Sarah Maria married 
 John Church, and resides in Seymour. (3) William 
 Samuel married Susan Gray, of Ansonia, and had 
 six children. He died and is buried in Camden, 
 N. J. (4) Edward Sherman married, died and is 
 buried in Camden, N. J. He left one daughter, who 
 was two weeks old at the time of his death. (5) 
 Charles Linus died in New Haven at the age of 
 three years. Wilham S. Whiting, the father, was 
 a quiet man, devoted to his own fireside, but his 
 genial disposition made of him a great favorite in 
 social circles. He was very fond of music, and 
 quite proficient for the times, ever taking a lead- 
 ing part. With a decided fondness for reading, he 
 kept well posted on current events. In his religious 
 belief he was an Episcopalian, and he always took 
 an acti\^e part in church work, being for many years 
 
1338 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ,tej;cher of the Bible class and a mem'ber of the choir. 
 When occasion rec[uired he often acted as lay 
 reader. 
 
 Stephen Betts \\ hitixg, son of Willaim S., 
 became a prominent mechanical and mining engi- 
 neer. His business life began in New Haven, and 
 he was also located at Urbana, Ohio, and Alton, 
 Hi., building machinerj' and steam engines, and at 
 Camden, N. J., he was engaged in ship building 
 and the construction of marine engines, etc. He 
 afterward became general manager of the Phila- 
 delphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co., leaving it to 
 accept a similar position with the Calumet and 
 Hecla Mining Co. He retired from active work in 
 1901, and now lives in Cambridge, Miass., spend- 
 ing his time between his home there and his summer 
 home, known as "Rock Cottage, at Swampscott, 
 Mass. In 1857 he was married in Alton, 111., to 
 Kate B. Draper, and their union was blessed with 
 six children, of whom five are yet living. The only 
 daughter, Clara Miinnette ("Minnie") married Mil- 
 lard Hunsiker, of Athens, Pa. (now residing in 
 London, England, as the European representative 
 of the United States Steel Corporation), and she 
 died leaving one son, Harold W. (i) Charles Wil- 
 cox, eldest of the five sons of Stephen Betts Whit- 
 ing, is now living in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Eng- 
 land, where he is works manager of the Broad Oaks 
 Iron Works (he is married and has five children) ; 
 (2) Walter Sherman is married, has three children 
 and resides in Milwaukee, Wis.; (3) Albert Dra- 
 per, a practicing physician, is married and resides in 
 Philadelphia (he has two sons) ; (4) Howard 
 Earle, living with his father in Cambridge, is mar- 
 ried and has one son; and (5) Stephen Edgar, a 
 teacher in the Electrical Department at Harvard, is 
 unmarried and resides with his father. 
 
 SAAIUEL A. FLIGHT, one of the well-known 
 farmers and dairymen of Hig-hwood, Conn., is one 
 of the prominent men in the town of Hamden, and 
 for one of his years he is probably without an equal 
 in his town, when his success in life, in contrast 
 with his advantages, is considered. His career goes 
 to show what a young man can do if he possesses 
 application, energy, and, above all, a reputation for 
 being honest and trustworthy. 
 
 Mr. Flight was born in the town of Fairfield. 
 Conn., Dec. 17, i860, son of Samuel J. and Sarah 
 J. (Smith) Flight. Samuel J. Flight was born in 
 England in 1822, second child of James Flight, who 
 was for years a carriage maker in New Haven, 
 Conn., where he was a well-known and respected 
 citizen. He served for some time as organist "of 
 Trinity Church of New Haven. In Parish King 
 Stanley, Gloucestershire, England, June 16, 1820, 
 James Flight married Mary Bundy, by whom he 
 had ten children. 
 
 Samuel J. Flight when a young man learned 
 the trade of carriage maker in New Haven, and 
 followed that business almost entirely during his 
 
 active life, working at same in several cities in 
 Connecticut. His death occurred in August, 1886, 
 when he was aged sixty-four. During the latter 
 }'ears of his life he made his home with his son 
 Samuel A. He married twice, and by his first wife 
 had two children : Albert, who died in infancy ; 
 and Mary, now Mrs. Joshua Kramer, of Pough- 
 keepsie, N. Y. For his second wife Mr. Flight 
 married, in 1851, Sarah J. Smith, who was born 
 Oct. II, 1832, in East Windsor, Conn., a daugh- 
 ter of Albert G. and Sarah (Harger) Smith, of 
 East Granville, Mass., the latter a daughter of David 
 Harger, a miller by trade. The children of this 
 marriage were as follows : James HI, who went 
 West, and died in Kansas ; Samuel H., who died in 
 childhood ; Sarah J., Mrs. William Patterson, of 
 Hamden; Isabella J., Mrs. William Walbrid'ge, of 
 New Haven ; Samuel A. ; Harriet S., who died in 
 childhood ; Em,ma I., who died in childhood : Charles 
 E., a joiner of New Haven ; William W., a journey- 
 man barber ; Lillie, Mrs. Louis VanBuren, of New 
 Haven; and Minnie, of New Haven. The mother 
 makes her home in New Haven. The father was 
 a man of quiet reserved manners. He was well 
 read and thoroughly posted on the issues of the 
 day. While in politics an independent voter, he 
 was a warm admirer of Horace Greeley. He was 
 a member of Center Church, New Haven, and was 
 buried in Evergreen cemetery, that city. Mr. Flight 
 served three years and three months in the war of 
 the Rebellion, as a bugler in the First Connecticut 
 Cavalry. As a musician he belonged to several dif- 
 ferent musical organizations throughout the State, 
 and was for some years a member of Wildman's 
 Band, in New Haven, a well known organization 
 in its day. 
 
 Samuel A. Flight was little more than a child 
 when his parents removed to New Haven, where, 
 at the Dixwell school, he received his early literary 
 instruction. His educational advantages were vast- 
 ly inferior to the opportunities of to-day. His par- 
 ents were people of limited means, with a large 
 family, and as soon as the boys became old enough 
 they were put to work. When but a lad of ten 
 years young Samuel went out to work, soon coming 
 to Hamden, Conn., where he first worked for B. C. 
 Woodin. He attended in District No. 10, in Ham- 
 den, during the winter season. The scenes of his 
 boyhood days at school were just across the street 
 from where his present elegant home is located. 
 Picture this youth attending school, and every day 
 at recess, while engaged in play, no matter which 
 way he would look,, he saw land that wa§ later 
 to be his. As he trudged to school in the morning, 
 or home in the evening, there was farm land on 
 both sides of his route which in later years he was 
 to own. In those days the future did not seemingly 
 promise so much for him. He was a poor boy, 
 whose entire capital was his energy and push, and 
 his reputation as a steady, reliable worker. Work- 
 ing for various farmers, he always tried to please 
 
^^^^/a^-TTnyi^^A!^ ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ■ 1339 
 
 his employer, and on leaving had always increased 
 the number of those who would speak well of him. 
 Working around as he did, his schooling was, of 
 course, interrupted greatly, and really ended at a 
 time when it was little more than begun. Hjowever, 
 he possessed those traits of character which schools 
 do not produce ; so, while deficient in one respect, 
 the loss was more than made up in others, as his 
 later success gives evidence. Mr. Flight's life was 
 that of a farmer boy until he reached about the 
 age of sixteen, when he went to work in the Win- 
 chester factory, in New Haven. Here he worked 
 as a "swediger," and during the two years there_ 
 employed saved some little money. When he left 
 this factory it was to take up the business of 
 peddling. From his savings he bought a horse, and 
 began peddling vegetables, which business he fol- 
 lowed for about one year, when he concluded to 
 go to farming. He rented the George A. Dorman 
 farm, which he now owns. Although but a lad of 
 nineteen he was full of energy and ambition, and 
 this step marked the inception of a business that 
 he has followed ever since. When he first rented 
 the Dorman farm he had a partner, and their first 
 year in business resulted in the loss of practically 
 all the money Mr. Flight had. Doubtless it was 
 anything but encouraging to one of his means and 
 age, but right here in his life came a period when 
 the value of a good name was made evident to 
 him. Mrs. George A. Dorman, who had the man- 
 agement of the farm he had rented, knowing of 
 his depleted financial condition, and also the kind 
 of a young man he was, oflrered to advance him 
 means sufficient to enable him to again carry on the 
 farm, which oflfer he accepted, and at once success 
 came to him. The experience of the previous year 
 was just reversed, and each year thereafter saw 
 an improvement of his condition as well as enlarge- 
 ment of the business, which soon included dairy 
 farming. 
 
 On Nov. 17, 1881, Mr. Fhght was married to 
 Esther U. Dorman, eldest daughter of George and 
 Ellen (Doolittle) Dorman. The death of his 
 mother-in-law occurred in the spring of 1882, so 
 that the m.anagement of the farm practically fell 
 upon him. It proved to be a matter of simply giv- 
 ing the man an opportunity to show his worth, as 
 his management was able and profitable, and, un- 
 der his direction, afifairs prospered and have ever 
 continued to do so. Improvements followed in land 
 and buildings, the business was carried on more ex- 
 tensively, and in connection with gardening he for 
 eighteen years conducted a milk route in the city of 
 New Haven. Although he has disposed of this 
 route he has continued as a producer, and whole- 
 sales his milk. Mr. Flight has bought land from 
 time to time, as his business required, until he 
 now owns about eighty acres, in the management 
 and care of which he is thorough, systematic and 
 highly successful. The old Dorman farm, on which 
 he resides, has been improved by him in many ways. 
 
 He has built a new barn and outbuildings, and the 
 well-kept condition of the entire place entitles it to 
 rank among the very best kept farms in the. town. 
 An original idea of his, and one which he put into 
 execution, was the construction of an ice house and 
 dam, giving him storage for over 1,200 tons of ice, 
 which he markets direct to consumer. In the man- 
 agement of his extensive business ^Ir. Flight is 
 familiar with every detail, his thorough practical 
 knowledge of the work enabling him to be an ex- 
 cellent judge of help and consequently the results 
 are of the best. He is not wedded to any particular 
 method of farming, but is ever on the alert to im- 
 prove or modify, so as to meet the fitness of his 
 land, or to secure the best results therefrom. 
 
 To succeed as Mr. Flight has requires close at- 
 tention to business, yet he finds time to take quite 
 a prominent part in town affairs. He served two 
 years as chairman of town committees, three years 
 as assessor and has been a member of the board of 
 relief. In the session of 1899 he was doorkeeper 
 of the Connecticut House of Representatives. He 
 is thoroughly progressive, and ever ready to en- 
 courage any movement for the benefit of his town, 
 and just as ready to oppose the other kind. His 
 first vote was Democratic, but since then he has 
 been one of the stanchest members of the Repub- 
 lican partv in his town, where he wields no little 
 influence, "and can be said to be one of the advisers 
 and counselors of his party. 
 
 Socially Mr. Flight is a member of Day Spring 
 Lodge, No. 30, F. & A. M., of Hamden; Pulaski 
 Chapter, of East Haven; Eli Whitney Council, 
 O. U. A. M. ; Sheffield Lodge, K. of P. ; and Israel 
 Putnam Lodge, A. O. U. W. He is also a mem- 
 ber of the Union League Club of New Haven. 
 Mr. Flight's success has not been brought about by 
 penuriousness, as he has lived well, enjoyed life, 
 and has indulged in many of its pleasures. How- 
 ever, success has not served to change him. He 
 is a plain-going man, somewhat outspoken and al- 
 ways understood, modest to a degree that would 
 do him an injustice, if he were to be judged bv his 
 manner, as it is in no way suggestive of his thrift. 
 He has always tried to do his duty as a good citi- 
 zen ; if he failed, it was because he was sincerely 
 wrong. Mindful of his own struggles, he has shown 
 himself ready and willing to help a friend or the 
 needy. He enjoys a large acquaintance, which in- 
 cludies prominent men in different localities 
 throughout the State. As a whole, he is one of the 
 best examples of a self-made man in the town, and 
 for his years he is probably without an equal in 
 Hamden. 
 
 ALBION WINSLOW PENDEXTER, con- 
 tractor in the sawing department of the Meriden 
 Cutlery Co., and a leading citizen of South Meri- 
 den, was born March 20, 1843, '" Parsonsfield, York 
 Co., ]\Iaine. His father, Henry Pendexter, was also 
 a native of York County, born in 1799, and was a 
 
I340 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 son of Paul Pendexter, a farmer and landowner, 
 who spent his life in that region. 
 
 In the spring of 1843 Henry Pendexter settled 
 in Bridgeton, Cumberland Co., Maine, where he ac- 
 quired land and spent the rest of his days. He 
 died there in 1881, at the advanced aee of eighty- 
 two years. He was ;. member of the Baptist Church 
 and a loyal citizen, imbued with the true American 
 spirit. Though not an active politician, he sup- 
 ported the principles of the Whigs in early life, and 
 when the Republican party succeeded the Whigs he 
 affiliated with the new organization. He was mar- 
 ried in Parsonsfield to Nancy Libby, who was born 
 in New Hampshire, a daughter of James Libby; 
 she died in 1868, at the age of sixty-four years, and 
 was buried in Bridgeton Cemetery. She was a 
 faithful member of the Baptist Church, and a loving 
 and faithful wife and mother. Twelve children were 
 born to them, namely: Mary, Martha, Hannah, 
 Olive and Nancy, all deceased ; Albion W. ; Elmira 
 and George, of Waltham, Mass.; Simieon, who re- 
 sides in Maine; and Lydia and Sarah, both de- 
 ceased; and an infant (sixth) who died unnamed. 
 
 Albion W. Pendexter was educated in the dis- 
 trict schools of Bridgeton, whither he was taken 
 by his parents when only one month old. He re- 
 mained on the home farm until nineteen years of 
 age, when he enlisted in Co. I, nth Maine V. I., in 
 July, 1862, under Col. Plaisted and Capt. Merrill^ 
 and served until the close of the war, being pro- 
 moted to the rank of sergeant. He took part iii a 
 number of battles and minor engagements, receiv- 
 ing a bullet wound in the face at the battle of Deep 
 Bottom, Va. He was in hospital several weeks 
 and returned to the ranks near Petersburg, Va., and 
 was mustered out at Richmond, Va., June 12, 1865. 
 Returning home, he worked in a tannery about two 
 years. In 1866 he became a resident of Connecti- 
 cut, and at once entered the employ of the Meriden 
 Cutlery Co., at South Meriden, where he continued 
 two years. He next engaged in the grocery busi- 
 ness and continued two years (holding the office 
 of postmaster during the same time), at the end of 
 which period he sold out to Mr. E. B. Clark, with 
 whom he remained as clerk thirteen years. Re- 
 signing this position, he opened a grocery in the 
 city of Meriden, and catered to the trade until 1885, 
 when he sold out and took up contract work with 
 the Meriden Cutlery Co. For the past seventeen 
 years,he has been thus actively engaged, in the saw- 
 ing department, and has earned and receives the re- 
 spect and esteem of all who are brou^rht into busi- 
 ness or social relations with him. He fills a promi- 
 nent place in the life of the community, and is 
 everywhere regarded as a good citizen. With his 
 family, he attends the M. E. Church. As a good 
 soldier, who fought to abolish the institution of 
 slavery, he naturally affiliates with the political 
 party which brought about its abolition, and no one 
 doubts his fealty to the Republican party, his coun- 
 try and his friends. He is devoted to his home and 
 
 family, and has never sought a prominent part in 
 public 'afi'airs. Having borne an active and hon- 
 orable part in the strife of internecine warfare^ he 
 is now content to enjoy a well-earned repose in the 
 companionship of those nearest and dearest to him, 
 but is still active and industrious in the prosecution 
 of his business. 
 
 On June 12, 1868, Mr. Pendexter was married 
 in South Meriden, to Miss Roxana Eunice Stevens, 
 a native of that place, and daughter of Philander 
 Stevens. Mrs. Pendexter died at her home in South 
 Meriden on iher wedding anniversary in 1896, 
 and was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery, Meri- 
 den. She was a consistent member of the M. E. 
 Church, and in her demise the community lost a 
 good neighbor and faithful Christian woman, and 
 her family a most devoted wife and mother. Her 
 children were: Nellie Alyra, Fiona Belle, Eunice 
 May, Ralph Stevens and Frank Wasson. Of these, 
 Eunice May died in infancy ; Nellie Myra married 
 Frank G. Seeley, son of M|ayor George S. Seeley, a 
 traveling salesman residing in New Haven, and they 
 have one child, Guy Pendexter Seeley ; Flora Belle 
 resides with her father ; Ralph Stevens is employed 
 at the Aeolian works in Meriden ; and Frank Was- 
 son is a traveling salesman for the Cleveland Gas 
 & Electric Fixture Company. 
 
 Philander Stevens (deceased), son of Jeremiah 
 Stevens, was a well-known citizen of South Meri- 
 den. He was born in Killingworth, Middlesex Co., 
 Conn., and grew to manhood there. For forty-five 
 years he was employed in the sawing department of 
 the Meriden Cutlery Co., at South Meriden, and 
 died there Dec. 16, 1896, his remains being interred 
 in Walnut Grove Cemetery. He was a man of 
 genial disposition, much devoted to his wife and 
 family, and everywhere respected. Politically he 
 was a Democrat. He owned a fine home in South 
 Meriden, where it was his delight to entertain his 
 friends. A leading citizen of the place, his depart- 
 ure was widely regretted. He married Eunice 
 Brown, a native of Windsor, Hartford Co., Conn., 
 daughter of Silas Brown. Two children blessed 
 this union, Roxana E. and Nellie M., of whom the 
 former is the wife of Albion W. Pendexter, and the 
 latter of William Garlick, of South Meriden, whose 
 biography is a valuable feature of this work. Mrs. 
 Stevens survives her husband, and takes delight in 
 her grandchildren and great-grandchild, who are 
 never tired of visiting at her pleasant home. She 
 is a member of the M'. E. Church, a lady of fine 
 Christian character. 
 
 LEON D. MONKS, D. D. S., founder and 
 proprietor of the Philadelphia Dental Rooms, at 
 No. 781 Chapel street, New Haven, is one of the 
 very foremost men in his profession in that city, 
 and his success may be attributed solely to his close 
 application and painstaking efforts in his calling. 
 Dr. Monks in less than a decade has built up one 
 of the most lucrative practices in his line in the 
 
oob^-h-^ ^ /4f(y7^cy*^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1341 
 
 Elm City. Coming as he clidl to New Hiaven in 
 1892, an entire stranger, his future was dependent 
 upon his merits entirely, and his' subsequent suc- 
 cess consequently reflects greater credit. His rapid 
 rise, all considered, stands without a parallel in 
 the city in his line. 
 
 Dr. Monks was born Dec. 6, 1864, at Ansoriia, 
 Penn. His father, John Monks, was a native of 
 New Jersey, and married Mary E. Ormsby, a na- 
 tive of near Binghamton, N. Y. John Monks re- 
 sides now at Chatham' Valley, Penn., a highly re- 
 spected citizen. Dr. Monks received his primary ed- 
 ucation in the public schools, supplementing same by 
 a course in higher instruction at Wiliiamsport, 
 Penn. His early work in his profession was in 
 Pittsburg, Penn., after which he entered the Uni- 
 versity of Cincinnati, graduating in 1892. He then 
 located in New Haven, where his success has been 
 extraordinary, not only as the result of his skill 
 as an operator, but also because of bis pleasant and 
 genial personality. An extensive practice such as 
 Dr. Monks has built up requires the services of 
 several assistants, but all the work is done under 
 his careful supervision. 
 
 Dr. Monks is well known in the Masonic fra- 
 ternity, belonging to Wooster Lodge, No. 79, F. 
 & A. M.; Frankhn Chapter, No. 2; Harmony 
 Council; New Haven Commandery; and the Scot- 
 tish Rite Masons, including the thirty-second de- 
 gree and Pyramid Temple, Mystic Shrine. He is 
 at present junior warden in his commandery, and 
 is a member of the Knight Templar Club. The 
 Doctor is also a member of Sheffield Lodge, No. 2, 
 K. of P., of which he is past chancellor, a member 
 of the Foot Guards, and of the Royal Arcanum, and 
 takes an active interest in all these organizations, 
 in which he has hosts of friends. Politically he is 
 a stanch Republican, and a valuable member of the 
 Young Men's Republican Qub. He is a prominent 
 member of the Methodist Church, as is also his 
 wife. 
 
 The Doctor was married, in March, 1896, in 
 Ntew Haven, to Miss Ida Benoit, daughter of 
 Charles Benoit, and they have two children: Leon 
 C, born Nov. 30, 1897; and Leroy J., born March 
 2, 1899. Dr. Monks built his excellent home on 
 Howe street. He is justly regarded as a repre- 
 sentative citizen of New Haven. 
 
 EUGENE P. GOLDEN, the capable and effi- 
 cient superintendent of the hollow ware manufac- 
 turing department in Factory E, of the Interna- 
 tional Silver Company, of Meriden, is a native of 
 that city, 'born Sept. 16, 1852. 
 
 The Golden family was early implanted in New 
 York, and in the city of Poughkeepsie, William H. 
 Golden, father of Eugene P., was born June 24, 
 1820, and there he was reared. His parents died 
 when he was still a lad, and very early in life he was 
 obliged to care for himself. After completing his 
 apprenticeship with James Weeks & Co., of Pough- 
 
 keepsie, in the Britannia business, he engaged in 
 this line of work on his own account in Newark, 
 N. J., and was prospering, when he lost all of his 
 effects by fire. The late Isaac C. Lewis and others 
 were engaged in a similar enterprise in Meriden, 
 and, as Mr. Golden was known to them' as a skillful 
 man in the business, he secured a position with them 
 and took up his residence in Meridfen in June, 1848. 
 No mistake was made by these business men in this 
 regard, and Mr. Golden remiained in their employ 
 for more than half a century, proving almost in- 
 valuable to them. He was superintendent of the 
 factory for many years, or until the occupation of 
 the present plant, soon after the opening of the 
 Civil war, and after that he had dharge of the entire 
 lower floor of the establishment, consisting of the 
 spinning, buffing, casting and press departments. 
 His devotion to- the interests of his employers, his 
 faithful and prompt attention to business, and his 
 skill in his particular line of work, made him a suc- 
 cessful manager of his charge. Mr. Golden served 
 the interests of the Meriden Britannia Co., and its 
 successor, the International Silver Co., from June^ 
 1848, to Feb. 20, 1900, the date of his death' — almost 
 fifty-two years of continuous rervice. His even and 
 genial disposition made him a great favorite with 
 the employes of the factory, and his faithfulness 
 and strict attention to business made him a most 
 valuable man to his employers. 
 
 Mr. Golden was one of the founders of St. 
 Paul's Universalist Church society, and in his early 
 life took an active part in its work and support. 
 When he came to man's estate he was a strong sup- 
 porter of the political principles of the Whig party, 
 and became identified with the Republicans when 
 they succeeded the Whigs, giving his sympathy and 
 support but never seeking, or accepting, any official 
 position. He had long been a worthy memlber of 
 Mieriden Center Lodge, No. 68, I. O. O. F., of 
 Meriden, and was a m(an of most exemplary habits, 
 temperate and considerate in all things, and one 
 who was constantly interested in the welfare of his 
 family. Few old citizens of Meriden were held in 
 hig'ber esteem. 
 
 William H. Golden was married in Newburg, 
 N. Y., to Miss Lydia M. Turner, who was born in 
 Walden, Orange Co., N. Y., a daughter of John 
 and Hannah Turner. She died July 18, 1895, her 
 interment being in East Cemetery. Mrs. Golden 
 was a most estimable. Christian woman, an example 
 of all the virtues of exalted womanhood, a devoted 
 wife and a wise and judicious mother. She was 
 connected with the First Methodist Church, where 
 she was held in the highest esteem. The nine chil- 
 dren born to William H. Golden and wife were: 
 William H., of Meridlen (see sketch elsewhere) ; 
 Mary, deceased wife of Henry M. Taylor, of Bos- 
 ton ; Annie, deceased wife of Horace S. Catlin, of 
 Meriden ; Augusta, deceased wife of Charles L. 
 Hinman; Eugene P., whose name begins this 
 article; Melissa, Mrs. Frank W. Dayton, of Meri- 
 
1342 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 den ; Ida, wife of Henry C. Ludington, of Meriden ; 
 Emma, Airs. Charles E. Coates, of ]\Ieriden; and 
 Charles H., also a resident of Meriden. 
 
 Eugene P. Golden grew up in this city, and in 
 his early boyhood attended the public schools, but 
 became wage-earner at the early age of thirteen 
 years, entering the factory of the Meriden Britannia 
 Co., after which he attended school only a part of 
 the time. At the age of fifteen years he entered 
 the spinning department, and thoroughly learned 
 the art of metal-spinning, after which he worked 
 for a considerable time as journeyman in this line. 
 His skill and fidelity soon attracted the notice of 
 his superiors, and he was made assistant foreman 
 of this department, under his father. In this re- 
 sponsible position the son continued for a number 
 of years, ^his efficient qualities making him each 
 year more valuable in the operation of the plant. 
 No more faithful service could have been given had 
 the business been his own, than Mr. Golden gave 
 through that quarter of a century, and that he was 
 appreciated is shown by the fact that he was ap- 
 pointed in 1893 as superintendent of the hollow- 
 ware manufacturing department. For the past nine 
 years he has given the close and careful attention 
 which this work demands, and his efforts to com- 
 bine in an orderly and economical manner the work 
 of men and machinery in his department for the 
 benefit of all concerned have met with gratifying 
 success. 
 
 On Oct. 2, 1872, Eugene P. Golden was united 
 in marriage in Mteriden, with Miss Irene A. Colvin, 
 who was born in Hartford, a daughter of Timothy 
 and Julia E. Colvin, well-known and esteemed citi- 
 zens of Aleriden. Two children were given to Mr. 
 and Mrs. Golden. Ada, the first-born, died in in- 
 fancy. Ida, who passed through the primary and 
 high schools of the city, became the wife of Ed- 
 ward J. Pooley, of Meriden; she has one son, who 
 bears the name of his paternal grandfather. 
 
 For many years Mr. Golden has been conspic- 
 uous in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, 
 being a prominent member of Meriden Center 
 Lodge, of which he is Past Grand, being also a past 
 District Deputy Grand Master of the State. He is 
 a member of the New England Order of Protection, 
 an insurance organization. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican. He has acceptably represented the Fifth 
 Ward in the City Council, being clerk of the Fire 
 committee one year, and serving on the Sewer and 
 Printing committees, and was also elected alder- 
 man, serving with great capacity on several im- 
 portant committees, notably those on Parks, Health, 
 Fire and License, being chairman of the last two. 
 jMr. Golden is now a member of the Board of 
 Fire Commissioners, having been the first Repub- 
 lican appointed on this board. For a number of 
 years he has exerted an influence in bis party coun- 
 cils, and he is identified with many of its leading 
 measures in this locality. Both Mr. and Mrs. 
 Golden are members of the First Baptist Church. 
 
 Mrs. Golden is secretary of the Ladies' Social and 
 Benevolent Society of that Church. She has filled 
 this responsible position since 1898, and her com- 
 plete and well-written annual reports of the society, 
 as well as reports at the annual roll-call, have been 
 the subject of many favorable comments and con- 
 gratulatory felicitations. 
 
 E. HENRY BARNES, of the firm of Sperry 
 & Barnes, pork packers. New Haven, is known as 
 a leading business man and successful dealer in that 
 city. He was born Jan. 17, 1838, in North Haven, 
 a son of Deacon Bayard and Cleora (Lindsley) 
 Barnes, and on both sides is descended from the 
 pious Puritan stock of early Colonial history. 
 
 The Barnes family was founded in Connecticut 
 in 1640, when Thomas Barnes arrived from Eng- 
 land and located at East Haven. By his wife, 
 Elizabeth, was born one son, Thomas (2). 
 
 Thomas Barnes (2) was born Aug. 26, 1653, 
 and on June 26, 1675, married Mary Hubbard. On 
 her death he married Abigail Frost. 
 
 Thomas Barnes (3), son of Thomas (2), was 
 born July 26, 1687, and married Mary Leek May 
 18, 1709. 
 
 Capt. Joshua Barnes, son of Thomas (3),' was 
 born July 11, 1722, and married Deborah Woodin 
 Dec. 26, 1745. He died June 7, 1790, she in 1782. 
 He won his title in the Revolution. 
 
 Deacon Joshua Barnes, son of Capt. Joshua, 
 was born in 1756, and died Aug. 11, 1839. A 
 patriot of the war of the Revolution, he en- 
 listed in June, 1776, in the company commanded by 
 Capt. Jacob IBrockett. In 1779 he was on the 
 "Alarm List." In 1797, 1798 and 1799 he repre- 
 sented his town in the General Assembly, and for 
 fifteen years served as justice of the peace in North 
 Haven. In 1800 he was chosen a deacon in Dr. 
 Trumbull's Church, and retained that position until 
 his death. His name appears on the United Spates 
 pension rolls of 1832. Deacon Barnes was an ex- 
 tensive farmer in North Haven, where he was also 
 engaged successfully in stone dealing, cabinet mak- 
 ing and blacksmithing, becoming quite well-to-do. 
 He was justice of the peace for many years, and 
 exercised much influence in the community, where 
 he was highly esteemed for his many sterling quali- 
 ties. Mercy Tuttle became his wife Feb. 15, 1781, 
 and died April i, 1828. They became the parents 
 of six children: (i) Joshua, born in 1781, died 
 Nov. 25, 1886; (2) Frederick, born July 4, 1784, 
 was buried in the North Haven cemetery; (3) 
 Mercy, born Aug. 16, 1787, died at the age of four 
 months; (4) Mary, born May 30, 1789, was mar- 
 ried in 181 1 to Andrew Pierpont, and died May 20, 
 1840; (5) Rebecca, born April 5, 1791, was married 
 in 1818 to Eleazur Warner; (6) Bayard was born 
 in North Haven Jan. 22, 1794. 
 
 Deacon Bayard Barnes, youngest child of Dea- 
 con Joshua and Mercy (Tuttle) Barnes, was a 
 prominent mlan of godly spirit. During the first 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1343 
 
 half of the century just closed he was one of the 
 best Icnown and most highly honored citizens of 
 North Haven. Born near the close of the eight- 
 eenth century, he early walked before 'his fellow- 
 men 'with isuch sterling worth and manly pliety 
 that in 1824, when only thirty years of age, he was 
 chosen a deacon in the church, and sustained sudh 
 relations until 1861, a period of thirty-seven years. 
 A devout Christian and a high-minded gentleman, 
 he died in the triumph of faith, leaving to his 
 children the legacy of a noble name and the mem- 
 ory of a beautiful affection ; and to all men the ex- 
 ample of an upright and just life. When eighteen 
 years of age Bayard Barnes left home and went to 
 Ithaca, remaining there for two years, when he re- 
 turned to North Haven. His miarriage to Beda E. 
 Gill, daughter of John Gill, took place Nov. 6, 
 1816. Soon after this he again went to Ithaca, 
 N. Y., where he was engaged in farming some two 
 years, then returning to North Haven. By his first 
 marriage Bayard Barnes had three children : Au- 
 gusta, born Aug. i, 1817; Beda Goodyear, born Oct. 
 I, 1819; and Ellen A., born Feb. 5, 1822. Deacon 
 Barnes was married March 31, 1824, to Cleora 
 Lindisley, who was born in 1799, daughter of Dea- 
 con Munson Lindsley, of Northford. To this union 
 came the following children : Andrew, born Feb. 
 3, 1825; Bayard Elizur, Dec. 11, 1826; Celestia 
 Cleora, Aug. 10, 1828; Marcus Lindsley, Dec. 10, 
 1830; EH Henry, July 20, 1832; Herbert, Feb. 4, 
 1834; Stewart, July 16, 1836; Eli Henry (2), Jan. 
 17, 1838; and Cleora. 
 
 E. Henry Barnes, whose name introduces this 
 article, was reared on the old homestead, and 
 worked on the paternal acres during the spring and 
 summer, attending the district school in the winter 
 season. He came to New Haven Oct. 6, 1858, 
 bringing no capital with him save that of a good 
 name and a determination to maintain against all 
 the temptation and vice of the world his clear char- 
 acter and moral nature. This he has never failed 
 to do. His first employment in New Haven was 
 found in the meat market of an elder brother. On 
 Sept. I, i860, Mr. Barnes entered the employ of 
 S. E. Merwin & Son, continuing with them for 
 nearly four years, excepting a brief time when he 
 was engaged in 'business in Meriden. In March, 
 1864, he became associated with his brother Her- 
 bert in the wholesale butcher business, the firm 
 being H. & E. Henry Barnes. From this firm E. H. 
 Barnes withdrew in October, 1870, and the same 
 month was organized the firm of Sperry & Barnes, 
 Consisting of Joel A. Sperry, E. Henry Barnes and 
 Joseph Porter. To the advancement of the business 
 interests of this firm Mr. Barnes has since devoted 
 his unremitting attention. The Sperry & Barnes 
 establishment is one of the largest and oldest de- 
 voted to pork packing in Connecticut. Its business 
 reputation is beyond question, and its individual 
 members are meii of the big'hest character, present- 
 ing to the world the highest type of New England 
 
 manhood. These gentlemen were among the first 
 to see the possibilities of exporting American meat 
 to foreign countries. They grasped the oppor- 
 tunity, and their foresight has brought them a very 
 considerable fortune. For years their product has 
 gone outward to England and the continent. Their 
 works are roomy, and furnished with every mod- 
 ern appliance for facilitating business. At the 
 yards, on Long Wharf, the firm slaughter over 
 200,000 hogs a year, and give employment to over 
 300 men. Tlieir home markets are in New Eng- 
 land and the Middle States, and their office is at 
 No. 114 State Street, New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Barnes has been true to his ancestral faith, 
 and has taken much interest in church affairs. He 
 is identified with the Church of the Redeemer, has 
 served as a member of the "Society Committee," 
 and took a prominent part in securing the payment 
 of the church debt, toward which he contributed lib- 
 erally. He is a Republican, has no desire for civ.il 
 honors and has refused every invitation to become 
 a candidate for political office. Esteemed and be- 
 loved by all, he is one of the best of the citizens 
 of New Haven. Socially he holds membership in 
 the Quinnipiac Club. 
 
 Mr. Barnes has been twice married, his first 
 wedding occuring Christmas Day, 1862, when he 
 was united to Miss Jennie E. Cargill, of Monroe, 
 Conn. Mrs. Barnes died in 1869, leaving two dhil- 
 dren : Jennie E., born Oct. 17, 1865, died in Feb- 
 ruary, 1870; and Clara M., who was born Nov. 8, 
 1867. For his second wife Mr. Barnes weddted 
 May 25, 1870, Esther C. Post, of Hartford, 
 Conn., daughter of Ezekiel Augustus and Clarissa 
 (Brown) Post. To this union has been born one 
 child. Bayard, born Nov. 8, 1872. Clara M. Barnes 
 married Sidney Hosmer, of Boston, and of this 
 union there are two children : Esther, born ;\Iay 
 26, 1896; and Sidney B., born Feb. 4, 1899. Mr. 
 Hosmer is general manager of the Boston Electric 
 Light Co. He graduated from Yale in 1892. Bay- 
 ard Barnes, the only son of E. Henry Barnes, is 
 instructor in chemistry in the Scientific School of 
 Yale University, fromi which he was graduated in 
 189s ; three years later he received the degree of 
 Ph. D. 
 
 LEVERETT G. HEMLXGWAY for many 
 years conducted a wholesale and retail milk busi- 
 ness in Park street. New -Haven, and was well and 
 favorably known in that city. A native of East Ha- 
 ven, he was born Aug. 29, 1828, and was descended 
 from a family long identified with this section of 
 the State. 
 
 Moses Hemingway, the great-grandfather of 
 Leverett G, was born in East Haven, Aug. 14, 
 1751, and died Jan. 5, 1806. He married Martha 
 Tyler, who died Sept. 25, 1801, at the age of forty- 
 nine. 
 
 James Hemingway, son of Moses, born June 12, 
 1777, married Jan. 27, 1797, Elizabeth Bradley, 
 
1344 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 
 
 daughter of Josiah and Comfort (Hitchcock) Brad- 
 ley. Josiah Ijradle}' died in September, 1827, aged 
 eighty-four; his wife died May 17, 181 1, aged 
 sixty-eight. 
 
 Samuel Hemingway, son of James, born Sept. 
 9, 1803, in East Haven, died Oct. 2, 1849, ii^ the 
 triumph of faith. He was equally conscientious as 
 a deacom in the church, as a farmer and cobbler and 
 as a curator at the colleges. On April 2, 1826, he 
 married Amanda White, who was born in 1808, and 
 died in 1886. 
 
 Leverett G. Hemingway, son of Samuel, was 
 reared in East Haven and New Haven, received his 
 education in the public schools, and before the Civil 
 war was an engraver with Edward Benjamin. He 
 enlisted first with the three-months men and was 
 captain of his company, and later served three years 
 in the Connecticut Heavy Artillery, being honorably 
 discharged at the close of the struggle with the rank 
 of major. Mr. Hemingway always took a deep in- 
 terest in military matters, and was the founder of 
 the Hartford City Guard. In 1870 he retired to a 
 farm, but subsequently engaged in the milk busi- 
 ness, and was thus employed until he passed away 
 December 8, 1893, at the age of sixty-five 
 years. His life was an exemplary one, and he was 
 honored and respected by a large circle of friends 
 and acquaintances. Mr. Hemingway was united in 
 marriage with Miss Rachel Bailey, born in Brigh- 
 ton, Penn., in 1825, and of Quaker parentage, being 
 a daughter of William and Mary (Buckman) 
 Bailey. Five children blessed this union : Anna 
 married Addison C. Brown ; S. Roger is cashier of 
 a bank in Redlands, Cal. ; Fanny A. married Hiram 
 C. Taintor; Leverett is engaged in the milk busi- 
 ness in New Haven ; and Mary was married April 
 16, 1884, to Dennis F. Ryan, and has one child, 
 Agnes. Mrs. Hemingway, who now makes her 
 home with the daughter Fanny, is a member of the 
 College Street Church, with which Mr. Heming- 
 way also united. 
 
 Dennis F. Ryan was born April 12, 1861, in 
 New Haven, son of Timothy Ryan, a native of Ire- 
 land, who was a painter by occupation, and followed 
 that trade many years. Timothy Ryan served in 
 the Civil war in the Ninth Conn. V. I., celebrated as 
 the "fighting Ninth." He married! Ann Ryan, of 
 Tipperary, Ireland, who survives him, and is now 
 (1901) sixty-six years of age. They had two chil- 
 dren: Dennis F. and Thomas, the latter engaged 
 in the grocery business in Westville. Dennis F. 
 Ryan was reared and educated in Westville, and for 
 a number of years has been interested in the milk 
 jDUsiness in partnership with his brother-in-law, 
 Leverett Hemingway. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM McDONALD, city sheriff 
 of Waterbury, Conn., was born in County Oueens, 
 Ireland, March 18, 1848, a son of John and Mary 
 (Newman) McDonald, natives of th? same county. 
 
 John McDonald, the father, was a farmer in 
 
 Ireland, and there his death occurred in 1849. He 
 was a prominent man in his community, partic- 
 ularly in religious matters, and for years had served 
 as sexton. He married Mary Newman, and of this 
 union were born ten children, of whom> we have the 
 following record: (i) Margaret is the wife of 
 John Gaffney, and resides in Ansonia, Conn. (2) 
 Elizabeth married John Ward, and both died in 
 Newark, N. J. (3) Edward went South in 1856, 
 made his home in Charleston, S. C, until the out- 
 break of the Rebellion, when he went to Houston, 
 Texas. From that State he enlisted, and served 
 under General Jackson through the war. In 1867 
 he returned to Waterbury, but died in Newark, N. 
 J., in 1871. (4) Maria (deceased) was the wife 
 of Martin Phelan, of Waterbury. (5) Julia mar- 
 ried Patrick Reed, and lives in Waterbury. (6) 
 Ann married Philip Boylan, who died in 1865, and 
 she is also deceased. (7) Sarah, now Mrs. James 
 Meeham, resides in Waterbury. (8) John William 
 is the subject of this sketch. (9) Jane is married 
 to James Leeney, of Waterbury. (10) Catherine 
 is still single. The death of the father occurred al- 
 most immediately after the advent of the tenth 
 child, and the widbwed mother brought her little 
 army of children to America, settling in Waterbury, 
 Conn. The lamented death of the mother took place 
 in Waterbury March 10, 1888, at the age of eighty- 
 eight years. She had reared her family in the re- 
 ligion of her ancestors — the Roman Catholic. 
 
 John William McDonald was but three years 
 of ag-e when brought to Waterbury, and this town 
 has since been his home. At the age of eight years 
 he left school, and went to work for the Water- 
 bury Clock Case Co., at a time when there were 
 but two men in its employ. A few years later he 
 went to the Steele & Johnson Co., where he re- 
 mained some time, and then entered the employ of 
 the Holmes, Booth & Haydens Manufacturing Co. 
 In 1858 he went to New York, where he was em- 
 ployed about a year in a store, and for a part of 
 the time he lived in that city he held a position as 
 bartender. He enlisted in 1861, but did not take 
 part m the war. In 1866 Mr. McDonald returned 
 to Waterbury, and again entered the employ of 
 Steele & Johnson, and later of Holmes, Booth & 
 Haydens. In 1867 he joined the Fire Department, 
 becoming a member of Phoenix company, in which 
 he served over thirty years, or until its dissolution. 
 He IS now a member of Rose Hill Company, No. 5, 
 being the oldest volunteer fireman in the city. He 
 is also a member of the Conn. National Guard. He 
 served several years as special policeman, and two 
 years as a regular, and then for some time was 
 connected with A. M. Young in setting up tele- 
 phones. In 1878 he was elected citv sheriff, and has 
 proved himself to be an efficient and competent of- 
 ficer. 
 
 On Oct. 18, 1875, Mr. McDonald married Mary 
 A. Gagam, a native of New York, and a daughter 
 of John and Mary (Garvey) Gagain, natives of 
 Ireland. Seven children have blessed this marriage. 
 
i^;^X^-v-/a^>^f 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1345 
 
 viz.: Charles E., born in September, 1S77; Loretta; 
 Elizabeth ; John W., Jr. ; George, at school ; and 
 Georgiana and Harry both died in infancy. Po- 
 litically Mr. McDonald is a Democrat ; fraternally 
 he is a Knight of Pythias, and is a charter mem- 
 ber of his lodge. He also belongs to the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians; the Knights of Columbusj 
 the Independent Order of Foresters ; lodge No. 25, 
 B. P. O. E., of New Haven; the Union -Club; and 
 other societies. Religiously he is a sincere Cath- 
 olic, and is one of the few original members left 
 of the Immaculate Conception Parish of Water- 
 bury. He has led a strictly moral life, and although 
 be has sold liquor across the bar in his day, and 
 been strongly tempted by the constant example of 
 others, he has never tasted any intoxicating bev- 
 erage. 
 
 HON. DWIGHT W. TUTTLE, one of the 
 leading members of the New Haven county Bar, 
 for many years the able and efficient prosecuting at- 
 torney of New Haven county, and for a number of 
 years representative of his town in the General As- 
 sembly of Connecticut, is a member of one of the 
 early New England families who colonized New 
 Haven. 
 
 William Tuttle, the emigrant ancestor, with his 
 wife, Elizabeth, and three children, sailed in the 
 ship "Planter" fromi London, England, in 1630, 
 landing at Boston, and settling in New Haven in 
 1639. 
 
 Seventh from this ancestor is Hon. Dwight W. 
 Tuttle, bis line of descent being through Jonathan, 
 Nathaniel, Nathaniel (2), Jesse and Jesse (2). 
 
 Jonathan Tuttle, son of William, the emigrant, 
 was baptized in Charleston, Mass., in 1637, and 
 married Rebecca, daughter of Lieut. Francis Bell, 
 of Stamford. Mr. Tuttle made a settlement near 
 the Quinnipiac river, in what is now the southern 
 part of the town of New Haven, about 1670, and 
 there built a bridge over the river which was long 
 known as Tuttle's bridge. He died in 1705. 
 
 Nathaniel Tuttle, son of Jonathan, was born in 
 1676, married Esther Blakeslee, and died in 1728, 
 leaving a son Nathaniel. The latter was born in 
 1714, married first, in 1737, Mary, daughter of 
 Josiah Todd, and after the death of his wife in 
 1742, he married Abigail Ingham. 
 
 In tthe fifth generation, Jesse Tuttle, son of 
 Nathaniel (2), born in 1750, married first, Lucy., 
 daughter of Samuel and Mary (Ailing) Dickerman, 
 of Hamden, and for a second wife Eunice Gilbert. 
 Mr. Tuttle was chosen tytbing-man of Hamden for 
 the year 1794; grand juror for 1798; one of the 
 surveyors of highways in 1803; and a selectman in 
 1805, 1806, 1807 and 1808. He died in Hamden 
 in 1849, having been a member of the General As- 
 sembly for a number of years. 
 
 Jesse Tuttle (2), son of Jesse, and the father of 
 the Hon. Dwight W., was born Aug. 18, 1802, mar- 
 ried, Dec. 29, 1825, Daney R., daug-hter of John B. 
 
 85 
 
 Johnson, of Wallingford. The wife died in 1840, 
 and his second marriage occurred May i, 1842, to 
 Lucinda Williams, daughter of Willoughby Will- 
 iams, of Wallingford. Of the first marriage were 
 born John, Lucy ad Charles R. ; and of the second, 
 Dwight W. and Grove J. 
 
 Dwight W. Tuttle was born Jan. 11, 1845, ^^ 
 Hamden, Conn. After receiving a good common- 
 school education he entered the Yale Law School, 
 from which he was graduated, and was admitted 
 to the Bar in New Haven in 1867. Since then he 
 has been engaged in the practice of law in this city. 
 Mr. Tuttle is also interested in farming in East 
 Haven, and also in Florida. His political affilia- 
 tions are with the Republican party, and from early 
 manhood he has been active and useful in public 
 affairs. For a number of years he held the office of 
 town clerk, and has served as a justice of the peace 
 since he was twenty-one years of age. A conspic- 
 .uously meritorious service from many standpoints 
 has been that of prosecuting attorney for New Ha- 
 ven county, an office retained for a decade and a 
 half. He has also served his town as grand juror, 
 and as a miember of the Board of Relief. During 
 1881, 1889 and 1891 he was a representative from 
 his town in the General Assembly, his standing as 
 an attorney entitling him to a place on the Judiciary 
 committee, on whic'h he served in the last two ses- 
 sions. Mr. Tuttle has also served as chairman of 
 the Republican town committee, and as school visitor 
 in East Haven. In 1897 he was sent to the Senate 
 from the second district by a majority of 2,700, the 
 largest ever given in this district, and was appointed 
 chairman of the commlission in the Indian Terri- 
 tory by the Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Tuttle 
 has been prominent in all political matters, and has 
 been a delegate to conventions for twenty years. 
 He was a member of the National League, chair- 
 man of the delegation, and one of the sub-commit- 
 tee that drafted the resolutions adopted at that con- 
 vention. 
 
 Socially Mr. Tuttle is a member of the Masonic 
 fraternity; the East Haven Grange, of which he is 
 Past Master ; and the Sons of Temperance, of which 
 be is Grand Master and Patriarch of the State. On 
 Sept. 16, 1879, he married Bertha Lancey, who was, 
 born in East Haven, a daughter of John Lancey.- 
 
 HON. JULIUS PRATT, one of the foremost 
 citizens and business men of Meriden of his day 
 and generation, was one of the State's strong and 
 forceful characters. 
 
 Bom Nov. 24, 1791, in Saybrook, Conn., Mr. 
 Pratt was a son of Deacon Phineas and Hepsibah' 
 (Pratt) Pratt, and a descendant in the sixth gen- 
 eration from Lieut. William Pratt, who came from, 
 the parish of Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, Eng- 
 land, to New England, supposedly with Rev. 
 Thomas Hooker in 1633, to Newtown (now Cam- 
 bridge), Mass. Lieut. Pratt was the son of Rev. 
 William, the grandson of Andrew and the great- 
 
1346 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 grandson of Thomas Pratt, of Baldock. From 
 Cambridge, Mass., he went to Hartford, Conn., in 
 1636, and later to Saybrook. He married EHza- 
 beth, daughter of John Clark, first of Saybrook and 
 afterward of Milford. Lieut. Pratt was a large 
 landholder in Saybrook. From 1666 to 1678 (the 
 year in which he died) he was deputy to the Gen- 
 eral Court— twenty-three sessions. 
 
 From Lieut. William Pratt the lineage of Julius 
 Pratt, late of Meriden, is through John, John (2), 
 Azariah and Deacon Phineas Pratt. 
 
 (H) John Pratt, son of Lieut. William, the set- 
 tler, born Feb. 20, 1644, in Hartford, Conn., mar- 
 ried, June 28, 1668, Sarah, daughter of Thomas 
 Jones, of Guilford, Conn. Mr. Pratt was a large 
 landholder in Saybrook, and also in Hebron, Conn. 
 He first settled in the old part of Saybrook on land 
 given to him by his father about 1672. On the 
 death of the father, in 1678, the homestead at Essex 
 Point came into his possession, and at that itime he 
 removed thither. John Pratt was a blacksmith by 
 trade, and 'his shop was located near the spot that 
 early in the fifties was occupied by Elias Pratt (a 
 descendant in the eighth generation) for the same 
 purpose. John Pratt was deputy to the General 
 Court a number of tmies. He died, it is supposed, 
 in 1726. 
 
 (HI) John Pratt (2), son of John, born Sept. 
 5, 1671, married, Nov. 20, 1697, Hannah Williams, 
 and resided in that part of the town called Pauta- 
 paug. He died supposedly in 1744. 
 
 (IV) Azariah Pratt, son of John (2), born 
 Aug. I, 1710, married, Jan. 18, 1738, Agnes Beebe, 
 He was a blacksmith by trade, and a resident of 
 Saybrook. 
 
 (V) Deacon Phineas Pratt, son of Azariah, born 
 June 27, 1747, married, Feb. 17, 1771, Hepsibah, 
 daughter of Nathan Pratt. Phineas Pratt was a 
 goldsmith by trade and a skillful mechanic. In 
 1777 he served in the Revolution, as a member of 
 Capt. Daniel Piatt's Company, Seventh Regiment, 
 commanded by Col. William Worthington. He 
 aided David Bushnell, inventor of the American 
 Turtle, in the construcion of that machine. Later 
 in life he assisted his brother Abel in the construc- 
 tion of machinery for makmg ivory combs. It is 
 said that he was the first inventor and maker of 
 any machinery that would enable the combmiakers 
 to compete with the English. He was for many 
 years a deacon in the Second Church in Saybrook. 
 He died Feb. 4, 1813, and his wife died Jan. 9th, 
 of the same year. 
 
 Julius Pratt, son of Deacon Phineas, in early 
 life lived at the homestead which was located about 
 one mile west of Pautapaug Point. At the age of 
 fifteen he commenced work with his brothers, Abel 
 and Phineas, in ivory combmaking, and at the age 
 of tvi'enty-two engaged with his brother Philo in 
 the silversmiith business in Pautapaug. In Febru- 
 ary, 1818, he removed to Meriden, and in connec- 
 tion with Messrs. Bush, Williams, Howard, Reed, 
 
 Starkey, Rogers and Spencer, soon commenced the 
 manufacture of ivory combs on Harbor brook, a 
 little south of the Middletown and Waterbury turn- 
 pike bridge. Finding the water-power too small for 
 his increasing business he removed to what is now 
 called Prattsville. Joined with Mr. Webb he con- 
 tinued to be a leading member of the ivory comb 
 business, and his energy and enterprise contributed 
 in a large degree to the development of this branch 
 of manufacture, which in a few years distanced for- 
 eign competition, and thirty years ago became a 
 large and important business, the goods being ex- 
 ported to nearly all parts of the world. While Mr. 
 Pratt was heavily engaged in business at Pratts- 
 ville, he was also interested in another company at 
 Crow Hollow, afterward at Hanover, where much 
 of his time was occupied. He was one of the pio- 
 neers in the manufacture of cutlery, and had the 
 pleasure while living of seeing that business well 
 established on a firm and profitable basis. He was 
 a stockholder and director in the Home National 
 Bank of Meriden from its commencement. In this 
 connection, as in all other business relations, his 
 counsel was sought and relied upon at all times. 
 
 As a citizen Mr. Pratt always enjoyed the re- 
 spect and confidence of the community where he 
 lived. Uncompromising in principle, unflinching in 
 the discharge of duty, sagacious as an adviser, mod- 
 est in demeanor, active and liberal in private and 
 public charities, and afifectionate toward his family 
 and friends, it may well 'be said that the best blood 
 of the Puritans flowed in his veins. He never 
 sought for preferment, but was called to represent 
 his town in the State Legislature of 1852, and was 
 elected senator of the Sixth District of Connecticut 
 in 1854. In his business intercourse he may have 
 left the impression at times that he was austere, 
 but his apparent sternness arose from the prompt- 
 ness and decision with which he always transacted 
 his business. H'is language was direct, final and 
 rigidly business like. He was seldom misunder- 
 stood, and but few ever attempted to swerve or 
 cajole him. Beneath 'his apparent harshness was an 
 inner life as gentle as a dove. He loved with a 
 woman's heart, but he spoke with the promptness 
 of a business man, and in all his movements there 
 was a kind of military precision which, to the un- 
 observing, might easily be misapprehended. 
 
 On Jan. 9, 1817, Mr. Pratt was niarrkd to 
 Lydia, born ^March 18, 1795, daug^hter of John De 
 Wolfe, of ^^'estbrook, Conn. Their children were: 
 
 (i) Harriet jNIalinda, born April 24, 1818, mar- 
 ried, Sept. 13, 1842, Rev. Walter R. Long, a native 
 of Cambridge, N. Y., a son of Edward and the 
 grandson of Edward Long, who was a native of 
 ,New Hampshire and a soldier of the war of the 
 Revolution. The mother of Rev. Walter R. Long 
 was Prudence (Wells), a descendant of the Wells 
 family of Connecticut, and his grandmother Long 
 was a Comistock and a relative of the Comstocks 
 who fell on Groten Heights. The children born to 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 3347 
 
 this marriage were : Walter P. Long, born June 
 28, 1843; Julius P., born May 20, 1845; Edward, 
 born May 6, 1847, died March 8, 1848; Frederick, 
 born July 31, 1848; and Harriet, born June 20, 
 1850, died June 30, 1850. The mother died at Meri- 
 den, Conn., July 2, 1850. 
 
 (2) JuHus H. Pratt, A. M., born Aug. i, 1821, 
 was graduated from Yale College in 1842. He 
 married, Nov. 8, 1843, Adeline F. Barnes. He was 
 engaged in business in 1849 and 1850, in California, 
 and later was connected with the firm of Julius 
 Pratt & Co., in the manufacture and siale of ivory 
 goods, his time being mostly occupied in New York, 
 with residence in Montclair, New Jersey. 
 
 (3) William McLain, born Dec. 12, 1837. He 
 was graduated from the Rensselaer Polytechnic In- 
 stitute, at Troy, N. Y., with the degree of civil en- 
 gineer, in the class of 1857. He visited South 
 America in i860 and 1861, crossing the continent 
 from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso, via Mendoza and 
 the Andes. He enlisted in the Civil war as a pri- 
 vate in the 8th Conn. V. I., in May, 1862, and was 
 wounded in the battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862. 
 He was promoted to the ofHce of second lieutenant 
 in November, 1862, and to that of first lieutenant 
 and adjutant in June, 1863. 
 
 PETER BASSERMANN (deceased) was in 
 his life time one of the best-known German resi- 
 dents and business men of New Haven. He began 
 Jife on his own resources, and at his death left a 
 good name and comforta'ble competence. He was 
 born in Hessen-Darmstadt Jan. 23, 1843, the son of 
 a baker, a highly respectable citizen of his locality. 
 
 Peter Bassermann spent his boyhood in Ger- 
 many until the age of fifteen, when he concluded 
 to seek his fortune in the United States. On cross- 
 ing the sea he first settled in New Haven, where 
 his uncle, George A. Bassermann, was a marketman 
 on Church street. With him! he spent a couple of 
 years, and thus gained his first knowledge of the 
 market business. At this time he was a poor boyj 
 whose only capital was his energy and industry, and 
 his means so limited that the hospitality of friends 
 was necessary to supply him with a place of shelter. 
 Strong and robust, he was willing to work at any- 
 thing to make an honest living, and finally found 
 employment in a slaughter-'house, where he learned 
 the business from' the hottomi up, and remained with 
 the concern for about five years. During this time, 
 by the exercise of strict economy he managed to 
 same a little money. Oct. 25, 1863, he was married 
 to Sophia Rembach, a native of Hessen Cassel, born 
 in 1847, and a daughter of Jacob and Anna C. 
 (Koenig) Rembach. The parents of Sophia came 
 to the United States in 1857, and settled in New 
 York, where they eventually died. Of their five 
 children, Daniel, a retired business man of New 
 York, and Mrs. Bassermann alone survive. 
 
 With his limited means Mr. Bassermann began 
 housekeeping in a very modest way, and about 
 
 1867 went into business for himself, locating at 
 2id avenue and 32d street. This venture did not 
 prove a success, but resulted in the loss of prac- 
 tically all his mpans. Not discouraged, and with 
 the help of his good wife, he soon had a small capi- 
 tal saved, and again started into business for him- 
 self, opening a place of business at inth avenue and 
 43d street, where he was successful and made 
 m.oney. He disposed of this business advantage- 
 ously, and took up other lines of business, in all 
 of which the sympathy and help of his wife was of 
 great assistance. 
 
 In 1875 Mr. and Mrs. Bassermann paid a visit 
 to the familiar scenes of their birth in Germany, 
 and on their return to New York Mr. Bassermann 
 opened a store at 51st street and ist avenue, and re- 
 mained in business there until his removal to New 
 Haven in 1882. He here began the manufacture 
 of bologna, near East Rock, and after two years 
 opened a market business at 50th street and loth 
 avenue. New York. He evinced his faith in realty 
 by the purchase of property at 47th street and lOth 
 avenue, and remained in that metropolis until his 
 return to New Haven, in 1884. With his brother 
 Anton he engaged in the market business on Grand 
 avenue. New Haven, and after severing this con- 
 nection began to build the block at Nos. 900-902 
 State street, in which he followed the market busi- 
 ness until his retirement, about 1895. Since then, 
 Mr. Bassermann has not been idle, but has spent 
 his time in looking after his property holdings and 
 in public-spirited interest in general affairs. His 
 death occurred J&n. 2, 1902, superinduced, no 
 doubt, by his excessive energy and unwillingness 
 to take needed rest. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Bassermann was a member of 
 Rock Lodge, F. & A. M., the I. O. O. F. and the 
 Hessen-Faren. In religious belief he was a 
 Protestant. He is survived by the wife, who had 
 so faithfully assisted him' in every work, and to 
 w'hose cheery counsel and encouragement he owed 
 so much. 
 
 ALFRED TREAT. For three generations Mr. 
 Treat's family has been among the sturdy, success- 
 ful farmers of the town of Orange. His grand- 
 father, Samuel, and his father, Jonah, were both 
 born on the same farm. The former died at the age 
 of fifty-nine, after rearing a family of three sons. 
 
 Jonah Treat, the father of Alfred Treat, at- 
 tended the common schools while a boy, and when 
 a young man came into possession of a portion of 
 his father's farm, where he passed the remainder 
 of his life, and died at the age of seventy-five. He 
 was a man of military instinct, and was chosen cap- 
 tain of a company of horse, made of men from Mil- 
 ford, Orange, Woodbridge and Bethany. His 
 wife, Rebecca, was the daughter of Joseph Treat, 
 also a farmer and early settler in Orange, who 
 passed away after attaining the Scriptural limit of 
 three score years and ten. Mrs. Rebecca Treat, the 
 
1348 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 mother of Alfred, lived to be seventy-five. The 
 family were Congregationalists, and attended ser- 
 vices originally at Milford, but later Mr. Treat 
 aided in building the Congregational church at Or- 
 ange, and ultimately he and his wife united with 
 that body. 
 
 Alfred Treat was the youngest son and is the 
 only survivor of a family of eight children, six of 
 whom reached adult age. He was born March 25, 
 1809, on the same farm on which he now lives. As 
 a boy he showed remarkable physical strength and 
 exceptional executive capability. When only nine 
 years old he aided in "raising" his father's house, 
 and while a youth took charge of the farm on his 
 parents' behalf, falling heir to the property on the 
 latter's death. All the buildings at present stand- 
 ing On the premises have been erected by him with 
 the exception of the barn, which stood for more 
 than a hundred years, and which burned March 21, 
 1902 ; this he had frequently covered with a new 
 roof. Like his father, his tastes inclined him to 
 military service, and for seventeen years he was an 
 efficient member of the local troop of horse, hav- 
 ing as superior officers during this period four 
 colonels and nine captains, and remaining in the 
 company until it was disbanded. The organiza- 
 tion was famous in its day, and during its- existence 
 acted as an escort to miany of the State's governors; 
 and of all those connected with it at various times 
 as officers or privates, Mr. Treat is the only sur- 
 vivor. 
 
 In 1835 Mr. Treat married Catherine, a daugh- 
 ter of Enoch Clark, an Orange farmer. She was 
 the mother of five children: Frances J., Atwater 
 J., Thelous C, Otis A., and Harriett M. Atwater 
 J. resides in Indianapolis, Ind., and is a success- 
 ful merchant tailor; he married Isabelle Laidley, 
 of Massachusetts. Frances J. married, Treet Camp, 
 of Milford. Harriett M. married George S. War- 
 ren, of Indianapolis. Thelous C. died aged thirty- 
 four. Otis A. is mentioned in a succeeding para- 
 graph. 
 
 Alfred Treat has passed his ninety-third birth- 
 day, yet shows a keenness of mind and an alertness 
 of body which are truly wonderful. He wears no 
 glasses, is a careful financier and manages his busi- 
 ness afifairs with the skill and energy of a man of 
 twenty-five. In the autumn of 1899 he served as 
 grand marshal of the parade in Orange, being then 
 more than ninety years old. His life, while not 
 filled with stirring events, has been a useful and 
 happy one, and he can look back upon the past 
 without regret. He has cared for no office, al- 
 though he consented for two years to serve on the 
 school committee. He is a member of the agri- 
 cultural associations of Milford and' Orange, in 
 wihic'h he takes a lively interest, having been award- 
 ed more premiums than any other man. In politics 
 he is a Republican. 
 
 Otis A. Treat, third and youngest son of Al- 
 fred Treat, was born. April 10, 1845. His educa- 
 
 tion was obtained in the common schools, and at 
 Williston Seminary, East Hampton, Mass. After 
 leaving school he returned to the paternal farm, as- 
 sisting his father in its cultivation and manage- 
 ment, for more than twenty years having virtually 
 the charge of same. He now owns 160 acres 
 v/here he not only carries on general farming but 
 also an extensive dairy, selling milk at wholesale.- 
 He owns a large herd of finely bred cattle, and like 
 his father has taken premiums at many fairs. He 
 is a member of the Agricultural Association and 
 of the Grange, and he also belongs to the Royal 
 Arcanum. He is a member of the Congregational 
 church, and politically a Republican. 
 
 Otis A. Treat has been twice married. His. 
 first wife was Emma Smith, a daughter of Lewis 
 Smith, a farmer in Milford; after twentv years of 
 married life, she died in 1893, at the age of forty- 
 six. For his second wife, Mr. Treat wedded 
 Evelyn, a daughter of Lewis White, a wholesale 
 grocer of Brooklyn, N. Y. One child, now de- 
 ceased, was born of this union. 
 
 ANDREW URE. A man's success is not to be 
 measured by the height to which he attains, but the 
 depths from which he came. j\Iany are born suc- 
 cessful, that is to say, with wealth, advantages of 
 family connection or position, which assure them 
 much of what others acquire only after unrelenting 
 toil and great energy. Our subject belongs dis- 
 tinctively to the latter class. He was born of 
 Scotch-German parents, whose legacy to him was- 
 a good training, and a liberal endowment of the 
 grand traits of character for which their national- 
 ities are noted. 
 
 Andrew Ure was born April 27, 1854, in Ken- 
 sington street. New Haven. His father, John Ure,. 
 and his grandfather, Andrew Ure, were both na- 
 tives of Scotland, from the vicinity of Glasgow. 
 John Ure learned the trade of a carpet weaver 
 in his native country, and when but a boy in his- 
 'teens came to the United States. The grandfather,. 
 Andrew Ure, came soon afterward, settling in 
 Yonkers, N. Y. He, too, was a carpet weaver, and 
 worker at his trade in Yonkers. His family com- 
 prised several sons, one of whom was the father of 
 Andrew Ure, late editor of th€ Sunday Call, of 
 Newark, N. J. John Ure, father of our subject,, 
 followed the business of carpet weaving a great 
 many years, in fact, the greater part of his life, 
 workling at same in the employ of the D. M.. 
 Read Co., of Bridgeport, Conn., for some years. 
 In the latter years of his life he conducted a, small 
 weaving establishment of his own, in George street, 
 New Haven. He lived to the age of about seventy- 
 five years after 1861 residing in Highwood, where- 
 he owned a small farm. He was a highly respected 
 old gentleman, possessing many of the sterling char- 
 acteristics of his nationality, was strictly honest in 
 his dealings with all, and well-meaning in every 
 action. Politically he was identified first with the 
 
y^Ytl4-.^y-^-4A/ — /cvxjL.^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1349 
 
 Democratic party, but later he became a Republican, 
 and continued to act with that party the remainder 
 of his days. John Ure was married, when a young 
 man, to Miss Leah Spear, of Speartown (now 
 called Upper Mont Clair), N. J., originally named 
 in honor of the Spear family, as they were the first 
 settlers the'-e. They were of German extraction. 
 The great-grandfather of Leah Spear was shot at 
 by an Indian one day when chopping wood, and 
 the arrow destroyed the sight of one eye. Mrs. 
 Leah (Spear) Ure still survives, residing at High- 
 wood, and though past eighty is well preserved. 
 To Mr. and Mrs. John Ure were born children as 
 follows : Byron, who is a resident of Highwood 
 (he was a member of the 27th Regiment during 
 the Civil war, and was wounded at Fredericksburg, 
 a bullet passing through his left shoulder) ; John, 
 who was a member of the 2d Connecticut Heavy 
 Artillery in the war of the Rebellion, and was 
 killed at Cold Harbor; James, who died in New 
 Haven (he was a tool maker by trade) ; Welling- 
 ton, now residing in East Haven, who was a suc- 
 cessful grain and feed merchant of New Haven, 
 until obliged by poor health to retire ; Andrew, 
 whose name introduces this sketch; and Loisa, 
 Mrs. Robert Sutton, of New Haven. 
 
 Andrew Ure was little more than a child when 
 his parents removed to Highwood, where he was 
 reared on a farm. His educational advantages were 
 vastly inferior to those of the present day. His 
 parents needed the help of their children as soon 
 as they were old enough to be of use on the farm, 
 and accordingly Andrew was put to work early in 
 life, and from childhood received a practical knowl- 
 edge of labor. His schooling was received entirely 
 at District No. 10 school, in Hamden, where he at- 
 tended usually a few months in the winter ses- 
 sion. Work coming first, regular attendance at 
 school was impossible, and, all in ail, Mr. Ure's 
 later success supports but feebly the often advanced 
 theory that a man must have a college education in 
 •order to succeed in business. He possessed orig- 
 inality, judgment and good common sense, which, 
 with his superior business capacity, more than made 
 up for whatever he may have lacked in the way 
 of book learning. His work during boyhood and 
 early manhood was at garden farming, to which he 
 was practically reared. He remained in Hamden 
 up to the age of seventeen years, when, work be- 
 ing somewhat slack in the home neighborhood, he 
 went into Pennsylvania, and at a small town called 
 Buttonwood, near Wilkesbarre, hired out to an ex- 
 tensive market gardener, one who was thorough in 
 his line of farming. There Mr. Ure had one and 
 ■one-half years' valuable experience, and being a 
 close observer he took note of new methods and 
 their results, all of which were to be improved 
 upon, or practically applied, in his own business 
 later on. Soon after returning to Connecticut, and 
 when yet several, years under age, he commenced 
 market gardening for himself, at first having his 
 
 brother, Wellington, as a partner. These young 
 men then owned four acres of ground, and renting 
 as much more embarked in a business which pros^ 
 pered from the very start. It was continued by the 
 brothers for a period of twelve years, when our 
 subject became sole owner, and has since been car- 
 rying it on alone. For about six years,- ending in 
 1898, Mr. Ure conducted the Keystone Stables, in 
 George street, New Haven, succeeding Frank Tut- 
 tle in that business. After severing this connection 
 he removed to Highwood, where he has been giving 
 his entire attention to his extensive farming inter- 
 ests. During the time he was in the livery busi- 
 ness he superintended the operation of his farm, 
 which he carried on without interruption. 
 
 From the humble beginning mentioned the mar- 
 ket gardening business has grown to extensive pro- 
 portions, Mr. Ure enjoying the largest trade in the 
 town in his lines, and the business ranks among the 
 most important of the kind around New Haven. His 
 operations ihave included as many as one hundred 
 acres in a season, and he has employed as many 
 as ninety-nine people at once in the busy season. 
 His outlay for fertilizers alone in one season has 
 been $3,000. In the business, as conducted by our 
 subject, are employed all the up-to-date methods, 
 many of which he has originated, and he is always 
 on the outlook for new ideas, observing closely and 
 experimenting extensively. He has made a care- 
 ful study of the business in every detail, and he is as 
 familiar with the office work as with the ground 
 conditions and preparation of the soil, his success 
 being as much the result of good judgment and 
 management as of energetic industry. The new 
 methods and systems he introduces are often a rad- 
 ical deviation from old-time customs, and failure 
 has often been predicted for him, but he has carried 
 out his ideas successfully, not infrequently to the 
 surprise and astonishment of those many years his 
 senior. His management of cultivated field,B 'has 
 been such as to obtain the best and most liberal re- 
 sults. Mr. Ure's success in life has been beyond 
 the ordinary, and a better example of a self-made 
 man is seldom found, his present high standing be- 
 ing simply the result of natural ability coupled with 
 application to business push and energy, not self- 
 denial and penuriousness, for he has lived well, en- 
 joying hfe and many of its luxuries and comforts. 
 At the same time he has not forgotten the "rainy 
 day," for which he is well prepared. Though he 
 is still in his prime he has amassed more than the 
 large majority do in a life time. 
 
 While the head of a large business, to which 
 he gives the closest attention, Mr. Ure from his 
 sense of duty as a citizen, takes quite an active and 
 prominent interest in the affairs of his town, not as 
 a politician or office seeker, but as the progressive 
 citizen which he is. He is prominently identified 
 with the Republican party, of which he is a coun- 
 selor and adviser, in his' town, and his influence js 
 always felt by both his friends and the opposition. 
 
1350 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 He has served on the board of relief and was dele- 
 gate to the Gubernatorial convention of igoo. Fra- 
 ternally he is a member of Day Spring Lodge, No. 
 30, F. & . ^l., of Hamden; Pulaski Chapter; Rath- 
 burn Lodge, K. of P. ; and Hira Temple, D. O. K. 
 K. Mr. LJre is well known, his acquaintance not 
 being confined to his town or community, but in- 
 cluding men prom'inent in business and financial cir- 
 cles in New Haven as well. He is a well-met con- 
 genial man, and gives evidence of contact with the 
 world in a broader sphere than his town affords. 
 Air. Ure married Miss Nellie R. Parmelee, a 
 native of Guilford, Connecticut. 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY BEERS, a venerable and 
 honored resident of Branford, where he is now liv- 
 ing a retired existence, was born in Branford, Oct. 
 9, 1831, and is a son of Almon and Betsy (Hobart) 
 Beers. James Beers, 'his paternal grandfather^ 
 was the son of James Beers, and both did valiant 
 service in upholding the cause of the colonists in 
 the war of the Revolution. 
 
 Almon Beers was born in Branford in 1806, 
 and died March 27, 1885. His wife, Betsey (Ho- 
 bart) Beers, was a daughter of Samuel and Esther 
 (Ives) Hobart, and granddaughter of John Ho- 
 bart, of Branford. Almon Beers was a shoemaker 
 by trade, and in later life became a molder. For 
 many years he was employed at the Branford Lock 
 Works, and was for a time in the shops of the AI. 
 I. F. Company. He had two sons, Henry (who 
 died young) and William. Mrs. Beers died at the 
 hofne of our subject, Aug. 6, 1900. 
 
 William Henry Beers was the only child of his 
 parents who grew to manhood. Educated in the 
 public school and in the Branford Academy, he 
 subsequently learned the shoemaking trade, and for 
 many years was in the employ of Bristol & Hall, 
 at New Haven, engaged principally in the manu- 
 facture of white kid slippers and shoes for women. 
 After learning the molder's trade late in life, he 
 was employed in the Lock Works and in the Alalle- 
 able Iron Works of Branford. 
 
 During the Civil war Mr. Beers drove a stage 
 between Fair Haven and New Haven, and also 
 had a livery stable in the latter town. From 1870 
 to 1898 he ran a 'bus during the summer season 
 from Branford to the Montowese House, at In- 
 dian Neck, a period covering twenty-eight years. 
 Mr. Beers also did the painting for the Montowese 
 House. 
 
 June 25, 1861, Mr. Beers married Nettie, daughr 
 ter of James and Henrietta (Alunger) Lindsey, of 
 Branford. Tlie family are attendants and sup- 
 porters of the Branford Baptist Church, of which 
 the mother of Mrs. Beers, who died in August, 
 1900, was the last surviving founder. Mr, Beers 
 is a Democrat, and served as constable for nine 
 3'ears. In early life he was a member of the State 
 militia, in which he served five years, and during 
 the Civil war sent a substitute to fill his place. He 
 
 has an enviable reputation in the community to- 
 wards whose material prosperity he has unceasing- 
 ly worked, and where his skill, integrity and gen- 
 eral worthiness have long been unquestioned. 
 
 REV. JOHN H. CARROLL, the beloved pas- 
 tor of the Holy Trinity Catholic Church at Wall- 
 ingford. Conn., where he has been in charge since 
 1898, is one of the few whose predominant char- 
 acteristic is an overwhelming devotion to the spir- 
 itual needs of his people, to the utter disregard of 
 his own personal affairs. 
 
 Father Carroll was born Feb. 15, 1855, at New 
 Haven, Conn., son of Patrick and Eleanor 
 (O'Bryene)' Carroll. Both parents were natives of 
 Ireland, the father's birth occurring in Countv 
 Leitrim, in 1808, and the mother's in the same 
 County in 1821. They came to America soon after 
 their marriage, in 1841, and made their home in 
 New Haven. Patrick Carroll always took much 
 interest in political questions of the day, and was 
 an ardent supporter of the Democratic party. His. 
 wife died in 1875, and he survived her many years, 
 passing away in 1893. Of their eight children, the 
 eldest, Mary T. resides in Westport ; Anthony is 
 a contractor in New Haven; Michael died in 1850; 
 Alargaret died in 1854; John Henry is mentioned 
 more fully below ; Thomas M. is a merchant of 
 Danbury ; Patrick F. is engaged in business in New 
 York City; and Nellie E. (now Sister Angela 
 Stephen) is a Sister of Mercy in Mount St. Mary's 
 Convent, Manchester, New Hampshire. 
 
 John H. Carroll's education began in his na- 
 tive city, where he attended St. Mary's School 
 until he reached the age of thirteen years. As both 
 of his parents were devout members of the Roman 
 Catholic Church, his early inclination toward the 
 priesthood received every encouragement, and on 
 completing his course in St. Marv's School in Sep- 
 tember, 1868. he went to St. Charles College, Elli- 
 cott City, Md., to prepare for his sacred calling. 
 He was graduated in 1874, and then entered St. 
 Mary's Seminary of St. Sulpice, Baltimore city, 
 and there he spent four and one-half years in the 
 study of philosophy and theology. On December 
 21, 1878, he was ordained to the priesthood, and 
 his work has been blessed with remarkable success 
 in the various charges which he has held during 
 his service. He spent some time in New Haven, 
 being stationed first at St. Mary's Church, then at 
 the cathedral in Hartford, and later at St. Pat- 
 rick's Church, New Haven, and at St. John's 
 Church at Aliddletown, and then on June 10, 1885, 
 was made pastor of the congregation at Westport. 
 The last named parish was in his charge until 1898, 
 when he was transferred to Holy Trinity at Wall- 
 ingford. During the years of his stay in Westport, 
 he won many warm friends outside of liis parish, his 
 ability and high character commanding the esteem 
 of the best people regardless of denomination. 
 His mterest in educational affairs, and his clear 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1351 
 
 conception of the needs of the pubHc schools, was 
 so appreciated) by the Protestants of the town he 
 was elected a member of the school board, and of 
 the board of the "Staple High School." Since 
 coming to Wallingford he has taken the same in- 
 terest in the public welfare and has won a firm 
 hold in the hearts of Catholics and Protestants 
 alike. The Church and Parish House at Walling- 
 ford are fine structures worthy a town of much 
 greater size. While keenly alive to the needs of 
 his town, Father Carroll does not neglect his par- 
 ish, and gives his influence to various organiza- 
 tions among his people, including the Order of the 
 Knights of Columbus. 
 
 DWIGHT NOYES CLARK, the well-known 
 cattle dealer, whose fairness in ail transactions is 
 proverbial, was born March 2, 1829, in the house 
 where he now lives, in the town of Bethany, Conn., 
 and is descended! in two different lines from the 
 Clark family who came early fromi Milford and set- 
 tled in the town of Woodbridge, which then in- 
 cluded Bethany. His ancestry is also traced to 
 Gov. Robert Treat, who was governor of the col- 
 onies for fifteen years, from 1683 to 1698, to Rev. 
 Roger Newton, first pastor of the church in Farm- 
 ington and second in Milford, succeeding at the 
 latter place Rev. Peter Prudden; and to Rev. 
 Thomas Hooker, the first pastor of the church at 
 Hartford. 
 
 The Clark family oi which Dwight N. is a 
 member was founded in America by Deacon George 
 Clark, who came from England to the New Eng- 
 land Colonies in 1637, in company with Rev. John 
 Davenport and his congregation, from Kent and 
 Surrey, near London, together with several other 
 parties of wealth and respectability. The party 
 landed at Boston, remaining there about one year, 
 thence went to New Haven, Conn., and in 1639 Mr. 
 Davenport's congregation, including George Clark, 
 removed to Milford. Deacon Clark died there in 
 1690. He was one of the deputies under the 
 Colonial government. 
 
 (H) Ensign George Clark, son of Deacon 
 George, was born in Milford, in 1647, ^"^ died 
 July 19, 1734. He married! Deborah Gold. En- 
 sign George Clark was one of those who negotiated 
 for the purchase from the Indians, Feb. 29, 1700, 
 of the land on which our subject now lives. 
 
 (HI) Capt. Nathan Clark, son of Ensign 
 George, married Abigail Nev;ton, and died in 1783. 
 
 (IH) Sergt. George Clark, son of Ensign 
 George, was born April 3, 1682, and died Aug. 21, 
 1762. 
 
 (IV) Nathan Clark, son of Capt. Nathan and 
 Abigail (Newton), was born in August, 1746, and 
 died July 12, 1819. He married Mabel Treat (a 
 descendant of Gov. Robert Treat), who was born 
 in 1753. and died July i, 1828. 
 
 (IV) David Clark, son of Sergt. George, was 
 baptized July 31, 1713. 
 
 (V) Robert Clark, son of Nathan and Mabel 
 (Treat), was born Feb. 3, 1777, and died April ijj. 
 1863. In 1796 he married Experience Newton, who- 
 was born in 1776, and died Aug. 16, 1856. Rob- 
 ert Clark lived on the faniT now occupied by our 
 subject, and was a cattle dealer all his life. He made 
 a shipment every year for many years from his own 
 stalls,' of the choicest, finest, heaviest premium beef 
 cattle that came to the New York city market in 
 those times, always securing the top price for the 
 year. Mr. Clark was first selectman for miany years,, 
 that office remaining in his house for thirteen con^ 
 secutive years. He represented the town in the 
 Legislature for many terms, and at one time was 
 the oldest member in point of service, and had the 
 honor of calling the House to order. His children 
 were : Treat, mentioned below ; Maria, who died 
 Oct. 8, 1803, aged four years ; Noyes, mentioned 
 below ; and Maria (2) , who married Clark Wooster^ 
 of Seymour, Connecticut. 
 
 (V) David Clark, son of David, was born ini 
 1742, and died in March, 1778. He enlisted in 
 .May, 1777, during the Revolutionary war, in Capt, 
 Jonathan Brown's Company, New York Regiment 
 of Artillery, and was sergeant of his company. He 
 was captured at Fort Montgomery Oct. 6th, fol- 
 lowing, and' died in prison in New York. -This 
 prison was an old sugar house, and the prisoners 
 therein, being forgotten when the British evacu- 
 ated New York, starved to death. 
 
 (VI) Elioenai Clark, son of David, the Revolu- 
 tionary soldier, was born Dec. 30, 1763, and died 
 Aug. 31, 1847. 
 
 (VI) Noyes Clark, son of Robert and Experi- 
 ence (Newton), was born June 27, 1804, and died 
 Sept. 20, 1831. On Aug. 30, 1827, he married Mary 
 Abigail Clark, a daughter of Elioenai Clark, men- 
 tioned above. She was born Sept. i, 1803, and died 
 Jan. 25, 1895. 
 
 (VII) Dwight N. Clark, son of Noyes and 
 Mary A. Clark, andi whose name introduces this 
 sketch, was but two years old when his father died. 
 He was educated in the district schools, then at- 
 tended Cheshire Academy, and early commenced 
 following the business of his grandfather — that of 
 deaUng in cattle, a vocation he has ever since suc- 
 cessfully pursued, buying and shipping for a time 
 fiom Chicago, later from Buffalo and Albany, 
 N. Y., and at this day there is no man in the State 
 that is a better judge of live stock than Mr. Clark. 
 Although now well advanced in years he manages 
 not only his own farm of 600 acres, but those of 
 his wife and relatives, aggregating over one thou- 
 sand acres. His affable manner and liberal dealing 
 have won for him the respect and esteem of his 
 townsmen and of a large circle of customers who 
 have relied upon him for the purchase and sale of 
 cattle, and he has become widely known through 
 his extensive business transactions in Western Con- 
 necticut, as well as at Albany and Chicago. 
 
 In politics Mr. Clark is a conservative Democrat, 
 
1352 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and he was in full sympathy with the government 
 and prominent in its aid during the Civil war. He 
 was elected to the State Legislature two terms ; for 
 many years, including the period of the Civil war, 
 he served as first selectman, and he has been hon- 
 ored with every office in the gift of his fellow towns- 
 men which he would accept. He has always taken 
 a deep interest in the schools and been ready to. con- 
 tribute liberally toward their support and improve- 
 ment, as well as to whatever else would promote 
 the culture and refinement of society. He has been 
 interested in church and society, and living near 
 the Woodbridge line, he has been identified with 
 the Congregational societv of Woodbridge, of 
 which Rev. S. P. Marvin has long been pastor. Mr. 
 Clark has been one of the church's most liberal sup- 
 porters, and has been one of the committee ; gave 
 valuable advice and was liberal with his means 
 toward the remodeling of the church, making it for 
 the time one of the most elegant country churches 
 in all the region. 
 
 On Sept. 26, 1866, Dwight N. Clark married 
 Althea E. Bradley, a daughter of Jason Willis 
 Bradley, who was born Jan. 10, 1809, and died Oct. 
 12, 1888. They have one child, Noyes Dwight, men- 
 tioned below. 
 
 Jason Willis Bradley, a stanch Republican, was 
 State Senator, judge of probate, and for many years 
 first selectman, and for years held the first offices 
 of his town, though Bethany is strongly Demo- 
 cratic. He married, Oct. 23, 1834, Elizabeth Sperry^ 
 who was born Dec. 24, 1809, and died May 11, 
 1870. We have record of three children born to 
 ^hem: Althea E. (Mrs. Dwight N. Clark) ; Isaac, 
 who during the Civil war was a member of Com- 
 pany E, 27th Conn. V. I., was taken prisoner, con- 
 fined to Libby Prison, and died in 1866, from the 
 effects of confinement; also Ida I., who married 
 John W. Smith, of Seymour, Connecticut. 
 
 (VI) Jason Bradley, father of Jason Willis, 
 was born March 22, 1772, and died Oct. 11, 1831. 
 He married Electa ToUes, born in 1779, who died 
 March 20, 1858. 
 
 (V) Jason Bradley, father of (VI) Jason, was 
 born Jan. i, 1741, and died' May i, 1819. He mar- 
 ried Mary (surname unknown), born in 1742, who 
 died July 8, 1808. 
 
 (IV) Joseph Bradley, father of (V) Jason, was 
 born March 18, 1707, and on Oct. 27, 1731, mar- 
 ried Miriam Gilbert, born April 14, 1712. 
 
 (HI) Joseph Bradley, father of (IV) Joseph, 
 was born Feb. 15, 1677. 
 
 (II) Joseph Bradley, father of (HI) Joseph, 
 was born Jan. 4, 1645-46, and died in January, 1705 ; 
 he married Oct. 25, 1667, Silence Brockett. 
 
 (I) William Bradley, father of (II) Joseph, 
 came from England to New England about 1637, 
 and was a resident of New Haven, Conn., in 1644, 
 when he took the oath of fidelity. He married, Feb. 
 18, 1645, Alice Pritchard, daughter of Roger Pritdh- 
 ard, of Springfield and Milford. He died in the 
 
 early part of 1692, or possibly in 1691, leaving a 
 will which is recorded in the New Haven Probate 
 Records, Book II, page 3. The inventory of his 
 estate bears date May 29, 1692. His wife died some 
 time between Oct. 5, 1692, and Feb. 12, 1693. 
 
 (VIII) Noyes Dwight Clark, only child of 
 Dwight N. and Ahhea E. (Bradley) Clark, was 
 born April 2, 1869. He distinguished himself in 
 the Scientific Department of Yale, graduating in 
 ,1891, and in 1894 took the degree of C. E. For 
 several years he has been engaged in the New Ha- 
 ven city engineer's office. 
 
 (VI) Treat Clark, son of Robert and Experi- 
 ence (Newton), died May 10, 1866, aged sixty- 
 nine. He married Maria Peck, who died July 26, 
 1886, aged eighty-five. They had four children: 
 Ann Eliza, who died Feb. 15, 1840, aged eighteen; 
 Frances C, who died Oct. 19, 1853, agedl twenty- 
 six ; Mary, who died May 4, 1892; and Nathan 
 Noyes, who died Oct. 5, 1842, aged eight years 
 and six months. Mary, the only one of the chil- 
 dren to marry, became the wife of Judge Amos S. 
 Treat, of Bridgeport, Conn. ; they had one daugh- 
 ter, Mary C, who still resides in Bridgeport. 
 
 WARREN PERCY BRISTOL, superintendent 
 of the Meriden Electric Railroad, is a descendant 
 of one of the earliest settlers of the town of 
 Cheshire. 
 
 Henry Bristol, the first settler of Copper Valley, 
 located there about the beginning of the eighteenth 
 century, and there became a land owner and farm- 
 er, and spent his days. He died in 1750, at the 
 ripe age of ninety-seven years. He married De- 
 sire Bristol, and to the union came children as fol- 
 lows : Jonathan, born Dec. 27, 1725 ; Lydia, born 
 March 16, 1728; Desire, who married Thomas 
 Brooks ; Austin, who died in earlv manhood ; Amos ; 
 Simeon, who was a graduate of Yale College; 
 Gideon, who died in 1747; and Augustus, who died 
 in 1742. 
 
 Amos Bristol, son of Henry, was born in Che- 
 shire, where he also became a land owner and 
 farmer, and where he passed his entire life. In 
 June, 1740, be married Joanna Parker, who was 
 born July 8, 1723, a daughter of Eliphalet and 
 Hannah (Beach) Parker. Their children were: 
 Thomas, born March 28, 1741 ; Augustus, July 19, 
 1743; Hannah, March 20, 1745; Amos, May 6, 
 1751; Ezra, Jan. 9, 1753; Reuben, Oct. i, 1755; 
 Lydia, Sept. 15, 1757; and Lucy, Sept. 10, 1759. 
 
 Ezra Bristol, son of Amos, was born in Che- 
 shire. He passed his life in his native town, en- 
 gaged in farming and stock raising, and became a 
 land owner. He died on the farm, and was buried 
 in the Cheshire cemetery. 
 
 Azariah Bristol, son of Ezra, was born in Che- 
 shire, where he lived and died. Like his father, 
 he was a farmer and stock raiser. 
 
 Ryer Bristol, son of Azariah, was born in Che- 
 shire Feb. I, 181 1, and died there Aug. 31, 1871. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1353 
 
 He, too, was a farmer, but also engaged to some 
 extent in manufacturing. He married Abigail 
 Munson, who was born Dec. 27, 1810, daughter of 
 Levi and Tenna (Brooks) JMunson, the former 
 of whom, born April q, 1783, died Dec. 25, 1844; 
 the latter, born Sept. 23, 1783, died Jan. 3, 1862, at 
 Harnlden, Conn. The following named children 
 came to Ryer and Abigail (Munson) Bristol: (i) 
 Antoinette, born Oct. 29, 1834, married Sept. 17, 
 185s, William S. Bates, of New York, and died 
 June 17, 1874, leaving two children — Mena, born in 
 1863; and William G., born in 1866, v/ho married 
 Ida Chidsey, of Cheshire. (2) Alfred was born 
 June 15, 1839. (3) Abbie, born Aug. 21, 1844, was 
 married in June, 1890, to Charles N. Jones, of 
 Wallingford. 
 
 Alfred Bristol, son of Ryer, and father of War- 
 ren P., was born on the old homestead in Che- 
 shire June 15, 1839. He grew to manhood on the 
 farm, and in his younger days followed farming 
 as an occupation, later becoming engaged in the 
 lumber business in his native town, and also carry- 
 ing on some insurance business there. He died at 
 Hartford, Conn., Dec. 20, 1884, and his remains 
 were laid to rest in Cheshire cemetery. Mr. Bristol 
 was a stanch Republican, and always supported his 
 party. He held local offices in Cheshire, serving as 
 tax collector for several years. In religion he was 
 a member of the Episcopal Church. On Sept. 7, 
 
 1865, he was married in Cheshire to Fannie A. Doo- 
 little, who was born in Cheshire, a daughter of 
 Warren Doolittle, of that town. Mrs. Bristol is 
 still living with her family in Cheshire. Seven 
 children came to this union: Edward D., born in 
 
 1866, is a machinist by trade, and is at present 
 (1902) a member of the State Legislature from 
 Cheshire; May Louise, born in 1869, died young; 
 Alfred S., born in 1871, is a machinist, and resides 
 in Hartford; Warren P. is the subject of this 
 sketch; Lucia, born in 1875, resides at home; 
 Drurie, born in 1877, is at home; Arthur C, born 
 in 1880, is employed by the Winchester Arms Co., 
 New Haven. 
 
 Warren P. Bristol was born April 21, 1873, in 
 Cheshire, and acquired his education in the district 
 schools of that town. When he was eleven years 
 of age death deprived him of his father, and he 
 at once started out to work, finding employrnent 
 in the Cheshire watch factory, where he received 
 three dollars per week. He continued at this place 
 two years, attending school during the winter sea- 
 son. ' He then spent two years in the jeweling de- 
 partm.ent of the Waterbury watch factory, and 
 next obtained a position in the button factory m 
 West Cheshire, where he worked one year. The 
 jeweling department in the watch factory was again 
 the scene of his labors for a year, and he received 
 eighteen dollars per week. Having saved some 
 monev and desiring to secure a business edu- 
 cation ' he attended Yale business College, from 
 which' he was graduated in 1893. He then came 
 
 to Meriden and obtained a position with the en- 
 gineer corps, laying out the route of the Meriden 
 and Wallingford electric railroad, and continued 
 with the corps until 1894, when he was appointed 
 assistant to the superintendent of the ro?A, under W. 
 C. Gray. In 1895, when the road was purchased by 
 the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railway 
 Co., Mr. Bristol was appointed superintendent. For 
 the past six years he has filled that office to the 
 general satisfaction of the company, and also of 
 the general public. Mr. Bristol has charge of Han- 
 over Park, the laying out of which — ^costing over 
 $50,000 — was under his personal supervision alone. 
 On April 21, 1896, in Cheshire, Warren P. Bris- 
 tol was married to Minna Gillette, daughter of 
 C. S. Gillette, a prominent farmer of that town. 
 They have one child, Helen Doolittle. Both Mr. 
 and Mrs. Bristol are members of the Episcopal 
 Church of Cheshire. Socially he is a member of 
 L. A. Thomas Lodge, No. 9, I. O. O. F., of Che- 
 shire. In politics he is a Republican, but cares 
 nothing for official position. He is a self-educated, 
 self-made, hard-working man, and stands high in 
 the estimation of the people of his community. 
 
 The Doolittle Family, of which Warren P. 
 Bristol is a descendant on his mother's side, has long 
 been settled in Wallingford and Cheshire. Abra-. 
 ham Doolittle, the first of that name in Walling- 
 ford, was at New Haven before 1642. He was in 
 Wallingford in 1669, and died there Aug. 11, 1690. 
 He was twice married, his last wife being Abigail 
 Moss, a daughter of John Moss, the first settler of 
 Wallingford. His family consisted of eleven chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Ebenezer Doolittle (i), son of Abraham, was 
 born July 6, 1672, in Wallingford, and diied there 
 Dec. 6, 171 1. He settled in Cheshire Parish, where 
 he was a land owner and farmer. On April 6, 
 1697, he married Hannah Hall, daughter of Sam- 
 uel and Hannah Hall, and they had seven chil- 
 dren. Mrs. Doolittle was born March 11, 1673, and 
 died July 27, 1758. 
 
 Ebenezer Doolittle (2), eldest son of Ebenezer 
 (i), was born April 15, 1700, and, like his father, 
 resided in Cheshire, where he was a farmer, and 
 where his death occurred May 20, 1774. He was 
 married June 11, 1728, to Lydia Warner, and they 
 had four children. 
 
 Ebenezer Doolittle (3), son of Ebenezer (2), 
 was born on the Doolittle farm in Cheshire Oct. 
 12, 1736. He married and had two children: 
 Elicanab, and Amaryllis, \Vho married Landa Bris- 
 tol, of Cheshire. He owned and occupied the farm 
 late the prosperty of Landa Bristol, of Cheshire. 
 Elkanah Doolittle, of Cheshire, was graduated 
 from Yale College. He was twice married, first to 
 a Miss Cook, and his second marriage, to Hannah 
 Compton, took place in Brooklyn, N. Y., where he 
 resided until his death. He left the following chil- 
 dren: Edward (deceased in Cheshire), who mar- 
 ried Abigail Foote, daughter of Dr. William Foote ; 
 
1354 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Milton; Elkanah; Warren, who died in Cheshire; 
 and WilliaiTi A., who died in Brooklyn, New York. 
 
 Warren Doolittle, son of Elkanah, andi grandfa- 
 ther of Warren P. Bristol, was born in Brooklyn, 
 1813. He was postmaster for a num'ber of years, 
 and died in Cheshire, in 1870. 
 
 In 1837 Warren Dooiittle married Ann L. M. 
 Taylor, and he left the following children ; Ed- 
 ward A., Oliver T., Fannie A. (Airs. Bristol), Hen- 
 ry W., and Alilton C. 
 
 DAVID PLATT, a prominent farmer in 
 Orange, was born in Naugatuck, Conn., in 1830, 
 a great-grandson of Josiah Piatt, who was a dea- 
 con in the Congregational church in West Haven, 
 and aided largely in its support. 
 
 Nathan PJatt, grandfather of David Piatt, was 
 a prominent man in his day. He was a captain 
 of a military company, and served in the war of 
 1812. His house was raided by the British soldiers 
 in that war. He married Cata jNIerrick. 
 
 Nathan Piatt, son of Nathan and father of our 
 subject, was born in Orange in 1800. The main 
 part of his early years were spent in the common 
 school and in aiding his father upon the farm:; he 
 received some special private instruction. A few 
 years after his marriage he purchased a farm in 
 'West Haven, which he occupied for a goodly num- 
 ber of years. For some time prior to his death in 
 1877, he lived retired. He married Mary Aleloy, 
 a daughter of John Aleloy, who was a son of Ed- 
 ward Meloy, who came to America about 1760, 
 and became one of the standard residents of New 
 Haven, Conn. He was an extensive property 
 owner and real-estate dealer. The house which 
 he built for his own occupancy is still standing 
 (1902) on the west corner of George street and 
 Congress avenue. His wife was Alary Parmelee. 
 John Meloy, son of Edward Meloy, married Esther 
 Umberfield. To Nathan Piatt and wife v/ere born 
 ten children : Jane E. who married Francis Kim- 
 berly; Samuel, who resides in Naugatuck; Mar- 
 garet, a resident of West Haven; David; Enyly A., 
 who married George E. Trowbridge, of New 
 Flaven ; John, who resides in New Haven ; Sarah 
 A., residing in West Haven ; and George, Nathan 
 M. and Stiles T., all of New Haven. 
 
 David Piatt, the fourth child of Nathan Piatt 
 and Mary (Meloy) Piatt, received his education 
 in the public schools. In early youth be manifested 
 that energy and intelligence which have charac- 
 terized him through life. He early learned a trade 
 and gave lit his attention for a few years. In 
 1852 he went to California, and after spending two 
 years in mining, he returned East with means to 
 give him a start in life. He gave some attention 
 to his trade while deciding upon some direct plan. 
 In 1856 he married Melissa .\. Shenehon, daughter 
 of AHchael and Rebecca (Johnson) Shenehon, of 
 New Haven. In 1857 he purchased a beautifully 
 located tract of land on Long Island Sound, erect- 
 
 ing his present substantial house and outbuildings, 
 and here he has engaged in the fruit and vegetable 
 farming and in fishing along the Sound, having 
 large seines at Cove River. Success has attended 
 his efforts. Mr. Piatt is a representative New 
 Eng'lander, a man of sterling business integrity — 
 one whose "word is as good as his bond" — of great 
 ■energy and keen insight. Above all this, he is em- 
 phatically the poor man's friend. To many a man 
 endeavoring to make some headway in the world, 
 he has extended a helping hand. He is now looked 
 upon as one of the substantial residents of West 
 Haven. In accumulating this world's goods, he has 
 not overlooked his civic duties, 'but has taken an 
 active part in political affairs, casting his ballot in 
 favor of the Democratic party. For many years he 
 was a member of the board of selectmen, assessor 
 in 1889, town agent in 1890, member of the town 
 committee for a number of years, and chairman of 
 the same nearly all the time. He has been delegate 
 to different County, State, Congressional and Sena- 
 torial conventions, and has been chairman of the 
 Senatorial committee. His influence has been felt 
 alike in Republican and Democratic ranks. He has 
 been a member and director of the Orange and 
 Milford Agriculural Societies, and' is one of the 
 original stockholders in the Oak Grove Cemetery 
 Association, having served as president for four 
 years, and on the board of directors for seven years. 
 In 1856 Mr. Piatt was united in marriage with 
 Melissa A. Shenehon, daughter of Michael and 
 Rebecca (Johnson) Shenehon, of New Haven. 
 This union was blessed with three children, Mary 
 R., wife of Burton G. Andrew, of Orange ; Sarah 
 S. ; and Florence L., wife of Edwin W. Decker. 
 Mr. Piatt has been called to mourn the loss by 
 death in 1858, of his mother, and in 1892 of his 
 wife. Of these two we may say, they were beau- 
 tiful in person, mind and character ; women who 
 ever dispensed kind words and generous deeds. 
 His father died in 1877 ; he was a man who was 
 always ready to help his neighbor, and his house 
 was a home for the homeless. Mr. Piatt's eldest 
 sister, a noble woman we may call her, died in 
 1895 ; a void came when she was gone, but glad 
 memories filled it. One more, Mr. Piatt's brother 
 George ; he was three years in service during the 
 Civil war ; two in direct service and one as a re- 
 cruiting officer, and he entered into rest in 1902. 
 
 HEZEKIAH GILBERT was a native of New 
 Haven, son of Amos and Elizabeth Ann (Ailing) 
 Gilbert, and of good old Puritan stock. On both 
 sides he was descended from long lines of noble and 
 heroic ancestry, and was sixth in descent from Matt- 
 hew Gilbert, of Colonial fame. He took a deep in- 
 terest in public affairs, and in politics was a Whig, 
 but upon the formation of the Republican party, he 
 became a stanch supporter of its policies. In the 
 business world he was a man of marked ability and 
 personal integrity ; and in his bearing a true type 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1355 
 
 of the old school of courteous manners, and was of 
 graceful and imposing personality. 
 
 From the formation of the Candee Rubber Co., 
 he was one of its most efficient and tireless members, 
 until the death of his only son, Amos H., when he 
 retired from active business. Amos H. Gilbert was 
 a young man of great promise, and was engaged in 
 the mercantile house of Messrs. Claflin & Co., of 
 Boston; at the opening of the Civil war, he obeyed 
 his country's call, and died while on duty at Fort 
 McHenry, July 4, 1861. 
 
 Before the outbreak of the Rebellion, Mr. Gil- 
 bert gave a lot of land — a portion of the family 
 property — in trust for mission purposes. On this 
 was erected the Bethany mission, which has trained 
 for this work hundreds of Yale students, now scat- 
 tered all over the world. In this little chapel Sun- 
 day schools and services are held by different de- 
 nominations. Its trustees were appointed from Yale 
 College by Mr. Gilbert. 
 
 In 1886, at the advanced age of eighty-four, 
 Hezekiah Gilbert entered into rest, leaving one 
 daughter, Airs. E. Gilbert Jerome, of New Haven. 
 
 MARCUS MERWIN, a highly esteemed citi- 
 zen of the town of Milford, residing a mile and a 
 half from Milford village, was born in that town 
 Aug. 20, 1827, the son of Mark and grandson of 
 David Merwin. 
 
 The family has been identified with Milford 
 from an early day, and David Merwin was born 
 there and made his home upon our subject's present 
 farm. He married Eunice Perry, and had eleven 
 children as follows : David was a tanner in the vil- 
 lage of Milford ; Isaac was a farmer there, but died 
 in Ohio; John was a farmer and was also engaged 
 in trucking for the city of Bridgeport ; Martha mar- 
 ried Jerard Davis, a miller and farmer in Hamden, 
 Conn. ; Sally married Andrew Baldwin, a farmer in 
 New Milford; Mehitable married Samuel Potter, of 
 Orange, Conn.; Mark is mentioned more fully be- 
 low; Merritt was a farmer and' raiser of garden 
 seeds in Milford; Nancy married a Mr. Stone, a 
 farmer in Pennsylvania ; Polly married a Mr. Piatt ; 
 a farmer of Milford; and Eunice died unmarried. 
 
 Mark Merwin, our subject's father, was born in 
 Milford, and passed his life there in agricultural 
 pursuits. As a citizen he was much respected and 
 although not a politician he took keen interest in 
 public affairs, first as a Whig and later as a Repub- 
 lican. He married Susan J. Miles, daughter of 
 Theophilus Miles, a farmer of Milford, and they 
 had seven children, viz: Susan, deceased, who 
 married Lyman Treat of Orange ; Martha, wife of 
 James T. Burns, of Milford ; Nathan, who married 
 Ann Baldwin; Marcus, our subject; Samuel, who 
 was a carpenter in New Haven ; Caroline, who mar- 
 ried Theodore Bristol, of Milford ; and Samuel, de- 
 ceased. 
 
 Marcus Merwin's boyhood was spent after the 
 custom of farmers' sons in his day, and as a young 
 
 man he engaged in farming on his own account. 
 His farm contains about 125 acres, and for many 
 years his specialty has been the raising of garden 
 seeds. He is a Democrat in politics, and he and his 
 family are leading members of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church, in Milford. His wife, formerly 
 Eliza A. Piatt, of Milford, is a daughter of Daniel 
 Piatt, a well-known farmer of that town. Of their 
 five children the eldest Eugene, deceased, was a 
 carpenter by trade; Miss Jennie E. is at home; 
 Wallace is a fisherman in New Jersey ; Emma is at 
 home; and Frank resides in Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 EZRA SMITH, a worthy representative of the 
 Smith Family of Connecticut, was born Dec. 16, 
 1788, a son of Jeffrey Smith. The early history of 
 the Smith family may be found in the sketch of Davis 
 W. Smith, elsewhere in this volume. 
 
 Jeffrey Smith was born in the town of Haddam, 
 in 1763, a son of William and Martha Smith, and 
 grew 'to manhood in his native place. He learned 
 blacksmithing, and when he had mastered it, he 
 moved to Madison, and located on the Neck, where 
 he bought a small farm, which he cultivated in con- 
 nection with his work in the smithy. He built a 
 fine dwelling house on this tract, and spent his life 
 there, dying Feb. i, 1846. During the Revolution 
 he drove cattle across the ice on the Hudson river, 
 for Washington's army, and he drew a pension un- 
 til his death. As may be inferred, he was a public- 
 spirited and patriotic citizen. He married Dorothy 
 (Dolly) Hubbard, who was born in Haddam, and 
 died in Madison July 13, 1836. Their children were : 
 (i) Jonathan was born Jan. 4, 1785. (2) Daniel 
 Hubbard, born March 23, 1787, married Content 
 Fowler. Of their chilSren there is yet living in Madi- 
 son, a daughter, Emeline Smith ; three grandchil- 
 dren, D. Eugene Smith, Catharine Shelley and Char- 
 lotte Hinman ; and one great-grandchild. May Day. 
 (3) Ezra is mentioned below. (4) Esther, born Oct. 
 16, 1790, married Dudley Brainerd. (5) Austin, 
 born in 1793, died in Novem'ber of the same year. 
 (6) Austin (2), born Feb. 9, 1794, died Aug. 8, 
 1820. (7) Marvin, born in 1796, married Wealthy 
 Shailer. (8) Davis, born in 1798, died April 25, 
 1827. (9) Samuel, born Aug. 16, 1799, married 
 Lucinda, daughter of Gideon Watrous, of Chester, 
 and lived and died in Madison, in the house where 
 he was born. His son Samuel S., his grandchildren, 
 William Bassett and Gertrude Ely, and his great- 
 grandchildren, Raymond Algiers, and Clarence and 
 Elsworth Bassett all reside in Madison. Emily 
 Hopkins, daughter of Samuel and Lucinda, lives 
 at Westville, Conn., with her three children, Ed- 
 ward, William B. and Jennie. (10) Junius, was 
 born March 25, 1801. (11) Helena, born Nov. 29, 
 1802, died Oct. 11, 1806. 
 
 E»ra Smith was married Oct. 3, 1813, to Martha 
 Stone, a descendant of John Stone and Gov. William 
 Leete, two of the original settlers of Guilford. This 
 marriage was blessed with children, as follows : 
 
1356 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 (i) Catharine, Mrs. Kelsey, has three children- 
 Ezra, Sarah M. Cruttenden and Mary Blakeman— 
 and four grandchildren — Robert Cruttenden, and 
 Eva, John and Maud Blakeman. (2) Rosalind had 
 a granddaughter, Harriet Coe, who lives on the 
 Neck. (3) Mary married Edwin Watrous, and had 
 five children: Andrew (who has five children, 
 George, Paul, Bernard, Fannie and Grace) and 
 Franklin lives on the Neck; and Martha F. Burr 
 (who has two children, Frederick and Jessie) Julian 
 F. (who has two children, Lena and Isabella) and 
 John N. (who has three children, Charles, Julian 
 and Ruth) all live in Thomaston. (5) Andrew 
 Norman Smith is mentioned below. 
 
 Andrew Norman Smith was married April 16, 
 1850, to Lydia S. Kelsey, and of the children that 
 blessed this union, we have record of the following: 
 Thomas Andrew resides on the Neck, in Madison, 
 with his three children— Gerrit, Martha Stone and 
 Newman S. ; Elizabeth married Thaddeus F. Leete 
 (a direct descendant of Gov. Leete), and with her 
 three children, Emma, Dorothy and Caroline, lives 
 in the sarne house with her brother Thomas; and 
 Gerrit, is in business in New York. 
 
 FRANK DAMON PUTNAM, a prominent 
 and well-known man of Hamden, New Haven coun- 
 ty, was born in Boston, Mass., June 23, 1875, but 
 vvas reared in this county, making his home with 
 his paternal grandfather. Rev. Austin Putnam, who 
 for almost half a century was the beloved pastor 
 of the Congregational Church of Whitneyville. 
 
 This branch of the Putnam family was among 
 the earliest settlers at Crovdon, N. H., going there 
 from Sutton, Mass. Caleb Putnam, the grandfa- 
 ther of Rev. Austin Putnam, and Deacon David 
 Putnam were the first settlers of the name in Croy- 
 don. They located on the southeast slope of the 
 Pinnacle, in a locality long known as the "Salt 
 Box." They were noted for their hardy constitu- 
 tions and their great industry. 
 
 Rev. Austin Putnam was born at Croydon, N. 
 H., March 6, 1809, and was there reared upon a 
 farm. After pursuing his studies in the district 
 school and at Newport Academy he entered Dart- 
 mouth College in 1825. At the close of his second 
 year circumstances led him to relinquish his plan 
 of a full collegiate course, and he soon after com- 
 menced the study of law in the office of H(on. F. 
 A. Tallmage and Charles F. Grim, of New York, 
 and completed it in the office of Hon. John P. and 
 J. Newland Cushman, of Troy, N. Y., and at the 
 Law School at Litchfield, Conn. In July, 1831, he 
 was admitted to the Bar at Utica, N.'y. He 
 immediately began practice at Troy, N. Y., with 
 highly encouraging prospects. But after a short 
 time in that profession he experienced a total 
 change in his views on the subject of religion. At 
 what he conceived to be the call of duty, he left 
 the profession which 'he had chosen, and 'which he 
 loved, and began the study of theology under the 
 
 instruction of Rev. Nathan S. S. Beman, D. D., of 
 Tro)', N. Y. He was ordained at Lowville, N. Y., 
 in 1834. After a few years of successful labor in 
 New York City and New Haven, Conn., be was, 
 Oct. 31, 1838, installed as pastor of the Congrega- 
 tional Church at Hamden, Conn., which position he 
 filled for forty-eight consecutive years. In 1833 
 he married, at Lowville, N. Y., Miss Caroline W. 
 Northrop, a native of that place, born March 21, 
 1813, a daughter of Gen. Joseph A. Northrop, of 
 that place. In 1844-45 ^^^- Putnam spent a year 
 in Europe, traveling over difl^erent countries. In 
 1839 Yale College conferred on him the honorary 
 degree of Master of Arts. He was a man of reg- 
 ular habits, for years retiring every night at eight 
 o'clock, rising in the morning at six, and break- 
 fasting at seven, and, he was punctual almost to the 
 minute. The only office, outside of those connected 
 with the church, which he would accept was that 
 of school visitor, which he filled for several years. 
 For a few years after coming to Hamden he lived 
 in the parsonage, and then erected the house where 
 our subject now resides, which was his home up to 
 the time of his death, on Sept. 26, 1886. Although 
 he was extremely generous and charitable, giving 
 freely to the poor and needy, he accumulated con- 
 siderable property. No man in the community was 
 held in higher esteem, and in his death the people 
 of Hamden realized that they had lost one of their 
 best and most useful citizens. Rev. Austin Putnam 
 was in many ways a remarkable man. He was the 
 type of man whose advice to young people was, 
 "Carefully study what is expected of ycu as a 
 church member, then if you can live up to those 
 requirements it is time to unite with the church." 
 He detested hypocrisy. He was a great lover of 
 , dumb brutes, was fond of dogs, and his admira- 
 tion and love for a good horse were very marked. 
 He always kept a good horse, and could drive and 
 manage horses very successfully. In disposition 
 Mr. Putnam was kind and lovable, witiiout any su- 
 perfluous dignity except on occasions when dignity 
 is called for. During a married life of over fifty 
 years few couples have lived more congenially than 
 did he and his wife. Mrs. Putnam was one of those 
 kind-hearted women who endeared herself to all 
 with whom she came in contact, and with her hus- 
 band enjoyed the respect and esteem of all. She 
 died Aug. 31, 1893, and both are buried in Whit- 
 neyville cemetery, in Hamden. In their family were 
 six children: Blandina M., born Sept. 28, 1839, 
 lived to the age of fifty-two, and died unmarried; 
 Sarah Jane, born Jan. 20, 1842, died in young 
 womanhood ; Joseph N., born Aug. 2, 1844, was the 
 father of our subject; James C., and Caroline, 
 twins, born Aug. 2, 1845, of whom James C. died 
 young, and Caroline married Henry McCarty and 
 died in the West; and James C. (2), born' July 
 23, 1849, died young. Of this family the only 
 descendant is Frank D. Putnam, whose name opens 
 this sketch. 
 
MRS. CAROLINE W . PUTNAM. 
 
UMJJMh (JlUMMtv. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1357 
 
 Joseph N. Putnam, our subject's father, was 
 twice married, first on June 3, 1869, to Miss Belle 
 Shirley, who died Sept. 29, 1878, at the age of 
 thirty-two years. Our subject is the younger of the 
 two children born of this union. Austin, the elder, 
 was born in Boston, Mass., Jan. 12, 1870, and died 
 Jan. 25, 1876. The father was again married, Dec. 
 24, 1886, his second union being with Catherine M. 
 Polh'ill, who is now living in New York City, and 
 by whom he had no children. He died suddenly 
 Jan. 8, 1887, in New York City. 
 
 Immediately after his mother's death Frank D. 
 Putnam came to Hamden, Conn., to make his 'lome 
 with his grandparents, and remained with them 
 until their deaths. His education was received in 
 the public schools of the town, and at Montclair, 
 N. J. At the age of fifteen years he began life for 
 himself, working at the machinist's trade for Her- 
 rick Cowell, of New Haven, with whom he remained 
 six months, and later was employed in the same 
 capacity by E. A. Burgess, of New Haven, for two 
 and a half years. After leaving the employ of Mr. 
 Burgess he was employed at the New Hkven Water 
 Co.'s pumping station at Whitneyville, where he 
 took up the trade of mechanical engineering. This 
 work did not agree with him and he was obliged 
 to give it up. Later he was for a short time em- 
 ployed at the Winchester plant as engineer, and 
 then partly from desire for outside work, and 
 greatly from a natural fondness for horses — a trait 
 that is hereditary — he took up the business of train- 
 ing, developing and driving fast horses, a calling 
 in which he has been successful and which he has 
 followed ever since. He has shown himself to be a 
 skillful reinsman, and for one of his years occupies 
 a foremost position as a driver and handler of fast 
 horses. Mr. Putnam has confined his attention to 
 handling horses for others, going into the racing 
 business only as a representative, not as an owner. 
 
 On Dec. i, 1896, Mr. Putnam married Miss 
 Essie Rhoda Preston, of Ansonia, Conn., daughter 
 of Wesley and Laura (Brown) Preston, and to 
 them have been born two children : Gladys M., 
 Oct. 26, 1897, died in infancy ; and Carolyn E., Dec. 
 5, 1898. In his political views Mr. Putnam is a 
 stanch Republican, and in his social relations is a 
 member of Rathburn Lodge, Knights of Pythias, of 
 New Haven. 
 
 TROWBRIDGE. Of the families of the Col- 
 ony of New Haven, 1641, and since represented 
 continuously in the town and city's history — cov- 
 erig a period of over two hundred sixty years — 
 few if any have exertedl a greater influence for 
 good than that of Trowbridge; and fromi a busi- 
 n::ss standpoint, through the last hundred years of 
 the city's history, certainly no one firm has left a 
 greater impress in business circles than that of 
 Henry Trowbridge & Sons and its successors, 
 Henry Trowbridge's Sons— Thomas R., Henry, 
 Ezekiel H. and Winston J. 
 
 Thomas Trowbridge, the progenitor, probably, 
 of all the name in America, emigrated from Taun- 
 ton, Somersetshire, England, to this country about 
 1636, bringing with him two sons, Thomas and 
 William. They settled in Dorchester, Mass., 
 where another son, James, was born. Thence he 
 removed with his family in 1641 to New Haven, 
 where he purchased lands, built houses, was a 
 .merchant, and engaged in the Barbadoes trade. 
 In 1645 he returned to England, leaving his "three 
 sons, houses, goods, lots, estates and chatties, in 
 tiust with his steward, or servant, Henry Gibbons, 
 but this n^an shamefully neglected them and proved 
 dishonest and false to his trust, and a friend. Ser- 
 geant Thomas Jeffries, took these three sons to ed- 
 ucate and bring up in the fear of the Lord, and 
 when Air. Trowbridge comes back, Vv^ill leave it 
 with the court to determine what is equal for it." 
 Thomas Trowbridge, the eldest of these sons, 
 remained at New Haven, and was a merchant. He 
 was born in 1632, married Sarah, daughter of Hen- 
 ry Rutherford, of New Haven, and died in 1702, 
 leaving a large estate. From this Thomas Trow- 
 bridge (2) the Trowbridge sons mentioned in the 
 foregoing descended in the sixth generation, the 
 line of their descent being through Thomas (3), 
 Daniel, Rutherford and Henry. Of these ances- 
 tors, Thomas Trowbridge (3), born in 1663, mar- 
 ried Mary, daughter of John Winston, and died 
 in 171 1. Daniel Trowbridge was born in 1703, was 
 graduated from Yale College, married Malbel, 
 daughter of Francis Brown, and died in 1752. 
 Rutherford Trowbridge, born in 1744, married 
 Dorcas, daughter of Amos Hitchcock. Henry 
 Trowbridge, born July 30, 1781, married Harriet, 
 daug'hter of Ezekiel Hayes. 
 
 Henry Trowbridge, son of Rutherford, and 
 the father of the Trowbridge brothers under con- 
 sideration, was a 'shipping merchant, and early in 
 the present century founded the house of Henry 
 Trowbridge & Son, New Haven, which was more 
 extensively engaged in the West India trade than 
 any other house in the State of Connecticut. Hen- 
 ry Trowbridge began business as a shipping mer- 
 chant, taking his sons in business with him as they 
 became old enough. In 1826 the eldest, Thomas 
 R., began his business career under his father's 
 care, and as time passed was taken into the busi- 
 ness as an interested partner, and in about 1837 
 the second son, Henry Trowbridge, who likewise 
 had been practically schooled in the business be- 
 came of age and a partner in the house. Subse- 
 quently tihe younger sons, Ezekiel H. and Winston 
 J., became members of the firm as they became of 
 age, both having been trained fromi their early 
 years in the business. In 1849, on the death of the 
 senior member of the firm, the four brothers estab- 
 lished the firm of Henry Trowbridge's Sons, in 
 which business each was active until his death save 
 Ezekiel H., who retired in 1885. Henry died in 
 1883. 
 
1358 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Henry Trowbridge, Sr., while yet in his 'teens 
 turned his attention to the sea, beginning his ca- 
 reer in 1799. His first trip was on the ship "Bet- 
 sey," to China, and at Canton he became clerk of 
 the captain (Howell), taking account of cargoes 
 and keeping books. Subsequently he became first 
 officer of a West India trader, and, having saved 
 his money, made several voyages on his own ac- 
 count. In three years he had 'sufficient means ,to 
 purchase a sloop on the Connecticut river, which 
 vessel he fitted out as a schooner, and as captain 
 he went into the West India trade. After a trip 
 heestablished himself in business, as set forth in 
 the foregoing. His death occurred Oct. 7, 1849. 
 Thojias Rutherford Trowbridge, son of Hen- 
 ry and Harriet (Hayes) Trowbridge, was born 
 July 17, 1810, in New Haven, and in its schools 
 received his early scholastic training, completing 
 his education, however, in Partridge's Military 
 Academy, at Middletown. After his school days 
 were over he entered the counting house of his 
 father, and from that year (1826) until his death. 
 May 26, 1887, he was, with the exception of occa- 
 sional absences in the West Indies and elsewhere, 
 always at his office in the unpretentious Trow- 
 bridge counting room on Long Wharf. Through 
 his long, active business life of upwards of sixty 
 years in New Haven he was a man of upright char- 
 acter and integrity, and held in the greatest degree 
 the confidence of his fellow-citizens, of all who 
 knew him, and with whom he had business deal- 
 ings. He was broad, liberal and just. He was 
 fitted for positions of high trust and responsibility 
 in city and State, and was often obliged to de- 
 cline them owing to numerous family trusts and his 
 own large business affairs. During the Civil war 
 he made a record that was enviable, having shown 
 himself a true and generous friendl to the soldiers 
 and their families, responding liberally to constant 
 calls upon his purse and sympathies. For many 
 years he was a valued director of the Mechanics 
 Bank, and it was at his suggestion that the bank 
 tendered the use of fifty thousand dollars to Gov. 
 Buckingham in the dark days of the Rebellion. 
 
 Mr. Trowbridge was the choice of the Repub- 
 lican committee as candidate for lieutenant gov- 
 ernor of Connecticut, with Hon. William A. Buck- 
 ingham for governor, in 1858, an honor which he 
 positively and persistently declined. At the break- 
 ing out of the Civil war he threw his whole soul 
 into the cause of liberty, and although too far ad- 
 vanced in life to enter the. field actively, aided in 
 sustaining the government in every possible way 
 by his influence and wealth. When the loth Con- 
 necticut Volunteer Infantry broke camp, with or- 
 ders to proceed to their rendezvous, a beautiful 
 State flag was presented to them by Mr. Trow- 
 bridge, made expressly for the regiment by his 
 wife and daughter. He afterward presented flags 
 to several Connecticut regiments, and swords to 
 numerous officers, and was the first to provide a 
 
 flag which was raised and kept flying on the steeple 
 of the Center Church. He was one of the most 
 active citizens in New Haven in the formation of the 
 Sanitary Commission, and contributed greatly to its 
 success by pecuniary assistance, as well as by per- 
 sonal service. At one time in order to raise New 
 Haven's quota of men without a draft, he paid 
 fifteen dollars each for thirty enlistments. Mr. 
 Trowbridge had a taste for historical research, was 
 one of the founders of the New Haven Historical 
 Society, and was instrumental in having prepared 
 and published the history of the Trowbridge fam- 
 ily. "In his business relations Mr. Trowbridge 
 showed a breadth of mind which joined with far- 
 seeing prudence and a high standard of commercial 
 honor brought him well-deserved wealth." 
 
 On Sept. II, 1834, Mr. Trowbridge was mar- 
 ried to Caroline Hoadley, daughter of Capt. Simon 
 and Polly (Harrison) Hoadley. 
 
 Henry Trowbridge, son of Henry and Harriet 
 (Hayes) Trowbridge, was born April 22, 1816, in 
 New Haven, and was there schooled and trained 
 for business under his father's care in the latter's 
 counting room and in the business noted in the 
 foregoing. He was associated with his father in his 
 life time, and throughout life, with his brothers, 
 continued in active business, and did his full share 
 toward the great success all attained. After a life 
 of usefulness in the community Mr. Trowbridge 
 died. May 28, 1883, highly esteemed and greatly 
 respected. He filled various positions of trust and 
 distinction in social life, which a well-earned repu- 
 tation for sagacity, integrity and practical efficiency 
 led to. For fifteen years he was vice-president of 
 the New Haven Bank, and for forty-five years a 
 director. From time to time he was frequently 
 called in both the city and town of New Haven to 
 places of active service. He united with the First 
 Congregational Church in New Haven May 31, 
 1840, and from that time until his death continued 
 a loyal and active member of the same. He was a 
 m.an of quiet manners, gentle and kind, a genial and 
 sympathetic companion, and eminently domestic in 
 his preferences .and habits. His tastes were elevat- 
 ed, as were the tone and tenor of his .life. He 
 possessed good judgment and rare good sense, 
 with a quick and appreciative observation. 
 
 Mr. Trowbridge married (first) Miss Mary W. 
 Southgate, a granddaughter of Noah Webster, the 
 lexicographer, and (second) Miss Sarah C. Hull, 
 daughter of Edward Hull, Jr., of Brooklyn, N. Y. 
 Five daughters and one son blessed the first union^ 
 the' son dying in early boyhood. Three children 
 were born to the second marriage, only one of 
 whom, a son, survives. In memory of the two de- 
 ceased — a son and a daughter — the father founded 
 the Reference Library in the Theological Depart- 
 ment of Yale College. Undesignedly, yet most 
 fitly, this has also become a lasting monument to 
 his own personal character and worth. 
 
 EzEKiEL Hayes Trowbridge, son of Henry and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I3S9 
 
 Harriet (Hayes) Trowbridge, of New Haven, like 
 his older brothers, after his school days were at an 
 end entered the business house of his father and 
 brothers, and there received proper and most thor- 
 ough business training, such as could only be given 
 by men of a high sense of justice, honor and in- 
 tegrity. He imbibed in the course of such training 
 those characteristics that had given stability and 
 honor to his forefathers, and which have ever since 
 characterized his successful and honorable life. He 
 soon mastered every detail of the business, and 
 early in his career was intrusted with large re- 
 sponsibilities, having been sent when nineteen years 
 of age to the West Indies, where he familiarized 
 ihimself with the business affairs of the house there, 
 and where he transacted important business mat- 
 ters. Like his 'brothers, on reaching his majority 
 he was taken into the firm, and, as set forth in 
 the foregoing, remained an active mem'ber of it until 
 his retirement, May i, 1885. To his untiring en- 
 ergy, wise foresight and rare management much 
 of the success of H. Trowbridge's Sons has been 
 due. 
 
 j\Ir. Trowbridge is a man of high honor and in- 
 tegrity, and of excellent business ability, and dur- 
 ing his. long and active life has been intrusted with 
 various public and private trusts. He was one of 
 the founders of the old Elm City Bank, now the 
 Second National, of New Haven, and has ever since 
 remained one of its directors. For twenty and more 
 years he has been a director in the New York, New 
 Haven & Hartford Railroad Co., and because of his 
 far-sighted judgment has been of great service to 
 that large corporation, as well as to the other or- 
 ganizations comprising its system, in each of which 
 he still retains a directorship. Mr Trowbridge is 
 vice-president of the Shore Line Railroad Co., and 
 holds official positions in other enterprises and cor- 
 porations, where his business sagacity and wise 
 counsel have aided in their successful management. 
 
 Politically Mr. Trowbridge was first a Whig, 
 and since the organization of the Republican party 
 has affiliated with same. In no sense has he sought 
 political honors, but rather shrunk from them, and, 
 we believe, never held political office. Throughout 
 the Civil war he was a stanch supporter of the gov- 
 ernment, giving both his time and money in the 
 cause. His tastes are domestic, a characteristic of 
 the family. He is genial and social in "disposition, 
 and of positive character, warm in his friendships 
 and careful and considerate in his dealings. His 
 religious connections are with the First Congrega- 
 tional Church in New Haven, of which he has been 
 a member since 1842. He is a successful man, and 
 he gives liberally of his means to worthy charities 
 and to church work. 
 
 In June, 1840, Mr. Trowbridge was married to 
 Sarah A., daughter of Zelotes and Eliza (Atwater) 
 Day, of New Haven, and to them have come chil- 
 dren as follows : Ezekiel H., Sarah A., Sarah D., 
 Charles H. and Arthur H., of whom the two named 
 
 Sarah and Arthur H. are now deceased. Mrs. 
 Sarah A. (Day) Trowbridge was born June 12, 
 1818, and comes from sturdy New England stock, 
 being a descendant in the seventh generation from 
 Robert Day, who emigrated in 1634, when thirty 
 years of age, w'ith his wife Mary, to America, sail- 
 ing in. the bark "Elizabeth" from Ipswich, Eng- 
 land, to Boston, in New England. He first set- 
 tled in Newtown, now Cambridge, and in 1639 was 
 at Hartford, of which place he was one of the first 
 settlers and original proprietors. The descent of 
 Mrs. Sarah A. (Day) Trowbridge is through John 
 of Hartford; Thomas, of Hartford; Nathaniel, of 
 Northampton, Mass. ; Joel, of Hatfield, Mass. ; and 
 Zelotes, of New Haven, who was born June 24, 
 1791, and married July 23, 1817, Eliza Atwater. 
 
 Winston J. Trowbridge, son of Henry and 
 Harriet (Hayes) Trowbridge, was born May 10, 
 1820, and, like his brothers, became identified with 
 their father's business. He spent much of his time 
 in the interest of the firm at Barbadoes, in the West 
 Indies. His life was characterized by that same 
 broad, liberal spirit and business ability possessed 
 by the father and brothers. He was first married 
 June 12, 1850. Mrs. Trowbridge died in 1852, at 
 Barbadoes, and on Oct. 30, 1852, he married 
 Margaret E. Dean, daughter of John E. P. Dean. 
 Two children were born to the first marriage, Mary 
 L. and Caroline A. ; and to the second : Winston 
 J., Florence M., Frank D., Elford P. and Con- 
 stance B. 
 
 THO'MAS RUTHERFORD TROWBRIDGE 
 (deceased), of New Haven, son of Thomas Ruther- 
 ford, whose ancestry and life are portrayed else- 
 where, was born in that city March 3, 1839. He 
 received his early education in his native city, at the 
 well-known schools of Amos Smith, Lewis M. Mills 
 and Stiles French. After leaving school he became 
 identified with the firm of Henry Trowbridge's Sons, 
 mentioned elsewhere. The offices were on Long 
 Wharf, and it was there, with his father and uncles, 
 that young Trowbridge began his business career. 
 At the age of nineteen be was sent to the West 
 India branch of the firm, and lived in the Islands 
 Barbadoes and Trinidad five years, returning to 
 New Haven in 1863. A few years later the busi- 
 ness was transferred to New York, as that city of- 
 fered a more convenient port, although the main 
 office still continued to be in New Haven. The 
 firm was finally dissolved by mutual consent in 1892. 
 During all that time, thirty-six years, Mr. Trow- 
 bridge has been one of its most active members, and 
 in later years a partner. Since his retirement from 
 business he had been occupied with his private in- 
 terests, and with those of the institution with which 
 he was connected. 
 
 Mr. Trowbridge was always interested actively 
 in whatever concerned the welfare of New Haven, 
 and, although never taking a very prominent part 
 in the politics of the city, held several public of- 
 
1300 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 fices of trust. He served in both branches of the 
 city council, and was president of ■ the board of 
 aldermen. In 1886 he was a candidate for mayor 
 on Ithe Republican ticket, but was defeated, although 
 he reduced considerably the usually large Demo- 
 cratic majority. He was also for several years presi- 
 dent of the board of the harbor commissioners, 
 and was the first president of the Republican 
 League Club. At the time of his death, Oct. 
 25, 1898, Mr. Trowbridge was president of the 
 Mercantile Safe Deposit Co., director of the 
 Mechanics Bank; trustee of the New Haven 
 Savings Bank; president of the New Haven 
 Colony Historical Society ; trustee of the Grove 
 street cemetery, and of the New Haven Orphan 
 Asylum ; member of the Society's Committee of 
 Center Church ; member of the Chamber of Com- 
 merce; vice-president of the Connecticut Humane 
 Society ; and a member of the New York Produce 
 Exchange. He belonged to the American His- 
 torical Association, the Socieity of Colonial Wars 
 and the Sons of the American Revolution, and was 
 an honorary member of several historical societies 
 in different parts of the country. 
 
 In the field of Archaeological and historical re- 
 search Mr. Trowbridge's contributions are well 
 known and will always be valued. It was by his 
 efforts that the funds were raised for ithe many 
 memorial tablets set in the walls of Center Church 
 and the crypt below restored. He more recently 
 made similar improvements in the Grove Street 
 Cemetery. He was a leading spirit in planning and 
 carrying through the celebrations which during the 
 past twenty-five years have commemorated the 
 city's growth and history, and many of the tablets 
 which mark hisitoric spots were placed as a result 
 of his researches and under his personal super- 
 vision. 
 
 Mr. Trowbridge was connected with the New 
 Haven Colony Historical Society for thirty years 
 as a director, secretary and president, and rendered 
 important service to the Society in contributing and 
 securing additions to its collections. He also com- 
 piled a number of papers which he read before the 
 Society, being ever at preat pains to investigate the 
 facts connected with the subjects upon which he 
 wrote, and in consequence his papers are regarded 
 as trustworthy records of early New Haven history. 
 These papers contained many valuable references 
 to the business, commercial and social life of ithe 
 Colony and city. Mr. Trowbridge was an author- 
 ity on Connecticut shipping interests and was 
 familiar with their history from the earliest records 
 to the present time. His writings are preserved in 
 the published "Collecitions" of the Society, those 
 on the "Ancient Houses of New Haven" and the 
 "Ancient Maritime Interests of New Haven" being 
 the most important. Among his other papers were 
 "A Sketch of the History of the New Haven Colony 
 Historical Society," written for the opening of the 
 present building in 1892, and the "Action between 
 
 the Chesapeake and the Shannon." He also con- 
 tributed articles for several histories and historical 
 publications. 
 
 In 1864 Mr. Trowbridge was married to Kather- 
 ine, only child of Gen. Francis and Elizabeth Shel- 
 don (Dutcher) Bacon, of Litchfield, who survived 
 him with a son, Francis Bacon Trowbridge ; an only 
 daughter, Edith Champion Trowbridge, died a few 
 years ago. 
 
 "Mr. Trowbridge had a noble personality. He 
 was a whole-souled man. His heart and hand were 
 as open as the day. He was of a generous, manlv 
 nature, but did good modestly. Many a young 
 man was aided along in life by him, many a poor 
 widow's heart was made to sing with joy by his 
 timely benefactions. He was quick in his sym- 
 pathies with the joy and sorrows of others. 
 
 "He was the type of a good citizen, awake to 
 every popular interest, not seeking his own ad- 
 vancement nor jealous of the advancement of others, 
 but working on the lines of sound sense and honest 
 politics, whether of a local or national character. 
 He was a man who disliked controversy, and while 
 ready to defend his own opinions with spirit was 
 willing to give others the same chance and thus he 
 avoided bitter strife. There was something sweet 
 hearted about him which prevented him from hav- 
 ing enemies." 
 
 CORNELIUS H. CABLES, a business man of 
 Waterbury, of wide acquaintance, and of an envi- 
 able _ reputation for honor and integrity, deserves 
 special mention for the work he has done in build- 
 ing up high-grade suburban additions to this am- 
 bitious and thrifty city. He is the promoter and 
 owner of Highland Park, Cottage Park, Colum- 
 bian Heights, important additions to the city along 
 the electric line of the Waterbury and Waterville 
 road. They are the loftiest regions in the neigh- 
 borhood, and overlook the Naugatuck river, wind- 
 ing two hundred feet below in the valley. Splendid 
 modern houses, possessing all the most recent 
 features of home building, are rapidly rising, and 
 this entire tract will undoubtedly become the most 
 aristocratic quarter of the city. 
 
 Mr. Cables was born in Thomaston, Conn., Dec. 
 ID, 1849, and his father, David F. Cables, was born 
 m Oxford, Conn., about 1808. From Oxford he 
 moved to Thomaston, and died in 1895. A car- 
 penter by trade, for years he had a contract in the 
 American Knife Co.'s plant at Thomaston. 
 Lorinda Holt, his wife, was a native of Harwinton, 
 Conn., and her father was a grandson of one of 
 three brothers who came from England and pur- 
 chased land from the Indians. Mrs. Lorinda Cables 
 died in March, 1899, at Thomaston, Conn., and 
 four of her children lived to maturity. Cornelius 
 H. is the subject of this sketch, and Hartley is a 
 manufacturer in Rochester. David F. Caibles was 
 a Whig in early life, and then became an Aboli- 
 tionist, and is recorded as one of two men who 
 
6^AaJbJ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 36 1 
 
 voted the first Abolition ticket in Thomaston, 
 Later in life he became a Republican. 
 
 Cornelius H. Cables spent bis boyhood and 
 youth, until twenty years of age, attending the pub- 
 lic school and making broad and deep his prepara- 
 tion for practical life. When he became a young 
 man ready for the work of the world be went to 
 Toledo, Ohio, and secured a place in the banking 
 house of Raymond Segraves, where he spent two 
 years. At the expiration of this period he returned 
 to his old home, and for twenty years was engaged 
 in farming near Thomaston. In February, 1892, 
 Mr. Cables came to Waterbury, and entered the 
 real-estate field, revolutionizing the methods that 
 had prevailed in that line. A tract of unimproved 
 land consisting of 148 acres came into his posses- 
 sion, and this he put into fine condition, secured 
 the passing of the trolley cars, platted the tract, 
 and placed it on the market. It has met popular 
 favor, and a number of houses, costing about 
 $12,000, are already completed and occupied. Buildi- 
 ing restrictions and choice of customers are mak- 
 ing this the high-grade part of the city. Mr. 
 Cables has built water works, beautiful drives and 
 boulevards, and the city has erected an expensive 
 school house near this property. It is a broad 
 and comprehensive scheme, and has met with large 
 success. Mr. Cables has also desirable property in 
 other parts of the city. He has finished an office 
 building near the post office, 72x68 feet, and five 
 stories high ; it is built of brick, has a marble front, 
 and is pronounced by many the finest building in 
 the city. Mr. Cables has another building in the 
 same street, 45x72 feet, and four stories high. Hte 
 came to Waterbury a poor man, leaving a farm 
 where he had been raising vegetables and berries. 
 The wonderful accomplishments that have crowned 
 his career of eight years in the city have opened the 
 eyes of the people as to his business character. A 
 strict temperance man, he votes the Prohibition 
 ticket, and holds no issue so important as the moral 
 issue. Mr. Cables is an honest and uprigiht man, 
 deals squarely with the world.; he is especially fine 
 in his relations to the many men who work for 
 him, and they have good wages, are fairly treated, 
 with the natural result that their labor is well 
 worth all it costs. 
 
 In 1875 Mr. Cables was united in marriage with 
 Miss Martha Corner, a native of Canada, where her 
 father, Charles P. Corner, was also born. The Cor- 
 ners are of English ancestry. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Cables have been born five children : Edith, Bes- 
 sie, Frances, Cornelius, Jr., and Van Norn. Mr. 
 Cables' career as a farmer is one of his minor 
 vanities. There were but twenty-three acres in his 
 tract, yet from it he secured a good living, and 
 taught the people of Waterbury to know that vvhat- 
 ever came from his hands was genuine and straight. 
 The finest berries were on the bottom, and not on 
 the top, and this same spirit has animated him 
 through life, 'and in the real-estate transactions in 
 
 86 
 
 which he has been so successfully engaged for a 
 number of years every thing is open and above- 
 board. 
 
 THE NEW HAVEN COPPER COMPANY, 
 engaged in manufacturing braziers' and sheathing 
 copper, etc., is one of the old reliable manufacturing 
 concerns in the State. It was founded in 1848, and 
 the business has increased under wise management 
 to such proporitions that it is regarded as holding 
 a high position in the industries of the world. Their 
 polished copper is finished by a process peculiar tO' 
 the establishment, and is the invention of the presi- 
 dent of the Company, Thomas L. James, whose 
 patent was recorded Sept. 12, 1876. This polish 
 remains bright instead of the very temporary effect 
 by the old method. The buildings of the company 
 are extensive, and the employes, who are all skilled 
 workmen, number from 100 to 125 men. 
 
 The long experience of the Company, and their 
 intelligent use of the knowledge gained by that ex- 
 perience, has caused such a steady improvement,., 
 and the thorough reliability of their goods has won 
 for them an enviable reputation. Through their 
 prosperity, the town of Seymour has prospered, . 
 and their liberality has done much toward increas- 
 ing the natural beauty of the place. 
 
 MAX ABLER, merchant and manufacturer, of 
 New Haven, after a life of nearly sixty years which; 
 has been charadterized by great industry, energy 
 and useful citizenship, is ranked among the leading: 
 citizens and prominent manufacturers, as well as 
 the substantial men of New Haven. Although a. 
 native of Bavaria, born Oct. 14, 1840, at Berkun- 
 stadt, Mr. Adler is solely a product of New Haven,, 
 as he was brought by his parents, Sigismund ancL 
 Babetta Adler, to Ithis city, in 1843. 
 
 Sigismund Adler was a proprietor of a woolen- 
 establishment and a manufacturer of bed-ticking, 
 at Berkunstadt, but having met with reverses there, 
 he came to the United States, in 1841, wilth the^ 
 hope of bettering his condition. After a residence: 
 of two years in New York City, he came to New 
 Haven, where he established an umbrella factory,. 
 and he was engaged in the making of that article- 
 until his death in 1871. 
 
 Young Max ajttended the Washington street 
 public school, where his mornings were given to the 
 study of English branches, and the afternoons to- 
 German and Hebrew. Later he was sent to the- 
 famous Lancasterian school of John E. Lovell. 
 While thus engaged in the cultivation of his mental 
 powers, the practical preparation for the obligations 
 of life was not neglected, for beginning when a 
 mere boy of ten years, his spare hours out of school, 
 for a period of three years, were given to running- 
 errands for the late Samuel Merwin, the tailor, and 
 at thirteen he was cash boy in the fancy goods store 
 of Julius Waterman. In ithis store, he gradually 
 rose to the position of cashier, and later to that 
 
1362 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of bookkeeper, and still later, he became manager 
 of Mr. Waterman's New Haven store, remaining; 
 in charge until the business was closed out in 1858. 
 Following this experience, the next two years, 1858 
 to i860, were passed by Mr. Adler in New York 
 City, where he was in charge of the retail dry 
 goods house of William Freedman, which business, 
 in i860, was removed to the corner of Church and 
 Chapel streets. New Haven, Mr. Adler retaining his 
 position. Here, under the latter's careful and 
 judicious management, the business was soon so 
 increased, that in 1861 it necessitated a removal 
 to larger quarters, and the building on Chapel 
 street, later the site of the Wallace B. Fenn store, 
 was rented, the front altered and changed, and the 
 business removed to that point. In 1862, Mr. Ad- 
 ler severed his connection with Mr. Preedman to 
 accept the management of a similar store for Isaac 
 Strouse, on Chapel street, in Ithis city. Subsequent- 
 ly, Mr. Strouse purchased the corset business, then 
 located on the corner of State and Chapel streets, 
 of J. H. Smith & Co., which had been established 
 in 1861, with the purpose of enlarging the business, 
 and in this new firm of I. Strouse & Co., Mr. Adler 
 became a member. 
 
 From Ithis period dates an important step in 
 Mr. Adler's career, and in the history of the corset 
 business, in New Haven. The old factory was re- 
 moved to the railroad block on Union street and 
 the business there carried on until 1867, when a 
 new factory was erected, on the corner of Oak and 
 West streets, and the business removed to ilt. In 
 1871 the firm became Jacobs, Strouse & Co., Mr. 
 Adler, A. Strouse, S. L. Jacobs and R. Mayer, of 
 New York, purchasing the business. Mr. Jacobs 
 retired from the firm in 1877, and it became Mayer, 
 Strouse & Co., and the business was removed to the 
 old Winchester Shirt factory, on Court sitreet, where 
 it is still conducted, now under the name of 'Strouse, 
 Adler & Co., and it is one among the largest in- 
 dustries in New Haven. These gentlemen have 
 large, commodious buildings, modernly equipped 
 with the best labor-saving machinery, and give em- 
 ployment to from 1,000 to 2,000 hands. They 
 manufacture corsets, corset clasps and paper boxes, 
 and are also dealers in all kinds of corset materials. 
 Their place of business is known as No. 60 Court 
 street, New Haven, and their warehouse is at No. 
 412 Broadway, New York. Their goods are mar- 
 keted all over the world. 
 
 For many years, Mr. Adler has given special at- 
 tention to the study of corsets and to the manu- 
 facturing branch of the business, until he is re- 
 garded the world over as an authority in this line of 
 manufacture, and is known here, in New England, 
 as the founder of the corset business. His name 
 has become known all over Europe, and he is 
 frequently consulted for advice in Ithis line of manu- 
 facture. The corset manufacturers of the country 
 at large owe much of the legislation favorable to 
 their business to Mr. Adler, who has given his best 
 
 thought, energies and effort to the business, and has 
 intelligenltly worked and influenced legislation to- 
 ward the good of the general business. Frequently 
 has he appeared before Congressional committees 
 m Washington in this matter. In 1887, he was 
 secretary of the Corset Makers Association of the 
 United States. 
 
 Aside from this business, Mr. Adler has been 
 engaged in and identified with other enterprises, 
 and has given considerable of his time to the per- 
 formance of the duties of citizenship. He is a 
 director in the First National Bank, the New Haven 
 Water Co., the Southern New England Telephone 
 Co., the New Haven Trust Co., and the Mercantile 
 Trust Co., and he is a trustee in the National Sav- 
 ings Bank, and ex-president of the Chamber of 
 Commerce of New Haven, and has also served as 
 vice-president of that body. In 1895 he was, by 
 appointment, a member of the State Commission to 
 the Atlanta Exposition. He has served as a mem- 
 ber of the board of education of New Haven, and 
 for many years was a member of the board of 
 visitors; of the Connecticut Hospital, of the board of 
 Associated Charities, and was secretary of the He- 
 brew Benevolent Society. At present he is chair- 
 man of the finance committee of the New Haven 
 Dispensary and the organized Charities Association, 
 and is a member of various advisory committees. 
 His political affiliations are with the Republican 
 party. Socially, Mr. Adler is genial and popular 
 and is connected with several clubs, president of 
 the Harmonic. Club, and otherwise connected with 
 the Quinnipiac, the Union League, and the New 
 Haven Yacht Clubs. 
 
 On Oct. 21, 1866, Mr. Adler was married to 
 Esther Mayer, and their home has been blessed with 
 three children: F. M., a graduate of Yale, who 
 married Sophia Greenspecht, of New York, and 
 has a daughter, Esther; Flora, a graduate of Miss 
 Cady's school, married Col. J. M. Ullman, and has 
 one child, Marion B. ; and Miriam, also a graduate 
 of Miss Cady's school, married Alfred W. Weil, an 
 attorney of Denver, Colo., and has one daughter, 
 Gladys. Mr. Adler and family belong to the Con- 
 gregation Mishkan Israel. The handsome family 
 residence is on Wooster Square, in New Haven, 
 which is the winter home of the family, while their 
 delightful summer cottage is located alt Savin Rock, 
 on Long Island Sound. 
 
 DENNIS B. MEGIN. One of the impressive 
 and instructive lessons taught by biography is the 
 reward which comes to patient and intelligent in- 
 dustry. Life is filled with opportunities for him 
 who has faith, perseverance and well diredted ef- 
 fort. Mr. Megin exemplifies in the history of 
 Bethany these sterling and honored virtues. He 
 has ever been known as a hard working and in- 
 dustrious man, attributes which are kingly and mas- 
 terful in the field of human effort, and as a result 
 he has met with adequate reward, and ranks high 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1363 
 
 among the substantial and highly respected citizens 
 of Bethany. 
 
 Mr. Megin was born on a farm in the town of 
 Hamden, New Haven county, March 9, 1847, and 
 his boyhood and youth were passed amidst the toil 
 and the many arduous duties of agricultural life 
 in Connecticut almost a half century ago. He re- 
 ceived a common school education, and at the age 
 of fifteen years he began working by ithe month on 
 a farm for Augustus Lewis in the town of South- 
 ington, remaining there for three years, part of the 
 time in a factory. He then went to Naugatuck and 
 worked on a farm' for Dyer Warner until he at- 
 tained his majority. 
 
 Mr. Megin was married Jan-. 16, 1869, to Miss 
 Sarah Tuttle, of Bethany, and soon after his mar- 
 riage he settled on the farm of forty-seven acres 
 where he now lives. Beginning housekeeping here 
 in a small way, he by his earnest and effective ef- 
 forts rose steadily in the avocation of farming, im- 
 proving his property and from time to time adding 
 to its extent. He now owns five different lots, all 
 in the town of Bethany, and aggregating about 
 130 acres. Mr. Megin carries on general farming 
 and dairying. He built a number of bis own 
 buildings. 
 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Megin have been born two 
 children: Lillah, the wife of Frank Warner, has 
 three children, two sons and one daughter; and 
 Charles S., a farmer of Bethany, who married Jen- 
 nie Hogan, of Hamden, has one child, Eva J. 
 Jn politics Mr. Megin is a Republican, and in re- 
 ligious faith he is an active and consistent member 
 of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he is 
 trustee. 
 
 HENRY TROWBRIDGE] for many years one 
 of New Haven's substantial mien and prominent 
 citizens, died suddenly of apoplexy, on June 29, 
 1900, at "The Greylock," Williamstown, Mass., 
 where he had gone to pass the summer. 
 
 Born Aug. 14, 1836, in New Haven, Mr. Trow- 
 bridge was the representative of a family of wealth 
 and extensive influence in the city from the very 
 dawn of the town's settlement, 260 and more years 
 ago. He was a son of the late Thomas :^utherford 
 and Caroline (Hoadley) Trowbridge, and a de- 
 scendant in the eighth generation from Thomas 
 Trowbridge, who came from Taunton, Somersiet- 
 shire, England, as early as 1636, in which year 
 he united with the church in Dorchester, Mass. He 
 removed to New Haven as early as 1639, and con- 
 tinued making voyages between the Barbadoes and 
 England. He returned to England about 1644, and 
 there remained. There he left his three sons, who 
 on obtaining their majority became men of influence 
 and acquired large esltates. Henry Trowbridge s 
 lineage from Thomas, the American ancestor, is 
 through Thomas (2), Thomas (3), Daniel, Ruther- 
 ford, Henry and Thomas R. Trowbridge. 
 
 (H) Thomas Trowbridge (2), bom m 1632, m 
 
 Taunton, England, married (first) June 24, 1657, 
 Sarah, daughter of Henry and Sarah Rutherfordj 
 she died in 1687, aged forty-six, and he married 
 (second) Widow Hannah Ball, daughter of Major 
 John Nash. 'Mr. Trowbridge was a successful West 
 India merchant and a man of note. He died Aug. 
 22, 1702, leaving a large estate. His wife, Han- 
 nah, died Feb. 3, 1708. 
 
 (III) Thomas Trowbridge (3), born Feb. 14, 
 1664, married Oct. 16, 1685, Mary, daughter of 
 John Winslow; she died Sept. 16, 1742, aged seven- 
 ty-five, and Mr. Trowbridge died Sept. 15, 1704. 
 He, too, left a large estate. 
 
 (IV) Daniel Trowbridge, born Oct. 25, 1703, 
 married in 1731 Mtethitabel, daughter of Francis 
 Brown. Mr. Trowbridge was graduated from Yale 
 College in 1725. He died Aug. 4, 1752, and his 
 widow passed away Oct. 10, 1797. 
 
 (V) Rutherford Trowbridge, born Feb. 3, 1744, 
 married July 4, 1767, Dorcas, daughter of Amos 
 Hitchcock; she died Feb. 12, 1783, and he married 
 (second) Jan. i, 1793, Widow Thankful Mix, 
 daughter of John Ailing, and resided on Water 
 and Columbus streets, in New Haven, where he died 
 April 6, 1825; hisi wife Thankful died Aug. 8, 1831, 
 aged sixty-six. Mr. Trowbridge had the first bounty 
 for making saltpetre during the war of the Revo- 
 lution. 
 
 (VI) Henry Trowbridge, born July 30, 1781, 
 married Jan. i, 1806, Harriet, daughter of Ezekiel 
 and Mary (Hemingway) Hayes, and to them came 
 thirteen children. Mr. Trowbridge died Oct. 7, 
 1849, ^nd Mrs. Trowbridge died Nov. 21, 1851, 
 aged sixty-two. Henry Trowbridge in early life en- 
 gaged in the West India trade, and founded in the 
 early part of the nineteenth century the house of 
 H. Trowbridge & Son, later H. Trowbridge Sons 
 & Dwight, and afterward H. Trowbridge & Sons, 
 and at the death of the senior Trowbridge his sons^ 
 in memory of their father, continued the business 
 under the name of Henry Trowbridge's Sons. This 
 business was continued almost through the century 
 by the several generations of the family and was 
 the largest concern in the State engaged in the 
 West India trade. The senior member of the firm 
 was a prudent and sagacious merchant, and by 
 means of his talent and wealth exercised a great in- 
 fluence in New Haven, and the same may be said of 
 several of his sons and grandsons. His sons were: 
 Thomas R., Henry, Ezekiel H. and Winston J. 
 
 (VII) Thomas R. Trowbridge, born July 17, 
 1810, married Sept. 17, 1834, Caroline Hoadley, 
 bom April 30, 1818, daughter of Capt. Simeon and 
 Polly (Harrison) Hoadley. Mr. Trowbridge was 
 the eldest of the sons of Henry Trowbridge, and 
 through life was identified with the businessi above 
 referred to. He was a member and liberal sup- 
 porter of the First Congregational Church at New- 
 Haven and a' most useful and honored citizen. His 
 children were: Henry, Thomas R., William R., 
 Caroline H., Rutherford, Emily E. and Frank. 
 
1364 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 (VIII) Henry Trowbridge, whose name intro- 
 duces this article, was married Nov. 2, 1858, to Lucy 
 Elizabeth Parker, born June 12, 1836, daughter of 
 Joseph and Caroline (Mulford) Parker. Mr. 
 Trowbridge while ydt in his 'teens entered the busi- 
 ness house of the Trowbridges, and after several 
 years of service in the West India branch became 
 a member of the firm. Returning to New Haven, 
 he became a most energetic business man, and his 
 untiring attention to the affairs of their extensive 
 house was of the greatest benefit to it. He remained 
 actively connected with the business until the dis- 
 solution of the partnership, less than a decade ago, 
 at which time he retired from active busdness. He 
 was identified with other enterprises and interests 
 in and about New Haven, and through life com- 
 manded the esteem and respect of his fellow citi- 
 zens. He was a well-read man, and had the happy 
 faculty of remembering what he read. This gave 
 him a fund of imformation and anecdotes, and made 
 him a most interesiting companion. He was sur- 
 vived by a widow, two sons and a daughter. His 
 children were: Henry, Joseph Parker, Thomas R. 
 and a daughter. 
 
 THOMAS MORAN, the efficient superintend- 
 ent of the town poor farm of Waterbury, New 
 Haven county, and one of the highly respected citi- 
 zens of the community, was born in County Queens, 
 Ireland, June 3, 1848. 
 
 Michael Moran, his father, was also a native 
 of County Queens, and there grew to manhood. 
 For some years he worked as a day laborer in his 
 native land and then moved to Lincolnshire, Eng- 
 land, where he was similarly employed until 1862 — 
 the year of his emigration to the United States. 
 At Liverpool he and his family took passage on the 
 "Richard S. Eli,-" a sailing vessel, wWch landed 
 them safely in New York in August of that year, 
 after eight weeks spent upon the water. Going 
 to Newark, N. J., the father worked as a day 
 laborer there for a time, and then came to Water- 
 bury, Conn., where he spent the remainder of his 
 life as an employe in the shops. Here he diedi and 
 his remains were interred in St. Joseph's cemetery, 
 Waterbury. He was a Democrat in politics, and a 
 consistent member of the Catholic Church. In his 
 native county in Ireland he married Ann Bennett, 
 who was born there, and who also died in Water- 
 bury and was buried in St. Joseph's cemetery. 
 She, too, was a devout member of the Catholic 
 Church. Their children were John andi Robert, of 
 Waterbury; Michael, who died in 1901 ; Catharine 
 who married (first ) Edward Fitzpatrick, and (sec- 
 ond) Michael Ryan, and died in November, 1898 • 
 Thomas; and Elizabeth. 
 
 Thomas Moran was only a ^-ear old when he left 
 his birthplace and went to Lincolnshire, England, 
 where 'he obtained a limited education in the na- 
 tional schools. In 1862 he came to the New World 
 with his parents, and the first Fourth of July cele- 
 
 bration he ever saw took place in mid-ocean. After 
 coming to Waterbury, Conn., with the family, he 
 commenced work in the factory of Roger Brothers 
 as a polisher at ten dollars per month, and re- 
 mained with that firm for over thirty years, being 
 a contractor in the Dolishing department for eight- 
 een years of that time. His services gave entire 
 satisfaction to the company, and he had the con- 
 fidence and respect of his employers as well as the 
 men working under him. In iSgi he succeeded 
 John C. Thompson as superintendent of the town 
 poor farm and alms house, being appointed by the 
 board of selectmen, composed of Messrs. Penney, 
 Boughton and Carmady. He has now filled that 
 responsible position for nine years with credit to 
 himself, and to the entire satisfaction of the gen- 
 eral public and town officials. He has under his 
 charge over one hundred paupers, and has the man- 
 agement of the farm of 120 acres, upon which he 
 has made some valuable improvements, especially 
 in the work shops, barns and ice liouse. Neatness 
 and order prevail everywhere, and it is doubtful 
 if one could find throughout the whole State a 
 better kept institution of the kind than the one pre- 
 sided over by Mr. and Mrs. Moran. They give 
 their entire time and attention to the care of the 
 inmates and supervision of the property, and have 
 met with the most excellent success in this under- 
 taking. 
 
 In 1880, at the Church of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception, in Waterbury, Mr. Moran was married by 
 Father Walsh to Miss Catharine Brophey, and t& 
 them have been born six children, namely : Annie, 
 Thomas, John, Michael, Robert and Stephen. The' 
 family are members of the Catholic Church. Mr. 
 Moran belongs to Court Shields, Foresters of 
 America ; Sheriden Council, K. of C. ; and Connecti- 
 cut Lodge O. U. A. M. He affiliates with the 
 Democratic party, and was a member of the town 
 committee for eight years. In all the relations of 
 life he has been found true to every trust reposed 
 in him, and he is recognized as a valued citizen of 
 the town. 
 
 WILLIAM J. BRADLEY, who has been wilbh 
 the Singer Sewing Machine Co. for forty years^ 
 and is now manager of the office at New Haven, 
 is a native of that city, born Dec. 3, 1833. He is a 
 member of one of the old established families of 
 New Haven, and we have the following record of 
 the line to which he belongs, taken from papers, 
 now in the possession of George T. Bradley, his. 
 cousin. 
 
 "William Bradley, who took the oath of fidelity 
 in New Haven, Conn., in 1644, was the ancestor of 
 this branch of the Bradley family. Tradition, con- 
 firmed by research, according to the Hon. Charles 
 ^V. Bradle>-, who was at one time secretary of the 
 State of Connecticut, and a resident of New Haven, 
 states that William Bradley came from the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire, England. 
 
'^^<^(j^ (y^C^^^^-^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1365 
 
 "(I) William Bradley married Alice Pri chard, 
 daughter of Roger Prichard, of Springfield, Mass., 
 and Milford, Conn., Feb. 18, 1645. His will was 
 recorded in the New Haven Records, Vol. II, page 
 no. He probably died in 1690. She died, as it is 
 thought, in 1692. They had issue: Joseph, bap- 
 tized Jan. 4, _ 1 646, died' Jan., 1705; Martha, Oct., 
 1648, died Jan. 9, 1707; Abraham, bom Oct. 24, 
 1650, died Oct. 19, 1718; Mary, bom April 30, 
 1653, died Oct., 1724; (II) Benjamin, born April 
 8, 1657, died 1728; Esther, born Sept. 29, 1659, died 
 
 ' — ; Nathaniel, born Feb. 26, 1661, died 
 
 Aug. 17, 1743; Sarah, born June 21, 1665. 
 
 "(II) Benjamin Bradley, called sergeant, mar- 
 ried Elizabeth, daughter of John Thompson, of New 
 Haven, Oct. 29, 1677. She died Nov. 3, 1718. 
 His will was recorded in the New Haven Probate 
 R.ecords in Vol. V, page 446. Their issue : Eliza- 
 beth, born Sept. 11, 1678; Sarah, bom June 7, 1680; 
 Hannah, bom April 18, 1682; Susanna, born July 
 10, 1684; Mary, bom April 15, 1687; Desire, born 
 April 29, 1690; Benjamin, born Oct. i, 1692; Abner, 
 born March 6, 1695; (HI) Caleb, born 1700. 
 
 "(Ill) Caleb Bradley married Dec. 30, 1731, 
 Thankful Gilbert, of New Haven. He died prob- 
 ably in 1783. Their issue: (IV) Jonah, born Oct. 
 26, 1732, died March 6, 1814; Elizabeth, born May 
 .3, 1737, died Feb. 8, 1815; James, born Nov. 9, 
 
 1739- 
 
 ■'(IV) Jonah Bradley married Aug. 12, 1759, 
 Rachel, daughter of James Atwater, born April 26, 
 1737, died Oct. 2, 1809. Their issue: Caleb, bom 
 July 20, 1760; Lydia, born Dec. 29, 1761, died Oct. 
 12, 1847 ; Phebe, born Jan. 9, 1764; Esther ; Huldah ; 
 Betsey; (V) Justus, born Jan. 20, 1772, died Dec. 
 28, 1857; Sarah. 
 
 "(V) Jusitus Bradley married April 12, 1797, 
 Sarah, daughter of Ezekiel Hayes, born Dec. 28, 
 1777, died March 5, 1837. Their issue: Russell, 
 Txirn April 30, 1798; Justus, bom April 21, 1800; 
 Maria, born May 5, 1802 ; George Hayes, born Oct. 
 31, 1804, died Oct. 4, 1880; Charles, born Nov. 4, 
 1806; Elizabeth R., bom Nov. 14, 1808; William, 
 iDorn July 20, 181 1 ; Sarah A., born Feb. 26, 1814; 
 Jane C, born Sept. 28, 1816." 
 
 (VI) Russell Bradley, father of the gentleman 
 whose name opens this sketch, was born in New 
 Haven April 30, 1798, and passed all hisi life in his 
 native city, dying there Aug. 2, 1878. He received 
 his education in the public schools, and learned the 
 tailor's trade, which he always followed. He mar- 
 ried Huldah M. McNeil, who was born in New 
 Haven Jan. 21, 1800, and died June 23, 1875, and 
 ^ix children were born to Ithis union: Ann M., 
 Sarah C, Jane R., William J,, Elizabeth and John 
 D. Mr. and Mrs. Bradley were Methodists in re- 
 ligious connection. In politics he was originally a 
 Whig, finally joining the Republican party. 
 
 Like his 'father, William J. Bradley has passed 
 al! his life in New Haven. The greater part of 
 Ws literary training was received in Amos Smith s 
 
 Boarding School, and he commenced work as a 
 clerk in the general store of Daniel Trowbridge, 
 with whom he remained about six years. In 1861 
 he entered the employ of the Singer Sewing Ma- 
 chine Company, in an humlble capacity and at a small 
 salary, but industry and fidelity won for him the 
 confidence and respect of his employers, and he re- 
 ceived steady promotion, having continued with the 
 company up to ithe present day. He is now man- 
 ager of the New Haven office, and his business terri- 
 tory covers' the State of Connecticut. Mr. Bradley 
 has displayed many sterling qualities as a business 
 man, and the appreciation shown by his company 
 is but the just reward of faithful and efficient 
 service. ' 
 
 Mr. Bradley, like his father and brother, gives 
 his political support to the Republican party. He 
 worships at the M. E. Church. He has never 
 married. 
 
 DAVID LAWRENCE CLINTON, the popular 
 and efficient postmaster at Clintonville, New Haven 
 county, belongs to the family to which the village 
 owes its name. The first of the Clinton family of 
 whom anything is known was Lawrence Clinton, 
 of Dover, Mass., in 1675, who was probably one 
 of three brothers that came over together. The 
 family is of Scottish extraction, and was numbered 
 among the first families of North Haven. A son 
 of the above named, (II) Lawrence, was the head 
 of the North Haven branch of the family, and his 
 son, (III) Lawrence, seems to have been a prom- 
 inent man in his time. In 1776 the latter was ap- 
 pointed ensign, later lieutenant, and in 1781 captam 
 of a train band. He was one of six owners of 
 clocks in the town and was a part owner of the 
 Sabbath Day House, in 1786. He married Eliza- 
 beth Todd, and their son, (IV) Jesse, bom^ in 1762, 
 was the direct ancestor of the subject of this sketch. 
 He married Patience Todd, and became the father 
 of David. 
 
 (V) David Clinton, born June 20, 1790, became 
 a farmer and mechanic, and was 'the founder of the 
 agricultural works in Clintonville, in 1830. The 
 early part of his life was spent in farming, and dur- 
 ing the winter seasons hi& active and ingenious 
 mind was exercised in inventing and perfecting agri- 
 cultural implements. His first workshop was in 
 the house now occupied by Burton, Clinton, but 
 later the business grew to such dimensions that Mr. 
 Clinton's entire time was required in its manage- 
 ment, and he found it necessary to build a factory. 
 His inventions were many, and some of the most 
 useful agricultural implements now used have been 
 made from suggestions which emanated from the 
 fertile brain of David Clinton. Had he lived at a 
 later date, with propitious surroundings, his name 
 might have been as celebrated as those of other 
 great inventorsi of the present. A very strong Whig 
 in politics, he was ever ready to defend bis prin- 
 ciples, and was often called upon to do so, as his 
 
1366 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 brothers were Democratic adherents. In his young- 
 er days he was a very active member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and ever deeply interested in 
 its affairs. His personal appearance can still be 
 recalled by many of the older people of Clintonville, 
 as, being musically inclined, he led the singing in 
 the church. On Dec. 29, 1812, be married Lucy 
 Smith of North Haven, whose death occurred Aug. 
 29, 1883; he passed away in 1879. Children as 
 follows were born of this union : Lyman ; Julia 
 Salina, who married John B. Johnson; Lavinia, wife 
 of Ezra S. Munson ; Eunetia, who married Sereno 
 B. Todd; Delia, who married Mr. Todd after her 
 sister's death ; and Celia, wife of Lyman Bassett. 
 
 (VI) Lyman Clinton was born in Clintonville, 
 in 1818, and had but meager school advantages. 
 After a few years of work in his father's factory 
 he went to New Haven, and there established a 
 store for the sale of the implements made in the 
 factory. ^ Later, selling the store, he returned :to 
 Clintonville, again to engage in the manufacture of 
 the machines. His death occurred there Jan. 29, 
 1888. He married Lavinia Blakeslee, a daughter of 
 Anson and Julia (Frost) Blakeslee, and their chil- 
 dren were: Margaret, who married G. S. Vibbert, 
 of Clintonville; Josephine J., wife of Edward S. 
 Minor, of Burrville, Conn.; David L. ; Frederick 
 L., who married Ida Marks, and engages in the 
 printing business in New Haven; Anson B., who 
 married Mary Stiles, and is proprietor of, and en- 
 gaged in, a music .store in New Haven ; and Delia 
 E., Mrs. Willoughby Fowler, of Clintonville. 
 
 David L. Clinton was born June 11, 1849, and 
 after passing through the district school course in 
 his native place, he attended the New Haven Busi- 
 ness College. In company with his father and 
 brother, Frederick, be formed the firm of Clinton 
 & Sons, engaging in the manufacture of agricultur- 
 al implemenlts for many years. They finally sold 
 out to the firm of Carr & Hobson, of New York. 
 Mr. Clinton then became interested in the fancy 
 name card printing business, until his appointment 
 to the position of postmaster by President Harrison, 
 m 1888. Four years later a change in the adminis- 
 tration gave the place to a member of the Demo- 
 cratic party. For the following three years our 
 subject filled the duties of deputy sheriff, his resigna- 
 tion from this position being accepted when Presi- 
 dent McKinley re-appointed him postmaster, in 
 June, 1897; he was again re-appointed postmaster 
 March i, 1902. He is still a dealer in agricultural 
 implements. 
 
 Mr. Clinton married Fanny M. Vibbent, a daugh- 
 ter of Nelson and Lucy (Hosmer) Vibbert and 
 the only child of this union is Gertrude L.,'born 
 Jan. 5, 1879. Socially Mr. Clinton is a member of 
 Corinthian Lodge, No. 103, A. F. & A. M., of 
 Northford; of North Haven Lodge, No. 61, A. O. 
 U. W. ; and of the North Haven Grange. His 
 friends are many in Clintonville, and his adminis- 
 tration of the duties of his position is satisfactory to 
 
 the community at large. With his family he holds 
 membership in the North Haven Congregational 
 Church, and is a liberal and willine contributor to the 
 catise of religion, always being ready to forward 
 any good work in the Church or the community. 
 
 JOHN HENRY BLACK. It is astonishing to 
 witness the s'ucces's of young men who have emi- 
 grated to America without capital, and who from a 
 humble position have worked their way upward to 
 one of affluence. The readiness with which they 
 adapt themselves to circumstances and take ad- 
 vantage O'f opportunities offered, brings to them suc- 
 cess', and wins for them a place among the leading 
 men of the community in which they reside. To 
 this class belongs Mr. Black, owner and proprietor 
 of the well-known Hillside farm of Cheshire, New 
 Haven county. 
 
 Mr. Black was born in Bally-Vanen, County 
 Antrim, Ireland, Feb. 2, 1837, a son of AlicbaeL 
 and Margaret (Lynn) Black, who spent their entire 
 lives in that county. He was reared and educated 
 in bisi native place, and was the first of the fami^ 
 to come to America. He now has two sisters and a 
 half brother in New York City. It was in 1857 
 that our subject bade good-by to his old home and 
 friends, and after a voyage of seven' weeks and 
 three days, landed in New York City. He pro- 
 ceeded at once to Westchester county, N. Y., where 
 he made hisi home for several years. While resid- 
 ing there he was married ,in New York City, July 6^ 
 1862, to Miss Mary Smith, a native of Drogheda, 
 Ireland, and to them have been born five children, 
 namely : James, Edward, John, Grace and George. 
 Mr. Black continued his residence in Westchester 
 county, N. Y., until coming to Cheshire, in 1881, 
 when he purchased of William L. Hinman the farm 
 of 100 acres upon which he has since made bis 
 home. It was first occupied by Jared Ives, and is- 
 one of the oldest places in the town, the house hav- 
 ing been built about 1774. Here Mr. Black is suc- 
 cessfully engaged in general fanning, but also gives 
 considerable attention to fruit culture. In political 
 principle, Mr. Black is a Democrat. He is well and 
 favorably known, and merits the high regard in. 
 which he is uniformly held. 
 
 "" FRANK NATHANIEL HASTINGS, chief 
 engineer of the Wilcox & White Co., and boiler in- 
 spector of the City of Meriden., is one of the best- 
 known and oldest engineers of the city. He was- 
 born Sept. 17, 1850, at Scarborough, Cumberland 
 Co., Maine. 
 
 Nathaniel Hastingsi, his father, was a native of 
 the same county, where he spent all his days. He 
 was a landowner, and engaged in fanning as an 
 occupation. He died there and was buried in the 
 local cemetery. His wife, Dorcas Johnson, died 
 when the subject of this sketch was a small boy. 
 Those living of her children are: Mary, Matitie, 
 Lizzie and Frank N. Of these Mary is the wife 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1367 
 
 of JanTes Small, of Taunton, Mass. ; Mattie married 
 Joseph Henry Alden, of the Foxborough (Mass.) 
 Reviezv; and Lizzie is the wife of William Mossi, 
 of Foxborough, Mass. Three are deceased, name- 
 ly: Alvin, a soldier of the Civil war, who died 
 in middle life; Louise, who died unmarried, at the 
 age of twenty-one years; and Ellen, who married 
 Joseph Lane, of Taunton. 
 
 Frank N. Hastings was born and reared on the 
 home farm, and received such educational training 
 as the local schools afforded. At the early age of 
 fourteen years he left home and went to Worcester, 
 Mass., where he learned the art of making machine 
 tools, in the employ of the L. W. Pond Tool Com- 
 pany. He spent four years in this connection, and 
 then engaged ' with the Wheelock Steam Engine 
 Company, of the same place. He (traveled about 
 the country, engaged in setting up or repairing the 
 product of his employers. In 1877 he came to Meri- 
 den to set up the engine used by the Wilcox & 
 White Organ Co., and his evident understanding 
 of his business attracted the attention of the pro- 
 prietors of the plant. The result was that, soon 
 after his work was completed, while doing similar 
 work in Maine, he was tendered the position of 
 engineer by the Meriden house, with which he has 
 ever since been connected. Before the close> of 
 that year he came here and took up his duties, in 
 charge of the machinery of this large plant, which 
 he hasi helped to build up and insifcall. He is the 
 oldest engineer in Meriden, in point of service, and 
 one of the best known in the State. He is not only 
 respected as a thorough mechanic, but enjoys the 
 public esteem as a man and gentleman. During the 
 incumbency of Benjamin Page as mayor, Mr. Hast- 
 ings was appoinlted boiler inspector for the city, 
 and continued to serve under Mayor Levi E. Coe. 
 He was re-appointed by Mayor E. E. West, and is 
 now serving his fourth term under Mayor Seeley. 
 This fact alone demonstrates hig faithful and ef- 
 ficient character as a public servant. He is a mem- 
 ber of the National Association of Stationary En- 
 gineers and assisted in organizing the State Asso- 
 ciation, and was its first presiident. He is identified 
 with Meridian Lodge, No. yj, A. F. & A. M. ; Key- 
 stone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M. ; and Hamilton 
 Council, No. 22, R. & S. M., besides being a member 
 of Pacific Lodge, No. 87, L O. O. F., of which he 
 is Past Grand, and which he has represented in the 
 Grand Lodge of the State. For some time he was 
 connected with Atlantic Encampment, of the latter 
 order, and is now affiliated with the Meriden 
 branches of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, 
 and the Order of United American Mechanicsi. 
 
 While he does not speak for pohtical honors or 
 emoluments, Mr. Hastings takes an intelligent in- 
 terest in the progress of his country and votes with 
 the Republican party. He seeks to follow the lines 
 laid down by the Savior for the conduct of human 
 life, though not connected with any religious organ- 
 ization. A man of broad mind and generous im- 
 
 pulses, he is justly popular with all classes of citi- 
 zens. 
 
 Mr. Hastings has been twice married. At Nor- 
 walk, Conn., Dec. 31, 1878, he was joined in wed- 
 lock to Miss Annie Green, a native of that place, 
 daughter of Hirafn and Adeline Green. She died 
 in 1887, and was buried in Norwalk Cemetery. 
 Of her two children, Ida, the youngest, died in in- 
 fancy; Addie L. was educated in the district and 
 high schools of Meriden, and the State Normal 
 School at New Britain, and is now a successful 
 teacher in the public schools of Wallingford, Conn. 
 For his second wife, Mr. Hastings wedded Ida B. 
 Clark, a native of New Haven, Conn., daughter 
 of Eleazer Clark, who, it is claimed, was the in- 
 ventor and first manufacturer of sulphur matches, 
 and one of the greatest horticulturists of his day. 
 The only child of this marriage. Faith, died in in- 
 fancy. Mrs. Hastings is a member of St. Andrew's 
 Episcopal Church, and a lady of social and personal 
 graces, devoted to her home and husband, the true 
 helpmeet of a worthy citizen. 
 
 JAMES MONROE HUNT, late owner and 
 proprietor of the "Guilford Point House," and a 
 well-known resident of Guilford, where hisi career 
 was honorable and successful, was born in the town 
 of Glastonbury, Conn., March 4, 1823, son of Robert 
 Hunt, who was born in the same town. 
 
 John Hunt, of Canaan, Conn., the grandfather of 
 James M., was an iron worker in Glastonbury, 
 where he was principally engaged in the manu- 
 facture of anchors. He died and was buried in 
 Glastonbury. Robert Hunt, noted above, was also 
 engaged in the iron business until 1836, when: he 
 met with reverses, and was forced to give up the 
 factory and remove to Guilford, where he took 
 charge of a hotel, renting the "Guilford House" 
 and conducting it succesisfully. In 1847 it passed 
 into his ownership, and for many years he was its 
 genial and hospitable landlord, being in charge at 
 the time of bis death, April i, 1870. Robert Hunt 
 was a man of fine character, much ability, and took 
 a leading part in the afifairs of the town, where 
 he wai3 'highly respected, not only for his genial 
 spirit, but for his sterling manhood and genuine 
 worth. As a representative of his town to the State 
 Legislature he displayed much ability, and was re- 
 garded as a useful member of that body. In re- 
 ligion he was a member of the Episcopal Church, 
 and in politics a Democrat. Robert Hunt and 
 Katurah Shipman were married in Glastonbury, 
 where she was born, a daughter of John Shipman, 
 a successful farmer. Mr. and Mrs. Hunt were the 
 parents of the following children : ( i ) Kate, who 
 is single; (2) James M.; (3) Mary, widow of 
 Bernard McGee; (4) Ralph and (5) Martha, both 
 of whom died young. Mrs. Robert Hunt died in 
 1857. 
 
 Jameisi M. Hunt attended the district school and 
 the academy at Glastonbury, and came to Guilford 
 
1368 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 with hisi parents while still young. Remaining at 
 home with his parents until he was seventeen years 
 of age, he had a good, practical education, and at 
 that age secured a good position in the post office 
 at Hartford. This he held only four months when 
 his father sent for him to have 'his help in the hotel, 
 and as the health of the senior Hunt gave way on 
 account of the infirmities of age, the son was pushed 
 more to the front, until it came about some years be- 
 fore his father's death that he had entire charge 
 of the hotel. As a hotel man he built up an en- 
 viable name, and enjoyed a repultation second to 
 none in the State. 
 
 The "Guilford Point House" is an attractive es- 
 tablishment, finely furnished, and has accommoda- 
 tions for sixty guests. Part of the house was de- 
 stroyed by fire in 1897, but with characteristic enter- 
 prise, many substanttial and permanent improve- 
 ments have been made since that time, and the house 
 is more attractive and pleasant than ever. There 
 are guests in the hotel who have been there twenty- 
 seven years and more. The table is supplied with 
 the best the market presents, served in an attractive 
 manner. 
 
 Mr. Hunt was married Nov. 9, 1854, in Guil- 
 ford, to Miss Lucy A. Norton, a daughter of Horace 
 Norton. Mr. and Mnsi. Hunt had one child, Har- 
 riet L., who married Scott M. Bryan, and had three 
 children, Mabel Dudley, Catherine Hunt and Scott 
 M., Jr. Mr. Hunt was a Democrat, but did not 
 unite with any church. He was an honorable and 
 upright man, and his death, which occurred July 
 13, 1901, at his home on Leete's Island, was sincerely 
 mourned. 
 
 The Norton Family, to which Mrs Hunt be- 
 longs, has long been settled in Guilford and Bran- 
 ford Richard Norton, the first of the family in 
 Guilford, was a native of Sharpenhafn, England 
 and was a son of William, a grandson of Richard' 
 and a great-grandson- of John Norton, all natives 
 of the same Bedfordshire town. Richard Norton 
 lived in London, England, where he married 
 Letitia,, daughter of Luke Norton, and their son 
 John, who was born in 1622, came to America and 
 located m Branford in 1644. Fourteen years later 
 he removed to Farmington, where he spent the re- 
 mainder of his life, and where he died Nov. 5, 1709. 
 He was three times married and became the 'father 
 of seven children. 
 
 John Norton, the oldest son of the above, was 
 born in Branford, May 24, 1651, and removed to 
 Farmington with his parents, where he spent his life 
 dying April 25, 1725. He married Ruth Moss' 
 who was born Jan. 5, 1657, and was a daughter of 
 Deacon Isaac Moss. She became the mother of ten 
 children. 
 
 John Norton, a son of the above, was. born in 
 Farmington in 1684, and spent the last part of his 
 life in Kensington, where he died in 1750. On May 
 6, 1708, he married Anna Thompson, and to this 
 union were born thirlteen children. 
 
 Charles Norton, the second child of the above, 
 was born Dec. 17, 1710, in Farmington, and carne 
 to Guilford, where he died Dec. 24, 1786. He was 
 married for the first time, Aug. 9, 1738, to Rebecca 
 Munson, of North Haven ; and later married Mary 
 Gould, who was born Feb. 2, 1716, and who 
 died Sept. 25, 1793. He was the father of seven 
 children: (i) Rebecca was the oldest child; she 
 was born May 11, 1739, married Samuel Hart, and 
 died July 28, 1769. (2) Charles, born May 12, 
 1742, married Sarah Street, and died March 19, 
 1818. (3) Olive, born March 20, 1750, married 
 Timothy Baldwin, and died March 7, 1805. (4) 
 Abel, born April 3, 1753, married Lucy Bartktt 
 Jan. 13, 1788. (5) Gould G., a physician, born 
 Aug. 18, 175 1, married Martha Hitchcock, and died 
 Nov. 21, 1813. (6) Henry, born Nov. 11, 1756, 
 married Polly Brace. (7) Gideon, bom July 3, 
 1759, married Lucy Russell, and died April 16, 
 1822. 
 
 Gideon Norton' and Lucy Rus/sell, who were 
 married Dec. 2, 1787, were the parents of four chil- 
 dren : (i) Charlesi Russell, born April 19, 1789, 
 miarried Sarah Wolcott, and died Feb. 21, 1818; (2) 
 Alfred, born May 12, 1791, married Abigail Rus- 
 sell, .and died March 29, 1850. (3) Horace, born 
 June 29, 1794. (4) Ebenezer, bora Dec. i, 1797, 
 died April 2, 1820. Lucy (Russell) Norton was 
 born May 24, 1760, and died Aug. 23, 1 831, in Guil- 
 ford. 
 
 Horace Nonton, father of Mrs. Hunt, was a 
 farmer, landowner and man of affairs at Leete's 
 Island, where he spent his life, and where he died 
 March 12, 1886. He married April 14, 1818, Par- 
 melia Frisbee, who wasi bom Oct. 22, 1796, and died 
 Sept. 20, 1876. She was a daugfhter of Daniel 
 Frisbee, and the mother of: (i) Charles Russell, 
 
 A^™ -l^"' ^'" ^^^9' *^^ J"^y ^7' 1825; (2) Lucy 
 Ann, born Sept. 20, 1829, married James M. Hunt, 
 and resided on the old Leete'si Island homestead. 
 
 , MICHAEL PATRICK COEN is an Irishman 
 by .birth, but a loyal American by instinct and train- 
 ing. His father and brother attested their love for 
 this country on the hotly contested battlefields of 
 Virginia and the Southwest during the Civil war. 
 Mr. Coen was born in Queens county, Ireland, 
 July 12, 1843, and had scarcely passed his eleventh 
 birthday when he crossed the ocean with his par- 
 ents. His first schooling was obtained in Ireland, 
 and his school life ended in Waterburv, when, in 
 1861, he enlisted in the Federal army^ His first 
 service was in the ranks of the three months' volun- 
 teers, and after that term had expired he re-enlisted 
 for three years in Company F, 9th Conn. V I. 
 Throughout his term he saw active service in the 
 field. It was not long before he was transferred 
 to the signal service. After receiving his honor- 
 able discharge, in 1865, he returned to Waterbury, 
 and for the next four years was in the employ of 
 the Farrell Foundry Co., bringing to the perform- 
 
'^^51^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1369 
 
 ance of his duties constant attention, industry and 
 integrity. He invested liis savings in real estate, 
 and little by little drifted more and more into the 
 handling of property, although not neglecting fa- 
 vorable opportunities for investment in stocks. His 
 ventures proved successful, thanks to his keen in- 
 tuition and sagacious foresight. Gradually his cap- 
 ital accumulated, the interest was managed with 
 rare discretion, and he is now an extensive owner 
 of real estate. In 1895 Mr. Coen was chosen sec- 
 retary and treasurer of the Salem Spring Ice Co., 
 of Naugatuck, a position which he still fills, having 
 meanwhile served also as oresident of the company. 
 His intelligent supervision and constant, watchful 
 care have insured its prosperity. 
 
 Mr. Coen cherishes a deep interest in the G. A. 
 R., and it was through his efforts that posts of that, 
 order were established at Naugatuck and Water- 
 bury. He is also a member of the International 
 Order of Odd Fellows, a Catholic organization, 
 and of the Young Men's Catholic Institute, of which 
 society he was the first president. In private life 
 Mr. Coen is generous, kind and social, faithful to 
 every diuty, and c'haritable to the faults and frailties 
 of others. 
 
 GEORGE GOERING, the intelligent and trust- 
 worthy foreman of the m-echanical department of the 
 W. R. A. Co., at New Haven, was bom in Bavaria, 
 Germany, May 6, 1847, ^ son of Christopher Goer- 
 ing, also a native of Bavaria. 
 
 Christopiher Goering was a cabinet-maker, and 
 followed that trade all his life, in which were 
 comprised eighty vigorous and useful years. He 
 wedded his first wife, w>hose maiden name was 
 Meyer, in Germany, and she died there at the early 
 age of twenty-seven, the mother of several children, 
 of whom four are living : Jacob, who has been es- 
 tablished for forty years at No. 248 Water St., N. 
 Y. ; George ; Christopher, who is in New Haven ; 
 and Katie, wfho married a Mr. Miller. In 1854 Mr. 
 Goering caine to ithiis country and located in New 
 York, where he worked at his trade, and then estab- 
 lished himself in business. For a time he was in 
 business in Pert Chester, and wben he retired he 
 settled in Brooklyn. He took an active part in po- 
 litical affairs of the day, and he belonged to a num- 
 ber of GeiTnan societies. For his second wife Mr. 
 Goering married a Miss Raber, who is', still living; 
 she became Ithe mother of four children. 
 
 George Goering was only seven years of age 
 when his mother died, and when he was ten years 
 old he came to the United States. Two years were 
 spent by him in school learning the English 
 language, and then he secured employment in a 
 screw factory in Port Chester, where he learned the 
 machinist • trade. For some three years he worked 
 with Russell, Birdisell & Ward, and was employed 
 .in New York and New Haven until 1871. That 
 year he associated himself with the W. R. A. Co., 
 as a journeyman. His rise was rapid, and he soon 
 
 became assistant foreman, and in 1890 wasi made 
 foreman of the mechanical departmenit, having some 
 seventy men and an assistant foreman under his 
 direction. His services are in demand as an expert, 
 and he thoroughly understends his business. There 
 is one man in his department thait started with him; 
 all the others have sinoe come on duty. 
 
 On Jan. 16, 1870, Mr. Goering was married to 
 Miss Kaitie Freedman, a native oif Pennsylvania, 
 and one of the six children born to Peter Freedman, 
 an old isioldier. To this marriage have come five 
 children: George, a machinist, who married 
 Minnie Downs, and had two children — Harry C. and 
 Evalina — and died at the age of twenty-nine years 
 (he was a member of the Masons and the Odd 
 Fellows) ; William, a pattern maker at Pittsfield, 
 Maiss., who married Ada Boutell, and has one child, 
 William; Ida, who is at home, and who is a fine 
 pianist ; F. J., who graduated from Hillhouse high 
 school, and then entered the W. R. A. Co. as an ap- 
 prentice to the machinist trade; Harry, who is a 
 toolmaker under Mr. Kelly in the W. R. A. Com- 
 pany. Mr. Goering is a stanch Republican, and was 
 a councitoan' in 1883. He is a member of Day 
 Spring Lodge, No. 30, F. & A. M., of Centerville. 
 In the A. O. U. W. and the K. P. he has been 
 very active. Mr. Goering ha,si acquired some real 
 estate, and the home in which he residasi was erected 
 by him, as was also the house at No. 86 Henry 
 street, which he rents. 
 
 BELA CARTER (deceased), who during his 
 life was a well-known citizen of Meriden, was de- 
 scended from Rev. Thomas Carter, the first pastor 
 of the church in Woburn, Mass. Rev. Thomas 
 Carter died Sept. 5, 1684, in the seventy-fourth year 
 of his age, and in the forty-second year of his min- 
 istry. He was born in England, and waisi educated 
 in St. John's College, at the University of Cam- 
 bridge, where he received the degree of B. A., in 
 1629, and that of M. D., in 1633. He came to New 
 England in the ship "Planter," in 1635, and was ad- 
 mitted as an inlhabitant of Dedbam shortly after its 
 incorporation in September, 1636. He removed 
 thence to Watertown, where he united with the 
 church, and at once became active in the service 
 thereof. He preached first .at Woburn, in 1641, 
 and was ordained Nov. 22, 1642. There is evi- 
 dence that he walsi a pious, exemplary man, and a 
 sound orthodox preacher. Prior to .settling in 
 Woburn, he married Mary Dailbon, who died March 
 28, 1687. Their children, Samuel, Judith, The- 
 ophilus, Mary, Abigail, Deborah, Timothy and 
 Thomas, were born between the years 1640 and 
 
 1655. 
 
 Timothy Carter, son of Rev. Thomas, the pio- 
 neer, was born June 12, 1653, and married May 3, 
 1680, to Anna Fiske, daughter of David Fiske, of 
 Cambridge Farms, Lexington. Timothy Carter 
 was a husbandman and with Thomasi, 'his brother, 
 was proprietor of several large tracts of land in 
 
I370 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Woburn. His thirteen children, born betweeni 1681 
 and 1704, were: David, Timothy, Anna, Timothy 
 (2), Theophilus, Thomas, Abigail, Sarah, Elizabeth, 
 Benjamin, Mary, Martha and Benjamin (2). Anna, 
 wife of Timothy died Jan. 27, 1715-16, and Timothy 
 died July 8, 1727. 
 
 Benjamin Carter, son of Timothy, born Nov. 8, 
 1704, and whose birth is recorded in Woburn, made 
 his home in Sutton, Mass., and died at the age of 
 one hundred and one years. He married Sarah 
 St€)ne. 
 
 Timoithy Carter (2), son of Benjamin, born 
 Dec. 15, 1738, married Sarah Walker, born Oct. 24, 
 1735. Their children were: Timothy, born Nov. 
 27, 1768; Sally, born May 10, 1770; John, born Oct. 
 29, 1771 ; Abigail, born Nov. 19, 1773; Luther, born 
 Aug. ID, 1779; and Elias, born May 30, 1781. 
 
 John Carter, son of Timothy (2), bom Oct. 29, 
 1 77 1, married Ruth Goodnow. 
 
 Silas Johnson Carter, son of ]dhn, was born in 
 1796, in Petersham, Worcester Co., Mass., where 
 he married Ruth Vining, who died May 23, 1880, at 
 the age of eighty-three years. They were the par- 
 ents of eight sons and two daughters, viz.: Ed- 
 win, Ruth, Galen, Alba, Bela, Porter, Darius, Sarah, 
 Jared and Calvin. 
 
 Bela Carter, son of Silas J., born Feb. 6. 1828, 
 in Hardwick, Mass., married Dec. 5, 1850, Mary J., 
 daughter of Capt. Butler and Polly (Convenge) 
 Barrett, of Belchertown, Mass. Mr. Carter re- 
 ceived a common school education ini his native 
 town, and at sixlteen years of age began teaching 
 penmanship. In the middle forties he learned the 
 trade of painter and paper hanger, at Palmer, Mass., 
 and after two years in the city of Springfield, Masis., 
 located in Meriden, Conn., in 1850, engaging in 
 businesisi two years later. 
 
 During the Civil war Mr. Carter held the office 
 of first sdectman of the town, and he was a member 
 of the Common Council one term, and ohairman 
 of the Corner school district committee six years'. 
 He was treasurer of the military fund four years, 
 served for the same length of time as alderman, 
 and was notary public for thirty yeatlsi. In politics 
 he was a Whig in early life, but later became iden- 
 tified with the Republican party. He was prom- 
 inently connected with many public enterprises, for 
 twenty years was a director in the First National 
 Bank, and for miany years dealt extensively in real 
 estate. In the latter capacity he handled and sold 
 the land upon which are located the buildings of 
 "Factory E" of the International Silver Co., on 
 State St. During the stormy years of the Civil 
 war, when feeling ran high, the unerring judigment 
 and wise discretion of Mr. Carter elicited com- 
 mendation on all sides, and he filled public office in a 
 manner which won him the confidence of his fellow- 
 citizens, and the grateful remembrance of those 
 who now profit by his efficient public service. Hi;s 
 death occurred at his home at Meriden, Sept. 28, 
 1893, and he was buried in West Cemetery. The 
 
 widow who survives him and resides in Meriden, 
 is honored and respected by all who know her. 
 Eight children were bom to Mr. and Mrs. Carter. 
 Three of these, Henry Johnson, Agnes Smith and 
 Wilbur Barrett, died with diphtheria during one 
 week, and sleep in one grave in West cemetery; 
 Elmer Bela, who is a sheep ranchman in Montana, 
 married Laura M. Edwards, of Billings, Montana, . 
 Mary C, who is the widow of the late Edward H. 
 White, of Meriden (see White family) ; Bertha S., 
 who married Frederick E. Bemis, of Meriden; Rob- 
 ert William; and Annie Z. 
 
 RoRERT W. Carter, son of Bela Carter, and sec- 
 retary of the Wilcox & White Co., was born in 
 MerideD, Conn., Aug. 29, 1871, and acquired his 
 education in the Church St. grammar school and 
 the High School, graduating from the latter in 
 1888. After leaving school he was associated in 
 business with his father until about twenty-one 
 years of age, and for the following five years wais 
 employed in the invoicing department of the Meri- 
 den Britannia Co. Going then to New York 
 City, he entered the employ of W. J. Kingsland, 
 export manufacturer's agent filling the posiition of 
 cashier until his return to Meriden, in 1900. Here 
 he succeeded his brother-in-law, Edward H. White, 
 as secretary of the Wilcox & White Co., and at the 
 present time ilsi a director in that large business. 
 Fraternally he is' a member of the Alfred H. Hall 
 Council, R. A., and belongs to the social organiza- 
 tions, the Home, the Meriden Golf, and Arcanum 
 Clubs. In politics he is a Republican, and at the 
 age of twenty-four was elected a councilman from 
 the Second ward. 
 
 Fred E. Bemis^ son-in-law of the late Bela 
 Carter, and the efficient superintendent for the Wil- 
 cox & White Co., was born in Bdston, Mass., Feb. 
 6, 1863, a son of Orlando and Frances (Cheney) 
 Bemis, the former engaged in the meat business in 
 Oakland, Cal., and the latter a daughter of Samuel 
 Cheney, and granddaughter of a Revolutionary sol- 
 dier. Two children were born to Mr. and Mrs. 
 Bemis, Fred E. and Martha, the latter the wife 
 of C. R. Cros'bey, of Brattleboro, Vt. 
 
 Mr. Bemis wasi educated in Brattleboro, Vt., 
 where his parents resided, and in 1875 accompanied 
 his father to Oakland, Cal., and attended the Oak- 
 land schools for two years. He then returned to 
 Vermont and remained) in his native State until 
 his removal to Meriden in 1879. Since its elstab- 
 lishment Mr. Bemis has been connected with the 
 Wilcox & White Co. in various capacities, prin- 
 cipally of an official nature, and from the position 
 of assistant superintendent of E. H. White, suc- 
 ceeded to the superintendency upon the death of the 
 latter, in 1899. He has shown marked managerial 
 and general business ability and is one of the most 
 substantial and reliable citizens of the community. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Bemis is connected with Meri- 
 dian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M. ; Keystone Chap- 
 ter, No. 27, R. A. M.; Hamilton Council, No. 22, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1371 
 
 R. & S. M.; and the Alfred H. Hall Council, Royal 
 Arcanum. In politics he is a Republican. In Meri- 
 den he married Miss Bertha S. Carter, daughter of 
 the late Bela Carter, and one son has been born to 
 thiisi union, Leslie Carter Bemis. 
 
 COL. HENRY M. BLAKESLEE, one of the 
 ■ oldest living citizens of North Haven, is a repre- 
 sentative of a fine old family, whose record can 
 be traced as far back as 1636. 
 
 Samuel and John Blakeslee came from England 
 to America in 1636, bringing with them the tools 
 of their trade, blacksmilthing. After landing in 
 Boston they bought what was known as "Boston 
 Neck," where they estahlishied their families, but a 
 few years later renioved to Guilford, Conn., where 
 busineiS'S prospects seemed more promising. The 
 naiine of Samuel first app^jrs in New Haven in 
 1646, John removing to Woodbury. Samuel Blakes- 
 lee died in 1672, leaving a large estate to his chil- 
 dren, who were named: John, Hannah, Mary, 
 Samuel, Ebenezer, Hannah, Jonathan, Jonathan 
 (2). The fifth of the family was the direct an- 
 cestor of Colonel Henry M. He died in 1735, 
 leaving the following children: Ebenezer, Han- 
 nah, Susanna, Grace, Abrahami, Isaac, Samuel and 
 Thomas. 
 
 Lieut. Isaac Blakeslee, of this family, was born 
 July 21, 1703, served in the French and Indian war, 
 and was selectman in North Haven in 1753. On 
 May 31, 1733, he married Mary Frost, who was 
 born in 1710, and died in 1793. His death occurred 
 in 1767. The children born to them were: Isaac, 
 Mary, Sarah, Hannah, Abigail, Beulah, Ruth. The 
 last-named married Capt. Ebenezer Rogers, who 
 served in the Revolution under Capt. Douglas as a 
 member of the Fifth Connecticut Regiment. 
 
 Lieut. Isaac Blakeslee, eldest son of Lieut. 
 Isaac, the great-grandfather of our subject, was 
 born in 1733, in the eastern part of the town of 
 North Haven, and a part of the house in which he 
 was born in still istanding and is occupied. His 
 title came from his rank in a local militia company. 
 He was a farmer by occupation. His death oc- 
 curred in 1814, and his remains lie in the old ceme- 
 tery with those of the honored ancestor® of so many 
 of Col. Blakeslee's present neighbors. He married 
 Lydia Alcock, a daughlter of Thomas and Mary 
 (Gedney) Alcock, and she didd' in 1796. The 
 children born of this union have become connected 
 by marriage with the best families of New England, 
 many of them winning distinction in various lines. 
 
 Amos Blakeslee, the grandfather of our subject, 
 was born in North Haven, in the old homestead, 
 and became a prominent man in that locaHty, en- 
 gaging extensively in farming. He held the office 
 of constable, his fearlessnesisi making him very suc- 
 cessful in capturing evil doers. His death took 
 place Feb. 22, 1827. He married Eunice Cooper, 
 who survived him until 1834, and they had children 
 
 as follows : Anson, born Aug. 28, 1783 ; Eunitia, 
 bom in 1786, married Frederick Barnes; Chauncey, 
 born in 1787, who died in infancy; Willis, born in 
 1792; Chauncey (2), born in 1789; and Julia, born 
 in 1 795, who married Augustus Hemingway. 
 
 Anson Blakeslee was reared on his father'® farm 
 and was sent to the district sdhool. He early began 
 to teach, being thus employed fourteen winters. The 
 farm demanded his attention during the summer 
 season, but he also found time to learn the trades 
 of cooper, carpenter and stone mason', was noted for 
 hiis industry and intelligence, and was respected 
 throughout the community. His farm, which is 
 now occupied by E. C. Warner, became one of the 
 best in the neighborhood under his management. 
 He grew fine fruit, anid our subject well remembers^ 
 the choice apricots which at one time were grown. 
 Mr. Blakeslee was much appreciated in the Congre- 
 gational Church of North Haven, and his seat there 
 was sieldom vacant. Anson Blakeslee was united 
 in marriage with Julia, daughter of Titus Frost, 
 and the children which came to this union were : 
 Lavinia, born in 1822, married Lyman Clinton, a 
 manufacturer of agricultural implements, and lived 
 in Clintonville. Chauncey, born in 1825, married 
 Merah Heaton; he lived in North Haven and Bris- 
 tol, where he was engaged in the soda business with 
 James Heaton. Henry M. was born June 25, 1813. 
 George E., twin of Henrv M., married Elizabeth At- 
 waJter, of New Haven, and paslsied his last years in 
 North Haven, where he erected the residence north 
 of the home of H. P. Smith; he was a merchant, 
 and became a capitalist, making the bulk of his 
 fortune as a dealer in saltpeter during the Civil 
 war. Sophronia married Islaac L. Stiles, of North 
 Haven. Eliza married Henry P. Smith, and resides 
 in North Haven. 
 
 Henry M. Blakeslee was born in the old home- 
 teitead in North Haven, and enjoyed but limited edu- 
 cational opportunities, the farm requiring much of 
 his time during his early years. Removing to New 
 Haven, he engaged in the agricultural implement 
 business with his brother-iin-law, Lyman Bishop, 
 continuing thus for three years, when he returned 
 to the farm' and continued its culture until 1868. 
 In the meantime he haid bought and sold many 
 cattle, in -company with Samuel Chidsey and Willis 
 B. Hemingway, buying in Canada, New York and 
 Vermont, and had made much money by the various 
 contracts. On the death of his father, Mr. Blakeslee 
 bought the interests of the other heirs, and farmed 
 the estate until 1868, when he sold it to Edwin C. 
 Warner. Coming to North Haven, he then engaged 
 in the brick business, leasing the yard of the Culver 
 estate, and in connection with Willis B. Hemingway, 
 under the firm name of BlakesJee & Co., conducted 
 this business for some five years, at the expiration 
 of which time he bought the interest of his partner 
 and managed the same alone until he disposed of 
 it, in 1878. With his wife Mr. Blaketslee then made 
 
1372 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a visiit to California, and six months later, upon his 
 return, located in Xew Haven, where in association 
 with H. P. Smith he embarked in the fruit busi- 
 ness, which was a succesi£iful venture, and in which 
 he continued for six years. After leaving that he 
 engaged in the tea and coffee trade, with Henry 
 Dawson. Upon the death of Mr. Dawson, three 
 years later, Mr. Blakeslee removed to North Haven, 
 , where he has resided ever isince. 
 
 On May 3, 1835, Mr. Blakeslee married Char- 
 lotite Pierpont, who died Feb. 16, 1837. His second 
 marriage, on Sept. 17, 1837, was to Polly Good- 
 year, whose death occurrea Sept. 25, 1876. His 
 third marriage, Dec. 7, 1878, was to Cornelia An- 
 drews, who was born Feb. 12, 1832, in North 
 Haven, a daughter of Jessie and Mary Jeanette 
 (Bradley) Andrewfe. Her father was a sohool 
 teacher, and taught twenty-two winter terms. Mrs. 
 Blakeslee is a granddaughter of Jesse Andrews, a 
 brick manufacturer, and great-granddaughter of 
 Timothy Andrews, who, in 1780, built the old hotel 
 still standing in North Haven. Her brother, Dr. J. 
 B. Andrews, of Utica, N. Y., was first assistant 
 superintendent of the insane asylum at Utica, and 
 later was superintendent of the Buffalo asylum, one 
 of the finest in the country. 
 
 By ;his second marriage Mr. Blakeslee had the 
 foHowing named children: Theodore, who mar- 
 ried Susan Drake, of Middleboro, Mass. ; Charlotte, 
 who married Julian Tuttle, of North Haven; George 
 Goodyear, who married Florence Todd, of New 
 Haven; and Harriet, whosie death, in 1876, at the 
 age af nineteen, years., threw a shadow over the 
 community, her kindness and sweet disposition hav- 
 ing won for her many friendls. 
 
 Mr. Blakeslee has efficiently filled many of the 
 local offices, for seven )'ears acting as assessor, and 
 for many years as constable. He isi best known in 
 his locality as "Col." Blakeslee, receiving his title 
 for service in an old militia company, and it ihals 
 clung to 'him these many }-ears, until now it is al- 
 most a term of affection among the old neighbors 
 who have known him so long. The punctuality and 
 honesty of his business methodisi were specially illus- 
 trated in his service as official tax collector, w'hen 
 he settled with the town before the time appointed 
 by law, and he has the distinction of being the only 
 collector who did this. In the Congregational 
 Church Col. Blakelsilee hasi ever taken a great inter- 
 est, and he has been a liberal supporter of its work 
 in the direction of improving tilie community. That 
 his long life has been a temperate and upright one 
 his present physical health testifies, and his reten- 
 tive memory makea a vi'sit to his hospitable mansion 
 a pleasant and profitable one. As one of the oldest 
 residents he has seen many wonderful changes in 
 his surroundinigisi and in the country at large, and 
 hi;si intelligent and active mind has kept in touch with 
 all. Mr. Blakeslee possesses the esteem of the en- 
 tire community of North Haven. 
 
 MYRON C. READE, a highly respected citi- 
 zen of New Haven, has for more than a third of a 
 century been connected with the Winchester Re- 
 peating Arms Co., first at Bridgeport, and since 
 1871 at New Haven. He was born at Ashford, 
 Conn., June 24, 1843, son of Daniel and Armina 
 (Knowlton) Reade, and grandson of Samuel Reade, 
 a native and a lifelong resident of Ashford, where 
 he was engaged in farming and conducted a general 
 country store. 
 
 Daniel Reade, the tather of Myron C, was born 
 at Ashford in 1800. Early in life he taught school 
 at New Haven. For a number of years he was in 
 business in Willimantic, and was later a farmer in 
 the town of Mansfield, Tolland county. In politics 
 he was a Whig and Republican, and he was elected 
 to many of the local offices, including that of justice 
 of the peace. Religiously he was a member of the 
 Baptist Church. He died in 1878, and his wife 
 survived until 1887. To Daniel and Armina 
 (Knowlton) Reade were born twelve children, as 
 follows : ( I ) Daniel K. was a hotel-keeper in New 
 York City, where he died. (2) William P., who 
 was a manufacturer of covered cloth buttons in 
 New Haven, is now deceased. (3) Adeline mar- 
 ried a Mr. Newell. (4) Eliza married Alonzo 
 Cheever, who has for years been editor of the New 
 England Farmer. (5) J. Waterman, a machinist 
 by trade, and now a merchant at Willimantic, was 
 for years inspector of guns at Ilion, N. Y., for 
 the United States Government. (6) Emeline, Mrs. 
 Dr. Simmons, resides in Ashford. (7) Henry, who 
 was a manufacturer of jewelers' tools, dies, etc., at 
 Newark, N. J., is now deceased. (8) Augusta 
 married Charles Austin, of Worcester, Mass., a 
 retired merchant. (9) Darwin is head of a depart- 
 ment of the Willimantic Linen Co. (10) Myron 
 C. is the subject of this sketch. (11) Herbert, who 
 was a machinist and toolmaker, is now deceased. 
 (12) Louise married Edward Fisk, a merchant, of 
 Worcester Massachusetts. 
 
 Myron C. Reade spent his boyhood on the farm, 
 where he remained up to the age of seventeen years, 
 attending the district schools and also the schools at 
 Willimantic. In i860, at the age of seventeen, he 
 entered the Springfield Armory, where smaU arms 
 were manufactured, remaining about three years. 
 In 1864 he enlisted in the 30th Massachusetts Heavy 
 Artillery, unattached, served one year, and was dis- 
 charged in 1865. 
 
 Returning from the service, Mr. Reade was for 
 a short time with the Colts Fire Arms Co., of Hart- 
 ford, and then became connected with the Wheeler 
 & Wilson Co., Bridgeport, where he remained a 
 short time. He next entered the service of 'the 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Co., at Bridgeport, 
 and in 1871, when they removed to New Haven, he 
 came with them to that city, and has since been 
 with them continuously, as contractor, Mr. Reade 
 is one of the oldest contractors in point of service 
 
zl '74/ /-i/ X 
 
 iu jT.L- /-'-i7:-}i.»ii SjBrc'A^ 
 
 ,_^7'fjg^^^.s J '- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1373 
 
 with the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., having 
 been with the firm about thirty-five years. He is a 
 skilled mechanic, and possesses excellent business 
 ability, and by strict integrity and honesty of pur- 
 pose has made his way to a high position. He is a 
 self-made man in the best sense of the term, and 
 has risen by merit alone. His application and 
 thoroughness have been specially marked, character- 
 istics of his business life. 
 
 Mr. Reade married, May 14, 1868, Harriet S. 
 Slurdevant, who was born in Brookfield, Conn., 
 February 12, 1846, daughter of John and Sophia 
 (Olmstead) Sturdevant, and granddaughter of 
 Rufus Sturdevant. Her maternal grandfather, 
 Thomas Olmstead, was a native of England, but 
 lived in Halifax. John Sturdevant, the father of 
 Mrs. Reade, was a- hatter by trade. The pleasant 
 home of the Reades, at No. 165 Whalley avenue, 
 was built in 1887, and they have resided there ever 
 since. Mrs. Reade is a member of the Dwight 
 Place Congregational Church. 
 
 In politics Mr. Reade is a Republican. He is 
 prominent among the fraternal orders, has been a 
 member of the I. O. O. F., and is now affiliated 
 with Wooster Lodge, No. 79, F. & A. M., Admiral 
 Foote Post, G. A. R., and other societies. A man 
 of high character, he is influential and thoroughly 
 esteemed among a wide circle of friends and ac- 
 quaintances. 
 
 CHARLES LYMAN WRIGHT, proprietor of 
 the popular Nonpareil Laundry, No. 271 Blatchley 
 avenue. New Haven, was 'born at Westhampton, 
 Mass., Jan. 7, 1847, a son of Thaddeus King 
 Wright, and a direct descendant of Samuel Wright, 
 who was one of the first settlers of Springfield, 
 Mass., in 1636. 
 
 Tradition says that Samuel Wright, above men- 
 tioned, was a son of John Wrig'ht, of Kalvedon, 
 who in turn was a son of John Wright, of Wright's 
 Bridge, Essex, about forty miles fromi London. 
 Samuel married and became the father of three 
 sons, Samuel, Judah andl James. 
 
 James Wright, son of Samuel, died in 1723. He 
 and his wife Abigail had children : James, Abigail, 
 Helped, Lydia, Samiuel, Preserved, Hester, Jona- 
 than and Hannah. 
 
 Preserved Wright, son of James, married Sarah 
 Hannum, and had five children, Ephraim being the 
 eldest. 
 
 Ephraim Wright, son of Preserved, born in 
 1712, died Jan. 25, 1794. In 1745 he married Mar- 
 iam Wright, and they became the parents of three 
 sens and four daughters. 
 
 Ephraim' Wrig'ht (2), son of Ephraim, was 
 bom Jan. i, 1747, and died March 30, 1814. On 
 July 4, 1772, 'he wedded Abigail Lyman, and in 
 1773 moved to Westhampton. Of their children 
 we have the following record : Levi, born Aug. 19, 
 1773, died Jan. 9, 1825 ; Preserved, born July 2, 
 1775, died Sept. 8, 1839; Luther, born April 10, 
 
 1777, dSed May 9, 1846; Charlotte, born Miy 22, 
 1779, died Feb. 10, 1814; Medad, born June 9, 
 1781, died April 14, 1864; Abigail, born June 13, 
 1783, died Dec. 2, 185 1 ; Zenas, born Sept. 10, 1785, 
 died Nov. 11, 1861 ; Zadoc Lyman, born Jan. 24, 
 1788, died Dec. 10, 1844; Marian, born Oct. 31, 
 1790, died July 10, 1864; and Martin, born Feb. i, 
 1793, died Oct. 21, 1852. 
 
 Zadoc Lyman Wright, eiglith in the order of 
 birth in the above named family, was married Jan. 
 29, 1810, to Rebecca King, who was born Sept. 10, 
 1790, daughter of Thaddbus King, of Westhamp- 
 ton, and died Aug. 15, 1858. The children of this 
 union were: Naomi, born Oct. 13, 1812, died Jan. 
 16, 1892 ; Thaddeus i\ing was the father of Charles 
 L. Wright; Elmina, born Aug. 30, 1S18, died Dec. 
 25, 1863; Ansel, born Oct. 3, 1821, died Aug. 17, 
 1872. 
 
 Thaddeus King Wright was born Dec. 18, 181 5, 
 and died Dec. 20, 1861. He was a farmer by occu- 
 pation, although to some extent he followed his 
 trade, that of wood turning. On the breaking out 
 of the Civil war he organized a company for the 
 front, and was engaged in drilling it when 'he sud- 
 denly died. At one time he was a school teacher, 
 and he had a reputation for scholarly attainments 
 of a high order. Prominent in public affairs, he 
 served his town as selectman and as a member of 
 the school board. Nancy E. Lytnan, who became 
 his wife, was born in the town oi Williamsburg, 
 Mass., daughter of Elihu Lyman, a manufacturer 
 of garden implements, baskets and similar goods. 
 They had five children : Francis H., born Dec. 20, 
 1839, became a soldier in the 37th Mass. V. I. in 
 the Civil war, and died while in the army, at Fal- 
 mouth, Va., Feb. 17, 1863; Harriet married Henry 
 L. Nichols, and resides in New Haven ; Charles Ly- 
 man is the gentleman w^hose name introduces this 
 article; William K. is superintendent of the O. B. 
 North Manufacturing Co., of New Haven; Mary 
 Jane married James B. Moran, of New Haven. The 
 family were all identified with the Congregational 
 Church. Thaddeus K. Wright was a leader in the 
 movemient that resulted in the organization of the 
 Republican party in Massachusetts in 1856. 
 
 Ciharles Lyman Wright spent his boyhood days 
 in Westhampton, Mass., where he attended' the local 
 schools until he was fifteen years of age, going to 
 work on his father's farm at that time, and con- 
 fining his schooling to the winter term. In the 
 spring of 1862 he enlisted' in Company C, 52d Mass. 
 V. I., and was in the service until the close of the 
 war. Participating in many fierce and bloody bat- 
 tles, he experienced the fortunes of war, and was 
 taken prisoner by the Rebels and confined in Libby 
 prison. When his terni of enlistment expired 'he 
 was mustered out of the service, and came to East- 
 hampton, where he became a carpenter, working at 
 the trade for three years. Then 'he took up the 
 molding trade, Avhich he followed some two years. 
 For seven years he worked as a carpenter, and then 
 
1374 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 engaged as foreman of the C. Roger Bros. Manu- 
 facturing Co., makers of casket hardware. He held 
 this position seven years. Mr. Wright then came 
 to New Haven and entered the contracting business 
 for J. B. Sargeant & Co., a work in which he was en- 
 gaged for nineteen years. In 1892 he formed and 
 founded his present business, and under his capable 
 management the steam laundry has become one of 
 the successful enterprises of the town. 
 
 Charles L. Wright was married Aug. 10, 1869, 
 to Sarah E. Whitney, of South Meriden, a daugth- 
 ter of Joseph H. Whitney. She died Jan. 2, 1901, 
 leaving two children: Etta M., who married George 
 H. Rogers, of New Haven ; and Francis H. Politi- 
 cally Mr. Wright is a Republican, and has served 
 two years on the board of aldermen fromi the 
 Eleventh ward. He belongs to Pacific Lodge, No. 
 &y I O. O. F. ; the Royal Arcanum; the A. O. 
 U. W. ; the O. U. A. M. ; the N. E. O. P. ; the B. P. 
 O. E. ; and Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R., of New 
 Haven. In these various relations he is highly 
 esteemed and possesses a host of friends. 
 
 HON. WILLIAM HENRY GOLDEN, ex- 
 State Senator and an able and successful contractor 
 in the metal department of the International Silver 
 Co.'s factory, Meriden, was born in that city Dec. 
 6, 1845, son of the late William H. Golden, and a 
 brother of Eugene P. Golden, of Meriden. 
 
 Mr. Golden attended school during boyhood" in 
 his native city, and he began his business career in 
 the metal spinning department of the Meriden bri- 
 tannia factory; his first wages were fifty cents a 
 day. Here he learned the trade and continued to 
 engage in it, working as a journeyman until 1900, 
 at which time he took up contract work in that 
 department, to which line he now gives his entire 
 attention. 
 
 In political life Mr. Golden has been very promii- 
 nent, and he is a man of importance and influence 
 in his locality. Prior to the candidacy of Horace 
 Greeley he was a Republican, but has since been a 
 Democrat. In 1883 he was honored by his Demo- 
 cratic fellow citizens with election to the State 
 Legislature, and faithfully served on the committees 
 on Forfeited Rights and Woman Suffrage. In 
 1884 he was again honored, by election to the State 
 Senate, representing the 6th District. He served in 
 the sessions of 1885 and 1886, and during his term 
 of office was chairman of the committees on Woman 
 Suffrage and Manual and Rules, and in the latter 
 year was on the Military committee. Senator 
 Golden was noted for his close attention to the 
 matters given into his hands, and much of the 
 favorable legislation on the subjects named had his 
 hearty support. For one year he served as assessor 
 of the town of Meriden, and acquitted himself with 
 credit in this official relation, as in every other to 
 which he has been chosen. 
 
 In 1866 Mr. Golden was married to Miss Nellie 
 C. Crane, who was born in Killingworth, Conn., 
 
 daughter of Capt. Rufus Crane. The only child of 
 this union, Mary Ellen, died in infancy. The death 
 of Mrs. Golden occurred in June, 1896, and she was 
 buried in the East cemetery. Originally she was a 
 member of the Baptist Church, but later became 
 connected with the Christian Science Church of Bos- 
 ton, and was the founder of that faith in Meriden. 
 She was known for a long period as a lady of great 
 literary ability, her writings appearing in many of 
 the leading journals of the country. Her life was 
 an exemiplification of the doctrines to which she 
 subscribed, and her death was lamented 'by a large 
 circle of devoted friends. 
 
 The second marriage of Senator Golden, cele- 
 brated in 1897, was to Miss Elizabeth Scranton, who 
 was born in Madison, Conn., a daughter of the 
 'late Hubbard Scranton, and a sister of Arthur 
 Scranton, of Madison. The beautiful family home, 
 located on Fourth street, Meriden, presided over by 
 the estimable wife of Senator Golden with ease and 
 graceful hospitality, was erected after her plans. 
 
 Fraternally Senator Golden has long been con- 
 nected in good comradeship with Meriden Center 
 Lodge, No. 68, I. O. O. F., and also with Silver 
 City Lodge, No. 3, A. O. U. W. He was a charter 
 member of Company I, C. N. G., and is a popular 
 and highly esteemed resident of his native city. 
 His religious connection is with the Boston Chris- 
 tian Science Church. 
 
 JUDGE MUNGER, a prominent attorney and 
 counsellor at law, is the Judge of the Municipal 
 Court of Ansonia, and was born in Litchfield, Conn., 
 Feb. II, 1847. 
 
 Rufus E. Munger, his father, was born in Litch- 
 field county, and was a shoemaker by trade. He 
 had a fine patronage, and for many years made cus- 
 tom shoes in Waterbury, DeAy and Naugatuck. 
 His death occurred when he was aged seventy-two. 
 In politics he was an old-school Democrat, and was 
 regarded: as a man of much intelligence and sound 
 judgment. Fanny Fuller, his wife, was born in 
 Coventry, one of a numerous family of children 
 born to Henry Fuller, a representative of a famjly 
 long and favorably known in that part of the 
 State. She became the mother of three children, 
 two of whom are living, the Judge and Edward G., 
 who is a carpenter by trade. The mother died at 
 the age of seventy-two years, in the faith of the 
 Methodist church. The father attended the Egisco- 
 pal Church. 
 
 Judge Munger lived at home until 1862, ac- 
 quiring his education in the public school. That 
 year he went to Waterbury, and for a year was em- 
 ployed in the Buckle company ; from there he went 
 to Naugatuck, where he remained for a time, and 
 then returned home to help his father on the home 
 place, where he spent two years. For a time he 
 worked at farm work, and then came to Derby, tak- 
 ing a position as cook on a coasting vessel, under 
 Capt. Bailey. In 1865 he was again employed on 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I37S 
 
 a farm. At this time his ambition was turned to 
 the study of law, and he devoted himself to the 
 gaining of a practical knowledge of its principles. 
 That he mdght work to the best results, he left the 
 farm and secured a place in a factory. He worked 
 days and studied nights. Such application as he ex- 
 hibited could not fail of results, and presently he 
 was ready for admission. Feeling the need of a bet- 
 ter literary preparation, be attended the high school 
 in Naugatuck. In 1868 he was admitted to the 
 Bar in Naugatuck, and began a general practice. 
 Four years later he established himself in Ansonia, 
 and' for twelve years he followed his profession in 
 this city. In 1884 his health broke down, and for 
 three years he was compelled to devote himself to 
 the restoration of his health. In 1889 he located in 
 his present office on Main street. 
 
 Judge Hunger is a Republican, and since 1872, 
 when he was defeated for town clerk by the narrow 
 margin of two votes, has been in politics to a 
 greater or less extent. In the spring of 1873 he was 
 elected Judlge of Probate, and was re-elected in 
 1874, 1875 and 1876. During the years of his act- 
 ive professional labor Judge Hunger was associ- 
 ated with a number of celebrated cases, among 
 which may be mentioned the prosecution against 
 C. Smith for the murder of Dr. J. Hayes, which re- 
 sulted in the conviction of the murderer. In 1889 he 
 was elected Judge of the Municipal Court, and was 
 re-elected in 1891, 1893, 1895 and 1897. 
 
 Judge Hunger is a director and secretary of the 
 Ansonia Telephone Comjpany, and has many strong 
 friends in the business world, who are attracted by 
 his manly character and manifest integrity. 
 
 In 1871 Judge Hunger was married to Jennie C. 
 Lewis, who was born in Naugatuck, and is a daugh- 
 ter of Leonard S. Lewis, a farmer of some means. 
 Mrs. Hunger was one of six children, and is the 
 mother of a boy and a girl, Edith L. and Robert L. 
 The son is now in the Yale Law School. Judge 
 Hunger has long been a member of the I. O. O. F., 
 and has filled all the chairs of the lodges at Nauga- 
 tuck and Ansonia. With his wife he belongs to 
 the Congregational Church, and is an active worker 
 in both the society and the Sunday-school. The 
 Judge is an active and earnest worker not only in 
 the church but in every forward movement in the 
 community. He has taken a great interest in the 
 Y. M. C. A., whose fortunes he has done much to 
 advance. 
 
 BENJAMIN SLADE. Among the success- 
 ful younger lawyers of New Haven county promi- 
 nently stands the name of Benjamin Slade. Pos- 
 sessed of natural ability and unswerving tenacity of 
 purpose, he has, in a few years, gained an enviable 
 position in the legal fraternity of Connecticut. 
 
 He was iborn in Elisabethgrad, Southern Rus- 
 sia, Sept. 3, 1874. His father was a merchant and 
 government contractor for the Russian army. 
 His mother is a practicing physician in Switzerland. 
 
 iBenijamin Slade obtaiined his early education 
 from private tutors, and in- 1880 came to New Ha- 
 ven, where he attended the piiblic schools, and spent 
 two years in a private preparatory academy. Re- 
 turning to Europe, he was interpreter in the Rus- 
 sian custom house service, stationed at Nikolaiev, 
 from 1889 to 1 89 1, a portion of this time being 
 spent in further educational research. He also trav- 
 eled considerably in Europe, Asia and Africa, and 
 upon returning to New Haven, Conn., in 1892, en- 
 tered the Yale Law School, from which he was 
 graduated in 1895. The same year he was admitted 
 to the Connecticut bar, and has since practiced law 
 in New Haven. 
 
 In 1897 Mr. Slade was elected councilman of 
 New Haven and served two years, and in 1900 was 
 elected selectman of the city and served one year, 
 at the time being the youngest man ever elected to 
 that office in New Haven. 
 
 MRS. MARY F. RICHARDS, whose pleasant 
 and hospitable home is at No. 796 State street, New 
 Haven, belongs to the Hagaman family, prominent 
 in the annals of Knickerbocker days in New York, 
 being a daughter of Henry Hagaman. 
 
 Henry Hagaman, who was a native of Pough- 
 keepsie, N. Y., married Ellen Swarthout, and they 
 were living in Dutchess county, N-. Y., at the time 
 Mary F. was born. Their famjily consisted of seven 
 children, five of whom lived to mature years : Mary 
 F. (now Mrs. Richards), Maria, Henry, Theodore 
 and Isaac. Maria is married and lives in East Ha- 
 ven. Henry, Theodore and Isaac were landlords of 
 the "Albemarle Hotel" in New York for years. The- 
 odore was a banker and broker in New York and 
 when he died was worth more than three-quarters 
 of a million dollars. Isaac is now living retired in 
 East Haven. Henry Hagaman, the grandfather of 
 Mrs. Richards, was born in Poughkeepsie, and fol- 
 lowed the business of hotel-keeping. The Haga- 
 mans are among the most noted old Dutch families 
 in America. 
 
 Mary F. Hagaman has been twice married. 
 Nathan Andrews, her first husband, came from East 
 Haven, and belonged to the old and honorable An- 
 drews family of New Haven county. He was a 
 farmer and oyster dealer, as was his father before 
 him, and his grandfather was also a farmer. The 
 New Haven Palladium, bearing date of Oct. 7, 
 1879, spoke in the highest terms of the character 
 and popular appreciation of Nathan Andrews when 
 it announced his death: "Seldom does death re- 
 move from our midst one who was more univer- 
 sally beloved and esteemed than was Nathan An- 
 drews. Many hearts were filled with sadness, and 
 many eyes dimmled with tears, when last evening 
 the news of his death was spread through the 
 town. Many lost a true friend. He was a most 
 honorable and upright citizen, and has held many 
 local offices in this town, whidh he represented in 
 the State Legislature of 1861. He was one of the 
 
13/6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Board of County Commissioners in New Haven 
 county from 1872 to 1875. He was possessed of 
 many endearing qualities of mind and heart, and 
 was afifable to all. He was ever ready to sacrifice 
 his own interests to promote those of his friends. 
 In a word, he was a friend of all, the enemy of 
 none, loved and honored while he lived, whose life 
 work will long be remembered;, and whose memi- 
 ory will long be cherished by those who knew him 
 best." 
 
 Mrs. Mary F. Andrews was married the sec- 
 ond time to Major J. P. Richards, Jan. 31, 1884, 
 who died Sept. 28, 1897, after a long and painful 
 illness, which finally developed into consumption. 
 Major Richards was sixty-five years old at the time 
 of 'his death, andl had led a very active and 'busy 
 life until his failing health interfered. Born in 
 Germany, he came to this country in his youth, and 
 made his home in New Haven, where the remainder 
 of his life was spent. For a number of years he had 
 been engaged in the m|eat business, having been lo- 
 cated at first in a frame building that stood at one 
 time on the corner of Court and State streets ; 
 then he was in the City Market, and for years car- 
 ried on business in the store now occupied by Coe 
 & Field; and was at last established in a building 
 on Union street, owned by himself. 
 
 Major Richards was in his early manhood cap- 
 tain of the City Guard, and major of the Second 
 Regiment. He was twice married. His first wife 
 died in 1875, and he married Mrs. Andrews, as 
 noted above, who survives him, and is' still hale and 
 hearty. 
 
 Major Richards was a man of fine character, 
 honest heart and genial spirit. His business ca- 
 pacity was marked, his integrity manifest, and he 
 possessed the confidence and esteem of all with 
 whom 'he came in contact. 
 
 I 
 
 THOMAS F. LUNNY, proprietor of the 
 Waterbury Rubber Tire Coach Co., Waterbury, is 
 a typical American hustler^ and one, of the most 
 aggressive and progressive citizens of New Haven 
 county. 
 
 Mr. Lunny is of Irish descent, his father, James 
 Lunny, having been born on a farm in County 
 Fermanagh, Ireland, whence he came to the United 
 States in May, 1844, settling in Waterbury, Conn. 
 Here he worked in a brass factory about ten years, 
 and conducted a grocery business some thirty years, 
 dying June 8, 1896, after living retired about ten 
 years. In 1845, in Waterbury, he married Ann 
 Kennaugh, who was born at Abelace, Queens coun- 
 ty, Ireland, and came to America in 1843. She 
 died Sept. 18, 1895, the mother of ten children, as 
 follows: Mary married M. J. Brzezinski, a reporter 
 in Waterbury; John G., a liquor dealer in Water- 
 bury, married Elizabeth Gagen ; James is a constable 
 in \\'aterbury ; Maggie, twin of James, died single ; 
 Frank and Katie (twins) died young; Patrick F. is 
 city auctioneer in Waterbury ; Thomas died in in- 
 
 fancy; Annie married Edward F. Flynn, of New 
 York City ; and Thomas F., twi« of Annie, is the 
 subject of this sketch. The entire family are mem- 
 bers of the Immaculate Conception Roman Cath- 
 olic Church, and the father in politics was a stanch 
 Democrat, as are also the sons, with the exception 
 of Thomas F. and Patrick F., who are Republicans. 
 Thomas F. Lunny, the subject proper of these 
 lines, was born in Waterbury, Conn., May 6, i860, 
 and attended the public schools of the city until he 
 was thirteen years old, at that time commencing a 
 course at Masson College, Terrebonne, near Mon- 
 treal, Canada ; he then attended Holy Cross College 
 at Worcester, Mass., two years, and the Seminary 
 of Our Lady of Angels, Niagara Falls, one year. 
 Having now concluded his studies, Mr. Lunnyt 
 opened a retail grocery business on East Main 
 street, Waterbury, and carried on same about twelve 
 years, or until the fall of 1889, when he abandoned 
 that line and took up the hack business, commenc- 
 ing with a single horse conveyance driven by him- 
 self until 1897, in that year putting on another hack, 
 in 1898 adding yet another, in 1899 adding two, 
 and in 1900 five, besides an elegant and costly am- 
 bulance; in 1901, five more were added. His rigs 
 are the finest in the State, and quite new, some of 
 them having cost as much as $2,600 each, while the 
 ambulance, so he claims, is the finest in the New> 
 England States. All the hacks are handsomely and 
 comfortably upholstered, and are equipped with 
 electric lights and bells. The business is known as 
 the Waterbury Rubber Tire Coach Co., and so great 
 is the demand for conveyances that fhey are out at 
 all hours of the day and night, there being a contin- 
 uous call by 'phone for vehicles, and Mr. Lunny is 
 always there himself to receive the calls. He at- 
 tributes his wonderful success to hard work, per- 
 severance and sound judgment in all his transac- 
 tions, and he well merits the patronage accorded 
 him by the public. 
 
 On Feb. 2, 1879, T. F. Lunny was united in mar- 
 riage with Nellie Carroll, who was born in Wells- 
 boro, Penn., a daughter of William Carroll, a na- 
 tive of County Queens, Ireland. Two children 
 have graced this marriage: Mary K. and Arthur 
 J. The family are all members -of the Catholic 
 Church, Immaculate Conception Parish. Sociallv 
 Mr. Lunny is affiliated with the K. of P., the 
 Knights of Columbus, and the Foresters of Amer- 
 ica, while in politics he is a stanch Republican. 
 
 JAMES MICHAEL DUNN, manufacturer of 
 soda and mineral waters and bottler of California 
 wines, with a place of business on Hanover street, 
 Meriden, was born in Middlefield, Middlesex Co., 
 Conn., April 9, 1859, and is of Irish extraction, the 
 Dunns having long been native to the Emerald Isle. 
 
 Patrick Dunm, the father of James M., was bom 
 in Ballyadams, Queen's County, Ireland (of which 
 .community his father was also a native), and emi- 
 grated to this country at the age of sixteen years. 
 
a^- 
 
 ^^"C't.'C^.c-iY 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 i377 
 
 locating at Mididletown, and going from' tihere to 
 Mididlefield, to work at farming. Farming became 
 his life occupation, and he was for many years a 
 resident of Middlefield. Among the very earliest 
 Irish settlers in this part of the State, his honest dis- 
 position and industrious habits commanded the pub- 
 lic respect. He came into the ownership of a farm, 
 on which he died full of years and honor, and was 
 buried in the Catholic cemetery at Middletown. He 
 was always a devout member of the Roman Catho-' 
 lie Church, and died in the faith in which he had 
 lived. Mr. Dunn was married in Middletown to 
 Mary Dorgan, and they became the parents of seven 
 children, of whom James M. is the eldest. Michael 
 is a meat dealer in Southington, Conn. Miss Mag- 
 gie is a resident of Meriden. Mary is the widow of 
 Prof. John Reagan, of Rockville. Bridget is a 
 saleswoman in Aleriden. John and William! are 
 residents of Meriden. Mrs. Dunn passed her clos- 
 ing years in Meriden, lovingly cared for by her 
 children, died there, and was buried in the Catholic 
 cMuetery at Middletown. With her husband she 
 belonged to the Roman Catholic Church, and was 
 known as a devout Christian woman. 
 
 James M. Dunn received the education afforded 
 in the public schools of Middlefield, where he grew 
 up, and where he began working at an early age m 
 the Metropolitan Washer & Wringer factory, 
 spending two years there. His next engagement 
 was in New Haven, with the L. Candee Rubber Co. 
 The factory was destroyed by fire while Mr. Dunn 
 was in connection with it, and he came back to Mid- 
 dletown to work on rubber boots until the rebudd- 
 ing of the extensive works at New Haven, upon 
 which he resumed his oldi place. There he was em- 
 ployed until he came to Meriden to take a position 
 with Pitkin & Thomas, in the fish business; and 
 later he became attached to the house of Preston & 
 Brown, with whom he remained nine years. In 
 1887 he bought an interest with Michael Higgms & 
 Son, as ibottlers and manufacturers of mineral 
 waters, and had been a year with this firm when the 
 senior partner retired and it became Higgins & 
 Dunn. At the end of the second year Mr. Dunn 
 bought out the interest of Mr. Higgins, and became 
 the sole owner of a very successful business, whidh 
 has greatly increased under his admirable manage- 
 ment. 
 
 Mr. Dunn was married Sept. 23, 1885, to Mary 
 Elizabeth Higgins, who was born in Meriden, 
 daughter of Michael and Mary Higgins. They have 
 become the parents of three children : Charles P., 
 who is a student in the parochial school ; Walter, 
 who died at the age of seven years ; and Florence, a 
 student in public school. 
 
 Mr. Dunn was one of the charter members of 
 Silver City Council, No. 2, Knights of Columbus, 
 and, has been, one of its ofificers for several years ; 
 he is also a member of Division No. 2, A. O. H. ; 
 the Foresters of America; the Elks; the I. O. H.; 
 and also the John Dillon Literary Club, the Ama- 
 
 rantlh Club, the Star Social Club and other social 
 organizations intended to promote good fellowship 
 and brotherhood. Mr. Dunn is a Democrat, politi- 
 cally. He and all his family belong to the Roman 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 WALKER FAMILY. "Widow Walker," of 
 Rehoboth, Mass., was one of the first purchasers of 
 the town. Her name is on the list of those who, in 
 1643, gave in the value of their estates for a pro 
 rata division of the lands. When she came to New 
 England is not known, but records show that she 
 was one of a company that went out from Wey- 
 mouth, Plymouth Colony, undter the leadership of 
 Rev. Samuel Newman. She had two sons, after- 
 ward known as James, of Taunton, and Philip, of 
 Rehoboth. 
 
 Of Philip Walker the earliest record made is a 
 deed with his signature, dated at Rehoboth in 1653. 
 In 1659 his occupation was that of a weaver. As 
 the records of the town show, he held various posi- 
 tions of trust and honor, and in the time of King 
 Philip's war his subscription, to the town's fund for 
 the prosecution of the war was twenty-six pounds. 
 His wife, Jane Butterworth, bore him the following 
 family: (i) Samuel, born in 1655, died in 1712; 
 (2), Sarah, born in 1657, died in 1693; (3) Phillip, 
 born in 1661, died in 1739; (4) Ehzabeth, born in 
 1662, died in 1664; (5) Mary, born in 1663, died in 
 1694; (6) Experience died in 1674; (7) Elizabeth, 
 born in 1666; (8) Michael, born in 1667, died in 
 1677; (9) Ebenezer, born in 1676, died in 1717; and 
 (10) Martha. 
 
 Samuel Walker, the first of the above family, 
 was married in 1681 to Martha Ide, who was born 
 in 1654, and died in 1700. To them were born : (i) 
 Samuel, who was born in 1682; died in 1712; (2) 
 Patience, born in 1685, died in 1730; (3) Timothy, 
 born in 1687, died in 1745; (4) Peter, born in 1689, 
 died in 1760; (5) Ephraim, born in 1692, died m 
 1731 ; (6) Martha, born in 1696. By his second 
 marriage Mr. Walker had the following famiily : 
 (7) Elizabeth, born in 1702; and (8) Benjamin, 
 born in 1703. Samuel Walker was admitted a free- 
 man in 1682. He served under Major Bradford as 
 lieutenant and captain in King Philip's war. 
 
 Peter Walker, of the above family, was married 
 in 1712, to Mary Styles, who was born in 1691, and 
 died aibout 1732. To them were born : (i) Mary, 
 born in 1716; (2) Samuel, born in 1718, died in 
 1746; (3) Peter, born in 1 718; (4) Patience, born in 
 1720, died in 1744; (S) John, born in 1721 ; (6) 
 Hannah, born in 1722; (7) and (8) Grace and 
 Esther; (9) Moses, born Nov. 2, 1725, died the 
 month of his birth; (10) Moses (2), born Oct. 5, 
 1726, died in 1806; (11) Aaron, born in 1728, died 
 in 1752; and (12) Grace, born in 1730. 
 
 Lieut. Moses Walker was a member of one of 
 the companies of minute men from Rehoboth in the 
 "Lexington Alarm," andl he served during the war. 
 On March 15, 1753, he married Sarah Bowen, who 
 
 87 
 
13/8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was bom Jan. 2, 1735, and died March 3, 1768. 
 Their children were as follows : (i) Susanna, born 
 in 1754, died in 1840; (2) Huldah, born in 1756; 
 1(3) Moses, born in 1760, died in 1849; (4) Sarah, 
 -born in 1763, died in 1852; and (5) Ethel, born 
 Aug. 29, 1767, died Sept. 22, 1844. 
 
 Ethel Walker married in 1795 Susannah Car- 
 penter, who was born in 1778 and died in 1857. 
 They had the following children: (i) Ezra, born 
 in 1797, died in 1850; (2) George, born in 1798^ 
 (3) William, born in 1801 ; (4) Martha, born in 
 1803; (5) Nancy, born in 1805; she died in 1849J 
 1(6) Henry, born in 1808; (7) Amos, born March 
 <6, .1811, died Jan. 22, 1879, ™ Owosso, Mich.; (8) 
 j\bel W., born in 1814, died in 1837; (9) Leland, 
 jborn in 1816; (10) Nathaniel C, born in 1818; 
 v(ii) Harriet, born in 1821, died in 1844. 
 
 Amos Walker was born in Savoy, Mass., and 
 through his own efforts secured his education. He 
 graduated from the Medical Department of Will- 
 iams College in 1834, and immediately after his 
 marriage, in the sarqe year, went to Brooklyn, 
 Mich., where he made his home until 1846, when 
 he located in Pontiac, Alich., successfully prac- 
 ticing his profession there many years. On Aug. 
 .27, 1834, he was married at North Adams, Mass., 
 :to Mary Bliss, daughter of Ephraimi; she was born 
 March 20, 181 1, and diied Feb. 2, 1866. Their chil- 
 dren were : ( i ) Mary EUen, born in 1837, and 
 -died in 1869; (2) Abel W., born April 5, 1839, died 
 Nov. 29, 1865, in Pontiac, Mich.; (3) Lawson 
 Ethel, born in March, 1842, died Aug. 3, 1843J (4) 
 Emory Judson, born Nov. 2, 1844, at Brooklyn, 
 -Mich.; (5) George R., born Nov. 2, 1848, and lives 
 at Judsonia, Ark.; (6) Frank Bliss, born Oct. 15, 
 1850; and (7) Wealthy Evelyn, born Aug. 9, 1854, 
 .died Sept. 8, 1854. 
 
 Dr. Emory Judson Walker was married Feb. 
 
 -23, 1870, at Pontiac, Mich., to Martha, a daugiiter 
 
 -of Charles Pittman, who was born March 18, 1847, 
 
 :and to this union have come : ( i ) Abel Wilmarth, 
 
 .born March 2, 1871, married Hattie Mansfield 
 
 Beers, and is associated with the firm of C. S. Mer- 
 
 •sick & Company; (2) Charles Pittman, born Nov. 
 
 .25, 1872; (3) Mary Evelyn, born Jan. 12, 1875, 
 
 was married to Professor J. Glover Eldredge, of 
 
 .Moscow, Idaho; (4) Grace Elizabeth, born June 24, 
 
 ■1882; and (5) Emory Judlson, born March 21, 
 
 1888, died Feb. 10, 1889. 
 
 Dr. Emory Judson Walker spent his early 
 ■ school days in Pontiac, Mich., and there made preg- 
 . aration for his college course, which was pursued at 
 Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Mich. He pre- 
 pared "for his medical education in his father's office 
 at Pontiac, and graduated from Hahnemann Col- 
 Tege, Chicago, in 1868. At once after his gradua- 
 tion he took up the practice of his profession with 
 'his father at Pontiac, and continued there until 1875, 
 when he removed to New Haven, where he has since 
 resided. He was one of the incorporators of Grace 
 -Hospital Society at New Haven, and since its or- 
 
 ganization in 1889 has been a director and its sec- 
 retary and one of the staff of attending physicians 
 and surgeons. Dr. Walker is a member of Hiram 
 Lodge, No. I, F. & A. M., of New Haven. 
 
 Frank Bliss Walker was married Feb. 23, 
 1876, to Mary Louisa, a daughter of Benjamin F. 
 Mansfield, who was born Oct. 6, 1855, ^nd died 
 Sept. 14, 1888. To this union came the following 
 children: (i) EHzabeth M., born Sept. 23, 1877; 
 (2) Edward M., born Feb. 26, 1879, who is now 
 first assistant engineer in the bridge department of 
 the Michigan Central Railroad, and is located at 
 Detroit, Mich.; (3) Minnie M., born March 29, 
 1883; and (4) Marguerite M., born Aug. 8, 1885. 
 For bis second wife Mr. Walker married Margaret 
 Gardiner, a daughter of David Pierson Gardiner, 
 of Brooklyn, N. Y., who was born April 10, 1815, 
 and enjoys the reputation of being the oldest mem- 
 ber of the I. O. O. F. in New York, having been 
 for over fifty years a member of Grand Lodge, I. 0. 
 O. F., of New York. 
 
 Mr. Walker received his education in the schools 
 of Pontiac, Mich., and at New Haven. He attended 
 college at Kalamazoo, Mich., and in the summer of 
 1870 he came back to New Haven, to take up a 
 tailoring business with F. R. Bliss, becoming a 
 member of the firm of E. R. Bliss & Company six 
 years later. On Jan. i, 1899, the firm name was 
 changed to F. B. Walker & Company. The two 
 members of the firm are F. B. and Charles Pittman 
 Walker. Through Yale associations the firm has a 
 very large western trade, and for the last twenty 
 years Mr. Walker has made extended trips through 
 the West in the interest of his business. Since 
 1878 he has been a member of Calvary Baptist 
 Church. In the associations of the Masonic fra- 
 ternity he is a conspicuous figure, as he belongs to 
 Hirami Lodge, Harmony Council and Franklin 
 Chapter, and he is one of the charter members of 
 the Union League Club. With four others he 
 founded the Young Men's Republican Club. He is 
 a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the 
 Business Men's Association of New Haven. From 
 ^870 to 1877 he belonged to the New Haven Grays. 
 
 Charles Pittman Walker was born in Pon- 
 tiac, Mich., and was married in New Haven, Oct. 
 19, 1898, to Carolyn Minerva, a daug'hter of Ben- 
 jamin Andrew and Lizzie Thomas (Noble) Booth. 
 Mrs. Walker was born July 8, 1877, and is the 
 mother of one child, Richard Booth, born Aug. 16, 
 1899. Benjamin Booth, her father, was born in 
 1854, and was married in 1876, at Westfield, Mass., 
 to Lizzie Thomas, a daughter of Jacob A. Noble, 
 by whom be had the following family : ( i J Caro- 
 lyn M.; (2) Julia Noble; (3) Elizabeth Isabelle; 
 and (4) Benjamin Noble. 
 
 Benjamin Booth, the grandfather of Mrs. 
 Walker, was born in 1822, and died Mardh 28, 
 1899. His marriage occurred in 1848, when Caro- 
 line Ann, a daughter of Samuel and Salina (Smith) 
 Andrew, became his wife. To^them were born: 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 '379 
 
 (i) Benjamin Andrew; (2) Esther Amelia; (3) 
 Williaml Lincoln; (4) Clifford Herman; (5) Car- 
 rie; (6) Frank I.; and (7) Harry Colfax. Ben- 
 jamin Booth was the son of Noah, and a grandson 
 of Elijah Booth. 
 
 Caroline Ann Andrew was a daughter of Sam- 
 uel Andrew; Samuel was the son of William, the 
 grandson of William, and the great-grandson of 
 Jonathan, who was a son of Samuel, a grandson of 
 Samuel, and a great-grandson of William Andrew. 
 Charles Pittman Walker was born in Pontiac, 
 Mich., Nov.' 25, 1872. He attended the New Haven 
 public schools, and was graduated at Hillhouse high 
 school in the class of 1892. The same year he be- 
 came associated with F. R. Bliss & Co., and later 
 became a member of the firm as already noted. He 
 belongs to Hiram Lodge, No. i, A. F. & A. M., 
 the Chamber of Commerce and is also a member of 
 the New Haven Grays. 
 
 Mrs. Mary (Bliss) Walker, the mother of Dr. 
 E. J. and Frank Walker, of New Haven, descends 
 from Thomas Bliss, Who was born in Belstone, Eng- 
 land, in 1550, and on account of his Puritan faith 
 suffered much persecution in his native land. His 
 son, Jonathan IBliss, who was born at Belstone in 
 1575, was bitterly persecuted as a Puritan, and died 
 from fever contracted from long imiprisonment. 
 
 Thomas Bliss, also born at Belstone, emigrated 
 in 1636 to America, and made his home at Boston, 
 Braintree, Weymouth and Rehoboth, Mass., and at 
 Hartford, Conn. He died in June, 1644. 
 
 Jonathan Bliss, born in England in 1635, is re- 
 corded as a freeman in Plymouth im 1655, and was 
 one of eighty who made the Rehoboth North Pur- 
 chase in 1666, building a house there the same year. 
 By trade he was a blacksmith. He married Mir- 
 iam Harmon, and his death occurred in 1687. 
 
 Jonathan Bliss, who was born Sept. 17, 1666, 
 was a man of standing in the town, and was mar- 
 ried first, June 23, 1691, to Miriam Carpenter, born 
 Oct. 26, 1674, died May 21, 1706. In 171 1 he mar- 
 ried, second, Mary French. Mr. Bliss died in 1719. 
 Lieut. Ephraim Bliss was born Aug. 15, 1699, 
 and was married Dec. 5, 1723, to Rachel Carpenter. 
 Ephraim Bliss, Jr., was born June 3, 1726, and 
 was married Jan. 17, 1751, to Mary Moulton, who 
 died Nov. 14, 1759. He was an "eight minute man" 
 in the company of Capt. Bliss. He died in July, 
 1804. 
 
 Ephraim Bliss, born in 1753, was married in 
 1779, to Hannah Carpenter, of Rehoboth, who was 
 born March 6, 1757, died Aug. 18, 1798. His sec- 
 ond wife was Rebecca Smith. He died May., 8, 
 1822. 
 
 Ephraim Bliss, Jr., born in Rehoboth, Aug. 17, 
 1782, was married Jan. 9, 1806, to Olive Ingram, 
 bom Oct. 29, 1785, died Jan. i, 1849. Mr. Bliss 
 removed to Savoy, Mass., where he engaged m 
 farming. His death occurred in North Adams, 
 Mass., in 1832. 
 
 Mary Bliss was born March 20, i8ri, and was 
 
 married Aug. 27, 1834, to Dr. Amos Walker. She 
 died Feb. 2, 1S66. 
 
 Franklin Remington Bliss was born Oct. 24, 
 1826, at Savoy, Mass., and was married June 14, 
 1854, to Evelyn, a daug'hter of William Goodnow, 
 of Lanesboro, Mass., by whom he had the follow- 
 ing childreni : ( i ) Grace Evelyn, born in 1856, mar- 
 ried Rev. T. M. Snyder, D. D., pastor of the Second 
 Congregational Church, of Rockford, 111., and their 
 children were : Evelyn, who died in infancy ; Frank- 
 lin B. ; Alice Dorothy ; and Edward D. (2) Charles 
 Franklin, born June 7, 1858, is the treasurer of the 
 Farrell Foundry Company at Ansonia, Conn. ; he 
 has two children, Eleanor and Margaret. (3) Ar- 
 thur Goodnow died in 1862. (4) Anna Louise, 
 born Sept. 13, 1864, married Dr. Bliss Perry, of 
 Cambridge, Mass., and known to fame as the editor 
 of the Atlantic Monthly. (5) Helen Rockwell, 
 bora Jan. 11, 1869, married John H. Gray, of North- 
 western University, Evanston, 111., where he is pro- 
 fessor of economics; they have two children, James 
 Bliss and Evelyn. 
 
 Franklin R. Bliss was educated at North Ad- 
 ams, Mass., and for a time worked at the tailoring 
 business. For four years he was a cutter at Pitts- 
 field, Mass., and later was employed by William T. 
 Jennings & Co. in the same capacity, and also by 
 Milton St. John, both of New York. Coming to 
 New Haven, to cut for Knevals & Hull, he became 
 a partner with the firm. In 1858 he set up a busi- 
 ness for himself, which he sold in 1899 to F. B. 
 Walker & Company. He has been a member of the 
 Calvary Baptist Church since its organization. _In 
 this church he is still very active, and is regarded 
 as one of its most active mem'bers, taking an especial 
 interest in its musical service. When this church 
 was erected Mt. Bliss was treasurer of the Asso- 
 ciation, and so well was it financiered that at its 
 dedication its entire cost, $110,000, had been paid, 
 with balance of $16.38 in the treasury, which the 
 association ordered the treasurer to hand over to a 
 mission Sabbath-school, which later became the 
 nucleus of the present Sabbath-sdhool of 800 meni- 
 bers. Of the first twenty-nine names placed on his 
 report, Mr. Bliss' is the only name of a man who is 
 still al'ive. Mr. Bliss belongs to the Hiram Lodge, 
 No. I, A. F. & A. M., and the Chamber of Com- 
 m^erce. 
 
 PAULUS JULIUS MEFFERT, proprietor of 
 the Terrace Gardens at Meriden, was born at Suhl, 
 Thuringen, Prussia, Germany, July 7, 1843, son of 
 Frederick and Wilhelmina (Habermann) Meffert, 
 the father a gun mlanufacturer and engraver. Both 
 our subject's parents are now deceased. They were 
 metalbtfrs of the Lutheran Church. Of their six 
 children, Robert, Amanda and Beata reside in Suhl, 
 Germany; Paulus Julius is our subject; Gustavis 
 a gun manufacturer at Suhl, Germany; Ernest died 
 ■while serving in the Franco-German war. The fa- 
 ther married for his second w'ife Anna Cornelia 
 
i3?o 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Kr^ch, who died in 1900, the mother of three chil- 
 dren : Hedwig, Lydia and Maria, all living. 
 
 Paulus J. Alefiert received a good education in 
 his home country, and found emiployment in the 
 engraving department of his father's factory, where 
 he was engaged in working out the ideas for a 
 new kind of gun. Mr. Meftert came to this coun- 
 try in 1866, and was engaged at silver plating for 
 some time with the Wilcox Silver Plate Co., w'here 
 he had a good situation. In 1868 he took a jylace 
 with the Meriden Britannia Co., ,and held same 
 until July of tlhe following year, when he went to 
 Springfield, Mass., to be a gun engraver. Mr. 
 Mefifert remained in Springfield until 1870, when 
 he removed to New York City, to become an en- 
 graver for John Ward, in Maiden Lane. There 
 he was engaged eleven years, when he came again 
 to Meriden, entering the employ of the Meridlen 
 Silver Plate Co., which he served from 1881 to 1897. 
 In the latter year Air. Meffert took possession of 
 his present place, which had been conducted as a 
 summer resort under the same name — the Terrace 
 Gardens. Here he has made many and extensive 
 improvements, and conducts the Gardens in such 
 a manner as to win the good opinion and patronage 
 of the people of Meriden, with whom he is very 
 popular. 
 
 In 1899 ^Ir. Mefliert was married in Meriden 
 to Mrs. Christine Messner, widow of Jacob Mess- 
 ner. They are members of the Lutheran Church, 
 and are kind-hearted and warm-souled people. He 
 is independent in politics, is a member of the 
 Saengerbund, the B. P. O. E. and other societies, 
 and was am&ng the founders of the German- Amer- 
 ican School Association and tihe Turnverein, as 
 well as of the Saengerbund. 
 
 iMARSHALL JEWELL ADAMS, M. D., who 
 enjoys a large and lucrative practice in West Ha- 
 ven and vicinity, is an able representative of the 
 medical fraternity. No profession offers better op- 
 portunities for bringing success than the one with 
 which he is connected ; yet this measure of success 
 must come as a reward of thorough preparation 
 and earnest effort. That Dr. Adams is recognized 
 as a leading physician and surgeon is due to his un- 
 tiring labor and deep researches along the various 
 lines of medical knowledge. 
 
 The Doctor is a native of Connecticut, born 
 Nov. 6, 1864, in Suffield, a son of Chester and Cath- 
 erine (Wood worth) Adams, the latter of whom was 
 born in Suffield., a daughter of Dyer Woodworth, 
 who for many years kept the old tavern at Enfield 
 Bridge, and died there at the age of eighty years. 
 Chester Adams was born in Becket, Mass.', and 
 when twenty years old moved to Suffield, Hart- 
 ford Co., Conn., where he followed agricultural pur- 
 suits, in course of time purchasing a farm in that 
 town, which he conducted till 1865. In that vear 
 he removed to Windsor Locks, same county, and 
 embarked in the commission business, but he died in 
 
 the following year, aged fifty-one. He and his wife 
 had a family of five children, three of whom reached 
 maturity and two survive, viz. : Adella, wife of E. 
 W. Bull, of Tariffville, Conn. ; and Marshall Jewell. 
 The mother died in 1898, at the age of seventy-five 
 years, a member of the Baptist Church, as was also 
 her husband. 
 
 Marshall Jewell Adams passed his earlier years 
 in Tariffville, Conn., where, at the common schools, 
 he received a portion of his education, at the age of 
 thirteen moving to New Haven, where he completed 
 his literary studies at Hopkins' Grammar school. 
 From New Llaven he went to New York, and at- 
 tended the Homeopathic College there, from which 
 institution he was graduated in 1887 ; then returned 
 to Connecticut, and commenced the practice of his 
 profession at Fairhaven, remaining there until 1891. 
 In that year he located in West Haven, where he 
 has since practiced, having built up a thriving cli- 
 entele, his specialty being surgery, in which he has 
 had a wide experience, and to which he has given 
 much time and study; he has been for three years 
 senior surgeon at Grace Hospital, New Hlaven. 
 
 In 1 89 1 Dr. M. Jewell Adams married Nettie 
 Seeley, daughter of Charles Seeley, a sea captain 
 residing in New Haven. Three children have been 
 born to this union : Bernice, Helen and Marion. 
 The family attend the Congregational Church. In 
 politics the Doctor is a Republican, and has served 
 on the school board and as health officer of the bor- 
 ough of West Haven. Socially he is affiliated with 
 the F. & A. M., belonging to Annawan Lodge, No. 
 115, West Haven, and to Joseph Andrews Chap- 
 ter of West Haven. He is a member of the Legis- 
 lative committee of the Home Society, and since the 
 court was established, has been assistant prosecut- 
 ing attorney for West Haven. 
 
 Dr. Adams has written numerous articles on 
 Surgery for magazines, medical works, etc. He is 
 a member, and has been president of, the State 
 Homeopathic Medical Society, also the New Haven 
 Homeopathic iMedical Society, and is examiner for 
 the Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Co., for the 
 Improved Order of Heptasophs (of which he is a 
 member), and for the New England Order of Pro- 
 tection (of which he is also a member). He is a 
 great lover of dogs and horses, and possesses some 
 good ones. Fond of hunting, he each year seeks 
 health and recreation in a trip in the South. 
 
 BLACKSTONE. There died in the town of 
 Branford, Conn., on Feb. 4, 1886, at the remark- 
 able age of ninety-three years, Hon. James Black- 
 stone, whose useful life of prominent citizenship 
 covered only a little less than a century in that 
 community, with which the family were identified 
 for two centuries. 
 
 James Blackstone was born in 1793, in Bran- 
 ford, a descendant in the sixth generation from 
 Rev. WilUam Blackstone, a graduate in 1617 of 
 Emanuel College, Cambridge, England. He re- 
 
U....^e-^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 '^. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1381 
 
 ceived in that country, after graduation, ordination, 
 but soon became of the Puritan persuasion, left 
 his native country on account of his non-conform- 
 ity, and became the firsit white settler upon the 
 famous neck of land opposite Charlestown, which 
 is now the city of Boston. Upon his invitation 
 (he principal part of the Massachusetts Colony re- 
 moved fromi Charlestown and founded the tovra of 
 Boston on land Mr. Blackstone desired them to 
 occupy. Rev. Mr. Blackstone was the first in- 
 habitant of Boston and the first man admitted a 
 freeman in the town. Soon after 1635 he removed 
 to Rhode Island, residing^ near Providence until his 
 death, which occurred May 26, 1675. He was a 
 religious man, with literary tastes, of correct, in- 
 dustrious, thrifty habits, and of kind and philan- 
 thropic feelings. He married, in July, 1659, widow 
 Sarah Stephenson. From this immigrant settler 
 Rev. William. Blackstone, the late Hon. James 
 Blackstone 's lineage is through John, John (2), 
 John (3) and Timodiy Blackstone. 
 
 (II) John Blackstone, only son of Rev. Will- 
 iam, married in 1692, and in about 1713 removed 
 to Branford, Connecticut. 
 
 (III) Jdhn Blackstone (2), son of John, born 
 in 1699, married, and died in Branford Jan. 3, 1785, 
 aged nearly eighty-six years. 
 
 (IV) John Blackstone (3), son of John (2), 
 born in 1731, in Branford, died Aug. 10, 1816, aged 
 eighty-five years. 
 
 (V) Timothy Blackstone, son of John (3), born 
 in 1766, in Branford, died there in 1849, when 
 eighty -three years of age. 
 
 (VI) Jam-es Blackstone, son of Timothy, was 
 reared on the homestead which had been occupied 
 by five generations of the family, all of whom pos- 
 sessed the traits of character of the immigrant an- 
 cestor — industry, modesty and marked executive 
 ability. James, like his forefathers, was a farmer. 
 At twenty he was chosen captain of a company of 
 Connecticut militia, and was in command of same 
 for several months while serving as coast guard dur- 
 ing the war of 1812-15. He was chosen to a number 
 of town offices, serving as assessor and selectman ; 
 was several times a representative from his town 
 m the General Assembly of the State ; and in 1842 
 was a member of the State Senate from his district. 
 His political affiliations were with the old Federal 
 and Whig parties, and later with the Republican 
 party. A man of fine intellect and good judgment, 
 his counsel and advice were sought by persons of 
 Branford and other towns. He was a man of char- 
 acter and remarkable ability, and "if his tastes had 
 led him to a larger place for the exercise of his 
 ability, no field would have been so large that he 
 would not have been a leader among men." Mr. 
 Blackstone was a cousin in the fifth degree to Sir 
 William Blacksto-ne, the great authority upon the 
 common law of England, and the portraits of the 
 two mien bear a marked family resemblance. 
 
 James Blackstone's children were as follows : 
 
 (i) George, the eldest son, died unmarried in 
 1861. 
 
 (2) Mary, the eldest daughter, died May 10, 
 1900. She married Samuel O. Plant, and resided 
 in Branford, living with her daug'hter, Ellen Plant. 
 Her grandchildren, through her daughter Sarah, 
 are William L., Paul W. and Gertrude Harrison. 
 
 (3) Lorenzo, the second son, lived for many 
 years in Norwich, and died there in 1888. , He had 
 five children: (a) James De Trafford, who had 
 one son, Lorenzo; (h) Mrs. Harriet (Blackstone) 
 Camp, of Norwich, who has three children, Walter 
 Trumbull, Talcott Hale and Elizabeth Norton; (c) 
 Mrs. Frances Ella Huntington, of Norwich; (d) 
 William Norton Blackstone; and (e) Louis Lo- 
 renzo, who died in 1893. 
 
 (4) Ellen, the second daughter, married Henry 
 B. Plant, late of New York City, who died in 1900. 
 She died in 1861, leaving one son — Morton L. 
 Plant, who married and has one son, Henry B. 
 Plant. 
 
 (5) John, the third son, died some years ago, 
 leaving three children, George and Adelaide Black- 
 stone and Mrs. Emma Pond. 
 
 (6) Timothy B. Blackstone, the youngest 
 son, born in Branford, in 1829, married, in 1868, 
 Miss Isabella F. Norton, daughter of Henry Barker 
 and Emeline F.(Frisbie) Norton, of Norwich, Conn., 
 who were descendants of early Connecticut settlers. 
 Mr. Blackstone died in Chicago, 111., May 26, 1900. 
 He left the East nearly fifty years ago. After his 
 marriage his home up to the time of his death was 
 at No. 252 Michigan avenue, Chicago. For more 
 than thirty years he managed, with consummate 
 skill, the affairs of the most successful of all the 
 great railroads of the West, and was best known 
 through his presidency of the Chicago & Alton 
 Railroad Co. 
 
 Timothy B. Blackstone was the donor of the 
 handsome and costly library at Branford, Conn., 
 which is styled "The James Blackstone Memorial 
 Library." The building he had erected, and pro- 
 vided in endowment for the maintenance of the 
 library, in memory of his father. The library build- 
 ing is' one of imposing beauty, standing on high 
 ground in the main street of the town. It is de- 
 signed in the purest Grecian Ionic style, the archi- 
 tectural details being taken from the beautiful 
 Erechtheum of the Athenian Acropolis ; it is con- 
 structed of Tennessee marble of a very light_ tone. 
 The public exercises of dedication were held in the 
 building June 17, 1896, and the building was there- 
 after open for use. In June, 1901, the library 
 consisted of 11,800 books. Over a hundred peri- 
 odicals are taken for the main reading room, aiid 
 twelve for a branch library which was opened in 
 Stonv Creek in February, 1900. Surely the people 
 of Branford have reason to rejoice that James 
 Blackstone lived there and gave to them a son 
 whose affection for his native town, and filial de- 
 votion to his father's memory, led him to place 
 
1382 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 here this enduring monument of architectural 
 beauty, this ever-flowing fountain of education, 
 culture and refinemient. 
 
 RAY. The Ray family of which Eugene Ham- 
 ilton Ray, president of the Silver City Plate Co., is 
 a descendant, is one of the old and respected ones of 
 Middlesex county, where they have been estab- 
 lished for more than 200 years. Their ancestral line 
 as far as can be learned by careful research is as 
 follows : 
 
 Three brothers, James, Peter and Joseph Ray, 
 some records indicating that they were Portuguese, 
 others Scottish, emigrated from Narragansett and 
 settled in Haddam, Conn., as early as 1710: James, 
 the eldest brother, lived to the age of 100 years, 
 and he had three sons, namely: James, Benjamin 
 and Joseph. No record of Peter's family is obtain- 
 able, but Joseph had eigiht sons, namely: Isaac, 
 Nathaniel, Jeremiah, Joseph, Timothy, Elisha, Dan- 
 iel and Jacob. 
 
 Peter Ray, a grandson of one of the three Ray 
 brothers, was born Dec. 12, 1745, and died in East 
 Haddam, Conn., Feb. 2, 1834. He was in the Revo- 
 lutionary war according to facts obtained from 
 Washington, D. C. He married Mehitable John- 
 son, born Nov. 14, 1743, and died Jan. 21, 1834. 
 Their children were: Sarah, born Sept. 22, 1767, 
 died March 12, 1847, rnarried A. Dickerson ; James, 
 born June 30, 1770, diied Feb. 7, 1818; Asa, born 
 June 12, 1773, died young; Benjamin, born Sept. 
 14, 1775, died June 18, 1817; Martha, born Sept. 
 !?> 1777. died Oct. 5, 1802 ; Asa (2), born April 20, 
 1782, died Sept. 16, 1883 ; Annie, born May 13 
 1786, married Eber Rutty, died Aug. 5, 1872, and 
 he died in Meriden ; and Ezra, born Aug. 17, 1779, 
 died Aug. 4, 1832. 
 
 Ezra Ray, son of Peter, and grandfather of 
 Eugene H. Ray, of Meriden, was born in Haddam, 
 was a cooper by occupation and a member of the 
 Baptist Church. He was an active member of the 
 Democratic party. His death occurred Aug. 4, 
 1832, when he was aged fifty-three years. He mar- 
 ried Prualla Bailey, born in Higganum, Conn., 
 daughter of Sagart Reuben and Ruea (Palmer) 
 Bailey, and their children were : Martha Ann, who 
 married Ebenezer Slocum, had thirteen children, 
 and is now living in Moravia, N. Y., at the age of 
 eighty-eight ; Alason, who died in Haddam ; Emery, 
 of Fall River, Mass., who 1 .arried Eliza Congden, 
 and had ten dhildren ; Ebenezer ; Eber R. ; Harriet, 
 who married David Buell, of Haddam, and died 
 there; Orrin, who died in Haddam; Samantha, 
 who married David Buell (first) and (second) 
 Chauncy Skinner, and is now living in Haddam; 
 Rowena, who married Leonard Buell, had three 
 children, and is now living in Haddam; and Reu- 
 ben, who died young. Mr. and Mrs. Ray both died 
 in Haddam and were interred in that place. They 
 were both valued in the Baptist Church. 
 
 Eber R. Ray was born Jan. 7, 1819, in Branford, 
 
 Conn., and his younger days were spent in East 
 Haddam, where he followed farming. Later he 
 learned the stone cutting trade, which he followed 
 in Haddam until 1875, when he came to Meriden 
 and obtained the position of watchman at the Meri- 
 den Britannia factory. For twenty-three years he 
 held this responsible position, giving true and re- 
 liable service, but defective hearing caused his 
 resignation, and he is now living retired from ac- 
 tivity. Mr. Ray is in his eighty-fourth year, but still 
 retains his faculties and energy to a remarkable de- 
 gree. He has lived a temperate and exemplary .life, 
 and has won the respect of all with whom he has 
 become associated. A Republican in his political 
 opinions, he has never sought any public office. In 
 his earlier days he was third lieutenant of the First 
 Artillery Company of the Sixth Regiment of the 
 old State militia. 
 
 On Nov. 25, 1847, Mr. Ray was married to 
 Flora L. Fuller, who was born in East Haddam, a 
 daug'hter of Truman and Matilda (Lord) Fuller. 
 The children bom to Mr. and Mrs. Ray were : (i) 
 Ada M., born Oct. 5, 1848, was educated in Had- 
 dam andi Hartford high school and lives at home. 
 (2) Henry A., born Nov. 3, 1850, married March 
 13, 1885, Helena A. Joyce, in Toronto, Canada. By 
 trade he is a stationary engineer, and fraternally is 
 a member of Landmark Lodge, No. 422, A. F. & 
 A. M., of Chicago, 111. (3) Charles A., born 
 March 4, 1852, died in East Hartford, March 12, 
 1900, from> the effects of an accident on the electric 
 street railroad in Hartford'. By trade he was a 
 carpenter and joiner. Socially he belonged to Pa- 
 cific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F. He left a widow, 
 Mary (Wood) Ray, and two children, Esther I. 
 and Carlotta Fuller. (4) Eugene Hamilton, born 
 April 10, 1855, is mentioned helow. (5) Flora B., 
 born Jan. 24, 1870, was educated in the district 
 schools and graduated from the Meriden higla school 
 and also the State Normal school, and is now a 
 successful teacher at the Church Street school. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Ray celebrated their golden wedding in 
 1897, and during their fifty years of wedded life 
 the sun never set on their anger. They have been 
 devoted to home and family, the latter justifying 
 their natural pride. They both belong to the First 
 Baptist Church. 
 
 Eugene Hamilton Ray, son of Eber R., was 
 born in Haddam, where he attended the district 
 school. He started out to make a career for him- 
 self by becoming a clerk in a store in Middletown, 
 where his wages were three dollars a week, and 
 where he spent three years, and then he started in to 
 learn the trade of Britannia making with the Si- 
 mons & Miller Plate Co. After two and one-half 
 years spent there, he came to Meriden, working first 
 with the Wilcox Silver Plate Co., where he re- 
 mained twenty-two years. About this time Mr. Ray 
 began to think of emharking in a business of his 
 own. In company with a Mr. Graham he began 
 work in the evenings and at off times, in the manu- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1383 
 
 facture of notions which were in demand, gaining 
 so much encouragement that in 1892 the Silver 
 City Plate Co. was formed, Mr. Sheldon Beach 
 coming in as a partner. This company was incor- 
 porated under the laws of the State of Connecticut, 
 in 1897, when Mt. Ray was elected president; Mr. 
 Graham, secretary; andl Mr. Beach, treasurer. 
 Twenty-five skilled hands are employed, and the 
 business is not only firmly established, but is in a 
 constantly increasing condition. 
 
 In 1877 Mr. Ray was married to Ella A. Gris- 
 wold, who was born in Meriden, daughter of N. F. 
 Griswold, a well-known citizen of that city. Three 
 children were born to this union, viz : Stanley Gris- 
 wold, a graduate of the hig'h school ; Fayoline Eliza ; 
 and Eber Irving, all at home. Mr. Ray is a Re- 
 publican and has been a member of the city council 
 from the Second ward, serving efficiently for four 
 years on the committees on Health, Lamps and 
 Sewers. He is identified with all enterprises look- 
 ing to the city's advantage and enjoys a large meas- 
 ure of public esteem.' 
 
 Bailey. The Bailey family is an old one of 
 Haddam, Middlesex county. Hinman says that the 
 most of the Baileys of Connecticut descended from 
 John Bailey, of Haddam. This John Bailey was 
 one of the original twenty-eight purchasers and set- 
 ders of Haddam in 1662. These were generally 
 young men who married about the time of settle- 
 ment. Several are known to have come immediately 
 from Hartford. John Bailey was a constable there 
 in 1656. He had sons, Benjamin and John. 
 
 (II) Benjamin, son of John the settler, had sons 
 John, Benjamin and Nathaniel. 
 
 (II) John (2), son of John, had sons John, 
 Ephraim, Jonathan and David. 
 
 (III) Nathaniel, son of Benjamin, bad sons 
 Daniel and Ezekiel. 
 
 (Ill) John (3), son of John Bailey (2), had 
 sons John, Nathaniel, Jeremiah, Amos, James and 
 WiUiam. 
 
 (III) Ephraim, also son of Jo'hn (2), had sons 
 Ephraim, Jacob, Gideon, Stephen, Jabez, Caleb, 
 Abijah, William, Ephraim and Reuben, and daugh- 
 ter Olive. 
 
 (IV) Reuben Bailey was born in the town of 
 Haddam and there married Ruea -Palmer, of Hig- 
 ganum, and their daughter Prualla married Ezra 
 Ray.- Reuben Bailey served in the Revolutionary 
 war, as a private in the eighth company in Col. 
 Douglass' regiment, under Capt. Cornelius Higgins, 
 and was promoted to the rank of sergeant under 
 Capt. Smith in 1777. He died in Haddam, June 26, 
 1826, at the age of seventy-two years. 
 
 Thus Mr. Eugene H. Ray is seen to be connected 
 with some of the oldest and most prominent families 
 of New England. However, a man does not 
 need the assistance of an honorable ancestral line 
 to attest his own value, his integrity, energy and 
 public spirit making him one of the leading men of 
 this city. He serves the town when he deems his 
 
 assistance required, and he is highly considered in 
 the ranks of his party. For two years he was the 
 chairman of the town committee, taking an active- 
 interest in politics, as he also does in Silver City- 
 Lodge, of the A. O. U. W. His family are mem- 
 bers of the Universalist Church, and Mr. Ray is 
 generous in his support of the same. Although he 
 is not formally connected with any religious body, 
 his life is fashioned on moral lines, and his stand.- 
 ards are high. 
 
 FULLER. The Fullers of East Haddam,. 
 Conn., descended from Samuel Fuller, one of the 
 passengers on the "Mayflower," 1620. Mr. Fuller 
 was the son of Edward and Ann Fuller, both of 
 whom died soon after they came ashore, and Sam- 
 uel resided at Plymlouth with his uncle Samuel, and 
 was at Barnstable, as appears by the church rec- 
 ords, as early as 1641, but it does not appear that 
 he was a resident of the town until after Jan. i, 
 1644. He was constable at Scituate in 1641, and 
 occasionally served as juryman. He was a pious 
 man, and retiring in his habits, and he was the only 
 one of the passengers on the "Mayflower" who set- 
 tled in Barnstable. His death occurred Oct. 31, 
 1683, among the last of those who came to Amer- 
 ica on that noted vessel. His wife was not men- 
 tioned in his will, so it is likely she died before him. 
 Mr. Fuller was married to Jane Lothrop, daughter 
 of Rev. John Lothrop, in Scituate, April 8, 1635, 
 the ceremony being performed by Capt. Miles 
 Standisb. 
 
 (II) John Fuller, called "Little John" to dis- 
 tinguish him from others of the name, son of Sam- 
 uel the emigrant settler, born about 1655, remained 
 on the parental estate at Scorton until 1689, when 
 he removed with other families to East Haddam, 
 Conn. His wife, Mehitable, was admitted to the 
 Barnstable church in October, 1688, and her sons, 
 Samuel, Thomas and Snubael, were baptized, and 
 on May 19, 1689, her daughter Thankful was bap- 
 tized. Their next son, John, is recorded as born 
 Nov. ID, 1697, at East Haddam. During the inter- 
 val they had Deborah and other children, and the 
 names of children born to John and his wife 
 were: Charity, born Dec. 11, 1729, married Aug. 
 7, 1760, Silas Lovel; Isaac, born Sept. 9, 1731, 
 married Susan Wadsworth; Seth, born May 29, 
 1734; Hannah, born April 9, 1736. 
 
 Haddam, Conn., was settled in 1662, and East 
 Haddam in 1685. Rev. David D. Field, pastor of 
 the church at Haddam, and who wrote a sketch of 
 that town which was published in 1814, says: 
 "John, Thomas and Shubael Fuller, brothers, from 
 Barnstable, Mass., settled in East Haddam soon 
 after the first settlers on the east side of the river," 
 and he gives the following genealogy of the family: 
 
 John had sons John, William and Andrew. 
 
 Thomas had sons Je'hial, Rev. Daniel (a min- 
 ister in Mendon, Mass.), Oliver, Nathan, Jabez and 
 Jonathan. 
 
1384 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Shubael had sons Shubael and Jonathan. 
 
 WilHam Ward Fuller, grandson of one of these 
 three Fuller brothers who settled in East H'addam, 
 was born Feb. 23, 1760, and died Dec. 27, 1823, in 
 his sixty-fourth year. He married Nov. 8, 
 
 1781, Susanna Knowlton, who was born Oct. 21, 
 1759, and who died Oct. 30, 1820. Their children 
 were : Obadiah, born Aug. 8, 1782, married Achsali 
 Gates, Feb. 12, 1806; Lura, born Feb. 2, 1785, died 
 Mardh 5, 1788; Clara, born May 22, 1786, died Jan. 
 iS, 1787; William Ward, born Feb. 2, 1788, mar- 
 ried, June 14, 181 1, Abigail Gates; Susanna, born 
 Feb. 27, 1790, died Oct. 30, 1820; Beulah, born 
 Sept. 21, 1791, married, Nov. 25, 1813, George B. 
 Chapman; Truman, born Nov. 9, 1793; Stephen, 
 born Feb. 10, 1796, married, Sept. 2, 1821, Eliza 
 Howell, and died in November, 1885 ; Hiram, born 
 March 18, 1798, died Sept. 15, 1818; andl Flora, 
 born Jan. 15, 1801, married Jan. 22, 1828, Chauncy 
 B. Phelps. 
 
 Truman Fuller, son of William Ward Fuller, 
 was born in East Haddam, Nov. 9, 1793. He mar- 
 ried (first) Sept. 23, 1819, Matilda Lord, who en- 
 tered into rest Jan. 13, 1848, aged fifty-six years. 
 He married (second) Louisa P. Cook, June 18, 
 1848. He died April 4, 1875, at the age of eighty- 
 one years. His children were : Stephen, born Oct. 
 7, 1 82 1, married Laura A. Chapman, had two chil- 
 dren, Edigar and Ida, and died in November, 1885 ; 
 William Lord, born June 5, 1823, married Emeline 
 Arnold, had children Francis and William, and died 
 Oct. ID, 18S2; Eliza K., born Feb. 13, 1826, died 
 Sept. 22, 1897, married David S. Purple (no chil- 
 dren) ; Flora L., born June 21, 1829, married Eber 
 R. Ray; Henry T., who resides in East Haddam, 
 was born Aug. 4, 1831, and married first Mary E. 
 Emmons, and after her death Elizabeth Lewis, who 
 had one child, George Lord. 
 
 The Lord Family, from which Mrs. Ray de- 
 scended, was one of those which gained honor and 
 substance in the first settling of New England. The 
 first of the family to come from England and found 
 a family in Connecticut was Thomas Lord, who 
 came hither with his wife in 1635, and died in Hart- 
 ford in 1678, at the age of eiglity-seven years. His 
 children were as follows: Ann, William, John, 
 Robert, Irene and Dorothy. 
 
 William Lord, son of Thomas, married Tabitha 
 (surname not given), and their son, Ezekiel Lord, 
 was born in 1755, in Colchester, Conn., removing 
 in 181 5 to Hamilton, Madison Co., N. Y., where he 
 died in 1839. He married Anna Hungerford, Nov. 
 8, 1783, and she died July 4, 1849. Their children 
 were: Lydia, born June 23, 1789, married Uriah 
 Church, and died Sept. 22, 1862 ; Rhoda, born Aug. 
 23, 1791, married Frank Cometock, and died April 
 17, 1854; Lucinda and Matilda, twins, born April 
 I, 1797, the former married Hiram Hamilton, and 
 the latter Truman Fuller, and died in August, 
 1858; Daniel, born April 4, 1787, married Amanda 
 Chapman; Williami, born May 2, 1785, married 
 
 (first) Cressa Brainard, and (second) Lucy Brain- 
 ard, and died Nov. 6, 1855 (he was in the war of 
 1812, and in 1838 was a member of the New York 
 Legislature for the town of Hamilton). 
 
 EDWIN J. ALLING. Among the leading 
 farmers of Oxford there is probably none more 
 energetic or thorough-going than the gentleman 
 whose name opens this sketch. He was born in that 
 town March 18, 1834, a son of Eli and Maria (Bald- 
 win) Ailing, and is one of a family of eight chil- 
 dren, four sons and four daughters, namely: 
 Nancy; Bennett, deceased; Grace; Mary Ann; 
 Burr, deceased; Burr (2) ; Edwin J.; and Oliva n! 
 Eli Ailing was a native of Woodbridge, this county, 
 and was a farmer by occupation. He was called 
 out for army service in 1812. 
 
 Our subject was reared on a farm, and remained 
 at home until nineteen years of age, when he went 
 to New Haven, and there worked at the gilder's 
 trade for four years. At the end of that time Mr. 
 Ailing returned to Oxford, remaining here until his 
 enlistment in June, 1862. He became a private in 
 Company B, 20th Conn. V. I., which was mustered 
 into the United States service at New Haven, and 
 first ordered to Washington, D. C. He participated 
 in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, 
 and was then in Sherman's campaign, taking part 
 in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Resaca, Buz- 
 zard's Roost, Allatoona, Peach Tree Creek, and the 
 operations before Atlanta. During the last named 
 engagement he was wounded by an explosive ball 
 which struck him in the back, two pieces passing 
 upward and three pieces taking a downward course. 
 While going to the rear he was again wounded, by 
 a buck shot, in the back of the head. It passed 
 through the skull and has never been taken out. 
 After spending some time in the field hospital, Mr. 
 Ailing was sent to the hospital at Chattanooga, 
 Tenn., and later to one in Nashville, being confined 
 in these three months. At the end of that time he 
 was granted a furlough and returned home. Though 
 he rejoined his regiment in October, he was physi- 
 cally unable to engage in active duty, and again re- 
 turned home on a furlough. Later he went to 
 Washington, D. C, where he was honorably dis- 
 charged Jan. 13, 1865. Since then he has made his 
 home in Oxford with the exception of two years, 
 and in 1884 located on the farm where he now re- 
 sides. Here he has eighty-eight acres under a high 
 state of cultivation, improved with good and sub- 
 stantial buildings, and he also has another fine farm 
 of sixty-five acres elsewhere. He carries on general 
 farming principally, and as a thorough and skillful 
 agriculturist is meeting with most excellent success 
 m his labors. He has given considerable attention 
 to fruit culture, having some eighteen acres in 
 apples, peaches, plums, and strawberries and rasp- 
 berries, his market being Naugatuck. In 1900 he 
 had 1,000 bushels of hand-picked apples, and 150 
 bushels of strawberries. 
 
J- 
 
 -^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 138s 
 
 On Nov. 30, 1854, Mr. Ailing was united in 
 marriage with Miss Laura Bigelow, who was born 
 in 1833, daughter of Aaron and Elizabeth (Porter) 
 Bigelow, farming people of Colchester, and grand- 
 daughter of Joel Bigelow, who was a soldier in the 
 Revolutionary war. To Mr. and Mrs. Ailing have 
 "been born seven children : Edwin B., born Aug. 
 18, 1855, lived in Branford, and died Jan. 23, 1891 ; 
 he married Mrs. Jennie Abbott, and they had three 
 children, Edwin N., Jennie E., and Frederick N., 
 the last named deceased. Wilbur S., born March 
 7, 1859, is a merchant, manufacturer and traveling 
 man, and resides in Norwich, Conn. ; he married 
 May Tiffany, and they have three children, Edna F., 
 Ward and Sidney B. Noyes E., born March 6, 
 1863, is a wholesale and retail dealer in rubber 
 goods in Bridgeport; he married Emma Squares 
 and has three children, Edna S., Madeline and Ruth 
 B. Lizzie M. is deceased. Clarence E., born Aug. 
 S, 1870, resides at Waterbury; he married Susan 
 Rider. Arthur E., born Sept. 19, 1873, is engaged 
 in a rubber establishment in New Haven; he mar- 
 ried Florence Wheaton. Franklin B. married Jen- 
 nie L. Lum, and they have one child, Doratha. The 
 mother of this family is a member of the Episcopal 
 'Church. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Ailing affiliates with Upson 
 Post, No. 40, G. A. R., of Seymour, and politically 
 IS identified with the Republican party. He has 
 served his town as assessor, road inspector, con- 
 stable and grand juror, and his duties of citizen- 
 ship are always most conscientiously and faithfully 
 performed. A man of strong individuality and in- 
 dubitable probity, one who has attained to a due 
 measure of success in the affairs of life, and whose 
 influence is always found on the side of right, this 
 honored veferan of the Civil war assuredly demands 
 representation in this^ volume. 
 
 GEORGE MORGAN is a well-known and re- 
 spected) citizen of New 'Haven county, whose ex- 
 perience through the Civil war is one to be remem- 
 bered to his honor. He is a representative in the 
 third generation of his name in the United States. 
 Isaac Morgan, t^he grandfather of our subject, and 
 his three brothers came from Wales when young 
 m^en, Isaac locating in West Haven, Conn., William 
 in the State of New York, George in the State of 
 Vermont, while the other brother settled m the 
 South and became the father of the famous guer- 
 rilla raider. Gen. John Morgan. 
 
 Isaac Morgan miarried Sarah Downes, of Or- 
 ange, Conn., and they became the parents of the fol- 
 lowing children: George W., the father of our 
 subject; Martha, who married Allen Northrop, and 
 died in New Haven ; Jane, who married a Mr. Har- 
 mont, of New Haven; Julia, who married Wales 
 Buckingham, a farmer of North Haven ; one that 
 died young; and Mary and Frances, both of New 
 Haven. Isaac Morg-an and his wife died in Orange 
 and were buried there. 
 
 George W. Morgan was born in Orange, Conn., 
 and after a meager education learned the trade of 
 shoemaker, under Alva J. Duirant, and followed that 
 line almost all his life. Soon after marriage he 
 removed to Oxford, where he continued many 
 years, until he began to feel the confinement of a 
 sedentary life and changed to a more vigorous one, 
 engaging in the express business, and for a long 
 time drove an express and mail wagon between 
 Zoarbridge and New Haven, delivering many hun- 
 dreds of papers weekly along this route. While 
 ,living in Oxford he filled many of the local offices, 
 among them that of road surveyor, and was a life- 
 long Democrat. In 1857 Mr. Morgan removed to 
 North Haven and located on the Sharon Bassett 
 farm, and there spent his declining years. After 
 settling down on the farm he resumed his old trade 
 for a timte, making custom shoes, but later devoted 
 all his time to his farm until his death, which took 
 place in December, 1896, wihen he was sincerely 
 mourned by a large circle of friends. During his 
 residence in Nofth Haven he was one of the most 
 valued memhers of the Congregational Church. He 
 m.arried Louisa Piatt, a native of Orange, and a 
 daughter of Nathan Piatt, a farmer, and her death 
 occurred in March, 1887. Our subject is the sur- 
 vivor of the two children born to his parents ; the 
 other, Ann, died young. 
 
 George Morgan was born July 4, 1835, in Or- 
 ange, Conn., where he received excellent educa- 
 tional advantages, and upon the family's removal to 
 Oxford entered a private school, later attending the 
 high school of that place. Upon locating in North 
 Haven, he was undecided as to his occupation, and 
 spent somfe time at mason work, also becoming 
 slightly interested in dentistry and in the daguerreo- 
 type business in New Haven, but found more con- 
 genial employment on the farm, and was working 
 with his father at the opening of the Civil war. On 
 Aug. II, 1862, he enlisted in Co. D, 15th Conn. 
 V. I., under the brave Capt. Samuel Hubbard, and 
 later under Capt. Williami Burgess. Before leav- 
 ing New Haven he was detached to serve in the 
 commissary deparitment, and accompanied the regi- 
 ment in the brigade commissary department when 
 it was sent to Arlington Heigthts. During the siege 
 of Suffolk Mt. Morgan was on duty, being later 
 detached to assist in the huilding of the slaughter- 
 house at Newport News and to help in the killing 
 of from fifty to seventy-five head of cattle daily. 
 At one time his department was required to supply, 
 food for 30,000 men. During the last year of serv- 
 ice he was made military conductor of the railroad 
 between Newbern and Morehead City, N. C, but at 
 the battle of Kinston, in the same State, March 8, 
 1865, his usefulness was suddenly brought to an 
 end by his capture by the enemy, and for eighteen 
 diays he knew what it was to be a prisoner of war. 
 Sixteen were spent in marching, and two days in 
 Libby prison, an exchange of prisoners being made 
 then, and he received his parole on the day of Lee's 
 
1386 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 surrender, and was mlus'tered out in 1865. After 
 his return he assisted his father on the farm, taking 
 entire charge of it after the death 01 his parents. 
 This is a very valuable 1 roperty, consisting of sev- 
 enty-five acres, and our subject has been very suc- 
 cessfuU in general farming. 
 
 Mr. Morgan was married to Bessie A. Bassett, 
 of Hamden, her father, Henry Bassett, being a 
 farmer of the vicinity. Mr. Morgan is a stanch Re- 
 publican and takes a deep and intelligent interest in 
 public affairs. Fraternally he is connected with 
 Admiral Foote Post, No. 17, G. A. R., of New Ha- 
 ven. Among his friends and neighbors Mr. Mor- 
 gan is higihly esteemed, and is considered a most 
 valued citizen. 
 
 JOHN B. McQUEEN. The McQueen name 
 is an old and honorable one in the State of Connecti- 
 cut, where it is borne by members who are promin- 
 ent in business and professional life. The founder 
 of this family, Capt. William B. McQueen, came 
 from Scotland and settled in Branford, Conn., prior 
 to the Revolutionary war, in which he took an 
 active part and commanded a is'loop in the interests 
 of the colonists. Capt. McQueen was lost at sea. 
 
 James McQueen, son of Capt. William, and 
 grandfather of John B., of New Haven, was born 
 in Branford, Conn., and there lived an agricultural 
 life. His son, Samuel, was born also in Branford, 
 March i, 1822, and died in New Haven, in 1879. 
 In Elssex, Conn., he learned the carpenter trade, 
 to which he was apprenticed, and when about twen- 
 ty years of age, came to New Haven. Here he en- 
 gaged in . building and contracting, accumulated 
 means, was a leading Democrat, and a consistent 
 member of the Congregational Churdh. 
 
 Father Samuel McQueen married Susan E. 
 Barnes, who was born in North Haven, a daughter 
 of Jared and Sarah (Hemingway) Barnes, of East 
 Haven, and two children were born to them, — Al- 
 mira T., who married Andrew G. Smith, a merchant 
 in New Haven ; and John B. 
 
 John B. McQueen was reared to young manhood 
 in New Haven, and enjoyed educational advantages 
 both in the graded isthools of this city and an ex- 
 cellent private scIdooI. After completing his edu- 
 cation, Mr. McQueen entered the dry goods store 
 of Smith, Kimberly & Co., serving for a short time 
 as an errand boy, but then entered upon a course 
 of practical work, under his father, in the carpenter 
 trade. In 1878 he had perfected himself :snfficiently 
 to begin the businesisi of contracting and building, 
 and with his brother-in-law, and a strong firm was 
 formed, Mr. McQueen attending to the practical 
 part, and Mr. Smith the financial part. 
 
 On June 10, 1873, Mr. McQueen was married 
 to Martha E. Baldwin, who was born in New 
 Haven, a daughter of Samuel and Mary E. Avis 
 Baldwin, both of New Haven. Two children were 
 born to this marriage, Arthur S. and Myra S., 
 the latter dying at the age of three years. Arthur 
 
 S. McQueen graduated from the Yale Medical 
 school with the class; of igoi, and is now in the 
 practice of his profession in this city. 
 
 In politics, Mr. McQueen has been a life-long 
 Democrat, while socially he is connected with the 
 order A. O. U. W. For a period he was sergeant 
 of the New Haven Grays, and when the Governor's 
 Foot Guards was re-organized, in 1893, he entered 
 this order and holds the position of sergeant. The 
 religious connection of the family is witTi the United 
 Church. 
 
 EDWARD BEECHER (deceased). In every 
 con*iunity there are citizens whose lives are an in- 
 spiration to their fellow men, who by the force of 
 example inculcate the practice of those sterling 
 virtues, that make so much for good citizenship. 
 Edward Beecher was one of the most successful 
 farmers in Bethany township. Orphaned at four 
 years of age he came, at the age of thirteen years, 
 to the farm which he subsequently owned, and 
 w'hich for a period of thirty-six years was his 
 home. Though simimoned by deaith when yet a 
 comparatively young man, he had fougfht a good 
 fight and had won that commendation and admira- 
 tion from his fellows which keeps sacred his mem- 
 ory and perpetuates the force and worthiness of his 
 career. 
 
 'Mr. Beeoher was born in the town of Seymour, 
 New Haven county, May 14, 1841, one of a family 
 of eight children. With his widowed mother he 
 came in 1854 to the farm in Bethany, where he 
 passed the remainder of his years. This farm was 
 owned by his uncle, Anson Perkins, with whom our 
 subject remained until the former's death, where- 
 upon the property came into the potsisession of our 
 subject. It is one of the finest farms of Bethany, 
 and its operation by Mr. Beecher wasi attended by 
 splendid results. He did not, however, busy him- 
 self on his farm. He was broad and liberal minde:d. 
 and he took a deep and lasting interest in public 
 affairs, becoming one of the leading citizens of 
 the town. He~ was a believer in the principles of 
 the Democratic party, and held many of the town 
 offioes. In 1879 he was nominated for the State 
 Legislature and elected, serving with credit and dis- 
 tinction. Among the fraternal orders he was prom- 
 inently connected with the Masonic lodge of Sey- 
 mour. His death occurred Aug. 3, 1881, and in his 
 demise the town of Bethany lost one of its most 
 highl)- esteemed and revered citizens. 
 
 Mr. Beecher was married Jan. i, 1866, to Miss 
 Christina E. Tolles, daughter of Nehemiah and 
 Polly (Beecher) Tolles, and by thisi marriage there 
 was one daughter, Leita, who is now an -accom- 
 plished young lady at home with her widowed 
 mother. She was educated in the private school of 
 Mrs. Cady at New Haven, and is a student of music 
 at Yale, on the organ and piano. Since the death 
 of our subject his widow, Miia Christina E. Beech- 
 er, has superintended the operation of the farm 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1387 
 
 most successfully. She has established by her wise 
 and sagacious management the reputation of being 
 one of the most successful farmers of Bethany, 
 carrying on in connection with general farming an 
 extensive dairy business, but at the present time 
 Mns. Beccher and daughter are living in New Hav- 
 _en>. Besideisl her marked business abilities, she pos- 
 sesses many accomplishments and and graces of 
 character, and is a recognized social factor. 
 
 JOSEPH PHOENIX, a well-known and lead- 
 ing French- Canadian citizen of Meriden, has been 
 more than twenty-seven years a contractor in the 
 fitting department of the Parker Brothers' gun shop. 
 He waisi born June i, 1851, at Chambly, near lilon- 
 treal, Canada, and is a son of Narcisse Phoendx, 
 who was a native of the same place and a farmer by 
 occupation. In 1853, the latter settled with his fam- 
 ily at Actonville, Province of Quebec, Canada, where 
 were then' located three other pioneer families. He 
 proceeded to clear up a farm in the wilderness, and 
 built a log hut, which for some years was the only 
 shelter of hiriiself and household. Being a re- 
 sourceful and inidustrious man, he became a very 
 successful agriculturist and leading citizen of the 
 locality. He was deft in handling tools, and did his 
 own carpenter work, where from his own sheep and 
 flax fields he produced homespun cloth and linens, 
 and provided comfortably for his family during the 
 years of toil required in developing his 300-acre 
 farm. He lived to see Actonville a town of two 
 thousand souls, with its churches, schools and iOther 
 evidences of civilization and progress, and he died 
 upon his farm in 1888, at the age of sixty-seven 
 years. A consilsitent ipember of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, he was a stanch supporter of the liberal 
 party of Canada, and in every w.ay was a useful and 
 exemplary citizen. 
 
 At Chambly, Quebec, Narcisse Phoenix married 
 Monica La Coss, a native of that place, daughter 
 of Sinot La Coss. She endured patiently the hard- 
 ships of pioneer life, for the sake of her children, 
 whose childish wails were often mingled with the 
 sounds of savage wild beasts which surrounded their 
 forest home. She died in 1881, at Actonville, at 
 the age of fifty-seven years, and was buried there. 
 A faithful Catholic, she was a devoted wife and 
 mother, a most industrious woman, whose children 
 "rise up and call her blessed." They were nine in 
 number, namely: Aglie, Napoleon, John, Joseph, 
 Gideon, Eliza, Adeline, Sophia and Josephme. Of 
 these Aglie, Eliza, Adeline and Josephine died in 
 childhood ; Napoleon married Eliza Munier and re- 
 sides in Meriden, being an employe of Parker 
 Brothers; Jdhn is a meat dealer at Waterbury, 
 Conn.; Gideon married Josephine Dontieque, and 
 died in Meriden; Sophia (now deceased), was the 
 wife of Camille Duchaneau. 
 
 Jc|z(eph Phoenix grew up on the farm at Acton- 
 ville, whither he was carried by his parents when 
 only two vears of age. He was early accustomed 
 
 to toil, and became acquainted with the use of car- 
 penter's tools. At the age of nineteen years, he set 
 out from home to make his own way in the world, 
 and went to New Hampshire, where he worked as 
 carpenter and joiner for upwardis' of a year. By 
 this time, his spirit of enterprise was justified, in 
 his ability to repay sixty dollars loaned by him by 
 a friend when he set out to make his fortune in the 
 United States. He next removed to Forestdale, R. 
 I., and was employed for a short time in a cotton 
 mill. In 1870, he started for Springfield, Mass., to 
 find something more congenial to him in the way 
 of employment. Meeting a man on the train who 
 advised him to oome to Meriden, he acted upon the 
 suggestion. On arriving here, be was engaged by 
 Mr. Charles Rich, a contracting carpenter, with 
 whom he continued until the death of Mr. Rich. 
 Within a few months after entering his employ, Mr. 
 Phoenix wa|si made foreman, and later became a sub- 
 contractor. Upon the death of Mr. Rich, he began 
 taking independent contracts, and was a successful 
 builder, as his work testifies. He constructed many 
 dwellings and the factory now occupied by M. B. 
 Schenck & Co., on Center Street. His last under- 
 taking in this line is the handisome home of Charles 
 A. King, on King street. In 1875 he accepted a 
 position as contractor in the Parker gun factory, 
 and has since so continued. His energy, probity 
 and executive ability are indicated by 'thiis long con- 
 nection, and he is everywhere honored and respected 
 as an industrious and useful citizen. 
 
 In 1895 Mr. Phoenix purchased a tract of four- 
 teen acres on Corrigan avenue, which was in a state 
 of primeval wilderness. By dint of much labor 
 and care, he has transformed it into a garden and 
 vineyard, and a model homestead. He built a 
 handsome house, and here enjoys the comforts of 
 a rural homestead, together with all the advantages 
 of urban life. From his large vineyard, he pro- 
 duces annually an abundance of fine wines, which 
 find a ready home market, and serve to enhance 
 his open-handed hospitality. His house, barns and 
 grounds are fitted up with all modern conveniences, 
 and he is surrounded by good horses and other do- 
 mestic animals, being fond of these. He main- 
 tains an incubator and rears a large number of 
 fowls for the market. A good shot, he is fond of 
 the chase, and is often a member of shooting 
 parties. 
 
 The example of Mr. Phoenix's life may well 
 be studied by the ambitious American youth. When 
 he came to the United States, he could not speak 
 English, and had very little education in any 
 language. Being ambitious and persevering, he 
 gave much time to home study, and is a self-edu- 
 cated and self-made man. He is now a fluent con- 
 versationalist, and speaks intelligently on any topic 
 of general interest, and his society is enjoyed and 
 appreciated by a large circle of friends. In poli- 
 tics, he sustains the principles of_ the Republican 
 party, but does not desire any official position. For 
 
1388 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 
 
 some time he was a member of Pacific Lodge, No. 
 87, I. O. O. F. With his family he affiliates with 
 St. Laurent's (Frenc'h) Romjan Catholic Church, 
 of Meriden. Being earnest in support of education, 
 he was called upon to serve as a member of the 
 school committee of the King Street School, and 
 performed the duties of that nosition faithfully and 
 well. 
 
 Mr. Phoenix was married in 1871, at Harris- 
 ville, R. L, to Miss Emile Dupuis, who was born 
 in Northampton, Mass., daughter of Oliver Dupuis. 
 Like her husband, she is industrious, and has been 
 a constant aid and companion in his labors, helping 
 to secure their fine home. She is a lover of domestic 
 animals, thus showing a kind heart, and she has 
 faithfully performed the part of wife and mother. 
 Her first child, Joseph, died in infancy. The second 
 Joseph, born Aug. 15, 1874, was educated in Meri- 
 den, studied French at Montreal, was a clerk in a 
 wholesale fruit store at Hartford for a period of 
 six years, and is now employed, as the other isons, 
 with the father at the Parker gun shop ; he is a Re- 
 publican and a member of Pilgrims' Harbor Coun- 
 cil, No. 543, Royal Arcanum. He was married at 
 Hartford to Miss Mary J. Egan, who died Jan. 3, 
 1902, and was buried in St. Patrick's Cemetery, 
 Hartford. William and Alfred Phoenix, twins, 
 were born May 13, 1879. All these young men are 
 poslsiessed of musical ability, and are skillful per- 
 formers on the guitar. 
 
 F. HOWARD HEMINGWAY, of New Haven, 
 is a son of Willis Heminigway, for many years one 
 of the most prominent merchants in that city. Wil- 
 lis Hemingway was a power in the financial world, 
 and was a director of the Second National Bank, of 
 New Haven, and had charge of many estates. He 
 was a director and vice-president of the Cemetery 
 Association, and one of the leading spirits of his day. 
 His widow, who is still living in New Haven, was 
 born in 1821, in Brooklyn, where her mother died 
 of the cholera in 1830. 
 
 F. Howard Hemingway was reared in New Ha- 
 ven, and acquired his education in the public schools 
 and Hopkins English School, finishing in Yale Uni- 
 versity, from which he was graduated in 1875. 
 Leaving academic shades he applied himself to 
 active work, and became his father's confidential 
 clerk, remaining with him until the latter's death 
 in 1898, when he founded his present business. 
 
 Mr. Hemingway was married in 1879 to Mary 
 T. Clarke, a daughter of the Rev. Dr. Walter 
 Clarke, of Buffalo. She is one of a number of chil- 
 dren, and her mother, Mary Elizabeth Terry, was a 
 daughter of Judge Terry, of Hartford. She had a 
 sister who was the wife of Robert Coleman, the 
 great iron magnate of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Eliza- 
 beth T. Clarke is still living in Buffalo. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Plemingway have two children : Josephine 
 Clarke, who was the historian of the class of 1901, 
 when it graduated from Hillhouse High School, 
 
 is at home; and Walter Clarke. Mr. Hemingway 
 is a Republican, and is prominent in social organ- 
 izations, belonging to the A. O. U. W., the Royal 
 Arcanum and the L O. H. He is a director of the 
 Cemetery Association, and is connected with a num- 
 ber of clubs and other social organizations. With 
 his family he belongs to the Grand Avenue Congre- 
 gational Church, of which he has been, clerk for the 
 last fifteen years, and he takes an active part in all 
 church and Sunday school affairs. In 1898 he 
 founded the F. H. Hemingway Company, and the 
 la'rge success that has attended this^ enterprise 
 demonstrates at once his business ability and his 
 personal character. 
 
 Georgiana, a sister of Mr. Hemingway, is the 
 wife of Rev. Joseph Cook, of Boston. 
 
 EDWIN AUGUSTUS HAYES, a very suc- 
 cessful business man of New Haven, who has large- 
 ly hammered out his own fortune on the anvil of 
 adversity, with hard and mighty stroke, is now en- 
 gaged in 3. grain and feed business at No. 100 
 Broadway, in that city, and commands a wide pat- 
 ronage, not only on account of his integrity and 
 honesty, but for his reliable goods and genuine 
 worth of his character, displayed in his every-day 
 life. 
 
 Mr. Hayes was born Oct. 11, 1855, in Bridge- 
 port, Conn., a son of Charles Thomas Hayes, who 
 was born in the same city Feb. 14, 1830. The fa- 
 ther died in Mt. Carmel, Conn., Sept 11, 1899. He 
 was a saddler by trade, at which he worked in both 
 Bridgeport and New Haven. In politics a Demo- 
 crat, he was never a politician, and had no thirst 
 for party honors. He married Laura L. Hickox, 
 who was born in Bethany, Conn., daughter of 
 Reuben Hickox, and to this union were born : ( i ) 
 William C, a market gardener, whose home is in 
 West Haven; (2) Frederick D., a farmer, who 
 has his home in West Haven ; (3) Edwin A., whose 
 name introduces this article; and (4) Julia M., wife 
 of Frank Warner, a farmer of Mt. Carmel. 
 
 Alonzo Hayes, the grandfather of Edwin A., 
 was a millwright by trade, and is remembered as 
 a very capable mechanic. For many years he was 
 engaged as foreman of the bridge building de- 
 partment of the Housatonic railroad; he was also 
 engaged in placing water-wheels, in which work 
 he was very proficient. He married a Miss Strat- 
 ton, and they had a family of eight children. 
 
 Edwin A. Hayes was brought to New Haven by 
 his parents before he was six years of age, his child- 
 hood and youth being spent in that city. His ed- 
 ucation was secured in the common schools. When 
 he was between nine and ten years old the family 
 removed to Woodbridge, where he attendled school 
 about a year, at the end of that time entering the 
 employ of D. N. Clark, at Bethany, who was a 
 wholesale cattle dealer as well as farmer, and with 
 him Mr. Hayes remained two years. He then en- 
 gaged with P. P. Sperry, who was in the same line 
 
^^;?X-6C-C'i-'^~^»^, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1389 
 
 and also a butcher, and continued with him several 
 years, when he engaged in farming on shares, in 
 Bethany. In this work Mr. Hayes continued sev- 
 eral summers, and then set up in the meat business 
 on hisi own account. In 1879 he came to New Ha- 
 ven and engaged as a salesman with S. E. M'^rwin 
 & Son, wholesalers of provisions. For twelve years 
 he was with this firm, and during the first ten years 
 of his engagement with them did not lose a day. 
 In 1891 Mr. Hayes formed a partnership with 
 Charles A. Crittenden, under the firm name of 
 Hayes & Crittenden, purchasing the feed store of 
 M. Warner, at No. 100 Broadway, which they con- 
 ducted together until January, 1899. Mr. Hayes 
 then bought the entire business, and is now engaged 
 in handling feed, grain, hay, straw, flour and kin- 
 dred hnes. Doubtless it never entered his dreams 
 when he was a small boy, or when he entered: the 
 store as a young man, seeking a foothold in the 
 world, that some day he would own the building 
 where he is now successfully conducting a rapidly 
 growing business. During his working day he is 
 enthusiastic, pushing and thoroughly devoted to his 
 business. In the evening, in his own home, he is 
 found a pleasant and social gentleman, whom it is a 
 pleasure to meet. 
 
 Mr. Hayes is a charter member of Hammonasset 
 Tribe, No.' i. Improved Order of Red Men, in 
 which he has passed all the chairs, being now past 
 sachem; is a member of the Great Council of 
 Connecticut, of that order, and is deeply interested 
 in its welfare. He is also a member of the Sec- 
 ond Company, Governor's Foot Guard. In politics 
 he is a Repubhcan, though no politician. 
 
 Mr. Hayes was married, May 9, 1874, to Mae 
 Etta Sperry, a native of Bethany, born Dec. 10, 
 1855, daughter of Alonzo and Rebecca (Hotchkiss) 
 Sperry, of Bethany. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes are 
 whole-souled people, and enjoy the confidence of 
 the community, where their many good qualities 
 and sterling worth are well known. Their home 
 life is ideal. 
 
 Mr. Hayes has just built a fine structure of 
 brick, 65x26 feet, and 23 feet high, which he uses 
 both as a barn and storehouse, at the rear of his 
 residence. No. 466 Elm street. At Savin Point, 
 just west of Savin Rock, West Haven, he has a 
 fine summer cottage, where he spends the heated 
 term. This was built in 1899. 
 
 FLOYD L. ANDREWS was born in Nauga- 
 tuck. New Haven county, June 8 1849, son of 
 Samuel N. Andrews, a native of Milford, this 
 
 """"Sarauel Andrews, father of San^uel N went 
 from Milford to Naugatuck, where he died at the 
 age of seventy-seven. He was_ a farmer and a 
 nmn of afifairs in the community. He married 
 Selina Smith and reared a famdy oi five chddren 
 Samuel N., Caroline, George S., Esther and 
 
 ^'"Sam^uel N. Andrews was reared in Naugatuck, 
 
 on the "mountains," and went to school in Middle- 
 bury. He married Amielia Thompson, who was 
 born in New York, a daughter of Stephen Thomp- 
 son, who settled in Oxford, Conn., and was a hat- 
 ter by trade. After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
 Andrews settled on a farm near Naugatuck, where 
 they reared a family of five children : Ella mar- 
 ried Charies H. Sliiith, and after his dieath be- 
 came the wife o'f Clark Nettleton, of Naugatuck. 
 Floyd L. is our subject. Noyes T. resides in New 
 Haven, and is in the wholesale meat business. 
 Esther married Warren L. Hall, of Waterbury, 
 where he is a commission merchant. Frederick is 
 in the meat business in Boston. Mr. Andrews was 
 in politics a Democrat, and in religion a Congre- 
 gationalist. 
 
 Floyd L. Andrews spent his youth on the farm 
 in Naugatuck. He was a student in the local dis- 
 trict school, and at the age of fourteen moved to 
 the city with his parentis. There he attended the 
 high sdhool, and attained a fair education. He 
 worked in the store of his uncle, George S. An- 
 drews, where he remained until he was nineteen, 
 and at that age went into business for himself at 
 Union City, continuing in that town for eleven 
 years. In 1878 'he came to Waterbury, and was 
 engaged for two years in the retail meat business, 
 at the end of that time going into the wholesale 
 grocery establisihment of James D. Dewell & Co., 
 at New Haven, with whom he remained until 1896. 
 That year Mr. Andrews and three others started in 
 'business in Waterbury, under the firm' name of 
 F. C. Bushnell & Co., wholesale grocers, and' this 
 firm is very prosperous and still active. Mr. An^ 
 drews is the manager of the store, which is a 
 branch of the main establishment at New Haven. 
 
 Floyd L. Andrews and Miss Clr.ra Spencer 
 were married May 21, 1871. Mrs. Andrews was 
 born in Naugatuck, the only c^hild of Lawrence 
 Spencer, at one time postmaster of that place. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Andrews are the parents of one child, 
 Bernice M., who is at home. Mr. Andrews is a 
 Democrat. He is a m.an of decidedly domestic 
 tastes, a good citizen, and enjoys an enviable repu- 
 tation both in the social and business world. 
 
 EUGENE FREMONT LEONARD, a well- 
 known contractor for the Wilcox Silver Plate Co., 
 Meriden, residing in East Main street, that city, 
 is a descendant o'f a prominent New England fam- 
 ily. Four brothers and one sister of the name 
 came from England in the early part of the sev- 
 enteenth centurv, namely: James, Thomas, Henry, 
 Philip and Sarah. They left behind them in then- 
 native home two brothers, William and John, and 
 two sisters, Margery and Joan. Of the four 
 brothers who emigrated to America, James settled 
 in Taunton ; Thomas was drowned in Piscataway ; 
 Henry located at Marshfield, and died at Taunton, 
 Massachusetts. , , , ^^ 
 
 From James Leonard, who settled at iaunton. 
 
I390 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Mass., Eugene Fremont is descended. Lieut. 
 J3n:i(es Leonard, son of James, the emigrant, had 
 a son Eliphalet, who was born in 1702; he hved 
 in Taunton. His son, Eliphalet Leonard (2), was 
 the father of Jonathan Leonard, great-grandfather 
 of our subject, who was a native of Canton, Mass., 
 and 'became a well-known citizen of that town. He 
 was quite an enterprising man. He erected the 
 first blast iron furnace in the town of Canaan, 
 Conn., where he carried on the manufacture of pig 
 iron, continuing the forgoing business nearly all his 
 life at Canton, Mass. While visiting a daughter, 
 at New Or'leans, La., he was taken ill with yellow 
 fever, and died Oct. 20, 1839, in the hospital at 
 Covington, La., and was buried there. Mr. Leon- 
 ard was a Quaker in his religious views. He mar- 
 ried a Miss Blackman, and they became the par- 
 ents of eight children, five sons and three daugh- 
 ters. 
 
 Jonathan J. Leonard, son of Jonathan, was born 
 Nov. 30, 1798, in Canton, where he received his 
 early education. He went to Amenia, N. Y., 
 where he studied medicine under his uncle, Dr. 
 Alpheus Leonard, but he followed the profession 
 only a short time, on account of ill health. Giving 
 up medical practice, he embarked in business at 
 Stoughton, Mass., as a woolen manufacturer. 
 Later he came to Connecticut, locating at Middle- 
 town, where he spent two years, after which he 
 came to Meriden, locating near the present site of 
 Hubbard Park. ' He became engaged in the manu- 
 facture of iron castings for coffee mills. Later he 
 m.oved to East Meriden, and bought the property 
 now known as the Parker Spoon Shop, engaging 
 in the manufacture of castings and locks. During 
 the gold fever he went to California, where he 
 spent two years, but met with little success, re- 
 turning in 1852, and engaging with the New Haven 
 Lock Co. He died April 7, 1854, in New Haven, 
 and was buried in Meriden. Mr. Leonard was a 
 Democrat, later an anti-slavery man, and always a 
 free thinker. He was no office-seeker, but took 
 an active interest in affairs of his day, being a great 
 debater and a deep thinker. He was a remarkable 
 man and was widely known. On Jan. 27, 1822, 
 Mr. Leonard married Eliza Eveline Hodges, who 
 was born in Stoughton, Mass., Aug. 15, 1803, and 
 (was a descendant of a well-known, old and re- 
 spected family of Massachusetts. Eight children 
 blessed this union: (i) Eugene resides in East 
 Meriden. He first married Lavina Curtis, and for 
 his second wife Nellie Mizer, and his living chil- 
 dren are : Charles Hodges, who resides in Ohio ; 
 William' Thompson, residing in Ohio; and Ellen, 
 who married Henry B. Birdsey, and resides with 
 her father. (2) Marion married Charles Pomeroy, 
 son of Noah Pomeroy. (3) George D. died in 
 New York. He married a Miss Bradley and had 
 two daughters, Georgia, now residing in Wash- 
 ington, D. C. ; and Jennie, deceased wife of H. 
 Atchison, of Washington. (4) Henry, father of 
 
 Eugene E., mentioned below, resides in Indiana. 
 (5j Joihn died in Kentucky. (6) Edwin died 
 young. (7) A daughter died unnamed. (8) Emily 
 Josephine is mentioned elsewhere. The mother of 
 these died at her home in East Meriden, and her 
 remains rest in the old Meriden cemetery. 
 
 Eugene Fremont Leonard was born Feb. 11, 
 i860, in DuAam and came to Meriden when two 
 years old. There he attended school and at an 
 early age he went into the shops of the Wilcox 
 Silver Plate Co., where he learned the trade of 
 buffer, and where he has been engaged for the last 
 twenty-eight years', thirteen as a contractor in the 
 establishment. He was married in Meriden, in De- 
 cember, 1885, to Margaret Casey, of Meriden, and 
 they have three children: Georgia May, Agnes 
 Josephine, and Charles Allison. Mr. Leonard is a 
 member of the Meriden Center Lodge, No. 68, L 
 O. O. F., Meriden Lodge, No. 35, B. P. O. E., and 
 has been identified with the 'Red men. He is a 
 Republican in political faith, but is no office seeker. 
 The Golden Rule has been his standard throughout 
 life, and he is as popular as he is well known. 
 
 JOHN S. MITCHELL, whose death occurred 
 at Tarrytown, N. Y., Feb. i, 1875, was for many 
 years a resident and prominent business man of 
 Waterbury, Conn. He took up his residence in 
 Waterbury about 1841, when but little past his 
 majority, and entered the employ of the Benedict & 
 Burnbam Manufacturing Co. He soon evinced 
 business ability of a high order, and in young man- 
 hood^ became the principal manager of that com- 
 pany's business, and was one of the leading business 
 men of Waterbury. When about thirty vearsi of age 
 he became prostrated with a chronic disease, which 
 compelled him to give up all business for a period, 
 and ever afterward until death, with various inter- 
 vals of comparative alleviation, his life was one pro- 
 longed struggle with disease and suffering. Yet in 
 spite of it all, !sii'ch was the force of his character 
 that his life was active, busy, useful and success- 
 ful, nay, ever elegant and beautiful — an elegant life 
 in its culture and tasteful surroundings, and beauti- 
 ful in patience, courage and uniform cheerfulness, 
 with which he not only bore, but hid bis sufferings 
 so entirely that they formed no part of his person- 
 ality to those who met him in the casual intercourse 
 of daily life. He was possessed by nature of re- 
 fined tastes, which a life of trial seemed more fully 
 to refine and elevate. When he became able, after 
 his first prostration, to leave the house, but still not 
 well_ enough to transact business, he turned his at- 
 tention as a pastime to floriculture, with great suc- 
 cess. His green houses were for years the pride of 
 Waterbury. Mr. Mitchell was one of the first trus- 
 tees of Riverside Cemetery, for three years was 
 chairman of the board, and to him this beautiful and 
 attractive burial place owes much of its beauty. 
 
 After partially recovering from his first illness 
 Mr. Mitchell again applied himself to business, and, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1391 
 
 besides affording vajluable counsel and assistance 
 to various entcTprises in which he was interested, he 
 establilshed and built up the house of Mitchell, 
 Vance & Co., of New York, manufacturers of gas 
 fixtures, so well known throughout the country. In 
 this business, as in his other undertakings, his plans 
 and views were broad and hiisi energy untiring. The 
 new business led him to change his residence from 
 Waterbury to New York, and ht finally fixed his 
 home near Tarrytown, on the Hudson, in a beauti- 
 ful edifice where his taste for rural pursuits had full 
 scope, and there, as his failing strength compelled 
 him to withdraw more and more from business life, 
 he occupied himself in cultivating his grounds and 
 adorning his home, waiting patiently for the end 
 which for years had seemed near. Mr. Mitchell was 
 a man of modest bearing, but of a studied courtesy, 
 and bore a presence of dignity and mental Istrength. 
 While a resident of Waterbury he was a member of 
 the Firlst Congregational Church, and took great in- 
 terest in its charitable work, and especially in the 
 portion of it relating to young persons. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell married the youngest daughter of 
 Deacon Aaron Benedict, of Waterbury, and to them 
 was born one child, a son of great promise, who died 
 in boyhood. 
 
 BRONSO'N. The Bronson family begins its 
 American history with John Bronson, of Hartford 
 and Farmington, wiho was the father of Sergeant 
 Isaac Bronson. That gentleman was born in 1645, 
 and was married in 1669, to Mary, a daughter of 
 John Root, of Farmington. Isaac Bronson was one 
 df the original thirty subscribers, and it is thought 
 he was a member of the first company that came to 
 Waterbury. He united with the Farmington 
 Church in 1684, and was active in estaiblishing a 
 church in Waterbury, being one of its seven pil- 
 lars at its final organization in 1691. He was a 
 sergeant in the train band, and a deputy to the Gen- 
 eral Court in 1697, and again in 1701. He died 
 about 1719, and his widow did not long survive him. 
 
 Lieut. John Bronson, son of the foregoing, was 
 born in 1673, and made his home in Waterbury. 
 His position as lieutenant of the militia was be- 
 stowed upon him in recognition of his interest and 
 ability in military matters. He was elected select- 
 man, and he died about the close of 1746. 
 
 Benjamin Bronson, son of Lieut. John, was born 
 Oct. 2, 1 71 1, and was married March 4, 1738, to 
 Lois, a daugthter of Thomas Richards. His death 
 occurred Nov. 16, 1745. 
 
 Major Samuel Bronson, son of the above, was 
 born Dec. 10, 1742, and in December, 1786, married 
 his second wife, Huldah Williams. Major Bron- 
 son died July 21, 1813. 
 
 Isaac Bronson, son of Major Samuel, was born 
 Sept. II, 1793. He lived in the town of Vernon. 
 
 William Bronson, son of Isaac, was :born Oct. 
 16, 1826, at Vernon, where he spent his early school 
 days, and while still a lad went to Berlin, where he 
 
 became foreman in the wheel roomi of the Henry 
 Hooker carriage factory. In New Haven he was 
 identified with the Hooker carriage house. For the 
 last ten years of his active life he was identified with 
 the Hub Clothing Company. 
 
 On July 2, 1856, Williami Bronson was married 
 to Rebecca E., a daughter of Andrew and Rebecca 
 Terrell, of New Haven. To this marriage were 
 born: WiUiam Alfred, born Nov. 30, 1857; Rob- 
 ert Anderson, born Feb. 19, 1861 ; Samuel Gris- 
 wold, born March 3, 1863, died Dec. 21, 1866; and 
 Albert Lincoln, born July 23, 1865, died Sept. 15, 
 1865. Mr. Bronson lived on Bradley street, where 
 he spent his last years. He died Oct. 28, 1881 ; 
 and his wife, who was born June i, 1834, died June 
 7, 1883. 
 
 William A. Bronson spent his school days in 
 New Haven, where he attended the Lancasterian 
 School, and began clerking in the drug business 
 out of school hours with A. B. Hall, then located 
 on State street. For a short time he was with Henry 
 Merriman, and then accepted a clerkship with the 
 Whittlesey Co., on Chapel street. In September, 
 1 88 1, he bougiht the drug business on State and 
 Bradley streets, and in 1883 removed across the 
 street, where he remained in business until October, 
 1901. 
 
 On Feb. 16, 1893, Mr. Bronson was married in 
 New Haven, Conn., to Florence G. Burchell, who 
 was born Aug. 24, 1866. To this union have come : 
 Harold Burchell, born Sept. 17, 1894; Ruth Mar- 
 jorie, born Dec. 22, 1895 ; and Eleanor Terrell, born 
 March 16, 1901. Mr. Bronson belongs to Hiram 
 Lodge, A. F. & A. M. In 1894 he built his home at 
 No. 305 Lawrence street, where he resided until 
 May, 1902. 
 
 Robert Anderson Bronson spent ■ his early 
 school days in New Haven. At an early age he be- 
 gan clerking for A. B. Hall, and was later employed 
 by Henry Merriman. When he was twenty years 
 of age he entered the store of McNeil & Washburn, 
 at No. 84 Church street. In 1892 he became a 
 member of the firm of E. L. Washburn & Co., drug- 
 gists and dealers in surgical and dental instruments. 
 On Feb. i, 1895, Mr. Bronson was married to 
 Esther A. Law, of New Haven, and one child, 
 Louise Terrell, born May 28, 1898, has blessed this 
 union. Mr. Bronson belongs to Wooster Lodge, 
 A. F. & A. M., Franklin Chapter, Harmony Counn 
 cil. New Haven Commandery and Ryramid Tempje 
 of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the 
 I. O. O. F. and the Chamber of Commerce. 
 
 BENJAMIN HULBURT ROBERTS, one of 
 the prosperous andl respected farmer citizens of 
 North Haven, traces his descent from one of the 
 stanch old New England families, being a grandson 
 of Ebenezer Roberts. The latter took part in the 
 Revolutionary war, and after that strife was over 
 located in Middlesex county, where he engaged in 
 farming. He served as justice of the peace and 
 
1392 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 became quite prominent in Westfield, where he 
 died when ninety years of age. To himself and wife 
 were born: Cornwall, Enoch, Bethuel, Elijah, 
 Rena, Beulah and Rebecca. 
 
 Elijah Roberts, the father of Benjamin H., was 
 born in Westfield, where he engaged in farming un- 
 til his death, which occurred when he was twenty- 
 six years old. His wife, Amanda Hulburt, was 
 born in Westfield, a daughter of Benjamin and Han- 
 nah (Plumb) Hulburt, and she lived to t'he age of 
 fifty-two. She bore him a family of four children, 
 namely : Hannah, who married William Rogers, 
 and is now deceased; Benjamin H. ; William, who 
 died young; and Ellen, who married Edward Yeo- 
 mans. 
 
 Benjamin H. Roberts was born Jan. 27, 1828, in 
 Westfield, and as his father died when he was only 
 four years old, his mother took her little family to 
 the home of her father, and young Benjamin 
 worked on his grandfather's farm) and attended 
 school for some years. Later he also worked for 
 adjoining farmers, and when he was nineteen years 
 old went to Meriden, entering the employ of the 
 Meriden Britannia Co., casting spoons. After fol- 
 lowing this occupation for several years the young 
 man returned to Westfield, and for two summers 
 worked on the farm of his uncle, William Plumb, 
 while during the winter he returned to Meriden 
 and engaged in casting spoons. A better oppor- 
 tunity offering, Mr. Roberts entered the suspender 
 factory of William Plale, of Mcridten, where he re- 
 mained for a number of years, worKing under con- 
 tract, taking the material home, stamping the 
 leather and webbing himself, and distributing the 
 material among the women in the neighborhood. 
 The area of his distribution covered three miles, and 
 so carefully did he estimate his contracts and select 
 his workers that his success was very satisfactory. 
 About this time his good old grandfather Hul- 
 burt induced Mr. Roberts to take charge of his 
 farm' and be the com^fort of his declining years. 
 The homestead was encumbered, and not being 
 willing to allow the last years of his grandfather's 
 life to be overshadowed by a worry of this descrip- 
 tion, Mr. Roberts paid the debt out of his own 
 savings, and in his gratitude Mr. Hulburt trans- 
 ferred the property to the grandson and his mother. 
 Being already of an advanced age, Mr. Hulburt 
 died not long after his grandson relieved him of 
 his burdens. Not satisfied with the field offered for 
 his ability on the farm, Mr. Robe-rts obtained em- 
 ployment with Ferry, Benham & Co., of Meriden, 
 manufacturers of powder-flasks and chargers. Al- 
 though the services required were those of an ex- 
 pert, Mr. Roberts discharged his duties with very 
 little preparation, being a natural mechanic. His 
 work was done under contract, and again his care- 
 ful management enabled him to reap a very sub- 
 stantial benefit from* this connection. After eight- j 
 een months, however, being enabled to purchase the 
 farm adjoining his own, Mr. Roberts returned to ; 
 
 Westfield, and for some years devoted his atten- 
 tion to agricultural pursuits. Having improved his 
 property, Mr. Roberts received many flattering 
 ofifers, and finally disposed of it, removing to Meri- 
 den, where for fifteen years he was in the employ of 
 the Meriden Britannia Co. at a first-class salary. In 
 1883, tiring of the confinement of his position, Mr. 
 Roberts came to North Haven, and, purchasing his 
 present farm from Nelson Warner, commenced to 
 make many substantial improvements thereon. The 
 property is now in excellent condition, and Mr. Rob- 
 erts carries on a large market gardening business, 
 being successful in this, as in all his previous un- 
 dertakings. 
 
 In 1852 Mr. Roberts was married to Miss Eliza 
 H. Douglas, who was born in 1827, in New Hart- 
 ford, Conn., a daughter of Chester H. and Annie 
 (Dawson) Douglas. To Mr. and Mrs. Roberts 
 have been born : Emily M., who married Benjamin 
 Van Doren, a teamster of Hamden; William B., 
 who married Emm.a Butler, and is living at home, 
 assisting his father; and Burton D., who married 
 Nellie Morgan, and is now a grocer in Meriden. 
 
 Although a stanch Republican, Mr. Roberts has 
 never sought for office, but upon the solicitation of 
 his friends, while residing in Meriden, was collector 
 and treasurer of the school district. Both he and 
 his estimable wife are consistent members of the 
 Congregational Church. They are excellent repre- 
 sentatives of thrifty, successful and substantial New 
 England people. 
 
 P. JOSEPH BOLAN, dealer in hardware, agri- 
 cultural implements, iron, steel, builders, factory 
 and mills supplies, etc., at Nos. 90, 92 and 94 Bank 
 street. Waterbury, was born in Sandy Hook, Fair- 
 field Co., Conn., Nov. 15, 1862, son of Lawrence 
 and Mary (Dempsey) Bolan, both natives of Coun- 
 ty Westmeath, Ireland. 
 
 Lawrence Bolan came to America when a young 
 man, and settled in New York, where he acquired 
 some property. He there married Mary Dempsey, 
 who died in April, 1863, the mother of the follow- 
 ing children: (i) John D., who is working for 
 his brotlier, P. Joseph, but who previously spent 
 two years abroad and later was employed for four- 
 teen years as a machinist by the Waterbury Farrel 
 Foundry & Machine Co. (2) Annie, wife of James 
 H. McGinness, of Waterbury. (3) Mary, wife of B. 
 J. 'Brady, of Bridgeport. (4) Lawrence H., who 
 died at the age of twenty-seven years. (5) Eliza- 
 beth, wife of Michael Meloy, of Bridgeport. (6) 
 P. Joseph. The father of this family was a dyer 
 by trade, and after removing from New York to 
 Sandy Hook followed his calling until his death in 
 August, 1877, at the age of fifty-three. 
 
 P. Joseph Bolan attended school in Sandy Hook 
 until twelve years of age, when he went to Water- 
 town, Litchfield county, and served four and one- 
 half years as a bell boy in a hotel. While' thus 
 employed he earned sufficient means to pay for his 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1393 
 
 schooling in Waterbury, and he diligently applied 
 himself to the acquirimg of a good literary train- 
 ing, before entering the commercial world. On 
 June 14, 1878, he became a clerk for F. L. Allen, 
 hardware merchant, who some time afterward sold 
 out to D. B. Wilson. Mr. Bolan remained with 
 the latter gentleman until February, 1885. The 
 two then formed a copartnership, which was main- 
 tained for four years and ten months, during which 
 time Mr. Bolan conducted the entire business of 
 the firm. On Dec. i, i88g, Mr. Bolan sold out to 
 Mr. Wilson the stand at Nos. 13, 15 and 17 East 
 Main street, and purchased from James Allen the 
 oldest hardware establishment in Waterbury town, 
 and) located- at Nos. 90, 92 and 94 Bank street, 
 where he still continues to carry on this most lucra- 
 tive business. 
 
 On Nov. 21, 1888, Mr. Bolan was joined in wed- 
 lock with Miss Maria Seery, who was born in 
 Waterbury, Conn., a daughter of Thomas Seery, 
 who came from County Westmeath, Ireland. Five 
 children came to bless this union, but of these the. 
 two youngest died in childhood, viz. : Joseph, 
 when two and a half years old, and Harry, at the 
 age of one year. The survivors are J. Harold, born 
 Jan. 2, 1894; Helen E., born March i, 1896; and 
 Francis J., born Nov. 25, 1899. In politics Mr. 
 Bolan is a Democrat, but has never accepted office, 
 although he has been frequently solicited to do so. 
 Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Co- 
 lumbus, the Heptasophs, the Catholic I. O. O. F., 
 and the B. P. O. E. He formerly belonged to 
 the Foresters of America. He is a memiber of the 
 Immaculate Conception Catholic parish, and con- 
 tributes freely to its support. Socially he and his 
 wife are highly esteemed. As a business man Mr. 
 Bolan may be termed self-made, and he is one of 
 the' most energetic and progressive men of the 
 city, while his reputation in business circles is un- 
 tarnished. 
 
 DANIEL JOSHUA CLARK, foreman of the 
 draw pull department in the large factory of Foster, 
 Merriam & Co., and a veteran of the Civil war, is 
 one of Meriden's honored native sons, born July 
 30, 1839. 
 
 Williami Clark, an original proprietor of Hart- 
 ford, Conn., in 1639, was one of the twenty-eiglit 
 purchasers of the town of Haddam, Conn., and; first 
 settlers there, in or soon after the spring of 1662. 
 His children were : ( i ) Daniel, who was the father 
 of William, Joseph, Daniel (2) and John. Of these, 
 William had children: Peletiah, Benjamin and 
 Uriah; Daniel (2) had children: Daniel, Heze- 
 kiah and James; and John had a son, John. (2) 
 Thomas became the father of Thomas, Jonathan, 
 David and Israel. From this source came a branch 
 of the Middlesex county Clarkes. 
 
 Hezekiah Clark, grandfather of the subject of 
 this sketch, was a native of Johnson's Lane, town 
 of Durham, Middlesex Co., Conn., where he grew 
 
 88 
 
 to manhood, and where he married Olive Lee. He 
 settled in Cromwell, Middlesex county, where he 
 engaged in farming and passed the balance of his 
 days. His remains and those of his wife rest in 
 Cromwell cemetery. Both were members of the" 
 Congregational Church. Mr. Clark was a stanch 
 Democrat of the old school. They were the parents- 
 of six children, namely : Hezekiah P., Samuel W.- 
 L., Cornelia (who married a Mr. Brainard, of Mid- 
 dletown), Hannah (who died unmarried), Henry 
 La Fayette (who was' killed by an explosion at Par- 
 ker & Perkins' shop in Meriden) and Andrew J. 
 (who died in Cromwell). 
 
 Hezekiah P. Clark was born in the town of Dur- 
 ham, Middlesex county, where he grew to manhood 
 on a farm, and received his education in the local 
 school. When a young man he rrjoved to Middle- 
 field, Conn., and there married Julia Miller, a na- 
 tive of that town and daughter of Joshua and Rhoda 
 (Nicholls) Miller, the latter a daughter of Sylvanus 
 Nicholls, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary 
 war. After his marriage Mr. Clark came to Meri- 
 den, about 1833, and located in the eastern part of 
 the town, where he followed the trade of carpenter 
 and joiner. He removed/ to the vicinity of Walnut 
 Grove cemietery, and in 1839 located on Gravel 
 street, where he built a home, and continued to re- 
 side there during the balance of his life. He con- 
 tinued to work at his trade until his death, which 
 occurred in 1863, and his remains were interred in 
 East cemetery. Politically he was a stanch sup- 
 porter of the Democratic party. Living an upright 
 and exemplary life, he sought to treat his brother 
 man as he would be treated. In his home he was 
 a kind husband and father, and his demise removed 
 from' Meriden a good citizen. His widow is still 
 living, at the advanced age of eighty-nine years, 
 and she resides alone in her homie on Gravel street, 
 highly respected as a true woman. She is possessed 
 of a remarkable memory, and has always evinced a. 
 -strong mind and will. Five of her seven children; 
 are living: Delia, the first, now deceased, was the 
 wife of Charles Ira Miller, of Middlefield; Heze- 
 kiah Minor married Alvira B. Willard, and both 
 are deceased; Louisa is the widow of George 
 Palmer, of Orange, Mass.; Daniel J.' is mentioned 
 below ; Russell R. is employed by the Bradley & 
 Hubbard Manufacturing Co., of Meriden; Rhoda 
 Augusta married Theodore Butler, of Meriden ; and 
 William is a foreman in the plating department of 
 the Charles Parker Co., of Meriden. 
 
 Daniel J. Clark attended the district schools of 
 Meriden, and rememlbers among his teachers Linois 
 Baldwin, Alva Coe, of Middlefield, Walter Hall and 
 Miss Laura Miller. While still a mere boy he 
 worked one season on the farm of his grandfather, 
 Joshua Miller, in Middlefield. For his labor he re- 
 ceived one dollar and a calf, and was highly pleased 
 with his reward' ; the calf grew to a cow which sup- 
 plied the family with milk for several years. Dur- 
 ing two seasons he worked on the farm of Deacon 
 
1394 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Samuel Paddock, receiving five dollars per month 
 and board for the first season, and fourteen dollars 
 and board for the second. In the meantime he at- 
 tended school in winter. He was next employed 
 two years by Philip Eddy, in the butcher business, 
 and spent a year on a farm in JVIiddlefield. Com- 
 ing to Meriden, he entered the factory of Parker 
 & Perkins, and continued two years as a polisher. 
 For a time he was employed in a bit and auger 
 factory at Plainville, and put in a year in a shear 
 factory at Rocky Hill. Returning to Meriden, he 
 again worked for Parker & Perkins and learned the 
 trade of blacksmith. At this time the country 
 needed soldiers to preserve its integrity, and he 
 enhsted Aug. 25, 1862, in Co. A, 15th Conn. V. I., 
 under Col. Dexter R. Wright and Capt. J. Bassett. 
 He participated in all the battles and campaigns of 
 his company and regiment, and was acting sergeant 
 of the pioneer corps during the celebrated "black- 
 berry raid," in which a part of the regiment was 
 captured by the enemy. Mr. Clark served until the 
 close of the war, and was mustered out at New 
 Haven im 1865. 
 
 Returning to the arts of peace, Mr. Clark was 
 again attached to the force of Parker and Perkins, 
 with whom he continued some time. He was sub- 
 sequently employed by the Wilcox Silver Plate Co. 
 and the Meriden Malleable Iron Co., remaining 
 with the latter establishment as machinist until 
 1870. Since that year he has been connected with 
 Foster, Merriam & Co., being a machinist until 1885, 
 when he was made foreman of the draw pull de- 
 partment, and continues to fill that important post, 
 having charge of 115 hands. His fairness to all, 
 and his kind and genial manners have made him 
 popular with all his associates, and he is a valuable 
 factor in the success of this great manufacturing 
 institution. 
 
 Mr. Clark is appreciated by his fellow citizens, 
 as evidenced in his selection to serve four years in 
 the city council, from the Third ward, during which 
 he acted on the Water and Park comimittees. In 
 1901 he was elected alderman, and is chairman of 
 the License and Printing committees. He holds 
 pronounced views on the liquor question, and was at 
 one time nominated by the Prohibition party for 
 mayor of Meriden. He is a member of the Sons of 
 Temperance, in which he has held all the offices, 
 and was deputy grand worthy patriot. He is a mem- 
 ber of Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R., and was some 
 time a member of Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. O. F. 
 He is a trustee and steward of Trinity M. E. 
 Church, and is everywhere respected as a consist- 
 ent Christian gentlemian, actuated by high motives 
 in all his acts. 
 
 On Jan. 11, i860, Mr. Clark was married in 
 Springfield, Mass., to Miss Harriet L. Barnes, who 
 was born on the same dav as her husband, at Stad- 
 dle Hill, in the town of Middletown, and is a daugh- 
 ter of Jairus and Lorinda (Johnson) Barnes. Mrs. 
 Clark is an active supporter of her husband in 
 
 every good work, being an active worker in Trinity 
 M. E. Church, a member of the W. C. T. U. of 
 Meriden, a charter member and first vice-president 
 of the City Mission, and also a membe ■ of the State 
 Humane Society. While she cares for her house- 
 held in an exemplary manner, she is a stanch advo- 
 cate of woman's rights, and exercises tier right un- 
 der Connecticut law to vote on school matters. De- 
 voted to her home and family, a kind and charitable 
 neighbor, she believes in protecting her own and 
 other's families in procuring the best school facili- 
 ties, and she does not forget the dumb servants of 
 inan who are ofttimes abused. Mr. and Mrs. Clark 
 are blessed in their three children: (i) Hattie 
 Estelle is the wife of Charles M. Hull, a printer, 
 of Meriden, and has three children : Elsie, Charles 
 and Ruth (a twin O'f the first died in infancy). (2) 
 Ambrose Burnside is a machinist, employed in Meri- 
 den ; he married Nettie E. Waples, and has two chil- 
 dren, Adelbert and Gertrude. (3) Emma Josephine 
 married Willard F. Peck, and is the mother of four 
 children, Clifford Wales, Alton Barnes, Harold and 
 Grace. 
 
 Reuben Bartholomew, a farmer of the town of 
 Harwinton, Conn., served his country as a soldier in 
 the war of the Revolution. He was a son of Dan- 
 iel, grandson of William (2), and great-grandson 
 of William Bartholomew, who came from England 
 to New England in 1634. His daughter, Huldah, 
 born April 8, 1768, married Joseph R. Barnes, of 
 New Hartford, and their children were: Barthol- 
 mew, Richard, Eunice, Huldah and Jairus. 
 
 Jairus Barnes, father of Mrs. Clark, was a car- 
 penter and joiner by occupation, and engaged in 
 contract building in Middletown, where he died. 
 He was a member of the Congregational Church 
 and a Republican in politics. His wife, Lorinda, 
 was a daughter of Adna Johnson, and she died in 
 Cromwell, Conn. Of their two children, Mrs. Clark 
 i.i the eldest; the other, Philinda, who married 
 Henry Sedgwick, is now deceased. 
 
 The Johnson family is an old one in Middlesex 
 county. Phineas Johnson married Lois Scheels. He 
 was a soldier in the Revolution, serving is several 
 commands. From Aug. 16, 1776, to Sept. 4, same 
 year, he was a private in Capt. Hickock's company, 
 and was a non-commissioned officer in the Fourth 
 Company, Conn. Light Infantry, in the command of 
 Marquis de La Fayette, under Capt. Samuel A. 
 Barker, of Branford, and Lieut. John Mansfield, of 
 Wallingford; was made corporal of Capt. Chap- 
 man's company Feb. i, 1783, and was a pensioner 
 under the Act of 1818. His children were: Lor- 
 inda and Melinda, twins, born May 27, 1785; Ai, 
 Nov. 16, 1786; Adna, Aug. 18, 1788; Lodicea, July 
 25, 1790; Emma, Jan. 23, 1793; (Jzem, Dec. 29, 
 179s; Arden, July 31, 1797; Erwin, Oct. 15, 1799; 
 Larmon, May 19, 1802. 
 
 Adna Johnson, born Aug. 18, 1788, died March 
 25, 1858. He married Hannah Smith, who was 
 born Aug.. 21, 1793, and died June 23, 1831. Their 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I39S 
 
 children: Lorindia, born Dec. 20, 1810, died April 
 25, 1888, married Jairus Barnes, and was /ihe mother 
 of Mrs. Daniel j. Clark ; Eliza J., born Jan. 20, 1813 ; 
 Ira N., Nov. 26, 1815, died June 16, 1888; Lucinda, 
 June 16, 1817; Maria, Feb. 5, 1819; Freeman Aug. 
 14, 1820 ; Melinda, April 24, 1822. Mr. Johnson was 
 married a second time Oct. 27, 183 1, to Amy Clark, 
 who bore him : Edwin, July 27, 1832 ; Aden, Sept. 
 29, 1834; Chaunicey W., April 22, 1837; Daniel T., 
 Sept. 7, 1839. The mother of these died, and Mr. 
 Johnson subsequently married a widow named Doo- 
 little. There were no children by the last marriage. 
 
 GEORGE FREDERICK ROGERS, one of the 
 stockholders and directors of the firm of C. Rogers 
 & Bros., and one of the well-known citizens of 
 Meriden, was bom Oct. i, 1862, in the city in 
 which he has had his hottie. 
 
 George Washington Rogers, father of George 
 F., was bom in Chester, Middlesex county, Aug. 11, 
 1827, and was the son of the late Hervey Rogers, 
 and eldest brother of Cephas B., Gilbert and Wil- 
 bur F. Rogers, of Meriden. His education was ob- 
 tained in the district school of Old Saybrook, Wil- 
 brafaam Academy and the Wesleyan University. In 
 his early life he was a public school teacher, but 
 soon turned his attention to the law, which he fol- 
 lowed' in Meriden for a number of years. In his 
 professional practice he was associated with George 
 W. Smith. While still a young man he was en- 
 gaged in the newspaper business in Meriden, in 
 company with tbe Hon. O. H. Piatt, then the editor 
 of the Connecticut Whig. In political life he be- 
 came quite prominent, and filled many local offices 
 in Meriden, serving several years as justice of the 
 peace, and was deputy sheriff. Mr. Rogers was 
 named doorkeeper of the United States Senate, and 
 was present at the time Brooks madie his brutal as- 
 sault on Senator Sumner. Later he was appointed 
 postmaster by President Lincoln, and filled this po- 
 sition with credit for eight years, serving under 
 Lincoln and Johnson. Mr. Rogers died April 17, 
 1880, in Meriden, and his remains were laid to rest 
 in the West cemetery. He was known in public life 
 througtiout the United States as a man of much 
 ability, especially gifted in oratorical powers. He 
 was liberal in church matters, and lived close to the 
 Golden Rule. In bis earlier life he was a Whig in 
 sentiment, but later became a Republican, and he 
 was closely associated with Horace Greeley. Mr. 
 Rogers was married to Catherine L. Gale, a lady 
 of much culture and refinement, and to this union 
 were born six children, only two of whom are now 
 living, George F. and Lilian Yale. The daughter 
 is a lady of marked character and culture, of high 
 attainments, and is now teaching the art of dancing 
 in Meriden. Mrs. Rogers is still living, and enjoys 
 the respect and esteem of all who are privileged to 
 know her true worth. 
 
 George F. Rogers attended the public schools of 
 Meriden,- and when he reached the age of fifteen 
 
 years entered the employ of C. Rogers & Bros. By 
 the faithful discharge of all his duties, his thorough 
 m.astery of the business and his oft-proved reliability 
 has arisen to his present position. In 1899, when 
 the company was incorporated, Mr. Rogers was 
 named one of the directors. A young man of much 
 character and most enterprising spirit, he takes a 
 deep interest in the business, and is familiar with 
 its every detail. 1 
 
 A Democrat until 1896, in that year Mr. Rogers 
 voted the Republican ticket, and has acted with the 
 latter party to the present time. In 1900 he was 
 elected from the Fourth ward to the city council, 
 where he is serving on the committees on License 
 and Fire, and is a faithful worker for the best in- 
 terests of the city. Mr. Rogers is a member of 
 Pilgrim's Harbor Council, No. 543, Royal Ar- 
 canum, and Meriden Lodge, No. 35, of the Benevo- 
 lent Protective Order of Elks. He believes in 
 the Golden Rule as a large and noble expression of' 
 life, and strives to guide his steps by it. Socially 
 he belongs to the Constellation Club di Meriden, 
 and is chairman of its executive committee, and 
 he is also a member of the Sons of the American 
 Revolution. 
 
 On Jan. 19, 1885, Mr. Rogers married, in Meri- 
 den, Miss Clara Louise Walkley, a native of Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y. They have had one child, Harold Gale, 
 who was born Nov. 9, 1885, and is now a student 
 in the city high school. 
 
 FRANK A. BECKLEY. For many years the 
 name of Becklev has been connected in New Haven 
 with successful business enterprises and has been 
 and is borne by most worthy citizens. William Au- 
 gustus Beckley, the late father of our subject, whose 
 death occurred at his home in New Haven, May 11, 
 1892, was, for many years, a prominent business 
 m.an and substantial citizen of that city. His de- 
 scent, on his mother's side, was from one of the 
 first families that came to settle New Haven. 
 
 William Beckley was 'born Oct. 16, 1827, at 
 Cedar Hill, Conn., a son of Silas and Amelia (At- 
 water) Beckley. Until twelve years of age he lived 
 with his parents at Cedar Hill and Whitneyville, 
 and attendled the John A. Lovell Lancasterian 
 School for a period of three years. Subsequentlx 
 be lived on two different farms, with his parents, in 
 the town of Orange, and for two years attended a 
 school kept by Amos Smjth, in New Haven. At 
 the age of seventeen he left home to learn the car- 
 penter trade under Russell Ailing, with whom he 
 lived until twenty-one years old, and received as 
 compensation $30 for the first year, with an ad- 
 vance of $5 a year until he had served out his time. 
 After finishing his trade he went to Twinsburgj 
 Ohio, where he passed one and one-half years, dur-, 
 ing which period he attended school one winter at 
 the seminary of Rev. Samuel Bissell. After this 
 experience 'he returned to New Haven, where his 
 subsequent career was passed. 
 
1396 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Upon locating in New Haven, Mr. Beckley for 
 a dozen years was occupied in contracting and build- 
 ing, andi erected upwards of 300 buildings in the 
 city and vicinity. In i860, associated with Nathan 
 A. Sanford, he became engaged in the lumber busi- 
 ness, the style of the firmi being Sanford & Beckley. 
 Some four and one-half years later Mr. Beckley 
 bought Mr. Sanford's interest in the business, and 
 shortly thereafter associated with himself his 
 brother, Elihu A. Beckley, the firm name teing 
 W. A. Beckley & Co. for upwards of twenty-five 
 years. The business was conducted all this time 
 on the same corner, and by good judgment, fair 
 dealing and! cardful management they were emi- 
 nently successful. These gentlemen were substan- 
 tial men of the community in which they lived, and 
 held the esteem and respect of their fellow-citizens. 
 W. A. Beckley was a member of the Church of the 
 Redeemer. Socially he was a member of City 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., and of Sassacus Encampment. 
 On Nov. 12, 1851, Wilham A. Beckley was 
 married to Cordelia Wheeler, and two children were 
 born to this marriage: Annie J., who married 
 Charles Brewster, of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; and Frank 
 A., the immediate subject of this record. 
 
 Frank A. Beckley was born in Westport, Conn., 
 May 31, 1868, and received his education in the 
 public, and also in the private, schools, for which 
 New Haven is celebrated. At the age of sixteen 
 he began to assist his father, and early displayed 
 an aptitude for business. The William A. Beckley 
 Co. was incorporated May 8, 1893, and Frank A. 
 Beckley, already a valuable member of the company, 
 was made its president. The other officers are: 
 Charles B. Foote, secretary and treasurer, and Louis 
 A. Lampson, general manager. 
 
 Mr. Frank A. Beckley was married, in New 
 Haven, June 12, 1889, to Miss Louise Macdonald, 
 a daughter of Charles Macdonald, of New Haven, 
 and one daughter has been born to them, Doris C, 
 born July 8, 1893. Mr. Beckley is a member of City 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F., and of Hiram Lodge, A. F. & 
 A. M. He is one of the progressive, intelligent and 
 successful young business men whose character is 
 such as to promise a continuance of the prosperity 
 which followed the methods adopted by his la- 
 mented father. 
 
 WILLIAM J. ADAMiS, proprietor of "Yale 
 Dairy Lunch," corner of Chapel and Hiigh streets, 
 is one of the most successful restaurant men in 
 New Haven, one whose success in the same length 
 of time in that line stands without an equal in the 
 Elm City. Close and careful attention to the de- 
 tails of his business have been prominent factors in 
 his success, which has given him a most creditable 
 position among the thrifty and reliable business 
 men of his city. Mr. Adams conducted the first 
 lunch wagon in New Haven, being the pioneer in 
 that business. 
 
 William J. Adams was born March 9, 1857, in 
 
 Willimantic, Conn., son of Samuel G. and Mary E. 
 (Bailey) Adams, and comes from an old and hon- 
 orable family of New England. His ancestors took 
 a prominent part in the Revolutionary war, and 
 have been for generations the type of citizens that 
 any community would be proud to claim. Samuel 
 G. Adams was born in Lebanon, Conn., June 24, 
 1829, on a farm which is now near the city line 
 of Willimantic, and which was then the home of 
 his parents, Samuel and Jemima (Gardner) Adams. 
 Ebenezer Adams, grandfather of Samuel G., 
 held a major's commission in the Revolutionary 
 army, and in after years he was known as CoL 
 Adams. He was a volunteer from Rhode Island un- 
 der Arnold, and became a captain of artillery. One 
 of the originators, he took a conspicuous part in the 
 capture of Gen. Prescott in 1777, serving as cap- 
 tain under Col. Barton. "This exploit, though cer- 
 tainly one of the most hazardous attempted during 
 the war, is just casually mentioned in history, ac- 
 cidentally brought in as it were, and yet it was very 
 important m its results." For this act Lieut. CoL 
 Barton was brevetted colonel, and a sword was 
 voted him by Congress. This exploit was the cap- 
 ture of Gen. Prescott by thirty-eight men on the 
 night of July 12, 1777. They crossed Narragansett 
 Bay. in four whaleboats under the command of Col. 
 Barton, and, passing unobserved three British 
 frigates, landed and made their way to a farm house 
 five miles above Newport, R. I., where Gen. Pres- 
 cott had his headquarters. The guards were sur- 
 prised, the door of Prescott's room broken in by 
 a negro of the party, who used his head as a bat- 
 tering ram, and the British commander was hurried 
 away, half dressed, to Warwick Point, and after- 
 ward to the headquarters of Gen. Washington, irt 
 New Jersey. Col. Adams was buried on the old 
 Adams homestead near West Kingston, R. I. He 
 was twice married, and his second wife, who was 
 a Miss Fanning, was the mother of Samuel Adiams, 
 and the grandmother of Samuel G. 
 
 Samuel Adams was born in the town of Rich- 
 mond, Washington Co., R. I., and was a lifelong 
 farmer. His first marriage, to Penelope Card, took 
 place in Rhode Island, and they removed to 
 Lebanon, Conn., to settle on a farm. There the 
 wife died', and Mr. Adams married Jemima Gard- 
 ner. He passed away at the age of seventy-four 
 years, and his -remains are resting in the cemetery 
 at Willimantic. To the first union was born one 
 child, Mary Ann, who became the wife of Dunbar 
 Loring. By the second marriage there were the- 
 following children : ( i ) John Quincy, who lived 
 to be about sixty-four years old, learned the car- 
 penter's trade in Willimantic. where he lived and. 
 diedi; (2) Samuel G. was the father of William. 
 J.; (3) Elsie married William Bailey, and died in 
 Willimantic. The father was a Democrat, but 
 when he had cast his vote according to his best 
 judgment he felt that his political duties were welf 
 discharged, and he never had aspirations for of- 
 
-ryn 9 /Y^?^^***^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1397 
 
 ficial honors. From his sixteenth to his twenty- 
 seventh year he followed the sea, and, having saved 
 his money, was able while still a young man to re- 
 tire from the water and engage in the cultivation of 
 his own farm at Lebanon, which he bought with 
 his savings. At first it consisted of only ten acres, 
 but he added to it from time to time as his circum- 
 stances permitted until he had come to own a choice 
 farm of seventy-five acres. He obtained a start 
 by his own labors and modest savings, which by 
 thrift and industry grew into a very handsome 
 competence. 
 
 Samuel G. Adams obtained his education at what 
 was known as the Village Hill District school, in 
 his native town of Lebanon, and had among his 
 teachers a Mr. Abell, Joseph Foster, John Maxwell, 
 Asaph Kingsley and Hon. Silas F. Loomer, late of 
 Willimantic. Mr. Adams had but limited educa- 
 tional opportunities, as he lived three miles from 
 the school house, and could attend only in the win- 
 ter season, after he was able to do any work on 
 the farm. At fourteen years of age he began work 
 in a ston« quarry, and two years later shipped from 
 New London on. a whaler, the brig "Columbus." 
 For some three years he was several times at sea, 
 hut a sailor's life did not prove to his liking, and 
 when he was about nineteen he gave it up entirely. 
 For the ensuing two years he was employed in the 
 bridge building department of the New London, 
 Willimantic & Palmer railroad, then building, and 
 which is now a part of the Central Vermont rail- 
 road. Mr. Adams was engaged for a number of 
 years in getting out ship timbers and shipping his 
 products to the coast by the new railroads, which 
 had penetrated regions hitherto impossible to the 
 dealer in ship material. In 1862 he began the busi- 
 ness of house-moving, which has been his occupa- 
 tion to the present time, and in which he has gained 
 a creditable reputation for himself all over the east- 
 ern part of Connecticut. 
 
 Mr. Adkms was married, Feb. 18, 1850, in 
 Greenville, Conn., to Miss Mary E. Bailey, a na- 
 tive of North Stonington, and a daughter of James 
 and Emily (Green) Bailey. The young married 
 couple made their first home on Village Hill, in the 
 town of Lebanon. A year or two later they set- 
 tled on the farm where Mr. Adams was born, and 
 in February, 1881, removed to Pleasant street, m 
 Willimantic, where they are found at the present 
 time. This Pleasant street home has been greatly 
 remodeled since it passed into the possession of 
 Mr. Adams, and is now one of the most attractive 
 on the street. To Mr. and Mrs. Adams have come 
 the following family: Albert C, a farmer of 
 Lebanon, lives on the old Adams place; Julia is 
 Mrs. Alvin Lvmari, of Lebanon, Conn.i William 
 J. lives in New Haven ; Mary Ann is the wife of 
 Philip Bowen, a deputy marshal of New Haven ; 
 Nelson B. is associated with his father in business 
 in. Willimantic; Samuel is a market man m Wilh- 
 mantic. Three daughters died in childhood.. Mr. 
 
 and Mrs. Adams have had a wedded life of over 
 fifty-two years and in that time have made a host 
 of friends, being highly esteemed in the commu- 
 nity where they have lived so long and well. Sam- 
 uel G. Adams is a Democrat, and served as a 
 burgess while Willimantic was a borough, but has 
 never been an office seeker. He is an active and 
 influential member of the Independent Order of 
 Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, and the 
 local division of the Uniformed Rank of the 
 Knights of Pythias bears has name as a token of 
 the respect the brethren bear for him. Mr. Adams 
 has extensive real-estate holdings in Willimantic, 
 where he has built six houses and owns several 
 others. Tireless energy and a boundless ambition 
 to get ahead, backed up by an iron constitution and 
 most industrious habits, have been the principal 
 factors in his success. All his life he has been a 
 hardworking man, but he is a remarkably well pre- 
 served and active man. His heavy head of dark 
 hair, hardly streaked with gray, gives no evidence 
 of his age, and his keen perception, quick decisions 
 and retentive memory 'bespeak a wonderfully rug- 
 ged intellect. Throughout his long business ca- 
 reer his personal standing has been beyond ques- 
 tion, and he has met every obligation without hesi- 
 tation. 
 
 William J. Adams was educated in the schools 
 of his native town. When a young man he began 
 business for himself and on his own resources. 
 Success greeted his efforts, and subsequently he 
 took up the business of contracting, which included 
 e^xtensive work in the laying of concrete walks, in 
 which line he did a great deal of work and met 
 with success. This business he gave up in order 
 to take up his present line, in which, as in about all 
 his previous undertakings, he has been successful. 
 It was in October, 1894, that Mr. Adams opened 
 the first lunch wagon in New Haven. It stood on 
 Chapel street, where the building of Lewis & May- 
 cock is now located. A lunch wagon was then a 
 decided novelty, and at once became immensely 
 popular. The volume of business done in that small 
 space would have been very acceptable to many 
 merchants with their large store-rooms and thou- 
 sands of dollars worth of stock. Encouraged by 
 his success, Mr. Adams later established three other 
 wagons of the same kind in different parts of the 
 city. When the business became established he 
 profitably disposed of them. Being obliged to sur- 
 render his original stand when the Lewis & May- 
 cock building was to be built, he secured the quar- 
 ters he now occupies, which were tastefully and at- 
 tractively filled up at considerable expense. As 
 proprietor of this place of business he is but repeat- 
 ing the success of his former venture. By a care- 
 ful study of his line Mr. Adams has familiarized 
 himself with its every detail, and with his business 
 acumen he is not only able to make his business a 
 popular one with the patrons, but also a profitable 
 one to himself. He has also become the owner of 
 
1398 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 considerable real estate in his native city. Fra- 
 ternally Mr. Adams is a member of the Knights of 
 Pythias, of Willimantic, and of the Royal Ar- 
 canum of New Haven. Politically he is independ- 
 ent, not bound to any party. 
 
 Mrs. Adams previous to her marriage was Miss 
 Lura Hyde, of Willimantic, a daughter of Na- 
 thaniel Hyde, in whose death, at the age of over 
 ninety, Willimantic lost one of its best known and 
 most highly respected old citizens. One daughter, 
 Bernice, has brightenedi the home of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Adams. Mr. Adams' success in life has been won 
 by his own efforts, not from a life of self-denial, 
 as he takes all the pleasures and comforts that the 
 pressure of his business permits. 
 
 GEORGE MILO BARNES. The Barnes fam- 
 ily settled in New Haven county very early in its 
 history. Thomas Barnes, the first of the family to 
 come here, emigrated from England and made his 
 home on what was then known as Muddy River, 
 but what is now East Haven, where he signed the 
 Constitution of the Colony in 1644. Daniel Barnes, 
 hi? brother, was also a settler in the same com- 
 munity. 
 
 (I) Thomas Barnes was three times married, 
 and became the father of five children, whose names 
 and dates of birth are as follows : Elizabeth, May 
 28, 1650; Thomlas, Aug. 26, 1653; Abigail, Jan. 
 II, 1656; Daniel, 1659; Maybee, Jan. 25, 1668. 
 
 (H) Thomas Barnes, not above, was born in 
 East Haven, where he lived, engaging all his life in 
 farming. He married and became the father of 
 twelve children, whose names and dates of birth are 
 as follows: Mary, 1682; Thomas, July 21, 1684 
 (died young) ; Thomas (2), July 26, 1687; Sarah, 
 1689 (married Samuel Moulthrop) ; Rebecca, 
 March 12, 1691 ; Abigail, June 10, 1693 ; Elizabeth, 
 Nov. 10, 1695; Deborah, Feb. i, 1698; Hannah, 
 May 31, 1702; Samuel, April 11, 1705; Nathaniel, 
 Jan. II, 1707; Abraham, 1711. 
 
 (HI) Samuel Barnes, mentioned above, passed 
 his life in farming in, East Haven, and made his 
 home on .the land which had come to him' from' his 
 parents. He married Rebecca Parker, and became 
 the father of seven children: Justus, born Jan. 3, 
 1730; Rebecca, April 28, 1733 (died young) ; Han- 
 nah, Sept. 5, 1735; Titus, Dec. 21, 1739 (he mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Tuttle) ; Rebecca, July 27, 1741 ; 
 Samuel, April 24, 1743; Isaiah, Jan. i, 1748. The 
 mother of these children died, and Samuel Barnes 
 married Dorcas Turner, by whom he had two chil- 
 dren : Dorcas, born Dec. 26, 1753 ; and Justus, 
 born March 6, 1756. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Barnes, son of Samiuel (i), was 
 married in 1764 to Hepzibah, a daughter of Abel 
 Collins, who became a captain in the Revolutionary 
 v;ar. They had the following children : Samuel, 
 born Jan. 3, 1765; Jeremiah, born March 9, 1767; 
 Elizabeth, born March 18, 1769; Chauncey, born 
 Feb. I, 1771 ; Elizabeth (2), born March 7, 1773; 
 
 Sarah, born Nov. 4, 1775; Polly, 'born June 29, 
 1777; Amos, born Oct. 14, 1779; William Collins, 
 born Dec. 18, 1781. Samuel Barnes was a soldier 
 in the Revolutionary war, and rose to the rank of 
 captain. He was a prominent landowner and 
 farmer in East Haven, where he was one of the 
 founders of the local Episcopal Church. He died 
 in East Haven, where his ashes were interred. 
 
 William Collins Barnes was educated in the 
 public schools, and became a sailor while a lad. 
 While on a foreign voyage he was taken prisoner 
 by the French and detained with the rest of the 
 crew on an island in the Pacific ocean. No apology 
 or compensation was ever obtained from France for 
 this high-handed outrage. After his release he re- 
 turned home, and spent the rest of his life as a 
 farmer on the old homestead. He died in, 1834, and 
 was buried in the East Haven' cemetery. He was 
 a member of the Congregational Church, and stood 
 very high in the community. William Collins mar- 
 ried Nancy, daughter of Andrew and Elizabeth 
 (Bradley) Davidson, and granddaughter of Zebulon 
 and Elizabeth (Hemingway) Bradley, whose 
 brother, Abraham Bradley, was one of the first mer- 
 chants of New Haven. To this union were born 
 nine children: James; Amos; George; Dennis; 
 Sarah, who married William Ames, of Fair Haven ; 
 Caroline, who died at the age of twenty-two years ; 
 Maria, who married James William Russell ; James 
 Dennis, mentioned below; and Elizabeth, who died 
 young. 
 
 James Dennis Barnes was reared in New Haven, 
 where he learned the trade of a carpenter and 
 joiner. In 1853 he went to California, and was so 
 pleased with that section that he remained and made 
 his home on the Pacific coast, now residing in 
 Eureka, Cal. He married Maria Kingsbury, and 
 they had two children : Frederick, who died in Cali- 
 fornia; and George Milo. 
 
 George Milo Barnes was born Jan. 31, 1849, 
 and was reared in New Haven from the age of four 
 years, and received excellent educational advan- 
 tages, being sent to private schools in New Haven 
 and in Worcester until he reached the age of eight- 
 een }'cars. At that time he began his business 
 career, buying out a milk route between East Ha- 
 ven and New Haven, with which he was occupied 
 for some two years. At the end of that time he sold 
 out and came to Meridlen to enter the office of 
 James W. Russell, a carriage manufacturer, with 
 whom' he remained ten years as bookkeeper. In 
 1878 he abandoned this connection, and entered the 
 m_eat business. He located at No. 310 East Main 
 street, and has the leading market in the city. Mr. 
 Barnes possesses those qualities which command 
 success, and has been singularly fortunate in all his- 
 dealings. Since 1895 Mr. Barnes has also 'been 
 connected with the livery business, in which he has- 
 'been very succcessful. 
 
 Air. Barnes was married, in 1873, '^o Rosa Faulk- 
 ner, of East Haven, and to this union were born 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1399 
 
 two children, Frank H. R. and one who died in in- 
 fancy. The former is associated with his father 
 as a clerk. He was married Dec. 25, 1889, to Sadie 
 Lawrence, a daughter of Jefferson and Sarah 
 (Cochran) Lawrence, and a native of Meriden. 
 i"o this union has come one child, Joyce Lawrence. 
 George Milo Barnes is a Democrat, and is some- 
 what prominent in the ranks of that organization. 
 As a business man he enjoys the confidence and 
 esteem of the community, and is regarded as one of 
 the substantial citizens of East Meriden. 
 
 James William Russell was for more than forty 
 years a well-known citizen of Meriden, v/here he 
 took rank among the most enterprising and pro- 
 gressive men of the city. He was born in the town 
 of Branford, Sept. 28, 1818, and was the only son 
 of Frederick Russell, a well-known farmer of his 
 day. Mr. Russell was educated in the public schools 
 of Branford, and remained at home until he was 
 seventeen years of age. He learned the trade of 
 carriage painting, which he followed for a time in 
 J\Iilford and in the Southern States. When he was 
 twenty-two he came to the town of Meriden, and, 
 starting in business as a carriage and wagon manu- 
 facturer, built a fine brick factory on East Main 
 street, employing some twenty m'en. For more than 
 half a century he was one of the busiest and most 
 active residents of Meriden. He died at his 'home 
 on East Main street Dec. 9, 1885, and was buried in 
 the East cemetery at Meriden. In politics he was 
 a stanch Democrat, and he was elected a member of 
 the council and alderman for the Fifth ward, though 
 he was ho office seeker. He belonged to St. An- 
 drew's Episcopal Church, where he filled the posi- 
 tion of vestryman. He was a member of the L O. 
 O. F. in Middletown. 
 
 James William Russell was married in 1848, m 
 East Haven, to Maria A. Barnes, daughter of Will- 
 iam Collins Barnes. She is still living at her home 
 on East Main street, Meriden, and, notwithstand- 
 ing her years, is quite active and energetic. Of a 
 kind and loving disposition, she was much devoted 
 to her husband, and still reveres and cherishes his 
 memory. 
 
 JESSE O. EATON (deceased), one of the 
 prominent and successful citizens of that part of 
 North Haven known as Montowese, resided upon 
 a farm which has been handed down from Governor 
 Theophilus Eaton, who for twenty consecutive 
 years was governor of the colony. It was in June, 
 1639, that Theophilus Eaton and his Puritan con- 
 temporaries formed their government, called the 
 "House of Wisdom." 
 
 In his will Gov. Eaton mentions three children, 
 Theophilus, Mary and Hannah, and of these, the 
 first returned to England and afterward lived m 
 Dublin, Ireland ; Mary married Valentine Hill and 
 removed to Piscataqua, N. H. ; and Hannah re- 
 turned to England with the widow of Gov. Eaton, 
 but finally married Williafn Jones, an English law- 
 
 yer and returned to New Haven in 1660, Mr. Jones 
 afterward becoming Lieutenant-Governor of Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 (II) James Heaton, by a second marriage of his- 
 father, the Governor Eaton mentioned above, mar- 
 ried Sarah Streete. 
 
 (III) Theophilus Heaton, son of James and 
 Sarah, married Sarah Earll in 1709. 
 
 (IV) Theophilus Heaton, son of Theophilus , 
 and Sarah, married Hannah Cooke, of Long Island, 
 a devout and pious woman, and the famiily has in 
 its possession a book written by her, a sort of diary, 
 the penmanship being yet easily discerned. A re- 
 ligious denomination called the "Separate Church"" 
 existed in New Haven, and this scholarly and pious; 
 ancestress was one of the leading spirits. This 
 book of Christian experiences has been read by 
 many persons, and the late Rev. W. T. Reynolds, of 
 North Haven, declared that for thirty years he had 
 found appropriate texts in her little volume. Her 
 fous'band was the great-grandfather of our subject,, 
 a large land owner, the house being located north- 
 east of our subject's late home. The old home has- 
 been removed, but the farm which for 200 years has 
 been in the family is still its property. But two chil- 
 dren were born to the pious and worthy Theop'hilus- 
 and wife : Jonathan and Calvin, the latter being the 
 ancestor next in line. Theophilus died in July,. 
 1791, his wife, Hannah, surviving until 1794, and 
 in her will she made her son Calvin her executor. 
 
 (V) Calvin Heaton was born on the oldl 
 farm on Aug. 14, 1755, became a large farmer and 
 did much trading, engaging extensively in the hay 
 business, buying and pressing it, and finally shipping- 
 it to the West Indies. At one time he bought a. 
 vessel at New Haven, which at the time of purchase 
 was undoubtedly unseaworthy. This was loaded 
 with hay and went to the bottom on its first voy- 
 age, the loss of hay and mules being $20,000, with 
 no insurance, and this crippled the owner finan- 
 cially. Prior to this he was considered one of the 
 v/ealthiest men of the locality, two others possessing- 
 equal wealth with him. This loss saddened the last 
 years of a busy life, and his death occurred March 
 26, 1820. 
 
 (VI) Theophilus Eaton (the "H" having been 
 dropped during the passing years) was born in the 
 late homie of our subject, his father, Calvin, hav- 
 ing built the main part oi it in 1780. His education 
 was received in the district schools, and later he en- 
 gaged in conducting a store in Montowese, but later 
 bought the interests of the other heirs in the farm 
 and lived there until his death. May 11, 1869. His 
 wife had been Elmira C. Bronson, of North Guil- 
 ford, and these children were born to them : Laura, 
 who married Bethuel Brockett, a shoe manufac- 
 turer, whose factory was located on his farm in 
 North Haven ; Loursa, wife of William E. Brockett, 
 who lived in North Haven; Esther, who married 
 Brazil Bradley, lived in North Haven, and met her 
 death fromi the hand of a former la'borer on the 
 
I400 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 farm, the murderer being later hanged for the 
 crime in New Haven ; Rebecca, who married Julius 
 Smith and now lives in North Haven ; Julia-, who 
 married George Riley audi lived in North Haven ; 
 Jesse O. ; Elizabeth, who married Alexander Rob- 
 inson, of Racine, Wis. ; and Lois, who married R. 
 A. Smith and lives in North Haven. 
 
 (Vn) Jesse O. Eaton, was born May 27, 1820, 
 on the farm where he passed the greater part of 
 his life, and in a house that stood imjnediately south 
 of the present dwelling. His educational advan- 
 tages were limited to those offered by the district 
 school, and when he had finished the course there 
 he settled down to the assistance of his father on 
 the farm. When a dairy business was opened up, he 
 peddled milk in New Haven, beginning in 1855 and 
 continuing for twelve years. Leaving the farm at 
 this time, he went to Hamden and entered, a shop 
 owned by the Churchills, who were engaged in the 
 manufacture of augers, remaining in this employ- 
 ment for a number of years, but he finally returned 
 to the farm, and upon the death of his father, pur- 
 chased the interests of the other heirs, and was 
 engaged in agricultural work until the last few years 
 of his life, when he retired from active work, the 
 labor being ably performed by his sturdy sons. 
 The farm comprises 125 acres of fertile, well-culti- 
 vated land, and Mr. Eaton successfully carried on an 
 extensive business in market gardening. This line 
 is not pursued at present, but the dairy business is 
 still retained, although the milk is all disposed of to 
 dealers. Mr. Eaton pas£.ed away at his home in 
 Montowese in June, 1901. 
 
 On Oct. 8, 1846, Mr. Eaton was married in New 
 Haven to Mary Ann Bradley, born Oct. i, 1825, a 
 native of Cheshire, and her death, which occurred 
 May 15, 1899, was a severe blow to her husband, 
 her companionship having lasted through a half a 
 century. A noble woman, a devoted wife and 
 mother, she was sincerely mourned by the bereaved 
 family. The two sons of this union have taken 
 prominent positions in the county, and have been 
 the best of testimony to the wisdom and cai"e given 
 their rearing by Itheir devoted parents. 
 
 Theophilus Eaton, eldest son of Jesse O. 
 Eaton, was born Nov. 28, 1849, and married Bertha 
 M., the daughter of Willard Robinson, of North 
 Haven, and now is manager of the farm. Promi- 
 nent in political affairs, he has been successively on 
 the board of education, selectman, registrar of 
 voters., justice of the peace, and was elected by the 
 Republicans as represen.tative to the Assembly from 
 1889 to 1892. 
 
 Robert Eaton was born Feb. 20, 1857, and after 
 completing the course in the common schools was 
 a student in the Hillhouse high school and the 
 French Collegiate Institute. In politics he is a 
 stanch Republican, a good political organizer and 
 faithful -worker. As president of the Young Men's 
 Republican Club, of North Haven, and as chair- 
 man of the Republican town committee, he has be- 
 
 come very prominent, and is also well known 
 throughout the State as assistant dairy commis- 
 sioner, having been appointed such in May, 1891, 
 by Com. Winslow. Both he and brother are so^ 
 cially connected with the North Haven Grange, of 
 whic'h Robert has been master, and both are con- 
 nected with Adelphi Lodge, A. "F. & A. M., and 
 Quinnipiac Council, O. U. A. M., while Robert has 
 also been a member of the board of relief andl as- 
 sessor. Robert Eaton was miarried to Carrie A. 
 Grannis, of East Haven, and two children, Cora 
 and Mary, belong to his home. All of the family 
 are consistent and valued members of the Congre- 
 gational Church. 
 
 During his vigorous years Jesse O. Eaton was 
 a hard and persistent worker and enjoyed the 
 healthful results of temperate living; and his only 
 serious injury occurred from the thrust in his. eye, 
 made by a vicious animal, by which he lost the use 
 of that member. Although eighty-one years of age 
 he possessed at Ms death in many ways the youth 
 of a man of many years his junior, and his re- 
 tentive memory made him a delightful host. His 
 friends were legion throughout North .Haven. 
 
 CHARLES B. TILEY, D. D. S., a well-known 
 dentist of Derby, was born in Goodspeeds^ Conn., 
 Nov. 27, 1861, a son of Stillman J. and Ophelia 
 (Bates) Tiley. 'His early life was spent at EsseXj 
 Conn., and he later graduated from the Phila- 
 delphia Dental College. He then located in Derby 
 for the practice of his profession. 
 
 Dr. Tiley was united in marriage with Lilla 
 Morton, of New Haven, and they have become the 
 parents of two children. Hazel and Morton. Fra- 
 ternally the Doctor is a Mason, and' is affiliated with 
 Bridgeport Commandery, K. T., and Pyramid 
 Temple of the Mystic Shrine. 
 
 CORNELIUS JOSEPH DANAHER, prose- 
 cuting agent for Meriden and Cheshire, and assist- 
 ant city attorney of Meriden, is one of the rising 
 young members of the legal profession in New Ha- 
 ven county. He is a native of Meriden, born Aug. 
 10, 1870, son of John and Margaret (Sullivan) 
 Danaher. The father served in the Civil war under 
 Gen. Terry, of New Haven, and left an honorable 
 record which reflected great credit upon himself 
 and which his posterity can justly take pride in re- 
 viewing. Mr. Danaher was a man of education, in- 
 dustrious and energetic. He had an excellent li-> 
 brary, which was made to serve the best ends. 
 
 Cornelius J. Danaher received his early educa- 
 tion in the common schools of Meriden, and com- 
 menced hi& law studies in the office of United 
 States Senator Orville H. Piatt and his son, J. P. 
 Piatt, who were engaged in legal business under 
 the firm name of O. H. & J. P. Piatt. After 
 three years' study under these able tutors he en- 
 tered the senior class in the Law Department at 
 Yale, graduating therefrom in 1893 with the de- 
 
^irrTi^^Jl:^^.^^^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1401 
 
 grec of LL. B. He was admitted to the Bar at 
 New Hjaven June 29, 1893, ^"d became identified 
 with the well-known law firm of O. H. & J. P. 
 Piatt, of Meriden. This connection brought him 
 into cases of importance and he soon became a well- 
 known figure in the courts of the State, and has 
 ever since been foremost among the promising 
 young members of his fraternity in the county. He 
 is one of the youngest prosecutors in the State, 
 and the ability with which all his professional 
 duties are performed holds forth promise of high 
 honors in the future. Among the many cases of 
 importance with which Mr. Danaher has been con- 
 nected the most important may be said to be the 
 celebrated Bradley Court Martial, which lasted for 
 three months, and resulted in an acquittal of Mr. 
 Danaher's client. Through his studious habits, his 
 industry and force of character Mr. Danaher has 
 gained the confidence of the people and forged his 
 way to a most creditable standing in the profession 
 and community. He possesses that keen and bright 
 wit characteristic of his nationality, is eloquent be- 
 fore the. court and jury, and a young man of great 
 promise. 
 
 Mr. Danaher's political affiliations have been 
 with the Democratic party, and he is a prominent 
 factor in local politics. In 1895 he was chosen sec- 
 retary of both the City and County Democratic 
 Committees. From 1893 to 1895 he served as as- 
 sistant city attorney of Meriden, and during the 
 same period as liquor prosecuting attorney of New 
 Haven county, the youngest to hold that office in 
 the State. He has served as president of the Cath- 
 ohc Club of Meriden, and in 1892 was business 
 manager of the Young Men's Total Abstinence 
 Society. 
 
 On June 30, 1897, Mr. Danaher was married 
 to Ellen Jane Ryan, of Meriden, and they have 
 one child, John. 
 
 JAMES GRANT, superintendent of the fire 
 alarm telegraph system in New Haven, has dis- 
 charged the duties of that responsible incumbency 
 with a fidelity alike creditable to him'self and satis- 
 factory to his fdlow citizens, and his administration 
 ■has been characterized by marked improvements in 
 the methods of the department. Mr. Grant began 
 at the foot of the ladder, and has worked his own 
 way to the high position he now occupies. 
 
 Our subject is 'a native of Scotland, born March 
 30, 1855, and his parents, Jam|es and Barbara 
 (Peebles) Grant, were also natives of that country. 
 His father, a carriage builder by occupation, died 
 in Austraha in 1899, at the age of seventy-nine, 
 while his mother died at the age of forty-three. 
 -Of the seven children born to this union but three 
 survive: Annie, Mrs. Den, of Austraha; Isabella, 
 Mrs. Hey wood, living in New Zealand; and James. 
 
 James Grant lived in Florida and Alabama from 
 the age of eleven to that of twenty, and during that 
 time had but meager educational chances. Since 
 
 coming North he has made his home in New Haven, 
 where he first took a position with the Western 
 Union Company, later entering the emjploy of the 
 Southern New England Telephone Company, with 
 whom he remained until 1883. He assisted in put- 
 ting in their first wires in New Haven, about six 
 miles to a circuit. After leaving this employ he be- 
 came a lineman of the City Fire Department, was 
 promoted in time to the position of principal line- 
 man, and was eventually made superintendent of 
 the fire alarm wires. He now has charge of all the 
 fire department wires in New Haven, including 167 
 fire alarm boxes, seventy miles of underground 
 wires and sixty-five miles of overhead wires. The 
 .system introduced by him, known as the fast time 
 system, is the only one of the kind in the country 
 in which a "repeater" is used. Mr. Grant was also 
 responsible for the system of call boxes of the 
 police department, and was assistant in charge for 
 a number of years. He occupies a high standing 
 among public officials in his adopted city, and his 
 long retention in so important a position is the 
 strongest evidence of the satisfaction which his 
 services afford. 
 
 Mr. Grant was married, in March, 1885, to 
 Miss Rosa Rudolph, a native of Philadelphia, wTiere 
 her father, John Rudolph, who was engaged in the 
 teaming business, died at the age of seventy-eight, 
 years. Two children have been born to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Grant, James A. and David R. The family 
 attend the First M. E. Church of New Haven. So- 
 cially Mr. Grant belongs to the F. & A. M. ; Olive 
 [Branch, 'No. 84, I. O. O. F. (at Qujinnipiac) ; 
 Knights of the Golden Eagle ; A. O. U. W. ; and the 
 Firemen's Mutual and Active Firemen's Associ- 
 ations. 
 
 GEORGE L. CLARK, foreman of the New 
 Haven Webb Manufacturing Co., of Centreville, 
 eminently deserves classification among the purely 
 self-made men of Hamden who have distinguished 
 themselves for their ability to master the opposing 
 forces of life and to wrest from fate a large meas- 
 ure of success and an honorable name. 
 
 Mr. Clark was born in Milford, Conn., May 13, 
 1853, a son of Daniel and Charlotte (Prince) Clark, 
 also natives of that town, where the mother died. 
 She was a faithful m^ember of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church and a most estimable lady. During his 
 youth the father learned the carpenter's and join- 
 ,er's trade, which he followed in Milford for some 
 years, and then removed to Iowa, where he _ con- 
 tinued to engage in his chosen occupation until his 
 death. He attended the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church and was a stanch supporter of the Demo- 
 cratic party. In his family were six children, 
 namely: George L., our subject; Albert, a resident 
 of Milford, Conn. ; William, of Jersey City, N. J. ; 
 Charles, of Torrington, Conn. ; Edward, of New 
 Haven ; and Mary, wife of George Morse, of Ham- 
 den. 
 
1402 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 George L. Clark was but three years old when 
 taken by his parents to Iowa, where he passed his 
 boyhood and youth, his education being acquired in 
 the district schools of that State. At an early age 
 he began the battle of life for himself as a farm 
 hand, and was thus employed until after his return 
 East at the age of seventeen years. After working 
 for a short time on a farm' in Milford, he took up 
 the carpenter's trade, which he followed there for 
 two years, and then came to New Haven, where he 
 entered the employ of Horace M. Shipley, working 
 as a journeyman principally in Naugatuck. In 
 1875 and 1876 he aided in the construction of the 
 New Haven Webb factory in Hamden, and on its 
 completion obtained' a position as repairer with the 
 company. He has been connected with the factory 
 for the past quarter of a century, and has gradually 
 worked his way upward until he is now serving as 
 foreman. Our subject fills this responsible position 
 in a riiost creditable and. acceptable manner, and has 
 the entire confidence and respect of the company 
 and those working under him. 
 
 Mr. Clark married Miss Elizabeth Moss, a 
 daughter of Joseph Moss, a weaver of Hamden, 
 and to them have been born six children : Lillian, 
 wife of Edgar W. Munson; Eva, wife of Charles 
 Hall; Estella; Fannie; Charlotte; and Georgia. 
 'Mr. and Mrs. Clark are both prominent members 
 of Hamden Grange, and both belong to Grace 
 Episcopal. Church at Centrevil'le, of which he has 
 been warden for the past two years and vestryman 
 for several years. Fraternally he is a member of 
 Day Spring Lodge, F. & A. M., No. 30, of Ham- 
 den, of which he is past master, and he has filled all 
 the chairs in Montowese Lodge, I. O. O. F., of 
 New Haven. His political support is always given 
 the men and measures of the Republican party, and 
 he is now efficiently serving as a member of the 
 school board. He has filled the positions of justice 
 of the peace and grand juror, and in 1889 was a 
 member of the State Legislature. His official duties 
 have always been most conscientiously and faith- 
 fully discharged, and in all the relations of life he 
 has been found true to every trust reposed in him. 
 His career is one well worthy of emulation and 
 contains many valuable lessons of incentive, show- 
 ing the possibilities that are open to young men who 
 wish to improve every opportunity for advance- 
 ment. 
 
 HENRY L. HOTGHKISS is a prominent 
 manufacturer and banker of New Haven. For 
 nearly two hundred and sixty years the name of 
 Hotchkiss has figured more or less in the business 
 and social life of New Haven, and for the past one 
 hundred years, such names as Justus, Russell, 
 Henry, Lucius and the subject of this sketch have 
 played an important part in New Haven's history, 
 and especially prominent through a long lifetime 
 was the late Henry Hotchkiss, whose mantle fell 
 upon his son, Henry L. Hotchkiss, who has proven 
 
 himself worthy of it. That branch of the Hotch- 
 kiss family in New Haven of whom we especially 
 write, has descended from Samuel Hotchkiss, a 
 native of Essex, England, and who came to New 
 Haven as early as 1641. 
 
 Of his posterity, one Justus Hotchkiss, asso- 
 ciated with his brother-in-law, Russell Hotchkiss, 
 was engaged in the lumber business in New Haven 
 early in the present century. Justus Hotchkiss died 
 in 1812, and his only children, Henry and Lucius, 
 were sent to Fairfield to attend the academy, and 
 remained there until Henry reached the age of 
 eighteen. Upon returning to New Haven, he was 
 a clerk for his uncle, who was still in the lumber 
 business, for three years, and on reaching his ma- 
 jority, became associated in the business as a part- 
 ner. In 1828, the uncle retired from active busi- 
 ness, and his two nephews succeeded him, and under 
 the firm name of H. & L. Hotchkiss, continued the 
 house until 1850. They were live, energetic and 
 shrewd business men, and as the years passed, de- 
 veloped a large trade. They, too, in the meantime, 
 were interested in other lines, among which was 
 that of private partners from 1842 to 1852 in the 
 business of L. Candee & Co., manufacturers of rub- 
 ber shoes, Mr. Leverett Candee having secured the 
 right of manufacturing under the Goodyear patent, 
 one of the first in the world to make rubber shoes. 
 In 1852, the business of L. Candee & Co. was or- 
 ganized into a stock company, with a capital stock 
 of $200,000, and Mr. Candee became its first 
 president. In 1863 he was succeeded by Henry 
 Hotchkiss, who was also made treasurer and held 
 the latter office until 1869, when his son, Henry L. 
 Hotchkiss, was chosen treasurer, although the 
 father remained president until his death in 1871. 
 Henry L. Hotchkiss then became president and has 
 since continued in that office. Under the wise and 
 careful management of these two gentlemen, the 
 vast business of the corporation of today has devel- 
 oped to its present enormous dimensions. The plant 
 consists of several large four and five story build- 
 ings, all equipped with modern machinery, covering 
 an area of four acres. The company are engaged 
 in the manufacture of all kinds of foot-wear ; some 
 fifteen hundred hands are employed, who make 20,- 
 000 pairs of boots and shoes per day, or upwards 
 of 6,000,000 per year. 
 
 Henry Hotchkiss was a sagacious and far- 
 seemg business man, and to him is given the credit 
 of bemg among the earliest of New Haven's citizens 
 to see the need of a wider field for the investment 
 of the capital of the growing city. He was first in 
 a marked way to exhibit the sipirit of broader enter- 
 prise in the line of joint stock corporations, and 
 other forms of business enterprise. He was one of 
 the original corporators of, and a director in, the 
 large Waterbury brass manufactory of Holmes, 
 Booth & Haydens ; an original corporator of the N. 
 H. & New London R. R., now the Shore Line Rail- 
 road Company, and later a trustee and manager 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1403 
 
 for several years. For upwards of twenty years he 
 was president of the New Haven County Bank, a 
 position demanding at one time special financial 
 ability on account of its large and complicated in- 
 terests. He became the first president of the Union 
 Trust Company of New Haven, at its organization 
 in 1871, and held this ofifice at the time of his death, 
 his son, Henry L., succeeding (him, a position which 
 he still occupies. Henry Hotchkiss was greatly in- 
 terested in New Haven's Colonial Historical Society, 
 in which he was a director, and in his early life, 
 was active in military affairs, and also in the New 
 Haven Fire Department. Having no taste for 
 civic honors, he never allowed his name to be used 
 as a candidate for political office. During the Civil 
 war 'Mr. Hotchkiss was fully in sympathy with the 
 government, and realized the great necessity of sav- 
 ing the Union, exerted his influence in every way 
 possible to uphold the great cause. Never making 
 any parade of philanthropy, he was yet very helpful 
 in a quiet way, especially to young men. 
 
 On May 22, 1823, Mr. Hotchkiss married Eliza- 
 beth Daggett Prescott, born May 3, 1803, and died 
 in September of 1882. Mrs. Hotchkiss was a 
 daughter of Benjamin Prescott of the shipping firm 
 of Prescott & Sherman of New Haven, and a de- 
 scendant in the sixth generation from John Pres- 
 cott, who emigrated from England to Boston and 
 Watertown in 1640, and who was the first set- 
 tler of Worcester county, and the founder of 
 Lancaster. He was an ancestor of Colonel Will- 
 iam Prescott, of Bunker Hill fame, of Judge 
 William Prescott, and of William H. Prescott, the 
 historian. John Prescott was the fourth generation 
 from James Prescott, of Standish, Lancaster. The 
 line of Mrs. Hotchkiss' descent was through Cap- 
 tain Jonathan, Rev. Benjamin, Benjamin, Benjamin, 
 the latter born Oct. 27, 1757, in Salem, Mass. At 
 the age of fifteen he left Salem and came into the 
 family of Hon. Roger Sherman, whose wife was his 
 sister, and in 1793 he formed a pa.rtnership with 
 Roger Sherman, Jr., under the firm name of Pres- 
 cott & Sherman. Pie was thus engaged up to the 
 time of his death, October 23, 1839. In 1783 he 
 married Hannah Blakeslie (daughter of Tilly and 
 Thankful (Allen) Blakeslie), Vv'ho died May 10, 
 1824. To Mr. and Mrs. Hotchkiss have been born 
 six children, viz: Elizabeth S., died Jan. 26, 1896; 
 Mary A. F., died Oct. 3, 1839 ; Martha married Dr. 
 John O. Bronson, died Feb. 22, 1898; Susan V. ; 
 Mary A., married Captain Charles H. Townshend, 
 formerly in command of a French passenger steam- 
 er plying between New York and Havre; Henry 
 Lucius. 
 
 Henry Lucius Hotchkiss was born on Dec. 
 18, 1842, married on Feb. 25, 1875, Jane T.,. daugh- 
 ter of the late Henry Trowbridge and Mary Web- 
 ster Southgate Trowbridge, the latter a grand- 
 daughter of Noah Webster, the lexicographer. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Hotchkiss had the following family : Henry 
 Stuart, born Oct. i, 1878, graduated from Yale 
 
 scientific department, in 1900; Helen Southgate, 
 born Nov. 24, 1880, married Elisha E. Garrison, a 
 graduate of Yale in the class of 1897; Elizabeth 
 Trowbridge, born March 26, 1885. Mrs. Hotch- 
 kiss died April 20, 1902. The New Haven Register, 
 under date of April 21, 1902, said, editorially: 
 ''The death, after a protracted and painful illness, 
 of Mrs. Henry L. Hotchkiss carries with it, to a 
 very large circle of friends and acquaintances, 
 more deep and profound sorrow than is occasioned 
 by the average aflhction of that character, sad 
 though each may be. Mrs. Hotchkiss was a very 
 remarkable woman in more ways than one. It is 
 said of some men, who are more fortunate in the 
 world of commerce than others, that whatever they 
 touch turns to gold. It can be said of Mrs. Hotch- 
 kiss that she never came into contact with her fel- 
 low beings' without adding to her rich store of 
 friendships. She was such a true-hearted and gen- 
 erous woman herself that her presence inspired the 
 kindliest feelings and the warmest sympathies in 
 others. Though a woman whose sphere in life 
 carried her triumphantly into the most delightful 
 and cultivated society, there were no restrictions 
 placed upon her friendships. There are to-day 
 friends who mourn her death in every section of 
 the city, and justly so. The loss therefore is one 
 in which the community shares, as must always be 
 the case when a representative man or woman dies. 
 To her family goes a keenness of sympathy which 
 cannot help but console them in their grief and 
 make them thankful that so noble a friend was 
 spared to them through so many years of rich asso- 
 ciation." 
 
 DAVID EVANS, a representative dairyman 
 and farmer, of Yale avenue, Meriden, was born in 
 Llanarmon, County of Flint, North Wales, Jan. 27, 
 1842, and by industry and integrity has made him- 
 self an enviable position in his adopted country. 
 
 David Evans obtained his education in the sub- 
 scription schools of his native community. He 
 worked with his father on the farm, and while still 
 a boy was employed in the local lead mines for some 
 time. He continued, however, to make farming his 
 main business until 1872, in which year he sought 
 the larger life of the United States, landing at New 
 York, and coming to Meriden, where he found em- 
 ployment at farm labor with Zina K. Murdock, 
 with whom he remained several months. For nine 
 years he lived in Shawnee county, Kans., where he 
 was farming on shares at first, and later on land 
 which he purchased. In 1882 he sold out, and com- 
 ing to Meriden entered the finishing department of 
 the Wilcox White Organ Co., engaging steadily in 
 that work for eight years. At the end of that time 
 he found himself blacklisted for unknown reasons 
 and unable to secure employment in the town. As 
 he had saved enough to build a home, on land 
 already bought, he was not dism^ayed. This Meri- 
 den property he exchanged for a thirty-acre farm in 
 
1404 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Middlefield, and for a number of years he was en- 
 gaged in its cultivation, finding a market for his 
 milk and other products in Meriden. In 1897, after 
 a prolonged legal struggle with the Middletown 
 Water Co., which soug^ht his farm' as an addition 
 to its reservoir, he won his suit. He came to Meri- 
 den, where he bought the Gilbert farm, in Yale 
 avenue, and at once entered the dairv business, hav- 
 ing now a herd of Jersey cattle. He has made many 
 valuable and extensive improvements on the farm, 
 has built up a fine 'business, has a good' outlook for 
 the future, and is ranked among the valuable citi- 
 zens of the day. On his farm^ there is a splendid 
 silo, which is counted one of the best in the town, 
 and attracts the admiration of those well versed in 
 agricultural matters. 
 
 Mr. Evans was married in 1881 to Martha Hob- 
 son, who was born in Birmingham, England, daugh- 
 ter of William H. and Mary Ann (Hobson) Hob- 
 son, of Wallingford. To this union have been born 
 four children, as follows : Hiram, Alice, Jennie 
 and Henry George. Mr. Evans belongs to the 
 Meriden Grange, and also to Center Lodge, No. 
 97, A. F. & A. M., at Meriden. In politics he takes 
 an independent position, while in religion he ac- 
 cepts the faith of the Congregational Church, of 
 which both he and his wife are members, affiliating 
 with the Center Church at Meriden. Our subject 
 is a hard-w©rking andl honest man, anxious to do 
 right, and has had much to contend against in order 
 to maintain himself. 
 
 LOUIS R. HEMINGWAY. No history of the 
 pe.ople of East and North Haven would be complete 
 without a full account of the Hemingway family. 
 Throughout eight generations the ancestors and de- 
 scendants of the late ]Merwin E. Hemingway have 
 been identified with the best interests of these towns 
 in business, social and political life. 
 
 The ancestral line reads thus : Samuel Heming- 
 way married Sarah Cooper in 1662, and they had 
 these children: Sarah, born July 26, 1663, married 
 in 1684 Thomas Goodsell ; Samuel, born Dec. 13, 
 1665 ; Mary, born July 5, 1668; Hannah, born Sept. 
 14, 1670, married John Howe, Jr.; Abigail, born 
 Feb. 16, 1672, married in 1706 Joseph Holt; John, 
 born May 29, 1675; Abraham, born Dec. 3, 1677; 
 and Isaac and Jacob, born Dec. 6, 1683. Three 
 brothers came to East Haven, and from them is 
 descended this branch of the Hemingway family. 
 
 The great-grandfather of Merwin Hemingway, 
 Samuel Hemingway, married Mehitable Dennison, 
 and lived in New Haven. They had these chil- 
 dren : Mary, born May 13, 1734, married Jacob 
 Pardee; Jacob, born April 19, 1737; Samuel, born 
 in January, 1739; Desire married Zebulon Farrer 
 in 1768; Mehitable, born March 18, 1745, married 
 Daniel Bradley in 1767 ; Samuel, born May 9, 1748; 
 Eli, born Sept. 2, 1753; Sarah, born May 18, 1758, 
 married Enos Hemingway, who was born in 1757. 
 
 Samuel Hemingway, son of Samuel and 'Mehit- 
 
 able, was a hotel keeper in East Haven in the first 
 house south of the North Haven line. This house 
 was built of brick and is still standing. It is now 
 the property of Dr. Bishop, of New Haven, and 
 was long known as the "Hemingway Tavern." 
 Samuel Hemingway was a slave owner, and by his 
 first marriage came into a large property and built 
 the residence now owned and occupied by E. M. 
 Hemingway, in North Haven. He carried on farm- 
 ing on a large scale, and after an uneventful life died 
 en his farm. In disposition he was. quiet and re- 
 tiring. For his first wife he wedded Hannah Mor- 
 ris, who bore him the following children : Stephen, 
 a farmer in East "Haven, first married Esther Brad- 
 ley, and later a Miss Andrews; Eleazer, a hotel 
 keeper, married Geziah Bradley, and lived in East 
 Haven; and Esther, who married Roswell Daven- 
 port. For 'his second wife Samuel Hemingway 
 wedded widow Sarah Bradley, and their children 
 were: Jacob, who married Sallie Gill, and lived 
 in North Haven; and Augustus. 
 
 Augustus Hemingway was born in East Ha- 
 ven in 1788, and was reared as a farmer boy, fol- 
 lowing agriculture all his life, dying in the house 
 now occupied by his son Edward. His life was 
 the quiet, unobtrusive one of the industrious farm- 
 er, and he reared his children carefully in the pre- 
 cepts of the Presbyterian Church, and the Whig 
 party, although he never took any active part in 
 politics. Augustus Hemingway married Juline 
 Blakeslee, of North Haven, a daughter of Amos 
 and Eunice (Cooper) Blakeslee, the former a farm- 
 er there, and their children were: Adeline, who 
 died in young womanhood; Hannah M., who mar- 
 ried Abijah Bradley, of North H|aven, and later 
 Solomon Linsley, of Northford, where she died; 
 Willis B. ; Eunitia, who married Levi Doolittle, a 
 Ifarmer of Cheshire ; Julia, who married Elizer At- 
 water, a successful farmer of Cheshire; Augustus, 
 who married Ann Maria Rogers, lived in Branford 
 as a farmer and died when thirty-five vears old; 
 Merwin E., of North Haven; and Edward M., who 
 married Lucy Brockett, a farmer on the home farm 
 in North Haven. 
 
 Merwin E. Hemingway was born Oct. 18, 
 T831, in the house now occupied by Edward M. 
 Hemingway, a brother. His educational advant- 
 ages were limited to the district school and his 
 home was on the paternal farm until the age of 
 twenty-six. When twenty-one years old he estab- 
 lished a milik route in the city of New Haven, 
 which he successfully conducted for twelve years. 
 During the Civil war he furnished the conscript 
 camp, carrying both the first and the last quart of 
 milk on those grounds. In 1857 he erected his late 
 residence, his land then consisting of but a few 
 acres, while now the estate consists of 200 acres, 
 and carried on dairying and market gardening, em- 
 ploying a number of men, in the various depart- 
 ments of industry. 
 
 In 1885, in connection with his son, Louis R., 
 
^i^A 
 
 t-c</c/«'vv^ ^^-A/ty 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1405 
 
 Mr. Hemitiigway established a fertilizer business, 
 in a small way, doing his first rendering in a hog 
 kettle, while now the business has extended to such 
 proportions that it requires the assistance of forty 
 men, and the output is sold by brokers to the trade 
 all over the world, the plant being used to render 
 fat and make glue and fertilizers. It is one of the 
 important industries of the city, and is well man- 
 aged by the two sons of Mr. Hemingway. 
 
 On June i, 1856, Merwin E. Hemingway was 
 married to Mary Robinson, a daughter of Medad 
 Robinson, a farmer of East Haven, and to this 
 union were born : Walter M., who married Lottie 
 Schwenk, and has one child, Charlotte Floreijjce. 
 Minnie A. married Herbert Moss, a coal and ice 
 dealer in Cheshire, and has three children, Walter, 
 Mildred H. and Beatrice G. Harry L. first mar- 
 ried Rose Scholey, who died leaving two children, 
 Merwin and Arthur; his second marriage was to 
 Lena Shepherd, by whom he had) two children, 
 Lena and William; he lives at the old home^ and 
 conducts a meat market on Lloyd street. The sec- 
 ond marriage of Merwin Hemingway was to Fran- 
 ces Winchell, a daughter of Grove Winchell, a 
 farmer of Huntingdon, Mass., and they had two 
 children: Clinton G., who displayed considerable 
 business- ability, but died at the age of twenty- 
 eight (he married Lillian Mack) ; Louis R. is the 
 subject of this sketch. Merwin E. Hemingway 
 was for forty years a member of the First Con- 
 gregational Church, in Fair Haven, with which his 
 widow is also connected. He passed away July 17, 
 1900. 
 
 Louis R. Hemingway was born in North Ha- 
 ven Dec. 3, 1865, and spent his early life in bis 
 native town, where he attended school. Until, the 
 foundation of the business in which he is so promi- 
 nent, he was occupied upon the farm. In 1885 he 
 took an active part in the organization of what 
 developed into the New Haven Glue Co., now L. 
 R. Hemingway & Co., the firm consisting of his 
 brother Walter and himself. The business has been 
 successful and is growing yearly. They are man- 
 ufacturers of glue, soap, fertilizers, etc., and deal- 
 ers in grease, tallow, bones, etc., and are located at 
 No. 243^ Fair street. _ . 
 
 Mr. Hemingway was married to Miss Eliza 
 Areson, of New York, a granddaughter of John 
 Tallman Areson, who at one time was supermtend- 
 ent of the Long Island Railroad and the Brooklyn 
 City Railroad, and to this union three childreri 
 have been born : Paul Areson, Doris Winchell and 
 Helen Tallman. Although Mr. Hemingway is an 
 ardent Republican, he has always- refused political 
 preferment. Socially he is a member of Adelphi 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., of Fair Haven. 
 
 JOSEPH HENDLEY TOWNSEND, M D., 
 is a descendant in the eighth generation from 
 Thomas Townsend, who came from- London ana 
 settled at Lynn, Mass., about 1637, and a descendK 
 
 ant in the fifth generation from Jeremiah Townsend, 
 who removed from Boston, Mass., to New Haven 
 in 1739. On his arrival in New Haven Mr. Town- 
 send purchased the house and lot on the northeast 
 corner of Elm and College streets, which property 
 remained in the Townsend family until 1833, when 
 it was sold to the First Methodist Cnurch. 
 
 Dr. Townsend, the subject of this sketch, is the 
 son of John Townsend, of New Haven, and' Harriet 
 E. Sears, daughter of Elisha Sears, of Middletown, 
 Conn. He was born in New Haven Jan. 18, 1862, 
 and received his ear'ly education in the public schools 
 of that city, graduating from^ the Hillhouse high 
 school in 1 88 1. He then entered Yale College, 
 graduating with the class' of 1885, and from Yale 
 Medical School in 1887, receiving the Campbell 
 prize in obstetrics. After spending nearly two 
 years in the City Hospital, he, in 1889, began the 
 practice of medicine in Nejv Haven, where he has 
 since remained. Dr. Townsend belongs to the City, 
 County and State Medical Societies. He is also a 
 member of the State Board of Health of Connecti- 
 cut, and is Surgeon of the 2d Regiment, Conn. 
 N. G. 
 
 On April 28, 1896, Dr. Townsend was married 
 to Mrs. Bertha (Goodyear) Bradley, daughter of 
 General E. D. S. Goodyear, of North Haven, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 WILLIAM CLIFFORD HOMAN, superin- 
 tendent of the mechanical department of the Ed- 
 ward Miller Co., Meriden, and a noted designer 
 and inventor, walsi born in Middletown, Conn., Feb. 
 21, 1852. 
 
 The Homan family belonged to the old settler^ 
 of Long Island, and it was identified with the in- 
 dustries of that section. Paul Homan, great-grand- 
 father of William C, was a native of Long Island, 
 was a ship-builder by occupation, and made his home 
 in Riverhead, where he died. 
 
 Charles Homan, son of Paul, was born aliso in 
 Long Island, there grew to manhood, and learned 
 the trade of cloth dresser, following this at River- 
 head, Suffolk Co., N. Y., where he built up a good 
 business. He died in 1836. His wife was Esther 
 Fithian, who was a native of Long Island, of 
 English descent, and she died in New Haven in 
 1890. The children born to Charles and Esther 
 Homan were as follows : George, Louise, William, 
 Huldah, Benjamin, Charles and Esther. 
 
 William Homan, son of Charles, and father of 
 William C, was born in Riverhead, Long Island, 
 April 9, 1827, where hi)s» boyhood days were spent. 
 At the age of eighteen years he came to Connecti- 
 cut, located in New Haven, and learned the trade 
 of brass molder, and also that of machinist. After 
 completing his apprenticeship, he removed to Mid- 
 dletown, Conn., but a short time after returned to 
 New Haven, embarking at this time in the grocery 
 business. His special talents, however, were evi- 
 dently in the direction of hi's' trade, and after a few 
 
1406 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 years of indifferent success in his new line, he gave 
 it up, went to Meriden, and in 1865 entered the 
 factory of the Meriden Britannia Co., where for 
 many years he was master machinist. Mr. Homan 
 died in Meriden, Nov. 3, 1886, and he was buried 
 in Walnut Grove cemetery. In political affiliation 
 he was a Republican and 'Served in the city council 
 for four years, from the First ward. He was a 
 conlsistent member of St. Andrew's Episcopal 
 Church, was a man who won and held the esteem 
 of all who knew him, and was a leading and public- 
 spirited citizen. 
 
 On Jan. 6, 1849, William Homan was married 
 in Middletown, Conn., to Augusta Savage, born in 
 Middletown, daughter of Orrin and Nancy (Ames) 
 Savage. She died Peb. 8, 1872, and her remains 
 repose in Walnut Grove cemetery. The children 
 born to William and Augusta Homan were as fol- 
 lows : Clara Augusta, born Feb. 16, 1850, married 
 Alfred W. Curtis; William Clifford, born Feb. 21, 
 1852; Ellen Louise (Nellie), born Sept. 24, 1855; 
 Ida and Eva, twins, born June 28, 1857 (the latter 
 died young) ; Charles Edward, a resident of Meri- 
 den; Mary Esther, born June 15, 1865, died in New 
 Haven, July 27, 1865 ; and Augusta May, born Jan. 
 30, 1872, died July 14, 1872. In 1876 William 
 Homan married (second) Frances Savage. 
 
 William Clifford Homan grew up in his home in 
 New Haven and attended school there until the fam- 
 ily removed to Meriden in 1866. Soon after this 
 change he entered the employ of Parker & Casper, 
 in the silver plating business, but a short time later 
 became attached to the Meriden Britannia Co., and 
 worked in the mechanical department until 1881, 
 becoming all the time more expert and skillful in 
 his line of business. About this time he accepted a 
 position with the Detrick & Harvey Manufacturing 
 Co., of Baltimore, Md., as superintendent of ma- 
 chinery, remaining one year in that city. Upon 
 his return to Connecticut, he located at Middle- 
 town, where he was engaged with the Stiles & Park- 
 er Press Co., as draughtsman and superintendent of 
 machinery, continuing with that firm until 1887, 
 when he returned to Meriden and entered the em- 
 ploy of the Edward Miller Co., as draughtsman and 
 master mechanic. For the past fifteen years, Mr. 
 Homan has filled this responsible position with 
 marked ability and efficiency. He hals devoted a 
 portion of his time to invention and has completed 
 and patented a number of useful articles, notably an 
 electro plating apparatus, and many articles in brass 
 and allied wares. Perhaps in no way was the last 
 century so remarkable as in the invention and de- 
 velopment of machinery, and Mr. Homan is a con- 
 spicuous example of the genius of the age. He has 
 used his talents in the direction of his' own line of 
 business, and has made many inventions and im- 
 provements either in entirely new articles or in the 
 improving of others, by which their efficiency can 
 be greatly increased. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. Homan was married, in New Brit- 
 
 ain, Conn., to Clarine Olmstead Jones, bom in 
 Torrington, Conn., Aoril 21, 1851, daughter of 
 William B. and Aurilla (Morse) Jones. Mr. Ho- 
 man is socially connected with the Home Club, of 
 Meriden. He is a Republican, but no .active ' poli- 
 tician, his energy and time being employed in other 
 directions. However, he served one term in the city 
 council. He, with his wife, belongs to St. Andrew's 
 Episcopal Church, generously supporting all moral 
 and beneficent enterprises and dealing justly with 
 all men. As an inventor he has gained renown, 
 and as a citizen he enjpys the respect and esteem 
 of his fellow-citizens and the confidence of the great 
 business concern with which he has so long been in- 
 timately associated. 
 
 Charles Edward Homan, brother of Will- 
 iam C. Homan was torn in New Haven Oct. 
 17, 1862, came to Meriden when but four years old, 
 and there entered the district school. At the age 
 of sixteen years he began work in the Meriden 
 Britannia Co.'s shops, where he learned the trade 
 of machinist under his father, and where he re- 
 mained until May, 1887, when he entered the factory 
 of Edward Miller & Co., as tool and die maker, 
 also having charge of the electrical department. 
 There he is still retained. On Dec. 31, 1891, he 
 married Ellen Eliza Curtis', who was born in Meri- 
 den, daughter of Capt. Alfred and Julia (Phelps) 
 Curtis, and half sister of Mrs. George Fay, of 
 Meriden. Two children have been born to their 
 union, one that died in infancy, and Esther Curtis. 
 Mr. Homan and his family are members of St. 
 Andrew's Episcopal Church, and socially he holds 
 membership in the Home Club. 
 
 Savage Family. John Savage, of Middletown, 
 Conn., waJsi made a freeman in 1654. As to his mar- 
 riage there is an uncertainty. He married accord- 
 ing to "Hartford in the Olden Time," Feb. 10, 
 1652, in Hartford, Elizabeth Dubbin, while in Hart- 
 ford Records, in New England Genealogical Regis- 
 ter 13, page 142, it is stated that on the same date 
 James Wakelt was married to Elizabeth Dubbin. 
 
 (II) Capt. John Savage, son of John, also of 
 Middletown, born Dec. 2, 1652, married May 30, 
 1682, Mary, born in February, 1665, daug'hter of 
 Thomas and Mary (Hubbard) Ranney, of Middle- 
 town. Mrs. Savage died Aug. 19, 1734. 
 
 (III) Thomas Savage, ,son of Capt. John, born 
 Aug. 21, 1684, married March 21, 171 1, Mary, bom 
 Dec. 8, 1685, daughter of William Goodwin, 0/ 
 Hartford (born in 1658 and died in 1733, son of 
 William and grandson of Ozias) and Elizabeth 
 (Shepard) Goodwin, daughter of John Shepard, of 
 Cambridge, Mass. Ozias Goodwin was one of the 
 first settlers of Hartford, Conn. 'Thomas Savage 
 died Feb. 13, 1755 and his wife, Mary, pasised away 
 June 9, 1758. 
 
 (IV) Capt. Samuel Savage, son of Thomas, 
 born in 1722, married Oct. 13, 1748, Sarah Kirby. 
 born July 19, 1726, in Middletown "Upper Houses," 
 daughter of John Kirby, granddaughter of Joseph 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1407 
 
 Kirby, and greatngranddaughter of John Kirby, who 
 it is supposed came in the ship "Hopewell" in 1635, 
 as his name was registered as a passenger on that 
 ship, Sept. II, of that year, which was then about 
 to sail from London, England, to New England. 
 John Kirby, then a lad of twelve years, came from 
 Warwickshire, England. On coming to New Eng- 
 land he was for a time at Plymouth, there in 1643, 
 and before 1645 had become a resident of Hartford, 
 Conn. He was in Wethersfield, in 1647, and went 
 to Middletown between 1651 and 1654. Here he 
 remained until his death. 
 
 The children born to Samuel and Sarah (Kirby) 
 Savage were as follows: Sarah, born Oct. i, 1749, 
 died unmarried Oct. i, 1789; Hepsibah, born Oct. 
 17, 1751 ; Sibyl, born March 5, 1754, died unmar- 
 ried Sept. 13, 1787; Samuel, bom May 9, 1756, died 
 Dec. 17, 1819; Thomas, twin of Samuel, born May 
 9, 1756; Ozias, born Aug. i, 1758, died Aug. 6, 
 1763; Seth, born Nov. 27, 1760, died unmarried 
 before Sept. 13, 1787; John, born Jan. 22, 1763; 
 Hannah, born May 4, 1765, died Aug. 23, 1829, 
 married Capt. Richard Treat, of East Hartford, 
 born in 1762, died Nov. 11, 1823 (they had ten chil- 
 dren) ; and Ozias, born 1767. 
 
 (V) Samuel Savage, son of Samuel and Sarah, 
 born May 9, 1756, married Dec. 27, 1778, Sara 
 (or Mary Cornwell according to Cromwell Church 
 records), who was born Feb. 7, 1759, and died Aug. 
 31, 1827, a daughter of Nathaniel and Mary Corn- 
 well, of Middletown, Conn. Their children were: 
 Mehetable, born 1779, died Oct. 31, 1857; Samuel, 
 born Jan. 2, 1782; Catherine, who married Jonathan 
 Hall; Sally, who married Luther Mildrum, son of 
 John and Lucretia (Kirby) Mildrum, of Wethers- 
 field and Middletown, respectively; Hepzibah (twin 
 of Mehetable), who married Seth Hall; Roswell; 
 Rhoda, born 1795 ; David ; Orrin, born Dec. 25, 
 1803, died 1828; and Seth, bom 1790, who married 
 Phebe, died before April y, 1828, leaving three chil- 
 dren, Maria, Mary Ann and Seth. Capt. Samuel, 
 father of the above family, was captain of the 6th 
 Regiment of Colonial Militia in 1772, and after- 
 wards a soldier in the Revolutionary war. He died 
 Dec. 17, 1 81 9. 
 
 (VI) Orrin Savage, son of Samuel and Sara 
 (Comwell) Savage, born Dec. 25, 1803, died Nov. 
 23, 1828. In 1827, he married Nancy Ames, and 
 to this union came one child, Augusta, born April 
 27, 1828, in Middletown, who married Jan. 6, 1849, 
 William Homan, and died Feb. 8, 1872. 
 
 Jones Family. The Jones family of which 
 Mrs. Homan is a descendant is one of the old and 
 honored ones of New Haven county. William 
 Jones, the finst of that name in New Haven, was a 
 native of England and according to the historian 
 Savage, was supposed to be a son of Col. John 
 Jones, of England, whose second wife was a sister 
 of Oliver Cromwell. William Jones resided in 
 Boston in 1660, and then came to New Haven and 
 was governor of the Colony. He died m 1706 at 
 
 the age of eighty-two years, and was the father of 
 fourteen children. 
 
 Samuel Jones, grandson of Gov. William and 
 son of Samuel, settled in Wallingford, where he 
 married Sarah, who died Nov. 9, 1760. Their chil- 
 dren were: Mary; William; Diadate, who died in 
 early manhood ; Hester ; John and Daniel. He mar- 
 ried (second) Esther Pratt, April 12, 1762. 
 
 Diadate Pratt, son of Samuel and Esther (Pratt) 
 Jones was born in Wallingford, June 16, 1766, and 
 in 1789, in Colchester, Conn., he married Polly 
 Smith, of East Haddam, Conn., and after her deaths 
 Hannah Wickwire, of Middlesex county. He en- 
 listed in the Revolutionary war, was a pensioner 
 under the Act of Congress, 1818 ; he was sergeant of 
 the Millington South Co. militia, in 1816, and later 
 captain. His death occurred in 1847, in East Had- 
 dam, when he had reached the age of eighty-one 
 years. The children of Sergeant Diadate Jones 
 were: Diadate, born in 1790, died in East Had- 
 dam; Asa, born in 1792, died at White Haven, Pa.; 
 Eliphalet, born in 1794, died at East Haddam; Wil- 
 son, born in 1796, died at East Haddam; Erastus, 
 born 1798, died at East Haddam; Henry, born 1800, 
 was a lumber dealer in Hartford; Warren, horn in 
 1802, died at Norwich, Conn, (he was a minister 
 in the Congregational Church and preached in Hart- 
 ford, Glalstonbury, and New London county) ; 
 William Bradley, born in 1804; Hannah, born in 
 1806, married John Stark, of East Haddam; Mary 
 Ann, born in 1808, married Lewis Hillard, and 
 died in East Haddam ; and Sarah, born in 1810 and 
 died in 1854. 
 
 William Bradley Jones, father of Mrs. Homan, 
 was born in East Haddam, Nov. 23, 1804, and was 
 a brass worker in Torrington. He was one of the 
 first makers of braslsi kettles in that place, later re- 
 moving to New Britain,- where he engaged in con- 
 tract work and sj>ent the remainder of his life. 
 He died Aug. i, 1874, and was buried in the ceme- 
 tery at New Britain. He voted with the Republican 
 party, and was a consistent member of the Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 The first marriage of William B. Jones was to 
 Caroline Stark, who died in 1836, leaving two chil- 
 dren, namely: William Albert, A. M., who was a 
 prominent educator in Terre Haute, Ind., was preisi- 
 dent of the Indiana State Normal School, and has 
 recently resigned the superintendency of the Blind 
 institution at' Nebraska City, Nebraska, now resid- 
 ing on a farm near Hastings, that State ; and Mary, 
 Who married John Morse. The second marriage 
 of William B. Jones, was in 1839, to Aurilla Morse, 
 who was bom in Pennsylvania, daughter of Deacon 
 Levi and Thalia (Sanford) Morse, and the widow 
 of Lewis Perkins, of Litchfield, Conn. The children 
 born to this marriage were as follows : Devereaux 
 Dutton, deceased, who was a major in the Civil war, 
 married Mary O'Brien,, daughter of a Confederate 
 general, and a well-known teacher in Nebraska; 
 Aurilla Morse, married Albert Camp, ol Roxbury, 
 
1408 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Conn.; Edgar Bradley, a soldier in the Civil war; 
 and Clarine Olmstead, who married William Clif- 
 ford Homan. Mrs. Jones had two children 'by her 
 fir.jt marriage, namely: Russell L. Perkins, who 
 served as a soldier during the Civil war, and died 
 in New Britain, Conn., an expert engineer; and 
 Sanford, who was lieutenant-colonel of the 14th 
 Conn. V. I., in the Civil war, and who died in 
 Middletown, Conn., in 1874. Mrs. Jones died in 
 New Britain, Nov. 15, 1878, and was interred in 
 the cemetery in this place. She was- a devoted mem- 
 ber of the Congregational Churc'h. 
 
 Morse Family. John Moss (Morse), born in 
 England in 1604, Probably came to New England 
 with Hopkins, Eaton and Davenport, in 1637. He 
 was one of the planters of New Haven, signing the 
 Social Compact, 1639-40, and remained in New 
 Haven about thirty years, then removed to Walling- 
 ford on the settlement of that town in 1670. He 
 died in 1707, aged one hundred and three years, 
 and was buried in Wallingford, Connecticut. 
 
 (H) John Morse, son of the settler, born Oct. 12, 
 1650, married Dec. 12, 1677, Martha Lathrop, and 
 resided in New Haven and Wallingford, probably 
 removing to the latter town with his father in 1670. 
 He died March 31, 1717, and his wife passed away 
 in 1677. 
 
 (HI) John Morse (3), son of John (2), born 
 Nov. ID, 1682, married Feb. 25, 1768, Elizabeth 
 Hald, and resided in Wallingford. He died May 
 14. 1755, and she died Jan. 17, 1754. 
 
 (IV) Levi Morse, son of John (3), born Dec. 
 31, 1722, married Jan. ig, 1743-4, Martha Fenn, 
 and resided in Wallingford. 
 
 (V) Levi Morse (2), son of Levi, born Nov. 
 16, 1746, married- June 14, 1773, Martha Sherman, 
 of Newtown, and resided in Litchfield, Conn. Their 
 children were: John Sherman, born Feb. 10, 1774; 
 Levi, born Sept. 19, 1775 ; Margery, born May 19, 
 1778; Aurilla, born Jan. 15, 1781; Stephan, born 
 Nov. 26, 1782 ; Martha, born March 24, 1785 ; Polly, 
 born Dec. i, 1787; Olive, born Aug. 24, 1789; and 
 Laura, born Oct. 15, 1791. The father of above 
 family vra.s a sergeant in the Revolutionary war. 
 His wife, Martha, began drawing a pension Oct. 10, 
 1836, at which time she was eighty-six years old. 
 She died in 1842. 
 
 (VI) Levi Morse, son of Levi and Martha Sher- 
 man, married Oct. 26, 1796, Thalia Sanford. Their 
 children were : Barthena, born Sept. 16, 1797; Har- 
 riot, March 17, 1800; Philena, Oct. 13, 1803; Au- 
 rilla, Oct. 19, 1806; Thalia Ann, June 19, 181 1; 
 Levi Andrew, July 14, 1814; Polly, Nov. 25, 1817; 
 and Levi, March 14, 1822. 
 
 JOHN E. WUSTERBARTH, senior partner 
 of the well-known firm of Wusterbarth Bros., lo- 
 cated at No. 106 Miller street, Meriden, manu- 
 facturers of "Yankee," "Improved" and "Boss" 
 eaves-trough hangers, light mantel goods, high- 
 grade bicycles, etc., was born in Beacon Falls, New 
 
 Haven Co., Conn., Jan. 11, 1875, a son of Albert 
 and Augusta (Ross) Wusterbarth. 
 
 Albert Wusterbarth was a native of the northern 
 part of Germany, and there learned the trade of 
 weaver. When a young man he came to America, 
 and located in Meriden, Conn., where he engaged 
 at his trade, later finding a better situation at 
 Beacon Falls, Conn. In the latter city be married 
 Miss Augusta Ross, who was also a native of 
 Germany. In 1880 he returned to Meriden and 
 entered the employ of Rogers & Bros., where he 
 continued until the time of his death, in 1897, at 
 the age of fifty-four years. His life had been an 
 industrious and useful one, and he was sincerely 
 mourned by his many friends. Thirteen children 
 were born of his marriage with Augusta Ross, as 
 follows: John E. (the eldest of the family), 
 Adolph (partner with his elder brother in busi- 
 ness), William, Edward, Robert, Henry, Bertha, 
 Hattie, Harold, Albert, Elsie, Emil and' Flora, all 
 of whom with their beloved mother reside in 
 Meriden. 
 
 John E. Wusterbarth was a pupil in the public 
 schools until he was eleven years of age, but be- 
 ing the eldest in a large family he at that age ac- 
 cepted a position as cash boy in the mercantile 
 house of Ives, Upham & Rand, receiving tor his 
 services five dollars per week. He continued with 
 this firm for three years, in the meantime attend- 
 ing night school. The next business situation, he 
 accepted was in the casting department of C. 
 Rogers & Bros., where he remained one year, and 
 he then spent four years in the packing department 
 of the Meriden Bronze Co., receiving at first one, 
 dollar per day, which was later increased by fifty 
 cents. In his next position, which was with the 
 Charles Parker Co., he was able to obtain ten dol- 
 lars per week, and later entered the employ of the 
 firm of Proudman Bros., in the bicycle business. 
 Here he continued six years, and became a trusted 
 foreman, and in 1898 he accepted a position with 
 the Eclipse Bicycle Co., of Elmira, N. y., as man- 
 ager of their business in London, England, ac- 
 ceptably filling this important position for a period 
 of two years. Mr. Wusterbarth had, however, no 
 idea of making an Englishman of himself, and 
 resigned the position in order to return to America, 
 which he did in August, 1900. In the following 
 September, in connection with his brother Adolph, 
 he bought out the business interestsi of the Proud- 
 man Bros., and formed the firm of Wusterbarth 
 Bros., engaging in the manufacture of high-grade 
 bicycles and hardware supplies, in which they have 
 been unusually successful, as the wide experience 
 of our subject enables him to manage the business 
 most advantageously. 
 
 Adolph Wusterbarth, the junior partner, was 
 born at Beacon Falls, Conn., in 1877, and after a 
 short time spent at school followed! the example 
 of his brother and obtained employment with the 
 Meriden Bronze Co., thence going to the Charles 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1409 
 
 Parker Co. He finally obtained a position a& fore- 
 man for Proudman Bros., and remained in that 
 position until he and his brother formed their pres- 
 ent partnership. These young men are a credit to 
 Meriden, almost self-educated, good and worthy 
 sons, supporting the younger members of the large 
 family until able to care for themselves, and their 
 example entitles them to the esteem and respect 
 which is theirs. Independent in politics, they vote 
 for the man who best represents their ideas of 
 right and of good government, and both are con- 
 sistent members of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 SOLOMON T. RIGGS. The Riggs family is 
 one of the old ones of New England, Edward Riggs, 
 the emigrant ancestor, having come to America from 
 England, with wife and six children., and settled at 
 Roxbury, Mass., in 1634. Sergeant Edward, son 
 of Edward, was an officer in the army during the 
 Pequot war, and distinguished himiself by saving 
 his commander from the Indians. He settled in 
 Milford, Conn., in 1654, later with a man by the 
 name of Wooster, moving to Derby, which was 
 the home and birthplace of Nathaniel Riggs, the 
 great-grandfather of Solomon T. Riggs, of New 
 Haven. Sergeant Edward gave shelter to the regi- 
 cides Whalley and Goffe, in 1661. Nathaniel Riggs 
 removed from Derby to Orange, Conn., where his 
 grandson, Charles Henry Riggs, was born. 
 
 Burr Riggisi, son of Nathaniel, married Annie 
 Crawford, o.f New York City, and they became the 
 parents of Charles Henry Riggs. 
 
 Charles Henry Riggs, the father of our subject, 
 was born in Orange, Conn., in June, 1833, his death 
 occurring in Hartford Feb. 9, 1883. He was reared 
 in Orange, and became a machinist, a designer and 
 a skilled mechanical worker well known in New 
 Haven and Hartford counties. He married RoUina 
 Terry Whipple, in New York City, who was born 
 in Hartford county. Conn., daughter oi Jameisi and 
 Eliza (Terry) Whipple, both natives of Warehouse 
 Point. The former was a son of James Whipple, 
 who came from New London, and the latter was a 
 daughter of Solomon and Betsia (Button) Terry. 
 Solomon Terry was a cousin of Gen. Alfred Terry. 
 After marriage Charles Henry Riggs and wife 
 settled in Meriden, Conn., and later lived at several 
 places, finally locating at Warehouise Point. The 
 two children born to Mr. and Mrs. Riggs were: 
 Solomon T., our subject; and Medora R., born in 
 1858, who died in 1862. Mrs. Riggs is a member 
 of the Episcopal Church. In politics, Mr. Riggs 
 was identified with the Republican party. 
 
 Solomon Terry Riggs was born in Meriden, 
 Conn., April 28, 1856, and spent hilsi early youth in 
 Warehouse Point, where he attended school, com- 
 ing later to New Haven for more advanoed^ instruc- 
 tions. As 'he wished to become a machinist, he 
 wofked in various shops for a time, but learned his 
 trade in the railroad shops, in New Haven. In 
 February, 188 1, he entered into the employ of the 
 
 89 
 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Co., as a machinist, 
 and has continued with. this great establishment ever 
 since. Since Jan. i, 1891, Mr. Riggs has been en- 
 gaged as one of the contractors in the cartridge de- 
 partment, having climbed step by step to this posi- 
 tion of responsibility. 
 
 On May 23, 1878, Mr. Riggs was united in mar- 
 riage with Annie Louise Ailing, born in West Hav- 
 en, daughter of Henry Munson and Louise (Thomp- 
 son) Ailing, the former of whom was born in 
 New Haven, son of Jonathan Ailing, and nephew 
 of David Ailing, of New Haven. Mrs. Ailing was 
 born in Huntington, Fairfield Co., Conn., a daugh- 
 ter of John Thompson. Two children were born 
 to Mr. and Mrs. Riggs, namely: Grace Whipple, 
 who married Allen C. Curtis, and has one daughter, 
 Grace Riggs, born Nov. 6, 1901 ; and Robierta 
 Thompson. In political life Mr. Riggs adheres to 
 the principles of the Republican party. He is ac- 
 tively identified with the Masonic fraternity, being 
 a thirty-second degree 'Mason, enrolled in Olive 
 Branch Lodge, No. 84, of which he is past master ; 
 Pulaski Chapter ; Crawford Council ; New Haven 
 Commandery, No. 2, Knights Tenuplar, in which he 
 is past eminent commander; and Pyramid Temple, 
 Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Knight 
 Telmplar Club. The religious connection of the 
 family is with the Methodist Church. 
 
 The Riggs family is one somewhat noted for its 
 longevity, four generations frequently gathering in 
 the pleasant home of our subject. They enjoy the 
 esteem of the community in which they are well- 
 known. _ 
 
 OTTO GILBERT HAUSCHILD, a well- 
 known citizen of Meriden, and a respected veteran 
 of the Civil war, was born in Ellenville, Ulster Co., 
 N. Y,, March 25, 1841, son of Henry Hauschild, 
 who was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1799. 
 
 Henry Hauschild, our subject's father, not wish- 
 ing to iserve in the army of his native land, lelft 
 'home, and at the age of twelve years became a 
 sailor, being employed most of the time in the Amer- 
 ican merchant marine. After about nineteen years 
 of this occupation he located in Ellenville, Ulster 
 :Co., N. Y., as foreman of the packing department of 
 the Ellenville Glass Works, continuing to hold that 
 position as long as he lived. His death O'ocurred 
 in 1865, and 'he waisi buried in the cemetery at 
 Ellenville. For thirteen years he was an elder in 
 the Reformed Church of North America, and for 
 twelve years previously had been deacon of 'the local 
 body. In politics he was originally a Whig, later ^a 
 Republican. In 1832 Henry Hauschild was mar- 
 ried, in New York, to Mary Deistell, who was bom 
 in Salem, Mass., in 1809, daughter of John Deis- 
 tell. The latter was a 'soldier in the war of 1812, 
 was taken prisoner by the British, and carried to 
 England, where he remained a prisoner of war until 
 after the declaration of peace. His wife's ancestry 
 ran back to the time of the "Mayflower," and' her 
 
14IO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 forefathers sustained an honorable name in New 
 England. To Henry and Mary (Deistell) Haus- 
 child were born the following named children : 
 Lucina, who married Philo F. Beers, of Danbury; 
 Mary C., born in 1836, who died in 1856; William 
 H., born in 1837, who died in 1856 at EUenville, N. 
 Y. ; Otto G. ; Alvan A., born in 1843, who was a 
 brass molder in Norwalk, Conn. ; and Mary D., born 
 in 1848, who married Frank H. Chamberlain, of 
 Norwalk, Conn. The widowed mother of this fam- 
 ily came to Meriden, spending her last years with 
 her son. Otto G. When she died in 1884, her re- 
 mains were taken back to EUenville, N. Y., for in- 
 terment at that place, where she held membership 
 in the Reformed Church, and was much esteemed by 
 all who knew her for her .many good qualities and 
 Christian character. 
 
 Otto G. Hauschild attended the district schools 
 at EUenville, and when he was fifteen years of age 
 entered the glass factory at that point, being there 
 employed until he was nineteen years of age. His 
 compensation did not exceed fifty cents a day. 
 When he was nineteen he left his native town to go 
 to Newark, N. J., that he might learn the iron 
 molder's trade in the shops of S. D. Barnett & Co. 
 Later he went to Norwalk, Conn., to work at his 
 trade, returning from there to EUenville, N. Y., 
 where he was a partner with Charles D. Miller in 
 the iron business until 1862. In that year he en- 
 listed as a soldier in Company E, 20th N. Y. State 
 Militia, which became the 80th N. Y. V. I. Mr. 
 Hauschild made a creditable record in the army, and 
 sustained a faithful soldier's part in eleven heavy 
 battles, among which were those at Cedar Moun- 
 tain, Bull Run and South Mountain. The regiment 
 was a part of Patrick's brigade which covered 
 Pope's retreat from Culpeper. On tlie battlefield 
 of Antietam Mr. Hauschild was seriously wounded, 
 and as his injuries were such as to incapacitate him 
 for farther service, he was discharged in February, 
 1863. He was subsequently connected for a period 
 of nine years with Company D, 4th Connecticut 
 National Guard. 
 
 At the conclusion of his military service, Mr. 
 Hauschild betook himself to Newark, N. J., and re- 
 sumed work at the iron molding trade, which he 
 followed until 1864. In February of thait year he 
 came to Norwalk, Conn., and entered the employ 
 of the Norwalk Lock Co. In 1873 he founded the 
 Riverside Foundry Co., in partnership with A. C. 
 Arnold, Mr. Hauschild having charge of all the 
 work that belonged to his trade. The firm was 
 caught in the panic of 1873, and went under, after 
 which Mr. Hauschild worked at his trade in the 
 lock shop until 1879. I'"^ '^at year he came to Meri- 
 den to take a position with the Bradley & Hubbard 
 Manufacturing Co., which he has held to the present 
 time, standing very high with the members of that 
 extensive corporation'. In 1880 he built his present 
 comfortable and attractive home on Linsley avenue, 
 
 where he and his wife are spending the evening of 
 life in contentment and happiness. 
 
 On June 15, 1864, Otto G. Hauschild married 
 Deborah M. Haynes, who was born in Pawling, N. 
 Y., a daughter of Andrew and Esther (Dibble) 
 Haynes. To this' union have come the following chil- 
 dren: (i) Henry Belden, who died in 1887, was 
 possessed of much artistic ability, and left fine ex- 
 amples' of crayon and medallion work. (2) Howard 
 O., born in 1867, died th^e following year. (3) 
 Clifford A., born March 19, 1876, was educated in 
 the Meriden schools, and in Morse's BuisinesB Col- 
 lege, in Hartford. He was holding a position as 
 bookkeeper with the Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Co., 
 when the Spanish-American war broke out, and he 
 at once enlisted in Company L, 2d Connecticut Vol- 
 unteers. He was made first corporal and company 
 clerk, and wrote many interesting letters to the 
 preag during the war. At the present time he is 
 holding a position as bookkeeper in New York. In 
 politics he is a Republican, and socially he belongs 
 to the Royal Arcanum. His wife, Clara Peck, was 
 born in Colchester, Conn. (4) Winford Gilbert, 
 born March 26, 1882, graduated from the grammar 
 school in Meriden, and is now with his brother in' 
 New York. 
 
 Mr. Hauschild is a member of the Baptist 
 Church, and was a deacon in the church, at Norwalk, 
 for several years. In politics he is a Republican, 
 and in 1886 and 1887 represented his ward as a 
 councilman. In fraternal circles he is widely known, 
 and has many friends, being a member of Merriam 
 Post, No. 8, G. A. R. ; Butler Lodge, of South Nor- 
 walk and Atlantic Encampment, Meriden, I. O. O. 
 F. ; Meriden Council, Chosen Friends ; and Pilgrims 
 Harbor Council, R. A., of which he is past regent; 
 he is a life member of the Grand Council, Royal 
 Arcanum. 
 
 The Haynes Family, to which Mrs. Hauschild 
 belongs, traces its history back to that John 
 Haynes who was born in 1594, served as deputy 
 governor of Massachusetts, and in April, 1639, be- 
 came the first governor of Connecticut. He died in 
 Hartford, Conn., March i, 1653-54. He married 
 (first) Mary Thornton, and (second) Mabel Har- 
 lakendon, widow of Samuel Eaton, of New Haven 
 (who was a son of Gov. Eaton), and who died in 
 July,^ 1655. 
 
 Caleb Haynes, one of the descendants of Gov. 
 Haynes, was born Oct. 21, 1737, and died July 28, 
 1823. His wife, Sophia, was born May 7, 1737, 
 and died Sept. 26, 1822. Their children were: 
 Caleb, born Jan. 30, 1761 (grandfather of Mrs. 
 Hauschild) ; Sanford, born in February, 1765 ; and 
 Lucy, born in September, 1768. 
 
 Caleb Haynes, the grandfather of Mrs. Haus- 
 child, married Deborah Lewis, who was born April 
 2, 1762. He died Feb. 6, 1841, and she died April 
 26, 1842. To them came the following named chil- 
 dren: (i) Andrew, born April 23, 1783, died Feb. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 141 1 
 
 3, 1857; (2) Sylvester, born Oct. 21, 1787, died 
 Feb. 26, 1816; (3) Charles, born June 29, 1789, 
 died Sept. 20, 1871 ; (4) James, born June 13, 1791, 
 died Jan. 20, 1871 ; (5) Peleg, born Oct. 10, 1793, 
 died Jan. 5, 1871 ; (6) Chauncey, born Oct. 8, 1795, 
 died Jan. 16, 1861 ; (7) William, was bom Jan. 17, 
 1798; (8) Sarah, born May i, 1801, married Ben- 
 jamin Sheldon, and died April 24, i860. 
 
 Andrew Haynes married for his first wife, 
 Phoebe Howard, who was born Dec. 22, 1787, and 
 by her had the following children : ( i ) Maria, 
 born Jan. 2, 181 1; (2) Richard, born March 2, 
 1812; (3) SaUie, born Feb. i, 1814; (4) Wilham, 
 born April 22, 1816; (5) Deborah, born Feb. 10, 
 1818, who died about 1844; (6) Amy, born March 
 16, 1819; (7) Belden, born March 16, 1822, who 
 died about 1844; (8) Mary, born Oct. 14, 1823; 
 (9) Garrison, born Oct. 26, 1825; and (10) Jane, 
 born June 13, 1830. Mr. Haynes married for his 
 second wife Esther Dibble, and they had three chil- 
 dren : Deborah M. and Belden, twins, born in 1843, 
 the former of whom became Mrs. Hauschild, as 
 noted above, and the latter married Elizabeth Boyce, 
 sister of Marion Boyce, now living in Glendora, 
 Mich; and Laura, born in 1844, married July 18, 
 1873, Marion Boyce, of New Troy, Berrien Co., 
 Michigan. 
 
 EDGAR H. SMITH, one of the progressive and 
 enterprising agriculturists of the town of Milford, 
 was born Dec. 12, 1849, at his present homestead, 
 two miles out of Milford village. 
 
 The family were early settlers in that locality, 
 and Hezekiah Smith, our subject's grandfather, was 
 born at the homestead and passed his life there as 
 a farmer. His wife, whose maiden name was Dick- 
 inson,' was a native of Milford, and became the 
 mother of eight children, as follows: Henry, a 
 farmer; William, a wholesale boat and shoe dealer 
 in Cleveland, Ohio ; Isaac, who owned a plantation 
 in South Virginia, but died in Milford; Hezekiah, 
 of whom nothing is known; Nathan C, our subject's 
 father ; Sidney, formerly in the school supply busi- 
 ness in Kansas and in Chicago ; Susan, who became 
 Mrs. Keith; and Ruth, Who married Garry Smith, 
 a farmer in Milford. 
 
 Nathan C. Smith, father of our subject, was 
 also born at the homestead, where he followed farm- 
 ing in manhood. He was an excellent citizen, a de- 
 vout Presbyterian, and an ardent advocate of teni- 
 perance. In politics he was first a Whig, but his 
 strong Abolition sympathies led him into the Re- 
 publican party on its organization. He died in No- 
 vember, 1874, leaving a widow, Mrs. Georgiana 
 (Ingersoll) Smith, and one son, our subject. The 
 Ingersoll family is well known in Milford, and Mrs. 
 Smith was born there, a daughter of George R. and 
 Phoebe (Baldwin) Ingersoll. 
 
 Edgar H. Smith was reared upon the old farm, 
 obtaining his education in the neighboring district 
 school and the high school in Milford. In 1866 he 
 
 went to New York City, as clerk for Ingersoll & 
 Glenney, dealers in men's furnishing goods' at Nos. 
 695-699 Broadway, bnt since returning to the, 
 homestead, in 1875, he has devoted his attention to 
 farming. The place contains about seventy acres, and 
 under his intelligent management the products have 
 gained a high reputation. He makes a specialty of 
 dairying and conducts a milk route. Politically he 
 is a stanch Republican, but he does not aspire to 
 official honors. 
 
 Mr. Smith married Miss Emma L. Sniffin, of 
 New York, daughter of Elisha Sniffin, a leading 
 contractor and builder of that city. Eight children 
 have blessed this union: Harry C, a traveling sales- 
 man for the New York Metal Ceiling Company; 
 Edgar H., Jr., Agnes M., Clarence, Arthur, Ollie, 
 Jennie and Mollie. 
 
 JOHN MILTON KINDER, the efficient super- 
 intendent of the Water Department of the city of 
 Meriden, and alderman for the Fifth ward, is one 
 of the well-known and highly respected oitizens of 
 that city, whefe he has long sustained a good name 
 and standing as a man in the activities of modern 
 life. He was born in Hartford, Conn., Sept. 10, 
 
 1847. 
 
 John Kinder, the father of John Milton, was 
 born in Hyde^ Cheshire, England, about 1822, and 
 was reared to manhood in his native community, 
 wthere he entered business life as a wool worker. 
 There he was married to Mrs. Hannah (Ke-i- 
 worthy) Cottrell, a daughter of James Kenworthy, 
 and a sister of that James C. Kenworthy whose 
 history appears on another page. By her first mar- 
 riage she was the mother of three children : Thomas, 
 who resides in Taunton, Mass., and is foreman of 
 the German silver department of Reed & Barton ; 
 Samuel, who is now dead ; and Henry, who is ern- 
 ployed with G. I. Mix & Co., at Yalesville, Conn. 
 After the marriage of John Kinder to Mrs. Cottrell, 
 they came to this country bringing with them her 
 three children. Locating at Spoonville, Hartford 
 Co., Conn., he became engaged in the spoon business 
 with his brother-in-law, James Kenworthy. They 
 were the first manufacturers of stamped silverware, 
 spoons and forks, and their business was continued 
 until the firm became involved in legal difficulties 
 with the Rogers Brothers, by which they were com- 
 pelled to go out of business. John Kinder betook 
 himself to Hartford with his family, and entered 
 the employ of William Rogers, with whom he con- 
 tinued for some time. Later he removed to Wall- 
 ingford, to take a place with the Charles Parker 
 Company, .long prominent in the britannia ware 
 trade, remaining with that house until 1865. In 
 that year Mr. Kinder brought his family to Meri- 
 den, and entered the employ of tihe Meriden Brit- 
 annia Co., with whom he remained until 1888, the 
 year of his death. His remains rest in Walnut . 
 Grove Cemetery. In politics he was a Republican, 
 and in religion he lived very close to the Golden 
 
I4I2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Rule. Mr. Kinder is remembered as a devoted 
 husband and father, as well as a faithful and public- 
 spirited citizen, and his sixty-six years of an earnest 
 and useful life were marked by a spirit and dis- 
 position very much above tihe average. His wife 
 died in 1885, and was buried in Walnut Grove 
 cemetery. She is remembered as a devoted wife 
 and a faithful mother, as well as a good woman, 
 being much esteemed and beloved by those who 
 knew her best. To Mr. and Mrs. Kinder were born 
 three children : Edith, who married John A. Leeds, 
 of Meriden ; Mary, who married Charles W. Patten, 
 of Meriden; and John Milton. 
 
 John Milton Kinder, whose name introduces this 
 article^ came with his parents from Hartford to 
 Wallingford, where he attended school, and was pre- 
 pared for active life when his parents sought a home 
 in Meriden, in 1865. Here he entered the employ ' 
 of the Meriden Britannia Co., to learn the solderer's 
 trade, and here he labored for thirty-seven years 
 in the same department, giving general .satisfaction, 
 and proving himself one of the most reliable and 
 trustworthy men connected with that great institu- 
 tion. In February, 1902, he was appointed, under 
 Mayor George S. Seeley, as superintendent of the 
 Water Works, which position he is now filling to 
 the eminent satisfaction of the general public. In 
 political matters Mr. Kinder is a Republican, and 
 though not a politician, was elected on that ticket 
 in 1899, ^s a member of the city council, repre- 
 senting the Fifth ward, and serving on the Fire and 
 Water committees, being clerk ^of the last body. 
 Mr. Kinder was re-elected in 1901, and is now chair- 
 man of the Claims committee, and a member of 
 the committee on Finance. Mr. Kinder is not form- 
 ally united with any Church, but like his parents, 
 holds to the Golden Rule, and is living an honorable 
 and useful life. 
 
 Mr. Kinder ^was married in Eaist Hampton,, 
 Conn., to Edith Brown, a daughter of H. B. Brown, 
 senior member of the manufacturing firm of H. B. 
 Brown & Co., of East Hampton, Conn. Mrs. Kinder 
 is a lady of culture and refinement, and with her 
 highly respected. husband commands the confidence 
 and esteem of. the community to a marked degree. 
 
 JAMES RHOADES LANYON, one of the 
 most popular and influential young men of Che- 
 shire, New Haven county, now serving as town 
 clerk and State senator, was born in New Ham- 
 burg, N. Y., Nov. 28, 1870, and on the paternal 
 side is of English descent. 
 
 Jam-es Lanyon, his grandfather, was born in the 
 parish of Ludgvan, County of Cornwall, England, 
 May 6, 1817, a son of William and Mary (Martin) 
 Lanyon, who passed their lives in their native land, 
 and died in. the above named parish, aged eighty- 
 one and eighty years, respectively. They were 
 members of the Lanyon family, who trace their 
 lineage in Ludigvan to a period as remote as the fif- 
 teenth century. Although poor, they were hon- 
 
 ored and respected members of the community. 
 Force of circumstances limited the educational ad- 
 vantages of James Lanyon to a few years' school- 
 ^ing in his early youth. Like most Cornish boySj' 
 his labors were soon needed for the family sup- 
 port, and he early began to earn his own liveli- 
 hood. At the age of sixteen he began work in the 
 tin mines, and during the seven years he con- 
 tinued in that service he became a practical and 
 skillful miner, the knowledge there obtained con- 
 tributing to his future success. In 1840, when he 
 was twenty-three years old, he came to America 
 under contract with a London compan.y to work 
 the Bristol (Conn.) copper mines. After remain- 
 ing in that employ two years he went to eastern 
 Pennsylvania, where he was engaged six months 
 in iron mining. At the solicitation of the owners 
 of the bar3^a mines in Cheshire — the Mineral & 
 Manufacturing Co., composed of N. H. Guston, 
 James E. P. Dean and others — he came to that 
 town to superintend their interests. He success- 
 fully managed the operations sixteen years, when 
 the company sold its business to the Stamford Man- 
 ufacturing Co., of Stamford, Conn. That corpora- 
 tion retained Mr. Lanyon as its sole manager in 
 the town, and he superintended the largely in- 
 creased operations until the suspension of work, 
 in 1878. During this period he was a very busy 
 man, the entire management of the many mines 
 resting upon him, and he had in charge, after 
 1 861, from two hundred to five hundred men. 
 During that period these operations formed by far 
 the most important industry in the town, and 
 greatly increased its population. After 1878 Mr. 
 Lanyon retired from the active duties of a busi- 
 ness life, but remained a citizen of Cheshire until 
 his death. 
 
 In 1844 Mr. Lanyon married Lucretia A. 
 Brooks, a native of Cheshire, and a daughter of 
 Billious and Eveline (Gaylord) Brooks, prominent 
 old settlers of the town. Two of the three chil- 
 dren born to them died in infancy, the other be- 
 ing Wesley A., father of our subject. In politics 
 James Lanyon was first a Whig and later a Re- 
 publican, and> as an honorable and upright citizen 
 he was called upon to fill several local offices, and 
 also served as selectman and member of the State 
 Legislature. He was domestic in his tastes, tem- 
 perate in his habits, and faithful to every trust re- 
 posed in him. In early life he was a member of 
 the Church of England, but later both he and his 
 wife attended the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 He died Jan. 22, 1885, Mrs. Lanyon Nov. 9, 1895, 
 and both were laid to rest in St. Peter's cemetery, 
 Cheshire. 
 
 Wesley A. Lanyon, father of James R., was 
 born Feb. 5, 1848, and was given good educa- 
 tional advantages, attending the district schools, 
 the Cheshire Academy, and a select school of 
 Stamford, Conn. He was first employed as book- 
 keeper and assistant superintendent under his fa- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1413 
 
 ther, and was connected with the mining company 
 for fifteen years. Since then he has engaged in 
 raising and feeding horses, and resides at the old 
 homestead in Cheshire, where he has made many 
 improvements. He leads a quiet, unassuming life, 
 and is highly respected by all who know him. Po- 
 litically he is a supporter of the Republican party, 
 and religiously is an active and prominent mem- 
 ber of the Episcopal Church, in which he has 
 served as vestryman for the past twenty years, and 
 as clerk of his parish for five years. In 1868 he 
 was married, in New Hamburg, N. Y., to Miss 
 Louise Lawson, a native of that place, and a daugh- 
 ter of James and Amanda Lawson, and by that 
 union one child was born, James Rhoades. The 
 father was again married, in Troy, N. Y., April 
 18, 1878, his second union being with Miss Har- 
 riet E. Allen, a native of Cheshire, Conn., and a 
 daug'hter of Miles and Emily M. (Stacey) Allen. 
 By this union there is one daughter, Edith L., 
 born Sept. 16, 1880, who was graduated from the 
 Cheshire high school in 1898. 
 
 During his boyhood and vouth James R. Lan- 
 yon pursued his studies in the district schools of 
 his native town, the Cheshire Academy, select 
 school at Saybrook, and Loveridge Business Col- 
 lege, New Haven, from which he was graduated. 
 He has always made his home in Cheshire, and 
 there he was married, in 1893, to Miss Mary L. 
 Keeler, daughter of George and Sarah Keeler. 
 They have a daughter, Marjorie L. Both Mr. and 
 Mrs'. Lanyon are members of the Episcopal Church 
 and also belong to the Daughters of Rebekah, 
 while he holds membership in Cheshire Lodge, L 
 O. O. F. ; Oasis Encampment, of Meriden; and 
 Temple Lodge, F. & A. M., of Cheshire., 
 
 Politically Mr. Lanyon is identified with the 
 Republican party, and has served as chairman of 
 the town committee. In 1894, when but twenty- 
 three years old, he was appointed town clerk by 
 the selectmen of Cheshire, to fill an unexpired 
 term, and was the youngest person to hold that 
 office in Connecticut. So capably and satisfactorily 
 did he discharge the duties thereof, however, that 
 in 1894 he was elected to the office, and has since 
 been continuously re-elected, his present term not 
 expiring until Jan. i, 1904- In i893 he was ap- 
 pointed notary public, and is still filling that po- 
 sition. In 1898 he was elected to the State Leg- 
 islature, and .represented the people of his town 
 faithfully and well in that body. He is now rep- 
 resenting the Sixth Senatorial District in the State 
 Legislature, being the youngest member of the 
 Senate, and is well known and very popular with 
 a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. 
 
 HERMAN LAUFER, 4 worthy and -much re- 
 spected citizen of New Haven, was born at Zurich, 
 Switzerland, Oct. S, 1848, one of the two sons of 
 Conrad Laufer, who was" engaged m teachmg, and 
 .later was employed in the government service, but 
 
 who never came to this country. The other son, 
 Ernest, became a physician, and is a director of an 
 insane asylum. 
 
 Herman Laufer spent his boyhood days in 
 Zurich, where he attended the high school, and 
 presently began the learning of the art of making 
 mathematical instruments. This trade he followed 
 in Vienna, Austria, and cities in Germany, and was 
 also employed at this work in Paris. Mr. Laufer 
 came to this country Feb. 3, 1872, and was em- 
 ployed by the Edison people at Newark, N. J., 
 following his trade of making electrical instruments. 
 On April 5, 1873, he came to New Haven to enter 
 the factory of the Winchester Repeating'Arms Co., 
 as tool maker. When Albert Tilton became super- 
 intendent, Mr. Laufer took up his worlc as con- 
 tractor. In 1878 Mr. Laufer was married to Eliza- 
 beth Zils, of Naugatuck, Conn., a daughter of Peter 
 Zils. He ds a Republican, and belongs to Trumbull 
 Lodge, and Franklin Chapter, A. F. & A. M. He 
 also belongs to the I. O. O. F., Montowese Lodge, 
 and to the New Haven Swiss Society. 
 
 CHARLES HAWKINS, one of the leading and 
 influential citizens of Oxford whose life has been 
 mainly devoted to agricultural pursuits, was born 
 "March 30, 1828, on the old Hawkims homestead 
 at Quaker Farms, Oxford, which was once owned 
 and occupied by his grandfather, Zachariah Haw- 
 kins, who was born Sept. 22, 1756, and became a 
 large land holder and slave owner. During Colonial 
 days he was also captain in His Majesty's Militia, 
 and was very prominent in public affairs, serving as 
 selectman and in various other offices. By trade 
 he was a shoemaker. — 
 
 Silas Hawkins, the father of our subject, was 
 also born on the old homestead, which is now owned 
 and occupied by his son, and throughout life fol- 
 lowed the occupation of farming. Mr. Hawkins died 
 at the ripe old age of eighty-eig'ht years. He mar- 
 ried for his first wife Sibyl Perry, who became the 
 mother of seven children, Hannah, Lucy, Sally, 
 Althea, Ruth, Ira and Eri. For his second wife 
 Silas Hawkins wedded Sarah Minerve Loveland, 
 and the children of this union were Silas and 
 Charles. Ira Hawkins, son of Silas and Sibyl, mar- 
 ried Sally Tomlinson, and, dying without issue, he 
 gave the homestead to his brother Charles. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth Charles Hawkins 
 pursued his studies in the common schools, and at 
 the age of sixteen, after the death of his father, 
 he went to Newtown, Conn., where for three 
 months he worked at the hatter's trade. For a 
 time he worked at shoemaking with a Mr. Peck, 
 and then he worked for others for three years. 
 About this time his brother died, and, as previously 
 'Stated, left to our subject the old homestead, to the 
 cultivation and improvement of which he has since 
 devoted his energies with marked success. Mr. 
 Flawkins owns several different tracts of land, ag- 
 gregating 170 acres, and carries on general farming 
 
I4I4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and the dairy business. _ He also has considerable 
 city property on Hawkins street, Waterbury, and is 
 one of the most prominent and successful business 
 men of his community. 
 
 On Dec. 17, 1848, Mr. Ha\vl<ins was united in 
 marriage with Mis's Louise Jane Johnson, a native 
 of Watertown, Conn., and to them were born six 
 children, as follows: Sarah M., born Jan. 17, 1853, 
 died at the age of ten years; Alary, born Feb. 16, 
 1855, died at the age of twenty; Charles Nathan, 
 born Aug. 5, 1858, died at the age of six years; 
 Ira L., born March 16, 1861, is a prominent tack 
 manufacturer of Waterbury; Grace A., born Aug. 
 18, 1865, is the wife of Frank Roberts; and Robert, 
 born Aug. 18, 1872, aid's in the operation of the 
 home farm. 
 
 Politically !Mr. Hawkins is identified with the 
 Republican party, and religiously is a member of 
 the Episcopal Church of Quaker Farms. He is a 
 worthy representative of that class of citizens who 
 lead, quiet, industrious, honest and useful lives, 
 and constitute the best portion of a community. 
 Wherever known he is held in high regard, and is 
 certainly deservmg of honorable mention in the his- 
 tory of his native county. 
 
 FRANK WOODING STILES, contractor," 
 builder and house mover, is one of the best-known 
 men of the city of Meriden, where he was born 
 April 28, 1849, ^i^d both his father and mother be- 
 longed to noted families of the early days in New 
 England. Among his ancestors was John Beecher, 
 one of the first settlers of New Haven, being one 
 of the seven who located there in 1637. It was in 
 that infant colony that he died before his family 
 came to this county the following spring. 
 
 In New Haven county the name of Stiles has 
 long figured prominently in both church and State 
 records, and the immediate ancestors of our subject 
 bore their full share of the dignities and responsi- 
 l!>ilities of former days', among them being Rev. 
 Ezra Stiles, the distinguished president of Yale 
 College, and Rev. Isaac Stiles, who wasi for thirty- 
 six years the honored pastor of the Church in North 
 Haven. Among his forebears was also Hon. Ezra 
 Stiles', for years an honored citizen of North Haven, 
 who occupied for sixty years the historic home of 
 Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, who had been for sixty 
 years the pastor of the North Haven Church, the 
 successor of Rev. Isaac Stiles, and an eminent his- 
 torian. The desk on which he wrote Ms four thou- 
 sand sermons, is now in possession of the New 
 Haven Historical Society. 
 
 Truman Stiles (2), of Meriden, a carpenter and 
 builder, is in the eighth generation of the direct line 
 from John Stiles, the emigrant ancestor, his lineage 
 being through Isaac, Isaac (2), Isaac (3), Isaac 
 (4), Truman and Sherman Stiles. 
 
 John Stiles, of the Millbroke family of England, 
 son of Thomas and Marie Stiles, was baptized in 
 St. Michael's Church, Bradfordshire, England, Dec. 
 
 25, 1595, and in 1635 came to Boston in the ship 
 "Christian," when he was forty years of age. He 
 was one of the first settlers of Windsor, Conn., 
 where"" he died June 4, 1662-63, and his widow, 
 Rachel, entered into her rest Sept. 3, 1674. 
 
 Isaac Stiles, son of John the emigrant, was born 
 in Windsor, Conn., and settled about 1665 at Weth- 
 ersfield, Conn. He removed to Stratford, Conn., 
 after 1671, where he died Jan. 5, 1714-15- His wife, 
 Hannah, survived him. He is isaid to have been 
 the first male Aild born in the Colony of Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 Isaac Stiles (2), son of Isaac, was born in 1663, 
 married Hannah Rose, who was born in 1666, a 
 daughter of Robert Rose, of Stratford, Conn., who 
 came from Ipswich, Eng., in 1634, in the ship 
 "Francis." Mr. Stiles died in 1690, and his' widow, 
 May 9, 1693, married Samuel Hargar, of Derby, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 Isaac Stiles (3), son of Isaac (2), was born 
 April 5, 1690, and was married for the first time 
 about 1718, to Abigail Adams, of Milford, Conn., 
 who was born Sept. 25, 1696. She died prior to 
 1724, and Mr. Stiles married again. After living 
 for a time at Stratford, Mr. Stiles removed to 
 Woodbury, where he died April 16, 1787, his wife, 
 Sarah, having passed away Dec. 19, 1771- 
 
 Isaac Stiles (4), son of Isaac (3), was born 
 April 17, 1728, married Elizabeth (surname not 
 given) . 
 
 Truman Stiles, his son, born in 1767, in South- 
 bury, Conn., married for his first wife, Sept. 23, 
 1793, Lavinia Leavenworth, and, for his second 
 wife, Anna Jarrett, who was born in Southbury, 
 Conn., in 1818. Mr. Stiles was a farmer and a trad- 
 er, and died in 1839. His widow died in 1884, in 
 Watertown, Conn. The children of Mr. Stiles were 
 as follows: (i) Sherman, born in 1796, in South- 
 bury, Conn., where he died July 31, 1838; (2) 
 Charles Robert married and made his home in Buf- 
 falo; (3) Erastus was a farmer, and died from 
 drowning (he was unmarried) ; (4) Nancy, born 
 in Southbury, Conn., died unmarried in Bethlehem, 
 Conn.; (5) Harriet married Abraham Bassett; 
 (6) Samuel, born in 1818, died in Watertown, Conn. 
 It is probable that all were born in Southbury. 
 
 Sherman Stiles, son of Truman, born in 1796, 
 married Abigail Prindle, of French extraction. Mr. 
 Stiles was a farmer and shoemaker, and lived at 
 Rock Hill, Naugatuck. His widow 'died at Paris, 
 111., Nov. 13, 1871. He was a man of sterling 
 qualities, and was much respected by his fellow 
 citizens. Flis children were as follows: {i) 
 George E., born in Southbury, married for his first 
 wife, Nov. 4, 1838, Marcia Peck; and for his second 
 wife, Lavinia Lewis; (2) Caroline L., born March 
 24, 1822, in Southbury, married Nov. 28, 1841, in 
 New Haven, Conn., George Atkinson, and lives at 
 Paris. 111.; (3) Truman, born March 30, 1824; (4) 
 Elizabeth, born in 1826, married John Hall, and both 
 died at Waterbury; (5) John E., born in 1828, mar- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1415 
 
 ried and lived at Lafayette, Ind., where he died 
 April 25, 1873; (6) Mary, born in 1831, in South- 
 bury, also died at Lafayette, Ind., Feb. 7, 1865; (7) 
 Ellen, born in 1834, is the widow of Frank Collier, 
 and has her home at Naugatuck; (8) Charles is a 
 resident of Newton, Kansas. 
 
 Truman Stiles, noted above, was first married 
 April 23, 1848, to Eliza, a daughter of Calvin and 
 Lucy Wooding, who died May 12, 1849. For his 
 second wife he was married April 6, 185 1, to Mary 
 E., a daughter of Adonijah and Hannah P. Crovvell, 
 and resides at Meriden, Conn. To the first mar- 
 riage was born one son, Frank Wooding. The chil- 
 dren of the second marriage were : ( i ) William 
 H., born April 29, 1852, married Grace L. Goddard; 
 (2) George C, born April 12, 1853, married Annie 
 L. Woodmg, and died April 13, 1900; (3) Alida, 
 born Feb. 26, 1858, died Jan. 2, 1863 ; and (4) 
 Arthur M., born April 13, 1863, died Jan. 6, 1879. 
 The mother is still living. Truman Stiles was 
 educated in Woodbury, where he learned the car- 
 penter and joiner trade, at which he worked as a 
 journeyman in Woodbury, Waterbury and New 
 Haven until 1847. In that year he came to Meriden, 
 and after working as journeyman and foreman for 
 Lyon & Billard, he, in 1864, started a contracting 
 and building business. In this line he was engaged 
 until 1881, when he retired and engaged in the 
 vending of horse radish, a line which he still follows 
 on a considerable scale. His home is on Butler 
 street. In politics he is a Republican. 
 
 Frank Wooding Stiles was educated in the Meri- 
 den schools, and in the New Haven business col- 
 lege. When he attained man's estate he learned the 
 carpenter and joiner trade with his^ father, and in 
 1872 began in business for himself as a carpenter 
 and contractor. For thirty years he has extensively 
 engaged in the building business, both in Meriden 
 and elsewhere. In 1884 he added to his other lines 
 that of house moving, and has all the appliances 
 for that work. He handles iron stacks, boilers and 
 heavy machinery of all descriptions, in various parts 
 of the State, and is a well-known man in this. line. 
 Several extensive factories in Meriden have been 
 constructed by him, and the moving of the smoke- 
 stack of the Curtain Fixture factory was one of 
 his noted achievements. The stack is an iron 
 cylinder, riveted, and four feet in diameter. It 
 stands one hundred feet in height, and is said to 
 weigih about 22,000 pounds. One of the boilers 
 upon which the stack rested had settled and it was 
 thrown out of plumb about a foot. With the oper- 
 ation of bringing it back to a vertical position it 
 was moved horizontally about fifteen feet. Mr 
 Stiles undertook the job, and introduced two steel 
 girders beneath the base plate. After ten braces 
 had been riveted to it, the stack and the boiler which 
 had settled were blocked on four jack screws. The 
 stack was brought to a vertical position by jacks 
 under each end of the girders. Other appliances 
 of an ingenious nature including a specially de- 
 
 signed shoe between the cast iron base plate and 
 steel girder were introduced into the undertaking, 
 and so quickly was the work carried on, that the 
 girders were set, and the stack moved, so that the 
 girders could be taken away, by five men inside of 
 two days. The entire operation was very ingen- 
 ious, being regarded as one of the engineering 
 feats of the age, and reflecting niudi credit upon the 
 mechanical ability of Mr. Stiles. Mr. Stiles has 
 built many of the more prominent residences of 
 Meriden, and in 1877 he constructed a fine home 
 for himself on Butler and Hanover streets, re- 
 building it in 1898. It is now one of the very finest 
 on Hanover street. 
 
 Mr. Stiles is a Republican in politics, and he 
 has been active in political matters for twelve years, 
 and was many years chairman of the Third ward 
 town and city committees. For the past three years 
 he Ihas filled the office of chairman of the Republican 
 city committee. He was a member of the City 
 Council from the Third ward in 1893 and 1894, and 
 was clerk of the Lamp and Park committees for 
 two years, besides serving on the street committee 
 for the same period. The family attends the Bap- 
 tist Church. Mr. Stiles belongs to the Improved 
 Order of Red Men, and holds the position of Great 
 Senior Sagamore of the State. He has served ten 
 years as Keeper of Wampum in the local tribe ; for 
 twenty-five years he has been a life member of the 
 Y. M. C. A. 
 
 Mr. Stiles was married Oct. 13, 1875, to Eliza- 
 beth, w'ho was born June 5, 1852, a daughter of 
 John and Mary Aubrey, of English birth, and their 
 children are: (i) Harriet M., who was born Nov. 
 4, 1876; (2) John F.,who was born Feb. 6, 1879; 
 (3) Bertha E., born July 26, 1881 ; and (4) Tru- 
 man Aubrey, born March 13, 1895. 
 
 LEMUEL GOODRICH HOADLEY. For 
 more than 225 years the name of Hoadley has had 
 a place in the annals of New Haven county. For 
 more than a hundred years Heli Hoadley, his chil- 
 dren and grandchildren have been prominent and 
 forceful citizens of New Haven, notably his chil- 
 dren, Hervey Seward, George and John, and his 
 grandson, George Edward. Heli Hoadley (2), 
 (son of Heli), Hervey Seward (2) (son of Her- 
 vey Seward) and Lemuel G. and Wells C. (sons 
 of John), are yet residents of New Haven, and 
 nearly all actively interested in business. Sketches 
 of the late George Hoadley, and of George Edward 
 Hoadley, and their families appear elsewhere. 
 
 The sons of John Hoadley, Lemuel G. and Wells 
 C, of New Haven, and Edward J., of Hartford, are 
 descendants in the seventh generation from William 
 Hoadle (as the name was then spelled), who was 
 the first of the family in New England. 
 
 William Hoadley (Hoadle) was born in Eng- 
 land .in 1630, and he first appeared in this country 
 at Saybrook in 1663. Three years later he bought 
 property in Branford. His name is found on the 
 
I4I6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 New Plantation Covenant in 1668, and between 
 1678 and 1685 he was a deputy at nine sessions 
 of the General Court. He was one of the patentees 
 of the town in 1686, and for many years was a 
 selectman and one of the prominent men of the 
 place. His death occurred in 1709. From this an- 
 cestor the lineage of the Hoadley brothers men- 
 tioned above is through Samuel, Timothy, Rufus, 
 Heli and John Hoadley. 
 
 Samuel Hoadley married, in 1689, Abigail, 
 daughter of John and Mary (Bullard) Harrington, 
 born in 1668. Samuel Hoadley was one of the first 
 settlers in the western part of the town, on lands 
 he with others purchased in 1687. His home was 
 in Hopyard Plain, where he was killed under a hay- 
 mow in 1714. His widow died in 1745. 
 
 Timothy Hoadley, son of Samuel, was born in 
 1709, in ijranford, where he was married in 1733, 
 to Mary, who was born in 1710, daughter of John 
 and Rebecca (Truesdell) Harrison. Mr. Hoadley 
 was known as the "sergeant," and was the first of 
 the family to settle in what is now the Parish of 
 Northford in the town of North Branford. Sergeant 
 Hoadley died in 1772, and his widow in 1795. 
 
 Rufus Hoadley, son of "Sergeant" Timothy, 
 wag born in 1741 in Northford, Branford, and 
 was married, in 1767, to his first wife, Ruth, who 
 was born in 1745, in Wallingford, a daughter of 
 Jonathan and Thankful (Benham) Peck. Mr. 
 Hoadley was a prosperous farmer, and made his 
 home on the old Hoadley homestead in Northford. 
 He died in 181 1, and his wife died in 1787. 
 
 Heli Hoadley, son of Rufus, was born in 1776, 
 in Northford, and was married in 1799, in Guil- 
 ford, to Mabel Ann Seward, who was born in 1782, 
 in Guilford, a daughter of David and Mabel (Field) 
 Seward. Mr. Hoadley located in New Haveh, 
 where he was engaged in the manufacture of trunks, 
 wheelbarrows, carts and similar goods, doing a 
 flourishing business, and accumulating a goodly 
 fortune. He died at the home of his son, John, in 
 Nortih Haven, Feb. 12, 1852; and his wife, Feb. 22, 
 1826. On Dec. 25, 1830, he wedded for his second 
 wife, Mrs. White, of Middletown. 
 
 Hervey Seward Hoadley, son of Heli, was born 
 March 15, 1804, in New Haven, and was married 
 "Nov. 13, 1830, in Berlin, Conn., to Catherine Helen, 
 who was born Oct. 12, 1808, a daughter of James 
 and Elizabeth (Simons) Guernsey, of that place. 
 She died March 13, 1837, and Mr. Hoadley was 
 married a second time, Oct. 29, 1840, when Caroline 
 Esther Guernsey, a sister of his first wife, was 
 united in matrimony with him. She was born Jan. 
 12, 1807. Mr. Hoadley died Feb. 9, 1852. Until 
 he was twenty-one years of age, he worked as an 
 apprentice under his father, a noted wood worker 
 in trucks, wheels and carriages. When he became 
 of age he began life with a good trade and fifty 
 cents, in money. For a few years he worked at the 
 bench, and then became associated with his brother, 
 George, in the manufacture of carriages. His am- 
 
 bition soon asserted itself and he branched out into 
 various enterprises. Success crowned his efforts, 
 and at forty-five he had accumulated much property 
 and was a wealthy man. A large carriage business 
 was established by him in New Haven with 
 'branches in Augusta, Ga., and Mobile, Ala. Mr. 
 Hoadley never held public office, but was foremost 
 in public enterprises and improvements. An ardent 
 admirer of Henry Clay, he gave the name of the 
 distinguished Kentuckian to his oldest son. Mr. 
 Hoadley died suddenly in Philadelphia, while en- 
 route to the South on business. On the occasion 
 of his death the New Haven "Journal and Courier," 
 of Feb. 10, 1852, s'aid, "The announcement of the 
 death of Hervey S. Hoadley yesterday was received 
 with universal regret in this city, where he has been 
 long known and respected. As one of^the most 
 prominent business men of this city and interested 
 in manufacturing, his loss can hardly be replaced. 
 His death occurred at about twelve yesterday, in 
 Philadelphia, where he was attacked while on his 
 way South. Many young men commencing busi-a 
 ness have proved the generosity of Mr. Hoadley, 
 and the whole community will mourn his loss." The 
 children of Mr. Hoadley born to his second mar- 
 riage, and all in New Haven, were as follows; 
 Henry Clay, born in December, 1841, died Sept. 6, 
 1849; Caroline Helen, born March 22, 1842, was 
 married Dec. 14, 1866, to Thomas G. Guernsey, of 
 Bangor, Maine; and Hervey Seward, born March 
 I, 1846, is a resident of New Haven. 
 
 John Hoadley, the son of Heli, born March 28, 
 1814, was marrjed Dec. 25, 1835, in New Haven, to 
 Jenette, a daughter of Timothy and Lucy ( Fowler j 
 Tyler. She died Nov. 7, 1846, and he was married 
 in North Haven, Dec. 6, 1847, to Mary Ann Noyes 
 Culver, who was born Jan. 13, 1815, a daughter of 
 Samuel and Rhoda Hall (Eaton) Culver. She died 
 at Montowese, Dec. 6, 1892. Mr. Hoadley was by 
 trade a carriage maker and trimmer, and for a 
 quarter of a century was identified with that busi- 
 ness in New Haven. During the latter part of his 
 life for more than forty years he followed farming in 
 the vicinity of New Haven, residing at Montowese. 
 His children who lived beyond infancy were: (i) 
 Charles A., born in 1B38, died in 1854. (2) Her- 
 vey Seward, born in 1842, enlisted as a private sol- 
 dier in Company A, 15th Conn. V. I., and was killed 
 Dec. 14, 1862, at Kinston, N. C. (3) Mary Jane, 
 born Feb. 26, 1843, married Julius E. Larkins, of 
 New Haven, Sept. 16, 1863. (4) John Edward, 
 born April 21, 1844, was married, first, Aug. 26, 
 1875, in Hartford, to Emma F. Endicott, who died 
 in that city, Dec. 28, 1888, and he married, second, 
 May 19, 1891, in Portland, Maine, Mrs. Ray (Al- 
 len) Buxton, a daughter of William and Lucy 
 (Porter) Allen. Mr. Hoadley is a resident of 
 Hartford, and ,was a manufacturer of the Moses 
 cough drops, now sold in nearly 2,000 places oi 
 business in this country and Canada. His children 
 are: Eva May, born Feb. 18, 1878; and Arthur 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1417 
 
 Endicott, born July 8, 1882. (5) Lemuel G., born 
 Feb. 25, 1852. (6) Wells Carrington. 
 
 Lemuel Goodrich Hoadley, whose name intro- 
 duces this article, was married Nov. 21, 1878, to 
 Mary Bentley Fitch, who was born in North Haven, 
 April 6, 1855, a daughter of Justus Johnson and 
 Lucy Ann (Huntley) Fitch. One child, Florence 
 A., born April 11, 1883, has blessed this union. For 
 some years Mr. Hoadley followed the carpenter 
 trade, and for fifteen years was a wholesale confec- 
 tioner. For many years he has dealt extensively 
 in real estate and money 'loaning. His work in buy- 
 ing tracts of land, building on a very extensive 
 scale, has been of vast value to New Haven. He is 
 prominent as a Mason, and an Odd Fellow, and is 
 a member of the Young Men's Republican Club; 
 religiously he belongs to the Baptist Church, as 
 does also Mrs. Hoadley. 
 
 Wells Carrington Hoadley was born Sept. 2, 
 1853, andwas married June g, 1881, in North Hav- 
 en, to Alice E., a daughter of Lucius and Betsy 
 Melissa (Linsley) Brockett, by whom he has the 
 following children: Harold Lucius, born Nov. 10, 
 1886; and Robert Wells, born Dec. 10, 1888. Mr. 
 Hoadley has been engaged in the wholesale con- 
 fectionery business in New Haven, and is one of the 
 prosperous young men of that city. 
 
 Heli Hoadley, son of Heli Hoadley, born Feb. 
 18, 1836, was educated in New Haven. For some 
 years he followed the sea, but now lives in New 
 Haven. 
 
 CHATHAM FREEMAN, or "Old Chat," as he 
 was commonly called in his later years, was 'born in 
 Africa about 1750. He was stolen from his home 
 when about five years of age and shipped to Amer- 
 ica, where he was sold into slavery. He used to 
 relate to the children of the neighborhood his dis- 
 tinct remembrance of the day he was stolen, how he 
 cried and begged the cruel thieves to let him go 
 back to his mother. He was told that they would 
 not take him away if he would bring his little 
 playmate, Cato. This he did, but, of course, the 
 promise was not kept, and the poor little black 
 children were taken on the long terrible journey 
 across the waters shut up in a kind of cage. Ignor- 
 ant little Chat thought they were being fattened 
 for killing, and charged Cato, who was younger, 
 to eat sparingly and was very much provoked_ at 
 him because he could see no object in becoming 
 thin. 
 
 At the time of the Revolutionary war Chat was 
 the slave of a farmer who lived in the eastern part 
 of Meriden, and Cato was the property of some one 
 in Wallingford. Chat's master offered him his free- 
 dom if he would substitute for his son, who had 
 been drafted. He accepted the ofifer and served our 
 country as a .private soldier in the Connecticut line 
 during the remaining seven years of the war, re- 
 turning to Meriden at its close as free as the coun- 
 try for which he had so long been fighting. 
 
 Upon gaining his own freedom, his next thought 
 was the freedom of Rhea, a slave girl whom he 
 wished to marry. Accordingly he gave his time for 
 another long term of years, and thus Rhea gained 
 her freedom and became his wife. iHe used to say 
 with great satisfacHoh: "She is truly my wife, 
 for I've bought her with my own money." 
 
 One year when the crops in Meriden were a 
 partial failure. Old Chat tried again and again to 
 buy some corn, but in vain, as the farmers had hard- 
 ly enough for their own use. The last appeal was 
 made to Uncle Isaac, who refused as the others 
 had done; when Chat put the case before him in 
 the following words : "If your family had no food, 
 and you could not beg, borrow, or buy, would you 
 think it wrong to steal?" Uncle Isaac hardly knew 
 what reply to make, but sold him the corn. 
 
 Chat and Rhea had one daughter, Katy, who 
 married Robin Prim. Katy was a member of the 
 Broad Street Baptist Church. The last of Old 
 Chat's descendants died many years ago. Chat and 
 his wife were regular attendants of the old Con- 
 gregational Church on Broad street. 
 
 In 1826 on the occasion of the celebration of 
 the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence at the Congregational Church, Chatham 
 Freeman was one of the honored heroes of the day. 
 People are now living who remember seeing him 
 march into the church with the other survivors of 
 the war and occupy with them one or more of the 
 old fashioned square pews. His name was placed 
 on the pension roll Sept. 16, 1818, and he lived to 
 receive about fifteen hundred and twenty dollars. 
 He died Feb. 13, 1834, at the age of eighty-four 
 years, and it is thought he rests in the Broad street 
 cemetery by the graves of his kindred in the corner 
 where the poor were buried. His resting place is 
 unknown, but the record of his honest, faithful life 
 and noble deeds remains, and entitles him to the 
 rank of a true hero. 
 
 HENRY CHRISTIAN PICKHARDT, a well- 
 known real-estate dealer of Meriden, and one of its 
 leading citizens, was born in Broad Brook, East 
 Windsor, Hartford Co., Conn., Sept. 9, 1850. 
 
 Christian Pickhardt, the father of Henry C, 
 was a native of Germany, born in Gummersbach, 
 in the Rhine province, where he attended school and 
 learned the trade of wool sorter. The family is an 
 old one there, and still operates a woolen mill. 
 When Christian Pickhardt reached manhood, with 
 many more of his countrymen, he emigrated to 
 America, locating at Broad Brook, Conn., where he 
 had no trouble in securing emplo3Tnent at his trade. 
 Later he removed to the Naugatuck Valley, locating 
 at Seymour, and here he started into the hotel busi- 
 ness and followed same until the close of his life. 
 His death took place while on a visit to his daughter, 
 in Yalesville, in 1890, and he was buried in West 
 cemetery, in Meriden. Although Mr. Pickhardt 
 became an ardent Republican, he never sought office. 
 
I4i8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 In his religious views he was liberal, living up to 
 a standard which he believed to be right, and all 
 his days was an industrious and honest man. His 
 fraternal connection was with the German Order 
 Harugari. He married Louisa Floto, who was also 
 born in Germany, and who died in Bridgeport,, 
 Conn., the mother of three children : Charles, de- 
 ceased ; Henry C, of this biography ; and William, 
 now deceased. 
 
 Henry Christian Pickhardt removed with his 
 parents to the Naugatuck Valley, and attended 
 school, in Derby, and also assisted his father in 
 the management of the hotel. At the age of seven- 
 teen years, he came to' Meriden and obtained em- 
 ployment as pressman with the Bradley & Hubbard 
 Manufacturing Co., and here he remained for sev- 
 eral years, returning then to Seymour with the in- 
 tention of attending school, as he was ambitious to 
 have more advantages. With characteristic energy 
 Mr. Pickhardt attended both day and night school, 
 and fitted himself for a clerkship, in which position 
 he remained for three years. Returning then to 
 Meriden, Mr. Pickhardt embarked in the grocery 
 business, carrying a line of German goods, and 
 doing very well, a fine trade having been built up 
 at the end of two years, but a disastrous fire de- 
 stroyed his business. Then he made a trip to Eu- 
 rope, during which time he visited his father's 
 birthplace and old home. While abroad he mjirried 
 Miss Matilda Schroeder. and with his bride, re- 
 turned to the United States and located in Meriden. 
 Here he accepted a clerkship in a grocery store, re- 
 maining two years, removing then to Bay State, 
 Hampshire Co., Mass., and worked there in the cut- 
 lery factory for one year. Mr. Pickhardt then) 
 removed with his family to Ansonia, Conn., and 
 for three years worked in Farrell's foundry, going 
 then to the E. J. Day Rubber Co., of Seymour, 
 finally returning to his old friends and associations 
 in Meriden. 
 
 Here Mr. Pickhardt embarked in the life in- 
 surance business as agent for the Metropolitan and 
 Hartford Life, the Equitable, of New York, and 
 other leading companies, which he represented for 
 some years, becoming then the manager of the real- 
 estate business of Joseph Morse, while that gentle- 
 man was in the West. His management during 
 three and one-half years convinced him that he could' 
 make a success of this line himself, and he has been 
 engaged thus ever since. His business includes the 
 sale, renting and general supervision of all kirn s 
 of property, and the collecting of rents, and on 
 account of his strict attention to business, he has 
 become well and favorably known through Hart- 
 ford and New Haven counties. Perhaps no man 
 in this locality has a better knowledge of the con- 
 ditions governing the real-estate market than has 
 Mr. Pickhardt, while his well-known integrity has 
 gained him the confidence of owners of valuable 
 property. 
 
 Mr. Pickhardt has three children, all living, Ma- 
 
 tilda, Etta and Henry. Mrs. Pickhardt is a lad/ 
 of strong character, a most devoted wife and 
 mother, and with her daughters belongs to the Con- 
 gregational Church. Fraternally our subject is con- 
 nected with Morning Star Lodge, A. F. & A. M., 
 of Seymour, and with Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. 
 O. O. F., of Meriden. As a citizen Mr. Pickhardt 
 is held in high esteem, while his genial manner and 
 domestic virtues make him highly regarded in social 
 circles. 
 
 JOHN H. DAVIS is ' one of the prominent 
 young men of Hamden, a leader in social and po- 
 litical circles, and a worthy representative of the 
 agricultural and business interests of the town. 
 Whether in public or private life he is a courteous, 
 genial gentleman, well deserving the high regard 
 in which he is held. 
 
 Mr. Davis was born March 28, 1868, on the 
 farm where he now resides, son of Samuel and 
 Emily (Mansfield) Davis, grandson of Avery and 
 Hannah (Tyler) Davis, and great-grandson of 
 Avery Davis. Avery Davis, Jr., was born in the 
 town of Willington, Conn., where he was a pros- 
 perous farmer and prominent citizen. He reared 
 an excellent family, consisting of seven children, 
 viz.: Charles, Eliza, Mary, Edward (who is men- 
 tioned elsewhere), William, Samuel and John. The 
 last named settled in Rockville, where he became 
 a large real-estate owner. That city's growth 
 rendered his land valuable, and much of it was 
 cut up in lots and streets, Davis avenue in that 
 city being named after him. He left considerable 
 property. 
 
 Samuel Davis was born Sept. 22, 1822, in the 
 town of Stafford, Conn., and his wife was born 
 Jan; 8, 1828, in Hamden, Conn., a daughter of 
 John and Martha (Burnham) Mansfield. Samuel 
 Davis died Jan. 28, 1887, and his wife survived 
 until Nov. 25, 1896. Both are buried in Whitney- 
 ville cemetery. When Samuel Davis was a young 
 man he came to New Haven, and for some time 
 was associated in business with Elihu Sanford, 
 the father of Judge Edward I. and Dr. L. G. San- 
 ford. After his marriage Samuel Davis was chosen 
 superintendent of the New Haven alms house, a 
 position he filled for eighteen consecutive years 
 with credit to himself and to the entire satisfaction 
 of the tax payers of the town. On resigning this 
 position he purchased the farm near Whitney- 
 ville where his son, J. H., now lives, and for a 
 iwmber of years was engaged in market garden- 
 ing. He supplied most of the leading grocers of 
 New Haven with produce, and was always noted 
 for his uprightness of character and honest con- 
 duct. In 1874 he suspended active operations and 
 removed to New Haven, taking up his residence 
 at No. 285 Orange street, where hi& death oc- 
 curred. He was a consistent member of the Con- 
 gregational Church, and was one of its most 
 punctual and regular attendants. He was held in 
 
^2^^fr2^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1419 
 
 high esteem by all who knew him. The Hon. N. 
 D. Sperry, in referring to him, said: "None knew 
 him but to respect and admire him. He was one 
 of the most upright of friends, and noble hearted 
 citizens of my acquaintance. I considered him i 
 man of unusual character, and I regret exceed- 
 ingly that he has been taken away." Politically 
 he was a stanch Democrat, yet not a politician. 
 He had the courage of his convictions, but he 
 was not a man who was constantly trying to make 
 converts to his political belief. He was self-madie, 
 and acquired a comfortable competence, in the ac- 
 cumulation of which he won an honored name to 
 leave to his posterity. In his family were eight 
 children, namely: Elihu S., a farmer and mar- 
 ket gardener of Hamden ; Avery, a miner of Lead- 
 ville, Colo.] Charles L., a farmer of East Haven; 
 Mary E., and Martha E., twins, the former the 
 wife of Charles B. Bates, of New Haven, the lat- 
 ter (now deceased) the wife of Alexander M. 
 Hall, of the same place; Susan, a teacher m the 
 public schools of New Haven; Benjamin J., an 
 Episcopal minister of Easton, Penn. ; and John 
 H., our subject. 
 
 John H. Davis was only five years old when 
 his parents left the farm and moved, to New Ha- 
 ven, and in the public schools of that city he ac- 
 quired his education. On leaving school, at the 
 age of fifteen years, he returned to the farm, and 
 in connection with his brother, Elihu S.,_ has since 
 successfully engaged in market gardening. The 
 farm comprises eighty acres of rich and arable 
 land, pleasantly located on the Ridge road, three 
 miles from New Haven, and under its present 
 management is made to yield a valuable return for 
 the care and labor bestowed upon it. 
 
 Mr. Davis has been twice married, first in 1891 
 to Miss Jennie G. Holmes, who was born Oct. 
 22, 1868, and died Nov. 26, 1897. They had two 
 children, Kathleen and Marion. His marriage to 
 Evalyn S. Collins, daughter of ex-Senator Will- 
 iam A. Collins, of Columbia, took place July 18, 
 1899. Twin sons, John Hubbard, Jr., and Will- 
 iam Collins, born Oct. 6, 1901, died in infancy. 
 Since attaining his majority he hag been a stanch 
 supporter of the Republican party, and has ever 
 taken an active and influential part in local pol- 
 itics. His fellow citizens, recognizing his worth 
 and ability, have called him to office, and he served 
 as selectman of Hamden from 1895 to 1898, m- 
 clusive, and as a member of the State Legislature 
 during the sessions of 1899 and 1900, during 
 which he was a member of the committee on Cities 
 and Boroughs. He is a member of the Young 
 Men's Republican Club of New Haven; Hamden 
 Grange; Sons of the American Revolution; Yale 
 Conclave, No. 244, I. O. H. ; Lodge, No. 46, 
 A. O. U. W.; Day Spring Lodge, No. 30, F. & 
 A. M., of Hamden; Royal Chapter, R. A. M.; 
 Crawford Council, No. 19, R. & S. M. ; New Ha- 
 ven Commandery, No. 2, K. T.; and Pyramid 
 
 Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Bridgeport. He 
 is also a member and trustee of the Congrega- 
 tional Church of Whitneyville, and is one of the 
 most popular and prominent young men of the 
 community. Seldom is found a young man of his 
 age who occupies as foremost a position in his 
 town, and his acquaintances including prominent 
 and well-known men all over the State. A thor- 
 oughly progressive man, and up to date in every 
 particular, he is an excellent representative of an 
 honorable father, and the type of a citizen to per- 
 petuate the honorable name of Davis in the town 
 of Hamden. 
 
 ROBERT WILSON, a noted iron worker of 
 New Haven, Conn., has his place of business at 
 No. 115 Commerce street, where he manufactures 
 all kinds of iron articles for building, such as iron 
 railings, doors, shutters, balconies and stairs, bolts 
 and girders for bridges and buildings, awnings and 
 hitching posts. He solicits orders from builders, 
 and is able to meet any demand the trade may 
 make upon him. 
 
 Mr. Wilson was born in Lancashire, Eng- 
 land, Sept. 4, 1837, a son of Thomas Wilson, a 
 native of England, and who lived and died in his 
 native land. 
 
 Robert Wilson came to the United States when 
 about ten years old, and in Brooklyn, N. Y., at- 
 tended school for a time before learning the iron 
 smithing trade. In 1855 he came to New Haven, 
 and has made his home here to the present time. 
 Until 1874 he followed his trade as a journeyman 
 iron worker, and that year went into business for 
 himself, and has since maintained a shop on Com- 
 merce street. From a comparatively small be- 
 ginning he has branched out extensively and has 
 a truly enviable reputation as a master workman. 
 
 Mr. Wilson married Gertrude Sperry, of Wood- 
 bridge, a daughter of William Fitch Sperry, and of 
 this union there is one son, Robert W. Mr. Wilson 
 is' a Republican, and is fraternally associated with 
 Hiram Lodge, No. 21, F. & A. M. The family at- 
 tends the Episcopal Church. Mr. Wilson is a hard- 
 working man, and well deserves the success that 
 has crowned his industrious and useful career. 
 
 FRANCIS WILLIAMS, a much respected citi- 
 zen of Meriden, where his industrious years and 
 patriotic servicers in the Civil war entitle hm to the 
 regard of the public, was born on the Williams farm 
 in Middletown, Sept. 21, 1839, and is a brother of 
 Selden C. Williams. 
 
 Francis Williams acquired his education in the 
 district school andl in the Meriden Academy, and 
 worked at home on the farm until of age. When 
 the war called the stalwart and the loyal to the, 
 front, to battle for the life of the Republic, he did 
 not hesitate to make prompt reply, and enlisted Aug. 
 II, 1861, in Co. C, 1st Conn. V. L, under Col. Terry 
 and Capt. Sanford, serving throughout the war 
 
I420 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 with honor and distinction, and was mustered out 
 at its termination. He was in the battle of Port 
 Royal, and was promoited to be first sergeant, on 
 account of his signal bravery. At Bermuda Hun- 
 dred he was captured by the Rebels, June 2, 1864, 
 and was incarcerated in Andersonville, Charleston, 
 and Florence prisons, where he was kept for 
 six months, suffering greatly from the privations 
 of these terrible places of confinement. In Decem- 
 ber, 1864, he was paroled, and was honorably dis- 
 charged June 2, 1865. 
 
 After his return from the army Mr. Williams 
 was unable fto work for nearly a year, so greatly 
 had he been reduced by prison life. When he had 
 recovered from his chills and fever, he went to 
 Middletown, where he worked for a time in a sew- 
 ing machine factory, and then, coming to Meriden, 
 secured a position in the factory of the Bradley & 
 Hubbard Mfg. Co., being assigned to the machine 
 department. Here he was employed for a number 
 of years, when he had a good position offered him 
 with the Malleable Iron Company. This he ac- 
 cepted, but after six years resumed his work with 
 the Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Co. Later in life he 
 worked for the Charles Parker Company. 
 
 On Nov. 24, 1878, Mr. Williams was married in 
 Bristol, Conn., to Harriet E. Downs, who was born 
 in Wolcott, Conn., a daughter of Willard and Maria 
 (Minor) Downs, and a granddaughter of Marcus 
 Minor. Since their marriage they have resided on 
 a farm in East Meriden, which Mrs. Williams in- 
 herited from her father. Mr. Williams belongs 'to 
 the local post of the G. A. R. In politics he is an 
 independent Democrat, and in religion holds to 
 the Golden Rule as a sufficient law of life. He be- 
 longs to the Prisoners of War Association, and 
 looks back to that dark experience with a feeling 
 of brdtherhood for all the unfortunate soldiers of 
 the Union army, who were compelled to pass 
 through it. Mrs. Williams is a lady of much re- 
 finement, and she and her husband are regarded as 
 worthy and honorable people, thoroughly upright 
 in all their ways, genuinely kind as neighbors and 
 loyal as friends. 
 
 CAPT. AUSTIN P. KIRKHAM. In the eyes 
 of an American there can be no higher honor than 
 the record of service in the war which established 
 beyond further question the permanent union of 
 the States, and made our country truly "one and 
 indivisible;" Happily we still have with us many 
 of the veterans of that struggle, and prominent 
 among them is the highly respected citizen of An- 
 sonia whose name opens this biography. Capt. 
 Kirkham not only served with distinction himself, 
 but his father, Isaac J. Kirkham, and three broth- 
 ers were in active service, making a notable rec- 
 ord for the family. 
 
 The first call for soldiers was promptly re- 
 sponded to by Isaac J. Kirkham and two of his 
 sons, Austin P. and Guilford M., who enlisted 
 
 April 19, 1861, in Company D, 2di Conn. V. I., and 
 served three months, taking part in the first battle 
 of Bull Run, for service in which Austin P. re- 
 ceived a gold medal. They were mustered out 
 Aug. 7, 1861, but our subject immediately re-en- 
 listedl, in the navy, as master's mate, and while 
 in that service participated in the engagements of 
 Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, Newbern, Plym- 
 outh and others. He resigned from the navy in 
 the fall of 1863, and in February, 1864, enlisted 
 in the 2d Connecticut Heavy Artillery, with which 
 he served in the peninsular campaign under Grant. 
 He was wounded at the battle of Cold Harbor, 
 June I, 1864, a bullet passing through his head, 
 but after an absence of forty-four days rejoined 
 his regiment and was engaged in the defense of 
 Washington when Early made his raid. He was 
 wounded again at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864, 
 the day of Sheridan's famous ride, and was cap- 
 tured, being taken first to Libby prison, later to 
 Danville, and then back to Libby prison. He was 
 one of three who volunteered to try to escape, 
 and disarming the guard they succeeded in leav- 
 ing and getting free, but were recaptured the next 
 day, after they had! walked five miles in the_ snow ; 
 Mr. Kirkham's feet were frozen causing him ter- 
 rible suffering. He was released in March, 1865, 
 rejoining his regiment in time to participate in 
 the closing scenes of the war at Appomattox, and 
 was mustered out of the service Sept. 11, 1865. He 
 entered as a private, and was mustered out at 
 Ihe close of the war with the rank of captain. He 
 was color sergeant in the 2d Conn. V. I. Isaac J. 
 Kirkham, the father, re-enlisted with his two sons, 
 Guilford and Leveritt, in Company A, loth Conn. 
 V. I., Isaac J. and Guilford enlisting as musicians. 
 Leveritt, the youngest son, took part in the cap- 
 ture of Roanoke, Elizabeth City and Newbern, N. 
 C, March 12, 1862, where he was wounded. He 
 was removed to the hospital, and was discharged 
 the following December, in consequence of wounds 
 received in action. He died in Florida some years 
 ago, and Guilford M. died in Goshen about 1894. 
 Calvin C. Kirkham, the eldest son now living, 
 resided in New Orleans at the outbreak of the 
 war, and escaped with his wife (Ellen S. Chid- 
 sey) and infant son, George C, on the last steam- 
 er (the "Ohio Belle") that went up the Missis- 
 sippi river in 1861. They were captured at Na- 
 poleon, Ark., and held prisoners six weeks, but 
 were then paroled, and up to the present date 
 (1901) have not been exchanged. He came East, 
 ' leaving his family at East Haven, enlisted in the 
 navy as landsman, and was immediately appointed 
 paymaster's clerk, in charge of the paymaster's 
 department on the U. S. S. "Satellite." He was 
 in the campaigns of the Potomac and James rivers, 
 on the "Satellite," which was destroyed later, and 
 assisted in destroying the forts and batteries on 
 the Potomac, James and York rivers, and in cov- 
 ering the retreat of McClellan. He was pro- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1 42 1 
 
 moted to the rank of acting master's mate 
 by Gideon Wills, Secretary of the Navy, but his 
 health failed and he resigned. He now (June, 
 1901) resides in East Haven with liis wife and 
 two sons, George C. and LeRoy J., and is the pres- 
 ent town clerk and collector of taxes for that town. 
 
 The Kirkham family is of Revolutionary stock, 
 and our subject's ancestors were early settlers in 
 Guilford, Conn., where the name frequently ap- 
 pears on the town records. Isaac J. Kirkham, our 
 subject's fatilier, was born in GuilfordI May 26, 
 1809, and removed to Ohio in early life, returning 
 to Connecticut in 1844. He died at Derby in 1872 
 and his wife, Delana Elizabeth, died at Ansonia 
 in 1893. This worthy couple had eight sons and 
 two daughters, some of whom were born in Con- 
 necticut and some in Ohio. Calvin C. and Austin 
 P. are the only survivors. 
 
 Austin P. Kirkham, who is now town and city 
 clerk of Ansonia, was born in Middlefield, Ohio, 
 Dec. 25, 1837, and is now one of the oldest resi- 
 dents of Ansonia. Soon after the war iie was ap- 
 pointed United States postal clerk between New 
 York and Boston, which position he held a few 
 years, but he resigned to enter the employ of his 
 brother, Leveritt G. About 1881 he removed to 
 Ansonia, where he has since resided. In 1890 he 
 was appointed chief clerk in the United States 
 postal card agency, but after serving four years 
 was removed from office, soon after the Cleveland 
 administration took the reins of government into 
 their hands. He returned to his home in Ansonia, 
 and at the following election was chosen 
 town and city clerk; at the end of the 
 term of two years he was again elected, for 
 his present term. In this office, as in all 
 the affairs of life, he is most courteous and af- 
 fable, giving respectful attention to everyone alike, 
 regardless of their station in life. Being of a sym- 
 pathetic nature, he is ever ready to listen to the 
 story of the weak, the oppressed and the unfor- 
 tunate, and his purse is ever open to assist any suf- 
 ferer or to promote any good cause. His life has 
 ever been one of unselfish sacrifice for the good 
 of others, and in the four years' struggle for horne 
 and country through which he passed his genial 
 disposition and cheery smile did much to brighten 
 the spirits and raise the hopes of those with whom- 
 he came in contact. This brief sketch conveys 
 but a faint idea of the man, but his innate modesty 
 is averse to praise, no matter how well deserved. 
 His highest ambition is to please those around him 
 and in this attempt he has gone beyond his strength, 
 but although he has been a constant sufferer for 
 years he is a marvel of patience. He will ever be 
 remembered by hundreds whom he has helped in 
 many ways. Upon the field of battle and m the 
 navy while amidst the awful carnage, he was 
 cool, calm and collected. He saw no danger He 
 thought not of himself, but of others. The deeds 
 he did are not to be recorded here, but m that great 
 
 book kept by the recording angel will be found 
 written high upon the scroll of fidelity to country 
 and love of fellow man the name of Capt. Austin 
 P. Kirkham. 
 
 Capt. Kirkham was married, March 12, 1857, 
 to Miss Eunice A. Smalley, of West Dennis, Mass., 
 and they had two sons : Frank A., born Dec. 25, 
 1857, and Charles A., born May 30, 1864. Frank 
 A. Kirkham was educated in the common schools 
 in Derby, learned the trade of a silver burnisher, 
 later worked as a clerk in the grocery business in 
 Ansonia, and then took a position in the Indus- 
 trial Insurance. At the present time he is lo- 
 cated in Marlboro, Mass. He has been twice mar- 
 ried, and has one child by his first wife, Irene 
 (Conklin), of Sloatsburg, N. Y., now deceased. 
 His present wife, Louise Tuguer, was born in 
 Zurich, Switzerland; they had one child, who died 
 in infancy. Charles A. Kirkham received a com- 
 mon-school education and learned the trade of ma- 
 chinist and toolmaker, and for a number of years 
 has been employed! by the Wheeler & Wilson Sew- 
 ing Machine Co. He married Miss Sylvia Downes, 
 of Newtown, Connecticut. 
 
 HjON. WILLIAM H. WILLIAMS, of the law 
 firm of Williams & Gager, of Derby, and for a 
 number of years past State's Attorney for New 
 Haven county, is, as his official position would 
 indicate, one of the leading members of the New 
 Haven County Bar. 
 
 Mr. Williams was born June 7, 1850, in the 
 town of Bethany, Conn., son of E. J. and Laura 
 J. (Baldwin) Williams. His advantages for ob- 
 taining an education were meagre indeed, and 
 his only schooling was limited to a few years' at- 
 tendance at the district schools of the neighbor- 
 hood in which he passed his early boyhood — in 
 Durham, Conn. At seven years of age he left 
 home for the varied fortunes of a farmer's boy, 
 working on a farm in the summer season, and at- 
 tending school through the winters. He then 
 worked in a woolen mill or a grist mill, or sold 
 goods from a peddler's wagon, as the exigencies of 
 the time might determine. In 1870 he went to 
 live with the late Judge Hafris P. Munson, of 
 Seymour, under conditions which admitted of his 
 studying law in the Judge's office and under his 
 direction. For the first two years about one-half 
 of the time was passed in work and the other in 
 study, and the third year was given assiduously 
 to legal studies and to those preliminary attempts 
 at legal practice allowed to law students before 
 justices of the peace. He was examined for ad- 
 mission to the Bar at the November term of court 
 in 1873, and passed, and at the following term 
 of the Superior Court at New Haven, in January, 
 1874, he was admitted to practice law in all the 
 courts of the State. 
 
 Mr. Williams was appointed, under the new 
 liquor law of 1874, prosecuting agent, and came 
 
1422 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 under obligation to the State to administer the 
 law faithfully. Its intent and spirit were manifest, 
 its, language was plain, and it threw on the prose- 
 cuting attorney an onerous responsibility, espe- 
 cially in those towns which refused to grant li- 
 censes. Liquor men in some of those towns were 
 defiant, and sought in various ways to intimidate 
 the prosecuting attorney, and, failing to quiet him, 
 turned their eiiforts to removing him from office. 
 But in all the long struggle Mr. Williams retained 
 the support of the moral and law-abiding forces 
 of the Commonwealth to such an extent as to 
 vindicate completely his course as a faithful pro- 
 tector of the public good. He issued from the 
 struggle bearing the confidence and honor of the 
 best portions of society, and really laid the foun- 
 dations for rising to higher distinctions than he 
 had yet attained to, for in the judgment of men of 
 high virtue he bore himself honorably throughout, 
 and won a good name over all the State. 
 
 In the spring of 1880 Mr. Williams opened a 
 branch office at Birmingham, retaining his prac- 
 tice at Seymour, and also his home, until the 
 spring of 1882, when he settled permanently in 
 the town of Derby. In April, 1885, he became 
 a member of the law firm of Wooster, Williams & 
 Gager, succeeding in the old firm of Wooster, 
 Torrance & Gager David Torrance, whose ac- 
 ceptance of an appointment to the Bench of the 
 Superior Court had made a vacancy. The co- 
 partnership thus formed so remained until broken 
 by the death of Col. Wooster in September, 1900. 
 This firm is one of the strongest and most suc- 
 cessful law firms of the State, and among the 
 ablest, as was also the old firm, and an invitation 
 on the part of such men extended to Mr. Will- 
 iams to succeed a man like Judge Torrance, and 
 join such men as Col. Wooster and Mr. Gager, is 
 of itself an eloquent tribute to our subject's abil- 
 ity, as is also the official relations he has sustained 
 to the county and to Connecticut since January, 
 1896, when he was tendered and accepted the high, 
 honorable and important office of State's Attorney 
 for New Haven county. 
 
 Socially Mr. Williams is genial, pleasant and 
 deservedly popular.' He is a member of New Ha- 
 ven Commandery, No. 2, K. T., and also a mem- 
 ber of the Knights of Pythias. His political af- 
 filiations have been with the Democratic party, but 
 in 1896 he voted for William McKinley for presi- 
 dent. 
 
 Glancing backward over this sketch one readily 
 observes what native worth and steady industry, 
 with the_ upward gaze, may accomplish. Given 
 the aspiring mind and heart, and the patient toil 
 of years, and the young man thrown upon the 
 world with no resources outside of himself may 
 come to eminence in the professions, and to es- 
 teem in the community where he lives. 
 
 On May 5, 1874, Mr. Williams was married to 
 Miss Iris E. Munson, daughter of Hon. Harris P. 
 
 Munson, his preceptor. She died in September, 
 1876, and on June 17, 1878, he waS' married to 
 Miss Nellie A. Johnson, of Oxford, Conn. From 
 their elegant home is dispensed a generous hos- 
 pitality. The residence, built in 1887-88, at No. 
 115 Atwater avenue, Birmingham, is one of the 
 busiest places in Derby, and is beautifully located, 
 overlooking the city of Ansonia. 
 
 PEASE. The Pease family of Connecticut 
 is one of the old Colonial families of this Com- 
 monwealth. It is the purpose of this article to 
 briefly treat of the New Haven, branch whose head 
 was the late Thomas H. Pease, for half a century 
 an active merchant and substantial citizen of the 
 Elm City, and who was succeeded in business by 
 his son, Salmon G. Pease, book seller and sta- 
 tioner at No. 102 Church street. 
 
 Born March 3, 1849, Salmon G. Pease, now 
 of New Haven, is a descendant in the ninth gen- 
 eration from Robert Pease, who was a son of 
 Robert and Margaret Pease, of Great Baddow, 
 County of Essex, England, and who came to 
 America in the ship "Francis" from the port of 
 Ipswich, England, in 1634, landing at Boston. Mr. 
 Pease located in Salem, and there died in 1644, 
 aged thirty-seven years. His wife, Marie, and 
 other members of his family probably came later. 
 From this emigrant settler the lineage of Salmon 
 G. Pease is through John, Robert (2), Samuel, 
 Nathaniel, Calvin, Salmon and Thomas H. Pease. 
 
 (II) John Pease, son of Robert the settler^ was 
 born in England in 1630, and came to New Eng- 
 land when a lad. He is first of record in Salem, 
 when mentioned in connection with his father's 
 estate, in 1644. He married (first) Mary Goodell, 
 daughter of Robert Goodell, of Salem. She died 
 Jan. 5, 1669, and he married (second) Dec. 8, 
 1669, Ann, daughter of Isaac Cummings, of Top- 
 field, Mass. Mr. Pease settled in that part of 
 Salem called Northfields, uniting with the First 
 Church of Salem in 1667. He is supposed to have 
 removed in about 1681 to Fresh Water Brook, 
 which was a part of Springfield, Mass. In about 
 1682 he removed to Enfield, Conn., where he was 
 active in the Church. He died there in 1689. His 
 v/ife, Ann, died in the same year. 
 
 (III) Robert Pease (2), son of John, born 
 May 14, 1656, in Salem, married Dec. 16, 1678, 
 Abigail Randall, and settled in Northfield. In 
 1 68 1 he removed his family to the Connecticut 
 Valley, settling in Enfield, of which town he was 
 one of the first constables. He died there in 1744, 
 aged eighty-eight years. 
 
 (IV) Samuel Pease, son of Robert (2), born 
 Dec. 30, 1686, in Enfield, married Elizabeth War- 
 ner, and settled in his native town, where he died 
 in 1770. 
 
 (V) Nathaniel Pease, son of Samuel, born 
 Sept. 29, 1728, in Enfield, married' April 24, 1755, 
 Eunice Allen. Between 1760 and 1764 he re- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 142.3 
 
 moved from Enfield to Norfolk, Conn., being 
 among the first settlers of the tov/n. He died 
 there March 28, 1818, at the advanced age of 
 nearly ninety years. His wife died March 21, 
 1807. 
 
 (VI) Calvin Pease, son of Nathaniel, born 
 Sept. 14, 1757, in Enfield, married Sally, daughter 
 of Titus Ives. Mr. Pease was a farmer and for 
 many years an inn-keeper in Canaan, Conn, where 
 he died. He was a patriot of the Revolution. 
 
 (VII) Salmon Pease, son of Calvin, born June 
 14, 1783, in Norfolk, Conn., married Matilda Hunt- 
 ington, daughter of Dr. Thomas Huntington 
 (Yale, 1768), of Canaan, and was a resident of 
 Canaan until the fall of 1826, when he removed 
 to Charlotte, Vt., and there died July 23, 1857. 
 He was a farmer. 
 
 (VIII) Thomas H. Pease, son of Salmon, born 
 Oct. 24, 1815, in Canaan, Conn., married (first) 
 April 16, 1838, Catherine N. Coon, of Brooklyn, 
 N. Y. On April 17, 1848, he married (second) 
 Elizabeth Graham, of New Haven, and June 2, 
 1852, married (third) Eliza Morris, of Bethel, Vt. 
 Mr. Pease lived to be almost seventy-five years 
 of age, dying in New Haven, Sept. 15, 1890. His 
 early years were passed in Canaan, Conn., and 
 Charlotte, Vt. For a period he was engaged in 
 business in Albany. Later he had a position on 
 the New York Observer. Still later he became 
 associated in New York City in the book business 
 with 'C. S. Francis, and subsequently was en- 
 gaged in that business alone on Broadway, corner 
 of Lispenard street. In 1842 he came to New 
 Haven and engaged in the same line, and for the 
 long period of nearly fifty years continued in that 
 business, and was one of New Haven's highly re- 
 spected and esteemed citizens. His first location 
 was in the old Miles tavern on Chapel street, near 
 where now is situated the "Young 'Men's Insti- 
 tute" building. After doing business in that loca- 
 tion for thirty-six years he removed in 1878 to 
 the present location of his successors. No. 102 
 Church street. At that time his son, Salmon G. 
 Pease, became associated in business with him, and 
 succeeded him on the father's death. The elder 
 Mr. Pease was a member of the United Society. 
 Hie was an Odd Fellow, a member of Wooster 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., and of the Union League of 
 New Haven. 
 
 Four children were born to Thomas H. Pease, 
 as follows: Caroline M., Mary H., William B. 
 and Salmon G. Of these Capt. William B. Pease, 
 born Jan. 30, 1844, enlisted Aug. 11, 1862, in the 
 15th Conn. V. I. Later he was appointed Heu- 
 tenant in the 8th U. S. C. T., and served till the 
 close of the Civil war. On March 7, 1867, he was 
 commissioned first lieutenant in the nth Regiment 
 U. ,S. A., and is now a retired captain of the 
 United States Regular Army. Salmon G. Pease 
 entered Yale College in 1868, just one_ hundred 
 years after the graduation from that institution of 
 
 his great-grandfather. Dr. Thomas Huntington. 
 He succeeded his father at the latter's death, and 
 successfully continued the same line until he re- 
 tired Jan. I, 1902, just sixty years aft^r the estab- 
 lishment of the business by Thomas H^ Pease, and 
 he was succeeded by '"The Pease-Lewis Company." 
 
 WILLIAM J. ATWATER. The name At- 
 water has been associated with the history of New 
 Haven from its earliest settlement, and of the well- 
 known business men and citizens of the last cen- 
 tury the late William Atwater, and his sons, Henry 
 J. and William J., stood deservedly high in the 
 social and business life of the city. WiUiam J. 
 Atwater is still active in business, being the senior 
 member of the firm of W. J. Atwater & Co., deal- 
 ers in masons' and builders' supplies, a business 
 established by his brother and himself fifty years 
 ago. His son, E. I. Atwater, is at present the 
 junior member of the firm. 
 
 David Atwater, the emigrant ancestor of the 
 New Haven families bearing that name, came from 
 Kent, England, and was one of the first planters 
 at New Haven, his name being affixed to the Plan- 
 tation Covenant June 4, 1639. In the first di- 
 vision of lands among the settlers he was assigned 
 an extensive tract in what was known as Cedar 
 Hill, where he died Oct. 5, 1692. 
 
 William J. and Henry J. Atwater, sons of the 
 late William Atwater, are descendants in the sev- 
 enth generation from David Atwater, their first 
 American ancestor, their line being- through David 
 (2), Joshua, David (3), Jared and William At- 
 water. 
 
 David Atwater (2), son of David the planter, 
 was born in 1650, spent his life in New Haven, 
 and died in 1736. 
 
 Joshua Atwater, son of David (2), was born 
 in 1687, married Anna Bradley in 1721, and set- 
 tled on a portion of the original farm, where he 
 died in" 1773. 
 
 David Atwater (3), son of the foregoing 
 Joshua, married Elizabeth Bassett in 1744, when he 
 was twenty-one years of age. She was the mother 
 of all his children. His second wife was Mrs. 
 Abiah Cooper. David Atwater (3) was one of 
 the committee who after the close of the Revolu- 
 tion took action as to the proper treatment of the 
 Tories, and his name appears among the signers 
 of the document pertaining thereto. The family 
 has a record of his wife, who was the great-grand- 
 mother of William J., having provided food for 
 more than fifteen hundred of the American sol- 
 diers during the period of three weeks while they 
 were passing through this section. 
 
 Jared Atwater, son of David (3), was born in 
 1758, and married Eunice Dickerman. They lived 
 on Cedar Hill, where he died in 18 13. 
 
 William Atwater, son of Jared, and the father 
 of William J. and Henry J. Atwater, was bom 
 June 17, 1805, and was left fatherless at the age 
 
1424 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 of eight years. His mother had a numerous fam- 
 ily, and when he was sixteen years of age young 
 William left his native home on Cedar Hill and 
 came to New Hiaven to learn the carpenter's trade. 
 He acquired his knowledge of the business under 
 the direction of an older brother, and from the 
 time of his majority carried on the building trade 
 in New Haven for ten years, at the end of which 
 period he returned to his native town. There he 
 purchased a farm, and for eighteen years was en- 
 gaged in its cultivation. At the end of that time 
 he came to New Haven and embarked in the mer- 
 cantile business with his sons, Henry J. and Will- 
 iam J., the firm being H. J. Atwater & Co. By 
 close attention to their business, good management 
 and upright dealings, these gentlemen greatly pros- 
 pered, and the house is now the oldest in the city 
 conducted under the same name. The elder At- 
 water became quite wealthy, and owned consider- 
 able real estate and many fine homes. He con- 
 tributed largely to the improvement and progress 
 of the community in which he lived. His w&i a 
 busy and useful career, and as a m.an and a citi- 
 zen he was held in high regard and great esteem 
 by his associates. His religious connections were 
 with the Congregational Church, and with his wife 
 he belonged to the Chapel Street Society when he 
 first lived in New Haven ; at Hamden they be- 
 longed to the Whitneyville Congregational Church; 
 on their return to New Haven they became mem- 
 bers of the Third Congregational Church, and 
 still later joined the Humphrey Street Congre- 
 gational Church, while it was still a mission, Mr. 
 Atwater gave the entire lot for the church edifice 
 and donated about one-fourth of the entire ex- 
 pense of construction of the church. Uppn his 
 death he left a permanent fund for the support 
 of the Gospel. In his political views Mr. Atwater 
 was a Republican, and he served in the ranks of 
 that party from its first organization. 
 
 On May 21, 1828, Mr. Atwater was married to 
 Eliza, daughter of Joel and Eunice Ford. She 
 died April 7, 1878, and on April 15, 1879, he was 
 married to Mrs. Mary C. Hemingway, of Fair 
 Haven East. His children, all of the first mar- 
 riage, were: (i) Henry J., born July 18, 1829, 
 who died in 1884; (2) William J., born Feb. 10, 
 1831; and (3) Mary J., born Feb. 16, 1833, who 
 became the wife of Herman D. Clark. The fa- 
 ther passed away in April, 1897. 
 
 William J. Atwater is now the only member 
 of his family living. He was educated in New 
 Hkven and in Meriden, where he vvas a pupil of 
 Henry D. Smith. He started in the grocery busi- 
 ness, which he continued for a year, and then 
 went into business with his brother and father, as 
 noted above. For fifteen years they continued in 
 '.l-.is line, and then sold out and went into the 
 paper business under the same name. After the 
 brother's death William J. carried on the business 
 until the death of his father, at the age of ninety- 
 
 one. Then he sold out the brother's business, and 
 has been associated with his son. 
 
 Mr. Atwater married for his first wife Olivia 
 Atwater, who lived only one year and two months 
 after marriage. His second wife was Harriet 
 Barnes, a daughter of Horace Barnes, a shipping 
 merchant of New Haven, and to this union came 
 three children, two of whom are living: Edward 
 I., in business with his father ; Elizabeth, who mar- 
 ried Henry L. Sterrett, of Cincinnati, Ohio; and 
 William (deceased). 
 
 Edward Irving Atwater was educated at the 
 New Haven Business College, was with H. C. War- 
 ren, the banker, for tv/o years, and then entered his 
 father's office. He married Lila Mather Brooks, 
 who was born in Cheshire, and they have two chil- 
 dren, Margaret and William Irving. 
 
 William J. Atwater began life as a Whig, but 
 united with the Republicans on the organization of 
 that party. For two terms he has served on the 
 board of public works ; was police commissioner 
 one term ; has been alderman two terms ; and 
 wherever he has been found he has never failed to 
 prove himself a competent and public-spirited 
 official. Mr. Atwater is a Mason; a member of the 
 1. O. O. F., in which he has passed all the chairs; 
 belongs to the Knights of Honor ; and to the Sons 
 of the American Revolution. Mr. Atwater has ex- 
 tensive interests in some of the most successful 
 western mining companies, and is extensively inter- 
 ested in New Haven real estate. He and all his 
 family are connected with the Church of the Re- 
 deemer, Congregational. 
 
 JACQUES. The Jacques family has for forty 
 years been prominently identified with the history 
 of Waterbury, where the late John Josiah Jacques, 
 M. D., a successful physician and business man, 
 and a substantial citizen, figured for upward of 
 a third of a century, and where the boyhood and 
 business career of his son, Eugene Leslie Jac- 
 ques, have thus far been passed in a manner that 
 has given him an excellent outside acquaintance 
 and popularity enjoyed by few men. 
 
 The Jacques family is of French Huguenot 
 origin, the earlier generations of the Waterbury 
 family living in Rhode Island, in which State the 
 great-grandfather of the late Dr. John Josiali Jac- 
 ques was a criminal lawyer, and was for thirteen 
 successive terms a representative in the General 
 Assembly of that State. More recent generations 
 of the family reside in the town of Tolland, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 John Josiah Jacques, son of Amos and Mary 
 (Kenyon) Jacqueis, of .Tolland, Conn., the for- 
 mer a farmer and builder, was born Oct. 11, 183 1, 
 in Tolland, one of four children' — three sons and 
 a daughter — the sons all becoming physicians, and 
 the daughter the wife of a physician. The chil- 
 dren other than Dr. John J. were Dr. Calvin W. 
 Jacques, of Manchester, Conn. ; the late Dr. A. J. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1425 
 
 Jacques, of Bridgeport, Conn. ; and Narcissa, who 
 married Dr. I. J. Sperry, of Hartford, Conn. Dr. 
 John J. Jacques was reared on his father's farm, 
 and in the schools of the locaHty received the 
 rudiments of an ediucation. He began the study 
 of medicine under the direction of Dr. Sperry, 
 later attending the medical college at Worcester, 
 Mass., from which institution he graduated. He 
 began the practice of medicine at Plymouth Hill, 
 Conn., where he remained two years; then set- 
 tled in Waterbury-, where he passed the rest of his 
 life, and had a career both useful and successful. 
 Sometime late in the 'sixties or early in the 'sev- 
 enties Dr. Jacques opened a drug store on Bank 
 street. This store he subsequently sold, and he 
 then bought what was known as the Park drug 
 store on Park place, and continued there until 
 his death, giving simple prescriptions and dispens- 
 ing drugs to a large number of people whose faith 
 in him and his practical theories never wavered. 
 He was a careful, good business man, and accumu- 
 lated considerable property, leaving as a monument 
 to his enterprise and public spirit the beautiful 
 opera house bearing his name, erected in 1886 at 
 a cost of $50,000. For some thirty years prior 
 to his deatli the Doctor was in poor health. 
 
 Dr. Jacques was a man of strong personal 
 views which would not allow him to permit ques- 
 tions of the hour pass without note, and this char- 
 acteristic made of him an earnest political mover. 
 At one time he was well known throughout the 
 State as a political speaker whose power with the 
 people was great, a power that was often proved 
 in Waterbury town and city meetings, where he 
 mercilessly attacked persons and things which 
 could not meet with his approval; and he was 
 generally on the winning side in the long run. 
 He occasionally delivered medical lectures. He 
 was a railroad commissioner one term, and served 
 as postmaster of Waterbury under President John- 
 son. During the Greeley campaign he bolted with 
 many other good Republicans and went to that 
 leader, and from that day forward he was a stanch 
 independent Democrat, never afraid to stand by 
 his principles, antagonize whom he might. 
 
 On July 8, 1851, Dr. Jacques was married to 
 Susan L. Marsh, daughter of Guy C. and Lamira 
 (May) Marsh, of Hartford, and a direct de- 
 scendant of Roger Williams. The Doctor died 
 April 10, 1887, and his wife Jan. 25, 1901. One 
 son, Eugene Leslie Jacques, was born to them. 
 
 Eugene Leslie Jacques, son of the late Dr. 
 John J. Jacques, was born April 30, 1855, in Plym- 
 outh, Conn. His education was received m the 
 public schools of Waterbury, at the private school 
 of H. F. Bassett, and at the academy in Elling- 
 ton, Conn. Young Jacques was a business boy, 
 and along in the middle 'sixties was connected 
 with Alvin Ayers on the Ayers' Monthly, a juvenile 
 paper edited and published by young Ayers when 
 eleven years old. At the age of eighteen young 
 
 90 
 
 Jacques became associated as a partner in the drug 
 business with his father, and they continued to- 
 gether until the death of the latter in 1887. 
 
 Eugene L. Jacques, who has achieved great 
 success and become widely known as a theatrical 
 manager, began his career as such in 1874, at the 
 time of the coming of the Theodore Thomas Con- 
 cert Company to Waterbury, where in the selling 
 of some twelve hundred tickets he evinced the 
 energy and capability that in time led to his ap- 
 pointment as the local representative at Water- 
 bury of Alexander Calhoun, of Hartford, who was- 
 the circuit manager for Connecticut in that line. 
 Not long thereafter Mr. Jacques, in connection 
 with E. L. White and E. L. Frisbie, Jr., started 
 the business of local theatrical manager on an in- 
 dependent basis. Mr. Jacques later bought his 
 partners out and conducted it alone. The City 
 Hall was used for such purpBses until the build- 
 ing of the Jacques Opera House in 1886. This 
 was afterward remodeled by Mr. Jacques, and is 
 now one of the finest play houses in the State. 
 One of the earliest of Mr. Jacques' successes was 
 with Neal Mowery, the celebrated polo player. 
 The exhibition was given with horses and In- 
 dians on the meadows, and drew an immense 
 crowd. At one time or anotlier through Mr. Jac- 
 ques the community has been given the. privileges 
 of seeing and hearing the principal theatrical stars 
 of the time. Among many he played here were 
 Lawrence Barrett in "Richelieu" and "Hamlet;" 
 Kate Putnam; George S. Fox, the original 
 "Humpty Dumpty;" Charles Furbisher's Fifth 
 Avenue Company (the "Daly" of the period), in 
 which Ada Deanes was a star; Jarrett & Palmer's 
 "Sardanapolis ;" Mary Anderson; Booth; Jeffer- 
 son; Modjeska; and Fanny Davenport. In 1891 
 Mr. Jacques built the Auditorium, which he re- 
 modeled in 1897. He is popularly known in the- 
 atrical circles as "Jean Jacques." Outside of this 
 line of business Mr. Jacques is variously occupied 
 and active. He owns and manages the Diamond 
 Bottling Works of Waterbury, making his own 
 syrups, and manufacturing the well-known brand 
 of Naugatuck ginger ale. Mr. Jacques is a mem- 
 ber of the Waterbury Club. Hie is a thirty-second 
 degree Freemason, and a member of the Mystic 
 Shrine, Uniform Rank of Odd Fellows, Independ- 
 ent Order of Red Men, and Knights of Pythfas. 
 On June 5, 1889, Mr. Jacques was married to 
 Anna L. Ames, of Boston, and two children have 
 come to them, one dying in infancy, and Marie 
 Mercedes, born in 1894. 
 
 FITCH W. B'URWELL was a prominent rep- 
 resentative of a family whose various members have 
 for half a century stood high in the business life of 
 New Haven. The name is an old one in New Eng- 
 land and in the Commlonwealth of Connecticut, and 
 Fitch W. Burwell traced his descent to (I) Edmund 
 Burwell, born in 1485 in Sutton, County of Suf- 
 
1426 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 folk, England. (II) Edmund Burwell married 
 Alargaretta Alford. (Ill) William Burwell, born 
 at Sutton, England, where he died, married Lora 
 Wilson, of Essex. (IV) Thomas Bur>vell, born 
 April 29, 1566, at Sutton, married Feb. 29, 1589, a 
 lady named Poentys. 
 
 (V) John Burwell, born Oct. 5, 1602, at Sutton, 
 died Aug. 16, 1649, ^^ Milford, Conn. He appears 
 as a free planter of Milford, Conn., in 1639, hav- 
 ing come to the American Colonies that year, and 
 was married prior to his immigration to a lady 
 whose Christian name was Alice. Some of their 
 children were probably born in England, and of 
 them: John died in 1665; Zacheus married, in 
 1663, Elizabeth Baldwin, and settled in Newark, 
 N. J.; Capt. Samuel, born Oct. 11, 1640, married 
 
 Sarah ; Deborah married and had a family ; 
 
 Capt. Ephraim, borij May 19, 1644, married and 
 had a number of chddren, one of whom, Samuel, 
 settled in Newtown, Conn. ; Nathan, born Feb. 22, 
 1646, married in 1674 Temperance Baldwin, and 
 settled at Newark, N. J. ; Elizabeth died unmarried. 
 
 (VI) Capt. Samuel Burwell died May 15, 1715. 
 Throughout his life he was a man of influence and 
 position in Milford, and was an officer of the train 
 .band. His first wife was a daug'hter of Benjamin 
 Farm, one of the most influential men of the Colony, 
 and a descendant of Richard Baldwin, of the Coun- 
 ty of Bucks, England. For his second wife he mar- 
 ried a daughter of Rev. Roger Newton, and grand- 
 daughter of the famous Rev. Thomas Hooker, of 
 Hartford. Burwells were large landholders in 
 Milford, and Burwell Farmis, now Woodimont, was 
 so called because oi the ownership of this family, 
 liaving been granted to Lieut. Samuel as his share 
 «f the land. On this property he, in 1690, built a 
 house, which was taken down about 181 2. 
 
 (VII) Samtiel Burwell, born at Milford in 
 1667, died in iMay, 1712. On Aug. 11, 1695, ^he 
 jpiarried Deborah Merwin, who was born April 24, 
 1670, and died Oct. 10, 1706. She v>'as a descend- 
 ant of Miles Merwin and Richard Piatt, early set- 
 tlers of Milford. 
 
 (VIII) Samuel Burwell, born in 1702 at Mil- 
 ford, was married Jan. 12, 1726, to Abigail Good- 
 year, granddaughter of Deputy Governor Good- 
 year. 
 
 (IX) Samuel Burwell, born Dec. 12, 1729, at 
 Milford, died in 1816. He married Abigail Arnold, 
 •daughter of Rev. Jonathan Arnold. 
 
 (X) Samuel Burwell, born in 1761 at Milford, 
 'died in 1806. He married Comfort Law, who was 
 Ijorn in 1762, and was a descendant of Richard 
 -Law, of Stamford, Conn., in 1687 ; and of William- 
 Andrew, of Cambridge, Mass., in 1682, whose 
 .grandson. Rev. Samtiel, was an acting president of 
 Yale. Through Gen. Benedict Arnold she traced 
 Ilier line of ancestry to Cadwan, king of the Brit- 
 •ons, who died in 675. 
 
 (XI) Benedict Burwell, son of Samuel and Com- 
 fort (Law) Burwell, was born at Burwell Farms Feb. 
 
 26, 1785, and died April 14, 1863. He spent his 
 early school days at Burwell Farms, where he en- 
 gaged in farming. He was a deacon in the Old 
 South Church in New Haven, on Columbus avenue. 
 On Nov. 24, 1808, he married Dolly Welch, and 
 they had the following najned children : Caroline 
 Welch, born Oct. 29, 1809, died July 13, 1893. 
 Charles, born Aug. 21, 1810, died Oct. 6, 1813. 
 Charles Benedict, born Nov. 10, 1813, died March 
 25, 1896; he married Jan. 14, 1844, Harriet A. Gay. 
 Welch F., born April 6, 1&16, died Jan. 28, 1876-. 
 Fitch W. is specially mentioned below. Calena, 
 born April 20, 1821, died! March 13, 1832. Mary 
 E., born July 15, 1823, married Robert Blair. Sarah 
 Jane, born Feb. 12, 1827, married Thomas Barrett, 
 who died in the battle of Fredericksburg, and they 
 had one daughter, Caroline, who married P. S. 
 Gehrish, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and has one daughter, 
 Helen, born in Brooklyn; for her second husband 
 Mrs. Barrett married Dr. Halsey. 
 
 Fitch W. Burwell, son of Benedict and Dolly 
 (Welch) Burwell, was born Nov. 5, 1818, and died 
 Dec. 12, 1897. On April 29, 1843, he married 
 Maria Chapman, daughter of Robert Chapman, of 
 Norfolk, Va., and to them came children as fol- 
 lows : Charles D., born in 1844 married Martha 
 Wilkinson, and resides in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Elea- 
 nor D., born in 1847, miarried (first) Charles Chap- 
 man, of Louisville, Ky., and is now the wife of Ed- 
 ward G. Merwin, a bookkeeper in the Mechanics 
 Bank at New Haven ; Frank, born in 1852, and 
 Caroline May, both died in childhood. Fitch W. 
 Burwell spent his childhood in Milford, and at the 
 age of eighteen began his business career in New 
 Haven, with the jewelry firm of Benjamin & Ford, 
 and afterward with Mr. Freeman, of Norfolk, Va. 
 Later he engaged in the jewelry business for him- 
 self in Norfolk, Va., remaining there until 1854, 
 when he returned to New Haven and built a beau- 
 tiful home at No. 146 Columbus avenue. Having 
 always been interested in photography, he em- 
 barked some $50,000 in the Willard Mfg. Co., man- 
 ufacturers of photographic supplies, and unfortu- 
 nately lost the greater part of his investmient. In 
 addition he furnished several studios, and had them 
 managed by expert photographers. In 1893, about 
 four years before his own demise, Mr. Burwell lost 
 his dearly beloved wife. He was a man of promi- 
 nence in New Haven, and his death was deeply felt 
 in the community. 
 
 On his mother's side Mr. Fitch W. Burwell was 
 descended from Capt. Thomas Tibbals and Thomas 
 Welch, who were among the first planters of the 
 town of Milford, the second settled in the county. 
 "Most of the pioneer settlers of Milford came from 
 Essex, Hereford and York counties, in England, 
 and rendezvoused in New Haven in 1638 and 1639^ 
 preparatory to taking up their abode in the We- 
 pawaug country. After the purchase of the lands 
 in the spring of the latter year active preparations 
 were made to occupy and improve them; the body 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1427 
 
 of planters moved' by land from New Haven, fol- 
 lowing the Indian footpaths, driving their domestic 
 animals before them. Sergeant Thomas Tibbals 
 piloted the company through the wood's to the 
 destination, 'he having been there a number of times 
 before.' For this service the town, in 1G70, voted 
 him as a free gift two parcels of land lying in West- 
 iield, 'both parcels containing ten measured acres.' " 
 The names of both Capt. Tibbals and Thomas 
 Welch appear on the first list of the forty-four 
 freemen or pioneer planters of Milford. "Matters 
 had so far progressed by Nov. 20, 1639, that a meet- 
 ing for civil -organization and regulation was held, 
 when forty-four persons, by reason of being ac- 
 cepted church members, were recognized as free 
 planters, having a free voice in the town's affairs." 
 Thomas Welch was one of the founders of the 
 Milford Church in 1639, was a freeman in 1665, 
 and a representative to the General Court that same 
 year. He had married Hannah, daughter of Thomas 
 Buckingham. Mr. Welch died in 1681, and his 
 widow in 1684. Captain Tibbals died in 1703. The 
 memory of both is perpetuated in the stone bridge 
 at Milford, erected and diedicated in 1889, on the 
 occasion of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
 of the settlement of the town. Savage says that 
 Thomas Tibbals, aged twenty, had embarked in 
 the "Trulove" in 1635, the last ship in that year 
 from London. He was a soldier in the Pequot war, 
 1637. 
 
 WILLIAM HITCHCOCK, general merchant 
 and druggist, also agent for Adams Express Co., 
 Mt. Carmel, town of Haddam, is a native of that 
 locality, born Dec. 9, 1846, and comes of good New 
 England ancestry. 
 
 (I) Matthias Hitchcock, the first of the name in 
 America, was born in England about the year 1610. 
 In- 1635 he left the shores of his native land on the 
 bark "Susan and Ellen," landing in Boston, 
 whence he came to New Haven with the first set- 
 tlers, and his name appears on the records of the 
 New Haven Colony. He was one of the five pur- 
 chasers of South End Neck (now known as East 
 Haven), where he lived after 1651 ; he died on his 
 farmi Nov. 16, 1669, his widow, ElizaJbeth, passing 
 away in 1676. Their children were as follows : (i) 
 Eilakim (or Eliaser) married Nov. 4, 1666, Sarah, 
 diaughter of Thomas Merrick. (2) Nathaniel, a 
 sketch of whom follows. (3) John married Jan. 
 18, 1676, Abigail, daug^hter of Nathaniel Merriman. 
 (4) Elizabeth, born June 4, 1651, married (first) 
 January, 1672, Anthony Hand, and (second) John 
 Nash. 
 
 (II) Nathaniel Hitchcock (son of Matthias), 
 born in New Haven, was a large landowner in both 
 New Haven and East Haven, in which latter place 
 he died about 1698. He married Jan. 18, 1670, 
 Elizabeth, born in New Haven, Oct. 8, 1652, a 
 daughter of John Moss, and died in East Haven, m 
 1706. Their children: (i) Elizabeth, born March 
 
 17, 1672, married a Mr. Bishop, and died about 
 1730. (2) Nathaniel, born July 28, 1678, married 
 Rebecca Morris. (3) Abiah (or Abigail), born 
 Oct. 26, 1680, was married to a Peck. (4) John, a 
 sketch of whom follows. (5) Ebenezer, born April 
 9, 1689, married Anna Perkins. (6) Mary, born 
 Jan. 20, 1692, married Aug. 7, 1710, Samuel Bar- 
 rett. 
 
 (III) John Hitchcock (son of Nathaniel), born 
 in East Haven Jan. 28, 1685, was quite a prominent 
 citizen, holding many public offices, and from 1739 
 to 1747 was a member of the Legislature; from 
 1742 to 1753 he was a deacon in the First Church 
 of New Haven ; and was a land owner and farmer. 
 He died in New Haven Oct. 14, 1753, and is buried 
 in the Grove Street cemetery. He was twice mar- 
 ried, first on March 4, 1704, to Mary Thompson 
 (daughter of Stephen Thompson), who died Feb. 
 27, 1708; he married (second) May 29, 171 1, Abiah 
 Barrett, who died in New Haven Oct. 14, 1760. 
 His children: (i) John, born Jan. i, 1708, mar- 
 ried Esther Lord. (2) Mary, born March 6, 1712, 
 m^arried James Bell. (3) Samuel, born Nov. 5^^ 
 1713, married Mtary Perkins. (4) Abiah, born 
 Aug. 6, 1715, married Peb. 22, 1737, John Ailing. 
 (S) Joseph, born Feb. 13, 1717, married Hannah 
 Ball. (6) Thankful, born Feb. 9, 1719. (7J 
 Sarah, born Feb. 20, 1721, married April 2, 1741, 
 Enos Thompson. (8) Abigail, born Sept. 22, 1722, 
 married Nov. 24, 1743, William Scott. (9) Amos, 
 born June 12, 1724, married Dorcas Foote. (10) 
 Comjfort. 
 
 (IV) John Hitchcock (son of John), born Jan. 
 I, 1708, in New Haven, owned land at Mt. Carmel, 
 town of Hamden, where he farmed! during the 
 greater part of his life; he died in New Haven July 
 27, 1764. He was twice married, first time March 
 I, 1732, to Esther, daughter of Matthew Ford. She 
 died in New Haven, and he married (second) 
 
 Martha , who on Dec. 7, 1766, married (for 
 
 her second husband) Zinah Kimberly. Children 
 born to John Hitchcock : (i) Stephen. (2) Mary 
 married Feb. 12, 1755, Nathan Ailing. (3) Thank- 
 ful married March 4, 1761, Noah Wolcott. (4) 
 Isaac, a sketch of whOm follows. (5) John, born 
 June 10, 1747, married Phebe Tyler. (6) Ichabod, 
 born Judy 5, 1749, married Rebecca Pardee. (7) 
 Abiah married Hezekiah Warner. (8) Mabel mar- 
 ried Dec. 28, 1770, Amos Ailing. (9) Ebenezer. 
 (10) Esther. 
 
 (V) Isaac Hitchcock (son of John), haptized 
 in Cheshire, Conn., June, 1745, lived in the town of 
 Hamden, where he owned land, farmed and passed 
 the rest of his days'. He married Hannah Stiles, 
 and had children: (i) Lydia, born Aug. 21, 1776. 
 (2) Ichabod, sketch of whom- follov/s. (3) Peter. 
 (4) Isaac. 
 
 (VI) Ichabod Hitchcock (son of Isaac), born 
 May 8, 1777, in the town of Hamden, was a land 
 owner and farmer there all his active life. He mar- 
 ried March 13, 1800, Roxanna Thompson, and the 
 
1428 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 names and dates of birth of their children are as 
 follows: (i) Lewis, Aug. 6, 1801 ; (2) Leverett, 
 sketch of whom follows; (3) Hannah, April 28, 
 1805; (4) Stiles, Feb. 9, 1807; (5) Henry, JVIarch 
 5, 1809; (6) Merrill, Oct. 31, 1811; {7) Albert, 
 Dec. 26, 1814; (8) Horace, May 12, 1818; (9) 
 One, name not given, March 9, 1820; (10) Rox- 
 anna, Dec. 24, 1821; and (11 J Harriet, March 6, 
 1824. 
 
 (VH) Leverett Hitchcock (son of Ichabod, and 
 the father of the subject proper of these lines) was 
 born April 12, 1803, in the town of Hamden, New 
 Haven county, and there received his education. 
 A rqan of considerable prommence, he was elected 
 to various public offices, all of which he filled with 
 credit to himself and general satisfaction to the pub- 
 lic ; at one time was a member of the State Legis- 
 lature, selectman of the town, and for thu'ty-tour 
 years was continuously elected town clerk ; was also 
 postmaster at Hamden for twenty-five years. In 
 politics he was a liberal Democrat, and he was 
 equally liberal in all matters pertaining to church 
 and school ; was a good citizen, honest, upright and 
 loyal, and an excellent public official, gifted with 
 much intelligence and sound common sense. He 
 died in 1881 in Hamdlen, and was buried there. 
 
 On Sept. 7, 1828, Leverett Hitchcock married 
 Emily Chapman, and five children were born to 
 them: (i) Frances is the deceased wife of A. O. 
 Beach. (2) Margaret married George Thorpe, de- 
 ceased. (3) Edward resides in Illinois. (4) Will- 
 jam is mentioned below. (5) Emily. The mother 
 pi these died in 1872 in Hamden. The family have 
 always been Episcopalians in religious faith. 
 
 (V'lH) William Hitchcock (son of Leverett, 
 and the subject proper of these lines) attended the 
 district schools of Hamden, and at an early age com- 
 menced working in the Mt. Carmiel Axle shops, re- 
 maining in that employ until Septemlber, 1863. 
 About that time, when but a little over sixteen years 
 of age, he enlisted in the Third Independent Bat- 
 tery, Connecticut Light Artillery, under Gen. Ab- 
 bott, and served with his regiment until July, 1864, 
 being stationed at City Point, Richmond, and at 
 Grant's headquarters. On returning home from 
 the war he found employment at turning spokes 
 in the shops of N. P. Thompson, at Bristol,. Conn., 
 and worked there seventeen years, then went into 
 the axle shop. In 1882 he embarked in the gen- 
 eral mercantile business at Mt. Carmel, also open- 
 ing out a drug store, soon afterward being ap- 
 pointed agent for the Adams Express Co. In 1885 
 he was appointed postmaster at Mt. Carmel under 
 Cleveland, and again in 1893, performing the duties 
 of office faithfully and diligently, and to the gen- 
 eral satisfaction of the public. In politics he is a 
 Democrat, and in church matters is liberal. In 
 municipal affairs he has filled various offices of 
 trust, such as selectman, member of the board of 
 relief, etc. 
 
 In 1872, at Bristol, Conn., William Hitchcock 
 
 was married to Mary, daughter of Thaddeus Bris- 
 tol, and three children were born to them: (i) 
 William, at home; (2) Emily, wife of Charles Bas- 
 sett; and (3) Miss May, living at home. 
 
 Since the above was written, Mary, wife of 
 William, died March 28, 1901 ; and WiUiam died 
 May 20, 1901. 
 
 WILLIAM D. RICHARDSON, manager of 
 the Hellmann Brewing Co., Waterbury, was born 
 in Ansonia, Conn., March 6, 1865, a son of Charles 
 J. and Grace (Parmelee) Richardson, the former 
 of whom was born on shipboard, and the latter 
 in Ansonia. 
 
 When a young man Charles J. Richardson lo- 
 cated in Ansonia, where he followed the trade of 
 brass roller. He married Grace Parmelee, of 
 English descent, who bore him two children, Will- 
 iam D. and Mae L., the latter of whom is mar- 
 ried to Rowland Greenwood and resides in New 
 Haven. Charles J. Richardson and his wife are 
 now living in quiet retirement in New Haven. 
 
 William D. Richardson passed his boyhood days 
 in Ansonia, and was educated in the public schools. 
 At fifteen years of age he entered a clothing store 
 as clerk, and held that position until 1883, when 
 he went to San F"rancisco, Cal., and there for twO' 
 and a half years filled a similar position. Return- 
 ing to Connecticut, he clerked in a clothing store 
 in Danbury tvvo and a half years, and then came 
 to Waterbury and formed a partnership with F. E. 
 Hart,well, in the clothing trade, at No. 113 Bank 
 street. They carried on a lucrative business at that 
 locality for two j'ears, and then for a like period 
 were located in another part of the city. 
 
 On Nov. 27, 1889, Mr. Richardson married 
 Miss Emilie Hellmann, a daughter of Martin Hell- 
 mann, the head of the Hellmann Brewing Co., and 
 to this union have been born two children, Lillian 
 and Gladys. Not long after this marriage took 
 place Mr. Hellmann. was called away by death- 
 and his widow, with the assistance of her son 
 William and Mr. Richardson, conducted the busi- 
 ness until 1895, when a joint stock company was 
 formed, of which Mrs. Hellmann became presi- 
 dent; William Hellmann, vice-president; and Mr. 
 Richardson, secretary and treasurer. Since the 
 creation of the stock company the output has ir>- 
 creased' from 17,000 to 45,000 barrels per annum,^ 
 and is shipped all over the State of Connecticut, 
 as well as elsewhere. The plant is immense, and 
 turns out three varieties of ale, and five of lager 
 beer, in the manufacture and handling of which 
 about fifty men are employed. 
 
 In politics jNIr. Richardson is a Democrat, but 
 hasi never been an office seeker. He is a man of 
 splendid physical appearance, and is extlremely 
 popular, and, being of a free and generous dis- 
 position, is a general favorite in the community, 
 and is a member of all the local fraternal and so- 
 cial societies, including Nosahogan Lodge, I. O. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1429 
 
 0. F. ; Speedvirell Lodge, K. of P. ; Toantic Tribe, 
 
 1. O. R. M.; Lodge No. 265, B. P. O. E. (of which 
 he was Exalted Ruler one year), and all the sino-- 
 ing societies — in fact about twenty associations m 
 all. Too much credit cannot be given Mr. Rich- 
 ardson for the success he has made for himself, 
 for he has .proven that "life is worth living." He 
 began without a cent at the bottom of the hill on 
 the summit of which stands the temple of fortune, 
 and he has proven his ability as a business man, 
 setting an example to the impecunious of the rising 
 generation well worthy of emulation. 
 
 LEWELLYN DEANE, whose death in Garfield 
 Hospital, Washington, D. C, Sept. 17, 1894, at the 
 age of sixty-six, removed one of the able patent 
 attorneys of the Capitol City, was one of those who 
 pass untarnished through the business world, their 
 characters strong enough to overcome the tempta- 
 tions that bes'et their paths. He was one of nine 
 children born to his father, who was a lawyer, and 
 to his mother, daughter of Judge Paddlefoot. 
 
 Mr. Deane was born in Brunswick, 'Maine, and 
 received his education in Bowdoin College. After 
 leaving school he went 'to Washington, where he 
 engaged in the Patent Law Business, and for the re- 
 mainder of his life was thus employed. He took a 
 deep interest in religious matters, and was a prom- 
 inent worker in the Church at the corner of Tenth 
 and G streets, Washington — a church that is now 
 in a most flourishing condition. 
 
 Mr. Deane was twice married. His first wife, 
 formerly Mrs. Rich, died leaving a son. Dr. F. G. 
 Deane, now a leading citizen of Williamsport, Penn. 
 On May 17, 1894, Mr. Deane wedded Sarah M. 
 Benedict, who was born in New Haven, a daughter 
 of Henry W. Benedict. No children were born of 
 this union. 
 
 Truman Benedict, grandfather of Mrs. Deane, 
 was one of the early coal merchants in this section 
 of the State, in which line he engaged as early as 
 1830. He died at the age of eighty years', a highly 
 esteemed citizen, and of the large family of children 
 torn to himself and wife, but one is now living- 
 George, who is in the coal business in New Haven. 
 Henry W. Benedict, son of Truman, and father 
 of Mrs. Deane, was reared in the city of New Haven, 
 and received his education in the common schools. 
 He was early thrown upon his own resources, and 
 with practically no influential or financial 'backing, 
 became one of the prominent men of the times, and 
 was for many years the most extensive coal dealer 
 in the city. He took an active part in Church af- 
 fairs, being a communicant of St. Paul's Episcopal 
 Church, of which he was for some time a most ef- 
 ficient warden. Through hisi instrumentality St. 
 Paul's Mission was started, and he did much good 
 work for that branch of his own parish. He was 
 an extensive dealer in real estate, and from time 
 to time a number of important pieces of city prop- 
 erty passed through his hands, fle married Sarah 
 
 E. Hemingway, of East Haven, a daughter of Capt. 
 John Hemingway, who ran the finst packet from 
 New York to New Haven. Four children were 
 born of this union: Henry, in the wholesale coal 
 bus'mess in New Haven ; Mrs. Deane ; Frank, of the 
 firm of Benedict & Downs, coal merchants; and! 
 Mrs. George L Fowler, whose husband is engaged 
 m the real-estate business on Long Island, 'i'he 
 mother of these passed away at the age of seventy- 
 one. ,^ 
 
 Mrs. Deane is one of the popular ladies in her 
 social set in New Haven, and is greatly beloved by 
 all who know her. Beautiful in character, and 
 humanitarian in tendency, she has been the fairy 
 godmother to many a straggler on life's p'athway. 
 In her religious beHef, she is a member of the Con- 
 gregational Church. 
 
 JOHN ALONZO LEEDS is one of the solid 
 and substantial citizens of Meriden, where his hon- 
 orable and industriouiS career and his well-estab- 
 lished integrity have given him an enviable standing. 
 For nineteen years he was a machinist in the em- 
 ploy of the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing 
 Company, and since 1880 has served as constable 
 and city sheriflf of Meriden, and has been a special 
 policeman for twenty-four years. 
 
 John A. Leeds was born in Vernon, Tolland 
 county. Conn., Aug. 20, 1841, and is a son of Don 
 Alonzo and Eliza Ann (Minard) Leeds, natives 
 of Connecticut. On the paternal side he is de- 
 scended from one of the first families of Stoning- 
 ton. Conn., whose ancestors came from Leeds, 
 England, and on the maternal side he is a repre- 
 sentative of the Gates family, a long-lived race of 
 people, the emigrating ancestor of whom located in 
 Salem, Connecticut. 
 
 Don Alonzo Leeds was in his earlier life super- 
 intendent of a woolen mill in Talcottville, and later 
 was engaged in the samie capacity in Rockville. 
 In 1856 he removed with his family to Yalesville, 
 where he was employed by Charles Parker in the 
 spoon department of his factory, and at a later 
 period was with G. I. Mix, in the same line. In 
 1857 he came to Meriden to take a position with 
 Edward Miller as a brass turner, and two years 
 later entered the employ of Stedmlan & Smith, as 
 a machinist in their sewing machine factory. For 
 seven years he was employed by Charles Parker as 
 a machinist. He retired in 1896, and died two 
 years later. His children were two in number, 
 Mary, the deceased wife of Russell Williams, and 
 John A., whose name introduces this review. 
 
 John A. Leeds was educated in the public 
 schools and in the Meriden Academy, from which 
 he was graduated in i860. In 1859, while still in 
 school, he began 'his apprenticeship at the ma- 
 chinist trade, but his progress therein was inter- 
 rupted by the troubled times of the Civil war. He 
 enlisted in the Union Army, Sept. 6, 1861, and 
 was mustered into the service as a memiber of 
 
I430 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Company C, 7th Conn. Vol. Infantry. He par- 
 ticipated in the battle of Port Royal, the bombard- 
 ment of Fort Pulaski, the battle of Pocataligo, and 
 other important events, and in December, 1863, 
 before his term had expired, he re-enlisted as a 
 veteran in the same company and regiment. He 
 was in the front of battle at Drury's Bluiif, and June 
 2, 1864,* was taken prisoner on the picket line at 
 Bermuda Hundred, and sent to Andersonville, 
 where he remained three months, and was then re- 
 moved to the Stockade at Florence, S. C. Three 
 months later he was paroled, and reached home 
 Dec. 16, 1864, weighing only ninety-six pounds. 
 March 26, 1865, he was exchanged, and hastened 
 to rejoin his regiment, from which he was dis- 
 charged July 25, 1865. After the war Mr. Leeds 
 at once applied himself to the completion of the 
 trade so capably applied in the succeeding years. 
 Nov. 28, 1867, Mr. Leeds was married to Edith 
 L., a daughter of John L. and Hannah (Kenworthy) 
 Kinder, of Aleriden, and to them was born two 
 sons, Fred A. and Frank H. Mrs. Leedsi died 
 March 18, 1895, and tender memories of her af- 
 fection and devotion as a wife and mother remain 
 in the hearts of her family and friends. Mr. Leeds 
 belongs to the Episcopal Church of Meriden, and 
 fraternally he is a member of Meridian Lodge, No. 
 yy, A. F. & A. J\L, at Meriden, of which he was 
 master in 1882; and of Columbia Lodge^ No. 5, 
 O. U. A. M. ; and, as might be expected, when his 
 long and creditable military experience is' consid- 
 ered, of Merriam Post, No. 8, G. A. R. In his polit- 
 ical relations he is a decided Republican. 
 
 JUDGE EDWIN BAKER GAGER, lawyer, of 
 the firm of Williams & Gager, at Birmingham, in 
 the town of Derby, and instructor in - Yale Law 
 School, New Haven, has throughout his practice, 
 covering a period of twenty and more years, been 
 a member of one of the strongest and most suc- 
 cessful law firms of the State, successively 
 Wooster, Torrance & Gager, Wooster, Williams & 
 Gager, and, since the recent death of Col. Wooster, 
 Williams & Gager. 
 
 Mr. Gager was born Aug. 30, 1852, in the town 
 of Scotland, Windham Co., Conn., son of Lewis 
 and Harriet (Jennings) Gager, farming people of 
 that town, whose lives and character were such 
 as to commiand the respect and esteem of the com- 
 munity in which they lived, each descending from 
 old Enghsh families of the Colonial period of New 
 England. 
 
 William Gager, the progenitor of the New 
 London and Norwich family of the name, from 
 which descended the subject of this sketch, came 
 to New England in 1630, in the fleet with Win- 
 throp. He was elected a deacon in the church at 
 Charlestown, but died in September of the same 
 j-ear from a disease incident to the diet on the 
 voyage, as did also his wife and two of his chil- 
 dren. He seemed to be reckoned bv Gov. Win- 
 
 throp as one of his family, a Suffolk man, and the 
 former in his will remembered 'by bequest the lat- 
 ter's son. William Gager is characterized by con- 
 temporary journalists as "a skillful surgeon, a right 
 goodly man, and one of the deacons of the Congre- 
 gational Church." 
 
 John Gager, son of William, the settler, re- 
 mioved to Saybrook, Conn., with the younger Gov. 
 Winthrop, and thence accompanying his patron to 
 New London, where his name is found on the old- 
 est list of inhabitants extant. He joined the com- 
 pany of Norwich proprietors and removed to the 
 New Plantation in 1660. At New London he had a 
 grant of 200 acres of land from the town, located 
 east of the river, removed to it soon after 1650, 
 and there dwelt until he joined in the settlement of 
 Norwich and removed thither. His home lot in 
 the new town bears date of the oldest surveys,, 
 viz.: November, 1659. He served as constable in 
 1674 and 1688. His wife's Christian name was 
 Elizabeth, and of his nine children six were born 
 in New London. Three only were sons, namely :_ 
 John, born 'in 1647, died in 1691 without issue; 
 Samuel, born in 1654, married in 1695 Rebecca 
 Lay, relict of Daniel Raj'mond, of New London; 
 William died when young. John Gager, the fa- 
 ther, died in 1703, after a residence of more than 
 forty years in the town, and at that time Samuel 
 was the only one of his three sons living. In 1693 
 a portion of the original house lot of eleven and a 
 fraction acres in Norwich was added to the old 
 burying ground on the river side, established in 
 1661, and here rest the remains of that wealthy 
 pioneer and others of the family. And though the 
 grounds were seldom used for 'burial purposes after 
 1700, Sanmel Gager requested that he be buried 
 there, and from' his tombstone, which was standing 
 in 1825, was taken the following inscription: 
 
 "By the Bodies of his Parents 
 
 Here lies the body of Mr. Samuel Gager. 
 A steady counsellor, a friend of piety; 
 was an enemiy of vice, a lover of pure 
 public worship, and being blessed with long 
 life left the world with a comfortable hope 
 of life eternal, on the nth day of June, 
 1740. In the 86th year of his linage." 
 
 William Gager, son of Samuel, born in 1704, 
 was graduated from Yale in 1721, and in 1725 was 
 settled as pastor o'f the Church in Lebanon. He 
 died in 1739. 
 
 So much for the early generations of the Gager 
 family. On the mother's side our subject is de- 
 scended from Jonathan Jennings or Ginnings, an 
 early settler of Norwich, who had land granted him 
 in that town in 1677 and other grants in 1684. He 
 was made a freeman at the first town meeting ever 
 held in the town of Ancient Windham,, and at the" 
 time when there were but twenty-two freemen in' 
 the town. Windham was incorporated a town May - 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 143? 
 
 9, 1693, and the first town meeting was held May 
 30, 1693. Mr. Jennings was a land surveyor, and 
 with Jonah Palmer assisted the legatees of Ungar 
 in surveying and laying out a portion of the lands 
 from the west Canterbury line to the east Mans- 
 field line, when that territory was first surveyed 
 and numbered. He was a wealthy man for that 
 day, owning a number of lOO-acre tracts of land. 
 He was born a'bout 1653, niiarried (first) Susan- 
 nah, who died in 1700, (second) in 1701 Mary 
 Howard, who died in 1703, (third) in 1703 Han- 
 nah, widow of John Abbe, who died in 1725, and 
 (fourth) Elizabeth. A daughter, Hannah, born 
 Feb. 15, 1689, says the late William L. Weaver, 
 in his ' Genealogies of Ancient Windham, was the 
 first white child born in the town. A son Ebenezer, 
 born Feb. 18, 1691, says the inscription on his 
 tombstone, was the first male child born in Wind- 
 ham. Jonathan Jennings died in 1733. 
 
 Edwin B. Gager, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, was reared on his father's farm in the town 
 of Scotland, Conn., and his boyhood was passed 
 much in the accustomed manner of the lads of the 
 general farmer — working on the farm in season 
 and devoting the winters to study in the neighbor- 
 ing district schools. He was thus employed till 
 seventeen years of age, and gathered from farm 
 life a good stock of health and practical sense for 
 use in after years. At seventeen he 'began to pre- 
 pare for college at the Natchaug School, Will- 
 imantic. He ibecame self-reliant, and taught school 
 in Hampton and Abington to gain funds for 
 further study. After completing his preparation 
 for college he taught school in East Hampton for 
 one year. Following this experience he entered the 
 Academic Department of Yale University, and 
 during his course there taught school two termls. 
 He so distinguished himself in the University that 
 he received several honors open to students. He 
 was one of the editors of the "Yale Courant," one 
 of the Townsend speakers, and class orator of the 
 class of 1877. He "was one of the competitors for 
 prizes in English composition in both the Sopho- 
 more and Senior years, and won high honors both 
 years. For four years following his graduation 
 he was principal of the Ansonia public schools. 
 During the first of those four years he pursued 
 post-graduate studies in history at Yale, and dur- 
 ing the other three law studies under the direction 
 of Wooster & Torrance, of Birmingham, m the 
 town of Derby, having been entered in the second 
 year of his public duty as a student at law m the 
 office of the law firm named. In July, 1881, he 
 went into the office of those gentlemen, and was 
 admitted to the Bar of Connecticut in October fol- 
 
 ^^of'jan. I, 1882, Mr. Gager became associated 
 with his preceptors as a partner, the firm name 
 changing from Wooster & Torrance to Wooster, 
 Torrance & Gager. Three years later, m 1885. 
 Judge Torrance was appointed to the Bench of the 
 
 Superior Court of Connecticut and withdrew from, 
 the firm. On April ist of that year he was_ suc- 
 ceeded to the firm by William H. Williams, and. 
 the firm has continued in prosperous business and. 
 gained in knowledge, experience and standing, 
 from that time until the present, or, rather, until 
 in the fall of 1900, when the death of Col. Wooster 
 left it Williams & Gager. Through these twenty 
 years Mr. Gager has been most actively engaged 
 in professional duties and not without making for 
 himself a most creditable reputation and name 
 among the legal profession in Connecticut. He- 
 became a member of the State Bar Examining, 
 Committee in 1890, and still continues on the board, 
 a distinction worthy of notice^, since it was the first 
 State committee appointed for that purpose. Since 
 1892 he has been instructor in Mortgages in the: 
 post-graduate course in Yale Law School, and. 
 since 1894 has been instructor in Equity to the 
 Senior class at the Law School. 
 
 Li politics Judge Gager is a Republican, though, 
 never an aspirant for political prefennent. From 
 1889 to 1895 he served as Judge of the Town Court, 
 of Detby. He has kept up his interest in educa- 
 tional matters, and has served on the school board 
 of the town of Derby. A writer has thus referred, 
 to him: "His literary tastes are of a high order.. 
 His English is pure and chaste, idiomatic and ex- 
 pressive. He is an excellent literary critic. His 
 speeches are sought for at local banquets and pub- 
 lic meetings, both in his town and elsewhere; and 
 they always exhibit the thought and taste of the 
 scholar. His law papers, so far as they betray the 
 sources from whence they cam^, are manifestly 
 drawn as to form, literary style, from a scholarly 
 mlind and a cuhured taste. He is fond of the work 
 being done week by week by the Nous Club, of 
 which he is a member, and follows the line of 
 philosophical inquiry with keen relish. He has- 
 shown his interest not merely in the weekly dis- 
 cussions, but on the anniversary occasions, when 
 his poems and addresses are among the exquisite- 
 parts of the programme." 
 
 On October 15, 1885, Judge Gager was mar- 
 ried to Miss Nellie A. Cotter, daughter of Sam- 
 uel A. Cotter, who for many years was superintend- 
 ent of the Ansonia Brass & Copper Co. Since 
 1889 the family have resided on Atwater avenue, 
 Birmingham, where they have a beautiful home, 
 which they make delightful to themselves and to 
 their numerous friends. The children are: Ed- 
 win B., Jr., W., Charles C, and Harriet H. 
 
 RUSSELL COE. Among those who have con- 
 tributed to the indtustrial stability of New England 
 the Coe family is recognized as an important factor, 
 and of those bearing the name one of the most hon- 
 ored and influential was Russell Coe, for many years 
 identified with Meriden and New York, and well 
 known as a manufacturer, 
 
 Eli Coe, Esq., the honored grandfather of Rus- 
 
1432 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 sell Coe, was a native of Middlefield, Middlesex 
 Co., Conn., where he was born Aoril ii, 1758. His 
 native town has reason to be oroud of his career, 
 for he became prominent in its affairs, serving for 
 many years as justice of the peace, appointed to that 
 office by the State Legislature. For thirteen years 
 he filled the office of selectman, and his political 
 service was free from personal aggrandizement or 
 undue ambition. His life was exemplary, and his 
 death, March 27, 1835, was deeply regretted. He 
 married Rachel Miller, who was born in 1761, and 
 who died in May, 1844. As a woman of the highest 
 Christian endowment, no praise of her could be too 
 fulsome. The hospitable home of Grandfather Coe 
 was one of the pleasantest in the neighborhood, and 
 both of its honored heads were active workers in the 
 Congregational Church. Their children were: 
 Bela, born in 1778, first married Hannah Ward, and 
 second, Ruth (Ward) Birdsey; Rachel, born in 
 1783, married Elisha Coe; Eli, born in 1785, mar- 
 ried Lois Coe; Lucy, born April 26, 1786, married 
 Gershom Birdsey; and Levi, born July 11, 1788, 
 married Sarah Ward, daughter of William Ward, 
 and they were the parents of Hon. Levi E. Coe, of 
 Meriden. 
 
 Eli Coe, the father of the late Russell Coe, of 
 this city, was born on the Coe homestead in 1785. 
 His life was given to agricultural pursuits, and be 
 was a man who was noted for his high moral char- 
 acter, and helpful citizenship. His death occurred 
 at his home in Middlefield, Conn., and both he and 
 his wife are buried in the cemetery there. Both had 
 been most worthy members of the Methodist 
 Church. He married Lois Coe, who was born in 
 Middlefield, and was a daughter of Joseph Coe. 
 Six children were born to this union : Nelson, who 
 married Phebe Crowell, resides, at an advanced age, 
 in Middlefield; Lewis is deceased; Russell is men- 
 tioned below; Isaac, who married Sarah Bacon, is 
 deceased; Emma married George H. Bliss; and Jo- 
 seph E. is mentioned elsewhere. 
 
 Russell Coe was born in Middlefield, Middlesex 
 Co., Conn., and was there reared to manhood on a 
 farm, agriculture having been the occupation of 
 many of his forefathers. However, as he advanced 
 to early manhood, the restrictions of rural life, with 
 its limited opportunities, for all around develop- 
 ment, caused young Russell to seek the larger field 
 at Meriden where he became a clerk in a store. In 
 the course of time his energies sought yet a broader 
 opening, and from his first interest in the possibili- 
 ties of land fertilizers, until he had become the head 
 and front of great manufactories in New York and 
 New Jersey, he pushed this business with an eneirgy 
 and ability which brought wealth and prominence. 
 His death occurred in his beautiful residence on 
 East Main street, in Meriden, and he was reverently 
 laid to rest with his ancestors in the old cemetery 
 at Middlefield. Mr. Coe was a type of the success- 
 ful, self-educated, self-made man, a type that is 
 
 very generally found at the head of the largest and 
 most substantial industries. He was endowed with 
 extraordinary energy and remarkable business 
 capacity, and his integrity was unquestioned at 
 home and abroad. He was an ardent supporter of 
 the Republican party. 
 
 Russell Coe married Catherine Birdsey, a daugh- 
 ter of Seth and Ruth (Ward) Birdsey, and a repre- 
 sentative of one of the old established families of 
 New England. She still resides in the home on 
 East Main street, Meriden, and is widely known 
 for her liberal and consistent charities. 
 
 Ward. The Ward family, of which the Hon. 
 Levi Coe and Mrs. Russell Coe are worthy descend- 
 ants on the maternal side, is an old and highly 
 respected family of New England. Their ancestor, 
 Stephen Ward (supposed to have been the husband 
 of Widow Joyce Ward, who died in 1640, and son 
 of James and Anna (Fawkes) Ward) is thought 
 by some never to have come to America, but the late 
 Sherman W. Adams, from his investigation in the 
 Wethersfield records, has virtually substantiated his 
 emigration, and also the fact that he was killed by 
 the Indians at Wethersfield. 
 
 Ensign William Ward, supposed to have been a 
 son of Stephen, was among the first settlers of the 
 town of Middletown, Conn., as early as 1655, arid 
 was granted several tracts of land in that section. 
 He died March 28, 1690, and the inscription on his 
 tombstone reads: "Here lies the body of Insine 
 William Ward age about 58 years dyed March 28, 
 1690." His title was obtained from the train band. 
 William was twice married. After the dteath of his 
 first wife Sarah, he married March 28, 1660, Phebe 
 (surname not known), who died Sept. i, 1691. Of 
 the first union, a son, William, was born June 24, 
 1659, but died shortly after his mother. The eight 
 children of the second marriage were: Thomas, 
 born Feb. 7, 1661 ; Phebe, April 17, 1663 ; William, 
 Aug. 2, 1665; Sarah, Dec. 18, 1667; Anne, born in 
 March, 1670, married James Trapping Dorothy, 
 March 5, 1671-72; Susanna, born June 6, 1674, mar- 
 ried John Southmayd; and John, born May 12, 
 1678. 
 
 Capt. Thomas Ward, son of Ensign William, 
 was born Feb. 7, 1661, and having grown to man- 
 hood in Middletown, became quite active in public 
 affairs. He filled the office of selectman in 1696, 
 was commissioned lieutenant of the South Company 
 of the train band in 1699, was made captain in 
 1712; and received his appointment from the Gen- 
 eral Assembly in 1706-11-12, as justice of the peace. 
 Capt. Ward was a large landowner, and died in the 
 town of Middletown, June 2, 1728. His first mar- 
 riage was in December, 1683, to Anna Tappan, 
 daughter of James Tappan, who was born Sept. 28, 
 1662, and died in November, 1712. His second mar- 
 riage was to Elizabeth Browell. The children of 
 Capt. Ward were: Thomas, born Oct. 17, 1685, 
 married Deborah Stowe; William was born April 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1433 
 
 14, 1687; Anna, born in 1689, died Oct. 5, 1703; 
 James died young; Phebe, born in 1695, married 
 Daniel Hall; Mary, born in 1702. 
 
 William Ward, son of Capt. Thomas, was born 
 in Middlesex County, and settled in what is known 
 as Newfields, where he owned both land and slaves. 
 His death occurred March 28, 1762, and his burial 
 was in the old Indian Hill cemetery, in Middle- 
 town. Jan. 18, 1710, he married Mary Harris, who 
 was born Jan. 11, 1685, and died Aug. 14, 1776, a 
 daughter of Capt. Daniel Harris. Their eight chil- 
 dren were : Mary died young ; Patience, born in 
 November, 1712, married a Mr. Plumb; Anna, born 
 Nov. 3, 1714, married a Mr. Elton; Mary, born 
 Dec. 2, 1716; William, born Oct. 29, 1720; James 
 Tappan, born Sept. 22, 1722; Abigail, born Dec. 
 30, 1724, married a Mr. Galpin; and Joseph, born 
 Jan. II, 1727-28. 
 
 William Ward (2), son of William, was born 
 at Newfields, Oct. 29, 1720, and settled in Middle- 
 field, where he owned a tract of land and a number 
 of slaves. In 1767 he was appointed lieutenant of 
 the 14th Co., 6th Reg., by the General Assembly, 
 and was commissioned captain in 1771. Capt. Ward 
 was also appointed by the town of Middletown to 
 provide necessities for the families of soldiers who 
 were in the Revolutionary army, 1777 to 1779. His 
 death occurred on his farm, Feb. 25, 1786, after 
 peace had been restored, and freedt)m gained. His 
 first marriage, in 1742, was to Martha Bowe, who 
 was ,born Aug. 23, 1718, and who died Dec. 17, 
 1770. On July 4, 1771, he married widow Hannah 
 Spencer. His children were : William, born Sept. 
 17, 1744; Edward, born Oct. 22, 1746, married 
 Lydia, daughter of Thomas Alkins ; Anner, born 
 Jan. 9, 1748, married first Richard Miller, second 
 Joseph Wetmore, and third Capt. David Birdsey; 
 James T., born April 3, 1751, married Elizabeth, 
 daughter of Ichabod Miller ; Martha, born May 30, , 
 1753, married Capt. David Birdsey; Asher, born 
 Oct. 13, 1755, became a physician, and died' Aug. 
 12, 1788; and Mary, born Sept. 9, 1759, married 
 Braddock Dickinson. 
 
 William Ward (3), son of Capt. William, and 
 the grandfather of Mrs. Coe, was born in Middle- 
 field Sept. 17, 1744. His life was divided between 
 agricultural pursuits and the sailing of vessels to 
 the West Indies, and he was also appointed to look 
 after the families left fatherless and in want by the 
 ravages of the Revolution. His ardiuous duties 
 were faithfully performed, and he is recalled as a 
 conscientious and enterprising citizen. His death 
 occurred Nov. 26, 18 19, and the followmg mscrip- 
 tion is seen on his tombstone in Middlefield ceme- 
 tery : 
 
 "How blest the pair whom Christian love unites, 
 Joy smiles upon their days and crowns their nights. 
 In peace their happy moments glide away 
 Till both are welcomed to Eternal day. 
 
 The happy domestic relations which must have 
 
 existed between himself and wife are indicated by 
 the following inscription upon the tomb of the 
 latter: 
 
 "Thrice happy Christians who when time is o'er, 
 Shall meet in realms of bliss to part no more." 
 
 Grandfather William Ward was married Aug. 
 20, 1765, to Mary Miller, born Nov. 28, 1746, who 
 died Oct. 15, 1817, two years before the death of her 
 husband. Her father was Ensign Benjamin Mil- 
 ler. She was noted in youth for her beauty, but in 
 middle life became a victim of what was then called 
 "fever and ague," but which bears a more scientific 
 name in these days. As her health and beauty 
 passed away, she exemplified Christian patience 
 which endeared her all the more to those wbo knew 
 her. A remarkable incident was connected with 
 her final cure. When she had grown so that no 
 resource of the time seemed to help her, she, three 
 times in succession, dreamed of a remedy which 
 would restore her to health, and upon her husband 
 securing the same for her, it was found to fulfill all 
 expectations. From then until her death she was a 
 robust woman. The children born to William Ward 
 and wife were: Benjamin, born in 1768, died in 
 1775; Timothy, born in 1773, died Jan. 7, 1795; 
 Molly, born Dec. 2, 1775, married Asa Johnson; 
 Ruth, born Feb. 10, 1777, married first Seth Bird- 
 sey, and for her second husband Bela Coe; Han- 
 nah, born in 1780, married Bela Coe; Lucy, born 
 in 1782, married Ezra Spencer; Eunice, born in 
 1784, married Capt. Joseph Coe; and Sarah, born 
 April 2, 1788, married Col. Levi Coe. 
 
 WILLIAM PITT BALDWIN, M. D., one of 
 the leading among the younger physicians of New 
 Haven, comes on both sides from English origin, 
 descending on his father's side from the illustrious 
 Baldwin family of New England. 
 
 Dr. Baldwin was born May 12, 1867, in New 
 Haven, son of Charles Amos and Hannah Pitt 
 (Smith) Baldwin. 
 
 Richard Baldwin, the emigrant ancestor of this 
 branch of the Baldwin family, was baptized in 
 Parish Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, England, 
 in 1622. He was a son of Sylvester, who died in 
 June, 1638, on the ship "Martin" in passage from 
 England. Richard Baldwin came to New England 
 either before or with his father. His name appears 
 of record (first page) in Milford, Conn., in 1639. 
 He was an active, energetic, man of business and 
 took a prominent part in the affairs of the town, 
 and was a deputy to the General Court. He mar- 
 ried about 1643, Elizabeth Alsop, of New Haven, 
 and died in 1665. 
 
 From this Richard Baldwin Dr. Baldwin is a 
 descendant in the eighth generation^ his line being 
 through Barnabas, Timothy, Enoch, Alexis, Darius 
 and Charles A. Baldwin. 
 
 (II) Barnabas Baldwin, son of Richard, born 
 in 1665, in Milford, married (second) Abigail. He 
 
1434 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was one of the grantees to the charter of Derby, 
 and in 1738 was one of the fifteen inhabitants of 
 Milford, who, with others of New Haven, incor- 
 porated to make the Parish of Amity. He served 
 as a selectman of Milford. 
 
 (III) Timothy Baldwin, son of Barnabas, born 
 in 1695, in Milford, married (first) in 1719, Zur- 
 nah Johnson, of Derby, and lived in that town or 
 Woodbridge (his land was in both towns). His 
 second wife bore the name of Mabel. He joined 
 in the formation of the church at Amity. His 
 death occurred in 1766. 
 
 (IV) Enoch Baldwin, son of Timothy, born in 
 Derby, in 1736, likely to the second marriage, con- 
 tinued to live in that town. 
 
 (V) Alexis Baldwin, son of Enoch, born in 
 1778, in Derby, married Comfort Baldwin, and 
 lived in Wood'brid'ge, Conn. He died in 182 1 and 
 his widow in 1857. 
 
 (VI) Darius Baldwin, son of Alexis, born in 
 1804, in Woodbridge, was a blacksmith in Orange, 
 thence removed to New Haven where he was resid- 
 ing in 1875. He married Thirza, daughter of Amos 
 Dorman, of Oxford, and wife Hannah Baldwin. 
 
 (VII) Charles A, Baldwin, son of Darius, born 
 Jan. 28, 1832, in Orange, Conn., married Dec. 3, 
 1863, Hannah Pitt Smith, of Lima, Delaware Co., 
 Pa., and to them were born children as follows : 
 Charlena H., born in 1865 ; William Pitt, born in 
 1867; Mary E., born in 1870; and Sherman H., 
 born in 1873. 
 
 Dr. William Pitt Baldwin, our subject proper, 
 received his education in the schools of New Ha- 
 ven, attending the Dwight public school and the 
 Hillhouse High School. He then entered Yale 
 College, and was graduated from the academic de- 
 partment in 1888, and from the Yale Medical School 
 in 1890. In 1 89 1 he was at the New York Homeo- 
 pathic Medical College and Hospital. After a term 
 of service in Ward's Island Hospital, New York, 
 in 1892 he became assistant to Dr. L. P- Jones, of 
 Greenwich, Conn. The winter of 1893-94 he passed 
 in study abroad in the University of Vienna. Re- 
 turning to this country he settled in the practice of 
 medicine in New Haven in the fall of 1894, which 
 year he became junior surgeon at Grace Hospital, 
 and is now associate senior surgeon. Since 1895 
 he has been sanitary officer and medical director of 
 the Connecticut Masonic Home, Wallingford. 
 
 Dr. Bald/win is a member of Wooster Lodge, 
 No. 19, F. & A. M., and the Royal Arcanum; of 
 the Young Men's Republican Club and the New 
 Haven Republican League, now called Union 
 League. He has always been interested in public 
 affairs, and' in 1898-Q9 he represented the First 
 ward in the council, and in 1899-01 on the board, 
 of aldermen. For two vears he has been a member 
 of the Park board. Through his active work in 
 Masonic affairs he has been made a director of the 
 Masonic Mutual Benefit Association. 
 
 On Oct. 10, 1895, Dr. Baldv/in was married to 
 Gertrude Louise Lockwood, of Riverside, Conn., 
 who died July 12, 1896. 
 
 R. BURTON LEETE, a brother of Richard 
 M. and Roger C. Leete, whose sketches, found 
 elsewhere, contain a full family history, was born 
 June 22, 1843, on the homestead farm, and was 
 educated at the district school and in Guilford 
 Academy. Since the death of his father he has 
 had charge of the paternal estate. Like his broth- 
 ers, he is of a genial and winning disposition, quiet 
 and undemonstrative, but of a warm-hearted and 
 friendly spirit. He works hard, and loves his home. 
 In politics he is a Democrat, but has never had as- 
 pirations for political honors. 
 
 Ezra S. Bishop, grandfather of the Leete broth- 
 ers, was born in Guilford, where he received a good 
 common-school education. He was a shoemaker, 
 and learned his trade of a Mr. Frisbie, and followed 
 the same during the winter season in the Southern 
 States. He was a shoemaker all his life, and died 
 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Rufus N. Leete, 
 who cared for him tenderly and devotedlv during 
 his old age. He was buriecl in the West Cemetery. 
 In politics he was a Democrat. Although a good 
 man, he took little active interest in church mat- 
 ters. Mrs. Leete, his daughter, and mother of R. 
 Burton, is still living, and is the center of a large 
 circle of friends. She is highly regarded, and is 
 still active in every good work which commands 
 the interest and attention of her kind heart. 
 
 GEORGE P. MERWIN. The ancestors of 
 George P. Merwin, the successful and well-known 
 contractor and builder, of New Haven, came to 
 America from Wales, and when the great-grand- 
 father, John Merwin, came to Connecticut, he lo- 
 cated at Milford. Here he engaged in agricultural 
 pursuits, and his son, Samuel Merwin, following 
 his father's example, farmed also, and died, upon 
 the same land, at the age of sixty-two. His chil- 
 dren were named Charles, Susan, Caroline, John, 
 Dorcas, Homer, and Orange. 
 
 Charles C. Merwin, the father of George P., 
 was born in Milford, and followed farming all his 
 life on the old homestead. He married Amelia C. 
 Piatt, who was born on Pond Point, and reared the 
 following children : George E. ; Mary, deceased ; 
 William, of New Haven ; John W., located on the 
 farm; Caroline, who married John R. Johnson; 
 Charles H., who resides with our subject; and 
 Samuel, deceased. The beloved mother, who was 
 a^ devoted member of the Congregational Church, 
 died at the age of seventy. 
 
 George P- Merwin was born in Milford, Conn., 
 Oct. 16, 1828, and spent his early life on the farm,' 
 meanwhile speculating upon more ambitious pro- 
 jects beyond the boundaries of the old home. At 
 the age of eighteen he went to New Haven and 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1435 
 
 learned] the carpenter trade, of Richard F. Mer- 
 win, and followed it as a journeyman for several 
 years. Afterward, with John H. Bristol and Her- 
 man Nettleson, he formed a partnership in build- 
 ing and contracting, but the latter withdrew, and 
 several years later Mr. Merwin bought out Mr. 
 Bristol's interest, and then associated himself with 
 William R. Hubbell. For thirty-eight years this 
 firm was one of the strongest in New Haven, and 
 not only secured some of the largest contracts in the 
 town, but gave universal satisfaction. After the 
 death of Mr. Hubbell, Mr. Merwin continued alone 
 until 1896, and then took into partnership his two 
 capable sons, Charles F. and George W. The firm 
 carries on a general contracting and jobbing busi- 
 ness, making a specialty of residences and fine build- 
 ings. Kent Hall is but one of the numerous testi- 
 monials to their ability. Mr. Merwin is one of the 
 oldest in his line in New Haven, his first building 
 having been completed in 1852. He has every ap- 
 pliance and convenience for his work, and his own 
 mill makes all his mouldings and decorations, 
 sashes, doors and blinds. At times, when five or 
 six houses are in course of construction at once, as 
 many as thirty men are kept employed. 
 
 In 1856 Mr. Merwin married Laura S. Whit- 
 ing, in Colebrook' Conn., and of this union were 
 born two sons, Charles T. and George' W., who are 
 with their father in business, and a daughter. Grade 
 Lily. In politics, Mr. Merwin has been an active 
 Republican, and for two years was a member of the 
 council. The year that the city authorities changed 
 the fire department from hand to steam, Mr. Mer- 
 win was on the fire department committee and was 
 instrumental in having the new engine bought from 
 the Amoskeag Engine Co. Later, he was made 
 foreman of the committee, and one year served on 
 the ward committee, at the time of the election of 
 President Lincoln. 
 
 Socially Mr. Merwin is connected with the Ma- 
 sonic fraternity, Hiram Lodige, F. & A. M., and in 
 the I. O. O. F. Relief Lodge, he has been a trustee 
 many years. His eldest son is a Royal Arch Ma- 
 son, and both are highly valued in this connection 
 The youngest son of Mr. Merwin is possessed! of 
 great musical talent and is also a skilled pottery 
 decorator. Since the Humphrey Street Church was 
 a mission, Mr. Merwin has worked earnestly for 
 its growth, and was one of the most helpful of the 
 committee to build a new church. As one of its 
 supporters of the church he has been very lib^al, 
 and has held almost all of its offices. In New Ha- 
 ven, Mr. Merwin is held in high esteem, and his 
 business standing is of the very best. 
 
 JOSEPH SCHWANDER, now living retired 
 in Meriden, is one of the most respected German 
 residents of that city, with which he has been iden- 
 tified since 1874. 
 
 Mr. Schwander was born March 14, i^32, m 
 Seckenheim, Baden, Germany, son of Urban 
 
 Schwander, also a native of Baden, who passed his 
 entire life there. He followed farming for a time, 
 and later purchasing a mill was engaged in flour- 
 milling for the remainder of his life. He died in 
 1854, his death being caused by a fall, while pick- 
 ing fruit from a pear tree. He was buried at his 
 native place. Urban Schwander married Monica 
 Apner, who was also born in Baden, where she 
 died, and they had a family of six children : Mary., 
 who died young ; Cunigunda, now deceased ; Fred- 
 erick, who remained in Germany ; Joseph, our sub- 
 ject; Alexander, who located in Chicago; and Ben- 
 edict, who also resides in the West. The parents 
 were both members of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Joseph Schwander received a good practical ed- 
 ucation in the public schools of his birthplace, 
 where he remained with his parents until he 
 reached the age of eighteen years, learning the 
 trade of miller and working in the flour mill with 
 his father. Going to Switzerland, he followed mill- 
 ing in that country for three years before decid- 
 ing, in 1854, to try to better his condition in Amer- 
 ica. He took passage at Havre de Grace on a sail- 
 ing vessel, and after a voyage of forty days landed 
 at New York, where he spent a year, engaged at 
 the carpenter's trade. From that city he came to 
 Connecticut, locating first at Chaplin, where he was 
 employed three years in the paper mills. Thence 
 he removed to South Coventry, where he found 
 work in the woolen mills, and there spent two 
 years, learning the trade of fuller. For the next 
 four years he was at Eagle Mills, in the woolen 
 mills, and in 1874 he came to Meriden. Mr. 
 Sch wander's first employment in this city was in 
 the Wilcox Woolen Mills, where he spent ten years, 
 part of the time as foreman of the fulling depart- 
 ment. Thinking that outdoor life would improve 
 his health, he bought a farm at Westfield, Conn., 
 where he spent one year, but the work was hard 
 and uncongenial, so he sold out and returned to 
 Meriden. He obtained employment with Whit- 
 more, Peet & Post, who conducted the woolen mills 
 as successors to J. Wilcox & Co., and was foreman 
 with them for five years, at the end of which time 
 he removed to Great Barrington, Mass., where he 
 was engaged five years as foreman of the fulling 
 department with Russell Bros. On his return to 
 Meriden he bought a piece of land on West Main 
 street, with a house over one hundred years old, 
 and there opened a saloon, which he conducted, 
 however, only one year, the business not proving 
 to his liking. He then accepted a position with C. 
 T. Dodd, as box-maker, and spent five years at that 
 business, at the end of which time he retired. His 
 time has since been given to looking after his real- 
 estate interests, which are extensive. Mr. Schwan- 
 der commenced life empty-handed so far as finan- 
 cial aid of any kind was concerned, but he has al- 
 ways been industrious and economical, has made 
 judicious purchases, and now, in bis declining days, 
 has a comfortable competence. In 1897 he built 
 
1436 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the fine brick block at Nos. 107-109 West Main 
 street. He also erected the handsome dwelling 
 which he occupies, and owns considerable other 
 property in and near Meriden, which under his 
 careful management, yield's him a handsome in- 
 come. By a life of sobriety and thrift Mr. Schwan- 
 der has gained the unqualified respect of all his as- 
 sociates, and his career is a splendid example of 
 what may be accomplished by industry and perse- 
 verance, coupled with honesty and integrity of a 
 high order. 
 
 Mr. Schwander was married in Hartford, 
 Conn., in 1867, to Mary Nagel, a native of Ger- 
 many, and three children blessed their union, name- 
 ly: Ellen Mary, who died young; Walter Arthur, 
 who died young; and William Gage Nagel, born 
 July 8, 1885. Mrs. Schwander died very suddenly 
 July 3, 1900, at the home in Meriden, and was laid 
 to rest in West cemetery, by the side of her mother, 
 whom she loved devotedly. She was a good Chris- 
 tian woman, faithful to all her duties as wife and 
 mother, and was an earnest member of St. John's 
 Lutheran Church of Meriden, to which Mr. 
 Schwander also belonged. Our subject is a plain- 
 going, unassuming man, domestic in his tastes and 
 habits, a fact which has madfe the loss of his wife 
 doubly hard to bear, for she v/as a companion and 
 helpmeet in the truest sense of the word. 
 
 WILLIAM JULIUS MUELLER. Among 
 the most enterprising and successful citizens of 
 New Haven county are many of foreign birth, who 
 have brought to this country the thrift and economy 
 of the Old World. Prominent among- those who 
 have located in Cheshire is the gentleman whose 
 name introduces this sketch. He was born in 
 Remse, the Kingdom of Saxony, Germany, Nov. 
 12, 1862, a son of Bernard and Mary Magdelena 
 (Weinhold) Mueller, also natives of Saxony, in 
 vifhose family were three children, the others being 
 Mary and Richard, who are still residents of Ger- 
 many. In his native land the father engaged in 
 the manufacture of windows until called from this 
 life about the close of the nineteenth century. In 
 1870 the mother came to America and first located 
 in Holyoke, Mass., where she married Frank Eger. 
 They lived in Meriden, Conn., for some time but 
 now make their home with our subject in Cheshire. 
 There were no children by the second marriage. 
 
 Reared in his native land, William Julius 
 Mueller acquired a fair education in the German 
 language. At the age of eighteen years he de- 
 termined to try his fortune in the United States, 
 and accordingly, in 1880, crossed the broad At- 
 latic and took up his residence in Meriden, Conn., 
 where he made his home for seven years, working 
 first in the shops of Bradley & Hubbard. For 
 two years he was employed as a farm; laborer by 
 William' BanldDurn, of Cheshire, and later on the 
 farm of Newton Baldwin, in Kensington. In July, 
 1887, he came to Cheshire, where he purchased what 
 
 is known as the Smith farm, a well improved and 
 valuable tract of seventy-five acres, on which is a 
 good house and barn, and here he has since success- 
 fully engaged in general farming. Through his 
 own well-directed efforts he has prospered, and his 
 upright, honorable life has gained him the confi- 
 dence and good will of those, with whom he has 
 come in contact. 
 
 In 1887, in Meriden, Mr. Mueller was mar- 
 ried to Miss Julia Albertine Zemke, a native of 
 Green Sea, West Prussia, and a daughter of Fred- 
 erick and Paulina Zemke, who now reside in Meri- 
 den. By this union four children were born, and 
 three are now living, namely : Emil Charles, Edith, 
 Emma and Gustaf Richard. The family worship 
 in the German Lutheran Church, and Mr Mueller 
 votes independent of party dictates. 
 
 DURELL SHEPARD, M. D. The family of 
 this distinguished physician — the oldest practi- 
 tioner in West Haven, venerated for his long and 
 useful life, honored for his professional skill, and 
 beloved for his many noble, personal traits — was 
 among the first to settle in Cambridge, Mass., 
 about 1639, Edward Shepard, the emigrant, com- 
 ing from England. From this . historic starting 
 point branches spread out here and there, one lo- 
 cating in and near Milford and Newtown, Conn., 
 after a short stay in Hartford. It is from this 
 branch that Dr. Shepard traces his desicent. His 
 grandfather, George Shepard, who was a large 
 land owner and a successful farmer, died at the 
 age of eighty-five years. He married Phoebe H|ull, 
 andi they had ten children. 
 
 Hiram Shepard, the Doctor's father, was born 
 at Newtown, and was educated in the common 
 schools of that town. Hs passed his life there as a 
 farmer, although, having acquired considerable 
 skill in veterinary surgery, he practiced that call- 
 ing, too, with much success. He married Lucretia 
 Ann Sherman, of Newtown, the youngest of seven 
 children born to Andrew and Betsey (Wright) 
 Sherman, the former of whom was a tanner, cur- 
 rier and shoemaker, and respected alike as a work- 
 man, a citizen and a man. Both Hiram Shepard 
 and his wife are now deceased', he having passed 
 away in his seventy-sixth year, and she in her 
 fifty-third. They were the parents of six chil- 
 dren, two of whom are yet living: Durell; and 
 Charles S., the youngest survivor, now a resident 
 of New Haven. 
 
 Dr. Durell Shepard was born at Newtown, 
 Fairfield county, Sept. 19, 183 1. He received his 
 early education in the common schools of his na- 
 tive place and at Wilbraham Academy, Mass. He 
 left the last named institution at the age of six- 
 teen, fully resolved to obtain a higher, and a pro- 
 fes&ional,_ education. In 1852 he matriculated at 
 Yale University, but, his course being interrupted 
 for several years by failing health, he did not grad- 
 uate with the degree of M. D. until 1864. His 
 
ayt^ 
 
 ^ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1437 
 
 pecuniary circumstances were such as to necessi- 
 tate his supporting himself, in a large measure, 
 during his collegiate course, and it is chiefly 
 through his own indomitable energy, joined to 
 self-denying effort and tireless application, that 
 he occupies to-day his present proud position. 
 Finding it necessary to leave college, he started 
 upon a mechanical career, and for a time worked 
 in various factories. 
 
 The outbreak of the Civil war found Dr. Shep- 
 ard with physical energy restored, and his patri- 
 otic impulses were stirred to their depths- by the 
 trailing of the National ensign across the shoals 
 and through the mud of Charleston harbor. He 
 enlisted as a private in Company F, 1st Connecti- 
 cut Heavy Artillery, and performed gallant serv- 
 ice. Although the recognition of his attainments 
 and scientific knowledge induced his assignment 
 to hospital service, he was made a prisoner at 
 Cold Harbor in 1862, and carried to Savage Sta- 
 tion. He remained in confinement, however, only 
 for thirty days, and during the greater portion of 
 that period was assigned to the care of the sick 
 and wounded. At the end of his month of cap- 
 tivity he was paroled and exchanged ; after cross- 
 ing the Federal lines he was ordered to the mili- 
 tary hospital in Philadelphia, and- in November, 
 1862, he received his honorable discharge. He 
 at once followed, his own first and best impulse. 
 No sooner had the embryo surgeon quit the ser- 
 vice than (in November, 1862) he resumed his 
 professional studies, which he pursued until — about 
 a year following — 'he received his degree. For 
 a while he practiced at Bridgeport, and then re- 
 entered the service, as assistant surgeon. His field 
 of duty was North Carolina, he being located first 
 at Fort Schuyler and afterward at Newbern. His 
 experience covered an epidemic of yellow fever 
 through which he passed personally unscathed, al- 
 though his ministrations to the victims of the 
 scourge testified, by their assiduity, to his earnest- 
 ness of purpose and unflinching courage. 
 
 In July, 1865, the Doctor resigned his com- 
 mission, and during the year following practiced 
 at Ballston Spa, N. Y. From that point, in 1866, 
 he removed to West Haven, Conn., in which town 
 he has resided for thirty-six years, a successful 
 practitioner and an honored citizen. In 1867 he 
 opened a small store for the sale of drugs. The 
 venture proved successful, and his busmess grad- 
 ually increased and uniformly prospered until his 
 establishment became one of the best stocked and 
 best patronized in the locality. 
 
 Dr. Shepard has been twice married. His first 
 wife to whom he was married in 1856, was Miss 
 Ellen Hart, daughter of Ruel Hart, a respected 
 and well-to-do farmer of Southington ; her moth- 
 er's maiden name was Barnes. Mrs. Ellen Shep- 
 ard had one child (now deceased) , and died m 
 1861, in her twenty-fifth year. The Doctor s sec- 
 ond wife, Eleanor M. Tyler, was born in Essex 
 Conn. Her father, Sylvanus Tyler, was captain of 
 
 a coasting vessel. To the second marriage have 
 been born four children, two of whom are living. 
 The elder, George S., resides in West Haven. 
 Th younger, Gussie S., is unmarried, and lives 
 with her parents. Another son, Carroll S., died 
 at the age of twenty-four; he had one son, 
 Durell B. 
 
 In politics the Doctor is a Republican ; in re- 
 ligious faith a Methodist. He is of generous im- 
 pulses and social instincts, with many friends who 
 esteem him for his moral worth and love him for 
 his whole-souled, genial temperament. He is a 
 memiber of the Masonic fraternity, being connected 
 with Annawan Lodge, No. 115, A. F. & A. M., 
 West Haven, in which he is past master, and 
 Franklin Chapter, R. A. M. He also belongs to 
 the County and State Medical Societies, and the 
 American Medical Association. His life has been 
 a busy one, but by careful and constant study he 
 keeps fully abreast of the rapid advance made in 
 medical science. 
 
 THOjNIAS PATRICK CARNEY, for many 
 years superintendent of the Branford Lock Works, 
 and one of the popular and progressive citizens 
 and a native son .of Branford was born April 26, 
 1854. 
 
 James Carney, his father, was born in County 
 Tipperary, Ireland, whence, about the year 1846, he 
 came to Amierica, locating in Middletown, Conn., 
 where he worked as a farm hand a couple of years. 
 In 1848 he removed to Branford, Conn., and en- 
 tered the employ of the Branford Lock Works, as 
 a polisher, continuing with that company up to 
 the time of his death, in May, 1899, at the age of 
 seventy-four years. To James Carney and his 
 wife, formerly Margaret Cusick, also a native of 
 County Tipperary, Ireland, were born the foUow- 
 ing children: Anna Mary, now Mrs. John J. 
 Matthews; Thomas P.; Alice, the wife of John 
 P. Callahan; Margaret, now Mrs. James O'Con- 
 nor ; James, deceased ; Peter J. ; and ElizaJbeth. 
 
 Thomas P. Carney received his education at 
 the public schools of Branford, and at the age of 
 fourteen years entered the employ of the Bran- 
 ford Lock Works, where his industry and ready 
 adaptability won continuous promotion. At the 
 early age of nineteen he was appointed assistant 
 superintendent of the works, and in 1879, was pro- 
 moted to the position of superintendent. 
 
 Mr. Carney has been twice married. On April 24, 
 1878, he married Margaret, daughter of James and 
 Elizabeth (Rogers) Clancy, of Branford, and by 
 her he had six children: James, Grace, Wihiam, 
 Margaret, Thomas and Genevieve. The mother of 
 these children died April 2, 1888, and in 1892, Mr. 
 Carney married Agnes, daughter of David and 
 Mary (Regan) Carney, of Branford, by which 
 union he has one son, Arthur C. The entire family 
 are memters of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Socially Mr. Carney is affiliated with the K. of 
 
1438 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 C, the Emerald Social Club, Court Totoket, and 
 with the New England Order of Protection. In 
 his political predilections he has always teen a 
 Democrat, and has served as chairrman of the Demo- 
 cratic town committee two years, on the board of 
 education fifteen years, and as warden one term. 
 
 HON. HART DAVID MUNSON, of New 
 Haven, one of the board of County Commissioners 
 of New Haven county, is a representative of a fam- 
 ily whose history in New Haven covers a period 
 of more than two hundred and sixty years. 
 
 Thomas Munson, the progenitor of the New 
 Haven branch of the Munson family, was born in 
 1612, and was a participant in the Pequot war of 
 1637. He was a carpenter by trade, and came to 
 New Haven in 1639 or 1640 and died in 1685; the 
 death of his wife Joanna occurred in 1678. 
 
 From this first American ancestor Commis- 
 sioner Munson, of New Haven, is in the eighth 
 generation, his line of descent beino- through Sam- 
 uel, Theophilus, Daniel, Daniel (2), Gorham and 
 David Munson. 
 
 (II) Samuel Munson, son of Thomas of Hart- 
 ford and New Haven, born abcut 1643, in New 
 Haven, married in 1665 Martha, 'daughter of Will- 
 iam and Alice (Pritchard) Bradley. Mr. Munson 
 was a shoemaker and tanner by trade, and resided 
 in New Haven, Wallingford and New Haven, re- 
 spectively, and died in 1693. 
 
 (III) Theophilus Munson, son of Samuel, born 
 in 1675, in New Haven, married Esther, daughter 
 of John Mix, who diedl in 1746, and her husband 
 in 1740. By trade he was a locksmith, and took a 
 part in the affairs of the town. 
 
 (IV) Daniel Munson, son of Theophilus, born 
 in 1708-9, married in 1730, Mary, daughter of Jo- 
 seph Graham, of Stratford. Daniel Munson be- 
 came a well-known physician of Stratford, gradu- 
 ating from Yale College in 1726, and for the school 
 year 1729-30, was an instructor in the Hopkins 
 Grammar school, at New Haven. His maternal 
 ancestors had all been connected vyith the Congre- 
 gational Church of their several communities, but 
 the Doctor cast his lot with the Episcopal Church. 
 He died in 1746. 
 
 (V) Daniel Munson (2), son of Dr. Daniel, 
 was born in 1745, in Stratford, and in 1766 mar- 
 ried Mary Sears and resided in Milford, Conn., in 
 1782, and in 1786 was chosen a vestryman of St. 
 George's Church. His death was in 1827, in Mil- 
 ford, and his widow died in 1833, in the same town. 
 
 (VI) Gorham Munson, son of Daniel Munson 
 (2),_ born in 1786, married and had a family, but 
 he disappeared and was lost track of. 
 
 (VII) David F. Munson, son of Gorham, born 
 in Milford, married on Sept. 18, 1836, Huldah 
 Baldwin, of Woodbridge, Conn., and resided in 
 the latter town where he followed the occupation 
 of a blacksmith and carpenter. He and his wife 
 united with the Congregational Church, in Wood- 
 
 bridge, in 1841, and they were esteemed and re- 
 spected citizens of their community. To this couple 
 were born Mary J., Sarah E., Anna E., and Hart 
 David. 
 
 (VIII) Hart David Munson, son of David F., 
 and the subject of this review, was born June 20, 
 1849, in the town of Woodbrid'ge, Conn., and at- 
 tended the public schools of the neighborhood. At 
 seventeen years of age, desiring to see the great 
 West,^ he went to the Pacific coast, and for a time 
 was in the employ of millionaire Dougherty in 
 California. Returning to the East laden with three 
 years of Western experience, he located in New 
 Haven, and engaged in the grocery and other lines 
 of business. Beginning with 1892, he was the busi- 
 ness manager of the Leader Publishing Company, 
 of New Haven. 
 
 As a Republican, Mr. Munson has for years 
 been active in politics, is vice-president of the Union 
 League Club, having previously held all of, the 
 other offices, and is prominent in the Young Men's 
 Republican Club, in which he is a member of the 
 executive committee. Since July i, 1897, he has 
 been a member of the board of County Commis- 
 sioners for New Haven county, and has been most 
 efficient in the performance of the important duties 
 devolving upon such an officer. He is now serving 
 his second term (which will extend until 1904) 
 as trustee of the Middletown Insane asylum; is a 
 member of the executive committee of National 
 Charities and Corrections ; is president of the Coun- 
 ty House Association; and is on the New Haven 
 committee of the New Haven Orphan Asylum. As 
 a Mason, he is a member of Hiram Lodge, Chap- 
 ter and Council. 
 
 In March, 1875, Mr. Munson married Anna E. 
 Treat, born in Oxford, Conn., and daughter of 
 Robert Treat, formerly a farmer near Oxford, and 
 now a resident of New Haven. Mrs. Munson is 
 descended on the paternal side from Governor 
 Treat, and on the maternal side from President 
 Stiles, of Yale College. 
 
 The family attends the M. E. Church, and is 
 one of the most highly respected in New Haven, 
 where Mr. Munson wields a wide influence and has 
 the confidence of all who are associated with him 
 in whatsoever capacity. 
 
 WILLIAM WOODLEY, one of Meriden's 
 leadmg florists and a well-known and highly re- 
 spected citizen, was born Dec. 31, 1852 in 
 Ecchingswell, Hampshire, England. His father, 
 Thomas Woodley, was a native of the same place, 
 ,and was a thatcher by occupation, making roofs 
 for^ many houses and other buildings. He died 
 while his children were still young, and was buried 
 in his native place. His wife, Caroline Cannings, 
 a native of the same place, is still living there, at 
 the npe age of eighty-two years. Both she and 
 her husband were identified with the Estab- 
 lished Church. They were the parents of seven 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1439 
 
 sons, namely : Charles, who died in England ; 
 Daniel, a blacksmlith, who died in his native place ; 
 
 James, who died in England; John, who resides in 
 England; William, the subject of this sketch; Ar- 
 thur and Oliver, both of whom are deceased. 
 
 William Woodley attended the public schools 
 of Hampshire. He was but four years of age when 
 his father died, and at the early age of nine years, 
 he set out to make his own way in the world. After 
 working two years on a farm, he was employed 
 in the garden of 'Squire William Kingsmill, whose 
 wife was a daughter of the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury. After four years of this service, he was 
 employed as assistant gardener by 'Squire Ar- 
 buthnot, with whom- he remained two years. Wish- 
 ing to better his condition, and hearing flattering 
 accounts of the opportunities existing in the United 
 States, he determined to emigrate thither. Being 
 without means, he borrowed his passage money 
 from a friend, and set out by steamer in 1871. 
 Landing in New York, he soon proceeded to 
 Meriden, where he carried on gardening by con- 
 tract one year, during which time he managed to 
 save enough to repay the loan made by his kind 
 friend to enable him to reach »he scene of these 
 labors. In 1872 he accepted a position with the 
 late Isaac C. Lewis, as gardener, in which capacity 
 he spent more than twenty-one years. In 1893, 
 through the aid of bis employer, he was enabled 
 to purchase his present property, on the corner 
 of Broad and Silver streets, where he immediately 
 engaged in flower culture. He has expended over 
 seven thousand dollars in improvements on the 
 property, including a fine conservatory and the ad- 
 dition of land. He purchased his present resi- 
 dence, which was formerly the home of Dr. A. H. 
 Churchill, at the foot of Eto street, removed it 
 to Silver street, remodeled it and made one of the 
 finest residences in that section of the city. Througti 
 his own indefatigable efforts, he has conquered 
 success, and is a leader in his line. Being possessed 
 of artistic instincts, he is able to cacer to the best 
 demands for floral designs for balls, weddmgs and 
 funerals, and is ably assisted by his daughter, who 
 possesses fine artistic taste. . 
 
 On July 15, 1879, Mr. Woodley was married 
 in Torrington, Litchfield Co., Conn., to Ehza Ann 
 Davy, a native of Devonshire, England, and daugh- 
 ter of John Davy, a retired shoe dealer of Torrmg- 
 ton. Mr. and Mrs. Woodley are the parents of 
 two daughters, Emma Ix)uise and Harriet Lewis 
 both of whom were educated at the grammar and 
 high schools of the city. The fornier is assistant 
 librarian of the Meriden Public Library, and the 
 latter is her father's assistant m business. ITie 
 family is identified with St. Andrews Episcopal 
 Church, and Mr: Woodley is a member of Center 
 
 ■ Lodge, No. 97, A. F. & A. M He was farmerly 
 connected with Pacific Lodge, No^87, L V--r^; if" 
 and is now a leading member of Pilgnms Harbor 
 Council, No. 543, Royal Arcanum. He is one of 
 
 the three who organized Court Silver City, No. 
 7060, A. O. F., and is a charter member of Court 
 Meriden, No. 42. A self-made man and repre- 
 sentative citizen, Mr. Woodley is of domestic and 
 temperate habits, a Repubhcan in politics, though 
 not an office-seeker, and enjoys the esteem and re- 
 spect of all who are. privileged to know him. 
 
 HARRY EVERTS NORTHROP, of Meriden, 
 comes of good' old Colonial stock, and was born 
 Aug. 14, 1858, at West Haven, in the town of 
 Orange, New Haven Co., Connecticut. 
 
 The original spelling of the name was North- 
 rup, but it was changed to its present form by sev- 
 eral members of the family about the time of the 
 Revolutionary war. Joseph Northrup, the head of 
 the family in America, came from England, being 
 probably a Welshman, and was one of the first set- 
 tlers at Milford, Conn., about 1639. 
 
 Caleb Northrop, great-grandfather of the sub- 
 ject of this sketch, was a native of Milford, where 
 hisi youth was passed. He became a sea-faring man, 
 was commander of a vessel many years, and was 
 drowned in Milford Harbor. He married Patty 
 Munson, of Milford, and had three children, named 
 as follows: Mary, Allen and Jennette, of whom 
 Mary became the wife of Capt. George Heald ; and 
 Jennette married (first) Henry Hungerford and 
 (second) Newell Lounsbury. After the death of 
 Capt. Northrop, his widow married Capt. Shubael 
 Lines. She died in New York and was buried in 
 Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, leaving a daugh- 
 ter by the second marriage, Elizabeth, who married 
 Charles Stone. 
 
 Allen Northrop, only son of Caleb, was born in 
 Milford, and went with his mother and step-father 
 to New York when thirteen years of age. There he 
 learned the trade of shoemaker. When a young 
 man he came to Connecticut and located in Orange, 
 where he spent the remainder of his days engaged 
 in farming. He died in 1880, at the age of seventy- 
 four years, and was interred in West Haven. He 
 was an old-line Democrat, and was one of the first 
 supporters of Andrew Jackson in his town. A 
 member of the Congregational Church, he was an 
 exemplary citizen, widely known and respected. 
 He married Martha, daughter of Isaac Morgan, 
 of Orange, who bore him eleven children, named as 
 follows : George Heald, now deceased ; Henry Hun- 
 gerford ; Charles Stone, a farmer residing in Berlin, 
 Conn.; Sarah, deceased wife of William Starr; 
 Mary, married to Albert Perry, of New Haven, 
 and now residing in Boston ; Jane, who died young ; 
 Leveritt Allen, deceased ; Newell Lounsbury, a resi- 
 dent of South Lyme, Conn. ; Julia, who died unmar- 
 ried ; Annie, wife of David Wolcott, resides in New 
 Haven ; and William Wales, living in Orange. The 
 mother of these died in Orange, and lies beside her 
 husband in West Haven Cemetery. She, too, was 
 a member of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Henry Hungerford Northrop was born and edu- 
 
I440 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 cated in the town of Orange, growing up on the 
 farm and governed by the conditions of rural life 
 of the time. At the age of fifteen years he went to 
 Hamden and learned the 'blacksmith's trade with 
 Edward Dickerman of that town. After complet- 
 ing his trade, he returned to hisi native town and 
 after operating a shop of his .own for a period of 
 five years, he came to Meriden and was employed as 
 a blacksmith by Parker & Perkins. Later, he be- 
 came a member of the firm of Perr.y, Northrop & 
 Bryden, carriage-builders and general blacksmiths.- 
 of Meriden, and after the dissolution of this firm, 
 he continued to conduct a shop alone, being twenty 
 years in North Branford and fourteen in New Ha- 
 ven. Since 1900 he has operated a shop in Meriden, 
 while continuing to make his home in New Haven. 
 He is well and favorably known to the people of 
 Meriden, both old and recent residents. C3f sturdy, 
 industrious character, he is respected wherever 
 known. 
 
 On Dec. 28, 1855, in Guilford, Conn., Mr. 
 Northrop was married to Sarah Everts, a native of 
 that town and daughter of Eben Everts. Four chil- 
 dren comprise their family, namely: Jane, Harry 
 E. and Harriet E. (twins) and Edda. Of these, 
 Jane married George Anthony, of Wallingford, and 
 later became the wife of Frank Anthony, of the 
 same place. Like his father, Mr. Northrop is a 
 Democrat in politics, and while not affiliated with 
 any religious society, strives to make his life con- 
 form to the Golden Rule. 
 
 Harry E. Northrop was reared on the farm of 
 his grandfather, Allen Northrop, in the town of 
 Orange, where he remained until he was twenty- 
 two years of age. He then entered the shop of the 
 Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., of Meriden, 
 where he continued four years and learned the art 
 of pattern-making. He then spent upward of four 
 years as pattern-maker in the shops of the Meriden 
 Bronze Co., whence he returned to his former em- 
 ployers and continued another year. He was next 
 employed by H. L. Judd & Co., of Wallingford, un- 
 til 1892, when he entered upon his present engage- 
 ment as pattern-maker for Foster, Merriam & Co., 
 of Meriden. In 1894, he ibuilt his present handsome 
 home on "Harrington Hill," a beautiful location 
 near South Meriden. 
 
 Mr. Northrop is a man of genial nature, and his 
 happy disposition makes him friends wherever he is 
 known. His social instincts find opportunity for 
 exercise in the workings of several fraternal and 
 benevolent organizations. He is a member of Cor- 
 inthian Lodge, No. 103, A. F. & A. M., of North- 
 ford; Silver City Lodge, No. 3, A. O. U. W., of 
 Meriden ; and was a member of Columbia Council, 
 No. 5, O. U. A. M., of Meriden. He is an ardent 
 lover of horses, and always has some fine specimens 
 of man's noblest friend in his stable. 
 
 On Nov. 6, 1889, Mr. Northrop was married 
 in Glastonbury, Conn., to Nellie Wyman, who was 
 born in Winchendon, Mass., a daughter of Enoch 
 
 and Mary (Lov eland) Wyman. Two sons bless 
 the home of Mr. and Mrs. Northrop, namely : Ralph 
 W)'man, born Aug. 18, 1890; and Elmer Mayo, 
 born Sept. 7, 1892. 
 
 Mrs. Northrop is a descendant of an old New 
 England family, of German origin. Thomas Wy- 
 man, the first in this country, came from England 
 and located in Woburn, Mass., and his son, Elisha 
 Wyman, married Martha Richardson. Thomas 
 Wyman, son of Elisha, was born in Woburn in 
 1745 ; in 1773 he married Betsey Reed, and settled 
 in Templeton, Mass., in 1783, removing to Wia- 
 chendon the next year. Joshua Wyman, ;son of 
 Thomas, was born in 1778, and married Nancy 
 Noyes. Their children were: Laura, born 1803, 
 died next year; Enoch, born May 4, 1805; Gilman, 
 Feb. 12, 1807, married Hannah Taft; Sumner, Feb. 
 22, 1809, married (first) Sallie Lewis and (second) 
 Philura Pitkins, and is still living in Winchendon, 
 Mass.; Franklin, born May 26, 1812, died Jan. 11, 
 1814; Henry, Dec. 26, 1821, died in Winchendon. 
 
 Enoch Wyman, father of Mrs. Northrop, mar- 
 ried (first) Huldah Twitchell and (second) Mary 
 Loveland. The last-named was a daughter of Syl- 
 vester and Ruth (Riley) Loveland, the latter a de- 
 scendant of an old family of Glastonbury and 
 Wethersfield, Conn. The wedding trip of Sylvester 
 and Ruth Loveland consisted of the journey, begun 
 on their wedding day, with a four-ox team, to 
 Marshfield, A't., where they settled and died, the 
 former reaching the ripe age of ninety-six years. 
 Enoch Wyman died Oct. 12, 1880, in Winchendon, 
 and his widow now resides on a farm at Marsh- 
 field, Vt. They were the parents of four children, 
 two of whom died in infancy. The second of the 
 survivors is Mayo Hazelton, who resides with his 
 mother in Vermont. An adopted son, Charles Wy- 
 man, now resides at Naugatuck. 
 
 Mrs. Northrop was educated in the schools of 
 Winchendon, graduating from the high school in 
 June, 1882, and she taught school one year in 
 Glastonbury. After this, she traveled over Con- 
 necticut, teaching systems of dress-cutting. Beside 
 being the possessor of much executive ability, she 
 is a lady of refined nature and many graces of char- 
 acter. A true wife and wise counselor, she is a 
 helpmeet to her husband, a loving and discreet 
 mother, and a valuable niember of society. 
 
 REV. MICHAEL ANTHONY SULLIVAN 
 is one of those earnest, self-sacrificing, energetic 
 clergymen of the Catholic Church, to whom duty 
 is preferable to ease, and whose faith is a higher 
 and more controlling impulse than riches or fame. 
 Both his parents and grandparents were born in 
 Ireland. His grandfather, 'Martin Sullivan, a 
 farmer, married Julia Kirby. His father was also 
 named Martin and his' mother Julia. His parents 
 came to this country in 1849, ^i^d his father for 
 many years worked as a farmer, dying in Colches- 
 ter Aug. I, 1898. The mother is still living. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1441 
 
 Father Sullivan was born in Middlefield, Conn., 
 Sept. 16, 1859. His education was begun in the 
 Bacon Academy in Colchester, an educaitional insti- 
 tution founded in 1801 by Theodore Bacon. The 
 young man graduated from the academy in 1876, 
 and soon afterward matriculated at St. Bonaven- 
 ture's College, at Allegany, N. Y., from which 
 seat of learning he graduated in 1881. Feeling 
 an inclination for the priesthood, he entered St. 
 Bonaventure's Seminary as a theological student. 
 Here he pursued hia studies until 1884, when he 
 was ordained a priest by Bishop Stephen Vincent 
 Kyan. His first pastoral charge was the parish 
 of Windsor Locks, Conn. After remaining there 
 for two and a half years he was transferred to St. 
 John's Parish, New Haven, where he was assistant 
 rector for ten years. In 1896 he was given charge 
 of St. Paul's Parish, at Kensington, to which is at- 
 tached, as a mission station, the Sacred Heart Par- 
 ish of East Berlin. The latter Father Sullivan has 
 buiilt up, erecting a neat church edifice, which is 
 already wholly paid for. He is a man thoroughly 
 respected by all, takes a lively interest in the wel- 
 fare of his parish, both temporal and spiritual, and 
 is an earnest worker in the cause of temperance. 
 He has organized numerous societies in his church, 
 and has establshed a flourishing branch of the 
 Total Abstinence and Benevolent Brotherhood with 
 thirty members in East Berlin, and total abstinence 
 societies in Kensington. 
 
 SAMUEL WEIR was a well-known citizen of 
 New Haven county. He resided for a number of 
 years in Oxford, where he was engaged in the man- 
 ufacture of satinet. Hliis first wife was Nancy Woos- 
 ter, daughter of John and Eunice (Hull) Wooster. 
 She died young, leaving no children. He afterward 
 married Adeline Candee, daughter of Levi Candee, 
 of Oxford. They had eight children, five sons and 
 three daughters. About 1850 he removed to New 
 Haven, where he took charge of the well-known ho- 
 tel, the "Park House," situated on Chapel street, op- 
 posite the "Green." He died in New Haven, and, 
 with his second wSfe and several children, is buried 
 in Evergreen cemetery, in that city. One son, Levi 
 Candee, isi president of the Adam-s Express Co., 
 also a member of the Chamber of Commerce in New 
 York. None of the family remains in New Haven 
 county. Mr. Weir was prominent in town affairs, 
 and many tlimes a member of the State legislature. 
 
 ADOLPH MENDEL. Success in any line of 
 business, in any avenue of legitimate enterprise, is 
 not a matter of spontaneity, but is the legitimate 
 offspring of subjective effort in the proper utiliza- 
 tion of means at hand, the improvement of oppor- 
 tunity and the exercise of the highest functions made 
 possible by the specific ability in any case. To trace 
 the history of a successful Hife, particularlv in the 
 world of business, where competition is rife, must 
 ever prove a profitable and satisfying indulgence. 
 
 91 
 
 The name borne by the subject of this review 
 at once suggests; a power that to a large degree 
 controls and directs commercial operations in the 
 beautiful oity of New Haven. The day of small 
 undertakings, especially in cities, seems to have 
 passed, and the era of extensive and far-reaching 
 enterprise is upon us. In control of large mer- 
 cantile concerns are men of master minds, of ex- 
 ceptional administrative ability, sound judgment 
 and keen discrimination. Their progressivcness 
 must not only reach the bounds that others have 
 gained, but must also pass beyond into broader, 
 newer and untried fields of operation, but an un- 
 erring foresight and sagadity must make no mistake 
 by venturing upon uncertain grounds. Thus, con- 
 tinually growing, a business takes leadership in its 
 special line, and the men who are at its head are 
 deservedly eminent in the world of commerce, oc- 
 cupying a posiition that comands the respect while 
 it excites the admiration of all who are cognizant 
 of the magnificent results' attained. Men look with 
 wonder on such an establishment as that of Mendel 
 & Freedman, knowing that it is the outcome of the 
 energy, enterprise and ability of such men as the 
 gentleman whose name linitiates this • paragraph. 
 We marvel at the succe&s of a native American 
 who knows the language, the manners, the customs 
 and business methods of the country, and who 
 works his way upward from limited circumstances 
 to affluence; but when a man of foreign birth, but 
 no less patriotic spirit seeks a home in the New 
 World and rises by his own effoTts. to an exalted 
 position, still greater credit is due him, for he has 
 necessarily greater difficulties to overcome. Thus 
 in reviewing the career of Adolph Mendel we can 
 have naught save admiration and respect, for 
 through Ms influence .and active co-operation has 
 been built up a business enterprise which is not only 
 a credit to himself but also to the city of Ndw 
 Haven, where he stands at the head of one of the 
 largest and most important department stores; in 
 New England, an enterprise whose development 
 and progress bear the distinct impress of his in- 
 dividuality. A review of his eminently succesisful 
 and honorable career can not fail of interest in this 
 connection. 
 
 Adolph Mendel is a native of the great German 
 empire, which has given to our republic so vital an 
 element of constituent strength, having been born 
 in Bruchhausen, Germany, Sept. 7, 1854, son of 
 Aaron Mendel, who likewise was born in that town, 
 where he wais: reared and educated. He finally 
 removed to the city of Breinen, where he was en- 
 gaged in ithe dry-goods business until his death, 
 at the age of fifty-nine years, his wife, whose 
 maiden name was Esther Abraham, surviving him 
 and living to attain the age of seventy-two. They 
 became the parents of four children, namely: 
 Adolph, the immediate subject of this review; 
 Emil, who is engaged in the dry-goods business 
 in New Haven ; Emma, who is the wife of L. 
 
1442 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Wolff, of New York Cdty ; and Alevina, who like- 
 wise maintains her home in the national metropolis. 
 
 The subject of this review was reared and edu- 
 cated in the city of Bremen, and there was given 
 inception to his business career. His ability was 
 shown when he was Bitill a youth, for we find that 
 he engaged in the book and stationery business in 
 Bremen before he had attained 'his legal majority, 
 being successful in his efforts, and showiing that 
 discrimination and good judgment which have 
 conserved his success in connection with his present 
 magnificent enterprise. Mr. Mendel continued in 
 business in his fatherland until 1871, when he de- 
 cided to come to America where he felt there 
 would be wider opportunities for individual ef- 
 fort. Shortly after his arrival be located in the 
 city of New Haven, and here he has achieved the 
 highest reputation in business circles and has ad^ 
 vanced from, a clerkship to the control of the most 
 extensive and important department store in the 
 city, and, indeed, in the entire state. Upon locat- 
 ing in New Haven Mr. Mendel secured a position 
 in the dry-goods establishment of Freedman & 
 Frank. After the dissolution of this partnership the 
 enterprise was continued by Milius' Frank, and our 
 subject continued to be identified with the enterprise 
 for a period of fifteen years, wlithin which inter- 
 val he had risen to the position of superintendent 
 of the establishment, which was at that time one 
 of the largest dry-goods stores' in the city. When 
 Mr. Frank retired from the business Mr. Mendel 
 became associated with his present partner, Isidor 
 Freedman, in the establishing of the present busi- 
 ness enterprise, which had a modest inception, but 
 which has grown to be one of great magnitude, 
 standing as a monument to the enterprise and inh 
 domitable energy of Mr. Mendel, ais the product of 
 the fertile brain, the ready hand and superior di- 
 recting power which he has brought to bear, and 
 his partner has proved an able coadjutor in every 
 respect. What he has accomplished can not be 
 adequately told in words. It is certainly not assert- 
 ing too much to say of one who can 'direct and con- 
 trol a businesis. of such magnitude that he must 
 possess, aside from mercantile foresight and sa- 
 gacity, the faculty of reading and judging men, 
 unusual powers of organization and great executive 
 and administrative ability. No such enterprise 
 could be built up save by regarding the elements 
 which beget public confidence, and thus we find that 
 honesty and fair dealing, promptness, truthfulness 
 and fidelity have been dominating factors in the 
 growth and development of this great institution. 
 Faithfulness on the part of employes is promoted 
 by the knowledge that good service meamsi advance- 
 ment as opportunity opens, and that neglect of 
 duty will not be tolerated, and is further enhanced 
 by the interest taken by the employers in the per- 
 sonal welfare of the deserving. 
 
 The great establishment of the firm of Mendel 
 & Freedman is eHigibly located in Chapel street, the 
 
 premises bearing the numbers 770, 772 and 774. 
 After the formation of the partnership Messrs. 
 Mendel and Freedman erected a building 20x90 
 feet in dimiensionis,, and' in these modest quarters 
 began business in the year 1886, the doors of the 
 'estabrishment being thrown open to the public on 
 the first day of May. The enterprise was attended 
 by success^ and the firm has retained a repre- 
 sentative patronage from the beginning, and 
 their high reputation for courtesy, fair dealing 
 and low prices has never been for a moment 
 violated. Within three years the business had so 
 expanded in scope as to demand the enlargement 
 of the store, which was extended to a depth of 125 
 feet in 1889. In 1890 the second story was en- 
 larged to the isame dimensions as those of the 
 ground floor, by the extension of the same 60 feet 
 to the rear. Again the quarters proved inadequate, 
 and in a short time after the improvements noted 
 were made other alterations were instituted, to 
 make the store more attractive and better adapted 
 to the use of the firm in the accommodation of their 
 magnificent stock and gigantic business. About fif- 
 teen thousand dollars; were expended in improve- 
 ments among the most notable being the putting in 
 of a fine modern front, affording the best facilities 
 for the attractive display of goods. Again, within 
 the brief interval of two years, they were obliged 
 to devise means for increasing the size of their quar- 
 ters and thiis wasi accomplished by the purchase of 
 the building adjoining on the east and the two 
 constitute the present fine quarters of the firm. De- 
 partment after department has been added as the 
 demands of the trade justified, and the establish- 
 ment is by far the most extensive and important of 
 the sort in the city, and one of the most notable with- 
 in the confines of New England. When they start- 
 ed in business the firm' of Mendel & Freedman gave 
 employment to only eight persons, and an idea of 
 the magnificent expansion of the 'enterprise may be 
 gained from the mere statement that at the pres:ent 
 time a corps of about two hundred and fifty em- 
 ployes- is retained in the service of the firm. The 
 members of the firm are prominent figures in the 
 mercantile circles of New England, and enjoy the 
 highest reputation for ability and absolute integrity 
 of purpose, their business maxim being honesty, 
 fair dealing, appreciation and truthfulness. There is 
 no detail of the vast business too small to be over- 
 looked by Mr. Mendel, and his infinlite capacity for 
 details has been a factor of great potency in connec- 
 tion with the business policy of the concern at 
 whose head he stands. Mr. Mendel is public-spir- 
 ited, liberal, and above all, just, and thus he com- 
 mands unequivocal confidence and esteem in the 
 business world, and has the regard and respect of 
 all with whom he comes in contact in the various re- 
 lations of life. Throughout his entire business 
 career be has been looked upon as a model of integ- 
 rity and honor, and as a man of distinct individual- 
 it\' and marked ability. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 i443 
 
 In politics Mr. Mendel gives his allegiance to 
 the Republican party, 'but in local affairs he main- 
 tains an independent attitude rather than being di- 
 rected by close partisan lines. Fraternally he is 
 identified with the Ancient Order of United Work- 
 men and with Horeb Lodge, of the Bnai Brith, 
 while he is also a prominent member of the Har- 
 mony Club and one of its directorate. Mr. Mendel 
 is highly honored in the commercial circles of New 
 Haven, being a member of the Chamber of Com- 
 merce and the'Business Men's Association. 
 
 Gn June 14, 1894, Mr. Mendel was united in 
 marriage to Miss Gussie Shenfeld, who was born in 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., daughter of J. B. Shenfeld, for 
 many years a prominent clothing merchant of that 
 city. Mr. and Mrs. Mendel have one child, a win- 
 some little daughter, to whom has been given the 
 rame of Esther Lissette. The family home is a cen- 
 ter of gracious and refined hospitality, and here our 
 subject finds his greatest solace when away from the 
 cares and anxieties of business. 
 
 MRS. EUNICE C. BALDWIN, nee Chatfield, 
 a well-known resident of Woodbridge, is a native 
 of New Haven county, born in Oxford July 16, 
 1826, and belongs to a prominent old family of that 
 town. There her paternal grandfather, Gideon 
 Chatfield, spent bis entire life. 
 
 Devine Chatfield, her father, was also a na- 
 tive of Oxford, and there continued to make his 
 home until called from this life, at the age of seven- 
 ty-two years. His time and energies were devoted 
 to the blacksmith's trade. In his political views he 
 was a stanch Democrat, while his wife came from a 
 Republican family. In Oxford he married Miss 
 Mamora Wooster, a daughter of Nathaniel and 
 Charity (Plumb) Wooster, all natives of Oxford. 
 She was one of a family of seven children, the others 
 being Mark; Ransom; Clarissa, wife of L. Buck- 
 ingham; Grace, wife of John Smith; Nathan R. ; 
 and Bennett. To Mr. and Mrs. Chatfield were born 
 the following named children : Thomas, Edwin and 
 George, all of whom died young; Elizabeth, de- 
 ceased wife of James Moody, an Oxford hatfcer; 
 Janette, who died at the age of eleven years ; Eunice 
 C, whose name introduces! this sketch ; and Grace, 
 wife of Henry Baldwin, of New Haven. 
 
 During her childhood Mrs, Baldwm attended 
 both the public and private schools of her native 
 -town, and at the age of eighteen years commenced 
 teaching school, a profession which she successtuUy 
 followed for some time prior to her marriage. On 
 Dec. IS, 1849, in Oxford, she married A. F. Bald- 
 win who was born in Woodbridge, Jan. 15, 182O, 
 and died there in 1883, honored and respected by 
 all who knew him because of bis sterling worth. 
 His father, David R. Baldwin, was also a native 
 of that town, and lived to the rij^e old age of eighty- 
 seven years. Silas Baldwin, the grandfather, was 
 born on the farm in Woodbridge, where our subject 
 now lives, and which has been her home since she 
 
 came there as a bride. The place consists of 125 
 acres, with substantial buildings, and the residence 
 is surrounded by beautiful trees, planted by Mr. 
 Baldwin. Since her husband's death, nineteen years 
 age, Mrs. Baldwin has conducted the farm, keeping 
 one hired man for the past sixteen years. She is 
 a most estimable lady, whose circle of friends and 
 acquaintances is extensive, and who is beloved by 
 all who know her. To Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin came 
 three children: Howard, born March 5, 1853, died 
 Sept. 26, 1890. Francis A., born Jan. 27, 1855, 
 married Kate Hull, and is a prosperous' business 
 man of New Haven ; for seventeen years was in the 
 postofifice there, serving as money order clerk, and 
 he is now with Price, Lee & Co., being secretary and 
 treasurer of that concern. Jennie L., born April 11, 
 1857, married Everett Sanford, and died Feb. 28, 
 1881. Mrs. Baldwin has reared another girl as her 
 own, Signa Baldwin. Mr. Baldwin was a Repub- 
 lican in politics, asi is also his son, and held some 
 minor offices, though he was no seeker after public 
 favors. He was a member of the Congregational 
 Church, and quite active in the work of same. 
 
 LEWIS F. HAASE, one of the younger enter- 
 prising business men of Waterbury, is a native of 
 Connecticut, born Sept. 2, i860, in Terryville, 
 Litchfield county, and comes of good, substantial 
 German ancestry. 
 
 F. W. Haase Jr., his father, was born in Berlin, 
 Germany, a son of F W. Haase, Sr.,-of the same 
 nativity, who, however, never left the Fatherland. 
 In 1849, when yet a young man, F. W. Haase, Jr., 
 came to the United States, settling in Connecticut, 
 and for many years was in the employ of the Wa- 
 terbury Clock Co. in the capacity of general me- 
 chanic, but is now living retired in that city. Hje 
 married Elizabeth Gates, born in Stuttgart, Ger- 
 many, a daughter of John Gates, who came to this 
 country and to Connecticut, in order to take charge 
 of a mill in Waterville, in which village he died. 
 Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. F W. 
 Haase, as follows: Lewis F. is our subject; Emma 
 married Albert W. Cutts, of Waterbury; Mattie 
 L. is the wife of Walter D. Ford, of Waterbury : 
 Lillian J. married William H. Goer, of Worcester, 
 Mass. ; Frederick M. is in the employ of the L. F. 
 Haase Co., and at present is traveling in Europe 
 in the interests of that concern. The entire family 
 attend the Congregational Church. 
 
 Lewis F. Haase. whose name introduces this 
 sketch, received his education at the local schools 
 of Waterbury, after which he went to Hartford, 
 Conn., where he was employed as bookkeeper some 
 four years. Returning to Waterbury, he entered 
 the employ of Dennis Blakeslee, interior decorator, 
 and dealer in wall-paper, etc., at the end of three 
 rears, in 1893, buying out the entire business from 
 Mr. Blakeslee, who had become well advanced in 
 years. In 1893 the business was incorporated as 
 the L. F. Haase Co., and is now recognized as the 
 
1444 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 
 
 leading decorating and furniture establishment in 
 this section of the State. The building, Nos. 27-29 
 Center street, includes five roomy floors besides a 
 basement, and Mr. H^aase claims that it contains 
 anything and everything necessary to the complete 
 furnishing of any kind of house from cellar to 
 attic. The salesrooms are elegantly -and attractively 
 appointed and arranged, while an elevator connects 
 the several floors, in which is to be found a com- 
 plete stock of (among numerous other commodities 
 necessary for house furnishing) furniture of all 
 kinds, upholstery goods, draperies, carpets and 
 rugs, paper hangings and interior decorations — all 
 being under the immediate supervision of Mr. 
 Haasc himself, who has built up the business to its 
 present mammoth proportions, and who is president 
 and treasurer of the company. 
 
 In his political predilections Mr. Haase is a 
 Republican; socially he is a member of the K. of 
 P. and I. O. O. F. ; in church connection he is a 
 Congregationalist. He has held the position of 
 vice-president of the Merchants' Association of 
 Waterbury, and his ability, politeness, laudable am- 
 bition and well-directed efforts have placed him 
 well in the van of the leading merchants of the 
 county. j\Ir. Haase has not yet enlisted in the 
 "noble army of Benedicts." 
 
 THOMAS P. HUTCHINSON, one of the very 
 substantial and well-to-do residents of Waterbury, 
 has had a varied, eventful history, and has reached 
 his present enviable position in the business' world 
 by slow and painful steps. He has manifested good 
 judgment, and has shown business ability of a high 
 order. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson was' born in New Haven, Feb. 
 21, 1855, son of Michael Hutchinson, a native of 
 County Kildare, Ireland, who came to the United 
 States in 1850, locating at New Haven. There he 
 worked at the cooper's trade, and in 1853 married 
 Miss Rosa Gordon, a native of that city. Children 
 as follows were born to this union : Thomas P. ; 
 Edward, John, James, Timothv, William and Eliza- 
 beth. 
 
 Thomas P. Hutchinson soent the first four years 
 of his life in New Haven, and then his parents 
 moved to a farm in Hamden, Conn. During his 
 boyhood days he attended the village school for a 
 few years, and he assisted his father on the farm 
 until he was twenty-one years old. In 1876 he went 
 to Wallingford, where for a year and a half he 
 worked in the spoon factory of Malvey & Stevens. 
 His first wages were $7.50 per week, but by energy 
 and perseverance he rose steadily, and soon had 
 charge of the contract for supplying all orders for 
 the concern. In 1878 the factory was destroyed by 
 fire, and it was never rebuilt. Mr. Hutchinson then 
 went to North Haven, where he was foreman of a 
 brickyard until 1881, when he came to Waterbury. 
 On his arrival he obtained the position of clerk in 
 the grocery store of Charles Fagan. The same 
 
 year he went into business for himself. A small 
 boot and shoe store in the little suburb- of Brooklyn — ■ 
 the fjrst establishment of its kind in that part of 
 Waterbury — was the scene of his first enterprise. 
 The start was made in a small way, but it was care- 
 fully made, and Mr. Hutchinson proved a capable 
 and successful tradesman, making considerable 
 money. 
 
 In 1893 Mr. Hutchinson put up a fine brick 
 block, into which he moved the same year, and there 
 he continued the boot and shoe business until June 
 21, 1899. At this period his real-estate interests had 
 become so extensive, and were taking up so much 
 of his time, that he saw fit to dispose of his store 
 and devote his entire time to looking after his own 
 holdings. Some very valuable pieces of property 
 in Waterbury, New Haven and Jersey City belong 
 to him, and their acquisition attests his business 
 sagacity and financial ability. As may be seen, Mr. 
 Hutchinson began life very modestly, and the posi- 
 tion he has attained has been gained entirely by his 
 own efforts. His success is proof positive that they 
 were well directed, and his high standing in the com- 
 munity affords the best testimony as to the methods 
 he has adopted, and his honor in every transaction. 
 Our subject's good judgment has been backed by a 
 determination which admits of no failure, for when 
 he once puts his shoulder to the wheel he relaxes 
 no effort until his object is accomplished. He has 
 advanced in life by industry and good management, 
 and most of all by an instinctive sense of the oppor- 
 tunities in the business world. He is a prominent 
 member of the Merchants Association. Mr Hutch- 
 inson is a Democrat politically. His religious con- 
 nection is with the Immaculate Conception Parish, 
 of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 On July 29, 1884, Mr. Hutchinson married Miss 
 Catherine Casey, a native of Bethlehem, Conn., 
 daughter of Timothy Casey, a soldier of the Civil 
 war. To this union have been born seven children : 
 David J., John M., May R., Alice M., Catherine B., 
 Thomas G., and Raymond A. (who died at the age 
 of five weeks). 
 
 FREDERICK NUHN (deceased). Among 
 the many Germans who came to America, and by 
 their thrift, frugality, industry and good manage- 
 ment made homes for their families, and through 
 their honesty of purpose became worthy citizens, 
 reflecting credit on their nationality, none are more 
 worthy of a place in the annals of their adopted 
 country than he whose name introduces this brief 
 article. 
 
 Born in Germany, Nov. 10, 1845. ^r. Nuhn 
 was the son of John and Catherine Nuhn. At the 
 age of fourteen he came to America, remaining a 
 short time in New York., When but nineteen years 
 of age he was conducting the People's Market, in 
 Bridgeport, andi in i860, in company with his 
 brother Theodore, he engaged in the wholesale 
 meat business in Waterbury, purchasing their stock 
 
i^iA^A/Vi^ 
 
 <j^c/\yy- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 '445 
 
 in Albany, N. Y. They bought a tract of land, 
 where their cattle grazed and where they butchered 
 them. Mr. Nuhn was actively occupied in business 
 and deeply interested in the growth and welfare of 
 his adopted city. Although he purchased and oper- 
 ated a brewery, which later was so successfully and 
 extensively carried on by Hellmann Sz: Kip, he did 
 so only to get his money back, as it was very dis- 
 tasteful to him. In later years he was also en- 
 gaged in manufacturing fertilizers, and was quite 
 successful in his undertakings. Of a very quiet 
 and unassuming nature, he passed through life en- 
 joying his family circle, rather than outside attrac- 
 tions, but he held the esteem and respect of his 
 many acquaintances and friends. In politics he was 
 a Democrat, and represented his ward in the Com- 
 mon Council many years. 
 
 On Nov. 9, 1875, Mr. Nuhn was married to 
 Emma P., daughter of Leonard and Catherine 
 Meyer, and at his death, March 27, 1898, there sur- 
 vived the widow, two daughters and two sons, the 
 children being Ida M., Theodore F., Frederick L. 
 and Ella K. 
 
 Mrs. Emima P. (Meyer) Nuhn was born in 
 Bridgeport, Conn., slaughter of Leonard Meyer, 
 v/ho was born in Doernbach, Germany, but who 
 when a young man came to America, and located 
 at Bridgeport, later removing to Waterbury, where 
 for a year he was engaged in the hotel business. He 
 died July 16, 1869. His wife, who was also born in 
 Germany, came to New York when about sixteen 
 years of age, where she married in 1854. Her 
 father came to visit New York, and died after being 
 there a short time. Her mother died June 4, 1882. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Meyer had a family of three children, 
 namely: Emma P. (Mrs. Nuhn) ; Lewis M., who 
 was in business with Mr. Nuhn in Waterbury, also 
 held -the office of tax collector, and died Aug. 4, 
 1892; Theodore V., who resides in Waterbury, 
 Conn., engaged in the insurance business. 
 
 WILLIAM ROBERT STEELE was born 
 April 7, 1845, in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England, 
 a son of Jasper Steele, who was born in England 
 about 1825, and died in his native land Dec. 25, 
 1895. A very successful grocer and baker m the 
 town of Stroud, Jasper Steele accumulated a very 
 handsome property, which enabled himi to retire 
 from business in 1885. Much respected in the com- 
 munity in which he lived, he was always mterested 
 in the public welfare, and was especially devoted to 
 the Church, being widely known as a zealous and 
 devoted Congregationalist. In 1844 he was married 
 to Miss Sophia Smith, who was born m 1823, a 
 daughter of William Smith, an extensive property 
 owner, and a baker by trade ; she is still living m 
 England. To them were born the following children : 
 William Robert; Reuben, a contracting mason, 
 who died when fifty years old in England ; Mary, 
 living in England with her mother ; John, for many 
 years a mason, but now living retired in England; 
 
 Julia and Emma, both married and living in Eng- 
 land ; George, a contracting mason at Greenwich, 
 working in partnership with a Mr. Rich ; and Myra, 
 who married and lives in England. Richard Steele, 
 father of Jasper, died d'uring the latter's infancy; 
 he and his wife, Mary Clutterbook, had four chil- 
 dren. 
 
 William Robert Steele was born in England, and 
 received a somewhat scanty schooling before he was 
 nine years old in the public schools of his native 
 ,town. At that early age he began work in the 
 home bakery, and at the age of eleven went into a 
 flour mill, where he spent the succeeding nine years. 
 When he was twenty he began a grocery business 
 for himself, which proved quite remunerative, but 
 in 1868 he sold out and for a year engaged in stock 
 dealing, and then removed to the United States. 
 Locating in Connecticut, he secured work as a 
 blacksmith with one of the contractors who was en- 
 gaged in building the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. 
 In 1870 he bought a small farm, town of Walling- 
 ford, and for twenty years was engaged in its 
 cultivation. In 1890 he removed to WalHng- 
 ford, and went into business as a dealer in fruits 
 and vegetables, but soon took on groceries and 
 meats. For ten years he did a very profitable busi- 
 ness, which he sold to Bendoin Brothers May 28, 
 1900. In 1895 he erected his present very comfort- 
 able and commodious home on Quinnipiac street, 
 and engaged in caring for his extensive real-estate 
 interests. 
 
 Mr. Steele is a Republican, and has never been 
 a seeker after official honors. He attends the Con- 
 gregational Church, and is a member of Compass 
 Lodge, No. 9, F. & A. M. He is past chancellor 
 commander of Ivy Lodge, No. 43, K. P., and is 
 now master Of the exchequer. One of the charter 
 members of Ivy Division, No. 16, U. R. K. of P., 
 he was its treasurer during its entire existence. 
 
 On Oct. 15, 1865, William Robert Steele was 
 married to Miss Kezia Seymour, of England, a 
 daughter of Richard Seymour. To their union 
 were born : Ada, who died at the age of five years ; 
 Adelia, who died when two and a half years old; 
 Ida, who married Richard Clark, and has two chil- 
 dren, Alice and Richard; Eva and Harry are at 
 home. 
 
 \ 
 
 ROBERT W. LAMPMAN was born July 23, 
 1-862, in Nicolaus, Cal. William Lampman, his 
 father, was born about the year 1831 in Connecti- 
 cut, in (it is thought) New Haven county, and was 
 one of a family of five children, namely : Robert 
 was a printer in New York, later a printer and 
 bookbinder in San Francisco, Cal.; William was 
 the father of our subject; Norton died in New 
 York; Eloise married George E. Van De Bogart, 
 a painter, who died in New York State; and Lor- 
 inda. The father of these was a farmer. 
 
 William Lampman learned the trade of black- 
 smith in Connecticut, and followed same until 1859, 
 
1446 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in which year he went to CaHfornia, settling on a 
 farm, where he passed the rest of his days. Prior 
 to going to the "Eldorado State" he married Sarah 
 Rl. Clapper, who was born in Columbia county, 
 N. Y., a daughter of Stephen Clapper, whose father 
 was a flessian soldier in the Revolutionary war, and 
 afterward settled on a farm' in Columbia county. 
 One child only was born to this union, Robert W. 
 The parents both died in California, the father in 
 1868, the mother in 1875. 
 
 Robert W. Lampman received his earlier edu- 
 cation in California, and passed his boyhood on a 
 farm at Nicolaus up to the age of thirteen years, at 
 which time, his mother having died, he came to 
 New York State to live with his grandparents, and 
 until he was seventeen years old attended school at 
 Valatie, Columbia county. For one year afterward 
 he worked on a farm ; then commenced learning the 
 trade of weaver in Valatie, at which he continued 
 until rising to the position of "boss" weaver, the 
 highest grade attainable in that line. Shortly after 
 his marriage he went to Stuyvesant Falls, N. Y., 
 whence after a year he came to Waterbury, Conn., 
 and (1887) commenced working for the Scovill 
 Mfg. Co., learning the making of rivets. After 
 three years with that firm he went into the employ 
 of the Waterbury^ Mfg. Co., with whom he re- 
 n^ained several years, becoming forem&n of the rivet 
 department. Airs. Lampman recently removed to 
 Bridgeport, this State. 
 
 On Dec. 13, 1882, Mr. Lampman married Anna 
 M. (Wolfe) Barnes, an adopted daughter of Mr. 
 and Mrs. Barnes, and who was born in Stuyvesant 
 Landing, Columbia Co., N. Y. Four children have 
 been born to this union: Clarence W., Eva M., 
 Hazel E. and Charles (who died when one year old). 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lampman are members of the Bap- 
 tist Church. Politically he is a Republican, and in 
 189s represented the First ward in the common 
 council of Waterbury ; in the following year he was 
 nominated for alderman, but declined. Socially he 
 is a member of the United Order of American Me- 
 chanics ; the United Order of Good Fellows; also 
 of the Order of the Silver Star, which latter he has 
 done much toward elevating to its present high 
 standing. 
 
 HENRY FREDERICK RUDOLPH is one of 
 the leading young business m-en of Meriden, being 
 senior member of the firm of H. F. Rudolph & Co., 
 dealers in staple and fancy groceries and German 
 delicacies, at Xo. 48 East Main street, that city. 
 
 Mr. Rudolph was born in the city of New York 
 Jan. 7, 1868, and is of German descent, his father, 
 George Frederick Rudolph, being a native of the 
 town of Brutcnbach, in Saxony. George F. Ru- 
 dolph was well educated in his native land, and early 
 displa>'ed wonderful talent for music, becoming, 
 under instruction, a miaster of various instruments. 
 For a number of years he was connected with the 
 military band of his locality, and his skill was fre- 
 
 quently calledi into public service. He married 
 Katherine Herbst, and four children were born to 
 them before their emigration to America, in 1867. 
 They landed at New York, where the father soon 
 found employment. Later he went to Williams- 
 burg, Long Island, where he remained until 1872, 
 in a sugar refinery. The flourishing manufactories 
 of Connecticut absorb a great many of the substan- 
 tial workmen of German nationality, and about the 
 year last mentioned Mr. Rudolph decided to locate 
 with his famiily in Meriden and there accept em- 
 ployment in the lantern department of the factory 
 of the Edward' jMiller Co. He soon became con- 
 nected with the orchestral band of Meriden. Un- 
 fortunately Mr. Rudolph did not enjoy robust 
 health, and he was- finally obliged to resign his vari- 
 ous positions and remain at home. He was an in- 
 valid for a period of twelve years prior to his death, 
 which took place in 1893, at his home; he was laid 
 to rest in the beautiful Walnut Grove cemetery. 
 Mr. Rudolph was mourned not only by his family 
 but also in the Center Congregational Church, of 
 which he was a consistent member. In politics he 
 chose to be an independent voter. Socially he was 
 prominent in the fraternal orders, including the 
 German Mutual Aid Society and Teutonia Lodge, 
 No. 95, I. O. O. F. Mr. Rudolph was an honest, 
 upright man, and was well known and respected. 
 Acknowledged a master in music, he did much in 
 Meriden to encourage a true love of the art, and 
 contributed largely to musical organizations. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Rudolph had a family of ten children, 
 namely: Lena, who married William A. Ives, of 
 Meriden; George, who is engaged in the postal 
 service at that place; Mary, who married Edward 
 Kantack, cjf Wallingford, iormerly of Meriden; 
 one who died unnamed in infancy; H. Frederick; 
 J. Gustave, a member of the firm: of Rudolph & Co. ; 
 William, also a member of that firm; Katie; Ed- 
 ward, deceased; and George. The beloved mother 
 is still living in Meriden, where she is much es- 
 teemed in the Congregational Church, and most 
 affectionately regarded by the excellent family for 
 whom she has made many personal sacrifices in the 
 past. 
 
 Henry Frederick Rudolph was but four years of 
 age when Meriden became his home. He was al- 
 lowed to attend school as long as possible, but on 
 account of his father's^ failing health and the de- 
 mands of a large family, many of them younger 
 than himself, he early decided to do his part toward 
 helping. When but thirteen years old his bright 
 face and willing manner found favor with the man- 
 ager of the big factory of P'oster, Merriam & Co., 
 and he was engaged as an all-around helper, con- 
 tinuing with that firm five years, receiving promo- 
 tions, and at last working in the cabinet hardware 
 department. From this "factory he went as a 
 clerk to the Union Pacific tea store, in Meriden, 
 and after remaining one year returned to Foster, 
 Alerriam & Co. for the succeeding year. He then 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1447 
 
 accepted a position as clerk in tlie grocery store of 
 D. W. Balzer, on Pratt street, where he worked 
 faithfully until 1892, at which time he bought out 
 the establishment of his employer. His financial 
 assistant was his brother George, who remained a 
 silent partner, our subject successfully conducting 
 a most prosperous business until 1898, when he 
 admitted his two younger brothers as full partners. 
 Since that time the firm style has been H. F. Ru- 
 dolph & Co., the management continuing as before, 
 and following out the lines of business integrity 
 formed by the elder brother. In 1900 the location 
 was changed to No. 48 East Main street, where is 
 conducted a large and constantly increasing busi- 
 ness, which bids fair to still farther enlarge, patron- 
 age constantly coming from more distant points. 
 The members of the firm' all show personal atten- 
 tion to their patrons, and this fact, combined with 
 strict honesty and fair dealing, secures them a 
 preference over those who appear to desire only to 
 sell, without care whether the buyers are politely 
 treated or not. 
 
 H. Frederick Rudolph was marriedi in Meriden, 
 Sept. 6, 1895, to Miss Maria A. Freier, a native of 
 Germany, daughter of August Freier, a well-known 
 resident of Meriden. Two children have been born 
 to this union, Walter Frederick and Lillian Freier. 
 Mr. Rudolph is connected with Teutonia Lodge, 
 No. 95, L O. O. F., in which he has filled the prin- 
 cipal chairs ; belongs to the Daughters of Rebekah ; 
 is a member of Court Schiller, No. 117, Foresters 
 of America, in which he has filled the chair of 
 chief ranger; is a mem'ber of the German Mutual 
 Aid Society, Eintracht Lodge, No. 19, Deutschen 
 Ordens der Harugari ; the Meriden Saengerbund ; 
 and the Meriden Butchers and Grocers Protective 
 Association. In the latter body he has served as 
 recording secretary and is now corresponding sec- 
 retary, and is sergeant-at-arms of the State asso- 
 ciation of that organization. He has taken an act- 
 ive part in the work of the Daughters of Rebekah, 
 having served as drill master, and his wife is an 
 influential memiber of that lodge. Politically Mr. 
 Rudolph affiliates with the great party of inde- 
 pendent thinkers, voting for the men he deems best 
 suited for office. For some years he has been con- 
 nected with Immanuel German Lutheran Church, 
 He enjoys the respect and esteem of all the good 
 people of Meriden. 
 
 ROBERT G. RUSSELL, D. D. S., Ansonia, 
 prominently and favorably known in his profession, 
 is a native of Connecticut, born June 9, 1864, in 
 Silvcrmine, town of Wilton, Fairfield county. 
 
 John Russell, his father, was a Scotchman by 
 birth, born at Denny, Stirlingshire. Robert Geddes, 
 maternal grandfather of our subject, was a paper 
 maker in Scotland as well as in several localities in 
 this countrv, including Winnepauk, Fairfield Co., 
 Conn., and 'died in Norwalk, March 12, 1876. By 
 his wife Ellen (Campbell) he had a family of seven 
 
 children, viz. : William, who was a machinist in 
 Bridgeport ; Christina C, mother of Robert G. Rus- 
 sell; Andrew, who was a foreman in the Winne- 
 pauk paper mills, Fairfield county; Thomas, who 
 was a mechanic in Norwalk; Alexander, who died 
 in Scotland when young; Ellen, ^married to John 
 McLaughlin, of Norwalk ; and Agnes, who did not 
 come to America. 
 
 John Russell, father of Robert G., came to the 
 United States when a young man, and followed 
 the business of paper making. He married Chris- 
 tina C. Geddes, of Norwalk, a native of Edinburgh, 
 Scotland, and by her had nine children as follows : 
 Margaret died at the age of four years ; James is 
 a mechanic in Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Robert G. is our 
 subject; John is a mechanic in South Norwalk; 
 Margaret (2) died at the age of three years; Ellen 
 married Ira Meeker, of South Norwalk ; Jane died 
 when four years old; Jane (2) married Daniel 
 Weed, of Norwalk ; and William. The father of 
 these died Jan. 28, 1879, the mother on Jan. 6, 1892. 
 Robert G. Russell at the age of four years was 
 taken to Canada by his parents, who for a time 
 rruade their home in Dundas, Province of Ontario, 
 removing thence to Valleyfield, Province of Que- 
 bec, at which latter place our subject received his 
 earlier education.- In 1874 the family came to Nor- 
 walk, and there young Robert attended the Union 
 school, after which, for about four years, he worked 
 in a shoe factory in that city. We next find him in 
 the employ of Lounsbury, Mathewson & Co. in the 
 shoe business, during which time he commenced the 
 study of dentistry in the office of Dr. Horace Longe- 
 necker, Norwalk. After one year there he went 
 to Brooklyn, N. Y., and finished the study in the 
 office of Drs. J. H. Longenecker & Sons. On Feb. 
 7, 1890, he came to Ansonia, Conn., and com- 
 menced the practice of his profession, in which he 
 has met with eminent success. 
 
 On Dec. 31, 1891, Dr. Russell married Mary 
 Shorten, of Ansonia, a daughter of Columbus 
 Shorten, of that city, and four children have blessed 
 their union: Lenore, Leslie, Robert G., Jr., and 
 Columbus. In politics Dr. Russell is independent, 
 and in religious faith he and the family attend the 
 services of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 ARTHUR JAMES HALL, head of the firm of 
 A, J. Hall & Co., is one of Meriden's rising young 
 manufacturers. He was born Nov. 4, 1865, on a 
 farm in Meriden, and is a descendant of one of the 
 oldest and best-known families in New Haven 
 county, whose ancestry is traced to John Hall, 
 known in Connecticut prior to 1669. 
 
 (II) Samuel Hall, son of John, was one of the 
 first settlers of Wallingford, and one of the 
 signers of the Plantation Covenant in 1672. He 
 married Hannah Walker, May 16, 1668, and died 
 March 5, i7?5; she survived until Dec. 20, 1728. 
 Th'ey were the parents of eight children. 
 
 (III) Samuel Hall, second son of Samuel (i). 
 
1448 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 born Dec. lo, 1680, married Sue, daughter of Na- 
 thaniel and Esther Royce, and after her death 
 espoused Bridget (surname not known). He died 
 June 16, 1770, in his ninetieth year, and was the 
 father of six children. 
 
 (IV) Theophilus Hall, eldest child of Samuel 
 Hall (2), was born April i, 1707, and graduated 
 from Yale College at the age of twenty years. He 
 was ordained Oct. 29, 1729, and was thirty-eight 
 years a minister of the gospel, being the first set- 
 tled pastor of the iCongregational Church in Meri- 
 den. He died March 28, 1769, aged sixty-two 
 years. He miarried Hannah Avery, May 21, 1734, 
 and they were the parents of nine children. 
 
 (V) Theophilus Hall (2), twin brother of Lucy 
 and son of Theophilus Hall (i), was born Aug. 26, 
 1-741. On March 10, 1768, he married Elizabeth. 
 Couch, who died March 11, 1824, at the age of sev- 
 enty-four years. He died May 17, 1804. His chil- 
 dren were: Mehitabel, born March 21, 1769, died 
 Sept. 30, 1776; Clarissa, April 3, 1771 ; Theophilus, 
 April 20, 1773, didd April 26, 1815; Mehitabel (2), 
 Aug. 4, 1777; Avery, May 25, 1779; Hannah and 
 Elizabeth, twins, Jan. 30, 1782; John Willard ; and 
 Russell, 1791. 
 
 (VI) John Willard Hall was born April 26, 
 1786, and married Polly Todd, of .Marcellus, N. Y. 
 He was a farmer in the town of Meriden, where he 
 spent his life and where he died April 27, 1865. 
 His children were: Beri, born Feb. 20, 1813, died 
 April 6, 1832; William, born Sept. 2, 1816, died 
 1877, married Polly A. Bristol ; Mary Ann, born 
 Sept. 18, 1818, died in April, 1894; Clarissa, born 
 Jan. 8, 1820, died 1865 ; Avery, born March 14, 
 1S22, married Sarah Dunbar, of Ohio, and died 
 in 1898; James, born Oct. 7, 1824; Erastus, born 
 Aug. 7, 1827, died in 1847; ^nd Lydia, born April 
 24, 1830, died in 1836. 
 
 (VII) James Hall was born on the family 
 homestead, south of the present city of Meriden, 
 and grew to manhood there, making farming his 
 life occupation. He owns and operates a farm on 
 Hall's avenue, and is still hale at the ripe age of 
 seventy-eight years. Pie is well known and very 
 highly respected. While not a politician, he is a 
 firm adherent of the principles of the Republican 
 party. He married Harriet Williams Way, of 
 Meriden, who has been to him a faithful helpmeet, 
 a devoted wife and mother. Their children : 
 Charles Edward, born June 6, 1847, is ^ farmer, 
 residing in Southington ; William Franklin, born 
 Sept. 19, 1849, niarried Ellen Andrews, of Walling- 
 ford, and is a farmer in that town ; Elizabeth Celes- 
 tia, born June i, 1857, married (first) Eugene 
 Lawrence and (second) William Plineline, and lives 
 in Forestville; George Lee, born April 16, 1853, 
 married Anna A. Knapp, and is a farmer in South- 
 ington ; Harriet Layette, born Feb. 29, 1856, is the 
 wife of Henry Sherman, of Middletown ; Adeline 
 Fidelia, born July i, 1859, married (first) Melville 
 Brooks, of Meriden, and (second) Hugh McGahie, 
 
 of Wallingford; Julius Way, born Oct. 4, 1862, 
 died in 1864; and Arthur James, born Nov. 4, 1865, 
 is the subject of this notice. 
 
 Arthur J. Hall grew up on the homestead farm, 
 and attended the schools of his district. Having 
 a taste for art, he took up its study under D. F. 
 Wentworth, an artist, of Meriden, and continued 
 one and one-half years. At the age of eighteen he 
 accepted a position in the factory of C. F. Monroe, 
 in Meriden, as an opal glass decorator, and here 
 spent eight years. Wishing to extend his education, 
 he resigned his position and spent one year in at- 
 tendance at Yale Business College. Returning to 
 Meriden, he was engaged in art work by P. J. 
 Handel. After serving this employer some time as 
 a designer, he acted as traveling salesman, this con- 
 nection altogether covering a period of seven years. 
 In 1899 he engaged in business on a small scale, on 
 his own account, and after six months elapsed he 
 was persuaded to become a partner of James D. 
 Bergen, who operated a cut glass business. They 
 established a factory on Mill street and are now 
 on North George street, doing business under the 
 style of A. J. Hall & Co., decorators of opal glass 
 ware and dealers in lamp goods. For the past three 
 years they have conducted a very successful busi- 
 ness, under the immediate supervision of Mr. Hall. 
 Seventeen hands are now employed, and branch 
 offices are maintained in New York, Boston and 
 San Francisco for the sale of the product. Besides 
 being a skillful artist, Mr. Hall has shown the quali- 
 ties of a first-class business man, as the growth and 
 success of his venture have demonstrated. 
 
 In 1897 Mr. Hall was married in Hartford, 
 Conn., to Miss Sarah Priscilla, daughter of Robert 
 and Sarah (Moody) Price. Mrs. Hall is a native 
 of Hartford, and by her marriage has become the 
 m.other of two children, Marion Marshall and Har- 
 riet Price. While maintaining an interest in and 
 intelligent observation of the current of events, Mr. 
 Hall is not in any sense a politician, although he 
 supports the principles of the Republican party. 
 He is an active communicant of St. Andrews Epis- 
 copal Church of Meriden. With progressive ideas, 
 he aims to keep up with modem progress, and is a 
 valuable citizen of the "Silver City." 
 
 FRANCIS W. FOLEY, a prominent Demo- 
 cratic politician, registrar of votersi since 1900, and 
 engaged in business in New Haven since 1884, was 
 born on Chapel street. Fair Haven, Conn., March 
 28, 1853. The grandparents, who were agricultur- 
 ists in Ireland, never came to America, but Patrick 
 and Ellen C. (Cummings) Foley, his parents, na- 
 tives of County Sligo, Ireland, came to the United 
 States, and the father was a trusted and valued 
 employe of Foot & Hemmingway, lim.e dealers, of 
 New Haven, during the remainder of his life. His 
 death occurred in this city in 1857, at the age of 
 fifty-two, his widow surviving him until 1861. The 
 children born to these worthy parents were Thomas, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1449 
 
 Daniel, Michael, Ellen, Bartholomew, Patrick and 
 Francis W. Mr. Foley was always an adherent of 
 the Democratic party, and reared his children con- 
 scientiously and in the faith of the Roman Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 Francis W. Foley, the youngest of the family, 
 became an orphan at the age of nine years, and was 
 thus face to face with the serious and responsible 
 side of life. From the age of eleven to sixteen he 
 worked on a farm for his clothes and board and the 
 privilege of going to school through the winter 
 months. Later he learned the carpenter trade, and 
 worked at it in the neighborhood of his old home 
 until 1877, and during that year made up his mind 
 to see something of the lands beyond the sea. Ac- 
 companied by his kit of tools he made a trip to 
 Glasgow, and from there to Manchester, England, 
 going thence through Ireland. All the time enjoy- 
 ing himself, and much more than paying his way, by 
 the excellence of his work, he found employment 
 among others with the G. F. Ailing Lumber Co., 
 the Lewis & Beecher, and the Porter Stair Co., and 
 remained in Europe for two years. After a year 
 in New York City he returned to New Haven, and 
 was employed by David H. Clark until his appoint- 
 ment, in 1882, as assistant registrar of voters. This 
 position was creditably maintained for fourteen 
 years, and in 1900 he was appointed registrar. 
 
 In 1884 Mr. Foley opened up his retail wine and 
 liquor business, and conducts in connection there- 
 with a fine cafe on Grand avenue. In 1888 he built 
 the handsome block at 284 Grand avenue, and he 
 also owns considerable other city property. Air, 
 Foley has taken much interest in the building up 
 and improvement of the city, and is highly regarded 
 by the business community. 
 
 In 1882 Mr. Foley married Lizzie R. Egan, of 
 New Haven, a daug'hter of Thomas Egan, of Kings 
 County, Ireland. Two children have been born of 
 this union, Rita, who is deceased, and Francis, Jr. 
 Reared in the Catholic Church, Mr. Foley has never 
 departed from the teachings of his youth. Genial, 
 pleasant and accommodating, he is not only popular 
 among the business men of the town, but is appre- 
 ciated by all classes as a painstaking and conscien- 
 tious public servant. 
 
 GEORGE BURKHARD, one of the rising 
 young men of Meriden, was born in Augsburg, Ba- 
 varia, Germany, Nov. 18, 1871, one of the family 
 of ten children born to George and Josephine 
 (Treuleben) Burkhard. His parents were both 
 born in Augsburg, and there his mother died. The 
 father is still living, and is a jeweler by trade. All 
 the members of the family are connected with the 
 Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 George Burkhard acquired his education m the 
 city schools and in the Artistic Brass Works School, 
 where he took a course in architectural and orna- 
 mental iron work. This he completed, and at 
 the age of fifteen years struck out into the world for 
 
 himself, going to Basle, Switzerland, where he was 
 engaged for two years in ornamental iron work. 
 In 1S88 he landed in the United States, at New 
 York, and made his way to Cincinnati, where he re- 
 mained a year, and at the age of nineteen years re- 
 moved to Philadelphia to engage in business for 
 himself. This business he sold out after a year and 
 a half, and journeyed to Williamsport, Penn., to 
 take a position with the Backus Manufacturing Co., 
 filling the place of foreman for a year. For two 
 years he was with Tiffany Hl Co. in New York, and 
 in 1895 came to Meriden, where he worked for the 
 Meriden Bronze Co., holding this position until the 
 end of 1899, when he formed a partnership with 
 George Knoth, and established the Silver City Iron 
 Works, from which he subsequently withdrew. He 
 is now employed by the Meriden Britannia Com- 
 pany. 
 
 Mr. Burkhard is a young man of energy, with 
 a business ambition which will not be content with 
 small things. He knows his work in all its parts 
 thoroughly, and there is predicted for him a bright 
 future. 
 
 Mr. Burkhard is a member of the local German 
 Saengerbund, and is very popular in social circles. 
 He was married, in 1897, to Mary Maynard, a lady 
 of Prussian-German extraction. They are members 
 of the Roman Catholic Church, and are regarded as 
 exemplary young people. 
 
 CARL VICTOR HELMSCHMIED, designer, 
 and superintendent of the C. F. Monroe Company's 
 factory, at Meriden, is a self-made man of whom 
 any city might be proud. Born Oct. 30, 1863, in 
 Steinschoenau, Bohemia, he is a son of Joseph and 
 Wilhelmina Helmschmied. 
 
 After comlpleting the common school course of 
 his native place, Mr. Helmschmied was sent to the 
 Imperial Technical School of Steinschoenau, in or- 
 der to develop the marked artistic talents which he 
 early exhibited. Before attaining the age of twenty 
 years he resolved to seek a wider field for the exer- 
 cise of his abilities than that afforded in his native 
 land, and, fired by a laudable ambition, set out to 
 reach the ocean, situated a long distance from his 
 native boundaries, and he there embarked for the 
 United States. After landing in New York, he 
 made his way to New Bedford, Mass., v/here he was 
 employed as a designer by Smith Brothers — among 
 the largest manufacturers of decorated opal ware — 
 and at the end of two years went to Trenton, N. J., 
 and worked a year for Jesse Dean, at china paint- 
 ing. Returning to New Bedford, he spent two 
 years in the service of the Mount Washington 
 Glass Company, and during that time designed 
 many of the finest patterns turned out by this ex- 
 tensive concern. 
 
 Mr. Helmschmied became a resident of Meriden 
 in 1886, and as an employe of C. F. Monroe found 
 such ready recognition of his talents that when the 
 corporation known as the C F. Monroe Company 
 
1450 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 was formed he became a stockholder, and was made 
 superintendent of the plant. At the beginning of 
 his connection with this establishment but seven 
 people were employed, while at the present time 
 the services of more than two hundred are required. 
 Much of the growth of the business may be attrib- 
 uted to the skill and energy of its superintendent 
 and designer, who, in addition to his business quali- 
 fications, is possessed of a genial disposition andi de- 
 cidedly agreeable manner. These desirable attrib- 
 utes have won him the respect and friendship of all 
 who know him. 
 
 On May 8, 1889, in New York City, Mr. Helm- 
 schmied married Lillian Von Ballhaussen, who was 
 born in New York, a daughter of the late August 
 Von Ballhaussen, a prominent New Yorker of Ger- 
 man birth. Mrs. Helmschmiied is a refined and culti- 
 vated womian of artistic taste and ability, and is 
 thus a helpmate to her gifted husband. The home 
 of this popular couple, on Reservoir avenue, lis 
 beautified with numerous works of art and bric-a- 
 brac. One daughter. Fern, has been born of this 
 union. 
 
 Mr. Helmschniied is a member of Pilgrims' 
 Harbor Council, No. 543, Royal Arcanum, a lead- 
 ing society of Meri'den. While not affiliated with 
 any religious organization, he is respected as an up- 
 right and exemplary citizen, who seeks to conform 
 his life to the Golden Rule. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican, being convinced that the principles and 
 practice of his party are best calculated to promote 
 the welfare of the people. 
 
 The career of Mr. Helmschmied offers much en- 
 couragement to the youth who seeks the royal road 
 to success, which is, after all, but the way of patient 
 endeavor and sincere striving after high ideals. He 
 left the land of his fathers and went among those 
 whose language and customs were as strange as 
 their features, and has carved his way by painstak- 
 ing use of the gifts which God gave him. Seeking 
 large ideas in a new realm, he has himself contrib- 
 uted no little to the progress of art and manufac- 
 tures of his adopted land. 
 
 BURWELL. For half a century — fifty years — 
 the name of Burwell has been among those which 
 have stood high in the business life of New Haven, 
 in the persons of the late Robert Merritt Burwell 
 and sons, Merritt W. Burwell, president of the 
 Orange Oyster Co., and Robert N. Burwell, an ac- 
 complished undertaker of New Haven. 
 
 Burwell is an old name in New England and in 
 the Commonwealth of Connecticut, and the mem- 
 bers of the family of whom we write trace their de- 
 scent back to (I) Edmund Burwell, boim in 1485 
 in Sutton, County of Suffolk, England. 
 
 (H) Ednifund Burwell married Margaretta Al- 
 ford. 
 
 (HI) William Burwell, born and died at Sut- 
 ton, England, married Lora Wilson, of Essex. 
 
 riV) Thomas Burwell, born April 29, 1566, at 
 
 Sutton, married, Feb. 29, 1589, a lady named 
 Poentys. 
 
 (V) John Burwell, born Oct. 5, 1602, at Sut- 
 ton, died Aug. 16, 1649, at Milford, Conn. John 
 appears as a free planter of Milford, Conn., in 1639, 
 having come to the American colonies that year, 
 and was married prior tO' his emigration to a lady 
 whose Christian name was Alice. Some of their 
 children were probably born in England, and of 
 them : John died in 1665 ; Zacheus married, in 1663^ 
 Elizabeth Baldwin, and settled in Newark, N. J.; 
 Capt. Samuel, born Oct. 11, 1640, married Sarah; 
 Deborah married and had a family ; Capt. Ephraim, 
 born May 19, 1644, married and had a number of 
 children, one of whom, Samuel, settled in Newtown, 
 Conn. ; Nathan, born Feb. 22, 1646, was married in 
 1674 to Temperance Baldwin, and settled at New- 
 ark, N. J. ; Elizabeth died unmarried. 
 
 (VI) Capt. Samiuel Burwell died May 15, 1715, 
 Throughout life he was a man of influence and po- 
 sition in Milford, and' was an officer of the train 
 band. His first wife was' a daughter of Benjamin 
 Farm, one of the most influential men of the Col- 
 ony, and a descendant of Richard Baldwin, of 
 Bucks County, England. For his second wife he 
 married a daughter of Rev. Roger Newton, and 
 granddaughter of the famous Rev. Thomas Hooker, 
 of Hartford. The Burwells were large landholders 
 in Milford, and Burwell Farms, now Woodmont, 
 was so called by ownership of this family, being 
 granted to Lieut. Samuel as his share of the land. 
 On this property, in 1690, he built a house, which 
 was taken down about 1812. 
 
 (VII) Samuel Burwell, born at Milford in 1667, 
 died in May, 1712. He married, Aug. 11, 1695, 
 Deborah Merwin, bom on April 24, 1670, who died 
 Oct. ID, 1706. She was a descendant of Miles Mer- 
 win and Richard Piatt, early settlers of Milford. 
 
 (Vni) Samuel Burwell, born in 1702, at Mil- 
 ford, married, Jan. 12, 1726, Abigail Goodyear, 
 granddaughter of Deputy Governor Goodyear. 
 
 (IX) Samuel Burwell, born Dec. 12, 1729, at 
 Milford, died in 1816. He married Abigail Arnold, 
 daughter of Rev. Jonathan Arnold. 
 
 (X) Samuel Burwell, born in 1761 at Milford, 
 died in 1806. He married Comfort Law, born in 
 1762, a descendant of Richard Law, of Stamford, 
 Conn., in 1687, and William Andrew, of Cambridge, 
 Mass., in 1682, whose grandson, Rev. Samuel, was 
 an acting president of Yale. Through Gov. Bene- 
 dict Arnold the line of ancestry is traced to Cad- 
 wan, king of the Britons, who died in 675. 
 
 (XI) Robert Burwell, born Jan. 3, 1791, died 
 May 8, 1833. He married Abigail Polly Satteriee, 
 born Nov. 17, 1790, who died Sept. 3, 1828. Their 
 children: Robert Merritt; Abigail ; Polly Lyoma; 
 John Satteriee. 
 
 (XII) Robert Merritt Burwell, of New Haven, 
 was born March 31, 1814, in the town of Milford, 
 a son of the above mentioned Robert, and left home 
 when but eighteen years of age, going to New Ha- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1451 
 
 ven, where for two years he clerked in the drug 
 store of L. K. Dow, whose place of business was 
 on Chapel street. In 1835 he went to the city of 
 New York and there remained until 1841, a portion 
 of which period he was employed in a drug store. 
 From New York he went to New Hartford, Conn., 
 remaining some six years, then went to Waterbury^ 
 and after a residence there of nearly two years came 
 to New Haven, and ever afterward made that point 
 the field of his operations and his place of residence. 
 Here he entered the drug house of Samuel Noyes, 
 known as "Apothecaries' Hall," and in that house 
 it was that he began experiments in making soap 
 which led to the business in which he engaged in 
 1852, and in which his efforts, energy and great 
 industry were crowned with deserved success. His 
 employer aided him in starting and became inter- 
 ested in the enterprise, but this interest Mr. Bur- 
 well soon purchased and was on the road to pros- 
 perity. By manu'ifacturing a isuperior article of 
 laundry soap, and possessing sufficient tact to get 
 it before the people and trade, his business grew, 
 became extensive and its founder prospered. In 
 1880 Mr. Burwell retired from active business, leav- 
 ing it to his son Merritt W. to manage and carry 
 to still greater success. The year that the father re- 
 tired Merritt W. Burwell succeeded to the man- 
 agemient of the large concern. 
 
 The senior Mr. Burwell came into possession of 
 a farm of some 270 acres just north of Allingtown, 
 in which was "Mount Round Hill," a point some 
 300 feet high, overlooking the surrounding coun- 
 try for miles and miles, and from^ the mansion home 
 there is a most beautiful view. This farm Mr. 
 Burwell called "Wellwood," its appellation being 
 made up of the last syllable of his own surname 
 with the first of that of his wife. His later 
 Hfc was principally devoted to the beautifying of 
 the picturesque country seat. 
 
 On June i, 1847, Mr. Burwell was married to 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Asa and Polly (Spencer) 
 Woodruff, prominent people of New Hartford, 
 Conn. Three children blessed the union of these 
 excellent people : Elizabeth R., born Nov. 24, 1855 ; 
 Merritt W., born July 16, 1859; and Robert Noyes, 
 born Aug. 3, i860. Mr. Burwell was one of the 
 founders and trustees of the Howard Avenue Con- 
 gregational Church. His death occurred Dec. 6, 
 
 1888 
 
 (XIII) Robert Noyes Burwell, born Aug. 3, 
 i860, at PlainviUe, Conn., spent his early school 
 days in New Haven, later attending the Russell 
 Commercial and Collegiate Institute. His student 
 days over he embarked on a busmess career, and 
 entered the store of the Wholesale Spice Co. of 
 C Coburn & Co., New Haven. Later he was con- 
 nected with the late George W. Hazel, m the manu- 
 facturing of hot air furnaces and ranges also as 
 a plumbing company for eight years. Mr. Hazel 
 was the father-in-law of Robert Noyes Burwel 
 and after the death of this gentleman Mr. Burwell 
 
 retired from business for seven years. For a short 
 period Mr. Burwell was on the roadi for a New 
 York house, but in 1898 he engaged in the under- 
 taking business, establishing same and building it 
 up himself. It is conveniently located at No. 966 
 Chapel street. Mr. Burwell is well fitted for his 
 chosen business, understanding its details thor- 
 oughly. 
 
 On April 15, 1885, Mr. Burwell was married to 
 Ella Hazel, who was born Nov. 5, i860, daughter 
 of George W. Hazel, a well-known and prominent 
 business man of New Haven, now deceased. Mrs. 
 Burwell is a descendant of John Davenport, first 
 pastor of the New Haven Congregational Church. 
 To Mr. and Mrs. Robert Noyes Burwell two chil- 
 dren have been born : Julietta Elizabeth, Nov. 29, 
 1887; Stanley Burgess, July 22, 1893. 
 
 (X) Samuel Burwell married Comfort Law, 
 and of their children, besides Robert Burwell (from 
 whom the late Robert Merritt and his three chil- 
 dren already mentioned trace their ancestry), was a 
 son, 
 
 (XI) Benedict Burwell, who was born at Bur- 
 well Farms Feb. 26, 1785, and died April 14, 1863. 
 On Nov. 24, 1808, he married Dolly Welch. Their 
 children : 
 
 (XII) Caroline Welch, born Oct. 29, 1809, died 
 July 13, 1893; Charles, born Aug. 21, 1810, died 
 Oct. 6, 1813; Charles Penedict, born Nov. 10, 1813, 
 died 'March 25, 1896 (married Jan. 14, 1844, Har- 
 riett A. Gay) ; Welch F., born April 6, 1816, died on 
 Jan. 28, 1876; Fitch W., born in 1818, died in 1897; 
 Calena, born April 20, 1821, died March 13, 1832; 
 Mary E., born July 15, 1823, married Robert Blair; 
 Sarah Jane, born Feb. 12, 1827, married Thomas 
 Barrett, who died in the battle of Fredericksburg, 
 and they had a daughter, Caroline, who married 
 P. S. Gehrish, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and has one 
 daughter, Helen, born in Brooklyn (Mrs. Barrett 
 married for her second husband Dr. Halsey, of 
 Brooklyn). The father, Benedict Burwell, spent 
 his early school days at Burwell Farms, where he 
 engaged in farming. He was a deacon in the Old 
 South Church in New Haven, on Columbus avenue. 
 
 Of the above family, Charles Benedict Burwell 
 was born at Burwell Farms, and there spent his 
 early life, but attended school at Milford and New 
 Haven. 'Although he learned the trade of shoe- 
 maker, he did not follow that calling very long. For 
 a tim^e he resided in West Virginia, where he mar- 
 ried Harriet Gay, and later, returning to. New Ha- 
 ven, engaged in a fancy goods business on Chapel 
 street, on the present site of the Hubinger building. 
 About thirty years ago he discontinued the busi- 
 ness and engaged in fruit raising and market gar- 
 dening. During his later days he was treasurer of 
 the Second Congregational Church. Mrs. Burwell 
 was a daughter of Amos Plastings Gay, of Point 
 Pleasant, W. Va., a captain of an Ohio river steam- 
 boat. The children born of the marriage of Charles 
 Benedict Burwell and his wife were : 
 
145: 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 (XIII) Mary Gay, born May 27, 1845, died 
 July 25, 1854; Eunice Jane, born Feb. 17, 1847, 
 died Sept. 5, 1847; Robert Fitch is mentioned be- 
 low; Harriet Rosalie, born Feb. 27, 1856, was a 
 teacher in New Hampshire for a number of years ; 
 LilHan Gay was born April 23, 18—; Carrie Agnes 
 was born Jan. 11, 18 — . 
 
 Robert F. Burwell, of the above family, was 
 educated in New Haven, attending Lovell's School, 
 learned the science of dentistry under Dr. Strong, 
 and for thirty years has been in practice in this 
 city. 
 
 Of the family born to Benedict and Dolly 
 (Welch) Burwell, Fitch W. Burwell, born Nov. 5, 
 1818, died Dec. 12, 1897. On April 28, 1843, he 
 married Maria Chapman, a daughter of Robert 
 Chapman, of Norfolk, W. Va. To them came : 
 Charles D., born in 1844, married Martha Wilkin- 
 son, and resides in Brooklyn, N. Y. Eleanor D., 
 bom in 1847, married (first) Charles Chapman, of 
 Louisville, Ky., and for her second husband Ed- 
 ward G. Merwin, a bookkeeper in the Mechanics 
 Bank at New Haven ; Caroline May died at the age 
 of seven years ; and Frank, born in 1852, died in 
 childhood. 
 
 Fitch W. Burwell spent his childhood in Mil- 
 ford, and at the age of eighteen began his business 
 career in New Haven, with Benjamin & Ford, a 
 jewelry firm, and was afterward with Mr. Free- 
 man, of Norfolk, Va. Later he engaged in the 
 jewelry business for himself in Norfolk, Va., re- 
 maining there until 1854, when he returned to New 
 Haven and built a beautiful home at No. 146 Co- 
 lumbus avenue. Having always been interested in 
 photography, he invested some $50,000 in the Will- 
 ard Mfg. Co., manufacturers of photographic sup- 
 plies, and unfortunately lost the greater part of this 
 sum. In addition, he also furnished several studios 
 and had them managed by expert photographers. 
 In 1893 Mr. Burwell lost his dearly beloved wife, 
 about four years before his own demise. He was 
 a man of prominence in New Haven, and his loss 
 was deeply felt in the community. 
 
 Referring again to the issue of the marriage of 
 Samuel and Comfort (Law) Burwell, the ancestry 
 is traced through another branch, as followsi; 
 (XI) Samuel Burwell, son of Samuel and Com- 
 fort; (XII) George Burwell, son of Samuel (2); 
 (XIII) David C. Burwell, son of George; (XIV) 
 S. Clark Burwell, son of David C. Burwell. 
 
 (XIII)- David C. Burwell was born in the town 
 of Milford, Conn., April 10, 1833, and died in New 
 Haven, Aug. i, 1893. His early life was spent in 
 ,New Haven. During the Civil war he served in 
 the 9th Regiment Band. After the war he engaged 
 in the wholesale oyster business, in which he con- 
 tinued until a short time prior to his death, and 
 this enterprise was located at No. 73 Front street. 
 David C. Burwell married Miss Mary Hosley, of 
 Branford, Conn., and to them were born the fol- 
 lowing family: George Loring, who died at the age 
 
 of eighteen; S. Clark; Mary; Marcus, who died 
 when young; Malintha A., who died when young; 
 and Sarah M. Mr. Burwell was an earnest member 
 of the Methodist Church. For many years he was 
 an alderman and councilman from the Eleventh 
 ward, having been elected on the Republican ticket, 
 he being an ardent supporter of that party; for 
 twenty-five years he was a member of the fire de- 
 partment. 
 
 (XIV) S. Clark Burwell was born in New 
 Haven April 14, 1858, and his boyhood days were 
 spent in that city. When old enough to embark in 
 business he traveled in 1ihe interests of the oyster 
 trade, and about 1888 be became associated with his 
 father in the oyster business. After the death of 
 David C. Burwell, S. Clark managed the concern 
 alone, and then, in 1897, formed the S. C. Burwell 
 Co., of which he is president and treasurer; his 
 wife (E. M. Burwell), secretary; F. R. Barnes, 
 general manager ; and John Stewart, vice president. 
 This corporation is one of the largest in the city, 
 and was founded as a wholesale and commission 
 house in fresh, salt, frozen and smoked fish, oysters, 
 clams, lobsters, scallops, etc., all of which are 
 shipped throughout the United States. Ever since 
 he assumed charge of affairs Mr. Burwell has given 
 his entire time to its development, and its present 
 large proportions testify to his success. 
 
 S. Clark Burwell was married, in New Haven, 
 Sept. 19, 1884, to Eva M. Wipper, of that city. To 
 this marriage the following children have_ been 
 born : George Loring, Eva Katharine, Marion 
 Hammond, David Clark, Ellen Hosley and Flor- 
 ence Elizabeth. 
 
 For eight years Mr. Burwell was a member of 
 Hook and Ladder No. 3, serving as callman. So- 
 cially he is a member of Polar Star Lodge. I, O. 
 O. F., and also of the A. O. U. W. Fraternal Benefit 
 League. Both he and his wife are members of the 
 East Pearl Street M. E. Church. 
 
 Another prominent representative of the Bur- 
 well family is Nelson Burwell, son of Thomas Bur- 
 well, and grandson of John Burwell. John Bur- 
 well lived the greater portion of his life in Milford, 
 Conn., and died highly respected by all. He mar- 
 ried a Miss Welch. 
 
 Thomas Burwell, son of John, and father of 
 Nelson, during the early part of his life resided in 
 Milford, and by calling was a farmier, which occu- 
 pation he followed all his life. He lived to the re- 
 markable age of ninety-one years and eight months, 
 and' his wife lived to be ninety-eight years and eight 
 months old. Her maiden name was Sarah Beach, 
 and she was a daughter of John Beach, and a na- 
 tive of Milford, Conn. To Thomas Burwell and 
 his wife were born: M,ary, who married a Mr. 
 Tibbals; Horace (deceased), a carpenter, who had 
 a daughter, Mrs. Darham; Nelson; Beach (de- 
 ceased) , a carpenter ; Eliza ; Martha ; and Elias. 
 
 Nelson Burwell was born on the fann in Mil- 
 ford, Conn., Dec. 26, 181 5, and spent the first 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1453 
 
 twenty-five years of his life in Milford. After this 
 he learned the trade of carpenter in New Haven_j 
 and for a number of years was one of the leading 
 carpenters of the latter city, but for the past six 
 years has lived retired from active life. 
 
 Nelson Burwell was married, in New Haven, 
 Conn., to Miss Mary E. Clark, who died about 
 seven years ago. To them were born : Ella, who 
 married Charles D. Kinney, a native of Seymour, 
 Conn. ; and) Marion A. 
 
 WILLIAM EBEN BECROFT, a well-known 
 contractor and architect of Wallingford, was born 
 in that town, June 20, 1857. 
 
 JameSi Seth Becroft, the grandfather of William 
 E., was born in Troy, N. Y., May 20, 1796, and be- 
 came a mason and contractor. C5n Feb. 2, 1822, he 
 married Clarinda Weldin, who was born Dec. 24, 
 1802, and who died Oct. 12, 1872. He died April 
 27, 1840. The Becrofts were of remote Holland 
 ancestry. 
 
 James Henry Becroft, son of James Seth, was 
 born in Troy, N. Y., Dec. 27, 1827. He was a 
 theatrical machinist, and had charge of the stage in 
 Wallack's theatre in New York about fifteen years. 
 About 1877 he began a contracting business from 
 Meriden, and contracted with a number of the 
 large theaters in different parts of the country. On 
 Nov. 22, 1898, he died in Meriden. A Democrat 
 in politics, he was exceptionally posted on political 
 affairs. He was a charter member of the Dramatic 
 Society, and was the first one to receive a benefit 
 therefrom, having fallen in Booth's Theater in New 
 York. During the Mexican war he served as a 
 soldier, and was badly wounded on the hand by a 
 saber stroke. Mr. Becroft was married, Nov. 3, 
 185 1, to Miss Mary Jane Whittaker, of New York, 
 who died in March, 1893, in Wallingford. Ten 
 children were born to them, of whom seven are now 
 living: Emma Florence, who married John Bur- 
 bridge, of Meriden ; William E. ; James Henry, Jr., 
 a carpenter of Wallingford; George. Samuel, a car- 
 penter and decorator of Waterbury; Elizabeth 
 Mary, the wife of Robert Clark, of Meriden ; Silas 
 Weldin, a silversmith, of Wallingford; and Albert 
 Whittaker, a paper-box maker, of Waterbury. 
 
 William Eben Becroft had his early education in 
 the town of his nativity, and in Meriden, to which 
 point his parents removed when he was quite young. 
 At the age of ten years he left school and worked 
 with his father until he was twenty years old. For 
 the seven ensuing years he was employed by other 
 parties, and then forming a partnership with his 
 father, they began contracting under the firm namie 
 of James H. Becroft & Son, at Meriden. For three 
 years this association continued, and then our sub- 
 ject came to Wallingford, to become foreman for 
 Newton C. Wooding. At the present time he is 
 foreman and architect for Charles F. Woodmg, 
 who has succeeded his father in the same busmess. 
 Mr. Becroft was always deeply interested in archi- 
 
 tecture, and has devoted so much time and study to 
 it that he has become a proficient architect. He 
 has drawn the plans for a number of important 
 buildings the last few years, and is manifesting 
 much ability in this art which is practically self- 
 acquired. In 1896 he built himself a very pleasant 
 home on North Whittlesey avenue. 
 
 Mr. Becroft belongs to the Odd Fellows frater- 
 nity, and is a member of Accanant Lodge, No. 71, 
 of which lodge be is now past grand. In his politi- 
 cal views he is a Democrat, but business cares and 
 obligations have kept him from active political am- 
 bition. Mr. Becroft is a member of St. Paul's Epis- 
 copal Church, and has been assistant superintendent 
 of its Sunday-school. Mr. Becroft was married 
 Sept. 7, 1887, to Miss Annie Elizabeth Hobson, a 
 daughter of William Hobson, of Meriden. To this 
 union were born two children, Mildred Madeline, 
 born Jan. 18, 1889, and Gladys Beulah, born Jan. 8, 
 1892, and died June 22, 1893. 
 
 One of Mr. Becroft's ancestors was the first 
 settler in what is now Columbia county, and owned 
 the entire tract thus described. All the family pos- 
 sessions were lost during the Revolution, in which 
 war the great-grandfather of Mr. Becroft lost his 
 life. Another member of this family was the first 
 banker in Hudson, New York. 
 
 MARTIN HELLMANN was a man whose 
 many quiet deeds of benevolence and charity won 
 for him the love and esteem of hundred's who had 
 no special right to his consideration, and in his 
 death, which occurred at his residence on Bank 
 street, Waterbury, March 5, 1892, the city lost one 
 of its most prominent German business men and 
 citizens. 
 
 Mr. Hellmann was born Aug. 7, 1844, in Ba- 
 varia, Germany, and at the age of twenty-one came 
 to America, locating in Bridgeport, Conn. For a 
 time he was in the employ of the Wheeler & Wil- 
 son Sewing Machine Co., and then engaged in the 
 hotel business. In about 1878, in connection with 
 Michael Kipp, also of Bridgeport, he purchased 
 the Naugatuck Valley Brewery of Frederick Nuhn, 
 and under his judicious management the business 
 was developed until the establishment became one 
 of the largest and most successful breweries in the 
 State. In about 1889 Mr. Hellmann bought the 
 interests held by his partner, and thereafter con- 
 ducted it alone. His good business attainments 
 and great popularity brought him into favor in the 
 city, and his services were sought for places of 
 public trust and honor. He was elected by hand- 
 some majorities to a number of municipal offices, 
 among them being that of alderman, from the Third 
 ward, in which capacity he served in 1882-83, 1884- 
 85, 1886-S7 and 1890-91. He was councilman 
 from the same ward in 1881. In i88g and 1890 
 he held the office of tax collector, and declined to 
 serve longer owing to the pressure of his extensive 
 business. Mr. Hellmann took great interest in 
 
1454 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 fraternal organizations, and hiad 'high standing in 
 many. He was a member of some twenty so- 
 cieties in BridgejDort and Waterbury, among whicli 
 may be mentioned the Waterbury Turnverein ; 
 Steuben Lodge ; the Order of Harugari ; the Union 
 City Maennerchor; the Bavaria- Verein of Bridge- 
 port ; Friendship Lxidge, O. D. H. F. ; Tunxis 
 Tribe, I. O. R. M. ; Court Fruitful Vine, A. O. F. 
 of A. ; Friedrich Wilhelm Lodge, K. of P. ; the 
 Concordia Singing Society; and the Lyra Singing 
 Society. 
 
 In 1867, at Bridgeport, Conn., Mr. Hellmann 
 was married to Sibilla Merg, who is yet living. 
 The following children survived the father : Will- 
 iam, who died Feb. 13, 1898; Mrs. W. D. Richard- 
 son ; Mrs. Ferdinand Stener ; Charles M. ; and 
 Otto L. 
 
 HENRY A. MATTFIEWS. The life of Henry 
 A. Matthews, of Southbury, Conn., illustrates a 
 fact strikingly exhibited in this country, namely, 
 that prominence and 'wealth and honor may come 
 to the boy whose future seems narrowed to the 
 most modest of spheres. The son of a machinist, 
 and by circumstances fated to become an operator 
 in a cotton mill at the early age of eight years,' our 
 subject has nevertheless won wide social and po- 
 litical recognition, and has by his energy andl abil- 
 ity as a manufacturer occupied an honored place in 
 the unexcelled industries of his native State. 
 
 Mr. Matthews was born in Goshen, Conn., 
 Nov. 24, 1825. His father was a machinist, and 
 the boy at eight years of age left leisure behind 
 and began to work in a cotton mill. When thir- 
 teen years old he removed with his parents to 
 Waterbury, and there found employment in the 
 Webb factory of Hotchkiss & Merriman, with 
 whom he remained five years. Thereafter he en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of saddlery hardware, 
 stove trimmings, etc., until 1865, when, owing to 
 ill health, he retired to the farm which he now 
 occupies, and where, at the end of five years of 
 agricultural life, he had regained health, strength 
 and ambition. Accordingly he returned to Water- 
 bury and became senior partner in the firm of 
 Matthews, Stanley & Co., manufacturers of hard- 
 ware, saddlery, etc., and after the death of Mr. 
 Stanley five years later the firm of Matthews, Wil- 
 lard & Co. succeeded, and conducted a large and 
 prosperous business until 1891. That year Mr. 
 Matthews organized at Sevmour the well-known 
 manufacturing business of H. A. Matthews & 
 Co., and two and a half years later disposed of 
 his manufacturing interests and retired to his pres- 
 ent home on the farm near South Britain. This 
 finely improved possession is known as the old 
 Mitchell homestead, and there Mr. Matthews still 
 manages the general and pi'osperous farming 
 which his fertile and' well-improved acres permit. 
 On Jan. 15, 1849, Mr. Matthews married Sarah 
 Peck, of Southbury, to whom has been born three 
 
 children : Charles H., a carriage manufacturer of 
 Detroit, Mich. ; Florence, wife of John F. Ireland, 
 of Detroit; and William F., who died in 1880. 
 Mr. Matthews, while a thorough and efficient busi- 
 ness man, has been public-spirited as well and; has 
 frequently been summoned by his fellow citizens to ' 
 positions of honor and responsibility. While a 
 resident of Waterbury he served as a member of 
 the State Legislature in 1863-64, and again in 
 1880-81. In 1886-87 he ■was a member of the State 
 Senate, and in 1884-85 he was elected mayor of 
 Waterbury. For many years he served continu- 
 ously as a member of the school board of Water- 
 bury. In politics he is a Democrat. For fifty-one 
 years he has been an active and prominent mem- 
 ber of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. 
 He has been one of the largest and most success- 
 ful manufacturers of Waterbury, and at one time 
 employed about 800 men and conducted a business 
 aggregating $1,000,000 a year. He is widely known 
 and universally esteemed for his many sterling 
 qualities. 
 
 GEORGE HODGSON TOWNSEND, M. D., 
 a prominent physician of Stony Creek, this county, 
 has brought zeal and enthusiasm' to the practice of 
 his profession, for which he has been thoroughly 
 fitted by study and experience under especially fa- 
 vorable conditions. 
 
 Of English and French extraction, Dr. Town- 
 send was born in Hartsdale, Westchester Co., N. Y., 
 June 4, 1867, and is a son of Samuel B. and Mary 
 A. (Brundage) Townsend. His father in early life 
 was a Methodist minister, and in his later years 
 was engaged in a mercantile business at Hartsdale. 
 Dr. Townsend obtained his general and literary 
 training in the high school at White Plains, N. Y., 
 and in 1890 began the study of medicine at the 
 Bellevue Hospital College, New York City, from 
 which he was graduated in March, 1893. He im- 
 mediately located at Danbury, Conn., and entered 
 upon his professional career, continuing there until 
 September of that year. In June of the following 
 year he opened an office in Stony Creek, where he 
 has since remained, and has met with gratifying 
 success. He has won the patronage of many of 
 the leading families of the community, and com,- 
 mands the respect and confidence of the public to 
 a marked degree. Dr. Townsend is recognized as 
 one of the rising young men of his profession in 
 this locality. He belongs to the New haven Countv 
 Medical Society. and to the State Medical Associ- 
 ation ; and is a member of several fraternities, being 
 enrolled with the Widows Sons Lodge, No. 66, 
 F. & A, M.; Star of Hope Lodge, No. 1051, I. O. 
 O, F. ; and the M. U. In politics he is a Re- 
 publican. 
 
 In his earlier years Dr. Townsend was actively 
 devoted to athletics, and from 1885 to 1888 was 
 catcher for the Athletic Base Ball Teaim of Phila- 
 delphia, and from 1888 to 1891 he served in the ■ 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 145$ 
 
 same capacity for the Baltimore team' of the Na- 
 tional League. He was the fovmder of the Mt. 
 Vernon Athletic Association, of Mt. Vernon, N. Y., 
 and served as its first president. The Doctor stlill 
 retains a lively interest in all manly and athletic 
 recreations. 
 
 Dr. Townsend was married, March 26, 1897, to 
 Maud Bryson, a daughter of Richard and Lottie 
 (King) Bryson, of Mt. Vernon, N. Y. Mrs. Town- 
 send is a woman of many charming characteristics, 
 and has a large circle of friends. 
 
 FREDERICK A. JACKSON, a resident of 
 West Haven, where he is held in the highest re- 
 spect as one of the most useful, loyal citizens of the 
 place, is a descendanit of Henry Jackson, who came 
 , in 1635, at the age of twenty-nine, to this country 
 fromi England in the ship "Elizabeth & Ann;" 
 .he located first in Watertown, Mass., and afterward 
 removed to Wethersfield, sitill later, in 1642, to 
 Falirfield, being one of the original settlers and 
 proprietors of the last named place. His tract of 
 land, among the "long lots" at Poquonnock, became 
 at a later day the boundary line between Fairfield 
 and Stratford. He followed farming, had a mill at 
 "Jackson's Nook," and died in 1686. His will, 
 dated Nov. 11, 1682, was proved in September, 
 1686. This document, still in a fine state of 
 preservation, is lin Fairfield. Henry Jackson's wife 
 was Mary, daughter of George Abbott, of Norwalk. 
 Daniel Jackson, the great-grandfather of Fred- 
 erick A., was a soldier of the Revolution. On Feb. 
 20, 1783, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Henry 
 Whitney, of Ridgefield, Connecticut. 
 
 Samuel Jackson, son of Daniel and Elizabeth, 
 was: born Aug. 6, 1786, and he died Aprfl i, 1867. 
 His education was acquired at Dwight's Academy, 
 Greenfield Hill, Conn., with Calhoun and other 
 prominent men. He married Betsey, daughter of 
 William Welles, a descendant of Thomas' Welles, a 
 Colonial governor of Connecticut. Of this marriage 
 were born six children, all now deceased. The 
 mother died in 1869, at the age of seventy-six. 
 
 George Frederick Jackson, father of Frederick 
 A., was born July 15, 1820, in Stratford, Conn., and 
 died Oct. 18, 1866, at the age of forty-six years 
 He engaged in manufacturing in the South until 
 the breaking out of the Givil war, when he returned 
 to Stratford. He married Frances Augusta O'Neill, 
 of Bridgeport, a daughter of Charles O'Neill (son 
 of John O'Neill, who married Sarah, daughter of 
 Ebenezer Sherman, of Stratford, a soldier of the 
 Revolution), of Bridgeport, and his wife, Meranie 
 Sage (a daugliter of John Clark and Lois (Rich- 
 ards) Sage of West Haven, the former of whom 
 was a descendant of Henry, of Dragon Woods, one 
 of the early settlers (1664) of East Haven). 
 [Dodd's "East Haven Register."] To George b. 
 Jackson and wife was born one child that grew to 
 maturity, Frederick A. The mother is yet livmg, 
 now aged seventy-four years. 
 
 Frederick A. Jackson received his education in 
 Philadelphia at Dr. Mitchel's school, and then 
 went to New York to take a position on the Scien- 
 tific American, where he remained for a number of 
 years. In 1864 he returned to Connecticut, and in 
 1869 entered the employ of Sargent & Co., of New 
 Haven, and is now, in point of service, one of the 
 oldest in the employ of the firm. During the years 
 he has been with it he lias seen the business double 
 itself an size and reach its present mammoth pro- 
 portions. Notwithsitanding the arduous duties of 
 the position he holds, he yet finds time to be cour- 
 teous and polite to all, employer or employe alike, 
 and by one and all of the 2,500 hands engaged in 
 the business he is held in the utmost respect. In 
 the community at large of West Haven, whither be 
 removed from New Haven in 1892, he is regarded 
 as one of the best citizens. His house abounds with 
 good cheer, and his frank and genial manner has 
 won for him hosts of friends. 
 
 Mr. Jackson is a man of scholarly attainments, 
 a close student of men and affairs, and a great 
 reader, not only well posted on the current events of 
 the day, but thoroughly conversant with the history 
 of New Haven and Fairfield counties, in the affairs 
 of both of which he has taken an active interest, and 
 has in his possession every volume that has been 
 published pertaining to them. In His library are to 
 be found the choicest works, including those of the 
 most eminent authors — historians, poets, etc. — of 
 this continent. As a genealogist Mr. Jackson is an 
 authority, owning not only the Whitney and Wells 
 "Genealogies," in both of which his family are fully 
 represented, but also many other genealogical 
 works. He is also greatly interested in science and 
 art. He is a member of the Sons of the American 
 Revolution, in which society he takes a great in- 
 terest. 
 
 On Feb. 12, 1872, Mr. Jackson married Violet 
 El Dora Loomis, daughter of Francis Dwight 
 Loomis, of Westfield, Mass., and two children were 
 born to them in New Haven, viz. : Dorothy B. L., 
 Oct. 3, 1874; and Frederick F. Whitney, Sept. 15, 
 1879, at present a member of the class of 1902 at 
 Yale. The Jackson family have always been ad- 
 herents of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Mrs. Jackson is a descendant of Joseph Loomis,. 
 who came from Braintree, County of Essex, Eng- 
 land, and settled at Windsor, Conn. Through in- 
 itermarrtiage she is also descended from John Alden,^ 
 "the man who first set foot on Plymouth Rock," 
 and Capt. Miles Standish. 
 
 JACOB DIETRICH CODE, a well-known 
 dairyman and fanner of Cheshire, New Haven 
 county, was born in Hagen, Hanover, Germany, 
 July 5, 1853, a son of John and Dora (Myers) 
 Code, also natives of that country, where they are 
 still living. The mother was born, in Hagen and 
 the father near by. For several years the father 
 was engaged in the manufacture of sugar in Ehg- 
 
1456 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 land, but since his marriage has followed farming 
 (in his native land. Both he and his wife hold 
 menibership in the Lutheran Church. Our subject 
 is the eldest of their children, the others being 
 Annie, at home with her parents ; John, a resident 
 of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; Dora, wife of Herman Deiles, 
 of Brooklyn ; Gesine, widow of George Briggs, 
 and a resident of Germany ; and William, of Brook- 
 lyn, N. Y. John Gode, grandfather of Jacob, 
 owned a vessel which he commanded, and followed 
 the sea for a llivelihood. Mrs. Dora (Myers) Gode 
 is a daughter of Jacob Myers, a civil engineer, who 
 was born in Hagen and lived there all his life. 
 
 Jacob D. Gode acquired a good practical edu- 
 cation in the schools of his native land. Wishing 
 to see something of the New World, he left home 
 in 1870, at the age of seventeen years, and at Bre- 
 xnen took passage on the steamer "America," of 
 the North German Line. He landed in New York, 
 and soon found employment as clerk in a grocery 
 -S'tore of that city, receiving $5 per month, which 
 was the first money he had ever made. During 
 the eight months he spent in that employ he man- 
 aged to save $8. He next worked for a milk dealer, 
 and later was clerk in a liquor store. From' New 
 York he came to Meriden, Conn., where he worked 
 in the shops nine years, and m,anaged to save 
 enough money to embark in business for himself. 
 Returning to New York, be opened a grocery store, 
 which he successfully conducted ten years, buit in 
 1893 he sold out his business there and came to 
 Cheshire, where he purchased what was known as 
 the McCabe farm, then owned by his uncle, Louis 
 Gode. It consists of fifty acres, which our subject 
 has placed under a high state of cultivation, and 
 upon whkh he is now successfully engaged in gen- 
 eral farming and market gardening. 
 
 In New York City Mr. Gode was married, in 
 1889, to Misis Margarette Larberg, a native of 
 Achmer, Hanover, Germany, and a daughter of 
 Herman Larberg. She came to America when a 
 young woman. Four children have been born of 
 this union, John, Oscar, Randolph and Mildred. 
 
 Mr. Gode is progresisive, energetic and indus- 
 trious, and is straightforward and honorable in all 
 his business dealings. He is a supporter of the Re- 
 publican party, but aside from voting takes no act- 
 ive part in political affairs, and is liberal in his re- 
 ligious views, though a member of the Lutheran 
 Church while in New York. He is well liked by 
 the people of Che'shire, and has made many friends 
 during his residence here. 
 
 CHARLES T. McFEETERS, a prominent 
 and successful contractor and builder of New Ha- 
 ven, whose office is at No. 370 Orchard street, was 
 born in Sheldon, Vt., Dec. 13, 1849, son of William 
 McFeeters, and grandson of JameSi McFeeters, 
 who came from Scotland and farmed in \^er- 
 mont until his death, at the age of eighty- 
 nine years. William' McFeeters was also a farmer, 
 
 and was a pioneer in the settlement of the 
 vicinity of Sheldon, Franklin county, where he 
 cleared a farm on which he reared his family, and 
 where he died at the age of seventy-nine. In his 
 active years he held 'several town offices, and was 
 a prominent member of the Methodist Church, in 
 whidh he was Sunday-school superintendent for 
 many years. His wife, formerly Ann Todd, was 
 born in Vermont, and became the mother of twelve 
 children, of whom nine are named : James, who is a 
 farmer in Vermont; William, a Vermont farmer; 
 Samuel, who died in the army ; Charles T. ; EMza, 
 Mrs. Dunton; Joseph, who is superintendent of 
 building for a large firm in Minneapolis; Susan; 
 Anna ; and Ella. Mrs. McFeeters was a member of 
 the Methodist Church; she died at the age of sev- 
 enty years. 
 
 Charles T. McFeeters spent his: early life in 
 Vermont, and was quite a young man before he 
 left His parents' home to engage in building in 
 the far West. In 1869 he came east to New Ha- 
 ven, and followed the trade as a journeyman 
 builder in 1871. Then commencing contracting, 
 his first enterprise in that line proved so 'suc- 
 cessful that he has since been similarly employed. 
 To-day he is the second oldest contracting builder 
 in New Haven, and keeps about tW'Cnty-five men 
 constantly employed on the most important and 
 desirable work in the city. The Menalle & Weed- 
 man building was 'built by him, as was the Schonen- 
 hezer building, on Meadow street, besides several 
 churches in New Haven. 
 
 In 1872 Mr. McFeeters married Catherine Ad- 
 dison, a native of Boston, and to this union there 
 has come one charming little girl, Ella. 
 
 Mr. McFeeters is a Democrat, and upon the 
 occasion of his nomination for alderman in his 
 ward he ran ahead of his ticket, though the ward 
 IS strongly Republican. He is connected with 
 Olive Branch Lodge, No. 84, A. F. & A. M ; Frank- 
 lin Chapter, R. A. M. ; Harmonv Council,; the I. O. 
 O. F. ; the Red Men, and the N. E. O. P- He 
 attends the Dwight Presbyterian Church. Mr. Mc- 
 Feeters is a man of more than the ordinary intelli- 
 gence, thoroughly understands his trade, and has 
 served as an expent in a number of complicated and 
 important building cases. 
 
 EDWIN S. THOMAS, attorney and counselor 
 at law, is' in practice at New Haven, with an office 
 at Room 213 Church istreet, but resides in West 
 Haven, his home being at the corner of Savin avenue 
 and Church street. 
 
 A native of Woodstock, 111., Edwin S. Thomas 
 was born Nov. 11, 1872, the son of, George W. and 
 grandson of Edwin E. Thomas. His grandfather 
 was a natlive of New York State, but went to Wood- 
 stock at an early period in the development of 
 that section, and engaged in the real-estate busi- 
 ness, in which he was very successful^ His influence 
 was strongly felt in business: circles, and he was 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1457 
 
 a, director in several banking and other corpora- 
 tions. . He became one of the leaders in local af- 
 fairs.^ Originally a Whig, he became -a prominent 
 worker in the Republican party, and held all the im- 
 portant offices in the town and county. For many 
 years he was an active member of the Masonic fra- 
 ternity and held all the offices of the lodge, chapter 
 and commandery, including that of past eminent 
 commander. In religious faith he was a Congrega- 
 tionalist, and he did much to assist in building up 
 the church in Woodstock, where he died at the age 
 of seventy-two. His wife, Naomi R. Patterson, 
 who was born in Vermont, is still living in Wood- 
 stock, and is much esteemed for her fine qualities of 
 mind and heart. Of their four children, Charles G. 
 is with Patterson Bros., Union Stock Yards, Chi- 
 cago; Earle D., a major in the sth Cav., U. S. A., is 
 now serving as judge' advocate in the provincial 
 ■court at Porto Rico; George W., father of Ediwin 
 S., was the next in order of birth; Cora married 
 Charles F. Dickinson, secretary of the Manhattan 
 5oap Company. 
 
 George W. Thomas was born and reared in 
 Woodstock, and practiced law there and in Chi- 
 cago, but his death at the age of twenty-eight inter- 
 fered with what was considered brilliant promise. 
 He married Mary Stark, who was born in Vermont, 
 daughter of Benjamin Stark, and a descendant of 
 Molly Stark, of Revolutionary fame. She survived 
 liim, and married for her second husbandl Charles 
 D. Hine, by which union there were two children: 
 Daniel, now a student at the Boston (Mass.) School 
 of Technology, and Charles (deceased). Two chil- 
 ■dren by the first marriage are still living, Edwin S. 
 -and Alfred W., the latter a practicing physician at 
 Clifton, Staten Island, New York. 
 
 Edwin S. Thomas was three years old when 
 his father died, and he spent the next five years in 
 Omaha, Neb., with a summer in camp at Pike's 
 Peak. At the age of eight he came to Newington, 
 Conn., where he remained until he was fourteen. 
 His elementary education was secured in the gram- 
 mar .and high schools of Hartford, and the high 
 schools of New Britain and New Haven, and when 
 eighteen he engaged in educational work, as prin- 
 cipal of a graded school in Voluntown, Conn. In 
 1 891 he entered the Academic Department of Yale 
 College, but at the end of the Freshman year went 
 to New' York and became assistant manager of the 
 Hotel "Bartholdi," in partnership with a cousin. In 
 1893 he went to West Haven, and in the fall of 
 -that year entered the Law Department of Yale 
 College, graduating in 1895. Since that time he has 
 been actively engaged in general practice in New 
 Haven. . . 
 
 On Sept. 7, 1894, Mr. Thomas was united m 
 marriage with Louise L. Peck, of West Haven, and 
 they have one daughter, Louise. Mrs. Thomas is 
 the only living child of Wardfcn James H. Peck, a 
 -prominent citizen of West Haven, another child 
 
 having died in infancy. Her grandfather, William 
 A. Peck, was ohe'''of the pioneers of West Haven, 
 where he owned about five hundred acres of land, 
 and was a leader 'in all that pertained to the best 
 interests of the community. Her mother, whose 
 maiden name was Henrietta M. Thompson, was a 
 native of the town, and a daughter of John Thomp- 
 son, a well-known citizen. 
 
 Politically Mr. Thomas is piominent as a work- 
 er in the Democratic party, and he has held a num- 
 ber of offices, including tho.se of clerk of the com- 
 mittee on public health, chairman of the commit- 
 tee on the State Library, and auditor of New 
 Haven county. At present he is one of a com- 
 mittee of eight appointed by the Speaker of the 
 House of Representatives to examine different 
 voting machines and report to the next General 
 Assembly. In November, 1898, he was elected rep- 
 resentative, by 'a majority of eighty-four, although 
 the general Republican ticket won by a majority of 
 one hundred and fifty. His popularity in his own 
 party is shown by the fact that he ran 234 votes 
 ahead of his associates on the ticket. He is a 32d 
 degree Mason, and belongs to Annawon Lodge, No. 
 115, F. & A. M., at West Haven; Joseph Andrews 
 Chapter, No. 46; Crawford Council, No. 19, New 
 Haven ; New Haven Commandery, No. 2 ; and La- 
 fayette Consistory, Bridgeport. He has held all but 
 the three highest offices in the local lodge, and all 
 the offices in tke chapter, in which he is now high 
 priest. He and his wife are leading members of the 
 Episcopal Church at West Haven. 
 
 EDWARD HAMILTON HIGGINSON, |an 
 enterprising farmer and proprietor of the Meriden 
 Disinfectant Co., was born in Cookstown, County 
 Tyrone, Ireland, July 4, 1855, son of William Hig- 
 ginson. The father was also born in County Ty- 
 rone, where he spent his life as a tenant farmer, 
 and where he died in 1870. Mr. Higginson was a 
 member of the Church of England, .and belonged 
 to the I. O. O. F. His wife, formerly Mary Jane 
 Hamilton, was a descendant of one of the old fam- 
 ilies of County Tyrone. After the death of her 
 husband she came to the United States, and died in 
 Meriden, at the home of her son Edward H., in 
 1872. Mrs. Higginson was buried in Walnut 
 Grove cemetery; she is remembered as a woman 
 of fine character, an earnest worker in the Episcopal 
 Church, and a devoted mother. To Mr. and Mrs. 
 Higginson were born the following children : Sa- 
 rah, who married John Kenyon, of Belfast; Will- 
 iam, who lived in Meriden ; Hugh, a molder in Mer- 
 iden ; Eliza, who married John Dunlap, of Meriden ; 
 Edward H. ; and Sophia, who married George H. 
 Reeves, of Meriden. 
 
 Edward H. Higginson had but a limited edu- 
 cation in his native land. When seventeen years 
 old he sailed from Liverpool for New York, May 
 10, 1873. On reaching American shores he came 
 
 92 
 
145^ 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 at once to the home of his brothers, William and 
 Hugh, in Meriden, and found employment for 
 four years with Bradley & Hubbard, as a joiner. 
 Afterward he was with Will Loverett for some 
 time, and at the expiration of his service was re- 
 ceiving two dollars a day. As foreman at the Meri- 
 den Bronze Co.'s plant he was employed two years, 
 and for six months he was with the Iron Foundry, 
 after that attaching himself to the American Silver 
 Plate Co., receiving a dollar a day the first year, 
 two dollars a day the second year, and three dollars 
 a day the third year. With Manning, Bowman & 
 Co. he put in eight years at piece work, and there- 
 after was employed by the Malleable Iron Co., re- 
 maining twelve years in their service. In the mean- 
 time he had built a bouse, and in May, 1883, he 
 bought the farm where he now resides, on the 
 North Colony Road. This property is under a high 
 state of cultivation, and in 1893 a fine new barn was 
 built, after the destruction of the old one by fire. 
 The residence, erected in 1895, is pronounced the 
 finest on the road. Extensive improvements have 
 been made from time to time, and' the well-tilled 
 acres yield abundantly with the coming of every 
 season. 
 
 In 1888 Mr. Higginson obtained the contract 
 to collect the city garbage for $875, and so satis- 
 factorily was the task performed that he secured 
 the contract in 1895, 1896 and 1897, for the sum of 
 $2,400 a year. This contract was again given him 
 in 1899, 1900 and 1901, at $2,550 a year. Nine 
 teams are required for this work, and the busi- 
 ness has been profitable from the start. Mr. Hig- 
 ginson is also president of the Meriden Disinfectant 
 Co., which has proved an exceedingly profitable en- 
 terprise. 
 
 On Jan. 6, 1879, Mr. Higginson married, in 
 Meriden, Lizzie A. Sully, who was born in South- 
 ington, daughter of James and Anna Sully, the 
 former of whom died in Burlington, Conn., where 
 he was engaged in farming. To this union came : 
 Grace May, born Oct. 18, 1880; Edward Garfield, 
 born June 9, 1882, who is at home, and engaged in 
 the dairy business; Maud A., born Aug. 29, 1884; 
 Isabelle S., born May 8, 1886, w/ho died the same 
 year; LiUian, born May 12, 1887; Lyman Mather, 
 born July 20, 1889; Thomas A., born Oct. 11, 1890; 
 Clara Elizabeth, born Aug. 19, 1892; Burton; See- 
 vy ; and Etta. Mr. Higginson is a Republican, but 
 has never sought official recognition. He belongs 
 to the I. O. O. F. and the A. O. U. W., and attends 
 the Episcopal Church. 
 
 GEORGE H. THOMAS was born in New Ha- 
 ven Oct. 16, 185 1, grandson of Amos C. andt Ama- 
 rilla Thomas, and son of Edward and Harriet E. 
 (Kimberly) Thomas. His grandfather and father 
 were natives of West Haven, and the former was 
 captain of a coasting vessel. The family were 
 identified with the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Edward Thomas was born Aug. 19, 1819. He 
 
 learned the trade of a carpenter, and remoTi'ing to 
 New Haven at first embarked in business as a con- 
 tractor, succeeding so well, through energy and tact, 
 integrity and indtistry, that it was not long before 
 he found himself in a position to erect buildings on 
 his own account. In 1867 he removed to West Ha- 
 ven, where he continued to reside until he passed 
 from earth, in 1881, aged sixty-one years. He was 
 an early member of Harmony Lodge, I. O. Q. F., 
 and a popular man in the community. He married 
 Harriet E. Kimberly, who was born at Guilford, 
 and wasi one of the family of ten children bom to 
 Abraham Kimberly and his wife, whose maiden 
 name was Collins, and who, with her husband, at- 
 tained to fourscore years. Mr. Kimberly was a 
 farmer. Mrs. Thomas, like her husband, was an 
 Episcopalian. She reached the age of eighty-three 
 years. Mr. and' Mrs. Thomas had two children: 
 George H,, our subject; and Charles A., who died 
 in 1853, aged four years. 
 
 George H. Thomas was educated in the city 
 schools of New Haven, and was a lad of sixteen 
 when he accompanied his parents to their new 
 home in West Haven. Entering the shops of the 
 New York, New Haven & Hartford Railway Co., 
 he remained there ten or twelve years, first as an 
 apprentice and later as a journeyman. In 1881 
 he abandoned mechanical pursuits to enter the gro- 
 cery and general store of Wilmot & Warner, in 
 West Haven, as a clerk, and remained with this 
 firm four and a half years, when he was appointed 
 assistant postmaster, and eighteen months later (in 
 1887) postmaster. He resigned the office in 1890, 
 and re-entered the employ of Wilmot & Warner. 
 In 1891 he was elected town clerk, which office he 
 still holds (December, 1901), having been annu- 
 ally re-elected until 1897, when he was chosen for 
 a term of two years, to expire Jan. i, 1900; in 
 October, 1900, he was re-elected for a term of two 
 years. It is a high tribute to the efficiency with 
 wliich he discharged his official duties, and to his 
 fidelity to his trust, that, although politically a Dem- 
 ocrat, he has been the candidate of both parties 
 several times. He is one of the oldest officeholders 
 in the town in point of consecutive service, land one 
 of its most honored citizens. Mr. Thomas is sec- 
 retary and director of the Oak Grove Cemetery 
 Association. In 1872 he joined the I. O. O. F., and 
 holds membership in Harmony Lodge, No. 5 (of 
 which he is a past grand). New Haven, and in 
 Sassacus Encampment. He is a charter member 
 of Savin Rock Council, No. 1068, Royal Arcanum, 
 in which he is a past regent. In 1874 he joined 
 the Masonic fraternity, and now affiliates with An- 
 nawon Lodge, No. 115, A. F. & A. M., of West 
 Haven, of which he is a past master; with Har- 
 mony Council, No. 8, R. & S. M. ; Joseph An- 
 drews Chapter, No. 46, R. A. M. ; New Haven 
 Commandery, K. T. ; and Pyramid Temple A A 
 O. N. M. S. f , . . 
 
 Mr. Thomas was married, June 19, 1878, to 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I4S9 
 
 Chloe A., daughter of Seeley and Harriet A. 
 (Hotchkiss) Smith, of Prospect, both of whom 
 survive. They are the parents of four children, 
 one of whom is deceased;. Chloe A. is the wife 
 of our subject; Mrs. Humphrey Hyde and Mrs. 
 Alphonzo M. Hyde reside in West Haven. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Thomas have one daughter, Bertha M. 
 The family attend Christ Episcopal Church, West 
 Haven, of which Mr. Thomas is vestryman and 
 treasurer. 
 
 JOHN WILLIAMS (deceased), who was for 
 sixteen years a well-known and prosperous citizen 
 of Branford, where his sterling manhood, kindly 
 disposition and industrious habits commanded re- 
 spect and won the confidence of his fellow towns- 
 men, was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 
 1838. He was the son of Edward and Margaret 
 (Casey) Williams, and came to this country in 
 June, 1864, and in the month of his arrival Was 
 married to Ellen, a daughter of Patrick and Mary 
 (Keily) Gallahue, of County Limerick, Ireland. 
 Nine children were born to Mr. and Mrs. John 
 Williams, six of whom' lived to reach maturity: 
 Edward J., now deceased ; Patrick F. ; John G. ; 
 Thomas D. ; Mary A. ; and David W. 
 
 Mr. Williams and his wife came to make their 
 home in Branford in 1867, where he was em- 
 ployed two years as a molder in the Branford 
 Lock Works. Leaving the shop at the end of this 
 time, he embarked in the liquor business, and ac- 
 ciimulated a very comfortable fortune. 
 
 Mr. Williams died May 5, 1883, at the age of 
 forty-five years. His widow lived until Feb. 3, 
 1899, when she passed away at the age of, fifty- 
 five years. Both were active members of the Cath- 
 olic Church, and Mr. Williams was a member of 
 the A. O. H. Politically he was a Democrat. 
 I 
 
 WILLIAM A. KENDRICK has apparently in- 
 herited the sterling traits which made his imme- 
 diate ancestors esteemed and valued members of 
 the communities in which their lives were passed 
 — integrity, unflinching courage and an energy 
 which never knows defeat. 
 
 Mathew Kendrick, his grandfather, is still re- 
 membered in his lifelong home, on Cape Cod, 
 Mass., where he was noted for his many estimable 
 qualities. He reared a family which reflected honor 
 upon the name. 
 
 John Kendrick, the father of our subject, was 
 born at Cape Cod Nov. i, 1818, and received but 
 a meager education, the facilities being poor in 
 that locality in his early days. The conditions 
 of living, at that time, for a boy of twelve were 
 hard, his only opportunity being the sea, and al- 
 though John was not of a particularly adventurous 
 spirit he did as his companions, and at that ten- 
 der age shipped before the mast, and bravely dis- 
 charged the duties which finally brought him to 
 the position of master of a vessel, when he had 
 reached his majority. As master in the merchant 
 
 marine service he sailed to almost all of the, open 
 ports of the world, and when he became part 
 owner of the "Defiance" he took command of it, 
 from 1846 to 1858, becoming one . of the best- 
 known captains in the trade. In the last named 
 year he gave up the sea and returned to Walling- 
 ford, where be engaged in the coal and lumber 
 business, and until his death was one of the most 
 esteemed residents of that city. Socially he was 
 connected with the Masonic fraternity and the I. 
 O. O. F., and was as popular in these orders as in 
 all other associations, being of a peculiarly genial 
 and agreeable disposition. His death, which oc- 
 curred' Jan. 16, 1887, in Wallingford, was sincerely 
 mourned. 
 
 Capt. Kendrick was married in Washington, 
 D. C, to Miss Frances M. Edmonds, who was 
 born in Westmoreland, Va., a daughter of Mere- 
 dith Edmonds, and a sister of Silas N. Edmonds. , 
 Mrs. Kendrick is still living. She accompanied 
 her husband on many of his voyages, when he 
 could make them comfortable for her. Of the 
 children born to Capt. and Mrs. Kendrick, Thomas 
 resides at Bishop, Cal. ; William A. is our subject; 
 John B. is a resident of Wallingford, and is at 
 present a member of the State Legislature; Henry 
 D. is superintendent of G. I. Mix & Co.'s factory, 
 at Yalesville; and Mary. 
 
 William A. Kendrick, who is one of Walling- 
 ford's well-known business men, was born Nov. 
 17, 1848, in Wallingford, where he spent his boy- 
 hood days and attended the district school. Later 
 he was an apt student in the Connecticut Literary 
 Institute at Suffield, Conn. At the age of twenty 
 he entered upon his active business career, going 
 to New York, where he entered the employ of 
 Hall, Elton & Co., as a clerk, remaining with that 
 firm for eleven years, and gaining such knowl- 
 edge as secured for him an engagement, in 1879, 
 with the firm of G. I. Mix & Co., manufacturers 
 of Yalesville, as salesman. He was their repre- 
 sentative through the Central and Western States 
 until 1886, when he became general superintendent 
 of the company. Mr. Kendrick filled that office 
 with credit until the death of Mr. Mix, when he 
 assumed control of the business, and has success- 
 fully conducted it ever since. He' is one of those 
 employers who inspire confidence and esteem in 
 employees, and in his establishment it is remark- 
 able to note how keenly alive each seems to be 
 to the recognition of the other's interests. None 
 among the more than one hundred employes of this 
 factory have reason to doubt that Mr. Kendrick 
 takes a real pleasure in their prosperity, and at 
 the same time none can doubt his grasp of all busi- 
 ness possibilities. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Kendrick was married in Yales- 
 ville to Frances A. Mix, who was born there, a 
 daughter of Gatty Ives and Almira (White) Mix, 
 and to this union five children have been born: 
 Clara F.. born in 187s, a graduate of McLain Sem- 
 inary; Bessie M., who was educated at Rosemary 
 
1460 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Hall, in Wallingford ; Camilla, born in 1886; Jose- 
 phine Virginia, born in 1888 ; and Olive^ who died 
 in infancy. 
 
 Mr. Kendrick is a prominent member of Meri- 
 den Chapter, No. 8, O. E. S. ; and St. Elmo 
 Comman.dery, No. 9, K. T. In politics he is an 
 Independent, and no office seeker. For many years 
 the entire family has been prominent in the Bap- 
 tist Church, and the daughters are members of the 
 Christian Endeavor Society, the youngest being 
 president of the Junior organization of that name. 
 Mrs. Kendrick and her daughters are ladies of re- 
 finement and culture, who well represent the noblest 
 types of womanhood. 
 
 Gatty Ives Mix, father of Mrs. Kendrick, was 
 one of the best known and most highly esteemed 
 citizens of New Haven county. He was born in 
 Wallingford, son of John Mix, a spoonmaker, and 
 was reared on a farm. His literary education was 
 limited, but he had natural abiKty which came to 
 his assistance, and became a successful man. In 
 his early days he peddled Yankee notions through 
 Pennsylvania and New York, and upon his return 
 to Yalesville, in 1853, in association with Charles 
 Parker he started the business of manufacturing 
 tinware, etc., built a factory and did a large busi- 
 ness, shipping his product over the whole coun- 
 try. He was active in this line until the time of 
 his death, in 1892. In 1868 Mr. Mix was senator 
 from the Sixth District. For three years he was a 
 captain in the old Connecticut National Guard of 
 Wallingford. 
 
 Mr. Mix was married to Almira White, who 
 still survives, at an advanced age, residing in 
 Yalesville. Their two children are Eliza, the wife 
 of Dr. George Glenney; and Frances A., Mrs. 
 Kendrick. 
 
 Upon both sides of her family Mrs. Kendrick 
 is well connected, and the names of Ives and Mix 
 have been known in Wallingford for many years, 
 the record of the Mix family being easily traced 
 as far back as 1678. John Mix, her great-grand- 
 father, was born in Wallingford, was a blacksmith 
 in North Farms, and was in the Revolutionary 
 war. He left a son John, who followed! his fa- 
 ther's business at Tyler's Mills, near Yalesville. 
 He married Olive Ives, of Wallingford, a daugh- 
 ter of Joel Ives, who lost his right arm at the 
 battle of White Plains, during the Revolutionary 
 war. 
 
 FRANK STAHNKE. Poverty in early life is 
 a blessing to him who wins success. Achievement 
 is always commendable, and a competence secured 
 by persistent and earnest endeavor in connection 
 with good management, brings an enjoyment which 
 is wholly absent from inherited wealth. Strength 
 of character is developed in its attainment, and' the 
 stimulation to others which the example presents 
 is incalculable. When a lad of twenty years, the 
 subject of this sketch came to America without 
 
 means and without friends. He has here won 
 financial independence and high standing in the 
 community where now for many years he has lived 
 and prospered. 
 
 Mr. ' Stahnke was born in Germany March 6, 
 1850, and in his native land was reared upon a 
 farm. He received a good common-school edu- 
 cation, but filled with a desire to share the oppor- 
 tunities and advantages of the New World he 
 crossed the ocean during the summer of 1870, 
 landing at Boston Aug. 12. He soon after went 
 to New York and thence to Hoboken, N. J., where 
 he secured a position in a brewery and remained 
 a year. The home feeling was not wholly over- 
 come, and he paid a visit to the Fatherland, work- 
 ing his passage across the waters by serving a& 
 fireman on the steamer. While at his old home on 
 this visit he married Miss Henrietta Callis. Re- 
 turning to America with his younp- wife our sub- 
 ject 'settled at New Haven, Conn., and began farm 
 life in the new land. For seven years he worked 
 faithfully and continuously for one employer, 
 Reuben Augur, of Northford, Conn., then with his- 
 savings he purchased the farm which he now oc- 
 cupies. Upon this tract of land he has made all 
 the improvements and there he now conducts upon 
 his 200 acres a most successful farming business. 
 He is engaged in dairying and general farming; 
 has over thirty head of cattle, milks twenty cows 
 and for many years has run a milk wagon to New 
 Haven. 
 
 Mr. Stahnke has been twice married. By his. 
 first wife he hadi three children, Albert, Pauline 
 and William, of whom Pauline onlv is living; she 
 is now Mrs. Louis Ferdinandus. His second wife 
 was Emma Engle, and by this marriage he has 
 five children, namely: Emma (Mrs. Francis Fer- 
 dinandus, of New Haven), Minnie (Mrs. Byron 
 Webler, of Woodbridge, Conn.), Mary, Carl and 
 Nellie. Mrs. Stahnke was bom in Germany and 
 came to the United States when twenty-two years 
 old. 
 
 GEORGE KNOTH, proprietor of the Silver 
 City Iron Works, is one of the leading manu- 
 facturers of architectural and ornamental iron 
 work, and has a name and a patronage far beyond 
 the limits of Meriden. 
 
 Mr. Knoth was born in Darmstadt, in the Grand 
 Duchy of Hesse, Germany, Jan. 6, 1869, a son of 
 Peter Knoth, who was born in the same place, and 
 followed, during his active life, the business- of a 
 grain merchant. He is still living, and is a promi- 
 nent man jn his native town. Katherine Schick, 
 his wife, is also living, and both are members of 
 the Lutheran Church. They have two children: 
 Henry, who lives with them; and George, whose 
 name appears at the opening of this writing. 
 
 George Knoth attended the schools of his na- 
 tive community, where he had a goodi education,, 
 after which he was sent to an art school, where he 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1461 
 
 studied modelling and artistic iron work. When 
 he became of age he left his home and sought a 
 field for his activities in the United States, and in 
 October, 1890, landed in the city of New York, 
 with little resources beyond a skilled knowledge 
 of his trade and a ready mind. For some two years 
 he remained in that city employed in his work, and 
 then went to Chicago to do the same labor, spend- 
 ing some two years in that city. In 1894 he came 
 back to New York to engage in his professional 
 labors there, and in August, 1895^ made his first ap- 
 pearance in Meriden, which was to be the scene of 
 a very creditable career for him. For several years 
 Mr. Knoth worked at architectural and wrought 
 iron construction for the Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. 
 Co., and in 1899 bought out the firm of Jacob 
 Mugler & Co., and established the Silver City Iron 
 Works. He is a capable and energetic young man, 
 with advanced andi progressive ideas, and has made 
 many improvements in the business. His patron- 
 age is rapidly extending over all parts of the coun- 
 try, and many important orders are coming from 
 Canada. 
 
 Mr. Knoth was married, in Meriden, in 1896, 
 to Miss Pauline Kirschman, who was born in Ober- 
 stein, Oldenburg, Germany, and they have become 
 the parents of three children, George, Lucy and 
 Edith. Mr. Knoth is a Democrat, but gives no 
 time to practical politics, as it is called, devoting 
 his entire thought to his growing business. He 
 belongs to the Lyra of Meriden, and is very pop- 
 ular in the social as well as the commercial circles 
 of the city. 
 
 JOHN WHITAKER, representative business 
 man, and one of the leading young Republicans of 
 New Haven, was born at Southbridge, Mass., Aug. 
 17, 1856, a son of Thomas and Harriet (Mason) 
 Whitaker. 
 
 The paternal grandfather, whose given name is 
 not known, was a successful dry goods merchant, 
 of England, and, according to the custom of the 
 times, bound out his son, Thomas, to an uncle who 
 operated a large lace mill. Thomas was born at 
 Bingley, England, in 1814, and came to America, 
 settling at Southbridge. Being at this time but 
 sixteen, he was bound out to another uncle, under 
 whose able instruction he became an expert wool 
 grader. Later, while wool buyer for the Man- 
 chester Print Works, he conducted an experimental 
 farm at Needham, Mass., and branching out to an 
 interest in scientific agriculture bought and edited 
 The Boston Cultivator, issued at Boston. The 
 death of this excellent man occurred at Needham, 
 in 1882. His wife was born in Southbridge, Mass., 
 and she was a daughter of Jonathan Mason, a 
 farmer, and descendant of Capt. Mason, one of 
 the Pilgrim Fathers. The original settlement of 
 the Mason family was in Medford, Mass. The 
 maternal great-grandfather Mason was a captam 
 in the Revolution. Mrs. Thomas Whitaker, who 
 
 died in February of 1901, was the mother of five 
 children: George, editor and proprietor of The 
 Nezv England Farmer, and assistant secretary of 
 Agriculture for the State of Massachusetts, has 
 also been secretary of the Boston Press Club; 
 Thomas, a printer on the Cambridge Chronicle; 
 Arthur, a farmer in Needham ; Richard, a printer 
 of Boston ; and John, who was the second in order 
 of birth. 
 
 John Whitaker attained the age of twelve in 
 Southbridge, Mass., and then removed with his 
 parents to Needham, and combined educational re- 
 search with performing his share of the farm work. 
 When eighteen he entered the machine shop of N. 
 C. Monson, who was a railroad builder, and after 
 three years had become so competent that his serv- 
 ices were required in the shops of the New York 
 and New England railroad. There he remained 
 until 1887, when he was put in charge of the Woon- 
 socket Division as foreman, and after five years 
 was made general foreman of the Eastern Division, 
 with headquarters at Boston. At the expiration 
 of two years, in 1894, he engaged with the Old 
 Colony Road, and was transferred to Falls Village 
 in charge of the Housatonic shops. The next change 
 was made in 1895, when he was placed in the 
 motive power shops as general foreman, a very re- 
 sponsible position. 
 
 In 1876 Mr. .Whitaker married Frances Bur- 
 bank, a native of Winchendon, Mass., and daugh- 
 ter of James Burbank, of the same city, a book- 
 keeper, and a descendant of an old New England 
 family. To Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker three children 
 have been born, Albert, Grace and Frank. Po- 
 litically Mr. Whitaker is a Republican, and as evi- 
 dence of his popularity was elected to the Board 
 of Aldermen from the decidedly Democratic Fourth 
 ward. He takes a deep interest in party afifairs, 
 is an active member of the Young Men's Repub- 
 Hcan Club, and has a host of friends among the 
 business and social contingents of the city. The 
 family are earnest members of the Congregational 
 Church, and are among the most cultured and pop- 
 ular in the town. 
 
 PRAGEMANN. Among the many German 
 families who have been represented in Connecti- 
 cut the Pragemanns have been quite prominent, 
 and are worthily represented in this generation by 
 August Pragemann, of the town of Meriden. 
 
 Henry Pragemann, Sr., the father of this worthy 
 citizen, was born in PoUe, Hanover, Germany, son 
 of Louis Pragemann, who lived and died in the 
 Fatherland. Henry Pragemann learned the shoe- 
 maker's trade, and continued to make his home in 
 Polle until 1857, when he came to the United 
 Statesi and located in Yalesville, this county. Here 
 he bought a tract of forty acres, and settled down 
 to farming, making his home there until his death^ 
 in 1872. Hjis remains were laid tO' rest in Wall- 
 ingford. In politics he was a Democrat, and in 
 
1462 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 religion a member of the Lutheran Church. A 
 hard-working and honest man, he was quite pop- 
 ular and much respected in his community. In 
 Polle, Hanover, he was married to Wilhelmina 
 Stuenburg, a native of that village, a member of the 
 Lutheran Church, and a woman of excellent char^ 
 acter. She died in Yalesville, and was buried in 
 Wallingford cemetery. To them were given nine 
 children: Frederick who died in Yalesville; Wil- 
 helmina, deceased wife of Charles Hahn ; Fred- 
 erica, wife of Christian Nebelsick'; Caroline, who 
 married Frederick Burghoff, and died in Yales- 
 ville; August, of Meriden; Johanna, widow of 
 Henry Langheher; Henry, of Wallingford; and 
 two that died in infancy. 
 
 August Pragemann, well known and popular 
 in Meriden as a grocery merchant, was born in 
 Germany March 3, 1834, and received a good ed- 
 ucation in the German schools, remaining with 
 his parents until he had attained his twenty-third 
 year. Feeling that his future would be far better 
 spent amid the richer opportunities of the Western 
 World than at home, he came with his parents to 
 the United States, leaving Bremen June 27, 1857, 
 on a sailing vessel hound for New York, which 
 port was reached after a voyage of seven weeks. 
 The young German made his way to Yalesville, 
 where he secured employment as a buffer in the 
 factory of the Charles Parker Co., receiving wages 
 of eighteen dollars a month. His parents also 
 came to Yalesville. There he remained until the 
 breaking out of the Civil war, when, unknown to 
 his parents he went to New York and enlisted in 
 a company of engineers. He served several years 
 at the front, and distinguished himself by his fi- 
 delity and bravery. After his military experience 
 had ended Mr. Pragemann returned to Yalesville, 
 but soon removed to Middlefield, where he worked 
 in a wringer factory for a time, and then located' 
 in Meriden, where Ue entered the tin shop of Mr. 
 Clark. With this gentleman he spent some four 
 years, and during the latter part of this time was 
 Ln charge of the shop. His next employment was 
 in the factory of the Britannia Company, where 
 he rose to the position of foreman in the spoon de- 
 partment. In 1869 he began business for himself, 
 opening a grocery store in State street. The en- 
 terprise proved highly successful, and three years 
 later he removed to his present quarters, where for 
 nearly thirty years he has carried on a growing 
 business, in which his sterling character, courteous 
 manner and reliable goods have been prominent 
 factors. . He is honorable in all his dealings, studies 
 the needs of his patrons, and has won a large suc- 
 cess in life. 
 
 Mr. Pragemann was married in 1863 to Eva 
 Barker, a native of Offenbach, Hessen-Darmstadt, 
 Germany, daughter of Chester Barker. To this 
 union have been born : Henry, paymaster at Bradley 
 & Hubbard's and one of the prominent and popular 
 young Masons of the city ; Emma, wife of N. 
 
 C. Brackett, of Meriden; August; Susan, who 
 died young; Charles, in business with his father; 
 and Eva, at home. Mr. Pragemann and his family 
 attend the Episcopal Church, although he was one 
 of the organizers of the Meriden Lutheran Church, 
 of which he was at one time secretary and treas- 
 urer. He is a member of the German Mutual Aid 
 Society, and has served as its president. He be- 
 longs to Teutonic Lodge, No. 95, L O. O. F., of 
 Meriden, where he has filled all the chairs, be- 
 ing a past grand. A pu'bHc-spirited man, he has 
 attended many conventions, and was an organizer 
 and treasurer of the German schools. In politics 
 he is a strong Republican, and has been a mem- 
 ber of the city council for ten years. 
 
 DR. LEWIS T. DOOLITTLE, one of the 
 most popular and prosperous young professional 
 men of Aleriden, was born in Springfield, Mass., 
 Oct. 14, 1870, and is descended from one of the 
 oldest and most respected families of Connecticut^ 
 
 Abraham Doolittle, the founder of the family 
 in this State, came to America from England, in 
 company with his brother, John, and located at 
 Salem, Mass., but later removed to New Haven 
 and then to Wallingford, where he died Aug. 11, 
 1690. His first marriage was to Abigail Moss, a 
 daughter of John Moss, of New Haven, and he 
 became the father of eleven children. Samuel 
 Doolittle, his son, was born July 7, 1665, and he re- 
 moved to Middlesex county and located at Mid- 
 dletown with his family, where he died, having 
 been twice married and the father of thirteen chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Joseph Doolittle, son of Samuel, was born June 
 20, 1704, and May 24, 1729, married Mary Hitch- 
 cox, who died in Middletown. On May 24, 1759, 
 he married Mary Strickland, of Middletown, and 
 these children were born to him : Mary and 
 Elizabeth, who died young; Joseph, who died Aug. 
 6, 1771 ; Seth, born Jan. 4, 1745, married Hannah 
 Dow Feb. 4, 1768; Abisha, who died in Cheshire; 
 Mary; Elizabeth; Jared, born July 13, 1769; Joel, 
 born July 7, 1770; and Joseph. 
 
 Joseph Doolittle, son of Joseph^ was born in 
 Middletown, and there grew to manhood. He fol- 
 lowed farming in what is now Westfield, which 
 at that time was but a wilderness, and here he 
 built his house and made extensive improvements 
 upon a large estate, was active in religious af- 
 fairs and assisted' in the establishment of a Con- 
 gregational church in Westfield, being a consist- 
 ent member of that faith. His death and burial 
 were in Westfield, where he had married, Abisha, 
 the only son of Joseph, was born on the homestead 
 and followed an agricultural life and ailso operated 
 a gristmill. His home was always in Westfield, 
 from which he went as a soldier during the war 
 of 1812. He was a consistent member of the Bap- 
 tist Church, and a worthy, honest citizen. His 
 marriage occurred in Westfield and his one son. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1463 
 
 Amos, became a well-known farmer and miller, 
 spending his active life on the farm, but he died 
 in Chester, at the home of his daughter, Abigail, 
 and was interred in the Westfield cemetery. Dur- 
 ing life he was known as a pronounced Whig, and 
 a good and conscietitious man. 
 
 Amos Doolittle married Margaret Graves, of 
 Westfield, and reared a family of four children: 
 Curtis, who removed to Ohio ; Abisha ; Sybil, who 
 married Alfred Rood ; and Abigail, who married 
 Andrew Walton for her first husband, and later 
 Charles Brook, of Cheshire, and died in Westfield, 
 a valued member of the Baptist Church. Abisiha 
 Doolittle, the grandfather of the subject of this 
 biography, was born on tne old family homestead, 
 where he grew to manhood, and bought a por- 
 tion of the old place and carried on both farm- 
 ing and shoemaking, and died at the age of eighty- 
 three. Abisha Doolittle was a strong Republican, 
 but in later life joined the Prohibition party on 
 account of his pronounced views on temperance. 
 A m'an of wortli, he left behind him a reputation 
 for morality and uprightness of life. He was mar- 
 ried in Westfield to Mary, a daughter of Jesse 
 Kelsey, and they reared a family of five children : 
 Julia Ann ; Frederick, of Meriden ; Lewis ; John, 
 who served in the Civil war; and Margaret, who 
 died young. The mother died in Westfield, 
 
 Lewis Doohttle, the father of Lewis T., was 
 born June 5, 1836, in Westfield, and attended the 
 district schools of his neighborhood. He remained 
 on the farm until he was eighteen years old, when 
 he came to Meriden and entered the Britannia shop 
 of I. C. Lewis, where he worked for several years, 
 and then became a traveling salesman for the same 
 concern. Later, upon removal to Springfield, 
 Mass., he there became superintendent of a sil- 
 ver-plating company and remained) with same four 
 years, and then went back to the old homestead 
 in Westfield, and remained there, farming, for 
 nineteen years, and also conducted a dairy. In 
 1888 he removed to Meriden and for the past four- 
 teen years has been engaged in the Britannia shop, 
 a skilled workman and a most reMable man. 
 
 Mr. Doolittle is an independent Republican, but 
 has never sought office, and has always given his 
 influence in the direction of education, temperance 
 and morality. For many years he has been a con- 
 sistent member of the M. E. Church. On June 5, 
 1862, he was married at Higganum, Conn., to 
 Melissa L. Baily, a daughter of Alvin and Susan 
 (Maff) Baily, and a granddaughter of Lyman W. 
 Baily. Two sons have been born of this mar- 
 riage : Lewis T., of this sketch ; and A. Walter, a 
 student in a dental college, in Baltimore, Mary- 
 land. ,, , J 
 
 With his parents Lewis T. Doohttle removed 
 to Springfield, and later to Middlesex county, 
 where he attended the schools in Middletown, and 
 from Inhere went to the Hannum Business College, 
 at Hartford, where he graduated in 1885. Havmg 
 
 been offered a position in Wisconsin, with his uncle 
 in the banking business, he was for a short time 
 undecided as to his future. But for a long time 
 his ambition had been to succeed in the profession 
 of dentistry, and with this end in view he de- 
 clined his uncle's offer and entered the office of 
 Dr. Heller, in Hartford. Under this well-known 
 practitioner he remained three years, and then 
 came to Meriden and became the partner of Dr. 
 Jones for one year. He then removed to Collins- 
 ville, Hartford county, and there built up a' large 
 practice, remaining in that pleasant locality three 
 years. However, as his parents had their residence 
 in Meriden, he decided in 1892 to locate there, and 
 has ever since been considered one of the most 
 skilled in his line in that community. Dr. Doo- 
 little is located on West Main street, and has one 
 of the most complete offices, employing all the 
 modern methods known in dentistry. His per- 
 sonality is pleasant, and his success is permanent. 
 Dr. Doolittle was married in Meriden to Mary 
 L. Broe, a daughter of Jesse Broe, and one son 
 has been born to them, Winthrop T. Socially and 
 fraternally Dr. Doolittle is popular; he is a mem- 
 ber of the j\Iasonic Lodge in CoUinsville, and Key- 
 stone Chapter in Meriden ; belongs to the Elks ; 
 the P. O. S. A., of Meriden, of which he is past 
 master; and the Heptasophs. In politics he is a 
 Republican. He has long been connected with the 
 M. E. Church, and is a generous contributor to all 
 benevolent and charitable enterprises. 
 
 FREDERICK W. LUTZ, one of the leading 
 business citizens of New Haven, and dealer in 
 groceries, meats, provisions, poultry, etc., located 
 at No. 76 Sylvan avenue, corner Elhot street, was 
 born in Collinsville, Conn., June 5, 1858. His 
 father, George Lutz, was a prominent German- 
 American citizen of New Haven, and died June 
 12, 1900, his wife having died in New Haven in 
 1889. The parents were members of the German 
 Lutheran Church. They reared a family of four 
 children, all of whom are residents of this city: 
 George, a grocer ; Minnie, wife of George Mache- 
 leidt; and Robert, a grocer and leading citizen. 
 
 Frederick W. Lutz was brought by his parents 
 to New Haven when but five months old. 
 Until he was twelve years of age he attended the 
 Dixwell Avenue and Dwight schools, and then 
 went to work in the lock shop of Mallory, Wheeler 
 & Co., where be remained a year and a half. One 
 year was spent at work in the Scovill Manufactur- 
 ing Co. paper shop, a year and a half as a clerk 
 for Andrew Treatline in the meat business, and 
 six months in the same business in New York 
 City. Upon his return to New Haven he entered 
 the employ of Rush & Lockyear for about two 
 years, and the next two years were filled with 
 valuable exjperience as clerk for F. S. Andrews in 
 the city market. Mr. Lutz then made a trip 
 through Western cities for about ten months, and 
 
1464 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 upon his return was again clerk for Mr. Andrews, 
 at the end of four years embarking in the business 
 for himself. In 1882 he established a business on 
 Elliott street, later coming' to his present location 
 and building his fine brick block in 1887. Mr. 
 Lutz has been a very successful business man, and 
 both he and his brother Robert are leaders in the 
 grocery line in New Haven, both owning fine 
 stores, conducting same in business blocks erected 
 by themselves. Frederick Lutz is essentially a 
 man of the people, and while making his own way 
 in the world has adopted honesty, perseverance 
 and industry as sound commercial principles. He 
 is highly respected, and has a wide circle of friends 
 in the city. 
 
 On Jan. 18, 1883, Mr. Lutz married Catherine 
 Miller, who as born in New Haven, a daughter of 
 Joseph A. Miller, a native of Germany, and who 
 died in New Haven Dec. 9, 1899. Mrs. Miller, 
 who came from the same place in Germany as her 
 husband, is still living. Three children have been 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Lutz, namely : Jennette 
 Louisa ; Alice May ; and George Robert, all at 
 home. 
 
 In politics Mr. Lutz is identified with the Dem- 
 ocratic party, and fraternally is connected with the 
 Germania Lodge, No. 78, 1. O. O. F. ; Connecti- 
 cut Rock Lodge, No. 92, A. F. & A. M. ; and the 
 Knights of Honor. His religious connection is 
 with the German Lutheran Church. 
 
 EVERETT STAPLES GRANT, formerly sec- 
 retary and treasurer of the Stony Creek Red 
 Granite Co., was born in what is now Stockton, 
 Waldo Co., Maine, Oct. 8, 1850, a son of Giles 
 C. and Desiah (Hichborn) Grant. The father was 
 a merchant in Stockton, a man of affairs and prom- 
 inent local standing, and was a son of Josiah P. 
 and Elizabeth K. (Staples) Grant. Josiah Grant 
 was a farmer and a fisherman of Stockton, and 
 was a son of Alexander and Abigail (Staples) 
 Grant, who removed from York, Maine, to Pros- 
 pect (now Stockton) some time prior to 1800. The 
 maternal grandfather of Everett S. Grant was 
 Henry Hichborn, whose wife was Desiah Griffin. 
 He was a carpenter and a farmer, and a son of 
 Robert Hichborn, of Boston, Mass., removing at 
 an early age to Stockton. Giles C. Grant was a 
 prominent merchant in Stockton, Maine, where he 
 died in 1853, ^"d was the father of two children: 
 (i) Henry Hichborn, of Portland, Maine, whose 
 wife was Martha Pendleton; and (2) Everett S., 
 whose name opens this article. 
 
 Everett Staples Grant was reared in Stockton, 
 Maine, where he was educated, taking his higher 
 tranches at Westbrook Seminary, Westbrook, 
 Maine. At the age of seventeen years he began 
 life for himself as a sailor, which he followed for 
 half a year, when he secured a position as a clerk 
 in the general store at Searsport, Maine. There 
 he remained from 1868 to 1873 when he had be- 
 
 come sufhciently forehanded to embark in busi- 
 ness for himself, as a member oi the firm of Nick- 
 erson, Grant & Co., at Searsport. For two years 
 he maintained these relations, and then returned 
 to Stockton, where he was engaged for two years 
 as a manufacturer of clothing', when he entered 
 the employ of Pierce, Rowe & Co., granite quarry- 
 men at Frankfort, Maine. For two years he con- 
 tinued with them, and for six months was book- 
 keeper for a wholesale grocery house. In 1881 he 
 located in Westborough, Mass., where he was local 
 manager for C. Brigham & Co. in the grain busi- 
 ness. For ten years he maintained this position 
 with this widely connected Boston establishment. 
 In 1890 Mr. Grant removed to Stony Creek at 
 the solicitation of John Pierce, of New York City, 
 formerly of the firm of Pierce, Rowe & Co., and 
 there he held his position of secretary and treas- 
 urer of the Stony Creek Red Granite Company un- 
 til his removal to New York about a year ago. 
 These quarries are located at Red Hill, in the 
 Stony Creek district of the town of Branford" and 
 they produce a superior quality of red granite, 
 closely resem'bling the celebrated Scotch granite 
 of Aberdeen, Scotland. The Stony Creek granite 
 is largely used for ornamental as well as build- 
 ing purposes. The company gives employment to 
 about two hundred men and has an output of 
 granite amounting to about 50,000 cubic feet of 
 dressed granite annually. 
 
 Mr. Grant was married Dec. 23, 1874, to Eva 
 A., a daughter of Henry S. and Miranda J. 
 (Griffin) Staples, of Stockton, Maine, and by her 
 he has three children: Marietta L., Lillias S. 
 and Mary Helen. Mr. Grant is a member of 
 Mariners' Lodge, No. 68, F. & A. M., of Sears- 
 port, Maine, and Haiileck Chapter, No. 44, R. A. 
 M., of Guilford, Conn. Mr. Grant was elected 
 to the Maine Legislature from Stockton in 1876, 
 and served with credit to himself and satisfaction 
 to his constituents. In politics he is a stanch Re- 
 publican. 
 
 MICHAEL G. REYNOLDS. The general 
 aspect of prosperity and activity which character- 
 izes the city of Meriden is due in a great measure 
 to the efficiency of the men who manage the busi- 
 ness interests of this locality. Among these is 
 Michael G. Reynolds, one of the best known, highly 
 respected and substantial citizens, who, although 
 born in another land, for many years has been 
 identified with this section, where he has built up 
 an enviable business reputation. 
 
 Michael G. Reynolds was born in the parish of 
 Anaduff, County Leitrim, Ireland, in September, 
 1838, a son of Thomas Reynolds, who also was a 
 native of the same place. Thomas Reynolds was 
 a farmer and lived and died in Ireland, a con- 
 sistent member of the Roman Catholic Church. He 
 married Ellen Gill, who lived a number of years, 
 a devoted wife and mother and a consistent mem- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1465 
 
 ber of the Catholic Church; she died in the old 
 home. Of the ten children of this family, the six 
 survivors are : Ann, who married James Maxwell, 
 and resides in Ireland on the old homestead; John, 
 who resides in Marshall, Clark Co.. 111.; Francis, 
 who lives in Terre Haute, Ind. ; Hugh, who is 
 also a resident of Marshall ; Michael G. ; and 
 Catherine, who is the widow of James McCarthy 
 and resides in New Haven. 
 
 Michael G. Reynolds grew up on the farm of 
 Jiis parents and received a good education in the 
 primary branches, and remained at home until 
 1863. Not seeing any opportunities to better his 
 condition in his native country, and possessing both 
 ambition and energy, he decided to cross the ocean 
 and make his way alone in the land where so 
 many of his countrymen had established them- ' 
 selves and had done much toward the developing 
 of the natural resources of many sections of the 
 United States. 
 
 Many difficulties were surmounted, and finally 
 Michael found himself in Liverpool, where he em- 
 barked on a steamer bound for New York, which 
 he reached in due time, and immediately made his 
 way to Connecticut, where he knew other lads of 
 his age were employed, and his pleasant manner 
 and honest face very soon obtained him work. In 
 the following autumn he came to Meriden, after 
 laboring for a short time in the auger shop at 
 Tracy, and engaged in teaming in Meriden, con- 
 tinuing until 1865, when he went to Illinois and re- 
 mained there for the succeeding two years. Coming 
 back to Connecticut, Mr. Reynolds located in Wall- 
 ingford, where he started in business for himself 
 in the grocery line, and conducted this store un- 
 til 1870, at which time he removed to Meriden 
 and opened up a fine" grocery store on the corner of 
 West Maine and Second streets. Here he dealt in 
 groceries and also conducted a retail liquor busi- 
 ness, and for twenty-six years was one of the most 
 successful dealers in bis line in the locality. 
 
 Since his withdrawal from this business 'Mr. 
 Reynolds has been actively engaged in the real es- 
 tate and insurance line, and has done much to 
 adorn and beautify the city. His fine brick block 
 on Main street is substantial and imposing, and 
 his residence on North Second street is the finest 
 in that locality. Mr. Reynolds represents the 
 Royal Tailors, of Chicago; the Erie Insurance Co., 
 of BuiTalo; and two mutual insurance companies 
 of well-known merit. In public life Michael Rey- 
 nolds is an Independent Democrat, and has served 
 on the board of assessors for five years, and has 
 long been on the school committee, as he takes a 
 deep interest in educational matters. Socially he 
 is a member of the Amaranth Club, of Menden ; 
 and of Silver City Council, K. of C, and of the 
 latter was treasurer for five years. 
 
 Mr Reynolds was married in New Haven to 
 Miss Mary Campbell, a native of Ireland, a daugh- 
 ter of Owen Campbell, and a niece of the late Rev. 
 
 Father John Campbell, a well-known Catholic 
 priest of New York. Five children have been born 
 of this union : Thomas Edward, who attended the 
 schools of Meriden and graduated from Yale Uni- 
 versity in the class of 1896, where he had taken a 
 classical course, and he now occupies the responsible 
 position of paymaster of The J. D. Bergen Co., 
 of Meriden ; Mary Ellen, who graduated from 
 Mount St. Vincent, N. Y., and has taught in the 
 public schools of Meriden very successfully; Eu- 
 gene, who died young ; Anna Josephine, who is the 
 capable stenographer and typewriter in her father's 
 office ; and Gerald Joseph, who is a promising stu- 
 dent in the Meriden high school. 
 
 Mr. Reynolds is a broad-minded man, of gen- 
 erous impulses and has many friends. A tireless 
 worker, he has at heart many schemes for the 
 benefit of the community, and especially for the 
 advancement of education. His children have been 
 afi:orded every advantage, and the affection and 
 esteem in which he is held by his family is only 
 equalled by the respect of his neighbors, all of 
 whom are his friends. Having made his own way 
 in the world, he gives ready assistance and help to 
 others whom he deems deserving. In his wife Mr. 
 Reynolds has a most estimable helpmate. Both 
 are consistent members of St. Joseph's parish in 
 Meriden. 
 
 CHARLES E. EGAN, the well-known dealer 
 in scrap iron, ba!bbit, lead', spelter, etc, at Nos. 
 284-290 Meadow street, Waterbury, Conn., was 
 born in Boston, Mass., April 26, 1852, and bears 
 the surname of his paternal, as well as his matern- 
 al, ancestors, although no consanquinitv existed be- 
 tween the two families. 
 
 The paternal grandfather of Charles E. Egan 
 never came to America, while Charles Egan, the 
 maternal grandfather, was the first of the name to 
 settle in Waterbury. The latter was a gentleman 
 of fair education, and was chiefly employed by sur- 
 veying parties. He married Elizaibeth Pitzpatrick, 
 who bore him eight children, viz : Charles, Cather- 
 ine, Ann, Anastasia, Lucy, Roger, Thomas and 
 Bridget. The father of this family reached the 
 patriarchial age of ninety-six years. 
 
 Peter Egan, who was born in County Kings, 
 Ireland, in 1S17, and came to America a young man, 
 settled in Boston, Mass., where he followed his 
 trade of tailor. He married Catherine Egan in that 
 city, and they reared a family of three children — 
 James, Charles E. (subject) and Wlilliam. Of 
 these, James is engaged in the transfer (cab) busi- 
 ness in New York ; and William died in Waterbury, 
 Conn., in January, 1898. The father had been called 
 away in 1854. 
 
 Charles E. Egan was but two years of age when 
 his recently widowed mother brought him to Water- 
 bury. Here he received his schooling, grew to man- 
 hood, worked among the different factories and 
 served as janitor of the city-hall building until 
 
1466 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1881, when he was appointed deputy sheriff of New 
 Haven county under the auspices of the Democratic 
 party. He resigned this deputyship to serve on the 
 poHce force for a short time, and was then ap- 
 pointed, or detailed, to detective work, which he 
 followed for seven years. This he resigned to en- 
 gage with the Waterbury Scrap Iron Co. He was 
 also in partnership in the same line, with Michael 
 Keeley for some time, and then on April 6, 1899, sold 
 out and started his present business, in which he 
 has met with abundant success, whioh is due entire- 
 ly to his' own attentiveness and fair dealing. 
 
 On May 14, 1877, Mr. Egan was (first) married 
 to Julia A. Finn, a native of Waterbury, and a 
 daughter of Patrick and Ann (Fitzpatrick) Finn, 
 and this union has been crowned with four children, 
 named in'order of birth: Charles E., Jr., Julia A., 
 Francis P. and Sarah L., all still single. Mrs. 
 Egan was called hence July 24, 1893, and Mr. Egan 
 remained without a helpmeet until April 14, 1895, 
 when he married Jennie M. Sperry, of Oxford, 
 Connecticut. In politics Mr. Egan is a. Democrat, 
 and fraternally he is a member of the Knights of 
 Pythias and of the United Workmen. In Church 
 affairs he is somewhat independent, although his 
 children have been reared in the faith of the Church 
 of Rome. Personally Mr. Egan is very popular, 
 and his upright conduct as a business man .has won 
 him the esteem of all who have had any dealings 
 with him. 
 
 OSMOND A. BOWK, who is engaged in gen- 
 eral blacksmithing and horse-shoeing at Yalesville, 
 is conspicuously associated with the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church, where he has been clerk for a num- 
 ber of years.. Mr. Bowe was born in the town of 
 Middlefield, Middlesex Co., Conn., Feb. 12, 1858, 
 a son of Allen Bowe, who was born in South Farms. 
 Middlesex county, and is a son of Obadiah and 
 Nancy (Skinner) Bowe, of Middletown. Obadiah 
 A. Bowe was a tin and sheet iron worker, and spent 
 his) life in Middlesex county; he was a Democrat. 
 
 Allen Bowe, mentioned in the preceding para- 
 graph, was borh in 1822, and lost his father when 
 he was nine years of age, when he was adopted By 
 Deacon G. Birdsiey, of East Meriden, with whom 
 he remained until he was sixteen years old, working 
 at farming for his 'board and clothes. At that age 
 he went to Middletown and learned the blacksmith- 
 ing trade. At Meriden he learned horse-shoeing, 
 and after working as a journeyman for a time he 
 started a shop for himself in Middlefield, where he 
 worked for some time. Then he located in Long 
 Island, where he worked two years in the town of 
 Whitestone. At New Haven he worked two yeans 
 for the Winchester Rifle Co., and then came to 
 Meriden and spent a year in the gun shop of C. 
 Parker. In 1870 he removed to North Farms, in 
 the town of Wallingford, where he has maintained 
 his home to the present time. Here he follows 
 his trade, and owns a small farm. Mr. Bowe is 
 
 still a hale and hearty man, and is temperate in his 
 habits, and kind and generous in his disposition. 
 F'ormerly he was a Democrat, but later has voted 
 the Republican ticket. He is a member of the Bap- 
 tist Church, and socially of the Independent Order 
 of Odd Fellows. 
 
 Mr, Bowe was married in Middlefield, Conn., to 
 Miss Mary A. Coe, a native of that place and a 
 daughter of Nelson Coe, also of Middlefield. Two 
 children were born of this union : Osmond A. and 
 Clifford, the latter now deceased. Mrs. Bowe is a 
 lady of marked character, and has many friends, 
 who admire her womanly qualities, and appreciate 
 highly her kind and helpful spirit. She is a mem- 
 ber of the Methodist Church. 
 
 Osmond A. Bowe was educated in the public 
 schools of New Haven and in Middlesex county, 
 and learned the blacksmithing trade under his 
 father's instructions, with whom he worked until 
 1898. That year he removed to Yalesville, where he 
 bought the Tompkins place, and since then has de- 
 voted himself to horse-shoeing and general black- 
 smithing. His industrious life, temperate habits, 
 business integrity, and kindly spirit have won 
 the respect of the community, and he is very highly 
 esteemed today in his new home. 
 
 Mr. Bowe was married in 1884 to Miss Martha 
 A. Atwood, a daughter of Francis Atwood, and 
 a native of Woodbury, Conn. To them have come 
 two children : Francis and Minnie. Mr. Bowe is 
 a Republican in politics. Fraternally he belongs to 
 Center Lodge, No. 68, A. F. & A. M., to Compass 
 Lodge, and to the Rebekahs. He is also a member 
 of the Grange, in which Mrs. Bowe is an actiye 
 worker, as she is in the Daughters of Rebekah. 
 Mr. Bowe is a member of the Methodist Church, 
 where he has been steward, and is one of the pillars 
 of the Church. A straightforward and upright 
 man, he has many friends, and is bound to suc- 
 ceed. 
 
 GEORGE L. TALMAGE, a prominent citizen 
 of Prospect and a worthy representative of its agri- 
 cultural interests, was born in that town, in May, 
 1855, SJ^d belongs to one of the old and honored 
 families of New Haven county. His paternal great- 
 grandfather, Josiiah Talmage, was a life-long resi- 
 dent of Cheshire, was a farmer by occupation, and 
 was quite well-known and highly respected. Caleb 
 Talmage, the grandfather, was also a farmer and 
 land owner of Cheshire, as well as one of its highly 
 esteemed citizens. There he married Polly Smith, 
 and both died and were buried in Cheshire. Their 
 children were: Lucius; Jason; Eliza; Hiram; 
 Mary Ann (Polly) ; and Orrin. 
 
 Lucius Talmage, father of our subject, was born 
 Feb. 5, 1807, in Cheshire, where he obtained a dis- 
 trict school education and also became familiar with 
 every department of farm work, which occupation 
 he made his life work. He lived in the towns of 
 Cheshire, Oxford and New Haven, and finally came 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1467 
 
 to Prospect, where he spent the remainder of his 
 life engaged in general farming. He was a very 
 industrious man and was noted for his upright and 
 honoraible dealings. His political support was 
 given first the Whig and later the Republican 
 parties, and both he and his wife were earnest mem- 
 bers of the Congregational Church. He married 
 Abigail Piatt Gillette, a native of Milford, and a 
 daughter of Garrett Gillette. He died Oct. 8, 1896, 
 at the advanced age of eighty-nine years, and his re- 
 mains, and also those of his wife, were laid to rest 
 in Prospect Centre cemetery. To this worthy couple 
 were born eleven children, namely: George, who 
 died young; Mary J., wife of Lyman Gillette; Fred- 
 erick, who died in the Civil war; John, who also 
 died in the Civil war; Sarah, who first married 
 Lorenzo Peck and siecond Martin Brooks ; Maria 
 A., a resident of Prospect; Caroline M., who first 
 married Sherman Guernsey, and second James 
 Hanks ; Martha E., who first married William Sco- 
 ville, and second Miles Payne; Alice, wife of John 
 Pardis ; Abbie, wife of Samuel Hart ; and George 
 L., our subject. 
 
 During his boyhood, George L. Talmage at- 
 tended the district schools of Pro:Spect, and remained 
 upon the home farm with his parents until reaching 
 man's estate. Subsequently he traveled quite ex- 
 tensively through the Western States, where he 
 spent several years, and on his return to Prospect, 
 in 1885, located on the Garrett Gillette farm, a tract 
 of 100 acres, to which he has since added fifty acres, 
 making a fine farm of 150 acres that he has exten- 
 sively improved. He follows general farming, dairy- 
 ing and stock raising, and is also engaged in the 
 wood business. 
 
 In June, 1880, in Cheshire, Mr. Talmage was 
 united in marriage with Miss Ella Carrell, a native 
 of that town, and to them have been born two chil- 
 dren: Daisy Mildred and Bernice Abigail. The 
 older daughter graduated from the Chesihire high 
 school in 1898, and then entered the New Britain 
 Normal School. She successfully engaged m teach- 
 ing for a short time. James Carrell, Mrs. Tal- 
 mage's father, and a son of George Carrell, was born 
 in Cheshire, where he still continues to make his 
 home. In early life he followed the occupation of 
 farming but is now living retired, enjoying a well- 
 earned rest lEiurrounded by a large circle of friends 
 and acquaintances, who esteem him highly for his 
 sterling worth. Politically he is' a Democrat. He 
 married Miss Mary Carter, alsp a native of 
 Cheshire, who died there and was laid to rest in 
 Cheshire cemetery. By this union the _ following 
 children were born: Lewis, who died in infancy; 
 Mary, wife of Harry Collins ; Sarah and Julia, twiM, 
 the former of whom married Harry Hilman while 
 the latter died in infancy ; Ella, wife of our subject; 
 Margaret L., wife of Sereno Cook, of Mt. Carmel, 
 this county; George, a resident of Naugatuck. 
 Conn.; Alice, wife of John Brown, of Yalesville; 
 
 and John, an undertaker and embalmer of New 
 York City. 
 
 Fraternally Mr. Talmage is a member of the 
 Grange of Prospect, and politically is a stanch sup- 
 porter of the Republican party. As one of the 
 prominent and influential citizens of his community 
 he has been called to public office, and has most ac- 
 ceptably served asi a member of the board of relief 
 and as grand juror of the town. In 1894 he was 
 also elected to the State Legislature, and most ably 
 represented Prospect in that body for one term. 
 
 JOHN MACKRILLE, well and favorably 
 known throughout the length and breadth of Con- 
 necticut, as well as through New England, was born 
 May 25, 1844, at Halifax, England, the home 
 of his ancestors. His grandfather, William Mack- 
 rille, was a native of Halifax, where he was engaged 
 for many years in the manufacture of cloth, and 
 here he died in middle life. 
 
 Thomas Mackrille, son of William, was also 
 born in Halifax, and followed the occupation of 
 cabinet maker all hisi active life. He took a prom- 
 inent part in public affairs, and became a leading 
 citizen of the town. His wife, who in her maiden- 
 hood was Martha Spencer, was one of a large fam- 
 ily of children born to Thomas Spencer, a stone 
 merchant of Halifax, who was an active worker in 
 the cause of Wesleyan Methodism. ^ 
 
 John Mackrille was educated in a private school, 
 and began his business career asi a telegraph opera- 
 tor, later becoming manager at Halifax and other 
 places for the Electric Telegraph Company. In the 
 same capacity he was engaged in the telegraph 
 service of the London & Northwestern and Midland 
 Railway Companies, and on leaving this service 
 engaged in private business as an accountant until 
 he came to the United States: in 1881. Entering 
 the employ of the New York & New England road 
 as clerk, he afterward became traveling auditor, and 
 in 1887 the position of traveling auditor with the 
 N. Y., N. H. & H. R. R. was oiifered and accepted, 
 under the then new regime of President Clark. 
 Since 1888 he has occupied the onerous and re- 
 sponsible position of auditor of freight receipts of 
 this road, with headquarters at New Haven. 
 
 The activities of Mr. Mackrille are by no means 
 confined to business affairs, as he is a man of many 
 interests. He is one of the most active workers 
 and best-known members of the fraternal orders in 
 the State of Connecticut. For some years he was 
 one of the standard bearers for the Royal Arcanum 
 in Massachusetts, having been initiated into - that 
 order in 1884, while a resident of Hyde Park. In 
 1886 he was elected to the highest office in the gift 
 of his council, and in 1888 was representative to the 
 Grand Council of Massachusetts. Removing to 
 Connecticut, he was instrumental in forming a 
 Council at his home in West Haven, of which he 
 was elected first past regent, and he was sent as 
 
1468 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 representative to the Grand Council of Connecticut 
 in 1889, and at that session was elected Grand 
 Orator. In 1891 he was advanced to the office of 
 Vice-Regent, and elected Grand Regent of Connecti- 
 cut the following year. In the A. O. U. W. Mr. 
 Mackrille soon came to the front, for the talents he 
 possesses) are quickly recognized and utilized. He 
 is a mem'ber of Phoenix Lodge of New Haven, was 
 elected Master Workman in 1892, and representa- 
 tive to the Grand Lodge in 1893. He was the, first 
 president of Lodge No. i, of Connecticut, Work- 
 men's Benefit Association, and representative to the 
 Supreme Lodge in 1896. In 1897 he was appointed 
 Supreme Chaplain; in 1899 elected Vice-President, 
 and is now Supreme President of the order. As he 
 is possesised of oratorical powers of no mean order, 
 he is in great request at all festive gatherings of the 
 various orders with which he is identified, frequent- 
 ly holding his listeners spellbound by his impas- 
 sioned and earnest addresses. The secret of his 
 success in this line lies in the fact that he does not 
 speak merely in order to say something, but because 
 he has something to say — something in which he 
 believes, and has the faculty of making others be- 
 lieve. For some years he has been a prominent 
 member of the Improved Order of Heptasophs, and 
 has ably filled many of the most responsible offices 
 in both the subordinate and supreme conclaves. He 
 is also a member of Annawon Lodge, No. 115, Ma- 
 sonic Order, and has been Chaplain of Joseph An- 
 drews Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. He is also a 
 member of the Knights of the Golden Eagle, and 
 Home Circle, a director in the Co-operative Savings 
 Society of Connecticut, and the American Service 
 Union. 
 
 A Republican, Mr. Mackrille enters heartily into 
 local affairs, and in 1896 and 1898 served as a mem- 
 ber of the board of Wardens and Burgesses in West 
 Haven, being chairman of the board of Fire Com- 
 missioners in 1898-1900. He has enthusiastically 
 championed the cause of education, and has for 
 eight years been a school visitor in West Haven 
 and Orange. In religious circles Mr. Mackrille is 
 influential and active, and asi a lay preacher of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church his services are in 
 considerable demand, both in his own and other 
 denominations. For some years he was Superin- 
 tendent of the Sunday school, and in general re- 
 ligion and humanitarian work has been indefatigable 
 in his labors for more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury. 
 
 In 1867 Mr. Mackrille married Harriet Corney, 
 daughter of John and Edna Corney, the former a 
 well-known grocer and provision dealer of Halifax, 
 England. Of their union four children have been 
 born, viz.: Alfred, born and) educated in England, 
 is a travehng auditor for the N. Y., N. H. & H. R. 
 R., in whose employ he has been since 1887, having 
 formerly been with the New England R. R. ; he 
 married Marion Winchenbaugh, and has three chil- 
 dren, Ruth E., John E. and Allen A. Edgar is a 
 
 cabinet maker and carver with the N. Y., N. H. & 
 H. R. R. ; he married Olive M. Clark. Edith E. 
 was educated at Hyde Park, Mass., in West Haven, 
 and the State Normal school in New Haven, and is 
 now teaching in the West Haven public schools. 
 Eveline G. is at home attending school. Since it 
 was established Mr. Mackrille and family have been 
 membersi of the Pine Orchard Summer Colony. 
 
 JOSEPH GUEST (deceased), for many years 
 a leading business man of Waterbury, Conn., was 
 a native of Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, and a 
 son of William Guest. He received only a very lim- 
 ited education as he was obliged to begin work in 
 the shops of his native land at a very early age, be- 
 ing thus employed until he attained his twentieth 
 year. 
 
 With the hope of bettering his financial condi- 
 tion, Mr. Guest came to the United States in 1859, 
 and first located in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he found 
 employment in the shops for two years. He then ' 
 returned to his native land, where he remained 
 until 1862, when he again came to America, and 
 this time took up his residence in Waterbury, where 
 he worked in the woolen mills as foreman of the 
 spinning department. Later he was in the employ 
 of the Scovill Manufacturing Co., until 1870, when 
 he went to Wilton, Conn., and engaged in the stone 
 cutting business for a short time. From there he 
 removed to Reynolds Bridge, Litchfield Co., Conn., 
 where he was employed as boss carder until 1872, 
 when he returned to Waterbury and embarked in 
 the retail liquor business on South Main street, 
 continuing to engage in that trade up to the time 
 of his death, which occurred in 1897. 
 
 At Reynolds, Bridge, Mr. Guest was united in 
 marriage with Miss Charlotte Mann, a native of 
 Torrington, Conn., and a daughter of William and 
 Jane Mann, She died in 1886, and they now sleep 
 side by side in Riverside cemetery. She was a 
 member of the Episcopal Church, and a most esti- 
 mable woman. For his second wife Mr. Guest 
 married Catherine Martin, who died in 1895. For 
 thirty years Mr. Guest was an active member of the 
 Blue Lodge, F. & A. M., of Waterbury, and was 
 also a member of the Sons of St. George, and a 
 charter member of Court Fruitful, F. of A. In re- 
 ligious faith he was an Episcopalian, and was organ- 
 ist of the church for many years, possessing much 
 musical talent. He was no office seeker, and in poli- 
 tics voted independently of party linesi, supporting 
 the men whom he believed best qualified for the 
 offices. He was upright and honorable in all things, 
 and was highly respected by his many friends and 
 acquaintances. 
 
 Thomas E. Guest, the only child of Joseph and 
 Charlotte (Mann) Guest, was born Oct. 25, 1865, 
 and was educated in the district and high schools 
 of Waterbury. He always remained at home, as- 
 sisting his father, and on the death of the latter 
 succeeded to the business, wljich he has since carried 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1469 
 
 on with marked succeasi. He is very fond of all 
 kinds of sport, taking especial interest in base ball 
 and polo, and in 1884 was catcher for the Water- 
 bury Base Ball team, which won the State cham- 
 pionship that season. Politically he is identified 
 with the Democratic party, and fraternally is af- 
 filiated with Court Fruitful, No. 123, F. of A. ; 
 the Sons of St. George; and the B. P. O. E., No. 
 265, of Waterbury. 
 
 In 1890, Mr. Guest was married, in Waterbury, 
 to Mi'ss Florence Borchardt, a native of that place, 
 and a daughter of William and Charlotte Borchardt. 
 To this union was born a son, William Joseph, 
 in 1894. 
 
 BLAKESLEE. The name of Blakeslee has for 
 years held an honored place in the business world 
 of New Haven, and the family of that name have 
 had prominent representative citizens in each gen- 
 eration since the early days of Connecticut. Those 
 of whom we write are the son and grandsons of 
 Matthew Gilbert and Rhoda (Dorman) Blakeslee, 
 the former of New Haven and the latter of Ham- 
 den. 
 
 Charles Wells Blakeslee, son of Matthew, was 
 born in Westfield, Mass., Aug. 11, 1824. At the 
 age of ten years he was brought to Connecticut, and 
 for a time resided in Hamden with hisi brother, 
 Matthew. He attended school during the winters 
 and engaged in farm work in the summers for sev- 
 eral seasons, but while yet a mere boy he began 
 teaming, and shortly after began taking small con- 
 tracts in the city of New Haven. In 1844 he bought 
 his home property of the English family. George 
 street was then but a cow path, and most of the 
 neighboring land was used for pasture, and Mr. 
 Blakeslee engaged in farming on the land now oc- 
 cupied by Grace Hospital. In 1872 he began taking 
 contracts for street paving, and the building of 
 street railways. This he has continued to follow, 
 and his businessi has assumed mammoth propor- 
 tions. His sons are associated with him in the busi- 
 ness and take the greater part of the responsibility 
 from the father's shouldersi. 
 
 Mr. Blakeslee was married in New Haven to 
 Miss Eliza Clark, a native of Milford, who died in 
 New Haven, the mother of seven children, of whom 
 two died in infancy, and one, Albert, died when 
 three and a half years old. The others are Charles 
 W., Jr., mention of whom is made further on ; Jean- 
 nettc;' Isabella and Mary. For his second wife, 
 Mr. Blakeslee married Mrs. Martha Jane Blair, of 
 New Haven. By her first marriage she had two 
 children: William H. Blair, a superintendent with 
 the Charles W. Blakeslee & Co. ; and Jane, who be- 
 came Mrs. Copley, and died in 1900. By his sec- 
 ond marriage Mr. Blakeslee has become the father 
 of six children: Dennis A.; Dwight W. ; Fhebe; 
 Qarence; Martha, who married Lyman Law, and 
 has two children, Ellen and Alice; and Theodore 
 R. In his political views in early life, Mr. Blakes- 
 
 lee was a Whig, but since 1857 he has.' been a firm 
 supporter of Republican principles. He is a Meth- 
 odist in his religious belief, and is a member of the 
 church of that denomination on George street, in 
 New Haven. 
 
 Major Charles Wells Blakeslee^ Jr.^ was 
 bom in New Haven, Conn., June 9, 1844, at what 
 is now No. 550 George street, and by his life has 
 emulated the examples set by his maternal grand- 
 father and great-grandfather (who fought in the 
 war of the Revolution) by answering his country's 
 call for volunteer soldiers. At the age of eighteen 
 he became a member of Co. G, ist Connecticut 
 Heavy Artillery, and served in the army of the 
 Potomac. He participated in the siege of York- 
 town, Hanover Court House, Seven Days Fight 
 and Malvern Hill. On Aug. 15, 1864, he was hon- 
 orably discharged on account of wounds and injuries 
 susitained from his horse. He returned to New 
 Haven, and the following winter began business 
 with his father. Then he branched out for himself, 
 and between the ages of twenty-one and forty-two 
 was engaged in business alone. At the end of that 
 time he again entered business with his father, and 
 has engaged in contract work on a percentage iDasis. 
 
 Mr. Blakeslee was married in New Haven to 
 Miss Grace Caroline Fowler, sister of ex-city engin- 
 eer Fowler, and of the three children who blessed 
 this union but one is living, Edith May. Mr. Blakes- 
 lee has always taken a prominent part in public af- 
 fairs, and has done his share toward promoting good 
 government. At the present time he is serving asi 
 hrst selectman, and previously served as councilman 
 and alderman, two terms each,, from the Tenth ward. 
 For twelve years he was a member of the Gov- 
 ernor'iS' Horse Guards, and during five years of 
 that time he held the rank of major. Fraternally 
 he is a member of Admiral Foote Post, G. A. R., 
 and also belongs to the Knights of Honor. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Blakeslee are members of Christ Episcopal 
 Church, of which he is a vestryman. 
 
 GOTFRIED STERNBERG. Among the pros- 
 perous and successful farmers and dairymen of 
 Cheshire none stand higher in public esteem than 
 the gentleman whose name introduces this sketch. 
 He was born in Germany Feb. 23, 1854, a son of 
 John and Katharine Sternberg, also natives of the 
 Fatherland, who emigrated to America in 1873, and 
 located in Meriden, Conn., where both died. In 
 their family were six children, namely: Mary, 
 wife of Charles Darmon; William; Carrie, wife of 
 Gotfried Schwartz; Minnie, wife of Henry Schif- 
 fen; Gotfried; and Charles. 
 
 Gotfried Sternberg remained in his native land 
 until eighteen years of age, and received a rather 
 limited education in its common schools. Crossing 
 the Atlantic, he landed in New York in January, 
 1872, and the first three months spent in this country 
 were passed on Long Island. He then went to 
 White Plains, N. Y., where he worked on a farm 
 
I470 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 for eight months, and at the end of that time came 
 to Meriden, New Haven Co., Conn., where he was 
 employed by the Malleable Iron Co., for eight years. 
 On leaving there in 1879, he purchased the farm 
 in Cheshire upon which he now makes his home, and 
 has since engaged in agricultural pursuits with 
 marked success. In 1883 he established a milk 
 route in Meriden, and has devoted a part of his 
 time to the dairy business with most gratifying 
 results. 
 
 In 1877, Mr. Sternberg married Miss Ardelia 
 Greiner, daughter of Maurice Greiner, of Meriden, 
 and to them were born four children, but only one, 
 Emma, is now living. For his second wife he mar- 
 rid Miss Carrie Stromlan, a native of Germany, 
 by whom he has had ten children, four living, 
 namely: Charles, Minnie, John and Mary. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Sternberg are both members of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran Church of Meriden, and he is also 
 a member of the Ancient Order of United Work- 
 men at that place. Politically he is a stanch Demo- 
 crat, and as every true American citizen should, he 
 takes an active interest in public affairs, giving his 
 support to every enterprise which he believes will 
 prove of public benefit. 
 
 BILLIOUS C. HALL, the well-known postmas- 
 ter of Union City, Conn., is a native of New Haven 
 county, born in the town of Wallingford, Sept. 5, 
 1833, and belongs to one of the old and highly re- 
 spected families of that section. To this family 
 belonged Hon. Lyman Hall, one of the signers of 
 the Declaration of Independence. Deacon Josiah 
 Hall, the grandfather of our subject, spent his entire 
 life as a farmer in Wallingford, and was deacon of 
 the Congregational Church there. He became the 
 father of nine children : Edward L., father of our 
 subject; Ogden, who was engaged in the daguerreo- 
 type business in New Haven for some time ; George, 
 a merchant of Georgia ; David M., a farmer of Wall- 
 ingford; James, a cattle dealer of Ohio; Catherine, 
 who died unmarried; Thankful, the first wife of 
 Thaddeus Cook; Eliza, wife of James Rounds, of 
 West Haven ; and Martha, the second wife of Thad- 
 deus Cook. 
 
 Edward L. Hall, father of our subject, was also 
 born in Wallingford, and continued to reside on the 
 old home farm throughout life, dying there in 1858. 
 He wedded Miss Mary K. Cook, a native of Wall- 
 ingford, and a daughter of Capt. Billious Cook, a 
 farmer by occupation. A family of five children 
 were born to this worthy couple, namely: Josiah, 
 deceased, was engaged in the silver plating business 
 m Hartford and Meriden, Conn.; Billious C, our 
 subject, is next in order of birth; Charles K. is a 
 farmer of Wallingford; Mary K. married Daniel 
 Pattee, of Wallingford ; and George is a farmer of 
 the same town. 
 
 On the old homestead in Wallingford, the sub- 
 ject of this isketch grew to manhood, and was edu- 
 cated in the public schools of the neighborhood. 
 
 He came to Naugatuck in 1858, and now owns and 
 successfully operates a good farm of sixty acres 
 about one mile east of Union City. He makes a 
 specialty of the milk business, and has' met with 
 well-deserved success during his residence here. 
 
 In i860, Mr. Hall was united in marriage with 
 Miss Adelaide Smith, a native of Naugatuck and a 
 daughter of Ashel Smith. They now have a fam- 
 ily of three sons, Clarence D., Edward C. and Lewis 
 H. The family are members of the Congregational 
 Church, and are held in high regard by all who know 
 them. During the Civil war, Mr. Hall served for 
 nine months as a member of Company B, 27th Conn. 
 V. I., and was taken prisoner at the battle of 
 Chancellorsville. The Republican party finds in 
 him a stanch supporter of its principles, and in 
 August, 1897, he was appointed postmaster of Union 
 City, which office he is now most creditably filling. 
 He is one of the honored and valued citizens of the 
 community, his upright and honorable career having 
 won him the respect and confidence of all with 
 whom he has come in contact, either in business or 
 social life. 
 
 W. B. DAVIS, a well-known farmer of Ox- 
 ford, New Haven county, and a faithful and valiant 
 soldier of the Civil war, was born in Newtown, 
 Fairfield county, this State, Feb. 17, 1845, ^nd is 
 one of five brothers, three of whom were among 
 the defenders of the Union during her hour of peril. 
 Our subject was reared in much the usual manner 
 of farmer boys, receiving a common school educa- 
 tion, and he remained at home until he responded 
 to his country's call to arms. He enlisted, in De- 
 cember, 1863, in Company F, 8th Conn. V. I., which 
 vvas assigned to the Ninth Army Corps, and with 
 his command took pan in the engagements at Swift 
 Creek and Drury's Bluff. Illness, brought on by 
 exposure, confined him to the hospital for some 
 time. He was honorably discharged at Hartford, 
 and returned to Newtown, where he remained for a 
 time. Subsequently he spent fifteen years in Dutch- 
 ess and Putnam counties, N. Y., and then, in 1890, 
 came to Oxford, locating on the farm where he 
 now lives. Here he has a well-improved place of 
 seventy-two acres and is successfully engaged in 
 general farming and fruit growing, raising over 
 1,000 bushels of apples and other fruit in 1897. 
 As' an agriculturist he is systematic and methodical, 
 and as a business man is energetic and reliable, and 
 the prosperity that has crowned his efforts is cer- 
 tainly well merited. 
 
 Mr. Davis was married, April 6, 1890, to Mrs. 
 Laura M. Towner, a widow of Albert Towner, 
 and daughter of J. Buckingham. Politically Mr. 
 Davis is a 'strong Republican, and he takes a deep 
 and commendable interest in public affairs. 
 
 ANDREW B. CLEMENS. Energy and enter- 
 prise, directed by good judgment, make a combina- 
 tion which will command success in any line of life 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1471 
 
 and the career of the subject of this sketch, a well- 
 known resident of Ansonia, would indicate that he 
 possesses these admirable qualities in full measure. 
 He is widely recognized as an expert on draughting 
 and all sorts of machinery, forty years of experience 
 as superintendent of different factories having given 
 him practical knowledge seldom gained by one man, 
 and although he is now living in retirement, his 
 opinions are sought as authoritative. 
 
 Mr. Clemens was born July i, 1824, in Stratford, 
 Conn., and comes of good pioneer stock. Samuel 
 P. Clemens, the grandfather of our subject, was a 
 native of Hartford, but removed to Stratford in ear- 
 ly manhood to make a permanent home, and his 
 death occurred there at the age of seventy-five. An- 
 di"ew Clemens, our subject's father, was born and 
 reared upon his father's farm at Stratford, and be- 
 came a mason by trade, serving his apprenticeship 
 in Milford. He followed his trade in Stratford for 
 many years, doing much work on contract, and he 
 lived to the good old age of seventy-five. In re- 
 ligious faith he was a Methodist, and he and his es- 
 timable wife were prominent members of the church 
 at Stratford. He married Amy J. Bristol, a native 
 of Milford, who died at the age of eighty- four. She 
 was one of the eight children of Samuel A. Bristol, 
 a well-known farmer of Milford, and his wife, Bet- 
 sey Van Nostrom, a native of Fairfield, Conn. Of 
 the children of Andrew and Amy Clemens, we have 
 record of the following: Mary; Andrew B., our 
 subject; Louis, who settled in Iowa; Lucy; Jane, 
 wife of Wilson Clark; and Emily, wife of David 
 Judson. 
 
 Our subject's early life was spent in Stratford, 
 and he secured his education in the common schools 
 of the locality. When seventeen years old he went 
 to Derby to learn the cabinet maker's trade, and on 
 completing his apprenticeship took a position in the 
 pattern shop of the foundry of Colburn Brothers, 
 remaining three years. For five years he had 
 charge of the machine and pattern room of the Far- 
 rell foundry at Ansonia, and spent the next eight 
 years as superintendent of the Birmingham Iron 
 Foundry, at Derby, his work being of recognized 
 value in building up that business. He then re- 
 turned to the Farrell foundry to remain as super- 
 intendent until his retirement from active work 
 thirty years later (1893), and he is still in the em- 
 ploy of the company as adviser, and also superm- 
 tends the work of draughting. At the time he took 
 charge of the plant there were only two small build- 
 ings, one forty by sixtv feet, and the other forty feet 
 square, while the works now cover two blocks. Only 
 forty men were then employed, but during his term 
 as superintendent the force was increased to 700 men 
 in all departments. His ability as an inventor was 
 called into play to furnish suitable machinery for 
 the business as it expanded, and he secured a num- 
 ber of valuable patents. For some time he ^vas a 
 director and stockholder in the company, and his in- 
 vestments now include several houses in the bor- 
 
 ough. In politics he is a Republican, and he has 
 served three terms as burgess. 
 
 In 1845 Mr. Clemens married Catherine E. Ger- 
 ard, a native of Long Island, who died aged sixty- 
 six years. She was a Congregationalist in religion, 
 and he'r ideal of Christian life was daily exemplified 
 by her in the home and social circle. She was one of 
 the eight children of Azel Gerard, a blacksmith, now 
 deceased, who was employed for some time in the 
 Halleck ship yard at Derby, and later in the Bassett 
 auger factory. Mr. Clemens has three living chil- 
 dren : ( I ) Marie married Thomas Wood, superin- 
 tendent of the Coe Brass Co., at Ansonia, and has 
 one son, Robert, who married Miss Eva Perkins, 
 and is now superintendent of a brass mill in New 
 York. (2) Frank, superintendent of the pattern 
 shop in the Farrell foundry, married Miss Elizabeth 
 Van Dusen, and has one son, Frank, now a pattern 
 maker in the same factory. (3) Jessie married 
 Bradley Doty, a contractor in New York, and has 
 one son, George, a pattern maker. 
 
 MICHAEL J. LAWLOR, proprietor of the 
 "South End Hotel," Waterbury, is a native of Ire- 
 land, born in County Kilkenny in 1842. His father, 
 John Lawlor, was a coal miner in Ireland, where 
 he passed his entire life, and married Mary Coogan, 
 of County Kilkenny. Ten children were born of this 
 union, eight of whom attained maturity, and five 
 of whom are living at present: Margaret, Mary, 
 John, James and Michael J. Of these, Margaret 
 married Gilbert Keller, of New Haven; Eleanor, 
 deceased, married a Mr. Dolan, of New Haven; 
 Mary is the wife of Patrick Fenneley, of Albany ; . 
 John is a liquor dealer in Waterbury; James is a 
 mechanic in New Haven; and Michael J. is our 
 subject. 
 
 Michael J. Lawlor received his education in his 
 native land, and in 1861, at the age of eighteen, 
 came to this country, where he engaged in mining in 
 Pennsylvania. Upon locating in Waterbury, in 1864, 
 he became interested in the making of ivory articles, 
 such as buttons and billiard balls, and later was 
 employed for seven years by the firm of Holmes, 
 Booth & Haydens. At the end of that time he 
 engaged in the grocery and liquor business in 
 Brooklyn (Waterbury), and in 1882 built his fine 
 brick block on South Main street, in which he has 
 conducted his hotel business since 1890. 
 
 In June, 1864, Mr. Lawlor married Catherine 
 Hickey, who was born in Waterbury, Conn., and 
 who at her death left four children, Frederick W., 
 George H., Charles J. and Mary E., all of whom are 
 living at home. In 1886 Mr. Lawlor married 
 Maggie Collins, who died without issue. In 1893 
 he wedded Josephine Keefe, who was born in Perry- 
 ville, Conn. Mr. and Mrs. Lawlor are members 
 of the Catholic Church. Mr. Lawlor is politically 
 a Republican, and fraternally is associated with the 
 Knights of Columbus and the New England Order 
 of Protection. He has made his own success in 
 
1472 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 life, totally unaided, having commenced with liter- 
 ally "not a cent" in the world, and working at first 
 for $i§ per month. He possesses the requisite at- 
 tributes for a successful hotel man, having besides 
 a genial personality and tactful manner, a wide 
 knowledge of human nature in all its workings. 
 
 WILLIAM THOMAS WOOLLEY, a prosper- 
 ous dealer in furniture, carpets, curtains, stoves and 
 ranges, on Center street, Meriden, and one of the en- 
 terprising and progressive citizens of the town, 
 owes his present high position in the financial world 
 to his own untiring energy, and to the devotion 
 and encouragement of a noble wife. A native of 
 the County of Kent, England, he was born April 3, 
 1844, and is the sole survivor of the six children 
 born to William and Louisa (Lawrence) WooUey. 
 William Woolley, Sr., removed from Dover to Shef- 
 field, England, and engaged in manufacturing there 
 until his death. His wife also died in Sheffield. 
 They were faithful and consistent members of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, and were highly re- 
 spected by those who knew them. 
 
 In his infancy William T. Woolley was brought 
 by his parents to Sheffield. His opportunities for 
 obtaining an education were meagre in the extreme, 
 as when but a child he was put to work in a rope 
 walk, and then in a brass works, where he engaged 
 in chandelier making. At the age of fourteen he 
 was bound out to serve in a cork factory, his salary 
 of three shillings a week for the first year increas- 
 ing one shilling a week for each year until his ap- 
 prenticeship expired, at twenty-one. After finish- 
 ing his trade he continued with the cork factory for 
 six years, but the outlook seemed so discouraging 
 to his progressive spirit that he determined to strike 
 out for himself. Having married before he was 
 twenty years of age, in September, 1864, he took 
 his bride of a few months, and, embarking in the 
 sailing vessel "Atmosphere," at Liverpool, came to 
 America. From New York he came to Nauga- 
 tuck, where he obtained employment in a cutlery 
 factory, and spent six years at knife making. The 
 ambition to better his condition inspired him to 
 leave this factory for one in the same line at Goshen, 
 Litchfield Co., Conn., where he remained two 
 years, and he then returned to Naugatuck, remain- 
 ing until 1873. In that year he assumed a position 
 in the knife making department of the Miller Bros. 
 Cutlery Co., at Meriden, but after a few years re- 
 moved to Scuthington, Conn., and spent ten years in 
 the same business. In 1887 he determined to risk 
 the savings of years in a business of his own, and 
 accordingly started in the furniture business. Not 
 meeting with anticipated success, he removed after 
 three years to Meriden, where his natural ability 
 came to the rescue, and in the midst of advantageous 
 surroundings built up a good business in a store on 
 Center street. His bright and genial manners won 
 friends and customers from the start, and honor- 
 .a'ble business methods gained substantial footing 
 
 in the commercial world, so that, in a comparatively 
 short time, patrons came not only from Meriden,' 
 but from Wallingford and other neighboring towns. 
 Three years passed, and then, as if to teach by ad- 
 versity the blessings of prosperity, his store was 
 burned. Nothing daunted, Mr. Woolley built his 
 present fine three-story building, 100x140 feet, in 
 ground dimensions, costing over $10,000, where he 
 has a complete house furnishing establishment, and 
 in connection therewith a large warehouse. Twelve 
 hands are employed and kept constantly busy, and a 
 liberal patronage has rewarded increasing toil. 
 Having so keen a sense of honesty himself, Mr. 
 Woolley insists that his clerks be absolutely truthful 
 in the representations of stock, and he himself is 
 always the same courteous gentleman, profoundly 
 considerate of all with whom he has to deal. With 
 an education gained in the school of experience and 
 by his own reading and observation, he is broad- 
 minded and well-posted on general topics, a fine 
 conversationalist and very popular socially. 
 
 Mr. Woolley was wedded in England, Feb. 28, 
 1864, to Ellen Winter, a native of Sheffield, and 
 daughter of Edward Winter. Their living children 
 are : William E., a clerk in his father's store, mar- 
 ried Lizzie Folkson; Louisa is the wife of Robert 
 Brandt, of Bridgeport; Thomas, employed by his 
 father, married Cora Bailis ; Henrietta is a book- 
 keeper in her father's establishment; Joseph is also 
 employed by his father; George is a student in the 
 Business College at Hartford. Mrs. Woolley is a re- 
 fined and cultured woman, a devoted wife and 
 mother, to whose sympathy and help her husband 
 owes .much of his success in life. In religious 
 connection the family is identified with the Meth- 
 odist Church. Politically Mr. Woolley is a Repub- 
 lican, but can by no means be called an office seeker. 
 Socially he belongs to Pacific Lodge, No. 87, I. O. 
 O. F., the Montowese Tribe of Red Men, and the 
 Foresters of America. He is also identified with 
 Centre Lodge, A. F. & A. M. 
 
 F. B. BRILL. One of the most substantial re- 
 tail drug enterprises in New Haven has been con- 
 ducted since 1883 by F. B. Brill, born in that city 
 Jan. 13, 1857, of rugged Teutonic ancestry. His 
 father, John Brill, was a native of Saxony, Ger- 
 many, and after coming to New Haven, about 1856, 
 engaged as a carriage draughtsman until retiring in 
 1886, his death occurring in 1891. B^s wife, form- 
 erly Ida Amelia Tischendorf, a native of Saxony, 
 and whose ancestors were jewelers by trade, died in 
 1896, leaving six children : Annie, who married 
 Edward Lohse, of New Haven; Otto, a carriage 
 maker in New Haven ; George, formerly a drug- 
 gist, now a mechanic, of this city ; William, a drug- 
 gist; Theresa; and Frederick B., our subject, who 
 is the eldest child of the family. 
 
 The education of Mr. Brill, at the Eaton school, 
 New Haven, was interrupted, at the age of fourteen, 
 by his entering the employ of A. S. Blackman, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1473 
 
 druggist, with wihom he remained for five years. 
 This training, though practical and thorough, was 
 supplemented by a course in the New York College 
 of Pharmacy, from which he graduated in 1876. 
 Immediately thereafter he entered a drug store in 
 Brooklyn, where for eight years he applied and 
 added to his already extensive knowledge of drugs. 
 Arriving here, in 1883, a thorough, practiced and 
 competent pharmacist, he made a bid for the confi- 
 dence of the people and their extended and liberal 
 patronage, and the wisdom of his selection has been 
 repeatedly demonstrated in the meantime. Having 
 purchased the store and business of Charles R. Con- 
 verse, on Grand avenue, and also opened a branch 
 store at No. 1320 State street, he, in 1894, re- 
 moved to 258 Oak street, on the corner of Asylum, 
 and in Aug. 1901, located at 245 Dixwell .avenue. 
 
 On March 15, 1885, Mr. Brill married Catherine 
 Bloss, born in Hessen, Germany a daughter of 
 George Bloss, who is a resident of New Haven. 
 Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Brill, 
 Alfred B. and Clara T. In politics Mr. Brill is a 
 Democrat, and in 1899 as elected alderman of the 
 Second ward, a singular mark of honor, as he is the 
 only Democrat elected from the ward in the past 
 sixteen years. 
 
 Mr. Brill is interested in civic affairs and is one 
 of the directors of the New Haven Free Library. 
 Fraternally he is a member of Hiram Lodge, No. 
 I, A. F. & A. M. ; Humboldt Lodge, No. 91, and the 
 Encampment, I. O. O. F. ; Hamonasset Tribe of .feed 
 Men; and the New England Order of Protection. 
 With his wife he is a consistent member of the Ger- 
 man Lutheran Church, and contributes generously 
 toward its charities and support. 
 
 • 
 
 ABRAHAM SANFORD (deceased). Among 
 the men whose activity, prudence and business acu- 
 men left a lasting impress upon the financial and 
 commercial life of New Haven, Abraham Sanford 
 must occupy a leading position. A native of this 
 city, he was a son of Elihu Sanford, a native of 
 Bethany, Connecticut. 
 
 Abraham Sanford grew to manhood in New 
 Haven, attending the schools of his native city, and 
 also the Lancasterian school. When a young man 
 he engaged in the lumber trade, and from it 
 branched into the shipping business, success attend- 
 ing all of his enterprises. As increasing infirmities 
 pressed upon him he retired from active life, and 
 died Sept. 26, 1879, deeply mourged by his large 
 circle of acquaintances and friends. In 1847 he 
 married Mary Baker, who was born in Ridgefield, 
 Conn., a daughter of Amos Baker, of Ridgefield, 
 the latter of whom was a son of Dr. Amos Baker 
 the well-known and highly esteemed physician of 
 that locality. Dr. Baker was a son of John Baker, 
 a lieutenant in the Revolution, while Dr. Baker 
 acted as assistant surgeon in the same memorable 
 conflict. 
 
 Amos Baker, the father of Mrs. Sanford, mar- 
 93 
 
 ried Mary Gilbert, who was born in New Haven, a 
 daughter of Isaac Gilbert, also of New Haven. 
 Seven children were born of this union: Benjamin; 
 William; Grace; Isaac G., now retired, and living 
 at St. Louis, Mo.; Mary (Mrs. Sanford); Sarah, 
 died in infancy; and George A., president of the 
 Continental Bank of St. Louis, Mo. Amos Baker 
 was a Whig in politics, and a Methodist in religious 
 belief. By occupation a merchant, he conducted 
 stores in Ridgefield and New Haven, in which latter 
 town himself and wife completed their long and 
 useful lives. 
 
 Abraham Sanford spent his entire life in New 
 Haven, and was prominently identified with the 
 leading enterprises of . his day. A public-spirited 
 man, he believed in advocating all measures tending 
 towards the betterment of existing conditions, and 
 generously gave his time and money for the further- 
 ance of the same. No children were born of his 
 second union, and the two born of a former union 
 are now deceased. Frederick Sanford Atwater, the 
 son of Mr. Sanford's daughter, Mrs. Atwater, oc- 
 cupied a warm place in the hearts of Mr. Sanford 
 and his wife, and the young man was a special 
 favorite of Mrs. Sanford, who lavished upon him 
 the wealth of her maternal love. This esti- 
 mable, young man died in the spring of 1901, of 
 typhoid fever, and his death was a sad shock to his 
 loving relatives. He was unmarried and was a 
 member of the Colonial Historical society. 
 
 In politics, Mr. Sanford was a Republican, and 
 he and his family attended the Center Church in 
 New Haven. Mrs. Sanford is a lady of intelligence 
 and culture, and in her pleasant home is surrounded 
 by the comforts her beloved husband furnished her. 
 She is- doubly bereaved, yet her optimistic nature 
 looks forward rather than at the past, and she has 
 many friends to enjoy the benefit of her kindly and 
 helpful personality. 
 
 JOSEPH KEGELMEYER, Fire Commission- 
 er, of New Haven, and connected with the Win- 
 chester Repeating Arms Co., of international fame, 
 is a native son and well-known resident of this city. 
 The family ancestry is German, the father, Joseph, 
 and the mother, Eva (Bregth) Kegelmeyer, being 
 natives of Germany, and the former born in Bavaria. 
 Mr. Kegelmeyer came to New Haven, in 1845, 
 where he met and married his wife, and a family of 
 five children were born to them : Carrie, who mar- 
 ried Henry Snyder; Frances, who married George 
 L. Hyde; Charles, a resident of New Haven; and 
 Joseph. 
 
 The elder Kegelmeyer was well educated in his- 
 own country, and after locating in New Haven, be- 
 came a member of the police force. During the 
 Civil war he was first a recruiting officer, and later 
 he enlisted in the service. He became ser- 
 geant of Company G, 15th Conn. V. I., and was 
 killed at the battle of Kinston, North Carolina, May 
 4, 1865. He was survived by his wife until 1876^ 
 
1474 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Joseph Kegelmeyer was born Feb. 5, 1857, and 
 spent his early boyhood in this city. When he was 
 but nine years old the death of his father threw 
 him on his own resources, and he therefore left 
 school and went to Wilkesbarre, Penn., and for 
 two years engaged as a coal miner. With the ex- 
 ception of this temporary absence, he has spent his 
 entire life in this city. Mr. Kegelmeyer fol- 
 lowed his mining experience by learning the trade 
 of cigar maker, but in 1875 became connected with 
 the Winchester Repeating Arms Co., and this 
 amicable and satisfactory connection has continued 
 ever since, his present line of work being in the 
 cartridge department. 
 
 On Nov. 16, 1881, Mr. Kegelmeyer married Hat- 
 tie Gladwin, of Clinton, Conn., daughter of William 
 Gladwin, member of an old and representative fam- 
 ily. Socially Mr. Kegelmeyer is connected with 
 Trumbull Lodge, No. 22, F. & A. M. ; Franklin 
 Chapter, No. 2 ; Harmony Council, No. 8 ; New 
 Haven Commandery, No. 2 ; E. G. Storer Lodge 
 of Perfection ; Scottish Rite, Rose Croix'; Lafayette 
 Consistory; and Pyramid Temple of the Mystic 
 Shrine, Bridgeport ; 32d degree ; Knights of Pythias ; 
 American Mechanics ; and Ancient Order of United 
 Workmen. In all of these organizations he is prom- 
 inent and active. 
 
 As a stanch Republican Mr. Kegelmeyer has 
 filled many offices of trust and responsibility, and 
 gained an especial advantage in 1897, when he was 
 elected to the Board of Public Works in the Demo- 
 cratic strong-hold of New Haven. The same year 
 he was appointed Fire Commissioner, by Mayor 
 Farnsworth, and has" efficiently served in this im- 
 portant capacity ever since. Although Mr. Kegel- 
 meyer is not formally connected with any religious 
 body, his inclinations lead him to the teachings of 
 the Universalist Church, to which his parents be- 
 longed. Thoroughly alive to the needs of a great 
 city, he has, with characteristic courage and honesty 
 of purpose, dealt with public interests as became an 
 "honored citizen of sterling worth and great good 
 sense. 
 
 W. S. R. WAKE, senior member of the Boston 
 Furniture Co., proprietors of the Boston Furniture 
 Store, and the leading house furnishers in Water- 
 bury, was born in Smithtown, Long Island, June 
 I, 1861. 
 
 Richard Wake, his grandfather, came from Eng- 
 land to Long Island, where he was for many years 
 a local preacher. He was the father of five chil- 
 dren: Sarah, William (father of our subject), 
 Richard, Charles and George. Sarah (deceased) 
 married Henry Beare, a gardener in Hempstead, 
 L. I. Richard is now a Methodist minister in Salt 
 Lake City, Utah. Charles is a banker and a prom- 
 inent man in Nebraska ; he is a Republican. George 
 died when a young man. 
 
 William Wake, the father of W. S. R., was born 
 in England in 1820, and is still living. He fol- 
 
 lowed in the footsteps of his father, and is a retired 
 minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. His 
 wife, Mama (Squires), was born in Goodground, 
 Long Island, daughter of Nicholas Squires, and 
 died about 1890, the mother of two children : Emma 
 and W. S. R. Emma married Ira E. Manvel, and 
 has her home in Massachusetts. The Squires 
 came into the section after the Indians retired 
 and for five generations have lived in the same part 
 of Long Island. 
 
 W. S. R. Wake spent his boyhood in various 
 places, as his father was a traveling minister and 
 subject to orders. He attended high school in Hart- 
 ford, and in 1879 graduated from the Glastonbury 
 Academy. After leaving school he was a clerk in 
 the grocery store of H. J. Case & Co., and later 
 had a similar position in Waterbury. Mr. Manvel, 
 his brother-in-law, joined him in the establishment 
 of a general store at Lenoxdale, Mass., and the 
 business was conducted successfully for about a year 
 and a half, when they was burned out. Mr. Wake 
 then came back to Waterbury and resumed his place 
 as clerk in the grocery, which he had given up to 
 go to Lenoxdale. On July 28, 1883, he associated 
 himself with Hunt & York, who were conducting 
 a furniture and undertaking business., and spent a 
 year and a half in their employ. He clerked for 
 Smith & Twitchell, at Meriden, about the same 
 length of time, and then was in the furniture busi- 
 ness for himself a year at Westfield, Mass. Again 
 returning to Waterbury, he formed a partnership 
 with C. W. Elkins, and for six years they conducted 
 an extensive business in furniture and house furn- 
 ishings. When this firm dissolved the Bo,ston 
 Furniture Co. was formed by W. S. R. Wake and 
 W. W. Wallace, who have rapidly built up an ex- 
 tensive trade, and in a comparatively brief time have 
 come straight to the front. 
 
 Mr. Wake and Miss Lfla M. Benton were mar- 
 ried Feb. 2, 1887. Mrs. Wake was born in Lee, 
 Mass., daughter of Charles C. Benton, of that place. 
 The Benton family has long been known in Massa- 
 chusetts, and comes of old English stock. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Wake have two children, Meta and Edna. 
 Mr. Wake is a Republican, and belongs to the 
 Grange. He is a member of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church, and his wife is a Methodist. 
 
 JEROME B. FULLER, chief engineer of the 
 Naugatuck Fire Department, and one of the leading 
 citizens of that place, is a native of Connecticut, 
 born in Scantic, Hartford county, Aug. 27, 1839, 
 and is a son of Jehial Fuller, who was one of a large 
 family of children, all farmers and iresidents of this 
 State. The father of our subject, however, worked 
 as a laborer and also engaged in the trucking busi- 
 ness. He died in- April, 185 1, at the age of fifty-five 
 years. By his wife, Elizabeth, also a native of Con- 
 necticut, he became the father of nine children, 
 namely : Jane, who married a Mr. Nye, of Spring- 
 field, [Mass., and both are now deceased; James, a 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1475 
 
 retired machinist of Springfield, who died in 1897; 
 Henry, who died in infancy ; Jennette, wife of Will- 
 iam Hutchinson, of New Haven; Jerusha, wife of 
 Samuel Pease, who is now living retired in Spring- 
 field; Cornelia, who died unmarried in 1876; Mary, 
 wife of Erastus Hillman, of North Carolina; Jerome 
 B., our subject; and Rose, wife of Andrew Hyde, 
 a violin manufacturer of Northampton, Massachu- 
 setts. 
 
 The early life of Jerome B. Fuller was passed 
 in Rockville, Conn., where he continued to make his 
 home until 1856, when he went to Springfield, Mass., 
 to learn the machinist's trade. He subsequently 
 returned to Rockville, where hd worked at his 
 trade until coming to Naugatuck Oct. 5, 1869. Here 
 he entered the employ of the Dunham Hosiery Com- 
 pany (then known as the Thomas Lewis Company), 
 and is still a machinist with that concern. 
 
 On Sept. 23, 1859, Mr. Fuller was united in 
 marriage with Miss Augusta Bidwell, who was born 
 in Lee, Mass., and is a daughter of Henry and 
 Sarah (Scovel) Bidwell, the former also a native 
 of Lee, Mass., the latter of Connecticut, and both 
 of English descent. Her grandfathers were Eleazer 
 Bidwell and Julius Scovel. Two children were 
 born to our subject and his wife, namely: Maud, 
 who died at the age of five months; and Asa L., 
 at home, 
 
 Mr. Fuller is president of the Naugatuck Elec- 
 tric Time Co. ; is chief of the Naugatuck Fire De- 
 partment, which office he has filled uninterruptedly 
 since 1893 ; and is also superintendent of the fire 
 alarm system and fire marshal. He became a mem- 
 ber and was appointed first assistant engineer on the 
 organization of the department in 1890, and has al- 
 ways taken a most active and prominent part in its 
 afifairs. He is a stanch supporter of the Republican 
 party and its principles, and is a member of Fayette 
 Lodge, F. & A. M., of Rockville, and Allerton Chap- 
 ter, R. A. M., of Naugatuck. Religiously he was 
 reared in the Congregational Church, to which his 
 ancestors belonged. His wife is quite an active and 
 prominent temperance worker; has been district 
 superintendent of the Juvenile Temperance Society 
 through this valley ; and vice-president of the Good 
 Templars Society 'of the State. She is also a mem- 
 ber of the Golden Cross, and is a most estimable 
 lady. 
 
 FRANK H. WOODRUFF, a well-known resi- 
 dent of Milford, was born July 15 1849 in the 
 town of Orange, New Haven county, where his 
 family has been prominent for several generations. 
 One of our subject's ancestors came over m the 
 "Mayflower." ^^ , ^ „ , „ 
 
 Nehemiah Woodfuff, grandfather of Frank H., 
 was born in Orange, and passed his life there en- 
 gaged in farming. He married Hannah Jones, 
 and they had five children, of whom Jeremiah, our 
 subject's father, was the youngest. John was a 
 carpenter and builder in New Haven, where he 
 
 died. Diantha married Aaron Fenn, a physician, 
 who was born in Milford and practiced in Rox- 
 bury. Conn. Harriet married Samuel Smith, a 
 farmer and contractor in Orange. Mary married 
 Arnold Hine, a farmer in Orange. 
 
 Jeremiah Woodruff was born in Orange, and 
 remained there, becoming known as the most suc- 
 cessful farmer in the town, perhaps in the State. 
 Politically he was a Republican, and in religious 
 faith he and his estimable wife were Congrega- 
 tionalists. He married Miss Charlotte Nettleton, 
 daughter of David Nettleton, a farmer in Orange, 
 and they had five children, as follows : Styles D., 
 a seed grower and dealer of Orange; George E., 
 retired, of Bayonne, N. J.; Charlotte E., wife of 
 Everett B. Clark, of Orange; Mary E., deceased; 
 and Frank H., our subject. The mother died in 
 1888, and the father did not long survive her, 
 dying in December, 1890. 
 
 Frank H. Woodruff" spent his youth at the old 
 homestead, and until reaching the age of .sixteen 
 he attended the local district school. Later he at- 
 tended the high school at Orange Center, and after 
 a year of further study at Suffield, Conn., he re- 
 turned to his father's farm, of which he took charge' 
 in early manhood. He makes a specialty of mar- 
 ket gardening and raising garden seeds.. His farm 
 in Milford contains 130 acres, and he owns, much 
 more in the town of Orange, having inherited a 
 part of the family estate there. On Sept. 15, 1870, 
 Mr. Woodruff married Miss Susan G. Furman, of 
 Milford, daughter of Henry Furman, who removed 
 to that town from Cayuga County, N. Y., and en- 
 gaged in contracting, building sewers,, bridges and 
 similar works. Mrs. Susan G. Woodruff died June 
 16, 1882, and on Aug. 15, 1883, our subject mar- 
 ried Miss Ella J. Piatt, of Milford, a daughter of 
 David B. Piatt of the same town. By his, first 
 marriage he had two children: Carrie L., torn 
 Nov. 5, 1872, wife of Charles W. Lindley, of West 
 Haven, Conn.; and William H., born Oct. 24, 
 1875, who assists his father in the management of 
 the farm. By the second marriage he, has also 
 two children: Florence E., born June 21,. 1884; 
 and Harold F., bom July 15, 1885. Mr. Woodruff 
 is a stanch Republican, and although he has fre- 
 quently declined to accept nomination for local of- 
 fice he is now serving as representative in the State 
 Legislature. Fraternally he belongs to the Royal 
 Arcanum, and is one of the leading members of 
 the Plymouth Congregational Church of Milford, 
 in which he has held the office of deacon for over 
 twenty years; he is also chairman of the society's 
 committee of the church. 
 
 JAMES P. DAVIDSON, the foreman of the 
 blacksmith department of the Farrell Foundry in 
 Ansonia, was born in Scotland July 3, 1836, where 
 his ancestors for many generations hadi lived and 
 died. 
 
 James Davidson, his grandfather, was born in 
 
1476 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Paisley, near Glasgow. He was a harnessmaker 
 by trade, and followed' that avocation all his life; 
 his wife, who lived to the very old, was also a 
 native of Scotland, and they had a family of twelve 
 children. 
 
 John Davidson, the father of James P., was 
 reared a harnessmaker, and followed that trade 
 until his coming to America in 1862. His first lo- 
 cation was made in Pittsburg, and from there he 
 moved to Hiamilton, Ohio. In 1873 he came to 
 Ansonia, where he led a retired life until his death 
 in 1881, when he was seventy-two years old. Jant 
 Pollock, his wife, was born near Glasgow, in 1818, 
 and had a family of thirteen children. Four of 
 this family are now living: James P.; Archibald, 
 of Hamilton, Ohio • Margaret, who married George 
 S'loss, and lives in Ansonia ; and Eliabeth, who is 
 the wife of George Malkam, of Ansonia. The 
 mother died in 1878 at the age of sixty years. The 
 parents were both members of the Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 James P. Davidson established himself in An- 
 sonia in i860. He had been educated in the thor- 
 ough and solid manner customary in Scotland, 
 and had learned the blacksmith trade, beginning 
 when he was fifteen years old, and when he had 
 mastered it, following the trade some years at New- 
 castle, England. On his arrival in the United 
 States Mr. Davidson came directly to Connecticut, 
 where he secured a position with the Farrell Com- 
 pany at Water'bury, and in October of that year 
 (i860) came to Ansonia, to take a similar position 
 in the foundry of the same firm in this city. Since 
 that time Mr. Davidson has remained continuously 
 in their employ, and is noted as the oldest man in 
 the works in point of service. Mr. Davidson has 
 seen the foundry increased many times in extent, 
 and when he came he found a house three blocks 
 away from it. Now he lives eight, and the inter- 
 vening space is closely filled. He is the oldest fore- 
 man in the works, and one of the most trusted 
 workmen in the factory. There are comparatively 
 very few living in Ansonia who were here in i860. 
 
 Mr. Davidson was married in Newcastle, Eng- 
 land, in 1857, to Miss Margaret Douglass, a na- 
 tive of Scotland. To this union were born six chil- 
 Idren, five of whom are now living. Of these, 
 Robert, a machinist in Farrell foundry, is married 
 and has two children, Clara and Robert; Jane, who 
 married Frank Cabaolie, a machinist, and has five 
 children, Kitty, Jane, Margaret, James and Frank; 
 John, a machinist in the Farrell foundry, married 
 Mary Cunningham, and has two children, James 
 and Terry ; and Archibald, also a machinist, mar- 
 ried Maria Sheren and has five children, Archibald, 
 James, Blanche, Mary and Margaret. 
 
 Mr. Davidson is a Republican in politics, and 
 has been a member of the I. O. O. F. since 1862. 
 He belongs to the benefit association connected 
 with the foundry. He is in good circumstances ; 
 some years since he built his own house, and two 
 
 adjoining, and now owns three fine residences. 
 He and his family are connected with the Meth- 
 odist Church. 
 
 CHARLES REED, assistant superintendent of 
 factory "B" of the Goodyear India Rubber Glove 
 Co., at Naugatuck, New Haven Co., Conn., is one 
 of the most energetic and progressive business men 
 of that place. He has worked his way upward 
 from a humble position, and his life demonstrates 
 what may be accomplished by tireless industry, en- 
 terprise and good management. He is a man of 
 broad capabilities who carries forward to success- 
 ful completion whatever he undertakes. 
 
 A native of Connecticut, Mr. Reed was born in 
 Newtown, Dec. 14, 1856, a son of Martin E. Reed, 
 who was bom in Brookfield, this State, in 1815, 
 and died in 1898. The paternal grandfather was 
 a native of England, and on coming to this coun- 
 try located in Brookfield, Conn., where he spent 
 the remainder of his life. His only child was 
 Martin E., who removed to Newtown in early 
 life and there married Sarah Batterson, a native of 
 that place. She died in i860. Both were members 
 of the Episcopal Church, and he was a Republican 
 in politics. They had three chil'dren : Frank, who 
 is with the Wheeler & Wilson Manufacturing Co., 
 at Bridgeport, Conn.; Charles, our subject; and 
 Carrie E.,. unmarried. 
 
 When Charles Reed was three years old the 
 family went West, where they remained four years, 
 and then returned to this State, the father being 
 engaged in the manufacture of combs at New- 
 town. There our subject grew to manhood, ac- 
 quiring his literary education in the local schools. 
 On starting out in life for himself he worked for 
 ithe Wheelex & iWilson Manufacturing Co., aJt 
 Bridgeport, for two years, and for three years was 
 employed in the armory at New Haven. In 1877 
 he came to Naugatuck to learn the rubber business 
 with the Goodyear India Rubber Glove Co., in 
 whose employ he has since remained. He has won 
 promotion from time to time until he is now as- 
 sistant superintendent of factory B. 
 
 In 1894 Mr. Reed married Mrs. Catherine 
 Knapp, a daughter of Isaac Wells, of Sandy Hook, 
 Conn. Socially he affiliates with Centennial Lodge, 
 No. 100, I. O. O. F., of Naugatuck; and polit- 
 ically is identified with the Republican party. He 
 was a member of the board of burgesses in 1897 
 and 1898, and proved a most capable official, for he 
 is a progressive man, pre-eminently public-spirited, 
 and all that pertains to the public welfare receives 
 his hearty endorsement. 
 
 C. ART. WARD, M. D. Among those who de- 
 vote their time and energies to the practice of 
 medicine and have gained a leading place in the 
 ranks of the profession is Dr. Ward, a prominent 
 physician of Waterbury, Conn., and proprietor of 
 the Mad River Sanitarium. He is a native of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ^A77 
 
 Tioga county, N. Y., -born in Candor, son of Charles 
 P. and Minerva P. (Smith) Ward, both now de- 
 ceased. The parents were faithful members of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, and were highly 
 respected by all who knew them. The father was 
 a dealer in stock and lumber. He was a Repub- 
 lican in politics. 
 
 Dr. Ward attended the district schools near his 
 boyhood home, and at the age of fourteen years en- 
 tered the Susquehanna Seminary, at Binghamton, 
 Broome Co., N. Y., where he spent two years. 
 Later he was a student at Wyoming College, Kings- 
 ton, Luzerne Co., Penn., where he also spent two 
 years, and then attended the United States Med- 
 ical College. After graduation he entered upon the 
 duties of his profession at Newark, N. J., where 
 he remained until 1880, in that year coming to 
 Waterbury, Conn., and locating at Mill Plain, He 
 built the Mad River Sanitarium at considerable 
 cost, and has fitted it up for the care of his patients. 
 This institution he successfully carries on in con- 
 nection with his private practice, and is meeting 
 with excellent success in the undertaking. 
 
 In New Haven Dr. Ward was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Bertha C. Alvord, a native of 
 West Hartford, Conn., and a daughter of Jerome 
 Alvord. By this union has been born one child, 
 Leland Adelbert. Mrs. Ward is an accomplished 
 lady, of refined and cultured tastes, and is a mem- 
 ber of the Congregational Church. In his relig- 
 ious views the Doctor is liberal. He is a mem- 
 ber of the State board of the Eclectic Medical So- 
 ciety, and fraternally is a Freemason. Gentle- 
 manly and courteous in manner, he makes many 
 friends, and is quite popular in both professional 
 and social circles. 
 
 FRED L. LEHR, one of the enterprising young 
 business men of New Haven, is a son of Gottfried 
 Lehr, who for almost half a century has been one 
 of the leading German residents of the city, and 
 grandson of Conrad and Elizabeth Lehr, natives, re- 
 spectively of Schierstein and Neudiorf, Germany, 
 the former living to be sixty-five, and the latter 
 sixty-three years old. They were members of the 
 Lutheran Church, and of their eight chiWren Gott- 
 fried is the only survivor. Conrad Lehr was a 
 cabinetmaker by occupation, and traveled exten- 
 sively over the continent of Europe. 
 
 Gottfried Lehr was born Jan. 15, 1832, in 
 Schierstein, Germany, and lived in his native coun- 
 try until nineteen years old. He then crossed the 
 ocean to America, landing in New York, and m 
 June, 1852, came to New Haven, where he has 
 since resided. In West Baden, Germany, he had 
 learned the tailor's trade, and after his arrival in 
 this city entered the employ of Mr. Fitch until 
 embarking in business on his own account in 1858. 
 With the exception of three years, during which 
 he lived retired, Mr. Lehr has been engaged con- 
 tinuously at his trade, and though his son has 
 
 now succeeded, to the business he has not entirely 
 relinquished active interest in it. For many years 
 he has been one of the most prominent Germans 
 in New Haven, active in the promotion of the 
 city's welfare, and taking the interest in public af- 
 fairs which an intelligent, public-spirited man nat- 
 urally feels. He has also become well known in 
 social circles, and in 1852 was one of the organ- 
 izers of the German Turners, of which society he is 
 now the only surviving charter member. He was 
 also a charter member of the School Society, a 
 German Educational Association; and is a mem- 
 ber of the Haru-Gari, in which he has held all 
 the offices up to the highest in the State ; Con- 
 cordia Lodge, No. I, German Aid Society; Ger- 
 mania Lodge, I. O. O. F., in which he has held 
 membership forty years, and has held all the of- 
 fices and Aurora Encampment and Canton Au- 
 rora, in both of which he is the oldest member 
 and has held all the offices. In 1855 Mr. Lehr 
 married Barbara Kirchner, a native of Germany, 
 and of the children born to them five are living. 
 
 Fred L. Lehr was born April 12, 1865, in New 
 Haven, where his entire life has been passed. He 
 was educated in the common and high schools of 
 the city, and under his father's instruction mastered 
 the tailor's trade, which he has made his life oc- 
 cupation. In 1890 he became bis father's part- 
 ner, and in 1895 bought out his father's interest 
 in the establishment, which he has since conducted 
 on his own account at No. 88 Church street. He 
 is endeavoring to do business along the lines es- 
 tablished by his father, who has won a splendid 
 reputation in New Haven as a man of sound judg- 
 ment and unquestioned loyalty and integrity. 
 
 In i8go Fred L. Lehr married Emma Fresenius, 
 one of the six children of Philip Fresenius, whose 
 only son, Henry, is the present treasurer of New 
 Haven, and a prominent resident thereof. Two 
 children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Lehr, 
 Fred. L., Jr., and Clara Emma. Like his fa- 
 ther, Mr. Lehr is active in Masonic circles, being a 
 member of Connecticut Rock Lodge, F. & A. M., 
 Pulaski Chapter, Crawford Council, the Royal Ar- 
 canum, the New EngJan.d Order of Protection, the 
 Patriotic Order Sons of America, the Knights of 
 Honor, and the Independent Order of Good Fel- 
 lows (Juste Lodge). He has been identified with 
 the Connecticut National Guard, at one time serv- 
 ing as captain of Company E, 2d Regiment, and he 
 is now color sergeant of the 2d company. Gover- 
 nor's Foot Guards. Like his sire, he is a stanch 
 Republican in political sentiment, but he has re- 
 peatedly refused official honors. 
 
 MILES E. PAYNE, one of Cheshire's leading 
 agriculturists and representative citizens, was born 
 in Bristol, Hartford Co., Conn., June 26, 1846, and 
 belongs to an old New England family. The first 
 of the name found in the records of New Haven 
 county was Joseph Payne, who was born Nov. 14, 
 
1478 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1751, and lived in Prospect when it formed a part 
 of the town of Waterbury. There he owned land 
 and engaged in farming and milling until his death. 
 He was married, April 8, 1773, to Hulda Hotch- 
 kiss, a daughter of Gideon Hotchkiss, of Water- 
 bury, by whom he had one child, Harmon, born 
 Dec. 9, 1773. The wife and mother died March 22, 
 1774, and he was again married, Nov. 21, 1774, his 
 second union being with Esther Hotchkiss. Their 
 children were: Joseph, born Oct. 13, 1776; and 
 Peter, born June 13, 1779- The second wife died 
 Feb. 23, 1787, and on Sept. 26, the same year, Mr. 
 Payne married Abigail Olcott, who died Jan. 22, 
 1795. By that union there were three children : 
 Esther, born July 23, 1788; Susanna, who was born 
 June 25, 1790, and died in September, 1804; and 
 Hulda, born Dec. 6, 1792. For his fourth wife Mr. 
 Payne married Lois Hotchkiss, daughter of Abra- 
 ham Hotchkiss, June i, 1795, and they had four 
 children: Silas, born April 19, 1796; Olcott Hotch- 
 kiss, born March 12, 1798; Herrick, who was born 
 June 12, 1802, and married Patty Frost; and Ed- 
 ward Merritt, born Oct. 21, 1804. The father died 
 April 25, 1805, and his last wife, in November, 
 1842. 
 
 Joseph Payne, Jr., son of the progenitor of the 
 family in this county, was born in Prospect, Oct. 
 13, 1776, and owned and operated a farm in that 
 town, near the Waterbury reservoir, where he died 
 Nov. 17, 1855, his remains being interred in Pros- 
 pect Center cemetery. He was a- member of the 
 Congregational Church. On June 16, 1798, he mar- 
 ried Ruth Beecher, who was born in August, 1777, 
 a daughter of Hezekiah Beecher, of Cheshire, and 
 who died Nov. 23, 1823. For his second wife he 
 married Rebecca Barnes, who was born Nov. 17, 
 1 79 1, and died in Prospect, Nov. 17, 1876. His 
 children were as follows : Julia, born Nov. 30, 
 1799, married Alfred Stevens, and died April 8, 
 1887; Maria, born Oct. 26, 1800, married Russell 
 Miles; Joseph Burton was born Jan. 11, 1803; 
 Stephen Hotchkiss was born Oct. 4, 1805; Edwin 
 Beecher, born Oct. 30, 181 1, died July 13, 1814; 
 George was born Oct. 19, 1813 ; Edwin Beecher 
 (2d), born March 20, 1^6, was the father of our 
 subject; Harmon, born Feb. 23, 1819, is a resident 
 of Bristol, Conn. ; and Ruth Elizabeth was born 
 June 23, 1822. 
 
 Edwin B. Payne, father of our subject, was a 
 native of Prospect, where he was reared upon a 
 farm and educated in the district schools. After 
 his marriage he removed to Bristol, where he fol- 
 lowed teaming for a time, and then returned to 
 Prospect, where he conducted a hotel and also en- 
 gaged in the manufacture of matches, being one of 
 the first in this section to carry on that business. 
 In 1855 he removed to Cheshire, where he followed 
 farming for a time, and later engaged in the same 
 occupation at Mt. Carmel, in the town of Hamden, 
 for five years. The following four years were 
 passed in Southington, Hartford county, and from 
 
 there he came to Cheshire Center, where he spent 
 the remainder of his life, dying here July 19, 1894. 
 His remains were interred in the Cheshire ceme- 
 ]tery. He was a member of the Episcopal Church 
 and a prominent Democrat, who most capably filled 
 the offices of selectman, assessor, treasurer and 
 grand juror, and first selectman of Hamden. In 
 Cheshire he married Gertrude K. Miles, a native of 
 that town, a daughter of John and Lurinda (White) 
 Miles, and great-granddaughter of Dr. Joshua 
 Porter, an Englishman and an early resident of 
 Southington. Mrs. Payne, too, was a member of 
 the Episcopal Church. She died on the home farm, 
 in 1896, and was laid to rest in Cheshire cemetery. 
 In their family were three children : Elba, wife 
 of C. L. Beecher, of Southington : Miles E. ; and 
 Ida, wife of Nathan A. Doolittle, of Plantsville. 
 
 The subject of this sketch attended the public, 
 schools of Cheshire, Prospect and Waterbury, and 
 also a select school, and remained with his parents 
 until he attained to his majority, after which he 
 engaged in farming and teaming, first in Mount 
 Carmel and later in Southington. Hte began life 
 as a farmer in 1873, '^^ the Almon Ives farm of 100 
 acres in Cheshire. He has since made many im'- 
 provements on the place, and in connection with 
 general farming has engaged in stock dealing,, mak- 
 ing a specialty of cattle and sheep. He buys most 
 of his cattle in the West and sells it to the Eastern 
 markets. 
 
 On June 7, 1880, jMr. Payne was united in mar- 
 riage with Mrs. Martha E. Scoville, of Prospect, 
 a native of New Haven, and a sister of George L. 
 Talmadge, of Prospect, in whose sketch appears a 
 record of their ancestry. Our subject and his wife 
 have one child, Lucius Edwin, who is attending 
 school. Mr. Payne is a member of the Congrega- 
 tional Church, and in politics is a supporter of the 
 Democratic party. He has served as a member of 
 the school committee, and does all in his power to 
 advance the welfare of his town and county along 
 educational and moral lines. 
 
 EDWARD L. TUTTLE was born in Winsted, 
 Conn., Sept. 22, 1866, son of John L. Tuttle, whose 
 birth occurred in the same place in 1835. Leverett 
 Tuttle, the latter's father, was born probably in the 
 same place, and married Chloe Colt. They settled 
 on the farm, and reared a family of three children: 
 Ellen M., Charlotte M. and John L. Ellen married 
 Oren L. Hopkins, a farmer in Winsted. Char- 
 lotte married James Manchester, of Buffalo, New 
 York. 
 
 John L. Tuttle has been a farmer in Winsted, 
 all his life, and is still living there. He married 
 Annie Bemis, a native of East Burke, Vt., whose 
 father, Alonzo Bemis, was also from Vermont. To 
 Mr. and Mrs. John L. Tuttle were born three chil- 
 dren : Alice died at the age of two and one-half 
 years. Fannie married George W. Benedict, and 
 has her home in Waterbury. Edward L. is our sub- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1479 
 
 ject. John L. Turtle is a Democrat, and his father 
 held the same political faith. They were Congre- 
 gationalists in religious connections. 
 
 Edward L. Tuttle grew to manhood on his fa- 
 ther's farm, and received his early education under 
 the teachers of the public schools, making such 
 thorough preparation that at the age of sixteen he 
 was admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of 
 Technology, where he attended two years. At the 
 expiration of this period he was taken into the em- 
 ploy of the Strong 'Manufacturing Co., at Win- 
 sted, and after one year came to Waterbury. This 
 was in the summer of 1886, and he has continued 
 to make that city his home to the present time. He 
 was put in charge of a shipping room in the Water- 
 bury Manufacturing Co., and neld that position for 
 two years, when he went to Plume & Atwood as 
 bookkeeper, continuing thus for about the same 
 length of time. With Randolph & Clowes he also 
 worked two years, and he was bookkeeper for the 
 Connecticut Indemnity Life Insurance Co. for two 
 years. On leaving that institution he went into the 
 Manufacturers' National Bank, where he is now 
 holding the position of teller. 
 
 Edward L. Tuttle and Miss Bell Buckland were 
 m-arried Dec. 29, iSgi, and they have one child, 
 Lewis. Mrs. Tuttle was born in Waterbury, Conn., 
 daughter of A. J. Buckland a resident of that city 
 for forty years. Mr. Tuttle, like his father and 
 grandfather, has always cherished the Democratic 
 faith. He was elected town treasurer in 1899, re- 
 ceiving the comphment of a re-election in 1900. 
 Mr. Tuttle is a member of Nosahogan Lodge, No. 
 21, I. O. O. F., and also of the Red Men, at Water- 
 bury, belongs to the ConcOrdia Singing Society and 
 the Waterbury Club. He and his family are asso- 
 ciated with the Second Congregational Church. 
 
 JOSEPH BRENNAN, a well-known resident 
 of Naugatuck, New Haven Co., Conn., is a native 
 of Ireland, born in County Kilkenny, about 1841. 
 His paternal grandfather spent his entire hfe as 
 a farmer in that country. He had five children: 
 Laurence and John, also farmers of Ireland ; Nich- 
 olas, the father of our subject ; Julia; and Anastasia. 
 
 Nicholas Brennan was also a native of County 
 Kilkenny, and an agriculturist. He wedded Mary 
 Pltzpatrick, who was bora in the same place, and m 
 1854 they came to the United States, locating m 
 Waterbury, New Haven Co., Conn. He died m 
 Naugatuck in 1869, his wife in 1875. To them were 
 bom' eight children, namely: Margaret, widow of 
 Joseph Hanlan, and a resident of Waterbury ; John, 
 a rubber worker now residing m New York ; Brid- 
 get, wife of William Ayers, of Naugatuck; Pat- 
 rick, a blacksmith of New Haven ; Joseph, our sub- 
 ject ■ Mary, deceased ; Ellen, a Sister m a convent 
 at New Bedford, Mass.; and Laurence, deceased. 
 
 The subject of this sketch attended the public 
 schools of his native land until the emigration of the 
 family to America in 1854. Soon after his arrival 
 
 here he began work in the foundry of the Tuttle 
 & Whittemore Co., now the Naugatuck Malleable 
 Iron Co., and has since been in their employ. In- 
 dustrious, enterprising and economical, he has pros- 
 pered and now owns considerable property in Nau- 
 gatuck, all of which has been acquired through his 
 own unaided efforts. 
 
 In 1874, Mr. Brennan was united in marriage 
 with Miss Margaret Lannan, also a native of County 
 Kilkenny, Ireland, and to them have been born 
 four children, namely: Ellen, who is now in a 
 convent at Providence, R. I. ; Josephine, who was 
 graduated from the Naugatuck high school, in 1898, 
 of which institute her sister Ellen is also a grad- 
 uate; and Estella and Lauretta, who are still in 
 school. Mr. Brennan and his family are members 
 of St. Francis Catholic Church. He is a stanch 
 supporter of the Democratic party, and in 1881, 
 most ably represented his town in the State Legis- 
 lature. 
 
 GEORGE H. BEEBE, an enterprising and suc- 
 cessful business man of Ansonia, is the proprietor 
 of a livery stable which compares favorably in 
 equipment with any in the State. His success is 
 the more creditable to him from the fact that it has 
 been gained through his own well-directed efforts, 
 and the story of his life conveys a useful lesson. 
 
 Mr. Beebe was born July 2, 1835, in Oxford, 
 ■this county, where his ancestors settled at an early, 
 day. His grandfather Beebe was a farmer there 
 for many years, but died before our subject was 
 born. 
 
 Sheldon Beebe, our subject's father, was born 
 and reared at the old homestead in Oxford, and 
 learned the carpenter's trade, which he followed in 
 Oxford and Derby. He died in 1848, aged sixty- 
 two years, and his wife, Lydia B. Bates, died in 
 1897, at the advanced age of ninety-three. Her 
 father, Amos. Bates, was a well-known resident of 
 Oxford, and spent his life in agricultural pursuits. 
 Our subject was the eldest of a family of four chil- 
 dren. C5f the others Francis is married afld lives 
 in Westville. 
 
 George H. Beebe was aut a boy when his father 
 died, and at the age of fifteen he left home to make 
 his own way in the world. For some time he 
 worked at any employment that he could obtain, 
 but in 187s he engaged in the livery business in 
 Derby, near Holian's hotel. He continued ten 
 years, meeting with marked success, but he then 
 sold out and removed to New Haven, where he was 
 in a similar business for a short time. On selling 
 out, he went to Chicago, but later found employ- 
 ment in New York City as collector for Fisk & 
 Doerr, No. 24 State street, corner of Lexington. 
 After two years in this position he removed to New 
 Haven and conducted a small livery stable for a 
 short time, but in 1895 he settled at Ansonia, where 
 he had a stable built to meet his requirements. He 
 keeps the finest carriages and horses in the town, thei 
 
I4oO 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 equipment including alxiut ten single and double 
 coaches and an elegant landau. The sale depart- 
 ment is profitable, and as a boarding stable it is 
 considered the best in the city. At one time Mr. 
 Beebe served on the police force in Derby, and the 
 position of chief of police was refused by him. In 
 politics he is a stanch Republican. 
 
 BERNARD P. RYCE, M. D., one of the most 
 popular and erudite exponents of medical and 
 surgical science in Meriden, was born in Scranton, 
 Penn., July 25, 1861. His father, Michael Ryce, 
 was born in Ireland, and upon emigrating to Amer- 
 ica, when a young man, located in Scranton, Penn., 
 where he perfected himself in his life occupation 
 of mechanical engineering. His death, in 1862, re- 
 moved from accustomed haunts a man of singularly 
 lovable and noble characteristics, and one who knew 
 naught but devotion to family and friends. He 
 was a Democrat in politics and a member of the 
 Catholic Church. He married in Waterbury, Conn., 
 Mary McAUenny, a native of County Armagh, 
 Ireland, and a daughter of Bernard and Mary 
 (Cassidy) McAllenny, the former of whom died in 
 Ireland, while the latter died in Plainville, Conn., 
 after living three years in the United States. Among 
 her children was Rev. Paul F. McAllenny, at one 
 time the well-known priest of St. Rose's of Lima, 
 Meriden, and now the parish priest of St. Peters, 
 at Hartford. Mrs. Ryce, who spent her last days 
 with her son. Dr. Ryce, in Meriden, died Nov. 19, 
 1899, and was buried in St. Patrick's cemetery at 
 Hartford, while her husband is buried in Scranton, 
 Penn. She was a devout member of the Catholic 
 Church, and a faithful wife and mother. Large of 
 heart and generous, apneals to her consideration 
 were rarely made in vain. 
 
 Dr. Ryce was the only child in the family, and 
 he was but an infant when his father died. His 
 mother went to New York, and from there to 
 Waterbury, Conn., where she lived three years, later 
 living for many years in Plainville, where her son 
 attended the public schools. The family finances 
 feeing at low ebb, young Bernard Paul began to 
 work at the early age of eleven in the Plainville 
 hardware factory, and while earning fifty cents a 
 day, carried on his education in the night schools, 
 and for a time was a student in the private school 
 of Prof. Camp, at New Britain. For three years 
 he worked for Peck. Stow & Wilcox, at Southing- 
 ton, Conn., and with the -monev saved above ex- 
 penses entered Villa Nova College, in Delaware 
 Co., Penn., taught by the order of St. Augustine, 
 and from which he was graduated from the classical 
 course in 1882. Returning to Connecticut he 
 learned the trade of a machinist at Birmingham, 
 although originally intending to study law, and 
 having completed the trade in tihree years, resolved 
 to devote his life to medicine. For a year he read 
 medicine with Dr. North, in Waterbury, and en- 
 tered Bellevue Medical College in New York in 
 
 1886, graduating therefrom in 1890. After a post- 
 graduate course he entered upon the practice of 
 medicine in Meriden, where for the past eleven years 
 he has been a notable representative of his pro- 
 fession. 
 
 Dr. Ryce belongs to the county and State med- 
 ical societies, and for two years has been county 
 physician. He is a Democrat in politics, and a 
 member of the Catholic Church. His professional 
 skill is augmented by a genial and optimistic per- 
 sonality, and a nobility of character which recog- 
 nizes exhaustles.s opportunities for usefulness. 
 
 FRANK J. POTTER, the efficient and capable 
 foreman of the shooting department of the Win- 
 chester Repeating -Arms Company, was born in 
 New Haven, Conn., Feb. 11, 1854, a son of Jesse 
 Potter, who was born in Hamden, Conn., where 
 his father had extensive interests, including farms 
 and stone ■ quarries. 
 
 Jesse Potter, who was a farmer and died in New 
 Haven, married Sophia Augustus, of French par- 
 entage, and a member of the Augustus family of 
 Hamden. Mrs. Potter, who died' in New Haven, 
 was the mother of the following children: Eliza, 
 Catherine, Cornelia, Caroline, Harriet, Frederick, 
 Augustus^ Cornelius and Frank J. 
 
 Frank J. Potter was reared in New Haven, 
 where he attended the New Hallville school. There- 
 after, he engaged in various enterprises until 1877, 
 during which year he entered the employ of the 
 Winchester Repeating Arms Company, and has 
 worked his way up to his present responsible posi- 
 tion as foreman of the shooting department. 
 
 In September of 1885 Mr. Potter married Emma 
 J. Lmdsey, a native of Windsor, Hartford county, 
 and daughter of Vernon and Jane (Griswold) Lind- 
 sey the latter born in Canada. Through a previous 
 marriage with Ella Hill, Mr. Potter had one child, 
 Eva Delia, who married Walter E. Chatterton, of 
 New Haven. Fraternally Mr. Potter is associated 
 with the N. E. O. P., and the Winchester Lodge 
 of Good Fellows. He was reared in the Congre- 
 gational faith, and is a man whose good qualities 
 command the respect and confidence of those among 
 whom his industrious and useful life is passed. 
 
 JOHN LARKIN, the proprietor of a popular 
 summer resort at Burns' Point, Milford, is the 
 second of a family of eleven children, born to Ed- 
 ward and Anna S. (Callahan) Larkin, of County 
 Kilkenny, Ireland, where he himself was born, Jan. 
 9, 1842. The elder Larkin, who was a stone mason, 
 emigrated from Ireland when John was an infant, 
 coming to America and settling first at Quebec. 
 From Canada he soon crossed the line to the United 
 States, and after a short residence in Vermont lo- 
 cated in Norwich, Conn. In 1865 he removed to 
 Minnesota, where he engaged in farming and where 
 he died in 1886, his wife having passed away five 
 years before. Their eldest son, who was also named 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1481 
 
 John, died in infancy. Tlie other children, not in- 
 cluding the gentleman who is the subject of this 
 brief sketch, were Nicholas, William, Michael, 
 Mary, Lawrence, Thomas, Richard, Martin and 
 Augustine. Nicholas is a stone mason in Shelton ; 
 William is a horse and cattle breeder in Oregon; 
 Michael enlisted in the Union arm}-, and died in 
 Maryland during the Civil war; Mary is the wife 
 of a Mr. Cleary, an engineer, and lives in Minne- 
 sota; Lawrence, Thomas, Martin and Augustine 
 became farmers in Minnesota, Lawrence dying 
 there in 1896; and Richard died when a lad of 
 fourteen years. 
 
 Until John Larkin reached the age of seven, 
 his father, Edward, resided in the city of Norwich, 
 but then removed to a farm near by, where the boy 
 lived until he was fifteen years old. Then he took 
 the responsibilities of life upon tts own shoulders, 
 and began, single handed, the struggle with the 
 world in which he was destined to achieve success. 
 His first employment was in the woolen and cotton 
 mills of Franklin (now Sprague), Conn., where 
 he remained for sixteen years. In 1874 he went 
 from Sprague to Derby, where he opened a rneat 
 market. The venture prospered, and he soon 
 added to his business the sale of groceries and 
 liquors, his place of business being at the corner 
 of Anson and Seth streets. He continued in these 
 combined lines of trade until 1891, when he 
 opened his present summer hotel at Burns' Point. 
 
 Mr. Larkin is a man of high character and es- 
 tablished business repute. Starting in life with but 
 little education, and beginning near the bottom of 
 the ladder as a mill 9perative, he has conquered 
 one obstacle after another through ceaseless en- 
 ergy and stubborn, unwearied perseverance. For 
 him there has been no such word as fail. His fel- 
 low citizens have attested their confidence in his 
 intelligence and probity by electing him burgess 
 of the borough of Birmingham, and assessor of 
 the city of Derby. In politics he is a Democrat, 
 and in religious faith a Catholic. He is a member 
 of the Knights of Columbus. 
 
 His wife, whose maiden name was Jane Mur- 
 ray, was born in County Cork, Ireland, a daughter 
 of Jeremiah Murray, of County Cork, Ireland. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Larkin have three children living : John 
 W., Edtaund J., and Jennie E. The oldest son is 
 at attorney at law, and holds the office of city clerk 
 of Derby. Edmund J. is a successful dentist in the 
 same city. Jennie is the wife of Ira F. Hoyet, of 
 Derby, manager of the opera house there. 
 
 JAMES P. LANDERS, superintendent of the 
 Thomas Coady Brick Co., and one of the police 
 commissioners of the city of New Haven, is a na- 
 tive of Ireland, and was born in County Cork, Sept. 
 29, 185 1. Michael Landers, his father, was born 
 in the same locality and came from there to New 
 Haven in 1859, and died here m 1864. His an- 
 cestors were farmers, all of whom remained m the 
 
 old country. The mother of James P. was 
 also born in County Cork, and survived until 
 1881. She was the devoted mother of five children: 
 Mary, who married Patrick Consandine and lives 
 in New Haven ; James P. ; Margaret, who is Sister 
 Superior in a convent in Stamford, Conn. ; Alice ; 
 and Hannah L. 
 
 James P. Landers was about eight years of age 
 when he came with his parents to New Haven, and 
 he attended the primiary schools and St. Patrick's 
 parochial school, on Hamilton street. His first 
 means of livelihood was the oyster business, and 
 from a comparatively small beginning he built up 
 a large trade, and successfully followed his chosen 
 occupation for twenty-three years. April 10, 1891, 
 he entered the employ of the Thomas Coady Brick 
 Company, as superintendent, and since that time 
 has rendered faithful and efficient service. In 1899 
 he was made a police commissioner, and performs 
 the duties of the position with characteristic energy 
 and ability. 
 
 Sept. 10, 1881, Mr. Landers married Catherine 
 J. Fay, a native of East Haven, and daughter of 
 Patrick Fay, a native of Ireland. Mr. Land'ers 
 has always been a Democrat and has filled 
 many of the local offices, including that of 
 alderman of the Twelfth ward during 1880 and 
 1 88 1. Socially he is connected with the Foresters 
 of America, the Ancient Order of United Work- 
 men, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and the 
 Total Abstinence Society of America. Mr. Landers 
 is a consistent member of the Rornan Catholic 
 Church, and in his civic, business and private life is 
 a citizen of whom any city might be proud. 
 
 REV. IGNATIUS KOST, who is the beloved 
 and revered pastor of St. Mary's -German Catholic 
 Church, was born in the village of Hoefen, near 
 Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany, June 16, 1866, and 
 since his location in Meriden, has impressed him- 
 self upon the public as a bold and outspoken advo- 
 cate of the faith he loves, and a devoted and loyal 
 pastor of the people to whom he is a comfort and 
 guide. 
 
 Ignatius Kost, the father of Rev. Ignatius, 
 though an ardent member of the Catholic Church, 
 had no thought of the present vocation of his son. 
 The elder man spent his youth and' middle life in 
 industriously tilling the soil, as had his forefathers, 
 and his thrift and enterprise earned the life of re- 
 tirement which he is now enjoying in Bamberg. 
 His wife, Ktinigunda, who also is still living, is the 
 mother of five children, two of whom died in in- 
 fancy. Of the surviving children, John is living 
 on the old homestead with his parents ; Mary is 
 married and lives in Passau, Bavaria; and Rev. 
 Ignatius, of Meriden. 
 
 The education of Father Kost received its pre- 
 liminary impulse in the mind of a boy of six, at 
 which expanding age he was placed for three years 
 at the parish school, under the supervision of the 
 
1482 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 government. This practical training was followed 
 by a year at the Bamberg high school, after which 
 a streak of good fortune came his way through his 
 selection, because of meritorious scholarship, with 
 four other boys, for higher education without cost 
 to his parents. Thus young Kost soon found him- 
 self a student at the Academy of Munnersbadt, 
 Germany, in the full enjoyment of the adivantages 
 of that excellent seat of learning, and with ready 
 aptitude his keen intelligence grasped the various 
 branches of a classical course, as well as an ex- 
 haustive knowledge of French. This school, taught 
 by the Augustinian Fathers, became his Alma 
 Mater in 1886, and for the following year his activ- 
 ities were widely diverse, and centered in the inev- 
 itable military duty to his country. In connection 
 with this vigorous training he studied also philoso- 
 phy, and so with a pronounced appreciation of its 
 utility, continued to add to his education. 
 
 Father Kost's first inspiration to the priesthood 
 came while he was still in college through Father 
 De Bruycker, pastor of St. Joseph Parish, at Willi- 
 mantic, who visited Germany, and made known the 
 need of a German priest to minister to the spiritual 
 needs of the German Catholics in his parish. Fa- 
 ther Kost volunteered to study theology and pre- 
 pare himself for the priesthood, in order that he 
 might come to America and minister to the spir- 
 itual needs of his countrymen. At first his parents 
 were greatly opposed to his plans, but at last con- 
 sented to what seemed a divine guidance. Having 
 gained the desired permission. Father Kost went to 
 Louvain, Belgium, where he graduated in philos- 
 ophy and French at St. Michael's Seminary, and at 
 the American Seminary studied English and the- 
 ology under Monseigneur DeNeve, finishing the 
 course when twenty-two years of age. Too young 
 to receive Holy Orders, consent had to be obtained 
 from his Bishop and from the authorities at Rome, 
 and when these were forthcoming he was ordained 
 to the priesthood June 24, 1889, by the Bishop of 
 Covington, Ky., who was visiting Belgium at that 
 time. 
 
 Singularly appropriate seemed the fact that the 
 young priest celebrated his first mass, July 7, 1889, 
 in his native town, and for a short time thereafter 
 ministered to a parish whose pulpit was tempor- 
 arily vacant. In September of the same year he 
 left the fatherland to rngage in the work in Amer- 
 ica to which he had been dedicated, and upon ar- 
 riving in the United States reported to Bishop Mc- 
 Mahon, then in charge of the Diocese, at Hartford. 
 For a time the young priest was sent to Willi- 
 mantic to assist Father DeBruycker, and upon the 
 death of Father Eugene J. Vygen, had charge of 
 his parish until December, when he was sent to 
 assist Father Van Oppen, of the French Catholic 
 Church, in charge of St. Laurent, at Meriden. The 
 congregation of this church also includied many 
 German Catholics. Having become thoroughly 
 familiar with the needs of his people, Father Kost 
 
 organized, in 1891, the German Church of St. Mary's 
 parish, a building planned by David Bloomfield 
 being erected, which served the combined uses of 
 church and school, the latter including thirty chil- 
 dren. With the increase of school attendance other 
 arrangements were necessary, and a school-house 
 was built and placed in) charge of two Sisters of 
 Notre Dame from Baltimore. Under the supervi- 
 sion of Sister Helena 225 children wer^e taught in 
 1900, and the original plans of church and school 
 have been lost in subsequent improvements. A 
 tower to the church was put up in 1894, the bell 
 being a donation of Mr. Frank Yokel. Thie 
 grounds, buildings, and' general additions have cost 
 over $40,000, and there now remains an indebted- 
 ness of but $9,000, with every indication of a speedy 
 cancellation. In 1895 Father Kost gave up his 
 residence to the Sisters and bought a home for 
 himself on the opposite side of the street. 
 
 Many discouragements have come the way of 
 Father Kost in his effort to build up his parish, but 
 his natural patience and perseverance, tact and in- 
 tense kindliness have prevailed, and won not only 
 devoted members tO' the church, but gratifying per- 
 sonal regard. His influence is noticeable in many 
 channels of activity, and his counsel and general 
 worth is by no means confined in its appreciation to 
 the members of his own church. Among the soci- 
 eties founded in connection with his work, and 
 which supply vitality and continued interest for 
 hundreds, may be mentioned that of St. Boniface, 
 with 165 members, the Young Men's Club, St. 
 Elizabeth Society, Children of Mary, and several 
 others. During the nine years of his pastorate he 
 has had four missions in the church, and his zeal 
 and indefatigable energy have' stimulated to a 
 higher moral and intellectual plane of life. 
 
 ADAM FABER, a well-known farmer and 
 worthy citizen of Waterville, town of Waterbury, 
 New Haven county, is a native of Hessen-Cassel, 
 Germany, a son of Adam and Anna Elizabeth 
 (Nieumann) Faber, and a brother of George Fa- 
 ber of Bucks Hill, Waterbury, and of the late Lud- 
 wig Faber, a railroad engineer, who served in the 
 Engineering Corps during the Civil war. Hie re- 
 ceived a limited education in his native tongue, and 
 when a young man learned the shoemaker's trade. 
 After completing his apprenticeship he left home 
 and went to London, England, where he found em- 
 ployment at his trade, and worked at the same for 
 four years. 
 
 Being of an adventurous disposition Mr. Faber 
 resolved to see more of the world, and shipped as a 
 sailor before the mast on a bark bound from Lon- 
 don to A.frica, and was shipwrecked' on this voyage.' 
 On his return to London, he shipped as able sea- 
 man for the West Indies, and while returning was 
 shipwrecked off the American coast, was picked 
 up by an American vessel, and. taken to New Or-. 
 leans. All of his possessions were sunk with the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1483 
 
 ship in the Atlantic. With other merahers of the' 
 crew, he was finally sent back to England, and from 
 there went to Queenstown, Ireland, where he 
 shipped on an American vessel. He sailed' out of 
 American ports for some time, and continued to 
 follow the sea for nine years. At the end of that 
 period Mr. Faber came to Waterbury, Conn., where 
 his brother George was living, and found employ- 
 ment at farm work with Gilbert Prichard on Buck's 
 Hill, at $5 per month. Subsequently he was sim- 
 ilarly employed by Stephen S. Camp, and then, in 
 1865, took contracts for chopping wood. From 
 Waterbury he moved to MWdlebury, Conn., 
 where he engaged in teaming and working in a 
 brickyard for a time, and then rented the Clinton 
 farm which be operated for one year. Returning 
 to Waterville, he rented the Brown farm, and from 
 there worked for Joseph Welton for two years. He 
 next worked with his brother George for Brown 
 Brothers, in their casting department, for eleven 
 years, and later spent four years in the casting de- 
 partment of the Scovill factory. At the end of that 
 time he again turned his attention to agricultural 
 pursuits, having purchased the Daniel Cook farm 
 on Faber avenue, Waterville, in 1872, upon which 
 he has made many improvements. He has since 
 engaged in agricultural pursuits, and has met with 
 marked' success in that undertaking. He is noted 
 for his industry, enterprise and upright dealings. 
 At Bucks Hill, Waterbury, in 1866, Mr. Faber 
 was united in marriage with Mrs. Christina 
 (Wichardt) Cook, also a native of Hessen-Cassel, 
 Germany, and widow of Henry Cook, by whom she 
 had three children: (i) Henry C, a machinist at 
 Piatt's shop, married Kate W. Frey, daughter of 
 Philip Frey, and they have four children, Clarence, 
 Georgiana, Harold E. and Gertrude ; he is a mem- 
 ber of the Episcopal Church, the Independent Or- 
 der of Foresters, and the Improved Order of Red 
 Men, while politically he is a Republican. (2) 
 William H., a caster in the Scovill factory, married 
 Mrs. Kate Kirk, widow of Robert Kirk, and the 
 mother of three children, Julia, Lucy and Louis; 
 he is a thirty-second-degree Mason, and a member 
 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the 
 Improved Order of Red Men. (3) Anna C. is a 
 dressmaker, residing at home ; she is a member of 
 the Eastern Star Chapter of the Masonic fraternity. 
 Mr and Mrs. Faber have had five children, as fol- 
 lows : ( I ) George Adam- is a physician of Water- 
 bury, whose sketch appears elsewhere. (2) Carrie 
 is the wife of Frank Fenton, and has had three 
 children, Wilfred (now deceased). Ward and Guy 
 H (s) Elizabeth, also a member of the Eastern 
 Star Chapter, is the wife of William Harper and 
 has one child, Edwin. (4) Edward N. married 
 Bertha Feld, and has three children, Louis, Ed- 
 ward and ; he is a member of the Masonic 
 
 fraternity and the Knights of Pythias. (S) Lou^s 
 F now deceased, was a caster m the Scovill fac- 
 tory ■ he married Sarah Brown and was a member 
 
 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The 
 family hold membership in the Episcopal Church, 
 and Mr. Faber is connected with the German Or- 
 der of Red Men. In politics he was first a Demo- 
 crat, and later a Republican. 
 
 ISRAEL ANDREWS. The Andrews family, 
 to which this gentleman and Alfred H. Andrews, 
 of Meriden, belong, is one of the old historic fam- 
 ilies of New Haven county, and its first representa- 
 tive in the Colony of New Haven was William An- 
 drews, a native of Hampsworth, Eng., where he had 
 learneid the carpenter trade. In 1635 he came 
 to New England, with a colony from Hampton, near 
 London, making the voyage in the ship "James" of 
 London, and under the command of William Coop- 
 er! They landed in Boston, and there William An- 
 drews was made a freeman in 1635. With the Rev. 
 John Davenport, Mr. Andrews removed to New 
 Haven, where he built the first meeting house in 
 1644. In this section his life was spent, and here 
 he died at East Haven, March 4, 1676. He was 
 twice married, and his second wife, whom he married 
 Dec. 7, 1665, was Anna Gibbons, daughter of Will- 
 iam Gibbons, Colonial Secretary in 1657. She 
 died in 1701. To his firsit marriage were born: 
 William, born in England, died Jan. 3, 1663 ; Sam- 
 uel, also born in England, in 1632, died in 1704; 
 Nathan, bom in Boston in 1638. To this marriage 
 were also two or three daughters, but their names 
 are not now a matter of record. 
 
 Samuel Andrews, of the above family, came to 
 the New World with hisi parents, and located at 
 New Haven, where he married Elizabeth, the 
 daughter of William Peck, of New Haven. In 
 1670 he removed to the new_ settlement of Walling- 
 ford, where he died Oct. 6, 1704, at the age of 
 seventy-three. There his wife also died. Mr. An- 
 drews was the owner of much property at his death. 
 To him and his wife were born : William and Sam- 
 uel, who both died young; Samuel; William, who 
 married Hannah Parker; John; Nathaniel^ who 
 married Susannah Tyler ; twins, who died when they 
 were a day old; Elizabeth, who married Benjamin 
 Hall; Mary; Joseph, who married Abigail Paine; 
 Margery; and Dinah. 
 
 Samuel Andrews, son of Samuel, was born in 
 Wallingford, April 30, 1663, where he engaged in 
 farming, and spent his life. On Aug. 27, 1686, he 
 was married to Ann Hall, by whom he became the 
 father of the following children : Thomas ; John, 
 who died young; John, who married Hannah Mer-- 
 riman; Elizabeth; Samuel; Elisha; William, who 
 married Mary Foster; and Ann, who married Jo- 
 seph Royce. 
 
 Thomas Andrews, a member of the above fam- 
 ily, was born in Wallingford, March 11, 1687, 
 where he spent his life engaged in farming, and- 
 where he died and was buried in 1756. Mr. A.n- 
 drews was twice married, his first wife being Felix, 
 and his second, Elizabeth. To these marriages' 
 
1484 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 were born : Elizabeth, who married R. Strong, of 
 Waterbury; Benjamin; Enos; Sarah; Lois, who 
 married Severius Carrington; Martha; Thankful, 
 who married Jason Hitchcock. 
 
 Enos Andrews, the son of Thomas, was born 
 April 13, 1719, in the town of Wallingford, and 
 there he was engaged in general farming and stock 
 raising. His wife. Content, bore him the follow- 
 ing children: Thomas, Bede, Asahel, Huldah, 
 Thankful and Enos. 
 
 Thomas Andrews, the eldest son of Enos, was 
 born Aug. 8, 1744, on the old homestead, which is 
 now in Cheshire, where he followed farming all his 
 life. He married Satah Brooks, and they had a 
 family O'f six children : Thomas ; Joab ; Albert ; 
 Phoebe, who had two husbands, Mark Tuttle and 
 Jared Ives ; Amarilla, who married J. C. Lee ; and 
 Hiram. 
 
 Hiram Andrews, the sixth child of Thomas, 
 and the father of Israel Adams, was born Oct. 
 16, 1796, on the farm which has been in the pos- 
 session of the family for many generations, and 
 was reared and educated in his native town. After 
 his marriage he made his home on the old home- 
 stead. In 1824 he was married to Miss Martha 
 M. Hotchkiss, a native of Cheshire, where her 
 parents, Israel and Martha (Royce) Hotchkiss, 
 spent their lives. Hiram Andrews died on the old 
 homestead in 1869, and his widow at the home 
 of her son, Israel, in 1890. To this union were 
 born : Celia, widow of Miles Hotchkiss, of Plants- 
 ville, Conn. ; Martha, widow of Steven Parker, of 
 Meriden; Thomas, who died in Meriden, leaving 
 one daughter, Martha, now a resident of that city ; 
 Caroline M., widow of Horace Yale, of Meriden; 
 Israel, whose name introduces this article ; and Al- 
 fred, who has a son, Leighton. 
 
 Israel Andrews was born Oct. 15, 1836, in 
 Cheshire, a son of Hiram and Martha M. Andrews, 
 noted above, and he was reared on the homestead. 
 The boyhood of this honored old resident of 
 Cheshire was spent after the fashion of the times, 
 he working on the farm in summer and attending 
 school in the winter. His entire life has been spent 
 in agricultural pursuits, with the exception of fif- 
 teen years, when he was employed as traveling 
 salesman for a silverware firm. A farm of twenty- 
 eight acres was bought by him, where he gives 
 attention to the milk business in connection with his 
 farming operations. 
 
 Mr. Andrews married Helen C. Powell, who 
 was born in France, but her parents, Joseph and 
 Elizabeth Powell, were natives of England. The 
 mother died in France, but the father, Joseph 
 Powell, and his four daughters came to this coun- 
 try, and had their first home in Waterbury, Conn. 
 In 1854 they removed to Meriden, where he died 
 when over eighty years of age. Mrs. Andrews 
 passed away at heir home in Cheshire, May 24, 
 1900. Three of her children are living : Edgar 
 Thomas, in the employ of the Winchester Repeat- 
 
 ing Arms Co., at New Haven ; Genevieve, the wife 
 of Archer Bradley, station agent at Plantsville; 
 Hiram A., who is married, resides with his father, 
 and has one child, Edgar. Mr. Andrews is a Re- 
 publican, and is one of the leading men of his 
 community, and the family to which he belongs has 
 been prominent in this section since its first intro- 
 duction here early in the seventeenth century. 
 
 MILO L. JUDD, one of the representative cit- 
 izens of Ansonia, has been successfully engaged in 
 business there for many years, during which time 
 the population of the city has about doubled. He 
 is descended from pioneer stock in both paternal 
 and maternal lines, and was born Aug. 15, 1844, 
 in Canaan, Litchfield Co., Conn., son of Lyman 
 and Caroline (Gillette) Judd. 
 
 Reuben Judd, our subject's grandfather, was a 
 native of Canaan, and spent his life there engaged 
 as a shoemaker and farmer, dying at the age of 
 seventy. His wife, whose maiden name was Allen, 
 was a native of Hamden, and attained the advanced 
 age of ninety-six years. Both were Methodists 
 in religion. Their family consisted of five chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Lyman Judd was born and reared on the home- 
 stead in Canaan, receiving a district-school edu- 
 cation. In early manhood he engaged in farming, 
 and after leaving the homestead was in various 
 places — farming one year in Norfolk, one in Tor- 
 rington and one in Goshen. He then purchased a 
 farm in Sharon, where he remained six years. The 
 ,next eight years he spent in Morris, and then re- 
 moved to Ansonia, where he passed his declining 
 years, dying at the age of seventy-four. In pol- 
 itics he was first a Whig and later a Republican. 
 While he belonged to no church he maintained the 
 strictest principles in his daily life. He married 
 Caroline Gillette, and they had seven children, of 
 whom four are living, viz : Mary E., wife of H. 
 Martin Jackson, of Ansonia; Milo L., our subject; 
 Samuel, a resident of Stamford ; and Nancy' I., 
 who married Charles Wesley Cook, of Morris, 
 Conn. Of the others, Moses died aged twenty- 
 seven; Charlotte A. died at the age of fifty; and 
 Caroline, who married Adam White, a farmer of 
 Sharon, died aged forty. The mother died at the 
 age of fifty. 
 
 , 'Mrs. Caroline (Gillette) Judd was bom in 
 Canaan, daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Harris) 
 Gillette, and a descendant of Benjamin Gillette, who 
 settled in Milford, Conn., early in the seventeenth 
 century. He endured all the hardships of pioneer 
 life in the days when it was necessary to keep a 
 watch night and day, the settlers being obliged 
 to guard against the Indians. His home, located 
 near what is now known as the "Gulf" mills, is 
 owned and occupied by a descendant. Joseph Gil- 
 lette, our subject's grandfather, was born in Guil- 
 ford, and there spent his early years. He afterward 
 removed to Canaan, where he became a well-known 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1485 
 
 citizen, engaging in business for many years as 
 a carpenter and joiner; he also made coffins. He 
 and his wife were members of the M. E. Church. 
 Both reached the age of seventy-five years. Their 
 family consisted of eight children, of whom two 
 are living: Gibson, a resident of Salisbury; and 
 Elisha B., who resides on the old Harris home- 
 stead in Canaan. Mrs. Nancy (Harris) Judd was 
 a daughter of Capt. Harris, a large land owner in 
 Canaan, who gave the land upon which Joseph Gil- 
 lette built his house. 
 
 Our subject grew to manhood in his native 
 town , acquiring his edKication in the common 
 schools. Until he reached the age of twenty-nine 
 he remained at home, assisting his father on the 
 farm. In 1874 he Temoved to Ansonia and engaged 
 in the meat business with his brother Samuel, now 
 a resident of Stamford. For two years they con- 
 ducted a market on Main street, in the store now 
 occupied by the New York Grocery Co., opposite 
 our subject's present stand. The next three years 
 were spent at a store a few doors below, but since 
 1879 Mr. Judd has been located at No. 107 Main 
 street, where he enjoys a large retail trade. He 
 carries only first-class meats. The partnership with 
 his brother was dissolved in 1882. Milo L. Judd is 
 now the oldest business man on Main street (in 
 length of location) except one. For a number of 
 years he ran two wagons. He and his brother 
 built the present store and what is known as the 
 Buckingham market, and a number of dwelling 
 houses in the town. Politically 'Mr. Judd is a 
 Democrat, although he votes independently on oc- 
 casion. Socially he is identified with the New 
 England Order of Protection. His family attend 
 the Methodist Church, of which his wife is a mem- 
 ber. 
 
 In 1873 Mr. Judd married Miss Sarah J. Cook, 
 and they have two children, Florence M. and Edna, 
 both of whom have taken a high-school course in 
 addition to their common-school training. Mrs. 
 Judd was born in Sharon, daughter of Charles and 
 Sylvia (Bostwick) Cook, who afterward located 
 upon a farm in Morris, where he died at the age 
 of eighty-two years. His wife, who was born in 
 Sharon, died at the age of thirty-three, when Mrs. 
 Judd was but nine years old. They had four chd- 
 dren two of whom are living: Sarah J., Mrs. 
 Judd; and Wesley Charles, who married Nancy 
 I. Judd, our subject's youngest sister. 
 
 ALEXANDER S. ALAIN, M. D. The descend- 
 ant of a family of French extraction and long identi- 
 fied with Canada, Alexander S. Alain, M. D., 
 physician and surgeon of Meriden, was born in 
 Quebec, Canada, Nov. 22, 1856. In his youth, 
 Joseph Alain, the father of Alexander _S„ 
 was bred to the trade of a baker m his native 
 town of Quebec, and in the quaint city followed 
 his useful occupation until his death while yet com- 
 paratively young. In his political views he ad- 
 
 hered to the old Liberal party, and in religion was 
 a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church. 
 In Quebec he married Domethilde Bilanger, who 
 was born and died in Quebec. They had three 
 children : ( i ) Theophile, who is a railroad man 
 in Canada; (2) Alexander S. ; and (3) Alvine, the 
 wife of Dr. Rousseau, who is now deceased. 
 
 Dr. Alain attended the schools of his native city, 
 and was graduated from the Seminary of Quebec, 
 with a strong desire for professional life. Becom- 
 ing a student of Lavel Medical College, he spent 
 two years in that famous institution, and two years 
 at the Victoria 'Medical College — now the Lavel 
 Victoria — where he was graduated in the class of 
 1879. Locating at Batiscan, province of Quebec, 
 he remained for ten years, and in 1889 removed to 
 Meriden. He hasi since spent one year in Rhode 
 Island. 
 
 Dr. Alain was married in 1885 to Rosa Lono- 
 nette, a native of Quebec, and widow of Charles 
 Brunelle, by whom she had one child, Rebecca, 
 the wife of Calixte La Boeuf, a lawyer of Mon- 
 treal. 
 
 Dr. Alain was formerly a member of the City 
 Medical Society, and a visiting physician to the 
 Meriden hospital. He is a Republican in political 
 affiliation and for two years represented the First 
 Ward of Meriden in the City Council. He was at 
 one time president of the French Republican Club, 
 of Meriden, and with his wife belongs to the French 
 Catholic Church, where he acted as leader of the 
 choir. Dr. Alain has unusual musical endow- 
 ments, and is a master of the violin. He is a mem- 
 ber of the Saengerbund of Meriden, and is various- 
 ly associated with the professional and social inter- 
 ests in which the town abounds. Dr. Alain up- 
 holds the highest and most advanced tenets of his 
 great profession, for the practical application of 
 which he is fitted both by natural and acquired en- 
 dowments. 
 
 WILLIAM MILTON is one of the substan- 
 tial citizens of Waterbury, where his business 
 standing and personal character are of the very 
 highest grade. 'As a business man his methods 
 were such that those who came to trade by chance, 
 were converted into regular patrons. During the 
 Civil war he wore the Union blue, and made a 
 record as a soldier that attests alike his bravery 
 and his loyalty to his adopted country. He was 
 born in County Leitrim, Ireland, Dec. 25, 1840, a 
 son of George Milton. 
 
 The birthplace of the father, George Milton, 
 is uncertain, for it is not known whether he was 
 born in Ireland, or in England, but the family, how- 
 ever, is of EngHsh origin. Mr. Milton was a 
 farmer in Ireland, and died on his home place. Ann 
 McGlynn, his wife, a native of Ireland, is now de- 
 ceased. They were the parents of sixteen children, 
 of whom ten grew to miaturity, and five came to this 
 country: James, a mechanic, died in Waterbury; 
 
I486 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Bridget married the late John Cass, and has her 
 home in Waterbury; Catherine married Edward 
 Brady, and resides in Maiden, Mass. ; and^ Win- 
 fred came to this country and lived for a time in 
 Memphis, Tenn., but later went to California, 
 where all trace of her is lost. 
 
 William Milton spent his boyhood days on the 
 old Irish farm, and grew up amid its romantic 
 scenery. All the education he obtained was ac- 
 quired before he reached the age of sixteen, when 
 he came to New York, i.nd was an errand boy in 
 that city for some time. The young; man tired of 
 the great city, and sought a home in Waterbury, 
 which has given him' a pleasant welcome. On his 
 arrival here, he was employed by the Waterbury 
 Watch Co., and for inany years he was a workman 
 in their factory. Mr. Milton has also worked in 
 other eastern cities, and has a high standing as a 
 capable and efficient mechanic. In 1886 Mr. Milton 
 engaged in the boot and shoe business on South 
 .Main street, Waterbury, where he was quite suc- 
 cessful, but has since given it up. During the Civil 
 war Mr. Milton was for a time attached to a regi- 
 mental band. 
 
 Mr. Milton and Miss Nellie McDermott were 
 married in 1873. Mrs. Milton was bom in Water- 
 bury, and is a daughter of William McDermott, 
 who was born in Ireland. She died about twenty- 
 five years ago, but her husband, loyal to her 
 memory, has never remarried. As a Republican 
 Mr. Milton has voted for the principles and the 
 party leaders, but he has never sought office. Tem- 
 perance matters have always aroused his enthu- 
 siasm, and he has belonged to such organizations 
 for many years. Mr. Milton has served as com- 
 mander of Wadhams Post, G. A. R., and has been 
 President of the "Holy Name Society" since it was 
 organized. As .the oldest trustee of the Immacu- 
 late 'Conception Paiiish, of the Roman Catholic 
 Church, his services have been long and efficient. 
 
 DAVID CAREY, an honored citizen of Bran- 
 ford, and a molder by trade for many years, was 
 born in County Limerick, Ireland, June 23, 1831, 
 and is a son of John and Hanora (Davis) Carey. 
 His paternal grandparents were Daniel and Cath- 
 erine (McGraw) Carey, and the maternal grandpar- 
 ents were William and Ellen (O'Connor) Davis. 
 
 John Carey, who, with his family, came to Con- 
 necticut in 185 1, located in Naugatuck, where he 
 died, -and was buried in Waterbury. The children 
 of this family were: David; Ellen, who is Mrs. 
 David Welsh; Catherine, who is Mrs. William 
 Smith ; Hannah, who is Mrs. Thomas O'Connor ; 
 John; William; and Michael. John, the fifth child 
 of this family, served nine months in the Civil war. 
 
 David Carey came to this country in 1849, and 
 his first work on American soil was as a farm hand 
 in Connecticut. He later learned the trade in the 
 cotton mills of Hamden and Naugatuck, and in 
 1857 came to Branford, securing employment in the 
 
 Malleable Iron Works, where he worked seven 
 years. For one year he worked in the Sargents' 
 shop in New Haven^ and in 1865 came back to Uran- 
 ford to assume his present position with the Bran- 
 ford Lock Works. 
 
 In 1856 David Carey married Mary, dau_;hter 
 of Thomas and Mary (Barnett) Regan, of County 
 Limerick, Ireland, and of the children born of this 
 union, eight are living : Lizzie ; Emily, who ib the 
 wife of Sidney Hamilton; John; Agnes I., who is 
 Mrs. Thomas P. Carney; Eva, who married Peter 
 Reynolds ; Annie ; David W. and Frank J. 
 
 Mr. Carey and his family are members of the 
 Catholic Church, in which they are highly respected 
 for modest character and genuine worth. Since 
 1863 Mr. Carey has been a member of the Molders 
 Union, and was its first president, filling that chair 
 two terms. For six years he was corresponding 
 secretary of the union. In politics he is a Democrat, 
 and for two years was one of the burgesses of Uran- 
 ford. 
 
 EDWARD McMANUS, general contractor, 
 Waterbury, is a native of Ireland, and was born in 
 County Roscommon, about 1850. His father, James 
 McManus, was a farmer in Ireland, as was his fa- 
 ther before him, and passed all his life in his native 
 land. He married Bridget Glennon, a native of 
 County Roscommon, and they had five children, 
 of which family Maria married Peter McLaughlin, 
 of Hartford, Conn. ; Edward ; Catherine, a widow, 
 lives in Waterbury ; John is somewhere in the West ; 
 and Winifred was. unmarried and died in Ireland, 
 The parents are both dead. 
 
 Edward McManus left the surroundings of his 
 birth and childhood at the age of twenty years, and 
 sailing from Irish shores, landed in America, and 
 located in Hartford, Conn. For sometime he fol- 
 lowed farming and for .seven years engaged in the 
 manufacture of brick. In 1878 he came to Water- 
 bury and from a small beginning in the truck busi- 
 ness, gradually increased his capacity until now he is 
 prepared to take any kind of contract work, even 
 to building sewers, railroads, houses, etc. At first 
 he had but two horses ; now he has several ; and 
 gives employment to from fifty to seventy-five men, 
 at times having as many as one hundred and twenty- 
 five men under him. He has not married, and his 
 sisiter Catherine keeps house for him. 
 
 Mr. McManus is a member of the Church of the 
 Immaculate Conception. Socially he is affiliated 
 with the Knights of Columbus, and in politics he is 
 a Democrat. He has been a "hustler" all his life, 
 and by hard work, careful management, and judi- 
 cious savings, has accumulated a considerable 
 amount of property. 
 
 GEORGE R. BALDWIN is an agriculturist of 
 energy and ability, who throughout his entire busi- 
 ness career has been prominently identified with the 
 upbuilding and development of New Haven county. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1487 
 
 and has materially advanced its interests along vari- 
 ous lines. As a wide-awake, energetic business 
 man, he successfully followed the mason's trade for 
 many years, but for the past twelve years has de- 
 voted his time and attention to farming in the town 
 of Oxford. 
 
 Mr. Baldwin was born March 6, 1822, on the 
 farm in Oxford where his, brother Frederick now re- 
 sides, and is a son of Stephen and Betsey (Hubbell) 
 Baldwin. The father was a native of the same town 
 and a son of James Baldwin, a Revolutionary sol- 
 dier, who lived in the town of Seymour. The father 
 died at the age of seventy-six years, the mother at 
 the age of seventy-eight. Our subject was the old- 
 est of their five children, the others being Eliza A., 
 wife of Nathan Proctor, of Woodbury; Lucy, 
 widow of Hobart Churchill, of Waterbury; Sarah 
 M., widow of John Parker, of Oxford; and Fred- 
 crick, who resides on the old homestead. 
 
 George R. Baldwin passed his boyhood and 
 youth on the home farm, and attended the common 
 schools of the neighborhood. At the age of four- 
 teen years he commenced learning the mason's 
 trade with his father, for whom he worked four 
 years, and then went to New Haven, where he fol- 
 lowed his trade several years. At length he formed 
 a partnership with Isaac B. Lake, and engaged in 
 contract work at Seymour until 1888, excavating 
 and laying foundations, etc. During that year he 
 sold his interest to his partner and has since given 
 his attention to the operation of his farm, which he 
 purchased in 1845, and upon which he has made his 
 home since his marriage. 
 
 In 1844 Mr. Baldwin married Miss Emily 
 Sperry, and to them were born four children, Ber- 
 nard S., AUie E., Almira and one who died in in- 
 fancy. All are now deceased. Bernard S. was a 
 private in the ist Connecticut Heavy Artillery, dur- 
 ing the Civil war, and died at Bermuda Hundred, 
 Va. In politics Mr. Baldwin is a Democrat, and he 
 has served the town of Oxford as selectman five 
 years; and first selectman two years. He was 
 elected grand juror several times, but never served. 
 He is one of the old and honored residents of the 
 town, and is highly respected and esteemed by all 
 who know him. 
 
 JOHN J. GAILEY, M. D., Waterbury, New 
 Haven county, Connecticut. 
 
 JOHN HOBART JOHNSON, prominent con- 
 tractor, builder and real-estate dealer of Stony- 
 creek, New Haven county, is a native of Connect- 
 icut, 'and was born in Wallingford, New Haven 
 county, March 27, 1837. 
 
 John H. Johnson, his father, also born m Wal- 
 lingford, was in early life for several years the 
 owner of vessels which ran between New Haven 
 and New York in the commission business. Later 
 he for fifteen years engaged in the real estate busi- 
 ness in Brooklyn; and then removed to Northford, 
 
 this county, where he died in 1897, at an advanced 
 age. He married Abby Williams, and of this 
 union were iborn the following children: Martha, 
 now Mrs. George Fancher ; Emily S., now the wife 
 of J. I. Gruver; John Hobart; Susan A., wife of Dr. 
 Augustus Whelus ; and Willoughby. The paternal 
 grandfather, Ira Johnson, and the maternal grand- 
 father, Willoughby Williams, were farmers of Wal- 
 lingford. 
 
 John Hobart Johnson was reared in Walling- 
 ford until eight years of age, or till 1845, iii which 
 year his parents removed to Branford Point, where 
 his father kept hotel for two years, removing thence 
 to New Haven, where the elder Johnson managed 
 the "Colonnade House" for eight years. From there 
 the family went to New Yorkj thence to Brooklyn, 
 where John Hobart served a four-years' apprentice- 
 .'ship at the ship carpenter's trade, which he after- 
 ward followed eight years. In 1870 Mr. Johnson 
 removed to Stonycreek, New Haven county, where 
 he has since achieved large results in contracting 
 and building, and dealing in. real estate, renting, 
 collecting, etc. 
 
 Mr. Johnson has been twice married; first, to 
 Sarah Elizabeth, daughter of Charles and Mary 
 (Green) Ruland, of Long Island, and of this union 
 there are four children : Julia L. the wife of W. W. 
 Reese ; George F. ; Minnie ; and Carrie. For a ,sec- 
 ond wife Mr. Johnson married Emma Josephine, 
 daughter of Richard and Lucretia (Moultrop) Rus- 
 sell, of North Branford, and two sons have been 
 born of this marriage, Clayton H. and Frank 
 R. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson are members of the Epis- 
 copal Church. Fraternally Mr. Johnson is a mem- 
 ber of the F. & A. M., Corinthian Lodge, No. 103, 
 Northford; the I. O. O. F. ; and Seaside Lodge No. 
 84, Stonycreek. Politically he is a Democrat, and 
 has served as justice of the peace at Branford. 
 
 OLIVER T. NORTON, one of the stirring 
 business men of Waterbury, has contributed his 
 share towards the improvement of the city, and as 
 a real-estate dealer has put on the market some of 
 the choicest additions of recent years. He is an 
 honorable and straightforward business man, whose 
 wordsi do not need a bond to secure credence. 
 
 Mr. Norton was born in Plymouth, Conn., March 
 4, 1844, and is a son of Stephen Norton, born in the 
 same town, and grandson of Rodney Norton, prob- 
 ably born in Plymouth, and a trooper in the war of 
 the Revolution. Like many of his forefathers, 
 Stephen Norton was a farmer by occupation, and 
 while his earlier life was spent near Plymouth, 
 Conn., he latterly settled at Wolcott, Conn., where 
 he had a valuable country home. His wife, Lydia 
 Bradley, was born in Bristol, Conn., and was a 
 daughter of Lucius Bradley, a farmer. Mrs. Norton 
 who died in 1865, was the mother of twelve children. 
 They were named: Amen, Lewis, Andrew, Oliver 
 T., Eunice, Sarah, Mary, Lydia, Turchus, Walter, 
 Addie and Eliott. Amen served in the Civil war, 
 
1488 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and was killed in the battle of the Wilderness. Lewis 
 is a mason in Waterbury, and Andrew is a dairy- 
 man in the same place. Eunice married Irving 
 Davis, of New Haven, and Sarah married Arthur 
 Terrell, a farmer in Wolcott, Conn. Mary and 
 Lydia died young, and Turchus, Walter and Addie 
 are deceased. The ktter was the wife of Police- 
 man Williams, of Waterbury. Eliott left the coun- 
 try some years ago, and nothing is known of his 
 whereabouts. 
 
 Oliver T. Norton spent his boyhood daysi on the 
 home farm in Plymouth, and when sixteen years 
 old left home and began an apprenticeship as a 
 mason, in which line of activity he engaged until 
 1875. During that year he branched out into con- 
 tracting and building, and has since achieved great 
 success in his chosen work. For some years he has 
 been engaged in extensive real-estate deals, and 
 from time to time large properties have passed 
 through his hands. His building enterprises are 
 principally conducted in Waterbury, where his pub- 
 lic spirit and general progressiveness have met with 
 a deserved appreciation. 
 
 Mr. Norton and Ellen Warner were married in 
 1864, Mrs. Norton being a native of Water'bury, 
 and a daughter of Ezra J. Warner. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Norton are the parents of two children, Willis 
 V. and Ernest W. Mr. Norton is a Republican, 
 and himself and sons are stanch advocates of the 
 grand old party. They are attendants upon the 
 services of the Methodist Church, with which sever- 
 al of the family are formally united. 
 
 JOHN St. LAWRENCE, a well-known resi- 
 dent of West Haven, is the proprietor of Hills' 
 Homestead, on Beach street, Savin Rock, one mile 
 from' West Haven, and four miles from New 
 Haven. The resort, the oldest in this section, is 
 easily reached by the Winchester Avenue Railroad 
 and the Woodmont Line of electric cars, and under 
 the able and far sighted management of its present 
 proprietor has increased its reputation and patron- 
 age. Mr. St. Lawrence was born June 9, 1857, in 
 Hartford, Conn., and is of French descent in the 
 paternal line. His father, Timothy St. Lawrence, 
 was born in Ireland of French parentage, and 
 much of his boyhood was spent in the Emerald 
 Isle. On coming to America he located in Hart- 
 ford, and for twenty-five years previous to his 
 death was foreman for A. Taylor, a leading lum- 
 ber dealer. His wife Anna Hagan, was also of 
 Irish descent, and they had one son and six daugh- 
 ters, all of whom are living. 
 
 The education of Mr. St. Lawrence was ac- 
 quired in the common schools' of Hartford and 
 Hannum Commercial College, and at thirteen he 
 became a bell boy in the "Allyn House" in that 
 city, one of the finest hotels in Connecticut. So 
 faithfully did he perform the services required of 
 him that at the age of fifteen he was promoted to 
 the position of clerk, which he held for five and 
 
 one-half years, and during this time extended his 
 knowledge by attending business college. At twen- 
 ty-two he went to the "Globe Hotel" in Syracuse, 
 as clerk, and five years later became clerk of the 
 "Osborn House" in Auburn during the winter sea- 
 son, and of the "Cayuga Lake House" in the sum- 
 mer, both houses being under the same owner. 
 While manager of the latter hotel he learned the 
 business of steward, and his next position was that 
 of steward in the "United States Hotel" in Hart- 
 ford, where he remained six years. , He then be- 
 came manager of the Hills' Homestead, for the 
 widow of Alfred Hills, and at her death purchased 
 ,the property. The restaurant already had a national 
 reputation, and for forty years has been the head- 
 quarters of the leading business and professional 
 men of New Haven, and the great social clubs of 
 that city. The great Yale dinners are served there, 
 and the famous Fessenden reunion of the Legisla- 
 ture, in 1895, is recalled as one of the largest ban- 
 quets ever given in this section. Natural advan- 
 tages redound to the popularity of this resort, and 
 no more advantageous situation could be desired. 
 It compiands one of the finest views of the Sound, 
 and the beautiful grape arbor covering the veranda 
 is a most attractive feature. Mr. St. Lawrence has 
 made many improvements, and caters only to the 
 best trade, taking special pride in the serving and 
 quality of the viands. He can dine 250 at one time 
 in the restaurant, while the tents upon the spacious 
 lawn will permit tables for from 200 to 300 guests. 
 In 1883 Mr. St. Lawrence married his first wife. 
 Miss Mary Bowen, a native of New Haven, who 
 died in 1889 leaving one son, Arthur. His second 
 wife, formerly Miss Katherine Desmond, is a na- 
 tive of Brooklyn. Politically Mr. St. Lawrence is 
 a Democrat, but takes liberal views of local affairs, 
 voting for the best man. His popularity would 
 make him a desirable candidate, but he has so far 
 declined! to run for office. He is a charter member 
 of the Hartford Lodge of Elks, and a member of 
 the Knights of Columbus at Hartford. 
 
 CHARLES L. P. SMIITH, M. D., one of the 
 prominent young members of the medical profes- 
 sion in New Haven, was born in this city, Jan. 22, 
 1876, a son of George W. and Mary (Porter) 
 Smith, the former a son of James Smith, an old 
 resident of Norwalk, Conn. George W. entered 
 Civil war service, at the age of fifteen, and faith- 
 fully served his country through three years. 
 James Smith had been engaged in the wholesale 
 oyster trade, in Norwalk, and after the war his son, 
 George W., removed to New Haven and entered 
 upon the same business. Here he married Mary 
 Porter, who was born in Lincolnshire, England, 
 a daughter of George Porter, who had located in 
 New Haven when Mary was but three years old, 
 and now lives a retired life in this city. To Mr. 
 and Mrs. George Smith were born : Geneva, who 
 married H. C. Backus, an electrical engineer of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1489 
 
 Newark, N. J.; an infant; Dr. Charles L. P.; 
 Reverdy; and Nellie, who died when about seven- 
 teen years old. George Smith was well known in 
 his locality as an unostentatious citizen, of good 
 repute, a Republican in politics, and a consistent 
 member of the Episcopal Church. 
 
 Dr. Smith spent his boyhood days in New 
 Haven where he received private instruction after 
 finishing the common-school course. He early dis- 
 played a leaning toward the medical profession, and 
 following this inclination entered the Yale Medical 
 School, fromi which he graduated with credit in 
 1898. This thorough equipment was followed by 
 a post-graduate course in New York City, and by 
 embracing the almost boundless opportunities for 
 investigation afforded in that great metrojKilis. 
 
 Locating in New Haven, Dr. Smith has met 
 with gratifying success, and is highly regarded' by 
 his numerous patients and fellow practitioners. He 
 is one of the progressive and well read physicians 
 who understandiingly adopt all modern discoveries 
 for the amelioration of pain and the cure of dis- 
 ease. In political faith he votes and works with 
 the Republican party, and retains his connection 
 with the Episcopal Church, in which he was care- 
 fully reared. 
 
 JAMES A. KNOX, manager of the paper box 
 and printing department of the Waterbury. Mfg. 
 Co., Waterbury, is a native of Massachusetts, and 
 was born in Boston, Aug. 22, 1850. 
 
 Thomas Knox, his grandfather, lived and mar- 
 ried and reared his famlily of three children in Bos- 
 ton, of whom' Barnabas and Thomas were farmers 
 near Springfield, Mass., while Adam, who was born 
 in Boston, Sept. 15, 1804, became a trained nurse, 
 and for many years acted as such in the Massa- 
 chusetts Hospital. He married Martha Locke, who 
 was born in Rve, N. H., a daughter of Joseph L. 
 and Olive (Berry) Locke, also natives of Rye, an 
 item of interest in connection with the latter being 
 the fact that he rang the church bell during the 
 Revolutionary war to warn the people of Rye that 
 the British were approaching. Five children were 
 born to Adam Knox and wife, viz.: Mary E., the 
 wife of Charles F. Hall, of Boston; George H., liv- 
 ing retired in Boston, where. he was a fireman for 
 several years; Charles H., formerly a stock raiser in 
 Maine, and now retired ; Joseph L., who served in 
 the Civil war and is now living a retired life; and 
 James A. Adam Knox died in Boston in 1892, hay- 
 ing been predeceased by his wife in 1854. In poh- 
 tics he was a Whig and later a Republican. Him- 
 self and wife were members of the M. E. Church 
 
 James A. Knox attended the public schools of 
 Boston until he was fourteen years old, and at the 
 age of nineteen began to learn the trade of paper 
 box making in his native city, and followed the 
 same there until 1887. In July of the same year he 
 came to Waterbury, where he has ever since engaged 
 with the Waterbury Mfg. Co., and at present has 
 94 
 
 charge of the paper box and printing department. 
 In April, 1872, Mr. Knox was united in mar- 
 riage with Theresa G. Morey, who was born in 
 Boston, Mass. Five children have been bom. of 
 this union: Joseph A., Clara I., William M., 
 Charles H. and Mary T. Mr. Knox is prominent 
 as a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient 
 Order United Workmen, and the United Order of 
 American Miechanics. He has filled all the chairs 
 in these orders, and at the present timie is pre- 
 siding president of the past masters' organization, 
 A. O. U. W., of the State of Connecticut. In poli- 
 tics he is a Republican, and in 1893-94 was coun- 
 cilman from the Second ward of Waterbury, and 
 is now a member of the board of public safety; and 
 was recently elected a member of the bureau of 
 assessments. 
 
 FRANK M. BROWN, formerly an enter- 
 prising and successful young business man of Mil- 
 ford, was born Nov. 30, 1863, at Ridgefield, Fair- 
 field Co., Conn., a son of Silas and Jennie (Mead), 
 Brown. 
 
 Silas Brown, who followed shoemaking in" 
 Ridgefield throughout his active years, was a na- 
 tive of Putnam county, N. Y., while his wife was- 
 born in Ridgefield. This worthy couple had seven 
 children, viz. : Julia, James, Ella, Josephine, Edith, 
 Frank M. (our subject) and Winfieldl (deceased). 
 
 As a boy Frank M. Brown, attended school in 
 Ridgefield, and in 1880, when seventeen years old, 
 he went to Milford to find employment in a shoe 
 factory. After working for several years with 
 more or less irregularity, he determined to engage 
 in an independent business andl in 1894 he opened 
 up a line of sporting goods, cigars and bicycles.. 
 The central telephone office, which was located im 
 his store, was also under his direction. Mr. Brown, 
 is now located in Bridgeport. On Sept. 13, 1883,. 
 he married Miss Lillian Porter, daughter of George 
 H. Porter, a well-known resident of Milford, and 
 they have one child, Miriam, now (1901) aged nine 
 years. Mr. and Mrs. Brown were popular socially,, 
 and the latter is a member of the Methodist Episco-- 
 pal Church. Mr. Brown belongs to the I. O. O. F, 
 and the A. O. U. W., and during- his residence there 
 was an active worker in the Milford Fire Depart- 
 ment. In politics he affiliates with the Democratic 
 party, and at one time he served as constable. 
 
 JOHN J. SULLIVAN, one of the progressive 
 and successful business men of New Haven, occu- 
 pying the important position of foreman of the 
 plating department of the New Haven Clock Co., 
 engaging also as proprietor of an undertaking es- 
 tablishment, at 342 Grand avenue, is a native of 
 New Haven, born in that city Dec. 17, 1864, and' 
 is of Irish ancestry. His father, Williami Sullivan, 
 was well known in New Haven, where he located 
 in 1840, but the paternal grandfather, who lived 
 and farmed and died in Ireland, never came to 
 
1,490 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 America. William Sullivan, who was born in 
 County Cork, Ireland, and who engaged in the shoe 
 business during his years of activity, married 
 Bridget Calahan, also of County Cork, Ireland, who 
 survives him, his death having occurred in 1891. 
 Five children were born of this marriage : Owen, 
 who died at the age of twelve ; Margaret, who died 
 .at the age of four ; Mary, who married James How- 
 ard, of New Haven, the latter now deceased; 
 Thomas, who is a successful contractor in this city ; 
 and John J. 
 
 John J. Sullivan spent his boyhood days in New 
 Haven, and received his education in the public 
 schools, graduating from the high school in 1881. 
 About this time he went to work for the New Ha- 
 ven Clock Co., and has since been one of their 
 valued employes, occupying the responsible posi- 
 tion of foreman in the plating department. Although 
 deeply interested in his work, and qualified there- 
 for by years of practical experience, he is also en- 
 gaged in other business enterprises, one of which 
 is the undertaking business on Grand avenue. 
 
 July 12, 1893, Mr. Sullivan married Nellie Hart, 
 of New Haven, daughter of James Hart, who came 
 .to America from County Sligo, Ireland. Two chil- 
 ,dren have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan, — 
 William and Mary. Mr. Sullivan has been a life- 
 long Democrat, and for many years has taken an 
 active interest in political undertakings. He was 
 made one of the fire commissioners July i, 1899. 
 Socially he belongs to the Knights of St. Patrick 
 and the Henry Grattan Club, and he is one of the 
 leading members of St. Francis Parish Catholic 
 Church. As a citizen, Mr. Sullivan stands high in 
 this city and is a worthy representative of the pro- 
 gressive and influential business m'en of New 
 Haven. 
 
 JOHN BRENNAN COAKLEY, time-keeper 
 •at the Branford Lock Works, and express order 
 clerk in the shipping department of the factory, 
 was born in Durham, Conn., June 12, 1855, and is 
 a son of Daniel F. and Catherine (Brennan) Coak- 
 ley, natives respectively of County Cork and County 
 Roscommon, Ireland. 
 
 Daniel F. Coakley was by occupation a shoe- 
 tnaker, and upon coming to this country in 185 1 
 located in Branford, and worked at his trade for 
 about a year and a half. He then lived in Water- 
 bury for about the same length of time, going then 
 to Durham, and returning to Branford in 1878. 
 Here he spent his last days, dying Nov. 22, 1883, 
 at the age of fifty-five years. Five children were 
 torn to Daniel and Catherine Coakley, of whom all 
 but or.e grew to maturity: John B. ; Ellen F., who 
 became the wife of John Steigmuller ; Daniel ; and 
 Peter. 
 
 After completing his education in Durham 
 Academy, at the age of nineteen years John Bren- 
 nan Coakley setled on a farm, and for five years 
 engaged in its cultivation. In 1879 he came to 
 
 Branford and secured employment with the Bran- 
 ford Lock Works, and for a time was emiployed in 
 various capacities, securing his present position in 
 1882. 
 
 Oct. 14, 1885, Mr. Coakley was married to Cor- 
 nelia E. McKennon, the adopted daughter of Jere- 
 miah Daly, of Branford, and a native of this city.- 
 Of this union the following children have been 
 born : Daniel F. ; Anna, deceased ; and John B., Jr. 
 
 Mr. Coakley and his family are mierabeTS of the 
 Catholic Church. He is connected' with various 
 fraternal orders, being an active worker in the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Foresters of 
 America, the Knights of Columbus and the New 
 England Order of Protection. He is a Democrat 
 .in politics and is registrar of voters in Branford. 
 
 MICHAEL J. LANOFORD, one of the worthy 
 citizens that Ireland has furnished to the New 
 World, has for several years been actively identified 
 with the business interests of Naugatuck, New 
 Haven county, and has also taken quite a prominent 
 and influential part in her public affairs. He was 
 bom in County Kerry, Ireland, April 3, i860, a 
 son of Michael and Bridget (Murphy) Langford, 
 natives of the same place, where they still continue 
 to make their home. To them were bom six chil- 
 dren, namely: John, a mechanic of Naugatuck, 
 Conn. ;-Mary, wife of John Maley, of New Haven, 
 foreman of the Sargent & Co.'s works, and also 
 a contractor; Michael J., our subject; Nora; Bar- 
 tholomjew, who died in America at about the age 
 of twenty-two years ; and Patrick, who is engaged 
 in school teaching in Ireland, and with his wife 
 conducts the post office at Ballybunnion. 
 
 Reared in his native land, Michael J. Langford 
 acquired his literary education in the national 
 schools, and at the age of seventeen years began life 
 for himself by working as a farmi hand for two 
 years. On June 6, 1880, he came to America, and 
 first located in Mt. Carmel, Conn., where he learned 
 the iron molder's trade, at which he worked for 
 about six years. At the end of that period he em- 
 barked in the meat and grocery business at Union 
 City, Conn., with J. J. Linskey, under the firm name 
 of Linskey & Langford, and this connection lasted 
 about four years, when the partnership was dis- 
 solved, but Mr. Langford continued to engage in 
 the meat business at that place for about seven 
 years. He is a wide-awake, energetic business man, 
 who carries forward to successful completion what- 
 ever be undertakes. 
 
 Mr. Langford wedded Miss Mary Patterson, a 
 native of Cheshire, Conn., and a daughter of 
 Thomas Patterson, who was of Irish extraction. 
 Mrs. Langford died in 1894, leaving five children: 
 Louis F., Agnes E., Alice M., Mary R. and Will- 
 iam L. Fraternally Mr. Langford is a member of 
 the Foresters of America and the Ancient Order of 
 United Workmen, and religiously is a member of 
 St. Francis Catholic Church. His political support 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1491 
 
 is given the men and measures of the Democratic 
 party, and he takes quite an active and prominent 
 part in pubHc affairs. He was a rdember of the 
 first board of burgesses after Naugatuck became a 
 borough, and filled that office for Cme year, after 
 which he was a member of the board of charities 
 for a short time. He was next appointed superin- 
 tendent of the poor, and has most efficiently served 
 in that position for four years. 
 
 WILLIAM O'NEIL, senior member of the 
 piogressive firm of O'Neil & Warner, carriage 
 builders, horse shoers and blacksmiths, at Water- 
 bury, is a native of Scotland, and was born in 
 Brechin, Forfarshire, Jan. 28, 1852. 
 
 His father, William O'Neil, claims the same 
 nativity, and is a son of Bernard O'Neil, who was 
 born in County Antrimi, Ireland, whence he mi- 
 grated to Scotland, and there married Elizabeth 
 Mill. A quarryman by occupation, the grandfather 
 was killed in the performance of his at all times 
 dangerous calling. William O'Neil is a paper 
 maker by trade, and has passed all his life in Scot- 
 land, his home still being in Brechin. He married 
 Elizabeth Webster — now deceased, — also born m 
 Brechin, a daughter of David Webster, a linen 
 manufacturer. Four children were born of this 
 union : David W., a member of the firm of Brad^ 
 ley, Currier & Co., stair builders, inside wood work- 
 ers', etc.. New York ; James W., superintendent for 
 James McCauley, of Boston ; Mary, wife of George 
 H. Priest, of New Haven, Conn.; and William. 
 The mother of this interesting family is deceased. 
 
 The youth of William O'Neil was passed m the 
 historic town of Brechin, where he was educated m 
 the public schools and served an apprenticeship of 
 five years to a carriage blacksmith. In 1871 he came 
 to the United States, working for a year each in Bos- 
 ton, Mass., Amesbury, Mass., and in New Hamp- 
 shire, eventually locating in New Haven, where he 
 was employed at his trade until his removal to 
 Waterbury in 1882. Here he formed a partnership 
 with John R. Martin, under the firm namte of Mar- 
 tin & O'Neil, carriage makers and blacksmiths, but 
 at the end of six and one-half years sold out to his 
 partner and for the following six years had charge 
 of the blacksmithing department in C. F. Goodwin 
 & Son's carriage factory. March i, i8?5, Mr. 
 O'Neil formed a partnership with William i'. 
 Thorns in the same line of business, under the hrm 
 name of Thoms & O'Neil, and in course of time as- 
 sociated with them William A. Warner the name 
 then being changed to Thoms, O'Neil & Warner 
 On account of the death of Mr. Thoms at the end of 
 the same year the present firm name of O Neil & 
 Warner was assumed. The manufacturing facilities 
 of the concern comprise two distmct plants the car- 
 riage factory being a three-story brick building, 
 opposite which is the two-story forge Both de- 
 partments are equipped with all requisite tools and 
 appliances, no machinery being used, and all the 
 
 products are the result of skilled hand labor. Mr. 
 O'Neil is as practical a carriage maker as Mr. War- 
 ner is horseshoer. 
 
 July 3, 1875, Mr. O'Neil married Emily E. 
 Stone, born in, Boston, Mass., a daughter of Elmer 
 Stone, a native of England. Five children have 
 been born of this union : James E., Webster, Will- 
 iam H., Elizabeth and David. James E. is married 
 and is associated with his father in business. The 
 family are members of the First Baptist Church in 
 Waterbury, in which Mr. O'Neil is a deacon. In 
 national and State politics Mr. O'Neil is a Republi- 
 can, but in local matters he is independent. Soci- 
 ally he is a member of the F. & A. M., New Haven 
 Lodge. Mr. O'Neil is devoted to the general wel- 
 fare of the community, and may be counted on to 
 further any reasonable effort at improvement. In 
 his special department of activity he has few 
 superiors, a tribute equally applicable to his partner 
 in business. 
 
 WILLIAM MARTIN CASEY, a prominent 
 citizen of the town of Wallingford, was born in 
 Washington, D. C, Nov. 12, 1861. 
 
 William P. Casey, his father, was born in the old 
 and historic County Tipperary, Ireland, but was 
 reared in London. He served in the English navy 
 during the Crimean war, and joined the Confederate 
 army at the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion. 
 For a time he was with Mosby's Guerrillas, and 
 later with Johnston's Raiders. While with Mosby 
 he was captured and confined in the military prison 
 on Morris Island. At the first battle of Bull Run he 
 was badly wounded, but recovered, and served 
 through the most critical years of the Confederacy. 
 Coming north to Meriden, Conn., in 1868, he later 
 removed to Wallingford, where he was connected 
 for many years with the H. L. Judd Co. While 
 going to his work on the morning of July 19, 1894, 
 he was killed by a train on the N. Y., N. H. & H. 
 R. R., when he was aged sixty-five years. Mary 
 Carroll, his wife, was born in England, and is now 
 living in Meriden. To them were born : William 
 Martin; Nora, who married John Bradley, of 
 Waterbury; Mary, who married Patrick Towney, 
 of Waterbury ; and two that died in infancy. 
 
 William M. Casey cam'e when eight years of 
 age with his parents to Meriden, where his educa- 
 tion wasi completed in the public schools. At the 
 age of sixteen years he took the burden of his own 
 support on his shoulders, and entered the employ 
 of the Breckenridge Co., and was also employed by 
 Rogers Brothers and the Meriden Bronze Co. In 
 October, 1886, he came to Wallingford to work as 
 a polisher with H. L. Judd & Co., and in February 
 of the following year was promoted to the foreman- 
 ship of the polishing and buffing department, with 
 thirty men under his instruction and management, 
 and this position he is still holding. Mr. Casey is 
 a self-made man in every respect. Against great 
 difficulties he has made his way to a good position. 
 
1492 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 and he holds the confidence of his associates to a 
 marked degree. 
 
 Mr. Casey belongs to the Silver City Council, 
 A. O. U. W., Court Robert Wallace, Foresters of 
 America, and has been assistant fire chief of Wallace 
 Hose Co. No. 2, for three years. For a number- of 
 years previous to his appointment he had been a 
 member of the Company. Mr. Casey is a member 
 of the Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church, of 
 Wallingford, and is president of the Y. M. T. A. 
 & B. Society. Much interested in out-of-door recre- 
 ations, he is a great devotee of base-ball, and at one 
 time was the very successful pitcher of the Walling- 
 ford Club. He is a social young man of many 
 friends, and is a dancer of more than local reputa- 
 tion. A talented performer on the snare drum, he 
 has given instruction in its playing both in Walling- 
 ford and in Meriden for the last fifteen years or 
 more. For the last three years Mr. Casey has been 
 on the Democratic town committee, and is a hard 
 worker for his party. 
 
 On June 2, 1886, Mr. Casey was married to 
 Margaret Doonan, and they have three children: 
 Mae, born Feb. 22, 1888; Edward, born July 19, 
 1890; and Frank W., born May 30, 1893. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Casey occupy a very pretty home on North 
 Main street. 
 
 JOHN M. BLAKE, proprietor of Blake's 
 Fourth Ward Cafe, in Branford, was born in War- 
 rington, England, March 6, 1854, son of William 
 and Mary (Kation) Blake, both natives of County 
 Galway, Ireland. 
 
 John Blake, the paternal grandfather, was the 
 son of a steel plate shearer, and spent the most of 
 his life in England, dying in Warrington in 1870. 
 He was the father of eleven children, five of whom 
 grew to maturity : John M. ; Margaret, who after- 
 ward became Mrs. James Burns ; William ; Thomas ; 
 and George. 
 
 John M. Blake was reared in Oldham, England, 
 and there he had his education in the public schools. 
 When he had become old enough to assume the bur- 
 den of his own suppjort he served six years and 
 seven months as an apprentice at the machinist 
 business in Oldham, gaining a thorough knowledge 
 of every branch of the trade. Mr. Blake followed 
 this work for sixteen years in England, working as. 
 a journeyman machinist. In the month of March, 
 1886, determined to find a more favoring field for 
 his industry, he came to the United States, locating 
 in Branford, and finding employment in the Lock 
 Works. Flere he was employed for about four 
 years, and he then took a position as a clerk in the 
 Totoket House, where he remained several years. 
 In 1898 he embarked in business for himself, and 
 has been highly successful. 
 
 Mr. Blake was married June 12, 1899, to Mar- 
 garet A., a daughter of Timothy and Margaret 
 (O'Brien) Fitzgerald, df B'ranford, formerly of 
 Ireland. To this union has come one son, William. 
 
 Mr. Blake and wife are members of the Catholic 
 Church, where they are known as loyal and earnest 
 workers and zealous for any onward movement in 
 the church and parish. In politics Mr. Blake is a 
 Democrat. ■ 
 
 JOHN L. SAXE, a well-known business man 
 of Waterbury, and one of the most prominent and 
 influential German-American citizens of the Nauga- 
 tuck Valley, was born in Efford, Kingdom of Prus- 
 sia, Germany, May 4, 1845, and is a son of Andrew 
 and Amelia Saxe, also natives of Prussia, and born 
 respectively Jan. 6, 1796, and Jan. 22, 1806. In 
 1852 the family came to America and took up their 
 residence in Waterbury, Conn., where the father 
 died Jan. 6, 1877, and the mother Aug. 11, 1886, 
 and they were interred in Riverside cemetery. They 
 were members of the l^utheran Church, and in poli- 
 tics the father was a Democrat. In his native land 
 he served as government inspector of cloth, or con>- 
 missary inspector, and durmg his residence in this 
 country followed the occupation of a tailor. In his 
 family were four children : William, who died in 
 St. Paul, Minn.; Julius, who went west and died; 
 John L. ; and Charles F., a resident of Waterbury. 
 John L. Saxe accompanied his parents on their 
 emigration to America, the ocean voyage lasting 
 seven weeks and a half. They first located in Bir- 
 mingham, Conn., and later in Ansonia, where he 
 attended the public schools, and from where he 
 came to Waterbury. He spent a short time in Bris- 
 tol, and also worked in a factory at Terryville, 
 Litchfield county, and at the age of fifteen visited 
 St. Paul and St. Cloud, Minn., where he spent eight 
 months with his brother in subduing the Indians. 
 Returning east at the opening of the Civil war, he 
 enlisted in New York City, Aug. 16, 1861, in the 
 4th New York Cavalry, under Col. Dickel, and spent 
 three years in the service, being discharged at 
 Washington, D. C. When peace was restored he 
 returned to Waterbury, Conn., and for a short time 
 worked as a brass finisher for the Waterbury Brass 
 Co., and he next found employment with Holmes, 
 Booth & Haydens, and as foreman of their silver 
 plating department for twenty-one years traveled 
 extensively through the New England and West- 
 ern States. Subsequently he was cormected with 
 Plume & Atwood for six years, and while with this 
 firm invented a riveting machine, known as the 
 J. L. Saxe riveting machine, which bears the dis- 
 tinction of being the only one of its kind in the 
 world. This has proved a very useful and valuable 
 invention, and it is now utilized in some of the 
 largest belt and other factories in the country. Un- 
 like the average human, the machine is capable of 
 doing many things at the same time, and not only 
 holds the work on the table but makes a hole 
 through it, puts a rivet in the hole, a burr over the 
 rivet, and rivets the same, all in one revolution of 
 the machine. Mr. Saxe started the Belting Supply 
 Co., and continued in that line until meeting with 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1493 
 
 reverses in business, when he turned his attention 
 to his present bric-a-brac, antique and second-hand 
 furniture business, in which he is meeting with 
 gratifying success. 
 
 On Sept. 22, 1868, Mr. Saxe was united in mar- 
 riage with Elizabeth, daughter of Philip Gephardt, 
 who died at VVaterbury, Conn., Jan. 6, 1870, leav- 
 ing one child, Amelia Josephine, who was born Dec. 
 27, 1869, and is now the wife of A. A. Hartman. 
 Mr. Saxe was again married, Jan. i, 1875, his sec- 
 ond union being with Miss Annie Maria O'Connor, 
 daughter of Stephen O'Connor. They have five 
 children: Laura Elizabeth (wife of Henry Kiser), 
 born Aug. 29, 1876; Leonard John, born April 15, 
 1878; Andrew C, born Dec. 19, 1881 ; Annie Belle, 
 bom July 19, 1883; and John Leonard, Jr., born 
 Sept. 22, 1887. 
 
 Mr. Saxe has taken an active part in public af- 
 fairs, and is a recognized' leader of the Democratic 
 party in his community, and one of its stanch sup- 
 porters. He served as constable of the town of 
 Waterbury six years ; selectman one term ; assessor 
 •one term; grand juror many years; and was a 
 member of the State Legislature during the ses- 
 sions of 1891 and 1893, serving on several im- 
 portant committees. He represented the Third 
 ward in the city council of Waterbury for three 
 terms, and was chairman of the committee on pub- 
 lic lands and buildings. He has also served as alder- 
 man two terms ; as a member of the school board of 
 Waterbury and chairman two years, and during 
 that service rendered valuable aid to the cause 
 of education. He is a. prominent member of Com- 
 stock Lodge, N. 13, K. P. ; the Uniformed Rank of 
 the same order; Uhland Lodge (a German branch), 
 I. O. R. M. ; and the Grand Army Post of Water- 
 bury, of which he was one of the organizers. He is 
 now colonel and aide of military instruction in the 
 public schools, a department of the Connecticut 
 -Grand Army of the Republic. He is broad-minded 
 and liberal in his views, a good debater and a very 
 intelligent and) progressive man. 
 
 J. S. MOORE. The name of J. S. Moore is 
 associated with more than thirty years of substan- 
 tial business activity in Branford, during which 
 time he has established a reputation for skill, enter- 
 prise and honest dealing. 
 
 A native of Southoldtown, Long Island, N. Y., 
 Mr. Moore was born Sept. 21, 1839, and is a son 
 of Silas and Mehitable (Terry) Moore. The pa- 
 ternal grandfather, Silas Moore, was of Scotch de- 
 scent, and was among the very early settlers and 
 farmers of Long Island. He em'bodied the sterling 
 and worth while characteristics of his race, traits 
 transmitted in a marked degree to his son and 
 grandson. 
 
 J. S. Moore was reared in his native commun- 
 ity and his early training was not unlike that of 
 other farmer boys of his time. When old enough 
 to shift for himself he left the common schools and 
 
 served a three years' apprenticeship at the carpen- 
 ter's and joiner's trade, having completed which he 
 worked at his trade for two years. In 1862 Mr. 
 Moore set up in business for himself as a wagon 
 maker at Southoldtown, L. I., and at the end of 
 seven years, in 1869, removed to Branford, and has 
 since been successfully engaged in the same line of 
 business. 
 
 In November, 1857, Mr. Moore married Matilda 
 P., daughter of John P. Griffin, a resident and 
 prominent citizen of Mason, Mich. Mr. and' Mrs. 
 Moore have one son, Wilford Lee, who was mar- 
 ried to Luella Hubbard, daughter of Henry W. and 
 Emma (Linsley) Hubbard, of Branford. To Mr. 
 and Mrs. Moore has been bom' one daughter, Ethel, 
 the only grandchild of the family. Mr. Moore and 
 his wife are members of the First Baptist Church 
 of Branford. In politics he is a Democrat. 
 
 JOHN H. FRUIN, a .retired merchant at 
 Waterbury, Conn., is a native of that town, born 
 Feb. 22, 1859. 
 
 William' Fruin, father of John H., was bora in 
 County Tipperary, Ireland, and married Johanna 
 Magner, a native of the same county. Of this union 
 there were born eight children in Ireland, John H. 
 being the only child owning American nativity. In 
 order of birth these children were named as fol- 
 lows : Mary, Johanna, Robert and William, all de- 
 ceased; James J., whose life record may be found 
 elsewhere in this volume; Bridget is married to 
 James Henebry, a molder residing in Waterbury; 
 Margaret is the widow of Charles Hayes, of the 
 ^ame city; Anna is married to Edward McGrath, 
 inspector of school buildings in Waterbury; and 
 John H. William- Fruin, the father of this family, 
 came from Ireland to Waterbury in 1854, and died 
 here in 1884, his wife surviving him until 1892. 
 
 John H. Fruin was educated and reared to man- 
 hood in Waterbury. In 1880 he engaged in the 
 grocery and liquor trade at No. 455 West Main 
 street, and of this he made a complete success, as 
 he retired in 1892, and has since turned all his at- 
 tention to his tenements, of which he owns a large 
 number. 
 
 In May, 1883, Mr. Fruin was united in the holy 
 bonds of matrimony with 'Miss Margaret Condon, 
 who was born in Bethlehem, Conn., a daughter of 
 Thomas Condon, a native of Ireland. Three chil- 
 dren were born of this marriage : William, who 
 died in 1898; Frank; and Robert. Mrs. Margaret 
 Fruin was called to the home of the blessed in 1887, 
 and in July, 1891, Mr. Fruin married Miss Nellie 
 Gibson, a native of Waterbury, and a daughter of 
 Cornelieus Gibson. In politics Mr. Fruin is a Dem- 
 ocrat, and as a prime favorite with bis party, has 
 served on the board of council two years and two 
 years as street commissioner, but has served more 
 through a sense of public duty than for reward or 
 glory. He is a member of the Knights of Colum- 
 bus, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and 
 
1494 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 the Catholic Legion. A Roman Catholic, he is a 
 com'municant of the Immaculate Conception 
 Church, and is liberal in contributing to its support. 
 The social position of himself, wife and children is 
 quite enviable. 
 
 ESTELLA A. HUBBELL was for some time 
 a successful and popular teacher of Bethany and 
 Woodbridge, but now devotes her time and atten- 
 tion to the management of her farm in the latter 
 town. She is a woman of excellent business and 
 executive ability, and has met with marked success 
 in her undertakings. At the age of seventeen years 
 she commenced teaching school in Hamden, and 
 continued to follow that profession until 1897, since 
 which time she has personally superintended the 
 operation of her farm in Woodbridge. 
 
 Silas Hubbell, her grandfather, the eldest son of 
 Silas Hubbell, Sr., an officer in the Revolutionary, 
 war under Gen. Putnam, was born in Newtown, 
 Fairfield Co., Conn., Feb. 22, 1772, and died in New 
 Haven May 31, 1856. On April 20, 1820, he mar- 
 ried Abiah Churchill, of Southampton, Mass., who 
 was born in 1781, and died in Westfield, Conn., Dec. 
 27, 1855. To them were born three children, one 
 son and two daughters. 
 
 Silas Churchill Hubbell, the only son of this 
 worthy couple, was born in Montgomery, Mass., 
 Sept. 17, 1826, and was married in Ballston Spa, 
 Saratoga Co., N. Y., to Angeline Jones, who was 
 born Aug. 26, 1827, aaughter of Ebenezer and 
 Angeline (Sear) Jones. Her father was born Aug. 
 10, 1798, her mother Sept. 11, 1798. In their fam- 
 ily were the following children : Almira, born 
 Dec. 14, 1820, a resident of New York State ; Ma- 
 tilda, born Aug. 22, 1822, a resident of Saratoga 
 county; Rufus, born Feb. 10, 1824, deceased; 
 Angeline, mother of our subject ; Juliette, born June 
 13, 1831, residing in Hop City, N. Y. ; Wesley, 
 born Nov. 23, 1832, deceased ; Catherine, born Aug. 
 19, 1834, who makes her home in Amsterdam, 
 N. Y. ; EmeHne, bomi Aug. 20, 1836, deceased; 
 Ebenezer, born Feb. 8, 1841, living in Plymouth, 
 Mass. ; and Isaac, born May 10, 1842, and Mary L., 
 bom Feb. 15, 1846, both deceased. 
 
 To Silas C. and Angeline (Jones) Hubbell came 
 four children, namely: Edward S., born Dec. 12, 
 1854, a meat buyer of Woodbridge; Charles J., 
 born Sept. 2, 1861, who died in infancy; Estella 
 Angeline, born Aug. 3, 1863 ; and George R., born 
 Dec. 4, 1868, a progressive farmer of Woodbridge. 
 
 Soon after their marriage the parents of our 
 subject came to Westville, Conn., and the father 
 successfully engaged in the practice of medicine 
 there and in the surrounding towns for forty years. 
 Both in professional and private life he was widely 
 and favorably known, and is certainly deserving of 
 honorable mention in the history of his adopted 
 county. He died in Woodbridge May 24, 1895, 
 and his wife passed away Sept. 7, 1898, honored 
 and respected by all who knew them. 
 
 WILLIAM H. WRIGHT, merchant. Water- 
 bury, where for over thirty years he has been a resi- 
 dent, is a native of England, born April 3, 1857, 
 near Manchester. 
 
 Edward Wright, father of William H., of the 
 same nativity, born in 1832, was a woolen manu- 
 facturer in England, and also followed the same line 
 of business in Waterbury, Conn. In his native land 
 he married a Miss Hall, who died there when our 
 subject was an infant ; he died in Waterbury. Seven 
 children were born to this union, a brief record of 
 whom is as follows : James E. is a mechanic in 
 Waterbury ; John W. is foreman with the American 
 Pin Co., Waterville, Conn. ; Sarah A., unmarried, 
 lives in Waterbury; William H. is our subject; 
 twins died in infancy ; and Lewis N. is engineer on 
 'the Naugatuck branch of the N. Y., N. H. & H. 
 Railroad. 
 
 William H. Wright received his education in 
 the schools of his native land, and when ten years, 
 old, in 1867, he with his father and brothers and 
 sisters came to America. For one year the family 
 lived in Glenham, Dutchess Co., N. Y., and from 
 there removing to Waterbury, where our subject 
 attended private school for a time. His first busi- 
 ness experience was in the Holmes, Booth & Hay- 
 dens Mfg. Go's works, where for three or four years, 
 he was employed in the plating department, and 
 afterward for some three years was shipping clerk 
 for the same firm. He then, in 1879, entered the 
 employ of the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., and was 
 with that firm twelve years, or until 1891, in which 
 year he bought out the American Tea Co. From 
 that time until 1899 he was associated with John 
 E. Weible, but buying out his partner's interest, he 
 has since been conducting the business alone. 
 
 In October, 1884, Mir. Wright married Jennie 
 E. Wright (no blood relation), who was born in 
 Waterbury, and five children have blessed their 
 union : Walter W., Frank E., Lewis N., Edith H.. 
 and Howard W., all living. Mr. Wright is a Re- 
 publican in politics, and has served his adopted city 
 in various offices of trust ; was alderman of the 
 third ward 1896-97, and being re-elected served in 
 1898-99. He was a member of the town committee 
 about ten years, and for some twenty years has 
 been connected with the Phoenix Fire Department 
 of Waterbury, being one of its most enthusiastic 
 members. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Ma- 
 sons, and he also belongs to the Red Men and the 
 Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
 
 BERNARD F. KIVLAN, a well-known citizen 
 of Branford, was born in East Haven, Conn., in 
 August, 1865, and is a son of Bernard and Ann 
 (McGinness) Kivlan, natives of County Leitrim,. 
 Ireland, and who came to the United States prior 
 to i860. The parents located at East Haven, where 
 the father engaged in contract grading, excavating' 
 and teaming to the time of his death, in 1892. The 
 children of this family were : Kate, who married 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 I49S 
 
 Michael Burns ; Mary, the wife of Dennis Freeman ; 
 John; Lizzie, who married Henry Donnelly; Ber- 
 nard F. ; Maggie, the wife of Edward Priest ; and 
 Jennie. 
 
 Bernard F. Kivlan was reared in East Haven, 
 where he secured his education principally in the 
 night schools At the age of nineteen he went on 
 the road as a traveling dealer in bakers' goods, teas, 
 coffees, butter and groceries, and followed this busi- 
 ness in East Haven until 1889. That year he came 
 to Branford and continued in the same business. 
 In 1891^ he went into the liquor business, in which 
 he is still engaged. 
 
 Mr. Kivlan has been twice married, his first 
 wife being Margaret, a daughter of John and Mary 
 (Williams) Sullivan, of Branford, by whom he had 
 one son, John, who is now dead. His second wife, 
 Mary, a daughter of William and Mary (Woods) 
 Hartley, is the mother of four children : Anna J. ; 
 Bernard B. F. ; Marian T. ; and William H. The 
 family are members of the Catholic Church, and 
 Mr. Kivlan is a Democrat in politics. He is con- 
 nected with the United States and the Connecticut 
 Bottlers' Associations. 
 
 JEREMIAH H. DUNN is a leading con- 
 tractor and prominent business man of Naugatuck, 
 where on all sides m^ay be seen evidences of his 
 handiwork. Thoroughly rehable in all things, the 
 quality of his work is a convincing test of his own 
 personal worth, and the same admirable trait is 
 shown in his conscientious discharge of the duties 
 of different positions of trust and responsibility to 
 which he has been chosen in business and political 
 hfe. 
 
 Mr. Dunn was born in Queens County, Ireland, 
 March 15, 1857, and is a son of Thomas Dunn, who 
 is still living in that country at the advanced age 
 of ninety-four years. The paternal grandfather of 
 our subject was Cornelius Dunn, a carpenter by 
 trade. The father has been a farmer and also a 
 public contractor, building bridges, etc. He erected 
 the house on the farm which has been his home for 
 almost eighty years. His wife, who bore the 
 maidfen name of Mary Phalan, was also born in 
 Queens County, and died about twenty years ago. 
 To them were born four children : Cornelius, who 
 was sergeant of the police in Ireland, and died in 
 1895; Maria; Jeremiah H. ; and Grace. The 
 daughters are both unmarried. 
 
 In his native land Jeremiah H. Dunn grew to 
 manhood, working during the day and attending 
 school in the evening. Under his father, who was 
 then a contractor, he learned the mason's trade. It 
 was in 1879 that he crossed the broad Atlantic and 
 landed in Boston. Before coming to Naugatuck 
 he spent some time in Lowell, Mass., Clinton and 
 in Southburv, Conn., where he spent two years, 
 being foreman of the gang which built the large 
 mill there Subsequently he was foreman for Chat- 
 field & Chalfield, large contractors of Waterbury, 
 
 Conn., and remained with them for four years. In 
 1887 he came to Naugatuck with a gang of men, 
 and as a contractor has since engaged in business 
 on his own account. He built the large factory for 
 the Goodyear India Ruboer Co., and then took 
 charge of the Parish House, which he built and 
 which is a fine piece 01 workmanship. As a con- 
 tractor and builder he has since erected perhaps 
 one hundred houses a year, built walls for ceme- 
 teries and constructed bridges, etc. He also- does 
 concrete work, and in 1898 built four miles of side- 
 walk in Naugatuck, besides three miles of sewers. 
 He owns twenty-five acres of land in the city, which 
 he has platted, and to which he has given the name 
 of Fairview. As a business man he is prompt and 
 notably reliable, and the success that be has achieved- 
 is due entirely to his own well-directed and ener- 
 getic efforts. 
 
 In November, 1890, Mr. Dunn married Miss 
 Margaret McVoy, a native of Naugatuck and a 
 daughter of Thomas McVoy, and to them have been 
 born five children : Tbomias, Jeremiah, Arthur,, 
 Philip and Margaret. Politically Mr. Dunn is a 
 stanch Democrat, and has been called upon to serve 
 as a member of the board of burgesses and as as- 
 sessor of his town. He is president of the Salem 
 Spring Lake Ice Co., and a director in the Board 
 of Trade. Religiously he is a member of St. Fran- 
 cis Catholic Church, and socially is connected with 
 the Hibernians, the Foresters of America, the 
 Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Water- 
 bury Lodge, No. 6, I. O. O. F. As a citizen and- 
 business man he stands high in public esteem, and 
 wherever known is highly respected. 
 
 N. JAY WELTON, a well-to-do agriculturist 
 of Oxford, New Haven county, is a typical self- 
 made man, and in the following record of his career 
 there is much to arouse respect and esteem. He 
 has placed his reliance upon industry and perse- 
 verance rather than on "luck," and by making the 
 m.ost of circumstances, however discouraging, has 
 made his way to a substantial success, his fine farm 
 being a tangible evidence of prosperity. 
 
 Mr. Welton was born in East Haven, Jan. i,. 
 1841, and remained there until his father's death,, 
 which occurred when he was but seven years old. 
 He then lived with an uncle for two years, and the 
 following year worked for his board and clothes 
 on the farm of another uncle in Bristol, Conn. 
 From there he went to Wolcott, where he worked 
 for his board and attended tne public schools for a 
 time. Subsequently he was employed as a farm 
 hand in Plymouth, Conn., and from there went to 
 Waterbury, where he worked for the City Manu- 
 facturing Company three years, and later for the 
 American Flask & Cap Company. 
 
 Mt. Welton next went to Meriden, Conn., and 
 while there he entered his country's service during 
 the wair of the Rebellion, enlisting as a private, Aug. 
 7, 1862, in Company F, 20th Conn. V. I., for three 
 
1496 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD 
 
 years or during the war. His first engagement was 
 the battle of Fredericksburg. He then took part in 
 the siege of Suffolk, and lat_er was sent to Newbern, 
 N. C, where the regiment did provost guard duty 
 for some time. As a part of the Ninth Corps, 
 Army of the Potomac, he took part in the battle of 
 Wise's Fork, and was at Kinston, N. C, at the 
 time of Lee's surrender. 
 
 After being discharged at New Haven, Mr. Wel- 
 ton located in Derby, this county, where he worked 
 in the' mills for one year, and then went to Seymourj 
 where he was employed in the Douglas auger fac- 
 tory for seventen years. He was subsequently con- 
 nected with the New Haven Copper Co., located at 
 Seymour, for seven years, and at the end of that 
 time came to Oxford, where he has since made his 
 home, and where he owns a well-improved farm. 
 He carries on general farming, but makes a speci- 
 alty of dairying and the raising of small fruits. In 
 this undertaking he has met with well^merited suc- 
 cess, and be ranks to-day among the leading agri- 
 culturists of the community. 
 
 On Aug. 7, 1862, Mr. Welton married Miss 
 Laura Beers, and to them were born four children : 
 Annie ; David J. ; and two who died' in infancy. 
 In political sentiment our subject is a Republican, 
 and in his social relations is an Odd Fellow. He 
 served as grand juror five years, and was assistant 
 postmaster of Oxford for a time. He has the best 
 interests of his town and county at heart, and never 
 withholds his support from any enterprise which 
 he believes calculated to prove of public benefit. 
 
 ADAM J. DAUCH, late of the firm of Dauch 
 & Farr, meat dealers at No. 600 South Main street, 
 Waterbury, Conn., but who is now living at Smith's 
 farm, Oakville, Litchfield Co., Conn., was born in 
 Ellenville, N. Y., July 13, 1861. 
 
 Adam Dauch, father of Adam J., was born in 
 Bavaria, Germany, March 17, 1823, came to Amer- 
 ica when a young man, and found employment as a 
 cigar maker in Newark, N. J. ; later he removed to 
 Ellenville, Ulster Co., N. Y., and there met and 
 married Miss Mary Disler, who was also a native 
 of Bavaria. This union was crowned with eight 
 children, as follows : Nicholas, now a prosperous 
 farmer in Sullivan county, N. Y. ; Frank, a distiller 
 of witch-hazel in Ulster countv; Sophia, who first 
 married John Teller, and after his death Har- 
 rison Ammell, who is also deceased, and she is now 
 living in Waterbury, Conn.; Adam J., the subject 
 of this sketch; Mary, wife of Ellsworth Van 
 Buren, of Ulster county, N. Y. ; Elizabeth, mar- 
 ried to John P- Geisler, a butcher in Waterbury, 
 Conn. ; Johanna, married to Adam Williams, a 
 farmer in Ulster county, N. Y. ; and John, who has 
 been a farmer and butcher, and now lives in Water- 
 bury. The father of these children was called from 
 earth Oct. 5, 1890, and the mother in August, 1898, 
 both in the faith of the Lutheran Church. 
 
 The boyhood days of Adam J. Dauch were 
 
 passed in the town of Wawarsing, Ulster Co., 
 N. Y., where his school attendance was at the little 
 old district school house. He afterward helped to 
 improve the home farm, and while thus engaged 
 met and married Miss Anna Wanzer, who v/as born 
 in Hempstead, Long Island,, N. Y., a daughter of 
 Alfred Wanzer, a native-bom American and a 
 farmer. Shortly after marriage Mr. and Mrs. 
 Dauch came to Waterbury, in May, 1889, and Mr. 
 ,Dauch went to work for the Hall & Upson Ice Co. 
 for a short time, and then for another short period 
 worked for his brother-in-law, John P. Geisler, in 
 the meat business. In 1889 Mr. Dauch opened a 
 meat market on his own account, conducted it about 
 six months, and' then formed a partnership with his 
 brother-in-law, under the firm name of Geisler & 
 Dauch, which firm was maintained for about three 
 years, when Mr. Dauch again embarked alone, and 
 so continued until the winter of 1899, when he 
 united with Charles Farr, under the firm style of 
 Dauch & Farr, at No. 600 South Main street, where 
 they found a lucrative trade, both the partners being 
 polite and accommodating salesman, and both thor- 
 oughly familiar with all the details of the business. 
 To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Adam J. 
 Pauch have been bom five children in the follow- 
 ing order: Elizabeth, Frederick, Winnifred, Eve- 
 line and Rowland, and these are being reared with 
 the utmost care, and promise to be, in due course of 
 time, ornaments to society as well as useful citi- 
 zens. Politicallv Mr. Dauch has always been a 
 Democrat, but has never sought public office. Fra- 
 ternally he is a member of the Union Club, and so- 
 cially his standing is all that could be desired. 
 
 RICHARD B. LEWIS, a well-known and 
 highly respected business man of Waterbury, is a 
 native of England, and was born in the city of 
 Manchester, April 3, 1850. 
 
 Evan Lewis, father of our subject, was bom in 
 Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales, and in De- 
 cember, 1850, came to America, locating in Nauga- 
 tuck. Conn., where, in one of the mills, he followed 
 bis trade of spinner. He.finally removed' to Water- 
 bury, and there died in 1888. He married Margaret 
 Evans, a native of the same locality in Wales, and 
 seven children were bom to them, to-wit: Evan "is 
 deceased ; Annie married Ira Webster, and they live 
 in Binghamton, N. Y. ; Margaret married D. L. 
 Dickinson, and they live in Waterbury; David is 
 deceased; Richard B. ; Susan married A. H. Koon, 
 and they live in Waterbury; and Charles, Jr., is de- 
 ceased. The mother of this family is still living in 
 Waterbury. 
 
 Richard B. Lewis was seven years old when the 
 family came to Waterbury, and here at the district 
 schools he received his education. At an early age 
 he entered the works of Brown Brothers and 
 learned the trade of burnisher, and then worked for 
 Holmes, Booth & Haydens for two years. Subse- 
 quently he engaged in the grocery and 'bottling root 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1497 
 
 beer business, after which he was in the employ of 
 the Waterbury Button Co. for about twenty-five 
 years. Since this long and honorable association he 
 has resumed his former bottling and grocery busi- 
 ness,^ and has repeated' the success characteristic of 
 all his business undertakings. 
 
 On Jan. 6, 1875, Mr. Lewis married Jane 
 Carmody, who was born in Waterbury, in 1855, a 
 daughter of Michael and Ann (Day) Carmody, 
 the latter of whom was a native of Ireland, 
 whence she emigrated to her present home in Water- 
 bury, Conn, about 1850. Two children have been 
 born to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis : Charles J. and George 
 R. The parents attend the services of the Episcopal 
 Church. In politics Mr. Lewis is a Republican, and 
 he is socially a member of the A. O. U. W., 
 K. of P. and Sons of St. George, in which latter 
 order he has been treasurer of the Grand Lodge four 
 years, and treasurer of the local lodge twelve years. 
 
 HARRY ALFRED ELCOCK, M. D., one of 
 the leading physicians of Branford, was born in 
 Enfield, Hartford Co., Conn., June 2, 1870, and is 
 a son of Alfred and Mary (Kerr) Elcock, natives 
 respectively of England and Scotland. 
 
 Albert Elcock, the paternal grandfather of Dr. 
 Harry A., came to the United States about 1846, 
 and located at Bennington, Vt., where be was sup- 
 erintendent of the Powder Works. From there he 
 moved to Pottsville, Penn., and in the early fifties 
 located at Hazardville, Conn., where he filled the 
 position of superintendent of the Hazard Powder 
 Works for about twenty years, when he retired from 
 active business life and made his home in Hartford, 
 where he died in February, 1899, ait the ripe old 
 age of eighty-three. His wife was form-erly Mary 
 Silver. 
 
 Alfred Elcock, the father of the Branford 
 physician, who was the only child of his parents, 
 was brought to this country when about three years 
 old, and practically his entire life has been spent 
 in this state. While still very young he found di- 
 version and interest in the Hazard Powder factory, 
 of which his father was manager, and in time ac- 
 quired a thorough knowledge of the business, 
 eventually having charge of the charcoal depart- 
 ment for nearly twenty years. At the present time 
 be is a contractor for the Winchester Repeating 
 Arms Company, at New Haven, where he has re- 
 sided since 1887. His wife, formerly Mary Kerr, 
 was a daughter of Thomas and Mary (Stewart) 
 Kerr, natives of Scotland, Presbyterians, and prom- 
 inent and respected people in Enfield. Two chil- 
 dren were born to Alfred and Mary Elcock : Harry 
 A. and Mary S. 
 
 Harry Alfred Elcock was educated in the Hart- 
 ford city schools, and in the high school at Wor- 
 cester, Mass. In 1886 he entered Yale College, tak- 
 ing the Academic Course, and two years later en- 
 tered the Medical Department of that famous in- 
 stitution, from which he was graduated in 1891. 
 
 For a year and a half he achieved commendable 
 results as house surgeon of the State Hospital at 
 New Haven, and then studied six months in the 
 Manhattan Eye and Ear Infirmary in New York 
 City. 1894 and 1895 were spent in the University 
 of Berlin, Germany, and in Guy's Hospital Rotunda, 
 Dublin, and upon returning home in 1895 he opened 
 his office in New Haven and spent the winter in 
 practice. The following spring he removed to 
 Boston, where he was employed by the United 
 States Government as a pathologist after he had 
 practiced a year and a half in that city. 
 
 In February, 1899, Dr. Elcock came to Bran- 
 ford, to pursue the practice of his profession,, and 
 here his success has been immediate and marked. 
 His polished and courtly ways, his well . stored 
 mind, his vast fund of professional information, and 
 his manifest ability as a practitioner, have brought 
 him a host of patrons and friends. 
 
 Dr. Elcock was married Nov. 22, 1899, to 
 Margaret, a daughter of Patrick and Rosanna 
 (Plunkett) McKiernan, of Norwich, Conn., and a 
 niece of Ex-Senator J. D. Plunkett. 
 
 Mathew Elcock, the great-grandfather of Dr. 
 Elcock, was in the Englisih army at Waterloo, 
 where he was wounded, and where he was given 
 the Victoria Cross for bravery. He died in En- 
 field, Conn. 
 
 Dr. Elcock is a member of the Catholic Church, 
 and is enrolled in the K. of C, the C. B. L., the 
 A. O. U. W., and the I. O. H. In politics he is in- 
 dependent, taking thought for the good of the com- 
 munity, and seeking the best men for the various 
 official positions. 
 
 TERENCE F. COUGHLAN, of Waterbury, is 
 one of those Irish-iAmericans, who, by their own 
 intrinsic worth and industry, have won a firm place 
 in the estimation of their fellow townsmen. Mr. 
 Coughlan was born in Kings County, Ireland, March 
 4, 1849, where his father, Terence F. Coughlan, 
 Sr., engaged in farming. The latter died when 
 our subject was nine months old, and the mother, 
 Mary Condon, also a native of Kings County, was 
 left with four children — ^James T., Patrick, John 
 and Terence F. Of these, JamesT. owns a market 
 and drug store on Baldwin St., Waterbury ; Patrick 
 is a painter, and resides in Waterbury; and John 
 died about 1852. The mother died in Waterbury. 
 
 Terence F. Coughlan was but one year old when 
 his widowed mother located in Hartford, Conn., and 
 in 1852 came to Waterbury where young Terence 
 passed his boyhood days. After finishing his 
 schooling, he found work in different factories, his 
 first wages being twenty-five cents per day. For 
 a short time he worked in Hartford, and then re- 
 turned to Waterbury, where for some time be was 
 employed in a spoon factory. He next began to 
 learn the butcher's trade, being employed in the 
 market owned by his brother, James T. About 
 1885, Mr. Coughlan engaged in the meat business 
 
1498 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 on Baldwin street, where he remained for seven 
 years, meeting with much success. From there he 
 moved to No. 65 Washington street, where he has 
 since remained. His marl<et is one of the most 
 popular in Waterbury, his upright business methods 
 and his courteous treatment of his customers win- 
 ning for him a steadily increasing patronage. 
 
 in 1873 ^'^- Coughlan was united in marriage 
 with Mary Ann Lynch, who was born in Water- 
 bury, a daughter of Michael Lynch, who has since 
 passed away. Five children were born of this 
 union : Edward, Terence, Jr., Mary, Peter and 
 James, the last named being deceased. In 1890 Mr. 
 Coughlan wedded Mary Cahil, and of the five chil- 
 dren born of this marriage, three are living: Frances 
 (deceased), Raymond, Frederick, Catherine, and 
 one that died unnamed. Politically Mr. Coughlan 
 has always been a Republican, and in 1888 ef- 
 ficiently represented the Fourth ward in the council. 
 Socially he belongs to the Foresters of America, 
 and the Improved Order of Heptasophs. In re- 
 ligious faith the family are Roman Catholics, and 
 are affiliated with St. Francis Parish. 
 
 THOMAS FRANCIS LYONS, a noted manu- 
 facturer of mineral waters and ibottler of wines and 
 ales for family use, whose place of business is on 
 Pratt street, Meriden, was born in Sheffield, Eng- 
 land, July 19, 1859, and comes of a family long 
 located in County Tipperary, Ireland. 
 
 John Lyons, father of Thomas F., was born in 
 County Tipperary, Ireland, where his, father was a 
 farmer, and died while he was but a child. The 
 orphan lad could have but little education as he 
 was compelled to support himself at a very early 
 age. For a time he was a teamster in his native 
 village, and while still a boy went to Sheffield, where 
 he worked in the iron works. Through industry 
 and economy he managed to save some money, and 
 when he was ready to settle down he returned to 
 his native place and married Ann Ryan. She was 
 born in Kings County, Ireland, and was a daughter 
 of Daniel and Mary Burke Ryan. The father died 
 in his native home, and the mother came to Amer- 
 ica with her children, making her home in Meriden, 
 where sht died and was buried. Many of the mem- 
 bers of her family are still living, and are among 
 the oldest Irish settlers in the city. 
 
 John Lyons, with his bride, went back to Shef- 
 field, where their home was made for many years. 
 There he worked in the iron trade, and there four of 
 their children were born. Mr. Lyons finally came to 
 see the advisability of a removal to the United States 
 where the needs of his growing family could be 
 better served. In i860 they embarked at Liverpool 
 for New York, and as they had brothers-in-law 
 already established in Meriden, this city naturally 
 became their destination. Here Mr. Lyons passed 
 the remainder of his days engaged in general 
 work, supporting his family, and becoming pos- 
 sessed of a comfortable competence. He died in 
 
 1 88 1, and was buried in St. Patrick's cemetery. In 
 politics he was a Democrat, and in religion a mem- 
 ber of the Catholic Church. An honest and hard- 
 working man, his character was beyond reproach, 
 and he possessed the esteem and confidence of all 
 who knew him. Mrs. Lyons, his widow, is still 
 living in Meriden, and is much devoted to her chil- 
 dren. A member of the Catholic Church, she is 
 known as a good Christian woman. Mr. and Mrs. 
 John Lyons were the parents of a family of eight 
 children, of whom the first four were born in Eng-- 
 land, and the last four in Meriden : Mary married 
 William Watts, of Meriden; John died in Meriden; 
 Margaret is the wife of Dennis Horrigan, of New 
 Britain ; Thomas Francis ; Agnes is now the wife 
 of Michael O'Leary, of Middletown; James, now 
 employed with his 'brother Thomas, married Nellie 
 McNulty ; Daniel, also working with his brother, 
 Thomas F., married Laura Baribanck; Nellie is the 
 wife of Joseph Lannon, of Meriden. 
 
 Thomas Francis Lyons was only one year old 
 when his parents arrived in Meriden, and here his 
 childhood and youth were passed in attendance upon 
 the public school, and later in St. Rose's parish 
 school. At the tender age of twelve years he took 
 upon himself the burdens of life, and began working 
 in the woolen mill, receiving $13 a month. After 
 several months he went to the Malleable Iron Co., 
 and was later employed as an office boy in the office 
 of the Meriden Silver Plate Co., and here he re- 
 mained until he was eighteen years old. At that 
 time he entered the factory of the Foster, Merriam 
 Co., to learn the trade of a brass molder, and from 
 there he went to the Miller shops, where he worked 
 in the molding department for three years. About 
 this time Mr. Lyons had grown weary of the factory 
 life, and entered the employ of Maurice O'Brien, 
 spending several months in his butcher shop. This 
 business, however, did not please him, and he re- 
 turned to factory life, and for seven years worked 
 in the brass foundry of Bradley &. Hubbard, and 
 two years in factory of the Meriden Bronze Com- 
 pany. After that he was foreman in the brass 
 foundry of J. O. Smith & Co., at Westfield, for a 
 year, when the firm failed. Mr. Lyons came back 
 to Meriden, and spent a year with the Bronze 
 Company, another year with the Malleable Iron Co., 
 and four years as foreman of the factory of C. 
 Rogers & Brothers. In July, 1890, Mr. Lyons be- 
 gan to_ do business for himself, buying a "^half in- 
 terest in his present establishment, continuing his 
 work for a time at the Malleable Iron Co. In July, 
 i8gi, Flinn & Lyons, for such was then the title of 
 the firm, removed to Pratt street, and in 1895, Mr. 
 Flinn retired, leaving Mr. Lyons as the .sole owner 
 of the business. It has greatly prospered under his 
 management, and now uses three teams and gives 
 employment to seven men. 
 
 Mr. Lyons was married in Meriden Jan. 30, 
 1884, to Miss May Rafiferty, born in County Galway, 
 Ireland, and a -daughter of James and Mary Ann 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1499 
 
 Rafferty, both of whom were County Galway people. 
 To this very fortunate and happy union were 
 born the following children: Mary Joseph died 
 young"; John is at school ; Walter died young ; Willie 
 died young; Imilda; Eva died when four years 
 old; Elmer; and Thomas Gerold. Mr. Lyons be- 
 longs to the John Dillon Club, and Meriden Division 
 of 'the A. O. H. He is a charter member of the 
 Silver City Athletic Club, and also of the Catholic 
 Club, and belongs to the I. O. of H. Mr. Lyons is 
 a Democrat, but takes no interest in political ma- 
 chinery. He and his family are all strict mem- 
 bers of the Catholic Church. From early boyhood 
 he has been a hard worker, and by his own in- 
 dustry and perseverance he has won for himself a 
 good standing in the world. 
 
 EDWARD McGRATH, a retired business man 
 of Waterbury, Conn., was born in County Tipper- 
 ary, Ireland, April i, 1851, a son of Thomas and 
 Margaret (Powell) McGrath. 
 
 Thomas McGrath was born in 1814, in the same 
 house in which his son had his nativity, a son of 
 John McGrath, who was a farmer and passed his 
 life in Ireland. To the marriage of Thomas Mc- 
 Grath with Margaret Powell, who was of English 
 extraction, and a descendant of Sir Edward Powell, 
 there were born fifteen children, and they that were 
 born in Ireland were brought to America by their 
 parents about the year 1863, and comprised the 
 largest family at that time in Waterbury. Of their 
 children, we have the following record : Margaret 
 is single ; Alice is the wife of Michael J. Ryan, of 
 Waterbury ; John died in infancy ; Edward is the 
 subject of this sketch ; Thomas is a cigar manu- 
 facturer in Waterbury; James died after reaching 
 maturity ; Bridget is unmarried ; Robert is in busi- 
 ness in Waterbury; Patrick has disappeared from 
 the family view; Mary is single; Catherine died in 
 infancy; Dennis is a foreman in a street railroad 
 shop in Chicago ; Morgan lives in Waterbury ; Cath- 
 erine (2) is married to Edward S. Cullen, of 
 Waterbury; and John (2) is deceased. Thomas 
 McGrath, the father of this family is still living, but 
 his wife was called away in 1898. 
 
 Edward McGrath was eleven years of age when 
 brought to Waterbury. He had attended school 
 in Ireland, and supplemented the learning there ac- 
 quired by an attendance at the Waterbury schools. 
 His first work for wages was with Brown & Bros., 
 brass manufacturers, with whom he remained one 
 year; he was next employed four years by Rogers 
 & Bras, after which he spent fourteen years with 
 the Holmes, Booth & Haydens Co. In compafiy 
 with his brother-in-law, Robert Fruin, he engaged 
 in the retail meat trade, continumg four years, and 
 he then embarked in the wholesale ale trade, which 
 he carried on ten years, since which time he has 
 confined his attention to the management of his 
 
 In 1872 Mr. McGrath was happily joined in 
 
 marriage with Miss Anna L. Fruin, whose parent- 
 age is referred to in the sketch of her brother, 
 John H. Fruin, on another page of this work. To 
 the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. McGrath have been 
 born four children as follows : Thomas S., John 
 (a student of law at Yale), Edward and William, 
 both in school. Of these, Thomas S., a physician, 
 died Jan. 11, 1897; his death was a severe blow to 
 the fjimily. While ministering to a comsumptive 
 patient in the hospital he was infected with the 
 disease, which caused his death ; but his loved ones 
 have the consolation of knowing that, as the father, 
 himself, feelingly expressed it, he "died at his post 
 of duty." 
 
 In politics Mr. McGrath is a Democrat and has 
 served on the school board for ,some years, and has 
 been inspector of buildings and materials. In re- 
 ligion a Catholic, he is a member of the Immaculate 
 Conception parish and liberally contributes financial- 
 ly to the support of the Church. Fraternally he is 
 a member of the Ancient Order of the United Work- 
 men. 
 
 P. A. OLSON, one of the industrious, enterpris- 
 ing and prosperous young farmers of North Haven, 
 Conn., was born in far distant Sweden, July 16, 
 1852, and he accompanied his parents to America 
 when he was eighteen years of age. The.y first lo- 
 cated in New Jersey, and there our subject engaged 
 in farm work, and later came with them to Middle- 
 sex county. Conn., where his first employment was 
 on the Conn. Valley R. R. Shortly after this he 
 engaged in the town of Essex with a farmer by 
 the name of Roswell Bailey, and continued in his 
 employ for a period of two years. Mr. B. F. Smith 
 then engaged him as foreman of his country place, 
 but a short time later, a better opportunity ofleringj 
 Mr. Olson removed to Portland, Conn., where he 
 did a flourishing business, driving ox-teams in the 
 brown stone quarries. However, as he had given 
 such universal satisfaction as foreman of Mr. 
 Smith's place that gentleman felt that Mr. Olson's 
 services were absolutely necessary, and after favor- 
 able arrangements had been made, the latter re- 
 turned, remaining several years. 
 
 At this time, wishing to see something more of 
 the world, Mr. Olson journeyed to New York, and 
 for nine years drove a truck wagon for Arbuckle 
 Bros., during which time he carefully saved his 
 earnings, until, at the expiration of that period, he 
 came to North Haven and purchased a farm, known 
 as the John Hoadley place, which was badly run 
 down. By careful management and excellent farm- 
 ing, Mr. Olson has brought the property up to a 
 hig-h state of cultivation, and has erected comfort- 
 able buildings. He carries on a profitable fruit- 
 growing and dairying business, conducting a large 
 milk route in New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Olson was married, in Brooklyn, N. Y., to 
 Charlotte Johnson, a native of Sweden, who died 
 in North Haven, in 1896, leaving two children: 
 
I500 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 John Walter, at home, assisting his father; and 
 Hilma Matilda, who married Robert Clinton, a resi- 
 dent of North Haven. Later Mr. Olson married 
 Hannah Anderson, also Sweden, and one child has 
 been born to them, Anna Eveline. In politics, Mr. 
 Olson is a stanch Republican, and has served as 
 grand juror. Socially, he is a member of the New 
 England Order of Protection and North Haven 
 Grange, serving the latter as steward for three 
 years, and one year as overseer. In religious mat- 
 ters, he is a consistent member of St. John Street 
 Lutheran Church, of New Haven. Commencing 
 life as a poor boy, by his care, thrift, energy and 
 perseverance, Mr. Olson has worked himself to his 
 present comfortable position, as he is eminently a 
 self-made man, and he deserves great credit for the 
 success which has come to him. 
 
 JOHN HURLEY, ex-member of the board of 
 aldermen, from the Fifth ward, Waterbury, and the 
 present inspector of the city sew«rs, was born in 
 County Kerry, Ireland, March i6, 1858, a son of 
 John and Johanna (Flaherty) Hurley, both now 
 deceased. 
 
 John Hurley, the father, was a well digger. He 
 married Johanna Flaherty, and they had seven chil- 
 dren, viz : Thomas, a well digger in Ireland ; Mich- 
 ael, who died in Watenbury, Conn., at the age of 
 forty-two years; Catherine, who is the wife of Pat- 
 rick ^ Mulvihill, of Waterbury; Mary, now Mrs. 
 Daniel Sullivan, of the same city ; John, whose name 
 opens this sketch; Timothy, deceased; and Mar- 
 garet, who died at the age of eleven years. 
 
 John Hurley, the su'bject of this article, was 
 •educated in the national schools of his native county, 
 and in due course of time became a well digger un- 
 der the instructions of his father. His parents hav- 
 ing died in Ireland, he came, at the age of seven- 
 teen years, to America, and first found employment 
 with the Clock Case Company, in Waterbury, with 
 which he remained thirteen years, and then em- 
 barked in the liquor business. 
 
 Mr. Hurley has been twice married. His first 
 wife was Margaret Fitzgerald, a native of Ireland, 
 who bore him two children, Johanna and John. 
 After her death he wedded Kate O'Brien, of Water- 
 "bury. In politics Mr. Hurley is a stanch Democrat 
 and has represented 'the Fifth ward of Waterbury 
 in the board of aldermen two years, 1898 and 1899, 
 and was then appointed inspector of sewers. He 
 has strong fraternal tendencies, and is a member of 
 the Foresters of America, and also of the Ancient 
 Order of Hibernians. A devoted member of the 
 Catholic Church, he contributes liberally toward the 
 support of Immaculate Conception parish, to which 
 he belongs, and of which 'his wife and children are 
 also members. 
 
 PATRICK FRANCIS STRAPP, M. D., is one 
 of the most highly esteemed and successful citizens 
 of Seymour. Although not yet attained to middle 
 
 age, he has successfully prosecuted a professional 
 career as physician and surgeon, and in his com- 
 munity life supported substantially his church as 
 well as numerous other organizations of which he 
 is a member. At an early age. Dr. Strapp learned 
 the lesson of industry and application to the busi- 
 ness in hand. He put into practice the principles 
 inculcated into hb mind and heart during the study 
 period of his life; and now, in the prime of his 
 success, he sees the "labor of his hands" bringing 
 forth good fruit in his own city and adjacent towns. 
 It will certainly be most interesting to trace the 
 steps leading from the ancestral period of this life 
 to 'the present height of success and renown. 
 
 Dr. Strapp wasi born in Collinsvile, Conn., 
 March 25, 1865, but his parents, Edward and Ann 
 (O'Dwyer) Strapp, were both born in County 
 Tipperary, Ireland. Edward Strapp came to Amer- 
 ica when a young man, and immediately engaged in 
 the axe business in Collinsville. In 1867 he re- 
 moved to Seymour, and conducted a saloon and 
 grocery for a number of years, and in connection 
 herewith dealt extensively in real estate and build- 
 ing. He died in 1878, at the age of fifty-four years, 
 and was survived by his wife, who died in 1890, 
 at the age of fifty-three years. Several children 
 were born to Mr. and Mrs. Edward Strapp, all of 
 whom are still living. Of their children, Mary mar- 
 ried Peter Moran, of Waterville; John Strapp is 
 with the firm of James Swan & Co., an association 
 amicably continued for the past twenty years; 
 Patrick Francis is the subject of this sketch; 
 Catherine; Nora married Patrick McCormack, of 
 Ansonia; the youngest daughter. Rose, is a grad- 
 uate of the Seymour high school. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Edward Strapp were prominent citizens and devoted 
 attendants of the Catholic Church, the mother at 
 one time having dedicated a memorial window. 
 All of their children have followed the example 
 of their parents, and each liberally supports 
 the Church. A brother of Mrs. Strapp, the Rev. 
 Father P. J. O'Dwyer, was one of the first parish 
 priests in Ansonia, and at the same time had charge 
 of the Catholic Church in this town. Afterward, 
 he removed to Birmingham, and later to South 
 Norwalk, where he died. Our subject's brother, 
 John Strapp, was likewise active in Church affairSj 
 and as a layman satisfactorily filled the position of 
 trustee for ten years. He waa chiefly instrumental 
 in starting the local Council of Knights of Colum- 
 bus, in which organization he held all of the offices, 
 including that of treasurer. He was equally prom- 
 inent in the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick for twelve 
 years, at various times holding all of the offices. 
 He was also a member and officer of the Second 
 Division of A. O. H. of Ansonia, and he has been 
 a member of the Fire Department since its organ- 
 ization. 
 
 In his native town Dr. Strapp received his edu- 
 cation in the Connecticut grammar and high schools, 
 and, having worked his way through school, entered 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1501 
 
 the Holy Crass College of Worcester, Mass., for a 
 four-years' course. Following this he took a two- 
 years' course in the Yale Medical School, and after- 
 ward a course in Bellevue Hospi'tal Medical College. 
 After hisi graduation in 1892, Dr. Strapp located 
 in Seymour, where he has since met with gratifying 
 success. He soon developed a special liking fbr 
 surgery, and his services in that branch of his pro- 
 fession are in great demand in Seymour, as well 
 as in the surrounding country. 
 
 While discharging his professional responsi- 
 bilities. Dr. Strapp succeeds in devoting consider- 
 able time and energy to social, educational and 
 Church work. He is a member of the Connecticut 
 Medical Society, and of the Aurora Council of 
 Kinghts of Columbus, of which he is examining 
 surgeon. Six years ago, he was elected a member 
 of the school board of Seymour, and has since served 
 in that capacity. He was one of the promoters of 
 the Water Company, and still retains an interest 
 in this municipal enterprise. In politics Dr. Strapp 
 sides with the Democratic party. He is a regular 
 attendant of the Catholic Church. 
 
 Thus far the life of Dr. Patrick Francis Strapp 
 has been a succession of deeds of service to human- 
 ity and elevating influence to the community in 
 which he resides, and it gives promise of continued 
 activity and the further development of that sound 
 judgment and ripe experience which are absolutely 
 necessary in shaping the ideas of the rising genera- 
 tion, and pointing out the conservative path which 
 leads to the survival of all the noble principles that 
 make life a success. 
 
 WILLIAM TIMOTHY CORCORAN, prac- 
 tical plumber, and dealer in general hardware at 
 Branford, is a native of Connecticut, and was born 
 in Waterbury July i, 1854. 
 
 John Corcoran, his father, was born in Dubliri, 
 Ireland, in 1833, and was reared in England until 
 his tenth year, when he came to the United States, 
 making his New World home in Connecticut. Here 
 he learned the trade of wire drawer, which for 
 many years he followed in Waterbury, and where, 
 during the latter part of his life, he engaged in the 
 grocery business. He married Elizabeth Neville, 
 also a native of Ireland, who bore him twelve chil- 
 dren seven of whom grew to maturity^ viz.: 
 Margaret, now Mrs. Edgar Meagher; Mary A.; 
 William T. ; John ; Fanny ; Emma, the wife of J. 
 Leeson; and Frederick. The father of these died 
 in Waterbury in 1867. 
 
 William T. Corcoran received a liberal common- 
 school education, and at the age of fourteen began 
 a three-years' apprenticeship with a plumber at 
 Bridgeport. At this he worked as a journeyman up 
 to 1887 eight years being spent in Branford, where 
 he had located in 1879, and in 1888 commenced 
 business there on his own account, meeting with 
 well-merited success.. 
 
 In 1879 Mr. Corcoran married Marcella, daugh- 
 
 ter of Peter and Elizabeth Kane, of New Haven. 
 Mrs. Corcoran, who died June 9, 1899, was the 
 mother of three children : Emma A., Fred A. and 
 William Neville. The family are members of the 
 Catholic Church. Socially Mr. Corcoran is affiliated 
 with the Knights of Columbus, the American Order 
 of Protection, and with the Connecticut Master 
 Plumbers Association. Politically he is a Demo- 
 crat. 
 
 JOHN W. KATT. One of the progressive Ger- 
 man-American citizens of Meriden successfully en- 
 gaged in the grocery business in this city for a 
 number of years, is John William Katt, who was 
 born in the town of Ottendorf, province of Han- 
 over, Germany, Oct. 9, 1865. 
 
 William Katt, the father of John W., also a 
 native of Ottendorf, was born in 1823, and was 
 educated in the common schools, and engaged in 
 farming up to the time of hi& death, in 1882. Mr. 
 Katt was a stanch member of the Lutheran Church, 
 a good and loyal citizen, an indulgent father and 
 kind husband. Mrs. Katt, formerly Katherine 
 Cornett, a native of Germany, was a woman of 
 fine character and died while her children were 
 still young. She also was a consistent member of 
 the Lutheran Church. 
 
 The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Katt were : 
 Henry, now a resident of Union Hill, New Jersey; 
 Herman, who is engaged in the grocery business 
 in Union Hill, New Jersey; August, a dealer in 
 delicacies, in Hoboken, N. J. ; Julius, who is a prom- 
 inent citizen of Meriden; John W., who is the sub- 
 ject of this review; Katherine, who married and 
 resides in Germany ; Anne, who married and resides 
 in San Francisco, Cal. ; Mamie, who married and 
 lives in Germany ; all of the children reflecting credit 
 upon their ancestry. For his second wife Mr. Katt 
 married a Mrsi. Troill, of Germany, who has also 
 passed away. 
 
 John William Katt was well educated in his na- 
 tive land, where he remained until the age of fifteen 
 years. At this time he was induced to emigrate 
 to America, in the hope of making a better future 
 for himself, four of his brothers having already 
 become citizens of the United States. June 4, 1881, 
 he left his home, and after a pleasant voyage landed 
 in New York, where he soon obtained a position as 
 clerk in a store, remaining in the same place four 
 years. In 1885 he came to Connecticut and ob- 
 tained a clerkship in the grocery store of Fred 
 Mueller, later securing a position at $12 per week 
 with A. C. Block, in Meriden, with whom he re- 
 mained until starting in business for himiself in 
 1889. For the past twelve years he has continued 
 with unabating success, and for eight years hasi oc- 
 cupied his present commodious" quarters* on Twiss 
 street. Through strict attention to business, an ac- 
 commodating spirit and desire to please, together 
 with methods .which bave assured his patrons of 
 just dealings, he has built up one of the largest 
 
1502 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 trades in this locality. In all his endeavors he is 
 ably assisted by has capable wife, who is a woman 
 of excellent business qualifications, besides being a 
 model housekeeper, and a helpmate in every sense 
 of the word. . 
 
 Mr. Katt was married in Meriden, Conn., in De- 
 cember, 1889, to Bertha J. Ketelhut, a native of Ger- 
 many, a daughter of John Ketelhut, a respected citi- 
 zen of Meriden. Four children were born to Mr. 
 and Mrs. Katt: Harry, who died young; William; 
 Gertrude ; and Emma. Mr. and Mrs. Katt are mem- 
 bers of ithe Lutheran Church, and Mr. Katt is con- 
 nected with the German Aid Society and the German 
 school board. In politics he is a Democrat, but has 
 not been a seeker for office. Mr. Katt enjoys the 
 esteem of his fellow-citizens and is justly considered 
 a representative of the best class- of the German- 
 Americans. 
 
 JOSEPH N. NORWOOD, D. V. S., one of the 
 most popular and successful veterinary surgeons of 
 Naugatuck and vicinity, was born in Lynn, Mass., 
 Nov. 20, 1859, and belongs to a very old Massachu- 
 setts family. His grandfather, John Norwood, was 
 probably a native of Lynn, and as a Methodist 
 minister he preached in various places throughout 
 that State. He married Louisa Moore, and they 
 made their home in Lynn, where both died. Their 
 family consisted of three children : John P., the 
 father of our subject; Lydia, wife of Frank Moss, 
 a cabinet maker of Lynn ; and Susan, wife of Will- 
 iam Carleton, a shoemaker of the same place. 
 
 John P. Norwood was born in Lynn, Mass., 
 and continued his residence there throughout life, 
 being engaged in the practice of veterinary surgery 
 in that vicinity. He was an earnest member of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, and an ardent Repub- 
 lican in politics. In early manhood he married Miss 
 Ann F. Tate, who was born near Bangor, Maine, 
 and was a daughter of Joshua Tate, also a native 
 of that State, and a farmer by occupation. Her 
 family was of English descent. She died in 1871, 
 the father in 1896. Their children were Ada, now 
 wife of Joseph Norwood, of Michigan ; Charles, a 
 veterinary dentist of Salem, Mass. ; Joseph N., our 
 subject; and Frederick, who when last heard from 
 was in Washington, D. C. 
 
 Dr. Joseph N. Norwood, of this review, was 
 reared in his native town, and was graduated from 
 the high school of that place in 1878. He then 
 attended the private veterinary school conducted 'by 
 Prof. Abbott at Lynn, Mass., and shortly after leav- 
 ing that institution, in 1881, he came to Naugatuck, 
 Conn., where he has since successfully engaged in 
 the practice of his chosen profession. At one time 
 he also engaged in the livery business, but now de- 
 votes his entire time and attention to veterinary 
 surgery, having the largest practice of any man in 
 the profession in his' section of the county. He re- 
 ceives calls from Waterbury, Middlebury, Seymour 
 and all the surrounding towns. 
 
 On April 2, 1876, Dr. Norwood was united in 
 marriage with Miss. Emma E. Elliott, a native of 
 Dunbarton, N. H., and a daughter of Sylvanus 
 Elliott. Of the two children born of this union, 
 Annie died at the age of three and a half years; 
 Arthur N. was graduated from the Ontario Veterin- 
 ary College with the class of 1899, and isi now en- 
 gaged in practice with his father. Politically our 
 subject is not identified with any particular party, 
 but endeavors to vote for the best men. Fraternally 
 he is an honored memiber of the Benevolent and 
 Protective Order of Elks, at Waterbury ; and the In- 
 dependent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Knights 
 of Pythias, at Naugatuck. 
 
 REINHOLD BRENNER, senior member of 
 the well-known firm of The Brenner Bros. Mfg. 
 Co., Waterbury, is a native of Germany, and was 
 born May 12, 1868. 
 
 The paternal grandfather, George Brenner, was 
 born in Austria, near the Swiss frontier and died 
 in Germany, where he held a position under the gov- 
 ernment, and where Julius Brenner, the father of 
 Reinhold, was born. The latter in his native land 
 was a manufacturer on an extensive scale of iron 
 and steel tools for use in glass factories all over 
 Europe, his business giving employment to many 
 hands. In 1884 'he came to America, and is living 
 retired in Meriden, Conn., although his wife, form- 
 erly Albertina Zemke, of German birth and par- 
 entage, died in Meriden July 28, 1890. Of this 
 union there were nine children : Ida married Gus- 
 tave Widner; Lena married Julius Brenner; Emi! 
 is a blacksmith ; Julius died at the age of four years ; 
 Reinhold ; Johanna is unmarried ; Richard is at- 
 tending college at Springfield, Mass. ; Walter is in 
 business with his brother, Reinhold ; and Julius 
 is a mechanic in Meriden, Conn. 
 
 Reinhold Brenner received his education in Ger- 
 many, and learned his trade under his father's able 
 instruction. In 1884 he came with the rest of the 
 family to America, and during his four years of resi- 
 dence in Meriden followed his original trade, and 
 learned others required in his present business. In 
 i88g he came to Waterbury, in response to an offer 
 made by the Mathews & Willard Mfg. Co., who 
 knew of his skill and particular fitness for their 
 special line of business. Mr. Brenner was the first 
 man to make fancy wrought-iron articles, such as 
 lamps and fixtures of all kinds, in Waterbury, and 
 the industry has grown from a small beginning to" 
 one of surprising proportions. After five years of 
 faithful service for Mathew & Willard, Mr. Brenner 
 engaged in the manufacture of fancy articles at his 
 own 'home, later renting a ibuilding, and finally, 
 putting up his present commodious brick factory on 
 Ward street. His business during all this time was 
 increasing week by week, and has a'bout doubled 
 every year since he commenced in Waterbury. At 
 first he had to supply the power with his own 
 hands, turning a wheel, but now he has steam 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1503 
 
 power, and employs -several workmen. The products 
 of his factory embrace all kinds of interior and ex- 
 terior wrought iron and brass work for archi- 
 tectural purposes, including fire escapes, gates, 
 doors, window gratings, bank railings and office 
 work, and iron fences, in which class of work the 
 firm has no superior anywhere. 
 
 On Aug. 3, 1890, Mr. Brenner married Ida 
 Kann, who was born in Germany, a dau^-hter of 
 John Kann. Three children have blessed this 
 union, Erma, Edward, and Ruth. The family at- 
 tend the German Lutheran Church. In politics Mr. 
 Brenner is Independent. 
 
 CLARK J. NETTLETON is one of the hon- 
 ored and highly respected citizens of Naugatuck, 
 who was for many years actively identified with her 
 business interests, but is now living retired at his 
 beautiful home in Union City. His is an honorable 
 record of a conscientious man, who by his upright 
 life has won ithe confidence of all with whom he has 
 come in contact. 
 
 Mr. Nettleton was born in Naugatuck, Feb. 28, 
 1856, a son of Clark Nettleton, a native of the same 
 town. His grandfather, Caleb Nettleton, was prob- 
 ably born in Milford, Conn., where he followed 
 farming for a time, but after his marriage to Nancy 
 A. Clark, he located on a farm in Middlebury, where 
 they reared their family of eight children, namely: 
 George, a carpenter who resides on the old home 
 farm in the town of Naugatuck ; Royal, a carpenter 
 of New Haven; Clark, father of our subject; Sarah, 
 deceased wife of E. J. Stone, of Waterbury; Julia, 
 deceased wife of Chester Hitchcock, of New Haven ; 
 Emmerett, wife of Henry Sperry, oT New Haven ; 
 Mariette; and Alma. 
 
 Clark Nettleton remained upon the old home- 
 stead, and there died in December, 1855, a short 
 time before the birth of our subject. He married 
 Laura Osborne, a native of what is known as Os- 
 bornetown, a part of the town of Naugatuck. She 
 is still living. Her father, Ezra Osborne, was born 
 in the same locality, and was a famer by occupa- 
 tion. Our subject is the youngest in a family of 
 three children, the others being Elliott, a carpenter 
 of Naugatuck ; and Eugenia, wife of Alfred Piatt, 
 of Platts Mills, town of Waterbury. 
 
 Clark J. Nettleton spent the first fourteen years 
 of his life on the home farm in Naugatuck, and 
 pursued his studies in the schools of that locality. 
 He then went to Platts Mills, where he worked for a 
 farmer some time, and for a year and a half was 
 in the employ of A. L. Piatt. Suhsequently he 
 clerked in the grocery store of C. H. Smith at Union 
 City for five years, and then entered the Malleable 
 Iron Works, where he learned the pattern maker's 
 trade, and where he continued to work for about 
 eight years. He was next engaged in the livery 
 business with Joseph Norwood at Naugatuck, under 
 the firm name of Clark J. Nettleton for three years, 
 after which he returned to the Naugatuck Iron 
 
 Company, and remained in their employ until his 
 retirement from business in March, 1898. 
 
 Mr. Nettleton was married, March 25, 1898, to 
 Mrs. Ella A. Smitn, of Naugatuck, a daughter of 
 S. A. Andrews. In his political views he is a Re- 
 publican, and in his social relations is a member of 
 the I. O. O. F., and I. O. R. M., of Naugatuck. 
 He contributes to the support of the Congregational 
 Church, of which his ancestors were members, and 
 never withholds' his aid from any enterprise which 
 he believes will prove of public benefit. 
 
 CHARLES BREWER was born Sept. 21, 1856, 
 in England, a son of William Brewer, who was 
 born in Cornwall, England, March 15, 1830, and 
 whose ancestors for several generations were Cor- 
 nishmen. 
 
 Thomas Brewer, the grandfather of Charles, was 
 born about 1800 in Cornwall, England, and there 
 followed farming all his life. He was a prominent 
 man in his community, especially in church affairs, 
 and died in 1868. He married Mary Tink, who was 
 iborn in Cornwall, a daughter of Gerrans Tink, a 
 farmer, and died in England at the advanced age 
 of about ninety. To this union came five children : 
 Reuben, who was drowned at the age of nineteen ; 
 William, mention of whom will later be made; 
 Thomas, a harness maker at Mamaroneck, N. Y., 
 now living retired; James, a carpenter and huilder 
 in London (he has a son, James, now living in 
 Waterbury) ; and one that died. The father of 
 Thomas Brewer also bore the name of Thomas, and 
 he passed his life as a farmer in Cornwall. 
 
 William Brewer learned the shoemaker's trade, 
 and followed it all the time he was in England. 
 In 1854 he married Ann James, a native of his 
 birthplace, and a daughter of Henry James, a cur- 
 rier iDy trade. She died in England in 1862, and . 
 four years later Mr. Brewer came to the United 
 States, locating in Stamford, Conn., where he fol- 
 lowed shoemaking. There were three children in 
 his family: Bessie, who married George O. Booth, 
 of Waterbury, Conn. ; Charles, whose name appears 
 at the introduction of this article; and Reuben, a 
 traveling salesman, of Waterbury. Mr. Brewer has 
 been a Republican since the organization of the 
 party. 
 
 In 1866 Charles Brewer came with his father 
 to Stamford, where he attended public school until 
 he was eighteen years of age, at that time entering 
 the employ of the Yale Lock Manufacturing Co. 
 In 1877 he came to Waterbury, and for ten years 
 was employed by the Matthew & Stanley Co. In 
 1887 he went to Toronto, Canada, and for three 
 years was superintendent of the Toronto Light & 
 Lamp Co. Returning to Waterbury at the expira- 
 tion of this period, he was appointed foreman in the 
 Scovill Manufacturing Co.'s plant, and continued 
 with that establishment until July, 1899, when he 
 entered upon the duties of his present position as 
 county commissioner. Mr. Brewer has always taken 
 
1504 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 an active part in politics, and has been an influential 
 force in town and county affairs. In 1891 he was 
 elected a member of the common council, and served 
 in that body five years. In 1897 he was_ elected 
 second selectman, but declined a renomination, and 
 in 1899 was made county commissioner, an office 
 with a four years' tenure. Mr. Brewer belongs to 
 the Young Men's Republican Club, the Union 
 League Club of New Haven, the Knights of Pythias, 
 and Townsend Lodge, I. O. O. F. 
 
 Mr. Brewer and Miss Jennie M. Carswell were 
 married Dec. 26, 1881. Mrs. Brewer was born in 
 Walden, Vt., a daughter of Norman W. Carswell, 
 who was born in Woodstock Aug. 8, 1819, and died 
 Aug. 18, 1898. Mariette (Oviatt) Carswell, his 
 wife, was born in Unionville, Conn., and is now 
 living in Waterbury. They were the parents of 
 six children, of whom Frank was killed in the Civil 
 war; Maria is the widow of Henry Cummings ; 
 Stella married Samuel Sloan, and lives in Water- 
 bury; Henry wasi a mechanic and a music teacher, 
 and died in California in 1893; and Jennie M. be- 
 came Mrs. Brewer. Mr. Carswell was an expert 
 millwright, and did considerable work in the South. 
 He was a member of the Episcopal Church, while 
 his wife was a Baptist. Turner Carswell, his 
 father, was born in Woodstock, Vt., was a farmer, 
 and married Eunice Hagar. They reared a family 
 of four children, of whom Norman W. is men- 
 tioned above ; Maria married William Bullock ; Ann 
 married Hiram Phillips, a farmer at Plainfield, Vt. ; 
 Eunice married Asher Moore, and both are de- 
 ceased. Caleb Carswell was the father of Turner 
 Carswell. This family came originally from Wales, 
 and the Oviatts, Mrs. Brewer's ancestors in the ma- 
 ternal line, descended from a man of that name who 
 came from France at an early day and settled in 
 Milford. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Brewer have made their home in 
 Waterbury since their marriage, and have many 
 friends, who value them for their sterling charac- 
 teristics. 
 
 THOMAS J. KILMARTIN, M. D., one of the 
 younger physicians of Waterbury, who is rapidly 
 coming to the front, was born in that city Nov. 3, 
 1872, son of Thomas Kilmartin, who was born in 
 County Limerick, Ireland, in 1848, and died in June, 
 1899. Thomas Kilmartin, his father, kept a general 
 store in Ireland, and died in the old country. 
 
 Thomas Kilmartin, father of Thomas J., came to 
 Waterbury when about nineteen years old, and mar- 
 ried Margaret Hennesy, who was born in County 
 Limerick, daughter of James Hennesy, a large 
 farmer of that county. She' died in 1891. Seven 
 children were born to this union: Thomas J., Mar- 
 garet, Catherine, Mary (deceased), James, Eleanor 
 and Mary (2) (deceased). 'Margaret is at home. 
 Catherine is a school teacher. James has succeeded 
 his father in business. Mr. Kilmartin was a silver 
 plater in Waterbury for many years. Then he 
 
 opened a grocery store on West Main street, which 
 he carried on for seventeen years. Mr. Kilmartin 
 was a Democrat, and was tendered official posi- 
 tions', but repeatedly declined. He was a member 
 of the Catholic Benevolent Legion at the time 
 of his death, and was always a faithful son of the 
 Catholic Church, to the support of which he freely 
 contributed. 
 
 Thomas J. Kilmartin grew up in Watenbury, 
 where he attended the public schools, and was grad- 
 uated from the high school in 1889, at the age of 
 sixteen, the next fall entering Niagara University, 
 and graduating in 1892 from that well-known 
 school. Mr. Kilmartin entered the Medical De- 
 partment of the University of New York the same 
 year, and was graduated with the class of 1895. 
 He received an appointment to the Fordham branch 
 of Bellevue Hospital, and spent a year and a half 
 in that position. In the fall of 1896 he returned to 
 Waterbury, and opened an office for the practice of 
 his profession. His success has been immediate 
 and pronounced, his patients including some of the 
 best people of the city, and he has a fine standing 
 in the community, both as a gentleman and an able 
 and conscientious physician. Dr. Kilmartin is not 
 married. Educational matters greatly interest him, 
 and he is serving his third year on the board of edu- 
 cation, where for two years he has been chairman 
 of the committee on school houses and hygiene. 
 This' is regarded as the most important committee 
 of the board, as all the school houses are under 
 its supervision, and it is expected to look after their 
 ventilation, sanitary condition, and general care, as 
 well as after the insurance and the erection of new 
 buildings. Dr. Kilmartin served on the board of 
 health for two years under Republican rule, al- 
 though he is a Democrat, and was for some years 
 town physician. Dr. Kilmartin is assistant surgeon 
 of the 2d Regiment, holding the rank of first lieu- 
 tenant. Fraternally he is connected with the 
 Knights of Columbus, the Independent Order of 
 Foresters and the Ancient Order of Foresters, in 
 all of which he is examining physician ; and also 
 belongs to the Ancient Order of Hibernians arid the 
 International Order of Odd Fellows. As might 
 be expected, he is a member of the State and County 
 Medical Societies. Dr. Kilmartin is a member of 
 Immaculate Conception Parish, of the Catholic 
 Church. 
 
 GEORGE R. WHEELER, a well-known farmer 
 and dairyman of Woodbridge, is a native of New 
 Haven county, born in Southford Feb. 16, 1863. 
 His paternal grandfather, Ambrose Wheeler, was 
 a resident of Monroe, Conn., where he died when 
 our subject's father, David N. Wheeler, was but 
 two years old. The latter was born in Monroe 
 Nov. 16, 1837, and throughout life was employed 
 at various pursuits in Southford, working in a paper 
 manufactory for 'some years. In Hotchkissville, 
 Conn., he married Ellen F. Judson, and to therrt 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1505 
 
 were born four children, namely : Alvin D., a resi- 
 dent of Shelton, Conn.; Georg-e Russell, our sub- 
 ject; Lillian Adelia, wife of William R. Alcott, of 
 Ansonia; and Nellie May, wife of John B. Shepherd, 
 of Hartford, Connecticut. 
 
 On the maternal side Mr. Wheeler comes of a 
 family of English origin of the better middle class. 
 They did not flee from persecution, but voluntarily 
 emigrated from Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suf- 
 folk, England, to America. William Judson, from 
 whom our subject can trace direct descent, came 
 ,to America in 1634, and first located in Concord, 
 Mass., but later removed to Stratford, Conri, and 
 after a short time spent there came to New Haven, 
 where he died in 1660. His son, Lieut. Joseph 
 Judson, died at Stratford Oct. 9, 1690, and the 
 latter's son, John Judson, died Jan. 12, 1710. John 
 Judson was the father of children as follows : J ohn, 
 Joshua, Joseph, Chapman, Martha, Ephraim, Isaac, 
 Oaniel and Mary. One of the sons was our sub- 
 ject's great-great-grandfather, which one we are 
 unabk to state. The great-grandfather married 
 Ruth Hine, and the grandfather, Russell Judson, 
 married Phoebe Homan. 
 
 George R. Wheeler spent the first sixteen years 
 of his life in his native town. His opportunities 
 for obtaining an education were limited to the ad- 
 vantages afforded by the common schools, and at the 
 early age of ten and a half years he began earning 
 his own livelihood, working for his board and 
 clothes among the neighboring farmers, and attend- 
 ing school for a few weeks during the winter 
 months. When a young man he worked a few 
 months in a paper mill at Southford, from there 
 went to Ansonia, and farmed for a short time near 
 Seymour. He worked in shops at Ansonia, and also 
 with Wallace & Sons, and was employed in a fish 
 market for a time. He next obtained a position in 
 Franklin Farrell's foundry, and was with the Bas- 
 sett Co., at Derby, for a time. For three years he 
 had a milk route at Seymour, and worked during 
 that period in the Bassett machine shop. For a 
 short time he engaged in the milk business in West 
 Haven, and also worked in the grocery store of 
 a Mr. Roberts, of Ansonia. Subsequently he en- 
 gaged in farming upon a large farm in Orange, 
 which he rented, and then carried on the milk and 
 vegetable business there for three years, keeping a 
 herd of from twelve to sixteen cows and also three 
 horses. On first coming to Woodbridge, Mr. 
 Wheeler rented property, and on Nov. 15, 1898, he 
 purchased a farm of eighteen acres, having one of 
 the most beautiful homes in the entire town. Here 
 he follows the milk business and farming, buymg 
 large quantities of milk, which he retails. 
 
 In West Haven Mr. Wheeler was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Emma E. Warner, who was born 
 Oct. 21, 1864, a daughter of Charles F. and Harriet 
 (Thompson) Warner, and they have two children: 
 Edith Alfretta, born Sept. 13, 1886: and Glenna 
 May, born Jan. 18, 1895. Mrs. Wheeler is a mem- 
 
 95 
 
 ber of the Episcopal Church, and the family all at- 
 tend service there. Politically our subject is iden- 
 tified with the Republican party, and socially he is 
 a member of Naugatuck Lodge, No. 63, L O. O. F., 
 and Friendship Lodge, No. 34, A. O. U. W., both of 
 Ansonia. He is widely and favorably known, and 
 those who know him best are numbered among his 
 warmest friends. 
 
 CLARENCE V. SEWELL, one of the leading 
 young business men of Naugatuck and a prominent 
 contractor and builder of that place, wasi born in 
 Chestertown, Md., Jan. 28, 1867, a son of William 
 P. and Sarah J. (Price) Sewell. The father was 
 a native of Delaware and a miller by trade, oper- 
 ating both a grist and saw mill. He died in Feb- 
 ruary, 1898, at Trappe, Md., where his widow still 
 resides. Both were consistent members of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was a Repub- 
 lican in politics. Their children were Clarence V., 
 our subject; Harrison G., a resident of Trappe, 
 Md. ; and Charles S., a blacksmith of St. Michael's, 
 Maryland. 
 
 When a small boy Clarence V. Sewell accom- 
 panied his parents on their removal to St. Michael's, 
 Md., where he attended school until sixteen years 
 of age, and then went to Bridgeville, Del., where he 
 commenced learning the carpenter's trade, though 
 he finished his apprenticeship at Trappe, Md. In 
 1888 he came to Naugatuck, New Haven County, 
 where for two years he worked at his trade for the 
 Goodyear India Rubber Shoe Co., and later was 
 in the employ of local contractors and builders for 
 the same length of time. On Dec. 25, 1893, he be- 
 gan taking contracts for himself, and is to-day one 
 of the leading architects: and builders of the place. 
 He has a shop on South Water street, where he 
 does jobbing, and also manufactures inside wood- 
 work of all kinds, his machines being run by elec- 
 tricity. He is progressive, enterprising and in- 
 dustrious, and the success that he has achieved is 
 due entirely to his own well-directed and energetic 
 efforts. 
 
 On March 28, 1889, Mr. Sewell was united in 
 marriage with Miss Abbie L. Stillson, a native of 
 Woodbury, Conn., and a daughter of John B. Still- 
 son, and to them have been born two children : Elsie 
 L. and Frank V. Politically Mr. Sewell is identified 
 with the Republican party, and socially affiliates with 
 the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the 
 Ancient Order of United Workmen at Naugatuck. 
 He is an active and prominent member of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church of that place, and is also a 
 member of the Young Men's Christian Association. 
 
 DAVID S. ASHMAN, quarryman and select- 
 man, Stonycreek, and one of the popular and pro- 
 gressive citizens of the town of Branford, is a native 
 of New York State, born June 27, 1856, in Monroe, 
 Orange county. He was reared and educated in his 
 native town, whence in 1875, being then nineteen 
 
1506 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 years old, he came to Connecticut, settling at Stony- 
 creek, town of Branford, New Haven county, 
 where he has since been engaged in the quarry 
 business. 
 
 On Sept. 24, 1880, David S. Ashman was mar- 
 ried to Alice, daughter of John Hotchkiss, of Stony- 
 creek, and four children were born to them : Jessie, 
 Samuel, Minnie and Sarah. In his political prefer- 
 ■cnces our subject is a Republican; has held the 
 office of constable two years, and has served as 
 grand juror, and as selectman four consecutive 
 years, still filling the latter incumbency. Socially, 
 he is affiliated with the F. & A. M., Widows' Sons' 
 Lodge, No. 66, and Charles Halleck Chapter, also 
 with the I. O. O. F., of Branford. In religious 
 faith he and his wife are consistent members of the 
 U. E. Church. 
 
 JOHN SACHSENHAUSER was born in Ger- 
 many, June 13, 1855, a son of Alweis and Mary 
 (Weinzel) Sachsenhauser, both natives of that 
 country. 
 
 Alweis Sachsenhauser followed farming as an 
 occupation, as had his father before him, and he 
 lived and died in his native town. He married 
 Mary Weinzel, and they had five children : Joseph 
 (in Germany), Mary (who died in St. Johns, 
 Minn.), Michael (deceased), John and Theresa (in 
 Germany). 
 
 John Sachsenhauser spent the first fifteen years 
 of nis life on the home farm, and received his 
 education in the local 'school. At that age he had 
 to shift for himself, and worked for a time among 
 the neighboring farmers. On July 2, 1881, he 
 landed m New ^ork City, where he found work as 
 a sausage maker, a trade he had learned in Ger- 
 many, and worked for a time in a brewery. For 
 about two and a half years he worked for a cele- 
 brated sausage maker in that city, and then engaged 
 in the same line for himself on Spring street, con- 
 tinuing for almost two years. In 1886 Mr. Sach- 
 senhauser removed to Watcrbury, and continued in 
 the sausage making business. For a short time he 
 Jiad a partner, but the greater part of the time he 
 was alone until 1896, when he connected himself 
 \with Valentine Bohl, and formed The Valentine 
 Bohi Company. This company was incorporated 
 Jan. I, 1900, and is doing a fine business. 
 
 On July 6, 1884, Mr. Sachsenhauser was mar- 
 ried to Miss Mary Lange, who was born in Get- 
 many, where Flenry Lange, her father, was a car- 
 riage maker and farmer ; both he and his wife, Cath- 
 ■erine Bontous, the latter of French e.xtraction, died 
 in Germany. Mr. and Mrs. Lange were the par- 
 ents of three children : Eugene, a farmer in Ger- 
 many ; William a meat dealer in the city of New 
 York; and Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Sachsenhauser are 
 the parents of a family of five children, all of whom 
 .are living: John H., William, Emma, Carl O. and 
 Theressa. Mr. Sachsenhauser is independent in his 
 political relations. He is a member of the Con- 
 
 cordia Singing Society and the Turnverein. In re- 
 ligious belief he is a Roman Catholic, but his wife 
 and children are Protestants. 
 
 CLIFTON E. HOYT, a prominent and suc- 
 cessful contractor and builder of Derby, Conn., was 
 born in that town, July 21, 1865, and is descended 
 from an old Fairfield county family. His paternal 
 grandfather, Warren Hoyt, was a native of that 
 county and was a farmer by occupation. He mar- 
 ried Elizabeth Boughton, of Pound Ridge, who died 
 April 22, 1870, and he departed this 'life July 11, 
 1880. In their family were thirteen children, name- 
 ly: Nancy J., born Nov. 8, 1820, died in 1842; Dan- 
 iel B., born March 16, 1822, was the father of our 
 subject; Thomas M., born April 17, 1824, is a re- 
 tired contractor living in Iowa ; Betsy Ann, born 
 April 3, 1826; Aaron £., born April 21, 1829, died 
 in 1855; David N., 'born Oct. 26, 1831, is a farmer 
 in low? ; Henry A., born April 9, 1833, is a farmer 
 in Baltimore; Elias F. and Louis S., twins, were 
 born Jan. 13, 1835, and the former is a farmer of 
 Ridgefield, Fairfield county, the latter a rubber 
 manufacturer of Boston, ]\Iass. ; Warren T., born 
 May 14, 1838, is a veterinary surgeon of Hanover, 
 Penn. ; John W., born Jan. 24, 1841, died in 1863; 
 Jane E., born April 2, 1843; ^nd Peter F., born 
 Aug. 28, 1846, died in 1847. 
 
 Daniel B. Hoyt, father of our subject, was born 
 and reared in Ridgefield, Fairfield Co., Conn., and 
 there learned the carpenter's trade, which he later 
 followed in Derby, where he removed when a young 
 man. He married Miss Lucy C. Smith, a native of 
 Burlington, Conn., and a daughter of Nelson Smith, 
 a farmer by occupation. She died March 27, 1889, 
 the father, Dec. 23, 1894. Both were earnest and 
 consistent members of the Methodist Church, and 
 in politics he was a Republican. They were the 
 parents of six children, namely: Edwin B., whose 
 whereabouts are now unknown, was born May 2, 
 i860; Clifton E., our subject, is the next in order 
 of birth; Lamont W., born Feb. 13, 1868, is a car- 
 penter of Bridgeport; Bertha M., born Oct. 30, 1870, 
 is the wife of Benjamin A. Thayer, a railroad engi- 
 neer of Springfield, Mass. ; Benjamin H., born July 
 28, 1876, died May 18, 1896; and Everett H., born 
 Jan. 8, 1879, is a carpenter working with our sub- 
 ject. 
 
 The boyhood and youth of Clifton E. Hoyt were 
 passed in Derby in attendance at the local school un- 
 til nineteen years of age, when he commenced 
 learning the carpenter's trade. After working for 
 his father for a time, he was admitted to a partner- 
 ship in the business, and when his' father retired 
 our subject and his brother, Lamont W., carried 
 on the business under the firm name of Hoyt 
 Brothers, but at present our subject is alone, hav- 
 ing purchased his brother's interest. He does gen- 
 eral contracting in masonry, as well as carpenter 
 work, and has established a large and profitable 
 business. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1507 
 
 On Oct. 13, 1886, Mr. Hoyt was united in mar- 
 riage with Miss Carrie F. Hoyt, a native of Ridge- 
 field and a daugliter of Elias F. and Martha (Les- 
 sey) Hoyt. Her paternal grandfather was Warren 
 Hoyt, also the grandfather of our subject. Her 
 mother was born in New Fairfield and was a daugh- 
 ter of Alanson'Lessey, a native of the same place. 
 Our subject and his wife have three children: 
 Frances S., born July i, 1889; Helen M., born 
 June 22, 1892 ; and Elsie M., born July 4, 1895. 
 The fam.ily attend and contribute to the support of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, and ]\Ir. Hoyt is a 
 member of Housatonic Lodge, No. 6, I. O. O. F., 
 of Derby. His political support is given the men 
 and- measures of the Republican party, and as a 
 public-spirited and progressive citizen he does all in 
 his power to advance the interests of his town and 
 county. 
 
 MORTIMER DORAN, a selectman of the city 
 of Waterbury, Conn., was born in Branchdale, 
 Schuylkill Co., Penn., July 26, 1863, and is of Irish 
 extraction. 
 
 The paternal grandfather was interested in a 
 coal mine in Ireland, and the maternal grandfather 
 was the owner of a lime kiln. John Doran, father 
 of Mortimer, was born in Queens County, Ireland, 
 and was a coal merchant. During the famine 
 of 1846 and the persecution by the English govern- 
 menit, John Doran left his native land to seek relief 
 in America, and in New York City married Miss 
 Catherine Coss, a native of County Queens, Ire- 
 land, who was likewise driven to America by the 
 terrible famine. For a short time after marriage 
 Mr. Doran worked as a silversmith at Tiffany's 
 famousi jewelry establishment in New York, and 
 then started with his wife for the coal mines_ of 
 Pennsylvania, in which he worked for over thirty 
 ^ ears. Of the children of John Doran and wife we 
 have the following record : William, who died at the 
 age of tweiity-eight years; Anna and Julia, both 
 single • Mortimer, who died in infancy ; Thomas, a 
 merchant in Waterbury; Mortimer (2), the subject 
 of this sketch ; Mary, married to Dennis McCarthy, 
 a prosperous meat dealer of Waterbury ; and Cath- 
 erine the wife of Henry Comisky, an insurance 
 agent, of Waterbury. John Doran died ^ Febru- 
 ary, 1891, and his wife passed away m October, 
 
 1884. , , 
 
 Mortimer Doran resided m the coal region ot 
 Pennsylvania until nineteen years of age, attend- 
 ing school in the meanwhile. In February, 1882, 
 he came to Waterbury, worked for Brown Brothers 
 about a month, and then was employed in the Plume 
 & Atwood factory for a considerable time. For 
 about three years he held the responsible position 
 of foreman of the dipping department of the Water- 
 bury Button factory, and then embarked in the 
 grocery trade, but after a short time he entered the 
 employ of the Waterbury Watch Co., with whom^ he 
 continued about three years. 
 
 On Feb. 8, 1888, Air. Doran was joined in the 
 holy bonds of matrimony with ]\Iiss Hannah F. 
 Walsh, a daughter of John Walsh, who assisted in 
 the construction of the mammoth steamer, the 
 "Great Eastern." The marriage of Mr. and Airs. 
 Doran has been blessed with tour children, viz. : 
 Alary, Kittle, Grace and Gertrude. Politically Mr. 
 Doran is a Democrat. He was elected first select- 
 man, and has devoted most of his attention to city 
 aft'airs. Fraternally Mr. Doran is a Knight of La- 
 bor. For about eighteen years he has been a mem- 
 ber of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and is now 
 county president of the order; he also belongs to 
 the Ancient Order of United Workmen and to the 
 Heptasophs. In local military matters he has a:l- 
 ways taken a lively interest, and has filled the posi- 
 tion of captain of Company E, Hibernian Rifies, 
 and has been captain of Company G. Mr. Doran 
 and family are members of Sacred Heart Catholic 
 Church, to which they liberally contribute of their 
 means, and they are universally esteemed by their 
 neighbors, irrespective of religious considerations. 
 
 F. F. NORMAN, president and treasurer of 
 The Norman Printers Supply Co.; office and ware- 
 rooms, Nos. 391-5 State street ; machine and repair 
 shop, .No. 22 Artizan street, New Haven, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 EVERETT L. MOORE, formerly engaged in 
 the livery business at Branford, was born at Cutch- 
 pgue, Long Island, Nov. 12, 1863, a son of Josepji 
 T. and Lucretia A. (Mapes) Moore, both natives 
 of the State of New York. 
 
 Joseph T. Moore has made his home in Bran- 
 ford since 1885, and is connected with the market 
 of which C. H. Wilford is proprietor. A kindly 
 spirit and a thorough knowledge of his business 
 have won for him^ many friends since his advent in 
 Branford. 
 
 Everett L. Moore was reared in his Long Island 
 home, where he attended the public schools and 
 made good preparation for an active and industrious 
 career in after years. In his early manhood Mr. 
 Moore went into the western country, and in 1887 
 located in Minneapolis, Minn., where he was en- 
 gaged in business as a ticket broker for two years. 
 Following this he conducted an employment agency 
 for some time, and in 1893 came to Branford, where 
 his father was already well established. Here he 
 was busied in various enterprises for several years, 
 and in 1897 undertook the livery business, in which 
 he was very successful. The frank and hearty 
 way in which he met his customers, his untiring 
 efforts to meet the public demands, and his fair and 
 courteous treatment of the public won for him a 
 steady and profitable patronage. 
 
 Mr. Moore has been twice married. His first 
 wife was Laura Helston, of Brooklyn, N. Y., by 
 whom he had two children, who are now living: 
 Hattie S. and Everett L. His second wife was 
 
i5o8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Grace, daughter of George and Jane (Lane) Lins- 
 ley, of Branford, and to this union were born three 
 children : Joseph, Vera E. and George. In his first 
 marriage Mr. Moore was afflicted not only with the 
 loss of his wife but with the death of two children, 
 Josie Adelaide, who died in Brooklyn, N. Y., and 
 Laura May, who died at Fort Hill, 111. 
 
 Mr. Moore belongs to Woodlane Lodge, No. 39, 
 K. of P., and is highly regarded in that fraternal 
 order. In politics he is a Democrat, and has served 
 as constable for three years. He takes an active 
 and enlightened interest in public affairs. 
 
 JAMES DONAHUE, well-known resident of 
 Waterbury, is a native ot Ireland, born in County 
 Cavan in 1865. 
 
 James Donahue, father of our subject, also a 
 native of County Cavan, was a farmer all his life, 
 and died there. By his wife, Mary (Reilly), who 
 also died in Ireland, he had thirteen children, all 
 of whom save one reached maturity, and seven — 
 three sons and four daughters — came to America, 
 viz.: Patrick (now deceased), who was a priest 
 in Lakeville, Conn.; Bernard! (also deceased), who 
 was a machinist; James, our subject; Ellen, wife of 
 John Sandom, of Waterbury; Bridget and Mary, 
 both single; and Ann, wife of M. J. Drury, of 
 Waterbury. 
 
 James Donahue, our subject, received his edu- 
 cation in Ireland, after which he for a time clerked 
 in a grocery store. At the age of fifteen he came 
 to Waterbury, and learnedi clock-case making with 
 the Waterbury Clock Case Co., and after two years 
 was in the employ of John Sandbm, in the liquor 
 business, until 1893. In that year he commenced in 
 his present retail liquor business, comer of Main 
 and Elm' streets, in which he has met with much 
 success. He erected the building in 1892, and has 
 one of the finest liquor stores in Waterbury, well 
 equipped in every respect. In politics Mr. Donahue 
 is a Democrat, and in religious faith he is a member 
 of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 
 Waterbury. 
 
 CARL SCHILF. Thfe farm' has ever many 
 attractions for the successful business man. Carl 
 Schilf, the subject of this sketch, was for many 
 years a prominent cigar manufacturer, learning the 
 trade in his youth. Later in life hfe directed his 
 attention to farming, and in that vocation he has 
 proved equally successful. He is now an extensive 
 land holder and resident of Bethany. 
 
 Mr. Schilf was born on alarm in Prussia, May 
 29. 1842, and received a good common-school edu- 
 cation. At the age of sixteen years he began an 
 apprenticeship at cigar making and completed it 
 three years later. He left the trade to enter the 
 German army, and remained four years in. the mili- 
 tary service of his native land. During this time 
 he participated in two wars, those of Prussia with 
 Denmark and with Austria, the latter in 1866. 
 
 Twice Mr. Schilf was wounded in battle. In 1867 
 he returned home, and began the manufacture of 
 cigars, continuing for two years, when he decided 
 to come to America. He landed at Castle Garden, 
 New York, with only $2 in his pocket. He went to 
 New Haven and then for eighteen months he 
 worked at his trade. He then began at New Ha- 
 ven the manufacture of cigars as a business of his 
 own. It proved a successful venture and' he con- 
 tinued it successfully for fifteen years. Mr. Schilf 
 resolving to engage in farm work purchased a tract 
 of seventy-tv/o acres in Bethany, which he culti- 
 vated! for etght years. He then purchased and 
 moved to the farm- of about one hundred acres 
 which he now occupies, and where he carries on a 
 dairy business and general farming. He now owns 
 about two hundred acres of land and is one of the 
 miost successful farmers of the town. 
 
 Our subject has been twice married. By his 
 first wife, Miss Amelia George, he had three chil- 
 dren, Annie, William and Frederick (deceased). 
 For his second wife Mr. Schilf in 1882 married Miss 
 Matilda Engle, and to this union there were bom 
 three children, Carl, Emma and! Grace, of whom 
 Emma is deceased. In politics Mr. Schilf is a 
 Democrat. He is one of the most prosperous and 
 highly esteemed citizens of Bethany. He is a self- 
 made man, and has demonstrated the possession of 
 exceptional business abilities. 
 
 GEORGE FABER, Sr., now living retired on 
 Bucks Flill, Waterbury, comes from the Father- 
 land, and the strongest and most creditable char- 
 acteristic of the Teutonic race have been marked 
 elements in his life, and have enabled him to win 
 success in the face of opposing circumstances. He 
 possesses the energy and determination which 
 mark the people of Germany and by the exercise of 
 his powers he has steadily progressed, and has not 
 only won a handsome competence but has com- 
 manded universal respect by his straightforward 
 business methods. 
 
 Mr. Faber was born in Hessen-Cassel, Germany, 
 July 26, 1826, 'a son of Adam and Anna Elizabeth 
 (Nieumann) Faber, who spent their entire lives in 
 that province. The father was a land' owner and 
 farmer, and a Protestant in religious belief. 'He 
 died in 1838. In his family were five children, of 
 whom the eldest son was accidentally shot at the 
 age of one year and a half; John lives on the old 
 homestead in Germany ; George is next in order of 
 birth; Ludwig, a railroad engineer, died in the 
 West ; and Adam is a resident of Waterville, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 George Faber attended the public schools of his 
 native land, but being left fatherless at the age of 
 twelve years, was unable to obtain a higher ed,^.- 
 cation. At fourteen he was bound out to a tailor, 
 and while serving bis three years' apprenticeship not 
 only received no compensation for his labors but 
 had to pay $38 for the privilege of learning the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1509 
 
 trade. Not wishing to enter the armv, he bade his 
 mother and brothers good-by, and at the age of 
 seventeen came to the New World on the bark 
 "Henrietta," which was forty-two days in making 
 the passage from Bremen to New York; On land- 
 ing in this country he found himself $18 in debt, 
 having borrowed that amount from a fellow pas- 
 senger to pay his way. 
 
 In New York City Mr. Faber found employ- 
 ment at his trade, but as he only received his board 
 for his work he resolved to try something else, and 
 went to New Jersey, where he worked as a farm 
 hand for $8 per month, considering that good 
 wages at the time. At the end of six months he 
 came to Connecticut, and found employment on the 
 farm of a Mr. Waller, in the town of Washington, 
 Litchfield county, where he remained a year and a 
 half. Having saved $84.00, he next went to Penn- 
 sylvania, where 'he worked as a section hand on the 
 .Reading Railroad for $22 per month, but at the 
 end of six months returned to his old employer in 
 Washington, Conn., remaining with him a year. 
 He then came to Waterbury, New Haven county, 
 and worked as a farm hand for a Mr. Wilton on 
 Bucks Hill for a year. 
 
 Mr. Faber was married in Waterbury in 1851 to 
 Sarah Frisbie, a native of that town, and a daugh- 
 ter of Capt Laurens Frisbie, and sister of E. L. 
 Frisbie, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this 
 work. Of this union were born five children: 
 John E., who went West while young ; George, who 
 died at the age of four years; William A. and 
 Frederick L., both farmers of Bucks Hill ; and An- 
 nie E., at home. The wife and mother died Janu- 
 ary 15, 1897, aged seventy-four years, and was laid 
 to rest in Bucks Hill cemetery. She was a consist- 
 ent member of the Episcopal Church and a most 
 estimable woman. 
 
 After his marriage Mr. Faber began work in a 
 brass Sihop at $1.25 per day, and continued in that 
 employ for thirty-three years, being a contractor 
 m-ost of the time. As his family grew up he pur- 
 chased a small farm on Bucks Hill in order to keep 
 his sons from- the temptations of city life, and 
 erected thereon a fine residence. He has added to 
 bis place from time to time, until now he and his 
 son own over 200 acres of valuable land on Bucks 
 Hill, in the town of Waterbury. For some time he 
 was actively engaged in agricultural pursuits, but 
 for the past fifteen years, on account of ill health, 
 ■ he has lived retired. He is a self-made man in the 
 truest sense of the term, having by industry, econ- 
 omy and honorable dealing secured a valuable prop- 
 erty, which enables him in his declining years to 
 lay aside all business cares. He is a member of St. 
 John's Episcopal Church, of Waterbury, and is a 
 Democrat in politics. 
 
 EDWARD K. HOSLEY, a well-known car- 
 penter of Branford, is the youngest child of Benja- 
 min Adolphus and Lois (Ward) Hosley, and was 
 
 born in Branford, Dec. 5, 1865, where his honest 
 and industrious life and genial disposition have won 
 for him the enduring good will of the community. 
 
 From the sketch of B. F. Hosley, which appears 
 elsewhere in this work, it appears that the Hosley 
 family, originally spelled "Horsely," came from 
 England and settled in Gill, Mass., and that certain 
 branches of the family 'Still retain the first spelling. 
 L. D. Hosley, the grandfather of Edward K., was 
 a native of Vermont, and settled in Branford about 
 181 5, and died there in 1855. His wife, formerly 
 Anna Aritta Beach, became the mother of a numer- 
 ous family of children, her oldest son, Benjamin 
 Adolphus, born June i, 1823, being reared in Bran- 
 ford, which town has always been his home with 
 the exception of fifteen years spent in East Haven.. 
 Lois Whitney Ward, to whom he was married 
 April 2, 1849, bore him seven children. The history 
 of the Beach family runs back through seven gen- 
 erations to John Beaoh, who settled in New Haven 
 in 1647. 
 
 Edward K. Hosley was educated in the schools 
 of Branford, and has always made this town, his 
 home. After leaving school he served an appren- 
 ticeship of three years at the carpenter's trade, 
 which has been his chosen occupation since 1881. 
 A skilled workman and an accommodating gentle- 
 man, 'he is in constant demand, and never lacks for 
 business. 
 
 Aug. 8, 1892, Mr. Hosley married Adeline Au- 
 gusta, daughter of Richard and Ellen M. (Tucker) 
 Mather, of Old Lynne, Conn., and of this union 
 there are two children, Richard L. and Millie Anna. 
 Mr. Hosley is associated with the Knights of Pyth- 
 ias and' the New England Order of Protection, and 
 in politics is a Republican. 
 
 ZOPHER PEARSALL (deceased) was for 
 many years a prominent business man of New York 
 City, and' made his home during the latter years of 
 his life in Pearsallville, New Haven Co., Conn. He 
 started out in life with nothing but his own in- 
 domitable energy, and his success was due entirely 
 to his own well-directed efforts. His word in all 
 transactions was considered "as good as his bond," 
 and he was justly recognized as a most honorable 
 and straightforward business man. 
 
 Mr. Pearsall was born May 16, 1817, on Long 
 Island, a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Hawkins) 
 Pearsall, natives of the same place, and most estim- 
 able people. He was reared on the home farm, 
 and while still in his 'teens' went to New York City, 
 where he worked in the Fulton Street Market, 
 learning the butcher's trade with his 'brother, Den- 
 ton Pearsall. Together they engaged in the busi- 
 ness for several years, and the brother finally with- 
 drew and in time advanced to the position of presi- 
 dent of the Second Avenue Railway Co. Left to 
 himself, however, Zopiher Pearsall co'ntinued the 
 m.eat business and built up an extensive trade, aug- 
 mented by supplying all of the great Atlantic liners. 
 
15 lo 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 During the Civil war, while prices were high, he 
 bought extensive!}', but the war closed before he 
 could fill his contracts, and in consequence he lost 
 heavily. The worry over business matters under- 
 mined his health, but he was determined to satisf^j 
 his creditors by paying one hundred cents on the 
 dollar. His last days were spent at his summer 
 home in Pearsallville, Waterbury, w'here he died 
 May 31, 1883, and he was interred in Riverside 
 cemetery. He was a self-educated as well as a self- 
 made man, and deserved great credit for the suc- 
 cess that he achieved in life. He was liberal in his 
 relig'ious views, and believed in no hide-bound 
 ci€-eds. As a citizen he was highly respected, en- 
 joyed the confidence of his associates, and was re- 
 garded as a man of excellent business judgment. 
 
 2\Ir. Pearsall was twice married, his first wife 
 being Alary Underbill, a daughter of Gilbert Un- 
 derbill, and who died in New York. Two children 
 were born of that union : \Villiam, who died 
 young; and Saraih Louise, deceased wife of James 
 Bradley. In Newark, N. J., Mr. Pearsall married 
 Laura Elizabeth Russell, a daughter of Lauren L. 
 and Mary (Fairclough) Russell, and granddaugh- 
 ter of Enoch Russell, who was a soldier of the war 
 of 1812. By his second marriage two children were 
 born. Zopher was educated in the district schools, 
 the Episcopal College of Cheshire, under Rev. Dr. 
 Norton, and Payne's Business College ; he and his 
 wife reside in Pearsallville. Emma Louise is a grad- 
 uate of St. Margaret's Young Ladies Seminary^ 
 married William' H. Hyler, and they have one child, 
 Laura L. 
 
 Mrs. Laura E. Pearsall proved a true help- 
 meet to her husband in the best sense of the word. 
 After his death sbe took charge of the business in 
 the Fulton Street Market, and carried it on very 
 successfully for fourteen years, working night and 
 day until all of her husband's debts were paid. She 
 conducted the business until she had secured a com- 
 fortable competence, and now makes her home in 
 Pearsallville, where she has an elegant residence 
 tastefully furnisbed, in which she takes great pride. 
 Mrs. Pearsall numbers among ber treasures some 
 rare and costly oil paintings and bric-a-brac. She 
 possesses rare business and executive ability, has 
 built a number of fine dwelling houses in Pearsall- 
 ville, and has fitted up Lake Wood Park, at a cost 
 of $20,000. The park is an ideal summer resort, 
 and its fifteen acres are beautified by flowers and an 
 artificial lake and all those aids known to the land- 
 scape artist and true lover of nature. ]\Irs. Pear- 
 sall is a member of the Episcopal Church, and is 
 extremely charitable and public spirited. 
 
 CHARLES PIERSON AUGUR, a prominent 
 agriculturist and representative citizen of Wood- 
 bridge, belongs to an old Colonial family. 
 
 The first of the name of whom we have any 
 authentic record was Robert Augur, a ijative of 
 England, who came to America in 1668 and located 
 
 in Connecticut. He had two sons : John, who died 
 in New York; and Robert, who was married Nov. 
 20, 1673, to Mary Gibbert, daughter of Lieut. Gov. 
 (iibbert. The next in descent was Isaac Augur, 
 who married Eunice Tyler, of Hamden, Conn., and 
 to them were born children as follows : Isaac, 
 Justice, Phelix, Joseph, Prosper, Elizur, Eunice, 
 Elizabeth, Prudence, Lois, Mary and Sally. Of 
 this family, Isaac Augur and his wife Lois had five 
 children : Isaac, Daniel, Philemon, Hezekiah and 
 Esther. Of these, Isaac Augur was, married Oct. 
 4, 1774, to Esther Dauman, of Hamden, and their 
 children were Elihu, Isaac, Hezekiah, Joel, Esther, 
 Harriet and Eliza. Of these, Joel Augur, the grand- 
 father of our subject, was born in New Haven Sept. 
 8, 1779, and died April 13, 1826. He was a car- 
 penter by trade, and carried on business in New 
 Haven, owning a house on Whalley avenue. He 
 married Phila A. Newhall, of Hamden, who was 
 born Jan. 4, 1780, and died March 9, 1855. Their 
 children were : Joel, Lewis, Daniel, George, 
 Wealthy Ann, Susan and Elizabeth Comfort. 
 
 Daniel Augur, father of Charles P., was born in 
 New Haven July 16, 1807, and was married Sept. 
 7, 1828, to Delia Middlebrook, of Bridgeport, Conn., 
 by whom he had four children : Minot ; Amelia, 
 who died young; Amelia (2), wife of Judge Henry 
 Stoddard, of New Haven ; and Charles Pierson, our 
 subject. When a young man the father moved to 
 Bridgeport, where he was employed in a shoe fac- 
 tory as a skilled workman, and later was foreman in 
 a factory at New Haven for some years. In 1832 
 he came to Woodbridge and purchased a farm of 
 twenty-six acres, and also bought land in the towns 
 of Orange and New Haven. From 1832 to i860 
 he followed farming and building, and in the latter 
 year took up seed growing, in which he continued 
 to engage up to the time of his death. This work 
 for a time proved very profitable, but western com- 
 petition and European importation lessened the de- 
 mand and reduced prices. Mr. Augur was familiarly 
 spoken of as "Captain," having gained the title by 
 service as captain of the Up-Town Militia of New 
 Haven, an organization now known as the Blues. 
 At the time of his death, which occurred Oct. 24, 
 1890, he was probably the oldest commissioned of- 
 ficer in the State, his commission dating back to 
 1829. In politics he was a Democrat of the Jeflfer- 
 sonian type, and in religion was a member of the 
 Episcopal Church of Westville. He was three times 
 married, and his first wife, the mother of our sub-- 
 ject, died Jan. 19, 1864. She was one of a family 
 of four children, the others being Hiram (now de- 
 ceased), who went South prior to the Rebellion, and 
 accumulated considerable wealth there as a saddler; 
 Mills, who died in Bridgeport, leaving a son Seth, 
 who is now a wealthy man of California; and 
 Bradley, a resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut. 
 
 Charles P. Augur, whose name introduces this 
 review, was born in Woodbridge Nov. 2, 1849. He 
 began his education in the district schools, later 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1511 
 
 attending Guilford Academy one year and a com- 
 mercial college two years. He had planned taking 
 a course at Yale, but owing to ill health was unable 
 to do so. For a time he was employed in the Home 
 Insurance office at New Haven, and also in the of- 
 fice of the Folding Chair Co. In'1873 he took up 
 seed growing with his father, and has since con- 
 tinued in that business, though not so extensively 
 as in past years. He is also engaged in general 
 farming and market gardening^, and follows the 
 carpenter's trade to some extent. 
 
 In Westport, Conn., JNIr. Augur married Miss 
 Isabella Allen, daughter of Isaac Allen, member 
 of the fam.ily to which belonged Ethan Allen, of 
 Revolutionary fame. To them have come the fol- 
 lowing named children : Edith H., born May 20, 
 
 1873, married Charles Peck, son of Phineas E. 
 Peck, of Woodbridge. Erroll M., born Dec. 9, 
 
 1874, graduated from Yale in 1897, and is now en- 
 gaged in the practice of law in New Haven ; he mar- 
 ried Adeline Peck, and has one child, Alta. Elma 
 Isabella, born June 9, 1877, attended the Westville 
 high school, took a three years' normal course, and 
 is 'now teaching school in Woodbridge. Ethel M., 
 born Jan. 13, 1880, received a normal school train- 
 ing, and is also teaching in Woodbridge. Eimir E., 
 born May 6, 1884, is attending the Boardman Train- 
 ing School in New Haven. Eunice H. A., born 
 Jan. 6, 1886, is attending the same school. Elsie 
 A., born Nov. 27, 1887, and Edna E., born Aug. 3, 
 1890, are both at home. 
 
 Politically Mr. Augur is a Democrat, and an ad- 
 vocate of the gold standard. He is an efficient mem- 
 ber of the school iboard, with which he has been 
 connected for twenty years, and has held various 
 other local offices, including those of assessor and 
 justice of the peace, the duties of which he has 
 most ably and satisfactorily discharged. 
 
 ANDREW SCHWAB, retired, Yalesville, town 
 of Wallingford, New Haven county, Connecticut. 
 
 EDWARD J. MALUMPHY, a promiinent 
 wholesale tea merchant of Derby, Conn., is one of 
 tihe most energetic, progressive and reliable business 
 men of that place. Although he is comparatively a 
 young man, he has already attained a fair degree of 
 success, and bids fair to become one of the prosper- 
 ous and substantial citizens of the community with 
 whote interests he has cast his lot. Mr. Malumphy 
 was born in Wells, Hamilton Co., N. Y., May 17, 
 1868, a son of Thomas Malumphy, a native of Kil- 
 kenny Ireland, who was the oldest in a large fam- 
 ily of 'children, and in early life had to look after 
 the others. 
 
 Thomas Malumphy was a member of the police 
 force of Dublin for a time, but in 1850 came to the 
 New World with the hope of benefiting his financial 
 condition. A tanner by trade, he soon secured work 
 at that occupation in the tanneries along the Hudson 
 river, and finally went to Wells, N. Y., where he 
 
 served as superintendent of the Wells tannery for 
 about thirteen years. In the spring of 1881 he 
 ;ame to Ansonia, New Haven county, where he held 
 the position of boss over a night crew in a wire 
 works for six montlhs. At the end of that time he 
 embarked in the grocery business which he still 
 carries on with good success. In his political affili- 
 ations he is a Democrat, and while a resident of 
 Wells, N: Y., held local offices. He wedded Miss 
 Mary Doolan, who was born in Ireland and brought 
 to this country during infancy. A family of eight 
 children have been born to them, namely : Michael 
 D., a member of the firm of T. Malumphy & Son, 
 giocers, of Ansonia; Mary A., wife of James Con- 
 don, of Ansonia; Edward J., our subject; Agnes 
 M., Harriet, Catherine and Alice, all at home; and 
 Jennie, who died at the age of eight years. 
 
 The early life of Edward J. Malumphy was 
 passed in his birthplace, and his education was ac- 
 quired in a little school house one mile from home. 
 After the removal of the family to Ansonia, when he 
 was thirteen years of age, he worked for his father 
 in the grocery store for some time. At the age oi 
 nineteen he embarked in the retail tea business, 
 conducting what was known as the Boston Tea 
 House on Elizabeth street, Derby, for twelve years. 
 In July, 1898, he closed out the retail business and 
 has since devoted his energies! entirely to the 
 wholesale trade, in which he has met with marked 
 success. He is a wide-awake, ambitious and en- 
 terprising, and the prosperity that has attended his 
 efforts is certainly well merited. 
 
 On Nov. 19, 1891, Mr. Malumphy married Miss 
 Ann Cornell Walsh, a native of Bridgeport, Conn., 
 and a daughter of Peter Walsh, who was born in 
 Ireland and was a soldier of the Civil war. By 
 this union four children have been born, namely : 
 Thomas J., John C, Veronica and Rita. The fam- 
 ily have a very beautiful new home on Seymour 
 avenue, where their many friends are always sure 
 of a hearty welcome. They are members of St. 
 Mary's Catholic Church, and in politics Mr. 
 Malumphy is a Democrat. For some time he was 
 a member of the Board of Trade, but at present 
 is not connected with that organization. 
 
 ROGER S. WOTKYNS, of the Waterbury Ma- 
 chine Co., Waterbury, is widely known as one of the 
 most expert and skilled manufacturers of the present 
 day in that city. The company make a specialty of 
 preparing automatic machinery according to original 
 designs and adapted to special purposes. They 
 build presses and dies, tumbling barrels and wire- 
 drawing machinery, and at the present have many 
 orders from France, Spain, Austria and England, 
 as well as different parts of the United States. 
 They are prepared to undertake the solution of all 
 problems of mechanical construction requisite for 
 economical production in any industry. 
 
 Mr. Wotkyns was born in Troy, N. Y., Oct. 
 28, 1864. Alfred Wotkyns, his father, was born 
 
I5I2 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in New Hampshire, in 1800, and died in i 
 Alexander Wotlcyns, grandfather of Roger S., was 
 born in the same place in New Hampshire and died 
 there. The first of the family in this country came 
 from Wales. Alexander Wotkyns was a physician, 
 and his son Alfred followed in his steps. Dr. Al- 
 fred Wotkyns went to Troy, N. Y., and there mar- 
 ried Miss Eliza Brakey, who was born at Green- 
 bush, a town not far from Albany. Her father, 
 who was a farmer, came from the same place. 
 The Brakeys are an old family of that neighbor- 
 hood, and came originally from Ireland. Dr. Wot- 
 kyns was a Whig in early life, and later became a 
 Democrat. In i860 he was mayor of Troy, in 
 which city he was a man of considerable promin- 
 <ence. The family were connectejl with the Epis- 
 copal Church. Dr. and Mrs. Wotkyns had five 
 children: Benjamin M., Webster, Walter L., 
 Grace G. and Roger S. Benjamin M., who was a 
 real-estate dealer in Pasadena, Gal, died at the age 
 of thirty-seven. Webster, Walter L. and Miss 
 Grace arc all living in California. 
 
 Roger S. Wotkyns passed the first eleven years 
 of his life in Troy, where he began his schooling, 
 and then went to Chicago, where he remained until 
 1886. In that year Mr. Wotkyns came to Water- 
 bury to take a clerkship in the Manufacturers' Na- 
 tional Bank, and put in nine good years in that in- 
 stitution. About this time the Waterbury Machine 
 Co. was taking shape, and Mr. Wotkvns became 
 connected with same as secretary. Much of its 
 success is due to his push and energy, and he is one 
 of the leading men in his line in the city. 
 
 Roger S. Wotkyns and Miss Mary E. Steele 
 were united in marriage Oct. 12, 1887. Mrs. 
 Wotkyns was born in Waterbury, daughter of Ed- 
 ward S. Steele, of that city. To this union has 
 come one child, Steele, whose birth occurred Dec. 
 26, 1890. Mr. Wotkyns is an independent voter, 
 and at the polls prefers to support the men he most' 
 approves. His Masonic affiliations are with Con- 
 tmental Lodge, No. 76, F. & A. M., and with Nosa- 
 hogan Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. F. He is a member 
 of the Psi Upsilon, a Greek letter fraternitv of Yale 
 College, and he has long been a member of the 
 Waterbury Club, of which he was treasurer seven 
 years. ^ With his family Mr. Wotkyns attends Trin- 
 ity Episcopal Church, in which he has served as 
 vestryman and member of the finance committee. 
 
 MORTON TRACY, one of the most respected 
 mechanics m the city of Waterbury, Conn., was 
 born in Go'shen. Litchfield county, April 9, 1845, and 
 is a brother of George Tracy, whose biography is 
 given in full on another page, and in which will be 
 found the genealogy of this subject. 
 
 When his father moved his family to Morris, 
 Conn., Mr. Tracy was a child of perhaps three 
 years, and there he grew to manhood. Lie attended 
 the local schools, and also the "Gunnery" at Wash- 
 ington, Conn., a school famous in its day, and con- 
 
 ducted by F. W. Gunn. After finishing his school- 
 ing young Morton worked for the neighboring 
 farmers by the month for three or four years, 
 strengthening both brain and muscle, and in 1869 
 came to Waterbury, entered the employ of the 
 Benedict and Burnham Manufacturing Co., to learn 
 rolling, and there he has been ever since. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1872, Mr. Tracy married Miss Ida 
 M. Kilborn, who was born in Litchfield county, 
 and is a daughter of RoUin F. Kilborn and his wife 
 Louisa (Cogswell) Kilborn, the former of whom 
 was bom in Litchfield city, and the latter in New 
 Preston, same county, and who were the parents of 
 six children, viz : Angeline, who was married to 
 Ira A. Emmons, of Morris, but who died in July, 
 1895; Ida M., now Mrs. Tracy; Freeman, who died 
 at the age of thirteen years; Riley, who died at 
 the age of one year and nine months; Alice, who 
 married Robert Skilton, of Morris; and Edith, 
 who was called away at the age of four years. 
 Rollin F. Kilborn died Nov. 12, 1884, leaving his 
 widow and the surviving children mentioned above 
 to mourn his loss. He was an Episcopalian in re- 
 ligion, and a Democrat in politics, and had wielded 
 a strong influence in the community in which he 
 had passed his useful life. Putnam Kilborn, the fa- 
 ther of Rollin F., was born in Litchfield, was of 
 English descent and married a cousin, Catherine 
 Kilborn. His death took place in the city of his 
 birth. 
 
 To the marriage of Morton Tracy and Ida M. 
 Kilborn have been born two children, Ellsworth M., 
 and Carrie L. ; the former graduated from Trinity 
 College, Hartford, in 1900. In politics Mr. Tracy 
 IS a Democrat, but has never been an office seeker, 
 preferring the quiet of his domestic circle to the tur- 
 moil of politics. He and wife and children are 
 members of Trinity Episcopal Church, and exhibit 
 in their daily life the sincerity of their faith in the 
 religion they profess. 
 
 WTLLIAM J. NEARY is one of the ablest 
 lawyers practicing at the Naugatuck Bar, and is a 
 man of sound judgment who manages his cases 
 with masterly skill and tact. He is also a logical 
 reasoner and has a ready command of English, 
 which enables him to appear well before a jury! 
 
 Mr. Neary wa& born in Naugatuck, June 12, 
 1868, a son of Thomas Neary, a native of Ireland, 
 \\-ho came to America when a young man, and in 
 Naugatuck, Conn., married Elizabeth Buggy, also 
 a native of Ireland. In their family were. seven 
 children : John, who died in Naugatuck at the age 
 of twenty-nine years ; Richard, who is engaged "in 
 the liquor business with his father in Naugatuck; 
 Catherine M., deceased wife. of John F. Butler, of 
 Meriden, Conn. : Thomas, who died when about 
 two years old; Elizabeth, who died young; Julia 
 G., at home; and William J., our subject. 
 
 The early life of William J. Neary was passed 
 in Naugatuck, and after attending the local schools 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1513 
 
 for some time, he entered Holy Cross College, 
 Worcester, Mass., from whioB he was graduated 
 in 1890, receiving the degree of B. A. He then 
 attended the law department of Yale University, 
 and was graduated there in 1892, with the degree 
 of LL. D. He was admitted to the Bar the same 
 year, and immediately opened an office in Nauga- 
 tuck, where ihe has since successfully engaged in 
 the practice of his chosen profession. 
 
 Mr. Neary was married, Oct. 30, 1894, to Miss 
 Marie J. Ryan, of Meriden, a daughter of Daniel 
 B. Ryan, a native of Ireland. By this union has 
 been born one child, Vyvian M. Mr. Neary is a 
 member of St. Francis Catholic- Church and the 
 Knights of Columbus, and is identified with the 
 Democratic party. He has efficiently served as 
 borougih clerk, chairman of the school committee, 
 and member of the board of education, and in 1897 
 represented his town in the State Legislature with 
 credit to him'self and to the entire satisfaction of 
 his constituents. 
 
 WILLIAM RITCHIE, builder, 117 Bishop 
 street. New Haven, Connecticut. 
 
 BERNARD J. McMANUS, a prominent whole- 
 sale and retail liquor dealer now located at No. 93 
 Elizabeth street, Derby, was born in that place, 
 March 25, 1863, and is of Irish descent, his pater- 
 nal grandfatiher being a Hfe-long resident of Ire- 
 land, and a farmer by occupation. The father was 
 a native of County Leitrim, Ireland, and when_ a 
 young man emigrated to America, locating in 
 Derby, Conn., where he continued' to make his 
 home throughout the remainder of his life, dying 
 here in March, 1897. He was employed as 3. 
 molder in a foundry during his residence in this 
 place. Politically 'he was a stanch Democrat, and 
 religiously was a Catholic, to which church his 
 family also belong. He wedded Miss Mary Briordy, 
 a native of County Cavan, Ireland and to them 
 were bom nine children, but five died young. 
 Those living are Eliza; Bernard J., our subject; 
 Thomas F., a resident of Derby ; and Mary. 
 
 During his boyhood and youth our subject at- 
 tended the public schools of Derby, and at the age 
 of eighteen years began life for himself as an em- 
 ploye of the Shelton Bolt Company, with which 
 he was connected for about two years, after which 
 he turned 'his attention to the carpenter's trade and 
 followed it for about three years. The following 
 year he engaged in the butcher business in Derby, 
 and in 1886 embarked in his present business as a 
 wholesale and retaiil liquor dealer, in which line 
 of trade be has met with excellent success. 
 
 Mr. McManus was married, in 1880. to Miss 
 Alice Dowling, of Derby, a daughter of Joseph 
 Dowling, now deceased, who was a native of Ire- 
 land and a wood turner by trade. Our subject 
 and ihis wife have a family of four children, name- 
 ly: Mary, Alice, Charles and George. They are 
 
 members of the Roman CatboHc Church, and Mr. 
 McManus also belongs to Court Otter Rock, No. 
 35, Foresters of America, and Storms Engine Com- 
 pany, No. 2. His political support is always given 
 the men and mieasures of the Democratic party, 
 and he was one of the first city fire commissioners 
 of Derby, which office he acceptably filled for one 
 year. 
 
 WALTER E. BROWN, one of the leading 
 young business men and representative citizens of 
 Naugatuck, was born in Stamiford, Conn., Oct. 10, 
 1871, and is a son of William R. Brown, who in 
 early life worked at the cutler's trade, but is now 
 a machinist living in Union City, this county. The 
 father married Ellen Potter, who was born in 
 Sharon, Conn., a daughter of Edwin Potter. A 
 family of five children blessed this union, namely : 
 Celia, now the wife of George F. Fenn, of Water- 
 bury, Conn.; Walter E., our subject; Mabel, who 
 died at the age of three years; Ernest, who is 
 clerking for our subject; and Anna, who died in 
 infancy. 
 
 Walter E. Brown was only a year old when 
 brought by bis parents tO' Naugatuck, wlliere he 
 was reared and educated, pursuing his studies in 
 the public schools until sixteen years of age. He 
 then clerked in the grocery store of C. H. Booth, 
 of Naugatuck, for two years, and in the meat mar- 
 ket of H. R. Church for three years. For the fol- 
 lowing three years he had charge of a market in 
 Naugatuck belonging to George Hotchkiss' Sons 
 of Ansonia, and in 1892 opened a market of his 
 own, which he has since successfully carried on, 
 having built up a good trade. 
 
 On Oct. 4, 1893, Mr. Brown married Miss 
 Emma J. Nichols, a daughter of F. S. Nichols, of 
 Naugatuck, whose sketch appears. on another page 
 of this volume. They have a lovely home on High- 
 land avenue, which was purchased by Mr. Brown 
 in 1897, and there they take greajt delight in en- 
 tertaining their many friends. Our subject was 
 reared in the Methodist Episcopal Church, to 
 which his ancestors belonged, but he and his wife 
 now attend the Episcopal Church. He is a sup- 
 porter of the Republican party, and a member of 
 Shepherd Lodge, F. & A. M. ; and of Centennial 
 Lodge, I. O. O. F. Mr. Brown also belongs to 
 the A. O. U. W., and the Heptasophs. He is quite 
 ,prominent both in business and social circles, and 
 by all who know him is held in high regard. 
 
 HENRY J. FLANAGAN, in his lifetime a 
 wide-awake business man of Waterbury, was a na- 
 tive of the city, born April 8, 1862, a son of Michael 
 and Julia (Ronan) Flanagan. 
 
 Michael Flanagan was born in Queen's county, 
 Ireland, and in i860 emigrated to America, settling 
 in Waterbury, Conn., wlhere he lived retired for 
 some years. To himself and wife were born four 
 children : Thomas is deceased ; Margaret married 
 
ISI4 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Richard Mulcahy, and lives in Waterbury; James 
 is deceased; and Henry J. 
 
 Henry J. Flanagan received his education in the 
 schools of his native city, and at the age of twelve 
 years commenced to work in a factory. In 1886 
 he opened a saloon and bottling establishment on 
 Bishop street, in which he met with unqualified suc- 
 cess. 
 
 In March, 1886, Mr. Flanagan was united in 
 marriage with Nellie O'Connor, who was born in 
 New York, of Irish parentage, but reared and ed- 
 ucated in \\'aterbury. Three children have been 
 born of this union, ^Michael, Honora and one that 
 diicd in infancy. ]Mr. Flanagan was identified with 
 St. Thomas Roman Catholic Church, Waterbury, 
 with which his widow is also connected. In pol- 
 itics he was a Democrat, was register of voters 
 four terms, and town constable for a short time. 
 Socially he was a member of the Union Club, and 
 of the Liquor Dealers Association. 
 
 FRANK W. SPERRY, a member of the well- 
 known firm of Sperry & Amos, and one of the most 
 successful among the young business men of New 
 Haven, was born in this city, at No. 95 Bradley 
 street, Feb. 20, 1874, a son of Foster W. Sperry, a 
 well-known resident of New Haven, and a brother 
 of Edson N. Sperry, a prosperous druggist of New 
 Haven. 
 
 Frank W. Sperry grew up in this city, and is 
 one of the pupils who reflects credit upon the in- 
 struction of the Skinner school, from which he went 
 through the High school, finishing at the age of six- 
 teen years, in the meantime graduating from Car- 
 gills Business College, now the Child's Business 
 College. Immediately young Mr. Sperry engaged 
 with the Bradstreet Mercantile Agency, at $15.00 
 per month, but left there to enter the A. B. Hen- 
 drick Manufacturing Co., as clerk. At the end of 
 six months, he was obliged to make a change owing 
 to impaired health from close confinement, and thus 
 entered the employ of J. Gibbs Smith & Co., lumber 
 dealers and manufacturers. For nine years he con- 
 tinued with that firm, entering as salesman, and 
 leaving as superintendent of the molding depart- 
 ment. 
 
 Alert, self-reliant and resourceful, Mr. Sperry 
 now felt himself capable of engaging in business for 
 himself, and in January, i8Qq, in association with 
 Alexander R. Amos, started his present business, 
 the firm being The Sperry & Amos Co. The firm 
 manufacture moldings, turned work, inside and 
 outside trimmings, cabinet work, office and store 
 fixtures, veneered doors, and general builders' 
 accessories, and have a large steam plant, on Water 
 street, which gives employment to a large number 
 of workmen, thus contributing materially to the in- 
 dustrial prosperity of the city. 
 
 The marriage of Mr. Sperry and Estelle N. Pot- 
 ter, of Hamden, Conn., occurred June 12, 1896, 
 Mrs. Sperry being a daughter of M. C. Potter, also 
 
 of Hamden. Two children have been born of this 
 union : Charlotte E. and Gladys N. In politics, 
 j\Ir. Sperry is Independent, and he is fraternally 
 connected with the Heptasophs, and is Past Archon 
 of Whitney Conclave. He is a member of the Epis- 
 copal Church, and a vestryman at St. John's. 
 
 Mr. Sperry and his partner belong to that class 
 of progressive, energetic and successful young men, 
 who, while not indigenous to this country, are 
 nevertheless represented here with greater fre- 
 quency, and are oerhaps better appreciated than in 
 other lands. It has been well said that our young 
 men require an education, then a trade, then a busi- 
 ness field, and tha't then the world is theirs. Judg- 
 ing by what this young firm has already accom- 
 plished the prediction of future success is fraught 
 with unquestioned certainty. 
 
 HENRY B. CARTER, one of the well-known 
 citizens of Waterbury, who is rapidly coming to the 
 front in politics and business, was born in West 
 Hingham, Mass., ^larch 21, 1866, and is a son of 
 William M. Carter, and grandson of Benjamin Car- 
 ter. The grandfather came from Germany and set- 
 tled in Maine, where he followed the coopers' 
 trade for the remainder of his life. In the War of 
 1812 he did valiant duty for his adopted country. 
 His wife, formerly Charlotte A. Curtis, was bom 
 in Maine in 1796, and reared a family of three boys 
 and two girls, the former of whom followed farm- 
 ing, and proved good citizens. 
 
 William M. Carter, the father of Henry B., was 
 born in Liberty, Maine, March 14, 1840, and grew 
 to maturity among the scenes of his birth. A rov- 
 ing disposition led him to adopt the occupation of 
 sailor, and in time he became a seasoned "salt," at 
 the unusual age of twenty-one filling the position 
 of First Mate of the brig "Eagle," plying between 
 Boston and South American ports. At the out- 
 break of the Civil war he donned the Union blue, 
 and served two years as a member of the s8th Mass- 
 achusetts Veteran A'olunteers, and when the war 
 was over came to Hingham, Mass., and married 
 Mary A. Burkhitt, who was born in Nova Scotia, 
 a daughter of an officer in the English army sta- 
 tioned at that point. Shortly after their marriage 
 the young couple settled in ^^'est Hingham, Mass., 
 where they reared a family of five children : Henry 
 B., Carrie E., Edward L., Florence and Ella M. 
 Carrie E. is the wife of Herbert J. Phillips, and 
 lives in Waterbury ; Edward L. is a foreman in the 
 works of the Waterbury Clock Company; Florence 
 married John Dagnan, of Waterbury; and Ella 
 married Charles E. Mann, of Waterbury, Conn. 
 William M. Carter is a Republican, and is still liv- 
 ing in Waterbury. 
 
 Henry B. Carter was but a child when his par- 
 ents moved to Nantasket, near Hingham, where he 
 grew to manhood, and where he attended the local 
 schools until fourteen years of age. He then as- 
 sumed the burden of self support, and from fourteen 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1515 
 
 to sixteen worked in a shoe factory, coming to 
 Waterbury March 22, 1883, to assume a position 
 with the Waterbury Watch Company. At the end 
 of seven years he worked on the bench for two 
 years, and then entered the office, eventually be- 
 coming foreman of the case department. As col- 
 lector he worked for, Ralph N. Blakeslee, for four 
 months, and in October, 1890, entered the employ 
 of the Waterbury Clock Company, with whom he 
 is serving as foreman of several small departments. 
 
 Feb. 16, 1888, Mr. Carter married Jennie M. 
 Bennett, ]\Irs. Carter being a native of Jackson, 
 Mich., and daughter of Hon. Austin W. Bennett, 
 prominent in affairs of the Michigan town. Mr. 
 Bennett is a man of leading characteristics, and his 
 executive and diplomatic aljility have received more 
 than local recognition. At one time Probate judge, 
 he was Consul to one of the German cities under 
 President Pierce, and has been secretary for one 
 of the larger railroad corporations. To Mr. and 
 Mrs. Carter have been born two children, Edith A. 
 and Harry B. 
 
 As a Republican, Mr. Carter has taken an active 
 part in politics since casting his initial vote, and 
 he is now senior member of the Republican town 
 committee from the Second ward. He was presi- 
 dtni of the Waterbury Republican Club in 1898 and 
 1899, has been auditor and a member of the Board 
 of Public Safety, and has frequently represented 
 the county in State conventions. As an Odd Fel- 
 low he is Past Grand of Nosahogan Lodge, No. 21, 
 and he is identified with the Continental Lodge, 
 No. 56, F. & A. M., Eureka Chapter, R, A. M., 
 Waterbury Council, No. 21, R. & S. M. M., Clark 
 Commandery No. 7, Mystic Shrine, and the Eastern 
 Star. With his family he is a member of the Meth- 
 odist Church, towards whose charities and support 
 he is a liberal contributor. 
 
 Dec. 24, 1883, Mr. Carter united with Company 
 A., of the State Militia, and was made a corporal 
 Aug. 12, 1885, a sergeant, Nov. 15, 1888, and first 
 sergeant, Aug. 9, 1890. The rank of sergeant 
 major of the Regiment was conferred upon him 
 March 10, 1891, and that of second lieutenant Jan. 
 2, 1893. He became first lieutenant March 15, 1893, 
 and Captain, Dec. 26, 1899. Personally he is an 
 erect and soldierly man, thoroughly conversant with 
 military tactics, and has vastly promoted the effi- 
 ciency of the citizen-soldiery of the State. 
 
 HLTBERT M. RIGNEY, one of the well-known 
 native sons of Waterbury, was born Nov. 25, 1856, 
 and is of Irish descent. 
 
 John Rignev, his father, was born in County 
 Queen's, Ireland, a son of John Rigney, who never 
 emigrated from his native land. John, Jr., cam,e to 
 the United States in 1847, settling in Waterbury, 
 where he died in 1872, and was survived by his wife 
 until 1895. He married Anna T. Coin, who was 
 born in Middlebury, Conn., and whose father emi- 
 grated from County Queen's, Ireland. Five chil- 
 
 dren were born of this union, viz. : Elizabeth died 
 single ; William J. is deputy county sheriff ; Hubert 
 M.; Mary is the deceased wife of Dennis Hayden, 
 of Waterbury; and Teressa is the wife of Patrick 
 F. McAvoy, of Waterbury. 
 
 Hubert M. Rigney received his education at the 
 public schools of his native city, and from youth up 
 took an active interest in athletics. For seven years 
 he was a professional foot racer, and for one year 
 was instructor in that line at Yale College. The 
 claim is made that of sixty-five races run by him only 
 one was lost. In 1884 he engaged in the liquor busi- 
 ness' in Waterbury, continuing in same five years; 
 then went to Oregon for a year, to recuperate his 
 health. Returning to Waterbury in 1890 he com- 
 menced collecting the city garbage, and at the end 
 of seven years and three months made a change to 
 farming, in which he engaged with varying success 
 up to 1900. Since then he has been again collecting 
 the city garbage, and in this capacity has shown a 
 high appreciation of cleanliness and all around sani- 
 tation. 
 
 On Feb. 21, 1883, Mr. Rigney married Nelhe 
 M. Holly, of Portland, Maine, a daughter of John 
 and Elnora Holly, natives of Ireland. Two chil- 
 dren have been born of this union, Hubert M., Jr., 
 and WilHam J. Socially Mr. Rigney is a member 
 of the Foresters of America, and is a charter mem- 
 ber of Court Welch No. 84. He is a member of 
 St. Patrick's Parish Catholic Church, at Waterville^ 
 and in politics is a Democrat. 
 
 HENRY C. COOK is engaged in the manu- 
 facture of presses, small lathes, combination dies, 
 clock tools and special machinery, and in German 
 silver, brass and iron monitor turning. His shop 
 is located in Gardner's Block, Ansonia, New Haven 
 Co., Connecticut. 
 
 HENRY C. RICE, a progressive and enter- 
 prising agriculturist of Southiington, was born in 
 Cheshire, New Haven county, June 27, 1835, son 
 of Lemuel and Maria (Andrews) Rice. His pa- 
 ternal grandfather, Amos Rice, was a native of 
 Vermont, and from that State came to Cheshire, 
 'where his last days were passed. The maternal 
 grandfather, Abel Andrews, was a farmer and old 
 resident of Cheshire. The Christian nam^e of his 
 wife was Roxanna. 
 
 The school experience of Henry C. Rice ter- 
 minated after a course at the Mt. Carmel high 
 school, and he began his business career as a shop 
 hand on government work, in the shops of the Peck, 
 Stow & Wilcox Co., of Southington. He was thus 
 employed for three years, and the following two 
 }-ears he spent in Cheshire, being a resident of 
 Southington, since 1869. As a blacksmith he 
 worked for the leading manufacturers of carriage 
 hardware, bolts, etc., until 1889, and has since en- 
 gaged in farming and stock raising. 
 
 Sept. 30, 1859, Mr. Rice married Caroline Royce, 
 
I5I6 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a daughter of Lewis and Caroline (Preston) Royce, 
 of Cheshire, and to them have been born two chil- 
 dren, Carrie \i., now the wife of Dwigiht H. Ben- 
 nett, and George, who married Lena Miller, of 
 Waterbury. Li his political affiliation Air. Rice is 
 a Republican, and in religion be is a Baptist. He 
 is one of the leading and popular citizens of his 
 community, and wherever known is held in high 
 regard. 
 
 ALLEN L. HALL -was born jMarch 20, 1873, 
 in Wallingford, Conn., where he was educated in 
 the public schools and in Gargill's Business Col- 
 lege. When sixteen years old lie started a livery 
 business, which he disposed of at the end of a year 
 to Walter Clark, since which 'time he has conducted 
 a similar business at his old homestead on South 
 Elm' street. He has been very successful and is 
 regarded as a reliable and thoroughly trustworthy 
 man. In politics lie is independent, but has never 
 been an aspirant for office. He attends the Episco- 
 pal Church. 
 
 Allen L. Hall and Ida May Rawson were united 
 in marriage April 17, 1894, Mrs. Hall being a na- 
 ,tive of Wallingford, and a daughter of William 
 Rawson. Of this union there is one child, Henry 
 Leroy Hall, born Jan. 25, 1896. 
 
 Henry Lyman Hall, the father of Allen L., was 
 born in Wallingford, Oct. i, 1840, and after leav- 
 ing school was employed for a time in the Wallace 
 factory, later clerking for his uncle, Philip Talcott, 
 a grocer. In time he assumed charge of the pa- 
 ternal homestead, and in connection therewith be- 
 came a very successful coal dealer. Emma L. Al- 
 len, his wife, the daughter of John Allen, of Pond 
 Hill, died after the birth of her son, Allen L., and 
 Mr. Hall married for bis second wife Ann Looper, 
 of New Haven, who died leaving no children. 
 April 25, 1895, Mr. Hall married for a third wife, 
 Catherine (Waynes) Banks, the widow of Dr. Ne- 
 hemiah Banks. At the time of his death, Sept. 10, 
 1898, Mr. Allen was a vestryman of the Episcopal 
 church, and at the time of the erection of the new 
 edifioe he was a memfber of the Building Commit- 
 tee. In early life he was an Odd Fellow. A Demo- 
 crat until 1896, the changed conditions of the party 
 impelled him to cast his vote for a candidate rep- 
 resenting other principles. For several years he 
 was a selectman of the town, and filled other offices 
 of trust and responsibility. 
 
 The Flail family is one of the oldest in New 
 England. Its progenitor, John FI|all, came from 
 England to Boston, and was one of the original 
 proprietors of the town of Wallingford. John, 
 Thomas and Samuel, sons of the emigrant, signed 
 the Plantation Covenant in 1670, and two years 
 later, his own name appears upon that historic 
 document. In 1675 he was chosen selectman with 
 his son John, and his death occurred the following 
 year, at the age of seventy-one. He married Jane 
 Woolen, and their children were : John was bap- 
 
 tized Aug. 9, 1646, and died Sept. 2, 1721 ; Richard 
 was born July 11, 1645; Samuel, born May 21, 
 1646, and died March 5, 1725; Sarah, was baptized 
 Aug., 1646; Thomas, born March 25, 1649; Jona- 
 than, born April 5, 165 1 ; and David, who was born 
 March 18, 1652, and died July 17, 1727. 
 
 Samuel Hall, one of the original settlers of 
 Wallingford, in 1668, married Hannah Walker, who 
 died Dec. 20, 1728. The following children were 
 born to them : John, born Dec. 25, 1670, and mar- 
 ried Mary Lyman; Hannah, born March 11, 1673, 
 married Ebenezer Doolittle; Sarah, born Jan. 20, 
 1677, died March 18, 1712; Samiuel, born Dec. 10,^ 
 1680; Theophilus, bom Feb. 5, 1686; and Eliza- 
 beth, born March 6, 1690, married John Moss. 
 
 Samuel Hall, son of Samuel, died June 15, 1770, 
 at the age of ninety years. Susan Royce, his first 
 wife, was a daughter of Nathaniel and Esther 
 Royce. The Christian name of his second wife was 
 Bridget. He was the father of the following chil- 
 dren : Thieophilus, born April i, 1707; Samuel, 
 born June 8, 1709; Hannah, born July 15, 1711; 
 Sarah, born Dec. 6, 1713 ; Mehibath, born April 
 25, 1716; and Esther, born. Nov. 7, 1719. 
 
 Samuel, son of Samuel Hall, married Sarah 
 Hall, Dec. 7, 1731, and died Dec. 24, 1771. He was 
 the father of the following children : Samuel, born 
 July II, 1732, and died in infancy; Hezekiah, bom 
 Dec. 27, 1733; Louisa, born June 30, 1736; Sarah, 
 born Dec. 5, 1737; Esther, bom Jan. 21, 1740; 
 Love, born April 30, 1742 ; Elizabeth, Jan. 23, 1745 ; 
 Samuel, born Feb. 28, 1750, and Demaris, born 
 Jan. 23, 1754. 
 
 Deacon Samuel Hall, son of the above named 
 Samuel Hall, miarried Elizabeth Parson, May 10, 
 1774, who died Sept. 27, 1823. He died Feb. 27, 
 1 82 1, and was the father of the following children: 
 Samuel, horn Dec. 7, 1776; Hezekiah, born June 
 II, 1778; George, Aug. 13, 1780; Marilla, born 
 June 28, 1782, married Chauncey Hall; Richard, 
 bom Jan. 26, 1785; and Jared, born Aug. 24, 1792, 
 ,and died April 24, 1861, was the father of Henry 
 Lyman Hall, and the grandfather of Allen L. 
 
 WILSON G. ARENTS, a well-known citizen 
 of AVoodbridge, New Haven county, was born in 
 Brooklyn, N. Y., Sept. 27, 1856. 
 
 Permela Marvin Arents, his father, a native of 
 the same State, was born in Tarrytown in Decem- 
 ber, 1828, was reared in Brooklyn, and became a 
 woolen merchant in New York City, where he died 
 July 5, 1861. On Spruce street he married Miss 
 Anna Rebecca Bolen, daughter of John G. and 
 Catherine (Frazier) Bolen. Her father was an 
 engraver on metal and also' a dealer in fishing tackle 
 in New York City. There Mrs. Arents was born, 
 on Green street, in 1834, and died in BrookljTi in 
 1873. She had five brothers and one sister, name- 
 ly : George a resident of Somerville, N. J. ; Mary 
 Agnes, of East Orange, Essex Co., N. J. ; Michael, 
 a retired merchant and farmer, who is now in the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1517 
 
 marine insurance business in Somerville, N. J.; 
 Oharles, Frederick and Lewis, all three deceased'.' 
 The father of our subject had one brother and one 
 sister, both now deceased : Edward, who lived on 
 Adams street, Brooklyn, N. Y., and owned the 
 Gothic Dancing Hall ; and Augusta, wife of W. R. 
 Tice, a jeweler of Brooklyn. Our subject is the 
 second in order of birth in a family of three chil- 
 dren. Edward Delenoy, the eldest, born in 1854^ 
 married, and died in New Haven, Conn., at the 
 age of twenty-eight years; Charles Robert Ander- 
 son, born April 2, 1861, is engaged in the insurance 
 business in New York. 
 
 Wilson G. Arents attended the academy ait Fer- 
 gusonville, Delaware Co., N. Y., three terms, but 
 being in ill health during childhood he was una:ble 
 to carry on his studies as intended. When a young 
 man he went to New London, Conn., where he was 
 employed in various works, though the greater part 
 of the time he followed the sawmill business, hav- 
 ing charge of a plant. For thirteen years he worked 
 in a sawmill at Long Cove, town of Ledyard, New 
 London county, and in April, 1891, came to New 
 Haven, but shortly afterward located in Wood- 
 bridge, where he purchased an improved farm of 
 seventy acres. Here he engaged in the milk busi- 
 ness until i8g8, and has since carried on poultry 
 raising and general farming, making a specialty 
 of vegetables and fruits. He contemplates embark- 
 ing in the grocery business soon. 
 
 In New London county Mr. Arents was mar- 
 ried, Dec. 20, 1880, by Rev. N. Goodrich, to Miss 
 Eva Lois Ingham, who was born Dec. 16, 1861, a 
 daughter of John and Abigail Ingham. She be- 
 longs to one of the early and representative fam- 
 ihes of Long Island, v^^here many of the name and 
 family still reside. Of the seven children born to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Arents, the first four were born in 
 New London county, the others in Woodbridge. 
 Their names and dates of birth are as follows : 
 Anna Louella, June 4, 1883 ; Edna Lois, March 28, 
 1885; Harold Delenoy, June 4, 1888; Bertrand 
 Frazier, Sept. 8, 1890; Eveline Ingham, Oct. 11, 
 1892 ; Mary Agnes, who died at the age of three 
 months; and Wilhelmina Bolen, Aug. 16, 1898. 
 The eldest daughter has completed a district-school 
 education and expects to become a bookkeeper. The 
 family attend the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
 are held in high regard by all who know them. Po- 
 litically Mr. Arents is a Republican, and he gives 
 his support to every measure which he believes 
 will prove of pubhc benefit. 
 
 DANIEL D. GREGORY, one of the most ex- 
 pert m.achinists in the city of Waterbury, was born 
 in the town of Redding, Fairfield Co., Conn., Feb. 
 6, 1847, and descended from one of the oldest fam- 
 ilies in the county. 
 
 Alfred Gregory, father of Daniel H., was bom 
 in Ridgefield, Fairfield Co., Dec. 21, 1803, and 
 died Sept. 26, 1868. He was a blacksmith by trade 
 
 and constantly employed a number of workmien. 
 He married Huldiah Barlow, who was born in Red- 
 ding July 26, 1806, and died Aug. 16, 1847. To 
 the marriag'e of Alfred Gregory and wife were born 
 seven children, namely: Stephen B., who was a 
 mechanic, but is now deceased; Frances, who died 
 in Eastport, Maine, the wife of Rev. Leroy S. 
 Stowe; Sarah, married to Henry Bates, a farmer 
 in Ridgefield ; Fannie, wife of Joseph Taxter, also a 
 farmer in Ridgefield; Peter, a carriage maker at 
 Bridgeport ; Charles, who has traveled extensively 
 and resides in Ridgefield; and Daniel D., the sub- 
 ject, of this biography. 
 
 Huldah (Barlow) Gregory, the mother of our 
 subject was a daughter of Daniel and Sarah 
 (Diamond) Barlow. Daniel Barlow was a black- 
 smith, and a native of Redding. Col. Aaron Bar- 
 low, the father of Daniel, was a hero of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution. The father of the Colonel, Sam- 
 uel Barlow, was a son of John Barlow, who set- 
 tled in the town of Fairfield, Fairfield Co., Conn., 
 in 1668; Samluel settled in Redding in 1740, and 
 after the death of his first wife married Esther 
 Hull, a daughter of Nathaniel Hull, who gave to 
 the American navy one of the bravest of men. — 
 Commiodore Isaac Hull. Joel Barlow, a brother of 
 Col. Aaron Barlow, was bo-rn in Redding, Conn., 
 and adhieved a national reputa.tion. He was: ap- 
 pointed embassador to France by President Madi- 
 son during the reign of Napoleon, went as far as 
 Moscow, Russia, and was very successful in his 
 diplomacy, but on his road homeward was taken ill, 
 and died Dec. 24, 1812. 
 
 Daniel D. Gregory was educated at the district 
 school at Redding, and alsO' at a select school. 
 After leaving school he was apprenticed tO' the Par- 
 rel Foundry at Ansonia, Conn., for three years from 
 1864 ; he next went to Birmingham, Conn., worked 
 one year, and then made a trip to Minneapolis, 
 Minn., but soon returned to the East, and for two 
 years worked in Newburg, N. Y., and eight years 
 in Jersey City, N. J., whence he came again to 
 Connecticut, worked awhile in Winsted, and in 
 1877 came to Waterbury, and here for three years 
 was with the Parrel Foundry, three years with the 
 Amierican Ring Co., and for the last seventeen 
 years has been machinist for the Plume & Atwood 
 Company. 
 
 On Nov. 20, 1872, Mr. Gregory wedded Miss 
 Martha E. Whitney, who was born in Salisbury, 
 Conn., and is a daug'hter of Ruloff Whitney, a na- 
 tive of the vicinity. One child, Bertha W., who is 
 unmarried, graced the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Gregory. In politics Mr. Gregory is a Republican. 
 He has served as a member of the Board of Public 
 Works for two years ; as alderman from the Third 
 ward three terms ; councilman from the same ward 
 three terms ; and at present is second selectman. 
 As an evidence of his extreme popularity, it may 
 be mentioned that he was elected councilman for 
 his three terms and alderman one term from a ward 
 
iSi8 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that was strongly Democratic. Fraternally Mr. 
 Gregory has been a Mason thirty-one years, having 
 been "made" at Tarrytown, N. Y. He is also an 
 Odd Fellow ; and is a charter member of his lodge 
 of the Woodmen of the World ; he is als'O a member 
 of the New England Order of Protection. In re- 
 ligious matters he is liberal, yet so lives as to merit 
 the warm esteem of all who know him. 
 
 FRED J. WOOD, dealer in coal, wood, hay and 
 grain, Waterbury, is a native of Massachusetts, 
 born in Hinsdale, July 13, 1855. 
 
 Richard A. Wood, father of our subject, was 
 born in Halesworth, Suffolk, England, in 1833, a 
 son of Richard Wood, who was a manufacturer of 
 woolen goods in England, passing all his days there, 
 and dying at the age of thirty-nine years. His son, 
 Richard A., at about the age of sixteen years, came 
 to the United States, making his first New World 
 home at Great Barrington, Mass., where he had a 
 cousin living, and here he followed the woolen busi- 
 ness until 1850, in that year removing to Pittsfield. 
 There until 1857 he was foreman in the woolen 
 mills of Barker Bros. Co., and then went West to 
 Illinois, where for three years he followed farm- 
 ing at Galva. In i860 he returned to Massachusetts, 
 and in Hinsdale took charge of the woolen mills of 
 Frank Hinsdale until 1863, in August of which 
 year he came to Waterbury to take charge as 'super- 
 intendent of the Great Brook Mnfg. Co.'s mills, 
 continuing with that firm until his death in August, 
 1868. In politics he was a Republican, and at one 
 time he served as alderman of the First ward, 
 Waterbury. In 185 1 Richard A. Wood wedded 
 Mary E. Johnson, a descendant o? a 'well-known 
 New England Puritan family by the name of Baker, 
 and a daughter of John and Wealthy (Baker) John- 
 son, the former of whom served at the battle of 
 Waterloo as an officer under Wellington. She died 
 June 21, 1875, ^ member of the First Baptist Church, 
 as was also her husband. To Richard A. Wood and 
 his wife were born eight children, as follows : ( i ) 
 Porter is an attorney at law in Waterbury; (2) Fred 
 J., is our subject; (3) Jessie died at the age of 
 twelve years; (4) William is a coal dealer in Meri- 
 den, Conn.; (5) Mary is the widow of Charles H. 
 Camp, and lives in Waterbury; (6) Frank is con- 
 nected with the Standard Oil Co., with residence in 
 Waterbury; (7) Charles is superintendent of the 
 Pope Tool Works in Hartford; and (8) the young- 
 est died in infancy. 
 
 Fred J. Wood, whose name introduces these 
 lines, was a young boy when the family came to 
 Waterbury, and here he received his education, 
 graduating from the high school. In the Farrell 
 Foundry Co.'s works he learned the trade of ma- 
 chinist, after which he went to work for the Scovill 
 Mnfg. Co., remaining in the employ of that firm 
 fourteen years, building and operating automatic 
 button machinery. In the fall of 1888 he formed a 
 copartnership with S. S. Taylor in the coal_, etc.. 
 
 business, in the following spring purchasing his 
 partner's interest, since when he has been conduct- 
 ing the business alone at No. 7^8 E. Main street. 
 He makes a specialty of coal, wood, hay and grain, 
 and is meeting with well-merited success. 
 
 On Dec. 25, 1876, Mr. Wood was united in mar- 
 riage with Belle L. West, who was born in Water- 
 ville. Conn., a daughter of David K. West, also a 
 native of that place, and a family of seven children 
 has come to them : Mabel P., Byron S., Helen A., 
 William, Clara, Frank and Jennie. The family at- 
 tend the services of the Baptist Church. In politics 
 ]Mr. Wood is a Republican. 
 
 EDWARD P. NOONAN, in his life time one 
 of the busiest, most energetic and most progressive 
 business men of Naugatuck, was proprietor of the 
 leading shoe store of that place and received a liberal 
 share of the public patronage. A native of Con- 
 necticut, he was born in Norwalk, Oct. 16, 1868, 
 and was of Irish descent. His paternal grandfather 
 was a farmer, his maternal grandfather, a cooper, 
 and both were life-long residents of the Emerald 
 Isle. The father, Michael Noonan, was born in 
 Limerick, Ireland, and at the age of seven years 
 came to America, locating first in Westport, Conn., 
 where he worked as a farm hand at Greens Farms. 
 From there he removed to Norwalk, where he was 
 employed as coachman by different people for some 
 years, and where he still continues to reside. In 
 Norwalk, he married Nellie Clark, a native of Coun- 
 ty Dublin, Ireland, and to them were born eleven 
 children, of whom five died young. The others are 
 Edward P., our subject; Mary, wife of James Mc- 
 Quilan, of Norwalk; Catherine, wife of Thomas 
 O'Brien, of the same place ; and Sarah, Andrew and 
 James H., all at home with their parents. 
 
 Edward P. Noonan acquired his education in 
 the public schools of Norwalk, and remained there 
 until sixteen years of age, when he went to South 
 Framingham, Mass., where he worked in a rubber 
 shop for two years. Coming to Naugatuck, in 1887, 
 he entered the employ of the Goodyear India Rubber 
 Co., with whom he remained one year ; and then 
 worked for the Naugatuck Alallea'ole Iron Co., at 
 Union City, as assistant foreman and time keeper 
 for three years. In September, 1S92, he opened a 
 shoe store on AVater street, and on Jan. i, 1893, 
 bought the stock of shoes owned by J. T. Garri- 
 son, and removed to his present store on Water 
 street, near Maple. He carried a well-selected stock, 
 and enjoyed the finest trade of any firm in his line 
 in the place. 
 
 Mr. Noonan was married, Feb. 4, 1890, to Miss 
 Elizabeth Brennan, a daughter of Andrew Brennan, 
 of Naugatuck, and to them were born three chil- 
 dren : Mildred, Clare and Flavian. In his political 
 views, Mr. Noonan was independent, and for many 
 years most acceptably filled the office of assistant 
 town clerk. He was a member of St. Francis Cath- 
 olic Church, and also of the Foresters of America, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1519 
 
 and was one of the charter members of the Inter- 
 national Foresters, an insurance order. His death 
 occurred Nov. 30, 1901. 
 
 L. B. BRADLEY, merchant, Derby, New Ha- 
 ven county, Connecticut. 
 
 FRANK H. FAGAN, a prominent young busi- 
 ness man of Derby, Conn., and senior member of the 
 firm of John Fagan's Sons, was born in that place, 
 April 13, 1868, and is a son of John and Ann (Fini- 
 gan) Fagan, natives of County Longford, Ireland. 
 The father was only about seven years of age when 
 he crossed the Atlantic and took up his residence in 
 Derby, Conn., where during his youth he worked as 
 a farm hand. For many years he was engaged in 
 the kindling wood business; later in the junk busi- 
 ness; and in 1882 became interested in the coal 
 business, which he carried on alone until 1890, when 
 our subject was taken as a partner, the firm name 
 being John Fagan & Son. This connection lasted 
 until August, 189s, when the father turned the busi- 
 ness over to his sons, Frank H. and John D., while 
 he lives retired, enjoying a well earned rest. Our 
 subject is the fifth in order of birth in a family of 
 seven children, the others being Ellen, now the wife 
 of D. S. Houlihan, of Derby I Mary, wife of Au- 
 gustus Whiting, of New York; Elizabeth, w'fe of 
 William Russell, of Meriden, Conn. ; John, who 
 died at the age of six years ; Daniel J., who i= en- 
 gaged in the liquor business with his father in Derby 
 and John D., partner of our subject. 
 
 Frank H. Fagan received a good practical edu- 
 cation in the high school of Derby, which he at- 
 tended until sixteen years of age, and then entered 
 the employ of his father, doing the very hardest 
 kind of work in the coal yard, shoveling the coal 
 into boats, etc. In this way he became thoroughly 
 familiar with the business before he became a mem- 
 ber of the firm. He and his brother, under the firm 
 name of John Fagan's Sons, have built up an ex- 
 tensive trade as dealers in coal and wood, handling 
 a'bout 4,000 tons of coal per year. In 1896 they 
 added trucking to their business, and since 1897 
 have also engaged in contracting, such as grading, 
 road building, etc. They are now doing a very ex- 
 tensive and profitable business, having by fair and 
 honorable dealing gained the public confidence and 
 a liberal share of the public patronage. 
 
 On June 12, 1894, Mr. Fagan married Miss 
 Lillian Sykes, of Bridgeport, a daughter of Martin 
 Sykes, an old resident of that place who is of Irish 
 extraction. The two children born of this union 
 both died in infancy. In politics Mr. Fagan is a 
 Democrat, but at local elections supports the men 
 whom he believes best qualified to fill the offices re- 
 gardless of party lines. He is a member of the 
 Board of Trade, and since eighteen years of age has 
 been connected with the R. N- Bassett Fire Com- 
 pany, of which he was treasurer for many years, 
 and is now foreman. Religiously he is a member of 
 
 St. Mary's Catholic Church; and fraternally is a 
 member of the Knights of St. Patrick, of New Ha- 
 ven; the Knights of Columbus; and the Catholic 
 Benevolent Legion. 
 
 MICHAEL E. KEELEY, of the Waterbury 
 Scrap Iron Co., with yard and office at the foot of 
 Field street, is a native of Waterbury, born Dec. 29, 
 1862. 
 
 Michael Kceley, father of Michael E., was born 
 in Kilkenny, Ireland, April 3, 1839, one of the six 
 children of Peter Keeley, a blacksmith, and his wife, 
 Mary Lahey. The other five children were : Mary ; 
 Mary (2), who is married and lives in Australia; 
 Patrick, who lives in Liverpool, England; John, 
 who is also in Liverpool ; and Richard, who died in 
 that city. Peter Keeley and his wife never left 
 their native land. 
 
 Michael Keeley, father of our subject, was but 
 eight years of age when he landed in New York, 
 where he was apprenticed to a blacksmith^ and he 
 followed the trade in that city until 1861, when he 
 came to Waterbury, Conn. Again he went to New 
 York and after working about nine years, returned 
 to Waterbury and worked three years, when he 
 went to Hartford, remaining two years, thence to 
 New Haven for one year, and he finally settled in 
 Waterbury. Here he worked as a journeyman for 
 some time, and then opened a shop of his own near 
 the present New England depot, where he carried 
 on business ten years. His next enterprise was the 
 purchase of some property at the corner of 
 Chatfield and Meadow streets, where he erected a 
 brick structure, greatly enlarged his trade, and won 
 the reputation of being the best forge blacksmith in 
 Connecticut. In 1885 Michael Keeley began the 
 scrap iron business, and Aug. i, 1887, he united 
 with him his son, Michael E., and the firm name 
 for two years was M. Keeley & Son. The father 
 then withdrew, and the son continued alone for a 
 short time, when the father resumed the business and 
 now has a plant valued at $35,000 or $40,000. On 
 Sept. 17, 1859, Michael Keeley was joined in mat- 
 rimony with Miss Catherine Egan, a native of 
 Kings county, Ireland, and, this union was blessed 
 with six childdren, viz. : Mary, who died at the 
 age of four years ; Michael E., whose name opens 
 this article ; Elizabeth, who was married to Eugene 
 Grant, of Waterbury, and died When thirty-three 
 years old ; John, a blacksmith in New York ; Peter, 
 a veterinary surgeon and city and town milk In- 
 spector; and Mary (2), who married Thomas 
 Keefe, a resident of Waterbury. 
 
 Michael E. Keeley, the subject proper of this 
 sketch, was graduated from the Waterbury high 
 school with the class of 1880. For the two years 
 following he acted as bookkeeper for his father, and 
 then opened a gymnasium in New Haven, where he 
 had about forty pupils, and gave instruction in all 
 kinds of athletics for about six years. He then re- 
 turned to Waterbury and embarked in the scrap- 
 
1520 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 iron business, in which he has since continued, with 
 the exception of three years which he passed en- 
 gaged in the same line in the West. Some little 
 time after returning he was joined by his father, and 
 together they formed the present firm. For this 
 company Alichael E. is the purchasing agent, and all 
 profits are divided equally between the two. The 
 volume of business transacted by the firm reaches 
 $100,000 per annum. 
 
 On June 28, 1892, Michael E. Keeley was joined 
 in marriage with Miss Sophia Deagan, who was 
 born in Redding, Eairfield Co., Conn., a daughter of 
 John Deagan, who was formerly a school teacher, 
 but is now deceased. To Mr. and ;\lrs. Keeley no 
 children have been born, but they have adopted a 
 daughter, Jennie M., who is yet in school. In poli- 
 tics Mr. Keeley is a Democrat ; fraternally he is a 
 member of New Haven Lodge, No. 25, B. P. O. E. 
 He has mingled with the world sufficiently to be a 
 fine judge of human nature, and ,in his business 
 transactions is strictly upright and conscientious. 
 
 CHARLES F. BRADLEY, dealer in general 
 merchandise, Branford, New Haven county, Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 CHARLES E. ROWAN, a leading grocer and 
 representative business man of Derby, Conn., was 
 born in that place, July 4, 1868, a son of William 
 Rowan, who was born in Roden, Canada, in 1831. 
 Grandfather Rowan, who was engaged in the lum- 
 ber business in Canada, was also born in that coun- 
 try of Irish parentage. 
 
 In his native land William Rowan grew to man- 
 hood and married Philomen Brisebois, also a native 
 of Canada, and a daughter of Ezra Brisebois, who 
 was born there of French parentage. Shortly after 
 their marriage, the parents of our subject came to 
 Derby, Conn., in 1865, and here they have since 
 made their home. For many years the father was 
 an employe in the Howe Pin factory, but is at 
 present engaged in the grocery business. In his 
 family are six children, namely: Mary Ann, at 
 home; William, a barber, of Boston, Mass.; Lillian, 
 wife of John J. Gaffney, of Derby ; Sophia, at home ; 
 Charles E., our subject ; and Charlotte, widow of 
 John D. Whelan, of Derby. 
 
 During his boyhood, Charles E. Rowan attended 
 the public schools of Derby, and when his education 
 was completed, he began his business career as a 
 clerk in the grocery store of A. E. Burke, of Derby, 
 with whom he remained two years. For one year 
 he clerked for C. A. Pratt, a clothier, and was with 
 George H. Crook, a grocer, for three years and a 
 half, after which he clerked in his father's grocery 
 store until he embarked in the same line of business 
 for himself in 1896. He. has already built up a 
 large and constantly increasing trade, and is recog- 
 nized as one of the foremost 'business men of the 
 place. 
 
 Mr. Rowan was married, Sept. 3, 1890, to Miss 
 
 Anna Bohan, of Derby, a daughter of Thomas 
 Bohan, of Irish descent. In politics our subject is 
 a stalwart Democrat, and on his party ticket was 
 elected alderman of Derby from the Second ward 
 in December, 1898^ which office he filled with credit 
 to himself and to the entire satisfaction of his con- 
 stitutents. Religiously he is a member of the Cath- 
 olic Church. 
 
 CHARLES B. EVERITT was born in Port 
 Jervis, N. Y., Aug. 8, 1863, and is a son of Martin 
 Cole Everitt, of German and Dutch extraction. The 
 family was founded in America prior to the Revolu- 
 tion by Dr. Everitt, who came from Germany and 
 settled in Hunterdon Co., N. J. He was the 
 author of a medical work used by the profession in 
 his native land. Isaac Everitt, son of the emigrant, 
 engaged in farming. 
 
 John D. Everitt, son of Isaac, was a teacher by 
 profession, but in later life followed merchandising 
 and farming. In politics he was an old line Whig, 
 and he served as justice of the peace, also as asso- 
 ciate judge. He died at the age of seventy-nine. 
 His wife, Roanna Decker, was a daughter of Daniel 
 Decker, and she died at the age of seventy-six. Of 
 their six children Martin Cole is fourth in order of 
 birth; the youngest son died in 1851, at the age of 
 twenty-one; Daniel D. resides in Montague, N. J.; 
 and Robert lives in Centerville, N. J. 
 
 Martin Cole Everitt, the father of Charles B., 
 was born in Montague, N. J., Feb. 4, 1828, and died 
 in Port Jervis, Dec. 23, 1899. He remained on the 
 home farm until he reached the age of sixteen, when 
 he began clerking in a country store. In connec- 
 tion with a brother-in-law he went intO' business 
 with a cash capital of three hundred dollars, carry- 
 ing on a little store at Centerville, N. J. In 1851 
 Mr. Everitt sold out to his partner and went to 
 Port Jervis to take a position as clerk with St. John 
 & Birdsall, and also clerked for Charles St. John for 
 one year, when he became a partner and for ten 
 years he was engaged in business under the firm 
 name of St. John & Everitt. In 1861 Mr. Everitt 
 disposed of his mercantile interests, which had be- 
 come very extensive, and in company with Henry 
 Nooney started a store which they conducted for 
 nearly three years with gratifying success. In 1864 
 Mr. Everitt took a contract to supply the Erie Rail- 
 road with from five thousand to ten thousand cords 
 of wood a year. He bought wooded land, hired 
 men to cut down the timber, leaving very valuable 
 farm land, and several hundred acres became part of 
 the family patrimony. He carried on this business 
 five years, and made his home at Port Jervis. In 
 1868 Mr. Everitt entered the drygoods 'business, and 
 in 1870 a stock company was formed to purchase 
 the First National Bank of Delhi, N. Y., and by a 
 special permit from Congress it was moved to Port 
 Jervis, N. Y., and the name changed to the First 
 National Bank, with a capital stock of $100,000. 
 Mr. Everitt became its First Vice-President. In 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1521 
 
 January, 1871, he was elected cashier and took 
 charge of its affairs; in 1874 he was elected presi- 
 dent, and continued as 'such until his resignation. 
 He was widely known as a capable and honorable 
 man. Mr. Everitt and Miss Louisa Armstrong 
 were married Oct. g, i860. She was born in 
 Montague, N. J., and died leaving a family of three 
 children : John E., who is a conductor on the Erie 
 Railroad ; Charles B. ; and George, who died in 
 April, 1892, at the age of twenty-seven years. Mr. 
 Ev€ritt was a Republican in politics, and a Pres- 
 byterian in religious belief. He was a prominent 
 Freemason. 
 
 Charles B. Everitt grew to manhood under the 
 parental roof in Port Jervis, N. Y., where he at- 
 tended the public school until he attained the age 
 of sixteen. He then entered the bank with his 
 father, but this business did not prove entirely satis- 
 factory to him, and after one year clerking in a 
 dry goods store, he came in 1881 to Waterbury, 
 and was employed hy The Plume & Atwood Mfg. 
 Co., with whom he was connected for sixteen years, 
 rising to important positions. On Jan. i, 1897, he 
 purchased an interest in the City Ice Co., and since 
 that date he has been engaged in its business, filling 
 the positions of president and treasurer. 
 
 Charles B. Everitt and Miss Susie H. Quick 
 were married Oct. 5, 1887. Mrs. Everitt was born 
 in Port Jervis, N. Y., Feb. 26, 1867, a daughter of 
 Thomas J. and Margaret E. (Bonnell) Quick. 
 Thomas J. Quick was born March 17, 1838, in New 
 York, and lived there until twenty-one years of age. 
 During the Civil war, he served three months from 
 New York, and hearing that troops were being en- 
 listed at Port Jervis, went there, and joined the 
 army, serving until the close of the war; he was 
 twice wounded. When the war was over he re- 
 turned to Port Jervis, and clerked in a furniture 
 store. Since 1874 he has been engaged there in the 
 furniture business on his own account. Thomas J. 
 Quick married Margaret E. Bonnell, who was born 
 in Montague, N. J., daughter of LaForge Bonnell, 
 a merchant of Port Jervis, and granddaughter of 
 Hon. Isaac Bonnell, a prominent man in that part of 
 the State. Capt. James Bonnell, the father of Isaac, 
 served in the Revolutionary war. Lawrence Quick, 
 the father of Thomas J. Quick, came from England 
 with his wife and family, and died in Nyack, N. Y. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Quick were the parents of three chil- 
 dren: Susie H., Mrs. Everitt; Edwin, born Jan. 
 28, 1870, who lives in Port Jervis ; and Grace, born 
 Aug. 28, 1874, who died at the age of twenty- 
 three. Mr. Quick is a Republican, and has always 
 taken an active part in political matters. He has 
 been president of his town, and is now president of 
 the Republican Club. He is a member of the Epis- 
 copal Church. Mrs. Quick died in November, 1877, 
 in the faith of the Congregational Church. 
 
 Charles B. Everitt and his wife are the parents 
 of two children: Charles M., who was iborn in 
 Port Jervis, Aug. 4, 1888; and Hazel, who was born 
 
 96 
 
 in Waterbury June 19, 1890. They have a beautiful 
 home in Columbia Heights. Socially Mr. Everitt 
 belongs to the Ancient Order of Heptasophs. For 
 a time he was superintendent of the First Congre- 
 gational Church Sunday-ischool, and he is counted 
 among the most valued citizens of the day. 
 
 J. W. NETTLETON, in his lifetime a prom- 
 inent agriculturist of the town of Milford, was born 
 in the northern part of that town, Feb. 17, 1824, son 
 of William and Nancy (Rogers) Nettleton. 
 
 The family has been identified with the town for 
 several generations. Benajah Nettleton, our sub- 
 ject's grandfather, was bom there and became a 
 leading farmer of the locality. He married Com- 
 fort Beard, of Milford township, and had eight 
 children, viz: William, our subject's father; Heze- 
 kiah, a farmer, who died in early manhood; Ed- 
 ward, a shoe dealer in Fulton, N. Y. ; Leaman, a 
 shoemaker, and later a farmer in New York State ; 
 Joseph, a farmer; Charles, a contractor and builder 
 in New Haven; Anna, wife of Joseph Rogers, a 
 farmer of Milford; and Abigail, who died un- 
 married. 
 
 William Nettleton was born in the town of Mil- 
 ford, Sept. 20, 1790, and learned the builder's trade, 
 which he followed there and in the South. Later 
 he settled upon a farm in Milford, where his death 
 occurred. In politics he was first a Whig, and after- 
 ward a Republican. His wife, Nancy Rogers, was- 
 a native of Milford, and a daughter of Joseph Rog- 
 ers, an influential citizen and the owner of about 
 500 acres of land in the town. Our subject was the 
 first of a family of three children, the others being: 
 Julia A., deceased wife of Treat I. Ford, the latter 
 an architect now residing in Columbus, Ohio; and 
 Garry, an architect and builder, who died in Janes- 
 ville, Wisconsin. 
 
 J. W. Nettleton gained an education in the 
 schools of Milford, attending until he reached the 
 age of seventeen years. From early manhood he 
 engaged in general farming, and his homestead, 
 which contained 100 acres of land, showed the value 
 of careful management. As a citizen he was much 
 esteemed, and he attended the Congregational 
 Church of Milford. Politically he was always af- 
 filiated with the RepubHcan party. On May i^ 
 1847, he married Miss Elizabeth Ann Ford, daugh- 
 ter of Stephen B. Ford, of Milford. She died leav- 
 ing no children, and Mr. Nettleton passed away 
 in 1900. 
 
 HENRY L. FOWLER was born in Guilford, 
 Conn., Aug. 5, 1855, son of Reuben L. Fowler, 
 who was born in Madison, Conn. The Fowlers 
 were an old New England family, and were de- 
 scended from John Fowler, who came into this 
 country from England at an early day. Reuben 
 Fowler, the grandfather of Henry L., was a resident 
 of Madison, and a soldier in the Revolution. 
 
 Reuben L. Fowler, the father of Henry L.,- in 
 
1522 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 early life was a farmer in Guilford, Conn., and then 
 followed the sea until about forty years of age. 
 After that time until very recently he has been en- 
 gaged in manufacturing "Manhaden" oil. He mar- 
 ried Sarah M. Bishop, a native of Guilford, and a 
 daughter of Philo Bishop, of an old settled family in 
 this part of the country; she died Jan. 4, 1892. 
 Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Fowler: 
 Sarah J., Ellen, Clara N., Henry L., Frank E., 
 Hattie E., Frederick A. and Fannie L. Of these, 
 Sarah married Charles Kimberly, of Guilford, and 
 •died in New Haven; Ellen married Charles Black- 
 man, of Caledonia, New York, a manufacturer 
 of agricultural implements, and at one time post- 
 master; Clara married George S. Benton, and lives 
 in New Haven ; Hattie married Robert Hawley, 
 and lives in Unionville, Conn., where her husband 
 -is in 'business as a lumber dealer ; Frank E. is of the 
 iirm of F. E. Fowler, of New Haven, Conn ; Fred- 
 erick is a tool maker in Meriden ; and Fannie mar- 
 ried Burton Brewer, and lives in Guilford, Conn., 
 where her husband is engaged in farming. 
 
 Henry L. Fowler spent his boyhood days in 
 Guilford, where he went to school until he reached 
 the age of seventeen, when he spent a year working 
 with his father. In 1873 he came to Waterbury, 
 ■and entering the foundry of the Farrell Foundry 
 Co., learned the machinist trade, working at it with 
 that firm for three and a half years. For about the 
 same time he was with Cross & Spears, two years 
 ■was with the Waterbury Watch Co., five years with 
 the Scovill Manufacturing Co., and two and a half 
 3^ears with the Plume & Atwood Manufacturing Co. 
 Mr. Fowler then returned to the Scovill Company, 
 and has been with them to the present time, having 
 special charge of the drafting and making of new 
 machinery. 
 
 Henry L. Fowler and Miss Jennie M. Pickett 
 were married Sept. 18, 1878. Mrs. Fowler was 
 "born in Pennsylvania, and is a daughter of John 
 Pickett. To this union were born eight children : 
 Edith, born April 3, 1880, and died July 7, 1880; 
 Clifford, born July 12, 1881 ; Ralph L., born Aug. 
 29, 1883; Lewis A., born May 30, 1887; Alfred P., 
 "born Nov. 13, 1888; Earl F., born April 27, 1891 ; 
 Dorathy E., born Dec. 23, 1894, and died April 16, 
 3896; and Frederick J., born July 3, 1897. Mr. 
 Fowler lives on Wolcott street, and has a handsome 
 residence which overlooks the citv. In politics he 
 is a Republican, and in religion the family are asso- 
 ciated with the Baptist church. Mr. Fowler be- 
 longs to Court America, No. 98, of the Foresters of 
 , America, and has passed through all the chairs 
 of the lodge. He is a good citizen and commands 
 the respect of all who know him. 
 
 IRVING WHITING, a leading citizen of An- 
 sonia, was born Nov. 16, 1859, in Forestville, Conn., 
 a son of Henrv B. and Sarah (Reynolds) Whiting. 
 
 Hawley Whiting, his paternal grandfather, was 
 born in New York State, and settled in Plainville 
 
 at the time of the construction of the canal, being 
 employed upon the masonry. He followed his trade 
 there many years, but afterward went to Ansonia, 
 where he died aged eighty-three. In politics he was 
 a Dernocrat. His wife, Candace Hotchkrss, of 
 Plainville, died aged sixty-seven years, and of their 
 seven children, only two are now living, viz : Will- 
 iam, a resident of Bridgeport, and J. H., publisher 
 of the Gardner News, at Gardner, Massachusetts. 
 Henry B. Whiting, our subject's father, was 
 bom and reared in Plainville, and first learned the 
 tailor's trade, but soon afterward became a clock 
 maker in Forestville, where he followed that trade 
 twenty years. Later he went to Ansonia, and spent 
 ten years in the employ of a clock company there, 
 and for a time he was engaged in the manufacture 
 of fishing rods, until a flood swept away his shop. 
 He then went to New Haven, where he was em- 
 ployed by A. B. Hendrick, as a fishing reel maker, 
 until the time came for retirement from active work. 
 In 1896 he removed to Ansonia, where he died Nov. 
 13. 1899, aged sixty-seven. He was a man who 
 commanded respect wherever he was known and 
 was exceptionally well informed upon the topics of 
 his time, his library being unusually large and his 
 general reading exten'sive. In religious faith he 
 was a Congregationalist, and politically he affiliated 
 with the Democratic party. At one time he was a 
 representative from Forestville, and later he served 
 as clerk of that borough and warden of Ansonia. 
 His wife, Sarah Reynolds, who is still living, was 
 born m Pawtucket, R. I. Our subject was one of 
 a family of five children, of whom four are living: 
 Bela R., a resident of Ansonia; Irving, our subject; 
 Adna, a resident of Bridgeport; and Ruby, who 
 married Clifford Cook, of New Haven. 
 
 Irving Whiting was educated in the public 
 schools of Forestville and Ansonia, and his first 
 regular employment was in the making of fishing 
 rods with his father. After five years in that busi- 
 ness he spent four years in the wire mill of the 
 A. B. C. Co., and in 1887 he entered the employ 
 of the Farrell Foundry Co., taking a position in the 
 rule room, where he is still engaged. At different 
 times he has invested in land and tuilt houses, and 
 he now owns three house's which are rented to seven 
 families. In 1886 he married Miss Annie L. Vine, 
 a native of Norwalk. Her father, George Vine, is 
 the present chief engineer of the Farrell Foundry 
 Co., a most responsible position, and she has a 
 younger sister, Sadie. In politics Mr. Whiting is a 
 Republican, and in 1899 the people of his ward 
 elected him alderman by a majority of 172, to serve 
 until 1901. He is especially interested in the social 
 and industrial problems of the day, and was one 
 of ithe chief promoters of the Rule Workers Union 
 in Ansonia, of which he has been president. He be- 
 longs to the order of the Golden Cross, and is 
 an active worker in the Congregational Church, 
 having served on the prudential committee for sev- 
 eral years and held other offices. At one time he was 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1523 
 
 assistant superintendent of the Sunday school and 
 he and his wife have both taught .classes for years. 
 Mrs. Whiting is an Episcopalian, but attends church 
 Avith her husband, and her fine musical gifts are 
 devoted to the service of the church and Sunday 
 school. Mr. Whiting is also prominent in the work 
 of the Y. P. S. C. E., and has held various offices, 
 including that of president, to which he has been 
 elected a number of times. 
 
 GEORGE J. ALEXANDER, a leading dairy- 
 man and farmer of Waterbury, New Haven Co., 
 Conn., residing on the Meriden road, was born in 
 Patefson, N. J.> April 2, 1850. His father, John 
 Alexander, was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, 
 where, in early life, he received a good education, 
 and also learned the blacksmiths' trade. Subse- 
 quently he traveled through England, France and 
 other European countries, working at his trade, and 
 in 1844 came to America. The voyage was made 
 on a sailing vessel, and on landing in New York, 
 he proceeded at once to Paterson, N. J., where he 
 followed his trade until the gold fever took him to 
 California in 1849. The trip overland was attended 
 with many danger's, but, arriving on the Pacific 
 coast, he spent three years among the mines, meet- 
 ing with fair success in the venture. Upon return- 
 ing to the east by way of the Panama route, he 
 continued to make his home in Paterson, N. J., 
 until coming to Waterbury, Conn., in 1853. For 
 several years he owned and conducted a blacksmith 
 shop on the present site of the Poll Theatre, East 
 Main street, but finally sold out and entered the 
 employ of Brown Brothers. Later he spent sixteen 
 years with Benedict & Co., as blacksmith, and at 
 the end of that time retired from business and pur- 
 chased a small farm on the Meriden road, Water- 
 bury. Here he 'spent the remainder of his life in 
 ease and quiet, dying Dec. 4, 1895, and was interred 
 in Riverside cemetery. A stanch Republican in 
 politics, he was a strong Abolitionist during the 
 Civil war, and a great admirer of Horace Greeley 
 and Henry Ward Beecher. In religious views he 
 was a Presbyterian. Fraternally he was a member 
 of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Paterson, N. J., and 
 he had many other interests, to all of which he gave 
 devoted service and won the respect and esteem of 
 all who knew him. 
 
 In Paterson, John Alexander married Agnes 
 Gillespie, who was born in Johnson, near Glasgow, 
 Scotland, and is still living on the home farm m 
 Waterbury. She is a Christian woman, and a faith- 
 ful member of the Congregational Church. To Mr. 
 and Mrs. Alexander were born five children, name- 
 ly Ellen wife of George B. Hitchcock; George 
 T • Mary I., at home with her mother ; John, de- 
 ceased; and Jessie M., wife of M. J. Fogg, of 
 Waterbury. ^ , , , 
 
 During his boyhood George J. Alexander pur- 
 sued his studies in the public schools of the East 
 Farms district, Waterbury, and was reared to agri- 
 
 cultural pursuits upon the home farm. Since at- 
 taining man's estate he has engaged quite extensive- 
 ly in the wood business and in general farming, and 
 has made many improvements upon his place, in- 
 cluding the erection of a fine residence, good barns 
 and other outbuildings. 
 
 Dec. 10, 1888, in Wolcott, Conn., Mr. Alexander 
 was united in marriage with Antoinette (Nettie) 
 Cornelia Hitchcock, a native of that town, and a 
 daughter of Sheldon T. and Cornelia (Andrews) 
 Hitchcock. She is a good house wife and presides 
 with gracious dignity over her home. Three chil- 
 'dren have been born to them, namely : Elton H. 
 and Morton P., who are both attending school ; and 
 Earl G., who died at the age of four years. 
 
 Mr. Alexander is a Republican in politics. For 
 thirteen years he was a member of Company D, 2nd 
 Regiment Conn. Nat. Guard's, and is now connected 
 with Mad River Grange. He is an active member 
 of the Congregational Church, and is a quiet, unas- 
 suming man, noted for his industry and integrity. 
 He has served as a member of the school committee, 
 and as collector of school taxes, and has discharged 
 the duties of both offices in a commendable and satis- 
 factory manner. 
 
 J. G. SCHWINK, dealer in milk, vegetables, 
 grain, feed and fertilizers, Meriden, New Haven 
 county, Connecticut. 
 
 E. J. HEINEMAN, though young in years, is 
 rapidly rising to the front in the business circles of 
 Wallingford, and in his chosen field confesses no 
 superior, either as to knowledge of his goods, or in 
 the character and quality of the carriages, harness 
 and farm implements he offers for sale. Upright 
 and honorable by nature and known to be fair and 
 square in all his dealings he has won a substantial 
 trade during a comparatively brief business career. 
 
 Born in Cheshire, Conn., Feb. 20, 1868, Mr. 
 Heineman is a son of John and Bridget (Reynolds) 
 Heineman, natives respectively of Germany and 
 Ireland, and at present passing their declining years 
 in Wallingford. When but three years old Mr. 
 Heineman came with his parents to Wallingford, 
 where he attended the Wallingford schools, and was 
 reared to habits of industry and economy. While 
 still a lad he realized an income from the sale of 
 local and New York papers on the streets, and 
 while yet in his 'teens secured a position in the 
 factory of R. Wallace, where he learned the trade 
 of etching. For six years he worked as an etcher, 
 and then worked six years as a clerk in the store 
 of E. C. Morse Baker. In the meantime he was 
 also engaged in the carriage trade, carrying a fine 
 stock of harness, and other accessories to the road, 
 having a partnership interest, which he sold in 1897. 
 Immediately he opened another store on a different 
 street, and has at the present time the largest car- 
 riage repositorv between Hartford and New Haven. 
 Mr. Heineman is also agent for the McCormick 
 
1524 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 farm implements, and in this line has secured an 
 equally satisfactory patronage. A Democrat, and a 
 member of the Catholic Order of Foresters, he be- 
 longs to the Catholic Church, and is highly re- 
 spected by all who know him. 
 
 GEORGE H. FORD. Prominent among the 
 business men of Waterville, New Haven Co., Conn., 
 is George H. Ford, who has served as postmaster 
 of the place for seventeen years. No one is better 
 known in that locality, for almost his entire life 
 has been spent there, and all of his interests from 
 boyhood have been closely associated with those of 
 the town of Waterbury. As a business man he has 
 met with excellent success, and by the energy and 
 zeal which he has manifested has won the confidence 
 and esteem of the public. 
 
 Mr. Ford was born in Tariffville, town of Sims- 
 bury, Hartford Co., Conn., Aug. i6, 1854, a son of 
 Daniel and Jane (Wilson) Ford. In early life the 
 father engaged in the manufacture of spoons at 
 Spoonville, Hartford county, where he remained 
 until 1858, and then came to Waterville, New Haven 
 county, where he spent some time working in the 
 mills, but later engaged in general mercantile busi- 
 ness. He was a Republican in politics, was liberal 
 in his religious views, and was well known and 
 highly respected. Both he and his: wife died and 
 were buried in Waterville. She was a good Chris- 
 tian woman. Their children were Frances, wife of 
 Mr. Ford; Edgar, a resident of Waterville; James 
 H., of California ; Etta, deceased wife of Henry H. 
 B. Fisk; George H. ; Florence; and Walter D., of 
 Waterville. 
 
 To a limited extent, during his boyhood, George 
 H. Ford attended the district schools of Waterville, 
 buit he is mo'stly self-educated. From an early age 
 he clerked in his father's store, and at the age of 
 sixteen accepted a similar position with L. G. Able, 
 remaining with him over three years. Later he was 
 with C. T. Yale, in the butcher business, and on 
 leaving his employment started in business for him- 
 self at Thomaston, Conn. He subsequently re- 
 turned to Waterville, where he has since conducted 
 a general store, carrying all kinds of merchandise, 
 mcluding groceries and meats. He has built up 
 quite a large and profitable trade. 
 
 In Waterville, Mr. Ford was united in marriage 
 with Helen L. Carter, a daughter of D. S. Carter, 
 and to them has been born one child, Maude m! 
 Socially he is a charter member of Speedwell Lodge, 
 K. P., and the Foresters Lodge, both of Waterville, 
 and is now treasurer of the latter order. In his 
 political affiliations he is a Republican, and for six 
 years served as constable in Waterville. He was 
 first appointed postmaster of that place during Presi- 
 dent Garfield's administration, and has filled the of- 
 fice ever since with credit to himself, and to the en- 
 tire satisfaction of the general public. Of a social, 
 genial nature, he makes many friends, and is very 
 popular both in business and social circles. 
 
 E. A. BRADLEY is a dealer in carriages, horses, 
 harnesses, etc.,. and is the proprietor of the livery 
 and boarding stable at Nos. 202 and 204 North 
 Main St., Waterbury, New Haven Co., Connecticut. 
 
 HANS RASMUS'SEN, a well-known dairy 
 farmer of Town Plot, is one of the leading and in- 
 fluential citizens of Waterbury, and has taken an 
 active part in promoting its substantial material de- 
 velopment. An adopted 'son of America, his loyalty 
 is above question, and his labors in the interest of 
 the town have been most effective and beneficial. 
 
 Mr. Rasmussen was born May 17, 1857, on 
 Laaland Island, Denmark, of which place his par- 
 ents, Jens and Jensine (Jorgens) Rasmussen, were 
 also natives, and where the father followed the oc- 
 cupation of farming. With the younger members of 
 their family, the parents came to the United States 
 in 1882, and have since made their home in Water- 
 bury, Conn. They are members of the Lutheran 
 Church, and highly respected by all who know them. 
 Their children are, Annie Marie, wife of Peter 
 Lund, of Mill Plain, Waterbury; Hannah Sophia^ 
 widow of R. P. Peterson, of Prospect, Conn. ; Hans ; 
 George, a dairy farmer of Prospect; Dorothea, a 
 resident of Waterbury; Rasmu'ssen Scott, a florist 
 of Town Plot ; and Niels, a dairy farmer of the same 
 place. 
 
 In his youth Mr. Rasmussen attended the public 
 schools of his native land, and completed his edu- 
 cation at a military college, from which he was. 
 graduated in due time. Subsequently he served for 
 five years in the regular army, and attained to the 
 rank of a 'second lieutenant of artillery. May 17,. 
 1881, he sailed from Copenhagen, Denmark, for 
 America, and on landing in New York found that, 
 he had only $4.50 with which to begin life in the 
 New World. Coming to Waterbury, Conn., he- 
 found employment as a hod carrier for a mason, and 
 after a short time entered the employ of the Amier- 
 ican Ring Co., and was in their burnishing depart- 
 ment until 1884. He then rented a farm of Mr. 
 Nichols in Town Plot, and turned his attention to- 
 the dairy business, starting with only five cows. 
 Four years later he formed a partnership with his. 
 brother-in-law, R. P. Peterson, and they continued 
 to carry on the business together until 1890, when 
 Air. Peterson sold out and removed to Prospect. Mr. 
 Rasmussen then rented his farm to his brother 
 George, and went to New York, where he was en- 
 gaged in the construction of a shell factory for the 
 United States government at Brooklyn. After the 
 comipletion of the factory he acted as Assistant man- 
 ager of the works, under A. T. Porter, for four 
 years, and in the discharge of this responsibility 
 gave entire satisfaction, his experience, while an- 
 artillery man in Denmark, proving of great utility. 
 On account of some difficulty he resigned his posi- 
 tion at the shell works and returned to hLs farm in 
 Waterbury, where he has since taken rank as one 
 of the most extensive and successful dairy farmers- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1525 
 
 in the town. He owns a tract of 250 acres of land, 
 upon which he has made many improvements, in- 
 cluding the erection of two fine barns, both ;i2xio8 
 feet in dimension. He keeps forty-six cows, and 
 ■conducts his business according to the most ap- 
 proved methods of dairying. 
 
 Oct. 15, 1891, in New York, Mr. Rasmussen 
 married Anna Schaffner, a native of Canton Aargau, 
 Switzerland, and a daughter of Johannes and Anna 
 (\yeidmer) Schaffner, of that country. Of this 
 imion has been born four children : Signe, Ernest, 
 Arnold Rudolph and Hans Floyd. In religious be- 
 lief Mr. Rasmussen is a Lutheran. He is inde- 
 pendent in politics, and in his social relations is a 
 member of the Mad River Grange and the Independ- 
 ent Order of Odd Fellows. Integrity, activity and 
 energy have characterized his business career, and 
 -without the aid of influence or wealth, he has risen 
 to a position among the prominent men of his. town. 
 He is eminently public-spirited and with A. G. 
 Camp and C. M. Upson gave a tract of one hun- 
 dred acres of land to the city of Waterbury for a 
 park, now known as South Park, which generous 
 gift the city government thankfully accepted. 
 
 Rasmussen Scott Rasmussen, a brother of 
 Hans, and proprietor of the Town Plot Conserva- 
 tory, at No. 199 Bank street, Waterbury, was born 
 on Laaland Island, Denmark, June 9, 1865, and 
 -was educated in the public schools, and the Floral 
 Culture School of Bethany, Rosenberg, Denmark, 
 from which latter institution he was graduated in 
 1884. Later in the same year he joined his family 
 in Waterbury, Conn., and soon afterward estab- 
 lished his present business at Town Plot. He is one 
 of the representative business men in his line in 
 Waterbury, and has built up an excellent trade. He 
 is admirably equipped for the successful prosecu- 
 tion of his business, his plant costing over $8,000. 
 His green houses, which cover two acres of ground, 
 are as perfectly arranged as the experience and 
 ■skill of the horticulturist can make them, and every 
 plant or flower of interest is found there. It has 
 been the aim of the proprietor to make his estab- 
 lishment a complete exposition of the progress of 
 liis chosen industry, and his salesrooms contam at 
 all times a choice assortment of the most popular 
 and beautiful flowers. The artistic and elaborate 
 designs in floral work, for which the house has 
 an enviable reputation, are marvels of exquisite 
 workmanship. Mr. Rasmussen is always prepared 
 to furnish plants and flowers for weddings, funer- 
 als banquets and parties, while a full supply of 
 roses geraniums- and other favorite varieties of 
 floriculture are kept at his parlors for personal 
 adornment or ordinary use. He is a member of 
 the Florists Association of America, and thoroughly 
 ■understands the business which he follows so suc- 
 cessfully. He is a member of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church of Waterbury. Fraternally he is as- 
 sociated with the Independent Order of Odd 
 Fellows, and in politics he is a Republican. 
 
 GEORGE A. GIBSON, foreman of the press 
 department, Waterbury Mfg. Co., and treasurer of 
 Waterbury, is a native of that city, born Dec. 2^, 
 1868. 
 
 Cornelius Gibson, his father, was born in Lon- 
 don, England, in 1822, a son of John Gibson, a 
 merchant in that metropolis, where he passed all his 
 days. Cornelius came to America when a young 
 man, locating first in Hartford, Conn., where for 
 many years he followed the trade of machinist, mov- 
 ing from there to Wethersfield. In Hartford he 
 married Catherine Fanning, who was born in 
 Queen's County, Ireland, a daughter of John Fan- 
 ning, who did not come to America. Seven chil- 
 dren were born to this union, viz. : Charlotte mar- 
 ried Dennis J. Gaynor, and they live in Bridge- 
 port; Mary is a school teacher; Caroline is the 
 widow of David Hayes, formerly a merchant in 
 Waterbury; Sarah married Eugene O. Martin, of 
 Waterbury, now a retired merchant; Ellen married 
 John H. Frain, of Waterbury; Cornelius, unmar- 
 ried, is a mechanic in Waterbury ; George A. is the 
 subject of this sketch. The parents of this family 
 died, the father in 1884, aged sixty-two years, the 
 mother in February, 1894. 
 
 George A. Gibson attended the local schools of 
 his native place until he was sixteen years old, at 
 which time he went to work in the Waterbury Mfg. 
 Co.'s works, where he has ever since continued, be- 
 ing now foreman of the press department. 
 
 On Oct. 22, 1895, Mr. Gibson married Bridget 
 Coogan, who was born in PottsviUe, Penn., a daugh- 
 ter of Patrick Coogan, a native of Ireland. She 
 was organist in St. Patrick's Catholic Church some 
 ten years, also leading soprano in the choir. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Gibson are members of the Church of the 
 Immaculate Conception, Waterbury. In politics he 
 has always been an uncomprising Democrat ; in 1897 
 he was elected city treasurer, serving 1898-99, and 
 was re-elected to the office in October of 1899. 
 Socially he is a member of the Foresters of Amer- 
 ica, and for four years was treasurer of that society. 
 He is highly popular in the community in which he 
 lives, and he bears a good record as a loyal and 
 substantial citizen. 
 
 PETER J. CARNEY, the genial and popular 
 host of the "Griswold House," and proprietor of the 
 cafe in connection therewith, at Branford, is a native 
 of the city which is pro^fiting by his successful 
 career, and was born Aug. 16, 1867. His parents, 
 James and Margaret (Cusick) Carney, are natives 
 respectively of County Tipperary and County Cavan, 
 Ireland. 
 
 James Carney emigrated to this country about 
 1846, and established himself for a time in Middle- 
 town, Conn., two years later removing to Branford, 
 where his death occurred in 1899. The family 
 fortunes are more fully narrated under the heading 
 of Thomas P. Carney, w'hose sketch appears on an- 
 other page. 
 
1526 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Peter J. Carney was reared in Branford, and 
 completed the high school course at the age of six- 
 teen years. His initiation into self support was as 
 an employe in the store room of the Branford Lock 
 Works, where, at a later period, he worked as a 
 lock titter and brass trimmer. Long before the 
 average youth has formulated political tendencies 
 he had allied himself with the Democratic party, 
 and in 1889, when only twenty-two years of age, 
 he was made chairman of the Democratic town 
 committee. In June, 1891, he was appointed deputy 
 sheriff, a position which he held four years. Be- 
 ginning with June, 1895, he was for two years a 
 clerk in the office of the Branford Lock Works, and 
 in 1897 engaged in the meat business, as a member 
 of the tirm of Bailey & Carney. At the end of a' 
 year this partnership was dissolved, Mr. Carney re- 
 tiring from the firm to take up his present occupa- 
 tion as host to the traveling public. 
 
 Nov. 16, 1892, Mr. Carney married Catherine, 
 daughter of Joseph and Bridget (Curtin) Albinger, 
 of Branford, and of this union there are three chil- 
 dren, James J., Vera and Francis. Mr. Carney is a 
 member of St. Mary's Catholic Church, and is fra- 
 ternally associated with the Knights of Columbus, 
 the New England Order of Protection, and the 
 Catholic Benevolent Association. He is a practical 
 business man of unquestioned integrity, and is gifted 
 with the requisite tact, good fellowship and op- 
 timism for the successful conduct of his present 
 calling. 
 
 GEORGE BARNES (deceased), for many 
 years associated with the industrial world of Water- 
 bury, was a man of more than usual strength of 
 character, and in his youth enjoyed educational 
 privileges of a high order. Born and reared in 
 Litchfield, he had his training in the local schools, 
 and when he went to Northfield, at the age of twen- 
 ty-two, was well prepared to take up the work of 
 public school teaching. This was his calling for a 
 number of years, as it was also the work of his wife. 
 They were married June 4, 1849, and became the 
 parents of two children: Edwin D., w'ho died at 
 the age of four years ; and Eva B., who lived only 
 one year. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Barnes lived at Northfield four 
 years after their marriage, and then resided for 
 short periods at several places. In 1859 they came 
 to Waterbury, where they made their home until the 
 death of Mr. Barnes, April 14, 1894. After com- 
 ing to that city Mr. Barnes worked for the Scovill 
 Manufacturing Co. several years, and then entered 
 the store of E. T. Turner, his- brother-in-law, the 
 eminent dry-goods merchant, with whom he con- 
 tinued for twenty-eight years. Mr. Barnes was a 
 Republican, and, while never an aspirant for po- 
 litical honors, was serving the city as alderman at 
 the time of his death. A memlber of the Inde- 
 pendent Order of Odd Fellows, he was highly re- 
 
 garded by the members of that fraternity. As a 
 genial and courteous gentleman, and a true-hearted 
 and generous man, he had many friends. 
 
 JOHN F. GALLAGHER, one of the most pro- 
 gressive and enterprising citizens of Waterbury, 
 now living on the Wolcott road, was born in the city 
 of Hartford, Conn., Nov. 25, 1856, and is a son of 
 John Gallagher, late of Waterbury. He was still 
 quite young on the removal of the family from Hart- 
 ford to Waterbury, and in the public schools of the 
 latter place he acquired his early education. He be- 
 gan his business career as a clerk in a store at Wat- 
 erbury, where he continued until 1877, and then em- 
 barked in the butcher business on a small scale. He 
 has increased his business to meet the growing de- 
 mands of his trade, and is now at the head of a large 
 and prosperous concern. He is also a large land 
 owner, and is extensivdy engaged in dairy farming 
 and stock dealing. 
 
 Mr. Gallagher married Miss Anna Ferguson, of 
 Waterbury, and to them was born a son, Frank, 
 who was educated in the high schooLs of that town, 
 and is now at home. The family have a fine home 
 on the Wolcott road in Waterbury. Mr. Gallagher 
 has traveled much in the South, and although his 
 school privileges were meager he has through his 
 own effort become a well informed man. He is 
 progressive in his ideas, is a good judge of human 
 nature, and possesses excellent business and execu- 
 tive ability, which characteristics have been im- 
 portant factors in his success, for he started out in 
 life for himself with no capital, and the prosperity 
 that has come to him is due to his own well-directed 
 efforts. He takes a deep interest in agricultural 
 matters, and both he and his wife are active and 
 prominent members of j\Iad River Grange. In 
 politics he is independent, voting for the men whom 
 he believes best qualified to fill the offices regardless 
 of party lines. He is a good citizen, honest and 
 honorable in his dealings, and is well liked and 
 highly respected. 
 
 WILLIAM N. LAD, for the past quarter of a 
 century or so proprietor of one of the leading retail 
 grocery stores in Waterbury, is a native of Con- 
 necticut, born in South Windham, Dec. 24, 1852. 
 
 William Lad, grandfather of William N., was 
 probably born in Franklin, Conn., where he was for 
 years in the grocery business, as was his father be- 
 fore him. He died in the town of Windham in 
 1858. He married a Miss Peck, and of this union 
 there were six children, as follows: William was a 
 sailor ; Fredus is the fatlier of William L. ; Alfred 
 went to California in 1849, and died in Denver, 
 Col. ; Merrell died in Chicago, 111., where he was 
 in the insurance business ; James was a dentist in 
 Providence, R. I., and died there ; Elizabeth married 
 Waldo Bingham, now a retired farmer of Windham, 
 Windham Co., Connecticut. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1527 
 
 Fredus Lad, father of our subject, was born in 
 iranklm, Wmdham Co., Conn., where he was reared 
 and educated. After leaving school he worked in 
 a hotel and grocery store, and thus gained prelim- 
 inary experience in the business to which he devoted 
 his mature energies. Later, in the grocery store 
 of Eh Bros., in Norwich, he received the slight re- 
 muneration of twelve and one-half cents per day. 
 He and his brother, Merrell, furnished ties for the 
 Hartford, Providence & Fishkill R. R., and for 
 years he was in the employ of that company. In 
 1856 he came to Waterbury, where his death 
 eventually occurred. He married Eliza M. Frink, 
 who was born in South Windham, Conn., a member 
 of an old family in that part of the State. For her 
 second husband she wedded a Mr. Bingham, whose 
 father served in the war of 1812. Mrs. Lad, who 
 died in September, 1883, became the mother, 
 through her first marriage, of the following chil- 
 dren : Agnes, who died in 1856, at the age of ten 
 years ; Gertrude, who also is deceased ; William N. ; 
 and Elizabeth, who died in 1874. The family in 
 religious faith were Episcopalians; in politics the 
 father was a Democrat. 
 
 William N. Lad was four years old when his 
 parents came to Waterbury, and after attending the 
 local schools, entered Watertown Academy when 
 twelve years of age. His first business experience 
 was acquired as ,a clerk in his father's grocery store, 
 this training being supplemented by work for two 
 years in a boot and shoe store in Waterbury. He 
 then entered upon an independent grocery business, 
 and, with the exception of twenty months in Water- 
 town,, he has been in the retail grocery business in 
 Waterbury continuously for about twenty-five 
 years. Nineteen of these years his store was on 
 South Main street, two on Grand street, and the 
 remainder of the time on Center street, where his 
 present business is located. 
 
 In July, 1877, Mr. Lad was united in marriage 
 with Harriet Lowe, who was born in Waterbury, a 
 daughter of James Lowe, who was of Irish extrac- 
 tion. Three children have been born of this union : 
 William F., Gertrude H. and Clifford. The family 
 attend the services of the Episcopal Church. In 
 politics Mr. Lad has always been a Democrat, and 
 fraternally he is associated with the Knights of 
 Pythias, and the Improved Order of Red Men. 
 
 LOUIS A. FISK, who ranks among the promi- 
 nent and successful young attorneys of Branford, 
 comes of a family for generations connected with 
 the professional and general stability of Connecti- 
 cut. 
 
 His father, Eugene D. Fisk, was long famous in 
 the State as an attorney, and distinguished himself 
 both on the Bench and at the Bar. He was also 
 prominent in political affairs, and was at one time 
 chairman of the State Democratic _ Conventi'on. 
 For a number of years he was in business in Chi- 
 cago, where he was a member of the Board of 
 
 Trade. During the Civil war he organized a regi- 
 ment for the Union service. He is now living re- 
 tired at Sachem's Head, Conn., but his wife, for- 
 merly Catherine Daniels, of Hartford, died July 2^ 
 1880. She was the mother of five children, of 
 whom Emily, Clifford and James died in infancy;. 
 Of the surviving children, Leonard D. is engaged in 
 the wholesale and retail grain business in Hart- 
 ford, Conn. He married Jennie Judd, of that city,, 
 and they have two children, Leonard D. and Cath- 
 erine. 
 
 Louis A. Fisk was born in Hartford, Conn.» 
 Nov. 14, 1873, and received his literary education 
 in the Chicago public schools and under Prof. F. A. 
 Honey, of New Haven, Conn. After three years of 
 professional research in Chicago he graduated in 
 1897, and returning to New Haven, he entered 
 upon what has proved a lucrative and growing prac- 
 tice. In May, 1901, Mr. Fisk received substantial 
 evidence oi his popularity in his election on the 
 Democratic ticket to the office of Warden of Bran- 
 ford. Iru 1899 Mr-. Fisk opened the Branford Driv- 
 ing Park. 
 
 The marriage of Mr. Fisk and Ellen Lynch, of 
 New Haven, occurred Dec. 28, 1898, and two chil- 
 dren have been born of this union, Leonard D.^ 
 born Nov. 8, 1899, died in October, 1900, and 
 Marian Catherine, bo^m Nov. 16, 1900. 
 
 GEORGE H. ENNIS, attorney at law, Derby, 
 New Haven County, Connecticut. 
 
 MICHAEL E. JOHNSON, a leading liquor 
 dealer and a prominent and influential citizen of 
 Derby, Conn., was born in Scranton, Penn., Sept^ 
 20, 1861, and is of Irisih descent. His paternal 
 grandfather, William Johnson, was a farmer of 
 Ireland, where he spent his entire life. The father, 
 William Johnson, Jr.,, father of Michael E., was, 
 born in County Mayo, and when sixteen years of 
 age came to the New World andi located in Scran- 
 ton, Penn. At the age of twenty-four he began 
 ccntracting and building, and followed that pursuit 
 until the opening of the Civil war, in 1861, when he 
 entered the Union army, and remained in the serv- 
 ice until the cessation of hostilities in 1865. Re- 
 turning home, he resumed bis former occupation, 
 and also conducted' a lime kiln until his death in 
 1876, which resulted from a fall from a building. 
 He married Jane Rbuan, also a native of County- 
 Mayo, Ireland, who died in 1888. Of the five chil- 
 dreni born to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, John died 
 young; William when last heard from was in the 
 West on a ranch ; Mary and Honora are both de- 
 ceased ; and Michael E. completes the family. 
 
 Reared to manhood in Scranton, Penn., our sub- 
 ject obtained his education in its public schools. 
 In February, 1881, he came to Derby, Conn., where 
 he has 'since made his home. He worked in the 
 office of Schully Brothers, coal dealers, for two 
 years, and during the following three years clerked' 
 
1528 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 for Phillip AIcEnerney, a grocer. In 1889 he com- 
 menced business on the east side for himself as a 
 liquor dealer, and is now doing a large and profit- 
 able wholesale and retail liquor busincir. 
 
 Mr. Johnson was married, in 1890, to jVEiss 
 Mary E. Dockry, of Derby, a daughter of John 
 Dockry, who was of Irish extraction and was one 
 of the first aldermen of Derby. By this union were 
 born five children, namely : Jennie M., John, Eliza- 
 beth, Emma and Margaret. 
 
 As a Democrat Mr. Johnson has always taken 
 an active part in local politics, and has been a mem- 
 ber of the old town committee and was chairman of 
 the city committee of Derby, in 1896. He is now 
 serving as alderman from the Third ward, and is 
 proving a most popular and capable official. Soci- 
 ally he is connected with the Foresters of America. 
 He is a very active and prominent member of the 
 Liquor Dealers' Association, and represented this 
 .State in the national convention of the Retail Liquor 
 ^Dealers' Protective Association, at Cleveland, Ohio. 
 -He 'has also served as president of the City Liquor 
 Dealers' Association for five consecutive years. 
 
 THOMAS J. COYLE, in the employ of the 
 Waterbury Clock Co., Waterbury, is a native of 
 ■Connecticut, born in Bridgeport Jan. 8, 1849. 
 
 John Coyle, father of Thomas J., was born in 
 •County Longford, Ireland, in 1816, and when but 
 a lad his father, a farmer of that county, was taken 
 from him by death. In 1836 he came to the United 
 States, and for a time worked in Providence, R. I., 
 removing in 1842 to Bridgeport, where for many 
 years he ran a stationary engine, and Where he is 
 now retired, at the patriarchal age of eighty-four. 
 In New York he married Catherine Reilly, born 
 in County Longford, Ireland, a daughter of Patrick 
 Reilly, who died in Bridgeport. Mrs. John Coyle, 
 who died in July of 1899, was the mother of eight 
 children, as follows : Ann died in infancy ; Ellen 
 married John Foley, of Bridgeport, and died in 
 1871, at the age of twenty-seven years; Mary mar- 
 ried Michael Frawley, of Bridgeport, and died in 
 1892; Thomas J. is next in the order of birth; 
 John D. (Rev.) is pastor of St. Patrick's Church, 
 New Haven ; Catherine and Francis are deceased ; 
 Rev. William H. attended St. Francis Xavier Col- 
 lege, New York, and is a mem'ber of the Society of 
 Jesus. 
 
 Thomas J. Coyle received his education in 
 Bridgeport, where he learned the trade of ma- 
 chinist, and followed the same until 1881. That 
 year he removed to New York, and was similarly 
 engaged for seven years, and in 1889 came to Water- 
 bury and entered the employ of the Waterbury 
 Clock Co., with whom' he has since been connected. 
 He married Julia A. O'Neil, who was born in 
 Goshen, Conn., a daughter of John and Emily 
 ( Harden ) O'Neil, the former a native of Tipperary, 
 Ireland, the latter of Litchfield, Conn. Seven chil- 
 dren were born of this union, five of whom are de- 
 
 ceased, those living being William C. and Charles 
 O'Neil. The entire family are members of St. 
 Thomas Parish Catholic Church, Waterbury. So- 
 cially Mr. Coyle is affiliated with the A. O. U. W. ; 
 in politics he is a Democrat, and at present is serv- 
 ing on the board of assessors, having been elected 
 thereto in 1898, and taking office in 1899. He is 
 one of the solid men of the city, respected by all who 
 know him. 
 
 NIELS RASMUSSEN, one of the most pro- 
 gressive and successful agriculturists of Town Plot, 
 Waterbury, was born on the Island of Laaland, 
 Denmark, April 21, 1868, and is a son of Jens P. 
 and Jensine (Jorgens) Rasmussen, of whom more 
 extended mention is made in the sketch of Hans 
 Rasmussen on another page of this volume. 
 
 Mr. Rasmussen was educated in the schools of 
 his native land and was thirteen years of age when 
 he accompanied the family on their emigration to 
 America, locating in the town of Waterbury, New 
 Haven Co., Conn. He found employment with the 
 American Ring Co. at fifty cents per day, and re- 
 mained with them one year, after which he worked 
 six months for the firm of Chapman & Armstrong. 
 During the following two years he was employed 
 on the farm of his brother, Hans Rasmussen, and 
 brother-in-law, R. P. Peterson, in Town Plot, and 
 later spent three years in Iowa, Mmnesota and other 
 Northwestern States, where he thoroughly learned 
 the art of butter making. On his return to Water- 
 bury he obtained the position of foreman on Mrs. 
 Hilman's farm for four years, and then purchased 
 the stock and farming implements and rented the 
 farm, which he has since successfully operated. It 
 is one of the finest farms on the Town Plot, con- 
 sisting of 165 acres under a high state of cultiva- 
 tion, and with all modern appliances for labor sav- 
 ing. Mr. Rasmussen keeps thirty-five cows and 
 eight horses, and is carrying on dairy farming with 
 marked' success. He is an enterprising, energetic 
 and reliable young man, to which laudable char- 
 acteristics may be attributed his success in life. 
 Fraternally he is a member of the Mad River 
 Grange, and politically is identified with the Re- 
 publican party. 
 
 THOMAS C. LANE, well and favorably 
 known in Waterbury, is a native of Maine, bom in 
 Portland July 4, 1858, a son of Marcus D. Lane, 
 and a grandson of Capt. John Lane, who was a 
 lumberman and extensive real-estate owner in 
 Hollis, Maine. The family is of Scotch-Irish de- 
 scent. 
 
 Marcus D. Lane was bom in 1823, in Hollis, 
 Maine, where he attended school, subsequently 
 taking a course at Dartmouth College, graduating 
 with the class of '49. He then studied law, and for 
 some time practiced at Standish and Portland, 
 Maine, in which latter city he was at one time judge 
 of the police court. He held two commissions un- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.- 
 
 1529 
 
 years Ind Lincoln was State senator three 
 
 years and was also judge of the supreme court 
 for a year, his death occurring at the expira- 
 lon of this service, in 1872. An aggressive Repub- 
 hcan, he was a power in oohtics, and fraternally was 
 a Freemason of high degree, and a master of the 
 lodge. In rehgious faith lie was a member of St. 
 btephen s Church in Portland, of which he was a 
 vestryman. He married Elizabeth T. H. Chad- 
 bourne, a native of Maine, and of this union there 
 have been born two children: Dr. George Lane 
 who IS practicing medicine in New York City : and 
 Thomas C. 
 
 Thomas C. Lane passed his boyhood in Standish 
 and Portland, Maine, attending a seminary in the 
 former and a grammar school in the latter town. 
 In 1872, on the death of his father, he moved with 
 his mother to Brunswick, Maine, w"bere he gradu- 
 ated from the high school with the class of '76; 
 then entered Dartmouth College, class of '82, for 
 the Freshman year, afterward entering Bowdoin 
 College, same class, and leaving at the end of the 
 Junior year. 'Mr. Lame then went to Boston, w<bere 
 he was in the employ of B. J. Dennison about two 
 years, and then traveled considerably through the 
 Wesit. For four years he was in a wholesale 
 jewelry estabKshment in Kansas City, then, after 
 a year spent in the South, he returned to Portland, 
 Maine, and for some time continued in the jewelry 
 business in that city. We next find him in New 
 York City, again representing a jewelry bouse "on 
 the road" until coming to Waterbury, Aug. 8, 1891. 
 July 17, 1890, Mr. Lane married Jennie C. 
 White, a daughter of Leroy S. White, of Water- 
 bury, and three children have been born to them : 
 Elizabeth C, Edith D. and Helen. Socially our 
 subject is a member of the following organizations : 
 Continental Lodge, F. & A. M., and Eureka Chap- 
 ter, No. 22; Continental Lodge, I. O. O. F. ; Cam- 
 stock Lodge, No. 13, K. of P. ; Tunxis Tribe, Order 
 of Red Men ; Ancient Order United Workmen, No. 
 52, and others. 
 
 Mr. Lane has been identified with the politics of 
 Waterbury ever since taking up his residence in the 
 city. In 1892-93 he was chairman of the Second 
 Ward committee; was secretary of the Town com- 
 mittee two years ; in 1897 was elected assessor of 
 Waterbury, and was elected clerk of the board, 
 ■which incumbency he still most acceptably fills. He 
 has made many improvements in the municipal 
 offices, established regular office hours and definite 
 systems of procedure, and it is but fair to say that 
 the city of Waterbury is indebted for much of its 
 municipal prestige to his substantial efforts in its 
 behalf. 
 
 AXEL R. ENGQUIST, a successful plumber 
 of Branford, and who, in addition, has built up a 
 paying hardware business, was born in Gutbenberg, 
 Sweden, Jan. 26, 1862, and is a son of Otto William 
 and Christina W. Engquist. 
 
 Mr. Engquist received the. practical early train- 
 ing and education afforded the average Swedish 
 youth, and at the early age of thirteen was appren- 
 ticed to the plumber's trade for five years, having 
 completed which he became a journeyman plumber. 
 For two years also he was employed in Gutben- 
 berg, and in 1881 came to America in search of a 
 larger and more remunerative field of effort. For 
 some years he led somewhat of a roving career in 
 Connecticut, his first year being spent at North 
 Gross Vanordale, and his second at Putnam. Four 
 and a half years be was at Norwich in the employ 
 of the Richmond Stove Company, and for short 
 periods was in Providence, R. I., New York City 
 and New Haven. 
 
 Mr. Engquist located in Branford in 1889, and 
 during the first year of his residence in this city be 
 was in the employ of W. F. Corcoran, and in 1890 
 set up in business for himself. His thorough knowl" 
 edge of bis craft, his honest work and bis fair and 
 candid treatment of his patrons, together with his 
 kindly and courteous disposition, have won him 
 many friends and gratifying financial returns. 
 
 Jan. 30, 1885, Mr. Engquist married Hilda F., 
 the daughter of Michael and Fredrica (Weiland) 
 Youngburg, of Gutbenberg, Sweden. Six children 
 have been born of this union : Otis William ; Ar- 
 thur; Laura; Roy; Irene; and Rosevelt. 
 
 Mr. Engquist is a member of Widows' Sons' 
 Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., Woodlawn Lodge, No. 
 39, K. of P., and the New England Order of Pro- 
 tection. He is a member of the Lutheran Church, 
 and in politics is a Republican. 
 
 FRANK L. MARTIN, prominent in the real- 
 estate business of Waterbury, is a native of that 
 city, bom Dec. 25, 1861, and is of Irish descent. 
 
 Thomas L. Martin, father of Frank L., was 
 born in Ireland, whence when eighteen years of age 
 he came to the United States, settling in Water- 
 bury, where be followed the business of contractor. 
 He was associated with some of the most ambitious 
 earlier building projects of the town, and to bis 
 skill of construction was due the first reservoir of 
 the city. He married Catherine McCarr, also a na- 
 tive of Ireland, and a family of five children were 
 born to them: Thomas, James, Eugene, Frank L., 
 and Mary. Of these, Thomas is a physician in 
 Bridgeport, Conn. ; James and Eugene are in the 
 real-estate business in Waterbury; and Mary died 
 at the age of three years. The parents of this fam- 
 ily of children died in Waterbury, the father in 
 March, 1886, and the mother in September, 1888. 
 
 Frank L. Martin, whose name introduces these 
 lines, received bis earlier education at the public 
 (schools of his native place, afterward attending 
 Holy Cross College, Worcester, Mass., and St. 
 John's College, Foirdham, N. Y., in which latter 
 institution be studied four years. Returning to 
 Waterbury, he remained at home for a short time, 
 and then went to Seymour, New Haven county, to 
 
1530 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 accept the position of yard master for the Seymour 
 Brass & Copper Co. After eighteen months he 
 again came home, and has since been engaged in 
 real-estate business, looking after his own affairs in 
 that line, collecting rents, etc. 
 
 On Feb. 27, 1889, Mr. Martin married Minnie 
 Hendrick, who was born in Waterbury, a daughter 
 of John and Barbara (Scollay) Hendrick, natives 
 of New York, and of old English ancestry; they 
 now live in Waterbury. Two children have been 
 born to Mr. and 'Mrs. Martin, Clifford H. and Ray- 
 mond S. In politics Mr. Martin has been a life- 
 long Democrat, and he is socially a member of the 
 I. O. O. F. Himself and wife are members of St. 
 Patrick's Church at Waterbury. They enjoy the 
 respect and esteem of the entire community. 
 
 TIMOTHY J. McCarthy, the proprietor of 
 ^McCarthy's Cafe, a noted resort of Branford, was 
 born in Drinoleague, County Cork, Ireland, Jan. 
 20, 1869, and is a son of Callahan and ;\Iary (Dun- 
 nigan) McCarthy. 
 
 Callahan McCarthy came to America, and lo- 
 cated at Branford in 1893, where he died in 1896. 
 The children born to him and his wife were as fol- 
 lows : John ; Bridget, who became the wife of 
 Daniel O'Sullivan ; Patrick ; Daniel ; Timothy J. ; 
 Norah, who became the wife of Hugh McGovern; 
 and Charles. 
 
 Timothy J. McCarthy was reared in his native 
 country, and obtained his education in the local 
 schools. While yet a lad 'he left the home of his 
 forefathers, and landed in New York May i, 1887. 
 After a brief stay in the great metropolis' he came 
 directly to Branford, where for about a year he 
 secured work as a farm hand. The following year 
 was put in at the factory of the Malleable Iron 
 Manufacturing Company, and for four succeeding 
 years he was in the employ of the Branford Lxjck 
 Works. His present business was entered into in 
 1894, and the wisdom of the departure has been 
 repeatedly demonstrated. 
 
 As becomes so broad-minded a citizen, Mr. Mc- 
 Carthy is variously identified with the social and 
 other interests of his adopted town, and for seven 
 years was a member of Battery A, Light Artillery, 
 Connecticut National Guard, and' was at the front 
 for six months during the hostilities between this 
 country and Spain. At the conclusion of the war 
 he was honorably discharged from both the State 
 and national service. He is a member of the Cath- 
 olic Church, and takes an active part in several of 
 the organizations in connection with the local 
 church. He is a niem'ber of the Catholic Club, the 
 Knights of Columbus 'and the Ancient Order of Hi- 
 bernians. He is also a UTember of Hose Company 
 No. I, Branford Fire Department, and in 'his politi- 
 cal relations is a stanch' Democrat. His genial per- 
 sonality and tact have won him hosts of friends, 
 who rejoice at his rapid rise to prominence through 
 the medium's 'of enterprise, industry and integrity. 
 
 FRANK D. FAGAN, proprietor of a popular 
 tonsorial parlor in Waterbury, is a native of Con- 
 necticut, and was born in Milford April 10, 1865. 
 
 Michael P. Fagan, father of Frank D., was born 
 in Ireland, and there studied for the priestho'od, but 
 changed his mind and camie to the United States 
 when about twenty-four years of age. At Stam- 
 ford, Conn., he became bookkeeper for the Stam- 
 ford Stove W'orks, later filling a similar position in 
 Bridgeport for the Thom'pson Coal Co. Thence he 
 proceeded to Milford, and for nine years lived on a 
 farni, going then to Pascoag, R. I., where for eleven 
 years he was in the employ of the Granite Mills Co., 
 or up to his death in 1882. By his wife, Alargaret 
 (Newman), who was born in Ireland, and died in 
 Rhode Island in 1880, he had a family of seven chil- 
 dren, namely : Richard died young ; Thomas is a 
 groceryman in Pascoag, R. I., where he is promi- 
 nent in politics, and' represented his town in the 
 Legislature many years"; JMichael is a blacksmith in 
 jMaine; John died young; James is superintendent 
 of a woolen-mill in Oldtown, Maine; and Philip is 
 a barber in Pascoag, R. I. 
 
 Frank D. Fagan was four years old when his 
 parents moved to Pascoag, R. I., where he attended 
 school, and at the age of twelve began to devote 
 his evenings to mastering the barber's trade. In 
 Pascoag he worked at his trade for five years, in 
 New Haven for four years, and in July, 1885, came 
 to Waterbury, where he has since been successfully 
 engaged in his business. 
 
 On June 4, 1889, Mr. Fagan married Mary S. 
 Johnson, who was born in Waterburv, Conn., a 
 daughter of William Johnson, one of the old set- 
 tlers of the place. Two children have blessed this 
 union, Mary and Joseph. The parents are mem- 
 bers of the Church of the Immaculate Conception. 
 Mr. Fagan is fraternally affiliated with the K. of 
 P., Speedwell Lodge, No. 10, Waterbury, and other 
 beneficiary societies. In politics he is a Republican, 
 and in 1899 held the office of milk inspector, and is 
 now serving 'his second term as sealer of weights 
 and measures. 
 
 C. L. ROGERS, dealer in meats, vegetables, 
 etc., Waterbury, New Haven Co., Connecticut. 
 
 WILLIAAI L. LLOYD, a popular and success- 
 ful young business man of Naugatuck, is a native 
 of New Haven county, bom in Beacon Falls, July 
 16, 1874. His father, Henry Lloyd, a native of 
 Wales, emigrated to the United States about 1850, 
 and landed in New York, whence he walked to 
 Beacon Falls, Conn. He was employed as over- 
 seer by the Home Woolen Mill Co., of that place, 
 until 1888, when he retired from business and re- 
 moved to Naugatuck. Here ne erected a pleasant 
 residence and' spent the remainder of his life in 
 ease and quiet, dying April 24, 1899. He was a 
 stanch supporter of the Republican party and its 
 principles, and was a miemher of the Masonic fra-' 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 IS3J 
 
 temity In religious belief he was a Baptist, while 
 his wife held membership in the Episcopal Church, 
 bhe bore the maiden name of Sarah Leigh, and is 
 a daughter of William Leigh, who died in Kansas. 
 She was born m England, and is still living. Her 
 children are Ada, wife of George Carroll, of Nauga- 
 tuck; Wilham L., our subject; Alma and Agnes, 
 who are both at home. 
 
 William L. Lloyd spent his boyhood in Beacon 
 Falls, and attended the public schools of that place 
 until fourteen years of age, when be came to Nauga- 
 tuck and worked in the woolen mill for one year. 
 He then entered the drug store of James O. May 
 as clerk, and remained with him for six years, at the 
 endof which time he decided to engage in the saine 
 business on his own account, and accordingly 
 opened his present drug store on South Main street 
 m July, 1895. His trade, which is already large, is 
 constantly increasing, and be is now numbered 
 among the leading business men of the place. 
 
 On June 3, 1896, Mr. Lloyd married Miss Cath- 
 erine M. Myers, a daughter of George and Deetle 
 Myers, but his wife died Jan. 22, 1898. He casts 
 his ballot with the Democratic party, and is a mem- 
 ber of Gavel Lodge, No. 18, K. P. He has been 
 elected apothecary of Salem Lodge, Foresters of 
 America, and the Union Club of Waterbury, in both 
 of which he also holds membership. 
 
 CHARLES H. MONTGOMERY, foreman 
 for the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co., is one 
 of the well-known citizens of Branford. He is a 
 son of the late William. Montgomery, a farmer of 
 Branford, who died Jan. 22, 1898, aged seventy- 
 eight years, two months and sixteen days. The 
 elder Montgomery was a native of Ireland. 
 
 PATRICK SHANNAHA_N, of Waterbury, 
 who has been a resident of the city for between 
 thirty and forty years, is a native of Ireland, and 
 was born in County Cavan. 
 
 Timothy Shannahan, father of our subject, 
 passed his entire life in Ireland as a laborer, 
 though his parents were farming people. By his 
 wife, formerly Mary Slattery, who was also born in 
 County Cavan, and who is still living, he had a 
 family of six children, as follows : Daniel lives in 
 Ireland; Patrick is second in the order of birth; 
 Margaret lives in Ireland; John is in New Zealand; 
 Catherine died young; and Timothy lives in Water- 
 bury. . 
 
 Patrick Shannahan, our subject, received his 
 education in his native land, and at the age of nine- 
 teen came to Waterbury, where he has since re- 
 sided. For twenty-four years he worked in the fac- 
 tory of Benedict & Burnham and then opened his 
 present liquor business on Pemberton street, in time 
 erecting the building in which he has since been 
 conducting his successful enterprise. .,.,,. 
 
 June 14 1878, Mr. Shannahan married Julia 
 Allman, who was born in Ireland, and who is the 
 
 mother of two children, Timothy and Julia. The 
 family attend the Church of the Immaculate Con- 
 ception at Waterbury, and Mr. Shannahan is a 
 member of the Catholic Legion and the Knights of 
 Columbus. In politics he is an enthusiastic Demo- 
 ciat, though not at any time prejudiced or bigoted. 
 
 VICTOR MICHAEL BOHN, a popular young 
 business man of Branford, and the manager of 
 Bohn's Cafe, Branford Point, was born in Weyer, 
 in what was then the French province of Alsace- 
 Lorain, Oct. 12, 1869, and is a son of Michael and 
 Catherine (Lux) Bohn, also natives of Weyer. 
 The paternal grandparents were Joseph and Anna 
 Maria Cuni Bohn, and the maternal grandparents 
 were George and Mary (Zens) Lux, the former a 
 blacksmith by trade. Michael Bohn was a contract- 
 or and builder, and reared a family of four chil- 
 dren: Henry; Joseph,; Mary, who ma,rried Eugene 
 Thomas; and Victor Michael. 
 
 Victor Michael Bohn was reared in his native 
 town and educated in the public schools. When 
 quite young he was apprenticed at the mason trade, 
 and, becoming expert in this line, worked from 
 1877 to 1888 with his father. The following year 
 he came tO' this country and entered the employ of 
 his brother Henry, whO' has a cafe at Branford, and 
 for seven seasons he has managed his cafe also at 
 the Point. 
 
 Mr. Bohn is a member of the Catholic Church, 
 and is faithful to the faith in which he was reared. 
 He is a member of Woodland Lodge, No. 39, K. 
 of P.; the B. F. Hosley Company, No. 13, Uniform 
 Rank of the Knights of Pythias, of which he is the 
 present capable recorder ; Harugari Lodge, No. 600 ; 
 and New Haven Lodge, No. 25, B. P. O. Elks. In 
 politics he is a Democrat. 
 
 EUGENE F. CLARKIN, foreman of the 
 soldering department of the Waterbury Mfg. Co., 
 Waterbury, is a native of Connecticut, born April 
 20, 1867, in Middletown. 
 
 John Clarkin, his father, was born about the year 
 1840, in County Armagh, North of Ireland, whence 
 at the age of twelve years he came to the United 
 States, locating first in Thompsonville, Conn., later 
 in Middletown, coming to Waterbury about 1874, 
 and has since here followed his trade, that of painter. 
 He married Bridget McAleer, who was born in 
 Tariffville, Conn., of Irish descent. She died when 
 our subject was about three years of age. Of the 
 children bom to John Clarkin and his wife four are 
 yet living : John is a mechanic in Waterbury ; Will- 
 iam is a plumber in Hartford ; Herbert is a machin- 
 ist in Brooklyn; and Eugene F. is our subject. 
 
 Eugene F. Clarkin on the death of his mother 
 went to live with his grandmiother in Stamford, 
 Conn., and at the age of seven years came to Water- 
 bury, where he attended school. At the age of 
 fourteen years he comrnenced working for the 
 Waterbury Mfg. Co., and has been in the employ of 
 
1532 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 that firm ever since, being now foreman of the 
 soldering department. 
 
 On April 2, 1891, Mr. Clarkin married Mar- 
 garet Joy, daughter of Michael Joy, who was born 
 in Ireland. No children have been born to this 
 union. Our subject and bis wife are members of 
 the Church of the Immaculate Conception ; socially 
 he i& connected with the Ancient Order of Hibern- 
 ians, Fourth Division, and is vice-president of 
 same; poHtically he is a Democrat, and at the pres- 
 ent time is a member of the bureau of assessments. 
 
 F. H. HUMPHREY, secretary of the Water- 
 bury Lumber and Coal Company, Nos. 77-107 
 Meadow street, Waterbury, New Haven Co., Con- 
 necticut. 
 
 FRANK SMITH BRADLEY,_ a bright and 
 progressive young carpenter andi joiner of Bran- 
 ford, with hopes and well-defined ambitions for 
 the near future, was born in that town. May 9, 
 187s, a son of Richard and Mary C. (Smith) Brad- 
 ley. The family history of the Bradleys may be 
 found in connection with the sketch of Richard 
 Bradley, which appears elsewhere. 
 
 Frank Smith Bradley was reared in his native 
 town, and acquired his education in the excellent 
 public schools of that city. Starting out in life for 
 himself, his first engagement was as bookkeeper for 
 a cutlery firm in New Britain, where he remained 
 for two years. At the expiration of this time he set 
 'himself to learning the carpenter trade with his 
 father, in whose employ he remained for five years. 
 
 On June 22, 1896, Mr. Bradley was married to 
 Miss Nettie S., daughter of George and Frances 
 (Gray) Page, of Branford, and their happy union 
 has been blessed by the birth of two childTen, 
 Frances M. and Richard, both bright and winsome 
 little people, making a home full of joy and sun- 
 shine. Mr. Bradley belongs, to the Woodmen of 
 the "World, and in religion is a member of the Epis- 
 copal Church. In politics he is a Republican. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Bradley are charming and attractive 
 young people, and have many friends who delight 
 to gather in their cosy and hospitable home. 
 
 EDWARD J. FITZPATRICK, senior, member 
 of the firm of Fitzpatrick & Gloster, boot and shoe 
 dealers, Waterbury, is a native of that city, and 
 was born May 29, 1868. His father, Martin Fitz- 
 patrick, was born on the parental farm in County 
 Queen's, Ireland, and emiigrated to this country, 
 in i860 settling in Waterbury, where he followed 
 the occupation of a laborer. Here he married Jane 
 Delaney, also of County Queen's, Ireland, and eight 
 children were born to them, four of whom died 
 young. The other children are Catherine, Mary, 
 . Deborah and Edward J. Of these, Catherine mar- 
 ried William Peters, of Mill River, Mass.; Mary 
 married Edward Kiernan, of Waterbury; and De- 
 borah married John J. Cluney, also of Waterbury. 
 
 Edward J. Fitzpatrick attended the local schools' 
 of Waterbury, and when fourteen years old began 
 a 'Service of fifteen years with the Waterbury watch 
 factory, after which he was connected about a year 
 with Brown Brothers. In 1898 he formed a part- 
 nership with John L. Gloster, in the boot and shoe 
 business, and the firm of Fitzpatrick & Gloster have 
 since conducted a flourishing business at No. 60 S. 
 Main street. 
 
 June 26, 1895, Mr. Fitzpatrick was united in 
 marriage with Adeline M. Long, who was born in 
 New York City, a daughter of Addison Long, a 
 native of the South, and descended from English 
 ancestry. No children have been born of this 
 union. Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick are mem'bers of 
 the Church of the Immaculate Conception. So- 
 cially he is affiliated with the Ancient Order United 
 Workmen and St. Joseph's T. A. Society. In poli- 
 tics he is a Democrat. 
 
 TIMOTHY J. BRENNAN, one of the hustling, 
 go-ahead young business men of Waterbury, is a 
 native of that city, bom Nov. 2, 1871. 
 
 Michael Brennan, his father, was born in 
 Queen's County, Ireland, and in 1865 came to the 
 United States, settling in Waterbury, Conn., where 
 he followed his trade of stone cutter, and where he 
 died in November, 1895. In 1868 he married! Annie 
 Mooney, who was also born in Queen's County^ 
 Ireland, and who came to America after a few years 
 spent in England. Mrs. Brennan, who is still liv- 
 ing, is the mother of seven children, named as fol- 
 lows : Mary, Timothy J., Nellie, Mary Ann, John, 
 Elizabeth and Maggie. Of these, NelHe is the wife 
 of Patrick Farrell, photographer. Bank street, 
 Waterbury ; and John and Elizabeth are deceased. 
 
 Timothy J. Brennan received his education at 
 the local schools of his native city, and at the age of 
 twelve years commenced work in the Waterbury 
 Clock works, where he remained some nine years. 
 At the end of that time he entered the bottling 
 estabHshment of H. A. Flanagan, but being taken 
 sick went to New York, and sojourned there a short 
 time. Returning to Waterbury, he was employed 
 in the fire department one year, and in November, 
 1897, purchased J\Ir. Flanagan's retail liquor and 
 bottling business, which he has since successfully 
 conducted. 
 
 On Dec. 24, 1897, Mr. Brennan was united in 
 marriage with Mary Laney, of Waterbury, Conn., 
 and they have one child, Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Bren- 
 nan are members of St. Thomas Roman Catholic 
 Church, Waterbury. Socially he is affiliated with 
 the International Order of Odd Fellows and the 
 B. P. O. Elks, and he is a member of the Union 
 Club. Politically he is a Democrat. 
 
 MICHAEL MANION, who has so efficiently 
 represented the Third ward of Derby as alderman, 
 was born in that place July 6, 1874, a son of 
 John and Ann (Ready) Manion, both natives of 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1533 
 
 Ireland, the former born in County Tipperary, the 
 latter in County Clare. The paternal grandparents 
 of our subject never came to the United States, but 
 when a young man John Manion crossed the At- 
 lantic and took up his residence in Derby. For 
 twenty-six years he has now been connected with 
 the Consolidated Railroad Company (New York, 
 New Haven & Hartford). He is a Democrat in 
 politics, and he and his family are members of the 
 Catholic Church. Of the eight children bom to 
 Mr. and Mrs. Manion, six are still living : Edward, 
 a telegraph operator; Michael, our subject; John, 
 fireman on the "Scout," a government vessel ; Mary, 
 Frank and Nora, all at home. 
 
 With the exception of five months spent in 
 Florida Michael 'Manion has passed his entire life 
 in Derby, and is indebted to its public schools for 
 his educational privileges. After leaving school he 
 worked in different shops until seventeen years of 
 age, at which time he began learning the carpenter's 
 trade, and has since followed that pursuit. On Feb. 
 9, 1899, he married Miss Margaret Connors, of 
 Derby, a daughter of Michael and Hannah Con- 
 nors. Mr. and Mrs. Manion are both members of 
 the Roman Catholic Church, and are held in high 
 regard by all who know them. As a Democrat he 
 has become prominently identified with public af- 
 fairs, and in the fall of 1898 was elected alderman 
 from the Third ward, performing his duties in a 
 m.ost creditable and acceptable manner. 
 
 JOHN J. MACAULEY, builder, Waterbury! 
 New Haven County, Connecticut. 
 
 EDWARD L. CARTER was born in North Co- 
 hassett, Mass., Sept. 12. 1872, a son of William 
 M. Carter, whose family history is published in con- 
 nection with the sketch of Henry B. Carter, to be 
 found elsewhere. 
 
 Edward L. Carter spent the first twelve. years 
 of his life at Nantasket Beach, Mass., where he at- 
 tended school, and developed' a fine physique. In 
 1885 he came to Waterbury, Conn., and finished his 
 schooling bv four years' attendance upon the in- 
 struction of the Waterbury high school. When his 
 school days were over he entered the employ of the 
 Waterbury Watch Co., and worked with them for 
 three and a half years, and then became connected 
 with the Waterbury Clock Co. as an apprentice to 
 learn painting. Mr. Carter has worked his way up 
 in this firm until now he is foreman of the finishing 
 department, and is one of the most trusted men on 
 the rolls of this extensive company. 
 
 On April 20, 1894, Edward L. Carter and Miss 
 Eva T. Bailey were married. Mrs. Carter is a sister 
 of Mrs. H. B. Sanderson, and her family history is 
 presented in connection with the biography of Mr. 
 Sanderson, which is to be found on another page. 
 Mrs. Carter is a bright and attractive young woman, 
 and a lady of many gifts and graces. There are no 
 children in their familv circle. Mr. Carter is one of 
 
 the most conspicuous figures of the Waterbury Na- 
 tional Guard. He entered Company A, 2d Regi- 
 ment, Conn. National Guard, in March, 1890, and 
 Dec. 14, 1891, he was appointed a corporal; Nov. 
 21, 1892, he was made sergeant; Mav i, 1891, he 
 won the Officers' Gold Badge for superiority in 
 drill and discipline; and July 17, 1893, he was ap- 
 pointed regimental sergeant-major on the staff of 
 Col. John B. Doherty. Mr. Carter is still in the 
 service, and March 3, 1900, was awarded the ten- 
 year medal for long service, and July, 1900, re- 
 ceived the ten-year medal for superior markman- 
 ship. In 1893 Mr. Carter was appointed one of the 
 regimental team for competitive shooting at New 
 Haven. The record which he has made in that 
 line is among the very best in the State. Politically 
 he is a Republican, and socially he belongs to 
 Nosahogan Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. F., and Har- 
 mony Lodge, No. 42. 
 
 LESTER E. WARNER is the well-known pro- 
 prietor of the Enterprise Fruit Farmi of Hamden, 
 which is pleasantly located on Munson street, three 
 miles from New Haven. He is one of the most 
 progressive, energetic and successful agriculturists 
 of the community, and in business affairs is prompt 
 and notably reliable. Mr. Warner was born in 
 Hamden, Oct. 14, 1865, on the old homestead of 
 his grandfather, Jonah Warner, who resided there 
 throughout a long and useful life. He was one of 
 the representative farmers of the town and was an 
 active and prominent member of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. He married Miss Sanford, and to 
 themi were born nine children, Albert, Abner, Minor, 
 Harley, Elizabeth, Maria, Alma, Eliza and Litha, 
 all of whom> married and lived past middle life. 
 
 Harley Warner, father of our subject, began 
 life for himself at the age of eighteen years by 
 driving a team used in hauling wood, and the money 
 which he saved from' his wages he invested in calves 
 on his return home. He then had charge of the old 
 farm', upon which he continued to live until 1876, 
 when he moved to the place now 'occupied by our 
 subject and resided there until his dwelling was 
 destroyed by fire in July, 1898. He then went to 
 live with his daughter, Mrs. Ella Warner, and at 
 her 'home died March 10, 1899. For over sixty 
 years he was a faithful and consistent member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church and served as 
 class leader for forty years. He was prominent in 
 town and church affairs, but never aspired to office. 
 His political support was given the men and meas- 
 ures of the Republican party. For a great many 
 years he was interested in the wood business in con- 
 nection with farming, and though he started out in 
 life for himself as a poor boy, he steadily prospered 
 and became quite well-to-do. He was twice mar- 
 ried, his first wife being Susanna Dorman, who died 
 leaving no children, and for his second wife he 
 mjarried Emily Ailing, a daughter of Isaac Ailing. 
 She is still living and makes her home with her 
 
1534 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 daughter, Mrs. Ella Warner. She is the mother 
 of the following children : Harley A., a prominent 
 dairy farmer of Hamden ; Rosetta E., wife of Ells- 
 worth Warner, of Wallingford, Conn. ; Lester E., 
 our subject; and Ella, wife of Edwin N. Warner, 
 of Hamden. 
 
 Lester E. Warner was seven years old when the 
 family removed to the farm upon which he now re- 
 sides, and he was educated -in the district schools of 
 the neighborhood. At the age of seventeen he went 
 to Bethany, Conn., where he worked for Charley 
 E. Ball as teamster for two months, and then re- 
 turned' home, giving bis father the benefit of his la- 
 bor until he attained his majority, when he rented 
 the farm and commenced 'life for himself. He is 
 now the owner of about lOO acres of land, all in 
 one body, and is successfully engaged in general 
 farming and the dairy business, keeping for the 
 latter purpose thirty-one head of cattle. He sells 
 the milk at wholesale. In 1894 he became interested 
 in fruit raising, and' now has upon bis place four- 
 teen hundred peach trees and several hundred apple, 
 pear and plum trees. In this undertaking he has 
 also prospered. 
 
 On Oct. 15, 1888, Mr. Warner was united in 
 marriage with Miss Lizzie Warner, a daughter of 
 Vinous Warner, and to them were born four chil- 
 dren, three of whom are living : Ralph M. ; Gladys 
 E. ; and Doris Agnes. Politically Mr. Warner affili- 
 ates with the Republican party, and fraternally is 
 connected with Harmony Lodge, I. O. O. F., of 
 New Hiaven. As a business man and citizen he 
 stands high in the esteem, of his fellow men, and 
 commands the respect and confidence of all with 
 whom he comes in contact. 
 
 JACOB BEISIEGEL, farmer, Westville, town 
 of Woodbridge, New Haven County, Connecticut. 
 
 HOBERT FRANKLIN KELSEY, one of the 
 well-known dairy farmers of Branford, was born 
 in Haddam, Conn., Aug. 5, 1834, and is a son of 
 Albert and Almira (Higgins) Kelsey, natives re- 
 spectively of Killingworth and East Hampton, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 The paternal grandfather Kelsey was a farmer 
 of Killingworth, Conn., and he reared his son, 
 Albert, to an appreciation of the dignity and use- 
 fulness of an agricultural existence. The latter set- 
 tled in Guilford in 1839, and for the remainder of 
 his life was identified with the same locality. He 
 was the father of eight children : Hobert F. ; Wat- 
 son D. ; Jeanette, who married a Mr. Bartholomew; 
 Cynthia, who married Mr. Porter ; Ada, who mar- 
 ried Henry Smith ; Mary, who is Mrs. John Hugh 
 Baldwin ; Richard ; and Egbert. 
 
 In 1866 Hobert Franklin Kelsey took up his resi- 
 dence in Branford, having previously been educated 
 in the common schools of Guilford. He conducts 
 a model dairy, and in connection therewith is en- 
 gaged in general fanning and stock-raising. The 
 
 year of his arrival in Branford he married Ann 
 Eliza, daughter of Adolphus and Abigail (Walker) 
 Palmer, of Branford. Of this union were born 
 three children : William H. ; Oscar C. ; and Bertha, 
 the latter being the wife of Burton Stowe. Mr. 
 Kelsey was married a second time, his wife being 
 Ann, a daughter of Guernsey and Lucretia (Jones^ 
 Kelsey. 
 
 Although a stanch Republican Mr. Kelsey has 
 never been an aspirant for political honors, but has, 
 nevertheless, served as a member of the School Com- 
 mittee. He is one of the solid and reliable men of 
 the commiUnity, and as a dairyman receives a liberal 
 patronage from, the best people of the town. 
 
 JOHN A. WILLARD. The Willard family, 
 of whom John Augustus Willard is a typical repre- 
 sentative, has for generations taken a prominent 
 part in the business and religious affairs of New 
 England. 
 
 The progenitor of the family in America was 
 Major Simeon Willard, who was born in Kent, 
 England, in 1605, and came to the New World 
 thirty years later, settling at Cambridge, Mass., 
 where he died April 27, 1676, at the age of seventy- 
 one years. Major Willard was three times married, 
 and became the father of seventeen children. The 
 names of his three wives were Mary Shapel, Eliza- 
 beth Dunster and Mary Dunster. 
 
 Josiah Willard, his third child, removed to Hart- 
 ford, and later to Wethersfield, New Haven county, 
 Where he died in 1674. March 20, 1656, he married 
 Hannah Hosmer, and to this union were born eight 
 children. 
 
 Thomas Willard, a child of Josiah, was 
 born in Wethersfield, and located at East Guilford, 
 now Madison, where he died in April, 1719. He 
 was married July 8, 1689, to Abigail Bradley, born 
 March 13, 1672, died Nov. 10, 1746, a daughter of 
 Nathan Bradley. She was the mother of ten chil- 
 dren : Josiah, born Jan. 10 1691, married Mary 
 Goodale, and died on Nov. 24, 1746; Hannah, born 
 May 31, 169s, married Daniel Bartlett, and died 
 June 30, 1719 ; Abigail, born Dec. 30, 1699, and 
 died in January, 1700; Prudence, born March 2, 
 1 701, married David Green, and died Nov. 27, 
 1737; Daniel, born Aug. 10, 1704, married Thank- 
 full Wilcox, and died Oct. 19, 1745; Jared, born 
 March 4, 1706, married Catherine Bates, and died 
 April 30, 1776; Jersuha, born Oct. 5, 1707, married 
 Nathaniel Farnham); Nathan, born May 20, 1709, 
 died June 14, 1709; Dorathy, born June 21, 1711, 
 died voung; Nathan, born June 25, 1714, married 
 Esther Blatchley, and died in June, 1772. 
 
 Josiah Willard, noted above, born in 1691, in 
 East Guilford, died Nov. 24, 1751. He was married 
 Oct. 28, 1720, to Mary Goodale, who was born in 
 January, 1695, and died Oct. 17, 1750. Their chil- 
 dren were: John, born June 29, 1722, married 
 Mary Horton, and died Dec. 9, 1767; Stephen, born 
 Dec. 31, 1724; Hannah, born Dec. 31, 1726,' died 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1535 
 
 Oct. I, 1749; Mary, born Oct. 10, 1732, married 
 Ebenezer Graves, and died March 6, 1820. 
 
 Stephen Willard was born in East Guilford, and 
 died May 14,. 1804. Dec. 19, 1751, he was married 
 to Martha Goodale, and the children born of this 
 union were: Hannah, born Aug. 30, 1753, died 
 Sept. 10, 1753; James, bom Nov. 23, 1754, married 
 Anna Dudley, and died in July 1814; Elias, born 
 Feb. 23, 1759, married Lois Stevens, and died Dec. 
 16, 1823; Ada, bom Dec. 11, 1763, died Dec. 26, 
 1763; One (name not given), born Oct. 17, 1764, 
 marrie'd Jerusha C. Meigs, and died March i, 
 1838; Hiel, born June 30, 1769, died Oct. 22, 1851, 
 married, first, Emma Blatchley, who was born Feb. 
 8, 1757, and died March 19, 1803 ; his 'second wife 
 wais Submit Kelsey, born in 1771, and died in 
 October, 1866. Their children were: Jonathan 
 G., born in 1790, married Lydia Redfield, and died 
 Oct. 10, 1872 ; James, born in 1793 ; Fannie, born in 
 1796, married Noah Robinson, and died July 17, 
 1865 ; Jehiel Olmstead, born in 1798, married Phebe 
 Wilcox, and died Aug. 11, 1879; Eunice, married 
 James Hinman; Benjamin, born in 1799, married 
 Abigail C. Stevens ; Ruth Ann, who married James 
 Francis ; Harriet, who married Mr. Bush. 
 
 James Willard, the father of John A., was born 
 in Madison, where he died April 24, 1883. Susan 
 Channing, his wife, was born in 1798, in Newport, 
 R. I., and died Nov. 7, 1876. Their children were : 
 Sophia, born Oct. 15, 1817, married William F. 
 Bradley; John Augustus, born Nov. 8, 1820; James 
 L., born Oct. 15, 1825, married Victoria Hopson, 
 and is a clergyman; William Blatchley, born Dec. 12, 
 1826, married Mary E. Redfield, and died May 31, 
 1871 ; Samuel Francis, born Nov. 12, 1828, married 
 Margaret Bradley, and died in the army, Nov. 17, 
 1862; Amelia Euston, born Feb. 22, 1833, married 
 Timothy Wilcox; Edward Newell, born April 2, 
 1836. 
 
 James Willard was reared a farmer, but in his 
 young manhood took to the sea, and became master 
 of a schooner in the produce trade between New 
 York and coast points. In middle life he bought 
 the Moses Blatchley farm, on which he built a dwell- 
 ing house, and made many substantial improve- 
 ments. A Democrat and a good citizen, he cher- 
 ished no political aspirations, but worked hard, lived 
 an honest life, and left a good name to his children. 
 John Augustus Willard attended the public 
 schools of Madison, where he was born Nov. 8, 
 1820. He was' reared on the paternal farm and 
 eventually care for his parents in their old age. 
 In his earlier manhood he was engaged in the coast- 
 ing trade, and commanded a small schooner, which 
 carried country produce to New York. His later 
 years were devoted to farming on his charming 
 place to which he has given the name of "Sea 
 View." Here he has made a success of his calling, 
 id is among the highly successful agriculturists of 
 
 an 
 
 the community. Like his father he is a Democrat, 
 and has been selectman of the town. For more than 
 
 thirty years Mr. Willard has been a member of 
 Madison Lodge, No. 83, F. & A. M. With his 
 family he is a member of the Congregational 
 Church, and sustains the respect and confidence of 
 the community to a marked degree. 
 
 Mr. Willard was married to Ella A. Wellman, 
 in Clinton, Conn. Mrs. Willard was born in Clin- 
 ton in 1825, and is a daughter of John Wellman. 
 This union, which has lasted for more than fifty- 
 four years, has been blessed with three children : 
 Harriet A., born in 1846, died Dec. 13, 1866; Nellie 
 L., born in 1854, married Charles B. Upton, of Bris- 
 tol, Conn., and died in January, 1900; Edward, 
 born in 1858, married May 24, 1882, Mary J. 
 Graves, and is the father of two children. 
 
 W. A. ROBBINS is an employe of the Holmes, 
 Booth & Haydens Company, Waterbury, New Ha- 
 ven County, Connecticut. 
 
 FRANK EDWARD BEACH, contractor and 
 jobber, and one of the leading citizens of Branford, 
 was born May 22, 1858, in the town of Branford, 
 on the old Beach homestead, which he now owns 
 and occupies. 
 
 (I) John Beach, "the Pilgfrim," was the first of 
 this family in New England, and was in New Ha- 
 ven, Conn., as early as 1643. 'His son (II) Na- 
 thaniel, born in 1662, was a son of (III) Davidj 
 born in 1692. 
 
 (IV) Elnathan Beach, son of ("III) David, was 
 born May 11, 1729, and) died Aug. 22, 1799. He 
 married Lydia Harrington, born Jan. 5, 1733, and 
 died Oct. 4, 1795. 
 
 (V) John Harrington Beach, son of the above, 
 was born Jan. 5, 1756, and died July 16, 1834. He 
 married Phebe Frisbie. 
 
 (VI) John Beach, son of the above, was born 
 April 21, 1784, and died June 22, 1864. He was 
 twiice married', first time, Oct. 27, 1803, to Vina 
 Baldwin, who died in 1806; his second marriage was 
 May 21, 1807, with Sally Tyler Harrison, who died 
 March 8, 1863. 
 
 (VII) David Beach, son of (VI) John, and the 
 father of Frank E., was born Oct. 25, 1817, on the 
 homestead in the town of Branford, and he died in 
 1895. He married, Jan. 8, 1846, Sylvia, daughter of 
 Noah and Betsey (Rogers) Baldwin, of Branford, 
 and five children were born to them, three of whom 
 reached maturity : Betsey B., John H. and Frank E. 
 
 (VIII) Frank E. Beach' was reared ^on the 
 homicstead, and received his education at the pub- 
 lic sdhools of the neighborhood. Until the year 
 1894 he followed agricultural pursuits. He then 
 embarked in the manufacture of children's clothing, 
 in which he continued a oouple of years, in 1896 
 opening a news stand in Branford, conducting same 
 also two years, at the end of that time engaging in 
 his present business as contractor and jobber, in 
 which line he is meeting with well-merited success. 
 
 On Nov. 26, 1879, Frank E. Beach was united 
 
1536 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 in marriage with Alida, daughter of John and EHza 
 (Thompson) Duncan, of Branford, and they have 
 one son hving, David Duncan. Politicahy Mr. 
 Beach is a stanch Republican ; socially he is a mem- 
 ber of Widows' Sons' Lodge, No. 66, F. & A. M., 
 and of the N. E. O. P., both of Branford. 
 
 CHARLES BOYLAN, deakr in butter, eggs 
 and cheese, on South Main street, Waterbury, was 
 born in Naugatuck, Conn., June 3, 1862, a son of 
 Patrick and Ann (Brady) Boylan, both of whom 
 are now deceased. 
 
 Patrick Boylan was born in Ireland, and was one 
 of the first three Irishmen to settle in Naugatuck. 
 Mr. Boylan married Ann Brady in Stamford, and 
 their union was blessed wiitli five children : John, 
 Thomas, Philip, Charles and Francis. Of these, 
 John died at the age of forty years in Naugatuck; 
 Thomas is a brickmaker in Hartford; Philip lives 
 in retirement in Albany, N. Y. ; Francis died in 
 Waterbury at the age of twenty-eight years. 
 
 Charles Boylan passed his boyhood days in 
 Naugatuck, attending school and working in a rub- 
 ber factory for some time, after which he worked in 
 the Malleable Iron Works at Bridgeport. For three 
 and a half years after coming to Waterbury he 
 worked in a clock case factory. In 1894 he engaged 
 in the fruit business, which he carried on about two 
 and a half years, when he sold out and for about 
 three years was employed as a laborer. He then 
 engaged in his present business on South Main 
 street, is doing a thriving trade, and is the most 
 popular dealer in his line in the city. 
 
 In May, 1890, Mr. Boylan was joined in. mlar- 
 riage with Miss Mary Pendy, who is a native of 
 Waterbury, and a daughter of John Pendy, who 
 came from Ireland. Their home has been blessed 
 by three children, John F., Charles and Ellenetta. 
 They are being reared in the Roman Catholic faith, 
 the parents being faithful members of St. Patrick's 
 parish, to the support of which they freely con- 
 tribute. In politics Mr. Boylan is a stanch Demo- 
 crat, and is very popular with his party, and at 
 present is the representative from the Fourth ward 
 of Waterbury in the board of aldermen. Frater- 
 nally he is a member of the Foresters of America, 
 the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Knig'hts of 
 Columbus and the Woodmen of the World. He 
 and wife are held in the highest esteem socially, 
 irrespective of church affiliations, and as a business 
 man he is recognized as strictly honorable in all 
 his transactions. 
 
 T. W. AHERN, treasurer of The Naugatuck 
 News Company, Naugatuck, New Haven County, 
 Connecticut. 
 
 HARLEY A. WARNER is a leading dairy 
 farmer of Hamden, New Haven Co., Conn., and he 
 evidences by the manner in which he carries on his 
 business that he thoroughly understands the voca- 
 
 tion in which he is engaged. Neatness and order 
 prevail upon his place, and it is managed in a 
 manner which reflects great credit upon the owner. 
 
 Mr. Warner was horn upon his present farm, 
 Oct. 24, 1862, and there his father, Harley Warner, 
 was also born Sept. 10, 1813, it being the old home- 
 stead of his paternal grandfather, Jonah Warner, 
 who resided there throughout a long and useful car- 
 eer. He was one of the representative farmers of 
 the community and was an active and prominent 
 member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. , He 
 married a Miss Sanford, and to them were born 
 nine children, Albert, Abner, Minor, Harley, Eliza- 
 beth, Maria, Alma, Eliza and Litha, all of whom 
 married and passed middle life. 
 
 Harley Warner, the father of our subject, began 
 life for himself at the age of eighteen years by driv- 
 ing a team used in hauling wood, and the money 
 which he saved from his wages, he invested in calves 
 on his return home. He then had charge of the old 
 farm, upon which he continued to live until 1876, 
 when he removed to the place now occupied by his 
 son, Lester, and resided there until his residence was 
 destroyed by fire in July, 1898. He then went to 
 live with his daughter, Mrs. Ella Warner, and at 
 her home died March 10, 1899. For over sixty 
 years he was a faithful and consistent member of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church and served as class 
 leader for forty years. He was prominent in town 
 and church affairs, but never aspired to office. His 
 political support was given the men and measures 
 of the Republican party. For a great many years 
 he was interested in farming and the wood busi- 
 ness, and though he started out in life for himself a 
 poor boy, he steadily prospered and ibecame quite 
 well-to-do. He was twice married, his first wife be- 
 ing Susanna Dorman, who died leaving no children, 
 and for his second wife he married Emily Ailing, a 
 daughter of Isaac Ailing. She is still living and 
 makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. Ella 
 Warner. Our subject is the oldest of their children, 
 the others being Rosetta E., wife of Ellsworth 
 Warner, of Wallingford, Conn. ; Lester a promi- 
 nent fruit grower of Hamden ; and Ella, wife of Ed- 
 win N. Warner, of Hamden. 
 
 Harley A. Warner, whose name introduces this 
 review, is indebted to the public schools of Hamden 
 for his educational advantages, and upon the home 
 farm he acquired an excellent knowledge of agricul- 
 tural pursuits. He remained with his father until 
 he attained his majority, and then started out in life 
 for himself as a farmer, which occupation he has 
 continued to follow with marked success up to the 
 present time. He returned to the old homestead in 
 November, 1896, and upon the place has since made 
 many modern and substantial improvements which 
 add greatly to its value and attractive appear- 
 ance. Having prospered in his undertakings, he 
 has become the owner of five tracts of land, aggre- 
 gating 100 acres, and now devotes the greater part 
 of his time and attention to the dairy business. 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1537 
 
 T-„ P,^^- ^4, 1896, Mr. Warner married Miss 
 Ulhan Shepard, a daughter of Edwin D. and Ella 
 N. (Dorman) Shepard, of New Haven. Politically 
 he IS identified with the Republican party, and social- 
 ly IS a member of Yale Conclave, No. 244, Im- 
 proved Order of Heptasophs, of New Haven. 
 
 A. H. KELTY, drugs, Derby, New Haven 
 County, Connecticut. 
 
 EARLLISS PORTER ARVINE, a lawyer of 
 high standing in New Haven, where he has been 
 continuously engaged in the active practice of the 
 law for some thirty years, is one of its substantial 
 men and citizens. 
 
 Born April 19, 1846, in Woonsocket, R I., Mr. 
 Arvine is a son of Rev. Kazlett and Mary Ann 
 (Porter) Arvine, and is descended on both sides 
 from an early and sturdy New England ancestry. 
 His father, a Baptist minister of ability and learn- 
 ing, the author of "Cyclopedia of Anecdotes of 
 Literature and Fine Arts," was a native of Center- 
 ville, Allegany Co., N. Y., and a descendant of the 
 Palmers (he had his name changed by act of Leg- 
 islature to Arvine) of that locality, the forerunner 
 of whom came thither from the State of New Hamp- 
 shire, and to that State from England. On his 
 mother's side, Earlliss P. Arvine is a descendant in 
 the seventh generation from Dr. Daniel Porter, of 
 Farmington, Conn., who was licensed by the Gen- 
 eral Court in 1654 to practice medicine, and became 
 Surgeon General for the Colony. Dr. Porter was 
 one of the signers of the petition of Oct. 9, 1673, 
 for the planting of Waterbury. He died in 1690. 
 His wife's Christian name was Mary. From this 
 Dr. Daniel Porter our subject's lineage is through 
 Dr. Daniel Porter (2), Dr. Timothy, Daniel (3), 
 Deacon Timothy and Mary Ann (Porter) Arvine. 
 (H) Dr. Daniel Porter (2), son of Dr. Daniel 
 of Farmington, born Feb. 2, 1652-53, married De- 
 borah Holcomb. He was one of the original set- 
 tlers of Waterbury, and for a long period was the 
 only physician in that town. He was also a land 
 surveyor and a useful citizen for some fifty years 
 from the settlement of the town. He died Jan. 18, 
 1726, and his wife Deborah, on May 4, 1765. 
 
 (HI) Dr. Timothy Porter, son of Dr. Daniel 
 (2), born Jan. 19, 1725, married Margaret Skin- 
 ner, who was born in 1739, daughter of Gideon 
 Skinner, of Bolton, Conn. Dr. Porter was through- 
 out life a prominent physician of Waterbury, high- 
 ly esteemed by the community. He appreciated 
 education and gave his children liberal advantages 
 in that direction, and they were qaite remarkable 
 in their dififerent callings in life. Dr. Timothy 
 Porter died Jan. 24, 1792, and his wife passed away 
 in 1813. 
 
 (IV) Daniel Porter (3), son of Dr. Timothy, 
 born Sept. 23, 1768, married June 9, 1789, Ana 
 Ingham, a granddaughter of Israel Clark, of South- 
 ington, Conn. Mr. Porter was a land surveyor and | 
 97 
 
 a lawyer of great ability, though he never sought ad- 
 mission to the Bar. He served the town as select- 
 man. He became a large land owner. 
 
 (V) Deacon Timothy Porter, son of Daniel (3), 
 born Jan. 20, 1792, died in August, 1864. He mar- 
 (first) May 17, 1812, Clarissa, daughter of Eben- 
 ezer Frisbie. She died Nov. 18, 1821, and on Dec. 
 30, 1824, he married (second) Polly Ann Todd, 
 who was born May 12, iSoo, daughter o± Jrlezekiah 
 Todd, of Cheshire, Conn. Deacon Timothy Porter 
 was one of the prominent and successful farmers 
 and manufacturers of Waterbury, in his day. Al- 
 though agriculture was his chief occupation, he 
 was active and busy in various lines. In early life 
 he worked on a farm through the summer season 
 and taught school in the winters. After his mar- 
 riage he purchased property. Being very thrifty 
 he ran a carding machine and prospered in the busi- 
 ness. Selling his machine in 1829, he for twenty 
 years thereafter carried on the business of brick- 
 making, supplying during that period about all the 
 brick used in Waterbury. In 1845 he was instru- 
 mental in establishing a brass mill on his property — 
 owning a fine water power on Mad river — which 
 became the East Mill of the Waterbury Brass Co. 
 He disposed of his interest in this in 1862. As a 
 Whig Deacon Porter represented Waterbury in the 
 State Legislature. He left the Whig party about 
 1840, and affiliated with the Liberal party, being a 
 strong opponent of slavery. 
 
 (VI) Mary Ann Porter, daughter of Deacon 
 Timothy, born Aug. 21, 1815, married Rev. Kazlett 
 Arvine. 
 
 Earlliss Porter Arvine was prepared for college 
 at the Episcopal Academy in Cheshire, Conn., and 
 at the Connecticut Literary Institute, in Suffield. 
 He then entered Yale University, from' which insti- 
 tution he was graduated in 1869. Subsequently he 
 was graduated from Yale Law School, was ad- 
 mitted to the Bar in New Haven county in 1871, 
 and located in the practice of law in New Haven. 
 By his studious habits, energy and ability, he has 
 won creditable standing in the profession and in 
 citizenship. 
 
 Mr. Arvine is a Democrat. He has been sev- 
 eral times the candidate of his party for municipal 
 honors, notably for city clerk and probate judge. 
 In 1892 he received at the hands of the late Gov. 
 Luzon B. Morris, the appointment as a member of 
 the Inter-State Comniission for the unification of the 
 laws. ^ i 
 
 On Sept. 2, 1871, Mr. Arvine was married to 
 Alice Jane, daughter of Artemus Leudo Strong, of 
 South Manchester, Conn., and a descendant in the 
 eighth generation of Elder John Strong, of Wind- 
 sor, Conn., who came from England to the Aniierican 
 Colonies in 1630. Her lineage is through John (2), 
 John (3), Deacon David, Ebenezer, Ebenezer (2), 
 and Artemus L. Strong. To Mr. and Mrs. Arvine 
 have been born three children. Palmer, William B. 
 and Edward K. 
 
•538 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 ULRICH HARING. No better illustration of 
 the characteristic energy and enterprise of the typi- 
 cal German-American can be found than that 
 afforded by the career of Ulrich Haring, who is 
 living in Naugatuck, New Haven Co., Conn. Com- 
 ing to this country with no capital, he has made his 
 way to success through wisely directed effort, and 
 can now look back with satisfaction upon past 
 struggles. 
 
 A native of Baden, Germany, Mr. Haring was 
 born July 25, i860, a son of Ulnch and Maiy (Sta- 
 talej Haring, also natives of that kingdom, where 
 both his paternal and maternal grandfathers fol- 
 lowed fanning throug'hout life, 'i he parents, who 
 never came to America, died in Germ<any, the father 
 in 1871, the mother in November, 1870. They had 
 fi\e children, namely : Casper, now a brewer in 
 Nebraska; Eibata, still a resident of Germany; 
 i^ierce, deceased; Mary, who also continues to re- 
 side in the old country; and Ulrich. 
 
 Mr. Haring grew to manhood in his native land, 
 his time being passed in attending the public schools 
 and working for a farmer until fourteen years of 
 age. He then served a two-years' apprenticeship at 
 the bakers' trade, and at the end of that time went 
 to Switzerland, where he worked at his trade until 
 his emigration to America, in November, 1880. 
 Shortly after his arrival in this country he took 
 up his residence in Waterbury^ Conn., where he 
 followed his chosen occupation for one year. He 
 then returned to- New York for tire purpose of gain- 
 ing a miore thorough knowledge of the business, 
 and after devoting four years to his trade in that 
 city he again came tO' Waterbury, Conn., and had 
 charge of Thomas Carey's bakery for three years 
 and a half. While there he was married to- Miss 
 Helen Kuhn, also a native of Germany. 
 
 After his marriage Mr. Haring spent some time 
 in New Britain, where he at first worked for others 
 at his trade, and then conducted a bakery of his 
 ovwi for two years. On disposing of his property 
 he came to Naugatuck in September, 1891, and was 
 engaged in the baking business until Feb. i, 1898. 
 He has 'met with remarkable success in business and 
 has made some judicious investmients, so that he is 
 now quite well-to-do, having an income from his 
 property sufficient to meet all requirements. Politi- 
 cally he is an ardent I-iepublican, and religiously is 
 a member of the Catholic Church. He is a member 
 of several fraternal organizations, including the 
 German branches of the Improved Order of Red 
 Men and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. 
 
 EULIUS B. SHELDON, a leading business cit- 
 izen of the city of New H^aven, Conn., the head of 
 the well-known firm of The E. B. Sheldbn Com- 
 pany, electrotypers, book-compositors, printers and 
 engravers, located at Nos. 101-103-105 Meadow 
 street, New Haven, has an honorable ancestral line. 
 
 Isaac Sheldon, the founder of the Sheldon fam- 
 ily in Connecticut, was probably born in England 
 
 about 1629, his name being known in Windsor, 
 Conn., in 165 1-2. In 1653 he married Mary Wood- 
 ford, of Hartford, Conn., who bore him twelve chil- 
 dren. She died in 1684. In 1685 he married again, 
 and by this union had one son. Twelve of his chil- 
 dren were living when he died, July 27, 1708. 
 
 Thomas Sheldon, third son of Isaac, was born in 
 1 661, in Northampton, where his father was the 
 first settler. He married Mary Hinsdale, and they 
 moved to Suffield, Conn., and reared a family of 
 eight children. 
 
 Josiah Sheldon, fourth child of Thomas, was 
 born in Suffield, Conn., in 1695, and on May 30, 
 1 72 1, married Ann Stanley, of Hartford, Conn. All 
 of his children were born, however, in Suffield : 
 Daniel, born Feb. 2, 1725 ; Asher, born Nov. 16, 
 1728, died Feb. 19, 1794; Ann, born Dec. 28, 1730, 
 died Feb. 11, 1731; Ann, born June 28, 1732; and 
 Ruth, born Sept. 4, 1736. 
 
 Asher Sheldon, son of Josiah, was born Nov. 16, 
 1728, and became a hatter by trade. He purchased 
 land in Branford and settled there in 1751. On 
 Aug. 22, 1751, he married Wealthy Ann Steele, of 
 Branford, and their children were: Wealthy, born 
 Sept. 5, 1753, died Nov. 2, 1753; Asher, born Jan. 
 30, 1756; Wealthy, bom Marcti 17, 1758; Daniel, 
 born Nov. 11, 1760; Roswell, born June 28, 1763; 
 Mary, born April 15, 1766; Ann, born Dec. 3, 1768, 
 died Feb. 23, 1826; and Abigail, bom Nov. 28, 
 1771, died April 9, 1773. Asher Sheldon died Feb. 
 19, 1794, and his wife March 3, 1772. 
 
 Asher Sheldon (2), son of Asher, was born Jan. 
 30, 1756, married Hannah Rogers, March 25, 1778, 
 and died April 27, 1780. 
 
 Jere Sheldon, only child of A^her (2), was born 
 Feb. 17, 1779, and baptized July 4, 1784. He mar- 
 ried Caty, a daughter of Capt. Oliver and Phoebe 
 (Rogers) Lanfare, born March 2, 1778, and died 
 Feb. 29, 1864. They had a family of eleven chil- 
 dren : Sophronia, born March i, 1802, married 
 James Burton, and died July 13, 1868; Truman, 
 born May 17, 1803, married Almira Apley, of Go- 
 shen, Conn, (who died May 12, 1871), and died 
 June 13, 1886; Nicholas, born Oct. 15, 1804; Aus- 
 tin, born June 20, 1806, married Julia Ann Tuttle, 
 of Bristol, Conn, (who died July 16, 1872), and 
 died Jan. 18, 1888; Wilson, born April 9, 1808, mar- 
 ried Phoebe R. Mathews, of Bristol, Oct. 17, 1830, 
 and she died March 25, 1858, while he survived 
 until Nov. 30, 1890; Apollas, born May 14, 1810, 
 died March 20, 1825; Betsey, born Jan. 5, 1812, 
 married Harvey Frisbie, of Branford, in 1834, her 
 death taking place on April 7, 1893, he still surviv- 
 ing ; Asher, born March 12, 1814, married first in 
 1845, Sarah Ann Bunnell, who died on Aug. 3, 
 1848, and in 1849 he niiarried second Jane H. Doo- 
 little, both still surviving; Wealthy Ann, born 
 March 13, 1816, married Seth Peck (who died Feb. 
 9, 1887), and died June I, 1865; Roswell B., born 
 Oct. 24, 1817, married Mary Louisa Hendricks, in 
 1839, and died June 23, 1894 (she died June 15, 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 '539 
 
 1889) _; and Phoebe S., born Nov. 25, 1S20, married 
 Laptani William Cowper Baldwin, Sept. 23 1842 
 m New Haven, and died June i, 1899 (Captain 
 Baldwin was a native of Middlebury, and died on 
 Jan. 17, 1858).- Jere Sheldon in 1822 moved from 
 Stony Creek, in town of Branford, to Pine Orchard, 
 where he and his wife lived to advanced age, his 
 death occurring Nov. 30, 1870, when ninety-one 
 years old. 
 
 Nicholas Sheldon, son of Jere, was born in Bran- 
 ford, then went to New Haven, later moving to 
 Bristol, Conn. After a few years, in the interests of 
 his business, which was that of cabinet and clock 
 case maker, he removed to a better field of opera- 
 tion, at North Goshen, Conn., where he had a fac- 
 tory, and added cheese boxes to his output. In 
 1853 be returned to New Haven, and here followed 
 his former trade, adding carriage wood work, at 
 which he was activelv engaged until within a few 
 weeks of his death, Sept. I's, i860. On Nov. 22, 
 1830, he was married in North Goshen, by Rev. 
 George Carrington, to Miss Susan Norval, of Scot- 
 tish extraction, who was born Sept. 3, 1805, and died 
 Dec. 26, 1870. Their children v^^ere : Mary B., born 
 Dec. 17, 1831, died Nov. 11, 183.-^ ; Newton R., bom 
 Dec. 19, 1835. died Sept. 14, 1841 ; Mary I., born 
 May IS, 1838, and married William B. Nichols, 
 formerly of New Haven, now of Seymour; Amelia, 
 bom and died Sept. 21, 1841 ; Ellena A., born April 
 23, 1843, rnarried Howard G. Ford, of the town of 
 Hamden ; and Eulius B., of New Haven. Nicholas 
 Sheldon was well known in early days as a stanch 
 Whig, but later became an active Republican. The 
 family for many vears have been prominent in the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 Eulius B. Sheldon, son of Nicholas, was born in 
 North Goshen, Conn., Dec. 20, 1845, and there spent 
 his boyhood until the age of seven vears, at which 
 time the family moved to New Haven. Mr. Sheldon 
 received an excellent common school education, be- 
 ing a pupil of the Dixwell school, in New Haven, 
 and then went to work in the Whitney armorv, 
 where he remained for some time, later going into 
 the Plant Manufactnringf Co., workinp- on a gov- 
 ernment contract. Later he was employed in this 
 same place by John Marlin, and continued until 
 t868, when the burning of the establishment caused 
 him to make a change. In the electrotype business, 
 with the firm of Arvine & Twiss, he continued for a. 
 short time and then obtained an interest in the busi- 
 ness, and some three years later bought the interest 
 of Mr. Arvine and has remained in this connection 
 ever since. For some time he conducted the elec- 
 trotype business on State street, but lar^r formed a 
 company, admitting C. S. Butler and E. H. Park- 
 hurst to partnership and the business was continued 
 on State street. In 1890, a joint stock company was 
 formed under the name of The E. B. Sheldon 
 Co and this comoany bought the land and erected 
 tlie 'imposing brick block, on Meadow street, which 
 has been the plant's location, and where a very large 
 
 business is carried on. The name is one whic'n is 
 respected in the business world, and ably represents 
 its line in New Haven. 
 
 On Nov. 18, 1868, Mr. Sheldon, the efficient 
 and capable head of this large company, was mar- 
 ried to Miss Grace Benton, a native of Woodbridge, 
 Conn. Six children have been born to this union : 
 Beulah, who married Henry Bushnell ; Mary, who 
 married Frederick Downs ; Everett, who is follow- 
 ing the trade of electrotyper ; Emma, who married 
 C. O. Buckingham, of Deep River, Conn. ; and Su- 
 san and John, at home. In his political sympathies, 
 Mr. Sheldon is a Republican, but his business ab- 
 sorbs him too closely to permit of seeking political 
 honors. With his family, he is connected with the 
 Congregational Church, where he is a liberal -sup- 
 porter of its various lines of benevolent work. As 
 an intelligent and successful man of business, a 
 lover of law and order, a supporter of charitaJble 
 and public-spirited enterprises, Mr. Sheldon miay 
 well be regarded as one of the representative citizens 
 of this city. 
 
 EZRA PIERCE. Throughout the length and 
 breadth of Southbury and in the neighboring 
 towns, Ezra Pierce is widely known as a successful 
 farmer, and as a man of unusual force of character. 
 He has been a farmer all his life, and in his person- 
 ality displays one of the splendid types of this vo- 
 cation. 
 
 Mr. Pierce was born Dec. 4, 1842, on the farm 
 now occupied by his brother, Charles B., and is the 
 son of Edwin Pierce, grandson of Benjamin Pierce 
 and great-grandson of Joseph, who was a farmer 
 and a native of Southbury. Benjamin Pierce, the 
 grandfather of our subject, was born in Southbury, 
 in 1764. He married, Nov. 29, 1798, Miss Lucy 
 Beers, of Newtown, and to them were born three 
 children: Starling, born Jan. 13, 1800; Chloe, born 
 March 31, 1801 ; and Edwin, born July 9. 1807, on ' 
 the farm which our subject now occupies. Ben- 
 jamin Pierce was for a great many years constable 
 of the town. He died Dec. 16, 1843, aged seventy- 
 nine years, and his wife died March 30, 1855. 
 Starling B., their eldest child, married Sally Hunt, 
 and had one child, Mary A., who was born Nov. 
 28, 1825, married Etson C. Chamberlain and died 
 Feb. 2, 1877, aged fifty-one years, her husband 
 dying Jan. 26, 1877, aged fifty-five years. Chloe 
 died April 9, 1878, aged seventy-six years. 
 
 Edwin Pierce, the father of our subject, when 
 thirteen years of age, moved with his parents to a 
 farm adjoining the old homestead, and there spent 
 his- entire life engaged in farming. He married 
 Miss Nancy Mallory, who was born in Southbury, 
 in October, 1815, and to them were born four chil- 
 , dren, namely: Susan, who was born Jan. 28, 1837, 
 and married John Bryan: Lucian, who "'as born 
 Feb. 24, 1839, and died Sept. 30, 1888; Ezra, our 
 subject; and Charles B., born May 30, 1857, now 
 a farmer of Southbury. Edwin Pierce was a Demo- 
 
I540 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 crat in politics. He served as a member of the State 
 legislature in 1852, and for nine years was selectman 
 of the town. He died Nov. 2, 1875, his wife sur- 
 viving him until Dec. 29, 1893. 
 
 Ezra Pierce received his education in the public 
 school in Southbury, and a private school of Wood- 
 bury, and remained on the farm where he was born 
 until his marriage, Feb. 24, 1878, to Miss Matilda 
 Gates, a native of Vermont. In 1882 he built the 
 house in which he now resides, and there has since 
 engaged in general farming and dairy business. 
 He owns about 300 acres of land, and is one of the 
 most prosperous farmers of Southbury. His well 
 improved property is located two miles from South 
 Britain. In politics Mr. Pierce is a Democrat. He 
 has -filled many local offices, including those of 
 town treasurer one year, constable and school visitor 
 for several years each. In 1872 he was elected a 
 member of the State Legislature, serving with satis- 
 faction to his constituents and credit to himself. He 
 is highly esteemed and eminently successful as a 
 farmer. 
 
 FREDERICK MONCKMEYER, contractor 
 with the Bradley & Hubbard Manufacturing Co., 
 and one of Meriden's respected German-American 
 citizens, was born Feb. 26, 1843, in the city of 
 Hanover, Province of Hanover, Germany. 
 
 Christian Monckmeyer, father of Frederick, was 
 also born in Hanover, Germany, and followed the 
 business of carpenter and builder, becoming before 
 his death a large contractor. He spent his whole 
 life in his native country, and died at the age of 
 eighty-one years, a consistent member of the Luth- 
 eran Church. He was twice married, his first wife 
 being named Louise, and the second, Hannah. Both 
 died in Germany. The five children born to Mr. 
 Monckmeyer were as follows: Soohia, deceased; 
 . William, a resident of Hanover, Germany ; Chris- 
 tian, who died in Meriden, in t8o8; Eliza, who lives 
 in Germany ; and Frederick, the subject of this 
 sketch. 
 
 Frederick Monckmc\er was very thoroughly in- 
 structed in the German schools, and then learned 
 the machinist's trade. He was ofiiered and accepted 
 a position as assistant engineer on board the S. S. 
 "Hansa," of the North German-Lloyd line, in 1864, 
 and held the position for two years, making schedule 
 trips between New York and Bremen. In 1866 he 
 gave up the sea and came to Meriden, Conn., which 
 as a manufacturing center, attracts skilled' work- 
 men from all over the world. He soon became es- 
 tablished with the Bradley & Hubbard Mfg. Co., 
 with whom he has remained for the past thirty-six 
 years, during the greater part of this neriod being- 
 engaged on contract work, in the architectural iron 
 department. His skill has won him the confidence 
 of his employers, while his personal attributes have 
 made him esteemed and respected by all with whom 
 l-^nsiness or social life brings him into contact. 
 
 On May 2, 1869, Mr. Monckmeyer was married 
 
 to Sophia Ulbrand, born in Oldenburg, Germany, 
 daughter of William Ulbrand, who lived and died 
 in his native home. Mrs. Monckmeyer is a woman 
 much devoted to her home and family, and kas a 
 host of friends. Her fine home on Crown St. 
 shows the presence of an excellent housewife. Six 
 children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Monckmeyer, 
 namely: Arthur C, a foreman in the Bradley & 
 Hubbard Manufacturing Co., married Dora Sta- 
 mer ; Josie C. married Charles H. Beyerle, of Brook- 
 ]vn,, N. Y., and they have one son, Arthur F. ; 
 Charlotte M. is at home; Frederick W. is a student 
 of architecture at Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. ; 
 and two died young. 
 
 Mr. Monckmeyer is a man of more than ordin- 
 ary intelligence, has taken a deep interest in edu- 
 cational matters, and was one of the organizers of 
 the German-American school, serving as one of its 
 first trustees. He is well read on many subjects, 
 and keeps abreast of the times. In national affairs, 
 he supports the Republican party, but in local mat- 
 ters he prefers an independent attitude. His family 
 are connected with St. Andrew's Episcopal Church. 
 He has been prominent in fraternal circles and be- 
 longs to Meridian Lodge, No. 77, A. F. & A. M. ; 
 and Keystone Chapter, No. 27, R. A. M.. of Meri- 
 den. He is connected with Tentonia Lodge, No. 95, 
 I. O. O. F. , of Meriden, in which he is a past 
 grand, and he also belongs to the Grand Lodge of 
 the State, in this order. 
 
 FRANKLIN B. SHUSTER, a well-known res- 
 ident of New Haven, was born in that citv May 10, 
 1866, son of John Shuster. His father was a na- 
 tive of Vienna, Austria, born in 1844. His grand- 
 father, Fabian Shuster, came to New Haven many 
 years ago, being one of the early German settlers 
 of this section. Fabian Shuster diied in 1897. 
 
 John Shuster, the father, was six years of age 
 when his parents brought him to New Haven, and 
 here attended the district schools. He then learned 
 ornamental painting, and fonned a partnership 
 with Henry D. Phillips, in the sign painting busi- 
 ness, which lasted for thirteen years. For nine 
 years he was with Henry Hooker, doing orna- 
 mental painting in his carriage manufactory, his 
 work being so excellent that samples were sent to 
 the National Carriage Builders' Association of the 
 United States, and on. two occasions received first 
 prize. Mr. Shuster has done much ornamental 
 painting, and is an expert in that line. In 1894 he 
 opened up his present dry goods store in State 
 street, where he carries an immense stock, owning 
 the commodious building, which he erected in 1884. 
 In 1879 ^1"- Shuster was elected town clerk, on the 
 Democratic ticket, and held the position four years, 
 lieing the first German who ever filled that incum- 
 bency in New Haven. 
 
 On June 3, 1865, Mr. Shuster married Ophelia 
 A. Talmage, the widow of William Talmage, and 
 a daughter of David Camp, of Woodbridge, the 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1541 
 
 latter being a member of one of the oldest fam- 
 ilies in New Eng-land. The children of Mr. and 
 Mrs. Shuster are : Franklin B., Edson F., Ella L. 
 and Estella. In politics he is independent. So- 
 cially he is connected with Hiram Lodge, No. i, F. 
 & A. M.; and with Humboldt Lodge, No. 91, L O. 
 O. F. ; he is also a member of the 2d Company, 
 Governor's Foot Guards. 
 
 Franklin B. Shuster grew to marahood in New 
 Haven, and completed the primary ischool course 
 when but twelve years of age, at which time, on 
 account of family reverses, he was obliged to look 
 after himself to some degree, beginning by enter- 
 ing the machine shop of John Adt. There he 
 remained for fifteen months, and then accepted 
 other work in the same line. But he had not 
 given up hope of pursuing a higher education. 
 When other lads were at play he was at study, 
 and, much to his credit, kept up with his class and 
 prepared himself for the Sheffield Scientific School. 
 However, this overwork broke him down, and he 
 was obliged to relinquish the course, and later re- 
 turned to werk at his trade. At the age of twenty- 
 one he was made foreman in the machine depart- 
 ment of the New Haven Clock Co., with which 
 firm he remained four years, and then took charge 
 of the mechanical work of the E. Ingraham Clock 
 Co., of Bristol, where he remained six months. He 
 was next with Wilmot & Hobbs, of Bridgeport, 
 who made him their superintendent, and with them 
 he continued five years. On May 14, 1895, F. B. 
 Shuster purchased his present business, of the heirs 
 of John Adt, with whom he learned his trade, and 
 since then has controlled a large volume of busi- 
 ness. He started in with six men, which number 
 has increased to eighty-two. The business was es- 
 tablished in 1866 by John Adt and his son tmder 
 the firm name of John Adt & Son, was incorporated 
 in 1898, and now has foreign agents in Glasgow, 
 Brussels, Christiania, Paris, Yokohama, Berlin and 
 St. Petersburg, the fame of the machinery turned 
 out by this company extending all over the world. 
 The corporation is now known as The F. B. Shuster 
 Co., and Franklin B. Shuster is president and 
 treasurer. 
 
 On Nov. 17, 1886, Franklin B. Shuster was mar- 
 ried to Miss Luella Tvrrill, who was born in Nauga- 
 tuck, daughter of E. S. Tyrrill, of Newtown, Conn., 
 and two children have been born of this marriage. 
 Elmore F. and Corinne O. In his political belief 
 Mr. Shuster is an ardent Reoublican, and socially 
 he is connected with St. John's Lodge, F. & A. M., 
 No. I, of Bridgeport, the A. O. U. W. and the 
 Quinnipiac Club ; lie is also a member of the Gov- 
 ernor's Foot Guards and of the Chamber of Com- 
 merce, and displays interest in all, despite the busy 
 life he leads. 
 
 Not all of Mr. Shuster's time is given to busi- 
 ness, however, for the fertile brain of this enter- 
 prising young man is teeming with new ideas, of J 
 
 strong intellectual fiber, and he is filled with that 
 restless energy that is a constant incentive to un- 
 tiring effort in the line of machinery. It is no 
 wonder that he has won such rapid promotion, as 
 he says his hobby is "anything in the machinery 
 line." He has a number of inventions, and has 
 nine patents pending at the present time, besides 
 many which have been granted, one of the latter 
 being the machine by which cotton can be baled by 
 wire. 
 
 Mr. Shuster is justly proud of his father's 
 talents as an artist, some of the landscapes which 
 have come from the latter's brush, painted for 
 pastime, having won the approbation of the public 
 wherever exhibited. 
 
 WILLIAM G. NEWTON, superintendent of 
 Peck Bros. & Co.'s manufacturing plant, is prob- 
 ably the youngest man in New Haven to hold so 
 responsible position. He was born in Kent, Conn., 
 Feb. 15, 1867, and has from a very early age 
 looked after his own affairs. 
 
 James Newton, his grandfather, came from Mas- 
 sachusetts, and located in Kent. He married a 
 Miss Calkins, and then located in Cornwall, where 
 he reared his family of ten children, viz. : Henry, 
 William (father of our subject), George, Edward, 
 Frederick, John, Charles, Mary, Nancy and Phoebe. 
 Some of the boys became mechanics, and the others 
 engaged in farming. 
 
 William Newton, 'son of James, grew up and 
 married in Cornwall. Immediately after his mar- 
 riage he went to Kent, and engaged in farming, 
 later, at different times, living in Branford and 
 East Haven, where he continued in the same occu- 
 pation. After his removal to New Haven he fol- 
 lowed the trade of carpenter and molder, whtch he 
 had learned, 'continuing at this until obliged by age 
 to refrain from active labor. His wife, Lois Stone, 
 was a native of Ellsworth, Conn. They bad a 
 family of five children : Jennie, who married Fred 
 A. Forbes, who is engaged in the gristmill business 
 in East Haven (he is a son of Alexander Forbes, 
 who represented the town of East Haven in the 
 Legislature three terms) ; Fannie, who married 
 Frank A. Woodward, a farmer of New Haven ; 
 Hattie, who married Samuel A. Smith, a farmer 
 and milk dealer of East Haven ; William G., our 
 subject ; and Roval S., -a patternmaker in the em- 
 ploy of Sargent & Co. 
 
 William G. Newton passed his bovhood days in 
 East Haven on the farm, and until the age of 
 thirteen attended the district school and a private 
 school in the vicinity of his home. For a time he 
 went to school in New Haven, but soon found em- 
 ployment with Peck Bros. & Co. On Oct. 25, 1882, 
 he entered the machine department, and learned the 
 brass finisher's trade, serving a three-years ap- 
 prenticeship. Thence he was transferred to the 
 jobbing department, where he remained up to the 
 
1542 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 age of twenty-one, at which time he was made fore- 
 man of that department. At the end of five years 
 he was promoted to the position of assistant su- 
 perintendent, in which capacity he had charge of 
 the repairs of the entire plant, boilers, machines, 
 buildings, etc. On July i, 1900, he became super- 
 intendent, and in this position he is to-day fulfill- 
 ing the prophesies made concerning him when, as 
 a boy, he took such a keen interest in the details 
 of the work in the various departments in which 
 he found himself. There is no part of the work 
 of which he is not master, and which he has not 
 learned in this particular factory. The product of 
 the plant consists of plumbers' brass supplies for 
 water, gas and steam. About five 'hundred hands 
 are under Mr. Newton's care, and the ability with 
 which he discharges his duties has v/on the praise 
 and admiration of his employers, and by those em- 
 ployed about the plant he is justly regarded as a 
 wise and efficient executive, who will in every way 
 look after the interests of his men. He is the same 
 friendly comrade to the men that he was when he 
 -worked side by side with them, and in time of 
 trouble they appeal to him just as of old, when 
 his cheery greeting made the day's work seem 
 lighter. 
 
 On Oct. 2, 1893, Mr. Newton married Jessie 
 Nickerson, who was born in New Canaan, Fair- 
 field Co., Conn., daughter of Richard Nickerson, 
 who is in charge of the New Canaan branch of 
 the New York, New Haven & Hartford Rail- 
 road. Three children have by their presence lent 
 ioy and gladness to the home: Lois A., William 
 Irving and Ralph Hudson. In politics Mr. New- 
 ton is a Republican, but though he takes an active 
 interest in the work of his party, and has fre- 
 quently been offered nominations to various offices, 
 he has ever declined official honors. He has found 
 it necessary to supplement the education he re- 
 ceived at school by night study at home, and he has 
 taken a good course in mechanical drafting and en- 
 gineering, which has been of inestimable benefit to 
 him in his work. Socially he is identified with a 
 number of societies. He is a thirty-second-degree 
 Mason, and holds membershin in Adelphi Lodge, 
 No. 63, F. & A. M., of which he is past master, for 
 two years was treasurer and is now trustee. He 
 also belongs to Quinnioiac Lodge, No. 21, I. O. O. 
 F., which he joinedi w'hen he attained his majority. 
 He and his family attend the East Pearl Street M. 
 E. Church, and all are highly esteemed. 
 
 LUCIUS W. MOODY— twelfth and sole sur- 
 vivor of the thirteen children of Joel and Betsy 
 Amadou Moody — was born in Springfield, Mass.. 
 March 4, 1831. His parents died while he was yet 
 a small boy, and he spent his youth in farm work, 
 receiving such schooling as could' be obtained dur- 
 ing the winter. At eighteen he entered Wilbraham 
 Academy. He taught school successively in Be'lch- 
 
 ertown, Mass., Deposit, Broome Co., N. Y., and 
 Fairhaven, Conn. At the age of twenty-five he be- 
 came school commissioner for the Eastern district 
 of Broome county, having under his supervision 
 about one hundred schools. This office he filled for 
 nearly five years. In i860 he married Mary J. 
 Blair, of Chenango. They made their first home 
 in Binghamton, N. Y., where he was principal of 
 some of the public schools. Early in 1863 he en- 
 tered the life insurance business, and the following 
 year moved to Buflfalo, N. Y., where he continued 
 in the same business for twenty-two years, success- 
 fully representing leading companies. In 1885, 
 having been oiTered the general agency for Con- 
 necticut of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insur- 
 ance Co. of Milwaukee, he moved with his family 
 to New Haven, where he has remained ever since. 
 The business built up by himself and his staiif of 
 efficient helpers is one of the largest of the kind in 
 the State. Mr. Moody is a Republican in politics ; 
 for fifty \-ears has been a member of the Methodist 
 Church, in which he has long held official posi- 
 tions ; is a member of Hiram Lodge, No. i, F. & A. 
 M. ; of the American Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science ; of the New Haven Historical So- 
 ciety ; the Republican League ; and several social 
 organizations. 
 
 Dr. M,\ry B. Moody, wife of Lucius W. Moody, 
 born in Barker, Broome Co., New York, in 1837, 
 is, like himself, descended from the earliest New 
 England settlers. Her father, Edson A. Blair, was 
 a farmer; her mother, Caroline (Pease) Blair, a 
 writer of magazine poetry under the pen name of 
 "Waif Woodland." She is a niece of the late Rev. 
 L. M. Pease, who founded the Five Points House 
 of Industry in New York, and while yet in her 
 'teens was called to assist him in the School, which 
 was a part of the work of this institution for im- 
 proving the condition of the children of the 
 "slums." In 1876 Dr. Moodty graduated with hon- 
 ors from the Medical Department of the Univer- 
 sity of Buft'alo, being the first woman admitted to 
 that University as a student. She practiced her 
 profession in Buffalo until the removal of the fam- 
 ily to New Haven, and continues to do so in her 
 present beautiful home on Fairhaven Heights. All 
 her life she has been active in good works, and a 
 leader in charitable, philanthropic and educational 
 movements. She is a member of the County, State 
 and National Medical Associations, and( of various 
 scientific and philanthropic bodies. 
 
 Seven children have been born to Lucius W. 
 and Marv J. (Blair) Moody, of whom six survive, 
 the first, Lucius \\'ilbur, dying in infancy. Charles 
 .Amadon resides with his family in Los Angeles, 
 Cal., being one of the publishers and editors of the 
 magazine "Out West." Dr. Robert Orton is a 
 graduate of Cornell University, and of the Medical 
 Department of Yale; he is now instructor in anat- 
 omy in the Medical Department of the Universiu- 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1543 
 
 of California, at San Francisco. Frederick Stowell 
 IS in the life insurance business in New London, 
 Conn. Rev. Francis Miner (M. A., Yale, B. D., 
 Northwestern University) is pastor of the Meth- 
 odist Church at Elsinore, Cal. Arthur Blair is in 
 the life insurance business with his father in New 
 Haven, Conn. Mary Grace, the youngest, the only 
 and beloved) daughter, who recently graduated 
 from Cornell University, resides with her parents. 
 Hiome comings at intervals and correspondence 
 keep the family still united, though its members 
 are_ in widiely separated localities, with famihes of 
 their own to cherish. 
 
 HENRY BOHN, whose naine was familiar in 
 Branford, was born in the town of Weyer, Alsace- 
 Lorraine, April II, 1859. 
 
 Michael Bohn, his father, was also born in 
 Alsace-Lorraine, and by occupation was a contractor 
 and builder. He married Catherine Lux, of the 
 same nativity. His father, Joseph Bohn, married 
 Maria Cuni, whose mother in her maidenhood was 
 Mary Zenus. 
 
 Henry Bohn, whose name opens this sketch, re- 
 ceived a good education at the public schools of his 
 native place, and served a five years' apprenticeship 
 at the general mason's trade, afterward working as 
 a journeyman in Weyer, and seven months in Pa^is, 
 France. In 1879 he came to the Unitedl States, 
 landing in New York City April 1, that year, thence 
 at once proceeding to New Haven, Conn., where he 
 entered the employ of his uncle, George Bohn, gen- 
 eral contractor. With him he remained some eight- 
 een months, after which for a year he was in the 
 employ of Philip Fresones, brewer ; he was with the 
 Quinnipiac Brewing Co. five and one-half years. 
 On Dec. 26, 1886, he opened the "Oak Hall Cafe," 
 which he successfully conducted, and he also had a 
 branch establishment at Branford Point, besides be- 
 ing owner of the "Bay View Hotel," Stony Creek. 
 His death occurred in September, 1899. 
 
 On Oct. 12, 1-884, Mr. Bdhn was united in mar- 
 riage with Anne Miller, daughter of Frank and 
 Ann N. (Weber) Miller, of Germany. In reHg- 
 ious faith our subject was a member of the CathoHc 
 Church, as is his wife. M^r. Bohn's name was on the 
 rolls of the following fraternities: Rock Lodge, 
 No. 92, F. & A. M. ; Humboldt Lodge, No. 91, I. 
 O. O. F. ; Woodland Lodge, No. 39, K. P. ; U. R. 
 K. of P., No. 13; New Haven Lodge, No. 25, B. 
 P. O. E. ; Court Herman, No. 8, Foresters of Amer- 
 ica ; and the Harugari, No. 600. In politics he was 
 a Republican. 
 
 TAMES J. FRUIN, a retired business man and 
 real-estate owner in Waterbury, Conn., was born 
 in County fipperary, Ireland, March 11, 1852, and 
 was but three and a half years old when his parents 
 brought their family here to permanently reside. 
 
 After an attendance at the schools of the city, 
 
 Mr. Fruin learned stone cutting and monument 
 making, and followed the trade about ten years in 
 the city, and then for a short time worked in Win- 
 sted, Conn., for J. E. Pine. On his return to Wat- 
 erbury, he emjbarked in the retail meat business in 
 partnership with Robert Fruin, but subsequently 
 bought out his partner's interest in the concern, 
 and for three years conducted it alone. His next 
 enterprise was hotel keeping on East Main street, 
 and for ten years he there catered successfully to 
 the public, after which he retired from active busi- 
 ness life and now devotes his attention entirely to 
 his large real-estate interests. 
 
 On April 28, 1880, Mr. Fruin was joined in 
 wedlock with Miss Mary J. Slocum, who was born 
 in Winsted, a daughter of Michael Slocum, who 
 was the second native of the Emerald Isle to set- 
 tle in Winsted. Two children have blessed the 
 marriage of Mir. and Mrs. Fruin — William, de- 
 ceased ; and John. 
 
 Michael Slocum was born in County West- 
 meath, and was reared a gardener. In about 1850 
 he settled in Winsted, Conn., where his death took 
 place in December, 1875, and that of his wife in 
 1884. Of his children, six grew to maturity and 
 bore the following names : Thomas was a mason by 
 trade, but is now deceased; John, alsoNdeceased, 
 was deputy sheriff of Winsted for nine years ; Mich- 
 ael was also a deputy of Winsted, likewise served 
 three years in the regular army, but has now passed 
 away; William was ordained a priest in 1876; Frank 
 is a printer by trade; and Mary J., is now Mrs. 
 Fruin. 
 
 James J. Fruin is a Democrat in his politics, but 
 he has never sought nor held an office. In religion 
 he is a devout Catholic, and with his family is a 
 member of the Immaculate Conception parish. He 
 is liberal in the contribution of his means to the sup- 
 port of the Church and its good work, and few peo- 
 ple stand higher in the public esteem than do James 
 J. Fruin and his family. 
 
 GEORGE F. LEWIS, a leading farmer of Ken- 
 sington, was born in Meriden, Conn., Jan. 6, 1855, a 
 son of George Hallam Lewis, and grandson of Pat- 
 rick Lewis, who was a native of Meriden, where he 
 became a prosperous merchant and one of the weal- 
 thiest men of his day. He married Mary Hull, of 
 Meriden, and died in Burlington, Iowa. 
 
 George H. Lewis laid down his life on the altar 
 of his country during th-e dark days of the Rebel- 
 lion. He was born Jan. 16, 1833, and was con- 
 nected with the East Meriden Britannia Co. until 
 the opening of the war. He enlisted in Company 
 F, 15th Conn. V. I., and died in Washington City 
 Hospital Feb. 11, 1863. George H. Lewis married 
 Miss Elizabeth Hotchkiss, who' was born in Chesh- 
 ire, Conn., June 24, 1837, a daughter of Israel and 
 Ehzabeth (Beech) Hotchkiss, of Cheshire, and is 
 5till living in Meriden. They had a family of four 
 children : ( i ) Josephine Elizabeth, born in 1854, is 
 
1544 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 a highly educated lady, and is at present governess 
 in a wealthy family in Cuba. She mlarried Micial 
 Le Fort, bookkeeper for a hrm in Tampa, Fla. (2J 
 George F. -(3) bamuel Clmton, born m 1859, ts a 
 wood turner and scroll sawyer, running a plant of 
 his own at Meriden, under the firm name of the 
 Lewis Wood Turning Co. He married IViary Lam- 
 bert, of Matawan, iN. J. (4) Wilbur Alton, born 
 March 9, 1862, was a machinist in the employ of 
 the East Meriden Britannia Co., and died March 19, 
 1886. 
 
 George F. Lewis received a fair education for 
 his day, attending first the schools of East Meriden, 
 and later the Prattsville district school, then under 
 tht direction of a Mr. Finney and Robert Curtis, 
 as principals. On laying aside his text books, at 
 the age of thirteen years, he commenced working 
 as errand boy for tne Merid<>n Britannia Co., at 
 three dollars per week, and remained with that iirm 
 one year. He then served a six-months apprentice- 
 ship to the carriage painter's trade, with the Rus- 
 sell Carriage Co., and continued in their employ 
 two years, but as painting did not agree with his 
 Realth he returned to the Meriden Britannia Co., 
 with which he was connected for twenty-two years, 
 being engaged in mold making and die sinking. 
 On leaving the service of that company, in April, 
 1896, he came to Kensington and purchased ten 
 acres of land of Jacob Sprewertburg, on which 
 stood a large house and good outbuildings. Here 
 he is now engaged in agricultural pursuits. 
 
 On May i, 1881, Mr. Lewis majrried Miss Mlar- 
 ian Ellen Cook, a daughter of Andrew and Ellen 
 (Cook) Cook. She was born in Meriden, and died 
 at the age of twenty-four years, leaving one son, 
 Frank Cook Lewis, born July 2, 1882. He passed 
 through the grammar schools with a good percent- 
 age, and studied stenography with Mrs. Graham, 
 in Meriden. Mr. Lewis was again married, July 
 2, 1 89 1, his second union being with Miss Lina 
 Blakeslee, who was born May 12, 1865, a daughter 
 of Charles Prelate and Delia Ann (Brockett) 
 Blakeslee, of New Haven. To this marriage four 
 children have come: Bessie Irene, born March 25, 
 1892, w!ho died July 25, 1893; Wilbur Irvin, born 
 Sept. 5, 1894, now attending the Fourth district 
 ichool of Kensington; Charles, born Oct. 27, 1895; 
 and Mildred Josephine, born March 5, 1897. 
 
 Politically Mr. Lewis is an ardent Republican, 
 and an earnest supporter of a high protective tariff. 
 He was a '-nember of Pacific Lodge, No. 87, L O. 
 O. F., of Meridf^n, for many years, and still belongs 
 to Silver City Lodge- O. U. A. M., of that place ; 
 is a prominent and activ member of Charles L. 
 Upham Camp, No. 7, C'onnectir"t Division, Sons 
 of Veterans, in which he has served as first sergeant 
 one term, quartermaster two terms, and first lieu- 
 tenant two consecutive years ; has represented the 
 Camp at the State Encampment for seven consecu- 
 tive years, and was State chaplain for one \'car. 
 He and his wife arr leading members of the L'ni- 
 
 versalist Church of Meriden, in which he has 
 served as librarian two years and usher six years. 
 Mr. Lewis is a man of the strictest integrity, up- 
 right and honorable in all things. 
 
 PATRICK S. HALLIGAN is one of the moit 
 highly esteemed citizens of North Haven, who has 
 lived an honest, industrious and frugal life, and 
 he is now reaping his reward in the possession of a 
 competency for his age and the comfort of a credit- 
 able family who have been reared to habits of in- 
 dustry and honesty in the home circle. 
 
 William Halligan, the father of our subject, was 
 born in County Kiidare, Ireland, in 1809, and in hie 
 native place was a farmer and laborer. He came 
 to America with his wife and two children in 1845, 
 like many others of his industrious countrymen de- 
 siring to secure a better means of livelihood for his 
 family. After locating in Newark, N. J., he soon 
 secured temporary employment on the docks, and 
 later removed to Prospect, New Haven Co., Conn., 
 where he engaged in farm work for Capt. David 
 Hotchkiss during the succeeding six years. After 
 coming to North Haven he worked for a number of 
 people, but finally was engaged by the Stiles family, 
 brick manufacturers, and was a faithful employe of 
 that family for the following forty years, his employ- 
 ers gladly testifying to his honesty and industry. 
 The last work of his life was the carting of clay for 
 that firm, with a team of oxen. His death occurred 
 Feb. 10, 1889, in North Haven. 
 
 William Halligan married Ann Mooney, a native 
 of County Kiidare, and her death occurred in 1891. 
 They reared a large family, the majority of whom 
 live in Middlesex county, respected citizens. 
 
 Patrick S. Halligan was born in Newark, N. J., 
 and he received but limited schooling, as at 
 the age of twelve years he left home to work for 
 himself. The farmers in the neighborhood gave him 
 employment, and in 1863 he went into the employ of 
 Warner, Mansfield, Stiles & Co., brick manufac- 
 turers, and for the last twenty years has been in the 
 employ of the companies which have succeeded them, 
 filling almost every capacity in and around the yards, 
 doing a great deal of the teaming and losing very 
 little time, the company knowing that all kinds of 
 weather will find this trusty employe on hand, ready 
 and willing for the work of the day. This confi- 
 dence makes very pleasant the intercourse between 
 Mr. lialligan and the members of the firm, which 
 .still includes some members of the Stiles family. 
 
 Mr. Halligan was united in marriage with Jane 
 Dunn, a native of County King's. Ireland, who came 
 to America when nineteen years old, and children as 
 follows have been born to this marriage : William 
 J., who married y\niiie Kelley, and lives in North 
 Haven; Kate E. ; John E., who married Minnie 
 D.-dev, and lives in North Haven; and James H., 
 an expert mechanic. All of these sons are employed 
 by Ihe 1 L Stiles & Son Bnel<: Co. 
 ■ A Democrat in his political views, Mr. Hallio-an 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1545 
 
 votes for the man he thinks most fitted for the office 
 m local afifairs, and does not desire any office for 
 himself. His three sons are members of Court Good 
 Will No. 27, Foresters of America, Mt. Carmel, and 
 all the family are devout members of the Catholic 
 Church at Mt. Carmel. In the community the fam- 
 ily IS respected highly, and Mr. Halligan is regarded 
 as one of the worthiest citizens, who deserves all the 
 success which has attended his honest efforts. 
 
 D. BURTON BROWN, one of the leading busi- 
 ness men of New Haven, and one who for a number 
 of years has been prominent in the municipal affairs 
 of the city, as well as in its fraternal orders, is looked 
 upon as one of the coming young men of his com- 
 munity. He was born in New Haven, May 10, 
 1869, a son of Anson K. and Emma (Brooks) 
 Brown. 
 
 Anson K. Brown for twenty years was one of the 
 active and successful business men of New Haven, 
 and a politician of local influence and power. As 
 a fish and oyster dealer, he was located first on the 
 corner of Chapel and Franklin streets, and later on 
 Grand avenue, where he remained until his death, 
 Aug. 5, 1894, at the age of fifty years, four months 
 and one day. His demise, caused by a street car 
 accident on Kimberly avenue, was a great shock to 
 his family and the community at large. For three 
 terms he had represented the Twelfth ward in the 
 city council. 
 
 D. Burton Brown received a good common- 
 school education in the public schools of New Haven, 
 after which he entered his father's business house, 
 and upon the latter's death, succeeded him not only 
 in the commercial house, but also in the line of pub- 
 lic affairs in which the father had been working, and 
 the son was soon recognized as a Democratic leader 
 in the Twelfth ward. In 1895 he was chosen a 
 member of the city council to succeed his father, and 
 ran well ahead of his ticket, and when he took his 
 seat, he was but twenty-five — the youngest member 
 of that body. At once, he became an active and con- 
 spicuous working member of the council and was 
 very popular. Within a short time, Mr. Brown as- 
 sumed an aggressive attitude in all affairs pertain- 
 ing to his ward and the public welfare in general.- 
 Through his efforts, the project of locating in the 
 Twelfth ward a hospital for contagious diseases, was 
 abandoned. He opposed what later became the 
 somewhat famous street sprinkling advertising con- 
 tracts, and with his colleague, Edward Rourke, of 
 the Finance committee, signed a minority report op- 
 posing the payment of $4,000 as proposed, and sug- 
 gested that $500 be paid each paper. The result of 
 this report was practically a victory for the minority, 
 as the Finance committee, after careful considera- 
 tion finally recommended the sum of $600 be paid 
 the papers entitled to remuneration. The leader- 
 ship of young Brown in his ward was ably illus- 
 trated when, in a contest at the primaries a few years 
 ago he received an overwhelming victory. 
 
 Mr. Brown is prominent and active in various 
 orders and fraternities. He is a member of Delphi 
 Lodge No. 63, Pulaski Chapter and Crawford Coun- 
 cil, A. F. & A. M., and also of the Connecticut State 
 Firemen's Association with a record as volunteer 
 fireman for ten years. Mr. Brown is an honorary 
 member of the Annex Fire Department. He is also 
 past grand master of Polar Star Lodge, No. 17, 
 I. O. O. F. and has represented the lodge at several 
 meetings of the Grand Lodge; and belongs to Can- 
 ton Sassacus', No. i, of New Haven. 
 
 On Sept. 14, 1895, Mr. Brown was married to 
 Miss Jennie, daughter of George H. Currass, and to 
 this union have been torn : William Morris, Ethel 
 May and Dora Ethel. 
 
 HON. JULIUS COLTON CABLE, judge 
 of the Court of Common Pleas of New Haven 
 county, is a representative of a sturdy New Eng- 
 land ancestry and of a kind, too, whose love of 
 liberty and freedom was beyond question. John 
 Cable, his emigrant ancestor came from England 
 to New England, settling at Roxbury, Mass., early 
 in the seventeenth century. In 1636 he, in company 
 with Gov. Pynchon, removed to Springfield, Mass. 
 Seven of his lineal descendants served in the war 
 of the Revolution, two of whom were wounded and 
 were United States pensioners'. 
 
 Judge Cable was born Oct. 11, 1849, i"- New- 
 town, Conn., son of Nathaniel J. and Phoebe (Law- 
 rence) Cable, now of Avon, Conn. He attended the 
 schools of his native town, and later was a student 
 in Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. He taught 
 school in Newtown and Unionville, Conn., and in 
 Ithaca, N. Y. Subsequently he entered Yale Law 
 School, from which he was graduated in 1873. In 
 June of that same year he was admitted to the Bar 
 in New Haven county, settled in New Haven in the 
 practice of his profession, so continuing up to the 
 present time. Two years of his early practice were 
 in connection with the late Hon. Dexter R. Wright 
 and Hon. H. Lynde Harrison, and for nine years 
 he was associated with Wright & Harrison, of 
 New Haven, and subsequently four years with Mr. 
 Harrison alone. In 1876 he served as a member of 
 the common council of New Haven. He has also 
 served as clerk of the City Court and from 1883 
 to 1887, as city attorney. He was appointed judge 
 of the City Court in 1893, a position he filled with 
 dignity and great acceptancy, and four years later 
 was appointed to the office of judge of the court of 
 Common Pleas of New Haven county. His long 
 experience and good repute as a lawyer, his fine 
 record as a wise and humane judge of the City 
 Court, his excellent work as a substitute judge in 
 the court of common pleas, his untarnished stand- 
 ing as a man, and his usefulness as a citizen are 
 all so well known that his appointment to his pres- 
 ent office for which he is so well fitted is but a just 
 recognization of merit and character. 
 
 Judge Cable's political affiliations are with the 
 
1546 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 Republican party. He is a menrber of Hiram Lodge 
 F. & A. M., and New Haven Commandery, Knights 
 Templar. He also belongs to the I. O. O. F., and 
 the New Haven Colony Historical Society. 
 
 On Jan. i, 1874, Judge Cable was i(nai;-ried to 
 Alathea B. Woodruff, of Avon, Conn., a daughter 
 of Horace Woodruff, and to them have come two 
 children : Nathaniel J. and William D. 
 
 HERBERT C. CLEVELAND WARREN, of 
 the firm of H. C. Warren & Co., bankers and 'brokers 
 of New Haven, is one of that city's widely and favor- 
 ably known business men, as well as one of its lead- 
 ing enterprising and public-spirited citizens. Born 
 Feb. 5, 1843, in the town of Derby, Conn., son of 
 the late Henry and Mary A. (Clark) Warren, he is 
 a representative on both sides of sturdy New Eng- 
 land ancestry of the Colonial period. On his 
 mother's side he descends from George Clark, one 
 of the first settlers of Milford, Conn., 1639. 
 
 On the 250th anniversary of the settlement of 
 Milford there was erected in the town The Memor- 
 ial Bridge, in honor of the founders of the town. 
 This was dedicated Aug. 28, 1889. Two of the 
 stones of this bridge are inscribed to the memory of 
 the Clarks — one. No. 8, to "Deacon George Clark, 
 Obit 1690, Mary His wife," and the other, No. 18, 
 to "George Clark, Obit 1690, Sarah His wife." 
 Concerning these Clarks, as named respectively, the 
 writer of the Memorial Pamphlet remarks as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "As there were two George Clarks among the 
 settlers of 1639, much error has grown out of it, as 
 to the correct line of descent of the Clarks, but the 
 writer is confident that from the Deacon descends 
 all of that name in Milford, and those that trace to 
 his son Samuel, who married Mary, the daughter of 
 George the 'Farmer,' have of course the blood of 
 both Georges. There has sprung an unusually large 
 progeny from one man, ajid as a rule, they have been 
 thrifty. He probably died without a will, but the 
 probate records show that he left a large estate. 
 His three sons were prominent, especially Ensign 
 George, and his' daughter Sarah was the mother of 
 Gov. Jonathan Law, although Lambert says it 
 was Farmer George's daughter. 
 
 "This George Clark (referring to the second 
 mentioned) was brother to John Clark, of Say- 
 brook, who removed thence to Milford and was 
 made deacon of the First Church, and married hce 
 the widow of Deacon John Fletcher. His brother 
 Daniel was one of the patentees under the famous 
 charter from Charles II. His only son, John, prob- 
 ably died without issue soon after his father. His 
 daughter Ruth married Thomas Fitch, of Norwalk, 
 and her grandson was assistant of the Colony of 
 Connecticut. Her daughter Lydia married John 
 Newton in 1680 (probablv son of the Pastor), was 
 soon a widow, but evidently a smart business wo- 
 man, and reached a ripe old age." 
 
 Henry Warren, the father of Herbert C. C, 
 was descended from the old Wilcoxson family of 
 Derby, Conn., where he was born in 1810. At an 
 early age he began teaching in his native town, and 
 for nearly or quite half a century was the "Master" 
 in Derby and neighboring towns, and from the 
 schools over which he presided went forth many 
 youths who attained honorable distinction and note 
 in the Naugatuck Valley and elsewhere in the coun- 
 try at large. Master Warren was especially fitted 
 and adapted to his profession, and was eminently 
 successful in it. He won and held the respect and 
 esteem not only of the scholars, but of their parents, 
 and died beloved by a host of friends and acquaint- 
 ances. For the last fifteen or more years of his life 
 he made his home in Nevw Haven with his son 
 Herbert C. C. Warren, going thither after the death 
 of his wife. Hisi own death occurred Nov. 17, 
 1896. 
 
 Herbert C. C. Warren attended the schools of 
 his native town and was prepared for business as 
 clerk in a store and banking house. At the age 
 of twenty-five years, in 1868, he established the 
 present banking and brokerage house bearing his 
 name. In 1878 Alexander McAlister became a 
 partner, and so continued until his death, in 1885, 
 since which time Mr. Warren has cointinued the 
 business alone. To the business of this house Mr. 
 Warren has given close application and attention, 
 until he has developed an extensive and successful 
 trade which extends throughout New England, in 
 which section the establishment is well and favor- 
 ably known. Mr. Warren has successfully handled 
 many issues of trolley railroad and other invest- 
 ment bonds, and has the confidence of a large 
 clientele. The house does a general banking and 
 investment brokerage business. 
 
 Mr. Warren is identified with a number of cor- 
 porations and enterprises. He is a director of the 
 Merchants Bank and the New Haven Electric Co., 
 and is treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce. He 
 has been a member of the New Haven city govern- 
 ment. Socially he belongs to the Ouinnipiac Club 
 and the Union League. In politics~he is a Repub- 
 lican. 
 
 . On Oct. 9, 1867, Mr. Warren was married to 
 Helen L. Perkins, daughter of Charles Perkins, of 
 Meriden, a representative of an old Connecticut 
 family, and to them came two children, namely 
 Louise and Harold P. The mother of these died 
 March 23, 1896. On June 14, 1900, Mr. Warren 
 married Mrs. Alice G. Bristol, who had a daughter 
 Naita. ^ 
 
 MORSE. For about eighty vears past the late 
 Gardner Morse and his descendants have been close- 
 ly identified with the history of New Haven, and 
 have figured conspicuously in its business growth 
 and development. The Morse family is one of the 
 oldest among the earlv settlers of New England 
 
COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 1547 
 
 Gardner Morse was a direct descendant of Joseph 
 Morse, who came to this country from England in 
 1635, settling at Ipswich, Massachusetts. 
 
 Gardner Morse was born at Marlboro, Mass., 
 April II, 1809. When sixteen years old he came 
 to New Haven to enter the employ of Timothy 
 and Stephen Bishop, prominent merchants of the 
 city. After six years' sesvice with these gentlemen 
 he engaged in the wholesale drug and oil business 
 with the late Charles Peterson, under the firm name 
 of Morse & Peterson, and founded the establish- 
 ment now conducted by the well-known firm of 
 Spencer & Matthews. At an early age Mr. Morse 
 entered the State militia service, and soon became 
 colonel of the Second Connecticut Regiment. Un- 
 der his command the service was reorganized and 
 brought to a state of high discipline and efficiency, 
 which that admired organization has since well 
 maintained. In this duty he had the good fortune 
 to have the assistance on his staff of Major Minott 
 E. Osborn, the late editor and proprietor of the New 
 Haven Register, and attributed much of his success 
 as a commander to the valued co-operation of that 
 greatly beloved and esteemed fello\!/ citizen and 
 soldier. Col. Morse was also later honored with 
 the commission of major of the Second Company 
 of the Governor's Foot Guards, a command of his- 
 toric renown for its participation in the war of the 
 Revolution. In 1837 he retired from mercantile 
 business, and thereafter during his long life was 
 continuously and actively engaged in the discharge 
 of many pubHc official duties, and in the manage- 
 ment of private trusts of considerable importance, 
 for both individuals and corporations. Among the 
 public c^ces filled by him may be mentioned the 
 collectorship of taxes of the city, town and school 
 district, which position he filled with marked ability 
 for twenty years, from 1837 to 1857. He was also 
 for about forty years trustee of the town deposit 
 fund and the old Almshouse Farm corporation of 
 New Haven. He was identified with the manage- 
 ment of tlie affairs of the New Haven Savings 
 Bank, of which he was a vice-president and trustee 
 until' his' decease. His business connections as a 
 real-estate and fire insurance agent were early es- 
 tablished, and grew in extent and importance from 
 year to year, and his knowledge and experience m 
 all matters pertaining to real property were es- 
 pecially well known and valued. 
 
 Mr. Morse was accurate in judgment, quick m 
 perception and prompt in acts of sympathy. His 
 character presented a rare combination of dignity, 
 firmness and gentleness, such as engaged to a 
 marked degree the confidence, esteem and affection 
 of all who knew him. His religious convictions 
 were deep and strong. He was a lifelong member 
 of Trinity Episcopal Church, and served that so- 
 ciety as vestryman and treasurer for many years. 
 In his political as.^ociations Col. Morse was first a 
 Whie and later an unfaltering adherent of the Re- 
 publican party. He was deeply interested in all 
 
 that pertained to the history and welfare of the 
 town, and retained his activity in all social and 
 business relations until nearly the end of his life, 
 which came suddenly, in May, 1896, from, an apo- 
 plectic stroke. 
 
 Mr. Morse was three times married, and was 
 the father of twelve children. Six of his sons grew 
 to manhood in New Haven and attained consider- 
 able prominence in business. The eldest son, 
 
 Algernon Hull Morse, whose lamented death 
 preceded that of his father by a few months, was 
 a man of marked character and ability. He was 
 born in 1835, and received an excellent common- 
 school education in the schools of New Haven, and 
 at Oxford, Conn., and began his business career at 
 the age of fourteen in the office of Hooker & Os- 
 born, a leading firm of carriage makers in New 
 Haven. He early showed unusual skill as an ac- 
 countant, and enjoyed an extensive experience and 
 practice in that employment in various large es- 
 tablishments, in Cambridge, New York and New 
 Haven, until the year 1870, when he established 
 himself as a public accountant in his native city 
 and there remained in the practice of his calling 
 for the remainder of his life. Algernon Morse was 
 a thorough master and progressive student of his 
 chosen profession and acquired a national reputa- 
 tion, not only for the marvelous rapidity and ac- 
 curacy and beauty of his work, but also for its prac- 
 tical results, and the lastisg value of the direction 
 and advice given by him. He was ever ready to 
 instruct and assist others ambitious to excel in the 
 same line of work, and many were encouraged and 
 stimulated to success by the example of his remark- 
 able powers of appplication. Mr. Morse closely 
 resembled his father in personal appearance, and 
 was of large and powerful form. Socially he was 
 extremely and deservedly popular, and his genial 
 nature found its best expression in the work of the 
 various fraternal societies with which he was con- 
 nected. He was a lifelong and well-known mem- 
 ber of Hiram Lodge, F. & A. M., and was es- 
 pecially noted for his, work in the order of the 
 Sons of Temperance. Of this body he was grand 
 scribe for several years, and labored effectively for 
 twenty years in the cause of temperance, as a mem- 
 ber of Harmony Lodge, New Haven. He was a 
 fine reader and dramatic critic. His sudden death, 
 from heart disease, in December, 1895, while ap- 
 parently in the fullest vigor, closed an honored 
 career full of promise of future usefulness. 
 
 William Wilson Morse, the second son of 
 Gardner Morse, was born in New Haven, and was 
 educated chiefly in the schools of that city, and, 
 like his brother Algernon, acquired considerable 
 skill and reputation as an accountant. In this oc- 
 cupation he passed his youth and early manhood, 
 but during his middle life was for several years en- 
 gaged in various business enterprises in the Western 
 States. In youth he particularly excelled m all 
 manly sports and exercises, and was the life of 
 
1548 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. 
 
 every social gathering. At the breaking out of the 
 war WiUiam Morse, then twenty-four years of age, 
 was a sergeant of the New Haven Grays, and en- 
 listed with that company for three months' service. 
 At the end of that term he raised a company and 
 returned to the field as a captain in the Twentieth 
 Connecticut Volunteers. During the war his com- 
 mand saw much hard service and many battles un- 
 der the command of Gen. Sherman, and he returned 
 at its close with the rank of brevet major. IMajor 
 Morse was a most excellent soldier and officer, 
 very popular with his command, and highly esi- 
 teemed by his superior officers. But his tastes and 
 ambition were not inclined to military affairs, and 
 he preferred and sought the quiet joys of social 
 and civil life. He was much interested in instru- 
 mental music and a superior amateur upon the 
 flute. In political affairs he exerted considerable 
 influence, and was ever an active and zealous ad- 
 herent of the Republican party and a loyal supporter 
 of the best men and measures. He was for several 
 terms a member of the court of common council 
 and also of the board of police commissioners. 
 ^ Major Morse died at New Haven in 1898, leaving 
 a widow and two sons, A^'illiam Austin Morse and 
 Herbert Townsend ]\Iorse, both rising young busi- 
 ness men of New Haven. 
 
 Gardner Morse, the third son of the late Col. 
 Gardner Morse, and the eldest of his three surviving 
 sons, were born at Xew Haven in 1839. He was 
 educated in the Hopkins Grammar School, and 
 spent a portion of his; early years roughing it in 
 what was then the far Western country of Ohio. 
 He began businessi at an early age in the employ 
 successively of several local mercantile houses, and 
 in a short time, following the footsteps of his elder 
 brothers, became a valued and trusted accountant. 
 For a few years after the war he was engaged with 
 C. S. Maltby & Co., in the oyster canning business, 
 at Baltimore and in St. Louis, but returned to New 
 Haven to resume his: work as an accountant in 1869. 
 About the year 1870 he assumed a position with 
 the New Haven Gas Co., where as/ secretary and 
 treasurer he has for nearly thirty years ably directed 
 the office work of that large establishment. Mr. 
 Morse has been noted for many years for his com- 
 plete knowledge and proficiency in the gentle sport 
 of angling, and in particular for his interest and 
 efforts in the propagation of trout and the culti- 
 vating and protection of trout streams. The well- 
 known Waltonian Club of New Haven county was 
 founded chiefly through the efforts of the brothers 
 Gardner and William W. Morse. 
 
 Gardner Morse was married in 1870 to Mary 
 Hamilton, of Northampton, Mass., a_ lady much 
 admired and esteemed for her personal beauty and 
 
 charming social qualities. Mrs. Morse has to her 
 credit, in addition, the distinction of having engaged 
 in historical and genealogical research with much 
 diligence and success. She is an active member of 
 the patriotic order of the Daughters of the Amer- 
 ican Revolution. Mrs. Morse is herself of dis- 
 tinguished lineage. She is a daughter of Luther W. 
 Hamilton and granddaughter of Loomis, who was 
 a great-grandson of Duke Hamilton of Scotland. 
 Ruth \A'aldo, her grandmother was the daughter 
 of Schulen Waldo, a prominent man of North- 
 ampton and colonel in the Revolutionary war; he 
 served also in the war of 1812. 
 
 Air. and Mrs. Morse have two daughters liv- 
 ing. Miss Edith Hamilton Morse and Mrs. Re- 
 bekah How Corbin, of New Britain, and two 
 grandchildren, Gardner I\Iorse Corbin and . 
 
 Elliott How Morse, the fourth son of Gard- 
 ner Morse, was born in New Haven in July, 1846. 
 After his graduation from the Hillhouse High 
 School he entered at once upon his apprenticeship 
 as a banker's clerk with the late John W. Mans- 
 field, in the Connecticut Savings Bank. In 1880 
 he succeeded that gentleman as treasurer of the in- 
 stitution, and since that date has continued to dis- 
 charge the duties of that position and trusts of a 
 similar character with conspicuous ability and fi- 
 delity. 
 
 Joseph Bulkeley Morse, the fifth son of the 
 late Gardner Morse, born in 1850, wasi educated in 
 the New Haven public schools and in the academic 
 and law departments of Yale University. He suc- 
 ceeded to and still conducts the business founded by 
 the late Gardner Morse. 
 
 Charles Theodore Morse was the sixth and 
 youngest of the adult sons of Gardner Morse. He 
 was born in 1853, and graduated from the Yale 
 Scientific School in 1872, and from the Yale Law 
 School in 1876. He soon became prominent as an 
 able and brilliant member of the Bar, and was par- 
 ticularly active and efficient as a leading Repub- 
 lican politician. He was chairman of the Repub- 
 lican Town Committee for several years, and also 
 served in the court of common council, and as city 
 clerk of New Haven with Mayor (afterward Gov.) 
 Hobart B. Bigelow, by whom he was honored with 
 a staff appointment as lieutenant-colonel in 1880. 
 
 Col. Charles T. Morse was most affectionately 
 beloved by the companions of his youth in college, 
 and retained their esteem throughout his short life, 
 and was especially active in the management of his 
 college fraternal society. Very early he was 
 obliged to give up business and political affairs by 
 reason of failing health, which all treatment and 
 change of climate and travel failed to restore. He 
 died of consumption, at Pasadena, Cal, in 1889. 
 
INDBX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Abbott, Alvin 952 
 
 Abbott, Anson F 951 
 
 Abbott, Daniel 841 
 
 Abbott Family 951 
 
 Abbott, Smith A 841 
 
 Adams, Col. Ebenezer 1396 
 
 Adams. Chester 1380 
 
 Adams, Marshall J., M. D 1380 
 
 Adams, Samuel G 1397 
 
 Adams, William J 1396 
 
 Adler, Max 1361 
 
 Ahern, Thomas W 1536 
 
 Alain, Alexander S., M. D.... 1485 
 
 Alden, Dexter 92 
 
 Alden Family 92 
 
 Alden, ^Irs. Margaret E 93 
 
 Alexander, George J 1523 
 
 Alexander, Jrihn 1523 
 
 Alford, Daniel M 430 
 
 Allderige, John W 11 18 
 
 Allderige. William 11 18 
 
 Allen, Megs M 339 
 
 Allen, Richard 339 
 
 Allen, Wesley B 1279 
 
 Ailing, Amos H 991 
 
 Ailing, Mrs. Amos H 992 
 
 Ailing, Charles B 717 
 
 Ailing, David R 901 
 
 Ailing, Edwin J 1384 
 
 Ailing Families 900, 991, 998 
 
 Ailing, Francis A 901 
 
 Ailing, Ichabod E 998 
 
 Ailing, Mrs. Laura C 1385 
 
 Ailing, Leonidas W 938 
 
 Ailing, Wilbur AI 939 
 
 Allis, Terence S Il8s 
 
 Ames, Clarence G 650 
 
 Amos, Alexander R 1249 
 
 Andrew, Allen F I35 
 
 Andrew, Mrs. Betsey B 13S 
 
 Andrew, Frank S 356 
 
 Andrews, Albert F 429 
 
 Andrews Families 429, SSi, 1483 
 
 Andrews, Floyd L 1389 
 
 Andrews, F. Foote 773 
 
 Andrews, George A 581 
 
 Andrews, Israel 1483 
 
 Andrews, Mrs. Louisa M 43° 
 
 Andrews, Nathan I37S 
 
 Andrews, Rouel 773 
 
 Andrews, Samuel N 1389 
 
 Andrews, William 582 
 
 Ansell, Joseph 1270 
 
 Arents, Wilson G I5i6 
 
 Armstrong, John 220 
 
 Armstrong, Philando 220 
 
 Arvine, Earlliss P i537 
 
 Ashman, David S 150S 
 
 98 
 
 Atwater, Charles 453 
 
 Atwater, Charles G 766 
 
 Atwater, Hon. Clifford J 1091 
 
 Atwater, Rev. Edward E 371 
 
 Atwater, Edward 1 1278 
 
 Atwater Families 281, 453, 1091, 1423 
 
 Atwater, Francis 204 
 
 Atwater, Jared 766 
 
 Atwater, William J 1423 
 
 Atwood, Chauncey 578 
 
 Atwood, Mrs. Chauncey 578 
 
 Atwood, Dr. Frank G 1251 
 
 Atwood, William R 1251 
 
 Aubry, Lee J 718 
 
 Augur, Charles P 1510 
 
 Augur, Daniel 1510 
 
 Augur Families 478, 609, 919 
 
 Augur, Hezekiah, Jr 609 
 
 Augur, James M 609 
 
 Augur, Hon. Phineas M 919 
 
 Augur, Watson D 478 
 
 Austin, Abner 396 
 
 Austin, Andrew F 967 
 
 Austin Family 967 
 
 Austin, Miss Sarah E 396 
 
 Averill, Frederick L 1221 
 
 Averill, George M 805 
 
 Baohelder, Joseph H. C 1325 
 
 Bacon, Daniel H 651 
 
 Bacon Family 1 189 
 
 Bacon, William F 1189 
 
 Bacon, William T 651 
 
 Badger, Frank 1003 
 
 Bailey Family 1383 
 
 Bailey, Theodore F 217 
 
 Baker, Amos 1473 
 
 Baker, Ellis B 906 
 
 Baker Family 906 
 
 Baldwin, Allen D 143 
 
 Baldwin, Mrs. Betsey A 766 
 
 Baldwin, Charles A 141 
 
 Baldwin, Charles J 1070 
 
 Baldwin, C. Watson 1070 
 
 Baldwin, Dwight W 280 
 
 Baldwin, ]\Irs. Eunice C 1443 
 
 Baldwin Families ....141, 233, 280, 
 
 485, 801, 1093, 1240, 1433 
 
 Baldwin, George R i486 
 
 Baldwin, Henry C 1026 
 
 Baldwin, Henry E 1093 
 
 Baldwin, Herbert C 949 
 
 Baldwin, Herman L 754 
 
 Baldwin, James 754 
 
 Baldwin, Lucian 949 
 
 Baldwin, Lucius 1026 
 
 Baldwin, Mrs. Millicent A 1027 
 
 Baldwin, Moses 234 
 
 PAGSr 
 
 Baldwin, Nathan S 235 
 
 Baldwin, Ransom 420 
 
 Baldwin, Sherman H 1240 
 
 Baldwin, William H 235 
 
 Baldwin, William P 1433, 
 
 Banks, Moses 1271 
 
 Barber, Capt. Daniel L 714 
 
 Barber, Loyal R 714 
 
 Barlow Family 1517 
 
 Barnes, Amos F 281 
 
 Barnes, Deacon Byard 447 
 
 Barnes, Charles H 1130 
 
 Barnes, E. Henry i3_;2- 
 
 Barnes Families, 446, 1031, 1342, 1398- 
 
 Barnes, George 1525 
 
 Barnes, JNIrs. George 1526 
 
 Barnes, G. Fred 1127 
 
 Barnes, George M 139S 
 
 Barnes, Herbert 446 
 
 Barnes, Jairus i394i 
 
 Barnes, Hon. T. Atwater 28E 
 
 Barnes, William A io3r 
 
 Barnett, Alfred 854. 
 
 Barnett, Dennis 94^ 
 
 Barnett, Rev. Eli 934 
 
 Barnett, John F., AL D 615 
 
 Barnett, William N 615 
 
 Barnum, Eli C 440. 
 
 Barnum Family 440 
 
 Barron, William 1098:". 
 
 Bartholomew, Hon. Arthur H. . 787 
 
 Bartholomew, Augustus H..,. 934 
 
 Bartholomew, Hon. Dana .... 899!^ 
 Bartholomew Families .... 899, 934 
 
 Bartholomew, Sereno 836. 
 
 Bartlett, Albert H 703. 
 
 Bartlett Family §77 
 
 Bartlett, James H 930 
 
 Bartlett, Joseph 877 
 
 Bartlett, Mrs. Marion 708: 
 
 Basserman, Peter I347~ 
 
 Basserman, Mrs. Sophia 1347' 
 
 Bassett, Mrs. Emily J 475.- 
 
 Bassett, George A 1142 
 
 Bassett, Jared 475 
 
 Bassett, Jared A 962 
 
 Bassett, Lyman F 475 
 
 Bassett, Royal M 784 
 
 Bassett, Sheldon 785. 
 
 Bassett, Thomas A 1183 
 
 Beach, Algernon 544 
 
 Beach, Andrew Y 588 
 
 Beach, Mrs. Cornelia H 984. 
 
 Beach Families 
 
 166, 278, 588, 1 104, U28, ii6a 
 
 Beach, Frank E IS35 
 
 Beach, Harvey W 984 
 
 Beach, Rev. John i65.. 
 
155° 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Beach, John S., LL. D 167 
 
 Beach, Nathan i lOo 
 
 Beach, Miss Rebecca D 167 
 
 Beach, Sharon D 589 
 
 Beach, Theodore E 1128 
 
 Beach, Zerah P iiOo 
 
 Beadle, Benajah 1002 
 
 Beadle Family 1003 
 
 Beadle, Henry 1002 
 
 Beard Families 550, 1271 
 
 Beard, Joseph T 985 
 
 Beard, Theodore E., M. D 1271 
 
 Beardsley, Charles W 484 
 
 Beardsley, Edwin '. . . . 165 
 
 Beardsley Families 260, 484 
 
 Beardsley, Hezekiah B 260 
 
 Beardsley, Lewis 230 
 
 Beardsley, Lucius N., M. D.. 1096 
 
 Beardsley, Mrs. Susan P 1097 
 
 Beattie, David H 1170 
 
 Beattie, Frank 839 
 
 Beattie, John 837 
 
 Beattie, John, Jr 839 
 
 Beatty, Capt. Matthew 15S 
 
 Beaumont, Albert 1003 
 
 Beaumont Family 1158 
 
 Beaumont, George 1158 
 
 Beaumont, Harvey 1091 
 
 Beaumont, Lewellyn 920 
 
 Becker, Gustav A 597 
 
 Beckley, Frank A 1395 
 
 Beckley, William 139S 
 
 Becroft, William E 1453 
 
 Beebe, George H 1479 
 
 Beebe, George H., M. D 312 
 
 Beecher, Mrs. Christina E 1386 
 
 Beecher, Edward 1386 
 
 Beecher Family logg 
 
 Beecher, Leroy C 1099 
 
 Beecher, Hon. William S 152 
 
 Beers, Charles 697 
 
 Beers Family 698 
 
 Beers, Ira W 1264 
 
 Beers, Deacon Nathan 150 
 
 Beers, Philo S 1264 
 
 Beers, W. A 697 
 
 Beers, William H 1350 
 
 Beisiegel, Mrs. Clara 1036 
 
 Beisiegel, Jacob 1534 
 
 Beisiegel. Jacob (deceased).... 1036 
 
 Bemis, Fred E 1370 
 
 Benedict, Deacon Aaron 369 
 
 Benedict Family 369 
 
 Benedict, George W 370 
 
 Benham, Arthur A '. 368 
 
 Benham Families 368, 434 
 
 Benham, Isaac 388 
 
 Benham, Jared 388 
 
 Benham, Joseph T 1296 
 
 Benham, Mrs. Joseph T 1297 
 
 Benham, William 434 
 
 Benjamin Families 706, 906 
 
 Bennett, Alfred S 11 15 
 
 Bennett Family 325 
 
 Bennett, James 1227 
 
 Bennett, Philo S 325 
 
 Bennett, Mrs. Philo S 325 
 
 Bennett, William D 752 
 
 Benton Families 1085, 1116 
 
 Benton, George T 'I16 
 
 Benton, Herbert L ' 085 
 
 Bernstein, Sigmund 685 
 
 Betts, Hon. Frederick A 296 
 
 Bevan, Charles A., M. D 756 
 
 Bevan, David C 756 
 
 Bevan, Timothy V 756 
 
 Birdsey, Eli C 700 
 
 Birdsey I'amily 701 
 
 Birdseye Family 560 
 
 Birdseye, Henry S 562 
 
 Birdseye, Thaddeus G 561 
 
 Birdseye, Thomas S 562 
 
 Bishop, Clifford F 531 
 
 Bishop, Dexter L 1238 
 
 Bishop, Elisha C 796 
 
 Bishop, Erus B 170 
 
 Bishop Families 
 
 , 170, S3I. 796, 809, 836 
 
 Bishop, Levi '837 
 
 Bishop, Martin 809 
 
 Bishop, Riah 171 
 
 Bishop, Walter G 809 
 
 Bishop, William S 836 
 
 Bissell, Gen. Evelyn L., M. D. . 228 
 
 Bissell Families 226, 886 
 
 Bissell, Judge George D 886 
 
 Bissell, Major Lyman 226 
 
 Black, John H 1366 
 
 Blackman Family 1037 
 
 BJackman, Harvey 1037 
 
 Blackman, William B 1037 
 
 Blackstone, Betsey J 936 
 
 Blackstone, Charles A 1252 
 
 Blackstone Families 
 
 935, 1031, 1252, 1380 
 
 Blackstone, George 1031 
 
 Blackstone, James 1031, 1381 
 
 Blackstone, Miles 935 
 
 Blackstone, Timothy B 1381 
 
 Blair, Samuel M 481 
 
 Blair, Sherman C 481 
 
 Blake, Dr. Amos S 787 
 
 Blake, Eli W 250 
 
 Blake, Eli W., M. D 258 
 
 Blake, Elihu 251 
 
 Blake Family 250 
 
 Blake, Mrs. Fanny T 258 
 
 Blake, Henry T 251 
 
 Blake, John M 1492 
 
 Blake, Rufus W 290 
 
 Blakeslee, Anson 1371 
 
 Blakeslee, Charles W 1469 
 
 Blakeslee, Maj. Charles W., Jr. 1469 
 
 Blakeslee Families 
 
 317, SOI, 1008, 1371, 1469 
 
 Blakeslee, Col. Henry M 1371 
 
 Blakeslee, Samuel 317 
 
 Blakeslee, Silas 319, 1072 
 
 Blakesley, Augustus M 500 
 
 Blakesley, Milo 501 
 
 Blatchley, Charles C 962 
 
 Blatchley Families 186, 961 
 
 Blatchley, Joel H 186 
 
 Blatchley, Samuel L 961 
 
 B'latchley, Samuel R 962 
 
 Blatchley, William 187 
 
 Bley, Albert 1215 
 
 Bliss Family 1379 
 
 Bliss, Franklin R 1379 
 
 Bloomfield, David 774 
 
 Blumenauer, Charles F 1117 
 
 Boardman, Capt, Jason 590 
 
 Boardman, Lemuel H 349 
 
 Bohl, Valentine 358 
 
 Bohn, Henry 1543 
 
 Bohn, Victor M 1531 
 
 Bolan, P. Joseph 1392 
 
 Bond, Charles 1007 
 
 Bond, Mrs. Clara A 1007 
 
 Booth, Mrs. Adele S 361 
 
 Booth Families 39, 518 
 
 Booth, John C 39 
 
 Booth, Mary Lewis Sig 
 
 Booth, Nathaniel 519 
 
 Booth, Paul C 363 
 
 Booth, Hon. Walter 19 
 
 Borchardt, William H 1158 
 
 Botsford Family 292 
 
 Boughton, George A 1012 
 
 Boughton, Isaac 1013 
 
 Boughton, Jonas 1012 
 
 Bowe, Allen 1466 
 
 Bowe, Austin 134 
 
 Bowe, Edward A 135 
 
 Bowe Family 134 
 
 Bowe, Osmond A 1466 
 
 Bowe, Wallace F 134 
 
 Boylan, Charles 1536 
 
 Bradford, George 1336 
 
 Bradford, Harry S 1336 
 
 Bradley, Mrs. Caroline L 502 
 
 Bradley, Charles F 1520 
 
 Bradley, Charles S 1093 
 
 Bradley, Charles W 375 
 
 Bradley, Dana A 502 
 
 Bradley, Daniel 1282 
 
 Bradley, David 1093 
 
 Bradley, Edward B 1083 
 
 Bradley, Hon. Edward E 675 
 
 Bradley, Edwin A 1524 
 
 Bradley, Elsworth A 503 
 
 Bradley, E. Ives 503 
 
 Bradley, Edward M 123 
 
 Bradley Families, 106, 214, 373, 638, 
 67s. 1079, 1092, 1093, 1352, 1364 
 
 Bradley, Frank S 1532 
 
 Bradley, Frederick N 1092 
 
 Bradley, Frederick T 215 
 
 Bradley, George C 1201 
 
 Bradley, George T 638 
 
 Bradley, Gurdon 1079, 1093 
 
 Bradley, Henry M 1079 
 
 Bradley, James W 1083 
 
 Bradley, Mrs. Jane E 1282 
 
 Bradley, Jason W 1352 
 
 Bradley, J. Chester 1201 
 
 Bradley, Jesse C 577 
 
 Bradley, Joel M 577 
 
 Bradley, John C 123 
 
 Bradley, John Colton 123 
 
 Bradley, Levi 188 
 
 BradJey, Lewis 1080 
 
 Bradley, L. B 1519 
 
 Bradley, Nathaniel L 188 
 
 Bradley, Richard 1079 
 
 Bradley, Wallace H 123 
 
 Bradley, William J 1364 
 
 Bradley, William L 34 
 
 Bradley, Willis 1021 
 
 Brainard, Dr. Edwin W 1248 
 
 Brainard, J. Edward 1247 
 
 Brainerd Families 217, 1187 
 
 Brainerd, Frank E 1187 
 
 Bray, Sumner W 948 
 
 Bray, Mrs. Sumner W 949 
 
 Brazos, Antoine 964 
 
 Brazos, Frank 964 
 
 Bree, Hon. James P 1219 
 
 Brennan, A 822 
 
INDEX. 
 
 1551 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Brennan, Andrew C 1174 
 
 Brennan, Joseph 1470 
 
 Brennan, Patrick J \\ 1067 
 
 Brennan, T. J is-?2 
 
 Brenner, Reinhold moa 
 
 Brett, Edward P. . . . 078 
 
 Brett Family gCg 
 
 Brett, Hon. Frank P '"■ iim 
 
 Brett, Patrick \\ ugg 
 
 Brewer, Alva G 1242 
 
 Brewer, Charles 1503 
 
 Bright, Mrs. Jean .' .' 374 
 
 Bright, Thomas -J74 
 
 Brill, F. B : 1472 
 
 Brinsmade, Daniel S 800 
 
 Brinsmade Family 800 
 
 Bristol, Alfred 1353 
 
 Bristol Family 1352 
 
 Bristol, Henry J 152 
 
 Bristol, Jehial 964 
 
 Bristol, Johnson 964 
 
 Bristol, Johnson 152 
 
 Bristol, Theodore 964 
 
 Bristol, Warren P 1352 
 
 Bristol, William B 144 
 
 Brockett Families 650, 909 
 
 Brockett, Frederick H 650 
 
 Brocksieper, Frederick W 888 
 
 Bronneke, William F 1065 
 
 Bronneke, Mrs. William F.... 1065 
 
 Bronson, Benjamin L 1032 
 
 Bronson, Charles H 881 
 
 Bronson, Edward L 98 
 
 Bronson Families 
 
 20, 98, 382, 881, 1032, 1391 
 
 Bronson, Dr. Henry 21 
 
 Bronson, I. P 775 
 
 Bronson, Leonard 98 
 
 Bronson, Lester 775 
 
 Bronson, Robert A 1391 
 
 Bronson, Samuel B 721 
 
 Bronson, Judge Samuel L 21 
 
 Bronson, Stillman 1033 
 
 Bronson, Walter 721 
 
 Bronson, William A 1391 
 
 Bronson, Walter W ; . 382 
 
 Brooker, Hon. Charles F...... 258 
 
 Brooker Family 258 
 
 Brooker, Samuel 625 
 
 Brooks, Mrs. Arthur M 75i 
 
 Brooks, Rev. David 79i 
 
 Brooks, David 790 
 
 Brooks Families 59, 790 
 
 Brooks, Friend E 678 
 
 Brooks, Isaac R 678 
 
 Brooks, James S 3i 
 
 Brooks, Nathan 982 
 
 Brooks, Capt. Oliver N 982 
 
 Brown, Amon 272 
 
 Brown, Anson 323 
 
 Brown, Benjamin B 973 
 
 Brown, Maj. Benjamin E 1306 
 
 Brown, Charles H., M. D 1212 
 
 Brown, Charles P 324 
 
 Brown, D. Burton I54S 
 
 Brown, Daniel H 324 
 
 Brown Family 322 
 
 Brown, Frank E 324 
 
 Brown, Frank M I4«9 
 
 Brown, Frederick F 323 
 
 Brown, Frederick M 324 
 
 Brown, Frederick W., D. D. S. nSi 
 Brown, Isaac E 323 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Brown, Jacob 454 
 
 Brown, Martin H 716 
 
 Brown, Samuel M 324 
 
 Brown, Walter E 1513 
 
 Bruce, Lawrence 583 
 
 Bryan, Burton G 320 
 
 Bryan Family 320 
 
 Bryan, Mrs. Mary M 454 
 
 Bryan, Oliver 453 
 
 Bryan, William 831 
 
 Bryan, William D 453 
 
 Bryant, Edson L 999 
 
 Bryant, Judge Samuel J 532 
 
 Buck, Charles S ii34 
 
 Buck, George D 1120 
 
 Buckh'olz, Joseph 1227 
 
 Buckingham Family 63 
 
 Buckingham, Henry 1239 
 
 Buckingham, Capt. John 63 
 
 Buckingham, John A 64 
 
 Buckingham, Hon. Scovill M.. 64 
 
 Buckingham, William' W 1238 
 
 Buechler, Andrew 276 
 
 Buechler, John 276 
 
 Bull, Edwin Y 796 
 
 Bull Family 3i 
 
 Bunting, John 430 
 
 Burke, Daniel W 1126 
 
 Burke, Martin 1102 
 
 Burkhard, George 1449 
 
 Burton, Mrs. Candace C 434 
 
 Burton, John H 434 
 
 Burwell, David C 1452 
 
 Burwell Families 1425, I4S0 
 
 Brrwell, Fitch W 142S 
 
 Burwell, Nelson i4S2 
 
 Burwell, Robert M 1450 
 
 Burwell, Robert N 14S1 
 
 Burwell, S. Clark 1452 
 
 Bush, Hon. Fenner 231 
 
 Bushnell, George T 827 
 
 Bushncll, Taylor P 827 
 
 Butler, Elisaph H 1017 
 
 Butler, Levi 1017 
 
 Cable, Hon. Julius C i545 
 
 Cables, Cornelius H 1360 
 
 Cables, David F 1360 
 
 Cady, Charles E 263 
 
 Cady, Edwin 262 
 
 Cady, Mrs. Roselia M 263 
 
 Callahan, John P 1106 
 
 Callan, James 9" 
 
 Camier, John H 3o8 
 
 Campbell Family 981 
 
 Campbell, Judge James R gSr 
 
 Candee Families 19, 772 
 
 Candee, Frederick C 773 
 
 Candee, Job 42i 
 
 Candee, Leverett I9 
 
 Carey, David 1480 
 
 Carley, Emmett A 1163 
 
 Carlson, Alfred I054 
 
 Carlson, Charles L 1207 
 
 Carney, Peter J 1S2S 
 
 Carney, Thomas P 1437 
 
 Carrington Family 353 
 
 Carrington, John B 353 
 
 Carjoll, James D ii47 
 
 Carroll, Rev. John H 1350 
 
 Carroll, John J., M. D 1186 
 
 Carroll, Mrs. Mary F 265 
 
 Carter, Bela 1369 
 
 Carter, David H 1275 
 
 Carter, Edward L 1533 
 
 Carter Families .... 510, 884, 1369 
 
 Carter, George W 511 
 
 Carter, Henry B 1514 
 
 Carter, Henry B. (deceased) . . 510 
 
 Carter, Joel 1275 
 
 Carter, Loren R 884 
 
 Carter, Robert W 1370 
 
 Carter, Russell 884 
 
 Cartwright, Elbert W 1149 
 
 Casey, William M 1491 
 
 Castle, Acly W 1209 
 
 Castle, John S 1209 
 
 Catlin, Benjamin H., M. D... no 
 
 Catlin Family no 
 
 Catlin, William H in 
 
 Chamberlain, Hon. Abiram.... 61 
 
 Chamberlain Family 62 
 
 Champion Families 221, 696 
 
 Champion, Rev. George 222 
 
 Champion, Henry 223 
 
 Champion, Gen. Henry 222 
 
 Champion, Maj. Henry 222 
 
 Champion, Mrs. Henry 223 
 
 Champion, John N 696 
 
 Chandler, Almon E 820 
 
 Chandler, Frank 750 
 
 Chandler, Frank F 750 
 
 Chandler, John W 820 
 
 Chapin, Rev. James H., Ph. D. 91 
 
 Chapman, Charles S 1073 
 
 Chapman Families 540, 1073 
 
 Chapman, George P 1073 
 
 Chapman, Col. Samuel 540 
 
 Chapman, Samuel A 540 
 
 Chapman, Mrs. Samuel A 541 
 
 Chapman, Samuel W 628 
 
 Chase Family 724 
 
 Chase, Wallace S 724 
 
 Chatfield, Albert 557 
 
 Chatfield, Clark 1129 
 
 Chatfield, Devine 1443 
 
 Chatfield Families 310, 522, 922 
 
 Chatfield, George W 310 
 
 Chatfield, Minotte E 310 
 
 Chatfield, Oliver S 310 
 
 Chesebrough Family 342 
 
 Chesson, Frederick W 1193 
 
 Chidsey Family 664 
 
 Chipman, Daniel L 812 
 
 Chipman Family 914 
 
 Chipman, Mrs. Martha B 914 
 
 Chipman, Mrs. Mary A 841 
 
 Chipman, Ransom 914 
 
 Chipman, Samuel 812 
 
 Chipman, Sherman B 840 
 
 Chipman, Sherman W., D. D. S. 598 
 
 Chipman, William 598 
 
 Chittenden, Edward J 1074 
 
 Chittenden Families 
 
 826, 857, 877, 1074 
 
 Chittenden, Henry D 1074 
 
 Chittenden, Henry W 857 
 
 Chittenden, Levi 826 
 
 Chittenden, Miss Lydia D 858 
 
 Chittenden, Samuel C 878 
 
 Chittenden, Hon. Samuel H 877 
 
 Church Family 354 
 
 Church, Henry J 354 
 
 C rch, John 1337 
 
 C -liirch, Shelden 1337 
 
 Clark, Andrew 955 
 
IS52 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Clark, Benjamin T 158 
 
 Clark, Charles F 1097 
 
 Clark, Daniel J 1393 
 
 Clark, Dwight N 13SI 
 
 Clark, Edgar T 1082 
 
 Clark, Mrs, Emily D 385 
 
 Clark, Mrs. Eunice K 232 
 
 Clark Families, 117, 158, 244, 248, 
 
 779, 1082, 1177, 1351, 1393 
 
 Clark, George B 32^ 
 
 Clark, George L 1401 
 
 Clark, George M 248 
 
 Clark, George T 1097 
 
 Clark. Herman D 779 
 
 Clark, Hezekiah P 1393 
 
 Clark, Mrs. J. G 36 
 
 Clark, Merritt 328 
 
 Clark, Noyes D 1352 
 
 Clark, Partrick J 232 
 
 Clark, Richard S 780 
 
 Clark, Silas F 249 
 
 Clark, Smith S 854 
 
 Clark, Deacon Theodosius .... 116 
 
 Clark, William A 384 
 
 Clark, Hon. William J 112 
 
 Clark, Wilson F 1177 
 
 Clarke, David N 626 
 
 Clarke, Elbert N 626 
 
 Clarke Families 626, 1053 
 
 Clarke, Horatio N 1053 
 
 Clarke, Selah 1053 
 
 Clarkin, Eugene F 1531 
 
 Cleaveland i-amily 196' 
 
 Cleaveland, Jocelyn P., LL. B.. 19s 
 Cleaveland, Judge Livingston 
 
 W., LL. B., i\i. L 196 
 
 Clemens, Andrew B 1470 
 
 Clift Family 493 
 
 Clift, Capt. William 493 
 
 Clinton, Andrew D 1233 
 
 Clinton, David 1365 
 
 Clinton, David L 1365 
 
 Clinton, Edwin J 849 
 
 Clinton Families .... 849, 1233, 1365 
 
 Clinton, Elizur Z 999 
 
 Clinton, Isaac B 855 
 
 Clinton, Jesse 852, 855. 1233 
 
 dough, Frank P 1199 
 
 Clough, Ira E 1199 
 
 Clowes, George H 265 
 
 Clowes, Rev. Timcthy, LL. D. 26& 
 
 Coakley, Ji hn \i 1490 
 
 Coan Family 529 
 
 Coan, Jerome 802 
 
 Coan, Joseph 529 
 
 Coan, Mrs. Lydia H 530 
 
 Coan, Mrs. Mary F 803 
 
 Coe, .Albert C 749. 
 
 Coe, Mrs. Catherine 1432 
 
 Coe, Eli, Esq 1431 
 
 Coe Families 94, 749 
 
 Coe, Joseph E 215 
 
 Coe, Julius C 749 
 
 Coe, Col. Levi 95 
 
 Coe, Hon. Levi E 95 
 
 Coe, Merrick R 939 
 
 Coe, Reuben H 939 
 
 Coe, Russell 1431 
 
 Coen, Michael P 1368 
 
 Coggins, Emory S 1283 
 
 Coliburn, Frederick E 1024 
 
 Colburn, Sylvester 1024 
 
 Collins, Aaron L 59 
 
 Collins, Charles H 58 
 
 Collins Family 58 
 
 Colton Family 619 
 
 Colwell, Daniel 783 
 
 Colwell, Joseph P 1007 
 
 Comstock Family 161 
 
 Comstock, William B 161 
 
 Cone Family 1004 
 
 Cone, James W 1004 
 
 Conklin, William H., M. D.... 1059 
 
 Connor, Mortimer 1135 
 
 Connor, Richard 1327 
 
 Connor, Roger 1135 
 
 Connor, Walter J 1327 
 
 Coogan, Patrick J 1214 
 
 Coogan, Patrick T 1134. 1214 
 
 Cook Families. . .366, 688, 1028, 1325 
 
 Cook, George 993 
 
 Cook, Henry C 1515 
 
 Cook, Henry F 1045 
 
 Cook, John A 1028 
 
 Cook, Samuel M 1030 
 
 Cook, Sereno T 1047 
 
 Cook, Sylvester 993 
 
 Cook, Col. Thaddeus 1029 
 
 Cook, Willis M 1046 
 
 Cooke Families .... 1000, 1052, 1193 
 
 Cooke, Hiram 1001 
 
 Cooke, Marcus E 1000 
 
 Cooke, Samuel G 1052 
 
 Cooke, Walter H 1193 
 
 Cooney, Andrew J 1210 
 
 Cooper, Charles 979 
 
 Cooper. Edwin W 467 
 
 Cooper, Mrs. Edwin W 467 
 
 Cooper. Ellsworth B 979 
 
 Cooper Family 433 
 
 Cooper, Flomer L 433 
 
 Cooper, Levi J 433 
 
 Copper Co., The New Haven.. 1361 
 
 Corbin, Hezekiah H 606 
 
 Corcoran, William T 1501 
 
 Cornelis, Gustave 1154 
 
 Gote, Henry 883 
 
 Coughlan, James T 657 
 
 Coughlan, Terence F 1497 
 
 Ciiuntryman. Rev. Franklin.... 1140 
 
 Coupland, ^Irs. .Ada M 830 
 
 Coupland. Charles 828 
 
 Cowing, Frank L 659 
 
 Cowing, Job 659 
 
 Coyle, Andrew J 1161 
 
 Cnyle, Thomas J 152S 
 
 Crabh, John S 757 
 
 Crafts Family 454 
 
 Crafts, Samuel P 454 
 
 Crampton, Harry 1 1135 
 
 Crampton, Jcs-^e 1135 
 
 Craininton. Jonathan R 1135 
 
 Crawford, Erwin J 1044 
 
 Crosby, Walter S 1222 
 
 Cruttenden Familv 398 
 
 Cuddihy, Michael 1205 
 
 Cuddihy, Richard F. 1205 
 
 Cuhcr, Elmer F 1012 
 
 Culver Family 1276 
 
 Culver, Isaac 1012 
 
 Culver, Mrs. Sarah ,\ 1012 
 
 Culver, Hon. S. Llart 1276 
 
 Cummings, Luther W 555 
 
 Cummings, Oren 556 
 
 Cuningham. Edward H 1173 
 
 Cuningham, John J. V 11 72 
 
 page: 
 
 Curtis, Mrs. A. M 394 
 
 Curtis Family 393 
 
 Curtis, George M 394 
 
 Curtis, George R 393 
 
 Curtis, Hobart 1256 
 
 Curtis, Hobart W 1255 
 
 Curtis, Lemuel J 863 
 
 Curtiss, Elnathan A 1098- 
 
 Curtiss Families .... 515, 564, 1098 
 
 Curtis'S, Franklin L 564 
 
 Curtiss, Henry B 1095 
 
 Curtiss, James G 1166 
 
 Curtiss, Orrin 1095 
 
 Curtiss, Wales H iog& 
 
 Curtiss, William 1034 
 
 Curtiss, William E 1033. 
 
 Cutler, John G 932 
 
 Dana, Mrs. Henrietta S 387 
 
 Dana, James D 385 
 
 Danaher, Cornelius J 1400- 
 
 Daniell, Francis G 1250 
 
 Dauch, Adam J 1496 
 
 Davidson, Jam.es P 1475 
 
 Davis, Burton A 646 
 
 Davis, Charles A 1009. 
 
 Davis, Charles H. S., M. D. . . . 611 
 
 Davis, Edward 620, 88a 
 
 Davis, Elias W., M. D 1086 
 
 Davis, E. Rowland 1055 
 
 Davis Families 610, 620 
 
 Davis Family 187 
 
 Davis, George S 1107 
 
 Davis, Henry G 299 
 
 Davis, James A 880 
 
 Davis, John H 1418 
 
 Davis, Samuel 1418 
 
 Davis, Timothy F 610" 
 
 Davis, Judge Wilbur F 612 
 
 Davis, W. B 1470 
 
 Davis, William E 1056 
 
 Davis. William T 1198 
 
 Day Family 122 
 
 Dean, Samuel R 4S5 
 
 Deane, Almon 1 1131 
 
 Deane, Lewe'lyn 1429 
 
 Deane, Mrs. M. B 1429 
 
 DeForest, Andrew W 409. 
 
 DeForcst, David C 409 
 
 DeForest, Eugene 410 
 
 DeForest, John H 409- 
 
 de les Derniers, Horace \V., M. 
 
 D i-2 
 
 Deming Family 1130 
 
 Deming, Ferdinand 1130- 
 
 Deming, Hon. Lucius P 55- 
 
 Denniston, Harvey G 903 
 
 Dewell Family 25 
 
 Dewell, Hon,' James D 28 
 
 Dexter, Charles V. A 1217 
 
 Dibble Family 346' 
 
 Dibble, Col, Nathan 346 
 
 Dibble, Samuel E 291 
 
 Dibble, Willard H 346 
 
 Dickerman, Charles 1218 
 
 Dickerman, Elam J 562 
 
 Dickerman Families 502, 1218 
 
 Dickerman, George L 1218 
 
 Dickinson. Charles 83 
 
 Dickinson Family 1316 
 
 Dickinson, Leonard .A 1316 
 
 Disbrow, John L 503 
 
 Disbrow, Mrs, Mary R 504. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 1553 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Divine, I\Irs. Martha G 885 
 
 Divine, George W 885 
 
 Dodd, Hon. Samuel 30 
 
 Dolierty, Col. John B iiii 
 
 Domkee, Martin H43 
 
 Donahue, James 1508 
 
 Donahue, Michael ■ . 947 
 
 Donovan, Jeremiah F 1270 
 
 Doolittle, Dexter O 642 
 
 Doolittlc, Edgar J 767 
 
 Doolittle, Edwin 874 
 
 Doolittle Families, 120, 642, 723, 766, 
 
 778, 8og, 874, 1165, 1274, 1353, 1462 
 
 Doolittle, James C 1165 
 
 Doolittle, Lauren 1077 
 
 Doolittle, Dr. Lewis T 1462 
 
 Doolittle, Oswin 1 165 
 
 Doolittle, Stillman B 809 
 
 Doolittle, Thomas B 120 
 
 Doolittle, Hon. Tilton E 364 
 
 Doolittle, Warren 1274 
 
 Doran, Mortimer 1507 
 
 Dow, Capt. Edwin C 1297 
 
 Do we, Capt. Edgar S 585 
 
 Downes, Hon. William E 793 
 
 Downs, Albert Z 255 
 
 Downs, Albert Z, Sr 255 
 
 Downs, Charles N 262 
 
 Downs, Dwight J 541 
 
 Downs Family 261 
 
 Downs, Mrs. Gertrude B 344 
 
 Downs, Mrs. Martha G 1067 
 
 Downs, Nelson H 261 
 
 Downs, Robert 487 
 
 Downs, Sidney A 261 
 
 Downs, Thomas M 1067 
 
 Downs, Judge William S 262 
 
 Doyle, Mrs. Mary E 1326 
 
 Do3'le, Patrick 1326 
 
 Drake Family 1297 
 
 Driggs. Dr. Asa J 297 
 
 Driggs Family 297 
 
 Driggs, Theodore Ives 297 
 
 T)ryhurst, Henry 1242 
 
 Dudley, Amos 833 
 
 Dudley, Charles A 917 
 
 Dudley, Eli T 833 
 
 Dudley Families 
 
 833, 860, 915, 929, 10.39, 1065 
 
 Dudley, George C 930 
 
 Dudley, John H 860 
 
 Dudley, Joseph E 833 
 
 Dudley, Deacon Samuel W. . . . 929 
 
 Duey, John E 80 
 
 Duey, May F 80 
 
 Dugan, Harry J., D. D. S 1260 
 
 Dunham, Hon. Albert B 138 
 
 Dunham Family 138 
 
 Dunn, Jeremiah H 149S 
 
 Dunn, James M 1376 
 
 Dunn. Patrick H 1192 
 
 Durand. Alvah J 428 
 
 'Durand, Calvin 510 
 
 Durand, David L 519 
 
 Durand Families SIO; SiP. 814 
 
 Durand, JohnE 236 
 
 Durand, Mrs. John E 237 
 
 Durand, W. Cecil Sio 
 
 Durand, William L 5I9 
 
 Dwight Family 129 
 
 T)wight. Rev. Timothy, D. D., 
 
 LL. D 131 
 
 Dwight. President Timothy . . 129 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Dwyer, Michael 821 
 
 Eaton Family 1399 
 
 Eaton, Jesse 1399 
 
 Eaton, Robert 1400 
 
 Eaton. Theophilus 1400 
 
 Edmonds Family 883 
 
 Edmonds, Silas N 883 
 
 Edwards, George A 1204 
 
 Edwards, John S 162 
 
 Egan, Charles E 1465 
 
 Eggleston, Judge Arthur F.... 713 
 
 Eggleston Family 713 
 
 Eggleston, Jere D., M. D.... 713 
 
 Elcock, Alfred 1497 
 
 Elcock, H. A., M. D 1497 
 
 Eld, Edward 207 
 
 Eliot, Edward 976 
 
 Eliot Family 974 
 
 Eliot, John ("Apostle") 974 
 
 Eliot, Lewis R 974 
 
 Ellis, Thomas S 1 184 
 
 Ellsbree Family 373 
 
 Ellsbree, George H 373 
 
 Ellsbree, George L 373 
 
 Elmes, Mrs. Lucy R 452 
 
 'Elmes. Thomas 452 
 
 Elton Family 26 
 
 Elton, James S 700 
 
 Elton. Hon. John P 26 
 
 Ely, Dr. Calvin L 448 
 
 Ely Families 448, 775, 891 
 
 Ely. William H 775 
 
 Embler, Andrew H 271 
 
 Emerson, James M 966 
 
 English, Benjamin R 411 
 
 English, Hon. Charles L 56 
 
 English, Edwin H . . . ■ 58, 700 
 
 English Family 56 
 
 English, Henry 411 
 
 English, Henry F 14 
 
 English, Hon. James E 12 
 
 English. Miss Julia A 57 
 
 Funis, George H 1527 
 
 Engquist, Axel R 1529 
 
 Evans, David 1403 
 
 Evans, William H 1087 
 
 Evarts, Charles E 823 
 
 Evarts Families 377, 862 
 
 Evarts, Frank P 377 
 
 Everit, Capt. Richard 970 
 
 Everit, Richard M 969 
 
 Everit, William 969 
 
 Everitt, Abraham 211 
 
 Everitt, Charles B 1520 
 
 Everitt, Edwin B 211 
 
 Faber, 'Adam 1482 
 
 Faber, Frederick L 1207 
 
 Faber, George A., M. D 1192 
 
 Faber, George, Sr 1508 
 
 Faber, William A 1167 
 
 Fagan, Frank D 153° 
 
 Fagan, Frank H 1519 
 
 Fairchild, Charles E 420 
 
 Fairchild, Ebenezer 420 
 
 Fairchild Families 118, 471 
 
 Fairman, James 192 
 
 Fales, Mrs. Martha E 178 
 
 Fancher, Rufus R 1262 
 
 Farnham, Arthur N 594 
 
 Farnham Family 594 
 
 Farnham, William H 595 
 
 Farrel, Almon 437 
 
 Farrel, Franklin 437 
 
 Fay Family 78 
 
 Fay, Frank S 79 
 
 Fay, Hon. George A 78 
 
 Feeter, Col. Wilham 92 
 
 Fenn, Ava H., M. D 666 
 
 Fenn, Charles C 11 13 
 
 Fenn Families 664, 1128 
 
 Fenn, Joel 665 
 
 Fenn, Thomas F 1187 
 
 Fenn, Willis 1 666 
 
 Field, George C 445 
 
 Field, Henry B 162 
 
 Field, Mrs, Sarah B 162 
 
 Finch, Frederic A 1149 
 
 Fischer, Christian 709 
 
 Fisk, Eugene D 1527 
 
 Fisk, Louis A 1527 
 
 Fitch, Miss Georgia A 52 
 
 Fitch, Lewis 51 
 
 Fitzpatrick, Edward J 1532 
 
 Fitzsimons, Thomas 628 
 
 Flaherty, Michael iioo 
 
 Flanagan, Henry J 1513 
 
 Flanagan, James J., D. D. S 1250 
 
 Fletcher, Almon J 308 
 
 Flight, Samuel A 1338 
 
 Flight, Samuel J 1338 
 
 Foley, Francis W 1448 
 
 Foote, Cullen B 477 
 
 Foote, Edward Y 494 
 
 Foote, Mrs. E. Y 494 
 
 Foote Families 350, 956 
 
 Foote, G. Clifford 1240 
 
 Foote, George B 350 
 
 Foote, Jared 477 
 
 Foote, John L 956 
 
 Foote, Lynde H 299 
 
 Foote, Mrs. N. A. M 184 
 
 Foote, Gov. Samuel A 957 
 
 Foote, William L 957 
 
 Foote, Williams 300 
 
 Forbes, Albert 782 
 
 Forbes, Mrs. Ellen E 544 
 
 Forbes Family 544 
 
 Forbes, Henry 1282 
 
 Forbes, Hudson B 544 
 
 Forbes, Marshall L 3Si 
 
 Forbes, Samuel 782 
 
 Forbes, Willet B 799 
 
 Forbes, Mrs. Willet B 799 
 
 Ford, Capt. Elbert L 892 
 
 Ford Family 892 
 
 Ford, George H 1524 
 
 Forsyth, Thomas 72S 
 
 Forsyth, William H 725 
 
 Fosdick, Horace D 1 104 
 
 Foskett, Charles C 294 
 
 Foskett, Mrs. Charles C 295 
 
 Foskett Family 294 
 
 Foster, Hon. Eleazer K 505 
 
 Foster Family 505 
 
 Foster, J. P. C, M. D 506 
 
 Fowler, Benjamin R 843 
 
 Fowler, David S 1054 
 
 Fowler, Dennis 1322 
 
 Fowler, D. William I0S4 
 
 Fowler Families . . 203, 798. 843, 1321 
 
 Fowler, Franklin E 1321 
 
 Fowler, Henry H 843 
 
 Fowler, Henry L 1521 
 
 Fowler, James 1322 
 
IS54 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Fowler, James H 843 
 
 Fox, Christian F 1259 
 
 Foy Family 496 
 
 Foy, James H 496 
 
 Foy, Mrs. Lavinia H 497 
 
 Francis, Barnum W 703 
 
 Francis Families 687, 703, 1324 
 
 Francis, George B 1070 
 
 Francis, John H 688, 1324 
 
 Francis, Mrs. Mabel A 1325 
 
 Francis, Lyman 1070 
 
 Francis, Lyman H 827 
 
 Francis, William . . . ., 1325 
 
 Francis, William J 688, 827 
 
 Freeberg, Joseph 1035 
 
 Freeman, Chatham 1417 
 
 French, Arasmus 80O 
 
 French Families 380, 1122 
 
 French, Henry W .' 806 
 
 French, Thomas 92:; 
 
 Freney, John D., M. D 1197 
 
 Frisbie, Charles H 712 
 
 Frisbie, David L 328 
 
 Fris-bie, Edward L 604 
 
 Frisbie Families 329, 1025 
 
 Frisbie, Samuel E 1025 
 
 Frost, Alpheus 842 
 
 Frost, Charles 842 
 
 Frost, Mrs. Charles 842 
 
 Frost, Charles W. S., M. D. . . . 708 
 
 Frost Families 476, 556, 708, 842 
 
 Frost, Herrick P 476 
 
 Frost, ^Irs. Herrick F 477 
 
 Fruin, James J 1543 
 
 Fruin, John H 1493 
 
 Puller Family 1383 
 
 Fuller, Jerome B 1474 
 
 Furman, George H loio 
 
 Gager, Judge Edwin B 1430 
 
 Gager Family 143a 
 
 Gailey Family 330 
 
 Gailey, John J., M. D 1487 
 
 Gailey, James S 332 
 
 Gaines, John R 1236 
 
 Gaines, Leroy J 1236 
 
 Gallager Family 637 
 
 Gallager, William G 637 
 
 Gallagher, John F 1526 
 
 Gallup Family 341 
 
 Gardner, John 1274 
 
 Gardner, John B . . . 1271 
 
 Gardner, Louis F 1271 
 
 Gardner, Sturgis G 1274 
 
 Garlick, William 1285 
 
 Garrigus Family 817 
 
 Garrigus, J. Henry 817 
 
 Gates Family 472 
 
 Gates, Col. Robert 472 
 
 Gates, Robert 473 
 
 Gates, Robert W 473 
 
 Gaylord, Charles W., M. D 664 
 
 Gaylord Family 664 
 
 Geddes, Lieut. -Col. James 1196 
 
 Gendron, Alfonse loil 
 
 Gerard, Joseph, A. M 1320 
 
 Gibbons, Thomas P., M. D.... 289 
 
 Gibbons, Mrs. Thomas P 289 
 
 Gibson, Cornelius 152S 
 
 Gibson, George A 1525 
 
 Gilbert, Ezekiel 534 
 
 Gilbert, Griswold 1 207 
 
 Gilbert, Hezekiah 1354 
 
 Gilbert, Joel F 207 
 
 Gilbert, Stephen C 537 
 
 Gilbert, Stephen G S37 
 
 Gillette, Charles S 538 
 
 Gillette, Eli 263 
 
 Gillette, Garret 984 
 
 Gillette, George S 1108 
 
 Gillette, Rufus M 984 
 
 Gillette, Samuel S 538 
 
 Gillette, Wilbur F 263 
 
 Gillette, William 1108 
 
 Gilpin, Joseph F 993 
 
 Gilpin, Mrs. Sarah 993 
 
 Gladding, Mrs. Harriet J lo8l 
 
 Gladwin Family 539 
 
 Gladwin, Gilbert A 539 
 
 Gladwin, Joshua G 770 
 
 Gladwin, Russell S 539 
 
 Glenney Family loio 
 
 Gode, Jacob D 1455 
 
 Goering, George 1369 
 
 Golden, Eugene P 1341 
 
 Golden, William H., Sr 1341 
 
 Golden, Hon. William H 1374 
 
 Goldstein, Frederick 1288 
 
 Goldstein, Frederick C, M. D. . 1288 
 
 Goodrich, Augustus 1 815 
 
 Goodrich, Charles G., Ph. B... 815 
 
 Goodrich, Edmund 988 
 
 Goodrich, Frederic S., M. A... 815 
 
 Goodsell, George W 35 
 
 Gorham, Mrs. Sarah H 1077 
 
 Gorman, Dennis J i igo 
 
 Gorman, John J 11 79 
 
 Graham, Cnarles E 61 
 
 Graham, James 60 
 
 Granger, Cornelius Iig8 
 
 Granger, William 1198 
 
 Grannis, Thomas 1057 
 
 Granniss, Alonzo 902 
 
 Granniss, Caleb 902 
 
 Granniss, Charles W 1025 
 
 Granniss, Collis B 915 
 
 Granniss, Daniel H 954 
 
 Granniss, Enos 841 
 
 Granniss Family 1025 
 
 Granniss, Hon. Frederick A. . . . 902 
 
 Granniss, Joseph 954, 963 
 
 Granniss, Lyman A 963 
 
 Grant, Everett S 1464 
 
 Grant, George M 563 
 
 Grant, Mrs. George M 564 
 
 Grant, James 1401 
 
 Grave, Lothar A. M., Von 1087 
 
 Graves, Charles E 59 
 
 Graves Families 59, 976 
 
 Graves, George W 1190 
 
 Graves, Jedediah .*. . 1190 
 
 Graves, Frederick G., M. D.... 1190 
 
 Greeley, Gen. Edwin S 52 
 
 Greeley Family 52 
 
 Greeley, Seneca 52 
 
 Greenman, Nathan 1109 
 
 Greenman, Nathan W 1109 
 
 Gregory, Daniel D 1517 
 
 Griggs Family 1295 
 
 Griggs, Hon. Henry C 1295 
 
 Griggs, Mrs. Henry C 1296 
 
 Griswold, Ashbel 406 
 
 Griswold, Anson 603 
 
 Griswold, Capt. Charles 944 
 
 Griswold, Mrs. Cordelia B 1069 
 
 Griswold, Edward 931 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Griswold Families 
 
 461, 530, 944, 1038, 1068 
 
 Griswold, George M 603 
 
 Griswold, Henry B 847 
 
 Griswold, Henry H 1038 
 
 Griswold, Nathan 1069 
 
 Griswold, Nathan F 461 
 
 Griswold, Washington E 1068 
 
 Guernsey Family 1042 
 
 Guernsey, John H 1042 
 
 Guernsey, John J 1042 
 
 Guest, Joseph 1468 
 
 Guest, Thomas E 1468. 
 
 Haas, George H 748 
 
 Haas, Henry W 748 
 
 Haas, Mrs. Margaret 748 
 
 Haase, Lewis F 1443 
 
 Hadley, Arthur T., LL. D 10 
 
 Hadley, James, LL. D 9 
 
 Hafner, Andrew 1288' 
 
 Hagaman, Henry 1375 
 
 Hale Family 778 
 
 Hale, Samuel A 1196 
 
 Hale, William 778 
 
 Hale, Mrs. William 779 
 
 Hall, Albert F 346 
 
 Hall, Alexander 483 
 
 Hall, Alonzo B 337 
 
 Hall, Arthur J 1447 
 
 Hall, Allen L isi6. 
 
 Hall, Mrs. Almira P 669 
 
 Hall, Benjamin 968 
 
 Hall, Billious C 1470 
 
 Hall, Mrs. Catherine M 960 
 
 Hall, Charles 972 
 
 Hall, C. Storrs 911 
 
 Hall, Denison 337 
 
 Hall, David M 960' 
 
 Hall, Dexter E 140 
 
 Hall, Edwin W 348 
 
 Hall, Eugene A 240 
 
 Hall Families 
 
 27, 105, 140, 179, 188, 205, 275, 321,- 
 
 zii, 346. 351, 418, 483, 530, 960, 968, 
 
 972, 1013, 1045, 1079, 1080, 1245, 
 
 1447, 1516- 
 
 Hall, Miss Grace M 140 
 
 Hall, Harley 240 
 
 Hall, Hcman W 1081 
 
 Hall, Henry B 910 
 
 Hall, Henry D 179 
 
 Hall, Henry L 1516- 
 
 Hall, Horace 89- 
 
 Hall. Horace (Wallingford) . . . 1013 
 
 Hall, Jeremiah A 180 
 
 Hall, Hon. John M 89 
 
 Hall, John P 910 
 
 Hall, Julius 140 
 
 Hall, Lewis 1246- 
 
 Hall, Lyman H 105 
 
 Hall, Mrs. Lyman H 106 
 
 Hall, Norman C 154 . 
 
 Hall, Mrs. Norman C 154 
 
 Hall, Orrin 969 
 
 Hall, Deacon Orrin 1080 
 
 Hall, Ransom B 848"^ 
 
 Hall, Robert 348 
 
 Hall, Rufus 240 
 
 Hall, Russell 418"- 
 
 Hall, Samuel W. S 27 
 
 Hall, Seth J 205. 
 
 Hall, Wilbur B 1245 
 
INDEX. 
 
 1555 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hall, William B 1013 
 
 Hall, William D 1045 
 
 Hall, W. Burr 104s 
 
 Hall, Willis C 972 
 
 Hallam, John C 344 
 
 Hallam, Robert W 344 
 
 Haller, Henry 491 
 
 Halligan, Patrick S 1544 
 
 Halper, Charles J 1049 
 
 Halper, Samuel 1048 
 
 Ham, George C 1195 
 
 Hamilton, Charles S 288 
 
 Hamilton, David B 890 
 
 Hamilton, Mrs. David B 891 
 
 Hamilton Family 890 
 
 Hamilton, Francis S 591 
 
 Hamre, Gustave A. R 1122 
 
 Hand, Daniel 486, 1066 
 
 Hand Families 486, 1066 
 
 Hand, George E 487 
 
 Handel, Philip A 585 
 
 Hard, Andrew C 1103 
 
 Hard, William G 1 103 
 
 Hardy, Capt. Edgar J 1147 
 
 Hard}', John A 1147 
 
 Haring, Ulrich 1538 
 
 Harmon Family 691 
 
 Harmon, Gen. George M 100 
 
 Harmon, James H 691 
 
 Harmon, John M 691 
 
 Harrison Family 688 
 
 Harrison, Hon. Henry B 169 
 
 Harrison, Hon. Lynde 688 
 
 Hart, Charles E 703 
 
 Hart, Daniel H . . . . .■ 275 
 
 Hart, Miss Ellen D 275 
 
 Hart Families 274, 703 
 
 Hart, Franklin H 416 
 
 Hart, Jay H 1114 
 
 Hart, William" A 417 
 
 Hartley, Henry 934 
 
 Hassett, William 1278 
 
 Hastings, Frank N 1366 
 
 Hauschild, Otto G 1409 
 
 Hawkins, Charles 1413 
 
 Hawkins Families 6SS, 1413 
 
 Hawkins, John N 319 
 
 Hawkins, Sahford 655 
 
 Hayes, Edward R 41S 
 
 Hayes, Edwin A 1388 
 
 Hayes, John F., M, D 1076 
 
 Hayes, Mrs. Martha Silliman. . 416 
 
 Haynes Family 1410 
 
 Hazard, George W 798 
 
 Hearns, Hugh 1204- 
 
 Hegeman Family 474 
 
 Heineman, Charles J 360 
 
 Heineman, Charles J., Jr 361 
 
 Heineman, E. J 1523 
 
 Heineman, Mrs. Ida Louisa. ... 361 
 
 Hellmann, Martin I4S3 
 
 Hellmann, Mrs. Sibilla I4S4 
 
 Helmschmied, Carl V 1449 
 
 Hemingway Families. 325, 1343, 1404 
 
 Hemingway, F. Howard 1388 
 
 Hemingway, Dr. George 1 739 
 
 Hemingway, Isaac 739 
 
 Hemingway, Leverett G 1343 
 
 Hemingway, Louis R 1404 
 
 Hemingway, Merwin E 1404 
 
 Henderson, Andrew 712 
 
 Hendrick, Hon. Albert C S16 
 
 Hepburn, Richard 977 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Hepburn, Hon. Richard R 976 
 
 Herrmann, Ernst 1094 
 
 Hess, Frederick 704 
 
 Hess, Herman 704 
 
 Hewitt, Charles E., M. D 341 
 
 Hewitt, Mrs. Elisha _. 41 
 
 Hewitt Family '. 341 
 
 Hickox Family 1317 
 
 Hickox, William A 1318 
 
 Higby, Aaron 1299 
 
 Higby Family 1299 
 
 Higby, Frederick A 1299 
 
 Higginson, Edward H ' 1457 
 
 Hill, Alden H 428 
 
 Hill, Arden 429 
 
 Hill, Mrs. Edwin A 81 
 
 Hill Families 490, 751, 1039 
 
 Hill, Frederick B 1251 
 
 Hill, William 7Si 
 
 Hillhouse Family 542 
 
 Hillhouse, Isaphene 542 
 
 1-iillhouse, Hon. James S43 
 
 Hillhouse, James A 543 
 
 • Hitchcock Families 
 
 808, 846, 923, 1427 
 
 Hitchcock, George B 847 
 
 Hitchcock, Leverett 1428 
 
 Hitchcock, Pliny 808 
 
 Hitchcock, Miss Roxanna 808 
 
 Hitchcock, Shelton T 846 
 
 Hitchcock, William 1427 
 
 Hoadley, Charles A 1062 
 
 Hoadley, Charles E 436 
 
 Hoadley Families 437, 936, 1062, 1415 
 
 Hoadley, Frederic B S18 
 
 Hoadley, George 936 
 
 Hoadley, Horace P 436 
 
 Hoadley, Isaac 936 
 
 Hoadley, Lemuel G 1415 
 
 Hoadley, Wells C 1417 
 
 Hobart, Mason 843 
 
 Hobson, Arthur E 582 
 
 Hobson, Edwin 1044 
 
 Hobson, Mark W 1160 
 
 Hodgetts, William J 1144 
 
 Hoffmann, Charles W 1243 
 
 Hoffmann, John W 1243 
 
 Holbrook, Col. Daniel L. .- 1067 
 
 Holbrook Family 1067 
 
 Holbrook, Capt. Philo 1063 
 
 Holbrook, Royal 1063 
 
 Holcomb Family 812 
 
 Holcomb, Frederick A 630 
 
 Holcomb, Harry S 630 
 
 Holden, Francis 282 
 
 Holian, John T 1286 
 
 Holly, Ferry 250 
 
 Holmes, Mrs. Walter Hamlin.. 825 
 
 Holmes, Walter H,, M. D 824 
 
 -Holohan, Patrick 1308 
 
 Holser, Amity A 1102 
 
 Holser, Ignate 1 102 
 
 Holt Families 57, 762 
 
 Holt, Irving L 762 
 
 Honian, Charles E 1406 
 
 Homan, William 140S 
 
 Homan, William C 140S 
 
 Honce, Barlow S 1129 
 
 Honce, James 1129 
 
 Hopkins Family 1277 
 
 Hopson, John P 71S 
 
 Hopson, Philander 71S 
 
 Hosley, Benjamin A 517 
 
 Hosley, Benjamin F 518 
 
 Hosley, Edward K 1509^ 
 
 Hotchkiss, Abraham B 99 
 
 Hotchkiss, Benjamin 521 
 
 Hotchkiss, Berkeley S 1088- 
 
 Hotchkiss, Charles T 898 
 
 Hotchkiss, David M 292, 1089 
 
 Hotchkiss, Delos 830^ 
 
 Hotchkiss. Edward A 655 
 
 Hotchkiss, Edwin A '. . . . 971 
 
 Hotchkiss, Mrs. Edwin A 971 
 
 Hotchkiss, Emerson M 172 
 
 Hotchkiss Families 
 
 172, 218, 474, sii, 520, 64s, 6ss, 898, 
 1042, 1088, 1 103, 1328, 1402. 
 
 Hotchkiss, Frederick M 292 
 
 Hotchkiss, Deacon Gideon.. 521, 1103 
 
 Hotchkiss, Gideon O 467 
 
 Hotchkiss, Gilbert B 520 
 
 Hotchkiss, Harry S, 1104 
 
 Hotchkiss, Henry 1402 
 
 Hotchkiss, Henry D 645 
 
 Hotchkiss, Henry L 1402 
 
 Hotclikiss, Hervey D 294 
 
 Hotchkiss, James D 1042 
 
 Hotchkiss, Katie A 547 
 
 Hotchkiss, Lockwood, Jr 219 
 
 Hotchkiss, Lockwood, Sr 219 
 
 Hotchkiss, Mrs. Maria R 1104 
 
 Hotchkiss, Miles, Jr 172 
 
 Hotchkiss, Norton R., M. D... 132& 
 
 Hotchkiss, Mrs. Philocia 830 
 
 Hotchkiss, Theodore N 546 
 
 Hough, Miss Alice L 1281 
 
 Hough, Elijah J 1072 
 
 Hough Family i280' 
 
 Hough, Joel 1280 
 
 Hough, Joel R izSd 
 
 Hough, Mrs.. Lucy J 1281 
 
 Hough, Mrs. Ruth B 1072 
 
 Houghtaling, William N 925 
 
 Houghton Family 1225 
 
 Houghton, Rufus A .' . 1225 
 
 Housel, Lorenzo W I2I0' 
 
 Howard, Charles fe. 1072 
 
 Howard, Mrs. C. R 1073 
 
 Howarth, Alfred 84 
 
 Howarth, Alfred A 83 
 
 Howe, Alfred F 1215 
 
 Howe, Mrs. Anna E 97 
 
 Howe, Elbridge L 96 
 
 Howe Family 96- 
 
 Howe, Isaac P 1215 
 
 Howe, Dr.- John 1 795 
 
 Howe, J. Wilder 97 
 
 Howe, Stephen A 97 
 
 Hoyt, Clifton E 1506 
 
 Hoyt, Edwin S 338 
 
 Hoyt Families 337, 666, 1506 
 
 Hoyt, Nehemiah H 666 
 
 Hubbard, E. Eugene 731 
 
 Hubbard, Eugene R 599 
 
 Hubbard Families 56S 
 
 Hubbard, Henrv W 956 
 
 Hubbard, John P 731 
 
 Hubbard, Hon. Leverett M 568 
 
 Hubbard, Russell 59C> 
 
 Hubbard, Walter 210 
 
 HubbcU, Benjamin 721 
 
 Hubbell, Estella A 1494 
 
 Hubbell, Frederick W 1086 
 
 Hubbell, John P 800 
 
 Hubbell, Silas C 1494 
 
1556 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hubbell, Wakeman 
 
 Hubinger, Joseph E 
 
 Hubinger, Nicholas W 
 
 Huckins, David 
 
 Huckins, George F 
 
 Hughes, Alfred 
 
 Hughes, Evan E 
 
 Hughes Family 
 
 Hughes, George W. H 
 
 Hughes, Reuben B 
 
 Hughes, Miss Sarah E 
 
 Hughes, William W 
 
 Hull, David B 
 
 Hull Families ii8, 791, 965 
 
 Hull, Garny 
 
 Hull, Henry A 
 
 Hull, Jarvis 
 
 Hull, Porter G 
 
 Hull, Deacon Samuel 
 
 Hull, Mrs. Susan A 
 
 Hull, William 
 
 Humiston, Daniel 
 
 Huiniston, Elihu 
 
 Humiston Family 
 
 Humiston, Harmon 
 
 Humiston, Julia A 
 
 Humphrey, F. H 
 
 Hunt, James M 
 
 Hunt, Robert 
 
 Hunter Family 
 
 Hunter, William E 
 
 Hunter, Mrs. William E 
 
 Hupfer, Oscar C 
 
 Hurlburt Family 
 
 Hurlburt, Samuel W 
 
 Hurley, John 
 
 Hurley, John A 
 
 Hutchinson. Thomas P 
 
 Hyde Family 
 
 721 
 332 
 304 
 1176 
 1 176 
 844 
 648 
 844 
 710 
 710 
 84s 
 992 
 801 
 996 
 801 
 96s 
 965 
 965 
 996 
 997 
 997 
 794 
 S09 
 794 
 403 
 795 
 1532 
 1367 
 1367 
 
 1 148 
 1148 
 
 1 149 
 742 
 343 
 343 
 
 1500 
 754 
 
 1444 
 464 
 
 Ingersoll, Hon. Charles A 65 
 
 Ingersoll, Hon. Charles R 427 
 
 Ingersoll, Hon. Colin M 66 
 
 Ingersoll Family 64, 425 
 
 Ingersoll, George P 67 
 
 Ingersoll, Judge Jonathan 425 
 
 Ingersoll, Hon. Ralph 1 65, 426 
 
 Irion, Albert A 596 
 
 Ives, Alfred 63s 
 
 Ives. Almon J. 441 
 
 Ives, Charles 712 
 
 Ives, Charles E 711 
 
 Ives, Ebenezer C 1265 
 
 Ives, Edward ' 971 
 
 Ives, Edward A 1146 
 
 Ives, Eli 143 
 
 Ives, Elihu 109, 711 
 
 Ives Families, 143, 178, 180, 253, 441, 
 635, 971. 1 146, 1265. 
 
 Ives, Franklin T 180 
 
 Ives, Frederick W 253 
 
 Ives, George W 635 
 
 Ives, Hoadley E 580 
 
 Ives, Hobart B 246 
 
 Ives, Howard E 971 
 
 Ives, Mrs. Mary E 580 
 
 TEves, Phineas T 1265 
 
 Ives. Titus 181 
 
 Ives, Watrous 178 
 
 Ives, William J 178 
 
 Jackson Families 1027, 1455 
 
 Jackson, Frederick A 1455 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Jackson, Frederick L 1027 
 
 Jacques, Eugene L. (Jean) 1425 
 
 Jacques Family 1424 
 
 Jacques, John J 1424 
 
 Jacques, Mrs. Susan L 1425 
 
 James, Thomas L 1361 
 
 Jenkins, Nicholas 1139 
 
 Jeralds, Bennett 1051 
 
 Jeralds Family 1050 
 
 Jerome, Mrs. E. Gilbert 1355 
 
 Jocelyn, Nathaniel 194 
 
 Johnson, Alionso 1313 
 
 Johnson, Elliott 1289 
 
 Johnson Families. ... 1277, 1312, 1394 
 
 Johnson, Horace D 1312 
 
 Johnson, John H 1487 
 
 Johnson, Mrs. Josephine M.... 148 
 
 Johnson, Michael E 1527 
 
 Johnson, Norris M 147 
 
 Johnston, William H 1138 
 
 Johnstone, Robert P 1223 
 
 Jones, Augustus H 707 
 
 Jones, Charles N 978 
 
 Jones, Dr. Daniel A 1008 ' 
 
 Jones. Dr. Emeline Roberts.... 1008 
 
 Jones Family 1407 
 
 Jones, Orlando 536 
 
 Jones, Street 978 
 
 Joslin Family 69s 
 
 Joslin, George H., M. D 695 
 
 Joy Family 1300 
 
 Judd, Albert D 870 
 
 Judd, Chancy W 828 
 
 Judd, Edward M 871 
 
 Judd, Emma J 870 
 
 Judd Families 804, 868 
 
 Judd, Hubert L 869 
 
 Judd, Lyman 1484 
 
 Judd, Milo L 1484 
 
 Judd, Deacon Morton 868 
 
 Judd, William R 828 
 
 Judson Family 549 
 
 Judson, Jerome T 555 
 
 Kahl, John 502 
 
 Kaiser, Maier 273 
 
 Kane, James T 1174 
 
 Kane, Tlfomas 11 19 
 
 Katt, John W 1501 
 
 Keeley, Michael E 1519 
 
 Keenan, William C 1221 
 
 Kegelmeyer, Joseph 1473 
 
 Kelley, Christopher 1096 
 
 Kellogg, Charles P 45 
 
 Kellogg, Frank W 45 
 
 Kellogg, John P 44 
 
 Kellogg, Stephen W 44 
 
 Kelly, Joseph C 1237 
 
 Kelsey Family 72 
 
 Kelsey, George R 72 
 
 KeKey, Hobert F 1534 
 
 Kelsey. Israel A 1302 
 
 KclNCy, Lyman 1226 
 
 Kelsey, Sidney S 1226 
 
 Kelsey, Mrs. Virginia W 73 
 
 Kelty, A. H 1537 
 
 Kendrick Family 312 
 
 Kendrick, Greene 312 
 
 Kendrick, Hon. Greene 314 
 
 Kendrick, Capt. John 1459 
 
 Kendrick, Hon. John 313 
 
 Kendrick, William A 1459 
 
 Kennedy, Albert 1255 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Kennedy, Paul B., M. D 1289 
 
 Kenney, James H 1081 
 
 Kent, John T 727 
 
 Kenworthy, James C 784 
 
 Ketcham, Erasmus D 938 
 
 Kibbe Family 1256 
 
 Kibbe, Horace W 1256 
 
 Kibbe, Julius A 1258 
 
 Kibbe, Valirus 1257 
 
 Kilmartin, Thomas 1504 
 
 Kilmartin, Thomas J., M. D. . . . 1504 
 
 Kimberly, Dennis A 771 
 
 Kimberly, Capt. Eli 457 
 
 Kimberly Families 395, 771 
 
 Kinder, John 141 1 
 
 Kinder, John M 141 1 
 
 King, Charles A 680 
 
 King, Jared P 1090 
 
 King, William M 317 
 
 Kingsbury, Charles D 68 
 
 Kingsbury Family 68 
 
 Kingsbury, Frederick J 69 
 
 Kirkham, Capt. Austin P 1420 
 
 Kirkham, Calvin C 1426 
 
 Kirkham Family 1421 
 
 Kirschbaum, John 1099 
 
 Kirtland Family 232 
 
 Kivlan, Bernara F 1494 
 
 Kleinecke, William C 1153 
 
 Knight, Cyrus 89 
 
 Knight, John C 89 
 
 Knight, Mrs. John C 89 
 
 Knoth, George 1460 
 
 Knowles, William A 578 
 
 Knowles, William H 578 
 
 Knox, James A 1489 
 
 Kost, Rev. Ignatius 1481 
 
 Kuntze, Julius 1247 
 
 La Bonte, Louis D., I\I. D 1203 
 
 Lacey Famny 230 
 
 Lacey Family 230 
 
 Lad Family 1526 
 
 Lad, W. N 1526 
 
 Lamb, Charles R 1049 
 
 Lamb, Sanford 1050 
 
 Lambert, Benjamin L., 257 
 
 Lambert, Benjamin L., M. D. . . 728 
 
 Lambert, David D 729 
 
 Lambert, Denison D 729 
 
 Lambert Family 728 
 
 Lambert, Mrs. Jane A 729 
 
 Lamontagne, Nazaire P 634 
 
 Lamping, George 366 
 
 'Lamping, Mrs. Hedwig 367 
 
 Lampman, Robert W 1445 
 
 Landers, James P 1481 
 
 Landon Family 1075 
 
 Landon, Samuel W 1075 
 
 Lane, Arthur S 1267 
 
 Lane Family 1171 
 
 Lane, C. Fred 1171 
 
 Lane, Charles N 1172 
 
 Lane, John S 692 
 
 Lane, Thomas C 1528 
 
 Langf ord, M. J 1490 
 
 Lanyon, James 1412 
 
 Lanyon, James R 1412 
 
 Lanyon, Wesley A 1412 
 
 Larder, Capt. William H 279 
 
 Larkin, John 1480 
 
 Lathem, William 233 
 
 Laufer, Herman 1413 
 
INDEX. 
 
 1557 
 
 PAGE 
 
 law, Richard W 91 
 
 Lawlor, Michael J 1471 
 
 lazzari, Antonio 1071 
 
 Leach, Benjamin F., D. D. S. . . 545 
 Leavenworth, Daniel C, M. D. . 214 
 
 Leavenworth, Charles S 214 
 
 Leavenworth, Mrs. Elizabeth A. 213 
 
 Leavenworth Families 212, 552 
 
 Leavenworth, Mrs. Julia H 554 
 
 Leavenworth, James M 554 
 
 Leavenworth, Oscar B 213 
 
 Leavenworth, Russell 213 
 
 Leavenworth, Col. Walter J. . . . 552 
 
 Lee, Mrs. Abigail D 1064 
 
 Lee Families 136, 1064 
 
 ILee, Capt. Frederick 724 
 
 Lee, Henry 1064 
 
 Lee, Henrj' B 136 
 
 Lee, Hon. W. Wallace 136 
 
 Leeds, Don A 1429 
 
 leeds, John A 1429 
 
 Leete, Calvin M 928 
 
 Leete, Calvin Morris 928 
 
 Leete, Edward L 1016 
 
 Leete, Edward M 941 
 
 Leete, E. Walter 1016 
 
 Leete, Edwin A 941 
 
 Leete Families, 893, 928, 941, 942, 1016 
 
 Xeete, R. Burton 1434 
 
 Leete, Richard M 895 
 
 ieete, Roger C 896 
 
 Leete, Rufus Norton 892 
 
 Lehr, Fred L 1477 
 
 Lehr, Gottfried 1477 
 
 Leonard, Emily J 237 
 
 Leonard, Eugene F 1389 
 
 Leonard Family 1389 
 
 Leonard, John N 720 
 
 Leonard, Jonathan J 1390 
 
 Lewis Families 176, 256, 599 
 
 Lewis, George A 256 
 
 Lewis, George F 1543 
 
 Lewis, Hon. Isaac C 176 
 
 Lewis, Jared, Jr 283 
 
 lewis, Jared, Sr 283 
 
 Lewis, John E 599 
 
 Lewis, Lucien F 444 
 
 lewis, R. B 1496 
 
 Lewis, Samuel A 444 
 
 Lewis, Walter C 599 
 
 Lines, Augustus 394, 457 
 
 Lines, Augustus E 456 
 
 Lines, Eber, Jr 1061 
 
 lines Families 11 12, 1293 
 
 Lines, Frederick A 1112 
 
 Lines. George P 289 
 
 Lines, Mrs. George P 290 
 
 Lines, 'Goodell 1060 
 
 Lines, H. Wales 1293 
 
 Lines, John 446 
 
 Lines, Joseph W 446 
 
 Lines, Mrs. Martha K 39S 
 
 linsley, Alfred 1261 
 
 Linsley, Edward L 1260 
 
 Linsley Families, 185, 579, 817. 1260 
 
 Linsley, George 817 
 
 Linsley, George C 579 
 
 linsley, Marcus 185 
 
 Linsley, Marcus M 107 
 
 linsley, Romanta T 469 
 
 linsley, Seymour G 1303 
 
 linsley, Solomon F 185 
 
 Lipsette, Lew Allen 74i 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Little Family 241 
 
 Little, Hubert 738 
 
 Little, Saxton B 241 
 
 Little, William B 738 
 
 Livingston, George W 1 162 
 
 Lloyd, Richard 1247 
 
 Lloyd, William L 1530 
 
 Longden, Charles E 126 
 
 Longden, William H 126 
 
 Loomis, Calvin 926 
 
 Loomis Family 755 
 
 Loomis, Mrs. F. A. H 779 
 
 Loomis, Seymour C 755 
 
 Lord Family 1384 
 
 Loudon, Benjamin L 11 14 
 
 Lounsbury, David 587 
 
 Lounsbury, Henry E 139 
 
 Lounsbury, Mrs. Mary F 139 
 
 Lounsbury, William 587 
 
 Lowell, Walter N 1132 
 
 Lundin, John E 1034 
 
 Lundquist, Peter A 577 
 
 Lunny, Thomas F 1376 
 
 Lutz, Frederick W 146,3 
 
 Lutz, Robert 76S 
 
 Lyman Family 479 
 
 Lyman, Horatio N 479 
 
 Lyman, Miss J. E 480 
 
 Lynch, Mrs. Ellen 759 
 
 Lynch, Francis 758 
 
 Lyon Families 17, 149 
 
 Lyon, George W 18 
 
 Lyon, Humphrey 17 
 
 Lyon, James R 151 
 
 Lyon, Richard F 151 
 
 Lyon, William H 18 
 
 Lyons, T. F 1498 
 
 McCarthy, Timothy J 1530 
 
 McCormack, Robert 1012 
 
 McDermott, James 989 
 
 McDonald, John W 1344 
 
 McDonnell, Charles 1176 
 
 McDonnell, Mrs. Jane R 1176 
 
 McEnerney, James A 1170 
 
 McEvoy, Thomas 549 
 
 McFeeters, Charles T 1456 
 
 McGaughey Family 673 
 
 McGaughey, Hon. J. D., M. D.. 673 
 
 McGovern, Peter 1119 
 
 McGrail, John F 1163 
 
 McGrath, Edward 1499 
 
 McGrath, Thomas F 1166 
 
 McKenzie, John M 1078 
 
 McKenzie, William 1078 
 
 McKenzie, William H 345 
 
 McLarney, John J 1015 
 
 McLean, Judge Alexander D . . . 927 
 
 McLean, Harry 927 
 
 McLean, Dr. Neil 927 
 
 M'cManus, B. J ISI3 
 
 McManus, Edward i486 
 
 McNeil Family 1317 
 
 McQueen Family 1386 
 
 McQueen, John B 1386 
 
 Macauley, J. J 1533 
 
 Macdonald, Theodore H 747 
 
 Mackay, WiUiam. R 378 
 
 Mackey, Peter B 75 
 
 Mackrille, John 1467 
 
 Maguire, Thomas H 734 
 
 Mahaney, Daniel J 604 
 
 Main, Elias T 896 
 
 Main, Walter A 896 
 
 Malumphy, Edward J 1511 
 
 Malumphy, Thomas ISH 
 
 Manion, Michael 1532 
 
 Mansfield, Austin 555, 1 167 
 
 Mansfield, Mrs. Austin 555 
 
 Man.sfield, Benjamin F 327 
 
 Mansfield, Edward F 327 
 
 Mansfield, Edwin L 643 
 
 Mansfield Families 326, 555, 643 
 
 Mansfield, Isaac E 643 
 
 Mansfield, Louis A 1167 
 
 Manson, John T 657 
 
 Manson, Capt. Magnus 656 
 
 Manville Family 451 
 
 Manville, Theodore D. L 451 
 
 Mar, John E 940 
 
 Marsh, Arthur W., M. D 753 
 
 Marsh, Julian H 754 
 
 Martin, Aimer 1 117S 
 
 Martin, Frank L 1529 
 
 Martin, Henry II7S 
 
 Martin, John A II75 
 
 Martin, Joseph 1202 
 
 Martin, Othniel I Ii75 
 
 Martin, Thomas L 1529 
 
 Marvin Family 160 
 
 Marvin, Rev. Sylvanus P 160 
 
 Maschmeyer, August 581 
 
 JIason, William 168 
 
 Mather, Albert B., A. M 705 
 
 Mather Families 639, 705 
 
 Matthews, Henry A 1454 
 
 May, Albert A 353 
 
 Mead, Rev. Alexander H 118 
 
 Mead Family 513 
 
 Mead, Linus 432 
 
 Mead, Solomon 5I3 
 
 Mefifert, Paulus J 1379 
 
 Megin, Dennis B 1362 
 
 Meigs, Charles A 556 
 
 Meigs, Samuel 556 
 
 Mendel, Adolph 1441 
 
 Merchant, Horace W 509 
 
 Merchant, Mrs. Mary E 509 
 
 Merriam Family 163 
 
 Merriam, Capt. George C 163 
 
 Merriam, Nelson 163 
 
 Merriman, Hon. Charles B 39 
 
 Merriman, Charles G 468 
 
 Merriman Families, 39, 243, 468, 500 
 
 Merriman, Julius E 243 
 
 Merriman, Marcus, Jr 469 
 
 Mersick, Edwin F 535 
 
 Mersick, Mrs. Edwin F 536 
 
 Merwin, Alpheus 939 
 
 Merwin, Caleb T 853 
 
 Merwin, Dumond P 336 
 
 Merwin Families. .276, 853, 939, 1355 
 
 Merwin, George P 1434 
 
 Merwin, Ira 104 
 
 Merwin, Marcus 1355 
 
 Merwin, Merritt 277 
 
 Merwin, Mrs. Nellie B 1426 
 
 Merwin, Robert T 104 
 
 Merwin, William M 276 
 
 Metcalfe, Eleazer 547 
 
 Metcalfe, Miss Melissa M 547 
 
 Michaelis, Herman 771 
 
 Miller, Edward 76 
 
 Miller Families 76, 997, 1328 
 
 Miller, Ira 998 
 
 Mills, Mrs. Estelle J 933 
 
1558 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mills, Thomas 933 
 
 Mills, Thomas B 933 
 
 Milroy, John C 769 
 
 Milroy, Mrs. Margaret 255 
 
 Milroy, Samuel 254 
 
 Milton, William 1485 
 
 Minor, Archibald 786 
 
 Minor, Augustus 1060 
 
 Minor, Charles J 1060 
 
 Minor Families 639, 786, 1060 
 
 Minor, George C 1116 
 
 Minor, Henry 786 
 
 Minor, Marcus W 1082 
 
 Minor, Marshall 1082 
 
 Minor, Truman 215 
 
 Mitchell, Donald G., LL. D 14 
 
 Mitchell Families 14, 148 
 
 Mitchell, Henry P 1321 
 
 Mitchell, John S 1390 
 
 Mitchell, Deacon Nelson W 148 
 
 Mitchell, William G 943 
 
 Mitchell, William W 943 
 
 Mix, Edward 1 143 
 
 Mix, Edward T 416 
 
 Mix, Mrs. Edward Townsend.. 416 
 
 Mix Families 81, 477, 740 
 
 Mix, Gatty 1 1460 
 
 Mix, Henry 123 
 
 Mix, John 741 
 
 Mix, Hon. John W 740 
 
 Mix, Capt. Jonathan 252 
 
 Mix, Mrs. Josephine C 1143 
 
 Mix, Lewis 81 
 
 Mix, Norris B 608 
 
 Mix, Mrs. Norris B 608 
 
 Mix, Willis L 742 
 
 Monckmeyer, Frederick 1540 
 
 Monks, Leon D,, D. D. S 1340 
 
 Monson, Alfred S., M. D 526 
 
 Monson, Capt. David C 924 
 
 M'onson Families 525, 924 
 
 Monson, Frank A 526 
 
 Montgomery, Charles H 1531 
 
 Montgomery Family 376 
 
 Montgomery, James B z7(> 
 
 Montgomery, Phelps 376 
 
 Moody, Dr. Mary Blair 1542 
 
 Moodv, Lucius W 1542 
 
 Moore, E. L 1507 
 
 Moore Family 107 
 
 Moore, J. S 1493 
 
 Moran, James T 743 
 
 Moran, Thomas 1364 
 
 Morehouse Family 698 
 
 Morehouse, Henry L 6gg 
 
 Morgan, Edward P ii8l 
 
 Morgan Families 208, 1180 
 
 Morgan, George 1385 
 
 Morgan, George W 1385 
 
 Morgan, Richard H 1 180 
 
 Morgan, Col. William E 208 
 
 Morris, Edwin A 94 
 
 Morris, Mrs. Eveline T 364 
 
 Morris Families 8, 93, 1089 
 
 Morris, Julius H 93 
 
 Morris, Hon. Luzon B 8 
 
 Morris, Marion A 1089 
 
 Morris, Nelson 364 
 
 Morris, Perry C 1004 
 
 Morris, William H 1071 
 
 Morse, Algernon H 1547 
 
 Morse, Byron L 1077 
 
 Morse, Col. Charles F 1548 
 
 Morse, Edward J 736 
 
 Morse, Elliott H 46, 1548 
 
 Morse, Emery 1236 
 
 Morse, Ernest C 1236 
 
 Morse or Moss Families 
 
 ..45, 184, 320, 506, 736, 1408, 1546 
 
 Morse, Col. Gardner 45. 154;? 
 
 Morse, Gardner 46, 1548 
 
 MoTse, Henry W 351 
 
 Morse, Joseph 321 
 
 Morse, Joseph B 46, 1548 
 
 Morse, Luther 184 
 
 Morse, Nathan T 506 
 
 Morse, William W IS47 
 
 Morton Family 122 
 
 Morton, Horace J 122 
 
 Mosher, George D 1267 
 
 Moss or Morse Family 184 
 
 Moulton, Dr. Edward S 1149 
 
 Mueller, Joseph 496 
 
 Mueller, Richard W 759 
 
 Mueller, William C 760 
 
 Mueller, W. JHilius 1436 
 
 Munger Families 570, 1 168 
 
 Munger, George 1168 
 
 Munger, George B 1168 
 
 Munger, George H 570 
 
 Munger, Judge 1374 
 
 Munson, Amos 71 
 
 Munson, Cornelius W 1034 
 
 Munson, Edward B 284 
 
 Munson, Edward Beach 284 
 
 Munson Families . . 71, 86, 622, 1438 
 
 Munson, Hon. Hart D 1438 
 
 Munson, Harvey S 86 
 
 Munson, Henry 636 
 
 Munson, Henry W 636 
 
 Munson, Mrs. Jane F 523 
 
 Munson, Jerome C 622 
 
 Munson, Major John A 298 
 
 Munson, Mrs. John A 298 
 
 Munson, Hon. Luzerne 1 348 
 
 Munson, Orrin 508 
 
 Munson, Sara Rice 349 
 
 Murdock, Charles Z 1228 
 
 Murdock Family 732 
 
 Murdock, George B 732 
 
 Murdock, Mrs. Harriet E 733 
 
 Murdock, Zina K 733 
 
 Murlless, H. Walter, M. D.... 1195 
 
 Murray, John R 1192 
 
 Myers, George 597 
 
 Myers, George E., M. D 1255 
 
 Nadler, Alfred G., M. D 1206 
 
 Nadler, Isaac H 1206 
 
 Neary, William J 1512 
 
 Neidhardt, Matthias 1059 
 
 Nelson, Horatio K 1201 
 
 Nelson, Thomas A 840 
 
 Nettleton, Caleb 889 
 
 Nettleton, Charles H 128 
 
 Nettleton, C. J 1503 
 
 Nettleton Families . . 595, 658, 1323 
 
 Nettleton, George W 889 
 
 Nettleton, Henry E 1324 
 
 Nettleton, John F 658 
 
 Nettleton, J. W 1521 
 
 Neveu, Ulric E 633 
 
 New Haven Copper Co., The. . 1361 
 
 Newport, Edward C, M. D 684 
 
 Newton Family 1318 
 
 Newton, Frederic F 340 
 
 Newton, Mrs. Frederic P 340 
 
 New-ton, Judge Henry G 380 
 
 Newton, William G 1541 
 
 Nichols, Clark H 796 
 
 l^ichols Families 494, 795, 937 
 
 Nichols, Frank S iioi 
 
 Nichols, Henry 1276 
 
 Nichols, Isaac, Jr iioi 
 
 Nichols, James E 1276 
 
 Nichols, Joseph N 494, 795 
 
 Nichols, Miss Lucy E... 495 
 
 Nielson, Jens 1279 
 
 Noonan, E. P 1518 
 
 Norman, F. F 1507 
 
 North, Alfred, M. D 269 
 
 North, Alvin 224 
 
 North Families 223, 269, 1314 
 
 North, John G 1314 
 
 North, Mrs. John G 1316 
 
 North, Lemuel 1315 
 
 North, Mrs. Martha E 224 
 
 North, Oliver B 224 
 
 Northam, John C 897 
 
 Northam, Martin K 897 
 
 Northrop, Charles L 537 
 
 Northrop, Ensign 886 
 
 Northrop Family 1439 
 
 Northrop, Harry E 1439 
 
 Norton, Charles L 1040 
 
 Norton Families 
 
 489, 895, 1022, 1040, 1368 
 
 Norton, John W 1022 
 
 Norton, Julius E 489 
 
 Norton, Oliver T 1487 
 
 Norton, Philo B 1040 
 
 Norton, Rufus 1023 
 
 Norton, Stephen 1487 
 
 Norton, Timothy E 661 
 
 Norwood, J. N 1502 
 
 Noyes Family 248 
 
 Noyes, Joseph G 1273 
 
 Nuhn, Frederick 1444 
 
 O'Brien, Capt. Laurence 746 
 
 O'Brien, Michael H 761 
 
 O'Connor, Charles 1009 
 
 Oefinger, Andrew 1239 
 
 O'Keefe, Capt. William 329 
 
 Olds, Elizabeth C 537 
 
 Olds, Henry H 536 
 
 Olson, John A 1229 
 
 Olson, P. A 1499 
 
 O'Neil, William 1491 
 
 O'Rourke, Timothy II39 
 
 Osborn, Charlotte A 388 
 
 Osborn, John J 387 
 
 Osborn, Lewis E 435 
 
 Osborn, Hon. Minott A 70 
 
 Osborn, Col. Norris G 70 
 
 Osborn, Walter 435 
 
 Osborne, Mrs. Eliza H 929 
 
 Osborne Family 813 
 
 Osborne, John W 813, 929 
 
 Osborne, Capt. Stephen 813 
 
 Osborne, Maj. Wilbur F 814 
 
 Otis Family 683, 
 
 Otis, Israel S 683 
 
 Otis, Samuel D., M. D 683 
 
 Oughton, Robert 232 
 
 Oughton, Mrs. Robert 233 
 
 Oviatt Family 113^ 
 
 Oviatt, Samuel N 1138 
 
 Owen, Frederick P 677 
 
INDEX. 
 
 1559 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Owen, Robert 625 
 
 Paddock, Charles E 726 
 
 Paddock, Charles L 726 
 
 Paddock Family 726 
 
 Paddock, Samuel C 1330 
 
 Page, Benjamin 315, 1140 
 
 Page, Rev. Charles 404 
 
 Page, John M H40 
 
 Pain, Robert W 74c 
 
 Pain, Willard S '.. 745 
 
 Pardee, Egbert E 535 
 
 Pardee, Wyllys 535 
 
 Park, Charles E., M. D 667 
 
 Park, Dr. Edwin A 667 
 
 Parker, Andrew G 1217 
 
 Parker, Charles 16 
 
 Parker, Edgar K •j'ji) 
 
 Parker, Edmund 623 
 
 Parker, Edmund A 623 
 
 Parker Families, 16, 442, 574, 668, yjd 
 
 Parker, Giles 1217 
 
 Parker, Grace B 260 
 
 Parker, Rev. John 259 
 
 Parker, Col. Joseph 972 
 
 Parker, Luman F 668 
 
 Parker, Stephen L 575 
 
 Parker, S. Olin 574 
 
 Parker, William D 384 
 
 Parker, William D. W 671 
 
 Pannelee, Charles 1 1040 
 
 Parmelee, Edwin S 980 
 
 Parmelee Families .... 858, 917, 1040 
 
 Parmelee, Jonathan 918 
 
 Parmelee, Walter 980 
 
 Patten, Daniel A 1 150 
 
 Patten, Hon. D. Walter 1150 
 
 Payne, Mrs. Amelia F 505 
 
 Payne Families 1059, 1477 
 
 Payne, Joseph D 504 
 
 Payne, J. Frederick 1059 
 
 Payne. Miles E 1477 
 
 Pearce, John H 735 
 
 Pearsall, Mrs. Laura E 1510 
 
 Pearsall, Zopher 1509 
 
 Pease Family 1422 
 
 Pease, Salmon G 1422 
 
 Peck, Burr S 248 
 
 Peck Families 
 
 82, 159, 220, 248, 343, 1020 
 
 Peck, Hiram J 1047 
 
 Peck, Henry S IS9 
 
 Peck, Mrs. Ida F 1020 
 
 Peck, James H 412 
 
 Peck, Lewis 1020 
 
 Peck, Mrs. Mary E 220 
 
 Peck, Richard 572 
 
 Peck, Richard A 572 
 
 Peck, Robert C 220 
 
 Peck, Mrs. Sarah G 257 
 
 Peck. Stephen M 1020 
 
 Peck, William A 412 
 
 Peck, Wyllys 257 
 
 Peck, Za;lmon S I59 
 
 Peckham, George F 43i 
 
 Pemberton" James o7S 
 
 Pendexter, Albion W 1339 
 
 Penfield Family 730 
 
 Penfield, William A 730 
 
 Perkins, Edgar J 682 
 
 Perkins, James M 082 
 
 Perkins, Lewis 35S 
 
 Perkins, Samuel F 339 
 
 Perkins, Solon B 355 
 
 Perkins, William 856 
 
 Perkins, William H 856 
 
 Perkins, Mrs. William H 857 
 
 Perry Family 1275 
 
 Perry, Frederick K 1090 
 
 Perry, Frederic N 1 180 
 
 Perry, George F 1180 
 
 Perry, Capt, Herman A 682 
 
 Perry, Horace B 682 
 
 Perry, James A 1275 
 
 Perry, Stephen 1275 
 
 Peters, George F 1282 
 
 Pettee, Rev. John T 1292 
 
 Pettee, Mrs. Mariette R 1292 
 
 Pettibone, DeForest 1266 
 
 Pettibone, John C 1266 
 
 Pettis, George C 575 
 
 Pfaff. Louis C 1220 
 
 Pfleghar, Ferdinand 1223 
 
 Pfleghar, Frank P... 135 
 
 Phelps, Albert 899 
 
 Phelps, Alvan P 1057 
 
 Phelps, Dryden W 586 
 
 Phelps Families 42, 295, 376, 586, 1108 
 
 Phelps, John A 1057 
 
 Phelps, John P 963 
 
 Phelps, Lewis M 1 108 
 
 Phelps, Rev. Sylvanus D., D. D. 587 
 
 Phoenix, Joseph 1387 
 
 Phillips, Albert W., M. D 592 
 
 Phillips, Watson L., D. D 445 
 
 Phipps, Capt. Daniel G 612 
 
 Phipps Family 612 
 
 Pickett, Charles E 1289 
 
 Pickett, Charles H 1289 
 
 Pickett, Col. Charles W 1320 
 
 Pickett, Hon. Rufus S 25 
 
 Pickhardt, Henry C 1417 
 
 Pierce, Ezra 1539 
 
 Pierpont, Mrs. Anna E 848 
 
 Pierpont, Austin B 1106 
 
 Pierpont, Charles J. (deceased) 
 
 816, 1106 
 
 Pierpont, Charles J 1094 
 
 Pierpont, Cornelius 625 
 
 Pierpont Families, 624, 629, 816, 1 106 
 
 Pierpont, Mrs. Helen E 625 
 
 Pierpont, Joseph 629 
 
 Pierpont, Mrs. Mary A 817 
 
 Pinney, Charles H., M. D 526 
 
 Pinney Family 527 
 
 Pinney, Mrs. Maria W 527 
 
 Pitman, Edwin P., M. D 1159 
 
 Plant, Albert E 1228 
 
 Plant Kamilies 799, 1228 
 
 Plant, George W 799 
 
 Plant, William 1228 
 
 Piatt, A. Clark 1288 
 
 Piatt, Alfred 640 
 
 Flatt, Alfred L 641 
 
 Piatt, Alfred S 642 
 
 Piatt, Capt. Benjamin 680 
 
 Piatt, Benjamin, Jr 834 
 
 Piatt, Daniel G 6 
 
 Piatt, David I354 
 
 Piatt, David B 1287 
 
 Piatt Families 
 
 6, 407, 640, 834, 866, 1288 
 
 Piatt, George 1 1287 
 
 Piatt, Gideon L., M. D 866 
 
 Piatt, Henry P 68a 
 
 Piatt, John H 679 
 
 PAGE- 
 
 Platt, John R 834 
 
 Piatt, Jonah C 835 
 
 Piatt, Levi S : 615 
 
 Piatt, Nathan 1354 
 
 Piatt, Newton 835 
 
 Piatt, Nirom B 640 
 
 Piatt, Hon. Orville H., LL. D. . 6 
 
 Piatt, Seabury B 642 
 
 Piatt, Col. William 739 
 
 Piatt, William S 641 
 
 Plumb Family 694 
 
 Plummer, William H 514 
 
 P'omeroy, Charles L 165. 
 
 Pomeroy, James T 164 
 
 Pomeroy, Nelson A., M. D.... 1201 
 
 Pomeroy. Noah 164 
 
 Pond, George S 1041 
 
 Pond, Capt. Joseph W 1041 
 
 Poore, John R., M. D 565 
 
 Pope, John B 820 
 
 Pope, Nehemiah 820 
 
 Popp, John N 733 
 
 Popp, Mrs. Sarah E 734 
 
 Porter, Benjamin W 1263 
 
 Porter, Dr. Charles H 1183 
 
 Porter, Daniel 789 
 
 Porter Families 788, 1537 
 
 Porter, James 788, 864 
 
 Porter, James W. B 864 
 
 Potter, Edwin W 531 
 
 Potter, Frank 90& 
 
 Potter, Frank J 1480 
 
 Potter, Rev. Samuel 908 
 
 Potter, William C 871 
 
 Powe, Mrs. Emma J 1152 
 
 Powe, William 1152 
 
 Prageman, August 1462 
 
 Prageman Family 1461 
 
 Pratt, Diadate 1407 
 
 Pratt, Edwin M 153 
 
 Pratt, Elbert E 154 
 
 Pratt Families.... 67, 153, 670, 1345 
 
 Pratt, Hon. Julius 1345 
 
 Pratt, Mrs. Lura C 239 
 
 Pratt, Nathan 239 
 
 Pratt, Hon. Zadock 67 
 
 Prentice, Frederick E 1182 
 
 Preston, Thomas 512 
 
 Prichard, Elizur E 920 
 
 Prichard Family 920 
 
 Prichard, Miss Sarah J 921 
 
 Pritchard, Edward S 653 
 
 Pritchard Families 123, 653 
 
 Pritchard, Hon. George 123 
 
 Prouty Family 303 
 
 Prouty, Willis J., A. M. 304 
 
 Prudden, Samuel 1084 
 
 Pulford, Charles H., M. D.... 926 
 
 Pulford, Dr. Frederick W 926 
 
 Putnam, Rev. Austin 1356 
 
 Putnam, Mrs. Austin 1356 
 
 Putnam, Frank D 1356 
 
 Quigley, Patrick J 358 
 
 Quigley, William E 1133 
 
 Quillinan, Judge John B 882 
 
 Randall, Hiram W 534 
 
 Randall, Mrs. Martha M 534 
 
 Randall, William S., M. D.... 1196 
 
 Rasmussen, Hans 1524 
 
 Rasmussen, Niels 1528 
 
 Rasmussen, Rasmussen S 1525 
 
1560 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Rattelsdorfer, John V 735 
 
 Ray, Eber R 1382 
 
 Ray, Eugene H 1382 
 
 Ray Family 1382 
 
 Reade, Daniel 1372 
 
 Reade, Myron C 1372 
 
 Redfield, Charles H 440 
 
 Redfield Families 33, 154, 440 
 
 Redfield, Horatio G 33 
 
 Redshaw, John M 887 
 
 Redshaw, Samuel G 887 
 
 Reed, Charles 1476 
 
 Regan, James 1200 
 
 Reilly, Farrell 1176 
 
 Reilly, James 616 
 
 Reilly, Sumner C 765 
 
 Reilly, Thomas L 593 
 
 Reuss, Anton 495 
 
 Reuss, Mrs. Catherine 496 
 
 Reynolds, Henry 488 
 
 Reynolds, Michael G 1464 
 
 Rice, Archibald E 287, 349 
 
 Rice Families. 74, 216, 287, 764, 1281 
 
 Rice, Frederick B 288 
 
 Rice, H. C 151S 
 
 Rice, John L Ii6g 
 
 Rice, Michael P 576 
 
 Rice, Oliver 216 
 
 Rice, Silas 1281 
 
 Rice, William T 217 
 
 Richards Family 309 
 
 Richards, Henry H 309 
 
 Richards, John M 684 
 
 Richards, Maj. J. P 1376 
 
 Richards, Mrs. Mary F 1375 
 
 Richardson, John A 158 
 
 Richardson, William D 1428 
 
 Richmond, Dwight F 1056 
 
 Richmond, Leander F 1056 
 
 Richmond, Mrs. Leander F. . . . 1057 
 
 Richmond, W. H 1207 
 
 Rider, Henry A 273 
 
 Riggs, Charles H 1409 
 
 Riggs, Gardiner G 1211 
 
 Riggs, Solomon T 1409 
 
 Rigney, Hubert M 1515 
 
 Ritchie, William 1513 
 
 Roach, James C 1061 
 
 Robbing Family 1125 
 
 Robbins, George 1125 
 
 Robbins, W. A 1535 
 
 Roberts, Benjamin H 1391 
 
 Hoberts, Charles 1051 
 
 Roiberts, Charles A 431 
 
 Roberts, Mrs. C. A 432 
 
 Roberts, Edward K, M. D 367 
 
 Roberts, Ephraim lo^i 
 
 Roberts Family 1008 
 
 Robertson, Thomas B 646 
 
 Robinson Family 1018 
 
 Rockwell Family 463 
 
 Rockwell, George M 558 
 
 Rockwell, Jabez 558 
 
 Rockwell, Capt. Samuel 464 
 
 Rogers, Cephas B 146 
 
 Rogers, C. L 1530 
 
 Rogers Families 145, 607 
 
 Rogers, George F 1395 
 
 Rogers, George W 139S 
 
 Rogers, Gilbert 191 
 
 Rogers, Hervey 146 
 
 Rogers, John E 719 
 
 Rogers, Wilbur F 60S 
 
 Rolf, George P 1021 
 
 Root, Edward T 1084 
 
 Root Family 832 
 
 Root, George 1084 
 
 Root, Samuel 832 
 
 Rose, Herbert M 11 12 
 
 Rose, Joshua 1113 
 
 Rossiter, Benjamin 398 
 
 Rossiter Family 396 
 
 Rossiter, John R 396 
 
 Rowan, Charles E 1520 
 
 Rovve, Henry C 400 
 
 Rowland Family 1028 
 
 Rowland, John 1121 
 
 Rowland, Lynde 1028 
 
 Rowland, Washington M 1307 
 
 Royce, Deodatus 74 
 
 Royce or Rice Families 74, 216 
 
 Rudolph, George F 1446 
 
 Rudolph, Henry F 1446 
 
 Russ. Henry 1237 
 
 Russell, David A 571 
 
 Russell Families 48, 571, 1103 
 
 Russell, James W 1399 
 
 Russell, Mrs. Maria A 1399 
 
 Russell, Mrs. Mary A 192 
 
 Russell, Michael D 114S 
 
 Russell, M. M 1285 
 
 Russell, Robert G., D. D. S.... 14-7 
 
 Russell, Samuel F 1285 
 
 Russell, Thomas H., Ph. B., M. 
 
 D 51 
 
 Russell, William A 1254 
 
 Russell, William C 459 
 
 Russell, William E 459 
 
 Russell, Gen. William H., M. A 48 
 
 Russell, William 192 
 
 Rust Family 618 
 
 Rust, Dr. Theodore S 618 
 
 Ryan, Dennis F 1344 
 
 Ryan, Mrs. Dennis F 1344 
 
 Ryan, John A 1218 
 
 Ryan, Michael J 1205 
 
 Ryce, Bernard P.. M. D 1480 
 
 Ryder, Cornelius C 412 
 
 Sachsenhauser. John 1506 
 
 Sage, Clarissa I : . 450 
 
 Sage Families 361, 450 
 
 Sage, Isaac 451 
 
 Saleski, Paul T 1234 
 
 Sanderson, Charles B loii 
 
 Sanderson, Henry B 1211 
 
 Sanderson, James H 399 
 
 Sands, Frank E 1290 
 
 Sanford, Abraham 1473 
 
 Sanford. Hon. Edward L, LL. B 24 
 
 Sanford Family 1047 
 
 Sanford, Dr. George W 1268 
 
 Sanford, Henry F 1047 
 
 Sanford, Henry W 1268 
 
 Sanford, Joseph 1268 
 
 Sanford, Mrs. Mary B 1473 
 
 Sanford, Mrs. Sarah J 25 
 
 Sanford, Ward H., M. D 727 
 
 Savage Family 1406 
 
 Sawyer, Henry D 1213 
 
 baxe, John L 1492 
 
 Scard, George 942 
 
 Scarritt, John 150 
 
 Schaffer. Frederick F 524 
 
 Schilf. Carl 1508 
 
 Schmelzer. Charles A 447 
 
 Schneller, Mrs. Clarissa 55- 
 
 Schneller, Hon. George 55i 
 
 Schofield, Harry H 1209 
 
 Scholz, Paul 1129 
 
 Schroeder, Albert F 1143 
 
 Schunack, Charles E 114S 
 
 Schwab, Andrew 1511 
 
 Schwander, Joseph 1435 
 
 Schwink, J. G 1523 
 
 Scovill Family 22 
 
 Scovill, James M. L 22 
 
 Scovill, William H 23 
 
 Scranton, Charles L 724 
 
 Scranton, Charles W 634 
 
 Scranton, Daniel H 1049 
 
 Scranton, Harry 654 
 
 Scranton, Hon. Erastus C 32 
 
 Scranton Families. ..32, 634, 724, 946 
 
 Scranton, Hubbard 1049 
 
 Scranton, Ichabod L 946 
 
 Scranton, James B 654 
 
 Scranton, Mrs. Louisa M 724 
 
 Scranton, Mary E 23 
 
 Scranton, Hon. Sereno H 634 
 
 Scranton, Sylvanus A 1049 
 
 Seabrook, Henry C 573 
 
 Seeley, Charles 1256 
 
 Seeley, Chauncey 1124 
 
 Seeley, George S 1256 
 
 Seidensticker, Frederick R.... 278 
 
 Seip, Deacon Henry W 245 
 
 Seip, Michael 244 
 
 Seward, Frank 579 
 
 Seward, Moses 580 
 
 Sewell. C. V. 1505 
 
 Seymour Family 527 
 
 Shannahan, Patrick 1531 
 
 Shares, Daniel W 84 
 
 Shares, Fred 1 85 
 
 Shares, Horace P 84 
 
 Sharpe, E. T., M. D 1262 
 
 Sharpe, William C 1155 
 
 Sheldon, Edwards D 644 
 
 Sheldon, Eulius B 153S 
 
 Sheldon Families 644, 1538 
 
 Sheldon, George L 645 
 
 Sheldon, Hon. Joseph 42 
 
 Sheldon, Truman 645 
 
 Shelton, Hon. Edward N loi 
 
 Shelton Family loi 
 
 Shepard, Durell, M. D 1436 
 
 Shepard Family 1436 
 
 Sheriden. Rev. James O'R 768 
 
 Shipley, Alfred J 1126 
 
 Shipley, Joseph 1126 
 
 Shuster, Franklin B 1540 
 
 Siebert, Frederick 1191 
 
 Siebert, John J iigi 
 
 Silliraan, Benjamin, M. D., LL. 
 
 I^ 390 
 
 Silliman Family 390 
 
 Simons, Kendrick H 979 
 
 Skiff Familv 407 
 
 Skiff, Paul C, M. D 407 
 
 Skinner Family 952 
 
 Skinner, William : 952 
 
 Skinner, Mrs. William 953 
 
 Slade, Benjamin 1375 
 
 Sliney, David 860 
 
 Sliney, John T 860 
 
 Sliney, Thomas J 615 
 
 Sloane, Edgar C 1225 
 
 Sloane, Frederick D 750 
 
INDEX. 
 
 1561 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sloane, James R 1308 
 
 Smith, Mrs. Adeline 740 
 
 bmith, Andrew H 252 
 
 Smith, Archer J mg 
 
 Smith, Arthur W 1185 
 
 Smith, Dr. Augustus B 408 
 
 Smith, Caleb 549 
 
 Smith, Charles 550 
 
 Smith, Charles C 200 
 
 Smith, Charles F 202 
 
 Smith, Charles L. P., M. D 1488 
 
 Smith, David .....' 1185 
 
 Smith, David 1084 
 
 Smith, Davis W 547 
 
 Smith, Dwight L 831 
 
 Smith, Earl 822 
 
 Smith, Edgar H 1411 
 
 Smith, Edward W., M. D 1272 
 
 Smith, El wood H 239 
 
 Smith, Ezra 1355 
 
 Smith Families, 88, 202, 238, 252, 304, 
 408, 443, 547, 594, 1023, 1025, 1032 
 
 1208, 1229, 1272, 135s, 141 1 
 
 Smith, Fitch 994 
 
 Smith, Frank E 594 
 
 Smith, Franklin E 583 
 
 Smith, Franklin P 1023 
 
 Smith, Fred M 1204 
 
 Smith, Frederick A 1 169 
 
 Smith, George 290 
 
 Smith, George H. (Smith & 
 
 Twiss) 290 
 
 Smith, George H 148 
 
 Smith, George J 1208 
 
 Smith, Henry J 1032 
 
 Smith, Horace T 74" 
 
 Smith, Horatio N 583, 1Z^ 
 
 Smith, Isaac T 338 
 
 Smith, James 1169 
 
 Smith, James 443 
 
 Smith, James E 443 
 
 Smith, James F 1025, 1229 
 
 Smith, Jeremiah 238 
 
 Smith, Jesse G 203 
 
 Smith, Loyal 97i, 1023 
 
 Smith, Lyman 293 
 
 Smith, Marcus P 3" 
 
 Smith, Mathew 200 
 
 Smith, Misses 994 
 
 Smith, Riley T 649 
 
 Smith, Roland .A. 46S 
 
 Smith, Sidney B 1097 
 
 Smith, Sylvester 88 
 
 Smith, Sylvester 95i 
 
 Smith, Deacon Thomas 466 
 
 Smith, Thomas h 4^5 
 
 Smith, Walter E 1229 
 
 Smith, Wilbur T 338 
 
 Smith, Wilbur W 950 
 
 Smith, William (Ea^t Haven) 991 
 
 Smith, William (deceased) 1246 
 
 Smith, Wilnam G 1246 
 
 Smith, William H 239 
 
 Somers, Mrs. Eliza A 428 
 
 Somers, Enoch 592 
 
 Somers, Enoch H 428 
 
 Somers. George W 592 
 
 Spaulding, Hon. Charles S.... 921 
 
 Spencer Families 132, 1318 
 
 Spencer, Mai. Frederick A 132 
 
 Spencer, Hon, George B 1318 
 
 Spencer, Imri A 648 
 
 Spencer, Imri L 64° 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Spencer, Hon. Willard 133 
 
 Sperry, Burton 239 
 
 Sperry, Calvin 995, 1007 
 
 Sperry, Mrs. Catherine E 482 
 
 Sperry, Hon. E. Knight 37, 229 
 
 Sperry, Elizur L 1007 
 
 Sperry Families. . 36, 482, 1007, 1156 
 
 Sperry, Frank W 1514 
 
 Sperry, Frederick N., M. D. .. . 1156 
 
 Sperry, Joel A 302 
 
 Sperry, Joseph H 37 
 
 Sperry, Laura A 37 
 
 Sperry, Hon. Lucien W 37 
 
 Sperry, Lucius P 239 
 
 Sperry, Nehemiah D 36 
 
 Sperry, Stiles _ D 37 
 
 Spring, Frederic, M. D 382 
 
 Stahnke, Frank 1460 
 
 Stanley, Edward M 1105 
 
 Stanley, Frederick E 1190 
 
 Stanley, James 1190 
 
 Stanley, William 1105 
 
 Stanley, William J 1162 
 
 Stannard, Edward 265 
 
 States, Benjamin F 690 
 
 States, Henry M 1298 
 
 States, Hon. James N 689 
 
 Steele, Frank E 1128 
 
 Steele, Mrs. Frank E. (Lillie 
 
 J.) 1128 
 
 Steele, William R 144S 
 
 Sternberg, Gotfried 1469 
 
 Stevens, David 479 
 
 Stevens, David S 706 
 
 Stevens, Eli^ha 1294 
 
 Stevens, Evelyn E 559 
 
 Stevens Families 528, 596, 706 
 
 Stevens. Frederick M 1136 
 
 Stevens, Jedediah C 559 
 
 Stevens, Marshall D 1120 
 
 Stevens, Orville H 596 
 
 Stevens, Mrs. Orville H 597 
 
 Stevens, Philander 1340 
 
 Stevens, Samuel A 528 
 
 Stiles Family 1414 
 
 Stiles, Frank W 1414 
 
 Stillman, Edwin C 723, m 
 
 Stillman Fam'lies 722, 'jjj 
 
 Stillman, Frank R 722 
 
 Stillman, Jesse Edwin "JTJ 
 
 Stillman, Mrs. Lucretia S 778 
 
 St. Lawrence, John 1488 
 
 Stoddard Family 1232 
 
 Stoddard, Lewellyn L 1232 
 
 Stokes, Joseph S 662 
 
 Stone Family 658 
 
 Stone, Heman 658 
 
 Stone, Sanford C 658 
 
 Stowe, Charles H 995 
 
 Stowe, Clark W 932 
 
 Stowe Families 932, 995 
 
 Stowe, Stephen 739 
 
 Strapp, Patrick F.. M. D 1500 
 
 Strauss, Gerson. M. D 1268 
 
 Street, Augustus 859 
 
 Street Families 859, 1244 
 
 Street, Frederick B 1244 
 
 Strobel, Chris 1249 
 
 Strong, Addie H 109 
 
 Strong Families 108, II77 
 
 Strong, Horace H 108 
 
 Strong, William H 'i.-^Ti 
 
 Strong, William S ii77 
 
 Studley, Hon. John P 381 
 
 Sucher, Col. Theodore H 1226 
 
 Sullivan, John J 1489 
 
 Sullivan, Rev. Michael A 1440 
 
 Summers, George C 1161 
 
 Summers, Stephen N 1161 
 
 Sutliiif Family 632 
 
 Sutliff, James R 632 
 
 Sutliff, John 632 
 
 Sutton, Harry 1224. 
 
 Sutton, Henry 1224 
 
 Sutton, Mrs. Henry . 1224 
 
 Sweeney, James E II59 
 
 Sweet Family 1066 
 
 Sweet, Dr. James W 1066 
 
 Taintor, Hiram C 
 
 Taintor, Hiram H 
 
 Tait, Andrew 
 
 Tait, John, M. D 
 
 Talbot, Richard 
 
 Talmage, George L 
 
 Talmage, Lucius 
 
 Tappert, Rev. C. Reinhold.... 
 
 Taylor, Thomas 
 
 Taylor, William 
 
 Tennant, Richard 
 
 Terrell, Alton T 
 
 Terrell, Emery L 
 
 Terrell Family 
 
 Terrell, Wales 
 
 Terry, Maj. Gen. Alfred H.... 
 
 Terry, Mrs. Emilie A 
 
 Terry Family 
 
 Terry, George E 
 
 Terry, Theodore 
 
 Terry, Theodore P' 
 
 Thayer, Alexander 
 
 Thayer, Augustine 
 
 Thayer, Hon. John Q 
 
 Thayer, Sumner T 
 
 Thogerson, Christian 
 
 Thomas, Gen. Amos 
 
 Thomas, Edwin S 
 
 Thomas Family 
 
 Thomas, Frank H 
 
 Thomas, George H 
 
 Thomas, John 
 
 Thompson, Abraham 
 
 Thompson, Charles A 
 
 Thompson, Edward F 
 
 Thompson Families 
 
 log, 663, 819, 
 
 Thompson, Frank I 
 
 Thompson, Sherwood S 
 
 Thompson, Mrs. E. Louise . . . 
 
 Thomson, Edward A 
 
 Thomson, George 
 
 Thomson, John 
 
 Thorpe, Charles H 
 
 Thorpe Family 
 
 Thorpe, Sheldon B 
 
 Tiibbals Families 1188, 
 
 Tibbals, Frederick L 
 
 Tibbals, George L 
 
 Tidgewell, James 
 
 Tidgewell, William 
 
 Tierney, Dennis C 
 
 Tiley, Charles B., D. D. S.... 
 
 Tiley, Curtis B., D. D. S 
 
 Tiley, Stillman J 
 
 Tilton, Albert 
 
 Todd, Charles J 
 
 236 
 
 235 
 224 
 224 
 950 
 1466 
 1466 
 
 1151 
 652 
 652- 
 
 1095 
 874 
 
 1 170' 
 
 873 
 
 873 
 
 I 
 
 1004 
 I 
 
 1004 
 801 
 801 
 370 
 471 
 471 
 370 
 
 1254 
 509 
 
 1450 
 990 
 990 
 
 1458 
 990 
 109 
 819 
 663 
 
 1304 
 109 
 
 1304 
 
 130S 
 
 879 
 
 1278 
 
 1278- 
 
 647 
 
 647 
 
 402 
 
 1426 
 
 1 188 
 
 1 188 
 
 147 
 
 147 
 
 1 164 
 
 1400 
 
 1233 
 
 1233 
 
 157 
 
 1142- 
 
1562 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Todd, Dwight E 482 
 
 Todd, Edward A 1284 
 
 Todd, Edwin A 1302 
 
 Todd Families 1284, 1300 
 
 Todd, Henry H 1142 
 
 Todd, James A 1301 
 
 Todd, James E 1222 
 
 Todd, James R 1222 
 
 Todd, John R. S 1300 
 
 Todd, Robert C 1301 
 
 Todd, Streat 364, 1301 
 
 Tolles, Harrison B 1152 
 
 Tolles, Isaac 1152 
 
 Tolles, James 316 
 
 Tomlinson, George A <^2i7 
 
 Toothe, James 782 
 
 Torrance, Hon. David 10 
 
 Towner Family 550 
 
 Towner, John E SSO 
 
 Townley, Mrs. L. E 321 
 
 Townsend, George H., M. D. . 1454 
 
 Townsend, Joseph H., M. D. . 1405 
 
 Tracy Bros. Co., The 300 
 
 Tracy, Cornelius 301 
 
 Tracy Family 30D 
 
 Tracy, George 301 
 
 Tracy, Morton 1512 
 
 Treat, Alfred 1347 
 
 Treat, Arthur B 602 
 
 Treat Families 601, 659 
 
 Treat, Howard P 1154 
 
 Treat, Isaac P 1154 
 
 Treat, Jonah 1347 
 
 Treat, Jonathan 476 
 
 Treat, Otis A 1348 
 
 Tr«at, Stiles J 475 
 
 Trott, C. Frederick 270 
 
 Trott, John T 270 
 
 Trowbridge, Ezekiel H 1358 
 
 Trowbridge Families. .354, 1357, 1363 
 
 Trowbridge, Henry 1357, 1363 
 
 Trowbridge, Henry, Jr 1358 
 
 Trowbridge, Joseph P 1364 
 
 Trowbridge, Thomas R. .. .1358, 1359 
 
 Trowbridge, Winston J 1359 
 
 Tucker, Reuben H 508 
 
 Turnbull, Erwin 1 142 
 
 Turnbull, William C 1142 
 
 Turner, Mrs. Almira E 995 
 
 Turner, Edward T 584 
 
 Turner, Mrs. Edward T 584 
 
 Turner Family 995 
 
 Tuttle, Mrs. Anna U 99 
 
 Tuttle, Charles Allen 782 
 
 Tuttle, Charles F 780 
 
 Tuttle, Cyrus W 542 
 
 Tuttle, Dennis 99 
 
 Tuttle, Hon. Dwight W 1345 
 
 Tuttle, Edward L 1478 
 
 Tuttle Families 9, 138, 252, 
 
 449, 466, 542, 780, 982, 1296,' 1345 
 
 Tuttle, George W 542 
 
 Tuttle, Hon. Grove J 982 
 
 Tuttle, Joel 450 
 
 Tuttle, J. Birney 100 
 
 Tuttle, John P 138 
 
 Tuttle, William P 139 
 
 Twitchell Family 492 
 
 Twitchell, Homer 492 
 
 Twitchell, Miles J 686 
 
 Twitchell, Perry M 686 
 
 Twitchell, Robert 720 
 
 Twitchell, Walter H 720 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Tyler, David A., M. D S66 
 
 Tyler, Ezra 1030 
 
 Tyler Families 810, 1030 
 
 Tyler, George F 989 
 
 Tyler, Henry W 103° 
 
 Tyler, John R 9^3 
 
 Tyler, John S 889 
 
 Tyler, Lyman 789 
 
 Tyler, William 89a 
 
 Tyler, William M 810 
 
 Tyrrell, Arthur H 123S 
 
 Tyrrell Family 1235 
 
 Tyrrill, Alfred D 470 
 
 Tyrrill, Isaac H 470 
 
 Ullman, Col. Isaac M 1182 
 
 Upson Family ' 818 
 
 Upson, Lucian 819 
 
 Ure, Andrew 1348 
 
 Vail, John 855 
 
 Voorhees, Harvey C 1231 
 
 Wake, W. S. R 1474 
 
 Wakelee, Eli H 876 
 
 Wakelee, Watrous C 876 
 
 Wakeman Family 1290 
 
 Waldron Family 1310 
 
 Waldron, Frederick H 1309 
 
 Walker, Charles P 1378 
 
 Walker, Dr. Emory J 1378 
 
 Walker Family 1377 
 
 Walker, Frank B 1378 
 
 Wallace Family 769 
 
 Walter, Hon. Jacob D 1305 
 
 Wanning, Henry F 11 13 
 
 Ward, C. Art., M. D .'. . 1476 
 
 Ward, Dennis 672 
 
 Ward Families 124, 1014, 1432 
 
 Ward, Frederick S 760 
 
 Ward, Richard 125 
 
 Ward, William 124 
 
 Ward, William L 1014 
 
 Warner, Abner 699 
 
 Warner, Alonzo 910 
 
 Warner, Charles 1 144 
 
 Warner, Charles E 1181 
 
 Warner, Charles D 1019 
 
 Warner, Edmund C 507 
 
 Warner, Edward N 1243 
 
 Warner Families.... 480, 497, 1258 
 
 Warner, Frederick E 1181 
 
 Warner, Gains F 497 
 
 Warner, Harley 1536 
 
 Warner, Harley A 1536 
 
 Warner, Henry A 497 
 
 Warner, Henry F 1019 
 
 Warner, Horace 752 
 
 Warner, Jared 663 
 
 Warner, John 1243 
 
 Warner, John E 752 
 
 Warner, John J 910 
 
 Warner, Lester E 1533 
 
 Warner, Mrs. Louisa 663 
 
 Warner, Lucian D 480 
 
 Warner, Theodore J 1144 
 
 Warren, Charles A 515 
 
 Warren Family 405 
 
 Warren, Henry 405 
 
 Warren, Herbert C. C 1546 
 
 Warren, Dr. Sparrow 515 
 
 Warrick, Walter J 1214 
 
 Waterbury, Jonathan B 424 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Waterbury, William A 424 
 
 Webb, Daniel M., M. D 413 
 
 Webb Family 4I4 
 
 Webster, Albert W 98/ 
 
 Webster, David S 98/ 
 
 Webster, Erwin W 988 
 
 Webster Family 986 
 
 Weed, Harrison 614 
 
 Weed, Mrs. Harrison 61S 
 
 Weil, Charles L 759 
 
 Weir, Samuel I44I 
 
 Weiss, Conrad .' 767 
 
 Welch, David T 616 
 
 Welch, Mrs. David T 617 
 
 Welch Families 616, 1426 
 
 Welch, Hon. Harmanus M 15 
 
 Weld Families 3I9, 811 
 
 Weld, Capt. Frederick A 958 
 
 Weld, Frederick F 958 
 
 Weld, George 811 
 
 Weld, George L 876 
 
 Weld, Mrs. Mary D. W 958 
 
 Weld, Mrs. Sarah J 877 
 
 Weld, William E 319, 811 
 
 Weld, William E., Jr 319 
 
 Wells. Ambrose H 548 
 
 Welton, Byron D 744 
 
 Welton Families, 565, 744, 804, 904 
 
 Welton, Frank P 1186 
 
 Welton, Frederick A 744 
 
 Welton, Herschel 1 186 
 
 Welton, Hobart L 565 
 
 Welton, Hobart V 56S 
 
 Welton, Homer H 904 
 
 Welton, Mrs. Homer H 904 
 
 Welton, Irving N 1208 
 
 Welton, Joseph 905 
 
 Welton, Mrs. Joseph 905 
 
 Welton, Nelson J 804 
 
 Welton, N. Jay 1495 
 
 West, Edward E 660 
 
 West, John A 660 
 
 West. Redfield B., M. D 1124 
 
 Weyand, Henry 1187 
 
 Wheeler, Alfred N 184 
 
 Wheeler, David B (deceased) . 264 
 
 Wheeler, David B. (Oxford).. 1132 
 
 Wheeler, Elisha 183 
 
 Wheeler Family 182 
 
 Wheeler, Frank H., M. D 737 
 
 Wheeler, George R 1504 
 
 Wheeler, Hon. Henry S 183 
 
 Wheeler, William H 737 
 
 Whitaker Family 1461 
 
 Whitaker, John 1461 
 
 White, Edward H 456 
 
 White Families 421, 460 
 
 White, Franklin R 591 
 
 White, George L 423 
 
 White, Henry K 455 
 
 White, Howard 456 
 
 White, Jacob W 423 
 
 White, James H 456 
 
 White, Leroy S 460 
 
 White, Lewis 591 
 
 White, Luther C 422 
 
 Whiting, Edwin R 600 
 
 Whiting, Henry B 1522 
 
 W'hiting, Irving 1522 
 
 Whiting, Jacob 600 
 
 Whiting, Stephen B 1338 
 
 Whiting, William S 1337 
 
 Whitney, Eli (176S) 19S 
 
INDEX. 
 
 1563 
 
 l\-, . PAGE 
 
 ^v|;;;"'=.v, Eli 200 
 
 \\'hitn^^ Families. .197, 438, 692, 1310 
 
 unK:ty, Stephen 438 
 
 Whmle.ey Family 383 
 
 ^^.''^^x, Albert H 499 
 
 ;.>wx, Charles H 1200 
 
 Wir""' ^^'■■^- Ellen M 194 
 
 WiWv ^i?'"'!'", 193, 499, 1005, 1075 
 
 \\\T ' £''='"k 1200 
 
 ^}^'.W. Frederic 516 
 
 W "''• ^I'-^- Frederic S16 
 
 WW' ?°'"S^ A 897 
 
 Wicox, Geo jj g 
 
 v™;teJc:;:;:;::-;:: g 
 
 w;iri.?;r<^ ;• 
 
 Wilkinson^ ;<,!,„•;;;;;•;•;•;•;• ^^^^ 
 
 Wi ard Family 1534 
 
 Wi ard, Rev. James L.,D.D.. 1156 
 
 Willard, John A wx 
 
 W.llard, Mrs. VictoHneE::::: 1156 
 
 Williams, Charles M... 589 
 
 Williams, Clarence W 103S 
 
 Williams Families 
 
 ,,/-,V u- 558, 589, 912, 1125, 1136 
 
 Williams, Francis 1419 
 
 Williams, George C. F. ... .'..". 913 
 
 Williams, George I .'.'.'.' 839 
 
 Williams, Herman 839 
 
 Williams, John 1459 
 
 Williams, Mary A 1459 
 
 Williams, Robert .'.'.'.'.' 467 
 
 Williams, Selden C 467 
 
 Williams, Street 557 
 
 Williams, Samuel P 1136 
 
 Williams, Thomas D 590, 1212 
 
 Williams, William 840 
 
 Williams, William C 1035 
 
 Williams, William C., M. D 912 
 
 WilliamSj Hon. William H.... 1421 
 
 Williams, Prof. William H 977 
 
 Wilmot, John 955 
 
 Wilmot, Noyes S 955 
 
 Wilson, David B 574 
 
 Wilsun, Dr. Edgar A 202 
 
 Wilson, Hon. Grove H., M. D. 201 
 
 Wilson, Henry H 1183 
 
 Wilson, Robert 1419 
 
 Wilson. William P., M. D 1036 
 
 Winchell, Alverd E., M. D.... 872 
 
 Winchell Family 872 
 
 Wirtemburg, Edwin H 1137 
 
 Wirtemburg, Valton 1137 
 
 Wirth, Heni-y P 937 
 
 VVirth Family 937 
 
 Wirth, Mrs. Henry P 937 
 
 Wolcott Family 1295 
 
 Wolff, Adrian F 1133 
 
 Wolff. Capt. Alfred J 1041 
 
 Wood, Alonzo F 80 
 
 Wood. Fred J 1518 
 
 Wood, George 1327 
 
 Wood, Porter L 1202 
 
 Wood, Mrs. Rachel H 81 
 
 Wood, Richard A 1518 
 
 Wood, Richard B 1327 
 
 Wood, Robert R 865 
 
 Wood, Thomas J 866 
 
 Woodin, Benjamin C 524 
 
 Wooding, Charles F 1216 
 
 Wooding Family 853 
 
 Wooding, Harry 853 
 
 Wooding, Leonard B 1266 
 
 Wooding, Newton C 1216 
 
 Wooding, Waldo 854 
 
 Woodley, William 1438 
 
 Woodruff, Charles Y 1157 
 
 Woodruff, Eleazer 1241 
 
 Woodruff Families.. 156, 1240, 1475 
 
 Woodruff, Frank H 1475 
 
 Woodruff, Jeremiah 156 
 
 Woodruff, Richard H 1240 
 
 Woodruff. Stiles D 156 
 
 Woodward, Edward M 656 
 
 Woodward Family 656 
 
 Woodward. Richard 9I4 
 
 Woolley, William T 1472 
 
 Wooster, Charles B 672 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wooster, Daniel (372 
 
 Wooster Family 325 
 
 Wooster, Frederick J 11:55 
 
 Wooster, Horace B 1155 
 
 Wooster, Letsonie T 156 
 
 Wnnster, Col. William B '. 47 
 
 Worthington, Thomas E 731 
 
 Wotkyns, Roger S 1511 
 
 Wright, Charles L 1373 
 
 Wright, Hon. Dexter R 40 
 
 Wright, Ervis E 1122 
 
 Wright Family 1373 
 
 Wright, Thaddeus K 1373 
 
 Wright, William H 1404 
 
 Wright, William K 1230 
 
 Wuterich, Frederick 584 
 
 Wusterbarth, Adolph 1408 
 
 Wusterbarth, John E 1408 
 
 Wylie Family 570 
 
 Wyllys Family 1248 
 
 Yale, Bertrand L 621 
 
 Yale, Charles 803 
 
 Yale, Mrs. Cecelia I ' 315 
 
 Yale Families 
 
 _ 7Z, 103, 314, 588, 621, 803, 1293 
 
 ■^ale, Horace 104 
 
 Yale, Mrs. Horace 104 
 
 Yale, John B 803 
 
 Yale, Levi '^t, 
 
 Yale, Levi B jt^ 
 
 Yale, Samuel H. W 314 
 
 Yost, August 567 
 
 Yost, Frederick 567 
 
 Young, Charles H 545 
 
 Young, Mrs. C. H 545 
 
 Young, Orimell 545 
 
 Zimmer, Capt. John B 1058 
 
 Zink, Walter H., M. D 902 
 
 Zorii, George B 631 
 
 Zorn, Mrs. George B 632 
 
 Zunder, Albert 399 
 
 Zunder, Maier 398 
 
 Zwiebel, Adolph A 1206 
 
 Zwiebel, Joseph W 1102